Transcript
Speaker: Hey, what's up, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here.
Speaker: Wanted to give a little intro for this episode.
Speaker: We've got Ty Williams, and he is a solar stud, definitely one of the leaders in the industry.
Speaker: You're going to hear a lot more about him, but he highlights he is the VP of the West Coast Vivint Solar Region.
Speaker: He started in 2014 with about four dudes.
Speaker: Now he's growing it into around 30 offices, hundreds and hundreds of sales reps.
Speaker: Definitely knows what he's doing.
Speaker: Before we jump into the episode, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about another opportunity we have going on.
Speaker: We're working out the final details in our solar cells mastery program.
Speaker: Right now we're accepting 10 people to do a beta test of the course.
Speaker: We want people to get results.
Speaker: We want people to come in and test the program, give us feedback.
Speaker: So be one of the 10 people.
Speaker: Obviously we're going to do it at a super discounted rate.
Speaker: We're going to get feedback and we're going to give super personalized attention to get those people results.
Speaker: So if that's something that interests you, head over to courses.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: That's courses.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: And enroll in the course today.
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Speaker: What's going on?
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: What's up?
Speaker: I am excited for today because we have my man Ty Williams on the show.
Speaker: And if you don't know him, we're going to give an introduction separate from the episode.
Speaker: But he is the regional VP of sales for Vivint Solar.
Speaker: Did I get that title right, Ty?
Speaker: That's what it is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So super, obviously, high up in the industry.
Speaker: I would say one of the top dogs of the industry, and what an honor to have him on the show today.
Speaker: So thanks for coming in the studio and coming on the show, Ty.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: I'm sitting on the other side of the microphone today, so we'll see if I don't try not to screw it up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I know you're on Sam Taggart's Story Door podcast, but have you been on the other side of the mic?
Speaker: Too many other times?
Speaker: I've done a couple podcasts myself.
Speaker: So I have a podcast that I co-host now, and I had one before that.
Speaker: So I'm usually the one asking the questions, not receiving them.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So if you haven't checked out his podcast, it's the Electric People podcast, and it's one of my favorite podcasts.
Speaker: Definitely go check that out.
Speaker: And I'm sure we'll talk more about that.
Speaker: But Ty is, well, obviously he's over a whole region.
Speaker: He's built up, what, 27 offices you said you have?
Speaker: Yeah, there's 27 West Coast sales teams.
Speaker: There's 68 total sales teams in Vivint Solar now.
Speaker: Insane.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been a crazy ride.
Speaker: Yeah, that's not, well, are you guys the largest, would you say?
Speaker: We're the largest direct-to-home by a margin.
Speaker: Yeah, and we're actually, the way that I look at it, we're a full service solar company, right?
Speaker: So we do, we get our own funds and financing.
Speaker: We do our own, you know, we carry our own inventory.
Speaker: We do all our own ops.
Speaker: We do all our own marketing.
Speaker: We have a captive sales force.
Speaker: So when you look at like top to bottom solar companies, yeah, Vivint Solar is by far the biggest.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, huge company.
Speaker: Not too many people can compete.
Speaker: Well, I don't think anyone can compete with Vivint and off the mic.
Speaker: We're just talking about that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Obviously, Vivian has so many resources and a ton of stuff going on.
Speaker: So it's awesome to hear about what their vision is.
Speaker: And then you guys are trying to be the largest renewable energy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We want to be the largest power company in the country.
Speaker: And eventually the world.
Speaker: The thing I like about solar, and I know that on this, your audience is a lot of different people that do different things in solar.
Speaker: The thing that I like and appreciate about solar is now you're starting to get a lot of differentiated opportunities.
Speaker: It's not...
Speaker: everybody trying to do the exact same thing so i mean we'll probably get into my story somewhat but vivant solar offers a environment and i'll call it a product right because i'm a customer here i work here i could work wherever i want i work here um and it aligns with my personality and my skill set and then there are other opportunities that are like either dealer opportunities or different like
Speaker: structural makeup that might suit different leaders differently and i think when the industry started everybody was trying to be solar city or solar city vivant and we're kind of all the same right and now they're really different like depending on what you want and what kind of opportunity there's generally a business that's structured for you that that meets kind of what you're looking for right and
Speaker: Yeah, and I mean, if you haven't started selling solar yet and you're listening to this podcast, definitely.
Speaker: I mean, Vivint has a lot of great stuff going.
Speaker: If you're listening to this podcast and you're not selling solar, you should be selling solar.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: I don't know how many different ways you need to hear the story that solar is a great industry to be in right now, but if you're listening and you haven't signed up to sell solar, you should definitely do that.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And what's interesting, we've had several, probably a good chunk of our guests that have come on the show came from the alarming industry.
Speaker: And Ty is the same here.
Speaker: You came from Vivid Inc., right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was alarms.
Speaker: And so I always think it's interesting.
Speaker: I always like to hear the stories.
Speaker: So let's hear it from you, Ty.
Speaker: Why did you decide to make the jump over to solar from alarms?
Speaker: Yeah, great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm actually, I'm a purebred.
Speaker: There's not many of my kind.
Speaker: I've only worked at the Vivint companies as far as the direct sales.
Speaker: Now I've been around for a long time, so I've seen thousands of other opportunities and stuff.
Speaker: But personally, yeah, I've only ever worked at those companies.
Speaker: And when I came into Vivint, I wasn't, I didn't know anybody that had been successful in direct sales.
Speaker: We were just talking about this.
Speaker: I'm just about to finish my 16th year.
Speaker: indirect sales.
Speaker: So I'm like, I'm like an old dude.
Speaker: I've been doing it for a long time, you know?
Speaker: Um, but I didn't have resource like your podcast or like, or like, uh, different resources.
Speaker: I mean, people find us now online, you know, they'll, they'll be browsing like indeed or zip recruiter and they find this opportunity.
Speaker: It wasn't even like well known, like tried and proven, uh,
Speaker: thing.
Speaker: I didn't know anyone that had had success.
Speaker: And so the way I got into alarms initially was I snowboarded with a guy who became my friend who had done it.
Speaker: I mean, it was such like a, like a, you had to find somebody that knew something about it, get in with that person.
Speaker: Hopefully it was the right person and you got good training.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, his name's Eric Mealy.
Speaker: He's one of my best friends and got me into the industry.
Speaker: And so, um, but I, this is alarms.
Speaker: You didn't ask me about alarms, but I'm gonna give you the whole story.
Speaker: Is that okay?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Go for it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, the thing that I probably suffered from in my first five to six years is I didn't see the whole opportunity.
Speaker: I saw it was immediately in front of me.
Speaker: And so what I saw that first year, um, we went out to sell alarms.
Speaker: We went to Modesto, California, Concord area, kind of that whole like East Bay area.
Speaker: And, um, it was an opportunity to go out and make some money and, um,
Speaker: whatever, you know, pay for life while you're at in college and not have to work the whole time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I did that and I actually hated it.
Speaker: Uh, my first year selling, I liked my friends.
Speaker: I liked the company.
Speaker: I liked the association.
Speaker: I liked the travel.
Speaker: I liked the experience.
Speaker: I hated the job.
Speaker: Um, and I reluctantly went back the next year to sell because I didn't have another opportunity that was better.
Speaker: It was strictly for the money.
Speaker: And honestly, for like the first four or so years, um,
Speaker: I had done better and better in my sales because I got better at selling, but I hated the job.
Speaker: I just didn't like it.
Speaker: And where it changed for me,
Speaker: is I had a mentor named Sean Brenchley.
Speaker: He was one of the early founders of Vivint.
Speaker: And I was studying advertising in school.
Speaker: I went to BYU and I had graduated.
Speaker: And I wasn't using any of my creative stuff.
Speaker: I was just selling and I was just doing it for money.
Speaker: And I didn't see anything more than I do this and I get paid.
Speaker: And through some of Sean's mentorship and stuff like that, somehow I opened my eyes to say, man, I'm making more money than my professors.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: The people that I'm meeting are great people and I'm developing more in this crucible of direct sales than in any other thing that I've ever done.
Speaker: Any other thing.
Speaker: Like I'm learning more about leadership.
Speaker: I'm learning more about motivation.
Speaker: I'm learning more about why people make decisions.
Speaker: I'm learning about consumer mentality.
Speaker: I'm being connected to people that.
Speaker: actually have money to make moves in the future.
Speaker: And when I understood that, that's where the job really took off for me.
Speaker: So I ran big sales teams and alarms.
Speaker: I wrote the training for Vivint Inc.
Speaker: with some other partners.
Speaker: I had tried a lot of different things.
Speaker: I had a hand in running a pretty good size sales region over at Vivint Inc.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And at the time, now we're getting to your actual question.
Speaker: It took five minutes to get here.
Speaker: But at the time, Vivint Solar started from Vivint Inc.
Speaker: So we had, you know, our founder, Todd Peterson, was interested in seeing if this was possible.
Speaker: And they were all going to be kind of one company.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: They had come to us and said, you know, in the position I was in, it was, Hey, there's some upside for you guys.
Speaker: If you recruit people into solar, cause we want to start this solar business.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so I started just, I saw it as an opportunity to, to stand out.
Speaker: And so I started calling people that I knew weren't going to work for me in alarms.
Speaker: Alarms was still my primary business by far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, uh, you know, there's one guy in particular, um,
Speaker: His name's Chris Gallagher.
Speaker: Shout out to Chris Gallagher.
Speaker: But he had worked with us.
Speaker: He did really, really well.
Speaker: But he had triplets.
Speaker: And so, yeah, imagine.
Speaker: We were just like playing with your little baby.
Speaker: Imagine.
Speaker: You haven't even had no one.
Speaker: Triplets.
Speaker: And so going out for the summer, you kind of couldn't do that, right?
Speaker: Like it just didn't really function to like leave the house.
Speaker: It was all set up and...
Speaker: triplet dialed and stuff to go out to these apartments and stuff.
Speaker: And so I called him.
Speaker: I was like, hey, you're an entrepreneurial guy.
Speaker: There's an opportunity in Solar.
Speaker: Why don't you come look at it?
Speaker: And I would go with these high-level recruits, and I'd go sit with Chance Allred, who's our CSO, who I've known for years.
Speaker: And I would bring them in, and then I would listen to the sales pitch.
Speaker: And we were signing people, man.
Speaker: We signed like – I remember the first real go that I had, I signed like 16 people, and it wasn't very hard.
Speaker: Chance did most of the work.
Speaker: Dang.
Speaker: But I heard this pitch like 10 different times, you know, and it was, here's the change, you know, we haven't had much innovation in, in,
Speaker: electricity.
Speaker: The model we use now was founded by Thomas Edison.
Speaker: It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker: There's not a single industry that's universally used like utilities that hasn't innovated.
Speaker: Look at transportation, look at communication, look at medicine.
Speaker: And so I started having these questions like, what's the next big cell phone type, internet type boom?
Speaker: And
Speaker: I learned that energy is the biggest industry in the world.
Speaker: And I learned that it's a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Speaker: And I learned that the world is changing and that th is is going to happen with or without us.
Speaker: And so it was two things.
Speaker: One of them was the people that I was recruiting into solar were really good.
Speaker: They were mature.
Speaker: They were serious.
Speaker: They had had a run through direct sales before and they knew what mistakes to repeat and which ones not to repeat.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So the people that I was recruiting, I was like, man, I like these guys.
Speaker: I want to work with these guys.
Speaker: And then the second thing was I was really excited at the frontier.
Speaker: I felt in my heart or I guess in my gut where most of my decisions are made that –
Speaker: this thing is going to be huge.
Speaker: And if I work really hard, I could probably be a part of it.
Speaker: And so I, I mean, I'd been at Vivint for 10 years.
Speaker: I started recruiting in October, like end of October of 2013.
Speaker: And I signed with Vivint literally like three weeks later.
Speaker: And I lived full-time in California, like two weeks after that.
Speaker: And dude, we were,
Speaker: I had a home that was paid off that we were living in that we had remodeled and we were building like our dream home at the time.
Speaker: We'd had our lot leveled, our fence put up.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And we walked away from all of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In like in Highland.
Speaker: Isn't that where you're from?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In like a couple of weeks because I was that sure.
Speaker: And it didn't even seem weird.
Speaker: Like it seemed like I felt like I better hurry and get into solar because these days matter and somebody could get in here before me if I don't act quickly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I always joke that I made the decision.
Speaker: I came out and my good friend Jason Crown, we were just at lunch together.
Speaker: He came out with me.
Speaker: And it was like, have you seen Old School with Will Ferrell?
Speaker: You know, where he goes back to college and whatever.
Speaker: I don't know if I have.
Speaker: I'll have to go out.
Speaker: You're blowing my mind right now.
Speaker: You've got to see old school.
Speaker: So there's this part where they go streaking and his wife pulls up to him on the street.
Speaker: She's like, what are you doing?
Speaker: He's like, we're going streaking.
Speaker: Everybody's coming.
Speaker: He looks behind him and nobody had followed him.
Speaker: And it was like, I thought everybody was going to leave alarms or pest control and dish and come to solar.
Speaker: And now they kind of are, but it was a couple of years ago.
Speaker: early but the man i that was 2013 and when i think back on the last like six years in solar i mean how long have you been in solar i've been in almost four years now so how much the industry has changed right like how dynamic it is and how well educated people are how well educated the agents and the the businessmen in solar are but also the customers like
Speaker: It's a different world out there, but it's been the time of my life.
Speaker: It literally has been the time of my life.
Speaker: I've loved it.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, yeah, it's super cool to be.
Speaker: I mean, I would have loved to get in it back like one of the original guys, like as long ago as you did.
Speaker: You just have to settle for really low pay when you get into it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: Blessing and a curse, right?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely changed.
Speaker: But it's true.
Speaker: I mean, anyone who can get in things, you're taking a risk because, yeah, I mean, you probably didn't know exactly where it was going to go or how successful the industry was going to be in.
Speaker: Oddly.
Speaker: I know you guys had some.
Speaker: Like, it's weird that I didn't worry about it.
Speaker: Like, are you just like, good to go?
Speaker: I knew it would work for some reason.
Speaker: And I don't, you know, claim to have any kind of like third eye or any kind of thing like that.
Speaker: But I was not worried about the industry working.
Speaker: I wasn't worried about Vivint Solar working.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And now looking back, it was a risk.
Speaker: We weathered some real storms.
Speaker: We hadn't gone public yet.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And getting public was really big.
Speaker: Solar City went out of business.
Speaker: That could have been anybody.
Speaker: That could have been any one of us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They were the biggest.
Speaker: They were the monster.
Speaker: And we navigated that.
Speaker: We had some real, um, in a developing business, we installed far more than we could service initially because we had a really good sales machine, but all of those things can take businesses out and we made it through.
Speaker: And I probably should have been a little more, um,
Speaker: I guess, cautious in my decision making.
Speaker: You don't even know what questions to ask initially.
Speaker: But I did know this.
Speaker: The business was really well funded.
Speaker: We're a Blackstone partner.
Speaker: And there's not a better partner than Blackstone in the world.
Speaker: And then the second thing I knew was the people that were in solar, I trusted and they're awesome.
Speaker: And I trusted them to work hard and I trusted them to stay up and I trusted them to do things ethically and honestly and figure it out.
Speaker: And if you have those two things, like if you have
Speaker: Strong, strong financial backing.
Speaker: If it's the type of company you would invest your personal money in and then you have people that are better than you, that inspire you, that you respect, look up to, but also trust their capability.
Speaker: I felt pretty safe with that.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Sometimes I wish I was more like that.
Speaker: I know some people get more set on their decisions and everything.
Speaker: I had buddies that did that with cryptocurrency and everything.
Speaker: You know how that was.
Speaker: Everyone was investing in it.
Speaker: I have a very strict rule that I don't invest in things I don't understand.
Speaker: That probably has cost me a lot of opportunities.
Speaker: When that one came up and people were like, by the time the whole Facebook world was telling me to do it, I was like, there's got to be
Speaker: There's got to be a reason not to do this.
Speaker: Yeah, I did it right when the whole world told me to do it.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: It was like the next day that it crashed down or whatever and lost a bunch of money.
Speaker: Early in my sales career, I read – do you ever read anything from Tom Hopkins?
Speaker: He's like early, like Brian Tracy style, early sales donor.
Speaker: And the thing I learned from Tom Hopkins is never take advice from anybody more messed up than you.
Speaker: And I started – I don't want to sound arrogant, but I started getting –
Speaker: advice from people that in my head were more messed up than me.
Speaker: So I was like, sorry, I'm no, I'm not following.
Speaker: You don't get a vote.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: Um, and obviously it's gone great for you.
Speaker: I know there's been a ton of roadblocks or road bumps.
Speaker: I'm sure, like you said, you guys were getting tons of sales, but, um, installations weren't going through.
Speaker: So what, what did you guys, how did you guys get past that when installs are getting pushed back?
Speaker: And yeah, here's the thing I've learned.
Speaker: You will, I don't know what problems are ahead, but
Speaker: But I've stopped saying that things will be great when we get this next piece figured out.
Speaker: For example, when we first started, we were doing so much sales front end volume.
Speaker: But the industry was new, man.
Speaker: Like we were in the alarm industry.
Speaker: You can start an alarm company pretty simply and the fulfillment is not all that challenging because it's a kit.
Speaker: You install it and you have to do it right and have good customer service and stuff.
Speaker: But it doesn't require...
Speaker: tranch or you know tranching to a fund it doesn't require a 20-year service agreement it doesn't even it doesn't require compliance with local cities that all have different electrical codes and things like that right so when we first started the sales volume was really high but
Speaker: But even getting like initial CAD designs, it was taking a long time.
Speaker: It got to a point where I was – I had a goal to sell 10 new accounts every single week.
Speaker: So I was – I got brought in to lead this team.
Speaker: I was a regional before.
Speaker: I got brought in to start kind of a new sales team.
Speaker: And I started by doing the only thing I really know how to do, which is sell a lot.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: uh, to kind of get the teams going, you know, um, and Vivint solar is really different in that we lead from the front.
Speaker: All of our leaders sell.
Speaker: I told you today's Wednesday, I was out selling Monday.
Speaker: Like we all sell, we just do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, um, a couple of reasons for it, but I don't want to take advice from people that aren't doing the thing that I'm doing, aren't willing to do the thing that I'm doing.
Speaker: And honestly, if they don't have something to offer, like if they don't know something that I don't know, then I don't see the value.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: We came in and I started selling.
Speaker: I had a goal to sell 10 a week and install five a week.
Speaker: And so I was selling these accounts, but it got to a point at one time where we were six weeks out to get a CAD design.
Speaker: Imagine.
Speaker: CADs now, are you making 10 minutes?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's what I'm talking about, how much the industry has evolved.
Speaker: It's almost like from the time that the iPhone first came out in 2007 to the one that you use now.
Speaker: It's been, what, 12 years?
Speaker: And the amount of innovation is more than like,
Speaker: 100 years before that.
Speaker: And so the challenge is I used to think, hey, once we get this CAD backlog under control, we'll be rocking.
Speaker: Well, then we got the CAD backlog under control and we started installing a lot.
Speaker: But we hadn't seen a whole lot of storms, literal storms and kind of proverbial storms.
Speaker: But the year that we installed, the volume that we had installed,
Speaker: We were doing like 60 megawatts a quarter back this, like in 2014.
Speaker: Yeah, it was a ton.
Speaker: But it was also, we were going through this terrible drought in California.
Speaker: And it was the year after that that the rains came, like the actual rains came.
Speaker: So California got more rain than, you know, however many years before.
Speaker: And we'd been installing solar with really no way to test how water type
Speaker: A lot of those houses were, and we started getting a lot of damages and all the things that take companies out of business.
Speaker: We have to service all these accounts.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And how strict were we being on our install process and stuff like that?
Speaker: And so then I started thinking, hey, once we get these service things, then we'll be rolling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, then we installed so much that we had PTO backlogs where the city couldn't process, or the city and the utility company couldn't process all these inspections and PTOs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I remember talking to the group where there were guys that were leaving.
Speaker: They were going to other companies.
Speaker: They couldn't see past the same problem I had initially.
Speaker: They couldn't see past what was right in front of them.
Speaker: And, well, they left and then we got the cap problem figured out.
Speaker: And then we're, you know what I mean?
Speaker: That problem seems pretty small once you leave.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: I remember addressing the group that I was leading at the time and saying, listen, at this point, I had been doing direct sales for like 12 years.
Speaker: And I said, I've been doing this for 12 years and I have a CAD problem right now.
Speaker: And now I'm going into my 17th year.
Speaker: Next year, we'll probably have some sort of problem that seems really elementary.
Speaker: If you're doing it right, you're always going to be creating new problems.
Speaker: You create problems by solving another one.
Speaker: So
Speaker: Before, we didn't even have an industry.
Speaker: Then we started doing a lot of volume.
Speaker: That broke a lot of stuff.
Speaker: Well, then we fixed it and we adapted and high performance led to another series of problems.
Speaker: And so I think one of the things I've learned most in the industry now is there are very few emergencies.
Speaker: There are a lot of opportunities to adapt and learn.
Speaker: But the challenge, and for people that are listening that are new, is you immediately jump to career suicide.
Speaker: You're like, oh my gosh, I have this customer and they're freaking out and maybe this is a bad product and maybe I should just go back and work with my dad and maybe this is a bad thing and I'm not being ethical at all.
Speaker: And they just implode instead of saying, listen.
Speaker: We're challenging one of the most profitable and largest industries that mankind has ever seen with the utility industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Expect there to be some challenge.
Speaker: I heard a quote that I used in sales training once that said, problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So it's like, if everything was easy, I'm probably not attacking a problem that's that important.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We have this thing that we say talking about leading the revolution at Vivint Solar.
Speaker: And it's like in a revolution, it wouldn't be a revolution if the other side just rolled over.
Speaker: We're changing the way things have been done for a really long time.
Speaker: And you'll know you're in the right place if you're getting some pushback.
Speaker: It's like when you lift weights.
Speaker: They're heavy.
Speaker: They push back.
Speaker: They tear your muscles.
Speaker: They're hard.
Speaker: But if you work out and it's easy, then you just don't get any stronger.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't remember what the question was, but I hope I answered it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Oh, how do we get through certain things?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of it's just the mentality again, trusting the people and trusting the funding.
Speaker: There's not a lot you can't fight through.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I heard a quote from Conor McGregor once.
Speaker: Are you a UFC fan?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: He's fighting in January, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's got the next fight coming up.
Speaker: I saw his fight where he fought Nate Diaz the second time in Vegas.
Speaker: Oh, really?
Speaker: He's the most electric thing I've ever seen.
Speaker: Electric.
Speaker: He's an electric person.
Speaker: He is, dude.
Speaker: Got to get him on your podcast.
Speaker: I think, yeah.
Speaker: We're getting there.
Speaker: But he...
Speaker: He was having this interview on Fox News and he showed up to the interview shirtless with his belt on, like just Conor McGregor.
Speaker: And they said, you have this confidence, man, that's just unhuman.
Speaker: Like where does this come from?
Speaker: And he says it comes from two things.
Speaker: Number one, I put in the work.
Speaker: so I can trust my training and I can trust my skillset because I have done it, you know?
Speaker: And he's like, the second thing is I trust my team and I think I'm on the right team.
Speaker: So he mentioned specifically that like in training, I don't see another team that's starting to do this other kind of training and think, Oh, I need to be on that team and jump around.
Speaker: If you look at my career, I've never jumped.
Speaker: I've always been at the same company, but I work neighborhoods like that.
Speaker: I'll stay in a neighborhood for a year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The people that I work with,
Speaker: I mentioned Mealy being one of my best friends.
Speaker: Chance Allred, who's my boss now, was my first regional manager.
Speaker: He's the first door-to-door sale I ever personally saw.
Speaker: So I trust my team.
Speaker: I honestly believe that I am in the best place.
Speaker: And I believe that I've put the, I mean, I've traveled the country.
Speaker: I've sold a lot of different things.
Speaker: And I've put the work in and I've done it the right way.
Speaker: I mean, part of my
Speaker: morning routine when I'm selling full time is I train every day at getting better at selling.
Speaker: And so I think if you have that kind of foundation,
Speaker: There's not a lot of like short-sighted technical problems or setbacks in a neighborhood or cancels that spin you out.
Speaker: But you have to be confident that you're on the right team.
Speaker: And if you're not, get on the right team.
Speaker: Solar is booming right now.
Speaker: And there's no reason to be on a crappy team.
Speaker: And then the second thing is do the work so you can have the confidence.
Speaker: And there's not a lot of storms that you can't weather in the industry.
Speaker: Because I'll tell you, I never woke up thinking, I don't know if solar is going to work.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I never woke up thinking, I don't know if it's going to make it through this.
Speaker: I did wake up thinking this is going to be a hard road, but just direct sales, that's the job.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Well, and it's probably through your training.
Speaker: I mean, just like Conor McGregor, you had that confidence, I'm sure, in your abilities and the people you're with.
Speaker: But it didn't start that way, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm a fan of direct sales.
Speaker: I actually love it because I understand it.
Speaker: I'm not a sports fan, but I'm a fan of direct sales because when I started, I wasn't great at it.
Speaker: I was middle class.
Speaker: I did all right.
Speaker: And I've developed over time.
Speaker: Now I feel like I'm a pretty good direct seller.
Speaker: But I wasn't a prodigy.
Speaker: I wasn't the guy that came in here and blew it up.
Speaker: And so I get a lot of motivation out of people like that, that come in and kind of build.
Speaker: But Connor's like that.
Speaker: I'm not a fight expert, but I watched him lose to Nate Diaz.
Speaker: First of all, he's daring greatly.
Speaker: He's fighting two weight classes up and the whole world is watching.
Speaker: And he's running his mouth before, but he got beat.
Speaker: Nate Diaz beat him up in front of everybody.
Speaker: And then he went back and he quietly trained and he viewed the tape and he worked on the things that he beat him at and he came back and
Speaker: beat him.
Speaker: Most people never would have taken the first fight, let alone the second fight.
Speaker: But when he went home and in the unsexy quiet hours, he's doing reps and he's ducking and he's working and he's working on his conditioning.
Speaker: The theory of the mundanity of excellence applies directly to direct sales.
Speaker: You see the money, you see the podcast interviews, you see the speakers, you see the trips, but Dave Madsen's
Speaker: the best solar salesman in the world.
Speaker: And that person, his process, the amount of time he spent working and dialing and mundanity of excellence, the unsexy hours, right?
Speaker: He's put in the work.
Speaker: So his reward is this super confidence that then perpetuates and makes competence.
Speaker: And you turn into just this class separated kind of phenom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Dave does, not me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, well, you know.
Speaker: But yeah, I think that's really cool.
Speaker: And I feel like I have more respect for those people that had to go out and like earn that confidence.
Speaker: Because some people come in and, you know, some people are just more naturally good.
Speaker: But I think it's awesome people more like you and me that came in and we had to work a lot harder.
Speaker: I respect those too because I know what it's like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like I know, dude, like I know what it's like to walk around and think, am I in the right position?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did I make a mistake?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I know what it's like to be embarrassed, man.
Speaker: I know what it's like to be embarrassed selling.
Speaker: I have a roommate from college that's a patent lawyer at Apple.
Speaker: He was my roommate.
Speaker: He's a patent lawyer at Apple who speaks Mandarin Chinese.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: I'm a door-to-door salesman.
Speaker: I know what that feels like.
Speaker: My dad's a CEO of a bank.
Speaker: I'm a door-to-door salesman.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All of his boys are going to get a real job, right?
Speaker: And I know what that's like.
Speaker: I know what that feels like to people.
Speaker: So when I see people excel, when I see people make a career, when I see people buy a home, when I see people bring their friends to the industry, when I see people buy investment properties, when I see people create opportunities, and then when I see people really grasp the opportunity that, hey, it's not a door-to-door job.
Speaker: This is a vehicle, right?
Speaker: It's an opportunity.
Speaker: You turn it into whatever...
Speaker: you want like that's why i'm such a fan of direct sales because anybody that will do it can do it yeah you know true and yeah and one thing ty i know a lot of people listening to this podcast they're trying to have that breakthrough their baby it's their first year of solar and like alarms they're scraping by or whatever so what are specific things that you did to get you to like you know 100 counts or whatever you did in alarms perfect leading teams and everything i like this question um
Speaker: I believe that the way you have to be successful first is you have to set a goal or an objective that represents really good work.
Speaker: A lot of people say you have to have a vision.
Speaker: I believe that, but not initially.
Speaker: If you're just starting, you can't see.
Speaker: I couldn't have seen what this job turned into when I was first starting.
Speaker: I couldn't have crafted a vision that was big enough.
Speaker: But what I did do is, and this was thanks to my leader at the time, to Eric,
Speaker: He pulled me aside because I didn't have a frame of reference.
Speaker: So for people that are leading, you have to do this for your guys and girls.
Speaker: Because you have to give them context.
Speaker: You have to give them a target, right?
Speaker: And so Eric basically said to me, he said, hey, if you want to be taken seriously in alarm sales, you got to do 100 installs in a summer.
Speaker: That's what you got to do.
Speaker: So again, my gut kind of reverberated and said, okay, 100, that's my goal.
Speaker: That feels like really good work.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Now I'm not an outwardly competitive person.
Speaker: It's not important for me to beat other people.
Speaker: It's not important for me to have a higher title or make more money, but it's, it's supremely important for me to be consistent with myself.
Speaker: It's, it's, I hate to be disappointed.
Speaker: And when I disappoint myself, there's no, that's hell for me.
Speaker: Like I just, I hate, I don't like to be in my skin when I've disappointed myself and I've done both.
Speaker: I've, I've sold and I've left, um,
Speaker: endeavors feeling really proud and I've left feeling really disappointed and sometimes I've been proud and I've sold less than the times where I'm disappointed but for me that first year it was a hundred so my first piece of advice is you have to pick a goal that represents good work and for you that might have been 200 for me it was 100 I felt like 100 was that represents good work it was going to push me it was possible but it represents really good work okay then I
Speaker: You reverse engineer the thing and do a little bit of math.
Speaker: Now, this goes against my personality because I'm a creative thinker.
Speaker: I studied marketing and design in school.
Speaker: I like that kind of stuff.
Speaker: It's what I spend my free time doing.
Speaker: It's like customizing things and stuff like that.
Speaker: So doing math and structuring my vision is something that's hard for me.
Speaker: But we'll go back to that alarm summer.
Speaker: 100 installs, okay.
Speaker: You know, 18 weeks in a summer.
Speaker: So I have to go back and I have to figure out, man, at the end of the day, okay, and then, you know, six days in a week, I need about six a week.
Speaker: That's one a day.
Speaker: I need an account every single day.
Speaker: The problem with that goal, it's good, and it's broken down to say one a day.
Speaker: But
Speaker: If my confidence is attached to the results, I ride the solar coaster, as they call it.
Speaker: But I'm inconsistent.
Speaker: In solar, you have to be consistent.
Speaker: The customer has to know exactly what they're going to get, whether they catch me on a Tuesday at 2 or a Wednesday night at 9.
Speaker: If you're leading reps, they have to know what they're going to get.
Speaker: If they don't know if you're going to scream at them or hug them, you have a hard time being really effective.
Speaker: There's a lot of safety and confidence that comes from consistency.
Speaker: So when I look at, okay, I have to sell one a day and six a week.
Speaker: If I did more than that, good.
Speaker: If I did less than that, I don't like the feelings.
Speaker: Remember, I don't like to feel disappointed.
Speaker: And so I think there's another layer you can break it down to and you have to turn it into time.
Speaker: You have to turn it into something that I can control.
Speaker: So I can say, okay, how long does it take me to create an alarm account?
Speaker: Okay, well, it takes me five hours to find and create an alarm customer on average.
Speaker: All right, which means I need to give myself a buffer.
Speaker: So I need seven hours a day.
Speaker: I need to put my feet in the neighborhood at two and not pull them out to nine.
Speaker: My goal is two to nine every single day.
Speaker: My goal is seven hours.
Speaker: My goal is 42 hours a week.
Speaker: That's my goal.
Speaker: And when I say that, even like saying it now, it hasn't been my goal for 16 years.
Speaker: But when I say that, it's like, I know I can put my Nikes in the neighborhood at two.
Speaker: And I don't care if I'm sick.
Speaker: And I don't care if I'm raining or if it's raining.
Speaker: I don't care if I'm tired.
Speaker: I don't care if I had to cancel.
Speaker: I'm in control of that.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: In this case, I'll take it.
Speaker: I'll take the confidence boost that comes from hitting your goal because I know I can control it.
Speaker: Well, then the 9 o'clock thing, I'm not coming out of the neighborhood until 9.
Speaker: It was just so easy to make that decision and make it once where, you know, you look down at your watch.
Speaker: It's 8.52.
Speaker: Maybe I have 6 on the day.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I'm going to be disappointed if the goal was nine.
Speaker: And I know that that might sound crazy and I know that might sound rigid and I know that might sound intense to people, but I'm much more interested in being consistent with myself.
Speaker: And if all it takes for me to get the reward of confidence is eight more minutes, I can stay put for eight more minutes.
Speaker: I don't know if I can sell in eight minutes, but I know that I can not get in the car.
Speaker: So even if it's, even if I go knock two more doors and they tell me no, I'm,
Speaker: Man, I got the confidence of getting to the neighborhood at 2.
Speaker: I stayed there.
Speaker: I left at 9.
Speaker: That's two wins on the day.
Speaker: Confidence is just winning more than you lose.
Speaker: So if I say to myself, hey, I'm going to be in the neighborhood at 2.
Speaker: And then, oh, but I'm a little sick, so I'm going to push that till four.
Speaker: And then, man, I got this guy and he ripped me a new one and it was just bad and I'm worried that everybody heard it and they're going to call and so I'm going to leave at six and I'm going to hit it tomorrow.
Speaker: I've lost twice.
Speaker: So it's not neutral.
Speaker: The result is going to be lost confidence.
Speaker: But I don't have to win every time.
Speaker: I just have to win more than I lose.
Speaker: So at the end of the week...
Speaker: You know, if we're doing the win and loss based on time into area, and I do that six days a week.
Speaker: So if I get 10 wins and two losses, I'm going to exit that week with more confidence.
Speaker: And it goes against my nature to do that.
Speaker: But I found that the secret to selling is a quiet mind and a strong heart.
Speaker: And my heart's really strong.
Speaker: I really want to do well.
Speaker: And I really want...
Speaker: to uh excel at this but i can't do it when my mind's going crazy i need it to be when i'm on doors there's nothing there's not stoke there's not disappointment there's not ambition there's not grit there's nothing and it's nothing calms me down more than time so if i get to a neighborhood and i and i you know
Speaker: One, I've disappointed myself and lost and got there late based on my goal, right?
Speaker: We're still on that first scenario.
Speaker: And then I know that I got a responsibility with my family, so I already have to come out early.
Speaker: I only have two hours to sell.
Speaker: That is the definition of anxiety.
Speaker: It's the reason most people feel the pit in their stomach when they go to knock.
Speaker: It's not that they're going to get rejected.
Speaker: It's that one, they're probably focusing on outcome, not process.
Speaker: And number two, they're just not giving themselves enough time.
Speaker: And so when then you start knocking, like if I get to a neighborhood at 2, I'm not worried that, hey, nobody's home for three hours.
Speaker: I'm like, hey, I have got nothing to do besides this until 9, and I'm going to get a win if I just stay here.
Speaker: Let's go talk to some people.
Speaker: The customers have a better experience.
Speaker: I'm an easier person to talk to when I have time.
Speaker: And eventually I know that...
Speaker: I'm no smarter or dumber than anybody else in the office or on the team or in the industry.
Speaker: So if I give myself seven hours a day, six days a week, I'm going to get sales.
Speaker: Well, imagine what happens if I actually get better.
Speaker: So then there's the goal of 15 minutes of training a day.
Speaker: And if it's time and training, you over time develop into a confidence machine, number one.
Speaker: But you also turn into a competence machine.
Speaker: And those two things, again, they're class separators.
Speaker: They're things that nobody else can compete on.
Speaker: But I'm not a take Adderall and slam Red Bull guy.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Hopefully that's helpful.
Speaker: But that's what I've seen.
Speaker: That's the difference maker.
Speaker: That literally is the very best, most consistent reps.
Speaker: I'm not talking about people that had a good year.
Speaker: I'm talking about the people that I know.
Speaker: I'm talking about Mike Brand.
Speaker: Mike Brand was at my house last night.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And we spent a few hours together.
Speaker: And if I look at Mike, everywhere he's gone over the last 10 years, he's created success.
Speaker: It's not a fluke.
Speaker: It's – right?
Speaker: Those are the people that I'm a real fan of.
Speaker: And those people are not seeking motivation.
Speaker: They are just subscribed to a schedule and a process.
Speaker: And the results come.
Speaker: And if they don't sell, all right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I wish I did, but some days are like that.
Speaker: And if I do sell, well, that's good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's never, again, the crazy ups and downs that just take all your energy.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And also, I'm sure you did like tracking your hours with results.
Speaker: I think that's one of the biggest pitfalls, especially for new reps, is they think that they can come in and just have instant success.
Speaker: But it's like you said, it's
Speaker: You've got to put in the time first because imagine if we were doing this, we were paid hourly.
Speaker: Most commission jobs, if you broke it down hourly, sometimes you're making, you know, $500, $1,000 an hour if you broke it down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, people can't get out there and put in the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think it's like you said, detaching yourself from the results and just putting in the time.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Going out there.
Speaker: I think it's the way you think of it.
Speaker: Like when I'm selling, so my job's really different now.
Speaker: I mostly am developing sales teams and stuff, but I still consider myself a direct seller.
Speaker: Like I think if...
Speaker: I think it's in the framing of your job.
Speaker: I don't think my job is to sell everybody.
Speaker: My job is to communicate a problem to people in a clear way.
Speaker: And to do that, if I do that enough times, they will understand and they'll follow me to the solution, right?
Speaker: If you feel like, oh, my job is to sell, sell, sell, sell.
Speaker: I mean, I thought like that for the first five or six years.
Speaker: Now, I believe that my job is to develop leaders.
Speaker: I believe that my job is to help people see.
Speaker: That's reps.
Speaker: That's customers.
Speaker: But this is bigger than a power bill right this second.
Speaker: The world's changing.
Speaker: What side of the fence do you want to be on type of a thing?
Speaker: And I think framing your job like that, for me, to say my job is to sell one a day, it's mild.
Speaker: But there's a twinge of uneasiness when I say that.
Speaker: If I were to say, listen, my job is to communicate to an area and help them understand a different mentality, and I need to do that for seven hours a day.
Speaker: Lots of things.
Speaker: Seven hours a day is one way to do it.
Speaker: If I were to say, okay, how many pitches do I need to get a sale?
Speaker: And that comes from tracking, like you said.
Speaker: Then it's like, okay, well, I don't actually have to sell one today.
Speaker: I need to talk to 10 people.
Speaker: I know I can talk to 10 people.
Speaker: And then if you're tired and you only have eight, it's not even a question.
Speaker: It's like, okay, well, I'm at eight.
Speaker: Let me just...
Speaker: Talk to two more and then I can go.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's a mistake I definitely made too.
Speaker: I started out in pest control and that's what I did.
Speaker: I attached myself to getting two cells a day.
Speaker: When I think it hurt me because I would get so demotivated when I didn't get the two cells for that day.
Speaker: It would carry on to the next day and I wasn't attaching it to the time put in.
Speaker: I was just attaching it to, okay, did I get two cells or not for the day?
Speaker: It definitely makes it tougher.
Speaker: I talked about this with Sam, but I've been doing this thing for a couple years.
Speaker: I take something that I'm a complete novice in and I try to learn that every year.
Speaker: I like it because it keeps my commitment really high.
Speaker: But it also reminds me what it's like to learn a thing.
Speaker: Because in order to add value to sales reps, I have to understand what they're going through.
Speaker: And that was a really long time ago for me that I went through it.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: Two years ago, my thing was learning to surf.
Speaker: So I live in San Clemente, but I didn't know how to surf.
Speaker: And I grew up snowboarding and stuff, but I didn't know how to surf.
Speaker: And I had this goal, and there was a purpose.
Speaker: I have a son, and I wanted to have something that I could do for a long time and connect with him.
Speaker: And so I thought, I live in this surf town, and it would be really cool to surf with my son.
Speaker: That would be great.
Speaker: That would be awesome.
Speaker: So that was kind of my bigger thing.
Speaker: And so the goal I set for myself that represented good work is...
Speaker: If I could surf all the breaks in San Clemente, I would be satisfied with that.
Speaker: I didn't know at the time that there's a world tour stop in San Clemente that comes through there.
Speaker: But if I could surf there, I didn't want to go to any of the breaks and get laughed at or kicked out or whatever.
Speaker: I'm just a dude that doesn't want to be humiliated just like every door-to-door salesperson, right?
Speaker: And so that was my goal.
Speaker: Okay, I need to learn to surf.
Speaker: And so I got a surfboard.
Speaker: I spent all this money.
Speaker: I got a wetsuit and stuff.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I was getting really frustrated and I wasn't going and there was excuses because I started it in January and it's still cold.
Speaker: And so it was like, okay, well, maybe I'll start doing this in March.
Speaker: And then I was disappointed in myself because I set this goal and I wasn't doing anything for it.
Speaker: This should sound exactly like direct sales.
Speaker: All right, next week I'm going to hit it or tomorrow I'm going to hit it.
Speaker: And it came down to I don't like the way I feel.
Speaker: So why am I even doing this?
Speaker: And so what I did was I made a decision and I hired a coach.
Speaker: And I put him on a retainer.
Speaker: I just paid him monthly.
Speaker: And he gave me unlimited surfing.
Speaker: And he taught my whole family how to surf.
Speaker: And what I decided to do was I'm not going to measure my success based on can I surf all these breaks because I'm going to freak myself out and it's not even fun.
Speaker: But I thought to myself, hey, if I surf 120 times this year, that number felt good to me for some reason.
Speaker: I wish I could explain it better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's no way I'll surf 120 times and not get good at this.
Speaker: And so I started just tracking it.
Speaker: And I use the app Streaks.
Speaker: Do you use Streaks?
Speaker: I've heard of that.
Speaker: I saw that it won like an Apple Design Award.
Speaker: It's my favorite.
Speaker: Streaks has changed my life.
Speaker: It's the same thing.
Speaker: It just counts how consistent you are.
Speaker: Like when you do a thing, it checks it off.
Speaker: And so I started using Streaks.
Speaker: And the month, the February before I hired, his name is Colin, before I hired Colin,
Speaker: I had gone like two or three times.
Speaker: And then in March, I'd gone like 21 times.
Speaker: You can't tell me it doesn't work, right?
Speaker: And I wasn't worried about, am I getting better?
Speaker: My goal is to get in the water with a surfboard 120 times.
Speaker: And so some days I would come back from surfing and my wife would be like, hey, how was it today?
Speaker: And I'd be like, it was number 31 and that's all I want to talk about.
Speaker: It's terrible.
Speaker: I got made fun of by an eight-year-old or whatever.
Speaker: And some days I would come back and she's like, how was your day?
Speaker: And I'm like,
Speaker: freaking incredible.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: But at the end of the year, I surfed 129 times and I felt confident.
Speaker: All I did was go and get in the water.
Speaker: Anybody could do that.
Speaker: But my son, we surfed together every Saturday night and then we go get milkshakes.
Speaker: It's the best part of my life.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: One of the best parts of my life.
Speaker: And then when I looked, I was surfing every single break in San Clemente.
Speaker: And it was like, man,
Speaker: That sure was more enjoyable to just trust.
Speaker: And dude, my coach had me paddling in the dock, like at the marina where there's no waves to get my paddle strength out.
Speaker: And I'm out there paddling on a longboard at seven in the morning in a flat marina and people are fishing, yelling like, where's the waves kook?
Speaker: And I'm like, I wouldn't have gotten through that if I was focused on the result.
Speaker: But the fact that I was like, okay.
Speaker: So then at the end of the year, I was like, wow.
Speaker: My wife surfs, my son surfs, my daughter surfing.
Speaker: I can ride all these breaks.
Speaker: I'm not the best surfer in the world, but I got there.
Speaker: That's how, in my opinion, that's how people need to attack direct sales.
Speaker: Just put yourself in the position and give yourself the time.
Speaker: Stop worrying about the results and eventually you'll look around and be like, wow.
Speaker: I'm one of the best on my team.
Speaker: And then you'll look around and be like, wow, I'm one of the best in my region.
Speaker: And then eventually you'll be like, wow, I really have something to offer.
Speaker: I'm going to start running teams.
Speaker: And that happens by subscribing to that process.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And you also did that with a, didn't you join like a fight club or something?
Speaker: But here's the thing I'm most proud of.
Speaker: Yeah, I got a fight trainer because I didn't have a fight.
Speaker: But dude, if you're, I mean, I started fighting when I was 30,
Speaker: two.
Speaker: I'd never like thrown a punch at somebody.
Speaker: So like the first time you punch, it's a weird feeling and it's, you know, it's not, it doesn't look like you think it's going to look and you know, it's embarrassing and it's awkward, but that's how I felt when I started knocking.
Speaker: Like I remember my first door ever.
Speaker: I remember, I remember the house or, you know what I mean?
Speaker: And so I think, you know, if you want to be a good leader, you have to be a novice at something pretty often because you, you don't ever want to forget what it feels like.
Speaker: But in order for me to be
Speaker: to stay in this industry and knock doors and do that kind of stuff.
Speaker: Part of it is I have to have a life I'm excited about or else everything becomes work and then I'm looking at work to make me happy, which I'm proud of the work that we do.
Speaker: But I would be just as happy doing another job.
Speaker: This is my vehicle.
Speaker: This is the opportunity.
Speaker: It's what I'm driving now.
Speaker: This is what I plan on doing for the rest of my life.
Speaker: But I'm really – I have a lot of fire and stoke because, man, I'm playing the guitar this year.
Speaker: I'm really excited about guitars and I'm learning how to play.
Speaker: But –
Speaker: I'm embarrassed and then proud at the end of every single year.
Speaker: And I think one of the things I'm most proud of is my fight coach is running one of our very best markets for Vivint Solar now.
Speaker: He came on as a salesperson.
Speaker: And now he's leading a team and he's changing multiple people's lives.
Speaker: I mean, their team is installing 300 accounts a quarter.
Speaker: He's not doing it alone.
Speaker: There's a whole team there.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Um, and my surf coach just, uh, graduated in this really high mark in the combine.
Speaker: He works for us now too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's like, I don't fight with them as much and I don't surf with my coach as much, but I'm just so proud of them because it's, I get to be their student and then I get to be their coach and it forms this bond.
Speaker: That's, you know what I mean?
Speaker: When you've been that vulnerable and gone through stuff like that with people, it's,
Speaker: It's just a life I'm really excited about.
Speaker: So there's your recruiting tip of the day.
Speaker: Hire coaches and then recruit them.
Speaker: It's a pretty expensive way to recruit.
Speaker: But I believe that if people are unsatisfied with their job, that they should sell solar.
Speaker: I believe that.
Speaker: And so when I spend enough time with people and they start to meet the people that sell and they start to learn about these – we've taken trips around the world.
Speaker: We're involved with really cool charities.
Speaker: The guys earn incredible money.
Speaker: It eventually becomes kind of like how I got into it where I was snowboarding with Eric Mealy and I said, hey, can I come?
Speaker: It turns into one of the things where these guys are like, hey, can we talk about this job thing?
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Just because it's been such a blessing in my life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, that just speaks to the power of, well, yeah, hiring coaches, being hungry for learning.
Speaker: I think it's all the traits.
Speaker: I'm sure you see those traits in all your successful guys that they want to learn.
Speaker: They're open to hiring people and investing in themselves.
Speaker: And I think that's huge.
Speaker: Another thing that people don't know is that they need to treat sales like a skill.
Speaker: I mean, that's why I got in the industry too.
Speaker: I was a music major.
Speaker: I was practicing instruments.
Speaker: What do you play?
Speaker: Drums, percussion.
Speaker: My son's a
Speaker: is drumming he's nine okay well i'll be your son's uh drum coach yeah that'd be awesome he loves it yeah he tinkers he'll pick it up like two or three times a day so it's good you know but yeah i mean just like any other skill people would treat cells like they would learn an instrument or learning to play a sport or something like that i think we wouldn't see as much burnout and all that that you see
Speaker: You also get good at, dude, you like the things that you're good at.
Speaker: When I first started fighting, I didn't like fighting.
Speaker: It sucked.
Speaker: It was awkward.
Speaker: It was like sore.
Speaker: I thought I was going to be able to be a good fighter and it turns out I got shown what I didn't know.
Speaker: Now I really like it because I'm better at it.
Speaker: And the same thing with surfing, same thing with selling.
Speaker: It's a really hard job to do if you suck at it.
Speaker: So if you want to experience the benefits of it, just get good at it.
Speaker: And you'll actually enjoy it.
Speaker: Like I didn't used to like it.
Speaker: Now I love it.
Speaker: It's the same pattern.
Speaker: I didn't used to like fighting.
Speaker: I didn't used to like triathlon.
Speaker: I didn't used to like guitar.
Speaker: I didn't used to like surfing.
Speaker: I didn't used to like selling.
Speaker: I didn't used to like leading teams.
Speaker: But once you – I had this point with Colin, my surf coach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: where we were going down to the dock or to the marina to do a paddle workout, which are pure hell.
Speaker: They are absolute misery.
Speaker: They suck.
Speaker: Anyways, and he was saying to me, he's like, dude, sorry, I know you want to be surfing, but this honestly really will help you.
Speaker: And I remember stopping and saying, listen, Colin, I've already decided to do this.
Speaker: I will do whatever you tell me to do.
Speaker: So I'm here, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And every time in my life where I've gotten to a point where I've said that, listen, I'm not worried about how this feels.
Speaker: I'm not worried about how cold it is.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I'm ambitious enough and driven enough to want to be good at this.
Speaker: I've already paid you.
Speaker: I've already made this decision.
Speaker: I have a goal of 100.
Speaker: I know I can do it.
Speaker: So let's get through the sucky part as fast as we can.
Speaker: I see that in people that come in selling.
Speaker: And that's exactly how Colin was when he started selling.
Speaker: He wasn't like, oh, this really sucks, dude.
Speaker: When's it going to get good?
Speaker: He said to me, he's like, listen, I know this is going to be a process.
Speaker: I want to get through the bad part as fast as I can.
Speaker: And now he's doing great.
Speaker: It's just one of those things where I think when you get to a point, if any of you listening...
Speaker: have a good coach or whatever, if you haven't yet gotten to the point where you say, listen, I will do whatever you tell me to do.
Speaker: If you say knock till nine and that's three hours past where I'm comfortable, I'm going to do it.
Speaker: Man, that's the part where you start progressing.
Speaker: You have to get embarrassed.
Speaker: You have to strip all the ego.
Speaker: You have to strip all the bravado and all that kind of stuff out of you first.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: teach me everything and I'll do whatever you tell me.
Speaker: Those are the guys that six months later, a year later, those are the ones that have a following that are teaching other people because they've actually allowed themselves to, to grow, but you're not going to grow while that other crap is still in you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, definitely got to put the skin, skin in the game.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, I hired a coach.
Speaker: That's, that's when I had my best selling ever too.
Speaker: It was just when I was willing to do whatever.
Speaker: Where'd you get coach said, uh, well, his name was Parker Winder.
Speaker: We've had on the podcast, you know, Parker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, this guy was telling me to do some wacky stuff.
Speaker: Is Parker like a piano genius?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, he's a piano player, yeah.
Speaker: Piano player, you're the genius right now.
Speaker: Isn't he like really good at piano?
Speaker: Yeah, he's good, he's good.
Speaker: Hopefully he'll listen to this, but yeah, we had him on the podcast, he does his own improvisations and stuff like that.
Speaker: He's good, but yeah.
Speaker: He also does the best Jared Young impression in the world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know Jared Young.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I don't know that.
Speaker: He's got alarms, but yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, at the time when I hired Parker, I was kind of struggling in my cells, but I'm just like, look, man, I'll do whatever you want.
Speaker: I wanted to win my next cells competition, get the trip to Hawaii or whatever.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I just did whatever he did and he was telling me to like take cold showers and do all this weird stuff that seemed like it had nothing to do with selling um that I hated but somehow it worked won the competition so I think yeah it's like weird stuff it's like yeah it's like if you're committed and humble to do it then I think something in your brain changes too you just get the get the success just being willing to do what it takes and
Speaker: Well, and I think if you've ever had a hard time with, people call it motivation.
Speaker: I'm actually glad that there's a lot of sales content on motivation versus discipline right now.
Speaker: But if you're feeling like, man, I just don't have.
Speaker: The desire.
Speaker: Could I stay in the neighborhood for seven hours?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I just don't want to.
Speaker: That's where coaches are really helpful because they see stuff that you don't see.
Speaker: But once you hire them and once you start talking about them, it takes away the choice of success.
Speaker: You're going to be successful.
Speaker: The question is how hard are you going to fight it?
Speaker: And if you just give up and say, I'm not going to fight it.
Speaker: I'm going to go with you.
Speaker: Then if you have the right coach, it's almost like, man, I can stop worrying about success because it's going to happen.
Speaker: It's just a question of when.
Speaker: But I've noticed that if you're struggling with motivation, vision, desire, commitment, that's where coaching is really valuable.
Speaker: Because the second you hire someone and they start training you, you automatically want it.
Speaker: You start to...
Speaker: And if they're a good coach, it means they're better than you at the thing that you're trying to get good at.
Speaker: And so, you know, it's their job to be the kind of leader that inspires you, but their mere presence should do that.
Speaker: Like Colin's a really good surfer.
Speaker: And I was like, man, I wish I could catch waves like Colin.
Speaker: Jeff's an incredible fighter.
Speaker: And I would always think, man, if I could fight like Jeff.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And so it's like, I just kind of wanted to be like those guys.
Speaker: And, you know, after a while, the guy that teaches me guitar right now, he's a crazy dude, but it's like,
Speaker: I could play like him.
Speaker: So I'm impressed by him.
Speaker: And so it's like if you're leading teams right now, it is so important that you're impressive to these guys because that's where the motivation comes from.
Speaker: You have to get a coach that kind of keeps you and a mentor.
Speaker: It doesn't have to be a formal coach like Parker or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I look at Chance Allred, who has been kind of my sales coach, and it's like, man, he's never tired.
Speaker: He never stops.
Speaker: He's got a good family.
Speaker: He's a good person.
Speaker: He's a real charitable guy.
Speaker: You just want to be like those guys.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Definitely, definitely.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I wish we could go all day here, Ty, but I know you've got a place to be and everything.
Speaker: So to wrap up a little bit here, where can people find out more about your podcast?
Speaker: Well, yeah, tell us a little bit about your podcast and what you guys are doing with that and then how people could connect with you potentially.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks.
Speaker: It's called Electric People.
Speaker: It's on iTunes.
Speaker: It's on Spotify.
Speaker: I don't know how our Android friends consume podcasts, but I think we're there.
Speaker: I'm an Apple guy.
Speaker: We started that podcast because –
Speaker: We don't live in a world now where you have to figure things out on your own.
Speaker: Everything I know, especially about leadership, direct sales, team building, selling, personal development, I have learned from somebody else.
Speaker: And it's conversations like this.
Speaker: Sometimes I just pick it up because it's like, wow, I talked to a guy the other day.
Speaker: a peace state.
Speaker: And so we started doing a podcast, man.
Speaker: It was probably in 16 was the first one I started.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, because if you're new and starting in this industry, I've benefited more from the mentality of productive people than their actual scripts and skills.
Speaker: If I understand how they think about it, that helps me better, like adopt the right mindset to ultimately figure it out.
Speaker: So we just started interviewing people that were really successful in, um, direct sales.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: it sped up people's learning and it shifted their mentality so they could get on the right playing field.
Speaker: And then the one we do now, the electric people one, that's just, I'm really fascinated in the dominant one.
Speaker: I'm fascinated in the people that are just electric, that are sending a, in the intro it says sending a pulse to the industry.
Speaker: Yeah, like what I'm interested in is, okay,
Speaker: There are triathletes and then there's the iron cowboy.
Speaker: And the iron cowboy is so freaking electric that he is doing things that are so far beyond what everybody else is doing that I just want to tell his story.
Speaker: So it's predominantly our salespeople and our sales leaders that tell their story.
Speaker: But I mean, we've had people, Tony Hawk was our first guest, Jesse Itzler was on there.
Speaker: We've had a lot of people come on and tell their story.
Speaker: I always learn from association.
Speaker: I like to know what people were thinking when they did this.
Speaker: I like to know about their world because we just apply that to our world.
Speaker: You hear Deion Sanders spoke to our group and when you hear Deion Sanders speak, you can't help but take what he's saying and apply it to what
Speaker: you're doing yeah it's been a really fun project man it's mostly to help the guys but i mean i probably benefit from it more than anybody else because yeah we have the conversations you know yeah yeah yes i definitely recommend it it's super cool how you're being guests from all industries i mean like you said iron cowboy who's cooler than that guy that ran 100 he's the baddest dude man he is 100 iron mans in 100 days so yeah if you want sweet content like that definitely go check out of their podcast we'll link to it in the show notes here
Speaker: And, um, yeah, it's been awesome having you on today.
Speaker: Ty, would you have any other final suggestions for our solarpreneurs here?
Speaker: Any other final tip that you want to leave with us before we say goodbye?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: First of all, it's a great name.
Speaker: Um, the solarpreneur, that's really what it is, right?
Speaker: Um, my, my only maybe tip or thing that I found happiness doing is just think about your brand.
Speaker: You're not out selling solar.
Speaker: You're, you're a part of this movement, right?
Speaker: You're a part of this industry.
Speaker: And nowadays we live in a world where you can create whatever you want, right?
Speaker: So I've had times where I've just been selling and I've been unfulfilled.
Speaker: And I've had times where I've really created a brand where I've thought, okay, if people are going to work with me, what do I offer to the group that nobody else does?
Speaker: If you're going to go solar with me as a customer, I'm going to go to the group that nobody else does.
Speaker: Not like a corny way, but like, what's my thing?
Speaker: What am I known for?
Speaker: It could be something as like, again, unsexy as being like, I am so, I'm reliable.
Speaker: I will always be on time.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: If I tell you I'm going to follow up with you, I will follow up with you at the exact time.
Speaker: That could be one.
Speaker: It could be another thing where it's like, I always pay out my incentives on time.
Speaker: It could be, you know, if you're coaching other people that you might not like me every day, but I promise if you follow me, we are going to get the results out of you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Whatever it is, I would just encourage people to really think solar is going to work.
Speaker: The world is adopting to renewable energy.
Speaker: That's happening.
Speaker: We're lucky to be here and hopefully add some value there.
Speaker: But the place to maybe really make your mark is.
Speaker: The art, I guess, of it all is what's your spin on it?
Speaker: What unique thing can you do that is really unique to you that will benefit other people?
Speaker: So what I think mine is is...
Speaker: culture wins.
Speaker: You retain more people through culture.
Speaker: People want to be a part of something.
Speaker: When they make all the money that they want to make, they spend it to feel a certain way.
Speaker: So, you know, one of the things that I try to do is I try to be a part of the best sales culture in the industry.
Speaker: I work with my very best friends.
Speaker: We try to do really developmental things that are challenging, fun, and experiences that you couldn't have anywhere else.
Speaker: That's what I try to be aligned with.
Speaker: But I've aligned myself with Vivint Solar, who I think gives that opportunity.
Speaker: And then I try to enhance that.
Speaker: So yeah, that's my, that's just as a fan of direct sales and in the industry, that's what I want to see more of is I want to see more people doing really cool, unique, creative things that are in line with who they are.
Speaker: Everybody can sell it.
Speaker: Again, we're already past that.
Speaker: If you're,
Speaker: Listening and not selling by now, you've already signed up.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, I love it.
Speaker: Well, that's some money tips you gave us.
Speaker: And I agree with all that.
Speaker: I mean, create the culture.
Speaker: If you're not in a good culture, yeah, check out companies like Vivint.
Speaker: Check out companies that already have that culture.
Speaker: Or if you're a leader, go and create that in your company.
Speaker: And lead from the front.
Speaker: Like Ty is saying, you can't be a good leader if you're not leading from the front.
Speaker: And that's how you're going to coach people is getting them excited about what you do and inspiring your people.
Speaker: So, Ty, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: And we'll definitely share what you've got going on with your podcast.
Speaker: And thanks for all the value you provide.
Speaker: And with that, we'll wrap up here.
Speaker: So we'll talk soon.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on, man.
Speaker: It's been fun.
Speaker: Thanks, Ty.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
Speaker: And if you found any value in this episode or it's helped you in any way, all I ask in return is that you just take 30 seconds of your time and leave us a review on iTunes so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
Speaker: Remember, you need to leave us a review on iTunes to qualify for the training package.
Speaker: So take care of that now and we'll see you on the next episode.
