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Sam Taggart 00:49
Just gonna start this podcast laughing. Welcome to D2D podcast, I am with Moe Falah, close friend. And super longtime guests come in I told him I was gonna like hey, I’m gonna hold you out, hold you out and hold you out, find out like, you’ve earned it. You’ve earned it. Let’s get you on the show. Anyway, Mo is the founder of simple solar. And they have been a client of ours for a while. And it’s been the funnest thing to just watch their journey. And that’s why I say you’ve earned it because he was like, hey, when do I get to speak on this? When are we gonna win our podcast? And I always was like, Yeah, when you heard it when you earn it. And last year, what’s cool is door to door con, his whole team was up on the mainstage in one top growth as a company and you know Mo Mo has been a big influence in the in the DD space really big presence on social media and has taken this industry from by storm. You know what was cool about Moe is he wasn’t an inner door company really, he just said I’m going to start a solar company out of the out of the blue and he just sent it and started a deal and and it wasn’t like he took the secrets and sauce from Vivint he didn’t sit there and like, try to like get cut from like the same Utah cloth. He comes from an immigrant family and really, really cool story we’re gonna dive into so I’m not gonna like spoil it all. But I’m, what I’m super proud of is he he said, I’m gonna do this big, audacious goal of 20 million. And I was like, Alright, you’re gonna do 20 million your first year. Okay, a little like, punk. Let’s go. So I can I know his I know his motivation buttons to press a little bit in the sense of ego pride gamify competition and get him up on that stage. And we even had his company throw down another company, and they smashed on this other company. And, you know, it’s it’s, uh, they’re competitive. They’re they’re they’re grinders, they’re hustlers. And I want to bring on Mr. Mo fala onto the show. And we’ll talk about kind of success and growth. And you know, what it takes to be that leader, and entrepreneur and in this podcast. So I think you’re an inspiration to a lot of those young hustlers that are like, Hey, can I go really grow something and make an impact and build a team? Last month, he did what 400 accounts? I mean, last month we did last week, we did 376 accounts. 376 are just shy of 400. So and I remember in the sales summit, what a year ago you were doing 3040 a month, so so may so May of last year we did 42 accounts. Yeah, so like you do the math. And I think that’s where a lot of these almost 10 Yeah, almost 10 acts. Yeah, almost 10 acts. So to put things into perspective. That’s why I say like, as you remember, he brought like some of these new guys and pretty My name blank. What’s your sweet bro? dude’s name? That was like seven days new at sales summit. Nick? Yeah. Nick Murray. And, you know, I just remember I look at Nick I’m like, Nick, you’re sharp Dude, you could do more than your seven accounts you did your first month I was like let’s go and you know just some of these like young hustlers coming to the sales summit. And then all sudden the see these guys now running teams recruiting building. And we’ve opened up, you know, multiple locations and obviously to 370 accounts in a month and solar is no easy feat. You know, that 30 a month mark. Yeah, I think a lot of people could get there that 50 a month but passing the 23400 accounts. That’s where things become you got to know what you’re doing. And so anyway, let’s let’s dive in. So why just I’m gonna start a solar company. Like what like what’s what’s

Moe Falah 04:31
Yeah, so so. So so I’m pretty, so I appreciate the full unscripted intro. It was, it was fantastic. We had everything so I’m glad to be a guest on the D to D podcast more than earning it. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Sam Taggart 04:50
Yeah, thanks. Oh, yeah, I was like, that was the most random scripted podcast I learned. I yeah. I love it. That’s great.

Moe Falah 05:02
Why start a solar company? Um, it’s the right thing to do. It’s the it’s the right thing to do. So I, I’ve always, I’ve always been an entrepreneur before I even knew that the word entrepreneur existed. I never I didn’t even know that that term was a thing until I got, you know, older and you know, older in the sense of like, in my 20s, that’s when I learned that the word entrepreneur was even a thing. So growing up, I never, I never had a dream of being a lawyer or a doctor or surgeon or anything like that. I never like had this dream of like, Oh, you know, I’m going to do this and I’m going to make 200,000 a year. I don’t know where it stemmed from or how I came about learning it, but I always thought in my head, like, if I buy something for $12 and I sell it for $18, I make $6 and if I could do that 10 times in an hour, I’ll make 60 bucks in an hour it was I never might have ever ever like had a dream job or anything like that. I just knew I wanted to make money. I just always thought that like if you buy something for low and you sell it for high that margin in between like you get to keep it so I’ve never had a job in my life. I’ve never you’ll never find a W two pay stub or anything like that. I basically just been Yeah, I’ve never had a job yeah, you’ll never you’ll never find a W two pay stub or anything like that. I’ve just always gone out and you know buy low sell high. And I went through you know a bunch of different series of trials and tribulations and you know, careers and short short term ventures you know, anything from real estate, so, you know, I got my real estate license at 18 I flipped my first house at 18 wholesale my first house at 18 I bought my first property at 19 did the did Renault’s did did did flips did rentals got you know sold car sold, ah back sold window sold roofing, just trying out so many different things. Anytime I saw what looked like opportunity and an option, a place where if I put more time into this thing, it yields me more money. I always just jumped into that thing. And it ended up yielding me you know, I was born in Toronto, Canada, I grew up in Ohio, that’s where me on my family migrated from so my parents, Palestinian Israeli, immigrated into Canada. So I was born there and then my father got a job at the University of Akron so he’s a professor big academic. We grew up in Ohio I dropped out of college because I was just like, it’s not for me, right like I was in a position where I was earning more than some of my professors were earning like at a very very young age and I was like why am I trying to learn this guy this guy what does he have to teach me when my goal is to make a lot of money so so I dropped out of school and I’m going back to Toronto starting in sales they’re big road yet ends up yielding me to go to to Florida so I started selling in Miami, Florida, Windows and roofing and the company I sold for they actually went under they’ve been in business for 10 years I come in my second month I’m top producer at this company with no formal training or anything like that second month I’m just like killing it no door to door at this point this is like all appointments I’m just going in home I’m selling windows and roofing Top Producing my second month seven months and I’m on track to do like 250 Grand Company goes under because actually sells so much product that they can’t handle cash flow or logistics so I sold them out of Yeah, so I know you have a similar story with you no other company company ABC company we don’t speak of

Sam Taggart 08:37
no that’s it’s buck wild though that like that’s like almost a bragging thing. Like I’m like cool we bought sold companies out of business

Moe Falah 08:45
Yeah, it’s like like most companies want like oh we want our sales like this company was like dude stock

Sam Taggart 08:52
like they put me on a hiring freeze Yeah, they were like don’t do it guys take a two week vacation please.

Moe Falah 09:00
So so they end up going under I lose out on like 80k with the Commission’s that are supposed to be paid. I remember in one of my appointments, I was selling this guy windows and the solar guy was there and he finished up selling the deal and he was just you know, finishing up the final docs and he interrupted me made a presentation he said hey, like hey, like you’re you’re amazing. I want you to come and work for my company. And it took my business card I finished wrapping up my deal he waited outside for me I go outside and I start talking to him like dude like not interested in solar it’s solely to scan it costs too much it doesn’t it doesn’t really make sense. It’s not worth the investment like people don’t want it like all the objections that homeowners give you know door to door guys when you go to their door. I was I was saying it to this the solar guy Little did I know I’m gonna be running a fucking I’m going to be running $150 million solar company three years later. And and so so I lose my job because the company goes under. I call this guy As soon as I see, as soon as I see how the solar deal works, I go, I look at it and he explains it to me. And I’m just like, like, okay, what’s the catch? Like the there’s got to be a scam in here somewhere there’s no way that you can give somebody so much value, and it costs them less money. And you can make this much money on the on the dude, where’s it where’s the catch? Like, this got to be a scam. And turns out, it’s not a scam. And once I understood how it worked, the trigger like a light bulb went into my head. And I remember I remember telling myself in my head and the guy, his name is Scott. He was he was sitting there. I didn’t say it out loud. But in my head, I spoke I said, I’m going to sell everybody that that. That was a thought that went in my head. It was I’m gonna sell everybody.

Sam Taggart 10:51
And I possibly can I pause you because I want to put a plug for everybody that’s selling right now, in this. If we can go back to I did a podcast yesterday. It’s like go back to that fundamental is what some people forget their two years in their urine. And they’re, they’re like in a slump. And they’re like, Man, I’m just not making the money automaker XYZ, I would say go back to that thought that Moe had when he’s like, Wait, are you kidding me? I’m going to sell everyone this is and was buck wild is where people start to decline in sales is they lose that like, Oh my gosh, I have the best deal. I have the best opportunity, the best thing for my customer. And they forget because they get no No, no, no, no, you’re a scam. No, no, this doesn’t make sense. And there’s just like, well, maybe you’re right, where if you can just rewind back to that aha of like, I am going to sell everybody. That right there is the biggest sales hack of the day. So I love that kid go, sorry.

Moe Falah 11:50
So I start the next day, this company’s doing appointments, but they’re not giving me any appointments cuz I’ve never sold solar before. So I’m like, Okay, how do I make How do you make money? I don’t know how to run ads. I don’t know how to do anything. I’m 21. What am I meant? 20. This is 2018. So I’m 23 years old at the time. I don’t know how to do Facebook ads. I don’t know what a CRM is. I don’t know how to do a click funnel, nothing like that. So I’m like, Alright, like, I guess I just got to go talk to people. So I find this neighborhood that’s close to where I was living. And I literally just go start knocking on doors. And my first month, I, I sat in, like I think I said like 15 homes, and I closed nobody, like nobody bought. And in my head. I’m like, What the heck, like, Why are these people buying like, this makes so much sense. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. And so I dropped, I dropped my ego, I go back to the guy who’s a top producer. And I’m like, dude, let me just shadow you for the next two weeks. I don’t even want you to pay me anything. Just let me shadow you. And just let me learn because I see you’re number one. And I want to be number one. Let me learn from you. And he’s like, Okay, sure. So takes me in takes me in for two weeks. I’m sitting on all of his appointments with him. This guy’s like, this guy’s closing left and right. It seems like almost every single house, he’s sitting in his closing, and I finish up my two weeks, they’re still not giving me appointments. I’m like, Alright, I’m gonna go and I’m gonna do this again. So I go out for another month. And in that month, I put up nine accounts. And I’m like, I’m feeling damn good. I’m feeling really, really good. And so this is in Miami, Florida, where I’m selling. And then I find out how long it takes to get an install over there. So they’re like, I finished it. I’m like, Oh, cool. Like, when do I get paid? Like, well, it takes about four to six months to get an install to go in. And I’m like, in my head, I’m like four to six. I’m like, so I’m not gonna like okay, like, Can I get an advance? They’re like, yeah, like, Yeah, but if we advance you, you’re taking a 20 cent hit on your commission for 30% advance. And I like calculate, I’m like, 20 cents, I put in nine accounts. I’m like, I’m like, I go to the owner. I’m like, so if I want to take an advance, I’m losing $19,000. He’s like, yeah, and I’m like, this doesn’t make any sense at all. Like, like, Why? Why do I have to wait four to six months to get paid. And then I’m like, I whatever, like, this is what it is I stay for a little bit longer. And then I get this idea. I want to build a team. I want to build a team, I want to manage a team, I think this product is so damn good. I know that I can sell it. I know if I tell somebody about it. They’re gonna be inspired about the idea. And when they see how much money they can make, that they’re gonna do it. So I try recruiting people and I tested Okay, well, how’s the pay pay thing look like and I’ve got four to six months. I can’t recruit anybody telling them they’re gonna have to wait that long. So I’m like, I’ve got to find a solution. Because I know solar is where I want to be like, I know it’s where I want to be. I know I want to build a team never built a team never managed a team never ran a team. But I knew I wanted to do it. And and I was like, and I knew solar is where it like I had. There’s nothing else that I’ve ever found that made so much sense. So I go on Google, I type in fastest solar install timelines in the US. I find out that it’s California. Yeah, I make a few phone calls, I find a company out there that’s doing solar. And literally in the next week, I was living in Irvine, California, January January 4 of 2019. I’m in Irvine, California, I know absolutely no buddy, no friends, no family, nothing like that. And I’m like, I just got to go ahead and get this thing started. And that’s kind of like, that’s the start of how I got into solar. That’s how like, all of this entire thing started, was I just wanted to see offer, I saw opportunity, I saw a place where like, I knew I wanted to go in. And I was like, I’m just going all in, I tried, you know, I tried for so many years to figure it out. And everything always ended up like going down a dead path, that path, that path. And what I found was like, I just wasn’t going all in on the things that I put my mind to Originally, I wasn’t going all in and I kept on making excuses. I used to drink I used to smoke, I used to do drugs used to do all this stuff. And when I moved to California, I literally quit everything, like I quit doing all of the stuff that all this stuff that was holding me back, because I was like, you know what I’ve been trying so hard for so so many times in so many years, and nothing was working, right? Let’s see, if I change something. Let’s see if I drop other things, and go all in and focus on nothing but building this. Let’s see what happens. And now you know, two years later, we have over 100 people for offices in different states putting up 400 accounts a month, it’s you know, it’s it’s pretty crazy, really to look at the speed, how this happened and how everything occurred. But that was that was my start. And that was like, you know, the beginning stages of the journey. And that’s not like anything that happened in the interim of one simple solar started to today in like those two years in between. But that’s like how I got into solar and then kind of like now where I’m at and what we’re doing.

Sam Taggart 16:53
That’s awesome. So I’m sure a lot of people now have the question like, well teach me Your ways. What, what, uh, what things do you think attributed to that facet of scaling? You know, I think a lot of people, they’re like, I’ve been in business for years, I’d love to see a 2x or a 3x. I feel like I’ve only got my 10 guys and whatever they’re at, right? And for that kind of entrepreneur out there, like what things did you do different that you felt kind of accelerated this 10x growth over the last 12 months? Yeah, what would you say are some hacks there?

Moe Falah 17:28
The biggest thing is being super, super intentional about where you want to go. Like having having a goal, you know, when we so the firt, you know, the first year, the first year I was a sub dealer of a dealer. And it just wasn’t a model that I was liking. Like, I’m fine with like being a sub dealer of another organization and then making money off of me if there’s value being provided, but I didn’t feel that there was value being provided. So I was like, Well, why why am I doing this? Right? And so I actually started simple solar January of 2020. And when we started the company is like, you know, right before COVID hit, and I sat down with I sat down with myself and for other people. When I start when when when simple sorry, that said, I said, I this is what we’re this is what we’re going for this is the target, this is what we want to do. We’re going to hit 25, we’re gonna hit 25 million in our first year. And it was kind of like, What do you mean? Like, they were shocked by the goal, they didn’t know really what it was, but I had it very calculated in my head like, this is what we have to do to do it. So I think the biggest thing is, you have to get really, really specific on your goals. You know, Grant Cardone always talks about like, you need to have a target, if you don’t have a target, you don’t know where you’re going, if you’re trying to go from destination a to destination B, but you don’t have a roadmap, you’re going to you’re going to miss exits that you’re supposed to take, you’re gonna go, you’re gonna go down the wrong path. So rather than just trying to play this a guessing game of where you want to go find a target, find something that you want to hit, put all of your attention and intention on hitting that target. And whenever it comes to making a decision on your business or on yourself, you always have to think of it through the lens of is this action that I’m going to take? Is it going to help me go towards my target and hit my target? Or is it going to steer me away from hitting my target. And I was like, I would just I just wanted to hit it. Like I didn’t want to set a goal and not hit that goal. So So I became really laser focused on that goal. And anything that got in the way of me hitting that goal. I didn’t do whether it was going out, you know, going out, partying, staying out, you know, investing into this avenue or this avenue or this avenue. There’s so many shiny objects out there so many shiny objects out there. And it’s so easy to get distracted in this world by shiny objects by by different companies by different pay plans buy leads by appointments by I mean we did everything we did. We’ve done an old door to door we’ve never spent $1 on ads or leads or appointments or anything like that. So so like we just staged So focused on what we knew worked. And we just said, let’s just replicate this, let’s duplicate this, anything that gets in the way of us hitting our goal and hitting our target, we’re going to steer away from getting everybody that you’re with bought in on that. And once you get everybody bought in on that, you have to explain to them what’s going to happen. Once we get there, what’s in it for you not like, you know, it’s not like, you know, you as the business owner, think about what’s in it for me, you got to think about everyone else and say, but if we do this on the visionary, I’m the one that’s gonna lead us down here, I’m gonna help, I’m going to do everything I can in my power to push us there. And then lead by example, to be able to take everybody there and really, really guide them. So I think like, what you have to do, you just have to get super intentional, and you got to sacrifice like you can’t get to, you can’t get to where you want to go without like, a lot of times you have dead weight on you and you have distractions and these things that are heavy. If you’re climbing on a cliff, and you want to get to the top of the cliff, and things are heavy, you got to start letting go like you got to start dropping weight, you got to start making sacrifices. If you’re not willing to make sacrifices, you cannot get to where you want to go. It’s like it’s the full cup theory, right? You got a full cup right here, and you got some dirty water in it, you got to start you got to start pouring into it. So are you going to pour some out so you can get more clean water in it like you have to you just have to start letting go of the things that hold you back and push as hard as you can to be able to hit your goal and just make it you know, it was almost to me like I felt like it was like unethical if I didn’t hit my goal because I knew how many people I would help if I hit that goal. I know how many people would get served. I know how how good the planet would be. I don’t know how many homeowners would save money. I don’t have any sales reps would make money. I know how many lives I would impact if I hit that goal. And anything aside from that I viewed as almost unethical if I didn’t do it.

Sam Taggart 21:42
Love that. No. And that’s honestly, like, so many leaders, and I’ll be honest, like in businesses, you pivot, you move you strategize, you say let’s reassess. Maybe I didn’t come close to this, or we’re not on track and, and then all sudden, they don’t reset targets, they just sort of like, didn’t work out. And then they float. And I noticed a lot of times that team and the leadership and the synergy that is so required, and how much you guys are spent on going to events together and having your retreats and having speakers come in and having us you know or other people even just like guide you through this and the commitment to personal development, the sacrifice that you’ve you know, you can take home like I just remember even having a conversation with you and you’re like, dude, like, when do I get paid like I want to be here like I’m reinvesting and reinvesting and reinvesting. And, you know, and I was like, dude, like, just just hold out, you’ll have your paydays like I promised. And it’s fun to watch, like, your discipline to reinvestment personal development, vision, investing in the team. And that formula right there, and how it’s paid off now. And I’m sitting there going, if you’re not plugged in some decent paychecks that you’re you’re also doing it wrong, you know, I’m sure you’re reinvesting a pad to giveaway some pad that kind of segments and leadership and get them looped in for the long term play. I get that that’s part of growth. But I think that the really cool part is you haven’t had a down month. Like, I think a lot of people, if they have this commitment to like, every month, we’re going to beat our last month every day, we’re going to get better. And I remember days where you’re like, dude, we hit 12 in a day today, Sam, we literally did it in a day. 20 in a day, Sam like it’s just so fun. Like, I feel like a proud dad moment right now. In what’s cool, so like I remember in Idaho, and I’m just sharing the backstory because I get to brag about now. We’re sitting up in Idaho, it was out of your first circle event. Was that your first mastermind? The first the first one was St. George. Oh, St. No, no. Okay, then St. George. Even better. I remember k k St. George. So we’re in this mastermind group, and everybody’s there. And I remember mo was this new guy in the group. And by far the youngest, I would say the average age in the group is what 35 Yeah. 35 that’s 37 Yeah, probably 35 to 40 my Michael Donald’s the outlier that pulls every time I mean, there’s definitely some older but me and you I’m like yeah, I’m like the leader of the thing and every young guy but what’s funny is everybody like I watched because we do these exercises where I’m asking questions and I like it’s very much like circled right everybody asked questions. And mo is literally question question question question almost like to are some people like Josie, I remember was just like, dude, like, shut up, dude. Like, but then like, there are people that were like, why are you asking so many questions and just the curiosity and the commitment to learning and the commitment to saying I’m going to extract every penny every value every little line out of these people because I paid for this. And that commitment, like is so unique that you’ll see guys in the back of the room, you’ll see guys disengaged in some kind of learning, you know, you’re in front row, like I remember dodarka, you’re like, Can we reserve the whole front row, we’re gonna be, my whole team sits in the front row, we’ve learned we’re the loudest. And we are the people that you don’t I mean, it’s just like, you drive that culture, like from sitting in that room with a bunch of studs to saying, I’m extracting every frickin thing I need out of this, to sitting in the front row at every event, to you know what I mean? Like that, like, those are the subtle things that people don’t pay attention to, that a leader does, that then trickles down to your people. And if I could give one big compliment to Moe, like, it’s he’s done that, like he was the one that said, I’m in front row student. And first at every event, I’m the first to give money out and say, what we’re invested in this bigger goal, because we’re not going just 25 million The next year, we’re doing 100 million. And then in case you guys didn’t catch, he’s like, we’re $150 million company. It’s like he’s visualized, anticipated this, he’s shared this with the world. And now he’s taking action and doing that. And so it’s so funny on this podcast that it yesterday, it’s like we give all the advice in the world. And I would say like, I’d say, 70% of our clients, I’m like, okay, you can’t bitch when you don’t do what we’re telling you to do. Like, bitch, all you want, but we’re giving you this tools, we’re giving you the roadmap, and you’re not doing it, where one big company motek actually did it. And so

Moe Falah 26:29
Well, the thing is, the thing is with appreciate that the thing The thing is with that is like his growth is obviously growth is obviously uncomfortable. And in the transitionary periods, what’s going to happen is that your team is going to have pushback on you. Like as you transition and you shift culture, you’re gonna have pushback. So imagine this, right? Imagine you have a culture of average and standard, and everybody in your company is operating on the standard of average, average and standard. And a year goes by and you habitually had no accountability, people can show up lay, you know, people can do whatever they want. And then one year goes by and you come to a DDD con event and you get so amped up and fired up, and you come back into the team, and you got and you’re like, Guys, everyone’s getting deja vu, we’re all studying every single day 9am or watching every second, we’re meeting here all day. And then four days later, how many people you have call you back and be like, standard team not bought in on deja vu, like, we got to cancel the agreement. But like, that’s what happens, right? And it’s, it’s, it’s how it’s it’s they’re not leaders aren’t explaining properly, what impact that does to them. So it’s a matter of like, rather than making it transactional and transitional, you have to be transformational in your leadership, you have to, you have to explain the vision of this is the reason why we’re doing this. And you have to explain like, like, well, we did really well at the very start is we had our team know, hey, this is uh, we want to be a company that’s focused on being a learning company. And we tell it, we tell our guys and say, Alright, let’s you know, you guys are your own business know, your 1099 you’re your own business, just so you’re the business owner, and you’re the employee, and you’re you are your only you are your only employee. And if you as a business owner, had the choice between choosing a trained employee and an untrained employee, which employee would you pick? And they every single time trained employee, okay, why would you want a trained employee? Well, because they do, they bring in more revenue, they do this, they do this, they do this, okay. And then, if you had an employee come to your business and their schedule, and you let’s say you run it, let’s say you’re on Apple, and you have somebody who shows up at Apple, they’re scheduled from 10 to four, and they come in one, they came in for one week, they’re super riled up, they show up at 945 every morning, and then they leave at you know, they stay late, they sit till 415, making sure everything gets done. And then one week later, they show up at 1005 1020 1030 1045. What would you do to that employee? If you’re the you run apple? You have this? What What would you do that employee or what we cut them, then why are you you being the only employee of your business showing up late to your own business? You’re the sole employee, you’re not training, you’re not getting better? You say you’re going to be at the doors every day at 10am? And then you’re there 1030 1020 1015? What kind of employee are you? Would you hire yourself for your own business? And if people aren’t training, they’re gonna say, No, we wouldn’t hire them, then why are you treating your own business with that level of respect. And when you can make it make sense to them and make them see it on like, big picture and high level like, this is what you’re doing to yourself. And when they can actually realize it, they’re going to be more inspired to be a better train, they’re going to be more inspired to show up on time to show up to their own schedule, sticking to their commitments, sticking to their routine, being purposeful and intentional about their day. And when you can create that shift in somebody. They want to do it more and we We from the very start of the of the company, like the culture, culture isn’t culture that you know, you guys, if you see us on Instagram, you see the gods and the events and the parties and this and this and the fun and all that stuff. That’s not culture, that’s those are perks, those are perks of sticking to a good culture and the culture is high standards, accountability, showing up on time treating each other with with respect, being solution oriented, playing at a high level, like it’s not, it’s not that you can bring your dog to work or you know, you have a nap room in the office, it’s like, that’s not culture. Those are, those are one time one time implementations that a company can do to make it easy, but culture is hard culture is showing up and playing at a very high standard. And all those perks and stuff that you see, those only come when teams hit their goals. And people confuse that as culture. That’s not culture, that those are perks when the culture is implemented properly, and everyone is hitting their goals at the right time and hitting their goals and surpassing their goals. That’s when the perks come in. The Perks only come because we have good culture and because we hit our targets

Sam Taggart 31:05
Love that. So good. And there’s such a confusion there. It’s like so often that people think, yeah, like the the yachts that company trips, it’s like, no, our culture is what made that happen. And I think oftentimes, as leaders, we’re not intentional about what systems we put in place, or what standards or what core values or what intentions we put to design that culture. And when when a business owner can come in and say, I’m going to grab this bull by the horns. And I’m going to say, guys, I’m steering this this way. You’re either on the boat, or you’re not. And this is where we’re going. People want that security, they want that something to buy into towards a common goal. High, the standard, the playful out the, you know, their their value systems. They want to be told, where is this bowl running? Where’s this boat going? What’s the you know, I mean, and, and we’re going to get a collective all shipping towards the same common goal. That’s what then creates this magical production. That’s what creates this magical outcome to performance. And then you don’t feel any any regret paying for yachts and Ferrari rides. Put when they’re doing that you’re like, I will give freely, it’s the frustration is when you’re going to like have reps or people come to you and say, Hey, where’s our Ferrari rides? And why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? And then the frustration is like, Okay, I guess we’ll do that. But you guys aren’t hitting your goals, like, you’re not doing anything that we want you to do. And, and that’s where you get this misalignment is like, dude, you gotta, you got to fix the culture, you got to play the game of now we get to do that when we do these things, because I know they’re doing those things.

Moe Falah 32:52
And it’s also like, it’s also like, like, leading by it’s leading by example. It’s leading by example, and helping them achieve that culture. Like I remember. So so. So I’m gonna, I’m going to talk about two different things. So first thing is, and they both kind of blend in with each other, right? Common common mistake that I see business owners make, and I, I’m a victim of that mistake. And I made that mistake before until I had realization of it. And then when I had a realization of it, I shifted, I shifted my mindset started acting accordingly. But last May is when we like the first time that we ever like actually made connection with each other and like, like we’ve met a few times, but the first time we actually made connection with each other was May of 2020. I come I bring five guys with me to sales Bootcamp, and in Vegas, and in May, we did 42 accounts, and your boot camp was like the 28th 29th, or something like the end of May. And our guys get exposure, they see other people winning at high levels. And we think that we’re winning at high levels. Once we get that exposure and seeing Holy crap, we could be playing way better. Other people are doing it way better than us, way more than us. Why can’t we be doing like we saw, we saw guys that are in that room that their first month and sold and they’re putting up 1520 accounts. And we’re like, those guys are scrubs, like, Why the heck are they doing that? Like, why can’t Why can’t we do that. So we get exposure next. And you know, I invested all of my guys to go there, none of them spent any of their own money on like, I’m going to invest in them because I believe that if they’re better trained, they’re going to produce better. So we go from 42 accounts, same number of people as 12 people in an entire team and go from 42 accounts. Next month, we go to 106 accounts. And it was it came down to two different things. It was one investing in people. I’m like, big big believer, like you need to invest in your people. So invested in people go from 42 to 106. Then next month, we go from 106 and we have dropped off we go down to like, we go down to like 80 something and I’m like, okay, what’s wrong? What’s shifted? What happened? What happened here? And then I’m like, I I call you I remember I’m rose, I called you and you’re like, Hey, I’m actually in LA, come, come, come hang out. So I come and meet you and you’re like, dude, hop on this consulting with me. It’s 100 grand. It’s nice. I’ve never invested 100 grand into you know, coaching or my business or anything like that you’re like, it’s 100 grand. And we’re going to help you build the system so you don’t go so you never run into that and you go up, I’m like, Okay. And most people would be like, Alright, we’re gonna offer it, you know, 100 grand, like crap, like, what if it doesn’t work? What if this What if this and then in my head, I’m like, Alright, what was the action that I did take me from 42 to 106 I invested money in my people, I Why am I not going to replicate those same actions that got me a higher result? So I was like, You know what, it worked the first time standing out, let me down, let me go again. Boom, like next next day, you hop on a call with us we’ve been at we finalize the we finalize the contract. And then from there, like we establish everything to you know, the last month of last month of the year, you know, we did in 40 days, we put up 250 accounts, like it’s consistent and we took take the team to the recruiting summit, took the whole team to the to the con, you know, DDD fest the other day, we took the whole like, not the whole good portion of the team to do that. We hired Mike O’Donnell, he comes in, he flies in, he does a training for us, we hired coach Bert through your connection coach, Bert comes in, he does a training with us like, like, we are consistently repeating the actions that work that help us get to where we want to go. And most business owners, what they do is they go from zero to one and a happened to me, they go from zero to one. And then they don’t replicate the actions that got them from zero to one, because they’re really comfortable at one and they want to protect one, they want to stay, they want to stay at one they like what one looks like, but they don’t repeat the action that got them to one. And so they stay at one rather than repeating the actions that got them from 01 to go from one to two. I

Sam Taggart 36:36
love that, dude. Love that. And it’s like I said, it’s it’s such a fun, fun element to see you fundamentally practicing that, you know, as we, you know, you’re like, how do I invest in my people and find them the right people in the right scenario? In the right event? The right coach the right, you know, I mean, and in the right time, what they’re looking for, to take them to another level. And it’s so sad to see how many people are the scarcity mindset of like, Oh my gosh, like, what if I spent five grand on my people or 10 grand or 100 grand or whatever the number is, and they don’t perform? And I’m like, Well, what if they do perform? You know, I mean, imagine you hadn’t come to the sales bootcamp or the summit, you know, had you had you just been like, well, let’s keep track and it was, you know what it was, it was when Casey and Cooper sat down to that sales summit. And these are two brand new solar reps, like 35 accounts their first month, and I just remember Moe being like, No way. No What like, no, that. I do remember, Mo like, literally was so dumped out. He’s like, no, that’s impossible. Like your first month? No, no. And I was like, they did more. They didn’t they did more than our whole team. Yeah, you’re like, you’re too dude, smash our whole team. And so what, what what that exposure does, and that’s the power of masterminds. That’s the power of being around cool people. That’s, that’s the power of saying, Can I get exposure to the to the unknown in my own world, I just got off a phone call with a client. He’s lost his $10 million roofing company. And I just told them, I was like, I hate to like, because he was like, almost like kind of bragging, you know? And I was like, dude, I hate to like, pop your bubble. I’m not trying to like, I’m not trying to like, it’s all perspective, dude. Like, in your head, you’re probably, like, stoked on this 10 million because in comparison to most roofing companies, you’re double. But I’m just like, I don’t know, you put yourself against somebody else. Like there’s guys doing 10 million a week there’s guys doing you know, I mean, like, it’s, it’s not a problem is, is too many people get so attached to like, my environment says I’m great. You put yourself in a new higher level environment, I promise you, you’ll say, oh, shoot, I am great. So now I need to play like they’re great. And you put yourself in another environment you say Damn, I thought I was great because I made it to this great and all of a sudden you then become even more great. And I’m a huge proponent of environment and and just exposure to like, I swear casing Cooper probably did more for you in that two day summit. Then I did an all sales training. Great guys, Cooper in case you’re awesome. Okay, so we’re kind of gonna wrap up, but like, I guess I just I asked like if you were to give, and I guess we focus on leaders. So this podcast, probably more so geared to the leader than the sales rep. Matt is a great sales rep. But he’s a much better leader. And, you know, I remember him calling me one day out and hurt and hurt. And you’re like, see ya thought What am I saying wrong? And, you know, he’s, he’s competitive. He wants to be the best sales rep but it’s like, he knows that the money’s in really growing teams and duplication and, and scaling the leadership. And so I guess if you were to give advice, one, one small little A piece of advice to the entire leadership group of door to door like, what would that be?

Moe Falah 40:05
Help your team win, like help your team win and set goals for them. And, and lead by example. And and, you know, a key a key, a key moment that I remember, a key moment that I remember is I had the goal since I came out to California the first time January of 2019, I had a goal in my mind, like I want to do 100 accounts in a month. Now the big thing that I wanted to do I want to do, I don’t know why, but 100 accounts in a month was a huge thing for me. And we got to we were in June, and we were in June of 2020. And we were at like, we were like at some accounts, and there were like three days left. And I was in I was in LA. And my team was out in turf. And I was really, really comfy. I remember this moment very, very distinctly. I was in LA, I was super live in a nice, nice apartment here. It was so comfortable, great place like bed is so comfy. It’s like It’s like 11 o’clock at night. And I’m thinking to myself, like I’ve been wanting to hit this goal of 100 for such a long time. And my team is so bought in on 100 I told them, you know, if we hit 100, we’re gonna go we’re getting our whole team’s gonna go go to Hawaii. So I’m so I get my whole team bought in on 100. It’s like three days left in the month. And I’m sitting in LA, and I’m not out with my team who’s out there working. And it’s 11 o’clock at night and I have a big shift in my head. I’m like, I’ve been going for this for nearly 18 months now I’ve never had it. It’s something that I’ve imagined doing for such a long time. I want to help my team hit their goals, I want us to win, I want us to like get a big win. So it’s 11 o’clock at night, I literally hop in my car, I packed my bag and I’m like, I don’t want to go to this hotel, I don’t want to go to the the red Roof Inn and sleep in a sleeping a $40 a night hotel, it’s like so much discomfort and so much uncomfortableness compared to where I was. And I absolutely didn’t want to do it. But I was like, I want to hit my goal. And I want my team to hit their goal, I want us to get this big one. So it’s 11 o’clock, and I drive up to three hours away, I get to the hotel at 2am. They’re hosting a meeting at 9am they don’t know that I’m there, I show up to the 9am meeting. And I’m like, Guys, we’re gonna hit our goal. Like we’re gonna fucking hit our goal this week. And and I ended up I ended up putting in those those next three days, and I’m putting in eight accounts, which took us two, we end up doing 106. And if I didn’t put in those eight accounts, we would have been at 98. And we wouldn’t have hit our goal. And I wanted us to win so bad. And I wanted us to hit so and you know, it costs the company cost the company a crap ton of money, we put our whole team to St. Thomas cost us a crap ton of money to send everybody there. But what would have happened if we didn’t hit our goal of 100 that we set up the beginning of the month, and what type of discouragement and the team would have had and the morale that they would have had if we didn’t hit that, although it cost me you know, more money for us to hit for us to hit that goal and spend it on the team. What it did in morale has paid us so much more than what that cost cost did because that 100 gave us hope to be able to do significantly significantly more. And I remember when we hit that 100 I was more excited of hitting that 100 than us doing 376 accounts last month, like getting to that 100 and winning and how uncomfortable wasn’t how hard it was for me to do it and me conquering my mind that told me stay at home stay comfortable, me conquering that and then coming and helping our team hit that 100 that was that I remember exactly where I was when we did it. And that was the probably the best moment in my career in solar was when we finally did that more than us now doing you know, we do like 100 accounts a week now. Like it’s but hitting that 100 and that one month was the most memorable moment of my career. And so like with with your question, it’s like, always lead by example. always show up when you don’t want to show up, help your team win. Like if your team winning wins, it breeds more wins. And you want to have a team that’s winning and have a winning culture. And we have a motto in our companies called winners always win, like no excuses. It doesn’t matter winners always win. always find a way to win, always find a way to win doesn’t matter. If you have stuff to deal with, like put this up on the side. If you have a goal, you have to hit your goal because winning like winning is such a powerful feeling. Winning is inspiration, winning makes you believe that you can win. And when you win, it shows others that they can win too. So you just have to breed winning into your culture. I think that’s I think that’s really like kind of the long winded answer to your question.

Sam Taggart 44:41
Dude, fire and this whole podcast has been fire guys go follow follow the leader on Instagram and you know, I’m I am so excited to see where you go and you know you probably get some other award at door to door con this year again because just because it’s insane what you’re doing and You know, it’s, it’s, it’s fun. It’s fun to watch it flourish. And I’m super proud of you and those listening. I hope this inspires you guys to say, Man, if I stepped up as a leader, there’s really unlimited potential for me. And I hope that you don’t limit your guys’s selves from the opportunity that there is out there right now. So, thank you so much again, Mo for being on the show. And if you listen in like this, please share this with somebody that’s maybe a leader that you’re like this could impact. Leave us a comment, and give us some give us some love. So thank you guys so much, man. Thanks, brother. Thanks for having me.