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122. Confessions of James Swiderski
46 Plays5 years ago
A smart solar salesperson knows that you can plant seeds of doubt in a potential client’s mind and compromise a deal due to blunders in timing, judgment, or phrasing. When you want to convince a homeowner to go solar, you need to undertake a lot of challenges.
There are certain factors that can turn off a homeowner from your solar offering that is why AUTHENTICITY is one of the keys in achieving a successful and intuitive sales strategy. In this episode, we will learn some of James Swiderski's past experiences that can help separate your solar business from the rest.
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Transcript
Introduction to Taylor Armstrong and James Swiderski
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
00:00:42
Speaker
What is up, solopreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
We are back with probably the juiciest episode of the year, and it's only January, so I guess it's pretty easy to say that.
00:00:51
Speaker
Not a very high bar.
00:00:56
Speaker
That's right.
00:00:56
Speaker
That's right.
00:00:57
Speaker
And if you don't recognize the voice already, we have someone that has been in the days of solopreneur past.
00:01:04
Speaker
We have the man, the myth, the legend, James Swiderski back on the show.
00:01:09
Speaker
So James, thanks for joining us again.
00:01:11
Speaker
You got it, Taylor.
00:01:14
Speaker
Yesterday, Taylor is such an exceptional salesman.
00:01:17
Speaker
I was going to bail out on this yesterday, but he got me.
00:01:21
Speaker
He got me good.
00:01:22
Speaker
That's right.
00:01:23
Speaker
No, I'm happy to be here, Taylor.
00:01:25
Speaker
100%.
00:01:25
Speaker
I know.
00:01:26
Speaker
It's good to have you back.
00:01:27
Speaker
Does it bring up ghosts of your past being on this podcast, all the times we did it together and stuff?
00:01:33
Speaker
Ghosts of my past?
00:01:34
Speaker
It depends what kind of ghosts you like to listen to, right?
00:01:39
Speaker
Are these Casper the friendly ghost or something else?
00:01:42
Speaker
But yeah, no, it brings back memories.
00:01:45
Speaker
When did Solarpreneur
Origins of the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:01:47
Speaker
start?
00:01:47
Speaker
It was like...
00:01:48
Speaker
I think like October 2017, right?
00:01:50
Speaker
The podcast?
00:01:51
Speaker
It's fall, fall that year.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's been at least two years, a year and a half, two years.
00:01:57
Speaker
18, 18, I don't know.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, something like that.
00:01:59
Speaker
But let's just start by acknowledging Taylor's rock steady growing this podcast.
00:02:07
Speaker
I haven't listened to it in a minute.
00:02:09
Speaker
I don't know if people really give you the credit you deserve on it, but...
00:02:15
Speaker
he has a way with getting people on the podcast.
00:02:17
Speaker
I mean, I've yet to see him find someone who wants on the podcast that he can't go ahead and work his magic and get them on the show.
00:02:24
Speaker
So I know everybody appreciates it.
00:02:27
Speaker
And yeah, man, hats off to you, bro.
00:02:30
Speaker
It's cool.
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, we'll appreciate it.
00:02:32
Speaker
I wouldn't say everyone.
00:02:33
Speaker
I'm still working on Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson.
00:02:37
Speaker
Haven't gotten them.
00:02:37
Speaker
Elon Musk.
00:02:38
Speaker
He's a future guest.
00:02:40
Speaker
I've heard Elon's a hard one to get on any podcast.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, so still got a few.
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:48
Speaker
But pretty soon.
00:02:49
Speaker
But no, we're growing it.
00:02:50
Speaker
And no, same to you, my man.
00:02:52
Speaker
You helped us grow this show a ton in the beginning.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I know a lot of people still, you know, rave about your course, a lot of episodes you've done and a lot of good stuff out there.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:05
Speaker
That's what we'll get into.
00:03:06
Speaker
I mean, a lot of people think you're dead too.
00:03:09
Speaker
So there's that.
00:03:10
Speaker
Everyone's like, never know.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:12
Speaker
Right.
00:03:13
Speaker
Right.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I was anxious to have you back on is because even I was at, I was telling you off the camera here, I was at Door to Door Con and a couple other events last week and I still have people ask about you like, hey, what's up with James?
00:03:29
Speaker
Haven't heard from him.
James Swiderski's Departure from Solar Industry
00:03:30
Speaker
And it's been like, you know, a year and a half since you've probably done a podcast.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, just about.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:37
Speaker
That just goes to show that even a year and a half later, you still had an impact on people and people still got a ton of value from you in the short time.
00:03:47
Speaker
Right.
00:03:48
Speaker
So where do we want to go with this, Taylor?
00:03:50
Speaker
Do you want me to just go into why I left or what do we want to do?
00:03:55
Speaker
You run the show.
00:03:55
Speaker
Ask me anything.
00:03:56
Speaker
It's all open book.
00:03:58
Speaker
Sweet.
00:03:59
Speaker
Well, yeah.
00:04:00
Speaker
Let's jam.
00:04:00
Speaker
Let's get into it.
00:04:01
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:04:02
Speaker
I don't know.
00:04:02
Speaker
Do you want to just tell us kind of what you've been up to, where you've been?
00:04:05
Speaker
Maybe why you got off the show.
00:04:07
Speaker
And then I got some juicy Facebook posts that we're going to read and laugh about and stuff.
00:04:13
Speaker
But yeah, let's hear it.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah, so before we get into this, I want to make this very clear that I have left the solar industry entirely.
00:04:21
Speaker
So I have...
00:04:23
Speaker
Zero motive out of this episode to try and sell you anything.
00:04:27
Speaker
I'm not trying to put you into a funnel Not trying to get you to download anything like I'm literally just here to help add value to Taylor's audience because he's I consider him a friend and that's
James's Early Solar Career and Mistakes
00:04:40
Speaker
it so
00:04:41
Speaker
That being said.
00:04:42
Speaker
Which is why you didn't want to get on the show for a minute.
00:04:44
Speaker
Right.
00:04:44
Speaker
I'm not even an insult anymore.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's old James we'll talk about where I feel like I have to get something out of every interaction.
00:04:53
Speaker
But I guess the only thing in my intention this episode is if one person in the industry could get some sort of value out of the many, many mistakes, failures, and successes that I've had in the industry, and I'm going to pull back the curtain 150,000%.
00:05:11
Speaker
Way too much probably but I think it's what the industry needs to hear and I think someone's gonna pull some value out of this Maybe it's just Taylor.
00:05:19
Speaker
Maybe it's just one other person but That's kind of the tone.
00:05:22
Speaker
I want to set with the show before we get started.
00:05:25
Speaker
So love it So yeah, um, everyone's really curious to know so I know if anything even if people get zero value I know we're gonna have people tuning in just be like James.
00:05:35
Speaker
What the freak?
00:05:35
Speaker
I haven't heard from him forever He's back on the show
00:05:39
Speaker
But I know you have a lot of lessons to teach us and you told me before that you have regrets and stuff.
00:05:44
Speaker
So I know people can learn your mistakes, obviously done a ton of good stuff too.
00:05:49
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know.
00:05:50
Speaker
Maybe we'll dive into it, but just maybe I guess I'll start with your initial question.
00:05:54
Speaker
So where have I been?
00:05:55
Speaker
Right.
00:05:56
Speaker
Why did I leave?
00:05:57
Speaker
I think to best answer this, I'm going to back up to kind of my story more or less.
00:06:03
Speaker
Some people know my story, but I want to highlight like the stuff that maybe I didn't say before for marketing purposes.
00:06:09
Speaker
And the problem with the world we live in today is gurus, quote unquote, people that sell trainings and courses.
00:06:16
Speaker
It's a very mixed bag of results you get out there.
00:06:20
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:06:22
Speaker
You have people who sell courses and people love it.
00:06:24
Speaker
Some people think it's a scam.
00:06:26
Speaker
You have people that sell some sort of service and it's the same thing.
00:06:28
Speaker
And it's difficult to tell what's true, what's authentic in a marketplace.
00:06:32
Speaker
And unfortunately, like I'm one of those characters that contributed to that bigger, I would almost call it sort of a crisis within the entrepreneur or sales sort of space.
00:06:45
Speaker
Um,
00:06:46
Speaker
For people who don't know me, and we're assuming people know me, Taylor, but I'm sure there's... But I'm more than confident that the majority of your audience doesn't know me.
00:06:55
Speaker
I'm willing to bet.
00:06:56
Speaker
But in case they don't know me, I got my start in the solar industry when I was 19 years old.
00:07:01
Speaker
I worked with a startup company called Evalar Solar.
00:07:04
Speaker
This is one of those things where...
00:07:06
Speaker
When I was telling people I worked at
Marketing Strategies and Ethical Concerns
00:07:08
Speaker
the startup company to begin with, I didn't name drop them because there's things I did at these companies, which we'll get into that I'm not particularly proud of.
00:07:16
Speaker
And I didn't want it coming back to haunt me, which it did.
00:07:20
Speaker
Spoiler alert, it did in a big way, which we'll get into.
00:07:23
Speaker
But I worked with this company called Evalar Solar.com.
00:07:27
Speaker
Super groundbreaking startup at the time.
00:07:30
Speaker
They were doing a little over seven figures a year, super small.
00:07:33
Speaker
I was one of their initial team members, and I really had an opportunity to work with that CEO.
00:07:38
Speaker
His name was Spence.
00:07:40
Speaker
I'll keep for his privacy sake his last name, but I worked with him one-on-one, and I was able to learn a lot in the industry about business.
00:07:48
Speaker
digital advertising, sales altogether, how to start and run a solar company.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I worked at that company for almost two years.
00:07:58
Speaker
I was able to have a lot of success with them.
00:08:00
Speaker
That's where I got my start.
00:08:01
Speaker
That's where I learned sales.
00:08:03
Speaker
I made a couple million dollars for the solar company.
00:08:05
Speaker
back then and thought I was some hot stuff at the time, right?
00:08:10
Speaker
Naive James thought he could go out and he can help any salesperson on the planet.
00:08:16
Speaker
So what I did is I went and I partnered with one of my early business partners
Controversy Around the Solar Spartan System
00:08:22
Speaker
and we started a consulting company.
00:08:23
Speaker
It was called Seven Figure Solar at the time.
00:08:26
Speaker
And Taylor was one of the
00:08:28
Speaker
not one of the first, but you were one of the first students, I believe, who signed up for one of those courses.
00:08:33
Speaker
And that's how we actually ended up meeting.
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, I still remember that day.
00:08:39
Speaker
And you guys, yeah, it's weird because you kind of came out of nowhere.
00:08:42
Speaker
I hadn't heard nothing about it.
00:08:44
Speaker
But then I think I just clicked on your Facebook profile.
00:08:47
Speaker
And you guys had it so set up that it looked like, oh, this looks super established.
00:08:53
Speaker
You got all this course set up, made it look super legit.
00:08:57
Speaker
So I got a hand if you guys, if I was one of your first students, it didn't seem like it.
00:09:02
Speaker
I think you guys already have like testimonials up.
00:09:05
Speaker
Funnel looks super- We had a pilot program, but I think you were one of the first paying students.
00:09:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, so I was stoked to get in it.
00:09:15
Speaker
And that's one of the things I want to talk about is it's very, one of my natural gifts and abilities that can get misused as we'll talk about is the ability to brand something in the perfect light to sale.
00:09:29
Speaker
I know how to position things in a marketplace to just move off the shelf to seem however you want it to seem positioned.
00:09:36
Speaker
And that's something I've been able to do with a lot of solar companies and help them.
00:09:40
Speaker
But it's also something I've misused as well, which again, we'll continue the story to get to that.
00:09:48
Speaker
So I worked with Seven Figures Solar for a while and eventually we rebranded over to Solarpreneur kind of with talking with Taylor about
00:09:56
Speaker
I contributed to the podcast some.
00:09:58
Speaker
There was some back and forth about who actually was in charge of the podcast and whatnot for a while.
00:10:04
Speaker
But ultimately, Taylor took the reins with it and he keeps going with it and I stepped out.
00:10:09
Speaker
And if we go from there, right, where things start to get interesting is my story and background with how I got in the industry involved.
00:10:21
Speaker
is it simply just got inflated.
00:10:25
Speaker
It got changed to match whatever was going on in the marketplace.
00:10:29
Speaker
The little white lie here, little white lie there.
00:10:32
Speaker
And it didn't seem like anything big for a while because we just weren't doing a lot of volume, a lot of traction with seven figure solar or the first year of solarpreneur.
00:10:41
Speaker
But things really started to pick up about when we launched the solar Spartan
Consequences and Emotional Impact on James
00:10:45
Speaker
system, which a lot of people signed up for.
00:10:48
Speaker
And this was...
00:10:49
Speaker
Summer of, it was like spring to summer of 2019 is about when we started the Spartan system and started getting a lot of results and traction with that program.
00:11:02
Speaker
The problem is as these results and traction started coming in, right?
00:11:06
Speaker
I noticed that there was more eyeballs on my background, particularly the things that I was not telling about this startup company I worked with.
00:11:15
Speaker
And frankly, one of the biggest things that caused a tremendous amount of anxiety, honestly, is how I sold solar.
00:11:28
Speaker
Taylor's put out an episode about like lies he's told in solar, you know, being dishonest with, to, to make a sale.
00:11:35
Speaker
And I would say the far majority of the sales I made at that first solar company were unethical in nature.
00:11:44
Speaker
And the problem is I have a way with people.
00:11:47
Speaker
I'm a good salesman, right?
00:11:49
Speaker
But I misused those natural talents and those gifts.
00:11:53
Speaker
And I,
00:11:54
Speaker
I ended up in the Spartan system teaching others in the industry how to do those similar things.
00:12:01
Speaker
And that's why it had such mixed opinions.
00:12:03
Speaker
It was so controversial in nature and me in particular.
00:12:06
Speaker
It's because some of the things I taught, they work.
00:12:10
Speaker
Human psychology, they work.
00:12:12
Speaker
They get people to take action on things.
00:12:14
Speaker
But people who are really ethically aligned, morally aligned, they don't feel comfortable using those tactics and those secrets that I taught people.
00:12:24
Speaker
I feel like sales in general often falls in that category.
00:12:29
Speaker
I disagree with a lot of the old school type of sales tactics because I just don't think they're necessary.
00:12:35
Speaker
I don't think they work.
00:12:36
Speaker
But most importantly of all, I don't think they're ethical in nature.
00:12:40
Speaker
And where I really paid the price on this with that solar company, Evalar ended up
00:12:46
Speaker
basically going bankrupt about, I would say six months after I left.
00:12:51
Speaker
I left right before early signs of bankruptcy were happening because I wanted to try and save my reputation with it and be able to use them as a leverage point to get clients.
00:13:01
Speaker
But they ended up going bankrupt
00:13:03
Speaker
mostly because of the bad deals that it put in through them.
00:13:08
Speaker
I was one of the few people, but I would say the majority of the reason they went bankrupt was because of me.
00:13:17
Speaker
And what happened after that and really putting those deals through is just complete hell.
00:13:25
Speaker
And I'll paint this picture for you because what this looks like is people dinging up your Facebook.
00:13:32
Speaker
We're talking
00:13:33
Speaker
And I put probably 560 deals or something into this company, right?
00:13:38
Speaker
And we're talking about hundreds of customers sending me messages saying I screwed them over.
00:13:44
Speaker
I lied to them about this.
00:13:45
Speaker
Death threats from people.
00:13:48
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
00:13:50
Speaker
Holy cow.
00:13:50
Speaker
The full thing, full blacklisted by every homeowner I knew.
00:13:56
Speaker
I just...
00:13:57
Speaker
Taylor, you always wonder why I change my numbers all the time.
00:14:02
Speaker
It's because of this.
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:14:06
Speaker
So do you, I mean, obviously we appreciate you being super vulnerable and stuff on the show, but do you want to, do you mind getting into, I don't know, maybe some examples of what you did or why were these customers so mad?
00:14:19
Speaker
How did you, I don't know, screw them over?
00:14:22
Speaker
Sure.
00:14:23
Speaker
Here's the deal and the warning and the label.
00:14:26
Speaker
And if you can learn from this, like I learned it in the most expensive way possible.
00:14:31
Speaker
Learning from experience is the most expensive way to learn.
00:14:34
Speaker
And trust me, you learn, right?
00:14:36
Speaker
And you never get away with being dishonest with the sales thing.
00:14:41
Speaker
And I've struggled with that my entire life in multiple things before solar side businesses.
00:14:48
Speaker
It was always the same thing, the same story.
00:14:51
Speaker
comes back to haunt me, end up paying for it either financially, emotionally, you'd name it.
00:14:56
Speaker
And the biggest way that customers at Evalar were screwed over because of me was finance.
00:15:02
Speaker
really I think is a huge flaw in the industry, is just misrepresenting the energy offset with systems.
00:15:11
Speaker
It's the single most fraud-ridden opportunity in solar that doesn't get exposed.
00:15:19
Speaker
I mean, it gets exposed, but nobody talks about it because there's such a...
00:15:24
Speaker
long time period from when you see the actions and results from that.
00:15:28
Speaker
I mean, you're talking a year, two years later is when people really see what's going on.
00:15:33
Speaker
And what happens is very simple.
00:15:35
Speaker
I go in and I tell the homeowner that this system is going to offset 100% of their electricity, but
00:15:43
Speaker
in order to compete with x y competitor i lower that price down and i tell them with the bidding software we use that it's going to do 100 but it's really sized at 70 percent or 80 or 60 and because we pay their bill for an entire year all of their electric bills they don't find out until a year two years later that their system is missized right yeah and i could tell you that i'm not the only guy who's done this um
00:16:13
Speaker
I, I'm not the exception.
00:16:15
Speaker
Uh, I know behind closed doors working with, uh, all the solar reps that I did work with, this comes out of the woodworks every single time.
00:16:24
Speaker
So there's a lot of other ways you could screw customers over.
00:16:28
Speaker
I don't love the marketing that happens in the industry, which we'll get into.
00:16:32
Speaker
Um, and I was a big proponent of that.
00:16:34
Speaker
It wasn't as a fraudulent nature, but it's also something I don't want to be tied to in representing as well.
00:16:40
Speaker
And I want to clear out, but yeah,
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:16:44
Speaker
No, that's big.
00:16:44
Speaker
And I know we talked a little bit off screen too, just about, um, you know, the people you're around.
00:16:51
Speaker
I know, uh, you know, your business partner in the beginning with seven figure solar.
00:16:56
Speaker
Um, you know, we're not, not to put a name out, but yeah, but, but him, he, um,
00:17:04
Speaker
I mean, if you were shady, in my opinion, he was probably 10x of the shady stuff.
00:17:08
Speaker
You rubbed off on me a lot.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:10
Speaker
So I know that's- It's my fault.
00:17:12
Speaker
I'm not going to point the car to the blame at anybody, but yeah, definitely your environment and who you hang out with is of the utmost importance.
00:17:20
Speaker
Even at that company, Evlar, there were some shady people that worked there as well.
00:17:24
Speaker
It wasn't all me, so-
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker
And no, it's exactly what I talk about in that episode.
00:17:29
Speaker
I did the lies I've told one of the big lies I was telling and probably the biggest trouble I got in the industry was because I took the advice of another kid that was being shady and basically was using this trick to copy the customer's last four of their socials, which you can go back and listen to the whole story in that episode.
00:17:48
Speaker
But yeah,
00:17:49
Speaker
Came back to bite me and the customer figured out this little code we were using to basically hold on the last four of their socials and do a soft check on their credit.
00:17:59
Speaker
Which, you know, it's not a huge deal at the end of the world.
00:18:02
Speaker
But when you get caught doing that, that's going to be a huge deal to the customer.
00:18:06
Speaker
It's like, what are they doing with the last four of our social?
00:18:10
Speaker
Not a good look.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
So it was a terrible look for me, but no, I think that's a great lesson to learn.
00:18:15
Speaker
Just be careful who you're surrounded with.
00:18:18
Speaker
If you have a bunch of dudes in your company, they're doing shady stuff.
00:18:21
Speaker
And, um, yeah, maybe it's time to reevaluate.
00:18:24
Speaker
The other, the other thought on that is it's, it's not, if you were to ask me from the first day, um,
00:18:32
Speaker
working in solar the first time i ever told any resemblance of a lie to someone right if you would have asked me that two years later i would be like blatantly aggressively lying to customers to close deals like total hard selling them at the kitchen table like i was that guy that doesn't leave until they're like forced to sign type of thing and i tell them whatever it takes to close the deal um
00:18:57
Speaker
If you would have told me that I would have done this to hundreds of customers, I would have said you're insane.
00:19:01
Speaker
Like I would never do that.
00:19:03
Speaker
Right.
00:19:04
Speaker
And when it comes to lying and being dishonest with anything, it's,
00:19:09
Speaker
little bit by little bit.
00:19:10
Speaker
It's one bad influence and you start doing it just one time.
00:19:15
Speaker
You say, ah, maybe I'll exaggerate about some company reviews this time, or I'll talk about how our average customer saves like $3,000 a year on their electricity costs or something like that.
00:19:27
Speaker
And it's just one little thing that just keeps going and escalating.
00:19:31
Speaker
And that's what ended up happening with the Spartan system as well.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:19:37
Speaker
Well, let's take a quick kind of break in your story.
00:19:40
Speaker
And I want to like pull up some of these Facebook comments.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:43
Speaker
And we need to address them or go back in your story.
00:19:47
Speaker
But the first thing I want to pull up is the people you did help.
00:19:51
Speaker
And we already talked about that a little bit, but you did, you know, add a ton of value.
00:19:55
Speaker
A lot of people raved on and on about you.
00:19:58
Speaker
Like this is from a post actually January of last year.
00:20:02
Speaker
So about a year ago.
00:20:04
Speaker
Um, we had a, actually another kid named James or someone made a comment.
00:20:09
Speaker
Has anyone here tried the solar Spartan system with James Swiderski?
00:20:13
Speaker
And then, um, a bunch of people popped in there like saying they had a ton of value.
00:20:18
Speaker
James would.
00:20:19
Speaker
He's like, James has always struck me as an authentic driven dude.
00:20:22
Speaker
And I've never seen anyone say anything bad about him.
00:20:25
Speaker
So got him raving about you.
00:20:28
Speaker
Um, you got a Ben saying, been using for a couple of months.
00:20:31
Speaker
They know what they're doing.
00:20:33
Speaker
um steven says i haven't but it's free media it's very strong and i respect his heart and hard work um wayne says great system devin koretsky says i took the course you want to be top producer in this industry i highly suggest it so you had people uh raving on and on about it so obviously you did some good stuff with it um
00:20:56
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:20:57
Speaker
Do you want to talk about like what you were proud of in the course?
00:21:00
Speaker
Obviously you had some good stuff in there.
00:21:02
Speaker
So what's the most, I don't know.
00:21:03
Speaker
So here's, I'll tell you what was tainted and what was not tainted.
00:21:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:08
Speaker
So I had the absolute best intentions with the Spartan system.
00:21:12
Speaker
It was not a cash grab course.
00:21:14
Speaker
When I went into it to make this course,
00:21:16
Speaker
I wanted to make the highest quality sales training that I didn't receive, that I didn't have an example
Critique of Solar Marketing Tactics
00:21:23
Speaker
for.
00:21:23
Speaker
I wanted to be the mentor that others in the industry could look to that did teach ethical and honest things.
00:21:29
Speaker
And that's what my goal was because I was taught how to sell unethically and I wanted to correct that.
00:21:34
Speaker
I wanted to teach real things that transformed not only the homeowner's lives, but actually help the salespeople become higher quality individuals, not just become great salespeople.
00:21:44
Speaker
And
00:21:46
Speaker
Because of that, everything I was taught in there was 100% real.
00:21:51
Speaker
Like I didn't lie or make up any tactics within the course.
00:21:55
Speaker
And this is why people got results with it.
00:21:57
Speaker
What happened was...
00:22:00
Speaker
the story I used to sell people and get people involved with the course, my story for marketing purposes was stretched, right?
00:22:12
Speaker
The way that I told people and taught people to sell was still coming from my experience of someone who screwed over a lot of customers.
00:22:19
Speaker
And at the end of the day, like I can have the best intention and try to correct it.
00:22:23
Speaker
But when my foundation in sales was to deceive people, there's going to be things that slip through the cracks with that.
00:22:31
Speaker
The other thing I was in there is there just were strategies and tactics that I had not used on my own success with selling.
00:22:41
Speaker
I had not used at the kitchen table.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yes, I was able to test and use those strategies with students.
00:22:48
Speaker
And it worked for many of them, right?
00:22:51
Speaker
But it didn't work for others as well.
00:22:53
Speaker
And what I wish if I were to go back and change the Spartan system altogether and the training within it would be to cut out the tactics.
00:23:07
Speaker
The biggest takeaway I've learned like in 2020 with salespeople and coaching, you know, hundreds of solar pros is tactics don't
00:23:15
Speaker
help.
00:23:16
Speaker
They're five, 10% of the equation.
00:23:19
Speaker
Um, the biggest thing you could do to be a successful salesperson is just be authentic, be yourself, embrace the flaws, embrace your weaknesses.
00:23:29
Speaker
If you're working with a company that doesn't have great reviews, you tell the customer I've got a company that doesn't have great reviews, but I'm here to change that.
00:23:37
Speaker
I'm here to try and bring people on and change this reputation of this organization.
00:23:41
Speaker
And that's the biggest takeaway I've learned from all of this is that's what cuts through the noise in our marketplace.
00:23:47
Speaker
And that's the biggest thing I'd change in the Spartan system is just teaching people how to be better people has nothing to do with selling.
00:23:54
Speaker
There's no line, there's no magic pill.
00:23:57
Speaker
No, I love that.
00:23:59
Speaker
And yeah, I think a big mistake is a lot of people make is even if your company doesn't have great reviews or whatever, I mean, if you tell someone up front,
00:24:08
Speaker
then it's going to come across way better than them finding out later down the line.
00:24:14
Speaker
Same thing I did with using my trick to get lost for the social.
00:24:18
Speaker
If I were to told the customer up front rather than finding out down the road later, that's when you look terrible and that's when people are going to file lawsuits and do all that crap because they're going to be pissed off at you.
00:24:31
Speaker
I tried to put a quick one on them.
00:24:33
Speaker
We didn't get into that, Taylor.
00:24:35
Speaker
So the cost of this, what did it cost me to do this to this many customers?
00:24:42
Speaker
Let's continue to that.
00:24:43
Speaker
So out of all those customers getting all the threats with everything, what ended up happening is my own company ended up suing me for
00:24:54
Speaker
we'll just say tens of thousands of dollars.
00:24:56
Speaker
We'll just leave it at that.
00:24:57
Speaker
I'm not going to put a, a price tag on it.
00:24:59
Speaker
Um, cause that was the, that was the easy price tag.
00:25:02
Speaker
The hard price tag was what it emotionally ended up costing me.
00:25:07
Speaker
So here's what ends up happening when you do this, when you have people who are just bashing on you on social media, blowing up your phone, you've got to change your phone number because people do this.
00:25:19
Speaker
Um, um,
00:25:20
Speaker
That ends up causing a lot of emotional resistance and fear towards actually communicating with people and forming relationships with people in particular with me.
00:25:29
Speaker
So what ended up happening was I had a genuine phobia of social media.
00:25:36
Speaker
I did not want to even...
00:25:38
Speaker
see Facebook's logo.
00:25:41
Speaker
Anytime I would literally hop on Facebook, my heart rate elevates 30, 40 beats a minute.
00:25:46
Speaker
Like it's like I just stepped on a treadmill.
00:25:48
Speaker
Right.
00:25:50
Speaker
And I literally had to work with therapists, coaches, and different mentors in all of 2020 to try and overcome like this emotional fear of what had happened with this.
James's Decision to Leave the Industry
00:26:05
Speaker
And yeah,
00:26:06
Speaker
If I didn't learn my lesson from that, I certainly learned my lesson with the solar community.
00:26:13
Speaker
So what ended up happening is as my story was gaining a lot of traction, fall quarter four of 2019 with the Spartan system and whatnot, the Solarpreneur YouTube channel started happening.
00:26:24
Speaker
getting a lot of traction.
00:26:26
Speaker
Every single day that I woke up, I literally was just thinking, who is going to find out that I'm not legit with my story?
00:26:37
Speaker
Every single day, it's just fear, bottom pit of the stomach.
00:26:42
Speaker
And I could put on a great face with it, but people still see that.
00:26:46
Speaker
You can sense an energy when someone's trying to
00:26:49
Speaker
be inauthentic.
00:26:51
Speaker
And that's why it was so polarizing in nature.
00:26:54
Speaker
And the capital on that is, it ended up just getting to the point of December, January or winter time of 2019.
00:27:04
Speaker
And I just said, I'm done, dude.
00:27:07
Speaker
I can't
00:27:08
Speaker
I can't do this anymore.
00:27:10
Speaker
Like I can't handle the fear with this.
00:27:13
Speaker
And I shut it all down.
00:27:14
Speaker
I deleted the YouTube channel.
00:27:16
Speaker
Stole it for no reason off.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, people got value out of it, but I didn't want any of the
00:27:23
Speaker
even if there's just a little bit of, there's the saying, if you pee in the pool, there's pee in the pool, right?
00:27:30
Speaker
You can't pee in part of the pool and the pool is not contaminated.
00:27:33
Speaker
Like the whole thing goes out.
00:27:35
Speaker
And that's the thing.
00:27:36
Speaker
Even if there was 99% truth in there, which there was that 1%, I couldn't, I couldn't be a representative of that.
00:27:43
Speaker
I couldn't be an example of that in the industry and have that weighing on my conscience.
00:27:47
Speaker
So I had to shut the whole thing down.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:49
Speaker
No, and just to tell kind of my side of the story during all this too is, yeah, like you had your story for marketing purposes and all that, but what always happens
00:28:02
Speaker
kind of came to my mind back in those times when we're doing the podcast together um part of it would be like why is James getting all this attention you were super good at the branding and the marketing um but you know I I kind of had the podcast idea from the beginning and um you know started the solar printer podcast which we collaborated on so you really helped me blow it up and um
00:28:25
Speaker
But we've talked about it before.
00:28:27
Speaker
Everyone's like, hey, James podcast is super cool.
00:28:30
Speaker
Like I would get messages sent to me being like, oh, James podcast is so cool.
00:28:34
Speaker
Are you just going on for a few episodes or what?
00:28:37
Speaker
And in my head, I'm like, no, I started this podcast.
00:28:39
Speaker
Like James is the co-host right now.
00:28:41
Speaker
But I mean, I started it.
00:28:44
Speaker
But you were getting like kind of all the attention.
00:28:47
Speaker
And part of it was just, you know, be like my pride hopping in and being like, well, I'm the one out there selling.
00:28:52
Speaker
I'm like grinding doors every day.
00:28:54
Speaker
James is just like mostly sitting behind a computer and doing this fancy marketing.
00:28:58
Speaker
How come I'm not getting recognized more for the podcast?
00:29:01
Speaker
So it even affected me too.
00:29:03
Speaker
And yeah, that's kind of the thoughts that were in my head and you helped me.
00:29:09
Speaker
But yeah, I think it was the same thing as you're doing marketing for the course.
00:29:12
Speaker
I'm like, what the freak?
00:29:13
Speaker
How is James like blowing this course up?
00:29:16
Speaker
He's not even out there selling.
00:29:18
Speaker
I know he has some good tactics, but like you're saying, I know a lot of it, you know, maybe it was like shady stuff.
00:29:24
Speaker
And I mean, I know you had some pretty bold claims in your like marketing videos.
00:29:30
Speaker
So, um, yeah, what was some of that true?
00:29:33
Speaker
How much in your marketing videos and stuff like that, how much would you say is true and like faults of the claims you're making stuff like that?
00:29:40
Speaker
So here's what I don't like about marketing and why I'm leaving the marketing industry as a whole.
00:29:45
Speaker
The internet marketing world, the ClickFunnels, Russell Brunson type of marketing is where I learned my start in marketing, right?
00:29:55
Speaker
The reason I got attention, frankly, wasn't all because of lies.
00:29:59
Speaker
It was because I studied marketing a lot.
00:30:01
Speaker
I mean, and people are good at different things.
00:30:04
Speaker
Taylor's better at connecting with homeowners in the home and relationships.
00:30:07
Speaker
He's better at discipline, right?
00:30:09
Speaker
Those are things I struggle with personally.
00:30:11
Speaker
So everybody has their own gifts and talents with that.
00:30:14
Speaker
I just misused mine.
00:30:17
Speaker
What I don't like about the Russell Brunson ClickFunnels type of marketing is...
00:30:23
Speaker
it just doesn't represent the truth in the best possible light.
00:30:29
Speaker
It's painting the best case scenario rather than the most common scenario.
00:30:34
Speaker
So rather than saying, let's use a Spartan system, for example, the Spartan system works for a very small selection of people, right?
00:30:44
Speaker
And that selection of people are the people who most likely would have succeeded anyway, to be honest.
00:30:51
Speaker
Um,
00:30:52
Speaker
It's the people like Taylor that go out there, they work, they understand that you have to have a good work ethic, that there's no secrets, and they're just looking for a couple of tips to help them there.
00:31:01
Speaker
Those people got great results with the Spartan system.
00:31:05
Speaker
Everyone else who was trying to buy that course as kind of a save-all, this is going to help us out of the gutter, like we have no idea what we're doing, right?
00:31:15
Speaker
They didn't put in the work with things.
00:31:17
Speaker
It's not going to help someone who doesn't put in the work at the end of the day, right?
00:31:21
Speaker
So the claims were true.
00:31:24
Speaker
There are basically the only thing that was ever inauthentic was my story.
00:31:30
Speaker
The claims with, what are some of them?
00:31:33
Speaker
The 90% close rate, right?
00:31:35
Speaker
Sounds absurd.
00:31:36
Speaker
Like it's true, but what you have to do to get that 90% close rate,
00:31:41
Speaker
most people are not willing to do at the end of the day.
00:31:43
Speaker
Right.
00:31:44
Speaker
And I can't sell everybody and say everybody could get the 90% close rate and pretend that it's the most common.
00:31:50
Speaker
Like if you don't get the 90% closer, you're totally screwing up your solar career.
00:31:55
Speaker
Right.
00:31:56
Speaker
That's just not the case.
00:31:57
Speaker
And this is how marketing is in our world today.
00:31:59
Speaker
If you see any Facebook ad, it's painting the best case scenario rather than the most common outcome.
00:32:05
Speaker
That's the biggest thing we're really, that needs to be changed to marketing as a whole with solar is we got to stop painting and blowing up and sugarcoating everything.
00:32:15
Speaker
It's got to be just cut and dry.
00:32:17
Speaker
Like this is why people do what they do or get results.
00:32:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, I love that.
00:32:22
Speaker
And even now, and you've seen it too, but how many like guys are out there that have taken a singles ClickFunnels course or something like that and then decided, oh, I'm going to go do solar marketing because I know marketing now.
00:32:34
Speaker
They took like a single course and they're putting ads out there.
00:32:38
Speaker
You go on these Facebook groups, you can do a search for like people who got scammed.
00:32:43
Speaker
There's dozens and dozens of people, companies that got scammed by solar marketing guys that say, hey, we're going to run your ads.
00:32:51
Speaker
we're going to get your results and then they pay them thousands of dollars and then ghost them the next day or they get them zero results.
00:32:58
Speaker
So I totally agree with that.
00:33:00
Speaker
For anyone who's listening, if you're considering like hiring agencies or whatever, just, I don't know, go in these groups, get people's feedback and figure out if they're having results before you go all in with these guys.
00:33:13
Speaker
I can provide some insight on that, Taylor.
00:33:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:18
Speaker
I've had an agency, right, for a while.
00:33:20
Speaker
We'll get into the marketing side of the agency because there's some things I want to clear up there as well.
00:33:26
Speaker
And as someone who's actually personally hired
00:33:29
Speaker
agencies and tried to buy solar leads and appointments from providers for my own company I've started, right?
00:33:35
Speaker
I could tell you that 99% of those agencies do not have the intent to screw you over.
00:33:42
Speaker
They don't have the intent to scam you and take your money and run.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's occasionally a bad character that does that.
00:33:49
Speaker
What happens is they bite off more than they can chew.
00:33:52
Speaker
They set an expectation, believing full-heartedly that they can reach that expectation
00:33:57
Speaker
And then stuff happens.
00:33:59
Speaker
Like it always happens.
00:34:00
Speaker
And particularly in a volatile industry like solar, an election happens, boom, all of your ad accounts get banned overnight, right?
00:34:08
Speaker
And what do you do when you run a marketing agency?
00:34:11
Speaker
You try your best, but sometimes things go to pot.
00:34:14
Speaker
This has happened to me, right?
00:34:16
Speaker
I've had some solar clients, Joseph Nguyen and I have had some solar clients that just did not get the results that we promised because something happened and we tried everything we could to get the results for them.
00:34:29
Speaker
I would say that we haven't had and to really defend in Joseph's case because he does run the marketing agency at this point.
00:34:36
Speaker
We've yet to have a client that didn't get a significant return on investment from working with our lead gen.
00:34:44
Speaker
So it's not like we're one of the guys who just ghost and do nothing.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:34:49
Speaker
I mean, stuff happens.
00:34:50
Speaker
No agency is ever perfect when it comes to marketing.
00:34:54
Speaker
So I just want to leave that out.
00:34:56
Speaker
Like as someone who's owned an agency and when you're out there trying to hire someone for your lead gen, we could get into suggestions on that.
00:35:04
Speaker
But the biggest thing you could do is...
00:35:07
Speaker
Obviously look for results and testimonials with things, but have the right frame of mind going in that it may not be perfect.
00:35:14
Speaker
And it's not because of them.
00:35:15
Speaker
It's because of the industry as a whole.
00:35:17
Speaker
And if you're going to play with paid advertising, you got to be willing to lose some money at the end of the day.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:23
Speaker
No, I agree.
00:35:23
Speaker
And for people that have their agencies, I think the best thing you can do is be honest with your clients and customers.
00:35:31
Speaker
That's like, if you tell someone, Hey, this is what you can expect.
00:35:34
Speaker
There's going to be some down times.
00:35:36
Speaker
There's going to be some days where there's tons of leads coming.
00:35:39
Speaker
Then yeah, again, people are going to,
00:35:42
Speaker
be way more chill with that rather than going a week with zero leads because you already told them.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:47
Speaker
If you're new, if you're new to advertising, tell them you're new to advertising, right?
00:35:52
Speaker
If you're new to solar and selling solar, how long you been with this company?
00:35:56
Speaker
Everybody gets that question, right?
00:35:58
Speaker
Two weeks, whatever the truth is.
00:36:00
Speaker
It's my first day.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker
But no, it's true because I dabbled with the marketing side too.
00:36:07
Speaker
I actually had a few clients that I was running ads for and it was the same thing I just realized.
00:36:13
Speaker
Luckily, I only had a couple people I was working with so I wasn't, you know, tons of people, me biting off more than I could chew but I realized pretty quick that it took way more work than I was thinking to manage my own ads and then everyone else's ads were trying to get results.
00:36:28
Speaker
Overwhelming.
00:36:29
Speaker
Cause you get more than a couple of people, you're managing a lot of ads and if things aren't working right, people are freaking out.
00:36:36
Speaker
Um, so I got out before I, you know, had a bunch of people that I was trying to manage it for and was honest with them luckily.
Reflections on Failed Business Attempts
00:36:44
Speaker
But, uh, yeah, no, I think that's a big problem with the industry.
00:36:47
Speaker
Um, set the proper expectations, know what to expect and then, um, yeah, just don't lie to people.
00:36:54
Speaker
But continuing on with your story, I guess, where did you guys go?
00:36:58
Speaker
So after Solar Spartan System, what happened after that?
00:37:03
Speaker
Where did you go after you kind of got out of things?
00:37:06
Speaker
So we had two sides of the business for Solarpreneur, right?
00:37:09
Speaker
We had the Spartan System, which was mostly me.
00:37:11
Speaker
You saw me making videos.
00:37:12
Speaker
I did the course.
00:37:13
Speaker
I did the trainings.
00:37:15
Speaker
We did put up that course for free 100%.
00:37:17
Speaker
I will make that clear as well.
00:37:19
Speaker
I know some people thought that I shut them out of it when they paid for it or something like that.
00:37:24
Speaker
I literally just put it up for free to everybody quarter one of 2020 just to clear the air.
00:37:30
Speaker
And there it is.
00:37:32
Speaker
And then we had the marketing lead gen side of the business.
00:37:35
Speaker
I was not very involved with that.
00:37:37
Speaker
That was Joseph, my partner and our team.
00:37:41
Speaker
Right.
00:37:42
Speaker
And that was all the lead gen, the done for you lead gen that we did for clients.
00:37:46
Speaker
That was,
00:37:48
Speaker
really brought, I would say 90% of like the results and the traction.
00:37:52
Speaker
That really is what happened in all of 2020 is we just did lead gen for our clients.
00:37:58
Speaker
And we didn't really go out there and try to make a lot of noise or get a ton of new clients.
00:38:02
Speaker
We just held on to some of our biggest clients and got them some great results.
00:38:07
Speaker
And 2020 was a big year for us with solar lead gen.
00:38:11
Speaker
We made our clients a lot of money and, uh,
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
And the moral of the story of that is, I mean, this year, 2020 wrapping up, it just really dawned on me that I am not, my heart's not in solar lead gen.
00:38:27
Speaker
It's not in the industry as a whole.
00:38:31
Speaker
And I decided to move on from that.
00:38:33
Speaker
We tried to start a couple of solar companies in 2020 and 2019.
00:38:35
Speaker
Me in particular,
00:38:40
Speaker
and things did not go well, we could dive into that, why they didn't go well, and some of the lessons I learned from starting companies.
00:38:45
Speaker
But at the end of the day, it was me just not being all in on solar.
00:38:52
Speaker
I just didn't like the industry as much as I thought I did when I got into it, and it weighs on you.
00:39:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's good on you for identifying that.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't for you because I mean better to work something you like than be miserable and just keep spinning your wheels in it.
00:39:10
Speaker
But yeah, I mean that was if anyone knows James, I mean, you know that you're definitely the entrepreneur personality type.
00:39:20
Speaker
You have different ideas practically every week.
00:39:23
Speaker
And you're always working on something.
00:39:25
Speaker
So yeah, I can just remember times where, yeah, in 2020, you give me a call and you said, Hey, I'm starting up a solar company.
00:39:32
Speaker
Or hey, I've got this team.
00:39:33
Speaker
Do you want to come?
00:39:34
Speaker
Can they come knock with you in San Diego, train them?
00:39:37
Speaker
Then I'm always like, yeah, man, send them down.
00:39:40
Speaker
And then wouldn't hear from you.
00:39:41
Speaker
Something doesn't work out.
00:39:43
Speaker
So biggest thing that didn't work out, Taylor, I'll tell you what it is.
00:39:47
Speaker
It's people.
00:39:49
Speaker
My weakness is working with people.
00:39:51
Speaker
And that's, that's ultimately the reason most of my ventures have failed in some degree defined failure, whatever it is like for me, you know, running like a, trying to run like a seven figure agency is not my end goal.
00:40:05
Speaker
I don't, I'm not in it just to make a bunch of cash.
00:40:07
Speaker
Like,
00:40:08
Speaker
I'm looking for like a super, super big impact.
00:40:11
Speaker
And I just don't have what it takes at the time right now.
00:40:15
Speaker
It's something I need to work on.
00:40:17
Speaker
It's being vulnerable with people, relating to them.
00:40:21
Speaker
One of the biggest things I think and regret with the solopreneur audience and whatnot and why it didn't blow up even further.
00:40:29
Speaker
It's because of my lack of vulnerability.
00:40:31
Speaker
I never showed the side of me that struggled with things.
00:40:34
Speaker
I always framed myself as like some all knowing whiz kid of solar.
00:40:39
Speaker
That's super good at this.
00:40:40
Speaker
And ultimately end of the day, that just makes people feel like crap.
00:40:43
Speaker
It makes them feel intimidated.
00:40:45
Speaker
Like I can't do that.
00:40:46
Speaker
James works a hundred hours a week.
00:40:48
Speaker
I can't work a hundred hours a week.
00:40:49
Speaker
I've got a family, right?
00:40:51
Speaker
And this is what happens.
00:40:51
Speaker
I would stiff arm and keep people at an arm's distance.
00:40:56
Speaker
And I didn't seem relatable in any way.
00:40:58
Speaker
And, uh,
00:40:59
Speaker
Part of that is because of my fear of rejection from what I did with that early solar company.
00:41:06
Speaker
Right.
00:41:06
Speaker
And yeah, I know a lot of times when we would talk, I mean, you would tell me, oh, dude, I recruited a huge team.
00:41:12
Speaker
Like practically overnight, sometimes you'd be like, oh, yeah, and I got dozens of people that are ready to work.
00:41:17
Speaker
Literally does happen almost overnight too.
00:41:19
Speaker
That's the thing.
00:41:20
Speaker
Like I'm really good at getting people in.
00:41:23
Speaker
I'm not good at keeping those relationships.
00:41:26
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:41:26
Speaker
So when you said all that, you actually did have the people, it just more keeping these, those people.
00:41:32
Speaker
And then I guess getting them to actually do their thing after that.
00:41:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:35
Speaker
I'm good at, I'm good at acquisition.
00:41:37
Speaker
It's never retention.
00:41:40
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:41:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:41
Speaker
So like I, you know, I've done things where I'd literally go recruit an entire solar company sales team, like in two days and then I get them in, get them psyched up about what we're doing.
00:41:50
Speaker
But there's, there was no, at the end of the day, things fall apart because there's no follow through with the relationship.
00:41:57
Speaker
I didn't like communicating with them.
00:41:59
Speaker
I didn't really like training them on a consistent basis, like one-on-one time, that type of stuff that is required.
00:42:06
Speaker
with starting solar company.
00:42:07
Speaker
I guess that's a takeaway to anybody who's considering they see the opportunity in solar is, uh,
00:42:13
Speaker
Really look at what it takes to run a business.
00:42:15
Speaker
It's my only advice on that.
00:42:17
Speaker
Just because you're good at selling solar does not mean you could run a solar company.
00:42:20
Speaker
There's a huge difference.
00:42:22
Speaker
I know a lot of people who are all-star salespeople.
00:42:26
Speaker
Taylor knows them too.
00:42:27
Speaker
And they don't run very good companies, some of them.
00:42:30
Speaker
It's a very particular person to run an organization with that.
00:42:35
Speaker
It's interesting.
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:37
Speaker
True, true.
00:42:38
Speaker
And yeah, I know when we talked, I don't know, maybe six months ago or something, you were trying to start actually like a door-to-door team and everything.
00:42:47
Speaker
And maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you knocked like tons of doors when you're in selling.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:55
Speaker
So did you find any disconnects maybe when you're trying to do that?
00:42:59
Speaker
Would you think maybe people look to you like, oh, he hasn't knocked a ton of doors or...
00:43:04
Speaker
I don't know.
00:43:04
Speaker
Do you think that made it tougher for you to want to start a door-to-door team?
00:43:12
Speaker
The reason it was tough to start the door-to-door team, again, just came back to the... I was trying to start... I was taking a final stab at something that I had...
00:43:22
Speaker
not build a steady foundation on yet.
00:43:24
Speaker
That foundation was the people skills again.
00:43:29
Speaker
When it comes to like the age old question of does the founder and CEO of a solar company have to be good at the thing that they're teaching their team to do?
00:43:38
Speaker
I don't think that's correct.
00:43:39
Speaker
Some of the best entrepreneurs and mentors that I've personally had, they're terrible at
00:43:44
Speaker
at the thing that their team does.
00:43:46
Speaker
I know so many solar CEOs that couldn't knock a door and sell a deal to save their life, but they go and they find the right people who are great at that.
00:43:56
Speaker
They go find the guys like Taylor or Michael O'Donnell or those types of guys and they let them, they build leaders out of those people.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I lack that skill.
00:44:08
Speaker
I lack the skill of building leadership and that's why I couldn't run a company at the end of the day.
00:44:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:44:15
Speaker
Well, no, I love the vulnerability and I'm just pulling up some of the other comments.
00:44:20
Speaker
Let's get into it, man.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:23
Speaker
There's some funny ones too.
00:44:24
Speaker
I mean, rapid fire me, dude.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:28
Speaker
Well, so someone made a post, does solar Spartan training still exist?
00:44:33
Speaker
And then you get a bunch of comments.
00:44:35
Speaker
One guy's just like, nope.
00:44:37
Speaker
And then one guy's like, is this the AWOL kid?
00:44:41
Speaker
Hey wall kid.
00:44:42
Speaker
That's fine.
00:44:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
And, um, you've never seen any of these posts, right?
00:44:46
Speaker
Cause you just left all the groups and I've seen, I've seen stuff, but again, yeah, I've got a phobia of social media, so you didn't see me on there.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:55
Speaker
And then, but yeah, I understand why.
00:44:56
Speaker
I mean, another guy says, well, this, this looks like a great investment.
00:45:00
Speaker
And they post a screenshot of your Facebook profile that says, that doesn't talk anything about solar.
00:45:08
Speaker
Um,
00:45:09
Speaker
And then, yeah, another guy's like, wow, that's a name from the past.
00:45:13
Speaker
Didn't he burn a bunch of people on Legion and then ghost everyone or something like that?
00:45:18
Speaker
He still posts solar tactics and training.
00:45:22
Speaker
Not sure what happened to him, but last I heard, he was doing a massive challenge and disappeared.
00:45:25
Speaker
I'm assuming the challenge didn't go well.
00:45:29
Speaker
The challenge is funny.
00:45:31
Speaker
I haven't heard anything on that challenge in a while.
00:45:34
Speaker
I don't even know you're doing a challenge, but...
00:45:36
Speaker
Well, this was like a year and a half ago.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah, I might as well bring it up.
00:45:39
Speaker
That challenge is when I said I was going to close 50 deals in a month.
00:45:42
Speaker
Oh, remember that?
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah, it didn't go well.
00:45:47
Speaker
People know that.
00:45:48
Speaker
I should have just posted and owned up to it.
00:45:51
Speaker
Instead, I decided to ghost out and just ignore it, basically.
00:45:56
Speaker
Face up to your problems.
00:45:57
Speaker
Lesson learned.
00:45:59
Speaker
Your mistakes.
00:46:00
Speaker
That's right.
00:46:01
Speaker
Another person's like, WTF did I just walk into?
00:46:09
Speaker
There's a lot.
00:46:12
Speaker
But yeah, then this Devin guy comes and says, I bought the Solar Spartan service and still use them for my leads today.
00:46:18
Speaker
Got a ton of value.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah, Devin's a client.
00:46:22
Speaker
It is cool.
00:46:22
Speaker
And then another person says, one word, hashtag run.
00:46:26
Speaker
This is the Solar Scammer class of 2019.
00:46:28
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, you caused an uproar.
00:46:33
Speaker
But yeah, anytime, especially when you had your following and your credibility and stuff, then you just kind of disappear.
00:46:41
Speaker
People are obviously wondering, like, what the heck?
00:46:43
Speaker
Where did this kid go?
00:46:44
Speaker
And I think, again, that just speaks.
00:46:48
Speaker
It's red for rumors, right?
00:46:49
Speaker
If you stop talking, this is not the first time that I've ghosted and rumors start going about and some are true, some are not true, right?
00:47:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:05
Speaker
But no, so I think things are going better
James's Focus on Personal Growth
00:47:09
Speaker
for you.
00:47:09
Speaker
Obviously, it's better now that you've decided kind of what you want to do and, you know, that you didn't want to get into solar.
00:47:16
Speaker
So, yeah, do you want to talk about that?
00:47:17
Speaker
What's James up to now?
00:47:19
Speaker
What's James doing now that he's out of Solar Legion?
00:47:22
Speaker
What's your next big idea and thing that you're doing out there?
00:47:26
Speaker
Let's hear it.
00:47:27
Speaker
Yeah, so there's primary things I'm starting and building right now.
00:47:32
Speaker
One is because of the mistakes I've made and solely the lessons I've learned with it, the number one takeaway that I'm most passionate about is personal growth, right?
00:47:41
Speaker
It's helping.
00:47:42
Speaker
And what I enjoyed most about the Spartan system is
00:47:45
Speaker
Wasn't like the tactics and anybody who actually took it knows that it was not super full of solar specific tactics.
00:47:52
Speaker
It was really focused on personal transformation, how to become a better, higher quality human being.
00:47:56
Speaker
Right.
00:47:58
Speaker
And the rest gets taken care of.
00:47:59
Speaker
That's what I'm most passionate about.
00:48:01
Speaker
I'm starting a personal brand with things.
00:48:03
Speaker
It's not industry specific.
00:48:05
Speaker
It's really focused on helping individuals become more conscious of themselves, understanding what
00:48:13
Speaker
where they should be in life.
00:48:15
Speaker
What are they good at?
00:48:16
Speaker
What are they not good at?
00:48:17
Speaker
And the biggest lesson out of 2020 is I learned what I'm really not good at and I learned out what I am good at.
00:48:22
Speaker
One of the biggest things I was great at was
00:48:26
Speaker
getting and rallying troops to come in towards a unified mission, gathering people, getting attention on things, branding and finding opportunities within a marketplace that people have not tapped out.
00:48:42
Speaker
There's a lot of ideas and things that I was unable to execute on
00:48:48
Speaker
in the solar industry that I know someone's going to pick up the baton and go through.
00:48:54
Speaker
One of my gifts with that is I can really foresee the future with things, with where brands and industries are moving as a whole.
00:49:01
Speaker
And that's why another reason why the Spartan system caught attention was I saw a very specific loophole in that industry, an opportunity, a problem people had not had solved yet.
00:49:12
Speaker
And that's what I help do with brands with what's called Epic Brand.
00:49:16
Speaker
So it's an agency I started where we help brands identify their strategy within the marketplace, how to stand out in a marketplace and web design, branding, stuff like that.
00:49:27
Speaker
to really position themselves.
00:49:29
Speaker
And then the personal brand thing is something you could just follow me over on YouTube.
00:49:33
Speaker
I just started posting there last week.
00:49:35
Speaker
I'm going to be building that up going on different podcasts and whatnot to talk more about the lessons I've learned from my experience within the industry.
00:49:42
Speaker
So if anybody's interested in that, you could just Google me and find me on social media and you'll see a lot more.
00:49:49
Speaker
Awesome.
00:49:49
Speaker
Well, I think I can speak for everyone when I say, uh, we appreciate all the value you did add.
00:49:54
Speaker
Cause obviously to this day you affected a lot of people.
00:49:57
Speaker
Um, you know, again, people talk about you when I go to all these conferences and stuff still a year later.
00:50:03
Speaker
Um, so yeah, we all appreciate that.
00:50:06
Speaker
And I think even though, yeah, we've all made mistakes and you probably made more mistakes than, you know, a lot of other people do.
00:50:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:13
Speaker
Um,
00:50:14
Speaker
we've all made them, but yeah, I think you've added a ton of value and, um, made up for some of the stuff that you probably regret doing.
00:50:22
Speaker
The last thing I wanted to ask you, James, you talk, we talked a little bit just to kind of about like the emotional side of things.
Healing Process and Embracing Fear
00:50:28
Speaker
I know, um, you probably definitely had the anxiety.
00:50:32
Speaker
You talked about having coaches and mentors to kind of probably help you with meditation and all this stuff you're going through.
00:50:38
Speaker
So I can only imagine, um,
00:50:40
Speaker
That gets tough going through all that, maybe knowing that there's stuff you weren't doing right and maybe not being completely honest with people.
00:50:48
Speaker
So do you have anything that helped you or do you want to speak to that side of thing?
00:50:52
Speaker
Maybe stuff that helped you going through all that?
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'll be brief with it.
00:50:56
Speaker
That's one of the big things I am going to be helping out with my own personal content because that was such a difficult challenge to overcome.
00:51:03
Speaker
I really had to dig into the weeds with how to become more emotionally resilient and really heal those wounds that were taken, right?
00:51:11
Speaker
And at the end of the day, if you're a sales professional, a marketer, a business owner in this industry or any industry, you're going to face emotional rejection.
00:51:22
Speaker
You're going to face pain.
00:51:23
Speaker
You're going to face fear.
00:51:25
Speaker
That is one of the core beliefs I believe personally, and I'm a pretty religious guy, that we're on this planet is...
00:51:32
Speaker
to learn how to overcome these things so that we can evolve as people.
00:51:35
Speaker
Right.
00:51:36
Speaker
And, uh, one of the biggest strategies that has helped me by, by and large is embracing fear.
00:51:47
Speaker
It's not running from it.
00:51:50
Speaker
And again, you heard my natural tendency is to ghost, right?
00:51:53
Speaker
It's to move away from the problem.
00:51:55
Speaker
And that's the other reason I didn't want to get on a podcast like this, this time last year, right?
00:52:00
Speaker
I was not ready to do that.
00:52:02
Speaker
It literally took an entire year's worth of work.
00:52:05
Speaker
And believe me, in 2020, I would say,
00:52:09
Speaker
80% of my time was just working on fixing James.
00:52:12
Speaker
It was not on building companies to an excessive level.
00:52:15
Speaker
Things were running with lead gen just fine.
00:52:17
Speaker
It was working on me overcoming these things.
00:52:20
Speaker
And the biggest thing I can advise to anybody is to pick up meditation.
00:52:24
Speaker
It would be a huge part.
00:52:27
Speaker
It's meditation gets a lot of crap, right?
00:52:29
Speaker
And a lot of people love it at the same time.
00:52:32
Speaker
However you need to start, start.
00:52:34
Speaker
Whether it's an app like Headspace where I started years ago or if it's going full-blown meditation, right?
00:52:42
Speaker
Start meditating.
00:52:43
Speaker
And the reason we do that is our world is so noisy, so chaotic, right?
00:52:48
Speaker
You need to take that time to really kind of flush out the system.
00:52:52
Speaker
What that allows me to do personally is become more present, not thinking about, oh, what is this person going to think about me?
00:52:58
Speaker
Or was this blah, blah?
00:52:59
Speaker
It's just being present in the moment and seeing exactly what comes to mind.
00:53:04
Speaker
Um,
00:53:05
Speaker
my natural tendency is to over prepare things right on this interview.
00:53:09
Speaker
I'm like, Oh, should I have Taylor send me all the questions people are going to say and prepare with?
00:53:14
Speaker
I'm like, no, did I, I've learned my lesson with that.
00:53:18
Speaker
I have zero preparation.
00:53:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:20
Speaker
At the beginning, I was trying to kind of plan it out a little bit.
00:53:23
Speaker
You're like, no, let's just, let's just roll with them in.
00:53:27
Speaker
That's what's changed.
00:53:28
Speaker
I just show up in the moment.
00:53:29
Speaker
I say what needs to be said and what's on my mind with things.
00:53:33
Speaker
Meditation has allowed me to do that.
00:53:35
Speaker
Another thing is what's called a resource.
00:53:37
Speaker
It's called the Sedona Method.
00:53:39
Speaker
There's a book on it.
00:53:40
Speaker
It's called the Sedona, S-E-D-O-N-A, Sedona Method.
00:53:44
Speaker
Basically what this is, is it's not just, and people say embrace your fear, right?
00:53:48
Speaker
Use it as fuel, right?
00:53:50
Speaker
That's cool.
00:53:51
Speaker
That's the idea, but what, how do you actually do that?
00:53:53
Speaker
Right?
00:53:54
Speaker
And this is, this is the how part you take a fear.
00:53:57
Speaker
So let's take my fear with social media or whatever it is.
00:53:59
Speaker
Right?
00:54:00
Speaker
Right.
00:54:00
Speaker
I take my anxiety.
00:54:01
Speaker
What does it feel like in my body and my stomach, right?
00:54:05
Speaker
With that in me, it was in my stomach, right?
00:54:08
Speaker
Started making me kind of sick with it.
00:54:10
Speaker
I really feel that.
00:54:11
Speaker
And I sit with that feeling for a while.
00:54:13
Speaker
And what happens when you and Taylor, you know, it's like, what happens when you sit with a pain?
00:54:19
Speaker
So you like stub your elbow on something, right?
00:54:22
Speaker
And you press on it, how people do it.
00:54:24
Speaker
What happens?
00:54:26
Speaker
goes away.
00:54:28
Speaker
Goes away temporarily, right?
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:31
Speaker
This is how our body and our mind works.
00:54:33
Speaker
When we press on pain and we give the attention it deserves, it goes away.
00:54:38
Speaker
So the next time you're on a door or you feel that anxiety of like, oh, what if they say no?
00:54:43
Speaker
I feel that resistance rather than go do something else or try to distract yourself or something like that.
00:54:51
Speaker
Sit and visualize the pain.
00:54:53
Speaker
Close your eyes and just feel the pain.
00:54:56
Speaker
I can promise you it goes away.
00:54:58
Speaker
And then once it goes away that first time, go and do the action.
00:55:02
Speaker
It's going to come up again, right?
00:55:04
Speaker
But give yourself that moment before you go and do the sales call.
00:55:07
Speaker
You go and follow up with customers to really feel that resistance.
00:55:10
Speaker
Everybody has it.
00:55:12
Speaker
Trust me.
00:55:12
Speaker
I have not met a single person that
00:55:15
Speaker
owns a business, is a salesperson who does not have this.
00:55:18
Speaker
And it doesn't go away either.
00:55:20
Speaker
You've heard Michael O'Donnell on the podcast before.
00:55:22
Speaker
He says every fiber of this being is screaming no when he has to go knock doors, right?
00:55:28
Speaker
This is a man that's made millions off of knocking.
00:55:31
Speaker
It does not go away, trust me.
00:55:32
Speaker
And it's because we're human at the end of the day.
00:55:35
Speaker
So giving it that attention, go check out the book Sedona Method.
00:55:40
Speaker
Love that.
00:55:41
Speaker
No, I appreciate that.
00:55:42
Speaker
And I think that's one of the most...
00:55:45
Speaker
the biggest thing we're lacking in the industry is people taking care of themselves mentally and just being able to manage this anxiety.
00:55:52
Speaker
Cause even Michael Donald, he's talked about it.
00:55:54
Speaker
He had, you know, a long period of his life where he struggled with, you know, drinking too much, um, alcoholism, stuff like that.
00:56:02
Speaker
Yeah, and a lot of people I know in the industry go through divorces, addiction, stuff like that.
00:56:10
Speaker
Because the truth is we're all high-performing people.
00:56:12
Speaker
We're high-producing people.
00:56:14
Speaker
If people don't know how to manage their emotions, what are they going to turn to?
00:56:18
Speaker
Maybe it's, you know, drugs, maybe it's alcohol, porn.
00:56:21
Speaker
There's lots of things.
00:56:22
Speaker
Well, yeah, Taylor, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention on that.
00:56:26
Speaker
Cause that's, that's my wheelhouse now with those types of things.
00:56:29
Speaker
It's the reason we have addictions and vices and things like that.
00:56:33
Speaker
And what I didn't say too, is like at the time of the Spartan system, like I was literally drinking every single night without fail for like six months.
00:56:40
Speaker
Like I never thought I'd be an alcoholic, but like strict definition of alcohol, all of it.
Struggles with Drinking and Mental Health
00:56:46
Speaker
Right.
00:56:47
Speaker
The reason we have vices and addictions because we're not being present with who our true selves are, right?
00:56:53
Speaker
We're trying to, because what does alcohol do?
00:56:55
Speaker
What does porn do?
00:56:56
Speaker
What does watching binging movies do?
00:56:58
Speaker
It forces you to be present in the moment.
00:57:01
Speaker
right?
00:57:01
Speaker
And that's why people like it because that is yourself, right?
00:57:07
Speaker
You are someone who is present.
00:57:09
Speaker
That's your true self.
00:57:10
Speaker
It's not the person who's trying to deceive somebody.
00:57:12
Speaker
It's not the person who's worrying about something else.
00:57:14
Speaker
It's you in an abundant state present.
00:57:17
Speaker
That's why I like meditation is it helps you reach that state.
00:57:21
Speaker
So that's it.
00:57:22
Speaker
If you struggle with something, a vice of something like that,
00:57:26
Speaker
rather than turning towards that vice, the best and fastest way for you to grow your results externally with sales, with marketing, or personally, relationships, any of that, is to just stay present with yourself, to embrace that pain of what your body's trying to teach you, right?
00:57:43
Speaker
You feel that
00:57:45
Speaker
sense of something's wrong as a warning sign that you need to fix that, not you need to go drink or do whatever the other thing is.
00:57:54
Speaker
Um, it's easier said than done, of course.
00:57:56
Speaker
And I guess the final thing with this is I actually highly recommend therapy as well.
00:58:02
Speaker
Just working with therapists, not even a performance coach, like someone who could literally just talk through those things that you don't tell people that are only known behind closed doors.
00:58:13
Speaker
Uh,
00:58:14
Speaker
that was one of the big reasons I was able to kind of overcome this whole thing with the solar thing is I was able to tell somebody about what I've done and worked through it.
00:58:22
Speaker
So, yeah, I love that.
00:58:24
Speaker
So yeah, definitely if you are struggling, even guys that aren't struggling, I mean,
00:58:28
Speaker
I hear from coaches, high performers that seem like they have everything figured out.
00:58:34
Speaker
Even they have therapists.
00:58:36
Speaker
So I think that's kind of a myth is you don't have to be hard for struggling with stuff to need a therapist or someone to talk to.
00:58:43
Speaker
So I think they can help everybody.
00:58:46
Speaker
um so no I I think that's huge um go manage your emotions because um that's I think kind of the dark side of the industry just being high performers because unfortunately a lot of guys fall into those traps and vices so um you appreciate your feedback on that and um I think that's all the questions I had for you James we really um loved having you back on the show and um I mean I'm glad I could convince you I didn't have to sell you very hard but
00:59:15
Speaker
I'm glad I could convince you to come back on the show.
00:59:19
Speaker
But any final words of wisdom or lessons you learned or anything that we didn't cover that you want to share before we peace out here, James?
00:59:36
Speaker
Yeah, just focus on authenticity is the biggest thing the industry needs altogether.
00:59:42
Speaker
We like to put up the habit we have is we like to call it flex, right?
00:59:47
Speaker
If you go into any solar group, what do you find?
00:59:49
Speaker
It's one of two things.
00:59:52
Speaker
It's
00:59:53
Speaker
Someone bragging about their success within the industry.
00:59:56
Speaker
Hey, look at us, fast growing, did blah, blah, blah, right?
01:00:00
Speaker
Total just dick move, right?
01:00:03
Speaker
Like that doesn't actually help anybody, right?
01:00:05
Speaker
What are they doing?
01:00:06
Speaker
It's all purely selfish.
01:00:08
Speaker
But
01:00:08
Speaker
Most importantly, they're trying to show something, right?
01:00:11
Speaker
They're putting their card out there and saying, hey, look how tough we are, right?
01:00:16
Speaker
Realize that there's stuff behind closed doors you just don't see.
01:00:19
Speaker
As someone who's, I've coached and mentored so many CEOs in this industry.
01:00:25
Speaker
There's stuff you just don't see.
01:00:26
Speaker
I'll just leave it at that, right?
01:00:28
Speaker
There's certain things I can't say, but it's not what it appears to be.
01:00:33
Speaker
And then just realizing your strengths and doubling down on those.
01:00:36
Speaker
Like, you know, in general, if,
01:00:40
Speaker
you are a good salesperson.
01:00:42
Speaker
I mean, and as frank as it is, like, I believe anybody could be, you know, fairly good and make a decent living at sales if they're not a natural salesperson.
01:00:50
Speaker
But at the end of the day, you know if you have it or you don't have it.
01:00:53
Speaker
So.
01:00:54
Speaker
Sure, love it.
01:00:55
Speaker
Well, appreciate you, James, being vulnerable and coming back on the show.
01:00:58
Speaker
And even though you're not really in the industry anymore, but I know you'll do awesome.
01:01:03
Speaker
You got talent in what you're doing.
01:01:05
Speaker
And I'm sure guys will reach out to you if they need help on branding and all that.
01:01:09
Speaker
So thanks again, my man.
01:01:11
Speaker
And we'll hopefully have you back on maybe five years or I don't know, maybe the next year or something when James is doing the next big thing.
01:01:19
Speaker
But thanks again, my man.
01:01:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:23
Speaker
You got it, Taylor.
01:01:23
Speaker
Thanks, man.
01:01:26
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning into today's episode.
01:01:29
Speaker
I know when I got into the industry, I had almost no resources like this.
01:01:32
Speaker
So I hope this show is helping you get the success you deserve.
01:01:37
Speaker
If you found value from anything in this episode today, think about someone who can benefit so you and I can help people fulfill their potential.
01:01:44
Speaker
Zig Ziglar said, if you help enough people get what they want,
01:01:48
Speaker
you will get what you want.
01:01:49
Speaker
So I promise by sharing this, it will help you grow and improve.
01:01:53
Speaker
The value bombs on today's show will take you one step closer to success, but it's always to the degree that you apply and execute the principles.
01:02:01
Speaker
I've spent the last few years interviewing the top solar experts and helping other reps and businesses discover their potential.
01:02:08
Speaker
If you want more help achieving your goals, then I put together an exclusive video training on three hacks that helped me close multiple deals a week while knocking less than 10 hours.
01:02:18
Speaker
And who doesn't want that?
01:02:20
Speaker
So go check it out at webclass.solarpreneurs.com.
01:02:24
Speaker
Once again, that's webclass.solarpreneurs.com to get exclusive access to the training and take your skills to the next level.