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 fail.
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: Finally.
Speaker: Okay, what's up, everybody?
Speaker: Ducking me for a year, man.
Speaker: Ducking me for a year.
Speaker: I had to fly out to Arizona, trap you, block your car in the parking lot to get on this thing.
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: It's been a long time coming, but we finally got the man, the myth, Chris Munizzi coming on the show with us here today.
Speaker: And we've been trying to lock down a time for a while.
Speaker: So excited to have Chris on.
Speaker: He is regional over at Sunder Energy.
Speaker: And you're crushing tons of deals.
Speaker: And I first heard Chris actually on the Noxstar calls over with Taylor McCarthy.
Speaker: And you're in for a treat because, I mean, I think this was like maybe two years ago, a year or two ago now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I still specifically remember like, you know, just little one-liners you had.
Speaker: And what's really cool is everything you train on, you have like these catchy little lines to go with it that like sticks in your head.
Speaker: I do want to give a shout out to Taylor because now that you mention it, like I remember when he invited me to do a call.
Speaker: And I was so nervous.
Speaker: You know, it kind of cussed me out in like a Boston way.
Speaker: And so it's, bro, you're going to do fine.
Speaker: Yeah, but totally thank you to Taylor for getting me on my first call and encouraging me.
Speaker: Knock Stars is my family.
Speaker: It's my blood.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and being out here at the D2D Experts event is super cool as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, thank you, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Shout out to Taylor McCarthy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Taylor definitely, you know, it's amazing too, because, you know, I was his manager when he was 17 and we're obviously a little different in age, but, you know, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can learn from anyone.
Speaker: And he really encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone.
Speaker: And I met Michael Donald.
Speaker: And obviously, I met you.
Speaker: And it's a whole new world for me, which is great about sales.
Speaker: As long as you have air in your lungs, breath in your lungs, you can do this job.
Speaker: Look at Tom Hopkins, 83 years old.
Speaker: Sorry, Tom.
Speaker: 80-something years old.
Speaker: And you're still going.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's a it's a tight knit circle.
Speaker: That's what's cool.
Speaker: Like coming to these events and all that.
Speaker: Yeah, you start to recognize people feels like a family reunion every time you're coming to the events.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely recommend going to events like this.
Speaker: And I'm grateful for it too, because that's how I could finally lock you down for a podcast and you couldn't escape me anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Sam Taggart, shout out to this event here, Sam Taggart and the DDD experts, Mike O'Donnell, my brother from another mother, Mike O'Donnell, also getting me to step out of my comfort zone.
Speaker: So grateful for Mike and for Taylor just pushing me to the next level.
Speaker: So, yeah, this is a great event.
Speaker: I'll definitely be coming back.
Speaker: And, you know, it's not even over yet.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Only halfway through.
Speaker: But yeah, so today we got the opportunity to hear from Chris and you crushed it up there, by the way.
Speaker: Just bringing the only 30 minutes.
Speaker: I wish they would have put you on longer.
Speaker: But yeah, it was first I thought it was two hours and then it was an hour.
Speaker: And Mike's all right, you got 30 minutes.
Speaker: I'm like, I can't even say my name in 30 minutes.
Speaker: And so I'm going through my nose trying to find like my greatest hits.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, to impress the audience to get invited back.
Speaker: But I think I did okay.
Speaker: And maybe it'll have me back again.
Speaker: But it's awesome.
Speaker: It's so cool.
Speaker: I never thought reading books, right?
Speaker: And that's something I talked about is the continuous journey and continuous learning.
Speaker: I never thought that 10 years ago when I was reading that stupid book or this book or that book, that someday I would just get...
Speaker: in front of people, you know, we did our company call last week with Mike.
Speaker: There's probably five, 600 people on there.
Speaker: And, you know, I would have never thought that we would, I would impact people that way.
Speaker: And, you know, some of it's my material and some of it's just, you know, studied and remembered material.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's what's great about books, right?
Speaker: If you read 20 books, you have 20 lifetimes of these authors all condensed into your brain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it just makes it unstoppable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, it makes you unstoppable.
Speaker: Yeah, I can tell you've been through a ton of books.
Speaker: And that's actually one of the big takeaways I got from your presentation today is just the power of continuous learning and always reading.
Speaker: So yeah, I want to get into all that.
Speaker: But before we get too deep into that, Chris, do you want to tell our audience, like, I don't know, just Reader's Digest version, how you got into solar?
Speaker: I mean, you're one of the old dogs in solar.
Speaker: What have you been doing this now?
Speaker: Let's go back.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Let's go back to 1987 when I was selling meat out of the back of a truck.
Speaker: I tried to take the Series 6 and 63 and 7.
Speaker: I failed all of those classes.
Speaker: Actually, I did pass the 63.
Speaker: I failed the Series 7.
Speaker: I failed the Series 6.
Speaker: And that's okay.
Speaker: You can come through.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: We kind of do like, hey, hey, there it is.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I make a little thing out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so failed the Series 6 and got a job at a car dealership in New York in 1992.
Speaker: Started selling cars in 1992 and kind of the rest was history.
Speaker: So it was really cool and something I've been doing now for 32 years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a lifetime.
Speaker: And I think in sales years, that's like 100 years old, long time, because especially solar, I don't know about you, but- Okay, I know you asked that.
Speaker: Sorry, salespeople, you get a little- Yeah, you're good.
Speaker: But like solar- All right, so fast forward, I moved to Florida in 2006.
Speaker: I get recruited by my very dear friends, Isaac Gates and Tim Yesta to cable door to door.
Speaker: They kind of tricked me.
Speaker: I didn't know it was door to door.
Speaker: I didn't know it was commission only.
Speaker: I showed up in black shoes, a black shirt, a black tie, just about six months out of New York.
Speaker: I look like my cousin Vinny, but in the black version.
Speaker: And then we started knocking doors and I got my first paycheck.
Speaker: I thought it was a mistake.
Speaker: And I was like, is this my paycheck?
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: This is your money.
Speaker: It's called double revenue.
Speaker: I was like, that's great.
Speaker: No, come on through.
Speaker: That's part of the thing.
Speaker: You make us, is there another guy coming through?
Speaker: Welcome, welcome.
Speaker: So we kind of keep it going.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So we got double revenue on the paycheck and-
Speaker: I was like, wow.
Speaker: I said, this is my first paycheck.
Speaker: I said, is there a mistake?
Speaker: There's too many commas in it.
Speaker: And he's like, no, that's your paycheck.
Speaker: So door to door for life.
Speaker: So I did that for about...
Speaker: Four years, and then Tim got recruited to Platinum Protection.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sam Taggart's jam.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Tim went and did a summer with Platinum while Isaac and I in the group stayed back and did cable.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Then Isaac came up to me today.
Speaker: I'm going up north for a couple of months to blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: And he was going to extended season.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: So he went to extended season.
Speaker: He came back and quit cable.
Speaker: Broke my heart.
Speaker: Talked me into doing cable as well.
Speaker: I had already met Taylor McCarthy at this point in like...
Speaker: 2007 and then got into solar finally this is solar in our podcast I forgot about that sorry got into solar in August 2015 okay ish yeah Vivint Solar launched in Florida yeah so I launched for Vivint Solar in Florida did okay
Speaker: But every time I did well or we'd win a competition, I was like, I'm getting all these people calling me, congratulating me.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: Come through.
Speaker: It makes us look popular.
Speaker: It's our studio audience.
Speaker: It's our studio audience.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: We're doing this in a restaurant.
Speaker: Got the bar audience going.
Speaker: So yeah, launched 2015, worked at Vivint Solar, did very well, but realized I was always getting calls from like 11 people every time I did good.
Speaker: And my wife said to me, is it possible that they all get paid on you?
Speaker: I was like, oh, that's possible.
Speaker: And I don't have a problem with overrides and people earning.
Speaker: It's no big deal.
Speaker: But I knew there was probably a little bit better opportunity out there.
Speaker: So I went and became a dealer with Legacy.
Speaker: And that was great.
Speaker: It was a great experience.
Speaker: And then I got recruited by someone to go to Freedom Forever.
Speaker: And I launched Freedom Forever for Sunder in February 2020.
Speaker: Right as I purchased my new house, right as Hillsborough County got shut down for COVID.
Speaker: So it was like one nightmare after another.
Speaker: And I bought a new house.
Speaker: I'm launching a new market.
Speaker: And now we're, you know, we can't even leave our house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If I remember correctly, I think Taylor got me an essential services business.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I launched with Freedom in February.
Speaker: We started Florida with one person, me and my friend Dustin Kasuba.
Speaker: Dustin's still with us today.
Speaker: I've been working with Dustin for nine years.
Speaker: And the rest is history.
Speaker: We started cranking.
Speaker: I think we sold 10,000 accounts.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Installed maybe 22 megawatts.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I might be off by a little bit, but a lot.
Speaker: And then, of course, in October, I think October 1st to be exact, we had our breakup with Freedom.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then we're now Sunder 2.0, which has been amazing.
Speaker: We had a lot of great memories at Freedom and met a lot of cool people.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I really don't get into all the mudslinging and everything.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: I'm grateful for the time that we had.
Speaker: I'm grateful for all the opportunities I've had.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now I've been in solar ever since.
Speaker: And I could say in my lifetime, you know, making this, like, this amount of money and helping this many people, customers, has just been amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, I'm a Christian.
Speaker: I'm a believer.
Speaker: And, you know, I was, God, why can this happen when I was 21?
Speaker: probably wasn't prepared for it when I was 21.
Speaker: God knew exactly when I would need this opportunity of a lifetime.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In my lifetime.
Speaker: So that's awesome.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You've been around the block, done a lot of things in solar.
Speaker: And I know you're running, you're leading a huge organization, many teams right now.
Speaker: So I want to get into that, just the leadership too, because we have a lot of managers, just reps listening to podcasts.
Speaker: But yeah, I want to touch on a few things that you talked about today in your presentation, Chris.
Speaker: Like I mentioned in the beginning, you have so many of these memorable lines and just ways of teaching that really sticks in the head.
Speaker: Well, to be honest with you...
Speaker: I don't really have a strong formal educational background.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: You like quotes.
Speaker: Here's one.
Speaker: Formal education will make you a living.
Speaker: Self-education will make you a fortune.
Speaker: So whatever fortune I have made, sounds like arrogant, or whatever I've earned is really from my self-education.
Speaker: My formal education pretty much got me nowhere.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It got me nowhere, to be exact.
Speaker: I'm trying to make it not sound as bad as it is for the camera, but nowhere.
Speaker: I did not take formal education seriously.
Speaker: And I know you can.
Speaker: There's people that have college degrees and master's degrees.
Speaker: One of my brothers has a double doctorate degree.
Speaker: He's like, you know...
Speaker: Ross from friends and he's, you know, with, with the bones and all that.
Speaker: And he's also, uh, the soil and stuff.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: So for me, I just, I just learned my way.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: And it was really powerful.
Speaker: Like today you were talking about just how one of your, I think it was one of your first managers.
Speaker: You were saying he literally like fire people if they weren't listening to audio books in the car that he came and checked up on you.
Speaker: Yeah, Greg, I won't say his last name, but Greg, if you're listening, you know who you are.
Speaker: And Greg would like turn on our car to see what we were listening to.
Speaker: And I thought I was slick because I would leave the house and, you know,
Speaker: I liked audio books then, but I love music.
Speaker: I come from a family of musicians.
Speaker: There's nothing like a little rush or whatever I was listening to.
Speaker: Going to work, and then he walked out to my car one day, and I forgot to put the CD back, because I had been doing it for a while.
Speaker: I would drive to work, listen to what I wanted to listen to.
Speaker: This was like 2007 when I got recruited by Isaac and Tim.
Speaker: I would take out the musical CD.
Speaker: I'd put it in the visor.
Speaker: Then I'd go into the glove box and throw the CD in.
Speaker: But he was smart enough to figure out that, okay, so...
Speaker: The CD's at zero, so did you get through it coincidentally in the parking lot and it ended, or did you just pop it in and he found the CD up there?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I was like, this is so stupid.
Speaker: Why is he micromanaging me?
Speaker: And then I watched.
Speaker: He had a nice car.
Speaker: He had a decent house.
Speaker: He wasn't fancy.
Speaker: He was a country boy, but wasn't really fancy, but...
Speaker: You could just, my pastor always said you could tell a lot by a man and the family by the look on the wife's face.
Speaker: And every time I saw his wife, she was just so happy and so not stressed.
Speaker: And I was like, maybe I'll just listen.
Speaker: And I just got, happened to get a good book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure it was Psychology of Achievement.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I got on Psychology of Achievement and it just like, it was funny because you're like, don't do this.
Speaker: Don't do that.
Speaker: Don't do this.
Speaker: Don't do that.
Speaker: Then I went through the checklist.
Speaker: I'm doing it.
Speaker: I'm doing it.
Speaker: I'm doing it.
Speaker: I'm doing it.
Speaker: I'm doing it.
Speaker: Horrible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it took me a while to be like, it's okay to say that you've made a mistake, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: And like, that's something I think these newer generation of reps, it's like, we got podcasts, we got YouTube, so many distractions.
Speaker: And so it's not like...
Speaker: But good distractions.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Good, good distractions.
Speaker: But like in your time, I mean, back then it's just like you got the one CD and cassettes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I had some cassettes.
Speaker: I had some, you know, Amway Bill Britt cassettes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I had, then we had CDs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then we got the CDs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then we got to the Blu-rays.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, but now, yeah, my library, you know, my Audible library's got 79 books in it.
Speaker: I got like three credits right now.
Speaker: So it's pretty cool that I could actually just listen to books.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So really, especially now.
Speaker: Yeah, like there's no excuse anyone listening should be making.
Speaker: I think Brian Tracy, I know that's a book you like one of the original books, I called you.
Speaker: Psychologists of selling is the one I've read a lot.
Speaker: But he talks about making your car like a library on wheels.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like we all slightly anyone in solar is driving quite a bit.
Speaker: We are like psychologists.
Speaker: I think, you know, I got a lot of quotes.
Speaker: I think this one was Taylor's McCarthy.
Speaker: It says, sales is a Broadway show put on by psychologists.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Sales is a Broadway show.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, psychology and achievement was my first one.
Speaker: And I still, I listen to it once or twice a year.
Speaker: It's like, you know,
Speaker: It's like my dental checkup, right?
Speaker: There's three books I think you must, must, must listen to.
Speaker: And I don't care if you're 100 or if you're nine years old.
Speaker: Psychology Achievement, Think and Grow Rich, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Speaker: And I'll be honest with you, the first two, How to Win Friends and Influence People and Think and Grow Rich, maybe I finished those books later.
Speaker: up till last year, once or twice.
Speaker: And then in 2023, I said, man, I really never gave those books the credit they deserve because I like Tony Robbins or I like Grant Cardone or I like, you know, my pastor, Ronnie Albranz, amazing library of books.
Speaker: But a lot of the audio books that I liked came from the birth of those books.
Speaker: So, you know, whatever you believe is fine.
Speaker: But me, if I'm on a desert island, my Bible, I'm,
Speaker: Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Psychology of Achievement.
Speaker: And then if I could take one more like little, you know, PDF, Tony Robbins Master of the Money Game.
Speaker: Money Master of the Game.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker: Is that Brian Tracy too?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Psychology of Achievement?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It talks about everything, psychology of achievement, how to dress, why you dress that way.
Speaker: If it's white, don't bite.
Speaker: The three Fs, no flour, no sugar.
Speaker: I don't know if it's three Fs.
Speaker: But three S's.
Speaker: I don't remember.
Speaker: He talks about salads at six.
Speaker: Him and his wife, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, would have salads for dinner at six o'clock.
Speaker: So it's like a book about training, about speaking, about motivation, and about sales as well.
Speaker: And it's pretty much everything.
Speaker: I mean, if I had to take one book, which I'm glad I don't have to,
Speaker: I would, especially, you know, for people looking for leadership and sales and, you know, coaching themselves and dealing with their family and their friends, psychology of the achievement for the win.
Speaker: And I don't work for Brian Tracy.
Speaker: I don't get any royalties.
Speaker: No paid testimony.
Speaker: This is not a paid testimony.
Speaker: This is just a free advice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, no, I think that's a good point, though.
Speaker: Like, make sure you are using that time on the road to actually further your education and, you know, listen to audiobooks.
Speaker: We got no excuses with all the resources.
Speaker: Like, I don't know if you knew this, Chris, but like Spotify now, they have like...
Speaker: Pretty much any personal development book, if you have Spotify, you can get that too.
Speaker: So you don't even have to pay extra now.
Speaker: So it's like we got no excuses to be furthering our education and learning.
Speaker: But yeah, I want to shift gears a little bit.
Speaker: There's so many.
Speaker: I know you got.
Speaker: I think you called yourself like a jukebox of sell.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Went through so many different things.
Speaker: And so I know we can make this like a 10-hour podcast.
Speaker: I could go to midnight and not repeat myself.
Speaker: And, you know, I have an idea.
Speaker: We'll talk about it at the end.
Speaker: I would love if we could maybe once a week or once a month, like...
Speaker: do this somehow and turn it into like something.
Speaker: But we'll get there because I seriously can't, you know, I can sit here and talk till 10 o'clock and not repeat myself.
Speaker: He won't get a word in.
Speaker: Our batteries will die, but, but there's so much that you, you can learn.
Speaker: There's, you know, I'm 53 years old.
Speaker: I've been in sales 32 years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I've been on commission for, um,
Speaker: since 1987.
Speaker: So I don't even know.
Speaker: I mean, I don't know if I worked a salary job, you know, 1987, I was 17 years old selling meat.
Speaker: I did work at enterprise runner car for a short period of time and I Valley parked cars, but I've been in sales, you know, my whole life, you know, and it's funny because, you know, you work with people and sometimes they're like, they'll challenge you or they'll question what you might be talking about.
Speaker: But if you think about, you know, I don't know what year, were you born?
Speaker: 93.
Speaker: So probably five years before you were born, I was already in sales, not at the level of sales that I'm at now where I'm, you know, getting to speak on a stage like this or getting to talk to people.
Speaker: But, you know, it was totally different.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it was totally different.
Speaker: And then, you know, in 1993, I just kicked it into full gear.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's that's a lot of years and a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, sure.
Speaker: A lot of growth, a lot of stuff.
Speaker: We can go for hours.
Speaker: But another thing, just shifting gears a little bit, something that's always stuck with me.
Speaker: I know you talked about a little bit today, too, is you have this saying it's like, stop checking your Facebook.
Speaker: Start checking your Facebook and start facing your checkbook.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: People are more interested in who's checking in where and who's on social media.
Speaker: They're more interested in checking their Facebook than facing what's going on in their checkbook.
Speaker: And it was a quote from a pastor.
Speaker: My cousin who's a pastor, he had his version of it.
Speaker: But it was during an offering teaching, you know, and people are more interested in checking their Facebook and the base in their checkbook.
Speaker: And now we have more distractions.
Speaker: We have TikTok.
Speaker: We have Instagram.
Speaker: We have LinkedIn.
Speaker: We have all the different social media platforms to distract us from our craft.
Speaker: If you haven't spent 10,000 hours in your craft, you shouldn't be on social media.
Speaker: You shouldn't be listening to music.
Speaker: I said it today.
Speaker: Stop making royalties for musicians.
Speaker: Stop making royalties for musicians.
Speaker: For people that don't need any more money, you need to be listening to Sam Taggart and D2D experts and all these other people out there and get residuals from your customer.
Speaker: I'm sorry, royalties from your customers for life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I'll sum that up.
Speaker: Do you want to listen to Taylor Swift and make her money?
Speaker: I'm sorry, you're a Taylor Swift fan.
Speaker: Do you want to get her more royalties?
Speaker: Or do you want to listen to Taylor or Sam Taggart and get royalties for life?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's your decision.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Your decision.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Royalties from your customers for life.
Speaker: Stop making royalties for Kanye and they don't need your money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like just going off the last point, there's so many distractions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We have more resources than ever, but also more distractions than ever.
Speaker: So it's like, um, that's something that I, when I, when I'm getting distracted, it's actually come back in my head.
Speaker: Like, why am I checking my Facebook so much?
Speaker: Why am I not looking, looking at my checkbook?
Speaker: And it's actually funny.
Speaker: Um, I don't know if you follow Alex or mostly at all, but, uh, you know, big entrepreneur and all that.
Speaker: And one of his podcasts, uh,
Speaker: He talks about that, like, first thing he does in the morning is he actually basically does that, faces his checkbook.
Speaker: He will look at his bank account every day and make sure, like, hey, is the bank account where he wants it to be?
Speaker: And like how many of us are facing that?
Speaker: The longer you're going up every day, that's good, I guess, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, I think it's important to remember stuff like that.
Speaker: We got to face the things that are important in this distraction.
Speaker: Facebook's your only book.
Speaker: That's a problem.
Speaker: You heard me say that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's so funny.
Speaker: No, it's true.
Speaker: If your only Facebook book is Facebook, there's a problem.
Speaker: If you have a big TV and a small library, that's a problem.
Speaker: Unless you're watching YouTube.
Speaker: You know, I had an 85 inch TV with every Xbox game possible.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: What's your library like?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, who's speaking into your life?
Speaker: Who's what's the mental protein that you're feeding your brain?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like there's so many things, too, that we can.
Speaker: I know earlier you were talking about like, you know, we got the call of duties.
Speaker: We got something.
Speaker: Nothing like Black Friday.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nothing like a good Black Friday to lose a good sales rep.
Speaker: Sorry, guys.
Speaker: Diablo came out last year.
Speaker: I lost like nine guys for like seven days.
Speaker: I had their wives text me, come, can I get him?
Speaker: Help me, please.
Speaker: And bring some Vizine because their eyes have been open for five days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nothing like a good Black Friday sale of a video game to lose a sales rep.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: So there's all these different, I guess, I don't know, vices, like distractions, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker: Kryptonite.
Speaker: Kryptonite.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: That's what you're talking about.
Speaker: Kryptonite.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so how do you coach guys to just recognize?
Speaker: Because some guys, like, you got these games on your phone, all these distractions.
Speaker: Like, I'm sure you've seen this in your guys, but you can be going to the bathroom.
Speaker: Next thing you know, you spent 30 minutes on the toilet playing a whatever game, wasting time.
Speaker: I mean, I guess...
Speaker: Toilets, toilets, neutral territory.
Speaker: I mean, you don't want to be calling customers back on the toilet.
Speaker: And they're like, are you in the bathroom?
Speaker: You know, my guys call me from the bathroom.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, are you in the bathroom?
Speaker: They're like, yeah.
Speaker: So maybe, you know, I'll give a disclaimer.
Speaker: If you have a couple of minutes of toilet time and you want to play clash of clans on your phone, it's probably okay.
Speaker: Or you can return some text messages.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But, uh,
Speaker: You know, how do I say it?
Speaker: You got to say it with love, which I never really was good at that, right?
Speaker: Just being from New York and being very, like, direct.
Speaker: Like, no one wants to...
Speaker: no one wants to hear from a jerk idiot right yeah so you try to communicate with their love language which you know there's a big thing that i've learned because i've read the love language book right so you have words of affirmation physical touch uh acts of service um words of affirmation and gifts right right so i try to communicate with my people
Speaker: or anyone in my life through the love language, right?
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: Obviously with ladies that I work with, we're not physical touching.
Speaker: So just for the high fives and side hugs, you know, for ladies to men, but you know, some guys want to hear the sound of their voice, Noah, you know, or John or Bob or Charlie, whoever, right.
Speaker: You call them and you talk to them about the things that they want to hear, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let me get a little bit more specific on that.
Speaker: How do I tell somebody to get the hell off social media or this?
Speaker: You just have to find a way to communicate with them, right?
Speaker: It's not the words you say.
Speaker: It's the music they hear.
Speaker: It's not what you say.
Speaker: It's how you say it.
Speaker: It's such an old quote, right?
Speaker: Oh, wow, Chris.
Speaker: You really got something there.
Speaker: Well, it's true.
Speaker: Hey, buddy, could you stop using that game?
Speaker: It's going to kill you.
Speaker: It's going to ruin your month.
Speaker: It's going to ruin your whatever.
Speaker: Hey, why are you playing that game?
Speaker: Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: It's just how you say it.
Speaker: And generally, if I have to deliver something awkward, I try not to text it.
Speaker: Because when you text something to someone, I can imagine looking at the text message and being like, oh, yeah, this is Chris being a jerk and Chris's jerk voice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or calling them and just using voice inflection, a little bit of tonality, smile while you're talking about it.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: The hardest part of my job is delivering the bad news.
Speaker: And I'm not perfect by any means.
Speaker: And I make mistakes sometimes.
Speaker: And they say a salesperson's hardest thing, word to say is no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I've learned that you have to say no sometimes and it's not easy.
Speaker: And sometimes I don't win at that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I'm good at is saying, Hey, I'm sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hey, I made a mistake.
Speaker: Hey, I should have done that differently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Forgive me.
Speaker: Hey, guys, it's okay to say you're sorry.
Speaker: You know, you don't have to be a tough guy.
Speaker: This is not, you know, a street war.
Speaker: Hey, I'm sorry.
Speaker: I made a mistake.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, you hurt my feelings.
Speaker: I know I did.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: And call them.
Speaker: Call them.
Speaker: Don't hide behind a text message.
Speaker: Hey, Bob, I'm really sorry that I acted like a jerk and didn't take your feelings into consideration.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: Just say I'm sorry.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: How easy is that?
Speaker: Well, yeah, like sometimes what I struggle with is because I don't know, I can tell you, you got like the New Yorker.
Speaker: You're like, I can tell you're, you're not afraid to call people out and all that.
Speaker: But for me, I've something I've had to try to adjust more is just like getting more to where I can,
Speaker: you know, like call people out when necessary.
Speaker: You know, I grew up like a super shy kid, not liking confrontation and things like that.
Speaker: So like, how do you recognize for guys when do they need to be like called out versus does it depend on the person?
Speaker: Like, or how do you know what's going to be effective?
Speaker: Is it effective to call people out sometimes?
Speaker: Or what's been like, what's been like your experience coaching, training guys and running large teams?
Speaker: How do you get them to actually make changes?
Speaker: And one of my mentors said, you praise in public, you reprimand in private.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Fortunately, I didn't hear that soon enough earlier in my manager career.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My leadership career.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, you just praise them in public and you reprimand in private.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you just be really nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and luckily I have a great co-regional, Corey Waxler.
Speaker: Shout out to Corey.
Speaker: I'm sorry I didn't show you some love.
Speaker: He's really good.
Speaker: He's really kind and polite.
Speaker: We have a very different dynamic personalities.
Speaker: The good news being the age that I'm at and having a crazy life, which I can't really get into today because we wouldn't have enough time, is that I've been very successful and I've also been very unsuccessful.
Speaker: I've met nice people and I've met bad people.
Speaker: And I've been doing this now.
Speaker: This is my fourth decade.
Speaker: The 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, the 2010, 2020.
Speaker: Okay, my fifth decade of sales.
Speaker: Holy crap.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Fifth decade of sales.
Speaker: Sales in the 80s, sales in the 90s, sales in the 2000s.
Speaker: Sales in the 2010 to 2020, and now in the 2020s.
Speaker: And I haven't stopped.
Speaker: I didn't take five years and go become a nurse or become a banker.
Speaker: This is all I know is sales.
Speaker: And I've done it forever.
Speaker: And I think-
Speaker: when I'm talking to people, they know that, right?
Speaker: You know, I don't give diet advice.
Speaker: I'm working on that.
Speaker: I got married when I was 45.
Speaker: I don't give relationship advice.
Speaker: You know, I don't get on the doors a lot these days.
Speaker: So I'm not screaming about people being on the doors.
Speaker: I did that job.
Speaker: Now I'm doing a different one.
Speaker: So, but I have a lot of life experience.
Speaker: on handling bad things and good things.
Speaker: It really takes a lot to get me shook.
Speaker: And I can deliver a bad message with a lot of experience.
Speaker: And we talk about stories.
Speaker: I have thousands and thousands of stories for anything sales related you could think of, right?
Speaker: Guys getting arrested in the field, no permits.
Speaker: Cars getting stolen and turf.
Speaker: Wheels getting stolen off someone's BMW in Massachusetts.
Speaker: If you ever watch this, you'll know who I'm talking about.
Speaker: We came out of a hotel and his car was on Lyfts and all the, all the things.
Speaker: And that was in 2005.
Speaker: 18 years ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it's, it's, it's been a long time and I'm still relevant.
Speaker: I still sell.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I still sharpen the axe.
Speaker: My pastor has a good quote.
Speaker: He goes, I might be old fashioned, but I'm not out of date.
Speaker: And I am, I'm an older guy and been around a while, but I'm good with technology.
Speaker: I'm good with sales.
Speaker: I'm obviously very good with people.
Speaker: My rapport skills are ridiculous and getting into a customer's home, shoes are off.
Speaker: I'm on the couch, you know, we're cooking dinner.
Speaker: Dogs, you know, rubbing the dog's belly, you know, I feel like there's nothing I can't accomplish.
Speaker: Yeah, well, being in sales so long, because I hear some guys, it's like they're knocking doors for a year and they're like, oh, Taylor, I'm burned out.
Speaker: I've been doing this so long.
Speaker: And like, I'm in my 12th year doing this.
Speaker: And like, I still have the times where I was like, man, I've been doing this forever.
Speaker: But then I see guys like you, like Michael O'Donnell.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay.
Speaker: Well, I haven't knocked doors for 30 years.
Speaker: I knocked doors probably 2006, on and off the last 16 years.
Speaker: So I know you're not necessarily knocking doors every day, but just like, you know, sales in general, the job.
Speaker: What do you say to guys when they're like, Chris, how do you keep doing this after so long?
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: How do you not get burned out?
Speaker: What do you tell your ass?
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: I'm not going to be a model, so that's not going to happen.
Speaker: I don't have any degrees, you know, and this is all I know.
Speaker: And it's done great for me.
Speaker: I can go anywhere and make $100,000.
Speaker: I can go to Best Buy and make $100,000.
Speaker: I can go to a landscaping company and make $100,000.
Speaker: You know, earning potential or earning power is something that's really, really good for life.
Speaker: Let's talk about this.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If you're in sales, if you're an 80-year-old fireman, you can't be a fireman.
Speaker: If you're an 80-year-old police officer, you can't be an 80-year-old police officer.
Speaker: But you can be in sales and be 80.
Speaker: Brian Tracy.
Speaker: Tom Hopkins, John Maxwell are all in their 70s and 80s and still making very, very, very good money because they chose this profession.
Speaker: So at least I know till I have no air left in my lungs.
Speaker: It might not be in solar.
Speaker: I hope it is.
Speaker: But I'll always be able to earn money from my sales career.
Speaker: I'll always be able to earn money from my sales pedigree.
Speaker: And that's why I do this.
Speaker: And, you know, that's why I keep pressing on.
Speaker: And when guys are like, oh, I don't want to do this.
Speaker: Well, go take that degree you have and go back to college or go take that degree you have and go be a nurse.
Speaker: I don't have that.
Speaker: Then just keep pressing on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, Michael Donald is a perfect example, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's 60.
Speaker: Oh, goodness.
Speaker: He's over 50.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's out there every day grinding.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he's turning his Jerry Rice into his Jerry Jones.
Speaker: Here's a quote for you.
Speaker: Jerry Rice, right?
Speaker: Top receiver, world-class athlete.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Jerry Jones.
Speaker: I'm not a Cowboys fan, but just for like the rhyming purposes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Jerry Rice into Jerry Jones.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Come on through.
Speaker: Come on through.
Speaker: Jerry Rice into Jerry Jones.
Speaker: Jerry Rice is a world-class athlete.
Speaker: Jerry Jones has a world-class organization.
Speaker: Taylor McCarthy, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You, Taylor, too.
Speaker: You, Taylor.
Speaker: Taylor, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: World-class sales.
Speaker: Now, they're in their leadership role, right?
Speaker: So I tell guys, well, if you're burned out being a rep, you know, build an organization.
Speaker: Recruit, train, motivate.
Speaker: There's lots to do in this job.
Speaker: Yeah, when I think when guys just accept that that's their career.
Speaker: No, that's good.
Speaker: Because like what you're saying, it's like, this is what you do now.
Speaker: You've been doing it so long.
Speaker: And for me too, when I decided, hey, this isn't just another summer job.
Speaker: This is like my career now.
Speaker: This is what I do.
Speaker: got a house in san diego like this is my job like out of for me once i like just accepted that and went all in that's when things changed because i see so many guys it's like oh i'm just gonna try it i'm gonna do this for a summer and they're just like dipping their toes but um that's what i would recommend for guys listen yeah burn the bridges go all in yeah but i love that
Speaker: I have a family.
Speaker: I like nice things.
Speaker: I could possibly retire.
Speaker: I'd probably have to do something still.
Speaker: But I'm not done with the mission yet.
Speaker: What's great about sales and what's great about getting plugged in an organization like D2D Experts and getting around guys like Mike O'Donnell and yourself, you can bring that career to a different level.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So you have Jerry.
Speaker: Let's let's talk about you have Jerry Rice and the Jerry Jones.
Speaker: But then Jerry Jones will eventually retire.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he will bring his career to like maybe, you know, chairman emeritus, I think it's called.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, I still have so many levels that I could still go to.
Speaker: And this right.
Speaker: You have rep, manager, regional manager, owner, teacher, you know, mentor.
Speaker: There's so many levels that you can continue to go to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And the second that's, um, you don't have another level to go to.
Speaker: I think that's where, I don't know, company owners, you got to spread that vision to your guys too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you got to believe that there's another level you can hit another, uh, you know, because once you start, stop growing, um, that's where I see guys lose too.
Speaker: Got people playing foosball in the background.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: We're not trying to do the podcast or anything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's so good.
Speaker: If you want a couple of tickets, hopefully get this Chuck E. Cheese prize there.
Speaker: Showbiz pizza and Chuck E. Cheese, man.
Speaker: Yeah, but no, it's good.
Speaker: So Chris, last couple questions before we start wrapping up here.
Speaker: So you're over an entire region over there at Sunder.
Speaker: So for guys that are aspiring to get into leading others, growing other leaders, how do you transition from leading yourself, then to leading others, then to leading leaders?
Speaker: I know there's differences and all that.
Speaker: So what do you see?
Speaker: Well, if your house, if your house is in an order, your spiritual house, your financial house, your emotional house, your marriage, your relationship, if those things aren't in order, you can't give what you don't have.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So luckily I am, my house is in order.
Speaker: Uh, my health needs to be better.
Speaker: So I'm working on that.
Speaker: But my, my, my spiritual house, my emotional house, all that's in order.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I read books, right?
Speaker: 360 degree leader is a perfect book for you to lead yourself, to lead your co-managers.
Speaker: You know, I have a co-manager, Corey Wuxler.
Speaker: And, you know, so we have to communicate.
Speaker: We have to get along.
Speaker: Then I have the owners of Sunder, Eric and Max.
Speaker: Then I have my managers that I work with, James and Noah, Joe and,
Speaker: Dustin and Kevin and so many people, you know, goodness gracious, I don't miss anybody that, you know, Kyler and Caleb and all my Orlando guys, we have a new team in Miami.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, just I have to be able to communicate effectively with them, but I also have to be able to communicate with myself.
Speaker: You know, Tony Robbins, if you watch,
Speaker: Some of his events, he talks about James Belushi and Robin Williams, how they killed themselves when they had all the money.
Speaker: They had beautiful families.
Speaker: They had won multiple awards.
Speaker: But Tony said they didn't effectively communicate with themselves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think one thing I'm very good at, I'm wrong with an answer.
Speaker: To mentor and to help others is I am in very good check with myself.
Speaker: I don't drink alcohol.
Speaker: And if you do, I don't judge you.
Speaker: Not popping bottles at the club.
Speaker: You know, my mind is crisp.
Speaker: I get the right amount of rest.
Speaker: I'm healthy, though, you know, obviously working on getting healthier, but I'm healthy.
Speaker: My mind.
Speaker: It's healthy.
Speaker: I'm happy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I'm spiritually fed.
Speaker: I go to a great church.
Speaker: My wife is, you know, handpicked by God for me.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: My daughter, Angelina, she's six.
Speaker: She's amazing.
Speaker: So they see those things, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But if I was like on my ninth wife and-
Speaker: you know, sleeping in my car at the club and, you know, popping bottles with my belly popping out.
Speaker: And then the next day I'm trying to lead you.
Speaker: I'm trying to take you to war and I'm not, my house is not in order.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Then how can I do that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's, that's, that's one thing I, you know, I don't want to brag about myself, but I definitely am got my, my house is in order.
Speaker: So long winded answer.
Speaker: Read books and be, have your house in order.
Speaker: Yeah, 100% love it.
Speaker: And yeah, like, you know, you got to know to lead yourself too.
Speaker: So anyone listening to this, think the people you're trying to lead, would you look at yourself and want to be led by that type of person?
Speaker: And if you're doing those things that Chris talked about, you're popping the bottles, if you're staying up till 5am playing Call of Duty, like, you might...
Speaker: You might want to check yourself on some of those things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So kryptonite, right.
Speaker: The kryptonite in life that's blocking your success, toxic relationships, drugs, alcohol, bad things, right.
Speaker: Toxic things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Things that are, that are affecting you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Those are things in your life that you, you, you just need to get rid of.
Speaker: Could be toxic family members.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Could be a lot of things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, Chris, as we start wrapping up here, you sung this for us at the end of your presentation today, but you created, like, in my opinion, the best song for cells that we should all be singing on the doors every day.
Speaker: So it's called the what do you call it?
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My friend Jason kind of started it and then.
Speaker: We took it to another level.
Speaker: It's called the No No No song.
Speaker: So obviously we get a lot of no's in this business.
Speaker: We get no's daily.
Speaker: Mike O'Donnell likes no's.
Speaker: But as we get no's and we go from door to door or no's from anything in life, we just try to make it fun.
Speaker: It's a lot better when there's a room full of people.
Speaker: But we can kind of sing it.
Speaker: if we want.
Speaker: And, you know, kind of put on the spot here.
Speaker: I'm kind of shy.
Speaker: I'll sing it with you if you want.
Speaker: So it goes no, no, no, no.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So you're getting no after no after no after no.
Speaker: And then you're getting a yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's what's great about sales.
Speaker: You'll get no's.
Speaker: So you could actually sing the no's down the block.
Speaker: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So we'll do it one more time.
Speaker: Ready?
Speaker: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Hey, man, thanks for having me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: And hopefully you wouldn't violate any FCC things with that terrible singing.
Speaker: You know, like my mom said, I had a face for radio.
Speaker: Never got into singing before, but.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Thanks for having me.
Speaker: We finally did this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We'd love to come back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, we appreciate it, Chris.
Speaker: Remember that song next time you're on the doors, anyone listening to this and no, no, no, your boat.
Speaker: And then if people want to connect with you more, Chris, or I don't know, potentially on Instagram at C M U N I Z Z I. And then Chris Munizzi M U N I Z Z I on Facebook.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And I'm proud of you, man.
Speaker: And love this podcast.
Speaker: Thanks for doing this.
Speaker: I've tried to spell solopreneur a couple of times.
Speaker: It's a tough word.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: It's a tough word.
Speaker: I feel a little bit smarter now.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: Appreciate you.
Speaker: See you guys later.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: So guys, go hit up Chris.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show today.
Speaker: And hopefully we can do a round two, you know, in the future.
Speaker: I'll buy one of these microphones at my house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'll get the whole, like, I'll get like the hanging down one.
Speaker: I'll turn, I'll turn my house into a studio.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So appreciate you again, Chris.
Speaker: And, um, guys, one thing I've just taken from, uh, learning from Chris over the couple of years that I've known him is just make things fun, make it lighthearted, make it easy.
Speaker: Um, Chris is a master at like creating these one-liners and helping, helping, uh, whatever he teaches stick in the minds just by, you know, the no, no, no, your bullet song.
Speaker: Like that was a great example of it.
Speaker: So thanks again, Chris, and we'll look forward to seeing what you do next.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: All right.
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