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Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.

Speaker 2 (00:42):

What's going on Solarpreneurs, we're back with a another episode, and this is another feature we have with our recent sponsor on the show, and that is pipes in to get. So we've got the man behind kind of the, I would like maybe like the scientist behind the scenes working on the backend of all this. So he's going to give us yeah, just get a stoked about pipe syndicate. Tell us a little bit more about what's going on. So we've got Austin Underwood on the show, Austin. Thanks for coming on with us today.

Speaker 3 (01:11):

Yeah, thanks for having me today. Yeah, so we I came on to talk about a company that we've been involved with and Taylor's been doing some stuff with called PI syndicate. It's basically a program that we've decided as a mastermind to help solar wraps any real wrap in the door door industry, but primarily solar. I mean, you get all these kids that are coming in to do quite a bit of money all of a sudden, and they don't really know what to do with it, or maybe they're not as smart as they, as it could be. And they don't really know that. And so we help them manage and kind of help really just manage that money. So we're, we're helping them utilize our skills to make that money go further for them as they're, as they're younger and they don't know what to do with it, or they just don't know how to get into certain aspects of, of the investment pools that they want to.

Speaker 3 (01:58):

And then a big portion of that is tax mitigation. So we help mitigate the taxes on your income side. And we do that a numerous of ways. I mean, we really just decided that we needed to start something that would help out the reps. I there's so many different companies that come in and help the owners, the CEOs, the high level executives. Everybody wants to take care of those guys, but nobody's really talking about, you know, that, that new rep that just started in solar, that you know, is going to crush it and make, you know, 250 K this year, that just came out of nowhere. And and nobody helps that kid, right? He, he gets his tax bill. He goes to a CPA. He thinks he's doing everything the right way. And he doesn't really know that there's a different way to do it, or there's more opportunities than he really thinks there are.

Speaker 3 (02:40):

And so we wanted to start something that would really help, not only the companies, because we have corporate memberships, we have memberships that include CEOs and owners and things like that, but we wanted a lower level package for the reps. So I rapped could afford it. And a rep could come in and, and say, Hey, I don't know what to do here. I don't know how to file these. I don't know what the right expenses should go, where we just take care of all that for you. We've designed it to be a white glove service. That'll just take care of it for you.

Speaker 2 (03:10):

That's awesome. And it's cool. Cause you guys have, you know, different packages, different levels. So there's really no excuse for anyone not to being, be getting help from you guys financially. Cause yeah, I mean, yeah, they're lower packages. Maybe it's just the taxes you want done.

Speaker 3 (03:24):

Yeah. Well, and we, we do the three packages. There's about three main ones and we do them for a reason is we really want, you know, we go anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 and we do that because we know that there are different needs for different people. Some people aren't in a place this year, you know, some of those new reps, aren't in a place to need all of the benefits with a 15 and $30,000 package, but they definitely needed a $5,000 package and, and vice versa. Some guys are too far. But what, what we do allow is as you grow, we grow with you. So you eventually can move into those spots and not have any problems.

Speaker 2 (03:54):

Yeah, that's awesome. So yeah, we're going to talk more about that and get into more detail here, but I wanted to hear from you, do you Austin, we were talking yesterday and you told me your background. What's really cool. Austin has just kind of the rags to riches story. I grew up in pretty humble beginnings and all that. So I wanted to see if you would tell our listeners kind of like your upbringing, your story with that, and then how you got more involved in like, you know, door to door and like financial side of things.

Speaker 3 (04:21):

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So we, we we grew up in Utah, so we're from salt lake city, Utah, but we grew up in a little suburb subsidiary section and a Ned called Magna super far west. And it's a, it's a really humble little city. I mean, it's, it's really small compared to most cities in Utah. We we struggled a little bit with, with financial matters and you know, it wasn't like I ever went without things for the most part. I mean, there was a few times that, you know, things got a little, a little sketchy, but for the most part, you know, we, we made it work and, you know, I think for the time and the era, you know, my parents were bringing in like $30,000 together. Like both of them were working, full-time multiple jobs at one point. And you know, it was just hard to figure it out. Right. You know,

Speaker 2 (05:07):

And you're not that old, so that's right. Yeah. Cause some people are like, oh, maybe he's maybe Austin's like 60 years old.

Speaker 3 (05:14):

Yeah. I'm only 25. And I I just decided like, you know, at a young age, I, I'm not going to live like this. I can't, I can't do this, this isn't for me. Like not even just the money, but just the security behind what the money brings. Right. It's really not about the money it's I wanted to be able to first off utilize how to use the money. So what do I need to do to keep the money that I'm going to bring in? Right. Not just trying to generate millions and millions of dollars. Like I think most people think, right. You could have a million dollars but use it the right way and still have more money than somebody with $5 million that uses it the wrong way. Right. Yeah. And so that's kind of where, where I started out and I really was just like, yeah, there's gotta be something I can do.

Speaker 3 (05:53):

So actually, one of my first jobs as I went around to a local restaurants and things like that, and I was like, Hey, that disgusting garbage brick wall thing that you guys keep your garbage Kennan. I'll scrub it out, you know, for like 20 bucks an hour, I'll come every Saturday and I'll do it all. I just ride my bike over there and you know, I was like 13 years old and I needed money for something. Oh, I, well, I wanted to go to a T I wanted to go on a trip to New York city to visit my uncle. We were never really able to go on any sort of traveling trips. I didn't really start to travel until I got into my early twenties when I could pay for it myself. The, the most I had ever really traveled as we would drive somewhere, anywhere we could drive, we could kind of go, but that was it.

Speaker 3 (06:32):

I had never been, I didn't get on an airplane until I paid for my ticket by myself. And I just happened to be 13 years old. But I just, I just, I went crazy all summer and I just hustled as hard as I could. And so I started doing that and I got that company up pretty, pretty good. I think I was doing at one point like 50, 50 restaurants within riding, riding, riding my bicycle distance. So there's a big street. If you drive out to 5,600 west where it's just lined with restaurants up and down, both sides of the street. So I just went and talked to every, every single one that I could. And, and I had an uncle that was in the franchise world and he was like, well, yeah, you can come do you know mine? And I was like, okay, you'll let me come do these.

Speaker 3 (07:16):

You already agreed to it, but here's the catch. I don't have a car. I can't drive on 13. So you gotta come get me and take me to all these things. So I made him come and pick me up and go do that. And so that's kind of where I realized like, okay, so if I do this something by myself, I'm obviously gonna make a lot more money. I have to rely on anybody else. I can do the work myself. And so that's when I kind of was like, I got to a point where I actually had a little bit of money. And so I thought I have to figure out how to manage this money the right way. And so I started just kind of doing, taking some small classes doing some college stuff, you know, some community stuff kind of going through and figuring out like, you know, how do I do this? How do I do that? What's the tax side. I mean, you know, what is the tax sides of these mean?  

Speaker 2 (07:57):

That's cool. Most, most people aren't thinking about that. Well,

Speaker 3 (08:00):

They're not right. And I think that's the problem is that I don't think that there's enough education for people available. I mean, cause it's out there and you can find it, but how hard is it defined? It's a lot easier to find a dumb video of, you know, a super rich kid online doing something stupid with money. So that's the envision people have in their head and I needed, that's not real. And so I was like, I have to figure out how I can manage this money the right way.

Speaker 2 (08:23):

I think that came just from like your upbringing and seeing that you guys learned growing up. So you're like, okay, I want to figure out how to like,

Speaker 3 (08:29):

Yeah, a hundred percent. I don't think my goal in life when I decided that I wanted to be able to make some money. My goal was never to be the richest man in a room. My goal was to be stable. That's all that I wanted. There was so much unstability growing up in a poor family and you know, things just are all over the place. So I wanted the stability of what the money could bring. And so my idea was never to make a lot of money. I mean, in theory, that happens, I guess, where you, you do make good amounts of money being pretty strategic and smart and cautious about what you're doing. But for the most part, it's really just, I wanted the street, the strategic ability to be safe and content, right. Savings accounts, things like that, that most people are like, not important. I can do that later. Well, that's not true. You need to be doing that now.

Speaker 2 (09:16):

Yeah. That's a good point. And that's cool. And so you were in a, were you already in college at that point or was this still in high school? You're doing

Speaker 3 (09:25):

No. So it was, it was still in high school. So the high school that I went to had a a secondary program where they'd ship you out to a college campus, just the slick campus, the community college campus. So I was doing some classes from high school to try and get some of that knowledge that I wanted for that.

Speaker 2 (09:40):

Okay. That's awesome. And so yeah, especially, I'm sure you can agree with social media and everything. Like you're seeing, you're just seeing people flash the big cars and how many people I mean, I have people I know that just got, make rent, they fancy cars and all that. Just go show it off on social media and then they're not actually making that type of money. Well, yeah,

Speaker 3 (10:00):

Exactly. It's funny. Cause you, you really see the difference between somebody that has a lot of money and somebody that doesn't right. Like you can tell the difference, you know, and it's about, you know, and I think that's just my, my analytical analytical mind thinking is like my thought process is, is the dude that has more money lives in a normal size house drive normal cars. He's not spending money on frivolous things that he doesn't need. Right. The ones that need to feel like they have more money than everybody else push out the other way. And there's nothing wrong with that. If that's the life you want to live, do it by all means, just make sure you can really afford it.

Speaker 2 (10:35):

No. Yeah. And what's cool is you guys, won't talk more about this, but you guys are teaching people that like kind of have the best of both worlds. You got your clients that have the nice cars and all of that, you know, getting it probably off a passive income, they were using it like is avoid taxes, things like that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:50):

Well, and that's yeah, we, we definitely don't want to refrain from people buying the things that they want. Like that's our goal isn't to say live, you know, as frivolously as possible. Like we, I, there was, I had a conversation with a guy yesterday and I was like, you know what? I think the best ideas of what you should do is go buy $140,000 car go buy that Tesla model X, you know, that new plan version just launched. And we went through why it was something that he wanted and I went through why it was actually tax advantaged to him to do that. And so we go through both, both sides of life, obviously there's a fine line to walk amongst. But we're definitely not a group. That's going to say, you know, go buy the Corolla over the Tesla. Like that's not something that we want to do. We want to help you get what you want, get it when you want it and make it work for you the best.

Speaker 2 (11:42):

Yeah. That's awesome. And yeah. And Austin, how did you get more involved in kind of like, you know, the door to door space and I know you worked with door to door experts, those nails for awhile. So how did, you said you got in the, kind of the financial education, how did you transition into kind of helping the doorstep?

Speaker 3 (11:59):

Yeah, so-so is actually out consulting some other companies on on financial footings and things like that. The financial foundations, I actually just wrote a book about it. That's going to be launched with a PR company out of Alabama. But so I was, I was kind of doing that. I was, I was, I was consulting those other companies on the financial structures, like the very beginning basics, right? Like the foundations of the financial processes that they were missing. And and I had a guy that I knew that was working at the D experts. He was there in intro CFO. He's just kind of filling in as Sam was trying to find somebody else over at the door to door experts. And and he called me and he's like, Hey, you know, this is a really cool opportunity.

Speaker 3 (12:46):

I really liked this guy that I'm working for. You should come over and interview with me and see if it's something that you would even really think about. And I was like, okay. Yeah. So I actually went over there to to do that with him. And, and the position that he was looking for was actually a just somebody to kind of help oversee his books and, and do some of this stuff. And all internally, it was all internal when, when I first was over there and I went to him and I was like, Hey man, look, you know, we've had the bootcamps and they, you know, they have these events that everybody's coming to. And I was like, I really think that there's a bigger market for the door to door industry that people just don't know about.

Speaker 3 (13:21):

I think all these company owners, aren't, aren't realizing how much more they need to pay attention to the financial sides of things. Because I think, and I especially learned in the learning as I'm going through the door to door industry more and more is they're so sales focused, right? Everything that they, everything in their mind can be fixed with more revenue or revenue, more sales like that, that's their job. That's what they're good at. That's what the exact day, no. Or that had exactly that, how to do that. And so we're able to, I was able to say, look, look, there's a secondary system to this. The admin side is no fun. Nobody likes it. But the admin site includes the financial footing. It includes, you know, the staff, they experience like all of these things, the operations that aren't as aren't as known or, or not as practiced.

Speaker 3 (14:04):

And so I was able to convince Sam, like, we need to come in and do this and I'll go out and do this. And I started traveling, you know, to company, to company. I was going twice a week out to Atlanta, then Washington and Illinois than Idaho, just kind of everywhere. And it really just started to blow up. And so it really became a a staple to the, to the door. And her name is like, Hey, we're not only are we a consulting company, but we're a consulting company that, that helps you with your finances, which is pretty unknown. Like you have to hire somebody basically just to take it over. I was showing these owners how to help them. So not just doing it for them and then leaving them and saying, well, if you want me to do more, it's, you know, another $10,000 or, you know, these, these companies, these CFO guys they're expensive. And so if you could learn to do it by yourself, when you want to, right. I mean, we're all hustlers out here. That's what we're doing. You know, slinging doors is not an easy job, so anything else we can make that easier for that? You don't have to cost you a fortune, you know, we wanted to be able to be a part of that.

Speaker 2 (15:04):

Awesome. And so I'm sure you had a lot of experiences seeing what people were, I don't know, not focusing on mistakes. I'm sure they were making, is that a lot of these companies, they not even have CFOs and they were just kind of trained to do things. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:15):

So a lot of these companies, they didn't have CFOs, they didn't have bookkeepers, they didn't have anything.

Speaker 2 (15:20):

Wow. And so you would help them set that up and run it.

Speaker 3 (15:24):

So I would do a few different things. I think the majority of the companies that will lend to either didn't have QuickBooks or some sort of a CRM or not CRM at some sort of tracking tool for their actual books. And so I helped them kind of figure it out. Some of them did. But I, I worked with the systems they were using and they weren't awesome. And so I would either convince them to switch or I didn't, and, and either way was fine. I, I really have a bias towards QuickBooks. I just know it really well. I got my certification in it because I wanted to be the best at it. And obviously things have changed and I'm probably not the best at it anymore, but you know, there's a point in your career where you don't do some of the things that you used to do really well. Yeah. But a

Speaker 2 (16:03):

Cookbook is pretty, pretty, somewhat simple. It's

Speaker 3 (16:05):

Super simple. I mean, it's just really intuitive. Like it knows what the customer experience should be. And so I really liked that, especially with owners that don't want to push a budget to a financial footing or a financial team it really just makes it easy for them to be like, all right, I can set up all this automatically. And then I never have to go back in here. It'll just kind of do it by itself. And so it's really easy to do. You just have to know what you're doing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:26):

Awesome. And so cool. I know you gained a lot of experience doing that, working with Sam, seeing other companies, I'm sure. Learning from their mistakes, things like that. And now you're a CFO. I hear it's a, you're in, that's the name? Green energy coercion.

Speaker 3 (16:40):

Okay. And yeah, and then PI send the kid as well

Speaker 2 (16:43):

By any yet. And so yeah, you guys are doing incredible things. We just talked with Josh and Jerry on the podcast who were also part of that. And yeah, it's been really cool seeing how you guys have things set up structured and you really focused on teaching these reps. I was just talking with Josh about not just like selling, but all kinds of aspects of it. And I think you teach your guys the finances, you teach them the social media, teaching their recruiting. That's really cool to see. And so what gave you I guess why, why did you guys start pious indicate and what's what's kind of your whole goal around that. I know you talked a little bit in the beginning, but

Speaker 3 (17:19):

Yeah. So I would say the main reason is that is that me and Jerry have been around enough companies to know how much is truthfully going wrong. Even without people knowing what's always wrong. And so just being able to compile a by, you know, I've probably consulted upwards of 200 companies by now. And so being able to see that many different companies doing that many different styles and that many different types I think it's really drove the pie syndicate drive because we were, we were sitting in a room and we were talking about we were actually in St. George at, at Jefferson JKRs office. Well, that's where we first started talking about PI syndicate and doing some of this stuff is, is out there with Jefferson. And we were just talking about, you know, there's so many mistakes they're being made every day that I don't think people know that they're doing anything wrong.

Speaker 3 (18:09):

And so how do we create a, something that not only it can be an outreach program for them to learn about it, but something that like a mastermind that will really help them learn. And so we developed by syndicate off of all of the bad things that we've seen happen in solar and in past, and, and in roofing, like we took all of the bad things that we could find and all of the things that people didn't know or that we had seen, even if we only had sought once we still brought it to the table. And and so that's kind of where we got the drive for, for PI syndicate. And what we want to do with it is really get the knowledge out there. You know, there are masters masterminds all over the place and, and they're all great. And so I thought, you know, it's not going to be that hard to push one more.

Speaker 3 (18:50):

That that really is something that truthfully helps people that really makes them, you know, learn and experience things in a different way than they ever have before. And, and I mean, it really is something different. And so we even are so confident in what we're doing. You know, we, we went in to the drawing board and we said, look, we, we want people to know exactly what we're here for. And so we actually do something very unique. You know, when was the last time you were able to go to your CPA and say, Hey, if you don't save me more money than I'm paying you, I'm out,

Speaker 2 (19:18):

Right. That's a pretty strong guarantee, pretty strong

Speaker 3 (19:22):

Guarantee. So we actually guarantee our, our pricing. So if we cannot save you more than what you paid us we'll pay you the difference in what we don't save. You were, we'll, we're willing to put our own money up to bat to say, we know what we're doing, and we know we can do this, let us show you. And if we can't do it, then you're right. And here's, you know, here's that difference back

Speaker 2 (19:42):

Incredible. And it's like, why wouldn't you do it with that guarantee? You don't hear it out from CPAs or financing.

Speaker 3 (19:48):

Never, never. And so we want it to be different. We want him to be able to push our name out there differently. And that's how we've decided that not only do we have the knowledge we know that we do, but you know, a lot of people don't put their money where their mouth is. And so we thought, you know, we're going to be the first to do that.

Speaker 2 (20:02):

Yeah. Now it's really cool. Cause I've heard a few just, you know, Mikey, you guys hopping on calls with people and it sounds, it seems like it's almost the same exact things they're hearing from their CPA, the exact same thing. Oh, they told me to do this. I'm going to owe this much in taxes. And then you guys are just telling them, you know, the same, it's the same stuff. They hear it from everyone. Cause all that is pretty standardized advice. I mean, they're, they're telling you the same stuff over and over. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:27):

Actually we make jokes and, and we say, you know, CPA firms are like our silent partners. Every time they go and talk to a CPA firm, they always come back and follow up with us and see the difference in and switch over. And so we, we, we, we joke and we call them our pro our silent partners. But but it's true. I mean, we were actually just having a conversation with a guy the other day yesterday. And he went to a CPA and he's like, okay, you've got to spend 150,000 to $200,000 to save 60,000 in taxes, but you're still going to have to pay 40. And me and Jerry just dropped that. We didn't even know what to say. We were, I mean, we were stunned. We were like, that's an incredible observation to give somebody, spend $200,000 to save 60 bucks, but you still have to pay 40,000 times since at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (21:14):

Hopefully they have a lot of money.

Speaker 3 (21:16):

I'm like, that's, I'm, you're, you're talking about, okay, well, if you go spend $260,000, then I can get your tax bill down to authority. How does that make any sense who would want to do that? Who thinks that that was a good idea to, to offer it as a buy. And it's just something that you see every day, the CPAs are doing everything they're supposed to, if they're not doing anything wrong and I'm not talking about it with them in any way whatsoever we've just dedicated and prided ourselves on monitoring the changes that happen when they happen categorizing expenses correctly what the mileage is, right? Offs are things like that. That just, most people don't think to dive deep into that are a really big difference that make a huge difference to not spend the 200 K to save.

Speaker 2 (22:03):

Huh. Right. Yeah. No, that's really cool. And do you think I mean, like you said, there's a lot of good CPAs out there and I know they're doing, you know, the best with their resources and everything, but do you think it's that they don't have the knowledge on these things or they don't want to like necessarily tell them to do these things?

Speaker 3 (22:21):

I don't, I don't, I don't know. Honestly, I think that there are definitely CPAs out there that have the knowledge to do it. I do think that the CPA certification itself gives them some pushback on what they can and cannot offer people to do. And so one of the things that we really do differently is we actually have our CPAs on staff. But me and Jerry are not CPA. So we run everything through CPAs, everything is done the right way. Everything is above board. We're Uber transparent with everything that we do to refrain from any sort of auditing. Or if you do get audited, it's knocking the park as long as we've been in it long enough. And we're doing everything that we're supposed to be doing the right way. I mean, there's no way that you're going to fail an audit.

Speaker 3 (23:05):

It's just not every once in awhile, there's one weird little thing that that gets passed or, you know, something that they find that's just really weird and random, but, you know, for the most part it's, it's pretty solid. Yeah. But I do think that, I think that that's really that I, I don't think that it's still, they don't have all the information. I don't even think that this, they don't want to share the information. I think that there are certain things that they just can't do, or they're not allowed to talk about because they have specific certifications and they don't need to get their certifications taken away. I mean, that's not worth it to do that for them. And I, and I wouldn't suggest they do that either. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (23:37):

Yeah. No, that's good. That's good stuff. Yeah. Cause it's like, I've worked with a lot of CPAs too. And and some of them have, you know, finance coaching, do they type stuff they do. But the disconnect I've seen too is a lot of times they don't, they're not all communicating with each other. Like, you're talking about how you guys have it kind of your own internal CPAs. You're communicating with them. So everyone's on the same page or they gave me this advice. This is what's going to happen where other you know other CPAs I've worked with like, yeah, I get advice from one thing, but their CPA is not gonna necessarily help me do that. And then me not having good financial knowledge necessarily. I don't, I don't know necessarily how to like explain to them, well, Hey, I want to do this. Or this is what's best because they're just all me kind of the one size fits all stuff.

Speaker 3 (24:22):

And it's interesting, I think, and one of the things that we do differently than that as well is we're, we're pretty limited on the capacity we want to grow at because I think that's the problem. I don't think that it's, that they're not communicating. I don't think that it's, they don't know what they're doing. I think that they just grow so rapidly. They really just say like, okay, you're one CPA. You handle these 50 clients, but then this other CPA is gonna handle these 50 clients. And when this guy goes on vacation, this guy's kind of picking up that slack. But then there's the disconnect because it's not his actual client. So I think the scaling is just too fast. They just don't know how to keep up with it. They might just add some people do it. Great. I mean, there are massive CPA firms out there that just crush it.

Speaker 3 (24:59):

I think H and R block is huge. They're nationwide. They're everywhere. Obviously they scaled it up at a very scalable rate, but I feel like for the most part, you know, those are just generalized CPAs. They help random regular people. Yeah. You know, do their taxes and stuff. So they're not really going to go that extra mile for somebody like you, who's on the doors who's knocking, who's got, you know, LLCs and things like that that are quite a bit more to actually function through the actual filing. And so they, you know, they don't really want to do any of that. So they don't push that extra mile to do that, which is fine. They probably don't get paid to do that. Honestly, they don't.

Speaker 2 (25:33):

Yeah. And that's, what's cool. You guys are guaranteeing it too. I'm sure you guys back in it, it's like, you want to know it it's right.

Speaker 3 (25:40):

But then that's why we, we do you know, that's why we limit our, our capability of growth is because we know how much we can, we can really truthfully take on and still keep a truck in the way we want to. And so we're, we're pretty particular about who we want to let in and where in the, in the, in the stages that we have. And so it's more along the lines of, we definitely want to help everybody. We can help. But we want you to, we want you to come to us or, and say, Hey, look, this is what I've got is what I have. And then we would, we would literally sit down and do a call with you and say, you know, this is the plan. I think you should be a part of, this is why this is what I think we can help with. And this is how fast I think we can get it done in, in, in addition to the filing and the bookkeeping sides and the white glove service of it. All right. Mikey offers some specific coaching with it that he does with these guys. I mean, he's been on calls with these guys every day, seven days a week. I mean, he'll call it, he'll talk to anybody whenever they want to talk to them.

Speaker 2 (26:31):

Yeah. I know. He's helped me a ton. And that's, what's so cool about it. You guys have so much personalized attention. It's like weekly follow ups say, is this, how's this going? And yeah, I've never had this much just financial attention from anyone I've worked with. So yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:45):

And we do, we do some other cool stuff as well. You know, we really want to, to be able to get in person with these people, meet them face to face, have these conversations one-on-one. And so we we're down here in Las Vegas and, and we'll invite people down and want them to come and experience this with us and do these events with us. And the purpose of that is to have those one-on-one conversations, have the ability to sit down and have a personalized conversation about something that's a pretty uncomfortable topic to talk about to most people like you don't want to tell people how much money you make. You don't want to tell people how much trouble you're in or debt. And and that's why we need that personalized edge side to not just be the CPA that they kind of have to tell, but we want to be there, you know, be there and have a friendship aspect to it to be like, listen, dude, we, we got you, we're going to be able to handle it and take care of it. And we're going to be able to make sure that you don't ever have to do this again, but we have to have you tell us the truth. And so we, we need to be able to build that relationship to be there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:40):

That's awesome. And so walk me through, you guys have people coming on and like if someone wants to start working with you guys, what are some common things you see that like almost no one has said, and I can tell my experience to kind of how to spend, to kind of get onboard and start working with you guys. But if someone signs up by us in to get tomorrow would order kind of the steps you have them go through just to give people a demo. And

Speaker 3 (28:01):

Yeah, absolutely. So, so first thing that we usually have everybody do is do a consultation call with Mikey, Mikey kind of evaluates where you're currently at what you're really thinking you're needing and then what we think we, we can do for you. So Mikey, we'll do an introduction call he'll go through everything that he has in his list to go through. Are you budgeting? Do you have the right account set up? Are you utilizing QuickBooks or some sort of tracking system? Are you, are you budget sizing out everything or just personal, you know, separating out credit cards, things like that. He just goes through all of it with you, just, just on the surface touching base, making sure it's getting done. Right. and that's where we kind of start. And so that allows us to build out a financial group blueprint of sorts to be able to say, okay, well, you know, I think, you know, knowing this information, you know, I think he needs to be in this package and this, and so then we go back to the, the, the client say, okay, this is what we suggest.

Speaker 3 (29:04):

Obviously they can, they can say no, or they can want a different package than that. And we can have that conversation with them, but we give them our best thought of where they should be and what needs to be done next kind of creating that financial blueprint plan and steps. And so that's kind of where we start in. The onboarding process is actually really good. We've brought on a few other guys. We have a VA, we've got some other guys in Utah that does like three days, three, three times a week. Check-Ins you know, Monday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, really just trying to make sure you're keeping up on all your updates, making sure that, you know, everything that we know at the same time, and then as well, we utilize a really great app that we really love called Pronto.

Speaker 3 (29:46):

Maybe you've talked about that before, but but we really love it. And we put in me, Jerry, Mikey, any bookkeeper, the CPAs yourself all within that Pronto group set. So any questions you have, anything that could come up, somebody in that chat will be able to answer that and you have access to that chat 24 7. And then we also do some other cool things where we've thrown in a little bit of perks with doubt in the onboarding process, you get a, you get access to an attorney. We've started a a a partnership with a company that'll help with legal troubles, things like that. You know it doesn't happen super often, but if it ever did happen at something that you want that most people don't really think about, you know what, 22 year old kid has a lawyer on retainer, none. So we, we, we S we supplement that out with some of that stuff. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (30:36):

It's cool. No, it's when I was talking to Mikey, I didn't even know all this stuff you're offering, but it's like just all these different things. You got the attorney they used, he's telling me I'm going to get like some some like body tests. Then he hands me like his biome kid. He's like, yeah, we're going to have you do like a gut test. See where that's at. I'm like, man, I thought you guys were just like doing my taxes or something at first, like you starts going down the lanes, like you're getting an attorney, you're getting, you know, body test. You're getting access to all that. You're getting crypto advice, you're getting investment advice. So it's just like a whole stack of things. And I know that's not in, you know, every package depending on the package and things like that you get. But yeah. So as far as like investments, things like that, water yeah. What are some, how do you get these people started on investments? I'm sure you see what their situation is, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:22):

So yeah, we take what their situation is, what maybe what capital they have on hand or what they plan to have. Maybe they have a big pipeline or something like that on the back end of their waiting for, but there's a few different places that we have. We've, we've developed a really good relationship between me and Jerry on partnerships out there with a specific investment. So right now a really big one that that's just really hitting really hard as a self storage. So we'll actually anybody that comes into us with money will actually another guarantee that we have is a 10% guaranteed our, our year over year on your investment. And me and Jerry willing to back that with our money, because if we're going to put your money somewhere we're obviously going to trust it 110%. We wouldn't put our own money in it. If we wouldn't put your money in, and if we wouldn't put our own money in it. And so we really, really pride ourselves on that as well. So, so we will actually do that 10% guaranteed our, our year over year for any money that you invest with us. And we put into a solar projects, we put into self storage, we put into Touro, anything that you really want to be a part of, we can help you figure out a way to get into that industry. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (32:25):

That's so cool. Yeah. You guys are putting your money where your mouth is. I mean, you're, you're doing these investments. I know Mike, he has the Turo going. You guys are in real estate, you guys are doing all these things. So it's cool that we're not just hearing them from people that are like, oh no, this should a good idea. It's like actual investments. You're doing yourself. And depending on the package, you get the opportunity to be able to go in on the investments, which is awesome. And I mean, I know all you guys are super successful, got money. So that's, for me, that's where it is, is like go work with the people who have the money or your CPA. They're probably not going to be the richest guy in the room. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:00):

Well, and it, and it's, and it's really cool because, you know, Jerry's, our backgrounds are so different, right? Obviously Mike and Jerry are huge in the solar space, but you know, most of my investments are nowhere near solar. It's, interros, it's in real estate, it's in franchises, it's in all sorts of stuff. And Jerry's knowledge is in completely different aspect of it, right? So Jerry's knowledge really reaches out into solar. He started a very successful solar company. He's, he's done multiple other companies. And so his, his range is, is really something completely different. And then mine is on the other expert under the spectrum where, you know, I definitely have some, some experience and knowledge in the F in the franchise world, but, you know, I love the tech investments. There are high risks, but man, the rewards are just so much better.

Speaker 3 (33:44):

And so they're not for everybody, but but you know, I just recently did a big test investment that, you know, could pay off exponentially. Well, if it works, but you know what my point is is that all of us are in such different realms of the investment. That we're good at that we really just cover so many different aspects of it. And, and so it really just is a really good team to say, you know, what is it that you want to invest in? We'll figure out how to get you there. We, we know somebody, somebody knows somebody that we know, right. Everybody wants to be that guy. Mike was talking about that yesterday. Like everybody wants to be the guy that's like, oh, I know I got a guy. I know a guy, oh, you need this. I got a guy and we want to be that guy. I want to be that for everybody. And so that's kind of where, where we, where we've developed, why, who is in, ER, excuse me, sorry. That's that's why, who is in by syndicate is who's in, by syndicate is, is because of the knowledge and where that scope looks.

Speaker 2 (34:32):

Yeah. I love that. And it's cool. Cause you guys, like you said, are doing it mastermind style too. So you're not just, we're not just learning necessarily from you guys, but we're interacting with other people that are super, super successful. We got guys making hundreds, hundreds, thousands, you know, in the millions and all that in the group. So I liked that it's a network in there. We're all hearing about each other's investments and I'm just starting on it. So I can't wait to, you know, follow up on this on a year. See we're having that.

Speaker 3 (34:56):

I will have to do another podcast in a year and say, okay, show from, start to now, how do you really feel?

Speaker 2 (35:01):

Yeah, my before and after. Yeah. Broke picture and then picture with all my Teslas and stuff. But yeah, no. So it's cool just to be able to interact with you guys and have you know, that community too, and these community-based and I haven't done events. You guys, you said the package, how many events do you guys plan on doing? For kind of the high level?

Speaker 3 (35:26):

Yeah. So there's a few different ways that we've looked at it to do it. So I'm, we're, we're really open. We want people to feel as, as to feel like they can come as often as they need. So I think what we've decided is probably once a month we'll invite you guys down to Vegas or somewhere to just get some FaceTime and have those conversations. And then we're, we're, we are going to do two big trips every year with with some of those highest pride member packages. And either, you know, in you know, The Bahamas to buy cryptocurrency or it'll be a mixture between, between a good relief, you know, fun trip, but a knowledgeable trip. So we'll go out and I'll buy cryptocurrency with you guys. Or we'll, we'll bring in a heavy hitter in, in this specific finance field.

Speaker 3 (36:11):

Like we'll kind of do some of those things that that we've we've been talking about doing a lot of these trips. We haven't really done any of them yet. We're just kind of starting to get the ball rolling, but that's definitely the, you know, the phase two of where we're going with this is, is just blow this up and make this something that we can scale to a really big place. And then and make everybody a lot of money and help with the investment side, help with the tax side and mitigation side, everything. And then the trips will just be a bonus that we're like, okay. You know, every, everybody, every year is going to be looking for, to the pies and to get trips. Like, they'll just be those kinds of trips that everybody's like, man, the price in and keep trips coming up. That's going to be so great.

Speaker 2 (36:43):

Yeah. I love that. And know, I know, I know you guys can't I mean the cool thing about this, you're probably not going to be able to run it at this level for, depending on how many people get in, because I imagine you get, you know, hundreds of people on this, you can't be that level of attention. So for our listeners, if you are wanting to get, you know, this type of level of attention, they gain in wallets at this price, that's the other thing I know you guys will have to eventually increase prices and all that too. So you heard it here first, if you want to get in while they're still, you know, able to give this level of attention, have these guarantees and all that. I know you're probably always have the guarantees with what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (37:23):

Absolutely. But getting on this and I don't think you're going to find this level of attention, this level of financial literacy advice, all that stuff that's going on here. So that's our invitation for our listeners and I, Austin, I know you're a, you got guys going out on the doors and get you to hit doors and things like that. So it's cool as you're still involved, you know, in the solar side. So Austin has a ton of water. Yeah. Yeah. He has a ton of understanding of the solar space and he's out knocking, you know, putting his feet to the floor here after this. But for our listeners, those that do want to get in on pipe syndicate and maybe, you know, get on a call with you guys, hear more about it, where can they do that? And how can they connect with you?

Speaker 3 (38:04):

Yeah. So, so there's a few different ways. You know, we've actually got a lot of guys that just they already follow Mikey Lucas on Instagram. Cause Mikey, Lucas is the solar man to be. And so a lot of people are just DM-ing Mikey Lucas on Instagram at Mikey Lucas. But we also have a webpage that we developed and created just a 3, 1, 4 syndicate dot com. And that's a good place we, we can run through. You can kind of get a good look for, for how we're doing the website should be live next week. We went through and reiterated all the content and kind of did some of that stuff and other well guy built it out for us. Cool. And so next week or so it should be, it should be live, but there's a consultation link in there as well.

Speaker 3 (38:49):

And then and then you could always even just reach out to Taylor, reach out to somebody on the podcast and say, Hey, I want to get a phone number, call us. I mean, we're, we're just that open with it. Like we'll let anybody give out our phone number or email addresses because we want them to be able to have that that touch point that they want to have. So, you know, if somebody is like, Hey, I was listening to your podcast, I want to get Austin's phone number. Like give it to him and let them call me and we'll have a conversation about it. Cool. All right.

Speaker 2 (39:14):

We're here to hear Austin, watch a call them every day. But yeah. Especially if you're in the group, but that

Speaker 3 (39:18):

Does mean I'll answer every day, but you can absolutely call it.

Speaker 2 (39:22):

Yeah. So yeah, we'll link to all that in the show notes. So if you're interested, definitely go check that out. And at the very least go do a call with you, get with these guys. Cause that's, what's cool is even before I had the intention of getting in on this, just a call with my Dean, you guys helped me realize, Hey, at the very least talk to your CPA about this, or like get yourself,

Speaker 3 (39:42):

Come to a consultation and we'll tell you like, you know, take what our consultation is, come and have a consultation with us. After you talk to your CPA, come, come lock the loader to be like, Hey, this is what my CPA said. See if we really know what we're talking about, see if we can really beat what your CPA said, right. To have those, those calls first and then have our consultation. But there's no, there's no harm in having a consultation because you might learn something that you didn't know. Even if it's one thing. I mean, that's, that's still a takeaway. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:06):

Or like, like we're what happened yesterday. I heard Mikey talking to a guy who I think was the guy who, you know, oh, the 40 grand or whatever. So maybe you're getting ready to do your talk, your taxes. Maybe your CPA is telling you, you're going to owe this much. Might as well talk to them. You get these guys. And you know,

Speaker 3 (40:21):

If you, if you had something wrong with, you know, something in your house and you knew that it was going to be expensive to fix you, wouldn't you get more than one quote on something right

Speaker 2 (40:30):

Now, except

Speaker 3 (40:31):

For solar. That's right. That's right. But for anything else, you shop around a little bit, but no, but, but it's the same thing. Like, you know, you, you it's like a dating experience. You're not going to love this first CPA that you ever find it. You're going to have to find a few talk to a few work with a couple, you know, it's dating, you're dating. And so w w we, we hope to win that last date. Right. But but yeah. Have those consultations and, and, and then bring them to us and see what they say and see, see where it is because we, you never know what you're going to find out.

Speaker 2 (41:00):

Love that. Well, Austin, thanks for coming on the show today. And then last question, before we let you go I don't know, one word of advice, or maybe like some common mistakes that you've seen a lot of I dunno, solar reps or companies make with their finances, any like final words of advice.

Speaker 3 (41:17):

I mean, there's just so much, it's so hard to pick down, which, you know, which is the best thing. I, I would probably say, you know, one of the number one things that that I see is so many people fight for W2. You know, they think W2's king and they're like it's prepaid, it's makes the filing so much easier. W candidates is not, W2 is not king. There's so little that you can do to help mitigate some of these taxes if you're W2 and yourself. So I would say if you are a W2, if it's something that you've thought about doing 10 and nine is the way to go. And then I would say, you know, the only way to do a 10 99, the one thing most guys don't do is they're just letting they're letting their companies pay their 10 99.

Speaker 3 (42:03):

We help. And one of the things I definitely recommend is having your own personal company with an LLC attached to a 10 99 or something like that to pay yourself through. Most guys don't know how to do that. Are they, are, they questioned that? And we definitely bring that to the table, but it's not impossible, but that's probably the number one thing that I would say is the biggest overlooked thing is they're not utilizing their own things. Cause they their own companies or things like that for the write offs and, and things like that. They're just letting them pay the 10 99 and they're paying whatever they say they have to pay at the end of the year. And so I would say that's probably the number one thing, advice. The second word of advice is always strive to pay the least amount of taxes. I feel like the government already gets enough money. Do they really need any more? Not from you. Right? They can have somebody else's money. They don't, they don't need my money. So the mindset change of of of not paying taxes is something that most people have to get used to because it's something that people talk about quite a bit. Right. It's everywhere. So

Speaker 2 (42:59):

That's great advice. And guys, I went, when I started in the industry for like my first three years, I didn't know any of this stuff. And I have, like, I was getting paid 10 in night. I didn't even have an LLC set up. None of that.

Speaker 3 (43:10):

Yeah. So that's probably one of the biggest things. That's probably the, one of the first things that we fix. Every time we come into somebody's books, every time that we sign a new client on our, one of our first questions is okay. Do you have an LLC? What state it is in it? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:22):

Yeah. That's first question. I got

Speaker 3 (43:23):

So and that's exactly. Yeah, it's the truth. So we definitely help utilize that. And so that's one of the biggest things that you can do, because there's just so much that you can write off that people don't know about. Yeah. Just, just by simply opening up an LLC and having the, having your company, whoever you're working for pay that, that's it. Step number one. I mean, it really makes that much of a difference. You still have to know what you're doing and know where to put things, but I mean, it really does make a big difference to do that.

Speaker 2 (43:49):

Yeah. That's fire. So guys make sure you're getting the right financial advice. Don't take advice from people that don't know what they're doing and look at their bank accounts. If they're broke, don't take advice from broke people, right? So that's what you're going to be doing. If you want to get in pipes in the kit, you're going to be getting advice from people that are making fat stacks from guys that are in the investments themselves guys like Austin. So Austin, thanks again for coming on the show. And I can't wait to see how many people connect with you, but thanks for all you guys are doing for the industry. You're really helping us keep a hold of that money, which is

Speaker 3 (44:20):

Thanks for letting me come on. Yeah. If anybody has any questions or any concerns even about by syndicate or anything that you can think of, feel free to to reach out and, and don't be hesitant to, to ask your questions. Like we want to hear them. We want to know what they are. We want to help everybody. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:34):

Much appreciated Austin. Thanks again. And we will talk soon. Hey, Solarpreneurs quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry. And it's called the Solciety, this learning community with designed from the ground up to level the playing field to give solar pros access to proven members who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry. Brightest minds four, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Solciety.co To learn more and join the learning experience. Now this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to solciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.