Transcript
Speaker: In this episode, we're going to talk about how you can invest better than the Warren Buffett.
Speaker: Coming right up.
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one will you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing pros and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best solar sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and
Speaker: and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Yo, Solarpreneurs, what's going on?
Speaker: It is James Swinorski and I'm back with the man, Joseph Nguyen.
Speaker: Hey, what's up?
Speaker: How's everyone doing today?
Speaker: I'm excited for this episode.
Speaker: Yeah, we just wrapped up the presentation series.
Speaker: Joseph had a pretty fire episode in there.
Speaker: And we want to talk about a topic that is pretty near and dear to our success here.
Speaker: And Joseph and I would not be in the places we are at.
Speaker: If it wasn't for the topic today, which is about investing.
Speaker: Okay, and we're not talking about like stocks and 401ks and all that crap, right?
Speaker: We're going to talk about investing in your skills, your knowledge, investing in yourself so that you could become a leaner, meaner, more efficient solar selling machine, right?
Speaker: That's why you guys follow this podcast.
Speaker: And for those of you that are new,
Speaker: In case you are new, right?
Speaker: I'm James Swiderski, Joseph Nguyen here.
Speaker: We're some of the co-hosts on the podcast.
Speaker: And the Solarpreneur podcast is dedicated to really just a couple things.
Speaker: One is making sure that you have the best sales and marketing strategies available in the entire industry.
Speaker: But two, it's also to help you become an elevated person, to help you level up all areas of your life, really, not just solar, right?
Speaker: And help you become just that, right?
Speaker: Better at your craft, selling more solar.
Speaker: So, guys, welcome to the episode.
Speaker: And let's dive into today's topic with Mr. Buffett here.
Speaker: We've got him as a guest on the show, right?
Speaker: Yeah?
Speaker: Exactly, dude.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What we're going to talk about is, yes, you heard it right, like how you can invest better than Warren Buffett.
Speaker: And some of you guys might be like, what?
Speaker: Like, how does that make any sense?
Speaker: And I used to think that way, too, until I saw his numbers, right?
Speaker: It's in different realms.
Speaker: But Warren Buffett, right, has Berkshire Hathaway.
Speaker: And I looked up the stats on this, and it says from 1965 to 2017, guys, Berkshire Hathaway generated a 20.9% annual return.
Speaker: which is more than double better than the S&P 500, which was just at 9.9%.
Speaker: So guys, like if you invest in yourself, like here's a concrete example.
Speaker: Like if you guys buy a book or a course or anything, right?
Speaker: And you invest that amount.
Speaker: Like you can make so much back from just what you put in.
Speaker: So like a $20 book, right?
Speaker: For example, like we're reading Traction is one of the books that we're reading right now for systems and business.
Speaker: Like that book's probably about 20 bucks.
Speaker: But once we apply for the knowledge that we learned from that book,
Speaker: our sales doubled or even tripled.
Speaker: So let's say in solar, if you read one sales book and you make one sale extra from it, so let's say commission is average, let's say 1500 for you, and you spent 20 bucks on that book.
Speaker: Your return on investment is 75 times what you originally put in.
Speaker: And so that's 7,500% compared to Warren Buffett's 20.9% annual return.
Speaker: It takes him a full year to make a 20.9 annual return.
Speaker: You guys see how crazy that is, right?
Speaker: And that's only if you make one sale.
Speaker: What happens if you make two, right?
Speaker: That's 150 times the return on investment.
Speaker: What happens if you make three sales, four sales?
Speaker: What happens if you make a million dollars from that one book you read?
Speaker: And that's extremely possible, right?
Speaker: So that's just like to put things into perspective on how you can actually make a better return on investment than Warren Buffett can just by investing in something within yourself.
Speaker: So like knowledge, right?
Speaker: Because that's literally infinite return on investment.
Speaker: Like Warren Buffett, he has to put in X number of dollars to make back that 20%.
Speaker: And it's kind of finite.
Speaker: Like you can't scale that to infinity.
Speaker: But when you invest in knowledge, it's literally infinite because you can keep applying that same knowledge and getting more and more and more of that return.
Speaker: So it's literally forever.
Speaker: Like that one book you read.
Speaker: could be that foundation that you keep using the principles of for the rest of your life.
Speaker: So like calculate, try to try to calculate return on that.
Speaker: It's almost impossible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The reason we talk about investing like this is, and I could tell you, um, most nine out of 10 solar professionals, you guys listeners, um,
Speaker: are hesitant to invest in yourself, right?
Speaker: And we'll talk about this and the many types of investing, but bottom line is just the world out there is so afraid to invest in themselves, mainly because of how media paints investments with scams and here's a program here, or maybe your mom or your dad told you not to invest in something and not listen to X guy or whatever or influencer and...
Speaker: A lot of people never break out of that, and they think that, you know, like self-development books.
Speaker: I know a big thing.
Speaker: My parents used to kind of have a negative outlook on self-development as a whole, and that affected me for years.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Even as Mormons, I thought they were like super big on that.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: So, yeah, my mom was always –
Speaker: kind of rolling her eyes whenever I checked out self-development stuff, they still kind of do to a degree.
Speaker: It never really goes away.
Speaker: It just shows you how people's mindsets and kind of the way they look at life and the way they act and interpret information really sticks with them until they change it.
Speaker: I know a lot of you guys where you're at, okay?
Speaker: Because I understand that.
Speaker: I grew up in a household that was kind of anti-self-improvement with that sort of stuff, and I was able to break out of it, and I'm glad I did.
Speaker: That's the reason I was able to clear over a million dollars in commissions my first two years in the industry, and I'm able to stand before you today having some of the best coaching and available coaching.
Speaker: knowledge to share with you on this podcast.
Speaker: The reason Joseph and I are even able to talk about this stuff is from us investing countless dollars and hours and time into leveling up our skill set.
Speaker: So guys, we're living examples of what investing can do.
Speaker: Take Warren Buffett.
Speaker: We talked about him, right?
Speaker: We know that Warren Buffett's a good investor.
Speaker: And if it wasn't for him investing for such a long period of time, we're talking, what, 40, 50, 60 years, right?
Speaker: How old's Buffett now?
Speaker: He's like 70, 80.
Speaker: Yeah, 70, 80.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: He's really old.
Speaker: Literally 60 plus years of investing, okay?
Speaker: That's a long time.
Speaker: And we're going to talk about the power of what makes that investment there.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: he is the guy he is today because he invests in himself.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: And he still invests in himself.
Speaker: Like how much does he read a day?
Speaker: I think it's like four to six hours.
Speaker: Every single day.
Speaker: It's like 600 to 800 pages.
Speaker: He reads a day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Dude's a beast.
Speaker: But I don't blame like guys, it's not your fault that.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Cause I was in that same position, right?
Speaker: Like it's not your fault that self-development might be, um,
Speaker: looked down upon within your family or with your friends or things like that, right?
Speaker: It's not your fault, but it is your responsibility.
Speaker: And that's like the key thing that I've taken from like these past couple months specifically because my family, right?
Speaker: Whenever I, my first thing I ever invested in was the Damon John seminar, right?
Speaker: And that was like a thousand, yeah, a thousand dollars.
Speaker: And I told my parents about this and they're like, no way.
Speaker: Like, this is a scam.
Speaker: Like, you're going to get ripped off.
Speaker: You're going to lose all your money because at the time I had only $2,000 in my bank account.
Speaker: And so I was really going to wipe out 50% of my entire savings just for this seminar.
Speaker: And supposedly they were promising that I would learn business skills, learn how to invest or learn how to flip real estate or something like that, right?
Speaker: Just about business in general.
Speaker: And everyone was so skeptical.
Speaker: My parents are super reluctant of me doing it.
Speaker: And they told me not to do it, but I still did it anyway.
Speaker: And it's not their fault because...
Speaker: you have to consider the source of who's telling you advice.
Speaker: Yeah, like my parents, what were they?
Speaker: They were literally over $800,000, $900,000 in debt because of bad financial actions that they took, right?
Speaker: They made really bad financial decisions in business and it tanked when the 08 crash happened.
Speaker: And so they've lost a lot of businesses and things like that.
Speaker: But they're telling me not to invest in this
Speaker: in knowledge, in business skills and abilities.
Speaker: And they're the ones that are in $900,000 in debt.
Speaker: And if you talk to any millionaire, any seven, eight, nine figure earner, they're not going to tell you the same thing that most middle class people are telling you.
Speaker: They're going to tell you the exact opposite.
Speaker: I don't know of any millionaire or billionaire that's going to tell you, don't invest yourself.
Speaker: Don't buy coins.
Speaker: Of that caliber who has said anything ill of investing in themselves.
Speaker: Honestly, it's the exact opposite every time.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's so funny.
Speaker: So like, really consider the source.
Speaker: And in today's age, like we have an information overload.
Speaker: I'm sure you guys know about that.
Speaker: We live in the information age.
Speaker: But it's not about the information you consume that will allow you to succeed.
Speaker: It's about the information you don't consume that will allow you to succeed.
Speaker: Because everyone has an opinion these days.
Speaker: And based on who you listen to will determine your success.
Speaker: So be very careful.
Speaker: I know you guys know like you're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with.
Speaker: But it's even more important to watch who you listen to, because even though you might not spend that much time with your parents, even they might not spend that much time with like other people.
Speaker: but you still listen to them, that's still going to affect you tremendously in how much success you will achieve.
Speaker: So just be very, very cautious of who you listen to because, and honestly, like if you wouldn't switch places with them, don't listen to them like flat out, unless you are willing to 100% swap lives with them, right?
Speaker: Or, or have their exact financial situation.
Speaker: Don't take their advice.
Speaker: And it's basically like in the case, like today's ages, it's like the blind leading the blind always.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So just be very, very cautious of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Part of this, though, the mindset with investing that we want to talk about is, you know, the consumer or the investor.
Speaker: And I'm actually reminded of one of the first programs I ever invested in was actually the Rich Dad Poor Dad program.
Speaker: So I read a couple of Robert Kiyosaki's books.
Speaker: His books are so good.
Speaker: Those are so good.
Speaker: I know I read those when I was about 19.
Speaker: I started reading those and I invested this program and I believe it was 2,500 bucks.
Speaker: I think it was the first program I ever laid down a significant amount of cash.
Speaker: And it was the same thing Joseph had.
Speaker: I told my parents about it and they're like, what the freak?
Speaker: Like he calls his book, rich dad, poor dad.
Speaker: Like why would you give that guy money?
Speaker: What the hell?
Speaker: So I went into that and
Speaker: The core principle of that book, right, was understanding investing, but more than anything was understanding liabilities and assets.
Speaker: And the main quote I got from that that really stood apart to me was – I'm spacing it.
Speaker: Joseph, you got to help me out here, bro.
Speaker: Yeah, don't ask how you can afford it.
Speaker: Yeah, that was it.
Speaker: He said that poor people ask how they can – I mean they ask –
Speaker: Yeah, how they can afford it.
Speaker: But what you really should ask is, how will it make me money?
Speaker: Yeah, how can it make me money?
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: Thanks for the help.
Speaker: Yeah, I spaced it.
Speaker: Literally, we were just talking about it.
Speaker: Yeah, so that's really the difference between a consumer and an investor, right?
Speaker: Warren Buffett doesn't ask if he can afford something.
Speaker: He can afford anything, right?
Speaker: He's asking right now,
Speaker: what can I invest my money in, right?
Speaker: What can I invest my assets, my resources in that's going to make me more money, more wealth as well?
Speaker: And it's the same thing for you, right?
Speaker: And we're going to talk about a little bit what those investments are.
Speaker: And I'll give you a hint.
Speaker: It's a little bit more than money.
Speaker: But Joseph, I think you had something else to say about identity with consumer and investor as well.
Speaker: Yeah, guys, you have to switch your identity from being a consumer to an investor.
Speaker: Every single one of you that is a solar sales rep or a sales consultant, right?
Speaker: You can't think of yourself as a consumer anymore.
Speaker: If you're going to take this job seriously, right?
Speaker: In actuality, you are an entrepreneur.
Speaker: And some of you might call yourselves that already, but it's time to live up to it and own it, right?
Speaker: So if you really are an entrepreneur, what you also are as an investor, but you can't be a consumer anymore because what a consumer means is that you just keep buying stuff.
Speaker: And consuming it, and that's it.
Speaker: You don't make anything from it.
Speaker: You just take it, right?
Speaker: But in this economy, what...
Speaker: How money works is that it's an exchange of value.
Speaker: So you must put something out there that's valuable enough for people to give you money for it.
Speaker: So this is what you have to do.
Speaker: You have to switch your mindset to become an investor and an entrepreneur, truly.
Speaker: And what that means is that you can't just keep buying stuff just to have it.
Speaker: But you have to buy things that is going to make you more money in the long run.
Speaker: So look at your stuff right now.
Speaker: Do a quick audit, right?
Speaker: Like look at the past five things that you bought.
Speaker: Out of those five things, are any of those things going to make you more money or did you just lose that money forever?
Speaker: Not talking about like, oh, but I bought the feeling of like nice clothes and it's like, oh, it's so nice and I look better and feel sharper and more confident.
Speaker: It's like, no, but is that going to make you more money?
Speaker: It's asset or liability.
Speaker: Asset makes you money.
Speaker: Liabilities cost you money.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So you have to start investing in things that's going to make you more money.
Speaker: And so this is a question that no one really asks, especially if you're in like the lower middle class, the middle class, even like within the upper middle class.
Speaker: And if you guys are like my family, which was the lower middle class, like we never asked this question.
Speaker: My parents never, ever, ever asked this question.
Speaker: All we ever asked was, how can I save money?
Speaker: But it was never, how can I make more money?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that was the problem that I had growing up because it's always about saving.
Speaker: It was like, oh, don't use too much toilet paper or don't take too long showers, don't take warm showers, all this stuff.
Speaker: And it's like, save this food, save that, save all the receipts of this.
Speaker: And it's just like a scarcity mindset.
Speaker: But we never looked at how we can increase our revenue or increase our income.
Speaker: And we just looked at how can we save money.
Speaker: But you never...
Speaker: made money by saving it.
Speaker: You had to invest it and make more.
Speaker: So start asking the question, what can you invest in to make more money?
Speaker: Or like, when, what can I buy that will make me more money?
Speaker: Or if I buy this, will it make me money?
Speaker: So that's how you can switch your identity from consumer to investor and, and become an actual entrepreneur and investor.
Speaker: That's pretty much like the identity between those two things.
Speaker: Yeah, to jump off of, Joseph mentioned something here I want to piggyback off of with value, right?
Speaker: In order to get value, and this is the golden rule out of an investment, in order to get value from your investment, which we're all looking for, whatever that is, time, money, freedom, skills, to get that value, you have to put value in, okay?
Speaker: You can't just put nothing in and expect a crap ton of stuff out.
Speaker: Yet that's what a lot of people think with value.
Speaker: investments is they think, I'm just going to go listen to maybe a free podcast like this, right?
Speaker: We put out a lot of valuable stuff for absolutely nothing on the podcast.
Speaker: We don't ask anything in return for it.
Speaker: But
Speaker: I know from experience, because I used to be this guy and I know hundreds of people who have done the same thing, that the free stuff doesn't have a ton of value.
Speaker: You don't have a lot of skin in the game.
Speaker: And because you haven't invested all that much, you can't expect to get that much back.
Speaker: This is simple laws of investing.
Speaker: This is how the world works with anything, whether it's in solar or not solar.
Speaker: So along those lines, I want to talk about some of the three things here
Speaker: that you can invest and I call them the three currencies.
Speaker: One is going to be money, right?
Speaker: We talked about money.
Speaker: You invest money into something, you get a return on your money.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Another one is time, right?
Speaker: And this is stuff not a lot of people are aware enough to this caliber, right?
Speaker: We all know we have a limited amount of time on this earth, right?
Speaker: We all have the same amount.
Speaker: We all have 24 hours a day.
Speaker: I have 24 hours.
Speaker: Warren Buffett does.
Speaker: You have 24 hours, but
Speaker: eventually that 24 hours is going to run up, right?
Speaker: We don't have a ton of it.
Speaker: And then the third one is energy.
Speaker: This is a currency that works hand in hand with the other ones.
Speaker: We only have so much energy in the day before we've got to rest.
Speaker: We got to recharge.
Speaker: We got to sleep.
Speaker: We got to eat food, right?
Speaker: These are all things that amplify our energy.
Speaker: So when we talk about investing, right?
Speaker: I like to take a healthy audit at my three currencies.
Speaker: And Joseph, out of the three currencies, what would you say 99% of the world values?
Speaker: Just money, man.
Speaker: Just money, right.
Speaker: It's literally almost nothing else, especially time, right?
Speaker: Like switching time out for dollars.
Speaker: That's what most of the world does in a time-time job.
Speaker: They value in order for that.
Speaker: Like the basics of that, right, is they value the 15 or I don't know what minimum wage is these days, 14, 15 bucks, maybe less, something like that.
Speaker: um they value that cash more than one hour of their time they're willing to switch one currency for the other one right seems really basic at the surface but if you really looked at your own life right now even if i look at mine right now like all three of these currencies
Speaker: You want to be just as aware of what's in your bank account and your wallet as what your energy levels are like and how much time and where you're spending that time.
Speaker: The true entrepreneur and people that I've consulted with that are multi-millionaires and people have eight-figure-plus businesses, they're just as aware and spend so much meticulous attention on all three of these currencies.
Speaker: It's ridiculous, and it's a game-changer.
Speaker: So in terms of investing,
Speaker: The reason maybe a program isn't working, right, or maybe one investment works better than another is these three currencies.
Speaker: So if I go and I invest in a free YouTube video, right, no money's up front, right?
Speaker: I'm not investing one of the currencies.
Speaker: I'm investing a little bit of my time to watch the video.
Speaker: And then the energy would be if I go out and I actually apply what's in the YouTube video.
Speaker: If I don't apply it, then I only invested one currency.
Speaker: I only put one third of the possible value I could put out there, and I'm not going to get a huge return.
Speaker: I only just put a little bit in.
Speaker: It's like if Warren Buffett was going to do a $100 million investment when he was starting Berkshire Hathaway like seven, eight years ago to start it up, and he decided he's just going to do $30 million and see how it turns out to get the project done.
Speaker: It doesn't make any sense, right?
Speaker: You just did a fraction of it.
Speaker: When you invest in something like a program, right, or a seminar, a Damon John seminar, anything like that, you're investing more currency.
Speaker: So you're investing money, time.
Speaker: Because you're investing those more money and time, right, that's creating more value, and now you're going to apply more energy.
Speaker: You're going to take more action.
Speaker: How many times, Joseph, would you say,
Speaker: Joseph and I talked about this too because we used to actually both buy those courses.
Speaker: You could get the discount courses.
Speaker: They're not black market courses.
Speaker: Yeah, they're like people who will rip off Sam Oven's courses or something like that, right?
Speaker: And we both used to do this years ago and literally got nothing out of those, nothing.
Speaker: Every single time, never applied anything from any of those videos because like we just didn't value it.
Speaker: It's just like, for example, I'm sure you guys have gotten a gift sometime, right?
Speaker: And it's like you don't value it as much as if you bought it with your own money.
Speaker: So a gift might, you might use it more recklessly and not think about it as much or not care about it as much and just throw it around than if you actually shelled out your own cash and bought something, right?
Speaker: So that's like a pretty good example.
Speaker: It's like if your car was given to you by someone else versus if you put in your own money into that car, right, and got it yourself, you're going to take care of that car, you're going to clean it, you're going to wash it.
Speaker: Like I know you guys...
Speaker: Like for your, for example, like your first car, you know exactly how you felt when you first bought your, your car, um, your very first one.
Speaker: And it's like, you took care of that thing you did.
Speaker: You polished the rims, like you wax that thing, you wash the car.
Speaker: But like before, if you got a hand-me-down car or anything like that, and it was just given to you.
Speaker: you didn't value it as much.
Speaker: And so you didn't really care what it looked like.
Speaker: You didn't really put that much time and energy into taking care of it, maintaining or anything like that.
Speaker: And it's the same exact way for, for knowledge and for courses and for books.
Speaker: Like if you don't pay money for it, you're not going to pay attention.
Speaker: So like, there's a really good quote.
Speaker: It says people who pay, pay attention.
Speaker: If you don't pay, you're literally not going to pay attention.
Speaker: You don't value it at all.
Speaker: Cause it's free.
Speaker: What do you value free at?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's just another thing that you have in your life.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: So because you didn't invest money, because you didn't invest time, because you didn't invest energy, that thing is just going to be almost worthless to you.
Speaker: And there's a very low chance that you're actually going to take that information, value it, and then actually apply it.
Speaker: So that's why it's so important to actually pay, because by doing so, you automatically value whatever you purchased so much more, and then you'll actually implement it.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And another law with this, guys, before we take a break, is compounding effects, right?
Speaker: Compounding interest.
Speaker: And there's the famous quote from Albert Einstein, right?
Speaker: Compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
Speaker: So I know a lot of you guys, maybe you invested in a course or some training, you read a sales book, something like that, and you
Speaker: You tried it out and you're wondering where the heck is the result, right?
Speaker: I just read this sales book.
Speaker: Why am I not a multimillionaire right now?
Speaker: Why am I not closing one, two deals a day right now, right?
Speaker: You may have invested the time, money, and energy, but you got to understand that when you take an action of any kind, when you take an investment, that action, 80, 90% of that is going to be way down the road.
Speaker: This could be years down the road.
Speaker: I can't tell you how much I've noticed, especially lately, Joseph and I have been pondering on this, investments I made two, three years ago, right, and courses, I'm now applying those skills and knowledge more right now than ever before.
Speaker: And now I'm finally seeing the cash coming in from that.
Speaker: I'm seeing the skill sets build off of that.
Speaker: I'm finally able to pull off the fundamentals and things that I learned years ago right now is when they're paying off.
Speaker: Did I know that at the time when I read a book or I bought a course back then?
Speaker: Absolutely not.
Speaker: I had no clue, right?
Speaker: And this is just simple human behavior, right?
Speaker: We just forget.
Speaker: We forget what cause produced the result because it takes so much time, right?
Speaker: We have terrible memories, right?
Speaker: People just have horrible memories.
Speaker: You may invest in something right now.
Speaker: This podcast, for example, you're investing time in this podcast.
Speaker: Let's say you invest some energy into applying this and you go invest in some programs for yourself.
Speaker: You may forget about this podcast.
Speaker: I guarantee you might forget about it in two years from now.
Speaker: There's no way you'll remember.
Speaker: But the skills, the things that you develop, the knowledge, the ideas, if applied, they get solidified.
Speaker: You apply them and you're going to see it later down the road.
Speaker: So where I go with this is pretty simple.
Speaker: Realize that what you do, how you invest right now will pay you.
Speaker: It's governing law.
Speaker: If you provide value, you provide one of the currencies, more of the currencies, you put value out there, you will get this value back.
Speaker: Guaranteed.
Speaker: It happens every time.
Speaker: So Warren Buffett's wealth, for example, is a hockey stick, straight up, just exponential curve, right?
Speaker: Started out, started climbing.
Speaker: You guys could Google, right?
Speaker: Warren Buffett's net worth over time.
Speaker: Google this.
Speaker: It's really cool to look at.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, right, he's getting into his 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s.
Speaker: Boom, that thing is just skyrocketing.
Speaker: And you know he was investing a ton of time in his knowledge and his skills back in his early 20s.
Speaker: And just now is he seeing the results from those.
Speaker: This is a long-term game, guys.
Speaker: It's all long-term.
Speaker: Like, life is 100% long-term.
Speaker: What you're experiencing right now in your life is the result of all the action that you've taken, like, years ago.
Speaker: And your personality right now is made up of all of those actions that you took one, two, three, four years back.
Speaker: And I'm sure that you know that because think of a personality trait that you have right now.
Speaker: Think of a fear that you have or an insecurity.
Speaker: And I bet you that you can link it to an experience that you had in the past.
Speaker: And that past, years ago, probably still haunts you today.
Speaker: And that's an example of how that compounding effect can work in a negative way as well.
Speaker: So we can't forget that it also works in negative.
Speaker: So bad actions that you've taken in the past can also haunt you today.
Speaker: But good actions that you've taken in the past, like investing in yourself, can show up later on.
Speaker: And it's just 10 times more fruitful down the road.
Speaker: But an example of this is like,
Speaker: It does take time, guys, a lot of time and some things faster than others.
Speaker: But a good example is think about when you go to the gym.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it's not just about the it's not just about what you put in, but it's like not just about the intention either.
Speaker: It's like the time.
Speaker: So, for example, it's like if you go to the gym for eight hours in one day.
Speaker: you're going to pump some serious iron, right?
Speaker: You're going to sweat.
Speaker: You're going to be extremely fatigued.
Speaker: But if you don't go again for like another three, four months, you're not going to see any progress at all, right?
Speaker: So it's not the intensity that matters.
Speaker: It's the time.
Speaker: So imagine if you instead went to the gym 30 minutes every single day for like a month or three months, right?
Speaker: then you'll see results.
Speaker: But you're not going to get a six-pack after one workout, right?
Speaker: You have to do it day in, day out, five, six days a week for at least two, three months, and then you'll be able to see the fruits of your labor, the results from what you did a while back.
Speaker: And that's the same thing.
Speaker: It's like brushing your teeth, right?
Speaker: If you brush only once ever, your teeth are going to be yellow as hell.
Speaker: But what happens, right?
Speaker: You only spend like two minutes brushing, right?
Speaker: So if you spend only two minutes brushing a day,
Speaker: For three months, your teeth are going to be white, extremely white.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But if you only brush once, it's going to be super yellow.
Speaker: So it's it's literally about the time that you invest in.
Speaker: It has to be consistent.
Speaker: That's how compounding effect works.
Speaker: It has to be consistent day in, day out, because if you stop once, it's going to end the whole entire compounding effect.
Speaker: It only starts to multiply over time with consistent and continuous effort.
Speaker: Makes such a good point.
Speaker: I was just telling Joseph this.
Speaker: It still boggles my mind with this.
Speaker: I'll slip up.
Speaker: I try to make sure I'm reading a business or a sales book or I'm going through a course, usually about two hours a day.
Speaker: I try to do it two hours a day, but sometimes I slip up and maybe I miss a day, maybe only do a couple of minutes on one day.
Speaker: And I was just telling Joseph this.
Speaker: It was about traction, that book.
Speaker: It was just the answer we needed with some stuff.
Speaker: And I decided to just – I really didn't want to read it, right?
Speaker: I was just taking a little walk to the gym.
Speaker: It's just right by where I live, and I was just popping it up on Audible.
Speaker: And I said, all right, I'll just do it.
Speaker: It's not the most exciting book in the world.
Speaker: I started listening to it during my workout.
Speaker: Just straight gold idea.
Speaker: Just write in the book, write exactly what I needed.
Speaker: I can't tell you how many times this happens over and over and over again, yet I still might question and be hesitant to go and
Speaker: Invest in this knowledge, right?
Speaker: Invest in this time, invest in a course.
Speaker: Yet every time I do it, I get something out of it both immediately and long-term.
Speaker: So just realize like even when you see it, it's still going to be difficult to do.
Speaker: And that's where that discipline comes in as we've talked about.
Speaker: Yeah, just day in and day out.
Speaker: So guys, that is it for this half.
Speaker: We're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back to wrap up the episode and talk about some other stuff.
Speaker: Hey listeners, it's James Swiderski here.
Speaker: I promise we'll be right back to this fire content you're enjoying, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about the number one training platform that I trust my own clients as well as my own solar team with, and it's called the Solar Spartan System.
Speaker: Now the Solar Spartan System is not your traditional course.
Speaker: It's a solar sales transformation experience that's combined over 11,000 hours of research on today's top sales and marketing professionals and condensed their strategies into one streamlined system that practically
Speaker: forces you, yeah, that's right, forces you to have success in reaching your goals.
Speaker: And the best part is, guys, it's designed specifically for solar, and it's been tested on over 800 solar professionals to date.
Speaker: Now, you might be saying, James, that's cool, but...
Speaker: How does it force me to have success?
Speaker: And this is where it gets pretty ninja, my friends.
Speaker: So listen up.
Speaker: So here's what makes the Solar Spartan system so effective.
Speaker: It's the combination of applying the minimum amount of inputs, minimum effective dose of what it takes to get you to that next level.
Speaker: combining that with the power of social accountability and then top-notch strategies used by today's solar professionals solopreneurs right so what does this mean for you no more watching 15 hour courses no more banging your head trying to figure out how to apply grant cardone strategies over here and dan locke strategies over here to solar specifically and no more guesswork
Speaker: The Solar Spartan system is 100% action oriented, meaning you won't be given more content to study than what you need to actually reach your next four deals, 10 deals, 16, 20 deals, whatever your goal is, there's a milestone for it within the system.
Speaker: And to give you guys an idea of what you can expect out of this, I've taken some of my lowest producing reps and clients from closing one to maybe struggling to get that third or fourth deal a month, all the way to closing 18 to 20 deals a month in less than 90 days.
Speaker: It's that good.
Speaker: why i want to go ahead and offer you guys solopreneur listeners a special discount on the solar spartan system you guys head on over to solar spartansystem.com you could try it out for 30 days again guys don't put your success on hold this is something i would not promote on the podcast if i didn't fully believe in it something i trust my clients but as well my own solar company my own reps
Speaker: They go through this exact same training.
Speaker: So again, head over to solarspartansystem.com to get started, and my team and I will see you inside.
Speaker: Let's get back to the show.
Speaker: What's up, guys?
Speaker: Welcome back.
Speaker: We just talked about compounding interest, three currencies, investing, Warren Buffett's wealth, all that good stuff.
Speaker: If you guys are just tuning in here, my name is James Switerski, and I got Joseph Nguyen here.
Speaker: Today we're talking about investments in ourselves, bettering our skills as solar professionals, as entrepreneurs in this industry, and how we could really just kick some ass by understanding the science of investment and human law and how these things work.
Speaker: Joseph, what are we talking about?
Speaker: Part two here.
Speaker: Part two, guys, we're going to talk about why investments might not have worked in the past.
Speaker: I know you guys have probably invested in something, right?
Speaker: Maybe a book, maybe a course, maybe training, something, right?
Speaker: I'm sure you guys have done that in the past.
Speaker: But I'm also sure that you guys have, maybe have and haven't seen the results.
Speaker: And more than likely, you haven't seen the results that you wanted.
Speaker: from those investments that you initially made.
Speaker: And there's a number of things that go into that, which we'll dive into here in a sec, that are the reasons why you might not have seen those results.
Speaker: And one of the first things, probably the most important, is that you might not have committed enough to the specific investment.
Speaker: For example,
Speaker: If you bought a course, if you bought a book, you might not have finished the whole entire thing.
Speaker: I know, I think it's like only 19% of people actually finished an online course that they buy.
Speaker: And it's so ridiculous.
Speaker: Like that means 80% of people aren't even going through the darn thing.
Speaker: So there goes the majority of that investment.
Speaker: So that's a prime example of how obviously...
Speaker: You won't get results if you don't commit and follow through with the entire protocol.
Speaker: So if you don't read the whole book, if you don't go through the whole course, if you don't follow through and go through the entire training, obviously it's not going to work for you in the past.
Speaker: And so I know I'm a victim of that.
Speaker: Sometimes I read books and I don't follow through.
Speaker: But the ones that I do is the ones that I get the most results from.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So obviously we're not all perfect, but just keep in mind and take a quick audit.
Speaker: Like how many books have you not read?
Speaker: How many courses have you not finished?
Speaker: And how many trainings have you not finished?
Speaker: And look at the results from those things and compare.
Speaker: It's like, oh, well, obviously I didn't get results because I didn't finish the course.
Speaker: Obviously I didn't get results because I finished that book.
Speaker: So that's like number one.
Speaker: The first and biggest reason why people don't get results is because they didn't commit to the investment.
Speaker: But Joseph, I read tons of books and courses, man.
Speaker: Why is this not working for me?
Speaker: I read like 100 books a year, man.
Speaker: Nothing happens from it.
Speaker: Dang, 100 books a year?
Speaker: That's way more than me, man.
Speaker: Kudos to you.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: It's not about how much you read.
Speaker: It's not about how many courses you take.
Speaker: It's not about any of that stuff, right?
Speaker: It's about actually getting the results and how to get the results.
Speaker: And so you have to do the work.
Speaker: This is even harder than committing because a lot of people do commit, right?
Speaker: And there's levels to this stuff.
Speaker: So a lot of people do commit.
Speaker: They go through the whole entire course and then what?
Speaker: They don't do the work.
Speaker: Like how many times have you guys read a book, gone through a course, listened to the training that your solar company gave you, but just didn't apply it fully?
Speaker: I know I'm a victim of that.
Speaker: And I know you certainly are as well.
Speaker: And so because of that,
Speaker: If you don't apply it, obviously you're not gonna get results.
Speaker: It's just as plain and simple as that.
Speaker: And another reason why is that you guys might hesitate or be reluctant to apply it, right?
Speaker: And this kind of goes hand in hand with commitment.
Speaker: If you don't commit to the program, if you don't commit to the book,
Speaker: then you're not going to do the work because you don't trust it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So the reason why you might be hesitant or reluctant to actually apply and do the work is because you might not trust what the book is saying, what the author is saying, what the training or course is saying.
Speaker: And because of that, you don't get the results because you don't apply it.
Speaker: So hand.
Speaker: So commitment and doing the work go really hand in hand because you have to go 100 percent fully commit and you have to trust that the process and the system works because if you don't trust it, you're not going to do the work.
Speaker: But what happens if I told you that if you did commit 100% and you went through the whole entire training, if you went through the whole entire book, and if you did all the work and you didn't hesitate to apply every single tactic that the book shares or the training shares, that you would be able to make X amount of money, right?
Speaker: If you had that 100% promise or guarantee, everyone would do the work.
Speaker: But we still get in our own way sometimes by not trusting, by not committing, or by not doing the work.
Speaker: And then James, you can touch on the next thing about just investments and why that might not have worked in the past.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Guys, so as far as investment goes, I've noticed this too, right?
Speaker: I've coached hundreds and hundreds of solar reps, right?
Speaker: And I've had a couple of programs out there for a couple of years, and I always found it interesting that the same program with the same training, the same knowledge, the same stuff that has personally worked for me, um,
Speaker: I could teach it to one student, one member of my team, have him excel with it, make multiple six figures within the next year in commissions, just crushing his sales, right?
Speaker: Just total badass.
Speaker: And then I've got somebody else who fails at it.
Speaker: miserably right and it's just like everything else it just rolls off their shoulder and nothing happens right and this happens with everything this is anytime you go to a youtube video or anything like that and you just if you look at the comments right there's people who just absolutely hate it and they're against it there's people who absolutely love it right what's the difference right this question has really been on my mind a ton lately
Speaker: And it comes down to just one core thing.
Speaker: And we won't go too crazy on this because this is a very deep topic and it's definitely worthy of its own episode for you guys.
Speaker: But I will touch the piece that really affects the investments, right?
Speaker: Affects the investments and how successful they are for you.
Speaker: It really comes down to your identity, right?
Speaker: We talked about the identity of a consumer or an investor.
Speaker: That's a piece of this, but this is deeper.
Speaker: This is talking about your identity and what makes up you, right?
Speaker: So Joseph, what makes up Joseph?
Speaker: His experiences, right?
Speaker: Experiences he's went through in his life that have came across him, how he's felt with things.
Speaker: Obviously, some of that has to do with the cards you are dealt, right?
Speaker: With the family you're in, that is an experience you have.
Speaker: That's why some people can be stuck in an area for a while, but it just takes one different experience to snap you out of that, right?
Speaker: And where I'm getting at with this is you are comprised of your experiences, right?
Speaker: And your beliefs, the way you believe everything, the way that you look in the world is shaped by this.
Speaker: And when some new information comes in like a course or a book or any sort of investment, right?
Speaker: You're going to interpret that information that is lined up.
Speaker: It's in line with what you already believe.
Speaker: a book or a course or something like that is scammy right and they're just trying to take my money when i come across a sales funnel or an ad and somebody wants to tell me to invest in a course i'm gonna refuse it right and say i somehow did buy that course i wouldn't spend the time in it because i know it's just fake i knew it wouldn't be good
Speaker: Or say I do invest in myself and I don't believe in my ability to close, right?
Speaker: Maybe I'm a pretty confident dude.
Speaker: I'm good at selling solar.
Speaker: I'm good at presenting and connecting with people.
Speaker: I'm charismatic, but I just don't have the balls to just ask for that close, okay?
Speaker: And I invest in a closing course, right?
Speaker: Maybe like the Solar Spartan system.
Speaker: Maybe it's something else.
Speaker: And there's a module about closing, right?
Speaker: And I'm going to...
Speaker: portray i'm going to mirror my own beliefs about what i think about closing into this module so maybe this module has just the thing that i need to 100 just flip my closing ratio and just double it up but because my belief is centered in my experiences my identity how i view the world i'm going to interpret that information how i want
Speaker: So guys, the way that you view the world, your identity directly affects if you will be successful with your investments or not, right?
Speaker: Joseph, do you have anything?
Speaker: I don't want to dive too much into like how to fix it.
Speaker: Maybe we could give them.
Speaker: It's one of those things because fixing this is like a full-on hour-plus episode.
Speaker: It's like five episodes.
Speaker: You know how you had the five-part series for the presentation?
Speaker: We need a five-part series for this identity shifting.
Speaker: But honestly, when it comes down to identity, it is completely comprised of your experiences and the way that you shift it.
Speaker: So to give another concrete example of identity, right?
Speaker: So let's say your parents believe that money is the root of all evil.
Speaker: That's going to be a reason why they tell you to not invest in courses, invest in books or invest in seminars, right?
Speaker: That's why they're skeptical because they believe that when you get more money, you're going to be, it's evil.
Speaker: So it's going to change who you are.
Speaker: My mom used to say that to me all the time.
Speaker: She's like, son, like Joseph, why are you always focused on the money?
Speaker: Like money is evil.
Speaker: Like you're going to change when you become rich, you know?
Speaker: And she's always worried that I'm going to be, I'm going to change when I become rich.
Speaker: I'm like, mom, money is not the issue.
Speaker: Like it's the person.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like money is not the root of all evil.
Speaker: I know Grant Cardone says that poverty is the root of all evil, which is true.
Speaker: Like just just look at some of the like third world countries and what's happening, the crime rates and the drug rates and all of that stuff.
Speaker: And it's like, you don't see like all these rich people going around like vandalizing stuff and causing all these crimes.
Speaker: And so it's like money is not evil.
Speaker: I had to shift my identity around that, right?
Speaker: And if you believe that you are poor, if your identity is poor, you will be poor, guaranteed.
Speaker: Whatever you whatever thoughts you put out there, you will sow this like so what you put back so you reap what you sow.
Speaker: And in this case, like if you put out thoughts that you are poor, you're going to get back poor things.
Speaker: And if you think that you are poor, you're obviously not going to think that you are rich.
Speaker: And so how can you be rich if you don't think like a rich person?
Speaker: If you don't think like a rich person, you're not going to do the things that allow someone to be rich, like investing in yourself.
Speaker: So that's an example, a concrete example of your identity and how it can be affecting how you think.
Speaker: So if you do have negative thoughts about money, if you do have negative thoughts about rich people, if you do think money is going to change you when you become rich or affluent, that's the reason why you're not changing.
Speaker: It's because you're afraid of that.
Speaker: But that's just not true.
Speaker: And so the way that you can shift your beliefs is your experiences.
Speaker: You have to change it.
Speaker: So start looking.
Speaker: Basically, in life, you're going to find what you look for.
Speaker: So find good examples of people who are rich, who are good people like Bill Gates.
Speaker: He's donating like millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to try to end malaria and disease in third world countries.
Speaker: And he's trying to build sustainable water for those people in Africa.
Speaker: And so just look at all of these examples of the rich doing good, and then you'll find it.
Speaker: But if you want the opposite end, which a lot of people do, they're going to find all these scandals that rich people do.
Speaker: So you literally will find what you look for.
Speaker: So start stacking the rocks in your favor, in the perspective that you want to believe.
Speaker: In life, it doesn't matter what is true.
Speaker: Only what you believe to be true, because with work that will become true.
Speaker: So that's like the biggest thing.
Speaker: Like literally in life, no one knows the truth.
Speaker: Like it's very difficult to try to find it.
Speaker: Like everyone can argue in their own ways, in their own perspective, but it doesn't matter because what they believe to be true is what is true to them.
Speaker: And so guys, try to shift your identity to what you want to believe.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so start searching that out.
Speaker: So maybe if you want to be rich, like start finding reasons to be rich.
Speaker: Why is it better to be rich?
Speaker: Like, because for me, I had to shift it.
Speaker: And I said, money is not evil.
Speaker: Money is opportunity.
Speaker: When I have more money, I'm able to help more people.
Speaker: I'm able to do more things.
Speaker: I'm able to affect a larger crowd, impact more people, leave a bigger legacy.
Speaker: Those are the things that money can do, even though my mom and my parents both think that money is the root of all evil, that it will change me.
Speaker: But I know that what I believe is what will come to life.
Speaker: And so because of that, I shifted that belief.
Speaker: And then as a result, I did shift my identity because of it.
Speaker: Guys, investing is number one.
Speaker: If I were to put it to one freaking point, right?
Speaker: It all comes to investing.
Speaker: I literally would not be able to sell solar at all.
Speaker: I wouldn't be able to teach you guys.
Speaker: Wouldn't be able to have any of this stuff if it wasn't for investing.
Speaker: It really is the number one secret to your success.
Speaker: I know we say that a lot with a lot of these episodes.
Speaker: Joseph and I were looking at what the heck we should title this episode.
Speaker: There's a lot of number one secret episodes out there, but guys, this is literally the number one secret episode.
Speaker: Invest in yourself.
Speaker: Knowledge is power.
Speaker: Applied knowledge is a superpower.
Speaker: And that's it, guys.
Speaker: Let's sign off.
Speaker: Guys, if you enjoyed the episode, you know the drill.
Speaker: The fee for this is leave a review, comment, let us know what you think, share it with somebody who needs this, and we'll see you guys in the next episode tomorrow.
Speaker: All right, let's go get it, guys.
Speaker: Wow, what another amazing episode of the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It
Speaker: helps us get the word out about the solopreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
Speaker: And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the solopreneur group for more daily content that's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
