Transcript
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs, and this is our story.
Speaker: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We're here on another podcast.
Speaker: We've got the man, Matt Crowther, on, and I'm excited to have him on.
Speaker: I met Matt.
Speaker: This was, what, at Door to DoorCon?
Speaker: I think that's the first time we've talked today, Matt.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, we were both in the VIP session listening to, you know, all the top dogs there.
Speaker: What was it?
Speaker: Ed Milat?
Speaker: Who was at the VIP session?
Speaker: I can't even remember.
Speaker: Tim Grover.
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: Tim Grover.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're picking his brain.
Speaker: And yeah, we just got talking and that definitely caught my attention with what he's doing.
Speaker: He is a manager for the Riverside office of Vivint Solar.
Speaker: And anyone that knows Vivint Solar, to manage, you've got to have pretty high standards.
Speaker: You've got to be definitely top 1% in the industry, producing at a super high volume, and then also leading the team.
Speaker: So balancing the production with also leading the team.
Speaker: So I've got mad respect for these guys and excited to have Matt on the show.
Speaker: So thanks for coming on today, Matt.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Happy to be here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Excited to pick your brain.
Speaker: So we were talking before the show and Matt has a pretty interesting story of just kind of like how he got to where he is leading the Riverside office down there.
Speaker: So yeah, that's the first thing we wanted to hear, Matt.
Speaker: Do you want to tell us kind of how you got into the industry and your background?
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: So, you know, it is a little bit of a long story.
Speaker: I'll try to give you the short condensed version, but
Speaker: So I've been doing solar for six and a half years.
Speaker: So I started in January of 2014.
Speaker: So at that time, I was in sales, but not in door-to-door, not in solar at all.
Speaker: And pretty much heard about the opportunity with solar and kind of jumped right into it.
Speaker: hit the ground running.
Speaker: Um, I had never knocked doors before, but I was like young, super ambitious.
Speaker: And so they just said, yeah, just go, just go work, like go work hard, knock a bunch of doors.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: And so basically that's what I did.
Speaker: I remember I would be working eight, 10 hours a day on the door, sometimes more.
Speaker: And my first month I did over 10 welcome calls.
Speaker: So I had like 10 closed sales and I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker: I did half of them wrong, but I started pretty fast in Colorado.
Speaker: And then there were some issues with the utility, Xcel Energy out there in Colorado.
Speaker: And I think it was only seven months or something like that.
Speaker: It wasn't that long.
Speaker: Like it was mid-summer and they just got super weird.
Speaker: The utility just started being...
Speaker: little bit difficult to work with and so the team basically was like hey honestly I'd say go somewhere else because this this is just not gonna be a great opportunity here for at least the next little bit so there are different opportunities I could have gone to you know California Arizona Vegas or New York and
Speaker: I pretty much decided to go to New York.
Speaker: We were open to that because me and my wife were, you know, no kids, young, ready for an adventure.
Speaker: And the manager who was my manager there, he really wanted me to go out there to New York and co-manage with him.
Speaker: And so I said, okay, like I'm open to it, but I kind of want a little bit of time to travel because it's
Speaker: I've always loved traveling.
Speaker: Like I've been to a lot of different countries and it's a little bit of a passion of mine.
Speaker: And so this is like the part of the story that a lot of people don't know.
Speaker: When I moved to New York, I actually made a deal with my manager.
Speaker: I said, Hey, I'll come there.
Speaker: If I can have like eight weeks off, I want two months off to just go travel.
Speaker: And if you're cool with that, I'll come to New York instead of these other places.
Speaker: And he was like, okay, we'll work it out.
Speaker: We'll make it work.
Speaker: So I still had a pipeline.
Speaker: I still had installs coming in.
Speaker: I got started really fast in New York, you know, was able to get a bunch of, you know, deals in the pipe.
Speaker: And so then we went that year, we went to Southeast Asia for like seven weeks.
Speaker: And traveled all over Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, all those countries.
Speaker: It was an amazing trip.
Speaker: So seven weeks.
Speaker: And then basically I was still getting paid.
Speaker: I was getting installs in while I was gone.
Speaker: And it was just, it was a cool opportunity.
Speaker: Like that was one of those things that kind of opened my eyes to the world.
Speaker: And so that's, that's how we ended up in New York.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: So, and that was with SolarCity.
Speaker: I was with SolarCity, you know, and about a year and a half later, I kind of got a little, there was some issues with management, stuff like that out there.
Speaker: And so I looked at a different company, went to a company, a smaller company in New York that a friend was working with.
Speaker: And I
Speaker: and you know kind of switched there was one of the top reps of that company and then we were having a baby and my wife was kind of like hey I'm cool with like heading back west because we're really far from family family hardly ever visits us because her family's from Arizona mine is from Colorado and so they were maybe seeing us once a year and just flying from New York was hard so
Speaker: We ended up moving to Texas.
Speaker: I went back with SolarCity because a friend of mine was just crushing it.
Speaker: He did, I think, 130, 135 installs that year with SolarCity in Texas.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, maybe Texas is where I'm supposed to go.
Speaker: So moved to Texas.
Speaker: for the whole relocation just like all that stuff and then SolarCity shut down like eight months later.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: You've been everywhere.
Speaker: I went back with them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Seriously.
Speaker: And then, so they shut down and like the day that they closed their doors, my friend who runs a dealer out in Arizona called me and was like, Hey, I heard about solar city.
Speaker: Like, what are you doing?
Speaker: And I said, I don't know.
Speaker: What do you, what are you thinking?
Speaker: He's like, come to Arizona.
Speaker: Like at least, you know, there's some weird stuff with Arizona's utility, you know, changes there, but like should be good for at least six months.
Speaker: So you can kind of get your feet on the ground.
Speaker: So we moved back with my wife's family.
Speaker: in Arizona that like happened super fast.
Speaker: We, from when SolarCity shut down, like said, we're done to when I was selling in Arizona, it was less than two weeks.
Speaker: So just like, just did it.
Speaker: I've always been kind of someone who acts fast.
Speaker: And that's probably been a good thing for me in the industry, but a little, little crazy.
Speaker: So went to Arizona,
Speaker: uh like two weeks later ty williams called me um who's the vp of vivan solar west coast and was like hey what are you doing and i'm like yeah i'm already with a different company in arizona like it happened really fast and he said okay well you are you open to vivan solar and i said yeah i'd talk about it for sure
Speaker: So that's kind of how I ended up getting with Vivint Solar is right after that ended up out in California.
Speaker: Did you know Ty before that?
Speaker: Or how did Ty, he just hit you out of nowhere?
Speaker: He just hit me up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like he, he got my number from a director in Texas because I was a manager in Texas.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so like, it's crazy because everything happened for a reason.
Speaker: Like, I don't know if I would have been in a position or a place that
Speaker: to get the call from Ty at that very moment, right?
Speaker: And he just knew a couple people from Texas.
Speaker: And like, I think that I was the only one from like, at least the majority of his list from those guys that left Solar City, at least from Texas.
Speaker: And
Speaker: you know so he called me and randomly i picked up the phone and we talked and i really could tell that he was a great leader so that's how i ended up in california and uh yeah and and i was i was in temecula um and then there was some issues with the temecula office that um led me to riverside to the riverside team and uh working with dave mattson
Speaker: And so that is kind of the story of how I ended up in Riverside.
Speaker: And, you know, the rest is history.
Speaker: It's been a great run.
Speaker: Last year in 2018, well, I guess it was two years ago.
Speaker: 2018, I had 92 installs, and then 2019, I had 90 installs.
Speaker: So pretty good numbers.
Speaker: I was mad that I didn't hit 100 both years.
Speaker: It just...
Speaker: I took too many vacations was the issue.
Speaker: I like to travel.
Speaker: And so I, I, I go to like two or three new countries a year.
Speaker: And so that was probably one of the reasons why I didn't.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Still amazing though.
Speaker: Do you still, so do you, let me ask you, do you still take two months off then?
Speaker: Was that when your requirements to come to Vivint too?
Speaker: Like I need two months off at least.
Speaker: you know no not really but um but i have qualified for their trips and stuff so i went to fiji and to new zealand and um then we'll we'll have a couple other vacations so it's probably not that much i'd probably say i'm i'm taking four to six weeks off uh during the year and and still working to maintain my production and my team and stuff but um
Speaker: Not as crazy as that whole Southeast Asia trip.
Speaker: That was a trip of a lifetime, almost two months of just travel, just immersing in the culture and
Speaker: yeah we we'd love to go back i'd love to go back to thailand it was one of my favorite places i've been yeah that's sweet and that's probably before you guys had kids and stuff right just you and your wife yeah before we had kids and uh now i have two okay busy yeah no i understand you i just had my first kid so definitely makes it a little trickier to go on trips and everything for sure you gotta do that big trip that's awesome
Speaker: Hey, solarepreneurs, real quick.
Speaker: If you've been in the solar industry any amount of time, you know that in order to take it to the next level, you need to always be recruiting.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: ABR, always be recruiting.
Speaker: So if you need help with recruiting, I wanted to share with you something that helped me take my recruiting skills to the next level.
Speaker: We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
Speaker: And we did this with reps that continue to sell with us.
Speaker: Two or three of them went on to become managers.
Speaker: Several of them were top producers in our office.
Speaker: And there are multiple reps that are still with us to this day, more than a year later.
Speaker: So what is it that helped me?
Speaker: I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Sells Recruiting University.
Speaker: He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
Speaker: And he really helped me follow up with the recruits, schedule group interviews with them, get a huge pool of applicants coming in day after day.
Speaker: I wanted to share with you guys his link.
Speaker: If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to Calendly.com slash sru forward slash solarpreneur.
Speaker: Once again, that's Calendly.com slash sru slash solarpreneur.
Speaker: SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
Speaker: Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
Speaker: Well, cool, man.
Speaker: No, that's crazy.
Speaker: I don't think I've talked to someone that's been in that many different markets.
Speaker: Five states.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, so you know all of them.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of easy seeing all the different utilities and how everything works.
Speaker: And yeah, I've got a lot of perspective in my sales career.
Speaker: And so I can kind of use that in my appointments and with customers.
Speaker: I can give them a lot of perspective, like relating things to how energy is used here compared to other places like Texas, where it's deregulated and all of this stuff.
Speaker: It just gives me really good perspective about the industry.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So would you say that you like California the best?
Speaker: Is California your favorite market you've been in?
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Yeah, I love it here.
Speaker: Love the market.
Speaker: Honestly, there's nothing like it.
Speaker: And there's a lot of really high producers all over the country, for sure.
Speaker: And there's a lot of great places to do solar.
Speaker: California just has...
Speaker: it's its own thing you know the way that power is delivered here the way that they charge with tiers and time of use and it's just it's a very interesting energy market and because of that like solar just makes a lot of sense so so that's one thing that i i really love about being here and selling in california yeah for sure um that's awesome so how how long have you been managing now for vim it
Speaker: Well, technically I was hired on as a district manager because I was a manager before in SolarCity.
Speaker: So really for almost three years.
Speaker: And, you know, I brought on people and had a team that
Speaker: that I, you know, brought with me to California originally.
Speaker: And then since then, I've kind of built, you know, built kind of my own squad.
Speaker: And so I've helped Riverside to grow and bring in new people, you know, over the past two and a half years since I've been there.
Speaker: Okay, gotcha.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So we were talking a little bit just about, you know, the leadership.
Speaker: And I know that's one of the traits of Vivint.
Speaker: That's, I think, one of the best advantages you guys have is everyone knows Vivint is number one.
Speaker: And, you know, like,
Speaker: direct sales and everything.
Speaker: So you mentioned Dave Mattson, Ty.
Speaker: I know those guys are kind of the legends.
Speaker: I mean, we had Ty on the podcast a couple months back and yeah, that guy knows his stuff.
Speaker: He's pretty amazing.
Speaker: And Dave, isn't he the number one rep in Vivint Solar?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He, you know, he's consistently producing and he's a director.
Speaker: So he's over Southern California and then he also runs Riverside with us.
Speaker: So he does a lot.
Speaker: It's pretty incredible how he's able to produce at the level that he does.
Speaker: So yeah, he's, he's installing between 100 and
Speaker: 50 to 250 a year uh so he's he's at 1100 installs at vivant solar which is top you know so i i don't know very many people maybe only a couple that are over a thousand installs in their career and uh yeah so he's he's got to be you know he's number one at vivant solar but probably in the industry's top three top five
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: So yeah, I think you guys have a huge advantage and especially you being surrounded by guys like that.
Speaker: I mean, we all hear like you're the sum of the five people that you're around the most and I think you guys got a unique opportunity just being surrounded by guys like that that are consistently producing.
Speaker: They're super high level.
Speaker: So yeah, tell me about maybe like some lessons you've learned or...
Speaker: like, I don't know how their leadership style, how has that like helped you in advance just within Viv and Solar and like your self-development and everything?
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: You know, yeah, Ty is one of the best leaders I've ever worked with.
Speaker: He just is really, he's really on top of it for himself.
Speaker: Like he has great
Speaker: you know, emotional intelligence and he's able to navigate issues, problems better than most leaders that I've ever worked with.
Speaker: And he just cares about people, you know, and he's helped me a lot in my journey.
Speaker: And it's been awesome having a leader like him.
Speaker: And especially just while I'm continuing to help build a team and, you know, he's a great resource to
Speaker: continue recruiting and being able to, to help really high level guys come in to the industry.
Speaker: So that's been huge.
Speaker: And then, and then Dave is, you know, by far the most inspirational leader I've ever worked with.
Speaker: He's pretty incredible.
Speaker: incredible with how much he does and you know he's actually pretty humble so he probably wouldn't say a lot of this himself but you know he just has this ability to engage exactly where he's at where he can go and be on the doors for four hours and get five sales.
Speaker: and just has so much intention behind it.
Speaker: And I've been on the doors with him hours and hours.
Speaker: And it's incredible watching him work.
Speaker: And he's got a huge customer base.
Speaker: So lots of other business coming in from referrals, but he's so committed to his art on the doors.
Speaker: By far the best door knocker I've ever worked with.
Speaker: And he's
Speaker: As a leader, he also just is constantly bringing out the best in me and in the people that we work with.
Speaker: And so I'm really a product of good leadership.
Speaker: And it's crazy because before I did solar, I actually did Cutco.
Speaker: And was one of those guys that kind of just fell into that when I was in college.
Speaker: And, you know, started off pretty fast with Cutco, had a good first year, was promoted to a manager.
Speaker: And my manager was in Denver, in Colorado, and is one of the greatest managers of all time at Cutco.
Speaker: His name is Drew Frank.
Speaker: Shout out to Drew, if he listens to us.
Speaker: He is one of the best leaders I've ever worked with.
Speaker: And that was the first leader I ever had, that he was my mentor.
Speaker: He literally took me under his wing.
Speaker: I helped run that South Denver team for a bit and just was able to really grow and develop under him.
Speaker: And he taught me how to be ambitious, how to have big goals, how to push myself, how to be an inspiration to others through work ethic and commitment.
Speaker: Like he taught me all those things.
Speaker: He also taught me how to love to read.
Speaker: he got me into reading books.
Speaker: I now read one or two books a month, if not one week, depending if I'm doing a lot of audio books, but I'm constantly reading and using that knowledge to help others on my team and, and to, you know, share positivity and new insights.
Speaker: And Drew taught me all that.
Speaker: And he was actually a groomsman at my wedding.
Speaker: So like, we're really, you know, so it's cool to have him.
Speaker: Recruit him to Vivint Solar, yeah.
Speaker: No, no, I haven't.
Speaker: We've talked about it, but it's cool.
Speaker: He's definitely told me that he's proud of me just for, you know, because he knew me when I was 21 years old.
Speaker: And I literally was so bad at sales when I started that he was getting calls monthly from my customers telling him how pushy I was.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: I was 21 years old.
Speaker: So like, it took me a minute to figure this all out.
Speaker: Like, it took me a while to figure out how to sell something, the style that you need to have, how to treat people, how to talk to people, how to be assertive, how to give people kind of their space and be more patient, like,
Speaker: It was a hard journey.
Speaker: And Drew could have easily been like, this guy is like, you know, he's a pain.
Speaker: He's, he's causing me to do all this extra work.
Speaker: I'm having to, you know, manage him like, you know, a lot more than most people, but I needed that.
Speaker: And he like took me under his wing and, and mentored me.
Speaker: And so it's crazy.
Speaker: I talked to,
Speaker: a friend who was also at Vivint solar.
Speaker: And we were like kind of talking about, this is maybe a year ago.
Speaker: And I told him that I'm working with Dave in Riverside, helping run that team.
Speaker: And he was like, wait, so you were with drew.
Speaker: Cause this guy did cutco too.
Speaker: So he knew me back in the cutco days, like, you know, nine, 10 years ago.
Speaker: Um, and, and he was like, wait, so you were with drew Frank.
Speaker: Who's like the top manager ever.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: And got to learn from him.
Speaker: And then now you're with Dave and his team.
Speaker: How do you, how are you that lucky?
Speaker: Like literally.
Speaker: And, and that's, that's just part of my story.
Speaker: Like I've been a product of good leadership and I've recognized, okay, these are people that I can really learn from.
Speaker: And if I can provide value, if I can do more to, to benefit what they're building, because, you
Speaker: you know, a team is only as good as its leaders is the truth, you know?
Speaker: And so it's been really cool to have that as part of my story is just learning and growing because of the leaders that I've been blessed to work with.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, I think for our solarpreneurs listening, that just goes to show, even if you're not the best, like what you've done, I think it really catapults you into that success you've had.
Speaker: Because if you're hanging out with, you know, the LeBron James of solar, of Cutco, you're for sure going to get better.
Speaker: That's what the best people do is they make
Speaker: their teammates better.
Speaker: I mean, you look up Michael Jordan, any of the greats, they're always making the people, they're pushing their teammates, they're doing everything they can to make their team better.
Speaker: So for those that maybe aren't in the best opportunity right now, I talk to reps all the time that like, Oh, our company pays so good.
Speaker: We have like the best installers with this dealer.
Speaker: But then they're not even working and then there's no management.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, if you're with, that's great that you're,
Speaker: you know, make all this money, but like, who are you around?
Speaker: You're hanging out with guys that aren't knocking.
Speaker: You're just like hanging out in your apartments all day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, I think for those that are listening, if you're not having the success you want, that's one of the things you should look at.
Speaker: Who are you surrounding yourself with?
Speaker: What type of leaders are at, you know, whatever company deal or whatever you're at right now.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: I mean, maybe you need to consider the Vivint Solars, consider going, hanging out with guys like Matt, like Dave, because I think that's a huge key to it.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you know, and I do believe that there are good leaders in every company, but finding great leaders, that's where you have to really search.
Speaker: And we have to be really careful of who you align yourself with because I had other opportunities.
Speaker: I've been recruited.
Speaker: I've met with other companies over the past few years just to see what's going on.
Speaker: And I could sense about leadership.
Speaker: I could sense when I was talking to a CEO from another company, the type of leader that they were.
Speaker: And I have a pretty high standard because Ty is, you know, he's one of the best of all time.
Speaker: And, you know, so finding the right team, finding the right leaders to surround yourself with is a huge part of what's going to allow you to be successful.
Speaker: Because, yes, you can work for any company and you can
Speaker: There's lots of opportunity in the solar world, but finding the right team, the right opportunity, the right time, and the right leadership is key to your success.
Speaker: Because if you're in a team that doesn't have a great culture, that doesn't have a great positive mindset as a collective, it's going to hurt you.
Speaker: And I've seen that firsthand with some teams that I've been in.
Speaker: I've been in seven different solar teams in my career.
Speaker: And so I've seen a lot of different cultures and dynamic and like, that's huge.
Speaker: It's huge to your success.
Speaker: And that's one of the reasons why I'm really grateful to be where I'm at and to be influencing the team that I'm on because I know that the more positivity we have and we've got about 50 reps on our team.
Speaker: So we've got a big team.
Speaker: It's one of the top installing teams in Vivint Solar.
Speaker: We're in the top three to top five every single quarter.
Speaker: And so it's cool to be in a very productive, great culture and really high producing team as well, because when a team is winning, you're going to be able to feed off of that momentum.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And so, yeah, now that you've kind of been able to learn from some of these top guys, how have you used it in like your own leadership?
Speaker: Do you have any times where you took reps that were struggling and helped them become kind of all-stars or any reps that have been under you that are now like managing or how have you seen?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I definitely do.
Speaker: I, you know, I've got a number of reps that are really stepping up and I spent a lot of time individually.
Speaker: Like most of my reps know that they can call me pretty much anytime.
Speaker: Like if I'm on the doors or on an appointment, I'll call them right back or whatever.
Speaker: But like they know that I'm, I'm available for them because I want
Speaker: their success.
Speaker: The thing that Ty taught me though is like you need to have a schedule that you're committed to and boundaries around that schedule.
Speaker: So if someone calls me at 10 a.m.
Speaker: on, you know, a Tuesday, that's my family time, right?
Speaker: Like I've got family time until like 12 or 1 Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, like whichever days my meetings aren't on.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So, you know, I basically had this...
Speaker: you know, I've had this routine and this schedule and I share it with my reps.
Speaker: I say, hey, these are the times that, you know, email me during that time.
Speaker: I'll get to it when I can.
Speaker: Like if you really need to talk, then this is when I'll be available.
Speaker: And so setting boundaries around your own personal schedule as a leader is, it's essential.
Speaker: You're not going to be able to produce.
Speaker: You're not going to be able to hit the goals that you have and help your team
Speaker: hit the goals if you're always available, right?
Speaker: And so, like, I'm available for my team in my schedule.
Speaker: And my schedule is pretty nuts.
Speaker: I have stuff broken down to hour and 30-minute increments most days.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: it's just, you know, you've got to, you've got to be able to manage that.
Speaker: And, and Ty taught me that, you know, when, when we were really working closely, when I was being recruited by him, you know, we, we got pretty close and, and then first year of being here, you know, he, he really took me under his wing.
Speaker: So it's been, like I said, it's,
Speaker: it's been cool to have leadership like that, which I've been able to then share with others.
Speaker: And I've got a couple reps that I've brought on that are doing really well.
Speaker: And one of them is, is now my, you know, my co-manager and my squad leader.
Speaker: And, and so, yeah, our, our team is broken into squads.
Speaker: So we have like four squads where it's, it's kind of like a decentralized command.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: how many teams like run this, but that's, that's how we do it.
Speaker: And it really works well because instead of having 50 reps, we have four squads and it's just more manageable.
Speaker: So I've got like 10 or 12 reps on my squad that I'm their direct, like direct manager that they'll go to me before another
Speaker: manager, but we can, you know, we're all here for, for our team.
Speaker: It just keeps it a little bit more easy to manage.
Speaker: Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think that's super true, though, sticking your schedule and boundaries.
Speaker: And I just realized we're talking now Thursday morning, probably during your family time.
Speaker: So, appreciate it.
Speaker: This is my meeting day.
Speaker: So, I'm on my way to my meeting.
Speaker: So, we're good.
Speaker: I just pulled over for a minute while I'm driving to work.
Speaker: Okay, it was good.
Speaker: I was hoping I wasn't going to get an angry call from your wife after saying...
Speaker: What are you doing?
Speaker: Taking away from my husband's time.
Speaker: No, you're good.
Speaker: We have meetings Monday, Thursday.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool, cool.
Speaker: But no, I think that's so true.
Speaker: And I recognize that within your culture too, because I'm sure you listen to the Electric People podcast done by Ty and those guys.
Speaker: um but yeah the most recent one i remember i was listening to the other day and one of your other managers i can't remember the dude's name but he said he has like eight kids um do you know that guy um i don't well jason right kavanaugh yeah yeah yeah that's who it was i'm like holy crap eight kids and he's still doing this
Speaker: There's a few guys on the West Coast that have like seven, eight, you know, I think that eight is the most, but yeah, he's up to North Carolina.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: So yeah, I remember him talking about that same thing, just obviously with eight kids, you, I mean, you got to be able to be around to help the kids and everything.
Speaker: So he just talked about how he breaks it down basically for the year, like what's his vacations going to be?
Speaker: What time is he taking off and what time is he committed to?
Speaker: I think especially having a family, yeah, you got to be set clear boundaries and have times when you're dealing with your reps and you're knocking out.
Speaker: And it's, it's tough to do that.
Speaker: Cause you know, like one thing that I've trained a lot of my guys on is like how to, how to live this life with being okay with the, the lack of balance that we have sometimes because it's,
Speaker: I think that it's the greatest job out there.
Speaker: You own your own schedule.
Speaker: You're your own boss.
Speaker: You have full control over everything that you're doing.
Speaker: But like, you also have to be committed to your schedule.
Speaker: And, you know, it's one of those things that like,
Speaker: it's hard because sometimes you will be out of balance in this job.
Speaker: It's just, it's just the fact, especially if you're selling and managing, like, like I've got two full-time jobs, essentially.
Speaker: I'm a full-time manager and a full-time sales rep.
Speaker: And I,
Speaker: I'm in the top 20 in the company.
Speaker: So, so I, I'm really ambitious and trying to be one of the top installers.
Speaker: So I'm busy on the sales side, like with my own personal production.
Speaker: And so sometimes it's okay to be out of balance.
Speaker: Like I did a training about this a couple months ago where it was like called off balance and, and just how you can work in phases.
Speaker: And, you know, basically sometimes you're going to be a lot more balanced on your family side.
Speaker: And then sometimes you're going to be a lot more balanced on your work side and out of balance on
Speaker: you know, with the amount of time that you're spending with your family.
Speaker: Like if you're in a competition or if you're, if you're, you know, working really hard for your biggest month or your biggest week or something like that, like you're going to be doing a lot more time in that section of your life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's okay.
Speaker: It's okay to be a little bit
Speaker: off balance sometimes because you have goals right and as long as you're setting priorities and having expectations with each area of your life whether it's family or or work or your physical goals or whatever like i'm i'm in the middle of a pretty crazy training i'm training for an iron man right now and
Speaker: that's crazy, right?
Speaker: Doing everything that I'm doing and adding on a triathlon training plan.
Speaker: I've done a marathon, tons of half marathons, triathlon last year in Malibu, and this year full Ironman.
Speaker: So I'm probably training eight to 12 hours a week right now with just my training plan for that.
Speaker: So like,
Speaker: It's pretty crazy.
Speaker: I wake up 5 to 6 a.m.
Speaker: every day, you know, just to do everything that I need to do and also have time and balance with my family and all that stuff.
Speaker: So I'm training from like 6 a.m.
Speaker: until 8 a.m.
Speaker: is most of my training days, six days a week.
Speaker: So it's like, you know, I can, it's cool though.
Speaker: I'm in the best shape of my life right now, which is, is actually, and at 31, you know, I'm, I'm happy about it.
Speaker: I feel really great and I'm doing bike rides and going on, you know, 40, 50 mile bike rides and doing it without stopping, like stuff like that.
Speaker: So it's cool to push yourself in different areas and be out of balance in certain areas of your life.
Speaker: As long as you have priorities and have a schedule.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's true.
Speaker: And I think anyone great, you don't get to great by being perfectly balanced.
Speaker: I mean, something's got to give, as you said.
Speaker: Yeah, another thing I hear a lot of times listening to your Electric People podcast is just anytime you guys got a big competition going on, seems like all the top producers, they go to their wives first and say, hey, honey, are you okay if I compete in this competition?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because basically they know that for the next month or however long the competition is, they're grinding for 12-hour days or whatever's going on.
Speaker: So it's like getting permission from the wife first to be out of balance because they know for the next month there's not going to be that family balance.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So yeah, I mean.
Speaker: That's expectations.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So yeah, it's just about, I mean, you're not always going to be out of balance, but it's just about making the shifts over time and
Speaker: I think in order to be great, you got to be having it in your schedule planned.
Speaker: Like, you know, cause if you always feel out of balance, then it's like, you're not going to have a good quality of life and you're going to be, you know, disappointed or unhappy.
Speaker: But if you can, if you can decide the times that you're going to focus on different things, then,
Speaker: you can sustain that.
Speaker: And for me, I love it because I can go and take off 10 days if I really want to and work hard before that.
Speaker: So I earn the time off and have an amazing vacation to a new place in the world or something like that.
Speaker: You know, I've been to 36 countries, so I've traveled all over the world.
Speaker: It's a little bit of an obsession of mine.
Speaker: It's
Speaker: And so, you know, that's a big part of why I do this job and why I'm pushing so hard is, you know, for having that freedom.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So, yeah, I want to kind of transition that.
Speaker: Speaking of schedule, you've been able to stay obviously super consistent in your own personal sales.
Speaker: And I think Vivint, in order to be a manager, don't you have to maintain a minimum of like, what, 15 installs a quarter?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, 15 installs minimum a quarter.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, it's obviously a pretty high level once.
Speaker: Got to be definitely putting in the time, doing the work.
Speaker: So I know schedule is probably super important, but do you have any other, I don't know, secrets that you think have allowed you to stay so consistent and be one of the top reps while still managing and do all this other, do everything else you do?
Speaker: You know, consistency is about discipline.
Speaker: That's the bottom line.
Speaker: I do believe that I'm a very disciplined person.
Speaker: I had to learn how to do that.
Speaker: That was not easy for me.
Speaker: I'm not a early riser, really.
Speaker: If you ever talk to my wife about it, she'll tell you.
Speaker: first years of being married, I would love to sleep in to like 9 or 10 a.m.
Speaker: So I was never like 5 a.m.
Speaker: club, let's do this.
Speaker: Like, let's wake up early, be super productive, like have all these goals, have a morning routine.
Speaker: Like I wanted that to be in my life, but I wasn't disciplined enough for the first years of marriage.
Speaker: And I kind of had to learn that.
Speaker: And I said it for years.
Speaker: And honestly, it came to that point where I said, okay, if I want to level up, if I want to take my life to the next level and really make life-changing money, I'm going to have to do things differently.
Speaker: Like I haven't been there before.
Speaker: I haven't done it yet.
Speaker: And so in order to get there, I'm going to have to do things differently.
Speaker: And so the first thing that I committed to was a morning routine.
Speaker: and being crazy disciplined to that routine and it's it's about an hour hour and a half uh you know there's some reading involved there's i do yoga it is a really great form of meditation um and also you know my exercise and so um you know i i feel like gratitude is is key like that
Speaker: If I could give people one word of advice to how to change your life, it would be exercise gratitude daily.
Speaker: Like you can be a grateful person, but to actually practice gratitude, it's a different thing.
Speaker: So I have a gratitude journal.
Speaker: Literally, I write 10 things that I'm grateful for daily.
Speaker: And it can be super quick and it takes four minutes to do that.
Speaker: Some days I'll write like a ton, like, like journaling and I'll write for 15, 20 minutes about those things that I'm grateful for.
Speaker: And so like when you're feeling a certain way, when you're feeling unmotivated or disappointed, or you just had four cancellations or you just, you know, had 20 rejections, I'll do this, this thing where I recenter myself through gratitude.
Speaker: And you can get into that place where you close your eyes and think about five things that you're grateful for.
Speaker: And all of a sudden your mood changes.
Speaker: Tony Robbins calls it changing your state.
Speaker: And it's a very powerful practice if you can learn how to do it the right way.
Speaker: And that's been something that has really helped me is, you know, basically having more emotional stability through practicing gratitude every single day.
Speaker: And there's like really great meditations out there where they're like gratitude meditations.
Speaker: They'll guide you through it.
Speaker: thinking about times that you were really grateful and really put you into that zone, into that state.
Speaker: So that's like a, that's, I guess, a secret that I've used now for a couple years.
Speaker: And it's been a pretty big game changer for me.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's crazy because especially like newer reps and everything, they're probably expecting you to say, oh, it's this like sales thing I do.
Speaker: It's this like cool thing I say on the doors and just everyone buys from me because of it.
Speaker: But I think as you've been into it and you get experience, you just realize more and more that so much is the mindset of what you're doing.
Speaker: It's the inner game, right?
Speaker: Outer game is one thing.
Speaker: What you say, how you say it, your confidence that you have on the doors, your confidence that you have in an appointment, your knowledge of the product, your ability to, you know, bring someone through the process.
Speaker: Like that's all the outer game.
Speaker: The inner game is what you're doing inside.
Speaker: It's what you're practicing yourself in the quiet hours that no one is watching, where you're getting to know yourself and actually becoming the person that is capable of going out and knocking 50 doors and getting 15 rejections and still sticking it out to get to that 16th person that says yes and is your sale.
Speaker: Yeah, I it's like you wouldn't have the emotional stability or the fortitude to go through that if you weren't strong personally.
Speaker: And so the reason I love a morning routine is because you're winning from the get go.
Speaker: you're already winning.
Speaker: You're winning your day.
Speaker: You're, you've got so much confidence because you've won the morning.
Speaker: You're on track.
Speaker: You, you lived up to your commitments that you made and by seven or 8 AM, you've already won.
Speaker: And so you just, you're just, you're just in a good place.
Speaker: And so then those days that you sleep in until nine, it's like, well, you know, I, I'm kind of behind on the day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so having discipline and being confident,
Speaker: fully committed to that, I think is so huge.
Speaker: Working on that inner game.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Yeah, I know we talked a lot before just about like personal development and you've done a ton of that.
Speaker: I mean, we met at Door to Door Con, so obviously we went there for something to learn.
Speaker: And I think that's another key trait of the top guys.
Speaker: They're always hungry to be learning.
Speaker: I mean, you talk about just listening to audio books, reading every day.
Speaker: So it's just being hungry to learn more and always improve yourself.
Speaker: And do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Speaker: I know you spent quite a bit just in like mentoring and personal development last year.
Speaker: So how is it?
Speaker: Was it 40 grand you were saying?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The past 12 months, I spent about $40,000 on personal development, conferences, Tony Robbins stuff, coaching.
Speaker: I have a coach.
Speaker: Every two weeks we talk and I've been doing coaching now for two and a half years.
Speaker: So, you know, I think that investing in yourself is a really hard thing to do.
Speaker: because it's, it's you betting on yourself, right?
Speaker: And you'd think that that's easy, but it's actually a lot harder than, than you really understand until you do it.
Speaker: And so, you know, I, I went to two Tony Robbins conferences last year and one of them was his big date with destiny, which is like a $7,000 conference.
Speaker: And he,
Speaker: It's pretty pricey.
Speaker: It's for six days.
Speaker: It's full immersion.
Speaker: It's like 12 hour days for six days in a row.
Speaker: It's pretty intense.
Speaker: It's like a marathon to be totally honest.
Speaker: talk to anybody who's ever gone to one of his Date with Destiny events, it's life changing.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: And I was doing coaching before that.
Speaker: I had an amazing experience with a group, it's called Abundant.
Speaker: And they are a smaller mastermind coaching group.
Speaker: And I was with them for a year before I started doing more Tony Robbins focused stuff.
Speaker: And I went to Costa Rica with them for, I think it was a seven or eight day immersion, you know, retreat.
Speaker: And, you know, that was life changing for me too.
Speaker: Having experience and really digging deep every day, you know, writing in my journal, listening to inspirational speakers for seven days in a row.
Speaker: you know, outside of the world, we were literally, it was like glamping where we were like in a tent that kind of had like AC in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica.
Speaker: And that experience, you know, it gave me some of the tools that I use to this day to keep myself motivated and strategies of, of high performance.
Speaker: And I'll just share one last thing about Tony Robbins.
Speaker: So yeah,
Speaker: At Date with Destiny, I had like probably two or three major takeaways.
Speaker: And, you know, so I spent all this money to get there.
Speaker: I was really investing heavily in myself.
Speaker: And I realized a couple things about myself.
Speaker: One thing that he talks about and...
Speaker: I'm a huge fan of his.
Speaker: You know, his events were pretty intense.
Speaker: I will say that for anyone that hasn't been to one, like he's intense.
Speaker: Yeah, I've seen him speak for four hours.
Speaker: Knit wore me out just after four hours.
Speaker: I'm like, imagine six days of that.
Speaker: Six days, that's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, and it was worth every penny.
Speaker: Like I actually, I absolutely loved it.
Speaker: And since then, I've had a Tony Robbins coach who has also been really good.
Speaker: And so one of the biggest things that I learned there is my primary question.
Speaker: Okay, now this is like, everyone has this, everyone has a question that they're asking themselves every day.
Speaker: This is kind of like one of these reoccurring things.
Speaker: Now, the sad thing is that most people's primary question is negative.
Speaker: It's like, why am I not enough?
Speaker: Or why am I not good enough?
Speaker: Why am I not pretty enough?
Speaker: Why am I not smart enough?
Speaker: And they ask themselves this question over and over again.
Speaker: And it's not positive.
Speaker: If you ask yourself that question, your brain is going to tell you the answer.
Speaker: And it's not going to be a good answer.
Speaker: It's not going to be the answer that you want.
Speaker: And so Tony teaches you have to ask the right question.
Speaker: And so my question, and this is going to make a lot of sense after you've kind of heard my story, my question that I kept asking myself, and this has been ever since I've been a little kid, and I never knew, I never knew this until I went to this event.
Speaker: My primary question was, what's next?
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: It was what's next.
Speaker: I did that.
Speaker: What's next?
Speaker: I've always been super into lots of different things, lots of different hobbies.
Speaker: You know, I rock climb.
Speaker: I play music.
Speaker: I play guitar.
Speaker: I went to college for music.
Speaker: Like I do all these different things.
Speaker: And it was because I was always looking for what's next.
Speaker: That's why I've lived in five states in six and a half years.
Speaker: Because of this question, what's next?
Speaker: Now, it's not necessarily a bad question.
Speaker: It's actually kind of open-ended.
Speaker: It's like, okay, what's the next opportunity?
Speaker: What's the next thing that I'm going to challenge myself with?
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: But it constantly kept me looking for the grass that was greener.
Speaker: It was always making me look for what was next and not be okay with where I was.
Speaker: Not be okay with who I was or the position that I was in.
Speaker: And so that was a pattern that had been going on in my life for a very, very long time.
Speaker: And when I realized this and it changed my primary question, I was able to start making a lot of huge positive changes in my life.
Speaker: And this was just six months ago that I discovered this.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: You know, I'm 31 years old and this primary question has been, you know, leading my life for so long.
Speaker: And so I,
Speaker: I changed the question to how can I find the opportunity that is in front of me right now?
Speaker: How can I be here now?
Speaker: How can I find the possibility in the opportunity in front of me right now?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like instead of looking for more,
Speaker: of what was coming, how can I be here now?
Speaker: And it's made me so much happier.
Speaker: I've been so much more fulfilled since I discovered this about myself.
Speaker: And, you know, it was, it was thanks to this personal development thing that I went to.
Speaker: And so I feel like invest in yourself.
Speaker: You can't go wrong betting on yourself, especially in sales, especially in solar, especially with our job.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: I would highly recommend it.
Speaker: Get a coach.
Speaker: Having a coach, it motivates me.
Speaker: It keeps me more focused.
Speaker: It keeps me more centered.
Speaker: Like when you do those couple things, it just makes you that much better because you've got someone in your corner.
Speaker: You've got someone on your team that's there for you.
Speaker: And I absolutely love having a coach because he'll tell me things that I don't want to hear and that I need to hear.
Speaker: So, you know, my personal development has definitely shaped me over the past few years.
Speaker: And it's been a huge part of, you know, who I am and my journey that I've been on.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: And, you know, that's another key trait of anyone greats.
Speaker: I mean, Tim Grover, we heard him at DoorDorkon.
Speaker: He was Michael Jordan's coach, you know, besides like Bill Jackson or whatever.
Speaker: So yeah, I think anyone great, they have someone in their corner, they have those people they can go to, here are the tough things.
Speaker: And then especially with personal development, I think it's important to take, I don't know, take 10, 20% of what you're making, invest it into personal development.
Speaker: So that's how you're going to grow.
Speaker: And then as you make that, it's your money on the line.
Speaker: So you're taking it way more seriously.
Speaker: If you're getting coaching, someone's telling you what to do.
Speaker: You're like, okay, well, if I just spent 10 grand for this coach, then I better listen.
Speaker: Even if I don't like it, I better at least try what he's saying.
Speaker: Cause it's my money on the line.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, nah, I wish we could go.
Speaker: I wish we'd go another hour.
Speaker: Cause yeah, we dropped some, definitely some knowledge bombs on us and yeah, I've got a full couple of pages of notes.
Speaker: So hopefully guys are taking notes as they listen to this, but appreciate you being on the show.
Speaker: So as we wrap up here, where can guys connect with you?
Speaker: Is it, they want to reach out and I don't know.
Speaker: Victor Bain Morris, catch up on social media anywhere that you're active.
Speaker: Yeah, you can find me, you know, on, on Instagram or on Facebook, like, you know, I'm, I'm pretty easy to find there and it has district manager Vivint Solar on it.
Speaker: And yeah, no, I love connecting with people.
Speaker: That's something I've really learned about myself is,
Speaker: You know, I love connection and relationships and meeting new people and helping people however I can.
Speaker: So, yeah, feel free to hit me up, you know, if you want to dive more into kind of what we talked about today or even just to have another friend in the solar world.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, thanks again for coming on the show and I'm sure we'll have you on in the future, hopefully a future date, but yeah, anything we can do to help you out, let us know and keep crushing in the industry.
Speaker: Thanks for listening on the show and we'll talk soon.
Speaker: Thanks, Matt.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
Speaker: And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.
