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REPLAY: How To Reach 1000 Personal Solar Installs
307 Plays1 month ago
This episode is a throwback to our podcast with Mike Brand and his milestone 1000 deals a few years ago. From valuable tips on prospecting areas to new one-liners to use on the doors, this episode is timeless and much needed in today's turbulent market.
CLICK HERE: https://apply.solarpreneurs.com/
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Transcript
Taylor Armstrong's Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask? 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.
Mike Brand's Apology and Reflection
00:00:41
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, solopreneurs? We are here in the studio, live with the one, the only, Mike Brand. Welcome to the show, Mr. Mike Brand. It's been a long time coming. Hey, thanks for having me, man. Yeah. Taylor was telling everyone that he tells a story. He doesn't use my name, but he tells the story about how some...
00:01:00
Speaker
A-hole roped him into a recruiting meeting a while back. with the promise of delivering a great podcast and show. And then that individual did the recruiting meeting and then said, hey, I got to go, man. And you know what? That individual is me. And I just want to publicly apologize, number one.
00:01:20
Speaker
and number two, just say, hey, I'm grateful to be on the show. And hopefully ah it makes up for the time that I screwed you over, man. Okay, well, cat's out of the bag. I mean, I wasn't going to say names, but...
00:01:32
Speaker
You said it. you're an a i want to own it, dude. I just, I'm all about ownership. I just want to own it. It was a big mistake. I don't remember the circumstances. I'm sure I justified it somehow, yeah but it was a dick movement. Yeah. I walked into a room. He's like, oh, let me, let me introduce you to the office. And then spend two hours talking. I'm like, all right, is it time for the podcast now? It's like, oh, let's go grab some food. We'll do it after. and then I never got around to it. Hey, but, uh, but I'm, I'm making promises right now. Like yeah I'm fulfilling on promises yeah right now. just a few years later. Yeah. I mean, we are doing it like two hours late because it got out of a deal, but, but we closed but everybody close it.
Opportunities in the Solar Industry
00:02:12
Speaker
So guess it's justified, but no, I'm excited to finally have them on. And it's been, yeah. What? Like that was like probably two years ago now or something, maybe a year ago. No, it might have been two or three, dude. Yeah. It was back. I feel like it was a bit of solar days. Maybe it was. Might've been three, four years ago. Yeah. We're getting old though. Like I'm pushing 40, you know, 36, man.
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah, well, we're dinosaurs in this. I mean, you got 11 years doing this. This is my 11th year selling solar. And it's my 12, 13, 14th summer selling door to door. 14, dude.
00:02:44
Speaker
That's a lot of summers, man. That's insane. So I've been been around the block, seen a few things, man. What's crazy is there's never been a better time to sell solar. Like if you're listening to this podcast, you're in the right industry. Keep improving, keep growing, because the industry is going to be really good for the next decade.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And yeah, we're going talking about all that and much more. We're here in California. We've got some crazy changes that most of our listeners have heard about that net meter and 3.0 that rolled out.
00:03:12
Speaker
But, uh, some, we're just jamming on that a little bit before this, but, uh, before anything, do you want to tell us like, so Mike Brands, he's not huge on social media and everything. I'm trying to tell him to get on a, you know, the Tik TOK, the Instagram and all that, but. I got to get on. He just you just turned 40, right? Yeah. I want to use that stuff. I'll teach this guy how to open it up and everything. You just had your 1,000, one career install, number 1,000, right? Pretty recently. Yeah, he just 1,000 career solar installs, um which, you know,
00:03:43
Speaker
there's There's not a lot of milestones that I like have a lot of pride about. But I think the reason that I feel a little bit of pride about 1000 is just the amount of consistency that that takes over time. It's not like a big week or a big month or a big quarter, even a big
Mike Brand's Career Path
00:03:58
Speaker
year. Like that's 10 years of blood, sweat and tears like on the doors and selling out to like really put in the effort to to go do that, you know, and so just at a thousand career installs. Yeah. just had awesome Yeah, it just made some career changes for me, which I'm excited and we'll maybe talk about later. But yeah, man, it's it's been a fun journey so far. Yeah.
00:04:20
Speaker
That's crazy. Well, yeah, not not too many people like 11 years. i don't know too many people have been doing it that long. So i want to talk about, um you know, longevity, all that. See how what your secret is to last that long, because it's a lot of lot of time. So before we get into all that, you want to give us just kind of like reader's digest of ah where you've been at? And I know you made, like you said, a little career switch and just pretty recently.
00:04:43
Speaker
So you know want to tell our listeners just a little bit about all that? Yes, um I started selling. Well, I used to deliver pizza. for round table pizza. I played semi-professionally poker, Texas Hold'em. 14, 15 years. Well, like I use that term used loosely. Like I made enough money to like pay my bills. I delivered groceries and then i went to junior college and i was like, Hey, this isn't for me. Like, I don't know. Like I'm not just going to go to school when i don't even know what I want to do. And then my, one of my good buddies at the time, a Kony Berman recruited me out to San Jose to go sell security for the summer. And I went out there, I remember the first two days knocking. I got dropped off at like 9 a.m. m
00:05:23
Speaker
and knocked doors till 9 p.m. Didn't get in a freaking door. And San Jose, California selling alarms, they have all the like the metal screen doors. yeah And I was new, like i didn't know what I was doing, but I knocked doors for like 24 hours in two days. 12 hours a day, just didn't get in anything. And I remember going home that night,
00:05:44
Speaker
And looking at the scoreboard, um it was APX at the time. It wasn't Viven, actually. It was APX, Insider. And there was this guy on the scoreboard that had sold 18 alarms that week. And I had just knocked two days straight and didn't get in a door. And so my first thought was like, bullshit. right Yeah. Right. Like, I think we all, especially early in sales, like we, we have that like victim mentality. I just doubted it.
00:06:10
Speaker
And, and the reason i'm bringing this up, this is a pivotal point in my career. And I want anyone that's listening. I think there's probably a lot of new guys in sales that are listening. I want you to take something from this and really listen and learn. What changed my career was the way that I decided to think about that because my first reaction was bullshit. He's cheating. There's no way that he could do that. I recognized really quickly that I was becoming the victim, ever want to be the victim. And so I looked at that, I said, wait a second, this guy, Jordan Williams, he's not smarter than I am.
00:06:38
Speaker
I can learn to say what he says and do what he does. And i can I can become him. And so what that means is there's three people every day. If he's selling three a day, that means there's three people every day that I'm talking to that Jordan Williams would have sold.
00:06:53
Speaker
And so that next Monday I went out and I said, who are those three people? And early in the day, I'm like, oh man, that was one. Like that that lady, I had her on the hook. She like slipped through my fingers. Jordan would have sold her for sure. Nice.
00:07:07
Speaker
I knocked all that Monday. And I'll never forget it. My very last door at 8.30 p.m. It's pitch black. okay I sold my first alarm ever. Got in the house, gave away 20 points of equipment, probably didn't make any money on it. Just so happy to close the deal, you know?
00:07:21
Speaker
And from that day forward, every day for the next week, I sold one. And so at the end of the week, I had like six accounts. That week was a pivotal point my sales career because it taught me how to think. It taught me that belief. And if you have belief and you have work ethic, success will come, period.
00:07:38
Speaker
So fast forward, got off track a little bit, but fast forward. So that, yeah, I mean, listen, it's so important the way that you think about this job. And I'll talk about that a little bit later, but just to catch guys up on on kind of my story, that office ended up the very next week, the second week goes was there, they ended up going to Virginia.
Expanding Solar Markets
00:07:56
Speaker
And I was like, I don't know you guys, I'm not going to Virginia. Good try. And so I went back to Sacramento where I'm from and hooked up with the Monotronics dealer there and started selling full-time like van program and started selling one a day, 30 account, 30 alarms a month, you know, making 15 grand a month. I thought I was like the richest person, the richest man in Babylon. I remember having like seven grand in my bank account. And was like, yeah. This is amazing. know. Like, I'm going make six figures this year, you know? That was like every door-to-door Intel Solor. Once Solorails are on, but it's just okay. Hey, now if you have a commission that's like five grand in Solor, you're like, this is it. I'm not dealing with this customer bullshit. Five grand. Get out of bed for that.
00:08:39
Speaker
We're spoiled in the solar industry, right? But anyway, so I sold that fall. I sold alarms for four months, and then I got recruited back to APX. And I went out for three summers with APX, funded 300 every summer, co-managed, like assistant managed my last two summers. At the end of the summer of 2012, I'd sold, you know, three summers now. installed 1,000 alarms, whatever. I heard about them, Vivint.
00:09:07
Speaker
um doing solar they were just starting the solar game they had like four offices nationwide and so from summer i drove out from chicago all the way to new jersey and to quote unquote try solar out yeah like i told my wife i'm like let's just try it out for like a few weeks or a few months and see if we like like it and so now i've been trying it out for 11 years so So I started selling solar in New Jersey late 2012. Early 2013, I opened up the first New York market for Vivensolar on Long Island. yeah And it was the fifth office in the nation that they had opened up. No one had ever done solar door-to-door in New York. And it was cool because when we were scouting Long Island, Long Island like really densely populated. There's a lot of people that live on Long Island. yeah it's It's crazy.
00:09:52
Speaker
We were driving the streets. There wasn't one house with solar on it. There's literally not one house. Like we we're just like, this is a blank canvas. This is crazy. And so it started really slow. It took us six months to get our first install on Long Island.
00:10:08
Speaker
Crazy. Because people were like resistant to it or just knows take them forever. Dude, if you've never opened up a new market for solar, it's a painful process. Now it's probably easy because it's like people understand how it works, like companies and understand what to do. Like no one, even the cities didn't know what to do back then. They're like, you want to do what?
00:10:27
Speaker
You got permit. So like we had to go back to our customers three times, the first 500 customers we sold to get like additional paperwork signed. And everything's a paper copy, right? It's like a card copy. yeah Like the agreements, you had to fold up like origami to like fit in your paper, like to fit in your folder yeah because you didn't want to pull out like the, like I wish I was on video right now, but like the agreements were like two feet long you know what i mean so you fold them up put them in your folder and you like flipping through with the customer we didn't go back four or five times and then when we started submitting the permits they were like hey these permits need to be notarized wow and we were like excuse me yeah what do you mean like is like what notarized for a building permit to do solar they're like yeah and so we were like what do we do do we have our customers go to the bank like that's not good luck getting a customer go to the bank to have a solar permit
00:11:19
Speaker
The funny thing is one of our first customers, her name's Margaret Drane, I'll never forget her, happened to be a mobile notary. okay. And so we created a system when you close the account down, you schedule the mobile notary to come to the house and sign the permit. There you go. Margaret also happened to be our first install on Long Island.
00:11:37
Speaker
Wow. Wow. That couldn't have worked out more perfect. Well, think about it. No one has solar, right? Yeah. So now you have this lady come in who's like the mobile notary when after you like, you probably have some buyer's remorse or you're like submitting the permit and're like and she's like, oh yeah, I have it on my house. I'm the first one that got it. here It's great. Wow.
00:11:55
Speaker
She was the most underpaid, undervalued employee. Like, can you imagine? so anyways, I opened up the first New York market on Long Island and I was there from 2013 to 2016. Over those three years, we opened up six offices in New York. We did over 10,000 installations. Our personal office on Long Island was doing 600 solar installs a quarter for two years straight.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I was averaging 40 to 50 installs a quarter. Now that was the days when they paid like 200 bucks a kilowatt. So like, don't do the math. I'd be retired if they paid like what they pay now. so you know yeah Pretty sure like we we made those, the CEOs of Vivint Solar very, very rich for the value they're retaining from those 25 year PPA contracts. 2016 came, my wife got pregnant with our third. My wife's amazing. She like, dude, I'm married so far up. She's awesome. We have three kids now, nine, seven, and six. At the time we had both of our boys in New York. They
Changes in Net Metering Policies
00:12:51
Speaker
were both born in And then in 2013, 2015, our first kids, obviously. And then we got pregnant with our third and she was due in January.
00:13:00
Speaker
i don't know if you've ever lived on the East coast. I haven't lived out there, but that's a, I know it's cold out there in January. Hey, quick disclaimer. If you're living on the East coast right now, move out, you have options. yeah I will move you out to California. It is cold there. Get the hell out of there. It's too cold.
00:13:19
Speaker
So we knew we were going to have our third in January. And I was like, let's get out of here. Like the business is going really good. But we I'm from Sacramento. She's from Utah. We both want to be back west. And so um I called my boss and he was like, hey, we got ah we got an option in San Diego. We're actually firing a couple guys in San Diego north and we need managers out there.
00:13:39
Speaker
At the time I was the director over New York and I left everyone there. It was just like, I'm going to start over in California. And so I moved out to San Diego in 2016 with Vivint Solar. And I've worked for Vivint Solar and then Sunrun Direct all the way up until late 2022. So for the last six years.
00:13:58
Speaker
And then I'm super excited. I just took a new opportunity with Legacy Power, who's amazing. Doug Robinson, Luke Toon, amazing leaders. John Soriano, who I partner with, he actually did a podcast with you. Yeah. Stud, dude. Which you were supposed to be at that podcast. I was supposed to be. That was the second time I ghosted you. So, hey, one for three. our our Our highest quality guests are hard to get in touch with. Hey, that's right, dude. Got to go through your management team and everything. That's You got to talk to my assistant. I don't have one. Yeah. But anyway, so I just, um I've been in San Diego since 2016. I just partnered with Legacy Power, which I think with NEM3, there's nothing more important right now than having optionality. yeah Being able to use Sunrun, being able to use Sunova, being able to use Everbright. When the industry shifts and things change, if you're exclusive with someone, yeah like if you're at Sundar right now and you're exclusive with Freedom, that could be a big problem. yeah
00:14:54
Speaker
If you're at Sundar and Direct and you're exclusive and you can only sell a shift, And you can't do like a Synova lease plus storage and an in-phase battery. And you can't do an Eco, which is Synova's shift. yeah if you're If you're stuck being exclusive right now with how fast things are changing, you could get stuck. It could be a big problem.
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, well, and we were just talking about that, um you know, before we started the show here. But even if you are at a company, um something I've always talked about for our listeners in the podcast is like, at the very least, we're not saying you have to like, always just go to a company that has a million options. But I think at the very least, like open your network, because if you can't get a deal because of X, Y, z like I've had lots of times I've been able to pass it to like a friend in the industry or just have access to other options. So, um yeah, at the very least, I think it's good to have those things set up.
00:15:50
Speaker
So that's my story, man. Been in the minist industry 11 years, doing solar a long time, and it's never been better than it is right now. Yeah, that's crazy. Well, you got a long career and so I'm sure a lot of good things to come. So it's cool talking to dinosaurs like yourself in the industry. I'm so old, dude. I'm pushing 40. 11 years is like 100 years in solar years. That's true. That's impressive.
00:16:13
Speaker
But yeah, I want to talk about, um you know, net meeting 3.0 a little bit. And I know not everyone is selling in California, but I think there's a lot of things that can apply. Because let's be honest, if net meeting 3.0 happen in California, what do you think the odds are of it happening in other markets whether or not where they're reducing credits, changes is going on?
00:16:31
Speaker
So I think for whatever market you're selling in, there's a lot of lessons because California is like where the greenest state pretty much probably in the country. don't know. There's a lot of that. I was surprised it passed.
00:16:41
Speaker
I was like actually pretty shocked. And for listeners that aren't in California, just like the 32nd version of net metering 3.0 with net metering 2.0, anytime your solar system produced power that you weren't using right away, you could send it to the grid and you just got equal credits for it.
00:16:57
Speaker
ah So throughout the day, if you sent three kilowatts to the grid, you could pull those three kilowatts back during the nighttime and use that power. and So net metering, basically you're using the grid as like a free battery. yeah um They just shifted April 13th, which is today, I think stopped taking applications last week. Is it 13th? Yeah. They just shifted to net billing.
00:17:17
Speaker
And so the way that works, what they did is they essentially reduced the value of credits that you send to the grid by about 75%, roughly. And so if your solar system's producing power that you're not using right away and you send it to the grid, it you need to send four kilowatts for
Mastering Solar Sales in California
00:17:35
Speaker
every one kilowatt hour credit roughly yeah i'm just simplifying it they made it as confusing as possible right and so what it forces essentially is it forces customers and companies to do batteries
00:17:50
Speaker
or batteries with no backup, which is what we'll talk about a little bit. And so right now in the industry, there's this huge shift of batteries. Well, there's there's a few problems with batteries, right? yeah There's a limited supply. We're going run into supply chain issues, number one.
00:18:03
Speaker
Number two, batteries themselves aren't proven. So they've only been around really three, four years, and they only have a 10-year. Number three, and this is the biggest problem, batteries are expensive. And so you can subsidize the battery as a rep, but with Sunrun's shift, you're taking an eight to 10 grand. It's a big adder for a battery. And you can price up, but now the savings for the customer are a lot smaller on a power purchase agreement if you're selling it at 38 cents in San Diego compared cents And so it it creates a couple problems. The consumer, on the consumer side, it's not as big of a deal. yeah I think the savings profile will be a little bit less, but long-term savings look really good, especially with the battery. Or if you did it without a battery, but you priced way down and get a 16 or 18 cent PPA with no battery, the savings profile looks pretty good on that as well compared to like a 32 to 35 cent with the battery. The real problem is how do reps make money?
00:18:59
Speaker
So I just ran one and my commission was 3,500 bucks. And you know, we don't get out of bed for that. Four kilowatt at 3,500 bucks doesn't make sense. yeah There's going to be this huge shift in California where you're going to need to be a very competent salesperson. The last five years in California, you could suck at sales. You didn't need to be good.
00:19:18
Speaker
You're saving people 30, 40, 50% off their power bill. Like you could just find low hanging fruit, right? And there's a lot of people that made a lot of money that aren't great salespeople. yeah The shift now, and this is why leadership is more important than ever in the industry in California.
00:19:35
Speaker
The shift now is you have to be able to sell value. You can't just rely on a 50% savings and be a crappy salesman. You have to be freaking dialed. You have to be able to shift the frame of the customer and kind of set them up for the close in a way where they're excited for a bill swamp.
00:19:53
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah, which is like most other markets, by the way, that aren't California. Right. If you've only sold solar in California, you're like, your ears are perked up right now. Everyone else is like, oh, it's no big deal. We sell bill swaps, you know? But in California, we've gotten so lazy and it's been so easy.
00:20:08
Speaker
And a lot of the reps in California, I mean, Lumio left California. they left harness went bankrupt yeah right and so a lot of these smaller companies are just really hurting right now you sunrun direct and you have legacy power those are kind of the two biggest players um in my opinion then maybe like a sunder or whatever you know um but a lot of the smaller dealers are either fleeing california or they're just paralyzed i don't know what to do because there's not a ton of leadership there With that being said, let's talk sales just a little bit and let's add some value listeners right now. So what I'm gonna teach you guys right now gonna make you a lot of money in California. Yeah, is this the stuff you're telling me about? This is the good stuff. Okay, yeah, this is some sauce right here. You're gonna wanna take notes for this part. What you need to be able to do is you need to be able to really get the customer to identify the problem. Gone are the days where you can just show up and say, hey, it doesn't cost anything. We're going to save you 40%. Like you can make sales like that two years ago. Now you actually have to sell. The way that you sell is problem solution. If customers don't understand the problem, then the solution doesn't matter.
00:21:14
Speaker
So the first thing I'm going to do when I get into a home or I'm sitting down with homeowners is I'm going to ask them, hey, do you guys understand how you buy power now? who you You moved in how many years ago, Taylor? I just barely moved in. You're a terrible customer, too. You're the worst role player I've ever had. Okay, three years ago. Three years. Okay. When you moved in, why did you choose SDG&E as your power company?
00:21:33
Speaker
Well, I guess they were the only option. there So what do we call that? Monopoly. And so there's like laws against monopolies. Yeah, true. Because when someone controls all of something, what tends to happen to the rates that they charge? Go up. Yeah. Do they go down they go up?
00:21:49
Speaker
Go up for sure. Right. And so the problem with where we're at right now in San Diego or SCE or PG&E, whatever, whatever, whatever utilities sell in, right? The problem right now, the utility company, are they a charity are they a for-profit company? For a profit.
00:22:04
Speaker
Quick note, by the way, if you want someone, so people will only believe half of what you say as a salesperson. Okay. Right. Okay. They'll believe 75% of what a neighbor says. Yeah.
00:22:16
Speaker
So if you, that's why third party stories are so powerful when you're overcoming objections. Yeah. Right. yeah People are forced to believe 100% what comes out of their mouth.
00:22:27
Speaker
right okay yeah so notice like what i'm doing right now with taylor as my customer i'm getting him to tell me and i'm using hand gestures i'm throwing them softballs you don't want to make people feel stupid like you want to make it really easy for them to like get the right answer yeah they're forced to believe a hundred percent of what comes out of their mouth so taylor is sdg a charity or are they for-profit company for profit right they're what we call an investor owned utility company if you're an investor and you invest money into like a power company, what do you expect in return? What do you need?
00:22:58
Speaker
Profit. Yeah, you need money, your right? Just shift gears really quick. So, and this is also important. Like you need to make sure sometimes we talk above our customers. Like we we've been in the industry years and we start talking about like net metering or net billing. They don't know what kilowatt is, guys. Like slow it down.
00:23:14
Speaker
So Taylor, like if you look on your bill just to change gears really quick, have you seen that little like KWH? Kilowatt hour. yeah Yeah. Okay. That's just how they measure power. It's a unit of measurements. Like when you turn on your lights or you use air conditioning, you're using kilowatt hours. Does that make sense? That's what that is. Okay. Yeah. The more kilowatt hours you use, the more you pay.
00:23:34
Speaker
So like in San Diego, people pay between 45 and 80 cents for every kilowatt hour. Don't say that too loud. We're going to people flocking here when say that. know. I'm going leave my number after this call, guys. it Just text me, okay? It's the biggest secret. By the way, San Diego doesn't suck to live here, okay? So people pay 45 to 80 cents for every kilowatt hour. okay And you've seen like the different colors on your graph. Have you heard the phrase time of use? i think I heard about that. like That's like the four to nine okay PM, the peak times. Gotcha. That's when they charge the most. Okay. So you're on time of use. You buy your power by the kilowatt hour. Yeah. Looks like your last bill was about 200 bucks.
00:24:12
Speaker
Now, did you see what happened in January with the rates? Oh yeah. They like doubled or something. when they They went up 15%. And the reason they were able to go up 15%, what kind of agreement do you have with SDG&E? What kind of guarantees do they give you about their rates? I guess none.
00:24:29
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think have an agreement. And so the reason we're doing so many of these right now is right now you have no protection. You have no safety and you're not protected against rate inflation.
00:24:42
Speaker
The rates just went up 15%. They've averaged an eight to 10% increase the last decade. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. Do you remember seeing your bill in January with um your natural gas?
00:24:52
Speaker
And that was what doubled it. So this is a good thing for San Diego. Maybe it doesn't apply to the rest of the country, but it's worth the rest the state. But it's worth saying in January, what happened to your natural gas? It tripled. And when you got that natural gas bill in January from SDG, e what did you do?
00:25:06
Speaker
ah Threw it in the trash. I paid out yeah what has to pay it. yeah Yeah. And you paid it. Why? Oh, cause I guess didn't want my guests shut off. So you was using it. Yeah. So if they double or triple your power rate tomorrow, are you going to run your house by candlelight?
00:25:22
Speaker
Probably not. Right. You have to pay it. And the problem right now is you have no protections. You have no agreements. And so you can agree with me on this, probably that or contracts or agreements, they're a benefit to the consumer as long as they protect you. Yeah, I guess that's true. that make sense? Yeah. So agreements are actually a good thing, right? So, so what am I setting them up for? I'm setting them up like, Hey, when I'm going over the agreement with Sunrun, I'm not like scared to dance around it. I'm like, no, this is the agreement. This is the best part.
00:25:52
Speaker
This is what protects you. Remember we talked about this right now. What agreement do you have with SDG? Well, none. How's that working for you? Yeah. not great yeah right because you have no safety no protection no guarantees now taylor you guys you live in a nice house you can afford san diego you're obviously really good with money and this is maybe a silly question but like i'm assuming you guys like to be in control of your money and know where your money's going right you like to be able like budget and plan ahead yes do you know what you're going to pay for power the next five years no idea right Yeah, you can't know because there's no guarantees on SDGs rates. So the best part about solar, the whole reason we're doing so many of these right now and all your neighbors are getting solar is they have a protection on the rate and they actually protect your rate for the next 25 years. And it's all written out in the agreement. It's all spelled out and they put it all in writing. Isn't that cool?
00:26:45
Speaker
That's why we do so many of these. Now the home has to qualify. We can't do every home. So it took me, what, maybe five minutes, 10 minutes. that's Yeah. So anyone listen that? i think You got to rewind that stuff because that's a thousand installs using those lines, right?
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah. and I mean, that's I think, too, like that's selling right in California. We haven't had to like sell. We just show up and it's like, yeah, you say 50 percent. yeah And you like connect with the homeowner with batteries. You're going to have to raise the rates you charge to make money, to make good commissions. You can't show people big savings. So you're selling 27, 30, 35 cent, 38 cent PPA.
00:27:24
Speaker
If you don't sell the problem, they're going to look at that. They're going to say, that's about what I pay now. I'm not interested. To transition away from that, now check this out. When I'm going through the program, so I go through the problem, now i'm going to go through like the solution and benefit. A couple quick lines and let's move on and talk about something else.
00:27:41
Speaker
You need to set your customer up for a bill swap because you want to charge the highest rate possible because you deserve it. like You deserve to have a lucrative life and like get paid for the value that you're bringing to Snova or Sunrun or whoever you're running a PPA through. And so you should sell profitably.
00:27:58
Speaker
To do that in an NEM3 world, you have to be able to sell value and long-term rate protection. And you have to find different value streams. You can't lean on selling 40%, 50% savings.
Effective Sales Techniques
00:28:10
Speaker
So I taught you a little bit how to set your customer up. um One quick note and one thing that I always go over with the problem. I forgot this and then we'll move on. okay The way that I wrap up the problem. Well, when I'm telling all that to the customer, I say, listen, the cycle that's happening right now, and you've seen this happen, I'll write this out like a circle.
00:28:26
Speaker
A lot of your neighbors right now are switching to solar. You've noticed that, right? Yeah. I've seen it going up a lot last year. yeah Every time someone switches to solar, SDG&E loses that customer.
00:28:37
Speaker
So when they lose a customer, what are they losing? money They're losing revenue. Sure. So all right I'll draw a little arrow and say losing revenue. Now, is SDG a charity or a for-profit company? For-profit. They have to make what? And so every time they lose revenue, which by the way, in California, all the new construction, all the new homes being built are actually required to have solar.
00:28:58
Speaker
So now SDG is not getting any new homes and they're losing revenue every time someone's solar. If you're a for-profit company and you're owned by investors, what's the only way to make up for that loss of revenue?
00:29:09
Speaker
Charge more. You raise the rates. Yeah. That's it. That's the only thing they can do. And then i'll I'll draw an arrow, say raise rates. And guess what happens, Taylor, when they raise the rates 15%.
00:29:20
Speaker
Do you think less people go solar or more people switch to solar? and probably more You get it. And then I'll finish the circle, draw an arrow, and I'll just circle it over and over and say, okay, this cycle is happening right now. People are switching to solar. SDGs lose revenue.
00:29:34
Speaker
They're going to raise their rates. More people are switching to solar. What do you think, based on like what I just went over, what do you think is going to happen to the utility rates the next five years? Probably keep going. You get it. ah Yeah. Sometimes people ask me silly questions like, what if the power company lowers their rates 30%, 40%, 50%.
00:29:51
Speaker
And it's hard to not laugh because they just don't understand this cycle, but you get it, right? So what am I doing, guys? it's good He's telling me that the rates are going up. I'm just telling him what's happening. And he's saying, based on that, the rates are going to skyrocket.
00:30:05
Speaker
Hopefully we can help you out. I don't know if the home would qualify or not. The cool thing about this program is it's fully funded. So for the homes that qualify, we put the panels up at no cost and then those homes just get a cheaper rate for power. Last thing, then we'll move on. Those homes just get ah a cheaper rate for power. and And you probably know this, but no one saves money going solar the first year. Yeah. your bill Your bill is fine anyways. Like, you're not worried. Like, no matter what they pay, I'll be like, your bill's fine. You pay, oh, you pay 200 bucks a month. Like, that's nothing. Oh, no, it's it's actually a crazy hike. Yeah, it's called anti-selling, right? What you don't want to do is like, your bill's so high, the rates have gone up so much. And they'll be like, no, our rates haven't gone up yeah
00:30:43
Speaker
But if you're like, yeah, you this bill's not high. and you guys You only pay 500 bucks a month for power. it's like You're not losing sleep at night. You guys do really, really well. You're not worried about a four or $500 power bill. That's not why I'm here. No one that does solar saves like a ton of money the first year.
00:30:58
Speaker
No one's usually doing it. But if you could go back 10 years, do you remember what gas prices were 10 years ago? Yeah, crazy cheap. Yeah, order or something two bucks. yeah If there was a program 10 years ago, where you could get all your gas at $2.40 instead of $2. And they put a yearly cap, a very small cap on how that gas price could increase over time.
00:31:20
Speaker
At the time, there's probably a lot of people that wouldn't have done it. yeah They're like, I'm not paying more for my gas. Like it's two bucks. I'm not paying $2 and 40 cents. But knowing what you know now, what are gas prices nowadays?
00:31:32
Speaker
Five bucks, five, six bucks a gallon. So knowing what you know now, if you could go back and lock in your gas prices at $2 and 40 cents, would you've done it? Yeah, no doubt. That's what solar is.
00:31:43
Speaker
So if we can lock in your current power price a little bit more or about the same as what you're paying now and give you protection over 25 years, it's no brainer. If your home qualifies like exceptionally well and you get a lot of sun, it I mean, this is rare, but it can even come back a little bit less than what you're paying now.
00:32:02
Speaker
And if it if it comes back like, you know, more than what you're paying, that happens a lot. And most of my customers still opt into the program because we protect the rate and it can only go up a very small amount each year.
00:32:14
Speaker
For the next 25 years, like you have rate stability. You know exactly what you'll pay the next two and a half decades. If it comes back the same, take me to a steak dinner because you're you're swapping to a protected rate and doesn't cost you any more a month.
00:32:27
Speaker
If it comes back less, then what you're paying now, it's a no brainer, because it costs you nothing to switch. yeah It lowers your bill and gives you rate protection for as long as you're here.
00:32:38
Speaker
So when I pull up the design, I haven't looked at it yet. But when I pulled the design, they'll show me how much sun you guys get. And it'll show me what rate the home qualified for, and then what your monthly costs would be for solar and to be able to get ready your power bill. Okay, so now, okay, they're paying 200 bucks, you show them a $190 PPA, and you're like, high five, dude. You're not going to believe this. so You guys must get a really good sun.
00:33:04
Speaker
feel like stoked about it. You guys get a lot of sun. And they're like, oh, yeah, DR, roots in the sun all day. I'm like, this came back. Like, I can't believe this. Came back, you guys are paying an average of 200 and now your average 195. It's less than what you're paying now.
00:33:18
Speaker
They just feel like they hit the jackpot. would you say that They just won the jackpot, dude. Right? Because it's all about framing, guys. It's all about framing. It's all about managing expectations. People want to feel good. It's not about the deal. It's about how they feel. It's not about the deal. It's about how they feel. Do they feel confident in you? Are you a 10 out of 10?
00:33:39
Speaker
They like you. Do they feel confident about the company that you're setting them up with? Nova, Sunrun, Everbright. Like, have you built up the company? And then do they feel confident about the deal? yeah You know, do they, and notice how I said, do they feel confident about the deal? yeah Not is the deal a 10 out of 10? Yeah. But do they feel confident about
Networking and Personal Connections
00:33:59
Speaker
the deal? And if you are a good salesperson and you have a good process and you're framing things the right way, they're going to feel like the deal is a million dollar deal. are They're going to be freaking stoked.
00:34:10
Speaker
yeah Anyways, I can talk about it all day. yeah you know we only have so much time. Hopefully, that added some value to some of you guys. yeah If you guys have questions about NEM3, you can text me. I'm going to give you the same number my wife calls me on. okay You can text me. It's area code 530-306-7948. Text my personal cell. It's
00:34:34
Speaker
Text me, call me, whatever. i love making connections in the industry. Like that's how me and Taylor became good friends is we, we made a connection five years ago and we're still friends. Yeah. You know, we work for different companies, but dude, we're friends. Yeah. And so anyways, if you guys have questions about any M three or anything, feel free to hit me up. If you're in San Diego, we can grab lunch or something. Love it.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you might have to call him a few times to get ahold of him. This guy's, this guy's a busy man. Yeah. I'm sure he'll answer. I deserve that. for Just say you heard on the Solar Printer podcast and you promise you're going to answer the people that come to you from the podcast, right, Mike? Yeah, that's right. Okay, good.
00:35:09
Speaker
But no, guys, so for our listeners, this this dude literally just gave us the formula he's used to close over a thousand deals. I don't think we've ever had anyone that can come on the podcast and say, I've closed a thousand deals and this is how I've done it.
00:35:23
Speaker
So if you've closed less than 1000 deals, you probably would be wise to take a few, um you know, few lines from what this guy just said. so appreciate you sharing this. Not many people give like the exact word for word track they use. and What I love about it. It's like, we were just doing a roleplay. And I felt like emotionally like, involved in what you're saying. i was like getting into it. And I'm not even like playing around. It's so good to get the customers involved, yeah you know, like get them to tell you why the rates are going to go up. yeah If you do that, guys, selling so easy. yeah
00:35:58
Speaker
had a little old lady, Linda K. Van Buren or something. She was telling me like at the end of my presentation, she was like, yeah, this is just so simple and easy.
00:36:09
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, Linda, I've said simple and easy 10 times, right? Everything I talk about with customers, I'm like, yeah, this is just so simple. Like, it's so simple. It's really easy. The whole process, I just make it really simple for you guys. And solar used to be confusing, and now it's really simple and easy. Cost you nothing, and you just get a cheaper rate for power. yeah yeah So anyways.
00:36:33
Speaker
It's just like, if you qualify, though, that's the question. The hard takeaway. Yeah. I love it. So yeah, I'm going to go back and listen to that. I think everyone that's listening this, you should go back and listen to those, the words, the tracks you just gave us. So appreciate that, Mike. And so, yeah, um just to transition a little bit, that was some deep selling that, ah yeah, I didn't think we're going jump into that soon, but we, yeah, we, we brought the heat early on. You never know with me, dude. I'll just go off on tangents. Yeah. So have to keep the reins on this guy. hit a bit Wild Mustang taking off everybody knows this nuggets
Overcoming Burnout and Embracing Challenges
00:37:07
Speaker
right there. But I wanted to ask you, then we'll start wrapping up here. But you've been in this industry longer than I think anyone I've had on the podcast.
00:37:15
Speaker
Um, I don't know if if I've had anyone that's, I guess, Michael O'Donnell, he's been doing it forever, but he's like 50, 60 years old, but, um, 11 years. So what's your secret? Do you have any tips for our listeners? Cause a lot of people get burned out of this and they're like, I know there's good money in solar, but especially where you've seen the changes. Most people like the thing you were saying in the beginning where you had to get stuff, notarized, most of people would be like, ah, screw it. I'm done. i'm not going to deal with this.
00:37:41
Speaker
Now, same thing's happening now. We got net net muting. And I know lots of people that are like, I'm either going to go to different market or just get out of solar. So how do you even with changes going on? What's your secret? How do you keep such a good attitude? How do you keep the longevity? You have any tips on that?
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you asked. The first thing is understanding that challenge is opportunity. Okay. Problems to be solved is opportunity to add value and get paid. Yeah. So if there's never any problem, like when NEM3 came out, I said, good.
00:38:12
Speaker
I know people are going to leave yeah California. I know people aren't going to have a good strategy. I know people aren't going to be able to handle it. Well, guess what? I am. Yeah. And I'm going to recruit everyone that needs good leadership. Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
So like the first thing to understand is any challenge you come to in life, if you view that challenge as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to stand out, to be the best version of yourself, you'll watch your whole life change, period.
00:38:41
Speaker
So challenge is opportunity. If you look at, you know, the obstacle the way by Ryan Holiday, like read that book, like there's, there's a lot of good stuff out there, but it's a mentality. Guys, burnout doesn't exist.
00:38:53
Speaker
That's not a real thing. What's happening in your brain is this, okay? It's psychological. What's happening is you're eating your broccoli so that you can have your ice cream.
00:39:03
Speaker
If you're only eating your broccoli so that you can have your ice cream, you hate your broccoli, okay? You follow me so far? yeah If you're like, I'm going to knock doors. I just want to get off the doors. Like I just, I need, I'm going knock doors for two years so that I can do x Y, and Z, or I'm going to knock really hard this quarter so that I can make x amount of money.
00:39:25
Speaker
The problem with that mentality is you're doing, it actually makes you hate knocking doors yeah because you're doing it for a reward or a goal. I want you to stop what you're doing right now and listen to me.
00:39:37
Speaker
Google or YouTube, Andrew Huberman, okay talking about um friction, leaning into friction to create dopamine. So what's cool is when I heard this podcast, like within the last year, i was like, holy shit.
00:39:53
Speaker
This is the mentality I adopted 10 years ago without understanding the psychology behind it. I just lucked into it. But what I told myself from the day that I started knocking doors, I would repeat the mantra and I'd really believe like I love doing hard things.
00:40:09
Speaker
It's just who I am. I do hard things. I'll tell you a quick story not to get sidetracked. Okay. I was in St. George, you know, St. George, well, Southern Utah, there's a place called Dixie rock at Dixie rock. There's a little narrow gap that you can walk up.
00:40:24
Speaker
And if you're an adult, you have to like suck in your belly and like squeeze through. And if you're a fat adult, you can't fit. Yeah. My six year old daughter okay was walking up it by herself. I was up top. She didn't know I was up top.
00:40:36
Speaker
I was videoing her and no one else was around. And she was repeating. She was saying brands do hard things. Brands do hard things. Six years old. Brands do hard things. A big smile.
00:40:51
Speaker
Right? our dad And so listen to me, guys, the mentality that you adopt will affect everyone that you're around. It'll affect your kids. But most importantly, it'll change your life.
00:41:03
Speaker
And so two things. If you adopt the mentality that you're the type of person that does hard things, what will happen is as you lean into friction, as you do hard things,
00:41:14
Speaker
And you tell yourself, I love doing hard things. This is who I am. This is what I live for. You can actually create in your body and in your mind, you can create the release of dopamine.
00:41:24
Speaker
So that actually physiologically, your body creates dopamine and you feel good when you're doing hard things. Think of David Goggins. Yeah.
00:41:35
Speaker
right? He has this mentality. Sure. Right? He does really hard things. And he tells himself that's who he is. And that's what he lives for. And so he he loves it. Right. And so now instead of eating your broccoli to get your ice cream, you love your broccoli, you do that like do that broccoli with some butter on it is freaking delicious. And I love it. Right. And so from the beginning of my career, to answer your question, how do you maintain longevity? How do you avoid burnout? Well, burnout doesn't exist, guys. It's just between your ears. Right.
00:42:04
Speaker
And so if you shift your mentality and from the beginning, I told myself, I love knocking doors. I love the autonomy that this brings my family. I love the income opportunity that I can create. i love being outside. I love not working for someone.
00:42:18
Speaker
I love interacting with new people every day and having different experiences and making cool connections. I love helping my customers. And I love the fact that it's hard because if it weren't hard, they wouldn't pay us what they pay us. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
00:42:33
Speaker
So check it out. If you adopt that mentality and watch the video, Andrew Huberman, leading and Leaning into Friction, that'll change your life. If you adopt that mentality, no matter what you do in this life, whether you're knocking doors or you're pursuing some other career, if you lean into friction and you tell yourself that you really love doing hard things, you'll watch your whole life change.
00:42:54
Speaker
Wow, that's powerful. It's cool. fire That's awesome. Yeah, well, we've all heard, you know, little mantras we tell ourselves on the doors, but I love what you're saying about just like becoming those things because it's like, you know, I got the old trick. It's like, oh, I like myself. I love my job between doors, but.
00:43:11
Speaker
I think a lot of times I've been in doing this almost seven years now. And it's true. A lot of times I get in that mindset where I'm going to push hard this month. Now I'll relax for a little bit or whatever, but it's just like, yeah, becoming a different person, I guess. Right. And just like, If you just learn to love embodying it, it yeah if you just love it and you love sales and you love closing people and you love meeting new people, then it's not a chore.
00:43:34
Speaker
Then it's like, I'm choosing to be here. And as soon as you step into choice, now you're empowered. yeah Now you're you're operating from a point of like empowerment and choice rather than obligation and duty.
00:43:47
Speaker
No one wants to be like obligated and duty to go knock doors.
Leadership and Team Expansion
00:43:52
Speaker
yeah right like I'm choosing that. And everyone that's listening to this podcast, you chose to work where you work. And you chose this career to go sell solar.
00:44:01
Speaker
So like, go make it happen. You know what I mean? And I'll say one other thing. Like, they did a study. And people that quit smoking are like 100x more likely to quit smoking when they identify as someone who doesn't smoke anymore. So like, I'm no i'm i'm not the the type of person that smokes.
00:44:20
Speaker
Does make sense? Yeah. Instead of being like, yeah, I i quit smoking or i'm I'm trying to give it up. It's like, no, i'm I'm not the type of person that smokes cigarettes. It's not my character. I'm not the type of person that quits.
00:44:31
Speaker
I'm not the type of person that goes home at 5 p.m. because I had a hard day. Like someone slammed a door on me. I'm the type of person that like works until I say I was going to work. That's just who I am. And so I don't go home early.
00:44:43
Speaker
Right. And so, yeah, those mental like they're not even mental tricks. These these um what's the word I'm looking for? Like the way that you think about it and the way that you train yourself to think about it can change your whole life and like your perception. yeah and you really will feel fulfilled and be happy in whatever you're doing and that's what i hope for for everyone that's listening to this podcast yeah like we want you guys like feel fulfilled to be happy to have amazing careers in whatever you end up doing yeah you know so hopefully it's helpful yeah and i think just in life in general like you can apply that to anything yeah like you said just quitting smoking knocking doors like anything so that's powerful
00:45:23
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, Mike, we could be here all day, man. This is like pure gold right here. But I think the last big thing, big to do that I wanted to ask you, and then we'll probably start wrapping up here is you ran a massive team. You were over, I believe, like four offices when you're at Sunrun.
00:45:40
Speaker
And then I know you're over a ton of people now too. And so, um, like being someone that's led just like big organizations, big teams, I definitely haven't been able to do that yet to this point in my career. And so I'm curious, like, what are some of the biggest lessons you learned? Or, uh, I don't know, like someone like myself, I'm, I've ran lots of smaller teams.
00:46:00
Speaker
But like, what is it? what What would you say it's the difference between running like a small team, like a massive organization or what are some lessons he learns in all those years? Well, think the way that you make the jump from running like a really a smaller team, like seven to 10 guys, even 20 guys, I would consider like a small team to running 80, 100 man teams. Yeah.
00:46:23
Speaker
Is you have to learn to grow by multiplication and not addition. Yeah. And so the only way that you can do that is you have to develop other leaders.
00:46:33
Speaker
And so I really practice the 80-20 rule when I'm trying to build teams. And I'll give 80% of my time, effort, and attention to the top 20% of the guys that have the most potential.
00:46:47
Speaker
And then I'll really paint the vision for them. Because if it's just me trying to go the grow the team, right? And no one else has bought into that vision. No one else knows what their path is to grow financially and within the industry and within the office. If I'm doing it by myself, that's arduous work.
00:47:05
Speaker
true It's going to take a long time to like recruit individuals. If I have a team of 10 people and three of those people, two to three of those people have leadership potential, I'm going to pull those people into the room and say, hey guys, here's the vision. We're going to take this team to 100 reps.
00:47:21
Speaker
You guys are the top three reps right now. I want you guys to help me run this office. Okay. And here's how we're going to do it. Here's what we need to do. Here's the game plan. And I want you guys and here's the opportunity financially. This is actually what it looks like for you. And this is exactly what's going to happen.
00:47:37
Speaker
That's called giving vision. And so good leaders are visionary. I'm far from perfect and I don't think I'm like the best leader ever. What I try to do is I try to really give vision to the top 20 to 30% of the people that I'm leading so that they're also helping me build. And it's not, it doesn't have to be, it's not an exchange. It's not like, going to give you money to help me. It's like, no, no, no, let's go build this together. We're going to build something really special and you're going to be a part of it. yeah And we're going to work together forever. Right. And I like genuinely feel that way. yeah Right.
00:48:11
Speaker
So I think I think that's one lesson I've learned is too many leaders try to grow individually and by addition rather than by multiplication. If I have three or four leaders that are doing the same thing that I'm doing, I'm going to go I'm going to grow three to four hundred percent faster. Does that make sense? I like that. And so that's the number one thing. And the number one mistake I see people make. The second thing is really been be sincere with people.
00:48:36
Speaker
I think too many leaders try to put on like this front that they're perfect. Yeah, you know, and it really limits like the ability to connect with people. And so for me, I try to be really genuine with my people.
00:48:48
Speaker
Like I'm far from perfect. When I make mistakes, I'll apologize and just own up to them. You know, and I make a lot of mistakes. And I have my career. No show on podcast. No show on podcast. No, dude I'm just, I'm so far from perfect guys. Like, you know, maybe you listen to podcasts and Oh, this guy's a thousand installs. It's like, man, um, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, not just in business, but my personal life. And, you know All that we can do, you know i don't know if people are religious in this podcast, but for me, i am religious and I have faith in Jesus Christ. and All that we can do is like repent and do our best to like get back on track yeah to be the person that we want to become. The way that relates to leadership is people see that humility. When you make mistakes and you own them and say, hey, dude, I screwed up. Like I just made a mistake the way I treated you or the way I handled that pay situation or the fact that I didn't get back to you or the way that I handled that situation with you in a rep. Like I dropped the ball on that.
00:49:45
Speaker
I'm really sorry for that, man. I'm far from perfect. um I'm going to make it up to you. Let's go out on the doors all day tomorrow and go knock together. You know? awesome So I think that sincerity from a leader, I think people really appreciate sincerity and I think they really appreciate empathy. And that's the last thing I'll touch on.
00:50:02
Speaker
i think as I've gotten older, I've developed a lot more empathy. as you go through hard things in your life, and you know if you're in your early 20s, you probably don't have as much empathy as people in their late 30s have.
00:50:15
Speaker
Because what happens is you see people go through really hard things. You see people struggle with addiction. You see people go through divorces. You see people like have their parents have health issues or they have serious health issues. And you really develop empathy, which is the ability to see it from someone, see it and feel it from someone else's point of view. yeah And so now one thing I wasn't very good at early on in my leadership career was having empathy for other people and really connecting with them. And I think 10 years later, um that's one of my greatest strengths is being able to like have a chat with someone and talk about life and really communicate with them and connect with them on a like genuine, sincere level, be able to just listen to their story.
00:50:59
Speaker
feel empathy for them and tell them that and then give some advice based on the mistakes that I've made and what I've learned from those mistakes. You know, that's the one benefit of screwing up a ton.
00:51:13
Speaker
You've learned a lot, man. yeah And I've learned a hell of a
Community and Living Fully
00:51:16
Speaker
lot. So yeah, so those three things, man, grow by multiplication, develop empathy and be genuine and sincere and really connect with your people. i love that. Yeah, that's cool. Like, yeah, you know, we go to the same church and everything. And like, I've known you kind of church background too. And I remember you telling stories, just like helping guys and like their, you know, personalized family stuff going on. Remember one time we talked about a guy that was sales numbers were going down and you went and like helped him out some family stuff or whatever.
00:51:47
Speaker
So yeah, it's cool to see that like, seems like you're really a person that's helping you guys grow just not only in ourselves, but in their personal lives and having their back. You talk about empathy. So that's cool. And I think that's what true leaders are doing is they're having their guys backs and helping them grow in multiple areas of their lives. It's not just sales and everything. Yeah, I think if you're an aspiring leader or a leader on this on this podcast listening in, um you know 10 years from now 20 years from now 30 years from now you won't remember how much money you made this year but you will remember like taylor and i will be friends for life dude yeah you know what i mean like that's a lot more important than a paycheck and so it's not always about the red line you know like stop chasing red lines and go partner up with really good people the reason i didn't start my own company in january when i left Sunrun, I was like hellbent. I was like, of course, I'm going to start my own company. Like there's, it's by far the most money in that. Like i can structure it this this way and that way. i'm going to make a lot of money. And and then I met with John Soriano. I met with Legacy.
00:52:53
Speaker
And there's a lot of really good people there, man. yeah And I was so impressed with John. And he had his seven values laid out for his Valor region in Southern California. And I thought to myself, what do i really want?
00:53:05
Speaker
It's not money, dude. I'm not going to miss a meal. Either of you yeah either as most people on this podcast. It's not about the red line, right? What I recognize is really for me, the most fulfilling thing is working with people that I love and that like, I want to go to battle with and that I want to help grow and that I can learn from that can learn from me.
00:53:24
Speaker
And so dude, I got really lucky to partner with John and, and the guys at legacy and, and just help kind of run that division. And, um, lot of really, really good people. And I'm really happy where I'm at. And, And I would suggest anyone listening to this podcast, if you're one of those lone wolf kind of guys or you're at like a small dealer, like think about partnering up with someone bigger just for that community, just for that culture, because that's what life's about. It's not just about the red line. It's not just about a paycheck. Like and you should show up to an office of 80 people and feel that community and feel that culture and like be excited to go into the office. yeah you know, and like rub shoulders with different people and learn from different people, especially during any M three. Um, and some of the changes in California, it's more important than ever that you're like really partnered up with someone that has good leadership and has experience and has good culture right now. Yeah. so I'll just leave it at that. I love it. Boom. Plug hashtag. ta i know
00:54:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I've heard from a lot of heavy hitters that like dealers, you know, they're becoming less and less. And I think it's going to get to the point. Like, that's why, yeah, currently I'm and with a company that's doing their own installs because, yeah, it was just, you know, you know about some of my issues was having at dealers. Like, I'm with a lot of money, unfortunately. Yeah. Taylor likes to work at companies that may or may not pay them. And I told them, i I said, my number one criteria to when I look for a company is does payroll hit every Friday?
00:54:48
Speaker
If it's a yes, then I'll think about working. So I worked at Sunrun Direct, never missed a paycheck there. Legacy, huge company, haven't missed a paycheck yet. yes I'm happy for that. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:59
Speaker
Yeah, learn from my mistake. Thank you for getting paid. i thought It happens. And that's the dark side of the industry, unfortunately. A lot of dealers go through stuff like that. so Well, Mike, it's been awesome having you on. And um I mean, next time we'll have I mean, I almost just handcuffed you this room and I kept you here all day just because like you never know when you're going to get this guy in a room. Hey, dude, we coordinated. finally did it, dude. You had to wait two hours. But hey, we got some sushi out of it. o It was a great night, man. Thanks for having me. For sure. Well, you delivered. So guys, go reach out to Mike. do you want to give your phone number one one more time? I'll give one more time, man. Just text me. like This is the same number my wife calls me on, guys. like Just hit me up. It's my personal cell. It's 530-306-7948. 530-306-7948. Hit me up. Okay. So guys, shoot shoot them a text. Not too many people give their phone numbers on the podcast. So don't blow them up, but make sure you let them know you heard about them on the Sorepreneur Podcast. hey I know someone out there is going to add me to like a hundred. like
00:55:58
Speaker
spam whereas i'm gonna get blown like i'll have to change my number because of this just so i'm gonna put in some text it'll probably be danny pesce dude that's probably a little bit honestly yeah so maybe don't do that but uh mike it's been awesome having you on we'll have to do it in the future when i can track you down again but i appreciate you for bringing the heat today you definitely deliver delivered and uh looking forward to seeing what you'll do next hey can i give one last quote yeah so before this is like one of my favorite quotes that I just heard recently yeah and it really, really, really resonated with me. So I just want to share it really quick partner and then we'll end this thing. okay we We all have two lives.
00:56:37
Speaker
Okay. This is from Confucius. We all have two lives and the second life begins when we realize that we only have one life to live. We all have two lives and the second life begins the day that we realize we only have one life to live. And so like go go out today and like live life to 100%. If you're at work, if you're on doors, be on doors and like go hard. Give it 100%. As soon as you walk into your house with your family, give your family 100%.
00:57:08
Speaker
Be there, be present with your kids. You know what i'm saying? Call someone from your family that you haven't talked to in a few years. Like bury the hatchet with someone like today, right now, think of someone that you have resentment resentments towards someone that has resentment towards you and like call them right now. Like as soon as you're done with this podcast, call them and bury the hatchet, dude.
00:57:28
Speaker
Like life's too short. You only have one life to live, guys. So that's it. Boom. Love it. So guys, Thanks for listening to the podcast. Do everything that Mike said. Go listen to his lines on selling.
00:57:39
Speaker
Live life to the fullest. Keep crushing it. So thanks again for coming, Mike. Let's go. so some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:57:56
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called SolarScout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:58:09
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:58:34
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:58:47
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:59:01
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety.
00:59:26
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45
00:59:45
Speaker
Currently, Soul Society is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to soulciety.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to soulciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.