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From the Streets of Costa Rica to Crushing it in Solar - Josue Philips image

From the Streets of Costa Rica to Crushing it in Solar - Josue Philips

E218 ยท The Solarpreneur
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44 Plays4 years ago

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Transcript

Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast

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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
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.

Live Episode with Josue Phillips

00:00:42
Speaker
Okay, what's going on, Solarpreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
We are here, a special episode.
00:00:46
Speaker
We're actually live at Door2DoorCon right now.
00:00:49
Speaker
And I'm stoked because I'm here with my man Josue Phillips.
00:00:53
Speaker
Josue, thanks for coming on the show with us today.
00:00:55
Speaker
Thank you for having me, brother.
00:00:56
Speaker
I'm very excited.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm stoked getting your story.
00:01:00
Speaker
Josue has a super sweet story he's going to share with us.
00:01:03
Speaker
and hopefully there's not a ton of background noise.
00:01:05
Speaker
We're actually sitting in the hall here trying to get away from all those door-to-door maniacs.
00:01:10
Speaker
Those guys are loud and obnoxious.
00:01:13
Speaker
We're one of them.
00:01:14
Speaker
But we're excited to hear about his story and just kind of what he's done.
00:01:18
Speaker
So I guess just a little introduction to

Josue's Early Life and Entrepreneurial Spirit

00:01:21
Speaker
Jose.
00:01:21
Speaker
How long ago did you start your company?
00:01:23
Speaker
It's been three years since I went solo.
00:01:26
Speaker
Okay, three years and then how many offices and reps would you say?
00:01:30
Speaker
So yeah, we're in around five different markets and we have around 60 people and we're doubling those numbers by May 1st and expanding.
00:01:40
Speaker
Okay, so expanding like crazy father of three with one on the way.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, finally having the baby girl.
00:01:47
Speaker
I have three boys.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, I got a girl coming and just goes to show no excuses.
00:01:52
Speaker
I just had my second kid and I use that as an excuse sometimes to not get out there and hustle as much as I should.
00:01:59
Speaker
But Josue, he's out crushed and got...
00:02:02
Speaker
60 reps and all that so you got my respect my man thank you it's awesome and so yeah let's get into your story a little bit jose do you want jose do you want to tell us a little bit like your um you know upbringing obviously from costa rica i know you had a interesting like you know family wasn't the wealthiest and all that so can you tell us a little bit of your story and all that 100 so yeah i'm costa rica pura vida para todos mis ticos out there so yeah i'm from costa rica born and raised and
00:02:31
Speaker
poor family we didn't have much and Man since I have memory I've been selling like all my life.
00:02:38
Speaker
I remember like collecting cards and selling them at school I remember being hungry with other kids when I was in in primary school and we would go and get some mangoes from trees and eat them with wood as salt and
00:02:50
Speaker
the kitchen because we were all hungry we didn't have much and it started to become like a little bit worse the economy it was it was not just me right it was pretty much everybody around it seemed like everybody in my my neighborhood my environment was was going through the same thing so when I was 12 I was kind of tired of just wanting things and
00:03:14
Speaker
and not be able to get them, right?
00:03:15
Speaker
And kids would make fun of me for using the same backpack three years straight, and the same run-down pants in my school

First Business Venture: Opening a Dojo

00:03:22
Speaker
uniform.
00:03:22
Speaker
So I was like, you know what, screw this, I'm gonna go work.
00:03:25
Speaker
So I went to the Department of Labor in my city,
00:03:30
Speaker
And I asked them, like, hey, I want to work.
00:03:32
Speaker
And they laughed at me.
00:03:33
Speaker
I was this little 12-year-old kid wanting to work.
00:03:37
Speaker
And they just laughed at me.
00:03:40
Speaker
And they said, all right, let's go home and make your mom make a letter for you, bring a copy of her ID.
00:03:47
Speaker
And we'll put the stamp that you can work.
00:03:50
Speaker
And I just paid like one hour on a cafe internet in Latin America, you know, in Costa Rica.
00:03:56
Speaker
Paid one hour and just made, typed the letter for my mom.
00:03:59
Speaker
She signed it.
00:04:00
Speaker
and I went and got the permit and I took like 50 different copies and walked probably like four different miles, four miles, just submitting my resume everywhere.
00:04:12
Speaker
People were laughing at me, they were being rude.
00:04:15
Speaker
I mean, who would take a 12 year old kid on a retail store, right?
00:04:21
Speaker
So finally one store took me in and customers, when they would come in, they couldn't believe that I was working there.
00:04:28
Speaker
But I was killing it.
00:04:30
Speaker
I was selling them all this stuff for their kids and stuff, and I was showing them clothing and tennis shoes.
00:04:35
Speaker
And one day I remember this, my boss came in and he said, if you sell these pairs of Nike shoes, they were super fake by the way, super fake.
00:04:44
Speaker
That's probably a lot cheaper.
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:48
Speaker
And he was like, I'm going to give you five extra dollars per pair you sell.
00:04:53
Speaker
And I was making $10 a day.
00:04:56
Speaker
and i said okay this is this is where the money is so i would stay next to the pile of nikes and i was

Passion for Renewable Energy

00:05:01
Speaker
selling them all day long and making like three three times more than my co-workers and i loved it it was like the drug of having the the money that i needed to to get the few things that i needed and then help my family too like help my mom like getting my sister's uniform and things like that were
00:05:19
Speaker
very fulfilling so i sacrificed my vacations from that moment on until i was like 18 uh just working at retail after school and during vacations that's what i did okay that's sweet man um so yeah well i guess what i was gonna ask is i mean we're talking before we hit record i was in colombia for a couple years on the church mission yes and there you know it's a lot
00:05:41
Speaker
like poor environment everything so I've never been to Costa Rica is that pretty is extremely similar in fact I have a call center in Colombia by the way big shout out to my team there when I went there I was like this is the same thing as Costa Rica we have the same fruits the same fruit same beautiful women everything is so similar okay so when you say you were like poor growing up so that was like yeah next level yeah what we think of because like I think of Colombian like
00:06:08
Speaker
It seemed like almost everyone was poor there compared to what we think of.
00:06:12
Speaker
Costa Rica has progressed a lot.
00:06:14
Speaker
A lot.
00:06:14
Speaker
But back in the days, it was pretty similar to probably one of those Colombian provinces.
00:06:19
Speaker
Wow.
00:06:20
Speaker
Back in the days, yeah.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:06:22
Speaker
So this is, you know.
00:06:24
Speaker
It was rough.
00:06:25
Speaker
So for those that are listening, if you're thinking U.S. poor, this is a different level because, I mean, those countries are already poor compared to what we're thinking of.
00:06:33
Speaker
You cannot compare it for sure.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:35
Speaker
So that's crazy.
00:06:36
Speaker
And so how did it go from there?
00:06:37
Speaker
You sold shoes.
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:41
Speaker
Then when I was 18, I got my black belt in karate shotokan and I opened my little dojo.
00:06:48
Speaker
I asked permission, my blessing from my sensei, and opened my little dojo.
00:06:52
Speaker
And that was my first experience knocking on doors.
00:06:54
Speaker
I printed like hundreds of these little pamphlets and went door to door

Entering the Solar Industry

00:06:59
Speaker
asking people if they wanted to join my dojo, if they had kids to join my dojo.
00:07:03
Speaker
It's like Cobra Kai.
00:07:04
Speaker
It's not your same Cobra Kai.
00:07:08
Speaker
Were they going door to door?
00:07:10
Speaker
In fact, I'm not even following this show, so I don't know.
00:07:12
Speaker
I think he does.
00:07:13
Speaker
Cool, cool, cool.
00:07:14
Speaker
You go to schools and stuff, you put the flyers on.
00:07:17
Speaker
I was literally from house to house is knocking all around the little dojo I was renting and it was super cheap I told me hey can I have the first month for free you know just to get some students and I convinced them they said yes so my first class I had 14 students yeah and I did that for you know a year and a half before I went on a mission you know I'm a member of the church and I serve on a mission in Chile
00:07:41
Speaker
But I had like a year and a half of having my own little dojo and it was really impactful and I loved it because many of these kids were on a bad environment, you know, they had drugs all around.
00:07:54
Speaker
I remember going like to play soccer outside and look at people doing coke, you know, and smoking marijuana everywhere and some crackheads shooting crack, you know, like right there when we were playing soccer.
00:08:06
Speaker
So, and taking them out of that environment and bringing them and teaching them martial arts changed their lives because they were going to the province karate team and they were getting like swag and we were traveling to different tournaments.
00:08:22
Speaker
It helped them a lot and it helped me all throughout my life for sure.
00:08:26
Speaker
So that was in Costa Rica still?
00:08:28
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:08:29
Speaker
By the way, I've been in the States for four years only.
00:08:32
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:08:32
Speaker
Wow.
00:08:33
Speaker
Just barely.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:34
Speaker
Just barely, for sure.
00:08:35
Speaker
Crazy.
00:08:39
Speaker
So yeah, went on your mission.
00:08:41
Speaker
And so yeah, tell us about how did you end up coming to the States and transitioning to solar and all that.
00:08:47
Speaker
I guess I came following my dream because when I was in college, right after my mission, I started studying industrial engineering.
00:08:55
Speaker
and I was paying my school, working full time, and taking seven classes.

Importance of Continuous Education

00:08:59
Speaker
And I was, I had to prioritize, you know, like some doing some homework and some others I couldn't, I just didn't have the time.
00:09:08
Speaker
So my physics two professor talked to me and he said, hey, you're gonna lose this class.
00:09:12
Speaker
but I have a solution.
00:09:13
Speaker
If you go to the science fair, you can save it because it's 15 points.
00:09:17
Speaker
And I was like, oh shoot, that's like the same points you would get on an exam, on a test.
00:09:23
Speaker
So I went home and started researching and I came back and I was like, I had no clue, what can I do?
00:09:30
Speaker
And he said, look into renewable energy.
00:09:32
Speaker
I mean that's kind of new and everybody's talking about it.
00:09:35
Speaker
And Costa Rica is really big on that.
00:09:38
Speaker
We produce 98% of our power from renewable sources.
00:09:42
Speaker
No kidding?
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah, many people don't know.
00:09:45
Speaker
No, we have solar, we have wind and the biggest hydro.
00:09:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:49
Speaker
Wow.
00:09:49
Speaker
That's pretty cool.
00:09:50
Speaker
I think we're the number one.
00:09:52
Speaker
98% of our power is from renewable sources.
00:09:54
Speaker
Wow, that's awesome.
00:09:55
Speaker
So yeah, I developed this little metal roof tile attached to a solar panel.
00:10:01
Speaker
And I literally bought a copper sheet and literally a very basic circuiting board.
00:10:09
Speaker
I welded a resistor and put a photo sensor so when the sun would come down, it would turn low consumption 5 watt LED.
00:10:20
Speaker
Because I watched this documentary of this indigenous communities where kids couldn't finish school because when they would come back home from walking two hours in the mountain, they had no power.
00:10:30
Speaker
So I was like, oh, I want to do something about this.
00:10:33
Speaker
So that was my science fair and they loved it.
00:10:36
Speaker
They loved it.
00:10:36
Speaker
They were like, hey, you know what?
00:10:38
Speaker
We can do something with this and bring it into, you know, like these indigenous communities.
00:10:43
Speaker
So I loved it.
00:10:44
Speaker
After that, I started...
00:10:47
Speaker
I did another project the next semester with, I don't know if I'm saying it right in English, perovskite, like creating a solar cell with perovskite.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
Or perovskite.
00:11:01
Speaker
I don't know, man.
00:11:02
Speaker
Peroxide?
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:03
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:11:04
Speaker
No, it's a semiconductor.
00:11:06
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's a semiconductor.
00:11:07
Speaker
So since then I started, I was fascinated with the technology

Challenges in Building a Solar Company

00:11:12
Speaker
and we got married and we decided to move to the U.S. after getting married.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I met a church, Jess Phillips, by the way, big shout out, Jess Phillips from Quattiva.
00:11:25
Speaker
He was in my same word, by the way.
00:11:29
Speaker
And he had a cool Tesla.
00:11:30
Speaker
and i i asked him like hey jess what do you do for a living he said i have a solar company and i was like oh no way i was doing solar projects when i was in college is there good money in solar and he said oh my friend you have no clue you have no clue and from that moment on i started researching and got into solar and um right after i you know like one year in i decided to start my own thing because i thought that i could
00:11:59
Speaker
do a better job, and I'm getting there, I'm getting there.
00:12:02
Speaker
The company that I started with, they're awesome.
00:12:05
Speaker
A lot of love to my guys there.
00:12:08
Speaker
The ones that know me.
00:12:10
Speaker
But yeah, it's been a very fulfilling, life-changing experience for sure.
00:12:16
Speaker
Sounds like it.
00:12:16
Speaker
No mad respect for you.
00:12:18
Speaker
Coming from another country to start your own thing.
00:12:20
Speaker
It's incredible.
00:12:21
Speaker
Love hearing stories like that.
00:12:23
Speaker
I didn't know that about Costa Rica, though.
00:12:25
Speaker
98% renewable.
00:12:26
Speaker
98%, brother.
00:12:27
Speaker
We're hearing, you know, I'm in California telling all the people that we're trying to hit 50% renewable.
00:12:32
Speaker
Right.
00:12:33
Speaker
I never really believed that we could.
00:12:35
Speaker
That's even possible to get that level.
00:12:37
Speaker
It's wild.
00:12:37
Speaker
I guess it is 98%.
00:12:39
Speaker
We did some good stuff there.
00:12:41
Speaker
Recycling is giant.
00:12:44
Speaker
I mean, to graduate from, to pass the school year, you had to recycle.
00:12:48
Speaker
So one year was 40 pounds of cardboard.
00:12:51
Speaker
You have to bring 40 pounds of cardboard to be able to pass to the next school year.
00:12:57
Speaker
And then the next year, it was like 100,
00:12:59
Speaker
um cans you have to recycle cans wash them and and squeeze them and bring them in so they can recycle them um so yeah we we did some good stuff down there for sure yeah saving the planet good stuff and so you um so it sounds like you're pretty much going to school to be an engineer and that was kind of your thing is more the engineering side yeah i one of the keys honestly is continuous education i just finished by the way my global
00:13:27
Speaker
energy leadership program with Rice University.
00:13:31
Speaker
I'm starting on the 18th, January 18th with MIT.
00:13:35
Speaker
I'm thinking of energy politics and economics.
00:13:39
Speaker
And right after I'm done with that one, I'm starting with Stanford University.
00:13:43
Speaker
They have, by the way, you can look it up.
00:13:45
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:13:47
Speaker
It's not that expensive.
00:13:49
Speaker
Pretty inexpensive, I have to say.
00:13:50
Speaker
And it's about
00:13:51
Speaker
energy storage so Stanford University has a really cool professional program for energy storage yeah yeah Wow so not only starts his own organization but you've got to be one of the most educated guys in solar most of us are just a bunch of meatheads there I want to get into R&D after for sure yeah research and development yeah I want to do that it's impressive and so what what was the main reason you came to like the US then in the first place
00:14:17
Speaker
Better opportunities, better opportunities.
00:14:19
Speaker
My ambition was way bigger than I could accomplish in my home country, unfortunately.
00:14:26
Speaker
And this is the best country in the world, guys.
00:14:28
Speaker
You've got to believe it, man.
00:14:30
Speaker
That's why immigrants all over the world choose this country.
00:14:34
Speaker
I love Costa Rica like crazy.
00:14:36
Speaker
I want to be there, especially when it gets cold here.
00:14:39
Speaker
I want to live in Costa Rica during winter in the U.S. But the U.S. is the country of the opportunities, 100 percent.
00:14:48
Speaker
No doubt.
00:14:50
Speaker
Sure, got some wrestlers here running by.
00:14:53
Speaker
Apparently they scheduled door to door con the same time as a wrestling tournament.
00:14:56
Speaker
Right.
00:14:57
Speaker
We've got people wrestling in the halls.

Developing a Successful Call Center

00:15:00
Speaker
Extra wild.
00:15:01
Speaker
Extra noise.
00:15:03
Speaker
But no, so pretty incredible.
00:15:05
Speaker
So you came here without like having a job lined up, nothing.
00:15:08
Speaker
You're just like better opportunities on the head out there.
00:15:10
Speaker
Just better opportunities.
00:15:11
Speaker
And I had to do some rough jobs before I started full time in solar.
00:15:18
Speaker
It was rough, man.
00:15:19
Speaker
I was doing land mowing and then I was doing demos.
00:15:25
Speaker
I was doing demolitions.
00:15:26
Speaker
I was doing demolitions.
00:15:27
Speaker
My coworkers were getting caught and it was really rough.
00:15:31
Speaker
We were working like 15 hours a day.
00:15:34
Speaker
just to make ends meet, you know, and I have no paperwork.
00:15:38
Speaker
That's what I just have to do because the U.S. government told me, hey, you can go to the U.S. We're going to give you a residency.
00:15:44
Speaker
And once I got here, they said, by the way, the time frame is 12 months, 12 to 14 months.
00:15:50
Speaker
So I was there stuck in the limbo being in the U.S. legally, but not legally to work.
00:15:55
Speaker
So I had to...
00:15:56
Speaker
I had all of those months and I had to get creative, right?
00:16:00
Speaker
So I had to get those jobs just to survive and make it happen.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
00:16:06
Speaker
Were you pretty nervous coming out?
00:16:08
Speaker
Because I'd be.
00:16:09
Speaker
I don't know.
00:16:10
Speaker
Well, did you even know English at that point?
00:16:13
Speaker
I spoke some English but not quite well.
00:16:15
Speaker
In fact, I have a huge thick accent right now.
00:16:19
Speaker
You sound good, better than my Spanish.
00:16:24
Speaker
I do have to say that I took my disadvantages and turned them into my advantages.
00:16:31
Speaker
I was mortified that, oh my gosh, I got to get rid of my accent.
00:16:36
Speaker
And then I started to notice that people would get closer to me and pay attention and look at me in the eyes when I was speaking so they could understand.
00:16:46
Speaker
So I was like, wow, you know what?
00:16:48
Speaker
That's an advantage, in fact.
00:16:49
Speaker
That's not a disadvantage.
00:16:51
Speaker
People have to get closer to me to understand what I'm saying.
00:16:56
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:16:58
Speaker
That's true.
00:16:58
Speaker
It's all in your mind at the end of the day.
00:17:00
Speaker
I know, I know I was, I'm the same way people think I'm from Canada and stuff like that.
00:17:05
Speaker
I don't know what happened to me.
00:17:06
Speaker
I grew up in Utah.
00:17:08
Speaker
But people say, are you from Canada?
00:17:10
Speaker
Are you from Wisconsin?
00:17:12
Speaker
I'm like, no, I'm from Utah.
00:17:13
Speaker
Utah.
00:17:13
Speaker
So probably not to that level.
00:17:15
Speaker
But no, I think there's a point to that for all those that are listening.
00:17:19
Speaker
A lot of us, I don't know, for me, I came out thinking certain things were a disadvantage.
00:17:24
Speaker
Oh, I grew up in a small town.
00:17:26
Speaker
Oh, this, that.
00:17:26
Speaker
And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners, too, that maybe they have an accent.
00:17:29
Speaker
Maybe they're, you know, different ethnicity, this, that.
00:17:32
Speaker
There's tons of excuses.
00:17:33
Speaker
But I think, like Kozue is saying,
00:17:36
Speaker
you look at the way that can be an advantage.
00:17:38
Speaker
And I don't know, was there anything else mental you would say that helped you just like, because you could come up with all the excuse in the world from a different country.
00:17:46
Speaker
Don't speak English.
00:17:47
Speaker
Great.
00:17:48
Speaker
It was rough.
00:17:49
Speaker
I was knocking on doors in California.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:51
Speaker
No money at all.
00:17:52
Speaker
Knocking on doors in California with this thick accent and,
00:17:56
Speaker
It was rough, but you know what?
00:17:58
Speaker
It's all in your mind.
00:18:00
Speaker
It's all in your mind.
00:18:00
Speaker
At the end of the day, you can have the best pitch in the world.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's just a numbers game.
00:18:05
Speaker
So I just simplified my pitch, and I was just telling people, hey, do you know how much money you can save with solar?
00:18:12
Speaker
Let me show you a quote.
00:18:13
Speaker
And they were like, I'm not sure.
00:18:16
Speaker
Well, you know, it's going to be free.
00:18:17
Speaker
I'm not going to charge you for this one.
00:18:18
Speaker
Maybe the second one.
00:18:20
Speaker
But the first one is free.
00:18:21
Speaker
All right.
00:18:22
Speaker
So I would just throw a little joke there and they would accept an appointment and I would go and sell them.
00:18:27
Speaker
So, yeah, you just got to be sometimes pretty straightforward and bold.
00:18:32
Speaker
No matter if you have a thick accent, you can make it happen in solar.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah, 100% inspiring.
00:18:38
Speaker
So, Jose, you started, so let me get this straight, you sold a year of like solar for a company, and then after that you started your own company?
00:18:46
Speaker
Yes, my own sales work, and I decided to move the headquarters to Dallas, which was an amazing decision, one of the best decisions.
00:18:55
Speaker
I love the Texas market.
00:18:57
Speaker
Let me tell you this about Texas after knocking in California.
00:19:01
Speaker
The first door ever that I knocked in Texas
00:19:04
Speaker
They were like, hey, come in.
00:19:06
Speaker
And I was like, oh my gosh, what's happening?
00:19:09
Speaker
And they were eating.
00:19:09
Speaker
And I was like, you know what?
00:19:10
Speaker
I'm going to come back in like 30 minutes so you can finish eating.
00:19:13
Speaker
They were like, no, no, no, sit down.
00:19:15
Speaker
And do you want to eat?
00:19:16
Speaker
And I was like, it's so awkward.
00:19:20
Speaker
I was like, oh my gosh.
00:19:21
Speaker
They don't even know what's my name.
00:19:23
Speaker
They haven't even asked.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, for sure.
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, thank you.
00:19:26
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then I was just like, for some reason, I always say, I'm from Costa Rica.
00:19:31
Speaker
And people, oh, for real, Costa Rica.
00:19:33
Speaker
And then we started talking.
00:19:34
Speaker
It seems that everybody loves Costa Rica.
00:19:36
Speaker
So we started talking and they gave me, you know, like some food and it was some good 10 minutes at the table when they said, so are you selling alarms?
00:19:47
Speaker
And I was like, oh no, I'm selling solar.
00:19:51
Speaker
Am I the first solar guy here?
00:19:52
Speaker
And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we have been talking about solar.
00:19:55
Speaker
You know, like, awesome.
00:19:56
Speaker
Let me show you a quote.
00:19:58
Speaker
You know, like, this is heaven.
00:19:59
Speaker
This is absolute heaven.
00:20:01
Speaker
And in the other hand, I've seen people that come to Texas, they hate

Managing Sales Teams Effectively

00:20:05
Speaker
it.
00:20:05
Speaker
You know, we don't want to sell in Texas.
00:20:07
Speaker
Everybody's Republican.
00:20:08
Speaker
And you know, at the end of the day, you impose your own limitations in your mind.
00:20:13
Speaker
That's all there is.
00:20:14
Speaker
Because if you have this...
00:20:17
Speaker
positive attitude and you're calm and you transmit that to your customers they're gonna believe in you and no matter if you're from another country with an accent you can make it happen and and that's if if I made it happen everybody can right that's my message for everybody out there you gotta dream big you gotta fabricate that reality in your head and then bring it into existence
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:20:43
Speaker
And yeah, that point's like law of attraction, right?
00:20:47
Speaker
Whatever you think is going to happen.
00:20:49
Speaker
I see it all the time too in California, our reps.
00:20:51
Speaker
So I go, it's too saturated.
00:20:52
Speaker
There's way too many reps out here.
00:20:54
Speaker
And yeah, when you say stuff like that, I want to move out to Texas and just go sell it in Texas because I don't really get invited to eat food like that.
00:21:01
Speaker
Maybe I should just say I'm from Costa Rica.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:05
Speaker
but no it's true though you know just whatever you think in your head i know grant cardone talks about that's your reality whatever your objections are it's going to come up in your clothes whatever your your objections are to the area or knocking those things are going to come up yeah i think it's that's 100 true and especially new reps need to remember that as you're starting your job remember that you know write down what objections you have and see if those are coming up and what you're doing sorry i'm still not
00:21:31
Speaker
Yeah, much talking.
00:21:32
Speaker
But yeah, and so in Texas, let me ask you this, I know there's some reps out there who maybe are thinking I'm starting their own company.
00:21:40
Speaker
Obviously, that's not for everybody.
00:21:42
Speaker
Definitely not.
00:21:43
Speaker
It's very challenging.
00:21:46
Speaker
You've got to sacrifice a lot of your time because when you start your own company, you've got to be selling and also training people and managing the business.
00:21:54
Speaker
Wait for some good 18 hour, 16 hour days.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
For sure.
00:21:59
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, what, I guess what led you to start your own company versus just continuing to sell and what could you tell people that maybe are thinking of starting their own or any tips you would have on that?
00:22:10
Speaker
You gotta have a passion to build something and to work for something that is yours, number one.
00:22:16
Speaker
And where I was, I didn't necessarily felt that sense of belonging.
00:22:23
Speaker
I wanted to build something for people
00:22:26
Speaker
that they would feel like home.
00:22:29
Speaker
And of course, saying

Expanding into Multiple Markets

00:22:31
Speaker
it is way easier than doing it because now that I have my business, that's so extremely challenging.
00:22:38
Speaker
What's key is, first off, you have to differentiate yourself by doing something.
00:22:44
Speaker
For example, we do efficiency products.
00:22:47
Speaker
So we don't downsize systems, we just do it as an add-on to bring more value.
00:22:54
Speaker
So when we step in the house, we review the breaker box and I train my guys what to look into the, you know, if it's a compatible breaker box so they can include already the MPU and tell the customers at the time of closing, by the way, this is also including a brand new breaker box for you.
00:23:08
Speaker
That's good.
00:23:09
Speaker
And they were like, oh, for real?
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah, 100% included.
00:23:13
Speaker
And we're just going to cover all the upfront costs and everything.
00:23:15
Speaker
It's all in the project.
00:23:17
Speaker
And then we review insulation.
00:23:19
Speaker
We check the insulation on the home.
00:23:21
Speaker
We check the thermostat, LED lights.
00:23:24
Speaker
We check a bunch of other things that I train my guys to look into.
00:23:27
Speaker
It's just for...
00:23:29
Speaker
As I said, we don't downgrade system sizes.
00:23:34
Speaker
Undersize the system.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah, undersize the system, sorry.
00:23:37
Speaker
We just provide it as an extra value for our customers.
00:23:40
Speaker
And when the competition comes, we rarely lose customers like that.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's awesome.
00:23:46
Speaker
You're creating an offer, including more than just the solar, because you know how it is, especially in California, people sometimes train, just fight over and over on price, but you're including all these other projects.
00:23:57
Speaker
I mean, they're going to have to include a lot of stuff to compete with you guys.
00:24:02
Speaker
I think that's super powerful, especially in saturated markets.
00:24:04
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:24:05
Speaker
And so you started the company, and what was, I guess, the toughest challenge you had to go through?
00:24:12
Speaker
I know you've had your company, what, three years now, you said?
00:24:15
Speaker
yeah and it was it was really the attachment to people okay and that's that's something that hurt me and still in a certain extent it hurts because you get attached to people and they leave you really wanted for them to work the same way it did for me and provide all the the possibilities and the wealth that it has created in my life but some people just don't want the same things you do and
00:24:44
Speaker
they're not willing to pay the price for it.
00:24:46
Speaker
Some people think they want to be millionaires and they don't know what it takes to become a millionaire.
00:24:52
Speaker
Right.
00:24:52
Speaker
and they're not willing

Philosophy on Motivation

00:24:53
Speaker
to pay the price for it.
00:24:54
Speaker
So to me, it was the attachment to people, just to get completely detached and just realize that yes, we have to have a strong culture, we have to train properly, have a really robust, a streamlined process to train these guys, but we gotta be prepared for them to leave also.
00:25:15
Speaker
And you gotta be emotionally detached from those things.
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah, one of the Mo Fala that just spoke today, actually.
00:25:24
Speaker
Fire.
00:25:24
Speaker
It was great.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, he was just talking about like if you're so attached to someone leaving your company, that probably means you don't have enough new recruits coming in the door.
00:25:32
Speaker
It's like, you know, for every person that leaves, you should have.
00:25:37
Speaker
Two or three people.
00:25:37
Speaker
More like three.
00:25:39
Speaker
More like three coming in.
00:25:41
Speaker
Abundance mindset.
00:25:43
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:25:44
Speaker
And another thing we're talking to before we hit record is you also have a call center with your company.
00:25:49
Speaker
Very successful.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, not a lot of people are running successful call centers.
00:25:55
Speaker
I've never really messed around with the call centers, so I wanted to pick your brain about that.
00:25:59
Speaker
How do you guys, well, first of all, how did you set it up?
00:26:01
Speaker
Why did you decide to set up a call center instead of just doing door-to-door?
00:26:06
Speaker
How's that been for you?
00:26:07
Speaker
So, you know, the capitalist mentality, I want to outsource some things.
00:26:12
Speaker
So overseas, right, mine is in Colombia, in Bogota.
00:26:18
Speaker
And I just literally reached out to a bunch of people that started my own project.
00:26:23
Speaker
It failed.
00:26:24
Speaker
I literally had three failed call centers.
00:26:27
Speaker
In this one, I have had people that have been with me for a year and a half.
00:26:30
Speaker
Wow, congrats.
00:26:31
Speaker
And that's amazing, you know, for a call center.
00:26:34
Speaker
With the attrition they have, if we think we have attrition, door to doors, like, you got to see the call centers.
00:26:41
Speaker
It's really bad.
00:26:41
Speaker
I don't know if it's worse, but it's really bad.
00:26:44
Speaker
So first off is that you have to have a structure.
00:26:49
Speaker
Many times you want to start a call center without...
00:26:52
Speaker
Just go ahead and read the script.
00:26:53
Speaker
That's it.
00:26:54
Speaker
That's all you got to do.
00:26:54
Speaker
I've heard people saying that.
00:26:56
Speaker
Just show them the script and give them the database.
00:26:59
Speaker
And that's not how it works.
00:27:00
Speaker
You got to take your time to train your guys.
00:27:02
Speaker
I think one of our biggest mistakes in our industry, overall, even in door-to-door, is not training properly.
00:27:09
Speaker
Right.
00:27:09
Speaker
Right, so good quality training.
00:27:11
Speaker
You don't have to get ridiculous or too technical.
00:27:14
Speaker
It's just good, straightforward, honest training.
00:27:19
Speaker
Something I train my guys on even is like the contract, the financing contract.
00:27:24
Speaker
So they can know what's in there, right?
00:27:26
Speaker
If a customer asks, they know what to say.
00:27:29
Speaker
And we say, hey, by the way, let's make a stop here during our closing process.
00:27:37
Speaker
You have, by the way, these are your rights.
00:27:40
Speaker
We're going to go through with you.
00:27:42
Speaker
However, at the end of the day, you have rights as a consumer.
00:27:46
Speaker
And we point out the contract, like you have the right to cancel in three days.
00:27:51
Speaker
All right.
00:27:52
Speaker
It's called Lemon Law.
00:27:53
Speaker
You can withdraw in three days.
00:27:55
Speaker
If anything happens, let me know.
00:27:58
Speaker
Let's say tonight you will be thinking about it.
00:28:00
Speaker
If you want to cancel tonight, what would be the reason for that?
00:28:03
Speaker
In our cancellation ratio right now is 8%.
00:28:06
Speaker
It's really, really low.
00:28:07
Speaker
I think, right, it's kind of low for solar.
00:28:10
Speaker
And we point at that and we say, hey, you have three days to cancel.
00:28:14
Speaker
After that, we have to reinforce some stuff because we're going to spend money, right?
00:28:17
Speaker
We're going to submit permits, electric stamps and everything.
00:28:20
Speaker
We're going to spend money on this.
00:28:24
Speaker
But you have three.
00:28:24
Speaker
This is your right as a consumer.
00:28:26
Speaker
Many companies will avoid telling you this.
00:28:29
Speaker
We want to point it at and tell you.
00:28:31
Speaker
If you would cancel, what would be the reason?
00:28:33
Speaker
So, you know, we provide this type of training, like, in different tactics people are not doing really out there.
00:28:39
Speaker
And I think that's valuable because we have seen the results, right?
00:28:44
Speaker
Really low cancellation ratio.
00:28:46
Speaker
And with the call center was the same thing.
00:28:47
Speaker
You got to develop systems and manage those systems.
00:28:51
Speaker
not manage the people because you don't have enough time to manage all that people you've got to create the system first and that's when I became successful in my call center because I developed this whole system dialer database who's gonna pull the database for me I don't have the time to do that who's gonna scrub it right who's gonna provide it and we cannot give them like a huge database because
00:29:16
Speaker
they're gonna be super disorganized so we gotta be giving them X amount of leads per rep per week and then make them accountable what happened with those leads we provided to you and different sources for example not just calling text messages emails squeezing those leads as much as we can and we have noticed sometimes after calling a customer one month and sending them text messages and
00:29:41
Speaker
emails they of course not everything right we we make it spaced out we see them replying back you know what I looked like look you guys up on Facebook and I think I want to do this things like that you gotta squeeze those leads I mean

Balancing Personal Growth and Company Expansion

00:29:56
Speaker
they cost a lot of money you gotta you gotta make them work sure so how did you like come up with all these systems did you like
00:30:03
Speaker
I don't know, did you learn from someone or just trial and error?
00:30:06
Speaker
Because for me, if I was to go start a call center, I'd have no idea.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah, I had probably like 60 different demos with software companies.
00:30:17
Speaker
And I'm going to tell you my secrets.
00:30:19
Speaker
I don't care.
00:30:19
Speaker
I mean, we can all benefit from this.
00:30:22
Speaker
You can have the most sophisticated subwares.
00:30:25
Speaker
At the end of the day, I just use high level.
00:30:28
Speaker
And I use some real estate software.
00:30:32
Speaker
listing services to append the information.
00:30:35
Speaker
So I have one software that provides amazing filters so I can filter by ethnicity because we target with the call center we target Hispanics.
00:30:46
Speaker
Because they only speak Spanish.
00:30:48
Speaker
Right, in Colombia it's kind of impossible to find somebody like with perfect English, right?
00:30:54
Speaker
So yeah, we target the Hispanic community with the call center and we scrub them, right?
00:30:59
Speaker
We append, which is the action of buying the phone number and email in that household.
00:31:04
Speaker
And then they call using high level because I love it because you can turn them into a lead and then opportunity.
00:31:12
Speaker
We have the pipeline right there.
00:31:15
Speaker
As we progress throughout the installation process after closing that deal, our goal high level is scheduled to send them automatic responses.
00:31:25
Speaker
So after it was installed, we sent an automatic email saying, these are your options.
00:31:31
Speaker
These are the companies that will buy back your kilowatt hours.
00:31:34
Speaker
Because in Texas, it's deregulated.
00:31:35
Speaker
It's different.
00:31:36
Speaker
So we...
00:31:38
Speaker
We can keep good communication.
00:31:39
Speaker
We also send them, like, please, if we did a good job, give us a review.
00:31:44
Speaker
And all of those automated processes.
00:31:46
Speaker
So it's pretty easy.
00:31:47
Speaker
Right now, I even use the Go High Level Dialer.
00:31:50
Speaker
You don't have to go with fancy tools, super expensive.
00:31:53
Speaker
We use the dialer that is integrated into Go High Level.
00:31:57
Speaker
for it so big shout out guys yeah I love go high level it's so awesome it's super handy yeah I think it's the best one yeah what I've heard people are using right now that's good and like so you're basically just getting these lists the Colombians are calling them
00:32:15
Speaker
And then are they setting up appointments with them and then you're sending out some of like in person or are they trying to do like virtual sales and get them closed up?
00:32:23
Speaker
As soon as we book the appointment, we send them like, thank you so much for booking an appointment with us.
00:32:29
Speaker
Here is the link of our company.
00:32:32
Speaker
And we send them the website and here's your confirmation code.
00:32:35
Speaker
And we just put in like a Sunstar.
00:32:39
Speaker
something like a confirmation code so when the when the rep comes like hey how you doing this from Sunstar we have a an appointment your confirmation code is this and oh yeah they feel safe somehow just because we we provide yeah it's more official for sure and the day of the appointment the call center calls they call them and the customers to confirm they're gonna be there because in Texas everything is far away pretty much
00:33:04
Speaker
we got to drive like 45 minutes to an hour to many appointments so we we we get those appointments confirmed uh the same day even we we always try like two three hours before to get the the customer a call and we send them a text so rule of thumb is if it's 40 minutes 45 minutes or less we just show up okay right if it's more than 45 minutes the call center confirms the appointment okay that's our our rule our standard
00:33:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:33:33
Speaker
And yeah, I think probably the biggest question I asked you a little bit before we started talking is how do you combine all this with door-to-door?
00:33:40
Speaker
Obviously, a lot of people listening to the podcast are doing just door-to-door.
00:33:45
Speaker
Some want to start their call centers, things like that.
00:33:48
Speaker
So what would you suggest maybe for companies that want to add on a call center or...
00:33:53
Speaker
I don't know, maybe reps that want to start fooling around with this.
00:33:55
Speaker
How do you suggest that you still keep door to door going strong, but also add this in and not have it be a distraction?
00:34:01
Speaker
Because you know how it is.
00:34:02
Speaker
Sometimes reps can just be like, oh, I'm just going to wait for these call center leads to come in or these online leads when they could be out knocking too.
00:34:10
Speaker
So how do you make it like supplemental and not as much a distraction?
00:34:13
Speaker
That has happened.
00:34:14
Speaker
In fact, that has happened a lot.
00:34:17
Speaker
For example, one rep, I closed a deal personally because all of my closers were on appointments.
00:34:22
Speaker
So I was like, heck, I'm not going to lose these appointments just because one of my closers can't go.
00:34:26
Speaker
I'm going to go myself.
00:34:28
Speaker
So I went and closed it.
00:34:29
Speaker
And this rep called me super pissed.
00:34:31
Speaker
Like, why are you closing deals, bro?
00:34:32
Speaker
You got to send those appointments to us.
00:34:34
Speaker
And I was like, oh, my gosh, I created these monsters.
00:34:37
Speaker
I created these monsters.
00:34:39
Speaker
They're really telling me that I should send them.
00:34:41
Speaker
So I pulled a report.
00:34:43
Speaker
And I was like, bro, I have sent you 45 appointments this month.
00:34:47
Speaker
and you have closed four.
00:34:50
Speaker
I took three and I closed two.
00:34:52
Speaker
I took three appointments

Integrating Engineering Background in Business

00:34:54
Speaker
and I closed two.
00:34:56
Speaker
And I told him, like, you know what?
00:34:58
Speaker
I didn't realize your closing ratio was so low.
00:35:01
Speaker
So now you got to go and get your own appointments.
00:35:04
Speaker
And like, you know, after all of my experience and failures also, because you learn a lot from your failures, I don't send a closer more than two appointments a day.
00:35:15
Speaker
I try not to.
00:35:16
Speaker
I really try not to send more than two appointments a day.
00:35:19
Speaker
Why?
00:35:19
Speaker
Because a good consultation should take two hours at least, right?
00:35:24
Speaker
And then let's say 45 to an hour driving to the next appointment, what they can manage properly is two a day.
00:35:30
Speaker
Right.
00:35:31
Speaker
So, and you also got to leave, you know, like at least one hour for them to knock.
00:35:36
Speaker
Because I make them also, like I encourage them, hey brother, you got to go and knock.
00:35:40
Speaker
And I encourage them to get to the area one hour before the appointment so they can go and meet the neighbors and try to get other appointments.
00:35:48
Speaker
And you got to, ultimately you got to delegate.
00:35:51
Speaker
So I got a general manager for the call center and I also have people running the door to door
00:35:58
Speaker
Side of the business.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, so you got a delegate you got to trust people people are gonna betray you people are gonna leave Yeah, you just gotta be emotionally prepared for it.
00:36:07
Speaker
That's it.
00:36:07
Speaker
You got to be detached and have the systems ready So if somebody leaves you got the system going so you can just plug in another manager and nothing has happened, right?
00:36:20
Speaker
So that's what you got to do.
00:36:21
Speaker
You can never build, you know, like a side of your business around a person.
00:36:25
Speaker
Right.
00:36:26
Speaker
Because if that person leaves, you lose part of your business.
00:36:29
Speaker
That's true.
00:36:29
Speaker
So you just got to build the systems for it.
00:36:32
Speaker
100%.
00:36:33
Speaker
And yeah, what do you make it kind of like reward based?
00:36:35
Speaker
Like they have to close a certain number of self-gens or be getting their own leads or...
00:36:40
Speaker
I have a different model in terms of the call center guys.
00:36:43
Speaker
I pay them a base salary plus every time we close a deal, they get a commission.
00:36:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:49
Speaker
And that's cool, you know, in Colombia.
00:36:51
Speaker
They have a great living, by the way.
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
I remember me telling my mom because my mom told me when I got here to the States, she was like, just get a job.
00:37:00
Speaker
Like, they pay good enough where you can come back and be at 5 p.m.
00:37:04
Speaker
with your family.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:05
Speaker
And now I told my mom, like, Mom, look at all the families that are, like,
00:37:09
Speaker
Providing for their families from my ambition, you know from my dream just want to do things different Yeah, and so my my closers they got a red line model, right?
00:37:20
Speaker
And the setters they get paid well everything is by volume in fact I came up with this model is really different I have not seen it anywhere else that from one to four appointments they get paid X amount of money
00:37:31
Speaker
From five to nine, X plus Y. And then 10 plus, XYZ.
00:37:37
Speaker
Right?
00:37:38
Speaker
And every single month, it resets.
00:37:41
Speaker
It resets.
00:37:42
Speaker
And by quarter, if they hit the quarterly goal, they start at a lower red line.
00:37:48
Speaker
So it's kind of different.
00:37:49
Speaker
I have never seen it before.
00:37:50
Speaker
I really just came out with it because it keeps people engaged.
00:37:56
Speaker
It's resetting, but it's also rewarding them if they hit the quarterly wall.
00:38:01
Speaker
So it's very different.
00:38:03
Speaker
I like it.
00:38:03
Speaker
It works for us.
00:38:04
Speaker
Yeah, sounds like it's working.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:06
Speaker
And then, I mean, so you have a manager that's just for the call center that's in Columbia managing all these people.
00:38:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:13
Speaker
And then, yeah, I guess the next question is with all these different markets, because you're in what, four?
00:38:18
Speaker
Around five.
00:38:19
Speaker
Five, okay.
00:38:21
Speaker
Because I've seen, matter of fact, I've been with a company who tried to expand quickly before they had good processes

Financial Education and Strategic Investments

00:38:26
Speaker
set up to other markets.
00:38:28
Speaker
So all of a sudden we were in eight markets one year, but then we lost like six of them for the next year.
00:38:32
Speaker
It's so crazy because you've got to time it right.
00:38:35
Speaker
You've got to time it right.
00:38:36
Speaker
And yes, there is many great markets,
00:38:39
Speaker
but you gotta choose your market and learn that market really well before you even go and sell there.
00:38:47
Speaker
And what we do is that we have a two-to-one ratio.
00:38:50
Speaker
Two setters, no matter if it's virtual, you know, the call center, or if they're like door setters, it's two-to-one ratio.
00:38:57
Speaker
That's what we do.
00:38:58
Speaker
And it keeps everybody very accountable for things.
00:39:03
Speaker
Keeps everybody accountable because they had weekly meetings where...
00:39:07
Speaker
They meet with the setters, and okay, brother, I'm not getting enough appointments.
00:39:11
Speaker
We got to ramp that up.
00:39:13
Speaker
And the setters also tell them, what happened with my appointments?
00:39:15
Speaker
I send them to you.
00:39:16
Speaker
So what's going on with that, right?
00:39:19
Speaker
So it's not like a confrontation, but keeps them accountable, and it works.
00:39:26
Speaker
As I said, I mean, I'm an industrial engineer.
00:39:29
Speaker
I have a black belt, not only in karate, but also in Six Sigma, in Six Sigma, which is, you know,
00:39:37
Speaker
quality control and lean manufacturing and improving, simplifying everything.
00:39:43
Speaker
So I have that mentality.
00:39:45
Speaker
How can I simplify processes and develop systems that will manage the people?
00:39:50
Speaker
I'm constantly thinking about that.
00:39:51
Speaker
I try to integrate my knowledge in industrial engineering into sales.
00:39:56
Speaker
It makes it kind of different.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, you've got an awesome background.
00:40:00
Speaker
How many people that have engineer knowledge and stuff like that?
00:40:04
Speaker
Love physics.
00:40:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:05
Speaker
I bet you're really good at selling engineers.
00:40:07
Speaker
Those are like my worst customers.
00:40:09
Speaker
I love it.
00:40:10
Speaker
I explain them like in-depth because that's what they like.
00:40:13
Speaker
I know.
00:40:13
Speaker
I know.
00:40:14
Speaker
And you take a page out of that playbook.
00:40:16
Speaker
I know.
00:40:16
Speaker
Super good stuff.
00:40:18
Speaker
And I know we've got to get back to a few of the speakers here at Door to DoorCon.
00:40:21
Speaker
So just before we kind of wrap up here,
00:40:24
Speaker
Josue, before I forget, where can people connect with you more on social media and maybe ask you more questions if they want to get in touch?
00:40:31
Speaker
100%.
00:40:31
Speaker
They can reach out on Instagram.
00:40:33
Speaker
It's the best place.
00:40:34
Speaker
You can find me at solarenergyceo, Josue, J-O-S-U-E, Phillips.
00:40:41
Speaker
And, yeah, you can reach out to me.
00:40:43
Speaker
Just DM me.
00:40:44
Speaker
I'll reply.
00:40:44
Speaker
Awesome.
00:40:46
Speaker
You can laugh at my content.
00:40:47
Speaker
I make some stupid, funny, mean comments in videos.
00:40:53
Speaker
And I'm just genuine.
00:40:55
Speaker
You know, I don't pretend to be somebody that I'm not.
00:40:59
Speaker
I just like to have fun too, you know.
00:41:00
Speaker
I love it, keeping it real.
00:41:02
Speaker
That's when we need more of that stuff.
00:41:05
Speaker
So, yeah, definitely reach out to Josue.
00:41:06
Speaker
Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show today.
00:41:09
Speaker
And as usual, we'll post all those links and his Instagram in the show notes.
00:41:15
Speaker
Go shoot him a follow, give him a comment and a like.
00:41:18
Speaker
And then last question here, Josue.
00:41:20
Speaker
I knew we were talking before we started the podcast just about how one of the biggest problems โ€“
00:41:25
Speaker
I think we probably both see, especially in solar, there's so much mediocrity, so many people that are not reaching their potential because let's be honest, I mean, one or two deals a month in solar, you're still making decent income.
00:41:37
Speaker
Six figures.
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah, especially.
00:41:39
Speaker
In Texas, two deals a month is six figures anyways.
00:41:43
Speaker
Crazy.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:44
Speaker
Same in California.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:45
Speaker
And so how can solar guys, I know it's a problem you're really trying to solve in everything you do.
00:41:51
Speaker
So what would you suggest?
00:41:52
Speaker
How can guys,
00:41:53
Speaker
like forget about that and focus more on the cells instead of just being complacent with hitting one or two deals a month.
00:42:01
Speaker
I think you have to, something I learned from my mission, and I always go back to that, the basics.
00:42:07
Speaker
You got to,
00:42:08
Speaker
be accountable with yourself, with your goals, with your dreams at the end of the day.
00:42:12
Speaker
You gotta be accountable with your dreams.
00:42:14
Speaker
Sometimes we get detached from the reality because we make so much money in solar.
00:42:20
Speaker
It's easy to get detached from that reality, right?
00:42:25
Speaker
And we just gotta take advantage of every single day we have
00:42:29
Speaker
And make the most out of it something I preach a lot to my reps is that you got to be continuously dissatisfied with your circumstances That that's what made me leave my country paradise freaking Costa Rica to come to the States Following my dreams just because of that ambition just because you have to be continuously dissatisfied with your circumstances
00:42:54
Speaker
and dream bigger.
00:42:56
Speaker
If your dreams are not scaring you, you gotta find better dreams I guess.
00:43:02
Speaker
It's awesome coming from you because I mean close way of old people you could I mean you know you could close one day a month and
00:43:11
Speaker
That would probably be living like a king in Costa Rica, right?
00:43:13
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:16
Speaker
So it's like coming from, you know, of all people that never be satisfied.
00:43:20
Speaker
And you jumped in head first to something that I can't even imagine.
00:43:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:24
Speaker
In

Encouragement to Follow Dreams

00:43:25
Speaker
financial education, Taylor, before we end, it's so key because we make so much money.
00:43:31
Speaker
Remember this.
00:43:31
Speaker
You don't know how longer it's going to last.
00:43:33
Speaker
True.
00:43:34
Speaker
We always got to be optimistic, but we got to play our cards right.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:39
Speaker
and be able to secure our money working for us.
00:43:44
Speaker
At the end of the day, that's what you got to do.
00:43:46
Speaker
Solar is the vehicle for your financial freedom.
00:43:50
Speaker
Play your cards right.
00:43:52
Speaker
Educate yourself because it's not how much money you make, it's how you spend that money at the end of the day.
00:43:58
Speaker
So true.
00:43:59
Speaker
And on that note, shout out to our sponsors, Pi Syndicate, who can help you more with the financial piece of it if you do need help with that.
00:44:07
Speaker
But love what you said, Josue, and follow your dreams.
00:44:10
Speaker
Go chase after, you know, what you deserve.
00:44:13
Speaker
Don't be complacent.
00:44:15
Speaker
And yeah, I think that's a good way to end it.
00:44:17
Speaker
Anything you want to share before we wrap up here, Josue?
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah, I want to say that you have to follow your dreams.
00:44:28
Speaker
You got to be sure that that's what you want, because if that's not what you want, you're going to drop it really quick.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
but you gotta wish it with all your heart and then go work for it.
00:44:39
Speaker
Sometimes we just talk too much and do little.
00:44:42
Speaker
So action is better than a bunch of planning.
00:44:46
Speaker
And that also applies in engineering.
00:44:48
Speaker
It's like, how can I just plan simple, quick, smart, and then engage into actions and into things that are gonna bring me closer to actually making that happen.
00:45:01
Speaker
So don't spend too much time on planning.
00:45:05
Speaker
It got to be 5% and then executing 95%.
00:45:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:09
Speaker
And a lot of people, they can say what they want to do, but they're not prepared to execute and do what it needs to actually happen.
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:18
Speaker
Great point.
00:45:19
Speaker
Well, Josue, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:45:20
Speaker
Again, go shoot Josue a comment, a like.
00:45:23
Speaker
Let him know he appreciated him coming on.
00:45:25
Speaker
And hopefully we'll have you on someday for a follow-up and keep crushing out there.
00:45:29
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on the show.
00:45:30
Speaker
Let's do it, brother.
00:45:31
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:45:32
Speaker
I really appreciate it.
00:45:34
Speaker
Appreciate it, dude.
00:45:36
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:45:38
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?
00:45:47
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:46:00
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:46:10
Speaker
And it's called Solciety.
00:46:12
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors and
00:46:20
Speaker
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.
00:46:32
Speaker
Currently, Soul Society is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:46:38
Speaker
So go to soulcidey.co to learn more.
00:46:42
Speaker
and join the learning experience now.
00:46:46
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to solosiety.co and join.
00:46:53
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.