Solar Sales Uncensored
Solar Sales Uncensored
Solar Sales Success: A Deep Dive into Powur's Mentorship Program with Anthony DiPierro
Strap in for an electrifying ride into the world of solar sales with our latest episode of Solar Sales Uncensored. We've got Anthony DiPierro in the hot seat, a top-performing POWUR Seller who's got his name up in lights as one of the best in the game.
We're breaking down barriers and getting real about the ins and outs of the solar sales world. Anthony takes us through his rise to the top, from his first solar sales pitch to becoming a household name in the industry.
Using the POWUR mentor program as his launchpad, Anthony will detail how he uses it to his advantage, coaching new consultants and helping them hit their first contract signature. He'll share his insights into harnessing solar leads and turning them into high-value contracts.
We'll also pull back the curtain on how he maintains his impressive 'Proposal Delivered' to 'Contract Signed' conversion rate and keeps his 'Contract Signed' to 'Project Installation' cancellation rate below 10%.
From discussing his day-to-day experiences to giving us a peek into the characteristics he believes makes a successful sales consultant, Anthony will lay bare the realities, the challenges, and the successes that come with working in solar sales.
This isn't a fairy tale; it's a gritty, inspiring narrative about a man who stopped at nothing to master his craft and etch his name in solar sales history. Don't just take part in the game—dominate it. This episode is an all-access pass to mastering the art of selling solar, making it an absolute must-listen.
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Hello, welcome to another episode of Solar Sales Uncensored. I am your host, aaron Browning, and I am so excited for today's conversation. I have none other than Mr Anthony DePiro and we are going to take a deep dive on everything regarding the mentor program over at Power Solar. There is no better guest I could have, as he is almost every single month rated number one on so many categories, but especially the mentor category. I want to share a little bit of his stats for anybody that hasn't had the privilege of meeting this individual. He is an eight year solar vet. He calls New Jersey home. That is his primary market, although through our amazing platform, he is able to service and sell across 22, 24 states I lose track now because we're adding so many every single month he's already done more than 500 personal installations. Talk about a mic drop right there. He was a former top sales rep over at Sun Run and Sun Power and he is now our top solar sales rep, anthony.
Speaker 1:How the heck are you, my friend? I'm doing good, aaron. Good morning man. How's everything? Life is good man. Life is freaking amazing. Let me rephrase that man I'm blessed, I'm fired up for this conversation. I know that you meet the definition, not only being a top salesperson, but also uncensored man. You're going to bring that New Jersey to this podcast. We're excited, man. That's what we do.
Speaker 2:I'm super honored and humbled to be here. Aaron, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity in this platform to really share my experiences in the solar industry and what it's really done to change my life from where I was before to where I'm at now, and how this opportunity can do that because, and the truth be told, our industry is really in its infancy stage. This is going to continue happening for the next at least 10 years. It couldn't be a better time to get into this business.
Speaker 1:I totally agree, man. That could be a whole podcast right there about timing, because you are so right, man, so right. Let's circle back to the mentor program. For those that and, by the way, I want to be clear on this Usually we don't talk a lot about our company, which is power, it's very hard to talk about this mentor program and not mention it. This is going to appeal to. It could be someone already with our amazing company and they're trying to figure out how to leverage the mentor-mentee program relationship. This could also be someone from a different company that's trying to figure out how we're doing what we're doing, how to mirror it, how to build something similar where you're at. So I want to make sure everybody sticks around. But, anthony, if you don't mind, the birds I view, what is the mentor-mentee program over at our company?
Speaker 2:Sure, so the mentor program is something different at this company than any other solar company that I've ever seen. That right. So the mentor as a mentor, as a tier three mentor. The way it works is when you start off with this company, if you have more than one year's worth of solar experience, you have to close one deal before you can move up to a tier two. And then, as a tier two, you have to close five personal deals before you can become a tier three mentor. Right, as a tier three mentor, now other reps on the platform can select you to essentially close their deal right Now.
Speaker 2:The power this company has a lot of people in it, but the experience varies. There's not many people that have this kind of level of experience, whether it be doing presentations or closing deals, things like that. So, as a new rep, the owners of the company really understood what they were doing, because as a new rep, you may not know how to do a presentation to a homeowner. So you can then select any tier three mentor that you want on the platform to do your sales presentation with you. Now, the benefits of this is that, one, you get someone who knows what they're doing to do your presentation, and two you get to earn while you're learning. So all you're doing as a tier one rep is you're setting somebody up, you're lining up an appointment for somebody to close.
Speaker 2:Now, for me, what I do is I design the system for you, we adjust the pricing, we select the equipment and then I'm going to do the whole presentation with the homeowner and, as a tier one or so, you're splitting that commission 50-50. So you're getting to learn from someone whose experience has closed many deals. You're getting to learn the pitch, the cadence, the tonality, all that stuff that goes into getting that deal from. Hey, let's let, this is a good idea, let's talk about it. So let's get that deal on the board and signed. But that's what your mentor really does.
Speaker 1:I love that and there's a lot to unpack there. One is one of my favorite sayings when I'm talking to new reps is the earn while you learn program. That's literally what I call it. I go and give the cliff notes there too. It's huge and I'll talk about from a personal experience. I'm just about a year into my solar journey. That's a rookie man. That's new. What I fell in love with this platform was the mentor-mentee relationship in the program, because I'm used to that in real estate Over at Keller Williams and EXP, which is very similar to our model. It's the same thing. I love that. I love that I can join a platform like this, know nothing about solar, collect a utility bill and make four to six grand Like that. My cut like that blew my mind. I was like oh baby, I'm made for this. I didn't have to go learn everything.
Speaker 2:If you think about it, where else can you do that? And it's legal.
Speaker 1:Okay. By the way, it's funny. You say that I got to rep my team. He's probably been with me four to five months now His first month with us. This is crazy to share. His first month he earned 97,000 in commission. I know it's an anomaly. I'm not here to say it to everybody. I still get text from this guy once a week saying Aaron, aaron, are you sure this is legal? Which is?
Speaker 2:so amazing. You know something when I, it wasn't always like this, cause when I first started in the business, I didn't know anything. I started with a company that was going door to door and I wasn't doing my own pricing, I wasn't designing my own deal. Somebody was doing it for me and I had. They always kept us in the dark. They treated us.
Speaker 2:When you start with most solar companies, you're treated like a mushroom. You're kept in the dark and you're fed horseshit, right. And when you're doing that, if you're not doing your own pricing, and these guys don't want to explain to you how a red line works, how a price per watt works, how any of these things work, because they're skimming off of your damn deal. So I was selling jobs at much higher prices and I was making peanuts on the deal. But what? One of the things that I've really liked the most about this platform is the fact that it's completely transparent. Everybody's selling on the same price and most of the time, our price, our cost per goods, is around $2 a watt. Sometimes it's under $2 a watt. Most guys red lines are 250 to between $250 and $3 a watt is where they're selling at, so we're coming in with a huge price advantage which helps.
Speaker 1:Since you went there, we got a touch on that. Can we talk about the quickly the difference between red line and what we're doing?
Speaker 2:Sure. So again, I've been in the business a long time, right, I've been on the rep side, I've been on the management side. A red line model works where essentially you're selling a job at a price let's just say it's $2.50. That means, let's say you have a 10 kilowatt deal and you're selling it at $2.50, that the 10 kilowatts means 10,000 watts at $2.50. That means it's a $25,000 project. That's your cost. Anything above that you keep, anything below that 250 line the company keeps. So you have no idea where their pricing is, what kind of equipment they're using. They're nothing. They just say, hey, here's the deal, go sell it and you're going to make $300 a kilowatt, or sometimes they'll put you at 320, 330 and they'll give you a fixed rate.
Speaker 2:We're essentially those guys who are hosting those parties. On Friday they have the pizza parties on Friday. They give you bagels. On Saturday they give you high fives when you walk in the office. They're loving you because you're making their yacht payments right, you're making their car, you're paying their damn mortgage and you have no idea. But when you really start diving into this, what makes the difference between that and the cost of goods is that you are given a transparent bill of receipt for what everything costs on the project. There's nobody with their damn hand in your pocket, which is what really got my attention with this. Because now when you realize it and you compare what you're doing with another solar company versus the way this model works, you realize how much money you're leaving on the damn table. And then you say to yourself that guy who hosts those parties on Friday, who gets his whole route up, what does he really bring into the table? Is there really value he's bringing to the table? What the hell do I need him?
Speaker 1:for, yeah, you start to question it. It's funny you say that too. It's one of the reoccurring themes and conversations I have with solar pros from other companies. When they lock arms with us, they're like I don't want to be malicious here, but almost like they feel like they were lied to. They had no idea how much money was generated for everyone else in the company. And I hear that all the freaking time. Man, I really do. Back to the mentor Good.
Speaker 2:I'll say this with some of the companies that I've worked at in the past is it helped make me what I am now? Love that, A lot of that training? I was there for a reason and, as you look at my resume, I switched companies a couple of times because the more I learned, I started looking for better opportunities. Where can I keep more of the lion's share of the profit here? And then when I found this business model, I said you're not going to beat this because you're keeping 70% and that's what really got my attention. But just give me a little bit of my background.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that what you just said too. It's funny. I made a video yesterday on this topic about as leaders, we have to make a world big enough for talent in our organizations to want to stay and play, and that's really what you just went through. You outgrew it as you started to grow from company to company, you broke the model, you broke the system and you finally found a home, which is really cool. One thing I do want to take a deep dive on regarding the mentor mentee program is your thought, your opinion, on the difference between a mentor and a closer. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:A mentor is going to train you right, not just close your deals for you. I don't want you to just come to me and say, hey, can you close this deal for me? The goal is I want to teach you how to fish. That's what a mentor is. I can give you a fish and feed you for a day, or I can teach you how to tie the knot on the hook and teach you what kind of bait to use and all that kind of stuff and where to go, how to read the tides. That's what you really need to learn in this business. That's the difference, which is someone who's just going to close your deal and someone who's going to teach you what to look for, how to qualify them, how to do the sales pitch, how to overcome the objections, and teach you how to do it yourself.
Speaker 2:My goal is and this took me a long time to realize, but my goal is to duplicate myself. That's where a lot of people struggle with. In the beginning, I didn't want to do that. In the beginning, I wanted to keep all this stuff inside. I don't want to share this with anybody. Then the field president and the company, bobby Smith. I had a couple of conversations with him over a couple of months and he really opened up my eyes to the value of duplication, because you can only be in one place at one time, whereas if you can start building a team and you can teach people these skills listen to me on it these are hunting skills. That's what you're learning here for. That's what you're here for. I want to learn how to friggin hunt. I don't want anybody doing it for me. When you can start teaching people that, that's when they're loyal to you. They come back to you. You develop relationships, you develop friendships. This is now your inner circle and you're making your own inner circle here. That's the difference.
Speaker 1:I love that. The other cool thing about this platform, though, that I found in my limited time and you can shed light on it in your expert opinion there are some people that want to close her. I realized that there are some people that don't want to learn it. They're fine, just bird dog in a utility bill, tagging Anthony and letting Anthony do his thing. Somebody want to hop on the zoom with us. You know what I mean. They're fine making that four to six grand. They're cut and never having to touch the file again. I do love that.
Speaker 1:That's something I had to learn the hard way, to be honest with you. I was here for the mentor program and, unfortunately, the first two I tagged and it was my fault, not theirs. They were closers. It didn't move my journey of learning this game, learning the solar space. It didn't move that ball down the field because they were just closing the deal. Yeah, I got paid. It was the earn program. It wasn't the earn. While you learn Now part of what I do at my mentees, I ask where are you in that journey? You want to see behind the curtain, which is I know what you do. Really well, I love that man. I think your definition was spot on. How often are you getting tagged in the deal?
Speaker 2:right now, I'm booked two, three days out. I'm doing anywhere from five to seven presentations a day. It's not all just solar pitches. A lot of the times it's guys that I've brought onto the platform that ask me for help, but they want to do it on their own. A lot of times, when I share this stuff freely with people, with the servant, you want to get what you want in life, you got to help other people get what they want. So, facts, I help people, I train them, I teach them stuff. Again, where I see success is when I bring somebody on my team and they don't need me anymore. My goal is to replace myself. I want to teach you to replace me as quickly as I possibly can. So I get a lot of people that tag me as a mentor and I get a lot of people that are new to this business, that are coming in, that want to learn. It's hard. Sometimes I do a lot of presentations. Sometimes there's a lot of follow-up.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things that are involved in this business that you don't see behind the scenes You're dealing with. It's called the solar coaster. You have extreme highs, right? I closed a $10,000 deal last week. I'm freaking, swimming in money. It's great. And then you have extreme lows. You get your teeth kicked in a couple of times. You got to learn how to roll with the punches with this. That's some of the hardest things, because some people, when they get their butt kicked the first time, they roll over and they die. They're the same for you.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you straight up, dude, we're preaching man. I say it louder for the people in the back. I did not struggle with that and I think it's because of real estate. It is the exact same thing. I say it on every podcast. This solar game reminds me of real estate 20 years ago. It just really does the same ups and downs of you, can you?
Speaker 2:see that that is completed. Solar documents. That just came in the guy who just signed his deal right, Love it All day. Those are the emails you want to get. Love it, man.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're running five to seven mentor mentee appointments. What I love about that? I really want to paint the picture and be uncensored on this. Those are deals that you didn't go hunt. Those are deals and now, depending on the relationship with the person, we can talk about that in a second, but those are inbox deals. You're waking up every morning saying, hey, good morning, anthony, hope you slept well. Here are seven deals that we need your help. We need your help. Mentoring. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:A lot of them. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean I understand something, though it doesn't happen overnight. I didn't just start and all of a sudden, everybody come. People come to me because right now not to my own horn, but right now I'm the number one, tier three, closure on the platform. It's probably the reason why you wanted to chat with me, right? Because I'm a person. People see that, hey, this guy's a killer. I want him doing my presentation.
Speaker 2:So I get a lot of people that see me because I'm on the leaderboards and I'm just, and for me it's crazy, like it's almost surreal to me, because for me I'm just sorry, but for me I just keep my head down, I keep my foot on the gas and I just keep going. I've got blinders on, like tunnel vision, like where's the next deal? I got that first deal in, let's go get the next deal, and that's what you need to have. And before you know it, you pick your head up and you look around and you go, holy shit, how did I get here? And that's the key to. The key to the kingdom is to just keep your head down, stay focused and just keep hustling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's facts, it just is. Speak to the audience about who is your ideal mentee. What are some traits? So what are you looking for in that perfect mentee relationship?
Speaker 2:So mostly I want someone who's hungry, right. You don't specifically need to have incredible closing sales techniques, because anybody can be taught that. Some people have a natural ability to do it. Some people need to be taught right. But somebody who's hungry, who's humble and who's coachable. That is the main thing, because a lot of the times, people come into this business and maybe they were doing something else, a different business or something, and they've got an ego right. Understand, check your ego at the door. Whatever you were doing beforehand, whether it worked, whether it didn't work, this is a new venture, so you're pretty much you're starting off as a journey, then it's my goal to get you to be a leader of your own. So check the ego at the door. Listen, I've been there, man. I've gotten my ass kicked more times than I can count, but I keep coming. That stuff doesn't bother me and that's the main mentality you've got to have when you want to get into this business. Understand you're going to get your teeth kicked in in the beginning. It's gonna happen.
Speaker 2:It happened to me. I started off knocking doors right here in New Jersey, central Jersey Park, and you know what I got good at it and the crazy thing was. It was summertime. I was walking around in my car, in my truck I had two thermos packed to the brim with ice because I was sweating like a pig. Out there knocking on doors, I played myself with deodorants I didn't want to stink at the doors. I was sweating like a pig and I got good at it and what happened was like I started building on that and I became to a point where I didn't want to knock on doors anymore. I knew that in the back of my head as I'm going through the next door, I'm smiling, I'm getting the appointments, I'm getting the bills, but I didn't want to knock on doors forever. Right now I'm really good at it, I can do it, but I don't have to do it. But I would tell everybody and the lessons that I learned from knocking doors and building myself up really is what helped me get to be where I'm at how to have those conversations, how to scout out those houses, what to look for. Now it's and I'm really diving into this but the whole digital marketing thing is really taking off has really changed my business and working with the right people.
Speaker 2:But before you get people that want to work with you, you have to do it yourself. You have to earn that right to get there. Nobody wants to work with someone who hasn't been successful. People want to work. They people follow success. It leaves success leaves clues. You want to see what other successful people have done and just to give you like a little bit of what helped me In the beginning, I had five mentors when I first started at one of the companies that I worked at, and what I did was I learned a little bit from this guy, a little bit from this guy, a little bit from this guy.
Speaker 2:I would go on these presentations with them. I would go to the doors with these guys and I'd say, okay, what is this guy doing? It's working. All right, let me go, I'm gonna record what he's saying. I want to take notes, listen to them. Then I'd go with another guy, record what he's doing at the doors, and then I took all of that and I blended it into my own words, my own verbiage and stuff and I made that from opening a deal to closing a deal. Those are the two parts that I tell people in this business.
Speaker 2:Focus on opening a deal, because that's where you're gonna, that's where the start is. You got to learn how to open. Everybody wants to learn how to close. Right, I want to know how to close. How do I close a deal? Everybody wants to do it, but don't put the. Don't put the cart before the horse. If you learn how to open a deal, the closing will come naturally right. So focus on what to look for how to scout them, how to have those conversations, how to book that appointment. Get that done. Focus on that first, and then, once you get good at that, we'll start. You'll start learning how to close them.
Speaker 1:Love it, man. By the way, audience, whether you're on YouTube or the traditional podcast, let us know in the comments If you want to. I'm gonna go and put them on blast. If you want him to come back to talk about strategies on opening that deal, I literally just made a note. That's how you know you lined up the right guest. I know, anthony, we're on leadership stuff together. I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes. So let's blow up the chat tag him. Let's bring him back for that Cause we don't have time for it today. But oh my gosh, that would be a straight value add.
Speaker 2:How do you go for hours with you guys, man? This is something I'm passionate about. I enjoy this. You see it. You know what I mean. Somebody told me once if you like what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. And that's the crazy thing is, when I look at this and just to paint the picture for some of you guys that listen to this, I don't leave my damn house. It's weird to say, if you would ask me when I was a kid, what are you gonna do when you're a? Oh, I'm gonna sell shit out of my house.
Speaker 2:I've been working for a million years. I wake up every day. My calendar is full. I'm meeting with people. I'm meeting with marketing agencies, I'm meeting with reps, I'm meeting with homeowners, I'm meeting with executives from the corporate leadership that are working on different things with them, and I'm doing all these meetings from my house. I don't believe my damn house. It's weird. I thank a guest less than for a freaking month these days. It's weird. I thank a guest every two days, because I used to be on the road. I'd get a point, a calendar. You get in a car, you drive out there, you get stood up at the freaking front porch. You're banging on the door. Hey, can I come in and pitch you? You hide mine a couch and shit. I'd tell it with all of that stuff. Then you gotta drive another two hours to get to the next one. Now it's. I'm almost spoiled because I do everything virtually and it's a game changer.
Speaker 1:I 100% agree, man. If you would have, by the way, I would not be here today if someone told me I had to be belly to belly. For me, I'm not knocking it. There's some people in our company we know them who kill it that way, and that's cool. I love our company because you can do whatever lane you want. For me, there's no leverage, like at all. If I don't feel like knocking doors that day, I didn't get paid and so that's just not my vision, like at all.
Speaker 1:I love being able to do this 100% virtual. It's funny. In my podcast studio the house behind me, of course I put solar on. I'm gonna look at a house. I'd better have solar on it. One of my good friends, in case he listens to this, what I love, though literally like he's 30 yards from me I did his presentation over Zoom. Like I'm not breaking my rules for nobody. I wanna be able to do what you just said. I wanna be able to walk into my office, close the Zoom out in 30 minutes, go back and hang out with the family man, freaking, love it you know what the thing is right, and this is something that just to show like a personal story.
Speaker 2:Right Before I came to power, right before COVID happened, right, and I was knocking doors and closing deals at the kitchen table. Now, you're limited to that because you can only go so far away from your house and you can only be in one place at one time. So when COVID happened, I was still knocking doors, but people were coming to the door with a space suit on, with gloves on, and the news was panicking everybody and that was like you know to me.
Speaker 2:I wasn't really as afraid of that as other people, but that's a whole different conversation. That's a whole another podcast, bro. Whole another podcast. Completely, people weren't. They'd come to the door, they wouldn't open up the door, they'd be like, oh my God, panicking and shit.
Speaker 2:And I realized I couldn't close these deals at the kitchen table anymore or like, got the space shield. It was weird, it was just weird time. But we look back at that in history we're gonna say what the hell were we thinking? But that's what it is. But anyway, when that happened, I started booking appointments and then I had to close them on Zoom and I struggled with it in the beginning. I'll be straight with you, I struggled with it. That's different. I didn't know how. It was a difference.
Speaker 2:You don't have that vibe. Like I'm sitting there, I can't feel the room Like I can. When I'm in the room, I could see everybody's face here. If the husband's looking at the wife and then they can face us at each other. I can't see that. So I struggled with it, but I learned how to do it. It's just like another skill. Now I prefer doing it virtually because now I could sell a deal in Jersey in the morning. I could sell a deal in Texas at lunchtime, I could be in Florida for two o'clock, I could be in Connecticut at three o'clock and I'm not burning any gas. And this platform really gives you when you understand how to leverage it. The amount of leverage that you have with this platform is unlike anything I've ever seen before. So I'm just being by the horns that I'm running with as far and as fast as I can, as many deals as I can, all over the damn country, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love your posture, man. It's something that you can't teach, but obviously that's why you're one of the top recruiters as well. We'll go there in a different podcast too. You're gonna be coming back a lot, man. I think I might just book you continuously, but it's posture.
Speaker 1:If you're not freaking excited about what you do, about your opportunity, about your company, why is the person whether it's someone you're trying to get to join your business or it's someone you're selling solar to like it just doesn't happen? It does not happen. You've got to be excited, and if you don't have that, because you're new, you're not in a winning season. Borrow it from Anthony, borrow it for myself. Like it ended up becoming your own, and I love that. I gotta ask you a serious question, though, because this is something I struggled with in the beginning. I don't want to say I've cured it, but I'm very curious on your opinion on this. How do you handle your time management in terms of the Mentor Minty program? Because, man, that's a whole other job and no one warned me about that, especially if you do it correctly, and I know both of us are Talk to me about that. Man, do you have a set schedule? Do you have rules?
Speaker 2:So Google calendars right off the bat, like if you have to have calendarly right. It's an app that I use and everything my entire day, every week, every month. Everything goes into the calendar. Right before, I used to keep everything on paper and pen and I would jot it. When you start getting busy like this, you can't do it. So, number one, you have to get organized. You have to have a system for keeping all these appointments that are coming up in your calendar organized right, and Google calendars is a fantastic tool for that.
Speaker 2:So what I do and in the beginning what I would do is I would I spent a lot of my time prospecting. I'm. Prospecting could be either it could be knocking on doors, it could be setting up a tent at a farmer's market, whatever the hell you got to do to prospect, and there's trainings that I go through, people at different ways of prospecting, stuff that I've identified throughout the years. That works. So in the beginning, most of your time is prospecting. As you start getting more, better and better at it, then you spend more of your time closing. So now I'm either most of my time is spent either closing homeowners or bringing new reps into the company. So that's my calendar is just chock full of people I'm closing, people I'm bringing in, and now most of my prospecting if I'm doing prospecting is done digitally. So I have online things, funnels, things like that that people come in and then they just book themselves onto my calendar for a conversation.
Speaker 2:And one of the biggest things, something that I learned in the beginning of my career is don't waste your time with people that don't have the skills. Don't do it. They call them soul suckers, right, sometimes you'll come across people who just wanna talk to, just wanna pick your brain right, just wanna learn from you, and that's fine. But if they're not going to go where I'm looking to get them, I don't waste my time. But that's the biggest thing is again keeping your head down, keeping your foot on the gas and Staying and knowing what you need to do. And that's a hard thing. In the beginning, you don't know what to do. I know where I want to be, but how the hell do I get there? If I'm tell you I want to drive from here to Florida, I don't tell you the roads you're gonna take to get there. You're gonna wind up lost. You know. You need a map. You need a road map of where to go, what the next steps are, and it's the same thing in this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how many days a week are you running appointments? If I wanted to book a book a mentor I wanted you to close the deal for me. Is it seven days a week? Is it four days? What is your schedule?
Speaker 2:Some days it don't work, man. Some days it's for the family. I wouldn't even answer my phone on Sundays. Good, man, good, but it's usually five to six. My daughter plays softball, so I like watching my daughter play softball and kick butt and the travel teams and stuff, and you gotta have that balance. You got to spend time with the family too. For me it's all work five to six days a week, depending upon the level of opportunities that I have for the day.
Speaker 1:What time range is it starting at nine in the morning, ten in the morning? Are you going until?
Speaker 2:Yeah, from nine o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock my calendar is open to book appointments on oh are you taking an appointment same day?
Speaker 1:Do you have a buffer on that? Oh, it's talking about mid-mid-tour mentee, not recruiting.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, if they want to give me a call or something like that, then I can certainly have a phone call with them or, if I can see if it's same day, I could might be able to squeeze them in for 20 or 30 minutes to just review a deal with them, but it's if they're doing like full presentations. I'm usually booked out a day or two in advance. Shoot me an email, send me a text message. I'll get back to you. I take it very seriously, because the success of my success doesn't happen by myself. My success comes from helping other people succeed, as there's all of us in this business, right? You're not. No one's an island. You are successful because you help other people and, in return, they help you, right? It's a crazy concept.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's coming from contribution, man, and it applies to everything, by the way, not just solar, I mean, it truly is the more people you help, there's a return. It's the law of reciprocity. It just happens. It's non debatable, right? The question I get all the time is how do you get mentored deals? And I'm gonna go ahead and answer a little bit of my opinion, but I want you to take a deep dive on it.
Speaker 1:I think there's two ways. One is to do what Anthony and I both do. We love it, it's our love language. It's introducing our amazing platform to other people we want to lock arms with, and so it's going out being a builder, recruiter, whatever you want to call it. And the reason that is because when they come over, whether they're a solar pro, they still need to do one deal with us so they learn our systems. If they're not a solar pro, they're gonna be doing three, five, seven, ten deals with us until they learn it and they're comfortable to break apart and go do it If that's their vision. That's their end game. And so every time you bring someone new to the platform, you are guaranteed deals as a mentor, guaranteed, guaranteed they might not go to you, right. If you're not great, you're not a great leader. They had a whole different conversation too, and the second way to do it that that I don't hear a lot of people talking about is Doing what Anthony does really well and he's a unicorn, by the way.
Speaker 1:He is one of our top team builders, but he also plays the, the social game, really well, and what I mean by that is he'll be on our Facebook groups answering questions, doing videos. He's routinely speaking at our monthly events, at our national events. He leads the New Jersey State call, and so he's always around. He is always the face of the company. So he I guarantee it, I don't know his numbers he wakes up to deals of people he's never met that are not even in his organization. So there's two ways, and I touch on that because some people are like I'm not a recruiter. Like Anthony, I'll never be able to recruit 10 people a month. Cool, can you help 10 people a month on the national platform? Because if so, that's another vehicle, it's another lane to do it. Do you agree with what I just said? Any thoughts, feedback on that?
Speaker 2:Everything except one thing, right the people. People say I'll never be able to do this, I'll never be able to do that.
Speaker 2:You're right whether you say I can do this or I can't do that, you're fucking right either way. So it's all it means is just that you haven't learned the skills necessary To do it. Yet I'll tell you I can't. My old, my father owns a construction company. Right, I can't build a house to save my life, but it doesn't mean I can't do it. If I took the time to learn it, then I can do anything. It's just a matter of you have these self. Everybody has this. We have self limiting beliefs of what we think we can do, what we think we can't do. And If you set that governor in your mind to say that I can do this, guess what? You'll find a way to do it. It's the same thing, and a large part of my ability to recruit I learned from Bobby Smith. It was our field president. He took some time and he taught me what he was doing To recruit them. And I said this guy's killing it and he's willing to take the time to teach me, probably because he saw something in me, right, and I'd be crazy not to listen. So when he started teaching me some of these tricks and these skills to recruit Shit man, I got my notebook out. I recorded what he taught me and I implemented it and and it's the same thing with this, it's.
Speaker 2:You know, guys that are watching this, that are listening to this podcast, don't think I can do. I can't do this, because you fucking can. You just need to put the time in to get there. You see, everybody looks at life and you know, as salesmen or Anywhere in life, you want to be somewhere. You have to put the time in. Everybody wants the success, but very few are willing to put the time and the effort and the sweat and the blood and the tears Into getting there. And that's what separates the winners from the losers.
Speaker 2:If you have no problem busting your ass, working 10 hours for you, you have no problem with that. You put in the hard work, the results will come. Is it's a law? The universe, it's just. If you put the freaking time in and the effort, you will get what you want out of it. Like that's the main thing, and guys that are looking at this and listen. When I first started in this business, I said the same thing to myself. Right, I saw guys in the front of the room that would make 30 grand a month and I was like Fuck this, I can't do that these guys are doing now. Here I am, I'm crushing them and it's just a matter of it's. Are you willing to put the time and effort in Needed to get make that transformation? Humans are the only species, only ones, that can rewire their brain into doing whatever the hell they want. Use that, because we're the only ones that can do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's mindset You're, you're 100, right. The other layer I would add to that is how bad do you want it? How bad do you want it? I'll talk to me personally. I love this in real estate. I'm not a closer by by a gift from god and that's not what he gave me, what he didn't. That wasn't one Like I. I would freeze, I would stutter, I would start to sweat. I was like Anthony knocking doors and 110 degree heat. I was just super uncomfortable. But I realized I had big, freaking dreams for my family, like big, big dreams, yachts playing, all like massive dreams. And I can't get there if I don't get uncomfortable every single day. So even today this is 13 years later I get uncomfortable every single day. I put on my shoes and I go to work. Now I don't have to leave the office, which is great, but I get comfortable every single day. That's where the magic is, that's where the money is, that's where the fortune is, by the way, One of my best mentors suddenly is to me and it's stuck with me.
Speaker 2:He said get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's the truth and I'll share a story with you. The first deal, or the first deal I ever closed it was actually a pretty large deal and I'll never forget I was at the kitchen table by myself first that closed by myself and my hands were shaking At the table as I'm closing the back. It's the remembering my head, right cleaners. Of course, my hands were fucking shaking at the table and I didn't want the homeowners to know that I was nervous. So I'm trying to blanket it and trying to hide it. And when I got out of that house, when I got back in my car, I drove down the block and had to pull over and I just screamed how to let it out Is at that point that I said to myself Fuck, I can do this.
Speaker 2:Everybody has that coming to Jesus moment at some point. When you're going from your struggles and you get that big, that first success and you got to get that first success in the first 30 days when you're in this business you have to right. There is no exception. You have to bust your ass, do you get it because when you have that moment, that success moment, that's when the rewiring in your brain happens and you say shit, not that I want to do this.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do this and when that happens, you'd be surprised. Everything just falls into place and that's. Everybody's capable of that. Some people think that they can, some people think that they can't. No, it's bullshit, you're all capable of it, you just need to believe it. But it's like here and I bring this up frequently, right, because any of you guys ever watched the movie the matrix, of course, like it's down favorite movie of all time right.
Speaker 1:It's a strong statement, by the way, but wrong with it All day.
Speaker 2:I could watch that movie over and over again. But there was one scene when, when neo was fighting the agent right and morpheus is that everybody who's fought the agents had died Right, but neo said he stood his ground instead of running and Morpheus said he's beginning to believe and that we all have that innate ability in us that when you believe that you can do it, you can do it. And it's the same thing in this business you just gotta believe. And you don't believe, but you gotta surround yourself with the right people, and once that happens, that's when the magic starts to happen.
Speaker 1:Facts, man, facts when. So one feedback I do get a lot regarding our company and solar in general, and I know we didn't talk about this one at all. It sounds too good to be true. What are some challenges? Is there a challenge with the Mentor Menti program? Is there something that you struggle with? Paint that picture for a second.
Speaker 2:So it's not all peaches and cream, right. Nothing in this business is all unicorns and rainbows. That land, this fantasy, it doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:By the way, if someone's telling you that in their solar, they either haven't been in the business long enough or they're flat out lying. One of those two Would you like? Like 100%?
Speaker 2:It's just not that way. One of the biggest challenges that you have is understanding that once you sign that deal, that's when the work really begins You're not done. You sign that deal Now. You have between 60 and 90 days before that project gets installed. You gotta go through your site survey, gotta get your permits, you gotta go through operation. You gotta go through all of that stuff and oftentimes when a project gets in, there's gonna be issues that arise. They have change orders that come up, shit changes, maybe the design change from what you sold them to what is feasible now.
Speaker 2:I have a project right now that I'm dealing with where the project needs color ties in order to meet structural demands and there's no access to the roof. The roof is closed off, so we don't have to cut the sheetrock with the color ties and shit happens and you gotta roll with the punches. So that's a challenge, because when these things happen, you need to be ready for them. Don't think that just when you sign that deal that you're done and now you're swimming with your swimming and money. No, you're a servant. You are working for that homeowner. You have to get that project to the finish line and whatever is entailed. Stay on top of your damn projects.
Speaker 2:That's one of the biggest challenges that I could say for the new people when you're coming in. That's why it's so important to select the right mentor, because just closing the deal isn't enough. It's not enough. You have to be able to nurture that deal, to walk that deal through. You may have to have I do a final design meeting with the homeowner after a site survey to make sure that what I sold you is what we can do, and if something changes we gotta review it. And sometimes you have to take a hit on your commission to get it done where it needs. This kind of stuff happens. It's not a paved road, it's uncharted territory and you need to be ready for that.
Speaker 1:I'll give a different spin on that too, and I agree a thousand percent with everything you just said. One mistake I see, and I learned this in real estate, so I'm passionate about it. I've never heard anyone here at Power talk about it or at Recycler in general yet, but we need to. I see it a lot with new reps too, where they'll get a big deal under contract. I had one a couple of weeks ago. It was a $17,000 commission split, split both ways. A huge deal. Client won, obviously we won. It was freaking incredible.
Speaker 1:That rep went ghost for the next month and it happens in real estate all the time. All of a sudden they're counting the dollars before it hits the account and they're like, ooh, next month I got nine Gs hitting and they go ghost and literally people with ghost for two or three months. I've seen it. You will never get a pipeline, you will never sustain success. It's that roller coaster that Anthony was talking about earlier If you're not out there building every single day. And so one of my goals when I teach is I want people to have different deals throughout the pipe. I want people to have and you define that, let's call it five proposals this week, then we have five deals that we're doing follow up on. We have five deals that are under contract. We have five deals that are getting installed, and so every time you're moving one through, all of a sudden one got installed. Who's the next one? I'm moving into the install category, versus it's that I get one and I just sit back and pray and for it. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:No, 110%, man. And here's the thing right. And you don't get excited about a commission check until install day. Don't count that damn money. There's an A in your account, yet there's a lot of shit that can go wrong. Somebody can come in and steal your deal, right. That can happen too. What happens if the customer calls you with two months and says hey, we decided we want to move and we're going to, we're going to kibosh the solar project? Do not count that money and, worse yet, do not spend that goddamn money until that project gets installed. I installed day. If I'm doing a local job, I buy the guy's pizza, I go over there, I'm high-fiving people, I'm talking to the neighbors. Now I know I'm getting paid. Now I'm allowed to get excited.
Speaker 2:You don't get it until that job's getting installed.
Speaker 1:Solid advice. I hope everyone listens to that. I'm going to make a TikTok video with that because people need to hear it. We need to preach that for sure. A couple more questions that will wrap up. Anthony, I know you're super busy. One is and hopefully you don't mind me asking obviously you are killing it financially with our platform. Like killing it. How has that excess and I use the word excess because I don't think you could ever have excess, but you're damn close to it excess in money how has that affected your personal and family life? So?
Speaker 2:here's the, and it's really asking me that because to me it's not real, like I get wire transfers that come into my account and I live very humbly. But for the first time in my life, really and Seoul has been able to do this for me is I start investing, I start putting money into investment vehicles. Real estate is one, stocks are another, alternative investments. It's enabled me to invest, whereas in the past I was making enough to survive, enough to pay my bills and stuff, but I wasn't able to. If I want to pick up and go to Italy next week, I can book it on the computer and I'm on a plane tomorrow and I can do, you know, and it's understand something right, and this is important. What is? It's changed my life because it's opened up a lot of doors for me. But understand, nothing lasts forever. Nothing lasts forever, right? So you need to. I'm very conservative when it comes to fiscal conservative.
Speaker 2:So just to share a personal story, I was a mortgage broker when I got out of college. Up until two years I did not know that I've been doing sales my whole life. I learned very early on that God gifted me with three things right, it was a silver tongue, brass balls and devilish good looks, and those are the three things that I learned. So what I've done with that is I was a mortgage broker and 2008 is some of you guys who know not to show my age or anything here the market. They should hit the fan and the whole mortgage industry got wiped out, and I don't see that happening for solar.
Speaker 2:However, things change, right. In the last six, seven months, we've seen interest rates because of what the Federal Reserve has been doing to what they say is the combat inflation. The Federal Reserve is causing the inflation. They're the ones fighting the inflation, but it's above my pay grade, right, that is what it is. But as they continue raising those interest rates, we're seeing the interest rates on the solar financing change, right, so the dynamic is changing completely.
Speaker 2:Where you're not, a lot of states like Texas, like Florida, like that whole game has changed. You're not selling savings anymore, okay, so understand that nothing is set in stone. Interest rates change, dealer fees change. Look what happened in California. Look what happened in North Carolina recently. Right, what these utility companies they're paying, and there's obviously no proof of this, but my complete speculation is that they're paying off Politicians because, god knows, we don't have any corrupt politicians in this country, but they're paying, somebody's getting paid off and the politicians are changing net metering laws to make it so uncensored.
Speaker 2:Real quick, oh, we're gonna get. We're gonna go down that rabbit hole. Just understand something, right, guys? I have no thoughts of suicide whatsoever. It's not intentional, right? But these are things you can know. These are things that you need to understand, because the world that we live in, unfortunately, is not a perfect and not a clean place, right? So states are California it was the first, north Carolina was the second.
Speaker 2:They're coming offline for solar and that, in addition to rising interest rates, is changing the dynamic right. Six months ago, seven months ago, I could in New Jersey, I could get you a brand-new roof, a breaker box. It's still coming 50% less than a damn utility company, because we're selling a 25 year one, nine, nine. Those days are gone completely. So you need to be prepared for that. The pitch in the last year has changed dramatically. You were selling savings before. Now you have to sell value and you have to pivot, and that's gonna change again. I pro, I fucking promise you it's gonna change again. You need to be ready for it. So don't become like rigid in your pitch or your approach to this. You have to be malleable. It's going to change. You need to roll with the punches. You need to change with the times. So that's certainly something that you need to be aware of and it's happened before. It's gonna happen again.
Speaker 2:Like I said, in the mortgage industry, when the interest rates change and the market dropped out, I saw that. I saw the writing on the wall and I went and I started selling medical equipment, right because I got a phone call on a Friday. I was living large. And then all my deals the banks called me on one day cut the appraisal a hundred grand, cut this appraisal A hundred grand. Now those debt to income ratio numbers didn't work. The LTV numbers around a whack was over 80%, wasn't working anymore. So I said I see the tide starting to go out. We're gonna realize who's not wearing a bathing suit and who's naked in the water, and it's. The same thing is gonna happen in solar. It's just a matter of when, but right now the sun is shining on this business, so capitalize on it. But when it changes, be prepared for it, know what you need.
Speaker 1:I think that's the a lot there, man, and it's powerful, like really powerful. I hope people re listen to that or re watch it. By the way, I think our YouTube channel is gonna break when he called himself devilishly good-looking Everyone who's listening. Let me go see what this is saying. Let him know in the comments. But no, that was funny, though the everything you just summed up, though man it to me. What kind of was blinking neon lights? If you will?
Speaker 1:I guess over here is it's the difference between amateur. Professional. Amateurs are anchored, as Charles Thompson says, to one way of doing it. That's the only way. Professionals are evolving with the economy, they're evolving with politics, they're evolving with the company, with the seasons, with everything. You're constantly getting better. You're not married to one tactic, because, to your point, it could change at any time. Man, it really could. And closing and I know you really just touched on this, I don't know if there's anything else you'd want to add, but what advice would you have for someone brand-new listening who's thinking about starting a career in solar? I'm thinking go for it.
Speaker 2:It's. There's a lot, but for someone who's just thinking about it, the best advice that I can give you is pick the right mentor, pick the right people to surround yourself with, because if you pick the wrong person to teach you, you're gonna have a bad experience. So, before you jump into this, make sure you surround yourself with the right people. That's the best thing I could give you, because I've worked at companies in the past where you were just a number and nobody gave a shit. And then I've worked at companies where I've made friends and I'm still friends with some of these guys for life because I, you, you, you attached to them and you learn from these guys, your mentors, and that can mean the whole difference in the world. Because Pick the right people to surround yourself with. That is the Most important advice that I could give someone who's who wants to get into this business. Make sure that you're not only that that you get along with them, but that your morals align with that person.
Speaker 2:Because the solar industry, I'll be honest with you, is the wild west. There was no regulation. This business yeah, there were guys that will fucking lie through their teeth to people just to get a deal On the board. Do you want to, do you want to align yourself with guys like that? It's shortly. You want, maybe you'll make a couple bucks, but it's short-lived. Find the people that have the good morals, that have the track record, that have the success record, and follow success. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 1:Powerful man, really powerful, I. I can't say thank you enough for taking time out of your day to be here. How do people get in contact with you?
Speaker 2:You can get in contact with me. I'll put my. I'll put my contact information in here, my email address. If you're on the power platform, you can. You can look me up. I'm pretty dead me. Just look the leaderboards.
Speaker 1:I'm easy to find there Right type in good-looking person, you'll find them.
Speaker 2:But I'm pretty easy to reach out to and I'll put my contact oh on here if anybody wants to reach out to me. If you guys have questions, you can shoot me an email text or can you call. You can reach me at. My email is clean energy advisor seven at gmailcom. Feel free to shoot me an email there and you could find me on on Facebook. They could send me a message there. Personal information I'll share that with people that I know because I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll throw some of the contact in the description. Man, I got you, but once again, man, thank you so much. I'll speak for our audience here. You killed it.
Speaker 1:Some of my key takeaways are and I knew this about you, but it's different one-on-one like this it's your posture, man, it's your energy, it's your mindset, it's your belief on what you're doing and how you're helping people, whether it's homeowners or it's salespeople, new entrepreneurs that you're bringing on to the platform. Keep leading from the front, man. You're your breath of fresh air. I'm honored to be in business with you. I'm honored to be your friend. I mean, I don't say that lightly, but once again, thank you so much. I hope everyone enjoyed this. I I hope you did. I hope everyone is well. The biggest thing we can ask as a favor because we do this for free at a contribution to give back is to share the podcast, share the YouTube channel, like, comment, anything else you can do to help get our message out there so we can impact and lead more people. We're grateful for each and everyone. If you hope, you guys all have a fantastic day and we'll talk soon you.