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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's up, Sorpreneurs?
Speaker: We are back.
Speaker: We are live from Door to Door Fest here in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker: And I'm stoked today because not too often do we get to do a live interview like this.
Speaker: And we have got the man, the myth, the legend, River Skinner on today.
Speaker: So River, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker: Excited to have you.
Speaker: I'm excited too.
Speaker: I'm excited that we do get to do it live because I think you've missed kind of like an element over Zoom.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: I've never done one from a hotel room, so.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: You don't get the nice view of unmade beds, you know, every day.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, my dirty clothes are sitting right behind, you know, the mic, the camera here, so don't mind that.
Speaker: Hopefully you don't get any sweaty smells here.
Speaker: Did a few workouts, so.
Speaker: If you smell sweaty clothes, that's me, River.
Speaker: I can handle it for 45 minutes.
Speaker: I told it.
Speaker: Yeah, but yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker: So River, we just heard you speak here at Door to Door Fest and you gave an awesome talk on recruiting.
Speaker: We'll dive into that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you're here in Texas, so we want to hear all those things our listeners want to know.
Speaker: But yeah, do you want to kind of share maybe how you got into solar and your story with that?
Speaker: Yeah, I've always been into sales.
Speaker: I grew up eight years old.
Speaker: My dad, well actually, my dad my whole life owned produce stands and he's paying me $3 an hour to work at the produce stands and he ended up
Speaker: He's like, hey, listen, I can pay you $3 an hour or if you sell watermelons for me, I'll pay you $0.50 a watermelon.
Speaker: I'm like, sweet.
Speaker: So every person that came through the door, or came through the door but came into the produce stand, I'd sell them watermelons, make $0.50 a pop, and I was making more off my commission than I was on my hourly pay.
Speaker: I'm like, this is awesome.
Speaker: So anyway, so I got recruited into door-to-door from one of my dad's other employees named Aaron.
Speaker: Aaron invited me to go sell satellite with him and I went and sold satellite with him that summer.
Speaker: The summer I graduated.
Speaker: That following year, two years later, one of my good friends just was like, dude, why are you not selling solar yet?
Speaker: I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker: So I got recruited in Utah to sell solar.
Speaker: Sold solar for a month.
Speaker: I sold eight deals my first month.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Back then, that was like 10 grand or something, and I was ecstatic.
Speaker: I was like, oh my gosh, I just made 10 grand in a month.
Speaker: I wasn't making good money previously in door-to-door, so for me, that was awesome, and I just fell in love with the product.
Speaker: Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker: I know, especially in Utah.
Speaker: I got out of Utah because I was scared of selling to all the Mormons and stuff out there.
Speaker: Yeah, they're scary.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: They're intimidating.
Speaker: Yeah, but lower rates, so I'm in California.
Speaker: But yeah, if you've been with someone in Utah, do you feel like, and I know now you're in Texas, what do you feel like the differences are between the markets?
Speaker: Do you feel like it's pretty similar to have an experience, pull the markets?
Speaker: I think Texas is unique in the sense that it's deregulated.
Speaker: And a lot of the utilities, they're deregulated.
Speaker: Some of them are co-ops where it's just one utility.
Speaker: So it's really different in the sense like you don't know like, hey, you're not with SDG&E.
Speaker: You're not with Rocky Mountain Power.
Speaker: You could be with one of a thousand different power companies.
Speaker: And so they could be paying $0.08 a kilowatt hour to $0.22 a kilowatt hour, and you have no idea until you collect their power bill.
Speaker: And so that's something that's really unique to Texas is that you're kind of like Easter egg hunting.
Speaker: It's like, hey, it may be a super sexy prop, or it may not be.
Speaker: you know, comparative to Utah.
Speaker: But, you know, Utah, I think, I think is great.
Speaker: I grew, I started selling in Utah.
Speaker: I sold in Boise where rates are even cheaper than Utah.
Speaker: And so I've never been to a market like California where, you know, you're showing people these crazy savings.
Speaker: I've just never, I don't even know what that's like.
Speaker: And so Texas.
Speaker: Well, you're invited anytime, my friend.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: So Texas, if they have a large bill, great.
Speaker: If they're not paying anything, that's fine too.
Speaker: I'm used to some people with low rates, but if they just have a higher rate, then great.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm sure we'll talk more about that.
Speaker: But yeah, what I really wanted to hear is so River, you won the boot camp.
Speaker: They were doing the Noxstar boot camp, right?
Speaker: You were the winner for your group.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so for our solopreneurs that don't know, Noxstar, if you guys haven't checked them out, they do great trainings.
Speaker: We're at the conference right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they have a boot camp that they do, I think three, four times a year or something like that.
Speaker: And then they have a tournament that goes on.
Speaker: They do just kind of head-to-head.
Speaker: They put you in teams, and they pick a winner that sells the most during the six-week competition.
Speaker: So, River, he won his competition.
Speaker: How many deals did you do in those six weeks, River?
Speaker: Honestly, it wasn't like that crazy amount.
Speaker: I think it was like 13 or 14 deals in that amount of time.
Speaker: But during that, I sold all of those 14 or whatever, nine of them were in one day.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: And so that was cool.
Speaker: I just didn't work as hard as I could.
Speaker: You saved all your work for that weekend.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, I think 13, 14 deals.
Speaker: It was kind of in this time period where the net metering just changed in Utah.
Speaker: And I was like, I don't, you know, I just kind of put my
Speaker: I put my feet up, you know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that's incredible.
Speaker: Nine deals in a day.
Speaker: And I remember when that happens, that's actually when I first hit River Up to do a podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because everyone was posting about it.
Speaker: You know, super crazy number, nine deals in a day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My record was four in a day.
Speaker: So I'm like, wow, this kid did more than double what I did in a single day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's got to be on some sort of sales, steroids or something like that.
Speaker: No, there's nothing to do with scale.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was thinking in my brain the way I think I'm like what I see people doing when people do something amazing, it gets people really attracted to them, right?
Speaker: And it's really good for recruiting because you establish yourself as an expert.
Speaker: So I started to ask myself what could I do that would people start giving me more credibility that
Speaker: So people would trust me to come and work with me.
Speaker: It was for recruiting and I was like, I could do, you know, try to do 50 deals in a month.
Speaker: I could try to do this or that.
Speaker: And honestly, I messaged Sam Taggart and I was like, hey, what's the record for like the most in a day?
Speaker: And he's like seven.
Speaker: I'm like,
Speaker: Sweet, I'm going to do double-digit solar one day.
Speaker: No one's ever done it, and I know someone has.
Speaker: We'll get into it.
Speaker: But I was like, sweet.
Speaker: He said seven.
Speaker: I'm going to do ten, and that's my goal.
Speaker: And so I started realizing, like, cool, how am I going to do this?
Speaker: And so I started asking myself that question.
Speaker: And so I'm like, easy.
Speaker: I'm just going to set up one Saturday just as much as I can.
Speaker: And so I started just asking people, like, hey, would you mind doing a 7 a.m.
Speaker: appointment?
Speaker: And in my mind prior to that, I would never have asked that.
Speaker: I'm like, cool, 7 a.m., boom, 7, 10, 11.
Speaker: So I had an appointment every hour on the hour from 7 a.m.
Speaker: to 10 p.m.
Speaker: And that's the real trick to solar, in my opinion.
Speaker: Closing solar is easy, right?
Speaker: As long as you follow the process, you connect with the homeowner, they trust you, you answer questions, you know how to rebuttal to the basic objections.
Speaker: What if I move?
Speaker: What happens to my roof, et cetera?
Speaker: It really all just comes down to opportunities, right?
Speaker: So the real challenge of closing nine deals in a day wasn't the closing part.
Speaker: It was getting in front of the homeowners.
Speaker: And if you get in front of enough homeowners, then you'll close a high volume.
Speaker: That, in my opinion, is the real trick to solar.
Speaker: It's just getting in front of homeowners that are interested in the product.
Speaker: And so that's what I went out and did.
Speaker: It was really crazy for me.
Speaker: I closed like – it was like 7, 8, 9, 10 – no, 7 no-showed.
Speaker: It closed by 8 a.m.
Speaker: It closed by 9 a.m.
Speaker: It closed by 10 a.m.
Speaker: It closed by like 11 a.m.
Speaker: And I started back.
Speaker: I wasn't keeping up with the appointments.
Speaker: So I started picking and choosing which appointments were the best.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, so I had like 7 by like 2 p.m.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And then I got caught up with a few customers.
Speaker: But long story short, I was at 8 and I had one other opportunity left.
Speaker: And I went to her house.
Speaker: She wasn't there.
Speaker: And so I called her and she was like, hey, she texted me.
Speaker: She's like, hey, I'm at a party.
Speaker: I'm like, how long is the party?
Speaker: She'll be back at midnight.
Speaker: I'm like, cool, I'll be at your house at midnight.
Speaker: She's like, perfect.
Speaker: So I went to my last appointment at midnight, ended up talking to her and her husband and closed the last one at 1 a.m.
Speaker: is when we finished up documents.
Speaker: Five of the nine got installed.
Speaker: I've heard some people talking crap, like all of them canceled.
Speaker: Only four out of the nine.
Speaker: So a lot of them did cancel.
Speaker: That's still crazy.
Speaker: For me, I went back and I just realized, wow, you can really do a lot in one day if you put your mind to it.
Speaker: I later found out there's people that closed 17, 18, and that boggles my mind because literally there's no more time in a day in my opinion.
Speaker: But it was cool.
Speaker: It was really cool.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: And no, it's kind of like you hear the guy who broke the four-minute mile or whatever.
Speaker: Everyone thinks these things can't be done.
Speaker: But then when you hear someone do it, it's like, yeah, like, all right, it is possible.
Speaker: And someone's going to go and do the next thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I'm sure you got a lot of people gunning for you.
Speaker: And yeah, I've heard people, you know, close them more.
Speaker: We got Ashton Buswell.
Speaker: I don't know if you heard of him.
Speaker: Yeah, I listened to his podcast.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He closed, I guess, I think it was 22.
Speaker: 22.
Speaker: So we claim that's probably true, but yeah, he had everyone lined up, I guess, just like documents.
Speaker: Obviously, you can't be in that many appointments in a day, but I think you just set up something similar where it's like, okay, everyone's signed the documents at 12 o'clock on a Saturday.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: So yeah, but still, it's like crazy the amount of preparation it takes for that and commitments.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And 7 a.m.
Speaker: to 1 a.m.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Pretty exhausting, huh?
Speaker: And the thing that I realized from that and the thing that I actually got a lot from Noxstar was...
Speaker: You can get a lot more deals than you think and you can get a lot more than you think by asking certain questions.
Speaker: I think we stop, I think I stop coming up with solutions a lot of times when I'm not committed enough to getting the results.
Speaker: So like my first customer, what was the last name?
Speaker: The Bradfords.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Bradfords, they messaged me and said, hey, don't come over.
Speaker: We're not interested.
Speaker: Well, I already talked to them and I said, hey, I want coffee.
Speaker: It was at 8 a.m.
Speaker: And I said, hey, when I come back, I want some coffee.
Speaker: So I have some coffee ready for me.
Speaker: And she texted me and said, hey, I'm not interested anymore.
Speaker: I said, OK, that's fine.
Speaker: But I still want my coffee.
Speaker: And she's like, oh, I'm not ready.
Speaker: I'm like, well, I'm at your door.
Speaker: And I was just texting her.
Speaker: And then she came and opened up the door and then I got into the home and closed it.
Speaker: Whereas prior, I would have just been like, whatever, canceled appointment, just wrote it up as not closed.
Speaker: Same thing with another appointment, that one at, you know, I was supposed to be there at 10 p.m.
Speaker: I went there, she wasn't there.
Speaker: I asked to come back at midnight.
Speaker: People will do a lot more than you think if you just ask.
Speaker: And I think a lot of times we give up too early and close this.
Speaker: Although this wasn't a great story, I would have had 10.
Speaker: But I sat in this guy's home for three hours.
Speaker: I literally tried probably 20 different clothes on this guy.
Speaker: And he never told me no.
Speaker: He just was like, he just kept on saying, I don't know, you know, that sort of language.
Speaker: I just kept on going and going and going and going.
Speaker: Keep going.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: But I didn't end up closing him.
Speaker: But what I did learn was like you can get a lot more people than you think you can if you just continue to go and continue to move forward instead of just being like, oh, there's an objection.
Speaker: Okay, no worries.
Speaker: And then you head out.
Speaker: I think that's what I do sometimes.
Speaker: I give up too early.
Speaker: I think some people give up too early as well.
Speaker: When really when they meet resistance, it's an opportunity to move forward.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I love that you set it up all on a date, too.
Speaker: I'm sure just having it all set up, you already decided, okay, I'm going to hit the nine.
Speaker: I said ten.
Speaker: I didn't hit it.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: I failed credit, and I had that, dude.
Speaker: I was pulling my hair out frustrated.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, just do it.
Speaker: That was my last closes.
Speaker: I'm like, let's just do it.
Speaker: Just the do it anyway clothes.
Speaker: I raised my hand.
Speaker: I know you don't know, but let's do it anyway.
Speaker: I don't know what else to say.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I mean, you're trying to break the record.
Speaker: So I imagine you probably had a few closes where it's like, look, I'm in a competition.
Speaker: Will you help me like close it?
Speaker: Did you pull out that one too?
Speaker: Pull out the competition one?
Speaker: I did it as a pre-frame.
Speaker: I just said, hey, you know, I have a goal.
Speaker: I've never done more than three in a day.
Speaker: Today, what we're going to do is we're helping 10 homeowners move forward today.
Speaker: In order to do that, I have some extra incentives for you guys to make it worthwhile to help you move forward today, to help you guys out, for you guys helping me out.
Speaker: So at the end of this, we're going to get everything moving forward.
Speaker: Does that sound fair enough to you?
Speaker: And it gave a logical reason.
Speaker: Although I really didn't offer them anything additional, in their mind, they're thinking, well, I'm getting a better deal than I normally would have for X reason.
Speaker: Yeah, because it's crazy.
Speaker: I've started using that.
Speaker: And I mean, obviously, we're not always in a competition.
Speaker: But if you bring that up with homeowners, say, look, we're trying to help as many people as possible.
Speaker: I'm going to win.
Speaker: You're not lying to him.
Speaker: But, you know, I'm trying to beat my record, trying to help this many homeowners have a personal goal.
Speaker: If you can get that emotion involved, then I'm sure you saw on that day, it really helps a lot.
Speaker: Yeah, it helps a ton.
Speaker: You're more motivated than people see.
Speaker: It's like, oh, this kid's really trying to help a lot of people.
Speaker: Trying to win the trip to Hawaii.
Speaker: I remember when I won my first big competition, that was every close.
Speaker: It's like, hey, will you help me win a trip to Hawaii?
Speaker: I'll send you a picture when I'm there.
Speaker: Will you please help me?
Speaker: Boom, boom, boom.
Speaker: People love when they're on your side of the team.
Speaker: And Grant Cardone has that close.
Speaker: It's like, come on, be my superstar.
Speaker: You're going to be my superstar today?
Speaker: All right, sign here.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: But no, a ton of respect for what you did.
Speaker: Obviously, you know, top 1%, top probably.001 that have done what you've done.
Speaker: Well, thank you.
Speaker: Super impressive.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And so, River, you gave an awesome...
Speaker: kind of talked the other day here at Door to Door Fest about recruiting.
Speaker: And I like what you're saying, how you did something big to kind of boost your recruiting.
Speaker: So tell me about your results.
Speaker: Did you have, I don't know, an influx or recruits come in after you did this big feat?
Speaker: I can't tell you how many people
Speaker: recruits I got, but I can tell you, I literally, my DMs was like 60 people.
Speaker: Just people, people cheer, like people are genuinely good.
Speaker: Like I didn't break an industry record like I thought I did, but people still were like, wow, that was impressive.
Speaker: And they wanted to cheer me on.
Speaker: People want to cheer you on too.
Speaker: So when you do something like that, people are like, wow, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so I, I just connect with a lot of people and you know, my, I, I kind of track how many people are looking at my stories and
Speaker: And that day, usually it's like 700, 800 people a day.
Speaker: That day it was like 2,000 people.
Speaker: 2,000 people every single story were just watching.
Speaker: And so that was really, really cool.
Speaker: But the thing that I believe about recruiting is it's not about...
Speaker: It's not about saying the perfect thing.
Speaker: I used to think it was always about like what's the perfect line to say?
Speaker: What's the perfect this or that?
Speaker: Really what I found with recruiting is it's more of a networking than poaching.
Speaker: Like people look at it as like I'm going to get this person, I'm going to get this person.
Speaker: Instead what I look at it as is like how can I connect with that person and how can I become their friend?
Speaker: How can I build a relationship with that person?
Speaker: And my goal isn't to recruit you.
Speaker: My goal is I have an abundance mindset.
Speaker: I think that's the best way to live.
Speaker: There's so many people out there that want to come work for me.
Speaker: There's so many people out there that want to have solar on the roof from me.
Speaker: So I don't need to get caught up on one person, one customer, whatever.
Speaker: Like they cancel if they don't go through.
Speaker: If this recruit doesn't want to come on, no big deal.
Speaker: There's tons of other people that want to come on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just want to connect with those recruits and I want them to win.
Speaker: And so if at some point me becoming their friend means that they're open to coming working here, great.
Speaker: But either way, what I want to do is I want to establish myself as an authority and I want
Speaker: them to feel comfortable going to me for help and I can go out there to assist them.
Speaker: So I have four or five people I can think of right now that are messaging me through Facebook or Instagram that are out there selling pest control or different products or solar and they're like, hey, how would you overcome this?
Speaker: How would you do this?
Speaker: I'm struggling with this.
Speaker: And I just give them free advice
Speaker: And maybe we're going to work together someday, but more I'm just trying to build my network and build myself as somebody that truly wants to give value because money follows value.
Speaker: And I know if I continue to push value out that eventually the money will return and the recruits will come because I'm building my – what's the word?
Speaker: Reputation.
Speaker: Hopefully a good reputation is what I like to think.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And I love that.
Speaker: And you just talked about be the person that you would want to have people look up to basically.
Speaker: I can't remember how you phrased it, but basically become that person that people would look at first before you try to recruit.
Speaker: Because if you're not producing at a high level, if you're just, you know, if you're barely working yourself, then why would people want to come work with you?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's like you, right?
Speaker: Like you just told me 150 deals in a year.
Speaker: Like that's insane.
Speaker: So like...
Speaker: people will want to work with you because they know that you can lead them to where you've gotten, right?
Speaker: It's not some secret that you sold 150.
Speaker: You're amazing, but what you could do is you could teach somebody the same way to be amazing just the way that you are.
Speaker: And so now you have credibility.
Speaker: And so what I believe is when the leader's ready, the recruits will come.
Speaker: So now it's like, cool, the leader's now ready.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: You now know how to teach somebody to get where you're at because you've gone where they want to go.
Speaker: And so the first step is always developing yourself to be a person that other people want to follow.
Speaker: And then you'll start to see.
Speaker: You'll naturally start to find more opportunities to recruit when you're a better leader.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: So do you have like, was there a time when it like shifted for you?
Speaker: Like in the beginning?
Speaker: I mean, I'm sure you weren't always like this, but...
Speaker: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker: Did you have a big shift where you started seeing tons more recruits come in or any, like, I don't know, changes you made?
Speaker: Yeah, and you may not like this because of your podcast, so forgive me, but I went to Thailand, and I was in 2016, and I was kind of depressed.
Speaker: I kind of was like, I was thinking about getting out of sales, like maybe I can't do this.
Speaker: And I actually took mushrooms for the first time, and this is why you might not like it.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: I took those and what that did was it gave me a perspective.
Speaker: And the perspective was I looked at myself and I said, why do I look at myself in such a...
Speaker: a small way.
Speaker: Why do I look at myself and think I'm not good?
Speaker: Why do I look at myself and think I'm sad?
Speaker: Why do I have this perspective of the world and of myself?
Speaker: And when I, and I was like, that's really not serving me.
Speaker: And it really flipped my perspective to be like, the only reason why I am insecure, the only reason why I am depressed or sad is because I'm choosing to look at life that way.
Speaker: And so when I got done with that experience, which I look at mushrooms as more like a medicine than a drug, when I got done with that medicine,
Speaker: I felt healed and my perspective switched and that's when I got home from Thailand.
Speaker: I moved to Boise, Idaho which I believe that people have these, we're talking about it at the panel, people have these growth spurts and it's usually over a three month period and that was when I truly came back to Boise and all of a sudden it was like boom.
Speaker: I started getting recruits.
Speaker: I started selling more than I ever had.
Speaker: The teams were doing better than I ever had and it was just crazy.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: That was a big shift.
Speaker: So moral of the podcast, do yourself a favor, get some shrooms in.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, if you feel called to do it, do it.
Speaker: It makes you see outside yourself and the effect that it gives you.
Speaker: That was the experience that I had.
Speaker: But more than anything, it's not like you need something external to do that.
Speaker: But more it was, that was the way for me to start believing in myself.
Speaker: And when I started believing in myself, that's when better things started to happen.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, he almost had me convinced I needed trash rooms, but I'm sure there's other ways.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker: Yeah, but no, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so, yeah, what are, as far as like recruits, how many people would you say you've like personally recruited or contributed to?
Speaker: Do you have a stat on that?
Speaker: I don't have stats.
Speaker: I'd say a couple hundred.
Speaker: I'd say personally.
Speaker: I worked with some great people like Jess Regan.
Speaker: He recruited a lot of people for our organization over the past year.
Speaker: But my team that's recruited a lot of people over the past year probably
Speaker: 450 people have been recruited to our organization.
Speaker: But that's not just me.
Speaker: That's just from our whole team's effort.
Speaker: But personally, I've personal recruits over the past couple years, a couple hundred.
Speaker: Some still work for me.
Speaker: Some don't.
Speaker: But I've recruited a few people.
Speaker: Yeah, a person or two.
Speaker: But that's what I love about recruiting is, like I said, I don't care if you work for me or not.
Speaker: I just hope that in some way...
Speaker: in some way that if I did get to work with somebody that when they leave my organization or if we no longer work together that they can say I had a positive impact on them.
Speaker: You know, there's people that I can think of that have gone off to do awesome things or in great spots of life and I like to think that hopefully I had some sort of positive impact on their life and that's why I like to recruit is because
Speaker: I believe if they come work for me that they'll be put in a better position than they were before.
Speaker: If that's not true, then I don't want to recruit them.
Speaker: And that's why I love recruiting is because it's an opportunity to help change people's lives.
Speaker: And I don't know exact stats on my recruiting.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: It could be 150 people.
Speaker: It could be 300.
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: Yeah, tough to say.
Speaker: I mean, social media, you probably, lots of people, maybe you brought in indirectly and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah, and I actually, you know, kind of going back to it, I don't think I'm the best recruiter.
Speaker: I do think I'm a great networker, though.
Speaker: I do think I'm a great networker, but I don't think I'm the best recruiter.
Speaker: But I do know that networking over time is what's going to pay off.
Speaker: It's more of a long-term thing than a short-term thing.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think the abundance mindset you have, that's one of the things that I admire the most about what you're saying is because there's so many reps.
Speaker: I'm sure you've been approached by people like, hey, bro, what's your red line?
Speaker: How much you making per deal?
Speaker: In fact, I was in an area just like a month ago, and this punk kid comes up.
Speaker: He's like, hey, what are you doing on my turf?
Speaker: He's like knocking.
Speaker: I'm like, I've been here for a couple of weeks, just getting some customers.
Speaker: He's like, get the heck out of here.
Speaker: You make trash and starts thinking he's trying to recruit me by saying anything.
Speaker: I'm like, dude, do you think that that's going to make me want to come work with you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think with recruiting, that's just a scarcity mindset, right?
Speaker: There's a limited amount of people in this neighborhood.
Speaker: Dude, how many times have you been through a neighborhood after another solo rep and have you closed deals on that?
Speaker: Neighborhood.
Speaker: Yeah, all the time, yeah.
Speaker: I've been to neighborhoods where people have come behind me and they've closed deals that I couldn't have.
Speaker: Like, there's always going to be more homeowners.
Speaker: There's always going to be enough roofs.
Speaker: But when it comes to recruiting...
Speaker: timing is everything and you never know when the timing is right so if he would approach you said hey man how's it going for you good that's awesome I've been in here just barely got in here have you been in here for a while sweet I'm stepping on your toes I can go find another turf yeah okay cool you know this is what I've noticed in this neighborhood you might like some of this let me follow you on Instagram you seem like a cool dude and then you start talking to each other and you start communicating for the next three or four months let's say you're in a bad position with where you're at which I'm not I'm sure you're not but
Speaker: Maybe you are and then he helped you out in some way.
Speaker: He was cool to you.
Speaker: You're way more likely to go to him to talk about the opportunity he may have offered you than being like, you know.
Speaker: Yeah, being a dick.
Speaker: Yeah, being a dick.
Speaker: Like no.
Speaker: Yeah, no, that's you.
Speaker: And you never know.
Speaker: It's like you said, maybe they have a pay issue.
Speaker: Maybe their company doesn't pay them like a year down the road.
Speaker: or something happened, maybe their company goes out of business and then who are they going to go to?
Speaker: They're going to go to the people who like cheer them on, who hit them up on social media, which I know you're talking about too, just, you know, connecting with guys and networking like you're saying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which has been huge for you.
Speaker: But yeah, I want to hear a little bit about like the social media.
Speaker: Speaking of that, can you talk about just kind of what you're, how you connect with people on social media and how you, I don't know, maybe strategies for guys who want to get better at the networking part on social media?
Speaker: Because I'm not good at that.
Speaker: Yeah, I think one, just being real and being vulnerable, right?
Speaker: Like sharing your things that you're struggling with, right?
Speaker: Like you don't have to throw up on people, but just sharing your story, you know?
Speaker: Hey, I, I, I,
Speaker: I had depression growing up.
Speaker: One thing for me, I grew up and I was on Zoloft.
Speaker: I was on antidepressants growing up.
Speaker: So I struggle with that.
Speaker: I struggle with being insecure.
Speaker: And when I share that part of me, there's other people out there that have dealt with the same thing and it makes me connect with them.
Speaker: And so by actually sharing your story, it doesn't always have to be sad.
Speaker: It can just be like documenting the journey.
Speaker: People connect with you more and sharing the good and the bad.
Speaker: And the next thing is spending time networking.
Speaker: And so what I do every day is I spend, actually let me rephrase that, I used to do a lot more, I can be better at it.
Speaker: I do a hundred touches on social media a day, meaning that I talk to or communicate with a hundred people a day, whether that's just sliding up in their DMs and just congratulating them.
Speaker: If it's a quick response of like, I see someone sell a deal, I'll just slide up and say, nice job brother.
Speaker: If I see somebody that, whatever, I'll just find a way to connect, just little comments.
Speaker: Little comments, I'll just talk to them and just communicate with them.
Speaker: Then what I'll do is I'll just go find people that I'm interested in networking with and I'll follow them and I'll just start cheering them on.
Speaker: Over time, I'll just start to get to know them, start to ask them questions.
Speaker: Maybe take a video of myself, send them a video of me telling them what I'm grateful for about them, what I see in them, what's powerful about them.
Speaker: Just spending time investing in other people.
Speaker: Just constantly be outpouring love, gratitude, appreciation, value and give out all of that for free.
Speaker: Give out all your tips and secrets.
Speaker: If anybody wants to know anything I do that has got me to be somewhat successful, at least I feel like I'm in a decent position.
Speaker: and I have a long ways to go, I'm an open book and I want to give that to everybody because I believe the more I give out, the law of reciprocation is going to give me back that tenfold.
Speaker: And so that's kind of my goal with social is how can I just give more out to the marketplace?
Speaker: Yeah, that's sweet.
Speaker: Yeah, we just had the Mr. Thank You.
Speaker: We spoke here at Door to Door Fest.
Speaker: I want to get him on too, but writes down five thank you cards a day for a year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like you don't have to be that extreme, but I mean you did kind of your version of that on social media.
Speaker: I think that's what you've been doing.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, one of my, what I call them DMOs, daily method of operations.
Speaker: You know, I believe in routines.
Speaker: I believe in a morning routine very strongly, you know, workout every day, drink a gallon of water every day, read a book every day, meditate every day.
Speaker: gratitude journal every day.
Speaker: But one thing that I've been working on is sending three people a text message or a message every day of why I love them and why I'm grateful for them.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And it could be anybody.
Speaker: Like I mentioned Will Smith the other day.
Speaker: Will Smith, is he going to respond to me?
Speaker: Maybe not.
Speaker: But if I send three texts a day,
Speaker: I got this from Jesse Itzler.
Speaker: If I send three text messages a day, that's almost 1,000 a year.
Speaker: Over the next 10 years, that's 10,000 messages.
Speaker: If I send 10,000 messages out over the next 10 years, do you think that one person
Speaker: one person like Will Smith would respond to me?
Speaker: Maybe, right?
Speaker: And I made a connection with somebody I normally wouldn't have.
Speaker: Or you message somebody.
Speaker: Jesse talks about three things.
Speaker: You consult, you congratulate, or what was the third one?
Speaker: You consult, meaning if somebody has something that, or compliment.
Speaker: That was the third one.
Speaker: So consult like somebody lost
Speaker: somebody in their family, something happened.
Speaker: You send them a message of consoling them.
Speaker: Hey, I know you're going through a hard time.
Speaker: I just want to let you know I love you and I appreciate you.
Speaker: And I'm here for you if you need anything.
Speaker: I'm thinking about you.
Speaker: Consoling.
Speaker: Complimenting.
Speaker: hey, I was thinking about you, one thing that I think you're really good at is I think, specifically you, I think you're very, very sincere and you're very genuine, but more than that, you're a really good listener and you're very, very attentive, which I love that about you, right?
Speaker: So if you can compliment somebody every day,
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Or you can congratulate somebody.
Speaker: Hey, I just saw that you closed 10 deals this week.
Speaker: Congratulations, man.
Speaker: That shows a lot about you.
Speaker: I just want to let you know I'm watching you, I'm seeing you, and I'm rooting for you.
Speaker: Or whatever, right?
Speaker: But console, congratulate, or compliment.
Speaker: And you do that three times to three people.
Speaker: You can just open up your phone, go to your contacts list, and just start scrolling through people until you feel someone that's on your heart.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: And then you can just record a video, type out a message, whatever.
Speaker: But it takes what?
Speaker: Five minutes a day?
Speaker: It's super easy to do, super easy not to do.
Speaker: But once again, I'm a networker, not a recruiter.
Speaker: And then boom.
Speaker: Or you'll just go through your messages on Instagram or on your phone.
Speaker: Just scroll to the bottom.
Speaker: Who I haven't talked to in two years.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: You still love them.
Speaker: You still like them.
Speaker: I just haven't talked to you in two years.
Speaker: So boom.
Speaker: Hey, buddy.
Speaker: I haven't talked in a while.
Speaker: I know we're not super close friends, but I do want you to know I'm thinking about you and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: Just making touches every day.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And yeah, I think if every solar person did that, if every solopreneur did that,
Speaker: Yeah, it'd be crazy.
Speaker: I mean, we'd be getting more deals for sure.
Speaker: I mean, think of even just from a sales perspective, if you're doing that, I bet you get at least a few people a year being like, hey, what do you do, by the way?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Can you get me some solar panels?
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: I mean, that's a side effect.
Speaker: But even besides that, it's like you're not trying to recruit every person.
Speaker: But how many recruits have you gotten by doing stuff like that?
Speaker: Probably dozens.
Speaker: Same thing with sales.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's a huge key in anything we're doing, just having that mindset and not looking for their award, but just doing it anyways.
Speaker: And then, you know, karma results are going to follow and have success.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's super cool you're doing that.
Speaker: Yeah, so you got trained by Parker Winder, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so Parker, he had a conversation with me like four years ago, a long time ago, and he taught me something, you know, be highly intentional but lowly attached.
Speaker: Oh, nice.
Speaker: That always touched.
Speaker: Did he teach you that?
Speaker: I think he did.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker: He's talking about my quadrant?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyway, you know, I think that's how it is in life, like,
Speaker: You know, just expect everything you want in your life as long as you're putting in the work and you're being that person that will come.
Speaker: You just don't know when.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But, so I'm highly intentional but I'm lowly attached.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And you don't know if that's going to be the customer that's going to buy.
Speaker: You don't care either way.
Speaker: You're not controlled if they choose to buy or choose not to buy but you are highly intentional going into it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and just live in a space of like you trust God, you trust the universe, whatever you believe in that will come eventually as long as you're doing the right things.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah, that's money.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: So yeah, take note of that.
Speaker: It's a money tip right there.
Speaker: But I wanted to ask you too, River, do you have like, when you're reaching out to people, something that is tough for me on the social media thing is just, I get distracted super easy, start wasting time on the social media and, you know, end up
Speaker: Just watching cat videos.
Speaker: Watching cat videos, yeah, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: So for you, when you're doing all that, obviously we know social media is good for all these things, reaching out to guys.
Speaker: Did you have like a set schedule or are you doing it?
Speaker: I know you're probably doing it intentional, but what's your kind of process as you go on social media and not get like distracted and actually have attention when you're on social media?
Speaker: I spend so much time on my phone, it's not good.
Speaker: So a lot of it is I'm just scrolling and I'm just watching people's stuff, like not being intentional and I just naturally, I'll just naturally at the end of the video, I'll just type something on the, mainly it's stories.
Speaker: But no, like when I do it intentionally, it would be, I do my morning routine and then after my morning routine, I'll send, and then I'll get my phone after I've done my stuff and then I'll get my phone, open it up, then I'll send the text messages, then I'll do the hundred reaches, like reaching out.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: When I'm doing it optimally, but I'm not as consistent as I could be.
Speaker: Yeah, well, I'm glad you struggle with it too, not just me.
Speaker: It literally knows exactly what you want to see.
Speaker: It knows I want to watch golf videos, fighting videos, and motocross videos, and success videos.
Speaker: Those are like the four things.
Speaker: That's like all it is.
Speaker: I'm just like, oh, this is so entertaining.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Just stroll for hours.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I hate it.
Speaker: Yeah, so no, I think that's key though is trying to be intentional.
Speaker: Obviously, easier said than done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, the other thing you talked about too in your presentation is just, I know you had the Topgolf story recruiting guys at Topgolf the other day.
Speaker: How much of what you do, are you like constantly as you're out just doing, I don't know, bowling activities?
Speaker: Are you always looking for guys to recruit or do you have kind of like a set thing you try to do when you see how these guys could be good?
Speaker: Yeah, I could be better at it.
Speaker: Taylor McCarthy says you don't go anywhere to recruit, you recruit everywhere you go.
Speaker: And for me, it's more of, I'm not like, that's not what I'm searching out.
Speaker: You know people that do MLMs?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My dad, that's what he does for, he has a produce stand and he does MLMs.
Speaker: So I have a lot of respect for that.
Speaker: But I also get the NFL, the No Friends League, with MLM where it's like constantly, hey, how you doing?
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, guess what?
Speaker: You can make $7 million tomorrow if you get three friends, I get eight friends, but you have to be one of my friends that I sign up.
Speaker: And it's just like you're always looking for the pitch.
Speaker: I just more, as I go throughout my day, if I see someone, I'll just open up the opportunity.
Speaker: Hey, it seems like this is a really good line for recruiting that I learned from Taylor.
Speaker: Hey, especially like, let's say it's a waiter.
Speaker: Let's say it's someone that's not really in a high level position.
Speaker: hey, you seem to be really good at your job.
Speaker: I was at Four Seasons and the person that was cleaning my clubs, I said, hey, you seem to be really good at this.
Speaker: Is this a career for you?
Speaker: And obviously, no.
Speaker: And they're like, no, it's not my, oh, okay, because you would do really, really well at what I do.
Speaker: And then you kind of pause.
Speaker: Really, what do you do?
Speaker: Well, I basically do the same thing that you do.
Speaker: I just serve people and I talk to people, but I just get paid a ton of money for it.
Speaker: You know, I
Speaker: Our company actually just got off a hiring freeze.
Speaker: I couldn't promise you a job, but I could get you an interview.
Speaker: I could promise you an interview.
Speaker: If I got you an interview, would you show up?
Speaker: That's a great word track that Taylor taught me.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: That I've used quite a few times.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Copy and paste that.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Literally.
Speaker: You just use that word for word.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: It's a money line.
Speaker: And I didn't create that.
Speaker: I just, I just, I just learned from everybody and try to take what works for the people and apply it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's a money line.
Speaker: And yeah, I don't know if we mentioned it, but you won, um, was the best recruiter at door to door con.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Voted by the people, the people spoken.
Speaker: Once again, you know, I don't think I'm the best recruiter.
Speaker: I just think I have influence on social media.
Speaker: So I got voted the most.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, and that just shows the influence you have.
Speaker: Like, even if you're not, people still recognize you and you have the amount of influence that people are seeing the results.
Speaker: Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker: It was cool.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, you know your stuff and obviously you've had a ton of success.
Speaker: So, yeah, we appreciate all the stuff you've shared, River.
Speaker: And then last thing I wanted to ask you, just like in Texas, you know,
Speaker: Or yeah, you had the story about the guys at Topgolf that you recruited the other day.
Speaker: How big have you grown your...
Speaker: you told a really cool kind of story about your transition from Utah to Texas, just kind of the struggles you went through.
Speaker: And I know there's a whole thing that changed in Utah with the net metering.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So for our solopreneurs, can you kind of tell that story just we like to hear about, you know, the failures, the struggles, and obviously that sounded super tough.
Speaker: So the net metering changed in Utah.
Speaker: And long story short, we went on a blitz while we were trying to figure out a solution.
Speaker: we wound up Blitzen Boise, came back, thought we had a solution.
Speaker: Last minute we found out we didn't.
Speaker: And there was a meeting and I basically didn't do a good job in that meeting leading those people, which led to a few of our main leaders in Utah leaving, which led to about 75 people leaving the company over the past.
Speaker: That was pretty much starting in December.
Speaker: So from December to April,
Speaker: We went from like 160 reps to like 75 reps.
Speaker: And keep in mind, we were recruiting people through that time period.
Speaker: So we lost a lot more than just the 160 to 75.
Speaker: It was like we probably lost like 80, 90 people.
Speaker: And then we were still recruiting people.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And so we just lost a ton of people.
Speaker: And, you know, it literally brought me to like a place of like, man, I –
Speaker: I should not be in leadership.
Speaker: This sucks.
Speaker: And a lot of people that are very close to me left.
Speaker: And it was very emotional.
Speaker: And so the thing that I learned...
Speaker: from that was one to be upfront and honest when you don't have a solution because I pretended like I didn't.
Speaker: I felt like we were fine.
Speaker: The second thing is when we pretend like we had a solution, I told everybody else to go and sell.
Speaker: It's going to be fine.
Speaker: You're going to love it.
Speaker: And I was, during that time, I was kicking my feet up.
Speaker: It was during that competition.
Speaker: I was excited.
Speaker: worry about it.
Speaker: I don't want to have to deal with the new net metering.
Speaker: I don't want to have to learn it.
Speaker: So I just put my feet up.
Speaker: So the second thing I learned is I need to do – if I'm going to ask someone else to do something hard, I need to be right there beside them and doing it with them.
Speaker: And there's many more lessons I've learned.
Speaker: But what I'm grateful for is where we're going, we want to have a thousand reps
Speaker: and where we're at today and the lessons that I've learned from that is gonna help me become the leader that can lead a thousand reps that I may not have learned without that lesson.
Speaker: And so it's given me a huge gift.
Speaker: The thing that I learned, John Frampton,
Speaker: I listened to that talk.
Speaker: He said, go look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, would you follow you?
Speaker: And I did that.
Speaker: I went into the mirror.
Speaker: I was in my truck.
Speaker: I opened up my little sun visor, popped it open.
Speaker: I looked at myself.
Speaker: So would I follow me?
Speaker: And I had a notebook.
Speaker: For some people, I would.
Speaker: In these situations, I would follow me.
Speaker: I'm doing this well.
Speaker: But there's a lot of situations where I was like, hell no, I wouldn't follow you.
Speaker: And it led me to see my weaknesses.
Speaker: It led me to see some of my downfalls.
Speaker: And now it's time to improve, right?
Speaker: It's now time for me to work on myself, to forge myself more into the leader that people need to have to be successful.
Speaker: And so it's been a gift, but a lot of those gifts were amazing.
Speaker: crying a lot of those gifts were some some dark nights were of self-doubt and insecurities and frustrations and heartache and um but going through the dark is where you get to the light so i finally feel like i'm through the dark um little has a couple weeks ago so
Speaker: Well, I feel for you.
Speaker: Yeah, I was just glad when all those net metering changes happened in Utah.
Speaker: I'm like, dang, I'm glad I already sold my parents' solar.
Speaker: Grandpa did your five.
Speaker: I'm glad I'm in San Diego and not Utah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, I feel for you, man.
Speaker: It seemed like, you know, super tough, all that changing overnight.
Speaker: And, I mean, kudos to you.
Speaker: But no, really respect you, dude, for being super honest, super raw with all the people that follow you because there's a lot of like, as I'm sure you've seen a lot of people I know that's just flash their, you know, cars, flash their money.
Speaker: But that's all we know about them.
Speaker: And people really respect the things you're talking about.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: And not just seeing the money, the Lamborghinis and all that.
Speaker: One day, one day I'll get a Lamborghini.
Speaker: Same.
Speaker: So yeah, so River, before we wrap up here, do you want to tell people a little bit about your podcast, your brand, your Valor gear and all that, where they can find all those things?
Speaker: Yeah, so the Valor Morning Podcast, you can find it on all social media platforms or on all podcast platforms.
Speaker: I upload one.
Speaker: I try to do it five days a week, but I haven't been consistent lately.
Speaker: But there's almost over 200 episodes on there.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: So tons of content for you to sift through and to kind of hear what's going on inside of my head and my perspective.
Speaker: So go to the Valor Morning Podcast and listen to that.
Speaker: River James Skinner on Facebook and then River J Skinner on Instagram.
Speaker: Just shoot me a follow and DM me if you heard this from the solopreneur.com.
Speaker: DM me and let's just chat and I'd love to connect with you and help and serve, give in any way.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: We appreciate you coming on.
Speaker: So guys, go out, hit River up.
Speaker: Tell him you appreciate him for being raw, for sharing his story on the podcast.
Speaker: And we'll have guys in touch with you, River.
Speaker: And any last, I don't know, words of wisdom you want to share with our solopreneurs before we say goodbye here?
Speaker: No, just be grateful.
Speaker: Be grateful.
Speaker: Your situation's better than you think it is.
Speaker: So just be grateful.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Be great, guys.
Speaker: Go out and share this with someone who can value from it.
Speaker: And tell River you appreciate them again.
Speaker: And we'll see you guys on the next show.
Speaker: Thanks again, River.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: Hey, solar printers.
Speaker: Quick question.
Speaker: What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top-performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and
Speaker: and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
Speaker: And it's called Sol Society.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it?
Speaker: Less than $3.45 a day.
Speaker: Currently Sol Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only, but solopreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
Speaker: Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker: We'll catch you again in the next episode.
