The LFG Show
Talking with movers and shakers who grew up with nothing and worked their asses off to achieve success. Let's 🤬 Go!!!!
The LFG Show
I HATE TO LOSE: Alex Sheik's Journey from Med School to Solar Powerhouse 🌞
🎙 *Welcome to The LFG Show!* 🎙 It's your boy David Stodolak, and today I've got a special episode that'll leave you inspired and ready to conquer the world! 🌟
👥 I'm sitting down with my long-time friend, Alex Sheik, the Chief Revenue Officer and Co-owner of Momentum Solar- one of the top Residential Solar Companies in America. Ever wondered how a med school student defies familial expectations to become a powerhouse in the solar industry? 🌞✨ Well, Alex's story is a wild ride of resilience, passion, and the relentless pursuit of one's true calling. From the pressures of becoming a doctor to pioneering one of the nation's top privately held residential solar companies, Alex's journey is nothing short of legendary. 🚀
But that's not all! We're also bringing you the incredible transformation of how Alex went from running a small construction company to excelling in sales and marketing at Momentum Solar. 🏗➡💼 Hear firsthand about the grit it takes to shut down a business and dive headfirst into a new venture, juggling roles and overcoming initial hurdles. His journey is a testament to focus and perseverance, culminating in a daring bet to achieve a million dollars in sales within a month! 💸🔥
We delve deep into themes of continuous effort, impactful leadership, and navigating financial challenges with a strong team. From adapting to remote work during the COVID crisis to making prudent financial decisions, this episode is packed with powerful lessons on leadership, teamwork, and business resilience. 💪🏽💼
Reflecting on humble beginnings, we discuss the transformative power of one's environment and the drive to reach greater heights. Through inspiring narratives of ambition and determination, we highlight the essential role of a supportive and complementary leadership team in sustaining success amidst challenging times. 🌠🤝
Big shoutout to our sponsors, Ringba, for making this episode possible! 📞💼
🎧 Tune in for an episode brimming with powerful lessons on leadership, teamwork, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. You don't want to miss this! Hit that play button, and let's get it! 🎧🔥
#TheLFGShow #DavidStodolak #AlexSheik #MomentumSolar #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BusinessSuccess #Ringba #Podcast #Inspiration #Hustle #SolarIndustry
There's nothing like being home. Just shot a banger, another banger. There's bangers after bangers. The shit doesn't stop. So make sure you don't miss that episode. Shout out to Ringba. Ringba's doing big things in pay-per-call. We're going to blow up pay-per-call with Ringba. We got the Pay-Per-Call Revolution book, which is changing people's lives, providing tons of value for the community. Make sure you're reading the book. Shout out the AFI Award.
Speaker 1:My man, darren Blatt, new York City, right across the river LFG Show, is nominated for Best Podcast of the Year. Fucking pumped up. We've only been doing this a few months, but the love that we're getting our DMs when I travel all around the world, around the country there's nothing but pure love out there. It makes me feel good. Give feelings if you like what you're seeing. You get a lot of value out of this. Make sure you like you, comment and subscribe. We got a lot more fantastic stuff coming along the pipeline, the stuff that'll move the needle for you like it has for me. So get your fucking seatbelts buckled. We're gonna bring the fucking the Gold Coast best part of Jersey. I'm super excited about this episode. I've got someone who I've become close with the last man I've known you since like 2016, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it's crazy and man, there's so much to talk about on this show. I'm here with Alex Sheik. He's a chief revenue officer for Momentum Solar, also an owner of Momentum Solar. You know Momentum Solar is one of the top I say top five residential solar companies in the nation.
Speaker 3:Right yeah, privately held. Yep, top five privately held.
Speaker 1:They've been doing big fucking things, man, for a long time. And something interesting you're like the first big client. I had smaller clients before you guys, but started selling your leads in 2016. Yeah, and we're still doing business together, fucking eight, nine years later, which?
Speaker 2:is very, very rare. Did some consulting work in the call center, remember. Yeah, for a couple, like a month or two months, right, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true man. So yo, it's a real honor, pleasure to have you on the show. Really appreciate you making the time. Yeah, to get him tied the fuck down on phone calls all day and guys, you guys are. There's so much to pack in here I don't even know where to begin. Man. I guess where I begin, man, just tell you. Tell people about your background, man, where you started. I know you got a very unique background, I mean I love gtv.
Speaker 2:Baby, let's go, man. I'm excited for what you're doing here, dave. I've seen, I've seen you on the podcast and, just like you're, you're at events, you're, you're everywhere where you need to be, like you know, when it comes to marketing, lead generation, solar, all types of sales, all different verticals. So I see what you're doing, man. So it's a pleasure to be on the show and we're going to have some fun.
Speaker 1:It's going to be amazing. I can't wait.
Speaker 2:So what was?
Speaker 1:your question. So, of course, I'm talking about how you got started, because I know that, from my understanding, you weren't originally your family. They wanted you to be a doctor, right, they want to go to medical school, and then you chose an alternate route. You chose to get become an entrepreneur, which I think everyone's got that fork in the road right and it's obviously worked out for you. So I'd like to talk more about that and your whole. You know what got you here.
Speaker 2:Yes, great question. So I actually did. I went to med school and I absolutely hated it. I went.
Speaker 1:I finished about a year of it and you're Pakistani background. Right yeah, pakistani background.
Speaker 2:My parents- so my dad's a doctor, my brother's a doctor, my sister's a dentist, all my cousins are doctors, you know kind of just Pakistani or Asian background. You know, you come to America, right, and they're like hey, become a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer.
Speaker 1:That's success to them.
Speaker 2:They know they equate that to success. So, being the eldest in my family, that was like. It was like the path there wasn't like hey, what do you want to be, son, when you grow up? And I'm like an astronaut, like no, it was like you're going to become a doctor and that's how you're going to make money.
Speaker 1:So I went in med school.
Speaker 2:Bro Dude, it was the worst thing ever. Like I'm like super outgoing and like whatever. Like I'm good with memorizing, so I did it right, but like I'm dissecting cadavers and I'm like this is fucking disgusting. Can I curse on this?
Speaker 1:thing. No, curse all day long.
Speaker 2:Let's fucking go show bro, I'm like this is disgusting. I was like cause they want you to like cut open like a muscle pin a muscle pin veins and like the smell of formaldehyde. And I and I finished one year of med school and I dropped out and I came back and I was like I'm not doing this. I was like I was like I'll find another way to make money. But this is it, and my parents like my dad especially he didn't talk to me for like a year. Wow, like he was really upset about it. My mom you know, moms are softer, you know, at least in my family so she, you know, she got over after like a month or what I was just like. I told her like look, I'll find other ways to make money. There's people out here making money Like I and they, you know, my parents were worried about me because even as a kid growing up, I loved money. I used to iron my dollar bills when I used to get my allowance.
Speaker 2:I used to like iron my money. I liked it. I liked it. Crispy, how old were you at that time? I'm talking like seven eight.
Speaker 1:Damn, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Maybe 10, like whatever.
Speaker 2:I was like I was a long, you know dad said to me, like you know, he's like you know money isn't everything, but but it can solve a lot of problems. Yeah, right, and so you don't, or? Or? I think what he said was money isn't everything, but not having it creates a lot of problems. I'm sorry, that's what he said. Right, he's like not having it creates a lot of problems, and like that stuck with me early on. So I knew that I needed to, I needed to really create a path for myself that I could, you know, be successful in financially. Um, so I I kind of came left med school, I took on a life of sales like I did, I did and I've sold everything. Like I'm dating myself, but I've sold batteries at radio shack, wow damn but everything like like I did, b2b, b2c Yellow Page I did.
Speaker 2:I worked for Seccion Amaria, which is Yellow Pages in Spanish, and I sold Yellow Page advertising in the Bronx.
Speaker 1:In Spanish. In Spanish, wow To Spanish. You know people, that's a real sales shit right there, wow.
Speaker 2:And that's how I figured what an abogado is. Yeah, yeah, right there, why. And that's how I figured what abogado is. Yeah, yeah, huge. So but you know every like, you know cell phones, at&t. I did it b to c, b to b um.
Speaker 2:And then got into like the world of like home improvement, like window window sales was my kind of uh step foray into it and I did that and eventually did like in-home sales, or what I call kitchen table sales, for like seven, eight years, like I did windows, roofing, siding, attic insulation, gutters, e-shield, which is like a type of attic insulation, um energy audit. So I did every kind of uh home improvement and I worked for several different companies and that's kind of what took me down the path of of marketing because I I saw, having worked for different companies, I saw like owners of different caliber and integrity, products that were better or worse and the company that was the most successful um was the one that had the strongest marketing engine. I mean they knew how to generate leads and I and I and it was kind of on that journey that I realized that if I mean they knew how to generate leads and it was kind of on that journey that I realized that if I can figure out how to sustainably and cost-effectively generate leads or create opportunities like, I can create a huge opportunity for myself in that. And so that's when I opened up a small like marketing company. It was me.
Speaker 2:I hired my first door knocker on like Craigslist, right. I hired my first door knocker like craigslist, right, and um hired my second door knocker and just had a you know good run. I was I partnered with a roofing company at the time and that I was also working for, and that owner gave me a shot. Um, you know he loved me. We had a great relationship that was.
Speaker 2:That was in Jersey, out of Pensacola actually. Wow, they're Philly, that area, exactly, they're Philly. And he gave me a shot and said you know what Alex Like, if you want to start your own marketing thing, just you know, do it, Sell me the contracts, right. So that's where I kind of learned what I I learned a little bit of the business. I also learned what not to do, I think right Because it was on that path that I eventually met Arthur, who's now my business partner and CEO of Momentum, and he, you know, when I met Arthur, I was like listen, I've got this huge marketing engine. I can absolutely crush this for you. I had a little bit of experience with solar only because one of the companies I'd worked for had sold initially Like this is back in the day early solar when there was you know anyone that knows solar.
Speaker 2:They were selling like 750 PPW.
Speaker 1:And right now, what's the average? Now, half of that right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little, a little bit more than half of that, but in that range. And yeah, it was 750 PPW cash, so it is half of that.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, 50 ppw cash.
Speaker 2:So it is after that crazy. Yeah, yeah, that's right, because there weren't really good financial products.
Speaker 1:So everyone here understands that. That means like, if the average system, that shit people are paying like 70 grand out of pocket right versus like 30 grand, yeah, yeah, 70 grand out of pocket versus 30 grand now cash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, uh, you know. So I had a little bit of experience. So I'm, I'm here selling, selling arthur on, like I've got you know, marketing team, I'll blow your company up. And he's like, listen, we'll see. And I started to do some small business with with art. We had a. I had a small construction company as well. At the time I was hustling, I was doing a lot of different things, so I installed a couple of roofs for him, for his solar customers that needed a roof, and we developed a relationship. And it was in 2015 that I, um, I contract with Art to do sales and marketing for Momentum April 2015. And at that time, I actually didn't even quit really, what I had going on. I was like, all right, let me just see, let me take on this Now, even though I was telling Art that I had this huge company, it was a company of one plus two campuses.
Speaker 1:But you got huge results. They're saying sales act as if, you acted as if and it fucking became a reality. Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know that first month I went out, I remember, and I knocked on the doors myself. That was one of the lessons I learned you can't lead. You can't lead from a desk. You can't build from behind a desk right, you have to get your hands dirty. You got to roll your sleeves up, so, and that was that was why, like with the roofing company, it didn't really blow up.
Speaker 2:So this time around, with with my second kind of contract, I decided I was my third contract. I decided you know what, let me let me go on, knock the doors, let me figure. Really, you know the trials and tribulations of doing the position itself. So I went out and knocked on doors. In that first month I did six sales and I kind of got, came, came to an impasse because I was late to everything, like I'm juggling the construction business, right, I'm still working for the other company, I've got a contract with him, I'm trying to run, I'm trying to create solar sails here for art, and and I was just juggling too many things and I was just I'm like I'm never really going to be successful unless I buckle down and focus on something. So it was then it was the end of April in 2015 that I chose. I shut down my construction company. I left that marketing contract.
Speaker 1:It must have been hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was because I was making. You know, I wasn wasn't making great money, but I was just like touching six figures, so like I was basically abandoning all of that right to to.
Speaker 2:You know, to start this, I didn't, you know, I still remember I had a 1998 mitsubishi galant that I bought for like 300 bucks, right, I've always been bad with money, so it's you know, even even with 100 grand, I just spent so much of it like it was. It was like I was broke, like I didn't, I didn't feel like. You know, some people would say 100 grand, wow, that's a lot, like it's nothing to, especially here in jersey. Yeah, you're in jersey and you've never been out to eat.
Speaker 1:Well you, yeah, I've been out to eat. He's a very exuberant person. If you can't tell, we should cut some of those videos we have. When you're inside, he goes all out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like I'm terrible with money, so it wasn't the $100,000, wasn't doing anything for me and so I quit all that. I shut down the construction company. I left that marketers, I left the two marketers with the, the owner of that the roofing company, and I was like you know, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do this right. So that second month, right in may, I went out and I'm knocking doors. I'm trying to hire people now trying to bring on some of my friends, and that never. That doesn't work out great.
Speaker 2:Uh, honestly but, try to bring on some friends early on, and all that full month of effort. I only did eight sales, wow, and I'm like, oh shit, like I quit everything for two extra sales. Right, and it was. I didn't give up, though I'm like, no, there's, there's gotta be, there's gotta be a. You know, there's a path here. I I knew there was a path here and that that third month I did like 17 sales by myself.
Speaker 2:And you want to hear a funny story actually, yeah, so that third month, july, is my birthday month, right. So this is now June. I did 17 sales and Momentum had never. You know, momentum was a small five, six-person shop, right, and Art was actually, you know, he's a ceo now and he was an owner then, but I mean, he was running all the appointments like it was. It was a really small shop. So they hadn't, you know, they had done four million dollars the previous year, um in in revenue. And that month I said I walked into into art's office and I said, hey, I'll bet you that I'll put up a million dollars this month right and how many sales?
Speaker 1:a million dollars, like it's like 32, 33 sales. It's like about a 33, 34 000 average ticket price.
Speaker 2:So it was like I, I'll bet you I'll do a million dollars this month. And he ignored me and he's he's on his phone. He was, you know, he's busy doing whatever and I just sat there and I stared at him and I waited for him and he looked up. He's like I'm like it's a bet, right. Like oh, I'm sorry I forgot. I said I'll bet you $40,000.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's what I said, right talk about way to get someone's attention. Yeah, I said I'll bet you $40,000.
Speaker 2:So I'm like just staring at him waiting for him to respond. So he finally looks up and I'm like it's a bet, like you could just deduct the $40,000 from money's owed, right Like I'll I'll pay my dues, right, like, but let's do this bet. And he like did some math and he was just like I can't do 40,000, but I'll bet you 20 grand. Um, and I was like you're on right. And that month I went out and I put up 33 sales for $1.01 million Um, and these are all net of cancellations and everything.
Speaker 2:Wow, and yeah, organic door knocks. I had one person knock it with me. I was running four or five appointments a day. I mean I just had this is back in the day I had like the carbon copy, the white page and the pink, and left the white page with the homeowner, kept the pinks and I just had a bunch of pink sheets in my car and I'm just going from appointment to appointment, knocking doors between appointments and and and did the number, did the number hit the million dollars in in July?
Speaker 2:And um went, took the 20 grand, he gave it to me cash, you know a man of his word and and I went straight down to Atlantic city, blew it all on blackjack, actually lost, lost the whole 20 grand on blackjack. Uh, you know, it's when I realized that, man, this is, if you put, if you apply yourself, there's a beautiful industry at the cusp of explosive growth and it just needs it. Just, people aren't educated. They don't know what solar is. They don't know what it's about. If you can just get the word out there in in the right way, like sky's the limit.
Speaker 1:And not only that, you were you solar right now. Back then it was more taboo. There weren't a lot of people doing it. I mean, the Jones effect is real If you see a neighbor do it, then you're more likely to do it right. So, to do 33 sales, there's people I was somewhere last week with a former client of mine that has a solar company and I think they're looking to do 8 to 10 sales. I want them to hear this 33 sales in 2015. That's incredible, man, you know. So hats off to you. And what do you think Like? How were you able to outproduce everybody? Was it a burning desire? What the fuck was it? I mean, I think it's like your whole career prepared you for this. I mean, you were in the right place at the right time. You were it, you had the desire. I think it was a combination, all that. But you told me I mean, yeah, first of all, you're right it's.
Speaker 2:It's, it's a confluence of of events and experiences and and different things. Like you know, timing is everything. Right, first of all, everything is due to god, right, but but timing is everything, um, you know, and arthur, you know, getting his feet wet in this business, trying to understand it, basically selling all referrals at the time and stuff and and wanting to expand his business, me coming in with a background of kitchen table sales, I've been, I've been doing it for, you know, at that time, almost seven, eight years, right, you know everything. Uh, one call, once it closes, right, knocked on doors. I'd done a little bit of work into like a bj's, just to understand, like set up home shows and stuff, right.
Speaker 2:So it was like a confluence of experience and timing that that merged or intersected at that at that one point. And then I pair that with I hate to lose. Like I hate losing, dave, like I. Even basketball, like I'll, I'll sweat broken ankle, like I'm not losing. Like I hate to lose, dave I. I hate to lose more than I love to win, um, yeah honestly and that to me, was like I, I left everything behind.
Speaker 2:Like I, I, I still I, I owed my parents, and not money, like I just like, like psychologically, I owe them a win, like I'm the eldest son. They immigrated to this country. My dad, my dad, worked so hard. Like he, he had a degree in pharmacology so he was a pharmacist when he came here and then he went and and worked as a pharmacist and put himself through med school in DR, in Santo Domingo, in Spanish Spanish, because back then there weren't English classes. So he learned Spanish and did med school in Spanish, right and like. And so these, you know, these people put everything out there to give their kids a better life and you know, like I, I owe that to them, I owe that to myself, right, um? And so I wasn't, I wasn't gonna lose and I, and I saw the opportunity and I'd seen many opportunities, and the toughest part about an opportunity, right, is one recognizing it and and.
Speaker 2:And then two, availing it right, doing something with it, cause so many people get opportunities and they don't do anything with it. But just you got to recognize one and give it all, give it your all, and and that's what. That's what kind of drove me and compelled me. I mean, I work seven days a week, 12, 15, 16 hours a day, but I took naps in my car at the time, like that was like all, like time between appointments, all right, I'm like, wow, taking up, taking up in the car and and uh and so it. You know it drove me to just do it. And then, once you, once you see success, once you taste, I mean, listen, dave, I've seen you come a long way. I'm sure you could relate.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that yeah.
Speaker 2:Once, once you see success, once you taste success, it's kind of addictive, right Like that, that dopamine rush you can't go back, man you can't go back. You're just like. You're not going to go from like a Lexus to a Toyota or a Mercedes to a Lexus, right, You're not going to go backwards, right. So it's addictive and you want that success and the desire to continue to taste it and feel it feeds and fuels your work ethic and your passion, your commitment to what you're doing.
Speaker 1:That was amazing. A lot to pack in there and I think one of the big things that comes down to. They say this I hear a lot of people say, what is your why? And I never really talk about it, but you made me think about that now that you had a big why with your parents we wanted to make money and I think it all came together for you is what it comes down to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was being able to to do that. You know my dad, even even though he was a doctor, he was like. He was like, very conservative, yeah, like didn't believe in debt, didn't use credit cards, like you know, paid for everything cash, like old school, very conservative like you, always drove a toyota camry. Like it was a great feeling, I bought my dad his first mercedes that he ever, ever drove in it's been an amazing feeling uh, amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean mean like I could buy myself 100 cars and it doesn't compare to like that. Buying my dad the Mercedes and now every few years, but still like it doesn't. You know, whatever I buy myself doesn't compare to that feeling. So that's just amazing to be able to do that for your parents that work so hard. And I like nice shit myself, man, yeah for sure. Like parents that work so hard, uh. And and then I like nice shit myself, man, so like like that's, that's, I've been shopping, man, I know, I know it's like all over the world, yeah, yeah. So I just, I like nice shit, so this is amazing.
Speaker 1:you know, when the first time I met you, I like being around. I like being around like next level salespeople, because I, when I say salespeople, I mean to me everyone sells. I think any next level person in general is a salesperson. It's such a valuable skill and the first time I met you I sensed that I was excited. I came away excited and it's just great to see what's happened, how you've evolved, how the company has evolved, and I think a lot of it comes down to timing. They say you know. Sometimes people say, oh, you got lucky, but you, they say that you know. Sometimes people say, oh, you got lucky, but you, you worked hard to put yourself in those positions, to be with arthur and recognize like, hey, I'm gonna pull my chips here rather than being spread over there, right and that must have been hard and just busting your ass until you saw it happen.
Speaker 1:So I think for the audience listening, that's no matter where you're at, if you're someone brand new in sales or you've been doing for a while like you have those moments where it's not all fucking gravy Right, and we're talking about in the bit. I mean, when I met you, like you guys are starting to like really, and then you guys went like fucking nuts Right, and it's been the solar coaster Right, and but you guys are still here. So the point is that there's there's a lot to pack in there. I think it's it's motivated. It's motivating as fuck to hear all that stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean was I was a fuck up for a good uh portion of my life too. Like I, I ruined my credit, you know, got got like 28 points on my life. Like I did all types of of of stupid things right and I didn't even like let's just call it grow up until, uh, I was 35 or so. No, I grew up before like 30, 32, right, like 30, 32 and like so that it's it's never too late. It's never too late to like to commit to yourself, right, and that's, and that's the thing that I wasn't doing, right, like I was, I wasn't committing to myself, I was with my friends, I was doing this, I was doing that. I was doing anything but working on myself and committing to kind of having a better path and a better life for myself. So it's never too late to just like say you know what, like like this, is it like today's the day, I'm gonna, you know, commit to myself and it. You know, one thing I tell people is it never like.
Speaker 2:The thing about commitments is people think that, like you make a commitment one time, like today's the day, right, or like I'm gonna start to lose weight or I'm gonna say I going to buy a house. No, like that's not one commitment. Losing weight I'm just use. I'll use losing weight as example, because that's something I'm working on right now. It's you know, it's not a one time commitment. I have to commit to losing weight every single day. When I wake up in the morning and I want a bagel instead of an, uh an avocado Right.
Speaker 2:Like later on, when I'm like, should I order pizza or should I get the fucking salad, right? Well, I'm like, all right, I want fuck, I want some Krispy Kremes. I'm driving past a Krispy Kreme you gotta make. You gotta make that decision 20 times a day. So, like, that's the. That's the thing that people don't realize and that's why, like, people's health plans don't last. And I'm like, cause they think you're going to, you're going to make a decision once and that is going to carry you over. No, like you're making this decision over and over and over and over again, 10 times, a hundred times a day, every single day, until it's done, right and um. So that's, that's one thing for the listeners like you, you it's never too late. And like, and you're going to fail, you're going to fail over and over, like I'll just, you said, like you go through your trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2:Like momentum has gone through so many ups and downs, even in my weight loss journey, which is this year, I lost 25 pounds, right, and I'm like, all right, I'm crushing it. And I and I let off the gas right, started eating whatever, gain 11 pounds real quick, and I'm, like you know, working on like getting it back. Like it's just it happens, though. Like I'm not upset that I that I did that, it's just you know it makes you stronger. Like you just you become more resilient, you learn right and and even momentum. And like just I saw a meme right that or something like a quote. It People think the path to success is like this and it's really like it's all like zigzags and stuff.
Speaker 2:And it is right, it takes you all over the place.
Speaker 1:Age data.
Speaker 3:There's only a few months left of this. A lot of different ways to monetize data. Data is a very broad term. There's a lot more money in it. You already spent the money. Let's just say it cost you $10 for a Medicare. You make a million dollars in sales. You really only made a hundred thousand bucks and you might not get paid by your advertiser. What if I can get an extra 50 cents dollar? $2, $3 per lead in perpetuity? What does that do?
Speaker 2:to my marketing campaign.
Speaker 3:What does that do for the stress of the profits of my company? A percentage or two at those kinds of numbers are huge as moving the needle, so for us. As moving the needle, so for us. What I love about age data the hard part's already been done. Now it's just the revenue left for your company. What would the extra 10, 20, $30,000 a week do for your business? Absolutely All of our big partners are making hundreds of thousands, if not millions, a year with us. They're never going to have this gold rush again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and I resonate with this a big lot man, and I resonate with this a big lot man, and I think a lot of it. I saw this front and center what happened there A lot of my success tied into your success, you guys, and that's how a good business relationship should be Everybody should win, and you guys grew, I grew along with you. Right is what happened and, man, it was such an enjoyable thing to see. I remember back in 2016,. We met in 2016. And for some reason, I was in an office in Edison, I think on Nixon Road or Nixon Lane somewhere, there you guys just started the call center we met through Adam Gugino a friend of ours.
Speaker 1:He started the call center with you guys. You were in the garage and I don't know why I was. I think I just started selling you guys leads and then Adam was like you should meet the guys. That guys that's when I first met arthur and you guys just hit 30. I don't know we had 30 sales or 100. I think you hit 100 sales. April, 26 april, was 100 sales, 100 sales of what it was and for everyone listening to this, 100 sales is big and sold the most. I would say over 90 companies.
Speaker 1:Never get there, maybe 95, don't get 100 signed contracts, so you got 100 sales, which was exciting. And then you guys I think that was your turning point. After that, you guys were just fucking like a machine and a lot of the tide. The call center was rocking, the outside sales was rocking, your guys were buying leads where you're calling leads like white on rice. Everything came together to the point where you guys have done billions with a b billions in revenue in solar. Right, yeah, this isn't no bullshit. We're not talking about 10, 50, 100 million still good numbers. You're talking about multiple billions in solar. So that's what we're talking about here, so people understand the magnitude of this it's uh, I mean we, I remember that 100 there was.
Speaker 2:We went on a stretch where, um, we broke a record every month for like almost 30 months. I was there for a good stretch I think I was there for a good four to four months stretch where it was like every month, whether it was like 20 sales or you know, or, or 75 sales, or 80 to 150 sales, better than the previous month, every month, for it was almost 30 is a lucky number for you, by the way.
Speaker 1:Low 30s man, I shouldn't have relented, yeah.
Speaker 2:I do, I played 28, 32, 31. But it's every month. We broke a record, but it wasn't without like someone's quitting Someone's you know, someone's you know doing this. There's just so many different. I could, we could talk for days about, like you know, the things that you experience as as an owner of a large company. I mean, like we're, you know, at our peak, where you know we are. We were at like 2,800 employees.
Speaker 1:I thought it was 2,000, we're still I didn't know. It was 2800. That's crazy man, 2800 uh, employees.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's, it's a, it's a tall order to make sure that you're doing the right things and and creating a platform that allows those 2800 employees to engage in the right ways and and to to benefit from it right, yeah, and I want to go back to those.
Speaker 1:you made me think of so much stuff, but but back in those early days, I consulted for you guys. I think it was April 2017 through August around that. It was like a four or five-month stretch, and my goal there was to help with the call. So I knew Adam pretty well. You guys were doing really well, but there was still a certain process. We put in quality assurance, a bunch of stuff, and for me, that was really pivotal for me.
Speaker 1:I moved back from South Carolina. I brought my current wife along with me. We came as a team and, bro, I felt so welcome. It felt so good to be back in Jersey. I can kick chairs Fucking. I was like throwing chairs, like rah, rah, rah. It was fun, man and bro, and you're high energy too. It was just such a great experience. It reminded me like a couple other experiences I had, and I think that when you see that shit, it becomes your normal. You know I, when I, when I, if I'm not part of something that's moving in the right direction, I feel like what the fuck am I doing? So, like, being there during that time was amazing, I think, when I came on board, you guys were doing 400 sales a month. Uh, by the time I was out of, there was like 800, 900 sales a month and I think you guys got past a couple thousand.
Speaker 1:I mean these are stupid numbers, man big fucking number per month.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I mean, just like last year, we averaged about 20, just under 2700 sales a month man, those are big numbers, yeah, yeah, you know it was. It was fun like growing a business can be a lot of fun, especially when you're winning. Yeah, I just you reminded me of just some of the stories. I remember you. I still got videos on the phone, I'll show you afterwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where, like everyone's, just like you know, we used to. If we were on the cusp of like hitting a record right and and and for that long stretch, most months we were and this is pre COVID, so like the call center, everybody was still in the building Right, and it would usually be like that day we would start to just tick off the sales. All right, 22 sales, you know like 22 sales left to go, 21 sales left to go, and I'd have a hundred bottles of champagne carded in. I had like great relationship with like liquor store owners, hundred bottles of champagne carded in and we would all pop champagnes, I mean, every end of the on the first of every month. I've replaced probably like 20 keyboards because they're just sticky.
Speaker 1:I fucked a couple of myself, yeah like 5, 10 monitors, like it was.
Speaker 2:It was such an epic. And like people took videos of this and they just the the, the employees, myself included. Right, we loved. We loved that energy, that environment. Right, where you're just celebrating this win, it's like you're taking it to a goal, like managers are contributing, they're all like hey, I got another one.
Speaker 1:Like they're helping on TO calls All hands on deck man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all hands on deck Like they're helping with, to calls, like I ever got a rep in the house. Or sometimes, like there's a few times where at the end of the month I know it's their run appointment. I'm going on like, all right, I'll take this appointment, I'll go run it, come back. Sell it, come back. All right, that's one less appointment. It was just such an experience. Covid killed a lot of stuff like that right, because everyone was like we went remote with our call center and things.
Speaker 1:How did you adjust? How did you feel during that period? I'm like a face-to-face person.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, you know COVID was scary for that right, because it's like first of all forget, even like we're face-to-face people like our business is face-to-face right.
Speaker 2:We're coming to your house, we're, we're, we're selling you at your kitchen table, we're installing, we're inside, we're in your attic, we're looking at your service panel. I mean the whole, the whole experience from end to end. Most of it is is, uh, is face to face. So covid was a scary time because we didn't know, uh, you know, how people would react and in the beginning everyone was scared, right like I think that was one thing that just the, the not knowing, had a lot of people, a lot of people scared especially, and that was that was like regional right, floridians didn't give two shits about anything but, like you're new yorkers, right, new yorkers saw a lot.
Speaker 2:Uh saw a lot of death. Right, my dad's a my dad's a doctor. Right, he was working in uh in in nyu in brooklyn, right and and there were, you know we were one of the hardest areas, yeah.
Speaker 2:There were.
Speaker 2:I mean, he used to tell me he's like there were refrigerated trucks parked outside with, with, you know, corpses not to make this a whole morbid, you know situation, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was scary up here. So that was navigating space people out, but like we were already at capacity in a 60,000 square foot building, we were elbow to elbow like you know, not literally but just about so there wasn't even like you couldn't even space people out enough in there, so we had to go remote and it really that's where management really comes into play, right, that's where having training and developing the right management team and having the right software right so that you can create visibility into, you know, the efforts and the actions of the people. Cause you know call center, like we managed it through through dials and conversions, and we it forced us to become meticulous in in understanding metrics and KPIs and living and breathing off of them. It's one thing like you're in the office, you feel the vibe, you look around, everyone's on the phone, so you're like all right, everyone's working right, or you see someone doing nothing outside of their seven-second break.
Speaker 2:Yeah what you're doing yeah, yeah, right, and you're like all right, so it's easier to manage. But now it really. It created disciplines in in in myself and made you better, you think, made you tighter, absolutely, absolutely. And in our management team. That required us to be kpi focused and and drive you know behaviors from, from the numbers that we saw yeah it's crazy, and I was gonna think.
Speaker 1:I remember that time was scary for everybody. I mean, I didn't do any lead sales for two weeks and I thought I was. I'm like, bro, I gotta do another job. Or you know, alejandro, you gotta, you gotta find a job. I'm trying to figure shit out. And I got. I had a client in the south somewhere that had like 50 vendors and they shut them all down. They were like they only put five back on. I was one of them and that got me going. And you guys got back going again and like all of a sudden it was like off to the races. You went from like this to this.
Speaker 1:So like fuck, like this you know, yeah, it was such a crazy time, man, but were you nervous? Did you guys think, oh fuck, we're done? Or like? I can't imagine you probably had a couple thousand employees at the time. That must have been.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. We had several. You know, I was nervous enough that I'll say this. Right, I had a Bentley being delivered Bentley Coupe, Continental, custom made. Right, the black one that was smoked out.
Speaker 1:No, I have that one.
Speaker 2:It was the Continental GT right, two-door, custom-made. I waited a year for this, for the coupe right, and it got delivered two weeks after. We had just kind of sent a bunch of people home, furloughed some people, right, and I had a deposit on that Bentley and I told the dealership I was like guys, I can't in good faith take this car, right, I can't take this car on right now. Like that, like I had to furlough a bunch of employees and I'm going to sit here and pick up a Bentley. Like that makes no sense. I don't know what. You know what the business is going to look like in a month or two months, let alone six months, right, so like, if you can hold the car for me, great. If they're like we don't, we don't hold the car. If it sells, it sells or whatever.
Speaker 2:I lost my deposit on that car but I was nervous enough to to not want to take on, you know, a Bentley at that time, right, as an example. But I knew that the beautiful thing about sales is that sales finds a way right, like it's, it's, uh, you can figure out how to sell anything if you do it the right way, right and and and people are not going to stop, you know, wanting things. People are not going to stop buying things. So I knew that it the only the the nervousness is getting through. Like a cash intensive business like solar right, and having the responsibility of of, at the time, 2500 employees. It's like how do I have enough money to pay my employees and ride out the rough time? That's what you're, you know, that's what we get nervous about.
Speaker 2:And between arthur and our third partner, song was our cfo, like I was. I was confident in, in, in my team, right, and knowing that we'll figure out a way to get through this and we did so. It wasn't like what would happen with solar or what would happen with the industry. It's more like we were, at that time, completely internally capitalized, so we didn't take any money personally. Everything goes into the business. Keep our employees paid, thank god, capitalized. So it's. You know, we didn't take any money personally. It was just like everything goes into the business. Keep our employees paid, you know, thank God, we never missed a payroll once ever in the history of the company.
Speaker 1:That's amazing when you think about it that many bodies Despite yeah despite like all of that, and we kept, we.
Speaker 2:just, you know, we kept, we know one thing is that every day that I go to bed, like I know that, I have, you know, 2,000 families that rely on me, you know, to make sure that they're fed.
Speaker 1:And you said so much stuff there. One thing I want to talk about, too, is that there's 2,000 families. Right, you have 2,000 employees. You're really impacting 4,000, 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 people, right? One thing I remember when I was there, and that was different. You guys probably changed so much since then because that was the crazy scale-up phase. Right, you guys supported so much local business. You guys supported so much local business. You guys were ordering lunch for everybody every day, right, I remember going one time to I lived in Metuchen at the time, new Jersey small town there and there was a Greek restaurant and I don't know how the hell.
Speaker 1:I must have been on the phone with you or Arthur and the owner knew he knew Arthur. He's like oh, those guys are the best. When they come here, I can see how you guys would infuse, you would help the local economy out man so much. And it's like and not just the local economy. You had people. You were in different states. You were helping out places you probably never been to man so that's the beauty of small business.
Speaker 2:When it's done that way, you make such a fucking impact. Yeah, like we supported for sure. I mean, like just being in one of our offices when we grew, we did like just a simple thing, like ordered food every single day, like we were, you know, ordering food like the towns. What was the food bill like? Remember?
Speaker 1:you know I, I don't, I, you know what that's. I love that because you, you got such an roi, right? Why the fuck people gonna take lunch breaks or whatever, right? Yeah, you're humming man, each self worth eating. It was such a big roi feeds you. I mean, there's there, it had it was lunch, it was dinner, it was breakfast. You guys didn't give a fuck.
Speaker 2:We didn't like whatever, whatever it is you need, like keep, keep working like you know, do you know? And, and they took their breaks too, like you, we weren't like like we had guys that sometimes they'd go like I remember we had this one uh call center person kid made um I I still remember like he uh came to me right one day and we had taken them all out to harrah's pool party right now. That's a classic party and uh, um and uh.
Speaker 2:You know, he came to me and he cried like this guy was like six foot five, he's simple I know you yeah right and came and he, like my whole shoulder wet, like cries, like you changed my life, like my mother thanks you, Like she never thought we would have the things that we have today and stuff. And like you know, a few months later, like he came to work with an M6, right, like bought an M6 for himself and used to drive that to work every day. And the reason I thought of him is like he used to work 12 hours a day but he'd leave for two hours, right, just to go blow steam, hang out, do whatever he does, probably smoke a weed like whatever. Right, like whatever he was doing to make you know. And then he'd come back and work and I didn't you know, like here.
Speaker 1:He's a producer. Yeah, he's a producer. Yeah, he's a producer. Producers get a different set of rules at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, Like here's our hours of operation. Right, there's legal times where you can call people, as long as you're dialing within these times. Right, you want to come and go? Like so it was a, it was like a really cool. You know, it was a really cool environment because he was, he was producing, but, but it allowed people like we well, we did contest prizes. You know how many people I've I've sent to italy and and and and greece and and mexico. Forget it so many times. You know the caribbean so many times, like just tvs, ipads. You know so many, so many giveaways because it's like, hey, you're working hard, like let's all have fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's all have fun I love it and that makes you guys won at one point, I think, one of the things that that I like lot. You guys won best work environment.
Speaker 2:I don't know, 2021 or yeah. Yeah, Best workplace. Ink best workplace.
Speaker 1:And not only Ink. You guys made that so many years in a row, I think one year where you're like 50 something or 40, some really crazy high rank.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we made Ink almost like five or six times and guys, that's hard to do consecutively because each year the bar gets higher.
Speaker 1:I did it three years in a row and it's fucking tough especially when you put in those kind of numbers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was at scale, we were still hitting it, so it was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's great and that's why I know we're focusing a lot on sales, because everything is sales at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your title you are, you got to know how to sell and the more, the sooner you get to learn how to sell, the sooner you'll be able to hit your, your sales go up and your goals, your financial goals and your at the end, I think also, the money is also about freedom yeah, you know and I think, like you, I, you always work, I work hard.
Speaker 1:We're very similar that way. I get here, you're on phone calls, but you enjoy what you do, man. It's obvious it's like and you're mentoring people.
Speaker 1:I'm hearing you say shit, bro, you remind me of me and you know we're talking about, like you're talking to your EA it's Mallory, yeah, and I have my like man. They're protecting our time. All this shit. You're saying like it's so great to hear this stuff. People don't think about that. To get to the level you're at, you know, get to those levels. I mean, that's what I was talking about.
Speaker 2:I was like, yeah, you got to protect my time, like I'm not, you got to move these meetings to this day, that day and you know, prioritize kind of what's what's important, what's urgent Right, and what needs me, what can get done by someone else and that's what a good, you know administrative assistant does.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Cool. So the next thing I want to say is about solar. Right, we talked about the solar coaster. I have a company, solar Direct Marketing started in 2016. I was like every year, grow, grow, grow, grow. And then we had our first downturn. Probably, I don't know, it was fourth quarter of 2022, first quarter of 2023, around that time and it hasn't really been the same. We had some ups and downs, a lot of companies going out of business. I think I read last year 250, 300 companies went out of business.
Speaker 3:Titan just went out, which is crazy, right they?
Speaker 1:were like number one for the longest time. So why do you I'd ask your partner, arthur, this I want to get your opinion why do you think so many other companies have gone out of business? Why what has kept you not just surviving but thriving in this environment?
Speaker 2:So the answer is a little no-transcript made it challenging for reps to be able to go out there and sell higher interest rates, and these are reps that are, you know, focused on not the long-term savings for solar, not the long-term benefits of solar, but more of the short-term hey, I can get it to you at this price today and that's why I think they were affected more by it today, and and that's why I think they were affected, uh, more by it, the the other thing is, there were there were just some, you know, large companies that defaulted right like, um, you know, uh, it was called power home solar, which changed their name to pink energy carolinas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, um, and they defaulted on sunlight like a huge, huge dollar amount which left sunlight holding holding the bag for like tens of millions of dollars. So what it did is it caused, like companies like that, because solar was a lot of these smaller companies, you know, thrive off of, off of capital advancements, right, so they're, they're getting 30 to 50 percent advances on sold projects, but they're sold but not installed, right, and there's cancellation once you sign the contract, there's tears, tears, right.
Speaker 2:Once you sign the contract there's tears and once you get permit approved, right. But those are at-risk projects still right. These are projects that still have, you know, a cancellation rate attached to them. But now you're getting advanced all this money. So a lot of the financial partners in solar stopped advancing money to companies. What that resulted in is a loss of capital for these organizations. So companies that weren't self-sufficient, that weren't fiscally prudent, that did not have, like you know, kind of that, did not make the right decisions in the right time. They just buckled under the pressure. Like you know, titan said like hey, we try to raise capital on multiple occasions and we're unsuccessful and we just can't afford to keep our doors open. And there's I've seen several companies you know Suntuity, Sungevity, vision, big names.
Speaker 1:These are companies that are doing 200 to 500 million plus a year. I think Titan was doing a billion. At one point Titan was doing big, big numbers, fucking crazy.
Speaker 2:The other companies were smaller than Titan, but still significant size and they, you know, they just they did not have the financial sophistication and did not enact austerity measures. You know, quick enough. Like we went like when this happened, like you know, you were joking about like buying food all day long. Like we're not right now, yeah Right, like you were joking about buying food all day long. We're not right now, we're not buying food all day long. We were rampant with travel expenses or careless with travel.
Speaker 1:Your parties were insane too. Pool parties in Vegas were fucking fantastic.
Speaker 2:I got some video footage of that Catch all those.
Speaker 1:Leave it up to your imagination.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, we started making smarter decisions right. We started becoming more responsible with our money and, just you know, becoming more efficient. We changed our financial products to provide, you know, better value for our reps, better value for our homeowners. So we made a lot of changes and cut costs to the greatest extent. We got rid of our fleet. We had, you know, 800, 900 vehicles.
Speaker 1:Wow, I forgot about that Right.
Speaker 2:We sold the majority of them just to make sure. So we made, you know, decisions like that fast enough, you know. Shout out to Song RCFO.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about it. He probably was at the forefront of all that right?
Speaker 2:they absolutely, because I'm the spender. They're just like alex, you can't do this.
Speaker 1:That's why you have to have a good team, a good team of who's that complement each other, correct?
Speaker 2:correct right, because otherwise I I would have drove us right to bankruptcy but you're driving the sales.
Speaker 1:I know, I know how to drive sales.
Speaker 2:I'll bring the money in in how to keep it Sounds like me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my team yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll bring the money in how to keep it, what to do with it, that's on song, and art plays a part in that as well. But just having the right team right and we complement each other right, like I don't think that I'd be here without art or song and I can say it for them as well they wouldn't be here without me or the other right, like the three of us, like we each have a different, uh, we each have a different role, um, and in the business, and we do our role really well and we work our our balls off to, to, you know, get it done and and that that's what works great answer and and that's really, I think you summed it all up, and for me, having worked with you so closely, knowing you guys are so long, I would say one thing too, and this ties back to the sales aspect.
Speaker 1:First of all, before we go into sales, that complementary leadership team right, you got the one that's driving sales. That's why you're a CRO. Right, you got the CFO. He was in JP Morgan, right, no, morgan Stanley, he was in the renewable energy sector and Morgan Stanley.
Speaker 2:For a decade he co-underwrote the IPO of Sunrun. He had secured the SunEdison Vivint deal. He was one of the bankers behind that deal, which eventually fell apart, but still he had a lot of experience in this space in raising capital in valuations, so he's an amazing, he was an amazing addition to the team west point two. Yeah, west point graduate, harvard business school graduate um, yeah, so incredible, incredible, uh kind of resume, uh and story and and man, he fucking works his ass off like you know, joe, like he, you know, he's one person that, like his, his calendar is like 30, 45, like 30, 15 minute meetings.
Speaker 2:Boom, boom, boom boom boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, precise right.
Speaker 2:All day, Like I know, if I need to get Song on the phone, I call him at like 9.58. So like if a meeting is ending early, like I'll go to 9.58 or 9.13, like stuff like that, just that just to get him on the phone. So just really, you know, and Art, putting all this together, getting the relationships you know together, like being the visionary, for you know where we needed to go and what we needed to do to get there and stuff, you know it, just it all came together in a beautiful way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's an amazing team and I'm very proud and fortunate to have been part of that too, because you become like the people you hang around right and we spend some good time together and just seeing that. Seeing is believing. You know, I grew up in Newark, new Jersey, liz. I grew up there was one point my family had food stamps. My mom lost her job Not that she wanted to, but she needed it for a period of time and then when you see people hustling and doing it, you're like, wow, I can fucking do it too. And I want to talk next about this area that we live in. I call this the Gold Coast.
Speaker 2:They call this the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know I grew up in, I know you grew up in Jersey City, I grew up in Newark, right, it was like, really like you know blue collar Lyft's in 2005 in Student Loan Casino. That's where I met.
Speaker 3:Adam right.
Speaker 1:And that was a call center that blew up too.
Speaker 1:I mean the owner made Crush it over there, sold at the right time, right place, right time, and that's where I learned how to sell, be in call centers and that kind of shit, and I would drive past this area. It was nothing like it is now and, like I always this city man, like we're just, you know, being the shadow you always like aspire right. These buildings just give you some inspiration. So you I think Arthur moved here. I came here for like a New Year's party in 2017. You were here in the same building and then you moved here. And then I went to Soho over there, some fucking spa. They got up there. My buddy's like Dave, this is your area, you need to live here, bro, you're fucking right.
Speaker 1:And then like move there, yeah and just seeing this fucking we used to play laser yeah, that was definitely illegal, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyway seeing this fucking city like right behind us and we would zoom in later on. You got the tallest building, the tallest residential building in the world, right there right some guy bought the top floor for 150 million, 200 million, that's right. So you see this shit and it makes you think bigger, right? So you feel the same way, or like what? What prompted you to move here? And how does this fucking it to me's leveling up at the end of the day?
Speaker 2:yeah, listen, growing up in jersey city and and very much I mean like this was, it was not, the jersey city had no affluent parts.
Speaker 3:Now, it does, but not in the way different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got robbed three fucking times my car broke in jersey you could not leave your bicycle in your front yard in jersey city. It would absolutely get sold. You rode boat through some blocks. You're walking home without sneakers, most likely, so it was a completely different area. But just you know, growing up in Jersey City, I always like being close to New York City, like everything is there. Like you know, it's such a beautiful city, like look, I mean, that's artwork right there.
Speaker 2:It is artwork, you look back there, no-transcript, look out his, like his front window and I'm like, wow, what a view. Yeah, so it was. And I'm like I want, I want to live in this building. So I, I, I got an apartment in the building, you know, um, and I told the doorman, like I was at great relationship with everyone that I'm around right.
Speaker 1:You're a very generous person, by the way, and I think it's paid you back in multiple ways. Man, it's great.
Speaker 2:Like in multiples, in multiples, right, like I love doing it, but I 100% it's selfishly selfless, selfless, right, um, but it, um, you know, and I said, dude, if, like, one of the front units ever open up, like you gotta let me know. And uh, and, and one day, like he texted me, like, dude, the penthouse just went up for sale, right, and I called the realtor and I told I was like hey, the penthouse is going up in the market, get it. She said, do you want to take a look at it? I was like no, I was like I don't even care what's inside. I was like just get me the penthouse I wanted. And then she walked me up here and I saw this view and it was like I was just like floored. I was floored by the view.
Speaker 2:And every day I mean I've, I've had this. I told you I'm just gonna start construction on it. Uh, now, mean, I've had this. I told you I'm just going to start construction on it now. But, like, I've had this unit since I closed on this deal, jan 2020. And every day that I look out here, I'm inspired. There's just there's just that's what motivates me. Like there's just so much money out there. Like what do? 0.1%, 0.00001% of it, and we'd be tens of millions of dollars right.
Speaker 2:Like 0.1% of it, like multi-billionaires. Right Like there's just you look out there and you see what's possible. Right, the buildings, like you know, that have been built, the money that's sitting in those towers and those condos. Like this is like it's like being close to it just reminds you every single day of what's possible I don't have 110 million dollar condo yet.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I'd want to live in a place without an outdoor space, but but, but uh, you know, uh, I want, I would love to be able to buy 110 million dollar condo or spend that on the condo or on the place right and uh, so every day there's getting up I, I, I, suddenly you know, my wife laughs because I wake up in the morning and she's she's still sleeping and sometimes like she feels like someone's standing there, so like she wakes up and I'm just, I'm just staring out the window in silence. It's like six in the morning, sun's coming up. I'm just like staring out the window, cause's just, it's peaceful yeah, it's peaceful and it's.
Speaker 1:It just makes you think bigger, like no matter how you had a great month, that's the thing in sales and running a business. You're only as good as your last sale yeah right and you might have a record month, but you got to break that record and it is what it is and then it just keeps you going. But looking at this shit, like what some motherfucker bought that top floor, why can't I do it? Yeah, he just he reverse engineered something, or hit something Right and listen, regardless of what.
Speaker 1:What. What solar is going through right now, I think, is a sign of consolidation. It's time to maturity and the the the ones that are have austerity measures in place. I know what the fuck they're doing.
Speaker 3:I know what to sell.
Speaker 2:They're the ones that are going to be the. It's going to be the ones that have the right principles, the right business principles, that do the right things for their employees and their customers. Those are going to be the companies that are going to be around and and they'll be able to. They'll be able to cap us like I would love to be the the largest solar company profitable but largest solar company in the country, because I'm 100 sure that we do it, we will do it, we do it better than everyone else and we will do the people that deserve to take advantage of these incentives right. That deserve right To get the right experience, like the federal government is giving not giving out money, but there's an incentive in place, right, they're supporting or funding it through our tax dollars.
Speaker 2:They deserve to be able to return, get a return on those tax dollars that they pay out 100%. And I know we'll do it better. I know we'll do the right things for our customers. We stand behind our work and just doing that. I've always said if you treat your employees right and your customers right, the money comes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, that's beautiful and we can go on.
Speaker 3:I think we're going to have to do a part two for sure, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to. I want to expand upon and I think that another reason you guys have been able to withstand the test of time is that I see how you guys treat leads. You call the fuck for me as a lead seller and most of the audience. They sell leads or digital marketing, 90% of clients we sell leads who don't know how to work.
Speaker 2:a fucking lead you can give them the greatest lead in the world and they're going to fuck it up. You know speed to call call times, cadence, nurturing cycles, bringing it back, it's all I mean.
Speaker 1:We could talk about that but that's why you guys were a great partner because you want a few that know what you're doing.
Speaker 1:That's why I would say, if I have to bet on someone withstanding the test of time, thriving during this environment, it's you guys, because you got the right leadership team, you got the right culture, you got the right speed to lead. You know how to buy media and do this, and you treat your partners right now. I'm an example of that. I've been knowing you guys eight years and we're still. It's very rare thing, man and you know we'll keep this going as long as we can, and I feel like it's not. This goes beyond solar. We've had conversations like that before. It's not just business. We become like real good friends. Our wives know each other.
Speaker 1:We've gone around the world all over with each other, you know and that's why that's going to continue. And that's the beauty jumped over top of y'all yeah, I mean I've gotten nervous.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I did that shit. She did, she did, I did. And I'm not as good of a swimmer, so that was like scary. She beat Arthur in a race, yeah, she beat.
Speaker 1:Oh, bro, that was great. I got footage of that. She's super fast in the water, bro. She's a fish, she's amazing, and we got to do one. We go out to dinner where you do your whole food review.
Speaker 2:He's a big foodie.
Speaker 1:He doesn't fuck around, come eat with me, you'll see it Come eat with me.
Speaker 2:Eat like Sheik on TikTok. Baby, let's do it. You need your own show.
Speaker 1:The guy. He's hilarious man he's like he's just a great, he's a pleasure to be around. It's just fucking great to be friends, man. Yeah, absolutely my pleasure, man, Dave LFGTV. Thank you everybody. Let's go, let's fucking go.