Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you 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? 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. All right, what's going on, everybody? I'm excited to introduce today's guests. We got someone that i've been following for a while on social media. This guy dropped some controversial content and now he's been rocking with his own EPC up in ah the Central Valley of California for, i think, five years now. So excited to have Mr. Tom Davenport on the show with us. Thanks for coming on today, Tom.
Speaker: Yeah, good to be here. yeah yeah so um yeah we're just talking off the the mic off recording a little bit there but you were up in um fresno you've been going about five years and i know you do some like unique options as far as like getting people set up with solar which i think is really cool because a lot of people that i think listen the show a lot of times um we just got like one or two options and a lot of people don't know that there's different options for getting people set up so excited to dive into some of that and yeah hear what you got going on first of all for those that don't know you as much tom do you want to share just kind of like ah how you got into solar and your journey up to this point in solar yeah this this is solar coaster Yeah, it's it's been crazy. I did a year of PEST and I knew I wanted to door-to-door. I liked entrepreneurship. but I tried security and then I tried solar. I worked for Empower, MPWR Empower, when they were big in like 2021.
Speaker: Honestly, only least for two or three months, I was up in Tracy, you know, um by san San Francisco. It's pretty cold and windy. The installs were taking like three months and my buddies were down in in Midland, Texas. Now, I had like 100 grand in my pipeline and they had 100 grand in their bank account. I was like, what am I doing wrong? I mean, i think it's fine. I can do this. i have enough money from pests coming in to pay my bills, etc.
Speaker: But no one I recruit could go three months without pay. you know It's kind of like a niche opportunity of who can afford to do that. So I just went out to Midland, Texas. I sold for a few months. felt kind of guilty. I was kind of new to solar and I was like, is it legal? Like should I be making $60,000 a month just like sitting with people for two hours and it's like five way installs and 10 day pay? Yeah, actually it was like,
Speaker: I had this thing, I'm sure everyone goes through it where you're like, this this person knew how much I was making. Like, I feel dishonest. you know, I'm sure you've you've dealt that too. So like I got into roofing just because I felt like more honorable. i didn't I did insurance roofing. I started a company called Rise Above in Idaho in like July. That summer I took that money. It made like 200 grand in a few months. When started this roofing company.
Speaker: I did insurance roofing for a year. My customers still didn't like me because they're getting these checks from the whole, from the insurance. And then they have to give me the checks. And so, you know, they get, they get $15,000 from the insurance. I'm like, okay, Bob, you know give me the check. He's like, you're scanning me, you know, Jose's will do do it for half the cost. And I'm like, bro, that's insurance fraud. gave me The money the insurance gave you, you can't off, off of, off of a insurance claim. So I was like, you know what? Like I'm in sales. Like as long as i feel, as long as I'm doing what's right I'm being honest and I'm doing my best to help people, like I'm just going to make more money. There's no point in, i'm like I did all the math. You have to go homeowner's house, like for the the initial sale, the inspection, the ACV check, the RCV check. I'm going to the house like five times to make two grand in roofing. So my my buddy was selling in Fresno and they were getting next day installs.
Speaker: And I didn't really understand a lot at this point. You know, I i was in roofing. So I came and worked with Swift, sadly. swift i heard i don't know if I heard a Swift. Maybe it rings a bell. but Have you heard of Kiefer Taylor? Yeah, that sounds familiar too. Is that his company?
Speaker: Yeah. Long story short, the FBI actually interviewed me two years later to find out what was going on at Swift Energy. So okay it was it was pretty gnarly. I sold probably 15 deals and I went to their house. I met Kiefer.
Speaker: And after that, I never sold another deal. I kind of got a better idea of like, oh, this is actually sketchy. Like these installs, like you're not supposed to be able to install as fast. This was before SolRap Plus. Okay. I don't know.
Speaker: Do you remember when SolRap Plus came out? Yeah, I do remember that. Just where they can like get the permit way quicker. Yeah, it was like rumors on the wind. Like they're coming out with this next day permit stuff. You know, i was like, man, that's going to change the game. Yeah. Anyways, so I was like, man, if Kiefer can do this and he's a goober, like I was running a roofing company from A to Z. You know, I'm going to just get my own license and do this stuff myself. So I got licensed in 22. got c ten I got like an RMO, like a guy that has a C10, but it's it's my business. It's actually the same Rise Above business out of Idaho.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, the rest is history. I can go into every year and all the ups and downs and the headache it's been. But 22 down to 26, almost 27. So almost five years I've been running this EPC.
Speaker: And ah between Infinity going out of business and SolRy taking long pay us and thrive now that you never paid us from last year. Like it's, it's been a nightmare. It's been a roller coaster. It's been exhausting, but I, i wouldn't change it for the world, man. I've learned so much. I've, I've developed so much. I've gone through it a lot and I, I'm, I'm curious about your story. I should just go watch more of your stuff. Cause I'm sure that, Maybe you more know that, but like, I mean, you work for legacy that might just give me a little bit of context. So I know how I can talk or what to talk about. How long have you been there and manage a team there? What's going on? Yeah, no, it's actually my first day in solar, man. Just ah trying to see how you sell the thing.
Speaker: No, I'm just kidding. Well, um yeah, you have to go listen to some our other stuff. But yeah, basically, I've been in solar since 2016.
Speaker: ah Bounced around a few different EPCs, smaller dealers, things like that. So this is like my fourth company, I think. um But yeah, I mean, similar to you, just had a bunch that went out of business, didn't get paid a bunch of money from a few of them.
Speaker: And um yeah, part of the solar coaster. So now uh running with legacy a little bit a little bit bigger company and just growing the team down here in san diego so yeah it's been fun man but i'm curious so with the whole swift thing what happens um i don't know if you're like able to go into detail with that bro what went what went down with all that i mean this is the soul and i i'm literally writing a book on this it's it's called the solar dilemma like why are we in this pickle how did this debacle come to be But what happened in like 21, and you probably know know something more about this than me because you started in 2016. But i mean, banks just want to get money out.
Speaker: You know, as long as like they love doing home improvement loans, they love funding people. They love people agreeing to long payments where they make money. And solar is high ticket. So like Goodly, Concert in 21, they were getting into solar. or they didn't really understand it.
Speaker: They didn't understand that customers don't really receive a benefit back then and until PTO. Right. Because the the net metering, you're you're sending power back to the grid. You're getting credit for that.
Speaker: Now you don't. Now PTO doesn't really matter. Right. It's like it's mostly self-consumption that's saving you money in California. So their contracts were written like just like how they have their window contracts, you know, like, yeah, like install the stuff, send us a picture. We'll send you the money.
Speaker: So, i mean, people have been taking advantage of this. This is like this is part problem. Right. Is like the the sales guys don't really care. They just, they'll say whatever it takes. They get their money and they get out of town. You know, they're going to scam the grandmas in Fresno and then it go scam the grandmas in Texas. And then they'll go to Illinois and they'll just keep like they don't have to, they avoid the repercussions. a lot of these people end up not paying their bills.
Speaker: So the finance companies pull out and then the finance companies claw back on the EPCs. So the EPCs are left holding the bag and the EPCs, you know, um are put in a bad position. So they put the finances in a bad position. But long story short, it's like they were just funding loans for slapping panels on the roof.
Speaker: Even for just you could just put panels on the roof, not even on like a land ridge. if You didn't have to put the rails. Like you just literally could put a panel up there it from far off from the street. It looks like the panels are on.
Speaker: They don't have to plug it in. they don't have to make sure it's working. They certainly don't have to get a permit. They don't have to get permission to operate. So, and you go and look at the contract. And this is why, you know, Ketcher didn't go to jail. It's actually kind of smart.
Speaker: He put in the contract, hey, I'm just doing the install. So it's on the homeowner to get their permit. And it's on the homeowner to get PTO. They're just paying $7 a lot to install the panels.
Speaker: So that's what the contract said. So that's why it ended up not being fraud. So, and so why he's not in prison, I guess. So that's, i mean, that's kind of what I'm talking to the FBI. They called me over to their FBI building here in Fresno interviewed me. Yeah. And basically he, he ran up the banks to the tune of $20 million. dollars He slapped the panels on, he funded the jobs and most of those jobs never got to PTO and the customer never received the benefit and he got a hundred percent funded and ran off.
Speaker: And eventually, I think it kind of caught out to him because like the end of doing some installs and the finance are cost back. You only can do that for like a year and a half. That's part of the problem with solar, though, especially back then when you had the true ups at the end of the year.
Speaker: Right. So it's the other scam is you underbuild the systems, you max rate it because the the lady wouldn't have paid 400 bucks a month. So I'll sell you 200 bucks a month, six panels at seven dollars. Well, I'll make more money anyway. It's going to take you a year to find out and then I'll be out of town.
Speaker: So it's kind of a similar thing. is's like back then, it just took about a year for people to find out their system was undersized and about about a year for homeowners to get that first big bill. And they realized, hey, I bought this solar. been making payments, but it's not working.
Speaker: And that's when they go to the bank and they're like, they start saying, I'm paying for this. I got scammed. So that's about how long it takes for the base to finally go after the EPC. So that's how that's what happened with Swift. And like I said, I didn't know. I didn't really understand.
Speaker: I have a lot more appreciation for how difficult it actually is to get a permit and get to PTO and make sure everything matches now that I own an EPC. And today I do everything a to Z and I have AI agents that are running my whole company today, right now.
Speaker: So it's, I understand the entire process and it's not, I have a lot more appreciation for what EPCs are going through. Source sucks, man. Like you can go to Windows and install Windows,
Speaker: and just get paid as a contractor, the same margin, right? If your EPC makes 20%, you're going to be throwing a fit as a dealer. He's making so much money, he's making 20%. When new companies are making like a 50% margin or a 30% margin after their sales guys, 20% margin, And they don't have to get inspections half the time. They don't have to do PTO. They don't have to do meter callers. They don't have to make sure all the wattage and the voltage and the, it's just a nightmare on the backend.
Speaker: Like all the, and then you have a 10 year warranty, right? I mean, batteries, you have to go out and service them all the time. It's not like solar. Solar, you just plug it in. It's pretty good for like 10 years. Batteries are having issues. I would say for my customers, you know, I i take all my service calls.
Speaker: And I get in my customer service typically within two two weeks. i'm I'm servicing all my batteries every year. So it's like almost like I have 500 installs I've done. I'm pretty much doing 500 service calls a year.
Speaker: Like that's just freaking 500 installs. You can only imagine big companies that are doing 500 a month, right? Like the level of diligence it's going to take to operate that. So you made your 20%, but then you lose a bunch of money actually getting it to PTO.
Speaker: And then you're left holding a bag of 10 years of warranty that you're contractually obligated to do because your sales rep made those promises and you're actually legally, it's in your contract. It's ah it's a California requirement.
Speaker: So that's why being a solar EPC becomes a Ponzi. After like three to five years, you might as well just go out of business because the the liability of your warranties can yield a profit. Wow. Right. It's not, sounds like a headache. Yeah. it's It's a headache, bro. Like say a dealer, hundred percent, sell solar, avoid the headache. I have different goals, right? Like I, um, when I was choosing which industry, i you know, I sold Pest.
Speaker: Pest is a dialed machine. so is security. I worked with Vivint, you know, like so is roofing. People have been roofing for a hundred years. You're competing with guys that, that buy all of their supply in their warehouse two years in advance at the cheapest possible rate.
Speaker: right So these these games aren't new. People have been playing them for a while. But I came into solar and it was just a shit show. It's just ah it's just a mess. And so that's why it's because you know one one thing i learned from solar is you you get paid according to the size of the problem you're solving.
Speaker: right So the the solar has a, the industry of solar has a huge amount of problems. Like these these problems are billion dollar, probably trillion dollar problems. Catastrophic problems that we're dealing with in the industry right now with the financers are pulling out. And you can't, you don't think solar power is going to go away, but we're just not doing it right.
Speaker: So that's why I stayed. And that's why I got into all of the backend and really tried to understand the problem over the last five years. Cause I wanted to be a part of the solution on a broader scale. Like how do we fix this and how do I be a part of fixing that?
Speaker: Cause that seems like lucrative opportunity where I didn't see that opportunity in those, those machines. Like, yeah, I can make a million, two, three million, just building a team and plugging in, but I'm not going to like, I'm not to have an opportunity to solve problems that haven't been solved before and be rewarded for Yeah. Well, that's crazy, man. So five years. So when you first started your EPC, where you kind of like planning that? Did you anticipate some of these headaches and problems and you had that vision in the back your head? I'm going solve a lot of these problems or was this something that came after couple of years or something of running it? How that unfold? No, I think I had the vision pretty early on, probably that summer,
Speaker: and I got licensed at first just because I thought I could do a better job than Kiefer. and you know i'm I'm at home making promises to homeowners, but just don't trust anyone to keep my promises. I don't. you know It's like someone told me it was going to be 45 days to install. It takes 90 days. Or someone told me it takes 45 days to turn it on after it's installed. It takes 150 days or...
Speaker: Someone told me that they get serviced within two weeks and it's taking them two months to get serviced. So I just I hate being at home and being like, Hey, at the end of the day, I'm just your sales guy. Like, I know you trusted me, but like I was just doing when I was told. And at the end of the day I don't trust these big companies. They're doing 500 installs a month to take care of my customers the way I would like to take care of them So I was like, my I want to keep selling solar. I knew the money was good. i just wanted to feel good about it. It's like, how do I sell this product and feel good about it? So that's the first reason I got started. But then in that summer, i wrote it down in my journal. Like I had the goal of like, I want to be like someone.
Speaker: I want to own the installer. I want to own the sales team. And I want to own the finance portion, the tax credit portion. So I had that goal and I literally tried to do that. i started those conversations in 23 and I've just kind of been on a journey to to make all of that happen. And that's really, really difficult. I feel like I'm really close. I've got like a term sheet to build right now. And I got an ITC offtaker that's supposed to give me term sheet this week. i you have to get a cost seg report and you have to get an appraisal and you have to get insurance for the guy who's buying the tax credits. It's like a nightmare. But like, also it's fun to learn all the the little pieces. And I understand people a little bit better when they're not paying me. It was like, oh, Thrive, like you got funded at this at the get-go, but your ITC buyer didn't really agree to the way you were building these systems. Specifically, they were just... Max rating the systems. You know what I'm about?
Speaker: Just for like prepaid, like thrive, the whole prepaid PPA thing. Yeah. HTM has been doing it for years. um And guys, guys get away with it to this day. My understanding is because HTM has like a real buyer that purchases it. at that price.
Speaker: They just use the price that was prepaid to establish market value. It's pretty easy. Like, well, this customer paid market value so you can buy it at this price too. But the Thrive was like, oh yeah, we're going to do it a little bit higher than HTM. It shouldn't be a problem. We're just going to copy them.
Speaker: and At the end of the day, they couldn't actually replicate it. And their buyer was like, no, we want proof of exactly what was funded to the customer and exactly what went from this bank to that bank. And then you're just like, oh shit, you know, 400 grand because you guys can't keep your promises. And I don't know, like, i don't know if I like to talk to my lawyer before I say too much.
Speaker: But basically I tried to sue them. I don't blame them. um But then I gave up because it's like 12 months out. you know if you you file ah ah I'm sure you've tried to sue someone before. It sounds like a lot of people, you've had opportunities to lose money too in solar.
Speaker: yeah yeah I can file. It's going to take eight months. The guy's going to be bankrupt in four months. I'm like the fifth person on his list. I don't think Thrive is going bankrupt by any means. It seems like they're in a good spot. They just basically re-net and couldn't do what they said they could do. But I'm just selling those jobs to someone else. There's like a competitor. So anyone else is stuck in that situation where they didn't get paid on Thrive jobs, the guy that's paying me is paying me a lot less than Thrive is going to pay me. But there are some opportunities and they can DM me. They didn't get paid. I'm excited about that. Hopefully they pay me here relatively soon. Yeah, that's good. Well, so I'm i'm just impressed that you've been able to weather some of these storms because it sounds like you've had Thrive, maybe other financiers that haven't paid you, things like that. And I've seen some pretty big companies and stop paying, yeah go out of business. you know You said you're just in central value. So yeah, what's been your secret? How have you been able to weather some of these storms? And keep going, man, because I'm i'm pretty impressed that you've been able to... Just keep it going after some of this monkey business going on.
Speaker: Yeah, my my exposure is way higher. You know, when when Core Energy, ran by Cole Farmer, went out of business, they had like 300 grand in, we were letting them do the installs. So it was just 300 grand in commissions. You know, maybe I had $50,000 of roofs and NPUs that I had paid for, but like I wasn't on the hook for another $250,000 of materials in labor, you know? So as sales guy, you really mitigate a lot of that risk.
Speaker: When, when later that, that same summer I was running as an integrated partner under infinity, energy and infinity went out of business i was doing the installs and i was buying the materials they would be 600 grand and my margin was probably only 10 20 you know spent 400 grand to install 600 grand receivables four hundred grand to install six hundred grand of receivables So my my risk was way higher than it would be as a sales rep, you know, and same thing with these thrive deals, same thing with SoulRite and 24.
Speaker: So, I mean, to answer your question, the reason I'm still in business is probably three things. One is like, I'm an APC and I'm a closer, you know, I probably close like half my business and I don't really take my commissions. So I'm rolling like half a million dollars of commissions each year to resurrect me from what would have killed me, right?
Speaker: Or to... or to close the gap. And most EPCs don't have that luxury. They're just like electrician dudes. they don't They're not like selling deals and they have like ah a greater margin because of that. Another one is because I'm the sole owner. I don't want to be a sole owner. Like I'm sick of it. It's it's a headache.
Speaker: But because I i am a sole owner, I'm willing to follow my sword. i'm willing to take responsibility for everything. I can't ever defer and be like, well, this is someone else's decision. and I'm just out of here. I'm just not going to give up because I can only blame myself.
Speaker: And I'd rather just like, so I'm like, I'm relentless. I'm like an animal. It's hard to kill me. Cause like, I see it as just me and like, I'm going to fight until I die. so like I'm most businesses, like you're just like a CEO and don't really own it or you, it's just a job. And like, at some point you're like, ah, dude, like we took a $400,000 loss. Like, let's just take the L on this one. i got a job better job offer over here. so again, it's like a, I'm just a little bit relentless because I had that vision in 23 of the the Sunrun competition and really coming in and making a difference in the industry. but i could be wrong. like I might not be making that difference with Bright House. We're a small EPC.
Speaker: at the end of the day, it might just be me that's learning these lessons through Bright House that will then be able to impact the industry more. from my mastermind group or from my book or some sort of impact, or maybe I just, maybe it's the financing solution that I put in place. Cause that's going to be really cool. It's going to pay the EPCs and the sales reps residual payments for 30 years.
Speaker: So, if i can If I can roll that out, I think it'll help us all be on the same team about, hey, we all get paid over time. It's a benefit to us if these customers make their monthly payments and if they weren't lied to and if they're happy customers. Maybe more like health insurance or life insurance where you really want to keep your customers on for life. and you really You're not just like anything to get those panels up and then I'm out they kind of like Rearrange the incentive structure there.
Speaker: So it doesn't have to be with my EPC. And in fact, it kind of shouldn't be because it needs to be an arm's length transaction. So I might, I might just end up being like a developer that kind of like SoulWrite or some, or like Goodleap or someone that just like manages these deals. And I have a unique perspective because I understand exactly what the sales reps, the EPCs are dealing with. And I, I pretty good understanding of the banks because I've been talking to bankers for two years trying to get my, rep my project going.
Speaker: Yeah, that's cool. So do you have, ah you install for like other dealers or you got like in-house sales reps? You said you're closing most of your own, a lot of the volume that your EPC does, but what does that look like? Are you trying to grow, um link up with other dealers and all that? or what's the current situation with all that?
Speaker: Yeah, I really want to bring in dealers. um What is my problem with that? Nothing. I honestly, I kind of discovered this like 60 days ago and I was really, really angry with myself.
Speaker: So like my product, if you hear my story, my product is for sales dudes in solar that wish that their EPC had, they wish they could get these deals through. They wish they could take care of their customers a little bit better. They wish they could get installed faster. Like I, like my product is for me as a sales guy,
Speaker: Like I felt like my APC couldn't honor timelines. They couldn't keep commitments. My customers were let down. Cause I was like a big cog in a wheel. You know, just, I was just, I cared more about my customers than they could. Cause they were a machine.
Speaker: They're doing 500 install like Sunrun, you know, they're like, nah, bro, I don't like that deal. You know, it's like, you know, i don't want to do a ground mount in that location. Or like, this this is like a manufactured home, you know, like whatever it is.
Speaker: They're just like, dude, we yeah we're we don't need to do that. It's a pain in the butt, you know, versus this is my deal. I've got a $10,000 commission. want make it happen. I built this product for who? Really, it's for dealers.
Speaker: Really, it's for guys that are selling solar. For some reason, that didn't click for me. So my first three years, I was just advertising like you would probably as a manager. was like, look for me. recruiting guys on on my team, but they didn't really understand the value prop. What they needed was more of like a structured program. Like you might have a son on a new son. and There's a lot of things a program requires, you know, you gotta have a manager, gotta have the rabbit, you gotta have guys out there having success. You gotta have, layers of pressure and competitions. There's so many things that are required to build a good program. And so, you know, would have been way easier for me just overnight. Like, like I did like a month ago, I just, I spent like a thousand bucks pushing an ad out to dealers and I got like 50 leads. I got like 50 leads for 50 bucks. And it was, that's like less than I pay for a solar lead.
Speaker: And all these, and all these leads are like texting me and calling me back. Like they're actually interested. Unlike my solar leads, you know what I'm saying? Maybe you do better online with, you know, solar marketing, but I've always had a hard time with my online solar leads. They're getting like 50 different calls. Maybe it's because they just are in the market and they're clicking multiple ads.
Speaker: They're always like window shopping. They want the cheapest bid. The only time you're going to be successful with that is if you're like working for Freedom Forever and you can beat everyone's price. But then you realize that that's just a Ponzi scheme and you can't do that forever. Yeah. So, exactly so, so my product is for guys that are dealers that want to, they want to get their failed credits done.
Speaker: They want to get paid to NTP. They want to feel a little bit better about what they're selling the customer. I mean, I'm really passionate. I can go, you know, we can go at it about ppas if you want just like for me it's like absolutely um like unquestionable if you're selling a ppa at 240 and i can give them the same amount of panels and the same amount of batteries at 240 with no escalator and they actually own it you know i'm saying like for me that's it's so much superior in every way to any person actually looks at the contract that it really just like my video says like it blows my mind like why are you selling that
Speaker: And like, even if you did, even if like 30% of the people or even 50% of the people like drank the Kool-Aid and really believed all the PPA stories about why it's still better to have a PPA, certainly 50% of the people would be like, no, like my customers want to fix great, you know?
Speaker: But as I've talked to all these people, i've I've realized like it is a bit more of the culture shifted a lot. Like in 21, everyone was selling ownership and they were kind of like, oh, lease, why would you do lease? Now the culture is like,
Speaker: dude alone is like basically a scam. And I think that comes from like, if you have a company that's mainly doing PPAs, like you can't afford for your reps to be like thinking too much. Like they just gotta, to and I get that bro, like stay streamlined. That's the con, right? as As you get more financial products,
Speaker: You lose deals. You really do. Cause you're going to have to pivot. And like, I can do it. Cause like I've been doing this for a long time and I understand financing, but that's not going to, that's going be a scalable system.
Speaker: If you're recruiting guys and teaching a product and you're kind of trying to keep it simple, even though I i can, even on me for me, I constantly am like, do I really want to tell this guy that I can get him a fixed rate?
Speaker: Because I know that the paperwork is going to be a little more complex. I'm going to have to get three documents signed. I could just sign like one Solright PPA right now. And it probably would be easier. I could avoid a lot of questions. I could do the like no lien, no loan thing. It's just you get the panels and the rate goes up. You're just buying power from us.
Speaker: Yeah. But I just morally, I can't do it, man. I i probably would have more money if I did, honestly. But I just like, I know that this customer is going to pay $30,000 more for that system.
Speaker: And I just like, can't, I can't get myself not to say, dude, you should go for a fixed rate. And that's just that's just how I feel about it. And it's been it's been crazy.
Speaker: But yeah, but I'm just shortly what I do is I get them a 30 year loan. Okay. And then I have a way to get them the tax credit. It's kind of like HDM. But instead of the EPC getting the cash, the homeowner is going to get the cash.
Speaker: So i'm I'm selling I'm sure you sold loans before. Yeah, of course. I'm selling exactly how we did when people were getting the tax credit. I'm like, yeah, this is going to be your monthly payment. The only reason it would go up is if you decided to keep your cash back. you know um But what's nice about it is it's it's guaranteed cash back. It's in the black and white. It's guaranteed. It's actually, I prefer it.
Speaker: It's easier. And it's usually more than 30%. you know? Wow. So it's not just a tax credit. It's like guaranteed money they're getting back then. well this it is just like a tax credit, but you have the, you're doing a prepaid PPA. The company's claiming the tax credit.
Speaker: Yeah. And then they're sending most of it to the homeowner in the form of a check. Oh, okay. So, so like with HDM, right? HDM has a fee. If it's an energy community and it's domestic product, HDM is getting 50% back.
Speaker: but they they only give you like 30%. So they're they're making 20%, like that's their business model. So standing with these guys, but instead of giving the 30% to the EPC, they're giving it to the homeowner.
Speaker: So the the benefit of that is two things. One, I think it sounds cooler to the homeowner. And two, that means I get to charge normal price. That means I get paid at install because I hate HDN. Like I hate solar because I can't get paid ever. It's like I'm only making 20% and the PTO payment is 20% in three months. So it's like i like I'm never actually making money because I always have shit in the pipeline that cost me money to install and I'm only making 20%.
Speaker: Again, maybe not as much of a problem for a sales rep. So it's it's really a huge benefit if I can just charge normal prices, get paid my normal margin at install, and then the homeowner waits for the payment. yeah So that solves, I've been doing that this year and it solved a lot of my cashflow issues.
Speaker: and and And because it's the 30 year after the cashback, the payment matches what the customer is going to be paying with a three, five and fin in an energy community. Right. Cause also don't, I also don't have to use like propel bro. Like they're they're only 25 year, 10 and a half.
Speaker: I have a 30 year 9% and they have, you have to use like Enphase, which is the most expensive materials by far. Like, yeah like Enphase will be like 30% more. Like if I'm spending 30 grand with a Tesla system, I will spend 40 with Enphase.
Speaker: Right. Like, and if that's a customer, like $10,000, that can be my commission. I like, I could have given it to him $10,000 cheaper. Yeah. yeah and And no one knows about that product. I've been talking to like 30, 40 people and no one knows what I'm talking about. And most of it's like misinformation about products and a misunderstanding. And again, maybe that's because I'm starting my financial product and I actually have these conversations like six hours a week. Like i like I just, i just kind of, most people just got to do what they're told, but I can kind of like, you know, see through the lines and see, well, what's actually going on there and um get partnerships that maybe other people aren't aware of
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. I'm excited to hear more. i haven't, I've heard a few things similar to that, but, um, not to the extent you're talking about. So, um, yeah, excited to dive more into it. So I know you had a hard, hard stop with it, with another call, Tom. So, uh, we'll, we'll break this into a a part two, if that's okay with you, but, um, we'll, we'll leave people hanging a little bit, hopefully get it and get their mouths drooling to, uh, uh, hear a little bit more about, I'm excited to maybe, you know, debate some of the PPA stuff too.
Speaker: So we'll leave that for a second part. But um yeah, man, we appreciate you coming on. And then, yeah, I'm excited. We'll talk about a little bit more about your your book and stuff like that you're planning for the next one.
Speaker: But um they thanks for diving in with us today. And um yeah, we'll we'll we'll do the part soon here, coming up soon for all the listeners. Yeah, brother. Nice to meet you. I appreciate it And I look forward to reconnecting.
Speaker: Okay, let's go. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego. And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first two SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
Speaker: So go solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show. Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day.
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45
Speaker: Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
Speaker: This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.
