Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: My name's James Swiderski, and as always, here is my co-host, Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: What's up, what's up?
Speaker: And we're excited to share with you where this show is headed, what is it about, and what's going on with the solopreneur movement.
Speaker: So let's get into it.
Speaker: Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
Speaker: There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
Speaker: The question is, which one would you be?
Speaker: Over the last four years, we've studied the sharpest solar sales and marketing professionals and how they build multi-million dollar incomes using only the best sales and marketing strategies.
Speaker: So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
Speaker: This podcast is your answer.
Speaker: Join us and thousands of sales pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs as we take the solar industry by storm and uncover what it takes to sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: Hey, what is up everybody?
Speaker: This is James Swiderski and I'm here with Taylor Armstrong here and welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Speaker: We're excited to be here and as you can tell, this is episode number 000.
Speaker: So we're going to kind of start things out, let you guys know what's going on with the podcast, figure out where this is headed, go through all the direction and just kind of introduce ourselves and get into what we're doing here.
Speaker: Perfect, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And for any of you that were at the seven figure solar podcast, you're probably wondering what the heck they just changed names.
Speaker: There's this new guy, Taylor, but we are totally rebranding it over to the solarpreneur podcast.
Speaker: I think it sounds way cooler.
Speaker: You could thank Taylor for that one.
Speaker: Um, so we're going to switch it over.
Speaker: We're going to cross platforms in, and it's really kind of this identity of a solarpreneur is what we want to talk about today.
Speaker: But before we get into that, we want to define, make sure this show is even right for you.
Speaker: We don't want you to hang around and spend time listening to us ramble on about solar and marketing and sales stuff if this isn't your type of show.
Speaker: So Taylor, let's go ahead and define, man, who's this for?
Speaker: Yeah, let's get into that.
Speaker: So before that, I want to kind of introduce myself to Taylor.
Speaker: You guys.
Speaker: So I got, obviously we're doing a solar show, solar podcast, solarpreneur movement.
Speaker: So how I got into this, I joined the solar industry about two and a half years ago, been into it.
Speaker: I'm sure James will kind of share his story too.
Speaker: I got into it.
Speaker: I was in the door-to-door industry.
Speaker: I was doing pest control, pounding those doors.
Speaker: Two summers straight of that and made okay money.
Speaker: Not great.
Speaker: But then I went on my church mission, got that done, came back,
Speaker: And then I had a buddy from my mission.
Speaker: He was doing this whole solar gig.
Speaker: And I'm telling him, I'm like, man, let's get out.
Speaker: Let's go sell some pest control.
Speaker: You're going to kill it in this.
Speaker: And he's like, no, I think I'm doing solar.
Speaker: I mean, we're making big bucks doing solar.
Speaker: So I ended up happening.
Speaker: I went and did pest control, sold for a friend of mine, didn't make too much money, didn't have that great of a summer.
Speaker: And then I came back from went back to school that year.
Speaker: And I talked to my mission buddy again, who I'm sure I'll actually get on the podcast here soon.
Speaker: But he's like, man, I actually crushed it made a ton of ton of money over the summer.
Speaker: And then I asked him, I'm like, how much were you guys even knocking?
Speaker: And he goes, yeah, we were only knocking like four or five hours a day.
Speaker: And he shows me his paychecks and they're like double what I was getting for pest control.
Speaker: And I was out pounding the doors just eight plus hours a day, typical day as the pest control guys know.
Speaker: So I went and checked out the solar gig, took a little bit to get running, but ended up just loving it, loving the freedom and started making way more money doing that.
Speaker: So that's kind of how I got into the whole solar industry.
Speaker: full solar gig.
Speaker: I've been doing that and now I'm actually here managing a team in San Diego for my company.
Speaker: So I don't know if James, you want to tell a little bit about your story, how you got into this solar industry.
Speaker: Yeah, no, totally.
Speaker: And Taylor, for those of you who don't know, he is...
Speaker: Also, our lead funnel builder, he's kind of the president of that side of our company, the company I started, Seven Figure Solar.
Speaker: So he's the lead man.
Speaker: He's the man in charge for building online funnels, helping people get their marketing in charge.
Speaker: And we recently brought him on, and that's kind of where we came up with this.
Speaker: He had the idea for the solarpreneur name, kind of that movement.
Speaker: I liked it a lot, so much so I wanted to transition over everything over to go with him.
Speaker: That's kind of where we got started with this.
Speaker: Now, my story a little bit here.
Speaker: I started getting into sales and stuff before my mission.
Speaker: I also served an LDS mission as well.
Speaker: I went to Oregon over there, a little bit different, a little bit weird.
Speaker: I met a lot of solar people over there.
Speaker: That's when I was first introduced to solar.
Speaker: I saw people
Speaker: You know, putting it on the houses, thought it was crazy, especially in Oregon where it's not super sunny.
Speaker: You don't hear about that a ton.
Speaker: But I got into that, always have been into sales and entrepreneurship.
Speaker: That's first thing first, right?
Speaker: Always have wanted to own my own business, get good at sales for both financial reasons and impacting people, which is
Speaker: Really, that's what this whole movement is about.
Speaker: It's about impacting others, helping them go solar and being able to create a lot of wealth and abundance at the same time.
Speaker: So got back and I got into the solar industry.
Speaker: Didn't have any formal sales experience like door to door or direct selling, I guess we would call it.
Speaker: Got in with this company in Utah.
Speaker: They were a startup solar company.
Speaker: And they were just barely clearing a million dollars a year.
Speaker: Just very little in revenue.
Speaker: And I spent about six months working 60, 80-hour work weeks.
Speaker: And nothing came of it.
Speaker: Super frustrating.
Speaker: I was trying as hard as I could.
Speaker: felt like I was grinding myself out.
Speaker: And you know, a lot of people don't make it that far anyway.
Speaker: They don't stick it out for six months.
Speaker: They just say, Hey, this isn't for me.
Speaker: But my personality, you know, I'm like, okay, I started something.
Speaker: I got to finish it.
Speaker: I got to figure this out.
Speaker: So I go about six months and I run into one of my mentors.
Speaker: He's over on the New York team with his company.
Speaker: Um, his name is Richie.
Speaker: Um, and he had been clearing over seven figures a year selling solar in commissions.
Speaker: So I
Speaker: The amount of revenue this guy's popping out, it's popping $10 to $20 million a year in solar deals signed and closed.
Speaker: And I was like, what the heck is this guy doing?
Speaker: Like crazy.
Speaker: Similar to how Taylor was talking about with his buddy in pest control.
Speaker: I was just kind of boggled.
Speaker: I was like, how is that possible?
Speaker: Like I'm working maximum hours.
Speaker: I can't work anymore.
Speaker: And I'm not even making a paycheck barely.
Speaker: And he's like, okay, look, James, this is what you're doing wrong.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: He highlighted, you know, he walked me through, he became my mentor over the next year or so.
Speaker: And I still talk to him quite a bit and totally changed the game for me.
Speaker: He helped me make that switch from struggling salesperson to a solar entrepreneur, a solopreneur, which is the topic of this entire show, the theme of that show.
Speaker: And long story short, I went from taking this company at just barely over a million dollars to over $6 million in revenue by the time I left that company.
Speaker: And it was all due to the concepts and the strategies we're going to talk about in this show.
Speaker: Now, I started Seven Figure Solar this year as a sales training and marketing company that goes along with this entire message to help solar professionals, sales professionals, marketers, entrepreneurs, and help give them the tools, strategies, and the environment they need to succeed and create that financial abundance and freedom that we're all looking for.
Speaker: So that is long story short, and we're going to continue to talk about our own stories and how it applies to you guys, but that's how we got into the industry.
Speaker: And hopefully we're going to be able to bring a lot of knowledge and value to you guys here.
Speaker: And kind of today's episode, what we want to talk about is who
Speaker: what is a solopreneur or who is a solopreneur, right?
Speaker: How do we define them and how do we become solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and sales professionals in the solar industry?
Speaker: So to get started, man, I mean, Taylor, what would you say a solopreneur is in your own words?
Speaker: Yeah, I think solarpreneurs, it's just this new generation of solar salespeople.
Speaker: I think James would agree.
Speaker: There's a need for more solar-specific sales training for sure.
Speaker: And as technology is evolving, as different ways to generate leads are coming forth, I think it's just become necessary to not only learn how to sell, but
Speaker: how to sell this new generation, but just take advantage of all these different platforms, all these different opportunities, and really just learn how to market with all the opportunity we have, how to close the deals better and more specific to the industry.
Speaker: And for me, that's what a solopreneur is all about.
Speaker: It's just this combination of being a solar salesperson, but just like an entrepreneur has to focus on all these different aspects of building the business.
Speaker: As solar salespeople, we need to transition to do the same.
Speaker: We need to learn the marketing piece of it.
Speaker: We need to learn the closing.
Speaker: We need to learn the follow-up.
Speaker: So it's not this old thing where just being a salesperson is just focused on one little piece of the sales, one piece of the puzzle.
Speaker: We want to help bring about this new generation of solar people that can know how to do all these things, that know how to market themselves online, that know how to do all these different forms of Legion, and that know how to close in a million different ways.
Speaker: So for me, that's what this solopreneur thing is about.
Speaker: Not just being a solar salesperson like I was for the first year or two starting out, but really transitioning into learning the technology, learning technology.
Speaker: all the different ways we can close deals, follow up and generate leads through being a solar sales person.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: So, I mean, yeah, to bounce off of what Taylor was saying for me, I mean, a solarpreneur is somebody has a vast knowledge of what it takes to,
Speaker: to make solar happen, to put more solar on more people's homes.
Speaker: And if you think about it, right, there's a lot of variables in a sales process.
Speaker: You can't simply only knock doors and do that and put a ton of solar on people's houses.
Speaker: You have to have a back end to that.
Speaker: We have to get people's attention.
Speaker: We have to build brands.
Speaker: We have to market ourselves.
Speaker: We have to follow through with the deal, right?
Speaker: There's so many variables to that.
Speaker: And really the point of the Solarpreneur podcast here and this entire movement is we want to give you the entrepreneur, the marketer, or the sales professional, the
Speaker: who's either in the solar industry right now or who's looking to get into it, we want to give you the tools, strategies, and mindsets that you need to where you could go start your own solar business tomorrow if you wanted to.
Speaker: If you didn't, it's going to give you a deeper understanding on how to market, how to generate your own leads, how to have the right mindset, how to be able to close deals, right?
Speaker: How to make a six, seven, and eight figure income in this industry.
Speaker: That's all entirely possible with what we're going to talk about.
Speaker: To get into this, we want to highlight a few things that a solopreneur is.
Speaker: For us, a solopreneur is an entrepreneur first.
Speaker: They're an entrepreneur who's looking to innovate in the solar industry.
Speaker: They're looking to do something different and they want to impact more people.
Speaker: Next is they're a marketer.
Speaker: They understand human psychology, attention, how we could generate more business without having to grind ourselves out every week.
Speaker: And then third, they're a sales professional.
Speaker: They understand that without closing, nobody's going to benefit from the transaction.
Speaker: And really, whether you're in the industry right now or
Speaker: you are just looking for a change, right?
Speaker: A change of your career.
Speaker: This podcast is going to be for that.
Speaker: So without further ado, let's get into these four different things and start with, you know, an entrepreneur, the sales professional and the entrepreneur.
Speaker: So what is an entrepreneur?
Speaker: What would you say, Taylor?
Speaker: Let me pass the buck to you.
Speaker: What do you think an entrepreneur is?
Speaker: How would you define it?
Speaker: Yeah, I think entrepreneur just...
Speaker: obviously a leader, someone who knows all aspects of the business.
Speaker: James and I, we follow a guy called Steve Larson as well.
Speaker: And he talks about how you should never hire
Speaker: a marketer for your business, really entrepreneur should know how to market, should know how to sell, should know how to do all these things.
Speaker: And what's interesting is as I was kind of getting going, how James and I kind of met up on all this, I was originally going to start kind of a solar agency, was getting more into the digital marketing aspects of solar lead generation.
Speaker: was trying to figure out how to use all this technology and I was launching things.
Speaker: And then I found that it lined up very similar with what James was trying to do with seven figure solar.
Speaker: And then we just kind of collaborated on these ideas and we realized, okay, this is awesome.
Speaker: We can start the movement.
Speaker: we can just collaborate on things together and really help this new generation of solar salespeople know how to master the digital aspects.
Speaker: I think every company,
Speaker: I can speak for my company, that's for sure.
Speaker: I mean, they'll teach me how to go knock doors.
Speaker: They'll teach me how to do, you know, these little sales tactics, things like that.
Speaker: But really what I'm finding is that to be most effective as an entrepreneur and as someone who's not just out there to sell but to really dominate the industry,
Speaker: I need to figure out how to be an entrepreneur first and really master all these things.
Speaker: So I need someone to recognize the trends, really update yourself to what the time is, and just master all these different pieces of the game, not just the sales piece, but the marketing and just get what the times.
Speaker: So I think that's what Seven Figure Solar is about.
Speaker: And I think that's what we're trying to teach as entrepreneurs and solarpreneurs.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, Taylor, your company is actually a little bit more on the rare side.
Speaker: I could tell you as somebody, we work with hundreds of companies, store companies every single month, and 80% of them are not training their sales guys very well.
Speaker: Even on like knocking doors, there might be a little bit of some basic training, but a lot of the time, they just pass their sales guys off and say, good luck, go generate some leads, make us some money, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sales guys figure out pretty quickly like, whoa, solar may be an easier sale, but this is not easy.
Speaker: This is not easy at all.
Speaker: To differ yourself from the competition, to be able to have something unique that you can offer to your customers, and to be able to close and help people decide.
Speaker: Solar is a big purchase.
Speaker: I would say it's the third biggest purchase.
Speaker: It's next to a car and a house that people will make in their lifetime.
Speaker: it's a lot of work, right?
Speaker: It's you have to have some pretty decent persuasion skills, good marketing skills to be able to close that deal.
Speaker: So that's, you know, that's really, you know, why an entrepreneur is so important and key to making it in this industry.
Speaker: So for me, really, an entrepreneur is this definition, it's someone who sees an opportunity to solve a problem.
Speaker: And they'll stop at nothing, they'll be relentless to fix this problem.
Speaker: entrepreneurs are problem solvers first.
Speaker: I think Taylor can agree that we're here to solve problems in the industry.
Speaker: So I started my company, right?
Speaker: That's why we started this.
Speaker: We noticed a problem that sales professionals are left without tools, training, and needed mentorship to make it in this industry.
Speaker: And not just to clear 30, 40 grand a year, but
Speaker: So you make six, seven, eight figures a year.
Speaker: That's what we're talking about.
Speaker: So an entrepreneur sees a problem, they fix it, but they also recognize the trend and opportunity before it happens.
Speaker: So I think this is key.
Speaker: Right now, solar...
Speaker: it's picking up, it's getting more hot day by day, right?
Speaker: Dozens of companies are starting on almost a weekly basis.
Speaker: And as we fast forward three, four, five years, you're gonna notice solar becomes the new standard of energy for people, for business owners and for homeowners, right?
Speaker: But to recognize the trend now, to get in the boat, to take advantage of this opportunity before it gets to the majority of people and solar becomes a standard job,
Speaker: That's key, right?
Speaker: You need to be able to understand that.
Speaker: Take like Facebook, for example, or Twitter or like Airbnb or something, right?
Speaker: If you were to recognize these companies when they first launched and invested all of your money into that,
Speaker: you'd be rolling in the dough, right?
Speaker: You would have made millions, tens of millions of dollars off of these investments.
Speaker: And it's those early adopters, the people that recognize the trends, those are the true entrepreneurs in my eyes.
Speaker: So I recognize solar is that early opportunity.
Speaker: It's the future of where the energy industry is going.
Speaker: And the energy industry, it's a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Speaker: I mean, no shortage of money and capital there.
Speaker: So I think, I think it's really recognizing a trend.
Speaker: Did you have something you want to say, Taylor?
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And I was just going to add, um, what we're doing, what the goal of this podcast is, is just getting that early trend in on how we can really market ourselves and be that entrepreneurs.
Speaker: So it's sad to me.
Speaker: I've seen time and time with entrepreneurs.
Speaker: with dozens of companies is they hire all these new sales reps and they send them out to the doors.
Speaker: And like James said, I am lucky that I do get company that gives training and all that, but,
Speaker: So many people don't have the training, don't have the technology to be able to function out there.
Speaker: And I think it's because they're not learning how to be entrepreneurs first.
Speaker: They're not learning.
Speaker: They're not knowing what it takes.
Speaker: They're not getting the exact training.
Speaker: That's the goal of this podcast.
Speaker: Just give people that training, get the expectations.
Speaker: And I think it's going to help not only entire companies, but just all that turnoff.
Speaker: Cause I've seen it at times, even in my own company, I've seen,
Speaker: People come, people quit.
Speaker: In other companies I've seen entire sales forces get disintegrated just because they don't have this training and they don't know how to.
Speaker: Taylor, so would you say training is the biggest thing that most sales professionals are lacking in this industry?
Speaker: Oh yeah, it's huge.
Speaker: And we've all done, I mean, both James and I, we've done the Cardone University.
Speaker: We've done the sales trainings.
Speaker: You name it.
Speaker: We've done that.
Speaker: But I think you'd agree.
Speaker: There's not really like solar specific training.
Speaker: And that's what we're trying to fill.
Speaker: We're trying to create this, fill this void because there's no solar specific training.
Speaker: There's a lot of stuff that's new to the industry.
Speaker: And guys, you know what it comes down to though?
Speaker: Yeah, there's lack of training, but...
Speaker: The cure-all for every single problem here is if you take responsibility for everything, then you're going to be able to fix it.
Speaker: And that's what an entrepreneur does.
Speaker: They take responsibility for lack of training.
Speaker: Meaning, yeah, I could go and say, oh man, my company didn't train me how to do anything but knock doors.
Speaker: Or I could say, hey, you know what?
Speaker: That's my job.
Speaker: I need to go train myself.
Speaker: I need to go invest in myself in courses and mentorship, right?
Speaker: I need to take responsibility because that gives me the control to fix this problem.
Speaker: So above all, an entrepreneur, they value their time and they take responsibility and they see that opportunity, right?
Speaker: They value all of that stuff.
Speaker: And that's what's going to give you that key distinction in this industry.
Speaker: So let's jump into this.
Speaker: And Taylor could be, since he's kind of our lead man on marketing, right?
Speaker: I'm going to let him lead out on this one.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And so, yeah, we want to talk about what a solar premier is doing.
Speaker: And that's kind of what James and I have realized is that, yeah, we know how to knock doors, but really people don't know that there's many different ways of marketing, many different ways of doing things.
Speaker: So I know James has a lot of different ways.
Speaker: I've had some different ways of getting leads.
Speaker: But yeah, we really want to talk about in this podcast and a lot more in future episodes, just how to grab people's attention and really how to get these leads through different ways.
Speaker: I've been knocking doors for years and I'm not going to say that that's not an effective to get leads, but
Speaker: really becoming an entrepreneur and what a solopreneur is, is he can, he could take doors out of the equation and he could still have a pocket full of leads.
Speaker: That's what we're going to try and help people understand.
Speaker: There's more than one way of getting leads.
Speaker: We're going to help people grab that attention.
Speaker: We're going to be talking about sales funnels, which is something I've been doing a lot of to get leads.
Speaker: James has a ton of different ways he's getting leads.
Speaker: So we're going to help solopreneurs understand different ways of marketing, of grabbing people's attention, and just differentiating yourself from other solar people.
Speaker: Because I can speak for myself here in San Diego where I'm at right now.
Speaker: There's probably a thousand companies, if not more, selling solar.
Speaker: And the majority of them are knocking doors.
Speaker: So if I can do something that's different than knocking doors, that's different from what all the industry is doing, and that's really how I'm going to get out there and dominate is by learning different ways to market, different ways to grab the attention,
Speaker: really the person who can spend the most, acquire the lead, the person who can grab the attention and get the loudest, that's who's going to have the most success, I think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We'll obviously cover a lot more, but.
Speaker: No, exactly.
Speaker: I think, I think the word you said, Taylor, it's attention, right?
Speaker: That's what marketing is.
Speaker: I believe it's the study of human attention and how to grab it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: He who holds the most attention, right?
Speaker: The person who gets all of the attention, they're going to make the most money.
Speaker: That's the bottom line.
Speaker: If you've ever heard the saying, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right?
Speaker: It's pretty true.
Speaker: Yeah, you could get exposed as like a sleazeball or whatever.
Speaker: Like a politics and all that stuff, right?
Speaker: This time of year.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: attention is going to those people you can't doubt that they're making the most money they have the most exposure right and if you look and you pay attention to where people are gravitating right where they direct their time and their attention and energy towards
Speaker: it's not going to be traditional methods of advertising or marketing, right?
Speaker: Because here's the deal.
Speaker: When I say marketing to a company, and I don't even like to because it's almost like a bad word.
Speaker: Like they think of the same, like, uh, I'm just going to throw a bunch of money at some billboards or I'm going to make a commercial or a podcast commercial or something.
Speaker: Like, no, marketing is just where are people's attention?
Speaker: That's where I need to be.
Speaker: Where's my potential customer?
Speaker: That's where I need to hang out.
Speaker: So if we look at solar, right, where do homeowners hang out?
Speaker: Pretty much everywhere.
Speaker: Everyone else is hanging out, right?
Speaker: They're on their phone all day.
Speaker: They're on social media.
Speaker: They're watching YouTube.
Speaker: They're doing all these things.
Speaker: But you know where they're not spending as much time now?
Speaker: talking to people at the door, right?
Speaker: Or answering the phone and having conversations.
Speaker: People's attention is gravitating away from those traditional methods of lead generation.
Speaker: So that's why we are moving this, you know, these solopreneurs, people who want to make it in this industry towards...
Speaker: old school stuff to paying attention to where the market is and where they're going to put their energy time and ultimately where they put their wallet down, right?
Speaker: Because people vote with their wallet, right?
Speaker: They could say something's cool.
Speaker: Yeah, solar's the future, but they don't really think it's that cool until they're willing to say, all right, I'm doing this.
Speaker: I'm installing on my house.
Speaker: So that's what we're all about, helping you guys get those tools to grab the most attention.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, in my, in our hood here in San Diego, yeah, we're knocking plenty of doors.
Speaker: We're getting all that going.
Speaker: I'm closing definitely plenty, no shortage of deals to close from knocking doors.
Speaker: But the cool thing is once I figured out how to use leverage this technology, I started using sales funnels and boom up my game just that much set me apart.
Speaker: Cause I was not only getting leads from knocking doors, but
Speaker: from other setters in our company.
Speaker: Now I'm getting leads online too.
Speaker: So I think also Solopreneur is getting different lines of leads coming in, not just having one form of lead generation.
Speaker: You got several different forms.
Speaker: So if one gets cut off, I got more coming in.
Speaker: Cause once I had got this funnel going, boom, I get more and more leads coming through that.
Speaker: It's supplementing what my door knocking is doing.
Speaker: And then I was able to close it.
Speaker: I think it was three deals just off three weeks, just doing, throwing up a couple ads, got a funnel going and now I'm closing that many more deals than an average person.
Speaker: It adds up.
Speaker: It adds up to what Taylor's already doing.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: And that goes with our third topic here.
Speaker: Solopreneur is a salesperson, right?
Speaker: And what does it really mean to be a salesperson?
Speaker: It means that you know how to sell and persuade across all mediums and platforms.
Speaker: So it's exactly what Taylor said, right?
Speaker: Yes, you can still knock doors.
Speaker: I'm not a huge fan of it.
Speaker: It's not my favorite, but I can admit, I know guys that make a killing knocking doors, right?
Speaker: Especially in Southern California.
Speaker: But
Speaker: The guys who make even more money, more impact, they know how to sell on podcasts, right?
Speaker: Videos.
Speaker: They know how to be in person, right?
Speaker: They know how to do text on social media to create posts, how to be on the phone, how to close on the phone.
Speaker: They could do all of these different mediums.
Speaker: And here's the deal.
Speaker: This is where the sales industry is going over the next five years, okay?
Speaker: As AI technology comes in, as marketing technology comes on board and replaces solar people, the need for an in-person sales representative is going to go way down.
Speaker: I'm predicting five, seven years.
Speaker: Why do we need to have somebody go to someone's house?
Speaker: Already, there's companies that are selling solar online.
Speaker: You could go right now to somebody's website, get a quote, and they'll literally fly a drone out to your house to give a site survey.
Speaker: That's where the industry is moving right now.
Speaker: And as that picks up, why would I want to have a sales guy that doesn't even know stuff about his company come out to my house?
Speaker: Why the heck would I do that?
Speaker: It's a waste of my time, right?
Speaker: So we want to save you guys from that change.
Speaker: We want to help you realize that if you want to keep in this business, which you can and make a lot of money, you need to be able to conform to where people's attention is again.
Speaker: So again, mastering all mediums and platforms of selling is absolutely key.
Speaker: Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker: And I kind of, I've,
Speaker: I've probably dozens of stories about that deals I've missed just because I wasn't willing to adapt and use technology to my advantage.
Speaker: Just the other day I was with the homeowner, the wife sits down, but her husband wouldn't even come out, wouldn't even come out to meet with me.
Speaker: So yeah, we can do these in-person sales, but think of how many deals that, that are missed just by not adapting, just by not using these other means.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If I'm willing to follow up with these people, if I'm willing to even meet with them maybe digitally, because people these days, we got educated consumers here, people that are getting quotes online, people that are looking online that don't even want to think about meeting with someone face-to-face.
Speaker: So that's the power of this.
Speaker: If we're learning to master all these mediums, like James says, the podcasting, the video, all forms of advertising, all forms of attention,
Speaker: And just take responsibility for that.
Speaker: We're going to open up all these doors to reach not only people in households, but just people everywhere around the country.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Be able to get to everyone.
Speaker: So I think that's what it's about.
Speaker: A hundred percent, man.
Speaker: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: And I think the biggest problem next to training, right?
Speaker: It's the mindset of how sales professionals are behaving.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If you have the mindset of, Hey, I'm going to treat this job like a nine to five.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I'm just going to kind of go casually about it.
Speaker: I could tell you this, there's a really small chance of you making it in this industry.
Speaker: We talked about how you need to frame it as an entrepreneur, how you need to have that mindset.
Speaker: But you also need to have the mindset of taking responsibility for everything, like I said, again.
Speaker: But realize that it's your responsibility to close this prospect or your prospects on solar.
Speaker: And the reason is, I mean, imagine if you had the cure to cancer or some terrible disease, right?
Speaker: Would you feel the responsibility and the weight to go and help more people find that cure, right?
Speaker: I would be doing everything I could, right?
Speaker: I would like not be sleeping.
Speaker: I'd be doing everything possible.
Speaker: I'd be educating myself on how to get more attention so I could get this cure out to more people to impact them.
Speaker: And I think the main reason that solar professionals don't have this responsibility and they don't have that mindset is
Speaker: is they don't believe in their product.
Speaker: You need to believe and love your product.
Speaker: You need to think that your company and your product is the best thing since sliced bread because that enthusiasm and mindset is the only thing that's going to let you carry through all of the tough times, right?
Speaker: I wouldn't have made it past six months of not making anything in the industry if
Speaker: if I didn't have that love for the product and I didn't believe that solar was my responsibility to get out to people.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So having that responsibility and knowing that it's your job to get this message out to people.
Speaker: And if you don't do it, they might go with somebody else that has a less quality product,
Speaker: They might go with somebody else who's going to rip them off down the road.
Speaker: So you need to feel that weight and that pressure.
Speaker: And I think pressure, it gets a negative mentality in the sales industry.
Speaker: I think we, uh, we think, oh man, I can't handle high pressure.
Speaker: I can't live on commission.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But here's the deal.
Speaker: If you know how to leverage pressure and actually conform it to be your asset instead, you're
Speaker: That's where the true sales professional shines really.
Speaker: And that's the true mark of a guy who's making seven, eight figures a year.
Speaker: So he knows how to use pressure to his advantage.
Speaker: He knows how to use it to push him through the tough times when he doesn't want to go work.
Speaker: He doesn't want to knock doors.
Speaker: He doesn't want to build a funnel, all of the above, right?
Speaker: So the solopreneur is a master salesperson, knows it's his responsibility and he knows how to use pressure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Very important things.
Speaker: That reminds me, I h ad a sales coach, I think it was last year and he gave me a good, a little analogy that kind of applied to that.
Speaker: But he asked me once, he says, Taylor, if someone, if someone told you, I need you to get a million dollars by next week, how likely are you to get that million dollars?
Speaker: And I'm like, well, probably not very likely, super unrealistic.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But then he, then he asked me another question.
Speaker: He says, okay, um,
Speaker: Someone's the next question is, all right, your wife has, has cancer now.
Speaker: And someone comes to you and says, Taylor, your wife's going to die.
Speaker: I have the cure for your wife's cancer, but it's going to cost you a million dollars.
Speaker: And then he asked me how like you to get your million dollars now.
Speaker: And I said, okay, then I'll figure out a way.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Tony, Tony Robbins calls that burning the boats.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All options.
Speaker: No going back.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: So I think that's what James is going towards.
Speaker: I mean, you got to be confident in that.
Speaker: You got to burn those boats.
Speaker: You got to just do whatever it takes.
Speaker: And I mean, that's rule number one, have that conviction and have that drive to just keep learning what it takes.
Speaker: And that's what we're all about in the solopreneur movement.
Speaker: Burn those bridges, keep it moving, and then learn those techniques and do whatever it takes to close the deals.
Speaker: I think that's super important.
Speaker: Taylor, what would you say is the number one mindset that holds sales professionals back?
Speaker: What would you say?
Speaker: Like there's lack of training, but what would you say?
Speaker: Like the, what's in their head that's keeping them from having success?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I've seen is just people being content with being mediocre at things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've seen so many people just, okay, let's, let's close one deal.
Speaker: They'll go close one deal.
Speaker: May make,
Speaker: you know, a couple grand for the week and they're like, all right, they're just happy with it.
Speaker: So just being, you know, just wanting to settle for average, I've seen that hold a ton of people back.
Speaker: And that's something that I've had to learn too, is going through more and more training is just having that conviction and not, um,
Speaker: just not being willing to settle for average is moving forward.
Speaker: And as you, what's interesting is as I've learned to just not settle for that average, just giving me more drive to learn more, to learn these different ways of marketing, to learn these different ways of generating leads, better ways to close where other people that I've seen that get contents, if they're content with that, they're not going to be, they're not going to be interesting and learning one thing.
Speaker: in learning, uh, you know, different ways to close the deal, different ways to generate leads.
Speaker: They're content with just their one way of doing things.
Speaker: So I think that's what I've seen.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think exactly what we said before, the reason people are so content is they don't have the responsibility.
Speaker: They don't feel the weight that they need to go out and push other people to this next level.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If you feel that,
Speaker: I'm okay just taking care of my family, just paying the bills, right?
Speaker: You get what you tolerate.
Speaker: If I tolerate in my current circumstance, I'm going to stay there, right?
Speaker: So you've got to raise your standard, right?
Speaker: You've got to raise the level of thinking and how you define yourself.
Speaker: And that's what solopreneurs are, right?
Speaker: It's a definition.
Speaker: It's an identity.
Speaker: We want you to define yourself as I'm a solopreneur.
Speaker: I'm a professional marketer, salesperson, and entrepreneur that influences this entire industry for good.
Speaker: I have a higher level of excellence, right?
Speaker: I don't settle for mediocre results.
Speaker: I do the best and I 10 X my results.
Speaker: That's what a solar preneur is.
Speaker: So guys, I think we're, we're running low on time.
Speaker: If Taylor's got anything he wants to say here, I think we're going to go ahead and wrap this up here in a minute.
Speaker: But Taylor, what do you have anything you want to final words, man?
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So yeah, we just want to invite everyone to definitely give us your feedback.
Speaker: Let us know what you're thinking.
Speaker: Give us comments.
Speaker: But really, that's our vision and direction of the podcast.
Speaker: We're going to share our latest lead gen strategies, how to close deals better, how to master all forms of attention, and just really bring about this new revolution of solar salespeople.
Speaker: And we want to talk about just the frequency of this.
Speaker: This is episode 000.
Speaker: We plan on launching and we're going to go from our launch with three episodes to two times a week episodes of at least two times a week.
Speaker: So look forward to that and look forward to hearing.
Speaker: just more about this solopreneur movement.
Speaker: So with that, I think that's about a wrap, James.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Okay, guys.
Speaker: See you next week.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: What another amazing episode of the solopreneur podcast.
Speaker: Now, before we take off here, do us a favor and go leave an honest review on your platform of choice or wherever you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker: It helps us get the word out about the solopreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
Speaker: And hey, don't forget to head over to Facebook and join the solopreneur group for more daily content that's going to impact you and help you take your sales game to the next level.
Speaker: See you guys in the next episode.
