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From VP Of Vivint To Investor - Jeff Mendez
206 Plays2 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction to 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 how to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become
Guest Introduction: Jeff Mendez
00:00:40
Speaker
one.
00:00:40
Speaker
All right, what's going on, everybody?
00:00:43
Speaker
We are back in the studio, the on-the-go studio, that is.
00:00:46
Speaker
And we've got someone that is a highly anticipated guest, had some requests for him, the one, the only, Jeff Mendez.
00:00:54
Speaker
Thanks for coming on the show with us today, Jeff.
00:00:56
Speaker
Thanks for having me, Taylor.
00:00:57
Speaker
Good to see you.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, you too.
00:00:59
Speaker
And we're actually recording this on Black Friday today.
00:01:02
Speaker
So we had to get Jeff away from JCPenney.
00:01:05
Speaker
He was looking for those gold.
00:01:06
Speaker
I was looking for those deals.
00:01:07
Speaker
I had my shopping cart full and decided to leave it and come here and do this podcast instead.
Black Friday Experience and Consumer Behavior
00:01:13
Speaker
Much appreciated.
00:01:14
Speaker
I know it's a big sacrifice.
00:01:16
Speaker
So hold on before we get into that.
00:01:18
Speaker
So I joined.
00:01:19
Speaker
So after graduating college, I don't know if you know this or not, but I ran Walmart stores.
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I did hear that.
00:01:25
Speaker
So my first store was actually here in Utah in American Fork.
00:01:32
Speaker
And I have the honor.
00:01:34
Speaker
I think I started in September as an assistant manager.
00:01:38
Speaker
And then I had the honor of opening.
00:01:40
Speaker
Back then, we would close the doors.
00:01:42
Speaker
And I had the honor of opening that door with the massive crowds on the outside.
00:01:47
Speaker
So I'm alive miraculously.
00:01:50
Speaker
There are literally, this is not hyperbole.
00:01:54
Speaker
5,000 people waiting outside that Walmart door in American Fork, Utah.
00:01:58
Speaker
And as soon as I opened the door, the doors blew open and the crowd just rushed in, just grabbing whatever they could grab.
00:02:06
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:02:08
Speaker
It's an amazing case study of human behavior and just behavioral economics at its finest.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:14
Speaker
Well, and that was before they had like Amazon and all that, I'm sure.
00:02:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
Walmart was the epicenter of retail.
00:02:21
Speaker
I mean, everybody and everybody and anybody at Black Friday was there at Walmart.
00:02:27
Speaker
They'd start at Walmart and then they'd go elsewhere if they chose to.
00:02:30
Speaker
But yeah,
Early Career and Industry Impact
00:02:31
Speaker
there was no Cyber Monday back then.
00:02:32
Speaker
It was it.
00:02:33
Speaker
It was the Mecca.
00:02:34
Speaker
It was the goat of Black Friday.
00:02:36
Speaker
And it was insane.
00:02:37
Speaker
It's insane.
00:02:38
Speaker
crazy like people running with their shopping carts like almost carrying their shopping carts so they could have it with them to be able to put their merchandise in and then they're buying stuff that they don't need anyway they're just buying it because it's a good deal but then they get home and i'm sure they're like why did i just buy this so it's just interesting i know there's people it's like oh i saved all this money no you didn't you spent that money if you were to save money you would have kept it in your pocket so
00:03:02
Speaker
Anyway.
00:03:03
Speaker
Pretty funny.
00:03:04
Speaker
That was back when people would camp out and everything too, right?
00:03:06
Speaker
Camping out.
00:03:07
Speaker
Insane.
00:03:08
Speaker
Insane.
00:03:09
Speaker
I mean, people are banging on the door before I opened it.
00:03:11
Speaker
So I opened the doors at 7 a.m.
00:03:14
Speaker
And if I would have waited five more minutes, they would have literally run through the glass.
00:03:18
Speaker
They were that desperate.
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:20
Speaker
Pretty crazy.
00:03:21
Speaker
Especially here in Utah.
00:03:22
Speaker
I know people have good deals out here.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:25
Speaker
But no, so...
Building Sustainable Business Systems
00:03:26
Speaker
I'm excited for today's podcast because if you haven't heard of Jeff, you've probably been living under a rock.
00:03:32
Speaker
But this guy, I mean, one of the I consider like founding fathers of door to door.
00:03:36
Speaker
I mean, you helped take Vivint to selling and did some pretty incredible things.
00:03:41
Speaker
What, 13 plus years at Vivint, right?
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, 13 plus.
00:03:45
Speaker
Yep.
00:03:45
Speaker
Cool.
00:03:47
Speaker
And yeah, so pretty incredible bio.
00:03:49
Speaker
You can go look it up.
00:03:51
Speaker
But yeah, what's so when you were with you started when you're 31, right?
00:03:56
Speaker
31.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yep.
00:03:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:58
Speaker
Before that, I worked at a company sound satellite door to door.
00:04:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:01
Speaker
And that's where I met Doug Robinson, Luke Toon, Mark Toon, Ashlyn Buswell, David Force, Casey Baugh, Nick Hanson.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
A lot of folks that are still within the walls of the industry.
00:04:14
Speaker
So it was an all-star cast.
00:04:15
Speaker
And I'm really proud of all my brothers that I met at Atlas is the name of the company because they're all doing phenomenal things today.
00:04:24
Speaker
Great human beings.
00:04:25
Speaker
And they proved that it wasn't just the company.
00:04:29
Speaker
It was them.
00:04:29
Speaker
They are the asset.
00:04:31
Speaker
The company was just the platform in which they could produce on.
00:04:34
Speaker
And like
Transition to Real Estate and Leadership Philosophy
00:04:35
Speaker
I said, they're doing phenomenal things today.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:04:38
Speaker
And yeah, it's funny.
00:04:39
Speaker
We're recording this couple levels below the legacy headquarters.
00:04:42
Speaker
You know, you got Doug and Luke up there.
00:04:46
Speaker
But yeah, do you think it was just like circumstance like that you met all these incredible people doing it?
00:04:52
Speaker
Or I don't know.
00:04:53
Speaker
I feel like in today's companies, you don't see as many like
00:04:56
Speaker
I think, yeah, I mean, there's some outlier effect in there.
00:05:00
Speaker
And it would be an incredible case study.
00:05:05
Speaker
I think a lot of great human beings gathered together that were like-minded.
00:05:08
Speaker
There weren't a ton of companies doing direct-to-home back then.
00:05:11
Speaker
It was few and far between.
00:05:13
Speaker
There was definitely not people doing it year round.
00:05:15
Speaker
We were doing it year round so we could help fund the business on our year round level versus just waiting for the summers.
00:05:21
Speaker
So I think just by doing it year round, recruiting year round, selling year round, running all the different seasons, it made us stickier and it made us more long term minded instead of just a summer fling, if you will.
00:05:34
Speaker
And then we believe in a certain set of guidelines and principles and standards that we still exercise and believe in today.
00:05:41
Speaker
So I think those standards have helped us propel into long-term entrepreneurs and long-term business owners that know how to create value versus just looking for the dollar.
00:05:51
Speaker
Nothing wrong with looking for dollars.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:53
Speaker
But if you want to truly scale and create big wealth, you focus on the value creation.
00:05:58
Speaker
The value creation has the dollars attract it.
00:06:02
Speaker
And then you're able to harvest those dollars through your value creation, not just making money.
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
No, that's cool.
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:09
Speaker
So I want to talk today, you know, just before the podcast started, we were talking about just...
00:06:14
Speaker
how you've created so many leaders, you've recruited so many people in door to door.
00:06:20
Speaker
And I know that's a big part of what you're known for today is just all the regions you're able to build over at Vivint and just the tremendous growth you're able to create over there at that organization.
00:06:31
Speaker
But yeah, before we get into some of that, I got to ask, I know now you're not as much involved in door-to-door directly as before.
00:06:40
Speaker
Do you miss your living days?
00:06:42
Speaker
I mean, you always miss the days.
00:06:44
Speaker
There's times and seasons for everything.
00:06:47
Speaker
I enjoyed my tenure there.
00:06:48
Speaker
I enjoyed my tenure at the previous company where we sold satellites, like I mentioned, Atlas Marketing.
00:06:53
Speaker
And I'm enjoying my life today.
00:06:54
Speaker
So now I'm heavily involved in real estate.
00:06:57
Speaker
I'm a big purchaser and long-term holder of real estate throughout the country.
00:07:02
Speaker
And I love the team that we built and the life that we're living by design today in that asset class.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, cool.
00:07:10
Speaker
So you haven't gone back out on the doors just to kind of like relive the glory?
00:07:13
Speaker
I mean, you're knocking doors every single day.
00:07:14
Speaker
It's just different doors.
00:07:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:16
Speaker
So you're knocking business doors, you're knocking founders doors, etc.
00:07:20
Speaker
And then we have a lot of projects and you have to knock on doors to have people release those projects and sell them to you.
00:07:29
Speaker
And life is always sales.
00:07:32
Speaker
And you're always knocking doors, the doors just change, but you're always a door knocker.
00:07:35
Speaker
Right, right.
00:07:37
Speaker
That's good.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, so when you started, correct me if I'm wrong, but 31, didn't you do like 300 plus accounts your first year in alarms?
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I was in my mid-20s when I was at the satellite company.
00:07:49
Speaker
When I had my very first summer, because I was in the C-suite of the satellite company.
00:07:54
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:07:55
Speaker
And then when I pivoted over to what is now known as Vivint, back in the day it was Apex, I
00:08:00
Speaker
Todd Peterson, the founder, gave me really good advice.
00:08:04
Speaker
Not good advice, great advice, phenomenal advice.
00:08:06
Speaker
He says, listen, I can give you the same position you had before.
00:08:09
Speaker
I can give you the title.
00:08:10
Speaker
I can give you salary, all this stuff that comes with the territory in a traditional company.
00:08:16
Speaker
Or I can give you the real advice, the real, real, which is you need to build this thing up from the ground level so that you can have influence.
00:08:24
Speaker
Leadership is influence, nothing less, nothing more.
00:08:26
Speaker
If you're just up here and commanding the troops from
Recruitment Strategies and Challenges
00:08:30
Speaker
the high ground, you're never going to truly understand what people in the security industry are dealing with on the ground level.
00:08:37
Speaker
And they won't be as loyal to your leadership.
00:08:40
Speaker
They'll pretend like they're listening to you, but they're not listening to you because you didn't do it yourself.
00:08:45
Speaker
So why don't we build this thing over time
00:08:49
Speaker
Where it can be perpetual instead of a one and done or a two and done or a three and done.
00:08:54
Speaker
So that's what I did.
00:08:55
Speaker
I literally said, yeah, I'll follow your lead.
00:08:58
Speaker
I actually believe in what you're saying.
00:09:00
Speaker
I can't go be hypocritical and say, because that's what I believe.
00:09:05
Speaker
And I can't be hypocritical and say, well, I believe you, but I'm going to do it this way anyway, because that's the easy route.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
So I took the road less traveled, if you will.
00:09:13
Speaker
And it was just me, myself, and I. And then you start recruiting people, recruit around 20 guys.
00:09:19
Speaker
And then I asked around and I said, hey, what would it take for me to be immortal at Apex, which is now Vivint, on a personal side?
00:09:27
Speaker
How many accounts do I need to do to actually command troops?
00:09:30
Speaker
And they said 300.
00:09:31
Speaker
I'm like, done.
00:09:33
Speaker
So I decided to do 300 to be able to have influence.
00:09:37
Speaker
And then I created 300 accounts before it even...
00:09:40
Speaker
happened in actuality.
00:09:42
Speaker
There's the law of the two creations.
00:09:43
Speaker
You always have to create things at least twice in life.
00:09:46
Speaker
So I put it on paper in my mind, everything, and I said, I need to do 50 preseason accounts so I can have enough iterations on the doors so that when I go deploy for the summer, I've had enough looks where I know I can go sell people.
00:09:59
Speaker
I can sell nicer neighborhoods, medium-type neighborhoods,
00:10:05
Speaker
maybe a little bit lower income neighborhoods.
00:10:08
Speaker
But wherever I got dropped off, I knew I'd be able to sell accounts because I had enough looks and all those different types.
00:10:18
Speaker
I learned how to knock late, learned how to knock early, learned how to knock on Saturdays, knew how to do switchovers, knew how to do new builds, knew how to do different types of middle class, so forth and so on.
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:31
Speaker
And then my team, so I did $300, $50 preseason, $270, $2 whatever summer, and then I needed another 25 accounts and extension.
00:10:41
Speaker
So I did my final 25 accounts in September.
00:10:45
Speaker
But I funded well over $300.
00:10:46
Speaker
I think it was like $310 my first year.
00:10:48
Speaker
Incredible.
00:10:49
Speaker
And then my team did just shy of $2,000 accounts.
00:10:52
Speaker
And I had heard that if you did 2,000 accounts, you got a watch on Breitling.
00:10:56
Speaker
And I was just a few accounts shy from funding it that year.
00:11:00
Speaker
And the next year, I was able to do that with my team.
00:11:02
Speaker
Wow.
00:11:03
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's incredible.
00:11:05
Speaker
And yeah, to your point, I've heard, I get people hitting me up quite a bit, actually, in Solr, who their leaders aren't even selling themselves anymore.
00:11:15
Speaker
And they come and do these trainings.
00:11:17
Speaker
And guys are like, oh, I can tell that they don't really know what it's like right now out there in Solr.
00:11:22
Speaker
So yeah, I think there's a lot to be said.
00:11:24
Speaker
Well, number one, just like experiencing yourself so you can coach the other guys.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yep.
00:11:28
Speaker
Then number two, like you said, gaining the respect of your reps and everything and be like, okay, this guy's legit.
00:11:33
Speaker
Like he actually puts his money where his mouth is and everything.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:38
Speaker
I've taught this principle.
00:11:39
Speaker
The reason why you sell high numbers personally is you can recruit with power.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:44
Speaker
And so you can command troops with power.
00:11:46
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:11:47
Speaker
That's really the only reason I sold big numbers personally.
00:11:50
Speaker
It wasn't for the paycheck.
00:11:51
Speaker
The paycheck was great.
00:11:53
Speaker
But later down the road, the majority of your income is on building teams, regions, divisions, companies, etc.
00:12:01
Speaker
But if you don't know what your troops are going through, you're just not going to be that powerful of a leader.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:08
Speaker
I love that.
00:12:09
Speaker
Well, and something I experienced, like, I don't know, for me, sometimes I get just kind of like imposter syndrome because I'm no Jeff Mendes.
00:12:17
Speaker
Like I see people that are better than me in solar and everything.
00:12:20
Speaker
So don't get me wrong.
00:12:21
Speaker
I know I can produce.
00:12:22
Speaker
I can go out there and sell accounts in solar, but I'm not the number one guy.
00:12:26
Speaker
I'm not like the top guy in my company.
00:12:28
Speaker
So how important do you think it is?
00:12:30
Speaker
Do you think there's like, cause obviously not every rep is going to be a 300 account guy.
00:12:35
Speaker
So have you seen some really powerful levels or like leaders?
00:12:38
Speaker
Maybe they're solid reps.
00:12:41
Speaker
I don't believe in absolutes.
00:12:43
Speaker
I don't believe that you have to only be able to do this to do that.
00:12:45
Speaker
It was my belief system.
00:12:46
Speaker
There can be multiple truths.
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:48
Speaker
There can be a whole bunch of varieties of being able to get the job done.
00:12:52
Speaker
That was just what I chose to do.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:54
Speaker
And it worked for me.
00:12:54
Speaker
It worked for my playbook.
00:12:56
Speaker
It worked for my life design.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:58
Speaker
Can you be a 100-count rep and command massive troops?
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:02
Speaker
In my opinion, is it going to be a little bit tougher than a guy that can sell 300?
00:13:06
Speaker
I think so.
00:13:07
Speaker
But also, there's guys that can go bust out 300 security systems or I don't know what the number would be in solar.
00:13:13
Speaker
Let's say it's half of that or a quarter of that, whatever it is.
00:13:17
Speaker
Sometimes they're terrible recruiters and terrible leaders.
00:13:21
Speaker
So it's not all encompassing.
00:13:22
Speaker
It's not, let me go sell big numbers and then that's the holy grail of it all.
00:13:27
Speaker
It's just one of the many components that we need to be able to have that true influence.
00:13:31
Speaker
When the true leader speaks, people listen.
00:13:34
Speaker
Right?
00:13:34
Speaker
So you want to be that true leader that not only can sell big personal numbers, but can train others to do the same.
00:13:41
Speaker
And that
Balancing Career and Family Life
00:13:42
Speaker
can recruit others to do the same and can also retain those assets to do the same.
00:13:48
Speaker
Some guys are great recruiters.
00:13:50
Speaker
They come in the front door and exit through the back door within a year because they're terrible at creating culture.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:56
Speaker
Terrible creating loyalty to a cause and they may not invest in the company the way that they should invest.
00:14:04
Speaker
So there's a lot of moving parts in the business.
00:14:08
Speaker
It's not just a one and done or an absolute here and then the rest is cake.
00:14:12
Speaker
It takes a lot.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
Well, yeah, and I've seen it too in my solar career.
00:14:16
Speaker
Like some guys are really good at one thing, maybe not so good at another thing.
00:14:20
Speaker
So I know you're kind of known as like a systems guy, creating good systems and all that.
00:14:24
Speaker
Did you have other people around you that as you were growing these teams and everything, like, I don't know, how would you delegate some stuff?
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, everything.
00:14:32
Speaker
Like there's no, I hear these, oh, this guy's a self-made billionaire.
00:14:36
Speaker
This guy's a self-made millionaire.
00:14:37
Speaker
I don't agree with that at all.
00:14:39
Speaker
I think there's no such thing as self-made.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:41
Speaker
We all need partners, colleagues, cohorts, human beings around us to be able to progress.
00:14:48
Speaker
Even if you find $1,000 on the street,
00:14:51
Speaker
Who left that $1,000 on the street?
00:14:53
Speaker
Another human being.
00:14:54
Speaker
You were able to create more wealth by somebody else losing that $1,000 and you're able to pick it up.
00:14:59
Speaker
So don't underestimate the power of building teams and creating networks for a bigger effect.
00:15:07
Speaker
You have to be a person of synergy, a person of building, and a person that can check ego out the door.
00:15:13
Speaker
Because if you're egocentric,
Mindset on Failure and Resilience
00:15:15
Speaker
then you're never going to be able to recruit the masses and have a lot of people working for a cause.
00:15:21
Speaker
Does that make sense what I'm saying?
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:23
Speaker
So yeah, of course you have to delegate.
00:15:26
Speaker
Of course you have to empower.
00:15:28
Speaker
My leadership philosophy is this.
00:15:30
Speaker
Non-true leaders try to hoard their power.
00:15:33
Speaker
They keep it close to their chest.
00:15:34
Speaker
Why?
00:15:35
Speaker
Because they feel that if they're authoritarian, their people need them.
00:15:39
Speaker
Oh, they need me for this permission.
00:15:40
Speaker
They need me for that.
00:15:41
Speaker
They need me for this recruiting meeting, so forth and so on.
00:15:44
Speaker
Me, I believe in empowering other leaders.
00:15:47
Speaker
I wanted to walk into the building and see a basketball tournament happening without me knowing.
00:15:52
Speaker
to help recruit and to help retain assets, right?
00:15:56
Speaker
I wanted to walk in and see maybe one of my sophomores training five of his rookies or her rookies that they had just recruited.
00:16:04
Speaker
I wanna walk into the office and see one of my reps planning a preseason trip, a blitz, with the technicians without me knowing about it.
00:16:12
Speaker
I wanted to empower everybody where they could hold all the different keys and levers to be able to run their business within the business.
00:16:20
Speaker
And if they surpass me, fantastic.
00:16:23
Speaker
Because if you try to do this, you're going to lose people.
00:16:26
Speaker
And you're not the true leader that you should be.
00:16:29
Speaker
It's all about empowering others as quickly as possible.
00:16:32
Speaker
And believing in people more than they believe in themselves.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, I like that.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, I've definitely seen that too.
00:16:39
Speaker
Great leaders.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, when I've had doubts many times, there's been good leaders that have kind of believed in me more.
00:16:45
Speaker
And we all need them.
00:16:46
Speaker
Like I need leaders that believe in me more than I believe in myself.
00:16:49
Speaker
And I seek out those leaders all the time.
00:16:50
Speaker
Anytime I start feeling really comfortable with myself, I'll go meet with my mentors and they get me outside of the comfort zone.
00:16:57
Speaker
They make me feel like a little pansy.
00:16:59
Speaker
And I need that.
00:16:59
Speaker
We all need that.
00:17:01
Speaker
Is there anything like specific things that you can remember that you did that helped a lot to like empower the leaders you were building up or maybe that you saw that like your leaders did for you too?
00:17:13
Speaker
I mean, listen, it's everything.
00:17:15
Speaker
It's in your speech.
00:17:16
Speaker
It's in your actions.
00:17:19
Speaker
It's in your daily thoughts.
00:17:20
Speaker
I was always thinking, what can I do?
00:17:23
Speaker
to empower others and what can I do to scale?
00:17:25
Speaker
What can I do to create more of a unison here so that we can actually do more together?
00:17:33
Speaker
So if you would walk into my, when I was, you know, when I was deployed in the summers, you would walk into my office.
00:17:39
Speaker
I was always the last one to arrive.
00:17:41
Speaker
We started our correlation meetings at, at, uh, at 11 o'clock.
00:17:46
Speaker
Let me just put this on silent really quickly.
00:17:52
Speaker
We would start our correlation meetings at 11 o'clock and I would walk in at 1058, never late.
00:17:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:59
Speaker
Our rule was, our standard was if I was late or anybody was late, we'd have to wall sit for the minutes late and I didn't ever want to wall sit.
00:18:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:07
Speaker
And it's just disrespectful.
00:18:08
Speaker
Right.
00:18:08
Speaker
But I also made sure that I ended my meetings by 1159 because if I want people to start on time, I'm going to end on time.
00:18:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:18:16
Speaker
where a lot of leaders get it wrong is they think start time is the only thing that matters.
00:18:20
Speaker
Well, end time also matters.
00:18:21
Speaker
It's true.
00:18:22
Speaker
Because if I'm telling folks the meeting ends at 12 and I'm ending it at one, that's super disrespectful.
00:18:27
Speaker
Because now I'm imposing my meeting
Solar Industry Insights and Comparisons
00:18:30
Speaker
I don't know what else they have going on post that.
00:18:32
Speaker
That's their time.
00:18:34
Speaker
Or it's their time to get ready for the doors, get in their car group, so forth and so on.
00:18:38
Speaker
So you have to be really good at your start and really good at your end.
00:18:42
Speaker
But I would walk in, it's 10, 58 or whatever.
00:18:44
Speaker
All the sales guys are sitting down already.
00:18:47
Speaker
They're in full uniform, lanyards, everything.
00:18:50
Speaker
Shirts tucked in, the whole nine.
00:18:53
Speaker
That way they were ready for battle, ready for the day's...
00:18:56
Speaker
task at hand.
00:18:58
Speaker
Music was already playing.
00:18:59
Speaker
Videos were downloaded.
00:19:00
Speaker
My numbers board person was already up there.
00:19:03
Speaker
Like everything was dialed.
00:19:05
Speaker
And I would just signal like, hey, we're ready to go.
00:19:07
Speaker
Boom.
00:19:08
Speaker
And the orchestra started.
00:19:10
Speaker
And then everybody's fulfilling on their role.
00:19:12
Speaker
Then they would say, OK, Mendes, you're up.
00:19:13
Speaker
I would go up.
00:19:14
Speaker
I would train.
00:19:14
Speaker
I'd sit back down.
00:19:17
Speaker
And I ran almost all the trainings because I want to be in the highest and best use of my time.
00:19:21
Speaker
And I really get a lot of energy training.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I think I can create a lot of significance for my team.
00:19:28
Speaker
So as soon as I was done training, I'd sit down.
00:19:31
Speaker
Then the guy with the motivational thought or whatever it was would do their thing.
00:19:35
Speaker
The numbers board guy would get back up again for goals, hold people accountable.
00:19:39
Speaker
The chair guy would stand up.
00:19:40
Speaker
The chair guy would start, hey, put your chairs away.
00:19:43
Speaker
The cell phone box guy would start delivering cell phones again.
00:19:46
Speaker
The guy in charge of the car groups would say, guys, we need to be in the car groups by this time.
00:19:50
Speaker
Hurry up.
00:19:50
Speaker
Let's go.
00:19:51
Speaker
And I didn't have to do any of it.
00:19:52
Speaker
Wow.
00:19:52
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:19:53
Speaker
Does that make sense?
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:54
Speaker
Because they own the team.
00:19:56
Speaker
I don't own the team.
00:19:57
Speaker
And I never wanted people to say, this is Mendez's team.
00:19:59
Speaker
No.
00:20:00
Speaker
I'm a member of the team.
00:20:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:01
Speaker
And then we would assign names to the team so the glory could go to the name of the team, not the glory of a guy.
00:20:07
Speaker
That way they all owned it, not me.
00:20:10
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:20:11
Speaker
And that's a huge mistake.
00:20:13
Speaker
I remember the first couple of solar companies I was with, I would be managing and no one ever told me that, that you should have someone getting numbers ready, getting videos downloaded.
00:20:22
Speaker
So I remember my first time managing, I was trying to do everything.
00:20:25
Speaker
I was like getting guys into the room, making sure the car group's ready.
00:20:29
Speaker
I was putting numbers on the board.
00:20:31
Speaker
I mean, I even had guys on Fridays with curfew, just making sure all the guys were, because we had apartments all right next to each other.
00:20:38
Speaker
Running the curfews, I had another guy in charge of the cars, making sure the oil changes were done, the tires were ready.
00:20:44
Speaker
No fuel ups on Saturdays.
00:20:45
Speaker
You had to be fueled up Friday night because Saturday was Super Bowl day.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:48
Speaker
Area assignment.
00:20:49
Speaker
I didn't assign area.
00:20:50
Speaker
I had an area assignment guy.
00:20:51
Speaker
I had my car group leaders.
00:20:53
Speaker
Just everything was dialed.
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:20:56
Speaker
Well, so something we, I guess, go through in solar, sometimes it can be a little more difficult, or maybe it's like limiting belief type thing, but we're not a summer program.
00:21:05
Speaker
Sure.
00:21:05
Speaker
A lot of solar companies aren't.
00:21:08
Speaker
And to be fair, even back then, sure, it's summer deployment, but you're working year round.
00:21:12
Speaker
It's just different schedule.
00:21:14
Speaker
It's your preseason schedule and then your on season schedule, but it's all you're in season.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:22
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker
Yeah, but like in solar, I know like alarm days, most people were traveling from, you know, different markets, going there, living in apartments for the summer and all that.
00:21:32
Speaker
Living in apartments, yep, it's contained.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, like I did pest control for the summer, so it's basically the same thing as that.
00:21:39
Speaker
But like with solar, sometimes it can be tougher for us where we have a little bit less control.
00:21:43
Speaker
Like it's mostly guys living in the area.
00:21:46
Speaker
We're not all together.
00:21:49
Speaker
Everyone
Investing Principles
00:21:51
Speaker
creates their own schedules to a degree a little bit.
00:21:54
Speaker
So if you were in solar starting this from scratch, how would you implement some of these same things in solar where we can't sometimes keep it?
00:22:05
Speaker
It's the same.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's the same.
00:22:06
Speaker
And again, you start off with maybe it's limiting self-belief.
00:22:09
Speaker
Maybe it is.
00:22:10
Speaker
But again, regardless of what business you're in, you have to have a schedule.
00:22:13
Speaker
You have to have standards.
00:22:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:15
Speaker
So if the standard is, hey, you can take this much time off or we work these hours of these days and this is when we meet, then that's what you come up with.
00:22:23
Speaker
I think where leaders get frustrated, it's when it's just like whatever happens, happens.
00:22:28
Speaker
If it's whatever happens, happens, whatever happens, happens.
00:22:33
Speaker
But if you have more of a schedule...
00:22:36
Speaker
then people are going to fit in with that schedule.
00:22:38
Speaker
I say this all the time, and you alluded to it.
00:22:41
Speaker
Don't manage people.
00:22:43
Speaker
I don't like the term manager.
00:22:45
Speaker
I'm a manager.
00:22:45
Speaker
What are you managing?
00:22:47
Speaker
Like paperwork?
00:22:48
Speaker
What are you managing?
00:22:49
Speaker
You don't manage people.
00:22:50
Speaker
You lead people.
00:22:51
Speaker
You manage the system.
00:22:53
Speaker
So you build a system, and you look at your 52 weeks throughout the year, and then you say, these are the weeks that we're on.
00:23:00
Speaker
These are the weeks that we can kind of do this and that and the other that we're recruiting or whatever it is that you're doing.
00:23:05
Speaker
And then maybe you're meeting Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays, I don't know, in the office together.
00:23:11
Speaker
Or you're doing Zooms or check-ins or FaceTime or something.
00:23:13
Speaker
But you need something in place where it's holding you and the team accountable.
00:23:19
Speaker
So like me, when I go to the gym and I have my pig, my partner in gym with me, then my workouts are better and then I know that somebody's waiting for me so I can't stay in bed.
00:23:30
Speaker
It's an accountability partner.
00:23:31
Speaker
So all systems are perfectly designed to get the results you want to get.
00:23:35
Speaker
Lacks systems, lacks results.
00:23:38
Speaker
Sophisticated systems, sophisticated results.
00:23:42
Speaker
So can you run a really tight system, a tight ship with a full year-round program in solar?
00:23:46
Speaker
100%.
00:23:47
Speaker
And if you don't think so, you've been tricked by somebody or you're just not wanting to set the brutal fact because it takes work to build the system.
00:23:56
Speaker
But get it done.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:23:58
Speaker
And it takes the pain out.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:00
Speaker
You know what to expect, how to expect it, when to expect it.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:03
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's huge.
00:24:05
Speaker
And what about people?
00:24:07
Speaker
I know alarms, just like any summer sales program, lots of people fall off.
00:24:11
Speaker
So what did you do?
00:24:12
Speaker
What's your thoughts on people that maybe were given pushback, being late consistently, or just like...
00:24:18
Speaker
You promote what you tolerate.
00:24:20
Speaker
So, you know, year one, you're not going to run it the same as year two, year three.
00:24:23
Speaker
You get more sophisticated over time.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:25
Speaker
My most difficult year at Vivint was my first year.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
It was guys that were coming in from that previous company.
00:24:32
Speaker
They weren't as engaged with the product offering, with me as a leader, with the summer model, all that stuff.
00:24:39
Speaker
It was hard.
00:24:40
Speaker
It's better to have a great team than a team of greats.
00:24:44
Speaker
It was a team of greats.
00:24:44
Speaker
It was an all-star team.
00:24:45
Speaker
It's almost like that.
00:24:47
Speaker
What year was that 2004 where LeBron and company, you know, got not even get silver.
00:24:53
Speaker
They got bronze, you know, and then I think it was 08 where Kobe had to come in with coach K and then they go take gold again.
00:24:59
Speaker
Right.
00:24:59
Speaker
Did they have a team of greats in 04?
00:25:03
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:25:04
Speaker
Was it a great team?
00:25:05
Speaker
No, it was a terrible team.
00:25:06
Speaker
Coach Larry Brown, terrible coach, terrible leader.
00:25:09
Speaker
And then the guys weren't bought in, right?
00:25:11
Speaker
But then you get Kobe in the mix along with LeBron and D-Wade and Coach K, then you have a great team.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:19
Speaker
Right?
00:25:20
Speaker
So I'd rather have a great team than a team of greats.
00:25:21
Speaker
I had a team of greats in 08, my first summer.
00:25:24
Speaker
I didn't have a great team.
00:25:26
Speaker
I actually said, guys, in 09, I'm going a different route.
00:25:31
Speaker
You guys can go.
00:25:32
Speaker
You're all free agents.
00:25:33
Speaker
You can go to any other team within the company.
00:25:36
Speaker
Do whatever you want.
00:25:37
Speaker
I'm only going to keep, I think it was like three guys plus me.
00:25:40
Speaker
There's four of us.
00:25:41
Speaker
It was guys that were bought in.
00:25:42
Speaker
I knew I could use as building blocks because we were rowing in the same direction.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:48
Speaker
And that second year, without that base of 20 plus, with just the base of us four, we did more accounts year two than we did year one.
00:25:59
Speaker
Because again, it had a great team.
00:26:01
Speaker
It wasn't necessarily a team of greats.
00:26:03
Speaker
And later, it became a team of greats.
00:26:07
Speaker
2006, we compounded.
00:26:08
Speaker
We did like 22, 2300 counts in 09.
00:26:13
Speaker
And then in 2010, we did 6,500 accounts with that base.
00:26:19
Speaker
And then the following year, we did 10,000.
00:26:20
Speaker
And then we grew it into regions, divisions, so forth and so on.
00:26:24
Speaker
It's that law of compounding interest.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:26:28
Speaker
And yeah, something I'm amazed is just like how you're able to compound it so much in different regions.
00:26:33
Speaker
Because I've been with a bunch of companies where they try to start a new region.
00:26:37
Speaker
They try to like expand in a different state.
00:26:39
Speaker
And it just tanks because, yeah, they don't have a solid person there.
00:26:43
Speaker
You have to.
00:26:45
Speaker
I believe this.
00:26:46
Speaker
Every company, it's a talent acquisition and talent development company, period in the story.
00:26:51
Speaker
You just so happen to sell solar.
00:26:52
Speaker
You just so happen to sell alarms.
00:26:53
Speaker
You just so happen to sell pest control or widgets or whatever.
00:26:56
Speaker
Right now, I mean, it's real estate.
00:26:58
Speaker
The commodity is real estate.
00:26:59
Speaker
Real estate, there's a lot of people that do real estate.
00:27:02
Speaker
But my differentiating factor is the systems and the leadership of the people running the company.
00:27:08
Speaker
That's the ultimate flex.
00:27:10
Speaker
That's the ultimate holy grail within the company.
00:27:13
Speaker
The chokehold of a business, it's the psychology or lack of the business leadership.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
If the business leadership has low EQ and low IQ, you're going to get low results.
00:27:23
Speaker
And if they're not bought in.
00:27:24
Speaker
But if you can get a high-performing human team, they can take that commodity and take it to really good heights.
00:27:30
Speaker
Does that make sense?
00:27:31
Speaker
As an investor, I'm investing in people.
00:27:33
Speaker
I'm not investing in a product or service.
00:27:35
Speaker
I'm investing in who's on the cap table, who's the CEO, who's the CEO.
00:27:39
Speaker
Who are the people inside that C-suite?
00:27:41
Speaker
And then what does the man, what are the management teams look like?
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:44
Speaker
And I'll put my money there.
00:27:45
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:47
Speaker
I like that.
00:27:48
Speaker
So how much of a factor do you think is the company?
00:27:50
Speaker
Like you were at Vivint, but, um, I know I've been with some companies where there wasn't a strong culture.
00:27:56
Speaker
I was trying to create it.
00:27:57
Speaker
It's harder.
00:27:58
Speaker
Do you think if you would have gone to like any alarm company at the time, you could have gotten like the same or similar results or how much was it?
00:28:05
Speaker
Could I have gotten the same results?
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:07
Speaker
It's a maybe.
00:28:08
Speaker
I don't know.
00:28:09
Speaker
Right?
00:28:09
Speaker
But the reason I chose Vivint is I knew that whatever I could throw at them, they could absorb it.
00:28:16
Speaker
I wouldn't break the system.
00:28:17
Speaker
There were other companies that wanted to recruit me, but I felt that if I came in hard, I would break them.
00:28:25
Speaker
They didn't have the infrastructure to be able to absorb what I knew I would do within the next few years.
00:28:29
Speaker
Does that make sense?
00:28:31
Speaker
So yeah, you have to align yourself with the proper channel, proper platform.
00:28:35
Speaker
But you can be in a big company...
00:28:38
Speaker
and you can tank you can be at a small company smaller company and you can flourish there's just so many ingredients that take part of that recipe you just you just have to know everything that's there yeah okay big is not always the answer and small is not always the answer again there's i don't speak in absolutes
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
That's good.
00:28:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:56
Speaker
Well, yeah, I want to shift gears a little bit.
00:28:58
Speaker
A lot of people know you as a guy that's recruited tons of people.
00:29:02
Speaker
I get questions all the time about recruiting from the podcast.
00:29:05
Speaker
So if you were, I think someone actually told me to ask you this.
00:29:09
Speaker
But if you were starting, say, a solar company from scratch day one, what are some of your best recruiting secrets?
00:29:17
Speaker
You said you started, you got 20 guys initially, right, when you first started?
00:29:20
Speaker
Listen, as far as recruiting is concerned, it's cliche, but just like ABC always be closing, ABR always be recruiting, right?
00:29:28
Speaker
And I say this all the time, if you go grocery shopping when you're hungry, what are you going to buy?
00:29:31
Speaker
You're going to buy junk food.
00:29:34
Speaker
So you always have to be recruiting.
00:29:36
Speaker
It's the premise of the best time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
00:29:40
Speaker
You're always recruiting.
00:29:41
Speaker
You're only a handshake away from that all-star, five-star recruit.
00:29:45
Speaker
So always have the recruiting goggles on and then be patient.
00:29:49
Speaker
A conversation I have five years ago could flourish today.
00:29:53
Speaker
In fact, I'm buying two pieces of real estate right now that I've been trying to purchase for the last five years.
00:30:00
Speaker
Wow.
00:30:01
Speaker
But it's just, I'm in it for the long game.
00:30:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:05
Speaker
And you never, the bridges that you cross, never burn those bridges down.
00:30:09
Speaker
Always keep them open.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:10
Speaker
Like be a good fiduciary of relationships.
00:30:14
Speaker
And when you're recruiting, don't treat them the way you want to be treated.
00:30:17
Speaker
Treat them the way they want to be treated.
00:30:20
Speaker
Listen more than you speak.
00:30:22
Speaker
They're giving you all the clues that you need to know what it is that they want and need so that they can jump on board.
00:30:28
Speaker
And then have no fear of loss because the world's biggest lie is scarcity.
00:30:33
Speaker
There's an abundance of recruits out there.
00:30:35
Speaker
There's 8 billion human beings on this planet.
00:30:37
Speaker
So there's no scarcity of human resources.
00:30:40
Speaker
Just know that it'll come.
00:30:41
Speaker
And if you're confident, it'll come.
00:30:43
Speaker
But put in the work.
00:30:44
Speaker
I say this all the time too.
00:30:45
Speaker
In recruiting, we often think that it's going to happen by osmosis.
00:30:49
Speaker
That it's just going to happen because we're a manager or whatever.
00:30:52
Speaker
So let's say that you want to put on accounts, right?
00:30:55
Speaker
In the direct-to-home arena.
00:30:56
Speaker
What do you need to do to be able to put on more accounts?
00:30:59
Speaker
Recruit more.
00:31:00
Speaker
You have to freaking go knock a door.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, okay.
00:31:03
Speaker
Like you've got to knock a door.
00:31:04
Speaker
If they say no, what do you do?
00:31:06
Speaker
Go to the next one.
00:31:07
Speaker
You go to the next door.
00:31:07
Speaker
If they say no, what do you do?
00:31:09
Speaker
Next door.
00:31:10
Speaker
Next door.
00:31:10
Speaker
So how many doors do people knock on average?
00:31:12
Speaker
Pest control, solar, alarms, whatever.
00:31:15
Speaker
40 doors, 50 doors a day, right?
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
But then guys say, oh, I can't recruit.
00:31:20
Speaker
I didn't have luck in recruiting or no success.
00:31:22
Speaker
And they talk to maybe one guy in a week.
00:31:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:26
Speaker
Like, what are you?
00:31:27
Speaker
What are you thinking?
00:31:28
Speaker
You have to work at the art of recruiting.
00:31:31
Speaker
And then I say this too is, you do tons of role plays with selling.
00:31:36
Speaker
When's the last time your team did a role play with recruiting?
00:31:40
Speaker
How to sit down with a recruit?
00:31:41
Speaker
How to overcome objections with a recruit?
00:31:44
Speaker
how to go over the offering with the recruit.
00:31:47
Speaker
What are the do's, what are the don'ts?
00:31:49
Speaker
So again, you have to be able to understand the business that you're in and you have to be well equipped to be confronted with any type of recruiting situation in which you're in.
00:31:59
Speaker
And it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any field in which you choose to become an expert in.
00:32:04
Speaker
You've got to put in the work.
00:32:05
Speaker
You've got to do the work.
00:32:08
Speaker
Listen, behind all the greats, what you're going to notice is they fell in love with the mundane, they fell in love with the boring, and they put in the time more than anybody else.
00:32:17
Speaker
The issue that we have as spectators is we don't see the grit and the grind and the pain and the tears and the blood and the failure of Michael Jordan, of Kobe Bryant, of Tom Brady.
00:32:32
Speaker
in all the greats.
00:32:33
Speaker
We just see the highlight reels.
00:32:34
Speaker
And we think that it's just going to be like this.
00:32:36
Speaker
But in fact, that's what success looks like.
00:32:42
Speaker
But it's being able to go from failure to failure to failure to failure with a ton of energy and optimism where you can keep punching through all the mishaps.
00:32:53
Speaker
It's learning how to dance and deal with fear.
00:32:56
Speaker
It's learning how to be empowered by the word no.
00:32:59
Speaker
And by knowing that failure is just part of life.
00:33:03
Speaker
Again, I'll give you another analogy.
00:33:04
Speaker
Let's say that you want to play football.
00:33:06
Speaker
And I've maybe gone over this analogy with you before.
00:33:08
Speaker
I'm not sure.
00:33:09
Speaker
But you tell the coach, listen, I love the pads.
00:33:11
Speaker
I love the uniforms.
00:33:12
Speaker
They're super sick.
00:33:13
Speaker
Love the colors.
00:33:14
Speaker
In fact, I love the Friday night lights.
00:33:16
Speaker
Love the cheerleaders.
00:33:17
Speaker
Love the school.
00:33:18
Speaker
Love when the announcer calls my name.
00:33:19
Speaker
Like, I'm all about it, coach.
00:33:21
Speaker
like I'll play for you but the only request I put in is I never get tackled but I'll play for you all season long yeah it just ain't gonna happen like you know you're gonna get tackled it's part of the game of football so business it's a combat sport recruiting is a combat sport knocking doors is a combat sport
00:33:38
Speaker
You can't have all highs.
00:33:41
Speaker
You have to have lows too.
00:33:43
Speaker
And that's why you can't have low lows and you can't have high highs.
00:33:46
Speaker
You have to just be steady Eddie.
00:33:48
Speaker
You look at all the greats, all the people I mentioned, Luke Toon, Mark Toon, Doug Robinson, Casey Baugh, Nick Hanson, Jeremy Long.
00:33:54
Speaker
The names go on and on for days.
00:33:56
Speaker
John Shields, Dave Force.
00:33:58
Speaker
They all know how to do this.
00:34:00
Speaker
And they know how to play the long game.
00:34:02
Speaker
They know how to keep it steady.
00:34:04
Speaker
They're not going to have low lows.
00:34:05
Speaker
They're not going to have high highs.
00:34:06
Speaker
They're just machines.
00:34:08
Speaker
In a good way.
00:34:09
Speaker
Not that they're robotic, but they just know the ebbs and flows of business and they understand it's a combat sport.
00:34:15
Speaker
And that's why they're really good business people.
00:34:17
Speaker
Not just business people, but they're all phenomenal fathers, friends, like the whole person paradigm.
00:34:22
Speaker
They understand it and they do it.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's fire.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny.
00:34:27
Speaker
You got your Michael Jordan sweatshirt on here.
00:34:29
Speaker
Props to my cousin for giving me this hoodie.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's sweet.
00:34:33
Speaker
But yeah, I was listening to Tim Grover's book that he was Michael Jordan's trainer and all that.
00:34:38
Speaker
And he said a lot of similar stuff to you, just barely.
00:34:41
Speaker
It's like he talked about when Michael finally got his championship trophy.
00:34:45
Speaker
People thought he was crying because he was so happy he won the championship or whatever.
00:34:49
Speaker
But Tim Grover was like, no, he was crying because he remembered all the sacrifices he made.
00:34:53
Speaker
That's the release.
00:34:54
Speaker
He remembered all the early mornings, late nights, all the stuff it took to get there.
00:34:58
Speaker
It wasn't like the championship.
00:34:59
Speaker
It was all the stuff.
00:35:01
Speaker
sacrifice he had to put in.
00:35:04
Speaker
Two championships, three, retires.
00:35:08
Speaker
Comes back, one, two, three.
00:35:11
Speaker
That's why he's the GOAT.
00:35:12
Speaker
He understood it.
00:35:14
Speaker
No high highs, no low lows.
00:35:15
Speaker
As soon as he won the championship,
00:35:17
Speaker
They're back in the gym.
00:35:18
Speaker
They're back to working.
00:35:19
Speaker
They're back to getting the job done.
00:35:21
Speaker
And that Kobe Bryant interview that's all over social media all the time, why you're not smiling, why you're not happy, what's there to smile about?
00:35:26
Speaker
What's there to be happy about?
00:35:27
Speaker
Is the job finished?
00:35:28
Speaker
The job ain't finished.
00:35:29
Speaker
Let's go.
00:35:30
Speaker
And people ask a lot of the folks that have been really successful, why do you still keep going?
00:35:36
Speaker
Why don't you stop?
00:35:38
Speaker
Why would you stop?
00:35:39
Speaker
It's part of who you are.
00:35:41
Speaker
It's in your DNA.
00:35:43
Speaker
Like you don't arrive to a certain valuation or a certain result and then you're done.
00:35:49
Speaker
The game keeps going.
00:35:50
Speaker
Why do you think Michael Jordan plays golf so intently?
00:35:53
Speaker
The game keeps going for him.
00:35:56
Speaker
Why do you think he's in business?
00:35:57
Speaker
The game keeps going for him.
00:35:59
Speaker
See what I'm saying?
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker
No, 100%.
00:36:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:02
Speaker
And well, I guess tying it back to recruiting a little bit.
00:36:07
Speaker
So you talk about you had systems in place, you had all the processes.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:11
Speaker
And I know, like, I'm sure you'd agree with this.
00:36:14
Speaker
When you get a really good recruit, your prized recruits, most of the time you're probably not going to get these guys after one conversation.
00:36:20
Speaker
It's like, it's going to be just like your real estate deals you're talking about.
00:36:24
Speaker
Sure.
00:36:24
Speaker
So what, uh, did you have, um, I don't know, your systems in place for getting these high level guys?
00:36:31
Speaker
Cause I know that for me, that's been a problem.
00:36:32
Speaker
It's,
00:36:33
Speaker
Just like I forget to follow up.
00:36:36
Speaker
I forget.
00:36:36
Speaker
I don't have a good system in place to like follow up with these guys.
00:36:39
Speaker
And then all of a sudden I see him at a different company.
00:36:41
Speaker
I'm like, man, I should.
00:36:42
Speaker
Of course you have to follow up.
00:36:43
Speaker
Like it's not a one and done.
00:36:44
Speaker
It's, it's, it's a lot of following up.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
So how do you stay like organized?
00:36:49
Speaker
Like what systems you have in place to.
00:36:51
Speaker
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's not a system.
00:36:54
Speaker
It's not a book.
00:36:55
Speaker
It's not an app.
00:36:56
Speaker
It's, you have to become that person.
00:36:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:59
Speaker
And it takes, takes discipline.
00:37:01
Speaker
It takes time and it takes priority.
00:37:03
Speaker
Like I made recruiting a priority.
00:37:05
Speaker
I made selling a priority.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:07
Speaker
I made following up a priority and I understood the science behind it.
00:37:11
Speaker
I understood the behavioral economics behind it.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
And you just have to do it.
00:37:15
Speaker
And the best teacher's experience, you have to get out there and do it.
00:37:19
Speaker
So many people, hey, what book do you have on?
00:37:22
Speaker
I don't even know if I've read a book on systems.
00:37:24
Speaker
Oh, can you give me the manual?
00:37:26
Speaker
I didn't write a manual.
00:37:27
Speaker
This just becomes part of who you are.
00:37:29
Speaker
And it's not that hard.
00:37:31
Speaker
It's just a matter of doing it.
00:37:33
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:37:35
Speaker
How are you good at knocking doors?
00:37:36
Speaker
You have to go put in the time.
00:37:38
Speaker
And anytime you're new at something, it's going to feel daunting.
00:37:41
Speaker
I remember when I was at, like I said, Walmart,
00:37:44
Speaker
We had to learn every single role of the store.
00:37:46
Speaker
Just in case we had people absent, we could fulfill in that role or at least train somebody on how to fulfill that role.
00:37:52
Speaker
Layaway, cashier, cash office, merchandising, stocking shelves, using forklifts, using scissor lifts, using power jacks, normal hydraulic power jacks, washing down the bays, unloading trucks.
00:38:06
Speaker
I knew how to do it all.
00:38:09
Speaker
But I remember we would rate our cashiers on speed and efficiency on scanning.
00:38:15
Speaker
And when I first was being trained by one of the cashiers, I was like, how in the world is this cashier so fast at what she does?
00:38:21
Speaker
And I'm so slow.
00:38:23
Speaker
But after a while, I got faster and faster and better and better.
00:38:27
Speaker
But something so what would seem like minuscule is cashiering.
00:38:32
Speaker
There's a learning curve to everything.
00:38:34
Speaker
And she would look at me like, bro, you're so slow and you're the manager.
00:38:37
Speaker
What's up with you?
00:38:38
Speaker
And my goal is just to get close to as fast as she was.
00:38:43
Speaker
So what I'm getting at is you have to put in the time.
00:38:45
Speaker
So anytime there was, if we were slow, I'd say, hey, let me turn on my cash register.
00:38:50
Speaker
And I would practice cashiering.
00:38:52
Speaker
As silly as that might sound.
00:38:53
Speaker
Store manager, running a cashier.
00:38:56
Speaker
Cart pusher, I want to learn how to push carts on the outside and load up with 25...
00:39:00
Speaker
I was running stores in North Carolina that called buggies out there, not shopping carts.
00:39:04
Speaker
And I would learn how to pack 25 and steer them from the back and everything else.
00:39:08
Speaker
And I wanted to become the best cart pusher at the store.
00:39:11
Speaker
I wanted to be the best guy at the scissor lift and fronting my shelves with cans and all that stuff.
00:39:19
Speaker
I just wanted to be really good at everything, again, so I could have the command.
00:39:23
Speaker
of the store and said I had had influence yeah as crazy as that might sound yeah yeah it's good but yeah it's true like what you're saying before is most people don't practice recruiting and it's funny it's part of a few podcasts I did recently um because what I'll do I'll you know I'll record my closes I'll go in we have this recording app so I'll kind of like do play life I record the closes
00:39:46
Speaker
But I'm like, why don't I do this for recruiting, too?
00:39:49
Speaker
I don't think about the conversations I have when I'm recruiting.
00:39:52
Speaker
So I remember I went to a restaurant a couple months back, and I saw the server seemed like a solid dude.
00:40:00
Speaker
I'm like, OK, I'm going to try and recruit him.
00:40:02
Speaker
Turn on my recording.
00:40:03
Speaker
And then, you know, I'm doing my thing, explaining to him.
00:40:06
Speaker
Then I listen back and I'm like, well, half this stuff like doesn't make a ton of sense.
00:40:10
Speaker
That's what I'm saying.
00:40:11
Speaker
And yeah, like I don't.
00:40:12
Speaker
But you have to do it again and again and again and again.
00:40:15
Speaker
Listen, if if you don't feel awkward, you're not pushing yourself.
00:40:20
Speaker
You have to get in situations where you feel awkward and weird.
00:40:24
Speaker
And I do that all the time.
00:40:26
Speaker
Like anything that you do in life, you're going to feel awkward at first.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:31
Speaker
Right.
00:40:31
Speaker
So put yourself in compromising situations for the betterment of you.
00:40:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:38
Speaker
So you can scale up you.
00:40:39
Speaker
You got to take care of you, Inc.
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:42
Speaker
I love that.
00:40:43
Speaker
It's huge.
00:40:44
Speaker
Cool.
00:40:45
Speaker
Well, Jeff, just as we start wrapping up here, a couple other things I wanted to touch on.
00:40:50
Speaker
You have five kids, right?
00:40:51
Speaker
Five kids.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:53
Speaker
And so I know you've been grinding a long time, doing your things.
00:40:57
Speaker
When you first started at Vivint, did you have kids at the time?
00:41:00
Speaker
Four kids at the time.
00:41:01
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:41:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:03
Speaker
So as a high producing, you know, someone that's been at all these different positions, been grinding this hard, what advice do you have for?
00:41:10
Speaker
I have two kids right now.
00:41:13
Speaker
And even two kids, I'm like, man, it's like exhausting with two kids.
00:41:18
Speaker
I got a four and a two year old.
00:41:19
Speaker
So like bouncing off the walls half the time.
00:41:21
Speaker
But yeah, what advice do you have for people in sales or maybe they're managing teams, maybe they're running companies?
00:41:27
Speaker
What's been some key things that have helped you as being a father and a high producer?
00:41:32
Speaker
Children are a blessing.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:33
Speaker
And they're the reason why we do the things that we do.
00:41:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
The bigger the why, the easier the hows, right?
00:41:41
Speaker
And those are holy causes.
00:41:43
Speaker
So luckily I had four kids at the time because I was able to produce massive numbers.
00:41:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:48
Speaker
So I would look at their faces in my imagination and be like, there's no way I'm taking a break.
00:41:53
Speaker
There's no way I'm sitting on the curb.
00:41:54
Speaker
There's no way I'm not going to hit my goal today.
00:41:56
Speaker
Because I have four kids that are counting on me and my wife counting on me.
00:42:01
Speaker
So not only is it just me and my last name and my heritage that I need to put on high, is I have to take care of these really holy causes for me.
00:42:10
Speaker
I'm the provider.
00:42:11
Speaker
I'm the one that's going to go make this thing happen.
00:42:13
Speaker
So they made my job really easy.
00:42:16
Speaker
Now, as far as being able to bifurcate my fatherly life from being on the doors, there's no such thing as work-life balance.
00:42:23
Speaker
There's never going to be equilibrium.
00:42:24
Speaker
It's work-life harmony.
00:42:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:26
Speaker
So in the summers, I don't have time to be that great dad that's tucking my kids in and reading them bedtime stories and all that stuff.
00:42:33
Speaker
Right.
00:42:34
Speaker
And I had to be okay with that.
00:42:36
Speaker
I had to get rid of that guilt trip.
00:42:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:38
Speaker
But then when September rolled around, October rolled around, I'm that guy.
00:42:42
Speaker
I'm tucking them in bed.
00:42:43
Speaker
I'm reading with them.
00:42:44
Speaker
I'm taking them to the playgrounds, to the water parks, to the aquariums, Disney, all that stuff.
00:42:50
Speaker
Nice.
00:42:50
Speaker
So that my harmony's in check at that given point in time.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:54
Speaker
when I can be more of that.
00:42:55
Speaker
It's like right now, we're in studio.
00:42:59
Speaker
I'm not with my wife right now.
00:43:00
Speaker
I'm being a terrible husband right now.
00:43:01
Speaker
In fact, she's on a flight to Argentina right now, so I can't be with her anyway.
00:43:05
Speaker
But I'm not with my kids, so I'm being a terrible dad right now because I'm with you.
00:43:09
Speaker
But I want to be in the highest and best use of my time now.
00:43:12
Speaker
So let's say that it's date night, my phone stays in the car, and I'm having a date with my wife.
00:43:18
Speaker
And she's the only thing that matters to me at that point in time.
00:43:21
Speaker
Nobody can call me.
00:43:22
Speaker
I mean, they can call me.
00:43:23
Speaker
They're not going to reach me.
00:43:24
Speaker
I'm focused on that.
00:43:25
Speaker
If I'm at a soccer match or I'm at a dance recital or at a gymnastics match, you bet you that I'm going to see every single move that my kids have.
00:43:35
Speaker
You're never going to catch me on my phone texting or pretending like something at work is so important that I'm going to miss a goal.
00:43:41
Speaker
There's no way I'm going to have my son score a goal.
00:43:44
Speaker
And then he looks up and daddy's like on a conference call or some stupid thing that doesn't even matter.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:49
Speaker
So you have to understand the ebbs and flows of life.
00:43:52
Speaker
Get rid of the notion that you're going to have work-life balance because it doesn't exist.
00:43:56
Speaker
It's easier to find a unicorn or it's easier to find Bigfoot than achieve work-life balance.
00:44:00
Speaker
It just doesn't exist.
00:44:02
Speaker
But you have to be okay with work-life harmony.
00:44:04
Speaker
And then you have to talk to your significant other, your partner, your kids, etc.
00:44:07
Speaker
and say, Daddy's going to be doing this at this time.
00:44:11
Speaker
So if you reach me, I'm going to be unreachable unless it's an emergency.
00:44:15
Speaker
Here's the code.
00:44:16
Speaker
But let me do my thing so I can do my thing with you when it's time.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:23
Speaker
Get rid of the guilt.
00:44:24
Speaker
Get rid of the shaming.
00:44:26
Speaker
And get rid of the miscommunication with your spouse.
00:44:28
Speaker
If your spouse knows that those are the priorities, they're not going to be calling, hey, can you please get off the doors?
00:44:33
Speaker
Let's go to date night.
00:44:35
Speaker
Because your spouse knows when date night happens.
00:44:36
Speaker
They know when the family vacations are.
00:44:38
Speaker
They know when Christmas is.
00:44:40
Speaker
They know when we're going to celebrate.
00:44:41
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:44:43
Speaker
You just have to get organized.
00:44:44
Speaker
All systems are perfectly designed to get the results you want to get.
00:44:47
Speaker
So my wife and I, when I said, hey, I'm going to do this, it says, hey, we're going to have to come together.
00:44:52
Speaker
in a really high fashion here because I'm going to be deployed.
00:44:54
Speaker
I'm going to be gone.
00:44:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:56
Speaker
And she probably wouldn't meet me until June or July because the kids are in school the whole night.
00:45:01
Speaker
She says, I got you.
00:45:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:02
Speaker
Right.
00:45:03
Speaker
And then we always knew when we would chat at night, but she's not texting me there.
00:45:06
Speaker
Hey, I miss you.
00:45:07
Speaker
I love you.
00:45:07
Speaker
What do you think about this?
00:45:08
Speaker
Or should I do this?
00:45:09
Speaker
Or the kids are this?
00:45:10
Speaker
No, she had that done.
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:12
Speaker
Done.
00:45:13
Speaker
But before I left, I put the house in order, took care of everything.
00:45:16
Speaker
So her life was easy.
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:18
Speaker
So my job is to,
00:45:20
Speaker
relieve the hard of my kids without taking away their grit and their grind, obviously, and of my wife so that they can shine and so that I can also shine in what I need to do.
00:45:30
Speaker
That way we're all in the highest and best use of our time.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:45:34
Speaker
Well, yeah, that just makes me think.
00:45:37
Speaker
I mean, you started when you were 31, four kids.
00:45:40
Speaker
So I mean, I got two kids now.
00:45:42
Speaker
If I hadn't done any door-to-door before that and just like jumped into a summer with four kids, I feel like I would have been terrified.
00:45:50
Speaker
Were you nervous?
00:45:51
Speaker
Like going, jumping into something like that with four kids?
00:45:54
Speaker
If you're not nervous, there's something wrong with you.
00:45:56
Speaker
Of course I was nervous.
00:45:56
Speaker
I mean, I cried my first few weeks, like devastated.
00:46:02
Speaker
You eat what you kill in this environment.
00:46:04
Speaker
Like if you're not...
00:46:05
Speaker
putting on accounts you ain't feeding your family yeah so of course there's nervousness of course there's you know there's that second guessing third guessing fourth guessing fifth guessing right but you just got to punch through it like i say this quote all the time but the darkest nights produced the brightest stars and now you look back and what you remember are the highlight reels yeah like people ask me what was that i i did a zoom the other day for this founder group and
00:46:29
Speaker
And they're asking me, what are the biggest trials in your business life?
00:46:33
Speaker
What's one of the hardest questions for me to answer?
00:46:35
Speaker
Because I practice failure amnesia.
00:46:38
Speaker
Because why would I lull in failure?
00:46:41
Speaker
It's part of my success.
00:46:43
Speaker
So I turn my failures into successes, as crazy as that might sound, because life happens for me, not to me.
00:46:50
Speaker
So even if you're facing not being able to run payroll, if you're facing not being able to make your mortgage payment, it's part of life.
00:47:00
Speaker
It is what it is.
00:47:01
Speaker
And you just have that failure amnesia because you just move on.
00:47:03
Speaker
You don't have time for it.
00:47:05
Speaker
Quite often I'd be knocking on doors and you know how when you, when you knock with somebody that you feel like, man, this guy's the goat.
00:47:13
Speaker
And then you realize it's the same customers.
00:47:16
Speaker
You're not saying anything special.
00:47:17
Speaker
I don't have a different door approach.
00:47:18
Speaker
It's the same approach as anybody else, but they go, they go with me.
00:47:22
Speaker
And then I remember this one instance, I can't remember where I was.
00:47:27
Speaker
but we're going to the next door after this door.
00:47:29
Speaker
And he goes, Mendes, did that guy dropping those two F-bombs on you not startle you?
00:47:34
Speaker
And I looked to him like, he did?
00:47:37
Speaker
He said the F word?
00:47:38
Speaker
Dude, he said it twice.
00:47:39
Speaker
He told you to F off or whatever.
00:47:40
Speaker
And you're a bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep.
00:47:42
Speaker
I can't even remember.
00:47:44
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:47:44
Speaker
And I just keep knocking.
00:47:46
Speaker
Because you just, it doesn't matter.
00:47:47
Speaker
You tune it out.
00:47:49
Speaker
Whatever you tune into, that's what you turn into.
00:47:52
Speaker
Whatever you tune into, that's what you turn into.
00:47:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:47:55
Speaker
So you just have to really guard this and lead with this and just don't let that negativity affect you.
00:48:01
Speaker
And like I said, for me, it's failure amnesia.
00:48:03
Speaker
Not in an ignorant way.
00:48:04
Speaker
I learn from my failures.
00:48:06
Speaker
I learn from my mishaps.
00:48:07
Speaker
But they don't own me.
00:48:08
Speaker
They don't define me.
00:48:10
Speaker
In fact, they're part of who I am.
00:48:13
Speaker
So I don't view it as a negative thing.
00:48:14
Speaker
I view it as a beautiful, positive, it's life, it's experience.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:18
Speaker
That's so cool.
00:48:19
Speaker
What is it?
00:48:20
Speaker
I think I've heard you say on other podcasts in your head, you're dead.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:23
Speaker
If you get in your head, you're dead.
00:48:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:25
Speaker
That's so cool.
00:48:26
Speaker
And yeah, I've seen that.
00:48:27
Speaker
And you know, all the successful people, they focus on, it's like what you're saying, what you focus on, what you give attention to.
00:48:33
Speaker
That's what's going to be manifested.
00:48:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
I mean, imagine if Steph Curry misses five shots in a row.
00:48:40
Speaker
What's he going to do?
00:48:40
Speaker
Hey, coach, take me out.
00:48:41
Speaker
I'm going to get on the bench or I'm not going to shoot for the rest of the game.
00:48:44
Speaker
You got to keep shooting.
00:48:46
Speaker
Baseball players, what's a good batting average?
00:48:50
Speaker
300 is phenomenal.
00:48:52
Speaker
You get massive contracts if you fail seven out of ten times.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:59
Speaker
You're failing more than you're winning in baseball.
00:49:02
Speaker
So they pay him as a part of failure.
00:49:05
Speaker
Does that make sense?
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:49:06
Speaker
Imagine it.
00:49:07
Speaker
Oh, I struck out again.
00:49:08
Speaker
I'm in a slump.
00:49:08
Speaker
I'm done.
00:49:09
Speaker
No, you got to keep swinging.
00:49:10
Speaker
You got to keep swinging.
00:49:11
Speaker
You got to keep shooting.
00:49:12
Speaker
You got to keep knocking.
00:49:13
Speaker
Got to keep recruiting.
00:49:14
Speaker
Life goes on with or without you.
00:49:16
Speaker
Carry on.
00:49:17
Speaker
Move forward.
00:49:17
Speaker
Failure amnesia.
00:49:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah, and I love seeing guys that fell.
00:49:22
Speaker
I have a rep in our office that he didn't get a sell for his first six months.
00:49:27
Speaker
And then now just last week he got four deals in a week after six months of making nothing.
00:49:33
Speaker
And those are quite often the most powerful people in the business because they've gone through so much of that hardship that now they really value their successes.
00:49:43
Speaker
Where guys that had it easy at the beginning
00:49:46
Speaker
and then they start facing failure, they kind of wash out.
00:49:51
Speaker
I say this all the time.
00:49:52
Speaker
We talked about kids.
00:49:53
Speaker
Parenthood is the scariest hood you'll ever go through.
00:49:55
Speaker
And then the first generation makes it.
00:49:58
Speaker
When we're talking about true wealth, first generation is the one that makes it.
00:50:01
Speaker
Second generation enjoys it.
00:50:03
Speaker
What happens by the third generation?
00:50:05
Speaker
Destroys it.
00:50:06
Speaker
They destroy it.
00:50:07
Speaker
So I've taught all my kids...
00:50:10
Speaker
You're all first generation.
00:50:11
Speaker
You got to go make it.
00:50:13
Speaker
You got to go figure this stuff out.
00:50:15
Speaker
Because if I give them the things that I didn't have growing up, I'm taking away the things that they could have, the experiences that they should go through.
00:50:23
Speaker
I want my kids going through hardship.
00:50:25
Speaker
I want them going through pain.
00:50:27
Speaker
It's a gift.
00:50:28
Speaker
I don't want to just give them a silver spoon and a silver platter.
00:50:32
Speaker
They need to go build their first generation for themselves because I had that opportunity for me.
00:50:37
Speaker
I'm not going to take it away from them.
00:50:39
Speaker
Does that make sense?
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah, what does it say?
00:50:41
Speaker
I think Jim Rohn said, become a millionaire for...
00:50:47
Speaker
so he can become the person that it takes to be a millionaire or something instead of the money.
00:50:51
Speaker
I'm butchering that.
00:50:53
Speaker
No, listen, they are first generation.
00:50:56
Speaker
They have to own their own keep.
00:50:58
Speaker
Daddy and mommy ain't going to
00:51:00
Speaker
Lay it all out there for them.
00:51:01
Speaker
They have to go figure it out on their own.
00:51:03
Speaker
We'll help them.
00:51:04
Speaker
We'll guide them.
00:51:04
Speaker
That's my job.
00:51:06
Speaker
But I'm not going to gift them the things that they're supposed to go get in life.
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:51:12
Speaker
Well, Jeff, last question or two before we wrap up here.
00:51:15
Speaker
So obviously this podcast is solar focused, focused on the solar industry.
00:51:19
Speaker
Sure.
00:51:20
Speaker
We have a lot of guys on from other industries, so it's been awesome having you on.
00:51:23
Speaker
But you just being, I know you know a lot of people in solar.
00:51:27
Speaker
You've been to a lot of the same events and stuff like that.
00:51:30
Speaker
So something we were talking about before we hit record is, unfortunately, I've been through it a lot.
00:51:34
Speaker
I know a lot of people in solar have just been with companies going out of business, companies not paying, these dealers just disappearing out of thin air.
00:51:43
Speaker
That's lots of issues going on.
00:51:44
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:51:45
Speaker
What's your take on the solar industry and maybe what would you say to some of those people going through that or how they could maybe keep pushing through?
00:51:52
Speaker
I mean, solar industry, it's in its baby stages still.
00:51:55
Speaker
It's just inception happened not too long ago.
00:51:58
Speaker
I think the first group that went out and started knocking doors was maybe 2011, right?
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:05
Speaker
So it's still in the infancy stage.
00:52:06
Speaker
I think market penetration nationwide is still hovering around 4%.
00:52:11
Speaker
It's a beautiful industry.
00:52:14
Speaker
It's a beautiful asset class.
00:52:16
Speaker
It's a beautiful go-to-market strategy in which you take solar direct to home where the consumer is consuming it.
00:52:22
Speaker
Well, there'll be a lot more...
00:52:25
Speaker
Companies folding, of course.
00:52:27
Speaker
I've already seen the movie.
00:52:30
Speaker
When we were doing alarms, we saw a lot of dealers out there.
00:52:33
Speaker
And in fact, I've been involved with solar since day one.
00:52:36
Speaker
So in 2010, I got a phone call from one of the principals at Vivint saying, hey, can you go vet this out and see if we can take this direct to home?
00:52:44
Speaker
Goldman Sachs wants to fund a project.
00:52:47
Speaker
I'm like, sure.
00:52:47
Speaker
So I went to Arizona, scouted out, came back, says, yeah, let's go ahead and do solar direct to home.
00:52:51
Speaker
Nice.
00:52:53
Speaker
But will there be companies that are not property capitalized, that don't have a robust balance sheet, that don't have the foresight?
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to happen.
00:53:01
Speaker
So do you need to go attach yourself to a company that can withstand, like have the wherewithal to go through all these macro and micro effects?
00:53:09
Speaker
Of course.
00:53:10
Speaker
So just be a good fiduciary and understand where you need to land so you can take your talents there so that you can flourish within that organization.
00:53:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
But at the end of the day, the value is in you as a producer.
00:53:23
Speaker
It's not any said company.
00:53:24
Speaker
Just make sure that you're attached to the right company that can absorb and help you produce to its highest.
00:53:30
Speaker
But you're the number one asset, invest in you so that you can...
00:53:37
Speaker
be anti-cyclical yeah where if an inflation hits it is what it is recession hits it is what it is we know that these sales skills they're they're recession proof they're inflation proof they're all proof you just make sure that you're on the right platform and make sure that you're aligned with like-minded individuals that have those same aspirations and goals that you have yeah and that they can actually do what they say they're going to do yeah
00:54:01
Speaker
People believe most easily what they desire most deeply.
00:54:04
Speaker
So sometimes we join companies because of the, oh, we're going to exit in whatever years and we're going to be billionaires.
00:54:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:11
Speaker
Like just be careful overextending your belief just because you want it to be true.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:18
Speaker
Yeah, I made that mistake.
00:54:19
Speaker
That was the first company I was with.
00:54:21
Speaker
And it is what it is.
00:54:22
Speaker
And you move on.
00:54:23
Speaker
And look at you now.
00:54:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:54:24
Speaker
Exactly.
00:54:25
Speaker
We've all been through it.
00:54:26
Speaker
And it's part of it.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:54:28
Speaker
Yeah, and then last question, Jeff.
00:54:30
Speaker
Speaking of investing, I know that's like your thing now.
00:54:33
Speaker
Sure.
00:54:33
Speaker
You're doing all these investments.
00:54:35
Speaker
And matter of fact, I think last event I went to one of the Noxstar events, I think, you spoke on investing and helped us kind of gave us some strategies and all that.
00:54:45
Speaker
So I know we don't have a ton of time.
00:54:46
Speaker
That would probably be a whole separate podcast, but just some, I don't know, maybe some... Guiding principles?
00:54:51
Speaker
Yeah, some Reader's Digest for someone that's in solar.
00:54:55
Speaker
Like, I don't know, how much money do you think you need to start investing?
00:54:58
Speaker
What were some of the first investments you did or maybe lessons you learned from your first investments?
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah, so I've done a lot of different investments.
00:55:06
Speaker
I've done venture capital.
00:55:07
Speaker
I've invested in private equity.
00:55:09
Speaker
I've invested in some seed rounds, so forth and so on.
00:55:13
Speaker
And I sponsor deals currently.
00:55:14
Speaker
The deals that I sponsor, they're all based around real estate.
00:55:17
Speaker
It's going to be their manufactured housing complexes.
00:55:20
Speaker
Nice.
00:55:21
Speaker
Or it's going to be multifamily housing complexes, otherwise known as apartments.
00:55:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:25
Speaker
And then some storage units.
00:55:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:27
Speaker
So me for investing, what I look at nowadays is I look for cash flow.
00:55:30
Speaker
I feel like cash flow is the holy grail of all business.
00:55:33
Speaker
I want to see cash flowing assets that will actually pay me dividends throughout the year.
00:55:39
Speaker
Monthly is the best.
00:55:41
Speaker
Quarterly is the second best.
00:55:42
Speaker
Semi-annually, eh.
00:55:44
Speaker
Annually, eh.
00:55:45
Speaker
So I'd rather have cash flow producing investments that can pay me now.
00:55:49
Speaker
And I also like investments that are very tax efficient that can help me lower my tax liability.
00:55:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:55
Speaker
If I'm trading my paper, my USD for paper, meaning the stock market, I'm just trading paper for paper.
00:56:01
Speaker
And I don't really have that much of a true tangible asset.
00:56:04
Speaker
I just have a paper holding.
00:56:07
Speaker
And the stocks can go like this.
00:56:09
Speaker
And what happens with stocks, quite often, we're not very disciplined.
00:56:13
Speaker
We buy when it's hyped.
00:56:15
Speaker
And then we buy when we're scared.
00:56:18
Speaker
Or we sell when we're scared.
00:56:19
Speaker
So what is that?
00:56:20
Speaker
If we're buying on the hype, you're buying high.
00:56:22
Speaker
You're paying high.
00:56:24
Speaker
you're overpaying.
00:56:25
Speaker
And then if you sell when you're scared and when you feel like the stock is tanking, then you're selling at a low price.
00:56:32
Speaker
And then you do that and then people just say, oh, investing's not for me.
00:56:37
Speaker
So I say this all the time.
00:56:38
Speaker
There's no such thing as a good investment, only good investors.
00:56:43
Speaker
So you have to become a good investor first, understand the investment,
00:56:47
Speaker
Know what a good buy looks like.
00:56:49
Speaker
Know what a good liquidity event looks like.
00:56:52
Speaker
And know what you're after.
00:56:53
Speaker
Today, I'm 47 years old.
00:56:55
Speaker
I've taken my moonshots.
00:56:56
Speaker
I have, like I said, a lot of different investments.
00:56:59
Speaker
Today, I only buy or I only invest in things that give me cash flow.
00:57:05
Speaker
And the things that I buy today pay me monthly.
00:57:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:09
Speaker
So back then, when you first got started in investing, what were some of your first investments?
00:57:15
Speaker
Traditional investing.
00:57:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:17
Speaker
Just what everybody else does.
00:57:19
Speaker
I didn't have the education.
00:57:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:22
Speaker
But I wanted to invest.
00:57:23
Speaker
I knew that dollars in my bank account were going to be worth less and less every single day due to inflation.
00:57:28
Speaker
So I invested in the basic stuff.
00:57:31
Speaker
I'd buy a few stocks here.
00:57:32
Speaker
I'd put money in my employee stock ownership plan, put money in a 401k, which is terrible advice now that I know about all the fees and all the restrictions that I had to be able to utilize my own money.
00:57:44
Speaker
and what the government's doing with my money, with the bonds and the treasuries and everything else.
00:57:49
Speaker
But I've invested in it all, but it's just me reading and creating networks and going to seminars and studying and then investing myself and then creating my own investment thesis that puts me where I am today.
00:58:01
Speaker
Again, when you're first starting,
00:58:03
Speaker
Like my dad didn't teach me how to invest.
00:58:05
Speaker
He didn't invest.
00:58:06
Speaker
He doesn't know how to invest.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:08
Speaker
And then you just have to start figuring it out, getting around the right circles, having the right mentors, reading the right books.
00:58:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:14
Speaker
And then just digging really deep and then understanding it so well that you can invest with certainty.
00:58:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:20
Speaker
Right?
00:58:21
Speaker
Where you want to be anti-cyclical.
00:58:23
Speaker
You want to be, like I said, very tax efficient and where you want to be able to see cash flow.
00:58:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:28
Speaker
Quite often when guys invest, they're basically giving the people that they're investing with an interest-free loan.
00:58:34
Speaker
So they're not seeing checks throughout the process.
00:58:37
Speaker
Sure, you get equity, but where am I seeing my money?
00:58:40
Speaker
So even if I'm doing an equity deal now, I do preferred equity.
00:58:43
Speaker
Where I'm getting almost like debt terms, but I'm also getting equity in my deal.
00:58:49
Speaker
That's when I do private equity.
00:58:50
Speaker
And then when I do a real estate, the way real estate works is you're getting all those benefits from the onset because you have cash flow via your rents, your NOI.
00:59:00
Speaker
You have depreciation because you can do a cost segregation study and you can take bonus accelerated depreciation.
00:59:06
Speaker
You have durable revenue because once you get a tenant inside your building, they're durable, they're going to stay in there.
00:59:11
Speaker
It's not like a restaurant.
00:59:12
Speaker
I own restaurants too, but you have to open your doors every single day and hope and pray that your customer base will come through and purchase.
00:59:18
Speaker
Same with solar.
00:59:19
Speaker
If you're not knocking doors and creating accounts,
00:59:22
Speaker
You're not going to collect.
00:59:23
Speaker
You're a dancing bear.
00:59:24
Speaker
You only get paid when you're dancing.
00:59:26
Speaker
So I like doable revenue.
00:59:28
Speaker
I like tenant pay down where my tenant is paying down my principal, paying down my interest.
00:59:32
Speaker
And then I have a really good exit strategy in which doesn't require me to sell the building.
00:59:37
Speaker
Because you take on debt, good debt by the way, it's good leverage at really good percentage points, better than single family residences.
00:59:45
Speaker
And then when you hit a certain level in NOI and occupancy, then I can go to the agency, Freddie, Fannie, et cetera, do a cash out refinance, get my money back in my pocket tax-free because you don't pay taxes on debt.
00:59:55
Speaker
And I'm still collecting checks every month and I still own my assets, still in the building, but my cash is back in my pocket.
01:00:00
Speaker
So it's a really powerful strategy, but it's taken me a while to learn it and get it to a point where it's awesome.
01:00:07
Speaker
It just takes time, just like recruiting, just like selling, just like everything else.
01:00:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:11
Speaker
That's cool.
01:00:11
Speaker
So if guys want to learn more about investing, I know in your investing, do you have other people do the investments with you?
01:00:20
Speaker
I allow co-invest.
01:00:22
Speaker
I allow people to participate alongside with me.
01:00:24
Speaker
I put my money in first.
01:00:25
Speaker
They can come load their money on top.
01:00:27
Speaker
They can take part of all the depreciation I take part of.
01:00:29
Speaker
I share everything pro rata.
01:00:30
Speaker
Okay.
01:00:31
Speaker
And they can go visit my website.
01:00:32
Speaker
I think it's studio168productions.com.
01:00:35
Speaker
Nice.
01:00:35
Speaker
They can follow my podcast, which is Lifestyle or Lifestyle.
01:00:39
Speaker
Live Life by Design.
01:00:40
Speaker
Sorry.
01:00:41
Speaker
It's on YouTube.
01:00:42
Speaker
But there's a lot of different resources out there.
01:00:44
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:45
Speaker
Cool.
01:00:45
Speaker
Cool.
01:00:46
Speaker
Happy to help out wherever I can.
01:00:47
Speaker
Appreciate that.
01:00:48
Speaker
So, yeah, guys, go give Jeff a follow.
01:00:50
Speaker
And, yeah, social media.
01:00:52
Speaker
What are you?
01:00:53
Speaker
Poppy Mendez or something?
01:00:54
Speaker
I think it's Jeffrey Mendez Poppy.
01:00:56
Speaker
It's not that hard to find.
01:00:57
Speaker
Okay.
01:00:57
Speaker
They call you Poppy because you're like the dad to everyone.
01:01:00
Speaker
So I'm from Puerto Rico and Poppy's utilize like that, that nickname is heavily utilized.
01:01:06
Speaker
Like I've had friends that are Poppy, Papito, Papote, Papiting, Papichulo.
01:01:12
Speaker
So, um,
01:01:15
Speaker
I think it was like 07 around there.
01:01:17
Speaker
One of the guys, hey, Poppy.
01:01:19
Speaker
And then it just caught and then everybody, a lot of people call me Poppy now.
01:01:23
Speaker
Because of the Puerto Rico thing.
01:01:24
Speaker
Plus, I was older at the time.
01:01:25
Speaker
I had four kids.
01:01:27
Speaker
So like, oh, he's Poppy.
01:01:28
Speaker
He's the old guy.
01:01:29
Speaker
I was wondering because I did my church mission down in Colombia.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:33
Speaker
Like they called like the little kids Poppy.
01:01:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:36
Speaker
In Puerto Rico, it's poppy everything.
01:01:38
Speaker
It's everybody's poppy.
01:01:40
Speaker
Oh, they'll say, poppy, come here.
01:01:42
Speaker
Poppy, poppy.
01:01:44
Speaker
They don't even know you.
01:01:44
Speaker
Poppy, come here.
01:01:46
Speaker
So people know that.
01:01:47
Speaker
So they call me poppy.
01:01:47
Speaker
But I'm like the OG poppy of Utah, I guess.
01:01:51
Speaker
My Puerto Rican friends laugh at it.
01:01:53
Speaker
But here it's endearing.
01:01:54
Speaker
Here it's cool.
01:01:55
Speaker
We'll take it.
01:01:57
Speaker
Cool.
01:01:57
Speaker
Well, Jeff, thanks again for coming on.
01:01:59
Speaker
My pleasure.
01:02:00
Speaker
Guys, shoot him a DM.
01:02:02
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated him coming on.
01:02:04
Speaker
Go follow his podcast.
01:02:05
Speaker
He's got some great content coming out.
01:02:07
Speaker
What are you like?
01:02:08
Speaker
Five episodes in?
01:02:09
Speaker
Yep.
01:02:10
Speaker
And a lot more to come.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yep.
01:02:11
Speaker
So every, I think weekly, weekly, you're dropping new content.
01:02:15
Speaker
So go give his podcast a follow already some incredible guests he sat on.
01:02:19
Speaker
And yeah, I know we could do more.
01:02:22
Speaker
Hopefully we'll have you on in the future, talk more in investing, some of this other stuff.
01:02:25
Speaker
Let's do it.
Conclusion and Resources
01:02:26
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on.
01:02:27
Speaker
Appreciate the invite.
01:02:28
Speaker
Much love to you guys.
01:02:29
Speaker
Thank you.
01:02:29
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
01:02:31
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
01:02:32
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.
01:02:43
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
01:02:50
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
01:02:53
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
01:02:58
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 Solopreneur.
01:03:11
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
01:03:13
Speaker
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01:03:16
Speaker
especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
01:03:20
Speaker
So go download it right now.
01:03:21
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
01:03:25
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
01:03:30
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
01:03:33
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
01:03:34
Speaker
Go download it right now.
01:03:37
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
01:03:42
Speaker
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01:03:43
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.