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How To Survive In Solar When Your Company Disappears - Ruben Ayala
75 Plays3 years ago
What it Takes to be a Top 3 Sales Rep - Ruben Ayala
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Transcript
Introduction to the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's
Live Discussion at Door to Door Con 2023
00:00:43
Speaker
going on?
00:00:43
Speaker
We're here live at Door to Orcon 2023.
00:00:46
Speaker
And for not just the first, but the second time, we have my friend Ruben coming on the show.
00:00:51
Speaker
Ruben, thanks for coming back on with us.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hey, man.
00:00:53
Speaker
Finally, glad to meet you in person.
00:00:57
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:00:58
Speaker
Thanks for having me again on the show.
00:01:00
Speaker
I know.
00:01:00
Speaker
And God, I apologize because when we first got up, I said, hey, what's your name?
00:01:04
Speaker
And I...
00:01:05
Speaker
Totally didn't put the name to the face, but now that I got it, I don't think I'll forget again.
00:01:10
Speaker
There you go, brother.
00:01:11
Speaker
Hell yeah.
00:01:12
Speaker
But yeah, it's been fun
Business Changes and Partnership Formation
00:01:13
Speaker
to be here.
00:01:13
Speaker
And today, yeah, we want to do kind of, you know, some takeaways we've had from door to door gone and then just catch up.
00:01:19
Speaker
I know you've been crushing it and had some changes in your business.
00:01:22
Speaker
But yeah, what was it?
00:01:23
Speaker
Like a year ago we had you on?
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, about a year ago.
00:01:26
Speaker
A year ago.
00:01:28
Speaker
So if you haven't, we will link that podcast in the show notes if you don't have the chance to listen to that.
00:01:33
Speaker
Got some great feedback.
00:01:34
Speaker
And I think you've had a lot of guys reach out and get on that podcast definitely shows like what being on, you know, other stages can do for you, especially people in Florida or in the industry from getting followers on Instagram and the same field to people actually coming in.
00:01:52
Speaker
And working with us, you know.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's been great.
00:01:54
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:54
Speaker
I know.
00:01:54
Speaker
I need like an override for all the guys there.
00:01:57
Speaker
For real.
00:01:58
Speaker
We can structure something like that, right?
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, but no, you guys have been crushing it.
00:02:03
Speaker
And Ciel, let's just hear, I know you've had some changes in your business going on.
00:02:07
Speaker
So it's been a year.
00:02:09
Speaker
Last time you were at, I think, was it Suncor?
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, I was with a company named Suncor.
00:02:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:14
Speaker
And there's been a lot of changes.
00:02:18
Speaker
The company dissolved, essentially, and so it kind of forced me to...
00:02:22
Speaker
start my own thing, right?
00:02:23
Speaker
It's one of those that it's kind of like sink or swim.
00:02:26
Speaker
And I met some great, brilliant minds that we partnered up.
00:02:32
Speaker
So what we did is we basically partnered with a roofing and an AC company.
00:02:39
Speaker
So we can do now roofs in-house, AC in-house, and then we brought the solar arm to it.
00:02:43
Speaker
And so it's pretty amazing.
00:02:45
Speaker
I have my partner, Anthony Jaramillo and Alex Hoffman,
00:02:51
Speaker
And so now we're called ProTech, right?
00:02:54
Speaker
So that's where we're at.
00:02:56
Speaker
We're out of Tampa.
00:02:57
Speaker
And it's just been, you know, a lot of growth in one year.
00:03:02
Speaker
And right now we're about to expand significantly.
00:03:05
Speaker
So the past five, six months has just been infrastructure of everything.
00:03:11
Speaker
And this year is going to be the year where we really blow up.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:14
Speaker
Can't wait.
00:03:15
Speaker
And yeah, I think we have some similarities because I was just telling you, I dealt with some stuff, same thing with my company and installs not going through.
00:03:23
Speaker
And unfortunately, you know, commissions not being paid, stuff like that.
00:03:27
Speaker
So I know we both kind of went through similar things, but we probably both learned the lesson.
00:03:32
Speaker
Like you got to know to adjust and that's kind of the dark side of the industry.
00:03:35
Speaker
And unfortunately, things like that can happen.
Adapting Sales Strategies in Uncertain Times
00:03:37
Speaker
But those that know how to pivot their business and, you know, sell like
00:03:41
Speaker
There's no shortage of business even when stuff like that happens.
00:03:44
Speaker
Would you agree?
00:03:45
Speaker
Definitely, man.
00:03:46
Speaker
If you know how to sell, if you know how to knock on doors, there will always be an opportunity.
00:03:50
Speaker
You just need to adapt.
00:03:52
Speaker
There's a lot of people that get scared.
00:03:53
Speaker
You just got to lean into your fears, right?
00:03:55
Speaker
And that's something that we've been learning here at D2D Con.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:58
Speaker
But yeah, I got to ask, were you nervous when all this stuff was going down at Suncor?
00:04:02
Speaker
Was that nerve wracking or whatever?
00:04:07
Speaker
I was more worried for the people that I had personally recruited and brought in because financially, I had a good little cushion to last me for a while.
00:04:17
Speaker
It was more of the other people that I look out for.
00:04:23
Speaker
My team is my family.
00:04:24
Speaker
I spend a lot of time with them and I love every single one of them.
00:04:27
Speaker
So it was more just kind of trying to make sure we could point them in the right direction and, you know, not give up.
00:04:32
Speaker
But yeah, definitely there was always when there's uncertainty, there's usually fear.
00:04:37
Speaker
But the more you let that fear get big, the harder it is to take action.
00:04:42
Speaker
And so you just have to kind of dive in real quick.
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, and it can affect sales because I don't know about you.
00:04:48
Speaker
When I was having uncertainty around installs not going in or stuff going on, I was kind of letting it affect my mindset on the doors and be like, oh, what am I doing out here?
00:04:57
Speaker
You've been selling.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:58
Speaker
This account might not even get installed.
00:05:00
Speaker
So things like that.
00:05:01
Speaker
I think it's important to just kind of check yourself and, you know, try to get in good opportunities as quick as possible, whether it's leaving, staying, finding the, you know, starting your own thing like you did.
00:05:11
Speaker
But yeah, with your reps, like what did you tell them?
00:05:13
Speaker
I don't know if you have any advice.
00:05:15
Speaker
Maybe people are going through similar situation.
Supporting Reps with Tools and Incentives
00:05:17
Speaker
How did you help your reps going through all this?
00:05:19
Speaker
And,
00:05:19
Speaker
I mean, the biggest thing I did was just be open and transparent.
00:05:24
Speaker
And so I said, hey, guys, this is where we're at.
00:05:27
Speaker
This is what I'm thinking.
00:05:29
Speaker
And these are going to be the new partners.
00:05:31
Speaker
And we've already kind of talked about this.
00:05:34
Speaker
And what we did was come up with cool incentives for like,
00:05:38
Speaker
a brighter future we're giving all of you guys ipads with internet on it and you know a case and and better badges and you know we're gonna do cooler incentives and so that's kind of how you rally the troop was kind of like you know instead of going into the previous company where you kind of had to go buy your own things you know we saw it as like dude if we can give our people better tools so they look more professional so they look more legit
00:06:05
Speaker
You know, like that's what we're going to do.
00:06:07
Speaker
And that was kind of like something that kind of kick started.
00:06:10
Speaker
I know we had a couple of guys that didn't have a car.
00:06:13
Speaker
And so I sometimes would have to go pick them up, drop them off and go to appointments and do all of that, you know, wearing every single hat.
00:06:19
Speaker
And so there was cars that were issued.
00:06:23
Speaker
And so now they do their own kind of like little group and they go out in teams and
00:06:27
Speaker
And, you know, they have a logo throughout the car.
00:06:29
Speaker
So that was also pretty cool.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:31
Speaker
There you go.
00:06:32
Speaker
Well, something we were talking about, we just got back from lunch or door-to-door con, but something we were talking about too is, like you were mentioning how important it is just focus on the things you're good at and not try and like wear all these hats and be running around.
00:06:45
Speaker
So as you've started your own, you know, dealer company now, like what have you learned in doing that or what do you suggest to guys?
00:06:52
Speaker
How do you like...
00:06:53
Speaker
So hire and get help with all these things.
00:06:55
Speaker
I've seen a lot of different ways of doing things, right?
00:06:59
Speaker
There's I don't think there's really like a super right way and a super wrong way.
00:07:04
Speaker
It's just kind of what it works for everybody.
00:07:06
Speaker
I've seen a company being run by one person and that one person trying to do everything.
00:07:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I know I'm very, very bad at like accounting numbers and checking Excel sheets and tracking and being organized.
00:07:19
Speaker
That's not my personality and that's not something I'm good at.
00:07:22
Speaker
You know, I'm good at checking my schedule, you know, and that's about it and going and selling and, you know, training and developing rep.
00:07:30
Speaker
That's what I'm really passionate about and that's what I'm good at.
00:07:33
Speaker
And so going into business with my partners, they're actually really good at the stuff that I'm not good at and they enjoy doing that.
00:07:41
Speaker
And I'm really good at sales.
00:07:43
Speaker
And so that's kind of like my role.
00:07:45
Speaker
And so I do have, you know, very supportive team members and partners that help me on things that I'm not good at.
00:07:53
Speaker
That way I can focus on my main bread and potatoes, which is sales.
00:07:57
Speaker
It's recruiting.
00:07:58
Speaker
It's, you know, motivating people.
00:08:00
Speaker
It's teaching.
00:08:02
Speaker
That's what I'm good at.
00:08:03
Speaker
So the more I can do that, the better it is for everything.
00:08:06
Speaker
And just knowing that you have people in your corner that you can trust and that that's what they're good at.
00:08:11
Speaker
I think that's great.
00:08:12
Speaker
I know Grant talks about it.
00:08:13
Speaker
He says collaboration is a new currency.
00:08:16
Speaker
And so you can't do anything by yourself and expect for it to be big.
00:08:21
Speaker
One of the guest speakers today, he says, there's no such thing as a self-made millionaire.
00:08:25
Speaker
That's bullshit.
00:08:26
Speaker
He says, because if I'm the second born in a family and I become a self-made millionaire,
00:08:31
Speaker
millionaire is like my brother actually helped shape my personality to actually get there so I would actually thank him as well.
00:08:39
Speaker
If you think about it it's kind of like yeah dude you can't do anything by yourself and go very far.
00:08:44
Speaker
I know 100% and that's one of the biggest reasons I've seen like these smaller dealers fell and things like that because they try to do everything themselves and
00:08:52
Speaker
not grow.
00:08:53
Speaker
So yeah, it's something I heard today going Tanner Williams.
00:08:56
Speaker
He did the, I think it was like 130 deals in basically a summer.
00:09:01
Speaker
He was talking about the same thing.
00:09:02
Speaker
He was trying to like organize all these spreadsheets and run his team of setters.
00:09:05
Speaker
But one of the things that helped him take off is just, you know, hiring an assistant, organizing all that.
00:09:11
Speaker
He knew his schedule now.
00:09:12
Speaker
He didn't have to manage that.
00:09:14
Speaker
He's managing, you know, the systems, not the people.
00:09:16
Speaker
That's what a lot of guys say on that.
00:09:19
Speaker
But yeah, so it's been cool to see you grow.
00:09:21
Speaker
So how many reps are you guys at now?
00:09:22
Speaker
What's your company like now that you're in?
00:09:25
Speaker
The goal right now is to have around 50 reps by the end of April.
00:09:30
Speaker
But we want 50 quality reps.
00:09:32
Speaker
We don't want reps that are putting one or two deals in.
00:09:35
Speaker
We want reps that are doing about 10 deals a month minimum.
00:09:39
Speaker
And that's kind of like the new standard that we're setting.
00:09:41
Speaker
Because the higher you raise the bar, the more that people challenge themselves, the more success they're going to have, the more money they're going to make.
00:09:50
Speaker
and the bigger their belief lid's going to be.
00:09:52
Speaker
So that's the goal for my birthday in April.
00:09:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
Tax season and your birthday.
00:09:59
Speaker
I know, man.
00:09:59
Speaker
It's a good day.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:02
Speaker
And so when you were making this transition from Suncor, bringing your reps over, did your whole team, you're running the L pretty much, come join you after that?
00:10:12
Speaker
Or was there guys that fell off?
00:10:15
Speaker
There was different markets.
00:10:16
Speaker
And so only the people in the Tampa markets,
00:10:20
Speaker
or the one that came over here.
00:10:21
Speaker
And then I know a couple of them went off and did their own thing in different markets.
00:10:25
Speaker
And, you know, we're still in touch with a few of them.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker
And some, I don't know where they're at right now, but yeah.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
It was the people I personally brought in that, you know, like my brother, his girlfriend, very close to me.
00:10:42
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:44
Speaker
So that was like my core.
00:10:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:46
Speaker
Are they the ones that partner?
00:10:47
Speaker
Cause you talk about, I have partners doing different things.
00:10:51
Speaker
Um, so were they the ones that partnered up with you on this or how did you find the people?
00:10:55
Speaker
So when we first got to Tampa, we were exploring that market.
00:10:59
Speaker
Um, we needed someone to do our roofs.
00:11:01
Speaker
Right.
00:11:02
Speaker
And, uh, I met a company called pro tech and I met their, uh, owners and, you know, like-minded individuals about the same age guys are,
00:11:13
Speaker
sharp and so I started hanging out with them more often we started giving them business and I liked how they resolved problems whenever we came to like a disagreement on something and I also enjoyed really hanging out with them and they became my friends and then when this came you know it was kind of like a perfect timing to be like hey
00:11:31
Speaker
you know, let's bring a solar arm into it.
00:11:33
Speaker
And that's how we did it.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:36
Speaker
And so you saw that they were just running, it was just kind of like networking or you just, you use them for roofs before at Suncor.
00:11:45
Speaker
Uh-huh.
00:11:45
Speaker
And then you just branch off and said, you know, let's start up some solar and then they're like, sweet, let's do it.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:50
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:11:51
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:11:51
Speaker
Roll from there.
00:11:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:53
Speaker
Was it rocky for them?
00:11:55
Speaker
Maybe you're still kind of ironing things out, but was it tough for them to get that rolling, like solar installs, or do they pretty much have it figured out right from the beginning?
00:12:05
Speaker
Obviously, there's learning curves to everything, but they have their operations down pretty good.
00:12:11
Speaker
And so it's kind of like the same thing.
00:12:14
Speaker
That's awesome because I know sometimes people struggle, like the initial ones.
00:12:19
Speaker
I've worked with some companies where they're like, oh, we're going to start solar installs, and then it's like a train wreck for the first 20 accounts or whatever until they get things out.
00:12:29
Speaker
So that's good.
00:12:30
Speaker
So right now we're not installing currently, but that's something that is in the near future.
00:12:36
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:38
Speaker
Okay, so you just partner with them for operation type stuff, and then you're enrolled in there.
00:12:43
Speaker
Okay, gotcha.
00:12:44
Speaker
Makes sense.
00:12:45
Speaker
I was going to say, that's like almost unheard of.
00:12:48
Speaker
Things go super smooth from the get-go.
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure whenever the install site comes around, we're going to do a few.
00:12:55
Speaker
Make sure that we learn everything right then and there, and then we can open the floodgates and see how we're going.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:13:03
Speaker
Well, Ruben, I know today's going to be a little bit shorter than last time just because I know we've got some awards coming up and speakers we're going to go see down there.
00:13:12
Speaker
But just like...
00:13:14
Speaker
For you, I know you go to a lot of events.
00:13:17
Speaker
You go to the Grant Cardone ones.
00:13:19
Speaker
I've been to this.
00:13:20
Speaker
Have you been to DoorDoreCon multiple times now?
00:13:23
Speaker
Actually, it's my first time coming to DoorDoreCon.
00:13:26
Speaker
It's pretty cool.
00:13:27
Speaker
I like it.
00:13:28
Speaker
It's been a good event.
00:13:30
Speaker
And so what for you, what's like the importance?
00:13:33
Speaker
I know you got all these Grant Cardone events, other events.
00:13:36
Speaker
What's been like, would you say that's pretty been like a key thing in helping you grow in business or what's been the importance of like kind of these events and training programs
Investing in Personal and Professional Growth
00:13:46
Speaker
you've done?
00:13:46
Speaker
I really suggest for everybody to invest in themselves.
00:13:50
Speaker
I used to be that cheap guy that was like, dude,
00:13:52
Speaker
I remember going to my first Grant Cardone concert or not concert, but maybe in the concert.
00:13:59
Speaker
Conference.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:00
Speaker
And I was like, damn, $1,500 for the ticket.
00:14:04
Speaker
And that's the cheapest ticket.
00:14:06
Speaker
Right.
00:14:06
Speaker
And I just remember sweating it.
00:14:08
Speaker
And I was making solar money already.
00:14:10
Speaker
And so I was still being stingy with it.
00:14:12
Speaker
And I was like, dude, $1,500 plus the flight, plus the hotel.
00:14:16
Speaker
Like I'm going to be at like three grand easy just to go to that.
00:14:19
Speaker
And I said, you know what?
00:14:20
Speaker
Screw it.
00:14:21
Speaker
We'll go.
00:14:22
Speaker
And I remember walking in and just the energy and just kind of like everything about it.
00:14:27
Speaker
And where I was seating, I was like, dude, I'm at the very, very back.
00:14:32
Speaker
So I walk out and I said, how can I upgrade to like your middle package?
00:14:36
Speaker
Right.
00:14:37
Speaker
And so I upgraded to the middle package and I saw a big difference in the type of people I got to meet and where their headspace was at.
00:14:45
Speaker
And so I've met a lot of
00:14:48
Speaker
really good people there that now are friends, you know, and we can bounce ideas back.
00:14:53
Speaker
And so you see different ways of thinking, different ways of operating.
00:14:56
Speaker
And since then, dude, I've gone to, you know, everything that he does, we'll go there and
00:15:01
Speaker
Now I can actually buy into more expensive things, which is sometimes scary.
00:15:05
Speaker
But, you know, you get to meet people that are also in the same space financially that are doing cooler stuff.
00:15:13
Speaker
And you learn from them and, you know, you get people inviting you to buy an apartment complex with them or to do this or to do that.
00:15:19
Speaker
So it does grow your mindset.
00:15:21
Speaker
your mind for door to door con.
00:15:23
Speaker
I highly suggest it for everybody in the space, just because you get to hear, you know, top rep stories, you get to mingle and interact with other people, you get to hear different pitches, you get to see like what's new in the industry, you get to see, you know, the vendors, you get basically cool speakers.
00:15:39
Speaker
I like that it's in January because you kick off the year with some motivation.
00:15:44
Speaker
Right.
00:15:44
Speaker
So for me, this is great to come back and bring value to the team and see like what's new, take pictures with some of the legends here, you know, and bring it back.
00:15:53
Speaker
So definitely investing in yourself is key.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:57
Speaker
I suggest that to everyone.
00:15:58
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:00
Speaker
you get value out of these things as well.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker
A hundred percent pays for itself.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:04
Speaker
And something I like viewers talking about before the podcast too, is you said that like any of your guys that want to come, you always make them, you know, like buy their tickets and all that.
00:16:12
Speaker
Cause it's like, you want guys putting their money where their mouth is.
00:16:16
Speaker
And you know, it's, um, if, if you buy your own ticket and it costs you your own money, you treat the whole conference different.
00:16:24
Speaker
right versus if i'm paying for everybody and i'm bringing the team and everything like that's not as appreciated as if it cost you time energy money right to actually get here you're gonna take way more out of it and and so that's exactly what happened to me and now that that happened to me i'm like dude everybody that everybody that comes should buy their own way here that way they can walk around with that pride you know they can feel accomplishment of being able to come into these things and yeah and then
00:16:51
Speaker
later seeing how many more events or conferences they can go to to keep stimulated, to keep motivated.
00:16:57
Speaker
Because that's a lot of what you get here.
00:16:58
Speaker
You get motivation, you get inspired, you get, you know, resurrected.
00:17:04
Speaker
Exactly.
00:17:04
Speaker
I know.
00:17:05
Speaker
It's reviving for sure.
00:17:07
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, at least have it be, you know, for people that own their companies or managers for teams or whatever, I'd say at least make it be like an incentive or something, you know, like make guys earn it because.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:18
Speaker
Or, you know, if, if reps really want to come, you could always work out, you know, with your managers or,
00:17:26
Speaker
the owners of the company, you can be like, Hey man, can you just cover the ticket up front and just deduct it from my commissions, et cetera, like that.
00:17:33
Speaker
And work out something like that.
00:17:35
Speaker
That's still them paying for it, you know?
00:17:38
Speaker
And so that's something that is also available if you think outside the box.
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:43
Speaker
Just because you don't have the 1500 or 1600, whatever the ticket costs, like ask, you know, knock on that door and say, Hey, I really want to go.
00:17:52
Speaker
How can we make it happen?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:17:54
Speaker
There's always a way.
00:17:55
Speaker
So yeah, and it's been, like you said, it's been cool just to network and hear from the speakers.
00:18:01
Speaker
And I think that alone, just the networking, you're getting with like-minded people and, you know, potential opportunities for
Humorous Incident and Learning from Failures
00:18:08
Speaker
business later.
00:18:08
Speaker
You never know who you're going to meet because like you were talking about earlier, it's like,
00:18:12
Speaker
The way you started your deal at your company, it's from people you knew, right?
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:17
Speaker
And so maybe one of those people is at these events.
00:18:22
Speaker
So, yeah, I think it's been awesome.
00:18:24
Speaker
And then, well, yeah, we were talking at lunch and everything.
00:18:28
Speaker
Darren, you guys had a little tussle at the bar last night.
00:18:33
Speaker
Isn't it pretty funny?
00:18:36
Speaker
Entertainment.
00:18:37
Speaker
So for the fun part, right?
00:18:40
Speaker
So we went out to this spot yesterday that, you know, it was super packed, right?
00:18:48
Speaker
It was super packed and, you know, Utah's cold.
00:18:52
Speaker
So we weren't going to wait in line.
00:18:54
Speaker
We asked the bouncer how we could, you know, cut through the line.
00:18:58
Speaker
And we cut through the line.
00:18:59
Speaker
We had a great time.
00:19:01
Speaker
And as soon as we're coming out, all of a sudden I see, like,
00:19:04
Speaker
people running around chasing themselves and then, you know, punching each other.
00:19:08
Speaker
And I'm like, what the hell?
00:19:10
Speaker
And I was like, dude, that's one of our guys.
00:19:11
Speaker
Right.
00:19:12
Speaker
So, so I, I, I do not like condone fighting or anything like that.
00:19:18
Speaker
Like I've, I've gotten into enough fights growing up as a kid to know that a fight is not good.
00:19:25
Speaker
Either you win it or you lose it.
00:19:26
Speaker
They're always bad.
00:19:27
Speaker
Like you don't ever win a fight.
00:19:29
Speaker
Right.
00:19:30
Speaker
So I just, you know, kind of run out and,
00:19:34
Speaker
I'm trying to see who's there of authority to stop it.
00:19:37
Speaker
I'm just like, dude, and then I'm just like, well, we need to go pull some guys off of each other.
00:19:42
Speaker
I see a phone and I thought it was the bad guy's phone.
00:19:49
Speaker
I was like, you know what?
00:19:50
Speaker
I'm not going to hit him, but I'm going to hit him where it hurts.
00:19:52
Speaker
I take the case off and I smash it.
00:19:56
Speaker
Then I step on it.
00:19:58
Speaker
And, you know, we break it up and all of a sudden there's like so many more people that are from Utah and it's a big friend group and I don't even know how it started.
00:20:09
Speaker
And so then I see they're all coming, right?
00:20:11
Speaker
And I was like, dude, think of something quick to get all of these guys to not like, you know, completely like beat us up.
00:20:18
Speaker
And so...
00:20:20
Speaker
I walk over and I was like, guys, don't mess with us.
00:20:22
Speaker
You know, we're the mafia.
00:20:25
Speaker
We're the Mexican mafia.
00:20:26
Speaker
And I was wearing like a gangster, you know, outfit on and the bouncer was like,
00:20:32
Speaker
Dude, these were the guys that paid, you know, $50 a head to fucking cut the line, right?
00:20:36
Speaker
And so he's like, all of a sudden, dude, the bouncer's like, don't touch them.
00:20:41
Speaker
They like just come and start protecting us.
00:20:43
Speaker
And then, you know, funny, funny story.
00:20:45
Speaker
My buddy's like, hey, have you seen my phone?
00:20:47
Speaker
I'm looking for my phone.
00:20:48
Speaker
And I was like, no way.
00:20:51
Speaker
Dude, he finds the case and he says, I found my case, but where's my phone?
00:20:55
Speaker
And I was like, ah, shit, dude, I might have stopped.
00:20:58
Speaker
stomped on it you know and everything like that and then you know the cops show up and I was like ah here we go he's like hey what happened and everyone's just like nothing nothing nothing and I was like dude we got out of it like that's really good but yeah it was it was just funny man you walk out and then you see like a bunch of people running around you know and it was like what is going on but it's freaking funny
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the funnier stories I've heard on the podcast.
00:21:28
Speaker
Sorry if you didn't want to tell, but I mean, it is what it is, man.
00:21:32
Speaker
Like.
00:21:32
Speaker
Like I said, the fighting is not good, but always figure out a way to stop it.
00:21:39
Speaker
And stop the bleeding.
00:21:42
Speaker
You put those door-to-door skills to use, thinking on the spot.
00:21:45
Speaker
You're like, all right, I'll make it.
00:21:46
Speaker
You have to sometimes.
00:21:48
Speaker
And then people were looking at us like, oh, that's the mafia guys, the mafia guys.
00:21:52
Speaker
I was like, yeah, our bodyguards are around the corner.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
Guys, back off.
00:21:57
Speaker
Trying to get on an Uber, bro.
00:21:59
Speaker
And then you couldn't get an Uber.
00:22:00
Speaker
Ubers are like 16 minutes out.
00:22:02
Speaker
Even like the XL, it's closing time.
00:22:04
Speaker
Everybody's trying to get an Uber.
00:22:05
Speaker
So we just kind of walked back.
00:22:07
Speaker
And then we found a taco stand and had some tacos in Utah.
00:22:12
Speaker
And then made our rounds.
00:22:14
Speaker
to the hotel.
00:22:15
Speaker
So it was good today.
00:22:17
Speaker
Woke up fresh and came to the conference to get some golden nuggets.
00:22:21
Speaker
That's what we came here for.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:23
Speaker
The most important thing.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
So if you want a good time at door to door con, hang out with Ruben.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:22:31
Speaker
I'm glad you didn't have any major injuries or something.
00:22:34
Speaker
No, none.
00:22:34
Speaker
Right.
00:22:35
Speaker
I'm the one with the black eye right now.
00:22:37
Speaker
I know.
00:22:38
Speaker
So that was actually how we saw you.
00:22:41
Speaker
I knew you were coming because we had talked on Instagram, right?
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
One of the guys that came with us, he's like, dude, was he one of those?
00:22:47
Speaker
Look, I think I got him good.
00:22:49
Speaker
And he starts like pointing at you.
00:22:50
Speaker
And I was like, who?
00:22:51
Speaker
He has a black eye.
00:22:52
Speaker
Look at him.
00:22:52
Speaker
Look at him.
00:22:52
Speaker
I think I got him.
00:22:53
Speaker
And I was like, dude, no, no, he's not.
00:22:56
Speaker
Like, I know this guy.
00:22:57
Speaker
I've done a podcast with him.
00:22:58
Speaker
He's not one of them, you know?
00:23:00
Speaker
And he's like, oh, okay, okay, okay.
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:03
Speaker
I walk over and I was like, dude, they thought you were, you know, one of the guys from last night.
00:23:07
Speaker
But it was, yeah, man.
00:23:10
Speaker
Never, yeah.
00:23:11
Speaker
Never had a funnier introduction than that.
00:23:13
Speaker
I think I was the one in the bar fight.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, so that's kind of what's been going on, you know, with my life in general.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:24
Speaker
Very excited for 2023.
00:23:25
Speaker
It holds a lot of, you know, good feelings in my gut about it.
00:23:30
Speaker
And so I think that's kind of like the best thing you can do.
00:23:34
Speaker
Learn from mistakes was one of the big takeaways from here.
00:23:37
Speaker
The ability, how did you phrase it?
00:23:39
Speaker
I wrote it down.
00:23:40
Speaker
I'm a note taker.
00:23:41
Speaker
So like I'll write stuff down, but he, he talked about, um, the ability to look at yourself and actually like analyze like your failures and, uh, sometimes valuing your failures more than your wins, you know, because when you win, you win and it feels great.
00:23:57
Speaker
But when you fail, you can actually see what you did wrong and you can take that as a lesson that way.
00:24:04
Speaker
Next time you don't do the same wrong thing.
00:24:07
Speaker
Right.
00:24:07
Speaker
And I think that's, um,
00:24:10
Speaker
Very relatable to door to door to the entrepreneur, the solopreneur, right?
00:24:16
Speaker
Is learning never to quit and learning from your mistakes.
00:24:20
Speaker
And that's what makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur.
00:24:22
Speaker
It's a guy that continues to fail, fail, fail, fail.
00:24:25
Speaker
People laugh at them, you know, and you just keep getting back up and trying to analyze what caused you to fail.
00:24:32
Speaker
and then tweak it, and then eventually, you'll find some success.
00:24:36
Speaker
And that's what people see.
00:24:38
Speaker
But they don't see the failures that come before.
00:24:40
Speaker
And so just hearing other people kind of express that is like, all right, we're not alone.
00:24:48
Speaker
People see the overnight success, but then they don't see everything that happens before that to cause the overnight success,
Speech Highlights on Determination and Success
00:24:55
Speaker
right?
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, Mo Fala yesterday did a great speech.
00:25:00
Speaker
Congratulations on the, you know, the acquirement.
00:25:04
Speaker
He did a great example of, he says, you know, he was talking about his company Simple and he says, you've seen that picture where it's like the tip of the iceberg and that's the only thing you can see.
00:25:13
Speaker
But then like all underneath you have this big rock that nobody sees.
00:25:16
Speaker
You just see this.
00:25:17
Speaker
He's like, that's three years of, you know, the past three years of the business is this.
00:25:21
Speaker
But, you know, the past 10 years is like everything that people don't see.
00:25:25
Speaker
And so overnight success just doesn't happen.
00:25:28
Speaker
It's, you know,
00:25:28
Speaker
failure after failure after failure after failure, which actually gets you sharp enough to whenever you have that opportunity to execute, you can actually execute.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:38
Speaker
100%.
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's been awesome hearing the Nuggets.
00:25:41
Speaker
And yeah, definitely highly recommend people come to events like this and get to hang out and brush shoulders with guys like Ruben and guys like Mo, guys like myself.
00:25:51
Speaker
I love it.
00:25:51
Speaker
So yeah, we'll start wrapping up here, Ruben, so you can get to probably going to win an award up on stage or something here.
00:25:59
Speaker
So you did what, 180 deals last year?
00:26:01
Speaker
180, yeah.
00:26:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:04
Speaker
Crazy.
00:26:05
Speaker
So definitely top 1% for sure.
00:26:07
Speaker
Trying to do more this year.
00:26:09
Speaker
More than that.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:11
Speaker
I know.
00:26:11
Speaker
Trying to see how I can be in more places at the same time.
00:26:14
Speaker
You got to remember to submit for your Golden Door award next year, man.
00:26:17
Speaker
Dude, I know, man.
00:26:19
Speaker
Maybe just try walking up on stage and be like, hey.
00:26:24
Speaker
You know, I think that's really cool now that, you know, the golden door award exists because it gives people a metric to shoot for.
00:26:32
Speaker
And that recognition in front of like everybody in the industry is huge, you know?
00:26:38
Speaker
But I think the biggest part of it is, you know, the speaker from yesterday was great.
00:26:47
Speaker
I forget his name.
00:26:49
Speaker
Did like the food processing protein bars.
00:26:53
Speaker
Oh, Tom Bilyeu.
00:26:55
Speaker
That guy, Tom Bilyeu.
00:26:56
Speaker
Where he says, you know, success is getting your teeth kicked in, coming out with like missing eye and then just kind of like walking up with like the opponent's blood on your face and knowing that you actually did it.
00:27:08
Speaker
Like, I think that is the biggest confidence builder.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:11
Speaker
And that's the coolest part of the journey, you know, hitting a goal that like I think was the Golden Door, 130 accounts.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, 130, yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, so if you aim for 130, you divide it by 12 months, and then you divide it by a week, and then you know exactly how many deals you need to get to 130 at the end of the deer.
00:27:31
Speaker
So just reverse math, which I'm not that good at, but I can do that.
00:27:35
Speaker
That's why you have people on your team.
00:27:37
Speaker
Get the right team in.
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:41
Speaker
100%.
00:27:41
Speaker
Well, Ruben, we appreciate you coming on for the second time.
Connecting with Ruben on Social Media
00:27:44
Speaker
to this show.
00:27:45
Speaker
Not too many people have been on twice, so it's been an honor.
00:27:47
Speaker
Thank you.
00:27:48
Speaker
And then in case people didn't listen to the first one or still catching up, what's the best way to connect with you or reach out?
00:27:56
Speaker
On social media, I need to get better on TikTok and all those other ones, but the one I use most is Instagram.
00:28:02
Speaker
And usually, you know, I'm posting constantly like trainings, deals, clothes on the stories.
00:28:08
Speaker
I need to do better at posting on my actual site, but my Instagram handle is Ruben
00:28:12
Speaker
R-U-B-E-N period can, C-A-N.
00:28:17
Speaker
Like Ruben can do it, right?
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's where it came from.
00:28:21
Speaker
But yeah, guys reach out.
00:28:23
Speaker
If you guys have any questions in the industry or in the space, you know, it's always nice to, oh, that was the other thing we were talking about.
00:28:29
Speaker
I was, you know, great things about these conferences is actually like teaching people how to become better at their job.
00:28:36
Speaker
So it eliminates that negative reputation that you have.
00:28:40
Speaker
When you go knock on a door and you're like, oh, it's solar.
00:28:43
Speaker
And so many people have heard nightmares because rep aren't trained well enough to actually service the customer instead to like 50% offset them or whatever.
00:28:51
Speaker
And so people have such a negative taste that it makes everyone's job harder versus, you know, getting come to door to door, hearing from the best in the industry on what they do and, you know, polishing your skill sets.
00:29:02
Speaker
That's just going to make life easier for everybody.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
There's enough for everyone.
00:29:06
Speaker
Yeah, no doubt.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely an abundance mindset.
00:29:09
Speaker
Like everyone here, I feel like, is really willing to share what's working for them and, you know, spill all their secrets and stuff, which didn't happen before.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, when you were mentioning how your podcast came about, where you said, you know, I would ask guys, like, what's working for them and they don't want to talk.
00:29:25
Speaker
But then if I invited them to a podcast to talk about themselves, they'd spill the beans.
00:29:30
Speaker
And I was like, dude, that's genius.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, so...
00:29:34
Speaker
That's how we do it.
00:29:35
Speaker
Thank you for having me.
00:29:36
Speaker
Appreciate it, man.
00:29:37
Speaker
Thanks for coming on.
00:29:38
Speaker
I'll see you in Florida for a little blitz or something later.
00:29:41
Speaker
We'll do it.
00:29:42
Speaker
Thanks again, Ruben.
00:29:43
Speaker
Guys, hit Ruben up.
00:29:44
Speaker
Let them know you appreciate them coming on the show for the second time.
00:29:47
Speaker
Share the podcast with anyone that you know.
00:29:50
Speaker
They could use a jump start in their day.
00:29:52
Speaker
We'll see you on the next one.
00:29:53
Speaker
Thanks, Ruben.
00:29:54
Speaker
Thank you, brother.
00:29:56
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:29:57
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:29:59
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Top Podcast Episodes Cheat Sheet
00:30:09
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:30:16
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:30:19
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:30:24
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
00:30:37
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:30:46
Speaker
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00:30:48
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:30:52
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:30:57
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:30:59
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:31:01
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:31:03
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:31:08
Speaker
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00:31:10
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.