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: Yo, yo, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We are back with an amazing episode here and someone that I have been trying to get on the podcast for a little while here.
Speaker: We've got Jory Sullivan in the house.
Speaker: Jory, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker: Hey, man.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: Thanks, Taylor, for having me on.
Speaker: Yeah, it's my pleasure, and we're excited to have Jory on.
Speaker: He is the VP of sales for Legacy, one of the VP of sales for Legacy.
Speaker: He's growing his teams like crazy.
Speaker: They're pushing tons of accounts and just doing some incredible things.
Speaker: I met Jory actually at the last Noxstar event.
Speaker: We're hanging out there.
Speaker: Did you come to that sauna place, Jory?
Speaker: I can't remember.
Speaker: Yeah, we did.
Speaker: We connected in the sauna.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So we were probably sitting naked together in a sauna maybe.
Speaker: So I don't know if I talked in there, but got to know some guys on a personal level at that event.
Speaker: Yeah, that was wild.
Speaker: Shout out to Danny Pesci for calling that one out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Korean bathhouse.
Speaker: If you guys haven't been there, it's a good place to get to know people.
Speaker: If you're ever in Dallas, Texas, go to King Spa.
Speaker: Yeah, you will not be disappointed.
Speaker: It's an amazing experience.
Speaker: So yeah, it's fun hanging out with Jory there.
Speaker: And then also we realized after the fact that we're actually in North Carolina at the same place, same time.
Speaker: But unfortunately, we couldn't connect there.
Speaker: But I made the realization later.
Speaker: But yeah, so Jory, I'm excited to have you on, hear your story.
Speaker: I know you're growing your teams a ton.
Speaker: So first, you want to kind of get into how you got into solar and your background and all that stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it probably goes even deeper than that into door-to-door sales.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Because it all led to this, like, where we're at now.
Speaker: And it's like the story.
Speaker: I don't believe in, like, omens, but, like, it all just happened for a reason.
Speaker: So basically, I remember like I was washing dishes the summer before I'd ride my bike at 5 a.m., three miles to go wash dishes, to be treated like crap.
Speaker: And I was the worst employee ever.
Speaker: And so they told me I couldn't, I wasn't good enough to busboy.
Speaker: That's how bad I was.
Speaker: And I remember I worked my guts out the summer before, um, on my, um, in my 16th, uh, summer birthday.
Speaker: And I made like $2,000 and, um, I got a small scholarship to go run track, um, many pounds ago and, uh, to Iowa.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And, uh, I couldn't afford a bus, a plane ticket, couldn't afford a bus ticket, but I could afford an Amtrak ticket.
Speaker: And I was 20 minutes late to the Amtrak.
Speaker: And thank gosh, Amtrak was about 30 minutes late.
Speaker: Because throughout the three days it took me to get to Iowa, maybe four days, I stopped in the city from Oregon, born and raised in Oregon.
Speaker: I stopped in the city called Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker: Didn't know much about it.
Speaker: Heard about it in my history books.
Speaker: And some guy sat down next to me.
Speaker: And he's like, hey, in the middle of the night, I was sleeping like 1 a.m.
Speaker: And he's like, hey, yeah, I sat down next to you because you look inviting.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay.
Speaker: And he's like, hey, I just got done knocking in Salt Lake for a company called APX for all the old dogs out there.
Speaker: That was 2007.
Speaker: So this next year, 2008.
Speaker: So our 2007 is when I met him.
Speaker: And I went out in 2008.
Speaker: But he's like, you know, I made $10,000 selling alarm systems.
Speaker: You can probably make 12 to 13.
Speaker: And I was next to him for like a whole day just like in and out trying to like figure out like,
Speaker: what is he talking about?
Speaker: I, I worked like crazy to make $2,000 the summer before I got treated like crap.
Speaker: And, uh, and so we literally connected and, and when he gave me the number, I think it was the Facebook at that time, Facebook of the guy that the manager, I literally just like begged him and pleaded with them, tried to do blitz trips.
Speaker: And I was, I was barely, I was 17 years old.
Speaker: I was still, I was almost 18 at the time.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: And that's kind of how I got into the industry.
Speaker: I said, as long as I don't have to kill anybody, like I'm in.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because I mean, some of you guys know, some of you guys don't know, you know, I, I kind of grew up a little bit differently.
Speaker: Um, so I want to like preference the story because people always ask my story.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I want to preference a story.
Speaker: Do not take pity on me.
Speaker: This is, uh, this is something that has made me who I am and it's not actually a setback.
Speaker: It's, it's, uh, I call it living in comeback like mode.
Speaker: And I think it's a step up in society.
Speaker: Um, so I guess it all comes like, we're going to talk about it.
Speaker: We're going to go deep.
Speaker: I don't really share this too much.
Speaker: A lot of people will go deep.
Speaker: Yeah, no.
Speaker: So, um, yeah,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I guess we're going to, we're going to do it.
Speaker: We're going to do it.
Speaker: You guys are going to know me a lot better.
Speaker: So, man, it's full circles when we talk about this, but I never met my dad.
Speaker: And I remember when I was six years old, the first day of first grade, I went to first grade all excited and I came back and, and, and my mom never came back.
Speaker: She never came back and, uh, you know, my brother, my sisters, we all had to go live with my grandma.
Speaker: They got off my grandma.
Speaker: And, uh, and we moved from, uh,
Speaker: Springfield, Oregon, down to Coos Bay, North Bend, Oregon.
Speaker: And that's where I was.
Speaker: I was at six years old.
Speaker: And then a lot of verbal, physical abuse.
Speaker: And then I saved that money.
Speaker: I was washing dishes.
Speaker: It's like two summers before I was 15 years old.
Speaker: And I saved up $800 to go to Nike running camp.
Speaker: And when I was 15, going to 16, and my grandma's like, hey, I need that money for rent.
Speaker: And I'm like, you know, I'm almost 16 years old.
Speaker: Like, I want to go play sports.
Speaker: And she's like, that's fine.
Speaker: You can go.
Speaker: But if you come back, like you don't have a place here anymore.
Speaker: We can't afford you.
Speaker: And it was, it was rough.
Speaker: Like I remember I got caught stealing one time.
Speaker: And I got caught.
Speaker: I was at like an at-risk teens thing.
Speaker: And they asked me why I was stealing.
Speaker: And I just broke down.
Speaker: I don't cry very often.
Speaker: But I broke down and cried and said, all we have is a block of cheese in the refrigerator.
Speaker: And I got no money, you know.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So it.
Speaker: So I she kept to her word.
Speaker: And when I was 16 years old, I had to go file to be a.
Speaker: awarded the state.
Speaker: So I was an adult at 16 years old and I was going my junior year, but I met somebody at running camp and we got together, we rallied, we had culture and this is where culture has always been so deep in my mind.
Speaker: We had all these strangers from different parts of the world.
Speaker: We're really probably the United States come in and we weren't a team or anything.
Speaker: We're just a bunch of runners and we got a massive culture and we ended up winning the whole entire competition.
Speaker: We're champions.
Speaker: And I,
Speaker: He said, hey, if you ever need anything, give me a call.
Speaker: Well, I did.
Speaker: I need the place to live so I can finish high school.
Speaker: And it just so happened that his family was not taking in a foreign exchange student that year.
Speaker: And so I was able to move over with him and finish high school.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: So what happened to your, I guess, as you're telling this, so your mom, what did she just like never show up?
Speaker: Drugs, drugs are powerful.
Speaker: And, and so I was actually born addicted to drugs and I had to like, we like, they had to wean me off and, and she lost custody.
Speaker: She finally got us back.
Speaker: And when she got us back, you know, it took her life again.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, um, but she did reach out when I was 19, uh, 19 years old.
Speaker: Um, but, um, but yeah, I, uh, it, let's say this man, like six to 19 is a big gap.
Speaker: Um, thank you for birthing me, but you're not my mom or my mother at that point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's wild.
Speaker: What about your dad?
Speaker: Is he never met him?
Speaker: Never met him.
Speaker: Yeah, never met him.
Speaker: So there was, I think there was a defining moment.
Speaker: I don't love to talk about money.
Speaker: I love talking about impact.
Speaker: And the more people you impact, you're going to acquire the capital from that human capital is what we call it.
Speaker: But I remember there's a defining moment when I was 16 years old, sitting on Nelson's analytics roof.
Speaker: Nelson, if you're listening to this, thank you.
Speaker: You literally saved my life.
Speaker: But I remember saying, I remember thinking two thoughts.
Speaker: why didn't my mom want me and two
Speaker: I'm going to do whatever it takes to be a millionaire.
Speaker: Cause I hated the way this felt this moment felt, I hated the pain, not having enough and asking people for help.
Speaker: And I absolutely hated it.
Speaker: Um, and so, and so I remember that moment, I think there's, there's two, there's two moments when a person realizes who they are, like their why and when they're born.
Speaker: And that was my defining moment as I look back, um, on, on my journey.
Speaker: And so they're a big sports family and all their kids got D1 scholarships.
Speaker: I wasn't very good.
Speaker: I got an NAIA scholarship and that's when I got on that train to Iowa.
Speaker: And that's how this whole massive, like, from all the pain, the verbal abuse, told you're not good enough, you'll never amount to anything.
Speaker: It all comes down to, like, it happened for a reason.
Speaker: It made me who I am.
Speaker: And so I've already been at the bottom.
Speaker: So I'm not afraid to go there again.
Speaker: it's incredible yeah it was pretty powerful stuff and I love hearing guys that came from the bottom like that um I mean obviously super powerful to be able to share your stories especially the position you're in now but yeah my question is like how do you in my case I never grew up like that um I mean my parents were pretty well off I grew up in a small town so
Speaker: They're like one of the richer people in the town, 3,000 people.
Speaker: But even me growing up that way had money.
Speaker: Um, not like super rich, but in my town where most people were kind of poor, definitely better off.
Speaker: Um, but even I struggle with like quite a bit of self-doubt.
Speaker: Um, was told I was like too shy.
Speaker: I was twice too chubby stuff like that.
Speaker: Always growing up.
Speaker: So how does it, I don't know for you coming from a situation like that, was it super tough to like overcome kind of all these like self-doubts and this heavy stuff?
Speaker: Do you have to do therapy or like, what did that look like?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So door knocking was my actual therapy.
Speaker: And I don't care if you came from the wealthiest family or the poorest family.
Speaker: You have a story of overcoming.
Speaker: You just have to learn how to tell that story.
Speaker: And what happens is, if anybody that follows David Goggins, he calls it a cookie jar.
Speaker: And that's exactly what it is.
Speaker: And so whether it doesn't matter what kind of past you've had, we've all done something that we have something that we're good at.
Speaker: right?
Speaker: It doesn't need to be a state championship, doesn't need to go sell 500 solar accounts in a year, but we all have something that we're proud of.
Speaker: And when you get seeds of doubt, you have to be able to pull from that cookie jar to be able to move forward.
Speaker: But take like, just with all due respect, you have a story,
Speaker: And you need to remember the story of victory in order to be able to go to the next level, because I still have massive doubt.
Speaker: And, and I have to pull from my cookie jar on a regular basis to be able to operate at a high frequency throughout the day and years.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's super powerful.
Speaker: And that's an exercise I've actually done is just kind of write down the things you know you are good at, the accomplishments you have achieved.
Speaker: Because I forget all the time.
Speaker: I mean, I've almost quit doing this podcast probably like 50 times now just because I feel like, oh, there's people way better in solar.
Speaker: I'm not qualified to like share advice about solar.
Speaker: And I mean, I know I'm not the greatest, but got my Golden Door Award, closed lots of deals.
Speaker: And so a lot of times it's just for me writing down the things I have accomplished, the things I have done well.
Speaker: And that's, yeah, that is something super powerful to do.
Speaker: It sounds like it's been a big thing for you.
Speaker: So how do you coach like reps that are struggling?
Speaker: Do you have like, I mean, I know your story is super powerful, but reps that have struggled on teams feeling like maybe they're not good enough, needing confidence.
Speaker: Is there things you guys have done helping, you know, your reps at Legacy there, helping them to kind of overcome these feelings of self-doubt, stuff like that?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's a good, like, that's a phenomenal question.
Speaker: And so whether it's legacy or solar pest control or anything, if you're listening to this right now, make sure that you listen, you truly listen to reps or your friends, your battle buddies is what I call them.
Speaker: like they're battle buddies.
Speaker: You'll listen to them when they have the concern, get off your phone, look them in the eyes, have human interaction and let them know you care.
Speaker: Because, you know, one of the laws of leadership by John Maxwell is when you touch their heart, you can touch their hand.
Speaker: And so just knowing that you care and you're going to do everything you can to kind of hold them accountable in a way that's not offensive.
Speaker: It's felt with love.
Speaker: They're going to be able to go that next level.
Speaker: And sometimes you have to like, you have to like physically implant motivation inside them and, and like awesomeness that they've done.
Speaker: Like a lot of times when people have like bad months or weeks and they say, oh, this and that, I go to our database.
Speaker: I'm like, hey, remember that week you sold four?
Speaker: How did that feel?
Speaker: Does it feel like you feel right now?
Speaker: If the answer is no, then we've got a lot of work to do.
Speaker: But the good news is you can acknowledge it.
Speaker: And so now we can actually move forward.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, it reminds me of, I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but are you a basketball fan?
Speaker: Yeah, of course.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Doc Rivers, yeah, the coach.
Speaker: I know that's one of the big things he does with his players.
Speaker: In fact, this season I was listening to an interview, and Joel Embiid had one of his best seasons, MVP caliber.
Speaker: And everyone's like, how does Doc Rivers get these players to perform so much better?
Speaker: And it's because he like talks them up so much.
Speaker: He'll tell the media, like he has the best players.
Speaker: They're the best at doing this.
Speaker: Like it gets them to have this deep belief in themselves.
Speaker: So it's like so similar in any industry, anything.
Speaker: I think that's what powerful coaches do, powerful leaders.
Speaker: So I love hearing that.
Speaker: So for you, Jory, do you have like,
Speaker: I know we kind of cut your story a little bit short, but when you first got into door to door, was there sort of like a defining moment for you?
Speaker: Was it like all sunshine and rainbows?
Speaker: Did you struggle starting out door to door sales?
Speaker: Terrible.
Speaker: Terrible.
Speaker: So listen, if you're listening to this, you're not very good.
Speaker: There's still hope.
Speaker: I was terrible.
Speaker: I remember, I remember knocking on my first door and almost throwing up.
Speaker: And I remember the homeowner correcting my sales pitch.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, it doesn't get much worse than that.
Speaker: But the good news is I, I literally storm was coming.
Speaker: I didn't care.
Speaker: I was out out there till nine o'clock at night.
Speaker: And I got my first sale.
Speaker: And if I retired cop, and he canceled.
Speaker: But yeah, but I and then I had I was I didn't I didn't know how to control my emotions.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I didn't know how I didn't know how to think at a high level.
Speaker: I didn't know that reading books were needed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I didn't know that there's all the knowledge out there in the world.
Speaker: And just because your sales manager is not giving it to you that you can't go out and get yourself.
Speaker: I didn't know the undying confidence.
Speaker: This person I see in front of you listening to was built.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I was terrible.
Speaker: I think I funded like 35 alarm deals my first summer.
Speaker: And the next summer I funded like 45.
Speaker: I was absolutely terrible.
Speaker: But my third summer, you gotta remember, this is like, I didn't know, I wasn't going back.
Speaker: I wasn't going back to washing dishes.
Speaker: There was nothing left for me in that town.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so the third year when I got really serious, I started to, I decided to get serious about the opportunity and
Speaker: I started investing in myself, my thoughts, my beliefs.
Speaker: And I started to be able to be the best and win as much as I possibly can.
Speaker: And then it just kept going from there.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: What type of things did you invest in?
Speaker: What was it that made the difference in your third year, would you say?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So first of all, it was my belief system.
Speaker: So everyone's going to think it's really stupid, but everyone's heard of the secret.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: Thoughts become things, but there needs to be action behind it.
Speaker: I understood that.
Speaker: And so I read this book called The Secret.
Speaker: And I remember, like, you guys are going to laugh, like, but I remember putting $100,000, like, on my wall when I was
Speaker: I woke up and I remember writing $100,000 on my mirror.
Speaker: I was brushing my teeth and I remember like two a day, two a day, two a day in alarms.
Speaker: And that was my belief system.
Speaker: And at the end of that year, I ended up making like $99,400 and some odd dollars.
Speaker: And so I'm not saying that it didn't work or there's no validation behind the secret,
Speaker: Uh, but that was, that was the biggest thing is believing that I was capable of doing and it's going to come to me before.
Speaker: So it's the same thing you're talking about with the coach.
Speaker: Like I was believing it before it actually came true.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And I mean, I love hearing that you struggled a ton because you get guys, other people we've had on like Sam Tagger, you know, other guys in the industry that's like they get on and just click.
Speaker: They're instantly like good and instantly start slinging deals.
Speaker: But like for me, it was super rough.
Speaker: I started off in pest control and same thing.
Speaker: I did like, I did like 105, my first summer pest control, and then I had like 10 cancels.
Speaker: So I lost like my rent bonus, lost basically my whole back end.
Speaker: I'm like, freak, should I even keep doing this?
Speaker: So, I mean, I think it's super powerful hearing guys that did struggle and push through.
Speaker: So for you, what was it that like kept you going those first two summers?
Speaker: You said you struggled a ton.
Speaker: Was it just kind of not wanting to go back to that situation you were in or what kept you just like...
Speaker: pushing, even though you're struggling so much.
Speaker: You know, I said, I said, I said when I was 16 years old, I wanted to be a millionaire.
Speaker: And I believe that door to door was the fastest way to get there.
Speaker: Um, and, and I was going to do whatever it took to get there because all my friends were working dead end jobs in that town.
Speaker: Um, and I just didn't, as I was starting to be around people that were making a hundred to $300,000 back in 2008, nine and 10 back, back in the golden years of alarms.
Speaker: I did not, I stopped thinking like they thought, and we didn't really get along.
Speaker: We didn't understand each other.
Speaker: And so I decided to be around people that wanted the same things as me, the culture aspect of it.
Speaker: And I was just committed to winning no matter what.
Speaker: I wanted to win my race.
Speaker: Yeah, love that.
Speaker: That's another powerful point I think you make is getting around the right people.
Speaker: I've struggled with that too, having friends that are just, you know, working the nine to five, just doing their thing.
Speaker: And that was, I think, was one of the big breakthroughs I had in solar is I do just pretty drastically change the people that I was hanging out with, which sounds like you did too.
Speaker: Because I mean, I think a lot of people for you're the average of the five people you hang out with.
Speaker: And for me, that even, I thought I was safe once I got into door-to-door.
Speaker: I thought I was going to be okay.
Speaker: I'm hanging out with good people now.
Speaker: But even starting out in door-to-door solar, I was still hanging out with people that guys drive out to an area.
Speaker: And it's like, oh, let's sit in our car for three hours, watch Game of Thrones and hang out.
Speaker: So that held me back for forever in door-to-door too.
Speaker: So that's...
Speaker: Yeah, I think a good point to make.
Speaker: So where does it go from there, Jory?
Speaker: How did you transition from alarms to solar?
Speaker: I guess anything else along the journey?
Speaker: Yeah, I was running my own dealer.
Speaker: It didn't work out well.
Speaker: It always seems like I realized that I'm not a number one.
Speaker: I'm not a CEO of a door-to-door company.
Speaker: And I'm okay with that.
Speaker: And so my thought process is if I'm not number one, I can be a number three and develop to a number two and still have an outstanding life.
Speaker: I remember, you know, like, oh, you make more money, right?
Speaker: It's similar to you got the lowest red line, but there's no support, no nothing.
Speaker: You do everything and you're trying to, you're a swamp and next thing you know, you're in depth or eyeballs.
Speaker: And I was just so sick of it.
Speaker: I was sick of the alarm industry.
Speaker: I remember sitting on a door or on a curb in Georgia and,
Speaker: I was like sick to my stomach to knock another door for alarms.
Speaker: And I got a call.
Speaker: My body's like, hey, solar's happening.
Speaker: And I'm like, listen, I'll fly out and listen.
Speaker: And one of the biggest, one way to get me going is tell me I'm not wanted or good enough because I've been told that my whole life.
Speaker: Like, like I've been told that I've lived in that, in that, that freight, like phase my whole life.
Speaker: And so one thing that tells me like, I'm not good enough or you're like, Hey, listen, we're going to do it without you.
Speaker: Doug Robinson, the CEO of legacy was like, Hey, Jory, like, dude, I love you.
Speaker: We're going to, we're going to grow this thing with or without you, but we'd rather be with you.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, man.
Speaker: Oh, man.
Speaker: And so, yeah.
Speaker: So I sold my home in Kansas City.
Speaker: I moved to South Carolina before the lease was there.
Speaker: And I was one of the actual original people in South Carolina.
Speaker: I sold my first lease deal in South Carolina, September.
Speaker: September 1st of 2015.
Speaker: So one of the original people, and actually the person you just had on the podcast, Tim McCarthy, I reached out to him.
Speaker: I know he switched to solar before I did.
Speaker: And he gave me some crucial advice.
Speaker: He probably doesn't remember it, but he said, Dory, if you work this like summertime alarms you around, you'll destroy it.
Speaker: And that's the only advice.
Speaker: I didn't know what a kilowatt was.
Speaker: I didn't know how solar relay worked.
Speaker: All I knew is I can sell alarms.
Speaker: I can knock and I can train people.
Speaker: And I worked like summer alarm grind and I put it towards solar.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: Every, almost every alarm guy, I think that's the biggest reason they're successful.
Speaker: Um, I'm out here working with Jason newbies, which you probably know him.
Speaker: He's top rabbit and everything.
Speaker: He's already grown his solar team in like less than six months.
Speaker: He had a guy do 19 deals last week.
Speaker: They're consistently getting like nine to 10 deals a day.
Speaker: And that's literally all he's doing.
Speaker: He's just having his solar team work alarm hours.
Speaker: and just drive out like their alarms and then close them like their alarms.
Speaker: Like none of this next day stuff.
Speaker: It's just all same day.
Speaker: Close them like an alarm.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's pretty, pretty interesting.
Speaker: All the alarm guys think that way.
Speaker: And I think that's a huge reason for success.
Speaker: And so when, when was that the, was that 2017 you started in solar?
Speaker: No, 2015, September 1st, 2015.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So yeah, you're an old dog.
Speaker: I was thinking I was one of the older ones.
Speaker: I started in 2016, so it got me beat.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm old, man.
Speaker: I'm the oldest 31-year-old you're ever going to know.
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker: Been in this forever.
Speaker: And so 2015, and then did you start as just like a regular rep or how did your progression go?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So basically I went to this place called Greenville, South Carolina, and I was the only rep there.
Speaker: And they're like, hey, if you grow it, you can have it.
Speaker: And we ended up growing that thing in two years, two, two and a half years, to installing 150 to 200 deals a month.
Speaker: So yeah, we're pumping out about 1500 kilowatts a month in installs in this little town.
Speaker: And unfortunately, utilities, we met the net metering cap and they had some discussions.
Speaker: So that's when Legacy wasn't doing really well in Florida.
Speaker: And so they basically asked where I wanted to go next, why would they figure out utilities?
Speaker: And the good part is there was a regional already placed in South Carolina that came from one of my teams.
Speaker: And so, you know, we next up, right, this is you.
Speaker: You finish out South Carolina and I'll go to Florida and I'll go help rebuild legacy in Florida.
Speaker: There was a time legacy was not very good in Florida.
Speaker: But now it's, you know, I'm biased, but I'd say we're pretty good now.
Speaker: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker: You said you guys are in track to do what?
Speaker: 500 this?
Speaker: Yeah, between Florida and North Carolina, 500 sales this month.
Speaker: Obviously, there's going to be a lag, right?
Speaker: But it takes a village, you know, and I came down here to Florida.
Speaker: It wasn't pretty.
Speaker: Sunrun, you know, we were a Sunrun certified partner at that time, so we only saw Sunrun.
Speaker: They weren't amazing.
Speaker: They're getting operations.
Speaker: And I met this guy named Peter Winston.
Speaker: And Pete literally helped.
Speaker: It was a yin and yang mentality.
Speaker: And he helped row this Florida into the absolute monster where we're at today.
Speaker: So big shout out to Pete because I was struggling.
Speaker: And I'll be okay with saying that.
Speaker: And I think one of the biggest things about me is that I'm okay with my faults in getting better.
Speaker: I'm also one thing I'm really good at is working with people I believe are better than me or we elevate each other to get to that next level to be able to grow together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love hearing, um, just the focus on the strengths.
Speaker: Cause like you were saying before, so many people are just focused on, Oh, what's my best red line.
Speaker: What's like the most I can get paid.
Speaker: What's this, this, this.
Speaker: And even just recently in my office, we've had reps just like quick go chase better red lines and everything.
Speaker: And it's like, dude, you can get that, but, um, you've had like three installs.
Speaker: Don't even know what you're doing yet.
Speaker: So don't you think it'd be better to have the support and like grow with the team?
Speaker: I think especially in solar, so many people make that mistake.
Speaker: Would you agree?
Speaker: If we, if we race to the bottom, it's not going to do any, it's not going to do anything for the rep, their family, their family's family, everything that's going to be, um, depend on them because if that level of service is not there, um, it doesn't matter how many you sell, if you can't get it to install, um,
Speaker: if you don't have the back office, if you don't have the culture, if you don't have the systems in place, if you don't have videos, if you don't have a way to onboard people, it's not going to work.
Speaker: And I've seen, I've probably seen about 30 to 40 solar companies come and go almost last year and a half since COVID.
Speaker: And so it just, it just, in Florida alone that I know of.
Speaker: And so it's not, it's not a, we can't race the bottom.
Speaker: We have to race the quality.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: And so for all those listening, consider that if you guys are considering switching your whatever situation you're in, just look at the value.
Speaker: How much value are you getting from your company?
Speaker: Are you getting back in support?
Speaker: Are you getting training?
Speaker: And those are things that should be heavily considered along with how much you're getting paid and red lines, things like that.
Speaker: So I learned my lesson in alarms.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Trying to taste those multiples.
Speaker: So I won't do it again.
Speaker: I enjoy being able to make,
Speaker: make time for my family.
Speaker: Now, I don't want to say there's a work-life balance.
Speaker: A lot of us don't believe in that.
Speaker: I believe you have to make time for a work-life balance, but I'm able to do that now more because of the systems that I'm in.
Speaker: Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Just because I have a nice title next to my name doesn't mean I don't get out and get after it like anyone else.
Speaker: I think that's one thing that will separate Legacy from a lot of different companies is our VPs still go out and create.
Speaker: I've never hit Golden Door.
Speaker: I've never hit it.
Speaker: There was a time our backlog, I had 96 one year, and I almost hit it, but we were averaging like three and a half to four month installs in South Carolina.
Speaker: It did not line up in December.
Speaker: The good news is I was able to install megawatts and megawatts and megawatts.
Speaker: And I think now we're closer to 60, 65 plus megawatts between, you know, me and everyone that I've brought into the legacy family or it's part of it that I get the opportunity to work with.
Speaker: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker: And so, yeah, just kind of transitioning to something that I respect a ton about Legacy is just, like, the culture you guys have.
Speaker: Seems like everyone's bought in really well there.
Speaker: And I know that's one of your big strengths, Jory.
Speaker: So how do you get people to, like, buy in so much on this culture and, like, vision that Legacy's trying to chase after on your teams?
Speaker: All right, you're going to laugh.
Speaker: But Tony Robbins.
Speaker: So –
Speaker: So I was pretty much, I think I was more of a militant leader in the start.
Speaker: I was like, hey, why aren't we doing this?
Speaker: Why aren't we doing this?
Speaker: And it wasn't effective.
Speaker: Like, why are we not selling?
Speaker: Because I had a shift that everyone did not think like me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We just go out and get it done.
Speaker: And so I went to Tony Robbins event and then I came back from the event.
Speaker: I felt like a big weight slips off my shoulder and I'm like, no, my shoulders.
Speaker: I'm like, no more am I going to be a militant leader.
Speaker: There'll be times where I can be militant with other leaders, but can't be militant with the normal rep because it just, sometimes it does not flow.
Speaker: And so what I decided to do was create culture through fun, excitement, motivation,
Speaker: like getting people to bump their chest, stick their chest out, make their move, right?
Speaker: Tell them, say, I'm the best, I'm the greatest.
Speaker: And it sounds so cheesy, but they're smiling ear to ear.
Speaker: And through that, what I noticed is it was allowing me to get instant motivation, get instant results.
Speaker: But then I can work on it to be able to create, go from motivation to discipline.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: And it's fun and exciting.
Speaker: There's nothing that gets me more.
Speaker: When I go travel around the country or I see other people's meetings, if you're not pumped up and excited, and I'm not saying go chug like bangs, right?
Speaker: What I'm saying is if you're not pumped up and excited, if you don't have a little five foot girl that's really never done before,
Speaker: like pumping their chest and saying, I'm the greatest.
Speaker: Like that's what these moments are for because what it's doing is getting people to see the end result, right?
Speaker: The confidence before it actually happens.
Speaker: And I love it.
Speaker: There's nothing more that I love.
Speaker: And somebody making a mental shift, be like, you know what?
Speaker: That crazy dude that keeps telling me that I'm the greatest and it keeps making me say it out loud.
Speaker: Maybe I am.
Speaker: Maybe there's something more.
Speaker: I can dig a little deeper.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, speaking of Tony Robbins, that's basically his entire event is like jumping up and down, screaming and, you know, every couple minutes you got to do some type of chant type thing.
Speaker: Well, I mean, especially in solar, there's so much moving parts and there's so much like, uh, uh, not in this, like, like things you have to do.
Speaker: It's not always pretty or sexy and solar.
Speaker: like pushing through accounts and things like that.
Speaker: So if we can switch it up and we can operate from a peak state, like, man, you're going to win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Love that.
Speaker: So do you have any like specific things you guys do in your meetings to get people in that peak state is like, you know, screaming as you're shouting your goals or anything like specific you guys do?
Speaker: So I would probably say the number one thing that we do is we do, anybody's been at Tony Robbins event, we actually make our move.
Speaker: And I don't know if anybody knows what that is, but I'll kind of explain it.
Speaker: So basically we stand up and we operate from a position of power.
Speaker: That means your feet are about just shoulders width apart, your chest is sticking out and you're standing direct.
Speaker: And then when I want to say, I'm going to say, let's go, let's go.
Speaker: We're going to clap.
Speaker: We're going to clap.
Speaker: We're going to play some music.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I'm going to say, make your move.
Speaker: And everyone's going to do some kind of power move.
Speaker: Like they're powerful Batman Superman move.
Speaker: And they're like, ah,
Speaker: right and we're at that point we're sending right to the doors i want them heading toward to the area pumped up listen to music ready to open that first car door and then start moving from there nice that's awesome it's not for everybody right but i find that those that don't like it will eventually like like okay fine and then then like all right and everyone's smiling and having a good time i need them to leave the meetings on a high and smiling
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Getting me pumped right now.
Speaker: I want to do one right now.
Speaker: But it's super powerful.
Speaker: And some guys bash on it.
Speaker: But I mean, it changes the states like Tony Robbins says, you got to change your state.
Speaker: And I think that's huge for developing confidence, things like that, too.
Speaker: For the ones that bash on it, listen, I get it.
Speaker: You don't operate like that.
Speaker: but it's not for you.
Speaker: It's if you're a top producer or you're trying to be a top producer, it's for the people that, that, that you lead.
Speaker: It's for the people that trust you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And what about like reps that are struggling?
Speaker: I mean, something that you've seen in solar, they're always the reps that just, you know, want to go work like two, three hours, get a deal here and there.
Speaker: And they're fine with that.
Speaker: How do you get people to like, just want more and set higher goals from themselves and I don't know, push themselves more.
Speaker: What have you seen that works?
Speaker: So I, you know, I was actually on a recruiting call today.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And, and the guy was like, Hey, there's 20 people in my company.
Speaker: I'm number one.
Speaker: And I'm like, dude, that's phenomenal.
Speaker: So you're a big fish in a small pond.
Speaker: So why don't we utilize that same mentality, that same confidence, and have you be a big fish in a bigger pond?
Speaker: And what's going to happen is you're going to see yourself rise to the level that you need to go to.
Speaker: When you have other people doing outstanding numbers around you, you're going to look at the CRM and be like, I can do more.
Speaker: I can do more.
Speaker: And, um, and at the end of the conversation, he's like, Whoa, I never really thought about if I like, some people don't think about it.
Speaker: If I, if I'm not the best, there's, I can strive to be the best.
Speaker: It's going to push me to do more because that mentality that you just talked about.
Speaker: So if you're working two hours a day and everyone's praising you for that, you need to leave your company because they're not, they're not doing the best service for you or your family.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You have to stay relevant.
Speaker: And it's, it's been hard for me to stay relevant over the last six years and solar.
Speaker: And I still question my relevancy a lot of times, but then I remember these moments, these cookie jar moments.
Speaker: And then I'm like more, I can do more.
Speaker: I can impact more people.
Speaker: I can sell more.
Speaker: I can recruit more.
Speaker: I can give more.
Speaker: I can give more love more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And I would say for guys that are maybe at smaller companies, or if you are the top guy, go get in like some type of mastermind group or get around people that are doing more.
Speaker: That's what I think it's so cool about what knocks these knockstar guys are doing and what we're trying to do here with the podcast is just connect with people that are at a much higher level.
Speaker: Cause the second you feel like you're at, you're the best in the room, like you're just saying a minute ago, um, I think you stopped growing.
Speaker: It's happened to me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're the best in your room and if you're a 20-man company, I'm not saying there's anything against it, but go get your nuggets and show somebody how to go compete and go recruit higher-level people to bring that company up.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So yeah, for our solopreneurs, make sure you take a good look at that.
Speaker: Don't be the best one in the room.
Speaker: Go join some mastermind groups, get around people that are achieving a high level.
Speaker: And so Jory, I love hearing what you guys are doing to build culture.
Speaker: And yeah, for guys that like, I don't know if you have someone on the team that just isn't producing week after week, do you guys just let them go or what does it look like?
Speaker: No, like we've,
Speaker: We never want to let anybody go, right?
Speaker: We believe our culture is all-inclusive.
Speaker: But what we would do is we would have just a conversation like, listen, maybe there's something wrong with your closing.
Speaker: So let's go back to setting and help you close in order to be able to kind of re-energize and get that confidence back.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you guys start all new reps off just setting the deals and then is there a point where they transition to closing?
Speaker: Yeah, unless they have experience from other companies.
Speaker: But there's a lot in solar, right?
Speaker: There's a lot of moving parts when you start dealing with loans and ID approvals and everything else.
Speaker: And so I've seen so many reps come in, not have that setting.
Speaker: So it's not just setting.
Speaker: here's the difference I love about what we do here, at least in the Southeast for legacy.
Speaker: We bring on setters, but they're really mentees.
Speaker: We, our job is to pair them with somebody that's going to mentor them, coach them along the ways.
Speaker: And so, and they're going to be part of every single close.
Speaker: And I hope everyone's doing this in the industry.
Speaker: They're a part of every single close and we want to train them.
Speaker: We want to coach them to be able to close their own deals.
Speaker: I think,
Speaker: I'm probably going to be like ostracized for this, but I think one of the black balls in the industry is our black eyes in industry is people just having setters and never giving them an opportunity to be more.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so unless, unless they want to do that, then great, but we should never, ever keep someone as a setter and never give them the value and the love that I think every person coming in the space deserves initially.
Speaker: And then you can make that adjustment from there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, that's a huge wall I see for companies.
Speaker: Matter of fact, one of the first companies I was with, that was the whole plan.
Speaker: It was just like bring people on as setters and try to keep them there permanently.
Speaker: Have no like vision for them.
Speaker: I mean, we recruited a lot of setters, but then once they saw that they couldn't grow past a certain point, couldn't start closing, like I'm out of here.
Speaker: So actually a ton of them went to legacy.
Speaker: So with no vision, people will perish.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: for sure and yeah and i think that's a huge key to recruiting is you're not just saying hey come join our company i'm sure you guys are doing it too it's more like hey we were looking for people that can lead teams we want to open up this office yeah we want people they can do this this and transition into you know growing this area managing this team and yeah i found that that worked way more effective than just saying hey we're hiring for solar but it's like no we want leaders that can help
Speaker: open up you know our north office our south office grow into this role and then people get a way better vision yep so um yes super powerful stuff jory um i know we got to wrap up kind of quick here but any any uh i guess final words of wisdom final things you would say that's helped with your culture recruiting or anything else you guys are doing
Speaker: Yeah, so I'd probably say this.
Speaker: You don't have to have a story like mine.
Speaker: My story is not, I don't say definitely not normal, but my story is different.
Speaker: It's a very raw and real and hard story.
Speaker: but your story, you have a story and you have to be good at telling your story.
Speaker: Cause I did not want to tell myself.
Speaker: I was embarrassed that I was homeless and I had 20 bucks and two trash bags.
Speaker: I was embarrassed that I had literally no food in the refrigerator.
Speaker: And, and I had, I only had like a couple of pairs of jeans.
Speaker: I was embarrassed.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And, but eventually people like, you need to start sharing that story.
Speaker: It's very motivational.
Speaker: I read it in a book.
Speaker: And so here's my advice to go create award-winning culture.
Speaker: You need to go create a story and be able to tell your story to inspire others.
Speaker: Matter of fact, if you were to create an autobiography right now and you were to give it to a random stranger on the train and they didn't read that and get inspired, then you got work to do.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You got a lot of work to do.
Speaker: And I don't care where you come from.
Speaker: Everybody has a story.
Speaker: Everybody has value.
Speaker: And you have to go find your story, your value, and you have to go share a vision with people around you.
Speaker: And more importantly, if you want to create a massive winning culture, if you feel somebody that has, when you talk about a leader, a lot of people want leaders, but they don't want them to be like at the same level, the same title, they want to be, you know, beneath them.
Speaker: If you find somebody of that caliber, never, never be scared to share, right?
Speaker: Never be scared to share because once you go through that wall and you're like, we're here, we're sharing, that's when it starts getting really, really good.
Speaker: And that's when limits start being broken and lids start being removed and everybody starts winning.
Speaker: Yeah, so powerful.
Speaker: And yeah, just goes to anyone that shares a story like this.
Speaker: Like, just for an example, I've had people on the show or, you know, seeing people social media and all that where it's all about posting the next picture with the Lamborghini.
Speaker: Next cars are driving just all the money they're making showing the big checks, but they never shared any like story or anything.
Speaker: people that are sharing like the raw truth stories like this i mean they're the ones getting the attention too so people that do have those shares it gets the attention and that's what people are going to be attracted to is when you're raw when you're real when you get vulnerable with people um i can attest to that because i've seen it over and over just in the podcasts all our episodes that always get the most listens are where people are like raw and real like this so
Speaker: I don't want to take you over, but I want to say this.
Speaker: There was a moment where I was like, dude, my fridge is full.
Speaker: I have no struggles, right?
Speaker: Like what are my struggles?
Speaker: Somebody cancels, right?
Speaker: So what happened was this guy named David Goggins first came to the scene.
Speaker: He's on Tim Blue or whoever's YouTube.
Speaker: And I'm like, this guy ran a hundred miles in 24 hours.
Speaker: I'm like, I didn't train for them.
Speaker: Like, let me see what I can do.
Speaker: And I went to a 24 hour event and I,
Speaker: I literally ran a one mile lap for, I ran a one mile lap and I ended up getting 52 miles in that lap and I didn't train.
Speaker: I was dead.
Speaker: I was hurt.
Speaker: My knee was broken.
Speaker: It was actually at the whitewater center that I was running over and over and over and over.
Speaker: And I felt I had to redefine who I was.
Speaker: like the rawness, the realness, somebody came from the comeback kid, right?
Speaker: I lived in that mode.
Speaker: And so I remember laying down at 42 miles and then getting back up, hobbling 10 more miles before the end of it.
Speaker: I didn't run as much as I wanted.
Speaker: I didn't know what entailed, but I needed to find my pain, my tolerance level.
Speaker: And there was something beautiful in the struggle.
Speaker: And so now I have that cookie jar moment that I can overcome and do anything.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's incredible.
Speaker: I didn't know that.
Speaker: How, when did you do that?
Speaker: Is that reasonable?
Speaker: No, 2017, it was, it was terrible.
Speaker: It was not great because everyone was there doing it, but they're running in teams of six.
Speaker: And there's a few of us just running.
Speaker: I got second place that in that event, but we're just running like just over and over and over and over again.
Speaker: And it was brutal, but I need to figure out who I was.
Speaker: I need to step out of my shell and go to my new show.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: No, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think we all need to do stuff like that.
Speaker: So go run 50 miles in 24 hours, run two marathons a day.
Speaker: That will help create culture.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Dang.
Speaker: I need to do something like that.
Speaker: I'm feeling like a whistle here, but that's awesome.
Speaker: My cold showers are feeling like nothing compared to that.
Speaker: Like, I'm just going to do a cold shower.
Speaker: That's pushing it for me.
Speaker: Dude, this life is too short not to go do something crazy, right?
Speaker: And people around you will often respect it, whether you hit your goal or not.
Speaker: It's the attempt.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Well, Joy, we appreciate you sharing the story.
Speaker: I definitely resonated with that.
Speaker: I know our listeners are going to love it too.
Speaker: So where can people reach out to you on social media and all that and connect with you?
Speaker: Want to share your social media contact?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you want to...
Speaker: Yeah, if you want to like see my culture and who I am live, check out my Instagram handle.
Speaker: It's at Jory won't lose.
Speaker: I'm actually trying to gain more followers.
Speaker: I feel like I don't have enough compared to what everyone's doing now or a Facebook at Jory Sullivan.
Speaker: And I don't hide the culture.
Speaker: I don't hide what we're doing.
Speaker: So if you want sneak peeks into legacy and what we're creating, so you can either recreate that in your own companies or reach out to me, go to Jory Sullivan.
Speaker: It's a lot easier to send me a DM there and I'll be more than happy to respond to you.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, Jory, thanks again for coming on the show.
Speaker: Remember, for our solopreneurs, just be real in everything you do.
Speaker: Get vulnerable with people.
Speaker: And then that's going to help in your recruiting.
Speaker: That's going to help you in your culture and get people fired up to go out and work and help your teams out.
Speaker: So thanks again, Jory.
Speaker: I'm sure we'll get you hopefully a few new followers on Instagram there.
Speaker: And we'll look forward to connecting with you more and more.
Speaker: Appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker: All right, let's grow, baby.
Speaker: Let's grow.
Speaker: Let's grow.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
Speaker: What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals.
Speaker: and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
Speaker: and it's called Sol Society.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
Speaker: Currently Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only.
Speaker: But solopreneurs can go to soulciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
Speaker: Again, this is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker: We'll catch you again in the next episode.
