Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We are here in the studio, live with the one, the only, Mike Brand.
Speaker: Welcome to the show, Mr. Mike Brand.
Speaker: It's been a long time coming.
Speaker: Hey, thanks for having me, man.
Speaker: Taylor was telling everyone that he tells a story.
Speaker: He doesn't use my name, but he tells the story about how some a-hole roped him into a recruiting meeting a while back with the promise of delivering a great podcast and show.
Speaker: And then that individual did the recruiting meeting and then said, hey, I got to go, man.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: That individual was me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I just want to publicly apologize, number one.
Speaker: And number two, just say, hey, I'm grateful to be on the show.
Speaker: And hopefully it makes up for the time that I screwed you over, man.
Speaker: Okay, well, cat's out of the bag.
Speaker: I mean, I wasn't going to say names, but you said it.
Speaker: I want to own it, dude.
Speaker: I'm all about ownership, and I just want to own it.
Speaker: It was a big mistake, dude.
Speaker: I don't remember the circumstances.
Speaker: I'm sure I justified it somehow.
Speaker: But it was a dick move, man.
Speaker: Yeah, I walk into a room.
Speaker: He's like, oh, let me introduce you to the office.
Speaker: And then spend two hours talking.
Speaker: I'm like, all right, is it time for the podcast now?
Speaker: He's like, oh, let's go grab some food.
Speaker: We'll do it after.
Speaker: And then never got around to it.
Speaker: Hey, but I'm making promises right now.
Speaker: Like I'm fulfilling on promises right now.
Speaker: Just a few years later.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we are doing it like two hours late because we got out of a deal.
Speaker: But we closed it.
Speaker: Okay, we closed it.
Speaker: So I guess it's justified.
Speaker: But no, I'm excited to finally have them on.
Speaker: And it's been, yeah, what, like, that was like probably two years ago now or something.
Speaker: Maybe a year ago.
Speaker: No, it might have been two or three, dude.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was back.
Speaker: I feel like it was Vivint Solar days even.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe it was.
Speaker: Might have been three, four years ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're getting old, though.
Speaker: Like, I'm pushing 40, you know?
Speaker: 36, man.
Speaker: yeah well we're dinosaurs in this i mean you got 11 years doing this this is my 11th year selling solar and it's my 12 13 14th summer selling door-to-door 14 dude yeah that's a lot of summers man yeah that's insane so i've been been around the block seen a few things man um and what's crazy is there's never been a better time to sell solar like if you're listening to this podcast you're in the right industry and
Speaker: like keep improving keep growing because the industry is going to be really good for the next decade yeah i agree and yeah we're going to be talking about all that and much more we're here in california we've got some crazy changes that most of our listeners have heard about that net metering 3.0 that rolled out but uh some we're just jamming on that a little bit before this but uh before anything do you want to tell us like so mike brand he's not huge on social media and everything i'm trying to tell him to get on uh you know the tiktok the instagram and all that but
Speaker: I got to get on, dude.
Speaker: He just turned 40, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know how to use that stuff.
Speaker: Love to teach this guy how to open it up and everything.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, you just had your one career install number 1,000, right?
Speaker: Pretty recently.
Speaker: Yeah, he just hit 1,000 career solar installs, which, you know, there's not a lot of milestones that I like have a lot of pride about.
Speaker: But I think the reason that I feel a little bit of pride about 1,000 is just the amount of consistency that that takes over time.
Speaker: It's not like a big week or a big month or a big quarter or even a big year.
Speaker: That's 10 years of blood, sweat, and tears on the doors and selling out to really put in the effort to go do that.
Speaker: And so just hit 1,000 career installs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Congrats.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, just made some career changes for me, which I'm excited and we'll maybe talk about later.
Speaker: But yeah, man, it's been a fun journey so far.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: Well, yeah, not too many people, like 11 years.
Speaker: I don't know too many people have been doing it that long.
Speaker: So I want to talk about, you know, longevity, all that.
Speaker: See how what your secret is to last that long, because it's a lot of a lot of time.
Speaker: So before we get into all that, do you want to give us just kind of like reader's digest of where you've been at?
Speaker: And I know you made, like you said, a little career switch and just pretty recently.
Speaker: So you want to tell our listeners just a little bit about all that?
Speaker: Yeah, I started selling, well, I used to deliver pizza for Roundtable Pizza.
Speaker: I played semi-professionally, like poker, Texas Hold'em.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker: 14, 15 years.
Speaker: Well, like I use that term loosely.
Speaker: Like I made enough money to like pay my bills.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I delivered groceries and then I went to junior college and I was like, hey, this isn't for me.
Speaker: Like, I don't know.
Speaker: Like, I'm not just going to go to school and I don't even know what I want to do.
Speaker: And then one of my good buddies at the time, Oconee Berman, recruited me out to San Jose to go sell security for the summer.
Speaker: And I went out there and I remember the first two days knocking.
Speaker: I got dropped off at like 9 a.m.
Speaker: and knocked doors till 9 p.m.
Speaker: Didn't get in a freaking door.
Speaker: And in San Jose, California selling alarms, they have all the metal screen doors.
Speaker: And I was new.
Speaker: I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker: But I knocked doors for like 24 hours in two days.
Speaker: 12 hours a day.
Speaker: Just didn't get in anything.
Speaker: And I remember going home that night and looking at the scoreboard.
Speaker: It was APX at the time.
Speaker: It wasn't Vivint actually.
Speaker: It was APX Insider.
Speaker: And there was this guy on the scoreboard that had sold 18 alarms that week.
Speaker: Three a day.
Speaker: And I had just knocked two days straight and didn't get in a door.
Speaker: And so my first thought was like, bullshit, right?
Speaker: Like I think we all, especially early in sales, like we have that like victim mentality, right?
Speaker: And so I just doubted it.
Speaker: And the reason I'm bringing this up, this is a pivotal point in my career.
Speaker: And I want anyone that's listening.
Speaker: I think there's probably a lot of new guys in sales that are listening.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I want you to take something from this and really listen and learn.
Speaker: What changed my career was the way that I decided to think about that.
Speaker: Because my first reaction was bullshit.
Speaker: He's cheating.
Speaker: There's no way that he could do that.
Speaker: I recognized really quickly that I was becoming the victim.
Speaker: And I don't ever want to be the victim.
Speaker: And so I looked at that and I said, wait a second.
Speaker: This guy, Jordan Williams, he's not smarter than I am.
Speaker: I can learn to say what he says and do what he does.
Speaker: And I can become him.
Speaker: And so what that means is there's three people every day.
Speaker: If he's selling three a day, that means there's three people every day that I'm talking to that Jordan Williams would have sold.
Speaker: And so that next Monday I went out and I said, who are those three people?
Speaker: And early in the day I'm like, oh man, that was one.
Speaker: Like that lady, I had her on the hook.
Speaker: She like slipped through my fingers.
Speaker: Jordan would have sold her for sure.
Speaker: I knocked all that Monday.
Speaker: And I'll never forget it.
Speaker: My very last door at 8.30 p.m.
Speaker: It's pitch black.
Speaker: I sold my first alarm ever.
Speaker: Got in the house, gave away 20 points of equipment.
Speaker: Probably didn't make any money on it.
Speaker: Just so happy to close the deal, you know?
Speaker: And from that day forward, every day for the next week, I sold one.
Speaker: And so the end of the week, I had like six accounts.
Speaker: That week was a pivotal point in my sales career because it taught me how to think.
Speaker: Like, it taught me that belief.
Speaker: And if you have belief and you have work ethic, success will come.
Speaker: Period.
Speaker: So fast forward.
Speaker: Got off track a little bit, but fast forward.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, listen.
Speaker: It's so important the way that you think about this job, and I'll talk about that a little bit later, but just to catch guys up on kind of my story, that office ended up, the very next week, the second week I was there, they ended up going to Virginia.
Speaker: And I was like, I don't know you guys.
Speaker: I'm not going to Virginia.
Speaker: Good try.
Speaker: And so I went back to Sacramento where I'm from and I hooked up with a Monotronics dealer there and started selling full-time like van program and started selling one a day, 30 account, 30 alarms a month, you know, making 15 grand a month.
Speaker: I thought I was like the richest person, the richest man in Babylon.
Speaker: I remember having like seven grand in my bank account.
Speaker: And I was like, dude,
Speaker: This is amazing.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Like, I'm going to make six figures this year, you know?
Speaker: That was like every door-to-door Intel solar, I think.
Speaker: When solar rails are on, but it's just okay.
Speaker: Hey, now if you have a commission that's like five grand in solar, you're like, this is it.
Speaker: Like, I'm not dealing with this customer bullshit.
Speaker: Five grand.
Speaker: I don't want to get out of bed for that.
Speaker: We're spoiled in the solar industry, right?
Speaker: But anyway, so I sold, that fall I sold Alarms for four months and then I got recruited back to APX and I went out for three summers with APX, funded 300 every summer, co-managed, like assistant managed my last two summers.
Speaker: At the end of the summer of 2012, I'd sold, you know, three summers now, I installed 1,000 alarms, whatever.
Speaker: I heard about Vivint doing solar.
Speaker: They were just starting the solar game.
Speaker: They had like four offices nationwide.
Speaker: And so from summer, I drove out from Chicago all the way to New Jersey.
Speaker: and to quote unquote try solar out.
Speaker: Like I told my wife, I'm like, let's just try it out for like a few weeks or a few months and see if we like like it.
Speaker: And so now I've been trying it out for 11 years.
Speaker: So I started selling solar in New Jersey late 2012, early 2013, I opened up the first New York market for Vivint Solar on Long Island.
Speaker: And it was the fifth office in the nation that they had opened up.
Speaker: No one had ever done solar door-to-door in New York.
Speaker: And it was cool because when we were scouting Long Island, Long Island's like really densely populated.
Speaker: There's a lot of people that live on Long Island.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: We were driving the streets and there wasn't one house with solar on it.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: There's literally not one house.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Like, we're just like, this is a blank campus.
Speaker: This is crazy.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And so it started really slow.
Speaker: It took us six months to get our first install on Long Island.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: Just because people were, like, resistant to it or just take them forever?
Speaker: Dude, if you've never opened up a new market...
Speaker: For solar.
Speaker: It's a painful process.
Speaker: Now it's probably easy because it's like people understand how it works.
Speaker: Like companies understand what to do.
Speaker: Like no one, even the cities didn't know what to do back then.
Speaker: They're like, you want to do what?
Speaker: You got a permit.
Speaker: So like we had to go back to our customers three times, the first 500 customers we sold, to get like additional paperwork signed.
Speaker: And everything's a paper copy, right?
Speaker: It's like a carbon copy.
Speaker: Like the agreements, you had to fold up like origami to like fit in your paper, like to fit in your folder because you didn't want to pull out like, I wish I was on video right now, but like the agreements were like two feet long.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: So you fold them up, like put them in your folder and you like flip it through with the customer.
Speaker: We didn't go back four or five times.
Speaker: And then when we started submitting the permits, they were like, hey, these permits need to be notarized.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And we were like, excuse me?
Speaker: What do you mean?
Speaker: Like what?
Speaker: Notarized for a building permit to do solar?
Speaker: They're like, yeah.
Speaker: And so we were like, what do we do?
Speaker: Do we have our customers go to the bank?
Speaker: Like, that's not good luck getting a customer to go to the bank to order their solar permit.
Speaker: The funny thing is, one of our first customers, her name's Margaret Dray, and I'll never forget her, happened to be a mobile notary.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: And so we created a system.
Speaker: When you close the account down, you schedule the mobile notary to come to the house and sign the permit.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Margaret also happened to be our first install on Long Island.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Couldn't have worked out more perfect.
Speaker: Well, think about it.
Speaker: No one has solar, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So now you have this lady come in who's like the mobile notary after you, like, you probably have some buyer's remorse or you're like submitting the permit.
Speaker: And she's like, oh, yeah, I have it on my house.
Speaker: I'm the first one that got it here.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Like, she was the most underpaid, undervalued employee.
Speaker: Like, can you imagine?
Speaker: So anyways, I opened up the first New York market on Long Island, and I was there from 2013 to 2016.
Speaker: Over those three years, we opened up six offices in New York.
Speaker: We did over 10,000 installations.
Speaker: Our personal office on Long Island was doing 600 solar installs a quarter for two years straight.
Speaker: And I was averaging 40 to 50 installs a quarter.
Speaker: Now that was the days when they paid like 200 bucks a kilowatt.
Speaker: So like, don't do the math.
Speaker: I'd be retired if they paid like what they pay now, you know?
Speaker: Pretty sure like we made those, the CEOs of Vivint Solar very, very rich for the value they're retaining from those 25 year PPA contracts or whatever.
Speaker: But anyways, 2016 came.
Speaker: My wife got pregnant with our third.
Speaker: My wife's amazing.
Speaker: She like, I married so far up.
Speaker: She's awesome.
Speaker: We have three kids now, nine, seven, and six.
Speaker: At the time, we had both of our boys in New York.
Speaker: They were both born in New York.
Speaker: And then in 2013, 2015, our first kids, obviously.
Speaker: And then we got pregnant with our third and she was due in January.
Speaker: I don't know if you've ever lived on the East Coast.
Speaker: I haven't lived out there, but that's, I know it's cold out there in January.
Speaker: Hey, quick disclaimer.
Speaker: If you're living on the East Coast right now.
Speaker: Move out.
Speaker: You have options.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I will move you out to California.
Speaker: It is cold there.
Speaker: Get the hell out of there.
Speaker: It's too cold.
Speaker: So we knew we were going to.
Speaker: have our third in January and I was like let's get out of here like the business is going really good but we I'm from Sacramento she's from Utah we both want to be back west and so I called my boss and he was like hey we got we got an option in San Diego we're actually firing a couple guys in San Diego north and we need managers out there at the time I was the director over New York and I left everyone there
Speaker: It was just like, I'm going to start over in California.
Speaker: And so I moved out to San Diego in 2016 with Vivint Solar.
Speaker: And I've worked for Vivint Solar and then Sunrun Direct all the way up until late 2022.
Speaker: So for the last six years.
Speaker: And then I'm super excited.
Speaker: I just took a new opportunity with Legacy Power, who's amazing.
Speaker: Doug Robinson, Luke Toon, amazing leaders.
Speaker: John Soriano, who I partner with, he actually did a podcast with you.
Speaker: Stud, dude.
Speaker: Which you were supposed to be at that podcast.
Speaker: I was supposed to be.
Speaker: That was the second time I ghosted you.
Speaker: Hey, one for three.
Speaker: Our highest quality guests are hard to get in touch with, right?
Speaker: Hey, that's right, dude.
Speaker: Got to go through your management team and everything.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: You got to talk to my assistant.
Speaker: No, I don't have one.
Speaker: But anyway, so I just, I've been in San Diego since 2016.
Speaker: I just partnered with Legacy Power, which I think with NEM3, there's nothing more important right now than having optionality.
Speaker: Being able to use Sunrun, being able to use Sunova, being able to use Everbright.
Speaker: When the industry shifts and things change, if you're exclusive with someone, like if you're at Sunder right now and you're exclusive with Freedom, that could be a big problem.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're at Sunrun Direct and you're exclusive and you can only sell a shift and you can't do like a Sunova lease plus storage and an in-phase battery and you can't do an Eco, which is Sunova's shift.
Speaker: If you're stuck being exclusive right now with how fast things are changing, you could get stuck.
Speaker: It could be a big problem.
Speaker: Yeah, well, and we were just talking about that, you know, before we started the show here.
Speaker: But even if you are at a company, something I've always talked about for our listeners in the podcast is like at the very least, we're not saying you have to like always just go to a company that has a million options.
Speaker: But I think at the very least, like open your network, because if you can't get a deal because of XYZ, like I've had lots of times I've been able to pass it to.
Speaker: like a friend in the industry or just have access to other options.
Speaker: So, yeah, at the very least, I think it's good to have those things set up.
Speaker: So that's my story, man.
Speaker: Been in the industry 11 years, doing solar a long time, and it's never been better than it is right now.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: Well, you've got a long career, and I'm sure a lot of good things to come.
Speaker: So it's cool talking to dinosaurs like yourself in the industry.
Speaker: I'm so old, dude.
Speaker: I'm pushing 40.
Speaker: 11 years is like 100 years in solar years.
Speaker: That's so true.
Speaker: Yeah, that's impressive.
Speaker: But yeah, I want to talk about, you know, net metering 3.0 a little bit.
Speaker: And I know not everyone is selling in California, but I think there's a lot of things that can apply.
Speaker: Because let's be honest, if net metering 3.0 happened in California, what do you think the odds are of it happening in other markets where they're reducing credits, changes going on?
Speaker: I think for whatever market you're selling in, there's a lot of lessons.
Speaker: Because California, it's like we're the greenest state pretty much, probably in the country.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I was surprised it passed.
Speaker: I was like actually pretty shocked.
Speaker: And for listeners that aren't in California, just like the 30-second version of Net Metering 3.0, with Net Metering 2.0, anytime your solar system produced power that you weren't using right away, you could send it to the grid and you just got equal credits for it.
Speaker: So throughout the day, if you sent three kilowatts to the grid, you could pull those three kilowatts back during the nighttime and use that power.
Speaker: So Net Metering, basically, you're using the grid as like a free battery.
Speaker: They just shifted April 13th, which is today, I think.
Speaker: Stopped taking applications last week.
Speaker: Is it the 13th?
Speaker: 14 today.
Speaker: Yeah, they just shifted to net billing.
Speaker: And so the way that works, what they did is they essentially reduced the value of credits that you send to the grid by about 75%, roughly.
Speaker: And so if your solar system's producing power that you're not using right away and you send it to the grid, you need to send four kilowatts for every one kilowatt hour credit, roughly.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I'm just simplifying it.
Speaker: They made it as confusing as possible, right?
Speaker: And so what it forces, essentially, is it forces customers and companies to do batteries or batteries with no backup, which is what we'll talk about a little bit.
Speaker: And so right now in the industry, there's this huge shift of batteries.
Speaker: Well, there's a few problems with batteries, right?
Speaker: There's a limited supply.
Speaker: We're going to run into supply chain issues, number one.
Speaker: Number two, batteries themselves aren't proven.
Speaker: So they've only been around really three, four years, and they only have a 10-year half-life.
Speaker: Number three, and this is the biggest problem, batteries are expensive.
Speaker: And so you can subsidize the battery as a rep, but with Sunrun's shift, you're taking an eight to 10 grand adder.
Speaker: It's a big adder for a battery.
Speaker: And you can price up, but now the savings for the customer are a lot smaller on a power purchase agreement if you're selling it at 38 cents in San Diego compared to 25 cents.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so it creates a couple problems.
Speaker: The consumer, on the consumer side, it's not as big of a deal.
Speaker: I think the savings profile will be a little bit less, but long-term savings look really good, especially with the battery.
Speaker: Or if you did it without a battery, but you priced way down, and get a 16 or 18 cent PPA with no battery, the savings profile looks pretty good on that as well, compared to like a 32 to 35 cent with the battery.
Speaker: The real problem is how do reps make money?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Because I just ran one and my commission was $3,500.
Speaker: And you know we don't get out of bed for that.
Speaker: Four kilowatt at $3,500 doesn't make sense.
Speaker: And so there's going to be this huge shift in California where you're going to need to be a very competent salesperson.
Speaker: The last five years in California, you could suck at sales.
Speaker: You didn't need to be good.
Speaker: You're saving people 30, 40, 50% off their power bill.
Speaker: Like you could just find low hanging fruit.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And there's a lot of people that made a lot of money that aren't great salespeople.
Speaker: The shift now, and this is why leadership is more important than ever in the industry in California.
Speaker: The shift now is you have to be able to sell value.
Speaker: You can't just rely on a 50% savings and be a crappy salesman.
Speaker: You have to be freaking dialed.
Speaker: You have to be able to shift the frame of the customer and kind of set them up for the close in a way where they're excited for a bill swap.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is like most other markets, by the way, that aren't California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If you've only sold solar in California, you're like, your ears are perked up right now.
Speaker: Everyone else is like, oh, it's no big deal.
Speaker: We sell bill swaps.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: But in California, we've gotten so lazy and it's been so easy.
Speaker: And a lot of the reps in California, I mean, Lumio left California.
Speaker: They left.
Speaker: Harness went bankrupt.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so a lot of these smaller companies are just really hurting right now.
Speaker: You have Sunrun Direct and you have Legacy.
Speaker: Those are kind of the two biggest players, in my opinion.
Speaker: And maybe like a sunder or whatever, you know.
Speaker: But a lot of the smaller dealers are either fleeing California or they're just paralyzed.
Speaker: They don't know what to do because there's not a ton of leadership there.
Speaker: With that being said, let's talk sales just a little bit.
Speaker: And let's add some value to the listeners right now.
Speaker: So what I'm going to teach you guys right now is going to make you a lot of money in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is this the stuff you're telling me about?
Speaker: This is the good stuff.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, this is some sauce right here.
Speaker: You're going to want to take notes for this part.
Speaker: This is some sauce.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This is good.
Speaker: What you need to be able to do is you need to be able to really get the customer to identify the problem.
Speaker: Gone are the days where you can just show up and say, hey, it doesn't cost anything.
Speaker: We're going to save you 40%.
Speaker: Like you can make sales like that two years ago.
Speaker: Now you actually have to sell.
Speaker: The way that you sell is problem solution.
Speaker: If customers don't understand the problem, then the solution doesn't matter.
Speaker: So the first thing I'm going to do when I get into a home or I'm sitting down with homeowners is I'm going to ask them, hey, do you guys understand how you buy power now?
Speaker: You moved in how many years ago, Taylor?
Speaker: I just barely moved in.
Speaker: You're a terrible customer, dude.
Speaker: You're the worst role player I've ever had, man.
Speaker: Okay, three years ago.
Speaker: Three years, okay.
Speaker: When you moved in, why did you choose SDG&E as your power company?
Speaker: Well, I guess they were the only option.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So what do we call that?
Speaker: Monopoly.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so there's like laws against monopolies.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: Because when someone controls all of something, what tends to happen to the rates that they charge?
Speaker: Yeah, they go up.
Speaker: Yeah, do they go down or they go up?
Speaker: Go up for sure.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so the problem with where we're at right now in San Diego or SCE or PG&E, whatever, whatever, whatever utility you sell in, right?
Speaker: The problem right now is the utility company.
Speaker: Are they a charity or are they a for-profit company?
Speaker: For-profit.
Speaker: Quick note, by the way, if, if you want someone, so people will only believe half of what you say as a salesperson.
Speaker: Okay, right?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: They'll believe 75% of what a neighbor says.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you, that's why third-party stories are so powerful when you're overcoming objections.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: People are forced to believe 100% of what comes out of their mouth.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So notice like what I'm doing right now with Taylor as my customers, I'm getting him to tell me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm using hand gestures.
Speaker: I'm throwing them softballs.
Speaker: You don't want to make people feel stupid.
Speaker: Like you want to make it really easy for them to like get the right answer, you know, but they're forced to believe a hundred percent of what comes out of their mouth.
Speaker: So Taylor is, is SDG a charity or are they a for-profit company?
Speaker: We're profit.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They're what we call an investor-owned utility company.
Speaker: Now, if you're an investor and you invest money into like a power company, what do you expect in return?
Speaker: What do you need?
Speaker: Profit.
Speaker: Yeah, you need money, right?
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: to shift gears really quick, so, and this is also important, like, you need to make sure sometimes we talk above our customers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, we, we've been in the industry years, and we start talking about, like, net metering or net billing.
Speaker: They don't know what a kilowatt is, guys.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Like, slow it down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Taylor, like, if you look on your bill, just to change gears really quick, have you seen that little, like, KWH, kilowatt hour?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's just how they measure power.
Speaker: It's a unit of measurements.
Speaker: Like when you turn on your lights or you use air conditioning, you're using kilowatt hours.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: That's what that is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The more kilowatt hours you use, the more you pay for power.
Speaker: So like in San Diego, people pay between 45 and 80 cents.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For every kilowatt hour.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Don't say that too loud.
Speaker: We're going to get people flocking here when you say that.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I'm going to leave my number after this call, guys.
Speaker: Just text me, okay?
Speaker: It's the biggest secret.
Speaker: By the way, San Diego doesn't suck to live here, okay?
Speaker: Not bad.
Speaker: So people pay 45 to 80 cents for every kilowatt hour.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you've seen, like, the different colors on your graph.
Speaker: Have you heard the phrase time of use?
Speaker: I think I heard about that.
Speaker: That's like the four to nine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: PM, the peak times.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: That's when they charge the most.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you're on time of use.
Speaker: You buy your power by the kilowatt hour.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Looks like your last bill was about 200 bucks.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now, did you see what happened in January with the rates?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: They like doubled or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They went up 15%.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And the reason they were able to go up 15%, what kind of agreement do you have with SDG&E?
Speaker: What kind of guarantees do they give you about their rates?
Speaker: I guess none.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't think I have an agreement.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so the reason we're doing so many of these right now is right now you have no protection.
Speaker: You have no safety and you're not protected against rate inflation.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The rates just went up 15%.
Speaker: They've averaged an 8% to 10% increase the last decade.
Speaker: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker: Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker: Do you remember seeing your bill in January with your natural gas?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that was what doubled?
Speaker: So this is a good thing for San Diego.
Speaker: Maybe it doesn't apply to the rest of the country, but it's worth the rest of the state, but it's worth saying.
Speaker: In January, what happened to your natural gas?
Speaker: Doubled.
Speaker: It tripled.
Speaker: Oh, it tripled.
Speaker: And when you got that natural gas bill in January from SDG&E, what did you do?
Speaker: Threw it in the trash.
Speaker: I paid it, yeah.
Speaker: I paid it, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and you paid it.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Oh, because I guess I didn't want my gas to shut off still.
Speaker: You had to.
Speaker: Still was using it, yeah.
Speaker: So if they double or triple your power rate tomorrow, are you going to run your house by candlelight?
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You have to pay it.
Speaker: And the problem right now is you have no protections.
Speaker: You have no agreements.
Speaker: And so you can agree with me on this probably that agreements or contracts or agreements, they're a benefit to the consumer as long as they protect you.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess that's true.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So agreements are actually a good thing, right?
Speaker: So what am I setting them up for?
Speaker: I'm setting them up like, hey, when I'm going over the agreement with Sunro or the agreement with Sunrun, I'm not like scared to dance around it.
Speaker: I'm like, no, this is the agreement.
Speaker: This is the best part.
Speaker: This is what protects you as a homeowner.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Remember we talked about this right now.
Speaker: What agreement do you have with SDG?
Speaker: Well, none.
Speaker: How's that working for you?
Speaker: Not great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because you have no safety, no protection, no guarantees.
Speaker: Now, Taylor, you guys, you live in a nice house.
Speaker: You can afford San Diego.
Speaker: You're obviously really good with money.
Speaker: And this is maybe a silly question, but like I'm assuming you guys like to be in control of your money and know where your money's going, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You like to be able to like budget and plan ahead.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Do you know what you're going to pay for power the next five years?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, not really, no.
Speaker: No idea, right?
Speaker: Yeah, you can't know because there's no guarantees on SDGs rates.
Speaker: So the best part about solar, the whole reason we're doing so many of these right now and all your neighbors are getting solar is they have a protection on the rate and they actually protect your rate for the next 25 years.
Speaker: and it's all written out in the agreement.
Speaker: It's all spelled out, and they put it all in writing.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Isn't that cool?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's why we do so many of these.
Speaker: Now the home has to qualify.
Speaker: We can't do every home.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so it took me, what, maybe five minutes, ten minutes?
Speaker: Yeah, so anyone listen to that?
Speaker: I think you've got to rewind that stuff because a thousand installs using those lines, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, that's –
Speaker: I think too, like that's selling, right?
Speaker: In California, we haven't had to like sell.
Speaker: We just show up and it's like, yeah, you save 50%.
Speaker: And you like connect with the homeowner.
Speaker: With batteries, you're going to have to raise the rates you charge to make money, to make good commissions.
Speaker: You can't show people big savings.
Speaker: So you're selling a 27, 30, 35 cent, 38 cent PPA.
Speaker: If you don't sell the problem, they're going to look at that.
Speaker: They're going to say, that's about what I pay now.
Speaker: I'm not interested.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now to transition away from that.
Speaker: Now check this out when I'm going through the program.
Speaker: So I go through the problem.
Speaker: Now I'm going to go through like the solution and benefit a couple of quick lines and let's move on and talk about something else.
Speaker: You need to set your customer up for a bill swap because you want to charge the highest rate possible because you deserve it.
Speaker: Like you deserve to have a lucrative life and like get paid for the value that you're bringing to Snova or Sunrun or whoever you're running a PPA through, right?
Speaker: And so you should sell profitably.
Speaker: To do that in an NEM3 world, you have to be able to sell value and long-term rate protection.
Speaker: And you have to find different value streams.
Speaker: You can't lean on selling 40, 50% savings.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I taught you a little bit how to set your customer up.
Speaker: One quick note and one thing that I always go over with the problem, I forgot this and then we'll move on.
Speaker: The way that I wrap up the problem, when I'm telling all that to the customer, I say, listen, the cycle that's happening right now, and you've seen this happen, I'll write this out like a circle.
Speaker: A lot of your neighbors right now are switching to solar.
Speaker: You've noticed that, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've seen it going up a lot last year.
Speaker: Every time someone switches to solar, SDG&E loses that customer forever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So when they lose a customer, what are they losing?
Speaker: Money.
Speaker: They're losing revenue.
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: So I'll draw a little arrow and say losing revenue.
Speaker: Now, is SDG a charity or a for-profit company?
Speaker: For-profit.
Speaker: They have to make what?
Speaker: Money.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so every time they lose revenue, which by the way, in California, all the new construction, all the new homes being built are actually required to have solar.
Speaker: So now SDG is not getting any new homes and...
Speaker: They're losing revenue every time someone switches to solar.
Speaker: If you're a for-profit company and you're owned by investors, what's the only way to make up for that loss of revenue?
Speaker: Charge more.
Speaker: You raise rates.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's the only thing they can do.
Speaker: And then I'll draw an arrow, say raise rates.
Speaker: And guess what happens, Taylor, when they raise their rates 15%.
Speaker: Do you think less people go solar or more people switch to solar?
Speaker: Yeah, probably more.
Speaker: You get it.
Speaker: And then I'll finish the circle, draw an arrow, and I'll just circle it over and over and say, okay, this cycle is happening right now.
Speaker: People are switching to solar.
Speaker: SDGs lose revenue.
Speaker: They're going to raise their rates.
Speaker: More people are switching to solar.
Speaker: What do you think, based on like what I just went over, what do you think is going to happen to the utility rates the next five years?
Speaker: Probably keep going up.
Speaker: You get it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because sometimes people ask me silly questions like, what if the power company lowers their rates 30, 40, 50 percent?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's hard to not laugh because they just don't understand this cycle, but you get it.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So what am I doing, guys?
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: He's telling me that the rates are going up.
Speaker: I'm just telling him what's happening.
Speaker: And he's saying, based on that, the rates are going to skyrocket.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Hopefully we can help you out.
Speaker: I don't know if the home would qualify or not, but the cool thing about this program is it's fully funded.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So for the homes that qualify, we put the panels up at no cost and then those homes just get a cheaper rate for power.
Speaker: It's the last thing that we'll move on.
Speaker: Those homes just get a cheaper rate for power.
Speaker: And you probably know this, but no one saves money going solar the first year.
Speaker: Oh, really?
Speaker: Yeah, your bill is fine anyways.
Speaker: Like, you're not worried.
Speaker: Like, no matter what they pay, I'll be like, your bill's fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You pay, oh, you pay $200 a month.
Speaker: Like, that's nothing.
Speaker: And then off the time the bank, oh, no, it's actually a crazy high.
Speaker: Yeah, it's called anti-selling, right?
Speaker: What you don't want to do is be like, your bill's so high, the rates have gone up so much.
Speaker: And they'll be like, no, our rates haven't gone up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But if you're like, yeah, you're, I mean, this bill's not high.
Speaker: You guys, you only pay 500 bucks a month for power.
Speaker: It's not high.
Speaker: Like, you're not losing sleep at night.
Speaker: You guys do really, really well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: You're not worried about a four or $500 power bill.
Speaker: That's not why I'm here.
Speaker: No one that does solar saves like a ton of money the first year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No one's usually doing it.
Speaker: But if you could go back 10 years, do you remember what gas prices were 10 years ago?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Crazy cheap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Two dollars or something.
Speaker: Two bucks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If there was a program 10 years ago where you could get all your gas at $2.40 instead of $2, and they put a yearly cap, a very small cap on how that gas price could increase over time, at the time, there's probably a lot of people that wouldn't have done it.
Speaker: They're like, I'm not paying more for my gas.
Speaker: Like, it's $2.
Speaker: I'm not paying $2.40.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But knowing what you know now, what are gas prices nowadays?
Speaker: Yeah, like five bucks.
Speaker: Five, six bucks a gallon.
Speaker: So knowing what you know now, if you could go back and lock in your gas prices at $2.40, would you have done it?
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: Duh.
Speaker: That's what solar is.
Speaker: So if we can lock in your current power price a little bit more or about the same as what you're paying now and give you protection over 25 years, it's a no-brainer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If your home qualifies like exceptionally well and you get a lot of sun, I mean, this is rare, but it can even come back a little bit less than what you're paying now.
Speaker: And if it comes back like, you know, more than what you're paying, that happens a lot.
Speaker: And most of my customers still opt into the program.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because we protect the rate and it can only go up a very small amount each year for the next 25 years.
Speaker: Like you have rate stability.
Speaker: You know exactly what you'll pay the next two and a half decades.
Speaker: If it comes back the same, like take me to a steak dinner because you're swapping to a protected rate and doesn't cost you any more a month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, duh.
Speaker: If it comes back less than what you're paying now,
Speaker: Like, it's a no-brainer because it costs you nothing to switch.
Speaker: It lowers your bill and gives you rate protection for as long as you're here.
Speaker: So when I pull up the design, I haven't looked at it yet, but when I pull up the design, they'll show me how much sun you guys get, and it'll show me what rate the home qualified for and then what your monthly cost would be for solar and to be able to get ready your power bill.
Speaker: Okay, so now, okay, they're paying 200 bucks.
Speaker: You show them a $190 PPA, and you're like, high five, dude.
Speaker: You're not going to believe this.
Speaker: You guys must get really good sun.
Speaker: Like, do you guys get a lot of sun?
Speaker: And they're like, oh, yeah, DR roost in the sun all day.
Speaker: I'm like, this came back.
Speaker: Like, I can't believe this.
Speaker: It came back.
Speaker: You guys are paying an average of 200, and now your average is 195.
Speaker: It's less than what you're paying now.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: They just feel like they hit the jackpot.
Speaker: Would you say that?
Speaker: They just won the jackpot, dude.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Because it's all about framing, guys.
Speaker: It's all about framing.
Speaker: It's all about managing expectations.
Speaker: People want to feel good.
Speaker: It's not about the deal.
Speaker: It's about how they feel.
Speaker: It's not about the deal.
Speaker: It's about how they feel.
Speaker: Do they feel confident in you?
Speaker: Are you a 10 out of 10?
Speaker: Do they like you?
Speaker: Do they feel confident about the company that you're setting them up with?
Speaker: Nova, Sunrun, Everbright.
Speaker: Like, have you built up the company?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then do they feel confident about the deal?
Speaker: Do they, and notice how I said, do they feel confident about the deal?
Speaker: Not is the deal a 10 out of 10, but do they feel confident about the deal?
Speaker: And if you are a good salesperson and you have a good process and you're framing things the right way, they're gonna feel like the deal is a million dollar deal.
Speaker: They're gonna be freaking stoked.
Speaker: Anyways, I can talk about it all day.
Speaker: You know, we only have so much time.
Speaker: Hopefully that added some value to some of you guys.
Speaker: If you guys have questions about NEM3, you can text me.
Speaker: I'm going to give you the same number my wife calls me on.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: You can text me.
Speaker: It's area code 530-306-7948.
Speaker: Text my personal cell.
Speaker: It's 530-306-7948.
Speaker: Text me, call me, whatever.
Speaker: I love making connections in the industry.
Speaker: That's how me and Taylor became good friends is we made a connection five years ago, and we're still friends.
Speaker: We work for different companies, but, dude, we're friends.
Speaker: And so, anyways, if you guys have questions about NEM3 or anything, feel free to hit me up.
Speaker: If you're in San Diego, we can grab lunch or something.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you might have to call them a few times to get a hold of them.
Speaker: This guy's a busy man.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: But I'm sure he'll answer.
Speaker: I deserve that.
Speaker: Just say you heard on the Solarpreneur podcast and you promise you're going to answer the people that come to you from the podcast, right, Mike?
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Okay, good.
Speaker: But no, guys, so for our listeners, this dude literally just gave us the formula he's used to close over 1,000 deals.
Speaker: I don't think we've ever had anyone that can come on the podcast and say, I've closed 1,000 deals and this is how I've done it.
Speaker: So if you've closed less than 1,000 deals, you probably would be wise to take a few questions
Speaker: you know, a few lines from what this guy just said.
Speaker: So appreciate you sharing because not many people give like the exact word for word track they use.
Speaker: What I love about it, it's like we were just doing a role play and I felt like emotionally like involved in what you're saying.
Speaker: I was like getting into it and I'm not even like playing around.
Speaker: It's so good to get the customers involved, you know, like get them to tell you.
Speaker: why the rates are going to go up.
Speaker: If you do that, guys, selling so easy.
Speaker: I had a little old lady, Linda K. Van Buren or something.
Speaker: She was telling me, like at the end of my presentation, she was like, yeah, this is just so simple and easy.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, Linda, I've said simple and easy 10 times, right?
Speaker: Everything I talk about with customers, I'm like, yeah, this is just so simple.
Speaker: Like, it's so simple.
Speaker: It's really easy.
Speaker: The whole process, I just make it really simple for you guys.
Speaker: And solar used to be confusing, and now it's really simple and easy.
Speaker: Costs you nothing, and you just get a cheaper rate for power.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: So anyways.
Speaker: Yeah, it's just like, if you qualify, though.
Speaker: That's the question.
Speaker: The hard takeaway.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm going to go back and listen to that.
Speaker: I think everyone that's listening to this, you should go back and listen to the words, the tracks you just gave us.
Speaker: I appreciate that, Mike.
Speaker: And so, yeah, just to transition a little bit, that was some deep selling that I didn't think we were going to jump into that soon.
Speaker: But, yeah, we brought the heat early on here.
Speaker: You never know with me, dude.
Speaker: I'll just go off on tangents, man.
Speaker: So we'll have to keep the reins on this guy.
Speaker: Could have been worse.
Speaker: Wild Mustang taking off here, but no, it was nuggets right there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But 11 years, so what's your secret?
Speaker: Do you have any tips for our listeners?
Speaker: Because a lot of people get burned out of this, and they're like, I know there's good money in solar, but especially where you've seen changes, most people, like the thing you were saying in the beginning where you had to get stuff notarized, most people would be like, oh, screw it, I'm done.
Speaker: I'm not going to deal with this.
Speaker: Now, same thing's happening now.
Speaker: We got net metering and I know lots of people that are like, I'm either going to go to a different market or just get out of solar.
Speaker: So how do you, even with changes going on, what's your secret?
Speaker: How do you keep such a good attitude?
Speaker: How do you keep the longevity?
Speaker: Do you have any tips on that?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm glad you asked.
Speaker: The first thing is understanding that challenge is opportunity.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Problems to be solved is opportunity to add value and get paid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if there's never any problem, like when NEM3 came out, I said, good.
Speaker: I know people are going to leave California.
Speaker: I know people aren't going to have a good strategy.
Speaker: I know people aren't going to be able to handle it.
Speaker: Well, guess what?
Speaker: I am.
Speaker: And I'm going to recruit everyone that needs good leadership.
Speaker: So the first thing to understand is any challenge you come to in life, if you view that challenge as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to stand out, to be the best version of yourself, you'll watch your whole life change, period.
Speaker: So challenge is opportunity.
Speaker: If you look at The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, read that book.
Speaker: There's a lot of good stuff out there, but it's a mentality.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Guys, burnout doesn't exist.
Speaker: That's not a real thing.
Speaker: What's happening in your brain is this.
Speaker: Okay, it's psychological.
Speaker: What's happening is you're eating your broccoli so that you can have your ice cream.
Speaker: If you're only eating your broccoli so that you can have your ice cream, you hate your broccoli.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: You follow me so far?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're like, I'm going to knock doors.
Speaker: I just want to get off the doors.
Speaker: I'm going to knock doors for two years so that I can do X, Y, and Z. Or I'm going to knock really hard this quarter so that I can make X amount of money.
Speaker: The problem with that mentality is you're doing, it actually makes you hate knocking doors.
Speaker: Because you're doing it for a reward or a goal.
Speaker: I want you to stop what you're doing right now and listen to me.
Speaker: Google or YouTube, Andrew Huberman, talking about friction, leaning into friction to create dopamine.
Speaker: So what's cool is when I heard this podcast, like within the last year, I was like, holy shit.
Speaker: This is the mentality I adopted 10 years ago without understanding the psychology behind it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I just lucked into it.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: But what I told myself from the day that I started knocking doors, I would repeat the mantra and I'd really believe like, I love doing hard things.
Speaker: It's just who I am.
Speaker: I do hard things.
Speaker: I'll tell you a quick story not to get sidetracked.
Speaker: I was in St.
Speaker: George.
Speaker: You know St.
Speaker: George well, southern Utah.
Speaker: There's a place called Dixie Rock.
Speaker: At Dixie Rock, there's a little narrow gap that you can walk up.
Speaker: And if you're an adult, you have to suck in your belly and squeeze through.
Speaker: And if you're a fat adult, you can't fit.
Speaker: My six-year-old daughter was walking up by herself.
Speaker: I was up top.
Speaker: She didn't know I was up top.
Speaker: I was videoing her, and no one else was around, and she was repeating.
Speaker: She was saying, brands do hard things.
Speaker: Brands do hard things.
Speaker: Six years old.
Speaker: Brands do hard things.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: With a big smile, right?
Speaker: Yeah, proud dad moment right there.
Speaker: And so listen to me, guys.
Speaker: The mentality that you adopt will affect everyone that you're around.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It'll affect your kids, but most importantly, it'll change your life.
Speaker: And so two things, if you adopt the mentality that you're the type of person that does hard things, what'll happen is as you lean into friction, as you do hard things and you tell yourself, I love doing hard things.
Speaker: This is who I am.
Speaker: This is what I live for.
Speaker: You can actually create in your body and in your mind, you can create the release of dopamine.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: So that actually physiologically your body creates dopamine and you feel good when you're doing hard things.
Speaker: Think of David Goggins.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: He has this mentality.
Speaker: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: He does really hard things and he tells himself that's who he is and that's what he lives for.
Speaker: And so he loves it.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so now instead of eating your broccoli to get your ice cream, you love your broccoli.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You do that like, dude, that broccoli with some butter on it, it's freaking delicious.
Speaker: And I love it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so from the beginning of my career, to answer your question, how do you maintain longevity?
Speaker: How do you avoid burnout?
Speaker: Well, burnout doesn't exist, guys.
Speaker: It's just between your ears.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so if you shift your mentality and from the beginning, I told myself, I love knocking doors.
Speaker: Love the autonomy that this brings my family.
Speaker: I love the income opportunity that I can create.
Speaker: I love being outside I love not working for someone I love interacting with new people every day and having different experiences and making cool connections I love helping my customers and I love the fact that it's hard Because if it weren't hard they wouldn't pay us what they pay us.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: Yeah
Speaker: So check it out.
Speaker: If you adopt that mentality and watch the video, Andrew Huberman, Leaning into Friction, that'll change your life.
Speaker: If you adopt that mentality, no matter what you do in this life, whether you're knocking doors or you're pursuing some other career, if you lean into friction and you tell yourself that you really love doing hard things, you'll watch your whole life change.
Speaker: Wow, that's powerful.
Speaker: Cool, right?
Speaker: That's fire.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, well, we've all heard, you know, little mantras we tell ourselves on the doors.
Speaker: But I love what you're saying about just, like, becoming those things because it's like, you know, I got the old trick.
Speaker: It's like, oh, I like myself.
Speaker: I love my job between doors.
Speaker: But I think a lot of times, I've been doing this almost seven years now, and it's true.
Speaker: A lot of times I get in that mindset where, oh, I'm going to push hard this month, and then I'll relax for a little bit or whatever.
Speaker: But it's just like...
Speaker: Yeah, becoming a different person, I guess, right?
Speaker: If you just learn to love it, yeah, if you just love it and you love sales and you love closing people and you love meeting new people, then it's not a chore.
Speaker: Then it's like I'm choosing to be here.
Speaker: And as soon as you step into choice, now you're empowered.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now you're operating from a point of empowerment and choice rather than obligation and duty.
Speaker: No one wants to be obligated and duty to go knock doors.
Speaker: I'm choosing that.
Speaker: And everyone that's listening to this podcast, you chose to work where you work.
Speaker: And you chose this career to go sell solar.
Speaker: So go make it happen.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: And I'll say one other thing.
Speaker: They did a study.
Speaker: And people that quit smoking are like 100x more likely to quit smoking when they identify as someone who doesn't smoke anymore.
Speaker: They're like, no, I'm not the type of person that smokes.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Instead of being like, yeah, I quit smoking or I'm trying to give it up.
Speaker: It's like, no, I'm not the type of person that smokes cigarettes.
Speaker: It's not my character.
Speaker: I'm not the type of person that quits.
Speaker: I'm not the type of person that goes home at 5 p.m.
Speaker: because I had a hard day.
Speaker: Like someone slammed the door on me.
Speaker: I'm the type of person that like works until I say I was going to work.
Speaker: That's just who I am.
Speaker: And so I don't go home early.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so, yeah, those mental like, they're not even mental tricks.
Speaker: These, what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: The way that you think about it and the way that you train yourself to think about it can change your whole life and like your perception.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you really will feel fulfilled and be happy in whatever you're doing.
Speaker: And that's what I hope for for everyone that's listening to this podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like we want you guys like feel fulfilled to be happy to have amazing careers in whatever you end up doing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So hopefully it's helpful.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think just in life in general, like you can apply that to anything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you said, just quitting smoking, knocking doors, like anything.
Speaker: So that's powerful.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, Mike, we could be here all day, man.
Speaker: This is like pure gold right here.
Speaker: But I think the last big thing, big to do that I wanted to ask you, and then we'll probably start wrapping up here, is you ran a massive team.
Speaker: You were over, I believe, like four offices when you were at Sunrun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I know you're over a ton of people now, too.
Speaker: And so, like, being someone that's led just, like, big organizations, big teams, I definitely haven't been able to do that yet to this point in my career.
Speaker: And so I'm curious, like, what are some of the biggest lessons you learned?
Speaker: Or, I don't know, like someone like myself, I've ran lots of smaller teams.
Speaker: But, like, what would you say is the difference between running, like, a small team and, like, a massive organization?
Speaker: Or what are some lessons you learned in all those years?
Speaker: Well, I think the way that you make the jump from running like a really smaller team, like seven to 10 guys, even 20 guys, I would consider like a small team to running 80, 100 man teams is you have to learn to grow by multiplication and not addition.
Speaker: And so the only way that you can do that is you have to develop other leaders.
Speaker: And so I really practice the 80-20 rule when I'm trying to build teams.
Speaker: And I'll give 80% of my time, effort, and attention to the top 20% of the guys that have the most potential.
Speaker: And then I'll really paint the vision for them.
Speaker: because if it's just me trying to go to grow the team, right?
Speaker: And no one else has bought into that vision.
Speaker: No one else knows what their path is to grow financially and within the industry and within the office.
Speaker: If I'm doing it by myself, that's arduous work.
Speaker: It's going to take a long time to like recruit individuals.
Speaker: If I have a team of 10 people and three of those people, two to three of those people have leadership potential, I'm going to pull those people into the room and say, Hey guys,
Speaker: Here's the vision.
Speaker: We're going to take this team to a hundred reps.
Speaker: You guys are the top three reps right now.
Speaker: I want you guys to help me run this office.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And here's how we're going to do it.
Speaker: Here's what we need to do.
Speaker: Here's the game plan.
Speaker: And I want you guys, and here's the opportunity financially.
Speaker: This is actually what it looks like for you.
Speaker: And this is exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker: That's called giving vision.
Speaker: And so good leaders are visionary.
Speaker: I'm far from perfect.
Speaker: And I don't think I'm like the best leader ever.
Speaker: What I try to do is I try to really give vision to the top 20 to 30% of the people that I'm leading so that they're also helping me build.
Speaker: And it's not, it doesn't have to be, it's not an exchange.
Speaker: It's not like, hey, I'm going to give you money to help me.
Speaker: It's like, no, no, no.
Speaker: Let's go build this together.
Speaker: We're going to build something really special and you're going to be a part of it.
Speaker: And we're going to work together forever.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I like genuinely feel that way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I think that's one lesson I've learned is too many leaders try to grow individually and by addition rather than by multiplication.
Speaker: If I have three or four leaders that are doing the same thing that I'm doing, I'm going to grow 300% to 400% faster.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker: And so that's the number one thing and the number one mistake I see people make.
Speaker: The second thing is really be sincere with people.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I think too many leaders try to put on like this front that they're perfect, you know?
Speaker: And it really limits like the ability to connect with people.
Speaker: And so for me, I try to be really genuine with my people.
Speaker: Like I'm far from perfect.
Speaker: When I make mistakes, I'll apologize and just own up to them, you know?
Speaker: And I make a lot of mistakes that I have in my career.
Speaker: Like no show on podcast.
Speaker: No show on podcast.
Speaker: No, dude, I'm just, I'm so far from perfect, guys.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: You know, maybe you listen to the podcast and you're like, oh, this guy has a thousand installs.
Speaker: It's like, man, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, not just in business, but in my personal life.
Speaker: And, you know, all that we can do, you know, I don't know if people are religious in this podcast or whatever.
Speaker: For me, I am religious and I have faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker: And all that we can do is like repent and do our best to like get back on track to be the person that we want to become.
Speaker: The way that relates to leadership is people see that humility.
Speaker: When you make mistakes and you own them and say, hey, dude, I screwed up.
Speaker: Like I just made a mistake.
Speaker: The way I treated you or the way I handled that pay situation or the fact that I didn't get back to you or the way that I handled that situation with you in a rep, like I dropped the ball on that.
Speaker: I'm really sorry for that, man.
Speaker: I'm far from perfect.
Speaker: I'm going to make it up to you.
Speaker: Let's go out on the doors all day tomorrow and go knock together.
Speaker: You know, so I think that sincerity from a leader, I think people really appreciate sincerity.
Speaker: And I think they really appreciate empathy.
Speaker: And that's the last thing I'll touch on.
Speaker: I think as I've gotten older, I've developed a lot more empathy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: as you go through hard things in your life, and if you're in your early 20s, you probably don't have as much empathy as people in their late 30s have, because what happens is you see people go through really hard things.
Speaker: You see people struggle with addiction.
Speaker: You see people go through divorces.
Speaker: You see people like have, their parents have health issues or they have serious health issues.
Speaker: And you really develop empathy, which is the ability to see it from someone, see it and feel it from someone else's point of view.
Speaker: And so now one thing I wasn't very good at early on in my leadership career was having empathy for other people and really connecting with them.
Speaker: And I think 10 years later, that's one of my greatest strengths is being able to like have a chat with someone and talk about life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And really communicate with them and connect with them on a genuine, sincere level.
Speaker: Be able to just listen to their story.
Speaker: Feel empathy for them and tell them that.
Speaker: And then give some advice based on the mistakes that I've made and what I've learned from those mistakes.
Speaker: That's the one benefit of screwing up a ton.
Speaker: Because you learn a lot, man.
Speaker: And I've learned a hell of a lot.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So those three things, man.
Speaker: Grow by multiplication.
Speaker: Develop empathy.
Speaker: And be genuine and sincere.
Speaker: And really connect with your people.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's cool.
Speaker: Like, yeah, you know, we go to the same church and everything, and, like, I've known you kind of on a church background too.
Speaker: And I remember you telling stories just, like, helping guys and, like, their, you know, personalized family stuff going on.
Speaker: I remember one time you talked about a guy that sells numbers were going down, and you went and, like, helped him out with some family stuff or whatever.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's cool to see that, like, seems like you're really a person that's helping you guys grow just not only in their cells but in their personal lives and having their back.
Speaker: You talk about empathy and everything.
Speaker: So that's cool.
Speaker: And I think that's what true leaders are doing is they're having their guys' backs and helping them grow in multiple areas of their lives, not just sales and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, I think if you're an aspiring leader or a leader on this podcast listening in, you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, you won't remember how much money you made this year.
Speaker: yeah but you will remember like taylor and i will be friends for life dude yeah you know what i mean like that's a lot more important than a paycheck yeah and so it's not always about the red line yeah you know like stop chasing red lines and go partner up
Speaker: with really good people.
Speaker: The reason I didn't start my own company in January when I left Sunrun, I was like hell bent.
Speaker: I was like, of course I'm gonna start my own company.
Speaker: It's by far the most money in that.
Speaker: I can structure it this way and that way.
Speaker: I'm gonna make a lot of money.
Speaker: And then I met with John Soriano.
Speaker: I met with Legacy.
Speaker: And there's a lot of really good people there, man.
Speaker: And I was so impressed with John and he had his seven values laid out for his valor region in Southern California.
Speaker: And I thought to myself, what do I really want?
Speaker: It's not money, dude.
Speaker: I'm not going to miss a meal.
Speaker: Either are you.
Speaker: Either is most people on this podcast.
Speaker: It's not about the red line.
Speaker: What I recognize is really for me, the most fulfilling thing is working with people that I love.
Speaker: and that like I want to go to battle with and that I want to help grow and that I can learn from and that I can learn from me and so dude I got really lucky to partner with John and the guys at Legacy and just help kind of run that division and a lot of really really good people and I'm really happy where I'm at and yeah
Speaker: I would suggest anyone listening to this podcast, if you're one of those lone wolf kind of guys or you're at a small dealer, think about partnering up with someone bigger just for that community, just for that culture, because that's what life's about.
Speaker: It's not just about the red line.
Speaker: It's not just about a paycheck.
Speaker: You should show up to an office of 80 people and feel that community and feel that culture and be excited to go into the office and rub shoulders with different people and learn from different people, especially...
Speaker: during NEM3 and some of the changes in California, it's more important than ever that you're like really partnered up with someone that has good leadership and has experience and has good culture right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: Plug.
Speaker: Hashtag legacy.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: yeah well and i've heard from a lot of heavy hitters that like dealers you know they're becoming less and less and i think it's going to get the point like that's why yeah currently i'm with a company that's doing their own installs because yeah i was just um you know you know about some of my issues i was having at dealers but like i'm a lot of money unfortunately and a lot of people likes to work at companies that may or may not have
Speaker: And I told them, I said, my number one criteria when I look for a company is does payroll hit every Friday?
Speaker: If it's a yes, then I'll think about working.
Speaker: So I worked at Sunrun Direct, never missed a paycheck there.
Speaker: Legacy, huge company, haven't missed a paycheck yet.
Speaker: So I'm happy for that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, learn from my mistake.
Speaker: Make sure you're getting paid.
Speaker: It happens, and that's the dark side of the industry, unfortunately.
Speaker: A lot of dealers go through stuff like that.
Speaker: Well, Mike, it's been awesome having you on.
Speaker: I mean, next time we'll have to.
Speaker: I mean, I almost just handcuffed you to this room, and I kept you here all day just because, like, you never know when you're going to get this guy in a room.
Speaker: It's been a long time.
Speaker: We coordinated.
Speaker: We finally did it, dude.
Speaker: You had to wait two hours, but, hey, we got some sushi out of it.
Speaker: It was worth it.
Speaker: It was a great night, man.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Well, you delivered.
Speaker: So, guys, go reach out to Mike.
Speaker: Do you want to give your phone number one more time?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll give it one more time, man.
Speaker: Just text me.
Speaker: This is the same number my wife calls me on, guys.
Speaker: Just hit me up.
Speaker: It's my personal cell.
Speaker: It's 530-306-7948.
Speaker: 530-306-7948.
Speaker: Hit me up.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, guys, shoot them a text.
Speaker: Not too many people give their phone numbers on the podcast.
Speaker: I don't blow them up, but make sure you let them know you heard about them on the Sorepreneur podcasts.
Speaker: Hey, I know someone out there is going to add me to like a hundred like spam numbers.
Speaker: I'm just going to get blown.
Speaker: I'll have to change my number because of this.
Speaker: They're going to put you in some text.
Speaker: It'll probably be Danny Pesci, dude.
Speaker: That's probably who it'll be, dude.
Speaker: Honestly.
Speaker: So maybe don't do that.
Speaker: But Mike, it's been awesome having you on.
Speaker: We'll have to do it in the future when I can track you down again.
Speaker: But I appreciate you for bringing the heat today.
Speaker: You definitely delivered and looking forward to seeing what you'll do next.
Speaker: Hey, can I give one last quote?
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: This is like one of my favorite quotes that I just heard recently.
Speaker: And it really, really, really resonated with me.
Speaker: So I just want to share it really quick.
Speaker: And then we'll end this thing.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So guys, we all have two lives.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: This is from Confucius.
Speaker: We all have two lives.
Speaker: And the second life begins when we realize that we only have one life to live.
Speaker: We all have two lives.
Speaker: And the second life begins the day that we realize we only have one life to live.
Speaker: And so like go out today and like live life to a hundred percent If you're at work if you're on doors be on doors and like go hard Give it a hundred percent as soon as you walk into your house with your family give your family a hundred percent Be there be present with your kids.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Call someone from your family that you haven't talked to in a few years
Speaker: Like bury the hatchet with someone.
Speaker: Like today, right now, think of someone that you have resentments towards, someone that has resentment towards you, and like call them right now.
Speaker: Like as soon as you're done with this podcast, call them and bury the hatchet, dude.
Speaker: Like life's too short.
Speaker: You only have one life to live, guys.
Speaker: So that's it.
Speaker: Let's get out of here.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So guys, thanks for listening to the podcast.
Speaker: Do everything that Mike said.
Speaker: Go listen to his lines on selling.
Speaker: Live life to the fullest.
Speaker: And keep crushing it.
Speaker: So thanks again for coming, Mike.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs.
Speaker: Are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
Speaker: Well, so was I. And the truth is I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
Speaker: So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time.
Speaker: We are doing a free sales diagnostic.
Speaker: We'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
Speaker: So at now, we have six bucks for this month.
Speaker: So book a call now.
Speaker: Don't miss out.
Speaker: What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an S dot com.
Speaker: I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out the time that works best.
Speaker: So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.
