Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become.
Speaker: What up, everybody?
Speaker: I'm stoked today.
Speaker: We got the shoes in the background.
Speaker: We're here at the Legacy headquarters.
Speaker: We got the one and only Luke Toon in the house.
Speaker: Thanks for joining us, Luke.
Speaker: What's up, Taylor?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I'm super excited.
Speaker: It's been a long time coming, man, but glad you took time out of your workouts, your busy schedule.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: We were due.
Speaker: We were due.
Speaker: So you've had some people on there, and you've guilted me, and I'm stoked to be on.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: It'll be fun.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Every time I come to Utah, you know, for all these events, SolarCon, Door-to-DoorCon, and every time I hit Luke up, I'm like, hey, man, when are we doing a podcast?
Speaker: So finally this time, I'm like, all right, I'm in Utah again.
Speaker: Yeehaw tied me down.
Speaker: And we're ready to rock.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: Okay, so yeah, Luke's got an incredible story.
Speaker: He is CSO here at Legacy Power.
Speaker: Chief shoe officer.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Doug's going to make me change it to CRO because he doesn't like it.
Speaker: Too many shoes.
Speaker: Too many shoes.
Speaker: Need a bigger office.
Speaker: We'll talk about it.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: So yeah, we're going to talk about shoes.
Speaker: If you like shoes, this podcast is for you.
Speaker: I don't think anyone has as many shoes as this guy in solar that I know of.
Speaker: So yeah, we're going to talk about shoes.
Speaker: We're going to talk about some of the obstacles Luke has had to overcome.
Speaker: Got some awesome stories that he can share that I think just applies to anyone in solar.
Speaker: We all know that's why they call it the solar coaster.
Speaker: It's up and down.
Speaker: And I mean, you guys have experienced that here at Legacy probably more than most people in solar.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: um it'll be good but yeah do you want to give us just maybe reader's digest version like you know why you guys started legacy power how you got into solar your background and door and all that 100 and and i'm just a guy a dude from cache valley i'm the last of seven came from really humble
Speaker: circumstances and like a lot of us did like a lot of us go do door to door because we're different and we're trying to go and be be you know uh make something we're like we're built different this job isn't easy and it's why people make what they make because it's it's uh it's it's hard not many people can make it in this industry and
Speaker: I was just a guy in door to door started.
Speaker: But before that, I grew up with seven.
Speaker: I'm the last of seven kids.
Speaker: My parents only wanted four.
Speaker: And then they had a whammy.
Speaker: And then they kept going and had a double whammy.
Speaker: Like Mark and I, like I'm a twin.
Speaker: Mark got me into the industry.
Speaker: And so we kind of
Speaker: dad was a school teacher my mom stayed at home um didn't have shoes growing up like this is kind of like a uh you know a flex on my childhood of like wanting it so bad i remember getting some sketcher shoes yeah and they had la raiders on it or oakland raiders on it and uh logo and i was so stoked for them i cherished them and i got them wet and so i'm like man i wanted like coveted him i was so mad i got them wet and then i put them on
Speaker: trying to heat them up, like get them on wet.
Speaker: I put it on a light bulb.
Speaker: I don't know because it's hot light bulb.
Speaker: I burned my shoes.
Speaker: I burned the whole logo.
Speaker: I was crying my
Speaker: Bless my mom that she'd like, you know, kind of like ironed on a patch and everyone made fun of me.
Speaker: Like, you know, my patch shoes, they weren't very cool anymore.
Speaker: But so, you know, it's like I came and overcame a lot growing up.
Speaker: School was difficult.
Speaker: I had to put in twice the work to get the same amount of results, sometimes less.
Speaker: I was in my fourth grade teacher told me I wouldn't amount to anything.
Speaker: even better.
Speaker: It was my special ed teacher.
Speaker: I'm like, that was brutal.
Speaker: It was mean.
Speaker: And so she's like, and maybe I deserved it.
Speaker: I don't remember.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, and I just, I had to, you know, put in the work and work hard.
Speaker: And, um, I ended up graduating high school.
Speaker: I got a job at Staples and I had some mentorship growing up in, in, um, one of my
Speaker: Sunday school teachers.
Speaker: He was awesome.
Speaker: He's like every day, every Sunday school lesson he started, this is the best lesson you'll ever have.
Speaker: And it was like, he just, and then he talked about, you know, he, you know, a few scriptures and we talked about life.
Speaker: He talked about if you want to be, you know, if you want to succeed,
Speaker: find what you love to do and then do it better than anyone else.
Speaker: Like something that's like really resonated with me and he loved yogurt, loved yogurt.
Speaker: And so he made yogurt and he was like, I loved yogurt.
Speaker: I made it better than anyone else.
Speaker: He distributed it to your play and he ended up getting sold the open.
Speaker: I'm like, he, somebody loved him.
Speaker: Like he loves yogurt enough to go build yogurt and sell yogurt.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: but i'm like for me it's like i've i fell in love with talking to people i fell in love with just connecting and i worked at staples selling electronics and they measured performance by um warranty sales so i'm like i started selling electronics and warranties and then i saw like a a leader report for the region and i was like in the middle like that's dope and so they printed off in like these little roll tab you know
Speaker: printers and and and then and then the next week came out and I was a little bit better.
Speaker: I got competitive.
Speaker: And then they put out division numbers and then they put out company numbers.
Speaker: And out of like 2,800 Staples stores, 60,000 employees, I was ranked in the top 50.
Speaker: Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker: And then I saw that and I'm like, man, I started selling warranties on everything.
Speaker: I sold a warranty on a stapler.
Speaker: We returned it.
Speaker: It was a $6 stapler and a $6 warranty, but it had a lifetime warranty on it.
Speaker: We refunded them just for fun, but we pushed so hard.
Speaker: I ended up being...
Speaker: you know number two uh in the whole country and in this little town in cache valley which probably did the least amount of revenue i lost to a guy by one warranty to a guy that worked um this you know the staples next to the staples center in los angeles i'm like come on come on uh and uh so i'm like it just drove me and i i loved it i loved the competition i love the recognition i love to go work
Speaker: improve myself from, you know, or right.
Speaker: You know, like, Hey, I can go do big things and got married and was getting into middle management, going to school at summer school planned out.
Speaker: My wife is like graduating from early education and had some like internship stuff.
Speaker: And my twin brother started bugging me.
Speaker: It's like, Hey,
Speaker: we should go do door to door.
Speaker: Like no soliciting going out like it's like wasn't cool back then.
Speaker: He's like Casey boss going like I don't care.
Speaker: It's like he's like he's going Doug Robinson.
Speaker: I I loved Doug growing up.
Speaker: He's just grow up together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he was a year older than I was.
Speaker: Casey went to school with us.
Speaker: He was a neighbor and you know and Doug used to take my money at two card poker in middle school.
Speaker: He was
Speaker: It was actually my parents' money.
Speaker: But he's like, Casey's going, just name dropping.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't care.
Speaker: I'm going into middle management.
Speaker: I would have made 40 grand a year doing that.
Speaker: I got summer school.
Speaker: My wife's teaching, and we're good.
Speaker: Like, I'm set.
Speaker: And he's like, he asked me not once, twice, four, or five.
Speaker: He finally said, hey,
Speaker: there's some AirPods that, or whatever, some like MP3 player at the time.
Speaker: He's like, if we're recruiting, I'll give it to you if you just sit down and talk to Doug.
Speaker: And I talked to Doug, he sold me on it.
Speaker: I'm like, you got to sell it to my wife.
Speaker: And then finally he said, hey, we can do it.
Speaker: My wife said, hey, you've,
Speaker: you've got to go sell this many before my teaching's done.
Speaker: Otherwise, you have to come back.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: I went alarm or satellite selling dish network in 2005.
Speaker: And I came out a month late.
Speaker: And I knocked my first door, I dropped my binder, I was so nervous, I fumbled.
Speaker: And then I ended up getting one that night.
Speaker: I was off to the races and
Speaker: uh i learned after two days i'm like this is an impossible goal like you have to sell this many by this time period i'd have to be the top rep in the company to go do that and i did it and i just worked hard my you know dragged her out and we finished the summer um i finished you know this is my token this is my token i finished number one first year rep wow ashton buswell the goat finished number two wow and then casey ba a few accounts behind was number three
Speaker: And then Mark Toon, number four, first year reps.
Speaker: And so we had a wonderful time and like, I was super blessed and fortunate because there's good leadership and then there's like, you know, situations where there's not as good leadership.
Speaker: I just wasn't placed in a really good situation from the start.
Speaker: Dave Forrest from the industry owns Radix.
Speaker: He was my alarm tech manager at the time.
Speaker: He wasn't even in sales back then.
Speaker: Just loved it.
Speaker: And I fell in love with knocking doors.
Speaker: I fell in love with talking to people.
Speaker: I realized, hey, I can go and do one-to-one.
Speaker: It was a one-to-one.
Speaker: I can work as hard as anyone else and get the same results.
Speaker: I'm not more talented.
Speaker: I'm not someone that's going to go in like wordsmith or anything else.
Speaker: But if I put in the same amount of work as someone,
Speaker: I can get the same results.
Speaker: I'm like, man, I can work twice as hard as someone to get twice as much results.
Speaker: So I just, I was out early.
Speaker: I was the last one out or last one in or last one out.
Speaker: First one out, last one in and, and it was off to the races.
Speaker: And then my second year I managed and, um, broke industry records back then and selling this network running door to door.
Speaker: I start the summer about 180 pounds.
Speaker: I finished the summer 160 pounds.
Speaker: Like I worked relentlessly hard.
Speaker: So I'm like, I can go do it.
Speaker: And third year I travel trained and then we switched to alarms.
Speaker: Crazy story.
Speaker: Like company went out of business.
Speaker: Casey, Jeff, and a few went to Apex back in the day and Doug and I and Dave Forrest and my brother went to Pinnacle and we built out a division.
Speaker: We did 70,000 accounts in five years.
Speaker: Awesome experience.
Speaker: Casey, you know, his story and Jeff, they've been
Speaker: remarkably impressive and done well in the industry and then I jumped into solar I fell in love with solar like first day first interaction I just didn't fall in love with my current situation with the current employer at the time I felt like I was a little bit suppressed a little bit limited in growth opportunities
Speaker: Doug was in alarms.
Speaker: I was in solar.
Speaker: We weren't working together.
Speaker: We wanted to work together.
Speaker: started just talking hypotheticals and, and, and we started engaging and Doug sent an email to Sunrun, um, opportunities or some email and it ended up getting to Lynn, uh, Jurek and, uh, Ed Fenster, the owners of Sunrun.
Speaker: And we ended up on the 34th floor of in Market Street and, and talking to them, uh, to, to, to start a alarm company or solar company.
Speaker: And it's just, and they're like, why should you choose us?
Speaker: And we just,
Speaker: Eric, why should we choose you?
Speaker: Because kind of flipped it on.
Speaker: I'm like, you're right.
Speaker: So it was a huge trust relationship.
Speaker: We did sales only.
Speaker: We, you know, we started off not knowing anything about solar necessarily and running a company.
Speaker: We just had a handful of good dudes like a guy named Dan Siemens, Cole Farmer, myself, Doug, and Ashton Buswell, Brent Hollingsworth.
Speaker: some amazing individuals to start Legacy.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: We didn't have an army.
Speaker: We didn't have capital.
Speaker: We mortgaged our homes.
Speaker: Doug capitalized the business with it.
Speaker: Doug didn't pay me for 14 months.
Speaker: I'm like, we bled it and we went all in.
Speaker: And I didn't take a paycheck because we couldn't.
Speaker: I just wanted the principal, like our people eat first.
Speaker: And it's just been an amazing journey.
Speaker: And there's like,
Speaker: the obstacles and the situations that you run into.
Speaker: And I've seen the best in the industry and I've seen some of the worst things in the industry.
Speaker: So it's a little bit of my, like the start inception to, you know, where legacy is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: No, that's incredible.
Speaker: And yeah, I think we could spend like an hour or two just like unpacking all those things.
Speaker: I can go.
Speaker: I can go crazy.
Speaker: That's a lot of stuff.
Speaker: But no, well, a couple of questions I have there.
Speaker: I think it's cool that like you're saying your teachers.
Speaker: I mean, I think either you said this before we started the podcast or explanation is just barely.
Speaker: But I know a lot of people like didn't believe in you.
Speaker: You struggle in school and all that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sounds like you have a lot growing up and everything.
Speaker: So I think there's people that come into this to think, OK, I don't deserve success.
Speaker: Like, I don't deserve to make all this money and everything.
Speaker: And even me, like I grew up pretty good.
Speaker: You know, my dad's a dentist and everything.
Speaker: But sometimes I'm like, I think I get in my head.
Speaker: I'm like, oh,
Speaker: Like my dad went to school for 10 years to be a dentist.
Speaker: There's no way I could like, you know, make more than doctors, dentists.
Speaker: And like I do, but I think that was something that I had to kind of like maybe trick my mind into.
Speaker: So was that ever like a struggle for you?
Speaker: Like, oh, I got it.
Speaker: Or maybe were you like, oh, I'm proving all these people wrong.
Speaker: That's why I'm working so hard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What like drove you and maybe like helped you overcome some limiting beliefs that could come up.
Speaker: Everyone has their battles.
Speaker: Everyone has insecurities, the from the highest of the high to the lowest, the lows, everyone deals with their own problems.
Speaker: And you just have to relate to people with that.
Speaker: And you have to accept what you have is is is a limited belief set in yourself.
Speaker: And I've been able to go and overcome a lot of obstacles.
Speaker: And I've been like.
Speaker: passionately optimistic.
Speaker: I've always been a dreamer.
Speaker: I've always been a thinker of like, you know, think big and go work hard.
Speaker: And I've had to go and overcome a lot.
Speaker: I've had a lot of like challenges with a lot of things.
Speaker: One is like, I've always had neck fatigue.
Speaker: I went and served an LDS mission and I went home early on an LDS mission because I couldn't control my emotions on how to deal with like neck fatigue.
Speaker: I was like tracking and going out and canvassing door to door for my faith.
Speaker: And I remember holding my scriptures and I'd have to rotate them every four or five minutes because I had neck fatigue on my right side.
Speaker: Oh, really?
Speaker: And it got to a point where I went home and I felt devastated.
Speaker: And I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: Like we all go through hard things and how we react to them is everything.
Speaker: And I and I told myself, I'm like, I'm never going to let that be a limiting factor.
Speaker: um in where i go in life and i think me going home early was um largely like why i've been so successful because i've been able to go and knock a lot of doors with a lot of fatigue but it's but it's actually helped me on like overcoming mental fatigue like i have more i deal with more than
Speaker: physical fatigue than mental fatigue and so like my mental fatigue is numb like i don't have that like i don't get bothered by the rejection as much as maybe some people do because i'm like you know i had to go and work relentlessly hard and deal with neck pain and i don't sleep well and i get sinus infections because of it and i used to have two or three sinus infections a summer
Speaker: because I was just so exhausted, but I just overcame them.
Speaker: I told myself I would never let that be a failure of mine.
Speaker: And I've been able to overcome it.
Speaker: And it's actually been a blessing because I've been able to overcome a lot because of that.
Speaker: So whatever your challenge is, you can go and overcome it by just, you know, numbing yourself to other things of like, I don't
Speaker: And then I don't care about the rejection.
Speaker: I don't care about what, you know, a stranger would think of me by knocking doors.
Speaker: I've learned not to care about people knowing that my profession is door to door.
Speaker: Like, I think it's cool.
Speaker: Like, I think it's awesome.
Speaker: And, you know, I grew up.
Speaker: wanting to be normal because I I'd have to be taken out of normal class and to go to a different class and I hated it.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm like, at the end of the day, I'm like, it's OK to be different because and I had a, you know, someone that didn't believe me in fourth grade was my special ed teacher.
Speaker: The person that did was the normal class, Mr. Henderson.
Speaker: I like think the world of him.
Speaker: He's like, you don't need to be there.
Speaker: you've got this and I believe in you.
Speaker: And like, it was like so cool to have that support and actually got me to convince myself that I didn't need to be there.
Speaker: And so I had to put in more work, but because of that person and the support.
Speaker: So, um, I still, like, I lost connection with them, you know, a couple of years ago, I started figuring out how do I get connected with them?
Speaker: I, I, I said his name wrong for so long.
Speaker: Henderson is, you know,
Speaker: So, um, and I ended up, you know, messaging, you know, his daughter and his daughter got me in contact.
Speaker: It's like so cool.
Speaker: But I'm like, that was one of the most important beliefs that someone believed in me that I could go do better.
Speaker: But, um, so I'm like, that's, you know, it's, it's, I've dealt with a lot of pain and challenges and I've been able to overcome them and, and, and just realizing we all, we all go through stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Well, I want to, I wish I could have gone to that school.
Speaker: I mean, you got you, you got Doug, Casey.
Speaker: Sounds like an all-star lineup.
Speaker: There's a lot.
Speaker: There's a lot.
Speaker: So, no, that's incredible, though.
Speaker: Well, what I want to know, too, is you're talking about you guys lined up a meeting, like, met with Sunran right off the bat.
Speaker: So I'm just curious, were they like, did they just know that you guys were like, you know, the big dogs in door to door or something and like serious about it?
Speaker: We were nobodies.
Speaker: Doug was a nobody.
Speaker: I was a nobody.
Speaker: And we were actually being, we thought like, hey,
Speaker: you know, they were interviewing us.
Speaker: We thought we were interviewing them.
Speaker: They were looking for a nationwide sales organization to go and like run their, you know, direct sales group.
Speaker: And we learned afterwards, but Doug was just,
Speaker: Think big, do big.
Speaker: Hey, we've ran organizations door to door.
Speaker: We can go do this nationwide bigger and better than anyone.
Speaker: And he was dead set on it.
Speaker: And then they they bid on it.
Speaker: But they took a belief in us and a trust in us and they gamble on us and
Speaker: We went and did an exclusive arrangement.
Speaker: We were exclusive with them.
Speaker: We actually gave them ownership and legacy and they gave us vested interest in their company and some shares and stuff like that.
Speaker: So it was like a unified, you had a five year term with them and it was an amazing relationship.
Speaker: And we, you know, we still have good relationships with them.
Speaker: And we but yeah, so it's like they chose us over a handful of other groups that actually were solar companies.
Speaker: We didn't do solar at all, really.
Speaker: And so it's like it was really cool how we got that and ended up being an amazing journey with them.
Speaker: And it started our career and in door to door.
Speaker: And we're grateful for Sunrun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: it's awesome well i know um and like we'll talk about this too but we don't have all day for the podcast but i definitely want to hear about you know this yeah sure we do six sections this is like part one you know it's like lord of the rings at least three there's some battles there's some drama you want to talk about drama battle for gondor coming up here it's got we got this yeah
Speaker: But yeah, like I know part of the Sunrun story too was, you know, led to sort of the mass exodus.
Speaker: Some people heard about how, you know, part of the down part of Legacy was a bunch of people left at once.
Speaker: And, you know, you broke your back during all this.
Speaker: And so I definitely want to have our people hear about this.
Speaker: This is one of the craziest stories I've heard.
Speaker: It's crazy and I should be numb and I should not trust anyone basically.
Speaker: So, but I do choose to trust and I love my people and I work with them and I work for them.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a crazy scenario, a turn of events.
Speaker: We started this wild ride with Sunrun.
Speaker: It was an amazing relationship.
Speaker: We somewhat outgrew the relationship when we were somewhat disadvantaged.
Speaker: We were waiting till a sunset provision
Speaker: with the end of our agreement.
Speaker: And during that time for six months, we were trying to renegotiate with them to get better market rate fees.
Speaker: We were underpaid and versus what freedoms or Titans or bright planets or regional installers could pay their people.
Speaker: We were highly disadvantaged and our people felt the pain.
Speaker: I don't blame people for leaving at that time or anytime.
Speaker: I just care how they do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's just be better in that situation and have like more of a backbone.
Speaker: So, so many of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we were gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different than get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called SolarScout.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: It shows who has previously applied for solar but later cancelled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first two solar scout in San Diego.
Speaker: So I decided to partner up.
Speaker: I told them, Hey, I'm going to talk about solar scout on my show.
Speaker: You need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solar scout.
Speaker: App forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them.
Speaker: And you'll get 30% off your first month when you sign up at solar scout.
Speaker: App forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Back to the show.
Speaker: And so for my situation, I didn't have a good backbone.
Speaker: I was playing pickleball.
Speaker: I woke up, my back was sore.
Speaker: I'd had some issues with it.
Speaker: I had some sciatic pain and I just, it was kind of flaring up.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't want to.
Speaker: But my best friend was coming up to play pickleball with me.
Speaker: He worked with me.
Speaker: He was a regional coach.
Speaker: I still like the guy, but we went and played pickleball against two people.
Speaker: We were playing rotate and it was in Woods Cross and we were playing rotate in the morning club.
Speaker: And we jumped on with a group and one was 70 and the other was 66.
Speaker: One had, the 66-year-old had not one prostate leg, but two.
Speaker: And they were whooping us, put me all around the court.
Speaker: And so I was flared up.
Speaker: And then I was running for a shot.
Speaker: And I remember it.
Speaker: Instead of running through it, hitting and running through it, I braced on impact.
Speaker: And I felt top.
Speaker: And both my legs went numb.
Speaker: And I kind of reached down.
Speaker: I go, oh, no.
Speaker: And the old guys over there on the other side were like making fun of me.
Speaker: So I'm like, I'm like this, you know, moderately should be put to get well together.
Speaker: And the guy was like clinking his metal prosthetic aluminum leg.
Speaker: He's like, are you done?
Speaker: I'm like, no, I'm not done.
Speaker: I'm like, so I played through it and I shouldn't have.
Speaker: And it got a little bit worse, a little bit worse, a little bit worse.
Speaker: We lost, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so then we went to Black Bear for breakfast afterwards, me and this individual.
Speaker: And I'm like, I got to go to the hospital.
Speaker: And he was being a little bit cryptic, a little bit weird.
Speaker: And then he admitted me to the hospital.
Speaker: And later that day, him and several other high leaders of the business resigned.
Speaker: dropped group me, blocked numbers, hostile takeover.
Speaker: And I felt like completely lost.
Speaker: It was the worst I felt physically.
Speaker: I was bawling.
Speaker: Emotionally and spiritually, I was a mess.
Speaker: And I remember being in the hospital bed and Doug Robinson was holding my hand.
Speaker: And we were tearing up and whatever else.
Speaker: And I'm like...
Speaker: um and i'm going to the hospital spending eight days there and i was like recklessly trying to go get out of the hospital to see what i can do but i remember looking at my screen time after surgery and trying to like put the pieces together what's going on i had 18 hours of screen time on my cell phone texting calls emails facetime like bawling my face was so puffy from like how
Speaker: hurt and distraught I was from the physical pain.
Speaker: They said I couldn't leave unless I could walk.
Speaker: And the doctors were saying I was responding so poorly, probably from the stress.
Speaker: They recommended six months of inpatient care.
Speaker: They wanted me there for six months.
Speaker: I'm like, I can't do that.
Speaker: I'm dying right now.
Speaker: It's like, you got to walk and do a bowel movement.
Speaker: I was on so much like pain medicine.
Speaker: I could not
Speaker: do a bowel movement i was like going crazy and i i finally got those and i got home and we were just like i was like i i was somewhat bedridden but like somewhat functional i can call and text and email and everything else but for like a few months but i remember i was like um and the group was thunder we all know that and if you if you know thunder if you look it up it's it it means the definition means breakup so i'm like it just is what it is
Speaker: But because of that situation, we banded together and we got a few like humble soldiers and like willing to go grind it out with us.
Speaker: John Soriano being one and he took a vulnerable situation.
Speaker: His dear wife, Josie, said, you owe it to Doug and Luke just to hear him out.
Speaker: So they heard me out and we talked to people individually, Dylan and George.
Speaker: who work with us, are amazing people.
Speaker: John Soriano and a few others, Brent Hollingsworth, Dan Siemens, a few other people.
Speaker: And we rallied together and I look at John now, I'm like, he's running a 600 person organization.
Speaker: Maybe he did it for opportunistic, but he did it because he still like owed it to us to hear it out and and, you know, planted his flag and, you know, he's bearing a lot of fruit from that.
Speaker: And so it's like awesome to see us go and rebuild and go and grow.
Speaker: But I'm like in those vulnerable moments, some people go and get so like crazy.
Speaker: dull, numb, you know, like vindictive of like, poor me.
Speaker: Doug was in that for just a brief second.
Speaker: And I said, Doug, quit being a baby.
Speaker: I maybe said other words, but I'm like, quit being a baby.
Speaker: When your back is up against the wall, that's when you punch the hardest.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, a light switch clicked.
Speaker: And we've never talked about being a victim of circumstances again.
Speaker: And we've just gone and like...
Speaker: barrel rolled through it so i'm like cool before that we lost a big group um uh in chicago so like this that year was the worst so like we we got suspended by illinois um for
Speaker: violating some of their, um, they just violations.
Speaker: And we purchased a unverified, uh, third party lead that reference the utility company that reference back to us as legacy power.
Speaker: And for whatever reason, they use this as an example, shut us down for 90 days.
Speaker: We tried to go and like work some maneuver and try to like, could be cute.
Speaker: We have kids suspended for six months and we had Leo Sage been in a large part of our East coast.
Speaker: there and we had to go and hand them off to a competitor hoping they'd come back and it never happened the way we did.
Speaker: So we probably lost 25% of our volume easily there.
Speaker: And then, you know, a couple months later, we lost 65%.
Speaker: So if you do the math, we started over essentially.
Speaker: I'm like, that would put anyone out, but I'm like, it logistically should have put us out.
Speaker: And we,
Speaker: You know, we grinded, we worked through obstacles.
Speaker: We weren't victims.
Speaker: We pushed through and persevered.
Speaker: And I'm like, it made us bigger, better, stronger.
Speaker: And then COVID happened.
Speaker: It's like, this is a rolling of bad things.
Speaker: And like, well, we built some software, we converted everything to rehash our leads and we provided leads to our sales force.
Speaker: And we grew in a, in an unfortunate situation.
Speaker: And we were,
Speaker: going through that and like we just gone through challenges and and then this year like last year being an installer was hard but i'm like i look around the industry and there's solar graveyards of like this company and that company and that company and whatever else and i'm like i look and i'm like guys we've been through worse so i'm like we can do hard things that's why i tell my kids tunes are tough yeah we're really not but i'm like tunes are tough
Speaker: My 15 year old, when he was 13, got a black belt and it's a full participation award.
Speaker: But I'm like, tunes are tough and they're dead set on it.
Speaker: Like dead set, the tunes are tough.
Speaker: We can do hard things.
Speaker: And I'm like, we can do hard things.
Speaker: And I'm like, legacy's been through harder things.
Speaker: So I'm like, we had to pivot last year.
Speaker: We had to go and shift volume to markets that maybe made more sense.
Speaker: We had to go cut some costs and we were meaningful sponsors of the jazz and I love the jazz.
Speaker: You love the jazz.
Speaker: They're dope, but not this year.
Speaker: So I tell people like, yeah, we're not sponsors because they're not very good.
Speaker: It really was.
Speaker: We just, it was a nice to have, not need to have.
Speaker: And we had a few years with them.
Speaker: It was awesome.
Speaker: We opted not to renew.
Speaker: And we cut meaning I love that people are willing to pay for me to sit courtside.
Speaker: I'm like, but I'd rather pass that through and being more sustainable and a responsible business.
Speaker: But we're one of the only companies I know that have audited financials by a big four firm in the last several years.
Speaker: We just finished our fourth iteration of that.
Speaker: And we have four CPAs that worked at big four firms.
Speaker: And
Speaker: We just saw the writing on the wall and been able to navigate through.
Speaker: And, and I see this as like the most opportunistic year in the industry we'll ever see.
Speaker: And so I'm like, we're, we're, we're stoked with it, but we've had to make challenges and changes and,
Speaker: or changes from challenges challenging situations and yeah but it stems from us having like vulnerable moments and being like going through hard things yeah that's incredible man i will say one of the benefits of the jazz being terrible this year is i spent more time selling than watching because other years i would kind of be you know knocking doors 100% having the jazz games up like you know while i'm knocking the door in between i'm like yeah you know you're leaving i'm like well
Speaker: You lost 14 out of 15 last games.
Speaker: I'm like, great.
Speaker: We're down 30 right now.
Speaker: I can probably focus on knocking.
Speaker: Hopefully you get a lottery pick.
Speaker: But no, that's an incredible story though.
Speaker: I think it's really cool if anyone listens to this podcast, it's like
Speaker: especially new reps, you got to understand there's a lot of things, obstacles you have to go through.
Speaker: And I think any successful, whether you're like a rep owner, whatever, you're going to go through a lot of obstacles in this industry.
Speaker: I mean, it's nothing compared to you guys, but like I've been through installers not paying me.
Speaker: I'm owed tens of thousands by companies that never paid out.
Speaker: Some people millions, like it's crazy.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: And so like when I compare my problems to some of the stuff you guys have gone through, I'm like, all right, it's not that bad, but it's like,
Speaker: So we got to understand, I think that's who is the most successful in solar, the people that will go through those challenges that will just like keep pushing forward and not like be victims like you're talking about and just use it as like a learning experience and, you know, push forward.
Speaker: So it's really cool.
Speaker: And there's a ton of growth right now.
Speaker: And that's part of what attracted me to Legacy, too.
Speaker: Just like especially we had NEM3 in California.
Speaker: You see so many of these dealers, companies going on a business.
Speaker: And I looked at Legacy and I'm like, man, these guys are still selling lights out.
Speaker: I want to be part of that.
Speaker: And that's what attracted me.
Speaker: And also beneficial that it's like a big company that shouldn't go out of business tomorrow and not be able to pay.
Speaker: We're trying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But no, so I think for reps listening, like you're, I know you are over all the sales here at Legacy and I see you go out, you can just like turn it on on a dime, go sell.
Speaker: I mean, you were, weren't you out a couple of weeks ago, just like selling accounts, selling some solar deals?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm like, I, I worked really hard, broke industry records selling door to door.
Speaker: And I went out a couple of weeks ago and
Speaker: over Easter weekend.
Speaker: And I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: I didn't have to go.
Speaker: I don't need to go.
Speaker: But I'm like, there's just with the business being at the top and not like I wanted to go see what the rep level was feeling in some of the like inefficiencies and this and that.
Speaker: And it sold a few accounts.
Speaker: And it was awesome.
Speaker: I forgot how much I loved it.
Speaker: I forgot how simpler life was.
Speaker: And I'm like, if you're knocking doors and you want to be somewhere that you're not
Speaker: Enjoy the journey.
Speaker: Don't skip steps and embrace what you do and love what you do.
Speaker: Because there's even in your situation, knocking door to door is a setter or a closer.
Speaker: If you do it right, there's generational opportunities.
Speaker: Some people are like, I want to be a CEO after six months of knocking.
Speaker: I want to go be a business owner.
Speaker: I'm like, Doug and I worked relentlessly hard, not skipping steps for 10 years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm like, I was a rep.
Speaker: I was a manager.
Speaker: I was a trainer.
Speaker: I was, went back to a manager.
Speaker: I went to a regional.
Speaker: I went to, you know, or, you know, mults, you know, uh, you know, another V like, kind of like a VP regional role.
Speaker: And then I went back to a manager role.
Speaker: And then like, I've kind of gone through the journey.
Speaker: I'm like, don't skip steps.
Speaker: It's there's, there's like, yeah,
Speaker: be okay with being a closer for an ample amount of time because you can make so much money and then and then be a leader of leaders by you know what you're doing and inspiring people and like the the number one thing i think a leadership should be is like reed hastings the owner of netflix talks about this he says to be a great leader you need to be a great person
Speaker: What does that mean?
Speaker: And I'm like, it kind of resembles our mission statement of like, we want to provide an extraordinary customer experience.
Speaker: And my customers, a lot of times are our reps.
Speaker: So provide that while becoming the best versions of ourself and helping others do the same.
Speaker: It's like an amazing way to live life.
Speaker: Like just...
Speaker: if you if you don't have a mission statement that's your mission statement doesn't matter where you got it from provide good experiences be better and help others like that's that's like the like our motto we try to live it each and every day with that said um reed hastings just like to just if you want to be a better leader try being a better person so i'm like
Speaker: And he went from like being a content provider to a content creator.
Speaker: It resonates with me because legacy was a sales origination.
Speaker: We didn't skip steps.
Speaker: We did it for several years.
Speaker: We finished out a long-term agreement with Sunrun when we probably should bat out before with
Speaker: There's so many war stories I can tell you that like legacy will be a book someday, I feel like.
Speaker: And Doug's been doing little chapters and like he's making notes and stuff like that.
Speaker: But, um, and you know, he, now we're, we're, you know, we're creating the content where the installer, we're curing, we're working with the relationship with financing, you know, who knows what the future looks like, but yeah,
Speaker: Um, and I tell my kids, like, if I called my kid right now, miles, I go miles.
Speaker: I've done this a few times.
Speaker: I had a few things.
Speaker: I'm like miles, like bigger.
Speaker: The problem.
Speaker: He goes, bigger, the pay.
Speaker: Like he's a fifth.
Speaker: I'm, I'm a late bloomer.
Speaker: I'm like my 15 year old, like a baritone, like bigger, the pay.
Speaker: I'm like, I'm like, if you want to go make the most amount of money in this world, go, go solve the world's biggest problems.
Speaker: Like the U S produces the most amount of carbon in the world and does the least amount about it.
Speaker: It's a trillion dollar industry.
Speaker: I'm grateful for that is 4% market penetrated.
Speaker: I'm not greedy, but I just want to, I just want to sliver.
Speaker: Give me a couple of points for that.
Speaker: So I'm like, it's good.
Speaker: Um, but if you work, we're this industry solving some of the world's biggest problems.
Speaker: I'm like, we deserve some of the world's biggest pay.
Speaker: So I'm like,
Speaker: you know, who are you watching on to go participate in that?
Speaker: Like, so, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and like something that's cool.
Speaker: I mean, you like you went out over Easter weekend, just turn it on, putting accounts down and all that.
Speaker: And like, I don't know, for me is I'm out selling every day and all that.
Speaker: But for example, whereas I'm going to be going to SolarCon right after this,
Speaker: Like I'm not going to be selling really at all this week.
Speaker: I feel like sometimes I leave, go back to sell and it like takes me a little bit to roll into it and, you know, brush off the cobwebs.
Speaker: Even if I'm gone for like a week or two.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Takes a minute.
Speaker: So that's what I'm impressed is like you like sell superstar.
Speaker: You just go out there and like just turn it on, throw it on accounts and everything.
Speaker: I went out with my twin brother.
Speaker: He's an amazing setter.
Speaker: We kind of set both.
Speaker: We both worked.
Speaker: We tandem it.
Speaker: So I have to give Mark some credit.
Speaker: But we went out in five days till 16.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm like, we did that.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm like, dang it.
Speaker: All of them has sales rep rep action needed.
Speaker: Like I didn't get utility bills down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: That was so good for me to know some of the inefficiencies of myself and what I can do better, but also like putting accounts into the system and say, what could legacy do better?
Speaker: But I didn't get like the meter number on the bill.
Speaker: So I have to go back like the front and back of the bill.
Speaker: And I just got the front like anyway.
Speaker: So I'm like,
Speaker: But I loved and we threw down.
Speaker: I'm like, this is so fun.
Speaker: I love my industry.
Speaker: I love, and I say my industry because I'm like really partial to it.
Speaker: It's like my industry is awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, how do you just like turn it on?
Speaker: Did you feel like rusty getting back into it for a second?
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: But I'm like, you know, it's like riding a bike.
Speaker: It's like going and reading or maybe you can read a little bit.
Speaker: I'm not a great reader, but I'm like, so I read about the same either way.
Speaker: But like you were like, don't read a book for a
Speaker: you know, a few weeks, a month or a year or whatever, and you open it up, you're still reading.
Speaker: It's just then by the time you're halfway through the book, you're just like flying through it.
Speaker: I'm like, it took me a like...
Speaker: an afternoon a day but i'm like it's just it's it's making it over complicated is always going to be the worst thing and just relating with people talking to people being genuine genuine with them making them laugh and those are all the things that come pretty natural for me it's just like
Speaker: And the rest is history.
Speaker: I'm like, you want to save money.
Speaker: This is electrifying the home.
Speaker: You've seen the installers in the area.
Speaker: Like we're doing like probably 38 installs a day in Illinois.
Speaker: So I'm like, we have some reputability, but I'm like, but still doesn't mean it's a pain.
Speaker: And like, we've got stuff like I learned so much from just being out there for the few days.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, I got two more questions before I wrap up.
Speaker: I didn't I didn't remember this, but I knew you guys got to hang out with Biden and yeah, you know, ask him some questions.
Speaker: So that's pretty cool too.
Speaker: But before I ask you that, just for maybe like a new rep that's starting in the industry or maybe someone that hasn't broken through to have a ton of success yet.
Speaker: Do you have any advice?
Speaker: I know, like, sounds like for you, you pretty much always, sales have been, like, did you ever struggle?
Speaker: Pretty much, sales have always just been like, man, I'm the number one guy.
Speaker: Yeah, I think I struggled in my own ways.
Speaker: Like, I went and started off pretty well, and then I went through a funk, and I'm like, I was doing the exact same thing, doing the exact same hours, getting no results.
Speaker: And I was like, I came, like, just...
Speaker: sold really well.
Speaker: And then I just gradually got really bad for a few weeks.
Speaker: And I'm like, that was my first engagement selling in a summer program back in 2005.
Speaker: I remember I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker: I was in the same area, same neighborhood, same.
Speaker: I'm like, then I just realized, you know what?
Speaker: It's just a numbers game.
Speaker: Like I had a good run.
Speaker: If you, if you play blackjack or you play craps or you play life, like you just had a good run.
Speaker: And then you have to realize you have to, you got to appreciate it.
Speaker: the good and grind through the bad like it's just you're you start off slow damien peterson he's my he's my chief of command like he's my ride or die he makes me look good he does so much for the legacy um you know i almost sent him home his first year like he was terrible like he went out and like quit his job he was so confident he sold one his first day and then he went like weeks without getting a cell
Speaker: and then a competition hit and that's why like our competitions are better than anyone else because he went and almost won a jeep his first year after zeroing for so long in alarms um and i'm like so his journey started slow and he ended up being my top first year rep and one of the top first year reps in the company and then i was a hero to start and then it was a zero throughout and i'm like you just gotta grind through the bat if it's a start grind through the bat if it's in the middle
Speaker: And there's levels of motivator.
Speaker: Like you gotta realize that money only goes so far.
Speaker: It's the lowest grade of like motivation.
Speaker: because sometimes the money doesn't matter.
Speaker: Like if you're going to work and you hate your job, like you're collecting a paycheck or you're knocking doors, you have a bad day, you can go, that next door could be a sale and it makes this much money.
Speaker: I'm like, sometimes that doesn't matter.
Speaker: And then there's recognition.
Speaker: And then there's like, you know, I remember when Kobe died.
Speaker: He's like in our Jersey right there.
Speaker: I'm like, I think the earth, the world stopped for a second.
Speaker: Like my heart stopped for a second.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't even know this dude, but the dude left a legacy.
Speaker: Like, that's why we wear legacy on our shirts.
Speaker: Like I want legacy to leave a legacy.
Speaker: I want, you know, Taylor to leave a legacy, Doug to leave a legacy.
Speaker: I'm like, I want the world to stop.
Speaker: And it did for a minute.
Speaker: And it's like, that's like the true level of leader, like of like, you know, motivation and everything else.
Speaker: I'm like, go, go leave a legacy in, in, in everything you do, whether you work for legacy or not, go, go leave your legacy.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: And I, I think, you know, to kind of expound on that, like we talk about like struggling reps, John Suriano,
Speaker: no idea his background and when i met him seven plus years ago um i just remember he was a ball of joy yeah i'm like he was just he was like pumped up he's like a little bunny rabbit like he's just bouncing up and down uh he he's just living off caffeine i felt like and i just like i love the dude yeah but he's like dude he talks about this later he's like luke tune the first engagement i had with him like he made me feel like a million bucks
Speaker: I'm like, cool.
Speaker: Like, you know, and so he's like, I was living on a couch.
Speaker: I was broke.
Speaker: I had 10 bucks to my name, all these things like, um, almost homeless.
Speaker: And he made me feel like a million bucks.
Speaker: I'm like, that's really, really cool because I'm like, I just saw him.
Speaker: I'm like, I saw his energy and what he could become.
Speaker: And that's the thing that I like relationships matter if like, whether you're a leader or not.
Speaker: And I talk about this a little bit, you've probably heard if you follow me or whatever, but like,
Speaker: regardless of who you are, regardless of where you're at in life, regardless if you're a leader or not, I don't look at you for who you are today.
Speaker: I look at what you can become.
Speaker: And I also saw John of what he can become through my leadership.
Speaker: And I poured into him.
Speaker: I loved him.
Speaker: I connected with him.
Speaker: And I've seen him outgrow me in a lot of situations.
Speaker: And that's like,
Speaker: I love the fact that he is better at me than at podcasts.
Speaker: He does podcasts.
Speaker: He's better at me than speeching.
Speaker: He does engagements for his faith and work.
Speaker: And I love that he's thriving.
Speaker: He has a, you know, beautiful family.
Speaker: He's got a beautiful home.
Speaker: He's, you know, he's got, you know, people that adore him.
Speaker: And what I love about him is that every conversation, if not
Speaker: many conversations, if not all conversations, he finishes like, what can I help you with?
Speaker: We had this like really cool call yesterday with our leadership that was like, you know, closed door meeting.
Speaker: And he's like, what could what could we do for legacy is like the first, you know, it's like, what are we needing to do?
Speaker: And Doug and I gave some explicit tasks of like what we need to do to go get to the next level and everything.
Speaker: But that's John Soriano and how he leads is
Speaker: He's a servant leader.
Speaker: And for me, it's like I look at people differently.
Speaker: I look at someone like myself that I my fourth grade teacher, my actual fourth grade teacher believed in me and saw I could go do great things.
Speaker: My dad says I can go do great things.
Speaker: And like I honor him.
Speaker: And like I see people of like not like.
Speaker: we're we're god-given whether your faith or not like we're all destined for far greater than we thought all imagine like we can imagine i think legacy is bigger than all of us and i think we're all bigger than what we thought possible and like that's how you should look at people's like because there's there's so many people are struggling right now like and you could never know it or not but i'm like
Speaker: that's not who they are when they're struggling.
Speaker: That's like, that's, that's a, that's a very short period of like, we got to get people together to rally to get to the next level.
Speaker: And I'm like, just, we need to look at people differently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And I'll say that's part of what attracted me to legacy too.
Speaker: You talk about John a lot too.
Speaker: And, um, I remember like, I was always resistant to join in bigger companies and all that.
Speaker: So I'm like, oh, I'm the man I've ran dealers.
Speaker: I've ran my own teams.
Speaker: But then I met with, you know, Mike Brand, John and stuff as I was like figuring out what to do next.
Speaker: And that's their whole thing.
Speaker: They're like, OK, well, here's what you can become.
Speaker: Like, here's the next step you could take.
Speaker: And I'm just like, OK, the most I've grown is an office of like 20, 30 dudes, whatever.
Speaker: And they're like, OK, well,
Speaker: Like, how can you level up?
Speaker: Like, here's what you could become potentially working with us.
Speaker: And that was a big thing they talked about.
Speaker: And I think any good leader, yeah, is a master at, like, helping people see those things.
Speaker: And I can definitely see you guys have done that.
Speaker: So that's a good, I think, leadership tip just in general.
Speaker: Anyone listening to this podcast is...
Speaker: I'm just inspired your guys help them see things they can't.
Speaker: And that's what gives them a vision.
Speaker: And I think that's what keeps guys from leaving to if they can like see things.
Speaker: Probably that's what helped john stays like, I'm sure you were helping them see, hey, here's what you can become at legacy.
Speaker: And there's the next steps and everything.
Speaker: I think when what blew john through the roof and his progression is he would always come and talk to me about what other people are doing.
Speaker: I'm like, and I looked at the situation.
Speaker: I'm like, John, you need to go be you.
Speaker: Like you need to go like define who you are.
Speaker: and don't care what other people are doing go be different and like he started building systems and processes and like he's like doing it his way and like in like versus what other people are doing and so like go be you in in your in your path to life like i i i like envy a lot of people but i'm like i want to be me and my journey and the best version i'm like
Speaker: I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I went and focused on being good at everything.
Speaker: I would be far less.
Speaker: I might be more versed, but I'm like, I work with Damien and Doug, like an all-star cast of people that are all talented in their own ways.
Speaker: And I try to be the best at what my abilities are to be the best in that category of like,
Speaker: relationships matter be relevant make people feel like a million bucks like you know I talk about shoes I'm like I what are you know I try to go and connect with people through shoes I love shoes I like how it like is a talking piece for people yeah I remember my twin brother giving me shoes
Speaker: It's a funny story.
Speaker: He forgot, but we have the same birthdays.
Speaker: And I got him a really thoughtful gift.
Speaker: I'm a gift giver.
Speaker: That's why I've given out like 1100 shoes, I think.
Speaker: So I'm like just in my career because I love giving them and like how it makes people feel.
Speaker: But I remember giving Mark a Daryl Strawberry autograph, hand painted picture that I got through auction.
Speaker: uh at a charity event and i got a four mark and i way overpaid for it because i really wanted it for mark because i knew he loved daryl strawberry growing up and so i wrapped it up and gave it to him and he's like he was shocked
Speaker: that he forgot he didn't have anything for me.
Speaker: So I'm like, he looked around, he grabbed his shoes and gave them to me.
Speaker: I'm like, some used shoes, bro, come on.
Speaker: So I didn't wear them for a couple months.
Speaker: I didn't really know what shoes were several years ago.
Speaker: And then I wore them to a correlation in Vegas and everyone lost it.
Speaker: They had a funny looking tag on them.
Speaker: They were a collector shoe and people were like, where'd you get the shoes?
Speaker: I'm like, well, my dumb brother forgot my birthday and gave them to me.
Speaker: Um, and it like, I remember how it made me feel.
Speaker: And every time someone complimented me on those shoes, I thought of Mark.
Speaker: So I'm like, so what are we doing to connect with people?
Speaker: You don't have to go buy bougie shoes, but what are you doing?
Speaker: Ashton gives out $2 bills to, uh, to customers and to, you know, it's like different, like rights of hand.
Speaker: No, like, what are you doing to be like different in a, in a very like,
Speaker: brutally competitive, not industry, but world to be standout.
Speaker: Like, what are people, what are you doing?
Speaker: Like, I make breakfast from our kids and they're, I'm chef dad.
Speaker: And like, I give shoes and handwritten notes sometimes to reps.
Speaker: And I try to make people feel like a million bucks.
Speaker: Go think of ways that you can connect with people that
Speaker: because it makes lasting imprints on their lives that they'll remember forever.
Speaker: It's like Luke Toon did this or Taylor did this or you did this.
Speaker: And you don't know the impact you have on people.
Speaker: I think I've done far more than I could ever imagine.
Speaker: And I could always do more, but just imagine meaning like I just it almost goes unrecognized, you know, like we have like 78,000 customers installed and we have a couple hundred bad reviews on on the BBB.
Speaker: But like we have probably 70.
Speaker: 8000 customers are happy and like whatever, but like you look at you only you only know the bad.
Speaker: You don't know the good that you've done in the world.
Speaker: And so just realize that what you do, you it will make an impact.
Speaker: And like, how are you connecting with people and find that connection with people and so good in leadership.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's fun.
Speaker: We just did a referral boot camp yesterday.
Speaker: Ashton actually spoke at it.
Speaker: And yeah, he did say that.
Speaker: And that's part of how he gets so many referrals is he just makes those connections with people and just stands out.
Speaker: And like he still stays in touch with his customers from I'm going to do $2 bills.
Speaker: That's a lot cheaper.
Speaker: People remember, right?
Speaker: So like people remember Ashton give him a ton of referrals.
Speaker: I'm like,
Speaker: right cool so sketchers i'm gonna do sketches yeah the balances are in yeah exactly that's good yeah well you might not see a payoff like right off the bat too but like i'm sure you've seen as over time this is kind of like a long-term thing that happens i like you brought that up because this industry is really competitive and people come and go it's a revolving door in the industry and like how
Speaker: you know, I said people leave, I care more about how people leave, but I try not to burn relationships.
Speaker: And like through that, like a guy named Pete Gutierrez that actually was one of the first guys that came out and started Legacy with us with Dane Vikander, both of them left and now they work for us.
Speaker: And Dane runs a large organization with
Speaker: legacy in a very short period of time and now from like being a long time in the industry running one team with several teams but I'm like if I didn't keep a really good relationship with him and not be like so many people put a dollar price on people and like they're only self-interested in them if it's monetary and
Speaker: I've always gone out to like and I've tried recruiting back for five years just keeping relationships and meet with them and talking with them but eventually people come back you know and so it's and I am if you're out here watching you work for legacy.
Speaker: I'd love to talk to them because like I'd love to rekindle the relationship whether you work for me or not because I care more about.
Speaker: the people business than the actual business business.
Speaker: Like it's, I want to have a lasting relationship with people, but a lot of people are coming back to an organization because of how, you know, we've tried to be amicable in the situation and just kind of keep an open door policy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: So don't burn bridges.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Try not to.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've had some people that unfortunately burn bridges like right when I left.
Speaker: And like, man, if that if that's how you're going to treat me right when I leave, then like it could have been something possibly where we stayed in touch.
Speaker: Go back.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm like, yeah, I don't want to be like that guy treating me that way when I left.
Speaker: So before we wrap up here, Luke, if people want to like, you know, start that connection with Legacy with you or, you know, maybe find out about what we're doing over here.
Speaker: What's the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker: Possibly you look into Legacy.
Speaker: You can Snapchat me.
Speaker: I don't use Snapchat.
Speaker: MySpace.
Speaker: MySpace.
Speaker: Snapchat.
Speaker: Just reach out.
Speaker: I'm on Instagram, Luke Tuna, and or Legacy or people you used to work with.
Speaker: We've got...
Speaker: Love you to engage with our local leaderships with Soriano's and Taylor's and Lee Barber and Misty Barber out in Vegas and East Coast with Paul Rundle and and Mark Toon and Chris Underwood like we have amazing people that are making
Speaker: a really meaningful impact on people.
Speaker: And so don't hesitate, reach out, follow, date us, watch us, see us on Instagram, Legacy Nation.
Speaker: We'll be at SolarCon.
Speaker: We're, you know, we're giving out a Cybertruck this year.
Speaker: We'll h ave a Cybertruck at SolarCon.
Speaker: It'll be kind of fun and, you know, challenge...
Speaker: you know, you to be an open mind.
Speaker: And we've had a lot of people, whether you're a leader or an individual, but it's been pretty fun.
Speaker: We've had a lot of like really meaningful size organizations come to be a part of legacy going from their own company to being direct.
Speaker: Rob Harris ran a company for 20 years.
Speaker: Northstar was super successful.
Speaker: It was running a large organization with Legacy.
Speaker: A guy named Tyson, Len, and Chris Garza.
Speaker: Chris Garza used to work with me in Vegas.
Speaker: They were running a large organization in Vegas, came direct with us, owning their own company and call center, done really well in life.
Speaker: They've loved their experience here.
Speaker: And then, you know, go be a John Soriano, like go be a setter to running a large organization, go be, go be you.
Speaker: And, and whether you work for us or not, if you want to reach out to me and just ask for like some best practices or like, I'd love to, you know, have that relationship as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: 100% well we appreciate you coming on and we'll definitely have to do a part two part three I've got more if you want drama let's do let's do part we didn't even get into half the stuff we were talking about it's oh yeah there's so let's talk about Biden next time and all that oh yeah yeah yeah we can talk about Biden um but uh yeah we'll uh we'll leave people anticipating we'll leave them on their toes they can look forward to a part two 2.0 if you like it subscribe to Taylor he's the guy so uh
Speaker: you did a you did your first uh uh you know workshop yep did our first event went well go do workshops with him it's uh taylor's one of the best dudes i know yeah thanks brother appreciate it well uh guys go uh go give luke a follow he is on instagram wherever you can find them let them know you appreciated the podcast and uh go make those connections
Speaker: Make sure you treat solar as a long-term play because as you can see, there's lots of ups and downs.
Speaker: Hopefully you don't have to go through breaking your back like Luke did, but there's going to be obstacles.
Speaker: So make sure you're hanging in there.
Speaker: Ride it out.
Speaker: That's where you'll see the fruits for sure.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: So thanks again for coming on the podcast.
Speaker: Thanks, brother.
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