Next Level Pros
#137: Spilling My 9 Figure Secrets - Chris Lee Keynote - Kyle Mallien
Thu, 06 Feb 2025
Welcome to a new episode of Next Level Pros! In this episode, we're excited to share a powerful speech delivered by Chris Lee, the founder of SolGen Power, at an event hosted by Kyle Mallien. Chris shares his remarkable entrepreneurial journey, from early failures to building a highly successful solar company that achieved two nine-figure exits. Throughout the speech, he imparts valuable insights on business strategy, company culture, and personal growth. Highlights: "Money will never be the motivating factor you have to find passion in something else." "Value is a derivative of energy, right? Every single thing that you see in this room was naturally created, and because of energy input, value has been created." "He who casts the biggest vision with a clear path of how it is possible always attracts the greatest talent." "Culture is the reason a company thrives over time. Strategy can always change." Timestamps: 0:00:00 - The Importance of Energy and Passion 0:01:02 - Chris Lee's Background and Early Failures 0:06:47 - Investing in Personal Development and Education 0:13:30 - The Power of Mastermind Groups and Networking 0:22:34 - Pioneering Digital Marketing in the Solar Industry 0:31:36 - Core Business Strategies and Theories 0:41:38 - Building a Strong Company Culture 0:51:52 - Organizational Management and Structure 0:59:51 - The Private Equity Deal and Lessons Learned 1:09:14 - The Life-Changing Car Accident and Reflection 1:15:46 - Finding Passion Beyond Money 1:25:06 - Advice for the Audience and Closing Remarks Want me to teach you how to grow your business? Text me! 509-374-7554 Want access to more of my content? Click the link below for all of our latest updates and events! https://linktr.ee/nextlevelpros Want to be a guest on our show? Apply here!https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YlkVBSluEKMTg4gehyUOHYvBratcxHV5rt3kiWTXNC4/viewform?edit_requested=true Watch my latest PodcastApple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-level-pros/id1687030281 Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=95980cd4e55a437aYouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@NextLevelPros
Chapter 1: Why is passion more important than money?
Too many of us are in the business of impressing other people. Stop it. Stop it. It's the worst business to be in. Money will never be the motivating factor. You have to find passion in something else. Fruit is money. Fruit is accomplishments. Fruit is anything that you are chasing that you think will give you satisfaction, but it is quick, it is fleeting, and it doesn't always come.
I want you to ask yourself, how big is your vision? How many of you guys truly believe you're gonna hit a nine-figure valuation in the next three years? How many of you guys have ever been at that point where you've just like tried all the ideas and it's not working? Ladies and gentlemen, founder of Soul Gen Power, Chris Lee!
Thank you.
Living in a lonely world.
All right, there we go, there we go. Hey, listen, I understand that I am the one thing that stands between you and being out of this room. So what... Kyle, we need to work on placement next time. But I appreciate it. Super excited to be with you guys here tonight. As Pat shared, I've been in your seat so many times. All right.
So many times I've been in your guys' seats, working, investing, doing the things. So one thing I do know about value is And being able to actually get what I'm going to talk about tonight is that value is a derivative of energy, right? Every single thing that you see in this room was naturally created and because of energy input. value has been created, right?
The building materials, the carpet on the floor, the businesses that you've created. And so what I need from you guys is to stand up right now and actually get a little energy in this room. Come on, give it a clap, a little round. Come on. All right. So this is what we're going to do. This is what we're gonna do. We're going to stretch, stretch up, stretch sideways, the other way.
And then I'll count to three and I'm gonna video this. We are gonna yell, all right. We are going to scream some energy into this room. Oh, all right. And we're going to yell as loud as you can, as bad as you want it. Whatever that next acquisition, that exit that you're going to have, I need you to have it come out in some form of energy for the next five to ten seconds. Okay?
So don't be bashful. Bashful never breeds success. Okay? So right now, on the count of three. One, two, three. Woo! So in the cultures that I've created, we always do what's called a two-clap Ric Flair. How many guys know who Ric Flair is? Woo! So two-clap Ric Flair goes like this. I say, can I get a two-clap Ric Flair? And you're going to clap. And then woo! So do it with me.
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Chapter 2: What early failures did Chris Lee face?
I grew up in a small town, 2,500 people, eastern Washington, rural. I was a newspaper boy. My dad was a school teacher, the local football and wrestling coach. I had no idea what it took to make money. Zero idea, right? The only thing that my dad taught me was just work hard. So I had my first job at the age of nine. And I was delivering newspapers every single day at 5.30 a.m., 365 days a year.
And that's what I did for a long time. I worked hard. And many of you guys know, hard work don't pay the bills. That's only a small part of the equation. But I was raised with incredible values. the values that my dad and my mom put into me, which ultimately led to the success that I've been able to experience. So I've been in your shoes. I literally have done everything under the sun.
Everything, okay? I've bought businesses. I've ran businesses into the ground. I have literally tried. I was just thinking about it. I bought Bitcoin for the first time in 2014 at $400. Of course, I sold it at 800 and thought I was a genius. But I started my first business in 2008 at the age of 24.
And with it, I raised money from my father-in-law, who was a dairy farmer, and I took half my dad's life savings. And anybody that knows anything about 2008 wasn't a great year to start a business. And I thought I knew everything. Thought I knew everything. I was awesome at sales. For whatever reason, God gave me the gift to gab. And I knew how to sell ice to an Eskimo.
And so I was able to sell my father-in-law and my father on this great dream that I was going to go and build in a door-to-door sales space of home security. And because up until that point, I had been going to college and I had been funding college by making $65,000 my first summer, three months. Then my next summer making $105,000. I'm like, man, I'm good at this.
And business is just an extension of sales, right? And there's nothing more to it is what I thought. And so I went and I sold my father and my father-in-law putting money in. Two and a half years later, I found myself bankrupt. Found myself burned through having to file bankruptcy for $2.2 million. And had the car, this was my Mercedes CLS 500 that was repoed out of my driveway.
had less than $1,000 in my bank account, had my third child on the way, who is now 13, and really no direction on where to go. How many of you guys have ever felt lost on where to go? Yeah? And that's where I found myself in the end of 2010, early 2011 when I filed bankruptcy. And I had people in my years like go back to school, get a real job, become a professional.
Like up until that point I had studied to become a doctor. The only example I had in my life of money was my mom's dad who was a doctor. So she bred into me to be a dreamer. My dad's dad was an alcoholic that made like 20 grand a year. And so I had like these two competing things and this entrepreneur drive to be able to go and invest and build. And so I had a decision to make.
Do I keep going down this route or do I go back to safe space? And glory to God, I chose the latter. I decided that not only was I going to start another business, but I was going to start another business in the same exact industry. Luckily, I had learned a few things, okay? And I was able to go and grow it and build it.
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Chapter 3: How did Chris Lee invest in personal development?
Door knocking works because the person you're knocking on their door doesn't realize they want your product. Okay. If they did, they would have already inquired about it. They would have shopped for it and they would have selected the best price for the value. Door knocking works because you help break preoccupation, identify a need, present a solution, and then you close the deal.
That's why door knocking works. With Facebook, I'm like, wait, this is the same freaking thing. I can interrupt, pattern interrupt. I can educate and identify the pain. I can present a solution for a product that they didn't realize they needed. And I can go in the home or close this thing virtually. I'm like, what? This is phenomenal. This is digital door knocking.
And so what happened then was I became the pioneer in the solar space, in really that home service space of doing Facebook marketing. And we started taking risks here, there, and everywhere. And so what happened was initially we started building out of my garage. I don't know if this has it. Yes. Okay. So I built an 1100 person organization out of my garage. This is my garage.
It's a little bit bigger than most. It's a 3,500 square foot shop. 400 square feet of it was finished when we first started. And this is inside that garage right here in the down lower left. And we started generating leads and selling and installing. And we started to scale. And we did this without any money. We would spend a little money.
If we got a return, then we'd spend a little bit more money. And we did this over and over again. Year one, we did $16 million. Year two, we did $32 million. Year three, we did $34 million. That was COVID-19. Year four, we did $89 million. And year five, we did $233 million before we sold to private equity. Give it up, baby. Let's go.
Meanwhile, we built an incredible sales force, a 300 person virtual sales floor, and we had locations, 18 locations throughout the United States in which we owned everything in the process. We marketed, we sold, we installed, we bought a finance company, we controlled the loan aspect, we originated loans, we did absolutely everything. I'm losing my slides here. So that is the story.
Now you're probably asking like, Chris, why does this matter? How does this apply to us? All the different things. And throughout it all, we won a few awards. I think we're the 12th fastest growing company in the nation privately held. Financial Times recognized us as the sixth fastest growing any industry. I mean, it was a freaking rocket ship and legit.
Like we, uh, we ended up having to buy a jet just to be able to let go. We bought a $7 million jet cash during that time. Like it was, it was freaking wild. Okay. So eventually led to two different nine figure exits. So what I'm going to share with you guys right now, and listen, I know it's late and I have some information. Am I permitted to share this information with you? All right.
So can I get a commitment? that you will stay engaged until 30 minutes from now. Are we good? All right, can I get a yes or yes? Let's go. Okay, so I am about to share with you, I've actually never shared this from stage, okay? This is actually something I only share with my group.
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Chapter 4: What strategies led to Chris Lee's success in the solar industry?
Processes and procedures must exist in a manual format before they ever automate or apply by tools. A lot of employees, they're going to start thinking about all the tools they can do to be able to create these SOPs and everything like that. Get that out of the room. Write this shiz down.
Have flows and checklists and everything else manually and then find the best tool that's going to be able to go and automate this. whether it's trainual or whatever it may be. Measure everything. You have to have three to four KPIs. Somebody in your organization doesn't have KPIs. You failed them as a leader.
Quarterly retreats for management with quarterly accountability and projects are an absolutely must. We started this from a low, very early on. We're like, why do we have two people in the room? Dude, we're going to do this right. Okay, we're going to do this right. So when I started out in my garage, I knew exactly the game plan that I had followed from these billionaires.
And no matter how big or uncomfortable, how small, I was going to do it. This is one of them. Always make sure you have quarterly retreats with your people. This is an example of a quarterly retreat for yourself, being in this room. That's freaking awesome. Give yourselves a round of applause one more time. Do I still have you? All right, let's go. Can I get a yell? Come on.
Can I get a two-clap Ric Flair? All right, all right, all right. So bonus, build AI into every single automation, okay? This is where your mind has to shift. And that's why I said caveat, there will be a unicorn built in the next three years that is built by one person. And it's gonna be because of AI. It is taking over the world. That thing was drilled into me at Harvard. Holy crap.
It was just like AI, AI, AI. Oh my gosh. Like... So with that, if you don't have somebody on your team that specializes in AI, I know most of them are only like one to two years old. There are people out there that are five, six, seven years in the industry, believe it or not. AI has actually existed since like 2013, 2014. Make sure you implement something there.
Financial growth, these are just gonna quick, have six months of fixed costs on hand at all times. Know your breakeven analysis at all times. How many of you guys know your breakeven? How many don't know your breakeven right now? You're lying, freaking liars. Know your breakeven analysis. Most small business owners, they run off of bank account, cash accounting, right?
They're like, do I have enough money in the bank? Let's do it. How many guys have been there? How many guys are there? Liars. Know your current support and fulfillment utilization rates at all the time. What can you get from an individual? What kind of production should be required? What KPI do you have for this person? Are they being fully utilized?
This also goes for any type of truck or computer or anything else. Is it full software? Is it being fully utilized? Do you know your utilization rates?
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