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00:00:01
From Homeless to VP of Sales - Jory Sullivan
48 Plays4 years ago
Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yo, what's going on. Solarpreneurs. 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. We've got a Jory Sullivan in the house. Jory, Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey man. I appreciate it. Thanks Taylor, for having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, it's my pleasure. And we're excited to have Jory on, he is the VP of sales for at legacy. One of the VP of sales for legacy he's growing his teams like crazy. They're pushing tons of accounts and just doing some incredible things. Uh, met Jory actually at, uh, the last Knockstar events were hanging out there. Did you come to that? Uh, that, that sauna place, Jory? I can't remember.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, we did. We connected in the sauna,
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So we were probably sitting naked together in a sauna, maybe. So God, I don't know if I talked to you in there, but got to know some guys on a personal level at that event at the end. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (01:39):
That was wild. Shout out to Danny Pessy for calling that one out. Yeah. Korean
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Bath house. You guys haven't been there. It's a good place to get to know people
Speaker 3 (01:48):
If you're ever in Dallas, Texas go to a King Spa. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah. You will not be disappointed. It was amazing experience. So yeah, it was fun hanging out with the jury there. And then also we realized after the fact that we're actually in North Carolina at the same, same place, same time, but unfortunately we couldn't connect there, but I made the realization later. Um, but yeah, so Jory, I'm excited to have you on here, your story. I know you're growing your teams at time. So first you want to kind of get into how you got into soar and just your background and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, it probably goes even deeper than that. Um, and to, and the door to door sales, right. Uh, um, cause it all led to this like the, where we're at now and it's like, it's like the story, I don't believe in like omens, but like it all just happened, um, for a reason. So basically, um, I, I remember like I was washing dishes the summer before I'd ride my bike at 5:00 AM, three miles to go wash dishes to be treated like crap. And I was the worst employee ever. And so they told me I couldn't, I wasn't good enough to busboy. That's how bad I was. And I remember I worked my guts out some summer for, um, on my, um, in my 16th, uh, summer birthday. And I made like $2,000 and um, I got a small scholarship to go run track, um, many pounds ago and, uh, it's to Iowa.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Right. And, uh, I couldn't afford a, a bus or plane tickets couldn't afford a bus ticket, but I could afford an Amtrak ticket. And I was 20 minutes late to the Amtrak. And then, gosh, track. Apple's about 30 minutes late because thr
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Transcript
Introduction to Success Stories in Solar Sales
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
Introducing Jory Sullivan and His Sales Journey
00:00:42
Speaker
Yo, yo, what's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:44
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.
00:00:51
Speaker
We've got Jory Sullivan in the house.
00:00:54
Speaker
Jory, thanks for joining us today.
00:00:55
Speaker
Hey, man.
00:00:57
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:00:58
Speaker
Thanks, Taylor, for having me on.
00:01:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's my pleasure, and we're excited to have Jory on.
00:01:04
Speaker
He is the VP of sales for Legacy, one of the VP of sales for Legacy.
00:01:09
Speaker
He's growing his teams like crazy.
00:01:12
Speaker
They're pushing tons of accounts and just doing some incredible things.
00:01:17
Speaker
I met Jory actually at the last Noxstar event.
00:01:20
Speaker
We're hanging out there.
00:01:21
Speaker
Did you come to that sauna place, Jory?
00:01:24
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, we did.
00:01:26
Speaker
We connected in the sauna.
00:01:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yep.
00:01:29
Speaker
So we were probably sitting naked together in a sauna maybe.
00:01:31
Speaker
So I don't know if I talked in there, but got to know some guys on a personal level at that event.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was wild.
00:01:40
Speaker
Shout out to Danny Pesci for calling that one out.
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:43
Speaker
Korean bathhouse.
00:01:44
Speaker
If you guys haven't been there, it's a good place to get to know people.
00:01:48
Speaker
If you're ever in Dallas, Texas, go to King Spa.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, you will not be disappointed.
00:01:56
Speaker
It's an amazing experience.
00:01:58
Speaker
So yeah, it's fun hanging out with Jory there.
00:02:01
Speaker
And then also we realized after the fact that we're actually in North Carolina at the same place, same time.
00:02:06
Speaker
But unfortunately, we couldn't connect there.
00:02:08
Speaker
But I made the realization later.
Jory's Background and Entry into Sales
00:02:12
Speaker
But yeah, so Jory, I'm excited to have you on, hear your story.
00:02:15
Speaker
I know you're growing your teams a ton.
00:02:17
Speaker
So first, you want to kind of get into how you got into solar and your background and all that stuff.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:02:24
Speaker
I mean, it probably goes even deeper than that into door-to-door sales.
00:02:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:30
Speaker
Right?
00:02:31
Speaker
Because it all led to this, like, where we're at now.
00:02:36
Speaker
And it's like the story.
00:02:37
Speaker
I don't believe in, like, omens, but, like, it all just happened for a reason.
00:02:42
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.
00:02:53
Speaker
And I was the worst employee ever.
00:02:56
Speaker
And so they told me I couldn't, I wasn't good enough to busboy.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's how bad I was.
00:03:00
Speaker
And I remember I worked my guts out the summer before, um, on my, um, in my 16th, uh, summer birthday.
00:03:08
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.
00:03:18
Speaker
Right.
00:03:19
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.
00:03:27
Speaker
And I was 20 minutes late to the Amtrak.
00:03:32
Speaker
And thank gosh, Amtrak was about 30 minutes late.
00:03:36
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.
00:03:46
Speaker
I stopped in the city called Salt Lake City, Utah.
00:03:49
Speaker
Didn't know much about it.
00:03:50
Speaker
Heard about it in my history books.
00:03:53
Speaker
And some guy sat down next to me.
00:03:54
Speaker
And he's like, hey, in the middle of the night, I was sleeping like 1 a.m.
00:03:59
Speaker
And he's like, hey, yeah, I sat down next to you because you look inviting.
00:04:03
Speaker
And I'm like, okay.
00:04:04
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.
00:04:10
Speaker
That was 2007.
00:04:12
Speaker
So this next year, 2008.
00:04:13
Speaker
So our 2007 is when I met him.
00:04:16
Speaker
And I went out in 2008.
00:04:17
Speaker
But he's like, you know, I made $10,000 selling alarm systems.
00:04:20
Speaker
You can probably make 12 to 13.
00:04:24
Speaker
And I was next to him for like a whole day just like in and out trying to like figure out like,
00:04:31
Speaker
what is he talking about?
Overcoming Personal Challenges and Finding Motivation
00:04:33
Speaker
I, I worked like crazy to make $2,000 the summer before I got treated like crap.
00:04:39
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.
00:04:53
Speaker
And I was, I was barely, I was 17 years old.
00:04:56
Speaker
I was still, I was almost 18 at the time.
00:04:59
Speaker
And, uh,
00:05:00
Speaker
And that's kind of how I got into the industry.
00:05:02
Speaker
I said, as long as I don't have to kill anybody, like I'm in.
00:05:05
Speaker
Right.
00:05:06
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.
00:05:12
Speaker
Um, so I want to like preference the story because people always ask my story.
00:05:16
Speaker
Right.
00:05:17
Speaker
And so I want to preference a story.
00:05:20
Speaker
Do not take pity on me.
00:05:22
Speaker
This is, uh, this is something that has made me who I am and it's not actually a setback.
00:05:29
Speaker
It's, it's, uh, I call it living in comeback like mode.
00:05:33
Speaker
And I think it's a step up in society.
00:05:36
Speaker
Um, so I guess it all comes like, we're going to talk about it.
00:05:42
Speaker
We're going to go deep.
00:05:43
Speaker
I don't really share this too much.
00:05:44
Speaker
A lot of people will go deep.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, no.
00:05:46
Speaker
So, um, yeah,
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:48
Speaker
So I guess we're going to, we're going to do it.
00:05:50
Speaker
We're going to do it.
00:05:50
Speaker
You guys are going to know me a lot better.
00:05:53
Speaker
So, man, it's full circles when we talk about this, but I never met my dad.
00:06:01
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.
00:06:13
Speaker
She never came back and, uh, you know, my brother, my sisters, we all had to go live with my grandma.
00:06:18
Speaker
They got off my grandma.
00:06:20
Speaker
And, uh, and we moved from, uh,
00:06:24
Speaker
Springfield, Oregon, down to Coos Bay, North Bend, Oregon.
00:06:27
Speaker
And that's where I was.
00:06:29
Speaker
I was at six years old.
00:06:31
Speaker
And then a lot of verbal, physical abuse.
00:06:36
Speaker
And then I saved that money.
00:06:40
Speaker
I was washing dishes.
00:06:42
Speaker
It's like two summers before I was 15 years old.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I saved up $800 to go to Nike running camp.
00:06:49
Speaker
And when I was 15, going to 16, and my grandma's like, hey, I need that money for rent.
00:06:54
Speaker
And I'm like, you know, I'm almost 16 years old.
00:06:56
Speaker
Like, I want to go play sports.
00:06:58
Speaker
And she's like, that's fine.
00:06:59
Speaker
You can go.
00:07:01
Speaker
But if you come back, like you don't have a place here anymore.
00:07:03
Speaker
We can't afford you.
00:07:06
Speaker
And it was, it was rough.
00:07:07
Speaker
Like I remember I got caught stealing one time.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I got caught.
00:07:13
Speaker
I was at like an at-risk teens thing.
00:07:16
Speaker
And they asked me why I was stealing.
00:07:19
Speaker
And I just broke down.
00:07:20
Speaker
I don't cry very often.
00:07:22
Speaker
But I broke down and cried and said, all we have is a block of cheese in the refrigerator.
00:07:29
Speaker
And I got no money, you know.
00:07:30
Speaker
And so.
00:07:31
Speaker
It's crazy.
00:07:33
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker
So it.
00:07:35
Speaker
So I she kept to her word.
00:07:37
Speaker
And when I was 16 years old, I had to go file to be a.
00:07:43
Speaker
awarded the state.
00:07:44
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.
00:07:58
Speaker
We had all these strangers from different parts of the world.
00:08:01
Speaker
We're really probably the United States come in and we weren't a team or anything.
00:08:05
Speaker
We're just a bunch of runners and we got a massive culture and we ended up winning the whole entire competition.
00:08:10
Speaker
We're champions.
00:08:12
Speaker
And I,
00:08:13
Speaker
He said, hey, if you ever need anything, give me a call.
00:08:17
Speaker
Well, I did.
00:08:19
Speaker
I need the place to live so I can finish high school.
00:08:24
Speaker
And it just so happened that his family was not taking in a foreign exchange student that year.
00:08:30
Speaker
And so I was able to move over with him and finish high school.
00:08:39
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:40
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:08:41
Speaker
So what happened to your, I guess, as you're telling this, so your mom, what did she just like never show up?
00:08:51
Speaker
Drugs, drugs are powerful.
00:08:53
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.
00:09:02
Speaker
She finally got us back.
00:09:04
Speaker
And when she got us back, you know, it took her life again.
00:09:08
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
And so, um, but she did reach out when I was 19, uh, 19 years old.
00:09:16
Speaker
Um, but, um, but yeah, I, uh, it, let's say this man, like six to 19 is a big gap.
00:09:24
Speaker
Um, thank you for birthing me, but you're not my mom or my mother at that point.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:30
Speaker
So that's wild.
00:09:31
Speaker
What about your dad?
00:09:32
Speaker
Is he never met him?
00:09:34
Speaker
Never met him.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, never met him.
00:09:37
Speaker
So there was, I think there was a defining moment.
00:09:39
Speaker
I don't love to talk about money.
00:09:40
Speaker
I love talking about impact.
00:09:42
Speaker
And the more people you impact, you're going to acquire the capital from that human capital is what we call it.
00:09:51
Speaker
But I remember there's a defining moment when I was 16 years old, sitting on Nelson's analytics roof.
00:09:57
Speaker
Nelson, if you're listening to this, thank you.
00:09:59
Speaker
You literally saved my life.
00:10:01
Speaker
But I remember saying, I remember thinking two thoughts.
00:10:05
Speaker
why didn't my mom want me and two
00:10:08
Speaker
I'm going to do whatever it takes to be a millionaire.
Early Career Goals and Building Confidence
00:10:12
Speaker
Cause I hated the way this felt this moment felt, I hated the pain, not having enough and asking people for help.
00:10:19
Speaker
And I absolutely hated it.
00:10:21
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.
00:10:32
Speaker
And that was my defining moment as I look back, um, on, on my journey.
00:10:37
Speaker
And so they're a big sports family and all their kids got D1 scholarships.
00:10:47
Speaker
I wasn't very good.
00:10:48
Speaker
I got an NAIA scholarship and that's when I got on that train to Iowa.
00:10:55
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.
00:11:05
Speaker
It all comes down to, like, it happened for a reason.
00:11:09
Speaker
It made me who I am.
00:11:10
Speaker
And so I've already been at the bottom.
00:11:13
Speaker
So I'm not afraid to go there again.
00:11:17
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
00:11:41
Speaker
They're like one of the richer people in the town, 3,000 people.
00:11:46
Speaker
But even me growing up that way had money.
00:11:50
Speaker
Um, not like super rich, but in my town where most people were kind of poor, definitely better off.
00:11:56
Speaker
Um, but even I struggle with like quite a bit of self-doubt.
00:12:00
Speaker
Um, was told I was like too shy.
00:12:02
Speaker
I was twice too chubby stuff like that.
00:12:04
Speaker
Always growing up.
00:12:06
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?
00:12:14
Speaker
Do you have to do therapy or like, what did that look like?
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:17
Speaker
So door knocking was my actual therapy.
00:12:21
Speaker
And I don't care if you came from the wealthiest family or the poorest family.
00:12:26
Speaker
You have a story of overcoming.
00:12:29
Speaker
You just have to learn how to tell that story.
00:12:32
Speaker
And what happens is, if anybody that follows David Goggins, he calls it a cookie jar.
00:12:39
Speaker
And that's exactly what it is.
00:12:41
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.
00:12:48
Speaker
right?
00:12:49
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.
00:12:57
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.
00:13:02
Speaker
But take like, just with all due respect, you have a story,
00:13:06
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.
00:13:15
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.
00:13:24
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's super powerful.
00:13:26
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.
00:13:33
Speaker
Because I forget all the time.
00:13:35
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.
00:13:42
Speaker
I'm not qualified to like share advice about solar.
00:13:45
Speaker
And I mean, I know I'm not the greatest, but got my Golden Door Award, closed lots of deals.
00:13:51
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.
00:13:56
Speaker
And that's, yeah, that is something super powerful to do.
00:14:00
Speaker
It sounds like it's been a big thing for you.
00:14:01
Speaker
So how do you coach like reps that are struggling?
00:14:06
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.
00:14:14
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?
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:24
Speaker
That's a good, like, that's a phenomenal question.
00:14:27
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.
00:14:44
Speaker
like they're battle buddies.
00:14:45
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.
00:14:54
Speaker
Because, you know, one of the laws of leadership by John Maxwell is when you touch their heart, you can touch their hand.
00:15:01
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.
00:15:09
Speaker
It's felt with love.
00:15:11
Speaker
They're going to be able to go that next level.
00:15:14
Speaker
And sometimes you have to like, you have to like physically implant motivation inside them and, and like awesomeness that they've done.
00:15:23
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.
00:15:32
Speaker
I'm like, hey, remember that week you sold four?
00:15:34
Speaker
How did that feel?
00:15:36
Speaker
Does it feel like you feel right now?
00:15:38
Speaker
If the answer is no, then we've got a lot of work to do.
00:15:40
Speaker
But the good news is you can acknowledge it.
00:15:42
Speaker
And so now we can actually move forward.
00:15:45
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, it reminds me of, I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but are you a basketball fan?
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:54
Speaker
Doc Rivers, yeah, the coach.
00:15:58
Speaker
I know that's one of the big things he does with his players.
00:16:01
Speaker
In fact, this season I was listening to an interview, and Joel Embiid had one of his best seasons, MVP caliber.
00:16:09
Speaker
And everyone's like, how does Doc Rivers get these players to perform so much better?
00:16:14
Speaker
And it's because he like talks them up so much.
00:16:16
Speaker
He'll tell the media, like he has the best players.
00:16:18
Speaker
They're the best at doing this.
00:16:19
Speaker
Like it gets them to have this deep belief in themselves.
00:16:23
Speaker
So it's like so similar in any industry, anything.
00:16:27
Speaker
I think that's what powerful coaches do, powerful leaders.
00:16:30
Speaker
So I love hearing that.
00:16:32
Speaker
So for you, Jory, do you have like,
00:16:35
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?
00:16:41
Speaker
Was it like all sunshine and rainbows?
00:16:44
Speaker
Did you struggle starting out door to door sales?
00:16:46
Speaker
Terrible.
00:16:47
Speaker
Terrible.
00:16:47
Speaker
So listen, if you're listening to this, you're not very good.
00:16:49
Speaker
There's still hope.
00:16:50
Speaker
I was terrible.
00:16:52
Speaker
I remember, I remember knocking on my first door and almost throwing up.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I remember the homeowner correcting my sales pitch.
00:17:02
Speaker
Wow.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't get much worse than that.
00:17:05
Speaker
But the good news is I, I literally storm was coming.
00:17:09
Speaker
I didn't care.
00:17:10
Speaker
I was out out there till nine o'clock at night.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I got my first sale.
00:17:15
Speaker
And if I retired cop, and he canceled.
00:17:19
Speaker
But yeah, but I and then I had I was I didn't I didn't know how to control my emotions.
00:17:26
Speaker
Right.
00:17:26
Speaker
I didn't know how I didn't know how to think at a high level.
00:17:30
Speaker
I didn't know that reading books were needed.
00:17:33
Speaker
Right.
00:17:34
Speaker
I didn't know that there's all the knowledge out there in the world.
00:17:38
Speaker
And just because your sales manager is not giving it to you that you can't go out and get yourself.
00:17:43
Speaker
I didn't know the undying confidence.
00:17:45
Speaker
This person I see in front of you listening to was built.
00:17:49
Speaker
Right.
00:17:50
Speaker
I was terrible.
00:17:51
Speaker
I think I funded like 35 alarm deals my first summer.
00:17:56
Speaker
And the next summer I funded like 45.
00:17:59
Speaker
I was absolutely terrible.
00:18:01
Speaker
But my third summer, you gotta remember, this is like, I didn't know, I wasn't going back.
00:18:07
Speaker
I wasn't going back to washing dishes.
00:18:08
Speaker
There was nothing left for me in that town.
Transitioning from Alarms to Solar Sales
00:18:11
Speaker
Right.
00:18:11
Speaker
And so the third year when I got really serious, I started to, I decided to get serious about the opportunity and
00:18:18
Speaker
I started investing in myself, my thoughts, my beliefs.
00:18:22
Speaker
And I started to be able to be the best and win as much as I possibly can.
00:18:28
Speaker
And then it just kept going from there.
00:18:30
Speaker
Awesome.
00:18:32
Speaker
What type of things did you invest in?
00:18:34
Speaker
What was it that made the difference in your third year, would you say?
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:37
Speaker
So first of all, it was my belief system.
00:18:40
Speaker
So everyone's going to think it's really stupid, but everyone's heard of the secret.
00:18:45
Speaker
I get it.
00:18:45
Speaker
Thoughts become things, but there needs to be action behind it.
00:18:49
Speaker
I understood that.
00:18:50
Speaker
And so I read this book called The Secret.
00:18:52
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
00:19:00
Speaker
I woke up and I remember writing $100,000 on my mirror.
00:19:04
Speaker
I was brushing my teeth and I remember like two a day, two a day, two a day in alarms.
00:19:09
Speaker
And that was my belief system.
00:19:11
Speaker
And at the end of that year, I ended up making like $99,400 and some odd dollars.
00:19:18
Speaker
And so I'm not saying that it didn't work or there's no validation behind the secret,
00:19:23
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.
00:19:28
Speaker
So it's the same thing you're talking about with the coach.
00:19:31
Speaker
Like I was believing it before it actually came true.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:19:36
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.
00:19:45
Speaker
They're instantly like good and instantly start slinging deals.
00:19:49
Speaker
But like for me, it was super rough.
00:19:51
Speaker
I started off in pest control and same thing.
00:19:54
Speaker
I did like, I did like 105, my first summer pest control, and then I had like 10 cancels.
00:20:00
Speaker
So I lost like my rent bonus, lost basically my whole back end.
00:20:04
Speaker
I'm like, freak, should I even keep doing this?
00:20:07
Speaker
So, I mean, I think it's super powerful hearing guys that did struggle and push through.
00:20:12
Speaker
So for you, what was it that like kept you going those first two summers?
00:20:15
Speaker
You said you struggled a ton.
00:20:17
Speaker
Was it just kind of not wanting to go back to that situation you were in or what kept you just like...
00:20:22
Speaker
pushing, even though you're struggling so much.
00:20:25
Speaker
You know, I said, I said, I said when I was 16 years old, I wanted to be a millionaire.
00:20:31
Speaker
And I believe that door to door was the fastest way to get there.
00:20:37
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.
00:20:45
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.
00:20:56
Speaker
I did not, I stopped thinking like they thought, and we didn't really get along.
00:21:01
Speaker
We didn't understand each other.
00:21:04
Speaker
And so I decided to be around people that wanted the same things as me, the culture aspect of it.
00:21:12
Speaker
And I was just committed to winning no matter what.
00:21:16
Speaker
I wanted to win my race.
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah, love that.
00:21:20
Speaker
That's another powerful point I think you make is getting around the right people.
00:21:25
Speaker
I've struggled with that too, having friends that are just, you know, working the nine to five, just doing their thing.
00:21:31
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.
00:21:42
Speaker
Because I mean, I think a lot of people for you're the average of the five people you hang out with.
00:21:47
Speaker
And for me, that even, I thought I was safe once I got into door-to-door.
00:21:51
Speaker
I thought I was going to be okay.
00:21:52
Speaker
I'm hanging out with good people now.
00:21:54
Speaker
But even starting out in door-to-door solar, I was still hanging out with people that guys drive out to an area.
00:22:00
Speaker
And it's like, oh, let's sit in our car for three hours, watch Game of Thrones and hang out.
00:22:06
Speaker
So that held me back for forever in door-to-door too.
00:22:10
Speaker
So that's...
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think a good point to make.
00:22:14
Speaker
So where does it go from there, Jory?
00:22:15
Speaker
How did you transition from alarms to solar?
00:22:19
Speaker
I guess anything else along the journey?
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, I was running my own dealer.
00:22:25
Speaker
It didn't work out well.
00:22:26
Speaker
It always seems like I realized that I'm not a number one.
00:22:31
Speaker
I'm not a CEO of a door-to-door company.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I'm okay with that.
00:22:36
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.
00:22:44
Speaker
I remember, you know, like, oh, you make more money, right?
00:22:47
Speaker
It's similar to you got the lowest red line, but there's no support, no nothing.
00:22:50
Speaker
You do everything and you're trying to, you're a swamp and next thing you know, you're in depth or eyeballs.
00:22:55
Speaker
And I was just so sick of it.
00:22:56
Speaker
I was sick of the alarm industry.
00:22:59
Speaker
I remember sitting on a door or on a curb in Georgia and,
00:23:06
Speaker
I was like sick to my stomach to knock another door for alarms.
00:23:11
Speaker
And I got a call.
00:23:13
Speaker
My body's like, hey, solar's happening.
00:23:15
Speaker
And I'm like, listen, I'll fly out and listen.
00:23:19
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.
00:23:29
Speaker
Like, like I've been told that I've lived in that, in that, that freight, like phase my whole life.
00:23:34
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.
00:23:39
Speaker
Doug Robinson, the CEO of legacy was like, Hey, Jory, like, dude, I love you.
00:23:44
Speaker
We're going to, we're going to grow this thing with or without you, but we'd rather be with you.
00:23:49
Speaker
And I was like, oh, man.
00:23:52
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:23:53
Speaker
And so, yeah.
00:23:55
Speaker
So I sold my home in Kansas City.
00:23:58
Speaker
I moved to South Carolina before the lease was there.
00:24:03
Speaker
And I was one of the actual original people in South Carolina.
00:24:06
Speaker
I sold my first lease deal in South Carolina, September.
00:24:11
Speaker
September 1st of 2015.
00:24:12
Speaker
So one of the original people, and actually the person you just had on the podcast, Tim McCarthy, I reached out to him.
00:24:20
Speaker
I know he switched to solar before I did.
00:24:23
Speaker
And he gave me some crucial advice.
00:24:24
Speaker
He probably doesn't remember it, but he said, Dory, if you work this like summertime alarms you around, you'll destroy it.
00:24:35
Speaker
And that's the only advice.
00:24:37
Speaker
I didn't know what a kilowatt was.
00:24:38
Speaker
I didn't know how solar relay worked.
00:24:42
Speaker
All I knew is I can sell alarms.
00:24:44
Speaker
I can knock and I can train people.
00:24:47
Speaker
And I worked like summer alarm grind and I put it towards solar.
00:24:52
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
It's funny.
00:24:55
Speaker
Every, almost every alarm guy, I think that's the biggest reason they're successful.
00:24:59
Speaker
Um, I'm out here working with Jason newbies, which you probably know him.
00:25:02
Speaker
He's top rabbit and everything.
00:25:05
Speaker
He's already grown his solar team in like less than six months.
00:25:10
Speaker
He had a guy do 19 deals last week.
00:25:12
Speaker
They're consistently getting like nine to 10 deals a day.
00:25:16
Speaker
And that's literally all he's doing.
00:25:17
Speaker
He's just having his solar team work alarm hours.
00:25:21
Speaker
and just drive out like their alarms and then close them like their alarms.
00:25:25
Speaker
Like none of this next day stuff.
00:25:27
Speaker
It's just all same day.
00:25:29
Speaker
Close them like an alarm.
00:25:31
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:33
Speaker
So it's pretty, pretty interesting.
00:25:36
Speaker
All the alarm guys think that way.
00:25:37
Speaker
And I think that's a huge reason for success.
00:25:40
Speaker
And so when, when was that the, was that 2017 you started in solar?
00:25:43
Speaker
No, 2015, September 1st, 2015.
00:25:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:49
Speaker
So yeah, you're an old dog.
00:25:50
Speaker
I was thinking I was one of the older ones.
00:25:52
Speaker
I started in 2016, so it got me beat.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm old, man.
00:25:56
Speaker
I'm the oldest 31-year-old you're ever going to know.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:26:00
Speaker
Been in this forever.
00:26:05
Speaker
And so 2015, and then did you start as just like a regular rep or how did your progression go?
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:13
Speaker
So basically I went to this place called Greenville, South Carolina, and I was the only rep there.
00:26:19
Speaker
And they're like, hey, if you grow it, you can have it.
00:26:21
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.
00:26:33
Speaker
So yeah, we're pumping out about 1500 kilowatts a month in installs in this little town.
00:26:39
Speaker
And unfortunately, utilities, we met the net metering cap and they had some discussions.
00:26:45
Speaker
So that's when Legacy wasn't doing really well in Florida.
00:26:48
Speaker
And so they basically asked where I wanted to go next, why would they figure out utilities?
00:26:53
Speaker
And the good part is there was a regional already placed in South Carolina that came from one of my teams.
00:27:00
Speaker
And so, you know, we next up, right, this is you.
00:27:04
Speaker
You finish out South Carolina and I'll go to Florida and I'll go help rebuild legacy in Florida.
00:27:12
Speaker
There was a time legacy was not very good in Florida.
00:27:15
Speaker
But now it's, you know, I'm biased, but I'd say we're pretty good now.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's amazing.
00:27:22
Speaker
You said you guys are in track to do what?
00:27:24
Speaker
500 this?
00:27:26
Speaker
Yeah, between Florida and North Carolina, 500 sales this month.
00:27:33
Speaker
Obviously, there's going to be a lag, right?
00:27:36
Speaker
But it takes a village, you know, and I came down here to Florida.
00:27:42
Speaker
It wasn't pretty.
00:27:44
Speaker
Sunrun, you know, we were a Sunrun certified partner at that time, so we only saw Sunrun.
00:27:49
Speaker
They weren't amazing.
00:27:50
Speaker
They're getting operations.
00:27:51
Speaker
And I met this guy named Peter Winston.
00:27:55
Speaker
And Pete literally helped.
00:27:58
Speaker
It was a yin and yang mentality.
00:27:59
Speaker
And he helped row this Florida into the absolute monster where we're at today.
00:28:06
Speaker
So big shout out to Pete because I was struggling.
00:28:09
Speaker
And I'll be okay with saying that.
00:28:11
Speaker
And I think one of the biggest things about me is that I'm okay with my faults in getting better.
00:28:19
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.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:30
Speaker
I love hearing, um, just the focus on the strengths.
00:28:33
Speaker
Cause like you were saying before, so many people are just focused on, Oh, what's my best red line.
00:28:37
Speaker
What's like the most I can get paid.
00:28:39
Speaker
What's this, this, this.
00:28:41
Speaker
And even just recently in my office, we've had reps just like quick go chase better red lines and everything.
00:28:46
Speaker
And it's like, dude, you can get that, but, um, you've had like three installs.
00:28:51
Speaker
Don't even know what you're doing yet.
00:28:53
Speaker
So don't you think it'd be better to have the support and like grow with the team?
Importance of Company Culture and Support
00:28:58
Speaker
I think especially in solar, so many people make that mistake.
00:29:00
Speaker
Would you agree?
00:29:02
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,
00:29:20
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.
00:29:30
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.
00:29:38
Speaker
And so it just, it just, in Florida alone that I know of.
00:29:41
Speaker
And so it's not, it's not a, we can't race the bottom.
00:29:45
Speaker
We have to race the quality.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:47
Speaker
A hundred percent.
00:29:48
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.
00:29:55
Speaker
How much value are you getting from your company?
00:29:58
Speaker
Are you getting back in support?
00:30:00
Speaker
Are you getting training?
00:30:01
Speaker
And those are things that should be heavily considered along with how much you're getting paid and red lines, things like that.
00:30:08
Speaker
So I learned my lesson in alarms.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
Trying to taste those multiples.
00:30:12
Speaker
So I won't do it again.
00:30:15
Speaker
I enjoy being able to make,
00:30:19
Speaker
make time for my family.
00:30:21
Speaker
Now, I don't want to say there's a work-life balance.
00:30:23
Speaker
A lot of us don't believe in that.
00:30:25
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.
00:30:33
Speaker
Now, don't get me wrong.
00:30:35
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.
00:30:41
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.
00:30:48
Speaker
I've never hit Golden Door.
00:30:51
Speaker
I've never hit it.
00:30:51
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.
00:31:00
Speaker
It did not line up in December.
00:31:05
Speaker
The good news is I was able to install megawatts and megawatts and megawatts.
00:31:09
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.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:31:24
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.
00:31:30
Speaker
Seems like everyone's bought in really well there.
00:31:32
Speaker
And I know that's one of your big strengths, Jory.
00:31:35
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?
00:31:42
Speaker
All right, you're going to laugh.
00:31:46
Speaker
But Tony Robbins.
00:31:49
Speaker
So –
00:31:51
Speaker
So I was pretty much, I think I was more of a militant leader in the start.
00:31:57
Speaker
I was like, hey, why aren't we doing this?
00:31:59
Speaker
Why aren't we doing this?
00:32:00
Speaker
And it wasn't effective.
00:32:00
Speaker
Like, why are we not selling?
00:32:02
Speaker
Because I had a shift that everyone did not think like me.
00:32:06
Speaker
Right.
00:32:07
Speaker
We just go out and get it done.
00:32:08
Speaker
And so I went to Tony Robbins event and then I came back from the event.
00:32:12
Speaker
I felt like a big weight slips off my shoulder and I'm like, no, my shoulders.
00:32:15
Speaker
I'm like, no more am I going to be a militant leader.
00:32:18
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.
00:32:28
Speaker
And so what I decided to do was create culture through fun, excitement, motivation,
00:32:36
Speaker
like getting people to bump their chest, stick their chest out, make their move, right?
00:32:41
Speaker
Tell them, say, I'm the best, I'm the greatest.
00:32:43
Speaker
And it sounds so cheesy, but they're smiling ear to ear.
00:32:46
Speaker
And through that, what I noticed is it was allowing me to get instant motivation, get instant results.
00:32:54
Speaker
But then I can work on it to be able to create, go from motivation to discipline.
00:33:00
Speaker
Hmm.
00:33:00
Speaker
And it's fun and exciting.
00:33:02
Speaker
There's nothing that gets me more.
Motivating Teams and Building Confidence
00:33:04
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?
00:33:12
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,
00:33:18
Speaker
like pumping their chest and saying, I'm the greatest.
00:33:21
Speaker
Like that's what these moments are for because what it's doing is getting people to see the end result, right?
00:33:28
Speaker
The confidence before it actually happens.
00:33:30
Speaker
And I love it.
00:33:32
Speaker
There's nothing more that I love.
00:33:33
Speaker
And somebody making a mental shift, be like, you know what?
00:33:36
Speaker
That crazy dude that keeps telling me that I'm the greatest and it keeps making me say it out loud.
00:33:42
Speaker
Maybe I am.
00:33:43
Speaker
Maybe there's something more.
00:33:44
Speaker
I can dig a little deeper.
00:33:46
Speaker
I love that.
00:33:47
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.
00:33:57
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.
00:34:06
Speaker
It's not always pretty or sexy and solar.
00:34:09
Speaker
like pushing through accounts and things like that.
00:34:11
Speaker
So if we can switch it up and we can operate from a peak state, like, man, you're going to win.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:18
Speaker
Love that.
00:34:18
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?
00:34:31
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.
00:34:38
Speaker
And I don't know if anybody knows what that is, but I'll kind of explain it.
00:34:43
Speaker
So basically we stand up and we operate from a position of power.
00:34:47
Speaker
That means your feet are about just shoulders width apart, your chest is sticking out and you're standing direct.
00:34:54
Speaker
And then when I want to say, I'm going to say, let's go, let's go.
00:34:56
Speaker
We're going to clap.
00:34:57
Speaker
We're going to clap.
00:34:58
Speaker
We're going to play some music.
00:34:59
Speaker
Right.
00:35:00
Speaker
And I'm going to say, make your move.
00:35:01
Speaker
And everyone's going to do some kind of power move.
00:35:03
Speaker
Like they're powerful Batman Superman move.
00:35:06
Speaker
And they're like, ah,
00:35:09
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
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:35:41
Speaker
Getting me pumped right now.
00:35:42
Speaker
I want to do one right now.
00:35:44
Speaker
But it's super powerful.
00:35:45
Speaker
And some guys bash on it.
00:35:47
Speaker
But I mean, it changes the states like Tony Robbins says, you got to change your state.
00:35:53
Speaker
And I think that's huge for developing confidence, things like that, too.
00:35:57
Speaker
For the ones that bash on it, listen, I get it.
00:36:01
Speaker
You don't operate like that.
00:36:03
Speaker
but it's not for you.
00:36:05
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.
00:36:11
Speaker
It's for the people that trust you.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:15
Speaker
For sure.
00:36:16
Speaker
And what about like reps that are struggling?
00:36:19
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.
00:36:28
Speaker
And they're fine with that.
00:36:29
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.
00:36:36
Speaker
What have you seen that works?
00:36:39
Speaker
So I, you know, I was actually on a recruiting call today.
00:36:42
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:36:43
Speaker
And, and the guy was like, Hey, there's 20 people in my company.
00:36:47
Speaker
I'm number one.
00:36:50
Speaker
And I'm like, dude, that's phenomenal.
00:36:53
Speaker
So you're a big fish in a small pond.
00:36:57
Speaker
So why don't we utilize that same mentality, that same confidence, and have you be a big fish in a bigger pond?
00:37:04
Speaker
And what's going to happen is you're going to see yourself rise to the level that you need to go to.
00:37:10
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.
00:37:19
Speaker
I can do more.
00:37:20
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.
00:37:28
Speaker
If I, if I'm not the best, there's, I can strive to be the best.
00:37:32
Speaker
It's going to push me to do more because that mentality that you just talked about.
00:37:37
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.
00:37:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:49
Speaker
You have to stay relevant.
00:37:50
Speaker
And it's, it's been hard for me to stay relevant over the last six years and solar.
00:37:56
Speaker
And I still question my relevancy a lot of times, but then I remember these moments, these cookie jar moments.
00:38:03
Speaker
And then I'm like more, I can do more.
00:38:05
Speaker
I can impact more people.
00:38:07
Speaker
I can sell more.
00:38:09
Speaker
I can recruit more.
00:38:11
Speaker
I can give more.
00:38:12
Speaker
I can give more love more.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
I love that.
00:38:16
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.
00:38:26
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.
00:38:35
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.
00:38:41
Speaker
It's happened to me.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:43
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.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
Mentoring New Reps and Growth Strategies
00:38:58
Speaker
So yeah, for our solopreneurs, make sure you take a good look at that.
00:39:02
Speaker
Don't be the best one in the room.
00:39:04
Speaker
Go join some mastermind groups, get around people that are achieving a high level.
00:39:10
Speaker
And so Jory, I love hearing what you guys are doing to build culture.
00:39:13
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?
00:39:23
Speaker
No, like we've,
00:39:24
Speaker
We never want to let anybody go, right?
00:39:27
Speaker
We believe our culture is all-inclusive.
00:39:31
Speaker
But what we would do is we would have just a conversation like, listen, maybe there's something wrong with your closing.
00:39:39
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.
00:39:47
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:39:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:49
Speaker
So you guys start all new reps off just setting the deals and then is there a point where they transition to closing?
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah, unless they have experience from other companies.
00:39:59
Speaker
But there's a lot in solar, right?
00:40:00
Speaker
There's a lot of moving parts when you start dealing with loans and ID approvals and everything else.
00:40:06
Speaker
And so I've seen so many reps come in, not have that setting.
00:40:11
Speaker
So it's not just setting.
00:40:13
Speaker
here's the difference I love about what we do here, at least in the Southeast for legacy.
00:40:19
Speaker
We bring on setters, but they're really mentees.
00:40:22
Speaker
We, our job is to pair them with somebody that's going to mentor them, coach them along the ways.
00:40:28
Speaker
And so, and they're going to be part of every single close.
00:40:31
Speaker
And I hope everyone's doing this in the industry.
00:40:33
Speaker
They're a part of every single close and we want to train them.
00:40:38
Speaker
We want to coach them to be able to close their own deals.
00:40:42
Speaker
I think,
00:40:43
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.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:57
Speaker
Right.
00:40:58
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.
00:41:10
Speaker
And then you can make that adjustment from there.
00:41:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:13
Speaker
No, that's a huge wall I see for companies.
00:41:15
Speaker
Matter of fact, one of the first companies I was with, that was the whole plan.
00:41:20
Speaker
It was just like bring people on as setters and try to keep them there permanently.
00:41:23
Speaker
Have no like vision for them.
00:41:26
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.
00:41:33
Speaker
So actually a ton of them went to legacy.
00:41:36
Speaker
So with no vision, people will perish.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:42
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
00:42:07
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
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah, so I'd probably say this.
00:42:33
Speaker
You don't have to have a story like mine.
00:42:36
Speaker
My story is not, I don't say definitely not normal, but my story is different.
00:42:45
Speaker
It's a very raw and real and hard story.
00:42:49
Speaker
but your story, you have a story and you have to be good at telling your story.
00:42:54
Speaker
Cause I did not want to tell myself.
00:42:55
Speaker
I was embarrassed that I was homeless and I had 20 bucks and two trash bags.
00:43:00
Speaker
I was embarrassed that I had literally no food in the refrigerator.
00:43:05
Speaker
And, and I had, I only had like a couple of pairs of jeans.
00:43:07
Speaker
I was embarrassed.
00:43:09
Speaker
Um,
00:43:10
Speaker
And, but eventually people like, you need to start sharing that story.
00:43:14
Speaker
It's very motivational.
00:43:15
Speaker
I read it in a book.
00:43:16
Speaker
And so here's my advice to go create award-winning culture.
00:43:21
Speaker
You need to go create a story and be able to tell your story to inspire others.
00:43:25
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.
00:43:42
Speaker
Right.
00:43:42
Speaker
You got a lot of work to do.
00:43:46
Speaker
And I don't care where you come from.
00:43:47
Speaker
Everybody has a story.
00:43:49
Speaker
Everybody has value.
00:43:50
Speaker
And you have to go find your story, your value, and you have to go share a vision with people around you.
00:43:55
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.
00:44:10
Speaker
If you find somebody of that caliber, never, never be scared to share, right?
00:44:16
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.
00:44:24
Speaker
And that's when limits start being broken and lids start being removed and everybody starts winning.
00:44:31
Speaker
Yeah, so powerful.
00:44:33
Speaker
And yeah, just goes to anyone that shares a story like this.
00:44:36
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.
00:44:45
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.
00:44:53
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
00:45:18
Speaker
I don't want to take you over, but
Personal Growth and Resilience
00:45:20
Speaker
I want to say this.
00:45:20
Speaker
There was a moment where I was like, dude, my fridge is full.
00:45:24
Speaker
I have no struggles, right?
00:45:25
Speaker
Like what are my struggles?
00:45:26
Speaker
Somebody cancels, right?
00:45:28
Speaker
So what happened was this guy named David Goggins first came to the scene.
00:45:31
Speaker
He's on Tim Blue or whoever's YouTube.
00:45:35
Speaker
And I'm like, this guy ran a hundred miles in 24 hours.
00:45:38
Speaker
I'm like, I didn't train for them.
00:45:40
Speaker
Like, let me see what I can do.
00:45:41
Speaker
And I went to a 24 hour event and I,
00:45:45
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.
00:45:54
Speaker
I was dead.
00:45:55
Speaker
I was hurt.
00:45:56
Speaker
My knee was broken.
00:45:56
Speaker
It was actually at the whitewater center that I was running over and over and over and over.
00:46:02
Speaker
And I felt I had to redefine who I was.
00:46:06
Speaker
like the rawness, the realness, somebody came from the comeback kid, right?
00:46:10
Speaker
I lived in that mode.
00:46:11
Speaker
And so I remember laying down at 42 miles and then getting back up, hobbling 10 more miles before the end of it.
00:46:18
Speaker
I didn't run as much as I wanted.
00:46:19
Speaker
I didn't know what entailed, but I needed to find my pain, my tolerance level.
00:46:25
Speaker
And there was something beautiful in the struggle.
00:46:27
Speaker
And so now I have that cookie jar moment that I can overcome and do anything.
00:46:32
Speaker
Wow.
00:46:33
Speaker
That's incredible.
00:46:34
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:46:35
Speaker
How, when did you do that?
00:46:36
Speaker
Is that reasonable?
00:46:39
Speaker
No, 2017, it was, it was terrible.
00:46:42
Speaker
It was not great because everyone was there doing it, but they're running in teams of six.
00:46:46
Speaker
And there's a few of us just running.
00:46:49
Speaker
I got second place that in that event, but we're just running like just over and over and over and over again.
00:46:56
Speaker
And it was brutal, but I need to figure out who I was.
00:47:00
Speaker
I need to step out of my shell and go to my new show.
00:47:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:03
Speaker
Wow.
00:47:04
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:47:05
Speaker
No, that's awesome.
00:47:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:07
Speaker
I think we all need to do stuff like that.
00:47:08
Speaker
So go run 50 miles in 24 hours, run two marathons a day.
00:47:14
Speaker
That will help create culture.
00:47:18
Speaker
I know.
00:47:19
Speaker
Dang.
00:47:19
Speaker
I need to do something like that.
00:47:20
Speaker
I'm feeling like a whistle here, but that's awesome.
00:47:23
Speaker
My cold showers are feeling like nothing compared to that.
00:47:26
Speaker
Like, I'm just going to do a cold shower.
00:47:27
Speaker
That's pushing it for me.
00:47:28
Speaker
Dude, this life is too short not to go do something crazy, right?
00:47:34
Speaker
And people around you will often respect it, whether you hit your goal or not.
00:47:38
Speaker
It's the attempt.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:47:41
Speaker
Well, Joy, we appreciate you sharing the story.
00:47:43
Speaker
I definitely resonated with that.
00:47:45
Speaker
I know our listeners are going to love it too.
00:47:47
Speaker
So where can people reach out to you on social media and all that and connect with you?
00:47:52
Speaker
Want to share your social media contact?
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
So if you want to...
00:47:58
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to like see my culture and who I am live, check out my Instagram handle.
00:48:03
Speaker
It's at Jory won't lose.
00:48:06
Speaker
I'm actually trying to gain more followers.
00:48:07
Speaker
I feel like I don't have enough compared to what everyone's doing now or a Facebook at Jory Sullivan.
00:48:13
Speaker
And I don't hide the culture.
00:48:15
Speaker
I don't hide what we're doing.
00:48:16
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.
00:48:27
Speaker
It's a lot easier to send me a DM there and I'll be more than happy to respond to you.
00:48:32
Speaker
Awesome.
00:48:33
Speaker
Well, Jory, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:48:35
Speaker
Remember, for our solopreneurs, just be real in everything you do.
00:48:39
Speaker
Get vulnerable with people.
00:48:40
Speaker
And then that's going to help in your recruiting.
00:48:42
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.
00:48:47
Speaker
So thanks again, Jory.
00:48:48
Speaker
I'm sure we'll get you hopefully a few new followers on Instagram there.
00:48:52
Speaker
And we'll look forward to connecting with you more and more.
00:48:54
Speaker
Appreciate you coming on the show.
00:48:56
Speaker
All right, let's grow, baby.
00:48:57
Speaker
Let's grow.
00:48:57
Speaker
Let's grow.
00:48:58
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:49:00
Speaker
Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
00:49:02
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?
00:49:11
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals.
00:49:17
Speaker
and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:49:23
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.
00:49:34
Speaker
and it's called Sol Society.
00:49:36
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.
00:49:55
Speaker
Currently Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only.
00:49:59
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.
00:50:08
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.
00:50:21
Speaker
Thanks again for listening.
00:50:22
Speaker
We'll catch you again in the next episode.