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00:00:01
Running a $116M Solar Company (then starting again from scratch!) - Jerry Fussell
121 Plays4 years ago
Speaker 1 (00:00:03):
Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker 2 (00:00:41):
What's going on Solarpreneurs? We have another fantastic episode and we alive here in Las Vegas, Nevada here in, uh, a man of the hour, his mansion here, just hanging out. So we've got Mr. Jerry Fussell on the show, Jerry. Thanks for coming on with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:00:57):
Yeah. Thanks for driving up too. I appreciate it. It's how far from San Diego? It's like five hours. Five hours. Yeah. So thanks man, for coming up and hanging out. Glad to have you here at the house. And, uh, thanks for jumping on a podcast with me, man.
Speaker 2 (00:01:09):
Yeah. I love it. And know Jerry has been treating me to pop tarts and a sandwich. Isn't all, all the pizza I can handle here. So, Hey man,
Speaker 3 (00:01:18):
It's definitely a house that we house door knockers a lot because pizza and Pop-Tarts and sandwiches that's
Speaker 2 (00:01:26):
Okay. I had more, more food than the first door knocking the house I was in. That's true. All we had was eggs. Pretty much.
Speaker 3 (00:01:32):
We have a lot of those too. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:01:33):
So they got it all, but I know it's been an awesome time here, so yeah, we'd been able to shoot some content and just kind of hang out here with Jerry and his guys. And, um, and the other big announcement we have before we kinda jump into things here is, um, Jerry, he, with his company Pi Syndicate, they are the first ever sponsors of the Solarpreneur podcasts. So, uh we're yeah, I'm happy about it. And we're going to let Jerry talk a little bit about that and then also is partnering on it, but, um, just like the summary of it, they are a, well, I guess you can say, well, it's just a summarized version. Do you want to tell our listeners what pipes in the syndicate is real quick?
Speaker 3 (00:02:12):
Yeah. Yeah. So Pi Syndicate is more of a supportive kind of mastermind. Um, we didn't start a truly make money. I already have some successful solar companies. My, one of my partners, Mikey, Lucas and Austin already have successful businesses. The reason why we started it is because we realized that about 85% of the guys in the industry that are top earners. So the guy's making, you know, over $150,000 a year, ended up leaving the industry and they have no money. They don't own any real estate. They don't have any money in savings. And about half of them owe money to the IRS. So when we talk about why we work, you know, it's a fun job going door to door, selling stuff. There's a ton of reasons why we all work, but when it comes down to it, if it didn't actually pay us any money, we would all stop.
Speaker 3 (00:02:57):
And that's eventually what happens is guys get burnt out because the money is not, not good enough to overcome the fact that they owe money on taxes or that they haven't really accumulated any wealth. And it's just, you know, just like you and I, we both probably hopped around to different houses. You know, door-knocking across the country, it's not indicative of saving money. It means that we go buy a BMW when we get enough money or we, we go out to fancy dinners or whatever, we're going to spend the money on. Or
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:41
Speaker
What's going on, solopreneurs?
Live from Las Vegas with Jerry Fussell
00:00:43
Speaker
We have another fantastic episode, and we are live here in Las Vegas, Nevada, here in the man of the hour, his mansion here, just hanging out.
00:00:53
Speaker
So we've got Mr. Jerry Fussell on the show.
00:00:55
Speaker
Jerry, thanks for coming on with us today.
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for driving up, too.
00:00:59
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:01:00
Speaker
How far from San Diego?
00:01:02
Speaker
It's like five hours.
00:01:03
Speaker
Five hours, yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker
So thanks, man, for coming up and hanging out.
00:01:06
Speaker
Glad to have you here at the house, and thanks for jumping on the podcast with me, man.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, I love it.
00:01:10
Speaker
And no, Jerry's been treating me to Pop-Tarts and sandwiches and all the pizza I can handle here.
00:01:16
Speaker
So, hey, man, if there's food, I'll be here.
00:01:18
Speaker
You can tell it's definitely a house that we house door knockers a lot because pizza and Pop-Tarts and sandwiches, that's pretty much it.
00:01:25
Speaker
Okay, I had more food than the first door knocking house I was in.
00:01:29
Speaker
That's true.
00:01:29
Speaker
All we had was eggs, pretty much.
00:01:32
Speaker
We have a lot of those, too.
00:01:33
Speaker
Okay, so they got it all.
00:01:36
Speaker
But no, it's been an awesome time here.
00:01:37
Speaker
So yeah, we've been able to shoot some content and just kind of hang out here with Jerry and his guys.
Significance of Pi Syndicate Sponsorship
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker
And and the other big announcement we have before we kind of jump into things here is Jerry.
00:01:49
Speaker
He with his company Pi Syndicate, they are the first ever sponsors of the Solarpreneur podcast.
00:01:56
Speaker
So we're happy about it.
00:01:58
Speaker
And we're going to let Jerry talk a little bit about that.
00:02:01
Speaker
And then also is partnering on it.
00:02:03
Speaker
But just like the summary of it, they are, well, I guess you can say, what's the summarized version you want to tell our listeners what Pi Syndicate is real
Mission of Pi Syndicate
00:02:12
Speaker
quick, Jerry?
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:13
Speaker
So Pi Syndicate is more of a supportive kind of mastermind.
00:02:18
Speaker
We didn't start to really make money.
00:02:19
Speaker
I already have some successful solar companies.
00:02:21
Speaker
And one of my partners, Mikey Lucas in Austin, already have successful businesses.
00:02:26
Speaker
The reason why we started is because we realized that about 85% of the guys in the industry are
00:02:30
Speaker
that are top earners.
00:02:31
Speaker
So the guys making over $150,000 a year end up leaving the industry and they have no money.
00:02:38
Speaker
They don't own any real estate.
00:02:40
Speaker
They don't have any money in savings.
00:02:42
Speaker
And about half of them owe money to the IRS.
00:02:45
Speaker
So when we talk about why we work, you know, it's a fun job going door to door selling stuff.
Challenges in Door-to-Door Sales
00:02:51
Speaker
There's a ton of reasons why we all work.
00:02:53
Speaker
But when it comes down to it, if it didn't actually pay us any money, we would all stop.
00:02:57
Speaker
And that's eventually what happens is guys get burnout because the money's not.
00:03:02
Speaker
not good enough to overcome the fact that they owe money on taxes or that they haven't really accumulated any wealth.
00:03:07
Speaker
And it's just, you know, just like you and I, we both probably hopped around to different houses, you know, door knocking across the country.
00:03:13
Speaker
It's not indicative of saving money.
00:03:15
Speaker
It, you know, means that we go buy a BMW when we get enough money or we,
00:03:19
Speaker
We go out to fancy dinners or whatever we're going to spend the money on.
00:03:22
Speaker
Or we buy our wife a $20,000 wedding ring when we propose because we're making money.
00:03:27
Speaker
And guys leave the industry eventually.
00:03:31
Speaker
Majority of people end up not door knocking forever.
00:03:34
Speaker
Some of us love it.
00:03:35
Speaker
Some of us love it for five years and it's time to move on.
00:03:39
Speaker
And the sad thing for us is when they do move on, they put a lot of sweat and work into the job and they leave the industry with nothing to show for it.
00:03:47
Speaker
And these are guys making in the top, you know, one, 2% of income earners in the entire country.
00:03:52
Speaker
And they're not having any money in savings and investments.
00:03:54
Speaker
And
Financial Planning for Solar Professionals
00:03:55
Speaker
so.
00:03:55
Speaker
That's our mission is to change that.
00:03:56
Speaker
We want to, within five years of working in the solar industry, have a plan for retirement in place where a guy can walk away from the door-to-door industry, go be a dentist, whatever he wants to do, and still have a substantial financial portfolio with investing and savings and emergency funds and all the things you need.
00:04:15
Speaker
Also, a credit score, enough income to buy your first house, all the things that companies don't really educate their door knockers on and their sales guys on.
00:04:24
Speaker
is really the gap that we fill within the industry.
00:04:27
Speaker
We're kind of selective, but at the end of the day, we want to hang out with cool people that are knocking doors.
00:04:32
Speaker
It's just the coolest single job to meet people that live differently, right?
00:04:38
Speaker
That wake up every day excited to go to work.
Success in Solar Sales Industry
00:04:40
Speaker
Because if you don't, you quit within three months probably.
00:04:44
Speaker
So if you're there a couple years and you're a top earner,
00:04:46
Speaker
You're a guy I want to hang out with and be around.
00:04:48
Speaker
And so that's what the mastermind is about is hanging out and being together.
00:04:52
Speaker
The reason I'm so excited to sponsor the podcast is because we feel like you're adding value, whether it be a new guy that's, you know, 30 days in the industry or maybe just thinking about going into
Financial Pitfalls Compared to NFL
00:05:03
Speaker
solar.
00:05:03
Speaker
I've heard guys tell me that they've listened to your podcast to make a decision even to accept a job in the solar industry.
00:05:09
Speaker
Wow.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
but you're still out door knocking virtually every day.
00:05:33
Speaker
So the content is fresh.
00:05:35
Speaker
It's exactly what's going on to help you make money.
00:05:37
Speaker
And when you have guests on, the conversations you have with them definitely flow very well because you're doing the same job as them.
00:05:46
Speaker
So it's real life questions.
00:05:47
Speaker
It's real life answers about how to make more money, how to be more consistent in solar.
00:05:51
Speaker
And that's what we really preach is consistency and hard work.
00:05:55
Speaker
And that's the same thing the podcast help brings to people that listen to it.
00:05:58
Speaker
So we are super pumped to be a sponsor and we look forward to being a sponsor for years to come and all the success in the world.
00:06:04
Speaker
We know you're going to hit 500 listeners, 500,000, 500,000 listeners pretty soon as our goal as a sponsor.
00:06:13
Speaker
So we're going to be boosting some of the marketing and stuff to help you get there because literally everyone in solar right now, everyone in door to door needs to be listening to a mentor, tell them how to do their job better.
00:06:24
Speaker
And we feel like,
00:06:25
Speaker
you're a great guy to do that for us.
00:06:26
Speaker
I love that.
00:06:27
Speaker
Appreciate that, Jerry.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely, man.
00:06:28
Speaker
And yeah, no, it goes without saying too, it's like you're saying so many guys just get out of this and it reminds me of the NFL or something.
00:06:35
Speaker
We've all heard like guys in the NFL, I think I heard a stat that like, I don't know, some crazy number of them are broke within a couple of years after they can get out of the NFL.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I feel like door to door is very similar in that guys make insane amounts of money knocking doors and
00:06:50
Speaker
But let's be honest, we're probably not all going to be doing this until we're, you know, retirement age.
00:06:54
Speaker
No.
00:06:55
Speaker
So that's what's so cool about what you're doing with Pi Syndicate is you're teaching guys how to really hang on to that money
Jerry's Early Career Journey
00:07:01
Speaker
and turn that money into future investments and keep a hold of it.
00:07:04
Speaker
Because, yeah, a lot of people that aren't, you know, super smart with it and blowing money on things.
00:07:08
Speaker
And, you know, to be clear, I wasn't super smart with it either.
00:07:12
Speaker
I started out door-to-door when I was 19, right?
00:07:14
Speaker
selling cable internet door to door and it only paid $30 a sale or something like that but you go out and sell 10 of them a day it's still really good money and then I became a regional manager and started to make even better money and you know a few hundred thousand dollars was flowing in and I was making all this money and then 26 years old came around I had my first child and talking with my wife I decided to go out and get a real job I had been in
00:07:41
Speaker
Door to door for about six years was killing it making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year had literally had about a million dollar net worth.
00:07:49
Speaker
And I thought I was doing awesome.
00:07:51
Speaker
Right.
00:07:51
Speaker
And then I decided, well, I really want to do something.
00:07:54
Speaker
So I got a job at a children's home.
00:07:56
Speaker
I was working on a college degree.
00:07:57
Speaker
And within a year, I was completely broke.
00:08:01
Speaker
just completely devastatingly broke, you know, eating ramen noodles again.
00:08:04
Speaker
I'm like, dude, I have a professional college level job.
00:08:08
Speaker
And now me and my wife are back to eating beans and rice.
00:08:11
Speaker
And we're like, is this what real life's supposed to be?
00:08:14
Speaker
But this is what everyone tells you to go do.
00:08:15
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:08:16
Speaker
But what happened is I was living a lifestyle based on being a door-to-door guy and not everyone stays a door-to-door guy forever.
00:08:24
Speaker
And so that transition for me was extremely difficult when I realized that I,
00:08:30
Speaker
I thought I wanted to do something out of it.
00:08:31
Speaker
I thought I wanted a real job that everyone talks about.
00:08:35
Speaker
And I'm so glad that I found my way back.
Transition to Solar Sales
00:08:38
Speaker
And so the first time I engaged with a publisher to write a book, I thought for sure my book's title was going to be Millionaire by 25 years.
00:08:45
Speaker
and broke by 26, um, to really explain why to manage your money better, how to take care of your money.
00:08:52
Speaker
Cause it was a hard life lesson, but it's almost identical to the majority of guys in the door to door industry.
00:08:58
Speaker
And we're not talking about the guy that makes it 30 days and quits.
00:09:01
Speaker
We're talking about guys that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling solar pest control, roofing, um,
00:09:08
Speaker
They're not going to last forever.
00:09:09
Speaker
They always think that they want to go do something else.
00:09:12
Speaker
And at that point, I don't know of a single another occupation without like being a brain surgeon that you can go and make 300K a year.
00:09:20
Speaker
Like it's just not going to happen.
00:09:22
Speaker
Maybe over 30 years of building it up, even being on Wall Street, building up, being with a trading company or something like that.
00:09:28
Speaker
You could get there, you know, over years of dedication and working hard with your clients.
00:09:33
Speaker
Maybe insurance.
00:09:34
Speaker
You know, there's some things that you can build up this business and make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:09:38
Speaker
But there's nothing I can think of that you can leave door to door knowing nothing about anything besides sales and make 300K years.
00:09:44
Speaker
So there's always going to be this turmoil in your life where you decide to get out of sales.
00:09:49
Speaker
And for me, it was...
00:09:51
Speaker
I didn't want to work after 5 o'clock.
00:09:53
Speaker
I wanted to go home at 5 o'clock, have dinner with my family.
00:09:55
Speaker
I thought that was the American dream, to have a normal job.
00:10:00
Speaker
I get off, go home, eat dinner, have a dog, walk the dog.
00:10:04
Speaker
I learned very quickly, over about a year eating beans, that the American dream wasn't so fun.
00:10:10
Speaker
I decided to go back to work.
Benefits of Pi Syndicate Mastermind Groups
00:10:12
Speaker
At the same time, I realized there's guys that are not going to decide to go back to work.
00:10:16
Speaker
There's going to be guys that are super happy to make $50,000 to $100,000 a year
00:10:21
Speaker
but their lifestyle is going to have to change.
00:10:23
Speaker
And just like the NFL players, it was hard for me to adapt my lifestyle to the lower income.
00:10:29
Speaker
So when my wife wanted to go out for our anniversary, we still spent $250 on dinner.
00:10:33
Speaker
You know, we still bought, you know, $200 shoes instead of $50 shoes.
00:10:37
Speaker
Like all the things that we had trained ourselves to budget for were all incorrect.
00:10:43
Speaker
And we had never had to live on a budget being 21 years old and making 200 grand a year.
00:10:48
Speaker
You don't really have to budget.
00:10:49
Speaker
You just spend your money on whatever you want.
00:10:51
Speaker
And then you're like, oh man, I ran out of money.
00:10:53
Speaker
I need to go knock more doors.
00:10:54
Speaker
And you just can't keep the money coming in.
00:10:56
Speaker
That's not a very smart way long-term to live.
00:10:59
Speaker
So my goal is to get with people that are 18, 19, 25.
00:11:04
Speaker
Really, you could be 35 and this is the first time you're in door-to-door and you're like, this is a lot of money.
00:11:09
Speaker
Those are the guys that we want to help, and they're the same audience that you're trying to help too.
00:11:13
Speaker
So I think there's a lot of alignment there just helping guys get to that next level.
00:11:17
Speaker
So we're excited to help them.
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah,
Strategy for Sustainable Growth
00:11:19
Speaker
love that.
00:11:19
Speaker
Love that.
00:11:20
Speaker
And, yeah, we've had a couple of finance guys and things like that come on.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, this is kind of the first... You're the first people I've seen really put together kind of mastermind style and help people at this level.
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
Which is awesome.
00:11:32
Speaker
So that's why, you know... Yeah, and the whole thing about Pi Syndicate is it's sharing a lot of the resources for my company.
00:11:40
Speaker
But, you know, we made...
00:11:41
Speaker
Last year was $151 million.
00:11:43
Speaker
And so the revenue is very large.
00:11:45
Speaker
But then that means I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on legal, on CPAs, on advisors.
00:11:51
Speaker
You know, I spent $400,000 last year on mastermind groups.
00:11:56
Speaker
You guys don't have the resource to do that.
00:11:57
Speaker
You're doing really good, Taylor.
00:11:59
Speaker
You're killing it.
00:11:59
Speaker
You're in the top of the industry.
00:12:01
Speaker
you're still not going to go out and drop a hundred thousand dollar retainer on an attorney because you don't need it.
00:12:05
Speaker
Right.
00:12:05
Speaker
It just doesn't make any sense.
00:12:06
Speaker
Your wife would be like, are we getting a divorce?
00:12:08
Speaker
Why do you need a hundred thousand dollar retainer?
00:12:11
Speaker
Um, so it's just something that you don't think you need until you need it.
00:12:15
Speaker
Right.
00:12:16
Speaker
And so it's much better to have my legal team on standby to have our CPAs answer really hard questions, to have my tax strategies that you normally only invest in.
00:12:25
Speaker
If you make, you know, $10 million in profit a year or more, uh, be available to you guys.
00:12:31
Speaker
And we do it in a mastermind setting so that we can share the knowledge pretty openly, but with only guys that we want to hang out with.
00:12:37
Speaker
Right.
00:12:38
Speaker
There's some guys in masterminds.
00:12:39
Speaker
I'm sure you've been to events and things.
00:12:41
Speaker
You're like, I'd rather not go hang out with that guy afterwards.
00:12:44
Speaker
So we definitely want to make it a group of guys where we stay together for a really long time.
00:12:49
Speaker
and then we want to see your businesses grow, you know, and I would love to see your podcast.
00:12:54
Speaker
I was saying 500,000 listeners earlier.
00:12:56
Speaker
I'm not joking about that.
00:12:57
Speaker
I'd love to see your podcast expand to grow.
Company Success Story
00:13:00
Speaker
You know, when people talk about the solar guys are listening on podcasts, it should be at my let, you know, Jordan Belford and Taylor Armstrong.
00:13:07
Speaker
Like that.
00:13:08
Speaker
I mean, that's really when it comes to selling how many viewers you need to have listening in, because it's a lot of valuable things.
00:13:14
Speaker
I literally think anyone not listening to your podcast is,
00:13:17
Speaker
is probably selling the wrong thing.
00:13:19
Speaker
They're probably selling cars.
00:13:20
Speaker
They're probably selling watches at a jewelry store, probably selling cell phones, and they're all listening to the wrong podcast.
00:13:26
Speaker
They think that Ed Milet's going to make him rich or Grant Cardone, and they're not.
00:13:31
Speaker
Solar's going to make him rich, and they need to be listening to the right podcast.
00:13:33
Speaker
There's no doubt about that.
00:13:35
Speaker
I always say we're the Navy sills of the sales industry.
00:13:37
Speaker
No one's selling like we are.
00:13:39
Speaker
So if you learn how to sell solar, then it's like...
00:13:42
Speaker
I mean, that's why we got so much money in this.
00:13:44
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, it can translate to anything else too, for sure.
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:47
Speaker
And we definitely have to get good.
00:13:48
Speaker
We got to hone our skills because, um, it's not about how much money you even make per job.
00:13:53
Speaker
It's about how much money you make at the end of the year.
00:13:56
Speaker
And we know that this is the gold rush right now.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:58
Speaker
Um, but the guys that made the most money, um,
00:14:01
Speaker
during the Gold Rush, you know, you've heard the saying that they sold the shovels and they were the support guys.
00:14:05
Speaker
They built the businesses around it.
00:14:07
Speaker
And so, yes, we need to be Navy sills.
00:14:10
Speaker
But the reason to hone our skills that much is because it's not going to pay this much forever.
00:14:14
Speaker
Five years down the road, let's say the average commission is...
00:14:17
Speaker
you know, $1,000 a job then instead of $2,500 or more now, that's going to be devastating for someone that hasn't honed their skills.
00:14:26
Speaker
If they're used to a 5%, 10% close rate and they think they're killing it because they live in California and they're making serious money per sale, that's not going to be around forever.
00:14:34
Speaker
And so the reason why you have to hone your skills is, yes, it's nice to make a million dollars a year this year selling solar by having a 40% close rate would be awesome, right?
00:14:44
Speaker
But the real reason is because in five years,
00:14:47
Speaker
you're going to have to close at a 40% rate to make the same amount of money you're making today.
00:14:51
Speaker
So view this as the training time.
00:14:53
Speaker
View it as a quick start bonus.
00:14:55
Speaker
View it as the companies are encouraging you to get out there and sell.
00:14:59
Speaker
It's not going to be like this forever.
00:15:01
Speaker
The law of supply and demand means that the more people that want to sell solar, the less money the companies will pay to sell for us to sell solar.
00:15:08
Speaker
Now, they're always going to have all commission jobs.
00:15:10
Speaker
So you're always going to
Developing Strong Sales Skills
00:15:11
Speaker
be able to make serious money selling solar.
00:15:13
Speaker
You know, look at the other industries, the pest control, the roofing.
00:15:17
Speaker
A thousand dollars per sale is still super competitive.
00:15:20
Speaker
And I really believe that's probably where we're going over the next five years.
00:15:24
Speaker
And so we got to hone those skills because a lot of us that are selling four jobs a month, five jobs a month, a thousand dollars to sell is not going to cut it.
00:15:30
Speaker
We need to be selling, you know, sitting in three appointments a day and selling, you know, one of those a day.
00:15:36
Speaker
Then we start still making good money, even with the money being turned down.
00:15:40
Speaker
We're still turning out 200,000 a year or more.
00:15:43
Speaker
Even when the industry changes, we also need to prep our skills because there's a few times where, you know,
00:15:49
Speaker
Your skills mean more than just what you can do with them.
00:15:53
Speaker
Navy SEALs end up retiring from the Navy SEALs.
00:15:56
Speaker
They go into subcontracting work and there's companies that will pay them millions of dollars to train other people how to do those skills.
00:16:03
Speaker
So when we talk about honing our skills, it's not just about what you can do with the skills.
00:16:07
Speaker
It's about how you can leverage that to help others.
00:16:10
Speaker
And when we talk about even the big guys in sales, Grant Cardone never made as much money as he's making until he made a decision to help other people make money.
00:16:19
Speaker
And same thing with a lot of the other trainers, right?
00:16:22
Speaker
They could go out.
00:16:22
Speaker
There's only so many hours during the day.
00:16:25
Speaker
So they're only going to make so much money.
00:16:28
Speaker
Guys like Ed Milet that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars did it by having thousands of people underneath of them selling stuff.
00:16:35
Speaker
And that's really what we have to think is I have to get my skills to a level where I can leverage that to help others.
00:16:42
Speaker
And in helping others solve the problem, they're going to give me a small amount of percentage of the problem I solved.
Career Transition Challenges
00:16:47
Speaker
So if you help them make $1,000, maybe they're willing to give you $100.
00:16:51
Speaker
But while you can only run five appointments a day, guys that are on your teams running stuff for you could be running hundreds of appointments a day.
00:16:58
Speaker
So it's just the economies to scale are where it's going to be at.
00:17:02
Speaker
So I encourage the guys listening to this podcast and really being interested in solar to hone your skills.
00:17:09
Speaker
Stop thinking about even your close rate today.
00:17:12
Speaker
Think about what it will allow you to build in a year and two years and three years because the economy is not always going to stay the same.
00:17:18
Speaker
So your skills have to up level.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree 100%.
00:17:21
Speaker
And that's why I talk about on the podcast, too.
00:17:23
Speaker
I encourage all the people listening.
00:17:26
Speaker
I go out and teach your teams to sell, develop that skill to like present to others to teach other people.
00:17:31
Speaker
You know, they've got all sorts of things like you can go to the Toastmasters, the speaking trainings, things like that.
00:17:37
Speaker
I think that's a huge skill to learn because, yeah, we're not always going to be, like you said, making as much as we are in solar necessarily right now.
00:17:44
Speaker
So it's important for people to develop those other skills, which are money-making skills, presenting to others, training other people.
00:17:51
Speaker
And then you have a whole different skill set you can do when maybe solar isn't as good.
00:17:57
Speaker
So, yeah, that's huge, Jerry.
00:17:58
Speaker
And we're going to have your partner, Austin, in.
00:18:02
Speaker
He's going to also talk about Pius Indicate, too.
00:18:04
Speaker
So we'll leave some stuff for him to talk about with that, too.
00:18:08
Speaker
But yeah, with you, I wanted to hear, I know you talked a little bit about your background, how you started in selling, but I wanted to hear how did you transition specifically into solar sales?
00:18:18
Speaker
And can you talk about how you started your first company with that?
00:18:20
Speaker
And it's obviously super successful.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, so it was a rough transition.
00:18:25
Speaker
I had...
00:18:27
Speaker
I'm gone home and I was selling ADT as a directory level.
00:18:30
Speaker
So nice house, no debt, had everything we needed, was making 200,000 a year.
00:18:37
Speaker
I thought I was at the top of my game.
00:18:40
Speaker
And then a solar company kept stealing my top reps.
00:18:43
Speaker
So I managed a three or four state region,
00:18:46
Speaker
Um, and they kept stealing reps and it was always my best ones.
00:18:49
Speaker
Always the guys that were making 30 deals a month.
00:18:52
Speaker
Now all of a sudden are solar reps.
00:18:53
Speaker
So I decided to go to this company cause I'm pretty mad.
00:18:56
Speaker
So I'm just going to walk in.
00:18:57
Speaker
I'm a straightforward guy and say, Hey, stop selling my people.
Navigating Solar Sales
00:19:00
Speaker
I train these people.
00:19:02
Speaker
You know, it's unfair.
00:19:03
Speaker
And the guy said, let me vent for a little while.
00:19:06
Speaker
And he goes, well, don't you ask yourself why they are selling solar?
00:19:10
Speaker
Don't you want to know how much money you could make selling solar?
00:19:14
Speaker
And so I listened to the pitch and I was like, dang it, it's a good pitch.
00:19:17
Speaker
Like that's way more money than security, right?
00:19:20
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, I need to take this seriously.
00:19:23
Speaker
So I go home and I talk to my wife and say, hey, I think we have to make this transition.
00:19:27
Speaker
I had already noticed some of the writing on the wall.
00:19:29
Speaker
ADT had actually not brought on more customers than had canceled since the time that I've been there, over the few years that I've been there.
00:19:36
Speaker
And so that was worrying.
00:19:38
Speaker
You know, if we couldn't outsell the cancels, that's a bad thing.
00:19:41
Speaker
And so how ADT dealt with it is they would acquire other companies and kind of fluff their numbers because they're publicly traded.
00:19:47
Speaker
So it never looked like they lost subscribers.
00:19:50
Speaker
But it wasn't because of sales.
00:19:52
Speaker
We could not outsell the cancels.
00:19:54
Speaker
Cancel, yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:56
Speaker
And so that doesn't sound sustainable to me.
00:19:58
Speaker
So I had already had some fear that no matter how good we sold, it was just a matter of time, five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road that nobody's going to want to buy security door to door for $60 a month payment.
00:20:11
Speaker
Right.
00:20:11
Speaker
So I was just a little bit worried.
00:20:14
Speaker
So I went home and I talked to my wife and we decided to go ahead and me take an offer, you know, and, and go into that.
00:20:23
Speaker
I accepted the offer within the first 30 days.
00:20:27
Speaker
I thought I was going to make all kinds of money and I made one sale.
00:20:30
Speaker
And so my wife's like, you got to tell me what's going on here.
00:20:32
Speaker
This is crazy.
00:20:33
Speaker
I would also driving three and a half hours to get to the field.
00:20:36
Speaker
So I was at the time,
00:20:39
Speaker
because we were trying to save money, I was like, I'm going to do this as cheap as physically possible.
00:20:43
Speaker
I'm going to drive back and forth, you know, as much as I can.
00:20:46
Speaker
And if I have to, I'll just sleep in the car, get up, knock turf in the morning and go at it.
00:20:50
Speaker
I had a nice SUV so I could lay a whole air mattress, one of those that you see on Amazon where you pump them up, you know, and
Market Changes Impact Strategies
00:20:57
Speaker
they cover the seats.
00:20:57
Speaker
I was like, this is going to be cool.
00:20:58
Speaker
Just park right in your area.
00:20:59
Speaker
Yeah, just park.
00:21:01
Speaker
right in the area.
00:21:02
Speaker
So I was grinding, right?
00:21:03
Speaker
I was knocking like 12 hours a day.
00:21:05
Speaker
And my only break for air conditioning was like, maybe go watch a movie or something like that.
00:21:10
Speaker
I was like, if you watch a movie, why can't you just go get a hotel?
00:21:12
Speaker
I'm like, well, maybe he's 12 bucks.
00:21:14
Speaker
Like, I don't want to stay in a $12 hotel.
00:21:15
Speaker
That's disgusting.
00:21:17
Speaker
And, uh, but it was a grind, right?
00:21:19
Speaker
For a whole month that I made one deal and I thought this is, this has got to be over.
00:21:24
Speaker
I think our average commission back then was $1,500.
00:21:26
Speaker
So I traded somewhere around $20,000 a month.
00:21:28
Speaker
And that first month I went down to about $1,500.
00:21:33
Speaker
And of course you don't get it until they install it.
00:21:35
Speaker
So they gave me like a little bit and they're like, Oh, and you'll get the rest just whenever we don't know.
00:21:40
Speaker
And I'm like, Oh, I'm in trouble.
00:21:42
Speaker
ADT was like next day, you know, somebody would be out there installing it.
00:21:45
Speaker
So I misunderstood that coming into solar.
00:21:48
Speaker
Where was, where were you selling?
00:21:49
Speaker
Kansas city.
00:21:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:51
Speaker
Not a great market.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:52
Speaker
How long ago was that?
00:21:53
Speaker
It was only about six years ago.
00:21:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:55
Speaker
So, and they had a huge rebate in Kansas City, and the rebate had gone away the month I started.
00:22:01
Speaker
So it went from having, I think the state level was up to a $2 a watt rebate.
00:22:06
Speaker
Then it had gone down to a dollar a watt, and then it kind of went away.
00:22:09
Speaker
Well, $2 a watt rebate is huge.
00:22:11
Speaker
So our average sale price was like $3 a watt.
00:22:14
Speaker
And between the rebate and the ITC at the time was 30%, we literally were giving away solar for free.
00:22:22
Speaker
So when I accepted the job, I thought I was going to go door to door and just give it away for free.
00:22:25
Speaker
And then like the week I started like, Hey, the rebates gone away.
00:22:28
Speaker
You really got, it's not free anymore.
00:22:30
Speaker
You need like 25 to $30,000 on every deal.
00:22:33
Speaker
And I'm like, what?
00:22:35
Speaker
I thought we gave stuff away for free.
00:22:37
Speaker
What's going on with this.
00:22:38
Speaker
And so it kind of changed the game really quickly on me.
00:22:41
Speaker
I adjusted those.
00:22:42
Speaker
So once I figured out how to sell, I realized that it was a lot about understanding the benefits, understanding the taxes, really understanding how much money they would save.
00:22:55
Speaker
Because I was so new, it allowed me to adjust faster than the guys that had been doing it two years with this huge rebate and everything.
00:23:02
Speaker
And so the next three months, I had made about 100 sales, I think 102 sales in the next three months.
00:23:07
Speaker
Wow.
00:23:09
Speaker
So it really kicked in and I did really, really well.
00:23:12
Speaker
What's strange is you have these self-limiting beliefs though.
Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs
00:23:15
Speaker
I always believed in ADT that I had to sell 30 deals a month and I really peaked out around the same thing.
00:23:20
Speaker
So it's almost like this mindset that I was a 30 deal a month rep.
00:23:24
Speaker
I carried over into solar as well.
00:23:26
Speaker
And it's just recently that I realized that mindset is completely wrong.
00:23:29
Speaker
Listening to some of your podcasts with guys, I think you said recently you had someone on that sold 68 deals in a month.
00:23:35
Speaker
So more than double, more than double what I was selling.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:38
Speaker
So I look back saying, man, I wonder if I totally just carried over a self-belief from selling security that had nothing to do with solar.
00:23:46
Speaker
But I consistently would put up 30 deals a month.
00:23:49
Speaker
The cool thing about solar is there's commercial too.
00:23:53
Speaker
So my last month, I killed it.
00:23:55
Speaker
Commission-wise, I probably would have made somewhere around $285K in 30 days.
00:24:00
Speaker
So it was incredible.
00:24:01
Speaker
I went home, talked to my wife.
00:24:03
Speaker
We were super excited.
00:24:04
Speaker
We're like, man, this is it.
00:24:05
Speaker
We're making, we love this company.
00:24:07
Speaker
The company's like, Hey, by the way, we can't actually afford to pay you that much.
00:24:11
Speaker
And we're nine months behind on install.
00:24:13
Speaker
And I'm like, Oh wow.
00:24:15
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:24:16
Speaker
Some of you listening have probably heard words similar to that before from a solar company.
00:24:23
Speaker
So I decided really quickly to go out on my own because I was like, how much worse can it be if they can't pay me?
00:24:28
Speaker
And it takes nine months to install.
00:24:30
Speaker
I'm sure I can do better than that.
00:24:32
Speaker
So the trouble was I had to walk away from all of that commission and then didn't have a lot of money in the bank.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so because you know how far behind commissions are.
00:24:41
Speaker
So really, I walked away from even more than that.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:44
Speaker
And, um, but I had no debt on my house and everything.
00:24:47
Speaker
So we had to sell our house.
00:24:49
Speaker
We had to cash out 401k, invest everything we had into starting a solar company.
00:24:54
Speaker
And when you tell your wife that it's time to sell the dream house to go door to door again and sell more solar, it was a hard conversation.
00:25:02
Speaker
I'm so thankful that she supported me through that though and made that leap and,
00:25:06
Speaker
It took about three more years of making a really minimal amount of money.
00:25:10
Speaker
I think I pulled maybe $30,000 a year out of my company.
00:25:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:15
Speaker
The first six months, you couldn't hire an EPC like you can now.
00:25:19
Speaker
They just really didn't exist.
00:25:21
Speaker
And so I had to hire a NABCEP trainer to come in and train me to install.
Building a Sustainable Business
00:25:25
Speaker
So the next six months, I installed all my own jobs.
00:25:28
Speaker
Realized really, really quickly.
00:25:30
Speaker
that I was bad at paperwork.
00:25:31
Speaker
So I had to hire administrative assistants and people do net metering.
00:25:36
Speaker
And then I realized I didn't like talking on the phone.
00:25:38
Speaker
So I had to hire an admin person to answer the phone.
00:25:41
Speaker
Then I had to hire a phone salesperson to answer all the incoming calls.
00:25:47
Speaker
And I'm like, man, this is crazy.
00:25:49
Speaker
Now I have like 14 people that work for me.
00:25:51
Speaker
I got to start making a lot more sales.
00:25:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:54
Speaker
So it was kind of the, you know, they say the mother of invention is necessity.
00:25:59
Speaker
And that was it.
00:26:00
Speaker
I had to learn how to sell a lot more just to support the company.
00:26:03
Speaker
But selling 30 jobs a month, you know, a lot of solar companies don't even do that much.
00:26:06
Speaker
So me, myself, could go out and support my whole company.
00:26:10
Speaker
But then I just kept growing, you know, and I brought on other sales guys.
00:26:14
Speaker
And, but I stayed very conservative.
00:26:15
Speaker
So a lot of owners, you know, brag about their, their fancy watches or they drive fancy cars right away.
00:26:22
Speaker
I always knew this was a long-term play for me.
00:26:24
Speaker
And if I was going to expand faster than my competitors, I had to do it, um, through really being wise with my resources.
00:26:31
Speaker
And so I reinvested almost all the money for three years.
00:26:34
Speaker
We lived on about $30,000 a year.
00:26:36
Speaker
Now I had retired from the military.
00:26:37
Speaker
So that's not lived in California, man.
00:26:39
Speaker
No, I lived in Missouri and started the company headquarters there.
00:26:43
Speaker
I also had my military retirement, so the medical, and I had some pension coming, so I had more money than that.
00:26:48
Speaker
But out of the company, I only pulled the very minimum that my CPA told me I had to pay myself to be legitimate, or I wouldn't have probably paid myself anything.
00:26:57
Speaker
And that allowed me to reinvest in marketing and tools and to better management.
00:27:01
Speaker
And, you know, it's kind of crazy there for a while that everyone at my company was making more money than me.
Unique Business Model
00:27:06
Speaker
But at the same time, I knew that long term I was going to make a lot more money than everyone else.
00:27:10
Speaker
So, you know, that's the old saying that you've all heard, but do things that others aren't willing to do so that later on you can.
00:27:16
Speaker
do a lot.
00:27:16
Speaker
And so that's what was able to happen in my life is that those three years of really investment allowed us to build out a fully integrated solar company.
00:27:25
Speaker
And we were able to get into things that other companies weren't, you know, we go as far as doing the customer's taxes for up to five years after they buy solar.
00:27:33
Speaker
We do internal financing.
00:27:35
Speaker
Um, 2020, we did $50 million in internal solar loans.
00:27:39
Speaker
ourselves without paying finance fees.
00:27:42
Speaker
So you just can't do that without a significant amount of resources, but you only have a significant amount of resources when you don't spend resources.
00:27:49
Speaker
And so it was, um, one of those things that we just chose to stay in Missouri, live frugally, you know, all of our installers, we have a very different, uh, formula to install.
00:28:01
Speaker
They all live out of Missouri and making 20, $25 an hour in Missouri is incredible.
00:28:05
Speaker
Um,
00:28:05
Speaker
You know, they can live really well, buy their home, buy nice cars.
00:28:09
Speaker
They live really well.
00:28:11
Speaker
And so they're willing to travel out of Missouri, take the solar panels and go to Minnesota or go to Florida or go to Texas or go to, they'll drive all the way here to Vegas to install solar panels.
00:28:21
Speaker
Now we try to rack up several jobs in the same week and our teams are really well trained.
00:28:25
Speaker
So a team of three guys can install a job in one day.
00:28:28
Speaker
And so they can stack up, you know, two teams can travel out here to Vegas, knock out,
00:28:34
Speaker
you know, quite a few jobs, you know, 10 jobs in a week and then travel back, you know?
00:28:38
Speaker
And so it's just a different way to look at business.
00:28:41
Speaker
And we try to solve problems, not necessarily with spending more money on it, but how do we actually solve the problem?
00:28:47
Speaker
You know, and the most people would say, well, let's just hire a big EPC in Vegas or California or Florida, because that's easier, but that also costs a lot of money.
00:28:57
Speaker
And so we make a lot more money and a lot more profit margin because that is,
00:29:00
Speaker
We're also what I would call a white glove service with doing the customer's taxes, some extra benefits to the client.
00:29:07
Speaker
We are probably one of the more expensive solar companies in the country, which is a hard thing, right?
00:29:12
Speaker
Like it's, it's means that some sales reps don't want to work for us because they want to sell for a more competitively priced company.
00:29:19
Speaker
What we do is a process called value stacking where we believe that once your value stack exceeds the price, that it doesn't matter what the price is, the client will buy it.
00:29:29
Speaker
So we just try to deliver such a tremendous amount of value that we're still able to sell at a higher price.
00:29:35
Speaker
And then we have a very good margin and then we reinvest that margin.
00:29:38
Speaker
And so...
00:29:39
Speaker
Last year, we were able to break $151 million in revenue, extremely profitable.
00:29:45
Speaker
And we owe no money.
00:29:46
Speaker
We have no debt.
00:29:47
Speaker
We have three years of operating capital on hand at all times now.
Support During COVID-19
00:29:51
Speaker
So we're the only debt-free three years worth of capital company I know of.
00:29:55
Speaker
Specifically in solar, it's nearly unheard of.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
Through COVID, we had 24 dealerships that were sub dealers basically under our brand.
00:30:04
Speaker
We were able to support all of them and their reps through COVID.
00:30:07
Speaker
We were able to support all of our staff, even though we shut down operations.
00:30:11
Speaker
All the installers got paid.
00:30:12
Speaker
All the office workers got paid.
00:30:14
Speaker
Wow.
00:30:15
Speaker
And so it's something we're pretty proud of, but it's also means that while other companies buy Ferraris, I'm still going to be here in 10 years so they can enjoy their Ferraris and I'll enjoy my, my safety net of money in the bank.
00:30:27
Speaker
It also allows me to have money to help other companies.
00:30:31
Speaker
So I'm an investor in over 50 companies at this point and own equity in those.
00:30:36
Speaker
And so
00:30:37
Speaker
Those create passive income streams for me, which help.
00:30:40
Speaker
But it's also just a way that I can help other companies because they need the money.
00:30:43
Speaker
And they, unfortunately, most of them weren't good at saving money.
00:30:47
Speaker
They were the guys buying the Bentleys or Ferraris.
00:30:49
Speaker
And so they come to me and end up needing to borrow some funds.
00:30:54
Speaker
And I'm happy to do it as long as it's going to help the company and help them long term.
00:30:58
Speaker
And obviously it helps me if I can own a chunk of their company as well.
00:31:01
Speaker
For sure.
00:31:01
Speaker
And no, that's one thing I've noticed about you, Jerry, is you're a very giving guy.
00:31:05
Speaker
I mean, I'm not part of your company or anything, but I come in here.
00:31:09
Speaker
Jerry treats me like family.
00:31:10
Speaker
He's like, dude, I'll get you a hotel.
00:31:13
Speaker
First thing he says when I come into their house here, he's like, okay, I'll get you a hotel room.
00:31:17
Speaker
We don't have like the best beds and stuff here.
00:31:19
Speaker
I'm like, dude, I'll sleep on the couch.
00:31:21
Speaker
I don't care.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, we were talking about it.
00:31:23
Speaker
We were like,
00:31:23
Speaker
man, this is a house for door knockers.
00:31:25
Speaker
I have a real bed, but everyone else has twin size bunk beds.
00:31:28
Speaker
And there's a bunch, bunch of them upstairs.
00:31:30
Speaker
But we were thinking, Hey man, this guy just drove five hours and now he's going to sleep in a bunk bed.
00:31:35
Speaker
We all kind of had this moment where like, we probably should have thought this thing through.
00:31:39
Speaker
So we were like, yeah, do you want a hotel?
00:31:41
Speaker
Are you cool?
00:31:41
Speaker
And he's like,
00:31:42
Speaker
No, I'm cool.
00:31:42
Speaker
And then right after he said he's cool, I see one of our guys carrying in a queen-sized, like, bell-a-top mattress.
00:31:48
Speaker
I'm like, thank goodness that somebody went out and bought a bed for this guy.
00:31:51
Speaker
So, but yeah, so thanks for saying that, man.
00:31:55
Speaker
I believe in this theory about investing where...
00:31:58
Speaker
Um, if you're investing in the right people, um, there's no bad investment.
00:32:04
Speaker
And so even though it might not make monetary sense today or tomorrow, I invest my time, energy, and resources and money into people that I want long-term relationships with.
00:32:15
Speaker
Because even though you don't work for me and you may never work with me or we may never do anything specifically together, maybe you send
Philosophy on Giving
00:32:23
Speaker
me a referral and you're like, hey, my company doesn't cover Maine because it's the polar opposite side of the country from San Diego.
00:32:29
Speaker
Could you do you want this referral in Maine?
00:32:31
Speaker
And absolutely, I would.
00:32:33
Speaker
And I'll figure out a way to get an install to Maine, even though my install crews, if they're listening right now, are like, what's Jerry talking about?
00:32:39
Speaker
I don't want to go to Maine.
00:32:40
Speaker
We would figure it out and make money on it.
00:32:41
Speaker
So I just believe in being very giving.
00:32:44
Speaker
And I think people reciprocate that.
00:32:46
Speaker
Now, I'm not stupid about it.
00:32:47
Speaker
I don't give to everybody.
00:32:48
Speaker
I give of my time most sparingly.
00:32:52
Speaker
My time is the resource that I can't get back.
00:32:54
Speaker
Money, I can make more of time I can't.
00:32:56
Speaker
And so I invest my time into things like the mastermind, into my company, into the people I mentor, and definitely into...
00:33:03
Speaker
Things like this podcast, which I think is going to bear fruit for both your podcast and my companies by being a sponsor.
00:33:10
Speaker
And so I look forward to developing our relationship and giving you now next week.
00:33:16
Speaker
He's going to email me and be like, hey, man, I really need a new Tesla.
00:33:19
Speaker
I was just wondering if you could spot me 120K because it's a Plaid.
00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:23
Speaker
I'm not that good.
00:33:24
Speaker
Only let you be the sponsor.
00:33:25
Speaker
Buy me a Tesla.
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:28
Speaker
His company is going to be like, why is the side of your Tesla say Pi Syndicate on it?
00:33:32
Speaker
That's really weird.
00:33:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:35
Speaker
But no, I definitely agree with that because I worked with, you know, several different companies at this point, too.
00:33:40
Speaker
And we were having conversations before this.
00:33:43
Speaker
So, you know, some people are more giving stuff than others.
00:33:46
Speaker
And so I think it pays dividends as long as you're smart about it, like you're saying is.
00:33:51
Speaker
Just be that guy that's not like the cheap guy that's like, oh, this guy is going to nickel and dime me.
00:33:56
Speaker
But if you're investing in relationships, especially, you know, on business level, I think it pays dividends.
00:34:01
Speaker
Like, as a matter of fact, last week I did my church mission in Columbia down there.
00:34:07
Speaker
And that's one of the things in, you know, these South American countries, a lot of them are super poor.
00:34:11
Speaker
And so I get hit up all the time about people asking for money and stuff like that.
00:34:15
Speaker
So yeah, I got to give everybody selective, but I just sent, you know, 500 bucks last week for a family's funeral that I knew down there.
00:34:22
Speaker
And like, they're like, oh, we'll pay you back.
00:34:25
Speaker
We promise.
00:34:26
Speaker
I know 99% chance they're not going to be, they're not going to pay me back.
Giving vs. Loaning
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, I've decided, yeah, I've decided that, um,
00:34:34
Speaker
I do sometimes give loans, but if it's iffy like that, and I think that you're right, there's a good chance they won't be able to pay you back.
00:34:42
Speaker
I'm very upfront with it and say it's a gift, and then say if you're ever at a time in your life where you can give something to somebody else, go ahead and do that, because they're going to feel guilty if it's debt, right?
00:34:52
Speaker
They're good people.
00:34:53
Speaker
I'm sure they are.
00:34:54
Speaker
And eventually that's going to wear on them, and it's going to impact their life negatively because they're not going to pay you back, chances are.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:01
Speaker
Because they may not have the resources and stuff like that to do that.
00:35:04
Speaker
And so think about doing stuff like that as gifts.
00:35:07
Speaker
I gift my time a lot.
00:35:08
Speaker
I gift things not connected to any type of repayment.
00:35:13
Speaker
And gifting seems to reward me a lot better than loans.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:16
Speaker
Now, in businesses, if you want $100,000 loan, I'll do that, too.
00:35:20
Speaker
But that's a loan.
00:35:22
Speaker
Normally, stuff like that is somebody in need.
00:35:24
Speaker
Give it as a gift, and you'll see dividends of that.
00:35:28
Speaker
It also helps you feel a lot better right away.
00:35:30
Speaker
It feels good giving them a loan.
00:35:32
Speaker
If you had made the decision to just give it to them as a gift, which is basically, it sounds like what you did.
00:35:37
Speaker
But if you had said that in your head, I'm going to give it as a gift and tell them I'm giving it as a gift, it would have had a little bit more positive impact even inside yourself, the gratitude that you felt being able to help someone.
00:35:49
Speaker
And so it's a cool way to manage your money like that.
00:35:52
Speaker
The thing that I, one of the things I talk about when I talk about gifting, though, is my time.
00:35:58
Speaker
And so I don't know if you've ever heard a term called time vampires, but I definitely believe in the concept that there's some people that just siphon away your time.
Managing Time Effectively
00:36:06
Speaker
And so while I'm very free to help people and to mentor them and stuff like that, be selective on who you help.
00:36:12
Speaker
Just like you said, you get hit quite a bit for money.
00:36:15
Speaker
The same thing with time.
00:36:16
Speaker
And you're an influential person.
00:36:18
Speaker
You have a lot of value to add to other people's lives.
00:36:21
Speaker
But you have to start being selective.
00:36:22
Speaker
And one of the rules that I've set for myself is that I only interact daily on a day-to-day basis with 10 people.
00:36:29
Speaker
So if I ever get to a point where I'm talking to someone every single day, I either need to figure out if there's somebody I'm mentoring or if there's somebody that needs to be communicating with one of my 10 people.
00:36:41
Speaker
And I have a wife and four kids.
00:36:43
Speaker
So that means I only have five people outside of that to communicate with on a day-to-day basis.
00:36:48
Speaker
So my intimate little work circle is about five.
00:36:51
Speaker
And it makes for some hard decision-making.
00:36:53
Speaker
I talked to the general manager of Solar Solutions.
00:36:57
Speaker
She's in training for all intents and purposes.
00:36:59
Speaker
She's the CEO.
00:37:01
Speaker
And I've talked to her one hour in the last week.
00:37:04
Speaker
And she's running a multi-million dollar company for me.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I trust that she's doing a great job.
00:37:10
Speaker
Um, but I don't have time day to day.
00:37:12
Speaker
She's not by any means a time vampire.
00:37:14
Speaker
She's listening, but, um, I don't have time.
00:37:17
Speaker
So, but making those decisions, even when they're hard decisions, like not to talk to your GM every single day, um, mean that it makes it much easier to make a decision about talking to a friend from high school that just wants to chat about video games or fantasy football.
00:37:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:32
Speaker
I cut them out pretty quickly because if I don't have time for my GM, I really don't have time for them either.
00:37:39
Speaker
And so setting up some type of structure in your life to make decisions based on time and who you're going to invest time in is very, very important.
00:37:47
Speaker
You go a lot further in life if you invest your time correctly.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:37:51
Speaker
That's a good point.
00:37:52
Speaker
So yeah, for all our listeners, I think it's a good thing to do.
00:37:54
Speaker
Another thing I've talked about is just, you know, a time audit, just really tracking what you actually did with your hours, how you spent your time.
00:38:02
Speaker
So a lot of times we think we're being, you know, super productive, smart with our time.
00:38:06
Speaker
And then we actually track it.
00:38:08
Speaker
We just spent two hours talking about fantasy football to someone or, you know, playing a game on the phone, whatever, things like that.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, what's strange is now that I, last year I had done the math on, you know, how much money I was making per hour that I worked.
Value-Based Selling
00:38:22
Speaker
And the number was much, much larger than what I had previously thought about it being.
00:38:27
Speaker
And in the last few years, it's led me to really, really feel guilty about wasting my time.
00:38:34
Speaker
So like I love video games.
00:38:36
Speaker
I love World of Warcraft back in the day and things like that.
00:38:39
Speaker
There's zero chance that I could open up a computer, get on World of Warcraft tonight and play for four hours without having this tremendous amount of guilt.
00:38:47
Speaker
You know, just because my time is I know what my time is worth right now.
00:38:51
Speaker
And if someone would ask me, hey, would you give me twenty five thousand dollars to play World of Warcraft?
00:38:55
Speaker
I would say.
00:38:57
Speaker
no, I'm not going to give you 25 grand to play a video game.
00:39:00
Speaker
But that's exactly what we do in investing our time and activities that don't actually generate income or generate a better relationship with those around us is it's time that we're really, really stealing from ourselves.
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:39:12
Speaker
So no, that's a good point with that.
00:39:15
Speaker
And so going back a little bit, Jerry, something I wanted to ask you about, we were talking before we started recording here is just like you're saying, so many people just sell their prices low.
00:39:27
Speaker
You said you're like one of the higher price companies that sell solar.
00:39:31
Speaker
And I think that's awesome.
00:39:32
Speaker
I started out with a company that was kind of similar to that.
00:39:35
Speaker
They
00:39:35
Speaker
tried to bundle in like some solar cleaning and some like, I don't know, yearly checkup type things they did.
00:39:42
Speaker
I kind of found some loopholes around it.
00:39:44
Speaker
And I think it made a few customers mad because they put in the fine print that they would only do that if the customer like contacted them.
00:39:50
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:39:52
Speaker
It was kind of a, yeah, maybe not the greatest way.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:55
Speaker
The whole thing about being the most expensive company is you also have to do the best job.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:59
Speaker
And so you can get away with that.
00:40:02
Speaker
What's crazy is it's easier if you're a good salesperson to sell being the most expensive than it is being the cheapest.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:09
Speaker
The only person that thinks it's easier to sell being the cheapest are bad salespeople.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:15
Speaker
Like that's what it comes down to.
00:40:16
Speaker
You're probably not listening to this podcast if you think the only way to sell is by lowering the price.
00:40:22
Speaker
That's probably not your target audience.
00:40:23
Speaker
People are trying to learn.
00:40:25
Speaker
They're trying to get better.
00:40:26
Speaker
We grade sales reps, A, B, and C sales reps.
00:40:30
Speaker
C sales reps sell by being cheap, and that's how we remember it.
00:40:34
Speaker
If the only way that they can sell is by being the cheapest in the room and they're not selling based on anything else,
00:40:39
Speaker
then they're a C-cells rep.
00:40:40
Speaker
There is definitely room in the solar industry for C-cells reps.
00:40:44
Speaker
So if you sell based on price, don't feel bad about it.
00:40:47
Speaker
Just either educate yourself to get better or find a company that really is the cheapest, and that's where you need to be at to make money.
00:40:54
Speaker
B-cells reps are those that really are good at one of two things.
00:40:58
Speaker
They're either technical experts or they are expert closers, and it's one of two things.
00:41:04
Speaker
They're either the best closer in the whole world.
00:41:06
Speaker
I would refer to like...
00:41:08
Speaker
Mike O'Donnell or Taylor McCartney, you know, incredible closers, but I know more about solar than either one of them.
00:41:15
Speaker
So the other, the other B cells rep is someone that is very, very technical.
Sales Rep Categories
00:41:22
Speaker
I would look at, you know, quite a few people in the marketplace that I would look at.
00:41:29
Speaker
Jake Hess would be the one that comes to mind.
00:41:31
Speaker
Very, very technical closer, you know, through his Academy, he trains people how to be very technical and,
00:41:37
Speaker
And then the A cells rep is those that combine both.
00:41:40
Speaker
So yes, Taylor and Mike can definitely answer those technical questions or they know how to pivot really well.
00:41:47
Speaker
And so they're A cells reps because at the end of the day, phenomenal closers and they know everything they need to know about solar to get the cell closed.
00:41:55
Speaker
Now, Taylor's kind of bizarre because he does know just a little bit, but he's that good of a cells rep that he's still an A cells rep.
00:42:02
Speaker
And I was talking about something one day.
00:42:03
Speaker
He's like, I don't even know what you're talking about.
00:42:05
Speaker
I was like, okay, well,
00:42:07
Speaker
I guess I'm more of a technical sales rep instead of as good of a closer as Danny Pesce.
00:42:12
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:42:12
Speaker
Some one time.
00:42:13
Speaker
Like, I don't even know what an inverter is.
00:42:14
Speaker
That's what he told me.
00:42:15
Speaker
That's what we're talking about.
00:42:16
Speaker
I was talking about different inverters.
00:42:17
Speaker
Like, to be honest, I don't know what you're talking about.
00:42:20
Speaker
He's like, but I sold the last 14 doors.
00:42:22
Speaker
I knocked on.
00:42:22
Speaker
I was like, wow, that's a,
00:42:25
Speaker
That's okay.
00:42:25
Speaker
There's definitely some benefit.
00:42:27
Speaker
I noticed that they and Jake has been hanging out and I'm like, well, hopefully those guys learn a lot from each other because they'll be a powerhouse.
00:42:35
Speaker
But yeah, and so the A sales reps are like that.
00:42:37
Speaker
We specifically hire the A sales reps because they have to be good closers and they have to know a lot about the technical side.
00:42:43
Speaker
Because we have to justify our higher price and explain why we're higher.
00:42:48
Speaker
One of the things is we give real warranties instead of just fake cleanings.
00:42:52
Speaker
We also give free maintenance.
00:42:53
Speaker
But we give a 25-year true labor warranty, anything that goes wrong.
00:42:58
Speaker
A lot of guys in the solar industry don't realize, but they're selling what's called a workmanship warranty.
00:43:02
Speaker
And under a workmanship warranty, you would assume that if say a panel stops working, that the company would come out and fix it for free without charging the customer a fee.
00:43:12
Speaker
The truth is a workmanship warranty covers bad workmanship.
00:43:15
Speaker
So if they installed it incorrectly, which caused the panel to stop working, a good company would come out and fix it.
00:43:21
Speaker
But a good company would do that for free, even without a warranty in writing.
00:43:24
Speaker
They would say, yeah, you're right.
00:43:25
Speaker
That's our fault.
00:43:26
Speaker
Let us fix that.
00:43:27
Speaker
So it's pretty much just acknowledging that, hey, we're a good company, which is nice of them to say there's a 25-year workmanship warranty.
Workmanship vs. Labor Warranties
00:43:35
Speaker
But under the warranty and most of the terms, if that panel stops working, it's the manufacturer's fault.
00:43:41
Speaker
You would have to pay that solar company labor to come out and replace that solar panel.
00:43:45
Speaker
And there's almost zero sales reps that understand that concept.
00:43:48
Speaker
And I guarantee you no homeowner understands that concept.
00:43:52
Speaker
So when they get into these 25-year loans, when you talk about company evaluations and how to evaluate the value of a solar company,
00:44:00
Speaker
Those that give away a workmanship warranty are basically locking in that customer on a service plan for the next 25 years that increases the company evaluation because they know they're going to make X amount of money servicing that system over the next 25 years.
00:44:15
Speaker
A company like mine, it actually decreases our company value because we know that the relationship with that client will just cause, um, cost over the next 25 years.
00:44:25
Speaker
So, um, very few companies like ours that are giving free labor away, true free labor for the whole time.
00:44:31
Speaker
Um, but we definitely do.
00:44:32
Speaker
And so we line ourselves up with even our battery manufacturers are full 25 year warranties.
00:44:37
Speaker
So everything we do is a 25 year warranty or more, um, included with labor too.
00:44:42
Speaker
So even the solar panels, the batteries, if we were to go out of business,
00:44:46
Speaker
they'll hire an electrician to come out and service it so it's just a different pitch but a good sales rep always feels more comfortable being the guy saying i'm the best buy for me then i'm the cheapest you know let's it's a good deal let's do this you know so you'll kind of weed weed out those people that aren't quite as good yeah i know yeah it's interesting i go to these like marketing conferences and stuff and
00:45:08
Speaker
Online marketing, they say there's no competitive advantage to being like, you know, in the middle of the pack pricing.
00:45:14
Speaker
You're either like the cheapest or you're the most expensive and you add more value, but there's no like advantage at all of being kind of like middle.
Pricing Strategies
00:45:23
Speaker
So yeah.
00:45:23
Speaker
No, and you kind of disregard all the middle companies too.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:27
Speaker
And so I definitely think one of our strategies is we know we're going to be the most expensive, so we get that out of the way right away.
00:45:34
Speaker
We tell them we are.
00:45:35
Speaker
We actually tell them to shop around, and if they choose to go with a cheaper company, we'll even pay $50 per quote that they give us from the other companies that they've shopped around with.
00:45:43
Speaker
Nice.
00:45:44
Speaker
So we encourage them to give us – go shop around with four quotes, and then we'll come back and be the final one in the door, propose our price.
00:45:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:51
Speaker
100% of the time they're expecting us to undercut the cheapest bid because they think it's a gimmick, right?
00:45:57
Speaker
You're giving me these quotes.
00:45:58
Speaker
You're going to undercut their price and then try to close me.
00:46:01
Speaker
100% of the time we make sure we're more expensive.
00:46:03
Speaker
In fact, if we're not the most expensive person, we raise our price by $1,000 and make sure because it's easier to sell on the most expensive.
00:46:10
Speaker
Now, not everyone buys, though.
00:46:12
Speaker
And so just like a car lot, you're the most expensive.
00:46:15
Speaker
You're a Lamborghini dealership or whatever.
00:46:17
Speaker
That's how we treat it.
00:46:18
Speaker
But at the end of the day, if you say it's too expensive and you're getting ready to walk out, we say, hold on, wait a minute.
00:46:23
Speaker
Let's see if we can throw something else in.
00:46:25
Speaker
So we try to do value-add.
00:46:27
Speaker
So we may replace their air conditioner or we may...
00:46:29
Speaker
help replace the roof or whatever it is but very rarely will we do just a straightforward discount we're never going to be like okay you're right let us let us price it out for ten thousand dollars cheaper that's probably not going to be us yeah but we'll win those bids yeah i think that's awesome because especially in california there's no excuse for people to be selling like rock bottom prices i mean san diego you can sell a system you know six dollars a lot super expensive and you're still saving them you're still cutting their bill by 30 percent yeah
00:46:57
Speaker
So it's like these companies that try to sell rock bottom, like, what are you guys doing?
00:47:01
Speaker
We're still saving the customer so much money.
00:47:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think we all need to be on the same team, right?
00:47:05
Speaker
Like, I think there's places out there for the cheapest guys.
00:47:09
Speaker
The problem is...
00:47:11
Speaker
Those guys need to go move to Missouri or Kansas or somewhere with 10 cent per kilowatt hours if they want to sell cheap.
00:47:17
Speaker
California, you're not competing against each other.
00:47:20
Speaker
You're competing against the utility company.
00:47:22
Speaker
So $6 a watt is completely fair price to charge if you're reversing the utility company.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:29
Speaker
What that allows you to do as a company is make more profit.
00:47:32
Speaker
There is absolutely nothing wrong with profit if you're helping the client, because that means you can take that profit and go make more clients.
00:47:39
Speaker
You can spend more money on marketing.
00:47:41
Speaker
You can spend more money on paying your people.
00:47:43
Speaker
You can spend more money on office space.
00:47:46
Speaker
You can do everything you can to grow.
00:47:47
Speaker
And at the end of the day, we all want to have more solar customers.
00:47:51
Speaker
We all believe that solar is good for the environment.
00:47:53
Speaker
And so at the end of the day, our mission is to sell as many people as we can and
00:47:57
Speaker
And people get twisted.
00:47:58
Speaker
People that are new to business think selling cheaper will help them sell more.
00:48:01
Speaker
It absolutely will not.
00:48:03
Speaker
The resources you gain from selling a fairly priced product that's beating out your competitor, which is the utility company, is the correct price.
00:48:12
Speaker
And so I would never charge somebody.
00:48:14
Speaker
One of my ethical rules is I never charge more.
00:48:17
Speaker
than what they're paying on the utility company.
00:48:19
Speaker
So at Solar Solutions, it's a little different.
Reinvesting Profits
00:48:22
Speaker
They have to be able to pay the system off within 10 years through savings, and they have to be able to have a payment that's cheaper than their utility bill from day one, or we won't quote them the system.
00:48:32
Speaker
We'll tell them that we don't advise them to go solar.
00:48:35
Speaker
In California, that wouldn't happen very often though.
00:48:37
Speaker
It's so good of a deal for everybody.
00:48:39
Speaker
Even at $6 a watt, you should be doing that.
00:48:42
Speaker
Just make sure you're not going out and buying Ferraris.
00:48:44
Speaker
You need to be reinvesting that money in yourself and for you specifically in your podcast and your recruiting budget to help others come on board because you're not going to be able to sell prices like that forever.
00:48:55
Speaker
And we know that.
00:48:56
Speaker
So use those resources to expand, to grow, to really make a dent in the industry.
00:49:02
Speaker
And it's so cool.
00:49:03
Speaker
I learned something from you earlier.
00:49:04
Speaker
We were talking to our guys about how saturated Las Vegas is.
00:49:08
Speaker
I don't think anyone would argue that San Diego is, if not the most saturated market, one of the most saturated markets in the United States.
00:49:16
Speaker
Very cool market.
00:49:17
Speaker
And you still go out and doorknock every day and you still run into people that need solar.
00:49:21
Speaker
And what solar?
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:23
Speaker
So it's incredible.
00:49:24
Speaker
We need to stop thinking of the scarcity mindset where we're competing against other solar companies.
00:49:29
Speaker
We're still not.
00:49:30
Speaker
Even in San Diego, we're not.
00:49:33
Speaker
And the truth is, you mentioned it too, but those companies may knock the door once and you're going to knock the door five or more times.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:39
Speaker
I'm okay with competition as long as I'm better than them.
00:49:41
Speaker
And it sounds like you're, you're beating them.
00:49:43
Speaker
So that's healthy competition.
00:49:46
Speaker
And so I think that that's a really cool thing to think about.
Utility Companies as Competitors
00:49:50
Speaker
We all need to keep our prices higher because in San Diego, if you can sell $6 a lot and the most competitive thing in the whole United States, then everybody should be pricing their structure out right below the utility company.
00:50:03
Speaker
Let's do better than the utility company.
00:50:05
Speaker
But that means I operate in mainly the Midwest states.
00:50:08
Speaker
That means we don't sell as high in Kansas.
00:50:10
Speaker
We don't sell as high in Texas.
00:50:12
Speaker
We don't sell as high at all in Tennessee.
00:50:14
Speaker
So it just all depends on where you're at, what their pricing is, because the utility is the competitor, not the other solar companies.
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:21
Speaker
I think that's a good rule to go by though.
00:50:23
Speaker
Cause you don't want to, you know, charge them way more than their pain for electricity.
00:50:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:26
Speaker
And I've heard some interesting guys pitch it.
00:50:28
Speaker
And if they knocked on my door, they're right.
00:50:31
Speaker
I probably would have bought it cause they're good enough to pitch, pitch it as an investment.
00:50:35
Speaker
Um,
00:50:36
Speaker
My individual role with investing is I want my money back within 10 years.
00:50:40
Speaker
I want it to completely be liquid.
00:50:42
Speaker
And that really comes into about a 7% compounded interest rate or above.
00:50:49
Speaker
And so I wouldn't personally make an investment if that wasn't going to happen.
00:50:53
Speaker
I put all my money into investments like that.
00:50:55
Speaker
So why would solar be anything different?
00:50:57
Speaker
If I'm going to put it on my house, I still want that kind of ROI.
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:00
Speaker
And so I think I just ethically on a personal side, that's translated to the ethics of my company to say, look, we're not going to sell it unless they meet the standard for Jerry thinking it's a good deal.
Ethical Pricing Standards
00:51:13
Speaker
Right.
00:51:13
Speaker
And that's my standard.
00:51:14
Speaker
There's been some guys, though, that I talked to that view it as a financial investment in states that have very low prices.
00:51:20
Speaker
And I don't think they're wrong.
00:51:22
Speaker
And there's also a lot of speculation about the price of utilities really jumping up over the next three years.
00:51:27
Speaker
A good friend of mine, Mike O'Donnell, talks about it.
00:51:30
Speaker
He's extremely convincing, right?
00:51:32
Speaker
Like he's the guy that I've listened to enough where I'm like, you know what?
00:51:35
Speaker
Even if they are spending $20 more a month, Mike's probably right.
00:51:39
Speaker
It's going to be okay.
00:51:41
Speaker
It's just not a company thing that we do.
00:51:43
Speaker
So that's our litmus test is we try to price it right below.
00:51:47
Speaker
But definitely don't price it $1.85 a watt.
00:51:50
Speaker
I think we can all agree that if you're the guy out there selling it $1.85 a watt, you need to listen to the podcast more often.
00:51:57
Speaker
And learn how to sell more because there's no reason to do that.
00:52:00
Speaker
And at the end of the day, what I tell customers that are getting an incredible deal is I run the numbers and I say, hey, your sales rep's making $500 on this deal.
00:52:09
Speaker
Who is it?
00:52:10
Speaker
Oh, a power?
00:52:11
Speaker
I've never heard of power.
00:52:12
Speaker
That's interesting.
00:52:13
Speaker
It must be a power rep that sold that for a $500 commission.
00:52:17
Speaker
And I say, think about this.
00:52:19
Speaker
It's a 25-year agreement.
00:52:21
Speaker
You need customer service for the next 25 years if something goes wrong, right?
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:25
Speaker
Like, yeah, nice.
00:52:26
Speaker
Well, how much do you think the $21 a year is going to buy you in time for that guy to pick up the phone and answer your questions?
00:52:33
Speaker
The truth is, think of his commission like prepaying to have an advocate for you for the next 25 years.
00:52:40
Speaker
And in my opinion, $500 is not enough money for a 25 year relationship.
00:52:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:52:46
Speaker
So we need to pay our reps well enough that they do very good customer service or the company needs to make enough profit that they take that role on themselves, that the rep isn't the one responsible for customer service and taking care of it.
00:53:03
Speaker
it is definitely our responsibility to take care of them for the next 25 years.
00:53:06
Speaker
Like that's, that's just the way it is.
00:53:09
Speaker
That's our job.
00:53:10
Speaker
True.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:10
Speaker
I just got a call actually like a couple hours ago from guy I sold four years ago.
00:53:15
Speaker
Call me just barely.
00:53:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:17
Speaker
Luckily I made more than 500 bucks, but yeah, that's a good point though.
00:53:20
Speaker
Like,
00:53:21
Speaker
I'm only making 500 bucks and it's a guy that's taken up all this time.
00:53:24
Speaker
That's a time suck.
00:53:26
Speaker
Then, uh, yeah, it's, um, like you want to be making, you know, your time worth some money for sure.
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:33
Speaker
Um, and yeah, the other thing that's, uh,
00:53:37
Speaker
I forget
Energy Co's New Business Model
00:53:39
Speaker
the question I was going to ask you, where I was going with it.
00:53:41
Speaker
Well, we were talking a little bit before we started, and you were basically saying, you know, why did I step away from Solar Solutions?
00:53:50
Speaker
And, you know, I thought that was a really interesting question I wanted to say for the podcast.
00:53:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:55
Speaker
So the reason why is because I believe that the solar industry is at its peak right now.
00:54:00
Speaker
I think it's incredible.
00:54:01
Speaker
It's the new gold rush.
00:54:03
Speaker
Everyone we know in cells should be going into solar right now.
00:54:07
Speaker
It is the biggest opportunity.
00:54:08
Speaker
If you're not telling your friends and family members.
00:54:11
Speaker
and neighbors that they should be selling solar and they're working at a library or they're working at Starbucks, you're doing them a disservice.
00:54:18
Speaker
You should be so convicted that it's time to get into solar that I needed to transition what I'm doing to align with that.
00:54:26
Speaker
So if I believe everybody should get into solar, that I need to build a company that isn't one of the most difficult sales processes that requires a rep like you with all your knowledge to go out and sell for $6 a watt.
00:54:39
Speaker
I would need to do something more moderate.
00:54:41
Speaker
So Energy Co.
00:54:42
Speaker
is meant to recruit anybody.
00:54:44
Speaker
We're here at a recruiting class.
00:54:46
Speaker
I'm glad that you're able to say hey to them while you were here.
00:54:47
Speaker
And there's some kids right now in this class that are 18 years old.
00:54:52
Speaker
There's not a lot of solar companies I'd be excited about hiring an 18 year old.
00:54:56
Speaker
Right.
00:54:56
Speaker
And I had to go back to a training model that allowed me to recruit literally anybody off the street.
00:55:02
Speaker
That guy working at Starbucks, that teacher, the person that's struggling because they got a degree in psychology and they haven't worked since they graduated.
00:55:12
Speaker
They're like, what just happened?
00:55:13
Speaker
I paid all this money for a degree and now I don't have a job.
00:55:16
Speaker
I wanted to go back to the days like when we worked at security or pest control that literally anybody could do it, right?
00:55:21
Speaker
Like you just had to knock doors.
00:55:23
Speaker
Solar gets more complicated than that sometimes.
00:55:26
Speaker
And so our whole concept here at Energy Co.
00:55:28
Speaker
is a division of labor.
00:55:29
Speaker
So we split it into the setter, the educator, and the closer.
00:55:34
Speaker
They work together as a team.
00:55:35
Speaker
You know, there's a whole bunch of people that can set because anybody can set just like in pest control, security.
00:55:41
Speaker
You just got to say, even if they're terrible and they're like, hey, do you want solar?
00:55:44
Speaker
Eventually, somebody is going to say yes, whereas the educators a little bit harder.
00:55:49
Speaker
You got to explain the one on ones and how solar works.
00:55:51
Speaker
But there are a whole bunch of second grade teachers out there that would absolutely love to make.
00:55:56
Speaker
money per job in 30 minutes of work, right?
00:56:00
Speaker
And then our closers are definitely the rarest people.
00:56:04
Speaker
It takes a very specific skill set.
00:56:06
Speaker
And so we decided to just make the division of labor.
00:56:09
Speaker
But our closers are now able to sit in front of, you know, 10 opportunities a day.
00:56:14
Speaker
They've already gone through the education process.
00:56:16
Speaker
And during the education process, we've ran credit.
00:56:19
Speaker
They fully understand.
00:56:20
Speaker
They've answered a simple pre-close that says, if your bill is less than it is right now with your utility company,
00:56:26
Speaker
and it doesn't cost you anything out of pocket, will you move forward on solar?
00:56:29
Speaker
So they've already done some of the pre-close.
00:56:32
Speaker
And so these are very, very good leads.
00:56:33
Speaker
They've already said yes to that.
00:56:35
Speaker
We've already ran their credit.
00:56:36
Speaker
We know what all that looks like.
00:56:37
Speaker
So imagine being a closer and going in and jumping on a digital call, which Zoom nobody loves.
00:56:44
Speaker
We're all face-to-face closers.
00:56:45
Speaker
I like being face-to-face.
00:56:47
Speaker
But imagine that educator is still sitting there with the customer who's built up all the rapport.
00:56:52
Speaker
And all we have to do as a closer is review the numbers,
00:56:55
Speaker
answer high-level questions, and overcome their objections.
00:56:59
Speaker
And it takes 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to do it.
00:57:02
Speaker
You can do it from your house.
00:57:04
Speaker
But we only pay $1,000 because it's taking 30 minutes.
00:57:07
Speaker
But you're running 10 of these opportunities a day.
00:57:09
Speaker
You're closing a 30% close rate because, again, all the chaff, all the ones that never were going to buy to begin with,
00:57:16
Speaker
are disqualified and out of that you have someone there to help you do the paperwork you just close it hang up and trust that your educators getting all the contracts signed following up the back end's taken care of because all we want every day is to have you on the phone making those closing conversations happen and so you're working five six hours a day three grand a day 18 grand a week 750k a year
00:57:41
Speaker
It's one of the highest paid positions inside solar.
00:57:44
Speaker
And we're only paying $1,000 a sale, which shocks people.
00:57:48
Speaker
We interview high-level solar people all the time.
00:57:50
Speaker
And they're like, what are you talking about?
00:57:52
Speaker
I'm making, you know, they always make up these crazy numbers.
00:57:54
Speaker
You've heard them too.
00:57:55
Speaker
I'm making 10 grand a job.
00:57:57
Speaker
I'm making 20 grand a job.
00:57:58
Speaker
We're like, sure you are, buddy.
00:58:01
Speaker
You did that once.
00:58:02
Speaker
And she was 92 years old and didn't know what she was doing.
00:58:05
Speaker
And you sold her at $8 a watt.
00:58:08
Speaker
And you had to argue with the finance company even to approve it.
00:58:11
Speaker
And yes, be super proud of yourself that you made 20 grand on that deal.
00:58:16
Speaker
The other thing it allows us to do at that scale of operation is make sure that every quote that the closer sees is good for the client.
Encouraging Entrepreneurship
00:58:23
Speaker
So as a closer, they never see a quote that the client should not buy.
00:58:28
Speaker
We've eliminated that in the educational process.
00:58:30
Speaker
The designs are made by our engineers.
00:58:33
Speaker
If it's not good for them, if it's not saving the money from day one and costs nothing out of pocket and is really good for them,
00:58:39
Speaker
then the closer never sees that.
00:58:40
Speaker
So imagine being a closer that knows every single person I'm convicted to give them.
00:58:46
Speaker
And when you have conviction, you turn into convincing.
00:58:51
Speaker
And so you really are convincing that they should move forward.
00:58:54
Speaker
And you never have that ethical dilemma when you get to the end of the sale.
00:58:57
Speaker
And I'm sure this happened to you.
00:58:58
Speaker
You kind of sit there and you're like,
00:59:00
Speaker
Should this client really even be doing that?
00:59:03
Speaker
And they can see it in your eyes.
00:59:04
Speaker
And then every once in a while, that'll bleed over to the next appointment.
00:59:08
Speaker
And you know that they're a good client, but they can feel that energy where you're just not 100% convincing that they should do it.
00:59:15
Speaker
And the energy's off.
00:59:16
Speaker
Imagine being a closer where every single time you get on the phone, it is your moral obligation to close that sale.
00:59:23
Speaker
Like literally they're walking away and if they say no and they don't buy from you, it's financially damaging to them.
00:59:29
Speaker
That's the type of conviction that we bring through this model.
00:59:32
Speaker
And you no longer have to go and vet the clients.
00:59:35
Speaker
You no longer have to knock on the doors.
00:59:36
Speaker
you know, how many times do you say when you knock on the door, I'm not sure if this is going to be a good fit for you.
00:59:41
Speaker
You know, cause those of us that have door knocked for a long time, that's really the pitch.
00:59:44
Speaker
We start doing a lot of pullbacks.
00:59:45
Speaker
I'm not sure if it's good for you.
00:59:47
Speaker
Not sure it's going to work out.
00:59:48
Speaker
Only so many people are going to go solar.
00:59:50
Speaker
Let's just see if it's going to be a good fit.
00:59:51
Speaker
Let's,
00:59:52
Speaker
Well, saying those type of things every single day erodes your confidence.
00:59:58
Speaker
And then when you even a single day set, you've used those phrases when our closers are using phrases like this is absolutely what you should be doing.
01:00:07
Speaker
And it builds up that confidence.
01:00:09
Speaker
They know that every time they get on a phone, they're going to use powerful, assumptive language because they know that it's their job and even their ethical, moral duty to help this client save money because we're not passing them leads that don't need to be closed.
01:00:23
Speaker
And so it makes for a very, very good division of labor.
01:00:28
Speaker
And it helps these guys make a ton of money.
01:00:31
Speaker
And then the cool thing about our company is that once you've made 100 sales with us, you start your own company.
01:00:36
Speaker
So we don't expect guys to stay forever.
01:00:38
Speaker
I think one of the biggest things with the solar industry is every good rep, it may be five years down the road, but wants to own his own company.
01:00:46
Speaker
Not everyone, 90% of them dream about opening their own company or being a dealer or a sub-dealer or something like that.
01:00:53
Speaker
So we just lean into it.
01:00:54
Speaker
We know that's coming.
01:00:55
Speaker
So if you make 100 sales through our company, we will totally finance back by office space, give you marketing.
01:01:02
Speaker
We have full recruiting people.
01:01:04
Speaker
In the last 30 days, we have 1,500 people in our pipeline for recruiting, so we can turn that nozzle on and off in any market in the United States.
01:01:12
Speaker
So if someone is like, yeah, I want to move to Maine and go sell solar, we're like, well, good luck with that four months a year.
01:01:18
Speaker
But we could still recruit enough people to probably make them successful, even up in the Northeast.
01:01:24
Speaker
And so it's really what the company is all about to stay with us for a while.
01:01:29
Speaker
Let us mentor you.
01:01:30
Speaker
Let us build this up.
01:01:31
Speaker
Let us give you this dream job where you're doing what you're specifically talented at.
01:01:36
Speaker
We're the only company I know of that does full psychology profiling and does full disc assessments before we even let someone work for us.
01:01:43
Speaker
So we know exactly what role they're going to end up in, even though they don't.
01:01:47
Speaker
And we let them choose still.
01:01:48
Speaker
Some people,
01:01:49
Speaker
can definitely modulate their personality to be a good setter, be a good educator, be a good closer no matter what.
Role of Personality Assessments
01:01:56
Speaker
Guys like you that have done all three, you could do whatever you want.
01:01:58
Speaker
But at the end of the day, there's certain parts of that that you probably fall into more easily.
01:02:04
Speaker
And so we evaluate them based on psychology, help them be successful, really build them out.
01:02:09
Speaker
And then at the end of the day, I partner with them and we open up a solar company and they get to own it.
01:02:14
Speaker
you know, hot sun, solar and, you know, South Texas or whatever it is.
01:02:18
Speaker
And so it's a, it's a cool way for us to grow and just lean into the natural things that are going on in the industry already.
01:02:25
Speaker
I love that.
01:02:25
Speaker
Cause I think so many people just try to force people into this roles that maybe they would have been better off just like setting the appointments.
01:02:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
But that's the problem.
01:02:33
Speaker
I think what you guys have going on is really cool because this sustainable model, like people see,
01:02:40
Speaker
For example, in California, closers, they're the ones making the money.
01:02:43
Speaker
I want to no matter what, I just want to step into closing.
01:02:45
Speaker
Yeah, our closer and our setters make identical amounts of money.
01:02:50
Speaker
The only position that pays a little bit less is our educator position.
01:02:54
Speaker
And it's because supply and demand, there's more people willing to have an educational friendly conversation than there are people willing to talk to strangers at the door or people willing to have the awkward conversation and overcome the objections.
01:03:05
Speaker
And so the law of supply and demand says that's the lowest paid position in the company.
01:03:09
Speaker
but it's also the happiest position.
01:03:12
Speaker
So the people that fall into that personality trait where they just want to help people and they just want to educate people and they just want to do that is a very, very rewarding job.
01:03:21
Speaker
And to not to be the person that has the awkward conversation, to not be the person that has to talk to strangers door to door is a very interesting job.
01:03:28
Speaker
It's also, if I look back at,
01:03:31
Speaker
you know, the thousands of people that I've worked with in solar so far, the ones that I regret the most are the people that are so smart.
01:03:37
Speaker
But for one reason or another, they couldn't be a setter or a closer because they were just awkward.
01:03:42
Speaker
Either at the door, they beat themselves up.
01:03:45
Speaker
Or during the closing, they're the people that get to the end and they say they have to think about it.
01:03:48
Speaker
And they're like, you're right, I would have to think about it too.
01:03:50
Speaker
And they get up and they say, I'll call you back tomorrow.
01:03:53
Speaker
I'm sure you're going to buy.
01:03:54
Speaker
And, you know, that never...
01:03:56
Speaker
Never, ever works.
01:03:57
Speaker
And so your close rate gets destroyed.
01:03:59
Speaker
And so, so many of those people have worked with me and now no longer work with me.
01:04:04
Speaker
And over the years, I used to think, you know, back in ADT, back in the beginning of solar, I used to think, well, they're just bad sales reps that aren't adapting and aren't learning.
01:04:14
Speaker
The truth is there's just different personality traits.
01:04:16
Speaker
And so I taught a leadership course and while I'm teaching the leadership course, I'm like,
01:04:21
Speaker
why am I not applying these things?
01:04:23
Speaker
I'm literally teaching other solar companies to not put a square person into a round hole.
01:04:27
Speaker
And I'm like, wait a minute.
01:04:29
Speaker
Like I only have two positions inside the company, a setter and a closer.
01:04:33
Speaker
Like there's a huge amount of interaction with the customer that doesn't need to be done by either of those personalities.
01:04:39
Speaker
And so that's what energy co is, is a division of labor that puts people in the perfect spot.
01:04:44
Speaker
And then because of that, just like Ford automobiles,
01:04:48
Speaker
It's not about how much money you make per vehicle.
01:04:50
Speaker
It's about how many cars you sell.
01:04:52
Speaker
Or in this case, how many solar deals you get.
01:04:54
Speaker
And so it's economies to scale.
01:04:56
Speaker
And if somebody sitting on a computer on a beach can make $3,000 a day, there are so many people that are willing to jump on board and take that and go live in Key West or whatever and just jump on a laptop for six hours a day and do that, that I don't think we're going to have any trouble being...
01:05:11
Speaker
I would hazard a guess that on paper we pay all flat rate commission.
01:05:15
Speaker
We're probably one of the lowest paid solar companies in the country.
01:05:19
Speaker
And I guarantee you there's very few companies paying their people on the paychecks as much as we do.
01:05:24
Speaker
And so I feel pretty good about us having a good model that's sustainable.
01:05:28
Speaker
We're also ready when we tell people, hey, solar is not going to make this much money forever.
01:05:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:05:32
Speaker
They say, well, why don't I want to make as much money right now?
01:05:35
Speaker
And we say, well, we are, but we're establishing things and hiring all the back-end people.
01:05:41
Speaker
For the last six months, I've had more executives on board than we had sales reps.
01:05:45
Speaker
That's still true today, actually.
01:05:48
Speaker
Now we have a lot more setters than we have sales reps because you only need about 16 setters in our model for every four educators, for every one closer.
01:05:56
Speaker
So it's a very...
01:05:58
Speaker
It's a big funnel to fill up for one closer.
01:06:02
Speaker
But they're also the hardest person to find.
01:06:04
Speaker
It's guys like you that are at the top of their game.
01:06:06
Speaker
They know how to overcome their objections.
01:06:08
Speaker
They do it friendly, not forceful, not arm twisting, but they're awkward conversations where you have to look somebody in the eye and be like, well, what exactly do you have to think about?
Handling Customer Objections
01:06:16
Speaker
Like, cause I hear that a lot.
01:06:18
Speaker
Normally it means one of a couple of things.
01:06:20
Speaker
It means that you either don't understand the product where you, or you think that the price is too high or one of those true, you know, and just get it out there.
01:06:27
Speaker
And if it's, um, they don't understand the product, they're just literally confused.
01:06:31
Speaker
You re-explain it and re-close.
01:06:33
Speaker
If they think the price is too high, then you didn't do a good enough job building value.
01:06:37
Speaker
And so you still go back and explain the product and then re-close them again.
01:06:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:40
Speaker
And so, but it's one of those two things.
01:06:42
Speaker
And so, but that's an awkward conversation that most people with in the disc profile, CNS are not as good at closing.
01:06:51
Speaker
And it's, it's because they're even influencers aren't as good at closing and it's because they get to that point and there is logical and emotional reasons to let them think about it.
01:07:03
Speaker
Like a CRS kind of shakes their head and goes, you're right.
01:07:06
Speaker
I'd want to think about it too.
01:07:07
Speaker
The influencer, the I in the disc profile has spent so much time influencing that relationship that now they've made a friend.
01:07:14
Speaker
And would you really expect your friend to make a decision tonight?
01:07:18
Speaker
No, you let them call you back tomorrow.
01:07:20
Speaker
And since they've made that friendship, a lot of times an influencer, uh,
01:07:23
Speaker
on the DISC profile will walk away from a job thinking that they built up such a good rapport that that person really is going to call them back tomorrow and they still don't.
01:07:31
Speaker
So it's an interesting thing to look at those psychology profiles.
01:07:33
Speaker
That's more the high Ds.
01:07:34
Speaker
The high Ds are the ones that...
01:07:36
Speaker
High Ds are the closers, right?
01:07:37
Speaker
So I was hazard to guess that you're probably a DI.
01:07:41
Speaker
Have you ever taken this profile?
01:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, I have.
01:07:43
Speaker
And I actually wasn't super high D. You were?
01:07:46
Speaker
I think it was like... About even with DI?
01:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was more even, but it wasn't like my high one.
01:07:50
Speaker
No.
01:07:50
Speaker
Because I always hear the Ds are like, you know, the CEOs and stuff like that.
01:07:55
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:55
Speaker
I think that you probably, we should take it again tonight and make a bet on it.
01:08:01
Speaker
Maybe we'll bet dinner on it.
01:08:02
Speaker
But I would put you at like a 38-38 on DI.
01:08:07
Speaker
So about the same level.
01:08:08
Speaker
And then you probably do have some CNS qualities.
01:08:10
Speaker
But I think you're dominant because you know what you want.
01:08:15
Speaker
But at the same time, you make friends equally as well.
01:08:19
Speaker
So that balances out the dominant.
01:08:21
Speaker
Because people that are dominant, but they're also influencers, they're
01:08:23
Speaker
Don't want to force things on you all the time because they want to use their charm and personality to convince you another way.
01:08:29
Speaker
But at the end of the day, it's the same thing.
01:08:30
Speaker
You still convince others around you to see it your way.
01:08:34
Speaker
Whereas CNS will follow other people's ideas.
01:08:37
Speaker
And so it's an interesting thing to look at.
DISC Personality Test Offer
01:08:39
Speaker
And those that don't know what we're talking about is the disc personality test.
01:08:42
Speaker
I know Tony Robbins has it on his website.
01:08:45
Speaker
What we'll do is we'll throw a free link.
01:08:47
Speaker
We do a really simple disc profile.
01:08:49
Speaker
We have an internal one that our company's built.
01:08:51
Speaker
More than happy to send you the results.
01:08:53
Speaker
And we charge $50 normally, but we'll throw a free link and let people take the disc.
01:08:57
Speaker
All right.
01:08:58
Speaker
Jerry just keeps on giving.
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:59
Speaker
Well, also, as part of our disc profile, we'll identify what jobs you're best at, whether it be a setter or a closer.
01:09:06
Speaker
I know a lot of closers,
01:09:08
Speaker
that would have made more money in the last five years being a setter.
01:09:11
Speaker
And the industry has messed that up and they believe that the epitome of sales is being a closer.
01:09:16
Speaker
It's just not true.
01:09:17
Speaker
It's up to the individual.
01:09:19
Speaker
And so we might be able to flip your income almost immediately by you just going back to your own and being like,
01:09:25
Speaker
Hey, this does make sense.
01:09:27
Speaker
Maybe I need to be a setter or a setter manager or something like that.
01:09:32
Speaker
One of our most influential hires within a company in general is our setter manager.
01:09:36
Speaker
And it's such a cool position.
01:09:38
Speaker
But the guy that does it right now is a 72% high.
01:09:41
Speaker
It's the highest influencer score.
01:09:42
Speaker
Wow.
01:09:43
Speaker
I've ever seen.
01:09:44
Speaker
And he immediately makes a friend at the door.
01:09:47
Speaker
Like you look at the guys, we, we walked down the strip here in Vegas with the guy and people were running into walls cause they just want to look at him and they would run it.
01:09:55
Speaker
He has a male model too, but they would like run into walls and stuff while looking at him.
01:10:00
Speaker
And so the same thing with the door, like people open up the door and they literally just listen to everything he says, like me and you knock on the doors and they're like, what do you want?
01:10:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:09
Speaker
And they'll just listen to him talk for like three minutes.
01:10:11
Speaker
It's just unfair, completely unfair.
01:10:13
Speaker
But he had started out in that role as a setter.
01:10:17
Speaker
And then he came to us to be a closer and we reset his vision.
01:10:21
Speaker
We're like, dude, you need to be a setter manager.
01:10:24
Speaker
Like this is where you fit perfectly at.
01:10:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:27
Speaker
I think it's important for those listening, go take that test, see what you are.
01:10:31
Speaker
I know another guy that's super, Chris Lee is coming.
01:10:35
Speaker
I know that's something he has every one of his starting reps do too.
01:10:38
Speaker
It's no secret you guys build successful organizations.
01:10:44
Speaker
I know Tony Robbins talks about this all the time in his business conferences.
01:10:47
Speaker
He's identifying those key traits and
01:10:51
Speaker
I think also probably recognizing quick that maybe someone's not right for any role, right?
01:10:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:56
Speaker
So, yeah, it can all, I don't know if it would eliminate someone completely from any role.
01:11:02
Speaker
It would eliminate some people probably from setter educator or closer.
01:11:08
Speaker
I would say.
01:11:10
Speaker
CNS are a little bit harder, but it would be a conversation about those roles.
01:11:14
Speaker
They can be really, really good, sometimes setter or educators, but it's really what those personality tests tells us.
Team Dynamics and Decision Making
01:11:25
Speaker
Now, the other thing is it allows you to know how to supplement yourself.
01:11:29
Speaker
So I am a high D, like an I, and so you're right, most of those are CEOs and things like that.
01:11:36
Speaker
A CNS are almost needed to pair with me.
01:11:39
Speaker
So like I have a chief of staff who definitely is organized, is loyal, is thoughtful, is considerate of others.
01:11:47
Speaker
And she helps me be less abrasive because I'm very fast decision making.
01:11:52
Speaker
And sometimes people confuse that with being unthoughtful or uncaring.
01:11:57
Speaker
And but really, I've just processed it very quickly.
01:12:00
Speaker
And I've told you what you need to do.
01:12:02
Speaker
So sometimes a rep will come to me and they're like, I'm really struggling.
01:12:04
Speaker
I don't know if this is the job for me.
01:12:06
Speaker
And I say, look, I don't think it is the job for you.
01:12:08
Speaker
What do you want to do in life?
01:12:10
Speaker
And they're like, I came in to get advice on making more sales and you're telling me to quit.
01:12:15
Speaker
Well, yeah, I think you need to do what you want to do in life.
01:12:17
Speaker
And they're like, wow.
01:12:19
Speaker
So she kind of edits that out, right?
01:12:21
Speaker
She's kind of in between like, hey, you're doing great.
01:12:24
Speaker
Keep it up, you know.
01:12:25
Speaker
So and I'm very, very straightforward.
01:12:27
Speaker
So it's good to supplement yourself and surround yourself.
01:12:31
Speaker
I would say three people that I talk to on a daily basis are CSs.
01:12:35
Speaker
And only two of the people in my inner circle that I talk to day to day are DIs.
01:12:41
Speaker
And the most conflict I have day to day are with the other DIs.
01:12:45
Speaker
So because we all want things to be our ways.
01:12:47
Speaker
If you're a DI like you and I'm guessing that you're less than 50% on both D&I is probably the easiest person to work with in a sales organization because you're good at everything, but you don't always have to be right.
01:13:01
Speaker
And that's probably why you do a podcast and you're seeking information from others.
01:13:04
Speaker
It's extremely cool psychology behind you actually having those traits, but then wanting to learn from others, which is uncommon in a high D. We don't want to.
01:13:13
Speaker
So I have to remind myself all the time, extract value from others.
01:13:16
Speaker
You don't have to.
01:13:17
Speaker
You just naturally live that way.
01:13:19
Speaker
Whereas some DNIs just want to push out and always be right.
01:13:23
Speaker
And so, but knowing the negatives of your personality trait is just about as valuable.
01:13:28
Speaker
So I know some of those about myself.
01:13:30
Speaker
And so then I'm able to take notes when I'm talking to others.
01:13:34
Speaker
I'm able to listen to other people's podcasts, which I wouldn't necessarily naturally be inclined to do that because I do think I'm right 99% of the time.
01:13:43
Speaker
But that's also a trait that helps me make decisions faster, which is very, very important in business is to have a leader that doesn't think for two weeks about making a hard decision.
01:13:53
Speaker
For sure.
01:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know.
01:13:54
Speaker
It's important to partner with people that can supplement your weaknesses and things like that.
01:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, two of my CSs also have an override authority where if I make a decision and they think it's not a good idea, they get to wait like 72 hours and ask me again.
01:14:07
Speaker
So I'm like, no, pull the trigger on this now.
01:14:10
Speaker
One of those two people can go, well, Jerry said it, but we're going to hold on for a second and go back to Jerry in three days and tell him what we think.
01:14:17
Speaker
That's funny.
01:14:20
Speaker
Awesome.
01:14:20
Speaker
Well, Jerry, I know we've taken a lot of your time today and I appreciate you coming on the podcast.
01:14:25
Speaker
Um, last question before we kind of start wrapping up here.
01:14:28
Speaker
Um, you talked about, um, as we were talking in the beginning, just how you really struggled in the beginning, you only got one cell your first month and we have a lot of reps that listen to, um, you know, hit me up on Instagram and things like that.
Overcoming Initial Sales Struggles
01:14:41
Speaker
It's a question people ask all the time.
01:14:42
Speaker
How do you turn it into struggling to like find your success and
01:14:46
Speaker
how do you like turn it around?
01:14:47
Speaker
Um, cause a lot of people get discouraged and solar.
01:14:50
Speaker
I'm sure you see that all the time, especially like you're talking about.
01:14:53
Speaker
Sometimes it takes 60 plus days to get paid on a job depending on where you're at.
01:14:57
Speaker
So guys get discouraged and I see people quit all the time just cause they don't have that cashflow coming in.
01:15:03
Speaker
So what were some things, um, that helped you maybe turn it around or like just get past that learning curve?
01:15:10
Speaker
So what's interesting is, is I've thought about this a lot and I, I,
01:15:15
Speaker
And the fact of I've seen so many good people not quite make it to their potential.
01:15:21
Speaker
And I've literally looked at on exit surveys and tried to figure out everyone leaving the company.
01:15:29
Speaker
What could we have done to help them or to do better?
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:32
Speaker
And the answer is there is some kind of invisible wall and it's different for every single person that there's no way to know how much knowledge you need, how much experience you need, how many doors you have to knock.
01:15:45
Speaker
It's different for every single person.
01:15:47
Speaker
There is literally in our data sets, having thousands of people work with us.
01:15:51
Speaker
Literally, there's no way to track when someone's going to break into being successful.
01:15:55
Speaker
Some people, it's 30 days.
01:15:56
Speaker
Some people, it's six months.
01:15:58
Speaker
And so what I can say is this can work for almost absolutely anyone if you want it to.
01:16:05
Speaker
If you're broken, though, then you very quickly need to make a decision.
01:16:09
Speaker
What I do best in life and why I make a lot more money than most people is I make decisions very quickly.
01:16:15
Speaker
And if you're out there today and you're struggling and you're telling yourself, I don't know if this is for me, call a mentor, sit down with somebody that's doing the best in your office, tell them your concerns and make a decision that day.
01:16:27
Speaker
Either you're going to start following the behaviors that's making that person successful and stop overthinking it and just put your head down and grind it out.
01:16:36
Speaker
Because I don't know when to tell you.
01:16:37
Speaker
I can't tell you do X, Y, and Z and you're going to break through that wall.
01:16:41
Speaker
There's just no way to track that.
01:16:43
Speaker
What I can say is that every single person that sticks with this and mimics the people around them and mimics the things that they hear on this podcast, 100% of them will be successful in solar.
01:16:54
Speaker
100%.
01:16:54
Speaker
Now there's varying degrees of success.
01:16:56
Speaker
Maybe they make 100 grand a year.
01:16:58
Speaker
Maybe they make 500 grand a year.
01:16:59
Speaker
But 100 grand a year is an incredible amount of money.
01:17:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:02
Speaker
And they will absolutely get there.
01:17:05
Speaker
100% of people that keep their head down and stay long enough will get there.
01:17:09
Speaker
The sad thing is the majority of people quit.
01:17:12
Speaker
And sometimes I know it's just right on the brink of them figuring it out.
01:17:17
Speaker
A lot of the times it's...
01:17:18
Speaker
It's after they've made their first couple of sales, but then they realize their installs out, you know, 60 days or something like that.
01:17:24
Speaker
It just breaks their heart and they're not able to keep going.
01:17:27
Speaker
What I would say is make that decision very quickly and then move on.
01:17:30
Speaker
Get out of solar.
01:17:31
Speaker
There's no reason to torture yourself.
01:17:33
Speaker
If you're going to sit here and just talk about the idea of doing it, you have to play all out.
01:17:40
Speaker
You have to go all in.
01:17:41
Speaker
You have to do what you do, which is get up every day, even though you have a successful podcast and still go knock doors.
01:17:46
Speaker
You have to make that decision.
01:17:48
Speaker
So just be honest with yourself.
01:17:49
Speaker
Are you going to do that or are you not?
01:17:51
Speaker
And then do it today.
01:17:53
Speaker
And I'm so sorry for the companies out there that half their crews are going to quit today.
01:17:57
Speaker
But the other half, I promise you, are all going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
01:18:01
Speaker
So stick with me here.
01:18:02
Speaker
It's going to be okay, company owners.
01:18:04
Speaker
We're going to make it through this together.
01:18:06
Speaker
And the fact of the matter is our offices are a lot better.
01:18:10
Speaker
If we allow people to make that decision quickly and move on with their lives and go take a salaried position or something like that, it'll help everyone else around get to that invisible wall faster.
01:18:21
Speaker
So make decisions quickly in life, guys.
Commitment to Solar Sales
01:18:25
Speaker
If solar is not for you, talk to somebody.
01:18:27
Speaker
Don't make the decision on your own.
01:18:29
Speaker
Get with a guy like me or Taylor and just really have an in-depth conversation and be honest.
01:18:35
Speaker
I'm thinking about quitting.
01:18:36
Speaker
Here's what's going on.
01:18:37
Speaker
What would you do?
01:18:38
Speaker
And we'll be honest with you.
01:18:40
Speaker
And I guarantee you,
01:18:42
Speaker
right before my guys went out today, I have a group of new guys that are doing a scavenger hunt.
01:18:46
Speaker
And I said, Hey, come back here.
01:18:49
Speaker
And if you didn't like this and you felt uncomfortable, I'll give you $20 to quit.
01:18:53
Speaker
And they were like, what?
01:18:55
Speaker
You're giving us money to quit.
01:18:56
Speaker
I'm like,
01:18:57
Speaker
Yeah, because I don't want to wait until tomorrow for you to make the decision.
01:19:00
Speaker
I'm going to reward you for being a fast decision maker like right now.
01:19:04
Speaker
And I was being completely honest because I want to free them up to do what they want.
01:19:08
Speaker
There's no reason to torture yourself.
01:19:10
Speaker
But at the same time, if there's any inclination that you can make it, 100% of people will make it given enough time surrounding yourself with the right people.
01:19:20
Speaker
It will absolutely happen.
01:19:21
Speaker
Huge golden nugget right there.
01:19:22
Speaker
Yeah, it reminds me of my brother.
01:19:24
Speaker
He actually came out and sold solar with me, and he was similar situation like you're saying.
01:19:28
Speaker
He actually, like, I don't know, four months into it, he decided solar's not for me.
01:19:33
Speaker
He went home.
01:19:34
Speaker
Then about two weeks after that,
01:19:37
Speaker
he had like six installs going that he just thought were i guess weren't going to get installed or something like that made like i don't know 20 grand in like that week or something he's like he calls me he's like taylor actually i'm coming back out there he's gonna come back out but sure i think so many people they quit um i know some people yeah obviously make the quick decision go do something else but
01:19:59
Speaker
I think there's way more people out there that just aren't willing to stick it out that are.
01:20:04
Speaker
I think the other mistake before we leave is if you're getting into solar right now, I suggest because I have a financial background, a mastermind that does that.
01:20:12
Speaker
A nugget I can leave you is live as cheaply as you possibly can for as long as you can.
01:20:17
Speaker
If you're getting this, I heard a little story that you told me that you ate like ramen noodles and helped your friends make their food for like the first five months you were door knocking to just survive.
01:20:25
Speaker
Right.
01:20:26
Speaker
And I suggest the same thing.
01:20:28
Speaker
If you need to take your last hundred dollars and instead of eating steak that week, you need to go buy 20 packs of ramen noodles and buckle down and get through this.
01:20:37
Speaker
You will absolutely become a millionaire if you're in solar long enough.
01:20:41
Speaker
And if that's what you have to do to make this happen, because I don't know if it's two weeks until you make money, two months until you make money, prepare for the worst and you will absolutely become a millionaire in solar.
01:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
01:20:52
Speaker
Well, Jerry, we appreciate you coming on the show today.
01:20:55
Speaker
Jerry's the only guy in the solar industry I know that has a bodyguard and a...
01:21:00
Speaker
He hangs out with him and stuff.
01:21:01
Speaker
His bodyguard was in here bringing me food earlier.
01:21:05
Speaker
That's how you know when you're successful.
01:21:08
Speaker
I think we save more on insurance than his salary.
01:21:10
Speaker
It was a pretty good deal for me to have a guy to bring me food and stuff.
01:21:14
Speaker
At conferences, he brings me energy drinks.
01:21:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, he's awesome.
01:21:20
Speaker
But no, Jerry's an awesome guy.
01:21:21
Speaker
So go follow him on social media.
01:21:23
Speaker
So before he lets you go, Jerry, where can people
Engaging with Industry Experts
01:21:25
Speaker
reach out to you?
01:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, reach out to me on Instagram.
01:21:27
Speaker
It's Fussell, spelled F-U-S-S-E-L-L, Jerry, J-E-R-Y.
01:21:32
Speaker
Look me up, follow me.
01:21:33
Speaker
I'll follow you back if you're in solar.
01:21:35
Speaker
I love to see what other guys are doing and the success you're having.
01:21:38
Speaker
And then definitely reach out to us with Pi Syndicate when Austin's on.
01:21:42
Speaker
Take a listen to his podcast and we'd love to have you guys contribute to be part of that mastermind.
01:21:46
Speaker
Okay, and your last name is Fusel?
01:21:48
Speaker
Fusel is how you say it.
01:21:49
Speaker
I think I was calling it Fusel or something.
01:21:50
Speaker
That's okay, you can call me Fusel.
01:21:51
Speaker
Okay.
01:21:52
Speaker
I'm in sales.
01:21:53
Speaker
If anyone makes a big deal about how people pronounce their name, they probably haven't sold enough stuff because I would much rather have money than my name pronounced right, so I don't argue about it.
01:22:02
Speaker
Yeah, as long as you won't send your bodyguard after me.
01:22:04
Speaker
No, no.
01:22:05
Speaker
Just kidding.
01:22:07
Speaker
Awesome, Jerry.
01:22:07
Speaker
And then we're, yeah, we're going to have Austin on the show here too.
01:22:10
Speaker
He's going to talk more about Pies Syndicate, sponsoring the show and all that.
01:22:14
Speaker
But just if people want to join that or potentially get in on that, what's the best way for them to do that too?
01:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, just send me a message on Instagram.
01:22:22
Speaker
We'll put you through and set up an interview process.
01:22:25
Speaker
The other thing is if you're listening to this podcast for the first time, you're anywhere in the United States that isn't San Diego, because I would love for you to work with Taylor in San Diego, anywhere else you're out in the United States, definitely look up Energy Co., drop us a line, message me on Instagram.
01:22:40
Speaker
I would love to have you on the team.
01:22:42
Speaker
We installed in 45 states last year.
01:22:44
Speaker
We're the broadest installer in the U.S. So if you want to work in Maine or Texas or Florida or travel up to Wisconsin or Idaho,
01:22:52
Speaker
we can install your jobs.
01:22:54
Speaker
We'd love to have you part of the team.
01:22:55
Speaker
We'd love to bring you out to Vegas for an in-person training and get you going.
01:22:59
Speaker
We are probably, um, have the widest opportunity for solar recruiting in the U S and we're so happy to sponsor the show.
01:23:07
Speaker
Definitely.
01:23:08
Speaker
Um, if I was in San Diego though, I'd be working right here with Taylor and getting some free mentorship there.
01:23:13
Speaker
So, um, don't, uh, don't ask me if we're hiring in San Diego because I'm going to send you right back to this guy because he's going to do a better job than we are.
01:23:20
Speaker
I don't know about that, but I will try.
01:23:22
Speaker
So yeah, you can hit me up.
01:23:24
Speaker
But I appreciate that, Jerry.
01:23:25
Speaker
And all our listeners, go hit up Jerry.
01:23:27
Speaker
Let them know if anything you appreciated him coming on the show today.
01:23:31
Speaker
And hopefully we have lots of people joining us at Pi Syndicate too.
01:23:34
Speaker
Go send in your application for that.
01:23:36
Speaker
Because remember, it's not about how much money you make.
01:23:38
Speaker
It's about how much money you can keep at the end of the day.
01:23:41
Speaker
So Jerry, thanks again for coming on.
01:23:43
Speaker
And we'll be talking soon.
01:23:45
Speaker
Awesome.
01:23:47
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
01:23:49
Speaker
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.
01:23:58
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.
01:24:11
Speaker
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.
01:24:21
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
01:24:23
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 a day.
01:24:43
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
01:24:49
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
01:24:57
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
01:25:04
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.