With a career rooted in sales, Tyler McAllister has become a successful entrepreneur and a shining example of how taking risks and believing in yourself can go a long way.
Tyler McAllister is a keynote speaker and the founder of a revolutionary solar company called Fusion Power, which has quickly become Arizona’s #1 solar energy provider. Founded in 2017, the company saves customers millions of dollars every year through its sustainable solar solutions.
Creating a successful business from the ground up along with the responsibilities that come with being a husband and father, is no easy feat. However, McAllister proved that he is always up for a challenge.
One of his goals with Fusion Power, a company founded on the principles of love and family, is to guide other companies in the industry towards success. It’s definitely not something you come across often in such a competitive industry.
“Fusion Power is all about sharing and helping others create success and abundance,” McAllister says. “We’re really in the mindset of helping everybody learn the business from an install perspective and from a sales organization perspective,” he adds. With that goal in mind, McAllister went to work on this new venture, but the journey up until this point wasn’t always a walk in the park. McAllister started working as a door to door salesman over a decade ago. He jumped head first into the business with a few of his friends. Prior to that he also worked in the pest control, home security and solar panel industries.
Although McAllister recalls thinking that he wouldn’t be too good of a fit for this line of work, after knocking on a few doors, he realized that he had an innate ability to connect with customers on a deeper level and drive sales. McAllister recognized that this was an area of strength for him, and he took full advantage of it in the years to come.
“I’m good at using words that are more impactful or visual, versus just data words,” he says. “People don’t tend to tune out on me. They feel the value. They feel the emotion of what I’m explaining to them and they see very clearly what the answer to the problem will be, which is my product,” McAllister says.
With no surprise, he became a top-performing sales representative for a solar company based out of Albany, New York, and was recruited to aid in its expansion into the city of Arizona. Yet, McAllister went through a difficult time after the transition where he was not able to make any sales.
“It was really, really tough and I was not having any success at all,” he says.
That’s when McAllister gave himself the opportunity to stop for a second and breathe. He didn’t allow himself to get distracted, and instead, he completely immersed himself in his work. McAllister thought, “I’m not going to do anything other than figure this out. I’m going to be kind to myself and give myself a little grace,” he says.
With this change in mindset, McAllister became stubborn about success and refused to move on.
In six weeks, he became one of the top-ranking sales representatives within the company again, and quickly assumed a new position in management. McAllister successfully stayed in management for several years and credits his supportive team for allowing him to power through his previous hurdles.
“Within that period of time though, I had started to identify myself as a failure,” he says. “But that narrative was poison and it was really important for me to reach out to other people that believed in me, so they could remind me of who I was,” he adds.
Allowing yourself to be vulnerable and seek out the support you need is an important aspect of self-growth. McAllister was able to rely on his team to give him strength when he didn’t have any of his own.
In 2017, he founded Fusion Power in partnership with two other individuals. “One of the things I feel like I’ve done really well that has put me in a successful place in a very, very competitive market is learning to partner with the right kind of people and surrounding myself with people that have strengths where I have gaps,” McAllister says.
Being able to take a step back and identify where you may need help is not easy to do, but it’s a big part of what allowed McAllister to scale Fusion Power into the business that it is today.
McAllister realized that he wanted to be in more control of the narrative of his company, and thus pivoted Fusion Power into becoming a vertically integrated business. Operating as both a sales and installation company in one brought more revenue to the company and gave it a chance to expand and grow. This may not have been possible if McAllister hadn’t believed in himself. “I think managing your relationships and creating a system that is effective and productive is a little bit of a balancing act, and there’s some challenges there,” he says. “But I think having a good eye, seeing what the needs are, and just fulfilling them is important.
McAllister started off as a door to door salesman, and today he operates a successful business in a competitive industry with a supportive team by his side. He took it one knock at a time, and new doors continue to open for him today because of it.
