Why Solar Created More Millionaires Than Any Industry (Then Destroyed Them) | Mana Kobe E517

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Rich Somers Report

Episode: Why Solar Created More Millionaires Than Any Industry (Then Destroyed Them) | Mana Kobe
Date: June 16, 2026
Host: Rich Somers
Guest: Mana Kobe (former professional basketball player & solar industry entrepreneur)

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode recorded during a live yacht workshop in San Diego, Rich Somers hosts Mana Kobe—ex-professional basketball player turned solar industry mogul. The two discuss the turbulent rise and current contraction of the solar industry, what it takes to build lasting business wealth beyond sports, the high churn (and sometimes unethical practices) in solar sales, and how shifting policies and technology are defining the current landscape. Mana shares his personal journey, insights into the solar market, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Transition from Athlete to Entrepreneur

• Mana’s basketball journey began at age 5, with an NBA dream sidelined by a serious injury.
• Played college basketball at Portland and other schools; briefly went pro overseas before shifting to business after breaking his foot (02:28–03:34).
• “I've always loved the competitiveness [of sports]. Translating that to business is what I like...it fires me up.” — Mana Kobe (02:31)

2. Current Solar Industry Overview

• Runs one of the largest solar organizations in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on residential but aiming to expand nationally and into commercial markets (05:10–05:36).
• The solar sector, once flush with opportunity, is now facing consolidation.
• “The solar share right now is falling... it’s actually weeding out a lot of the weak performers.” — Mana Kobe (06:07)

3. The Boom & Bust of Solar Millionaires

• “Freedom Forever—a billion dollar [company]—just filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy... In the last five years about 18 companies went out.” (06:07)
• Regulatory, tax, and market shifts (e.g., repeal of federal tax credits, interest rates up, policy changes post-July 4th) triggered shakeouts in the industry (06:51–07:38).
• Those left tend to be disciplined businesses with strong sales and operational discipline.

4. Products, Customer Options & Industry Shifts

• Old solar sales were buoyed by lucrative federal tax credits (07:52).
• The market is shifting:
  • Away from purchase (with tax credits) towards lease/lease-to-own and government-subsidized models.
  • Panels now last 80–90 years; lease terms ~25 years, after which customer may keep or recycle panels (08:30–09:14).
  • “You’re seeing savings from day one. Five years ago, if you got solar, your ROI was typically five, six, seven years—now, day one, you got savings.” — Mana Kobe (08:42)

5. Backup Batteries & The Next Big Opportunity

• With grid instability and technology advances, battery storage is poised for growth.
• “Backup battery storage ... that's the next wave right there. ... There are batteries now that could get you off the grid for about seven days.” — Mana Kobe (11:20–12:06)
• Discusses current lithium options, upcoming sodium ion/hydrogen batteries, practical implications for home, boating, etc.

6. Mindset: Sports to Business

• The “athlete’s edge” in entrepreneurship: discipline, focus, putting in work unseen by others.
• “You got to keep the main thing the main thing...show up at 6am, put in the reps when no one's watching. That's exactly what you got to do in business.” — Mana Kobe (13:57)

7. Cultural Background & Motivation

• Mana’s family roots in Tonga; discussed cultural discipline and high achievement among Polynesians, especially in professional sports (14:46–17:14).

8. Generation Gap: Toughness & Responsibility

• Cites stricter parental upbringing among Polynesians compared to perceived softness among American millennials/Gen Z (17:47–19:05).
• “As a man, you go work and you go provide. From the mom's side, they're staying home and nurturing kids...My wife's got her own business too, working together.” — Mana Kobe (19:05)

9. Entrepreneurial Skills & Lessons

• Top skills: Coachability and sales.
• “Sales is everything. It's the blood flow of the business. If you don't have sales, you don't have a business.” — Mana Kobe (19:49)
• Emphasizes being an "intrapreneur" (learning the business from the inside) before starting your own (20:17–20:24).
• “Thinking I could do everything...I was just working too much in the business, not enough on the business.” — Mana Kobe, on his first failed solar business (21:40)
• Advice: Solve real problems (“Energy is something that is not figured out. It's still in the early stages...right now is the best time to go do it.” — 22:23)
• For feeling stuck: “Go invest in yourself...if you really want to make high value money, you got to go spend high value money.” (23:18)

10. The Future & AI in Solar

• Mana’s goal: Build a billion dollar company or contribute to building one (23:48).
• AI’s impact is mainly operational for now, making sales and design processes more efficient but not replacing human selling: “With AI...you can go in [a home] for 15, 20 minutes—here’s what we're looking at—done.” (24:54)

11. Personal Branding & Cleaning Up the Industry

• Personal brand is crucial, especially as the industry sheds “bad actors” due to regulatory changes.
• “There's a lot of scams and frauds...guys would go into a home, run a credit app without consent, max out commission, slap a 75-year-old Hispanic lady with a $600 [monthly] bill when she's only paying $100...” — Mana Kobe (26:25)
• Solar enabled many to get rich quick, but the tide has turned: “Solar created the most millionaires in a short term...but many millionaires were wiped out too.” (27:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Why Solar Created and Destroyed Millionaires:
  • “Solar created the most millionaires in a short term. In a year, there’s the most millionaires we ever pushed out—all the solar. But the tide’s turned.” — Mana Kobe (27:38)
• On Business Mindset:
  • “Put in the work, when no one’s watching. Business is the same as sports—preparation is everything.” — Mana Kobe (13:57)
• On the Collapse of the Industry’s Weak Players:
  • “The solar share...is falling. What I like about it is it's weeding out a lot of weak performers.” (06:07)
• On Bad Actors in the Industry:
  • “[Some] reps were maxing out commissions on people who couldn’t afford it—elderly, non-English speakers...That’s why so many millionaires were created so fast.” (26:25–27:38)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:37–04:14 — Mana’s sports background, transition to business
• 05:10–06:41 — Current role in solar, market context, industry shakeout
• 07:45–09:32 — Product models, tax/legal/regulatory changes, shifts in customer value
• 11:20–12:15 — Battery storage technology as the next big play
• 13:57–14:46 — Athlete-to-entrepreneur mindset
• 14:46–17:14 — Polynesian discipline, cultural roots, and business motivation
• 19:20–20:24 — Key skill: learning and “intrapreneurship” before starting your own business
• 21:40–22:13 — Why his first business failed (“thinking I could do everything”)
• 23:48–24:10 — Billion-dollar company goal
• 24:54–25:10 — AI in the solar business
• 25:24–27:38 — Scams, industry fraud, how regulatory change is cleaning things up
• 27:38–28:33 — Solar’s millionaire boom-and-bust cycle

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Connect with the Guest

• Mana Kobe:
  • Instagram: @monica33
  • Podcast: Monumentality Podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music)

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the rise and fall of quick fortunes in solar, what it really takes to build lasting success in business, and how discipline—carried over from sports or culture—can shape an entrepreneurial journey.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, guys. We are buying two more boutique hotels along the California coast here with Summers Capital. 45 rooms off Market in Catalina island and a second deal up in Bodega Bay, which will make a total of eight boutique hotels owned and operated. Our investors get passive income tax benefits. And the best part is, unlike investing on Wall street and a lot of these other asset classes, like multifamily, our investors get to go and stay and experience these boutique hotels firsthand to see how their money's working for them. And so if you want to learn to see if we can help you before this opportunity fills up, you can go to summerscapital.com invest to book a call with my team. [e-mail] invest to book a free call with my team. Now let's jump into the show.

[B]

I think you know what you want. You got to keep the main thing. The main thing it is knowing that if I'm going to go start a business, what's the ultimate goal? I'm showing up 6am I'm putting in the reps when no one's watching. Before you go run a business, you got to first learn the business.

[C]

What was the number one mistake that you think you made there?

[B]

Thinking I can do everything. I was just working too much in the business. I didn't have too much time to work on the business. The solar share right now is falling. What I like about it is it's actually weeding out a lot of the weak performers. Understand that there's a big problem to solve. Energy is something that is not figured out. It's still in the early stages. Go invest in yourself. If you really want to go make high value money, you got to go spend high value money. My business is really clear. It's to go build a billion dollar company. So right now, that's what I'm currently working on.

[C]

All right, guys, welcome to another episode of the Report Yacht Edition. We're actually out here hosting our April yacht workshop. We got some beautiful blue weather, sunny skies out here in San Diego. We have 15 business owners live on a yacht. And I got a special guest today, someone who was a professional athlete, basketball player, and now was doing big things in business, entrepreneurship in the solar industry specifically. I got my man Mana. Kobe Mana.

[B]

Welcome to the show. Thanks. Yeah, happy to be here.

[C]

Yeah, appreciate you coming on, man. And dude, give us a snapshot, man. Like, I've had some professional athletes on the podcast before and you know, almost all of them are, are in business in real estate investing now. And you know, I Think the shelf life as a professional athlete is. Is quick. I mean, I had Golden Tate on, and the dude was, you know, he's in his mid-30s and he's already played his professional career, and now he's on to the next thing and, you know, business, you know, mid-30s. It's like, it's just getting warmed up. And, you know, look at Grant Cardone. The guy's almost 70 years old, and he's got a lot of growth ahead of him. And so this game that we're playing, unlike sports, we can play it forever. And so, yeah, give us a snapshot. What were you doing in the basketball space? And. And what was the extent of your career?

[B]

I mean, it started out basketball's always been kind of my passion, so I've always done it since I was like five years old. Obviously the goal for me is gets an NBA as any kid. But things didn't go. Didn't go as planned. Yeah. You know, I had an injury that sidelined me for a couple months, and that's kind of what dabbled me into to the business side. But I just love the. The competitiveness. I think that's, for me, is just what you get to go compete. Translating that to business is what. Is what I like feet on. Yeah, I fired up.

[A]

Where.

[C]

Where did you play college ball?

[A]

And.

[C]

And then professionally, man, I had.

[B]

I had a journey. I went to, like, three different two coasts.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yep. I had a college scholarship to Portland, played a year there. I had a kid at 18, you know, it's a baby bomber driver there. And then transitioned to Westminster, Utah, and finished up in Seattle. Okay. So I was blessed to go. Be able to go do that, and then was going to go play for team in South Korea, Philippines. And then during that transition, I was. I broke my. Broke my foot. So that was kind of the transition. Yeah.

[C]

How many years did you play over there professionally?

[B]

About a year.

[C]

A year?

[B]

Yeah. That was. Yeah.

[C]

How much do you guys make over there?

[B]

Out of curiosity? I was. Was crunk, bro. Probably about 40, 50k. Okay. That's pretty good. Yeah.

[C]

I mean, it was.

[B]

It was good for that time, but I just love the game of basketball. Yeah. But obviously getting dead. You know, my goal was obviously go Kovai. So it was Rick. Chills. Jesus.

[C]

You know, we talking about professional athletes overseas, you know, across WPL sports, you know, baseball, basketball. Some of these basketball players that go overseas, especially the more talented ones that have NBA talent.

[B]

Yeah, they.

[C]

They can make some really serious money overseas.

[B]

Right. Yeah. The way. The way it works is if you speak two drafts. So if you go on with an A draft, you get paid typically like 40 to 60,000amonth. And then if you're in that second draft, you're typically around like 10:15. So wasn't of that caliber, but that's. Yeah. Guys out there are making tons of money. A lot of my buddies are still doing it.

[C]

Yeah, I know Ryan Pineda, he was doing. He was minor league baseball. And, you know, he's talked about, like, playing all season, all these games, all these practices, all his time, and he might make $18,000 an entire year. I'm like, dude, you can't. You can't live off that. And so, you know, he's talking about those guys all have side hustles and day jobs and all that sort of stuff. And then baseball was just kind of the pipe dream.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, so, okay, so you hurt your leg, and then at this point, your prayers ending and you're like, hey, I'm gonna get into business. So give us a snapshot. What are you doing today in business?

[B]

So right now I'm running a. A huge solo organization right now. Probably one of the top organizations in the industry, whole country. And right now we run a solar company. So primarily I focus up in the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and is building out markets nationwide.

[C]

Yeah. And are you guys doing residential or commercials?

[B]

Residential, you know, we're looking to get into the commercial space. Okay. Right now, primarily focused on residential. Yeah, we.

[C]

We're actually making a big play right now to get solar and EV charging stations at all. At all the hotels.

[B]

Yeah. You got a.

[C]

You got one in.

[B]

Is it Lake Chelan? Right, Lake Chelan, Washington. That's.

[C]

That's not too far from you guys, right?

[B]

Wise from. Oh, really? Okay. Okay, There you go.

[A]

Any.

[C]

Anytime you guys want to go and stay, let me know. But Lake Chelan is a cool spot. A lot of wineries. I need to go up there view. I need to go up there and hang more.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So, okay, so specifically in the solar industry today, like, what are some reasons that you like the solar industry?

[B]

Man, to be honest with it, Rich, the solar share right now is falling. Just keep it a buck with you. You know, we had some of the biggest players right now to go out of business. Freedom Forever was billion dollar. Literally just filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Yeah. Last Wednesday. So for me, I. What I like about it is it's actually we now a lot of the weak performers and guys who are actually really good at their job and actually understand the Product are surviving. But like we're one of the only companies left. I think in the last five years about 18 companies went out. Wow. So and so what.

[C]

Why is this the shift happening is it did become oversaturated. Like too many people trying to do it was a change in regulatory, taxes, all that sort of stuff.

[B]

Talking about that.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So why should. I mean back in like the pandemic, I think anyone like you can get a bum off the street, it can just come, come sell solar. I'm talking guys that go in, sell a high ticket product and make, you know, eight, $10,000 on a sale. 2022 happened, interest rates went up obviously for the consumer, lot harder to go solar. Big beautiful build. Trump just passed last year, took away federal tax credits. So we are seeing a decline in that. But just a lot of, a lot of, a lot of political shifts that are affecting industry. And so for companies that are surviving, you know, just being really disciplined with capital, knowing like, hey, we're not going to go spend different areas and obviously you got to go sell viral price. You know, it's not, you're not just selling just to go sell. You actually you got to go create.

[C]

Yeah. And so you talk about residential solar. There's two ways to do it from a consumer standpoint, right. You, you lease or you purchase.

[B]

Right.

[C]

I mean if you purchase, you can either pay cash or you can finance.

[B]

Is that correct?

[C]

And what, what's the, what do most people do?

[B]

So that's what's changing right now. So like right now the tax credits are going away. So typically if you go get like a $50,000 loan, government, you know, pays you 30% as a tax credit. That's no longer around. Now what they're transitioning to the administration is they're doing a 48e credit which now the government can subsidize the costs. And so the contractor can now get a 50 tax credit. And then the customer or the consumer just pays the, they don't pay for the equipment, they just pay for the power that it loses.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So it's more of a, it's more of a lease owned product now, which is, I think every company is trying to figure that out. Yeah, most people want ownership now with

[C]

the lease to own. I mean it's still, that model still makes sense. Right, because like, you know, generally speaking you could, you could put zero down, zero out of pocket and then get a big cost savings on your, your electric bill. Correct.

[B]

Yeah. And I think that's, that's the part where I See a lot of opportunity just because it's a lot more optionality in the product. Good to go do it. And then also you're seeing savings from day one. Five years ago, if you got solar, your ROI was typically five, six, seven years. Yeah. Now you're able to go do it and day one, you got savings.

[C]

Yeah. And then how long are these lease terms typically and what happens at the end of the lease?

[B]

So it's about 25 years.

[C]

Do they take the panels off of the roof after the lease is up?

[B]

They do.

[C]

Really?

[B]

You have that option, so if you want to keep it, you can.

[C]

And what do they do with the old panels?

[B]

That's a good question. They're either letting the homeowner buy it out or they're recycling.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. The equipment, interesting. But most equipment now came from China. So right now with the administration, they're focusing on domestic content. So they just got to be us made. So panels now are lasting about 80, 90 years.

[C]

Wow, that's a long time. And so with the interest rate environment today, does it make more sense to, to purchase or lease ownership all day long?

[B]

Ownership?

[C]

Why?

[B]

Just because. Same reason why you buy your house. You know, if you, you understand, like, hey, I went from renting a house at, you know, apartment, 900 bucks, now I'm paying $2500 for a mortgage. I know my money's going towards something, but it's also toward an appreciate asset. So for me, but there's, there's instances where, you know, maybe your DTI isn't, is maybe too high, but me personally, ownership is the way to go.

[C]

Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then, you know, I'm kind of curious, with the tax credits changing, is that, is that a federal or is that more of a local state thing?

[B]

Federal.

[C]

It's a federal thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

This just shifted recently. How long ago did it shift?

[B]

July 4th.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, July 4th. The administration made a big change. And so obviously Trump right now is going for, for oil, but there's a huge influx with data centers being built. Yeah. So there's a big need of.

[C]

Well, with the oil prices spiking right now with all the stuff going on in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz is shutting off, I think as a good reminder that a lot of the world economy still runs on oil. And I know here in US you know, obviously like solar and all these alternative ways to produce energy, clean energy has been, has been trending. But shoot, if oil prices continue to stay high, they're going to have to, they're going to have to do something else.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, so obviously like when the landscape shifts in business, there's always, it creates another opportunity. And so you mentioned a lot of these, these competitors are closing doors in the solar business today. And so how are you guys combating that? What's, what's the next opportunity?

[B]

That for us is just backup battery storage. That's something that hasn't been figured out. And so being able to be first in the space to go figure that out. Yeah, it's going to be the best. I mean right now it's lithium, but there's some, some batteries coming out with sodium ion hydrogen. And so right now that's what we're looking to go attack because you can have solar during the day that, you know, if the grid goes out, there's no power. Yeah. So that's where the supply. Backup battery is going to be huge. My opinion, that's, that's the, the next wave right there.

[C]

And is that going to replace solar?

[B]

You got to go hand in hand. So everything that your solar panels produce, we go into your battery and I would store it and there's batteries now that are, that could get you off the grid for about seven days. Wow. The batteries now that you currently have are only about five, seven hours, she said.

[C]

Are the lithium batteries.

[B]

Yeah, it's like the Tesla's.

[C]

So we get the boat game.

[B]

The boat game.

[C]

Lithium batteries is like an upgrade feature.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And you know, if you're, if you're running a boat. My old boat didn't have a generator. And so you go and anchor like we are now. You're playing music, you got wi Fi, Starlink, you're pulling energy. And so, so we were, I had the lithium batteries put in that and that would last way longer than the standard batteries or using four just. I'm not even sure the name of the batteries, but it's the standard batteries they put in the boats. And then we upgraded the lithium. The standard boat batteries would be drained in like, you know, six hours, eight hours. But then if you went lithium, it would, it would probably last like three or four days straight.

[B]

What's the yacht using right now? Battery wise?

[C]

We just, we have a generator. So every time like, so we're, it's always either plugged into shore power at the dock.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Second we leave the dock, we get the generator on it. And the only time I'll turn the generator off is like if I'm anchored out or more down Catalina Island. Yeah, they got a policy where you gotta turn the generator off from 10 o' clock at night till 6, 7 in the morning. And that's kind of the quiet hours. But so we'll power it down late at night, but that's usually when we go to bed. We're not running electronics, you know what I'm saying? So it's not pulling a lot of battery at that time.

[B]

But.

[C]

But yeah, the bigger boats will all have the gen. You just run the

[B]

gen. Sick boat, bro.

[C]

Yeah. Thank you.

[B]

Thank you. Love it.

[C]

Okay, so I'm curious, man, cuz, like, what is the, the, the mindset that's required for, you know, someone to, to go from professional athlete to full time entrepreneur, business owner? I've had a lot of guys on a podcast that have made the transition. Mikey Taylor is one of them. Good friends of Mike. I mean, he's a professional skateboarder and boom, he retired and now he's, you know, real estate investor. And he went through years and years of like really grinding to reposition everything that he's doing from an audience perspective, business perspective, the mindset. But what is the mindset required to really do that?

[B]

I think knowing what you want, I think as a, as a, as an athlete, it's just knowing that you got to keep the main thing. The main thing. And so that's the same concept in business, right? Is knowing that if I'm gonna go start a business, what's the ultimate goal? And that's really the mindset knowing that, you know, you gotta put the blinders on, Know, okay, this is my goal. I'm gonna go put in the work. Right. If I'm an athlete, I'm in the weight room, I'm showing up 6am, I'm putting in the reps when no one's watching. Yeah. And that's exactly what you got doing business. So a lot of, a lot of similarities. And that's what I love about business is it's, it's my approach, my prep game, you know, to it. Knowing that I can't just show up to the game, you know, to the game and just think that I'm gonna go drop 40 on you. There's scouting reports, there's health, fitness, diet, all those things. Yeah, I like it.

[C]

And you got a Polynesian background.

[B]

Yeah. Shout out to the tokos. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Where's your family from?

[B]

So from Tonga. Okay. Yeah.

[C]

And where is that?

[B]

So it's a small little islands south of New Zealand.

[C]

So like south of New Zealand? I am.

[B]

So it's on the bottom of the equator.

[C]

Okay. Wow, that's way out there.

[B]

For a fact, we're the first race to go extinct.

[C]

Really?

[B]

Correct. There's only about a hundred and some thousand of us left.

[C]

Damn. You still go back home?

[B]

I'm trying to go this, this, this summer. Are you. I might take the wife, my mom and dad out there. Okay, so that's where we're from.

[C]

What's the weather like down there? What's it like?

[B]

I've Christmas and I mean, it's opposite seasons, right?

[C]

So it's summer here, it's winter there.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And, and is that, would you say that that area that you grew up in is pretty affluent or is it, is it pretty third World?

[B]

It's pretty thorough. So obviously, obviously, I'm from la. Yeah. Born and raised in Inglewood. But my parents, you know, they're born and raised in the islands, but it's pretty third world. They're. I think they're still using radios right now. Really? Yeah.

[C]

Damn. Damn. And so are there a lot of Polynesian business owners today?

[B]

To be honest, no. Really, we were kind of just taught to just when we came from the islands, just to come here and just, you know, go to school, go get a degree and just go work for someone. And so that's kind of what we know. But, you know, most Polynesians right now are either working for the airport, doing construction, or they're in the NFL.

[C]

Yeah, there's a lot of football players that are Polynesian, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What's.

[C]

Is it, is it Guam? Guam is to the west of Hawaii, and there's a lot of Hawaiians that play football too.

[B]

So. Yeah, they're getting, they're, they're getting drafted left and right. Yeah.

[C]

Why is that? Is that. Is that because obviously you guys have the structure, but physically gifted. Physically. But is that. Is that because a lot of these folks out there in Hawaii are, are being taught football at a young age?

[B]

Yeah. And I just think that, you know, our parents are strict as hell. You know, they're, they're on you pretty tough. So I think they, they instill that mentality at a really young age. You know, at 3, 4, 5, if you don't get things done, you get smacked up pretty quick. And so I think that type of instilling that in your kids over time when they go to the NFL, they're like, you know, if they got a head coach or upper management on them, they're like, they're not phased. So I think that's the upper edge that we have. And then obviously we're blessed just genetically.

[C]

Yeah. What what is that like when you say, you know, traditionally the parents are, Are.

[B]

Are very strict.

[C]

Can you, can you elaborate on that?

[B]

Beat the out of you if you don't do what you're supposed to go do Physically, like, physically. I'm talking about like two by four. Like, it's.

[C]

It's what.

[B]

It's always equal. Raw. Yes. With. And that's the form of love. You know, that's. That's how I was raised. But it's just, there's a. There's an expectation that you got to have, and if you are not living up to that, there's consequences. Yeah.

[C]

What would you say to this? You know, if you look at the, The. The American generation now, the millennials and the gen zers even more so, you know, you're seeing this generation get a little soft. Testosterone levels are decreasing for men.

[B]

I see.

[C]

There's not a lot of accountability. There's not a lot of ownership. There's not a lot of sense of providing for. For your spouse anymore. I mean, I got girls on my team that they go out on first dates and these guys are asking them to split the bill on the first date.

[B]

That's crazy.

[C]

What would you say to that? That this generation now, coming from. From your background, it's a little bit

[B]

soft, I would say. Not a little bit, a lot, but like, stuff like that. I mean, I was raised, you know, as a man, you go, you take a girl out, you know, that's on you. So I'm just seeing a lot of. It's a bit of identity crisis is what I see. What we see or see as a man is becoming more of a. Of a trans. Yes. But, yeah, I would say that's something that, like, the way I was raised up on is, you know, as a man, you go work and you go provide and, you know, from, from the woman's side, on the mom's side, they're staying home and nurturing kids. But I'm a little bit different. I'm married up now. It's. It's more about. She has her own business too, and working together.

[C]

Yeah, I like it, man. I like it. And what would you say the number one skill is to learn if you're, you know, professional athlete or, you know, you're coming from a completely different career and you're looking to get into business, invest in entrepreneurship, what would you say that number one skill is?

[B]

To learn coachability. I mean, same reason why I'm here. Just knowing that you can always get better at what you can do. You the moment you feel like you have everything figured out, the moment you lose, I understood that. And so it's just putting myself in rooms that can go help me learn and grow. I mean, that's why I'm out here on this yacht getting game from you.

[C]

Yeah. And the sales business, where would you, where would you grade, you know, the sales skills and understanding sales and how it relates to entrepreneurship?

[B]

Sales is everything. It's the blood flow of the business. If you don't, if you don't have sales, you don't have a business. And I think a lot of people think of sales guys as like the car salesman. Yeah. But you got to go sell yourself and sell your business. If your business is not making money, there's no point of learning one.

[C]

Yeah, I, I think sales is like one of the, the biggest skills that, you know, anyone that's young, listen to this right now, that's like, hey, I don't know what I want to do, but I want to get into business at some point. It's like, go, go learn sales.

[B]

But I will, I will say though, for before being entrepreneur, you got to be an entrepreneur.

[C]

What do you mean when you say entrepreneur? What does that mean?

[B]

So before you go run a business, you got to first learn the business. Oh, okay, okay. That's, that's one of the things I had to learn is I think everyone wants to be the boss. I actually ran a business in the field and it failed, but didn't do too well. But I had to humble myself and I had to go work for someone to understand, okay, this is what a business takes. Go do that for two, three years. Once you figure it out, now you go run your own.

[C]

What was the business that, that you ran and you said that it was, you failed in it. What was, what was that business?

[B]

As my own solar company. So I ended up working with a company back in Fresno. You know, took that company, you know, we started with 15, getting thousand percent company growth. The next year we took it up. And then I decided to go do my own thing in la, here in San Diego. Found out real fast that it's not what you think. There's a lot of overhead, there's a lot of, you know, payroll has. We met and so luckily I was able to go negotiate, get a better deal with the company I'm at now. And I, I've just come to a realization that it's okay. It's, it's, it's the best thing you can do is have a team. And sometimes being number three or four on the team is, is okay.

[C]

Yeah. Look, looking back at that business that you had and you mentioned it failed, what was the number one mistake that you think you made there?

[B]

Thinking I can do everything. So I'm talking about, I'm the coach. I was just working too much in the business. I didn't have too much time to work on the business. I was a big bottleneck. I mean I had a team of 45, 50 reps, employees working for me. Lost them all. They only had like three. And then number two is knowing where to manage my expenses, where to invest. I think I was putting too much money into housing and things like that when I should have been working on where leads and more sales.

[C]

Yeah. What's the number one piece of advice you would give someone listening to this right now? Thinking about getting the solar game, maybe starting a business within the solar industry. What's the number one piece of advice you would give that individual?

[B]

Understand that there's a big problem to solve. Energy. Something that is not figured out. It's still in the early stages. Yeah. And right now is the best time to go do it. It's. I look at it as if we can go figure out the energy. You know, we talk about oil like prices are still going up. Yeah. Same thing with electricity.

[C]

It was $8 a gallon at the pump in San Diego not too long ago.

[B]

That's how much it is out here.

[C]

Yeah, I saw that near the airport a couple weeks ago.

[B]

Yeah. I drive Tesla, so I don't know, I don't really pay attention to gas prices. See. But I would say that's the biggest thing is knowing that there's a huge problem to go fix or go solve. And that's what sells is, is solving those problems.

[C]

That's really good. That's really good. What's one piece of advice that you would give that person listening to this right now that maybe feel stuck. They don't feel like they're growing and they're looking to kind of take that next step, get into entrepreneurship business, but they don't know where they want to go.

[B]

Go invest in yourself. You know, don't be afraid to, to go, you know, pay more to for education. That was the best thing I did for myself was investing in myself. I hired three coaches, applied mentorship, got into rooms like this, going to networking activities and just stopped being cheap. You know, if you really want to go make high value money, you got to go spend high value money.

[C]

What does the future look like for Monacobe as you look into 2027, 2028. What is that, that future kind of look like for you?

[B]

To be honest, Rich, a great question. My business is really clear. It's to go build a billion dollar company. That's one of the things that I look at my scoreboard. Yeah, that's going to be a cool thing to check off, is either going, you know, go build it or build it with someone. So right now that's what I'm currently working on, is building a company, go sell it. I like that.

[C]

And I got to ask you. So AI is becoming more and more prevalent.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

We just saw Oracle announced 30,000 layoffs, you know, just a few weeks ago and you know, Metis doing layoffs, Amazon's doing layoffs. And a good majority of the workforce, as we look out the next couple years is going to be affected by AI whether we like it or not. And so I'm curious, how has AI shaken up the solar industry?

[B]

I don't think it's going to shake up the industry. I think from the operational side I think it costs a lot of. But at the end of the day you still got to go sell the product. So there's still a huge upside to go actually go sell now on the back end on designing and obviously trading proposals, things like that is definitely great. But it's also going to help,

[A]

in

[B]

my opinion, it's going to help sales more. In my opinion. AI is going to help define, you know, quick pricing, being able to go, go close the deal faster. You're in a home typically for an hour and a half. I think with AI, you can go in there 15, 20 minutes. Here's what we're looking at. We're done.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Do you think that. Because obviously like we're on, we're on the yacht, we're on this workshop, you know, talking a lot of personal branding game. How, how is personal branding, you think, how impactful is that in the solar industry?

[B]

Everything really. Yeah, because you got a lot of, you got a lot of solar guys. I mean you've, you got a couple solar people on this show. Yeah, yeah, yes. But there's some that just are doing it for the wrong reasons. I personally do it for the impact because I actually love her help people. I love actually getting to know people, but there's people that see an opportunity and just, I think they do it, they, they a greater morale of the service industry because that's what we're in. And so for me, branding is making sure we're promoting the right things. We're saying the right things, we're getting the right people and also keeping the right people in the industry. So with all the regulations that have happened since July 4th, everyone that was a bad actor in the industry is now getting pushed out. They're now selling other products where the guys who are actually doing good business are actually still in business.

[C]

Guys were doing shady business in the solar industry.

[B]

You want to get into that? Yeah.

[C]

Well, when you say guys that were doing bad, bad business in the solar industry, what was that?

[B]

Oh man, it's a lot of scams and frauds. So really tons of scams and fries. I mean there's tons out here in Cali. Okay. I, let's say a guy goes into a home, you know, maybe she's 70, she's Hispanic, doesn't speak a lick of English. You have these guys that go in there and you know, first off run a credit application without their consent and then run off their, their commission and max them out. So he takes, you know, a 75 year old Hispanic lady that's barely making ends meet and then you, she's currently paying 100 bucks, now you go slap her and she's paying 600 for power. Those are the type of things that were happening and guys are getting rich pretty quick.

[C]

Is that because in that example, she's only using a hundred dollars a month in power, but then to go lease these panels or to go buy them, it's going to cost 600amonth. So he's not really getting a savings. Is that why?

[B]

Yeah, the rep is just taking it.

[C]

The reps taking the money.

[B]

Yeah. So the solar guys is pleading because that's the problem right now in the industry is guys are, are in control. And I think that's what needs to be regulated is knowing that if it's a win for the customer, it's a win for the rep and win for the company. But long term.

[C]

Got it. So it's got to be a win win scenario. I didn't know that was going on, bro.

[B]

It's, it's crazy. You had guys literally making, I think solar created the most millionaires and in like a short term, I think in a year there's the most millionaires we ever pushed out. All the solar.

[C]

Damn. That's how easy. I didn't, I didn't know this was going on, but I guess it makes sense. It's like if, let's just say like my single grandmother who has a very small house that she lives in and doesn't use much energy, her solar or her electric electric bills, 50amonth.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Solar is not going to be a

[B]

good fit for her. Right.

[C]

She's only spending 40, 50 bucks a month.

[B]

I wouldn't be ideal. I mean, the prime from a customer would anywhere between 150 bucks. But obviously, like San Diego for instance, you're looking at what, 75 cents a kilowatt out here. Yeah, makes sense. 1,000%. But there's. There's other areas in the country right now that are pretty low. Yeah, just dependency, man.

[C]

I appreciate you coming on, man. Dropping so much game, so much value. Where can the folks get in touch with you? They want to learn more, learn about your podcast, all that good stuff.

[B]

Sure appreciate you having me on. Follow me at monica33. I got a podcast show. It's called the Monumentality Podcast. We're on all platforms, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music. So we're there. Appreciate you having me on.

[C]

There it is. He is Monacoby. Always looking fresh too. I like, I like the fit. By the way, appreciate some LV gear straight from the yacht workshop. I'm Rich Summers, listeners.

[B]

Thanks for tuning in.

[C]

We'll see you at the next one. Peace.