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From Chuck E. Cheese to Solar Millions: Brandon Patillo
173 Plays2 days ago
Brandon Patillo fires up today's podcast as he shares wisdom from his stories leading teams for door knocking, lead generation, and digital marketing all at the same time; not only for his team but also for other people. His homegrown and organic attitude towards sales is an insightful perspective that all reps should try to integrate in their own day-to-day.
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Transcript
Introduction and Taylor's Journey
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. 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 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.
00:00:30
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one. So
Innovating Solar Sales with Solar Scout
00:00:42
Speaker
some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:00:46
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:00:57
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:01:20
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
00:01:31
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:01:44
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. All right,
Spotlight on Brandon Patil and Solar Boys
00:01:46
Speaker
what's going on? We've got an exciting podcast planned today and this guy, he brings the energy. he has been crushing it in solar. He's got his hands in multiple businesses as well.
00:01:56
Speaker
um So we've got the one, the only Brandon patil Patillo, right? Yes, sir. Okay, Brandon Patil. yeah ah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excited to have you, my man. And this guy, he is crushing it. He is the founder an organization called Solar Boys and then also House Builder. He's going to tell us all about what some of the unique things his organizations have been doing. And most importantly, though, this guy brings the energy. I mean, I can already tell it's going to be an entertaining podcast.
00:02:25
Speaker
ah Just the short conversation we had before starting the show here. This guy, he definitely... ah can keep you entertained, bring some good energy. So thanks for coming on the show with us today, Brandon. Hey, no, i appreciate you having me. We appreciate the opportunity and you've been doing great things in the space and we're very excited to get the Willy Wonka golden ticket and get chosen for the podcast. and That's right.
00:02:46
Speaker
That's right. And yeah, even though ah he just told me before we started the show that he's going to be coming down and ah hitting San Diego, my home turf here. So I'm going to be gearing up because his guys, they're probably going knocking my door in the next couple of weeks.
00:02:59
Speaker
So I've got to gear up for the solar boys coming around. but We don't want to step on toes. We just want to have, we want to share the space. We want to just play Fortnite with you in your market. That's it. But you can come to our market as well and you let us know where to go. and We'll make sure get a hall pass from you. That's as long as you give it. yeah hey Yeah. Hey, we share. We share. We're not we're not we're not afraid. And we hit a he's up in LA, so we hit up around there too. So I know you'll welcome me. You'll give me in a hall pass when we want to go up there too. So that's what's all about collaborating, man. we need more of that in the industry.
00:03:28
Speaker
That's good, man. You need the unlimited pass, man. So like, you know, the um it's a Disneyland pass with no blockout days. So you can come as much as you want, man. We're going We're going to send you, you know, into places to go and and and make a lot of money. But we appreciate everything. We appreciate, again, just the opportunity to ah to to jump on this podcast with you and even to go to your market, man. And I know how it is. Like, when somebody comes to Los Angeles, like, go back. We didn't know, but at the same time, we're like, no, baby, come. We want you to be successful. We want you to have fun. We want to show you all the magic tricks in the market so you can be successful because there's this phrase, like, I'll be successful as I help others become successful.
00:04:03
Speaker
That's really the magic sauce. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, and that's what i've I've seen people grow way more by having like that abundance mentality rather than I think in the past is way more people will get defensive over you coming to their market ah and they didn't want any of that. It was all secretive and everything. But ah yeah, i mean, it's like I think as you have the ben abundance mentality, there's going be good karma coming your way.
00:04:25
Speaker
And, um, and yeah, it's like there's deals for everybody. One person that might not connect with me, maybe it's going to connect with you and vice versa. Right. So I think there's deals for everybody and, uh, yeah, we shouldn't be, uh, maybe we're not going to tell you where the exact area I'm knocking this week. Right. But it's like, I'll give you the, I'll give you the ins and outs on San Diego and, and yeah, come on by.
00:04:47
Speaker
So I love it, man. I love it, man. I love it. It's funny, I have kids and and my kids and their friends come over. like i I give my kids the Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I give them the best ice cream and then their friends, I give them the Ralph's version of the vanilla. right you know It's like everybody gets ice cream, but they don't get the Haagen-Dazs version. So it's kind of the same thing. And yeah, I love the abundance mentality as well. And you know what? I've seen that when you like show love and you help somebody become successful in the market, it's just hard to forget that when it's the other way around, when it's reciprocated. It's just like, you know You show me love when it's time to get shown love, like that Ali you for love is coming our way. So yeah, man, it's always great to establish great joint ventures and JVs with certain people in the space that are winners. And so that's why we're grateful to be here with you. Of course, man. Love it. So yeah, let's get into your, uh, your past, how you started the solar boy. I know you talked a little bit about this before we started recording. So you might have to repeat a few things here for our audience, but yeah, do you want to give the listeners just your background, Brandon, like how you started a house builder, solar boy, I know you're doing some online marketing stuff. Do you want to give us the ah the background on all the all the ventures you got going on right now Absolutely. So I'll give you guys a 3,000 foot flyover. Like, you know, the airplane is 3,000 foot. You kind of get a global.
00:06:01
Speaker
But you know, my name is Brandon Patillo and they call me so my alter ego, a solar boy. Yeah, man. I've been doing solar for, wow, started in 2014. And so prior to solar, I was knocking on doors doing fiber optic sales for a big national company that was owned by Golden Gate Capital. And at the time, the product that we were selling was fiber optics.
00:06:21
Speaker
It was a Fios, Verizon Fios. And this was a time when internet speed didn't have to be so so like so fast because there wasn't very many devices. It was the idea of like, soon everybody's goingnna be streaming. Soon everybody's going to be on the Xbox.
00:06:34
Speaker
You know, it was just kind of a future like type of concept. So we were knocking on doors, you know, telling people to jump ship, you know, and to move from, you know, DSL to Fios. And it was great. it was ah It was a great opportunity to be able to like kind of open and close a deal on the spot. um The challenge at the time, it was just a low ticket item, but, you know, you start to realize that sometimes when you make a little money, you do a lot of volume. So if you make a hundred, 200 bucks a sale, you're able to do 15, 18 sales a week. Then, you know, when you make a thousand, 2000 a sale, you make, you know, you do a fewer sales. It's kind of that law of the lid idea. So anyways, got elected to go to a company trip in the Bahamas and I was in, this is 2014, right before I jumped into solar, I was there with all the heavyweights from across the country.
00:07:17
Speaker
And, you know, I was on the West Coast. was representing, was representing my city. They're like, man, you're out here selling cable. Like yeah you're crushing it. Why aren't you selling solar? And I was like, man, solar is the devil.
00:07:28
Speaker
And he looked at me it was like, man, well, the devil must wear Prada. He was like, because if you sell solar, you know, like it's the same exact thing that we're doing, but we're making like triple the money. I'm like, cap.
00:07:38
Speaker
And then he was like, yeah like I'm a fly out. My boy from Manhattan, his name was Justin Garner. He's like, I'm a fly out to L.A. and let's go cook. I'm all right. So he ends up flying out and we started to be this 2014. We partnered with a small company. where actually, they were big, but they were owned by the same um conglomerate that we were worked at because we worked for a company called 2020s. And um they were owned by Golden Gate Capital. And Golden Gate Capital, they owned a company named Solcius. And so we end up going to work with this company called Solcius in 2014. And they were like, yeah, we're going make like you make three, four, five, six thousand dollars a sale. We'll reuse this.
00:08:12
Speaker
finance product called CPF Finance, form now now known as Spruce. and We didn't understand anything. They were just like, we're just going to go out there and go blitz and have some fun. All right. So we go out there and we don't really know what we're doing. We just start knocking.
00:08:25
Speaker
And then we're like, hey, we just want Airbnb roof. Because were selling PPAs and this was in 2014. We're like, man, can we Airbnb your roof? And they're like, yeah. We're like, for real? Okay. Like, we didn't even know what we were doing, but we were just out there just crossing people over, you know, telling people to like, hey, let us borrow your roof to get some energy. And we would have customers that would actually say yes. And then I remember once we sold a deal, it was a two touch, right? We we we did the setter closer model.
00:08:49
Speaker
set it up, came back the next day, sat him in for like a two-hour presentation and got paid. And the buzz down was what it was. the but Once we got paid, the buzz down was $4,000. Once we seen or I seen that it paid and it was as real as the nose on my face, that was it for me. I jumped ship. I left the whole fiber optic industry.
00:09:08
Speaker
And then I just called all my friends. I'm like, guess what? and We're going to be rich. Like instead of making $200, $300, we can make $4,000. so three hundred bucks we can make four thousand Well, you know, I had to make a cut. So I'm like, a two yeah go Oh my gosh.
00:09:21
Speaker
And then, uh, no, that was it, man. You just started recruiting everybody. That was the origin of me jumping into solar. I did that. And once I took this EPC program in 2014, started, you know, going out and I guess knocking doors. And it was different because you realize being a salesperson and being a business person is not one in the same.
00:09:39
Speaker
So I went from being like a close where opener, setter, closer with one org, and then like a business owner. Cause they gave me an EPC. i was out there, in short, drowning in a spoon of water. Like, I was just like, even though i was the best over here, when I came over here and I had made that sale, it was like, I'm not gonna lie, man, like, got that first sale, but I came into the space and I was going out there was bricking. Like, I was figuring it out and I think part of it was I was knocking on the door. And at the time, this is 2014, the technology wasn't up to par yet. It was it was a situation where you sell a deal.
00:10:10
Speaker
Right. And then you sell the site survey. So you have to pay out of pocket for the site survey. You go knock a door. Hey, how you doing? My name is Brandon. We want to rent your roof out, et cetera. Like there's a cheaper way to buy power. i just got to get somebody to come measure the roof, see if you get a good, you know, to see if you get enough sun. So so we would sell the appointment.
00:10:24
Speaker
Then pay 200 bucks for the site survey, get the site survey done, and then go back and sell the deal. So there wasn't this open, closed model at the door yet. Aurora wasn't around. Everbright wasn't around, formerly known as sighting. There was no, the technology wasn't really there to really like have us open and close deals at the door. And that's what I was used to.
00:10:41
Speaker
So I was out there just getting cooked, trying to do everything at the door, not getting sales. it was very hard to make money. And so what I ended up doing was after I see my bank account started to deplete because I was really, really, really fighting for it.
00:10:53
Speaker
and I brought all my friends over. And imagine you bring all your friends over. You bring everybody over because you've seen that first deal pop. You're kind getting beat up. like Like, you know, you're you're trying to live two lives like, yeah, let's do it.
00:11:04
Speaker
And then, but you're like, like, you're you're kind of like on one side, you're like, let's do it. But like, the confidence is crushing you because you're having a hard time and you're really fighting for it. So like, man, when somebody's doing better than you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're better than you. It means that they're doing something different.
00:11:18
Speaker
So what I did was a few of my buddies worked at SolarCity. And I'm like, man, there's no way this this dude is better than me. Like, this is a guy that used to work with me. But he was out here closing 10, 15 deals a month. I'm like, there's no way. And so i ended up taking a job. So I ended up tabling.
00:11:32
Speaker
I kept my organization like as is, was cooking, had my teams over there. But I actually took a job with SolarCity to see what they were doing differently. And it was simple. They just really, like, instead of me trying to do everything at once, open and close the deal, they they had a setter-closer model and had a really strong proposal. So I'm like, oh, okay. That's pretty much it. Like, so they had a setter-closer model they had a really strong proposal system. So we signed a couple of jobs. We did Jason Derulo.
00:11:57
Speaker
We did Drake. We did a couple of cool jobs. Like, Yeah, bro. It was crazy. So after these jobs, I'm like, man. And of course, they were in the Home Depot at the time. So I'm like, you know, what all we got to do is run center closer model, create some good incentives um and use some of the sauce that they had over here.
00:12:15
Speaker
Took that sauce. i ended up quitting the job, um took some of the sauce that I learned, poured it into my company. And from there, we started booming like Metro. We started booming like Metro. and then And then I realized, like, the CEO says, there's a a few things I learned along the way.
00:12:29
Speaker
The CEO says, this is what I want to do. The COO says, this is how we can get it done. And the CFO says, how can we afford it When you're a startup and you're you're launching your business, you almost have to play an alter ego scenario. So I'm like, this is what I want to do.
00:12:45
Speaker
This is how I want to get it done. This is how we can afford it. But if you're one, if you're the triuna, sometimes it becomes a conflict of interest, like in your own, um you start to bottleneck yourself. So at that time, once we got the sauce from SolarCity, brought some good leaders in, started delegating those roles, like, okay, I want you to play this role.
00:13:02
Speaker
You play offense. You play defense and you play special teams or you play finance teams. Once we were able to delineate and create these strong leaders and give them instructions, it was over with. So that that was pretty much the start of of my like journey into solar, being able to scale into solar, figuring out what didn't work and what started to work and adding people into the space to like really get some momentum.
00:13:24
Speaker
And at that point, we started just really just scaling, you know, 3 million, 7 million, 8 million, 18, then all the way to 30 million. Wow. Wow, that's sick, man. Yeah. And I love what you said about, um you know, like you're struggling at first and then you decided, you yeah, you know, what I need to go learn from people that are crushing. Go take a step down. Go work with ah the SolarCity guys.
00:13:44
Speaker
Because I've seen so many instances of that in solar where people just want to go off and start their own like sales orgs and all that. start their own dealer, but then they've never really had any results themselves. They've never learned from guys that are producing at a high level.
00:13:59
Speaker
And I think that's what's caused so many people to like come in and out of solar is because you get this person that's like, you know what, why am I going to have a company take like a cut on me? I'm just going to go start my own sales org when they've never like done that much themselves.
00:14:13
Speaker
But I think it's ah so important for guys to just have... kind of a moment like you went through and go learn from guys that are producing at a high level and maybe humble yourself a little bit.
00:14:23
Speaker
Be okay with making maybe little bit less on a deal or having knowing that leaders are going to take a cut on you so you have the opportunity to learn. And then yeah, it's like maybe when you learn and actually get some results, then maybe consider doing something like that. But ah was that hard for you? um i mean, having to kind of like humble yourself and go to solar city and learn from those guys instead of just like, keep doing what you're doing. Was that, was that hard for you?
00:14:49
Speaker
Yes. No, maybe. And the reason why i say that is, and that's not, it's like, it was hard. Well, one of my team and my core group, they understood the mission. It was like, Hey, listen, like I'm gonna have to take a sabbatical.
00:15:01
Speaker
You guys hold it down. going to be over here going out on a conquest and to make ah the organization strong. So it was communication. Two, I did feel like, man, I'm the boss. I'm the quarterback. I'm i'm Tom Brady, but I'm i'm i'm not playing like Brady boy. like you know like am i this You start to question yourself, like am I good enough? like you refer to angie You start to anti-DJ Khaled yourself. I'm not smart. I'm not beautiful. I'm not good. i'm not like You start to talk...
00:15:26
Speaker
so in a way where it becomes like, you know, you you become like your own critic and they say your mind is like a dangerous neighborhood. You shouldn't go in there alone. But I think ultimately, like when you have people that like my family depended on me at the time and it was just like, man, like I don't even care. Like I know what I'm capable of. Like, like I i know how much revenue I know I'm him. Like,
00:15:47
Speaker
accepting that you're him and also realizing like if you exalt yourself, sometimes you get humbled. And if you humble yourself, you get exalted. And so I was like, you know, let me humble myself because, you know, my ego is not my ego. And I know these, these cliche idioms, but I had to tell these things to myself, like, but your ego's not your amigo. Like, you know, like I had to tell these things to myself along the way, right.
00:16:08
Speaker
To make sure that like I could go figure out a way to, to to learn, like to get better. And I just kept on telling myself, okay, Elon's behind this. Elon owns, you know, SolarCity. Like, he's his cousin's company. He's a heavyweight. Come on, you know, like SpaceX.
00:16:21
Speaker
Like, go learn something from some guys that are crushing it. And so, and I was like, yeah, even if I take a pay cut, I realize that 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Kind of what you're saying. It's just like, hey...
00:16:32
Speaker
You can have the best deal in the world, but if you're not cashing it out, it doesn't even matter. The numbers doesn't matter. The EPC doesn't matter. It's your ability to be able to cash out whatever deal you have at hand. Yeah.
00:16:42
Speaker
In short, taking that job was humbling. And then I started looking at my family. I like, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. But I put like a a number and I was like, you know what? my I'm going to be here for three months max. But I'm a really, really, really in three months be as suited, figure out and learn as much as I possibly can, be as studious. and And that's it. And just be like, you let somebody else be the sensei. Along the way, I didn't even tell nobody. I told on my mentor that I had a company.
00:17:06
Speaker
and It was funny because after I left SolarCity, my guy who was the one who got me the Drake lead that we went to go crush is the late Mike Cairo. Rest in peace. but ah ah He ended up crushing some solar deals for me. life so Pretty much the guy that mentored me, that shepherded me, that I just sat back, didn't do anything, and didn't beat my chest and said, I got my own play.
00:17:24
Speaker
I got my own solar company. Come get some more money. One, I never took a lead. I never took anything from SolarCity. I believe when if you're faithful with another man, you got to give you your own. So, was very, very, very loyal to what I learned over there. And then when I left, I i just told him, was like, hey, man, Mike, you know i'm not gonna lie. I have another thing that I've been doing over here. I'm over here. he gave me his blessing. So, when I left, um he actually would run leads for me like in his spare time and would make money. So, he had his secure corporate position with SolarCity and then he would like when he wanted the big dollars, he would jump over here and switch it and close some deals for me and knock them down. And he would also take like an advisory and consultant role. Good things came out of it, tying back into what you're saying. It was, it was yeah, it was humbling, but if you can humble yourself, you'll get exalted. Like, if you can find your way to do things that nobody would ever do, and didn't talk about this earlier, but my first job was Chuck E. Cheese.
00:18:13
Speaker
And not going lie, i was the rat. I used to be in there dancing. I was in there dancing, go, Chuck E., go, Chuck E. But when I wasn't get in the school, guess what? was betting on some broomsticks. I was literally sweeping the floors, taking out the trash, getting pizza juice all over. It was the worst job ever, man. I'm like, how could they do this to a 16-year-old kid? Like, like, they would oh, my, I was the worst job ever. I would come throw my pizza dough and, right, it was sad.
00:18:36
Speaker
But, like, go Chucky. It was like in that little a moment of being Chucky, it was, it was one of those things where I got recognized and I got elevated. And so it was the same thing here. You door knock, you do the things that nobody wants to do, you're goingnna recognize and get elevated.
00:18:51
Speaker
You go work for somebody, you know, and learn and help them grow, right? Guess what? You're going be recognizing. You're going to grow. All these things come to fruition if you do the right things. Yeah, so true.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah. And i respect for you working at Chuck E. Cheese, man. I got three kids and we take them there probably like once a month. And yeah, these kids wreck that place, man. i mean, we try to clean up after him, but you know, pizza everywhere.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. There you i should be k kind have yeah yeah there you go.
00:19:27
Speaker
It's a good skill to have right there. but That's cool. it sounds I got to, I got to ask you about the, uh, the Drake lead, man. How was that? So did you personally like go in and most of those guys have like, I don't know, someone managing their homes and stuff like that, that I've seen, but No, we didn't talk to Drizzy. It was his manager. it was his guy.
00:19:45
Speaker
But it was cool, man. It was just like, it was good for the books, right? To tell everybody that you were able to sign Drake's property. And, you know, from it, we ended up getting Jason Derulo. We ended up getting Trey Songz as well. We almost got Chris Brown. So it was like, when you get into that circle, you just get like the multiple leads. So yeah, we worked with his team and his management, but it was the coolest thing ever, man. So, and it was, ah it was like a 45 KW system. So it was, it was 45 Kille.
00:20:09
Speaker
Oh, five. Yeah. was um Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Someday goals. see Did you actually like sit down with his manager and stuff and you had to like sell him basically and he had to go back to him or.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah. So it was me and my mentor, the guy, his name is Mike Cairo. We just sat down with his manager, went back and forth. It was, it was like a three touch, right? Gave him the numbers and he was like, yeah, let's do was It was clean, it was smooth, no batteries, but it was a it was it was crazy, man, to see like you know a lot of these artists, they were forward-thinking.
00:20:42
Speaker
They wanted to do it. I think ah the op came up, like the guy went to the home depot the guy went to the Home Depot in West Hills, went to the Home Depot in West Hills and off of Fallbrook.
00:20:53
Speaker
It was a random lead that came in and then it just morphed into you know this big opportunity to to sell solar to a heavyweight. Yeah, that's cool. And then Trey Songz, Trey Songz, they were connected, but I mean, he's he's also an artist, but I will i will work out of the gym during the pandemic. Well, you know we turned the pandemic into a band-demic, right? So during the pandemic, we were working out at the gym and, you know you know, I guess being in sales, like, you know, knocking on doors, it's like you're hunting, right? So you're never afraid to go talk to people.
00:21:20
Speaker
You know, it's not like, let me get a picture. Yo! You know, and you start kind of like we open up and then just like, hey, real quick, did you guys get solar? You guys don't have solar yet. But like being able to have this disposition and we would have these these shirts that look really, really, really cool. So like they're marketing shirts when we're in there. but Oh, yeah, we got a solar company. you know, we'll give it away. We'll pretty much give it away. Like, you know, it's a and then, you know, we'll get in there and then we'll just sell them or give them like a lease or PPA.
00:21:44
Speaker
So it's it's kind of cool, man, to be able to connect with certain people, being able to have that elevator pitch, because when you do talk to somebody and you have 15 seconds to like express who you are and they got everybody in front of them, you know how do you do it? What do you say? So it was a super cool opportunity along the way. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I remember my first company that I worked for. i don't know how they did this. I think there's some like places where you can basically pay for celebrity testimonials or something like that. So they got they somehow got a testimonial from ah Mr. Wonderful. You know, the Shark Tank guy, Kevin O'Leary? Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
um of him like we reviewing our solar company. And this actually worked pretty well because we had his testimonial. We'd go to all our appointments. We'd show, hey, I don't know if you guys know Shark Tank, but he's actually super happy with our program. And then we'd show him it and people get excited.
00:22:31
Speaker
And ah that's that's funny how that works. but I was just thinking, man, it'd be cool if like, I don't know, you worked at a deal where Drake gave you like a personal testimonial and I don't know, gave him a discount on the panels or something like that.
00:22:43
Speaker
But it's time to cap again. Like, hey, Drizzy, you still getting a zero bill, right? You see your bill is still low, right? Are you happy with the services? Like, you know, you're still offset. o meetto Like, it's time to reach out and check on the service be all right, Drizzy, this is probably the best time right now. Like, Drizzy, like, you know, let's help each other. Like, yeah you're right, man.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll have to figure that out for the next celebrity opportunity, getting a testimony or something. It's going to be a, hey, Jersey, say what's up to Jersey. Hey, everybody. You know, he's going to it. Yeah. and Make a solar mixtape, you know, make a solar mixtape, you know, why to go solar. That'd be fine that'd be kind of cool. Yeah, that'd be fire. Yeah, we'll figure it out. love it. Yeah, but no, that's awesome. and So um yeah, so it sounds like things started picking up after that. um You know, you went to SolarCity, three months, you said, then you brought it back to your team. And I know you guys are pretty involved in, um you're talking about online marketing.
00:23:40
Speaker
So sounds like you got a team of door knockers, online marketing. So how much of what you do, Brandon, is it like ah like a certain percentage knocking doors for those leads versus online marketing? Or what does that look like right now in your business?
00:23:54
Speaker
So right now, it's like 70-30. 70% of our deals that we close are still from the good old-fashioned door knocking team. We... Walk it, talk it, knock it. Walk it, talk it, knock it. Like Migos, you know, we believe that knocking doors is where we build our leadership out. Like, so the people that run our offices, or our market directors that we bring in to making closers or running teams, we believe that the grit that comes with that comes from the doors. You know, the doors will almost like let you live a thousand lives in, you know, one year. So we believe in that heavily. um However, just to kind of fast forward. So did SolarCity, you
00:24:30
Speaker
started growing the organization started making money like just as a just as an epc of the sales org no install nothing just crushing it man pretty much had like three like two or three installers that we would just give food to. Like we would throw this one, you know, 15 deals a month. We'll throw this one, like another 15. So we were doing anywhere anywhere between 20 and 30.
00:24:51
Speaker
Margins were good. Comp was our model for our comp was fantastic. So we were cooking, making some pretty good money. And then we started to run into some like some some jobs where jobs wouldn't, cause because our installers, they were using subcontractors.
00:25:03
Speaker
And so like some jobs wouldn't work out well or we would have customers that would not be happy with the product. And, you know, like, you know, try to be like ah humble and grateful. But sometimes your ambition, right? And it's OK to have ambition and want to grow.
00:25:17
Speaker
We were like, man, you know, i think Infinity War came out. We're like, man, we want all the Infinity Stones. You know, we we have the we have the door. So we have the but closing Infinity Stone. we want the installation and finish zone, you know?
00:25:29
Speaker
yeah And so we were like, we were selling ourselves, it's not so we can have all the money. It was like, no, we we want to do that just so we can have control. You know, we don't want an ornament sitting on that roof with no installs, or sorry, with no PT or no inspection.
00:25:43
Speaker
And, you know, looking back at it now, we should left like a little bit of grace in there to be like, you know what, like if 10 percent of our jobs or 5 percent of our jobs are underperforming, we understand that no one could be perfect. But by chasing you, you become excellent. Like we just troubleshoot. We remove the bottlenecks and then we find ways to move forward versus like whenever it's one mistake, I quit.
00:26:04
Speaker
You're gone. You're out. You know, because. We don't like it when it's done us. Like, if we make a mistake with our downline or, you know, people would just leave you You're like, man, we' we've made millions of dollars together. We've done this together. And they're you messed up. I've never seen you again. It's just like, dang, where's the loyalty at? So, i think looking at it at hindsight, it's just like, like, I guess when somebody does something to me or that I don't like, I ask myself instead judging, i'm like, dang, do I have any of those qualities in me? Like,
00:26:31
Speaker
Like, man, like they'll quit on you real quick or they'll leave you real quick if you make a mistake. But am I like that? So it really helped my character grow because I'm like, you know what, to be the leader that I want to be, got remember this, the kingdom takes on the characteristics of the king.
00:26:44
Speaker
um I had to learn to be a certain way. So in other words, um got ambitious, found a way to get the license. Because, you know, um they made it very difficult. It wass always so hard to become an installer. Oh, you got to do this. I'm like, well, the smart man knows the rules. The wise man knows exceptions.
00:26:59
Speaker
So i found a way to get my license, to incorporate, to get the relationship all the big banks, right? Well, we used some like financial mosaic and we had pace and we were killing pace. Like we were one of the only groups killing pace at this time.
00:27:15
Speaker
So because we started 2015, so we were crushing pace. So we were crushing pace. We were crushing loans with with sunlight and then we had mosaic. So at this time we we were just booming like Metro.
00:27:28
Speaker
And then we ascended to becoming the installer. And this was a different time for us. This took us to another level. It's like we were in first gear when we first started, we were like revving high. Then went to solar city, then got to second gear.
00:27:41
Speaker
Then like, then we're like, right, let's go into third gear. Got the, and you know, got the, um, the infinity stone installation and then the pandemic happened. So this is fast forward. Now it's 2020. So this is like starting in 2014. Now it's six years later, six years later, tons of deals, tons of experience.
00:27:58
Speaker
Um, Now it's like the pandemic happened and we were like, they were like, you know, um mask on, no future. Like we can't go doorknob, we can't do this. And it's funny, Grant Cardone had just had his 10X conference in Vegas at the time. Like right, right. when And I was supposed to go, it was either to go to London or go to the 10X conference with Grant.
00:28:18
Speaker
So I went to the 10X conference with Grant, ran into some of my boys that were knocking doors with me back in the other company. And they were like, oh, you still knocked doors? He was like, why don't you go virtual door knocker? And it's kind of that whole nostalgic Doctor Strange experience. Like, you still sell solar? Solar is the devil.
00:28:35
Speaker
But he's like, oh, still door knock? Why don't you virtually door knocker? And I was like, oh, man, I know what this feels like. I'm like, okay. And he like, okay, well, I'm going to charge you 10 bands. um I'm going to show you how to run ads, like how to do your ad copy, how to do your your your creative, how to create a high ticket offer, how to do your back end, how you do I'm like, all right, 10 grand is lot money. But I'm like, all right, well, I do know this, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So, it was almost one of those situations like, you know, if you get something given to you, you don't really respect it. You're like, you get a car, a nice car that's given to you. got Big Mac wrappers everywhere, et cetera.
00:29:09
Speaker
But if you save your money from Chuck E. Cheese and you go buy 89 Chevy Blazer like I did, that Blazer is clean. Like, you don't touch your kid in the car. So I realized, I'm like, man, if I put my money into it, you know, I'd potentially, like, really respect the asset. And that that's what happens. So I spent the money, invested into, like, you know, into myself.
00:29:29
Speaker
And when I did that, I was able to learn something that was really... know, you know, school you like, man, this isn't going to pay off. Like, why am I doing this? Like, this is stupid. But all my elective classes, Photoshop, designing, graphic, all the stuff that I learned in high school, you know, being creative, it really, like, for the first time in forever, no Frozen, everything came together.
00:29:50
Speaker
Like, it was like, I could use Canva for this, could use Photoshop for this. I could take some of the stuff that I would say at the door and kind of morph it into a digital footprint and throw it online. And then we created this these crazy offers that converted very, very, very well. So, we were, at the time, we were um creating leads, meme-based ads, high-value offers. Like an example would be gold solar, 5,000 credit towards your roof.
00:30:13
Speaker
um Go solar, get EV charger, right? Like we would we will just say things. It wasn't just solar only, but we'll we would create these high value offers, make them really pretty. We would get $10 leads, $15 leads, you know, sometimes even $8 leads. And from there, it was just like, if you wanted to double the production, you double the budget. And of course there was strategy involved. And so in 2020, they shut down door to door. And at this time we were averaging in our LA market, we were doing about eight and $9 million dollars in revenue.
00:30:38
Speaker
Once door to door stopped, It was like, oh, my gosh, like, it's over. Like, what are we going to do? So then we end up pivoting to to leads, like to meta. And we end up doing like six and a half million. So like that whole time we were doing the – so we were able to almost like not miss a beat.
00:30:55
Speaker
from door to door to going to Meta, and then we would run the ads, we would book the appointments, and we would dispatch our closers. And then what happened was once masks were off and the mandates went away, we have built and created a new opportunity-generating engine. So we brought door to door back, we launched it with full force, and then we brought in our our Meta. And so that was it. So that's how we kind of brought the two together and we were able to just just hit critical mass. And so we've always kept like a door knocking team, which is always in a sense free. I mean, you pay in motivation.
00:31:26
Speaker
You kind of got to raise up your reps or we don't call it raising. We call it busy. You got to busy them up, you know, so you don't have to pay for it versus going over here. You got to pay for it. So it's just like, Do I want to biz them up, get them tight, get them dope on this side, give them the sauce, or do want to pay?
00:31:39
Speaker
And so it was always kind of like, how do you want to do it? But I mean, right now where we are is we have 70% of our revenue coming in from door knocking, 30% coming in from digital marketing, but we still do cook for other clients. We have other clients that do not have door knocking teams that we can't like put reps on their team.
00:31:58
Speaker
So what we do is we just pretty much assign them virtual door knockers and you know, we let them, you know, buy leads from us. And we either do retainer deals or we do like a JV deal where we'll actually give them leads.
00:32:08
Speaker
They'll run it through our EPC. And then we just do a profit share on the back end. So we get really creative with our modeling to make sure that, you know, we leave no stone in turn and everybody has an opportunity to to generate leads. And that name of that group is called Leadfinity. So that's that's our lead generation company. We do branding leads, appointments, one-to-many, one-to-one type of programs, all types of assets to help, you know, solar companies grow their business.
00:32:31
Speaker
Well, it's impressive you have so many different ah businesses going. you know like A lot of people can't even handle doing the sales, let alone trying to do online leads, let alone having an EPC. So I mean, yeah, but congrats on your success doing all of them because it's not easy.
00:32:46
Speaker
I'm having the time to run all that. It isn't. And, you know, it's like everybody has a certain amount of water, right? So whatever plant you water grows. So like if you have 16 plants in a garden and you only have one gallon of water, you're trying to water all 16, you will never see growth on anything. So you got to choose which plants to water. So i feel like...
00:33:03
Speaker
but I guess the solution to that is is borrowing water from other people. so like if you can You only have your own jugs, so you got to bring in good JVs and good partners to help you run your other divisions and silo very, very, very uniquely and be structured because it is hard to walk into bubble gum at the same time because you can just find yourself on this cycle for five years. Like, man, I have no results because you didn't lock in. You're playing Fortnite, Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat. You're playing everything, man. you just got to stick to one game and get used to the controller, man, so you can finish them and do a fake joke. you know yeah exactly man you're you crush it with the analogies man you need to be like a like a rapper or something yeah no it's funny when i was in school i went to the prestigious community college of southern nevada so i didn't even bro like it was man i just couldn't get into school and then i was like man how am i gonna compete with these ivy guys but i read this book and it says the way you compete
00:33:58
Speaker
is is like itdy like idioms, like ah parable type of talking. So you got this Harvard guy who's who's who's killing it, crushing English, but you're going to be able to close deals by using idioms.
00:34:09
Speaker
I'm like, all right, let me try it. So but there's there's a limit to it, right? If you learn that and you incorporate that into your natural language, man, you'll crush it. Certainly crushing deals. Backpales is totally sold. No, like I can tell. you see It's the same thing that... What's his face that does like the the spray, the the clean the window cleaner guy? Kenny Brooks. You've seen some. Yeah, Kenny Brooks.
00:34:29
Speaker
Honey, man. He was like... I was like, what's up? Kenny's cool, man. I was watching Kenny a long time ago, but he's... ah he's Same thing. I would use... i will use You know, like, it's almost like when you grow up, right, you have to take your um your attributes and turn those into skills.
00:34:45
Speaker
And those skills are hopeful will help you pay the bills. So, like, if you're funny, like, if you were the guy that was always laughing your way into the dates or laughing your way into, like, not getting a C on the test, like, I would always make my teacher laugh. Like, and to be able to give me a better grade, I feel like in sales, it's the same thing. You know, I've laughed my way into so many deals.
00:35:02
Speaker
I laughed my way into so many negotiations. So, Kenny, he has that... ah that that joking comedy element to sales and it works very, very well for him. Yes. So good. Well, I wanted to ask you, Brandon. um So with the EPC side so many people that ah just can't do that because um it's like, you know, we figure out the sales, but then we try to launch a company that can do everything. um You know, im even with my my my company right now, they've been trying to do their own installs now for a couple of years.
00:35:34
Speaker
And it's gettingt all it's come a long ways, but there's still things that they just haven't figured out going from like a sales org now trying to do their own installs. um You know, for example, it's like their timeline is still longer than most of all the EPC partners we use.
00:35:50
Speaker
And so it's something we've told them. it's like, hey, look, if you guys want us to use the installs, if you want us to install directly um with you, is like we need to figure out to get these timelines quicker. we need to figure out a smoother process. We need to cut down on you know like welcome call times. We can't be sitting on hold for 20 minutes to try to do a welcome call with your team after we close the deal. It's like stuff like that.
00:36:13
Speaker
So how was it? Yeah. Tell me about that experience. How was it going from being a sales org to also doing your own? i don't know how long you guys have been doing your own internal installs now. But yeah, what was that a transition like? And I don't know, maybe some lessons or maybe some struggles you Tell us about that.
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah,
Challenges in Solar Installations
00:36:31
Speaker
so we've been doing installs since 2018. So from 2014 to 2018 was just jumper. From 2018 to 2022 doing and then from 2022 to now is doing installs the right way, right?
00:36:46
Speaker
The best way. yeah also believe that, you know, you but it like you can't have, let's talk about this meeting. You can't have it, even though this podcast is going great, but You can't be a great, you can't be a good podcaster until you've been a bad one, and you can't be a great one so you've been a good one.
00:37:00
Speaker
So you can't be a good sales rep until you've been bad one. You can't be a great until you've been a good one. So it's the idea of like going first and, but also like not to the point of death, like, right. You don't want to die. You don't want to get crucified unless you can resurrect.
00:37:13
Speaker
Not everybody can do that. So I think that in this is what you're saying, you know, you want to learn from others. um so one thing that we've seen when you're transitioning to us us so first off is your why why do you want to transition is it the money you know is it to have more money is it to have more speed and have more control because to be honest with you man like being on the service side of the business it's a lot of liability and the money is is is in the sales org like we don't make no money like i mean yeah we make money i mean you could you know if you're a good sales or you become a service guy you can negotiate with your distributors you can
00:37:47
Speaker
you know, negotiate with your installers and, you know, but if you want to be competitive, you get to pay well because, you know, good stuff isn't cheap and cheap stuff isn't good. But I mean, it's usually single digit margin as a service company. So the only time you're really going to be solid in and do very well is if you come in with volume. Like you you find some players that want to bring jobs and bring business to you and give you like a volume partition.
00:38:09
Speaker
But one is this, you you so ask yourself the question, why do I want to become an installer? Sometimes it's ego. Like I want to be like, I don't want to be Skyfall Solar and then have House Builder pull because they're going to like, oh, I thought I did business with you. Why is this company? It's like four or five different companies. Is company's name on a contract? Is the company's name on shirt?
00:38:27
Speaker
Is the company here? like So is it like what you're telling your, is it is it more of a vanity thing? And those things are fixable. You just tell your installers you want them to know wear your shirt. You know, you can just figure that out. like That's the way to do it. Look good. or Go get a magnet. Go get a magnet and put it on the side of the truck. like You know what? go Go get your sailor. On my jobs, I need you to go ahead and slap this magnet on the side of the truck so people think it's my business. Rock these shirts up there because to have a camera team up there. So if it's vanity, just do it that way. You can a you can you can um adjust that issue, especially if the installer is good. Two, I would say just always...
00:38:56
Speaker
You can always work backwards. You can always negotiate. If you bring value and you make yourself indisposable, like your installers always going willing to redo a deal with you and do a deal that makes sense. Not so you got to shake them down like every 10 deals. OK, cool. He dropped me five cents. OK, cool. Like, you know, but talk to him, build a relationship and try to find a way to not have the liability and be able to get costs because you bring that value.
00:39:19
Speaker
right And three, if it's just like, no, my ambition is like i want to be you know like, I want to be fully integrated. I want to be vertically integrated. I want to control everything. Then yes, what you want to do is find somebody who has some type of service experience. If it's not in solar, they understand the service world because they're two different types of people.
00:39:37
Speaker
It's like sales guys are offense, service guys are defense, right? So you got to find somebody preferably who's in solar, maybe potentially from a fallen company and bring them in with you and have them rock with you. Two, what I'll say is you have to like you have to know your fixed costs, your variable costs and your mixed costs, right? This is really important. So...
00:39:55
Speaker
you You need to know what are good what's going to my fixed costs, supplies or office space or, you know, salaries, my variable costs, like how much is it with this distributor? How much does I go direct? And then kind of a formula of having your mixed costs so you can really see what your margin is because, you know, a lot of people, let's just say if you give a low red line, Let's just say some people can't afford to give a 229 red line, which we can help you guys out. We give those out all day, you know, or 219.
00:40:20
Speaker
We give those out all day our partners. But like if you can't afford to do that, meaning if you know that you don't really do a great job of installations and you know because you missed inspections, if you know that you use inferior equipment. you're going to have a service call in, let's just call it 15 months, right? That's going to cost you X amount of dollars. So even though it may seem like you're in the black, when month 16 hits, you're actually in the red because you went too low on the red line because you didn't count your costs.
00:40:43
Speaker
So have to know these numbers, right? Because really just charging 20 cents more, which a lot of companies are at 240, 250 EPCs, is because that's a safe space for them to be where, hey, you know what? I could afford to make a boo-boo or have a mistake and still be solvent and not go out of business.
00:40:58
Speaker
If I have an issue 15 or 16 months down, line and you know have the integrity to go fix that service call. Even though the sales rep is out here long gone, all the revenue went out to them. And even if they mismanaged expectations, you have to be able to do math. So I guess in short, to answer your question is variable costs, fixed costs, mixed costs, know your numbers, know your costs, know Know your profit model. no Know what you can really sell it for.
00:41:22
Speaker
Being able to create systems and modeling your comp to make it work. And then you want to recruit the guys. Like, I mean, one of our biggest things is with the Solar Boys. And we're going to talk about that a bit. But, you know, we just recruit everybody. Our one-liners like, sell solar, go to the NBA. Like, what? They're like, bro, do you want to make money like a ballplayer?
00:41:38
Speaker
Sell solar, go to the NBA. That's kind of our one-liner that we use. Well, when we were recruiting installers, guess what? We're at the CEG warehouse. Like, And I hate poaching, because I hate when people poach my people. But like some people are unhappy. Some people like there are there's people there, you know, you just go to the CD warehouse and we're sales guys. So we got the mouthpiece.
00:41:58
Speaker
You just start talking to them. yeah, man, I'm new and this and that. Like there's a lot of information that you can get from from from these people and then bring them on. And um yeah, just want to hire good people, give them some opportunities, have somebody oversee that and crush it.
00:42:12
Speaker
But yeah, um to zoom it all in, there is a formula. If you want to be a solid installer and you know what your why is, you just really want to be vertically integrated. um One, make sure you have a good attorney.
00:42:23
Speaker
Make sure that you know how to structure your organization, structure your margin and your models. Get the licenses that you need, whether it's a general B or the C26 or whatever it is that you want. If you're going to roofing, figure that out.
00:42:35
Speaker
figure out how to get those if you're going to go directly yourself or if you want an RMO, right? we can We can help you guys that. It's lot easier because when I got into the game, they made it seem so hard to become an installer. I'm like, bro, no was the chat GBT wasn't even around. i was like, no, no, it's not. Like, once we found out how easy was become an installer, I was like, what?
00:42:50
Speaker
Like, cause that chick and cheese, nobody wants to open their Chuck E. Cheese. Nobody wants to say, I want to, but when you become a solar company and you're making all this money, you pull up in a McLaren, they're like, I want your job. Like, I want to be an installer. Like but that ambition, right. It was okay. Like, it's okay. And you know what? Like, um,
00:43:06
Speaker
You never really own anything unless you give it away, right? You just want to figure out a way to really actually give it away, have them count the cost and help them be successful and be solid along the process, setting people up with the right connections, showing them what to go. And then once you get into the game, this is the last piece our device, your project manager.
00:43:24
Speaker
This is really the Achilles heel in the game. You can have the best installers, you know, but they just look at plans like and just follow instructions. It's like they're like Fix-It Felix, right? Your project manager, that is the holy grail of everything. So, meaning they know utilities, the timelines, timeline they know the the rules, exceptions, they know how to pull permits, they have relationships with people that can do plans, but I mean,
00:43:51
Speaker
What we've been able to do and what's really really worked well for our business and for others is having dynamite project manager. And that's where the focus is to be at. You want to look for not the installer, not the subs, not the crews.
00:44:04
Speaker
If you want to have a solid bid construction company, make sure you have a dynamic project manager and they're out there. They work for the big companies. They know how to do things the right way. You pay them very well. And then you will have a successful installation organization.
00:44:18
Speaker
I know that was a mouthful, but I just wanted to kind of give you some thoughts. love that. Yeah, it's true. So important. um Yeah, I mean, i've I've had some EPCs where they had just... I don't know what was going on, but either project manager was bad or they just didn't have communication set up correctly. It's like they could have the best install crew in the world, but...
00:44:36
Speaker
You know, when you're losing three accounts due to poor communication or poorly managed accounts, it's like you never get a chance to see the install team even do their work. So I agree. Super important to have a solid communication project management and get that set up and um hopefully working well between the sales reps to communicate with the customer.
00:44:57
Speaker
But yeah, i mean, last question on that, Brandon, like, how do you guys, I know you have jobs for other sales orgs. and So how do you ah prevent maybe like other sales reps going out and setting false expectations? and i know you talked about like, you know, maybe including that, that sometimes there are going to be things that were expectations that weren't.
00:45:19
Speaker
ah portrayed correctly. But how do you communicate that to me with like sales partners? Hey, make sure you're like talking about do you guys have like a deal checklist or something you're doing to make sure that these things were explained correctly that you're not going and then the customer thought it was something completely different or thought the payment was totally different. What do you guys do to avoid that with like issues between the sales rep and maybe the homeowner not being on the same page?
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's it' ah that's a great question, man. I mean, when when you're the installer and you want to bring in volume and you have 20, 30 deals coming in from your sales partners, you know, you want to have a like an SOP, a standard operating procedure to be able to like cross all the T's and dot all the really just a checklist. Like it's just as simple as that, right? Having a checklist at each milestone. For starters, like one, when we bring a partner on, we do a like a partner training, right? It's very, very, very and like,
00:46:11
Speaker
important right to make sure that like because you know there's this general like natural language that everybody knows but there's also specifics like it's like you can go eat chicken anywhere right but if you go to a place on rodeo they season it a certain way versus help play local so you want to make sure they understand you know and they accept and they embrace and they enjoy the way you do business and understand why you do business and run up to some type of school or some type of learning platform and you know you want them to kind of um possibly get certified with your group so they can sign and say, we understand, we accept what's going on.
00:46:45
Speaker
um Kind of the same way if you get on board with finance company or if you get on board with this, they make you, before you have access to the portal, you have to have some type of, there has to be an alignment, a mesh alignment. And part of that is process flow. Like, this is how we do business. And when you do that, you don't want it be so far approved.
00:47:01
Speaker
From what they're always doing. Because those guys are like, they're kind of regular. Man, I've been doing it this way all my whole life. You want me to start doing this? So you want to kind of meet them in the middle and have like the way of doing stuff that makes sense and kind of the WIFM, the W-I-I-F-M. What's in it for me? What's in it for you? What's in it for your customers?
00:47:18
Speaker
What? You have to have that WIPM. This is what's in it for you. You're going get more referrals. This what's in it for your customers. They're going to give you referral be happy. you This is what's in it for us. We can install your job. So create that WIPM system. What's in it for whoever alongside paired with like some type of training academy.
00:47:34
Speaker
And in the, yes, the project management, again, we have two types of project managers. We have a back-facing project manager. That's actually their job is to focus on the jobs and the speed, um you know, concierge, welcome calls, site surveys, client communication, kind of pre-construction and post-construction um silos.
00:47:58
Speaker
And then we have a front-facing project manager, but we call them account manager. that actually talks to the reps and or the dealers. And they pretty much like their twins, right? the The backend manager talks and does all the behind the scenes.
00:48:12
Speaker
And the other twin is the account manager. They focus on the sales app the sales reps and the dealers, including but not limited to making sure that all the transparency is there from their dashboards.
00:48:23
Speaker
Because that's another thing too. Like, how how do I know where my job is at? Like, how do I know what's really going on? Is there a way, like, on-demand system where i could look to see what's going on with my jobs or what's, like, the no's? Like, how transparent is that? Because if I can see it, I can believe it. So, but between communication...
00:48:40
Speaker
So transparency and expectations, yeah, we're able to really communicate with our partners and for the most part, we're really a good result. And then we have like a, because again, when you bring in sales partners, they may have reps that like now with the recheck and HIS is little different, right? Everybody, yeah they're walking and moving a bit differently now, but like when there is an issue, so after a sale is done, we do an internal welcome call.
00:49:02
Speaker
Just to make sure everything is clear. I know it's like, man, another welcome call. Like they'll do the welcome call Goodleap or with Infant or whoever on, you know, before they sign docs. But after we um we close the deal, we we we call it a perfect packet. Once they submit the perfect packet, we do a welcome call just to go over expectations to make sure there's nothing like...
00:49:23
Speaker
Suspicious. And then like, you know, so we'll flag it. Then we just keep it pushing. So but for the most part, those those are really the elements that we use to make certain that we set expectations right for our dealers and our partners. Just communication, technology and ah like a like a reward, some type of reward system for for doing really great work.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Love that. So good. Yeah. I mean, ah like you said, it's gotten a little bit easier. I think we're, especially in California, there's more, you know, I guess regulation, you got to have the license, you got to have the whole recheck thing.
00:49:59
Speaker
and They verify you way more than it was in the past. I mean, I remember back when I started in 2016, it happened all the time where you hear of reps on like, you know, 50% offsets and then a customer thought they're getting 100% offset and just like selling extremely high stuff like that.
00:50:17
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's good in a way you don't hear way less of that, but it's on us to make sure we're selling clean deals and doing things the right way because it's like every time things like this happen, it just makes makes our job harder. And you know, you remember when they first introduced the consumer protection guide in California,
00:50:35
Speaker
It's like, I remember half our team thought the sales were going to be done for you. Like, you're telling me we got to have the customer sign a form that says they need to get three quotes and says they need to really think about the the decision before signing anything.
00:50:48
Speaker
And people were freaking out, losing their minds. But I think, you know, it made the weak ones quit and then the strong ones got stronger. And it's like, we know how to sell with that and set the proper expectations. Yeah.
00:51:01
Speaker
So, um, yeah, good stuff, man. Um, but yeah, before we wrap, I want to be respectful of your time. No, we're getting close to an hour mark here, but, uh, before we wrap up Brandon, um, and we haven't really talked about it. So solar boy, that's kind of like, I guess the third, ah you know, I guess you'd say business, but tell what's, what's solar boys all about. You got the solar boys, solar girls.
00:51:23
Speaker
What's that all about with your team? And yeah, what are you guys about as an organization? Yeah, no, it's all good, man. Um, so, That's a great question. So, yeah, we were house builders is our EPC and where we sell solar and we do construction app for anybody. Right. Whether you want to join us directly or you want to come in and, i you know, just partner with us and do a JV as a dealer.
00:51:48
Speaker
And we'll we'll train you. very Very similar what you said, like regardless of which side you go on, it's like. oh It's like a lot of people go to the Air Force to get trained, right You know, it's a pilot, but then they go fly private for Grant Cardone.
00:52:00
Speaker
So House Builder is kind of, in a sense, what we do there. Our, you know, our lead division, that's what we do for whoever. But Solar Boys is is it's different. It's unique, right? So the name Solar Boy that we can give me... yeah They gave me, i was like, man, that's kind of like Batman, you know? And it's like, well, well how do we create like a Justice League? How do we create like a Solar League? I'm like, man, no big. So it's really more of alter ego. But the first thing is like the solar culture and like the lifestyle brand, right? So I feel like, you know, you don't have like real estate agents are proud to be realtors. They're like, oh man, I'm a realtor. Like this is my RV number. Check, they have it on Instagram tag.
00:52:36
Speaker
And Solar it was given kind of a bad rep initially, but like Solar Boys has a ring to it. And it's almost like, how do you compete with somebody, you know, if you're in solar, how do you, if you're not with like, i you know, Sunrun or if you weren't with Tesla or some these big companies, just thousands of solar companies, what sets you apart? And I feel like it's really like,
00:52:56
Speaker
the story, right? It's the story. And so Solar Boy designed to kind of create this culture, like this solar culture and lifestyle movement, you know? And we're doing that through, you know, a ton of digital marketing, you know, brand marketing. Even, you guys have seen Zane Jan, like Zane Jan, what he did was he runs ads, of course, to you know he He runs ads for all these solar companies, but initially in 2018, he ran ads on himself. He ran ads on his brand.
00:53:23
Speaker
right like That's how everybody figured out who he was. So instead of like selling to customers, he did B2B. So what we're doing is we're trying to get anybody who's in solar. It doesn't matter what like what level you're at.
00:53:34
Speaker
Or if you're not in so like whether you're setter, whether you're a closer, whether you're a dealer, whether you're an installer, we want to partner with you and give you something that you may not have. Like we have that missing infinity stone. Right. And yeah, we got drip. Like, you know, because, you know, we're in L.A. We're like the fashion capital, I believe, you know, the West Coast. And so we we got the drip, you know, so you can work for this company.
00:53:54
Speaker
and be busting the Solar Boys letterman's jacket. And it's it's ubiquitous. It doesn't matter. It's like, okay, like, so you know something, like you might have a little extra sauce that we didn't get with this company. So it kind of creates that cycle.
00:54:07
Speaker
Another thing too, um sales recruiting and energy. So like we want to directly and indirectly recruit people, meaning people that are not in solar. Like I have guys that are real estate agents and they they they bust the Solar Boy merch because it's dope, it's drip.
00:54:22
Speaker
You know, you got Billionaire Boys Club, theyre They're not billionaires in their rocket. You got people rocking McLaren gear. They don't have McLarens. So there's like, so with the Solar Boy stuff, we get a lot of people to kind of adopt the brand and bring it in, um in-house. And so, but yeah, no, in short, just to kind of wrap it all up, st Solar Boy is a space where anybody in solar, including but not limited to, of course, our company's life.
00:54:45
Speaker
But this is kind of the bridge, like the I don't call it the the United Nations of solar, but like this is a bridge where we just give out all type of free content. Like you get, you know, information on how to be a setter.
00:54:59
Speaker
Like um we'll show you how to run leads and we won't charge you 10 grand to do it. We'll actually show you how to like start your own EPC and give you the right thing. We'll show you how to close deals and we'll show you how to swag up.
00:55:13
Speaker
So you can bag up, right? We'll show you everything. And that's a part of what we do. And of course, like ah we're still modeling it out and we're going to launching it in November. So November, we're going to really hit social media and we're going to use lead finity to push it out. So going to be seeing a lot more of Solar Boys probably on the on the hard launch November 1st, man. But we're excited. We're excited. And we got some gear for you too, man. We're going to hook you with some gear and some swag, some dress, you know, and and you know we'll even, we'll brand you up. You give us your logo, we'll brand you up and it's going to all green. You'll like it.
00:55:44
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah, that's what I'm going say, man. We need help with our swag here. So maybe you have rock some slower boy swag on the next podcast we do. Yes, sir. Get geared up. It's newer, man. You invented swag. You left some swag on the table. I can see it, man. like You got swag everywhere in there, man.
00:56:04
Speaker
I know, I know, how now I know. need to up the game with the swag stuff. So, so yeah, well, that that'll be exciting, bro. Can't wait to see what's coming. And yeah, I mean, you guys, sounds like you guys are having a lot of success in ah all three aspects of the business, growing the team, growing the EPC and growing the solar boy, kind of the brand facing part of as well.
Follow Solar Boys on Instagram
00:56:30
Speaker
So I guess, we yeah, speaking of that, if people want to connect more with you, Brandon, or ah follow the Solar Boy stuff, what's the best? Maybe and drop your Instagram. What's the best way to connect with you and find out more about what you guys are doing?
00:56:43
Speaker
Yeah, so you guys, if you guys want to lock in or anything, like it's all good. like we're We're just here. we're We're trying to be like you in a lot of ways. We want to be, we're all solopreneurs, but the way we would do it, just go to, you can follow me, I'm SolarBoyOfficial, but also you can just go to the IG, it's SolarBoys. There's nothing posted on there yet. Right now it's light, but...
00:57:04
Speaker
Just follow Solar Boys. And then November 1st, we're going to launch. So you're going to see all this stuff just start to pop up, probably even pre-November. And then shoot us a DM tag, jump in and whatever it is, however we can help, however we can support.
00:57:17
Speaker
Rather, it's, you know, you're looking for quick EPC in l LA. You know, we can install and... I mean, clean with plans and permits in 10 to 15 days. And this is, people are like, what the heck? I mean, what the helly?
00:57:30
Speaker
We really can. I mean, we we we have the market corner. We know... We're in that site everywhere. It's not in like like I know Edison PG&E. We use solar plus that, but we know exactly where to sell out to be able to get really quick installs.
00:57:43
Speaker
We also could give you really low baselines. um We also could give you some games. So, yeah, just tap in with Solar Boys official um or just tap in with Solar Boy official and then we can get you guys hooked up or, of course, tap in with the solopreneur.
00:57:58
Speaker
That's right. That's right. Well, we will drop all those links yeah in the show notes of the podcast. So thanks for dropping that. And yeah, we appreciate you coming on, Brandon. But ah last question before we wrap up, maybe to someone that's struggling or maybe they're like you and I can't figure this out.
00:58:14
Speaker
Should I ah go join a bigger company? Whatever. do you have any ah final pieces of advice for maybe a rep out there that's struggling or maybe questioning if they want to continue in solar? What would you tell that Yeah.
00:58:27
Speaker
Yeah, I would just say outlast everybody. Just like a lot of people have made it to the top just by outlasting everybody. You don't have to be the best. You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the funniest.
Endurance as a Key to Success
00:58:38
Speaker
Outlast everybody. It's the endurance. It's the endurance game. and And, you know, I guess I'll just finish it with a quote, right? But everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody's willing to die first.
00:58:51
Speaker
And so, and death is painful in a lot of ways. Sometimes you may, you may have death of a relationship because you're working all the time. You may not be able, you may lose your car. You know, you, you may, there may be a lot of different things, but at some point, you know, at some point you're going to cross over. And when you cross over, you're never going to regret it. Like you're not, you might regret quitting and say, man, I wish i would have stayed the solar and figured it out, but you won't regret staying locked in and looking back like, man Like the conquest and the journey in itself was, was all it was about. Cause once you get the house, the McLaren or this or that, or all these different things, you're like, man, like I've kind of already arrived. Like, but it was a journey that made everything. So that's it, man. Just
Persistence Over Talent
00:59:33
Speaker
outlast everybody.
00:59:35
Speaker
Yeah, so good. Yeah, I mean, that's always how i've thought of myself. I've never been the most talented. Most of the time, I've never been the top rep. But I think you can probably say the same thing, Brandon. The reason we've been in this, you since 2014, me since 2016, is we just keep going.
00:59:52
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, even on days where we're getting our teeth kicked in. It's just the people that keep showing up. You're going to outlast people that are maybe more talented. Maybe they're having great months, but a lot of those people, if they don't keep showing up, then yeah, they're going to, they're going to phase out of this. So think that's a really powerful secret. Yeah.
Networking for Success
01:00:12
Speaker
Just keep swimming.
01:00:13
Speaker
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming and also swim with bigger fish if you can. Right. You know, so like, Being able to network, being able to jump, like have conversations with people and be humble and ask questions, right? Just like ask questions, ask questions, what you're doing. Like, and I remember being in the house, you know, when I was selling deals and this will always work because I got this from Brian Tracy's book. It was a power of charm.
01:00:36
Speaker
And it says, just ask people three questions, three impactful questions. I'm like, okay. So I'm like, oh, you know, what's the secret of raising kids? And they're oh, this. And I'm like, okay. What's the secret to being married?
01:00:47
Speaker
Oh, man, you know, like, and then and then I always go back and I'll say, you know, what would you go back and tell your 36-year-old self or your 37-year-old self? They're like, man. Like, but just ask questions. Ask questions and then they'll answer. And i feel like that would be an added addition to to outlasting everybody. Outlast everybody. Surround yourself with the right people and ask the right questions. Almost like the way you prompt. You got to ask Chet G to the right question.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's it. It's true.
Future Projects and Collaborations
01:01:13
Speaker
So good. So good. Well, such good. ah So many nuggets you gave us today, Brandon, and hopefully everyone hits you up. Let's show you some love on social media and all that.
01:01:25
Speaker
But yeah, man, can't wait for you. and Can't wait to see what's next up for you, for your company, for your organization. And yeah, we'll have to hang out when you're here in San Diego, man. So, so hit me up.
01:01:35
Speaker
Just don't be stealing my deals. Let's go the airport. Let's play some Fortnite. Let's do squads and let's get some dubs. Yeah. Let's do it, man. Man, super exciting. Thank you so much for your time. And yeah, guys, thanks for letting me jump on and we'll see you guys the other side. heard?
01:01:51
Speaker
All right. Peace. Thanks, Brandon. All right. Peace.
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01:01:55
Speaker
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01:02:06
Speaker
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