On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. First of all, if you're not selling a product that you don't a 100% believe in and you don't a 100% think kicks ass, then find a different job. There's a 1,000,001 sales jobs out there. But if you believe all those things and you do those first couple critical steps to control the emotions, in control years because I don't know about you. I now it's more my clients are different now.
They're business owners, but even getting on to this podcast right now. Like, I get a little butterflies. Before I talk to business owner, I get butterflies. Before I go on to business meetings with people that I've known for years, I get little butterflies. I just do. You know, you're gonna have butterflies when you sit down with the family, but if you're feeling rigid, throughout, they're gonna feel rigid throughout. You're not gonna close.
It doesn't matter what you say because Tom Hopkins talks about it. Sales are based on emotion. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars. From business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real of the real on what it takes to build a successful business today.
We dissect the good and bad decisions they've made along the way that give a true and accurate picture and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe. Gathering the king's podcast. I'm your host. Today, I've got Cody Booth on the king stage. My brother, Cody. How are you? Good. How you doing? Doing wonderful.
We just, I think, spent the last 12 minutes laughing almost the entire 12 minutes. At least I was. I don't know if you were because you kinda got that dry. That dry humor going on over there. Enjoy hit. That's tough. Some people don't always pick up on it. They're they're like, It's kinda fully serious. Oh, yeah. And that's partially, partly, partly what what dry humor folks want. They want you to kinda wonder, like, is he? Is he? Is it should I laugh right now?
Yeah. Yes. And so way it works, one of my one of my best buds is just like Chaz. And so I have I have almost 3 decades. We've known each other almost our whole lives, so I I know your kind. Enough. Anyway, Cody, what kind of business do you have, brother? So I'm I'm in the solar sales business. We've been I've been there for for 8 years now.
We do I started off in door to door, got into into the call center side of it, done, you know, online marketing, doing some consulting now for for some Mow mostly for friends, I like working with people that I that I like. It's really hard for me to work with people that I don't like because I have a I'll tell them, and they don't. And they and they don't like that. To me to me, there's enough good people in the Wolfe.
Yeah. That, you know, you can you can live in in work a pretty awesome lifestyle. And only work with people that align with, you know, I don't have everything in common with everyone that I work with. That would be an awful echo chamber. Sure. Literally. But, you know, everybody that I work with is by choice.
Yes. It's been fun to do some consulting and help other people build their call centers and and basically just it's all in the solar sales space, but it's it it could be used for And if it if solar goes away tomorrow, I'm not worried. Right. Yeah. The principles that that you're building and then even teaching others how to build inside their businesses are ones that have been around for decades Chaz well as will be. Yeah. So it's it's applicable that, to any industry, but it's solar's fun.
It's right now, it's like it's like the Wolfe West. It's not regulated, which we're an entrepreneur. I mean, that's it's home. It's home. And, you know, there's some good and bad with that. You know, it leaves, you know, there's a lot of fool's gold. I think in our industry right now, you know, there's a lot of people that and money that, you know, when some things change, like, you know, but Yeah. Who who knows? Maybe I'm maybe full scope for me. I don't know, but I'm having fun.
Yeah. You know, I like to I like to think it's intentional. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's There's there's nothing like it right now. You know, it's it's not really we're we're affected by, you know, inflation and stuff like that, but inflations also our friend because as inflation happens, power bills go up. I just I just read an article yesterday that ever sources the power provider in Connecticut, for example, He refers to rates and the rates 40%.
So, you know, our our cost of money, you know, for for financing goes up, you know, 1 or 2 percentage points. Yeah. Well, their budgets went up 40%. Yeah. And even more of an impact, a reason to to get a solar system. I'd I've got my system. I'm in Kansas City, so I'm not in the same area, but we've got actually a guy that's in my mastermind group who is installing it here come, I don't know, probably January, I guess, but the reality is still the same. Is that You're right.
Even as inflation goes up, your product is still very, very, very appetizing, attractive, whatever you wanna say, because it's actually helping. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, inflation goes up, but, you know, cost of money goes up, but so does our power bill.
So Yeah. Yeah. And and if you can wash it out, I mean, I think that there's obviously people out there that aren't gonna make a move because it's new, and it's, like, you know, then, you know, you're always gonna have the the slow adopters. Now I would say the Wild West really indicates, you know, you in that that early bell curve, you know, first adopters, you know, it may be into that second wave, but there's so much more to be done.
That's why it's the Wild West because There's not a lot of people have gotten it. Even though millions have, it's still there's just so much opportunity, and it it's open. Don't see. I mean, even California is the the biggest adapter. Right? And they're still at, I think, 8% market penetration. And people are like, oh, California is saturated, you know, as a as a country for viable roofs, we're at less than 1%. So it's Lot lot of blue sky there. That's weird. It's a good time.
I wanna know, Cody, if if you could describe a reason, you know, like, some people call it the why, but what's the reason that you're doing this? You're pushing. You kinda off air. We talked about your family a little bit. We talked about maybe a little bit about past, and we'll get into some of that here in a little bit. But before we do that, what what motivates you? What pushes you? You've obviously been successful already. Why continue past this point even? I like Chaz fun.
I like to I like to have a good time, and I want to I've got kids now. We've got 4 kids we talked about. And that's that's a good why. Right? But just have there's lots of people with kids that don't really do much with life. I'm sorry. There there is. There's Debbie parents. So there's pair and then and there's lots of people that that are just, you know, okay with status quo. Right. That's never been me in any aspect of life. So I want to I wanna do the fun stuff.
I wanna give them cool experiences. You know, if if your belief is it, you know, you get 1 you get 1 lifetime on this planet, you know, which not gonna debate that with anyone. You can tell me you get 10. You can tell me you get 1. You can tell me it's a simulation. I don't care. Right? So I wanna I wanna have I wanna have a good time today. I wanna I wanna have make memories today. And, you know, people say money doesn't buy happiness. Well, it buys experiences and experiences are pretty cool.
And so for me, what keeps me going is I wanna go on the next adventure. Like, I wanna I wanna go. One of the cool things we got to do last year is we got spend the month of July with, like, kids in in Hawaii bouncing around to different islands and stuff and, like, just playing the ocean just, you know, I worked from there. Yeah. The cool thing about Hawaii is that it's work day starts way way early in the morning over there because the times have changed.
So I could be done by 10, 11 AM, and then we've got the rest of the day. And so for me, it's like, I have this satiable, like, appetite for for adventure and fun and experiences in some would call it, you know, may maybe it's it's slightly, you know, addictive behavior, but, you know, I want my kids to have just an awesome life, and I wanna experience awesome things with my friends.
And that's why I think that's why I like working with my friends because, like, you know, if you don't have friends that can afford to do the stuff that you wanna do and go on those adventures, it's not that Fun. Yeah. No. I mean, you what you do is you create a silo. Yeah. You have friends, but you can't actually do anything with them. And so it it creates a separation for sure. Cody, it sounds like you are kinda like a Peter Pan. You never wanna grow up. No. Never. For heck.
You're not the first person to say it. Yeah. But now it's, I mean, here's the thing. It's like, why? Why? And what is growing up? Right. You know? Why why be an entrepreneur if you have to grow up? Yeah. Chaz would you say to the guy? And I'm probably referring to a a 22, 23 year old Chaz as right? Cause at 35, I totally understand what you're talking about. I've had opportunities now to slow down enough, at least mentally, to enjoy moments with the kids, enjoy create experiences.
Chaz would you say for the guy listening today who maybe was like me 15 years ago who was just, like, super serious? Like, you know, we're gonna be disciplined. And we're gonna be we're gonna delay all gratification, and we're gonna we're not gonna have any fun until we get there. What would you say to that guy? He's kinda struggling right now. Like, he's in his business. He's here listening. He's hearing a guy like you talking about, oh, I just wanna have fun all day.
He's like, oh, it must be nice. Well, would you say to that guy? Who would say he might not be wrong? I I don't know. See, every everybody's path is different. Yeah. And for for me, I so so I've tried that. Right? I've tried I'm gonna wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning. I'm gonna go to the gym by 5:15. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. And it did it drove me absolutely nuts. Right?
Yeah. And then I've got I've got guys that I I work with who are, you know, worked out of here together, and they have to do that. Right. Or else they the world crumbles. Right? So I would say to that guy is Find out if that's really what what what you need. Take the time to decompress, meditate if that's your thing. Pray if that's your thing, go for, you know, go on a freaking Ayahuasca trip. I don't, you know, with a with a shaman in in and really take the top.
I, you know, whatever floats your boat. You know? Yeah. But take that time to really ask yourself, like, are you Are you trying to fit into a mold that you've heard influencers talk about, or is this really what drives you that's gonna get you to where you wanna be? And I'd also ask I'd also say, ask yourself, where do you wanna be? Because a lot of guys that I talk especially younger guys, you know, yesterday, I hopped on with one of our recruiters.
Just I just wanted to hop on one of the the he was interviewing a new guy for for sales. I'm like, I'm gonna hop in and see what what motivates this guy. And he's like, you know, talking about, you know, so I asked him, you know, what do you What are your goals? And, you know, all I want, I wanna make money, you know, no no kidding. Right? What are you gonna do with it? You're applying for a sales position? Yeah. Do what are you gonna do with it? Why do you want it? Like, is there any reason?
Like Yeah. Wolfe, I just want financial freedom freedom from what? Like, what does that mean to you? You know? So, you know, I like I said, yeah, for for that guy, I would say, stop for a little bit. Figure out what your goals are. Really figure out if that's how you're gonna achieve them. Or, like I said, if you're just trying to fit because for me, when I stopped and asked myself, like, what am I doing?
You know, I remember going and trying to close deals based on how other people did when I was still a sales rep. Yeah. It didn't work. You know, it worked for me is going into the house and saying, oh, the dog game's on. Sure. Let's watch the dodger we go over this, you know, or let's have, you know, just, turns out, I'm not a structure based guy when it comes to anything. You know? What I'm a reporter guy. And when I when I'm just myself, my closing percentage is second to none.
When I try and fit into a personality that I'm not, it's terrible. So, you know, when I one once I stopped, because I I was like that a little bit too, you know, in my mid twenties. It took me a little bit longer to get there. I like to party a little. But when I when I was there in my mid twenties, I'm like, I'm gonna be regimented. The second I said, hey. I'm gonna get some there's here's some key things I'm gonna get done in the day. I'm gonna eat balance.
I'm gonna get to the gym at some point today. I'm gonna talk to my my mom today, and I'm gonna tell her I love her at some point today. Yeah. At some point today, I'm gonna spend time with my kids. I'm gonna check all these things off at some point today. Yeah. My life got infinitely better. My earnings went up. Yeah. My mind expanded, and I was able to be creative.
Yeah. You're given you're given a really, really, really applicable framework I wanna compare it to one quick thing here, and then I want your opinion. So I I've trained sales, built sales teams. I've I've probably worked with thousands of salespeople at this time. And so my pull out that I'm that that I'm hearing you say that I've also taught, and I wanna hear what you do in your call centers and and even maybe in the solar industry. But there's a general framework for the sales process.
And to your point, you can be as re regimented, scripted. Like, you can be as robotic as you can be, or you can be completely like, I have no idea what I'm about to do, and I'm just gonna show up. Neither are really the Right? But somewhere in the middle, you have a framework that you're following, but you're you. You can be confident to be you. But inside of this, I'm following a general frame framework. I need to obviously open it up, set it with a good agenda.
I need to do a discovery, build trust, and report. I need to figure out what the pain is. I need to do a presentation that's applicable simple, easy to understand, and I need to close. So as long as I do those 4 things, and in that order, I can kinda be whoever I need to be. Personality wise, or strength wise, and it doesn't have to necessarily be super exact. Like, you don't need to say exactly what I do, so forth and so on point. So I've taught this for years years years years years.
And so you have this this industry of sales that's like, look. Here's your script. Yeah. Read it right here. You know? And and what that produces on the other side, what you're talking about is someone like you, who typically does well in sales, is kind of Don't put me in a box type of a person Yeah. Who doesn't like the script to begin with, but now you're forcing me to do something. So I don't like you to force me to do anything.
And then number 2, I gotta do in the box, which I don't really like to do anyway. And so what it produces is robotic, disingenuine, you know, like, people, salespeople who don't care. And that's what we've known for sales for the last 30 years. It's just someone reading a script who doesn't care. What would you say to all that?
Wolfe, yeah, I mean, I would say so it's funny because when I put together, you know, material for for new closers, right, I when I bring guys into the into the solar Wolfe. The for a closing position, if they've got solar experience, I don't call them because they're gonna tell me they know better than me. Yep. And not and and it's not it's not that I I can't learn something from them, but I built a a system that does, you know, 8 figures in sales a year. You're looking for a job.
Right. Let try what I'm doing. And if it's not working, you know. Right. In in their they're looking for a job for a reason, you know, in in your if you're in solar, you should be making money. But, no, I I I agree with what you're a 100%. When I give them material, I I don't call it a script. I have a closing flow. And what it starts with is it explains the psychology of what happens, right, because a lot of guys can read a script. They can know what to say.
They can they can perform tie downs and, you know, altered vans and, you know, and they can do all that, but they don't know why it works. So I what I give them is a it's it's, like, like, three pages, and it's a it's called, I it's called the closing flow. And it explains the psychology. It starts with when you go to the house, don't get porched. And getting porched means somebody comes outside and they and they pull up a chair on the front porch and say, Go ahead and take a seat right here.
I'll get my wife if you wanna water because it the second that happens you lose control. And and He's at the frame. He said, yeah, he said the frame. And and and Michael Donald who's who's who I I looked up to the law in in the solar world. I don't I don't know. I'm a met him once, twice, but I I follow him, and he he was talking the other day about, you know, when when you're going in to close somebody, you're the expert. You're the authority.
So if you don't set that tone from the beginning, then you don't have a then you can't close. Right. And so I agree with what you're saying a 100%. You you have to there's certain things you have to do. You have to be in control. You can't knock on the door and say, hey. Do you wanna you wanna sit outside? Do you wanna sit inside? Do you wanna sit on your front lawn? Where wherever you wanna sit. Right. Like, you can't you can't do that because Yeah. That's that's wrong.
That's not how you think you can pull the sale. Yeah. It's not how you lead. No. And then, you know, then from there, I call it setting the table. And setting the table is, you know, it's not it it's literally fix, you know, actually getting to the kitchen table, right, because sitting on a couch is not beneficial because, again, you're not in control. You're not in a power position. Right? So I I set out this framework of how to stay basically in the power position.
But what you do in between that is gonna be up to your personality. You know? And there's some key I put key points in there. I give them third party, but, you know, you need to you need to be able there needs to be room for you for you to breathe. Yeah. And so Yeah. Because otherwise otherwise, like you said, you suffocated and and it actually throws you off. Any sort of level of confidence that you have in who you are, and it just says as not not a natural. I I appreciate just the flow there.
I think that, you know, whether the listener is in in solar sales or not. That doesn't matter. If they were paying attention, you gave them a psychology, a framework that they can follow even as an entrepreneur. Selling decks or selling marketing, you know, services or whatever it is, the framework is still the same, is that you have to have control. You have to set the tone, and you've gotta walk through some basic stuff, and then you gotta be you.
That's because if you if you do that and you've got a and you gotta do a product and you really believe in it, once you get to that point of time to sell, you're gonna be relaxed. And it's gonna be easy. Yeah. Like, you if if yours if you're working, like, 1st of all, if you if you're not selling a product, that you don't a 100% believe in and you don't a 100% think, like, kicks ass, then find a different job. There's a 1,000,000 in one sales shops out there.
But if you believe all those things you need and you do those first couple critical steps to control the the the emotions, right, and control yours because I don't know about you, but, you know, I now it's more my clients are different now. They're business owners. But even getting on to this podcast right now. Like, I get a little butterflies. You know, before I talk to business owner, I get butterflies.
Before I go on to to business meetings, with people that I've known for years, I get little butterflies. I just do. So, you know, you're gonna have butterflies when you sit down with the family, But if you if you're feeling rigid throughout, they're gonna feel rigid throughout, and you're not gonna close. It doesn't matter what you say because Tom Hopkins talks about it. Sail sales are based on emotion. Yeah. By on emotion, justifying logic. That's when that's after you've won them over.
That's when you whip in, hey. I can save you on your bill or I can whatever. Whatever the logic is. Yeah. Hey, Kings and Queens. Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things. On social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this.
Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Good stuff. Okay. Inside of your business, I've got to know a good decision that you've made. Something practical that you can look back, maybe it was in the 1st year, clear, concise, good decision that you made that we can do go, you know, duplicate in our own businesses. So for for me, it was there was you want me to whittle it down to 1? There was there was 2 there there's there's 2 critical ones. There's 2 there's 2 critical ones.
One was to to the the the day I decided that I'm not gonna close any more deals anymore on a on a on a b to c level. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna close customers anymore. That was huge for me because that was the day that I decided that I'm not gonna be a sales rep anymore working for my business. Right? And I'm going to be I'm going to actually try and be a business owner. And so that was huge for me. And a guy looked up to a lot told me, hey.
When you make that decision, that 1st year, you're probably gonna make less money. Oh, yeah. A lot less probably. And I'm like, no way. Then when I was selling door to door, made way less money Chaz 1st year. 2nd year, tripled my income. So that was so that was that was a big one.
And then another big one for me was about almost 2 years ago now went all in on learning, you know, perfecting our our call center approach and basically took made a lot of mistakes in For the most part, my life savings at that point and dumped it into trial and error. What works, what doesn't work, and going big with the idea of I can always build back up. You know, I still have my door to door stuff. It was running myself.
So I had I had income, but it was like, I wanna go big and go all in in bet on this. And see how we can go. Yeah. And Monday, we'll be opening up, you know, Massachusetts, Connecticut. We're all over California. We're in Texas. Gonna be in within the next two months, we'll be in Utah, Arizona, Orlando. So It's it that was scary, you know, because it got Yeah. Out there. You know, you start seeing Yeah. You're working 16 hour days. My my partner, business partner at the time.
Luckily, I had a a really nice home office. I was living in Southern California at the time, and we had whole wing of the house is an office, and I just he didn't I called him. He was living in Vegas. I'm like, dude, move out. Stay with me for a couple of months. Let's get this dialed in, and he literally just moved in for, like, 2, 3 months. And we just worked 16 hour days. Didn't, you know, my kids are in the house, but I'm not really seeing that much.
We're like, we're gonna figure this out because Yeah. This could be This could be huge. Yeah. And it's it's scary for a little bit, but, you know, so I guess, in a nutshell, you know, figure out what you wanna do and either go all in or don't do it at all. Yeah. That's why I was picking up, as you were saying, that both examples are you betting on you going all in. The second one, obviously, scary error just because in the first decision, you can always go back to the sales guy.
Yeah. Thought that scary of a choice, although it's a big decision to especially when you're as good. As you are in that role, it's so hard to give that up because you're you're probably better. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yes. You did. And so then that gave you the freedom, the freedom of attention, the freedom of time to then go, actually, like you said, be a business owner. And then the second one, yeah, way more scary because it's an investment. A huge investment of time and money.
It's like, will this thing even work? Yeah. And so that was but it, you know, it's it's paid off now, and it's opened my mind to a hole in the world of people, and my my whole network has expanded. And it's been really it's been really cool. You know, and followed. Let's flip the script. Cody, tell me about a bad decision that you made that we can learn from. Bad decision. So when I first got into, you know, hey.
I'm gonna stop being a sales rep for somebody else's solar company, and I'm going to launch my my own. Right? In the solar world, they call they call this a red line hunting. And what that what that means is you you have a a bottom line, essentially, that you operate off of when you run a solar business. And the the installer keeps everything below that Chaz a sales rep, you know, you keep her as Chaz sales company. Yeah. I made the mistake of I'm gonna find and a lot of guys do this.
I'm gonna find the lowest red line. I'm gonna find I'm gonna I'm gonna use 3 different companies because I'm gonna use this company for loans. I'm gonna use this company for this. And so the mistake that I made the beginning was not just finding one solid and partner and sticking with them. A vendor partner. Yeah. And I thought that I needed to have 4 or 5 different partners and to to handle our installs, and I thought that I needed to find the lowest.
And what I found is the cheapest is never the cheapest. And now we've had the same partner for 5 years. Wow. And close to 5 years, at least 4. And it's been incredible. I mean, they've become, like, that they're based out of, San Francisco. They just announced they're they're merging with, Solaria. Was it panel manufacturing company? They're called Complete Solar. And they're merging with Salaria, and they're they're gonna be going public here.
And so it's been really fun to because to to me, they're, like, still I don't know, like, a small company, but now they're doing all this awesome big stuff. Yeah. And but their their chief revenue officer would be out. I'm in South Carolina. He'll be out here next week to visit, and we'll go have cigars and hang out.
And it's like, it's really cool to have those relationships into in in my experience, when do you when you when you hop around from company to company and things like Chaz, you Just work, man. Just work. And and you don't. Don't get to form any real relationships. You know, you can go and have laughs. You know, you can go out for for steak dinners in Las Vegas and uh-uh and have, you know, this like, surface level, like frothy, emotional, good feelings. Right?
But, like, there's guys that, you know, because we've stuck with the same, like, there's some guys there that know that know my kids. They know my family. We don't we're not There's nothing holding us together. There's nothing that says I have to work with them. There's nothing that says they have to work for me. We could walk away and never send them another deal tomorrow. They could call me right now and say, We don't want any more of your accounts.
And so to me, that's, like, a real, you know, that's a real relationship. You know? Yeah. Yeah. You're it's it's so good because a lot of the what you're talking about, we we this warrior to king transition is mindset. It's all mindset. Of course, it shows in revenue and how what your team looks like and how you delegate and all the practical things that you do in the business. But this mindset of relationship, is a 100%. We talk about the 3 leverage points inside our mastermind group.
It's leveraging time, leveraging release resources, and key relationships. This key relationship piece that you're talking about literally is the game changer. And at the 6 figure or even early sevens, You're just you're just in the warrior mode. You're just in the grind.
You're just doing the thing, and so you just never look up long enough to realize that, like, if I just paid attention to that guy or if I, in this case, just kept doing the same deal over and over with this one guy and just created a real vendor partnership with him. It's not, you know, switch over to this guy and then overhear a better deal. And That's Warrior mode. King mode is simplicity, relationship, longevity, like, actually building something together where you choose.
To do business together because it's a benefit mutually, and you just never get there if you if at least one of the parties has the other mindset, which is short sighted. It's it's about today. It's about survival, really. And there's a point in the business. You talked about it a little bit earlier, where you kinda have to be like that. You kinda gotta worry about, like, Chaz I eat today?
But the transition must occur, which is what you're talking about, you have to start seeing things in relationship and leverage. Not just necessarily cutting the pennies or or, like you said, lowering the red line. Would you add anything? I know we've we've hit this from a couple different angles here, but it's just such a great topic. And I thought it was something that maybe I knew earlier. I just didn't know it well enough earlier.
Relationships have always been I knew were important, but, man, even in the last couple of years, that's why I started the podcast. Yeah. I've done 200 episodes this year. It's awesome. Be because you just meet people. You just don't know. You just don't know. So, anyway, what would you say?
So, you know, I I would say one of the coolest, like, parts of parts of the relationship that I would say that we have in in in how I know it's based on mutual respect is when when when we mess up, we take ownership for it. And if they mess up and I, you know, and I catch it before them, they say, hey. This isn't right. They'll say they don't try and we we don't try and fight each other. Nope. It's yep. You're right. Let's Let's make it right. What can we do?
Let's let's hop on a strategy call to make it right. And there's not a lot of that in that I've seen in the industry that I I'm in, and I've talked to other people in roofing industries, you know, in alarm industries, you know, all sorts of different, you know, Everybody wants to point a finger. And, you know, one of the things I'm I'm reading, I just started a book called multiunit Leadership. And it's it's more geared towards people who are managing multiple locations and stuff like that.
But it's applicable to business owners who are running in multiple markets too, and it and it talks extrino extreme ownership and talked about if you're gonna if you're gonna, you know, share on your successes, If your business fails, it's a 100% your fault. Yeah. So Yeah. We can't have one without the other. Whether whether you're at fault or whether you're you're not, as even as a business owner, you're at fault. So it doesn't matter.
Yeah. So relationships are, you know, and I've had I've had some You know, there's there's been some crappy times where people, you know, people burn you for money and unregulate, you know, the reg industry that's not regulated. But through those trials and, you know, and errors and getting screwed over by people, I've actually met some of my best friends. Yeah. Because the good eggs always, you know, come together. Right?
The the ones that are, you know, choosing the right thing, not screwing people over, eventually, you find each other. Yeah. And and then that's powerful. Yeah. And so there's been it it's been good because even there there was a situation a couple of years ago where we were where we were helping out a a company build out their their sales program, and they burned us for, like, a ton of money, like, a ton, and it sucked. And they did it.
I was naive at the time and they structured it in a way where I couldn't really do anything about it, but actually, I met the the gentleman that I I think he was on this podcast. Bennett Maxwell was on this podcast too. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I met Bennett. And it and basically, we were both involved in it and it I think the deal that went bad, and we ended up becoming friends. And and then we we did a a trip on a private jet together and then joined a mastermind together.
And so, you know, it's been cool to watch him grow with his his dirty dough and stuff like Chaz. But it's like, you never know As long as you keep being treated yourself and just be honest, like Yeah. Sometimes I'm brutally honest, and sometimes people people don't like Chaz, and those that's okay because those people aren't gonna be in my sphere.
Yeah. No. They're not gonna be a part of my network, but it's not but it's you know, kinda like you said, as long as you're you're true to yourself and and you're you're focused on on being real and building real relationships, Yeah. They happen. Yeah. They do. They do. It's the encouragement to the listener because they're busy right now. Like, we talked about earlier, they're in the warrior mode. They're busy wearing a lot of hats. They can't come up to breathe.
You know, they're the 16 hour days. They're not seeing their kids. All the things that you and I have both been through as well. And the encouragement is, look, keep doing the thing, but also, you know, pick your head up a couple times. Pay attention to those relationships. Pour into some of those areas. It doesn't seem like maybe there's an ROI today. And, usually, those are the places that are the biggest, long term, good decisions. Yeah. Tony, I'm gonna transition to our our speed round.
My first question, the speed round is is regarding KPIs. So in your solar call center, all this stuff we've been talking about. What's the most important KPI? What would you track forever and ever if you could just pick the one thing? Just pick 1. Just pick 1, my man. I mean, the obvious one to me is how many, you know, how many deals do we close? Another one I'd like to track is, you know, I wanna I I I have a I have a number in mind in that I want all my all my closers to make.
Sure. Yeah. And so I know that we're successful based on that number. So if I guess if I could track just one, it would be the average monthly commission for each closing. Yeah. No. That's huge. It's huge in the sales world specifically, but even as a business owner, maybe They don't have a bunch of salespeople like you do. I've always just taken whatever industry.
It's obviously gotta be industry and even position specific, but it's like, look, If I can pour in and they make more, that means the company is doing good. Yeah. Take care of them. Yeah. Yes, Mike. Obviously, it's different for every industry and even positions. Like, I've got, you know, there you can't out you got you eventually, you're gonna outgrow a position. You gotta move to another one if you wanna make more money, but it's still the same principle of of relationships.
You mentioned one book earlier, but what would you recommend to a 6 figure business owner? It could be the same book, but what book would you recommend? So I always end up talking about this book. And so I I I cheated a little bit. You know, I thought about this. I thought about my answering. You know, a lot of guys you know, we we've read, you know, how to win friends and influence people, you know, great bread, how how to master the art of selling.
So assuming that you've read those books, I would say kind of in in line with what we've been talking about with, you know, hey. Pick your head up and breathe. There there's a there's a really cool book by a Buddhist Month. Called the Miracle Mindfulness, then I've read probably fifty times. Interesting. Something new out of it every time. It's by, I don't know, says him. I think it's Tichnott Hahn. He just died recently at, like, I don't know, three fifty seven years old or something.
He was really freaking old, but I think it was, like, 98 We just died, like, last year, but, basically, it's little exercises to help you stay in the moment, right, and just change your mindset. Of, you know, it talks about things like, you know, there's a little story in there about, you know, he was talking to his his friend who's a parent. And he's like, I just don't have time for myself.
You know, like, kids get home from school, and I get dinner ready, and I do their homework, and then this and blah blah blah. It's all about taking your mindset back and, like, Instead of that mindset of, I have to help make sure my homework. It's like, tell yourself, and because the mind is super powerful. Like, how would it beautiful? Like, what an amazing miracle like, we're, like, we're human being on on planet Earth right now. We need oxygen to live. I have this human that that is my son.
That's a miracle. Damn for me. It came for me that's healthy, that happy that loves to spend time for me, the time with and I get to help him I get to help him learn and expand his mind, and it's all about taking that mindset of I have to to, like, to get to.
I think, and it's and it's so and somebody that's so, like, cliche and horny, but, like, If we don't think about it as entrepreneurs, everything we do throughout the day of us to hop on this meeting with the that I don't like because guess what? We work with, you know, sometimes you don't wanna talk to every kind of personality.
I'll, you know, as a business owner, your psychologists, your therapists, your, you know, and you can't always and you take on a pea a lot of different people's energy, you know, throughout the day. So it's important to remember that, like, like, what a what a cool spot to be in? Like, dude, we're we're chopping it up on a on a podcast. Right now. And then I'm I'm gonna hang out at my house, and I'm gonna run a sales meeting.
Couple of my guys are gonna close some deals say, my kids are gonna run home from school and burst through those doors behind me and give me a big hug. And, like, what a blessing it is that I get to work from home? You know, and I get to work from anywhere I want. So I think that that that is a book that most salespeople and the reason I bring that one up is most sales guys, most entrepreneurs, aren't gonna grab a book like that because they're gonna be like, why am I gonna take that?
What was why am I gonna take some I need some, like, beat my chest stuff, which We do plenty of that. We do, like, we do eat that. I love that stuff. Don't get me wrong. Like, you know, watch UFC every Saturday night. You know? Like, love it, but sometimes when we need to slow it down, and I think that that would be I read that book a lot, especially early on, and it would just And you don't it's not a book that you necessarily have to read for front to back. Just open it up.
Pick a little two page example. Yes. Exactly. Love the perspective. What do you think about? You mentioned earlier you and Bennett joining a mastermind group. What do you think about intentionally networking with a business owners and or a mastermind So my initially, before, you know, talking about intent prior to investigation, I thought it was stupid.
I thought, you know, if you were in a mastermind chest, I thought you were dumb because you were paying for friends, and they don't actually like you. Yeah. It's I mean, that's real. That's real. Yes. And and the people that were on social media, posting about their wins, and they were they were talking about all the cool stuff they're doing. Well, they were just debags because I was doing cool stuff too, but I didn't have to tell everybody about it. Right? That's what I thought.
Yeah. It's real. I pay so the same feelings. I pay so much money to go to masterminds now, and it's the best best decision I ever made. Yeah. What is what an idiot? What an idiot at what? Because those people are real. Like, those winds are real. Depending on which mastermind you're in, you know. Sure. Sure. Does winds are real? They have families. They genuinely care.
And what I realized is it's it's it's not about, oh, I'm lying on a private jet to you know, I'm in a mastermind where most of these people don't have a college ed education. Some there's most ship, probably more of them have a a rest records Chaz they do college degrees. Right? You know? Yeah. So it's you know, and I grew up in a town where there's not a lot of pea they grew up in a small, you know, post industrial wasteland upstate New York. There's not a lot going on.
There's no There's there was no examples. There was no no people who were who were hustlers, you know, as far as entrepreneur. I mean, there was there was drug dealers, you know, but that's That's about it. And so it's not about being Braggadocious about, hey. Like, it's possible. And we dude, we live in a world now where if I lived 30 years ago, you know, with my with my background, with my lack of college education, I've been relegated to a factory worker.
Yep. So it's about letting people know that, hey. It exists. It's real. Like, and it's possible. And so it for me, it's been in the ROI, unintentionally Chaz been Oh, yeah. He measure. Yeah. I think it's I think it's vital. Whether it's getting in at a ground level mastermind that, you know, you can only afford the basics of do something. I wish I did it sooner because probably wouldn't have had a struggle as long as I did because I had stupid beliefs that were based in my own insecurities.
Yeah. Yeah. It's good. It's good. And especially, and that's all levels. You address it even at your level and you address it even, you know, to for the guy that's listening because you're right. It took me too long to figure that out as well. There's so much more than that comes from a have a we have a direct response mindset. Right? Like, that's that's how we get leads. Right? Yeah. That's how we grow our business. Of course.
In dollar in, I get 4 leads out or whatever the whatever the exchange is. And, it just doesn't work that way with relationships. It does, but it just looks different. And so you gotta give it a you gotta give it the opportunity to be able to take its course because I feel the same way that you do. Last question here for you, Cody. We gotta wrap this up. I wanna know. You could whisper in the younger coat easier. What would you say? Damn you look good.
No. I would say I would say don't don't take yourself too seriously and get out of your comfort zone. You know? And it it goes back to what we're just talking about. You know, I was did I wanna, you know, how to be how to be the chill cool guy? Like, you know, Me people that are that are different than you, take those chances, you know, and What I've learned, the the older I got is if I think something is stupid or corny or hokey, I should probably do it.
I should probably do it, you know, because you can't grow without being uncomfortable. Try it. So That's just your that's your mechanism to push off what's uncomfortable. Is it stupid? It's corny. It's Yeah. It's whatever. Super good, man. You've been incredible. How can the listener connect with you? Maybe they they wanna get involved somehow. Maybe they're a solar business and they wanna connect, or they're just an entrepreneur. They wanna pick your can I find you? Best way.
I use all the social media stuff, but the best way is on Instagram because I live on Instagram. And so my ad is codycody_booth_3 15. 315. There you go. Syracuse, New York, baby. There he is. You'll find him here. So yeah. There you go. Well, you've been, again, just incredible from a from a business perspective. We didn't even get into the family, dude, but I I appreciated our little talk about kids and stuff before we hit the record button. You've been incredible.
Thank you again for your time, blessings on your family, and your businesses, your expansion. Next couple of states that you're taking over here in the next couple months, just we wish you nothing but success. Thank you for being here. Hey. Thanks for having me. I had fun. Thank you. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own businesses in multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. You take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.