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 how 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: All right, what's going on, everybody?
Speaker: We are here in Petras, Sardinia, Italy, hanging out, and we have the privilege of hearing from someone that is one of the OGs.
Speaker: of I would say door to door, been in pest control.
Speaker: He's in solar now, so just knows all the ins and outs of, you could say everything when it comes to door to door.
Speaker: So we're honored to have the one and the only Tom Caron on with us today.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on, Tom.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Fun to do it in this setting.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: It's a unique environment hanging out.
Speaker: I don't think I've ever had this type of backdrop.
Speaker: So if you're listening to this audio, maybe go check out the YouTube version when we drop it because we've got the ocean right behind us.
Speaker: We're at this beautiful villa here.
Speaker: I'm just wrapping up a couple's retreat with Jen's Bunnell.
Speaker: And it's been all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What do you what have you thought of the retreat so far, Tom?
Speaker: It's been impactful.
Speaker: Very cool.
Speaker: And this is how I got to meet Taylor and hit it off.
Speaker: And I'm just excited to be here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, no, we've learned a ton of things.
Speaker: And cool to see that even guys like you, Tom, that, you know, like super successful, that to me, it seems like you got all the answers and everything.
Speaker: But I think that's what I see guys that are already great.
Speaker: They know that there's always more to learn.
Speaker: And
Speaker: ways to improve, especially in relationships.
Speaker: And it seems like you keep coming to stuff like this, even though to guys like me, you've already hit like the level of success.
Speaker: No, you never stop learning.
Speaker: You never stop growing.
Speaker: And that's where, you know, you get stagnant if you think you know it all.
Speaker: And I always try to invest time into betterment programs and especially when it comes to the most important relationship you'll ever have, which is your marriage.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's been great.
Speaker: It's been impactful.
Speaker: And we've made some really great connections with others here.
Speaker: And it's just been a privilege all around.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: So let's get into your story.
Speaker: So we're going to be talking about Tom has a pretty, pretty unique story of coming over from pest control.
Speaker: Now he is the CSO over at Aveo Solar, one of the partners and founders of that company.
Speaker: I'm blowing that up.
Speaker: And so, yeah, we're going to get into his story.
Speaker: He's got a lot.
Speaker: I mean, he's got perspectives from, I think, every level from rep, manager, owner, CSO.
Speaker: So cool to dive into that.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Um, do you want to start just with your, I don't know how you got into door to door start with how you got into pest control and then we'll sure, you know, talk about solar after that.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Um, yeah, I've been doing this a hot minute.
Speaker: Um, how old are you?
Speaker: Uh, 31 31.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you were seven when I started knocking doors back in 2000.
Speaker: Um, I got recruited out of, uh, Rexburg, Idaho.
Speaker: Um, essentially someone just, uh, knocked on my college, uh,
Speaker: door and invited me and my roommate to a free pizza meeting.
Speaker: And I was working all sorts of crazy jobs at the time as a student.
Speaker: I was an early morning janitor, worked at a potato factory.
Speaker: Donated plasma, was working at a call center called Melaleuca at the time.
Speaker: So just doing crazy jobs to make ends meet.
Speaker: And when the opportunity presented itself to knock doors to make money, I was like, no.
Speaker: I'm not going to do that, but I'll go get free pizza with my roommates and went to the information meeting and actually met someone there that had done it that I knew my freshman year.
Speaker: that had done it the previous summer.
Speaker: And so it's someone I knew and trusted and loved and we just had lost contact.
Speaker: And he had great experience with it.
Speaker: He shot me straight that this isn't a get rich quick scam.
Speaker: This is going to be a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and tears.
Speaker: And so decided to go out and sell pest control with work and pest control my first summer.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, classic.
Speaker: That was very similar to my story.
Speaker: Is that?
Speaker: Pizza, plasma.
Speaker: It's like still got the plasma scar.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I was donor of the month in Rexburg.
Speaker: You could do it twice a week.
Speaker: I didn't miss.
Speaker: Easy money.
Speaker: Battles, cars out there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But then, yeah, I mean, being broke like that, anytime there's free pizza, like, yeah, all right, I'm there.
Speaker: It still works today.
Speaker: We do pizza meetings all over the country on campuses.
Speaker: We hand out flyers and advertise for a information pizza meeting.
Speaker: And I guess it still works today.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Classic.
Speaker: But yeah, so I think, yeah.
Speaker: And as you know, I started in pest control too and did two summers of that before I got into solar.
Speaker: But you're, I mean, you were in pest forever.
Speaker: How many years of pest did you do?
Speaker: So I'm still in pest today.
Speaker: We still have a large pest control company all throughout Canada and the United States called Insight Pest Solutions.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I replaced myself as CEO of Vantage Marketing, which is the recruiting arm of Insight Pest Solutions.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And we also sell for other clients outside of our own brand Insight, but primarily Insight.
Speaker: And so
Speaker: That's still up and running today.
Speaker: So I've been doing pest control now.
Speaker: Gosh, I guess it's 24 years.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Love the space.
Speaker: But it was time for a change and to mix things up.
Speaker: I was kind of just...
Speaker: feeling stagnant uh i don't want to say i conquered the space but we've done very well in the pest control space and um wanted to maybe try to go conquer one more industry before i hang up the sneakers and go do something else nice so here's a here's a interesting question um you know i came from pest control
Speaker: And I'm sure you've seen guys maybe start solar just out of the gates, not do pest control.
Speaker: But from your perspective, having been in both industries now, do you think it's pretty valuable for someone new that's never knocked doors before?
Speaker: Do you think it's better for them to start with maybe a different industry like pest control or solar?
Speaker: And the reason I ask that is because as I'm sure you've seen, there's a lot of lazy solar reps to where they're knocking maybe a couple hours a day.
Speaker: calling it good, fat and happy waiting for those leads.
Speaker: I think it's a big blessing to have sold a product like pest control or alarms or dish to where you've got to grind.
Speaker: There are no leads.
Speaker: You create your own leads.
Speaker: You eat what you kill and you got to go knock seven, eight, nine hours a day to be successful and to do well and make the kind of money that, that you would want to make in the, in the door to door space.
Speaker: And so I have found those that have,
Speaker: grinded on the doors, whether it's pest control, alarms, dish, tend to do better.
Speaker: They're not the type to just sit back and wait for leads to come.
Speaker: They get out and create their own leads.
Speaker: They self-gen.
Speaker: And obviously they're just used to having to grind hard on the doors.
Speaker: And I do think that's one of the major
Speaker: pain points in the door-to-door space in solar is that we're all on the crack pipe wanting leads.
Speaker: And when they don't come, most guys don't have the, or girls have the discipline or grit to get out there and create your own leads.
Speaker: But in those other verticals in the door-to-door space, you have no other choice.
Speaker: So I think it brings tremendous value, experience,
Speaker: I'm not saying you have to start with another industry to do solar, but if you've done something else, you've got a little bit of a competitive advantage over those that are just sitting in the car begging for leads.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Yeah, we love, I know for me, I love pest control reps, recruiting them to come be a setter for me.
Speaker: The grinders.
Speaker: Just because I know these guys, they're used to knocking like eight to 10 hours a day.
Speaker: Hustle.
Speaker: Or more, yeah.
Speaker: And so, like if they can bring that same hustle over to solar,
Speaker: Like very few of them will not have success.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was one of my thoughts when I first entered the solar space three years ago is I knew enough about solar.
Speaker: I've seen two big waves come over my career.
Speaker: I wasn't ignorant to it.
Speaker: And I knew, you know, the setter closer model was primarily how most door to door,
Speaker: companies got their business.
Speaker: And I did figure, man, if I transitioned a lot of the pest control guys over to solar, we'd crush because our guys grind.
Speaker: They work hard.
Speaker: They get out there and pound it every day, seven, eight hours a day, six days a week.
Speaker: And sure enough, when we did pivot those that wanted to dabble solar or had gone on blitzes or just needed to scratch that itch, they hit the ground running and did very well.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I want to talk about how you transition to solar.
Speaker: But before that, something you told us the other day is that I didn't really understand the extent of is that you guys did a kind of unique model when it comes to pest control, where reps can almost start their own like, you know, office.
Speaker: Yeah, basically buy their own franchise, essentially sounds like of your company.
Speaker: And yeah, I thought it was cool when you're telling us about that, just how instead of making them, you know, competitors like them wanting to go out and start their own pest control company, you gave them the opportunity to basically start their own branch and have equity of it.
Speaker: And then still be like under the umbrella of the company, but not be like a competitor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, what led you to start that?
Speaker: And really, the main reason was me and my business partner, Shandon Cole, looked back at all of the pest control companies that today exist and how many of them started with us.
Speaker: And we're like, gosh, we need to find a way to where we can still win together, where we're better together than apart.
Speaker: And so we came up with a model.
Speaker: That's actually a model we've done since inception to where someone that's proven themselves, managed the team effectively, can recruit, does business the right way, has an appetite for entrepreneurship and wants to essentially own a piece of the pie.
Speaker: We give them a path to where they can own a piece of a location, a significant piece, and we'll run it, we'll fund it.
Speaker: and, uh, they just need to do what they do best, recruit and sell.
Speaker: Uh, they're a real owner.
Speaker: It's not a profit sharing.
Speaker: It's not an L tip.
Speaker: They're on the cap table.
Speaker: They get a K one.
Speaker: So it's real equity.
Speaker: And then we've got, uh, buyers lined up.
Speaker: If, uh,
Speaker: They want to flip that branch after three, four, five years and get a big payday.
Speaker: That opportunity is on the table or they can just keep the branch and let it cash flow.
Speaker: And it's been a great model for giving, you know, young entrepreneurs something to aspire to.
Speaker: But it's been really exciting.
Speaker: gratifying to see how many young millionaires that this program's created.
Speaker: If I go back through my Rolodex, I think there's 35 plus millionaires that we've created from this model where we sold a branch.
Speaker: And that means that's not how much they made over time.
Speaker: they got a lump sum of a million plus off an exit.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And that brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction to know that we were able to come up with a platform that could bless someone's lives like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that's so cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's something I've realized too is like, as I've been doing this now since 2012, long time, but it almost, I'm sure you can agree is as you've done it for so many years,
Speaker: It's almost core to see other people have success too.
Speaker: And that's kind of the next step is not only making money yourself, but seeing others have a ton of success.
Speaker: That's where they bring you true joy is young, young reps that came through your program that just started out as a young rookie, unsure of themselves, dropping their flyers on the doorstep, not knowing how to fill an agreement.
Speaker: All of a sudden,
Speaker: building large teams and becoming millionaires, multi-millionaires through the space.
Speaker: And that's what I love about door to door.
Speaker: I love just the opportunity it provides that, you know,
Speaker: you know, most of us probably wouldn't have been able to find otherwise, we would have probably got sucked into the machine and been a nine to five person, the door to door sales, expand your horizon and your vision of what you can do in life.
Speaker: And yeah, I just I love the space, love door to door sales.
Speaker: I
Speaker: Love all the companies.
Speaker: I'm not a hater on any company.
Speaker: I know what they go through on their side of the fence to run a successful summer sales company.
Speaker: It's not easy.
Speaker: It's very hard.
Speaker: And so anyone that has the grit and the wherewithal to go out and tackle this space, I respect you.
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: And yeah, anyone listening, I think that's kind of the next level is leading other people, growing teams just because.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: sometimes I get stagnant.
Speaker: If I'm, I've been with companies where there's not really like a leadership plan in place and just everyone's kind of fending for themselves.
Speaker: And it's a lot less motivating doing it by yourself and not having that growth.
Speaker: Um, it's fun to be, not seeing other people grow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely anyone listening to this.
Speaker: Um, if you are feeling like stagnant or you're not progressing, I think that's one of the best ways to not only grow more yourself, but help other people grow is, uh,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Trying to help other people.
Speaker: Great thought.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Have the same levels there.
Speaker: Achieve success.
Speaker: Um, but yeah.
Speaker: And so, uh, as we know you transitioned to solar, what has it been like a year now or, uh, about three years ago.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: decided that I was tired of losing top reps to solar.
Speaker: Reps that have been with me five, six, seven years were going on these solar blitzes and making crazy money and they were making crazy money in the pest space.
Speaker: But, you know, I...
Speaker: had great relationships with them, but they wanted to go scratch that itch and dabble and they were seeing great success in the solar space.
Speaker: And so I figured I could either keep watching top talent go out the door or create a platform to be in the space.
Speaker: And so we started a sales org three years ago to just
Speaker: learn it.
Speaker: I knew as eventually I always wanted to get into the install game because on pest control, we've always done our own brand where we facilitate the service.
Speaker: We're not just selling for other companies, but we service the customer.
Speaker: We like to have our hand on the wheel and have that control.
Speaker: And so I knew I wanted to eventually get into the EPC game, but want to just learn the space.
Speaker: So we started Vantage Solar.
Speaker: three years ago and just jumped in the deep end.
Speaker: I was blessed to have maintained a great relationship with almost five or six leaders that had left to go do solar.
Speaker: And because we had started a platform, we were able to get them back.
Speaker: And it was kind of a blessing in disguise because they had knowledge of the space that I didn't have.
Speaker: So to have the maturity to let
Speaker: Um, you know, your top leaders, some of them go out and, uh, uh, do another industry and, and leave on good terms and, and leave that bridge open was just another, um,
Speaker: what's the word for it?
Speaker: Just testament to me of how important it is to, to keep relationships intact.
Speaker: It's your greatest currency is relationships and networking.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, we were able to attract back these guys that had left and, um, had success in solar, but we, we had a great relationship, so they wanted to be part of it.
Speaker: And, uh, we just, we kept growing and, um, making all the mistakes in the book, but, uh, we're now, um,
Speaker: got our footing and we've started a company called Aveo, partnered up with some really sharp
Speaker: guys in the industry that have a lot of history.
Speaker: Jeremy Hammond, our CEO.
Speaker: I've had a longstanding relationship with him for years.
Speaker: And we were both just sales orgs.
Speaker: They had caliber at the time.
Speaker: And we hitched our wagons and we were able to attract several other sales orgs to join forces with us.
Speaker: And we jumped into the install game.
Speaker: So here we are today.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I've seen some other like mergers happen in solar where
Speaker: Um, you know, it hasn't been like the cleanest thing where guys all have their different ways of running things.
Speaker: And I've seen some kind of fall apart and be super messy.
Speaker: So obviously you guys, you know, it seems like things are running pretty smoothly.
Speaker: I'm sure maybe there's been some bumps and stuff like that.
Speaker: Definitely bumps.
Speaker: Um, I think the difference with a veil versus some of the other companies that did a big merger is we didn't go acquire an EPC.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Our EPC was started from scratch.
Speaker: We brought in sales orgs in alignment, and that's a lot easier to integrate sales teams, sales companies into one sales org than to go acquire a bunch of EPCs and try to merge them together with different CRMs, different payroll practices, equipment, everything, finance companies.
Speaker: And so we brought in sales orgs as one, but started an EPC.
Speaker: from scratch essentially okay cool yeah that makes sense because yeah the last people i know of that did that they combined i think like three different epcs and um i don't think it went very smoothly so um sounds like that's probably a lot easier way to do it where they can just take over your same practices yeah adjust things yeah
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And so, yeah, what are some other, I don't know, is there anything you feel like you had to learn or that like surprised you about solar coming from your pest control background?
Speaker: My partners and I often talk that it was a blessing in disguise that we started in the space when we did, which is arguably the most challenging time the solar space has ever seen.
Speaker: And, you know, my first three months in, I was like, what the hell did I just do?
Speaker: I had it.
Speaker: I was...
Speaker: had a smooth running ship, which still is today.
Speaker: In fact, they're doing better without me over there.
Speaker: So I was like, well, on the pest control side, they're getting tons of traction.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a blessing that we started when we did to have to really pay attention, learn from the predecessors before us of what they did well, what they didn't do well.
Speaker: And we had a lot of history of...
Speaker: allies in the space that we could learn from.
Speaker: And so if you're able to make it in this day and age in the solar space, as things clean out, level out, as the red tape lessons, as it just gets easier to be able to sell the PTO without all of the minutia in between, like other countries have done successfully, you look at Switzerland, you look at Germany,
Speaker: Solar is made easy.
Speaker: A consumer can easily get solar there.
Speaker: It can be easily sold.
Speaker: And our market penetration is way, way, way greater than what we have.
Speaker: You hear different numbers, but let's call it 5% market penetration in the United States.
Speaker: It can only get better and easier from here.
Speaker: So I'm a huge believer in the cause.
Speaker: I'm a huge believer in the industry.
Speaker: And I think it has...
Speaker: tons and tons of legs to really take off.
Speaker: And so if you're on a boat that can survive the waters and make it, which there's some really great players in the space that will, I think it's going to be an open highway.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker: But yeah, it was interesting you were telling us the other day.
Speaker: I didn't really think about this, but totally true.
Speaker: How you're saying pest control, kind of like you can set up the same system process, rinse, repeat, dump it in a bunch of different markets.
Speaker: And it's a pretty similar process.
Speaker: But like with solar, you're saying every jurisdiction is different, different laws, different net metering.
Speaker: So just a lot more complicated to like, you know, grow it in one market, maybe the same way you did it in another market.
Speaker: Yeah, we learned the hard way.
Speaker: In pest control, we're nationwide essentially, nationwide through Canada.
Speaker: And so of course I wanted to do the same thing in the solar space.
Speaker: Let's go, let's conquer this.
Speaker: Let's go recruit the masses and open up as many cities as we can.
Speaker: Well, I quickly realized this isn't an industry that you can easily do that overnight.
Speaker: And so we decided to just pick five markets where we were good at, where we could give an elegant experience to where we felt like we had our processes dialed in and just doubled down on those.
Speaker: We moved the small eight, 10 man, 12 man teams that were selling in these outlier markets and consolidated everyone in these five markets to where we felt like we had a pretty good grasp on those.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
Speaker: But it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
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.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show.
Speaker: You need to give my listeners a great deal, and they did.
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.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: And we'll slowly expand, absolutely, but with caution, with ease, as we get better and keep delivering a high-level experience to the consumers, which to me is the most important thing.
Speaker: We're selling a big ticket item product.
Speaker: It's not a $700 pest control contract, $800 pest control.
Speaker: This is a big purchase for consumers,
Speaker: And we have a moral responsibility to not only sell it with integrity, but to install and and give them
Speaker: you know, essentially the bang for their buck, what they were promised.
Speaker: And so, um, I want to hold to that standard and I would rather be smaller and give an elegant experience than so big that you just, you lose control of the wheel.
Speaker: And that's, what's happened with a lot of companies.
Speaker: They, they lost control of the wheel and they couldn't deliver a good experience.
Speaker: They chose growth over, um,
Speaker: the consumer right over the sales reps and uh it it ended badly and i refuse to be one of those statistics yeah um you want to do do business the right way but you put the consumer first your people first you'll always win yeah for sure no it's good you're because like now more than ever we're seeing the fruits of those mistakes that people made it's because all these all those companies are
Speaker: disappearing or you know and i mean that like uh it makes me sad every time i hear a company that went under i don't celebrate that i didn't i don't wish that upon any company that impacted real families real lives someone's life savings to to have the courage to go be an entrepreneur and create jobs for people and uh i hate seeing it yeah but it there's a lot of
Speaker: what not to do's right and so it's lessons and if you can hit your wagon to a company that that has the discipline and the um foresight just to to navigate these waters it's going to become really fun yeah um solar is going to explode i i truly believe the worst is behind us uh it can only get better from here uh and yeah i'm just excited to be on this ride one last hurrah
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I hope it does.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I don't, I keep thinking, man, it can't get worse than this.
Speaker: So yeah, I hope, I hope we've seen the worst of it, but yeah, it's true.
Speaker: There's so many people.
Speaker: I don't know if you're part of any of those Facebook groups or anything, but so there's so much drama and some of these people talking about solar and they celebrate it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I go, another one bites the butt dust.
Speaker: I saw that one coming.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're like almost celebrating it.
Speaker: And then just like, Oh, come to Mike.
Speaker: I'm using it as recruiting now.
Speaker: So I'm like, guys, let's like, yeah, you can learn from it, but why are we like celebrating another company?
Speaker: That hurt a lot of people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think, I remember you telling me at dinner that you've sold deals for companies that went under.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That wasn't something to celebrate.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That impacted you personally, impacted your life, your family.
Speaker: And so I think we just need to understand there's enough business to go around.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Early in my pest control career, obviously ultra competitive and
Speaker: I thought it was me against the world.
Speaker: I wasn't really friends with any allies.
Speaker: It's us and everyone else.
Speaker: As I matured as a businessman, I realized how much power there is in strong allies in your same space.
Speaker: and to surround yourself and share best practices and help each other avoid potential pitfalls.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's with 5% market penetration, there's plenty of business for all of us to go around.
Speaker: And so I think if we, we come together and, and really put the industry that we love and believe in first and collaborate with each other and find strong forces that that's going to help us all get through the, the,
Speaker: tailwinds of this.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so what do you think?
Speaker: Because you've talked about expanding your company and like expanding with caution before.
Speaker: I remember my first company I was with, they expanded into like four or five different states in a year.
Speaker: And then I think all the states flopped and they had to close up shop the year after that.
Speaker: So yeah, I saw some things that they could have done better.
Speaker: But for you, what do you think as you've like made expansions, maybe in pest control or seen it also in solar now a little bit?
Speaker: What are some mistakes you think people make as they're trying to expand into different areas, regions?
Speaker: You think it's not having a strong enough leader?
Speaker: You like testing out the market or what do you think?
Speaker: Probably a combination of both where you assume that you've got it dialed in a certain state that you can rinse and repeat and you get in and every county is different.
Speaker: Every utility company is different.
Speaker: It is not a rinse and repeat scalable business like a franchise.
Speaker: With pest control, I could essentially dial in our processes so tight.
Speaker: And there's not a lot of variables outside of those from city to city, right?
Speaker: Maybe some states have some limitations on what products you can use, but 95% of it is the same, just like a McDonald's franchise.
Speaker: They scale their processes and so tight, do this and don't do anything else.
Speaker: Rinse, repeat, and you can grow.
Speaker: solar is not like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're going to do it on a high level.
Speaker: And so we'll keep expanding as we feel like we've got our current footprint fully dialed so that we can keep giving a good experience that we can keep attracting top talent like we have.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm, I'm more concerned about the experience we're giving our people and the customers than how fast we're going to keep expanding.
Speaker: I, I believe that,
Speaker: just like all of my other businesses, we'll get there.
Speaker: We'll grow the right way.
Speaker: Um, want to make sure we're always in a healthy cash position.
Speaker: We, uh, we're good stewards of, of our cash.
Speaker: We're blessed to have had a lot of success outside of solar.
Speaker: So we, we don't have any outside funding.
Speaker: We're self-funded and, um, we were able to see a lot of mistakes companies made by, uh,
Speaker: treating m1s as real cash and uh it's essentially just just alone um we we're we're just good stewards of our capital um we've made mistakes that we pivoted from quickly but uh we just want to be poised to to be one of the players at the end that that made an impact in this space and uh blessed a lot of lives yeah that's awesome um yeah because i think now more than ever we need
Speaker: you know, strong people in solar, we need leaders, we need people that can expand and grow because a lot of companies have closed up shop and consolidated and all that.
Speaker: I think that's sort of what happened.
Speaker: They just didn't have maybe strong leadership in areas and we're doing things the wrong way.
Speaker: And yeah, it's kind of what I'm trying to do in San Diego too.
Speaker: Like I, as I told you, I went from a company where I was like running a
Speaker: The team in San Diego didn't get paid out by a few different installers.
Speaker: Took a big blow.
Speaker: So now it's kind of like rebuild phase for me trying to consolidate the guys I have left.
Speaker: And got like 10, 15 guys we're building with now on my personal squad there in San Diego.
Speaker: So maybe, well, yeah, as I'm building, that's something that I like to ask people that have built out huge organizations like yourself, Tom.
Speaker: So as you did that, maybe in pest control, what were, do you have any advice for people that maybe are trying to like build up teams?
Speaker: Maybe they're at like my stage, 10 to 15 guys trying to rebuild a little bit.
Speaker: What were some things that you think maybe could carry over from your pest control days or things you've seen that can help build up teams and expand like that?
Speaker: you can only grow as wide as you have leaders to, to accommodate that growth.
Speaker: And so, um, I'm huge into developing leaders quickly, um, into empowering them, getting that in their mind that, um,
Speaker: we want you to become a leader in this space and we're going to help you do so.
Speaker: And if you have strong leaders that, that do business the right way, guys that you can trust, not babysit, you know, that they're going to do, do right by their reps are going to do right by the customer.
Speaker: It's all about, um,
Speaker: getting your leadership in place and making the right people leaders.
Speaker: That doesn't necessarily mean the best salesman.
Speaker: A lot of times the best salesmen don't make the best leaders because they're so consumed by their personal sales and they should stay as a top talent on the doors and not be a leader.
Speaker: And so, um,
Speaker: I just encourage you, no matter how many reps you have underneath of your umbrella, find ways to give back.
Speaker: Start developing them into strong leaders so that you can grow, especially as solar starts to clean up.
Speaker: I think we're going to see a lot of reps flock back to the space.
Speaker: I think we've seen a lot
Speaker: leave the space in the last few years.
Speaker: If you look at some of the big events we have in the solar space, the attendance is way down.
Speaker: We've taken it on the chin, the space has.
Speaker: I think some people are trigger shy, especially as you hear the horrible news almost weekly now of another one going under.
Speaker: That's going to stop.
Speaker: the success stories are start gonna becoming more prevalent than the failure stories and we'll celebrate those.
Speaker: And I believe solar is a, if you build it, they will come and show reps that, hey, they can get paid quickly.
Speaker: There are companies giving a high level experience.
Speaker: This is a safe space, a safe industry.
Speaker: And as that starts to happen, there'll be a lot of influx of reps and the leaders will, will have an opportunity to go run teams and expand your networks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we were talking to the other day, but I think right now more than ever, the people that can stick out maybe this, this harder period of time and,
Speaker: um you know like just go through the adversity thing especially now if people can stick that out come out through the other side then i think they're setting themselves up for yeah massive success because then once solar starts peaking up again a little bit yep um as people come and start flocking walking back to solar it's like who are they gonna go to they're gonna go to the guys that not the new ones went through the adversity and yep
Speaker: The veteran companies will attract the top talent.
Speaker: There'll be a lot of new companies try to start up and join the wave.
Speaker: But I love, again, just the blessings and the lessons of what we're navigating today, the waters we're navigating.
Speaker: And I truly believe that there's brighter days ahead of us, no pun intended, but that solar is
Speaker: not going away the world needs solar yeah you just again look at what other countries have done in the space and we'll we'll naturally follow suit and uh it's going to get a lot of fun and uh yeah i think we'll all be really glad that we stuck with it yeah no doubt yep i've been uh eight years at this now in solar and you know i'm here with my parents are here in italy too and they're like man are you even you know stop doing solar been eight years and it's kind of at like
Speaker: that regression and solar.
Speaker: And I'm like, boy, I'm going to keep beating it until there's nothing left.
Speaker: You know, I've seen the fruits of it.
Speaker: And even though I've been with some installers that haven't paid out, you know, and count up over six figures, they haven't gotten paid out from past installers.
Speaker: So it's been hard, but then, you know, you see like the potential it has and you see some of the big checks that can be seen.
Speaker: You see the way it's impacted other people's lives.
Speaker: So I'm like,
Speaker: You know, maybe it's high risk right now, but hey, that's what I believe is that if I stick through this, then I think it'll pay off because there's so much potential in it.
Speaker: That's just how life works.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: There's no free lunches.
Speaker: You've got to go through tough times to get the big reward.
Speaker: There's never just an easy path.
Speaker: And I think you just worry about what you can control and not stress the things you can't control because that's madness.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and just double down on those things you can control your attitude your work ethic the time you put on the doors the way you treat people the way you treat your sales reps way that you explain the the product to the consumer yeah um worry about those things everything else will work itself out and uh um yeah i'm with you it's gonna be it's gonna be a lot of fun yeah 100 even like i'm in san diego where there's quite a bit of solar yeah but i'm just thinking
Speaker: even if all the homes had solar, how many people are going to be needing maybe new systems or systems working.
Speaker: There were partial offsets where, you know, yeah, there's unlimited amounts of business that can be had as things get, get cleaner.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's, it's, it's going to be really cool to see.
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Tom, before we start wrapping up here, I want to get your perspective just on maybe we got,
Speaker: maybe newer reps that are listening to this or just people that are only in sales.
Speaker: So I know you became like a top rep in pest control and then you started leading teams, started leading regions.
Speaker: So before you start wrapping up, what are, what's some advice maybe you could give to like a newer rep in solar to start mass?
Speaker: What are, what are maybe some traits you see in some of your reps now in the solar industry?
Speaker: Or maybe looking back to your time in pest control, what do you think separates those top reps and helped you like, you know, have a high level of success pretty quick out of the gate?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's probably all stuff you've heard before, but I'll just echo it.
Speaker: Treating it like a real job.
Speaker: sticking to a schedule religiously.
Speaker: Um, the top reps live and die by their schedule.
Speaker: They, again, they were dialing in the things they can control so tight when they wake up, when they go to bed, when they take lunch, um, what their morning routine looks like.
Speaker: I'm such a firm believer in the schedule.
Speaker: Um, leave nothing to, uh, uh, you know, don't go get a haircut in the middle of the day.
Speaker: Don't get an oil change.
Speaker: Don't it.
Speaker: Pick a day where you're going to run your errands, pick, pick a time where you're going to do that, but just take the guessing work out of it.
Speaker: Know when you're going to be knocking your first door every day.
Speaker: Know when you're going to knock your last door every day and just stick to that and discipline yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's,
Speaker: the hardest part of this job is having discipline because it's unlike most jobs where you have a boss breathing down your neck.
Speaker: Really, most people in most jobs or careers, they only work hard enough to not get fired.
Speaker: They're not out giving it their all to,
Speaker: They're just punching a clock, most people, on an hourly wage, especially if there's no commission or opportunities for advancement.
Speaker: You're just essentially there as a job, punching a clock, but you show up on time so that you don't get fired.
Speaker: You don't take an extra lunch break because you'll get fired.
Speaker: You almost work out of fear.
Speaker: Then...
Speaker: when you learn to work for you, that's when you get power.
Speaker: I wake up and work for me every day, not to be seen.
Speaker: I don't have a boss.
Speaker: My best work is done when no one even knows I'm working.
Speaker: When I'm, I'm doing it just for the love of holding myself to a high standard, not to be seen, not because I care if people think I'm a hard worker or not, but just truly for me, for my family.
Speaker: And once I,
Speaker: really leaned into that, that concept.
Speaker: It got a lot of fun.
Speaker: And if you look at anybody great, that's accomplished anything really great in sports and business.
Speaker: If you were to look at their work ethic, Kobe Bryant always comes to my mind.
Speaker: Just the discipline, the,
Speaker: work ethic that they had to get to where they are.
Speaker: Most of that work was done behind the scenes, not for show, not for accolades, but just they wanted to be good at their trade.
Speaker: They wanted to be the best and be good at your craft, sharpen the saw, get in and really study what those that you look up to have done in the space, mimic that, copy that.
Speaker: And so,
Speaker: That's the best advice I could give is just work for you, stick to a schedule, put in those hours.
Speaker: Solar is an industry to where you can make so much money, sometimes it creates laziness and you get content.
Speaker: Why get content?
Speaker: Used to drive me nuts in past control where reps are like, I sold three today, I made 600, 700, 800 bucks, I'm good.
Speaker: It's like, what?
Speaker: like let's go double down on that down on that drive that momentum and i think with solar so many guys are like i got one today yeah i don't have any other leads go create your own leads and don't split it with a setter yeah like you're leaving so much money on the table um if i was a rep in solar i would self-gen i wouldn't even use a setter i would go out and self-gen my own leads
Speaker: uh because that's my roots i grew up grinding on the doors i'm not scared to knock um and i believe in both models clearly if it's it ran effectively but um if you need to make more money there's unlimited leads out there get your butt out of the car and go knock some doors yeah and well especially in solar because you've seen you know that's one thing i've learned in solar is never count your chickens before they hatch yeah yeah it's like you might have closed one but then
Speaker: They call you tomorrow and say they've found out they're moving.
Speaker: So many things can happen from point of sale to PTO.
Speaker: Like it's not in the bag.
Speaker: So might as well go get a few more and then you can at least, you know, you know what your install rate's going to be and do your math off of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like I had one the other day where the installers, maybe this is on the installers, but they show up and start lifting up the roof tiles to do the install.
Speaker: And they're like, you know what?
Speaker: This roof is worse than we thought.
Speaker: we're going to have to call off this install.
Speaker: So I'm expecting an install that day and like, you know, $8,000 check from it.
Speaker: And so, you know, happens, but so now I have to go resell the roof, but just stuff like that.
Speaker: You never know.
Speaker: So we're in the construction business, no doubt about it.
Speaker: So yeah, you can't, you can't count your chickens before the hatch for sure.
Speaker: Things out of your control again, but,
Speaker: Um, man, if you're in the space, I just encourage you to put in more hours, work harder,
Speaker: go get your own leads, go stick to that schedule and you'll make great money.
Speaker: Life-changing money at this age.
Speaker: I mean, just to be able to go make three, four, $500,000 at a young age, you've got time on your side.
Speaker: If you're smart with that money, you can set yourself up.
Speaker: If you invest it properly, if you surround yourself with the right people that will mentor you on how you can, um,
Speaker: put that money to work for you, you might not have another opportunity later on in life to make that kind of money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, there's a shelf life to be on the doors.
Speaker: I, you know, I, unless you're Michael O'Donnell, there's some super freaked out there that can go do it late into life, but you start getting in your forties.
Speaker: I'm 45.
Speaker: My back hurts every day.
Speaker: It's, you know,
Speaker: I'm blessed that I was able to take capital I've made in my businesses and put it to work to where I'm set up and I'm not going to have to work late into my life only if I want to.
Speaker: But at a young age, it's not just about the money now.
Speaker: It's what you can turn that money into for you down the road.
Speaker: And you've got an opportunity to go make more money than a surgeon.
Speaker: that goes to school for 12 years, 21, 22, 23 years old.
Speaker: And we're kind of like, eh, 200 grounds enough for me.
Speaker: And one a day is good enough for me.
Speaker: It's like, go get it, stack the chips where you can and put them to work and create a legacy for yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I've definitely had some regrets where, especially early on in my solar career,
Speaker: I wish I would have grinded harder, especially when I didn't have kids and things like that.
Speaker: So anyone that's listening to this before you're married, before you have kids, especially that time, I would say go as hard as you can, just because you're probably never going to have more time than when you're in that stage.
Speaker: From the time value of money, not just, yeah, the opportunities that you may not have later on in life if you get older.
Speaker: And especially once you start having
Speaker: a family and your kids get older, it just gets harder.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so whatever position you're in, in life, especially if you're single and you've got the opportunity to, to go rip it, go for it.
Speaker: And then you've got the time value of money on your side.
Speaker: And yeah, that's it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Well, Tom, if people want to connect more with you, maybe check out a video, possibly work with you guys.
Speaker: What's the best way to get in touch with you or connect more with you?
Speaker: Um, what do you, what do most guests usually do?
Speaker: Uh, most people have, you know, I don't know if you're on social media, Instagram, Facebook, most people it's Instagram is like, yeah, I'm on Instagram.
Speaker: Uh, Tom dot Karen, K A R R E N. Okay.
Speaker: Um, you can check out, uh, our website, they have sales.com.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: One last little bit of advice I'll throw out is if you're with a company that's treating you well and getting your jobs done, stay put.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I am a huge believer in just the greenest grass is right underneath your feet where you water it.
Speaker: You know, like it's, there's no greener pasture.
Speaker: If you're with a good solid company, don't put your head on a swivel.
Speaker: Stick with your tribe and those that have been successful in this space find a tribe that they build around.
Speaker: They don't jump from company to company.
Speaker: Very few reps are successful with that type of mentality.
Speaker: They're spinning their tires.
Speaker: Those that plant roots with the company that they trust and believe in are always the ones that win in the end.
Speaker: Yeah, love it.
Speaker: Well, Tom, thank you for coming on today.
Speaker: And I guess last question, then we'll let you get to, you know, I know you want to jump in the pool.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Lounge in the beach here and everything.
Speaker: But speaking of investing, maybe we've got some people that haven't done much investing in their careers.
Speaker: So if you were like a new rep making your first couple hundred grand, where would you put that money starting out?
Speaker: Or what are some like, you know, short tips with investing?
Speaker: I'm definitely not a financial advisor, but what I've seen work well for me is just disciplined, long-term growth over a diversified portfolio, mutual funds.
Speaker: I mean, if you just look at the S&P 500, what it has done, and it's so collateralized, you know, it's so diversified, it's going to just always go up over time.
Speaker: I think we're in some interesting times with the economy and it's going to be interesting what happens with the upcoming election.
Speaker: But just more than anything, not where you put it, get in the habit of investing.
Speaker: Even if it's a hundred bucks a month, 500 bucks a month, it's a habit.
Speaker: It's something that you just get used to doing that.
Speaker: I say,
Speaker: whatever percentage of my check goes to investments.
Speaker: It's that's more important creating the habit than really what you're going to do with it.
Speaker: Put it in safe, sound investments, things that that just are low risk.
Speaker: I see often so many reps
Speaker: try to put money and get rich quick things because we're used to getting rich quick.
Speaker: You make 300 grand your second year in solar, whatever it is, has control.
Speaker: You're used to quick money, so you're not disciplined for your investments.
Speaker: a 10 year investment isn't exciting to you.
Speaker: You want to double your money in two, three years.
Speaker: And so you start throwing your money at, at crazy things.
Speaker: And it's the old adage.
Speaker: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Speaker: I've seen a lot of reps lose a lot of money in bad investments.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Be disciplined, but just get in the habit of saving, saving, saving, saving.
Speaker: And whether that's you want to get into real estate or the stock market or invest in other businesses, you'll find good places to put it.
Speaker: It's just getting in the habit of not spending everything that comes in because we always think, well, I'm going to make more money next year.
Speaker: I'm going to make more money next year.
Speaker: You probably will, but you're going to spend it too because that's what you're accustomed to doing.
Speaker: Yeah, so good.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Well, I'm sure you can hit up if you want more investing advice.
Speaker: I'm sure Tom would be happy to answer your questions.
Speaker: But Tom, thank you so much for coming on the show with us.
Speaker: So I encourage anyone that's listening to this, go reach out to Tom, shoot him a message.
Speaker: Tell him thank you for coming on the show today.
Speaker: And I really appreciate you taking time from the whole vacation here to do a podcast.
Speaker: And hopefully we can do another one in the future.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: Good being with you.
Speaker: Thanks, brother.
Speaker: Bye.
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