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Solar Sales Uncensored
Solar Sales Uncensored
Bobby Smith Uncensored: The Man Powering America's Solar Surge
Prepare to be enlightened on a transformative journey with Bobby Smith, the dynamic force steering Powur to its status as America's fastest-growing residential solar company. With a rich background spanning from medical education to founding the National Cancer Foundation, and as one of the world's top direct sales professionals, Bobby’s expertise shines bright in the realm of solar.
In this episode, we dive deep into the strategies, challenges, and leadership ethos that have driven Powur's unparalleled growth. Bobby shares glimpses into the vision and ambition of Jonathan Budd, Powur's enigmatic CEO, who has been a key figure in shaping its trajectory. Get insights into Powur's forward-thinking ventures, from the renewable energy forefront to the electric vehicle sector, and even HVAC innovations.
Climate change isn’t just a global concern for Bobby; it's personal. Listen to his heartfelt narrative involving his daughter, underscoring the urgency to address this existential challenge. A staunch advocate for education, Bobby emphasizes the importance of instilling environmental consciousness in the next generation, seeing them as custodians of our planet's future.
The episode wraps with pearls of wisdom on the potency of a positive mindset in determining success. Bobby also decodes the game-changing role of online reviews in today's sales landscape and delves into the symbiotic relationship between timing, leadership, and business model in evaluating golden opportunities.
Whether you're a nascent solar enthusiast, an entrepreneurial spirit, or a seasoned sales maven, this episode promises a treasure trove of insights, inspirations, and invaluable lessons. Ready to be powered up by the best in solar? Tune in!
Hello, welcome to another episode of Solar Sales Uncensored. I am your host, aaron Browning, and I'm so excited for today's conversation with the one and only president of power, mr Bobby Smith. Before I turn it over to him and I already know, that's why everyone's here I get it, that's why I'm here. We've been talking about this one for a couple of months. As you can imagine, his schedule is jam-packed. A little bit about his background for those of you that don't know him and shame on you if you don't, because he's all over the freaking place. He really got his start in the whole entrepreneurship game from direct sales. He led a massive worldwide organization with over 50,000 partners in multiple countries, which gets me so dog-on excited. He also led Cancer Foundation. We'll definitely talk on that and how he uses this as his experience, from problem solving there to what we do in the construction field, which is really cool. But more recently he has become the president of power, which obviously for everyone watching or listening knows it's the fastest growing solar company in the United States, if not the world. He is the thought leader behind that. He is driving our ship. He is an amazing husband, he is an amazing father and I dare to call him a friend now. We had the privilege of really working on our relationship in the physical form last week at our convention, we were able to break bread finally and hang out and take it from online to offline, which, personally and selfishly, was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, mr Bobby Smith, how the heck are you my friend? Thank you for having me. It's all well-deserved man. It really is. I've been around a lot of leaders over my 10 year of business and entrepreneurship and you definitely stand out, man. You really do. You lead from the front. You are the Although you don't get recognition for this one. You're the fastest growing team builder for a team that you can't even have at power, which we'll definitely talk about. But if you don't mind, you want to shed a little bit more on your background really how you got started in direct sales and what that transitioned into to where you are today. Yeah, true power.
Speaker 2:I can't thank you enough for the Conj Making Power a better company and leading by example every day. You're a real difference maker in our company A lot of people's lives and we value that.
Speaker 2:So thank you, and thank you for having me. It's good to see everybody. I bumped into direct sales through the birth of my daughter. It's that simple. There was a woman that I had been doing business with in the medical field. She was pregnant. When my wife was pregnant, our business was done. I had no reason to talk to her again, really, and I was 10 feet from that spot right now. We had just given birth to a little baby girl and I thought I ought to call Joe and see how the birth of her baby went. And I called her up and she said great, the practice is good, but I'm doing this thing and I think you should hear about it. And she introduced she mentioned an old friend of mine who I grew up playing high school ball with here in Maryland and she arranged a meeting with him and I. And that was the beginning of it. It was through the birth of my daughter.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you were one of the leaders in that company, though you were when I talked about the GOAT. You're doing live events.
Speaker 2:You're doing like the good old stuff that direct sales is famous for, correct, yeah, I mean I came in at a time when their I don't know their national convention was a hundred people. They had to drag me to that and they ended up being the second most when I was their most profitable privately held company on the ING 500 list. I watched that growth and, yes, I had a great mentor. I hope all of you had the privilege I've had a few in my life. I had the privilege of learning direct sales from one of the best trainers in the world and the words that he whispered in my ear were different than the words that many people hear or are open to listen to. But you're right, it was old school.
Speaker 2:I opened meetings in Maryland, found leadership. He taught me the leadership and real estate. That's the only thing he ever talked to me about. How many cities can you own? How many countries can you build? How many leaders can you build in those defined and developed in those markets? So you can go and do it somewhere else? And that's what he did. So it was very event driven. They were one of the best event companies in the history of direct sales. So I learned it in living rooms. We can talk about that here and wherever you want to go. That's where I honed my craft, launching people's business night after night, living room after living room, hotel after hotel, local meetings, regional events, national conventions, leadership and real estate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, by the way, we can do a whole podcast on what everything you just said right there. That is truly, in my opinion, your claim to fame, what sets you apart. My fear, though, it's also over a lot of new business owners and new entrepreneurs' heads. They just don't get it when you talk about and I get goosebumps, by the way, and I love that about launching someone's business. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are with us here, heck, you're with any company and you're looking to grow a business. Stop saying grow, stop saying start. It's all about freaking. Launching it is launching. That is a message, a mantra that Bobby sings from every stage, from every presentation. Few are actually doing it, which just blows my freaking mind, man, it really does. The other thing I've heard you say a lot, and I've never heard someone else say this, and I've now stolen it. My friend is, when we launched someone who's your board of directors, you want to touch on that and what that means and what that conversation you shared with me that day looked like.
Speaker 2:Well, again, I believe that when someone starts a business, if they take it seriously, they either they're going to treat it like a part-time gig or, hopefully, they joined it to make a real difference in their lives and in other people's lives. If they do that, then it's very simple to me. If somebody opens a laundromat or a law firm or a restaurant, they have a launch party, they have a wine and cheese event, they have those spotlights outside of their facility. For some reason, when people take on a part-time gig which is normally the way they start direct sales they want to take their time, they want to figure it out, they want to learn, they want to feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:My guy taught me differently. He said Bobby, find the best five people, the most talented, busiest, successful people you can find. I put the five it happened to be five guys at my kitchen table, 15 feet from here. He did the presentation. They all enrolled. These guys were all making two, three, four, five hundred thousand a year, 15, 20 years ago. What I learned? You can catch people on a dance when one of them was a chief operating officer, I think, of a chief financial officer, a major insurance firm. They had different backgrounds, different, very backgrounds, but they all signed up. I had my board directors. I believe when you're starting a business and you start a company, you treat it like a business, you launch it, you find your board directors, your leadership and you go. If you do it, you can't ask anyone to do anything you're not prepared to do yourself. I couldn't ask anyone to ever launch their business.
Speaker 2:if I didn't launch mine, I launched mine. Then it was fair for me to ask everyone to launch theirs. It's funny not unlike you, aaron, in our company I became the king of the private business reception, if you will. In that company I trained it all over the world. Again, the world shifted a little bit COVID and all that kind of stuff. We could talk about all that Meeting in people's living room and breaking bread and looking them in the eye and meeting their children.
Speaker 2:I just used to learn how to cross my legs and sit down on the sofa and tell a story that was compelling and trustworthy and made sense. I think we had variations with handouts and not handouts. We'd walk through the compensation plan and we'd enroll. I remember one guy and again it could be anybody. I did one for the former guy who ran for mayor and governor in Pennsylvania. I think he had 75 people in this house when I was finished talking, 50 people lined up at the grand piano. Because when someone like that says to a group of people, this is my next business venture, this guy built the core state's arena. When he said this is my next business venture, who wants in? They lined up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a couple of things you said too, and I'll dissect one of them which is really important. Something I also teach and I'll echo it with you that leaves clues. When you invite people who are already successful, already killing it. Talent hangs out with talent, Smart people with the right opportunities, there they freaking, get it. There's not even a ton of questions they end up asking. They can evaluate opportunities very quickly. They can see where the vision and where the timing is, how the leadership is, and then they're all freaking in. I love that because I can't stress it enough Get uncomfortable. Who is that one person that you're scared it's on your chicken list to call. Those are the people you call first. Those are the board of directors. Who do you want to have over for Sunday dinner? I want to build a business with freaking leaders. Man, I don't want to be begging people to come partner with me. I love that you said it, man.
Speaker 2:I love that you hit the nail on the head with that I'll never forget the top guy in my organization for eight, nine, 10 years. I always used to tell the story, so I remember most of it.
Speaker 1:He was a full-time practicing period.
Speaker 2:Honest, he was already making $200,000, $400,000 a year. He was a volunteer fireman on the truck three nights a week. He lectured at the local college. He was an avid ham radio operator. He was the mayor of his local township, devoted husband and three I think three girls. He was the busiest guy I knew. People tend to prejudge people they're too busy, they're too successful, they're too this, they're too that, this is mental clogging.
Speaker 1:You're nailed it again, man. By the way, we have a mutual friend, a business partner of mine, mr Patrick Adoo. I'll go and say his name. Our paper way too busy to even look at something called power, yet he is dominating every leaderboard, pulled a thousand different directions. That's what talent does, my friends. We are juggling many things where we're not even happy, we're not fed unless we have our hands on things you agree analogy all the time.
Speaker 2:Maybe Mark Cuban makes time to be on shark tank. He doesn't need it. He understands the value of diversifying his portfolio and, in more recent times, diversifying his portfolio with meaning, more meaningful projects that impact the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it. Let's um, let's jump into power a little bit. How did that conversation come? Were you looking for an opportunity and solar? And it just presented itself. What is that even? What does that journey look like?
Speaker 2:Exactly I was doing, consulting, I think, at the time some guy hit me up on Facebook and Told me he had something. I'm always open. I was gonna listen smart people are always gonna listen and he sent me something that just didn't resonate with me. It was just yucky and but I said I'd be happy to talk to your CEO and he put me on the phone with Jonathan budd and we spoke for about an hour and 45 minutes. Had talked to anybody that long. Wow, dating Said you want to get on a plane and come on out.
Speaker 2:Remember he was deciding who was at that time to tell you was vice president sales was gonna be. So he asked me to hop on a plane and I I got on plane to San Diego. He picked me up in his Tesla and he took me to some really piece of shit office above a men's clothing store on the beach in California. It was busted up and dirty and the windows wouldn't open and but I got to hear from him his vision on the company and he asked me my vision on where I would take the company.
Speaker 2:That's really how it all started, yeah that's crazy man.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, once again, for those that don't know, I'm Bobby's love language, love place is the beach. That that is the one thing Jonathan had going for with a crappy building, no windows, is that he was on the beach. I'm sure Bobby was able to overlook some things there. Well, I love about that story I've heard you say it a thousand times is that it truly started? It's like in a garage, like it started with nothing. Yet you have two powerful, freaking leaders who are all the sudden locking arms and I can only imagine the goosebumps from that conversation. Was it one of those like where you guys knew instantly that you were about to build something incredible together?
Speaker 2:I don't know. That'd be an interesting question for John. I always think I'm gonna build something incredible, or it's just something about the vibe.
Speaker 1:Obviously I didn't know anything about solar, I didn't know anything about renewable energy.
Speaker 2:I didn't know anything. Really. A lot of it just came from Jonathan. I just hung up from when the couple minutes go. It was an instant. I'm wearing his peace sign shirt from John Barbados, one of them.
Speaker 2:It was an interest, it was an instant camaraderie. I interest, an instant meeting of the minds. We come from the same page. He understood direct sales, but I knew he was different than that. He's very Elon Musk and you recognize that as soon as you're in Jonathan's presence. He's always gonna be the smartest guy in the room, unless maybe musk is in the room or a hand a few people. He's got that kind of genius. But he also is that flip-flop and t-shirt and I don't give a shit mental. I'm gonna tell it the way it is. I'm gonna do the right thing, I'm gonna be transparent and he was always that way with me and it was just. Did we know what this could become? I think we both had visions, but when you look at it now it's hard to imagine that we went from the three or four or five of us to seven thousand of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy man. I wish I could have been a fly on that wall for sure. Do you really? That's something I haven't seen. I would actually love to see that man. I really would.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can only imagine. I can only imagine you about the way you describe Jonathan, my limited time this past year of getting to know Him a little bit better. I 100% agree. I really do. He's almost a unicorn to be that much of a visionary and thought leader. But still, I'll throw a word out relatable, relatable, I'm. The first time I met him I went to shake his hand and he pulled me in. It was like a hug, it was heart to heart. That's just who he is. The other thing I'll say about him too he has some weird freaking ability to recall people's names. It blows my mind and that is my kryptonite, because I can't do it. Remarkable I saw my convention with people that I I didn't know and I don't know how. He knows as busy as he is, but he did. He knew things about them, their kids. People were heard when, when they were talking to him, and that was really one of my takeaways man chip it's gone.
Speaker 1:I'm just again.
Speaker 2:We become great friends just like you and I and our leaders around the country in trolls and and Jim and the core group of people. So when you get to go to work with someone that you love again. We just got off a very deep conversation. I love them death. And we've never had an argument no, in nine years, not even really a healthy debate. We were always just on the same page.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. What? Where's power now? I know you tease seven thousand partners. I know in our world we call them sellers, but for those who aren't with us yet and yes, I said yet because you soon will be that's business partners. It's people that come on independent contractors. What else can you tell us about power right now? Not so much the vision of where we're going, but where we are today.
Speaker 2:Look we my called ink magazine or I emailed them. They don't have any data on how many companies in history have hit the ink mat in 500 less four years in a row. So I have to imagine it's less than 1% might be a handful. So if you look at all the great companies in the history of the United States, in the history of ink magazine, we're one of a very few that have ever done it four years in a row. And so for anybody who wants to debate or hate or any of that, I'm not a debater. I come from position of strength and there's no debate who power is. We have been the fastest growing solar company United States it's not the world the last four years. We. There's no debate that we have the most impressive Front-end tech stack, the ability to start a business, get paid to quotes and all that that the industry's ever seen. We're in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1:I Totally agree, being able to experience it firsthand on the team building side of it and going through everything you just mentioned. So would you call power a solar company? Is it a technology company? Is it a platform?
Speaker 2:We're you're with that energy technology and as I quote Chris Saka, often from Shark Tank, multi-billionaire early investor in Twitter or New Bern, and he has said that the the revenue generated in renewable energy technology Will out surpass all of the revenue generated on the internet today. That's a staggering number, right? So I look at it, says, as a renewable tech platform.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it and then wait. Obviously you were able to sell solar batteries, things like that, that any typical I shouldn't say typical, but lack of a better phrase a typical solar company could. Where do you see that going? Do you see us bringing other products to the platform? What does that vision look?
Speaker 2:like again. We talk about these things often again. Sometimes it just sounds like a line, but I do believe that the product will make the most money on hasn't been invented yet. You know there's there's an unending stream. You're not going to be able to drive a gasoline car in the next 10 to 20 years. So obviously we looked at we're in the electric vehicle business. I want to be in the charging business, of course, full force we are. We want to be in the electric. I'd like to get electric vehicles on our platform as soon as possible.
Speaker 1:Crazy.
Speaker 2:And then who knows where it's gonna go? Obviously, hvac products renewable. I bought a renewable energy pull pump for my pool and now more efficient HVAC systems, insulation for the home so many places it can go. But and the reason I said that, aaron, I don't just make that up remember as I made some my money being involved in the cellular industry and Cell phones hadn't been invented yet. No one thought they would scale. And boom they did. And then the next money I made was on the internet and everybody said that the internet would never scale. No one's ever gonna use that thing. So my last two businesses were cell phones and everyone laughed at me. And the internet was everyone laughed at me. And now renewable energy, which no one's laughing, because the world's being decimated by climate events.
Speaker 1:Can you touch on that man? You did an incredible presentation at our convention a week or week and a half ago. Can you touch on the highlights of that, of, unfortunately, where we're at as a world, where we're heading, and what this is looking like for our kids and future generations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm crying this time I Started a conversation with my daughter on. Father's Day, no less about driving out in the country, out about most country, about the world, and she just said a lot of her friends are hesitant to bring children into this world because of climate events and I didn't even know what to say.
Speaker 2:I my only response, like a give, was it's always been that way we were scared of war, russia in the United States and all that stuff, and I think that we grew up in a world that had spokes of anxiety that include war and poverty and social injustice and crime. And I think the fifth or sixth we spoke on the wheel right now is, unfortunately, climate change. And what's interesting, when I joined power as hippie as it was in Southern California and all that you couldn't really talk about climate change Because it was considered a political hot topic at the Bay. And here we are today in my heart. This is that's what drives me every day as we're launching a program in high school. I'm trying to launch program in high schools and college campuses and youth sports programs. A recent survey showed that 50% of 10,000 young people 16 to 25 I think it was our experience in climate related anxieties that is dagger 50%, and it used to be once a year. Now, again, my home.
Speaker 2:I showed you the pictures the other day. We've had two tornadoes ripped through Maryland in the last month. I was just down at the beach in the Rehoboth and there's a five foot seawall now. That wasn't there last year. You know in whether it's. I was supposed to be in Hawaii right now and it was on fire. Unprecedented weather events in San Diego last week. Storms that are building now the news. If you turn on the news right now, they're talking about storms building more rapidly. They're speeding up from 20 mile an hour winds to 80 mile an hour winds to 100 mile an hour faster than they've ever seen in history. You got 100 degree buoys off the coast of the keys in the water. You can't eat the fish in South Florida because of the red tide. So I can't imagine I'm sure there are that there are human beings that are still debating the fact that you want to call it whatever you can call it, but we need to make a change.
Speaker 1:So is that part of the fire that's pushing you to get up every single day, even though you don't have to financially and everything else? Is that really one of the driving forces of the mission?
Speaker 2:right now is strictly the youth. We have to change the narrative. I can't stand the fact we could go we can go out and ride our bikes in the old days and come home and grab a hose and drink some water and have the hose, and those days may be long past us. But I just refuse to live in a world where our children are suffering from climate anxieties. And I will I this like this is my last tarot. It will be giving everything. I have to change that narrative. I just I can't accept that.
Speaker 1:I love it, man, and I. I don't love the reason you're having to do it. It's a. It's an uncomfortable, it's what I call a fierce conversation. What I do love, though and let me clean that up it's your passion. Behind it, I can tell it's not just rhetoric and it oozes from your pores, and I know you're leading the charge on that, man. So keep doing it. This is not censors. I'm going to go and ask you I know this is something you're launching, but you did just tease it Can you talk about why it is so important to bring this to the schools, whether it's high schools, whether it's even college, to the community Cause I know you have a background of doing this and hearing that story with your background, and what it did to the parents? It changed everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, I've never started and started in my own household. Just like you asked me about direct sales, I was driving one day with my wife and the kids were screaming in the car and I was running a national cancer foundation at that point and trying to figure out how to get more people screened for colon cancer. It was the 50,000 people a year were dying. It was the second leading cancer killer in.
Speaker 1:America.
Speaker 2:And I had a vision when my kids were screaming oh I get it, if you want to get to the parents, get to the kids. I started a program called Save Our Parents in the cancer world and I made it up. I caught on. It got national publicity, ended up going to Puerto Rico and Canada, and then the news picked it up and next thing, you know, I'm talking to the biggest media companies and they gave my foundation $8 million grant and we were featured in Oprah and we had Oprah at her peak and other national publications, and so I know what the ripple effect can be of one high school, one inner city school, one private school, one college campus, if you want to affect change, the Vietnam War, the protests on the college campuses, so those of us that are old enough to remember. So I really think we have to win the hearts and minds of the young people. They need a safe place to talk about this and they're the ones that really have to get to their parents and push them into transition and renewable energy. We've got to do.
Speaker 2:We can't help what India may or may not do or what China may or may not do, but you know, here in the United States of America. If we want to be the leaders that we claim to be so proudly, then we need to lead, and I think that happens. It worked in cancer. The kids would say to their parents I'll stay in school, I'll get good grades, I won't do drugs. I need you to get screened for cancer and I want to create that same kind of thing here. I'll stay in school, I'll pay attention. I won't have my cell phone on Whatever today's resolutions are, but I need you to take an energy evaluation of our home and look at all the ways that we can do better.
Speaker 1:I think you're a genius man. I was lucky enough to be on a private mastermind with him last Friday, where he teased this to I don't know about 100 or so of the biggest leaders in our company, and when he gave the example of the colon cancer. If my son, noah who's 11, came home and said something like that, in fact he even had a contract that Bobby shared. This is what I'm promising him to do. If you promise to do this, I can't argue that. There is no freaking way. When he talks about subbing that in for an energy audit, like you can't object to it. And so anyone listening who's not with us at power this is why we're all smiling.
Speaker 1:We get access to Bobby Smith. Not only can he lead us on that front of solar, but it's how to be innovative, it's how to do by the way, that was the headline of our conversation our private mastermind what can we do right now that has not been done in solar? It's not just copying the same stuff over and over. Yes, some of that works, but God, it is boring. Man, let's innovate, and there's no one doing that better in renewable energy than you. Man like freaking, leading the way and just killing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, jonathan says. I come up with a new idea every six years or so. So you just don't know, until you take it out for a test drive and it's funny 100%.
Speaker 2:I'm in the midst of trying to launch this program and everybody's coming at me with innovative, with ideas and they want to go sideways and they want we just need one school. You just need to do it in one school. Let the press pick up the story, figure the rest out and see where it goes, and I've done that my whole career. That's the reason why we stand out the solar industry. They're all doing the same thing. They've been doing the same thing for 25 years and I always point to statistics, it's not a debate.
Speaker 2:They've been selling solar in Costco and Best Buy and Home Depot and Elon Musk lost $6 billion and all the things they've been doing in this broken, deceptive red line model that they've built and they got 4% in 25 years. In my opinion, it's one of the biggest colossal failures in the history of business, the solar industry. Before we got there and God bless them they did a good job and they did so many homes and dedicated to their craft. It's nothing negative, it's just. The bottom line is, if somebody's in the solar industry today, they cannot debate the fact that they are in a black and white television, outdated, broken and often deceptive red line model.
Speaker 1:We're gonna go there because you just went there and I was gonna take you there anyway. I could not have the goat of team building on a podcast and not talk about team building. What the heck does the future of power look like for the team builders? And I wanna be clear, that's not everybody. There are people listening right now that just wanna go sell glass, and I love you.
Speaker 1:I love that vision for yourself. I question it, not my vision, but I respect it, and that's something I love about our power model is that you can come over sell glass all day, every day, be happy, make six figures a month, seven figures a month if you do it well enough. Or you can come over here and do the hybrid model, which is something Bobby and I are about to talk about, where you wanna team build, you wanna take part of the revenue share, you wanna get your unfair share for introducing people to this amazing platform, and yet you still wanna go sell glass too. So you're getting that hybrid model. As you can tell, I get really excited talking about this. What are your thoughts on team building under the power umbrella, my friend?
Speaker 2:Once it just sells over. But again, the argument against it. I've never really understood that. It's okay. I just had a thought for the first time.
Speaker 2:Look at this yeah, I know. Look at this new industry that's been created of people that share on websites what the clothes they're buying. Look at the influencers right, and they get a piece right From Amazon or whoever the deal. There's people, young people, making 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, a hundred thousand dollars a month. They're celebrities making millions of dollars and all they're doing is showing the pocketbook. They bought the clothing that they're wearing, the car that they're driving or whatever they're doing. They're influencers, and isn't that a form of direct sales? I mean, isn't that what they're doing? They're introducing people to a product, to service, and they're overriding the purchase of that product. It's now part of our culture. Every movie star is doing it, Every housewife is doing it, every Netflix star is doing it. They're all doing it. My wife makes it a point to share great stories about restaurants we go to. Like you, she's a foodie and she always wants to compliment them.
Speaker 2:And she just posted pictures of a restaurant we were in DC on Sunday Night, which you'd love. My daughter sent us to a really cool place, and it's the same thing If something great happens to you, you share it with other people. And if there's some economic remuneration to that, what's the downside? It's not coming from the customer, it's coming from the model.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not coming from the business partner either. I think that's the other big one. It goes back to mindset, and mindset's not sexy, it's just not. I wish it was, because more people would lean in and really develop it and embrace it and get better at possessing a better mindset. But honestly, I think that's sort of this. It's everything you just said. We naturally refer good services and products every single day. Man, I did.
Speaker 1:We went to a breakfast but I'm not even a big breakfast fan my wife and kids. They wanted to go on Saturday, so I shot a couple of videos, made a quick reel for it. It's gone viral for me Several thousand plays that the restaurant picked it up and shared it Now several thousand. I didn't get anything for that and I wasn't doing it. I just did it because I freaking enjoyed the food. The atmosphere was cool. We all do it.
Speaker 1:So my question to those of you that are doing it when you join us and we knock the ball out of the freaking park and over deliver for you and what you're trying to do with your personal business, you're selfish. Yes, I went there. You're selfish if you don't share it with someone else. You really are. And the way, our compensation. I just want to be clear on this, Bobby, I know you said it the revenue share that comes back to us for referring this platform to someone else does not come out of the customer's end and it does not come out of the salesperson that sold the job. It comes out of the owner's profit, the owner's revenue excuse me, Let me clean that up it doesn't affect any of the other parties. Like it is an ultimate win scenario. Thoughts.
Speaker 1:It's just one of the reasons why direct sales has always worked.
Speaker 2:People made fun of it, they thought it was a pyramid, whatever they thought, but it just cuts out all the. That's the reason, aaron, as I believe that we'll be the distribution you know, renewable energy distribution powerhouse of this century, because they're going to keep coming out with products and they're going to have a couple of pathways to go. Will they go the old school pathway of raising capital and giving up their company to raise capital and then hiring executive talent, spending millions of dollars in corporate infrastructure and commercial real estate, and will they take that pathway that has fallen apart in this new world that we live in today? Or will they understand the brilliance and the natural evolution, particularly in the world we live in today, of online reviews and everything that's happening is playing into the hands of this type of distribution?
Speaker 2:Covid pushed it over the edge. Companies panicked in COVID. Solar companies panicked. We spent a million dollars and built the World Wide Media Center so we could control the narrative. We grew 1,600% in COVID. A few are a local solar company and they're going away. We may get there today, but the day of the local solar company, the day of the regional solar company, is over. They cannot exist in this economic climate.
Speaker 1:Why do you say that? I want to be crystal clear for someone just listening.
Speaker 2:The companies changed the rates when they cut out the M1, the milestone one payments, when they changed the cash flow of the industry. The local guy, the chuckle in the truck, the small firm that was depending upon that cash flow just simply cannot exist and power's still been averaged in 20, 30, 40 million in cash from the bank. So again, people want to take shots at us because we're different, because we have fun, because you can build a team. All those reasons they just don't get it and they never will get it and we're not here for them to get it. I frankly don't care if they ever get it. In fact, I hope they don't get it. Let them keep pushing their agenda of traditional sales. Look, the bottom line is, when someone sits down and if a solar rep I tell these every day, if I'm recruiting a solar sales person and I tell them you sit down at the kitchen table with one of our power sellers, you can't win. You can't win. You can't get our pricing, you can't get our financing, you don't have a 30 year warranty. You can't win. So why would you want to work for a solar company? That's the big question. Why would you want to work for a solar company and Chase Shitty leads around they've been sold to 25 other companies and answer to somebody when you can own your own solar company, you're the CEO of your own solar company.
Speaker 2:Here we're a platform that you can use and now, with Enterprise, which we may go there, we have new solar companies joining our platform every day. They're bringing their sales forces, they're bringing their installation capabilities, they're taking advantage of our software, they're capitalizing on our purchasing power and all the small to medium solar companies are now realizing that it's more profitable, with less headaches, to be a member of our Enterprise program than it is to be to running on their own, because it's just mathematics. It cannot be debated. They can't buy what we buy. They can't influence the way we influence. They just can't do it. So they can fight it or they can just be a part of the party. It doesn't again, like you said, it doesn't take away from anything that they're doing. They just get to take advantage of what we've spent nine years building.
Speaker 1:What I love about everything you just said and once again we get to a whole separate episode on that man. It was a mic drop. Power is attracting leaders. They're attracting business owners From outside of solar too. I want to be crystal clear on that. You could, and I'm going to use my cell. It sounds really cocky.
Speaker 1:No other solar company could have lured me from what I was doing with my other businesses, primarily in real estate, to come do this. But because you have a plug and play model where I can plug in the enterprise, bring over my sales division. I just got to teach them the language of solar sales and then we turn a light switch on and we're in profit mode. Other solar mom and pop solar companies can't freaking do that. The other thing too, and I'll take the gloves off. It's uncensored. It is what it is. I'll never, ever work for a company I don't own. I won't. I bleed, I sweat, I cry, I miss birthdays, I miss dinners, I miss anniversaries of my family. There has to be an owner stake in it, and when I saw that power was offering that, I said, oh, let's do it, let's do it. Aaron's coming out of retirement.
Speaker 2:I need stock options and pre-IPO. If you look at the pure economics, I mean about a year ago I think there was 650 million invested in a circle around our company in a week In a week, wow. When Wall Street rightens itself, when the finance, when the feds lower the rates, when the timing is right and we're gonna make a lot of sense to Wall Street and anybody who's a shareholder in our company has a chance to take that ride with us. There's no hotter topic or investable pathway than renewable energy.
Speaker 1:For those that are watching the video portion of this podcast and he was saying that both Bobby and I were smiling from ear to ear Like we couldn't even contain it. I tell people every day because I was one of the early agents over at EXP, bobby, as part of the reason why it took a two minute conversation with you and I said let's freaking do it. I tell recruits every day. I know how this movie ends. I've already seen the ending and, yes, I'm smiling. I just think this plays a thousand times bigger than EXP. Sorry, exp, I'll never leave you. Guys, I love you, but it's harder.
Speaker 1:In order for me to team build there, I gotta get Bobby licensed. If Bobby's licensed, I gotta convince him to fall out of love with his broker Over here. Bobby, I've had conversations. I've had business partners with my Amazon driver, my mail lady, my law, my law person, my painter Anyone as long as they're smiling their builders, they get it can be a candidate for what we do, and that's what gets me freaking excited. It's why I haven't slept well in the past year since joining you on this mission my friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my apologies for lack of sleep, but yeah, we're proving both ends of the spectrum. We have solar professionals who are now leaning on multiple seven figure incomes that's, a couple million bucks a year plus stock right. And then we have people who've never sold solar or anything in their life making 20, 30, 40, $50,000 a month. And it ain't easy and there's no magic and nobody's getting rich tomorrow. And yes, we're in the construction business and yes, things happen. And all that stuff.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day, again, we're not. I'm not one that debates. We are who we are. The industry is what it is. If somebody's looking for a career and change and if they can't see the renewable energies to future, then they need glasses. And if they don't understand that, a platform economy is the only answer. That's all. I close every meeting with that. All you gotta do is be able to tie those two things together. Run with that man, paint the picture, the growing industry and the history of the world. It's never happened before, it'll never happen again.
Speaker 2:And everyone knows that a platform economy has changed every aspect of our life Communications, linkedin, facebook, twitter, instagram, travel, airbnb, uber, lyft, finance, crypto, retail, amazon.
Speaker 2:We have EXP, rolls-states we go down the list.
Speaker 2:So if I would just say to people if every meaningful asset, part of your life I don't know whether religion will go to a platform or not, don't wanna go down that road today, but if most of the meaningful things in your life, every single day, have transitioned to an online platform and powers the leading online renewable energy platform in the world and renewable energy is we know what it is then what is there to be debated about? What does somebody wanna argue about? And our revenue and our growth and our ink magazine and our record raising, world record crowd fundraising and having a board of directors that's raised billions in venture capital? I don't know how you draw it up any better than this. I really don't, and I've done a few things. If you've got a drop of entrepreneurial blood in your body and you're listening to this or watching this today nine year track record climbing on a half a billion in revenue pre-IPO all the things we just discussed and no one knows who we are yet that's how you draw it up. Anybody can say anything, we've proven it, and yet the renewable energy industry hasn't started yet and power really hasn't started Really well said, man.
Speaker 1:I hear you share similar thoughts to that every Monday at one of our national calls and I get goosebumps every time you say it. I joke to my team I'm ready to join again. It's non-debatable. I'm gonna steal that one. It really is. If you have a common sense, you just you can't debate it. I'll share this too, and then we can wrap up here in closing.
Speaker 1:I always evaluate opportunities based off three things. I'm not the smartest person, definitely not the smartest person on this call, but much less in most of my meetings. So I keep it stupid simple. The first one is leadership. If I'm gonna join an opportunity, I'm gonna take time away from my family, from other things that are producing income. Is the leadership right? That was one of the biggest questions I had when I heard Bobby speak. I had private zooms and I finally just met him. I've met now our CEO and various other field leaders. I'm blown away. Blown away. Speed of the leadership group, speed of the pack you guys all know the sang these guys are all, and women now with cammy, are all visionaries where they're taking this thing. I can't even pretend to paint that picture because I'm just along for the ride, which has me excited.
Speaker 1:The second thing is the model. I've already compared it to EXP. It is so early similar to EXP. In fact, they made one change I won't go into today, which is better than EXP, and I'm gonna get in trouble for that one. I already know the model. We've made a fortune with it. I felt a lot of people make a fortune.
Speaker 1:The third one is timing. It's what Bobby just said. My friends, we're in that fact. This is the only time I disagree with our CEO and I'll say it in front of the president, so I'm gonna get in big trouble. He says we're at the top of the first inning.
Speaker 1:I disagree. I think we're still, at batting practice, less than 4% market share. If you're on the East Coast, where Bobby and I are, I could argue it's between two and 3%. We're not even close to four. And so you can hear it in my tonality and my voice, my posture. When you put leadership of this group, the mission and the vision behind what we're doing, the model and the five different ways we get paid, and you combine it with the TN timing, my friends, it is lights out. Bobby, in closing, what would you say to a solo professional who is not with us yet. Someone in our company sent them this podcast. They found it on YouTube, wherever, and they're interested. They're thinking about joining, but they're still questioning it. Hey, I'm doing okay at my current place. Should I join, should I not? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:That's an interesting question. There's the smart ass side. To me, that would say well, what? Are you thinking about? Why would you work for a solo company when you can? Own your own, Earn two to three times as much money. Get deals people sending you deals from all over the world. We have people in the Philippines that are closing two, three deals a day in flip flops and beach.
Speaker 2:So I would just say to the solo pro that would be my smart alecary remark is come on, what are you thinking about? What preconceived ideas are holding you back? What words were being whispered in your ear when you were a kid? What's holding you back If you're a non solo pro?
Speaker 2:look real estate. Come on, if you're a real estate agent, I have two sides to that. How can you be a real estate agent without being able to guide your clients in energy consumption? It's the biggest. Most people paying a thousand dollars a month now for gas and electric bills, right? The rates are doubling in markets around the country as we speak. You got your house, you get your car, you got your gas electric bill right. If a mortgage brokers and we know the economy is what it is in the tank we know these industries are really looking.
Speaker 2:We have a big event, career week coming up which is designed for solar pros and real estate, mortgage professionals, and then HVAC. And if you're calling on a homeowner and you're selling them something else, you're cutting their lawn, you're doing home security. Whatever you're doing, it just makes sense. I just don't understand why this whole pro. I've never believed in the job mentality. You got one life, you got one shot. Why would you want to take orders from someone else? This is not the military. Why would you want to go that pathway? Fear, anxiety, what is it that's holding you back? And we train a lot of that. No company does more of mindset training and breakthrough training and all those things as our national convention opened up, with breathwork and ice baths and board breaking sessions, and we believe in that.
Speaker 2:The funniest thing for me, aaron you opened up with it and it's funny, I never even thought about it till the last six months. I'm a guy that's built on the Sun. I'm the beach behind me, I work at the pool. I went here. I am ended up following the Sun. It wasn't even my initial intention. I didn't get it. I didn't put the two things together at the time and now here I am. My next meeting scheduled are in Hawaii and and Puerto Rico and South Florida, and which is where I'd want to be, anyway. So if you open up to the universe now I went from cancer Foundation to following the Sun If you open up your mind and we've learned this from the California people and Jonathan and have opened up my mind so much to the possibilities that the universe speaks and you have to listen to it. You have to. You have to pay attention, science, but the first thing you have to do is be open-minded enough to understand that this is happening.
Speaker 2:The government is not gonna try and take. The government's gonna continue to try and take away our rights to clean energy. They killed it in Nevada and it came back. They just tried to kill it in California. They tried to sneak a bill in the House of Representatives in Florida. They are doing it right now in North Carolina. They will continue to try and take away your right to clean energy. They are going to continue to double your electric bills. None of this is gonna change and there's nothing anybody can do about it. Our politicians pockets are lined with dirty energy money and I'll scream it from the mountaintops right.
Speaker 2:There are inevitable factors here in including the climate, including I grew up on the water. I had a boat for many years. You can't, I know you fish with your kids. Well, what about when the kids can't eat those fish? If you took those fish, aaron, you're catching right now and did a test on them, and mercury and everything else, you would need them, you could need them. So where are we headed? What are we gonna do about it? So these are undeniable factors and when you just Put them in a ball and roll them up, did I have any idea where we'd be today and that we'd be opening the beaches of the world? Had no idea.
Speaker 2:But I would just say everybody out here again in closing Farron's closing is just open up your mind to the Possibilities that the universe will speak to you. Your children will speak to you and I want more than anything else, my children have always known and will always know that yes, is our lifestyle good, yes, they live well, but their father and my wife have always stood for Lifting up the world, doing something better. And when your kids can look you in the eye and say, mom, dad, I'm really proud. I know we need money, I know we got to pay bills, but what you're doing, you're standing for something but meaning something. What you're doing and both my kids are following pathways of Meaningful careers that that touch people's lives. And now my daughter just started talking about dinner the other night, about opening Maybe opening our own practice one day, or whatever wherever they're gonna go.
Speaker 2:I just I appreciate that entrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it and you said this early on and your version of it is something I've adopted and it's proof, successful to both of us Never, ever make a decision without opening the door, peek in your head and sing what's on the other side, and so I would leave that that analogy with anyone who's watching this for the first time To come look at it, come take a look, hop on a zoom with us. We're happy to show you there's amazing content, but it's the real deal. Bobby, I can't thank you enough. Not only is it an honor to have the president of power, a company that that I as a hundred percent of my attention as we build, but, like I said, you've become a dear friend and the honor was all mine.
Speaker 1:My friend, I speak for all of the solar sales uncensored community. This will go down as a as the record breaking episode. I have zero doubt and I can't wait to get it out into everyone's hands. If you don't mind and I we didn't talk about this I'm gonna throw your LinkedIn profile on the description so that people can reach out if they wanted to. They can follow more, more behind the scenes on what you're doing every day to lead our amazing company, but I can't thank you enough, my friend Folks.
Speaker 2:There are so many talented people out there right now. They're just looking for different. They're tired of what they're doing and we're heading into the holiday season. I don't know how dated this will become. We're heading into the holiday season, when people become reflective this time of year, and what do they really want their lives to stand for? Who do they want to go to work with it? I don't even bear and sometimes I feel guilty. We talked about this again. I don't feel like I'm working right now. We're not working right, we? I get to wake up every when's the last time?
Speaker 2:I would just say this to everybody watching closing When's the last?
Speaker 2:time that you couldn't wait to get out of bed so you could do it all over again and Work with people that you truly love, that you truly admire, that you truly respect, that lift you up and influence the way you think and what you eat and where you dress and the vitamins you take and the Workouts you do, and and that's how I feel I just can't wait to wake up and do it again and I only wish for everybody that they get to experience that at least once in their lives. You combine those two things. They say you'll never work a day in your life. Right, if you'd love what you do and the admiration of your children for what you do and how you carry yourself and the impact you have on other people in the world, no, then you put a cherry on top of that one buddy and you got one hell of a Sunday. That's the deal.
Speaker 1:Let's freaking go. So with that we're gonna shut it down and get back to work. I hope everybody enjoyed the episode. Be good, be safe and God bless Bobby. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. We'll talk soon, my friends, you.