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Sam Taggart 00:22
Hi, everybody. This is Sam Taggart. I’m here with Michael O’Donnell, in Key West live. And we are doing this podcast on how to mentally not get fat and happy. How to use something bigger and better to motivate you than your $5,000 paycheck that week, or whatever the number is. So a little bit about Mike. He’s done a podcast before so we’re gonna make this really different. He is the most solar kilowatts closed in one single year in solar that we know of. He’s done 2.7 megawatts in a year. He’s been a double golden Ward winner three years in a row, one of the first Platinum golden door winners is a privilege is a treat. Why are we even out here, Mike?
Michael O’Donnell 01:08
Well, it just so happened that we were both speaking at bill Murphy’s solar cheat code event. And it was kind of fun. I was supposed to speak at 115 you’re supposed to speak at noon. are we telling the story around tell a story right now. So I’m there at the event. And they’re like Sam’s on Where is he? He’s out called man. He’s on a red eyed NyQuil not feeling well. And they’re like, oh, Donald, you’re on and I’m like, okay, here I go. So my turn. And then Sam came on and just brought down the house afterwards. So it was just a real honor to share the stage.
Sam Taggart 01:42
I wanted to follow that I can come up and I’m glad I followed you because it was like it energized me watching you. Yeah, cuz I sit in there. And I’m like, still tired and groggy, and all sudden you light the fire under me. And I’m like, Okay, I’m ready to speak. Now. Let’s go change my state completely. So anyway, we’re speaking, shout out to Bill Murphy with the cheat code. Anyway, so you put on a really cool event. And let’s talk about the summit real quick. What’s that event about?
Michael O’Donnell 02:10
So last year was an amazing opportunity. And for me to share with a bunch of people, we did the solar solar portion at the summit. And just I mean, I don’t know how many people in the room seemed like 4040 people in the room. We literally spent days and days and days together. Getting down to the nuts and bolts. I’m talking nitty gritty on what do you say, when you’re out the door? What do you say, when you’re in the house? What do you say when the customer says, Are you going to email this to me? Because I need to think about it. You know, it’s one thing to get up on a stage and have, you know, 45 minutes that goes longer sometimes? Yeah, I mean, it’s so hard to cram it in 45 minutes, but to spend days and days and days, you’re gonna really get it. So we got to do that with a whole bunch of us together. Going out knocking on doors selling no soliciting signs. That was an eye opener, it was cool. Like, is this real, and I was hard not to crack and laugh. But eventually we got serious man. And we sold a bunch of no soliciting signs. And you know, all these people come up with all these creative things. And I guess that was the thing that hit me about this event. It’s a bunch of people who sell a lot of solar, some serious beasts. Were in that group. And you were during your talk, you’re like, how many people in here knock on doors, and only half of them raise their hand like, well, what the hell are they doing? And obviously, they’re at this event, because they do it a different way. And it wasn’t just you know, Facebook, it was a radio ads, radio ads, and all these tell us, you know, marketing, telemarketing and call centers in other countries and all these different ways to do something, it really kind of opened my eyes that just because you found something that’s successful doesn’t mean there’s not another level and another way and honor the way someone else is doing it, learn from it. glean from it. That’s why it’s so awesome to be at events like this.
Sam Taggart 03:57
Yeah, no, if you’re not learning and you’re not spending time educating, I came to take more notes than I did to come to speak. I mean, it was, for me, I’m sitting there. I literally have like a page of notes from your talk. Like, because I’m sitting here going. If you’re not moving forward as a leader, if you’re not finding other ways to innovate your own self, then you’re dying people are passing you up. So anyway, I thought that was really cool. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. So excited March 26. Through the 28th. In Las Vegas, we will be spending three four days really diving into the sales psychology on a general level but also on a solar specific roofing specific pest specific and my expert on that solar portion. We have a couple other solar guys that are going to be part of that Aaron and Jerry and stuff like that but
Michael O’Donnell 04:43
this year I’m excited because solar solutions had me and I had one other guy on my team there this coming year we’re gonna have like six seven people at the summit, which will be cool, which would be very cool. That was what DDD was like for me this year was I’ve I’ve been coming every year I’ve been talking about it. I’ve had a few people from my team. The second year came This third year we had 22. People from sun solar solutions at D to D. And I just have to tell you it, it changed the culture of the entire company, really. We’re talking top down my partner who’s the president of that company, not as an engineer, not a rah, rah guy. He came away from DDD going, I get this now I get why sales people come to stuff like this and really invigorated the whole leadership. Me, Troy and Val have been kind of talking about things that we were avoiding, and not getting into an hour into it, and really having to do with with that event.
Sam Taggart 05:33
So what’s the new tune that your team is singing? Like? How did it affect those 22 people that came? You know, like, what’s what’s 2020 look like? Because they were to come as a culture. Well,
Michael O’Donnell 05:44
it’s funny because something really significant happened. I’m not a morning guy. I hate mornings. One of the reasons I love selling solar is I don’t have to see anybody before 10 o’clock in the morning. But I’m very odd. I need a heart if that’s if you’re if you’re lying. And I come from the corporate world. I come in the corporate world is 630 conference calls, and they’re all a bunch of BS most of the time and just a waste of time. So I love that about solar. On the other hand, is it a good idea for me to get up 51 minutes before I have to be at my first appointment? Is that the most productive way to run my day? I, the big thing that’s come about for me as a result of working with D to D and getting successful in the solar industry is how do I structure my day, but a brand new thing happened to D to D one of the guys that we brought superstar in the company, sometimes he’s a bit streaky art. And art says to me as we’re getting in the van after the last dinner, man, I I’m feeling this, I want to do it, I want to I don’t want to be streaky, I want to hit that level, keep going and be on that stage. Next year. He says, You know what I think I need to do I think I need to not be party and not be drinking for the next 90 days. And I said, Wow, I mean, that’s like a major young guy, you know, just he’s out there having a great time and making lots of money. And that’s a huge commitment. Are you serious? This is Yeah, I said, Well, tell you what, I’m serious, too. I’ll match. I won’t drink for the next 90 days either. And that’s kind of a joke to everybody because I don’t drink. I’ve been sober for 35 years. And he said Haha, very funny is that no, no, I’ll tell you what I mean it though I’m going to I’ve been backed off my diet, I’m going to go back on to no cards, I’m going to go no carbs for 90 days. And they say well, why don’t we get up in the morning at 715 and just support each other with a quick few minute call. And we’re in the van on the way back from dinner. So I want to do that I’ll do this, I’ll do this, I’ll not drink I’ll do my whatever diet whatever there had to go personally, they needed to do to get on track. We got like 1416 people on a call every morning at 750. And I’m like, I can’t believe that was my idea. Because I’m not a morning guy. But it’s completely changed my days and would have never thought of that. And it’s the idea is to take the inspiration, motivation and the high that comes from an event like Bill’s this weekend or like D to D con every year and not have it all faded and gone within, you know, eight days. And how am I gonna carry this through? It’s so funny.
Sam Taggart 08:01
I literally I was at another event earlier this week. And I saw a client that I had spoke for. And I said, you know, how is the week after I spoke? And he’s like, dude, we saw a massive increase. And I said, how’s the week hours, four weeks after a slight dip right back to where we were like, I know, I get my money without you get what you get your money out of me? Yeah, because I’ll get you an increase for that week. But you got to build some infrastructure. Yeah, I’m like, but unless you have some kind of consistent infrastructure. That’s why we did this. I mean, that’s why you probably joined the circle.
Michael O’Donnell 08:29
That is why I joined the circle. Well, the whole expanse things talked about that in a minute. But really, it’s an extension of the mini habit idea that yes, the thing that happened the very first year at many habits is Jeremy from Trager talked about many habits. And I’m like, I wrote that down, one push up. That was my note one push up. And I can’t tell you what the difference has been for me to understand the concept of getting yourself to do something you’ve tried to get yourself to do 1000 times and you over and over and over again ended up not doing it. And I think all of us in the door to door world deal with something that sometimes we talked about, sometimes we don’t, but it’s the reason there’s so few people that really are able to make a living doing this. And that’s that the idea of going up to a door when you’re not in motion and knocking on that door. The amount of physical, emotional, psychological resistance is overwhelming. And what a mini habit does is it’s short circuits that instead of going over that hill of inertia, we just go around it. Yeah, you know, and just to put a hack, so I’m going to hack from here to here. Now I’m on the other side of this hill. Why because every single time here’s one of my hacks every single time I walk out of the door, I can’t go to my truck. I have to make a right or a left go to the next house walk up the door and knock on one door. And Steven guys in many habits says if you find yourself not doing that, and guess what I found myself not doing it. If you find yourself not doing it. The reason is is because the mini habit isn’t ridiculous. It’s not it’s too big. It has to be as one push up. Yeah, like you want to get cheap. Do one pushup? That’s ridiculous. Yeah. And so I had to say, I’m not trying to go to the door and get an appointment. I’m trying to go to the door and get someone to say, No, I don’t want appointment. I think when I think about that, I think I can do that.
Sam Taggart 10:11
I can go get it. Hey, knock, knock, knock. Hey, knock, knock here. If you did not hear that, say that one more time.
Michael O’Donnell 10:19
So hey, I’m, I talked about it yesterday, there’s the guy washing his car, and I don’t want to go across the street because I don’t want to get rejected. My mind perceives rejection as a catastrophe. It’s not. So I have, I’ve been able to turn that around by realizing the goal is to know. And so the goal of my mini habit is after every appointment, I’ve got to go to a house adjacent somewhere, knock on the door and say, no chance you don’t want to solar quote, is there? I hope you don’t. Yeah. And they go, Yeah, no, we don’t I go, dude. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you, man. I’m so happy you gave to the door. And they’re going, why is that man? So happy. We just told, you know, my goal was to get the know. And I would say maybe, you know, a third of the time, that’s the end of it. Of the door knocking maybe that’s 930 at night. But I would say two thirds of the time. I’m walking down that driveway, and there’s someone pulling into the driveway next door, getting the groceries out of the car, what am I going to do? You got to go? In most I’m already in motion. So the opposite of inertia or what what is in place of inertia once you get over it or around it with a hat is momentum? Yeah. And that’s what this is all about. You feed enough me I feed off you. How do you initiate momentum?
Sam Taggart 11:35
So let’s talk about this. Yeah, two years in a row. You got a double golden door, guys, that’s, that’s double golden doors. So that would be 800. alarms. That would be 2000 pest control. That would be 1200. Satellite accounts to put that in other industry terms, that’d be 400 roofs. So 2000 kilowatts and solar. Yeah, plus. So what I’m getting at, so you did two years, you had these deadlines and created this urgency, that meter deadline, that meter deadline under the customer’s head, it’s saying you have to buy now or not, you’ll never be able to get it. You don’t have that in 2019. So you didn’t have this like, crap. Let’s go frickin make a while the sunshine. How do you stay motivated?
Michael O’Donnell 12:23
Well, two things. One, we created deadlines, and there were some deadlines. They weren’t as severe or significant. But urgency is about deadlines, I would love for you to be true that you could have some time to think about it, unfortunately, may explain to you why that’s absolutely not in your interest.
Sam Taggart 12:37
So we got to create it, you have to construct it in your industry. I want you to take a second. And I want you to come up with those word tracks and apply your products. Yeah, I’d love for you to take time and say one more time because that word track right there has so much power in a close.
Michael O’Donnell 12:54
Yeah, it’s all about the urgency. And it’s all about why it’s in their interest to move forward today. The reason they’re not moving forward today is because of one they’ve made an agreement not to before the meeting, they had that pact, honey member that timeshare thing, no matter how good this guy is, no matter what he says we’re not saying yesterday. So they’ve had that meeting, and we’re not in on that, right? That was kind of a conspiracy against us. We’re dealing with that the whole time. They’re holding on to that when we’re at the close. And there’s two things are afraid of one is fear. They’re afraid that we’re scammer. They’re afraid that what we said is too good to be true. That’s a big problem in the solar industry. We’re telling people that they can go solar, spend nothing, reduce their costs and end up $100,000 richer in 20 years, like by not spending anything and now it doesn’t make any sense. Do I look stupid to you? This is too good to be true. So they’re afraid that we’re a scammer. They’re, they’re holding on to fear. The other thing is greed. Right? They’re thinking if this thing costs 40 grand, certainly there’s somebody out here to do it for 39,000. Right, I certainly I can get this for $1,000. So they want to shop. There’s two things are and they don’t really want to talk to you about those things. They could be objections, they’ll share the fear. Most of the time won’t share the greed. But what you’ve got to do is offer them a reason why it’s in their interest to let go of this and grab on to what you’re what you’re holding out to them. And and that’s what the today only closes about. And that today only closes about time. And you’re going to explain to them the construction, you’re going to construct a story that makes sense about why today is the absolute best day they could go solar, they can’t get this deal. They won’t make the deadline, they’ll be last in line and there’s a million people in line. They don’t want to end up last in line. Whatever the reason is, it’s in their interest that they move forward today and to get them to let go of that and take what your office says
Sam Taggart 14:43
Manufacturer at deadline that you can leverage to create a reason to buy today is an urgency hack. So let’s move on to the next question which is okay, so you don’t have you created a manufactured deadline which helped you get closes, but at the same time You probably already have a lot of money. you’ve sold for years and made a lot of money. What motivated you to make sure you hit a double golden door instead of settling for a single golden door?
Michael O’Donnell 15:13
Well, to be honest, I wasn’t going to hit I was not going to hit a single golden door. My first year I didn’t. My first five months, I sold at a rate where I would have easily crashed a golden door megawatt. And I’m getting into my first full year of solar, I’ve been made a partner at Sun solar based on the fact that I’m going to light the world on fire as you know, crazy. Production sales. Dude. And this is a conversation. This is real. I said, one of my partners, Val says to me, and we’re like four or five months into the year, he said, Mike, you know, it looked like you were going to be this guy that was on track to do this. And now you’re putting up 3040 kilowatts a month. And you know, what’s all that about? And I had to be honest with myself, I wasn’t honest with Val. At that moment, right? I’m a salesman, I give him a salesman answer,
Sam Taggart 15:55
When that’s how often are you giving the salesman answer that’s debilitating, your actual production, to come up with your justification of why you suck?
Michael O’Donnell 16:10
Yeah. And so at that time, I had to get honest with myself another thing else, something that else happened, we had this young kid lighten the world on fire, his name was Danny, and bam, he starts putting up 100 kilowatts puts up 180 kilowatts, and I see that name on the top of the list. And I’m like, this is not gonna stand. So I start getting into a gear that’s more akin to what I can produce, as opposed to what I was producing, which was, you know, 4050 kilowatts, I’m making five grand a week I’m making, you know, 10 grand, some weeks, I’m like, you know, I’m, I’m fat and happy. I was one of the guys. So you What is that? You know, guys from the audience, as I said, it’s called diminishing intent. Yeah. And I was experiencing diminishing intent. And two things one, getting honest with my partners about why was why was I producing subpar and to seeing some young whippersnapper who’s going to crush me. And I’m like, this isn’t going to stand. In the midst of that I started to understand what’s true for all of us. And that’s that this is an Easter egg hunt. Every two or three eggs we pick up there’s, you know, 1000 2000 3000 $5,000 in this Easter egg, and it’s not going to last forever in that same way. How much? How much time do I have to waste? Am I going to like let this day go by when all I got to do is stumble out the door? and and you know, talk to a handful of people and get one person to say okay, I’ll show you and I have my closing almost every single one of them. What am I doing? So I got in touch with that that net metering deadline made me get in touch with it. And I started operating at a level of how many Can I get done today? And does that include a seven o’clock appointment and a 10 o’clock appointment as we were coming into the week. So the deadline. And then when the deadline was over, I had to ask myself, why did I need that deadline to operate at that, you know, level? And the answer was I didn’t need that deadline. And so that’s when we started to construct deadlines. You know, reading what’s going on with utility reading what’s going on with the tax rates motive
Sam Taggart 18:05
to play harder and the Easter egg hunt versus all the eggs are out there. There’s no one else getting them. So I’ll get a couple here today. Yeah,
Michael O’Donnell 18:12
yeah, Easter egg hunt was on the only one there and it’s gonna go on forever. I would have taken a nap went to Starbucks and thought about my strategy. Yeah, but because everyone else is on the field picking up the eggs and the Easter eggs when it’s gonna be over 20 minutes. You know, I don’t have time for a bathroom break. Yeah, you know?
Sam Taggart 18:26
Yeah. And and, and I like the analogy of every third egg has the 1000 or 500 or 5000, or whatever it is, you’re selling commission. The other two eggs, you open them up and it’s a piece of poo and you’re like crap. But does that stop you from? You know, I think this is this is where it is. It’s like so many people open up the first day and they’re like, Oh, this sucks. Like, who makes an Easter egg with a bunch of poo in them. And then you open up a second one. You’re like there’s nothing in this. Yeah. And then. Yeah, Jelly Bean. Yay. Don’t you love that? Like, when you do an Easter egg hunt, you get the Jelly Bean one and you’re like, if I have another damn Jelly Bean egg. I want those Cadbury eggs. You
19:04
know, the breakthrough idea for me was understanding and communicating to myself that I wasn’t getting paid for the yeses. I was getting paid for the no I had to pick up all three eggs to get money in and that’s what I was getting. And the one with the Jelly Bean wasn’t more valuable than the one with the money and the the one with the the one that had the money in it triggered the commission the sale triggers the commission. It’s not what the money’s for. I had to pay myself I had to be skipping down the driveway going solid. No man, yes, solid. No.
Sam Taggart 19:33
And it’s like they’re all the pink eggs. Like there’s no distinguishing factor around saying pick them up. I’m gonna have to only get the blue eggs because I know all the blue eggs. And if I only go to the blue eggs, I’m gonna get paid. It’s like no, they’re all one color. So you got to be willing to go pick up all the eggs.
Michael O’Donnell 19:49
And if you’re around me, you know I talk about this all the time. I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to me. I forget this every single day I’m sitting in my truck. There’s a guy washing his car and I don’t I want to get out of my truck. And some days I don’t make it. Some days I don’t make it. And the reason I make it more days than not I would say most days now is because it’s the hack, right? It’s the short circuit the initial the inertia with this idea that I’m going to get one. No, I’m gonna walk up to that guy and go, dude, you don’t want to solar quote do now. The issue with that is I am a closure. And if that guy set looks up and talks to me, I’m gonna start trying to close them, right? Yeah, I said this yesterday, I don’t think I’ve finished the thought. closers are great yeses. We suck. It knows. Right. And it’s the reason we’re great at closing is because we won’t take a no. But if we have turned that around and say, I’m really trying to get to know, all of a sudden, it’s easy to walk up to that door. And we realize I don’t want to argue with someone for 20 minutes about why they’re stupid. I can’t fix stupid. Yeah, if you don’t want to see a solar quote, you are stupid. Because it doesn’t make sense to not see why eight people on your street have gone solar that stupid, right? And if you’re stupid, I can’t help you. You know, I’m looking for the guy that’s in the next door. I’m looking for the guy whose luggage stupid, right? I don’t want to, I used to go. I used to have the people go in with me to knock on doors. And they go, Mike, you know, that guy wasn’t gonna say yes. When you were in 30 seconds into this thing. And you talked to him for 20 minutes. And I left? I won the argument. But it was a 20 minute No, yeah. 20 minutes. No are bad. We want to know about like, 1115 seconds. And then if there are no, we want to show them the back of our head, because we’re walking to the next door, you know, to get the next no or yes.
Sam Taggart 21:26
I love that. So now that you’ve done, three megawatts are three golden doors in a row more than three megawatts. But what’s next? Like? How do you how do you keep going and leveling up? You know, Tim Grover talked about, you know, a cleaner is somebody that wins not just one championship, but continues to win championships, right? And they look for what’s next I say, Well, is there a three megawatt year? You know what I mean? or What is there? What’s a level up for a micro Donald, which doesn’t always necessarily have to be three megawatts, it could be something else. So I’m sure that you have some introspection and you’ve spent some time in trying to figure that out. But I don’t know if you have any kind of things that you’d want to share to help people maybe sitting in your shoes, because some of you guys listening to this might be where he’s at now going? Well, do I really care to have a fourth golden door? Is that Is there something else?
22:19
That’s a great question. And that brings me to why I am a part of the circle this year, because I have to figure that out. And one of those for those
Sam Taggart 22:27
that don’t know, the circle is it’s our it’s our CEO mastermind group that we do, it’s a 12 month program, just so that there’s some context.
Michael O’Donnell 22:34
Well, and it’s been a big challenge for me, I spent 25 years in the b2b sales world trying to get promoted, and I was sales manager, Director sales. Junior Vice President, Vice President, and then you know, Director vice, well, I ended up being a p&l manager and I suck at being a p&l manager, I’m a salesman, man, add spreadsheets, you don’t want me in charge of 50/12 an hour dollar an hour guys that are supposed to show up and and pull internet wire, like that’s not a good idea. That’s it’s not a good, it’s not what I’m good at. So it’s been a struggle for me to bring the lesson that I learned, which is the only thing that pays well is actually selling. And so as one of the partners of sun solar solutions, it’s really been a focus to just be one of the guys selling and so that’s what I am, that’s turned into building a group, I have my abundant power sales group at Sun solar solutions. I never recruit into that group. But when somebody approaches me because they’ve whatever they’ve heard me on a podcast, or this or that, and there’s somebody in the local area, or someone on another team, and they’re like, I want to learn from you, I have to like really be convinced because it’s just too much energy for me to bring somebody onto my little team of closers. And by the way, all the haters on all the trolls on the internet, like to Malegaon yourself and no, that’s my, you know, to to between two, 3 million, those are my signings, but then I also have a team that signs and then I’m also one of the owners of sun solar that does, you know, between 12 and 18 megawatts a year. So I’m a part of all those things, it’d be really easy to think that there were more than more important things to do with my executive level, whatever abilities than being on a door. More important, or being less I should be on this couch with Sam talking because I’m you no big deal enough to be on a podcast. Somehow that feels like it’s more important than being on a door. It doesn’t take long before all your time is taken up doing stuff that’s more important than being on a door. Now I get. So that’s a good. You know, the bigger question is now going forward. So going forward, how do I continue to put up big numbers and not just build out a team but really build out a platform sun solar has put up 6000 solar systems, we’re now in multiple geographies, and we’re starting to ask ourselves, what’s the best way to build out this platform? Yeah, now I’m starting to get to a level where I’m thinking about what you were talking about yesterday. What’s that formula? You know, if we’re having this success with this size of a group, we’re not a gigantic group, my groups got five closers in it and the company’s got maybe You know, 50 people on the roster and 25 that are active, we’re not a gigantic thing. And we’re putting up, you know, between 12 and 18 megawatts a year. But if we were to turn that into the battleship Galactica, you know, if we were to roll this thing out as a platform, so that’s where my head’s at. And I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I’m starting to ask that. Can I do that and put up two megawatts a year? I’m certainly gonna, I’m gonna do that this year, for sure.
Sam Taggart 25:22
Love that. Love that. So I guess if you’re, I’m gonna ask one last question. But in the meantime, if you’re watching this live, comments, some questions that you guys might have for Mike, and I’ll answer it because we’re sitting here we’re looking at the thread got people Oh, no comment or question. If you have a question. At the very end, I will take a question or two of yours. So just commented on the thread. But I guess the last question I was asked on the podcast is like, you know, we did a podcast what, maybe a year and a half ago, and I think we had some technical challenges. Yeah. Did we always just throwing these together, everybody, every buddy complains about Sam, your audio sucks. And I’m like, dude, I have some nice equipment in my house. But am I not gonna take an advantage of sitting here in Key West on the beach? Well, you got, you got chickens. You got chickens, boss. You know, roosters obey roosters on a day at 530. This morning, the roosters are going off, like whose idea was that? So, yeah, there’s gonna be roosters in the back of this podcast deal with it? Would you rather me do this? or not do it? That’s the question. So that just I don’t know, I went that route. But my point is, is over the last year and a half your thoughts and ideas, and obviously you spent time growing as an individual. Now knowing what you know, and diving into our culture and the tribe, and you have a lot of people to follow you, you know, you made that course on the university. And a lot of people came up to you DDD con, and we’re like, dude, your sales presentation in ddu. is unbelievable. Like, you’ve seen a lot of impact and change. What now what advice knowing that, would you give the industry maybe that was maybe different than a year and a half ago? How is your tune changed? Or have you? Or would you give the same advice, I guess, what advice would you give our space but
Michael O’Donnell 27:12
people ask me that all the time? What advice would you give me and I unbutton my shirt and I got the T shirt on underneath that says Get off your ass. go knock on doors, man, get off your ass and go knock on door if you own the company, get off your ass and go knock on doors with your guys go learn what they’re doing and then maybe understand what the tools need to be. I mean, one of the reasons we brought on D to D University is because we realized we just couldn’t keep showing up saying the same thing over and over again and get our jobs done D to D University gives it a leverage our time and our content which is this thick and then the D to D content which is that thick below it so that we could recruit people bring them on board and leverage that
Sam Taggart 27:51
and I liked how you guys film so when we send the film guy out, you just filmed your bootcamp bootcamp that’s what we did that training is less because we don’t want to do it over and over and over again every time we did it. Yeah, that was kind of interesting.
Michael O’Donnell 28:03
Yeah. So and then to have the iMac just talk about the video you’re coming over your house without What are we doing we’re gonna film you doing a guide on how to do that I don’t know how I sell solar goes I’ll break it down I’ll break it down. We film it the things online this year I go to DVD was perfect timing by the way cuz this year my both my partners come and as I get there, and I walk in the door and I’m swamped by people that want to talk to me, I don’t know who they are like how do people that don’t know who I am want to talk to me and they’d all listened to the video segments online on DDD University. And my partners, we’re gonna go and see some kind of rock stars and what’s going on here? My daughter says, it’s kind of like you’re famous, but who’s one room? Like, okay,
28:43
yeah. I have one room, I go anywhere else. take good pictures with Bill yesterday. So it’s like your solar celebrities. Okay, I’ll take that right like the famous. this weekend’s fun but
Michael O’Donnell 28:56
There we go into the lobby. Nobody wants to picture at all but the idea of having somebody come up to me this happened to me yesterday and it’s just mind blowing it made me want to cry for who you know, I don’t comes up to me, I’m in the kitchen making notes for my pod for the speech was going to take place in five minutes instead of two hours later, because I’m in your slot. And he says, I just need to tell you. I watch you every day. And I watched these videos, and it changed my life. I was dadadada da and getting this results and now I’m doing this and I’m getting those results. I was like How can this be happening right now somebody that I don’t know is telling me their life has changed because you and I got together and laid down some Okay, your must be pretty good at this. How do you do it? So that was that’s transformational, I think and and game changing for me. So that leads me to some you know thoughts about I love what to do with the snacks. I don’t have those answers, but it makes me think about it,
Sam Taggart 29:54
But but it’s you. I mean, I’m just going to help kind of full circle this. It’s your Finding that you get fulfilment, when somebody says that, how do you do that internally in your company, to where they see that you’re the value created, that’s changed their lives?
Michael O’Donnell 30:09
Well, that’s happening every morning at 7.50. By the way, you’re talking about Tim Grovers. What an experience, come to D2D and meet Tim Grover is happy to talk about sitting with Michael Jordan and what they thought about when he was, you know, going to stop at three rings or go for what did he get five or six rings or whatever? What was that thinking about? And you’re sitting in the room with this guy, you know, and applying it to our little thing that we do that nobody’s watching on TV, but we you know, we’re doing it. So anyway, that 715 call in the morning is called cleaners club. I hope Tim doesn’t mind that we call it that
Sam Taggart 30:39
your train and train cleaners. Yeah, trainers, I think cleaners can be trained, they can be developed, they need to be activated. They need to be you know that their lot of people are cleaners, they’re just deactivated cleaners,
Michael O’Donnell 30:50
you said activated and and I got a call from Coach Burt, last week, Michael Burton. And I suddenly saw like some St. Michael Burton. I’ve heard him say his name so many times now. I can say his burden. Anyway, I just found out he’s gonna be in Costa Rica, because the circle is going to Costa Rica, we’re gonna we’re gonna fall out of jungle trees. So you’re gonna catch us, I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I can’t. So super excited to do that. But now knowing coach Berg is gonna be there. Talking about activating the prey drive, I guess. It was a it was a series of things that happened to me that activated that drive to get to the two megawatts and then repeat the next year and then do it the third year, how I’ve not been successful, I suck at being able to work with one or two or three other guys and have them turn into that. So it’s, it’s I want to learn how to do yeah, I don’t know how to do it. I want to learn how to do it. I’m trying to do things differently with the guys that I’m working with super close. You’re
Sam Taggart 31:52
doing day to day, what you’re doing with that 715 call is a step in a big leap in the right and we don’t
Michael O’Donnell 31:57
know what to do on that call. We’re reading Tim Grover’s book. And then each of us y’all Jackson, without you know, I’m still haven’t. I haven’t taken a lot off car. I’m still off carbs. I haven’t drank whatever.
Sam Taggart 32:07
Drinking vodka. How are you already pushing him in the right direction? Yeah. And you’re the catalyst to activate the new version of him.
Michael O’Donnell 32:14
Yeah. And I think all spontaneous stuff that comes about by getting involved in, you know, being willing to help and saying, Yes, I’m coming over. I’m thinking as you’re on the way over to my house to say I’m going to tape out you do a song about? Is that a good idea? I don’t know. It’s happening. So it must be a good idea. And so you know, now it’s now it’s now it’s down and it’s happening. And it’s it’s just led to other things. So sometimes just have to trust.
Sam Taggart 32:38
So we’ve got a couple of questions on here. Val, What’s up, dude, wish you’re here? You’re still stupid for not coming to Costa Rica. He’s not okay. To go, what’s the bus or Mark? That’s a dumb one. They’re all good. Where are you knock? That’s my answer to that one, Glenn. So
Michael O’Donnell 32:57
people ask me all the time. What’s the best time to knock? Where should you knock? And the answer to that question is where you are. And the best time to knock is when people are home? Yeah, like, which, by the way, isn’t necessarily between nine to five Monday through Friday.
Sam Taggart 33:14
Yeah. So here we go. One or two key factors are what makes a good door to door solar sales person like, what’s a good solar rep
Michael O’Donnell 33:23
request? I have. So I’ll tell you a short little story. I’m advertising on whatever I need door knockers. And that my answer the second year was go where the food is. There was a net metering deadline in Tucson which I don’t live in Tucson, I moved to Tucson, so I’m going to I need this gun pointed to the customers had to close that much solar. So I moved to a net metering deadline, I start advertising for folks to join me knocking on doors, and this six foot I don’t know how tall, but he was just as wide, Native American kid shows up and his wife’s having a baby that day. I’m like, this is gonna be a short meeting. I’m at the Starbucks in front of the in front of the Safeway store. It’s not even a real Starbucks. And I need this meeting to end. And I remember coming to my first DVD and one guy was sharing this about recruiting said never underestimate how hungry somebody is or how much they want to improve their life or how much they don’t like the life they have. Right? And you’ve met Corbin, right? He’s been up on stage with you. He won the what’s a snake oil salesman tournament at DDD. He’s been with me three years and I want to tell you this year I was 500 kilowatts short. When I looked at him, I thought, I don’t think this guy is going to be a rock star door knocker just because he was looked too big to move that flow. Walk. You would judge him. You would judge him quickly. I judged him quickly as probably not your typical slick looking fast talking salesman. He’s big and he doesn’t talk fast. And he doesn’t talk to a million people a day. He talks to that many people a day and he finds one or two people a day but those people want solar I used to try and tell him say this say that just know if I say that I’m going to have you in front of people that don’t want solar. I’m going to talk to people who want I’m going to find you people. I go, okay. I can’t argue with that. At the end of the first year goes, you’ve been in 50 appointments and 60 or 60 appointments and 57 of employers. I’m like, you just keep doing what you’re doing right? Yeah. But this year, I was 500 kilowatts short, to the two megawatts and I then picture myself on stage without getting the two trophies you know, and I had this vision also my partner Troy and I had this bet. Whoever sold the most was going to get to play in the World Series of Poker, that’s my hobby, Texas Hold’em get to get to play in the World Series of Poker and the other guy had to buy him in. And that was all year long that was driving me and I’m 500 kilowatts short, and I’m behind the eight ball. And I’m normally in the part of the year where the deadline is over, and I’m kind of coasting and I’m 500 kilowatts short. That’s a decent year for a lot of salespeople. 500 kilowatts, and Corbin was the one that was there with me, man on the phone between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve when everybody was out of town. And everybody quit. And I was at 1.8 6 million watts sign. And me and Corbin are on the phone every day long Roadhouse, we got Who else do we got? We’re going through old reschedules hold to VCs. We’re calling we’re just dredge it up. And man, he would find me one or two a day one or two a day like he does one or two a day one or two a day. And on December 30. Man, I was posting up 2.01 for whatever it was. And it was because of Corbin. So what makes it good? I don’t know if somebody who’s gonna be able to activate that drive in them that’s going to propel themselves to get off their ass and get to the next door. I don’t know what else. What else it is.
Sam Taggart 36:39
nugget, nugget. Okay, well, let’s wrap up with that. You guys are awesome. Please share this, like this. Anybody in sales needs to hear this. This wasn’t just for solar people. This is for everybody. You know, you guys at the summit? Yes, you guys in March. If you’re interested in that, we got to go deep. Yeah, we have 12 tickets left. We sold a lot of this roofing event. So DM me if you’re interested in on, so I’ll share the link of how to get that. If you’re a rookie rep, it’s probably gonna be way over your head. So don’t even try. It’s for the guys that are like, how do I go to the megawatt it’s like, I’ve been doing this three years not making the money I could be making. And for me, I go that’s your biggest frickin expense right there. You’ve been doing this for three years making way less than you should be just because you don’t know what to say and how to say it and how to do this job the right way. So that’s what we want to teach you guys in the sales summit. Love you guys. We’ll see you soon. Good See you guys.
