Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
What Is A Solarpreneur? (Pilot Episode)
86 Plays7 years ago
Welcome to episode #1 of the Solarpreneur Podcast. For those of you that are transitioning over from the Seven Figure Solar podcast, we want to give you all a warm welcome and let you know that you're in the right place.
In this episode, solar entrepreneurs Taylor Armstrong and James Swiderski will be discussing the future of solar entrepreneurs and introduce this new movement of solar professionals.
Lastly, be sure to give us a review and share with a fellow solar professional so that we can get this message out to more people!
Enjoy!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
00:00:02
Speaker
My name's James Swiderski, and as always, here is my co-host, Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:08
Speaker
What's up, what's up?
00:00:09
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.
00:00:20
Speaker
So let's get into it.
00:00:22
Speaker
Look, in the solar business, there's really only two types of people.
00:00:25
Speaker
There's the ones that crush it, make six, seven, and eight figures, and then there's everyone else.
00:00:30
Speaker
The question is, which one would you be?
00:00:33
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.
00:00:44
Speaker
So how do these solarpreneurs do what they do and what makes them so successful?
00:00:50
Speaker
This podcast is your answer.
00:00:52
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.
00:01:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
Rebranding and Purpose of the Podcast
00:01:10
Speaker
Hey, what is up everybody?
00:01:12
Speaker
This is James Swiderski and I'm here with Taylor Armstrong here and welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast.
00:01:19
Speaker
We're excited to be here and as you can tell, this is episode number 000.
00:01:24
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.
00:01:40
Speaker
Perfect, man.
00:01:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:41
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.
00:01:48
Speaker
There's this new guy, Taylor, but we are totally rebranding it over to the solarpreneur podcast.
00:01:54
Speaker
I think it sounds way cooler.
00:01:55
Speaker
You could thank Taylor for that one.
00:01:58
Speaker
Um, so we're going to switch it over.
00:01:59
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.
00:02:06
Speaker
But before we get into that, we want to define, make sure this show is even
Taylor Armstrong's Journey
00:02:10
Speaker
right for you.
00:02:10
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.
00:02:20
Speaker
So Taylor, let's go ahead and define, man, who's this for?
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, let's get into that.
00:02:25
Speaker
So before that, I want to kind of introduce myself to Taylor.
00:02:32
Speaker
You guys.
00:02:33
Speaker
So I got, obviously we're doing a solar show, solar podcast, solarpreneur movement.
00:02:39
Speaker
So how I got into this, I joined the solar industry about two and a half years ago, been into it.
00:02:44
Speaker
I'm sure James will kind of share his story too.
00:02:48
Speaker
I got into it.
00:02:48
Speaker
I was in the door-to-door industry.
00:02:50
Speaker
I was doing pest control, pounding those doors.
00:02:53
Speaker
Two summers straight of that and made okay money.
00:02:56
Speaker
Not great.
00:02:57
Speaker
But then I went on my church mission, got that done, came back,
00:03:02
Speaker
And then I had a buddy from my mission.
00:03:05
Speaker
He was doing this whole solar gig.
00:03:07
Speaker
And I'm telling him, I'm like, man, let's get out.
00:03:09
Speaker
Let's go sell some pest control.
00:03:11
Speaker
You're going to kill it in this.
00:03:12
Speaker
And he's like, no, I think I'm doing solar.
00:03:15
Speaker
I mean, we're making big bucks doing solar.
00:03:18
Speaker
So I ended up happening.
00:03:18
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.
00:03:27
Speaker
And then I came back from went back to school that year.
00:03:31
Speaker
And I talked to my mission buddy again, who I'm sure I'll actually get on the podcast here soon.
00:03:37
Speaker
But he's like, man, I actually crushed it made a ton of ton of money over the summer.
00:03:41
Speaker
And then I asked him, I'm like, how much were you guys even knocking?
00:03:45
Speaker
And he goes, yeah, we were only knocking like four or five hours a day.
00:03:49
Speaker
And he shows me his paychecks and they're like double what I was getting for pest control.
00:03:53
Speaker
And I was out pounding the doors just eight plus hours a day, typical day as the pest control guys know.
00:04:01
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
James Swiderski's Story and Seven Figure Solar
00:04:11
Speaker
that.
00:04:11
Speaker
So that's kind of how I got into the whole solar industry.
00:04:15
Speaker
full solar gig.
00:04:16
Speaker
I've been doing that and now I'm actually here managing a team in San Diego for my company.
00:04:23
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.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, totally.
00:04:29
Speaker
And Taylor, for those of you who don't know, he is...
00:04:33
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.
00:04:40
Speaker
So he's the lead man.
00:04:41
Speaker
He's the man in charge for building online funnels, helping people get their marketing in charge.
00:04:46
Speaker
And we recently brought him on, and that's kind of where we came up with this.
00:04:50
Speaker
He had the idea for the solarpreneur name, kind of that movement.
00:04:53
Speaker
I liked it a lot, so much so I wanted to transition over everything over to go with him.
00:04:59
Speaker
That's kind of where we got started with this.
00:05:02
Speaker
Now, my story a little bit here.
00:05:05
Speaker
I started getting into sales and stuff before my mission.
00:05:09
Speaker
I also served an LDS mission as well.
00:05:12
Speaker
I went to Oregon over there, a little bit different, a little bit weird.
00:05:16
Speaker
I met a lot of solar people over there.
00:05:19
Speaker
That's when I was first introduced to solar.
00:05:20
Speaker
I saw people
00:05:22
Speaker
You know, putting it on the houses, thought it was crazy, especially in Oregon where it's not super sunny.
00:05:27
Speaker
You don't hear about that a ton.
00:05:29
Speaker
But I got into that, always have been into sales and entrepreneurship.
00:05:33
Speaker
That's first thing first, right?
00:05:35
Speaker
Always have wanted to own my own business, get good at sales for both financial reasons and impacting people, which is
00:05:41
Speaker
Really, that's what this whole movement is about.
00:05:44
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.
00:05:51
Speaker
So got back and I got into the solar industry.
00:05:54
Speaker
Didn't have any formal sales experience like door to door or direct selling, I guess we would call it.
00:06:01
Speaker
Got in with this company in Utah.
00:06:02
Speaker
They were a startup solar company.
00:06:04
Speaker
And they were just barely clearing a million dollars a year.
00:06:07
Speaker
Just very little in revenue.
00:06:10
Speaker
And I spent about six months working 60,
Defining a Solopreneur in Solar
00:06:13
Speaker
80-hour work weeks.
00:06:15
Speaker
And nothing came of it.
00:06:16
Speaker
Super frustrating.
00:06:17
Speaker
I was trying as hard as I could.
00:06:21
Speaker
felt like I was grinding myself out.
00:06:23
Speaker
And you know, a lot of people don't make it that far anyway.
00:06:26
Speaker
They don't stick it out for six months.
00:06:28
Speaker
They just say, Hey, this isn't for me.
00:06:30
Speaker
But my personality, you know, I'm like, okay, I started something.
00:06:32
Speaker
I got to finish it.
00:06:33
Speaker
I got to figure this out.
00:06:35
Speaker
So I go about six months and I run into one of my mentors.
00:06:38
Speaker
He's over on the New York team with his company.
00:06:41
Speaker
Um, his name is Richie.
00:06:42
Speaker
Um, and he had been clearing over seven figures a year selling solar in commissions.
00:06:48
Speaker
So I
00:06:49
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.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I was like, what the heck is this guy doing?
00:06:59
Speaker
Like crazy.
00:07:00
Speaker
Similar to how Taylor was talking about with his buddy in pest control.
00:07:04
Speaker
I was just kind of boggled.
00:07:06
Speaker
I was like, how is that possible?
00:07:07
Speaker
Like I'm working maximum hours.
00:07:10
Speaker
I can't work anymore.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I'm not even making a paycheck barely.
00:07:14
Speaker
And he's like, okay, look, James, this is what you're doing wrong.
00:07:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:18
Speaker
He highlighted, you know, he walked me through, he became my mentor over the next year or so.
00:07:23
Speaker
And I still talk to him quite a bit and totally changed the game for me.
00:07:27
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.
00:07:37
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.
00:07:46
Speaker
And it was all due to the concepts and the strategies we're going to talk about in this show.
00:07:51
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.
00:08:13
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.
00:08:22
Speaker
And hopefully we're going to be able to bring a lot of knowledge and value to you guys here.
00:08:25
Speaker
And kind of today's episode, what we want to talk about is who
00:08:29
Speaker
what is a solopreneur or who is a solopreneur, right?
00:08:33
Speaker
How do we define them and how do we become solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and sales professionals in the solar industry?
00:08:40
Speaker
So to get started, man, I mean, Taylor, what would you say a solopreneur is in your own words?
00:08:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think solarpreneurs, it's just this new generation of solar salespeople.
00:08:54
Speaker
I think James would agree.
00:08:55
Speaker
There's a need for more solar-specific sales training for sure.
00:09:00
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
00:09:12
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.
00:09:27
Speaker
And for me, that's what a solopreneur is all about.
00:09:30
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.
00:09:38
Speaker
As solar salespeople, we need to transition to do the same.
00:09:41
Speaker
We need to learn the marketing piece of it.
00:09:42
Speaker
We need to learn the closing.
00:09:44
Speaker
We need to learn the follow-up.
00:09:46
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.
00:09:53
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
Equipping Solarpreneurs for Success
00:10:07
Speaker
ways.
00:10:07
Speaker
So for me, that's what this solopreneur thing is about.
00:10:11
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.
00:10:21
Speaker
all the different ways we can close deals, follow up and generate leads through being a solar sales person.
00:10:28
Speaker
Cool.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:30
Speaker
Awesome.
00:10:30
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,
00:10:39
Speaker
to make solar happen, to put more solar on more people's homes.
00:10:43
Speaker
And if you think about it, right, there's a lot of variables in a sales process.
00:10:49
Speaker
You can't simply only knock doors and do that and put a ton of solar on people's houses.
00:10:54
Speaker
You have to have a back end to that.
00:10:56
Speaker
We have to get people's attention.
00:10:57
Speaker
We have to build brands.
00:10:59
Speaker
We have to market ourselves.
00:11:01
Speaker
We have to follow through with the deal, right?
00:11:03
Speaker
There's so many variables to that.
00:11:06
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
00:11:16
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.
00:11:29
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?
00:11:38
Speaker
How to make a six, seven, and eight figure income in this industry.
00:11:41
Speaker
That's all entirely possible with what we're going to talk about.
00:11:47
Speaker
To get into this, we want to highlight a few things that a solopreneur is.
00:11:51
Speaker
For us, a solopreneur is an entrepreneur first.
00:11:55
Speaker
They're an entrepreneur who's looking to innovate in the solar industry.
00:11:59
Speaker
They're looking to do something different and they want to impact more people.
00:12:03
Speaker
Next is they're a marketer.
00:12:04
Speaker
They understand human psychology, attention, how we could generate more business without having to grind ourselves out every week.
00:12:14
Speaker
And then third, they're a sales professional.
00:12:16
Speaker
They understand that without closing, nobody's going to benefit from the transaction.
00:12:21
Speaker
And really, whether you're in the industry right now or
00:12:25
Speaker
you are just looking for a change, right?
00:12:27
Speaker
A change of your career.
00:12:29
Speaker
This podcast is going to be for that.
00:12:30
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.
00:12:40
Speaker
So what is an entrepreneur?
00:12:41
Speaker
What would you say, Taylor?
00:12:42
Speaker
Let me pass the buck to you.
00:12:44
Speaker
What do you think an entrepreneur is?
00:12:46
Speaker
How would you define it?
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think entrepreneur just...
00:12:51
Speaker
obviously a leader, someone who knows all aspects of the business.
00:12:56
Speaker
James and I, we follow a guy called Steve Larson as well.
00:13:00
Speaker
And he talks about how you should never hire
00:13:03
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.
00:13:11
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.
00:13:26
Speaker
was trying to figure out how to use all this technology and I was launching things.
00:13:30
Speaker
And then I found that it lined up very similar with what James was trying to do with seven figure solar.
00:13:37
Speaker
And then we just kind of collaborated on these ideas and we realized, okay, this is awesome.
00:13:43
Speaker
We can start the movement.
00:13:45
Speaker
we can just collaborate on things together and really help this new generation of solar salespeople know how to master the digital aspects.
00:13:54
Speaker
I think every company,
00:13:56
Speaker
I can speak for my company, that's for sure.
00:13:58
Speaker
I mean, they'll teach me how to go knock doors.
00:14:02
Speaker
They'll teach me how to do, you know, these little sales tactics, things like that.
00:14:07
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,
00:14:18
Speaker
I need to figure out how to be an entrepreneur first and really master all these things.
00:14:23
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.
00:14:40
Speaker
So I think that's what Seven Figure Solar is about.
00:14:42
Speaker
And I think that's what we're trying to teach as entrepreneurs and solarpreneurs.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, you know, Taylor, your company is actually a little bit more on the rare side.
00:14:54
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.
00:15:03
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?
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:15
Speaker
Sales guys figure out pretty quickly like, whoa, solar may be an easier sale, but this is not easy.
00:15:21
Speaker
This is not easy at all.
00:15:22
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.
00:15:32
Speaker
Solar is a big purchase.
00:15:34
Speaker
I would say it's the third biggest purchase.
00:15:36
Speaker
It's next to a car and a house that people will make in their lifetime.
00:15:40
Speaker
it's a lot of work, right?
00:15:41
Speaker
It's you have to have some pretty decent persuasion skills, good marketing skills to be able to close that deal.
00:15:48
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.
00:15:55
Speaker
So for me, really, an entrepreneur is this definition, it's someone who sees an opportunity to solve a problem.
00:16:03
Speaker
And they'll stop at nothing, they'll be relentless to fix this problem.
00:16:07
Speaker
entrepreneurs are problem solvers first.
00:16:10
Speaker
I think Taylor can agree that we're here to solve problems in the industry.
00:16:16
Speaker
So I started my company, right?
00:16:17
Speaker
That's why we started this.
00:16:18
Speaker
We noticed a problem that sales professionals are left without tools, training, and needed mentorship to make it in this industry.
00:16:27
Speaker
And not just to clear 30, 40 grand a year, but
00:16:30
Speaker
So you make six, seven, eight figures a year.
00:16:32
Speaker
That's what we're talking about.
00:16:34
Speaker
So an entrepreneur sees a problem, they fix it, but they also recognize the trend and opportunity before it happens.
00:16:42
Speaker
So I think this is key.
00:16:43
Speaker
Right now, solar...
00:16:45
Speaker
it's picking up, it's getting more hot day by day, right?
00:16:48
Speaker
Dozens of companies are starting on almost a weekly basis.
00:16:52
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?
00:17:02
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,
00:17:14
Speaker
That's key, right?
00:17:15
Speaker
You need to be able to understand that.
00:17:17
Speaker
Take like Facebook, for example, or Twitter or like Airbnb or something, right?
The Future of the Solar Industry
00:17:25
Speaker
If you were to recognize these companies when they first launched and invested all of your money into that,
00:17:31
Speaker
you'd be rolling in the dough, right?
00:17:33
Speaker
You would have made millions, tens of millions of dollars off of these investments.
00:17:37
Speaker
And it's those early adopters, the people that recognize the trends, those are the true entrepreneurs in my eyes.
00:17:43
Speaker
So I recognize solar is that early opportunity.
00:17:46
Speaker
It's the future of where the energy industry is going.
00:17:51
Speaker
And the energy industry, it's a multi-trillion dollar industry.
00:17:55
Speaker
I mean, no shortage of money and capital there.
00:17:59
Speaker
So I think, I think it's really recognizing a trend.
00:18:02
Speaker
Did you have something you want to say, Taylor?
00:18:03
Speaker
For sure.
00:18:04
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.
00:18:15
Speaker
So it's sad to me.
00:18:16
Speaker
I've seen time and time with entrepreneurs.
00:18:18
Speaker
with dozens of companies is they hire all these new sales reps and they send them out to the doors.
00:18:26
Speaker
And like James said, I am lucky that I do get company that gives training and all that, but,
00:18:31
Speaker
So many people don't have the training, don't have the technology to be able to function out there.
00:18:35
Speaker
And I think it's because they're not learning how to be entrepreneurs first.
00:18:39
Speaker
They're not learning.
00:18:40
Speaker
They're not knowing what it takes.
00:18:42
Speaker
They're not getting the exact training.
00:18:44
Speaker
That's the goal of this podcast.
00:18:45
Speaker
Just give people that training, get the expectations.
00:18:50
Speaker
And I think it's going to help not only entire companies, but just all that turnoff.
00:18:55
Speaker
Cause I've seen it at times, even in my own company, I've seen,
00:18:59
Speaker
People come, people quit.
00:19:00
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.
00:19:07
Speaker
Taylor, so would you say training is the biggest thing that most sales professionals are lacking in this industry?
00:19:15
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's huge.
00:19:17
Speaker
And we've all done, I mean, both James and I, we've done the Cardone University.
00:19:21
Speaker
We've done the sales trainings.
00:19:23
Speaker
You name it.
00:19:24
Speaker
We've done that.
00:19:24
Speaker
But I think you'd agree.
00:19:26
Speaker
There's not really like solar specific training.
00:19:28
Speaker
And that's what we're trying to fill.
00:19:30
Speaker
We're trying to create this, fill this void because there's no solar specific training.
00:19:35
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff that's new to the industry.
00:19:38
Speaker
And guys, you know what it comes down to though?
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, there's lack of training, but...
00:19:42
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.
00:19:52
Speaker
And that's what an entrepreneur does.
00:19:54
Speaker
They take responsibility for lack of training.
00:19:57
Speaker
Meaning, yeah, I could go and say, oh man, my company didn't train me how to do anything but knock doors.
00:20:04
Speaker
Or I could say, hey, you know what?
00:20:06
Speaker
That's my job.
00:20:07
Speaker
I need to go train myself.
00:20:09
Speaker
I need to go invest in myself in courses and mentorship, right?
00:20:13
Speaker
I need to take responsibility because that gives me the control to fix this problem.
00:20:18
Speaker
So above all, an entrepreneur, they value their time and they take responsibility and they see that opportunity, right?
00:20:25
Speaker
They value all of that stuff.
Marketing and Lead Generation Strategies
00:20:27
Speaker
And that's what's going to give you that key distinction in this industry.
00:20:30
Speaker
So let's jump into this.
00:20:33
Speaker
And Taylor could be, since he's kind of our lead man on marketing, right?
00:20:37
Speaker
I'm going to let him lead out on this one.
00:20:40
Speaker
For sure.
00:20:41
Speaker
And so, yeah, we want to talk about what a solar premier is doing.
00:20:44
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.
00:20:56
Speaker
So I know James has a lot of different ways.
00:20:58
Speaker
I've had some different ways of getting leads.
00:21:01
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.
00:21:14
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
00:21:19
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.
00:21:29
Speaker
That's what we're going to try and help people understand.
00:21:31
Speaker
There's more than one way of getting leads.
00:21:34
Speaker
We're going to help people grab that attention.
00:21:36
Speaker
We're going to be talking about sales funnels, which is something I've been doing a lot of to get leads.
00:21:42
Speaker
James has a ton of different ways he's getting leads.
00:21:44
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.
00:21:56
Speaker
Because I can speak for myself here in San Diego where I'm at right now.
00:22:01
Speaker
There's probably a thousand companies, if not more, selling solar.
00:22:07
Speaker
And the majority of them are knocking doors.
00:22:10
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,
00:22:24
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.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:32
Speaker
We'll obviously cover a lot more, but.
00:22:34
Speaker
No, exactly.
00:22:35
Speaker
I think, I think the word you said, Taylor, it's attention, right?
00:22:39
Speaker
That's what marketing is.
00:22:40
Speaker
I believe it's the study of human attention and how to grab it.
00:22:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:45
Speaker
He who holds the most attention, right?
00:22:47
Speaker
The person who gets all of the attention, they're going to make the most money.
00:22:50
Speaker
That's the bottom line.
00:22:52
Speaker
If you've ever heard the saying, there's no such thing as bad publicity, right?
00:22:57
Speaker
It's pretty true.
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah, you could get exposed as like a sleazeball or whatever.
00:23:01
Speaker
Like a politics and all that stuff, right?
00:23:04
Speaker
This time of year.
00:23:05
Speaker
But...
00:23:07
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
00:23:22
Speaker
it's not going to be traditional methods of advertising or marketing, right?
00:23:27
Speaker
Because here's the deal.
00:23:28
Speaker
When I say marketing to a company, and I don't even like to because it's almost like a bad word.
00:23:33
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.
00:23:44
Speaker
Like, no, marketing is just where are people's attention?
00:23:47
Speaker
That's where I need to be.
00:23:48
Speaker
Where's my potential customer?
00:23:50
Speaker
That's where I need to hang out.
00:23:51
Speaker
So if we look at solar, right, where do homeowners hang out?
00:23:55
Speaker
Pretty much everywhere.
00:23:57
Speaker
Everyone else is hanging out, right?
00:23:59
Speaker
They're on their phone all day.
00:24:00
Speaker
They're on social media.
00:24:02
Speaker
They're watching YouTube.
00:24:05
Speaker
They're doing all these things.
00:24:06
Speaker
But you know where they're not spending as much time now?
00:24:10
Speaker
talking to people at the door, right?
00:24:12
Speaker
Or answering the phone and having conversations.
00:24:15
Speaker
People's attention is gravitating away from those traditional methods of lead generation.
00:24:20
Speaker
So that's why we are moving this, you know, these solopreneurs, people who want to make it in this industry towards...
00:24:27
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?
00:24:37
Speaker
Because people vote with their wallet, right?
00:24:39
Speaker
They could say something's cool.
00:24:41
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.
00:24:47
Speaker
I'm installing on my house.
00:24:49
Speaker
So that's what we're all about, helping you guys get those tools to grab the most attention.
00:24:55
Speaker
Exactly.
00:24:56
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, in my, in our hood here in San Diego, yeah, we're knocking plenty of doors.
00:25:03
Speaker
We're getting all that going.
00:25:04
Speaker
I'm closing definitely plenty, no shortage of deals to close from knocking doors.
00:25:09
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.
00:25:19
Speaker
Cause I was not only getting leads from knocking doors, but
00:25:22
Speaker
from other setters in our company.
00:25:24
Speaker
Now I'm getting leads online too.
00:25:27
Speaker
So I think also Solopreneur is getting different lines of leads coming in, not just having one form of lead generation.
00:25:34
Speaker
You got several different forms.
00:25:36
Speaker
So if one gets cut off, I got more coming in.
00:25:39
Speaker
Cause once I had got this funnel going, boom, I get more and more leads coming through that.
00:25:44
Speaker
It's supplementing what my door knocking is doing.
00:25:46
Speaker
And then I was able to close it.
00:25:48
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.
00:25:58
Speaker
It adds up.
00:25:59
Speaker
It adds up to what Taylor's already doing.
00:26:01
Speaker
A hundred percent.
00:26:02
Speaker
And that goes with our third topic here.
00:26:05
Speaker
Solopreneur is a salesperson, right?
00:26:07
Speaker
And what does it really mean to be a salesperson?
00:26:10
Speaker
It means that you know how to sell and persuade across all mediums and platforms.
00:26:15
Speaker
So it's exactly what Taylor said, right?
00:26:17
Speaker
Yes, you can still knock doors.
00:26:19
Speaker
I'm not a huge fan of it.
00:26:20
Speaker
It's not my favorite, but I can admit, I know guys that make a killing knocking doors, right?
00:26:25
Speaker
Especially in Southern California.
00:26:27
Speaker
But
00:26:28
Speaker
The guys who make even more money, more impact, they know how to sell on podcasts, right?
00:26:33
Speaker
Videos.
00:26:34
Speaker
They know how to be in person, right?
00:26:36
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.
00:26:43
Speaker
They could do all of these different mediums.
00:26:45
Speaker
And here's the deal.
00:26:46
Speaker
This is where the sales industry is going over the next five years, okay?
00:26:50
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.
00:27:03
Speaker
I'm predicting five, seven years.
00:27:05
Speaker
Why do we need to have somebody go to someone's house?
00:27:07
Speaker
Already, there's companies that are selling solar online.
00:27:11
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.
00:27:19
Speaker
That's where the industry is moving right now.
00:27:21
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?
Mindset and Excellence in Solar Sales
00:27:27
Speaker
Why the heck would I do that?
00:27:28
Speaker
It's a waste of my time, right?
00:27:30
Speaker
So we want to save you guys from that change.
00:27:32
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.
00:27:42
Speaker
So again, mastering all mediums and platforms of selling is absolutely key.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge.
00:27:50
Speaker
And I kind of, I've,
00:27:52
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.
00:28:00
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.
00:28:09
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.
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:19
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.
00:28:36
Speaker
So that's the power of this.
00:28:37
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,
00:28:47
Speaker
And just take responsibility for that.
00:28:49
Speaker
We're going to open up all these doors to reach not only people in households, but just people everywhere around the country.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:58
Speaker
Be able to get to everyone.
00:28:59
Speaker
So I think that's what it's about.
00:29:01
Speaker
A hundred percent, man.
00:29:02
Speaker
I couldn't agree more.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I think the biggest problem next to training, right?
00:29:06
Speaker
It's the mindset of how sales professionals are behaving.
00:29:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:11
Speaker
If you have the mindset of, Hey, I'm going to treat this job like a nine to five.
00:29:16
Speaker
Right.
00:29:16
Speaker
And I'm just going to kind of go casually about it.
00:29:19
Speaker
I could tell you this, there's a really small chance of you making it in this industry.
00:29:24
Speaker
We talked about how you need to frame it as an entrepreneur, how you need to have that mindset.
00:29:28
Speaker
But you also need to have the mindset of taking responsibility for everything, like I said, again.
00:29:34
Speaker
But realize that it's your responsibility to close this prospect or your prospects on solar.
00:29:42
Speaker
And the reason is, I mean, imagine if you had the cure to cancer or some terrible disease, right?
00:29:49
Speaker
Would you feel the responsibility and the weight to go and help more people find that cure, right?
00:29:56
Speaker
I would be doing everything I could, right?
00:29:58
Speaker
I would like not be sleeping.
00:30:00
Speaker
I'd be doing everything possible.
00:30:01
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.
00:30:08
Speaker
And I think the main reason that solar professionals don't have this responsibility and they don't have that mindset is
00:30:16
Speaker
is they don't believe in their product.
00:30:18
Speaker
You need to believe and love your product.
00:30:21
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?
00:30:33
Speaker
I wouldn't have made it past six months of not making anything in the industry if
00:30:37
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.
00:30:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:45
Speaker
So having that responsibility and knowing that it's your job to get this message out to people.
00:30:52
Speaker
And if you don't do it, they might go with somebody else that has a less quality product,
00:30:57
Speaker
They might go with somebody else who's going to rip them off down the road.
00:31:00
Speaker
So you need to feel that weight and that pressure.
00:31:03
Speaker
And I think pressure, it gets a negative mentality in the sales industry.
00:31:08
Speaker
I think we, uh, we think, oh man, I can't handle high pressure.
00:31:11
Speaker
I can't live on commission.
00:31:13
Speaker
Right.
00:31:13
Speaker
But here's the deal.
00:31:14
Speaker
If you know how to leverage pressure and actually conform it to be your asset instead, you're
00:31:20
Speaker
That's where the true sales professional shines really.
00:31:24
Speaker
And that's the true mark of a guy who's making seven, eight figures a year.
00:31:27
Speaker
So he knows how to use pressure to his advantage.
00:31:30
Speaker
He knows how to use it to push him through the tough times when he doesn't want to go work.
00:31:34
Speaker
He doesn't want to knock doors.
00:31:36
Speaker
He doesn't want to build a funnel, all of the above, right?
00:31:39
Speaker
So the solopreneur is a master salesperson, knows it's his responsibility and he knows how to use pressure.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:48
Speaker
Very important things.
00:31:50
Speaker
That reminds me, I had a sales coach, I think it was last year and he gave me a good, a little analogy that kind of applied to that.
00:31:58
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?
00:32:08
Speaker
And I'm like, well, probably not very likely, super unrealistic.
00:32:12
Speaker
Right.
00:32:13
Speaker
But then he, then he asked me another question.
00:32:15
Speaker
He says, okay, um,
00:32:18
Speaker
Someone's the next question is, all right, your wife has, has cancer now.
00:32:23
Speaker
And someone comes to you and says, Taylor, your wife's going to die.
00:32:26
Speaker
I have the cure for your wife's cancer, but it's going to cost you a million dollars.
00:32:32
Speaker
And then he asked me how like you to get your million dollars now.
00:32:36
Speaker
And I said, okay, then I'll figure out a way.
00:32:39
Speaker
Right.
00:32:39
Speaker
Tony, Tony Robbins calls that burning the boats.
00:32:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:43
Speaker
All options.
00:32:44
Speaker
No going back.
00:32:45
Speaker
I know.
00:32:46
Speaker
So I think that's what James is going towards.
00:32:48
Speaker
I mean, you got to be confident in that.
00:32:50
Speaker
You got to burn those boats.
00:32:52
Speaker
You got to just do whatever it takes.
00:32:55
Speaker
And I mean, that's rule number one, have that conviction and have that drive to just keep learning what it takes.
00:33:04
Speaker
And that's what we're all about in the solopreneur movement.
00:33:07
Speaker
Burn those bridges, keep it moving, and then learn those techniques and do whatever it takes to close the deals.
00:33:14
Speaker
I think that's super important.
00:33:16
Speaker
Taylor, what would you say is the number one mindset that holds sales professionals back?
00:33:22
Speaker
What would you say?
00:33:23
Speaker
Like there's lack of training, but what would you say?
00:33:24
Speaker
Like the, what's in their head that's keeping them from having success?
00:33:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:29
Speaker
What I've seen is just people being content with being mediocre at things.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:36
Speaker
I've seen so many people just, okay, let's, let's close one deal.
00:33:40
Speaker
They'll go close one deal.
00:33:42
Speaker
May make,
00:33:43
Speaker
you know, a couple grand for the week and they're like, all right, they're just happy with it.
00:33:47
Speaker
So just being, you know, just wanting to settle for average, I've seen that hold a ton of people back.
00:33:55
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,
00:34:04
Speaker
just not being willing to settle for average is moving forward.
00:34:08
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.
00:34:33
Speaker
in learning, uh, you know, different ways to close the deal, different ways to generate leads.
00:34:38
Speaker
They're content with just their one way of doing things.
00:34:41
Speaker
So I think that's what I've seen.
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:43
Speaker
And I think exactly what we said before, the reason people are so content is they don't have the responsibility.
00:34:49
Speaker
They don't feel the weight that they need to go out and push other people to this next level.
00:34:54
Speaker
Right.
00:34:55
Speaker
If you feel that,
00:34:56
Speaker
I'm okay just taking care of my family, just paying the bills, right?
00:35:00
Speaker
You get what you tolerate.
00:35:02
Speaker
If I tolerate in my current circumstance, I'm going to stay
Conclusion and Call for Feedback
00:35:06
Speaker
there, right?
00:35:06
Speaker
So you've got to raise your standard, right?
00:35:08
Speaker
You've got to raise the level of thinking and how you define yourself.
00:35:13
Speaker
And that's what solopreneurs are, right?
00:35:16
Speaker
It's a definition.
00:35:17
Speaker
It's an identity.
00:35:19
Speaker
We want you to define yourself as I'm a solopreneur.
00:35:23
Speaker
I'm a professional marketer, salesperson, and entrepreneur that influences this entire industry for good.
00:35:30
Speaker
I have a higher level of excellence, right?
00:35:33
Speaker
I don't settle for mediocre results.
00:35:35
Speaker
I do the best and I 10 X my results.
00:35:38
Speaker
That's what a solar preneur is.
00:35:40
Speaker
So guys, I think we're, we're running low on time.
00:35:43
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.
00:35:48
Speaker
But Taylor, what do you have anything you want to final words, man?
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:35:52
Speaker
So yeah, we just want to invite everyone to definitely give us your feedback.
00:35:58
Speaker
Let us know what you're thinking.
00:35:59
Speaker
Give us comments.
00:36:00
Speaker
But really, that's our vision and direction of the podcast.
00:36:03
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.
00:36:16
Speaker
And we want to talk about just the frequency of this.
00:36:19
Speaker
This is episode 000.
00:36:22
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.
00:36:33
Speaker
So look forward to that and look forward to hearing.
00:36:38
Speaker
just more about this solopreneur movement.
00:36:41
Speaker
So with that, I think that's about a wrap, James.
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:46
Speaker
Awesome.
00:36:47
Speaker
Okay, guys.
00:36:47
Speaker
See you next week.
00:36:48
Speaker
Wow.
00:36:49
Speaker
What another amazing episode of the solopreneur podcast.
00:36:53
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.
00:37:01
Speaker
It helps us get the word out about the solopreneur movement and impact more entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and marketers just like you.
00:37:10
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.
00:37:20
Speaker
See you guys in the next episode.