Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Welcome back to another podcast.
Speaker: We are here live at the Noxstar event.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: And we've got just one of the coolest solopreneurs I've seen in this space, Mr. Eric Sanchez.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on the show with us, Eric.
Speaker: Absolutely, man.
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
Speaker: Actually, we tried a couple of times to do this, but it's all about timing and we're finally able to get here, man.
Speaker: I appreciate you a lot for having me here.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: It'll be fun.
Speaker: And just like the doors, timing is everything.
Speaker: So I always have to figure out timing with some of these guys.
Speaker: I know Eric's super busy running a team and closing virtually, running a call center.
Speaker: He does it all.
Speaker: And so, yeah, we're going to talk about his journey, how he, you know, set up a call center he's working with, you know, a lot of assistants, doing some cool stuff that I don't think many people are doing, especially in the solar space.
Speaker: So let's kick it off.
Speaker: Eric, do you want to tell us kind of how you got in the industry and how you stumbled upon solar?
Speaker: Well, I guess, first of all, you're from El Salvador, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I was born and raised in El Salvador and one day my mom decided to bring me out here.
Speaker: I was 15 years old.
Speaker: So that was the beginning of the journey.
Speaker: And what I'd like to talk today about, it's about the journey that each and one of us has to go through.
Speaker: I call it the solar journey.
Speaker: So I'm pretty excited to share my journey with you guys.
Speaker: I'm excited and I know you're starting a podcast that's going to be launching soon, talking about that as well.
Speaker: So we'll drop that at the end.
Speaker: But yeah, so what was it like?
Speaker: First of all, I mean, coming from a different country, we've had a few different immigrants coming on the show recently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Christian Moroni from Brazil.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: couple other people and you know you got the accent all I know you had to like learn English and everything absolutely people think I'm from Canada so I'm used to you know having an accent too but yeah what was it like like coming here was it tough yeah you know I just before we get into I want to give massive respect to all the immigrants that are actually watching this because it takes a lot of courage you know to leave your homeland and come to a new place for sure so
Speaker: One of the things that I'd like to talk about from that beginning of my journey is adapting, man.
Speaker: You know, you come to a new system, you barely know the language, you know.
Speaker: People dress differently too, you know, like everything is new.
Speaker: So when I came here, you know, I was 15 years old, about turning 16, and I went to high school, you know, I had to adapt very quickly.
Speaker: So one of the good things that I love about my personality is I don't like staying behind and I don't like being a fool.
Speaker: If I'm a fool, I'll be a fool once, but that's it.
Speaker: So I challenged myself.
Speaker: I put the work.
Speaker: I said, in six months, I'm going to master this language.
Speaker: I'll be somehow communicating with people.
Speaker: So during that time, my biggest friend was Google Translator.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So when I didn't know how to communicate to someone, what I'll do is I'll grab my
Speaker: iPad because I didn't even have a phone my mom for me those remember the iPad oh yeah yeah so she bought me one and I was going to Google Translator I didn't even have any cell phone service so I will have to connect to the optimum Wi-Fi or like any free Wi-Fi that you have and that's how I started getting you know the hang of it gotcha and then a few a few months later
Speaker: Putting the work still, you know, I got out of that whole thing called ESL, which is English as a second language.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I feel a little proud about myself, you know, because I know a lot of people out here.
Speaker: They've been here for years and they barely know how to communicate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so that goes back to being persistent.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I know how you feel.
Speaker: I mean, a lot of the listeners know I lived in Colombia for a couple years doing a church mission and learning Spanish, man.
Speaker: It was like hardest thing I've ever done probably.
Speaker: And I mean, for the first year, I was basically saying, hola, como estas?
Speaker: And that's like all I knew out there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I can't even imagine coming to another country and having to figure out the school, the work, and all that.
Speaker: So how old were you when you first came here then?
Speaker: 15 years old.
Speaker: So I came here in May 2009.
Speaker: And it was like two months for me to turn 16.
Speaker: So I'm about to be 12 years in the States.
Speaker: Literally 12 years.
Speaker: You were at the door-to-door event, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you heard ET, Eric Thomas?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He literally said that in the United States, we have it good.
Speaker: And I just want to tell everybody that's watching this and listening to this that we got it good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, there's really no reason why we're not wealthy and rich here in the States because we literally have all the opportunity to do that.
Speaker: And me as an immigrant, I have that hustle because, you know, I don't come from...
Speaker: a really poor family.
Speaker: I would never consider myself poor, even when I didn't have much.
Speaker: You know, I think port is a mindset.
Speaker: It's not about money.
Speaker: And my family always had the main things that you need to live, to survive.
Speaker: I went to a really nice school.
Speaker: My mom would always take care of me and whatnot.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I had the best video games, you know, like the Xbox and, like, computers.
Speaker: So a lot of that curiosity is what brought the entrepreneur in me.
Speaker: So when I was 11, I learned how to fix computers, you know.
Speaker: So that led me to start selling CDs back then.
Speaker: So I'll be making music.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: personalized music for all my friends.
Speaker: And I believe that the hustle that I had back then was something that helped me when I found an opportunity that I truly love.
Speaker: So you're probably wondering how I got into it, right?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So yeah, I want to hear that.
Speaker: But no, just to your point, I mean, like I was saying, the people we've had on the podcast that are immigrants, I see you guys just grinding like crazy.
Speaker: And I think, you know, like I grew up here and a lot of people, I think, take advantage of it because we don't know what we didn't have.
Speaker: But you coming from a different country, you had to hustle 100% of the time, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And get into it.
Speaker: So I think it's cool how you guys just have that kind of immigrant mindset.
Speaker: And I've seen it from you, another guy we had on recently, Josue Phillips.
Speaker: Another, I think I told you about him, but similar thing.
Speaker: He came from Costa Rica and started a call center, has like five offices in his solar company and came here with nothing.
Speaker: So yeah, super cool.
Speaker: And yeah, I just want to you know, thank you guys and congratulate you guys for You know sharing that just immigrant mindset and hustling.
Speaker: But yeah, let's hear how you kind of got into the solar industry.
Speaker: Yeah, I can how that like transition went absolutely man So before doing solar I was I was in the in the food industry right and I believe that a lot of the things that I learned being a server and
Speaker: helped me a lot when I got in the doors.
Speaker: The only thing that really changed was the stage that I was presenting.
Speaker: So when I used to be a server, I would have to go introduce myself, have that great attitude, speak to people with, you know, always telling them a story.
Speaker: You know, people love stories, right?
Speaker: So I believe I'm a very good storyteller.
Speaker: So back then my story was, I'm going to go to college.
Speaker: I'm going to make my mother proud.
Speaker: And because of that, I would get extra additional tips that most of the other servers wouldn't make.
Speaker: So I took everything from that.
Speaker: I became the best at that.
Speaker: And then one day I had the opportunity to get into entrepreneurship.
Speaker: For the first five years of being in the United States, I wasn't able to just get any regular job.
Speaker: I would have to just get whatever was there.
Speaker: And thankfully and luckily I became a green card, as I mentioned to you.
Speaker: And right now I'm celebrating, you know, I'm actually a citizen now.
Speaker: So I'm going back to New York and do this whole inauguration.
Speaker: And then the next day is my mother's birthday.
Speaker: So it's like everything lining up, you know.
Speaker: So going back to that, one day I was sitting down in front of my computer and I was asking God, the Creator, please provide me a job that doesn't feel like work, that I can make a lot of money and I can have a lot of fun.
Speaker: And I went on Craigslist, I saw this ad from a very known solar company, I won't say names, but they hired me immediately.
Speaker: I got on a call with this guy, his name is Scott.
Speaker: He's like, hey man, you're going to make $20,000 your first month.
Speaker: This is going to be the best opportunity of your life.
Speaker: And that was in 2015.
Speaker: I literally was so broke.
Speaker: I only had $20 in my pocket.
Speaker: I only had nothing else but $20 in my pocket, a Blackberry,
Speaker: a broken iPad that my mother gave me.
Speaker: I'm like, you know what, man, I'll take it.
Speaker: I don't know what else can I do, you know?
Speaker: But I'm the type of guy that I always like to have a second plan.
Speaker: So I was like, you know what?
Speaker: If this is not meant to be, like if this is not the opportunity that is really going to change my life forever, I'm going to go back and be a server and I'm going to go back to school.
Speaker: Because that's what really my mom wanted.
Speaker: You know, my mom wanted for me to go back to college because I'm a college dropout too.
Speaker: I pay college on my own, you know, but God had a different plan for me.
Speaker: So I went to the office.
Speaker: I saw a crazy, crazy culture, man.
Speaker: Like, you know, these people were giving away $5,000 because that guy closed seven deals the week before.
Speaker: And I'm just like, what is this?
Speaker: Like, tell me more.
Speaker: So that's how I got in.
Speaker: Wow, crazy.
Speaker: And so did you make 20 grand your first month?
Speaker: Yeah, I did.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: I did, yeah.
Speaker: I made 20 grand my first month.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: I sold 13 accounts my first month.
Speaker: I sold over 105 kilowatts.
Speaker: And I literally made the 20 grand that they said I was going to.
Speaker: I became the top rep of the office month after month.
Speaker: Within the first six months of being in the industry, I made it into the top 20 of Legacy Nation, basically.
Speaker: So I was all into Legacy.
Speaker: I said the name.
Speaker: But I love what they had going back then.
Speaker: The culture was amazing.
Speaker: I was bought into it.
Speaker: and you know they used to call me a speedy you know because I was just too quick like they just didn't know where I came from like like it's not normal to see somebody close 104 kilowatt your first month in solar when you barely know anything when you have broken English because back then my English wasn't as good as it is now so we're talking about six years ago yeah you know and I literally was grinding every single day Wow
Speaker: And I want to give a special shout out to my friend, Vince Serrano, because he's the one that actually took the time, take me to the field.
Speaker: And that guy is so really good at this that the first two doors that we knocked, he grabbed the bill.
Speaker: So I was like, bro, is that easy?
Speaker: I'm like, man, sign me up.
Speaker: What I was doing before that is even worse than this.
Speaker: I was selling makeup in the street for like literally six months and I only made four grand.
Speaker: That's why I was so broke because I was going after something that I didn't feel passionate about.
Speaker: But here's one thing that I learned from the whole journey of that is the word stickativity.
Speaker: You stick through the shit.
Speaker: That was my education so that when I got in solar, it was a very smooth transition for me to use, apply everything that I learned.
Speaker: And what I learned is something that you can obtain through books.
Speaker: You only obtain it through experience and actually doing the work.
Speaker: I learned how to have a good attitude.
Speaker: I learned how to have a great work ethic.
Speaker: And I learned how to have a very simple presentation.
Speaker: So that's what really helped me, you know.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: And yeah, you're one of, that's cool to hear that you actually made what the guy promised.
Speaker: Because usually it's the opposite.
Speaker: Usually they're like, oh, you're going to make, you know, 20 grand.
Speaker: And then people come in and don't do near as good.
Speaker: Or unfortunately, especially in solar, a lot of people come in and don't do as good as they think and, you know, quit after that.
Speaker: And they get a little bit of discouraged, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean, it definitely can be done.
Speaker: I mean, Eric, he had no excuses.
Speaker: Like you said, broken English.
Speaker: There's a million reasons you could have come in and said, oh, this isn't going to work for me.
Speaker: Broken iPad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No money to pay for my ticket.
Speaker: 20 bucks to his name.
Speaker: 20 bucks to my name.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But Vince gave me $200, right?
Speaker: And with those $200, I was able to buy a ticket.
Speaker: to commute in the train, somehow the universe rewards people that are action takers.
Speaker: So for the entire week, nobody asked me for my ticket for the train.
Speaker: Literally.
Speaker: So I have the ticket always ready to show the person.
Speaker: Nobody asked me, bro.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Nobody.
Speaker: So that $200 you could buy your food or something?
Speaker: So the ticket was like $100, so I still had another $100 left.
Speaker: And it took me two weeks to get my first commission.
Speaker: So my first commission was $3,000.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Because the first week of doing this, we closed two deals.
Speaker: So my guy, Vince, helped me how to close those two deals.
Speaker: That's all I needed to do is to see him closing those two deals.
Speaker: So then the next week, I went back at it.
Speaker: And then on Saturday, I had literally lined up a perfect day.
Speaker: I had three appointments to go and close.
Speaker: First appointment, pass credit, guy didn't want to sign.
Speaker: Second appointment, the guy did not want to do anything.
Speaker: And instead of getting discouraged, you know, I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: I'm just going to keep knocking.
Speaker: And I found a 17 kilowatt.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And I closed the next day.
Speaker: Daddy.
Speaker: His name is Adam.
Speaker: Adam.
Speaker: I thanked that guy.
Speaker: Because then later on, he took me to the beach because I didn't have a car.
Speaker: So I'm like, hey, I'm going to go see some friends.
Speaker: So he said, you need me to take you?
Speaker: I'm like, sure.
Speaker: So he even drove all the way to like 30, 45 minutes away from where he lived to actually take me and I can go see my friends and hang out with them at the beach.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: 17 kilowatts and a free ride out of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, remember that we used to make 150 kilowatts back then.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So 150, 200.
Speaker: Compared to what we're making now,
Speaker: it's totally different I know but that's good things that I did now let's talk about the bad thing that I did yeah I want people to know so they don't make the same mistakes that I may yeah so after making a 20 grand I thought I was rich I think we'll be in there especially when you never made that much money in your life so I went back to El Salvador I took
Speaker: literally one week completely off and I took about five thousand dollars and I was giving the money away to everybody to my family to my cousin to my uncle to my grandmother you know I will give them socks with a hundred dollars in it I will go and get a haircut and I will give the guy instead he normally will make three dollars for the haircut I'm giving him twenty bucks I was feeling so much gratitude and all I want to do is give it away yeah
Speaker: So I went, gave it away, then I took almost two weeks off and I got complacent and I got lazy.
Speaker: So then the two weeks later, my manager called me out and this is why important, this is why it's so important to have accountability partners or somebody that holds you accountable.
Speaker: It's because once you have a certain amount in the bank, the desire to keep going sometimes is not there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But it's only because you're focusing on money rather than what you truly want out of life.
Speaker: You know, so this guy called me out and he said, oh, Eric Sanchez, he made 20 grand last month and now he's not doing anything.
Speaker: So sometimes it's okay to be called out.
Speaker: I love when people call me out and put me on my spot.
Speaker: So what I did is I went and show him who I am.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, yeah, you say that about me.
Speaker: Next week I went, I closed seven deals.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: So I came back at it again.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: Well, let me ask you this, Eric.
Speaker: I asked this to the other guy that I was telling you about.
Speaker: He's from Costa Rica, but you could have h ad a ton of excuses coming out, like you said, didn't know English, a million reasons why you couldn't have succeeded.
Speaker: So what would you say to all the people that maybe they're out working?
Speaker: Maybe there are different ethnicities.
Speaker: Maybe they're trying to learn English too.
Speaker: maybe they're overweight, whatever excuses they have.
Speaker: What would you say to those people and how did you overcome those thoughts that probably came up?
Speaker: Because when you first started, I'm sure that crossed your mind, right?
Speaker: Oh, I don't speak good enough English or negative thoughts.
Speaker: So is there anything you did to kind of overcome that?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So the one thing I would say is affirmations on the daily.
Speaker: You need to write down your affirmations.
Speaker: You need to be very certain about who you are.
Speaker: And no matter how far you go in life, those thoughts are always going to be there.
Speaker: But it's your job to control your mind and to allow...
Speaker: Only the thoughts that are creating the life that you want.
Speaker: So there's many times where I feel insecure.
Speaker: There's many times where I feel like, oh, who am I to be doing this?
Speaker: But that's the imposter self syndrome, you know?
Speaker: And this happens every single time you're about to level up.
Speaker: Every single time you're about to get to that new height, the imposter syndrome comes in.
Speaker: And it's like, oh, but who are you?
Speaker: But look at where you come from.
Speaker: You know, you're not perfect.
Speaker: And you're not this.
Speaker: And you're not that.
Speaker: But I think instead of looking at it negatively, look at it as a positive thing.
Speaker: Because I have an accent.
Speaker: People have to pay attention more to the things that I say.
Speaker: Because sometimes, you know, it might not be as clear as I want the things that I'm saying.
Speaker: But I'm very eloquent.
Speaker: I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker: I know how to use this language now.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: And I'm bilingual, which many people are not.
Speaker: So if you feel like this is a disadvantage, it will be.
Speaker: If you feel like this is an advantage, it will be.
Speaker: Whatever you feel...
Speaker: That whatever it is that you're dealing with in life, that's what it's going to be, you know?
Speaker: And I get that mindset from Think and Grow Rich.
Speaker: It's the best book ever.
Speaker: It's literally like the Bible of success.
Speaker: And I owe a lot to the books that I read and to the people I surround myself.
Speaker: At the age of 19, I read the book Outwitting the Devil.
Speaker: And that book changed my life completely.
Speaker: I just couldn't be the guy that I was before.
Speaker: So I started understanding that this negative voice...
Speaker: It's something that we can control.
Speaker: And that's when really everything started to change.
Speaker: And doing imperfect action is better than no action.
Speaker: So just to tell you, man, my pitch at the beginning was completely something that didn't make any sense.
Speaker: And I'm not ashamed to say this.
Speaker: I'm actually...
Speaker: like it is fun you know like you got a laugh for yourself man like we're so sometimes we're too serious about everything that we do you know we want things to be a certain way when things and life has a certain way for things to be for you know yeah I love that and I think it's so important for solopreneur listeners because there's so many people they just want to hear oh what's that secret closing line what's that sales technique why do you say this what tonality but none of that stuff even matters if you can't get you know this stuff in your head right
Speaker: Because yeah, I went through it too, starting out, I mean, similar background.
Speaker: I mean, I didn't come from a different country, but I had 50 bucks in my bank account when I started.
Speaker: Same thing, I was like, oh, I'm never going to get paid.
Speaker: All these thoughts that go through your head.
Speaker: So super important for our listeners, just remember to read those books, get your mindset right, and then go learn the sales techniques, then go learn the closing lines.
Speaker: And so Eric, I want to ask, now you've started your own company.
Speaker: What's your company called?
Speaker: Yeah, so my company is Initiate Solar.
Speaker: Initiate Solar, okay.
Speaker: Okay, so your company is Initiate Solar and you knocked, how long did you knock doors for Legacy then?
Speaker: Yeah, so I knocked doors for Legacy until 2016, the first quarter.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it was about nine months.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: Yeah, and then after that I transitioned to another company that actually gave me the opportunity to be the district manager at the age of 21.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: You know, so I just, when I do something, I'm not satisfied if I'm not going to the next level of that opportunity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'll give you an example.
Speaker: When I used to be in the food industry, I was a busboy for like maybe three months.
Speaker: I learned everything how to bus tables and now I'm like, okay, now I want to be a server.
Speaker: And so I'm always shooting for that next level.
Speaker: So when I got into the industry with Legacy, I qualified to be a district manager every single time.
Speaker: I did over 27 sales every quarter.
Speaker: So that qualified me to be a manager.
Speaker: For whatever reason, you know, it didn't work out.
Speaker: And, um, another company saw the potential that I had.
Speaker: And I look at us like NFL players, all these companies, they want you to work, man.
Speaker: Like for them, especially when they know you're good or you're great, you know, cause great is the, uh, good is the enemy of great.
Speaker: So I'd rather be great, you know?
Speaker: Um, but anyway, so this company hired me, I went to work with them and, um,
Speaker: Sometimes it's okay and it's good to be stubborn.
Speaker: It's okay to be very determined in something that when you make a decision, you're going to dive with that decision.
Speaker: But sometimes it's not.
Speaker: And because I have that personality, when I transitioned to work with this company, nothing was going good.
Speaker: We were not getting installs on time.
Speaker: You know, it took over a year to get an install.
Speaker: And because I didn't want to give up on the fact that I made a wrong decision and I wanted to believe that it was going to work out, it didn't work out.
Speaker: So we started living just up from money instead of making money on the back end because there were no back end.
Speaker: So that really put me and like my team and I in a very, very difficult financial situation that
Speaker: One of my closest friends was literally almost like kicked out of his apartment.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, like we had to go through things like that.
Speaker: And I also got me a nice car when I was not ready for it.
Speaker: And the payment of that car was almost $800 a month.
Speaker: on top of the insurance another 500 that's not night now it's like about 1300 in my rent is another 800 now we're talking about 2100 when I'm barely making three to four thousand dollars a month you can't live of that that's tough so I got into a lot of debt I made a lot of different you know mistakes but I'm thankful for that because he taught me
Speaker: what not to do.
Speaker: And he gave me the thing that I think most entrepreneurs and most 1099 people are missing out is financial literacy.
Speaker: So we're so hooked into making the money and then spending the money and we start living in that rat cycle, you know, where you keep going and going and going.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So it's like that's why they call it the human race, because it's a race and you're running all the time, you know, to try to get that new thing.
Speaker: And I just decided to stop doing that.
Speaker: And I became very disciplined with my habits.
Speaker: And moving forward after after that opportunity, I told you about I got hired by the big boys, you know, the the orange guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and it didn't work out either.
Speaker: It's like when you fly first class the first time, you don't want to go back.
Speaker: Your mind is going to do anything that it can to put you back into first class.
Speaker: So if you were a manager already and they put you as a sales rep, it just don't work anymore because you have more skills, more capabilities that you can actually do better.
Speaker: And it's more exciting when you're helping somebody else than when you're just helping yourself.
Speaker: It got to the point where I was not excited about making money for me because it's just that.
Speaker: And then it got more exciting when I started helping people to make more money.
Speaker: That's where really the fulfillment started coming for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And so that's, I guess, why you started your own company, right?
Speaker: So that's why I started my own company.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You know, because I also went and worked for a small dealer that didn't work out either.
Speaker: And many, many times people are going to self-project their own limitations on you.
Speaker: And it's your responsibility to not allow the limitations of others to put a limit on you.
Speaker: So I had to make a very, very deep decision.
Speaker: Like it was hard at that time, but it worked out.
Speaker: And the reason why I named my company Initiate Solar is because if you look up in the dictionary, the word initiate, it means a process.
Speaker: And all I did is start a process that I was lacking the initiative for many years because I was waiting for somebody else to come and say, Eric, you're ready to do this.
Speaker: You can do it now.
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: And until that day, I had like an epiphany, like an aha moment where it's like, I can do this.
Speaker: I've been doing it.
Speaker: I just haven't been doing it for me.
Speaker: So that's when I started making those moves.
Speaker: I started reaching out to local installers.
Speaker: I started calling with them.
Speaker: I thank all the previous companies that I worked with because of what they showed me, the things that they were good and the things that were bad and all combined.
Speaker: made me who I am today.
Speaker: And my purpose with my company is to create something different where people feel that we really care.
Speaker: Like, it's like, like, like, like somebody, I believe they said today, people start caring until they know that you truly care.
Speaker: Yeah, Zig Ziglar.
Speaker: And that's the reason why I have people working with us for over two years plus.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they haven't left.
Speaker: And any other company can come and say, hey, I'll give you a bonus.
Speaker: I'll give you this.
Speaker: At the end of the day, they know the way we do things is different.
Speaker: And I'm only attracting the people that really, truly resonate with my intentions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And from what I'm going after in my heart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm a true visionary from my heart.
Speaker: I got big dreams that sometimes might sound very irrational for people.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Because when I say I'm the solar king, I mean it.
Speaker: Like I'm the solar king.
Speaker: But the reason why I'm a solar king is because I'm creating all the kings.
Speaker: So you're a solar king too, like all of us.
Speaker: So one thing that I'm working on right now that I'm very excited is an NFT project.
Speaker: And it will be the solar king project.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: I'll tell you more about that later.
Speaker: I'm super excited about that.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, and so, no, I know a lot of people are out there maybe considering starting their own company, starting their own dealer.
Speaker: But at the same time, I think maybe there's people that try to jump ship and just go start their own things and they're constantly looking for, you know, greener pastures where they're not really reaching their full potential, maybe where they're at.
Speaker: And they just think, oh, it's going to be better if I start my own company.
Speaker: Oh, it's going to be better if I go with this dealer.
Speaker: It's going to be better if I switch.
Speaker: So do you have any tips?
Speaker: I'm sure, like you said, it's a tough decision.
Speaker: And I know it's tough to know sometimes when you should maybe start your own company or switch to a dealer or whatever.
Speaker: But I don't know.
Speaker: Did you have anything that helped you kind of make that decision or any tips you'd give people?
Speaker: Maybe they're on the fence or maybe they're considering switching or starting their own company or a dealer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, if we go back to the beginning of my solar journey,
Speaker: The company that I was working at the beginning was amazing.
Speaker: It was working out.
Speaker: Everything was going extremely fine.
Speaker: That's why I always say the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Speaker: If you want to start a company, do it because you have to.
Speaker: It's because you have no other choice.
Speaker: It gets to a point where you really have to go that route because it's not going to work.
Speaker: You're not going to find fulfillment unless you do that.
Speaker: But don't try to come in the industry and sell a few deals in one or two or three months and then later on you want to be a dealer because you don't have the experience to provide people with leadership.
Speaker: You need the leadership in you.
Speaker: You need the experience.
Speaker: So I started my company four years later, and I've been in the industry for six now.
Speaker: So it's like we've been in business for two years now, and it wasn't something overnight.
Speaker: It took time for me.
Speaker: to decide I'm going to do this.
Speaker: And for people that are out there, I would say look for mentors.
Speaker: You know, there's a lot of companies out there that would love to help you start your dealership, but they give you the infrastructure on how to do things.
Speaker: So instead of you trying to figure out how to create your own system, which takes a lot of time, I don't know about SOPs until like a year later.
Speaker: I wish I knew when I started my business, putting everything together the right way.
Speaker: So I had all these processes in place so that we can scale.
Speaker: Because one thing is starting something.
Speaker: Another thing is scaling.
Speaker: Scaling takes a lot more work than what most people think.
Speaker: And it's not always more money.
Speaker: Sometimes it's a lot more headaches, a lot more stress.
Speaker: But if you're going after something amazing, you know that prosperity follows problems.
Speaker: And your job as the visionary is...
Speaker: to fix those problems or to delegate those tasks to people that will help you fix those problems.
Speaker: And that's going to help you elevate.
Speaker: So that's like delegate to elevate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, it's the only way that you grow.
Speaker: But.
Speaker: You know, just going back to your topic here, you know, just don't try to accelerate the process.
Speaker: Just know exactly where you are, you know, and take everything one day at a time.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: And, you know, I think we're fortunate now to have a podcast like this to listen to guys who have gone through it.
Speaker: Because like you said, I mean, you jumped into it and it probably would have been way more acceleration if you knew, oh, I need to set up my SLPs.
Speaker: I need to have my team in place versus people that are jumping into it.
Speaker: You can know those things beforehand.
Speaker: Go talk to guys like Eric and guys who have been through it.
Speaker: But no, that's good advice.
Speaker: So definitely, you know.
Speaker: or read books like rocket fuel okay or eos entrepreneur operating system those books will definitely help you a lot that's good tips good advice so no on you've been uh two years in the business you said and what's cool about what you're doing eric is i know you set up a call center i know you're working with a team you got multiple assistants in different roles so it's really cool to see you do this and i know now you guys are knocking a ton of doors but you're getting your leads through different sources online call center
Speaker: Can you talk about, I don't know, I guess what that experience was like setting up a call center and why you decided to do that maybe instead of knocking doors?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So in 2018, I wasn't able to knock doors because first of all, I lost my car.
Speaker: And it's really funny that when I started, I only had 20 bucks in my pocket and I did everything in my power to make money and I will commute and take the train.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: But sometimes life hits you, man, and it hits you hard.
Speaker: And it's really hard to get out of that mental, you know, challenge that you're going through, all those adversities, the energy, the frequency, like you're so low that you don't believe in yourself anymore.
Speaker: So in 2018, I wasn't able to get out of my house.
Speaker: Like I literally used to stay at my home all the time.
Speaker: I lost my license for driving reckless, not DUI or anything like that.
Speaker: Because I had a nice car so I used to drive super fast.
Speaker: So what did I do?
Speaker: Since I didn't want to knock doors.
Speaker: I became the best at getting referrals.
Speaker: So somehow God always blessed me and I managed to close every deal at least five deals for the entire year.
Speaker: So I did about 60 in 2018 on my own.
Speaker: You know every month I would close at least five accounts and I didn't have to knock a single door.
Speaker: But what I did was keeping up with all my previous pipeline.
Speaker: So here's the best tip I'm going to give you if you're starting this journey is to look at the network that you're building.
Speaker: Your network is your network, right?
Speaker: Treat these people the right way, build relationship with them, cultivate that where you can go back, show up at the house without trying to take because there's two different type of people, takers and givers.
Speaker: I'm a giver.
Speaker: And because I'm a giver, therefore I receive.
Speaker: you know so my clients know how how I do business and that's what kept me alive so that was the first step to get out of the doors was to to master referrals so every presentation that you have look at it like you have the opportunity to get three to ten new contacts so if you're getting three to ten new people that you can reach out you'll never run out of business you make it a part of your presentation every time that you speaking with the homeowner you let them know
Speaker: that they're going to give you some referrals at the end.
Speaker: Don't make the mistake to let the customer dictate how you're going to run your business because sometimes they're going to tell you, I'm not giving you any referral because I don't know how solar works, but you do because you're the expert.
Speaker: So that was the first step.
Speaker: Second step, I started a digital marketing company where I was providing leads to reps and they'll pay me $1,500 a month.
Speaker: When you don't have money,
Speaker: You got to find other people's money to do things.
Speaker: So four years in the industry and I was still a little, you know, broke because I made all those decisions that I told you about.
Speaker: So I'm like, man, I want to figure out how to run Facebook ads.
Speaker: And I didn't have the money to do it.
Speaker: But I knew that maybe someone did.
Speaker: So I started offering my service to do digital marketing.
Speaker: And that's how I got one of our best sales executive partners working with us now.
Speaker: by doing that service for him.
Speaker: And then one day I had an epiphany like an aha moment and he said, hey, why are you buying this service from me when you can join my team and I'll provide appointments to you?
Speaker: And that's how the whole thing started, right?
Speaker: So the whole call center started from out of necessity.
Speaker: It got to the point where I'm driving, the leads are coming, I'm accepting the calls, I'm literally going to an appointment, I'm texting my rep, and I'm doing so many things that at that point I just couldn't do everything by myself.
Speaker: And I started looking for people to handle my calls.
Speaker: So obviously, if you don't have funds where you're going to be able to pay somebody $2,000, $3,000 a month, you got to think outside the box.
Speaker: So what I did is I started searching for people outside the U.S.,
Speaker: And that's how I actually met my partner now in Colombia.
Speaker: So at that time, I hired my partner, Beto.
Speaker: Shout out to Beto, Bliss Companies.
Speaker: This guy is a workaholic, just like me.
Speaker: And I saw potential in him.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So one of the things that we have here in the States is that we have some catch and we have leverage.
Speaker: So there's a lot of people out there that want a job and all they need is somebody to believe in them.
Speaker: So at the beginning, he was making about three to $500 a month just to manage my calls.
Speaker: And then I told him, you know what, let's start a call center together and I'm going to give you a little more.
Speaker: So that's when I made the decision while I was in El Salvador with my dad to go to Colombia.
Speaker: We took a flight with my dad.
Speaker: My dad had almost 18 employees.
Speaker: Not even, like 20, my age at that time, which I think it was, I was 26.
Speaker: 26 years of not taking a flight.
Speaker: So I made my dad take a flight with me to Colombia from El Salvador.
Speaker: We go to Colombia, meet this random dude that I don't even know who he is.
Speaker: We stay at his house, and that's how we started the call center in his mom's backyard.
Speaker: Whoa, that's crazy, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Were you nervous, like hopping on a flight, not really knowing?
Speaker: No, no, you know, I was excited.
Speaker: I was excited.
Speaker: I think we had a lot of similarities.
Speaker: You know, he was born in the same month as me.
Speaker: He's July, I'm July.
Speaker: So we're both cancerous.
Speaker: So we get very emotional people.
Speaker: I'm July 2.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we're cancerous.
Speaker: So we're water signs.
Speaker: So we get along very well, but we're very emotional.
Speaker: And we're like covering our chill.
Speaker: But some crazy stuff happened while I was there.
Speaker: We actually had to extend the time that I was there for.
Speaker: And I actually...
Speaker: Like, this is something key.
Speaker: Success requires sacrifice.
Speaker: So I had to sacrifice spending Christmas with my grandmother and my dad was there, thankfully.
Speaker: So we spent Christmas in Colombia.
Speaker: In Colombia, wow.
Speaker: So it wasn't the greatest experience because everybody else is giving gifts to each other and we're there like the outsiders, kind of like, you know.
Speaker: But I was so thankful and grateful that we had that opportunity to do that.
Speaker: So when I started my cult center, it was literally in December of 2019.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And we sold nine deals for Christmas week.
Speaker: Nine deals over the phone.
Speaker: It was the first time ever in my life, in my career, in my journey, where I didn't have to go to a homeowner house and close them.
Speaker: It was the first time ever that I didn't do anything besides setting up the structure and have the leads and everything flowing where my team closed nine deals.
Speaker: And that's when I knew we were onto something.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, incredible.
Speaker: I know that's everyone's dream, just be a sipping hot chocolate or whatever.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Closing deals.
Speaker: So how do you guys close your days?
Speaker: I wish it was just like that.
Speaker: So at that time, we had… Zoom or just purely on the phone?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So remember 2019, the world was fine.
Speaker: We were not going through COVID or anything.
Speaker: Like it was like the beginning of COVID.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So in January, we closed another like 14 deals.
Speaker: And then March, COVID comes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's when we were like, oh my God, what do we do?
Speaker: People don't want to receive our sales rep anymore.
Speaker: What do we do?
Speaker: What do we do?
Speaker: And that's when we started closing over the phone.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So you just close them on the phone.
Speaker: You're not seeing them.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So the first deal that I closed over the phone was in 2019, actually.
Speaker: But we didn't do it to the level where we are now.
Speaker: So we use Zoom.
Speaker: And like literally if the homeowner can connect the Zoom, you know, sometimes it's very difficult for them to connect all the technicality and whatnot.
Speaker: We just call them.
Speaker: Here's what I want everybody to know.
Speaker: The way that you connect to the client does not matter.
Speaker: If they tell you connect with me through FaceTime, through WhatsApp, through Skype, however you do it, it doesn't matter.
Speaker: What you're trying to do is to connect with them.
Speaker: So we have different techniques.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, the main thing is believe.
Speaker: If you believe you can do it, you will.
Speaker: I close deals literally.
Speaker: One day I was recruiting a guy.
Speaker: We went out to eat.
Speaker: I love Pad Thai.
Speaker: So I took him out to one of my favorite place in Long Island to eat Pad Thai and I had an appointment at 4 p.m.
Speaker: So I said, hey, I got to go to the car because I have an appointment.
Speaker: And he's like, what do you mean?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm closing an appointment in my car.
Speaker: He's like, no way.
Speaker: You want to see it?
Speaker: I'm like, yeah.
Speaker: All right, let's go.
Speaker: So he hopped in the car.
Speaker: I'm literally pulling out my computer.
Speaker: I call the client.
Speaker: I'm using this extension that Chrome has.
Speaker: It's called Crankwheel.
Speaker: C-R-A-N-K-W-H-E-E-L, Crankwheel.
Speaker: I send the client a link.
Speaker: The client see the proposal.
Speaker: I start doing my thing.
Speaker: Within 45 minutes, he passed credit, approved.
Speaker: sign everything close the deal in front of the guy that's how I was able to recruit him because he saw that I was able to do that wow no so there's many different techniques my guys they do like I told you whether if it's whatsapp facetime it don't really matter the goal is that you find a way now
Speaker: I'm going to give a secret here because I believe in abundance.
Speaker: But people will say, why do you do these things?
Speaker: It's because I'm always getting better.
Speaker: What I'm giving you today is not what I'm going to be doing in 30, 40, 60, 90 days.
Speaker: So another way of closing deals, hybridly.
Speaker: Like I call it hybrid method.
Speaker: The hybrid method, basically you send somebody that's local.
Speaker: You stay at your home.
Speaker: You're the expert.
Speaker: You send the guy to make that connection with the client.
Speaker: They show up.
Speaker: They have an iPad or a laptop, and you do the presentation.
Speaker: Now what you're doing there is you're presenting, but this guy is going to watch you present, and all they need to do is watch you at least three to five times, and that's part of your training.
Speaker: So now you can go out there and hire and recruit people that don't know anything about solar,
Speaker: And you can stay at home with your wife, with your kids, getting the leads from Facebook or cold calling or whatever, however you get them.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And you have somebody else doing all the drive.
Speaker: I call those people the...
Speaker: In Spanish, los corredores, which is the runners.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: So they're basically running out to these appointments, just kind of like sitting there and then open up their computer and say, okay, Eric's going to explain this.
Speaker: Yeah, and just making... And just making sure they... Report.
Speaker: Building report.
Speaker: Okay, I like that.
Speaker: Taking pictures of the NPU.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Taking pictures of the meter.
Speaker: Take pictures of the house, make it like you like if it's a whole process, like, you know, people want to know that you're professional.
Speaker: So when they see you doing all these things and you're taking, you know, pictures of this and that, they feel like they're going through a process.
Speaker: That's why we're helping them initiate their solar journey, because I told you at the beginning.
Speaker: The word initiate is a process and all we're doing is creating a process that every single time that we do this is getting better and we're optimizing.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, I like that because, I mean, as you know, it's tough to like replicate that whole face-to-face thing.
Speaker: You know, obviously, closing ratios, you know, maybe not as good on the phone.
Speaker: Yeah, but I think that's a good way to train people and then have the combination.
Speaker: And then have them go in there.
Speaker: This is the best way on how to open a market when you don't know anything about the market.
Speaker: That's how we open Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Speaker: That's how we went from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.
Speaker: Now we have teams in New Jersey, Florida, Texas, and California.
Speaker: Those are the markets that I'm putting all my focus right now and my target.
Speaker: The one thing about virtual selling is that it requires a lot of follow up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you don't have your follow up game on, it's going to be tough.
Speaker: Like sometimes it takes six months to close somebody.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Last week I was going through my Go High level.
Speaker: I'm a high level wizard like I love setting up high level you have to help me with that yeah I'll be happy to help you man I know how to use Zapier webhook systems all of that I'm all into that I went through a campaign that I set up and this client said yes call me you know I call him and my whole campaign was following up with him for like weeks like like I'm not mistaken I believe it was like almost 20 weeks of follow-up wow when I call him
Speaker: He said, I'm going to give you the chance because you've been so persistent.
Speaker: You've been helping me this whole time by sending me messages.
Speaker: And I was like, that's right.
Speaker: It wasn't me.
Speaker: It was the technology that I have working for us.
Speaker: So there's a little techniques that people can do.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And for those listeners that don't know, High Level is a CRM that you can start campaigns in.
Speaker: You can have to do automatic follow-ups, automatic texts, automatic emails.
Speaker: And I think guys that have mastered the follow-up, because you're not going to sit and send out an email every couple of days.
Speaker: you're going to set it up templates and have it follow up for you.
Speaker: But do you have any tips on like, like how did you start setting up all these systems?
Speaker: Did you create them yourself or how can people that want to go create their high level and get all into this?
Speaker: Did you, was it just trial and error or how did you figure out the best way to like follow up with people?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you, you need to take this one day at a time.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: High level is very complicated.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But most people, when they start using high level, the one mistake they make is they try to run their business based on how high level is run.
Speaker: And that's the first mistake you make.
Speaker: You can't make high level.
Speaker: You can't switch your entire business to accommodate high level.
Speaker: You got to do your business so that high level accommodates your business.
Speaker: Does that make sense?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so...
Speaker: A very simple thing, like very simple, right?
Speaker: What does High Level do?
Speaker: Text message, email, funnels, conversations, opportunity management.
Speaker: And then the advanced stuff will be like web hooks, the work, you know, workflows.
Speaker: So one day at a time, take the time, go through the trainings.
Speaker: Or if not, you can basically sign up through my link or something.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like I help the people that actually joins my Go High Level.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: or you can reach out to my buddy Michael Copland who owns Automation AI Pros.
Speaker: I also have a white label version of Go High Level called Flow Spot Solutions, which somebody who wants me to build their Go High Level instead of signing up through Go High Level directly, they sign up through me.
Speaker: Either way, there's so many people in the Go High Level community that you can go and ask for help.
Speaker: And that would be the best thing that I can say.
Speaker: Just be curious, take time,
Speaker: But if you're not the technical guy that has the patient to go through the computer and figure this out, just hire somebody.
Speaker: You're going to save time, which is the most important thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's important.
Speaker: And I mean, at the end of the day, not everyone's like Eric.
Speaker: Not everyone's going to want to go in and set up all these systems and processes.
Speaker: But like you're saying, you can go hire out people.
Speaker: You can join Eric's white label version and get help like that.
Speaker: But super important that you do some type of follow-up because that's where it's at.
Speaker: And even if you're just knocking doors, if you can combine all this, then I think that's where people become unstoppable is where they're knocking doors.
Speaker: Maybe they're setting up call centers.
Speaker: They're doing all of it because we shouldn't just do one or the other.
Speaker: I think it's important to do all of them.
Speaker: Would you agree?
Speaker: I agree 100%.
Speaker: I think most people are very linear.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they say, if it's this way, it got to be this way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think it can be multiple different ways.
Speaker: The way I look at it is sales marketing channels, right?
Speaker: We still have teams that actually knock doors.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We still have teams that actually set appointments over the phone.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We're now testing email marketing.
Speaker: We're about to test something new right now.
Speaker: Sending postcards to the houses.
Speaker: Yeah, cool.
Speaker: You know, leaving like a text message saying, hey, you know, and then let's see how that works.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We get inbound calls.
Speaker: The way that leads work is when you get inbound calls, you have almost 100, well, you have 100% rate, contact rate, because they're calling you.
Speaker: So you're making that connection no matter what.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: Light transfers, which we also do as well with my other company, Bliss Companies, is about 40% to 70% connection.
Speaker: Facebook, YouTube, any digital leads, it's almost about 30% to 40% contact rate.
Speaker: And as long as you're closing at least 10%, 15%, you'll be all right.
Speaker: My cost per acquisition, I'm willing to pay up to $2,000 per acquisition.
Speaker: Now, not everybody...
Speaker: can pay $2,000 to get one house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I'm willing to pay $2,000 because I do other things that will make sense for us to acquire that client.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, things like having my team go and knock the area and get other people around there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or getting referrals.
Speaker: So putting more money on the back end.
Speaker: So I've taken losses from running ads.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I have had
Speaker: really bad campaigns where I spent over 20,000 and I only closed four deals and literally each deal cost me five grand.
Speaker: And it's because I didn't have the right systems in place or somebody checking the cost per lead or if this campaign is actually generating the results that we want.
Speaker: It's not all rainbow.
Speaker: I can make it sound like it's so cool and everything, but there's been a lot of mistakes that I have made.
Speaker: And if I can just give an advice to someone is don't be afraid to make those mistakes.
Speaker: They're going to be part of your journey and they're going to make you be who you are today.
Speaker: Yeah, love that 100%.
Speaker: And so, Eric, I know we're short on time here.
Speaker: We got an event downstairs going on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you might hear some people cheering.
Speaker: But last couple questions before we wrap up here.
Speaker: Thank you, man.
Speaker: What's really cool is you also have a whole team of people.
Speaker: You've hired out assistants.
Speaker: You're working with lots of people.
Speaker: So can you give us some advice on maybe how you hire assistants, what you have them do, kind of what roles you put them in, and I guess maybe the first roles you would hire as you're building out your call center or trying to –
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Get help with all those things.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll make it quick since we are very short with time.
Speaker: So when you're hiring someone, you need to write down exactly how this person is.
Speaker: Like, you know, this person is hungry.
Speaker: This person is a student.
Speaker: This person loves taking action.
Speaker: This person follows direction.
Speaker: So in my onboarding process, when I'm hiring a new assistant, the first thing I ask them at the beginning is to send a video.
Speaker: Send me a 30 to 60 second video telling me why we should work with you.
Speaker: And what are some of the things that you love doing as part of your hobbies?
Speaker: And, you know, we'll see what happens after that.
Speaker: If you can't follow that simple instruction, you're not going to make it through our ecosystem.
Speaker: So my first assistant that I hired, which is the best out of
Speaker: all the people I have working with us right now when it comes to operation I asked her to send me a video through Facebook and she wasn't able to send the video through Facebook because the file was too big so she reached out to me and she said hey Eric you know I can't send you the video because of this but how about you give me your what's up and I'll send you the video yeah that little thing right there meant everything for me why because I saw that she's in she's a problem solver yeah she went and fixed the problem
Speaker: And now she runs literally our entire operation when it comes to account management.
Speaker: She's been with us for two years now.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So core values, very important to have.
Speaker: Put them before you start hiring people.
Speaker: If you don't put core values and principles in place, you're just going to hire a bunch of people.
Speaker: And sometimes a year later, once you start putting together the core values of your company and the way you do business and the way you do life,
Speaker: The people that you hire will no longer match these core values you have.
Speaker: So you're going to start losing people.
Speaker: It's something I didn't do.
Speaker: So one of our core values is action, connection, to serve, and stay a student.
Speaker: So it's ACTS.
Speaker: It's an acronym.
Speaker: I love acronyms.
Speaker: Because to make things simple, I'm not very a structured guy.
Speaker: So in order for me to have structure, I need to keep structure in place.
Speaker: That's why I do a lot of little things.
Speaker: So yeah, super important to be able to recognize the values because otherwise you're just hiring people and waste of time, waste of money.
Speaker: If you don't even know why you need that person or what the purpose of them is, then I think you're just spinning wheels and wasting time with them.
Speaker: So what's like the first rule if someone says, okay, I need help, I need to hire.
Speaker: What's like the first rule that you would hire out or that you maybe got for your company when you hired out help?
Speaker: Elaborate in the question.
Speaker: Like what do you mean by the first rule?
Speaker: Like, was it just like a general assistant for everything or was it a project manager?
Speaker: Okay, I see where you're going.
Speaker: So that's a great question.
Speaker: So actually, one of the mistakes that I made is to have the people doing the same things.
Speaker: So I hired a bunch of people to learn how to do everything.
Speaker: But that's not a mistake.
Speaker: That's a necessity.
Speaker: Because if you have one, you have zero.
Speaker: If you have two, you have one.
Speaker: If you have two, you know, if you have three, you have two.
Speaker: So the point of this is what happened if my main Operator tomorrow gets sick and nobody else know how to do her job.
Speaker: Yeah, then I'm out of I'm out of I'm out of one person and I need to go take time and train a new person again That's why I make all the departments in my company Even if they're not doing that a specific department at some point in time if we need them they know how to do that specifically yeah, so
Speaker: One thing I learned at one of the conferences that I go, which I go to a lot of them, is the main reason why I feel my success has been growing and growing and growing, is you hire not for where you are, you hire for where you're going.
Speaker: So that's one thing I'm doing now.
Speaker: I'm hiring more people.
Speaker: because I'm thinking of where we're going as a company.
Speaker: The infrastructure that we have today will not be able to sustain a thousand accounts a month.
Speaker: So what do I need to do?
Speaker: I need to start thinking of how many people I'm going to need in order to do that.
Speaker: And I start putting all those things in place.
Speaker: But always keep it simple.
Speaker: Your first hire is going to be the one that you're going to be the most afraid because it's the first time that you're paying someone the money that you will be paying.
Speaker: But
Speaker: Once you see that they do so much for you and they give you so much more time back, I'm all about time, man.
Speaker: And I'm so thankful that you're giving me your non-refundable minutes because to me that means a lot.
Speaker: Time is something that we cannot get back.
Speaker: Money, I can go and make money.
Speaker: I can go and make a million dollars this year.
Speaker: I will go and help people make a million dollars.
Speaker: I'm more excited about helping people become millionaires
Speaker: because I know that's the way for me to become a multimillionaire and more.
Speaker: But there's a purpose behind this.
Speaker: You know, what I'm going after is big and I want to bless all my people, all my assistants, all my operators.
Speaker: I want them to live a life that they didn't see until I got there.
Speaker: And the type of money that I want my people to be making is the type of money that a doctor will be making back in my country, as an example, or back in Colombia.
Speaker: I'm going to change the economy of these countries, South America and Central America, so that these people don't have to go through what Eric had to go through.
Speaker: I had to immigrate at a very young age to get to the United States.
Speaker: I had to go through a lot of things that...
Speaker: I don't want a kid to have to go through that.
Speaker: I was a kid, 15 years old.
Speaker: Life had this path for me, but I don't want another Eric and another Mabel, which is my mother, you know, have to go through what my family had to go through.
Speaker: Because my mom had to leave me behind to come to the States when I was 12th.
Speaker: So I didn't have my mother for the most important years of my life.
Speaker: You know, those three years is when I went crazy.
Speaker: I went reckless.
Speaker: Because sometimes the issue with creative people like us is that if we don't use our creativity for the good things, we're going to use it for all the bad things that life is giving you at that moment.
Speaker: And this is why it's so important.
Speaker: I'm going to leave you guys with this, is the group.
Speaker: that you surround yourself with is the most important thing in life.
Speaker: You know, you got to start hanging out with people that don't believe in you, people that require for you to go the extra mile and they still don't believe in what you say.
Speaker: Those people, you got to cut them out of your life.
Speaker: You know, you got to only surround yourself with people that are positive, people that are uplifting your spirit, people that believe in you as much as you believe in them because those people are the people that are going to be your tribe and
Speaker: Those people are the ones that you're going to elevate together.
Speaker: And obviously my model, because I'm part of my apex, is that we are what winning looks like at all times.
Speaker: And we believe in going after being the best version of ourself.
Speaker: And you don't do that when you're not hanging out with people that have that same amount of belief and accountability.
Speaker: So my friends inspire me to write books.
Speaker: I'm in the process of writing my book.
Speaker: The journey is everything.
Speaker: Trust the process.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: I'm also in the process that I told you about launching the podcast, which I would love to have you there.
Speaker: And so much more.
Speaker: So that's all I have for you, man.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Know your inspiration and appreciate all the jobs you've created.
Speaker: Because think of how many lives you've changed by what you're doing in Colombia.
Speaker: And love Colombia.
Speaker: We have over 50 families right now helping, man.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: And our goal is to get to 500.
Speaker: You know, but...
Speaker: Follow me on Solar King, my Instagram, Solar King without the I because there's no ego in my shit.
Speaker: And I'm here to help you guys with everything that I can.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: Well, yeah, go shoot Eric a follow.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated him being on the show today.
Speaker: And just to reiterate one point with that, you don't have to have your own company to hire out help.
Speaker: I've talked about it in the podcast before, but you can go hire a virtual assistant.
Speaker: You can get your own assistant.
Speaker: I think anyone in the solar industry, you should be looking for ways you can outsource.
Speaker: So hit me up.
Speaker: Hit Eric up.
Speaker: We can help with that.
Speaker: And then again, I guess one more thing.
Speaker: I see you at all these events and I see yourself surrounding with the best of the best.
Speaker: I mean, how much would you say, how much money would you say you drop on like events and masterminds and stuff like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you had to guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You don't hear this.
Speaker: So last year alone, I did over a hundred thousand.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: And, but it pays off, you know?
Speaker: My biggest one was one week at Driven, which I'm going next month.
Speaker: It was $20,000 that week.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I paid like almost $8,000 for the ticket.
Speaker: I hired a videographer, which was another $5,000, and the Airbnb, which is another $5,000.
Speaker: I look at them like, damn, $20,000 in a week.
Speaker: But I love being in the position of being able to do that.
Speaker: Now I'm more about bringing my team to this.
Speaker: You know, if I'm going to drop 20K, it's going to be with my team.
Speaker: I'm not doing it on my own anymore.
Speaker: That's why my team was here at door to door because
Speaker: I wanted them to experience what I have been experiencing.
Speaker: And Ryan Stumann, you know, hardcore closer.
Speaker: He is my mentor.
Speaker: I've been able to get close to this guy and he has helped me elevate my game in multiple areas of my life.
Speaker: I will be a sponsor of Apex Live next month.
Speaker: It's February 3rd.
Speaker: If anybody wants to come and see what we got going through Apex, you know, it will be in Dallas.
Speaker: Reach out to me and I'll get you some tickets.
Speaker: So I think they're probably already sold out, you know, onto the next one.
Speaker: That really is the main thing of what helped me elevate in only two years.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Because in 2019, I was still broke, man.
Speaker: I had, like, not that much money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, but it goes back to being resourceful, and it goes back to believing in yourself.
Speaker: And I believe that after five years of doing something, you start seeing the results of everything that you've been putting in the world.
Speaker: Because the energy that you put out is the energy that you get back.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So guys, invest in yourselves.
Speaker: We're going to put some of those links to the masterminds and all that Eric mentioned in the show notes.
Speaker: So go check it out.
Speaker: Hit them up if you want to hear more about those things.
Speaker: But yeah, that's one of the best ways that I think you can accelerate your growth.
Speaker: And really just avoid some of the mistakes that I've made that Eric has made and achieved success at a much faster rate.
Speaker: So Eric, thanks again for coming on the show today.
Speaker: Hit them up.
Speaker: Let them know you appreciated them.
Speaker: And hopefully we can do a follow-up podcast, but I appreciate it.
Speaker: And then when is your podcast launching, Eric?
Speaker: By the end of the quarter.
Speaker: End of the quarter, okay.
Speaker: So what's your podcast going to be called?
Speaker: The Solar Journey.
Speaker: Okay, Solar Journey.
Speaker: So go check that out when it launches, probably in March or April.
Speaker: So thanks again, Eric, and we'll have you on hopefully in the future.
Speaker: Thanks for coming on.
Speaker: Thank you, bro.
Speaker: Appreciate it.
Speaker: What's up, solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
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