Introduction to Taylor Armstrong
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Purpose of the Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Introducing Javier Alvarez
00:00:41
Speaker
What's up, everybody? We are here in the studio. We got my man, the guy that I'm running my team with here in San Diego, Mr. Javier Alvarez. Thanks for coming on the show with us today, Javi. Yeah, bro. Thanks for having me. You get to pop my podcast cherries. yeah for What an honor.
00:00:58
Speaker
can Yeah, it's ah always a privilege when I get to do that. But yeah, cause it's been a long time coming and um I've learned a ton from you. We've we've been building up our squad together. Javi, he's kind of known as like our systems guy or culture guy.
00:01:13
Speaker
i would say the builder behind just the culture we've been able to create on our team here on our squad here in San Diego and really help help us
Javier's Entrepreneurial Journey
00:01:21
Speaker
grow. So I'm excited to dive into that and a whole lot other stuff.
00:01:25
Speaker
But ah yeah, man, do you want to give us kind of your ah background and I guess ah the short version, how you ended up hearing yeah here in San Diego? Well, I mean, first I want to start, dude. Super grateful for you know being here. It's crazy how comes full circle. yeah I still remember years ago.
00:01:40
Speaker
you know, looking up a door to door podcast, I found yours and, you know, i would digest it literally every morning, which was crazy. i think I would revisit the, I forgot, I think it was Taylor. Yeah. Taylor McCarthy. Yeah. like he are stop yeah i would just like listen to that all the time, bro. Like heading to hood. So it's crazy to like now be on, you know, and yeah now I ended up in San Diego, you know, when you recruited me, but yeah.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just a quick background, man. I mean, I've been an entrepreneur since like about 16, you know, like I found out very young that I was going to be a dad. So that just catapulted me to just trying to figure out and making money. And so that led me to entrepreneurship and the construction world, really. And then it wasn't until probably like five, six years ago. I was kind of in between, ah you know, opportunities. And I reached out to a buddy of mine on social media that he's kind of known with door to door.
00:02:35
Speaker
yeah And I'm like, hey, bro, like, what's the best, you know, office opportunity to open right now? And this was in Atlanta, Georgia. So I was just like, I'll just open an office and, you know, run it, do whatever I have to do and just make a lot of money.
00:02:46
Speaker
Little did I know that that turned into a recruiting, you know, conversation. He was like, oh, bro, yeah, like, you know, I'm pretty sure you'll do great. ah But, you know, cool thing is we actually have a blitz coming up.
00:02:56
Speaker
You know, just come by, you know, come out, see if it's for you. And I did. I was like, all right. Like, so, you know, get catch a flag, go to Vegas, and I get thrown on the doors. You know that was like the first time that I've done that. Yeah.
00:03:09
Speaker
And ah the rest is history. You know, now I've been in the space for going on six years, which is crazy because, you know, you don't really realize when you become the rookie to now the veteran in the space.
The Role of Faith and Family
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, just just super, you know, like it's changed my life as far as, you know, i just as an entrepreneur, as someone who can, you know, use the gifts that I have to like build up people, help people just change their lives drastically as well from, you know, the most that they've made is, you know, 40, 50, 60K to then making you know a quarter to half a million, which is crazy.
00:03:41
Speaker
And so I'm in love with the space. You know, I think it's like probably like the lowest ceiling that you could kind of break into and make a lot of money. Yeah. And that's why I'm still in it. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Let's go, man. yeah Well, no, that's cool, man. So, yeah, it's funny how like small when you think about it, it's like a pretty small space, especially with door to door solar. um You know, you go to these events like door to door console work on ends up pretty much being the same people you meet over and over.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah. But it's funny. You came out. ah we've You've been. Now we're what, like year and a half now? Yeah, youre almost going on two years in October. Yeah, crazy. um But yeah, I still remember you just like hitting me up and you're like, hey, do you know any good opportunities? And I was like, oh, come check out.
00:04:24
Speaker
We got a retreat of training coming on, came out. And yeah, i was just so fired up to have you on because I know a guy like you, you built multiple businesses. You you were basically running an EPC, right? Your previous company. Yeah.
00:04:39
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, got a ton of experience, a ton of good things he's been doing. So yeah, and then you've been out here year and a half, been growing it. So what were your, I guess, what were your first feeling coming out in San Diego? Because I know was kind of for you, you almost went to like a full rebuild. You were like at the top of another company, running it essentially. Then you came here. Was there any like fear around that? Or what were your thoughts when you first came out California and almost like had to rebuild? Yeah, yeah.
00:05:06
Speaker
Just to kind of give like a little background on that. So I helped build a another company, super dope company. we We did a lot of amazing stuff. ah But, you know, it's just a lot of dumb tacks, you know, like as new kind of like leading in the space, specifically in solar, ah like the like the the landscape of how solar in in itself that it was. Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
There was a lot of learning curves. Right. And there was like a lot of ups and downs, you know, and we recruited a lot of people, you know, We learned a lot as far as like how to build systems, how to build vision, how to yeah get people bought
Mindset and Market Challenges
00:05:37
Speaker
in. So I'm super grateful for that. Right. And I actually, when my youngest son was born, i thought I was leaving the space just because the way like the last opportunity ended.
00:05:46
Speaker
So I went back to Atlanta, Georgia. We went from, you know, living in Houston, like a super nice house to going back to my wife's childhood bedroom. Wow. You know, with, with my son, she's pregnant. We're like, okay, you know what? We're going to just weather, you know, this season, you know, allow, you know, our son to be born and then we'll kind of just figure out what direction to go into. Yeah.
00:06:06
Speaker
And that's kind of like where I was in the drawing board and crazy enough, the way that things just stacked up, uh, you know, i came out to do a blitz in l LA with one of our buddies. Yeah. Shout out nick fin yeah shoutout Nick finger. He brought me out to the West coast and, um,
00:06:19
Speaker
you know it wasn't It wasn't that great. you know My confidence was down. i was beat up mentally. you know We're critical as high performers you know on ourselves. But within that, that's when I kind of saw you. I was like, you know what, Tay, you've never moved from San Diego, bro. You've weathered like your whole career. you I think you've blitzed a couple of markets, but for the most part...
00:06:37
Speaker
you know, like you've been stable in one, you know, market. And I was like, that's what I want, you know, because I came from a background where it's like you chase the market instead of making it work. and And it didn't work out for me. Right.
00:06:50
Speaker
And so I hit him up. He posted something with legacy Brandon and I was like, whoa, like I've always heard of legacy and I've always heard of Tay. And I was like, all right, how did this happen? So I hit him up and I was like, dude, what, you know, like what,
00:07:00
Speaker
what what differentiates legacy and he literally just got me on a call with Mike and Mike invited me to one of their leadership events DNA and i was blown away it was like if all of them would have put on a show for me as far as values and what we were looking for and I was like all right dude I'm freaking sold and so there was fear right as far as you know, the, the unknown factors, but at the end of the day, like ultimately the conversations that I had there, you know, with you and with the leaders that I've never heard of, which was crazy yeah of guys that, you know, our golden door status and making millions of dollars, it gave me comfort because if they can do I've always been of the thought, you know, where it's like, if someone else can do it, God created me where it's like, I have two hands, you know, capable mind and I can speak, I can do it as well.
00:07:47
Speaker
yeah And so that's all I need. I needed the receipts of someone doing it, multiple people doing it within a system that took that fear away. And then second is, um, like I believe in my capacity to do something as well. Right.
00:07:58
Speaker
I have that self-belief regardless of my identity was all, you know, like bundled up and confused or whatever. As far as a performer, like I ultimately knew that I've done it before. I can do it again. And so literally I went to that DNA event. I met John, met Mike, we met Jake, met Tyler, met Jack, met Will, like these heavy hitters. There's a room of heavy hitters. Avengers of solar. Yeah. And I'm just like, holy.
00:08:20
Speaker
And I've never heard of them before, which is crazy because I used to play the politics, you know, like it makes the world feel small, like the solar world feels small. And just a lot of guys that are more about putting on a facade than actually worrying about what's in their bank account and like the the lifestyle that they're living and stuff like that. And I was like, cool.
00:08:37
Speaker
It's done. like It's a done deal. like Me and my wife, you know where she was still in Houston around that time. i was like, cool, we're moving to San Diego. And she was like, okay, let you've you've made me move to worse markets, you like Pueblo, Colorado and Houston, Texas.
00:08:51
Speaker
yeah So San Diego was a pretty nice upgrade. I was like, sweet, let's do it. And then we you know got on Facebook Marketplace, you know locked down, a took over someone's lease, and we moved here like a week later. just never looked back since.
00:09:05
Speaker
Even I was surprised how quick you made things happen because I was almost like, oh, this might be kind of like a long-term play. We're going to have really figure things out. But then you hit me up and you're like, yeah, you got figure it out. Be out here next week. I'm like, okay, sweet. Let's go. Yeah, that's one of my biggest values, man. I just make decisions quick and then at the of the day I have...
00:09:25
Speaker
We always have the power to change it. Usually very little decisions are final, you know? Yeah. nus And I think that's what top producers do. They make things happen quick. Once they decide on something, it's like they put their foot on the gas pedal and they go.
Building a Value-Driven Team
00:09:38
Speaker
So, and i yeah, I think that's been a key to your success and also something that you've helped our guys with, with our team is, um you know, we decide what we're going to do We decide metrics we're going to hit as a team.
00:09:48
Speaker
and um yeah, it's been a big thing, I think, with our culture too. But yeah, what were some of like... I know it's kind of an adjustment coming out here to San Diego, probably from other markets. I mean, you've been, i know you're in Houston for a while, yeah ah Colorado, and I think it can be sometimes tough coming from those markets to California. Just like for me, it was tough actually selling Texas.
00:10:10
Speaker
um I need to go back there because I still haven't figured out Texas. Yeah. I'm able to blitz there like a week and a half. But yeah, what would you say are some of maybe like adjustments you had to make or some like big differences or struggles you've you've had initially? Yeah. One of the biggest lessons that I took from it is it literally all comes down to your your mindset, like where your mindset's at and where your belief system is at. yeah yeah um Regardless, yes, obviously there's difference between you know what utility you're switching people over and things like Like that, you know, might might be a certain type of demographic. You know, if you're selling in Colorado, they might be a little bit more logical. If you're selling in Houston, they might be a little bit more emotional, 100% in the skillset side.
00:10:49
Speaker
yeah But at the end of the day, the reason that I think, you know, blitz teams are successful is because they believe they're going to kill it anyway, right? Yeah. And my biggest lesson is even though that i knew that it was easier said than done. yeah So because of where my confidence was at when I came here, it was more of just getting on top of myself and, you know, fixing that and getting my mindset right to make sure it's like, hey, I've always heard my whole career like this. I never worked San Diego before. Like San Diego, you don't go there. Super saturated, you know, like super hard from people that I would recruited into my organization. Yeah.
00:11:22
Speaker
you know then And so I was like, okay, cool. like So I built like this monster in my head. yeah And so it was overcoming that. And so I remember you know coming out and like it was I think it happened the way that I needed to the First time knocking, it was a Saturday.
00:11:37
Speaker
was like second door. I was driving around and it was second door. I get a bill. And I'm like... hold on, like, oh, everything that everybody has told me has been lies, you know what i mean? It was like just a normal conversation.
00:11:50
Speaker
And I think, you know, part of that is because of the skill set that I have. And then, you know, second, just because, like, I was, like, determined to figure it out, you know? And, like, you know, I'm not saying that it's been, you know, super easy with the transition, but I think if you...
00:12:04
Speaker
like really comes down to checking your mentality and your approach to anything that will either determine if you will win or if you will lose right if you believe you can or if you believe you can't either way you are right yeah and so like that is one of the most powerful things especially in door-to-door where you're so close to failure or success it comes down to the mentality so if you don't own the six inches between your ears like you're either screwed or you will make a lot of money yeah Yeah. So true.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's, that's what I've seen too. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of companies down here, but I, it's funny. I think guys just hear these stories and that becomes a story in their head. Oh, it's super saturated. Oh, this happens.
00:12:42
Speaker
I mean, yeah, you can stay out of San Diego. Everybody listening to this, unless you want to come work with us. We're actually knocking at Montana. Yeah. Yeah.
Debunking Market Myths
00:12:49
Speaker
and But yeah, like it's true though, whatever people believe is usually what what happens. and yeah I think that was part of my problem too with maybe Texas, because like Texas for me, I kind of told this story, oh, there's all these different utilities, it's like deregulated power out of these people. And then it's funny, because here you can kind of talk about, oh, there's government-funded solar programs or whatever.
00:13:12
Speaker
If Texas, if you say anything about the government, usually they're like, get out of here. Get out of here. We're not doing anything with the government. So, you know, some small like adjustments you have to make. But yeah, no, I think that's literally like the biggest secret and for anyone is you just got to like, you can sell anywhere. It's going to be conversations anywhere. There's going to be deals anywhere.
00:13:30
Speaker
You might have to make some small adjustments, but the people that have the belief and do the work with it. I've seen like anyone be successful when rest he's working with deals. Yeah. and Good thing about door to door, you don't have to be super smart.
00:13:43
Speaker
My high school dropped out. So, you know, I yeah i was able to come a long way from that. And I'm thankful for that. Well, no, you got a crazy story, man. And I mean, we're not going to go your entire story on the podcast. But yeah, I mean, you were in San Diego, like in your past, too. Yeah. You know, I don't know how much want to get in that, but you were like living in your car before, too, when you were in San Diego. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, San Diego has always been on my radar because my oldest son, he's 13 now. You know, this is where his mom was from. So, you know, we tried the relationship with Atlanta, Georgia. She came back here. lost myself a little. literally had an accurate TL and drove it across the country.
00:14:22
Speaker
40 something hours. And yeah, you know it was just a different period in my life where I was just, ah my identity was so lenient or ah my identity was so dependent on me being a father because that's why I wasn't a provider that I just drove across the country to be closer to my son that first time. But it led to a lot of, there was no preparation to it. So I was in a city that I was by myself really couldn't hold down a job, you know, for to save my life. I've always been you an entrepreneur. So that was like, it's a whole different realm. Yeah. So kudos, kudos for the people that can't, you know, it's like sit behind a desk or show up to the same place like every day. Yeah. When I came here, like i was,
00:15:01
Speaker
My priorities were just upside down. I was smoking weed every day, eating a little Caesar's pizza every day. had a gym membership. Were you making rice in your car? Yes, yes. so would words I had a portable rice cooker that plugged into the car, and I would eat that with sriracha every day. and if I had meat, then it was a good day. You know what I mean? ah but i mean it was like Then, you know like even though there was suffering, like that's that's all I knew. you know and i was like, oh, like I want to be close to my son. so I lived out of my car with that rice cooker, with the surfboard,
00:15:30
Speaker
for about 11 months, almost a year. And, you know, finally, I just kind of got tired of not having options. Like the only place I could take my son was to the park. Yeah. And it just got tiring, you know? And it's just, i was like, okay, cool. Like I'm going to mend the relationships that i burned coming out here, you know, and just kind of giving everything up.
00:15:49
Speaker
I took the last, it was, I think it was like $30, you know, that I had to take freaking Greyhound back across the country because my car got picked up. You know, like months to left. It's like they finally found me because I wasn't making payments on the car and, you know, used the last amount of money that I had. I didn't eat the whole time that I was going back to Georgia. And if you guys have ever been on a Greyhound, like that' like a 10-hour drive is like 40 hours. It's like crazy. Like how they just take like a week to get back. Yeah. Yeah. It took a while. I don't even remember how much, how long it was.
00:16:21
Speaker
But, you know, i went back and, you know, mended some relationships, got back into what space I was in then, which was construction. Yeah.
00:16:34
Speaker
my hunger to succeed you know at a different level have money with principals you know and that's ultimately like what made me look for the culture and why i have so much value for culture and and and
Entrepreneurial Insights and Family Communication
00:16:46
Speaker
community and brotherhood within an organization because i I was able to make decisions on the fly without wise counsel. That led me to being homeless in San Diego.
00:16:56
Speaker
That's why I'm good and I'm passionate about you know like the young guys that come into this space, like just making sure that they make wise decisions. you know They don't have like the ability to just throw their life off the ears. We'll talk about quick decisions. i mean Coming to San Diego with like nothing set up, that'd be a nerve-wracking for for most people.
00:17:14
Speaker
so yeah i mean I can tell you're someone that... like can make decisions and be okay with it. Would you say that's like helped you now is just like, you have a family and everything with like risks and everything.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. Um, you say this well, one shout out to my wife, Kim, because she's totally on board and she believes in the vision, you know, I'm constantly communicating the vision. So if you have a spouse and you're in this space or you're an entrepreneur,
00:17:38
Speaker
door to door, whatever it is like, if you aren't communicating almost weekly, the vision of the life that you guys have, it will be short lived. Right. And so something I make sure is to always communicate to my wife, what kind of life we're going for. You know, we were dating, we both agreed that we don't want, there's nothing wrong with it, but we don't want a life where we're making 60, 70, 80,000, you know, two beat up cars. Like, no, like the life that we want is big. We want to break generational curses. We want to change the socioeconomic status of our last names and our families.
00:18:07
Speaker
And we know for that, there's going to have to be a lot of risks attached to it. And so we were all in from the beginning. We signed the documents when she decided to marry me. She was like, hey, that comes with it. I didn't promise her, you know, a boring life. I promised her, you know, adventures. And if you ever talk to my wife, she will tell you that I've taken her on many across the country and and whatnot. But yeah, I mean, a lot of it is is comes down to that, right? It's like the vision. So she knows like every decision I make is because we've communicated already where we're going. yeah And so it allows me to make quick decisions.
00:18:39
Speaker
And she knows that I'm not you know trying to burn us to the ground as well. you know So yeah yeah, I mean, it's it's it's something that it's I learned very quickly. Before, I used to be a lot more passive. And it always led me to believe in the Murphy's Law, when if something can't go wrong, it will go wrong. right And it's simply because I always functioned in the gray space. I always functioned you know on the fence. I always functioned on I don't knows or I'll make the decision later. And that's never leads to the life you want. Right. It leads to the life that you don't want. Usually, you know, it it tarnishes your relationships, partnerships, businesses, money that you you can be trusted with.
00:19:17
Speaker
And so, like, I've learned it's like never be that guy that's in the gray space. Always make a decision. ah You know, have confidence in your competence to make decisions. And it will usually work out.
00:19:27
Speaker
So good. And no, i really respect you and Kim. um you know, I know God is like super important for you guys in life and your church and all that. And that's what I've seen too, is you guys are just like, you know, I hear Kim wearing like a little financial a mastermind thing right now too. And even just stuff like that, she's always like,
00:19:46
Speaker
saying know this is in the hands of god and yeah so i can tell that's like helped you guys out a lot with your faith too and um i know that was a factor coming down san diego too right yeah being able to be part of like the church network and everything down here i always say it's like pray as it's up to god but work as it's on you you know what mean like because if you combine those two things like whatever seeds god god gives you like you will steward and plant well you know what you want sure that it produces fruits and that's that's how like i always see is like i don't i don't think yeah god God can work miracles, but at the end of the day he gives you the ingredients so that you can go and like actually cook the cake and bake the cake.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah. And so that's what business is, you know, and and we're very passionate about that. And you see it it's in every area of our not our lives, not just one. and That doesn't include solar or our teams or the culture. A lot of it is built on principles that I've learned, you know.
00:20:34
Speaker
through church, you know, through scripture and stuff like that. So, yeah. Yeah. So good. So, yeah, i want to get into some of the systems and we talk about some of the systems and, you know, things we've set up here with our squad and with our team.
00:20:46
Speaker
But, yeah, maybe being when you were running an EPC, what what were some things that, I don't know, that you feel like really helped your sales teams grow? Any, like, yeah. You know, things that maybe you see companies not doing or structures or like, because, you know, in solar, it's sometimes hard. Like I came from pest control yeah where it's like, you know, you're meeting every single day for correlation. You're going out as a team.
Culture and Values in Business
00:21:11
Speaker
And I think it's little bit easier to build culture because everyone's there.
00:21:15
Speaker
Like you're just grinding same hours every single day. But solar can sometimes be tougher, especially where we're like in markets, a year-round program. I see so many teams like struggle with that, where like guys don't show up, guys just work totally different schedules.
00:21:30
Speaker
They don't take it serious because it's like they're in their market year-rounds. So yeah, maybe let's talk about that. What are some systems you you've put in place yeah over the years with your experiences stuff?
00:21:42
Speaker
Real quick on culture. So I've always seek to build a not a a culture that is value-based, not proximity-based. And that's like really one of the biggest things that allows you to actually develop leaders within your organization yeah and people that have skin in the game and ownership over the results. right Not where it's just like a me, me mentality, but it's like, hey, overall, this is like our team. yeah Because it's based off of values and principles, not, hey, do we meet every day? You what I mean? It's like, if our value is to work hard, then guess what? We're going to be industrious. We're going to be out there. It doesn't matter if they check in you know at 9 a.m. m or if they check in at 4.
00:22:21
Speaker
The thing is, whatever it looks like for you to get the results that you want. Right? So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
Introducing SolarScout App
00:22:31
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:22:38
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage. Then we discovered an app called SolarScout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:22:51
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
00:23:05
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:23:16
Speaker
So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor. Okay, back to the show.
00:23:31
Speaker
um Another one is like making sure that we're making our squad better. Like if you're someone that's always like taking, taking, taking. then, you know, you're, it's, it, which happens a lot in our space. It usually it's not, people are not going to want to be around you and it's not going to strengthen the culture.
00:23:46
Speaker
But if you know your, your principle or your, or your value is to just add a value, like people are always going to be built up, you know, even if we're not in the room, like what was something we could say about our guys is regardless of we're in the room and a chat or you know,
00:24:00
Speaker
around in proximity to our guys, like our guys function, like, and they know how the team should function yeah regardless of where they're not, you know, it's, it's more of like, Hey, this is
Accountability and Leadership
00:24:10
Speaker
our values, dude. Let's function as if, right. Yeah.
00:24:12
Speaker
And they carry that out regardless of, you know, we're caught up, you know, you're, you're caught up doing something, I'm caught up doing something. And that's like the, the goal, right. Is to build up leaders, not just build followers that are like, okay, well, yeah if you know, my leader's not here, then it is what it is, you know, not be like, Hey,
00:24:28
Speaker
Like they built me up. I can take charge and take ownership of this and lead it, you know, going forward. So I think that's one of the biggest things um when it comes to the culture, like driving the culture is making sure we do it. yeah Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, I think something that's really helped our squad and myself too, being part of our company here is just,
00:24:48
Speaker
even um even though a lot of a lot of guys we don't have leadership titles necessarily but we all know we're leading somebody right whether it's ourself whether it's you know couple setters whatever so our guys in our squad i think i mean we have like a just within our squad of 13 14 guys or whatever we have our leadership chat like of our guys and i mean they're not like they don't have titles in the company And, um you know, even even us, we're not like managing the San Diego office, but we know in order to step into the next level, in order to grow our squad, we have to empower other people.
00:25:25
Speaker
we have to lead our guys and we have to empower our guys to lead their guys too. yeah, and yeah I think that's been something that's helped our squad out a ton is just, you know, guys know that if me and you can't step up, they're going step in lead other people. They're going step in to group me. They're going send out.
00:25:43
Speaker
their memes or whatever get guys fired up their pick their pictures on the door. It's not just me and you because I think so many teams, they just have the one manager, one, one two leaders and then everyone else that I go, I don't need to contribute to this.
00:25:56
Speaker
But I think super important to yeah i' get the guys and to contribute that way the The reason that I i learned that was and and granted like, you know, when I was leading the sales side of the last company, it wasn't it wasn't like I was applying all these principles like right away. It's lessons that I've learned through doing them incorrectly. Yeah. and ah And one of the biggest things is like I would drag people to doing this job. And I was really good at creating buy-in, but I had buy-in from a lot of C players.
00:26:25
Speaker
And that took a toll with me. I remember there was one winter that they literally told me, it's like, dude, just take off the month because I was like, bet, dude. Like I was like, oh, like I would show up still, but I was like at 50%, you know, you can just tell.
00:26:38
Speaker
And it was because of that. I was dragging a lot of C players, like don't drag C players, like invest in your A players, you know, develop your B players and then C players are probably going to be the ones that are revolving out of your organization. And if you do that, like everyone, the it will, it will trim the fat from the organization, no matter how much emotional equity you have in those people.
00:26:57
Speaker
Like that's one of the biggest things because a players will not want to be in an organization that keeps C players. Like they will leave. yeah did You will lose talent. And then B players will, they will get lost because they're kind of like, well, enough average of low performers more than there is higher performers. There is no vacuum.
00:27:16
Speaker
Push me to be a better performer. You know? And so that's kind of like what I found where it's just like, stop dragging people, just run with the people that want to run you. I mean, you, you've probably seen it even when people, you know, or if you're listening to this and you've been a part of my organization and you've left my organization, I'm not the guy to tell you no, like, and try to like date you back up. Like, I'll just say the facts and want to tell you, Hey, like, this is, you know, I would love to have you here, but at the end of the day i don't treat people like they're dumb.
00:27:40
Speaker
You know, like that's a lot like that's seen a lot in recruiting in our space. Like you treat people that don't know how to make decisions in their life. And I'm like, at the end of the just make a decision after you have all the facts.
00:27:51
Speaker
I'll still love you, bro, regardless of you're with me two days or two years or, you know, a decade. Yeah. My goal is to develop you as far as I can i can go as a leader. And then the rest is like kind of like up to whatever trajectory we kind of get on. you know yeah and ah And then second to that is i want to create a vacuum for myself as well. Because if you develop A players, you have no space to not be an A player. Yeah.
00:28:15
Speaker
Like it literally highlights everything that you need to work on. So that's ultimately why I want, because that's going to create a way better organization, right? Where it's like, you have to work on your deficiencies, either if it be in sales and leadership and training, like you have to be of value to everybody that you're training, you know?
00:28:31
Speaker
And, and that's kind of like how I've always looked at an organization is like, like lead up and lead down, like lead to anybody that you're leading, but also lead the leader that's leading you. Right. In the sense of don't be the guy that's complaining about your leadership.
00:28:45
Speaker
Because so the reality is if you're in that person's organization and they can be at level one as leadership, but they're still leading you, that has a lot to say of who you are as ah as a producer and as a leader, right? Yeah. But if you bring more to the table, you know, systems or feedback or whatever, and you're making your leader better, that will make you better as well. Because I need my leader to be in rooms that I am not going to be in yet so that they can continue to pour into me. And then that's going to like trickle down into the organization so that way you can lead your your guys better as well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
100%. Yeah, and it's funny. Yeah, I think it's John that and said some quote or maybe it happened to him, but he's like, what happens if you lead someone, if you train someone up, give them all the secrets, then they leave the company?
00:29:26
Speaker
Then he's like, okay, well, what happens if you don't? Like, what's the alternative? What if you don't train them? yeah So it's like, you might as well do it because either they're not going to grow as a leader here if you don't pour into them.
00:29:39
Speaker
And yeah, maybe there's a risk that people leave. But yeah, I think there's way more power in thinking abundantly, yeah empowering people. I mean, mean yeah we we kind of went through it. We actually just lost. He's he's back now. He knows who he is, but we had ah one of our ah you know solid setters.
00:29:54
Speaker
just leave and go to another company for a minute. And sounds like he's back now. Um, he'll, he'll hear this, but yeah, like we could have been, you know, we could have come down on them and all that. But like you were saying, we're just like, okay, man, go, um, go try it out, whatever.
00:30:12
Speaker
And then sure enough, on the other side, you realize the grass isn't always greener. And, um, hes He's like, Hey guys, I made a mistake. um, yeah, he'll be running like talking on that subject. And like, I think this is something that needs to be heard throughout the industry is it's greener where you plant yourself. Like, I don't care. Cause I've, I've been, I've been ah part of organizations that suck, but guess what? I've still won.
00:30:36
Speaker
you know what i mean? To some capacity. Yeah. Like, yeah if I would've put that same effort, you know, somewhere else in a better culture, better, you know, environment, all that stuff would i have made 10 times more money. yeah But at the end of the day, like it goes back to that saying where winners win no matter where you're at, right?
00:30:51
Speaker
And it's like that's what I always tell people. i was like, it's it's not the the problem is usually not. Yes, it's in some parts, you know, obviously it's not like just straightforward like as far as, okay, the culture sucks, so that's why I'm not growing.
00:31:04
Speaker
For sure it's going to affect your development. But at the end of the day, if you grind it out, put in things, you know, close deals, install accounts, you will make money.
Handling Team Departures Gracefully
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah. You know, and that's what I always tell people is like, when you leave, like leave, like knowing that you left all of it on the field. Yeah. Not when you were just left with one option, but when you have multiple options and that's the best way to go. Right. Because you add value to the people around you.
00:31:26
Speaker
And that's how I've always operated, you know, and and it's always worked out where I still have great relationships with, you know, almost everybody that I i work with. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I've been with a few companies where the guys, like, got so mad that I left and burnt bridges. And, um you know, matter of fact, I still see you one of my previous ah VPs at at the gym here there and...
00:31:49
Speaker
And he won't really talk to me. it's like we're yeah um I don't think he listens to the podcast. We should be good. If he doesn't say hi, hopefully he does. But yeah, it's just like so funny to me that people would like want to burn bridges and just like get so mad over someone leaving. It's especially where solar is such a small like industry, especially in San Diego, wherever. Yeah.
00:32:13
Speaker
Like you kind of run into the same people over and over and over. So yeah, someone I've learned learn from that we work with ah Jake Ransom here. He's been on the podcast too, but he's someone that I've learned a lot from is he like, it seems like every person that's left ah legacy here, our company, he'll still stay in touch with them. He'll still...
00:32:30
Speaker
DM him on Instagram and all that. He'll still like maintain a relationship with everybody. yeah and He's gotten a lot of people over the years that have actually come back that have left. So yeah, there's definitely something to be said about not burning bridges. And if you're someone that does that, I mean, I don't know, maybe yeah you do some meditation. It's hard to forgive people. because yeah you know Sometimes people do nasty things leaving too, and I get it. That can be tough too.
00:32:54
Speaker
you know If they take 10 of your guys, go to another company, yeah. I mean, yeah that can be tough pill to swallow, but... But yeah, especially people that just like leave, i mean maybe you've got to look at yourself too, because that's what i'm that's what I think too. When someone leaves my organization, when someone leaves our team, like, okay, what could I have done better? like What's the lesson I can learn from this? yeah Maybe it's I wasn't pouring in into them enough. Maybe they felt someone could pouring in and a more on another team yeah something that i've i've done is like exit interviews bro because i really want to hear like i legit i'm like okay cool like that's fine bro like i know you're gonna do well over there you know like i'm just curious like what like what feedback do you have for us like where do you see like gaps you know that's good uh because they're more willing to when they're not part your organization because you know they care more about hurting your feelings what they are yeah um i've seen that just across the board but uh
00:33:45
Speaker
It's like, hey, like give me feedback. like What can I do better? What can we do better as an organization to serve yeah people and like to to prevent you know people from going somewhere else, if that was the case, right? And yeah, I mean, once it's like it's not you being like, oh, like stay, stay, stay, like they're more open to like be like, hey, dude, it's because you suck, you know whatever whatever it is. Yeah, that's good. Same thing with, them you know, didn' speaking of sales, do do that with your customers if they're canceled. Oh, yeah. one hundred It's funny. I tried to do that with a customer that it canceled from last week, actually. And she like, which is I sat down with her, said, hey, we need to come back. We need to start the cancellation process. And she just like would not say anything. She's like, I know you're just trying to trick me into like overcoming more stuff or whatever. I'm like, no, I honestly just want to know like so we can improve our process for other people. yeah
00:34:32
Speaker
And she like just refused to give me anything. Tay was really just trying to give her a bonus to go to the room. I'm like, okay, whatever. so People are funny. But yeah, let's get into So yeah, you've set up some really good systems um um for our squad here. So let's talk about that a little bit and maybe like some stuff you brought from ah you know previous companies, previous positions, things you've maybe learned here. Yeah. at legacy so um i guess we can start with so we do right now ah we do like our weekly squad call accountability calls
00:35:06
Speaker
we have our group chats trying to hold each other accountable
Building a Sustainable Team
00:35:10
Speaker
um and we tried yeah we need to be a little bit better but we're doing one on ones with our guys too um it's all these things but what are some uh don't know maybe what are some differences you've seen from previous coming or maybe stuff you brought over stuff you learned from legacy yeah uh i mean a lot of it to apply here right because I was like, okay, cool. like This time around when I build it, I want to build it where we grow fast and it's sustainable.
00:35:40
Speaker
right because like There's always a fall-off point you know when you scale something. and so If you don't have systems in play right that you de-leverage yourself, like you will be the bottleneck right or the leaders will be the bottleneck to the growth.
00:35:55
Speaker
I just saw that beforehand. I was like, cool, as we're growing, like we you know we have to make sure that You know, we have the things in place. We have the accountability. We have the communication and expectation ah for everyone on on our on our teams, right? Because the reality when it comes to an organization, if you have a team, like if you're someone that, you know, has like your own squad of setters or whatever, if if you have anything less than five people, your training should honestly be in the field or in a coffee shop, right? Like going to a coffee shop, role playing, and then hitting hitting the doors. Like that should be it.
00:36:27
Speaker
Like there should be no higher level training yet. um is just getting production out of your guys, getting them, ah you know, in a flow state so that they know exactly what your job looks like ah to get the results that they need, right? Get them paid, do it whatever you have to do. Now, once you start getting into like the area of eight, ah you know, and plus, like that's where it's like generally for one leader, I've seen the fall off.
00:36:51
Speaker
Because it becomes a lot. You know what mean? It's hard to kind of meet up with eight people in one area and then you have three people wanting to knock with you at the same time. And it just you get pulled in many different directions. so So what we did, you know, for those that are looking to build, like start building wherever you're at is I was very clear is like we first had to have a very solid, you know, base base point. Right. Which is me and Tay.
00:37:15
Speaker
Like as far as production, culture, installs, pays, like all that stuff. Just overall, we had to be the whole package that people what wanted to come and work with. Right. That's the first thing.
00:37:25
Speaker
And then from there, when we recruited people, we were very religious about how people got onboarded. You know, they got onboarded, interviewed. We're on the doors accountability and set expectations for them as well.
00:37:39
Speaker
Everything was communicated like beautifully. And then out of those, like it was probably like a batch of like six people out of that batch. We found like about three liters. Right. And it was a really good batch. So, you know, there's like outside of the them, they know, there was probably like another batch that all of them, like none of them work with us, you know, because it just didn't work out and it's fine.
00:37:58
Speaker
But ultimately, like your goal is always to identify the person that's about it, that shows up not with promises or you're you're banking on their potential, but with their commitments and their actions. Right.
00:38:10
Speaker
And that's like the biggest thing when it comes to building and hiring is don't ever hire. Don't ever you know promote off of potential or Promises that end up being empty.
00:38:23
Speaker
Always do it based off of the actions and the commitment that they hold right now. And so if, you know, a setter, like if they want to be promoted to a closer, if we we we ah promote a setter that is, you know, maybe, you know, putting two appointments a a week.
00:38:38
Speaker
Like that's it has a lot of potential. Like, yeah, of course, that person can go out and put like 20 appointments, but they're at two. If we promote them to closing, they're going to the title most likely is going to get to their head. And two is not enough for them to make a lot of money. yeah yeah And so like it's just setting them up for failure or a closer that wants to, you know, mentor guys.
00:38:56
Speaker
Same thing. It's like, how are they stewarding? the opportunity and the position that they're in right there. Right. And just clearly communicate them when it's like the vision and then the actual thing that it looks like for them to step into that. Right. It's like it's the the grace of this job, but then also have the standard to, you know, put them into motion.
00:39:16
Speaker
And it's like a mixture of both. And then so once we found our you know first layer of guys, it was it honestly felt great because it's like guys that kept the culture, guys that set the standard, guys that were out there where it wasn't just you. It was like six people out there.
00:39:31
Speaker
And then from there, now your goal is to then develop those guys into what's going to help grow your org as in your potential leaders, right? Or your next level leaders. And then you start putting centers around them to where now they are starting to be in hoods. Right. And they're starting to knock and they're starting to help them because it's not, it's not something that you need to sit down with a whiteboard and talk about it. It's literally all through being on the doors, showing them how it's done, locking down appointments and then deploying them so that they can actually do the same thing and duplicating people's time.
00:40:02
Speaker
And what that does is one, you are now developing leaders and And then now they are developing their group and then we're trying to identify their group of leaders. Shout to network marketing because it taught me this. you know This is like literally the background of it, because if you do that, like you create a lot of people with healthy businesses, not just in production, but also in recruiting and building. Right.
00:40:23
Speaker
Because there's you can make money in both circles. And so what you want is like you want the vision that you've been you know preaching to these guys to be real for them. Hey, you can have a team. Hey, you can build this. Hey, you know, in a year.
00:40:34
Speaker
You can be the one with 15 because, you know, with us, it literally happened in a span of what, four months? Yeah, pretty cool. We went from just us two and we were kind of working separately to then joining versus to then four and then, you know, getting up to as big as 17. And this was in a span of like three, four months, you know, so it can happen when you dedicate a lot of focus and action to what you need to.
00:40:57
Speaker
And so then that's kind of like where we're at. And we already have like the vision of what comes next. Now, the biggest thing is making sure that the glue is in place, which is, again, expectation that's communicated to the person, regardless of it's, you know, one layer, two layers or three layers deep and the accountability. That's where most organizations mess up. Yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
They leave accountability up to a conversation. Hey, bro, you're not working. And that's as much accountability as they get. Performers love scoreboards. They love leaderboards. They love it to be in your face. If they do not perform well, they hate seeing their name in red.
00:41:30
Speaker
Right. And that's like one of the biggest game changers where it's like the right people will rise to the occasion. And the people that aren't about it, guess what? This job is probably not for you. And they're going to shy away. They're going to hide and they're going to end up, you know, looking for another opportunity. And that's completely fine with us.
00:41:44
Speaker
But like the right guys, like we have guys like Max, you know, or Josue or Dan, if for whatever reason they just had an off week and their name is in red because they didn't hit their minimum numbers, best believe that second week they're going to choose to be in the green because now everybody's like, hey, Dan, what you going to do?
00:42:01
Speaker
Right. Hey, Javi, what are you going to do? Right. And, you know, we have that culture of like, obviously not disrespectful, you know, competition, but it's like, hey, bro, like. like raise up, you know, like yeah like do better. Holds us accountable too. Cause I'm like, there's definitely weeks weeks where I've been out there. Like, Oh, I can take it easy. But then like, Oh shoot. I can't like, I'm supposed to be the leader. I can't have my name. yeah exactly So yeah, I think that's been huge for us just doing these accountability calls and having, that's a big part of it. Just going through it and And yeah, we're not like, like you said, we're not calling guys that we're not like,
00:42:34
Speaker
disrespecting them or coming down hard on them. But I think that's like a way to get them to almost like without having to sit down and have like a serious conversation. It's like way easier to just say, look at the scoreboard, but you didn't show up. um Let's get on it, guys. And makes it so you have to have less, I would say, tough conversations because they just see their name at the bottom in red. So it's kind of like a slap to the face. You manage the the person less.
00:42:59
Speaker
and you just manage the system. yeah and it's It's less grinding you know that way because that system can manage 25 people yeah done properly. yeah and We just have to make sure to do that one thing.
00:43:11
Speaker
and then Obviously, from there, it stems off. like If there's someone that's in the red two weeks, three weeks in a row, then the conversations come, right? Yeah. You know, or someone that, you know, is in a rut, it's like, that's a different conversation or someone that's killing it. Hey dude, encouragement. Like it literally puts it on a piece of paper for what you can do to like either add to the fire or start the fire or maybe even have a conversation of being like, Hey bro, like I love you. But at the end of the day, like this, this is a ah brutal industry to be in if you're not making money.
00:43:39
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's like, it's time to move on. Yeah. And guys will weed themselves out. You're doing it that way. Like, You know, we had a guy come. He was supposed to work with us for the foreseeable future, but um he wasn't producing. So I set some hard metrics with him.
00:43:55
Speaker
And then um sure enough, the next day, he just bounces town and we don't even know. We don't know where he's at now. We're like, okay. Yeah. um So yeah, I mean, it makes it easy if you just have the metrics in place and guys know when they need to hit it.
00:44:09
Speaker
um And then, yeah, we're starting to do, you know, if guys don't hit it over multiple weeks, I know we got a few guys and like make plans with them to improve. What do you call it again? Pips. Pips. Okay. Performance improvement plan. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:22
Speaker
So yeah, that's good for extra accountability. But yeah, like you said, I think it's we got our systems in place. So we're at a place I think it's a good position to be in where you can bring guys more on because I know some teams, they just have like so many setters. It's like so disorganized. Yeah. um I guess we can have the opposite problem because we got it. We need more setters and we got lots of closers yet.
00:44:43
Speaker
So we're hiring for a few centers. I mean, only the best of the best. um So hit us up want to be considered for it. but But yeah, once you have that foundation in place, the system, just so much easier to bring guys on, not have it be a disorganized mess.
00:44:59
Speaker
And then we can feed the setters the other leaders that are already within our squad too. um so it becomes a lot easier yeah um but yeah man um so it's been it's been cool having you on and um like like i said at the beginning i've learned most the stuff from you so um yeah i'm just uh have a ton of gratitude to you to like helping us set up our system better and run our squad because um yeah i know our team wouldn't be where it's at i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you dude the power of instagram yeah yeah social media what was like the first time we met was like three years four years ago three years yeah think at door to door con remember don't know it was one of them yeah it was literally dark and i had a cigar in my hand i think i drunk yeah i think it was that with coda door to door con yeah yeah at the party or whatever that's great just remember yeah you're going to have i was i was vibing man yeah
00:45:52
Speaker
But yeah, no, I'm excited to see where we go from here, man. But yeah, people speaking about that, if people want to reach out to you, maybe pick your brain more about systems or explore, and don't i don't know, coming on the team, what's the best way to get in touch with you? Yeah, Instagram is probably the best. I think it's underscore Javier Alvarez Jr.
00:46:11
Speaker
Either that or Javier Alvarez Jr. underscore, one of those two. But yeah, feel free to reach out. I'm an open book, man. I don't gatekeep anything. Like if for whatever reason, you know, you are in a place where even if it's struggling with setting, struggling with closing, struggling with, you know, developing systems within your organization.
Advice for Struggling Salespeople
00:46:28
Speaker
please let me know. I'm not a coach by any means. i just I just like seeing a healthy marketplace, and that's what solar is shifting to, just a healthy and and and a good hygienic business model.
00:46:39
Speaker
um So it's going to weed out bad players. So if you need anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. Let's go. Well, cool, Avi. Thanks. Yeah, we appreciate you coming on the show today. And maybe like a word of advice for anyone that's in a rut, struggling, cetera, that's thinking about giving up, anything that's helped you as you've gone through. Because I know, yeah of all people, you've definitely been through some ups and downs. Yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
So anything that's helped you through some of the ruts you've been in and get out of slumps and everything? Yeah, man. I call it the five levels of buy-in is so just make sure, one, that you're bought into the industry, right? Which is for us, is this is sales, right?
00:47:17
Speaker
I think sales is the greatest industry that you can be in if you want to make money quick, um you know regardless if it's insurance, solar, whatever, right? I honestly think... Solar specific is where you will make if you are good and you separate yourself from the pack.
00:47:32
Speaker
ah It's still it's still a gold rush. So you can still make some crazy solar money. um So then, you know, step four or level four, buy into the actual thing that you are selling, which is solar.
00:47:45
Speaker
Third is look for a good company that is. just has very good soil, right? At the end of the day, you know, if you're looking around, don't ask for potential. Don't ask for promises. Don't like say, hey, I want to see receipts. Like what are your top people like paid out right now, right? That you can learn from. Make sure that you are following a good leader within that organization. Because even organizations, man, most people don't like saying this, but even organizations, offices, they could be the top.
00:48:14
Speaker
There's still a bottom line. performing piece to that office or that team, right? And so you want to make sure that you're following a leader that you can get behind that allows you to just put your head down and grind. Someone that you trust, someone that keeps their word, someone that takes care of you so that you can do what you need to do. And then lastly is buy-in at your capability with yourself.
00:48:37
Speaker
And this is where most people don't tap into. I'm not just talking about for a season. I'm talking about like – understand that God designed you for something specific and he designed you in his image. Stop playing with that, right? Like literally that is one of the deepest things that you can do. So act like it, act like you were designed by, you know, the the biggest, like the creator, man. And, and no matter where you land, what you do, as long as you buy into those five things, you become unstoppable.
00:49:02
Speaker
I'm not saying that it's going to be easy. I'm not saying that you're not going to struggle. I'm not saying that you're not going to have opposition, you know, or obstacles, but at the end of the day, with the skillset that we learn in this industry, you should never be broke for longer than a season.
00:49:16
Speaker
You know what i mean? Cause like life happens, you know, either if it's health or family or just what like mental, like where we are at mentally. But at the end of the day,
00:49:26
Speaker
Buy into those things. Buy into you know the industry. Buy into the product. Buy into the company. Buy into your leader. And then most importantly, buy into yourself and believe that you're capable of getting yourself out of the rut.
Conclusion and Community Promotion
00:49:38
Speaker
I always say don't quit when you're down. Get to yourself to a point where you can breathe. You're not making decisions just because it's the only decision you have. So good. Boom, boom. Mic drop. Okay. Well, Javi, thanks for coming on, my brother. Guys, go hit Javi up on Instagram. Let him know you appreciate him coming on the show. and thanks for bringing the heat, my man. Let's go.
00:49:56
Speaker
Okay. Hey, solopreneurs, quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:50:09
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:50:32
Speaker
And it's called Solcite. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.