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Building Your Solar Empire From The Ground Up - Jon Soriano
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Transcript
Taylor's Journey to Success
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 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.
00:00:43
Speaker
Okay, what's going on?
00:00:44
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong here with the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Meet John Soriano
00:00:47
Speaker
And we've got another one that I'm stoked about because we've got someone that we've been in the same circle for a while now.
00:00:53
Speaker
But this is really the first time we've kind of connected on a deeper level.
00:00:57
Speaker
Just been able to talk and relate a lot.
00:00:59
Speaker
We're both in San Diego.
00:01:01
Speaker
And so I'm excited for today's episode.
00:01:03
Speaker
We've got the one, the only John Soriano coming on the show.
00:01:06
Speaker
Thanks for coming on the podcast with us, John.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Taylor.
00:01:09
Speaker
It is a privilege and honor to be here.
00:01:10
Speaker
So appreciate you sharing the platform.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited.
00:01:13
Speaker
And I've been following you for a long time.
00:01:15
Speaker
You've been doing amazing things in the industry.
00:01:17
Speaker
He is the regional, or I know I just barely asked you this.
00:01:21
Speaker
It's regional, but yeah, senior director over at Legacy.
00:01:25
Speaker
You've been through a ton of challenges we're going to talk about and just growing massive regions, recruited an insane amount of reps.
00:01:33
Speaker
So yeah, we're going to jam on all that today and...
00:01:36
Speaker
hear how you've done it, what's working for you to build San Diego and, you know, a lot of other markets that you've helped build.
00:01:42
Speaker
So yeah, man, I mean, let's just run it from the top.
00:01:44
Speaker
How did you get into solar?
John's Solar Industry Passion
00:01:46
Speaker
And what was that?
00:01:47
Speaker
What was kind of like the beginning like for you?
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, let me let me say this first.
00:01:51
Speaker
You know, I am passionate about this industry.
00:01:54
Speaker
I am passionate about transforming lives.
00:01:56
Speaker
I truly believe that the doors has the ability to transform an individual if they allow it.
00:02:03
Speaker
Because I think in this world,
00:02:04
Speaker
Everybody can pretend to be somebody they're not right.
00:02:07
Speaker
It's really easy to look confident online It's really easy to show up to a meeting and talk about how you're gonna do X Y & Z But on the doors you go against the real version of you, right?
00:02:17
Speaker
if you struggle with you know being lazy or You're scared to knock doors like the doors don't lie, right?
00:02:23
Speaker
You go against the real version of you and that's why I love the doors That's why I love this space
00:02:27
Speaker
Because it's an opportunity for you to go against you every single day and truly become a better person.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I am passionate about helping others do that because it's done in my life.
00:02:37
Speaker
You know, you ask about kind of how I started.
00:02:39
Speaker
I mean, seven years ago, I was a very like I had no sales experience.
00:02:46
Speaker
Door to door was my first sales job.
00:02:48
Speaker
Solar was my first sales job.
00:02:49
Speaker
Legacy has been my only company, right?
00:02:51
Speaker
I'm like that virgin in the solar that I stayed with one company for the last seven years.
00:02:57
Speaker
I haven't gone anywhere else.
00:02:58
Speaker
And so it's transforming.
00:03:00
Speaker
But I remember my first door.
00:03:01
Speaker
I remember my first door when I knocked it.
00:03:03
Speaker
My mouth instantly went dry.
00:03:05
Speaker
Instantly and I remember luckily the guy was really nice I remember he opened the door my mouth went dry and I was like trying to talk with like dry mouth you know how that goes and he didn't understand me he was like hey I don't know what you're saying But I'm good and then he like closed the door and he said it very nicely I remember I went home that day I was like one door my first door wonder I went home I was like this is hard
00:03:25
Speaker
But I kept going.
00:03:26
Speaker
And it's crazy because I still remember that version of me, you know, and that was seven years ago.
00:03:31
Speaker
Started, you know, just learning the art of setting appointments, then closing and then so on and so forth.
00:03:36
Speaker
And, you know, to be here now and now we have a sales organization of about 200 reps in Southern California.
00:03:43
Speaker
You know, we're about averaging like last month we did 630 sales.
00:03:47
Speaker
You know, that's definitely been a high month for us.
00:03:50
Speaker
Last year, we averaged about four to 500 sales a month.
00:03:52
Speaker
And just to go from that John to now, it's been great.
00:03:56
Speaker
But that only happened because I allowed the doors to truly transform who I am.
00:04:01
Speaker
And I love seeing that happen in countless other people.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:04:05
Speaker
And I remember before we met up, you know, we have a mutual friend, someone used to work with Hunter Lee, but he actually told me before I got here, he's like, yeah, John, he actually was pretty bad at sales and he really struggled starting out.
00:04:18
Speaker
For 18 months.
00:04:20
Speaker
It took me about 18 months to get decent, like decent.
00:04:23
Speaker
Wow.
00:04:23
Speaker
It took me two weeks to get my first lead.
00:04:26
Speaker
I still will never forget my first lead.
00:04:27
Speaker
Didn't close.
00:04:28
Speaker
But it took weeks.
00:04:29
Speaker
I remember I got a bill and I hit up Ashton Buswell, actually, and I was like, I got a lead.
00:04:33
Speaker
What do I do with it?
00:04:35
Speaker
And then I didn't close, but it took me about two months to get my first sale.
00:04:40
Speaker
Wow.
00:04:40
Speaker
And then four or five months to get my first install, you know?
00:04:44
Speaker
And it's crazy.
00:04:45
Speaker
I mean, I did probably like, I don't know, 15 accounts my first year.
00:04:49
Speaker
I was really bad.
00:04:49
Speaker
I was, you know, but I will tell you what I did have was determination, you know, and that's really all it takes.
00:04:56
Speaker
Like, I don't care if it took me.
00:04:58
Speaker
I don't care if some guy took him a year to get to do what I did in three, four or five years.
00:05:02
Speaker
Doesn't matter.
00:05:03
Speaker
The outcome is the same.
00:05:04
Speaker
And I really believe if you stay with it long enough, eventually the results will come.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
You know, and others have done what I've done a lot faster, but I don't care because the reality is I'm in competition with me every single day.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:15
Speaker
And too often people try to compete with others.
00:05:17
Speaker
They see what other people are doing and like, oh, well, it's like, dude, no, like compete against you.
00:05:21
Speaker
Just compete against the version of you yesterday, last week, last month, last quarter.
00:05:25
Speaker
If you do that long enough, eventually you look back and be like, wow, I've actually accomplished a good amount.
00:05:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
But yeah, I, you know, all that to say, like, yeah, I was, I was really bad the first 12 months and I'm happy I had people that believed in me.
00:05:35
Speaker
So the gold in me and, you know, we're, we're patient with me and.
00:05:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker
To eventually become the person I knew I could become.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:41
Speaker
Well, that's awesome.
00:05:42
Speaker
And I relate to that, too.
00:05:44
Speaker
I mean, I was similar to that.
00:05:45
Speaker
Took me.
00:05:46
Speaker
I think I got a sell on my first week, but then they canceled, of course.
00:05:50
Speaker
And, you know, didn't get one that stuck until like a month later.
00:05:54
Speaker
And, you know, just living off other guys' food because I came out worth 50 bucks in the bank account and everything.
00:05:59
Speaker
So, yeah, I really relate to that.
00:06:00
Speaker
And in my opinion, I think in a way people that have to go through that struggle and it's not like instant success.
00:06:05
Speaker
I think a lot of times they end up being a stick it out.
00:06:08
Speaker
Like those are the ones that I see stick in the industry more than someone that sometimes has like instant success.
00:06:14
Speaker
So I think there's something to be said about really pushing hard and developing the traits to stick it out and develop those skills.
00:06:22
Speaker
But speaking of that, like, I know a lot of reps listening to this, they might be in the same boat.
00:06:26
Speaker
Maybe they're just starting, maybe they're struggling.
00:06:28
Speaker
And you know how it is.
00:06:29
Speaker
A lot of people quit.
00:06:30
Speaker
A lot of people start out and if they don't have success, they just quit.
00:06:33
Speaker
And so for you, was there something that clicked that finally was like, okay, this is working now?
00:06:38
Speaker
Or like, what, what drove you to keep going?
00:06:41
Speaker
And what made you think that you would eventually
Mindset for Success
00:06:43
Speaker
have success?
00:06:43
Speaker
And I don't know, maybe something that helps you finally start having success.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, the way I saw it is if one person could have success, then that means countless others could.
00:06:53
Speaker
That's all.
00:06:53
Speaker
It just takes one person.
00:06:55
Speaker
And when I first started, I saw there were a few people that was like, OK, like they're making good money.
00:06:59
Speaker
Like, cool.
00:06:59
Speaker
They're making five, eight, ten thousand a month.
00:07:02
Speaker
Right.
00:07:02
Speaker
Which back then in the 250 kilowatt days, for those of you that remember that, that was good money back then.
00:07:07
Speaker
Right.
00:07:07
Speaker
Like if you're making ten thousand a month, like that was good.
00:07:09
Speaker
Where nowadays it's like, you know, people are like, yeah, that's not enough.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker
Anyways, but I remember there were people that were making good money, and I was like, well, if they can do it, why can't I?
00:07:19
Speaker
And, you know, I also have four years in the Marine Corps, and one of the biggest things to learn in the Marine Corps was this philosophy or this mindset of adapt and overcome.
00:07:29
Speaker
Right in the military they teach you like hey like you never know what situation you're gonna walk into right?
00:07:34
Speaker
They make you ready to where if you're literally in a light for that situation you have to adapt to that situation and overcome and we can't do that and so I was like, okay, well Who do I have to become to have the results this person has because I was like if they can do it Why why can I like I'm no different?
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, like I have the same resources
00:07:52
Speaker
You know, I can, I would knock the same doors.
00:07:54
Speaker
So that was the kind of like the mindset that carried me through.
00:07:57
Speaker
So it's like, just remember that.
00:07:58
Speaker
And especially even back then, we didn't have that many people that were operating a high level.
00:08:03
Speaker
You fast forward to 2023.
00:08:06
Speaker
If you're starting solar, you have so many people.
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:09
Speaker
right like think like podcasts like these really weren't that big in 2016 when i first started sure you know where now you have so many people that are providing a great amount of resource on social media on youtube instagram podcasts whatever so like if one person can do it which now we have countless of people that are making crazy good money yeah like why can't you you know and adopt that mindset like hey like
00:08:33
Speaker
I will persist until I succeed, right?
00:08:37
Speaker
From the greatest selves in the world.
00:08:38
Speaker
That was the book I read when I first started, and that first scroll stuck with me.
00:08:43
Speaker
I will persist until I will succeed.
00:08:46
Speaker
And that might take a year, might take two years, five years, but the way I saw it is I would much rather grind it for five years if I knew that for the next 30 years I was set up, than to do the normal right route, nine to five, whatever, and
00:09:00
Speaker
Kind of barely make you buy it for 40 years.
00:09:01
Speaker
I would much rather have the first option.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:04
Speaker
Well, yeah, and it paid off for you, which we'll talk about.
00:09:07
Speaker
But, yeah, it's funny you're talking, you know, all the resources we have now.
00:09:11
Speaker
Just because I don't know if you knew this story, but when I first started in 2016 as well, one of the first people I reached out that I saw was having a ton of success was Ashton.
00:09:21
Speaker
And, you know, everyone talked about Ash, you know, he's closing all these deals, the goat.
00:09:25
Speaker
And so shout out to him.
00:09:27
Speaker
But I reached out to him and I was obviously not with legacy, but I'm like, Hey man, I see you're having a ton of success.
00:09:33
Speaker
Can I like take you out to lunch, take you out to dinner?
00:09:36
Speaker
Just ask me and ask you some questions.
00:09:39
Speaker
And he turned me down.
00:09:40
Speaker
He's like, he's like, no, I only, I only meet with people within my company.
00:09:45
Speaker
I'm like, come on, man.
00:09:46
Speaker
Free food isn't enough for you.
00:09:48
Speaker
I can't find you lunch.
00:09:49
Speaker
And so that was, you know, I give him crap about that.
00:09:52
Speaker
But that was one of the reasons I started the podcast.
00:09:55
Speaker
And obviously we have way more resources now.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
So that's cool to see how it's growing and way more abundant mindset.
00:10:00
Speaker
And it's nothing against Ashton, I'm sure.
00:10:02
Speaker
You know, he wanted to keep it tight-lipped and everything.
00:10:05
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:10:06
Speaker
Actually, I want to give him a praise, too.
00:10:08
Speaker
Ashton was one—he was my early mentor.
00:10:11
Speaker
I was under his office when I first started.
00:10:13
Speaker
He was the district manager of San Diego at the time, and he took me in the doors for a few hours, and I quickly saw that the guy literally runs from door to door.
00:10:22
Speaker
Like, literally.
00:10:23
Speaker
Like, it's crazy.
00:10:24
Speaker
Like, you know, he jokes about it sometimes when you listen to him, but—
00:10:26
Speaker
If you ever see him knock, he's like, he walks so fast that it looks like he's running.
00:10:31
Speaker
So it's a funny thing about him.
00:10:33
Speaker
But, yeah, no, he's great.
00:10:34
Speaker
But, yeah, it's crazy that nowadays, though, we have so many guys to learn from.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's, like, free now, right?
00:10:40
Speaker
You go on Instagram, and you don't have to search for that long to find –
00:10:44
Speaker
good content on Instagram, YouTube, whatever.
00:10:46
Speaker
So there's really no reason, like we have so many more resources for people to be successful.
00:10:51
Speaker
So just learn it.
00:10:53
Speaker
Remember, go, like I would say, like the advice I would give is to new people is just go against the version of you from yesterday and just go to sleep knowing that the version of you going to bed is better than the version of you that woke up.
00:11:04
Speaker
Like 1% better.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:11:06
Speaker
And so I wanted to ask you too, John, how did you get recruited?
00:11:10
Speaker
Like, was this zip recruiter indeed one of those guys there?
00:11:12
Speaker
How did you first get recruited
From Marine Corps to Solar
00:11:14
Speaker
into solar?
00:11:14
Speaker
No, so it wasn't Indeed.
00:11:17
Speaker
So I, like I mentioned, so I did the Marine Corps for four years, right?
00:11:21
Speaker
And I actually wanted to do like 20 years in the Marine Corps.
00:11:24
Speaker
I was like one of those guys that's like, I love it.
00:11:26
Speaker
I was gung-ho.
00:11:27
Speaker
But my last about 18 months in the Marine Corps, I got exposed to network marketing.
00:11:32
Speaker
And so I actually did Vima for about three years.
00:11:35
Speaker
So I don't know if you remember Vima, but I did Vima.
00:11:38
Speaker
It was a network marketing company.
00:11:39
Speaker
We sold energy drinks.
00:11:40
Speaker
You know, we were competing against Red Bull and
00:11:42
Speaker
And that was my first exposure to self-development.
00:11:45
Speaker
That was my first exposure to entrepreneurship.
00:11:47
Speaker
It was my first exposure of like, hey, you don't have to go the traditional route.
00:11:50
Speaker
Right.
00:11:50
Speaker
I bought into that.
00:11:51
Speaker
I believe that you have to take the traditional route of, you know, nine to five, whether it's the Marine Corps or some corporate job, go to college, all that.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:59
Speaker
And so we did VMA and I loved it.
00:12:01
Speaker
The company went under, unfortunately.
00:12:03
Speaker
Well, I guess fortunately reflecting on it.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:05
Speaker
But the principles I learned stuck with me.
00:12:07
Speaker
And so for about a year after that, I was kind of in this weird limbo, kind of looking for the next thing.
00:12:13
Speaker
I knew that the lifestyle of a nine to five wasn't for me, but I didn't know what my future held me.
00:12:19
Speaker
So I was like open minded to new opportunities.
00:12:22
Speaker
And so my friend, Michael from the Marine Corps,
00:12:26
Speaker
We did a demo together.
00:12:27
Speaker
He one day hit me up.
00:12:29
Speaker
He was in Vegas and he's like, dude, everything we were looking for in network marketing is in solar.
00:12:35
Speaker
I'm like, what are you talking about?
00:12:36
Speaker
What do you mean solar?
00:12:37
Speaker
They didn't know anything about solar.
00:12:38
Speaker
And then he kind of told me all about it, the money you can make, you know, and all that.
00:12:42
Speaker
I was like, cool, I'm in.
00:12:43
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:43
Speaker
Like it was, I was, I was laid out.
00:12:45
Speaker
Because I was open to the next, like, cool, what's next, you know?
00:12:48
Speaker
And so he wanted me to go to San Jose with him, but I was doing an internship at the church at the time.
00:12:53
Speaker
And I was like, well, I got to finish the internship.
00:12:56
Speaker
Let me just do it here in San Diego.
00:12:57
Speaker
Once I'm done, you know, I'll go up to San Jose.
00:12:59
Speaker
And, well, a few months later, he actually got promoted, became the new manager of San Diego.
00:13:05
Speaker
And then he was like, hey, you don't got to move.
00:13:06
Speaker
And I'm like, thank God, because I did not want to go to San Jose.
00:13:09
Speaker
And then kind of after that, the rest is history, you know?
00:13:12
Speaker
But that was my kind of intro to Solar.
00:13:15
Speaker
Okay, nice.
00:13:15
Speaker
And this guy is still doing solar to this day?
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, we parted ways in 2019, unfortunately.
00:13:22
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:22
Speaker
He's over our competitor now and doing great things over there.
00:13:25
Speaker
But yeah, we no longer work together.
00:13:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:28
Speaker
That's cool.
00:13:28
Speaker
So that's why they call you the general, right?
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:31
Speaker
So it's funny.
00:13:32
Speaker
He actually is the one that gave me the nickname.
00:13:34
Speaker
That same guy, Michael.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:35
Speaker
So he actually we were doing a coaching.
00:13:38
Speaker
It's funny because I don't I don't I don't call myself that.
00:13:42
Speaker
I didn't just one day wake up and I'm like, I want everyone to call me the general.
00:13:45
Speaker
So the kind of quick, funny story.
00:13:48
Speaker
But him and I were doing a business coaching class together for six months.
00:13:52
Speaker
We did this.
00:13:53
Speaker
There was only 12 of us.
00:13:54
Speaker
And one day randomly we went to the class and he just called me like, what's up, general?
00:13:59
Speaker
And I was like, okay, that sounds weird.
00:14:01
Speaker
Like, all right.
00:14:01
Speaker
But I was like, okay, hey, what's up, man?
00:14:02
Speaker
Ha ha.
00:14:03
Speaker
And then he kept calling me that.
00:14:04
Speaker
And then after a few weeks, the people that were in that class with us, then they started calling me general.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I was like, okay.
00:14:10
Speaker
Like, I didn't like it.
00:14:11
Speaker
I was like, I thought it sounded weird.
00:14:13
Speaker
And then he started calling me that at the sales meetings, correlations, and then, like, some of the other reps started calling me that.
00:14:19
Speaker
And then I went to a Grant Cardone conference, the 10X conference in 2019, and Grant Cardone talked about, like, the power of branding.
00:14:28
Speaker
And he just said in such a way where I was like, man, why, like, why don't I just own the general?
00:14:36
Speaker
Because people organically were calling, they were already calling me that.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
Again, I didn't self-promote it.
00:14:42
Speaker
It was like I was like trying to stop it.
00:14:44
Speaker
But they were like, what's up, General John, General General?
00:14:46
Speaker
And I was like, OK, whatever.
00:14:48
Speaker
And then I had this thought and I was like, man, the reason I don't like it is because I don't view myself as a real general.
00:14:56
Speaker
Because when you think about a real like military
Embracing Leadership as 'The General'
00:14:59
Speaker
general.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker
The person that comes to mind is an alpha, strong-minded, physically fit, right?
00:15:06
Speaker
A strategist, right?
00:15:07
Speaker
You don't think of a weak dude when you think of a five-star general.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:11
Speaker
And I kind of had this, like, this revelation of, like, man.
00:15:15
Speaker
The reason I struggle with like kind of owning it is because I don't feel worthy of that.
00:15:20
Speaker
And then after that message from Grant Cardone, I was like, you know what?
00:15:24
Speaker
Like I may not be it in the real world, but I can believe it in my mind.
00:15:29
Speaker
And that moment I kind of made this this point of like, you know what?
00:15:33
Speaker
I will become I will I will operate as a real general.
00:15:37
Speaker
Like so in my mind, I have convinced myself that I am a real general.
00:15:41
Speaker
Right.
00:15:42
Speaker
In my mind.
00:15:42
Speaker
Right.
00:15:43
Speaker
It exists in my mind.
00:15:44
Speaker
And so I'm like, cool.
00:15:45
Speaker
How would a general think?
00:15:47
Speaker
Right.
00:15:47
Speaker
Because running a sales organization is kind of like having an army.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:50
Speaker
You know, you got all these like freaking strong alpha personalities, which is kind of like running a like.
00:15:57
Speaker
you know, like running Spartans or running like, running like Steel Team Six.
00:16:01
Speaker
And so I was like, man, okay, how would a general think?
00:16:03
Speaker
How would he treat his people?
00:16:04
Speaker
How would he show up to meetings?
00:16:06
Speaker
You know, what accolades would he have?
00:16:08
Speaker
And ever since then, I made this decision of, I'm going to work towards that.
00:16:12
Speaker
I'm still working towards that to this day.
00:16:14
Speaker
But that really helped me with my identity and kind of helped me with my self-worth.
00:16:18
Speaker
Because I do think men in general struggle a lot with self-worth.
00:16:21
Speaker
They don't feel worthy of certain successes.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I was like, no, I'm going to own that.
00:16:24
Speaker
And then
00:16:25
Speaker
that's kind of where i was like i changed my instagram name i was like i'm gonna own this you know what people already calling me i don't care i'm gonna own it was weird at first yeah but it's actually helped a lot with the brand and but more importantly it's not that it's more what it's done within me yeah that i really have this sense of self-love towards myself because i'm like no i am worthy of that and i'm gonna till the day i die i'm gonna keep working towards being that person right thinking acting like a real general that
00:16:50
Speaker
commands an army like my goals in the next 10 years i want to have 10 000 people in my organization right and again if i was a real general how would i lead these 10 000 people okay because to lead 10 000 people you better have your crap dialed in yeah and so i'm working towards that every single day yeah that's awesome well no i can tell i mean you got you got your systems dialed you guys are growing massive teams and uh it's funny i've heard a lot of people talk about almost like you know business guys almost having like an alter ego or
00:17:19
Speaker
Someone that they're like trying to be when they're like in business mode and everything.
00:17:22
Speaker
So, yeah, I think it's worked for you.
00:17:24
Speaker
And, you know, you you're probably the dream recruit.
00:17:28
Speaker
Like if I could think of my dream recruit, it'd be someone that was like military experience, network marketing experience.
00:17:35
Speaker
And yeah, I have I will say some of the best sales guys are like one of the two.
00:17:41
Speaker
Network markers are great.
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:42
Speaker
Like we were like Jack Pastrana.
00:17:44
Speaker
He was the top earner.
00:17:46
Speaker
He did like he made one point, I believe, three million last year and install commission.
00:17:51
Speaker
And he came from a network market.
00:17:52
Speaker
He did it for seven years.
00:17:53
Speaker
All right.
00:17:54
Speaker
And so when he like found about solar, he's like, dude, this is.
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, he's like, he's like, I've been doing in-home presentations already for like 100 bucks.
00:18:03
Speaker
And when he saw this, he was like, and dude, second last year was his second full year into solar.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:08
Speaker
And he did 1.3.
00:18:09
Speaker
You should get him on your podcast because he's a beast.
00:18:11
Speaker
He's on your team?
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
Jack Pastrana, he's a beast.
00:18:15
Speaker
We'll show pay stubs, but he did 1.3 million and just install commission.
00:18:19
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:18:19
Speaker
Right?
00:18:20
Speaker
Like, that's not even including leadership pay yet.
00:18:21
Speaker
So, I mean, he installed about 170 accounts, I believe, around there.
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:26
Speaker
Give or take a few.
00:18:27
Speaker
Peace.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, I know there's certain guys that have that background that you want to go after them in.
00:18:32
Speaker
I think network marketing is one of them.
00:18:34
Speaker
Military is another.
00:18:35
Speaker
I guess what was the third Mormons maybe?
00:18:39
Speaker
I will even say this on recruiting.
00:18:41
Speaker
I would love to see more of the industry shift towards recruiting non-door-to-door guys.
00:18:48
Speaker
What I see happening a lot in the industry is like the same solar companies are going against other solar companies and they're recruiting and that's their style.
00:18:56
Speaker
And a lot of like all my growth has been organic.
00:18:59
Speaker
You know, we have it's been a slow way to build.
00:19:02
Speaker
However, it's been a strong way to build.
00:19:04
Speaker
I have 18 managers right now.
00:19:06
Speaker
All 18 of them were one setters with me.
00:19:08
Speaker
All of them.
00:19:08
Speaker
There's not a single one.
00:19:09
Speaker
You know, my two regionals, there were one setting for me like years ago, right?
00:19:14
Speaker
And all of them didn't, had never done solar, never done door-to-door.
00:19:18
Speaker
And I do believe that it's much better to take somebody new and like they will learn a lot faster because if you hire a guy that...
00:19:27
Speaker
maybe has a door-to-door background.
00:19:29
Speaker
Sometimes they have to unlearn certain things that maybe is not conducive with your culture.
00:19:34
Speaker
And so I will say I think the industry should, like, make more of a shift.
00:19:39
Speaker
Like, hey, go after the servers.
00:19:41
Speaker
Like, there's a lot of people right now that are doing some dead-end job that –
00:19:45
Speaker
don't want to be there and they have no idea and opportunity like solar exists yeah and i think we owe it to ourselves to share that with people you know because i will say that some of the most loyal people you will recruit are people who had nothing to give you when they first started yeah
00:20:01
Speaker
Because they, like, a brand new guy has nothing to give you.
00:20:03
Speaker
Like, you actually have to pour a lot into them.
00:20:06
Speaker
You have to be patient.
00:20:07
Speaker
It takes sometimes a few months.
00:20:09
Speaker
Like, Jordan Metesias, he's one of my best leaders.
00:20:11
Speaker
He's practically my right-wing man.
00:20:12
Speaker
But the first six months, he sucked.
00:20:15
Speaker
He actually quit.
00:20:17
Speaker
He quit and then went back to a corporate job.
00:20:19
Speaker
And after five months of me like pestering him, like, dude, come back, come back.
00:20:21
Speaker
He's like, all right, I'll give him the shot.
00:20:23
Speaker
You know, but he's one of the most loyal dudes because he had nothing to give me back then.
00:20:28
Speaker
So I will say like some of the best recruits are actually people who don't have some type of sales.
00:20:32
Speaker
I'm not saying that's the case all the time.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:34
Speaker
But it is a slow way to build.
00:20:36
Speaker
It will take time.
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:37
Speaker
But you will have a really strong foundation that when weather, when storms come, you'll be able to survive that because those guys are so loyal to you because they know that you gave them a lot when they had nothing to give you.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:51
Speaker
Well, and the other thing, they're way less needy too because guys come from their companies like, oh, okay, what's my sign-on bonus?
00:20:57
Speaker
Or like, what are you going to give me if I come over?
00:20:59
Speaker
Guys that I ask for sign-on bonus usually suck.
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:02
Speaker
I'm just going to say that.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:04
Speaker
They will Like that guy That's been my experience Like if you ask for a sign on bonus Because then I ask him Like well If you're so good Why do you need a bonus Yeah If you're so good Then shouldn't you have money Yeah Like I just I'm just like Kind of a little dumbfounded By that sometimes In the industry Yeah I know
00:21:21
Speaker
So, yeah, no, I agree.
00:21:23
Speaker
I mean, way more loyal, less needy guys for sure.
00:21:26
Speaker
And, yeah, I mean, you've been able to weather a lot of storms.
00:21:29
Speaker
And that's actually what I want to talk about next.
00:21:31
Speaker
Just transition a little bit is before we started the podcast, you told me, you know, some of the big challenges you guys have been through over at Legacy.
00:21:38
Speaker
And, you know, maybe you don't have to get super in-depth on all of them.
00:21:43
Speaker
But, like, most people, they quit.
00:21:45
Speaker
When the first storm comes, they quit.
00:21:46
Speaker
They jump to another company.
00:21:48
Speaker
Or if there's one issue, you know, they're having tons of doubts.
00:21:51
Speaker
And I'm sure there's doubts and all that.
00:21:52
Speaker
But maybe you could speak to that.
00:21:55
Speaker
Just maybe, you know, give a little overview of some of the big storms you've had to weather as you've been at Legacy for seven years.
00:22:01
Speaker
And then just like what gave you this strength or how did you keep going where most guys would quit and be like, I'm just going to bounce to another company and go take the easier route.
00:22:11
Speaker
But why did you continue with the same company and maybe how it's paid off for you?
00:22:14
Speaker
But, yeah, let's hear a little bit about that.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think first it begins with adopting a mindset of you're forged
Overcoming Challenges at Legacy
00:22:20
Speaker
through the fire.
00:22:20
Speaker
You know, there's like a verse in the Bible that talks about like as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens another man.
00:22:27
Speaker
You know, in other words, you can interpret that as you have to go through fire.
00:22:31
Speaker
You have to go through friction to truly become that best version of yourself.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:37
Speaker
And so I think too many guys, they want the easy path.
00:22:39
Speaker
And that's fine because our brains that we are wired, we're built to always take the path of least resistance, right?
00:22:45
Speaker
Our brain's main function in life is to help us survive, right?
00:22:50
Speaker
Like that's that fight or flight.
00:22:51
Speaker
If a bear pops up,
00:22:52
Speaker
The brain's like, okay, what do I need to do to survive?
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:56
Speaker
Right.
00:22:56
Speaker
So, of course, we have to understand that our brain is wired that way.
00:22:59
Speaker
But sometimes we have to, you know, have the awareness of like, no, brain, I know you're trying to make me survive.
00:23:04
Speaker
So I know you're trying to tell me I shouldn't take this hard path, but I actually need to take this hard path.
00:23:09
Speaker
And so I think first is adopting this mindset of like, hey, you're forced to the fire.
00:23:13
Speaker
You have to go through challenges.
00:23:15
Speaker
Right.
00:23:15
Speaker
In order to see this version of you that doesn't know exists.
00:23:18
Speaker
So I like maybe the military helped me believe that I'm not really sure where that belief came from for me.
00:23:23
Speaker
But that's why whenever any challenges come, I actually get excited because I'm like, dude, this is an opportunity for me to discover a new version of me that I don't know exists yet.
00:23:31
Speaker
You know, like if you would have told me that I am, I would have been where I am today three years ago, I wouldn't believe you because I didn't know that version of me existed.
00:23:37
Speaker
But I'm only here today because I have weathered many storms.
00:23:40
Speaker
And I think people are too quick to be like, oh, it's hard.
00:23:43
Speaker
I'm going to quit.
00:23:44
Speaker
I'm going to go somewhere else.
00:23:44
Speaker
Or they point the blame and say, oh, well, this didn't work out because of X, Y, and Z. It's like, I believe in radical ownership.
00:23:51
Speaker
I do.
00:23:51
Speaker
I believe in absolute radical ownership.
00:23:54
Speaker
I truly believe that everything that is going right in your life is your fault and everything going wrong in your life is also your fault.
00:24:02
Speaker
So I think it begins with that adopting that mindset of like, hey, just if you if your company is going through some growing pains, grow with them.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:10
Speaker
Right.
00:24:10
Speaker
Stop looking somewhere else, you know, because on the other side of that is a lot of fruit.
00:24:15
Speaker
You know, you can't like no different than the gym.
00:24:17
Speaker
Right.
00:24:17
Speaker
You can't go to the gym and expect to stay in the comfort zone and for your muscles to grow for your muscles to grow.
00:24:22
Speaker
You have to at this point where you're like, it hurts so bad.
00:24:25
Speaker
I don't want to keep going.
00:24:26
Speaker
But that's where the growth happens.
00:24:28
Speaker
And everyone knows that.
00:24:29
Speaker
But when it's time to actually do it, I don't understand why some people have this kind of victim like, oh, I'd rather just deflect than just absorb it.
00:24:37
Speaker
And I'm not sure if that answers your question.
00:24:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:40
Speaker
Well, no, it's true.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of people have – and I was telling before, I've gone through some situations where –
00:24:47
Speaker
Maybe I should have weathered the storm a little bit more.
00:24:50
Speaker
You know, sometimes it's tough to know when it's time to jump ship and everything, but obviously it's paid off for you.
00:24:55
Speaker
And, like, you're in an extremely good position now where you've gone through these obstacles and you've grown with it.
00:25:00
Speaker
And now you're out on the other side that much stronger where, you know, people that jump ship early, it's like I think there's a lot of lessons maybe they could have learned if they would have stayed there.
00:25:10
Speaker
But yeah, so I know you had, you know, with legacy, you guys had the people that broke off, did the whole slender thing.
00:25:18
Speaker
You talk about some other people, key people leaving your organization.
00:25:23
Speaker
What do you think?
00:25:24
Speaker
I don't know if you're willing to speak to that, but what's been like the toughest challenge that you've had to go through in these seven years?
00:25:29
Speaker
And how did you get through it?
00:25:31
Speaker
Would you say?
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah, that was easy for me.
00:25:33
Speaker
So I would say for a long time, I had this fear of man.
00:25:37
Speaker
I was afraid of what others thought of me.
00:25:39
Speaker
And so I was this kind of passive leader in the sense that I was more of a people pleaser.
00:25:43
Speaker
So in 2019, you know, we, like I said, had a really bad breakup with some of the key people in there.
00:25:48
Speaker
I think the industry knows it, you know.
00:25:50
Speaker
And overnight, you know, we lost two thirds of our sales force.
00:25:54
Speaker
You know, we went, they went to a different installer and started their own company.
00:25:57
Speaker
And regardless of what, like the right or wrong, it doesn't really matter.
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:01
Speaker
But it did cripple us.
00:26:02
Speaker
It did.
00:26:03
Speaker
You know, like I remember staying back and at the time our office had maybe like 50 guys in there.
00:26:09
Speaker
And there were like 20 left, like with Legacy.
00:26:12
Speaker
And I was like, I hit this point where I'm like, crap, I got to rebuild again.
00:26:15
Speaker
You know, like I was finally gaining some traction back then.
00:26:18
Speaker
I was like, like a year prior to that.
00:26:20
Speaker
We had another company that recruited a lot of our guys and we lost them.
00:26:23
Speaker
And then we finally rebuild that.
00:26:25
Speaker
And then that that thing happened in 2019.
00:26:28
Speaker
And then I was like, I hit this point where I was like, I don't want to rebuild again.
00:26:31
Speaker
Like, I remember feeling the sense of, man, I'm raising up my competition because there were so many people that I trained.
00:26:36
Speaker
And then now they're with a competitor.
00:26:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:38
Speaker
And I was like, who's to say this person won't leave me?
00:26:40
Speaker
And so I think that traumatized me to where I didn't want to invest in people because and then I turned more into a people pleaser than being the person I knew I needed to be.
00:26:51
Speaker
So then fast forward about two years after that, I went through another challenge where I had one of my one of my leaders.
00:26:59
Speaker
that there were just some issues with his sales practice.
00:27:02
Speaker
And when we confronted him about it, it didn't turn out too well.
00:27:07
Speaker
And so there was like another challenge we had to go through and I failed, I did turn a blind eye towards certain things that were being done.
00:27:16
Speaker
And I was doing it out of fear of
00:27:18
Speaker
correcting this person i thought if i corrected this person that this person will leave me and then other people will leave and i had to go through this season of owning my crap i had to apologize a lot of people say i wasn't the leader i needed to be and all that to say this that i made this pivotal point that i'm like you know what i am done being afraid of other people's opinion on me like i know the person i need to be and if people don't vibe with that that's fine
00:27:46
Speaker
Because in this industry, it's very easy to get become a people pleaser because like we all know that our reps have many options as to where they can work.
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:54
Speaker
Like if we're being real, right?
00:27:55
Speaker
Like there's not a like there's an abundance of places reps can work.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:00
Speaker
Right.
00:28:00
Speaker
So because we know that we have this sense of like, oh, I got to please them or they're going to go somewhere else.
00:28:04
Speaker
But I've actually discovered that when I actually became.
00:28:08
Speaker
a leader of conviction, a leader that was like, nope, I'm not afraid if I piss you off.
00:28:13
Speaker
I'm not afraid if I say something to you and you don't like it.
00:28:16
Speaker
What actually happens, the opposite of what I thought would happen, happened.
00:28:19
Speaker
Like people actually didn't leave me.
00:28:21
Speaker
If anything, they had more respect and reverence towards me.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
And I think we need more of those leaders sometimes in this space.
00:28:48
Speaker
Sometimes I look at, you know, like some of the organizations and some of them are kind of ran kind of fratty and kind of like party and all that and whatever, teach their own, I guess.
00:28:56
Speaker
But I think we need more leaders that are not afraid to step into their masculine core and be that masculine leader.
00:29:03
Speaker
Right.
00:29:03
Speaker
Kind of like that father's.
00:29:05
Speaker
You know, like just like on every healthy household, right?
00:29:07
Speaker
You have the voice and the correction of the father.
00:29:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:10
Speaker
Or of a father, I mean.
00:29:11
Speaker
Like same thing, I think, in a sales organization, right?
00:29:13
Speaker
Somebody on that team better be that voice of that father that's like, yeah, it can be fun, but also can kind of be like, no, when it's time to correct somebody, we're going to correct somebody.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker
And when I made that shift, dude, my results changed.
00:29:26
Speaker
And I was able to operate with more peace.
00:29:28
Speaker
I had more peace in my life.
00:29:29
Speaker
I was like, thank God I'm not stressed about people leaving me because it was more about me just coming in alignment with, like, my worth.
00:29:34
Speaker
And I was like, no, like, this is who I am.
00:29:37
Speaker
And if you don't like it, that's fine.
00:29:38
Speaker
Like, I'm cool with that.
00:29:39
Speaker
I'll go to sleep at night fine knowing that this person doesn't like me.
00:29:43
Speaker
But it's crazy how much, like, actually the results change when I made that pivot.
00:29:48
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:29:49
Speaker
Well, I love that because I think it applies in so many other things aside from, you know, growing and growing teams and offices.
00:29:54
Speaker
It's like even in sales, the people that have the abundance mindset and are like, you know, I was just having a conversation with the guy I'm coaching this morning is just him sitting in appointments with like one layers, just a wife or husband is there.
00:30:08
Speaker
And like he used to sit in so many of these appointments.
00:30:10
Speaker
And obviously, you know, we know that has a lower chance of closing.
00:30:13
Speaker
I'm like, dude, just switch it to abundance mindset.
00:30:15
Speaker
Be like, hey, I got 10 more of these waiting for me.
00:30:18
Speaker
like if if you don't want you know husband wife to be here just on to the next one and like you got to create that frame and i think it's the same thing that some of us are afraid to do as leaders is we're you know um walking on eggshells and afraid to upset this rep afraid to offend this person where i think if you you know once like you're saying once you created that frame people are respected at more and um you're probably able to grow your team and way better leaders and have a lot more success i mean it's kind of like this too you know think about this if if somebody's breaking in your home
00:30:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:49
Speaker
What kind of what kind of person do you want to show up to your house to protect you?
00:30:53
Speaker
Right.
00:30:53
Speaker
What kind of police officer do you want?
00:30:54
Speaker
Do you want the passive like, oh, let me just make sure you're OK kind of police officer?
00:31:00
Speaker
Or do you want that alpha?
00:31:02
Speaker
Right.
00:31:02
Speaker
Strong like police officer.
00:31:05
Speaker
I think we all know what kind of police officer we want.
00:31:08
Speaker
You know, because I do believe there's something in each human that they want to be led by somebody that can operate in true masculine power.
00:31:16
Speaker
Right.
00:31:17
Speaker
And masculine power isn't like, you know, you tell people what to do.
00:31:20
Speaker
It's not that.
00:31:21
Speaker
Right.
00:31:21
Speaker
I believe like a masculine leader like invites others.
00:31:25
Speaker
Right.
00:31:25
Speaker
A masculine leader empowers others, you know, challenges others, but also with love.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker
And I think everyone deep down inside does want to follow a leader like that.
00:31:34
Speaker
Not someone who just tells them what they want to hear, but someone who really does tell them what they need to hear sometimes.
00:31:39
Speaker
Of course, again, out of love, not in a like you suck kind of way, but in a like, hey, I care so much about you.
00:31:46
Speaker
And I care about your development that I need.
00:31:48
Speaker
I need to point out a blind spot in your life.
00:31:50
Speaker
And I discovered that actually people become more loyal to you because I had this mindset of like, oh, if I say they're going to leave me or even even in the home.
00:31:57
Speaker
Right.
00:31:57
Speaker
Like I've had cases where I have a one legger and I just leave.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:01
Speaker
I'm just like, oh, well.
00:32:02
Speaker
And they're like, oh, well, we'll just meet here.
00:32:03
Speaker
And I'm like, no, because I know where this ends.
00:32:06
Speaker
And there's like there's been there's been times where like I'll be meeting with the wife and the husband's just kind of doing his thing.
00:32:11
Speaker
And I will literally say, hey, I need both of you guys present.
00:32:15
Speaker
If both of you guys can't be here, then I can't meet with you.
00:32:18
Speaker
And if you say that with conviction, they're just like, oh, okay.
00:32:21
Speaker
And then they sit down with you.
00:32:23
Speaker
And if they say no, then cool.
00:32:24
Speaker
Like you said, you know your worth, right?
00:32:26
Speaker
Just walk out.
00:32:26
Speaker
There's more homeowners out there that will buy your product, but there's only one of you.
00:32:33
Speaker
Definitely, yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
Well, and it's impressive.
00:32:35
Speaker
You're talking about just how you build all these leaders organically.
00:32:38
Speaker
And yeah, I don't really know.
00:32:39
Speaker
I don't think I've had really anyone on the podcast that's built that many leaders from within the organization and had them turn into such strong reps.
00:32:46
Speaker
You know, we were just talking about one guy that actually used to work at a previous company with me before, and he wasn't doing a ton, but now he's one of your leaders.
00:32:53
Speaker
He's producing a ton.
00:32:54
Speaker
So I think there's something, you know, you guys got a secret sauce over there.
00:32:58
Speaker
You're growing a lot of people.
00:32:59
Speaker
And so what's been
Culture and Purpose Beyond Sales
00:33:00
Speaker
the secret?
00:33:00
Speaker
Like, how do you take some of these people that, um,
00:33:03
Speaker
Maybe it seems like they're not going to be super solid reps.
00:33:06
Speaker
Maybe it seems like they're not hitting it off and having a ton of success initially.
00:33:10
Speaker
But how have you taken these people and grown them into leaders?
00:33:13
Speaker
What's your secret on that?
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would say one of the things is you got to give them, they have to believe in something bigger than themselves, something bigger than solar, something bigger than money.
00:33:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:23
Speaker
So about 20, end of 2020, we made this pivot to where like I had done enough volume within like, so legacy has this thing where when you do a certain amount of volume, you can start branding your own, your own teams.
00:33:35
Speaker
Right.
00:33:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:36
Speaker
And so for a while, when we finally hit that, I was like, okay, what are we going to name our team?
00:33:41
Speaker
Like what's going to be the name?
00:33:43
Speaker
And I, even my wife will tell you for weeks, I was like, man, I was like, no, but what about this?
00:33:48
Speaker
And I was like, ah, that sounds corny.
00:33:49
Speaker
This, this, this, this.
00:33:50
Speaker
And
00:33:51
Speaker
And the word valor came to mind for me.
00:33:53
Speaker
And I was like, ah, valor.
00:33:55
Speaker
I'm like, okay, that sounds good.
00:33:56
Speaker
But I wasn't sold yet.
00:33:57
Speaker
And, you know, I'm a man of faith, right?
00:33:59
Speaker
And so I was like praying about it.
00:34:01
Speaker
And then I was just guided to this passage.
00:34:04
Speaker
And I'm getting to a point to all this.
00:34:06
Speaker
But I was guided to a passage in the Bible through King David.
00:34:10
Speaker
And everyone knows King David, right?
00:34:11
Speaker
You know, fought Goliath, a really mighty warrior, a great king.
00:34:16
Speaker
And, you know, this is after he slays Goliath, and then he goes, and then Saul tries to kill him.
00:34:22
Speaker
And then now he's hiding in the cave of Dulem.
00:34:25
Speaker
And the Bible says that 300 men come to his aid.
00:34:28
Speaker
But it's interesting.
00:34:29
Speaker
The Bible describes these men as broken men, men in debt, discontent.
00:34:35
Speaker
Right.
00:34:35
Speaker
They were like the rejects of the society.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:38
Speaker
Right.
00:34:38
Speaker
They were the broken people.
00:34:39
Speaker
And I was like, huh, that's interesting.
00:34:40
Speaker
Like, these are the men that came to David's aid.
00:34:43
Speaker
Right.
00:34:43
Speaker
When David needed help, these are the men.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:45
Speaker
You fast forward a whole book later.
00:34:47
Speaker
Right.
00:34:47
Speaker
David is now king of Israel.
00:34:48
Speaker
Ten years have passed.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:50
Speaker
These same men are now being described as mighty men of valor.
00:34:55
Speaker
And if you have valor, valor is like a spirit, right?
00:34:57
Speaker
If you have a valor, you're just an individual that can do hard things.
00:34:59
Speaker
You're an individual that can go into battle, right, and, you know, can handle it, right?
00:35:05
Speaker
And when I read that, it kind of had this, like, you know, like God spoke to me and was like, hey,
00:35:11
Speaker
I'm calling you to raise up men and women of valor.
00:35:13
Speaker
I'm going to send you broken people.
00:35:15
Speaker
And your job is to empower them and help them become whole.
00:35:20
Speaker
And so when I thought about that, I'm like, wow, organically, we already are that.
00:35:24
Speaker
You know, when you look at any one organization, like all of us, I would say everyone in the industry probably entered the industry a little broken.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:32
Speaker
Right.
00:35:32
Speaker
Whether it's you weren't confident, whether it's you were broke, whether you were in debt, whether whatever it is, I think all of us entered a little bit broken.
00:35:41
Speaker
But if you allow the door-to-door space to refine you, you know, you can become an individual that can develop the spirit of valor.
00:35:49
Speaker
And so for me, I was like, man, that's it.
00:35:52
Speaker
So ever since then, I've been honing big on that brand of like, hey, this is who we are.
00:35:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yes, we sell solar.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yes, we knock on doors.
00:36:00
Speaker
That's the vehicle.
00:36:01
Speaker
But that's not our purpose.
00:36:03
Speaker
And I feel like that's been a huge reason why, like the guy you mentioned, have plugged in because they plugged into something bigger than solar.
00:36:10
Speaker
You know, like my guys don't work for me because of the money and selling solar, although that's an added bonus.
00:36:17
Speaker
You're right.
00:36:17
Speaker
But they do it because they buy into what our purpose is.
00:36:20
Speaker
You know, that's why our organization's name is Valor, right?
00:36:23
Speaker
That's the name of our division.
00:36:25
Speaker
And, you know, if you go to our meetings, you know, you'll hear seven, you know, we have seven core values, right?
00:36:30
Speaker
And we talk about what it means.
00:36:31
Speaker
It's not just a name.
00:36:33
Speaker
We live it.
00:36:34
Speaker
We embrace it.
00:36:35
Speaker
You know, we talk about, okay, like, what does it mean to come in broken?
00:36:39
Speaker
You know, like, cool, let's go from you're in debt to you're buying your first home.
00:36:42
Speaker
Right.
00:36:43
Speaker
And so I think, you know, for any leaders are listening to this, give your guys a purpose deeper than, than, than anything material, right?
00:36:53
Speaker
Like you can't buy what I just said.
00:36:55
Speaker
You can't, you know, it has to already organically be happening.
00:36:58
Speaker
When I named the valor, it wasn't like we weren't already doing that.
00:37:01
Speaker
We already were doing that.
00:37:02
Speaker
We already were taking broken people in.
00:37:04
Speaker
Right.
00:37:05
Speaker
Like one of my leaders used to be a drug addict.
00:37:07
Speaker
Right.
00:37:07
Speaker
Now he's married homeowner.
00:37:09
Speaker
Right.
00:37:10
Speaker
Like, you know, actually, I had one of my other leaders used to be an Uber driver.
00:37:15
Speaker
Right.
00:37:15
Speaker
Now also married about to buy a home in about a month, you know, up in Fallbrook.
00:37:19
Speaker
You know, so it's just crazy.
00:37:20
Speaker
When I look at least my organization, there's so many stories.
00:37:22
Speaker
Actually, almost everybody came in broken, but that's organically who we were.
00:37:26
Speaker
But now we talk about it, right?
00:37:28
Speaker
When we recruit people, we talk about, hey, this is who we are.
00:37:31
Speaker
You know, and I, we're unapologetic about it, you know?
00:37:35
Speaker
And so I think develop something like a purpose deeper than just making money, than just, yeah, we sell solar because those things come and go.
00:37:44
Speaker
You know, those things like, because if...
00:37:46
Speaker
Then another guy will come around and have a better pay scale or better product and then they'll leave you.
00:37:51
Speaker
But what I offer is not easy duplicatable.
00:37:55
Speaker
True.
00:37:55
Speaker
And so that's what allow certain guys to come in, plug into it, and then they're like, wow.
00:37:59
Speaker
Because everybody inherently wants to grow.
00:38:02
Speaker
I do believe if people don't feel like they're growing, eventually they will start looking somewhere else.
00:38:06
Speaker
I do believe that.
00:38:06
Speaker
I think as humans, we're wired to want to grow.
00:38:09
Speaker
And so, you know, if you're a leader of sales reps, you better have some type of, like, some type of system, some type of culture where people can truly feel like, wow, I'm growing.
00:38:18
Speaker
Whether that means they're growing in their sales.
00:38:21
Speaker
Like, I'm big on marriage.
00:38:22
Speaker
You know, like, I tell my guys, like, hey, the moment you get married, our relationship
00:38:25
Speaker
just changed you know actually just just recently i was at a wedding literally a week ago one of my guys now he's a husband and i noticed that he was um uh his now wife was at the table by herself you know like when people get married they have a dinner by themselves they have a table by themselves and they like have their first meal together yeah well i noticed that he was talking to one of his boys another table you
00:38:48
Speaker
You know, and like his wife.
00:38:51
Speaker
And so I walk over to him and some people may think I'm wrong for doing this or whatever.
00:38:54
Speaker
But this is who I am.
00:38:55
Speaker
I walk over to him and this is one of my friends.
00:38:57
Speaker
Right.
00:38:57
Speaker
I'm like, hey, I'm like, I walk.
00:38:59
Speaker
I'm like, hey, you're a husband.
00:39:00
Speaker
Right.
00:39:01
Speaker
He's like, yeah.
00:39:01
Speaker
He's like, well, hey, listen, one of the first rules being a husband is you don't leave your wife alone at the table.
00:39:05
Speaker
I've been looking at your wife for the last three minutes over there and I can tell that she wants you to come back.
00:39:10
Speaker
And I'm like, I like as a friend, I think you should go back.
00:39:11
Speaker
And he was like, oh, OK, you're right.
00:39:13
Speaker
Nice.
00:39:13
Speaker
You know, but I tell my guys that, hey, when you become a husband, for example, right, like people want to feel like they're growing, whether it's again in finances, in their salesmanship, in their parenting, in their fatherhood, motherhood, their fitness, whatever.
00:39:25
Speaker
Like you better have some type of culture that truly is helping people grow and develop.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's a nugget right there.
00:39:32
Speaker
And it's so cool that you make this more than just about sales.
00:39:35
Speaker
Because like you're saying, if they're not growing, then second they get offered an extra 10 cents a watt or whatever, they're off to the next one.
00:39:41
Speaker
If it's all about the sales and the money.
00:39:43
Speaker
And yeah, I've definitely seen that in different organizations when they're bought in with a purpose.
00:39:48
Speaker
People are not only like bought in the organization, but they're also selling at a higher level because like...
00:39:53
Speaker
the motivation for money runs out pretty quick when you're out there.
00:39:56
Speaker
It's a hundred degrees outside and dogs barking at you, people yelling at you.
00:40:00
Speaker
And, but yeah, it's, that's awesome that you guys have been able to grow like that.
00:40:04
Speaker
And I'll say this, you know, and I said, it's actually with pride, but I would say that we have probably one of the higher economics in this market.
00:40:13
Speaker
Like my team does, but I will promise you, I will go against any team here and pound for pound.
00:40:18
Speaker
My guys make more.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:20
Speaker
And even though with us having higher economics, because again, it's more than just money.
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:26
Speaker
Right.
00:40:27
Speaker
And so there's there's definitely power in that.
00:40:29
Speaker
I think a lot of leaders, they try to build it around like, let me offer the lowest pay scale.
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:34
Speaker
But I would say we offer probably one of the highest.
00:40:37
Speaker
I'm not saying the highest, but we're definitely not in the cheap route.
00:40:39
Speaker
Like, you know, someone wants to ever work at Legacy.
00:40:42
Speaker
Like we definitely are not on the lower end, but we're also not on the highest end.
00:40:45
Speaker
I would say we're like a little bit above average.
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
However, though, we have done, I think, a great job at helping our people believe in something bigger than themselves.
00:40:54
Speaker
And that allows them to make even more money than a guy who has a lower red line, lower economics, whatever, but doesn't have maybe a
Personal Well-being and Professional Success
00:41:01
Speaker
deep purpose.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:02
Speaker
Well, you were telling me before we started the podcast, you were naming off like how many people made over a million, how many people made over half a million, and then so many people made over like six figures.
00:41:13
Speaker
And so for you as a leader, does that give you, I don't know, does that excite you more, almost more?
00:41:17
Speaker
Because I've heard from some people like, oh, it's more exciting to see like other people.
00:41:20
Speaker
making a ton of money than myself at this point would you agree with that is it pretty exciting yeah because i believe a real leader should want to see their people do better than them yeah right a real leader should want it like a leader paves the way so that when the people that come after them can do it better and faster yeah
00:41:41
Speaker
So, like, for me to go from my, like, it took me maybe three years to make my first six figures in solar.
00:41:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:48
Speaker
Right?
00:41:49
Speaker
But if right now it's also taking guys three years to make six figures, I am failing as a leader.
00:41:55
Speaker
Where we literally had a guy, I think, it was either January or December.
00:42:01
Speaker
He, in one week, he got paid $126,000.
00:42:03
Speaker
Oh, my God.
00:42:05
Speaker
Will Brenly.
00:42:07
Speaker
Another guy, if you want to get on the podcast, his name is Will Brenly.
00:42:09
Speaker
I don't think he has a social media.
00:42:11
Speaker
But we recruited him from, I believe it was a car dealership.
00:42:14
Speaker
I'm trying to remember what he was doing.
00:42:16
Speaker
But he wasn't doing solar door-to-door.
00:42:18
Speaker
And in six months, he literally made $400,000.
00:42:20
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:42:21
Speaker
Six months.
00:42:22
Speaker
And I'm like, and that stuff excites me because I'm like, dude, it took me like five years to make my first $400,000 in solar.
00:42:28
Speaker
This guy did it in six freaking months, you know?
00:42:32
Speaker
And at the end of the day, like development and growing all these things, like the byproduct of that is the money.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:38
Speaker
Right.
00:42:38
Speaker
If you focus on truly helping your people level up, not just in money, actually, it shouldn't even be money.
00:42:44
Speaker
It should be like as a human, as a, as a, like if they're married, great.
00:42:48
Speaker
You better be a freaking a leader in the husband, right?
00:42:50
Speaker
Check in on their marriage.
00:42:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:52
Speaker
I, I'll call my guys and say, Hey, how are you and your wife?
00:42:55
Speaker
And I'm the guy that I'll ask you about your sex life.
00:42:58
Speaker
I'll say, hey, Taylor.
00:42:59
Speaker
What's your wife's name?
00:43:01
Speaker
Natalie.
00:43:01
Speaker
I'll say, hey, Taylor, are you and Natalie having sex?
00:43:04
Speaker
I'm that guy.
00:43:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:05
Speaker
You know, and then sometimes they're like, actually, we're not.
00:43:07
Speaker
Well, what's going on, man?
00:43:08
Speaker
And, dude, guys open up, you know, because I know sex is very important to marriage.
00:43:12
Speaker
Hey, I'm being real here.
00:43:13
Speaker
I like it.
00:43:13
Speaker
Right?
00:43:14
Speaker
Like, I'm being real, right?
00:43:15
Speaker
If a man is not having sex in the marriage, it's going to disrupt their ability to lead.
00:43:20
Speaker
It's going to disrupt what they're bringing.
00:43:22
Speaker
Because I know if the marriage is not doing well, it's going to impact everything else.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:27
Speaker
So, like, I'm that kind of guy, right, to where, like, I don't care.
00:43:30
Speaker
I will get down raw and real with you.
00:43:32
Speaker
Like, that's just me, you know.
00:43:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:35
Speaker
But anyways, I don't know where I was going with that point.
00:43:38
Speaker
Well, I'll keep that in mind.
00:43:39
Speaker
I didn't think about checking on my guy's sex life.
00:43:42
Speaker
Dude, a little weird.
00:43:44
Speaker
Well, yeah, because if you're like, like for me, sometimes I've been in like little like fights or whatever with my wife and it affects you on the doors.
00:43:50
Speaker
It affects you going to meetings, trying to lead other guys.
00:43:53
Speaker
And like for me, I'm thinking about it all day.
00:43:55
Speaker
I'm like, she's going to be mad at me when I get home, like not resolved.
00:43:59
Speaker
So, yeah, I think it's like, you know, you got to dig deep.
00:44:01
Speaker
I think the true leaders, they're digging into more just like sales numbers, asking how the days go on.
00:44:05
Speaker
They're like, you know, digging deep.
00:44:07
Speaker
And it sounds like that's what you're doing, too.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, I learned this from actually Greg Butterfield.
00:44:12
Speaker
He said a quote one day that stuck with me, and he's like, if your guys are struggling with work, it's probably not work-related.
00:44:19
Speaker
It's probably something personal-related.
00:44:21
Speaker
And so I've recognized that, that if my guys are not operating at the level I know they can, it's usually not like a skill thing.
00:44:27
Speaker
There's usually something going on in their personal life.
00:44:31
Speaker
And I hope that if you're the leader, that you have that kind of relationship with them where your guys feel comfortable opening up.
00:44:38
Speaker
Like my guys have opened up about some gnarly things.
00:44:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:41
Speaker
You know, but I like that.
00:44:42
Speaker
And I think that's where true trust is formed.
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:45
Speaker
You know, I really believe the people that get to see the real you, the real raw, not literal naked of you, but you know what I mean?
00:44:55
Speaker
Like figuratively speaking.
00:44:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:57
Speaker
version of you, you know, with all the mask off with all the what, like, dude, that's where real trust is formed.
00:45:04
Speaker
Because it takes a high level of trust for for somebody to be like, Yeah, this is this is really what's going on my life.
00:45:10
Speaker
You know, it's easy for a guy to show up to a sales meeting and be all like, rah, rah, and I'm all this.
00:45:14
Speaker
But then they tell you that him and his wife are thinking about divorce.
00:45:17
Speaker
you know and to be that person that's like all right well i'm here for you you know what can i do what resource can i recommend yeah you know i had a friend i have a friend right now who him and his wife are going through it and uh i recommended a book to him called the masculine leadership and uh he's he's not like a self-help kind of guy like self-persevelopment but he finally he finally got the book and we literally talked two weeks ago and he's like dude that book has changed my life he's like thank you i guess our marriage is getting better hey you know
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, if the marriage falls apart, dude, like sales fall apart too.
00:45:48
Speaker
I know this is not a marriage podcast, but.
00:45:51
Speaker
Part two.
00:45:51
Speaker
Part two, yeah.
00:45:53
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:45:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's something we haven't really talked about on the podcast.
00:45:56
Speaker
So I appreciate you bringing that up because I think most leaders, especially, they're not really thinking about, you know, guys' marriages, guys' sex life, whatever.
00:46:03
Speaker
And, you know, maybe it's not appropriate to ask, like, the girls on your team that.
00:46:07
Speaker
No, probably not.
00:46:07
Speaker
Yes.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's where then my wife comes.
00:46:09
Speaker
comes in my wife actually and we do this with intention and we're not my wife's not friends with them because she has to but i have also made sure that you know my wife has a good relationship with the wives of my leaders that's smart you know and again not because she has to like it just organically happens right when we have outings and
00:46:26
Speaker
events yeah she just gravitates towards them and yeah you know my wife's a stay-at-home mom and most of the other wives are also stay-at-home moms so you know sometimes if i know one of my guys going through it i'll say hey can you check in on so-and-so and she will then yeah you know because i think you're right yeah and my wife has helped with some of the female reps in my office because yeah that's not my place right that's a very dangerous place yeah yeah you should never go to a woman and ask those types of questions for sure
00:46:53
Speaker
Well, yeah, and speaking of that, like, I think that's a secret for guys recruiting people with wives or whatever.
00:46:57
Speaker
Like, I remember the previous company I was with, one of the main factors in me joining that company was my wife was, like, friends with the other wives before I joined the team.
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:06
Speaker
So I'm like, okay, well, even though, I don't know, some of the other things I don't know about, but at least my wife is friends and she has friends out here because we're not from Southern California, too.
00:47:15
Speaker
So I think that's actually a secret for guys trying to, you know, maybe you're trying to bring someone on your team, have the wives go do the recruiting for you.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:23
Speaker
You definitely want to incorporate the wives and the kids in some way because it's going to help in the sense of if maybe the guy in your team is having thoughts about leaving or maybe I should go do something else.
00:47:35
Speaker
The wife could be a voice that says, no, I think we should stay.
00:47:38
Speaker
But if the wife doesn't have any type of relationship like herself with maybe people there or whatever, then she's like, oh, whatever.
00:47:44
Speaker
I'll just do whatever you want to do.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:46
Speaker
You know, because I've had it happen before where sometimes like the wife was the one that convinced like, no, you should you should stay here.
00:47:51
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, you're right.
00:47:52
Speaker
Because she was invested in us as well.
00:47:54
Speaker
So like, you know, we try to do something where like at least two or three times a year we put some event together where like, you know, they can bring their families as well.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:02
Speaker
You know, now.
00:48:04
Speaker
I mean, to host an event with four or 500 people, it's kind of gnarly.
00:48:07
Speaker
That's why we only do it like maybe twice a year.
00:48:09
Speaker
But we'll tell guys, hey, bring your wives, bring your girlfriends, bring your boyfriends, your fiancées, your kids.
00:48:14
Speaker
You know, because then it creates also this culture where like the wives and the husbands, whatever, they feel like they're a part of it too.
00:48:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:22
Speaker
Well, yeah, it's something we've done too on a smaller scale, just like having the wives of the salespeople go out.
00:48:27
Speaker
And obviously that's harder with, if you have 400 reps or whatever in your organization, but I think that's something cool to do that we've done is just have the wives go out and kind of hang out with saleswives.
00:48:38
Speaker
Um,
00:48:38
Speaker
But cool.
00:48:39
Speaker
Well, so just before I forget here, John, like, um, you're big on social media and where, if people want to connect with you more, reach out and hear more about what you guys got going, where do they found, if they're not, they should already be following you.
00:48:51
Speaker
I mean, come on.
00:48:52
Speaker
Thank you.
00:48:52
Speaker
This guy's a dropping value bombs every day on social media, but in case someone's living under a rock,
Personal Branding and Social Media
00:48:58
Speaker
where can they find you?
00:48:58
Speaker
Uh,
00:48:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:59
Speaker
So, I mean, I'm on shout out to search, a creator, by the way, he has really helped level up my social media presence.
00:49:06
Speaker
Your social media is your is the modern day business card, just for the record.
00:49:10
Speaker
If you're not if you're a leader in solar, like I would say leverage social media.
00:49:15
Speaker
It is a free resource.
00:49:17
Speaker
Back in the day, people had to pay hundreds of dollars to be on newspaper ads, you know, thousands of dollars to be newspaper ads, TV ads.
00:49:24
Speaker
You know, to get their brand and their name and their message out there.
00:49:26
Speaker
Where nowadays, if you learn how to leverage social media, YouTube and all that, podcasts, like it's a free platform for you to leverage your message.
00:49:33
Speaker
So anyway, so I am on The General John on all platforms.
00:49:38
Speaker
That's Instagram, YouTube.
00:49:40
Speaker
I'm huge on YouTube.
00:49:41
Speaker
I post a lot of my longer kind of training contents on there.
00:49:45
Speaker
And, you know, I talk a lot about leadership.
00:49:47
Speaker
Like leadership is definitely my bread and butter.
00:49:49
Speaker
I love leadership.
00:49:50
Speaker
leadership.
00:49:51
Speaker
I love leading teams.
00:49:52
Speaker
Awesome.
00:49:52
Speaker
I'll do some sales stuff on there as well.
00:49:54
Speaker
And then I'll do marriage as well.
00:49:55
Speaker
So that's kind of like my, the three things I love to talk about.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:59
Speaker
So yeah, like I'm huge on, you know, you can have it all.
00:50:02
Speaker
You know, I adopt that philosophy.
00:50:03
Speaker
Like, Hey, you can have it all.
00:50:04
Speaker
That true success is winning in the areas of faith, family, fitness, and finance.
00:50:08
Speaker
Like I really do think that, um,
00:50:10
Speaker
we as men you know and that's my the main people i try to also speak to is the men of this world and because i think men can believe that you have to sacrifice yeah like the like your faith family fitness to succeed in the finance in the financial component but i'm like no you can have it all like you can have a thriving marriage right you can be a great dad yeah you can be in great shape
00:50:35
Speaker
And you can have a great business.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:37
Speaker
You know, and I really believe in that.
00:50:39
Speaker
And that's kind of what I try to do on social media and try to be that voice of like, hey, you can have it all.
00:50:43
Speaker
You know that I'm I got together all the time.
00:50:46
Speaker
Me and my wife still fight.
00:50:47
Speaker
You know, like I still go through my seasons where things are bad, but it doesn't mean I don't stop.
00:50:53
Speaker
So the general John, that's where I'm at.
00:50:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:55
Speaker
Well, no, and I appreciate that because so many people you see on social media, I've had good friends where it looks like they're crushing it in all areas of their life.
00:51:01
Speaker
They're just posting about the finances, but come to find out, you know, they're going through marriage issues and all that.
00:51:05
Speaker
So appreciate someone that's keeping it real like yourself and really talking about things that matter because we can make all the money in the world.
00:51:11
Speaker
But if our marriage is falling apart, if, you know, our kids hate us, if, you know, we're not, we're not developing the other relationships in our life.
00:51:20
Speaker
It's like, what are you going to do with that money?
00:51:22
Speaker
Exactly.
00:51:22
Speaker
So what's it all for, you know?
00:51:24
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:51:25
Speaker
And so just to wrap up here, John.
00:51:28
Speaker
So something we touched on before the podcast, too, is just a lot of people these days, like we saw these solar fells and all that people, you know, sometimes we get competitive with each other.
00:51:41
Speaker
And really, I think at the end of the day, I think we both talked about this and agree we should want to be winning.
00:51:46
Speaker
And I know that's a message you're trying to spread and just promote to you on your social media and in general, just having everybody win instead of others drag people down and talk about like, you know, all the negatives in the solar.
00:51:56
Speaker
And so what's your message on that?
00:51:58
Speaker
And then just any like, you know, final words of advice or words of wisdom.
Unity in the Solar Industry
00:52:03
Speaker
I would love if the industry unified more.
00:52:06
Speaker
You know, I look at pages and if you're listening to this and you run solar fails, this is not a attack on you.
00:52:13
Speaker
But I just feel like why choose to highlight the negative components of this industry?
00:52:19
Speaker
Instead, let's highlight the good.
00:52:21
Speaker
You know, I'm on that Solar Pros Facebook group and I find that like 80 percent of it is just drama.
00:52:27
Speaker
Like, oh, don't use this as an installer.
00:52:29
Speaker
They screwed me over.
00:52:30
Speaker
And I get it.
00:52:30
Speaker
There's a place, I guess, in a way to share, like, maybe somebody who truly, a company that just truly is being extremely unethical.
00:52:38
Speaker
But I would like to see more unification where we're helping each other win.
00:52:41
Speaker
Because here's the truth.
00:52:43
Speaker
My, and I know even Sam Taggart, I've seen his videos where he has the same kind of thought.
00:52:49
Speaker
I worry about a day where this industry becomes regulated.
00:52:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:54
Speaker
You know, because of...
00:52:57
Speaker
you know, company, like a lot of companies go out of business or there's a lot of bad practice.
00:53:00
Speaker
And I think we need to start elevating more of the good because it's kind of like, okay, so I think about when you're raising kids, right?
00:53:06
Speaker
Like when you're raising kids, you want to talk about the, what, what you want them to do, not what you don't want them to do.
00:53:13
Speaker
So same thing, like, let's talk about the good that we're doing in this space, not necessarily the bad.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
And it's kind of like the military, too, where I remember when I was in the Marine Corps, like, we Marines, we thought we were better than the Army, and Army thought they were better than the Navy, and Navy than the Air Force.
00:53:26
Speaker
And we did have this competition.
00:53:28
Speaker
But at the end of the day, we were wearing different jerseys, but we all knew what the big picture was, which is we all supported the U.S. government.
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:35
Speaker
You know?
00:53:36
Speaker
And on the battlefield, it was like, I got your back, right?
00:53:38
Speaker
But, yeah, at home, we're like, yeah, we can talk shit, whatever.
00:53:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:41
Speaker
But it's kind of like that, you know, hey, like you and I, we're competitors in a way, but dude, like you're still my friend, you know, like me and this guy, like Cam Wallace, Cam Wallace, top rap over at Sunder, you know, dude, that's my homie.
00:53:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:52
Speaker
You know, love that guy.
00:53:53
Speaker
I talked to Edmund Bayard a lot, Apricot Energy, you know, Apricot's doing big things and dude, talk to Edmund all the time.
00:54:00
Speaker
You know, Edmund, Edmund, Edmund's my boy.
00:54:02
Speaker
yeah you know uh alex smith over at sparring solar like dude talk to him all the time and it's cool i know he had like a kind of a fallout with i don't know some team of legacy i don't know the details but it's like i do my best to be like dude let's we're all friends you know like we're all a part of the same company let's i would like to see just more unification together um and uh yeah so that's kind of my message and yeah
00:54:25
Speaker
Kind of like last, I guess, things I would, last word of advice I would say is I think all of us need to put our head down and just simply plant your flag.
00:54:33
Speaker
Like decide where you want to be and stay committed on that path.
00:54:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:39
Speaker
So.
00:54:39
Speaker
100%.
00:54:40
Speaker
Love that.
00:54:40
Speaker
Well, John, we appreciate you coming on the show here.
00:54:42
Speaker
And for all those listening, yeah, like John was saying, do your best to unify.
00:54:47
Speaker
We don't have to be a...
00:54:48
Speaker
you know, cutting at each other's throats and bringing other people down.
00:54:52
Speaker
Like we can all up-level each other and it helps us all.
00:54:55
Speaker
Cause if some, you know, if a homeowner hears from two other people that their solar sucked, their company went out of business, all this negativity, it's only going to make it tougher for all of us to sell and to grow and just, you know, help each other out.
00:55:07
Speaker
So,
00:55:08
Speaker
Appreciate you coming, John.
00:55:09
Speaker
And yeah, we'll have to have you on for round two.
00:55:11
Speaker
We'll dig deep into, you know, guys, sex life and all the marriage stuff for the next one.
00:55:16
Speaker
The marriagepreneur podcast.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
00:55:19
Speaker
That's hard too.
00:55:20
Speaker
But guys, go give John a follow.
00:55:22
Speaker
You're not going to be disappointed.
00:55:23
Speaker
If you're not following this guy, he's dropping absolute value every single day and keeping it real in marriage and success in life and business.
00:55:31
Speaker
So go give him a follow and I appreciate you for coming on the podcast today, John.
00:55:35
Speaker
Thank you so much, Taylor.
00:55:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:36
Speaker
Great being here.
00:55:37
Speaker
All right, peace.
00:55:39
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:55:40
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:55:41
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:55:52
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:55:59
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:56:02
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:56:07
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solrepreneur.
00:56:20
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:56:29
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:56:30
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:56:34
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:56:39
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:56:42
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:56:44
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:56:46
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:56:51
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:56:52
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.