January 9, 2024 • 46 mins
Discover the transformative secrets of referral-based success as John Bobnas, a veritable wizard of the solar sales industry, joins me, Aaron Browning, for an eye-opening discussion. Expect to unlock a treasure trove of insights as we traverse John's journey from doubt to domination in the field, all while nurturing genuine connections that have built a business empire. His three-decade span in sales, touching everything from video conferencing to construction, has cemented his place as a referral maestro, and he's here to share that hard-earned wisdom with you.
Ditch the "head junk" and prepare for a deep dive into cultivating the mindset of a champion salesperson, as John and I dissect the barriers that can stall even the most seasoned professionals. We'll reveal why note-taking and perpetual training are not just for rookies, but are the hallmarks of those who rise to the top. Plus, get a behind-the-scenes look at how John transformed his network into a robust, referral-generating machine, and learn how you too can create raving fans and deliver consistent value across any industry.
Wrapping up, we'll share real-life tales of success harnessed from multiple income streams, shining a spotlight on the magic of networking and the benefits of a proactive and knowledgeable approach. Imagine saving your clients tens of thousands while lining your pockets through savvy solar solutions—this episode isn't just a talk, it's an action plan for your financial independence. We're eager to hear your thoughts and invite you to be part of this journey as we continue to explore the frontiers of business and personal growth together.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of Solar
Sales, uncensored.
I am your host, aaron Browning,and I am excited to have our
kickoff show, kickoff episodefor 2024, with one of my best
friends, mr John Bobnas.
I have known this gentleman,this entrepreneur, this family
man now for gosh.
(00:20):
Probably five or six yearsFeels like longer at times,
because we've run so manybusinesses together.
We've really hit it off fromday one.
He is arguably the nicest personI've ever met, and I don't say
that lightly, I really don't.
He is so genuine, he is soorganic with who he is and, as
part of the reason I brought himon, there are really many
(00:40):
topics we could talk on together, but something he does better
than any person I've ever metand I think it's because of how
genuine he is.
He has mastered the art of thereferral like legit, 100%
mastered it.
He wakes up every single day todeals, solar deals and his
inbox, just from being organic,just from being him.
(01:00):
So, without further ado, I'mgoing to bring up my good friend
, fellow business partner, mrJohn Bobnas.
How the heck are you my friend?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm having a great day.
How about you, Mr Browning?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm doing well.
I appreciate you getting onearly.
I know you're on the on theCalifornia time zone, but it's
always good to see you, myfriend.
You're always smiling from earto ear.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
If it's before noon it's a little early for me, so
as I like to live thatCalifornia lifestyle you, you do
so.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I appreciate you squeezing us in.
Man, we're really excited.
John, I know you are modest,but if you don't mind, would you
give your I don't know 60second minute and a half kind of
background a little bit moreabout you professionally.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sure, I've been around sales forever.
My it was raised by mygrandparents Depression era.
People are not typically easyon you, so it was always if you
want something, go out and earnit.
So my grandfather encouraged mevery young to get started
working at 16.
I've been in sales for 30 plusyears now, done just about every
type of sales, whether it wasback in the day when there was
(01:55):
video conferencing before thishigh tech stuff that was on here
, I was actually selling roomsto to big organizations like
Universal Studios, to hey, thisis your way of communicating
across the country withouthaving to travel.
Then I did restaurant sales,been in the construction world,
ran a construction company,helped with management, and then
I started to get the itch totrain and coach.
(02:16):
And that's really where I feelmy heart is helping others do
better.
I like constantly a bigproponent of self improvement,
personal development and gettingbetter at sales as a field.
So yes, I'm in solar sales, butI'm also in real estate sales.
I will not shy away fromselling any big ticket item at
the highest level possible.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I love that man.
I think that's probably thereason you and I hit it off so
well, is our background, ourlove for real estate.
And, by the way, I didn't knowI was going to go here and it's
funny we're already starting itoff that way.
That's the other cool part too,about what we do here,
especially when you really knowthe guest.
Like there are so manydifferent ways I could take this
, john.
I'm going to put you on thespot, brother, because this is
what I do.
Do you remember the day Icalled you telling you about
(02:58):
solar and the new venture wewere about to do together?
Like what your reaction was?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I would rather you tell me your memory of it,
because I probably have, let'ssay, stylized it.
I probably make a Hollywoodmovie out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You really could.
So John is arguably.
I talked about his love and hisheart.
Emails, Christmas cards,birthday cards to my kids.
For God's sake, Just amazing.
Like my kids wait for it everysingle day, my youngest holds
his business card.
It got blessed me.
He's eight.
He thinks it's a credit card.
I don't have the heart to tellhim that John didn't give a
credit card.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's a nice business card.
Come on, aaron, it is a highquality marketing piece, is all
I'm saying, guys.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And, by the way, we'll talk about that too,
because I think that it getspart of the reason, part of the
way you leverage yourself andget referrals.
It stands out, like I said, mykid has it on his nightstand.
It's crazy.
When I called him letting himknow a little bit over a year
ago that this solar thing fellin my lap and I couldn't unsee
what I saw his reaction fromsomeone so positive was not
positive.
It was oh my gosh, what are youdoing?
(03:57):
Stop.
You're not doing this door todoor thing I used to sell.
I think it was siding orwindows.
I forgot what it was now.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Windows, painting, siding, roofing.
I've sold everything in home.
I have gosh over 2,000 in-homecontracts under my belt, not
including some of the solarsales.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But his blink on this , ladies and gentlemen, was like
, was really negative.
It's the first time in my wholelife of ever knowing him that
he's ever done that.
Not to say that we agree allthe freaking time, because we
don't, but he'll usually spin itin a very positive way.
Tell me more about that, aaron.
What do you like?
This one was like dude stop.
What are you doing?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
thought it was a step backwards.
I did not want to see you loseLove.
That Seriously true.
I was thinking to myself thisis not a positive step forward.
Are you okay?
Do you need help?
Yep, I'm here for you becauseI've been in home improvement
sales.
I guess it's big ticket.
I sold $25,000 window jobs.
That's a pretty big ticket item, but not in comparison now to
(04:52):
real estate.
You sell a $2 million home iscommonplace in California if
you're productive and activelike I am.
But still I was thinking tomyself come on, man, I had other
people pitch me.
Solar, it's the vision of thefuture.
You need to check it out.
Everything's going that way and, as in California, as of
(05:13):
January 2020, in every new homeconstructed and most major
remodels are going to have someamount of solar on them.
So you better know what you'retalking about, or you can do
what most agents do, which isnot know what they're talking
about, and just go.
Ah, solar's a hassle and I'mnot that guy.
I'm the guy like look, I wantto figure it out, but I did not
see it coming.
Let's just say that.
So what?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
changed man.
If fast forward, he's now at a.
We try our best to talk aboutour company, but he's on the
board of directors.
He's flown out to not flown outbecause he lives close by.
He routinely goes for ourmonthly masterminds that are
televised over 7000 sales repsin our company.
He's on stage.
He is the poster child for ourcompany.
What the heck changed what?
You get doctor and doctor inour company and you're just like
(05:58):
, oh my gosh, I missed it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because it really wasn't about to be frank, like
solar, this is can we beuncensored On solar uncensored?
Yeah, the thing is, man, itreally isn't about solar, even
though solar's the vehicle, ifthat makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It was.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I met the CEO and I went oh my gosh, this guy's a
visionary.
And you don't meet people whereyou go.
Oh, this guy's a visionary.
Very often.
Most of the time, regardlesswhether it's solar windows,
anything, whatever it is thatyou're selling in the home
improvement world, you're notgoing to meet a lot of visionary
thinkers.
I met a lot of guys that arebrick and mortar.
I own a little business justtrying to get by.
(06:40):
Maybe I can reduce the materialcost.
Those are the conversationsthey're having and I was
thinking when you said solar,I'm going, dude, I don't want to
.
I don't want to try to helpsomebody keep their company
going or whatever it have.
This guy was so far beyond that.
This is a mission to change theworld.
And I went.
You got my attention.
That's interesting.
What do you mean?
We're going to change the world, we're going to do it
(07:02):
differently.
And I said, okay, that'sinteresting too and, like you
said, we're not going to focus.
This isn't to pitch the company.
This is hopefully so.
Whoever's watching this getsvalue, because I don't care what
sales field you're in, I havestuff that will benefit you and
help you, because I've made hugemistakes and I've also done a
(07:23):
tremendous amount of investmentin myself, as I'm not a big.
I don't talk myself up Like whenpeople I've been asked to be on
other podcasts and sometimesit's just you know what.
I'm not here just to promotesomeone else, but you have such
a servant heart where you wantto care.
You seem to me, when you toldme you're doing a podcast, going
oh my God, your schedule'salready ridiculous, now you're
(07:44):
going to add this to it.
But you said it was abouthelping other people.
And that's what got me in myheart about this company was
that they are about helpingother people first, whether it's
helping the homeowner, becausethis industry is fraught with
tons of misrepresentation.
The criminal level is off thecharts when it comes to salesmen
that are misrepresenting whatthey're offering and the
(08:06):
homeowners themselves aregetting into it for the right
reasons, but they're beingsteered down the wrong path.
And then it's go ahead.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
No, 100%, man.
It's unregulated, john, and Ijoke all the time.
I know you guys are tired ofhearing me say it, but I'm going
to keep saying it because,until it changes, this is real
estate 20, 25 years ago.
It's the Wild West, thispodcast, by the way, it's what
John just said it was born.
I didn't have to bear with it.
It is still.
It is a labor of love.
It is so much more intense andneedy than what I had thought.
I love it, though.
It was born because I realizedthat most people in this game
(08:37):
who are trying to be good,trying to be good salespeople
and that's not everyone, let'sbe clear on that they're running
this transactional.
They're going from solar dealto solar deal.
I wanted to take our expertise,john's and many of our other
guests, and teach people how torun this thing like a freaking
business.
So you start to get leverage,so you have a way out when you
want to get out and I don't seeanyone else talking like that in
solar, it's all.
(08:57):
How do I get the next deal?
No, absolutely.
That's unique deals.
But how do you leverage thatdeal into four or five others?
How do you start to build ateam?
How do you start?
Anyway, that's why this thingwas born, and that's really what
John was just talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Absolutely.
And also, just to add to that,the idea that, like you said,
why did I, why was I open?
It's because you presented itproperly.
To be fair Anybody who'slistening to this you pitch
something to someone at somepoint, whether it's your client
or if you're recruiting, becauseeverybody recruits.
(09:31):
It's funny, it doesn't matterwhat brokerage you're in.
People in KW, oh, we don'trecruit.
You recruit like crazy.
You want top talent.
We all want top talent,regardless of the business that
we're in.
But for me, I don't, like I do.
I'm not going to call it activerecruiting.
I say that I'm looking forpeople that want to join the
mission, because this is so muchmore than just a job.
(09:53):
This is an opportunity whereyou can actually affect the life
and not only your life, but thelife of the people, the
homeowners that you're dealingwith and also the salespeople
you meet.
I'm like you paid me a hugecompliment and I really
appreciate that To say that I'ma big-hearted person who really
cares.
That is my driver, that's mycurrency.
(10:14):
If I could find a way to be asocial worker and make $3
million a year, that's probablythe perfect job for me, because
then I could put on my superherocape and I can go out there and
I can hopefully change theworld.
This is the vehicle that allowsme to do that, along with.
Also, I'm still a greencertified realtor.
Right, you still have a realestate license.
(10:36):
It's.
How many billionaires do weread books from that don't
identify by their industry?
I don't call myself a solarsalesperson because I sell more
than solar.
When I'm selling, it's more ofan education and then it's
seeing if it's a good fit forthe homeowner.
If it isn't a good fit, I tellpeople all the time I'm not sure
this is right for you.
(10:56):
I've had more referrals frompeople that I didn't sell than
the people that I did.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I think it should be that way.
It's not for everyone.
Some homes don't qualify.
The numbers don't make sense,various reasons.
Not only that, it's a strongtakeaway tactic.
Right, that's true.
When I'm collecting utilitybills, I don't even know if your
home qualifies.
I mean it.
But the minute you do atakeaway to an adult, they want
more.
So it's funny.
Being organic and beingtruthful will actually also work
(11:22):
in your favorite multiple ways,which is really neat.
By the way a little sidebar,when I called John, he was one
of my first calls when I gotstarted in solar, just because
our business relationship, ourfriendship, everything else I
respected him.
I knew with certainty I hatecertainty that he was going to
jump in like immediately.
Absolutely not.
I don't even want him to lie, Idon't want him to even mislead
you.
It took several weeks.
(11:43):
He was always respectful.
But, oh my gosh, you wenttalking about beating you up,
and so I share that because Ididn't know we were going to.
But also, if you're teambuilding, if you're recruiting
and you have that call, thatsomeone's going to react in a
certain way and they don't.
You need to be sure with whatyou're doing.
That doesn't affect you.
So, although I was crushed, Iwas like ah.
I thought he was going to be myfirst one, like why are we not
(12:05):
locking arms on this?
I was locked and loaded Like Iwasn't going to let that
negative speak, even though hewas coming from contribution,
hurt me, and so I see so oftenwhere people make and I know you
do, john.
They make that first phone calland someone's oh you idiot.
And they're like John, I'mquitting so and so said I'm an
idiot, you can't be like that,you'll never, ever make it.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Totally does and it leads.
The first thing I thought ofwhen you said that was and
that's not a technical term, butit's such a good term Head junk
.
How many people do we need,like I have?
So all this training and I havethis amazing pedigree, I've won
all these awards and I've soldall this stuff, that everything
that gets me all these greataccolades.
Does that matter, when my headis still telling me you know
(12:46):
what?
That's not for me, when Ididn't even understand what I
was saying.
I didn't understand what Ididn't understand.
I didn't know what, really,what you were offering and you
were doing it really well.
I had two other people that hadalready approached me, by the
way, for the exact same company.
I didn't even know it was thesame company because you did it
so much better.
But you did it from a place ofcontribution.
(13:08):
You did it from a place of look.
I don't want to be the only guyon the hill with the beach
house.
I want you to be my neighborand you also came from a place
of having the right posture.
This isn't supposed.
I don't know, maybe this is.
I don't know what we officiallyare supposed to be doing here,
but on different podcasts andthey have different goals and
agenda, but for me, it's abouthelping people right, 100%.
(13:30):
The goal to me is, ifsomebody's watching this and
they go, you know what that'svaluable.
I'm going to write that down.
Like I don't always, I alwayshave a notepad and paper next to
me, but I'm not alwaysanticipating needing to write
notes and I write notes soconstantly that it's if I don't
write it down, I'm going to andI go back to it.
Then it becomes a training andthen people are like, oh, thank
(13:52):
goodness, I'm like, thankgoodness I wrote it down.
Really, quite frankly, becauseas good as I think I am at
something, remembering something, if I don't write it down, it's
going to disappear most of thetime.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I totally agree.
And, by the way, for thoselistening on the traditional
podcast or the video version,which obviously go to whatever
speaks to you better, do me afavor, let us know in the
comments, because anothertraining that John and I do we
in fact we used to travel thecountry doing it was the art of
peaking interest.
So that's more on the teambuilding side, which, as you go
know, is my love language.
It's also John's.
If you want us to come back foranother episode and talk about
(14:23):
what we did, what I did exactlyto peak his interest, that made
him align with me, when he hadalready seen and heard about our
company at least two timesbefore, if not more.
He's in California after all.
We'd love to come back and dothat.
Like I said, we could do a deepdive on everything recruiting
and how to set it up, theposture.
Let us know in the comments ifyou see value and I'll make sure
we do that.
John, I do want to berespectful to you and also to
(14:44):
our audience.
I brought you here for so manytopics, but the main one that I
really want to spend some timeon today is the art of the
referral, how you do it, howyou're posturing that, how
you're setting it up, the bestcompanies, all that sort of
stuff.
So from the very beginning,like how did this referral thing
come out to you?
Like what spoke to you about it?
How did you decide to masterthe art of getting referrals?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
It doesn't take a lot of sales training to know that
word of mouth referrals are thebest business possible because
it's just it's lowest hangingfruit right.
And we all are in the samesituation where, if somebody is
an advocate for us, if you'renot talking about yourself and
somebody else is advocating foryou, I'm just looking for raving
(15:26):
fans and it doesn't matter theindustry I'm in.
But I'm also all about bringingvalue.
I think bringing value, nomatter what industry you're in,
is the key to long term success.
People ask me that, like Ico-wrote a book with Jack
Canfield, I don't know, fiveyears ago, based on real estate
sales performance and stuff.
It was big charity book and itwent best sellers, really fun.
(15:48):
But people ask me all the timeto go oh, you're part of the
success formula, what's the keyto success?
And I go add value.
That's it.
It's that simple.
If whatever you're doing addsvalue to people's lives, you
become sticky and I Wanted tomake this a little easier.
People in every industry,whether gosh, you and I, have
(16:08):
done many businesses when we'vetried to market and pay to have
somebody reach out to us.
The goal, of course just havesomebody raised their hand and
go hey, can you call me about X,whatever it is you're doing.
And I thought how do I get that?
So, just like everything, likein real estate, I bought a bunch
of leads and they are difficultand you got a filter through
them all and you have to have avalue proposition and it's
(16:31):
expensive and time-consuming.
But if somebody calls me andgoes, hey, my neighbor says
you're the guy, like when theycall you you are always on top
of it.
You seem to always know whatthe latest that's going on,
that's gonna be a sale.
I'm gonna make most of the timeas long as it suits the
client's needs.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Because I'm.
It's a setup, though, man,because when you're chasing
versus receiving, I have alwayssaid I and you need to be able
to do both.
If we're being honest, leadreceive mode is so much more fun
, so much better when you getthat text or that voicemail,
that phone call saying so-and-soTold me to call you.
So here I am.
They're expecting John to call.
They're expecting John to talkabout his solar company.
(17:11):
Right, that's huge versus acold lead.
And, by the way, once again, Ididn't know we're gonna go here,
but let's do it.
What the thing I love about John?
He treats like a freakingbusiness, like when he came on,
he knew he needed leads day one.
I didn't teach him that, healready knows.
So, yes, he spent Thousands,tens of thousands dollars buying
leads.
He now doesn't spend a dollaron any of that stuff, which I
love.
Talk about that, the transitionof how you did start that way.
(17:35):
By the way, we're not knockingit.
I've had other successfulpeople.
That's their jam.
John just realized hey, I cango back to what I did grassroots
and build a referral business,pay nothing and close higher
quality leads.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, I just thought, if we have more people that we
can reach out to or people atleast reaching out to us,
someone some Activity to do.
I did not know the solarbusiness three years ago at all,
but I was green certified as arealtor, which means that I had
some amount of education.
But most of the education I'vegotten in solar has been me Be
(18:05):
proactively looking for it.
Nobody tells you to go to solarcon, but I go to solar con.
Nobody tells you, by the way, Igo to real estate.
I go to all things salesrelated.
I went to a door knockingconvention.
I don't want a door knock, butI know people that do and I want
to be able to bring them whatagain value.
So how do you get peopleAdvocating for you when you're
(18:27):
not necessarily all thatentrenched in the industry?
You really don't have afootprint yet you bring a lot of
sales Skill and integrity tothe table, which is that's hard
enough to find.
Granted, that's hard to find,but if I can't bring maximum
value to the client, I feel likeI'm not doing well, which is
one of the.
Also the other things I lovedabout this company was that they
required you To be a basicallyshadow.
(18:50):
You had to shadow top guys inthe company and you found out
very quickly.
Even some of the top guys werenot great at what they were
doing, like I was Giving tipsand how to close and how to help
with.
Hey, we need to build urgencyand we need to in.
And they're like, oh, okay,great, I had guys that were the
experts because they had thetechnical knowledge which comes
(19:12):
over time and with investment inyourself.
But I needed, okay, how am Igonna get referrals?
And one of the top guys earningseven like, I don't meet a lot
of salespeople earningLegitimately there's a lot of
posturing, but legitimatelyseven figures a year.
You don't find a lot ofsalespeople that do that right.
So, to be where these guys arepouring back into me and giving
(19:35):
me help, all I had to do wasshow up.
That's incredible, the factthat all I had to do was be
there and plug into trainings.
And then I started to putmyself out there.
Hey, can I take you to lunch?
Well, yeah, nobody else isdoing, that's great, let's go.
And then they were willing tolet me follow them and watch
what they were doing.
But the number onerecommendation they had and so
if you do have a pen and paperhandy, you're gonna write this
(19:55):
down.
Get in a networking group.
There's free ones that aren'tas good.
There's somewhere you put alittle bit of money into it.
That's what I did.
It's called B&I B&I comm.
Go check it out, it's.
I don't.
I don't get anything for any ofthis.
There's not an affiliateprogram, none of that.
It's just.
It will be one of those thingswhere you go.
I got my money's worth out ofthis podcast Just by writing
(20:18):
down B&I business networking.
I don't know if it'sinternational, I think B&I.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I don't know but back up for a second John.
What, what, what is B&I?
Okay, 30 second, what is it?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
B&I is a group of professionals that are heavily
vetted To make sure that theyare who they say they are, and
in this networking group there'sone seat for each profession.
So if you're a realtor, you'regonna look for your local B&I
group or something you can do inthe area that you service and
Most of the time the real estateposition is taken the account
(20:50):
in positions.
Take all.
There's a lot of positionstaken.
Fortunately there wasn't solarpositions that were taken most
frequently and it gave me anopportunity to come in as the
expert Explain that we haveaccess to all these unique
because the company itself hassome unique selling propositions
.
It's nice to be able to havethe only 30 year warranty that
includes roof penetrations.
(21:11):
Most Solar guys are gonna go,man, that's unusual.
Usually they're just relying onthe manufacturer warranty that
the manufacturer stops selling apanel.
They don't have to deal withwarranty anymore.
I found a company that will nowprotect my real estate clients,
who are really who I was tryingto protect and refer this
company and now I can give themaccess to a 30 year warranty
with materials, labor, roof,everything.
(21:33):
I'm not trying to pitch thecompany, I'm just saying that is
yeah, totally oh, was worth thecost of admission for me.
I'm like, okay, this isincredible.
So now I'm sitting here with agroup of other professionals.
They heavily vetted me.
They called other people that Ihad done business with.
They knew when they recommendedJohn.
John was gonna show up, he wasgonna deliver top level service.
(21:54):
And if he didn't have theanswer, the thing that kind of
made me stand out was if Ididn't have the answer, I said I
have a guy that has the answerand I'll connect you with the
professional.
I'm not gonna guess.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yep, 100%.
It's being transparent, it'sbeing honest, especially cause
this was a new career a year agofor us.
People will see right throughthat.
I totally agree.
I wanna dumb it down just for asecond longer, john, and if I
miss anything, correct me.
So B&I referral group, as hesaid, you have one seat per
person.
I wanna make sure we understandthat.
You're gonna have one solarprofessional, you're gonna have
one person selling insurance,maybe one person at a car
(22:26):
dealership, an HVAC guys andgals.
Obviously the other thing toothis group is coming together
with the sole purpose ofreferring to each other in that
business.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That's it.
It's just referrals.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, it's crazy.
So I don't wanna say you'reguaranteed referrals, but gosh
darn it, you almost are.
As long as you're coming fromcontribution, you're giving it
forward.
You're the only solarprofessional there, so if they
come across anybody, so you'rebuilding that network.
The other thing too, john I'llturn it over to you one second
and correct me if I'm wrong.
Again, they have threedifferent options as well, which
I think is really cool.
They adapted because of COVID.
They have in person, which istheir bread and butter.
(22:59):
I think that's what John does,where you're gonna go meet one
day or an hour or two a week.
One day a week, every singlemonth.
They have an online version.
So if you're in a smallermarket perhaps, or maybe you're
in a market where it's saturatedthere aren't any more in-person
ones you can do an online ofthat fit your schedule.
And they also have a hybrid towhere you can do both at the
same time.
You wanna touch on those?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, I found that really appealing and the beauty
was that I could visit multiplechapters to make sure that the
culture was something that Iclicked with.
And the reality was I wasn'tlooking to do a hit and run, I
wanted to build a relationshipwith these people.
How many books do we read wheretop peep, the top of the top I
don't care if it's Tony Robbinsor anybody who's somebody that
(23:42):
you totally respect they all sayyour network is your net worth.
So if you are gonna be around anetwork of people, I wanted it
to be people that weren't justgood at what they do but also
had the same kind of servantheart I do and also weren't
afraid to tell other peopleabout me.
Because the whole point of thatis, like you said, referrals.
(24:03):
So you can meet only in personif you want.
They have those.
Where it's a weekly meeting,it's a 90 minute meeting.
Everybody does a little oneminute commercial about what
they do, but, more importantly,the whole goal of it is to give
referrals, or access from yourdatabase to everybody that might
benefit from their services,and you end up finding you start
thinking along the term I havea guy who's an auto shop guy in
(24:27):
my BNI group.
I don't know if auto shop guyis gonna be the guy I can refer
every day, but he constantly haspeople in the network going
yeah, my friend just gotten alittle fender bender, or they my
daughter ran the ball and I'mthinking, wow, you don't think
about all those little things,but every one of those is a
referral for this guy, and so Ithink it was.
I think it's somewhere about 85bucks a month I spent, and when
(24:51):
you think about marketing costs, no matter what business you're
in, I tested out a lead sourcefor solar when I first got going
with this.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And Is that what we're calling?
That I tested out.
He tested out his credit cardto see how bad that thing worked
.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It was called an investment.
It was a learning experienceand, man, it was a costly one,
but it wasn't just the only one.
I probably did three or four.
You're right, it was way over.
It was over 12 grand I spent.
And then I finally realized, oh,there's a reason that everybody
who is doing the very best atthe company is saying you
probably don't want to investyour money in something where
(25:26):
their whole business is sellingyou leads.
And I went oh, that totallymakes sense.
If they're in the business ofselling leads, they don't care.
They don't have no skin in thegame, they don't care if it
closes, whereas every week I'mmeeting with this group of
individuals and they likehearing that you're benefiting
and you're winning, because thenyou're thinking about them.
It they encourage theseone-on-one meetings that you
(25:46):
spend time.
It's fun to get to know people,and especially if you like them.
So what do we all do?
We all give business to peoplewe know and trust.
It's the facts of sales.
So when you have people thatyou're in this group with and
you realize, wow, these arebecoming friends.
I've only been in the BNI for18 months and I don't even know
if it's that long.
They asked me to be the BNIpresident.
(26:07):
They go you're exactly whatwe're looking for as an avatar
for what this group needs.
It's an influx of new kind ofenergy, and we want every seat
to be your quality of seat andI'm like, wow, that's a huge
compliment.
So many people have been in thegroup for 15 years.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yep, that's what I said when I kicked it off.
It wasn't just an edificationto say it below smoke man, that
is who you are.
Like you I.
When I think of BNI, I think ofpeople like you.
When I'm trying to get otherpeople to step up their referral
game, I'm telling them aboutyou, man, so well-deserved.
The other two, a little higherlevel tip and he said this very
quickly.
I want to make sure it's notlost to anybody.
Not all BNI groups are createdequal.
(26:44):
Some have freaking rock starsthat are killing it.
I'll give you permission tointerview multiple.
Don't just hey, this personwants me and I'm in right.
It's not like a real estatelicense.
I'm going to join the firstbrokerage, right, Cause they'll
all take you.
Ask them how many referrals arethey giving out?
How many members are there?
What's the attendance?
Like?
I don't know any otherquestions that come up to mind.
Referrals are the big one, likehow many referrals were passed
out last month?
(27:04):
Were passed out last year.
What's the closing percentage?
They track all of this and I'vehad some team members who've
talked about them and they'llsee like a 10x difference in a
group right down the street inthe same zip code.
So I love that you said that.
Man, I want to make sure it'snot lost or anybody.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I also anybody thinking, yeah, this sounds
interesting, Maybe I want tolook into it.
Don't fall into the trap ofthinking, hey, this group has 30
people and the other group has15.
I'm automatically going to gofor the 30.
That is, I chose one with 14members and some groups have 35
or 40 members but my 14 membershad done a million one in
(27:37):
referral business and they keeptrack of every dollar that's
given as actual, likecommissions to all these people.
That is a lot of money for 14people to split.
It was like that's absurd.
It's $90,000 or something perseat that each seat is worth.
But also, that said, I don'tknow if you'd agree with this,
(27:57):
but it's just like any businessor any marketing effort or
whatever you're doing, youreally get out of it what you
should put into it and so manypeople don't do the investment.
If you're making the financialcommitment and the time
commitment, there's anadditional component to this
where you actually have to buildrelationships with people.
They call it a one-to-one inB&I, but the B&I what is the
(28:20):
term?
They have a slogan and theirslogan.
They're like a 40 year oldinstitution, but their slogan
you can apply to any business,which is givers game the more
you give, the more you get backin return, and that has been
like my heart and my mantra,regardless of what business I've
been in for decades.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Dude.
I love that I was doing quickmath, man.
That's why I was looking away.
I'm only good at adding in 3%,multiplying in 3% for our real
estate days.
That's changing, don't get mestarted on that 18 months in.
At $85 a month, john has spent$1,530 this first 18 months.
John, it's uncensored.
You can kill me later.
How much have you made from B&I?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh, it's six figures.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So who on?
Let's be direct.
I hopefully have earned yourtrust and respect with that.
Who on this call would spend$1,500 over the next year and a
half to make multiple sixfigures?
If you're one of those that aresitting there, oh, he spent
1,500, hang up like disc andheck.
Log off YouTube the podcast.
You're missing it.
We are tailing this to businessowners.
If I gave you, I don't evenknow what the return on that is
(29:23):
1,000 to one, like you allshould be.
John, where do I get the link?
Like, how do I go?
Explore this?
There is no other return.
That's why I get so freakingfired up, John.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And that's the key, right, is that?
How many people do we talk towhere they go?
Gosh, I'd love to own abusiness.
And then they don't realize allof the expenses and costs of
owning a business, like back inmy brick and mortar real estate
renting an office days I wasspending and then not
exaggeration about 96 grand ayear in just office expenses,
(29:54):
just to have a building forpeople to come have coffee at
that I was paying for and comesit in a bunch of chairs or nice
chairs.
But so I think COVID taught usthat we can do things at a very
high level at a very highquality, virtually.
And that was also what appealedto me when you had asked me
(30:14):
about this, because I thoughtI'm not gonna go to a bunch of
people's homes Like you askedabout the B&I.
I'm a what's called a hybridright now, meaning that we meet
once a month in person at alocal hotel, which is nice.
It's nice to see people andthere's an energy and seeing
people.
But the cool thing is the othermeetings weekly, are all on
Zoom.
(30:34):
So I've done this, where I willdo the meeting on the beginning
of the month and then onvacation for two weeks and still
be able to tune into my meetingand still get referrals and
still be able to do businessLike the fact that we can do
business virtually now at a veryhigh level, even in things like
solar sales.
That's incredible.
(30:55):
I do real estate virtually if Ihave to.
I have clients that are allover the country.
They want me to sell their home.
Some of them are out of thecountry completely and they
still go.
Hey, you sold my other home inEncino and I'd love you to sell
my next one because we're movingpermanently to X, whatever that
happens to be Philippines,israel.
I got clients everywhere, butthe being a lifelong client to
(31:16):
people means that I broughtenough value.
They trust me and they knowthat I'm not gonna put my needs
and my interests first.
And then the people in my B&Ior networking group, because
that's the theme here.
Right, you wanted to talk aboutnetworking.
This is really low hangingfruit, guys.
Whatever industry you're in, ifyou're getting some value out
of this, then I've done my job.
(31:37):
I feel like I have helped,because we're all whatever
amount of time we have.
We just don't know.
We have no idea how much timewe have left.
And if you guys delay and thencomplain man, I really hate my
job Really.
Is this the first year you feltthat way?
No, I felt it for one day.
Okay, let's do something aboutthat.
(31:59):
But here's the other thing too.
And how many times we could do14 podcasts about 14 different
sales related subjects.
But how many times do we meetpeople, erin, and they talk a
big game about all the thingsthey wanna do?
I'm gonna be the person thatchanges my legacy for my family.
I'm not gonna struggle anymore.
I'm gonna be there at my kids'games and they get really weepy
(32:21):
and then they go right back towork and they make excuses for
why they can't join a BNI groupmy BNI groups at 6.30 in the
morning till 8.30, 6.30 to 8.30once a week.
If you can't handle that, youprobably don't have that big of
a commitment to changing yourlife path.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, and, by the way , that commitment to John.
He is not a morning person.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I've worked for years .
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I hate it.
He's still willing to do it,john, and I teach this a lot too
, and our team calls for solarteam.
What are you willing to give uptoday so you can gain in the
future?
Obviously, that's one.
You think he likes getting upat 6.30 once a week Heck, no, he
doesn't.
I know him.
I'm sure it's miserable.
He's probably mad at himselfthe night before, but he gets on
, he gets energized, he sees thefruit of his work and that
allows him to push through.
(33:05):
I love that.
I also love that you said howyou could do it anywhere.
Man, that's something you and Ialso.
Once again, there could be 30podcasts we could do.
I will not touch a business thatrequires me to be in an office,
that requires me to be at aphysical location other than
once in a while.
But I will not.
I will not.
I wanna be able to pick up andsay, john, I'm coming to
California for a month with myfamily, I'll see you tomorrow.
And everything John and Itouched together.
(33:27):
It has to offer, that has to.
It has to, and I love that.
This also feeds into that.
John, if you don't mind, canyou give us a strategy or two
that anyone brand new thinkingabout joining B&I that a tip
that they could do to helpmaximize the referral potential
from a referral group like B&I.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
One or two top tips.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Sure, sure, and you touched on it and I wanna
reiterate in case people didn'tcatch it Interview multiple
chapters, no matter what.
Even if it's not B&I there areother kinda similar and, like I
said, be careful if they're free, because you usually get what
you pay for.
It's totally the truth, evenwith B&I where you're paying,
(34:06):
then now we go okay.
It doesn't mean that they'rebad people or there's a good and
bad groups, it's just differentpersonality types.
I really resonated with thegroup because that I chose after
interviewing three of them,because it had the same kind of
like-minded folks.
They were very I care aboutpeople first type of folks.
(34:27):
They were protective of theirgroup.
That really matters too.
Look for people that have theright posture.
If somebody's begging you tojoin the group, you gotta wonder
why Successful people typicallydon't chase you, and that's a
posture you could take whenyou're doing whatever business
you're doing, as when you'retalking to somebody, it's nice
(34:49):
to want them.
Hey, you know what, you havegood credentials, you like your
energy, but I don't have thebandwidth to chase you.
And that alone, like when weeventually do our 16th podcast
on recruiting and talking topeople and I hate to use the
word recruiting, because to meit's more sponsorship.
I wanna sponsor you.
I wanna be somebody who's yourmentor, somebody who helps you
(35:10):
not make the mistakes I'vealready made.
And those are also what I meanby when I say you should
interview the people indifferent groups to make sure
that it's a good fit for youlongterm.
If they are, I got one more tooIf they offer you one year or
two years, take the two years,really, make the commitment,
because it's like an extra onlycouple hundred bucks.
(35:31):
So it was like $600 or $700 forone year or 900 for two years,
and so, 100%, I'm in for two.
Matter of fact, you have a 10year option.
I don't wanna be doing this.
Matter of fact, maybe I will bedoing it from my beach house in
Tahiti one day, because that'sreally the goal.
Right is time freedom, like wecan touch on that too.
What is really winning?
(35:52):
To me, winning was if I'm onlyworking with the people I wanna
work with, I've won.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, man, so much, so many nuggets.
I was just doing the math againas you were talking.
An hour a week, let's call itfour weeks a month.
On average, john is spendingfour hours a month on lead
generation from this strategy toearn multiple six figures.
That can be done anywhere.
If you're not earning multiplesix figures in your business
right now and you're actuallytrying I guarantee you're
spending more than four hours amonth on some sort of lead gen
(36:24):
strategy.
That's the power of this thing.
Like it is, it's mind blowing.
Once you see it, you can'tunsee it.
John, put you in the spot again.
Would you share a memorablereferral story that you got from
your BNI chapter?
Is there a referral?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah, I actually do have a great.
I've got a great referral story.
It was a client of solar whowas sold a system that was too
small and they didn't even knowthat was a possibility.
And I have been through a lotof experience and talking to a
lot of people finding out that'sa pretty common predatory thing
Sales people in solar are doing.
(36:58):
They're just trying to get thebusiness and, quite frankly,
they're desperate.
Like here's the title of ournext podcast.
Little side note is MultipleStreams of Income.
What you're talking about Ilove that you're dangling this.
Look at what John Bobbins cando.
Thank you, I appreciate thatthat.
I always think, god, I got todo better, but you're only
talking about one stream of myincome.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
So everybody on this call, if you have multiple
streams of income, you have moreFU money.
I'm not going to say the wordbecause I'm trying to be
respectful, but that's what weall want, right?
We all want to only work withthe people that we want to work
with.
So the referral was incrediblebecause they go.
Can you help them?
I don't know if you can.
They're struggling because now,instead of having just one high
electric bill, they now have amedium electric bill and a big
(37:43):
solar bill and they don't haveenough power coming from their
solar system.
And I went I don't know, let mesee if I can help.
Turns out that the balance ofthe bill that they had from
their utility.
We could cut that bill in halfand give them 30% more power
than they were currently evenusing Because we have access.
(38:04):
That's one of the reasons I lovethis company.
That was one of the things youtalked to me about.
That got me excited was that wehave broker-like pricing, where
we're doing national purchasingon multiple different products,
which is very unusual.
So now we have top-levelproducts at a fair price that I
can then adjust the margin down.
And don't get, don't freak outon the call, guys.
(38:25):
It doesn't mean I don't makegood money.
I have made $10,000 on a saleand still had the homeowner
thank me profusely.
That's the key to me.
That's winning is that if Imake good money and they're
excited about the price andthey're saving long term, I
haven't had it.
Here's the cool part.
I haven't had a solar clientthat saved less than $70,000
(38:48):
over a 25-year period just bymaking the switch to solar with
me, and their bill went down alittle bit.
Sometimes it doesn't go down atall, even if the bill's the
same.
If you can go from renting yourpower to owning it and your
bill never goes up again, comeon, man.
But anyway it ended up where Icould help them and they were
excited because they werewatching their bill continually
(39:10):
creep up, which was the reasonthey went solar in the first
place.
They feel ripped off by theother sales guy.
The company they bought from,by the way, five years ago, is
out of business, so reallyhorrible.
But you'll notice.
Here's another pro tip I wearthis branded shirt.
I do not like wearing a brandedshirt.
It is not.
I didn't want to go back tobeing a billboard, but I saw
(39:32):
this a solar hero shirt from oneof the people making multiple,
six-figure, almost seven figuresa year in like his third or
fourth year with the company,and I went I really love that
shirt.
Do you mind if I buy a bunch ofthem?
He goes, absolutely it's nothis, he doesn't own it.
But he came up with the idea ofa solar hero and I said that's
what I want to be.
(39:53):
So I put the shirt on the backit says ask me about solar.
And when I was at CaliforniaPizza Kitchen a month or so ago
I had a lady literally grab mebecause I was wearing the shirt
and she goes I have a questionabout solar for you.
And I said don't grab me, lady.
And she laughed so hard.
She laughed so hard because Iwas.
I'm nice about it.
(40:13):
I'm not being a jerk, but theidea that I am trying every way
I can to brand myself everywhereto anybody who's got that
ocular reticulator activatedgoing hey, I have a solar need
Like.
That lady was not at CPKthinking I have a solar need.
She was there with hergirlfriends, she's 70 years old
but also a great story becauseshe was taken advantage of and
(40:35):
her company went under.
So I've gotten three referralsfrom her.
I did not sell her solar.
What I did instead was I calledthe manufacturer of the
inverter, met the invertermanufacturer guy there, not my
job.
She ended up making me achocolate cake.
We got her inverter up andrunning.
She didn't need to buy another$20,000, $30,000 solar system.
(40:57):
And now she's referring me asif I'm her solar provider, even
though I was just the guy thatserviced her needs.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Man, love that.
Love that you did not make adollar on that physical
transaction, but the return byyou doing the right thing, being
a standup dude.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
That chocolate cake, though man, that chocolate cake
yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
That's not good for our diet, though.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, no, I start to feel like you were saying is it
on video or on?
I'm going, man, I hopeeverybody's just listening to
this.
This is I have a face for audiois all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, so not true, but that's funny bro.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
You're nice.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
That's really good.
I want to be respectful of yourtime and our audience's time,
man.
In closing, do you have anylast minute tips?
Maybe someone who's not hittingthe income goal?
They've been in solar for aminute.
They're hearing you talk aboutthe lifestyle and everything
else and also how you did itvery quickly inside of 12 months
, by the way, brand new to thefield Anything we haven't talked
about the last minute tip thatyou could give someone like that
?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, I think you need to decide Whatever it's
going to be.
Write it down.
This is the thing that's anon-negotiable for me.
Anymore I will not struggleanymore.
I won't watch TV again until Ihave at least found what I'm
looking for.
And I don't know if you do orif you have something that is
(42:07):
what you're looking for.
But I mean, we have peoplemaking multiple six figures part
time doing this.
That's where I feel like I'mthe gift giver, like, please buy
the book, the go giver, if youhaven't.
But you get it on eBay for six,seven bucks.
It's cheap.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I'll throw a link in the chat.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, that book probably is in my sales career
over the last decade, probablyworth $3 to $5 million.
The number one thing you needto read that read Start With why
by Simon Sinek, another onethat's great for just learning
how to network using socialmedia.
When you're talking to peoplebringing value and really being
(42:46):
able to peak interest, we cantalk about that building an
empire.
There's so many great booksthat people should be starting
with today, but the first thing,of course, is you got to make a
decision, decide.
I am not going to live the wayI've been living anymore.
Time is running out.
It's running out on all of usguys.
My sister that would bevulnerable for a second, if it's
(43:10):
cool.
My sister died at two years oldin the swimming pool accident.
Nobody knew that was coming.
My uncle died in a freakairplane crash at 40 years old
with a five-year-old andtwo-year-old at home.
My mom died at 65 years old,perfectly healthy looking.
People thought she was in her50s, just got septic and died
like it was the 1800s ofpneumonia.
But then my grandmother livedto 94.
(43:32):
So the point is we aren'tpromised any amount of time.
My ex-wife died right afterThanksgiving.
I don't know if you knew that,erin.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
But she's in her 40s.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah, it's like guys.
Please do it today.
Whatever it is, reach out, dmme.
It's my name on Instagram.
It's my name on Facebook, I amnot hard to find.
Dm me.
I will be glad to strategizewith you.
I'm not talking about solar.
It could be about anything.
Hey, I have a recl.
Like I said, it's aboutbringing value right.
(44:06):
We're all in this journeytogether and I care about you
and I want you to win and Idon't want you to have the same
struggles I've had and if I canhelp you avoid one or two of
those pitfalls, it's a prettygood legacy and I am just
grateful to be here and thankyou for having me.
Erin, you're a beautiful humanbeing.
(44:26):
I appreciate, when I did takeone of those random trips out to
see my horrible commander'splay, that you let me stay in
your home, but that's the kindof relationships we've built,
right, I didn't know you forever, but I feel like we're going to
be family forever and I hopeeverybody watching this realizes
and feels how much I care.
I really want you to win.
(44:47):
You can win.
It is not a pipe dream.
You just need to make thatdecision we got you.
Just go out and do it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
It oozes from you, man.
I appreciate you.
It's funny hearing you justwrap up with that and seeing you
get choked up, emotional.
It just once again it's organicwith you.
On December 30th, so a littlebit over a week ago, I made a
Facebook post and I think itspeaks to what you just said.
Man, it really did.
I forgot what book I picked itup from.
It's not original by anythought.
I'm by any stretch.
Excuse me, but it read and youcan go search.
(45:15):
Fact check me.
The longer you wait for thefuture you want, the less time
you get to spend in it.
Start now.
Like I had goosebumps, becausewe're all guilty of it, even
John's guilty of it, absolutely.
So I would challenge all of youguys take John's advice, decide
.
I'll throw up links to thebooks.
Let us know in the chat if youwant John to come back.
I know I do.
He has my wheels turning forfuture podcasts.
(45:36):
I'd love to bring him back.
If you guys see value, let usknow John.
I speak for audience.
Thank you, man.
You drop bombs.
You truly have a go-giver'sheart and I appreciate you, your
friendship, your leadership,everything else.
Audience.
If you got any value from Johnor myself or both, please like.
Share, review the podcast.
We do this, it's a labor oflove.
We do it to pay it forward, tohelp someone speed up that curve
, to learn from the mistakeswe've made with our time and
(45:59):
also our wallets.
So I hope each and every one ofyou have a great day, john.
Thanks again.
We will talk soon, my friends.
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of Solar
Sales, uncensored.
I am your host, aaron Browning,and I am excited to have our
kickoff show, kickoff episodefor 2024, with one of my best
friends, mr John Bobnas.
I have known this gentleman,this entrepreneur, this family
man now for gosh.
(00:20):
Probably five or six yearsFeels like longer at times,
because we've run so manybusinesses together.
We've really hit it off fromday one.
He is arguably the nicest personI've ever met, and I don't say
that lightly, I really don't.
He is so genuine, he is soorganic with who he is and, as
part of the reason I brought himon, there are really many
(00:40):
topics we could talk on together, but something he does better
than any person I've ever metand I think it's because of how
genuine he is.
He has mastered the art of thereferral like legit, 100%
mastered it.
He wakes up every single day todeals, solar deals and his
inbox, just from being organic,just from being him.
(01:00):
So, without further ado, I'mgoing to bring up my good friend
, fellow business partner, mrJohn Bobnas.
How the heck are you my friend?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm having a great day.
How about you, Mr Browning?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm doing well.
I appreciate you getting onearly.
I know you're on the on theCalifornia time zone, but it's
always good to see you, myfriend.
You're always smiling from earto ear.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
If it's before noon it's a little early for me, so
as I like to live thatCalifornia lifestyle you, you do
so.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I appreciate you squeezing us in.
Man, we're really excited.
John, I know you are modest,but if you don't mind, would you
give your I don't know 60second minute and a half kind of
background a little bit moreabout you professionally.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sure, I've been around sales forever.
My it was raised by mygrandparents Depression era.
People are not typically easyon you, so it was always if you
want something, go out and earnit.
So my grandfather encouraged mevery young to get started
working at 16.
I've been in sales for 30 plusyears now, done just about every
type of sales, whether it wasback in the day when there was
(01:55):
video conferencing before thishigh tech stuff that was on here
, I was actually selling roomsto to big organizations like
Universal Studios, to hey, thisis your way of communicating
across the country withouthaving to travel.
Then I did restaurant sales,been in the construction world,
ran a construction company,helped with management, and then
I started to get the itch totrain and coach.
(02:16):
And that's really where I feelmy heart is helping others do
better.
I like constantly a bigproponent of self improvement,
personal development and gettingbetter at sales as a field.
So yes, I'm in solar sales, butI'm also in real estate sales.
I will not shy away fromselling any big ticket item at
the highest level possible.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I love that man.
I think that's probably thereason you and I hit it off so
well, is our background, ourlove for real estate.
And, by the way, I didn't knowI was going to go here and it's
funny we're already starting itoff that way.
That's the other cool part too,about what we do here,
especially when you really knowthe guest.
Like there are so manydifferent ways I could take this
, john.
I'm going to put you on thespot, brother, because this is
what I do.
Do you remember the day Icalled you telling you about
(02:58):
solar and the new venture wewere about to do together?
Like what your reaction was?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I would rather you tell me your memory of it,
because I probably have, let'ssay, stylized it.
I probably make a Hollywoodmovie out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You really could.
So John is arguably.
I talked about his love and hisheart.
Emails, Christmas cards,birthday cards to my kids.
For God's sake, Just amazing.
Like my kids wait for it everysingle day, my youngest holds
his business card.
It got blessed me.
He's eight.
He thinks it's a credit card.
I don't have the heart to tellhim that John didn't give a
credit card.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's a nice business card.
Come on, aaron, it is a highquality marketing piece, is all
I'm saying, guys.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And, by the way, we'll talk about that too,
because I think that it getspart of the reason, part of the
way you leverage yourself andget referrals.
It stands out, like I said, mykid has it on his nightstand.
It's crazy.
When I called him letting himknow a little bit over a year
ago that this solar thing fellin my lap and I couldn't unsee
what I saw his reaction fromsomeone so positive was not
positive.
It was oh my gosh, what are youdoing?
(03:57):
Stop.
You're not doing this door todoor thing I used to sell.
I think it was siding orwindows.
I forgot what it was now.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Windows, painting, siding, roofing.
I've sold everything in home.
I have gosh over 2,000 in-homecontracts under my belt, not
including some of the solarsales.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But his blink on this , ladies and gentlemen, was like
, was really negative.
It's the first time in my wholelife of ever knowing him that
he's ever done that.
Not to say that we agree allthe freaking time, because we
don't, but he'll usually spin itin a very positive way.
Tell me more about that, aaron.
What do you like?
This one was like dude stop.
What are you doing?
I?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
thought it was a step backwards.
I did not want to see you loseLove.
That Seriously true.
I was thinking to myself thisis not a positive step forward.
Are you okay?
Do you need help?
Yep, I'm here for you becauseI've been in home improvement
sales.
I guess it's big ticket.
I sold $25,000 window jobs.
That's a pretty big ticket item, but not in comparison now to
(04:52):
real estate.
You sell a $2 million home iscommonplace in California if
you're productive and activelike I am.
But still I was thinking tomyself come on, man, I had other
people pitch me.
Solar, it's the vision of thefuture.
You need to check it out.
Everything's going that way and, as in California, as of
(05:13):
January 2020, in every new homeconstructed and most major
remodels are going to have someamount of solar on them.
So you better know what you'retalking about, or you can do
what most agents do, which isnot know what they're talking
about, and just go.
Ah, solar's a hassle and I'mnot that guy.
I'm the guy like look, I wantto figure it out, but I did not
see it coming.
Let's just say that.
So what?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
changed man.
If fast forward, he's now at a.
We try our best to talk aboutour company, but he's on the
board of directors.
He's flown out to not flown outbecause he lives close by.
He routinely goes for ourmonthly masterminds that are
televised over 7000 sales repsin our company.
He's on stage.
He is the poster child for ourcompany.
What the heck changed what?
You get doctor and doctor inour company and you're just like
(05:58):
, oh my gosh, I missed it.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because it really wasn't about to be frank, like
solar, this is can we beuncensored On solar uncensored?
Yeah, the thing is, man, itreally isn't about solar, even
though solar's the vehicle, ifthat makes sense.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It was.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I met the CEO and I went oh my gosh, this guy's a
visionary.
And you don't meet people whereyou go.
Oh, this guy's a visionary.
Very often.
Most of the time, regardlesswhether it's solar windows,
anything, whatever it is thatyou're selling in the home
improvement world, you're notgoing to meet a lot of visionary
thinkers.
I met a lot of guys that arebrick and mortar.
I own a little business justtrying to get by.
(06:40):
Maybe I can reduce the materialcost.
Those are the conversationsthey're having and I was
thinking when you said solar,I'm going, dude, I don't want to
.
I don't want to try to helpsomebody keep their company
going or whatever it have.
This guy was so far beyond that.
This is a mission to change theworld.
And I went.
You got my attention.
That's interesting.
What do you mean?
We're going to change the world, we're going to do it
(07:02):
differently.
And I said, okay, that'sinteresting too and, like you
said, we're not going to focus.
This isn't to pitch the company.
This is hopefully so.
Whoever's watching this getsvalue, because I don't care what
sales field you're in, I havestuff that will benefit you and
help you, because I've made hugemistakes and I've also done a
(07:23):
tremendous amount of investmentin myself, as I'm not a big.
I don't talk myself up Like whenpeople I've been asked to be on
other podcasts and sometimesit's just you know what.
I'm not here just to promotesomeone else, but you have such
a servant heart where you wantto care.
You seem to me, when you toldme you're doing a podcast, going
oh my God, your schedule'salready ridiculous, now you're
(07:44):
going to add this to it.
But you said it was abouthelping other people.
And that's what got me in myheart about this company was
that they are about helpingother people first, whether it's
helping the homeowner, becausethis industry is fraught with
tons of misrepresentation.
The criminal level is off thecharts when it comes to salesmen
that are misrepresenting whatthey're offering and the
(08:06):
homeowners themselves aregetting into it for the right
reasons, but they're beingsteered down the wrong path.
And then it's go ahead.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
No, 100%, man.
It's unregulated, john, and Ijoke all the time.
I know you guys are tired ofhearing me say it, but I'm going
to keep saying it because,until it changes, this is real
estate 20, 25 years ago.
It's the Wild West, thispodcast, by the way, it's what
John just said it was born.
I didn't have to bear with it.
It is still.
It is a labor of love.
It is so much more intense andneedy than what I had thought.
I love it, though.
It was born because I realizedthat most people in this game
(08:37):
who are trying to be good,trying to be good salespeople
and that's not everyone, let'sbe clear on that they're running
this transactional.
They're going from solar dealto solar deal.
I wanted to take our expertise,john's and many of our other
guests, and teach people how torun this thing like a freaking
business.
So you start to get leverage,so you have a way out when you
want to get out and I don't seeanyone else talking like that in
solar, it's all.
(08:57):
How do I get the next deal?
No, absolutely.
That's unique deals.
But how do you leverage thatdeal into four or five others?
How do you start to build ateam?
How do you start?
Anyway, that's why this thingwas born, and that's really what
John was just talking about.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Absolutely.
And also, just to add to that,the idea that, like you said,
why did I, why was I open?
It's because you presented itproperly.
To be fair Anybody who'slistening to this you pitch
something to someone at somepoint, whether it's your client
or if you're recruiting, becauseeverybody recruits.
(09:31):
It's funny, it doesn't matterwhat brokerage you're in.
People in KW, oh, we don'trecruit.
You recruit like crazy.
You want top talent.
We all want top talent,regardless of the business that
we're in.
But for me, I don't, like I do.
I'm not going to call it activerecruiting.
I say that I'm looking forpeople that want to join the
mission, because this is so muchmore than just a job.
(09:53):
This is an opportunity whereyou can actually affect the life
and not only your life, but thelife of the people, the
homeowners that you're dealingwith and also the salespeople
you meet.
I'm like you paid me a hugecompliment and I really
appreciate that To say that I'ma big-hearted person who really
cares.
That is my driver, that's mycurrency.
(10:14):
If I could find a way to be asocial worker and make $3
million a year, that's probablythe perfect job for me, because
then I could put on my superherocape and I can go out there and
I can hopefully change theworld.
This is the vehicle that allowsme to do that, along with.
Also, I'm still a greencertified realtor.
Right, you still have a realestate license.
(10:36):
It's.
How many billionaires do weread books from that don't
identify by their industry?
I don't call myself a solarsalesperson because I sell more
than solar.
When I'm selling, it's more ofan education and then it's
seeing if it's a good fit forthe homeowner.
If it isn't a good fit, I tellpeople all the time I'm not sure
this is right for you.
(10:56):
I've had more referrals frompeople that I didn't sell than
the people that I did.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I think it should be that way.
It's not for everyone.
Some homes don't qualify.
The numbers don't make sense,various reasons.
Not only that, it's a strongtakeaway tactic.
Right, that's true.
When I'm collecting utilitybills, I don't even know if your
home qualifies.
I mean it.
But the minute you do atakeaway to an adult, they want
more.
So it's funny.
Being organic and beingtruthful will actually also work
(11:22):
in your favorite multiple ways,which is really neat.
By the way a little sidebar,when I called John, he was one
of my first calls when I gotstarted in solar, just because
our business relationship, ourfriendship, everything else I
respected him.
I knew with certainty I hatecertainty that he was going to
jump in like immediately.
Absolutely not.
I don't even want him to lie, Idon't want him to even mislead
you.
It took several weeks.
(11:43):
He was always respectful.
But, oh my gosh, you wenttalking about beating you up,
and so I share that because Ididn't know we were going to.
But also, if you're teambuilding, if you're recruiting
and you have that call, thatsomeone's going to react in a
certain way and they don't.
You need to be sure with whatyou're doing.
That doesn't affect you.
So, although I was crushed, Iwas like ah.
I thought he was going to be myfirst one, like why are we not
(12:05):
locking arms on this?
I was locked and loaded Like Iwasn't going to let that
negative speak, even though hewas coming from contribution,
hurt me, and so I see so oftenwhere people make and I know you
do, john.
They make that first phone calland someone's oh you idiot.
And they're like John, I'mquitting so and so said I'm an
idiot, you can't be like that,you'll never, ever make it.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Totally does and it leads.
The first thing I thought ofwhen you said that was and
that's not a technical term, butit's such a good term Head junk
.
How many people do we need,like I have?
So all this training and I havethis amazing pedigree, I've won
all these awards and I've soldall this stuff, that everything
that gets me all these greataccolades.
Does that matter, when my headis still telling me you know
(12:46):
what?
That's not for me, when Ididn't even understand what I
was saying.
I didn't understand what Ididn't understand.
I didn't know what, really,what you were offering and you
were doing it really well.
I had two other people that hadalready approached me, by the
way, for the exact same company.
I didn't even know it was thesame company because you did it
so much better.
But you did it from a place ofcontribution.
(13:08):
You did it from a place of look.
I don't want to be the only guyon the hill with the beach
house.
I want you to be my neighborand you also came from a place
of having the right posture.
This isn't supposed.
I don't know, maybe this is.
I don't know what we officiallyare supposed to be doing here,
but on different podcasts andthey have different goals and
agenda, but for me, it's abouthelping people right, 100%.
(13:30):
The goal to me is, ifsomebody's watching this and
they go, you know what that'svaluable.
I'm going to write that down.
Like I don't always, I alwayshave a notepad and paper next to
me, but I'm not alwaysanticipating needing to write
notes and I write notes soconstantly that it's if I don't
write it down, I'm going to andI go back to it.
Then it becomes a training andthen people are like, oh, thank
(13:52):
goodness, I'm like, thankgoodness I wrote it down.
Really, quite frankly, becauseas good as I think I am at
something, remembering something, if I don't write it down, it's
going to disappear most of thetime.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I totally agree.
And, by the way, for thoselistening on the traditional
podcast or the video version,which obviously go to whatever
speaks to you better, do me afavor, let us know in the
comments, because anothertraining that John and I do we
in fact we used to travel thecountry doing it was the art of
peaking interest.
So that's more on the teambuilding side, which, as you go
know, is my love language.
It's also John's.
If you want us to come back foranother episode and talk about
(14:23):
what we did, what I did exactlyto peak his interest, that made
him align with me, when he hadalready seen and heard about our
company at least two timesbefore, if not more.
He's in California after all.
We'd love to come back and dothat.
Like I said, we could do a deepdive on everything recruiting
and how to set it up, theposture.
Let us know in the comments ifyou see value and I'll make sure
we do that.
John, I do want to berespectful to you and also to
(14:44):
our audience.
I brought you here for so manytopics, but the main one that I
really want to spend some timeon today is the art of the
referral, how you do it, howyou're posturing that, how
you're setting it up, the bestcompanies, all that sort of
stuff.
So from the very beginning,like how did this referral thing
come out to you?
Like what spoke to you about it?
How did you decide to masterthe art of getting referrals?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
It doesn't take a lot of sales training to know that
word of mouth referrals are thebest business possible because
it's just it's lowest hangingfruit right.
And we all are in the samesituation where, if somebody is
an advocate for us, if you'renot talking about yourself and
somebody else is advocating foryou, I'm just looking for raving
(15:26):
fans and it doesn't matter theindustry I'm in.
But I'm also all about bringingvalue.
I think bringing value, nomatter what industry you're in,
is the key to long term success.
People ask me that, like Ico-wrote a book with Jack
Canfield, I don't know, fiveyears ago, based on real estate
sales performance and stuff.
It was big charity book and itwent best sellers, really fun.
(15:48):
But people ask me all the timeto go oh, you're part of the
success formula, what's the keyto success?
And I go add value.
That's it.
It's that simple.
If whatever you're doing addsvalue to people's lives, you
become sticky and I Wanted tomake this a little easier.
People in every industry,whether gosh, you and I, have
(16:08):
done many businesses when we'vetried to market and pay to have
somebody reach out to us.
The goal, of course just havesomebody raised their hand and
go hey, can you call me about X,whatever it is you're doing.
And I thought how do I get that?
So, just like everything, likein real estate, I bought a bunch
of leads and they are difficultand you got a filter through
them all and you have to have avalue proposition and it's
(16:31):
expensive and time-consuming.
But if somebody calls me andgoes, hey, my neighbor says
you're the guy, like when theycall you you are always on top
of it.
You seem to always know whatthe latest that's going on,
that's gonna be a sale.
I'm gonna make most of the timeas long as it suits the
client's needs.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Because I'm.
It's a setup, though, man,because when you're chasing
versus receiving, I have alwayssaid I and you need to be able
to do both.
If we're being honest, leadreceive mode is so much more fun
, so much better when you getthat text or that voicemail,
that phone call saying so-and-soTold me to call you.
So here I am.
They're expecting John to call.
They're expecting John to talkabout his solar company.
(17:11):
Right, that's huge versus acold lead.
And, by the way, once again, Ididn't know we're gonna go here,
but let's do it.
What the thing I love about John?
He treats like a freakingbusiness, like when he came on,
he knew he needed leads day one.
I didn't teach him that, healready knows.
So, yes, he spent Thousands,tens of thousands dollars buying
leads.
He now doesn't spend a dollaron any of that stuff, which I
love.
Talk about that, the transitionof how you did start that way.
(17:35):
By the way, we're not knockingit.
I've had other successfulpeople.
That's their jam.
John just realized hey, I cango back to what I did grassroots
and build a referral business,pay nothing and close higher
quality leads.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, I just thought, if we have more people that we
can reach out to or people atleast reaching out to us,
someone some Activity to do.
I did not know the solarbusiness three years ago at all,
but I was green certified as arealtor, which means that I had
some amount of education.
But most of the education I'vegotten in solar has been me Be
(18:05):
proactively looking for it.
Nobody tells you to go to solarcon, but I go to solar con.
Nobody tells you, by the way, Igo to real estate.
I go to all things salesrelated.
I went to a door knockingconvention.
I don't want a door knock, butI know people that do and I want
to be able to bring them whatagain value.
So how do you get peopleAdvocating for you when you're
(18:27):
not necessarily all thatentrenched in the industry?
You really don't have afootprint yet you bring a lot of
sales Skill and integrity tothe table, which is that's hard
enough to find.
Granted, that's hard to find,but if I can't bring maximum
value to the client, I feel likeI'm not doing well, which is
one of the.
Also the other things I lovedabout this company was that they
required you To be a basicallyshadow.
(18:50):
You had to shadow top guys inthe company and you found out
very quickly.
Even some of the top guys werenot great at what they were
doing, like I was Giving tipsand how to close and how to help
with.
Hey, we need to build urgencyand we need to in.
And they're like, oh, okay,great, I had guys that were the
experts because they had thetechnical knowledge which comes
(19:12):
over time and with investment inyourself.
But I needed, okay, how am Igonna get referrals?
And one of the top guys earningseven like, I don't meet a lot
of salespeople earningLegitimately there's a lot of
posturing, but legitimatelyseven figures a year.
You don't find a lot ofsalespeople that do that right.
So, to be where these guys arepouring back into me and giving
(19:35):
me help, all I had to do wasshow up.
That's incredible, the factthat all I had to do was be
there and plug into trainings.
And then I started to putmyself out there.
Hey, can I take you to lunch?
Well, yeah, nobody else isdoing, that's great, let's go.
And then they were willing tolet me follow them and watch
what they were doing.
But the number onerecommendation they had and so
if you do have a pen and paperhandy, you're gonna write this
(19:55):
down.
Get in a networking group.
There's free ones that aren'tas good.
There's somewhere you put alittle bit of money into it.
That's what I did.
It's called B&I B&I comm.
Go check it out, it's.
I don't.
I don't get anything for any ofthis.
There's not an affiliateprogram, none of that.
It's just.
It will be one of those thingswhere you go.
I got my money's worth out ofthis podcast Just by writing
(20:18):
down B&I business networking.
I don't know if it'sinternational, I think B&I.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I don't know but back up for a second John.
What, what, what is B&I?
Okay, 30 second, what is it?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
B&I is a group of professionals that are heavily
vetted To make sure that theyare who they say they are, and
in this networking group there'sone seat for each profession.
So if you're a realtor, you'regonna look for your local B&I
group or something you can do inthe area that you service and
Most of the time the real estateposition is taken the account
(20:50):
in positions.
Take all.
There's a lot of positionstaken.
Fortunately there wasn't solarpositions that were taken most
frequently and it gave me anopportunity to come in as the
expert Explain that we haveaccess to all these unique
because the company itself hassome unique selling propositions
.
It's nice to be able to havethe only 30 year warranty that
includes roof penetrations.
(21:11):
Most Solar guys are gonna go,man, that's unusual.
Usually they're just relying onthe manufacturer warranty that
the manufacturer stops selling apanel.
They don't have to deal withwarranty anymore.
I found a company that will nowprotect my real estate clients,
who are really who I was tryingto protect and refer this
company and now I can give themaccess to a 30 year warranty
with materials, labor, roof,everything.
(21:33):
I'm not trying to pitch thecompany, I'm just saying that is
yeah, totally oh, was worth thecost of admission for me.
I'm like, okay, this isincredible.
So now I'm sitting here with agroup of other professionals.
They heavily vetted me.
They called other people that Ihad done business with.
They knew when they recommendedJohn.
John was gonna show up, he wasgonna deliver top level service.
(21:54):
And if he didn't have theanswer, the thing that kind of
made me stand out was if Ididn't have the answer, I said I
have a guy that has the answerand I'll connect you with the
professional.
I'm not gonna guess.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yep, 100%.
It's being transparent, it'sbeing honest, especially cause
this was a new career a year agofor us.
People will see right throughthat.
I totally agree.
I wanna dumb it down just for asecond longer, john, and if I
miss anything, correct me.
So B&I referral group, as hesaid, you have one seat per
person.
I wanna make sure we understandthat.
You're gonna have one solarprofessional, you're gonna have
one person selling insurance,maybe one person at a car
(22:26):
dealership, an HVAC guys andgals.
Obviously the other thing toothis group is coming together
with the sole purpose ofreferring to each other in that
business.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That's it.
It's just referrals.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, it's crazy.
So I don't wanna say you'reguaranteed referrals, but gosh
darn it, you almost are.
As long as you're coming fromcontribution, you're giving it
forward.
You're the only solarprofessional there, so if they
come across anybody, so you'rebuilding that network.
The other thing too, john I'llturn it over to you one second
and correct me if I'm wrong.
Again, they have threedifferent options as well, which
I think is really cool.
They adapted because of COVID.
They have in person, which istheir bread and butter.
(22:59):
I think that's what John does,where you're gonna go meet one
day or an hour or two a week.
One day a week, every singlemonth.
They have an online version.
So if you're in a smallermarket perhaps, or maybe you're
in a market where it's saturatedthere aren't any more in-person
ones you can do an online ofthat fit your schedule.
And they also have a hybrid towhere you can do both at the
same time.
You wanna touch on those?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, I found that really appealing and the beauty
was that I could visit multiplechapters to make sure that the
culture was something that Iclicked with.
And the reality was I wasn'tlooking to do a hit and run, I
wanted to build a relationshipwith these people.
How many books do we read wheretop peep, the top of the top I
don't care if it's Tony Robbinsor anybody who's somebody that
(23:42):
you totally respect they all sayyour network is your net worth.
So if you are gonna be around anetwork of people, I wanted it
to be people that weren't justgood at what they do but also
had the same kind of servantheart I do and also weren't
afraid to tell other peopleabout me.
Because the whole point of thatis, like you said, referrals.
(24:03):
So you can meet only in personif you want.
They have those.
Where it's a weekly meeting,it's a 90 minute meeting.
Everybody does a little oneminute commercial about what
they do, but, more importantly,the whole goal of it is to give
referrals, or access from yourdatabase to everybody that might
benefit from their services,and you end up finding you start
thinking along the term I havea guy who's an auto shop guy in
(24:27):
my BNI group.
I don't know if auto shop guyis gonna be the guy I can refer
every day, but he constantly haspeople in the network going
yeah, my friend just gotten alittle fender bender, or they my
daughter ran the ball and I'mthinking, wow, you don't think
about all those little things,but every one of those is a
referral for this guy, and so Ithink it was.
I think it's somewhere about 85bucks a month I spent, and when
(24:51):
you think about marketing costs, no matter what business you're
in, I tested out a lead sourcefor solar when I first got going
with this.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
And Is that what we're calling?
That I tested out.
He tested out his credit cardto see how bad that thing worked
.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
It was called an investment.
It was a learning experienceand, man, it was a costly one,
but it wasn't just the only one.
I probably did three or four.
You're right, it was way over.
It was over 12 grand I spent.
And then I finally realized, oh,there's a reason that everybody
who is doing the very best atthe company is saying you
probably don't want to investyour money in something where
(25:26):
their whole business is sellingyou leads.
And I went oh, that totallymakes sense.
If they're in the business ofselling leads, they don't care.
They don't have no skin in thegame, they don't care if it
closes, whereas every week I'mmeeting with this group of
individuals and they likehearing that you're benefiting
and you're winning, because thenyou're thinking about them.
It they encourage theseone-on-one meetings that you
(25:46):
spend time.
It's fun to get to know people,and especially if you like them.
So what do we all do?
We all give business to peoplewe know and trust.
It's the facts of sales.
So when you have people thatyou're in this group with and
you realize, wow, these arebecoming friends.
I've only been in the BNI for18 months and I don't even know
if it's that long.
They asked me to be the BNIpresident.
(26:07):
They go you're exactly whatwe're looking for as an avatar
for what this group needs.
It's an influx of new kind ofenergy, and we want every seat
to be your quality of seat andI'm like, wow, that's a huge
compliment.
So many people have been in thegroup for 15 years.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yep, that's what I said when I kicked it off.
It wasn't just an edificationto say it below smoke man, that
is who you are.
Like you I.
When I think of BNI, I think ofpeople like you.
When I'm trying to get otherpeople to step up their referral
game, I'm telling them aboutyou, man, so well-deserved.
The other two, a little higherlevel tip and he said this very
quickly.
I want to make sure it's notlost to anybody.
Not all BNI groups are createdequal.
(26:44):
Some have freaking rock starsthat are killing it.
I'll give you permission tointerview multiple.
Don't just hey, this personwants me and I'm in right.
It's not like a real estatelicense.
I'm going to join the firstbrokerage, right, Cause they'll
all take you.
Ask them how many referrals arethey giving out?
How many members are there?
What's the attendance?
Like?
I don't know any otherquestions that come up to mind.
Referrals are the big one, likehow many referrals were passed
out last month?
(27:04):
Were passed out last year.
What's the closing percentage?
They track all of this and I'vehad some team members who've
talked about them and they'llsee like a 10x difference in a
group right down the street inthe same zip code.
So I love that you said that.
Man, I want to make sure it'snot lost or anybody.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I also anybody thinking, yeah, this sounds
interesting, Maybe I want tolook into it.
Don't fall into the trap ofthinking, hey, this group has 30
people and the other group has15.
I'm automatically going to gofor the 30.
That is, I chose one with 14members and some groups have 35
or 40 members but my 14 membershad done a million one in
(27:37):
referral business and they keeptrack of every dollar that's
given as actual, likecommissions to all these people.
That is a lot of money for 14people to split.
It was like that's absurd.
It's $90,000 or something perseat that each seat is worth.
But also, that said, I don'tknow if you'd agree with this,
(27:57):
but it's just like any businessor any marketing effort or
whatever you're doing, youreally get out of it what you
should put into it and so manypeople don't do the investment.
If you're making the financialcommitment and the time
commitment, there's anadditional component to this
where you actually have to buildrelationships with people.
They call it a one-to-one inB&I, but the B&I what is the
(28:20):
term?
They have a slogan and theirslogan.
They're like a 40 year oldinstitution, but their slogan
you can apply to any business,which is givers game the more
you give, the more you get backin return, and that has been
like my heart and my mantra,regardless of what business I've
been in for decades.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Dude.
I love that I was doing quickmath, man.
That's why I was looking away.
I'm only good at adding in 3%,multiplying in 3% for our real
estate days.
That's changing, don't get mestarted on that 18 months in.
At $85 a month, john has spent$1,530 this first 18 months.
John, it's uncensored.
You can kill me later.
How much have you made from B&I?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh, it's six figures.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So who on?
Let's be direct.
I hopefully have earned yourtrust and respect with that.
Who on this call would spend$1,500 over the next year and a
half to make multiple sixfigures?
If you're one of those that aresitting there, oh, he spent
1,500, hang up like disc andheck.
Log off YouTube the podcast.
You're missing it.
We are tailing this to businessowners.
If I gave you, I don't evenknow what the return on that is
(29:23):
1,000 to one, like you allshould be.
John, where do I get the link?
Like, how do I go?
Explore this?
There is no other return.
That's why I get so freakingfired up, John.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And that's the key, right, is that?
How many people do we talk towhere they go?
Gosh, I'd love to own abusiness.
And then they don't realize allof the expenses and costs of
owning a business, like back inmy brick and mortar real estate
renting an office days I wasspending and then not
exaggeration about 96 grand ayear in just office expenses,
(29:54):
just to have a building forpeople to come have coffee at
that I was paying for and comesit in a bunch of chairs or nice
chairs.
But so I think COVID taught usthat we can do things at a very
high level at a very highquality, virtually.
And that was also what appealedto me when you had asked me
(30:14):
about this, because I thoughtI'm not gonna go to a bunch of
people's homes Like you askedabout the B&I.
I'm a what's called a hybridright now, meaning that we meet
once a month in person at alocal hotel, which is nice.
It's nice to see people andthere's an energy and seeing
people.
But the cool thing is the othermeetings weekly, are all on
Zoom.
(30:34):
So I've done this, where I willdo the meeting on the beginning
of the month and then onvacation for two weeks and still
be able to tune into my meetingand still get referrals and
still be able to do businessLike the fact that we can do
business virtually now at a veryhigh level, even in things like
solar sales.
That's incredible.
(30:55):
I do real estate virtually if Ihave to.
I have clients that are allover the country.
They want me to sell their home.
Some of them are out of thecountry completely and they
still go.
Hey, you sold my other home inEncino and I'd love you to sell
my next one because we're movingpermanently to X, whatever that
happens to be Philippines,israel.
I got clients everywhere, butthe being a lifelong client to
(31:16):
people means that I broughtenough value.
They trust me and they knowthat I'm not gonna put my needs
and my interests first.
And then the people in my B&Ior networking group, because
that's the theme here.
Right, you wanted to talk aboutnetworking.
This is really low hangingfruit, guys.
Whatever industry you're in, ifyou're getting some value out
of this, then I've done my job.
(31:37):
I feel like I have helped,because we're all whatever
amount of time we have.
We just don't know.
We have no idea how much timewe have left.
And if you guys delay and thencomplain man, I really hate my
job Really.
Is this the first year you feltthat way?
No, I felt it for one day.
Okay, let's do something aboutthat.
(31:59):
But here's the other thing too.
And how many times we could do14 podcasts about 14 different
sales related subjects.
But how many times do we meetpeople, erin, and they talk a
big game about all the thingsthey wanna do?
I'm gonna be the person thatchanges my legacy for my family.
I'm not gonna struggle anymore.
I'm gonna be there at my kids'games and they get really weepy
(32:21):
and then they go right back towork and they make excuses for
why they can't join a BNI groupmy BNI groups at 6.30 in the
morning till 8.30, 6.30 to 8.30once a week.
If you can't handle that, youprobably don't have that big of
a commitment to changing yourlife path.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, and, by the way , that commitment to John.
He is not a morning person.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I've worked for years .
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I hate it.
He's still willing to do it,john, and I teach this a lot too
, and our team calls for solarteam.
What are you willing to give uptoday so you can gain in the
future?
Obviously, that's one.
You think he likes getting upat 6.30 once a week Heck, no, he
doesn't.
I know him.
I'm sure it's miserable.
He's probably mad at himselfthe night before, but he gets on
, he gets energized, he sees thefruit of his work and that
allows him to push through.
(33:05):
I love that.
I also love that you said howyou could do it anywhere.
Man, that's something you and Ialso.
Once again, there could be 30podcasts we could do.
I will not touch a business thatrequires me to be in an office,
that requires me to be at aphysical location other than
once in a while.
But I will not.
I will not.
I wanna be able to pick up andsay, john, I'm coming to
California for a month with myfamily, I'll see you tomorrow.
And everything John and Itouched together.
(33:27):
It has to offer, that has to.
It has to, and I love that.
This also feeds into that.
John, if you don't mind, canyou give us a strategy or two
that anyone brand new thinkingabout joining B&I that a tip
that they could do to helpmaximize the referral potential
from a referral group like B&I.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
One or two top tips.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Sure, sure, and you touched on it and I wanna
reiterate in case people didn'tcatch it Interview multiple
chapters, no matter what.
Even if it's not B&I there areother kinda similar and, like I
said, be careful if they're free, because you usually get what
you pay for.
It's totally the truth, evenwith B&I where you're paying,
(34:06):
then now we go okay.
It doesn't mean that they'rebad people or there's a good and
bad groups, it's just differentpersonality types.
I really resonated with thegroup because that I chose after
interviewing three of them,because it had the same kind of
like-minded folks.
They were very I care aboutpeople first type of folks.
(34:27):
They were protective of theirgroup.
That really matters too.
Look for people that have theright posture.
If somebody's begging you tojoin the group, you gotta wonder
why Successful people typicallydon't chase you, and that's a
posture you could take whenyou're doing whatever business
you're doing, as when you'retalking to somebody, it's nice
(34:49):
to want them.
Hey, you know what, you havegood credentials, you like your
energy, but I don't have thebandwidth to chase you.
And that alone, like when weeventually do our 16th podcast
on recruiting and talking topeople and I hate to use the
word recruiting, because to meit's more sponsorship.
I wanna sponsor you.
I wanna be somebody who's yourmentor, somebody who helps you
(35:10):
not make the mistakes I'vealready made.
And those are also what I meanby when I say you should
interview the people indifferent groups to make sure
that it's a good fit for youlongterm.
If they are, I got one more tooIf they offer you one year or
two years, take the two years,really, make the commitment,
because it's like an extra onlycouple hundred bucks.
(35:31):
So it was like $600 or $700 forone year or 900 for two years,
and so, 100%, I'm in for two.
Matter of fact, you have a 10year option.
I don't wanna be doing this.
Matter of fact, maybe I will bedoing it from my beach house in
Tahiti one day, because that'sreally the goal.
Right is time freedom, like wecan touch on that too.
What is really winning?
(35:52):
To me, winning was if I'm onlyworking with the people I wanna
work with, I've won.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Yeah, man, so much, so many nuggets.
I was just doing the math againas you were talking.
An hour a week, let's call itfour weeks a month.
On average, john is spendingfour hours a month on lead
generation from this strategy toearn multiple six figures.
That can be done anywhere.
If you're not earning multiplesix figures in your business
right now and you're actuallytrying I guarantee you're
spending more than four hours amonth on some sort of lead gen
(36:24):
strategy.
That's the power of this thing.
Like it is, it's mind blowing.
Once you see it, you can'tunsee it.
John, put you in the spot again.
Would you share a memorablereferral story that you got from
your BNI chapter?
Is there a referral?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah, I actually do have a great.
I've got a great referral story.
It was a client of solar whowas sold a system that was too
small and they didn't even knowthat was a possibility.
And I have been through a lotof experience and talking to a
lot of people finding out that'sa pretty common predatory thing
Sales people in solar are doing.
(36:58):
They're just trying to get thebusiness and, quite frankly,
they're desperate.
Like here's the title of ournext podcast.
Little side note is MultipleStreams of Income.
What you're talking about Ilove that you're dangling this.
Look at what John Bobbins cando.
Thank you, I appreciate thatthat.
I always think, god, I got todo better, but you're only
talking about one stream of myincome.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
So everybody on this call, if you have multiple
streams of income, you have moreFU money.
I'm not going to say the wordbecause I'm trying to be
respectful, but that's what weall want, right?
We all want to only work withthe people that we want to work
with.
So the referral was incrediblebecause they go.
Can you help them?
I don't know if you can.
They're struggling because now,instead of having just one high
electric bill, they now have amedium electric bill and a big
(37:43):
solar bill and they don't haveenough power coming from their
solar system.
And I went I don't know, let mesee if I can help.
Turns out that the balance ofthe bill that they had from
their utility.
We could cut that bill in halfand give them 30% more power
than they were currently evenusing Because we have access.
(38:04):
That's one of the reasons I lovethis company.
That was one of the things youtalked to me about.
That got me excited was that wehave broker-like pricing, where
we're doing national purchasingon multiple different products,
which is very unusual.
So now we have top-levelproducts at a fair price that I
can then adjust the margin down.
And don't get, don't freak outon the call, guys.
(38:25):
It doesn't mean I don't makegood money.
I have made $10,000 on a saleand still had the homeowner
thank me profusely.
That's the key to me.
That's winning is that if Imake good money and they're
excited about the price andthey're saving long term, I
haven't had it.
Here's the cool part.
I haven't had a solar clientthat saved less than $70,000
(38:48):
over a 25-year period just bymaking the switch to solar with
me, and their bill went down alittle bit.
Sometimes it doesn't go down atall, even if the bill's the
same.
If you can go from renting yourpower to owning it and your
bill never goes up again, comeon, man.
But anyway it ended up where Icould help them and they were
excited because they werewatching their bill continually
(39:10):
creep up, which was the reasonthey went solar in the first
place.
They feel ripped off by theother sales guy.
The company they bought from,by the way, five years ago, is
out of business, so reallyhorrible.
But you'll notice.
Here's another pro tip I wearthis branded shirt.
I do not like wearing a brandedshirt.
It is not.
I didn't want to go back tobeing a billboard, but I saw
(39:32):
this a solar hero shirt from oneof the people making multiple,
six-figure, almost seven figuresa year in like his third or
fourth year with the company,and I went I really love that
shirt.
Do you mind if I buy a bunch ofthem?
He goes, absolutely it's nothis, he doesn't own it.
But he came up with the idea ofa solar hero and I said that's
what I want to be.
(39:53):
So I put the shirt on the backit says ask me about solar.
And when I was at CaliforniaPizza Kitchen a month or so ago
I had a lady literally grab mebecause I was wearing the shirt
and she goes I have a questionabout solar for you.
And I said don't grab me, lady.
And she laughed so hard.
She laughed so hard because Iwas.
I'm nice about it.
(40:13):
I'm not being a jerk, but theidea that I am trying every way
I can to brand myself everywhereto anybody who's got that
ocular reticulator activatedgoing hey, I have a solar need
Like.
That lady was not at CPKthinking I have a solar need.
She was there with hergirlfriends, she's 70 years old
but also a great story becauseshe was taken advantage of and
(40:35):
her company went under.
So I've gotten three referralsfrom her.
I did not sell her solar.
What I did instead was I calledthe manufacturer of the
inverter, met the invertermanufacturer guy there, not my
job.
She ended up making me achocolate cake.
We got her inverter up andrunning.
She didn't need to buy another$20,000, $30,000 solar system.
(40:57):
And now she's referring me asif I'm her solar provider, even
though I was just the guy thatserviced her needs.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Man, love that.
Love that you did not make adollar on that physical
transaction, but the return byyou doing the right thing, being
a standup dude.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
That chocolate cake, though man, that chocolate cake
yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
That's not good for our diet, though.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, no, I start to feel like you were saying is it
on video or on?
I'm going, man, I hopeeverybody's just listening to
this.
This is I have a face for audiois all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, so not true, but that's funny bro.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
You're nice.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
That's really good.
I want to be respectful of yourtime and our audience's time,
man.
In closing, do you have anylast minute tips?
Maybe someone who's not hittingthe income goal?
They've been in solar for aminute.
They're hearing you talk aboutthe lifestyle and everything
else and also how you did itvery quickly inside of 12 months
, by the way, brand new to thefield Anything we haven't talked
about the last minute tip thatyou could give someone like that
?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, I think you need to decide Whatever it's
going to be.
Write it down.
This is the thing that's anon-negotiable for me.
Anymore I will not struggleanymore.
I won't watch TV again until Ihave at least found what I'm
looking for.
And I don't know if you do orif you have something that is
(42:07):
what you're looking for.
But I mean, we have peoplemaking multiple six figures part
time doing this.
That's where I feel like I'mthe gift giver, like, please buy
the book, the go giver, if youhaven't.
But you get it on eBay for six,seven bucks.
It's cheap.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I'll throw a link in the chat.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yeah, that book probably is in my sales career
over the last decade, probablyworth $3 to $5 million.
The number one thing you needto read that read Start With why
by Simon Sinek, another onethat's great for just learning
how to network using socialmedia.
When you're talking to peoplebringing value and really being
(42:46):
able to peak interest, we cantalk about that building an
empire.
There's so many great booksthat people should be starting
with today, but the first thing,of course, is you got to make a
decision, decide.
I am not going to live the wayI've been living anymore.
Time is running out.
It's running out on all of usguys.
My sister that would bevulnerable for a second, if it's
(43:10):
cool.
My sister died at two years oldin the swimming pool accident.
Nobody knew that was coming.
My uncle died in a freakairplane crash at 40 years old
with a five-year-old andtwo-year-old at home.
My mom died at 65 years old,perfectly healthy looking.
People thought she was in her50s, just got septic and died
like it was the 1800s ofpneumonia.
But then my grandmother livedto 94.
(43:32):
So the point is we aren'tpromised any amount of time.
My ex-wife died right afterThanksgiving.
I don't know if you knew that,erin.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
But she's in her 40s.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah, it's like guys.
Please do it today.
Whatever it is, reach out, dmme.
It's my name on Instagram.
It's my name on Facebook, I amnot hard to find.
Dm me.
I will be glad to strategizewith you.
I'm not talking about solar.
It could be about anything.
Hey, I have a recl.
Like I said, it's aboutbringing value right.
(44:06):
We're all in this journeytogether and I care about you
and I want you to win and Idon't want you to have the same
struggles I've had and if I canhelp you avoid one or two of
those pitfalls, it's a prettygood legacy and I am just
grateful to be here and thankyou for having me.
Erin, you're a beautiful humanbeing.
(44:26):
I appreciate, when I did takeone of those random trips out to
see my horrible commander'splay, that you let me stay in
your home, but that's the kindof relationships we've built,
right, I didn't know you forever, but I feel like we're going to
be family forever and I hopeeverybody watching this realizes
and feels how much I care.
I really want you to win.
(44:47):
You can win.
It is not a pipe dream.
You just need to make thatdecision we got you.
Just go out and do it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
It oozes from you, man.
I appreciate you.
It's funny hearing you justwrap up with that and seeing you
get choked up, emotional.
It just once again it's organicwith you.
On December 30th, so a littlebit over a week ago, I made a
Facebook post and I think itspeaks to what you just said.
Man, it really did.
I forgot what book I picked itup from.
It's not original by anythought.
I'm by any stretch.
Excuse me, but it read and youcan go search.
(45:15):
Fact check me.
The longer you wait for thefuture you want, the less time
you get to spend in it.
Start now.
Like I had goosebumps, becausewe're all guilty of it, even
John's guilty of it, absolutely.
So I would challenge all of youguys take John's advice, decide
.
I'll throw up links to thebooks.
Let us know in the chat if youwant John to come back.
I know I do.
He has my wheels turning forfuture podcasts.
(45:36):
I'd love to bring him back.
If you guys see value, let usknow John.
I speak for audience.
Thank you, man.
You drop bombs.
You truly have a go-giver'sheart and I appreciate you, your
friendship, your leadership,everything else.
Audience.
If you got any value from Johnor myself or both, please like.
Share, review the podcast.
We do this, it's a labor oflove.
We do it to pay it forward, tohelp someone speed up that curve
, to learn from the mistakeswe've made with our time and
(45:59):
also our wallets.
So I hope each and every one ofyou have a great day, john.
Thanks again.
We will talk soon, my friends.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.