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 the 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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
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.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on?
Speaker: We're in the studio here today with the one, the only Eric Larson.
Speaker: I'm excited to have him on the podcast.
Speaker: We've known each other a long time.
Speaker: Actually worked at the same company for a little bit.
Speaker: So Eric, thanks for coming on the podcast with us today.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks for having me, Taylor.
Speaker: Super excited.
Speaker: Been listening for a while and glad you let me come on.
Speaker: It's an honor.
Speaker: Of course, you only had to pay me, what, 100 grand for it?
Speaker: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker: So I appreciate it.
Speaker: He just paid his life savings to come on the show.
Speaker: Totally worth it.
Speaker: That's all it takes.
Speaker: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker: No, just kidding.
Speaker: But yeah, so it's going to be a good podcast.
Speaker: We're going to be jamming on...
Speaker: you know how it goes starting your own installs.
Speaker: Eric, he's had his license doing his own installs for a little bit.
Speaker: He's pretty much done it all.
Speaker: And you've been in solar, when did you first get into solar, Eric?
Speaker: I got into solar 2012.
Speaker: So I've actually, and then I did alarms before that.
Speaker: So I did alarms for five years.
Speaker: Started the same year with like Sam Taggart and Danny Pesci.
Speaker: We all were at Platinum Protection together back in the day and then got into solar in 2012.
Speaker: So 10 years.
Speaker: Man, that's like 100 years in a regular year.
Speaker: 2012 is a long time.
Speaker: Because I've been in it six and a half years now.
Speaker: And I tell people that, like, holy cow, you're like ancient.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So 2012, that's crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, but you've been there.
Speaker: Yeah, I went out to Boston right after the Boston Marathon bombing and knocked out there and then started in New Jersey.
Speaker: I'm actually in the office there soon after.
Speaker: OK, nice.
Speaker: Yeah, not too many people.
Speaker: Switched, I don't know, maybe there's a lot, but like, it seems like more guys switched kind of later from alarms.
Speaker: So what made you switch from alarms to solar back then in 2012 and kind of make that transition?
Speaker: So that's a good question.
Speaker: I took a little hiatus from doing door knocking actually.
Speaker: So I graduated from the University of Utah and I got a position at eBay.
Speaker: So working corporate America.
Speaker: And I had just started a cupcake shop.
Speaker: So I ran a cupcake shop.
Speaker: I left eBay and then I ended up being on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network three different times.
Speaker: I became a finalist on that.
Speaker: So that's kind of random.
Speaker: If you ever watch Cupcake Wars.
Speaker: You still have that company.
Speaker: It's still going.
Speaker: I'm 5% owner.
Speaker: I sold the majority of it.
Speaker: But I got an offer to go out to India and start a cupcake shop out there.
Speaker: So lived out there for six months and then I was coming back to the US.
Speaker: I didn't have a job.
Speaker: And one of my old alarm buddies was like, hey, you know, Tyler Mickelson, if you know who he is, was like, hey, you got to look into solar.
Speaker: So got into solar in 2012.
Speaker: And yeah, just never looked back.
Speaker: Had some other opportunities, but solar is just amazing.
Speaker: It's the future and they're such good, I mean like they say, it's the gold rush.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And we were, I don't know if we worked the same time, I can't remember, but we were both at a company called New Power for a little bit.
Speaker: I didn't get there until 2016 that summer.
Speaker: Were you still there at that point?
Speaker: That was about when I was transitioning out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But yeah, we definitely, we knew each other and we saw each other at door-to-door con and around, so we knew a lot of the same people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So yeah, cool that we kind of have that connection.
Speaker: But yeah, I know you've, you know, managed teams, run your own company.
Speaker: And yeah, what I want to talk about is just kind of like, you know, pros and cons of starting your own company, of starting your own installs, because I know a lot of guys go out and want to do their own dealer and just have someone else do the install.
Speaker: But
Speaker: You've seen it all, so I think you can provide a ton of value and insight into what that looks like.
Speaker: But yeah, so you were at New Power for a little bit.
Speaker: What was the first company you were at?
Speaker: So 2012, who did you start with?
Speaker: Vivint Solar.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, so.
Speaker: And then it was New Power after Vivint Solar.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So New Power, Thomas and Matt, they were at Platinum Protection with me as well.
Speaker: And they said, hey, come out here, be our regional manager.
Speaker: And I was going to make, so I started when I was at Vivint Solar, I was making $250 a kilowatt.
Speaker: And so I was averaging.
Speaker: What was that?
Speaker: It's like an override for something.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I know.
Speaker: Gosh, everyone's spoiled nowadays.
Speaker: So, yeah, I was happy if I was making twelve hundred bucks, you know, on a project.
Speaker: That was always the saying, like when it was raining in New Jersey, it was like, would you pay?
Speaker: Would you if someone paid you twelve hundred dollars to take a shower with your clothes on, would you do it?
Speaker: You know, and now it would be like, if someone paid you $5,000 to take a shower with your clothes, I'm going to do it.
Speaker: And guys are still like, I don't know, not worth it.
Speaker: But yeah, so I was making 250 bucks a kilowatt.
Speaker: And sometimes I look back at like my sales days, because I was doing over 100 sales a year.
Speaker: So I was like, man, I definitely would have been like a golden door.
Speaker: winner.
Speaker: And yeah, so they offered to get me out here in California, become a regional, and I was going to make 400 kilowatts, almost double what I was making.
Speaker: It was a huge deal.
Speaker: And so I ran a team, a couple teams down here at Branched Into.
Speaker: And I started looking, I started doing the math and realizing this is how much we're charging.
Speaker: And this is how much materials cost and labor.
Speaker: And so I was like,
Speaker: wait a second, you know, our installer was Solcius.
Speaker: At the time, I was like, they are making way too much money off us guys.
Speaker: And they were like, okay, figure it out and we'll get you a salary, get you all this stuff.
Speaker: So I actually went and did a bunch of installs with Solcius.
Speaker: I took some time and really delved into it.
Speaker: I worked on the side with a general contractor to figure out how to get financing set up to figure out all the costs and materials.
Speaker: So I went to all the distributors, I figured everything out.
Speaker: I created this slide deck for them of everything and of how it was going to work.
Speaker: And then they ended up saying, oh, we're just going to hire a different contractor.
Speaker: You just keep selling.
Speaker: And at that point, I was a little too deep.
Speaker: I had taken three months basically not selling, trying to figure out the ins and outs of running a business.
Speaker: an install company and so I left.
Speaker: And so I actually went to become a dealer then because I didn't have my license at that point.
Speaker: So I worked with some install companies, some smaller install companies and
Speaker: kind of did the red line hunting a little bit.
Speaker: And like every single installer just sucked.
Speaker: Like that was just the theme.
Speaker: Vivint Solar, I had a customer that had a leak in his roof.
Speaker: It took him a month and a half to get out there to assess the leak, a month and a half to figure out that they lost the report, another month and a half to get back out.
Speaker: It literally took them eight months to fix this guy's roof.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: By the time they did, there was mold in his attic and just all these issues.
Speaker: Solcius was very similar.
Speaker: They just really sucked.
Speaker: It was just not good work.
Speaker: And then these other, one called Nexus and Barnes and Nutility, EcoSolargy, they all just sucked.
Speaker: They were slow.
Speaker: They were expensive.
Speaker: They kept coming up with different jobs.
Speaker: charges, they had bad customer service.
Speaker: And so just overall, I was like, I need to get my own license and do this myself.
Speaker: This is so frustrating.
Speaker: And so I went and I studied it took, you know, a month
Speaker: straight again of no work, of just studying.
Speaker: I was just watching all these DVDs, going to all these courses, figuring things out.
Speaker: If you have a bachelor's degree in business, you can apply so many years towards a contractor's license.
Speaker: So you're supposed to have four years of experience, three years of that,
Speaker: can come from a business degree.
Speaker: And so I only had to have a year of like field experience.
Speaker: Is that the same like everywhere or just in California?
Speaker: Just in California.
Speaker: But if you can get licensed in California, you can get licensed in most any other state.
Speaker: California is the one of the most strict as far as I know.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So I took the test.
Speaker: I had to take it twice.
Speaker: I failed.
Speaker: You can take it up to 16 different times.
Speaker: And so, but it was a lot.
Speaker: Like I said, I wasn't really working because I was studying, taking these tests, figuring things out.
Speaker: I just had my second test.
Speaker: kid and finally got my license and then it was like trying to figure out all the operations and still selling myself and recruiting and whatnot and it was tough so like I have guys ask me a lot and
Speaker: hey, you know, should I get my own license and do my own installs?
Speaker: And I'm like, if you can get a low red line, I wouldn't.
Speaker: It was really, really, really hard.
Speaker: Like if I could go back, I honestly, the thing is like kind of similar to that point.
Speaker: I was in, I'm in so deep right now that I feel like I can't really go back.
Speaker: But yeah,
Speaker: Yeah, I honestly, like I got divorced with my wife.
Speaker: And it wasn't just because of that, but it was stressful.
Speaker: And it was really hard.
Speaker: And I highly do not suggest unless someone either has a lot of money that they just have saved up and they're okay with waiting and having reps that are like, I want to get paid ahead of time before you even get paid.
Speaker: And
Speaker: You just have to have a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of patience.
Speaker: You want to expect at least a year, if not two, before you actually start making any money.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: And yeah, so I got my own license and ran that company with my now ex-wife for about a year and a half.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We had some decent times, but ended up selling off my half to her.
Speaker: Started a new install company called Larsson and ran that for about three years.
Speaker: And then I just sold it to one of my dealers last year.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And helped to transition that over and now starting a new install company.
Speaker: And so...
Speaker: I guess that's the definition of being crazy, right?
Speaker: The same thing over and over again.
Speaker: You've been around the block, man.
Speaker: You've done it all.
Speaker: Well, yeah, so you said you wouldn't recommend people do that.
Speaker: But say someone does want to go start their own dealer, but they're having all these same headaches.
Speaker: What do you do?
Speaker: What do you think the solution is?
Speaker: Because I know there's lots of still pretty slow, pretty bad install companies out there.
Speaker: Do you think that's improved?
Speaker: Or if someone asked you, like, should I start my own dealer, what would you tell someone at this point?
Speaker: Yeah, so that's a really good question.
Speaker: I would definitely say, like, have patience with whatever installer you work with.
Speaker: Like I said, I left to try and do a better job at installs.
Speaker: It took me about two years to realize it's impossible.
Speaker: It's impossible to do a really good job with solar installs.
Speaker: You can have a couple jobs here and there that are clean and smooth and just go through super easy.
Speaker: But, for example, I just submitted two permits to the county of Riverside.
Speaker: Same exact area, same exact designer, did the same exact plans.
Speaker: One of them came back totally fine, is already installed and everything.
Speaker: The other one has gotten shot back three different times.
Speaker: It's like the same exact project.
Speaker: It just went to a different plan checker at the county.
Speaker: And it's taken two to three times longer.
Speaker: And so, yeah, it's just ultimately a shit show no matter what.
Speaker: And so have lots of patience with the installer either way.
Speaker: So whether you do it yourself or not, it still is going to struggle.
Speaker: But so more like, are you asking like a dealer or actual installer?
Speaker: So it's like a next level becoming your own installer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, no, that sounds like a headache.
Speaker: But I don't know.
Speaker: Do you think like from your perspective, do you think the installers have gotten a lot better now compared to what you were going through just being a dealer?
Speaker: Or I don't know if you've seen them improve.
Speaker: Yeah, I would definitely if you're going to become a dealer and work with an EPC where they manage, they have a lot of control.
Speaker: And so you want to hook up with the best EPC that you can trust and you can actually get a hold of the people.
Speaker: Like some of that is the most important thing.
Speaker: It's not red lines.
Speaker: It just isn't.
Speaker: Someone can get you a 210 or whatever these days, but if it takes six months to get installed and your customer has a horrible experience and you lose all your referrals and you have absolutely no control over it, it's not worth it.
Speaker: I actually, when I had dealers, which I'm not doing dealers this time around, but when I had dealers, I
Speaker: I started actually telling them, like, hey, if we, like, what I would do if I were to become a dealer, I would have this deal with the installer.
Speaker: I would say, I'm actually gonna give you a higher red line, Mr. Installer, if you do a couple things.
Speaker: My customers don't complain.
Speaker: If secondly, you guys actually pass inspection the first try, if you guys have good quality work when I go out there and if it gets installed within 30 days or whatever, if you meet, I'm actually going to pay you more.
Speaker: Your installers will be like,
Speaker: Oh, sweet.
Speaker: An extra 20 cents.
Speaker: Like you're okay with being at a 240 instead of a 220.
Speaker: And we just have to do better work.
Speaker: That 20 cents will be so much more worth it.
Speaker: So I don't wheel and deal installers.
Speaker: That's, that's why their work quality goes down.
Speaker: That's why they can't answer the phones.
Speaker: Cause there's too many people and too little money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When I was running dealers at that really low, low, low red line, it was razor thin margins.
Speaker: We were losing money on one out of every five or six projects.
Speaker: And it's just, so yeah.
Speaker: have patience with your installer but at the same time don't just go get the cheapest one just because you can yeah that's awesome yeah i love that because so many reps especially when they start their dealers they're just like a lowest red line lowest red line lowest red line and they forget about these things but that's super smart i don't even think about that almost given yeah working out a deal and almost saying hey i'll take this many outers if you can like hit all these you know
Speaker: check boxes on the install.
Speaker: Because yeah, it's like incentive for both the installer and the rep.
Speaker: Then you get more deals out of it.
Speaker: Because yeah, I've been with some, yeah, I have done deals where I got a lower headline and I've learned that the hard way, just like getting paid more.
Speaker: But then the install took like four or five months and then
Speaker: never got a referral from that customer.
Speaker: And then also I've had a bunch where customers canceled because the experience was so bad.
Speaker: So it's like, would you rather have customers cancel or just get paid a little bit less, but have every install, you know, go a lot better.
Speaker: So I think, yeah, for our listeners, definitely something to consider.
Speaker: Have you ever heard of someone setting up?
Speaker: Did you do that when you were installing for other people?
Speaker: Or have people actually set up deals like that?
Speaker: Yeah, I did with a couple people that I was working with at the time.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, it worked out.
Speaker: I ended up selling, and so I transitioned out of some of those dealers that I was working with.
Speaker: So it was more of a thought at that time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: yeah, I more was just like, hey, with that extra money, I can hire someone else to help.
Speaker: At the same time, like being a dealer, I would suggest having someone that does your own customer service as well.
Speaker: So you might need to pay someone four grand a month, three or four grand a month at least to follow up with customers.
Speaker: Let them know what's going on.
Speaker: Keep in touch because the installer, they're going to have so much going on.
Speaker: And especially if they're giving you these low, really low red lines, they don't have the extra support for people to just be looking in their CRM constantly.
Speaker: But if you have someone, that way you're not spending, you know, like I'm working with a guy right now.
Speaker: He said out of a 30-day month, like 20 of the 30 days was spent doing customer service because they sucked so bad at his last installer.
Speaker: And so, yeah, if you can work a full 30 days, obviously you're going to make a lot more money.
Speaker: And ultimately sales is, I'm doing a lot of my own personal sales right now, just because that's where the money's at.
Speaker: I might make 20 cents off of someone else doing the sale, or I can make $1, $1.50 myself.
Speaker: if I do it myself.
Speaker: What made you decide, you said this time you're not running a dealer model or anything, what made you decide this time around to not open it up to dealers and not doing installs for other people?
Speaker: Yeah, I think that ultimately, I got tired of the razor thin margins of barely making any money or occasionally, like I said, even losing money and then fighting with the dealer.
Speaker: Whereas when it's a salesperson and I'm able to put a little bit of a buffer in there,
Speaker: I can eat more of the cost.
Speaker: Like, hey, there was a mistake.
Speaker: Hey, we forgot about trenching.
Speaker: Hey, we forgot about this.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: We have a little bit of extra money on every few projects.
Speaker: I'm just going to cover it.
Speaker: It's so much easier.
Speaker: Everyone's happier.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: I talked to one of the owners of Lumio, and I was telling him back when I was running a dealer program, he was just like, oh,
Speaker: oh, you're doing it as low as 210.
Speaker: He's like, all day, every day, I'd rather do 20 jobs a month at 250 than 100 jobs a month at 210.
Speaker: And so now I'm like, yep, I'd rather just do 20 solid jobs, know that we're making some money rather than doing.
Speaker: And it was great.
Speaker: It was exciting.
Speaker: I was doing over 100 installs a month last year.
Speaker: And we had a ton of people, tons of hiring and everything.
Speaker: So it was exciting.
Speaker: We were getting lots of vehicles and whatnot.
Speaker: But I definitely would just rather keep it small and have higher quality, higher, you know, funds per project.
Speaker: didn't have a whole ton of projects yeah yeah no that's yeah that's good and yeah especially for people um because i i think more than anything i mean this mistake coming from like a company like new power where we were at they were doing their own installs then coming from that i thought it was going to be the exact same thing just with the epc model someone else doing the install and i figured out pretty quick that yeah there's a big difference between having it all internal and then
Speaker: having all these other companies do the installation company do the installations for you.
Speaker: So yeah, I think especially if someone listening to this is coming from like a company where it's all internal, then you're outside, you're making a little bit more, you started your own deal or something like that.
Speaker: You just have to remember that, yeah, you got to focus way more on your deals because I would put deals in at New Power.
Speaker: I just would kind of forget about them and
Speaker: You know, they had all their customer service reps and all that, project managers.
Speaker: But I realized that most of these EPCs, they don't have, like you said, that's razor thin margins.
Speaker: They're not really managing the projects near as much.
Speaker: So I didn't know that.
Speaker: And so I was surprised when I went to our CRM and stuff.
Speaker: I had to actually like tag people and notify people.
Speaker: Yeah, of course, some are better than others.
Speaker: But for you, like, I know you've experienced a lot of, like, bad EPCs and everything.
Speaker: Did you have, like, a support person?
Speaker: Or what's your tips on that with, like, I don't know, getting project managers?
Speaker: I'm sure you have, like, internal ones now.
Speaker: But what would you tell people as far as, like, getting...
Speaker: someone to help manage the project?
Speaker: Yeah, so if you're running a dealer, definitely getting someone to help out is huge.
Speaker: There's Upwork, you can get someone for six or eight dollars an hour.
Speaker: I know a guy out in Colorado that I think he just has like two Upwork people, and he asks every one of his customers, hey, how often do you want updates?
Speaker: They'll do it as much as every single day if the customer asks for it.
Speaker: They have just an Upwork person just every single day.
Speaker: Just so you know, your project's still in permitting.
Speaker: Just so you know, your project's still in permitting.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Until people are like, actually, just do it once a week, you know, or every other week, or just let me know when something changes.
Speaker: And then you know that the customer is fine.
Speaker: And so, yeah, finding someone to just give people updates, make sure you have access to the CRM.
Speaker: Again, if you are going to work with an installer, yeah.
Speaker: I would make sure that you knew who the decision maker was and that you have access to them.
Speaker: Because again, that's just the worst when you have customers that are just sitting there and you have no idea what's going on.
Speaker: It's just quote unquote stuck somewhere in the process.
Speaker: And so you want to make sure that you can be like,
Speaker: hey, yo, owner, I have a stuck customer and I need something to be done about it, right?
Speaker: And so, because yeah, if you just go to a really big company that's doing a thousand installs a month, you can't get a hold of anyone.
Speaker: And when you do, they're just like, oh, I'll pass it on to the next project manager.
Speaker: And then it just stops and it stops.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: everyone just gets frustrated in that case.
Speaker: So you want to make sure you're with a proactive company where they can actually send out.
Speaker: That's the biggest thing I've considered literally just going and being a dealer again because being an installer, my margins aren't that amazing.
Speaker: And it's actually really expensive up front.
Speaker: And so I've considered becoming a dealer again, but I would have a tough time if I had a customer who had a leak.
Speaker: Because right now I can just let me get a guy out there tomorrow or today.
Speaker: If I was constantly calling Titan or whoever and I was like, hey, please send someone, please, please, please.
Speaker: And it takes them weeks.
Speaker: That would just be so frustrating and so hard.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a battle.
Speaker: Pros and cons for sure.
Speaker: I've been with some, what drives me nuts sometimes too is some of these EPCs, you talk to one person and like, oh, let me transfer to someone.
Speaker: You tell them the same story, let me transfer to someone.
Speaker: And then some of them wouldn't keep like record of any of the issues going on.
Speaker: So I'd talk to 10 people and then just have to wait like weeks for a response and everything.
Speaker: So yeah, I would almost, if I were to drop off and become just a dealer again, I would probably have my own technician.
Speaker: And I would double check with the Insta.
Speaker: I mean, this is just my own strategy so that if I had a customer who had an issue, I can just have my guy where I'm like, I pay him 500 bucks, go fix the customer.
Speaker: Because 500 bucks is nothing compared to getting a referral.
Speaker: Like I actually just barely, like I said, I'm closing deals right now.
Speaker: I just closed someone about three days ago and it was a referral from one of my worst customers ever.
Speaker: Yeah, it was so surprising.
Speaker: This customer was, I mean, it was one of those projects where it took probably three or four inspections.
Speaker: She was so iffy.
Speaker: Do you guys know what you're doing?
Speaker: And we had to do a grounding lug on her water heater.
Speaker: and her water heater shut down.
Speaker: It was like an old water heater, just happened to happen at the same time.
Speaker: They didn't do anything other than put something on the copper.
Speaker: And she was just so upset.
Speaker: I ended up saying, look, it's an old water heater, I'll pay for half.
Speaker: for you to get a new one um and so and then i never heard from her like again and so i was like man she's super pissed but then i just and it's literally been about a year um i i had a a customer who's like yeah your old customer amelita
Speaker: She referred.
Speaker: I was like, oh, nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But she said she was just like, yeah, you were like responsive and actually got things done.
Speaker: So I'm just saying like sometimes, you know, it was maybe eight or nine hundred bucks to cover half the cost of her water heater.
Speaker: I got a whole nother customer because of it.
Speaker: And so sometimes, you know, just being able to be there for your customers is more important than saving the extra few hundred dollars.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And it's funny.
Speaker: I've had those same referrals, too, where it's like pissed off customers.
Speaker: It's taken with
Speaker: way long than expected but just because I was like always responding to them even though it was like I'm like man the last thing I want to do is like text this guy back over and over and tell him the same thing and just have him still be pissed at me but I've gotten lots of referrals from customers like that so yeah I think sales reps that actually talk with their customers
Speaker: I hate sales reps that are just like, it's not my job.
Speaker: I sold them.
Speaker: Now it's all yours.
Speaker: And I'm like, just give them some updates.
Speaker: Give them some love.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because they know who you are.
Speaker: They trust you.
Speaker: They don't know who we are.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that you do that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's a good lesson for all the listeners.
Speaker: Respond to your customers quick because that's how you get referrals.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: They're super mad.
Speaker: But yeah, that's good.
Speaker: And then another thing I wanted to ask you, Eric, is you talked about before you had all the bad experiences with the different EPCs.
Speaker: So now if you were to go start your own dealer again, you talked earlier just about finding one that's responsive, that you can talk to the owner, stuff like that.
Speaker: So if you were starting your dealer trying to find a good EPC, find a good company, do you have any suggestions on how you would do that without just throwing...
Speaker: them a deal and then having it be a disaster and switching to another one having to be a disaster like how do you know how is it possible to figure out beforehand oh this looks like it could go well or do you have any tips on that that's a really good question um i think that uh i mean the best thing you can do just like anything either get some referrals someone who has used them who's had a good experience um asking around uh just
Speaker: Because there's a lot.
Speaker: Like here in San Diego, there's hundreds of installers, right?
Speaker: And I'm sure any of them would be like, oh, cool, sales guy who will just bring deals in.
Speaker: Like they'll...
Speaker: take you on.
Speaker: Um, but again, I think that, you know, just finding someone that you click with, you connect with, um, I've been really all about right now, just like where the universe, you know, um, if you feel more relief, um, than you do stress, uh, but at the same time, um, giving them a deal or two is always good.
Speaker: But as you know, it can take two to three months to have an install.
Speaker: So you don't really want to wait or do like five different ones.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: So, yeah, I think, you know, I went to Darren Hardy's master class was super good.
Speaker: And he talked about interviews.
Speaker: And every single person that he hires on, he puts through a six-step interview process.
Speaker: And so I think that if you're interviewing installers, I don't think that there's anything wrong with treating it like an interview and actually getting to know them.
Speaker: And then like the last step in, in Darren Hardy, he's the compound effect author.
Speaker: He is always his wife, the wife test.
Speaker: He's like, she's the best BS detector.
Speaker: I do this all the time now.
Speaker: Like my wife, I'm just like, I'm sorry, honey, I'm going to hire someone new.
Speaker: I need you to double check and talk with them.
Speaker: And so I would almost get your wife involved, you know, the very end and say, hey, this is the installer I'm thinking of putting stuff through.
Speaker: And honestly, wives a lot of time or someone just like with a different perspective in general, I think could be like, I don't like that person or.
Speaker: you know what, I got really good vibes and I feel like they're actually going to honor what they say, let's go.
Speaker: And so I would just say, just like any, how they say, hire slow, fire fast.
Speaker: I think it would be the same thing with an installer.
Speaker: Take your time, find the right installer, meet with them multiple times, meet with people in their company, and then have your spouse just do a double check.
Speaker: and then just start going.
Speaker: And honestly, the biggest thing that I've found is just being consistent.
Speaker: So if you're stopping and going with a different installer every other month, it's just a pain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I would say too, because I've been in situations where it's like, I haven't chosen, like I've been with dealers, so I'm not really the one choosing the installer.
Speaker: But all of a sudden we go to a meeting and our owner's like, hey, we're using these guys now for the installer.
Speaker: And I'm just like, okay, well, that's what they said.
Speaker: And I guess let's do it.
Speaker: Then a few of them have been disasters.
Speaker: A few of them have worked out.
Speaker: So I wish I would have known that back then.
Speaker: And even though I wasn't like picking the installer,
Speaker: At the very least, maybe go back to the owner of the dealer and be like, well, hey, why did you?
Speaker: Maybe kind of question them on it and be like, why did you choose them?
Speaker: Or have you seen how quick they're?
Speaker: Have you seen quality?
Speaker: Have you talked to other people using them?
Speaker: Because, yeah, I think it could have weighed a lot of stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah, but definitely I feel like being a dealer would be more the way to go than being your own installer.
Speaker: Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker: Well, here, so something as we kind of get towards the end here, Eric, I wanted to ask you, you've gotten your own license, you've hired your own installers, and I'm sure that wasn't easy.
Speaker: Like, in my head, that seems like the tougher part is, yeah, you can go get licensed, take a test and everything.
Speaker: But for me, I'm just thinking, OK, I've got my license and that's cool.
Speaker: But I've seen so many people go get crews that don't know what they're doing and just have that be a disaster.
Speaker: So like, I don't know, tell me how that was for you.
Speaker: What was your experience?
Speaker: And like, hey, you got your license.
Speaker: Now I'm going to actually like build a company out of it and get crews and maybe have some horror stories.
Speaker: Maybe have some good stories.
Speaker: But how was the experience for you?
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: Crews, field guys, a lot of W-2 people in general in the nicest way possible.
Speaker: It's just tough.
Speaker: It's really tough.
Speaker: I listen to a construction management podcast because I'm like, they understand.
Speaker: They feel me because it's, you know, in that podcast, they talk about like home construction and how they have these granite countertops.
Speaker: And they tell the guys, don't put your toolboxes on the granite countertops.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then they still do it.
Speaker: And then they say it again.
Speaker: And then they do a formal announcement.
Speaker: They do memos.
Speaker: They put signs up.
Speaker: And guys still just, boom, put their big toolboxes.
Speaker: And they're just like, there's nothing we can do.
Speaker: And it's just, I think for a lot of door-to-door salespeople, we're super driven.
Speaker: And we're like, I want to do a great job.
Speaker: I want to work so hard.
Speaker: I want to max out how much I can make.
Speaker: It is just a totally different mentality for these guys that are like, I want my $24 an hour and I don't want to get fired.
Speaker: And I'm just going to do the bare minimum that I need to, to keep my job.
Speaker: Like it's just a totally different mentality.
Speaker: They get so many sick days.
Speaker: And so they're just like, Oh, I got a sick day.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I'm out, you know, feeling a little bit groggy.
Speaker: And it's like, dude, we had a customer that was counting on you.
Speaker: Now we don't have a guy.
Speaker: or they don't maintain their vehicles, like whatever it is.
Speaker: And so it is next level getting to having a lot of W2 employees, like they say, herding cats or babysitting.
Speaker: And so, yeah, be prepared to really, really get into that.
Speaker: And like I said, talking about taking a lot of time, it takes up a lot of time.
Speaker: And so that's why unless you're totally committed or you have someone, you know, that wants to be that office person and not go out and sell and they're okay with not making a whole lot of money, especially at first.
Speaker: That's why like the dealer idea is actually a great idea.
Speaker: I mean, dealers in the nicest way possible are glorified managers.
Speaker: Like you have a red-legged, I mean, it's just like a manager over at Sunrun or whatever company.
Speaker: They get their pay and they get an over it.
Speaker: It's a dealer is a manager for an install company.
Speaker: But it's kind of cool because you get to make your own brand, have your own swag, have your thing, have your company.
Speaker: And then the installer does a lot.
Speaker: But you probably need to hire someone.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think I got off on a tangent there because you're asking more about the install.
Speaker: Oh, it's just, it's tough.
Speaker: I mean, there's so many, I'm trying to think, I had a guy last year, I think it's okay if I mention it, but he got shot, one of my installers.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Yeah, he was on his way to an inspection and just a guy with road rage flipped a UE in front of him, just came and
Speaker: he bent over and he got shot in his butt, in his hip.
Speaker: And they had to keep the bullet in there.
Speaker: But, you know, just people getting hurt, accidents, vehicles, just getting so much into HR and, you know, workers' compensation.
Speaker: It gets pretty deep and pretty heavy once you start getting into that.
Speaker: It's easy to think, oh, wow, if I pay this person only $20 an hour and it only costs this much and they do the install this fast, wow, I'm going to be saving so much money.
Speaker: But then you don't take into account all of the other stuff that happens.
Speaker: What about those homes that do have the bad leaks?
Speaker: I've had out of 1,000 projects, I'd say probably $500.
Speaker: complete roofs that I had to pay for customers at 15 to 20 grand.
Speaker: You know, huge losses.
Speaker: Just because like the installer, like because your guys did something to mess it up or?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, like something happened with the roofer.
Speaker: I mean, usually it's the roofer, just being honest on those ones.
Speaker: And then it like ruins the sheetrock on the customer's house and you have to go in and replace all of that.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Some of them have been smaller leaks, but there's been multiple projects that I've had that have been pretty big losses.
Speaker: And if you're not prepared for that, it's what takes a lot of companies under.
Speaker: A lot of these install companies.
Speaker: I was just talking with another installer a couple days ago.
Speaker: and we were just saying that it's crazy how one company will sell for 900 million, right?
Speaker: SunPro sold for over $900 million, say ADT.
Speaker: And I think that's why it's tempting to become your own installer because they see Blue Raven sold for 160 million, Solcius for 53 million.
Speaker: And so it's tempting to be like, I want to be an installer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because there is value.
Speaker: You own the vehicles, you're building assets.
Speaker: A lot of the money is going towards W2 employees, which are considered assets.
Speaker: If you get some good people, it's super valuable because it's hard to find really good W2 employees.
Speaker: But it's like a teeter-totter between.
Speaker: going completely bankrupt you know you have a horizon that blows up a customer's house you know and then they're out of business a few months later like it just uh one thing could happen and you just go completely under yeah um and you lose everything that you've built up for but on the other hand there's those millions you know hundreds of millions of dollars transactions uh that happen for installers
Speaker: And so ultimately that's my goal, right, is I want to sell, you know, short term.
Speaker: Right now just getting a new install company up and going, it's expensive.
Speaker: I'm actually losing money every month right now.
Speaker: I'll be making minimal money probably in the next few months and then about what I would as a dealer.
Speaker: But my goal is to sell the company.
Speaker: And so that's the biggest problem.
Speaker: win for an installer, I feel like, is that you're, again, building assets, you're building a company.
Speaker: Whereas a dealer, it's all 1099 guys, sales guys that you have that, you know, could be offered, you know, 50 or 100 grand, and they'll just leave.
Speaker: So it's not worth millions and millions of dollars, usually most dealers.
Speaker: Whereas an installer has like the processes and
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the people and tools and everything.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Well, speaking of sewing, I mean, you, you already been down that road and, um, you know, sold, sold your previous company, everything.
Speaker: So yeah, I mean, how did that, like, how do you even go about sewing?
Speaker: How was that experience?
Speaker: I want to hear about that.
Speaker: Selling your old company and, um,
Speaker: Starting this new one, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Speaker: You're running the new one.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: So yeah, like how did that go in?
Speaker: Yeah, so I ran Larsson for three years and built it up.
Speaker: And I had an internal sales team and then I had a few dealers.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then I brought on a bigger dealer that I worked with for about five months.
Speaker: And they said, they were like, we want to get into our own installs.
Speaker: And so again, I was making razor thin margins.
Speaker: I even told them at one point, I was like, I'm about break even with you guys.
Speaker: With my internal sales, that's the only people I'm making money off of right now.
Speaker: But they still were like, no, we want to be our own installer.
Speaker: They saw those.
Speaker: They saw the SunPro.
Speaker: They saw the big transactions that were happening.
Speaker: And they were like, we don't want to be just a dealer.
Speaker: They wanted to be an installer.
Speaker: And so we put a value on my company last year.
Speaker: It was actually $4.5 million.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: They ended up paying out at $2.5 million and then giving me some equity.
Speaker: But it was earned vested equity over time.
Speaker: And so it was nice.
Speaker: Had a good transaction.
Speaker: Ended up investing a bunch of money back into the business to help out with payroll.
Speaker: And I just realized, I don't know, if anyone listening to this is ever considering selling their company, it's just like working with an installer.
Speaker: It's just as important to understand the company that's buying your company.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I later found out that they took out some huge short-term loans and just it overextended a little bit.
Speaker: And I still love and appreciate those guys and I hope the best for them.
Speaker: But a few months in when there wasn't tons of money rolling in, they thought when I was telling them I was break even on their projects as it was.
Speaker: They started just blaming me, and they ended up deciding to hire someone else to come in as the COO.
Speaker: And so they took away most of my equity, and I basically said, hey, just let me walk and start another solar company, and I won't fight for the equity or anything like that.
Speaker: Just let me go.
Speaker: And so we signed an agreement where I could start another solar company, and I'm actually extremely grateful for them for that.
Speaker: I think the owner, Dan, I just...
Speaker: was like, what am I going to do?
Speaker: Go flip burgers?
Speaker: Like solar is my life.
Speaker: That's what I know.
Speaker: And if I can't get back into it, then I'm kind of screwed.
Speaker: And he was like, okay, you know, he understood.
Speaker: And so luckily I've been able to restart.
Speaker: I can't recruit anyone from over there or anything like that.
Speaker: Um, I ended up not making nearly as much money as I thought.
Speaker: And it's been a little bit of a fight to get back some of the money.
Speaker: Um, but, um,
Speaker: Yeah, lots of lessons.
Speaker: If anyone, I'm on Instagram, Eric, E-R-I-K, Larsun, L-A-R-S-U-N.
Speaker: Anyone wants to DM me or message if they're considering selling or anything like that.
Speaker: I have a ton of advice, tons of things that I learned from that.
Speaker: So, yeah, you either succeed or you learn, which learning is succeeding and winning at the same time.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll put your social media and stuff in the show notes if you guys want to ask more about that.
Speaker: But no, yeah, Dan Dunn's a solid guy.
Speaker: He's been on the podcast too.
Speaker: Oh, nice.
Speaker: So yeah, people can go listen to his episode.
Speaker: But it sounds like, well, if you, like going back, if you did want to like know more about their company, is that something that they would like tell you?
Speaker: Like if you said, hey, tell me about this.
Speaker: Yeah, let me see your financials.
Speaker: I want to see how much money.
Speaker: I think that they would have and they should have.
Speaker: And I just, I would have consulted a little bit more.
Speaker: I would have been like, hey, you know, maybe we shouldn't do super high executive pay.
Speaker: Maybe, you know, we shouldn't do a short term loan.
Speaker: You can pay me over time.
Speaker: Things like that, that would have alleviated a lot of the stress of the money.
Speaker: And that's ultimately one of the big reasons, one of the lessons I learned with now starting this, that's why I'm selling.
Speaker: I'm like, I have some people I'm hired to help run operations.
Speaker: I'm still responsible.
Speaker: I'm the contractor and license holder and everything.
Speaker: But I know that the money comes from the sales.
Speaker: So if I wanna pay myself and I don't wanna pull a ton of money from the business and put the business in trouble, I need to get my own sales.
Speaker: And I learned that because of that, because I saw the main executives
Speaker: Again, I don't know how much of this you want to put in here, but kind of step back and take an executive pay.
Speaker: And then within a few months, they realized they didn't have enough money to do that.
Speaker: And it's put the company in a little bit of a tough time.
Speaker: So if I would have known, hey, you don't have millions of dollars that you're raking in right now,
Speaker: we should probably still sell ourselves even as the executives so that we can keep as much money in the business as possible because again it's it's buying the fleets it's buying it's putting the money back into it and so um running a business i think a lot of people are like oh they own the business they must have so much money but it's like i said it's you're you're on this teeter-totter where it's like tomorrow could all be gone
Speaker: One thing happens and it's all gone.
Speaker: Just everything that we've worked so hard for, one lawsuit comes.
Speaker: And so even like myself, if I have a bunch of money, I'm like, I still, and I think that's why a lot of rich people just get more and more rich because they get more and more like lawsuits and more and more issues and they need more and more security to make sure that they can
Speaker: you know, uh, withstand it.
Speaker: But, um, there's not that much money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: I'm actually getting audited right now.
Speaker: A couple of big commission checks coming and everything was planning on doing some different investments, but I'm like, all right, I better like hold off until I figure out what's going on with this audit stuff and see how much that tax bill is going to be.
Speaker: I guess you can kind of finance it or whatever, but
Speaker: But no, that's a good point.
Speaker: And yeah, sounds like some valuable lessons learned over there.
Speaker: And yeah, pretty much every owner I think that I've had on the podcast, almost everyone has been like pretty heavily involved in the sales.
Speaker: I mean, you look at guys like Michael O'Donnell, yeah, a bunch of other guys, they're all selling at a high level and they're owners of their company.
Speaker: But yeah, all of them say the same thing.
Speaker: Like that's how they're making most of their money is from the sales.
Speaker: And that's how they're, you know, obviously unless they sell the company then.
Speaker: Yeah, I know there's some big transactions that have been done.
Speaker: But that's cool.
Speaker: And then so like now that you've started Fresh, is there a lot of things that you are doing different now that you've been through the whole thing at Larson?
Speaker: Like a lot of lessons, a lot of things you're doing different are pretty much similar.
Speaker: What things are you doing different compared to the first time when you started Larson?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the only things I'm really doing different, like I said, is I'm not doing dealers.
Speaker: So I'm doing all integrated, so all in-house salespeople.
Speaker: And then I'm selling myself right now are probably the two biggest things.
Speaker: And I am also not going to sell.
Speaker: I'm not in a rush necessarily.
Speaker: Three to five years, I do want to sell.
Speaker: But I'm also going to slow play that.
Speaker: There were a few people interested in buying Larsson and I should have like stepped back a little bit, did a little bit more homework on everything.
Speaker: So not in a massive, massive hurry to grow massively huge, you know, overnight.
Speaker: I'd rather I'm focused on quality a lot more and making sure that we're actually, you know,
Speaker: really profitable and have things lined up, you know, building out our tools and whatnot.
Speaker: A big thing that I've carried over even and through it is my whole theme of love, appreciation, respect.
Speaker: I mentioned this to you earlier and it's cheesy.
Speaker: I actually say it in all of my sales.
Speaker: I'm talking with customers right now and I'm just like, yeah, it's cheesy, but our, you know, mantra is love, appreciation, respect.
Speaker: And
Speaker: It just ultimately goes back to kindness and actually caring about the customers, about the people that we work with.
Speaker: I really like the guy who founded the Kind Bars.
Speaker: He says there's a big difference between being kind and being nice.
Speaker: He said if you see someone with a big old thing of food in their teeth, a nice person won't say anything.
Speaker: You're just like, oh, okay.
Speaker: Hey, good to see you.
Speaker: And then walk away because they're nice, quote unquote.
Speaker: But a kind person will actually say, hey, you got something in there, you know, and kindly help you.
Speaker: And so that's my goal with Solar Sun is to really just show that kindness, the love, appreciation, and respect.
Speaker: I just, when I was going through that,
Speaker: I had some people basically say, hey, you seem like a pushover.
Speaker: You're too nice.
Speaker: And so I'm trying to really define that kindness versus niceness.
Speaker: And so I'm defining myself.
Speaker: And so that's the whole goal of...
Speaker: Solar Sun now is not just a sell for a big amount.
Speaker: It's I want to prove that a company that focuses on love, appreciation, and respect can be successful, can grow, and be sustainable.
Speaker: We don't have to do a million accounts and do bad work and not care.
Speaker: but we actually care and we're kind to each other.
Speaker: And so that's my ultimate goal.
Speaker: I actually just got everyone in the company the book, it's the five languages of appreciation.
Speaker: So it's actually the same guy, Peter Chapman, they created a work version of the five love languages, but it's the five languages of appreciation.
Speaker: It's the same exact ones.
Speaker: And it's super interesting because my appreciation language in work, my number one is service, is people helping me, right?
Speaker: I'm just like, thank you so much for helping me.
Speaker: It means so much to me.
Speaker: But in my personal relationships, that's my lowest.
Speaker: Like my wife can, you know, do all the dishes in the whole world.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay, okay.
Speaker: whatever, you know, but I probably take her too much for granted.
Speaker: I love my wife so much.
Speaker: Um, but it's just interesting because in workplace, uh, your, your love languages or your appreciation languages, um, are a little different.
Speaker: So I want to challenge anyone to potentially do that and see what you, what you, uh, respect.
Speaker: And then you can look for business partners that can help compliment, you know, your different appreciation languages.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: That's what we're really focused on this time.
Speaker: And I think that everyone just hears that, you know, beating the drum, love, appreciation, respect.
Speaker: And it's going all right.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: No, I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, good advice there for anyone managing, running teams.
Speaker: Learn those love languages, appreciation.
Speaker: And then as we kind of wrap up here, last thing I wanted to ask you about, I know you went through the divorce.
Speaker: You said, obviously, you know, running your own company, that's no easy feat, ton of stuff going on.
Speaker: So it's something I've seen, unfortunately, a lot in the solar industry, just, I guess, door to door in general is just people really struggling with their relationships.
Speaker: A lot of guys I've seen go through so much stuff, divorce and everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because I think a lot of us were so like high level focused on sales focus on business focus on other things that for me I noticed sometimes, you know, I neglect relationships You know definitely had struggles at times like that, too So what have you learned from that or what advice would you give now?
Speaker: You know going through building your companies Being remarried and all that do you have any advice for I don't know the relationships for solar guys or business owners?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a super good question.
Speaker: I realize I say that a lot.
Speaker: That's a really good question.
Speaker: I think that's Brian Tracy.
Speaker: No, it's a good question because I learned a lot from my first marriage.
Speaker: I mean, I was married for seven years.
Speaker: And like I said, I wouldn't blame it just on solar.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I am remarried now.
Speaker: Been just really had my anniversary four years.
Speaker: And I have four kids with my my wife right now.
Speaker: I have six kids total.
Speaker: So we have two sets of twins.
Speaker: And it's a lot.
Speaker: It is a lot.
Speaker: As far as advice.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely make time for your family.
Speaker: And I think being intentional.
Speaker: I was just listening to Jay Shetty and he talks about quality versus quantity.
Speaker: And he's like, quality is always so much more important.
Speaker: Quality time.
Speaker: Sometimes we're like, oh, well, fine, I'll take off a whole day or whatever.
Speaker: But if you're like on your phone, you're like, you know, not really with the person.
Speaker: He says that he remembers, and I remember my time with my parents when there was quality, when they actually sat down with me, when they talked with me and they worked with me.
Speaker: And I think it's the same for a relationship.
Speaker: Just because I'm taking a day off doesn't mean I'm actually spending it with my wife.
Speaker: And so yesterday we actually went, granted it was our anniversary, but we went to a mud bath and made sure that I had a sitter for all the kids.
Speaker: And my wife was just like, I just want to sleep.
Speaker: And I was like, all right.
Speaker: So we got like on the lounge chairs and she just slept and I brought her some food and stuff.
Speaker: And then we went and played in the mud and she just loved it.
Speaker: She was like, oh, so nice.
Speaker: And
Speaker: It was really good.
Speaker: And I actually just had that conversation with her.
Speaker: I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I am just happy and I'm content.
Speaker: And I think that sometimes we watch The Bachelor or all these things and we want our relationships to be great and amazing.
Speaker: It's just amazing.
Speaker: always like all these amazing things but you know what sometimes just be happy with things being good yeah right and i think a lot of people say you know behind every good man is is a great
Speaker: great woman, you know, but I think that it also is the reverse.
Speaker: Like when you see these wives that are awesome, it's, there's a really good man that stood, you know, behind them and supported them and help them with what they do.
Speaker: So yeah, just listen and work together.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's something whether you're married or not, whatever relationships you got.
Speaker: Because, yeah, I mean, I've done that too even with just like friends or whatever.
Speaker: You know, people get addicted to their phones and especially in solar, I'm like, get a notification from my customer of what it is.
Speaker: And I think what you got to realize is obviously, you know, you got to respond to your customers and stuff like that, like we were talking about.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: You also got to have time where it's like you're not being acted upon where you can, like stuff can wait, you know, most stuff with customers isn't the end of the world.
Speaker: So I think it's way better set of time, like a set amount of time where you are managing your customers or whatever you got going on.
Speaker: And then just always being reactive to whatever issues come up.
Speaker: So yeah, I love that.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Yeah, I like a tool or something that I do is I put my phone in my closet when I come home from work and I tell my wife and I tell everyone at work so that they're not surprised.
Speaker: One hour to an hour and a half, I won't even have my phone.
Speaker: The business is not going to blow up.
Speaker: Things are not going to die in an hour.
Speaker: And even if something big does happen, like I just go back and my wife knows I'm like, okay, you know, I got to go back to my phone.
Speaker: But during that time, like I can just tell that she loves it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, she just wants to tell me about everything.
Speaker: Because even if no one does reach out during that hour, hour and a half, you still are kind of on the clock.
Speaker: You still feel like there's that vibration in your pocket even when you don't have it.
Speaker: So that's why I put it in the other room just for a little bit.
Speaker: That's a good piece of advice.
Speaker: My wife loves that.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a hack.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Eric, it's been awesome having you on.
Speaker: And yeah, I don't know if we've ever had on someone who's been like, had this much experience and literally done pretty much every job possible in solar as much as you have.
Speaker: So it's been a great having you on and hear from your perspective.
Speaker: And so I know you dropped your Instagram.
Speaker: Is there any other, I don't know, Facebook, anything else, good place to connect with your Instagram the best way?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, Instagram for sure.
Speaker: And then just any, I mean, obviously I'm on Facebook as well, Eric Lars Larsen.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So anyone can friend me.
Speaker: Actually, I don't know.
Speaker: I have a billion friend requests of people I don't know.
Speaker: Everyone's trying to sell me leads and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: So Instagram might be the best.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And then we can become Facebook friends.
Speaker: I'll actually accept your friend request.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, well, we'll put that in the show notes and then just wrapping up here, Eric, any final, I don't know, words of wisdom or things you wish you would have done differently, whether it's a sales rep owner, any final advice you got?
Speaker: No, I mean, the biggest thing, like I've said, I've really just been focusing on being present and in the moment.
Speaker: And I'm sure that everyone hears that a lot, but just like to feel the world, to feel the moment.
Speaker: you know quote that i heard is one day you'll realize that the little things in life are actually the big things and i think about that with my little kids all the time now like when i'm just like just feeding them and i'm like oh this is so annoying i have to like burp my daughter for freaking 30 45 minutes but i know that one day that's going to be like those are the big things that i'm going to remember um so just take
Speaker: take it you know one step at a time and enjoy every single step because those little things are the things that you're gonna learn to appreciate awesome well Eric thanks again for coming on the show and for our listeners go give Eric a follow shoot him a DM let him know you appreciate it again coming on the podcast and like Eric was saying don't neglect your relationships take it one step at a time and that's how you will dominate in solar so thanks again for coming on Eric thanks a lot Taylor you're the man
Speaker: Hey Solarpreneurs, are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
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