How this Couple Built a Massive Sales Empire from Scratch!

In this electrifying episode of Solar Sales Uncensored, we pull back the curtains on the world of solar sales recruitment with our special guests, Rob and Raysa Santiago. This powerhouse couple catapulted from solar sales novices to industry leaders in just one year, crafting an empire of over 400 strong, dedicated sales consultants. Their story is a masterclass in resilience, innovation, and sheer determination.

Join us as we delve into their journey, navigating uncharted territory with zero prior experience and emerging as solar sales titans. The Santiagos reveal the strategies behind their meteoric rise, sharing invaluable insights into their unique recruitment process, the challenges they faced, and how they transformed these obstacles into opportunities for growth.

Learn how the Santiagos harnessed the power of social media, turning it into a recruitment goldmine and marketing powerhouse. They'll share their secrets to mastering the digital sphere, and how they built a formidable online presence that attracted top talent from all corners of the globe.

Discover how this dynamic duo run a predominantly virtual sales operation, maintaining team cohesion and motivation while leveraging cutting-edge technology. Their story is not just about building a successful business, but about pioneering a new way of working in the solar industry.

Whether you're a seasoned solar professional or just starting out, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in and get ready to be inspired, educated, and equipped to conquer your own solar sales journey. The Santiago's story is a testament to what's possible with grit, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of success - don't miss out on this exclusive insight into their solar sales odyssey!

Transcript

Aaron Browning: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of Solar Sales Uncensored. I am your host, Aaron Browning and I am fired up for today's episode. I have my good friends, I have my business partners Mr. Rob and Rea Santiago. This has been in the works, by the way, cuz these two, this is a power couple. And you're gonna hear me say that phrase a lot.

They are moving, they are shaken, they are disrupting the solar industry. I don't care what company you're with. I'm sure you have seen them. You have seen them present on stage to thousands. You have seen their social media game. But today's episode is called How This Power Couple built a Massive Sales Empire from Scratch, and I wanna be clear on that My friends.

From scratch, zero Solar experience a year ago. They have a sales force, a sales organization of over 400 strong without me stealing their thunder. Rob Resa, how the heck are you, my friends?

Rob: Man. Good morning. What's going

Aaron Browning: morning. Good morning. [00:01:00] Everything going well in your world?

Rob: I like that intro. I was ready to turn my camera off and just start air punching

Aaron Browning: I love it. I love it. I'll make sure I'll send it to you, but everything I said is true guys. It's deserved. You guys are shaking this industry up. If you guys don't mind, take 60 seconds or so each and give your background. Maybe one of you do it completely up to you.

Just a little bit more about your family, what you guys did and how you got introduced to solar.

Rob: My queen, get ahead. Take it away. She knows

Raysa Santiago: right, 

Track 1: ladies

Raysa Santiago: so Hi everybody. My name is Ray. So Santiago we first got introduced into the solar industry. I believe it was like May, 2021. But we really didn't take it serious because we were building another business. We were top leaders, top income earners in our, in in that company. And so we had over 5,000 people on that team. So we were really busy and although we really loved the concept of the solar industry, it was just something that we couldn't do at the time. But it wasn't until June, 2022 where we really caught the vision. We saw a neighbor of ours go solar. Rob [00:02:00] got on my case about it.

He's aren't you in that solar company? And it really shifted our mindset and I really will say that's really the time that we said, let's do this. Let's take it all the way. We did a 90 day run and we're still riding that way from that 90 day run.

Aaron Browning: That's a reoccurring thing by the way. I hear leaders say that all the time. By the way, a little pet peeve of mine, and this is not for you two, and you guys never heard me say this. I think 90 day run can be overused cuz most leaders don't actually do it. You guys actually did, right? I see so many people throwing it around where they buckled down.

In fact, by the way I don't wanna say it. What does a 90 day run? Do you guys like, what

Track 1: Some people claim a 90 day run. It's more like, Two weeks

Raysa Santiago: But they don't do it.

Track 1: they'll put in two weeks of the effort, but a true 90 day run. And what my mentors have taught me is you can do a couple real 90 day runs in your career. If you really do it right properly and dedicate those 90 days, put it in 16 hour days like me and my wife and our previous company we talk about [00:03:00] 90 days, what we did here in this platform.

We were able to bring in 150 people in those 90 days. I'm talking about event after event webinar to in person phone call, meeting, late night, early morning, full dedication, conversation with the family prior, letting them know, prepping them for what's happening, keeping all the distractions out, and really staying on track for those 90 days.

Putting the work in.

Aaron Browning: Yeah. See, that's my definition. It's you're giving everything else up to focus on whatever that, that blitz is, that 90 day run for that company. You're locked and loaded. If I were to ask your kids what's happening right now, like they know, right? I love that you said that. It's a hundred percent you gotta get buy-in versus some people, and I'm sure you guys would agree that it's just overused.

Oh, I'm our 19 run. I recruited one person this month. What? Come on man. Get outta here. That is,

Raysa Santiago: day run. The result you, by the results. 

Aaron Browning: You should. You should for sure. Maybe not the first month. Especially if they're new. We gotta pivot and coach and train by month, two, month three, 100%. I'll take anybody. If they're willing to give [00:04:00] 16 hours a day to whatever their mission is, oh my gosh.

You're gonna have success. I totally agree. You mentioned a previous company. I, obviously, I know this story well, so I do want to touch on this. You guys crushed that other company. And we're gonna do our best, you guys know our fan base here. We tried not to use company names with the best intention.

Sometimes it slips up. That company ran through some hardships and so that was your lifeline, that was your income. So you guys were forced to pivot a little bit if we're being transparent. Is that

Track 1: Correct.

Raysa Santiago: that's

Aaron Browning: you wanna touch on that?

Raysa Santiago: They ran into some hardships where basically the company was shut down and we were making about 30, 40, sometimes $50,000 a month. So yeah, when our back was against the

wall, when 

Aaron Browning: that louder for the people in the back. You were making How much a month.

Raysa Santiago: anywhere between 30 to 50,000 a month. And we went from that to zero. So then it was like, okay, where, what industry can we make this kind of income again and fast? And that's where, the solar industry came into play with us and we were [00:05:00] like, Hey, we already know the sales aspect of it. We just obviously have to learn the solar game, like you said, from scratch. But that's really what put our back against the wall. And we had to do that 90 day run. We ha we just had to.

Aaron Browning: Yeah I love that you guys said it and I was intentional with that question cause I wanna make sure that there are people out listening. A big part of our audience by the way are people who have one toe into the solar space. Like they're thinking about it. They maybe have a sales background, maybe even brand new to sales, just so you guys know.

And so I think it's important. I personally think sometimes when you're forced. It gets the best reaction out of us versus if you guys, and let's be honest if that income didn't slow down, I know it's back now, but if it didn't slow down, I don't know if you'd be here today.

I really don't.

Track 1: Correct. Correct.

Raysa Santiago: Exactly

Track 1: God's plan.

Aaron Browning: I'm sorry.

Track 1: I said God's plan. It was.

Aaron Browning: By the way. We'll say that a lot too. You didn't, you weren't saying that right then

Track 1: Yeah,

Aaron Browning: right Then it's 

Track 1: happened we was like, why, what's going on? It was like, what the hell, what? We go from making 30,000 in a month to zero and still have all the expenses. [00:06:00] Our business stopped coming in. Our we were car allowance. Recipients in our company as well. Six figure earners in our company.

And not only the income and what personally happened to us, but our teams, we were leading a team of 5,000 people. So if it's shut down for us and it did an impact on us, now we are looking for a solution for other families. Us not being able to sleep at night knowing that a single mom didn't have a check coming this week when she expected it and she left her job because of what we showed her.

We walked her into entrepreneurship and now, that's just an example of what happened. So we had to think on our feet and God put, that platform in our hands prior to that happening. So we were involved in the company, we just had one to win, like you said. But when we put both of our feet in, oh, it's game on, and now a year later, looking back, first of all, I can't believe the 12 months passed that.

Fast snap. And now we're multiple six figure earners on this platform. And I'm excited about [00:07:00] where it's going. It's just no experience whatsoever. And now the team is just building up. It's getting crazy.

Aaron Browning: I love that. 

Raysa Santiago: I wanna touch on that if I can real quick, Aaron,

because I think it's important for people to know this too. So not only are we at zero, so I want to like just the mind space of where this happened. We are having all of these emotions in the background, right?

We feel like we were mourning a loss.

We lost our team teens. Were jumping to other companies, people close to us that we mentored and coached for three or four years, all of a sudden act like they don't know us anymore. People that we created that we help build to six figure earners that don't even talk to us right now. And I think that. You have to be so strong in that moment because we knew what we had to do and run this 90 day run. And it was more than income. It was the emotions that were going on, the things that were happening, the things that we were seeing. You gotta be strong to be like, let me build another team. Cuz to be honest with you, we didn't wanna build another team.

Aaron Browning: [00:08:00] We're gonna, we're gonna touch on that because you're a hundred percent right. A any leaders or even aspiring leaders. If you think, and I don't care if you guys decide to partner with us, and that's not even what this is about. If you think you only have to build something once and you're done, that, that is unicorns like that is the stuff dreams are made of leaders in this space.

If you're big about team building you're building multiple times. Multiple times. Most people listening would've quit.

Track 1: Oh.

Aaron Browning: You built this up, you bled for it for years. You have this lifestyle, you have the bills, and now it's taken from you and it wasn't their fault. Like you wanna talk about most people going into victim mode.

right? They didn't, they said, we gotta pivot the other thing too, and I know none of this is scripted and most people don't know that this is the truth. Another thing I love about you guys, and you guys just indirectly touched on this and I wanna bring it up cause I don't know other leaders talking about it.

Every company I've ever been affiliated with the people above you the people in the hierarchy, whatever you want to call it, leadership tree whatever that company's labeled, they always only want you focusing on one thing. And I've said it for years. Yet, if you peel [00:09:00] the onion back, the curtain back on their businesses, they have multiple income streams.

At least I hope so. All my mentors do, but yet they don't talk about it. They want their team just focusing on one. And what I love about you guys is I see a lot of your team, I'm friends with them, they're talking about the multiple businesses they own, and it's encouraged. And I think that's freaking refreshing guys.

God forbid something happened with what we're currently doing. We don't know. We, there's so many things out of our control. To be able to have another leg of your business with money flowing in is game changing. So I applaud the two of you for being open-minded about that. Cause I don't think it's talked about enough in our community.

Track 1: Honestly, if we weren't open-minded about it, we wouldn't be where we're at right now, so think about it, we, that we were hanging on to our company as long as possible, loyalty, everything was there, but at a certain point in time, our hand is forced. We had to go a certain route. And thank God we were open-minded to say, guess what?

There is another, there are other platforms out there that you can earn a 20, $30,000 a month income still from home. We were able to transition and still live our lifestyle. It took a work, [00:10:00] right? Those 90 days, there wasn't really money coming in cuz we were building that pipeline. But within our first, I think our first month in the business we didn't make anything.

Our second month, we probably made like two, 3000. Third month it jumped up to 15, and then for Christmas, we were ending at $30,000 a month, again, within six months. So being able to leverage a second platform like that, it just keeps us open minded. And of course we encourage multiple streets, but people take that wrong too, don't be a jack of all trades. You have to master that craft. Like we were in the business for five years and mastered it before we stepped into the real estate space, before we stepped into the. Solar space. And now our goal and our focus is to master solar, master the industry and roofing and everything else that comes a apart of it, and to be able to now continue to build on and make additional streams, God forbid, we gotta do so much damage in the solar industry. Everybody gonna have solar at one point. So what can we do? What's and [00:11:00] some of our leaders tell us that, what are the biggest things that we're gonna make the most money on, we haven't even invented yet.

Aaron Browning: I know. So crazy.

Cra not you're on the platform yet, man.

Track 1: yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Browning: love that. So something else you said I wanna echo cause I wanna make sure it wasn't lost and I appreciate you cleaning up what I was trying to say. It's what I call business synergy. If you're going to add additional income streams, and I actually encourage it.

I really do. And I know you guys do as well to have it, to have some sort of business synergy to where it feeds off. What your main nuts gonna be, your main business, your main flow. So in real estate, many know my background yeah. We became partners in a roofing company, partners in H V A C.

It was normal partner partners in a staging company because we were feeding them business. , so it wasn't a distraction. The other piece with that, I'm very careful when I go to mentors and I get advice if their decision ef if your decision affects their bottom line. I wanna believe the best at everybody, but sometimes that judgment could be skewed a little bit and that happened to me.

It really did. Something else you said, I think it was RAA in the beginning. You were a part of solar for a little bit longer than a year. You hadn't [00:12:00] done anything with it until the last year. And that's part of what we said. We're being transparent with that. But you mentioned that a neighbor going solar, you said it quickly.

I cause a lot of us are motivated by pain versus pleasure. I did catch that. I wanna make sure the audience catches that. What does that mean? They went solar with you guys. I'm sure they went solar rob, right? Oh, what happened? Sorry, Rob.

Raysa Santiago: so we had, we, our neighbor bought our house, their house at the same time we bought our house and both of them were projects, like these houses were built in the 1970s. Nev have not had anything changed since then.

We're talking about Rooster tiles and stuff. So like they were rebuilding their house at the same, we literally bought at the same time rebuilding.

So we built a relationship with them two, three months of in and out sweat. And we wake up one morning after everything obviously is done and we're having coffee and we see a different truck in their driveway adding solar. And it wasn't with us. And it was then that Rob was like, aren't you in that solar thing?

Like, how much did you say that was?

Track 1: Okay.

Raysa Santiago: And yeah, that, that really woke us up for sure.[00:13:00] 

Aaron Browning: Let's, this is uncensored. How much commission did you lose on that deal?

Track 1: Seven, eight grand.

Aaron Browning: Yep.

Track 1: Yeah.

Raysa Santiago: to $8,000

Track 1: They still heard from 

Raysa Santiago: And mind you, that's in that moment where we were tight, that's

Aaron Browning: oh, that's true.

Raysa Santiago: That, so that

was, that became the pivot. That was the

Aaron Browning: true that's seven or eights more like a 2025 in

Track 1: And correction. And correction because that now that we helped that client and made seven, 8,000, how many referrals would have come from that? So how much really did we lose? If you really look at the numbers, but it was a hard time and in our career it was a more of a test to the testimony, and that timeframe. And we didn't take it as a loss. We took it as a lesson. We're like, look I'm gonna get a lesson from the 7,000, but we learned, so we're not gonna let it happen again.

Raysa Santiago: correct.

Aaron Browning: audience, I hope you're picking up the clues that they're leaving, right? They had another chance to be a victim. This solar thing, it wasn't for us. The neighbor went with someone else, and it's God telling me what, whatever the story is, right? But no, they said that was on me. That was on me. I didn't have the conversation like, oh my gosh, my neighbor, now I gotta look at it.

Every, [00:14:00] sorry guys. Now I gotta look at it every day and know I lost it. other thing Rob just said, this is how leaders talk, my friends, this is important. It wasn't just the seven or 8,000, he future casted it. Because that's something we'll talk about later in this episode about how they're getting referrals from clients, right?

That's you. It's a lot of lost money. Lot of lost money, man. And I don't mean to put salt on that, but it's important. We stayed in real estate too. You gotta lose a dealer too. Some people are a little dense, maybe. Maybe it's a dozen. Before you really start to have those uncomfortable conversations, let people know what

Track 1: It take a hard kick in the ass to wake up. Sometimes, and most of the time it's financially. When you take the fi the financial boot is one of the steel toes. And once it kicks you, you don't wanna be in that situation again. Me and my wife looked at each other, we're like, we came from the bottom and we worked our way up here and we got a steel toe in the knee.

But it's okay. We understand what this is about. We've done this before, let's get into it. And God is good man. We've been able to do some great things over the year with that.

Aaron Browning: That's awesome guys. Really cool. Let's take a deep dive on recruiting for a little bit. Obviously that's part of how [00:15:00] we all got started. That's our, I tell people all the time, it's my love language. I love team building. I love leverage. It is my passion. I know it is for you guys.

Talk to me about like, when you saw this model with our company you guys had a choice to make. You can go all in our sales. And by the way, if you did that, you're not having a zero that first month if we're keeping it real. Or you can do what I call the hybrid model where you know the future and you're also building an organization, but also gotta sell.

Kind of talk about your mindset on that.

Raysa Santiago: I'll let Rob answer this because

it, I'll let you answer it only because you are the one that really. Started building the team by like just by default.

Aaron Browning: Love it.

Track 1: Again, I'm my wife's first recruit, I say I, I recruit. I recruited her, right? I'm the master recruiter. Shout out to the wife. But I'm her first agent. And and then, what we learned in our prior company is you could do a hundred percent of your efforts. So when we first came into this, we weren't thinking about building a team.

We, we just suffered a divorce, together that, that was tough. And we were like, man, now to build another team of 5,000 people and go [00:16:00] through everything that we've gone through. And this platform, we can self-produce and we don't have to do that. We could go out there and just leverage our network and build a team, and build our income personally.

But we understand as leaders and as leverage, and building the building opportunity and a platform that's early in its early stages. When we got into our last company, I think there was less than 16,000 people in that company. And when we left there was over 150,000 and we had five to 6,000 of those people.

So understanding this platform and it's, it is in the beginning stages. We're gonna have a huge real estate portion of the business, even if we don't wanna do it. Like right now, I'm looking at it like, man, even if I don't wanna do it, it's gonna build massive wealth going this route. It's an additional stream of income.

That's where the real freedom lies. It's by going out there and duplicating what you can do throughout other people and and duplicating [00:17:00] or I, I've heard this used by another mentor. Residual impact instead of income. Now it's, we're blessing that family. We got single moms that made three, $4,000 during hardship.

I don't want to keep that from them as a leader. . So we always recruiting, and I don't look at it as recruiting. I'm blessing people right now. People are looking for opportunity. Gallons of milk is $6 right now. A car. The eggs is eight bucks. People, water. All of these things, just the what we need to live on.

People need help. Me and my wife look at each other all the time, like how they surviving right now. So this, these platforms and this opportunity. I talk with everybody, and, but strategically as well, I want to talk with the people who have big teams that have influence and know how to play the game.

The end palm, right? That newest possibility of momentum and bring them into this platform. And they got, let's talk about the Aaron Brownings, that they got a network of people and. Bringing, 50 to a hundred [00:18:00] agents in, into an organization in a short period of time.

Those are the people that you're looking for. But you gotta filter through those apples, right? You're gonna, you gotta filter through to, to sort for those leaders. You're gonna run through a lot of people who are technically not gonna do shit with the platform. They're going to sign up and be a gym member and never go work out, but you find that leader. And you tap into that network, show 'em the value, and it's, that's how you start building. I'm getting myself in front of everybody. I'm exposing online, offline. Either way, if I'm bringing,

Aaron Browning: You keep flowing, man. You dropped a lot of bombs right there. So I wanted dissect some of this man. The and by the way, for those watching on the YouTube the video portion of this, I was teasing. I couldn't help it. I knew I was, people getting, Joan it's all good. The minute he starts talking like that, I just love it.

It gets me jacked. There is something magical about getting a check, whatever your company, how they pay it. Ours is on Fridays. And you look to your wife, your spouse, and you're like, where'd that deposit come from? Because you don't know. I don't care how small it is magical.

And I, like I [00:19:00] said, I'm cheese and like a little kid. It's amazing. I remember my first time at exp, very similar model. We were actually in Iceland for the summer. My wife's Icelandic, we were there. All of a sudden we're waking up to daily deposit. I said, what in God's name is this? I didn't even know what it was.

Cause we were so new. It changed my whole life.

Track 1: It changed cause and honestly, there was two wake up periods in our career in solar so far. One was the neighbor going solar. That was like, Rob, let's go. That was a kick. The next one, my wife's birthday, love to take her to Dominican Republic. It's one of our favorite places. And. Again, this is the difference between building and not building.

Cuz we could have just self-produced and closed on some deals coming in, but we got some override checks during her birthday that added up to almost eight grand, nine grand on the way to Dominican Republic for her birthday. And we chose to take a week off, Hey team, look right now, this is the week we're offline.

And we still had that money come in and we're looking at each other on the plane like, We just made [00:20:00] eight, nine grand on override money. No self production.

Aaron Browning: Yep.

Track 1: This wasn't any self production money, it was a override check. We gotta keep building this thing out cuz it's gonna get, we gonna, we gotta add more zeros to this, it's gonna keep going.

Aaron Browning: it. Yeah. Facts. And for once again, those listening who, who think recruiting is a bad word. I get it. I was there. I was there. Totally. There it is. Freedom. It is freedom. I hope all the solar pros listen to this, that you guys wanna sell, guys and gal, excuse me, wanna sell solar for the rest of your lives.

That'd be cool. My job as a leader, their job as a leader is to give you options so that if you wanna retire in five years, 10 years, 20, you decide that how about here to put pressure on you, your income your passive income has surpassed what you were actually producing yourself. It gives you choices.

We joke in real estate. I've never been invited to a realtors retirement party, ever. They don't retire. 

Raysa Santiago: Then I'm 

Aaron Browning: don't retire. They're slinging homes until they're 80. Solar pros. It's the same thing. This is real estate. 25 years ago, I've already been there. I know how the movie ends. If you're not doing something, say

Track 1: not [00:21:00] recruiting. Every company recruits. Everybody recruits even in relationship, is a recruit. Like you gotta completely shift your mindset on that word or that vocabulary. Like I look at it as in a relationship you're looking for a wife or you looking for a husband. The military, McDonald's or every business is hiring.

They're recruiting somebody, and with the help of good recruits, the business grows. And the more good recruits that you bring on and the core values add up and everybody's doing their thing, that business continues to flourish. So why try to do all the work by yourself when you can have a per 1% of a hundred people's effort, and it just starts to build out that way.

Aaron Browning: The other thing you're recruiting, let's change the mindset. And you bring up a great point, Rob. One of my favorite books, it's somewhere behind me seller Be Sold. It changed my life. Changed my life. I never viewed it like that. Grant Cardone, for those of you who don't know, but he talks about we're selling or buying every single thing we do with your kids.

Hey, son, do you want broccoli or you want carrots? No I want french fries. If I gave him french fries I bought what he sold me. Or if he chose broccoli or carrots, he bought what I sold him. It happens all day long. We deal with their spouses. [00:22:00] We do it at school, we do it at work. We're constantly doing it.

The other thing Rob said and this is something I teach all the time I'm not as strong as Rob, I'm not as strong as race. So they got this mindset. They're on a different level guys. They really are. I have to I gotta get uncomfortable every day when I recruit. It's not my natural thing.

I get uncomfortable. I got big freaking goals. I got a family counting on me. I got dreams, right? And so I use that. The thing I tell myself every single day before I pick up that 10 pound weight known as a phone, hopefully somebody can relate, right? Is who do I know right now that is either overworked or underpaid? Guys, I'll be, I know one person that doesn't meet that, those two questions, every person I know is either overworked or they're underpaid. I know people in solar right now making 200 grand a month, but they haven't had a day off in 18 months.

Track 1: Correct.

Aaron Browning: Think about it. And so that's the story I'm constantly telling myself, who can I bless to steal Rob and race his vocat?

I love that. And so once again, if you change the meaning around the word recruitment, recruiting, I think it changes everything. Let's talk about some of the struggles. Having a massive organization of over 400 sellers, agents Salesforce, whatever you wanna label it, [00:23:00] depending on the company you're at, is, do you guys wake up every single day?

And it's freaking amazing.

Track 1: Nah, 

Raysa Santiago: No 

Aaron Browning: No I don't.

Raysa Santiago: I.

Track 1: likes and butterflies, but I'll let my wife touch on this one.

Raysa Santiago: up. Yeah. I woke up to a four minute voice note from someone on the team today. And yeah, it wasn't pleasant. So no, not every day is great. But I had to learn how to shift my mindset into every problem is more of an opportunity or how can. I solve this and teach people how to solve as well.

So I've had to shift my mindset cuz sometimes I really wanna be like, turn off my phone and be like, figure it out like I had to. in my career because when we were starting too, we had those struggles of not knowing what to do. It's just a reality of building something from scratch.

And I, I do realize that a lot of people do run into that, but it's definitely not [00:24:00] all peaches and unicorns building a team. It is very challenging. And we see a lot of things when it

Aaron Browning: Yeah. I think and I appreciate you guys being honest on that. I know it's somewhat a rhetorical question but as leaders, we don't talk enough about that. And honestly, I think a lot of times our subconscious is so strong that sometimes we don't do something because of the what ifs.

And I, so my fear, and the reason I bring that up is some people are thinking I, gosh, I, I get that they're doing that. They're great personalities, but my phone would blow up if I had 400 people calling me every day. Yeah, it does. It absolutely does. One of my mentors years ago taught me and something that changed my life.

Again, the size of the problems that we're solving is direct proportion of the amount of income we're bringing in from it. And so I love what Racer just said. I look at problems as opportunity. Same thing. I'm like, oh, that's a small problem. That's gonna be a small paycheck. I need bigger ones, bigger problems.

And when I do that, once again, I don't always mean it but it's changing my mindset about it. So now I'm training myself to welcome it. I'm a problem solver. The other thing that Rob said Rob,

Track 1: Yeah, I was gonna mention something too. And again, another mentor had taught me, he said this [00:25:00] recently, and he was like, look, when you want more strength, they'll add more weight to you. And when you, and you want to become more knowledgeable, they're gonna add more problems. So you could become a problem solver.

So you have to go through those stages. We, you, we had to learn how to have a team of 20. to build into a team of 50 to build into a team of a hundred, to a thousand to 5,000. There was certain milestones and transitions, every level, new level, new devil, so being, yeah, being able to continue a, again, the top is sweet, it's beautiful, but you going up there with scratches and bruises, it's not meant for everybody.

A lot of people turn back halfway up the hill. Or they don't even start at all. They quit before they get started. So seeing being able to grow into that, growing into a leader and helping people become leaders, that's one of the hardest parts about what we do. Not only are we therapists, Now we are, we, counselors and we do all of the above, but it's really helping, [00:26:00] that next person break through life, whatever that may be.

And it's not meant for everybody. Not everybody is built to be a mentor and a coach. Some people are built to be very good students. And, but it is a beautiful feeling when you do find that student that becomes a teacher, and now, how fulfilling is that? It might have been a thousand people that, calling you every day and you want to throw the phone against the wall.

But that one success story when you know that mom is made 10 grand this month, or that agent walked away from corporate America because of something that we showed them that's, that makes it all worth it, 

Aaron Browning: I get goosebumps. It's powerful that that's really the mission and the vision behind what we do. Something else Rob said earlier and this is gonna stink some people, but it's all good. It's uncensored. He talks about filtering and having to go through some numbers. You, we don't know who's gonna show up.

I tell people all the time, that's God's, that's God's choice. That's God's decision. My job's to point him in the right direction of what I believes to promised land, whether or not they show up is up to them. But something I say all the time and [00:27:00] I get pushback for it. I am a business coach, not a life coach. Facts. Not saying we're not friends with everybody, but I, especially during my hours of nine to five when I bleed, sweat and chase my dreams and chase those on the team I'm here to talk about business. And so I, I share that because when you're recruiting at the level that the three of us are recruiting, we can be selective.

I let someone go this week, true story. It's only Tuesday I let someone go. Every time we got on the phone, I think I met him on YouTube. Sharp guy would've loved him, but every time it was a two hour conversation. I don't have the bandwidth to do it. So God bless him. I hope he joins our company.

He's gonna go under another leader that has more band. That's just not, that's not my audience, that's not my niche. I want business people. I want people who are driven, right? I want conversations like this. And so I'd love to get, do you guys have an audience? Do you have your ideal prospect of who you're looking for, who you speak well, who you vibe with, who you want in your tribe, if you will.

Raysa Santiago: Yeah. So I feel like you attract your tribe. So

for me, I, before becoming an entrepreneur and the racer that everyone knows now, I was [00:28:00] bankrupt, broke, broken, went through a divorce just struggling. Slept, slept on an air mattress with my son in an empty house because we have to sell everything in it.

I feel like that's my audience. My audience is like there's women out there that have children that have that extra strength, right? No offense to all the guys, but there's just something about a mom that wants to provide

that I think is it's literally an A battery. It's literally a battery that you cannot turn off, and that's who I speak to when I'm looking at my audience, who is a mom out there that's struggling, single mom, divorce. Maybe looking at their last dollar and their bank account because there's just something about that strength that I can relate to. And when they turn that around and they use that strength and they use that, why it's so powerful. And so I like to attract that type of tribe, and I truly believe that with that strength and just that battery, you could do [00:29:00] anything.

You could do solar, you could

do, obviously I would want you to do solar with me, but. It's really just about making a decision to not stay where you are, and I think that's the audience that I like to attract the most, or that I attract the most through what I've been through.

Aaron Browning: I wanna give one caveat and then Rob, I wanna hear yours. It's probably a different audience. I'd imagine the by the way, audience, people listening, you could tell like she leaned in for those watching on camera. Like she, she knows her audience, her tribe. The only caveat, I don't wanna say I disagree with her cause I agree with everything she said.

How you attract your tribe. You attract your tribe when you know who your tribe is, when you're authentic and she's authentic with that. She shared some accountability, some vulnerability, living in a car. Like that's real life selling everything, right? So when sh because she's willing to do that and we're gonna talk about, she's willing to do that on social, by the way.

Which is so badass. So badass. She is attracting that. So I think so often though, we had tried, we as aspiring leaders, we try to talk to everybody. And therefore you talk to nobody.

Raysa Santiago: Correct.

Aaron Browning: Like I, I'm ultra in your face. Like I'm not a, I'm not a life coach. I sh people leave because of that. Oh, I [00:30:00] can't call Aaron for per no, that's not my job.

That's not what I'm here. And so I attract that audience. What about you, Rob? Who's your ideal?

Track 1: Man. And I look for people like myself, like I, I'm looking for another route, man. A young hungry.

Aaron Browning: Me too.

Track 1: Humble 

Raysa Santiago: Me too. 

Track 1: for people that are just willing to play the game, coachable. Those are the things that we look for. People that are hungry, coachable, willing to take the bat in their hands and swing it.

And not, fearless. Like I, I could go down the list of people that I look for, but. Ah, I'm looking for that person that really wants it. And there could be so many different categories. Cause I'm the only child of a single mom and I grew up, I was raised by all women. So some of the audience that talk about, I also tap into, just on a male perspective, I, there are women raising kings out there.

My mom is the only child. I'm the only child from my mom. She's a cancer survivor, so that was big. I, obviously when it comes to that as touching our son has autism, so that's another group of families that we've noticed [00:31:00] so much currently right now that is really impacting families.

We've met people and bartenders, we've met two bartenders recently. On the same shift. And both of their daughters and their daughters were autistic. So the, that's another audience and family and, fathers teaching guys how to be kings. We've lost that. Right now husbands like, I, the way I treat my wife, the way I treat people, I'm looking at that's something that I really look at is how you treat people, because of how you treat people and you show me how you treat people.

I know we can do business together. So those are some of the things that I look for sure in the leadership when we're look, when we're sorting through those people.

Aaron Browning: Love it once again. Audience. Do you think he just made that up? Was that fluff? No. Like goosebumps. Like once again he knows who is ideal candidate? Ideal prospect is, let's pivot a little bit. I know we're up against it. You guys are both so busy. But one topic I do wanna spend a little bit of time on is social media.

Y you guys kill it. In fact you're famous inside of our company on the social media game [00:32:00] that you guys do. Let's talk about specifically to kick it off. How do you, the two of you, and I'd like to hear both of your answer if you don't mind, cause I think they're different again. But how do the two of you leverage social media to recruit, to attract top talent?

So not sales yet, but like recruiting people. How are you using social media to do that?

Raysa Santiago: I think primarily if I was to boil it down into one word, it's consistency. It's just a consistency of showing up every day for your business. And of course we can talk about branding and we could talk about this. But more importantly, I feel. That my audience knows who I am. They know exactly what type of person I am, that, I love to give back that I love to help people, that I like to empower. And that is something that you can show on social media very easily, right? And people actually feel that genuineness from you. But more importantly is just. Constantly showing up. And actually meeting some of the people I've met, people online. And then I'm like, Hey, are you local?

Let's have a coffee. Or are you [00:33:00] networking here? And. There's nothing like that in person vibe, so you always wanna try to take it off even if it's through a Zoom if they're not local. And I think that's what's really helped us build an audience to where they're comfortable even referring us to anyone in their network.

And then we take those people and take 'em from online to offline. So I think it's just been. The consistency of just showing up and really being genuine and building these relationships that has helped us. And social media is an avenue that you could do that easily. Like you could use it in a wrong way or you could use it the right way.

Aaron Browning: Love that. By the way, real quick, Rob, I'll come to you a second. How many friends do you have on Facebook?

Raysa Santiago: Five, I'm at the limit. 5,000?

Aaron Browning: so I didn't, I knew, but I didn't know. Cause like we, we never talked about it. I wanna give a life hack, right? Uncensored. I teach this all the time. The three of us do on our trainings. If you are on Facebook, you are in sales, recruiting, whatever you're doing, you own a business and that's probably why you're listening to us today.

And you're not maxed out at 5,000 friends. You failed. I'm being honest. I'm being transparent. You failed. [00:34:00] They put a cap on it. I wish to God they didn't let's figure that part out. Mark. If you listen, let's raise that. But think what? Go join. Go join groups like go get purposeful. It is free marketing.

They go on Facebook and they're making these posts, they're making stories, reels, whatever it is and they're sharing wisdom and nuggets and inspiring people. If you are only inspiring a hundred, cuz that's where you capture yourself at, you're missing it. It's free. Like free people 20 years ago would've killed for that thing.

What do you mean? It's huge. Anyway, sorry. I, like I said I wanna make sure people aren't sleeping on that. Rob. Rob, what about you? Social media, recruiting,

Track 1: we've built, I would say my wife could correct me, probably 85% of our business through social media. And it's.

Aaron Browning: certain platform where you would say most of that comes from?

Track 1: I use multiple now, but like in the beginning stages, Facebook was always a great platform for me. A majority of the time Instagram we've built over time.

I think we've had more success on the Facebook platform than the Instagram. I've used the Snapchat, I've done the [00:35:00] clubhouse calls I've done, WhatsApp. Some people are international. We got, there's so many. The TikTok blew up. They're like, you never know. And one thing about social media is just being relatable.

Like you, you have to, people are gonna do business with people who they like, they trust and they're like them. I want people to know that I, I wasn't a straight A student, I struggled growing up. I did, I didn't do the best things. Again, being an only child, going through the cancer process with my mom seeing my wife struggle with depression and anxiety, but still build a six figure business and being a autistic mother and like all of that we share that, a lot of people like, oh, that's my personal life, but it is our testimony.

Someone is looking forward to seeing that. It's putting hope into 'em, and that turns into to action. I've, we, me and my wife get people all the time that are like, if it wasn't for your posting and you'd give it, showing me that there's a way out, like [00:36:00] there's people on the verge are committing suicide right now.

There's people like, it's, it is deeper than just business, and then after a while when people see you show up consistently, you are reliable. You're someone that they can trust. They know that RA's gonna motivate them somehow. They know that not every day is gonna be a bright and shiny day.

One of the days we gonna post about our struggles. One of the days we gonna post about our successes, and it's not to brag, it's to just show y'all four or five years ago we was dead broke. And now because we put our foot on the gas onto some of these platforms, that we stood consistent. People seen us transition to Deborah.

From that brook to where we're at now, and now I get customers all this I was talking to her about this yesterday. I had a a referral come in yesterday from someone who I worked with at Amscot when I was 18, 19 years old, and have I been using social media? And they seen the difference.

They seen the growth in me, and [00:37:00] that's what they said. Rob, I've seen you grow so much. You've been so consistent. I remember you. F bombing F this, fuck that shit, this shit that. And now I'm professional. Now I know how to speak in front of a camera. Now I can speak in front of thousands of people and I document it.

I showed people that I was in the Bank of America cubicle at one time that wasn't even bigger than this office here, to being able to travel and do something that 95% of people were scared to do. They're scared to talk. They're scared to be vulnerable and share their life experiences with people because they fear judgment.

I'm not worried about what nobody else is feeling about me. I'm looking at this like right now. I know because of what we're doing, we're making an impact. Somebody is more active today. In their physical, in their mental, in their spiritual, all of that because of what we're putting out on a daily, and it becomes a resume.

There's people above your pay grade that are looking at you coming up I want to mentor that person. [00:38:00] And there's people that are not at your level yet that look up to you and they're like, I want to be just like them because I'm watching their journey and I know it's possible. So I feel like social media gives you, A free platform where everybody in the world is on, not just in the United States.

Everybody is on social media and all you are is one life change away from someone's life that you change that will completely change yours. My mental will change our lives. So

Aaron Browning: well said. And this is, we don't have time to go that deep on it, unfortunately, but this is your gift. It really is. Both of you you're so good at sharing your journey. I don't even wanna call it struggle, but your journey. But yet your page is full of positivity. And so I see a lot of people where they'll be transparent and I applaud that, but they're not out of that darkness yet.

And people wanna see that you found a solution to it, right? So I always teach people don't talk about the darkness yet, aren't like outward facing until you have a solution, until you're on the other side of it. Now you have a story, guys, I was here, I did this. Oh, by the way, [00:39:00] look where I'm at now because of X, Y, Z.

So often I see people like, oh, today's the worst day ever, man I don't wanna see that. There's, I can go to the news and watch that. I want positivity. I wanna know, you might have had a bad day but here's what I did today to fix that bad day. Gimme a solution. And so I love that you guys nailed that.

Like I said, I can't think of anybody else, even outside of our company that does that at a higher level. In closing, if you guys once again, both of you could take it. I think there'd be a little bit stronger. What advice would you give someone brand new thinking about starting in solar, just like you guys did a year ago?

What advice would you give someone brand new, zero solar experience? Maybe they have a sales experience, but they're thinking about doing it, thinking about jumping in. What does that look like?

Raysa Santiago: I would say the first thing is obviously find the right platform. Find the right mentor, someone that can, that, that you can actually lock arms with and be a student like we look for three things. If you're willing, coachable, and hungry, I could work with that. But if you're, one of the three or two of the three I cannot work with that because you could be willing, [00:40:00] hungry, but not coachable.

And so if I'm teaching you something, you're not taking it in and you have all the will and the hunger. You really have to be all three. So you really have to become a student of the game and really just learn, It's funny, but a lot of the things I learn is on YouTube. Like I literally love YouTube.

Like I have learned so much about the solar industry, just on YouTube. Our company does great with training, but I just love to dive deep. I've bought books on solar, I've. I've literally that 90 day run, what that consisted of wasn't just work, it was a lot of education and going into this space with, I need to learn as much as I can so that I can be, provide to people what they are looking for within this space.

And if you come with that attitude, there's no way that you could fail. There's absolutely no way. I think that sometimes people just come in oh, let me try it for a month and say, See if it works. If you're coming with that attitude, I don't even want you on my team because it just doesn't work like that. It, it [00:41:00] takes time. It takes time to build credibility. In 30 days, not your whole network is gonna be like, let's go with her instead of this person. It, it doesn't work like that. It takes time to build credibility, takes time to build that consistency, takes time to build a brand, but on the other side of that is everything that you ever wanted.

And it's just gonna, it's just gonna take someone that's willing, coachable, and hungry.

Aaron Browning: Love it. The key thing you said, Rob, I'll come to you in one second. Is the key thing to me, I should say. Everyone's gonna have their own takeaway from that. Cause it was powerful. The mentor I, I've had some amazing mentors in my life. My, my last one he still changed a lot in me, and I'm grateful for it.

But he was not actively in the business anymore. It was more coaching. What I love about you two and then what I do, what all three of us are doing is we're in the trenches with our team. , like we're doing it bleeding, like running with them. So it's not only are we giving you the knowledge and the ex and the experience, but it's real life.

It wasn't something we did a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. And so I would tell people to echo what you said. Go find a mentor like Razor. Go find someone at, in the trench is gonna lock arms with you who has what you want [00:42:00] and has been where you want to go. So powerful. Rob wrap.

Track 1: I would say fail faster, fail forward, a lot of people are scared to fail. I'm not. The failure will lead to the success. I want you guys to go figure out that. You made that mistake. I, we didn't add the attic run and oh man, learn from it. And I didn't add this.

And, I messed up on some margins. That's how you learn the fastest is by making the mistakes in the business and be okay with that. Set the right expectation. Give yourself a real time to succeed. Not two weeks, three weeks, give yourself, invest a full year into the business, but fail fast in the beginning, because now in an, in a year from now, you can tell stories to your team how you continuously failed your way up.

And I feel like that's where my, me and my wife are right now. We didn't know anything about the industry. We coulda, we could have made up so many different excuses on why we can't do this. We're not door knocking. I ain't never door. [00:43:00] I think I door knocked for the first time the other day.

We don't know any, and we don't know anything about solar or are we meant for this business? Are we professional enough? Or all these thoughts subconsciously come into your mind and I'm like, let's jump in. Let's fail. We, the first failure cost us seven grand. We failed to get on board faster and go, that was it.

Now how can we fail our way up? Mess up on the presentation, I'm gonna mess up on the phone call and have that mentor there to correct us and learn from those mistakes and apply the corrections and just keep moving forward and encouraging people to fail forward. I really trust that the faster you fail, the faster you'll become successful.

Aaron Browning: Yep. Gr I tell people all the time too, gr growth is chaotic. If your life's not chaotic right now, you're not growing like it's a mess. Like you come to look behind the curtains of our businesses. Oh my gosh. Our phones, by the way, they're all three of us are in airplane mode. We have no idea what we're about to open back up.

That's just real talk. Yeah, we're all oh gosh. Real, real quick. H how do people find you? How did they get connected with Robin [00:44:00] Resa?

Raysa Santiago: So our, we have our website on our solar. Consulting.com. We have our Instagram r and r solar consulting.com. And then we have our personal handles. So Ray Santiago, if you type that, you'll find me everywhere. Rob Santiago, you'll find us on Facebook, Instagram through our first names, but we do have our handle r and r solar consulting.com websites.

And we also have Facebook business page and also Instagram.

Aaron Browning: Love it. Love it. So guys make sure if you got value, and I know you did go say thank you, go add, follow what, whatever platform you find them on they're here to help, they're here to support. You'll be motivated at the very least, even if you don't reach out and just follow 'em. Rob Race, I can't thank you guys enough.

For those in the audience, if you got value if there was some nugget that you're gonna directly grab a hold of and go run and impact in your business please share, review this podcast. We do this for free. We do it to pour, to bless, to help people fail forward quicker to help people get into action.

Rob Ra again, thank you so much. I know this has [00:45:00] been in the works for several weeks, maybe in a month now. I appreciate you both. You guys are amazing friends, amazing leaders. Thank you for being so transparent with all of us.

Track 1: Doubt. Congratulations for you man.

Raysa Santiago: you so much. Congratulations to you as well.

Aaron Browning: All right, we'll talk soon guys.