September 20, 2023 • 44 mins
Prepare to be enlightened on a transformative journey with Bobby Smith, the dynamic force steering Powur to its status as America's fastest-growing residential solar company. With a rich background spanning from medical education to founding the National Cancer Foundation, and as one of the world's top direct sales professionals, Bobby’s expertise shines bright in the realm of solar.
In this episode, we dive deep into the strategies, challenges, and leadership ethos that have driven Powur's unparalleled growth. Bobby shares glimpses into the vision and ambition of Jonathan Budd, Powur's enigmatic CEO, who has been a key figure in shaping its trajectory. Get insights into Powur's forward-thinking ventures, from the renewable energy forefront to the electric vehicle sector, and even HVAC innovations.
Climate change isn’t just a global concern for Bobby; it's personal. Listen to his heartfelt narrative involving his daughter, underscoring the urgency to address this existential challenge. A staunch advocate for education, Bobby emphasizes the importance of instilling environmental consciousness in the next generation, seeing them as custodians of our planet's future.
The episode wraps with pearls of wisdom on the potency of a positive mindset in determining success. Bobby also decodes the game-changing role of online reviews in today's sales landscape and delves into the symbiotic relationship between timing, leadership, and business model in evaluating golden opportunities.
Whether you're a nascent solar enthusiast, an entrepreneurial spirit, or a seasoned sales maven, this episode promises a treasure trove of insights, inspirations, and invaluable lessons. Ready to be powered up by the best in solar? Tune in!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, welcome to another episode of Solar Sales
Uncensored.
I am your host, aaron Browning,and I'm so excited for today's
conversation with the one andonly president of power, mr
Bobby Smith.
Before I turn it over to himand I already know, that's why
everyone's here I get it, that'swhy I'm here.
We've been talking about thisone for a couple of months.
(00:20):
As you can imagine, hisschedule is jam-packed.
A little bit about hisbackground for those of you that
don't know him and shame on youif you don't, because he's all
over the freaking place.
He really got his start in thewhole entrepreneurship game from
direct sales.
He led a massive worldwideorganization with over 50,000
partners in multiple countries,which gets me so dog-on excited.
(00:42):
He also led Cancer Foundation.
We'll definitely talk on thatand how he uses this as his
experience, from problem solvingthere to what we do in the
construction field, which isreally cool.
But more recently he has becomethe president of power, which
obviously for everyone watchingor listening knows it's the
fastest growing solar company inthe United States, if not the
(01:04):
world.
He is the thought leader behindthat.
He is driving our ship.
He is an amazing husband, he isan amazing father and I dare to
call him a friend now.
We had the privilege of reallyworking on our relationship in
the physical form last week atour convention, we were able to
break bread finally and hang outand take it from online to
(01:24):
offline, which, personally andselfishly, was absolutely
amazing.
So, without further ado, mrBobby Smith, how the heck are
you my friend?
Thank you for having me.
It's all well-deserved man.
It really is.
I've been around a lot ofleaders over my 10 year of
business and entrepreneurshipand you definitely stand out,
man.
You really do.
You lead from the front.
You are the Although you don'tget recognition for this one.
(01:45):
You're the fastest growing teambuilder for a team that you
can't even have at power, whichwe'll definitely talk about.
But if you don't mind, you wantto shed a little bit more on
your background really how yougot started in direct sales and
what that transitioned into towhere you are today.
Yeah, true power.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I can't thank you enough for the Conj Making Power
a better company and leading byexample every day.
You're a real difference makerin our company A lot of people's
lives and we value that.
So thank you, and thank you forhaving me.
It's good to see everybody.
I bumped into direct salesthrough the birth of my daughter
.
It's that simple.
There was a woman that I hadbeen doing business with in the
(02:19):
medical field.
She was pregnant.
When my wife was pregnant, ourbusiness was done.
I had no reason to talk to heragain, really, and I was 10 feet
from that spot right now.
We had just given birth to alittle baby girl and I thought I
ought to call Joe and see howthe birth of her baby went.
And I called her up and shesaid great, the practice is good
(02:39):
, but I'm doing this thing and Ithink you should hear about it.
And she introduced shementioned an old friend of mine
who I grew up playing highschool ball with here in
Maryland and she arranged ameeting with him and I.
And that was the beginning ofit.
It was through the birth of mydaughter.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Wow.
So you were one of the leadersin that company, though you were
when I talked about the GOAT.
You're doing live events.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You're doing like the good old stuff that direct
sales is famous for, correct,yeah, I mean I came in at a time
when their I don't know theirnational convention was a
hundred people.
They had to drag me to that andthey ended up being the second
most when I was their mostprofitable privately held
company on the ING 500 list.
I watched that growth and, yes,I had a great mentor.
I hope all of you had theprivilege I've had a few in my
(03:21):
life.
I had the privilege of learningdirect sales from one of the
best trainers in the world andthe words that he whispered in
my ear were different than thewords that many people hear or
are open to listen to.
But you're right, it was oldschool.
I opened meetings in Maryland,found leadership.
He taught me the leadership andreal estate.
That's the only thing he evertalked to me about.
(03:43):
How many cities can you own?
How many countries can youbuild?
How many leaders can you buildin those defined and developed
in those markets?
So you can go and do itsomewhere else?
And that's what he did.
So it was very event driven.
They were one of the best eventcompanies in the history of
direct sales.
So I learned it in living rooms.
We can talk about that here andwherever you want to go.
That's where I honed my craft,launching people's business
(04:07):
night after night, living roomafter living room, hotel after
hotel, local meetings, regionalevents, national conventions,
leadership and real estate.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, by the way, we can do a whole podcast on what
everything you just said rightthere.
That is truly, in my opinion,your claim to fame, what sets
you apart.
My fear, though, it's also overa lot of new business owners
and new entrepreneurs' heads.
They just don't get it when youtalk about and I get goosebumps
, by the way, and I love thatabout launching someone's
business.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youare with us here, heck, you're
(04:38):
with any company and you'relooking to grow a business.
Stop saying grow, stop sayingstart.
It's all about freaking.
Launching it is launching.
That is a message, a mantrathat Bobby sings from every
stage, from every presentation.
Few are actually doing it,which just blows my freaking
mind, man, it really does.
The other thing I've heard yousay a lot, and I've never heard
(04:59):
someone else say this, and I'venow stolen it.
My friend is, when we launchedsomeone who's your board of
directors, you want to touch onthat and what that means and
what that conversation youshared with me that day looked
like.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, again, I believe that when someone starts
a business, if they take itseriously, they either they're
going to treat it like apart-time gig or, hopefully,
they joined it to make a realdifference in their lives and in
other people's lives.
If they do that, then it's verysimple to me.
If somebody opens a laundromator a law firm or a restaurant,
they have a launch party, theyhave a wine and cheese event,
(05:31):
they have those spotlightsoutside of their facility.
For some reason, when peopletake on a part-time gig which is
normally the way they startdirect sales they want to take
their time, they want to figureit out, they want to learn, they
want to feel comfortable.
My guy taught me differently.
He said Bobby, find the bestfive people, the most talented,
(05:52):
busiest, successful people youcan find.
I put the five it happened tobe five guys at my kitchen table
, 15 feet from here.
He did the presentation.
They all enrolled.
These guys were all making two,three, four, five hundred
thousand a year, 15, 20 yearsago.
What I learned?
You can catch people on a dancewhen one of them was a chief
(06:14):
operating officer, I think, of achief financial officer, a
major insurance firm.
They had different backgrounds,different, very backgrounds,
but they all signed up.
I had my board directors.
I believe when you're startinga business and you start a
company, you treat it like abusiness, you launch it, you
find your board directors, yourleadership and you go.
If you do it, you can't askanyone to do anything you're not
(06:35):
prepared to do yourself.
I couldn't ask anyone to everlaunch their business.
if I didn't launch mine, Ilaunched mine.
Then it was fair for me to askeveryone to launch theirs.
It's funny not unlike you,aaron, in our company I became
the king of the private businessreception, if you will.
In that company I trained itall over the world.
Again, the world shifted alittle bit COVID and all that
(06:59):
kind of stuff.
We could talk about all thatMeeting in people's living room
and breaking bread and lookingthem in the eye and meeting
their children.
I just used to learn how tocross my legs and sit down on
the sofa and tell a story thatwas compelling and trustworthy
and made sense.
I think we had variations withhandouts and not handouts.
(07:20):
We'd walk through thecompensation plan and we'd
enroll.
I remember one guy and again itcould be anybody.
I did one for the former guywho ran for mayor and governor
in Pennsylvania.
I think he had 75 people inthis house when I was finished
talking, 50 people lined up atthe grand piano.
Because when someone like thatsays to a group of people, this
(07:41):
is my next business venture,this guy built the core state's
arena.
When he said this is my nextbusiness venture, who wants in?
They lined up.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, a couple of things you said too, and I'll
dissect one of them which isreally important.
Something I also teach and I'llecho it with you that leaves
clues.
When you invite people who arealready successful, already
killing it.
Talent hangs out with talent,Smart people with the right
opportunities, there theyfreaking, get it.
There's not even a ton ofquestions they end up asking.
They can evaluate opportunitiesvery quickly.
(08:13):
They can see where the visionand where the timing is, how the
leadership is, and then they'reall freaking in.
I love that because I can'tstress it enough Get
uncomfortable.
Who is that one person thatyou're scared it's on your
chicken list to call.
Those are the people you callfirst.
Those are the board ofdirectors.
Who do you want to have overfor Sunday dinner?
I want to build a business withfreaking leaders.
Man, I don't want to be beggingpeople to come partner with me.
(08:34):
I love that you said it, man.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I love that you hit the nail on the head with that
I'll never forget the top guy inmy organization for eight, nine
, 10 years.
I always used to tell the story, so I remember most of it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
He was a full-time practicing period.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Honest, he was already making $200,000,
$400,000 a year.
He was a volunteer fireman onthe truck three nights a week.
He lectured at the localcollege.
He was an avid ham radiooperator.
He was the mayor of his localtownship, devoted husband and
three I think three girls.
He was the busiest guy I knew.
(09:07):
People tend to prejudge peoplethey're too busy, they're too
successful, they're too this,they're too that, this is mental
clogging.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're nailed it again, man.
By the way, we have a mutualfriend, a business partner of
mine, mr Patrick Adoo.
I'll go and say his name.
Our paper way too busy to evenlook at something called power,
yet he is dominating everyleaderboard, pulled a thousand
different directions.
That's what talent does, myfriends.
We are juggling many thingswhere we're not even happy,
we're not fed unless we have ourhands on things you agree
(09:38):
analogy all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Maybe Mark Cuban makes time to be on shark tank.
He doesn't need it.
He understands the value ofdiversifying his portfolio and,
in more recent times,diversifying his portfolio with
meaning, more meaningfulprojects that impact the world.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, love it.
Let's um, let's jump into powera little bit.
How did that conversation come?
Were you looking for anopportunity and solar?
And it just presented itself.
What is that even?
What does that journey looklike?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Exactly I was doing, consulting, I think, at the time
some guy hit me up on Facebookand Told me he had something.
I'm always open.
I was gonna listen smart peopleare always gonna listen and he
sent me something that justdidn't resonate with me.
It was just yucky and but Isaid I'd be happy to talk to
your CEO and he put me on thephone with Jonathan budd and we
spoke for about an hour and 45minutes.
(10:23):
Had talked to anybody that long.
Wow, dating Said you want toget on a plane and come on out.
Remember he was deciding who wasat that time to tell you was
vice president sales was gonnabe.
So he asked me to hop on aplane and I I got on plane to
San Diego.
He picked me up in his Teslaand he took me to some really
piece of shit office above amen's clothing store on the
beach in California.
(10:44):
It was busted up and dirty andthe windows wouldn't open and
but I got to hear from him hisvision on the company and he
asked me my vision on where Iwould take the company.
That's really how it all started, yeah that's crazy man.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And, by the way, once again, for those that don't
know, I'm Bobby's love language,love place is the beach.
That that is the one thingJonathan had going for with a
crappy building, no windows, isthat he was on the beach.
I'm sure Bobby was able tooverlook some things there.
Well, I love about that storyI've heard you say it a thousand
times is that it truly started?
It's like in a garage, like itstarted with nothing.
(11:16):
Yet you have two powerful,freaking leaders who are all the
sudden locking arms and I canonly imagine the goosebumps from
that conversation.
Was it one of those like whereyou guys knew instantly that you
were about to build somethingincredible together?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't know.
That'd be an interestingquestion for John.
I always think I'm gonna buildsomething incredible, or it's
just something about the vibe.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Obviously I didn't know anything about solar, I
didn't know anything aboutrenewable energy.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I didn't know anything.
Really.
A lot of it just came fromJonathan.
I just hung up from when thecouple minutes go.
It was an instant.
I'm wearing his peace signshirt from John Barbados, one of
them.
It was an interest, it was aninstant camaraderie.
I interest, an instant meetingof the minds.
We come from the same page.
He understood direct sales, butI knew he was different than
that.
He's very Elon Musk and yourecognize that as soon as you're
(12:04):
in Jonathan's presence.
He's always gonna be thesmartest guy in the room, unless
maybe musk is in the room or ahand a few people.
He's got that kind of genius.
But he also is that flip-flopand t-shirt and I don't give a
shit mental.
I'm gonna tell it the way it is.
I'm gonna do the right thing,I'm gonna be transparent and he
was always that way with me andit was just.
(12:25):
Did we know what this couldbecome?
I think we both had visions,but when you look at it now it's
hard to imagine that we wentfrom the three or four or five
of us to seven thousand of us.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, crazy man.
I wish I could have been a flyon that wall for sure.
Do you really?
That's something I haven't seen.
I would actually love to seethat man.
I really would.
Oh, I can only imagine.
I can only imagine you aboutthe way you describe Jonathan,
my limited time this past yearof getting to know Him a little
bit better.
I 100% agree.
I really do.
He's almost a unicorn to bethat much of a visionary and
(12:58):
thought leader.
But still, I'll throw a wordout relatable, relatable, I'm.
The first time I met him I wentto shake his hand and he pulled
me in.
It was like a hug, it was heartto heart.
That's just who he is.
The other thing I'll say abouthim too he has some weird
freaking ability to recallpeople's names.
It blows my mind and that is mykryptonite, because I can't do
(13:20):
it.
Remarkable I saw my conventionwith people that I I didn't know
and I don't know how.
He knows as busy as he is, buthe did.
He knew things about them,their kids.
People were heard when, whenthey were talking to him, and
that was really one of mytakeaways man chip it's gone.
I'm just again.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We become great friends just like you and I and
our leaders around the countryin trolls and and Jim and the
core group of people.
So when you get to go to workwith someone that you love again
.
We just got off a very deepconversation.
I love them death.
And we've never had an argumentno, in nine years, not even
really a healthy debate.
We were always just on the samepage.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, that's awesome.
What?
Where's power now?
I know you tease seven thousandpartners.
I know in our world we callthem sellers, but for those who
aren't with us yet and yes, Isaid yet because you soon will
be that's business partners.
It's people that come onindependent contractors.
What else can you tell us aboutpower right now?
Not so much the vision of wherewe're going, but where we are
today.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Look we my called ink magazine or I emailed them.
They don't have any data on howmany companies in history have
hit the ink mat in 500 less fouryears in a row.
So I have to imagine it's lessthan 1% might be a handful.
So if you look at all the greatcompanies in the history of the
United States, in the historyof ink magazine, we're one of a
very few that have ever done itfour years in a row.
And so for anybody who wants todebate or hate or any of that,
(14:39):
I'm not a debater.
I come from position ofstrength and there's no debate
who power is.
We have been the fastestgrowing solar company United
States it's not the world thelast four years.
We.
There's no debate that we havethe most impressive Front-end
tech stack, the ability to starta business, get paid to quotes
and all that that the industry'sever seen.
We're in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I Totally agree, being able to experience it
firsthand on the team buildingside of it and going through
everything you just mentioned.
So would you call power a solarcompany?
Is it a technology company?
Is it a platform?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
We're you're with that energy technology and as I
quote Chris Saka, often fromShark Tank, multi-billionaire
early investor in Twitter or NewBern, and he has said that the
the revenue generated inrenewable energy technology Will
out surpass all of the revenuegenerated on the internet today.
That's a staggering number,right?
So I look at it, says, as arenewable tech platform.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Love it, love it and then wait.
Obviously you were able to sellsolar batteries, things like
that, that any typical Ishouldn't say typical, but lack
of a better phrase a typicalsolar company could.
Where do you see that going?
Do you see us bringing otherproducts to the platform?
What does that vision look?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
like again.
We talk about these thingsoften again.
Sometimes it just sounds like aline, but I do believe that the
product will make the mostmoney on hasn't been invented
yet.
You know there's there's anunending stream.
You're not going to be able todrive a gasoline car in the next
10 to 20 years.
So obviously we looked at we'rein the electric vehicle
business.
I want to be in the chargingbusiness, of course, full force
we are.
We want to be in the electric.
(16:11):
I'd like to get electricvehicles on our platform as soon
as possible.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And then who knows where it's gonna go?
Obviously, hvac productsrenewable.
I bought a renewable energypull pump for my pool and now
more efficient HVAC systems,insulation for the home so many
places it can go.
But and the reason I said that,aaron, I don't just make that
up remember as I made some mymoney being involved in the
cellular industry and Cellphones hadn't been invented yet.
No one thought they would scale.
(16:37):
And boom they did.
And then the next money I madewas on the internet and
everybody said that the internetwould never scale.
No one's ever gonna use thatthing.
So my last two businesses werecell phones and everyone laughed
at me.
And the internet was everyonelaughed at me.
And now renewable energy, whichno one's laughing, because the
world's being decimated byclimate events.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Can you touch on that man?
You did an incrediblepresentation at our convention a
week or week and a half ago.
Can you touch on the highlightsof that, of, unfortunately,
where we're at as a world, wherewe're heading, and what this is
looking like for our kids andfuture generations?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, I'm crying this time I Started a conversation
with my daughter on.
Father's Day, no less aboutdriving out in the country, out
about most country, about theworld, and she just said a lot
of her friends are hesitant tobring children into this world
because of climate events and Ididn't even know what to say.
I my only response, like a give,was it's always been that way
we were scared of war, russia inthe United States and all that
(17:31):
stuff, and I think that we grewup in a world that had spokes of
anxiety that include war andpoverty and social injustice and
crime.
And I think the fifth or sixthwe spoke on the wheel right now
is, unfortunately, climatechange.
And what's interesting, when Ijoined power as hippie as it was
in Southern California and allthat you couldn't really talk
(17:51):
about climate change Because itwas considered a political hot
topic at the Bay.
And here we are today in myheart.
This is that's what drives meevery day as we're launching a
program in high school.
I'm trying to launch program inhigh schools and college
campuses and youth sportsprograms.
A recent survey showed that 50%of 10,000 young people 16 to 25
(18:12):
I think it was our experiencein climate related anxieties
that is dagger 50%, and it usedto be once a year.
Now, again, my home.
I showed you the pictures theother day.
We've had two tornadoes rippedthrough Maryland in the last
month.
I was just down at the beach inthe Rehoboth and there's a five
foot seawall now.
That wasn't there last year.
You know in whether it's.
(18:33):
I was supposed to be in Hawaiiright now and it was on fire.
Unprecedented weather events inSan Diego last week.
Storms that are building nowthe news.
If you turn on the news rightnow, they're talking about
storms building more rapidly.
They're speeding up from 20mile an hour winds to 80 mile an
hour winds to 100 mile an hourfaster than they've ever seen in
history.
You got 100 degree buoys offthe coast of the keys in the
(18:55):
water.
You can't eat the fish in SouthFlorida because of the red tide
.
So I can't imagine I'm surethere are that there are human
beings that are still debatingthe fact that you want to call
it whatever you can call it, butwe need to make a change.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
So is that part of the fire that's pushing you to
get up every single day, eventhough you don't have to
financially and everything else?
Is that really one of thedriving forces of the mission?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
right now is strictly the youth.
We have to change the narrative.
I can't stand the fact we couldgo we can go out and ride our
bikes in the old days and comehome and grab a hose and drink
some water and have the hose,and those days may be long past
us.
But I just refuse to live in aworld where our children are
suffering from climate anxieties.
And I will I this like this ismy last tarot.
(19:40):
It will be giving everything.
I have to change that narrative.
I just I can't accept that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I love it, man, and I .
I don't love the reason you'rehaving to do it.
It's a.
It's an uncomfortable, it'swhat I call a fierce
conversation.
What I do love, though and letme clean that up it's your
passion.
Behind it, I can tell it's notjust rhetoric and it oozes from
your pores, and I know you'releading the charge on that, man.
So keep doing it.
This is not censors.
I'm going to go and ask you Iknow this is something you're
launching, but you did justtease it Can you talk about why
(20:06):
it is so important to bring thisto the schools, whether it's
high schools, whether it's evencollege, to the community Cause
I know you have a background ofdoing this and hearing that
story with your background, andwhat it did to the parents?
It changed everything.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, again, I've never started and started in my
own household.
Just like you asked me aboutdirect sales, I was driving one
day with my wife and the kidswere screaming in the car and I
was running a national cancerfoundation at that point and
trying to figure out how to getmore people screened for colon
cancer.
It was the 50,000 people a yearwere dying.
It was the second leadingcancer killer in.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
America.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And I had a vision when my kids were screaming oh I
get it, if you want to get tothe parents, get to the kids.
I started a program called SaveOur Parents in the cancer world
and I made it up.
I caught on.
It got national publicity,ended up going to Puerto Rico
and Canada, and then the newspicked it up and next thing, you
know, I'm talking to thebiggest media companies and they
(20:59):
gave my foundation $8 milliongrant and we were featured in
Oprah and we had Oprah at herpeak and other national
publications, and so I know whatthe ripple effect can be of one
high school, one inner cityschool, one private school, one
college campus, if you want toaffect change, the Vietnam War,
the protests on the collegecampuses, so those of us that
(21:20):
are old enough to remember.
So I really think we have towin the hearts and minds of the
young people.
They need a safe place to talkabout this and they're the ones
that really have to get to theirparents and push them into
transition and renewable energy.
We've got to do.
We can't help what India may ormay not do or what China may or
may not do, but you know, herein the United States of America.
If we want to be the leadersthat we claim to be so proudly,
(21:41):
then we need to lead, and Ithink that happens.
It worked in cancer.
The kids would say to theirparents I'll stay in school,
I'll get good grades, I won't dodrugs.
I need you to get screened forcancer and I want to create that
same kind of thing here.
I'll stay in school, I'll payattention.
I won't have my cell phone onWhatever today's resolutions are
, but I need you to take anenergy evaluation of our home
(22:04):
and look at all the ways that wecan do better.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I think you're a genius man.
I was lucky enough to be on aprivate mastermind with him last
Friday, where he teased this toI don't know about 100 or so of
the biggest leaders in ourcompany, and when he gave the
example of the colon cancer.
If my son, noah who's 11, camehome and said something like
that, in fact he even had acontract that Bobby shared.
This is what I'm promising himto do.
If you promise to do this, Ican't argue that.
(22:29):
There is no freaking way.
When he talks about subbingthat in for an energy audit,
like you can't object to it.
And so anyone listening who'snot with us at power this is why
we're all smiling.
We get access to Bobby Smith.
Not only can he lead us on thatfront of solar, but it's how to
be innovative, it's how to doby the way, that was the
headline of our conversation ourprivate mastermind what can we
(22:50):
do right now that has not beendone in solar?
It's not just copying the samestuff over and over.
Yes, some of that works, butGod, it is boring.
Man, let's innovate, andthere's no one doing that better
in renewable energy than you.
Man like freaking, leading theway and just killing it.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah Well, jonathan says.
I come up with a new idea everysix years or so.
So you just don't know, untilyou take it out for a test drive
and it's funny 100%.
I'm in the midst of trying tolaunch this program and
everybody's coming at me withinnovative, with ideas and they
want to go sideways and theywant we just need one school.
You just need to do it in oneschool.
Let the press pick up the story, figure the rest out and see
(23:28):
where it goes, and I've donethat my whole career.
That's the reason why we standout the solar industry.
They're all doing the samething.
They've been doing the samething for 25 years and I always
point to statistics, it's not adebate.
They've been selling solar inCostco and Best Buy and Home
Depot and Elon Musk lost $6billion and all the things
they've been doing in thisbroken, deceptive red line model
that they've built and they got4% in 25 years.
(23:51):
In my opinion, it's one of thebiggest colossal failures in the
history of business, the solarindustry.
Before we got there and Godbless them they did a good job
and they did so many homes anddedicated to their craft.
It's nothing negative, it'sjust.
The bottom line is, ifsomebody's in the solar industry
today, they cannot debate thefact that they are in a black
and white television, outdated,broken and often deceptive red
(24:13):
line model.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
We're gonna go there because you just went there and
I was gonna take you thereanyway.
I could not have the goat ofteam building on a podcast and
not talk about team building.
What the heck does the futureof power look like for the team
builders?
And I wanna be clear, that'snot everybody.
There are people listeningright now that just wanna go
sell glass, and I love you.
I love that vision for yourself.
I question it, not my vision,but I respect it, and that's
(24:37):
something I love about our powermodel is that you can come over
sell glass all day, every day,be happy, make six figures a
month, seven figures a month ifyou do it well enough.
Or you can come over here anddo the hybrid model, which is
something Bobby and I are aboutto talk about, where you wanna
team build, you wanna take partof the revenue share, you wanna
get your unfair share forintroducing people to this
amazing platform, and yet youstill wanna go sell glass too.
(24:59):
So you're getting that hybridmodel.
As you can tell, I get reallyexcited talking about this.
What are your thoughts on teambuilding under the power
umbrella, my friend?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Once it just sells over.
But again, the argument againstit.
I've never really understoodthat.
It's okay.
I just had a thought for thefirst time.
Look at this yeah, I know.
Look at this new industrythat's been created of people
that share on websites what theclothes they're buying.
Look at the influencers right,and they get a piece right From
Amazon or whoever the deal.
(25:27):
There's people, young people,making 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, a
hundred thousand dollars a month.
They're celebrities makingmillions of dollars and all
they're doing is showing thepocketbook.
They bought the clothing thatthey're wearing, the car that
they're driving or whateverthey're doing.
They're influencers, and isn'tthat a form of direct sales?
I mean, isn't that what they'redoing?
They're introducing people to aproduct, to service, and
they're overriding the purchaseof that product.
(25:48):
It's now part of our culture.
Every movie star is doing it,Every housewife is doing it,
every Netflix star is doing it.
They're all doing it.
My wife makes it a point toshare great stories about
restaurants we go to.
Like you, she's a foodie andshe always wants to compliment
them.
And she just posted pictures ofa restaurant we were in DC on
Sunday Night, which you'd love.
(26:08):
My daughter sent us to a reallycool place, and it's the same
thing If something great happensto you, you share it with other
people.
And if there's some economicremuneration to that, what's the
downside?
It's not coming from thecustomer, it's coming from the
model.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, it's not coming from the business partner
either.
I think that's the other bigone.
It goes back to mindset, andmindset's not sexy, it's just
not.
I wish it was, because morepeople would lean in and really
develop it and embrace it andget better at possessing a
better mindset.
But honestly, I think that'ssort of this.
It's everything you just said.
We naturally refer goodservices and products every
single day.
Man, I did.
(26:43):
We went to a breakfast but I'mnot even a big breakfast fan my
wife and kids.
They wanted to go on Saturday,so I shot a couple of videos,
made a quick reel for it.
It's gone viral for me Severalthousand plays that the
restaurant picked it up andshared it Now several thousand.
I didn't get anything for thatand I wasn't doing it.
I just did it because Ifreaking enjoyed the food.
The atmosphere was cool.
We all do it.
So my question to those of youthat are doing it when you join
(27:06):
us and we knock the ball out ofthe freaking park and over
deliver for you and what you'retrying to do with your personal
business, you're selfish.
Yes, I went there.
You're selfish if you don'tshare it with someone else.
You really are.
And the way, our compensation.
I just want to be clear on this, Bobby, I know you said it the
revenue share that comes back tous for referring this platform
to someone else does not comeout of the customer's end and it
(27:28):
does not come out of thesalesperson that sold the job.
It comes out of the owner'sprofit, the owner's revenue
excuse me, Let me clean that upit doesn't affect any of the
other parties.
Like it is an ultimate winscenario.
Thoughts.
It's just one of the reasons whydirect sales has always worked.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
People made fun of it , they thought it was a pyramid,
whatever they thought, but itjust cuts out all the.
That's the reason, aaron, as Ibelieve that we'll be the
distribution you know, renewableenergy distribution powerhouse
of this century, because they'regoing to keep coming out with
products and they're going tohave a couple of pathways to go.
Will they go the old schoolpathway of raising capital and
(28:05):
giving up their company to raisecapital and then hiring
executive talent, spendingmillions of dollars in corporate
infrastructure and commercialreal estate, and will they take
that pathway that has fallenapart in this new world that we
live in today?
Or will they understand thebrilliance and the natural
evolution, particularly in theworld we live in today, of
online reviews and everythingthat's happening is playing into
(28:28):
the hands of this type ofdistribution?
Covid pushed it over the edge.
Companies panicked in COVID.
Solar companies panicked.
We spent a million dollars andbuilt the World Wide Media
Center so we could control thenarrative.
We grew 1,600% in COVID.
A few are a local solar companyand they're going away.
We may get there today, but theday of the local solar company,
(28:50):
the day of the regional solarcompany, is over.
They cannot exist in thiseconomic climate.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Why do you say that?
I want to be crystal clear forsomeone just listening.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
The companies changed the rates when they cut out the
M1, the milestone one payments,when they changed the cash flow
of the industry.
The local guy, the chuckle inthe truck, the small firm that
was depending upon that cashflow just simply cannot exist
and power's still been averagedin 20, 30, 40 million in cash
from the bank.
So again, people want to takeshots at us because we're
(29:23):
different, because we have fun,because you can build a team.
All those reasons they justdon't get it and they never will
get it and we're not here forthem to get it.
I frankly don't care if theyever get it.
In fact, I hope they don't getit.
Let them keep pushing theiragenda of traditional sales.
Look, the bottom line is, whensomeone sits down and if a solar
(29:44):
rep I tell these every day, ifI'm recruiting a solar sales
person and I tell them you sitdown at the kitchen table with
one of our power sellers, youcan't win.
You can't win.
You can't get our pricing, youcan't get our financing, you
don't have a 30 year warranty.
You can't win.
So why would you want to workfor a solar company?
That's the big question.
Why would you want to work fora solar company and Chase Shitty
(30:06):
leads around they've been soldto 25 other companies and answer
to somebody when you can ownyour own solar company, you're
the CEO of your own solarcompany.
Here we're a platform that youcan use and now, with Enterprise
, which we may go there, we havenew solar companies joining our
platform every day.
They're bringing their salesforces, they're bringing their
installation capabilities,they're taking advantage of our
(30:28):
software, they're capitalizingon our purchasing power and all
the small to medium solarcompanies are now realizing that
it's more profitable, with lessheadaches, to be a member of
our Enterprise program than itis to be to running on their own
, because it's just mathematics.
It cannot be debated.
They can't buy what we buy.
(30:49):
They can't influence the way weinfluence.
They just can't do it.
So they can fight it or theycan just be a part of the party.
It doesn't again, like you said, it doesn't take away from
anything that they're doing.
They just get to take advantageof what we've spent nine years
building.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
What I love about everything you just said and
once again we get to a wholeseparate episode on that man.
It was a mic drop.
Power is attracting leaders.
They're attracting businessowners From outside of solar too
.
I want to be crystal clear onthat.
You could, and I'm going to usemy cell.
It sounds really cocky.
No other solar company couldhave lured me from what I was
doing with my other businesses,primarily in real estate, to
come do this.
But because you have a plug andplay model where I can plug in
(31:27):
the enterprise, bring over mysales division.
I just got to teach them thelanguage of solar sales and then
we turn a light switch on andwe're in profit mode.
Other solar mom and pop solarcompanies can't freaking do that
.
The other thing too, and I'lltake the gloves off.
It's uncensored.
It is what it is.
I'll never, ever work for acompany I don't own.
I won't.
I bleed, I sweat, I cry, I missbirthdays, I miss dinners, I
(31:47):
miss anniversaries of my family.
There has to be an owner stakein it, and when I saw that power
was offering that, I said, oh,let's do it, let's do it.
Aaron's coming out ofretirement.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I need stock options and pre-IPO.
If you look at the pureeconomics, I mean about a year
ago I think there was 650million invested in a circle
around our company in a week Ina week, wow.
When Wall Street rightensitself, when the finance, when
the feds lower the rates, whenthe timing is right and we're
gonna make a lot of sense toWall Street and anybody who's a
(32:17):
shareholder in our company has achance to take that ride with
us.
There's no hotter topic orinvestable pathway than
renewable energy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
For those that are watching the video portion of
this podcast and he was sayingthat both Bobby and I were
smiling from ear to ear Like wecouldn't even contain it.
I tell people every day becauseI was one of the early agents
over at EXP, bobby, as part ofthe reason why it took a two
minute conversation with you andI said let's freaking do it.
I tell recruits every day.
I know how this movie ends.
I've already seen the endingand, yes, I'm smiling.
(32:48):
I just think this plays athousand times bigger than EXP.
Sorry, exp, I'll never leaveyou.
Guys, I love you, but it'sharder.
In order for me to team buildthere, I gotta get Bobby
licensed.
If Bobby's licensed, I gottaconvince him to fall out of love
with his broker Over here.
Bobby, I've had conversations.
I've had business partners withmy Amazon driver, my mail lady,
my law, my law person, mypainter Anyone as long as
(33:09):
they're smiling their builders,they get it can be a candidate
for what we do, and that's whatgets me freaking excited.
It's why I haven't slept wellin the past year since joining
you on this mission my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, my apologies for lack of sleep, but yeah,
we're proving both ends of thespectrum.
We have solar professionals whoare now leaning on multiple
seven figure incomes that's, acouple million bucks a year plus
stock right.
And then we have people who'venever sold solar or anything in
their life making 20, 30, 40,$50,000 a month.
And it ain't easy and there'sno magic and nobody's getting
(33:39):
rich tomorrow.
And yes, we're in theconstruction business and yes,
things happen.
And all that stuff.
But at the end of the day, again, we're not.
I'm not one that debates.
We are who we are.
The industry is what it is.
If somebody's looking for acareer and change and if they
can't see the renewable energiesto future, then they need
glasses.
And if they don't understandthat, a platform economy is the
(34:01):
only answer.
That's all.
I close every meeting with that.
All you gotta do is be able totie those two things together.
Run with that man, paint thepicture, the growing industry
and the history of the world.
It's never happened before,it'll never happen again.
And everyone knows that aplatform economy has changed
every aspect of our lifeCommunications, linkedin,
facebook, twitter, instagram,travel, airbnb, uber, lyft,
(34:25):
finance, crypto, retail, amazon.
We have EXP, rolls-states we godown the list.
So if I would just say to peopleif every meaningful asset, part
of your life I don't knowwhether religion will go to a
platform or not, don't wanna godown that road today, but if
most of the meaningful things inyour life, every single day,
have transitioned to an onlineplatform and powers the leading
(34:48):
online renewable energy platformin the world and renewable
energy is we know what it isthen what is there to be debated
about?
What does somebody wanna argueabout?
And our revenue and our growthand our ink magazine and our
record raising, world recordcrowd fundraising and having a
board of directors that's raisedbillions in venture capital?
(35:08):
I don't know how you draw it upany better than this.
I really don't, and I've done afew things.
If you've got a drop ofentrepreneurial blood in your
body and you're listening tothis or watching this today nine
year track record climbing on ahalf a billion in revenue
pre-IPO all the things we justdiscussed and no one knows who
we are yet that's how you drawit up.
Anybody can say anything, we'veproven it, and yet the
(35:32):
renewable energy industry hasn'tstarted yet and power really
hasn't started Really well said,man.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I hear you share similar thoughts to that every
Monday at one of our nationalcalls and I get goosebumps every
time you say it.
I joke to my team I'm ready tojoin again.
It's non-debatable.
I'm gonna steal that one.
It really is.
If you have a common sense, youjust you can't debate it.
I'll share this too, and thenwe can wrap up here in closing.
I always evaluate opportunitiesbased off three things.
I'm not the smartest person,definitely not the smartest
(35:57):
person on this call, but muchless in most of my meetings.
So I keep it stupid simple.
The first one is leadership.
If I'm gonna join anopportunity, I'm gonna take time
away from my family, from otherthings that are producing
income.
Is the leadership right?
That was one of the biggestquestions I had when I heard
Bobby speak.
I had private zooms and Ifinally just met him.
I've met now our CEO andvarious other field leaders.
I'm blown away.
(36:17):
Blown away.
Speed of the leadership group,speed of the pack you guys all
know the sang these guys are all, and women now with cammy, are
all visionaries where they'retaking this thing.
I can't even pretend to paintthat picture because I'm just
along for the ride, which has meexcited.
The second thing is the model.
I've already compared it to EXP.
It is so early similar to EXP.
In fact, they made one change Iwon't go into today, which is
(36:38):
better than EXP, and I'm gonnaget in trouble for that one.
I already know the model.
We've made a fortune with it.
I felt a lot of people make afortune.
The third one is timing.
It's what Bobby just said.
My friends, we're in that fact.
This is the only time Idisagree with our CEO and I'll
say it in front of the president, so I'm gonna get in big
trouble.
He says we're at the top of thefirst inning.
I disagree.
I think we're still, at battingpractice, less than 4% market
(36:59):
share.
If you're on the East Coast,where Bobby and I are, I could
argue it's between two and 3%.
We're not even close to four.
And so you can hear it in mytonality and my voice, my
posture.
When you put leadership of thisgroup, the mission and the
vision behind what we're doing,the model and the five different
ways we get paid, and youcombine it with the TN timing,
my friends, it is lights out.
Bobby, in closing, what wouldyou say to a solo professional
(37:22):
who is not with us yet.
Someone in our company sentthem this podcast.
They found it on YouTube,wherever, and they're interested
.
They're thinking about joining,but they're still questioning
it.
Hey, I'm doing okay at mycurrent place.
Should I join, should I not?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's an interesting question.
There's the smart ass side.
To me, that would say well,what?
Are you thinking about?
Why would you work for a solocompany when you can?
Own your own, Earn two to threetimes as much money.
Get deals people sending youdeals from all over the world.
We have people in thePhilippines that are closing two
, three deals a day in flipflops and beach.
(37:56):
So I would just say to the solopro that would be my smart
alecary remark is come on, whatare you thinking about?
What preconceived ideas areholding you back?
What words were being whisperedin your ear when you were a kid
?
What's holding you back Ifyou're a non solo pro?
look real estate.
Come on, if you're a realestate agent, I have two sides
to that.
How can you be a real estateagent without being able to
(38:17):
guide your clients in energyconsumption?
It's the biggest.
Most people paying a thousanddollars a month now for gas and
electric bills, right?
The rates are doubling inmarkets around the country as we
speak.
You got your house, you getyour car, you got your gas
electric bill right.
If a mortgage brokers and weknow the economy is what it is
in the tank we know theseindustries are really looking.
We have a big event, career weekcoming up which is designed for
(38:39):
solar pros and real estate,mortgage professionals, and then
HVAC.
And if you're calling on ahomeowner and you're selling
them something else, you'recutting their lawn, you're doing
home security.
Whatever you're doing, it justmakes sense.
I just don't understand whythis whole pro.
I've never believed in the jobmentality.
You got one life, you got oneshot.
Why would you want to takeorders from someone else?
(38:59):
This is not the military.
Why would you want to go thatpathway?
Fear, anxiety, what is itthat's holding you back?
And we train a lot of that.
No company does more of mindsettraining and breakthrough
training and all those things asour national convention opened
up, with breathwork and icebaths and board breaking
sessions, and we believe in that.
The funniest thing for me, aaronyou opened up with it and it's
(39:20):
funny, I never even thoughtabout it till the last six
months.
I'm a guy that's built on theSun.
I'm the beach behind me, I workat the pool.
I went here.
I am ended up following the Sun.
It wasn't even my initialintention.
I didn't get it.
I didn't put the two thingstogether at the time and now
here I am.
My next meeting scheduled arein Hawaii and and Puerto Rico
(39:41):
and South Florida, and which iswhere I'd want to be, anyway.
So if you open up to theuniverse now I went from cancer
Foundation to following the SunIf you open up your mind and
we've learned this from theCalifornia people and Jonathan
and have opened up my mind somuch to the possibilities that
(40:02):
the universe speaks and you haveto listen to it.
You have to.
You have to pay attention,science, but the first thing you
have to do is be open-mindedenough to understand that this
is happening.
The government is not gonna tryand take.
The government's gonna continueto try and take away our rights
to clean energy.
They killed it in Nevada and itcame back.
They just tried to kill it inCalifornia.
They tried to sneak a bill inthe House of Representatives in
(40:24):
Florida.
They are doing it right now inNorth Carolina.
They will continue to try andtake away your right to clean
energy.
They are going to continue todouble your electric bills.
None of this is gonna changeand there's nothing anybody can
do about it.
Our politicians pockets arelined with dirty energy money
and I'll scream it from themountaintops right.
(40:46):
There are inevitable factorshere in including the climate,
including I grew up on the water.
I had a boat for many years.
You can't, I know you fish withyour kids.
Well, what about when the kidscan't eat those fish?
If you took those fish, aaron,you're catching right now and
did a test on them, and mercuryand everything else, you would
need them, you could need them.
So where are we headed?
What are we gonna do about it?
(41:06):
So these are undeniable factorsand when you just Put them in a
ball and roll them up, did Ihave any idea where we'd be
today and that we'd be openingthe beaches of the world?
Had no idea.
But I would just say everybodyout here again in closing
Farron's closing is just open upyour mind to the Possibilities
(41:26):
that the universe will speak toyou.
Your children will speak to youand I want more than anything
else, my children have alwaysknown and will always know that
yes, is our lifestyle good, yes,they live well, but their
father and my wife have alwaysstood for Lifting up the world,
doing something better.
(41:47):
And when your kids can look youin the eye and say, mom, dad,
I'm really proud.
I know we need money, I know wegot to pay bills, but what
you're doing, you're standingfor something but meaning
something.
What you're doing and both mykids are following pathways of
Meaningful careers that thattouch people's lives.
And now my daughter juststarted talking about dinner the
other night, about openingMaybe opening our own practice
(42:07):
one day, or whatever whereverthey're gonna go.
I just I appreciate thatentrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I love it.
I love it and you said thisearly on and your version of it
is something I've adopted andit's proof, successful to both
of us Never, ever make adecision without opening the
door, peek in your head and singwhat's on the other side, and
so I would leave that thatanalogy with anyone who's
watching this for the first timeTo come look at it, come take a
look, hop on a zoom with us.
(42:32):
We're happy to show you there'samazing content, but it's the
real deal.
Bobby, I can't thank you enough.
Not only is it an honor to havethe president of power, a
company that that I as a hundredpercent of my attention as we
build, but, like I said, you'vebecome a dear friend and the
honor was all mine.
My friend, I speak for all ofthe solar sales uncensored
community.
This will go down as a as therecord breaking episode.
(42:54):
I have zero doubt and I can'twait to get it out into
everyone's hands.
If you don't mind and I wedidn't talk about this I'm gonna
throw your LinkedIn profile onthe description so that people
can reach out if they wanted to.
They can follow more, morebehind the scenes on what you're
doing every day to lead ouramazing company, but I can't
thank you enough, my friendFolks.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
There are so many talented people out there right
now.
They're just looking fordifferent.
They're tired of what they'redoing and we're heading into the
holiday season.
I don't know how dated thiswill become.
We're heading into the holidayseason, when people become
reflective this time of year,and what do they really want
their lives to stand for?
Who do they want to go to workwith it?
I don't even bear and sometimesI feel guilty.
We talked about this again.
I don't feel like I'm workingright now.
We're not working right, we?
(43:30):
I get to wake up every when'sthe last time?
I would just say this toeverybody watching closing
When's the last?
time that you couldn't wait toget out of bed so you could do
it all over again and Work withpeople that you truly love, that
you truly admire, that youtruly respect, that lift you up
and influence the way you thinkand what you eat and where you
(43:51):
dress and the vitamins you takeand the Workouts you do, and and
that's how I feel I just can'twait to wake up and do it again
and I only wish for everybodythat they get to experience that
at least once in their lives.
You combine those two things.
They say you'll never work aday in your life.
Right, if you'd love what youdo and the admiration of your
children for what you do and howyou carry yourself and the
(44:12):
impact you have on other peoplein the world, no, then you put a
cherry on top of that one buddyand you got one hell of a
Sunday.
That's the deal.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Let's freaking go.
So with that we're gonna shutit down and get back to work.
I hope everybody enjoyed theepisode.
Be good, be safe and God blessBobby.
Thank you again from the bottomof my heart.
We'll talk soon, my friends,you.
Hello, welcome to another episode of Solar Sales
Uncensored.
I am your host, aaron Browning,and I'm so excited for today's
conversation with the one andonly president of power, mr
Bobby Smith.
Before I turn it over to himand I already know, that's why
everyone's here I get it, that'swhy I'm here.
We've been talking about thisone for a couple of months.
(00:20):
As you can imagine, hisschedule is jam-packed.
A little bit about hisbackground for those of you that
don't know him and shame on youif you don't, because he's all
over the freaking place.
He really got his start in thewhole entrepreneurship game from
direct sales.
He led a massive worldwideorganization with over 50,000
partners in multiple countries,which gets me so dog-on excited.
(00:42):
He also led Cancer Foundation.
We'll definitely talk on thatand how he uses this as his
experience, from problem solvingthere to what we do in the
construction field, which isreally cool.
But more recently he has becomethe president of power, which
obviously for everyone watchingor listening knows it's the
fastest growing solar company inthe United States, if not the
(01:04):
world.
He is the thought leader behindthat.
He is driving our ship.
He is an amazing husband, he isan amazing father and I dare to
call him a friend now.
We had the privilege of reallyworking on our relationship in
the physical form last week atour convention, we were able to
break bread finally and hang outand take it from online to
(01:24):
offline, which, personally andselfishly, was absolutely
amazing.
So, without further ado, mrBobby Smith, how the heck are
you my friend?
Thank you for having me.
It's all well-deserved man.
It really is.
I've been around a lot ofleaders over my 10 year of
business and entrepreneurshipand you definitely stand out,
man.
You really do.
You lead from the front.
You are the Although you don'tget recognition for this one.
(01:45):
You're the fastest growing teambuilder for a team that you
can't even have at power, whichwe'll definitely talk about.
But if you don't mind, you wantto shed a little bit more on
your background really how yougot started in direct sales and
what that transitioned into towhere you are today.
Yeah, true power.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I can't thank you enough for the Conj Making Power
a better company and leading byexample every day.
You're a real difference makerin our company A lot of people's
lives and we value that.
So thank you, and thank you forhaving me.
It's good to see everybody.
I bumped into direct salesthrough the birth of my daughter
.
It's that simple.
There was a woman that I hadbeen doing business with in the
(02:19):
medical field.
She was pregnant.
When my wife was pregnant, ourbusiness was done.
I had no reason to talk to heragain, really, and I was 10 feet
from that spot right now.
We had just given birth to alittle baby girl and I thought I
ought to call Joe and see howthe birth of her baby went.
And I called her up and shesaid great, the practice is good
(02:39):
, but I'm doing this thing and Ithink you should hear about it.
And she introduced shementioned an old friend of mine
who I grew up playing highschool ball with here in
Maryland and she arranged ameeting with him and I.
And that was the beginning ofit.
It was through the birth of mydaughter.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Wow.
So you were one of the leadersin that company, though you were
when I talked about the GOAT.
You're doing live events.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You're doing like the good old stuff that direct
sales is famous for, correct,yeah, I mean I came in at a time
when their I don't know theirnational convention was a
hundred people.
They had to drag me to that andthey ended up being the second
most when I was their mostprofitable privately held
company on the ING 500 list.
I watched that growth and, yes,I had a great mentor.
I hope all of you had theprivilege I've had a few in my
(03:21):
life.
I had the privilege of learningdirect sales from one of the
best trainers in the world andthe words that he whispered in
my ear were different than thewords that many people hear or
are open to listen to.
But you're right, it was oldschool.
I opened meetings in Maryland,found leadership.
He taught me the leadership andreal estate.
That's the only thing he evertalked to me about.
(03:43):
How many cities can you own?
How many countries can youbuild?
How many leaders can you buildin those defined and developed
in those markets?
So you can go and do itsomewhere else?
And that's what he did.
So it was very event driven.
They were one of the best eventcompanies in the history of
direct sales.
So I learned it in living rooms.
We can talk about that here andwherever you want to go.
That's where I honed my craft,launching people's business
(04:07):
night after night, living roomafter living room, hotel after
hotel, local meetings, regionalevents, national conventions,
leadership and real estate.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, by the way, we can do a whole podcast on what
everything you just said rightthere.
That is truly, in my opinion,your claim to fame, what sets
you apart.
My fear, though, it's also overa lot of new business owners
and new entrepreneurs' heads.
They just don't get it when youtalk about and I get goosebumps
, by the way, and I love thatabout launching someone's
business.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youare with us here, heck, you're
(04:38):
with any company and you'relooking to grow a business.
Stop saying grow, stop sayingstart.
It's all about freaking.
Launching it is launching.
That is a message, a mantrathat Bobby sings from every
stage, from every presentation.
Few are actually doing it,which just blows my freaking
mind, man, it really does.
The other thing I've heard yousay a lot, and I've never heard
(04:59):
someone else say this, and I'venow stolen it.
My friend is, when we launchedsomeone who's your board of
directors, you want to touch onthat and what that means and
what that conversation youshared with me that day looked
like.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, again, I believe that when someone starts
a business, if they take itseriously, they either they're
going to treat it like apart-time gig or, hopefully,
they joined it to make a realdifference in their lives and in
other people's lives.
If they do that, then it's verysimple to me.
If somebody opens a laundromator a law firm or a restaurant,
they have a launch party, theyhave a wine and cheese event,
(05:31):
they have those spotlightsoutside of their facility.
For some reason, when peopletake on a part-time gig which is
normally the way they startdirect sales they want to take
their time, they want to figureit out, they want to learn, they
want to feel comfortable.
My guy taught me differently.
He said Bobby, find the bestfive people, the most talented,
(05:52):
busiest, successful people youcan find.
I put the five it happened tobe five guys at my kitchen table
, 15 feet from here.
He did the presentation.
They all enrolled.
These guys were all making two,three, four, five hundred
thousand a year, 15, 20 yearsago.
What I learned?
You can catch people on a dancewhen one of them was a chief
(06:14):
operating officer, I think, of achief financial officer, a
major insurance firm.
They had different backgrounds,different, very backgrounds,
but they all signed up.
I had my board directors.
I believe when you're startinga business and you start a
company, you treat it like abusiness, you launch it, you
find your board directors, yourleadership and you go.
If you do it, you can't askanyone to do anything you're not
(06:35):
prepared to do yourself.
I couldn't ask anyone to everlaunch their business.
if I didn't launch mine, Ilaunched mine.
Then it was fair for me to askeveryone to launch theirs.
It's funny not unlike you,aaron, in our company I became
the king of the private businessreception, if you will.
In that company I trained itall over the world.
Again, the world shifted alittle bit COVID and all that
(06:59):
kind of stuff.
We could talk about all thatMeeting in people's living room
and breaking bread and lookingthem in the eye and meeting
their children.
I just used to learn how tocross my legs and sit down on
the sofa and tell a story thatwas compelling and trustworthy
and made sense.
I think we had variations withhandouts and not handouts.
(07:20):
We'd walk through thecompensation plan and we'd
enroll.
I remember one guy and again itcould be anybody.
I did one for the former guywho ran for mayor and governor
in Pennsylvania.
I think he had 75 people inthis house when I was finished
talking, 50 people lined up atthe grand piano.
Because when someone like thatsays to a group of people, this
(07:41):
is my next business venture,this guy built the core state's
arena.
When he said this is my nextbusiness venture, who wants in?
They lined up.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, a couple of things you said too, and I'll
dissect one of them which isreally important.
Something I also teach and I'llecho it with you that leaves
clues.
When you invite people who arealready successful, already
killing it.
Talent hangs out with talent,Smart people with the right
opportunities, there theyfreaking, get it.
There's not even a ton ofquestions they end up asking.
They can evaluate opportunitiesvery quickly.
(08:13):
They can see where the visionand where the timing is, how the
leadership is, and then they'reall freaking in.
I love that because I can'tstress it enough Get
uncomfortable.
Who is that one person thatyou're scared it's on your
chicken list to call.
Those are the people you callfirst.
Those are the board ofdirectors.
Who do you want to have overfor Sunday dinner?
I want to build a business withfreaking leaders.
Man, I don't want to be beggingpeople to come partner with me.
(08:34):
I love that you said it, man.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I love that you hit the nail on the head with that
I'll never forget the top guy inmy organization for eight, nine
, 10 years.
I always used to tell the story, so I remember most of it.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
He was a full-time practicing period.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Honest, he was already making $200,000,
$400,000 a year.
He was a volunteer fireman onthe truck three nights a week.
He lectured at the localcollege.
He was an avid ham radiooperator.
He was the mayor of his localtownship, devoted husband and
three I think three girls.
He was the busiest guy I knew.
(09:07):
People tend to prejudge peoplethey're too busy, they're too
successful, they're too this,they're too that, this is mental
clogging.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're nailed it again, man.
By the way, we have a mutualfriend, a business partner of
mine, mr Patrick Adoo.
I'll go and say his name.
Our paper way too busy to evenlook at something called power,
yet he is dominating everyleaderboard, pulled a thousand
different directions.
That's what talent does, myfriends.
We are juggling many thingswhere we're not even happy,
we're not fed unless we have ourhands on things you agree
(09:38):
analogy all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Maybe Mark Cuban makes time to be on shark tank.
He doesn't need it.
He understands the value ofdiversifying his portfolio and,
in more recent times,diversifying his portfolio with
meaning, more meaningfulprojects that impact the world.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, love it.
Let's um, let's jump into powera little bit.
How did that conversation come?
Were you looking for anopportunity and solar?
And it just presented itself.
What is that even?
What does that journey looklike?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Exactly I was doing, consulting, I think, at the time
some guy hit me up on Facebookand Told me he had something.
I'm always open.
I was gonna listen smart peopleare always gonna listen and he
sent me something that justdidn't resonate with me.
It was just yucky and but Isaid I'd be happy to talk to
your CEO and he put me on thephone with Jonathan budd and we
spoke for about an hour and 45minutes.
(10:23):
Had talked to anybody that long.
Wow, dating Said you want toget on a plane and come on out.
Remember he was deciding who wasat that time to tell you was
vice president sales was gonnabe.
So he asked me to hop on aplane and I I got on plane to
San Diego.
He picked me up in his Teslaand he took me to some really
piece of shit office above amen's clothing store on the
beach in California.
(10:44):
It was busted up and dirty andthe windows wouldn't open and
but I got to hear from him hisvision on the company and he
asked me my vision on where Iwould take the company.
That's really how it all started, yeah that's crazy man.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And, by the way, once again, for those that don't
know, I'm Bobby's love language,love place is the beach.
That that is the one thingJonathan had going for with a
crappy building, no windows, isthat he was on the beach.
I'm sure Bobby was able tooverlook some things there.
Well, I love about that storyI've heard you say it a thousand
times is that it truly started?
It's like in a garage, like itstarted with nothing.
(11:16):
Yet you have two powerful,freaking leaders who are all the
sudden locking arms and I canonly imagine the goosebumps from
that conversation.
Was it one of those like whereyou guys knew instantly that you
were about to build somethingincredible together?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't know.
That'd be an interestingquestion for John.
I always think I'm gonna buildsomething incredible, or it's
just something about the vibe.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Obviously I didn't know anything about solar, I
didn't know anything aboutrenewable energy.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I didn't know anything.
Really.
A lot of it just came fromJonathan.
I just hung up from when thecouple minutes go.
It was an instant.
I'm wearing his peace signshirt from John Barbados, one of
them.
It was an interest, it was aninstant camaraderie.
I interest, an instant meetingof the minds.
We come from the same page.
He understood direct sales, butI knew he was different than
that.
He's very Elon Musk and yourecognize that as soon as you're
(12:04):
in Jonathan's presence.
He's always gonna be thesmartest guy in the room, unless
maybe musk is in the room or ahand a few people.
He's got that kind of genius.
But he also is that flip-flopand t-shirt and I don't give a
shit mental.
I'm gonna tell it the way it is.
I'm gonna do the right thing,I'm gonna be transparent and he
was always that way with me andit was just.
(12:25):
Did we know what this couldbecome?
I think we both had visions,but when you look at it now it's
hard to imagine that we wentfrom the three or four or five
of us to seven thousand of us.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, crazy man.
I wish I could have been a flyon that wall for sure.
Do you really?
That's something I haven't seen.
I would actually love to seethat man.
I really would.
Oh, I can only imagine.
I can only imagine you aboutthe way you describe Jonathan,
my limited time this past yearof getting to know Him a little
bit better.
I 100% agree.
I really do.
He's almost a unicorn to bethat much of a visionary and
(12:58):
thought leader.
But still, I'll throw a wordout relatable, relatable, I'm.
The first time I met him I wentto shake his hand and he pulled
me in.
It was like a hug, it was heartto heart.
That's just who he is.
The other thing I'll say abouthim too he has some weird
freaking ability to recallpeople's names.
It blows my mind and that is mykryptonite, because I can't do
(13:20):
it.
Remarkable I saw my conventionwith people that I I didn't know
and I don't know how.
He knows as busy as he is, buthe did.
He knew things about them,their kids.
People were heard when, whenthey were talking to him, and
that was really one of mytakeaways man chip it's gone.
I'm just again.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We become great friends just like you and I and
our leaders around the countryin trolls and and Jim and the
core group of people.
So when you get to go to workwith someone that you love again
.
We just got off a very deepconversation.
I love them death.
And we've never had an argumentno, in nine years, not even
really a healthy debate.
We were always just on the samepage.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, that's awesome.
What?
Where's power now?
I know you tease seven thousandpartners.
I know in our world we callthem sellers, but for those who
aren't with us yet and yes, Isaid yet because you soon will
be that's business partners.
It's people that come onindependent contractors.
What else can you tell us aboutpower right now?
Not so much the vision of wherewe're going, but where we are
today.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Look we my called ink magazine or I emailed them.
They don't have any data on howmany companies in history have
hit the ink mat in 500 less fouryears in a row.
So I have to imagine it's lessthan 1% might be a handful.
So if you look at all the greatcompanies in the history of the
United States, in the historyof ink magazine, we're one of a
very few that have ever done itfour years in a row.
And so for anybody who wants todebate or hate or any of that,
(14:39):
I'm not a debater.
I come from position ofstrength and there's no debate
who power is.
We have been the fastestgrowing solar company United
States it's not the world thelast four years.
We.
There's no debate that we havethe most impressive Front-end
tech stack, the ability to starta business, get paid to quotes
and all that that the industry'sever seen.
We're in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
I Totally agree, being able to experience it
firsthand on the team buildingside of it and going through
everything you just mentioned.
So would you call power a solarcompany?
Is it a technology company?
Is it a platform?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
We're you're with that energy technology and as I
quote Chris Saka, often fromShark Tank, multi-billionaire
early investor in Twitter or NewBern, and he has said that the
the revenue generated inrenewable energy technology Will
out surpass all of the revenuegenerated on the internet today.
That's a staggering number,right?
So I look at it, says, as arenewable tech platform.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Love it, love it and then wait.
Obviously you were able to sellsolar batteries, things like
that, that any typical Ishouldn't say typical, but lack
of a better phrase a typicalsolar company could.
Where do you see that going?
Do you see us bringing otherproducts to the platform?
What does that vision look?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
like again.
We talk about these thingsoften again.
Sometimes it just sounds like aline, but I do believe that the
product will make the mostmoney on hasn't been invented
yet.
You know there's there's anunending stream.
You're not going to be able todrive a gasoline car in the next
10 to 20 years.
So obviously we looked at we'rein the electric vehicle
business.
I want to be in the chargingbusiness, of course, full force
we are.
We want to be in the electric.
(16:11):
I'd like to get electricvehicles on our platform as soon
as possible.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
And then who knows where it's gonna go?
Obviously, hvac productsrenewable.
I bought a renewable energypull pump for my pool and now
more efficient HVAC systems,insulation for the home so many
places it can go.
But and the reason I said that,aaron, I don't just make that
up remember as I made some mymoney being involved in the
cellular industry and Cellphones hadn't been invented yet.
No one thought they would scale.
(16:37):
And boom they did.
And then the next money I madewas on the internet and
everybody said that the internetwould never scale.
No one's ever gonna use thatthing.
So my last two businesses werecell phones and everyone laughed
at me.
And the internet was everyonelaughed at me.
And now renewable energy, whichno one's laughing, because the
world's being decimated byclimate events.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Can you touch on that man?
You did an incrediblepresentation at our convention a
week or week and a half ago.
Can you touch on the highlightsof that, of, unfortunately,
where we're at as a world, wherewe're heading, and what this is
looking like for our kids andfuture generations?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, I'm crying this time I Started a conversation
with my daughter on.
Father's Day, no less aboutdriving out in the country, out
about most country, about theworld, and she just said a lot
of her friends are hesitant tobring children into this world
because of climate events and Ididn't even know what to say.
I my only response, like a give,was it's always been that way
we were scared of war, russia inthe United States and all that
(17:31):
stuff, and I think that we grewup in a world that had spokes of
anxiety that include war andpoverty and social injustice and
crime.
And I think the fifth or sixthwe spoke on the wheel right now
is, unfortunately, climatechange.
And what's interesting, when Ijoined power as hippie as it was
in Southern California and allthat you couldn't really talk
(17:51):
about climate change Because itwas considered a political hot
topic at the Bay.
And here we are today in myheart.
This is that's what drives meevery day as we're launching a
program in high school.
I'm trying to launch program inhigh schools and college
campuses and youth sportsprograms.
A recent survey showed that 50%of 10,000 young people 16 to 25
(18:12):
I think it was our experiencein climate related anxieties
that is dagger 50%, and it usedto be once a year.
Now, again, my home.
I showed you the pictures theother day.
We've had two tornadoes rippedthrough Maryland in the last
month.
I was just down at the beach inthe Rehoboth and there's a five
foot seawall now.
That wasn't there last year.
You know in whether it's.
(18:33):
I was supposed to be in Hawaiiright now and it was on fire.
Unprecedented weather events inSan Diego last week.
Storms that are building nowthe news.
If you turn on the news rightnow, they're talking about
storms building more rapidly.
They're speeding up from 20mile an hour winds to 80 mile an
hour winds to 100 mile an hourfaster than they've ever seen in
history.
You got 100 degree buoys offthe coast of the keys in the
(18:55):
water.
You can't eat the fish in SouthFlorida because of the red tide
.
So I can't imagine I'm surethere are that there are human
beings that are still debatingthe fact that you want to call
it whatever you can call it, butwe need to make a change.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
So is that part of the fire that's pushing you to
get up every single day, eventhough you don't have to
financially and everything else?
Is that really one of thedriving forces of the mission?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
right now is strictly the youth.
We have to change the narrative.
I can't stand the fact we couldgo we can go out and ride our
bikes in the old days and comehome and grab a hose and drink
some water and have the hose,and those days may be long past
us.
But I just refuse to live in aworld where our children are
suffering from climate anxieties.
And I will I this like this ismy last tarot.
(19:40):
It will be giving everything.
I have to change that narrative.
I just I can't accept that.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I love it, man, and I .
I don't love the reason you'rehaving to do it.
It's a.
It's an uncomfortable, it'swhat I call a fierce
conversation.
What I do love, though and letme clean that up it's your
passion.
Behind it, I can tell it's notjust rhetoric and it oozes from
your pores, and I know you'releading the charge on that, man.
So keep doing it.
This is not censors.
I'm going to go and ask you Iknow this is something you're
launching, but you did justtease it Can you talk about why
(20:06):
it is so important to bring thisto the schools, whether it's
high schools, whether it's evencollege, to the community Cause
I know you have a background ofdoing this and hearing that
story with your background, andwhat it did to the parents?
It changed everything.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, again, I've never started and started in my
own household.
Just like you asked me aboutdirect sales, I was driving one
day with my wife and the kidswere screaming in the car and I
was running a national cancerfoundation at that point and
trying to figure out how to getmore people screened for colon
cancer.
It was the 50,000 people a yearwere dying.
It was the second leadingcancer killer in.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
America.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And I had a vision when my kids were screaming oh I
get it, if you want to get tothe parents, get to the kids.
I started a program called SaveOur Parents in the cancer world
and I made it up.
I caught on.
It got national publicity,ended up going to Puerto Rico
and Canada, and then the newspicked it up and next thing, you
know, I'm talking to thebiggest media companies and they
(20:59):
gave my foundation $8 milliongrant and we were featured in
Oprah and we had Oprah at herpeak and other national
publications, and so I know whatthe ripple effect can be of one
high school, one inner cityschool, one private school, one
college campus, if you want toaffect change, the Vietnam War,
the protests on the collegecampuses, so those of us that
(21:20):
are old enough to remember.
So I really think we have towin the hearts and minds of the
young people.
They need a safe place to talkabout this and they're the ones
that really have to get to theirparents and push them into
transition and renewable energy.
We've got to do.
We can't help what India may ormay not do or what China may or
may not do, but you know, herein the United States of America.
If we want to be the leadersthat we claim to be so proudly,
(21:41):
then we need to lead, and Ithink that happens.
It worked in cancer.
The kids would say to theirparents I'll stay in school,
I'll get good grades, I won't dodrugs.
I need you to get screened forcancer and I want to create that
same kind of thing here.
I'll stay in school, I'll payattention.
I won't have my cell phone onWhatever today's resolutions are
, but I need you to take anenergy evaluation of our home
(22:04):
and look at all the ways that wecan do better.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I think you're a genius man.
I was lucky enough to be on aprivate mastermind with him last
Friday, where he teased this toI don't know about 100 or so of
the biggest leaders in ourcompany, and when he gave the
example of the colon cancer.
If my son, noah who's 11, camehome and said something like
that, in fact he even had acontract that Bobby shared.
This is what I'm promising himto do.
If you promise to do this, Ican't argue that.
(22:29):
There is no freaking way.
When he talks about subbingthat in for an energy audit,
like you can't object to it.
And so anyone listening who'snot with us at power this is why
we're all smiling.
We get access to Bobby Smith.
Not only can he lead us on thatfront of solar, but it's how to
be innovative, it's how to doby the way, that was the
headline of our conversation ourprivate mastermind what can we
(22:50):
do right now that has not beendone in solar?
It's not just copying the samestuff over and over.
Yes, some of that works, butGod, it is boring.
Man, let's innovate, andthere's no one doing that better
in renewable energy than you.
Man like freaking, leading theway and just killing it.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah Well, jonathan says.
I come up with a new idea everysix years or so.
So you just don't know, untilyou take it out for a test drive
and it's funny 100%.
I'm in the midst of trying tolaunch this program and
everybody's coming at me withinnovative, with ideas and they
want to go sideways and theywant we just need one school.
You just need to do it in oneschool.
Let the press pick up the story, figure the rest out and see
(23:28):
where it goes, and I've donethat my whole career.
That's the reason why we standout the solar industry.
They're all doing the samething.
They've been doing the samething for 25 years and I always
point to statistics, it's not adebate.
They've been selling solar inCostco and Best Buy and Home
Depot and Elon Musk lost $6billion and all the things
they've been doing in thisbroken, deceptive red line model
that they've built and they got4% in 25 years.
(23:51):
In my opinion, it's one of thebiggest colossal failures in the
history of business, the solarindustry.
Before we got there and Godbless them they did a good job
and they did so many homes anddedicated to their craft.
It's nothing negative, it'sjust.
The bottom line is, ifsomebody's in the solar industry
today, they cannot debate thefact that they are in a black
and white television, outdated,broken and often deceptive red
(24:13):
line model.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
We're gonna go there because you just went there and
I was gonna take you thereanyway.
I could not have the goat ofteam building on a podcast and
not talk about team building.
What the heck does the futureof power look like for the team
builders?
And I wanna be clear, that'snot everybody.
There are people listeningright now that just wanna go
sell glass, and I love you.
I love that vision for yourself.
I question it, not my vision,but I respect it, and that's
(24:37):
something I love about our powermodel is that you can come over
sell glass all day, every day,be happy, make six figures a
month, seven figures a month ifyou do it well enough.
Or you can come over here anddo the hybrid model, which is
something Bobby and I are aboutto talk about, where you wanna
team build, you wanna take partof the revenue share, you wanna
get your unfair share forintroducing people to this
amazing platform, and yet youstill wanna go sell glass too.
(24:59):
So you're getting that hybridmodel.
As you can tell, I get reallyexcited talking about this.
What are your thoughts on teambuilding under the power
umbrella, my friend?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Once it just sells over.
But again, the argument againstit.
I've never really understoodthat.
It's okay.
I just had a thought for thefirst time.
Look at this yeah, I know.
Look at this new industrythat's been created of people
that share on websites what theclothes they're buying.
Look at the influencers right,and they get a piece right From
Amazon or whoever the deal.
(25:27):
There's people, young people,making 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, a
hundred thousand dollars a month.
They're celebrities makingmillions of dollars and all
they're doing is showing thepocketbook.
They bought the clothing thatthey're wearing, the car that
they're driving or whateverthey're doing.
They're influencers, and isn'tthat a form of direct sales?
I mean, isn't that what they'redoing?
They're introducing people to aproduct, to service, and
they're overriding the purchaseof that product.
(25:48):
It's now part of our culture.
Every movie star is doing it,Every housewife is doing it,
every Netflix star is doing it.
They're all doing it.
My wife makes it a point toshare great stories about
restaurants we go to.
Like you, she's a foodie andshe always wants to compliment
them.
And she just posted pictures ofa restaurant we were in DC on
Sunday Night, which you'd love.
(26:08):
My daughter sent us to a reallycool place, and it's the same
thing If something great happensto you, you share it with other
people.
And if there's some economicremuneration to that, what's the
downside?
It's not coming from thecustomer, it's coming from the
model.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, it's not coming from the business partner
either.
I think that's the other bigone.
It goes back to mindset, andmindset's not sexy, it's just
not.
I wish it was, because morepeople would lean in and really
develop it and embrace it andget better at possessing a
better mindset.
But honestly, I think that'ssort of this.
It's everything you just said.
We naturally refer goodservices and products every
single day.
Man, I did.
(26:43):
We went to a breakfast but I'mnot even a big breakfast fan my
wife and kids.
They wanted to go on Saturday,so I shot a couple of videos,
made a quick reel for it.
It's gone viral for me Severalthousand plays that the
restaurant picked it up andshared it Now several thousand.
I didn't get anything for thatand I wasn't doing it.
I just did it because Ifreaking enjoyed the food.
The atmosphere was cool.
We all do it.
So my question to those of youthat are doing it when you join
(27:06):
us and we knock the ball out ofthe freaking park and over
deliver for you and what you'retrying to do with your personal
business, you're selfish.
Yes, I went there.
You're selfish if you don'tshare it with someone else.
You really are.
And the way, our compensation.
I just want to be clear on this, Bobby, I know you said it the
revenue share that comes back tous for referring this platform
to someone else does not comeout of the customer's end and it
(27:28):
does not come out of thesalesperson that sold the job.
It comes out of the owner'sprofit, the owner's revenue
excuse me, Let me clean that upit doesn't affect any of the
other parties.
Like it is an ultimate winscenario.
Thoughts.
It's just one of the reasons whydirect sales has always worked.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
People made fun of it , they thought it was a pyramid,
whatever they thought, but itjust cuts out all the.
That's the reason, aaron, as Ibelieve that we'll be the
distribution you know, renewableenergy distribution powerhouse
of this century, because they'regoing to keep coming out with
products and they're going tohave a couple of pathways to go.
Will they go the old schoolpathway of raising capital and
(28:05):
giving up their company to raisecapital and then hiring
executive talent, spendingmillions of dollars in corporate
infrastructure and commercialreal estate, and will they take
that pathway that has fallenapart in this new world that we
live in today?
Or will they understand thebrilliance and the natural
evolution, particularly in theworld we live in today, of
online reviews and everythingthat's happening is playing into
(28:28):
the hands of this type ofdistribution?
Covid pushed it over the edge.
Companies panicked in COVID.
Solar companies panicked.
We spent a million dollars andbuilt the World Wide Media
Center so we could control thenarrative.
We grew 1,600% in COVID.
A few are a local solar companyand they're going away.
We may get there today, but theday of the local solar company,
(28:50):
the day of the regional solarcompany, is over.
They cannot exist in thiseconomic climate.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Why do you say that?
I want to be crystal clear forsomeone just listening.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
The companies changed the rates when they cut out the
M1, the milestone one payments,when they changed the cash flow
of the industry.
The local guy, the chuckle inthe truck, the small firm that
was depending upon that cashflow just simply cannot exist
and power's still been averagedin 20, 30, 40 million in cash
from the bank.
So again, people want to takeshots at us because we're
(29:23):
different, because we have fun,because you can build a team.
All those reasons they justdon't get it and they never will
get it and we're not here forthem to get it.
I frankly don't care if theyever get it.
In fact, I hope they don't getit.
Let them keep pushing theiragenda of traditional sales.
Look, the bottom line is, whensomeone sits down and if a solar
(29:44):
rep I tell these every day, ifI'm recruiting a solar sales
person and I tell them you sitdown at the kitchen table with
one of our power sellers, youcan't win.
You can't win.
You can't get our pricing, youcan't get our financing, you
don't have a 30 year warranty.
You can't win.
So why would you want to workfor a solar company?
That's the big question.
Why would you want to work fora solar company and Chase Shitty
(30:06):
leads around they've been soldto 25 other companies and answer
to somebody when you can ownyour own solar company, you're
the CEO of your own solarcompany.
Here we're a platform that youcan use and now, with Enterprise
, which we may go there, we havenew solar companies joining our
platform every day.
They're bringing their salesforces, they're bringing their
installation capabilities,they're taking advantage of our
(30:28):
software, they're capitalizingon our purchasing power and all
the small to medium solarcompanies are now realizing that
it's more profitable, with lessheadaches, to be a member of
our Enterprise program than itis to be to running on their own
, because it's just mathematics.
It cannot be debated.
They can't buy what we buy.
(30:49):
They can't influence the way weinfluence.
They just can't do it.
So they can fight it or theycan just be a part of the party.
It doesn't again, like you said, it doesn't take away from
anything that they're doing.
They just get to take advantageof what we've spent nine years
building.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
What I love about everything you just said and
once again we get to a wholeseparate episode on that man.
It was a mic drop.
Power is attracting leaders.
They're attracting businessowners From outside of solar too
.
I want to be crystal clear onthat.
You could, and I'm going to usemy cell.
It sounds really cocky.
No other solar company couldhave lured me from what I was
doing with my other businesses,primarily in real estate, to
come do this.
But because you have a plug andplay model where I can plug in
(31:27):
the enterprise, bring over mysales division.
I just got to teach them thelanguage of solar sales and then
we turn a light switch on andwe're in profit mode.
Other solar mom and pop solarcompanies can't freaking do that
.
The other thing too, and I'lltake the gloves off.
It's uncensored.
It is what it is.
I'll never, ever work for acompany I don't own.
I won't.
I bleed, I sweat, I cry, I missbirthdays, I miss dinners, I
(31:47):
miss anniversaries of my family.
There has to be an owner stakein it, and when I saw that power
was offering that, I said, oh,let's do it, let's do it.
Aaron's coming out ofretirement.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I need stock options and pre-IPO.
If you look at the pureeconomics, I mean about a year
ago I think there was 650million invested in a circle
around our company in a week Ina week, wow.
When Wall Street rightensitself, when the finance, when
the feds lower the rates, whenthe timing is right and we're
gonna make a lot of sense toWall Street and anybody who's a
(32:17):
shareholder in our company has achance to take that ride with
us.
There's no hotter topic orinvestable pathway than
renewable energy.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
For those that are watching the video portion of
this podcast and he was sayingthat both Bobby and I were
smiling from ear to ear Like wecouldn't even contain it.
I tell people every day becauseI was one of the early agents
over at EXP, bobby, as part ofthe reason why it took a two
minute conversation with you andI said let's freaking do it.
I tell recruits every day.
I know how this movie ends.
I've already seen the endingand, yes, I'm smiling.
(32:48):
I just think this plays athousand times bigger than EXP.
Sorry, exp, I'll never leaveyou.
Guys, I love you, but it'sharder.
In order for me to team buildthere, I gotta get Bobby
licensed.
If Bobby's licensed, I gottaconvince him to fall out of love
with his broker Over here.
Bobby, I've had conversations.
I've had business partners withmy Amazon driver, my mail lady,
my law, my law person, mypainter Anyone as long as
(33:09):
they're smiling their builders,they get it can be a candidate
for what we do, and that's whatgets me freaking excited.
It's why I haven't slept wellin the past year since joining
you on this mission my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, my apologies for lack of sleep, but yeah,
we're proving both ends of thespectrum.
We have solar professionals whoare now leaning on multiple
seven figure incomes that's, acouple million bucks a year plus
stock right.
And then we have people who'venever sold solar or anything in
their life making 20, 30, 40,$50,000 a month.
And it ain't easy and there'sno magic and nobody's getting
(33:39):
rich tomorrow.
And yes, we're in theconstruction business and yes,
things happen.
And all that stuff.
But at the end of the day, again, we're not.
I'm not one that debates.
We are who we are.
The industry is what it is.
If somebody's looking for acareer and change and if they
can't see the renewable energiesto future, then they need
glasses.
And if they don't understandthat, a platform economy is the
(34:01):
only answer.
That's all.
I close every meeting with that.
All you gotta do is be able totie those two things together.
Run with that man, paint thepicture, the growing industry
and the history of the world.
It's never happened before,it'll never happen again.
And everyone knows that aplatform economy has changed
every aspect of our lifeCommunications, linkedin,
facebook, twitter, instagram,travel, airbnb, uber, lyft,
(34:25):
finance, crypto, retail, amazon.
We have EXP, rolls-states we godown the list.
So if I would just say to peopleif every meaningful asset, part
of your life I don't knowwhether religion will go to a
platform or not, don't wanna godown that road today, but if
most of the meaningful things inyour life, every single day,
have transitioned to an onlineplatform and powers the leading
(34:48):
online renewable energy platformin the world and renewable
energy is we know what it isthen what is there to be debated
about?
What does somebody wanna argueabout?
And our revenue and our growthand our ink magazine and our
record raising, world recordcrowd fundraising and having a
board of directors that's raisedbillions in venture capital?
(35:08):
I don't know how you draw it upany better than this.
I really don't, and I've done afew things.
If you've got a drop ofentrepreneurial blood in your
body and you're listening tothis or watching this today nine
year track record climbing on ahalf a billion in revenue
pre-IPO all the things we justdiscussed and no one knows who
we are yet that's how you drawit up.
Anybody can say anything, we'veproven it, and yet the
(35:32):
renewable energy industry hasn'tstarted yet and power really
hasn't started Really well said,man.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I hear you share similar thoughts to that every
Monday at one of our nationalcalls and I get goosebumps every
time you say it.
I joke to my team I'm ready tojoin again.
It's non-debatable.
I'm gonna steal that one.
It really is.
If you have a common sense, youjust you can't debate it.
I'll share this too, and thenwe can wrap up here in closing.
I always evaluate opportunitiesbased off three things.
I'm not the smartest person,definitely not the smartest
(35:57):
person on this call, but muchless in most of my meetings.
So I keep it stupid simple.
The first one is leadership.
If I'm gonna join anopportunity, I'm gonna take time
away from my family, from otherthings that are producing
income.
Is the leadership right?
That was one of the biggestquestions I had when I heard
Bobby speak.
I had private zooms and Ifinally just met him.
I've met now our CEO andvarious other field leaders.
I'm blown away.
(36:17):
Blown away.
Speed of the leadership group,speed of the pack you guys all
know the sang these guys are all, and women now with cammy, are
all visionaries where they'retaking this thing.
I can't even pretend to paintthat picture because I'm just
along for the ride, which has meexcited.
The second thing is the model.
I've already compared it to EXP.
It is so early similar to EXP.
In fact, they made one change Iwon't go into today, which is
(36:38):
better than EXP, and I'm gonnaget in trouble for that one.
I already know the model.
We've made a fortune with it.
I felt a lot of people make afortune.
The third one is timing.
It's what Bobby just said.
My friends, we're in that fact.
This is the only time Idisagree with our CEO and I'll
say it in front of the president, so I'm gonna get in big
trouble.
He says we're at the top of thefirst inning.
I disagree.
I think we're still, at battingpractice, less than 4% market
(36:59):
share.
If you're on the East Coast,where Bobby and I are, I could
argue it's between two and 3%.
We're not even close to four.
And so you can hear it in mytonality and my voice, my
posture.
When you put leadership of thisgroup, the mission and the
vision behind what we're doing,the model and the five different
ways we get paid, and youcombine it with the TN timing,
my friends, it is lights out.
Bobby, in closing, what wouldyou say to a solo professional
(37:22):
who is not with us yet.
Someone in our company sentthem this podcast.
They found it on YouTube,wherever, and they're interested
.
They're thinking about joining,but they're still questioning
it.
Hey, I'm doing okay at mycurrent place.
Should I join, should I not?
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's an interesting question.
There's the smart ass side.
To me, that would say well,what?
Are you thinking about?
Why would you work for a solocompany when you can?
Own your own, Earn two to threetimes as much money.
Get deals people sending youdeals from all over the world.
We have people in thePhilippines that are closing two
, three deals a day in flipflops and beach.
(37:56):
So I would just say to the solopro that would be my smart
alecary remark is come on, whatare you thinking about?
What preconceived ideas areholding you back?
What words were being whisperedin your ear when you were a kid
?
What's holding you back Ifyou're a non solo pro?
look real estate.
Come on, if you're a realestate agent, I have two sides
to that.
How can you be a real estateagent without being able to
(38:17):
guide your clients in energyconsumption?
It's the biggest.
Most people paying a thousanddollars a month now for gas and
electric bills, right?
The rates are doubling inmarkets around the country as we
speak.
You got your house, you getyour car, you got your gas
electric bill right.
If a mortgage brokers and weknow the economy is what it is
in the tank we know theseindustries are really looking.
We have a big event, career weekcoming up which is designed for
(38:39):
solar pros and real estate,mortgage professionals, and then
HVAC.
And if you're calling on ahomeowner and you're selling
them something else, you'recutting their lawn, you're doing
home security.
Whatever you're doing, it justmakes sense.
I just don't understand whythis whole pro.
I've never believed in the jobmentality.
You got one life, you got oneshot.
Why would you want to takeorders from someone else?
(38:59):
This is not the military.
Why would you want to go thatpathway?
Fear, anxiety, what is itthat's holding you back?
And we train a lot of that.
No company does more of mindsettraining and breakthrough
training and all those things asour national convention opened
up, with breathwork and icebaths and board breaking
sessions, and we believe in that.
The funniest thing for me, aaronyou opened up with it and it's
(39:20):
funny, I never even thoughtabout it till the last six
months.
I'm a guy that's built on theSun.
I'm the beach behind me, I workat the pool.
I went here.
I am ended up following the Sun.
It wasn't even my initialintention.
I didn't get it.
I didn't put the two thingstogether at the time and now
here I am.
My next meeting scheduled arein Hawaii and and Puerto Rico
(39:41):
and South Florida, and which iswhere I'd want to be, anyway.
So if you open up to theuniverse now I went from cancer
Foundation to following the SunIf you open up your mind and
we've learned this from theCalifornia people and Jonathan
and have opened up my mind somuch to the possibilities that
(40:02):
the universe speaks and you haveto listen to it.
You have to.
You have to pay attention,science, but the first thing you
have to do is be open-mindedenough to understand that this
is happening.
The government is not gonna tryand take.
The government's gonna continueto try and take away our rights
to clean energy.
They killed it in Nevada and itcame back.
They just tried to kill it inCalifornia.
They tried to sneak a bill inthe House of Representatives in
(40:24):
Florida.
They are doing it right now inNorth Carolina.
They will continue to try andtake away your right to clean
energy.
They are going to continue todouble your electric bills.
None of this is gonna changeand there's nothing anybody can
do about it.
Our politicians pockets arelined with dirty energy money
and I'll scream it from themountaintops right.
(40:46):
There are inevitable factorshere in including the climate,
including I grew up on the water.
I had a boat for many years.
You can't, I know you fish withyour kids.
Well, what about when the kidscan't eat those fish?
If you took those fish, aaron,you're catching right now and
did a test on them, and mercuryand everything else, you would
need them, you could need them.
So where are we headed?
What are we gonna do about it?
(41:06):
So these are undeniable factorsand when you just Put them in a
ball and roll them up, did Ihave any idea where we'd be
today and that we'd be openingthe beaches of the world?
Had no idea.
But I would just say everybodyout here again in closing
Farron's closing is just open upyour mind to the Possibilities
(41:26):
that the universe will speak toyou.
Your children will speak to youand I want more than anything
else, my children have alwaysknown and will always know that
yes, is our lifestyle good, yes,they live well, but their
father and my wife have alwaysstood for Lifting up the world,
doing something better.
(41:47):
And when your kids can look youin the eye and say, mom, dad,
I'm really proud.
I know we need money, I know wegot to pay bills, but what
you're doing, you're standingfor something but meaning
something.
What you're doing and both mykids are following pathways of
Meaningful careers that thattouch people's lives.
And now my daughter juststarted talking about dinner the
other night, about openingMaybe opening our own practice
(42:07):
one day, or whatever whereverthey're gonna go.
I just I appreciate thatentrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
I love it.
I love it and you said thisearly on and your version of it
is something I've adopted andit's proof, successful to both
of us Never, ever make adecision without opening the
door, peek in your head and singwhat's on the other side, and
so I would leave that thatanalogy with anyone who's
watching this for the first timeTo come look at it, come take a
look, hop on a zoom with us.
(42:32):
We're happy to show you there'samazing content, but it's the
real deal.
Bobby, I can't thank you enough.
Not only is it an honor to havethe president of power, a
company that that I as a hundredpercent of my attention as we
build, but, like I said, you'vebecome a dear friend and the
honor was all mine.
My friend, I speak for all ofthe solar sales uncensored
community.
This will go down as a as therecord breaking episode.
(42:54):
I have zero doubt and I can'twait to get it out into
everyone's hands.
If you don't mind and I wedidn't talk about this I'm gonna
throw your LinkedIn profile onthe description so that people
can reach out if they wanted to.
They can follow more, morebehind the scenes on what you're
doing every day to lead ouramazing company, but I can't
thank you enough, my friendFolks.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
There are so many talented people out there right
now.
They're just looking fordifferent.
They're tired of what they'redoing and we're heading into the
holiday season.
I don't know how dated thiswill become.
We're heading into the holidayseason, when people become
reflective this time of year,and what do they really want
their lives to stand for?
Who do they want to go to workwith it?
I don't even bear and sometimesI feel guilty.
We talked about this again.
I don't feel like I'm workingright now.
We're not working right, we?
(43:30):
I get to wake up every when'sthe last time?
I would just say this toeverybody watching closing
When's the last?
time that you couldn't wait toget out of bed so you could do
it all over again and Work withpeople that you truly love, that
you truly admire, that youtruly respect, that lift you up
and influence the way you thinkand what you eat and where you
(43:51):
dress and the vitamins you takeand the Workouts you do, and and
that's how I feel I just can'twait to wake up and do it again
and I only wish for everybodythat they get to experience that
at least once in their lives.
You combine those two things.
They say you'll never work aday in your life.
Right, if you'd love what youdo and the admiration of your
children for what you do and howyou carry yourself and the
(44:12):
impact you have on other peoplein the world, no, then you put a
cherry on top of that one buddyand you got one hell of a
Sunday.
That's the deal.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Let's freaking go.
So with that we're gonna shutit down and get back to work.
I hope everybody enjoyed theepisode.
Be good, be safe and God blessBobby.
Thank you again from the bottomof my heart.
We'll talk soon, my friends,you.
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