Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Okay, I'm excited for this podcast.
Speaker: We got someone that I actually hired back in the day.
Speaker: We worked together a long time and now I'm back working with him and he is actually my manager now.
Speaker: He is a recently newly promoted regional manager over here at Legacy, future probably VP president.
Speaker: This guy's taking off like crazy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So such an honor to have the one and only Tyler Anderson on the podcast.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on, my man.
Speaker: Thank you, Taylor.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Solopreneur, for having me, brother.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's been a long time coming.
Speaker: And yeah, it's just, you know, one of those...
Speaker: uh full circle moments like i just remember back in the day i know i tell every person we meet pretty much but you just showing up in the full suit three-piece suits i'm doing the interview for you um brought you on it new power was the company of the time and just from day one i'm like man this guy's a stud he's like the only guy to show up in a suit no doubt he's gonna have successors
Speaker: And yeah, sure enough, you crush it.
Speaker: You know, I think we're kind of capped in your growth.
Speaker: So I know you went on to bigger and better things.
Speaker: But hey, it's like you said, all roads lead to the legacy, I guess, at some point.
Speaker: Yes, sir.
Speaker: Yes, sir.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've recently coined that term in this in this, you know, ever evolving industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: where much like the cell phone industry, it was somewhat ambiguous while it was taking its hard form.
Speaker: And all the cell phone roads that ended up leading to big players like AT&T, Verizon, yada, yada.
Speaker: And as the solar industry takes its hard form, it appears to me like legacy is the river.
Speaker: And the rest of the solar industry are the estuaries that lead into the Legacy River, right?
Speaker: So all roads in solar lead to Legacy is my recent term.
Speaker: And I promise this wasn't meant to be just a legacy promo, but I think it just goes, especially when we're recording this, 2024 times have changed with solar.
Speaker: We've seen just recently some of the bigger companies just disappear.
Speaker: We just lost some power.
Speaker: Titan was before that.
Speaker: And I think now more than ever, it's important to be with companies that you can put full confidence in that aren't just going to like, you know, go bankrupt, not pay you when the first financial difficulty, however you say that comes up.
Speaker: And so that's part of what attracted me to Legacy.
Speaker: And I think for any rep listening, if you are...
Speaker: seeing some red flags it's not a bad idea to get with a company that has been around and you know can go through this through those struggles yeah yeah so right right the um the so in an evolving newer industry right you see a lot of people come up that want to want to play the game but they don't know how
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so there are a lot, I mean, just countless thousands and thousands of sales reps that are working for companies that you're seeing red flags right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But, you know, when you're a loyal person, loyalty comes comes into play big time.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: With your with your career success, with your success of growing a team, growing roots.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, we all know about like that watering the soil you stand in.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The unfortunate part is that you also need, you can't just live like that.
Speaker: You need to look at red flags, right?
Speaker: And red flags will tell a tale, right?
Speaker: And so, you know, we are in a very evolving industry and it's, you know, it's important to look at other industries and how they took their hard form so you can see the pattern of what's going to happen, what will continue to happen in the solar industry, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Well, I'm sure we'll talk more about that.
Speaker: But before we get too deep in the weeds here, I wanted to hear just the question I like to ask everyone is how you got into solar.
Speaker: I already kind of gave part of your story.
Speaker: You showed up to the interview.
Speaker: But, yeah, I think what we'll talk about today, we'll see where the conversation takes us.
Speaker: But something I've seen in Tyler, he's really good at just growing his teams,
Speaker: He's really good at just like inspiring other people, helping develop leaders.
Speaker: And that's one of his strengths here at Legacy is he's been the person that can like just help other guys develop.
Speaker: He's helped me develop a lot and he's just like empowered other leaders.
Speaker: And that's one of the ways that I think, you know, well-deserved, promoted as a regional just recently.
Speaker: And so, yeah, we'll definitely talk about that and how other people can help inspire others in their teams, grow their teams.
Speaker: But yeah, you want to give us just your little background for people that maybe don't know too much about you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So thank you for the intro, by the way.
Speaker: So, so, um, uh, yes.
Speaker: So I, I am in my twenties.
Speaker: I was a personal trainer.
Speaker: going way back.
Speaker: At 22 years old, I decided to do a bodybuilding show.
Speaker: I just wanted to compete in something again.
Speaker: I was always an athlete growing up.
Speaker: Being an athlete, it's important to keep pouring into that athletic part of you and compete in something as an adult.
Speaker: I had been part of sales teams in the past, and so I knew the value of being on a sales team.
Speaker: You can treat your sales career like it's your sport.
Speaker: So I saw solar.
Speaker: I learned about solar.
Speaker: It was an emerging sales industry, sales-based industry.
Speaker: So I got into solar, put on my three-piece suit,
Speaker: showed up to the very first interview I could get in the solar industry.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, um, and, uh, Mr. This, this gentleman, Taylor Armstrong was there, you know, had a lanyard on, had an iPad under his arm and, you know, he was ready to knock on doors.
Speaker: Um, but so, um, you know,
Speaker: I wanted my, here's the crazy thing is that my original plan and when I got into solar was that, you know, my plan was to get into being a boot on the ground on one side of solar.
Speaker: I had a partner that was going to get in through a different avenue so he could learn solar a different way.
Speaker: And then we had a two-year exit plan to where we were in two years, we were going to open our own dealership.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I had come from the mortgage industry as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I understood being a broker of different services.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And being a broker in the mortgage industry, you're a broker of, you know, you're not a mortgage broker, but you're deciding, you know,
Speaker: who you're, you know, which bank is going to finance your customer, right?
Speaker: And then you're finding the best solution for them.
Speaker: And so when I found the solar industry, it just made sense to me, right?
Speaker: And so the one thing that doesn't make sense to me, and, you know, we quickly learned at our first company was that it doesn't make sense to...
Speaker: It doesn't make sense to do everything in one house, right?
Speaker: To do the installations, to manage the sales teams, and then to also have the financial relationships with the financing partners.
Speaker: And that's what we've seen happening in the solar industry.
Speaker: But so fast forward.
Speaker: About a year into solar at the in-house shop that we came from, I decided, hey, you know, I want to break out into this solar brokering atmosphere.
Speaker: I heard about, you know, I heard about these things called PPAs, right?
Speaker: And so, you know, I wanted to become a solar broker.
Speaker: So I ventured out, you know, and that was when a lot of us kind of went different ways, right?
Speaker: And then came back, right?
Speaker: Our rather big group of us that are all working together again.
Speaker: But so, you know, the crazy thing is that when you decide to become a solar broker, you have to change.
Speaker: You have to elevate, right?
Speaker: You just jumped out of a pond that you can see all the edges.
Speaker: You know where all the land is, right?
Speaker: You're selling one thing and one thing only.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If I sell Fords, all I have to know is about Fords.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But if but so now when you get into the solar brokering atmosphere, all of a sudden you have this thing called optionality.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And optionality will, you know, it can it can, you know, it can start to break you mentally if you let it, but it will ultimately make your career.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: because every time you find a customer that can't go to, you know, can't go through finance or a, B or C, well, Hey Jim, Sally, I have finance or D that you do fit into.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's where it all made sense to me a lot like the mortgage industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, um, so now, you know,
Speaker: The only problem with that was when I got into solar brokering, I went to the wrong brokerage.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And so, you know, one of the funny parts about about any sales team and, you know, you have to be in sales for a little while to understand this and really, truly let it let it absorb into you.
Speaker: The success of the team can only be as big as the dream, the vision, the drive and the motivation, the support of the leadership that leads that team.
Speaker: So, you know, came to Legacy about three years ago.
Speaker: You know, our senior director, John Soriano, recruited me and my team over to Legacy Power.
Speaker: At that time, there were only three of us, right?
Speaker: Myself and one closer and one setter that I was leading at the time.
Speaker: Now, three years later, I have three teams.
Speaker: We've developed three teams, one in Atlantic City, one in Chicago, and then we have our mega team here in San Diego, right?
Speaker: Where we're roughly around 230 sales reps.
Speaker: uh doing doing uh approaching 300 sales a month it's blowing up man yeah but no i definitely agree with that and i think that's one piece of advice i give a lot of people that are saying oh which company should i join and all that because yeah it's it's nice having the brokerage stuff but also in my opinion i think even more you should look like who's behind the wheel who's driving the
Speaker: the ship, right?
Speaker: Who's the pilot?
Speaker: Yes, sir.
Speaker: Because for me, it's like, you know, I had always had this kind of stigma.
Speaker: I don't want to go join like a bigger company.
Speaker: I want to be like the big fish in the small pond.
Speaker: And that held me back for a long time.
Speaker: And then, of course, I'm like, oh, why would I come?
Speaker: I hired Tyler.
Speaker: Why would I come work like under Tyler now?
Speaker: So I think a lot of us, we let like, you know, pride, ego get in the way.
Speaker: But I think for me, once I like, you know, looked at the situation and saw, you know, you crushing it, saw General John, guys like Jake Ransom, Mike Brand, a lot of people that just have a ton of success, can sell at a really high level.
Speaker: And so, yeah, for me, it's more of like, who's who?
Speaker: What's the company?
Speaker: Where are the people who you want to strive to be like or we want to try to become more like?
Speaker: And I saw in what a lot of you guys were doing.
Speaker: So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know, good thing for people maybe to consider.
Speaker: My man, my man.
Speaker: Come work with us.
Speaker: Yeah, that was that was a huge blessing when you decided to plant your flag with us, brother.
Speaker: You know, and, you know, so it's it.
Speaker: And that's the wild thing about it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Is that
Speaker: Is that, you know, I was a big fish in my very first pond in solar, right?
Speaker: Our first company together.
Speaker: My second company was the first solar brokerage that I worked at, right?
Speaker: And I have some things to say about that.
Speaker: It wasn't a true solar brokerage because you didn't have multiple installers.
Speaker: Without multiple installers, doesn't matter if you have multiple financers, without multiple installers, you're not a true solar broker because that one installer is controlling whether or not you get installs, right?
Speaker: But so besides that, you know, when I first, you know, to go back on what we were talking about, so...
Speaker: When I first stepped into the solar industry, and you interviewed me, hired me.
Speaker: Thank you for that, by the way.
Speaker: It's been a good seven years.
Speaker: I was hired under a 19-year-old first manager, and we both know the man well.
Speaker: I also had to really put my ego away.
Speaker: At this time, I was 30 years old.
Speaker: I was a top Mr. Olympia contender in professional bodybuilding.
Speaker: When I do things, I win.
Speaker: I have this champion mindset of when I do something, I'm setting out to dominate it.
Speaker: Not just compete, but to dominate.
Speaker: It's really crazy, these times that you look back in your career and
Speaker: And you can be incredibly grateful that you put the ego aside.
Speaker: And I put that ego aside when I first stepped into solar and that's the only way I got here now.
Speaker: And so it's really big that, you know, it's really big when someone
Speaker: puts the ego aside, maybe puts the preconceived notion of, hey, I want to be a bigger fish in a small pond.
Speaker: And it's funny how much bigger of a fish you become because you need the ocean.
Speaker: You need that growing room, right?
Speaker: And that's what's happened with us over here, right?
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's been good.
Speaker: Yeah, just like, yeah, you don't know what you don't know, but it's like you don't really know the growth you can have till you step into it.
Speaker: And so I'm glad I did because, yeah, it's just been a lot easier to grow a team.
Speaker: Well, yeah, when I came on, I was just trying to do everything myself, too.
Speaker: It's like I was recruiting, I was training, hiring, trying to train new setters, run all the closers.
Speaker: So I don't know that I think that's really valuable, especially the times we're in now, just to have like help with all that.
Speaker: Like I don't have to do everything.
Speaker: There's systems in place.
Speaker: And so I don't know, maybe people are listening where they're a smaller company, but I think for us, it's helped a lot.
Speaker: We have like boot camps for new people to come into.
Speaker: I don't have to run these boot camps.
Speaker: Like I just hired a new setter today.
Speaker: I can send him tomorrow and he can get trained A to Z, the steps for solar.
Speaker: So yeah, it's just like helps a lot with the systems processes we have in place.
Speaker: And yeah, I think that's something that you've set up pretty, pretty well within our team.
Speaker: Been able to organize it.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you, brother.
Speaker: The systems, you know, the, there are, there are always going to be pinch points in your development process.
Speaker: right and the only way to overcome a pinch point is to create a system around it right and so yeah it's i mean that's another big factor of being at a being at the um you know being the the fish whatever size fish you are but choosing to be in the ocean rather than in a small pond um you know when you're in the ocean guess what there are a lot more other fish around
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, and so, you know, for our team meetings, um, you know, I've, I've also been at shops where.
Speaker: where I was running the entire meeting, training, closing, running setters, doing it all.
Speaker: And then it's like, hey, you turn around and you're like, wow, my day is gone.
Speaker: And I needed to go spend some time recruiting.
Speaker: I needed to spend some time on this system or developing this sales rep.
Speaker: And there are just so many hours in the day for one human.
Speaker: and um you know that's been a huge part of our explosive growth uh here in southern california for legacy power under under valor um you know with john soriano is is that um you know here in our san diego office for example you know we have six leaders that are running the show and so um you know
Speaker: what that does is it frees up time for you to live out one of our Valor values, which is you can have it all right.
Speaker: And, you know, faith, family, fitness and finances, you can't, you can't keep all four of those afloat, you know, without without some help along the way.
Speaker: And, you know, so
Speaker: A lot like how we built this great team around you.
Speaker: And now the responsibilities that you take care of free me up to recruit and get more people in to build around you and whatnot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, but the systems will pave the way.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So, yeah, I want to talk about, because you started at Legacy, what, in 2021, was it?
Speaker: Three years ago now.
Speaker: Three years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, and if people know stuff about Legacy, especially here in San Diego, I mean, I know the team was smaller when you joined, but...
Speaker: Something that I've come to respect here, it's like you don't just get given a title.
Speaker: And that's why actually some people leave Legacies because it's not easy to be a manager, it's not easy to get promoted in these next levels.
Speaker: And you actually have to like, there's a lot of people fighting and you have to hit some pretty higher metrics than most other companies.
Speaker: So for you, three years, I mean, that's pretty impressive to already be like running an entire region, got three teams.
Speaker: So I don't know, maybe from like a higher level, what are some things that you think have really helped you to grow your teams and just like progress probably a lot quicker than most people would?
Speaker: What are some main things that have helped?
Speaker: So like one, the biggest thing that I think really like carried me through
Speaker: through this fast of growth, right, and this explosive of growth is to never let your
Speaker: You know, never let your main thing stop being your main thing.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so, um, you see a lot of leaders, a lot of, you see a lot of great sales reps that become an ADM and then they're, you know, you're an assistant manager.
Speaker: So, you know, you have some responsibility and then they stop selling solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, you know, or, or, hey, maybe the ADM kept selling solar and then, and, you know, and leading their team and, but then they got that DM promotion, district manager, and then now they're, so, you know, and then now they're not selling solar anymore.
Speaker: So the, you know, one thing I think, you know,
Speaker: that we do really well here in Valor, right?
Speaker: Valor being our division within Legacy Power.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Is that to become a leader in Valor, you still have your sales metrics, right?
Speaker: And they're not easy metrics.
Speaker: To be an assistant district manager in Valor is essentially the same metric as a regional manager at most other sales companies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: right and so you know with that said we know that when you have a title here you've earned it you have earned earned it right and so um you know what you've also earned is you know you've earned your your place among a ring of incredibly you know incredibly high performing people high temperature people right you know uh ed mulett's thermostat right um but so
Speaker: With that being said, to work your way into leadership at a typical company, you're not really getting yourself around in that room of people.
Speaker: But when you work your way into leadership here, it's a room.
Speaker: It is high temperature.
Speaker: These are high performing people.
Speaker: They want to do bigger, greater things together.
Speaker: And so it's really wild, you know, when you make it hard to get into it, right?
Speaker: It makes the quality of that room so much better, right?
Speaker: And so what does it do?
Speaker: In turn, it makes people that are not in that room yet fight harder to get there because they know there's more value in that room, right?
Speaker: So, you know, we've done a really great thing how we've set up our metrics.
Speaker: And the great thing here in Valor, our division, is that, you know, within Legacy, is that we don't prevent promotion.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: There's no emotion behind your promotion, right, is what we like to say.
Speaker: So what that is, is we took just a short note out of, you know, out of the, like,
Speaker: uh, network marketing structures, right?
Speaker: Where, you know, network marketing, you invite people in, um, one, they have to pay to, they have to pay to join, right?
Speaker: Network marketing kind of thing.
Speaker: Like there's none of that here, you know, that, but, um, so, you know, we just took the, the ability to promote yourself, right?
Speaker: Network marketing, you bring people in, you help them learn how to sell and that's now your team.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so the more you build that you, the more you, the more you elevate yourself,
Speaker: Now, in most companies, most solar companies, most sales organizations, you know, realty shops, real estate, anything, you know, that's a high ticket sale.
Speaker: To become a leader, you have to wait for someone to quit or change industries or pass on or something crazy, but you have to wait for a spot to open up.
Speaker: And you know this very well, what we've done is we take away the emotion and the subjectivity behind your promotion by opening up room.
Speaker: We create room for you to grow.
Speaker: And then as you grow, once you hit those metrics, that's now you're that leader, right?
Speaker: Now, there are some other organizations that I've seen that have this type of model.
Speaker: You know, one really big organization that we, you know, that we also sell their product.
Speaker: You know, you can DM us to get the name of that company.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: What they do is they're very, very hard on you once you make it to that level.
Speaker: Once you hit leadership, they're almost looking for every way to pull you out of leadership.
Speaker: And that is not a healthy place to be either.
Speaker: So what we do, we make it incredibly, it's a good number.
Speaker: You gotta be like a leader.
Speaker: to be a leader in legacy power, right?
Speaker: And you know that.
Speaker: And so the one thing I think we also do really well that I don't see other shops do is we support you in keeping you there, right?
Speaker: I've seen that other company, you know, DM us, right?
Speaker: I've seen that other company remove people from leadership as soon as they got there.
Speaker: And what that did is that made that high performing, very good leader in solar, this person that should be celebrated, should be leading other people in that way.
Speaker: I've seen that person get removed from leadership right away and then run away.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So what are they going to do there?
Speaker: That's because like they weren't kept in leadership because they weren't supported by their leaders.
Speaker: And so, you know, that's one of the most phenomenal parts about Valor, legacy Valor is that our directors.
Speaker: do an incredible job of supporting your management career so that the managers can do an incredible job of supporting their closers careers.
Speaker: And then the closers can do an incredible job of supporting their setters careers, you know?
Speaker: And so we have this very strong, like very strong, strong from, you know, from the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top, you know, shoulder to shoulder working and, you know, QT.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: And yeah, like just to echo that, I think what's really huge here is other companies I've been with.
Speaker: It's like you're not really leading any other any anyone else unless you're actually a manager or something.
Speaker: But here it's really cool.
Speaker: You have squads and everyone's learning how to be a leader, even if they're not there yet.
Speaker: Um, just cause yeah, I mean, we got 150, 200 guys coming in meetings and all that.
Speaker: So obviously you can't lead all these people too.
Speaker: Um, yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker: We take a page out of, uh, uh, extreme ownership and I read that book, but he talks about one person usually can't effectively lead more than like nine or 10 guys, something like that.
Speaker: He talks about.
Speaker: So, yeah, even when I stepped in, it's not like I came from managing a team.
Speaker: I technically got, you know, I guess demoted.
Speaker: I wasn't managing people when I came here, but I realized pretty quickly that even though I don't have the title, that doesn't mean I'm not able to lead people.
Speaker: And also having those higher requirements to actually hit numbers to become a manager, to become a leader.
Speaker: It forces you because you can't really hit those numbers by accident.
Speaker: I don't think anyone here is just like accidentally recruit enough people and hit this sales metrics to become a leader.
Speaker: So I'm like, okay, well, if I actually want the title, then I actually have to like be conscious about this and be doing the stuff that the managers are already doing.
Speaker: So it's like, even though I don't have the title necessarily, it's like we're still running weekly meetings for our squad.
Speaker: We're still have like a separate group chat for all our guys.
Speaker: I'm still doing check ins.
Speaker: Yeah, because I think that was a big mistake that probably stunted my growth area a little bit is I'm just like, oh, I'm not a manager.
Speaker: So cool.
Speaker: I don't have to like check in with anybody.
Speaker: I don't have to do squad calls with my guys.
Speaker: I don't have to report it.
Speaker: I just have to report to Tyler.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sure it was fun when you first came over to let someone else run.
Speaker: It's like, sweet, I'm a free agent.
Speaker: It's funny, I've seen that a ton when we first bring a leader over from another company.
Speaker: Very, very rarely have brought someone a leader from another company and then just given them the title.
Speaker: They have to come over with a very, very big team in order for that to happen.
Speaker: So what we most often do is we recruit a leader over with their team, and then they're a...
Speaker: more or less like an interim manager, right?
Speaker: They have six months to hit a certain metric and then become the full-fledged manager.
Speaker: But what that does is it maintains that earned, not given form of growth within us.
Speaker: And so now, so what, you know, one incredible thing that we've done together is, you know, we've broken up our Valor Wolf Pack, you know, and we've broken that up into, you know,
Speaker: into captain's teams.
Speaker: And so one of the greatest ways, you know, it's, I love, I love when people talk about, you know, how Jesus only had 12 disciples, right?
Speaker: And he only had 12 disciples because that's what he as one man was meant to take, meant to share the message with those 12.
Speaker: And then those 12 were meant to share the message with, you know, 12 each and so on and so forth.
Speaker: And that's how you get the message across to the masses.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: you know it's also how the military is run right and um and so you know our senior leader uh john soriano marine and uh you know and that's why we're the valor division i love that i get to wear valor on my chest but one you know i i love taking notes out of both of those books right you know and um
Speaker: I hope everybody takes notes out of the Bible, right?
Speaker: But those two books, right?
Speaker: The, you know, how the greatest organization in the human, the greatest, largest organization in human history is Christianity, right?
Speaker: And it started with one man, 12 disciples, right?
Speaker: That's the greatest, largest organization in human history, right?
Speaker: If you're not taking some page out of that book, you're missing out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Hopefully you take all the pages.
Speaker: But so now let's look at the strongest force in the world today is the American military.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: If we're looking at the strongest force on the planet,
Speaker: you know, take some notes out of that book, right?
Speaker: And so what do they do?
Speaker: They also have a chain of command.
Speaker: They also have, they don't have any one person taking care of more than, you know, more individuals than they can handle, right?
Speaker: And so the way the military works is you generally only have like three to five people that you're leading.
Speaker: And then those three to five people might have three to five people themselves, right?
Speaker: Each.
Speaker: And so
Speaker: You know, and I could be off.
Speaker: I wasn't in the military.
Speaker: Don't let the haircut fool you.
Speaker: But so, you know, I just grew up in San Diego.
Speaker: But so the, you know, the greatest page from that book is just that you should not be trying to get your message across to more people than you can fully communicate with people.
Speaker: and have a very good, fulfilling relationship with.
Speaker: As I was becoming a leader that could build other leaders, it was important that whatever I had done to get to that point was gifted down and gifted to my people that I'm leading.
Speaker: And, you know, and then that transfer of knowledge, that transfer of ability gets transferred to the people that they bring in, so on and so forth.
Speaker: And what that does is it alleviates time, energy, and passion, right?
Speaker: Like, you know, you only have so much passion each day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Until you're spent.
Speaker: But all those ingredients that it takes to develop a new skill, it freed me up to develop the skill of now expanding my recruiting so that I can feed more into our captain's teams and becoming more innovative, thinking outside of the box.
Speaker: Hey, we're a door-to-door industry.
Speaker: We'll never not be a door-to-door.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But there are some other ways that we can maybe feed some fun, feed some appointments, you know, drive up some business as the solar industry is becoming more evolved.
Speaker: But it all starts.
Speaker: I can't do that unless I transfer my abilities to the people that I'm leading.
Speaker: And it's that that like discipleship, right?
Speaker: Like your disciples.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then as long as you take great care of those disciples, you're also learning how to take great care of their disciples.
Speaker: The U.S. military, you know, each branch of the military started with a handful of people, you know.
Speaker: And so that handful of people is now up in the thousands and thousands, you know, and has become the strongest force on the planet.
Speaker: So that along with the, you know, the biggest following on earth, right?
Speaker: The biggest following in human history, right?
Speaker: If Jesus only had an Instagram.
Speaker: But, but yeah, so, you know, I really love those two ideals when we're thinking about how we delegate, how we, you know, grow rings and how we transfer the knowledge and education and ability to our, to the people we're leading.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we were gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called SolarScout.
Speaker: But it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
Speaker: It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first two SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: Yeah, that's so good.
Speaker: And yeah, so I think for those listening, just the lesson I had to learn was you got to start acting like the leader before you become the leader.
Speaker: At least you should.
Speaker: Because yeah, that's otherwise be put in a leadership position, you're gonna have to start from scratch, learn everything.
Speaker: So I think anyone listening, wherever you're at, you should definitely start leading other people, even if you haven't been told to because that's the people want to be led, right?
Speaker: They want to they want someone to follow.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: And so if you can show that you're that person, it's only going to help you grow.
Speaker: And then I think it's going to help you sell way more too, because whenever I feel like I'm responsible for people are leading it, I'm sure same for you.
Speaker: You feel like you got to get out there and also lead from the front.
Speaker: So I know the times where I'm not producing as much are times when I feel like I don't have to show up for anybody.
Speaker: I just have to lead myself.
Speaker: I can disappoint myself, but I can't disappoint other people.
Speaker: It's easy.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Very important.
Speaker: I'm curious to hear for you, Ty, what's it been like?
Speaker: I know it's pretty recent that you, you know, are over a whole region now.
Speaker: So is there any, have there been any adjustments you've had to make, like stepping into leading more people, more teams?
Speaker: What's that transition been like for you?
Speaker: So, yeah, I love that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: that question because that's been one of the newer challenges right and so i i would say as any as a growing leader um one of the biggest challenges is understanding how how and when to transition yourself away from uh being the sales rabbit being the highest volume on your team right because to develop um
Speaker: to develop the fellowship with the people you lead, where you no longer are looked at as the person that can be like the high salesperson, right?
Speaker: Because, you know, the five levels of leadership,
Speaker: One of the greatest ways to build your following and for people to buy into your leadership is to go do the thing.
Speaker: Now, as a regional manager, I'm still selling solar.
Speaker: A lot of solar companies, the district managers aren't selling solar, let alone the regionals.
Speaker: I still think it's funny when a setter calls me and I answer and he goes, wow,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I go, hey, I'm not in some ivory tower.
Speaker: I'm a boot on the ground with you guys.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's how I've always that's how I've grown the biggest like the biggest brotherhood, the biggest like buy in in both directions.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Loyalty and honor amongst us.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I would say one of the hardest transitions has been has been actually transitioning away from that mindset.
Speaker: Now, as a growing leader, when you're growing your team and like people follow somebody they want to be like, if you stop selling solar, they don't want to be like you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They don't want to be the sit at home and text type manager.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because they're not a manager anyway.
Speaker: They want to see what you're doing and do what you're doing.
Speaker: And so that's a very tricky transition.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because, you know, a lot of a lot of like the like senior leaders in companies, they get way too disconnected from the actual sale.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And where you have your middle management, you know, your ADMs and DMs actually teaching the regionals and directors how to sell the product because the product has changed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so that's one thing, you know, and the biggest thing for me has been, you know, in order to stay relevant.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You need to stay relevant with the people you lead.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so to stay relevant and still be able to pull back on your sales, you need to be giving value in other ways.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you're not giving value by just being the guy that comes in and runs correlations.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so you need to be the one that's that that is you need to be the one recruiting for them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you need to be the one stacking your team, stacking their teams.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If you want to be a leader of leaders, you need to be adding the value in the other ways.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Maybe maybe filling you guys up with solar appointments, filling you guys up with sales reps, teaching you guys how to sell the new product.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Every time we get a new PPA under our belt, everyone's like, how do I sell that thing?
Speaker: And yeah.
Speaker: And so the leaders didn't need to go to action because it's our job to equip you guys.
Speaker: And so that's that's been a, you know, and it's been a humbling experience.
Speaker: I think every level up has been humbling in solar.
Speaker: But like you said, it's really important that you're developing your leadership skills for the next level before you have the title.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You don't you don't get given a title and then learn how to do the job.
Speaker: You get given the title because you've been doing the job.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so like yourself, you know, I mean, Taylor's just just phenomenal at running a team, phenomenal at bringing people in, teaching them the way, you know, keeping your sales volume very high.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, you know, and it shows because more and more people just want to keep coming in and doing life with you, you know, and so.
Speaker: What it all starts with, and the phrase that I like to use when I'm talking about developing leadership skills is I tell each person, I go, don't
Speaker: Don't develop your leadership skills.
Speaker: Don't ask for your leadership skills.
Speaker: Take, okay?
Speaker: Every time you're in that room, every time you're in the room, your entire correlation, you know, if you just come in and sit down and just look at the, you know, like you're acting like a student, right?
Speaker: And, but if you come in and you go, you walk around and, Hey, Hey, Hey, say hi to everybody.
Speaker: Don't be fake, be genuine, you know, but, but, but put some passion into your people.
Speaker: Ask how the job is going.
Speaker: Hey, how are you doing?
Speaker: How was knocking yesterday?
Speaker: What's that one objection that keeps catching you off guard?
Speaker: Let's fix it right now.
Speaker: And so what are you doing is you're not waiting for someone to tell you you're a leader so you can go lead others.
Speaker: You're taking your leadership.
Speaker: And so, yep, I always say, don't wait for it.
Speaker: Take it.
Speaker: Take your leadership.
Speaker: Nobody comes up and gives me an electric bill in the neighborhood.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Nobody comes up and says, hey, you, I need a lower electric bill.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so what do we do?
Speaker: We go out and we take our business.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's not it's not done in a negative way.
Speaker: It's not done.
Speaker: You know, it's very empowering and it builds us up because, you know, we're not fishermen.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Fishermen wait for a fish to bite their line.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hunters go out and find what they're looking for.
Speaker: They go find their meal.
Speaker: They find their way to eat.
Speaker: And so it's the same thing in leadership.
Speaker: You know, you don't wait for it.
Speaker: You take it.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: So, so good.
Speaker: But yeah, and I think it's to your point, like I know now you're dealing with way more responsibilities leading other people.
Speaker: So you have a lot less time to sell personally.
Speaker: I know you're still out there and everything, but something I see you add a lot of value into is just
Speaker: Knowing being a master at all the, you know, technical stuff, you're kind of the guy seems like I know everyone in the office when there's like something we don't know about a certain portal or whatever document.
Speaker: It's like everyone reaches up to Tyler and you're like the guy for that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, I think carving out like kind of your niche too, because we got a massive team, there's other managers and all that.
Speaker: So you don't necessarily have to be the guy that's still selling lights out the sells rabbit.
Speaker: Because I know I'm not there's lots of people that sell me in this office.
Speaker: But I think you have to still sell at a good level.
Speaker: You can't like not sell, but you still sell at a good level, but then carve out like how else can you add value?
Speaker: Maybe it's mastering the technical side.
Speaker: So everyone knows, okay, I'm going to go to Tyler when I have a question about this specific thing.
Speaker: or, you know, maybe it's like motivating people really well.
Speaker: And I think we have a good combination of that in our office.
Speaker: Cause you know, you got like Jack Pastrana who's been on the podcast does like 150 installs a year and all that.
Speaker: And it's just ridiculous.
Speaker: And you know, general John that is over all of us, he talks about that too.
Speaker: Like kind of the different leadership types you have in the office.
Speaker: You need someone that's like a sales rabbit.
Speaker: So I can't remember what the other ones are, but just like, you know, you got the sales rabbit, you got the culture creator.
Speaker: He got up there.
Speaker: There's seven, seven of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so what I've always tried to do is be well balanced in all of those.
Speaker: Um, but you can't, you're right.
Speaker: You can't be the sales rabbit and be well balanced and everything else.
Speaker: And so that was what I realized, uh, about two years ago I started.
Speaker: So, you know, I had been ramping up, ramping up my installs in the year.
Speaker: did 70 installs in 2022, but I had also been putting about 50% of my time into developing people, right?
Speaker: And so it's, you know, if you're putting half of your time into developing people, that's the other half of your installs that you could have got, right?
Speaker: And so that was in 22.
Speaker: And then in 2021, you know, and my team, the teams had been growing and growing.
Speaker: And so, you know, with more responsibility,
Speaker: I just took myself away from the field a little bit more.
Speaker: Now, like you said, being a master of the technical side.
Speaker: If you want to lead a lot of people, you need to answer your phone.
Speaker: You need to know when they're in home.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: One of the greatest ways that I've developed many, many closers and why I have, you know, we, we, we have some of the, you know, probably, probably the biggest like single leader squad as far as closers.
Speaker: Um, and so, you know, with somewhere around 30 closers now, the, um,
Speaker: the way that I've developed them is educating on, hey, you only really need to know 80% of what you're doing in each one of these portals.
Speaker: But you need to know how to call me when you're in home.
Speaker: Don't be shy.
Speaker: Now, here's the caveat, is that most leaders are not going to answer their phone right like that.
Speaker: But you're in home.
Speaker: And you're sitting across the table from a customer.
Speaker: They want to sign, but, you know, if you got to come back the next day or two days later or whatnot, the ether might have worn off.
Speaker: You normally lose the sale.
Speaker: So one of the greatest things is, hey, like your leader needs to be waiting for that phone call when you're a newer closer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so for the first like 10 to 15 deals, I have all of my closers specifically just text me when they're going to be in home.
Speaker: You know, hey, Ty, hey, I have I have 2 p.m., 4 p.m.
Speaker: and 6 p.m.
Speaker: today, you know, and I'll text back.
Speaker: Hey, cool.
Speaker: I'll jump on your call if I see it.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: You know, we've like I know you and I have had some of those conversations when you were first getting acclimated to legacy.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Um, you know, our, our optionality is, is, uh, can be intense.
Speaker: You know, we now have five PPAs that we offer and, uh, three different installers, five PPAs, you know, some purchase options.
Speaker: Um, if, you know, unless you've been under a rock for the last year, uh, you understand that nobody really buys solar anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: Especially in California.
Speaker: Yeah, especially in California with the batteries, right?
Speaker: You know, and then the other markets are, of course, going that way as well.
Speaker: But being a master on the technical side is, you know, is a huge part of my job because I don't expect every one of my closers to be a master on the technical side when you have five different PPAs and multiple installers and
Speaker: You know, and then things are constantly changing.
Speaker: You know, Everbride will send us an email that they don't accept A, B, and C anymore.
Speaker: And then Enfin will send us an email that, hey, they now do this.
Speaker: And, you know, credit went up to this.
Speaker: And so, you know, the constantly –
Speaker: Rob Markman, changing.
Speaker: so that they can be a great leader to their closers.
Speaker: That's probably one of the harder disconnects that I see when people leave a company that's all in-house, like say Sunrun, but they come to a company where now it's not Sunrun installing the panels and Sunrun doing the financing and Sunrun selling the product.
Speaker: All you see is just Sunrun on everything.
Speaker: They don't have the option, right?
Speaker: And so it's option A, A, and A. Right?
Speaker: And so you come here, and so let's say if they get a failed credit, someone doesn't pass credit, then that's it.
Speaker: Hey, you know what, Mr. Homeowner, let's see if we can do some credit repair.
Speaker: But now you come over here and when you're working under a model like this, yes, it's taxing to get the technical stuff down.
Speaker: That's why I think it's incredible to be, you know, it's incredibly important for me to be a leader that looks for my phone calls from my sales reps and jumps on those phone calls.
Speaker: I'm well known for standing up out of my own solar appointment to take a phone call from one of my sales reps that's in an appointment because their sale and their development is more important than me signing up another deal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, you know, and the ripple effect that that's going to have into that person's career and then into it, you know, into the people that they recruit, so on and so forth.
Speaker: It's just it's exponential.
Speaker: And so but it all starts with, you know, getting the technical stuff down and then just having really good support when you don't have that like one thing down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think teaching your guys too because, I don't know, that's something I try to tell my guys is like, hey, hit me up first and then hit up Tyler.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: We don't want 50 people, yeah.
Speaker: That's the military way.
Speaker: Yeah, powering your guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, that's good stuff, man.
Speaker: And so just to start wrapping this up a little bit, Ty.
Speaker: So I know we're talking about some higher level leadership stuff, but maybe for people that are just starting out in solar that are setting appointments, you've got a pretty unique style for us setting appointments and not a lot of people do it your way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I don't know, maybe we can wrap up with like some advice for setters and everything.
Speaker: So maybe, I don't know, some setting tips and like how you developed your
Speaker: Kind of unique style for setting appointments.
Speaker: You want to speak on that a little bit?
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: So I normally, you know, as a sales leader, we try to keep a little bit of the sauce in home.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so not going to give you all the sauce.
Speaker: You got to come work with legacy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I'll give some of the sauce.
Speaker: And this has been everything that I've trained every single one of my sales reps to do.
Speaker: And that's how I've had explosive growth in the last three years.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: solar industry we're all knocking the block right we all go door to door hey you know they said no okay i'm gonna go to your neighbor right that that that person just watched you walk to the neighbor and then you know three houses down that person already saw you walking up right they they're just there there's kind of a flow of things there's like a feel that you're creating when you're walking the block and knocking doors right
Speaker: And so what I did is I started just rolling the block.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I came from real estate, right.
Speaker: And in real estate, they have this thing called driving for dollars.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And those, that's for the, these, like, you know, these kids that try to wholesale properties, they're undercutting the value of a property to, you know, and, um, so, so now, so what I did, I took a, took a page out of that book.
Speaker: and applied it to solar.
Speaker: We've all seen that garage door that's open, like three houses down, we see a garage door open, we're like, yes, let's go, they're outside, come on.
Speaker: That's warm.
Speaker: That's a warm lead already.
Speaker: They don't even have to answer the door.
Speaker: We've all seen it.
Speaker: And then by the time we walk up to it, the garage is shut.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or Sally that was, you know, picking flowers in her front yard.
Speaker: She saw you coming up the block.
Speaker: She doesn't know you're a salesman, but she has an idea.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And she's also she's like, that's a polo.
Speaker: I see a clipboard or I see an iPad, right?
Speaker: I see a lanyard on that guy and no, I'm not wanting to talk to him, right?
Speaker: And so, and that's fine.
Speaker: Like people, people just aren't going to engage when they don't want to, like they're not going to choose to, to stay in,
Speaker: Right there and just wait for you to get there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They don't even realize they're doing it.
Speaker: It's, you know, it's this innate thing where it's like, hey, I'm just going to go this way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they just kind of walk to their garage and walk into their house, you know, shut the garage.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wave at you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't care what you're doing.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I see a point.
Speaker: They just close the garage.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah, so I started, what I started doing was I, you know, now as I started growing a team, I had, you know, when I had five, six, seven setters, I didn't have nearly as much time for me to knock doors.
Speaker: And so I had to become very efficient at it.
Speaker: And so what I realized was, hey, if I stay in the car,
Speaker: And I just roll up and I just find people that are hanging out outside, especially on Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons.
Speaker: Man, people sleep on Sunday afternoons.
Speaker: Everybody just left church.
Speaker: They're in the happiest, most open-minded place.
Speaker: They're going to be all week long.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: Go talk to them about a lower electric bill.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But so Sundays are great.
Speaker: But so but so I would just roll the neighborhood on the weekends and I would find barbecues, find people like hanging out in the front yard.
Speaker: You know, the kids are like running through the sprinklers.
Speaker: Mom's over there sipping on some lemonade.
Speaker: And you're like you walk up and you're like, hey, mom, how's the lemonade?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But, you know, what you didn't have to do in the psychology, the human psychology behind that.
Speaker: is that when a human being is behind a door and they didn't see you coming, or even if they did see you come in, they look through the window or whatnot, they're in their safe space, right?
Speaker: Their home is like the safest space they can be in.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And we all feel like, well, you know, it's like when you're on a vacation or you've been working all day, what's on your mind?
Speaker: Like home.
Speaker: I just want to get home.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's because that's our safe place.
Speaker: And so people, you know, innately on a subconscious level, we feel more protective.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We're more on the defense.
Speaker: Like we're more, you know, what do you want now?
Speaker: Now we also might be in our pajamas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're inside.
Speaker: We might have a shirt off.
Speaker: You might be, you know, just got out of the shower.
Speaker: You're hanging out.
Speaker: Your hair's not done.
Speaker: You got food all over your face because you're having dinner or whatever the case may be, right?
Speaker: But you're just not in that state of that place where you say that I'm presenting myself to the world right now.
Speaker: But when you step outside into your front yard, you didn't go out there in your boxers, right?
Speaker: You know, some people might.
Speaker: But you didn't.
Speaker: You know, you didn't leave your hair like just like a mess or whatever.
Speaker: Like you got yourself a little bit more presentable.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And what and what that does, what what you are saying to yourself and what you're saying to the world is that, hey, I'm ready to be approached.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And even if they don't realize it, it's on a subconscious level that they don't need to realize it.
Speaker: They're just going to react differently to you as a salesperson walking up when you catch them outside.
Speaker: But the only way you can catch them outside is you can't be like, do-do-do-do, coming up the block on your feet.
Speaker: Or...
Speaker: You know, I mean, segues work, but those are, you know, they also think you're, yeah, especially in Southern California.
Speaker: If you're riding a Segway, they think you're a solar salesman, right?
Speaker: Or an alarm salesman.
Speaker: Yeah, pest.
Speaker: But when you're in the car, they can't even see you necessarily.
Speaker: They're seeing the reflection off your windows.
Speaker: They don't see like a hat and a lanyard and a polo shirt and an iPad.
Speaker: And they don't go like, that's definitely a salesman, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so what I like to do is I know and this is the trick.
Speaker: You always got to stick the nose of your car right right into their driveway.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And so you don't just pull up and park like you're a neighbor.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's going to leave their car there all day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If I stick my nose into their driveway or leave like the tail end of your car in the driveway.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: then they know you're going to leave, right?
Speaker: It's just you're creating these feelings, right?
Speaker: And so, you know, and so they know you're going to leave.
Speaker: I also like to leave the car running.
Speaker: I like to leave music on, some light music.
Speaker: Don't be listening to, like, gangster rap, you know, right?
Speaker: Like, make it music that people like, that calm people down, not, like, stress them out, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: right because we're we're creating the energy right we're the day makers yeah right and we're there to make sally's day better when sally was already picking flowers having a nice day but i'll you know roll up and ups guy amazon guy ups amazon they all do it right doordat yeah
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So so what happens is seeing that's the psychology is when someone pulls up to your house in their own car and then they hop out like one, they're blocking your driveway.
Speaker: Amazon UPS, you know, Grubhub, Uber Eats.
Speaker: Doesn't matter what it is, but that was it came from somewhere that I chose.
Speaker: I paid money for something to come to my house.
Speaker: And so what is it?
Speaker: So every time someone pulls up in their own car and they don't know who it is, in today's society, it's a good thing.
Speaker: And people are excited about it.
Speaker: Oh, did I order a package?
Speaker: Amazon?
Speaker: Like, you know?
Speaker: And so like, it's crazy, this like this small level of happiness that you're creating in somebody just because you pulled up and parked.
Speaker: It's the same feeling that we get when we see a box that's wrapped in colorful paper with a ribbon on it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's not a box.
Speaker: That's a gift.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And people love to open up gifts.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so, you know, so I love finding people outside.
Speaker: I also like to roll the neighborhood and look for bad roofs because in Southern California, we can fit entire roofs into a solar project and still save people a ton of money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and that's on a PPA, you know, you know, it's just wild what we do these days.
Speaker: Um, you know, so bad roofs, look for good main panels and whatnot, but, you know, and also in a saturated market where you might pass, you might, you might have to pass, pass 10 houses that have solar on them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: To get to that 11th house that doesn't have solar.
Speaker: Now, if you're walking the block, you're that's you're going to take a lot more time to get to that house, you know.
Speaker: And so there's that.
Speaker: And then there's, you know, and then let's I mean, let's be real.
Speaker: It's in the dead of summer.
Speaker: Like the best knocking is in 110 degree weather.
Speaker: But you're not going to be your most formidable self if you've been in that 110 degree weather for the last four hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so in order to be your most formidable self, like, you know, getting back in the AC doesn't hurt.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Especially when you're old like us.
Speaker: You know, yeah.
Speaker: Hey, pushing 40.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: You know, so like, you know, one of the reason I started doing that is this idea, it all came from this idea of using your nature to design your nurture.
Speaker: You know, and I know my nature, my nature is that I'm gonna be a hard working dude if I'm not like sweating, sweating, right?
Speaker: I don't, it's just not comfortable, right?
Speaker: Our job takes a lot of intelligence.
Speaker: We sell solar in Southern California where the customer is educated.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of the time the customer is more educated than a brand new sales rep.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And and so, you know, you have to be a more formidable person with your words, your education, your knowledge, your wittiness.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And your ability to use like sales skills to funnel someone into an appointment.
Speaker: But it all comes from like, you need to be in a place of comfort yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, you know, to be your most formidable self.
Speaker: So that's why I like to have the car with me.
Speaker: Now, also...
Speaker: Um, you know, it's just like, you're just, you're, you're going back to one of the biggest things that you hear in sales to overcome, you know, a lack of success is to just be different.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And be very different.
Speaker: And so, you know, the world is quickly going to understand that a power purchase agreement is just a utility company.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just a utility service.
Speaker: It's solar as a service.
Speaker: And, you know, traditional utility companies are electricity as a service.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so what are we selling?
Speaker: We're selling utilities.
Speaker: We're selling solar utility service.
Speaker: And so, you know, that's a big piece of sauce that, you know, has really done really well for us and our growth.
Speaker: But I'll share it with the people.
Speaker: is that it's not a ppa guys it's a solar utility yeah yeah good and so you're not a solar salesman you're a solar utility broker yeah love that i mean how many guys are coming and yeah we've seen that it's like is this solar or we're just the utility brokers it's like be different involve solar but so true and um
Speaker: Yeah, I think I've done that.
Speaker: I mean, I don't do it quite to that level.
Speaker: I probably should try it.
Speaker: But just being like, I think the principal is just being pickier about so many, especially new reps, they'll go, they'll knock 10 doors straight and people aren't answering.
Speaker: They're just spinning their wheels and like five o'clock primetime runs, uh, comes around and
Speaker: It's like they barely talk to anybody and then they're gas.
Speaker: They're all sweaty.
Speaker: So, yeah, I've just found it a lot more sustainable to like take at least if you're going to do anything, take some principles.
Speaker: Don't just go door after door after door.
Speaker: Look for people at our home and go.
Speaker: Maybe it's mid afternoon.
Speaker: People aren't answering.
Speaker: Maybe just go to the ones that have their garage doors open.
Speaker: Um, cause yeah, you're going to have way more conversations.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, it's about how many conversations you can have.
Speaker: It's not about the hours worked.
Speaker: So how effective can you be in those hours?
Speaker: How many people can you actually talk to?
Speaker: At some point we, we're not paid, you know, as a 1099 person, you're not trading time for money anymore.
Speaker: You're trading time for skill.
Speaker: And once you can do the skill, it's like, now how can I do the skill more often in less time?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so, you know, um,
Speaker: I mean, I make the same amount of sales as someone that bangs 200 doors in a day.
Speaker: But I also got to keep my sanity and keep a lot of my energy so I can go give that to my fiance.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Put that toward my fitness and, you know, and then pour into my faith as well.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: yeah and yeah we've not everyone at legacy does this but i think you see a lot of our guys on our squads and our teams they're never the most doors knocked at the end of the month but i think a lot of times they're close to the most cells yeah yeah our our be more effective our wolf pack that i that i lead the valor you know valor wolf pack um
Speaker: You know, which is made up of a bunch of teams here, here in Valor.
Speaker: We are, you know, I've always said that we're the most effective door knockers out there because we, you know, because, yeah, we like we get the most sales per door.
Speaker: But that's because we're also using other tactics.
Speaker: We're not just out there working hard.
Speaker: We're working hard and working smart, right?
Speaker: And so that's that whole like we get paid to trade skill for money, right?
Speaker: And if you increase that skill, and part of that skill is just like knowing how to work more efficiently so you can still go live a good life, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: Well, Ty, I know we're at over an hour now.
Speaker: I know you got a whole region to run, so better wrap this up here.
Speaker: But before I forget, if people want to potentially join the Wolfpack or connect more with you, or we didn't even talk about bodybuilding, but maybe picture your six pack or whatever.
Speaker: What's the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker: So you can follow me on Instagram at Tyler Anderson IFBB.
Speaker: That's for the International Federation of Bodybuilding.
Speaker: I'm a little stuck on my old name from my pro status there.
Speaker: And then you can also reach me at 619-654-3998.
Speaker: Text me anytime if it's about solar.
Speaker: If you text him that you're in home with a customer, he'll probably pick up.
Speaker: Hey, you test me out, right?
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, Ty, thanks so much for coming on the show.
Speaker: And hey, we'll have to have you on in a future episode when you're like, you know, VP president and then have you more to talk about.
Speaker: So let's go.
Speaker: Levels on levels.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, thanks again, my man.
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