The Code To Winning - IS THERE STILL A FUTURE IN DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES || MAX GANLEY || EPISODE 059

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

In this episode of The Code To Winning, we sit down with Max Ganley, an entrepreneur who has been surrounded by the spirit of business and leadership his entire life. Growing up in a family of entrepr...eneurs, Max was deeply influenced by his father, who served as both a role model and a source of inspiration. His upbringing was filled with lessons about risk-taking, independence, and building something of your own , values that shaped the way he approached life and business from an early age.   Max shares a powerful story about his father’s unique challenge to him when it came to pursuing higher education. His dad, who never had the college experience himself, made a deal with Max: he could step away from school if he was able to prove himself by making $100,000 in a year. Not only did Max rise to the occasion, but in his very first year as a door-to-door solar sales rep, he closed out with an incredible $142,000 in earnings ,shattering expectations and proving that he was built for this path.   From that breakthrough moment, Max’s career skyrocketed. What started with pounding the pavement and knocking on doors turned into the foundation for building his own sales company, where he now leads a team and drives results on a much larger scale. His journey is proof that door-to-door sales is not just about persistence, but also about discipline, strategy, and developing the mental toughness to handle rejection while chasing success.   In this episode, Max opens up about his blueprint for thriving in the door-to-door industry, from sales strategies to leadership lessons and everything in between. He breaks down the realities of building a career in an often misunderstood space, offering insights for anyone looking to scale in sales, entrepreneurship, or personal development. His story is one of grit, growth, INTEGRITY and a reminder that there is still a massive future in door-to-door sales for those willing to put in the work.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I grew up in a really unique situation. My dad's a big entrepreneur. Sold his first business at $38 for $100 million. Has gone on to do a lot of things. And so where I grew up, I've been surrounded by a lot of successful people. My dad said, hey, you have to go to school. He actually didn't go to college. He was homeless at 14.
Starting point is 00:00:14 Didn't go to college. But he told me, hey, you have to go to college. And you have to stay in college until you make $100,000. Then I'll let you quit because I didn't get the chance to go to college. You've got to do it. So I went to college. And then I went and did door to door. And this was back in 14, 15, when solar was still very unknown or new, you know,
Starting point is 00:00:29 It was kind of newer, so to say, right? And just started killing it. My first year, I made $142,000. You started in selling in the Scottsdale area. Was that, like, your first rodeo? And then did you end up, like, branching out to other markets as time went by? Yeah, so my first couple of years, I was just, I started just closing deals. Then naturally, I had a lot of friends come and want to do it.
Starting point is 00:00:46 Naturally, more people came. And so I was like, you know, doing this a decade, I went from kind of being a sales rep to a sales manager to then a regional. And then in 2019, a few of us, we started our current company, Sundar Energy. And now in today's current state, we span across. about 45 markets with over you know 1500 sales reps active and stuff so it's been cool to kind of see the adaption sadly people have looked at the solar industry as a cash grab so they're in here just to go and make these big commissions you know versus what's
Starting point is 00:01:12 best for the customer of their business and those guys are short-lived I've seen that these guys that chase well I'm gonna make more per deal I never see them last longer than a year or two they always try to you know they're chasing all the time where exactly I've set my career up where it's like hey I've been able to build a foundation and then build off that and that provides more consistency. So what we've provided is a platform to where you're still part of that whole ecosystem, but you're getting your selfishly best experience to where you're serving your client. And it also diversifies our business. We don't have any fixed overhead. We don't own trucks, warehouses, branches. We don't have all these big fixed expenses that can go take a company down
Starting point is 00:01:44 when times get tough. The code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we have an amazing guest. If you are interested and curious in learning about renewable energy, the solar. If you want to be able to jump in door to door, if you want to find it a bit more about this specific industry, we have a man that's been in this industry for about 10 years in different markets, and he's built one of the biggest solar companies as well, straight out of Mesa.
Starting point is 00:02:13 And so, without further, I'm going to have Max Ganley in the studio. Thank you. Welcome, boss. How you doing? Doing awesome. Thank you for having me. Awesome stuff. I appreciate that. And I'm glad we've got the morning schedule. I know it's very, very crazy. And one of the things I learned, and I've been taught as well, is the fact that you can tell someone's success or someone's achievements and accomplishments by how quick they respond. If I text you, it doesn't even take more than two seconds to get a response back from you.
Starting point is 00:02:41 So I appreciate that. But I learned from Patrick Bedevide, he said that from all the successes that he's learned about, he's like, because everything is so calculated and everything is like they appreciate time so much that they have to get over the task. And so listen, I get over the thing on the next task, next stuff, not this thing of hanging on. So I really appreciate that a lot. It made it so smooth and amazing. So I had to just mention that in the start. You're welcome.
Starting point is 00:03:05 I try to do that a lot. It's the superpower. I love it, love it. Are you born and raised in Mesa? Born and raised here, yeah. I'll live my whole life in Arizona. Guess what, though? You and I served our missions around the exact same time.
Starting point is 00:03:18 I served 12, 14. Oh, same here. I got home November 2014. Yeah, I was, I think, May or so. It's the same thing as well, 25 months, because when we were on our missions, we experienced, well, I think you just came slightly after it, the age change thing. Yeah, when I started, it was a month after that, they switched it all to that new age thing. So on my mission, there was people coming out that were like two years younger. Where did you serve?
Starting point is 00:03:45 Edmonton, Canada. Oh, wow. Yeah, really cold, you know. So we would, you know, door knocking up there is different when it was a minus 20 to. at 30 Celsius, you still had to go out. There was a trick they taught us where we put our glove on, and we'd have a golf ball to knock because we couldn't take our hands out of our gloves because it was so cold. That was the secret.
Starting point is 00:04:04 So, yeah. Awesome. I want to just kind of dive into it real quick. You have experience in 10 years in solar. Solar has been, it was the first time in my entire life that I had made a six-figure income as well, even though it's like in an area where six figures, not a significant Bay Area, one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. But you have 10 years experience in this industry. Can you run us through just a bit of your journey in solar?
Starting point is 00:04:34 Yeah. So I grew up in a really unique situation. My dad's a big entrepreneur, sold his first business at 38 for 100 million, has gone on to do a lot of things. And so where I grew up, I was, I've been surrounded by a lot of successful people. And so obviously we just talked about I went on a mission. So when I got home from my mission, I was, you know, kind of bred to go be an entrepreneur. My dad said, hey, you have to go to school. He actually didn't go to college. He was homeless at 14, didn't go to college.
Starting point is 00:05:04 But he told me, hey, you have to go to college. And you have to stay in college until you make $100,000. Then I'll let you quit because I didn't get the chance to go to college. You've got to do it. So I went to college. And then I went and did door to door. And this was back in 14, 15, when solar was still very, you know, unknown or new you know it was kind of newer so to say right and just started killing it my first year
Starting point is 00:05:25 i made 142 000 and that was back when commissions were 1500 to 2 000 so it was a very different you know time back then it was like one product one system kind of thing so my dad's like hey you're allowed to quit and and what i found joy in in door to door is it wasn't my dad calling one of his business partners you know saying hey can you give my my son a job can you hook them up but i found so much in door to door i was like i got to to go prove what I'm worth, you know. And so I love that because it was like, okay, if I want to go make this or I want to go accomplish this, I can do it, it's not my dad or his business partners or my neighbors giving me a handout. So I just started going out and doing it. Back then, we didn't
Starting point is 00:06:03 have the training and the concepts that we had today. I was actually dropped off in Greyhawk up in North Scottsdale by a guy in an Alexis car and he says, hey, good luck, figure it out kind of thing. So just kind of started my journey that way. It was really unique. Awesome. Now that's, and that's fascinating. I mean, and you started, you started in selling in the Scottsdale area. Was that like your first rodeo? And then did you end up like branching out to other markets as time went by? Yeah. So my first couple of years, I was just, I started just closing deals. Then naturally, I had a lot of friends come and want to do it. Naturally, more people came. And so as I, you know, doing this a decade, I went from kind of being a sales rep to a sales manager to then a regional.
Starting point is 00:06:43 And then in 2019, a few of us, we started our current company, Sunder Energy. And now in today's current state, we span across about 45 markets with over, you know, 1,500 sales reps active and stuff. So it's been cool to kind of see the adaption. But I'm really grateful. I rely, you know, smart people learn from their mistakes, brilliant, learn from others. And I think for me, I've been really grateful that I have had phenomenal mentors in my life. I give them a lot of credit. It's helped me avoid a lot of mistakes that I've seen people in door-to-door make financially, you know, in so many other aspects.
Starting point is 00:07:16 I've been able to just go to people that obviously are far smarter and successful in me. It's like, hey, what should I do in this scenario? And it's helped me kind of stay on a path that's been very successful. I love that, love that so much. What was different back then? I know, obviously, when I did solar, there was a whole setter, closer, self-generer and trying to find your way between there and build a team. So in 2015 or 2014, like around that time, what would you say was slightly different
Starting point is 00:07:42 compared to like how things are right now, structure-wise? You didn't really have all that. it was just kind of go eat what you kill it was all self-gen we call it you not close your own doors um just kind of go out and make it happen i will say the market penetration was way less not as many people were in the solar game then so to say um you know you didn't have the tech we had today we didn't have the 10 different products batteries weren't even a thing so it's very just you know simplified back then but at the same time you didn't have that but the industry evolved quickly the first couple of years all of a sudden you saw a company start to kind of create similar to what vivant and some of the big door-to-door companies have kind of the culture the competitions the all the systems you need to adapt and stuff because solar started to just take off kind of yeah no one thing i did notice well when we were there the first two years were relatively very very good the third year that's when they implemented the name 3.0 and so it it hit us real hard because i remember getting some guys that were there um the commissions went from
Starting point is 00:08:43 from absolute luxury because I mean one of my closest like one of my biggest deals the year before was a good like over 20,000 was like an Asian woman by Carpetino literally like same street as like the Apple headquarters she just like I want like she had like 54 panels even I think more than that filled up the entire roof so like stuff like that which was a self-gen was like something so rewarding and then like name 3.0 was like a way where it was just it pretty much was not the best experience did Arizona implement the same same thing? We haven't had net metering since 2017. Okay. So we've kind of been, Arizona is a tried and true, like, brute of a market, you know, and sadly, it's very unfortunate. I'd say a majority of people don't educate themselves enough of how to sell correctly in Arizona. We come across a lot of deals. Like, now kind of in Arizona, I'd say 90%, you need to be doing batteries the last like two years. It's sad to see the amount of sales companies and installers that are allowing jobs to be installed without a battery. because the buyback now is like around six, seven cents.
Starting point is 00:09:47 So if you do 100% of your home with solar, well, you're actually not getting 100% of the value because all that excess is only being bought at six cents. It's not a one for one. And every year the buyback goes down and down. So you kind of need a battery. And so, yeah, it's changed. And I think a strength to my company and myself
Starting point is 00:10:04 is we've always been willing to choose doing business the right way versus the wrong way. And even if that makes less money or we lose out on certain groups that don't want to come work with us just because they're all about how many deals I can sell and not how we can do it right. And I think that's what has led to my personal sex. I'm near and close about 900 personal installs in my career. Wow. So I went many years doing over 100 plus installs. And so I learned it's like, man, it's not what you make per deal. It's what you make per year. And if you can maximize referrals and doing good business, you're going to get a way better
Starting point is 00:10:33 return on your investment and then just slamming in that one deal because I'm going to make a little bit more on that. And that's principles my father and many of my mentors taught me. It's like you've got to look at it from a business perspective of not just like what's in it right now but what's in it like now and long term and yeah and i couldn't agree more when when i was also doing it i remember there was a time like arizona always was like number one in the market and it like it had like the most revenue it just had like the teams that were successful also of course leadership seemed to have been a bit more structured as well there but the market was just they were killing it and it wasn't just us i noticed even three different companies um and that's like
Starting point is 00:11:12 like 21, 22, around 23, would you say Arizona is, despite it being so saturated and competitive, it still seems to be producing? Would you say it's the same right now? And then two years later from then? It's definitely less. A lot of people have gotten out of Arizona, which kind of you want, because they're usually the people that may have been doing business the wrong way. Like I said, the way you need to sell in Arizona is very niche now. You have to, majority of jobs do a battery. There isn't net metering. It's net billing. The buyback's going down every year. So there's a lot of factors to where if you do business the right way, Arizona can be good. I'd say sadly, Arizona.
Starting point is 00:11:44 And California, too, like California is our biggest market. If you do business the right way with batteries, all that kind of stuff, you can thrive. But sadly, people have looked at the solar industry as a cash grab. So they're in here just to go and make these big commissions, you know, versus what's best for the customer of their business. And those guys are short-lived. I've seen that. These guys that chase, well, I'm going to make more per deal. I never see them last longer than a year or two.
Starting point is 00:12:07 they always try to, you know, they're chasing all the time. Exactly. I've set my career upwards like, hey, I've been able to build a foundation and then build off that and that provides more consistency. And I've noticed as well, even from what you're saying, people like you, the Ash the BuzzWills, I interviewed Sam Tiger as well, like I think a year and a half ago or a year ago. But integrity is so important in this specific marketing field.
Starting point is 00:12:29 I feel like solar specifically has inherited like the pest control douchebags. over time. Here's the true toe. Everyone in the industry talks about doing right by the customer, but it isn't it interesting how majority of installers don't check jobs. So like you and I, we can go sell a job today and put panels on whatever roof and do whatever offset. Majority of installers, and it's kind of a call out to a lot of installers out there and
Starting point is 00:12:57 sales orgs, they don't validate that deal. We do. When we sell a job here specifically in Arizona, if the usage isn't put incorrect, we deny it. If you aren't doing a battery, we'll reject it until there's a reason. So, like, everyone talks the talk in this industry. Like, oh, yeah, we're customer first. Well, then why do you guys let any kind of system be installed? Why do you let any kind of sales rep sell for you?
Starting point is 00:13:20 Because all these guys really, the motive behind what people really say is based off their actions. And we've noticed, like, at our size, we're one of the very few sales organizations that I know in the industry that actually will check jobs on the back end to make sure that the information all lines up. But yet people don't do that. always want to talk about how they care so much about our customers, but it's also a big reason why the industry is getting such a bad rap because these guys are like, yeah, we're very big about our customer. Well, then why do you let this company sell for you? And we know they're putting panels on the north roof, you know, when everyone knows doing a system on the north roof, especially in Arizona, actually is worse than better for the customer. Yeah. So I always think through that stuff.
Starting point is 00:13:57 No, I agree more. I mean, I had so many bad experiences with some installers like core energy. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. My gosh. Like the nice thing is that they installed super quickly, but it's like at what cost. You know what I'm saying? Like they're unprofessionalism. They just slap roofs up. Sometimes they damage the tiles up there. Like it's one of those things where it's like a fast, and that's why they went down
Starting point is 00:14:19 and under, you know, and I also knew like the owner as well, but not to you like mention that, it's the fact that when you mention the whole back office thing, I think it's important because it's actually caring about the customer because many people speak it, but don't actually do it. It's all about the money at the end of the day.
Starting point is 00:14:34 And the bank check is, what do they do? when the job is sold. Most majority of installers currently when a job is sold, they will just continue to progress every job. Very few companies, sales oriented installers actually will validate deals and be like, hey, does this homeowner actually use this much power? Where are the panels placed and will it produce right? Because here in Arizona specifically, you have on and off peak times.
Starting point is 00:14:58 So during, you know, the afternoon, it's more expensive. Well, if you put solar panels on the east, where is the sun at 4 p.m.? It's on the west. But yet a lot of guys will install a system. with panels on the east, installers claiming, oh yeah, we're big about the customer.
Starting point is 00:15:11 Why are you letting your installers put panels on an east roof when you do need some on a south or west to offset the peak times, right? It's just a lot, but yeah, these people don't think like that. It's sad that sales guys are like,
Starting point is 00:15:22 well, I just don't care because I just want my job installed so I get paid bank, bro. It's just like, it's a really bad mindset, in my opinion. I couldn't agree more. And then are you guys,
Starting point is 00:15:31 are your own installer or you, you, okay. No, so our model is very, uh, unique so we've we've gone down the route of using a single installation company uh the last almost two years we now um sub we contract out to more local regional installer similar to every construction right there is no one big you know construction company what we found you know we're very what's best for the customer and rep experience and we've just found our company we're we are the big box sales
Starting point is 00:15:59 engine right sundar my company we we handle all the culture the growth of sales and then in each different market, we use a more local regional installers because every market's so different, right? Arizona permits and AHJs are completely different than Maryland or Texas. And so it's been unique having to figure out how to tie all that together, but also it's been a huge blessing. We have found that our customers and reps have had a way better hands-on experience because when you use a more local construction company, they're a lot more hands-on to giving a better experience because they know their market. Similar to you and I build a home in Arizona, we fly to Florida. We're not using the same home builder. So that's kind of our approach to it. We've tried the big box one
Starting point is 00:16:38 construction company one thing. There's pros and cons to it. We just found overall, if you're really putting the customer at first, in my opinion, it's a lot more of a hands-on experience because there's so many nuances when it comes to doing a solar install. And then is that the trajectory and plan at least they just try and become your own installer or right now? We will never become an installer. It is the last thing. It's just not the play right now. And this is where sales guys don't have respect for installers. It doesn't out of the size. The installers are the ones that take on all the risk and liability. But yet these sales guys are like, well, who's going to pay me the most and do this for me?
Starting point is 00:17:12 It's like, you need to have a win-win. Regardless if your installer is the biggest or a local, they need to stay in business. They're the ones that are going to try to service that system, right? They're the ones who's going to pick up the phone when there's an issue. Most of these sales guys aren't going to be in door-to-door in many years to come. And so, you know, it's unique to see that, but we have no intentions of doing any of the construction because it's just not the play. Okay. And then with the whole installer thing, have you had any, obviously, like, experience of setbacks with like bad installers? And like, what are the specific criteria that you look
Starting point is 00:17:46 for to try and gain like the right installers for that specific market that you guys are currently in right now? Yeah, I'd say, I'd say for us, you know, it's, it's an ever-changing kind of industry right now. You know, the bill, all these kind of things coming out. I think for us, the most important thing is just financial health and stability. something unique about our model is we have partnerships with a lot of the banks in the industry that kind of help guide us on which installers to use and not to use. So we're able to kind of cross-reference like, okay, this is when this installer gets funded. You know, is that slow or fast?
Starting point is 00:18:18 You know, this is the material they have. So we've been able to do a really good job at our size vetting out a lot of the facts of financials, how much crew capacity they have. Do they have enough capacity to actually handle our volume? You know, what's their strategy? Are they diversified? And so for us, that's kind of what we look for is just like health of the installer. It's not about who's the cheap is.
Starting point is 00:18:37 It's more about the quality. Because right now the name of the game is not, you know, fastest install is just who's going to pay. Because the banks are changing. Like the money's drying up in this industry right now in a very weird way because of the big, the big beautiful bill. So it's about who's got stability and security that's not over leveraging themselves. The sad thing you see in this industry is majority of companies go chase volume. And then now they become beholden to that, right? And so they're willing to drop.
Starting point is 00:19:01 their shorts and do all these things because they have to get volume to keep business. We're more focused. Okay, who can actually like maintain a healthy kind of relationship and not over leverage themselves? And I mean, there's just so much. It's like a billion dollar industry like solar as a whole and with all government incentives and everything else. Why do you think it's been the leading factor to why so many companies have went down and under over time?
Starting point is 00:19:24 Three things. I think one, I mentioned this earlier. The install companies are willing to give anyone in their mother. the cheapest cost. You know, you today, I can introduce you to 10 solar installers here in Arizona that will give you the same cost to go do an install as they are giving it to one of their other partners. So one, these installers are dropping their shorts because they want volume. Two, they're not regulating the volume.
Starting point is 00:19:49 So they're allowing, you look at kind of the trends of some of these companies that have gone bankrupt. They give away, they gave, you know, they don't understand the difference between their hard cost and soft costs. So they go give everyone a cheap call redline. but then they don't realize that they're actually losing money because everyone has this cheap cost too they're the ones that are installing any type of job they're not regulating the size of the system they're not regulating if the panels are on the right roof all the factors so then that leads to three
Starting point is 00:20:14 which is now they start spending a lot of money fixing things and chasing things it's a common trend if you look at the last 10 years that is what's happened to some of these big companies and small that got a business and then the finance companies are really starting to crack down on just because you have the system installed doesn't mean we're going to fund you you act you have to have all these like criteria. So that's really how clear it is. It's just they give, they're giving everyone way too low of a cost that shouldn't deserve it.
Starting point is 00:20:38 Should be met off volume, but they get so desperate. Two, they're not regulating their deals. So they're letting all these bad deals happen, which then three leads to them having to fix more things. And then what does that sales group do that sold bad business? They just go to the next guy.
Starting point is 00:20:49 Yeah. So then it's like, they're left hole in the bag and it's like, well, you did this to yourself. You let everyone and their mother come on. Sell it, give them a cheap cost. You didn't protect your margins.
Starting point is 00:20:59 You were desperate for volume. you didn't regulate their business, so therefore you pay the price. Yeah, that's fascinating. And then obviously you guys have got 1,500 people right now. Isn't there a fear sometimes of growing a little too fast in terms of the sales reps aspect as well? Because sometimes growing too fast can be detrimental to a company's growth and the trajectory of width of their heading. Is that a concern for you guys at the moment? We've been big for a long time.
Starting point is 00:21:24 Like I said, Sunder started in 2019. I think we've passed over 55,000 solar installs in our career. So we've done it a big eye. I think it comes down to just, you don't manage people, you manage systems. And I think we've created really good systems. We have a tech platform. We have great leadership. And so we've been able to manage that because of the systems we have.
Starting point is 00:21:43 And because of our platform, people are coming to our company because of the security and stability we provide to them. Where a lot of people in the industry are scared right now. Going and tying yourself to an installation company right now is very scary because there's a lot of unknowns. You know, these companies are promising this. They're going out of business. that guy's left missing out hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? And so I think guys are realizing being somewhere where you have diversification is very safe to them. I look at it the same way.
Starting point is 00:22:11 I'm sure you invest in the stock market, right? Do you own a stock or do you have a variety of stocks? Just a few, yeah, I have a few. Yes. And so it's the same thing. What we learned a couple years ago, why go put all of our money, our eggs in one basket, where now our model is very diversified, where we're using a variety of different construction companies, which allows us to be very nimble.
Starting point is 00:22:29 also protected because if one position of our company was to maybe struggle, it's not taken down the whole program. And that's how sales guys want it. Selfishly, if you and I are selling in Arizona, you don't really care how's it going in Illinois. You just want the best experience here. And vice versa, right? And so what we've provided is a platform to where you're still part of that whole ecosystem, but you're getting your selfishly best experience to where you're serving your clients. And it also diversifies our business. We don't have any fixed overhead. We don't own trucks, warehouses, branches. is we don't have all these big fixed expenses that can go take a company down when times get tough. Oh, gosh, I love that.
Starting point is 00:23:06 And I mean, the fact that you're very stuck on principle of what the vision and like your mission is, sometimes I feel like people end up trying to take on responsibility, try to become an install, try to become this thing, try to become that thing. And then before you know it, it just always sinks in because it's like if the, like, it's not broken, why you've got to fix it? Rather just go one direction and continue to enhance the trajectory and the point. path that you're kind of going as well. And I think it's important the fact that you know, you stuck to your principles and you're going in that direction. However, what are some of the
Starting point is 00:23:36 things that you are doing right now to try and prevent the company from going down like most of these companies that have in this industry? I think number one, if you look at the common trend, again, this isn't to knock on people in the industry. This isn't of all be all. Majority of the companies that have gone out of business have taken on the liability of construction. So for us, we're going to avoid that because like I just mentioned earlier, when you become the installer, you don't have to have the trucks, the warehouses, you got to have the credit lines to buy equipment, you got to service the system. And you take on a massive fixed expense. My company is a massive sales organization that is very asset light. We have, I think, 20 employees. We have tech. We have
Starting point is 00:24:19 optionality. So that is our difference is we are going to stay in this kind of middle ground where we're one of the largest sales organizations, but yet we don't have to carry into the liability or debt. And that is what these guys have chased. They go and become their own installer. And you run that risk, not saying everyone's doing it wrong, just saying that you start to take on fixed expenses. And then if things get tough, you still have the mortgage to pay. So you either close it down. To this point, no one's really been able to prove the national construction model at scale on a long-term basis. There's always been kind of this thing that happens. Right. You look at a sun run. They've shut markets down over the last couple years. You look at some of the bigger installers. They've gone
Starting point is 00:24:57 bankrupt, the Titans, ADT. No one's been able to kind of keep that program going on a long-term basis without something else having a sacrifice. That's so fascinating. Not coming down to like the sales rep as well. Do you guys have programs for summer and year-round? Or how does that work? We're like 90% year-round. I think that's what makes Sunday unique is we aren't some summer program. We're not a blitz program. We don't go hammer a market leave. We've built a really good year-round consistent business. A lot of our leaders live in markets. I think people get into our industry because they want a lifestyle. They don't want to have to go leave for the summer. Some guys do. We do have teams that do that and stuff, but we've been very heavily based off, hey, you live
Starting point is 00:25:35 and work where you are. You have a lifestyle. Go home to your kids at night kind of thing. That's truly why I got to solar. I didn't want to go leave and go do alarm sales over the summer and leave. I was like, man, if I can do solar, I can make the money I need to make where I live and still have that lifestyle. Yeah. And I think that's what also worked as well for me, because I did like two years, year-round and obviously that's where I got the most success because as much as we hammered that down in like the summertime like the year on was a bit more scheduled like and you see you treat it like an actual job you go out for the hours there a career and it's just it's way more efficient it's also a good time which is less stressful so you can see it around like those customers the referrals you
Starting point is 00:26:12 work a little smarter you find strategies and you become a bit more useful but at the same time summer because you're in a structure where it's like an office base can also just like be a quick like injection of boost for you as well, but which kind of leads to like, and if you do a year-round thing, how do you prevent burning out? I think it's a marathon, not a sprint. You know, what I love for everyone to go work eight, ten hours a day, sure. I think the reality is it's about, it's all about scheduling and having a plan to where you do create this like a career, having kind of your schedule where you know your times
Starting point is 00:26:44 to go generate business, your times of close business, your times of train. So I think it's more of a marathon versus sprint of having that kind of consistency of a schedule. You know, when you're in a competition, go, go hard. When you're not, you know, live that kind of lifestyle. Go on those vacations kind of thing is kind of the thing. But I think also being somewhere, people want to be somewhere where they're around others doing more than what they are currently doing. So I think Sunder's job and many great companies out there create a culture to where people are a part of something that helps them feel like they're working towards something bigger all the time. So they continue to drive forward and all that kind of stuff.
Starting point is 00:27:17 That's amazing. Then what would separate like, I mean, you've done on average. 100 or more installs a year in like the 10 year span, what separates like those sales reps that make 100 compared to those that are like in the 20 or low? Because all the information is there and like the same pitch and everything. What separates those elite from like just your average? Because 20 is still like a good like amount considering like how much it gets paid
Starting point is 00:27:44 but it's nowhere near the level and standard of like those that are doing exception to one. Yeah, I'd say I'd say this isn't just in our industry. It's in life. the biggest traits, the two biggest traits I've noticed, besides all the cliche, work hard, all that, you know, but the two main things that I'll say that's different is successful people in this industry, they know their KPIs, key performance indicators. If you talk to any of my great leaders I work with, they can tell you exactly, their goal is three deals this week, they can tell you exactly reverse engineering.
Starting point is 00:28:15 They can tell you if they need three deals, they can tell you how many people they need to sit with. They can tell you how many appointments they have to set. they can tell you how many homeowners or decision makers and then they can tell you how many doors. So anyone that's successful
Starting point is 00:28:27 in anything knows their KPIs. And in our job, that's what I learned from my mentors early on. I take the emotion out of it. Everyone's so focused, oh, you've got to work X amount of hours. I don't care about the hours.
Starting point is 00:28:38 The hours are a byproduct. If your goal is to go knock 200 doors, how many hours does it take to knock 200 doors? You know, 10, 12. So see, a lot of guys are like, you can, but your emotions play games on you.
Starting point is 00:28:49 If you're like, man, I've been out for an hour I need to go home, I think the fatigue for me, it's like, no, if my goal every day is just to talk to 10 decision makers, well, if halfway through, I'm like beat myself up and I'm like, oh, I'm only at five, I'm winning. I'm halfway to my goal. When I hit 10, I'll go home. So I take out the emotional thing of the hours. But I'd say number one, they know their numbers. And number two, if they know their numbers, they know their steps to everything they do. They know their steps to the door approach, the close. And this is any career. Every successful person I know, like, did you play sports growing up?
Starting point is 00:29:21 Is there a single professional athlete that you know that doesn't know their metrics? Impossible. Impossible. Especially the more you become like saying you pro and professional. Like it's just everything is just. LeBron knows exactly what his free throw percentages. You know, so again, reps and even people in life, one, they don't track their numbers. So they don't track their stats of, you know, when performance is measured, performance improves.
Starting point is 00:29:46 So they don't track their performance. So therefore they don't know what to improve. And then therefore, they don't have. steps to each of the things they're doing if it's door to door. They don't have their steps to the door approach. They don't have their steps to maybe their closing process. So therefore, it's like those two go together. You track your numbers to then identify if you're skipping a step. So those would be my two things is that's what I've noticed the difference is for me. Did I go knock 30 hours a week? No. I just figured out my numbers and said, okay, if I want to do 100 installs,
Starting point is 00:30:15 I need to sell this many. I need to dig. And I just reverse engineering and just stuck to that every week. And it just made it really easy. And it didn't burn me out because I was like, oh, this is easy. And then consistently led to excellence to where out of every 10 homeowners, an average person should set one appointment. Well, if you consistently do something, it leads to every 10 homeowners, two appointments. So the reason I was able to go do high numbers and a lot of leaders I've worked with do more numbers is it's not that they increase their work, like time on the doors. They just increased their productivity by consistently sticking that, which made them more effective. Powerful. And I think it was Malcolm Gladwell that spoke about the doctrine of the 10,000
Starting point is 00:30:51 hours as well. And consistency, as you mentioned, like obviously leads to excellent. The blueprints are there for people that have been successful. You mentioned LeBron James, Messi, Ronaldo, all these like professional athletes that are just so good at what they do, Serena Williams, Tom Brady. Everyone knows success comes from consistency. Why can't people just maintain that level of consistency, especially like in the door-to-door industry. Harvard did the study of the reference group. It's all about who you're thrown with. I think that is why you look at, you know, in door-to-door guys chase the dollar.
Starting point is 00:31:26 So they're always been like, well, if I can go get paid more per deal, I'm going to make more. Well, it's not about what you make per deal, it's what you make per year. You look at Vivint. They're kind of the crown jewel of door-to-door back when they were at their heyday of alarms, right? more people made money at Vivint in door to door back in the heyday than they did going and being their own alarm company. It's the same principle in solar. I've done this 10 years now. I have seen so many guys go be their own little solar company. And I've never seen any of them actually out-earn majority of the people that are plugged into a sales program over the
Starting point is 00:31:59 consistency of one, two, three years. Because again, I think the secret is you need to be, you need to have a reference group. You need to have those five, ten, or in our case, hundreds of people. And this is a shout-out to some of the other big sales organizations, too, the companies that can create a reference group of that, that is what helps people go be more successful. But sadly, you know, and I'm different. I grew up with big money. You know, my dad's wealthy. I grew up around people. So I saw early on principles of success. Sadly, many people getting into solar when I ask people, most of their parents don't even make sick figures. They don't know what it's like to go be a millionaire. For me, that's all I knew growing up was like,
Starting point is 00:32:35 I look at my dad, like homeless of 14, didn't go to college. The guy's multimillionaire. I look at my neighbor and I'm like, okay, these guys are great human beings and they have a ton of money. What principles they apply? So that's all I took is just applying that. But what I learned for my dad, especially is my dad didn't make all the money himself. He's telling me all the time he goes, Max, I would have made a 20th of what I made if it wasn't for my business partners. My dad made a lot of his money in the internet boom. He is not a tech guy. He is a sales guy, but it's all about that. So that would be my answer is it's all about your reference group. I'm always willing to give a little bit here to gain more here. Half of watermelon's more
Starting point is 00:33:10 than a full grape. Powerful. And so for me, I've always been luckily trained early on from the people I have in my life to focus on being with the right people with the right platform because the byproduct is half a watermelons more than a full grape. And financially it's done wonders for me and many of the guys that I've worked with. And that's why Jim Ron said you are the average of the five people we hang out with. Because naturally you end up picking up traits, you end up picking up habits. And that's why if you with a group of degenerate people, even if you're a very college-educated person, you just end up like inheriting those traits. And it's also been proven, as you mentioned,
Starting point is 00:33:42 at Harvard's study, if you end up hanging out with people that I think they made a study as well when I were, because I'm originally born in a region of South Africa. And I think I once learned and heard about this scenario where they were encouraging kids to sit on the table with their parents. And they got to find out that those that would watch TV and eat dinner while watching TV compared to those that were just sitting with their parents,
Starting point is 00:34:07 same class, same age, same everything. Those that sat with their parents on the table started hearing conversations were becoming a bit more intellectual. They started like being better critical thinkers as well. And I think with what you mentioned, because you've seen that, that's all you know. And it's easy because now if you're on the,
Starting point is 00:34:24 for level of mentorship, you know your dad's only made that amount of money. It's almost like, okay, well, that's the norm. You know what I'm saying? And I think it's so hard for those that haven't had those mentors. But like what advice would you have for those people that haven't had that level of mentorship. Drop the ego, because again, everything I see in this industry, the reason why they go do their own thing is they're just egotistic.
Starting point is 00:34:45 I can go do it myself. But find me a billionaire that did it on their own. Not a single one of them. There's no successful person that will say, I am this because of myself. They've all had people, they've had business partners, they've had things.
Starting point is 00:35:00 So my advice is like, drop the ego and go find the people that are doing things in categories that you want to be better at, that you're you know go find those people that are being what you want to be in those categories right similar you know you and i know jake and jo the twins are talking about i needed to kind of whip my bun get back in shape you know so i called them and said hey they're hustling i'm gonna go work out with them you know shout to those guys that was last summer was like i can't get back in shape that's again the drop the ego right like i'm older than them all this kind of stuff
Starting point is 00:35:27 no dude i don't care they're freaking cool they're gonna help me right so again people are so short mind in this industry they think about well if i go sell this one deal i can make two grand more on this one deal if I'm by myself. Well, great. I haven't found any of you that consistently have a successful career. You're always chasing because then you try to build and then you lose guys. It's just a revolving door. And you said ego, I couldn't agree more.
Starting point is 00:35:51 And I think that's so hard because it's given do-to-do such a bad rep. And that's where I learned most of like, I've always been an extravert. I've always been a person. I mean, I did two internships in New York. I got a full-time offer there and I'd be climbing it to try and like follow the pursuit of like being an entrepreneur but my point is like I feel like just the few rotten few are just giving a bad rep for everyone else you know like the whole like I am this I am that kind of like fake number is just all this stuff is giving the do-to-door rep such a toxic trait but
Starting point is 00:36:24 it's the one place where people have gained the most skill from you know what I'm saying would you agree yeah that I wish it's funny as I talk to people I've been at 10 years so I've I started when commissions were 15002,000 you know now they're 7 10 10 right six the sad realities most people got into solar the last five years so all they know is big commissions exactly so sadly and i hope a lot of those guys will kind of wean out as this bill comes through and they'll change a lot of things um's analytic which is a big kind of analytical data thing for residential says you know they project project a 60% uh volume production if this bill goes through as is and stuff like that and solar but you look at it you're like yeah majority of the industry
Starting point is 00:37:02 right now is made up of guys that got into it during covid to go make bank bro and aren't really thinking about, and don't know how to run a business. And that's the thing is we've cultivated this culture in our industry. Anyone can be a business owner because like I mentioned earlier, you could call any installation company and they'll let you be your own sales company. So everyone has this eagle like, I'm a CEO.
Starting point is 00:37:21 And it's like you've never learned business or ran a business or around people in business. But because this installer said that you can be your own sales company, therefore you have this entitlement of it. And I've never been learned by that because I'm like, if that was going to make me the most per year and my guys, do it, but I never have had that thought. Money's a byproduct to me because of how I grew up. I'm always going to make money. So I'm going to focus on other things that matter more with than the byproduct becomes more money. And it's crazy that you mention that because
Starting point is 00:37:47 unfortunately, I think another driving factor for this is social media because there are so many of these gurus that are out there. And half of them are, in fact, not even half a but a large majority are just so phony. You know what I'm saying? And it's been, that's why I'm saying, it's been such an enlightening thing being with the twins because, you know, they've been making me work out every single day. It's been the first time worked out, like, five days in a row. We're going on six as well. But, like, I feel like we're losing the plot of, like, just genuineness of people because social media's painting a thing of, like, the figure. Like, hey, I make this amount. And you just take what people's words are saying.
Starting point is 00:38:19 And I think it's just the sales bro culture. I just wish you would just die out, you know, it's just giving the rep such a bad name, whereas door-a-dor has got some of the best people have come across ever, you know, would you add on that as well? My dad did door-to-a-door. Didn't Mark Cuban do daughter? Do you know, I think it's cool. Everyone wants to be a business owner. Door to door is the best way to be like entrepreneurship on training wheels. You can basically be your own entrepreneur.
Starting point is 00:38:45 We're 1099 and fail and not lose your business. If you think about this week, I could go out and, you know, because what do business owners have to do? They have to generate their own business. They have to learn people skills. Like door to door is literally entrepreneurship 101. The beautiful thing about door to door is that it's training wheels and the fact that If you got a whole week and you fell at entrepreneurship, not generating business, you don't lose
Starting point is 00:39:09 your business, right? If you own a store and you fell at those kind of things, you lose your business. So I look at that perspective, I'm like, man, what an opportunity we have to really go, like, learn all the skill sets that business owners have and need to go own your businesses down the road, you know? Because you look at a lot of the grates in door-to-door the last 30 years. Most of the successful ones have gone on to do very successful things. So I view it that way too is, man, I love what we're doing.
Starting point is 00:39:33 doing right now, it's the best thing to learn skill sets to then be, to be ready for your future kind of entrepreneurship, because you kind of have a buffer right now to fell right. If I got today a knock and I don't get an appointment, that's okay. I can go make it up tomorrow. When you own a real business, if you miss payroll for your employees, your business is done. You know what I mean? So like, I love that concept. But I think with this beautiful bill, it's helped people realize, like, to your point, you know, I always tell me when you're, when I'm recruiting, ask me questions about what investments I have. Ask me about what I've done with my career. Because most of these guys you see, what they've done with their career is buy shoes. They don't own a house.
Starting point is 00:40:11 They don't own a car. How much recurring revenue do you have? I make $15,000 a month of passive income right now. And that's all because of the money I've made in solar to invest in deals outside of solar that now pay my bills. I talk about that openly because most guys in solar can't say that. If you ask most of these gurus and top dudes, like, cool, what kind of a lot of like cash flowing assets do you have? Well, you know, they don't know. It just baffles me, right? But guys, go follow those guys. Ask those kind of questions like, hey, what kind of recurring revenue do you have? What investments do you own? What long-term deals do you have? You know, like, that's the kind of mythology I have. But again, I was raised different. A lot of these guys are like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:40:49 but that dude, drives a cool car. And that benefits you how. You know, that's how I feel. I get passionate about it. I'm like, dude, it's all about investing and setting yourself up, you know? I love that so much. The question I had about leadership, then, Would you say rather that leadership, do you think you're born with it or something you can actually gain and develop over time? Or bit of both. I think both. Like, you know, there's three ties of people in this world. There's people that make it happen, watch it happen and wonder what the hell happened, right?
Starting point is 00:41:21 I'll be the first admit when I was growing up. I was a little bit of a made it happen versus and watch it happen, right? Because, you know, I drove a blacked out escalate in high school. I was given a lot of things, right? It wasn't until I grew up, went on my church mission that I got home and realized I had more of a made-it-happen kind of attitude. So I think it is a combination of both. I've lived both to where I didn't really make it happen because I didn't need to, but then I realized when I had to, I actually made it happen. But again, that goes back to me is I think everyone can develop those skill sets, but it's all about who you go surround yourself with.
Starting point is 00:41:53 A lot of these guys in this door-to-door space take on the mentality. I'm going to go do it myself. Exactly. And therefore they never develop the trades. I'm over here like, dude, if I'm going to make a little less on these deals, but I'm a like, like I talked about investments earlier, if you ask a handful of the leaders I personally work with, one of my top leaders, he makes $7,500 a month and passive income outside of solar.
Starting point is 00:42:14 Interesting. 90% of that is from investments that me and him are doing together. So see, my mind goes into, okay, I'll take less money if I can work with you because it sounds like you're going to help me in another aspect of life. And therefore, the byproduct is I'm going to actually make that up 10x. 100%. So see, my mind go, and this is where these guys, and that's life, but like, I'm just, I always view it that way of okay, because, you know, a lot of these gurus and door to door
Starting point is 00:42:35 guys are like, oh yeah, you got to go buy real estate and invest. Okay, how? We just do it. And it's like, they don't know how. I'm over here, like, I can tell you exactly, I can help many people in my life and anyone. If they call me, I can give them five to six deals right now that can help them make passive income and actually teach them how because I was taught how. I have people living that lifestyle and that actually introduced me to the people, right?
Starting point is 00:42:58 And my blessing is to pass that along to people I know. I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for sharing and touching on that. The reason why, like when I think about that, Max, I just think about how I had to even change my interview style over time because, like, yes, the first few guests were, like, big names, but a lot of the stuff was so vague. Like, yeah, go work hard.
Starting point is 00:43:21 It's all in your mind. You know, like, I'm like, I have, like, you know, I'm a 10-fig entrepreneur. here and yeah if you go put you all the eggs you can do it there but there is no blueprint there is no steps there is no stuff that I don't know tangibility my dad's one of my biggest fans and I'm not going to throw one of my guests down here because I'm really grateful for each and every single person like that's that's been there because they've helped elevate the show by bringing their audience as well but one of my dad was a guy who said you know they made this amount of money like it was
Starting point is 00:43:51 super high but like my dad's okay but how did you make it so I went to go watch the interview again and it was like there was nothing there was like i make that you can go do it as well i'm amazing on this on that thing but it's like that's not the purpose like people but the thing is sometimes people get a following from that and people start loving it but it's like what did you what did you gain from being at that seminar because you just heard how amazing this person is but there is no blueprint there's no step of like find go build up your credit score after you build up a credit score end up like finding the right finance so they can like do that thing okay where do you get the listing go to like the certain website as well get a realtor that can help you get the
Starting point is 00:44:27 you know but there is no blueprint was all is i make this thing amazing and i think the fact that you said that i think it's a very attractive trade because it shows already transparency number one and it shows trust because now if you can break those two things down it's easy for somebody to trust you but everyone is so obsessed with the social media we just pick up on the big figures like oh that amount but it's like i've gained nothing and i paid a thousand bucks to be in the seminar but like i gained nothing. So I appreciate you being the openness. And I think that's probably very good for recruiting as well because recruiting is great, but also retention is far more important. It's easy to recruit. The secret is sustaining and retaining. And I'll say like I'm, as you can tell, I'm a very logical
Starting point is 00:45:06 person. Like sadly, a lot of guys in this space get recruited off the emotion and hype. I do really well recruiting people based off like tangible things. I can give them actual blueprint of how to get more appointments, how to deal more deals. And then beyond that actually make more money. one of my favorite texts last week from one of my leaders just texted me, hey man, just sent $75,000 into that investment fund. Thanks so much. Like,
Starting point is 00:45:29 that's cool that I had a leader that made that kind of money that just wired $75,000 into a real estate fund I'm in that I introduced him to. So like, that stuff's cool to me because I'm like, yeah, that is winning beyond what solar is and door to door. But that's what door to doors for is to be obsessed with this now to then diversify into that day.
Starting point is 00:45:47 I've only lost money in two deals I've ever done. They're both deals that I never told my dad. or his business partner's about. So I've learned like, okay, I'm just going to like tell all the people I know about. And then I just don't lose, you know, because again, it's smart people learn from their mistakes, brilliant learn from others. I'm just like, well, I've obviously have very brilliant people. I've got to type that I'll continue.
Starting point is 00:46:03 That's one of the best phrases I've heard. Smart people learn from their mistake. Brilliant people learn from others. Yeah. And again, I have learned. I've not learned into doing things that guys in the space to, trying to be their own, you know, installer, so to say, or their own sales org because I've learned. Obviously, that's not the long-term success for things like that.
Starting point is 00:46:20 investing, right? So, but I'm very open, you know, I, I have a really unique childhood, right? My parents got divorced when I was nine. My mom became a drug addict who passed away from it, cocaine, heroin. So like, I'm very open about this stuff and my investments because I want people to also recognize, like, we all go through hard shit. And the more that you can realize that is a blessing versus a curse, like me realizing the dude, I have a mom growing up, she became addicted to drugs. Like, that actually was the biggest blessing in my life because it made me realize like that is not the path to go down. I had a very good discernment, right? And so I've been able to really understand. And I think a lot of people get scared to talk about things they go through
Starting point is 00:46:59 in life. But I'm like, no, own it. I'm sure most like when I talk to people, most people have probably been an abusive family like I was. Most people maybe didn't have a mom growing up. Most people have been around drugs. Like I've been around all that kind of stuff. I'm grateful for that now because it's made me who I am today. And it's made me realize like door to door is easy. If you emotionally can't handle this, like you obviously haven't gone through hard things yet. For me, I'm over here when I was knocking doors a lot, I would be like, you know what? Am I going to let that person that just yelled at me dictate my life? When I over here had my mom leave me die from drugs.
Starting point is 00:47:33 Like, you know, I get real about it, but I'm like, that, they say nothing. Like, I can keep knocking doors if I can deal with this. And so I always tell people too, like buy it, you know, rely on the things you went through too. We've all had our experiences, right? I'm sure you've had your childhood and people here think about those things often and how that you know, that's good in a sense. We need to go through hard things to get to the good stuff. Are you LDS?
Starting point is 00:47:57 Yes. Okay, because I was going to say the best part about our faith is understanding that like these trials are good for us to actually gain the testimony and draw closer to like a higher being, our heavenly father as well. And I think one of my mentors also mentioned that like life does not happen to you, but it happens for you as well. So when you mention all these stuff and you think about thinking grow rich, every single person that has reached a level of success.
Starting point is 00:48:23 That level of success came with a lot of scars, pain, anguish, all the different stuff because throughout the marathon, they built that character of who they are as well. And that quote, I'm going to, I'll say that you told me that quote, but that's a very, very beautiful quote. I was like, what did he say early on? And then you mentioned it again. I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm going to take out my phone and type that out as well. And it's like my mom.
Starting point is 00:48:43 I learned from my mom of all her mistakes. You know, brilliant people learn from hers. I learned from hers that what she was doing was not right. So therefore I thought, okay, I'm not going to go do drugs. I'm not going to let that be my out from all the, you know what I mean? So again, I look back on my life and I'm like, man, that is true. It's like that's why you need that reference group and you need good people because people, you can't put a price tag on that, right?
Starting point is 00:49:07 When I have recruited people, I'm like, I don't think they can put a price tag on the amount of money I can help them make outside of solar, which actually makes up maybe giving up a couple hundred bucks on a deal. If I can go make them a couple hundred bucks of cash flow, that's worth way more, you know, things. So, yeah, I love that principle because that's how I view life. And I always look at people of, okay, what can I learn from you that's good and bad? And the bad, I'm going to discern it. I'm going to realize, do I do it or not?
Starting point is 00:49:32 You know, what's the outcome, right? Look at my mom when she died. You know, as I mentioned earlier, my mom got half the money my dad got millions of dollars. When she died, she had $32 in her bank account. That's so sad. She lost everything. We had a 10-acre horse ranch in Scottsdale, 60 horse. We had, like, she had everything.
Starting point is 00:49:47 She could have just been said. So logically I looked at it and said, man, this beautiful woman is dying right now. And not only is she dying, but she literally lost everything. That's going to be my choice of not following her path. So I stayed away from all that stuff. And so did my sisters. And we're both, we're all married now. We're all have children.
Starting point is 00:50:04 So it's been cool to kind of like learn from others experiences as well. And I don't think people tap into that much. A lot of people try to push away bad things that happen to them. I like embrace them. Because then you learn from that. that's so powerful thanks for sharing that man i really appreciate that i just wanted to ask two more questions as we conclude right now and i think it's i just love um just the entrepreneur rawness it's just so real like everything that you just said and just transparency is so important because
Starting point is 00:50:33 like i said we so focus on the last number as well uh what would you say is the best part not the hardest part but the best part of being an entrepreneur um i i i I'd say, you know, I don't know who says these quotes, but it's like how, you know, money doesn't buy happiness. It does, like money buys happiness because money buys freedom, you know, whoever, a lot of gurus say that stuff. Probably an ed my lead, probably. That sounds like an ad.
Starting point is 00:50:58 Yeah, but it's true. I think the best thing about the entrepreneur is, is one, you can go, there's no cap on what you can accomplish, right? There's no, there's no floor and there's no ceiling. But if you're a make it happy kind of person, all it's about is what is my ceiling, how can I get there? but I love being an entrepreneur because it's like, dude, it allows me to buy time to spend time, you know, it allows me to make money, which allows me to have freedom, which brings happiness
Starting point is 00:51:23 because I just have my third kid two weeks ago. Congratulations, brother. Thank you, thank you. So like by having this freedom, I can go spend time, you know, with my kids, even though my wife will say I not, but I'm working on that, you know, there's a balance, you know. She's like, hey, what's more important? You know, we'll get to that. But I'd say that's a big blessing.
Starting point is 00:51:40 And then I just, again, I love the fact that you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, The whole go to college, like, the whole model's dead. Your return on investment for doing the normal thing in the society is wrong. The amount of debt you're going to go to school to go get a career. Now saying if you're going to be a lawyer, trades, there's probably a good return there. But I just look at that. I'm like, man, being entrepreneurs the best, when you go to become a doctor, you've got to trade two things in life. You've got to trade time and a ton of money to then make a return.
Starting point is 00:52:10 To do what we do, again, this is entrepreneurship on training wills. All door to door is asking you to do is just trade your time. And then your return on investment is a lot quicker. You can go make doctor money in 12 months where doctors, it usually takes them 10 years. So I've always loved entrepreneurship and specifically like door to door because I can go in just trade time. I don't have to trade money to then go make my return on investment in one year versus having to then wait eight to 10 years. That's so powerful. If that makes sense.
Starting point is 00:52:39 No, that's perfect. That's perfect. And then because the podcast is called the coach. to winning. I always ask people this towards the end because it's obviously insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Everyone's got a different definition of what winning is. And I mean, with all the golden nuggets you gave, I don't know what the heck you can answer for this one. But like in your opinion, for Max Gannily, what does the term winning mean for you? Again, I'm very systematic. Winning to me is is being dialed in on your KPIs.
Starting point is 00:53:09 So knowing what your key performance indicators are. Number two, it's the, then having a process to anything you're doing. Even if it's not door to door, what are the, what are the key steps that you need to be focusing on, but then using the numbers. So here's like an example is like, I teach reps this. If you knocked 400 doors but only talked to 20 homeowners, there's a key identifier that you clearly are either knocking at the wrong time, right? If you knocked on 400 doors, you should talk you to door to door. You should talk to like more than 20 homeowners, right? Well, see, what that should tell you is that, okay, I'm knocking at the wrong time. time. And most of the time I go talk to that rep and they're like, oh yeah, I went knocked from 10 to
Starting point is 00:53:48 p.m. And I think you did door to door. Is that a productive time to knock in a normal like suburb? No, right? Maybe a retirement area, right? So see, I'd say the code of success for me is just I obsess over the KPI's. So then the byproduct of that I can preemptively understand if I'm skipping steps in my process. And that's in any aspect of life, right? If my numbers are off on my doors, I can go look at the door approach and see I'm clearly skipping a step. Majority of people you ask in life, they can't tell you what their steps are. So like most people in door to door, I ask them all the time, tell me your five steps of your door approach. They can't do it.
Starting point is 00:54:26 You know, when you can simplify, you can testify. Learn that omission. And so I learned this principle. I'm like, man, if I can do my door approach in five steps, like six words, I could do it in a hundred words. Most guys, though, don't do that. They don't track their numbers to then identify. And then they don't know their steps and then they don't cross-reference it, right? And it's just to me, I'm like, why not?
Starting point is 00:54:47 It makes it so easy. So that would be my answer to you is, again, it goes back to those two principles, is obsess over knowing your KPIs so then you can preemptively avoid mishaps because you and I both know you've interviewed a lot of successful people. Most will tell you the reason why they're not, they don't reach their goal is they slightly get off the path. It's like an airplane. If it goes from, like, do you know this answer? If you take a plane from L.A. to New York and it's off half a degree south, where does it end up? from L.H.
Starting point is 00:55:14 New Yorker probably end up like in like a different city or country as well. It's like down the Bahamas. Yeah. So see the concept is like, man, just a half a degree will make you so far from your destination. The reason why I obsess over those two principles is in life, you just need bumpers. You're going to get off the path. Well, if you have clear step-by-step guidelines, well, if you're tracking your numbers and you have guidelines, you can just make that kind of critique, that slight tweak to stay on the path to get to your end destination.
Starting point is 00:55:40 That's so powerful. That makes sense. No, I love that so much. Max, if you could let our guests know where they could get a hold of you if they want to try and jump into solar or even people that are within Arizona or any other region as well, where they could go to want to buy solar as well. Can let our viewers know? Yeah, yeah, I can be better at social media.
Starting point is 00:55:58 You know, Max Ganley is my Instagram. I'm private. You can follow me. I'm not a big solar guru. I don't post a ton. I'm trying to get better at it, you know, times changing. You know, you're more than welcome to message me on there. I'm always down to get my phone number.
Starting point is 00:56:11 if any of you guys too want to talk investments i love strategizing so if you want to reach out to me on instagram or facebook i'll give you my cell phone number we can text call if you've got ideas about investments i'd love to talk about vice versa i think all that kind of stuff it doesn't have to be just solar awesome stuff uh the coach winning insights you need to date to seize the world tomorrow max ganley thank you so much brother appreciate that

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