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 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: Okay, what's going on?
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here live with my good friend, Marshall Toon.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the podcast with us today.
Speaker: Of course, Taylor, you're the man.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I'm super excited because it's been a long time coming.
Speaker: I've known Marshall for probably a couple of years now.
Speaker: Been someone that I've just always respected, has been doing incredible things in solar and growing teams.
Speaker: He's now vice president over at Better Earth, one of the vice presidents over there.
Speaker: And, yeah, we've been at Noxstar together and just seen you do some incredible things, man.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm excited for today.
Speaker: It's going to be good.
Speaker: I'm hyped to be here, too, man, and I really respect the podcast.
Speaker: Your podcast was the first I'd ever listened to having to deal with solar because I was stranded up in the mountains kind of Tahoe, and it was three hours.
Speaker: and I listened to your like I think it was all the episodes at that point it was in 2019 wow okay alright maybe that's the way to get people to listen you just strand them some out it was good though we chose to listen to your podcast that's all okay thank you well that's awesome and definitely appreciate that it's cool to hear that's you know that's one of the reasons I've kept the show going is because when I hear guys like in my opinion that are way better than myself that know all these things that actually have gotten value and listen to my podcast I'm like okay
Speaker: If even some of these guys like Marshall listen to it, then it must be like, all right.
Speaker: It's got to be okay.
Speaker: So that's cool.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I want to hear just your story, kind of how you got into solar, Marshall.
Speaker: And then I know you're vice president now.
Speaker: So, yeah, let's just start.
Speaker: And, you know, we don't spend all day on that.
Speaker: I know we've got a lot of other stuff to talk about.
Speaker: But, yeah, do you want to give us kind of the Reader's Digest, how you got into solar and your experience with better earth and all that?
Speaker: Happy to.
Speaker: So I've worked for several other solar companies besides Better Earth, but it was in 2019 I graduated from Slippery Rock University.
Speaker: I come from Pennsylvania, a small little town.
Speaker: And like a lot of people who come into this industry, I came from a space where kind of...
Speaker: Not to talk down about anybody, but it's a lot of small thinking.
Speaker: Like, hey, I'm going to get a job, I'm going to get a little house in this area, I'm going to drink coffee on the back of my porch for 40 years and work my job and do my thing, and that's okay.
Speaker: For me, I just wanted to do different things.
Speaker: So I was graduating college, applying to a ton of different jobs, direct sales jobs, banking, internships, all kinds of things.
Speaker: And I got an ad in class on Instagram and it just said, looking for six-figure sales reps in California, swipe up.
Speaker: And I got that ad because I had done a sales job selling magazine subscriptions in college for a whole year before I started getting targeted with like Grant Cardone stuff, sales stuff.
Speaker: I found Zane's stuff, Zane Jan, who's our CEO.
Speaker: And I just got targeted with these ads.
Speaker: And right after I graduated, the day after I graduated in 2019, I moved out to California, got a small room in a house, roomed with a few 50-year-olds in Concord, California.
Speaker: And then I just commuted to our office there every day.
Speaker: I worked for that company.
Speaker: I worked for a few others until I found Better Earth, like end of 2019.
Speaker: And I've been here ever since.
Speaker: Wow, okay.
Speaker: That's pretty crazy, man.
Speaker: Were you like nervous coming clear across the country, kind of like unknown?
Speaker: Well, you know, for me, what it was, and I talked to people who we recruited who come to work with us all the time about this.
Speaker: I recognized, listen, I don't have kids.
Speaker: I don't have a mortgage.
Speaker: I don't have big financial responsibilities.
Speaker: If there's a time to take a risk, now's the time.
Speaker: And so that was, it was not an easy decision.
Speaker: It took me three, four weeks because I had all these other opportunities.
Speaker: And then I was like, I'm going to go knock doors in California.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was who I was talking to.
Speaker: I was talking to Dean Sharabi, Sean Sharabi, who were my team leads at the time.
Speaker: Now they're executives at Better Earth.
Speaker: They were just so honest with me about what it was going to entail, that it was going to be difficult, but that they thought I could do it.
Speaker: And, you know, here I am.
Speaker: So I took that leap and then timing has been really good.
Speaker: The people I've been involved with have been awesome.
Speaker: And, you know, I would like to say in some ways I've gotten lucky, but I've also, you know, had plenty of crossroads where I could have done different things.
Speaker: And so I'm thankful that I've ended up here.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I think that's great that like, especially now you're so well set up and Marshall's engaged in which congrats by the way.
Speaker: Of course, I'm excited.
Speaker: She's lovely.
Speaker: Yeah, awesome.
Speaker: So what's cool is now you're like, you know, in such a good position, you've built all this momentum, you're running teams, you're VP now.
Speaker: And like how many guys starts like, well, I'm kind of one of them.
Speaker: Like I wish I would have had more momentum when I was single.
Speaker: I guess I got married like, you know, not for my first summer doing it, but now I got kids and everything.
Speaker: So one of my like small regrets is that I would have pushed a little bit harder, that I would have like been a little more committed when I didn't have kids and when I had more time, because it's like now I got kids and now I see all these single guys popping off with like 50 deals in a month and all that.
Speaker: I'm like, sure.
Speaker: Like that's awesome.
Speaker: But at the same time, do I have like, am I willing to like not spend time with my kids?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: It's like I wish I would have pushed harder and you know.
Speaker: Can we talk about that for a sec?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because it's something that it's really important to me and I think you'll, you know, it's going to be important to you down the line and it already is because you have family, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're in an industry where you can be even 18 years old.
Speaker: You can come in.
Speaker: Learn a very simple skill.
Speaker: It's not easy, but it's simple.
Speaker: Knocking on a door, giving a presentation.
Speaker: You can literally memorize a script.
Speaker: Anybody can do that and learn it off at as many doors as possible.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you can be 18 and you can do that and you can get really good at it and you can make a ton of money.
Speaker: What I've found just because I've worked with people everywhere from 16 to
Speaker: you have to is that no matter what no matter what down the line you're gonna have to learn certain lessons in your life like you're gonna have to get right you can't get away from these lessons you can't buy enough courses you can't go to enough seminars to not learn the lessons that life is just gonna teach you and you can't run away from so the fact is is that those the people who you're seeing going out they're closing their 50 deals in a month whatever
Speaker: Yeah, maybe they'll make like this huge chunk of money or whatever they're learning from that.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: Like be grateful for them.
Speaker: But dude, the things that you learn by being a dad, by running a family, you said you just bought a new house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like all those things that you're going to look back in, it could be three months, it could be three years, it could be 10 years.
Speaker: And you'd be like, I'm so grateful.
Speaker: for where I'm at and that I didn't do X, Y, Z, because you're going to be in a spot where you want to be.
Speaker: And then all the other people who you're looking at and being like maybe a little jealous of, trust me, they're going to have to learn their lessons too.
Speaker: Like we have 18, like I said, 18 to 22, 23 year olds when they hit 27 or when they're in relationships or whatever it might be, they're going to have to learn the same lessons you're learning now.
Speaker: And
Speaker: So that's why comparison, one thing, one of my favorite people ever is Ed Mylett.
Speaker: And the first person, he was the first person I heard this from, he said, comparison is the thief of happiness.
Speaker: The thing that's about sales, we have to compare.
Speaker: We have to compare, hey, this person sales, this person sales, what are they doing?
Speaker: How can I grow?
Speaker: How can I get better to hit these higher numbers?
Speaker: But the thing is, and people learn this eventually,
Speaker: growth is not limited to closing more deals.
Speaker: It's not, dude.
Speaker: I hear people saying all the time, oh, well, we got to get, I got to close 200 deals a month.
Speaker: I'm like, I mean, come on.
Speaker: Like you can, that's fine.
Speaker: But like, imagine you having a team and you know, they close a lot of deals per month and you're closing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe you're showing an example.
Speaker: I'm at 14 this month, right?
Speaker: We're at the end of February.
Speaker: There's been months where I did 24,
Speaker: or 25 or whatever.
Speaker: But like, if I can keep 14 and I can help other people produce 10, 15, 20 and do that as well.
Speaker: Look at that.
Speaker: I'm hitting well over 200 in a month.
Speaker: I'm not doing it just myself.
Speaker: I'm building a team around that.
Speaker: And so just to, cause I'm glad you said that.
Speaker: Like in your head, I know you're thinking that right now,
Speaker: But give it three or four years and those people, they're going to run into their own issues.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: They're not going to put it on social media and they're not going to talk about it, but they're going to go through their own battles and demons and you will have surpassed them at that point.
Speaker: You have in other areas of life.
Speaker: So they'll wish, oh, dang, I wish I would have learned what Taylor learned when he was however many years old.
Speaker: So I think it's important to keep that in perspective, bro.
Speaker: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: And no, I think I need to do better sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah, like you said, we get in this habit of just comparing ourselves and just like, like Ed Mallet says, thief happiness.
Speaker: Now, sometimes it'll affect me.
Speaker: I see these numbers and like, I'm like, man, man, we'll buy this.
Speaker: We make excuses a lot.
Speaker: Like, I'm like, oh, if I was single, buy this, buy this.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: It's like, I think it's all part of the process and we all have our own journey.
Speaker: And like I said, I've got my own experiences.
Speaker: I've got my kids and things that I can teach other people.
Speaker: Same thing with you.
Speaker: I know there's all things that we ensure when people do get married or when they do have kids.
Speaker: then come to guys like me or whatever you're going through and then we all share experiences from that so yeah believe it or not like you are an example for me in that way i mean i've seen you with your kids for a few years yeah i'm thinking like dang you know taylor's out here he's still doing door to door he's still working in teams he's working solo he's running a podcast and he has kids and his wife you went through that your fitness journey like you're crushing it that motivates the heck out of me yeah so you're doing a lot of good stuff man i appreciate that yeah yeah i'm always trying
Speaker: But yeah, so I want to know, Marshall, like you, you're at Better Earth, now you're a VP, so how did that go?
Speaker: Like, how did you turn, did you just go from like sales ramp, eventually build things up, or what was kind of like your growth path, how you grew into leadership and everything?
Speaker: Good question.
Speaker: So I started in a different organization that was related to Better Earth, and what happened is in my first three months, I made a good chunk of money, I did really well.
Speaker: But it wasn't enough for me.
Speaker: I didn't like it.
Speaker: It wasn't like, sure, I can make money.
Speaker: And it's not that the money wasn't enough.
Speaker: It's just that it didn't matter as much as other things.
Speaker: And I realized when I started training people how awesome it was to take somebody who's brand new, help them feel confident, say, hey, I was exactly in your position.
Speaker: Let's take this thing.
Speaker: you know, by the horns and go out and work, right?
Speaker: Let's put the time in, stay out till this time and people would trust me.
Speaker: And I felt really good about that.
Speaker: So I started to realize that I felt better about what I was doing when I was serving other people.
Speaker: I haven't done it perfectly.
Speaker: You know, I mean, everybody's got to learn, you know, in leadership, but I realized that.
Speaker: And so what I did is I just ended up putting time and energy into people over time.
Speaker: And luckily, I don't want to say luckily, but gratefully, the leaders at Better Earth who have created it the way they are now put it together in a way where the more impact, generally, the more impact you have on somebody in their growth, the more you're able to benefit both structurally and financially and, like, leadership-wise from working with them.
Speaker: So, you know, I got...
Speaker: a really good deal because I had without waiting for overrides or without asking necessarily for money and all this stuff, I had put my time into these people and then the structure benefited that effort.
Speaker: And like I said, I'm grateful that it was put together that way because it's very unique.
Speaker: Long story short, when I work with a new rep or when I work with somebody who comes into Better Earth, their work
Speaker: directly influences a point system that allows me to get promoted.
Speaker: But I don't have to ask anybody.
Speaker: Nobody has to say, oh, does Marshall deserve this position in the company?
Speaker: Or will we give it to him?
Speaker: I'm not waiting for anybody to give me anything anymore.
Speaker: It just kind of, the structure...
Speaker: And the compensation structure itself benefits that type of effort.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so then I'm able to rank up to that level.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so by ranking up, I'm then able to, you know, I have a little more influence.
Speaker: I have some, I have, you know, things I can do and access to capital that other people don't at certain points.
Speaker: And so that helps me to grow and scale up.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: So they just have it set up basically where like you do X, Y, Z, you're automatically in this position.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It has its drawbacks for sure in business.
Speaker: We could talk about that all day, but everything has its drawbacks.
Speaker: For me, the better a company can incentivize building people for the long term, the better the company and the people in it are going to do.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: That's good in a way because so many companies, like, I've heard of situations where reps are like, oh, I deserve this.
Speaker: I deserve, like, give me this promotion.
Speaker: Give me this.
Speaker: Give me this override.
Speaker: It's just not clear.
Speaker: And then reps, like, leave over things like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That still happens because at the end of the day, it's sales and you have leadership and you're dealing with people.
Speaker: Whenever you're dealing with people, you're always going to have the, hey, I deserve this.
Speaker: I deserve that.
Speaker: I've been in that position, you know.
Speaker: And so you have to.
Speaker: it's just working with people at that point.
Speaker: So the bigger a problem you can solve, the more money you're going to make.
Speaker: And so I think we're solving really big problems here, both in sales and in solar.
Speaker: And so it's benefiting itself.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, how has it changed now that you're in like a VP position?
Speaker: Do you feel like your, I don't know, kind of daily responsibilities are way different?
Speaker: Are you still like selling on a daily basis?
Speaker: Or what does it look like now versus maybe like a year ago when you were just?
Speaker: Yeah, good question.
Speaker: So I can kind of do, I can do whatever I want
Speaker: which is both awesome and also a weakness.
Speaker: And it also says a lot about me being able to maintain where I've been and consistently have well over 100 deals sold every year and close to if not over 100 installs each year.
Speaker: And basically,
Speaker: and this is one of my weaknesses, I struggle sometimes to spend my time in places that it's most needed.
Speaker: Because nobody's saying, hey, Marshall, by the way, like, this is your responsibility.
Speaker: Since you've got this position now, you've got to do this, this, this, this.
Speaker: So you have to kind of learn it and decide how to run it.
Speaker: Basically, I'm running a dealer without having to have the expenses and the setup of a dealer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's really cool, but it also puts me in a position where I do.
Speaker: I got to learn things that I never thought I would learn, you know, and I'd like make mistakes for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's it's a really unique way of building things.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, and something that's really cool that I see you doing and, you know, a lot of other guys that are like in VP positions or VP sales, whatever, their companies.
Speaker: Most guys I see and this isn't always the case, but for you, I know you're still producing at a really high level.
Speaker: Like you said, you're still going to do 100 installs this year.
Speaker: You did 14 this month.
Speaker: And so some guys at companies, they're like, oh, my VPSLs are not even selling anymore.
Speaker: They're just running around doing trainings.
Speaker: Like, how can I listen to this guy?
Speaker: And so, and I know, obviously, I'm sure there's times where you can't sell as much too, but
Speaker: How do you still produce at a high level and have all these other responsibilities?
Speaker: Do you have any advice on that?
Speaker: Yeah, that's such a good question.
Speaker: And I think that's going to be an age-old question that gets asked forever in sales and especially like door-to-door.
Speaker: How do you produce and run a team?
Speaker: Here's the thing.
Speaker: I think they're one and the same.
Speaker: And one thing that I've taught a few of my people who are doing the best in my teams right now is...
Speaker: You can't set, what you have to do in order to properly lead a team and lead people in your team is not tell them what to do, but do it with them.
Speaker: So for example, if you want to produce,
Speaker: And one of your guys comes to you, or one of your reps comes to you and says, hey, I want to produce 15 deals this month, what do I have to do?
Speaker: You say, okay, well you have to knock this many doors, you gotta have this much of a realization or a sit rate, right?
Speaker: The number of doors you have to knock have to turn into this number of appointments sat, this number of closed goes to this number of closes and installs, et cetera.
Speaker: This is X number of doors you gotta knock, and then you can go out and you can execute that.
Speaker: What you have to do is basically do that for yourself and then take the people in your organization who are asking you that, who say, hey, how do I step it up a level?
Speaker: How do I produce?
Speaker: How do I do this?
Speaker: Like, okay, I'm going to take you, you, you, and you.
Speaker: And you set up that structure and you go and you do it with them.
Speaker: You go out, you pull them in a car group, you go with them every single day.
Speaker: And they're doing it and you're doing it.
Speaker: And you're producing and they're producing.
Speaker: And boom, you've got yourself like a formula that works.
Speaker: And so that's what I've done with like five or six people.
Speaker: Now granted, when I started, I wasn't nearly as good at it.
Speaker: as I am now.
Speaker: But what I've found is that there's a lot of things that get in the way of me doing the most important things.
Speaker: The most important things for me right now are, and I write them down every day,
Speaker: which is what we can talk about with Goals Down, Do's Paid, something I do every day.
Speaker: The first one that I write down is I gain influence.
Speaker: That's one thing I do every day.
Speaker: So, all right, I try to do every day.
Speaker: I gain influence.
Speaker: The next one is I produce results.
Speaker: So I gain influence, I produce results, and the final one's my favorite.
Speaker: It's I serve the one.
Speaker: So if I serve...
Speaker: one person or if I help one person in my team or in the organization or in the industry, that helps me feel really good about the work I'm doing actually being a good thing for other people.
Speaker: So if I can go out and I can serve the one, that could be anybody.
Speaker: It could be somebody who's not even in the organization.
Speaker: If I can do that every day,
Speaker: and I can gain influence, and I can produce results, that influence, the people who I'm influencing will see the results, and I'll be doing good for other people, and then I know that it's just going to work out in the end.
Speaker: Like, it's a given.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: well, speaking of that, do you think it is important for, say, a VP or, I don't know, people at other companies, do you think it is really important for them to be, like, the highest producer or one of the high producers?
Speaker: I don't think so, no.
Speaker: Like, if we look, if we, and when I say that, by the way, I'm kind of talking to what I believe is probably the majority of the audience who would listen to this, is, like, managers who have teams of, like,
Speaker: 8 to 12 people.
Speaker: And you work directly with them.
Speaker: If that's you, do exactly what I just said there.
Speaker: Find those people who are your best producers, take them out with you every day and produce with them.
Speaker: But if we're talking on scale, 60, 80, 100 people, you'd be doing your team a disservice to not delegate and teach
Speaker: the ability to bring that production to your team to like four or five people.
Speaker: And like we know from like research that it really, you can only effectively manage like eight to 10 people without some of them feeling neglected or not getting what they need or you going absolutely insane.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what, what it's, uh, what it is, is if you're in,
Speaker: position we have a lot of people you're responsible to for and you're not able to delegate you're gonna crash it burn and I've absolutely done that yeah right and I found that you have to be able to trust one other person just as much as you trust yourself for every eight to ten people in your organization okay so imagine this right imagine I have ten people I trust a ton I work directly
Speaker: people.
Speaker: Now you're sitting at like somewhere between 90 and 120 ish people that are being effectively managed because you're effectively managing the people you have to spend your time on.
Speaker: And I've made that mistake.
Speaker: not spending time on people who are producing, who have the right attitude, and instead not trusting myself or not trusting people in my organization to do the things that I've done.
Speaker: I would not be where I am today if people above me, you could say, hadn't trusted me to do things that they couldn't do anymore because they had too much to do.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you really have to look at it as in it's a trust thing.
Speaker: Like good leadership knows how to delegate.
Speaker: Good leadership knows how to trust other people to do things.
Speaker: And good leadership knows how to communicate too.
Speaker: Like if you can't do any of those things, you can't run an organization that big.
Speaker: Or if you try, people are going to leave you.
Speaker: They're going to branch off and peace out.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Do you feel like that answered the question?
Speaker: Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker: I think that goes too with just like, you know, a lot of things we do, even if you're just a sales rep,
Speaker: Like I feel like I had to learn this.
Speaker: Like I was spending time on just so much account management.
Speaker: I was spending time on so many things that maybe like, I don't know, HOA documents, resigning, things like that.
Speaker: And it's like, I feel like the top reps that I've had on this podcast is they're not spending time on like all these tedious things.
Speaker: They're delegating.
Speaker: A lot of them have like assistants.
Speaker: And they've like mastered this thing, like you're saying, getting other people to help manage and run things because you can't do it all yourself.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I agree with that for sure.
Speaker: And did you have to like learn that?
Speaker: Was there like a time where that like click for you?
Speaker: I don't know if you had like experience where you were like trying to do everything yourself and then you're like, okay, I'm going to try and like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, um, I had a period where I didn't spend, uh,
Speaker: I was spending time with brand new reps coming in on the doors when I had four to five people who were struggling to run their own teams that I wasn't spending time with.
Speaker: And the only reason that happened is because I lost, I had a lot of, I don't want to say had, like it's never going to happen again.
Speaker: Like as you grow, you're going to face other challenges, but I had insecurity about producing.
Speaker: I have this part of me that's like attached to producing deals and knocking on doors and thinking, dude, if I don't knock on a door, like I'm going to fail or like I'm not a good leader, which just isn't true.
Speaker: When you break past that boundary and you get into other modes of, oh, this is how I know I'm producing, how I'm successful.
Speaker: That's when you really level up.
Speaker: So I realized that the best thing I could do and I could help way more than just that brand new rep who I'm knocking doors with by doing
Speaker: seeing the people in my organization who want to step up, who are putting the effort in, who believe in it, and then I can gain influence, push more belief, serve the one right there.
Speaker: And then, boom, that person is going to absolutely, it's going to branch out and they're going to help more people than I ever could knocking on a door.
Speaker: I can't, I know we have like Taylor McCarthy, he'll bring like 10 people with him to knock on a door, which I've done to like train people before for fun.
Speaker: But like that's not an effective way to build your own solar company.
Speaker: It's an effective way to train somebody on like, hey, this is how you do a great presentation and like kill the doors, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah, like that.
Speaker: So you're saying like it's almost now at a point where you train like say a manager and then like you don't spend time with new reps.
Speaker: You go with like the managers and then they go with the new reps.
Speaker: I still spend time with new reps because I love it.
Speaker: Like to me,
Speaker: That I'm going to at least like when I get to certain points, like I'm when I'm making my 20 million in a year or whatever it might be, whatever I may be doing, it's going to include solar.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: But I'm going to be doing other things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I still want to commit myself to knocking five doors a month.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like whatever that might be, like literally walk up to my neighbor's door, knock on it.
Speaker: say, hey, this is what I do in my business, check it out online.
Speaker: Whatever I do, I still want to knock on doors because it keeps you sharp, man.
Speaker: I know leaders in this industry who some people will know, talking here, who are in management positions and they just can't get themselves to go out and knock a door with their people and their people don't trust them.
Speaker: And if somebody says, I don't even think you can properly knock a door and get a lead, I'd be like, all right, bring it on, bro, because I totally can't, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I still want to always be in that position.
Speaker: But I also, you know, I know that my time can be used in some places more effectively.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I don't want to think.
Speaker: I'm sure you agree, like knocking doors can help and everything else you do.
Speaker: Like I find myself closing better when I'm also knocking doors at the same time.
Speaker: There's going to be times where I'm more closing, times where it's more knocking.
Speaker: Yeah, and it depends on your organization, right, on how this kind of gets set up.
Speaker: Some people do really well with a strict set or closer model.
Speaker: Some people do well a little bit more loose.
Speaker: I think that it's a combination of both, but the industry is shifting, and we've seen results recently in the last year or two.
Speaker: On some models working extremely, extremely well to get people deals and get systems installed and all that.
Speaker: So we have to keep our minds open to recognizing like, hey, there's always better ways to do things down the line.
Speaker: Five, 10 years from now, we might be saying, why the heck did we do that thing that we thought was perfect?
Speaker: Because it wasn't.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Well, something I wanted to ask you, Marshall, this is something that I'm kind of going through right now, actually.
Speaker: I'm sure when you started, like, you had to build up your office, you had to get guys in.
Speaker: I don't know, better kind of help with recruiting.
Speaker: But something that I'm currently going through right now is we have one of our managers down here in San Diego that they're going to Texas to, like, open up a new office.
Speaker: And so we're going to be, like, I'm going to be running and trying to kind of build back momentum, build back a team, build back a team,
Speaker: um, get things rolling again.
Speaker: So if you could go back when you first started your team, when you're really small, um,
Speaker: or I'm assuming you probably had a small thing.
Speaker: Would you do anything different, or do you have any advice for maybe someone like myself that's like, I'm going to be left with, I don't know, say probably seven, eight guys, and trying to build things back up, recruit, and get things set up organizationally.
Speaker: So I don't know, maybe it's like how you run your meetings, stuff you would, I don't know, do different, if you could go back.
Speaker: Do you have any advice on that?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think you're really going to like this.
Speaker: It came to my mind.
Speaker: So the first thing, because I
Speaker: I could tell, I'll tell just a small story.
Speaker: So I've, throughout my whole leadership career, I've really struggled with holding standards.
Speaker: It's not one of my strengths.
Speaker: I have people on my team who are better at holding standards, so I empower them.
Speaker: You said, what, seven, eight people?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: First of all, start with this.
Speaker: Be super, super grateful that you have that small of a group right now
Speaker: and then be really, really intentional about setting a standard and a mindset for those people.
Speaker: And anybody who doesn't buy into that with you, get them out.
Speaker: Because the thing is, is that if you had 30 people, you might feel better.
Speaker: Like, oh, I got, it's a number.
Speaker: I got 30 people on my team, bro.
Speaker: You can have numbers of people and then your culture can be really suffering like big time.
Speaker: And then people produce less.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've seen that over and over.
Speaker: So if I could go back and start with just like five people, um,
Speaker: I would get deep with them on a spiritual level about why we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker: Anything, right?
Speaker: Get people to talk about why they work hard and why they want to make money and what's important to them there, right?
Speaker: And get them on the same page as you.
Speaker: Get them into this, like brainwash them, dude, in a good way, right?
Speaker: Brainwash them on themselves.
Speaker: Sell your team on themselves, like buying into themselves.
Speaker: And if they can do that,
Speaker: and they trust you with that, they're going to see how much you did for them, which is build that confidence.
Speaker: And then the thing is, the people who don't buy into that, people who push back, people who aren't going in, thank God.
Speaker: Get rid of them anyways.
Speaker: And then what's going to happen is that when you have people like that who are bought in, they are going to attract other people who want that.
Speaker: And they're going to get more excited.
Speaker: They're going to talk to their buddy at the gym.
Speaker: They're going to talk to their server.
Speaker: They're going to talk to their
Speaker: friend from back in college or whatever it might be, and then they'll start to attract people who also want to participate in that.
Speaker: And then you'll start getting recruiting opportunities.
Speaker: You'll get people who are actually what you want.
Speaker: And one of the biggest, this is me, right?
Speaker: There's people in my organization who disagree with this, and that's fine.
Speaker: But for me, recruiting is definitely a quality over quantity thing.
Speaker: you can have numbers of, you can, let's just say it this way.
Speaker: You could close 60 deals in a month and have almost none of them installed.
Speaker: And you didn't get any deals, right?
Speaker: Or you got very few.
Speaker: Same with the recruits, like build an intentional culture.
Speaker: You've got a small group now.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: Like make sure it is what you want it to be.
Speaker: And then you're going to, you're going to get people to come in.
Speaker: And like, if you can't get those seven people to produce,
Speaker: What are you going to do with 30 people?
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: You know, so be grateful that that's where you're starting and use that as fuel for making it like super intentional about where you want to go with it.
Speaker: And then that's going to, everything else is going to come from that.
Speaker: And you'll feel better.
Speaker: You'll feel more confident.
Speaker: You won't be worried so much about the number of people in your office.
Speaker: You'll just like have the right people.
Speaker: And that's way more key than having a lot of people.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: What about something I get asked by people is like, I don't know if you've ever seen this, but where you have people on the team that they're producing a little bit, because we know how it is.
Speaker: If someone's not producing and they have a bad attitude or whatever, like get rid of them.
Speaker: Yeah, it's easy.
Speaker: But what about people that are, they're producing a little bit, but they have a bad attitude.
Speaker: It's almost like you want to let them go, but they're throwing in maybe two, three deals a month, whatever.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And so, like, have you had any experiences with that or what's your take on that?
Speaker: Do you let those people go or have a conversation or... Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I could sit here and tell you, oh, yeah, it just doesn't matter.
Speaker: Like, you have to get rid of them or whatever.
Speaker: But the thing is, I think anybody who says that is either a sociopath or, like, is probably lying and probably has people like that in their team that they're not quite ready to, like, get rid of or ask to go somewhere else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Here's what I believe.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Everybody...
Speaker: goes through phases in their life.
Speaker: And there's going to be certain things in your team that you hold it again as a standard.
Speaker: If your standard is produce a certain amount of deals a month and like don't talk bad about other people
Speaker: don't bring people down consistently.
Speaker: Like bring as much good energy as you can and produce there and then let's build together.
Speaker: Like that's, those are pretty loose, right?
Speaker: But to some extent you can, you can fit a lot of people into that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you're going to have people
Speaker: who just their personality is not like your personality.
Speaker: And to get rid of those people, just because they have different personalities or like ideas is just, it's also a bad idea to just get rid of those people because they don't think like you.
Speaker: A lot of the time,
Speaker: the people in your organization who are producing, but like you don't like their attitude or you don't like this, that, or the other, a lot of the time they just need to be given certain responsibilities that they don't have.
Speaker: Like a lot of the time complaints and negativity are just people's inability to actually communicate the fact that they like, they don't know what they want and they're like struggling to actually find purpose.
Speaker: Like that's
Speaker: why people, in my opinion, underproduce and don't do well.
Speaker: It's because they don't know why they want, they don't know what they want, they don't know why they want it, and they don't know how to get it.
Speaker: So if you can go through to those people, and you can say, okay, well, hey, this is something you're really good at, and you can empower them.
Speaker: Say, hey, this is something that, like, you are benefiting the team massively here.
Speaker: Talk about the things they're doing really well.
Speaker: They'll keep producing, and as they go down the line, they're going to do the things that do really well, really well.
Speaker: And if they
Speaker: don't do better the more responsibility you give them, then that's when you boot them.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So that's kind of my idea on that.
Speaker: And who knows, maybe I'll tell myself I was wrong, but I feel like that's pretty close to the truth.
Speaker: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker: Well, what are some examples, like you talked about standards and structure a little bit.
Speaker: So for you guys, what's some standards on teams you've been part of?
Speaker: Can you give some examples of like your team standards that you guys have?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think necessarily a certain deals per month is like...
Speaker: I don't think that's it's a standard.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think it's the most useful standard.
Speaker: Okay Have you ever read a book called the one thing?
Speaker: I haven't read it, but it's a good one besides the first two personal development books I ever read were the 10x rule Grant Cardone.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Yeah, great book and the one thing which I can't remember the guy's last name or I can't remember the guy's name which look it up, okay, but
Speaker: There's this awesome statement in there.
Speaker: It says, to determine what you should do, what you should focus your energy on, you say, what is the one thing I could do that would make everything else easier or unnecessary?
Speaker: So for me, if all I do is set a target of deals per month,
Speaker: maybe realization rate's gonna fail.
Speaker: If all I do is set a target of deals per month, maybe I'm gonna get producers, but people who, like, they're just short-term thinkers, they come to my team for two, three months, and then they peace out.
Speaker: Then it doesn't build a sustainable business.
Speaker: If all I do is set a number of deals per month, perhaps there are people who can contribute to the team in a way that's gonna get everybody more deals per month down the road, but I boot them because they didn't get that number of deals per month.
Speaker: So here's my thought.
Speaker: If I can set a standard of loyalty, communication, and ethical selling, then as long as I'm not a sucky trainer, as long as I can train somebody, I know how to properly say, hey, this is good script, this is how you go out on the doors, spend this time, and I can get them to an office at a certain time and to meetings at certain times.
Speaker: As long as I can provide that structure and they're loyal, they're ethical, and they communicate,
Speaker: I feel pretty good that I'm going to have a pretty darn well-rounded team that's going to grow over time.
Speaker: And so for me, those standards are a lot more personality-based.
Speaker: And sometimes there are times where I have had people who I keep around too long because I see those things in them.
Speaker: And I'm slowly learning how to...
Speaker: how to see those things sooner and to let those people go sooner.
Speaker: But I believe, and I think that my numbers and the results I've had over time speak for themselves, that investing in your people and believing in them and like empowering them is much more useful than, uh,
Speaker: Just giving them a target to hit.
Speaker: That's how I feel.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I agree.
Speaker: I look back at my first year in solar.
Speaker: If my results were based off the deals I was doing, I probably wouldn't have kicked off of most solar teams.
Speaker: Yeah, and then we wouldn't have Taylor here with an awesome podcast running a team, and then whoever fired you, who knows what they'd be doing.
Speaker: Yeah, because I think there's some guys that it takes time.
Speaker: Some guys will pick it up quick.
Speaker: Some guys like me, they're going to take longer.
Speaker: And you never know, like the guys that don't pick it up quick, they could be your top producers maybe a year from now.
Speaker: So I like that.
Speaker: It's a good way to measure it for sure.
Speaker: And what about like meetings?
Speaker: One of the teams you've been a part of.
Speaker: I know some people are like, oh, we got to do daily teams.
Speaker: We got to keep it super structured, get our guys out there.
Speaker: A lot of bigger companies like, let's do one or two meetings a week.
Speaker: What's your take on that?
Speaker: What have you guys done?
Speaker: So I've done it all.
Speaker: And so one of the things now, this is, it's interesting because a lot of things I'm going to say here relate strictly to Better Earth.
Speaker: Like there's a lot of organizations that couldn't do this because like it just wouldn't work for them.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So a little plug for Better Earth there.
Speaker: But either way, what I found has been more effective
Speaker: is that the leaders that I have who are building teams and recruiting and working, right, I'm gonna give them, I'm gonna say, hey, you gotta have daily meetings,
Speaker: in whatever capacity works for you.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You can have, if everybody's out traveling, like get on a Zoom meeting.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: If everybody is all in that same area, you're doing a blitz, you're in an Airbnb for 10, 15 days, you're having daily meetings every morning.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Give me two days a week.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Give me one day where I have with all you specific leaders and we get together and we talk about important things about culture, team, and I pump you up.
Speaker: And then give me one day a week where we all come together, like everybody, you and all your teams and me,
Speaker: and we talk about what's working.
Speaker: We go over targets.
Speaker: We say, hey, this is how many deals we fit.
Speaker: Hey, this is a realization right here.
Speaker: Here's what we can do better.
Speaker: Hey, here's this cool announcement.
Speaker: Hey, here's this thing we want to do.
Speaker: Hey, we're going to do this event.
Speaker: And then you kind of run it.
Speaker: You run your own show to there.
Speaker: And then all I ask is that you come to me and we talk about what's working and what's not and you adjust it from there.
Speaker: Because the thing is, dude, I've just seen it over and over and over again.
Speaker: Whenever you come and you have an every single day meeting, dude, you get...
Speaker: You build momentum, you crush it for a while, and then there's always, always one or two or three people that's screwed up.
Speaker: They come in and they say, I don't want to meet every day, or I don't have to meet every day, or I don't want to drive here, or I don't want to drive there.
Speaker: And maybe they're good producers.
Speaker: And then people start to listen to them.
Speaker: And you're like, oh no, it's screwed up.
Speaker: So what I've found is that, yeah, you have to hold some standards.
Speaker: I find it really good that I have different personalities in my team.
Speaker: And they tend to attract and recruit the people who work well with their personality and their, hey, we have meetings at this time, this time, and this time.
Speaker: And then there's this one big standard that we keep all together.
Speaker: And then people kind of run their own things.
Speaker: And that scales.
Speaker: That scales, in my opinion.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because they're going to be able to do it in a way that works for them and that gets them results.
Speaker: If they get those results, they'll grow.
Speaker: They'll continue to do those things that get them the results.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You tell your guys, run two meetings that happen for sure, and then the rest is just going to fill in the blank.
Speaker: The rest is fill in the blank for the leaders.
Speaker: So I don't say, yeah, do whatever you want.
Speaker: I say, listen, this person here, you're in charge of this group.
Speaker: This person's in charge of this group.
Speaker: You run this thing the way that you're seeing it fit.
Speaker: Because the way we have it, we have a lot of guys who live in a house together.
Speaker: A lot of guys who will be in a certain geographic.
Speaker: And like maybe, and this is my opinion, maybe it really isn't that effective to have somebody drive an hour and a half every day to a meeting and lose three hours of work.
Speaker: But they should definitely be willing to do it.
Speaker: And they should definitely do it at least like twice a week.
Speaker: Once twice a week, right?
Speaker: We have one of, I'll shout him out.
Speaker: His name's Jaleel in Florida.
Speaker: He lives an hour and a half away from our office in Tampa.
Speaker: He drives there every day.
Speaker: He's a beast.
Speaker: He crushes it.
Speaker: He gets deals.
Speaker: He's a committed guy.
Speaker: Here's the thing.
Speaker: Jaleel's not doing well because he drives an hour and a half every day.
Speaker: Jaleel's doing well because he communicates.
Speaker: He's ethical.
Speaker: And he's an honest, hard worker.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: So I think that...
Speaker: specific things and you just have to hold on to those like this is the only thing that will get us where we want to go the bigger you get or the more you grow you're going to grow out of those things you're going to have to shift them yeah so you have to be willing to do that or you're going to stay small yeah you know what i mean okay yeah that's good to know yeah that's true i've seen you know some guys like they're all fit about daily meetings but yeah i know a lot of guys going a ton with them so
Speaker: Yeah, and I'm asking all these things because it's like stuff I'm going through in real time.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Dude, if it's just the circumstance you're telling me about, you guys need to have daily meetings for sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: When those guys are producing their 10, 15 a month and they've recruited three or four people,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like, okay, well, hey, what's working for you?
Speaker: Like, of course, it's going to work to meet every day.
Speaker: Like, you've got to scale it up.
Speaker: But to some extent, you're going to have that people who push back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so you do have to be able to be flexible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So when guys push back to, um,
Speaker: I don't know, do you let them kind of butt heads with you or do you let them kind of run off?
Speaker: Because it's tough.
Speaker: Like you were saying, if two or three guys don't want to, then the rest of the team is like, oh, well, you're not coming to meetings.
Speaker: Yeah, that always happens, right?
Speaker: It's just such a pain.
Speaker: What I would say is that, and I'm not necessarily the most qualified person to answer this question,
Speaker: But given the experiences I have had, people are usually pushing back against like coming to meetings for one of two reasons.
Speaker: One, they have some kind of financial like issue that's keeping them from like they have little money or they can't make it to a meeting because they have to do this, that or the other.
Speaker: They're relying on somebody else and they don't like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or two, they have like they are trying to be effective.
Speaker: They're like, I want to use my time effectively.
Speaker: And I don't believe that this use of my time is effective.
Speaker: That's on you as a leader.
Speaker: You've got to make your meetings more effective.
Speaker: You've got to make your meetings more valuable.
Speaker: People aren't willing to show up to them.
Speaker: Look at yourself.
Speaker: If people aren't willing to show up to them and they're just complainers and they have other issues, you're going to have to address that.
Speaker: They might not be a good fit for your team.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think because I've been that rep where I've been with some companies where it's like the manager just gave the exact same training every single day.
Speaker: And like, why am I coming to this meeting?
Speaker: We're just going to like...
Speaker: go over a number real quick, do like, does the exact same role playing situation every day, so yeah, like I get that, so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's something to be said about that.
Speaker: There definitely is, dude, so you gotta make your meetings more effective, but you don't wanna put your leaders, or yourself, for example, you don't wanna feel like, oh god, I have to come up with this elaborate training here today, and it takes you an hour and a half to put together to be, it's just not gonna be effective there either, so, to have a proper meeting, you have to have people together, hype up, go over targets and wins.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: train together there on something useful that you can take out that day and then measure those results and go from there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, no, that's good stuff.
Speaker: And so I want to transition a little bit as we start to wrap up all the air marshal.
Speaker: And so two things.
Speaker: First, I want to ask your opinion.
Speaker: Like, we all know in California, we're getting closer to Netmeter 3.0, which everyone that listens to the podcast should know about that if I know what's going on in California.
Speaker: If not, come to a blitz with us.
Speaker: We got the modern day gold rush going on.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hook you up some deals out here.
Speaker: But yeah, so what are you guys doing as a company to kind of prepare for that?
Speaker: And what's just your thoughts around what's happening?
Speaker: Is the world ending or what do we got going on when all this stuff changes?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll go to Warren Buffett.
Speaker: I'm gonna paraphrase.
Speaker: When people are greedy, be fearful.
Speaker: When everybody's fearful, be greedy.
Speaker: Everybody's fearful right now.
Speaker: So we're being greedy, and without going into details, and by greedy I don't mean negative, like we're trying to steal people's money and stuff, but
Speaker: The fact is this, in California and in solar in general, it's easy to make a lot of money and not even have to be that good of a sales rep.
Speaker: You could be a mediocre salesperson and make a killing in solar.
Speaker: And so then that boost ego of that person when in reality, like they weren't probably weren't that great of a salesperson anyways, they just had a great product.
Speaker: So solar is a great product.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: As the product changes and you can't just always say, hey, we're going to cut your bill in half.
Speaker: It's a little bit more complex than that.
Speaker: The fakers and the people who are mediocre are going to go elsewhere.
Speaker: And that's happening right now.
Speaker: Now, I'm not saying everybody who goes out of California is mediocre.
Speaker: I'm just saying in general in our industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: the type of salesperson that's gonna be necessary to sell solar in the future is gonna have to be a lot better.
Speaker: So we're gonna need way better salespeople and way better of an expectation of our salespeople and both ethically and their knowledge and their ability to actually sell a deal that goes to install.
Speaker: 43% realization rate is the industry average, by the way.
Speaker: That's despicable.
Speaker: You know who you are.
Speaker: But I digress.
Speaker: Going back to the point,
Speaker: Net metering is going to change the landscape.
Speaker: Batteries are going to become crucial.
Speaker: Companies and organizations, installers alike, that don't have the volume
Speaker: to impress battery companies, the ones that actually matter and are working, are not gonna be able to successfully run a business.
Speaker: They'll go out of business, their sales reps will go elsewhere.
Speaker: Whether it's to a different state or to different companies in California.
Speaker: And so if you wanna make a killing in a career in California, you're gonna have to be with a company that has good connections with reputable battery companies, has actual good training
Speaker: And people in their company who have shown over time that they can sell a product and do it well.
Speaker: And have a referral business, et cetera.
Speaker: And companies that have customer service systems.
Speaker: Now, I'm not saying they always work perfectly, right?
Speaker: Better Earth is awesome.
Speaker: We continue to get better.
Speaker: But if you're selling batteries and you've got all this complex equipment at somebody's house and it goes kaput and they don't know...
Speaker: how to deal with it and like maybe the manufacturers are super busy and they're relying on actual companies to service these guys and your customers have nowhere to go they're going to hate the product they're not going to like you they're not going to refer you and then there's going to be more people who don't like solar down the road so like we got to have good sales people so you got to be able to get good training have a battery connection
Speaker: and know that the company you're working with has a reputation that people can actually count on.
Speaker: So I feel really good about that with Better Earth here, but we're also opening in a ton of markets this year.
Speaker: So I'm going to be going to Florida this week, Arizona, Texas.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I agree for sure.
Speaker: And yeah, I'm just waiting for some idiot rep to come around and say, no, you don't need a battery.
Speaker: We're still going to cut your bill in half.
Speaker: Oh, it's going to happen.
Speaker: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker: You got to be prepared.
Speaker: You got to have the training.
Speaker: And yeah, you got to educate yourself on the technology and just like selling on more than just savings because especially in California, I think more than any other market.
Speaker: I think there's more mediocre sales reps in California, I would say, compared to in California.
Speaker: You cut people's bills in half and it's so easy.
Speaker: You could just literally show up and say, hey, we're going to cut your bill in half.
Speaker: That's what a lot of these people do when they get sales like that.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: Where now it's like, yeah, you got to do more than that.
Speaker: Like you're saying, you got to build value.
Speaker: You got to explain why it's important to own versus rent and all these other aspects.
Speaker: All kinds of stuff.
Speaker: Though I will say just a quick plug for the leasing and PPA side of things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: as interest rates go up and the economy changes, leases are going to become actually a very viable option for people to go solar to start replacing loans.
Speaker: Not completely, but it's going to make a comeback.
Speaker: EPAs and leases are going to make a comeback.
Speaker: We're plugged in there.
Speaker: We've got the connections to make that happen as well.
Speaker: That's part of the industry.
Speaker: That's a good point.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: And then just to kind of start wrapping up here, Marshall, I know one of your big like motto, mantras, whatever you call it, is goals down, dues paid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I know that's like, you know, everyone's shouting that out on Instagram these days.
Speaker: And I think you're creating like a movement around this whole thing.
Speaker: Trying.
Speaker: I'm going to do better over the next several months.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I've been seeing it and love it.
Speaker: So tell me, where did this come from and what's like your whole idea and where did all this gold-owned dues paid come from?
Speaker: I will keep it simple.
Speaker: It started, I started putting it on social media when I was having a really tough time.
Speaker: My team had imploded.
Speaker: I'd lost a lot of money.
Speaker: I was in a tough space like mentally.
Speaker: Things were just not going super well.
Speaker: I wasn't getting the support I needed.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: So I realized, oh, I gotta support myself.
Speaker: Nobody's gonna come save me.
Speaker: I've always been into working out.
Speaker: I've built that habit over years, and I wake up and I get it done.
Speaker: I don't have to think about it anymore.
Speaker: I'm like a robot, and I'm so grateful for that because it builds momentum in everything else I do.
Speaker: But dues paid is about,
Speaker: Doing the things that are necessary to buy you your freedom.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: And I mean freedom in a lot of ways.
Speaker: If you don't exercise, you aren't healthy, you eat like crap.
Speaker: Years and years down the road, you're going to pay for that.
Speaker: You're going to pay for that in your health.
Speaker: If you don't communicate properly,
Speaker: well with people if you don't fulfill your responsibilities, everything catches up.
Speaker: I guess you could call it karma of some sorts.
Speaker: So Deuce Paid is not just about going and working out really hard.
Speaker: It's a big part of it.
Speaker: It's much more about, okay, what are the things that I got to do every day?
Speaker: that I know are going to bring me success that sometimes are hard to do, but I know are necessary.
Speaker: And so you do those things anyways.
Speaker: You do it anyways.
Speaker: And so I actually wrote down a few tips for, I get asked a lot about discipline, right?
Speaker: Like, how do I have discipline?
Speaker: You can't have it.
Speaker: You've got to earn it, and you've got to decide to earn it, and you've got to decide to pay the price of the pain and the discomfort that will come with it.
Speaker: But I'm going to tell you,
Speaker: And this comes from a book called The Greatest Salesman in the World.
Speaker: Have you heard of it?
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: First sales book there.
Speaker: Awesome book.
Speaker: Awesome book.
Speaker: And I love this line in there.
Speaker: And I'm going to paraphrase again.
Speaker: But it basically says,
Speaker: Anything that you do repeatedly becomes easier.
Speaker: Things that are easy are a pleasure to perform.
Speaker: Ring any bells?
Speaker: And if it is a pleasure to perform, it is in man's nature to perform it often.
Speaker: So it's not that the things that you want to do
Speaker: get easier, it's that you get better.
Speaker: And I know it's a very common phrase, but it's so true.
Speaker: So there's three things I've found that help you to do things that are hard until they get easy and then you like them more and then you keep doing them.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So one of them is accountability.
Speaker: This can be a person that you're accountable to, or it can be, I call it, it's a post accountability.
Speaker: When I was in this tough time, I was like, I'm gonna, I had this temptation, like, I'm so tired.
Speaker: Like, I don't want to work out anymore.
Speaker: I don't want to do anything.
Speaker: I'm struggling.
Speaker: And I was like, no, like, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker: I'm going to look back at myself here in three or four years.
Speaker: And I'm going to say, I doubled down and I did the things that kept me healthy because that's way more important than my money.
Speaker: And so I posted on Instagram and said, it's like dues paid.
Speaker: It was just dues paid at first.
Speaker: It's like, I'm going to pay these dues.
Speaker: I'm going to do it because I know it counts.
Speaker: And no matter what happens career wise, I'm going to make it.
Speaker: So that was dues paid first and that's how that developed and that was a post accountability I put it on Instagram and then people started saying hey you've been doing this consistently like way to go man and then I would think oh geez I can't stop now right so a post you can keep yourself accountable with posts on social media the next one is an exact wake-up time every single day if you do not have an exact time you wake up every single day no matter what
Speaker: I can guess 20 other things about your life.
Speaker: Set a time when you wake up at that same time every day.
Speaker: It doesn't have to be 5.45 a.m.
Speaker: It doesn't have to be 4, like Jocko Willink.
Speaker: It could literally be 7.30 a.m.
Speaker: But you've got to do it consistently.
Speaker: If you do that, it's just going to open up a world of possibilities for you.
Speaker: So that's the second one.
Speaker: And the third one is something called the five-second rule.
Speaker: which is when you know there's something that you need to do that you're avoiding and you're scrolling on social media and you're like, oh gosh, you know, I got to do this.
Speaker: I got to knock a door.
Speaker: I got to get out of my car, knock this door.
Speaker: I got to call this rep or I got to do this.
Speaker: And you don't want to do it.
Speaker: Recognize that.
Speaker: And then literally hold your hand up in front of you or at your side or something like this.
Speaker: And just count down in your head.
Speaker: Just five, four, three, two, one.
Speaker: And then do it.
Speaker: go and do it.
Speaker: And so that's super key.
Speaker: I found that to be very, very, very helpful.
Speaker: And I'll do that to help me do all kinds of things that I don't want to do that I know I need to do.
Speaker: So those are some really good ways to be accountable.
Speaker: And then the goals down came from me recognizing
Speaker: that my goals have changed over time and I'm not the same person.
Speaker: Life changes, things change.
Speaker: You're not gonna have the same goals your whole life.
Speaker: You'll have similar values.
Speaker: Your values are gonna stay the same, hopefully, in some ways.
Speaker: But your goals and how you're gonna fulfill those values in your life
Speaker: It's going to change.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Like for me, at some points I would write down like, Oh, I want this exact Porsche car.
Speaker: I would like write it down.
Speaker: And then I realized like, dude, this is not helping me.
Speaker: Like, I don't care about the car.
Speaker: I want to be able to go where I want, when I want with who I want, whenever I want.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That kind of thing.
Speaker: So like, I'll write that down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or I, I was writing down like, I'm going to make a million dollars in commissions this year.
Speaker: But instead of that, I wrote down everybody in my team,
Speaker: makes 250K plus.
Speaker: And if they do that, I'm making way more than I'm doing.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So like that's bigger to me and it connects more with my values.
Speaker: So I think there's this lie and it comes from a lot of things, but there's this lie that you've got to know exactly what you want all the time right now and it's going to stay the same forever.
Speaker: And then your life changes and things change and you hit these certain points.
Speaker: and then it changes and you think, oh no, like, I don't know what to do anymore.
Speaker: Dude, if you just recognize, that's going to happen to you.
Speaker: Like, everybody listening to this right now that thinks maybe you're a,
Speaker: 24 year old running a dealer and you just think you're on top of the world like give it four or five years man like things are going to change and you're going to be like what is going on I have no idea what I'm doing so if you can accept that that's going to happen be like okay cool how do I how do I hit the nail on the head and and still go out and do important things and grow myself that's what goes down is about you write down the things that you want and you write those down every day and you write down your values keep it simple five to eight things and then
Speaker: Those are going to change, but you're going to get a lot more clear on what you want as things go on.
Speaker: So that's what that's about, man.
Speaker: You write those goals down every day and you pay your dues.
Speaker: You're not going to fail.
Speaker: You're going to find opportunity and you're going to win.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, it's something I used to do.
Speaker: I need to get back in the habit.
Speaker: But I don't know if you ever got like the Grant Cardone 10x journals or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where he says, I need to get more.
Speaker: I can write them down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's when I was doing it super consistent.
Speaker: But yeah, I agree.
Speaker: It helps you focus in on things and having you think of more things as you do it.
Speaker: You do.
Speaker: Get back into it, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I need to.
Speaker: I need to.
Speaker: And then post it's on Instagram.
Speaker: Just do at GoalsDownDeusPaid or hashtag it or something.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then, you know, we'll keep growing that.
Speaker: I mean, I didn't come up with the idea of paying your dues every day.
Speaker: Of course not.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I'm just putting them together in a way that's worked for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So yeah, everyone listening to this podcast, go do that.
Speaker: That's the challenge we got on the podcast for you.
Speaker: Go write your goals down, pay your dues today, whatever that may be.
Speaker: Tag, what is it?
Speaker: Goals?
Speaker: Goals down, dues paid on Instagram.
Speaker: We're working on a Twitter and a TikTok and stuff right now, but it's mainly on Instagram right now.
Speaker: And I got some cool things coming in the works with a few other guys in the industry who do personal development, psychology, therapy, to help sales reps do better.
Speaker: And we're going to be putting together some really cool stuff and resources for people to grow.
Speaker: So keep an eye out for that.
Speaker: I can't wait.
Speaker: Well, it's been awesome having you on the podcast, Marshall.
Speaker: And I'm sure you've heard this, but it's like you can suffer.
Speaker: You can pay the dues now.
Speaker: You can pay that price or you can pay the dues, which comes in the forms of regrets probably later by not paying your dues right now.
Speaker: And so I think we could all agree it's much more worth it to pay the dues now to suffer the price of discipline now versus suffer the price of regret later.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Couldn't put it better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just backing up what you said.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's a universal principle, I think.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: And so just to wrap up, we're excited.
Speaker: We already shouted out the Goals Down News page.
Speaker: But if people want to connect with you more, reach out.
Speaker: What's the best way to do that?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm mainly on Instagram, though.
Speaker: Thank goodness I've quelled my addiction to social media so much over the last several months, which I'm grateful for.
Speaker: But Instagram, it's just M-double-underscore-tootin.
Speaker: T-U-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O-T-O
Speaker: and you can find me there and I'm working on a YouTube and things like that but it's just little developments Instagram would be the place I won't get my phone number on here because I have already have 2400 unread text on my phone no way I'm sure that's like it's probably like a community number right I should get one of those yeah I really appreciate all the people who have been on here I feel honored to be here
Speaker: having this discussion and I'm excited to have more of these because I know I have a lot to offer to the industry and I'm going to continue to like push that out because I know people want it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I can't wait to see what you come out with next.
Speaker: I've learned a ton from you, Marshall.
Speaker: So we appreciate you, you know, sharing and being a person of value and spreading abundance.
Speaker: And so just to wrap up, do you have any, I don't know, like final words of advice or anything else you wish you maybe would have learned sooner?
Speaker: Any final words of wisdom you'd have for a solopreneur or audience?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'll keep it as brief as I can.
Speaker: But again, I would say be careful who you compare yourself to from a financial standpoint.
Speaker: I've learned...
Speaker: that just because somebody has money, they're making money, doesn't mean that they're actually providing the value that would earn them that money.
Speaker: And I've done that myself.
Speaker: I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say I haven't been in that position, but I recognize when that's happened.
Speaker: So just know that making your money is awesome and do it.
Speaker: Just remember that a lot of the time,
Speaker: The money, it's only going to get you so far.
Speaker: And when you have the impact and influence and you serve people, you're just going to be a lot happier.
Speaker: So find ways to do that and then find an opportunity and a structure that will allow you to get the financial benefit from doing those things.
Speaker: And then that's when you're really going to shoot off.
Speaker: That's what I found.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: Like we were talking about, especially in California, there's a lot of people who make money, but that doesn't mean necessarily that they're progressing in all other areas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Super important.
Speaker: So, Marshall, we appreciate you coming on.
Speaker: Hopefully we'll have you on in the future.
Speaker: It's been awesome.
Speaker: So, guys, go shoot Marshall a follow.
Speaker: Let him know he appreciated him coming on the podcast.
Speaker: Remember, get your goals down, get your dues paid, keep crushing it.
Speaker: And with that, we'll peace down right here.
Speaker: Thanks again.
Speaker: And as I always say, take it to the bank.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
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Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
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