Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: I'm Taylor Armstrong, host of the Solopreneur Podcast, and we're here with Kenny Crosby.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on with us, Kenny.
Speaker: Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: a good time so we just finished up the knock start and it's actually getting ready to pack my bags to venting McCarthy comes up and says yo dude you gotta get this guy on he's been working with me for you know what how long has it been close to 18 years 18 years long time
Speaker: So, yeah, any recommendation that comes from Taylor McCarthy, you know, is going to be top notch.
Speaker: So I'm like, well, all right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Let's, if Taylor's recommending it, then we're going to get this guy on.
Speaker: So, yeah, excited to have you on, Kenny.
Speaker: So do you want to kind of tell us your story, how you got into door-to-door?
Speaker: And, I mean, you've been doing this forever.
Speaker: So that's kind of how you got into it.
Speaker: I've seen quite a bit over the years.
Speaker: I've been really blessed to have a long career.
Speaker: I started selling in New York when I was about 16, 17 years old, right before my freshman year in college.
Speaker: I was selling Verizon files door to door.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Like my one friend from high school, like, you know, I didn't have a lot.
Speaker: I had like a hand-me-down car.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Paid like 500 bucks for it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And like I was lucky to be able to start it every day, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And this kid Justin, he's showing up with brand new WRX and like has all this stuff and like literally isn't worrying about anything.
Speaker: I was like, dude, what are you doing?
Speaker: Like I was working at TGI Fridays at the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's like, yeah, I'm knocking doors.
Speaker: This is what I'm doing.
Speaker: Come to work with me.
Speaker: So I went in, I sat on the correlation with him and I was like, oh, I'm, I can definitely do this.
Speaker: I can definitely, you guys, this is what you guys look like and I'll do and like, this is what's going on.
Speaker: Like we can definitely do this.
Speaker: And I sucked for like the first month and a half.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, I don't know if I can do this, dude.
Speaker: I'll never forget.
Speaker: I got my first sale on Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And that kind of changed the game forever because like once I felt like what making a,
Speaker: true cold call sale was that adrenaline rush.
Speaker: I was like, I'm hooked.
Speaker: This is a new sport.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And then from there, I mean, I sold in New York.
Speaker: I went down to
Speaker: No, I went to Chicago.
Speaker: Me and T worked out in Chicago for a while, selling alarms out there.
Speaker: Lived in Colorado, Detroit, California, Florida, Boston, all over the map.
Speaker: So we get to see a lot of cool people in our country here too.
Speaker: Sounds like it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: You've been all over.
Speaker: So at what point, how old were you when you first met Taylor then?
Speaker: I was about 17.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you met him pretty soon after you first started then?
Speaker: Yeah, that was about, I started selling door to door probably about four and a half months, six months before I met T. Okay.
Speaker: So I was going to school up in Albany, New York.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Taylor was in an office in Boston.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I guess he won a sales competition to come and help like groom the new Albany market.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And me and him were the only like kids in the office.
Speaker: So we kind of just like became friends naturally and then just started competing.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Did you ever beat him in a, in a sell off or anything?
Speaker: There was one day in my whole 18 year career that I got to beat T. Yeah.
Speaker: So at least there's one day.
Speaker: But every other day that he actually went to work and tried, no, there wasn't a shot.
Speaker: I think Danny Pesce has one day, too.
Speaker: Yeah, there's not many of us that ever have a day on T, dude.
Speaker: Yeah, pretty impressive, though.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And so what was it like?
Speaker: I mean, you got in super young.
Speaker: Was it pretty nerve-wracking being that young?
Speaker: Because I started when I was 18, and I remember going out in that first door, and I'm like, oh, I'm way too young to be doing this, and all those thoughts and everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did that go through your mind?
Speaker: Well, you know what?
Speaker: I think I was more excited for it all.
Speaker: The traveling aspect, being able to leave my hometown and go out and see new places.
Speaker: After a while though, it gets old.
Speaker: Like living out of a suitcase, having single serving friends every time you go to a new state, you know what I mean?
Speaker: Like until you really evolve in the space and like you meet some guys that have also been in the space for a long time.
Speaker: Now you've built some really cool friendships, but like looking back on it,
Speaker: Did I have a blast at 19 years old living in a hotel room in Chicago playing NHL with Taylor for fucking six months?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There was probably a lot more fun stuff that my friends were doing back home.
Speaker: But I think the way we treated it as a game and as a competition all the time and always in a new market, it kind of really kept us on our toes.
Speaker: And like we became obsessed about it because it was the only thing that we did.
Speaker: Like when he tells you he slept in his shirt and his badge.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: For weeks.
Speaker: Like all summer in Detroit, I don't know if the kid changed his clothes.
Speaker: But he went balls to the wall and he set the tone every single day, like out of the house, really freaking early sandwiches stuffed in his pockets.
Speaker: And it set the tone, right?
Speaker: Because it raised the bar.
Speaker: Everybody else, you know, sold up to that level.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Do you think was your whole group kind of like that or was Taylor the one that was like taking?
Speaker: No, he always forced all of us to level up.
Speaker: Like our whole squad was thrown down and it was good because it just, it wasn't acceptable.
Speaker: Like if he did, like he would go out and do 11 on a Saturday, you know?
Speaker: So to come back with even like a three spot is like, dude, did you even work?
Speaker: You know, so it's really good.
Speaker: There's been days I hated T. But like 18 years back, like best friend on the planet.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: You've been able to learn from him.
Speaker: I mean, look where both of you are at now.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: I mean, honestly, if it weren't for him, like when I really made the jump to be like, all right, I'm going back into door-to-door sales and like we're going to give it everything I had.
Speaker: I think I had like $600 in my pocket.
Speaker: I spent like $350 on a plane ticket.
Speaker: And if it weren't for T saying, dude, I got you.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: I promise this is the real deal.
Speaker: Like you're good.
Speaker: Come out and fucking work.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If I didn't take that leap of faith back then on that, like who freaking knows?
Speaker: Like, so I'm super thankful for the journey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Do you think, well, when you first got in, did you imagine yourself being in it for what?
Speaker: 18 years now?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Or was it kind of like, I'm going to do this for, he was like, yeah, I'll make a couple bucks.
Speaker: I'll like pay for beer money while I'm at college.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then it was like, well, every other job wants me to clock in and be here certain times and pay me only this much.
Speaker: And I was like, I just can't.
Speaker: I have a problem working for people.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: I don't want you to drink the Kool-Aid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I mean, yeah, this job is really giving you
Speaker: all kinds of freedoms and all kinds of experiences.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So something I think was really cool to see in you and, you know, Taylor guys that have been in it for super long time now is just like the longevity.
Speaker: You guys been doing this forever.
Speaker: And, um, something I like tell my newer reps and stuff like that is to just treat it like a career and show up and think of it more as a career because I don't know about you.
Speaker: Well, I was same as you when I first got into pest control was back in 2012.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, this is just, yeah, paying for my food at my university and stuff, hanging out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So did you have something that, like, shifted in your head?
Speaker: Just start thinking about more like a career or, I don't know, any tips you'd give maybe, like, managers on how to get their reps to, like, take it seriously and not just think of it as just, like, a thing they're going to do for a couple months?
Speaker: I think from early on, uh...
Speaker: We all traveled together.
Speaker: There was a bunch of us.
Speaker: Like I said, if you haven't had Jordan Levent on, you need to.
Speaker: Jordan was my roommate in Detroit, right?
Speaker: Kurt Lebrecht, Justin Kosco.
Speaker: There's a lot of us that have been in the game for a long time, and we all traveled to these same markets.
Speaker: And I think that speaks a lot about T because he built a really good culture, and we knew he had our back, and we wanted to sell the win as a unit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I think what's really cool and what really kept me in it is I grew this family as we traveled the country for seven years.
Speaker: And that, like, without even looking at it, it was like, okay, this is, like, I guess we have our 10,000 hours in now.
Speaker: And, like, we're professionals.
Speaker: I don't want to go put 10,000 hours in to learn something new.
Speaker: And then once you really start scaling teams, I think the next level, aside from your own accolades when you're selling, is –
Speaker: watching other people have success.
Speaker: Like I was dirt broke.
Speaker: I don't worry about anything anymore.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But there was a time where I was willing to take a risk and to see that same thing happen with some new guys right now that might be in a situation like I was 20 years ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And to see them like be 22 years old, buying brand new cars and like not worrying about stuff, moving out of their parents' house.
Speaker: I'm like, and just like feeling really confident about what they're doing and like coming into, you know,
Speaker: Their mature personality is, like, super cool to see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think that's what kind of keeps us going now.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And just, like, a rising tide lifts all ships.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so I think what's really cool with going on with Noxstar and stuff that you do, like, you should shed light on the industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To keep guys engaged, to keep guys transparent so that they can have a long career.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a lot of...
Speaker: It's a really cool career.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And the cool thing is when guys start treating it like a career instead of just like a part-time thing they're going to do for their beer money or whatever.
Speaker: For me, I've seen guys like, you know, double their results just by making that shift in their head.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This is like, you know, a career.
Speaker: This is when we commit.
Speaker: We had, you know, Ty, uh, Ty, uh, see, you know, on the podcast yesterday and he talked about how just like once he decided to commit, that's when he became, you know, beast, closed the 250 deals, uh,
Speaker: in solar so for those that are listening if you were on the fence about how committed you are if you're treating this like a part-time job i mean just remember you're gonna get part-time results but if you really want to be some of the dinosaurs in the industry like kenny here you know people i've been doing solar six years now people like oh my gosh that's like forever
Speaker: I've been doing it just like a year that's crazy that's six years I feel like I just barely started still but like in solar that's a long time there's there's nights where I'll like literally wake up and I'm in a dream and I'm like at a kitchen table yeah I'm like that's when you kind of know you know exactly but yeah so Kenny tell me uh how did you like transition to solar eventually and I know you started off in what was it satellite is that what you said
Speaker: Yeah, I started selling cable, transitioned to alarms.
Speaker: We were in California at the time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: A little town called Wrightwood up in the mountains.
Speaker: And at this point, I'd been on the road for a long time.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like I hadn't been home in a long time.
Speaker: A lot of relationships got affected by it, you know.
Speaker: I'd miss my brother's high school graduation, like my little sister's growing up.
Speaker: My dad got sick, and it was kind of just like...
Speaker: We all got home from work one day and there was this guy named Jesse Folsom sitting on the couch in our living room.
Speaker: And T's like, yo, you should probably listen.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, what's up?
Speaker: And Jesse told us about Solar City and the opportunity to move back to the East Coast.
Speaker: And we all kind of just looked at each other and we're like, we're kind of burnt out of alarms.
Speaker: We've been running at this for a minute now.
Speaker: Solar sounds like a really cool change of pace.
Speaker: And I would love an opportunity to get back to the East Coast.
Speaker: Because I hadn't seen my family in a long time.
Speaker: Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker: So, um, and you guys were selling alarms year round too, or it's just like in the summer we were doing blitzes, but because we were in California, like we were trickling them in as a year round thing.
Speaker: Like we went super, super hard for the summer, but because we were in a year round market, we would go whenever.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But yeah, it wasn't until I think 2011, 2012, the flip of that year when I got back to the East Coast and started doing solar.
Speaker: Started in Massachusetts in the middle of a snowstorm.
Speaker: There's like two and a half feet of snow on the ground.
Speaker: And I'm out there learning how to do solar.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: Was it pretty different back then?
Speaker: I mean, back then solar was just barely becoming a thing.
Speaker: We didn't know what the hell we were doing.
Speaker: Yeah, it was like, the site survey trucks will be here on Thursday.
Speaker: Fill out this form and, you know, I think this is what your power will be.
Speaker: And, yeah, we threw a lot of shit on the walls in the beginning and shit didn't stick.
Speaker: And we learned pretty quickly how the right way to sell solar was.
Speaker: You know, once you learn how to not do it,
Speaker: Over enough, you really learn what doesn't work.
Speaker: Yeah, especially back then.
Speaker: Yeah, the industry has changed a lot, dude.
Speaker: We were only selling PPAs.
Speaker: There wasn't any – you couldn't even do a loan.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And think about the market now.
Speaker: Who really sells leases?
Speaker: I mean, I guess it depends on what state you're in, but for me, I've been selling loans for eight years now.
Speaker: I don't think I've ever sold a PPA since the early Solar City days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: California, we've still got quite a few of them, but... Do you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But other markets, it's like...
Speaker: Yeah, that's all they do is loans pretty much.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Changed a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: And so you were with SolarCity for how long, man?
Speaker: Probably about six years.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I was actually in a house when Lyndon sent out an email.
Speaker: Lyndon was like, we had a call on like Wednesday night with Lyndon.
Speaker: And he was like, yeah, we're doubling down on direct.
Speaker: And we were like all super pumped.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and then I was in a house on Friday at like 3 o'clock in the afternoon I get an email and it's like mandatory call for everybody in an indirect at 530 and I was like okay I finished writing that deal hopped on the zoom call and it was like yeah all of direct is finished effective immediately and we were like what?
Speaker: And the industry kind of got crazy from that point forward.
Speaker: That was probably about four and a half years ago.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And then that's when all those, you know, solar cities just started jumping to other companies and all that.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's crazy, man.
Speaker: Yeah, so you've been doing this forever.
Speaker: So you've been with Taylor the entire time.
Speaker: You guys were always the same company, same?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We've had the same small group the whole freaking time.
Speaker: Jeez.
Speaker: Yeah, we've been selling with the same group of guys for a super long time now.
Speaker: That's even more.
Speaker: I think that's the first time I've heard that someone has later been selling in the same company, same company.
Speaker: Well, so Home Nerds is new.
Speaker: Home Nerds is new now.
Speaker: Actually, so we'll back up.
Speaker: Taylor and I actually came down to Florida to start selling roofs in Naples, like insurance claims and stuff.
Speaker: Great industry.
Speaker: There's a ton of money to be made there, but we just didn't do our research, and we ended up working with a company.
Speaker: I'm not going to say their name, and they just – not somebody I wanted to grow with.
Speaker: Lost trust.
Speaker: Couldn't recruit for them, so therefore I can't build there, right?
Speaker: And T and I were like, dude,
Speaker: we know exactly what we're doing.
Speaker: Why are we trying to build somebody else an organization at this point?
Speaker: There's a certain way things need to be done.
Speaker: You need to treat people with dignity and respect and the perfect customer experience.
Speaker: So honestly, the only reason we did this... Hell, my life would be a hell of a lot easier just working for an EPC selling deals on my own.
Speaker: But the reason we did it and we had to do it in our mind was because we had to provide salespeople with the perfect experience, customers with the perfect customer experience, and provide the right type of training.
Speaker: You know, because...
Speaker: There's a lot of stuff out there that people just don't pay attention to.
Speaker: That means a lot.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And so for our listeners that don't know, I don't know if we introduced this, but you were CEO of Home Nerds.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And that's yours.
Speaker: You and Taylor started it together, right?
Speaker: Yeah, and Suki as well.
Speaker: And Suki, okay.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: Yeah, so they're crushing deals down there.
Speaker: Yeah, doing them a ton.
Speaker: But yeah, that's funny.
Speaker: I hear a lot of things that you say that Taylor says too, so I can definitely tell that you guys are working together.
Speaker: Yeah, dude.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So no, yeah.
Speaker: Like what in particular just stuck out to you?
Speaker: Well, the perfect customer experience.
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: Taylor trains on that all the time and
Speaker: Yeah, but it's a big deal.
Speaker: It is a big deal, right?
Speaker: Especially for a rep too.
Speaker: If you bring in too many reps and you don't have the right systems and you don't have the right culture and you don't have the right belief instilled, then that guy's going to have a bad experience and he's going to leave.
Speaker: And that might have been the opportunity to get a career guy in the industry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But because you did him a disservice his first six weeks, he's back to work in a footlocker.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And his life sucks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that's on me because I didn't give him the right experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that and I've learned a lot from Taylor talking about perfect customer experience, perfect rep experience if you're leading a team or running an office because if you're not creating goals, you're losing customers, you're losing your reps and then you're not feeling as good about the service, you're not as confident in what you're offering to your reps and your customers.
Speaker: But yeah, well, that's something we can talk about.
Speaker: Do you want to talk about like stuff you guys do at home nerds?
Speaker: I know Taylor's probably does a lot of different things too.
Speaker: Stuff that you guys do to create a perfect customer experience and also a perfect experience for like your reps and people working with you guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I guess we'll start with the reps.
Speaker: One thing that we really, really, really try and do, I think it works best when you have new reps come in in like a class situation.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Don't just hire one guy because you have one guy to hire.
Speaker: you have a set training regiment and whether it's you have a new hire class every week or you run two a month, but you don't hire that class until there's whatever the number is, five bodies.
Speaker: So you got five guys coming in together.
Speaker: Now they're kind of looking at each other as like the support group, but they're also gauging their own success six months later, a year later.
Speaker: Like if you came in with five guys and you're the only guy standing from your group, you know what I mean?
Speaker: Or like you're,
Speaker: you're, let's say you're almost like you, you're bageling every single day, but the three other guys that were hired in your onboarding class are killing it.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It kind of makes it easier.
Speaker: It's like, dude, maybe this isn't for you type of deal.
Speaker: And I feel like there's a lot of more competition that comes along with it and they want to stand out in that new hire class.
Speaker: So I think having a system in place where
Speaker: A, onboarding is easy.
Speaker: People, who was it that said it?
Speaker: Mendez said it, right?
Speaker: Like a super simple system that the people know exactly how they're being rewarded for recruiting.
Speaker: And it's a cookie cutter fashion.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you really, really, really spend time developing your middle leaders.
Speaker: I think that's where a lot of the bottlenecks will and could happen if you don't... If the people that you're delegating your authority to aren't tens, if you didn't put everything you had into those people, it's the law of the lid, right?
Speaker: They can't go and groom tens.
Speaker: So I think it really... Your middle management, the guys that you're relying on to beat the drum and carry the carriage...
Speaker: they got to know the vision.
Speaker: They got to feel loved, truly supported.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that you have their back in their decision-making to let somebody go.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Because one deal doesn't matter.
Speaker: The culture of the team matters.
Speaker: So I don't care if you're, nobody wants to play with Keyshawn Johnson or Antonio Brown.
Speaker: I don't care how many touchdowns you score.
Speaker: If you're not good for the locker room, you're not good for the locker room.
Speaker: And so I think having a system in place where you get to kind of see that locker room feel right off the bat helps.
Speaker: Because people are trying to compete against each other right away.
Speaker: Kind of gauging and looking at themselves.
Speaker: It just gives us a... A, it's easier and it's way more scalable.
Speaker: Because then everything's just done in larger groups.
Speaker: And you can kind of hold people a little bit more accountable.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: Because it's like... And then they can see they're not comparing themselves to you or Taylor.
Speaker: They've been there forever.
Speaker: Like, oh, this guy, he started the same day, dude.
Speaker: He just threw down three accounts today or whatever.
Speaker: So, I mean, yeah, like you said, if they're not raising that level, then...
Speaker: Hopefully they can figure out pretty quick that maybe it's not for them.
Speaker: Right, because think about it.
Speaker: If a new guy goes out and watches Taylor do six today, sure, like in his mind he knows it's possible, but he's also sitting there being like, all right, but this guy's been doing it for 18 years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If he sees another brand new guy come in and throw a three spot down on his second weekend, and he has had a really hard time having conversations, he's either going to really dig deep, find out what's working for that guy, or politely bow out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And a lot of the decision making on the company was kind of relieved.
Speaker: Yeah, true.
Speaker: And so, yeah, obviously, Taylor, he's been running, you know, Noxstar.
Speaker: And I know he's super busy with that.
Speaker: So what's it been like once he's, now that he's, you know, going pretty hard on Noxstar and, you know, traveling to other teams, training lots of different groups, organizations.
Speaker: What's that been like?
Speaker: And have you had to step up more?
Speaker: What would you say it's been the change in your group?
Speaker: How have you been adjusted with all that?
Speaker: I think it's awesome.
Speaker: I think it really is awesome what he's doing for the industry with him and Danny.
Speaker: I think it is awesome.
Speaker: And for us, it's just our baked in sales training platform.
Speaker: So I think it's to have a chief sales officer like Taylor McCarthy, I think that's probably one of the most beautiful things that you can ask for.
Speaker: Especially like when we're doing blitzes and he's in the house and like guys are seeing somebody do 14, 15, 16 accounts in a week.
Speaker: it just levels the bar up a little bit.
Speaker: And guys will coach themselves out at that point when they hang around a guy like T. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: He has been super busy, but he has also just built a forever sales platform for anybody that we bring into the company, which has been super freaking awesome.
Speaker: And when he's in town, having him on the scoreboard and seeing the guys have somebody like him light up the scoreboard,
Speaker: They feel terrible if they're not.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Because then it's like you feel guilty that you're letting your team down.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Just the persona he carries.
Speaker: I bet.
Speaker: It makes people want to sell for their team.
Speaker: Sell for your teammates.
Speaker: He does a really good job of bringing people together in that sense and lighting a fire up and keeping it going.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it brings up a good point.
Speaker: Like when he's gone, I'm sure the production rises when he's there and everyone's like, oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Step it up and all that.
Speaker: So what have you guys done to hopefully keep a similar production even when he's gone?
Speaker: Because I'm sure it's hard as I go.
Speaker: Taylor's basically the best.
Speaker: I don't know if you guys struggle with that.
Speaker: Your guy's like, I'm going to take it easy.
Speaker: Taylor's not here to look over my shoulder.
Speaker: No, I don't think it's like that at all, actually.
Speaker: I mean, sure, everybody's going to kind of ebb and flow, right?
Speaker: There's some guys that sell in Florida for us that are from out of state, but most of our guys live in
Speaker: live in the state of Florida and so what we did is we just got a really big Airbnb and we have constant rep housing.
Speaker: And so if you're the lowest on the week, you lose your spot.
Speaker: So nobody wants to lose their spot because the Airbnb is right in the middle of the best turf.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: So it's a constant, hey, you want to keep your spot on the squad.
Speaker: And it's just, we're always looking to replace the bottom 20%.
Speaker: You know, so you just coach them up or coach them out.
Speaker: And I think because they respect how long we've been in the game, we're not here to blitz.
Speaker: You don't have to throw down massive numbers every single week, but you need to give effort or get better every single week.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: So if you're just, excuse my French, but if you're just dicking around, you're not going to last long with us because your teammates are going to be like, dude,
Speaker: I'm going to work every day.
Speaker: Get out of the house.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: So I think it's just like when you have your core group of guys on the same mission as you, let them run with it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're building.
Speaker: You're just coaching.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: It kind of changes the perspective.
Speaker: So it doesn't matter if I'm there or Taylor's there or Suki's there.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: The mission's the mission.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think that...
Speaker: the level that all the guys are bought in and give them some pressure too.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Stuff like this.
Speaker: I may not be there for a month.
Speaker: I may be out doing something or he may be too, but quarterly incentive every single time as long as you hit those metrics, you get to come to these types of events and you get to work on your business and you get to network.
Speaker: I think things like that and having that home nerds knock star relationship is also really awesome in the sense that we get to take advantage of these types of situations too.
Speaker: you know, as, as guys are leveling up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that's awesome.
Speaker: You guys probably have a huge advantage in like recruiting guys and stuff.
Speaker: Like, yo, we got a knock star.
Speaker: We got Taylor.
Speaker: It certainly helps.
Speaker: It certainly helps.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: So with the reps that like aren't producing, so you're kicking them out of the house and are they still like, they're just, they just have to get their own housing at that point or,
Speaker: Yeah, or knock where you live or commute to where you want to work.
Speaker: It's a privilege to have a house provided for you in turf.
Speaker: I'm not asking you to pay for it.
Speaker: I'm just saying we're having a lot of success in these neighborhoods, and if you want to be close to turf every day, you're more than welcome to stay here.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And it's turned into...
Speaker: I live at the rep house now until somebody takes my spot.
Speaker: So that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker: And it's like, you know, the guys are playing poker at night together.
Speaker: They're hanging out.
Speaker: They're constantly going over stuff.
Speaker: Like I walked into the rep house the other night and there were six people I hadn't even met yet.
Speaker: And I was like, this is cool.
Speaker: We're growing and I'm not even here.
Speaker: So that's when you really start to know that your guys are bought in.
Speaker: Because, you know, trust and loyalty, man.
Speaker: Like longevity.
Speaker: Like if you work on the couple guys that you want to build around and you turn them into tens and you feed them the vision and you give them the tools, like it's really cool to step back and watch somebody else like do what you wanted to.
Speaker: like what we wanted to build is like happening and other people are like playing a big role in it and having a lot of success doing it.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: No, it's really cool to see you have.
Speaker: Well, you and Taylor, you've been 18 years and then, was it Suki?
Speaker: Suki, yeah.
Speaker: Suki, okay.
Speaker: So actually when I started at SolarCity, Suki was already at SolarCity and he was my manager.
Speaker: Taylor and I's manager when we got to SolarCity was Suki.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's come full circle so he came yeah, we came full circle and brought the brought the tribe back home Yeah, that's really 18 years that's longer than most people like you've been married and all that I mean yeah, and you look back at it and like we were literally just kids your kids driving around the country not knowing what the heck we were doing just pounding on doors and
Speaker: And it's been a really fun journey.
Speaker: Yeah, slow traveling, circus freaks or something.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We've definitely had an unconventional growing up because we've been doing it for so long.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah, that's something else I wanted to ask you too, Kenny.
Speaker: Being together for so long, I mean, I don't think anyone's been together so long for that long.
Speaker: But you guys like all managing, being together, uh...
Speaker: leading your teams and all that.
Speaker: Do you have any tips for people that maybe they've been, I don't know, maybe they're having friction or... I'm sure it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Speaker: No, there was a point in time... Yeah, I left T. I was like, dude, screw this.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: And I like...
Speaker: Left Pinnacle, went to Vivint, and I realized very quickly that was a very emotional decision.
Speaker: And because I was in a situation, because I had slacked off, I needed a handout, right?
Speaker: And of course, the competitor's always going to give you an ear real quick, and he's trying to build the best office that's possible, and we're in the middle of correlation.
Speaker: And there was a situation, I don't even know how long ago, probably about 10 years ago, where I literally left Taylor's organization.
Speaker: Straight up.
Speaker: And there was like, dude, this is stupid.
Speaker: He called me.
Speaker: He's like, my bad.
Speaker: It was the middle of summer.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: And I was like, I also apologize.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like I was fucking freaking out.
Speaker: I was in a situation.
Speaker: And dude, like, but step back, right?
Speaker: Like don't ever burn a bridge.
Speaker: Just step back for a minute.
Speaker: Um, and like, think about the true qualities of the person that you want to work with and what intangibles do they have?
Speaker: Is it replaceable with that kid has?
Speaker: No, it's not replaceable.
Speaker: He's got intangibles.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I think to a certain extent, all this, all the people that we've stayed working with for so long have enough of those intangibles that it's like, okay,
Speaker: if we're having a little bit of friction, you just got to go chill out for a minute.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: And we've been doing it for so long.
Speaker: Like I can tell them, I'm like, dude, you're way out of line.
Speaker: Like that's just never going to work.
Speaker: Or he'll tell me the same shit.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: So it's, I don't know.
Speaker: When you, it's like you, you can fight with your best friends, you know, and you can't really fight with strangers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So no matter, you know, but we don't fight like at, at this point.
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: When we were younger, 18, 19 years old, living out of hotels, um,
Speaker: Yeah, you fight.
Speaker: But now, like, no.
Speaker: It's all good stuff, constructive stuff, game planning, strategizing, and then just enjoying free time, you know, looking at the things that have been built over the years and kind of just really appreciating it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker: You guys have been through a ton.
Speaker: You're not married, are you?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're going to say, because, yeah, I mean, you'd probably be pretty good at being married with all this stuff you learned.
Speaker: Because of the right stuff, man.
Speaker: Like, some of the stuff you're saying and stuff I have to, like, I look at my marriage sometimes and, you know, it's like similar things.
Speaker: You're saying, oh, you have to step back and not react quickly.
Speaker: That's something I've had to learn, like being married now.
Speaker: I've been married for five years, something like that.
Speaker: It's the exact same thing, dude.
Speaker: We'll be tired.
Speaker: We'll be fighting about stupid stuff before we go into bed.
Speaker: Sometimes it's best to just don't react now.
Speaker: Wake up in the morning and then analyze the situation better.
Speaker: Sounds like it's similar stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think it always is just communication.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because it's not like she's wrong about something or you're wrong or something.
Speaker: Did I just flip off?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, so that's like, sounds like you and Taylor's pretty, pretty much a marriage at that point.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, at some points it certainly has, but I think I look back at it now, right?
Speaker: Because I've sacrificed a lot in my own personal relationships in the past.
Speaker: Like you're speaking on your marriage and,
Speaker: I think I'm looking at that now coming out of relationships, right?
Speaker: Like you said, you want to be grateful and present with the things you have before they become the things you had.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I think once you've lost something like that or you've made a transition and you find yourself in a place where it's like, oh, wow, like I had that.
Speaker: I find myself looking for that now, but I had that.
Speaker: But I didn't appreciate it when I was in it.
Speaker: I think I've sacrificed a lot of those personal relationships on the outside because I've been so focused on building.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's funny to hear you say it on this because my priority has always been building.
Speaker: It hasn't necessarily been build your own personal relationships as well as you possibly could with the sense of serving.
Speaker: It's always been focused on the business to do that.
Speaker: But yeah, for a marriage, yeah, sometimes just step away.
Speaker: Same thing I have to do with sales reps or business partners or customers that want to cancel.
Speaker: It's like...
Speaker: Not everything has to be fixed immediately.
Speaker: It's okay for a minute.
Speaker: Once I kind of started doing that, everything got a lot easier.
Speaker: Realistically, yeah.
Speaker: Because otherwise you're in your head, you're putting fires out all the time.
Speaker: you know?
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: No, I'm sure it's something you had to learn, especially in solar.
Speaker: Guys tend to react so quickly to stuff going wrong.
Speaker: Oh, I'm going to jump companies.
Speaker: This didn't go right.
Speaker: Or, oh, solar isn't for me.
Speaker: This customer canceled.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It's like they had all their chips on one customer.
Speaker: So I think, especially in solar, I see it over and over.
Speaker: Guys, like, have such quick reactions, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We get paid so much for deals and, you know, guys have reactions.
Speaker: They probably would benefit just by stepping back, like you said, and
Speaker: and I'm in the situation more.
Speaker: So I think that's a great point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Rather than getting all, all uptight with your project manager, like take five minutes, come cool your jets and then call them and then ask politely for them to help you get stipulations or whatever the case may be.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just, you know, gratitude is a big thing.
Speaker: And your ego goes away when you just say, hey, I'm here and I'm thankful.
Speaker: Whether things are going good or bad.
Speaker: And you can look at things a little bit differently and it's like, all right, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker: We'll get that fixed.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: So Kenny, I know you're heading out here soon, staying in another cabin, going snowmobiling tomorrow, so I want to be respectful of your time.
Speaker: But last couple of questions for you.
Speaker: You've been in this probably on the podcast that we've had longer than just about anybody, I guess you and Taylor.
Speaker: So is there anything, looking back 18 years ago whenever you started, is there anything that you would have told you yourself or anything you would have changed when you would have started clear back then?
Speaker: If you could, you know, go back in the past.
Speaker: Yeah, money's just a tool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's not a goal.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's just a tool.
Speaker: Freedom's the goal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, like, slow down and enjoy it.
Speaker: Because, like, I'll never be 22 living with my buddies in a hotel room in Southern California again.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, like that, those days are behind us.
Speaker: That'll never happen again.
Speaker: But there's some really awesome memories that happened along the way.
Speaker: So like, don't be, don't be in such a rush to get to the next thing.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Fall in love with the grind, man.
Speaker: Like fall in love with the process, fall in love with the development.
Speaker: And if there's somebody in your life that you want at the end of the, at the end of the race, sitting on that porch swing with you, like put time into that person or those people with you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because it's not all about putting everything you have into the business.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, because like you're going to spend the money.
Speaker: You're going to buy stupid shit.
Speaker: You're going to buy cool shit.
Speaker: But when it all goes away, who do you want to be with you at the end?
Speaker: That's important.
Speaker: Like me and T will be on a fucking swing set together.
Speaker: He always talks about that.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Like me and like the guys that we've been working together.
Speaker: Like, yeah, we're, and so that's really cool.
Speaker: So find people that you want to build with because people will either drain you or they'll inspire you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you, I'm sure you've heard him say that before too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But work with people that inspire you.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: And like force you to level up.
Speaker: You know, if you're not, if you're not creating enough problems, you're not moving fast enough.
Speaker: That's fire.
Speaker: So don't be mad at them for bringing problems to your attention.
Speaker: Be thankful that you have a loyal person in your organization to be like, hey, look,
Speaker: you might have a problem with that.
Speaker: Let's fix that.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Super important.
Speaker: And I guess kind of just wrapping up here, being in it so long, I'm sure you've heard this a bunch of times too from reps, oh, I'm just so burned out.
Speaker: I can't go work.
Speaker: I can't knock any more doors.
Speaker: I've been doing this all year long.
Speaker: Danny, what are we supposed to do?
Speaker: What do you say to those reps or people that like, oh, I'm burning out.
Speaker: Can't keep doing this.
Speaker: Candles burn out.
Speaker: People don't burn out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: uh just a mindset you know you're only in a rut if you tell yourself you're in a rut but um they you need to have balance yeah right like if you're going seven days a week and I don't I don't care if your enjoyment is to sit out and watch the sunset for five minutes a night like find something that you enjoy on a deeper level and find time for it because if you don't what the hell are you working for yeah
Speaker: Because money doesn't matter.
Speaker: It's just, it's fake.
Speaker: But like the freedom to give you the things that you truly enjoy in life is like the things that you'll, that'll keep you going.
Speaker: You know, like for me, I take a vacation or I try and change up my environment once a quarter where I have a couple of days and I literally just turn my phone off.
Speaker: I like being in the woods.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's kind of like my recharge.
Speaker: Go find a national park, turn my phone off, hang out for a couple of days.
Speaker: So find something that you truly enjoy and, um,
Speaker: make it a goal to go and reset yourself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because burning out is bullshit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Really.
Speaker: If you're, if you love what you do and you enjoy the process and you find things to do that like truly bring you joy, you shouldn't be burnt out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You should be right.
Speaker: Like when you're building and you're creating, you're,
Speaker: that's exciting, but maintaining something is exhausting.
Speaker: So I think switching that mindset too helps a lot.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think it's so important finding something that just excites you, that recharges you, because so many reps listen to this, maybe they're just going home, turn it on Netflix, turn it on the Xbox.
Speaker: It's like find something that you can do that actually
Speaker: You know, lights that fire.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You know, Danny Pesce talks.
Speaker: I mean, he's going to spas and stuff.
Speaker: So maybe he's not going to spas.
Speaker: He took us to the Korean bathhouse last time.
Speaker: While y'all were in Texas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, we're naked in the room with 50 guys sitting in spas and stuff like that.
Speaker: I mean, that's not for everybody, but the point is find something that recharges you.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And go do it because that's how Kenny's been able to do 18 years.
Speaker: And I mean, I think that's how people can, you know, just be able to push through without.
Speaker: Yeah, I've been knocking doors longer than I haven't been knocking doors at this point.
Speaker: Does that blow your mind sometimes?
Speaker: That's kind of actually weird to say that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Appreciate you coming on the show today.
Speaker: So before we let you go here, can you give our listeners if they want to like connect with you or I don't know, maybe find more out about home nerds, hit you guys up.
Speaker: Do you have any, any, any people can connect with you, social media, anything like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm on Instagram.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Bubble cause.
Speaker: Bubba Cause?
Speaker: That's right, baby.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know why.
Speaker: Maybe I should change it and make it my name so people can find me, but right now it's Bubba Cause.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Or you can go to homenerds.com, but probably sending me a DM or Taylor a DM would probably be the best way to link up with us.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, we will link that in the show notes.
Speaker: So anyone that wants to, you know, go give Kenny a shout out, let them know you appreciate him coming on the show.
Speaker: Go do that.
Speaker: And then last question before we let you go here, Kenny, if there's, I don't know, someone that's struggling, we've got people that listen to us.
Speaker: I get questions like, oh, how do I get out of my slump?
Speaker: How do I get to that next level?
Speaker: So you've been doing this so long, I'm sure you wouldn't be here.
Speaker: Obviously, you're not going to keep doing this if you haven't reached a high level of success.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: You haven't been making a lot of money.
Speaker: So what would you say to those reps that maybe they're in a slump or maybe they're struggling to keep pushing through?
Speaker: I think they're interested, but they're not committed.
Speaker: It's the chicken or the egg, right?
Speaker: In order to make a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, a chicken makes a contribution of an egg.
Speaker: The pig has to make a commitment to provide the bacon.
Speaker: I think you get burnt out because you're half in.
Speaker: You're not really learning the business.
Speaker: You're not coaching yourself up on sales.
Speaker: You're not recording yourself.
Speaker: You're not putting in the effort outside of the doors to be excited to have new shit to put into play.
Speaker: If the coach came up with a new trick play or something, I'd be super stoked to run that if the defense prevented an opportunity for us to run that play.
Speaker: I think I...
Speaker: put sales in like a football mentality a lot too it's like oh new nugget dude if we're on third down and short and we're in the red zone like this might work you know what i mean so it's all situational shit um but yeah like like be excited about it make it a game you know and if like you truly need a day off you need to take a mental day like
Speaker: take a mental day or two.
Speaker: Like, if you've got to turn your phone off, turn your phone off.
Speaker: Like, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker: So, I feel like if you're not truly good inside through and through, you can't do the job that we do at a high level.
Speaker: And be happy about it.
Speaker: Like, sure, you can go through the motions and people are going to see that and you're going to get doors slammed in your face all day.
Speaker: Like, you need to be full in order to go do what we do.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: If you feel like you're in a rut, go charge yourself up.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So important.
Speaker: So for our solopreneurs, make sure you're recharging yourself.
Speaker: Make sure you're taking care of yourself.
Speaker: And then, like Kenny has seen, treat the job like you're a professional.
Speaker: A lot of these people, they expect to get professional results when they're acting like an amateur out there.
Speaker: They're not training.
Speaker: They're not coming to events.
Speaker: They're not listening to podcasts like this.
Speaker: Because, yeah, I mean, you've seen – I know a lot of stuff you're saying is similar to what Taylor says.
Speaker: I know he studies these sales books and he lights up like – I mean, he gets so stoked over this like new sales technique he's going to go try in.
Speaker: All this J. Douglas, Edward stuff and all that.
Speaker: You wouldn't believe how stoked, bro.
Speaker: He's like staying up late to read these books.
Speaker: Yeah, like there will be situations like we'll be playing Madden too and he's like, bro, like I just came up with this new line.
Speaker: So it's like always shit like that, you know.
Speaker: He's always thinking about it.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think, it's not, for him it doesn't turn off, which is good.
Speaker: And proximity of that, it's like you're always just learning new little things that you can go ahead and put into play.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so I think that's what it takes.
Speaker: So take a look inside, see if you're that committed, and I think that's what it takes to, you know, have longevity and have success.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just like Kenny has.
Speaker: So appreciate you coming on, Kenny.
Speaker: Can't wait to see what you do next.
Speaker: And hopefully you come out with some courses and programs.
Speaker: Can't wait to see, you know, the training you start doing.
Speaker: So I appreciate it.
Speaker: And hopefully we'll have you on someday in the future.
Speaker: Right on.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, I wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solopreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet.
Speaker: So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to him, go listen to him and you can re-listen to him.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
