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Irrefutable Laws of Solar Leadership
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Leadership, especially in solar sales, is a two-way street that doesn't just involve leading the pack. This episode goes through principles that all leaders should keep refreshed and retained for anything that needs the effort of a team.
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Transcript
Introduction and Armstrong's Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Podcast Goals and Audience
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask? solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one. Hey, what's up, solarpreneurs?
Leadership in Solar Teams
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, we're gonna be going over four or five irrefutable laws of leadership and how you can apply them to your to your solar teams.
00:00:50
Speaker
So if you are trying to become a better leader or trying to step in into solar leadership or just up-level yourself, this podcast is for you. Welcome to the show. My name's Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry. If you're watching the video version of this,
00:01:09
Speaker
um no a customer did not punch me in the face uh my wife didn't punch me in the face it was from a little uh jujitsu training got kicked you're right in the face so have a little black eye going on so sorry not the prettiest face you're seeing on camera today but hey we're back at it we're showing up in the good and the bad and I got to make sure we bring you some fresh new contents to the house.
Training by Jake Ransom and Leadership Growth
00:01:35
Speaker
Hey, so ah this training we're talking about today on leadership, how we actually had a great little overview, a little training from one of my favorite leaders in solar. His name's Jake Ransom. Go shoot him a follow. We've had him on ah on the podcast.
00:01:51
Speaker
I think it was maybe six months ago. But he is a director over here at Legacy Power and someone that I've learned a lot about leadership in my time here. And he gave this little training today, thought he had some great points. So like, yeah, you know what?
00:02:06
Speaker
Let's ah expound on that. Let's talk a little bit in the podcast about some of these points. And I thought there were some great points to go over and things that we can really apply towards our teams, even if we're just leading one or two people. These are things that you need to start thinking about right away. Yes, I'm going to go over four or five points. These are from John Maxwell's books.
00:02:27
Speaker
I think most of them come from the 2021 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Great book. He also has another one, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. So check out...
00:02:38
Speaker
His books, he has some of the best books on leadership. Don't want to miss them. Okay, but here's some quotes from the book and here's just some of the points and then we're going to go one by one how we can apply them a little bit more in solar.
Servant Leadership and Team Recognition
00:02:52
Speaker
So the first one, a leader who produces other leaders multiplies their influence. So there's a big difference between just growing numbers numbers versus multiplying impact.
00:03:05
Speaker
I know for myself, it was a little bit different for me because my first, I don't know, five, six years in solar, I was at companies where it was just kind of like you recruit setters, you get a few people under you, you become a manager, and you're just growing, you're boosting your numbers. But um the point wasn't really to grow other leaders. It was more just like a build up a few setters, build increase our sales numbers. And that was that. Then we're on some correlations and we're, we're a leader after that.
00:03:34
Speaker
So big shift for me, as I've been with ah my current company legacy down here is they have a big emphasis on growing other leaders, right? And they even have a leadership training program called DNA, where it's like, um they call it leadership is in our blood.
00:03:50
Speaker
So they have metrics to get into DNA. And then it's all about growing other leaders. Because I think that's how big companies, they multiply their leadership and that's how they have extreme growth.
00:04:02
Speaker
So as I've been here, I've realized that's a key differentiating factor between a lot of the smaller dealers, smaller companies I was with. And then a company that is growing a lot is they're multiplying their leaders and they're constantly figuring out a way. How can we get this person to take the next step in the leadership? Who do we need to pour into that's going to be our next leader of a team? right And it's a mindset shift mindset shift I've had as well is i looking for other people who can step into leadership.
00:04:31
Speaker
Hey, so that's the first one. Leader who produces other leaders, multiplies their influence. okay The second quote is, um the bottom line in leadership isn't how far we advance ourselves, but how far we advance others.
00:04:44
Speaker
yeah And it goes right along with that. I've noticed that this time has gone on is um your reps, they notice if you're just doing things. for kind of a selfish old ulterior motive, right? They notice that. And I think times in my career, um I've had reps leave because they can see that, oh, this guy, he just wants, he's just doing these things. He's trying to advance into the next level.
00:05:07
Speaker
Even recently, I think I've done, um i could I've lost some reps where I think that's part of maybe why they left, just because they saw that I would pour into them. But... There's times where I didn't do great about serving them, about pouring into them. And then they've left because they've seen that ah maybe this guy, he doesn't care about me as much as I thought he did. It's just so he can advance to the next level.
00:05:29
Speaker
So good reminder for
Self-Value and Role Modeling
00:05:31
Speaker
myself and for anyone listening to this is make sure you come with that servant's mindset that it's not just about you advancing to the next level.
00:05:40
Speaker
It's about you all growing together because you will lose people. um You will not advance yourself as much. People will notice that, right? if If you want them to produce more and if they see that you just want that for you to get to the next level, then it's not going to work near as effectively. So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:06:03
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:06:14
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout, but it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market. It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in given neighborhood.
00:06:33
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:06:48
Speaker
So go to solar scout app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up. That's solar scout dot app forward slash Taylor.
00:07:00
Speaker
Okay. Back to the show. Yes. That's the second quote. Bottom line and leadership isn't how far we advance other ourselves, but how far we advance others. Okay. And then a few more here.
00:07:12
Speaker
ah Leaders add value by serving others. Okay. So this is just, you know, in general, we need to have that servant mindset.
00:07:22
Speaker
How are we serving our reps? So let's think of some practical examples. If you have, if you lead a few people, Are you checking in with them on a daily or almost daily basis?
00:07:35
Speaker
Hey, that's a way you can serve, right? I'm not a person that a lot of times I don't love being on the phone forever and ever, but I've seen a lot of guys, they feel their reps feel so valued because they can call them. They're being checked in with.
00:07:51
Speaker
and they know they feel important just because they're getting calls. Another way is just mentoring, recognition, listening, creating opportunities. Are you recognizing your rep? Even if you're leading a few few people, are you doing calls? Are you...
00:08:06
Speaker
maybe you have correlations couple times a week are you huddling up are you recognizing things people have done well something that has worked well for us is just recognizing people in correlations actually you know bringing people up having them stand up hey hopefully this is a standard thing but just recognizing people in front of others it can do so much good it makes people feel so important makes them feel valued So make sure as you are speaking in front of your teams, as you're leading your teams, you're bringing people up to the front, you're recognizing them. People love to feel valued, people love to feel recognized.
00:08:40
Speaker
And that's one way you can add value is by serving them, right? And by doing these doing things like that. The fourth one that I thought was really powerful And just to wrap up a few of these points, shorter podcast today, but how you value people determines how you lead people.
00:08:59
Speaker
Sorry, that was the second to last one. But the last one I wanted to hit on more than anything is you can't add value to others until you've learned to value yourself. So powerful stuff.
00:09:11
Speaker
um You need to value yourself. And for me, this is like leading from the front. This is like being confident in your own abilities. This is taking care of your stuff outside of cells, right? do you have someone that has your relationships figured out? Is your personal life a mess?
00:09:29
Speaker
um For me, I like following leaders where I see that they have... a lot of good things going in their life. They're not just making good money, but they have good relationships. If they're married, you know they spend time with their family, with their kids.
00:09:42
Speaker
They're not just crushing it in sales, but they're also really effective in faith, family, finance, fitness, right? We talk about in those orders. So for you as a leader, are you adding value to yourself?
00:09:55
Speaker
in those other areas. okay Take a look at yourself. Are you winning in multiple areas, not just in finances and sales? Because if your reps see you as someone that's just a mess in certain areas of their of your life, or if they see that you're not selling yourself,
00:10:13
Speaker
it's going to be really tough to lead others.
Challenge to Listeners and Engagement
00:10:15
Speaker
We recently lost a leader i'm over at our our company who was great at motivating motivating, inspiring. But his numbers were just really low, you know, a really low performer.
00:10:26
Speaker
He could talk the talk, but he was not performing at a very good level. And eventually it came back to bite him. He stepped away and he was was working well for about six months.
00:10:38
Speaker
But eventually, i think it caught up to him and um it made him less effective as time was on went on. So ask yourself, are you valuing valuing yourself?
00:10:48
Speaker
Do you see yourself as a leader? Would you follow yourself if you were rep looking up to that person? And hopefully the answer is yes. If not... take a look at what you can do better. Okay, so the challenge this week, as you listen this podcast, identify one person you can mentor or add value to this week.
00:11:07
Speaker
Even if you're not a so-called leader at your company, your opportunity, wherever you're yeah who can you mentor or add value to this week? And then ask yourself daily, did I add value to someone today?
00:11:18
Speaker
Great question to ask yourself. And did I add value to myself? So um ask yourself those things this week. If you follow these irrefutable principles of leadership, I promise you will become a better leader. It's something you constantly need to up-level yourselves in. If you're not reading books, if you're not listening to podcasts, if you're not trying to improve in ah different aspects, faith, family, finance, fitness, then it's going be very tough to lead others. It's going be very tough to expect them to do the same.
00:11:51
Speaker
One thing that I love about being a leader is I'm forced to make improvements. I'm forced to be at the top of my game. I'm forced to study more and forced to work more too. Because if I'm leading others, then I got to be out there, right? We got to be out getting in the hoods, getting in the turf with our team.
00:12:08
Speaker
And that's how we grow. So send this to someone that could use some help. ah being a more effective leader. Hopefully this helps someone today. Please send it, share it, spread it.
00:12:20
Speaker
And again, shoot me um any leaders that you want featured on the podcast. We got some exciting guests coming up Finally have a few in the books. So excited to share some guests we got coming up soon on the show. But please send me your topics, topic suggestions, your guest suggestions, and anything else, any other feedback you have about the show would love to hear it.
00:12:43
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in on the podcast today. Go crush some deals this week and we will see you on the next episode. What's up, solarpreneurs? Hope you enjoyed the episode. Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:13:03
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start? What episodes should I listen to in the podcast? You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:13:18
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and i would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solapreneur.
00:13:31
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet. So go download it right now. It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com. Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com. Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs. We will have that in the show notes. Go download it right now.
00:13:56
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them. That's going to show you how. So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.