How I made $185,000.00 in a week.

[Ubermensch]

MJ told me to do this. So here goes.

I got the idea to start brokering energy in 2009. I quickly realized that the business is ridiculously simple, and it would be a waste of both time and money to get a sales gig at one of the hundreds of brokerages in my city.

For almost the first year, I made a whopping $500. Maybe a little more, but not by much. The process started with me finding the right supplier. I already knew my product - electricity and natural gas - but that was just the first step. The logic behind selling electricity and natural gas contracts was simple: The global recession had just hit, and companies weren't flowing with money as they used to. In fact, companies were losing money and struggling to stay afloat. Combine this with the fact that electricity prices correlate with economic performance and - viola! - perfect environment to sell.

Electricity deregulation helped. Some states passed new laws in 2009 and 2010 that made selling electricity even easier. At that moment, it was open season on the biggest clients available.

At the end of 2009, I got my act together. I went through many suppliers until I found the one with the best pricing all day everyday. No other supplier could compete. Step one complete. Time to go to battle.

Next step was filling my pipeline with as many potential clients as possible. Sales is so much like dating it's crazy. The more you fill your pipeline with potential clients, the more things just flow better. When you only have one or two prospects, they can smell it on you.

I spent a fair amount of time and money researching the right companies and contacts to call, until I had extremely organized spreadsheets with addresses, names of companies, the square footage of buildings, company phone numbers and in some cases direct dials. Now it was time to make phone calls.

That's where I shine. I have an extremely obsessive personality, and while most people don't have the patience to sit on the phone for 10 hours a day and make 100 - 300 phone calls (depending on how many people you get in touch with), I did.

I closed my second deal at the end of 2009. $10,000. Then another in January. Another $10,000. Then a bigger one in March for $30,000. The deals kept coming in, until I really gained speed and momentum, right up until I contacted my biggest client. Surprisingly enough, they closed just four days after getting the proposal. Crazy fast.

At this point, I've got my hands on something that's similarly fresh in the marketplace, but it's taken a lot more time and creativity to figure out the right strategy to attack the marketplace. The deals are bigger. The stakes are higher, and it's not secret - on this site, anyway - that I've battled my own personal demons for awhile. (MJ's right about some of the more money more problems thing he's talked about,)

I feel as though I have a bit of a reputation to live to (or live down, lol). MJ quoted me in his book, which is cool, and then I embarrassed him with my tirades. I'm not going to apologize for them, for a couple of reasons. One, I meant everything I said. Have I been angry enough to kill someone? Yup. Would I ever do it? Nope, because I'm about to get this money. Why screw that up for a mere moment of revenge, when the revenge of success will last a life time? Two, my posts here are a kind of lachrymose mental museum of pain. One dude who posted in one of my threads commented that my posts were "too painful to read." LOL. Yea. Just imagine how painful they were to write.

To me, those old posts will serve as a reminder of where I came from, how low I was, and how hard I had to fight to pull myself up. Those painful words that I bled all over this site should remind me to never get so intoxicated from success (this happened me before) that I forget my humanity. And maybe even more importantly - and maybe I can hope this - they will serve to motivate some guy going through the same thing I went through, just like MJ has for so many people. Sometimes, all a dude needs at the bottom is an example of a man who climbed his way out of hell.

My point is that what made MJ real to me - and still makes him real, to a degree - is the fact that he seems like a real person, with a real story. Not like the other gurus that he rightfully pillories and criticizes. He was a real broke dude, with real broke problems. Broke, but not broken.

And then he rose up, and you know the story from there. It's only right, just and fitting that I follow in his footsteps. History is full of glorious stories - from Hannibal and Spartacus, to Vlad Tepes and Musashi - insight into the thoughts and actions of men who paid back their enemies in the ultimate way. Today, things are different. Alexander The Great conquered the known world, emphasis on the KNOWN part. Centuries upon centuries ago, man had yet to discover certain parts of the world. Not so today.

But there are still things to conquer. Industries. Markets. If you think about it, a large company - or a massive client worth tons of $$$ - is a bit like a walled city, like the city of Tyre that Alexander and his army laid siege to at the pinnacle the King's career as a general. And during the process of overtaking Tyre, it is said that Alexander became a monster, that what he did to the leaders and people of Tyre once he breached the city's walls is too unspeakable to be written about. In the last biography of Alexander that I read, it stated simply that Alexander and his men unleashed the hatred and rage that had been building all of the months prior. If any of this offends your sensibilities, perhaps you are too sensitive. Or, maybe you haven't been intensely desensitized by the trials and tribulations of life. Either way, if history tells us anything, it's that it remembers the great men who accomplish great things, especially when they overcame odds - backstabbing friends and foes, so-called allies too blind to see the light, too dumb to hear the truth, and too weak and cowardly to do what is necessary - to get even.


ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

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[Ubermensch]

How did you figure out there were energy brokers?
Maybe just your background in finance clued you in?

Also, drafting your own legal stuff, how long did you have to study legal stuff to get that skill down?

I've thought about the energy biz, so this was, intruiging stuff.

Quick answer on the legal stuff. Read the book Winning Through Intimidation by Robert J. Ringer. Or, if you're lazy or short on time, find and read the cliff notes online. But I do recommend reading the whole book at some point. I haven't had any formal legal training, but I'm convinced that a lot of what attorneys do can be done on your own. You just have to be smart about it. Lots of things that you want to do in life have already been done by someone else. Just find out what they did, how they did it, learn from it, copy it, apply it, etc.

This post, and some private messages, made me realize that I need to provide more details and additional clarity.

To answer your question, I found out that there were energy brokers from a former colleague of mine from investment banking. Let's call him Ian. In 2008, we were working on some big equity deals, flying to meetings in New York City, attempting to raise capital for venture capital enterprises and real estate projects. Doing this, we ran across literally dozens of different business ideas - many good ones - on a weekly basis. Right before the recession hit, Ian mentioned that he found some guys who wanted him to start an energy brokerage. The more I thought and talked about the venture, the more . I researched the idea, reasoned that it conformed with Fastlane logic, and decided to run with it.

Let's say you want to start an energy brokerage. You're going to need get suppliers to sign a channel partnership agreement with you. That agreement will give you the legal right to sell their electricity.

How to Find Suppliers

In the state of Illinois, the ICC (Illinois Commerce Commission) oversees the licensing process for both suppliers and brokers. This link will take you to a list of licensed retail electricity suppliers that are licensed to do business in the state of Illinois. Those are the suppliers that you would need to contact to get started. Note: There is a big difference between electricity suppliers and electricity brokers. Suppliers are big companies, sometimes Fortune 500 big, like Exelon (which owns ComEd, the utility in Chicago), and Constellation (those two just merged). If I were you, I would avoid companies like Ambit Energy like the plague. It's an MLM style biz.

Contacting Suppliers

The next step is to actually contact suppliers. This requires action. You're going to have to actually pick up the phone and make a phone call. Don't half-a$$ the process by sending an e-mail. Your message will get lost. Get someone on the phone. Engage them. Make them want you. Ask yourself: Why would a supplier sign a contract with me? What am I bringing to the table? What kinds of customers am I going to bring? Suppliers want what the industry calls sticky clients, energy users with good credit, a solid history of paying their bills on time, and a certain degree of loyalty.

Next: Pick up the phone and dial for dollars. Forget the 1-800 number, unless it's a a massive company. If the suppliers is in New York, find their 212 number (area code). If it's in Chicago, find their 773 or 312 number. If it's in Texas, find their 512 number. And so on.

Next: Remember, these are big companies. Most of them have dozens, if not hundreds (if not thousands) of employees. Even if you close 1,000 deals and make a gazillion dollars, you will likely never talk to more then a few people at your supplier. In fact, you should only be talking to one person: The Channel Partner Manager.

Most suppliers have one of two ways of winning business: Their direct sales force and direct marketing campaigns, and through channel partners (a.k.a. the broker... that's you).

So, you want to call up the guy or gal in charge of signing up channel partners. That person is going to be a salesperson, usually paid a base salary, plus a commission/bonus structure that incentives them to bring in new business. For some suppliers, 100% of their business comes from brokers. Those are usually the smaller, hungrier, more aggressive suppliers. Target them first. Their pricing is usually very competitive.

Let's say you're calling Acme Energy, Inc. You find out from their website that they're headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Your first step is to contact an actual person, a channel partner manager. If you call the main office line, the secretary, administrative assistant or customer service rep answering the phone will most likely cock block the shit out of you. She'll ask you for your contact information and tell you that someone will get back to you. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't.

Instead, do a little research before calling. Type the phrase "Acme Energy, Inc channel partner manager" or "Acme Energy, Inc business development linkedin" or "Acme Energy, Inc "channel partner Linkedin." You get the idea. Those searches should pull up the linkedin profiles of actual channel partners currently working at Acme Energy, Inc. There you go. Now you know who to call, and who to ask for when you call the main number.

When you call the main line, be authoritative and sound dominant. Act as if.

Act as if you have deals ready to close (and you should!). Act as if the supplier rep on the phone has to sell you on why YOU should sell for THEIR company. "There are over a hundred suppliers on the ICC list, Gary. Tell me why I should broker for Acme." Ask Gary questions like:

Does Acme Energy only provide fixed energy solutions, or do you have index options? If not, then why? If yes, do you also sell block/index products? Fixed energy is exactly what it sounds like. The supplier provides a contract to YOUR customer, guaranteeing a price of, say, 6.4 cents per kWh. No matter what happens, your customer's price will not change over the course of the contract (could be as little as six months, as long as five years).

An index contract is basically the opposite of a fixed contract. An indexed contract means that your customer's price is going to literally change on a monthly basis. This can be good or bad, depending on the type of customer. If your customer uses energy 24/7, like a cold storage facility, grocery store, or a convenience store, this could be a good option.

A block/index product is basically a hybrid of fixed and indexed products. Some of your customer's usage price is fixed, while the remaining part "floats," or "rides the market."

Who are Acme's largest clients?

Is Acme licensed in all deregulated states? You want to know, because some of your clients have large portfolios, with commercial property in states all over the country. It would be a shame if Acme missed out on such opportunity.

Does Acme also sell natural gas? Always nice to kill two birds with one stone.

If the conversation goes well, you and the rep will exchange contact information, and you'll receive a Master Sales Agreement to review. They won't sign an agreement with you personally, so make sure you have a legal entity set up. These days, it might help to have a website, especially if you're targeting larger suppliers, but it's NOT necessary. Skip this step if you're really trying to keep start-up costs low. Use your resources to purchase quality call lists and network.

Lastly, keep your options open. Don't settle for just one supply contract with Acme. Make sure you have at least one or two other contracts.

ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

[Ubermensch]

@Ubermensch

What kind of money did you start off with ? It sounds like a business where you'd need a large initial investment.

If you've read MJ's book, you know the kind of money I was making around a year before I started the biz. I was technically self-employed, contracted as an investment banker by a middle-market real estate developer seeking $1M - $10M equity investments from top-tier private equity funds. They were my largest client (but not my only one), paying me $5,000 per month. Then the recession hit.

I wasn't rolling in the dough, certainly not by Fastlane terms, but I had enough bread (crumbs) to live off of while I got started. Off the top of my head, let me think about the costs:

I had to set up the legal entity that would actually sign contracts with the electricity/natural gas suppliers. I did that through LegalZoom, and it cost me a few hundred bucks. I had a website built by a friend of a friend for $600. In retrospect, though, I didn't really need the site. To keep costs low, I did my own legal work. Without consulting an attorney, I personally reviewed the agreements between my legal entity and the suppliers.

Then there was the licensing. Every state has its own commission that oversees brokers, and you (technically) have to be licensed to do business in these states. Some have more stringent rules than others. Getting licensed was easy. Compared to old industries like commercial real estate and commercial insurance, there are almost no federal rules and surprisingly little red tape (the kind of business I prefer). That said, there is a lot of legal language required in the filing process, and most brokerages pay an attorney $2,000 - $5,000 to draft and file said papers. Again, I did my own legal work, drafting and filing the documents myself.

Aside from my mobile phone, which cost me around $100 per month for unlimited minutes, I can't think of any other costs I incurred (other than travel). So, I'd say my total costs to start the biz were under $1,000.

Also you mention signing deals for 10k and 30k, are these recurring payments or once off?

In the energy biz, suppliers pay you in different ways. All payments are based on the annual usage of the client.

Example: Suppose you have a nursing home client with 20 locations, and the aggregate usage is 20,000,000 kWh. Your job as a broker would be to get the client to sign a contract with supplier ABC. Once the agreement is signed, and the client begins using electricity from the new supply source, the supplier either pays you one lump sum, or recurring payments over the life of the contract. I received payments both ways.

It also sounds like you'd need a lot of knowledge or contacts to begin with. Would this be correct ?

Honestly, the only knowledge I began with was that the recession happened, companies were low on revenue, electricity prices were at a ten-year low and - perhaps most importantly - signing an electricity contract requires no upfront costs on the part of the client. No upfront retainer or hourly stipends from the broker. The client only paid once they started saving money.

When I started the electricity biz, I could barely spell kWh. I knew nothing about generation, and who the major players were. It was a process of trial-and-error to figure out which supplier was the best. This took me a year. Once I found the right supplier, everything clicked. Knowing what I know now, that process could have been cut down by a lot.

As far as contacts, every single client I got - except for my first one, which made me around $500 - I got through cold-calling. No connections whatsoever. Just dialing for dollars Wolf of Wall Street style.

What I should emphasize the most is that the quality of your call list means a lot. Actually, that's a cost I forgot to mention, but these costs do not have to be significant. I used a manufacturing and industrial list that came on a CD, and it only cost me a few hundred bucks.

Regardless of your business, I would check out LinkedIn's business development tools. Some of Linkedin's stuff is the best kept secret. At one point, they had a service that literally allowed you to view full profiles for every single person on LinkedIn... all 100 million. At one point, you could even view all of the persons's connections, and you had the ability to send private messages to these people. Pretty crazy prospecting tool if used correctly. But it's expensive, and they've since scaled back the comprehensiveness of the tool, making it much less cool in my opinion.

That said, the holy grail of call lists is one that gives you direct access to the decision makers. The best case scenario is having a corporate decision maker's cell phone number and well-researched, comprehensive information on said contact's professional and even personal life. Over the years, I've somewhat perfected the way to compile such lists using online databases.

What initial steps would one take to get started in this business, assuming no previous knowledge/contacts ?

I no longer run my own brokerage, because I think there are WAY too many brokers and suppliers in the game now. Margins have shrunk and there are so many amateurs that it gives the real professionals a bad name. However, if something about the energy business sincerely sparks your interest, I can point you in the right direction if you like. Just PM me if you're interested.

ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

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[Ubermensch]

Going through a rough time in my life right now. I've always had that exact same way of thinking as in that video, but lately I've allowed some self-doubt creep in due to what some really close people have told me in recent months

This video right here was a slap in the face, I'm back on track now. Thank you for sharing it

I feel you, bro. 100%. Those closest to you have the best position to hurt you. Sun-Tzu says "know your enemy." Who knows you better than a "friend"? The one(s) putting the knife in your back can only do that because you thought they had your back.

I like MakeItCount's avatar. This too shall pass. I think if you look back on even the most difficult time in your life - even the time when you were most afraid, lonely, maybe even depressed and considering quitting - you will remember that the moment did pass. Emotions and mental states rise, crest, crash and flow like ocean waves. Sometimes, you ride them like a pro. Sometimes, you get hit by a tsunami.

If you read some of my past posts, I think you will see that I feel your pain. Take it from me: Get active on this site. I'm slowly learning that the people on this site are a different breed. A lot of us feel similar things; we are all digesting the red tablet, and sometimes reality can be a bitter pill to swallow. Keep going, bro.

Stop listening to the brainless faces in The Matrix. At best, they are people still plugged into The Matrix, and they will say anything to preserve their illusions, which usually means dismissing and dissing your dreams as mere delusions. At worst, they are agents who will do anything they can to stop you from becoming what you are meant to be.

I have a buddy I met on this site with the username SteeleConcept. Sometimes, he sends me texts bragging about the $$$ he's bringing in. I'm on my come up, he tells me. That shit keeps me going. The glory of MJ's story - and this site - is that it shows you what's possible, tells you how to do it, and shows you that other "normal" people are doing it. MJ, as far as I know, wasn't born into a wealthy family, and that's pretty much the status quo for uber-successful people. At least 60% of the Forbes 400 is categorized as self-made.

Call it a funny feeling, kind of a hunch, but something tells me that you're going to do something big. Keep going, bro.

ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

[RHL]

Every ubermensch post. Every goddamn one. Every goddamn time.

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Looking forward to hearing more updates from you, my man. Your story so far has been quite...ELECTRIFYING.

 

[Ubermensch]

So you're out the business? Were entry barriers so low that you no longer feel it's a worthy endeavor?

Not out of it, but I just don't operate my own brokerage anymore. I broker through others, so I don't have to waste time with keeping up my license, pricing accounts, communicating with suppliers, etc.

Yes, the barriers of entry were low. Barrier of entry is a hallmark of your work, and the energy biz is probably a great example of it. It depends how you look at it, though. For the large suppliers - Direct Energy, Constellation, etc - it's pretty difficult for a noob to get in and get a contract. But new suppliers are popping up all of the time - especially residential suppliers - and they're always looking for new brokers.

In 2012, I beta-tested a residential energy product for a Chicago-based supplier that went from 0 - $100M in a year. They were printed up in Forbes last year, and the article reports numbers that I helped them generate. The residential product had a lot to do with that. i made a quick six-figures off of the situation, but I should have negotiated more (I didn't realize that they were going to take the idea and run with it so aggressively... had I know, I would've asked for more than I got). I recruited top residential door-to-door sales reps away from another large supplier (IGS Energy), and scored a lot of accounts very quickly.

@socaldude

what were my biggest obstacles?

When I first started, the biggest obstacle was efficiency. The opportunity was massive. Imagine if you were walking downtown Atlanta, Dallas or Los Angeles, and every single building owner did not have a commercial real estate broker, or an insurance broker. That's how it was. The biggest buildings in the cities I was targeting didn't have an energy broker. So, in a way, my biggest obstacle was a lack of knowledge concerning how to take over the ENTIRE marketplace, instead of a small piece. After I scored the accounts I scored, other brokers started catching on at the end of 2010. By 2011, there were a bunch of them, and by 2012, I had little interest in pursuing the endeavor full-time. It wasn't fun anymore.

fter the whole thing was said and done, I had made a lot of money in a short amount of time, but I was haunted by a feeling that I could have done so much more. Had I known what I know now, I would have made MJ DeMarco money off the opportunity.

The opportunity I have now is at least ten times as big.

ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

[Ubermensch]

Awesome post my man. I love businesses like this. Now how many more times can you do it? Youve done it once, why stop?

There are a lot of reasons why I could stop.

I could stop because it's hard.

I could stop because nobody around me sees what I see.

I could stop because people think I'm crazy.

I could stop because only SOME (most?) people understand WHY I'm doing what I'm doing.

I could stop because it's abnormal to work at 3:30am - note cards organized on the floor, DOG-EARED COPIES OF Dr. HAHA Lung's books on mind control and mental dominance... and Robert Greene books... spending all day on the phone, like a Wolf-of-Wall-Street eating LION, and spending all night preparing proposals...

I could stop because you should be advised - and, please, take my word for it - I ain't jokin' about this.

I could stop because the sneaking suspicion I seem to have had my entire life is suddenly becoming empirically validated prophecy... and that's SCARY...

I could stop because, in this moment, with these impending checks about to be deposited...

It's a process. The process can kick your a$$, and when it did, I came here. It is only fitting that I RI$E here.

I'm building an army that Genghis Kahn himself would admire. I'm sending out so many non-disclosures/non-circumvents and sales agreements that it's making my head spin.

GORILLIA WARFARE.

That misspelling was intentional.

 

[S&P]

With such a great written copy title I clicked on this thread.

And then I read every post Ubermensch ever blessed us with on this site.

This stuff is gold. I don't understand why people knock on you for being driven by hate and other negative emotions.

If I learnt one thing about emotions is that all negative states stem from FEAR and all positive states stem from LOVE

It strikes me that Ubermensch FEARED being unsuccessful. He hated being regular. He used that energy to become a total F*cking badass in my book. This is inspiring stuff. It's not always pretty. It's not always clean. It's not always FEEL GOOD.

Ubermensch you're a F*cking warrior man and you drove motivation deep into my soul with your contributions on this website. Thank you man.

 

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[Ubermensch]

This post is an answer to some questions that I keep getting regarding the art of closing B2B deals, and dealing with suppliers.

I started brokering energy in 2009, and began selling electricity in the Ohio market, in 2010.

When a state deregulates electricity, this gets rid of the monopoly that utilities typically have on the market. Both residential (B2C) and commercial (B2B) customers become fair game for any private supplier, or any other competing utility. This often means that utilities will fight each other for customers. (1)

An energy deregulation business follows the commandment of need. Every home uses energy. Every commercial business – manufacturing plants, industrial warehouses and flex spaces, office towers and office buildings and retail facilities - pays an energy bill.

“On average, a U.S. office building spends nearly 29 percent of its operating expenses on utilities, and the majority of this expenditure goes toward electricity and natural gas. For the average office building, energy costs can exceed $30,000 per year. Therefore, measures for saving energy can significantly assist office buildings in improving their bottom line.”

Office buildings in the U.S. use an average of 17.3 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and 31.8 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot (ft) annually. (Data are calculated using a 2003 U.S. Energy Information Administration survey of commercial buildings.) Using average commercial energy prices of $0.10 per kWh and $0.98 per hundred cubic feet, the average cost of power per ft for office buildings is approximately $1.73 for electricity and $0.31 for natural gas. For the average office building in the U.S. (approximately 15,000 ft), that translates into $30,600 spent on energy per year. For a customized benchmark rating of your facility, use the Energy Star National Energy Performance Rating system via Portfolio Manager software. Overall, lighting, cooling, and ventilation are responsible for more than 60 percent of electricity use by office buildings, and heating dominates natural gas consumption. As a result, these are the best areas to target for energy savings.” (3)

QUESTION: "How do you go about setting up contracts and convincing suppliers that they actually need you ? If I connect a buyer with a seller why should the seller pay me a residual margin if they could just cut me out after they have met?"

It's like Jordan Belfort says in his Straight Line training program. First, you have to convince yourself that you're the shit. If you believe that – in your bones – then it will come across in the way you speak. Think about it from the supplier's perspective. Is it a Fortune 500 company, or is it a start-up? Either way, you will have something called a channel manager. These types are all over Linkedin (4, 5, 6).

Really, though. The answer to this question should sound familiar: “Provide value. Solve a problem.”

What the f*ck can you do for an energy channel manager? Their job is to hit a sales goal. If they miss it, they might get fired. If they hit it – or pass it – they get bonuses. They can only take on so many channel managers. Why should they work with you? Can you bring them commercial customers? Do you have experience running a door-to-door team? Have you ran an energy brokerage before? If not, a good solution would be to hook up with an established brokerage seeking growth, strike an unusually lucrative deal with them, and then hire a team underneath you. They'll all be able to leverage the deal you negotiated.

How does payment processing work. I am looking at a goverment contract right now to supply fire alarms for $300,000. If I find a supplier who can deliver all the goods for 200k leaving me 100k in profit how does the deal go through if I don't have enough money to pay the supplier because governments don't pay upfront ?

I have been paid six-figure fees in both commercial energy and selling commercial energy efficiency. The main difference between the former and the latter is the expediency in which you are paid.

Here is a monthly breakdown of monthly fees received – entirely on autopilot – for brokering a commercial energy deal.

Month 1: Number of Payments: 1 (0 of which are $0 payments)
Number of Remittance Lines:1
Total amount deposited :USD 8,828.30


Month 2: Number of Payments: 1 (0 of which are $0 payments)
Number of Remittance Lines:1
Total amount deposited :USD 4,780.33


Month 3: Number of Payments: 1 (0 of which are $0 payments)
Number of Remittance Lines:1
Total amount deposited :USD 9,334.14

For this particular client, the payments came in for 36 months.

Payment processing depends on the type of business you're in. When I only sold commercial energy contracts, suppliers paid me mostly in residuals. An example was First Energy Solutions, before they went under, which helped you get set up in the following ways:

From accounts payable (this is how they set you up after you sign a brokerage areement and bring in your first client:

“I'd like to follow-up with our request to you and your company to enroll in the ACH process via JPMorgan Order-to-Pay (Xign). Your enrollment would allow both your company and FirstEnergy to take full advantage of the electronic payment process available to you.

Please review and advise.

Thanks very much.

(See attached file: FE EIPP Supplier Enrollment Letter Payment Only
WPY.doc)”

Getting paid on energy efficiency deals is much faster. Also, better, because no one in that industry pays quickly: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/progress-pics-proof-and-money-porn.61228/

The key to that business, unlike the fire alarm example, is that you can sell mega B2B deals, without actually having to hold product inventory or have any capital upfront. If you have a solid partner, they have the logistics, warehousing - basically, all of the resources necessary to manufacture and provide product to the end user. All you have to do is sell.

1) (http://www.crainscleveland.com/arti...tion-takes-effect-firstenergy-aep-drop-gloves)


2) http://www.imt.org/uploads/resources/files/TelergyCaseStudy.pdf


3) http://www.energyright.com/business/pdf/Office_Buildings_ESCD.pdf


4) https://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-porath/4/998/93


5) https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankpresco


6) https://www.linkedin.com/pub/victoria-tori-chadwick/3/66a/424

 

[Ubermensch]

Answering your question on licensing...

The overall energy market is controlled by the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). This organization overseas both the wholesale and the retail electricity markets. The wholesale marketplace is where names you might know - Constellation Energy, Exelon (recently purchased Constellation), Direct Energy - purchase on the wholesale market, and then turn around and resell this energy to retail customers. What many commercial customers don't know is that they can directly access the wholesale market themselves. They just have to have significant load size.

99.99% of the marketplace buys from a retail electricity supplier. To own a supply company, you need significant cash, credit and expertise. It's a big boy game, where Fortune 1000 companies - and incumbent utilities - eat up most of the customer bases. If you are just one guy, and you want to sell energy, you need to become a broker.

The best way to become an energy broker Day 1 - tomorrow, if you wanted to - is to contact a broker willing to fast track your broker status. In other words, convince them you can sell, and they'll start paying you like a broker from Day 1. 30%, 40%, 50%+ commissions. Commissions are paid in mils ($0.001), multiplied by the total usage of your customer, in terms of kWh (electricity) or decatherms (nat gas).

Retail energy brokers, by definition, broker on behalf of retail energy suppliers. These suppliers, in turn, buy electricity on the wholesale market.

Without fast tracking your broker status, you'll have to work for another brokerage, making 5% and a salary... while you make your company a ton of money.

It's all about getting paid fast, getting paid now, and exploding your income. It's a simple fact that selling energy is a viable way to make money. If you can squeeze out all of the fat of the deal on your side, and then have additional products and services behind you to back it up, then you turn that client (already an annuity) into a repeat customer, many times over.

If you want self-employed status, sign an agent agreement with a brokerage willing to give you a shot. If they don't have something in place to get you paid within 5 - 7 business days of you starting.

On your first day, you should be armed to make money.

 

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[Ubermensch]

Thanks for the detailed response Ubermensch.
The process no doubt took a great deal of initiative and determination, especially seeing that you came with no previous knowledge.
I'd imagine your experience as an investment banker enabled you to bring that extra professionalism and confidence to your dealing with clients/cold calling ?

A few things helped. One, no joke, MJ's story. Two, I look at big-time stars who've made a bunch of money, and I don't see anything that they have that I don't.

Three:

ubermenschforever.blogspot.com

 

[Ubermensch]

Every ubermensch post. Every goddamn one. Every goddamn time.

[HASHTAG]#Tpain[/HASHTAG] said it better than I can: 2:38 - 2:45

@S&P

With such a great written copy title I clicked on this thread.

And then I read every post Ubermensch ever blessed us with on this site.

This stuff is gold. I don't understand why people knock on you for being driven by hate and other negative emotions.

If I learnt one thing about emotions is that all negative states stem from FEAR and all positive states stem from LOVE

It strikes me that Ubermensch FEARED being unsuccessful. He hated being regular. He used that energy to become a total F*cking badass in my book. This is inspiring stuff. It's not always pretty. It's not always clean. It's not always FEEL GOOD.

Ubermensch you're a F*cking warrior man and you drove motivation deep into my soul with your contributions on this website. Thank you man.

Bro,

I liked your post so much that I called up my cousin and read it to him on the phone. It's crazy to get this level of support from a stranger, 'cause it makes you feel like you actually know the dude on the other side. I unashamedly, unapologetically - and fearlessly! - poured my pain, my rage, and my emotions into those posts. All of that energy now courses through my veins while I write, work and workout.

Friedrich Nietzsche asked is it better to be quietly devoured or out-monster the monster? Judging from your avatar, you asked that question of yourself while you looked like the dude in the before picture, and you answered yourself every time you performed the grueling work necessary to spur spectacular adaptation. Look at you, ya damn monster. I know what it took to get yourself to that point. I know the sacrifices you made. I know the tempting food you resisted. I know that you probably had to swear off alcoholic beverages. I know that you had to scarf down - or should I say... quietly devour! - chicken breasts, egg whites, and/or chug down protein shakes and peanut butter sandwiches to create the aftermath in the after photo. Well done, brother. I salute your dedication, and your concentration.

Beyond your post, I've received enough private messages over the past few days to let me know that I'm on to something here. There are some angry guys out there. who have felt the 3rd degree burns (multiplied by 222) in the abyss. I have simply given voice to this, and I have watched as - one by one - individuals have stood up and said: Amen, I feel you, brother.

My posts are not for everyone. They are not for those who would have us all hold hands and sing the Barney Theme Song, ignoring the fact that some of us cannot sing, at least not songs of love, happiness, hugs, kisses, and family. Indeed, there is a time for all of this, this blessed peace we all strive for, but for the moment, our guiding wisdom must be: Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum (let him who wants peace prepare for war, Vegetius, A.D., fourth century, quoted in the preface of Robert Greene's 33 Strategies of War). My posts are for the man with a knife in his back, the man that has felt the "et tu, Brutus?" of it all.

"The problem for us is that we are trained and prepared for peace, and we are not at all prepared for what confronts us in the real world - war." (Robert Greene, Preface, 33 Strategies of War). Today, we Americans live in such a soft, coddled society. But look at our history. Look at all of the glory, on and off the battlefield. Remember the Carnegies, the Mellons, the Morgans, the titans of industry. For Christ's sake, we only constitute 5% of the world's population, yet almost half of the billionaires on earth are American. Look at all of the inventions, the cures for disease, the ideas that have made the world a better place. It is no mistake that the light bulb, itself a metaphor for a human idea, is credited to one of the greatest American inventors and discoverers.

And at the root of all this, we have our war heroes to thank, men who have spilled blood - our enemies, and their own - for freedom, for the pursuit of happiness, for ideals that our founders warned us require eternal vigilance to protect. From the time the red coats were sent back across an ocean with tails tucked, to the horrifyingly heroic and glorious sacrifices by American soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, we owe our way of life to war.

And what now? Perhaps Tyler Durden said it best. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no great war. No great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.

And so, my brothers, I have read your words. You say thank you for showing you that hatred and rage are legitimate emotions, that it is not merely okay to feel them; it is right and just to use them as fuel. You say, and I quote:

Much respect for your success. I read up all of your posts, and one thing resonate with me, is when u say how anger is the emotion that drives you to forget about the things that does not matter, but it strives you to do the things that you would before believe you could not do.

Dude, I had not been embracing that emotion. I always thought that anger is something that should be suppressed, but it suppress who i really am, it suppress what i'm really made of. Now that i think back, I think back in those moments, the moments that I was really pissed, at myself, at others, at the world.

It was in that moment where nothing else matters, and that it was the only time that made me focus on the things that really matters, and that i don't give a F*ck what anyone else says and just get it done! (or as mj says take massive action)

The point of this is that I can't get anything done unless I have a real deep hate as to why i should get it done, anger and hate is my only drive towards success.

In other words, I feel you man.

Much respect.

Anonymous

Thank you, brothers. And you're welcome. I can only hope that my words imbue you with the motivation to hustle at least half as much as yours do. Understand: Your words continue to have a supercharging effect on my persona. I now see that I was not alone in the basement of hell. All I had to do was yell, make some noise, and other tortured souls heard me. Understand: As you chant my name, I climb. I RI$E.

"Of all that is written, what I love the most is what a man has written with his own blood." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche.

Every dollar I make, every red cent.

Deshi Basara, brothers.

 

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[Ubermensch]

I have found friends, comrades and even some guys I call "brother" through this site. We all have our battles, we all have our own war. Yet, what we have in common, is the fact that we rise. No matter what, we rise. No matter what a hater says, we rise. Even if our loved ones don't understand our choices or our ambition, we rise. Even when the fight seems unwinnable, we rise. Even when it seems we have reached an insurmountable plateau, we rise.

We rise, even when - especially when - we feel that others want to hold us down and keep us back from achieving our goals. In the morning, we rise to make ourselves stronger, faster and better. Making our phone calls, we rise. Hustling hard, we rise. Grinding for that paper, we rise. In the gym, on the last set of bench, squat or dead lift, we rise.

We rise, no matter what. We rise, even though most people don't understand why we do. We rise, even though some may mock or make fun of our dreams and goals. We rise, even though there is often no one there with us to rise with us. Yet, even when we rise alone, we do so knowing that one of our brothers from another mother - a brother who lives in another state, or maybe even another country - is fighting to rise.

We rise, and we draw upon every fragment of inspiration left behind by the men and women of history who rose before us, who showed us that The Rise is possible. We study Nietzsche, to rise. We read of the conquests of King Alexander, Spartacus, Hannibal and Genghis Kahn, so that we may learn from the masters of the rise. We see Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps, and we see the heights that are possible, for this thing we call the rise.

We rise to go to the gym. We rise to eat right. We rise to hustle.

No matter how much our haters want us to turn down the volume, we're going to blast our greatness so loud that it rattles the gates of hell and echoes throughout heaven.

To the rise, my brothers.

Cheers.

 

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[Ubermensch]

First, pretty great thread. Second, sorry if this is a stupid question, but you basically are like a real estate agent? You convince people (i assume the property owners while building is happening/before) to buy from a supplier, who gives you comission?

Good analogy.

There are a lot of similarities between the two industries. In both industries, you need a license to sell.

All 50 states have deregulated real estate markets, for both commercial and residential (I'm talking United States here). There are around dozen and a half states deregulated for electricity, and 20+ for gas.

In residential real estate, you can make decent money off of one deal. $1,000 - $100,000+, depending on the size of the home. The sales cycle is also typically long - days, weeks, or even months. With residential energy deals, you make money in volume - $20 - $60+ per deal, depending on the market, and depending whether or not you can sell duel fuel (natural gas and electricity at the same time). In both residential real estate and residential energy, you have the ability to raise a team underneath you, and make overrides on their commissions.

In commercial real estate, you can make a lot of money, if you have the right clients. Entering that game requires either connections or mad cold-calling. The same is true for energy. If you have the right clients, you can essentially golf, "party" and travel for most of your days. All you have to do is nurture your six-figure clients properly (by golfing and traveling with them... haha), and they will continue to buy from you (clients always need new leases or have to sell a property, and they will always need to buy energy). I say "party," and I really mean networking and taking clients out. That said, some clients are more wild than others...

For both commercial real estate and energy, selling is all about the numbers. Net Operating Income (NOI), property values, and return on investment dominate the conversation. If you do not know this language, and you want to enter this game, learn to speak it - or you will be smoked out, quick. It's complicated; it is simple, so I wouldn't short-cut this step.

This is true for an energy broker, because if he can demonstrate kW and kWh savings, then he is impacting savings on the most important expense for a commercial real estate owner. Demonstrating excellence in this way can give you access to, literally, the largest clients on the planet. The clients that manufacture all of things that we use on a daily basis. The clients with 1,000,000 - 100,000,000+ square foot portfolios. The clients that bring you six-figure paydays.

Learning both games is slow, and I know this mostly from the commercial energy broker side. However, with time - 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000+ hours - you'll build up Mastery, just as with anything else. In both cases, once you're a Master, you can teach people how to do what you do.

 

[theag]

Jeez.

 

[Ubermensch]

Great thread. As someone who seems to have always been fueled by the negative around him, reading how you spin that into success definitely inspires me to keep going in all aspects of life.

Yea, brother.

You mentioned being the broker has come and gone in terms of maximizing success with minimal competition (like when you started back in 2010.

What made brokering energy so sweet was the sales process. There is no money out of pocket to the customer; they just sign a contract and get their price from the supplier.

The supplier - or the broker - pays you the fee, which is invisible to the customer. From the customer's perspective, nothing changes.

Most of the people are still asking how to get started in the thread, but I'm wondering what things do you have your eyes on next or seem to spark your interest like energy did 5-6 years ago.

I had a good conversation with a fast lane member earlier today, an online marketer. I am actually looking to partner with people knowledgeable and experienced with affiliate marketing and online marketing.

In the conversation with the member, he discussed our similarities and our differences.

Similarly, we both like "hot" opportunities in "fresh" markets. A "hot" opportunity is one that is brand new, brought into existence by force maejore An obvious example is electricity, where the state or federal government pass a law that creates market opportunity. Energy deregulation destroys the utility's monopoly on electricity supply, thus creating opportunity for private suppliers, like Constellation Energy, Direct Energy, AEP Energy, etc.
The brokers that broker energy broker for these and a multitude of other suppliers.

There are tons of brokers out there these days. You have to be real smart and experienced to close a big user these days.

but I'm wondering what things do you have your eyes on next or seem

When it comes to business to business sales, I think the focus has to be on cost savings and profit enhancement.

Funny you ask this question.

A few days ago, I launched a campaign with some of partners for a new service.

Typically, in the past, we've pursued larger customers and larger transactions. However, the service I have now is ultra-simple for the customer.

The customer goes to the website, and clicks on the "enroll" page.

On the "enroll" page, they click on a list of suppliers that offer unique, discounted pricing through our site. Savings range from 10% - 65% for the customer. They pay no fee to enroll (just as with energy).

But the sale is so much sweeter than energy. All they have to do is click that they want savings from, for example - Office Max - and they will be contacted by an Office Max account manager that will handle the rest.

I signed one of my large clients up today. I talked to the secretary, guided her through the process on the phone, and now she will purchase ink cartridges, paper, pens, pencils, etc at a discounted price for a property management and an attorney's office.

Easiest close of my life. Other than energy efficiency (which entails long sales cycles, and immense paydays), nothing has sparked my interest like this. What excites me about it is the speed and ease of the sales cycle, all the way to the close. Lol. There is no close. Jordan Belfort could give away 1,000 of these. Grant Cardone could give away 1002. It's a discount code that gives them cheaper office products. Who doesn't want a discount?

So, as you can see, the business model lends itself both to the traditional, old-school manner of business development (i.e. cold calling, prospecting, using relationships, networking, employing strategic partners as sales agents, closing over the phone or in person, etc) yields results, yet it is also highly ripe for a new-school affiliate marketing or online marketing approach. The right affiliate partner, network of affiliate partners, publishers, etc... I think they could blow this up. It's just a hunch, though.

It's all about cost-savings solutions that require no money out of pocket, either because of the process inherent to the solution, or because financing is established and in place for equipment upgrades.

CFO magazine recently published an essay stating that every dollar of cost savings is equivalent to $5 - $10 in revenue for a company.

 

[RogueInnovation]

That was one beautiful piece of explaination uber. I understand completely.

http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/w/page/14422735/Winning Through Intimidation
(for the lazy^^^)

Good stuff

 

[Ubermensch]

@ChasingPaper

It's our time, brother.

 

[Ubermensch]

So you're out the business?

Getting back in HARD now.

Were entry barriers so low that you no longer feel it's a worthy endeavor?

The barrier of entry to get into the business - in general are quite low.

However, knowing where and how to sell accounts is an art.

I have a deal right now where I'm getting accelerated commissions.

So, instead of getting paid $600 a month for 12 months for a $5,000 contract, I get $5,000 upfront.

I'm setting up other brokers with the same agreement.

Great tie-in to the conversation about PACE.

With such a great written copy title I clicked on this thread.

And then I read every post Ubermensch ever blessed us with on this site.

This stuff is gold. I don't understand why people knock on you for being driven by hate and other negative emotions.

If I learnt one thing about emotions is that all negative states stem from FEAR and all positive states stem from LOVE

It strikes me that Ubermensch FEARED being unsuccessful. He hated being regular. He used that energy to become a total F*cking badass in my book. This is inspiring stuff. It's not always pretty. It's not always clean. It's not always FEEL GOOD.

Ubermensch you're a F*cking warrior man and you drove motivation deep into my soul with your contributions on this website. Thank you man.

Lol, you got me, brother.

The fear of normality has always been a huge driver.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I no longer run my own brokerage, because I think there are WAY too many brokers and suppliers in the game now. Margins have shrunk and there are so many amateurs that it gives the real professionals a bad name.

So you're out the business? Were entry barriers so low that you no longer feel it's a worthy endeavor?

 

[SJVC]

Man, to be honest before this post I did think you were at least partially full of sh*t.

But I get it now... You are just super motivated and confident that I mistook that as ill-informed arrogance.

Also the 50th law video, that is some powerful stuff, going to listen to that on a daily basis.

And don't get a Bugatti, they are very ugly! How about a nice matt black 458?

 

[Ubermensch]

 

[Michael W.]

I think maybe you misinterpreted my question...or I way misinterpreted your response.

 

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[RogueInnovation]

those who would have us all hold hands and sing the Barney Theme Song, ignoring the fact that some of us cannot sing, at least not songs of love, happiness, hugs, kisses, and family

Sing it with me dude!

I think people just get tired man. They aren't out to get you. Its our own confusion that is out to get us (it doesn't shift easy). The mistake is when you lose the seed of forgiveness to plant, somewhere, sometime, someplace.

I think people do react too quickly though, and rashly.
But as a biz guy, I try to never be rash. I try to find equanimity and equality.

I think you just wanna purge.
The f'd up thing is though, you have to find the patience to find peace in between BS times.
It is only when you can do that, that you start to heal up.

Friedrich Nietzsche asked is it better to be quietly devoured or out-monster the monster?

Well, neither. Sometimes questions are useful so we can find the next question, "is this the right question".


At my hardest point in biz, it ripped me up, I had to sit there and just bear it.
But it is in your pain that it is most important to look for what fills you with abundance.
As you sit there, you don't go to dark places, you keep it light so that you don't have to lift everything, just your slice.

It is a process that repeats, and it is a process that turns into the greatist tool for being happy.
Its not the money that frees you, not showing you are right, but the pain not being able to drag you into that place.


Once I endured the worst, I wasn't as afraid of it.
If you are less afraid, thats when YOU start to appear and silence this bs monologue.

 

[Ubermensch]

Man, to be honest before this post I did think you were at least partially full of sh*t.

But I get it now... You are just super motivated and confident that I mistook that as ill-informed arrogance.

Also the 50th law video, that is some powerful stuff, going to listen to that on a daily basis.

And don't get a Bugatti, they are very ugly! How about a nice matt black 458?

View attachment 7909

The Ferrari is nice. I want more than one, and I'll park them next to my Bugatti, Lambos and other quarter million dollar cars.

Glad you liked the book. Check it out in full there.

 

[Ubermensch]

Another great response. What are the typical costs/fees and any requirements?

No costs or fees. Another distinction from real estate and insurance.

My apologies for the delayed response... thought I had answered all questions in this thread.

 

[GuestUser113]

Where do you buy said electricity?

 

[Waisec]

Going through a rough time in my life right now. I've always had that exact same way of thinking as in that video, but lately I've allowed some self-doubt creep in due to what some really close people have told me in recent months

This video right here was a slap in the face, I'm back on track now. Thank you for sharing it

 

[RogueInnovation]

How did you figure out there were energy brokers?
Maybe just your background in finance clued you in?

Also, drafting your own legal stuff, how long did you have to study legal stuff to get that skill down?

I've thought about the energy biz, so this was, intruiging stuff.