Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Jayson Waller: Find Your Power | E78

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

The way to have power is to go out and take it! Today we're chatting with Jayson Waller, the CEO of PowerHome Solar, America’s new superpower in home energy. Jayson is also the host of True Underdog... Podcast, a top how to podcast on Apple Podcasts.  Jayson has a remarkable life story. He’s true underdog, he grew up in a trailer park, suffered childhood abuse, dropped out of college, and to top it off he was a teen dad. But, he rose against all odds to become the award winning CEO of PowerHome Solar, a $300 million dollar company.  In this episode we’ll: Talk about Jayson’s inspiring come up story and what led him too become an entrepreneur We’ll uncover why he risked it all - selling his house and all his assets to fund the turnaround of his business after a rocky year 1   And how he decided to pivot his home security business to solar power which led him to ultimately scale up to a $300 million dollar company in less than 5 years Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at Hala@YoungandProfiting.com Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Jayson's Info Website: https://www.powerhome.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayson-waller-/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaysonwallerbam/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaysonwaller?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaysonWallerBAM/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. You can crush your fingers and all your toes during a data center migration. You can knock on wood, pluck a dozen for leaf clovers or look to your lucky stars for a successful office expansion.
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Starting point is 00:00:46 As our loyal listeners know, my absolute favorite way to kick off the show is to read the reviews we're getting on Apple, Castbox, YouTube, or any platform that lets you leave a review. This week I'm sharing a five star review from Belinda Fung in Canada. If you haven't checked out Young & Profiting podcast, I highly recommend that you do. Hala is a fantastic
Starting point is 00:01:07 interviewer and an impressive conversation navigator. Her questions dive deep into many topics including entrepreneurship and emotional intelligence. I came across this podcast by fluke and what a blessing. I've listened to one episode every morning since I found it and I always look forward to the new ones. If you're on the fence, just check it out. There's so much value in this podcast, and I hope more people get benefit from it.
Starting point is 00:01:32 Thank you so much, Felinda, for listening. And to everyone out there, I'd love to know what your favorite episode is, and why. The best way to do this is to leave a five-star review on Apple podcasts or your favorite platform. And if you can't leave a review, share your thoughts on social. Tag us at Yap with Hala on Instagram or Hala Tah-Hah on LinkedIn. I'll definitely reshare the post and I can't wait to hear what you think about the show.
Starting point is 00:01:58 You're listening to Yap, Young and Profiting Podcast. A place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halataha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value for my guess by doing the proper research and asking the right questions.
Starting point is 00:02:33 If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and best-selling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young & Profiting Podcast. Today on the show we're chatting with Jason Waller, the CEO of Power Home Solar, America's new superpower in home energy. Jason's also the host of True Underdog Podcast, a top-how-to podcast on Apple. Jason has had a remarkable life story.
Starting point is 00:03:13 He's a true underdog, growing up in a trailer park, suffering childhood abuse, dropping out of college, and to top it all off, he was also a teen dad. But he rose against all odds to become the award-winning CEO of Power Home Solar, a $300 million dollar company. In this episode, we'll talk about Jason's inspiring come-up story and what led him to become an entrepreneur. We'll uncover why he risked it all, selling his house and all his assets to fund the turnaround of his business after a rocky year one
Starting point is 00:03:45 and how he decided to pivot his home security business to solar power which led him to ultimately scale up to a $300 million company in less than five years Hey, Jason welcome to young and profiting podcast Hey, thanks for having me super excited me too. I your story. I can't wait to get into this. You have had a remarkable life. You are the epitome of the American dream. You're the CEO of Power Home Solar, America's new super power in home energy. And you launched in 2014. And now you have over 1000 employees, you operate in over 10 states, and you've also been named
Starting point is 00:04:25 one of the top 100 fastest growing private companies in the US by Inc. Magazine. And your company is the top number one residential solar power provider in the Midwest and Southeast markets. So that is super impressive. And I know it wasn't really a straight path to success for you.
Starting point is 00:04:44 You grew up in a trailer park. You suffered from child abuse. You dropped out of college. You were a teen dad. And then you rose to become this like super powerful CEO at Power Home Solar. You are the true definition of an underdog. And I definitely want to spend a lot of time uncovering
Starting point is 00:05:00 your story really unpacking that because I think there's so many gems for our listeners. So let's start with your younger self. Let's start all the way back to your childhood. What was it like for you growing up? Did you have particular dreams or ambitions? And did you ever imagine yourself to become this super powerful CEO? Yeah, no, thank you and thanks for all the kudos. I appreciate that. You obviously did your research. I had a lot of information on the company So super excited, you know growing up my parents were blue collar workers my dad married my mom when he was 18 and she was 16 and They moved to Arizona. He was from Michigan. She was from North Carolina and she had me at 18 and my dad was 20
Starting point is 00:05:41 So there were young parents neither one of them went to college neither one of them finished high school and my dad was 20. So they were young parents, neither one of them went to college, neither one of them finished high school. And my dad worked for AT&T, we call her America. My mom worked it, fries, which was a bakery, and she made bread, worked in the deli, and then she started decorating cakes. So that's what I grew up with. She also babysit on the weekends to make extra money. I wouldn't say we were poor,
Starting point is 00:06:00 but we were less than middle class. My parents worked hard. They worked a lot. So as I had a brother and sister My parents were tired. They worked a lot. So as I had a brother and sister, I had to help babysit a lot. I almost had to be their parent pretty much because my parents were working so much, just to make sure that they can put food on the table
Starting point is 00:06:14 and we can have decent clothes and have a roof over our head. And growing up, I saw my parents struggle. And I always had goals. You have to be a football player or a sports agent or an attorney or something. And I was really good at math. But I had this knack of talking and ideas and vision early on trying to motivate the kids what we can do.
Starting point is 00:06:38 We played a game called like Goonies. The movie Goonies came out when I was a kid. So we played Goonies and we'd set up how to get out of traps. But as I grew older, I started to see my parents really struggle. My dad filed bankruptcy multiple times. He was bad with money when he made money. And I saw that. We'd moved a lot.
Starting point is 00:06:55 I mean, we moved a lot as a kid. And I think it finally got stable in fifth grade where I was there three years. And then we moved to North Carolina. My dad had an opportunity to be an entrepreneur if he wanted to be. He had a friend of his that opened up a video store and video stores were cool. I think the last blockbusters are still open, but back in the late 80s, early 90s, video stores were boomin' and that was the VHS tapes. And my first job at 14 was working at that video store,
Starting point is 00:07:22 puttin' away movies and put and putting Rocky Fore on and getting paid like six bucks or five bucks an hour, whatever it was, part time after school. And it was cool. But my dad got, you know, he worked corporate America with AT&T, they were shutting the plant down. And my brother and sister at asthma, he was worried about benefits. His friend, the late Mike Roberts, who owned video power store, said, hey, I'll open you a sub shop and and share a bakery right next to one of the video stores
Starting point is 00:07:47 stay here. My dad said, no, he went with a safe route. I'm not mad at him, he had two kids with asthma. And I remember him talking about it in the bedroom. And I don't want to do this. We're going to move to North Carolina and figure things out. And we did.
Starting point is 00:08:01 And that was kind of a pivotal point for me. I saw, and I lived through his decision. And not that it was a bad decision. I don't ever believe there's a bad decision. You make the most out of whatever decision you make as long as you make a decision. But I saw what I didn't want to do. I saw an opportunity for him to take it to the next level and not be less than or have to bust his butt all the time or get things like that and miss out on his kids stuff because he's working so much. I saw that opportunity when I moved, you know, we moved North Carolina
Starting point is 00:08:27 that I didn't wanna go ever go through that, that if I could find a way in that horse-druck by I was gonna jump on it. Yeah, that's so interesting. And so from my understanding, you know, you have up to you the 10th grade education in terms of formal education. Why did you decide that like school
Starting point is 00:08:43 like wasn't really for you? And how did you, I know you just mentioned your first job at the video store, which was sort of like a sales job, but then you ended up going to sales. So how did you end up going into sales after that? Well, on the school thing, so you know, when I moved to North Carolina, I didn't fit in. I mean, I just, I'll just say it, I really did.
Starting point is 00:09:01 I grew up in Arizona. A lot of my friends were Hispanic, you know, from California and white, and we didn't have a lot of African-American kids growing up in Arizona. There was a few in my school, two of them were my best friends, or on the basketball team and on the wrestling team with me. When I moved to North Carolina, it was a different feeling. There was still a lot of racism kind of going on. So when I came to that school, you had white kids at one table, black kids at another table.
Starting point is 00:09:26 There was no Hispanics. And I was like, where do I fit in? Because I thought I was a gangster. I came from Phoenix. I joined this little gang. I was a gang banger wannabe. The white kids were really kind of redneck and country. And the black kids were cool, but they really hang out with the white kids.
Starting point is 00:09:45 That's what it felt like when I moved to North Carolina. So I was an outsider, and a lot of my friends that I ended up gaining in school there were also outsiders that lived in the trailer park that came from other states. Buddy of mine came from Louisiana, and another buddy came from California, and another buddy came from Kansas.
Starting point is 00:10:01 We all lived in the trailer park together, and it was kind of like us versus the world. You'd go to parties and they wouldn't want us there. And I had great grades. I won an award for math as a freshman for the best scores on the testing in the county. And I did very well. It was very good at math, but I had a mouth on me.
Starting point is 00:10:18 I didn't like authority figures. I struggled with listening to people and I thought it was wrong. And I got a lot of fights. Because I never started a fight, I never bullied anybody, but I was always like, all right, so I got a lot of fights
Starting point is 00:10:30 and that got me in trouble out of school. So I kind of got kicked out and started working. And when I did that, as a young man, I got my girlfriend who's now my wife pregnant. And we have four beautiful kids now. We've been married 19 plus years
Starting point is 00:10:45 on and off for 23 because we played house a lot when Hannah was first born. Hannah's my oldest is 21. And you know, we went through a hard time where I get her pregnant. She's a teenager. I'm a teenager. Her family doesn't like me. They think I'm less than my parent. Yeah, it was just a tough situation. And you know, we lived in a trailer park. People made fun of me at school, like you live in, you know, trailer. Yeah, and I had fake Tommy Hilfiger's days. This was an issue for people.
Starting point is 00:11:11 I wasn't used to that. Growing up in Phoenix, it wasn't about how many things you had or much money you had. It was how tough you were, who your homeboys were, what sets you claim? It was different. When I moved to North Carolina, I was like, where do you live?
Starting point is 00:11:22 What do you drive? It was more of a measuring thing and I just didn't fit in in that. And so that kind of motivated me. And I got into sales. When I went back to Arizona 97, I went there and was going to try to go back to school or figure things out. I had my friend Joey Kustin, he had a his mom took custody of me for about three months. And I decided to re-enroll into high school senior year and it was a mess. But when I did, I got a job with Kevin Klingko's my business partner now. He was selling credit card protection on telemarketing. And he was 17 years old. He was making four or five hundred bucks a week part time. And this is a 97. So I said, I can do that. I can hustle with the best of him. So I went
Starting point is 00:12:02 meet him with compete for first and second, make great money. Then we start selling home security over the phone for about a month. And we're making $7,800, part time a week, selling home security. And it was like, the pitch was pretty simple. It was like, hey, Aula, I see that you registered at the mall to win this brand new Dodge Durango.
Starting point is 00:12:19 And you're like, yeah, yeah, great news. You're still in the runnings for it, but do you hear that? You've actually been selected to receive a free home security system, free installation, dollar a day monitoring. You keep the bad guys away. We'll get you the, I fall in and can't get up medical monitor button that you hit in
Starting point is 00:12:33 case something. The whole thing, all we got to do is schedule an install to dollar a day, 30 bucks a month, and I would, I crushed that. And so I knew I could sell. I was like, wow, on the phone, I can be whoever I want to be. I don't have to be this trailer part kid. I don't, on the phone, I can be an act as if. I can empower myself to be something different
Starting point is 00:12:51 and really use my voice and energy and passion to get somebody to buy what we're selling. And I saw that power. So when I went back to North Carolina, I got, you know, a job at first junior, and I wasn't supposed to get, I adjusted my resume, said I graduated college, I didn't got a job there or anyways. Or, you know, and then after I had the job,
Starting point is 00:13:08 I was their top sales rep, you know, got a job at AT&T doing sales. I just did lots of things like that, that, you know, that made a difference and started to learn sales. I was about 17 when I first started doing officially says, well, I also mowed lawns at 15 or 16, knocking on doors if you count that.
Starting point is 00:13:23 So, yeah. Well, that's incredible. It just shows the value of using your grids and getting that experience. It doesn't matter if you have a formal education. You probably learned so much just getting thrown into the workforce, so young, a lot of people, you know, wait until they're 22 till their first job. And they lose out on all like the social skills, which you're so good at. So you are the definition of a true underdog, you know, you came from. Of course, I mean, I'm very impressed with you.
Starting point is 00:13:51 So do you think that being an underdog gives you an advantage? And do you think that like not having that formal education has given you an advantage in life? I will tell you, Hala, early on in my career of being an entrepreneur around 24, I had 21 plus jobs before I was 24, right? So I had all this experience of tons of jobs.
Starting point is 00:14:10 I just had a podcast that talks about my jobs. It was 25 plus jobs, you know, all before I was like 24 years old. However, when I got jobs, when I first opened a business and I had people with college education working for me, I struggled with that. I struggled with that. I struggled because I was insecure, right? I struggled because I felt they're smarter than me and I'm telling them what to do. They're looking at me like I'm some kind of child that doesn't know anything. And it was an insecurity. I had to learn and evolve to overcome, right?
Starting point is 00:14:39 I didn't take my ball to go home, but I would struggle and I would struggle and I'd have to get better and learn to take charge and be an authority figure and be a leader. And it didn't happen overnight. It took some time. It took some getting stuck in a corner where I felt like these guys would take advantage of me because they were smarter than me or they could spell better than me or they could speak better than me. And eventually enough had enough and I kind of snapped one day in a sales meeting and
Starting point is 00:15:01 I said, who's going to be here for training? And a couple guys like, I'm not going to be here And I told them to get the F out of the office. I lost my cool. I'm like, get your ass out of my office. I'm done. They were old, I didn't give a shit. I was like, bounce. I'm right in the checks here.
Starting point is 00:15:12 Go. And when I did that, that was kind of a pivotal moment where it was like, wow, like this is my show. I've got to act like it's my show. I've got to get my shit together. I can't, I can't be manipulated anymore because that person so much educated. And it took time and it continued
Starting point is 00:15:25 to evolve where I would meet other business owners and they would have all this education and sometimes I would feel less than like this guy went to Harvard, this guy went to Berkeley and he runs this company and maybe smarter than me and better than me and really it's after more experience and more failure and then more success. I got to the point. I love meeting guys like that because I can dance circles around them. They went to school and spent all this money to learn nothing that is doing what they're doing now, unless they're a doctor or a vet or an attorney. They've pissed their money away in my opinion.
Starting point is 00:15:55 And I've got all this experience in this edge and this hunger and I've already failed. So I'm not scared of rejection where they're all it. So now I just embrace and love that because they are way more intrigued by me than I am them over time. And it just took time to learn and evolve that with the experience and growing. Yeah, I can totally relate to that.
Starting point is 00:16:15 I've had so many different jobs. I was working all through high school. I dropped out of college to work at a radio station and got a lot of pushback for that. So can totally relate how experiences is what really gives you the skills to kind of level up and being the real world. You know, education can only take you so far. It's so like conceptual.
Starting point is 00:16:34 It's not really practical. And I think that's really the new way to succeed. You're obviously a lot more successful than I am, but I could definitely relate. I appreciate that. Yeah, so do you think that being an underdog helps you be more nimble? So let's talk about you in the solar space. So your brand new company, or you were a brand new company at one point, and you were an underdog at that point.
Starting point is 00:16:59 It reminds me of a book I read by Malcolm Gladwell. It's called David and the Goliath. And one of the main points he makes is that most people underestimate the importance of agility and speed. And that's why companies like yours, like the ability to be nimble and agile can really help you get ahead.
Starting point is 00:17:16 So how has being an underdog, being a new player in the space, actually giving you an advantage in the solar space? I would say, and great question, I would say, when I opened the home security business, I opened it out of my master bedroom with a shower tile wall. That was my schedule.
Starting point is 00:17:34 So I bought like this thing at Home Depot that goes on tubs and I marked it with marker because I had no money. And I'm still working at Verizon Wireless and trying to sell home security at night. And I built it out of my master bedroom, wife's helping me get these contracts together to sell them. I'm learning as I go, right? And going from there to build the security company does very well. And then joining another security and building that one that does well.
Starting point is 00:17:56 You gain experience of knowledge of what works and what doesn't, right? How to fail, how to get up, what to look for. Some of the things I learned was, I felt like I could sell anything if I believed it. And I have to believe it. It's authentic. I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners for a couple weeks and I said, this is a ripoff, I can't do it.
Starting point is 00:18:15 I sold wireless cell phones and PDAs, blackberries when they first came out. I believed in that and I crushed it, right? So you got to believe in something. And with home security, I love that business. It saves lives. It keeps the bad guys away. I loved it and I did well at it, but I had to the groom that when I did home security, we were getting into that business. I said, I don't care for some water or ice or home security or solar, you know, with solar, I can make this work. I just didn't understand solar. So I'd hire a GC contract to kind of educate us on the process. And then I
Starting point is 00:18:45 realized real fast how scary this is because I go out and sell it. But in solar, it's like a construction business. It's not like it's a home security where I sign you up and I sell the paper to ADT or Brinks and I get paid for it. And then I can pay my installer and the equipment vendor and everything. That ain't like this. This is you sell a job. You don't get paid to let installs and that can be two, three months later. You got to pay your sales commission, your marketing, your interconnection, your permitting, everything, and it becomes a cash problem. So we opened up the solar company and we went full blown.
Starting point is 00:19:16 I had to take all the money I ever made in home security, put it in there. I didn't go on payroll for 19 months opening up the solar company. So for 19 months, I didn't get a paycheck. My wife's getting upset. This is crazy. It got so bad we sold our house on the lake and reinvested that into the company. And I really got some stink eye on that.
Starting point is 00:19:35 And I'm like, trust me, I'm not gonna fail. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've just got to get over this cash flow problem. And there was a time at the end of 15, because we opened the name in 14, but we didn't really open the doors and start selling till 15, because I wrapped up the sale of the home security company.
Starting point is 00:19:53 And then 15, we did three million in sales, we lost a million bucks. Million bucks had to come from somewhere, right? Came for me with money I made in the home security business and I didn't get a paycheck. Then in 16, we did about 14 million in sales. So we grew almost four times the size, however, or plus four times the size, we still lost money.
Starting point is 00:20:13 That had to come from somewhere. I started getting on payroll in November of that year. But things started to turn because I almost shut down the end of 15. I was scared. And my business partner, Kevin, was like, we need to close this down. And he was running some call center stuff for it. I'm like can't we argued about it. I said if you want out get out I'm in and so in June of 16. I brought him back full time It's that either you were in or out he came and helped me grow it because things were starting to turn
Starting point is 00:20:34 17 we did really well we did 40 million in sales we're profitable 18 we did 105 we're profitable last year we did 185 Propheaux will break 330 million in sales this year We have a thing called, bam, building a movement. We plan on doing almost a billion in sales next year. We did 53 million last month, so you can do the math. We're on the road, but it's because we're in an industry that you just have to learn. If you can be passionate, you believe in something you sell, that's what it was.
Starting point is 00:21:00 I wasn't scared to fail and learn. What I built is that what I want to do that was different in this company is I didn't want to depend on people when we're doing home security I depended on sales reps to knock a door or call somebody if they didn't show up we struggled. I wanted us to have the gold. So at our company we do a lot of online marketing, digital marketing, we spend millions of dollars a month on lead, Jen, and branding. Therefore, the leads come to us and we give them out, which means we control the growth, not the sales folks. And that's a whole different thing because now we don't have to hire sales folks. We can hire educators that teach people what solar's about because they raise their hands
Starting point is 00:21:36 and say they're interested. It's a whole different mindset that really allows us to be successful. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game
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Starting point is 00:22:58 Wow. That's really cool. You said so many things that I'm definitely going to touch on. I want to just backtrack to you starting this power home solar business. So you were working a day job, you said, and you were running this security business at night. So how did you decide that you were gonna take it full fledged and quit your nine to five? Like what was that process like?
Starting point is 00:23:20 Well, with, when I opened home security in 2005, I was working Verizon for about 11 months and doing home security at night until I was making enough money I quit Verizon. In 2015, January 2015, sold power home technologies. I was an owner in that. We built that up. There was a second home security company I was a part of that we built up and made a little bit of money.
Starting point is 00:23:42 With that money, I invested in Power Home Solar to open and didn't pay myself for 19 months, but I was all in January 1st of 15, but I was hiring people in a new industry where I'm trusting them to do everything. And really, that was against everything I've done before in security, I did everything. So nobody could be asked me of what the job consists of or how hard it is, or I wanted to do everything. So now I was like, this is wrong. So come the end of 15, going into 16, I started running the appointments,
Starting point is 00:24:11 I started selling over the phone, I started doing the proposals, I fired the sales manager, I would meet with these clients. And all of a sudden, my closing percentage was gonna be 80% or 90% because, you know, I'm aggressive, I'm a passionate, I explain it, I'm not sending reps out on appointments and they're selling one in 10 and it's costing us a boatload of money with marketing.
Starting point is 00:24:29 I was closing these so it allowed us to go, okay, well, let me train a little me and then let me train another little me and then let them morph and I can step back and start to scale. And that's what really happened. I decided in the home security business when I made enough money, I could leave Verizon I did and went full time home security. And in solar, I jumped all in, but I had this bubble of money that I was like, okay,
Starting point is 00:24:50 I made a little bit of money on security. I don't need to get paid. I'll just reinvest the money. Well, it was so bad that I just stick that money in, right? And reinvest any profits for almost, you know, 19 months until I went on payroll. Then it broke. Then all the deals were happening, things were happening,
Starting point is 00:25:06 banks that we were financing customers through would pay us a little earlier, things just started to evolve better when it was like this is working. Yeah, that's so interesting. So when you decided to turn into solar, for my understanding, you actually read about another competitor who transformed his security business into a solar business name.
Starting point is 00:25:24 What was his name? Use Utah? Todd Peterson from Utah. Yeah. And so tell us about that. Like how did he motivate you to kind of make the same switch? And then now how are you performing compared to his company? So me and Todd don't personally know each other. We have some of the same friends, but he's always been the Godfather of Home Security back in the day, right? He had a thing called summer programs. He's out of Utah.
Starting point is 00:25:48 He recruits a lot of Mormon kids at a BYU that go out and do summer programs, and they're so good, because they knock on doors on some of their missions that when they go out and knock on doors, this is back in the day for home security, they crushed it because it's what they've always done. Knock on on doors,
Starting point is 00:26:01 get people to be part of the Latter Day Saints church and community, they're used to doing that. So when they went out to the security, they were like, they were guillotine, right? Everybody else was David. It was crazy. Well, everyone tried to duplicate that building your own van teams and do stuff, right? And nobody can master it completely. Well, then he morphed into solar around 2012-2011-ish, and I wanted to get into it in about 13. I read about it. I'm like, man, this guy went from APEC security to Vivint security to Vivint solar. That is where the future is.
Starting point is 00:26:34 Everyone's doing home security now. So it kind of motivated me to kind of do that and be a part of something like that. When I had the opportunity to get out of the security business of 15, it went full blown. I was excited. It was a tough road. I was excited. It was a tough road. I wouldn't use the construction part. Todd's team now just, Vivint just partnered with and got bought by Sunrun about a month
Starting point is 00:26:51 ago. It was a major billion dollar deal, a couple billion dollars, and Sunrun bought them up. And I think he's a consultant for him or doing some things wrapping up. But yeah, he was the Godfather originally of security, and really one of the pioneers and leaders in residential solar the last four or five years. So, you know, I'm a big believer. When you see someone successful, you really want to follow what they're doing, and you want to, you know, they're pathing the way.
Starting point is 00:27:18 You want to be able to go down that and help path the way for the next person, too. And that's kind of what I did. I saw what he was doing. I was like, wow, we kind of got to do things. Our markets are a little different. We don't doorknoc. ours is all online or TV. Customers want, inquire about us.
Starting point is 00:27:30 We go send them up. So it's a different model. And then we do add a lot of energy efficiency. It's not just solar. We do blown insulation, LED lights, all this stuff. But it's the same concept. And I saw how successful heat transition that gave me hope that I could do that as well.
Starting point is 00:27:44 And we did really good. They're a little bigger than us. They're publicly traded now, but we're on the path. I have a feeling that we'll cross path sooner than later. Yeah, that's really cool. And I think you bring up a great point that sometimes it's not about reinventing the wheel. Sometimes it's about looking what's available to you,
Starting point is 00:28:01 what has worked for other people, taking the best parts of their model and improving on other parts. And it looks like you did that really successfully. So congratulations. Let's take it back to when you had to basically sell your home. Like you said, you didn't take it, you and Kevin, I believe didn't take a check for 19 months, like you said. So what was that feeling like?
Starting point is 00:28:23 And I know that you're a big proponent of training your mind to be calm in every situation. And you've got some good advice in terms of dealing with anxiety. What did it feel like when you were in that moment? And what was actually going on? Like tell us deeper in terms of like what was going on at that time? And how you like decided you were going to kind of risk it all and how you dealt with that anxiety.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Great question. When I first, I learned from the home security business that as long as I'm getting a paycheck from Verizon Wireless, I can run this and reinvest. And because I did that, the security business took off and I could leave Verizon. In solar, I didn't have another job. I did have some money I made in the security business.
Starting point is 00:29:03 It's no secret. I made $1.5 million selling the first, you have, if you're selling the security company. That's a lot of money to some people. It still is a lot of money, but when you make that and then you open a business and you've got to invest it and you're not getting a paycheck and you stick all that in there and still don't get a paycheck, it didn't matter what you made on the first thing. So I had a couple things I was battling. One, Everything I worked for for like 12 years. You know with 15 to actually was 10 years 11 years. Everything I ever worked for. I had now in a brand new company that was losing money And I wasn't getting a paycheck. So you know me and my wife started from having nothing and built up this lifestyle that we were doing pretty good
Starting point is 00:29:40 Living on the lake and Lake Norman. You know, we got a boat. You boat. It's like this life is pretty good to, we got to sell the house. We've got a downgrade. We're all six of us are going to be in the smaller house where our oldest graduates are high school. We're going to back, I'm a big believer in not using credit. So everything I usually buy cash anyways. Buy the small house, cash, sell that house, whatever we're going to reinvest in the business.
Starting point is 00:30:01 I'm fighting that battle at home of getting my wife and or family to trust me because we've never been in waters like this. You know, Jason, you're not getting a paycheck and you're putting all the money in there. I have my business partner, Kevin, not trusting the situation. Kevin didn't have the money. He was a smaller owner in the security company
Starting point is 00:30:18 so we only made 250 grand. He had no money to really put in. So here I am, we're equal partners. When we became partners, as a look-at-the-look-at, we're gonna be equal even though he had nothing to really pony up, I didn't care, I'm not greedy. I said, I just gotta call decisions, right? I'm the decision maker, that's it, but we're right or die.
Starting point is 00:30:34 And he fits well, if I'm Batman, he's Robin. He makes me better, I make him better, but that's kind of the way it works. So when things got real tough and we needed money, he didn't have it to give that. So I had to put this money in regardless. So I'm doing that, no paycheck. I'm struggling.
Starting point is 00:30:49 I mean, I was at a Disney trip at the end of 15 that I probably shouldn't have went on because I didn't have the money, but I already paid for it way ahead. And I'm there with my family. And I'm upset, I'm like tearing up. You know, I don't like to cry and share my feelings. I don't like to show weakness.
Starting point is 00:31:02 I like to be in control. And I'm getting a little fired up. My wife's strong. And like, you know, Kevin thinks we need to shut down. You know, I'm arguing with him. I'm like, no, you know, we have put all this money in this. And this is right before I offered to put the house up to sell and put it in. All the money we put in, we're not going to get paid to the end of 15. And I said, I don't know what to do. I'm kind of, I'm in a tough spot. I don't know when to quit. So like, we just need to pray about it, think about it and do what's best I trust. You always make the right decision.
Starting point is 00:31:27 And so that kind of gave me a little bit more confidence that you need. You always need someone in your corner. And so I was like, all right, so I prayed about it. And I thought about it. And I was like, I'm not gonna go down like this. You know, I'm a fighter. You know, if it's fighter flight,
Starting point is 00:31:38 I fight every single time. I'm never scared. So I'm like, I gotta go swig and what's the worst thing? I lose everything I start over. I gotta do this. So I went in, that's when I cleaned house. I fired like 70% of the people. If they weren't making the company money or they weren't doing their job, I was, we didn't have a lot of employees, maybe like 35, I fired like 20 of them. I was on a mission. I was like, they're gone, they're gone, you're not doing your job. And I started,
Starting point is 00:32:00 you know, juggling a lot of balls. And that's where it started to turn about four or five, six months in. All of a sudden, the numbers are starting to turn and we'reuggling a lot of balls. And that's where it started to turn about four, five, six months in. All of a sudden, the numbers are starting to turn and we're doing a lot better. Still lost money. And that's when I brought Kevin on full time. I said, dude, I've got this under control. I need you here. I need you to close the call so get down here. And so he did.
Starting point is 00:32:15 And he could take over the marketing partner. I could still grow the sales and the operations. And, you know, that got me through that time. But that whole time struggle with not getting a paycheck. I mean, Kevin, worried we were using personal amixes and You know pay this to borrow from this and you know you got to be creative and we wouldn't go home and talk about it Because we didn't want to stress our families out But we would be late nights midnight one in the morning stressing strategizing. What are we gonna do?
Starting point is 00:32:40 Kevin's always been cool and calm and collective right Kevin's the type if his house is on fire He's gonna smile ear to ear and go, sorry man, that's how it is. But he was broken just like I was, he was freaking. So that was freaking me out more because I'm always freaking and I'm always edging. I'm like, what, like the Tasmania and I do, he's not like that.
Starting point is 00:32:58 And that's why we're good partners. He's freaking out. And I'm like, holy shit, I've got to get this under control. So I'm like, I've got to plan. Trust me, we'll get, and it worked. And we just, we stayed investing in back into the company, not paying ourselves. We stayed on the grind.
Starting point is 00:33:11 He fixed the marketing. I started selling, I trained the sales reps. We came up with the system. You know, we negotiated better payments for equipment as we grew a little bit. I was aggressive on that, aggressive on the financing. And it finally came to fruition. But it was a lot of sleepless nights.
Starting point is 00:33:24 It was hard, almost broken. I it was a lot of sleepless nights. It was hard, almost broken. I mean, we were bent, not broken. And we've been in tough spots at home security before. I know he has. He had a shutdown before and then came to work for me and then became a partner in the second one. I've never failed, right?
Starting point is 00:33:38 I've never experienced failure. Like I've opened a business and grew up from the ground up once and then joined a company that was doing okay and made it a monster and was a partner in that second time. So as an entrepreneur, I've never failed. This was like failure. And I didn't know how to, you know, we had failure days, but I had to look at, like, look, this is chess, not checkers. I can't just shut the doors. I'm having a bad week or a bad day or bad month. That doesn't mean it's the end of me. Let me continue to focus and stay on this. We did, we had each other, Kevin and I, and we had our families support, but we tried
Starting point is 00:34:10 not to share too much with them because they would have freaked out. We got through it. As we did and we grew, the light at the tunnel things are going good, then it was, wow, look at what we're doing now. Now we're in waters, we're not used to, and I had to bring smarter educated people around me that knew what even a demand, bring a president that's done a private equity deal before, bring a real CFO, things that when you evolved a 30, 40, $50 million company, you've got to do. That's not my bread and butter. My bread and butter's passion, vision,
Starting point is 00:34:38 culture, motivation, and work ethic, and streamlining becoming scalable and cost. Yeah, there's so many cool things that you brought up in such interesting points. I love the fact that you fired 70. I think you said 70% of your staff. I just had Brian Scootamor on and he's the CEO of 1-800-Gott junk. It's also like a $300 million company, huge company.
Starting point is 00:34:59 And he did the same thing right before his company got really huge. He fired nine of his 11 employees and cleaned house and did it all over again. So that's like obviously a really big point. If you don't have the right people, you won't be able to scale. And so when things are going wrong, you have to see like, what who's around you are these people as passionate as I am? And it's not necessarily about their their their talents or their resume. It's more about their passion and if they're willing to learn and if they're willing to
Starting point is 00:35:25 Give it all the same way that you are to make this company work. So I think that's very interesting. Hala one of the things too on that when I'm going through this that one of the problems I had to evolve and get better on that people should probably Take notice too is when you're small in your building a business it becomes like a personal relationship You work for me. We got 12 employees. it's hard for me to fire you, right? Yeah. I have learned over time I can't have relationships with employees, only direct reports. And I hate that because I want to be the cool boss that talks to everybody, but most people have a shelf life, unfortunately.
Starting point is 00:35:57 And I've learned the hard way of letting people stay three months, two years, eight months, too long, costing the company money where I had to develop a mindset that if it's not helping the brand, forget them, forget me. If it's not helping the brand that affects everybody, I'm doing the wrong thing and you have to train yourself to where it's white and black. There is no, I feel bad for them. That's not life. That's not how this works. It's not your job to feel bad.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Their score is their score. If they're doing it great, if they're not, you need to move on. And that mindset when my back's against the wall and my house is on the line and all the money's in here, you're like, you know what? I can't beat your friends anymore, you're out. And I think that's what your guy did. And then what a motto we have at Power Home is an 80-20 rule.
Starting point is 00:36:38 And a lot of other companies follow it. But what I do is I hold all of our executives and directors accountable to make sure they're replacing 20% of their staff every month. And if they don't, I'm like, you're not doing your job because I assure you, if we were GE or Microsoft and we wanted to stay the same, it's about retention. When you're a growing company that's doing this and you're going up, you need to be replacing the bottom 20% because your top 20% to 80% of the work, your next 60% to 20% and that bottom
Starting point is 00:37:05 20% they don't do shit. They hold everybody down, they're negative, they're clowns, they're pessimists, they do everything wrong and you've got to find those and train your leaders to find those and replace them for new blood that want to do that. That's how you grow. That's how companies grow. If you don't do that, you don't put KPIs and do that, you won't grow. That's something I've learned with businesses that you've got to replace.
Starting point is 00:37:25 You keep the ones that are performing and want to be there, but get rid of the ones that it's just a job. Yeah, totally. I think that is exceptional advice. OK, so you pivoted this business and like so many other businesses today with coronavirus and COVID, they are thinking about pivoting
Starting point is 00:37:42 their business if they haven't already. And what would you say to a company that is getting ready pivoting their business if they haven't already. And what would you say to a company that is getting ready to switch their business model? What are some of the blind spots that they should look out for? What's your guidance to them? Well, we were scared. We almost shut down. We have executive meetings every day on a call, which is cool.
Starting point is 00:38:01 And so we're very connected, the five executives. But we, when all this came out, we were scared, and there were, you know, I don't name names, but a couple of the executives that wanted to shut the doors. Hey, it's safe if we furlough everybody and close the doors early in March and call it a day, like some of these other companies in that smart. And it was the day after GE executives took a pay cut to keep their employees working. Not GE was GM in Michigan. I saw it on the news.
Starting point is 00:38:26 And I started to feel bad because at the time we were sitting with around 800 employees in March. You know, we're almost 1,300 now. So I thought about Lucy who works in our call center and makes 14 bucks an hour and she's a single mom. This is before they came out with any of those packages for the government, which we got none because we're over 500 employees. So government gave us nothing. And this is before they came out with an unemployment, right? None of this was out there. So I was like, look, our biggest assets are employees, right? That's what it is. Their passion, what we've built, my fear was, is if we close down then Lucy couldn't pay for her diapers, or she couldn't get a formula for kid, or John,
Starting point is 00:39:02 who's our installer, that's the only income at their house, they can't pay their car payment or the part of the... These are the things that were haunting me. And when you're a CEO or you're the leader of a company or leaders, that waits on you and the more people, the more pressure. Now, I have a weird sickness, I love pressure, I don't know why I golf the other day. My partner messed up on a hit and I'm like, look, I got this, I love the pressure. For some reason, I do, it's I'm like, look, I got this. I love the pressure for some reason. I do. It's like riding a roller coaster.
Starting point is 00:39:26 I love it. But it was nerve-wracking because it's like, look, what's the worst that's going to happen? We're going to negotiate with our vendors to move cash payments to the end of the summer. We're going to negotiate with the NFL teams to take the payments then as well. And we are going to come out of this great because we're going to people that want to work. We're going to allow them to work. People want to stay home. They're scared. We're going to allow them to stay home. Take some vacation time after that, you know, go inactive, we'll figure it out.
Starting point is 00:39:48 So we put those in place and the best part is we took our self-soft payroll for almost three months, all the executives. And that was a tough pill to swallow for a couple of months, guys. This is the right thing to do. When we did that, we announced it to our team, a lot of our team members, I mean directors, managers, all the sales leaders, they all started taking pay cuts to volunteer, to stay open, to pay people. And it came in good benefit because we had a case in Chesterfield, Michigan where someone caught COVID and we had to
Starting point is 00:40:18 shut that office down for two weeks and a lot of those guys didn't have vacation. We paid them. Like we're like, that's the right thing to do. We had to purposely close down. We took care, and that happened twice, two or three times. We made sure, because of the extra funds that people don't know. The employees only had to do it, I think, for three payrolls. We didn't want them to do it, but they did. We're like, guys, we're good now, things have turned around. But when we did that, and we did a deal with GenreRack,
Starting point is 00:40:39 around the same time, which was crazy, as our battery in storage in GenreRack is a generator company. And we came out with the message all over TV, we doubled down on TV saying, now's the time that power matters, you can't be without power for medical supplies, your medicine or your food source. So we were trying to be kind but real to the consumers out there. It took off. So our largest month ever was 22 million in sales in March. We did 33 million in April, 43 million in May, 46 million in June, and 53 million last month in July. We doubled in size
Starting point is 00:41:15 during COVID, doubled the employees. It's wild. And what it is is my advice is you got to fight through it and be adaptive. You can't just take your ball and go home. We allowed some people to work from home that remote that made sense. We spent tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars on Plexiglass to be safe. We got masks. We were paying attention to the CDC and the state organizations, the health organizations
Starting point is 00:41:36 to see what was required at different counties. We did everything we were supposed to do. But we weren't going to shut down as long as a customer wanted to buy and employee wanted to work. It was our job to stay open. And we weren't going to shut down as long as a customer wanted to buy and an employee wanted to work, it was our job to stay open. And we did that. And the executive's just got back on payroll recently, which is good. But you invest in your team, you've invest back into the company. And that's what it's about. We're always like hashtag power home strong, right? Like what can we do for each other? And there's nothing like knowing that you helped
Starting point is 00:42:03 families out that work for you. That goes, you can't replace that feeling that that's what it's about during this because everyone's scared. And whether you have a small business or big business, you got to figure out to do the right thing. I had Dr. Glenn Villan, who's one of the doctors that it's created the antibodies. They did the same thing. They were told to shut down. He had people volunteer their time to create that. There's just one of the three companies in the antibody stuff. He was on the show pandemic. He was on my podcast, great guy. He was telling me stories all emotionally.
Starting point is 00:42:29 I had like 12 people volunteer their time during this to come do these studies and test for free so they can find a cure. I mean, that's what it is. It's about us all coming together and figuring this out. Yeah, we're a business. Yeah, we make money, but our employees make money. We create jobs.
Starting point is 00:42:42 We do all these things that we need to do to make sure lives are better. Customers save money. They want to keep their power on. We create jobs. We do all these things that we need to do to make sure lives are better. Customers save money. They want to keep their power on. So we love what we do. And we got through that, okay? But it's really about teamwork and solutions solving what's best for the brand and the company.
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Starting point is 00:45:12 And it sounds like you were really transparent, really communicative. And that's really important in terms of leading in a pandemic and leading in a crisis like this. And the second thing I heard is that in your messaging to your customers, you altered your messaging to fit the current scenario. You didn't just keep talking about what you always talking about in terms of selling solar. You changed your messaging and your value proposition to your customers so that you would be more relevant, more relatable in this situation. So really, really awesome stuff. I've heard you talking in the past that you have a passion for purpose and your people.
Starting point is 00:45:48 And that's what really drives you. It's not really the money. It's not really the success. It's more about the people and your purpose. So tell us more about that. Well, when I got into this business, I mean, it's no secret. I jumped in it because I thought it was cool.
Starting point is 00:46:01 When I got into the cell phone business, it was 30% penetrated. Nobody thought cell phones were the future. You know, everyone had landlines, bell and AT&T, and that was the world we lived in. And so I would have to meet with business owners, you know, and be like, hey, this is the future,
Starting point is 00:46:15 and you're not gonna use your fax machine or your landline. And it was tough, but I believed in it. You know, I feel the same thing about solar. It's very similar, right? The traditional way of power is gonna go away. Eventually, we're going to have renewable sources everywhere that the utility companies that distribute are they're moving power along. You can choose to own and have your own power pad at home or you can buy into one.
Starting point is 00:46:35 All of that's coming. We've seen it in Europe. We see it in California. We see all these things coming. And I loved that. I thought it was cool that it was technology driven, and it was the American dream. Like, you know, people can have their own power. Nobody, and nobody likes the utility companies. I mean, they provide a service with power, but they overcharge the grids always down. They're very reckless with their cleanup efforts where people are getting poisoned from colis. There's just some problems there, right?
Starting point is 00:47:02 And, you know, we look at that as an opportunity for people to stand up and have their own power and electric cars are the future and people are going to charge the cars at night and they don't want to pay an arm and a leg to do that. Having solar allows them to, all these things I was excited about in 14 and 15 we first opened are really starting to come to fruition now and I was excited about it. And I said, you know, when we did the culture, we were trying to find the reason why I did it because I was excited. After I was in, it was about changing the planet. At first, I wasn't the go-green guy. I wasn't,
Starting point is 00:47:29 I don't drive a priest. When I first opened, I drove a monster truck, like legit. So, I had to change that. But after I was in it, I'm like, wow, this is a problem. Look at the coal ash spill here in Lake Norman. Look at what's going on. Look at all of the issues with the way they produce power. This is an issue with climate change. I became a believer hardcore. And it's just our culture is, you know, bam, build a movement, one panel, one customer, one employee at a time. They're behind that. They want to give people choice of power. They want to be at the forefront of technology. They want people to be able to have a backup battery with storage to where they are not
Starting point is 00:48:05 powerless and they can have the things they need or AC, their Wi-Fi, the refrigeration, whatever it is. We want to be a part of that. It's technology driven and it's cutting edge and it's exciting. Our culture, we try to stay fresh. We try to be cutting edge right now where it's 77% battery attachment rate. Mean 77 out of every customer gets solar gets a battery. Well, you don't save money when you get a battery.
Starting point is 00:48:28 Cost you money. You can save money getting solar but it costs you money. That means people are buying our product because they know. They know that it's important for the world. They know it's important for the environment. They know that long-term they're going to save money. They're not going to be without power. And they're a part of that.
Starting point is 00:48:42 They want to get electric cars or coming down to that part. I mean, they of electric cars. You got Mustang, Sold out Day 1, Camaro, Sold out Day 1. I'm in line to get an electric comer. You know, all these electric cars, they're just coming. And in the next 10, 12 years, I'm a big believer. We're going to be like 80% electric cars. What are we going to do to charge them?
Starting point is 00:48:59 People need to have other power sources. That's where solar and wind come in. And so that passion kind of shares. And I'm an open book. I mean, I share my feelings. I'm raw. I do all the sales meetings for our company. I do all the install meetings for our company. It's once a month on each. And then our Christmas parties and they get to hear me go out there. I'm raw. I mean, I say some bad words. I'm not pretty. You know, I don't, I'm real. I'm like, this is how I feel. Screw the power company. This is what we're in it for. I think our employees appreciate that.
Starting point is 00:49:25 That it's not fake corporate America, just trying to lace our pocketbooks that we're all in this together. We all want to change the world together. You know, we have a mission for our employees. I'm not done. They could offer me a billion dollars tomorrow for the business, and I would say no,
Starting point is 00:49:39 because unless they would give a lot of that to our employees. I want to either go public, or I want to have a lucrative transaction where all our employees have a life-changing event. We saw Google do it, we've seen Amazon somewhat do it, we've seen Microsoft do it back in the day, I'm like, why not power home? Why can't all our employees that have busted their butt
Starting point is 00:49:57 and grind every day for a bigger thing than just a job be part of something that's life-changing? And that's what I want to help give them. That is when I feel like we've hit goals. Yeah, we can do a hundred million a month in sales. That's not the point. When we get to that point, I'll feel like, wow, we've really done something.
Starting point is 00:50:12 Because we're also changing the world with the customers, but the employees for them to have that event is life changing. I want that for them. Totally, totally. I love the fact that you're saying that the environment is really important to you. I'm just gonna read a few stats in terms of what an average American home going to
Starting point is 00:50:29 solar for a year is like. If somebody goes and switches to solar for one year, it's avoiding adding more than 12,500 pounds of CO2 in the atmosphere. It's like growing 122 tree seedlings for 10 years. It's like not burning over 8,000 pounds of coal, driving 18,000 miles less, and so on. So it's a huge impact, and I know you guys are one of the biggest buyers for residential solar. So that's huge. That's amazing.
Starting point is 00:51:00 It's huge. Look, we're big in the environment. We're big in the military. We've been on military makeover twice where we donate a system. We did three water solar farms for a gift power foundation where we're creating these solar farms that produce 35,000 glasses of water per day for people in third world countries. We're big in all of this. It all ties together.
Starting point is 00:51:22 Water, air, power, it all ties together. And we got to take care of this world. And, you know, I hate that people are naive. And I won't talk politics on here. But I will say that both sides of the fence are guilty of not understanding. And both sides of the fence, the younger ones totally get it. And they're pro this. And that's what it's about. Is everybody coming together? Because people don't know this. But more Republicans sides of the fence, the younger ones totally get it, and they're pro this, and that's what it's about. Is everybody coming together? Because people don't know this, but more Republicans buy solar from us than Democrats. That's a fact.
Starting point is 00:51:51 We've done surveys. People don't realize that. They think Democrats are the only ones pro-green and Republicans aren't. Really the issue you have is you have a lot of Republicans who are pro-cold, and they just don't get it, and they're wrong for that. You have a lot of Democrats that are pro-Solar, but they don't want people to, there's a blend there that I wish in today's world. Somebody would come out of the woodwork
Starting point is 00:52:11 that would, we already have enough problems to disagree on, right, with everything else in politics. They all need to line themselves with our planet and renewable energy. That is what I would like to see as a group effort to really, that's a no-brainer let's do this. That they need to align themselves with.
Starting point is 00:52:26 Yeah. I totally, totally agree. So last question before we wrap this up, I know that you're a proponent of small wins. You say that you don't need to win big all the time, small wins can equal success. There's no elevator to life. You've got to take a step each day. So tell us more about that philosophy because I think it's really important for my listeners to hear. Yeah. I think, like, look, we didn't expect to be a $300 million solar company
Starting point is 00:52:50 overnight, right? We paced ourselves. And you know, there was a day, five years ago, we thought we were going to close down. And you have to, I think when you set your goals unrealistic to the top of the staircase and you think it's going to happen overnight, you're setting yourself up for failure. I don't care who you are. Athletes, geniuses, anybody. You can't overnight get to the top. It just doesn't work that way. What you learn from taking the stairs or little wins is you learn, if I set a 30-day
Starting point is 00:53:20 plan, and my ultimate goal, my dream goal is to have a $50 million company. Well, what do I do in the first 30 days? Let me find some good employees that make this work and then the next 90 days, well let's get some sales and maybe get 100 sales. And then the next, well let me get to 50,000 is that you have to set realistic checkpoints, you know realistic steps that you take to feel good and be confident to take the next step. And you're going to fall down a little bit, but that's better than falling all the way from the top because that's not recoverable.
Starting point is 00:53:47 But falling down a little bit, working your way on there, you learn. Every time you fail, you learn and then you take another step. And then when you start to get these small wins, you go upstairs a little faster. It only takes one to take off and it really starts to move. But people, too many times, like, I'm going to try to lose weight. And when they don't lose eight pounds a week one, they quit. Or I'm going to open a business, I'm going try to lose weight and when they don't lose eight pounds a week one they quit or I'm gonna open a business I'm gonna be the best sales guy ever know they don't sell something the first two weeks they quit and they can't set unrealistic goals that don't happen overnight you've got to pace yourself and get to that point small wins small steps small steps small step because there is no button to go in the elevator I mean I've I've lived it in three companies I can tell you I
Starting point is 00:54:22 built it from the sellers of a small bedroom that was 300 square feet and a tile board. And I did that in two of the three companies, even Power on Solar, we had no money. We had to roll carts over to Manila folders of customer's things and give it to the other person that computer put it on there. We had a tile board from a shower at Lowe's.
Starting point is 00:54:39 Like we did the same thing in Solar. I mean, you have to start somewhere and evolve and move up slowly until you get there. And then when you get there, you got to make sure you find another staircase to go up because when you're there, if you just sit, you will fall. You got to keep going up. Yeah. There's a risk in being successful. I think that's totally true. You can hear the energy and the fire inside of you. You're so inspirational and motivational. You've really achieved so much against all odds. You are a true underdog.
Starting point is 00:55:10 A question that I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life? Finding a fulfilness inside my soul. Everyone says success, how much money you make, which drive to me, it's not. I mean, I was judged at high school. My wife likes nice cars. I don't, right? I'm more simple. I mean, when you get nice stuff, of course you like nice stuff. I'm human, but that's not what drives me.
Starting point is 00:55:33 I've never chased money. Obviously, you've seen I go off payroll. Money's never been my thing. Making a difference, you know, watching my kids grow, watching them learn from me or admire me or be proud of me or the wife being proud of me, that fulfills me. You know, my parents being proud of me, that's fulfilling, making the employees proud of themselves and them getting their spouses and families proud of them, them getting to buy houses and cars. There's nothing like you get an employer, a manager,
Starting point is 00:55:59 a director, it's like, hey man, I just love being here and I got to buy my first house, right? I got to upgrade my house or, or I got to upgrade my house, or one of them got their kids back. He was going through a divorce and he got his kids back. I mean, when you hear that stuff, you can't pay for that success feeling. That kind of stuff drives me,
Starting point is 00:56:15 is making a difference in helping people. And I feel like we get to do that not only for customers, which we love that, but our employees, and we get to hear their story and share them, and it just, it makes everything worth it. And that's the point is you can't be greedy and you got to find what fills you in here. Everybody's as different.
Starting point is 00:56:31 Some is title, some is money. You don't ever chase money, chase success, chase a lie. You know, you can, their teachers out there. Teachers are so underpaid, it's not funny. It is ridiculous. And that's why we don't have great, we have a lot of great teachers, but that's why we don't have a lot of great teachers because the pays not fair. You could have been the best teacher in the planet, but you can't afford sometimes to put food on the table.
Starting point is 00:56:50 So you go do another job, and that's the future of our kids. I'm giving an example, a teacher is successful. They're teaching kids. They don't have to be millionaires. They don't have to run a business. They're successful because they're impacting our world and they feel good about teaching our future. You know, firemen, they don't make killer money, they're saving life, they love what they do, they're fulfilled. You know, this is what it's about. You got to fulfill yourself in here, otherwise it's nothing's worth it. Yeah, you are such a good guy, Jason. Like, you really are. I'm really happy that somebody is like as powerful as you and still so humble and still cares so much about his employees in the world.
Starting point is 00:57:25 So that makes me feel like a lot of confidence in our world in general to have powerful people like you with that kind of an attitude. So where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do? Well, you can go to powerhome.com. If you're in one of our 11 states, we can get your free proposal and send somebody out to make sure we can get you to own your power Not rent it save money and save the planet. We have a new podcast out where you know, it's called true underdog You go to trueunderdog.com or you can go to iHeartRadio Spotify or Apple podcast also got a YouTube channel true underdog Where I share a lot of my stories I bring people on like Hala here to talk about their stories share underdog stories Overcoming adversity how we can really better the earth
Starting point is 00:58:05 and planet and people, because people sometimes need to kick in the butt. I know I do, I listen to stuff, I need help sometimes, we're all humans, so I just like to share that, anything that I can help people get a head on, maybe they're like, oh, I'm in that situation, I've been in that, where people we bring on the show, where people can relate, they get it,
Starting point is 00:58:20 and they're like, I don't wanna quit, I wanna do this. That kind of stuff inspired me my whole life, and I just wanna give that back. Awesome, yeah, I don't want to quit. I want to do this. That kind of stuff inspired me my whole life And I just want to give that back Awesome. Yeah, I'll put all those links in the show notes so you guys can find Jason easily and I would highly recommend his podcast again That's true underdog. You can find it on all the regular podcast channels apple Spotify. I've been binging it So definitely go check it out. Thank you so much Jason. It was such a pleasure Thank you. How be good, be safe. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode please consider
Starting point is 00:58:51 leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or comments on YouTube SoundCloud or your favorite platform. Reviews make all the hard work worth it. They are the ultimate thank you to me and the YAP team. The other way to support us is by word of mouth. Share this podcast with a friend or family member who may find it valuable. Follow YAP on Instagram at YoungandProfiting and check us out at YoungandProfiting.com. You can find me on Instagram at YAP with Hala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name, Hala Ta-Ha. Until next time, this is Hala, signing off.
Starting point is 00:59:32 Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft.
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