Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A 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.
Speaker: Hi, what's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We are here with another episode, and I'm here live in Boise, Idaho.
Speaker: We recently had this guy's business partner on, but we're back here with Mr. Dan Cranford.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the show with us today.
Speaker: Thank you, dawg.
Speaker: Appreciate inviting me out here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I know you're hesitant to do a podcast, took some braving and dining and dining this guy, but we're excited to have him on.
Speaker: And he's involved in a lot of different businesses now.
Speaker: So we're going to hear all about it, but he's still grinding in solar too out here.
Speaker: So do you want to give us maybe your background?
Speaker: How you got?
Speaker: into solar and everything and what you're up to now yeah um oh man so i got into solar probably 2016 right around there no probably further back when did you get into solar yeah i was 2016 so you're probably 2015 2015 okay well anyways so i i uh had moved to california with my wife my wife wanted to finish some grad school down there i didn't have a job lined up or anything
Speaker: I started working at a construction company as a construction project manager.
Speaker: And I was there for about a month and then they fired me because I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
Speaker: And when I was leaving, I packed all my stuff up and I was leaving.
Speaker: The receptionist said, hey, you should try doing solar.
Speaker: My husband sells solar and he thinks you'd do really good at it.
Speaker: And I was like, well, I know I'll fail at solar because I tried selling things in the past.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not any real door-to-door stuff, but I tried selling cars for a little bit.
Speaker: What I pictured a salesman to be, I knew I couldn't do it.
Speaker: I was like, well, I'll try it because I don't have a job.
Speaker: But as soon as I find a job, I'm going to be done with it.
Speaker: I started going to the meetings.
Speaker: I started selling.
Speaker: One thing I could do is I could work.
Speaker: I could put in the time and go out and work.
Speaker: I wasn't good with people or confident in any way in doing it.
Speaker: But I pulled ahead right away and was leading business.
Speaker: the team that I was on almost immediately just because I was putting more time in than anybody else.
Speaker: So I made that work for several years.
Speaker: I ended up really liking it because it seemed so much easier than anything I'd done in the past.
Speaker: I'd done a lot of physical labor.
Speaker: You know, we have a sore body and it's just really draining work and getting into this.
Speaker: a solar it was a whole new world to me and like their positive mentality in the meetings it was so foreign to me because like on a on a job site it's just really crude and like negativity just kind of yeah it's pretty normal culture and so it just seemed kind of nerdy or weird at first uh
Speaker: But I caught on to that and kind of realized that that's what I needed to do.
Speaker: I needed a more positive mindset.
Speaker: So I kind of got addicted to it.
Speaker: I mean, I went all the way in.
Speaker: I was reading all the books.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, but when I was on the doors, I was so afraid.
Speaker: I would just picture the guy that would teach us like the, the trainings, I would just picture I was him.
Speaker: Cause if I was picture and I was me trying to do my thing, it was just, I couldn't do it.
Speaker: So, um, so I was basically acting like I was him on the doors and it worked really well, made that work for several years, made good money.
Speaker: Um, and then it got to the point where I, I would start hearing stories about
Speaker: other people with other companies just making way more money.
Speaker: Because at the prices we were selling at, other companies that were selling that high, their reps were making like five times the amount of what we were making on the deals.
Speaker: I didn't believe the stories for a long time.
Speaker: it kind of caught on.
Speaker: So I kind of started putting deals through, through some other companies and, um, and seeing that that would work.
Speaker: But what it ended up leading to is I ended up starting a supplement company.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, cause I was like, actually, I'm going to try to do my own thing.
Speaker: Cause I put all this time in a solar and I decided if I want to put all this time in a cell, I'm going to put it in something that I'm, I'm going to build myself.
Speaker: And so I started a supplement companies, workout supplements, like pre-workout.
Speaker: We started with one product, a pre-workout.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah.
Speaker: Do you have some dark mountain?
Speaker: I think I still might have a couple of packets.
Speaker: So yeah, I liked our product.
Speaker: Um, I liked our branding.
Speaker: It was, it was a lot of fun starting that company, but I realized really quickly you had to sell a ton of pre-workout to equal one solar deal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you're selling it online and you picture online like, well, it'd be easy.
Speaker: You just have, you know, thousands of customers everywhere.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I put a lot of time into that company and then I didn't put any money into marketing.
Speaker: I just tried to market it myself as like growing an Instagram and Facebook and trying to talk with people about it.
Speaker: And it grew pretty organically and it was, it had steady growth and, and we were doing well, but my wife had just had our first child and, and,
Speaker: And I was like 30 grand in debt.
Speaker: When I left solar, I had a lot of money saved up and that money went like that.
Speaker: Cause I was putting it into the new business and my, my, my new business, I wasn't taking anything out of it.
Speaker: I was putting it all into new products.
Speaker: So then we came out with a protein and,
Speaker: Like a post-workout.
Speaker: And so it was all going into that.
Speaker: And it turned out where I was just in the hole.
Speaker: And I was like, man, I got my wife, a new kid.
Speaker: And I'm kind of letting them down.
Speaker: I'm not making any money.
Speaker: I'm putting all this time into this company.
Speaker: So I backed away from that a little bit.
Speaker: I was like, I'm going to recommit myself to solar.
Speaker: I need to go make some money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, so I recruited a little team and we probably had, you know, five guys and me and we went all in.
Speaker: I started, I started my own dealership and we partnered with an installer and, uh, and my deal with my reps were, I would close all the deals and they would set them.
Speaker: And when I would close them, we would split it 50, 50, which is something that they hadn't heard of before.
Speaker: Nobody was really doing that at the time.
Speaker: They would get like a small,
Speaker: If they were getting a portion of the deal at all, it was a really small portion.
Speaker: So they were all stoked about that.
Speaker: And so they were working really hard and they started making really good money just as setters.
Speaker: And I started making really good money.
Speaker: That $30,000, I mean, was that problem became not a problem like instantly.
Speaker: And then we started making such good money that I was like, I'm selling this stuff.
Speaker: supplement company.
Speaker: I'm not even going to do that anymore.
Speaker: I'm just going to go all in on solar again.
Speaker: Because I was running my own dealership now, making really good money on each deal.
Speaker: My reps were all happy.
Speaker: Everything just felt really good.
Speaker: And a lot of people are telling me like, don't pay your reps 50% of the deal.
Speaker: Like that's stupid.
Speaker: You're paying them way too much.
Speaker: And I was like, man, it's working.
Speaker: It's working really well.
Speaker: These guys are working really hard.
Speaker: They're making good money.
Speaker: I feel good about it.
Speaker: I'm making good money.
Speaker: So we just went with it and did that for a couple of years down there.
Speaker: And it worked out really well.
Speaker: I ended up in the middle of all that starting my cousin.
Speaker: I was down in Southern California.
Speaker: My cousin lives in Boise, Idaho, and he wanted to start a construction company, but we needed or he needed money to be able to buy property of the land and be able to build a house to sell it.
Speaker: Well, I had money and I had access to other people who had money.
Speaker: So he took me on as a 50 percent partner in that business.
Speaker: And I did all the back end work that I could do from afar.
Speaker: And he was up here building houses.
Speaker: So I started making money that way as well.
Speaker: And it kind of got to the point where my wife and I, you know, knew our time in California was temporary for Montana.
Speaker: And I had to get back to closer to elk and deer and that.
Speaker: you know, the rivers and mountains and mountains were calling your name.
Speaker: They were calling my name.
Speaker: So, uh, we were like, well, we have this construction company up in Idaho and the market was taken off.
Speaker: Um, so let's go try it out.
Speaker: So we moved up here about a year and a half ago and, um, brought the solar company up as well.
Speaker: So we've been selling solar here and been building houses.
Speaker: Well, I ended up, I don't know if I mentioned, but I ended up selling that,
Speaker: supplement company yeah um and it's still out there they're still selling supplements but yeah it's a it's a tough industry yeah for sure but it's worked out and so yeah the house building thing's been fun learn how to do that but so right now that's what i mean i'm in solar and then i i also build houses so that's the nice thing about solar
Speaker: is it kind of you can work your own schedule and you you know you do have extra time that you can put in other things and you know if you're doing solar right you're making enough money to where you can invest into something and put time into it and actually have another source to go yeah no i love it yeah and that's always been one of the cool things about solar is all the freedom that people have with it and yeah it's like
Speaker: I would say modern day gold rush, make a ton of money.
Speaker: And some guys maybe get a little greedy, whatever, take advantage and,
Speaker: hear the horror stories, but so much freedom and cool stories like that.
Speaker: I think a lot of us have heard being in solar for a while.
Speaker: But yeah, definitely some stuff to unpack there that I want to ask you more about, Dan.
Speaker: But what I forgot to mention is that Dan, he was basically my first manager when I got solar in 2016.
Speaker: I guess we're kind of different offices, but I know you stepped into kind of like, you know, maybe like regional type helping the teams and all that.
Speaker: So I learned a ton from Dan and Dallon that just came on the show pretty recently.
Speaker: And they partnered up.
Speaker: They're running 2U Power right now.
Speaker: Yeah, doing a lot of deals out here in Idaho.
Speaker: So I know with Dallon, we talked about the Idaho market and figuring all that out.
Speaker: But yeah, like for you, I think you have a unique experience because you've been in all these different businesses.
Speaker: You've been in supplements and you've always kind of been doing solar a little bit on the side.
Speaker: I know now you guys are in like multiple businesses too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, like I'm sure you could grow it bigger.
Speaker: I know you guys haven't had like giant teams and all that, but you've always still been producing with smaller teams and been able to do different businesses, which is cool.
Speaker: Most guys that I see, if they try to do other stuff while they're doing solar, then they just don't have any success at all a lot of times.
Speaker: But you've still been able to, you know, grow and still get a lot of deals.
Speaker: So what do you feel like for people trying to do that?
Speaker: Maybe they're growing other businesses on the side.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Do you have any advice, having your feet in so many different businesses, what's been like the way you've been able to do this and still do solar too?
Speaker: Well, I am doing it now.
Speaker: But I would say when I first started that supplement company, I wasn't doing it because I pretty much backed away fully from solar, which was a mistake.
Speaker: Because like I said, I spent all my savings and I ended up taking out a loan and getting in the hole too.
Speaker: So I think my advice would be...
Speaker: don't forget where that money's coming from.
Speaker: You've got to have cash flow.
Speaker: And if you're starting up a new business, it might take a minute before you have any, depending on what you're doing, especially with something like a supplement company or if you started a shirt company or apparel or anything like that, your margins are really so small and you have to sell so much stuff that it's going to take a while to build up before you have any kind of income that you can live off of and
Speaker: Usually when you're doing solar and you're making really good money, you get used to a certain kind of lifestyle.
Speaker: And if you're married, it's really hard to tell your wife, like, all right, we're going to have to, you know, level down.
Speaker: We got to stop spending.
Speaker: You can do that.
Speaker: But it's definitely hard to, you know, once you raise the bar with a certain level of living.
Speaker: It's hard to go back.
Speaker: And so if you're wanting to get into other industries, I'd say don't stop the solar until you, you know, for sure figured out, you know, a way to make income.
Speaker: You might figure out, you know, the business you start is not something that you can fully commit to it and you don't even really like it or or you just don't see yourself being able to grow that business.
Speaker: I'm kind of ADD, so my mind's always kind of all over the place as far as like with the building and the solar, I can kind of bounce back and forth.
Speaker: It's kind of a little natural for me to be like that.
Speaker: But it's, yeah, I've definitely had to refocus myself more on the solar side a lot of times to make sure that there is constant
Speaker: flow coming in.
Speaker: And that's the thing with solar.
Speaker: It's not like we were just talking about.
Speaker: It's not like pest control or other things where you might have some residual coming in after a sale.
Speaker: It's one and done.
Speaker: And it's usually a nice, a really nice payout.
Speaker: But if you stop, then your income stops.
Speaker: And in savings, a lot of people might not realize how fast
Speaker: 200 grand will go when you're used to spending you know good amount money that that money goes so fast so yeah i wouldn't bank on your savings getting you by for very long and when you're trying to start a new business you know you want it to work so you're putting a lot of money into that too so yeah yeah
Speaker: So yeah, you definitely got to keep rocking it on the doors for sure.
Speaker: And that's why, I mean, it's not easy.
Speaker: You got to really hustle because now you're working, really got to work just as hard on the doors doing the solar.
Speaker: But now you've got a second project going on too.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah, and I think probably maybe you'd agree, but it seems like for me, I have this podcast that I do.
Speaker: I still sell solar myself.
Speaker: But I think part of what's allowed me to still be able to do the podcast and some coaching and all that that I'm doing is because it's like really complimentary to solar.
Speaker: So I do spend a good amount of time, but at the same time, I'm growing in solar.
Speaker: And I probably could sell more if I just stopped doing this podcast and focus 100% on sales.
Speaker: but it seems like for you um sure yeah supplement that's kind of something completely different but now you're in construction i know you're doing some roofs with your some stuff with roofs yeah so do you feel like that's easier where it's kind of complementing solar yeah it has because um like i said when i first started my dealership it was just a dealership we were selling for installers and so what it's allowed us to do is you know now after building houses i'm familiar with permitting and and getting things permitting and
Speaker: you know, I have a team of electricians and everything just from building.
Speaker: So it got to the point after we moved up here where we were like, well, let's just install our own stuff too, because we, you know, I, I have all the connections now to be able to do that.
Speaker: And so they do kind of play off each other and roofing as well.
Speaker: Yeah, we do a lot of roofs up here to be able to do solar.
Speaker: And typically we would just tell the, you know, the solar installer, hey, this one needs a re-roof and then go take care of it.
Speaker: But we use our own roofers and everything to be able to do that now.
Speaker: And so there's a little more profit in it.
Speaker: And so, yeah, they've worked off of each other pretty well here.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, something else that I want to get into that you mentioned in your story before is just when you first started your deal, or you said you only had like five guys, you built it up, you guys were cranking deals, which is pretty cool.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people in Solor think, oh, the guys that are closing tons of deals, making all the money, they must have giant teams, you know, just like the best setters, all that.
Speaker: Like you only had a team of five.
Speaker: And even with that, I know you guys making a ton of money, closing a lot of deals.
Speaker: So I think that's sometimes a limiting belief that people have is, oh, we got to have this giant team.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the only people making lots of money in solar and closing lots of deals have these big teams.
Speaker: But I like hearing stories like that.
Speaker: And I've heard it from a lot of people.
Speaker: I mean, Ricardo Richie, Adam, the podcast had like, you know, 400 deals in a year.
Speaker: And he really only had like probably maybe six or seven solid setters just giving him deals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think quality is definitely better than quantity a lot of times.
Speaker: But yeah, what was that like?
Speaker: Do you have any tips on guys that are trying to build kind of a setter closer model like that?
Speaker: Do you do anything to get these sold guys and just be able to produce like that with a team?
Speaker: Well, I wasn't super selective with who I was recruiting.
Speaker: I recruited a couple guys and then they brought on their friends.
Speaker: They had...
Speaker: They'd been doing solar, so they knew how to set.
Speaker: So I wasn't really selective with them.
Speaker: But when I brought them on, I was really clear about a few things because I was in the hole.
Speaker: I was really driven.
Speaker: I got to go make some money.
Speaker: I got to make this happen.
Speaker: So I didn't have an office at the time.
Speaker: And so I said...
Speaker: We're going to go out.
Speaker: We're going to knock.
Speaker: I had our set hours.
Speaker: We'd go knock them.
Speaker: And then what would happen is they would set up appointments throughout the day, throughout the week.
Speaker: And so my rule was we would meet at the Costco parking lot and we would ride out together and come home together.
Speaker: And so I'm the closer.
Speaker: If they book a deal at nine o'clock in the morning, I have to be at Costco at nine o'clock.
Speaker: or I'm sorry, 8.30 to get that deal at 9.
Speaker: But they all had to meet me there.
Speaker: So if somebody booked an early deal, the whole team was kind of paying for it.
Speaker: Which it didn't create any animosity or anything between the guys.
Speaker: I felt like it created more of a team culture.
Speaker: Like we write out together.
Speaker: You know, if you booked this appointment, we're all going to write out together.
Speaker: And then they'd all, you know, hope that that deal would close when we were out there.
Speaker: Or somebody might book a deal for 8 o'clock at night.
Speaker: And so the whole team's just out there super, super late because you know how long deals can go.
Speaker: So at that time, you know, there was a lot of times I was leaving home, you know, at eight and then not coming home till nine, nine 30 at night.
Speaker: It kind of became a normal crazy schedule, which isn't super sustainable if you have, you know, kids and everything and.
Speaker: As we had another kid and they got older, like, I can't do that schedule.
Speaker: I'm not allowed to do that schedule anymore.
Speaker: My wife wouldn't let me do that.
Speaker: But I think that was a big part of it.
Speaker: We were all committed to the schedule.
Speaker: I would get out there early, drop them all off in their area.
Speaker: I would start going to deals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and when you're, I love the setter closer model because when you're, when all you do is sit in deals like all day, every day, you get so good at closing deals.
Speaker: You just learn, you knew you learn how to read people way better.
Speaker: You know, all the points that you want to bring up.
Speaker: You can,
Speaker: feel the vibe in the room which way you need to steer it and then it gets to the point where you're like this you know you pull up to the house and i'm going to close this there's there might be some factors that keep me from closing this but i will i will close this if those don't come up um and so so we were did really well i mean we were doing really well and and i mean they were excited they were making really good money and and everything but
Speaker: I think a big part of it was just that we were all fully committed to that schedule.
Speaker: And if they didn't show up, you know, to ride out with us, I'd say, obviously you can go knock, but you won't knock for us that day.
Speaker: Like put that deal through somebody else because we ride out together, we'll knock together.
Speaker: And so, and they were all really good about it.
Speaker: I mean, there was, I didn't get phone calls with excuses, like why they couldn't come.
Speaker: And, and, and it made recruiting a lot easier too.
Speaker: These guys were all making really good money.
Speaker: And, and so, yeah,
Speaker: you know, it did start to grow pretty quick.
Speaker: I mean, where we, where we did have a fairly good sized team, which I actually probably dropped the ball with that.
Speaker: I didn't, I should have had like smaller manageable teams.
Speaker: I feel like once it grew a little bit, I, I did because we weren't able to write out
Speaker: together as well some of them lived further away and i lost a little bit of control there and so i learned a little bit about management there but mainly from failing at it um so but yeah i was just hearing somebody talk about and jaco talks about this in in one of his management books but just having like teams of like five or six or less yeah well like pods you know
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So if you have a team of 12 guys, like split them up and then empower, you know, guys in that group to be leaders and let them, you know, take charge, which is something I didn't do then, which I, you know, should have done.
Speaker: But yeah, that's huge.
Speaker: And I think it's so cool because, yeah, guys are fully bought in.
Speaker: But yeah, any successful setter closer company, I think I've seen similar thing where it's just like you have the clear expectations and guys don't want to live up to that, then
Speaker: They just go somewhere else because I think what the mistake a lot of people make is let's bring guys in and they're so desperate to get in more, get more bodies in the door, get more sledders in.
Speaker: It's like, Oh, you're only able to work like two hours today.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: And then of course other people see that and they're like, okay, let's just drive out.
Speaker: We'll go do two hours on our own drive out together.
Speaker: Yeah, because you'll always have a guy who comes in and they want to do their own schedule.
Speaker: And I think most managers are down with that right off the bat because they're like, well, whatever you can work.
Speaker: Like if you can even get me one lead a week, like it'll be great.
Speaker: But it does.
Speaker: It causes big problems because the other reps, even if, I mean, you can't really hide this stuff from them.
Speaker: Like they see what's going on and it messes with the culture and then they start to get
Speaker: lackadaisical or well I don't need to work like all the hours I can work my own I don't need to write out with the team and so it yeah I noticed the effects of that several times yeah and I think the community aspect is huge too because I'm part of a big team right now
Speaker: So like, yeah, it gets tougher and tougher to do it with big teams.
Speaker: But what's been what I've seen just being part of a big team is there's not like a necessary requirement, like people can still be part of the team.
Speaker: But the people that are doing stuff like that, they're going same areas, four or five people meeting up and going out.
Speaker: So they're still meeting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're the ones posting the deals.
Speaker: So they're almost like creating the culture within people are seeing they're like, okay, this is why they're having success because they're all going out together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're doing these car groups.
Speaker: They're holding each other accountable.
Speaker: So even for those listening, even if you're part of a big office, I think that's a huge thing you can do is just like Dan said, create these little pods of people, go out together.
Speaker: And even if it's a bigger office, you can still form part of it.
Speaker: Like we have guys posting on our team group.
Speaker: I think we got like,
Speaker: 70 80 people in this grooming right now but yeah so that's a big team but guys will post hey we're in this area today we're down in chula vista who's meeting me down here and these guys are you know naturally the leaders these guys are producing the most typically um so yeah i think it's super important but yeah a lot easier to manage when it's just you telling me at costco yeah and i don't know how sustainable that is when you know like the way we were doing it
Speaker: you know, whenever the first deal is, we all ride out together.
Speaker: Cause it, all my guys were single, they weren't married or didn't have kids.
Speaker: So their schedules were open and, and they understood that, but you know, you have people on a team with, with kids and whatnot, they might need a more set schedule, which is fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think you had to get used to meeting at the same time and leaving, just believing and being together as a team going out together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: coming home together too.
Speaker: I think coming home together was a big part of it because we were able to share a lot of stories on the way home and a lot of kids would have questions on, you know, things they could do at certain parts of their pitch and, yeah,
Speaker: You know, and we'd celebrate together, go out to eat or whatever.
Speaker: We had a really good day.
Speaker: So, yeah, it was nice.
Speaker: It worked out really well for us at that point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Would you guys have, like, meetings or would you pretty much count that as a meeting?
Speaker: The meeting would be – so it would take, like, 25 minutes to get out to the area.
Speaker: And so the meeting would be in the car on the way out.
Speaker: So, yeah, I would train – I would be as proactive as I could about it.
Speaker: You know, not just, you know, listening to music on the way out or whatever, but I'd really try and –
Speaker: get more production somehow out of all of us you know um and so yeah we would we would talk and yeah and train each other on the way out yeah yeah that's awesome well it's cool hearing that and um yeah it worked well i know but now you're doing similar thing in idaho so i want to switch gears a little bit and we did a podcast with dylan your business partner and talked about
Speaker: a few of these things but i want to hear your perspective too so what's what's it been like um transitioning to idaho like what do you think of the market has been tougher than california or what's been your experience so far in it's definitely a different market from california and i knew it would be i was familiar with the market before we came here because before i actually moved up here with the help of dalen actually this is before dalen even came on as a partner yeah
Speaker: his brother-in-law lived up here and had done sales and said, Hey, he might, you know, try selling some deals for you.
Speaker: So I reached out to him and he was interested.
Speaker: So I started and I started getting leads online up here and they were all over the place in this Valley.
Speaker: And he,
Speaker: he would drive to them and right away he started closing them and, and the systems here.
Speaker: So some, one thing that's different about Idaho is the systems here are way bigger than California.
Speaker: Average deal in California might be four and a half kilowatts and it used to be bigger than that.
Speaker: But as the utility rates go up, the average systems as a price keep going down.
Speaker: Well, we've done, you know, multiple 25 kilowatt systems here just on, you know, houses kind of out in the country.
Speaker: They have a shop and they weld back there, but yeah,
Speaker: electricity here is so cheap people don't worry about you know running the ac half the people in california don't run ac you know you're sitting in a deal closing it and you're sweating the kids are running around sweating and that's not people don't do that here i mean it's set at 69 70 degrees in the summertime and you tell somebody in california that they're like that's crazy i would never do that even if it was free that just seems crazy yeah
Speaker: But everybody does it here because we've never had to adapt to really expensive electricity.
Speaker: So, everybody's just used to having a nice, cool house in the summer.
Speaker: So, the systems here are really big, which is nice.
Speaker: But electricity here is so cheap that you do have to cut the price down quite a bit.
Speaker: And we've never sold on just savings or that's not been our big sale point.
Speaker: Even in California, we were cutting their bill in half.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: It wasn't all about that.
Speaker: There was, you know, you point everything else out and then that's kind of the cherry on top.
Speaker: Well, here, even if you cut the profit down pretty minimal on a deal, they're most likely still going to be paying more with solar than they were.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you know, with the utility.
Speaker: So you have that.
Speaker: And then because these systems are so big and expensive, their tax credits here are huge.
Speaker: And so the most people here aren't making the type of money where they can really take full advantage of a tax credit.
Speaker: I know there's a lot, a lot of sales reps out there that might sell it.
Speaker: Like you're getting this $25,000 check next year.
Speaker: And, but like to sell, honestly, you know, there's a lot of people might,
Speaker: Out of a $25,000 tax credit, they might only get $5,000 out of it.
Speaker: At which, if they were to apply the full tax credit, their payment would still be a little bit higher than where they're at with the utility.
Speaker: So without a tax credit, then it makes it a little tougher to sell.
Speaker: But on the doors, and you've seen this since you've been out here knocking, you've
Speaker: it's way easier on the doors than California.
Speaker: People are much more willing to talk.
Speaker: It's normal for them to step outside and chat with you and show you around, which makes knocking a lot easier.
Speaker: It's a lot easier to knock when people are easier to deal with.
Speaker: But selling, actually sitting down and selling deals, it's not any easier here for sure than in California.
Speaker: And it's, you know, when things happen, like,
Speaker: the rates go up on a solar loan.
Speaker: In California, it doesn't really affect you too much because there's still such good savings there.
Speaker: Well, here, it does affect you quite a bit.
Speaker: I mean, the market has slowed down a fair amount here.
Speaker: And that's one of the reasons we got into installing our own is we wanted to have control over the quality of the work, but also we needed to be a little bit more profit in the deal and that we'd be able to be more competitive with our pricing if we were to do that.
Speaker: So it kind of led us into that.
Speaker: And so instead of looking at like, oh, crap, this market's crap.
Speaker: We can't sell here.
Speaker: We've kind of pivoted and figured out how we can get the cost down to make it more sellable.
Speaker: So that's good.
Speaker: Yeah, we've made it work, but it is a totally different market from California.
Speaker: Yeah, I've seen that.
Speaker: And if you haven't listened to the podcast, we're doing it with Dallin Pinker.
Speaker: He's a business partner.
Speaker: You can listen to that because we got into that quite a bit too.
Speaker: Just differences in selling and, you know, how to deal with nicer people.
Speaker: Because I was just telling Dallin, it's funny out here.
Speaker: You kind of have to deal with it different because people, you know, sometimes maybe waste your time a little bit more because they're too nice that they'll just talk to you for an hour.
Speaker: I'll talk to you for an hour.
Speaker: And then you're like, oh, I've got this.
Speaker: And then you move forward with the solar.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, no, no, no.
Speaker: We're not going to do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Been here for two hours.
Speaker: So yeah, we went over that a little bit.
Speaker: But I like what you're saying though, is like always figuring out ways to be more profitable.
Speaker: And I think that's what great business people are doing.
Speaker: They're constantly like evaluating, how can I be more profitable here?
Speaker: How can I maybe custom costs here?
Speaker: And it's cool that you guys are starting to roll out your own installs.
Speaker: So yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.
Speaker: I know you talked about how you have more connections, just being in construction.
Speaker: um and all that out here but what has it been like rolling out your own installs has that been like harder than you thought easier than you thought um it has been our biggest our biggest uh issue with it really is just being able to partner with the lending company okay
Speaker: Over the years, they've become a lot more stringent on who they'll partner with.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so some of the top ones that, you know, that you would, that normally use in a deal, I mean, they want to see a lot of income coming into the company or cashflow to even consider partnering with you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Whereas before, you know, it would have been a lot easier.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Right now, we can only install cash deals.
Speaker: As far as the install, the very first install we did, I don't know if Dallin talked about it at all.
Speaker: Yeah, he didn't talk about it.
Speaker: Yeah, our very first install was a 26.5, I think, kilowatt system.
Speaker: That's huge.
Speaker: Ground mount on a hill.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And so probably the hardest thing.
Speaker: situation you could do for solar.
Speaker: I mean, rooftop solar, we've done those really simple, but to do the ground mount and, and, uh, you know,
Speaker: get all the footers dug and all the permitting for that and it was uh it was definitely a challenge but it was actually probably a good place to start we look at that system and it it looks all it's the coolest looking system i've seen because we went back through and all the pipe on it we painted it black you know well we this i mean it's like a 13 million dollar property between the house and his property we're like we gotta and he had a parade of homes coming up and it was it's right there good yeah
Speaker: yeah we had to make it look really good so yeah we painted all that black and we put like this cool skirting around it and in it it uh yeah so the challenge of actually installing was is wasn't bad at all i mean we we've learned as we went we had no idea what we were doing yeah um and i look at it and i'm like how the
Speaker: hell did we even do that we had no idea you know and that thing looks freaking sweet nice um but yeah so that that end of it actually went pretty smooth yeah that's awesome so will they count because i'm just thinking for people that want to like start up their own installs and all that like do they can't if you have a dealer but you're doing installs through different people they won't look at that and
Speaker: kind of consider that.
Speaker: They'll look at that.
Speaker: They'll look at that too.
Speaker: Yeah, because they're just looking at, they really want to see bank statements and see, you know, what kind of money you have coming in.
Speaker: And so, like I said, we've had smaller teams, but a lot of these
Speaker: They want to see over 500,000 coming in a month.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: And so, you know, a lot of the bigger installers, they can, you know, easily partner with these guys.
Speaker: We're, you know, we're a smaller team and, you know, the guys do well, but there's not enough of them to where we consistently have, you know, 500 grand coming in every month.
Speaker: And so that's been a little bit of a challenge.
Speaker: There's some that, you know, don't require that.
Speaker: But they've had really high interest in the past.
Speaker: We always like to use a little bit lower interest, but they're all getting higher now to where they might be options for us.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, well, no, it's a different type of game for sure when you're doing your own installs.
Speaker: Yeah, we were talking about this with Dallin too, but just anyone can pretty much go start their own dealer and just be like a glorified manager running a dealer.
Speaker: Got a lot of buddies that just become one-man dealers and don't even recruit a team.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker: You're running all that.
Speaker: And on top of that, you're also running, you know, your construction company.
Speaker: Yeah, Dallin told me about other businesses you guys are thinking of getting in and all that.
Speaker: So it sounds like a lot you're doing.
Speaker: But yeah, I asked Dallin this too.
Speaker: What's some advice?
Speaker: Because I know he's kind of more recent than you guys have been working together.
Speaker: But what has it been like rolling with a partner?
Speaker: Because I think before, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were pretty much doing everything yourself.
Speaker: I guess supplement company, you had a partner, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I had a partner in that.
Speaker: yeah but do you have any advice people that are trying to as down this we'll hear what you say but do you have any advice people trying to work with a partner maybe some stuff you learned from the supplement company that yeah ways to communicate or stuff that you would do different working with a partner yeah i might have some advice that could be helpful i would say if you're going to start a company or a dealership
Speaker: I would always do it without a partner.
Speaker: I would start that on your own because getting it started is pretty easy.
Speaker: Whatever company it is, to get it started, to form your LLC and...
Speaker: start getting some equipment or whatever you're doing or start getting materials and start getting a couple jobs under your belt.
Speaker: It's easy to do yourself.
Speaker: And what happens is it puts you in a position where now instead of just taking on a partner and you do it together, now you can actually –
Speaker: sell a portion of it to a partner now you have something marketable you can come on you know for you know x amount you can buy into the company and you can show them as profitable and you know they can see they're going to get the return back so so they have that but um you definitely want to be careful about who you start because with my building i had i have a partner i have a partner with the solar now
Speaker: and i have um or i had a partner yeah with the supplement company and so i did learn i did learn some things and i knew dalen really well before he came on as a partner i knew he was a hard worker i knew he was extremely loyal yeah he stuck with that first company that we were with forever even when he knew like i had left and started making a lot more money we both left like yeah
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You had left too.
Speaker: And down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He was still there.
Speaker: And we were both making, you know, instead of like $200 a kilowatt, now we're making $1,500 a kilowatt on a deal.
Speaker: And I'm like, how are you still there, dude?
Speaker: Like, um, just like the, because they're selling really high, but paying out really little, but, and I have no hard feelings against that company because they taught me how to sell.
Speaker: And you know, if it wasn't for them to teach me how to do that, I never would have figured it out.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: And they did eventually start paying a little bit more, but yeah.
Speaker: And they still was super loyal though.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he was super loyal, which is something I really liked.
Speaker: I knew he would be a good partner.
Speaker: And when we moved up here, one thing I really felt like I would need help with was recruiting.
Speaker: I wanted to start building teams and managing them and help training guys.
Speaker: And so I brought him on with that role.
Speaker: He ended up moving up here from California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you know, with his family.
Speaker: And, um, but yeah, I think that's, that's probably the biggest piece of advice is I would not start anything with a partner.
Speaker: Um, you know, a lot of times you're talking with your buddy and you think of a good idea together and you want to take off with it, but your buddy, a lot of times that's as far as he really wants to go.
Speaker: And then you start taking off with it and you're putting in all this time and effort and you're seeing like your buddy's just kind of waiting and playing back like, Oh man, like,
Speaker: I'm excited for you to start making us some money.
Speaker: And that's the vibe you get.
Speaker: And then what happens, you can, you know, when you have it 50, 50 and your partner's not putting in the time and effort, then it's really, it's hard to make that partnership work.
Speaker: And so, and I knew Dallin, I wouldn't have that issue with Dallin.
Speaker: Um, but, um,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would always start by yourself and then, and then be really, really careful about who you bring on as a partner.
Speaker: And you might not, you know, after you start yourself, you might say, you don't need a partner.
Speaker: You know, you can do all these things yourself and there's great money.
Speaker: And when you bring on a partner, you, you got to know that, you know, what you're making, your profit pretty much going to get cut in half.
Speaker: I mean, you just, or whatever percentages you come up with, but a big portion of it's going to be gone now.
Speaker: And you have to,
Speaker: kind of factor that in and look like, am I even going to be able to get by if I all of a sudden don't have this income coming in?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and it depends on how you organize it with your new partner.
Speaker: But generally, they're going to want to start getting payment or payment on the deals that are getting done, especially if they're putting a lot of time in, which they should be if that's, you know, the type of person you pick.
Speaker: So, yeah, there's some different things you want to pay attention to there.
Speaker: You definitely want to be careful, careful about it.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's tough.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, many people heard the podcast in the beginning, but I originally had a partner in on the podcast.
Speaker: And even that got super tough.
Speaker: That wasn't even like a real business in the beginning, really.
Speaker: But like even just coordinating podcasts with another guy, and then he wanted to take it one direction, I want to take it another direction.
Speaker: He started making some money off of it.
Speaker: And then like, you know, okay, how are we going to split this up?
Speaker: We didn't have any agreements in place, nothing like that.
Speaker: So yeah, I can imagine it's...
Speaker: It can stunt your growth because you might be really starting to grow this business and you might have a business partner who's just not putting in the time and you're really motivated, driven, and you can see where it's going and where you can get it to, but you realize how much effort and time you're putting into it.
Speaker: And it gets to the point where you're like, man, I don't know if I even want to get to that point because I don't want to get to that point and just having given time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This guy, you know, all that money and, you know, everything from.
Speaker: And so you start to hold yourself back, which is the last thing you want to do.
Speaker: You don't want to have to, you know, pull on the reins.
Speaker: You want to go full in.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, you definitely want a partner who you feel will.
Speaker: And that's what I really like about Dallin is we're both competitive in nature.
Speaker: And so we've both done 75 hard twice.
Speaker: The second time we did it was here in Idaho.
Speaker: We did it together.
Speaker: And we both finished it.
Speaker: And, you know, we knew we would because we didn't want to go to the –
Speaker: you know him the next day or him kind of mean be like yeah yeah I failed it's so stupid but it transfers into just normal work life too like
Speaker: Dallin doesn't want to see me doing all the work and him feel like, oh man, he's doing, he wants, you know, he wants to be the one that's like doing all the work and pulling everything.
Speaker: Obviously he wants to see me doing that too, but, but that's kind of where it works is we, we do that, you know, we kind of are both putting in as much as we can to, to keep it afloat.
Speaker: And there's sometimes, you know, Dallin is, you know, he's leading, you know, and, and I'm,
Speaker: you know, feel like I'm barely getting by.
Speaker: And then there's times when I feel like, you know, I'm leading and, and, and it's good to be able to have that kind of dynamic in, in a, in a partner.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I see that.
Speaker: And I know I'm both you guys for a long time and we're both competitive and,
Speaker: It's funny, these guys dragged me to the gym at 6 in the morning.
Speaker: I'm more like a 7 a.m.
Speaker: type of guy.
Speaker: Got to drive to the gym at 6 a.m.
Speaker: with both of them.
Speaker: And Dalton was telling me that you guys just have great, you won't text each other if you're going to the gym.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Because you don't want to hear that one's maybe not going or feeling tired today.
Speaker: Well, yeah, because there's times when I get up at 5, and if I wake up my boy, our younger kid...
Speaker: then i'll have to take him and down's got a young kid too sometimes he might wake his kid up and he has to put him back down but he won't text me like hey i might not make it because he doesn't want to discourage me from going and same with me so yeah it helps i i went for i never really had a lifting partner but i can see now yes it's nice having that accountability 100 percent
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: Last question, Dan, before we start wrapping up here.
Speaker: I didn't really get into this with Dallin, but I know both of you guys, you got little kids.
Speaker: You're both have your feet in a lot of businesses and doing a lot.
Speaker: So like for people that have kids and they're trying to run businesses with family, I know you said your wife doesn't let you do some of the things that maybe you did before and all that.
Speaker: But what's it been like?
Speaker: just as far as like you know raising your kids having that dynamic with your wife do you have any advice for entrepreneurs or maybe people managing teams where they gotta worry about their family or i don't know mistakes you made or thing that's working well in business as well also trying to be there for your wife raise the family and all that yeah it's definitely tricky it sometimes feels backwards because
Speaker: When you're our age, we still really have to hustle to set ourselves up for the future.
Speaker: There's a lot of time that needs to be put in.
Speaker: And this is when our kids are young and they're growing up.
Speaker: And I realized this during COVID when we couldn't really knock in California.
Speaker: And I was home a lot more.
Speaker: And I built relationships with my... I only had one boy at the time.
Speaker: But I got a lot closer to him.
Speaker: And I realized, man, if I wasn't working so much, I'd be able to...
Speaker: keep this really good relationship.
Speaker: Boy, I know him a lot better.
Speaker: I understand him better.
Speaker: He sees that I love him.
Speaker: He listens to me better.
Speaker: Like this is just working so well.
Speaker: It seems backwards that, you know, you have to work so hard when these kids are growing up and it seems like they need you.
Speaker: You can build that relationship with them better.
Speaker: And then once you start making money, you know, you get older and you don't have to work as much.
Speaker: These kids are in college or whatever, and they're in high school or
Speaker: they're gone yeah and they that that opportunity to build that relationship is almost not there anymore and so that part seems i i can never yeah it's tough but i i sometimes think you know maybe your kids need to see your work ethic they need to see like hey this is like i respect you know what what he does and and it just kind of maybe forms that in them i think a lot of my work ethic came or comes from
Speaker: you know, my dad and he worked really hard and still does.
Speaker: And he never complains about it or anything, but
Speaker: Step one, if you don't have kids or a wife, make as much money as you can.
Speaker: Save and invest that money.
Speaker: Don't just spend it on stupid crap because you will for sure need it.
Speaker: If you can figure out how to invest that and get some residual income to kind of start paying your bills, that will free you up in the future to spend more time with your wife and kids.
Speaker: If you're already married...
Speaker: And you have kids that need you around in door to door.
Speaker: I think our wives a lot of time get used to us having, you know, kind of a whatever schedule.
Speaker: And so when you really need to ramp it up and put more time in, they might not understand it.
Speaker: Whereas in a normal job, you know, especially in California, they're working eight hour days and they're driving an hour and a half to get to work.
Speaker: So they're gone.
Speaker: They might be gone.
Speaker: 11 hours of the day and so if you weren't doing solar you you would be doing something like that and so i would just i would just get used to um you know a lot of the times it's it's just that you need to step it up put the time in really commit to that time and you know let your wife see that you know you're working those hours let her hold you accountable let her know like what you're trying to do what
Speaker: What you're trying to accomplish, because if she doesn't see results or doesn't feel like you're actually out there working, she might start, you know, wanting you home more because she might not see what you're, because you're not, you know, bringing in the bacon or whatever the way you should be.
Speaker: But if, you know, you say, hey, I'm going to send you a picture and I get to the doors, I'm committed.
Speaker: I'm going to start knocking at one o'clock and I'm going to knock till, you know, eight o'clock and I'm going to do it these days.
Speaker: And you send her a picture of your first door and say, it's got to be at this time and I'm going to send it to you.
Speaker: And that way, if you don't send a picture to her, you know, she knows that you're not on the doors and you feel stupid about it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: And then take a picture of your last door so that she knows you're out there hustling.
Speaker: You're not just playing around.
Speaker: But, yeah, definitely spend time with your kids, though.
Speaker: One thing I have changed is, like, I don't work Saturdays or Sunday.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I used to work every Saturday.
Speaker: You know, when we were going really hard, I was working really long days, and I was working Saturday, too.
Speaker: I didn't see my wife a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I make sure my weekends are all about, you know, my wife and kids.
Speaker: It's all about them, what they want to do and trying to build that relationship with them.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, like you're saying, there's going to be different phases.
Speaker: You're going extremely, if you're single, so this, yeah, go extremely hard six, seven days a week, I would say.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause there'll be a time when you're married with kids where you'll look back and especially with the way the solar market is right now, you're in a place where you can be making a ton of money.
Speaker: Well, you might be married five years from now with kids and in a situation where you just don't have that kind of income and you'll look back and be like, man, I wish I would have worked way harder.
Speaker: I wish I had invested some of that money.
Speaker: I wish I hadn't wasted it all on this stupid crap.
Speaker: Make smart decisions because you'll either be thanking yourself later on or you'll be kicking yourself in the butt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What is it to say?
Speaker: You can either live with the pain of discipline now or the pain of regret later.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the pain of regret is cuts way deeper.
Speaker: You don't want to have that.
Speaker: Discipline actually feels good.
Speaker: That's a good pain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But no, and I love to what you're saying just about having just kind of the accountability with your wife when you have different goals.
Speaker: We actually had a guy on our team hit 50 deals in a month last month in California.
Speaker: You know, 2023, we're recording this.
Speaker: And it's funny, he said pretty much the same thing.
Speaker: Like every night he'd get home after he was done selling and his wife and kids would like give him like the accountability check.
Speaker: like dad dad did you get your three deals today or whatever and like like super bought in so i love what you're saying about getting a family bought in and i think some of my best time selling when i would win competitions and things like that is i would literally have my wife like drop me off in my area yeah just like leave me there yeah that's like some weird things that's smart well because we did 75 hard and i've died you know the first time i did it
Speaker: I finished 75 hard.
Speaker: I did phase one and then I didn't end up doing phase two or three.
Speaker: There's not a fourth.
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: I've only done, I haven't done any of the phases.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I did phase one, but anyway, so I got really good at doing what I said I was going to do.
Speaker: But for some reason I felt like 75 hard had this special power to where I felt like there was somebody holding me accountable or like somebody was helping me out.
Speaker: I, I, I don't know what it is.
Speaker: And I,
Speaker: I tried to figure out like what, what gave me that extra, you know, juice to be able to stick with that for that long, because there's been a lot of things that I haven't been able to stick with.
Speaker: And, and so I was talking with Dallin and he was saying something he did like during his competitions and stuff.
Speaker: And this is something you can try with your wife and kids is say, all right, these are the things I want to do.
Speaker: I want to knock these hours.
Speaker: You know, these are the time I'm going to be on the door.
Speaker: I want to make this many phone calls a day.
Speaker: And whatever it is, you know, it doesn't have to be a lot of things, but I'm committed to do these things for, you know, 80 days or whatever it is.
Speaker: And, and if we, if I do it for the 80 days, we're taking a family trip, or it could be just you and your wife.
Speaker: We're taking a trip.
Speaker: We're going to go, you know, to Costa Rica and we're going to spend a week there all inclusive.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And get your wife super jacked about that.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Because, you know, your wife is going to get a point where she might be irritated because you're working so much.
Speaker: But if she knows that you're working towards this thing that's going to benefit the family, she's also going to be pushing you.
Speaker: You know, and if one of those things is reading 10 pages a day, you know, before you go to bed, well, did you get your pages in?
Speaker: Like, I know that's going to take time away from me.
Speaker: But like get that done because I want to go on this trip.
Speaker: And so I thought that was a really cool thing.
Speaker: So he did when he was in competition or doing, you know, like his challenges with solar and whatnot.
Speaker: And it's something I actually never did, but I've started doing now, but because it gets your wife bought in and she holds you accountable and it's something like she really wants you to achieve.
Speaker: And if you bring your kids in on it, I haven't done that yet, but I imagine there's a pretty strong force behind that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where you say your buddy,
Speaker: I mean, 50 deals in a month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, you make more that month than most people do in five years.
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker: I actually heard that in the Ed Milet podcast, too, that he used to do that.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: And yeah, when he didn't have money, just set his sales goal and he would hit it and stay at like the Ritz-Carlton or for a weekend somewhere super nice that he couldn't really afford.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He was, you know, around also year round, like the type of people that you're trying to, you know, get to someday.
Speaker: So that's, yeah, that's genius.
Speaker: Super smart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, Dan, it's been awesome having you on and definitely a different perspective because usually we just have, you know, more solar guys on that haven't been in as many businesses as you have.
Speaker: So it's been cool hearing the perspective of a businessman.
Speaker: like yourself well thanks for having me dude i hopefully there was some type of value for somebody out there because i that's he said he had to like bribe me to be on here it wasn't because i was like i don't want to be your pie i just didn't want to destroy your base here or your guys i just didn't know there's any actual value i'd have to share with anybody so hopefully there was something there for somebody
Speaker: No, I think so.
Speaker: And anyone listening, hopefully you'll reach out to Dan, let them know there was some value.
Speaker: You appreciate him coming on the show today.
Speaker: So speaking of that, if people want to reach out to you or maybe pick your brain about business or starting a deal or construction, anything like that, what's the best place to reach out to you, Dan?
Speaker: Probably Instagram.
Speaker: I think my Instagram is CranSpot, C-R-A-N underscore spot.
Speaker: My last name is Cranford, so it's short for that.
Speaker: And if you want to come to Idaho and build a house here, we can build a house for you.
Speaker: And get you solar.
Speaker: And get solar on that thing.
Speaker: yeah okay well uh reach out to him we'll put we'll link that in the show notes if you guys want to reach out to dan and uh any final just to wrap up here dan any final like i don't know words of wisdom for maybe a struggling rep or uh any other lessons um i would wrap up here oh i can i would say do 75 hard if you're struggling in any way
Speaker: Just commit to doing 75 hard.
Speaker: Look at all the things you have to do on there and just commit yourself to doing them.
Speaker: Because if you do that, if you complete 75 hard, even if you don't complete it, you'll get a taste of what it would do for you.
Speaker: And the benefits that you will get from doing something like that, you'll take with you forever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I would say, or if you're not struggling, do it.
Speaker: But that's been a huge thing for me.
Speaker: That's changed a lot for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I remember you were one of the people that convinced me to do it for the first time too.
Speaker: I know it helped me a lot in a ton of different areas.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So if you don't know what that is, that's Andy Frisella's challenge thing where you do, you know, it's like two workouts a day, grading 10 pages, gallon of water.
Speaker: I think that's it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: no gallon of water progress picture yeah you got to take a progress picture every day no alcohol and then yeah the 10 pages have to be out of a physical book so you can't just listen to it yeah and it can't be on your phone you have to physically read it which is good you have a book in your hand you kind of reconnect to like how people used to read you know back in the day yeah and the diet right
Speaker: Diet, yeah.
Speaker: Andy talks about a lot of people who are struggling.
Speaker: That's kind of where they go to is alcohol and it's one of the worst things you could do if you're struggling, especially because it's not something that is going to help you advance past that.
Speaker: It's going to numb it for a minute.
Speaker: So that's a big part of it.
Speaker: No alcohol for 75 days.
Speaker: And I've had buddies try 75 hard and that's their big hang up.
Speaker: They have a hard time.
Speaker: That's where they keep failing is
Speaker: You know, 15 days in, they have to have a drink and they can't get past that.
Speaker: But, but yeah, the challenge is there's nothing on there that's, you know,
Speaker: really, really hard to do.
Speaker: The probably the hardest thing really is the two workouts.
Speaker: One of them has to be outside.
Speaker: They both have to be 45 minutes long.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's a scheduling.
Speaker: And that's why I get up early and go to the gym is because I got used to doing that.
Speaker: When I was doing 75 hours, I had to get my first workout done early so that I'd have time to get a second workout in.
Speaker: But once you do, I mean, you'll realize how much free time you have had that you weren't using and how non-productive you've
Speaker: you know, been in the past and, and I'm about due to do it again.
Speaker: Actually.
Speaker: I need to get on that.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I did it one time and I need to do it again too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I like about it is you're just practicing, keeping commitments to yourself.
Speaker: And I know you talked a little bit about that, but you can't keep a commitment to yourself.
Speaker: Then, then like, how should we think that we're going to keep commitments to other people?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's hard to see that until you do it.
Speaker: I mean, when you start keeping those commitments consistently over and over and over, you start to trust yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: which gives you a ton of confidence because you're like, you know that when you decide you're going to do something, it will be done.
Speaker: And it gives you chills at that point because you're like, oh, shoot, I just committed.
Speaker: It's happening.
Speaker: It's not like I'm still thinking about it.
Speaker: Like you've committed to it and it will happen.
Speaker: So you train your mind to really trust this person.
Speaker: Like this person is going to do whatever you tell it to do.
Speaker: So be careful what you tell it to do.
Speaker: Like you're going to do it.
Speaker: And because that's what I do.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's super powerful and really empowering.
Speaker: So I think that's a good way to end it.
Speaker: So I would definitely, whoever's listening, consider doing 75 hard for sure.
Speaker: And yeah, and that's been awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, hit Dan up if you want to hear more about starting a dealer or starting an installation company.
Speaker: I'm sure he's happy to share some more tips.
Speaker: But thanks again for coming on the show today, Dan.
Speaker: It's been real.
Speaker: Hell yeah, brother.
Speaker: Love to have you on in the future.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: All right, peace.
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