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The Secrets To Getting A Golden Door In Solar - Mikey Lucas
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This episode is a throwback to Mikey Lucas' second time on the podcast, and he gives us a glimpse of his process as the winner of the coveted Golden Door. He goes through his entire process during sales, work-life balance, and other systems he puts into place to create his most productive days on the doors.
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Transcript
Taylor's Solar Success Story
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. 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.
00:00:18
Speaker
I teach you 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.
Defining Solopreneurship
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. Okay, what
Mikey Lucas Returns to the Podcast
00:00:41
Speaker
is going on? We are back on another podcast and I'm stoked today because we have someone that is coming on for the second time. Not too many people, they can say that.
00:00:50
Speaker
So we have the one, the only Mikey Lucas coming back on the show. Thanks for hopping on with us again, Mikey. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me, brother. Yeah, I'm excited. And lot has changed since we, what is that? Like, I think it's been what, year and a half, two years maybe?
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, two years I think now, yeah. When i was out and and I was out in San Diego with you, yeah. Been almost two years. Yeah. Been a while. And so I know a ton has changed. Um, and me and you, we didn't talk for a long time either. Last time I saw you was at, um, solar con. This guy was running around and as a, what's that middle Eastern get up? It's called a foe.
00:01:25
Speaker
So he's running out of this stove and telling people about this energy fund. But, uh, yeah, you definitely drew some attention. i was like, who is this? We got Iraqis running around over Who is this guy? Yeah.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't even recognize you until like the second day. ah bunch of dudes were like, yo, did you, did you like convert to to Islam? And i was like, nah, man, Jesus is Lord, bro. We're so good, bro. This is just a cultural
Transition to Venture Capitalist
00:01:48
Speaker
thing.
00:01:48
Speaker
chi So yeah, I know you're doing some cool stuff and um yeah, maybe tell everyone why you're wearing that and everything but um yeah do you want to tell us what you've been up to the past year and a half so on and any of kind of transitions you're not selling solar at least i don't think you're selling solar day-to-day anymore but you're doing a lot of other things so yeah do you want to give us just kind of a quick update on what you've been up to past year year and a half sure sure so i'll kind of give like the uh the overview but then i kind of i want i would like to talk about like why it happened um yeah so basically what i'm doing right now uh i'm a i transitioned my my end goal um was to become the bank so eventually i wanted to own a bank right uh be in and venture capitalist uh be an institutional investor and an angel investor i was looked up to those guys those guys are the guys that were driving the rolls royces they had all the nice you know the beautiful families the nice homes and all stuff and that was like what i
00:02:42
Speaker
what I thought I wanted, but in reality, um what I actually wanted was I wanted a challenge. And door-to-door absolutely challenged me for you know the decade I did it. I you know installed ah in my in my career within my offices $178 in that was my own.
00:02:59
Speaker
millions my own And I knew that I wanted to get challenged. So the next progression, kind of like going from a real estate agent to a real estate investor, to then a builder, and then, you know, the bank was for Mikey Lucas was, you know, go in, be a setter and then go in, you know, be a a closer, self-gener, then go and get leads, then you'll start your own kind of management and kind of work your way up to,
00:03:22
Speaker
regional manager, whatever, whatever, and then start your own dealer and so on and so forth. um Kind of the same concept within Dota Roar. I knew that energy was definitely my industry I wanted to stay
U.S. Energy Grid Vulnerabilities
00:03:33
Speaker
in.
00:03:33
Speaker
It was my expertise. you know I technically fought oil and gas for a long time, but I didn't wasn't really fighting oil and gas. I was fighting this ah this systemic issue we have with our energy with an energy crisis that we all believe in.
00:03:45
Speaker
And we all know that is true. I actually get more afraid. I know you're in California, so you seem more prevalent than we do here in Texas, but um I'm actually more afraid of our energy grid and energy ah production when I see more Teslas and electric cars on the road. It actually scares crap out of me because i know how much power those things pull. I mean if you've ever If you guys own a house, you've ever seen your ear with your Tesla pulled in or plugged in rather, you know, that meter spins very, very, very fast.
00:04:12
Speaker
Like let alone if you have AC on in the summertime and your Tesla plugged in, golly, that thing is moving quick. So I knew that there was a major problem. And, um, you know, Jim Rohn talks about, we, so we get paid for the problems that we solve and,
00:04:25
Speaker
i think that this is a major problem which is why i started the american energy fund with my partner brad barons you know we believe that we need to have a ah clean transition uh to a sustainable energy future and and you know we can't necessarily rely on the government to help us get there but we can um as entrepreneurs as as business professionals we can do that so that's what we started you know the american energy fund for um you know we we're putting we're i always tell people like you know hey you know while you're partying on a saturday we're gonna go make sure we keep the lights on so i i know that if we don't do something about it now um there's a chance that the electric grids and the united states not just here in texas but the electric grids in the in the states um our are first of all they're extremely vulnerable but you know if we don't do something about it now um we're gonna have major issues in the next foreseeable future so
00:05:09
Speaker
That's where I started the grid. I started the American Energy Fund. But yeah, i you know I've got a mastermind. I coach. i don't do I don't do any sales anymore. I just do financial coaching education. So I help ah solar professionals, door-to-door professionals, real estate professionals as well, um create $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a month in passive income. So you know it's it's it's easy to make money. It's the hard part to keeping it, right? The easy part hard part's not a our part is not making it. The hard part's keeping it and and investing it well. and um that the issue is that there's you know there's tick tock experts online and gurus on youtube and and most of them don't tell you what the billionaires are telling you so my my motto or investment thesis is invest invest like a billionaire and millionaire so nice that's kind of what i've been up to taylor that's what i got bro awesome that's awesome and hey by the way you got your your vegas golden knights uh get up on so congrats on the win appreciate it
00:06:02
Speaker
good love us or hate us baby we're still the winners yeah got the sports teams going if you're looking at the video i got my uh little podres shirt on so let's go pods supporting the teams yeah let's go all right we're gonna we're gonna win the uh the ship here this year as well the padres i know i hope so i hope so i'm not really a baseball fan but uh went to a game they gave me the shirt and i'm like hey that shirt is sick dude that shirt is sick bro hawaiian padres i like it oh yeah was it on a sunday or saturday ah when It was like on a Wednesday, I think. Really?
00:06:33
Speaker
It was last week. That's probably why. Yeah, I went with a bunch of our team and none of them really are Padres fans. So by like the fifth inning, there was only like three of us left at the game.
00:06:44
Speaker
think the box is just, you know, eating food and stuff. But it was fun. It's a good time. have a restaurant. i have a restaurant. have an Everbowl
'Road to the Golden Door' Podcast
00:06:51
Speaker
in Padre stadium actually. Oh, really? Okay. Dang.
00:06:55
Speaker
I have to hit it up next time. Um, but anyways, not to turn this into a sports podcast, that's for next show, I guess. Um, but no, it's cool to hear what you're doing. And, uh, what I like about that is most solar reps probably don't even care, especially starting out. It's like, I know I, and I didn't know about any of this stuff and I didn't know we were in an energy crisis.
00:07:15
Speaker
So that is good to know and cool to hear that people are thinking about that um for our future generations. But yeah, that reminds me, like, you know, happened in California in EM3 where they're now requiring batteries.
00:07:27
Speaker
and And I don't know, think that's part of the reason California did that. It seems like to maybe take stress off the grid so much and have people be more self-sufficient. So what's your thoughts on that? do you think what California did, do you think that's headed to other markets in the near future? Or do you think about that?
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, dude. So yeah, i agree I do agree to a certain extent. so let me explain myself on that. um Elon has always said that, you know, and most of my, just to be clear, most of my information comes from Elon. I'd say over, you know, between 50 and 60% of my information comes from Elon.
00:08:01
Speaker
And then I obviously go source it and check it, but most of it comes from Elon. Elon's obviously a really, really big thinker and a big supporter of Elon um in most of his life, right? Not all of his life, but most of his life. I agree. He's got some, you know,
00:08:12
Speaker
if if if if you believe in a meritocracy where like the best idea wins, Elon's ideas are typically pretty good, right? For the most part. um And he hasn't been wrong very very much as of as of as of ah recently um over last at least 10, 15 years. So um Elon has always said like,
00:08:28
Speaker
not the results, but one of the plans, right, inside of the end goal to have a sustainable trans sustainable energy future, like a green future, basically, to transition out of fossil fuels into renewable sustainable energy future is what his goal with SolarCity was, um and Tesla's now, but his his idea was to have microgrids. So one of the one of the things he was talking about with with Tesla Energy, with the batteries, tesla the Powerwalls, was to be able to store the power during a crisis, be able to ah give the power back to the power grid, which is basically these whole you know little so neighborhoods, if you will, of micro grids. Now, is it is the energy grid set up to do that?
00:09:02
Speaker
No, the energy grid is it set up to do one thing from power company, from power generation, to the homes and the businesses, not the other way around. But if we transition to that in the future, or if we can get more micro
Impact of California's Solar Battery Requirement
00:09:16
Speaker
grids on the grid, on our grid, then yes, absolutely, it's going to get to that point.
00:09:20
Speaker
And I think that's just one of the smartest things they can do. The hard part is, if we use California as example, right? It's like, you know, that that California has its issues in and of itself, right? So they're buying, ah they're they're shutting down ah nuclear, natural gas, and coal power plants left and right, which is what's led to this massive spike in cost.
00:09:37
Speaker
And, you know, it's almost like you're, you're, you're, it's a no brainer to do solar in California. I don't care what utility you're in, you know, sub utility, whatever you're in, it is an absolute no brainer. It's almost like you're an idiot if you don't do solar in California.
00:09:50
Speaker
I if you, if you, if you can, if you can own your home. yeah So do I see that happening in the future? Yes, the same thing they're trying, I've been wanting, when I worked at SolarCity, which is Tesla now, and back in the day, I would watch the the Texas Public Utilities Commission's videos and ah they were talking about like having microgrids, the same concept. And yeah, it seems like that's gonna be going where the future's at. Now, what the cool thing is, Taylor, is that That's actually already happening overseas. So in America, we just turn the lights on expect the lights to turn on.
00:10:19
Speaker
Overseas, which you've been overseas and I've been overseas as well, they don't just have readily available ah access to electricity like we do here. So it is a privilege to have so ah to have electricity.
00:10:30
Speaker
Overseas, they're actually built, instead of instead of running in ah very expensive lines from power companies and generations and trans transmission centers, they're actually just creating a battery backup and or um diesel ah battery, a diesel powered, basically micro grids and a little central stations for power for the villages, small cities and towns.
00:10:51
Speaker
And that's happening right now. We actually, we're working on a project in Thailand right now where we're doing that. So to for for them to be able to send the power back in, it's going to cost an extra like 150 grand ah USD, American dollar to be able to get more electricity for, they've already built this, it was a small village, then it became a town. It's almost to a city now, so they don't have enough power. So they're basically living on some electricity light bulbs, but they don't have AC, they don't have any of these, and it's hot in Thailand, if you've ever been there. It's like the Philippines sinking hot all time, all day long.
00:11:19
Speaker
It's like, it's like, you know florida 24 7. well yeah so the the microgrids they will get there absolutely that's going to be one of the best things that's ever that's ever happened to the electricity market um it's kind of like with with shoes i heard this the other day um i watched the movie air last night with my wife um shoes um the the they they changed shoes twice before you know the Jordans came out is what the guy said.
00:11:41
Speaker
The guy that created the Jordans or the engineer of the Jordans. He's like, the first ah first one the last 600 years was they were just the same shoe. And the only distinction, there's been two distinctions now, is the shoes and then the left from the right shoe.
00:11:54
Speaker
ah So it's kind of funny. It's like the power grid is this old, outdated grid. So yes, Taylor, do I see microgrids coming in? Yeah. Not just, okay, cool. There's gonna be microgrids. For me, it's how do we capitalize on that? How do we make money on that? it's not just by just selling solar.
00:12:10
Speaker
It is for your listeners and for yourself. It is, hey, go make money by putting up little power plants on homes. And then how do you now invest in that on it on a utility scale as an investor? And absolutely, all of your listeners can absolutely do that.
00:12:23
Speaker
And we're doing that through the American Energy Fund. So yeah, it's ah it's a big deal. I love, love, love, love investing in the grid. That's awesome. Yeah, I've heard from yeah people that know more about it. Like overseas, a lot of countries, when people go solar, it's not like where they just add up solar panels.
00:12:39
Speaker
It's like they do the whole home. They add the batteries. They add, I don't know, generators, like a bunch of other stuff as they're doing it. So um yeah, I think that's probably where it's headed. And it's cool hear about that.
00:12:51
Speaker
um But no, that's cool. And so I want to switch, shift gears a little bit. And I don't know if everyone knows, but probably most people at this point know that you also run a podcast called Road to the Golden Door, which is super dope. And I was, um yeah, I got to be on that. And I think it just came out. you just Did it just ah release yesterday or something last night? Yep.
00:13:12
Speaker
yeah Okay, sweet. It premiered. ah Okay, premiered, sweet. So at the time of this, it's probably been out for a few weeks at this point, so you can go check
Promoting Top Sales Reps
00:13:21
Speaker
that out. We'll link to it. But super cool podcast, and it's really cool because you're teaching guys how they can, like the mindset they need to get their first golden door, and um guys that have gotten multiple golden doors.
00:13:35
Speaker
So it's really cool, I think, what you're doing for like the whole door-to-door industry. So I want to shift gears and talk about that a little bit. Why did you decide to start this podcast and focus in on just that one thing, helping guys get a golden door award?
00:13:49
Speaker
Okay, so this is this is not public yet, but this is a marketing thing. So this is for the listeners. Most people, they start a podcast without an intention. So my mentor, Cole Hatter, always told me, hey, don't start a podcast and link unless you can monetize it, unless you can make money on it in some way, fashion, or form. And I was like, okay. So I actually started a, like, just an interviewing podcast, like, you know, whatever, get in front of more people before. yeah i don't even remember what it was called. It was something something about money, right? It was like some wealth, whatever, right? wealth yeah Wealthy millennial or something like that, right?
00:14:18
Speaker
um It didn't really go anywhere. And I was like, because I didn't have a passion for it and I didn't know what I was doing. So the real reason why I started it was really two things. One, I needed to get in front of my client avatar.
00:14:29
Speaker
My client avatar is a Golden Door Award winner because Golden Door Award winners make half million dollars, two million dollars a year, which means they have major problems with time to be able to go and invest and the ability to know what to invest into.
00:14:41
Speaker
They have huge tax liability. and ah you They pay a lot of money in taxes. yeah So my fund actually helps target that those kinds of people. So one, what most people don't understand about podcasts or even marketing in general is they think just starting a podcast, you just start a podcast. Well, why do you start a podcast?
00:14:54
Speaker
um so I didn't just start the podcast just to make money on it, but this is not charity. right like i'm married i'm gonna have kids soon like ah i'm doing this this is a long this is there's so i have three podcasts this week one with one with you here and then two on for my show like i'm not just spending an hour and a to five hours out of my out of my weeks he's out of them out of my week when i'm working 100 hours a week 96 hours a week every single week the last for last couple years you know um that's a lot of time so the reason why i started it was because one i wanted to there was one way to get in front of people that i would never have gotten from him in the first place but it's also starving solving a major problem
00:15:27
Speaker
A lot of people, um most people are not like you, Taylor, where you you have a show and you're actually helping and and and adding value the industry. um I wanted to i wanted to lift up on lift up on a pedestal a lot of these top guys and girls that are in the industry. So the so the number two thing the why I did it was to to lift up the people that are already there. like They get one picture, one moment on stage, and now they're getting their name, their brand,
00:15:54
Speaker
you know, them get putting out them to get put out on the internet. So the reason why i targeted golden door award winners solely on the top 1% of the door industry is because I want, I want to promote them.
00:16:06
Speaker
I'm like, yo, this is, this is my podcast, but I'm promoting you, bro. Like recruit on this show, do whatever you want to do. Promote you, bro. Like, why are you the best? Let's put you out there. And then thirdly is because obviously I wanted to add add value to the industry as a whole, but I wanted to i wanted to nurture um and and add value back to the top dogs because the top dogs, it's very lonely on top.
00:16:28
Speaker
So I built the podcast really not for the entire industry, though the industry gets value from it. I built it so that other other Golden Door Award winners can go listen to the other Golden Door Award winners and see how much they're struggling.
00:16:40
Speaker
And there, Ashton Buswell, after um ah three months of hitting 100 and 200 deals in three months, thought he wanted to quit. The very week after he hit that, goal was like i'm done i want to quit i don't think i can do this anymore and luckily his wife was like you know hit him back into shape and got it back on doors but like the to be able to use road to the golden door as a as a platform for the weaknesses of the top dogs so that other top dogs uh top g's in the in the industry know that we don't you're not the only one struggling
00:17:11
Speaker
Right. You're not the only one struggling. You're not the only one with relationship issues. You're not the only one with company issues. You're not the only one with utility issues, bank issues, ah you know, financial issues, whatever. You're not the one with health issues.
00:17:23
Speaker
You're not the you only one. I want you to feel like you have a community. And that's what I built it for. Yeah. Boom. That's awesome. I've learned a ton from it, too. My gosh, I learned every I'm like taking three pages of notes from these guys. Yeah, I know. I'm in the same boat. And what's really cool is I think, like you said, it brings it to a level where people can kind of relate more with these guys.
00:17:42
Speaker
Because I know when I started, I thought like, oh, I can never hit that many deals. I can never be on stage. But as you like listen to them, yeah um You hear that, hey, they're just regular dudes. And I think people realize that as I've done a podcast too, is like, that's what I try to talk about in my podcast every week. How I didn't close this deal. I struggled in this way. Didn't spend enough time with my wife here.
00:18:05
Speaker
so like, even though we're golden door we're award award winners, we all have a lot of struggles and... um yeah it's really cool what you're doing to relate with them um so how many episodes have you had how many guys have you interviewed on it up to this point uh we're just over 40 episodes now yeah okay yeah we're just over 40 now and uh it's going really well i can't wait to have some of these guys back on because some of these guys are you know five time four time platinum golden door award winners right i just had troy de benowitz on and and he was like a he's like a three-time platinum
00:18:36
Speaker
Right. Which is like a like like you hit double golden door three years in a row twice. So he just keeps hitting platinum. Now the guy is just insane. You know, Eric Salazar, Michael O'Donnell. mean, these guys are just like year after year. Michael Schmelzer, Justin Knetzen. These guys are year after year after year hitting it.
00:18:51
Speaker
um You know, Colby Free is a two time about to be three time golden door winner. I've had him on multiple. I've had him on. I mean, these guys are just like, just killer. So it's cool, man. About 40 episodes, little over 40 episodes and it's going well. I haven't thrown any money at it really.
00:19:05
Speaker
So I want to, I'm about to, I'm actually about to, i'm about to start throwing some money at it and start to grow it a little bit more. But you know, I, I've got some really good feedback, which is cool, man. People are like really liking, i mean, there's like bombs being dropped on this thing. Like it's like,
00:19:18
Speaker
I'm becoming a really good interviewer. And I think that's what the cool thing is, because like I'm not there to talk, it's not a sales podcast. yeah It's not a sales podcast, it's ah it's a life podcast. on that and But I'm just interviewing you know these all-stars, like yourself. you You dropped bombs. I was like, I had two and a half pages of notes on your podcast alone.
00:19:35
Speaker
ah Thank you, thank you. That was a good time. And no, you're doing great work with it. i've yeah I need to go catch up on all episodes, but I've listened a ton. There's a ton of value there. So we appreciate what you're doing with that. And what's cool is, Mikey, you're a golden, I think 2019, didn't we both step on the stage same year?
00:19:53
Speaker
or gold Not in 2019. I hit it before Golden Door was a golden door in Dallas, Texas in 2016. me sixteen But I also technically hit it in 2020, which I didn't know. And i won I don't have the award from 2020, but I did hit it in 2020 as well.
00:20:07
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So that's what's really cool. Yeah. Yeah, two time. So you're not only one yourself, but you're interviewing and the top guys who are in. And like you said, it's cool because like I got my golden door award, but sometimes interviewing some of these guys that are like multiple platinum um hitting like two, three golden doors every year. It's like, man, I got a long ways to go. I thought I was good, but these guys just on another level.
00:20:33
Speaker
So yeah, it's cool to kind of expand the vision and hear the possibilities, see what guys are doing. Yeah, man. Get some of these numbers. But yeah, speaking of that, I want to dive in a little bit. Like, what do you see as you've done these interviews and only done um people who've hit these Golden Door Awards?
00:20:50
Speaker
Do you have any like common themes for people who are trying to hit their first Golden Door? um What are some common themes you see across all the success these guys are having that you could share with our listeners?
00:21:02
Speaker
Sure.
Achieving the Golden Door Award
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. So for the listeners that are trying to hit it, um there's like, I can do it in sections, right? So the guys that are trying to hit guys and girls that are trying to hit it. um The main things that I see is that um the Golden Door Award winner, he or she first believed that they could hit it.
00:21:18
Speaker
um The only like, i think it was like one, I think it was like Austin Stoker, like didn't even know it was a thing. um There was like maybe one or two guys that were like, I didn't even know it was like a thing. And then I was told it was a thing.
00:21:30
Speaker
I think there's one other guy. um ah So there's a couple of things. So one, they believe that they were going to hit it. they They set the goal. I'm going to go hit a golden door. So it's almost like they were at door to door con the previous year. And they're like, I want to be on stage. And they went and got it right.
00:21:43
Speaker
That was that. So they had an actual end goal. So there was at least clarity on what they wanted. um Two, I would say that they, some, um one of the main things is that we've had, I've seen rookies hit it first year in door to door ever.
00:21:55
Speaker
um And we've obviously seen veterans hit it. So if you're a rookie, you can still hit it, especially now this year, you can hit it as a setter this year. So I'm excited to see the amount of setters that hit 200 deals this year. That's I'm like really excited to see that because ah there's a lot of, there's a lot of recognition that's not being given out. So I'm really glad Sam did that. um So rookies can hit it.
00:22:16
Speaker
And I've seen rookies hit it. I mean, they disguise just guys just, they just hit it. They just, There's not like, oh, I'm not good at it yet. um Rookies have had it and veterans have also had it. I would say a couple of the the main things that if if you're trying to hit it for the first year this year is these guys really had a, not a not a bulletproof routine, but they had some sort of a structure plan routine that they were like, their standards were, I'm on doors at 9 a.m.
00:22:44
Speaker
I'm you know at the gym at 7 a.m. m I'm in bed by midnight. like they They had some sort of, like a it wasn't a routine. So that's that's the problem I have a with routine, Taylor, actually, is like routines have to change a lot. Because if like I'm on doors at 9 a.m., well, what if you have a 9 a.m. appointment? You're not on doors. and then you're like, oh, well, now my week's screwed up. No, stop, chill.
00:23:02
Speaker
yeah They just had a standard that they were, they treated themselves as if they were almost W2 employees. They were working from nine to nine. Like that's just what it was. Or nine to seven, whatever. Right. Like some guys are like, I will be home with my wife at 5am for dinner every day. I haven't seen one guy that hit golden door that's ever done that.
00:23:19
Speaker
yeah Not one. So if for the guys that were married, right, they, um, they pre overcame that issue of, Hey, I, you know, I agree with my wife that I'm gonna be home at five o'clock every single day.
00:23:33
Speaker
Well, brother, you don't have 50 grand a month coming in every single month. You're not gonna be able to be with home with your wife at 5 a.m. m You know what you need to do is you need to structure a quality time with your wife when you're not at work and actually get your wife on board to support you to do that so that you guys can go eventually hit your goals. So they also had a plan with their wives. They had to get their wife or their significant other. If you have, if you don't have a wife or a husband at that time, right? Like good.
00:23:57
Speaker
like go and work as hard as you possibly can but if you do have a wife for lot guys that do have wives and kids um they structured out the 16-hour uh work day sunday through sunday that there was a there was some sort of a a clarity on where you're going to spend time with your kids where it's playing on time with your wife playing time with your kids throughout their week and they stuck to that um so a lot of the guys they took all of sunday and they worked with their family all of sunday And that was her thing. And you know, it's like, then the wife has to get on board with that. And you got to sell your wife on being on board during that year.
00:24:31
Speaker
Um, how does Troy Debenowicz, a three-time platinum golden door guy, how does he have six kids and a wife? Come on, bro. Like we, like we act like, like I have a wife. I can't, it's like, no, you can, you can. um Obviously, there's different situations. like I would say definitely the like the first kid is definitely a lot harder than like the sixth kid but um or fifth kid, right?
00:24:51
Speaker
So there's a situation there. um I know that... ah Yeah, anyways. um the the The other... Yeah. Having having um a little bit of clarity. I think the hard part is what the guys that have not hit it yet, they hit 50, 60 deals a year.
00:25:05
Speaker
um Why they're not hitting 130 100 self-chance or 200 deals. point system, that's point system now. But... deals yeah know the point system now's a point system now but yeah um why they're not hitting it is because they're going too fast taylor they're not slowing down to think yeah um it just it's a it's just this uh the book really good book if you haven't ever read it it's a it's a christian book um called a ruthless elimination of hurry it is one of the best books to like hey buddy you got to slow down like slow down prepare for war then go into war then when you come back
00:25:38
Speaker
prepare again, plan, have a strategy, then go into where we just live in this like ongoing war, which is why they call it the solar coaster. Um, that ends up making your brain after three to six months want to go to the easy route.
00:25:52
Speaker
Yeah. I would say that that's the main thing. Yeah, it's huge. That's cool. And I know a lot of guys have come and talked. Ashton, he's a good guy that talks about kind of like he's got a lot lots of kids. The wife talks about that.
00:26:04
Speaker
So that's something I have thought about a lot is I'm having kids and kind of in that same stage. But another thing, too, I would say, and you probably agree with this, is I've seen top producers as I've interviewed them.
00:26:15
Speaker
It's like you're talking about the routine. but We're all going to get off that routine. We're all going to have days where we got out late or where... Like the point we're in, the appointment messed up or knocking.
00:26:25
Speaker
And so I've seen in top producers and I've also noticed in myself that these top guys, when they get off that routine, they don't beat themselves up and take like the whole day off take like another couple hours off.
00:26:37
Speaker
um Because I think a lot of lower producers, they get in this all or nothing mindset where it's like, oh, I didn't get out on the doors by 10 a.m. So now this this whole day is shot. We'll just say go to the movies and start over tomorrow.
00:26:50
Speaker
It's like, no, you still got... four hours right now to go out and knock you can still go make this day make something in this day and not just scrap the whole thing so i think that's another big thing i've seen it's not all or nothing it's you you go with the punches and sometimes things are going to go your way maybe something came up in the morning with kids whatever but you're going out still and you're um you know making what you can of the time you do have so i think the main thing there is just yeah like how do you deal with adversity I don't know if, ah like if there's anything, any attribute that I saw from the consistency consistency throughout all of them is every single one of them had a really good way of dealing with adversity.
00:27:31
Speaker
yeah They like anticipated bad weather happening. And what happens in Florida when a hurricane comes and you did not anticipate? yeah And like, we don't think about that as entrepreneurs. I was just talking with one of my, one of my assistants a second ago. I was like, I think when people, yeah like, in other words, they're just, they're just not anticipating. um I don't want to get into that story. This will take five minutes, but basically people are not anticipating. It's almost like, Hey, we told you that there was a war coming or there was a storm coming.
00:27:58
Speaker
you know, financial, financial turmoil is coming, like prepare, prepare, prepare. And you starting to see all these millionaires and, you know, saying, man, I just, I lost, you know, 300 million of my net worth. You're like, did you not, did you not see the signs?
00:28:13
Speaker
Like even them, like even these guys are, are not, you know, they're not susceptible or whatever that they still can get hit by these financial downturns, which is happening right now. And it's going to happen in the future. Yeah.
00:28:24
Speaker
Like we're just not preparing. It's like, dude, you, you, it's good thing for us. We have, I mean, solar guys, we have a very stable, uh, people are going to be buying power. they They will, they will miss their mortgage before they miss their power bill.
00:28:35
Speaker
It's really hard. was just talking to somebody about this the other day It's really hard to lie about you didn't pay the power bill, but it's easy to, to hide that you didn't pay your mortgage. Yeah.
00:28:46
Speaker
You can't lie about not paying your power. Well, they took the, they turned the power off with your, with mortgages. You can, you can lie about that. You can hide that. I actually missed a mortgage three times, uh, years ago, years ago. Yeah. People ask me like, Mikey, what, what, what keeps you motivated?
00:28:58
Speaker
I never want to miss three mortgages ever again. but It's funny here in California, at least San Diego, people can miss power. Since COVID, they put like a policy in place where like they can miss power bills and then I'll shut the power off.
00:29:13
Speaker
Really? That's actually an objection. Strangely enough, that's an objection I've had to overcome in solar out here because they're like, well, SDG&E, they let me miss my power bill. So with solar, can I like just skip payments a few times if I want to?
00:29:27
Speaker
And I'm like, ah no, not really. ah So that's like something I've had to... kind of overcome i'm like man they're just letting some people skip power reels without really a payment and a penalty but i don't know we'll see you hopefully they change that i don't get it very often
Systems and Virtual Assistants for Scaling
00:29:43
Speaker
but when you're the monopoly you can do whatever you want i guess yeah ah pretty funny where else you going to go? Don't worry. We'll just put up we'll just put it on rears. We'll put it on the back end.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's crazy. But ah that's that's good. yeah Good things. And yeah, i love what you're doing again with the podcast, Mikey. And so something I wanted to get into, just touch on. I know we talked about this in the podcast, me and you did.
00:30:06
Speaker
together as well. But um I know another common thing that we talked about in our podcast is a lot of these guys have systems in place. And I know you're big on like virtual assistants, systems in your own business.
00:30:18
Speaker
um And that's something i talk about as well. So from you that's had assistants, can you talk about that? Like, how maybe people could apply that and I don't know, possibly get like VAs, like what systems you have in your business that you'd maybe recommend for other people trying to like build a brand or maybe things that could help as they're trying to kind of ah offload things, offload tasks.
00:30:40
Speaker
Yeah, sure. So this, this podcast is brought to you by google.com. um You should use Excel or ah Google Sheets. um The first thing you need to do is write out what details happen in every job to move the job from sale to PTO.
00:30:58
Speaker
If you don't have that written out, like what's the first thing? Sale. ah Sign docs. Okay, what's the second thing? Did I turn the docs in? What's the fourth thing? Cool.
00:31:10
Speaker
Or the third thing, rather. Did we schedule a site survey? The fourth thing, the site survey happened. Like people are not tracking that, the the crucial things. Like I signed it.
00:31:20
Speaker
Did I turn it in? yeah Site survey scheduled. Did it happen? yeah You know, so it's like, um first thing I would say is um the only way that a Golden Door Award winner goes from a single Golden Door to a double Golden Door or triple Golden Door Award winner um is is having a system in place, which I will talk gladly talk about, um with virtual assistants. um And it doesn't necessarily have to be virtual assistants. Michael Donald, Troy Benowitz, those guys, um Val, those guys at SunSolar, they don't have virtual assistants. They've got American assistants.
00:31:53
Speaker
highly paid people in person. and i typically I typically will use Australian, Costa Rican, Mexican, and then Filipino virtual assistants or executive assistants.
00:32:04
Speaker
i don't I don't know, like the whole like idea that the two, three, four dollar virtual assistants is it's as a project manager, you pay for what you get. My top, my top, um my top girl right now makes so almost $20 an hour.
00:32:20
Speaker
And if you look at her benefits and everything she gets, she gets almost 30 bucks an hour. um And that, but that's my right hand that is like, you know, running all the businesses. If I were to, you know, miss a meeting, she could go in there and negotiate and do the exact same things I can do.
00:32:35
Speaker
But the hard, part the easy part is everyone knows, so when they're gonna listen, it's like, okay, I'm gonna go get a virtual assistant. gonna go on Upwork, Fiverr, find virtual assistant, project manager. Perfect. yeah That's the easy part.
00:32:46
Speaker
It's not, it's, actually wrote an article on Entrepreneur about this, entrepreneur.com about this. um you can't you can't just think that you're going to so hire a team of virtual assistants or assistants whatever um of people and then without you having a standard operating procedure they're just gonna be able to do it like do you understand how complicated it is to do solar like i know you get it but like yeah taking somebody that's never even done like the sun run training like they've they've never they've never they don't even know what pto even means um if you don't have a system in place of tracking start to finish these jobs and knowing how to solve the problems whatever um it's going to be very hard to hire people and actually let them do it you're go be like they're gonna frustrated on paying this person ten dollars an hour 15 bucks an hour eight bucks an hour or whatever um
00:33:31
Speaker
you know, and they're not doing it. Well, you didn't teach them. And the hard part about hiring virtual assistants is it takes like three to six months to get them up and running, especially if you don't have standard operate procedures, especially if you don't have your own CRM built out.
00:33:42
Speaker
For sure. but You can just use a C, you can just use Google sheets and that works very well um at the start. But um yeah, I don't know. You can ask more, I guess, direct questions about it. What what do you what do you think?
00:33:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. Well, was just going say with that, like, I wish I would have done that whether you have assistance or not. I think there's some every solar rep, every person in solar should be tracking regardless, because I just think back, think this was like a year and a half, two years ago, I didn't have any systems in place for this stuff.
00:34:10
Speaker
And I remember a deal is pretty big system, like 10 kilowatt was going to make like 16, 17 grand on it. And um three months go by, I'm like, man, this deal is taking a while.
00:34:22
Speaker
And I make a call to the installer and they're oh, we didn't even have a completed site survey yet for this. After three months, they didn't have that site survey read done. And obviously that's like, you know, installation company issues too. But like, man, if I would have been tracking this and if I would have been like going through all my accounts,
00:34:40
Speaker
then I could have saved it because sure enough, I called the customer. I'm like, hey, we have to send someone out to do a site survey, canceled on the spot. He's like, okay, this is ridiculous. Cancel it. And not much I can say at that point. I'm like, yeah, I agree. It is it is ridiculous.
00:34:55
Speaker
So I lost out on like 17 grand right there just because didn't have a system in place. And yeah, I didn't have a CRM, didn't have a way to track this stuff. So I think that's that's huge whether you're going to get an assistant or not. Like you track it yourself, throw it on a Google Doc at least, bare minimum.
00:35:11
Speaker
umm Hopefully you don't have like bad installation partners that are going to like keep track of all this stuff. But whether you do or whether you don't, I think it's important for you to be tracking it. um But yeah, so like someone starting out, um if someone were to hire their first like assistant in solar, you think that'd be the most important thing you'd say is just someone to kind of like manage your projects? Or is there anything else you would get an assistant for like speaking to solar directly?
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think anybody that intends on hitting a golden door needs a virtual assistant. Anybody that that intends on being in any sales position, whether you're a manager, setter, or a closer, i think should have a virtual assistant. Now, can you team up with a couple guys and get one and split the cost?
00:35:55
Speaker
Yes. um But anybody that's hitting 30 to 100 deals a year needs a virtual assistant because here's the thing. Why this is like the rich dad, poor dad mindset.
00:36:07
Speaker
If my time is worth $627 an hour, why am i reaching out to why why am i reaching out my homeowner to give them an update? yeah Why am i you know why am i following up with my own my own customers?
00:36:20
Speaker
Why am mowing my own lawn? Now this is gonna sound really you know haughty or whatever, but as a business professional, as and as an owner, I have to understand that Even though I love washing my own car and I actually like mowing lawns and watering my my trees and garden, I can't do that anymore.
00:36:39
Speaker
I get paid $627 when I did solar. $627 an hour um is what I made. So when I was out working eight hours a day, I was making $627 an hour. So if I'm back home and I have to go you know pick up my dog poop, dude, I'm just a point where I wasn't even, it's kind sound bad, but I wasn't even walking my own dogs.
00:36:57
Speaker
Like I had an assistant that would walk my dogs because it was important to me, first of all, that my dogs got walked. But second off, like they need to be walked for like an hour or two hours, not just 20 minutes. So yes, should anybody? Yes. if Let's just say, for instance, let' me give an exact example. If let's say you, you're a manager, you're an assistant manager, and you have maybe ah another assistant manager or a manager with you, you should absolutely have your own virtual assistant. If you're doing individually,
00:37:24
Speaker
80 to 100 deals. Absolutely. Why are you turning in your own deals? why are Why are you doing proposal creation and pipeline management and that doesn't make you any money?
00:37:35
Speaker
I know it leads to money, yeah right? I get it's directly connected, but why are you doing pipeline and proposal management when your assistant can do it? Trust me, Taylor, if you can do it, you you can teach your assistant how to do it. There's two apps you need to use, Loom and Tango.
00:37:51
Speaker
Loom and Tango. Tango and then and then just a Google Doc. Okay. Step by step. I call it the operation buyer time back method. um Have a ah a Google Doc that has how to create a solo proposal. Okay. And then through Tango, it's a it's a Chrome plugin on your computer, on your iPad.
00:38:10
Speaker
You go through the steps and then you adjust the, like you you clean it up. you have to clean it up a little bit because it's not exactly perfect. um Then it'll it'll show you step by step how to walk you through how to create the proposal.
00:38:22
Speaker
And then you loom the whole thing, meaning it's screen recording the whole thing and you're talking back to it. So now you have, hey, Mr. Assistant, Mrs. Assistant, I'm going show you create a solo proposal. I'm going to show you how to change the design in Sunrun. to show you change the design in SunPower. I'm going to show you how to do whatever, Taylor, all of it.
00:38:41
Speaker
why are you Why are you doing any these things yourself? But how to do that is using Tango, which is AI, and using Loom, which ah in theory is AI. Yeah, I love it. it's so true. It's like, I look back look back on my beginning years, especially if you think about like most of these proposal softwares have gotten a lot easier and quicker to use.
00:39:02
Speaker
So that makes it nice. But especially like back in the first couple years I was in solar, it literally took like probably 20, 30. Yeah, like 20, 30 minutes to create a proposal. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:13
Speaker
So like all the, all those hours added up, just making proposals and then you get an appointment. It's a no show. They weren't there and you just spent 30 minutes making the proposal. It's like freak could have went out and got a couple, and couple more leads doing that.
00:39:25
Speaker
So yeah, all these things now it's like so much time that it amounts to and that you're literally buying back, paying someone five, 10 bucks an hour to help with these things. So yeah, I think we talk all day and I know we talked a about a lot about that in our podcast. We did as well, but yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah, I 100% agree. It's something that most guys, most door door people don't think about and um huge opportunity guys are missing out on there. um But yeah, and then like, just to wrap up with that
Software and Personal Branding Strategies
00:39:53
Speaker
and thought, though, like for you and your business, what are all the things that you have? I know you mentioned to some of them, some of them already, but is there anything else that you have your like VA's assistants do that save you a bunch of time?
00:40:05
Speaker
ah Yeah, so I built out a software actually for solar people um that does the, ah it's an automated customer experience software. So we build out workflows. We built out workflows to be able to talk with your homeowner every time it moves stages from site survey, design, permitting, install, so on and so forth.
00:40:20
Speaker
And then it contacts the customer 18 times after install. So it keeps in contact with them. So it it automates the customer experience from sale to PTO. And then it's a referral machine after that. It sent automatically sends handwritten thank you cards to the homeowners.
00:40:32
Speaker
Sends out flyers, things like that. Happy Veterans Day. happy So a bunch of them got Happy Father's Day. All the fathers got Happy Father's Day handwritten cards from Taylor Armstrong to their home. it's really So that's you want to stay in front of your customers. You want to get referrals. That's how to do that. So that so they built my assistants build those things out.
00:40:49
Speaker
as well as in my own personal business. So my two main businesses is, um you know, the Mikey Lucas brand, which gets a lot of time, and then the American Energy Fund. So inside of those, my assistants are continuing to make sure like, hey, we have to we have to put out a, you know we have to put out four articles a week, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, LinkedIn, and Medium or whatever, Reddit.
00:41:10
Speaker
So it's like, hey, we've got all these topics, like they're going to go through this podcast and see something that I talked about here. They're going to transcribe it using Otter. Okay. And then Otter is going to throw that in the chat. And they're going to have chat. Find the ah key points that I talked about in here.
00:41:24
Speaker
And then like, they're probably going to get ah ah a VA like article out of this. I guarantee watch. um but They go and find that to be able to put out on the internet. So whenever somebody looks up, you know, whatever, right? How do I ah become more efficient, effective and productive, right? Or how do I maximize my solar leads, whatever.
00:41:40
Speaker
Like Mike Lucas has an article on Entrepreneur or on Inc or on LinkedIn about it. So now and my my personal brand is continuing to grow. That's all my VAs. my my my assistants, I don't call them, it' VA has sometimes a negative connotation, don't even like saying VA, but um my assistants, my team members, I treat them like humans because they are humans, they have families, right?
00:41:59
Speaker
I buy their kids' you know Christmas presents on Christmas, that's cool. Yeah, they are pushing the Mikey Lucas branding and then pushing the American Ender Fund branding. So I just hired a girl last week Because now we've got all the social media stuff to you. I don't post on my social media.
00:42:14
Speaker
I am in the DMs, but I don't post on social media either. um ah there there's There's two people that are in charge of posting on my social media and making sure that the ah messages and things like that. So a lot of times if it's like a a lead that wants to get the mastermind or whatever like they know how to push that through but if it's like a normal conversation like mikey what about taxes what about investing whatever i'm the one doing all of that and they will screenshot that send that to me or put it in a a section called starred in our software um and i'll have to go through and make sure that i answer back to those those messages so they help me organize taylor you probably do too hundreds of messages a week i mean i'm talking hundreds bro hundreds
00:42:52
Speaker
can't have I can't keep up to all of them, but they'll filter out the ones that are like, Hey, this is pretty urgent. This guy wants help. do you want me put them your calendar or whatever? So they help manage my calendar. They help manage my travel. They help manage... Dude, like my assistant books my haircuts. like I get a haircut. like she's she they They know. like you know where is Mikey humming at the best?
00:43:11
Speaker
Like, like, it's like, it's almost like tuning a race car. Where's Mikey humming at, you know, at 6,000, 5,000 RPM. Where's he humming at? You know, not like, right. Cause a lot of solar guys are, you know, moving around and they're like, they don't organize. So ah my assistants helped me with all of my life too.
00:43:27
Speaker
You know, Mikey, you know, looks like, you know, there's a, a deal at the movie theater that you guys love to go to. Why don't you take Ryan on a date? Like, dude, they just ah look out for things like that for me. And I've trained them to look for things like that for me too. That's so cool.
00:43:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's every guy's dream. Guys also can do recruiting too. So you can have your people out. i do i've had I've helped hire virtual assistants. I didn't mean to cut you off there, but I forgot about that. like let me Let me talk about your your listeners.
00:43:50
Speaker
but You can have your your virtual assistants, your assistants in your in your Instagram posting on social media for you, going to Canva. finding a cool quote that you like from Elon Musk or from you, your personal, yourself, putting that in Canva and posting on the internet and come up with like 30 of those a month, just posting pictures. You don't to do videos or whatever. Like everyone thinks like, I got to go find all these, like, you know, i got to pay 10 grand a month for a videographer. It's like, no, you don't.
00:44:13
Speaker
Take your camera, go outside and say, I'm knocking on doors today, follow for more, whatever. Right. And then your virtual assistant can be reaching out to people, liking, commenting, sharing their stuff. And then bada bing bada boom now you're now you're know building your recruiter your recruiting file yeah and i love it um that's something i'm trying to build out because i've seen you have it super dialed and i'm like man mike he's like all over the place on social media how he how is he doing this i'm like okay he's probably not doing it all got a team yeah I listened to Gary Vee, right? Gary Vee said, if you you don't have a personal brand, which you've obviously been doing and doing great at you, so you know, you might think you're behind me, but you're only like a couple posts a month behind me.
00:44:49
Speaker
You're not very far behind me. You're right there. like um But Gary Vee says, dude, if you don't have a social media, a brand, like the taylor armstrong brand the solar printer brand if you don't have that you're going to be irrelevant in a few years so you've already been building yours you're already 10 steps ahead of everybody else which is great but the other side of it is know you got to just it's just posting more stuff so finding you know finding people which you've obviously are starting to post on youtube now so if if you guys aren't listening to solarpreneur on but on on youtube make sure you find the link below and and subscribe to the youtube channel as well because there's a lot of really good nuggets there too that taylor puts out that he doesn't put out on on his regular podcast ah apps because youtube is
00:45:25
Speaker
Cool too. You just gotta be posting slightly more. And then Alex Kamosi says, you know, if you're posting 30 times a month, you need to be posting 80 times a week. So I post 80 times a week now. I just, I'm not the smart one. I just, again, invest like a billionaire, not like a millionaire.
00:45:37
Speaker
Post on social media like a billionaire, not like a millionaire. So I'm just doing the quote unquote 10X or what everyone else is doing. Yeah, that's funny. And Taylor, need if you need more virtual assistants for your social media, let me know. I just interviewed like four of them.
00:45:50
Speaker
I hired one. Yeah, well, no, I'd love to talk more because I've got i've got one virtual assistant right now and she's trying to do a lot. But yeah, sometimes it's like, yeah, a lot even for her. I overloaded i overloaded mine. I'm like, I feel so bad. didn't even realize. I'm like, oh my gosh, dude, I feel so bad.
00:46:05
Speaker
ah yeah ah yeah but then it's like like you said it's just because you get a va doesn't mean you're gonna start doing all these things like you got to create this systems so that's been my mistake too is i let's just think oh i'm gonna go do what mikey's doing but then and don't we don't have a system for her responding to comments we don't have a system for her posting so of course it's not not gonna be as dialed in because you got to create all these things so yeah i i'm helping out uh i'm helping uh i'm helping ashton uh, or, or both of our good friend Ashton helping him out with it.
00:46:34
Speaker
Um, I'll love, I can jump on another call and and show you, I mean, under the hood, exactly what I'm doing. There's no secret here. It's just, yeah you just need a, you just, I know what most superpreneurs like yourself need is you just don't want to make the wrong step.
00:46:47
Speaker
So it's like, you're just going to try to keep going because it's working. But to get to the next level, you're like, dude, I don't want to make the wrong step up there because I make the wrong step. Everything, everything below that crumbles. So yeah, dude, I'll jump on a call and show you under the hood exactly what I'm doing.
00:46:59
Speaker
Sweet. Thanks, man. There you go. Abundance mindset. ah would have I'll have my assistant you the calendar right now. and Okay, thanks. Oh, cool, man. Good Yeah, just to start transitioning or start wrapping up here.
Creating Passive Income through Investments
00:47:15
Speaker
I know you're busy guy, Mikey, but last thing I want to touch on before we say goodbye here is obviously you're helping guys with their finances.
00:47:22
Speaker
And you know, it's like we're all making great money in solar, but there's so many guys that are still broke. There's so many guys that don't have investments, that don't have passive income. And I'm just now starting to get more into that, um which is something would have thought about before. But um and I know you've helped me with my finances before in the past. And we've talked a little bit about that, too.
00:47:43
Speaker
But yeah, can you speak to that? Just I don't know, maybe some basic things to wrap up, like what are the mistakes these solar guys are making? And how do you get people these five figure passive investments? How much money does it take? don't know. Maybe it's just like some frequently asked questions you get around that.
00:47:57
Speaker
Sure, sure. So I'll give you kind of my my like 30 second elevator pitch on this. So okay most most accredited investors or most investors know that there is a fortune to be made in the energy industry. Right. And usually it's reserved to the elite of the elite. Right. The top one percent of the one percent.
00:48:16
Speaker
And it also comes with a a super high risk. Right. So when you align, this is the key here, when you align with insiders that specialize in locating, filtering, structuring these specific profitable deals, investments, in other words, have a seat at the table, you can actually capitalize, create a sustainable economical future through investing in American infrastructure and technology, which is why the American Energy Fund does what we do.
00:48:38
Speaker
When you're a traditional trader, venture capitalist, you know, institutional investor, ah you already know that it's very hard, and but yet important to locate these specific deals. So the hard part is Taylor's finding the deals. When you're a golden door winner, you're doing golden door stuff all day long.
00:48:52
Speaker
So how do you locate these deals? How do you find time to do that? But also something that, that, that aligns with your risk tolerance and you have to, you know, you can partner with funds that you, you need to have funds and, and syndications that have a clean track record.
00:49:06
Speaker
Okay. And that can deploy, actually deploy your capital without really the government stepping in and saying, oh, we're shutting down the solar industry over here, or we're shutting down the real estate side over here or whatever. So my fund does give access to those niche investments that create a sustainable growth without the the retail level risks and high level requirements to actually get into. And that actually provides a path to a diverse portfolio, cash flowing assets and a profitable exits.
00:49:29
Speaker
um So obviously people invested in stocks, bonds, ETFs, real estate, public companies, whatever, binary options, S&P 500, life insurance, all that. You may know that in other in other in in other words, the other the energy, um'm sorry I'm sorry, so you can know that basically you don't have access to these high ah these these high level of of of investments because it's it's extremely complicated to get into, right? Yeah.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah. But the key here is that there's plenty of hedge fund managers, risky option traders, and these guys on the internet and even on social media, TikTok, talking about all these foolish, optimistic and investments, right? That's why you see like Bitcoin, all these Bitcoin rich guys that are you know, they're not rich anymore. Where are they at? Where's all these NFT guys at? Not that NFTs are gonna make a comeback, okay, because I'm probably sure they will, but where's all those guys at anymore?
00:50:14
Speaker
Okay, and maybe you're tired at, maybe you're tired, Taylor, of having, not having access to insider knowledge and and and that provides you with consistent deal flow and, you know, having solutions through, and you know, unsustainable speculations and high risk.
00:50:25
Speaker
maybe Maybe you are tired of that. that's where That's where you need to have a specific a company and partnerships, right? Your network, which is what it ultimately comes down to, Taylor, is if you don't have a network that has those good jockeys, then it's gonna be, you're gonna work forever.
00:50:40
Speaker
Make bad decisions because you you don't have the time to look at those like thoroughly and actually do great due diligence on them, okay? That's the elevator pitch. If you don't have that time, because you're out business, running an office, recruiting, social media, podcasts, everything, you need to find through networking, these people that have already done it, that have a good clean track record.
00:51:01
Speaker
And I've got thirty over $30,000 a month in passive income. Dude, done a lot, a lot, a lot of bad things and mistakes when it comes to financial investing. And that is why I know I'm confident that I'm making much better decisions.
00:51:14
Speaker
And it's hard. It's like, you know, it's like in solar, like why working under Taylor Armstrong? Because Taylor has had a golden door, has hit the golden door, right? Taylor has a successful marriage. Taylor has good kids, right? Why do I want to work for Taylor Armstrong is because Taylor has the track record.
00:51:28
Speaker
Why do you want to invest into guys that have good track record like good track records? is because you want to work for 10 years in door sales in the summer and the heat? and then go bankrupt. Okay. You can't just think, you can't think that you're not going hit, you're not going to go bankrupt. You're not going lose it all. Okay. Curt Schilling, Money Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson, all all these people that they had hundreds of millions of dollars. Mike Tyson hit was paid a half of a billion dollars and he's like negative 26 million dollars how's that possible because they didn't have a strategy so the mistakes these you guys are having is one they're just they're they're doing too much emotional taylor emotional investing anybody could make money in 2020 2021 2022 i don't care if you can make money in that i'm going to show people this is what i do i show people how i made money and i'm going to continue to make money when the market goes down
00:52:17
Speaker
And that's what the key is. Anybody can make money when the market's up. But the key is networking with people and saying, hey, let me pay for your time. Show me how to make money in a down market. Anybody can make money in up market, Taylor. It's super easy.
00:52:29
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. So just like in general, how much to start getting in these investments and all that? Like how much do people need? If someone's listening is like, oh I can't afford this, Mikey. Like how much do people really need to start kind of make doing some of these investments with you guys?
00:52:43
Speaker
um So with us personally, with American Energy Fund, they need 100 grand minimum. So here's here's the here's the basics, right? you you you You got to think about in 100 grand increments. So saving, ah putting aside 100 grand is is roughly with like the S&P 500 or just an average 10% rule, the 10% rule I call it, is $833 a month in passive income.
00:53:05
Speaker
So if you if you get a 10% return with 100 grand, every 100 grand you invest should give you 833 month. So if you need $2,400 a month in passive income, right? $300,000, which is what you should wish is what you should be shooting for. So think about it in $100,000 increments ah and ah roughly a 10% return.
00:53:25
Speaker
um You're not going to get 10% return investing in single family properties, I'll tell you that. But why does everybody, Taylor, why does everybody, what's the first thing you want to invest into? Real estate. Well, if a billionaire says when everyone's optimistic, you should be pessimistic.
00:53:38
Speaker
And when everyone's pessimistic about it, you should be optimistic about it. That's why I stayed in energy and I didn't get into real estate. I have but ah have a big real estate portfolio, but it's not single family properties. I've got one single family property.
00:53:48
Speaker
Everything else, commercial. You should think about it in $100,000 increments. People... people Can do $50,000 increments as well and do other syndications and things like that. But you should think about it in a $100,000 increment. And it is not as complicated as you think it is to get the $100,000 because that $100,000 is $833,000 a month.
00:54:06
Speaker
And our fund, our target is actually $1,600 month every $100,000. It's actually not $833,000. 20%. Okay. It's our target right
00:54:13
Speaker
yeah and it's our talking my right now Okay. And so if I'm a rep listening to this and want to do investments, because some people are like, Oh, I'm just going invest like a thousand here, a thousand there, throw it on Robin hood, whatever.
00:54:26
Speaker
So like do you suggest instead of like, I don't know, just throwing a thousand bucks around here and there, is it better to just like put this money in a separate account and get to hundred grand and then make these big investments? Is that like generally what you suggest people do?
00:54:39
Speaker
So here's what I did. And this is what got me to 30,000 over 30, just over, just over $30,000 a month of passive income. I needed to be in the game. So I automated two investments, one in energy transfer, which is a pipeline, uh, stock.
00:54:55
Speaker
And the other one was realty income. So I wanted to get my foot in the door with energy and with real estate. So I started an automation inside of Robinhood that was buying $100 a week into realty income and into energy transfer. So i was I was continually getting the, hey, you're an investor in energy transfer.
00:55:14
Speaker
Why don't you jump on the calls? So I would listen to the calls every once while and I would read the reports, portions of the reports, not all of it, but I would read it. So I started to get like knowledgeable about it. And then I started looking at myself like, Oh my gosh, I am a i am a and i am a an energy investor.
00:55:29
Speaker
I'm investing in energy. Warren Buffett owns Oxy and Chevron. Like he's the largest shareholder of these companies, like owns them, right? I wanted to get myself to think like I'm um'm an energy investor. Then in real estate, instead of going and buying a single family property, I invested $100 a week, okay? So if you guys are listening, you can't do $100 a week, do $10 a week.
00:55:47
Speaker
automate the system, maybe not go spend $1,000 here and there, automate the system where you can do $10 a week, $20 a week, whatever, $100 a month, whatever you can, automate it through reoccurring purchases in Robinhood and do that. That's what I did.
00:55:59
Speaker
And then put the rest of the money, 10, 20, 30% of your paycheck into a separate account called your freedom fund or investment fund. and just lay but hey 100 grand this is what this is what i'm gonna this is what i'm gonna i'm gonna wait till have 100 grand and then start investing but at the same time you're getting little micro investments and you're getting monthly and quarterly paychecks from energy transfer and realty income so you're now and ah you're thinking like an investor and you're continually investing every single day every technically every day right um into those uh into those stocks that's what i did okay that worked very very well because it was always like really cool to like every
00:56:33
Speaker
every few weeks or whatever, you'd see like, like oh, you just got paid $3.82 from realty income. Like, yes, passive income. Nice. Yeah. Yeah, and I think the other huge key in this is, like you said, taking a percentage of what you make and just put it in the Freedom Fund. I remember that's one of the biggest things I learned from you, Mike, Ian,
00:56:49
Speaker
Something that like Tony Robbins talks about money master the game.
Automating Investments for Wealth Building
00:56:53
Speaker
Most guys don't do this. Just like taking that set percentage and just having it automatically go away every time I think is massive. And yeah, how you just do it without thinking about it.
00:57:04
Speaker
So. yeah I don't even I don't notice, I don't notice a hundred dollars a week. So find out what that is as you, as a listener, find out what that is. If it's $5 a week, $10 a week, like $5 should be like, you know, a tall coffee at Starbucks, right? It's 2023, tall coffee Starbucks, five bucks.
00:57:19
Speaker
right That's a coffee a week that you're putting toward. And again, that might not seem like a lot, but also guess what I did? Because I talk about coffee a lot like that. I actually started buying $25 a week in Starbucks. That's one of my best performing stocks right now.
00:57:32
Speaker
I'm not a big stock guy, but I am a automation guy because i'm a i wanted to my stock portfolio, of my investment portfolio, my stocks are less than 5% of the portfolio. But it's cool, it's like it's fun, like I'm still participating in the stock market and it might be $25 here, $25 there, or it's really like about $1,000 a month I'll put into it, but that's such a small portion of my portfolio. But yeah, I buy, i buy my wife buys Starbucks like every day.
00:57:55
Speaker
So like, not every day now, but she used to for a while. I was like, screw it, I'm gonna make money on Starbucks. So I started putting $20 a week. There you go. Make money off her purchases, smart. Yeah. I actually have. No, it's not. i haven't given my money back, obviously, but you or her money, it's whatever.
00:58:10
Speaker
You get the point. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, cool. Mikey. Well, I know we could spend hours more on this stuff, but yeah, if people do want to like join your mastermind, potentially start learning more of this stuff from you, get way more in depth. What's the best way to do that? And how could they potentially start working with you?
00:58:26
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, reaching out on Instagram the best way to go. i can get you some links. You can put the links in the show notes, whatnot, too. Cool. that way ah That way, you know, we could do we can help help help Taylor back out and promote you know taylor' taylor's Taylor's whole journey as well.
00:58:40
Speaker
um But yeah, Instagram, at Mikey Lucas, that's the best way to go, best way to get ahold of me. Like, if you text me, it's probably not going to get answered. Instagram, there. Yeah. Okay. Sweet. So for all the listeners, yeah, invest in yourself and yeah, go consider working with a guy like Mikey that can help you know the investments you should make. And if anything, go hit him up on Instagram. This guy is dropping fire content.
00:59:02
Speaker
Go follow his podcasts and ah yeah, get your golden door award if you haven't already. so just to end here do you have any ah final uh words of wisdom or final advice that you give to like maybe a struggling solar rep or someone that's just starting out and in solar cells mikey they could leave us with yeah man um me try to do one that i haven't done in a long time or haven't done ever um taylor i think people are taking it too serious i'll give you two think people um series i think you need to have more fun i'm not having i'm not i'm talking like strategic fun like like just by smiling fun
00:59:36
Speaker
I'm not talking like go and having skipping school and going to the movies, skipping door to door and going to the movies. That's not fun. I'm not talking that fun. I'm talking like while you're on doors, freaking smile, dude, smile.
00:59:49
Speaker
First tip, freaking smile. Okay. Second tip, Taylor would be if you don't, if you work for somebody else, so I don't care if you're work for somebody else or if you're the owner, you, the owner still works for your guy. You still work for your guys. You know that.
01:00:03
Speaker
yeah Yeah. If you're like a setter, closer, manager, whatever, and you're not the owner, you need to become so valuable in that office, in that region, that they like they need you to continue to run their business.
01:00:19
Speaker
If you're not if you're not like becoming more valuable to your office, like you want to know why you're not getting the attention whatever? It's because you're not... you want to know why you're not motivated to read more sales books or or business books is because you don't think you need it you don't think you need the information from those books.
01:00:37
Speaker
But when you become so valuable that that company, that office needs you to to to continue to move forward, then brother, you're you're of extreme value. Boom.
01:00:48
Speaker
There go. Sweet. That's fire. So Mikey, thanks again for coming on Guys, go shoot Mikey a follow. And yeah, enjoy the process. Smile when you're out there working today.
01:01:00
Speaker
And thanks again for coming on, Mikey. So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego. 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.
01:01:13
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
01:01:26
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
01:01:41
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, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show. you need to give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
01:01:51
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.
01:02:04
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. um What's up, solopreneurs? Hope you enjoyed the episode. Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
01:02:20
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start? What episodes should I listen to in the podcast? You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
01:02:35
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 Solapreneur.
01:02:47
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet. So go download it right now. It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com. Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com. Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs. We will have that in the show notes. Go download it right now.
01:03:13
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them. That's going to show you how. So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.