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The Secrets To Starting Your Own Solar EPC - Josue Phillips
81 Plays2 years ago
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Transcript
Taylor's Journey and Solarpreneur Mission
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:43
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, Solarpreneurs?
Live at Door-to-DoorCon with Josue Phillips
00:00:45
Speaker
We are here, a special episode.
00:00:47
Speaker
We're actually live at Door-to-DoorCon right now, and I'm stoked because I'm here with my man Josue Phillips.
00:00:53
Speaker
Josue, thanks for coming on the show with us today.
00:00:56
Speaker
Thank you for having me, brother.
00:00:57
Speaker
I'm very excited.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm stoked getting your story.
00:01:00
Speaker
Josue has a super sweet story he's going to share with us, and hopefully there's not a ton of background noise.
00:01:05
Speaker
We're actually sitting in the hall here, trying to get away from all those door-to-door maniacs.
00:01:10
Speaker
Those guys are loud and obnoxious.
00:01:12
Speaker
I think we're one of them.
00:01:13
Speaker
But we're excited to hear about his story and just kind of what he's done.
00:01:17
Speaker
So I guess just a little introduction to Jose.
00:01:19
Speaker
And he has this coming.
00:01:20
Speaker
How long ago did you start your
Josue's Expansion and Personal Motivation
00:01:22
Speaker
company?
00:01:22
Speaker
It's been three years since I went solo.
00:01:25
Speaker
Okay, three years and then how many offices and reps would you say?
00:01:29
Speaker
So yeah, we're in around five different markets and we have around 60 people and we're doubling those numbers by May 1st and expanding.
00:01:39
Speaker
Okay, so expanding like crazy father of three with one on the way, is that it?
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, finally having the baby girl and I have three boys.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, got a girl coming and just goes to show no excuses.
00:01:50
Speaker
I just had my second kid and I use that as an excuse sometimes to not get out there and hustle as much as I should.
00:01:57
Speaker
But Jose, he's out crushing, got 60 reps and all that.
00:02:01
Speaker
So you got my respect, my man.
00:02:03
Speaker
Thank you.
00:02:03
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:02:04
Speaker
And so, yeah, let's get into your story a
Early Life and Entrepreneurial Spirit
00:02:06
Speaker
little bit, Jose.
00:02:06
Speaker
Do you want to tell us a little bit like your upbringing, obviously from Costa Rica.
00:02:12
Speaker
I know you had an interesting like...
00:02:15
Speaker
You know, family wasn't the wealthiest and all that.
00:02:17
Speaker
So can you tell us a little bit of your story and all that?
00:02:20
Speaker
100%.
00:02:20
Speaker
So yeah, I'm Costa Rica, pura vida, para todos mis ticos out there.
00:02:24
Speaker
So yeah, I'm from Costa Rica, born and raised and poor family.
00:02:29
Speaker
We didn't have much and
00:02:31
Speaker
Man, since I have memory, I've been selling like all my life.
00:02:34
Speaker
I remember like collecting cards and selling them at school.
00:02:38
Speaker
I remember being hungry with other kids when I was in primary school and we would go and get some mangoes from trees and eat them with wood as salt.
00:02:46
Speaker
At the kitchen because we were all hungry.
00:02:48
Speaker
We didn't have much.
00:02:49
Speaker
And it started to become like a little bit worse.
00:02:52
Speaker
The economy, it was not just me, right?
00:02:54
Speaker
It was pretty much everybody around.
00:02:56
Speaker
It seemed like everybody in my neighborhood, my environment was going through the same thing.
00:03:00
Speaker
So when I was 12, I was kind of tired of just wanting things and...
00:03:07
Speaker
and not be able to get them, right?
00:03:09
Speaker
And kids would make fun of me for using the same backpack three years straight and the same run-down pants in my school uniform.
00:03:16
Speaker
So I was like, you know what?
00:03:16
Speaker
Screw this.
00:03:17
Speaker
I'm going to go work.
00:03:19
Speaker
So I went to the Department of Labor in my city and I asked them, like, hey, I want to work.
00:03:25
Speaker
And they laughed at me.
00:03:25
Speaker
I was this little 12-year-old kid wanting to work.
Karate Dojo and Renewable Energy Projects
00:03:30
Speaker
And they just laughed at me and they said, all right, let's go home and make your mom make a letter for you, bring a copy of her ID and we'll put the stamp that you can work.
00:03:42
Speaker
And I just paid like one hour on a cafe internet in Latin America, you know, in Costa Rica.
00:03:47
Speaker
I paid one hour and just made, typed the letter for my mom.
00:03:50
Speaker
She signed it and I went and got the permit and I took like 50 different copies.
00:03:56
Speaker
and walked probably like four different miles, four miles, just submitting my resume everywhere.
00:04:02
Speaker
People were laughing at me, they were being rude.
00:04:05
Speaker
I mean, who would take a 12 year old kid on a retail store, right?
00:04:10
Speaker
So finally, one store took me in and customers, when they would come in, they couldn't believe that I was working there, but I was killing it.
00:04:19
Speaker
I was like selling them all these stuff for their kids and stuff.
00:04:22
Speaker
And I was showing them like clothing and
00:04:23
Speaker
And tennis shoes.
00:04:24
Speaker
And one day I remember this, my boss came in and he said like, if you sell these pairs of Nike shoes, they were super fake, by the way, super fake.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:37
Speaker
And he was like, I'm going to give you five extra dollars per pair you sell.
00:04:41
Speaker
And I was making $10 a day.
00:04:43
Speaker
And I said, okay, this is where the money is.
00:04:45
Speaker
So I would stay next to the pile of Nikes and I was selling them all day long and making like three times more than my coworkers.
00:04:53
Speaker
And I loved it.
00:04:54
Speaker
It was like the drug of having the money that I needed to get the few things that I needed and then help my family too.
00:05:01
Speaker
Like help my mom, like getting my,
00:05:02
Speaker
sisters uniform and things like that were very fulfilling so I sacrificed my vacations from that moment on until I was like 18 just working
Transition to the U.S. and Solar Career
00:05:11
Speaker
at retail after school and during vacations that's what I did okay that's sweet man so yeah well I guess what I was gonna ask is I mean we're talking before we hit record I was in Colombia for a couple years on the church mission yes and there you know it's a lot
00:05:25
Speaker
like poor environment and everything.
00:05:27
Speaker
So I've never been to Costa Rica.
00:05:28
Speaker
Is that pretty?
00:05:29
Speaker
It's extremely similar.
00:05:31
Speaker
In fact, I have a call center in Colombia, by the way, big shout out to my team there.
00:05:35
Speaker
When I went there, I was like, this is the same thing as Costa Rica.
00:05:38
Speaker
We have the same fruits, the same fruit, same beautiful women, everything.
00:05:41
Speaker
It's so similar.
00:05:42
Speaker
So good.
00:05:44
Speaker
So when you say you were like poor growing up, so that was like next level.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:47
Speaker
What we think of, because like I think of Colombian, like what seemed like almost everyone was poor there compared to what we think of.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, Costa Rica has progressed a lot, a lot, but back in the days it was pretty similar to probably one of those Colombian provinces back in the days.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:06:05
Speaker
So this is, you know, it was rough.
00:06:07
Speaker
So for those that are listening, if you're thinking U.S. poor, this is a different level because, I mean, those countries are already poor compared to what we're thinking.
00:06:15
Speaker
You cannot compare it for sure.
Challenges and Business Growth in Solar Sales
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah, so that's crazy.
00:06:18
Speaker
And so how did it go from there?
00:06:19
Speaker
You sold shoes.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:22
Speaker
Then when I was 18, I got my black belt in karate shotokan and I opened my little dojo.
00:06:30
Speaker
I asked permission, my blessing from my sensei and opened my little dojo and that was my first experience knocking on doors.
00:06:35
Speaker
I printed like hundreds of these little pamphlets and went door to door asking people if they wanted to join my dojo.
00:06:42
Speaker
If they had kids to join my dojo.
00:06:44
Speaker
That's Cobra Kai.
00:06:45
Speaker
It's not your thing, Cobra Kai.
00:06:49
Speaker
Were they going door to door?
00:06:51
Speaker
In fact, I'm not even following the show, so I don't know.
00:06:53
Speaker
I think he does.
00:06:53
Speaker
Cool, cool, cool.
00:06:54
Speaker
You go to schools and stuff, you put like the flyers on.
00:06:58
Speaker
I was literally from house to house, just knocking all around the little dojo I was renting.
00:07:04
Speaker
And it was super cheap.
00:07:04
Speaker
I told them, hey, can I have the first month for free, you know, just to get some students?
00:07:08
Speaker
And I convinced them, they said yes.
00:07:10
Speaker
So my first class, I had 14 students.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I did that for, you know, a year and a half before I went on a mission.
00:07:17
Speaker
You know, I'm a member of the church and I serve a mission in Chile, but I had like a year and a half
Balancing Business, Education, and Family
00:07:23
Speaker
of having my own little dojo.
00:07:25
Speaker
And it was really impactful and I loved it because many of these kids were on a bad environment.
00:07:32
Speaker
You know, they had drugs all around.
00:07:34
Speaker
I remember going to play soccer outside and look at people doing coke, you know, and smoking marijuana everywhere.
00:07:41
Speaker
And some crackheads shooting crack, you know, like right there when we were playing soccer.
00:07:45
Speaker
So, and taking them out of that environment and bringing them and teaching them martial arts changed their lives because they were going to the province karate team and they were getting like swag and we were traveling to different tournaments.
00:08:00
Speaker
It helped them a lot and it helped me all throughout my life for sure.
00:08:04
Speaker
So that was in Costa Rica still?
00:08:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:08:07
Speaker
By the way, I've been in the States for four years only.
00:08:10
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
Just barely.
00:08:12
Speaker
Just barely, for sure.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
Crazy.
00:08:16
Speaker
So, yeah, you went on your mission.
00:08:18
Speaker
And so, yeah, tell us about how did you end up coming to the
Business Strategies and Financial Education
00:08:21
Speaker
States and transition into solar and all that.
00:08:24
Speaker
I guess I came following my dream because when I was in college, right after remission, I started studying industrial engineering.
00:08:31
Speaker
And I was paying my school, working full time, and taking seven classes.
00:08:36
Speaker
And I had to prioritize, doing some homework and some others I couldn't.
00:08:42
Speaker
I just didn't have the time.
00:08:44
Speaker
So my physics 2 professor talked to me and he said hey you're gonna lose this class but I have a solution if you go to the science fair you can save it because it's 15 points and I was like oh shoot that's like the same points you would get on an exam on a test so I went home and started researching and I came back and I was like I have no clue what can I do and he said look into renewable energy I mean that's kind of new and everybody's talking about it yeah in Costa Rica is
00:09:11
Speaker
really big on that.
00:09:12
Speaker
We produce 98% of our power from renewable sources.
00:09:15
Speaker
No kidding.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:09:17
Speaker
Many people don't know.
00:09:18
Speaker
No, we have solar, we have wind, and the biggest hydro.
00:09:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:22
Speaker
Wow.
00:09:23
Speaker
That's pretty cool.
00:09:23
Speaker
I think we're the number one.
00:09:25
Speaker
98% of our power is from renewable sources.
00:09:27
Speaker
Wow, that's awesome.
00:09:28
Speaker
So yeah, I developed this little metal roof tile attached to a solar panel and I literally bought
Final Thoughts and Encouragement
00:09:36
Speaker
a copper sheet and literally a very basic circuiting board.
00:09:41
Speaker
I welded a resistor and put a photo sensor so when the sun would come down, it would turn low consumption five watt LED.
00:09:52
Speaker
Oh.
00:09:52
Speaker
Because I watched this documentary of this indigenous communities where kids couldn't finish school because when they would come back home from walking two hours in the mountain, they had no power.
00:10:03
Speaker
So I was like, oh, I want to do something about this.
00:10:05
Speaker
So that was my science fair and they loved it.
00:10:08
Speaker
They loved it.
00:10:08
Speaker
They were like, hey, you know what?
00:10:09
Speaker
We can do something with this and bring it into, you know, like these indigenous communities.
00:10:14
Speaker
So I loved it.
00:10:16
Speaker
After that, I started doing, I did another project the next semester with, I don't know if I'm saying it right in English, perovskite, like creating a solar cell with perovskite.
00:10:28
Speaker
Perovskite.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:30
Speaker
Or Peroxky, I don't know man.
00:10:31
Speaker
Peroxide?
00:10:33
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no, it's a semiconductor.
00:10:35
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's a semiconductor.
00:10:37
Speaker
So since then I started, I was fascinated with the technology and we got married and we decided to move to the U.S. after getting married.
00:10:48
Speaker
And I met a church, Jess Phillips, by the way, big shout out, Jess Phillips from Quattiva.
00:10:54
Speaker
He was in my same word, by the way.
00:10:56
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:10:57
Speaker
And he had a cool Tesla.
00:10:59
Speaker
And I asked him, like, hey, Jez, what do you do for a living?
00:11:02
Speaker
He said, I have a solar company.
00:11:04
Speaker
And I was like, oh, no way.
00:11:05
Speaker
I was doing solar projects when I was in college.
00:11:08
Speaker
Is there good money in solar?
00:11:10
Speaker
And he said, oh, my friend, you have no clue.
00:11:12
Speaker
You have no clue.
00:11:14
Speaker
And from that moment on, I started researching and got into solar.
00:11:17
Speaker
And right after, I, you know, like one year in, I decided to start my own thing because I thought that I could do a better job.
00:11:28
Speaker
And I'm getting there.
00:11:28
Speaker
I'm getting there.
00:11:30
Speaker
The company that I started with, they're awesome.
00:11:32
Speaker
A lot of love to my guys there.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
you know the ones that know me um but yeah it's been a very fulfilling life-changing experience for sure yeah sounds like it no mad respect for you coming from another country to start your own thing it's incredible love hearing stories like that i didn't know that about costa rica though 90 percent 98 brother
00:11:54
Speaker
We're here, you know, I'm in California telling all the people that we're trying to hit 50% renewable.
00:11:59
Speaker
Right.
00:12:00
Speaker
I never really believed that we can.
00:12:02
Speaker
That's impossible to get that level.
00:12:03
Speaker
It's wild.
00:12:04
Speaker
I guess it is 98%.
00:12:05
Speaker
We did some good stuff there.
00:12:08
Speaker
Recycling is...
00:12:10
Speaker
It's giant.
00:12:11
Speaker
I mean, to graduate from, to pass the school year, you had to recycle.
00:12:15
Speaker
So one year was 40 pounds of cardboard.
00:12:17
Speaker
You have to bring 40 pounds of cardboard to be able to pass to the next school year.
00:12:22
Speaker
And then the next year, it was like 100 cans.
00:12:26
Speaker
You had to recycle cans, wash them, and
00:12:28
Speaker
and squeeze them and bring them in so they can recycle them.
00:12:31
Speaker
So yeah, we did some good stuff down there for sure.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, saving the planet stuff.
00:12:36
Speaker
And so you, so it sounds like you're pretty much going to school to be an engineer and that was kind of your thing is more the engineering side.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah, one of the keys, honestly, is continuous education.
00:12:48
Speaker
I just finished, by the way, my global energy leadership program with Rice University.
00:12:53
Speaker
I'm starting on the 18th, January 18th with MIT.
00:12:57
Speaker
I'm taking energy, politics, and economics.
00:13:01
Speaker
And right after I'm done with that one,
00:13:03
Speaker
I'm starting with Stanford University.
00:13:05
Speaker
They have, by the way, you can look it up.
00:13:07
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:13:08
Speaker
It's not that expensive.
00:13:10
Speaker
It's pretty inexpensive, I have to say, and it's about energy storage.
00:13:14
Speaker
So Stanford University has a really cool professional program for energy storage.
00:13:19
Speaker
Wow, so not only starts his own organization, but he's got to be one of the most educated guys in solar.
00:13:26
Speaker
Most of us are just a bunch of meatheads there.
00:13:28
Speaker
I want to get into R&D after, for sure.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
Research and development.
00:13:32
Speaker
I want to do that.
00:13:32
Speaker
That's impressive.
00:13:33
Speaker
And so what was the main reason you came to like the US then in the first place?
00:13:38
Speaker
Better opportunities.
00:13:39
Speaker
Better opportunities.
00:13:40
Speaker
My ambition was way bigger than I could accomplish in my home country, unfortunately.
00:13:46
Speaker
And this is the best country in the world, guys.
00:13:48
Speaker
You've got to believe it, man.
00:13:49
Speaker
That's why.
00:13:50
Speaker
immigrants all over the world choose this country.
00:13:52
Speaker
I love Costa Rica like crazy.
00:13:54
Speaker
I want to be there, especially when it gets cold here.
00:13:57
Speaker
I want to live in Costa Rica during winter in the U.S. But the U.S. is the country of the opportunities, 100%.
00:14:04
Speaker
No doubt.
00:14:07
Speaker
Sure, got some wrestlers here running by.
00:14:09
Speaker
Apparently, they scheduled Door to Door Con at the same time as a wrestling tournament.
00:14:13
Speaker
We've got people wrestling in the halls.
00:14:15
Speaker
Extra wild.
00:14:17
Speaker
Extra noise.
00:14:19
Speaker
But no, so pretty incredible.
00:14:20
Speaker
So you came here without like having a job lined up, nothing.
00:14:23
Speaker
You're just like better opportunities on the head out there.
00:14:26
Speaker
Just better opportunities.
00:14:27
Speaker
And I had to do some rough jobs before I started full time in solar.
00:14:32
Speaker
It was rough, man.
00:14:34
Speaker
I was doing like land mowing and then I was doing demos.
00:14:38
Speaker
I was doing demolitions.
00:14:40
Speaker
I was doing demolitions.
00:14:41
Speaker
My coworkers were getting caught.
00:14:43
Speaker
And it was really rough.
00:14:45
Speaker
We were working like 15 hours a day just to make ends meet, you know.
00:14:51
Speaker
And I had no paperwork.
00:14:52
Speaker
That's what I just have to do.
00:14:54
Speaker
Because the U.S. government told me, hey, you can go to the U.S. We're going to give you a residency.
00:14:58
Speaker
And once I got here, they said, by the way, the time frame is 12 months, 12 to 14 months.
00:15:03
Speaker
So I was there stuck in the limbo being in the U.S. legally, but not legally to work.
00:15:08
Speaker
So I had to...
00:15:09
Speaker
I had all of those months and I had to get creative, right?
00:15:13
Speaker
So I had to get those jobs just to survive and make it happen.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:15:19
Speaker
Were you pretty nervous, like, coming out?
00:15:20
Speaker
Because I'd be, I don't know.
00:15:22
Speaker
Well, did you even know English at that point?
00:15:26
Speaker
I spoke some English, but not quite well.
00:15:28
Speaker
In fact, I have a huge, thick accent right now.
00:15:31
Speaker
You sound good, better than my Spanish.
00:15:36
Speaker
I do have to say that I took my disadvantages and turned them into my advantages.
00:15:43
Speaker
I was mortified that, oh my gosh, I got to get rid of my accent.
00:15:47
Speaker
And then I started to notice that people would get closer to me and pay attention and look at me in the eyes when I was speaking so they could understand.
00:15:57
Speaker
So I was like,
00:15:57
Speaker
Wow, you know what?
00:15:59
Speaker
That's an advantage in fact.
00:16:00
Speaker
That's not a disadvantage.
00:16:01
Speaker
People have to get closer to me to understand what I'm saying.
00:16:06
Speaker
So yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
That's true.
00:16:08
Speaker
It's all in your mind at the end of the day.
00:16:10
Speaker
I know.
00:16:11
Speaker
I know.
00:16:12
Speaker
I'm the same way people think I'm from Canada and stuff like that.
00:16:15
Speaker
I don't know what happened to me.
00:16:16
Speaker
I grew up in Utah.
00:16:18
Speaker
But people say, are you from Canada?
00:16:20
Speaker
Are you from Wisconsin?
00:16:21
Speaker
I'm like, no, I'm from Utah.
00:16:23
Speaker
Utah.
00:16:24
Speaker
So probably not to that level, but no, I think there's a point to that for all those that are listening.
00:16:28
Speaker
A lot of us, I don't know, for me, I came out thinking certain things were a disadvantage.
00:16:33
Speaker
Oh, I grew up in a small town.
00:16:35
Speaker
Oh, this, that.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners too that maybe they have an accent.
00:16:38
Speaker
Maybe they're, you know, different ethnicity, this, that.
00:16:41
Speaker
There's tons of excuses, but I think like Kozue is saying,
00:16:45
Speaker
you look at the way that can be an advantage and I don't know was there anything else mental you would say that helped you just like because you could come up with all the excuse in the world from a different country don't speak English great it was rough I was knocking on doors in California yeah no money at all knocking on doors in California with this thick accent it was rough but you know what it is all in your mind it's all in your mind at the end of the day you can have the best pitch in the world it's just a numbers game
00:17:12
Speaker
So I just simplified my pitch and I was just telling people, hey, do you know how much money you can save with solar?
00:17:18
Speaker
Let me show you a quote.
00:17:19
Speaker
And they were like, I'm not sure.
00:17:21
Speaker
Well, you know, it's going to be free.
00:17:23
Speaker
I'm not going to charge you for this one.
00:17:24
Speaker
Maybe the second one.
00:17:26
Speaker
But the first one is free.
00:17:27
Speaker
All right.
00:17:28
Speaker
So I would just throw a little joke there and they would.
00:17:31
Speaker
accept an appointment and i would go and sell them so yeah you just got to be sometimes pretty straightforward and bold no matter if you have a thick accent you can make it happen in solar yeah 100 inspiring so jose um you started uh so let me get this straight you sold a year of like solar for a company and then after that you started your own company yes my own sales org and um i decided to move the headquarters to dallas okay which was an amazing decision one of the best decisions
00:18:00
Speaker
I love the Texas market.
00:18:01
Speaker
Let me tell you this about Texas.
00:18:03
Speaker
After knocking in California, the first door ever that I knocked in Texas, they were like, hey, come in.
00:18:10
Speaker
And I was like, oh, my gosh, what's happening?
00:18:12
Speaker
And they were eating.
00:18:13
Speaker
And I was like, you know what?
00:18:14
Speaker
I'm going to come back in like 30 minutes so you can finish eating.
00:18:17
Speaker
They were like, no, no, no, sit down.
00:18:18
Speaker
And do you want to eat?
00:18:19
Speaker
And I was like, it's so awkward.
00:18:23
Speaker
I was like, oh my gosh.
00:18:24
Speaker
They don't even know what's my name.
00:18:26
Speaker
You know, they haven't even asked.
00:18:27
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, for sure.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:29
Speaker
Thank you.
00:18:29
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:18:30
Speaker
And then I was just like started.
00:18:31
Speaker
So I've for some reason, I always say I'm from Costa Rica and people, oh, for real, Costa Rica.
00:18:35
Speaker
And then we start talking.
00:18:37
Speaker
It seems that everybody loves Costa Rica.
00:18:39
Speaker
So we started talking and they gave me, you know, like some food and it was some good 10 minutes at the table when they said, so are you selling alarms?
00:18:49
Speaker
And I was like, oh no, I'm selling solar.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker
Am I the first solar guy here?
00:18:53
Speaker
And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:54
Speaker
We have been talking about solar.
00:18:56
Speaker
And I was like, awesome.
00:18:57
Speaker
Let me show you a quote.
00:18:59
Speaker
And I was like, this is heaven.
00:19:00
Speaker
This is absolute heaven.
00:19:02
Speaker
And on the other hand, I've seen people that come to Texas.
00:19:05
Speaker
They hate it.
00:19:06
Speaker
We don't want to sell in Texas.
00:19:08
Speaker
Everybody's Republican.
00:19:09
Speaker
And at the end of the day, you impose your own limitations in your mind.
00:19:14
Speaker
That's all there is.
00:19:15
Speaker
Because if you have this positive attitude in your column and you...
00:19:21
Speaker
transmit that to your customers they're gonna be leaving you and no matter if you're from another country with an accent you can make it happen and and that's if if i made it happen everybody can right that's my message for everybody out there yeah you gotta dream big you gotta fabricate that reality in your head and then bring it into existence
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:19:42
Speaker
And yeah, it goes to that point.
00:19:43
Speaker
It's like law of attraction, right?
00:19:45
Speaker
Whatever you think is going to happen.
00:19:47
Speaker
I see it all the time, too, in California, our reps.
00:19:49
Speaker
So I go, it's too saturated.
00:19:50
Speaker
There's way too many reps out here.
00:19:52
Speaker
And yeah, when you say stuff like that, I want to move out to Texas and just go sell it in Texas because I don't really get invited to eat food like that.
00:19:59
Speaker
Maybe I should just say I'm from Costa Rica before people let me in.
00:20:03
Speaker
But no, it's true though.
00:20:04
Speaker
You know, just whatever you think in your head.
00:20:07
Speaker
I know Grant Cardone talks about it all the time.
00:20:09
Speaker
Whatever your objections are, it's going to come up in your clothes.
00:20:11
Speaker
Whatever your objections are to the area or to knocking, those things are going to come up.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's 100% true.
00:20:17
Speaker
And especially new reps need to remember that as you're starting your job.
00:20:20
Speaker
Remember that, you know, write down what objections you have and see if those are coming up in what you're doing.
00:20:25
Speaker
But yeah, and so in Texas, let me ask you this, Jose, I know there's some reps out there who maybe are thinking, I'm starting their own company.
00:20:34
Speaker
Obviously, that's not for everybody.
00:20:35
Speaker
Definitely not.
00:20:36
Speaker
It's very challenging.
00:20:39
Speaker
You've got to sacrifice a lot of your time because when you start your own company, you've got to be selling and also training people and managing the business.
00:20:46
Speaker
Wait for some good 18-hour, 16-hour days.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:20:50
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, what I guess what led you to start your own company versus just continuing to sell?
00:20:55
Speaker
And what could you tell people that maybe are thinking of starting their own or any tips you would have on that?
00:20:59
Speaker
You got to have a passion to build something and to work for something that is yours.
00:21:05
Speaker
Number one.
00:21:05
Speaker
And where I was, I didn't necessarily felt that sense of belonging.
00:21:10
Speaker
You know, I wanted to build something for people that they would feel like home.
00:21:15
Speaker
And of course, like saying it is way easier than doing it because now that I have my business, that's so extremely challenging.
00:21:24
Speaker
What it's key is, first off, you have to differentiate yourself by doing something.
00:21:29
Speaker
For example, we do efficiency products.
00:21:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:33
Speaker
So we don't downsize systems, we just do it as an add-on to bring more value.
00:21:39
Speaker
So when we step in the house, we review the breaker box and I train my guys what to look into the, you know, if it's a compatible breaker box so they can include already the MPU and tell the customers at the time of closing, by the way, this is also including a brand new breaker box for you.
00:21:54
Speaker
And they were like, oh, for real?
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, 100% included.
00:21:57
Speaker
And we're just going to cover all the upfront costs and everything.
00:22:00
Speaker
It's all in the project.
00:22:01
Speaker
And then we review insulation, we check the insulation on the home, we check the thermostat, LED lights, we check a bunch of other things that I train my guys to look into.
00:22:12
Speaker
It's just for, as I said, we don't downgrade system sizes.
00:22:17
Speaker
Undersize the system.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah, undersize the system, sorry.
00:22:20
Speaker
We just provide it as an extra value for our customers.
00:22:23
Speaker
And when the competition comes, we rarely lose customers like that.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's awesome.
00:22:29
Speaker
You're creating an offer, including more than just the solar because you know how it is, especially in California, people sometimes try and just buy over and over on price, but you're including all these other projects.
00:22:40
Speaker
I mean, they're going to have to include a lot of stuff to compete with you guys.
00:22:44
Speaker
I think that's super powerful, especially in saturated markets.
00:22:46
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:22:47
Speaker
And so you started the company and what was, I guess, the toughest challenge you had to go through?
00:22:54
Speaker
I know you've had your company, what, three years now, you said?
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, and it was really the attachment to people.
00:23:01
Speaker
And that's something that hurt me.
00:23:03
Speaker
And still, in a certain extent, it hurts.
00:23:06
Speaker
Because you get attached to people and they leave.
00:23:09
Speaker
You really wanted for them to work the same way it did for me and provide all the possibilities and the wealth that it has created in my life.
00:23:18
Speaker
But some people just don't want the same things you do.
00:23:24
Speaker
And they're not willing to pay the price for it.
00:23:27
Speaker
Some people think they want to be millionaires and they don't know what it takes to become a millionaire.
00:23:32
Speaker
And they're not willing to pay the price for it.
00:23:34
Speaker
So to me, it was the attachment to people just to get completely detached and just realize that, yes, we have to have a strong culture.
00:23:43
Speaker
We have to train properly, have a really robust, a streamlined process to train these guys.
00:23:49
Speaker
But we got to be prepared for them to leave also.
00:23:53
Speaker
And you got to be emotionally detached from those things.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah, one of the Mo Fala that just spoke today actually.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:02
Speaker
Fire.
00:24:02
Speaker
It was great.
00:24:03
Speaker
Yeah, he was just talking about like if you're so attached to someone leaving your company, that probably means you don't have enough new recruits coming in the door.
00:24:10
Speaker
It's like, you know, for every person that leaves, you should have two or three people.
00:24:15
Speaker
More like three.
00:24:16
Speaker
More like three coming in.
00:24:17
Speaker
Abundance mindset.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:20
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:24:21
Speaker
And then another thing we're talking to before we hit record is you also have a call center with your company.
00:24:27
Speaker
Very successful.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah, not a lot of people are running successful call centers.
00:24:32
Speaker
I've never really messed around with the call center.
00:24:34
Speaker
So I wanted to pick your brain about that.
00:24:36
Speaker
How do you guys?
00:24:37
Speaker
Well, first of all, how did you set it up?
00:24:39
Speaker
Why did you decide to set up a call center shift instead of just doing door to door?
00:24:42
Speaker
And how's that been for you?
00:24:44
Speaker
So, you know, the capitalist mentality, I want to outsource some things.
00:24:49
Speaker
So overseas, right?
00:24:51
Speaker
Mine is in Colombia, in Bogota.
00:24:54
Speaker
And I just literally reached out to a bunch of people that started my own project.
00:24:59
Speaker
It failed.
00:25:01
Speaker
I literally had three failed call centers.
00:25:03
Speaker
In this one, I have had people that have been with me for a year and a half.
00:25:07
Speaker
Wow, congrats.
00:25:08
Speaker
And that's amazing, you know, for a call center.
00:25:10
Speaker
With the attrition they have, if we think we have attrition, door to doors, like, you got to see the call centers.
00:25:16
Speaker
It's really bad.
00:25:18
Speaker
I don't know if it's worse, but it's really bad.
00:25:20
Speaker
So first off is that you have to have a structure.
00:25:25
Speaker
Many times you want to start a call center without...
00:25:28
Speaker
Just go ahead and read the script.
00:25:30
Speaker
That's it.
00:25:30
Speaker
That's all you got to do.
00:25:31
Speaker
I've heard people saying that.
00:25:32
Speaker
Just show them the script and give them the database.
00:25:35
Speaker
And that's not how it works.
00:25:36
Speaker
You got to take your time to train your guys.
00:25:39
Speaker
I think one of our biggest mistakes in our industry, overall, even in door to door, is not training properly.
00:25:45
Speaker
Right.
00:25:46
Speaker
Right.
00:25:46
Speaker
So good quality training.
00:25:48
Speaker
You don't have to get ridiculous or too technical.
00:25:51
Speaker
It's just good, straightforward, honest training.
00:25:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:55
Speaker
Something I train my guys on even is like the contract, the financing contract.
00:26:00
Speaker
All right.
00:26:01
Speaker
So they can know what's in there.
00:26:03
Speaker
Right.
00:26:03
Speaker
If a customer asks, they know what to say.
00:26:06
Speaker
And we say, hey, by the way, let's make a stop here during our closing process.
00:26:12
Speaker
You have, by the way, these are your rights.
00:26:15
Speaker
We're going to go through with you.
00:26:17
Speaker
However, at the end of the day, you have rights as a consumer.
00:26:21
Speaker
And we point out the contract like you have the right to cancel in three days.
00:26:25
Speaker
All right.
00:26:27
Speaker
It's called Lemon Law.
00:26:28
Speaker
You can withdraw in three days.
00:26:30
Speaker
If anything happens, let me know.
00:26:32
Speaker
Let's say tonight you will be thinking about it.
00:26:35
Speaker
If you want to cancel tonight, what would be the reason for that in our cancellation ratio right now is 8% It's really really low.
00:26:42
Speaker
I think right is kind of low for solar And we point at that and we say hey you have three days to cancel After that we have to reinforce some stuff because we're gonna spend money, right?
00:26:52
Speaker
We're gonna submit permits electric stamps and everything we're gonna we're gonna
00:26:56
Speaker
to spend money on this yeah so but you have three this is your right as a consumer many companies will avoid telling you this we want to point it out and tell you if you would cancel what would be the reason so you know we provide this type of training like in different tactics people are not doing really out there and I think that's valuable because we have seen the results right and really low cancellation ratio and
00:27:20
Speaker
And with the call center was the same thing.
00:27:22
Speaker
You got to develop systems and manage those systems, not manage the people because you don't have enough time to manage all that people.
00:27:29
Speaker
You got to create the system first.
00:27:32
Speaker
And that's when I became successful in my call center because I developed this whole system, dialer, database, who's going to pull the database for me.
00:27:41
Speaker
I don't have the time to do that.
00:27:43
Speaker
Who's going to scrub it?
00:27:44
Speaker
Who's going to provide it?
00:27:45
Speaker
And we cannot give them like a huge database because they're going to be super disorganized.
00:27:49
Speaker
So we got to be giving them X amount of leads per rep per week and then make them accountable.
00:27:56
Speaker
What happened with those leads we provided to you?
00:27:59
Speaker
and different sources, for example, not just calling, text messages, emails, squeezing those leads as much as we can.
00:28:07
Speaker
And we have noticed sometimes after calling a customer one month and sending them text messages and emails, they, of course, not every day, right?
00:28:15
Speaker
We make it spaced out.
00:28:17
Speaker
We see them replying back.
00:28:18
Speaker
You know what?
00:28:19
Speaker
I looked you guys up on Facebook and I think I want to do this, things like that.
00:28:23
Speaker
You got to squeeze those leads.
00:28:24
Speaker
I mean, they cost a lot of money.
00:28:26
Speaker
You got to make them work.
00:28:28
Speaker
So how did you come up with all these systems?
00:28:30
Speaker
Did you learn from someone or just trial and error?
00:28:33
Speaker
Because for me, if I was to go start a call center out of, you know, no idea.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, I had probably like 60 different demos with software companies.
00:28:44
Speaker
and I'm gonna tell my secrets I don't care I mean we can all benefit from this you can have the most sophisticated subwares at the end of the day I just use high level okay and I use some real estate listing services to append the information so I have one software that provides a
00:29:03
Speaker
amazing filters so I can filter by ethnicity because we target with the call center we target Hispanics.
00:29:11
Speaker
Because they only speak Spanish.
00:29:12
Speaker
Right in Colombia it's kind of impossible to find somebody like with perfect English right so yeah we target the Hispanic community with the call center and we scrub them right we append which is the the action of buying the phone number and email on that household.
00:29:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:26
Speaker
And then they call using high level because I love it because you can turn them into a lead and then opportunity.
00:29:33
Speaker
And we have the pipeline right there.
00:29:35
Speaker
And as we progress, right, throughout the installation process, after closing that deal, our goal high level is scheduled to send them
00:29:43
Speaker
automatic responses.
00:29:45
Speaker
So after it was installed, we sent an automatic email saying, these are your options.
00:29:51
Speaker
These are the companies that will buy back your kilowatt hours.
00:29:54
Speaker
Because in Texas, it's deregulated.
00:29:56
Speaker
It's different.
00:29:57
Speaker
So we can keep good communication.
00:30:00
Speaker
We also send them, like, please, if we did a good job, give us a review.
00:30:04
Speaker
And all of those automated processes.
00:30:06
Speaker
So it's pretty easy.
00:30:08
Speaker
Right now, I even use the GoHighLevel dialer.
00:30:10
Speaker
You don't have to go with fancy tools, super expensive.
00:30:13
Speaker
We use the dialer that is integrated into Go High Level.
00:30:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:18
Speaker
So big shout out, guys.
00:30:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:20
Speaker
I love Go High Level.
00:30:20
Speaker
I love Go High Level.
00:30:22
Speaker
It's so awesome.
00:30:23
Speaker
It's super handy.
00:30:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:24
Speaker
I think it's the best one from what I've heard people are using right now.
00:30:28
Speaker
No, that's good.
00:30:29
Speaker
And like, so you're basically just getting these lists, the Colombians are calling them.
00:30:35
Speaker
And then are they setting up appointments with them?
00:30:37
Speaker
And then you're sending out some of the in person?
00:30:40
Speaker
Or are they trying to do like virtual sales and so we closed up?
00:30:43
Speaker
As soon as we book the appointment, we send them like, thank you so much for booking an appointment with us.
00:30:50
Speaker
Here is the link of our company.
00:30:52
Speaker
And we send them the website and here's your confirmation code.
00:30:55
Speaker
And we just put in like a Sunstar something, like a confirmation code.
00:31:01
Speaker
So when the rep comes,
00:31:03
Speaker
Like, hey, how are you doing?
00:31:03
Speaker
This is from Sunstar.
00:31:04
Speaker
We have an appointment.
00:31:06
Speaker
Your confirmation code is this.
00:31:08
Speaker
And oh, yeah, they feel safe somehow just because we provide.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's more official for sure.
00:31:14
Speaker
And the day of the appointment, the call center calls.
00:31:17
Speaker
They call them.
00:31:18
Speaker
and the customers to confirm they're going to be there because in Texas everything is far away pretty much.
00:31:23
Speaker
We got to drive like 45 minutes to an hour to many appointments.
00:31:27
Speaker
So we get those appointments confirmed the same day.
00:31:32
Speaker
We always try like two, three hours before to get the customer a call and we send them a text.
00:31:38
Speaker
So rule of thumb is if it's 40 minutes, 45 minutes or less, we just show up.
00:31:43
Speaker
If it's more than 45 minutes, the call center confirms the appointment.
00:31:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:46
Speaker
That's our rule, our standard.
00:31:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:31:51
Speaker
And yeah, I think probably the biggest question I asked you a little bit before we started talking is how do you combine all this with door to door?
00:31:58
Speaker
Obviously, a lot of people listening to the podcast are doing just door to door.
00:32:02
Speaker
Some want to start their call centers, things like that.
00:32:04
Speaker
So what would you suggest maybe for companies that want to add on a call center or I don't know, maybe reps that want to start fooling around with this?
00:32:11
Speaker
How do you suggest that you still keep door to door going strong?
00:32:15
Speaker
but also add this in and not have it be a distraction because you know how it is sometimes you're up to just you know be like oh i'm just gonna wait for these call center leads to come in or these online leads when they could be out knocking too so how do you make it like supplemental not as much a distraction that has happened
00:32:30
Speaker
In fact, that has happened a lot.
00:32:32
Speaker
For example, one rep, I closed a deal personally because all of my closers were on appointments.
00:32:38
Speaker
So I was like, heck, I'm not going to lose these appointments just because one of my closers can't go.
00:32:42
Speaker
I'm going to go myself.
00:32:43
Speaker
So I went and closed it.
00:32:45
Speaker
And this rep called me super pissed.
00:32:46
Speaker
Like, why are you closing deals, bro?
00:32:48
Speaker
You got to send those appointments to us.
00:32:50
Speaker
And I was like, oh, my gosh, I created these monsters.
00:32:52
Speaker
I created these monsters.
00:32:54
Speaker
They're really telling me that I should send them.
00:32:57
Speaker
So I pulled a report and I was like, bro, I have sent you 45 appointments this month and you have closed four.
00:33:05
Speaker
I took three and I closed two.
00:33:08
Speaker
I took three appointments and I closed two.
00:33:11
Speaker
And I told him, like, you know what?
00:33:13
Speaker
I didn't realize your closing ratio was so low.
00:33:16
Speaker
So now you got to go and get your own appointments.
00:33:19
Speaker
And like, you know, after all of my experience and failures also, because you learn a lot from your failures, I don't send a closer more than two appointments a day.
00:33:30
Speaker
I try not to.
00:33:31
Speaker
I really try not to send more than two appointments a day.
00:33:34
Speaker
Why?
00:33:35
Speaker
Because a good consultation should take two hours at least, right?
00:33:39
Speaker
and then let's say 45 to an hour driving to the next appointment, what they can manage properly is two a day.
00:33:45
Speaker
Right.
00:33:46
Speaker
So, and you also got to leave, you know, like at least one hour for them to knock.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:51
Speaker
Because I make them also like, I encourage them, hey brother, you got to go and knock.
00:33:56
Speaker
And I encourage them to get to the area one hour before the appointment so they can go meet the neighbors and try to get other appointments.
00:34:03
Speaker
That's good.
00:34:04
Speaker
And ultimately, you've got to delegate.
00:34:06
Speaker
So I got a general manager for the call center, and I also have people running the door-to-door side of the business.
00:34:14
Speaker
So you've got to delegate.
00:34:16
Speaker
You've got to trust people.
00:34:17
Speaker
People are going to betray you.
00:34:18
Speaker
People are going to leave.
00:34:20
Speaker
You've just got to be emotionally prepared for it.
00:34:22
Speaker
That's it.
00:34:22
Speaker
You've got to be detached and have the systems ready.
00:34:26
Speaker
So if somebody leaves, you've got the system going so you can just...
00:34:31
Speaker
plug in another manager and nothing has happened.
00:34:33
Speaker
Right.
00:34:35
Speaker
So that's what you got to do.
00:34:36
Speaker
You can never build, you know, like a side of your business around a person.
00:34:40
Speaker
Right.
00:34:41
Speaker
Because if that person leaves, you lose part of your business.
00:34:44
Speaker
That's true.
00:34:45
Speaker
So you just got to build the systems for it.
00:34:47
Speaker
A hundred percent.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:48
Speaker
And yeah, what do you make it kind of like reward based like they have to close a certain number of self-gens or be getting their own needs?
00:34:56
Speaker
I have a different model in terms of the call center guys.
00:34:58
Speaker
I pay them a base salary plus every time we close a deal, they get a commission.
00:35:04
Speaker
And that's cool.
00:35:05
Speaker
You know, in Colombia, they have a great living, by the way.
00:35:09
Speaker
I remember me telling my mom because my mom told me when I got here to the States, she was like, just get a job.
00:35:15
Speaker
Like they paid good enough where you can come back and be at 5 p.m.
00:35:19
Speaker
with your family.
00:35:20
Speaker
And now I told my mom, like, mom, look at all the families that are like providing for their families from my ambition, you know, from my dream.
00:35:28
Speaker
Just want to do things different.
00:35:29
Speaker
yeah and so my my closers they got a red line model right and the setters they get paid well everything is by volume in fact i came up with this model is really different i have not seen it anywhere else that from one to four appointments they get paid x amount of money from five to nine x plus y and then ten plus xyz right in every single month it resets it resets and by quarter if they hit the quarterly goal
00:35:59
Speaker
they start at a lower red line.
00:36:03
Speaker
So it's kind of different.
00:36:04
Speaker
I have never seen it before.
00:36:05
Speaker
I really just came out with it because it keeps people engaged.
00:36:11
Speaker
It's resetting, but it's also rewarding them if they hit the quarterly goal.
00:36:16
Speaker
So it's very different.
00:36:17
Speaker
I like it.
00:36:18
Speaker
It works for us.
00:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, sounds like it's working.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, and then, I mean, so you have a manager that's just for the call center that's in Colombia managing all these people.
00:36:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:27
Speaker
And then, yeah, I guess the next question is with all these different markets, because you're in what, four?
00:36:33
Speaker
Around five.
00:36:33
Speaker
Five, okay.
00:36:35
Speaker
Because I've seen, matter of fact, I've been with a company who tried to expand quickly before they had good processes set up to other markets.
00:36:41
Speaker
So all of a sudden we're in eight markets one year, but then we lost like six of them for the next year.
00:36:46
Speaker
It's so crazy because you've got to time it right.
00:36:48
Speaker
You gotta time it right.
00:36:50
Speaker
And yes, there is many great markets, but you gotta choose your market and learn that market really well before you even go and sell there.
00:37:00
Speaker
And what we do is that we have a two-to-one ratio.
00:37:03
Speaker
Two setters, no matter if it's virtual, you know, the call center, or if they're like door setters,
00:37:09
Speaker
It's two-one ratio.
00:37:10
Speaker
That's what we do.
00:37:11
Speaker
And it keeps everybody very accountable for things.
00:37:14
Speaker
Keeps everybody accountable.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:16
Speaker
Because they had weekly meetings where they meet with the setters.
00:37:20
Speaker
Okay, brother, I'm not getting enough appointments.
00:37:22
Speaker
We got to ramp that up.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:24
Speaker
And the setters also tell them, what happened with my appointments?
00:37:26
Speaker
I send them to you.
00:37:28
Speaker
So what's going on with that, right?
00:37:29
Speaker
So it's not like a confrontation, but keeps them accountable.
00:37:35
Speaker
And it works.
00:37:36
Speaker
As I said, I mean, I'm an industrial engineer.
00:37:38
Speaker
I have a black belt, not only in karate, but also in Six Sigma.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:43
Speaker
In Six Sigma, which is quality control and lean manufacturing and improving, simplifying everything.
00:37:52
Speaker
So I have that mentality.
00:37:54
Speaker
How can I simplify processes and develop systems that will manage the people?
00:37:58
Speaker
I'm constantly thinking about that.
00:38:00
Speaker
I try to integrate my knowledge in industrial engineering into cells.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:05
Speaker
It makes it kind of different.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:06
Speaker
No, you got an awesome background.
00:38:08
Speaker
How many people that have engineer knowledge and stuff like that?
00:38:12
Speaker
I love it.
00:38:12
Speaker
Love physics.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:13
Speaker
I bet you're really good at selling engineers.
00:38:15
Speaker
Those are like my worst customers.
00:38:17
Speaker
I love it.
00:38:18
Speaker
I explain them like in depth because that's what they like.
00:38:20
Speaker
I know.
00:38:21
Speaker
I know, and you take a page out of that playbook.
00:38:23
Speaker
I know, super good stuff.
00:38:25
Speaker
And I know we got to get back to a few of the speakers here at Door to DoorCon.
00:38:28
Speaker
So just before we kind of wrap up here, Josue, before I forget, where can people connect with you more on social media and maybe, you know, ask you more questions if they want to get in touch?
00:38:38
Speaker
100% they can reach out on Instagram is the best place you can find me as solar energy CEO Josue J-O-S-U-E Phillips and yeah you can reach out to me just DM me I'll reply awesome you can laugh at my content I make some stupid funny meme comments in videos and I'm just genuine you know I don't I don't pretend to be somebody that I'm not I just like to have fun too you know I love it keeping it real
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah, more of that stuff.
00:39:08
Speaker
So yeah, definitely reach out to Josue.
00:39:09
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show today.
00:39:12
Speaker
And as usual, we'll post all those links and his Instagram in the show notes.
00:39:17
Speaker
Go shoot him a follow, give him a comment and a like.
00:39:20
Speaker
And then last question here, Josue.
00:39:22
Speaker
I knew we were talking before we started the podcast just about how one of the biggest problems I think we probably both see, especially in solar, there's so much mediocrity, so many people that are not reaching their potential because let's be honest, I mean...
00:39:35
Speaker
one or two deals a month in solar you're still making decent income six figures yeah especially in texas two deals a month is six figures anyways crazy yeah same in california yeah and so how can solar guys um i know that's a problem you're really trying to like solving everything you do so what would you suggest how can guys like forget about that and focus more on the cells instead of just being complacent with you know hitting one or two deals a month
00:40:00
Speaker
I think you have to... Something I learned from my mission, and I always go back to that, the basics.
00:40:05
Speaker
You got to be accountable with yourself, with your goals, with your dreams.
00:40:10
Speaker
At the end of the day, you got to be accountable with your dreams.
00:40:12
Speaker
Sometimes we get detached from the reality because we make so much money in solar.
00:40:17
Speaker
It's easy to get detached from that reality, right?
00:40:21
Speaker
And...
00:40:22
Speaker
And we just got to take advantage of every single day we have and make the most out of it.
00:40:27
Speaker
Something I preach a lot to my reps is that you got to be continuously dissatisfied with your circumstances.
00:40:33
Speaker
That's what made me leave my country, paradise freaking Costa Rica, to come to the States following my dreams just because of that ambition, just because you have to be continuously dissatisfied.
00:40:45
Speaker
be dissatisfied with your circumstances and dream bigger.
00:40:49
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:40:50
Speaker
If your dreams are not scaring you, you got to find better dreams, I guess.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:40:57
Speaker
That's awesome coming from you because, I mean, Josue, a lot of people, you could, I mean, you know, you could close one day a month and that would probably be living like a king in Costa Rica, right?
00:41:06
Speaker
Oh my gosh, yeah.
00:41:08
Speaker
Yeah, so it's like coming from, you know, of all people that you have to never be satisfied and you went and jumped in head first to something that
00:41:15
Speaker
I can't even imagine going to a country.
00:41:17
Speaker
In financial education, Taylor, before we end, it's so key because we make so much money.
00:41:22
Speaker
Remember this.
00:41:23
Speaker
You don't know how long it's going to last.
00:41:25
Speaker
True.
00:41:26
Speaker
We always got to be optimistic, but we got to play our cards right.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:30
Speaker
And be able to secure our money working for us.
00:41:35
Speaker
At the end of the day, that's what you got to do.
00:41:36
Speaker
Solar is the vehicle for your financial freedom.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:40
Speaker
And play your cards right.
00:41:41
Speaker
Educate yourself.
00:41:42
Speaker
Because it's not how much money you make.
00:41:44
Speaker
It's how you spend that money at the end of the day.
00:41:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:47
Speaker
So true.
00:41:48
Speaker
And on that note, shout out to our sponsors, Pi Syndicate, who can help you more with the financial piece of it if you do need help with that.
00:41:56
Speaker
But love what you said, Josue.
00:41:57
Speaker
And follow your dreams.
00:41:59
Speaker
Go chase after what you deserve.
00:42:02
Speaker
Don't be complacent.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:42:04
Speaker
And yeah, I think that's a good way to end it.
00:42:06
Speaker
Anything you want to share before we wrap up here, Josue?
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:10
Speaker
I want to say that you have to follow your dreams.
00:42:14
Speaker
You got to be sure that that's what you want, because if that's not what you want, you're going to drop it really quick.
00:42:20
Speaker
But you got to wish it with all your heart and then go work for it.
00:42:24
Speaker
Sometimes we just talk too much and do little.
00:42:26
Speaker
So action is better than
00:42:29
Speaker
a bunch of planning and that also applies in engineering is like how can I just plan simple, quick, smart and then engage into actions and into things that are going to bring me closer to actually making that happen.
00:42:44
Speaker
So don't spend too much time on planning.
00:42:47
Speaker
You got to be 5% and then executing 95%.
00:42:51
Speaker
And a lot of people, they can say what they want to do, but they're not prepared to execute and do what it needs to actually happen.
00:42:58
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:42:59
Speaker
Great point.
00:43:00
Speaker
Well, Jose, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:43:02
Speaker
Again, go shoot Jose a comment, a like.
00:43:04
Speaker
Let him know he appreciated him coming on.
00:43:06
Speaker
And hopefully we'll have you on someday for a follow-up.
00:43:08
Speaker
And keep crushing out there.
00:43:10
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on the show.
00:43:11
Speaker
Let's do it, brother.
00:43:12
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:43:13
Speaker
I really appreciate it.
00:43:16
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:43:17
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:43:18
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:43:29
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:43:36
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:43:39
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:43:44
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solopreneur.
00:43:57
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet.
00:43:59
Speaker
So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:44:06
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:44:07
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:44:11
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:44:16
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:44:19
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:44:21
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:44:23
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:44:28
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:44:29
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.