Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Hey, what's going on, everybody?
Speaker: We are here with the one and the only Cody Booth today.
Speaker: We got an awesome podcast planned.
Speaker: We're going to jam on a lot of call center stuff, a lot of sales, a lot of solar.
Speaker: So, Cody, thanks for coming on the podcast with us here today.
Speaker: Thanks for having me, Tyler.
Speaker: Yeah, it's going to be a good time.
Speaker: And Bennett Maxwell, he made us the introduction.
Speaker: I worked with him for about a year down here in San Diego.
Speaker: And you actually helped us get set up with, I think it was what, LA Solar?
Speaker: Were you kind of our connection in with them?
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: Yeah, that was a fun experiment.
Speaker: And I got a lot of good relationships from that.
Speaker: That's what I'll say.
Speaker: That's what I'll say about that experience.
Speaker: It didn't go smooth, but, you know.
Speaker: Not everything does.
Speaker: But I got to meet Bennett from it, who I consider a really good friend now.
Speaker: Even though, I don't know if you know this about Bennett, if you've ever gone out to dinner with him, but he never pays for dinner and forgets his credit card every single time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I had to put that out there.
Speaker: And if by chance Bennett listens to this, I have to let him know.
Speaker: All right, Bennett, if you're listening, you owe Cody some dinner.
Speaker: He has paid for my dinner a couple of times.
Speaker: I guess he remembered his credit card that time.
Speaker: I guess he just likes you more.
Speaker: I guess so.
Speaker: Weird to show that I was working for him, but I don't know.
Speaker: We just shared a hotel room in Dallas because we were out at a mastermind and we've already had this running joke that he doesn't pay for dinner.
Speaker: And he said, hey, the room's all paid for.
Speaker: Don't worry about it.
Speaker: You know, I got it this time.
Speaker: And so I show up to the room and I get there before him and I check in and the guy goes, oh, how did you want to pay for this, sir?
Speaker: Typical Bennett.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: But hey, you can make good cookies.
Speaker: Maybe I'll give you some free cookies out of it.
Speaker: But enough about Bennett, though.
Speaker: Hopefully you listen to his podcast.
Speaker: But today we're talking about Cody.
Speaker: So, Cody, do you want to tell us kind of how you got in the solar industry?
Speaker: I know you're crushing it with call centers.
Speaker: You got teams multiple places in the country now building it like crazy.
Speaker: So you don't want to give us kind of the reader's digest how you got into solar and how you got going with your company and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, so I first got into solar in the summer of 2014.
Speaker: I didn't really have any, I didn't have much sales experience.
Speaker: I grew up in upstate New York.
Speaker: We just, the sales culture in the door-to-door industry is not real big there probably because it snows for like eight months out of the year.
Speaker: But I was in California and I had some buddies doing some door to door.
Speaker: And I started with, I started just as an appointment center for a company out of Yucaipa, California called Progressive Energy Solutions.
Speaker: And, you know, it's, I know this has never happened to anybody else in sales world, but I got a few months in and I didn't see any commission checks.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Unheard of.
Speaker: Unheard of.
Speaker: I know it's impossible.
Speaker: And I was, I was taking a break one day.
Speaker: I was on the doors and some guys came along and, you know, they asked what I was selling and,
Speaker: I told them, you know, solar with progressive energy solutions and I like progressive energy like that.
Speaker: That's a solar company.
Speaker: And long story short, they ended up, they were, they were a dealer with Solcius.
Speaker: This was in, in, in the Palm Springs area, the California desert.
Speaker: And I started working with them and you know, that was a great experience.
Speaker: It kind of opened my eyes to, you know, you know, Hey, you can make a lot of money doing this.
Speaker: You know, the first company, they didn't, they paid me an hourly.
Speaker: you know, and I never saw any of the commissions and, you know, I, I'm at the time I was, I was young, I was in my early twenties, mid twenties, and just the perfect time to do a commission only sales job.
Speaker: And what the hell would I got to lose?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it just kind of evolved from there.
Speaker: And as, you know, as I kept progressing and building teams, you know, I got to that point that a lot of us get to, and I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I think I can,
Speaker: I think I can start my own sales org.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And we got to that point, got good at it.
Speaker: We kind of came up with our own model because I know a lot of guys, there's no shame in this.
Speaker: It's just preference.
Speaker: A lot of guys want to knock forever.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: My thing is I want to have a family.
Speaker: I want to live life.
Speaker: I want to do other ventures and things like that.
Speaker: And I didn't, I don't, I'm not one of those guys that loves knocking doors.
Speaker: You know, I knocked doors because I was good at it and made a lot of money, but I didn't love it.
Speaker: So we came up with a, when we started SolCal Energy Solutions, which is our door-to-door company, we came up with a, with a model, you know, where we, where you, you have a, you have an opener who can have very little solar experience rather than just setting an appointment at that point where you would set an appointment, you actually drop a pin in an app and,
Speaker: And somebody comes in, you know, and takes that takes that transfer rate, they're hot in the doors.
Speaker: And that that was that allowed us to, you know, initially it was, hey, how do I get off?
Speaker: How do I create leads that are good, right?
Speaker: Because appointment centers, usually a little rough, right?
Speaker: Yeah, you're chasing a lot of wood, you know.
Speaker: So I was like, okay, so how do we get off the doors, but not chase wood all day?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so that's where this, you know, kind of solar assembly line idea that, you know, came and then it was, okay, then how do we train guys to close deals so that we can just kind of facilitate growth?
Speaker: And that's how I'm able to be in South Carolina living.
Speaker: But I've got my teams in California, all throughout California and in Texas.
Speaker: And when COVID hit, it evolved and we essentially do a similar model, but on the phones now.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And no, I know you've been building up a ton, um, but that's cool.
Speaker: You, uh, so how long were you working in solar before you decided to start your own sales org before you went off and jumped in the deep end?
Speaker: So I think, I think it's been about, about three years.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: About three years.
Speaker: And you know, if,
Speaker: that was probably for me, it was probably the right amount of time.
Speaker: And I remember talking to, to, to a guy that I kind of, you know, look up to business wise.
Speaker: And he was like, he was like, just, just so you know, you know, your first year, maybe he's like, just be prepared to make less money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm like,
Speaker: And, you know, in my mind, I'm like, yeah, right.
Speaker: I've got, you know, I've got to figure it out.
Speaker: We've got this model that we're going to do, like it's going to crush and I'm going to make all this money.
Speaker: And it was not, that was not the case.
Speaker: There was, there was a lot of times where it's like, you know, cause
Speaker: It's a different model.
Speaker: We're running payroll for guys.
Speaker: We're paying salaries for guys.
Speaker: I didn't go to business school.
Speaker: I was in college dropout a couple times.
Speaker: I was good at that.
Speaker: It was a whole different world.
Speaker: There were times where it was scary.
Speaker: When people are like, what's advice for people that are starting
Speaker: you know, business or how did you do it?
Speaker: And it's like, you gotta be, you gotta be just stupid enough to think that you can pull it off.
Speaker: You know, there's a lot of guys that are, there's a lot of guys, in my opinion, that are too smart to, you know, to be entrepreneurs.
Speaker: It takes a special level of, you know, it takes a special amount of, you know, stupidity.
Speaker: You gotta be, you gotta be a little, you know, a little dumb, you know, at the time my wife was pregnant with,
Speaker: with a third kid and she was working a job and you know, if we were going to do this, she was going to, she was going to quit her job.
Speaker: And, you know, I was like, all right, let's go from no guaranteed money with the third kid about to be born in a month and send it.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, I like hearing that just cause like I've,
Speaker: I've thought about it myself too.
Speaker: And I know lots of people who are like kind of toy with the idea, but then some jump in, some fell or some are just too scared and maybe they should have.
Speaker: Um, so I don't know.
Speaker: How do you know, was there a point for you where you're like, Oh, I'm ready for this.
Speaker: Or you just kind of got sick of working for people or I don't, I don't know if there's a sign from above or something that made you want to start your own.
Speaker: Cause you're probably making decent money and stuff for the other companies.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, I was making decent money.
Speaker: What was really the kind of the jumping off point for me was I was working for basically at this point another guy.
Speaker: He had a dealership and he was a hell of a salesman, not a great leader.
Speaker: So I was going out and building these little teams, right?
Speaker: And the commission split was he basically took 50%.
Speaker: you know and you know all any costs i incurred to get openers and stuff like that other guys hotels and everything was coming out of my pocket and um you know i talked to him about you know changing the pay structure and he wasn't having it and i in my in my opinion i felt like at that point
Speaker: Yes, I had some support and stuff like that, but at that point, I really didn't have a choice.
Speaker: I was going to go figure it out.
Speaker: It was just getting to that point where dealer models were starting to blow up.
Speaker: There was a few companies that were doing it, but I didn't have any connections, so that was another...
Speaker: Like I kind of kept to myself, you know, in solar, I didn't come from, you know, I didn't come from Utah.
Speaker: You know, I didn't grow up with, you know, a bunch of guys that I knew doing solar.
Speaker: It was, you know, I kind of just stuck to my bubble.
Speaker: You know, I didn't, I wasn't going to, you know, SPI or networking.
Speaker: I was just kind of in my own world.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, cause I see a lot of guys that, um, I don't know, some, some companies you see guys that aren't even producing that much that want to go start their own sales org.
Speaker: And it's like, dude, you're barely even selling.
Speaker: Like, I don't know if that's the best idea to go start your own thing when you're not even selling that much yourself.
Speaker: But then I know there's guys that are selling a decent amount.
Speaker: Maybe they're not the top guys.
Speaker: So were you like, would you say one of the top guys at your company?
Speaker: And do you think it's like necessary to be super good at sales to go start your own organization?
Speaker: Or what's your take on that?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I wasn't.
Speaker: I wasn't like the top guy.
Speaker: It's one of those things, you know, it's, it's hard saying who's going to be, who's going to be good.
Speaker: Cause it's a different skillset.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like even, even right now, like I've had guys who are like top reps and I've, I've just learned that I'm just, you know, I'm still learning this.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And just because a guy's a top rep doesn't mean he's going to be a top manager.
Speaker: You know, I've taken some top reps before and put them in, you know, managerial positions and they suck.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, they just don't have that, you know, they just don't have that that leadership.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And so, you know, it's no different than when we hire up, you know, there's times where I hire a rep like dude's gonna crush it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then they just bomb.
Speaker: And then there's other guys from like, I don't know.
Speaker: And then they crush it.
Speaker: So it's, I would say it takes a level of maturity.
Speaker: I don't think you need to be a top rep to be to run your own
Speaker: to run your own, I look more at like, you know, you know, are you, what are you going to do to differentiate yourself?
Speaker: You know, there's a few different ways.
Speaker: Like, are you going to get creative in your systems?
Speaker: You know, do you have, do you have a, you know, you could be, you could have great, you know, great understanding of psychology and how to get people to work because once you get to a certain point, you know,
Speaker: more of a psychologist to these people than you are anything else.
Speaker: And how do you manage people, you know, so I try and look at, you know, how do you manage people?
Speaker: How do you manage your relationships?
Speaker: You know, if you're if you're running around, you know, cheating on your spouse, you know, you're probably not going to be a great leader, because if you're willing to do that to your significant other, you know, then you know, what are you going to do?
Speaker: to the guys that work with you, you know, it sounds, it sounds crazy, but you know, we've all, we've all seen people like that.
Speaker: And you're like, wow, you're at, we're out here working and you're, you're wild, you know, and they might put up the most accounts, you know?
Speaker: So it's really, I view it as more of like, you know, how do you, how do you understand people?
Speaker: How do you, how do you motivate people?
Speaker: Because, you know, the guy that can sell the most, isn't always going to be,
Speaker: the guy that, you know, we've, I'm sure you've seen it before.
Speaker: You know, there's some times where you've got an office where there's a guy that just kills it, but he gets along with no one.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: You know, and how can that guy lead, you know?
Speaker: Well, a lot of times those guys go start their own company and you know, it's essentially they have a dealer contract, but they're the dealership.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, some of these guys just,
Speaker: try to start their own deal or then it's just like they're a one man show now.
Speaker: So I don't know.
Speaker: I think that's, I would, I would say that's important to see how people react to you leading.
Speaker: And I don't know, see if you can actually like recruit guys to you.
Speaker: Cause I don't think most people want to just go start a deal or I don't know, maybe some people do, but I don't know if people want to start their dealers, just be a one man show.
Speaker: So we've had a lot of guys leave and you know, I always encourage guys, you know,
Speaker: Like my goal is not to keep guys forever, you know, go, go do your own thing.
Speaker: Blossom, you know, a lot of times they come back, you know, after some have come back after like two months, you know, and some have, some have gone on and done great.
Speaker: And that's cool too, you know, is if, if, if you're, if you truly are like, if your company's dope and you, you sell a ton, you know, a rep or a couple of reps leaving shouldn't, you know,
Speaker: If you're tripping out because, oh, they left to go start it, you know, it's like, well, were they the value or were you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I think it's like some people have that scarcity mindset where it's like, oh, we just lost a rep.
Speaker: Company's going to fall apart.
Speaker: And then I don't know, like the first company I was with was kind of like that, actually.
Speaker: Like they were trying so hard, did not get me to leave.
Speaker: when I knew I was going to, and it made me want to leave more.
Speaker: Cause I'm just like, man, if you guys are so desperate, like get me to stay, like you should have confidence in your systems and be able to have more guys.
Speaker: Don't hit it on me staying or leaving.
Speaker: And so I think that's a good point for a lot of people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you've got, if you've got good systems and you've got good culture, like you should like to me when somebody is like, I think I'm going to go start my own thing.
Speaker: You know, most of the time, like, Hey man, that's awesome.
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: there you know now i'm not gonna lie there's been times where i've been where i've been blindsided by it you know you're in the middle of a project and it's like right you get you get angry for a second you're like we're right in the middle of doing this you know but then that subsides and you know you know and then you know cooler heads prevail and you're like dude good luck you know let me know let me know about your wins yeah
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: And then, yeah, I mean, rather than burning that bridge and ruin our relationship, like you said, all of these guys, maybe they come back and work for you and ends up going way better.
Speaker: You never know, man.
Speaker: I've got, you know, partners that I work with now or guys that I work with now that, you know, it's happening, you know, throughout this, you know, because sales fluid, you know, it's happened throughout my time in sales where I've met guys or,
Speaker: been introduced to guys, I'm like, Oh my God, I can never work with that guy.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: And then we ended up doing a cool project together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you ended up becoming friends.
Speaker: So, you know, as humans, we always judge, you know, diverse interactions.
Speaker: And, you know, there's been a lot of times where
Speaker: happy to admit that my first impression has not always been, you know, spot on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: Speaking of partners, um, I know you said you have a couple of partners now in your business, or I guess you can have multiple businesses, but yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So when you first started it, did you, um, did you come on with partners instantly or how do you, how'd you go about like getting people to partner up with you and, um, launching that side of things?
Speaker: Yeah, so I've worked with the same partners on and off.
Speaker: We've kind of floated in and out since I've started going out on my own.
Speaker: And my two main partners that I've had are completely kind of different people, which is awesome.
Speaker: One of them is more the creative side.
Speaker: One of them is more organized and, you know,
Speaker: very good at getting scripts together and that and my other main partner is he's a guy that just he's got a new idea every day.
Speaker: And just so there's no shortage of irons in the fire.
Speaker: And it's fun for me because I'm kind of in the middle of both of that.
Speaker: I would say my role is kind of more, I'm pretty heavy on like relationships and things like that and kind of keeping everything
Speaker: moving forward and keeping people together is where i fit into that you know i i'm lucky enough to have i have a pretty good understanding of psychology and sales and you know and things like that um but i also you know i view myself more as somebody who keeps things smooth keeps everybody you know working together you know i try and be the one that you know you
Speaker: There's money involved.
Speaker: It's business.
Speaker: There's feelings.
Speaker: People have emotions.
Speaker: My job is to keep everybody loving each other.
Speaker: Keep them having good.
Speaker: Everyone needs those people.
Speaker: Well, and I've talked to some guys too, where it's like they say their theory is it's almost better sometimes to have partners like outside of solar.
Speaker: Because sometimes in solar, I think we are, a lot of us think the same way as a lot of us are sales focused.
Speaker: And maybe we're not thinking outside of the box, like someone outside of the industry would.
Speaker: So your partners right now, did they come from solar?
Speaker: And I don't know, what do you think about that?
Speaker: You think it's important to have guys that maybe they're not like specifically from solar?
Speaker: Maybe they think more outside the box or...
Speaker: I don't know what your experience was finding your partners, but what do you think about that?
Speaker: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker: My partners both had solar experience, but they had, they had different backgrounds.
Speaker: You know, one of them was been in, you know, started in insurance and moved to alarms and the other one, him and I started doing, doing solar at around the same exact time.
Speaker: And, and it's been, it's been good.
Speaker: But like you said, you're, you're kind of limited in your,
Speaker: you know, for a lot of, you know, we try and do some stuff different, right?
Speaker: But for a lot of companies, it's kind of like, all right, summer, summer sales program, you know, how do we recruit, we go out and we find guys to self gen clothes, right?
Speaker: Yeah, teaching, right.
Speaker: But it's, it's almost like people are numbers.
Speaker: And so we've gotten, we've gotten pretty far with, you know,
Speaker: because we don't come from I don't come from that school of alarm, you know, alarm sales or summer sales.
Speaker: So we've gotten pretty far with our own creativity.
Speaker: So just recently, I've started doing some some different masterminds and stuff like that.
Speaker: And I just I was just in in Texas with Bennett got back Friday, Apex mastermind with him.
Speaker: And what I like about that mastermind is that
Speaker: It's, you know, there's a few solar guys there, but you're getting feedback and you're getting, you know, I've got a, I've got a coach involved with that too.
Speaker: And she's got no, she knows nothing about solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So when it, you know, and I've just been working with her for a few months now, and it's already helped tremendously because she doesn't, she doesn't know how things are supposed to go in solar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, does she care, nor does she care to know.
Speaker: So it's been really cool to meet, you know, guys that own roofing companies and guys that have real estate companies and guys that flip houses, you know, things like that and get their perspective on things.
Speaker: And sometimes you want to just sit there and be like, you don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker: You know, my industry is different.
Speaker: It's like, we're all the same.
Speaker: You know, we're, a homeowner has a problem.
Speaker: Our job is to show them that we're the solution.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And build that relationship gap so that they trust us to be their solution.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: And I think it's, yeah, I think that's probably how we're innovating stuff in solar.
Speaker: Cause if we just all talk together as solar people, we're probably all going to think of the same ideas.
Speaker: We're going to keep doing the exact same stuff, but I think that's how guys that have kind of innovated solar and probably like yourself too, have thought of different ideas, things outside of the box.
Speaker: That's probably.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would say partly from networking with these other people outside of the industry and, you know, going to these masterminds, having those connections.
Speaker: Because for me, when I go to stuff like that, like I go to marketing conferences, it always gives me like new ideas that I'm not hearing like within the solar industry.
Speaker: So yeah, I think that's huge kind of networking with those people outside of it.
Speaker: Would you agree?
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Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: And, and even more so than just that, like, we talked about it before we hopped on, like, we don't really hire guys, usually with solar experience.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, if you're
Speaker: how do I say this without making hurt people's feelings?
Speaker: If you're in solar and you're constantly looking for a job, you know, what's going on?
Speaker: You need to, you know, you need to take a look at yourself.
Speaker: And I say that as somebody who used to always look for the lowest red line and things like that.
Speaker: You know, I went through that phase.
Speaker: Luckily, I didn't stay in that phase very long.
Speaker: But, you know,
Speaker: I learned very quickly that, you know, all red lines are not created equal.
Speaker: You know, when starting a company, you can get very creative with adders.
Speaker: But yeah, just getting that perspective from people outside of the industry has helped me grow.
Speaker: And then getting people that work outside of the industry to come and join your team.
Speaker: and watch them grow, you know, they don't, they don't come in with bad habits, right?
Speaker: They're very moldable, right?
Speaker: And, you know, it's especially delicate in what we do because we provide leads, right?
Speaker: It's our cost per acquisition, you know, we're not just providing leads.
Speaker: We're providing our guys with, you know, credit qualified bill in hand closes, you know, they're not working a lead.
Speaker: They're waking up in the morning and looking at the calendar and say, cool, I've got four closes on my schedule.
Speaker: Oh, the credits passed.
Speaker: Oh, we've got the U-bill.
Speaker: Oh, the proposals made for me already.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: You know, so that's, that's how we set it up.
Speaker: So that's very, you know, when you're, when you're bringing guys in to go close those, you know, it's not cheap to acquire that, you know, it's not cheap to get it to that point.
Speaker: And, you know, unfortunately, you know, there's, there's been times where we've brought guys in with experience and, you
Speaker: they, they take advantage of that.
Speaker: And then, you know, they send the lead.
Speaker: They send that, that, that deal through through another EPC, which is short sighted.
Speaker: Obviously, it's like you're making all this money.
Speaker: And you don't have to knock doors, you don't have any liability, you're not, you're not doing all this ad spend.
Speaker: And they, you know, guys just feel the need to, you know, breeds a terrible thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it happens.
Speaker: That's the risk with guys in the industry.
Speaker: A lot of greedy guys that have been in solar and red line shopping and all that.
Speaker: So I can definitely see why you would look outside of solar.
Speaker: You don't get a lot of this drama, I think, that sometimes us solar people have.
Speaker: Yeah, because we get inflated egos, right?
Speaker: Like, think about it.
Speaker: If you or I go close three deals in a day that were all set for us, we're like, at the end of the day, we're like, hell yeah, I'm the man, right?
Speaker: We start to forget that, you know, hey, there's this beautiful system in place that allows me to, you know, to be the man, right?
Speaker: Because, yeah, it's not that you're not the man, like you, but let's, you know, let's not forget that it's a symbiotic relationship, right?
Speaker: You know, one doesn't happen without the other.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's hard to, you know, you get some guys in solar that, you know, they're like, I told you, you know, I was the man and I look at all I did.
Speaker: And it's like, you know, and when you really break it down, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, what did you do?
Speaker: You went to, you went to appointments, you're working in, in San Diego.
Speaker: You showed somebody how you're going to cut their bill in half and, you know, their interest in the solar and their credit was passed for you, you know?
Speaker: Well, especially with leads too, because that's what I've seen.
Speaker: Some of these guys, they want to be off the doors.
Speaker: So I'm curious to know how you like avoided so much drama between like spreading out these appointments, because I'm sure you had guys being like, oh, Tony got more leads than me today.
Speaker: Oh, his leads were better.
Speaker: And like, I don't know, did you deal with that?
Speaker: And like, what did you do to make it fair with your guys and everything?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, we hear it all the time.
Speaker: And
Speaker: We just had a guy, we got a guy recently.
Speaker: I don't think he's gonna listen to this.
Speaker: He'd probably know what I was talking about.
Speaker: I'm not obviously not gonna say his name, but, um, you know, he kept getting turned away at the door.
Speaker: He's like, dude, he's like, dude, I keep getting turned away at the door.
Speaker: And finally I just had to say like, man, maybe you're just ugly.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like it's not happening to other people.
Speaker: Like you're showing up like, and they're just not sitting and they're just turning away at the door.
Speaker: I mean, maybe it's just, maybe it's just the way you look, you know?
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But we try and do round robin and make it fair.
Speaker: But at the same time, if somebody's on fire, then they're going to get assigned more closes.
Speaker: It's just that simple.
Speaker: If you're on fire, it's like you're playing in the NBA finals in the 90s and Michael Jordan's on fire.
Speaker: You're not going to be like, oh, let me make sure Tony Kukowicz gets this shot.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: You know, so you, you gotta, it's, it's a delicate balance, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And, you know, here's the thing too.
Speaker: And after a while, these guys have a lot of leads, right?
Speaker: They h ave a lot of appointments.
Speaker: So, you know, when guys are struggling too, I tell them the best way to get back in the flow is, Hey, work some of these old leads.
Speaker: And, you know, I'm not a big person.
Speaker: I'm not a big text campaign guy.
Speaker: Um, it's like, I'm not a huge email campaign guy.
Speaker: I just, I just have never seen it have massive success.
Speaker: When I was on the doors and I wanted to try and get a hold of somebody, I would go knock their door.
Speaker: Now that we're a little bit more on the phones and leads are spread out, I'd say, hey, just grab 20 of your old appointments from within the last year or 50 of them or 100 of them and just start making some phone calls on some that fell off or some that you never sat with or anything.
Speaker: I know you got a list of guys that said, give them a week and then you never call them next week because your calendar got filled up with more leads and you stopped caring.
Speaker: So when guys get into slumps, it's like, hey, go back and work some of your old leads, get two on and we'll stack you up.
Speaker: And that usually works.
Speaker: It helps people get out of a slump too because they're going to talk to some more homeowners and they're not going to burn leads.
Speaker: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker: That's huge.
Speaker: And so I want to hear, you said you guys just pretty much instantly went into setting up phones, like phone leads and everything, right?
Speaker: So you didn't even really do door to door once you started your own sales org, you just went straight to the phones.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: No, we went, we did door to door for a couple of years.
Speaker: And then once COVID hit, we, we did what a lot of people did and we went, oh shit.
Speaker: You know, it was like, what do we do now?
Speaker: And, you know, people, we didn't really slow the doors down too much, but you know, what we realized is our model, um, you know, on the, on, on the doors was great, but it limits growth.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, because it takes a lot of fire to start that.
Speaker: You know, you've got to go out and hire openers, right?
Speaker: You've got to get them trained up.
Speaker: And then you've got to get people to take the opens, the transfers live, and they go there.
Speaker: And then you've got to get... So it's... To grow one market takes a long time.
Speaker: And we were trying to grow a couple markets.
Speaker: So we grew a couple, but it took a long time.
Speaker: And when COVID hit, it was actually super blessing for us because it was like, there's this whole...
Speaker: national and international market for for for workers for salespeople that I was just oblivious to.
Speaker: you know, and one of the guys that I work with is like, dude, look at all this talent in, you know, in Mexico, you know, look at all this talent in the Philippines.
Speaker: And at first it wasn't my idea.
Speaker: So, you know, I don't like it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Cause I'm a sales guy.
Speaker: And, and then, you know, I'm like, yeah, you know, people in America, they don't like accents.
Speaker: They don't like this, whatever.
Speaker: And he, you know, started playing.
Speaker: He's like, listen to this, look at this video interview.
Speaker: These people talk like you and I, I'm like,
Speaker: I had to get over my own simple-minded biases, right?
Speaker: And it really kind of opened up my mind to
Speaker: like, wow, this could be something big.
Speaker: And so that's how, you know, a buddy of mine who's one of my partners has been, he's been on this kick for years and it kind of finally, you know, just came together in the last two years and it's really, you know, it's really taken off and it's been, it allows for massive growth.
Speaker: I mean, if you can tap into the world, you know, then you're,
Speaker: you know, your ability to grow becomes, you know, almost infinite.
Speaker: You know, that's been that's been huge for us.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, now I'm with you on that.
Speaker: I mean, I talk about it all the time in the podcast, but I have my virtual assistant from the Philippines that edits all these shows.
Speaker: Her English is probably better than mine sometimes.
Speaker: She speaks really good, and she has degrees and all that.
Speaker: I don't get any of that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Paying her six, seven bucks an hour.
Speaker: So yeah, I think if you can tap into that, you know, it's like a lot of potential in that for sure.
Speaker: And so when you when you talk about like Mexico, Philippines, you got these people on the phones like calling for you or what what exactly did you have these these people do hiring them out like that?
Speaker: Yes, we've got them on the phones.
Speaker: And then we've got them doing project management stuff.
Speaker: We've got a proposal team.
Speaker: It's been cool.
Speaker: The first people we hired were in the Philippines for proposals.
Speaker: They're still with us.
Speaker: They're awesome.
Speaker: They're so reliable.
Speaker: It's been...
Speaker: I mean, they're a lifesaver.
Speaker: And then, you know, a lot of the people that we work with in Mexico are, you know, people that lived in America, you know, some are just regular Americans that were born here and they just moved to Mexico, you know.
Speaker: So you get a lot of the workforce in, you know, really in the world is like, you know, we're all watching and doing the same stuff.
Speaker: You know, the whole world's on Facebook.
Speaker: Social media is, you know, worldwide.
Speaker: You know, we kind of...
Speaker: I would say now more than ever are, you know, it's, it's probably every day is probably, you know, the most similar the world has ever been.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Makes sense.
Speaker: You know, like you're seeing, you know, the same TikTok video that somebody in, you know, in Japan is, you know, so it's, you know, we're not all the same, but like, you know, we're, we're, we're closer now to all being, you know, kind of in tune than I think we've ever been as, as a,
Speaker: yeah human race yeah definitely yeah no it's cool um and what's cool i like you did this without um you know because i i have a lot of friends in the industry that are from like um costa rica from mexico you probably know eric sanchez i think he's in apex with you or something yeah yeah i know i know who he is he wasn't he wasn't there this week
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: So I know he, he has a lot of that call center stuff.
Speaker: They start them in like Columbia and all that.
Speaker: And so I noticed that the people that aren't from here, they've, they do that way more often than like us.
Speaker: Cause they probably think, okay, I can just hire people from the country where I grew up in and everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So that's cool to see that, you know, you're doing it and you're from New York.
Speaker: So you don't have to be from Mexico or anything to set these things up.
Speaker: Yeah, you can set them up.
Speaker: And so you find people that like, I guess for someone that let's say I'm someone I started my own deal.
Speaker: I want to start up a call center, get this thing is rolling.
Speaker: What were some of the first things you guys did?
Speaker: And how do you like find these people?
Speaker: And if you were starting from scratch, what do you what do you like do step by step to get these things set up?
Speaker: If I if I was starting from scratch, I'd call me have me build it out.
Speaker: It was, you know, I got I got lucky my partner did a lot of like the research and the dialers and stuff like that.
Speaker: And some advice that I would give is like,
Speaker: As it went on, it was like, don't trip on the accents.
Speaker: Okay, you know, people got some kind of rough English and things like that.
Speaker: And you're like, Oh, man, this, you know, because, you know, we've all dealt with, you know, being on hold and stuff when you're trying to call, you know, it's AT&T, and then you get somebody and you can't really understand them.
Speaker: And so I just assumed, you know, incorrectly that, you know, oh, they've got a, they've got a thick accent, you know, they're not going to translate well, well in America.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I would say that that's the, that was the, the most eyeopening thing that I learned.
Speaker: And, um, I would say that, um,
Speaker: you know, it's, it's one of those things where don't, don't settle for mediocrity.
Speaker: There's tons of talent out there.
Speaker: And so really, really listen to your, really listen to your people and, you know,
Speaker: make sure that make sure they're getting getting their script on their flow down because there's hundreds of millions of people that are that are talented enough to do that this this job you know and so finding the right people and and not saying because you know when you use people from other countries you know they're not as expensive so our our mindset tends to go to well they're profitable yeah
Speaker: right look at how profitable they are but profitable doesn't mean you know perfect it doesn't mean right you know just because no they're profitable you know six bucks an hour you know like they should be profitable yeah yeah but um you know what we found is if you can find the people that are that are really good and you keep building on that just like with anything in sales like don't keep people just because they're profitable now we're to the point where we pay them
Speaker: they don't make much less than what they like.
Speaker: And somebody in an American call center make some of them make more, you know, some of them make six figures, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But they will work their butt off and – and listen, the call center culture is huge in Central America.
Speaker: You treat people right.
Speaker: You take care of them.
Speaker: Next thing you know, you've got a bunch of killers.
Speaker: And on the flip side, if you keep keeping around people that –
Speaker: you know, there's no true like pace setter and you've got, you know, people just, just kind of being profitable for you before you know it, you'd be losing money and you'd be like, how am I losing money on this?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I've seen both ends of that and you know, you've really got to, you've really got to treat it just like you would, you know, a business that you run in the States.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just because it looks like it's marginally profitable doesn't mean that it's running how it should be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When I think guys too, cause I'm sure a lot of people that fell at this, it's like, they're probably just going on Upwork or something and hiring someone to do calls and they don't have anything set up.
Speaker: They've never done it themselves.
Speaker: So how'd you guys go about like setting up a system and like, I don't know, hiring these people, training them and knowing it was going to work without maybe you didn't lose money in the beginning, but like, I don't know.
Speaker: How did you, was it a lot of trial and error or
Speaker: Was it learning from other people that have done it before?
Speaker: How did you set up a system to be able to do all this?
Speaker: It was some trial and error.
Speaker: One of the guys that worked with us, he's got family down there.
Speaker: And so we started just running some ads.
Speaker: They are getting involved in the Latin American Facebook groups and stuff like that.
Speaker: And then honestly, we treat it just like we would recruit like a door-to-door rep in the States.
Speaker: You ask them the same type of questions, you give them the same type of training.
Speaker: After a while, you just know what to look for.
Speaker: You give them the scripts and they come do their pitch and they just say, oh, I didn't really look at it.
Speaker: The difference is since we're in a virtual world,
Speaker: know, you can rip through 50, 60, 70 candidates and, you know, you don't got to show up to the office and do this whole, you know, regular morale and, you know, all that.
Speaker: And then we just, we give them full on sales training, you know, we, we do a lot of old school stuff, a lot of Tom Hopkins stuff, you know, um, I mean, that stuff's timeless, you know, it really helps you understand the psychology of everything and, you know, Upwork and Fiverr and stuff like that are, are cool.
Speaker: But, you know, those people don't come with sales training, you know, they don't come with that, you know, maybe something someday will, but, you know, they don't come with that.
Speaker: You can test their competency, but how do you test somebody's sales skills?
Speaker: Yeah, really tough.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Well, I think for our listeners, probably the biggest thing is, like you said at the beginning of this, if you really want to learn to do this, just go hire Cody or get someone to actually consult you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is like you don't have to go through all this trial and error as much as I'm sure you guys did when you were starting it out.
Speaker: So I know you guys also do a little bit of consulting.
Speaker: Cody, do you want to tell us a little bit about that and why you guys were interested in starting up kind of that side of your business too?
Speaker: Yeah, that side's new.
Speaker: It's been fun.
Speaker: It's different than just your typical, like, here's the information.
Speaker: And, you know, this could evolve.
Speaker: But right now, it's kind of, it's more, hey, we help you build up your call center, you know, from ground zero.
Speaker: And it's not just like, hey, we're going to hire guys for you, show you what dialer to use.
Speaker: It's, hey, we're going to get guys for you.
Speaker: We're going to train them up.
Speaker: And then we're going to teach you, you know, whether you want your setters, existing setters to be the ones that are kind of taking these transfers and setting them, or whether you want us to go outside and find a recruit guys for you and bring them in and train them.
Speaker: We do that too.
Speaker: So it's really kind of almost like a done for you, you know, business.
Speaker: And, you know, right before this, that's, you know, right before I hopped on this call today, I was doing a meeting for another sales org with getting their setters, you know, doing a daily meeting for them, you know, and it's not...
Speaker: It's not a daily meeting forever, but you know, it's, you know, till it's got its wings to fly, you know, and the idea is to teach you how to, you know, and that that one's been going for, I think, I think this is the third week, they've already got several deals close from it.
Speaker: So they've already hit their, you know, their ROI.
Speaker: And so the idea with that was, you know, I know my limitations, right?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: Humility is a real thing, right?
Speaker: And being humble doesn't just mean like, you know, if you're dope, it's okay to think you're super dope, right?
Speaker: Like that's, to me, that, you know, being humble is knowing what you're super good at, right?
Speaker: Like, it's not just like, it's not just like, oh, shucks.
Speaker: No, I'm not that good.
Speaker: It's like, no, being humble to me means if you're fucking, if you're the man at something,
Speaker: then be the man.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: Like, know that you're the man if and if you lack an areas, then then then be humble enough to admit where you're where you're not, you know, nothing.
Speaker: And for me, you know, organization isn't my isn't my strength, right.
Speaker: But creating is right.
Speaker: I'm good at creating.
Speaker: I'm good at training.
Speaker: I'm good at
Speaker: you know, getting things off the ground and getting excitement.
Speaker: And, and that's what I'm good at.
Speaker: And that's what I like to do, you know?
Speaker: And so I have, I have a rule, you know, because I, I'm sure you're in the same boat, you know, I get some, you know, I get friends and colleagues that come to me and say, you know, Hey, I've got this, I've got this business idea.
Speaker: And I used to always think that I had to like, yeah, yeah, I want that.
Speaker: I want to do that too.
Speaker: And, and now I have to ask myself, like, you know, is it something I'm passionate about?
Speaker: And if my answer is no, then I don't do it, even if it's potential, even if I'm losing out on a lot of money, right?
Speaker: Even if I'm like, that's a, that's a banging idea.
Speaker: It's going to make a ton of money.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If I'm not, if it's not something that I go, oh yeah, I want to do that because I feel, cause that sounds like, like fun to me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I use fun lightly.
Speaker: It doesn't mean like, oh, I gotta like, you know, go on and jump up and down.
Speaker: It's, it's, is it mentally going to be fun for me?
Speaker: Like I let the problem solve, like, is it going to be the kind of problems that I, that I find joy in solving?
Speaker: And if the answer is no,
Speaker: then I'm not going to do it.
Speaker: And so we have this goal to get to all these all these sales and stuff like that.
Speaker: And we've sold you know, we've had months where we've sold hundreds of accounts and we always do over 100 a month.
Speaker: And for me, I wasn't
Speaker: I wasn't passionate about growing it like that anymore, and neither was one of my partners.
Speaker: And so we said, well, this sounds like a new challenge.
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: In the beginning, you're not really making on this first beta test, we're not really making any money.
Speaker: But the idea is it's almost like a franchise.
Speaker: You get a bunch of these going.
Speaker: and you know you get some get some recurring going and you know it's fun because i get to work with leaders of other companies who do things differently than me you know the one company in the world right now they've got a thousand sales reps and are massive recruiting and they're in 15 states and they think differently
Speaker: You know, they do things differently.
Speaker: And so for me, that's fun.
Speaker: You know, that's something I can I can be passionate about.
Speaker: You know, I get people to talk to me a lot about, you know, the software players.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, I had a flip phone until like five years ago.
Speaker: I don't do software well.
Speaker: So, you know, I made a rule that I stopped saying yes to things that I'm not I'm not passionate about.
Speaker: you know, building these centers out and getting to, it's great for networking too, because you're not building these out for, you know, a sales rep, you're building it out for other, other business owners, you know, and so that's a new, a new perspective and it's, it's exciting and it's, you know, kind of reinvigorating because they can get old, you know, the same thing over and over again.
Speaker: yeah no for sure no that's a huge nugget i'm a lot of rich people out there that hate what they're doing and are miserable so i mean might as well at least like what you're doing and be able to make some money at it do both at the same time yeah because it's not it's not fun then like you know yeah to me what's the point yeah
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I think that's a huge nugget for our listeners.
Speaker: Make sure you like what you're doing.
Speaker: And then number two, just go get people that are already doing it well.
Speaker: Work with a guy like Cody and shortcut your success for sure.
Speaker: And then just last question or two before we kind of start wrapping up here, Cody, I know you also run some door to door still.
Speaker: So what's can you tell us about like what that balance is like between having your door to door team having your call center and your closers going to those leads you keep those pretty separate or those kind of flow together how does that work in your company right now.
Speaker: So those are, those are separate.
Speaker: Um, as far as the door to door stuff goes, I don't have much involvement on the day to day basis.
Speaker: I did for years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, and then we've got, we've got a manager that, um, you know, he was a sales rep that like really stepped it up, um, throughout the years and, you know, really just kept pushing it and pushing it, pushing it.
Speaker: And this is, you know,
Speaker: I always tell guys that work for me like, Hey, man, there's no glass ceiling.
Speaker: And I and I mean it, you know, and so he got to the point where he was, you know, learning more and more, taking more and more control the office.
Speaker: And, you know, just just killing it.
Speaker: So he actually has the majority of the of the
Speaker: ownership or, you know, profit share of that office now.
Speaker: And so I meet with him, you know, I chat with him probably a couple of times a week.
Speaker: You know, I look at the reporting and everything like that and see it, but you know, he's, he's really taken that over.
Speaker: So I make a small cut on it and, you know, I put a, you know, I put a lot of time into it, you know, and put years into it.
Speaker: It's a business, you know, more than it's not just a you know, it's a summer sales office.
Speaker: It's a year round, you know,
Speaker: It's got, you know, it's got its admin, it's got his project managers and stuff like that.
Speaker: So he earned, you know, the majority of that business.
Speaker: And, you know, when it when it became time to be like, hey, I'm not, you know, I'm not too proud to say when I'm not adding a ton of value anymore, because it's not again, it's not something I'm passionate about right now.
Speaker: I'm not super passionate about growing that door to door business.
Speaker: So he is.
Speaker: And so I'll gladly step aside and say, hey, here's your
Speaker: I'll offer help whenever you need it.
Speaker: I'll offer as much input as you want.
Speaker: But you know, you've earned it.
Speaker: So he was the guy who just started off as a, as an, you know, as an opener.
Speaker: Yeah, four or five years ago.
Speaker: Now he's, you know, told him, you know, you put your put the name of your office on there if you want.
Speaker: And you know, that's, that's yours, you know,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that's cool.
Speaker: You're not being like your old, uh, your old boss.
Speaker: You mentioned that said, I'm going to take 50% cut.
Speaker: You gotta be grounded in reality.
Speaker: You know, just because you did something five years ago, it doesn't mean that you get to, you know, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to be, um, I don't want to be managing door to door.
Speaker: It's not, you know, everybody's got what they like.
Speaker: And, you know, so I like that I get to,
Speaker: you know, meet with him a couple times a week.
Speaker: You know, last year, we'll probably do it again this year.
Speaker: Last year, we took all those guys to Vegas and stuff like that.
Speaker: And it was a good time.
Speaker: So I like that, you know.
Speaker: It's just not what I'm, you know, like I said, I keep saying it, but it's just not what I'm passionate about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So your focus is more just on like the phone stuff and you kind of let, just let that guy run with this team, do what he wants to do.
Speaker: And then you're more kind of daily involved in the phone stuff and making sure that's rolling and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, and really, even when it comes to that, it's, you know, doing some trainings with some guys is what I like to do for the phones, then just just kind of networking and finding, you know, not everybody's going to be a good partner to work with on this.
Speaker: It sounds cliche, but it's like, you know, some people, you know, there's been people that I've talked to before, they're like, Oh, man, I'd like to get into that.
Speaker: And it's
Speaker: and in your head you're like that would suck to work you know so you don't really you don't really pursue it too much it just it just is what it is you know yeah yeah for sure i'm sure there's plenty of people that meet me and i like that guy's okay like we should we shouldn't all like each other i know well no that's true for sure lots of people in this world to work with and um
Speaker: I mean, you moved out of California.
Speaker: Maybe you got sick of California, but probably got a lot of new opportunities out there.
Speaker: How was that move, by the way?
Speaker: California to South Carolina, right?
Speaker: It was, it felt like it took forever.
Speaker: We, we drove and we, we brought, I have four kids.
Speaker: We took the two youngest, the two older ones stayed back in California for the rest of the summer.
Speaker: Now we got them out here.
Speaker: But we drove, we drove cross country with the two little ones, two years old, five years old.
Speaker: And our, our Pomeranian who,
Speaker: did a lot of barking.
Speaker: And, uh, and we, we, we brought the Tesla and we, we charged every few hundred miles.
Speaker: That's a lot.
Speaker: But it was, uh, it was, uh, I was hoping it was gonna, you know, we were going to take our time,
Speaker: but it was so hot.
Speaker: It was like in the first week of July and the whole country was getting a heat wave.
Speaker: I think every state we were in, it was over a hundred degrees.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: Well, you got, yeah, you got my respect with four kids.
Speaker: I don't know if I'd ever do that, Jay, with four kids.
Speaker: I guess you only had two at the time, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's still brutal enough.
Speaker: It was a good experience.
Speaker: And, you know, solar's starting to take off here in South Carolina and
Speaker: Yeah, I've heard.
Speaker: I'll be looking at, uh, you know, getting settled in now, but definitely be doing something, something soon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right on.
Speaker: Well, Cody, we appreciate you coming on the show today.
Speaker: And then, um, if guys want to like potentially start working with you more on the consulting side or connect with you more, what's the best way to be able to do that and connect with you and everything?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the best way is probably, uh, probably Instagram.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: My at is Cody underscore booth underscore 315.
Speaker: Okay, awesome.
Speaker: And then you can look me up on Facebook as well.
Speaker: I think my profile is public there.
Speaker: And you can email me.
Speaker: but we all know how that goes.
Speaker: My email is Cody booth at S O L C A L energy.com.
Speaker: Honestly, the easiest way is to just, just to DM me and, uh,
Speaker: you know, go from there.
Speaker: Okay, sweet.
Speaker: And then, um, yeah, what final question here before we, uh, say goodbye, um, if you could go back and I'll give yourself some advice or maybe a new rep starting out or a new, new, um, company owner, just starting your sales org, any, uh, final words of wisdom or final advice you would give if you could go back and talk to yourself.
Speaker: I would say use your use your money, you know, those early commission checks, right?
Speaker: Yeah, you pay attention to guys that are that are doing what, you know, what you want to do what you wish you were, you know what I mean?
Speaker: It's, you know, find the guys that have what you want.
Speaker: And if it costs you money, if it costs you time, you know, focus on focus on that, you know, whether it's in your industry or not, you know, focus on
Speaker: you know, it's tough, because look out for snakes too, because there's plenty of people that will take your money and tell you to come to their seminar, and they'll just give you some bullshit.
Speaker: It just this is what it is.
Speaker: But really, look, really study the people that you work with, the people that run your run your organization, you know, go out meet people network.
Speaker: And, you know, like I said, spend your time, spend your money on on on learning.
Speaker: Because, you know,
Speaker: you're going to get so much, you know, I wish that I, you know, networked more in the beginning and wish that, you know, I valued spending my time and money on, you know, paying people to teach me things that I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll save myself some mistakes.
Speaker: So rather than go out and buy like the freshest car because you got your big, you know, check or, you know, blowing your money, which, you know, I'm talking to, I'm talking to me eight years ago right now.
Speaker: You know, invest that, invest that.
Speaker: know, invest that time and money into, you know, into people that have what you want, you know, and that and that could be doesn't have to be material could be family, you know, it could be, you know, talk to people that, you know, have the life you want.
Speaker: If you're a single guy that wants a wife and kids, you know, find out, you know, meet with those people, you know, put yourself in a position where you're going to attract what you want.
Speaker: And not just business, but in in life and personal and friendship and relationship, family, you know, and really pay attention to those guys, you know, and then find out if they're really if they really who they, you know, get to know them for real.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: Now, I love that.
Speaker: Awesome way to wrap up.
Speaker: Jesus always said, by their fruits, you shall know them, right?
Speaker: So I think it's the same way in solar, same way in business.
Speaker: See what they're doing, see how their relationships are.
Speaker: And then I think that's a good indicator to know if you should work with those people.
Speaker: And yeah, and then obviously in reinvesting yourself.
Speaker: Great advice right there.
Speaker: So Cody, thanks again for coming on with us on the show today.
Speaker: We'll post his Instagram handle.
Speaker: Go shoot him a follow.
Speaker: Shoot him a message.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated his content today.
Speaker: And thanks again.
Speaker: We'll have to have you on the show again.
Speaker: But appreciate you, Cody.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Peace.
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