welcome to the sales talk with solar
pros podcast created to bring together
solar pros from across the globe to
share the knowledge needed to accelerate
the uptake of renewables for this planet
on today's show we have the CEO of a
california-based solar company a top
solar company that went from zero top 20
million in their first six months he's
been named America's next self-made
billionaire by future sharks his story
has been featured on ink magazine and
BuzzFeed and he's even interviewed Grant
Cardone on his own live podcast welcome
to the show the CEO of better earth
solar and more importantly our friend
mr. Zane I appreciate you guys having me
on I'm excited for this Australian
energy man
when I met these guys the first thing I
noticed was the energy so super awesome
to see how much 10x energy you guys have
you're always smile and you're always
excited and I think we need a lot more
of that here in the States man so I'm
excited for this podcast and yeah let's
get this rolling
awesome dude so we're we're super
excited myself Rob and Chad to be here
in Los Angeles California we've
connected a few times through Instagram
actually quite a lot over the last you
know two years I've been watching your
story as well I've seen you you know
just completely blow up and I think the
world needs to hear you know your story
especially you know you know where you
came from you know the origins of where
st. Jan started and what what helped you
actually build better earth today yeah
for sure man well I appreciate
everything I appreciate the intro yeah
so I grew up in a small town outside of
Boston Massachusetts
to immigrant parents my dad moved here
with $100 literally and it's not not a
false story literally moved here with
$100 didn't have a place to sleep didn't
have a place to go
slept on the floor Don a cardboard box
so that was the start of my dad's
journey here he became a US citizen and
then my mom moved here and then yeah
they had me I came here when I was six
months old and both of my parents worked
minimum-wage jobs my dad was a cow
driver you know taxi my mom worked in
retail stores making minimum wage and we
lived in a 500 square foot apartment so
very humble beginnings and the town I
grew up in you know there's a lot of
drug problems a lot of things going on
but most importantly probably the
biggest problem was mediocrity you know
everyone there was focused on making ten
twenty thirty thousand dollars a year
and that was where the mentality was and
growing up I always knew I wanted to be
great I wanted to do big things I just
didn't know how I was actually going to
get there and when you grow up in a
family that doesn't have that much money
there's usually a fear-based poverty
poverty mindset so always seem the first
thing that they go to is you have to get
a good job you have to save every dollar
you have to go to college and you have
to follow this system and naturally
being an entrepreneur I hated following
the system I did not like following what
everyone else was doing so growing up
got horrible grades did not do well
failed most of my classes got tested
multiple times every single year to see
if I had some sort of a disability that
was stopping me from learning and that
was that was who I was growing up I you
know just kept failing the classes and
when I got to 1314 years old everyone
told me that I was gonna fail for my
uncles my parents my teachers everyone
and no one had any bad intentions so I
don't look back and you know say I want
to prove them wrong or anything but
that's genuinely the path I was going
down so instead of going in the right
direction I lost my confidence and
self-esteem and I went down the wrong
direction and I started hanging around
the wrong people and at 14 I did my
first drugs you know started smoking at
15 started doing pills started doing
other things and kind of where I was it
you know definitely I don't wanna say it
was normal but it wasn't too frowned
upon and I got into that crowd and my
you know level of ethics just completely
went down at 15 years old how I would
make money is I would go to a store I
would steal a bunch of headphones and I
would sell them back in my class so a
bit of entrepreneurship just the wrong
way and that led into drugs you know
selling different things and yeah just
kept going down that wrong path and when
I was 17 years old 16 to 17 my mom had a
so that was a massive life-changing kind
of pivotal thing in my life and that
caused me to really open up my eyes cut
off all of my friends and stop doing
drugs eliminate every negative thing
around me and focus on success so from
that point forward I've been focused on
business started my first business 16
and a half to 17 years old and marketing
and just kind of grew it from there
tried everything did sales for every
industry you could imagine I tried
selling cars tried selling real estate
tried club promoting and made decent
money and all of those things but I
didn't know what I wanted to do I just
knew that I wanted to do something where
I had more fulfillment and impact on the
world so I ended up dropping out of
school worked for a start-up got into
the solar industry heard a quote from
Warren Buffett he said the largest
transformation of wealth in history is
gonna be in the deregulation of energy I
looked into his investments he was
heavily invested in solar and I said
let's clean oh let's get on with solar
join the solar industry doing sales at a
start-up then went to work for the
largest solar company in history their
help built the largest office in solar
history and then right after that got
offered to start a company started a
company did big things and here we are
right now at better earth focusing on
you know kind of just making the
transition to sustainable energy a
really cool thing making it so
everyone's environmentally conscious and
actually wants to do it and biggest
problem I see today is people are
uneducated misinformed and they don't
really understand the positive effects
of solar but worst thing is they don't
understand the negative effects and
downstream of not switching to
alternative energy not switching to
something like solar so on top of all of
the cost savings and making it
economically efficient we're saving the
world so that's what drives me every day
probably the hardest challenge in the
world is building a solar company but it
is probably the most fulfilling
challenge to solve so yeah hopefully
that gives you guys a quick intro about
me and how I got into the industry yeah
yeah to hear that journey as well I mean
and we were just discussing a little
earlier tell us about some of the
achievements that better earth has
achieved because it was actually
mind-blowing to hear that it was since
July last year what's that seven months
like seven months yeah seven months old
a little over 20 million dollars in
contract I don't know the exact state
now three months and we actually got to
150 contracts which I believe puts us in
the top 10 sales groups in the US for
solar so and it's a pretty pretty pretty
high remark and today better earth just
has a lot of a lot of different focuses
there's some stuff you know we can't
speak on yet but there's some super
exciting things happening in our world
and we're fully focused on just
continuing to make the transition to
solar be super easy be canonical but the
way I really look at it right now is you
just have to be the best at
communicating the product because
everyone is going to go solar we're not
selling something that people aren't
going to use everyone is going to use
solar it makes sense if you guys look
outside and you see these old poles and
wires and grid lines it's completely
ineffective inefficient and it's not
logical so switching to solar is an
absolute no-brainer you get to own your
power it's about who are you gonna go
with and we truly believe that in solar
it's gonna be the brand that ends up
winning at the end of the day it's gonna
be the one that the customer trusts the
most so a better earth our full focus is
how can our customers trust us to
actually go solar because they're gonna
go solar is it going to be today maybe
not it's gonna be tomorrow maybe not is
it gonna be in 10 years maybe maybe not
but we know that they're gonna go solar
one day and we just want to know that
when they are ready to go solar we're
the first people that they think of and
that's our mission every day how do we
get out there and make sure that more
people know who we are
and I mean one thing that I've heard
from your story okay is that you've
always had this long-term thinking
because you said that I want more yeah I
mean what we find is that you know with
new recruits sometimes they've got you
know this really short-term thinking
intent gratification if I'm not getting
it I'm failing how did you actually
develop that long-term thinking and that
confidence to continue to move on to
where you want yeah I think I uh I
exercised short-term thinking so that
was the first thing I got like I said
you know I got in sales at a really
young age sold about every product you
could imagine hustled and I don't
actually recommend that people do what I
did but that's what I did that
that's how I got there I was stubborn so
I learned the hard way I didn't listen
to the advice around me I just focused
on hey I'm gonna get money I'm gonna get
money again I'm gonna get money and I
got money you know it was good but it
was super short-term and I realized that
the money I was getting was good for my
current environment that I was in I was
around people that were not making that
much money today it's near impossible
for me to be the highest earner in my
environment it's it's too hard you know
there's billionaires there so to be able
to reach that is such a massive thing
and it's so far away
so as I started to dive into it and
dissect it I realized that money was
super important it was one of the
crucial numbers to measure however the
thing that got people that money usually
wasn't just the focus on the number the
number was a part of it but they had
something that drove them to get there
and then the more successful people I
started to hang around I realized these
are some of the most resilient people in
the world these same people they could
be living in a hundred million dollar
home and tomorrow they could be homeless
and they would accept it they would
sleep on the floor and they would grind
their way through it no matter what and
they have this bulletproof mentality and
that's what excited me because I saw
these people you know these guys are
older they have tons of money but
they're ruthless and seeing how
ruthless they are which is themselves
and their success and their discipline
that's what motivated me and I realized
the only way to get the top is to
develop that type of thick skin develop
that ruthlessness and just to really
kind of be crazy and when you start to
dive into that and dissect it you
realize the only reason people do that
is because they have a much bigger
purpose that's greater than just
themselves it's something that's super
big so when you start naturally you're
gonna start focusing on yourself your
survival your surroundings but as you
start to get bigger goals you realize
it's all about helping more people and
the more people you can help then the
bigger impact you can have naturally
you're gonna work harder and have those
ambitious goals they're gonna be
long-term because it is not easy it is
impossible to accomplish those goals in
the short term they have to be long term
so when you're faced with that you just
realize like that's what you have to do
there's no other option there's no plan
B there's no making quick money there's
no short-term thinking no it's Plan A
it's a long-term plan and it's all you
have to do and if I have to die
not succeeding and not hitting my goals
it's totally fine with me because I know
that I'm giving it my all every single
day you've got about 75 people in the
South serving better at sales how do you
how do you then feed that same energy
into the rest of the team so you get the
same so you get the team on board the
same think yeah so first off is
surrounding yourself with a good group
of partners an executive team obviously
I just don't I don't do it alone I
couldn't do it alone it would be it
would be impossible to be really hard if
you look at every major corporation it's
never one person it's always a very big
team sometimes there's a face of a
company so sometimes he looks like
there's one person but there's always an
amazing team around them so I just just
decided that I needed to surround myself
with people that I trusted that we're
willing to work as hard as I did so I
got very lucky I got an amazing group of
business partners that I really trusted
I knew were willing to work on the same
terms I knew were willing to give it up
I mean you know with my business
partners it's one of those things where
it's a Saturday it's a Sunday it's a
Monday it's a Tuesday no matter what day
or time it is we're willing to get on
and make it happen
and that's what you need to surround
yourself with way too much and way too
often do I see people that are business
partners you know with people that you
know just wanna work four days a week or
five days a week just want to put in the
minimum 40 hours you know aren't willing
to go through it and if you want to
build a massive machine you have to
surround yourself with people that are
gonna get there so the step one was
surrounding myself with an executive
team of partners that was willing to
have that same mentality and when it's
not just to you when it's you and three
four or five six other people that all
have the same exact mentality and vision
and you guys all push it naturally it's
going to go down to the team so I know I
have one job every day it's to show up
be a hundred ten percent put in all of
my effort time and energy into the team
have my executive team do the same and
everyone is going to follow but if it
doesn't start with me if I'm not putting
in the actions if other people aren't
putting in the actions well you can't
expect the team to do that either you
can never expect as an executive you can
never expect your team to work as hard
as you you always have to work harder
set the bar really high so even if they
work a little less than you that bar was
set really high
working hard it's gonna go back a little
bit man yes something that's really
really sparked my interest but it just
is the success that you've had so
quickly you said that I used to do a lot
of drugs what was that what was the main
catalyst man and you said you also in
the clubbing industry as well in the
promotion industry bars and stuff for
that what was what was the main catalyst
for you to go hang on I need to make a
change and start focusing on business
and and and and more and success what
was the catalyst yeah so I had a mini
one and a bigger one so my mini one that
was short-term that saved my life was my
mom which she luckily she's doing
amazing today but she had a stroke and
she had a 5% chance of survival so the
environment I grew up in again it was
not you know there wasn't a lot of money
there and my mom was healthy she didn't
drink she didn't smoke she was you know
everything was fine she was young and
the only reason I could put together
with all my research that this happened
was through stress and I realized like I
am NOT being a man I'm not taking a
responsibility if my mom is in stress
financially or even about me right and
that was step one was like I gotta take
full responsibility just you know just
for this person and a part of that is
being successful I know it's my duty and
my obligation to be successful for for
that and then that was the smaller
version right like like that got me
through and kind of what woke me up and
was kind of that was kind of that
calling for me but the bigger one was
just realizing that I had two choices in
life it was to live a life of mediocrity
or live a life of massive success where
I would leave such a huge legacy and
it's kind of like you have to make that
decision at some point where you have to
choose am I gonna keep doing what I'm
doing make decent and okay money keep
living on the same terms staying at this
level or am I gonna decide to risk it
all sacrifice everything sacrifice my
time my family my friends you know all
of this stuff to go and do something
much bigger that maybe not today am I
gonna get rewarded for but maybe 50
years down the road or 100 years down
the road people are gonna remember me
for and I had to make that decision and
I know a lot of people that aren't
willing to make that decision and I know
I had to just sit down there and say do
I want to do this and I chose option B
like I was gonna go and I
is gonna go all in and I was gonna do
something that I could either waste my
entire life build nothing and just
sacrifice everything have a horrible
life or two you know the option that I
you know the result that I want is build
something so big that people will
remember me forever and that was enough
of a motivation and a reward for me to
quit all of those things that I was
doing that weren't the right things and
sacrifice everything and just kind of go
in the right direction but where do you
think that originally comes from that
you know that drive that internal
motivation to be successful to focus on
money like wait is that where did that
come from men yeah I mean I have to say
it's probably where how I grew up
like I really did not have the things
that I wanted it was a really hard
environment and I saw my parents
work so hard day in day out and to have
nothing you know I saw them work that
hard a daily basis work 60 80 hours a
week to live in a 500 square foot
apartment and not the nicest part of
town so when I saw that I was like this
just you know it isn't right I don't
want this life and I think a lot of the
motivation came from I never want my
kids or my family to go through what I
went through so I think that was one and
then two I've always wanted to be
important I've always wanted to do big
things ever since I was a little kid and
growing up actually you know I wasn't
that important of a person like I
constantly failed I had bad things
happen started just from school didn't
do good in school so I constantly got no
no no no no no you're not gonna succeed
you're not gonna win it's never gonna
happen ya know like a tremendous amount
through my life like like zero you know
from from what when I was born till
probably like seventeen I probably had
no wins zero wins in that entire period
it was all losses complete ELLs and at
17 I started to turn for me when I
started to focus on the right things but
because I went through such a long time
of no today its near impossible to tell
me no because if I want something I'm
gonna get it because I got told no so
many times that you can't tell me know
anymore and have it affect me I'm gonna
keep on going at it until I achieve the
result that I'm going for
yeah who actually here and know a few
times is enough for them to actually
quit so they deselect themselves
immediately that's that's literally
success like what I when I was saying
earlier when I started surrounding
myself with an environment that was much
greater than I was and did a lot of
things the number one thing I noticed
was the resilience of these individuals
I just know that these people would go
and sleep on a street if they had to in
order for success and that's the part
that excites me it's probably the part
of entrepreneurship that fires me up the
most is being able to just know that
there is no losing as long as you're
showing up every day and making it
happen there's no losing you can you
know times can be good they can be bad
as long as you stay consistent at some
point you're going to make it and that's
my favorite part about business because
unlike sports like sports you you have
to have a level of talent right you got
to be crazy you got to be good and you
know all that stuff but there's
definitely a level to talent there and
there definitely is only so much you can
control but I truly believe in business
because you don't have this short window
right in sports you pretty much if you
want to be a professional star you got
to crush it by at least you know 21 22
23 if you're if you're out of that age
it's gonna become significantly harder
same thing with modeling or something
like that you get a little too old like
whatever I acting you know like you can
only do it for so long before you have
to call it quits business is a
profession that I believe you can do for
your entire life until you until the day
you die and I think that gives you so
much more time to control your outcome
so because you have that time to control
your outcome even if you absolutely suck
if you just put in the time every single
day there's gonna be a time that you're
gonna end up making it and that's where
I truly believe if someone has a
resilience and they're willing to take
the nose and put in the time they're
gonna make it I think I think a hundred
I think it's a guaranteed success Donna
yeah around around your placement and
look obviously you're really in tune
with we didn't you know not only your
spiritual side but also personal
development yeah where's the data card
who's been the one mentor that you've
really gone to to
to get yeah and yeah I think you guys
know Grant Cardone a hundred percent ya
know he I shouldn't tell you guys this
story I FaceTime Grant Cardone at 16
years old this is an I don't know how
many people know this story you guys are
gonna laugh at this story you guys are
gonna laugh at this story I was 16 okay
you will not believe this he was doing a
young hustlers call I think it was it
was it was it was some podcast I forget
what it was and some interesting guy
called him some business guy whatever I
think it was a real estate investment or
something so grant wanted to talk to him
so grant like covers the mic and he gets
the phone and like a kind of hiding his
face tells him his number and tells him
to call him and I I was huge I
love grant first off right because like
this is before grant was big I think he
was sill in California at the time maybe
or he was just moving to Miami or
something and he wasn't that big right
he wasn't coot grayness today but I
remember just hearing one story of him
and his drug use and all the things that
he had to go through and that's where I
realized like this is my guy I am
literally the same I'm a counter copy of
this guy like I'm I feel like I had the
same exact upbringing right so I was
like I have to talk to this guy so I
literally got like the best speaker's
turned up the volume and literally
decoded his phone number and ready I'll
never forget I had an iPhone I still
have the number I still talk to grand
right I put in the number and it turned
blue on iMessage and that's what I was
like this has to be it I FaceTime
him he's with Elena and they
pick up the FaceTime we have like a 20
minute talk changes my life tells me uh
Zayn you know you're in complete control
of your life throughout the throne of
your life like don't listen to anyone
around you because they're not gonna
know what's best for you listen to
yourself you're at the throne and just
absolutely conquer and that was like
that was that's how I got on the grand
yeah man and then since then I stayed in
connection with grant he connected me to
a lot of different things always
influenced my mindset but it was always
that ability to just be able to go the
extra mile and be different than what
the you know what society tells you to
do that's the part I loved and be able
to break the boundaries and up until the
point I met grant I didn't know it was
okay to break the boundary
I thought I had to be politically
correct but when I realized it was okay
just to be myself and say whatever the
I wanted to say that's when I
realized like wow you know when I turn
18 I could just be me I can just go out
there and be me and people are gonna
actually appreciate it if I do well in
school if I be me I get kicked out I get
suspended it I get expelled in the real
world if I be me I could be a master
success if the energy is in the right
direction that's like you know one big
takeaway that I had from when I came
across GC for the very first time as
well because it just gave me the
permission to be me I mean we've been
talking about progression this Drive
this enthusiasm and it was always you
know suppressed one way or another
because it's like wait a minute is this
guy a little crazy or he's delusional
but then you see grant operating at
levels that he does you know 60 plus
years of age and you're like man it's
inspiring maybe I'm not crazy you know
like more tenex yeah walking to the
Grand Central Market yeah then it was
what what time was there about 8 o'clock
maybe 7:30 and we were tired we were
like ah we're tired and we're like well
hold on a minute
grants 65 years old and sometimes he
goes live at 10:30 p.m. not to sell
you know hundred million dollar deals
but to sell two three hundred dollar
tickets to the growth con just shows up
yeah and so we thought it let's
show up as well and we did LR in life as
well yeah yeah I think I think a lot of
people need that message and that's why
I don't think that message is for
everyone like there's totally a lot of
people that that's not gonna click with
but I know that if I can ever reach you
know the sixteen-year-old version of me
and kind of give them that permission to
be themselves I know that is going to
change the world because I just look at
myself and I look at what I'm able to do
what I'm able to conquer it how many
people I'm able to give opportunity to
and help and I look at how all of that
was sparked through just getting the
permission to be myself and I know if I
can just spark that and even five people
in my life I'm gonna make an impact
that's gonna be bigger than I
I could ever imagine yeah that's huge I
mean we feel that with our team you know
like I mean because everyone's coming in
with a purpose we've got so much love
for them and they want you know that
change and we want that like into the
vehicle that we're creating to be that
catalyst for sure yeah sure yeah well no
I think I think what you guys do is
remarkable and for everyone you know is
seeing you know you guys and you guys
leading your team like it's tremendous
to have a group of executives and people
that have the vision you have care about
your people as much as you do and care
about a level of excellence that's the
number one thing you can ever demand
from your team is excellence and if you
don't have leaders that demand
excellence you're probably not working
at the right place you know sometimes I
look at people and they want to work at
you know a place that seems fun it seems
easy but in reality your subconscious is
gonna force you to actually end up
leaving that place or hating that place
because they're not demanding you to be
the best version of yourself but when
you go to a place that's hard when you
go to a place that demands excellence
when you go to a place that demands you
to work you know ours you wouldn't
normally work or be a little crazy
you're gonna end up thinking like yeah
maybe I don't like this place maybe it's
hardly boots on and it's not acceptable
but your subconscious is gonna make you
respect that more than anything and I
think that's what you know that's what I
go for and it's amazing to see you guys
in the Salaria team really focus on that
and kind of demand that level of
perfection and excellence from your team
so I can only imagine that you know your
team feels the same way and they
probably have a level of respect for you
that's you know super high so it's
really cool to say that and I
acknowledge you guys for that it's cool
yeah so want to touch on promotion yeah
I know you're all manage all about
promotion and down it that's Solera at
the silver team in Australia you know
we're introducing a bunch of programs to
get the whole team to promote as well
how do you guys that better earth not
only you know promote the company but
how do you promote the team to promote
themselves as well yeah so again I think
it goes back to the first thing you were
asking me about how do I get I think you
asked me how do i how do I get that to
go down to my team right how do I get my
level of you know desire and want to go
down to my team it's the same thing with
marketing people always look at
the example that's led for them so I
noticed when I start doing a lot of
stories when I start tagging people my
team does the same exact thing and it
just kind of continues to drip on
forward and people get inspired by it so
step one is just everyone being on the
same page and agreeing that promotion is
the best way so with better earth what
we try to do is just realize that like
better earth doesn't just need to be
solar it needs to be everything you know
and that's why we came up with a name
better earth because if you see better
earth on a shirt you're not gonna know
it's a solar company you're not gonna
know it's a company you're just gonna
look at it and say it's a really cool
name like you know it's a pretty damn
cool brand what is that yeah and yeah in
a cool logo right out if you guys know
the meaning of the logo but it's the the
Pangea so it's all the continents kind
of coming together so it's kind of
bringing all of us together right so
it's a it's a cool little symbol there
but ya know uh that you know that's
exactly what you have to focus on making
sure that everyone knows that 24/7 your
brand is being promoted and it's not
just about business it's about people
knowing who you are because when I look
at better earth it's not just a vehicle
that we are creating for solar it's a
vehicle that we're creating to truly
better than Earth and one of the ways
you better earth is by getting known out
there by people actually seeing the
impact that you're having because so
many people have a amazing tremendous
energy and they have an amazing story
the the the place where they fall down
and lose is they don't get it out there
I mean you know not enough people are
able to see and hear that message so
constantly throughout the day I'm trying
to do it myself with better earth our
better earth marketing team is trying to
do it for a better earth and we're
trying to get that to have a residual
effect on our team and if you can just
continue to breathe and live that every
single day be constant and consistent
with it and make people believe that
like you're not selling them solar
you're selling them a dream and a vision
to be a better person you're selling
them a dream and a vision to be a better
example and human being that's something
that everyone can feel confident in
selling because sometimes I notice
people like to make their sales and
they're in their life kind of separate
right though they like to make their
work in their life kind of balanced but
the reason they do that is because they
feel like oh if I'm out at a club or a
bar or you know just getting a drink
with a friend getting some coffee I'm
doing something wrong by talking to them
about business you know they're you know
they're clocked out right now well we
don't need to talk about business but
when you're talking about some
that's truly transforming the earth and
helping people you need to be talking
about it 24/7 so help make the mission
so easy for people to be sold and bought
into and make him realize that Solar is
just a small part of it there's a lot
more that goes into it and people will
naturally sell the product because
they're obsessed with the mission and
when you can get that obsession it's
it's remarkable you mentioned like a lot
of things about your environment the
standard that you're setting to your
team members as well which is obviously
like you know very high and you also
mentioned earlier that you had like you
know about 7,000 people are so reaching
out hey guys look I want I want to be
part of that environment what
qualification do you believe are gonna
be worthy of being in your environment
and help raise that stand a little bit
higher or not yes first off going back
to myself I knew if I was 16 if I got to
hire the 16 year old version of myself I
would be the luckiest person on earth
right so I know that that person is not
gonna have a big resume I know that
person might not you know know the right
things I didn't know how to carry or
present myself because the environment I
grew and you know didn't do I wasn't
around people that could present
themselves professionally so I'm
actually never expecting those things I
look at those things as brownie points
as little plus points like they help
someone out but they're never the reason
that I'm hiring someone I'm hiring
someone based on their like I going back
to you know successful people resilience
what are they able to withstand how much
you know how much negativity can they
take how many noes can they take before
they break and when you realize that and
you kind of have that mentality you just
ask them questions around you know what
are their goals and one of my favorite
questions to ask people is like what do
you like to do like you know what are
you interested in you know what do you
do outside of work and usually when the
answer is just like I just want to focus
on work I just want to you know build
something I you know it's it's related
to growth you know that you have someone
that is obsessed with that but you know
when you hear people like probably the
biggest red flag to me is people that
don't know what they want they're just
super confused and that's usually
someone that just needs help or need
in direction but when someone has the
passion the resilience and they know
that they want success and they're
demanding it you can just see through
that person so I don't care how you
dress I don't care how you look I don't
care what you say to me that's all
workable we can work on that up better
or at the weekend we can fix that we can
transform that you know there's you're
human beings you can develop them train
them like you know it's it's so funny
for me I remember when I started my
first company people would come in day
one and you know they'd look all scruffy
and bad and stuff and then you watch
like over a two-week period without even
saying anything to them if their
environment is looking good then they
just switch you know just come with some
energy some gel you know you know they
have the hair slicked back they're
wearing different glasses these guys
wouldn't spent their whole check at the
Gucci store I'm like man these guys yeah
these guys are looking fresh right and
when you get in that environment around
you that just naturally happens so
that's why when you know when people are
like oh I don't want to hire this person
because they've worked at too many
places before and for short periods of
time or they don't dress well they don't
talk about I'm like you're being selfish
you're giving up on talent because
you're not willing to develop and train
them you want someone that's pre-made
and done but that's not the way business
works you have to build stuff you have
to develop stuff but if they have the
passion and you can see that they're
willing to do whatever it takes that's
where you know you have the right person
because you can ultimately develop them
to be whatever they want to be in
whatever you want them to be but the
first step is they have to want it bad
and if they don't want it it's not gonna
work I've seen people all the time they
come in with the perfect resume they
look good they talk good but you just
know that they're not about it because
they're just kind of posing or showing
off but you know that you know they're
they're they're they're just gonna jump
from opportunity to opportunity because
that's just their mindset they don't
they don't care about winning by all
means necessary and that's why when I'm
looking for people like I actually
prefer young people that don't have that
much going for them because I know that
there's gonna be no ego involved there I
know that I can develop that person to
be you know what they should be but when
you get people that sometimes are too
far along there's an ego there you know
there there's some pride there which
stops you from being able to sometimes
develop them yeah
working and developing which is the best
two to four weeks actually look like
from when someone actually plugs in at
better earth yeah so epic I mean it
obviously depends what role you're gonna
be taking but let's talk about sales so
uh sales step one is we're gonna give
you just the basics of solar so before
you come out here you're gonna go
through modules and trainings to
understand what solar is understand what
sales is understand kind of
communication you'll have some brief
tests on that so you know we can make
sure that you're up to speed and then
day one you know we're gonna hand you
some information you know we want to
just kind of sit in a classroom get a
feel for you do with tons of
role-playing pitching and then day two
straight into sales just like straight
straight straight in the shark tank on
the doors like just hit doors garage
actually get failure get hurt you know
get tons of noes feel like crap about
yourself and just know that every day
from that point on is only gonna get
better
that first day is gonna be your hardest
and it's only gonna get better and have
that in mind and that's what we do
because in sales the best way to get
better is through repetition
there is no other way it's just through
doing the task and where does confidence
come from it comes from the action of
actually doing it so uh that that's the
number one thing we could put them in a
classroom for three weeks straight and
give them all this material it's not
going to do anything because they're not
executing people only get confidence
once they execute so we go there and
then you know if they're not fully there
if they need more information if they
need to understand more about solar
we'll always go back we'll try to figure
out where the problem was we'll try to
spot where it was and try to give them
training on that maybe try to give them
material but first things first is
ninety percent of it is just showing up
and getting it done and if we can
accomplish that with them and get them
really good at doing that we've already
got ourselves someone that's gonna be
good cuz we can again we can work on the
training and the fundamentals and
knowing about what type of panel and
what type of inverter and how the
process works but step one that you're
always looking for is someone who's just
gonna do it and if you can get someone
that's gonna actively do it like you got
yourself a champion into the arena I
mean we've got a rule as well like
frequency before greatness you know yeah
what is right because see you know
there's a lot of companies out there
that do you know an amazing onboarding
process but then the rep goes out the
field or they go onto the doors or you
know face-to-face closing and then
they're just left you know to their own
devices
what is the ongoing training the
accountability system look like within
better earth to give you know a high
producer you know it's constant
consistent meetings I believe that like
every single day you got to jack your
people up like there's no such thing as
making someone that's automated and is
just gonna do good on their own we're
people we need motivation and we're
usually motivated by a group of people
and a bigger mission we're never just
motivated by ourselves so when you
surround them with other people that are
succeeding and winning you acknowledge
people that are doing really good
naturally you know you're gonna start to
have a very good culture and environment
so what we try to do is just get in
front of them as much as possible we
probably have you know four or five
calls a week that are at night or
sometimes even in the morning where
we're just doing personal development
training we're doing sales training
we're doing scripts we're doing role
plays just trying to get people good and
then on a daily basis they're you know
they're having a meeting almost every
single day and then they're going out
there in the field and practicing and I
believe if you just mix those two things
you know you do a small amount of
training every single day coupled with a
lot of action you're gonna end up
developing someone that's great and we
just consistently do that like the way
we look at is if sales are down it just
means that our communication is down it
means that our attentions down it means
that we didn't give enough attention
that week or that data sales we didn't
give that much communication and the
number one way to fix it whenever we
have a sales slowdown I always just go
to the team and I'm like let's increase
the communication let's talk to more
people let's get on everyone let's start
calling everyone let's start FaceTime
and everyone and that's gonna lead to
the best result when we do that you go
through a little resistance to start and
then boom it just goes up and a lot of
people try to do a million different
things like no it's just increase your
attention because anytime that you're
losing success it's because you haven't
you haven't given it enough attention
and
yeah exactly can that that's all sales
is like we're not doing rocket science
here we're not doing brain surgery like
no we're selling we're talking to people
we're just motivating people to get good
at talking to more people that's all
we're doing at the end of the day so
what do you do to get people to do that
you talk to them more you sell them more
right because every day when you have an
employee you have a sales team what's
your job your job as an executive is to
sell them on working with you and sell
them on going out and selling how do you
sell them you talk to them your
homeowners aren't just gonna sign
themselves up for solar if they did none
of us would have a job right now right
so it's the same exact thing you know
your sales reps aren't gonna sell
themselves and sell and solar you gotta
sell them and how do you sell
communicate yeah communication right now
let's assume that someone is
experiencing a slump every sales person
has actually gone through this slump
what advice would you give to that
person who's experiencing that slope
right now yeah one just believe and
trust that it's going to get better
a hundred percent first thing is faith
like have faith in yourself and know
it's gonna get better take it from me
someone that's gone through a tremendous
amount of failures it's gonna get better
so I live automatically eliminate the
dark thought in your head that's telling
you that it's not gonna get better
eliminate that thought completely forget
about it number two just go out and do
it okay like whenever I'm having a
horrible time the number one thing I do
is I just do more of what I'm doing like
literally whenever I'm having a down
time I feel negative I have two options
one I can sit there Petty myself I can
think about it I can get down I can
complain to other people or two I can
shut all of that off channel out all the
noise put my head down and just start
going and in sales the number one way to
do that is cell talk to as many people
you know if you guys have someone on the
phones who's not doing good on the
phones I would urge them to not only
just make more phone calls
I would heard somebody just get out
there and knock down some doors
talk to you talked to 50 people get back
in the zone and when you get back in it
you get one or two wins and that one or
two wins is the catalyst for that
momentum effect that keeps on going so
that's the number one thing I always
tell people because there's no magic
sauce I could sit there give you some
motivation give you some training have
you watch a tip you're gonna get
short-term motivation but if I tell you
how to go and get
wins and you accumulate some wins that's
gonna be the largest creator of momentum
that I could possibly give you you know
as as a sales organization that killer
instinct yeah you know I mean that
internal drive to do better you're
talking about because obviously you guys
are in massive expansion yeah at the
moment in uh in California obviously
wanted to go throughout the states yeah
you're talking about the 60-second video
yeah I always want even before we even
move forward like like what are you
looking for in that 60-second video to
really sort of pinpoint that killer
instinct that you're like what are you
looking for yeah number one is doing it
you Walmart you win you would not
believe how many people don't do the
60-second video because they don't think
it's professional it's not normal it
puts me out of my comfort zone it's
uncomfortable my normal job wouldn't ask
me to do this that's step one like it's
unreasonable the people that are willing
to do it are already gonna be ten steps
ahead than the other people because a
lot of people you would you'd be mine
one at how many people don't want to do
it because they feel uncomfortable doing
it and sorry this isn't for you because
how do you expect someone who can't make
a video go and knock a stranger's door
and sell them solar okay can't expect
them that it's one of most uncomfortable
things I've know if you guys were
enacted or it's one of the most
uncomfortable things
yeah and it's an it's a scary thing but
you know making a video seems like
nothing compared to that so that's step
one and I'm telling you we weed out so
many people just by that one step of the
process and then two is just taking the
video seriously some people take it very
serious so they dress up they look nice
they say something good and some people
make it 15 or 20 seconds when we tell
them in 60 seconds if you can't follow
rule 1 make it 60 seconds you're
probably and also not good here we tell
you at 60 seconds make a 60-second video
don't make a five-minute video don't
make a 10-second video make a 60-second
video because that's exactly what we
asked you to do
that video to really be selling hard
them still sorry I really don't care
about how they sell to be honest like
obviously it's cool when you see someone
that has a good pitch or sells good but
step one is can they listen can they
follow rules and we tell them very
clearly 60-second video I'm not even
joking about that one instruction is it
will they follow that one instruction
when they go five minutes you know that
person will not last in sales because
they couldn't listen to you the first
time when they go ten seconds you know
that that person's not going to take you
seriously we make it clear at 60 seconds
as long as you make its Claire
step one is are they going to be doing
60 seconds and dude if they do 60
seconds they show up they send the video
what we're probably gonna work on taking
him because I know that I know that that
they could get that far and if they can
get that far again I can develop the
killer instinct we can develop the sales
we can develop the training but like I
love and I could be wrong it could be
right for this but I love giving people
an opportunity and I love finding people
that need an opportunity that are
willing to work for it okay because
there's two types of people the guy the
guy that's gonna submit a 10-second
video is not willing to not not willing
to go or do anything by all means
necessary but the guy that's gonna film
the 60-second video the guy or gal is
gonna fill in a 60-second video the
person who's gonna listen to you the
person who's gonna follow your
instructions even if their pitch is
horrible it's
they're listening to you I know in 60 to
90 days I can make that pitch good and I
love that because that person will never
forget that you give them an opportunity
when they weren't good that you grew
them and build them and that person is
probably gonna be way more loyal to you
then the guy that comes on the phones
like the I sold 30 solar deals a month
I'm already really good at this because
that person is probably gonna be full of
themselves and harder to tame that
someone that you're teaching like that
that person is gonna stick with you and
loyal and we've been so lucky at better
earth we've been able to build so many
people from the start that never had
solar experience and read sales
experience and they're our most loyal
people they will be with us forever and
that's what I love about it yeah
onboarding process we get people to read
the 10x rule you know because we want to
really expand their thinking so then
they can obviously have
that's a good Bible I mean we've read
that book so many times as well
now you're obviously a top sales
producer for anyone that doesn't know I
mean you're 24 years old yeah you know
zero to 20 mil a guy in such in this a
life but I mean you're a top sales
producer so what do you do what do you
practice to constantly expand your
thinking yeah action like my day is
really crazy it's a very few you know
hours in the day do I have time to
myself right it's it's I wake up
constant grind day one like how do i how
do I go out there first thing I try to
do and I'm getting a lot better at this
is gym like I think that's probably one
of the best ways to start your day if
you can just get action in there eat
something healthy in the morning feel
kind of good about yourself get dressed
look good gel the hair make sure you're
clean make sure you smell good hygiene
is very important exercise these basic
steps make sure you know your
environments clean make sure your beds
made make sure everything is kind of
nice and put away and when you can
execute on those basic steps you already
have some forward momentum you know
you've you've done yourself well you've
gotten the hygiene you've hit the gym
you've ate something healthy like you
got three big wins they're already in
your day you're already farther than
most of the world at that point it's
probably 8 a.m. for me you know I've
accomplished all those things then it's
out into the world it's consistent
frequency and then usually at night when
I have time that's when I'm gonna go and
I'm gonna study one of my favorite
things to study honestly today it's
changed when I first got into sales it
was like 10x rule like every single day
I was writing my goals from the 10x rule
reading them and consistently drilling
that in my head because I knew that
that's what I had to master but when I
mastered kind of the basics of the craft
like today my goals right it's
multi-billion dollar organization how do
I do that I gotta listen to people that
have done that over and over and over
again and who do I go to I go to people
that I've done it so today men like if
you look at my You Tube Q of playlists
that I'm listening to it's all CEOs of
people that have built you know 50 40
hundred billion dollar companies and
what they're doing and I can't tell you
how much I learned out of those people I
learned things about like hey how do you
get to the next level how do you disrupt
an industry how do you raise you know
100 billion
how do you do these crazy things that
you'll never learn from just you know
the 10x rule but the 10x rule is your
foundation it's the fundamental it's
what everyone needs to go through but
now I'm at a point where I'm just trying
to consume information from people that
are doing something so big and that's
such a big game and just trying to
duplicate what they're doing man
and dude a lot man so one of them that
I've been really liking uh recently is a
guy named Jim off I forget I honestly
don't know how to pronounce his name
properly I've probably watched like 50
of his videos though and he's a guy who
was on the founding team at Facebook
made tons of money through that has done
a lot of different ventures and today he
owns a private equity group called
social capital and what they do is they
invest in things that are so that are
you know gonna happen gonna help the
world stuff the stuff that's going to
you know further you know develop our
environment whether it's healthcare
stuff whether it's you know clean energy
stuff stuff like that and this guy you
know he's absolute killer billionaire
and I just love his mentality so I
remember listening to him I'll give you
just kind of one thing I took away from
him and this will be for everyone
you always hear people say that like
money's not important or your help your
help your you will hear people say you
got to focus more on impact small
example this I was I was eating uh like
steak or something like that and someone
across from he was like how could you do
that like you know why are you not big
and stuff like that and you know it's
that's that's hypocritical right they
were making me wrong and I see all these
little things and people focused on
these micro stuff and he goes you got to
get out of that the number one thing you
have to do if you want to be successful
if you actually want to change the world
you actually care about animals you
actually care about environment you
actually care about energy is you have
to get the money because if you don't
get the money you're never gonna sit at
the right table and you'll never
actually have a big impact and I
love that it's like get the money first
get it so you can actually sit at the
table because with a million dollars
with ten million dollars 100 million
dollars you're not sitting at the table
you want to sit at the table we're gonna
change it in the world you got to be a
billionaire so you have to go
out there and get that money by all
means that any means necessary so I love
that mindset because when you look at
people like that
who's considered a social entrepreneur
someone that's helping society someone
that's doing great things heavily
invested in companies like Tesla and you
see him say that that validates the 10x
mentality it goes back to the basics
right because if you sit there and you
just watch news you just watch CNN you
watch this basic media you're gonna hear
it like oh like why are you people not
vegan why are they not doing this why
are they not doing that you will have no
impact on world if you're just gonna be
a victim to your environment it has to
be much bigger so said that so that's
one guy you know the CEO of Google I
love watching him I love watching the
CEO of Microsoft love watching some old
Bill Gates TED Talks in panels I love
watching Jeff Bezos love watching Elon
Musk
I just watched like a three and a half
you guys should watch it at three and a
half our roundtable talk with Elon Musk
and his team and it was like a very
personal roundtable talk they were
talking about how the only place he
could ever actually afford and get food
was jack-in-the-box which is you know
like a little local McDonald's type
place and it was the only place that was
open around where they were when they
were trying to get food because they
were working till 3:00 4:00 a.m. a lot
of nights when they were first starting
their companies no no this is before
Tesla's when they were building zip2
which was their first company that they
were building that ended up selling to
PayPal and stuff but ya know so just
study people like that and it will
always reinforce and validate what
you're doing because when you get to
this level there's very few people
around you that you can always listen to
that that have actually played this game
before so you got to learn from people
that are playing a much bigger game
that's why the 10x rule is so amazing
for salespeople because you're learning
from the best salesperson you're
learning from the top of the top and
that's always the best place to get your
information from um so yeah I like this
into them another just last thing that I
love listening to recently is banks also
the CEO of all banks Jamie Dimon the
head of Chase Lovelace and the CEO of
Bank of America and the reason I love
listening to these guys is because the
way they talk about money is so
interesting they're talking about money
at such a high level when you're talking
about billion dollar transactions for
these guys that is chump change for them
these guys are talking about trillion
dollar plays on money and when you can
learn about that it's super interesting
so I've been just diving into tons of
stuff about finance and learning about
the way the banking system works and the
way that these guys think
because the way that they operate is
such a different mentality than most of
the world and that's what inspires me so
yeah that you know that's giving you a
lot of content that I'm focused on as a
business owner and where I'm trying to
go but I wouldn't immerse myself in that
if I was just getting in sales I was
just getting in sales I would be head
down focused on someone like Grant
Cardone and putting all my time and
energy into that because until you get
good at sales nothing else is ever going
to matter all of that stuff is nothing
without sales because at the top of
every single one of those companies is a
phenomenal marketer and sales person and
that's always their number-one skill set
so until you nail that down all that
other stuff doesn't matter and it goes
back to what that one private equity guy
said get that money only way to get that
money is sell and market and if you
can't do that you're never gonna be in
business you say that man because one of
the big things that I learned from the
10x rule is always reach up always reach
up so all times your environment you
know the people that you surround
yourself with always reach up for the
for the audience you know the sales guys
that are out there or the new guys that
want to get into sales how do you you
know what what steps you recommend for
them to you know start reaching up into
a you know bigger and better environment
yeah you know sales 100% dude like
number-one thing I would give people in
sales is eliminate eliminate your
environment that you're used to so
completely decrease you know the amount
of people that you're around that aren't
doing the same thing you are and get
around people that are doing the same
thing you are and are on the same page
that's number one environment if you
don't have the right environment it's
gonna be really hard like if you're
selling every single day you're still
living with your parents and your
parents are in the wrong page it's gonna
really tremendously affect your sales
cuz you're gonna go home you're not
gonna close a deal and they're gonna nag
you and they're gonna tell you to get a
different job and that's gonna with
your head when you're just getting in
sales so if I was brand new at sales I'm
20 21 years old number one thing I would
do is move out of my parents house if
I'm still living with them moving to a
one-bedroom by myself so I can isolate
myself surround myself with whiteboards
get tons of books and have my goals
everywhere around me 24/7
and then once you've kind of got the
environment it turns in a frequency and
get that tremendous amount of frequency
and then third thing would be training
I don't read the 10x rule get on Cardona
University read different sales books
get really good at sales on last number
four is execution and how do you execute
take all of that stuff you've learned
and actually implement it you'd be
shocked at how many people just don't
send a selfie video or they don't follow
up with people on a daily basis if you
ever look at when I'm even trying to
follow people today whether it's in
finance a partner I'm working with
whatever the case may be I literally if
they are not responding to me I am
texting them a few times a day I'm
sending them videos I'm doing calls I'm
leaving voicemails I'm sending emails
because I learned that all in sales door
at door was that I have to do that in
order to keep my customers excited about
me and today I still practice those same
exact principles and it never stops my
phone is the same exact thing
you look at a lot of my messages it's
always let's do it let's do it let's get
it done a hundred percent I'm with you
like all of my communication is the same
as when I was selling door-to-door as
what I do now on a daily basis so if
you're a salesperson master and hone in
on that craft and execute and you'll
wind you because follow-up is is where
is where you're gonna make a lot of your
money and if you give up too short or
too too early on with customers
you're never gonna end up succeeding in
sales but if you keep on going and just
know that not about what you say it's
not about how good you sound it's not
about your persuasion it's about how
frequently can you do it and how much of
it can you do and if you can keep doing
it like this sales are gonna start
flying in we've had you know over the
last couple of days is your objections
and delays are your customers objections
and delays yeah whatever you focus on is
what you'll attract from the customer as
well so I can you know I can see you
know what you're focusing on which is
you know constant touch as you doing all
these high-level things within sales and
you're attractive as well
yeah no big shout out to the boys that
have driven out from Minnesota because
Minnesota oh yeah it's a that's
commitment that's changing up the
environments yeah they've driven out
what five days
39 days that's a change of environment
and they've taken action that actually
I'm here and they're reaching up yeah as
well yeah they're not yeah and guarantee
to ask them you know everyone around
them probably told them their stupid
bride told not to do it probably told
him you know the I bet their friends are
telling them that you know they're gonna
last two weeks whatever you know it's
the same story always every time I get a
no new business venture it's the same
thing Zane I'm trying to get in finance
right like Zane you don't you don't have
a financier you can't do this Zane you
know you've never built a finance
company before Zane you need way more
for that you know it's just you'll hear
the same thing over and over again and
when you get to this point where I am
today no one can tell me no and that's
what I love about it it's like I'm gonna
keep going until I achieve my goals and
if I have obstacles and barriers I'm
gonna break them down and keep on going
and that's what every young person needs
to have because if you don't have that
you're gonna get eaten and you're gonna
let other people's opinions consume your
thoughts which is gonna you know turn
their goals and dreams for you are gonna
be your reality and usually people's
goals and dreams for you aren't that big
they're usually very small even your
parents you know but only you can have
big dreams and goals for yourself and
when you have those big dreams and goals
and you're actually focused on that a
lot can happen so yeah yeah for sure I
mean I'm having you are for everyone
tuning in if you guys don't know who we
are better earth better earth is you
know a solar company based out of
California right now soon to be all over
the US and global we will be in
Australia with these guys soon we're
gonna be partnering with them so it's
gonna be really good but if you guys
don't know better earth everything we
talked about today is what we do we are
a movement that is focused on truly
bettering the earth we want you to be
the best version of yourself we want to
have the best products and we truly want
to impact you so if you haven't heard a
better earth searches online check out
our stuff and in any way if we can work
with your collaborate you make sure to
contact us and follow me as well on
instagram at Zanjeer an official where i
love to give a lot of the content that i
give today i'd love to give that on a
daily basis and really inspire and
motivate people but I appreciate you
guys having me on the podcast you guys
have a tremendous amount of energy and
just know that like what you guys are
doing is very big it's impacting
world and I'm excited to see you guys
expand to the States because I think
what you're doing there in Australia is
remarkable if you bring it to this
market you're absolutely going to
dominate so I'm excited to see that guys
yeah so everyone knows I mean we're
looking at you know it's the skyline of
LA we can see see the Hollywood sign
from here as well it's absolutely
amazing what you've been able to you
know acquires answers yeah it's awesome
man appreciate it
all right guys well let's kill it and
yeah appreciate you guys having me on
today's roll