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
SolarCon Founder Jake Hess: Solars Not Dead 📈
🚨 Shoutout to RoofsInABox.com — your AI & Virtual Staffing specialists, saving clients MILLIONS and slashing ops costs by 70%! 🚨
And BIG 💥 thank you to our sponsor Ringba, the #1 call tracking platform in the game 🏆📞
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🎙️ NEW EPISODE JUST DROPPED: Solar’s Not Dead ☀️💰
This one is a MUST-LISTEN for anyone who thinks the solar industry is on life support…
Because Jake Hess — founder of SolarCon and the Morning Energy Show — is here to set the record straight ⚡
💥 “50% of the country’s solar companies shut down last year. 80% in California.”
Sound scary? Maybe.
But Jake doesn’t call it a crisis…
He calls it a cleansing. 🌱🧹
The "solar coaster" shook out the bad apples 🍎 — and what’s left?
💪 Stronger companies.
📊 Smarter operators.
🚀 Bigger opportunities.
Solar’s not dying… it’s GROWING UP.
The weeds have been pulled 🌾🧤
Now the real crops can thrive 🌻🌞
Jake brought titans like Gary Vaynerchuk last year and took on David Goggins, and the **Shark Tank crew** into SolarCon this year — because this industry isn’t small-time anymore.
We're talking billion-dollar energy, leadership, and ownership plays now. 💼💸
🎯 Why is NOW the time to get in?
✅ Commission potential = unchanged
✅ Solar pricing = still solid
✅ Battery + storage tech = homeowner game-changer
✅ Less noise = more room for the real pros to dominate
💡 Plus — if you're not building your brand online, you’re building someone else’s.
Jake breaks down how **consistent content = credibility**. The social proof is the new solar proof! 🔌📱
This episode is a blueprint for the next era of solar domination.
From tax credits to cash flow to hiring smarter — we cover it all.
🎧 Subscribe now to The LFG Show and hear how Jake Hess and real solar leaders are navigating the *next golden age* of clean energy 🌎🌟
🚀 Solar’s not dead. It’s just getting started.
#LFG #SolarCon #JakeHess #MorningEnergyShow #SolarEnergy #VirtualStaffing #RoofsInABox #Ringba #CleanEnergy #SolarBoom #LeadGen #CallTracking #TheLFGShow #GaryVee #DavidGoggins #SharkTank #EnergyTitans #solarrevolution
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guys, lfg. We're at solar con 2025. I'm with jcas. If you're in solar, you know who jcas is. If you're if you're not in solar, you want to know who jcas is. This guy's a legend. He's been doing this for very, very long time. He's the founder of solar con. This is one of my favorite shows in in the whole, or legend in the whole industry and he's also the founder in the whole lead gen in the whole industry. And he's also the founder of the Morning Energy Show, which is the solar industry's top news channel. I listen to it, I get great news out of it and you also.
Speaker 1:You scale businesses, mom and pop shops, multi-billion dollar organizations. You take them to the moon. I'm really excited to have you on the show. Man hey, thank you very much. I'm happy to be on here. Yeah, man hey, thank you very much. I'm happy to be on here. Yeah, it's great and I appreciate. I know that I. I did a small event in columbia called columbia con. We had 40 something people there and I was stressed the hell out, so I don't know how you do it and the fact that we're able to fit us in at this time, it means a lot to me, so I really, really appreciate it. Of course, no problem, I'm happy to be here, for sure cool, so let's get started.
Speaker 2:Man, I actually remember. I remember you at another conference we were at RoofCon, okay, and that was the first time you reached out to me and you made me feel so welcome. And then you're like you know what? I'm buying a booth at your conference now, and you did you got it that day.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you remember. I forgot about that because I thought we met at SolarCon. I forgot we met at RoofCon. That's a great show as well. I was very thankful for that. Yeah, yeah, it was great. Yeah, and that's what it is. Listen, it doesn't matter what industry. We do a lot of lead generation, right. But solar was really where we married Legion and another vertical and took off solar direct marketing in 2016. But I'm such a firm believer when you get a bunch of people together, like a lot of industry experts, you do a lot of knowledge sharing. It just grows like crazy man. So again, I can't emphasize enough I mean all the solo calls I've been to have been instrumental to our growth, and I know you've been instrumental to other people's growth as well. Oh, thank you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. I that is my passion. That's all I've wanted to do was help people in this industry. I came from door to door sales and I feel like the organization I was with just created this glass ceiling and no matter what metrics I hit with that, they that they uh scripted. They said, if you hit these metrics, we'll promote. And was that solar or what product was it? It was solar.
Speaker 2:Okay, I mean, it happened previously in home security, but I just I guess I grew a little bit older, more mature, wiser. I had more responsibility than I had before and income meant something different to me. I suppose at time I got emotional about it just because I was planning for a future. Home security had us moving from chaos. We would leave for the summers and solar was proposed to give us stability and we didn't have to move anymore. It was the same type of commission, even more commission, and it was a great product to sell.
Speaker 2:And when I heard what it was, I picked up and I moved and I stayed within the same organization. It was not different and it really hurt me and it hurt my future growth, I believe, because I had the metrics that they wanted. They didn't promote and I wanted to prevent people from ever feeling that way again, and Solarkon is one of the tools that I use to do that. I think education within the industry enhances careers and it protects people's futures so that they can go into business negotiations with a little bit more knowledge and understanding, so they can accomplish the things that they would like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was going to say I mean the solar they call it the solar coaster right, I got into this in 2016 and man, our company, we made Inc 500 fast growing companies. We have four times in three years we had two companies in lead gen, in solar making. Right, we're a rocket ship. We're going to buy out offers, all sorts of stuff, and then early 2023, it just started to go the other way. Right, I mean, we're still here and I feel like there's a consolidation going on, but I think now more than ever, it's so important while the industry is going through these rocky times and to me, I don't know what you think I want to get your opinion. I see it as a sign of maturity in an industry. It's consolidating right now. Do you agree on that, or?
Speaker 2:how do you feel? Absolutely agree. You know, if you're in the solar industry at all. You saw a massive shift in size. We 50% of the country went out of business last year. We're all just recovering from that 80% in California, where I live and it was devastating, uh, and we're still seeing some of the residual effects of that, so it'd be silly to say otherwise. Like it absolutely went through um a recession type of period and we're in the maturation period now, just like you said.
Speaker 1:So what, what are your tips? I mean, I know there's a lot of people here, right. I mean you, you opened up the doors early. I got her eight30. I was surprised how many people are here, right, just it goes. It's a testament to the quality of your show and the people that come here. So what would be your advice to someone that's kind of like I don't know? Maybe two things. To try to get into the industry Is this a good time to get into solar? Do you recommend it or not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think everyone can, you know, take some solace in the idea that I'm not here to recruit you unless you come to the conference and please join the solar industry. But I don't make money off of you joining any of these organizations and I will say right now I do think it is one of the best times to join the solar industry. The pricing in solar hasn't changed, the amount of commission you can make hasn't changed and the opportunity for the homeowner is at an all-time high with the integration of batteries and storage. Just because we had this recession, we believe that it weeded out a lot of the, I would say, bad eggs within the industry, and I can spend hours talking about that. I won't bore you with it, but I believe it weeded those out. And the people that want to keep things serious and really help homeowners and really help their careers, the ones that took it serious, are the ones that are going to succeed to a level that we haven't before, and one thing, I get to say something, and I really mean this with all sincerity.
Speaker 1:There was a panel last year at SolarCon in Utah. It was Arthur Saracita, ceo of Momentum Solar, a good friend of mine. You had Mark Jones, former CEO of SunPro Solar, who sold the ADT home security for almost a billion dollars. Former client of mine, a friend of mine as well. You had Good Leap. You had Abigail. It was such a I may have missed someone. It was such a great panel. That's one of the best business panels I've seen of all time and I was amazed at the candor that they spoke of.
Speaker 1:Mark Jones said guys, if I was operating some pro in this environment, I would be out of business, but I'd be excited to get into it now, because one of the reasons why and I want to ask you this do you agree this is one of the reasons why so many people went out of business, they got too heavy. They just they thought the good times were going to last forever. Because he said that. Arthur said the same thing you have to operate nimble right, and the ones that operate nimble, they're washing the cash flow, they're doing the right things, they're the ones that are going to survive and thrive in this environment. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely agree with that. Yeah, the people that came in honestly, I'm one of them that came in as a sales rep door-to-door sales rep and decided to start a business in solar. It was so easy with the government funding. It was so easy when that happened. And when that started to get strangled last year with all of the interest rates going up and now with the new president in office, that's kind of strangling some of the government funding that this industry has received. And so, yeah, I agree with that statement.
Speaker 2:If I came into the solar industry before, it would have been very difficult and I don't know if I would have made it. And just to let everyone on here know, solarkon almost didn't make it through. We rely on the health of the total industry. My goodness, I would say. The plane landed and touched down on the runway of bankruptcy and then took off again at full speed. But it was scary. And, yeah, if you're getting into the solar industry now, everybody has made mistakes. We've all done it. We've all seen what you're not supposed to do. We had never done this. Solar is so new and so big and it grew so fast that we didn't get to learn those lessons until now. And the industry will not make those mistakes again. And so big and it grew so fast that we didn't get to learn those lessons until now, and I the the industry will not make those mistakes again and because of that we've created stability. So, yes, I do think that it is a safer place to come in and build a career on, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for someone? The second part of that question is for someone that's. They've been doing it for a while. They're starting to see things go backwards. We have a lot of solar clients. We sold leads on hundreds of solar companies, right, so we get a bird's eye view of a lot of things. So I know some companies have been doing this for 10 years, 12 years. They've weathered the storm, right, but they're kind of like. They're like. They're like, hey, like one wrong move can take them out of business. What's your advice to someone like that? Cause I'm sure you have, you got new, you got the older guys who have been doing this for a while. What's your advice for them? Like, that's kind of like on the borderline, where one good decision can take them to the top or one bad decision could bring them down.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's always the case with a business owner, right yeah, I mean, we're in Las Vegas right now and what an appropriate conversation to have. Absolutely being a business owner is like rolling the dice. I've heard that it's ownership is like going up to a cliff and jumping off and figuring out how to build an airplane on the way down before you die or your finances run out, and that is left up to the owner. So the more and more owners do that, the more comfortable they are with that kind of risk. So I think the big ones, the big organizations, the ones that grow quickly, are the ones that are comfortable taking the risk. They understand what it is, they go in with a high education and that brings ultimate comfort to them in order to operate in an atmosphere of discomfort that most people cannot.
Speaker 1:And going with like a lot of regular legislation. They're talking about the Inflation Reduction Act that's on the table. They're talking about the ITC and, guys, I can't emphasize enough the Morning Energy Show, and I've seen you, you guys, I can't emphasize enough the Morning Energy Show, and I've seen you. You guys, you started that how long ago? Six months ago, nine months ago, it wasn't that long ago, right? Yeah, not too long ago yeah.
Speaker 1:And I remember you had, like you know, just a few dozen followers. Now you have like 3,500. So that's the organic growth. It shows the value you guys are producing you year it was 3,900.
Speaker 2:Morning Energy Show only has about 3,000. But on the Morning Energy Show we hit a million views the amount of times that thing gets shared. If you were to combine all of the marketing, I have all the Facebook groups, solarcon, my personal brand, all the social media. They collect them together. They don't even perform close to a fraction of what the Morning Energy Show does with 3,500 followers.
Speaker 1:So I think that's amazing. I have the LFG Show. I think we have 3,000 followers on that. But it's all organic, we're not paying, we're not getting bots, any of that crap but it's an engaged audience is what it comes down to, and I think that's a testament of providing value. And I think now, especially if you're in the solar energy space, you're looking to get into it or you're a marketing company selling leads to your solar companies, you have to subscribe to the industry outlets. I mean, this is where you were talking about stuff going on at Sonoma. You were ahead of the curve. What happened with Titan? I knew about stuff before other people knew, just because I'm following the Morning Energy show. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I have to. It's my business, I work for a solar company, so I need to know what's going on and when you tell your client hey, did you hear about this? You're providing an added value, as opposed to just selling them leads and being another lead vendor. Right, so it's so important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that. Yeah, that's a great way to look at it.
Speaker 1:I didn't understand that aspect of it until now. Thank you for. And then the other thing yeah, and you're welcome. And the other thing is that you talk about on there, and I wasn't sure I had heard rumblings that the ITC might be on the table and the inflation reduction.
Speaker 2:It is on the table, yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's say worst-case scenario, because as a business owner, you always got to prepare a worst-case scenario, right, worst-case scenario. And what are they saying with ITC? They're talking about phasing it out 20%. Can you explain what's going on there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Um last, when I was last in the white house as president.
Speaker 2:no, oh I was like yeah, what was that man? No, uh, no, Uh. What I've, what I understand about it right now, like the conversations that are happening right now, is it is on the chopping block. But I do know that the IRA that was brought in by the Biden administration or the Democrats, uh, was was created to bring jobs into the US, and if anyone watches Donald Trump, that is his agenda also. They share the same agenda.
Speaker 2:So I'm not so concerned about the future of solar. The way that we do it is going to change and everyone knows. Everybody knows that if it's a government subsidized industry, like solar industry is, it's going to bring instability. I don't think an investor out there would say, hey, the solar industry is the best place to invest right now, given the current situation. But I do. I will say, backing up my statement that I made before it's time to come in, because that ITC that's on the chopping block, the resolution for it right now is just utilizing domestic content to qualify for it, Meaning a product that is created within the United States, the same thing that the Democrats wanted to do and the same thing Republicans want to do they want to bring jobs into the US, and that domestic content will be the qualifier for the tax credit. That's what's being talked about now. That's what all the bills are being created to be passed, but we don't know where it's going to land. Obviously, I don't have a crystal ball, but we are aware of what the conversations are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say to be abreast. Obviously everyone's got a million things going. Everyone's got families, everyone's got their business running. You're doing a million things, but it's so great that you could just subscribe to the Morning Energy Show. You guys give daily updates. The stories are great. I mean everything's amazing. What's going on? Don't get caught with your pants down and the legislation passes and you don't know what's going on, because it's going to affect your clients. At the end of the day, they're hiring decisions, you know, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. Today People are building safety nets. Installers, financiers, are building safety precautions just in case it does go away, because we never know, we never know right, but the likelihood of it is so small that not everyone's putting a lot of effort into it. But we would be idiots as the risk takers we are. We would be idiots not to mitigate some of the things that may come our way, because the unknown is always there.
Speaker 1:There is a new endeavor called Roofs in the Box. It's just man from day one. It's taken off.
Speaker 4:When I first started getting into the roofing industry, what was happening was my fixed costs were always there, and so for me, I was looking at how can we kind of one, save on these costs and then, two, how do I not lay people off during down times, but also maybe even the ability to pocket more money during the slow season or even the peak season. Since we've done this before, like with our lead gen companies where we have virtual staffing from Argentina or Colombia, I'm like why don't we do the same thing in the construction business? Now, once we figured it out, we reduced their fixed costs by 70%, and so now during the downtime they have real seasoned veteran type of players, but during the uptime they pocket. 70% of their operational costs are now going back in their pocket, and then, when it's time to scale, you have the back end prepared, already ready to go to help them. Like lift off, depending on what state you're in, you're averaging at about 12.5% on what you pay out on taxes, insurance, all the different insurances that you have to pay out, right, so, yeah, you don't have to pay out unemployment, you don't have to pay out bike insurance, medicare, social Security, the things that business owners have to eat.
Speaker 4:Roofs to Box is not just limited to roofing or home improvement companies. You can use it for any services, right? You can use it for IT. We use them internally for data sales, for hygiene, for analytics. It doesn't even matter what the vertical is. It's like business in a box at the end of the day, pretty much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously you've tons of experience in business, tons of experience in sales, scaling companies. I want to talk about that in a second, but before we do that, what do you solar man? I love? Solar changed my life, right, it changed your life, changed a lot of people's lives here. I was able to start solar direct marketing and align with a lot of solar companies that grew, like SunPro, momentum Solar provide value and I get kind of I get sad to see what we're going through right now, but it's part of it's part of evolution, right.
Speaker 1:And I think one thing that bothers me I feel like we got a black eye in the industry. I think anytime there's money and there's good money being made, people cut corners right, and I think what happened was and correct me if I'm wrong just sales orgs just started selling the wrong way and they gave. When I get said I talk about the reputation of the industry Because let's talk about it, it's like the elephant in the room. Right, there are people selling solar panels to people that didn't qualify right for any sort of tax credit. So I mean, what are your thoughts on all of that?
Speaker 2:that did real estate and that created that 2008 crash are the ones. The big, the big wig financiers are the ones that came in and have UCC one filings going on houses for TPO products. Right, it's where the money's going. It's government funded. Let's go in and take advantage of. I've heard theories from there, all the way down to the most basic general theories there are. I don't I don't know what the origin of this is.
Speaker 2:The second part that I want to talk about is the perspective of whose fault it is. It depends on who you ask. If you ask the entire Salesforce, their perspective is the installers messed up. They didn't do accrual-based and cash-based accounting. They didn't anticipate for they didn't see the decline coming. Financiers think it's the installers. Installers thinks it's the financiers because they changed terms on the payments for cash flow on their M1s, m2s, m3s and, yeah, the sales reps have their opinions.
Speaker 2:It's all over the board and, as a whole, looking at a bird's eye view of this whole thing, I do think that each of the pillars of the industry certainly had things that they all could have done better, and that is what I was referring to when I say that we don't think we're going to make the same mistakes again. If you are from the side of finance or install, one of the biggest topics that you're going to hear at this event, the reason SIA is coming and participating, the reason we got tickets for free this year, is because they want to talk to the sales audience about sales compliance. All of the things that we're talking and promising with homeowners, the things that are in our agreements, the dishonesty that's occurred, financiers getting jitters for some of the things that went through. It's all understandable, but again, it is to the perspective of the person that you're asking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm glad you said that. And I think that one thing as important as the accounting, the accrual versus cash accounting and all that and you got to treat any business as a real business. You need to have the right finance, people, the CFO, bookkeeper, this thing, that thing, and if you don't, you're not going to know what's going to hit you. I saw so many clients that man they're hanging numbers They'd sell, sign a thousand people for solar but only 20% would stick and they already paid out commissions to their sales rep that sales emissions to their sales rep. That sales rep is gone. I mean it was just a nightmare. There's so many moving parts of solar and again, I mean that's the reason why these people aren't in business anymore and then maybe when the next business or they get back into solar, they'll do it the right way?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we hope so. I mean, we're seeing that already, that they are doing it the right way. Decisions are being made different all across the board, with financiers and their onboarding processes with installers. Installers themselves are renegotiating contracts for spending less cash up front to complement cash flow and, when they receive the money right, their accounts receivable, and so I do think that the changes are happening all over the board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. Compliance another big thing, huge right. You sell the wrong product to the wrong consumer, man it's. You're not going to win, it's going to. You might get away with it one time, but you're going to it's family catch up to you. And I think that's another big thing that happened. I mean time magazine, an article about it. I mean you see that one, it was on the page. I was like man, this is crazy.
Speaker 2:We ever reporters here. We did last year, we know that we do, and so we put relevant panels up. That's happening with the industry and what's happening in conversations in White House. We're told that a governor is likely coming. This conference has began to build precedence within the residential solar industry. We don't really touch commercial and it's making big ripples and big waves. So we are going to be among some big company inside of that room.
Speaker 1:I love it. I mean this is great. This is why you come here. And I did see I forgot the name of the company. They might be a sponsor, solar Legal or something like that. Solar.
Speaker 2:Legal. That's my good friend John Dodart, amazing attorney. I've used him for everything that I have ever done in the solar industry. He's helped all my businesses and helped me negotiate contracts with the companies that I consult. And now he represents so many companies in the industry, from the multi, multi-billion dollar organizations like financiers all the way down to the sales rep. He has a great organization and I couldn't be more proud of my friend. He's an amazing man. He's helped me through man. We've been friends for about a little over 20 years. We have gone through the rockiest of rocky stuff and we have randomly flown the same day to Las Vegas to drink pina coladas under a waterfall at the Caesars Palace pool. Weird situation, but a broad spectrum of friendship and I really love that man.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful and I like that you have that representation here, because as a business owner, you need to have the right legal counsel, the right finance, the right sales, the right you got to hire properly. So and I think that's what happened with solar, it was just such a rocket ship, right. And then for me, like we, we grew so fast. I thought we weren't going to stop growing, and then, when things turned the other way that the man went the other way, we went the other way, right. So we had to adapt too. I thought, man, there was a couple of times I didn't know I was going to be in business anymore, man. So you know, we were all part of the solar coaster too. I had to diversify. I couldn't rely so much on solar. We pivoted to home improvement. We're doing a lot with home improvement leads. We have some AI stuff we're doing right now for apartment settings.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about what you do, how you make your money and how you bring value right. So you're, you're, you can sell a lot of companies. You help them grow tremendously. So can you give us a case study and tell people more exactly what you do so they understand Cause I know you, jake, from SolarCon to where we met at RoofCon. Right, I know you from the Morning Energy Show, but I know you did something with the consumer, but I don't know exactly what it is. I'm sure you're kicking ass at it too.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to build SolarCon and the Morning Energy Show to bring value to people every single day. I believe that the industry deserves it and, like I said earlier, education should be at the forefront of differentiating yourself between your competitors. It's one of the most important things you can do. So providing that value for people is just. It does provide a lot of marketing. Solarcon itself and the Morning Energy Show are essentially my brand of marketing.
Speaker 2:In order to show relevancy of myself within the industry, I like people to know who I am so that they do hire me for consulting. I do believe that my time is extremely valuable. My knowledge is vast and I think that I can help organizations grow at an accelerated rate and skip a lot of mistakes in time. I believe the investment within me and my team will help them skip time so quickly that they'll be making the money that they want very fast, and some of the organizations that we've worked with have certainly done that. One of them one of my favorite ones, when I first started the Solar Academy. His name is Brent Attaway and a lot of people know him in the industry. Him and his, his brother, uh, bennett. They built, or Bennett built, broke off and built um dirty dough cookies. Have you heard of dirty dough? I compete with crumble and he went huge.
Speaker 2:But before he broke off and did that, he and Brent Attaway is rather they ran a company called switch to solar. They were one of my first clients that hired me. It was $70,000. I was so excited at the time. I was like my first one. What year was this? Oh, my goodness, I think it was 2019, I believe it was 2020, maybe 2020. And six months later, they ended up selling their company, a sales org, and my company that I sold is also a sales org. It can be done. It definitely can be done. So that's one of my favorites. They're one of the first.
Speaker 1:That's a that's an amazing story. And then obviously every company that starts you should think about your exit plan. Right Is what it comes down to. I'm sure that's part of your your consulting and I think a lot of sales orgs don't think that. I mean, I started a lead gen company as a side hustle and then it grew tremendously and then six years later we started getting buyout offers and stuff. I'm like man is that? This is crazy, it's just amazing. But I think a lot of sales always don't know that that's possible.
Speaker 2:Right college, I didn't go for business Like this stuff. I had to learn through trial and error walking baptism by fire, I think they call it Like it was difficult. So I don't blame them for not knowing, but that's essentially what I hope to bring to them. Is that knowledge and I believe, because I've been through so much of it and seen so many businesses and talk with them daily to do the news articles that we do, and such that I can navigate them through all of the misty, clouds and fog that there is out there, because I'm at a higher level where I can see the horizon through the fog and it's easier for me to navigate. Those businesses Got it so who's your ideal.
Speaker 1:If you had to take like an avatar and say who's your, who's your ideal, candidate that will be would benefit from your consulting service.
Speaker 2:It would be an organization that I'll tell you. Any mentor anyone will tell you. Any consultant will tell you.
Speaker 2:Our favorite clients are the ones that actually listen. They're our clients, a lot of them that hire us that don't listen to us. And it's not rewarding yes, the money is paid, but it's not rewarding for us at all. So my favorite clients and I try and I try not to take on any clients that I don't think are going to listen and fulfill and follow through. It's a waste of my time, it takes away from my passion. It's not fun to work in the organization. I and I love what I do. I don't want to not love what I do, right? So for the people that are willing to listen to advice or listen to knowledge and take that and implement it within their business, those are my favorite.
Speaker 2:And the ones that have a marketing budget, because I do believe that in order to grow, you have to market. You just have to. You could have the most beautiful concept and idea inside of your heart, soul and mind in the area that you're in, but unless people know that you've created it, how are they going to come to you? They think it's the field of dreams. They build it, they will come no way. You have to promote and advertise that.
Speaker 2:And I found business owners are so comfortable creating I mean as discomforting as it is building a business with the risk we talked about. They're so comfortable creating a business but they're not comfortable marketing and promoting it because it makes them feel icky inside in front of a camera, Like they're being conceited, or maybe they're just afraid to be in a camera in front of a camera. It doesn't even have to be them, but they don't believe that marketing does it. And I believe that marketing is the biggest difference maker. No one is starting a business because they thought they could do it second rate to the company they were at. The only reason they built a business is because they thought they could do it better. Well, tell everyone what your dream is and what your vision is. Let them know, let them feel that passion, because what else are you doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree 100%. It's amazing how, even when I first started this LOG show, I was like man. I was like what the hell am I doing, right? I'd be like. People are like do I look right? Whatever? Then you guys, you get like screw it, you know I'm gonna do it. And then you see the rewards, you see the benefits. We go to these shows. We're like walking billboards right now. You know this is crazy and and it's an amazing thing, but but I agree with you when was that light bulb moment that went off on you about? That's more like personal branding, right. When? When do you decide you had to do that?
Speaker 2:oh, my, that's it for solar con? That's a good question. Uh, well, I first started with my friend, surge, who is the app here. If you download the app, that's Serge he's. We call him Serge the creator. Um, he creates all the content, like the lanyards that everyone has on the graphics for solarcon. He's amazing at what he does.
Speaker 2:I went and listened to him at an event and he just made so much sense, like, if I'm going to be represented, if I want people to take me seriously, I've got to look like someone serious. I have to uh, how else is anyone going to take me serious? If I've got to look like someone serious, I have to uh, how else is anyone going to take me serious if I'm not even putting the effort into look serious? Right, I can meet with people and talk to them all I want, but those are words. People want to see truth. They want to see it, and his services helped to do that. And, uh, to answer your question. Sorry for that, but to answer your question, uh, I did it when I couldn't reach further than the audience, that I already had All of my own personal tricks, my own personal marketing and branding.
Speaker 2:That's when I knew it was time to go to the next level, and, man, that was uncomfortable. He wanted 10 grand a month for social media and I just it made me sick to my stomach. Frankly, at that time I only had about $12,000 in my bank account in total. I didn't have any money coming in, I had no accounts receivable, well, I didn't have clients, and so it was a crazy concept to take $10,000 of that and spend it into social media, which does take time to hit, but I made it happen.
Speaker 2:I signed a contract for three months, and once I signed that contract, something just switched in me. It's like it was no longer okay to make this much money. Now I had to make this much and I just did, and so it was to reach a new audience. That's what SolarCon was. Even with that social media, I had reached the capacity that I could with that media, and so I needed something bigger to get a new audience, something that was neutral, something that the whole industry would pay attention to, and so each time I do it, it's just to get a new audience, and when you, when you feel that your progression has died, that's when it's time to get uncomfortable again and jump off that cliff one more time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that pumped me up, man. You know, we got it. We have a sponsor. We're getting, we're in a sponsor somewhere for our show, for those, I don't know why I've been waiting to do this, man. I've had a million things. I'm going to do it today. We're going to make the announcement today.
Speaker 1:You motivated me, man, that's right. But it's true, you guys, you were talking, you made me realize I knew who you were. You were walking at RoofCon. I knew who you were through social to be something solar related, obviously right. But I'm like hey, jake, you know, I think I said I follow you on social media. We took a picture together. I posted it. You reposted it. Nice to meet you. But that's the power of social media. I go to shows too. People see, oh, I saw you on the LFG show and then later on it doesn't happen right away, but something comes out of that and you don't expect anything nice comes out. You'll get a deal out of or you make a partnership or you create a friendship out of it. But it does take time. Even with us it took us a lot of time. I mean my, my, the producer show knows I'm like, damn man, we're paying X for this we're going to Dubai, we're doing this. I'm like this is getting crazy, especially, and if you do that, it's going to eventually work. I feel, yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:And everyone thinks oh, I don't have something to say. Yes, you do, yes, you do. That's just in your head. You definitely have something to say. It's like they taught you in elementary school. Like kids are afraid to raise their hands and the teacher had to convince us. Like you don't understand, other students may have the same questions you do, and it's okay to ask the question.
Speaker 2:And what you don't understand as viewers here is they. Yeah, maybe they don't care. They're scrolling at night, at eight o'clock at night, nine o'clock at night, going through, and they may hear a sentence that you say, they may even just hear the word solar, and then they keep scrolling. But they know something the more they keep seeing you, the more they understand that you are solar, the more they understand that you are leads, the more they understand that you're construction or baker, whatever it is that you do, the more they see it and understand it. So by the time they see your shop or they see you or they see your website, they're like this is a credible business, because I've seen them a hundred times.
Speaker 2:That's it. It's it's 99, not even what you say. Barely anyone pays attention. It's just the consistency. Of credibility is what you're actually going for, and I'll tell you this the people like David is doing right now, the people that come on, it's more for us. He is hosting me and working to have me feel better, because I do feel better about being on this show. I do feel validated and more credible and I am going to share it on my socials and that's how he gains his audience. When you do social media, it's more about the person. If you make it more about the person that you're building up, they will want to share it, they will have a good feeling with you and you will become viral over time with consistency.
Speaker 3:When I first heard of Roofs in a Box, I thought no way. Could everything be combined in one platform from Roofs in a Box?
Speaker 4:I thought no way could everything be combined in one platform?
Speaker 3:From your CRM to AI, even virtual assistants helping manage all these things together. It has completely changed my business and I couldn't be where I'm at without it. So over the last eight months or so, I've saved at least a million dollars on what it would cost salary-wise to hire the engineer. I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done without Roofs in a Box or be able to do what I am currently doing without roofs in a box. If you are looking to scale, get your business organized or get it ready to sell, definitely want to give roofs in a box a call. They'll get everything tightened up. Get you set up to do whatever you need to do for a fraction of the cost. Not everybody's got a million dollars just laying around. Hire operations managers and have their own call center. So give roofs in a of call.
Speaker 1:They're going to take care of it and it's about the consistency and creating value. Like you said, make it about the other person. Yeah, my audience gets to know more about you, your audience gets to know about me, and then you know, not everyone's going to drive with it, but the ones that do, they become like raving fans. Right, you had Gary Vanderchuk last year. Right, and he's a great example. I mean, he was on it three years. He probably had 10 followers, 20 followers and then boom, it just hit the consistency. I started doing wine reviews. Right, with this family's business little liquor shop, and that eventually started doing tens of millions. Now look at him, right, it's just incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's done a great job and we did have him. Last year I saw that the industry was starting to dissipate and I believe in marketing and so I brought one of the most relevant marketing geniuses out there. Social media is where everyone is at. One of my favorite video clips he does is he said some business came up to me and said but Gary, I don't like to be on camera. He says no shit, don, of course you don't like to be on camera. He says no shit, don, of course you don't like to be on camera.
Speaker 2:But you have to be agnostic to where your clients are. Your clients are all on their phones. When they're at the grocery store, when they're laying in bed, when they're sitting in their car at red light, anywhere they are, they're on their phones. Social media is what they go on to. You have to's why you're not getting business. No one cares about those anymore. It goes to the spam account almost immediately and if they do happen to open it, they're not going to spend any time reading it. Social media is where it's at. Be agnostic to your audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm amazed at how and this is where you do consulting companies. It's so valuable Because I'm amazed at how many companies are. Their online social media presence is non-existent. It's terrible. Like they have, they might have, they don't have an Instagram. They don't have anything, a TikTok or or if they do, it's just basic as heck man, and at least they have something. But this that I can't emphasize enough. And what I say, too, is that while you're sleeping, it's working for you. You're and then there's people scrolling online. They can be scrolling in Europe, they could be scrolling somewhere around the world, different time zones, and then you wake up in the morning you got a DM from somebody and or so a nice message. It's just crazy. It's and that's what you want as a business owner. You want to have, you know, the business work for. You, want people to work for you, so it's a tool that's constantly working for you. You put out the content and it works for you forever.
Speaker 2:It's just crazy. Absolutely yeah, absolutely. I'm not saying you can't build a business without it. There's some lucky organizations that got in way ahead of time with probably millions of dollars of backing and finances. It became the only relevant one out there that did it at a price point that the companies could afford and magically, they don't have a social media presence. But also, I didn't have $150 million of an investor or 10 billion or whatever it was that some of these larger organizations have. If you're a real grinder, if you really have a passion about something and you really want to build a business, social media is probably for you. If you're like the rest of the country, if you didn't get an education, like myself, it's an opportunity. It's one of the best that you can have and it's free to access right on your phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it levels the playing field. You don't have to be Gary Vaynerchuk talks about this as well you don't have to be like a Pepsi or Johnson Johnson that spends millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad or eight figures. You could have something silly that becomes viral, and then you did it for yeah, it's cool, all right. So one last thing. I'm pumped to be here. You got David Goggins. How do you get these people? Gary Vanners or David Goggins David Goggins, by the way, man, I see him. I might just start doing push-ups. Man, I might take my shirt off the sight of him. You're like, oh my gosh. So how do you do it?
Speaker 2:I have a great team. I really do. Gary V I didn't know who he was until we hired him. Wow, I didn't know who he was. What a shame, what a shame Follow that man, because I gained so much wisdom from him. I just spattered off as if it was my own. He was so smart Goggins. I didn't know as much until we hired him and this was pretty recent.
Speaker 2:I didn't know as much about him, but the sharks I did know, and so much passion behind those guys coming. I think they have influenced millions of lives, not just the people that came on Shark Tank, but all of the people that have bought their product, everyone around them. Talk about massive global impact and they're here. It's my team that helps get those and my team had connections and relationships with people in the conference industry which got them in, with agents which got them in, with celebrities. And now it's coming to a point where I am I text some of these celebrities and build relationships with them, and then they introduced me to other celebrities. So it's becoming at first it was just the connections that I had and now it's become a little bit more prevalent and easy that I've been consistent with it. Anytime you're consistent with anything.
Speaker 1:It becomes more simple right, I agree, and I love that. David Gong has huge energy and one thing I see about SolarCon, as opposed to other shows mass amount of energy, sales of energy. It's a transfer of energy, transfer of emotion, right. So you come here, you're pumped up man, so I'm excited to be here again. I feel like this is a jolt in the arm that the industry needs and, contrary to popular opinion, solar is not dead. Right, not dead.
Speaker 2:It's the rebirth. I mean it's amazing. I just grew up to be an adult. Good way to think about it. I, like it, grew up to be an adult. They turn 21. They get all their rights. Now they gotta go have fun yeah, great.
Speaker 1:Well, jake, great to have you on the show. We're gonna put links where you can follow him. The social media, the, the morning energy show all good stuff creating great value for people. Really honor. Have your. Thank you for making it. I know you. You got a million things going on, so means a lot to me, means a lot to the audience thank you so much for having me on and reaching out early and making sure I was on it.
Speaker 2:That meant a lot and so happy to put the time in All right. Let's fucking go guys.
Speaker 5:Big show man, good stuff. Get ready to level your shit up with the LFG Show. We travel the globe to bring you heavy hitters from all walks of life. We've been talking some serious business, from the best digital marketers, government contracting experts to top athletic and celebrity doctors. We've got it all covered. Doctors, we've got it all covered. We're talking to guys with cash in for billions with a, b and the best thing is we're just getting started. So hold on tight. We're about to crank it up a notch. Get ready for next level networking and masterminds within the LFG community. Scare money, don't make no money, or honey. Hit the subscribe button, drop a like, leave a comment and let's fucking go.