Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Speaker: I teach you how to 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.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A 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.
Speaker: What's going on, Solarpreneurs?
Speaker: Today, we're going to be talking about one of the biggest reasons we fell in solar cells.
Speaker: Or if you're a religious person, I think this is one of the biggest ways that the devil attacks us in today's world.
Speaker: Okay, we're going to be talking about some pretty serious stuff here.
Speaker: Okay, but welcome to the show.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hope you're doing awesome.
Speaker: And don't worry, it's not going to get super serious.
Speaker: You know, we try to keep it lighthearted.
Speaker: But but hey, this is a topic that could make or break you in solar cells.
Speaker: And I think really in life.
Speaker: Okay, so we're going to be digging into that.
Speaker: Before we jump into the podcast, I wanted to thank a couple people.
Speaker: As you probably have heard on the recent podcast, we did a little giveaway for people that left us reviews, sent out a little gift for the person that hit 200 reviews.
Speaker: We are now at 204 reviews.
Speaker: readings on Apple podcasts.
Speaker: So thank you so much.
Speaker: If you were one of the people that's helped us reach this goal, it's been a goal of mine for a while to get 200 plus reviews.
Speaker: Podcast has been going, I think coming up on four years now.
Speaker: So it was definitely a goal I wanted to achieve and couldn't have done it without my peeps with my home dogs.
Speaker: Thank you guys so much.
Speaker: So recently we had a couple new ones.
Speaker: This one is from DMACCMO.
Speaker: It says, great work.
Speaker: I've been listening to this podcast for a couple of years.
Speaker: And even though it seems like I've been through it all in the solar world, every episode has something new and helps me out.
Speaker: I really appreciate what you do.
Speaker: Thank you so much, DMACC.
Speaker: We had one from Jay-Z Michigan, Solar Pro, been listening for a couple years, all good stuff, definitely worth your time, appreciate that.
Speaker: We had another one from Physics Smith, great value for new and experienced reps.
Speaker: One of the first podcasts recommended to me when I joined the solar industry and been full of great information and insight information.
Speaker: From easy to remember word tracks to deep dives on presentations and door approaches, this show covers all the bases for the solar industry.
Speaker: I appreciate all that I learned from here.
Speaker: So thank you guys so much.
Speaker: And really, this podcast would have stopped a long time ago if it weren't for people sharing the show, leaving reviews like this, shouting it out on...
Speaker: Instagram, social media.
Speaker: And also, as I mentioned last podcast, it's been really cool to see the people that have it in their top Spotify podcasts for the year.
Speaker: So appreciate it.
Speaker: Love you guys.
Speaker: And let's keep this industry afloat.
Speaker: Let's keep it rolling.
Speaker: Okay, so let's get into the topic today.
Speaker: And that is one of the biggest...
Speaker: I think ways that we lose in this industry are one of the biggest reasons people quit.
Speaker: And so before I tell you what that is, can I keep you on your toes here?
Speaker: I was listening to a book, give you a little book recommendation if you guys are looking for a book to read.
Speaker: I posted this on my Instagram the other day, but I recently started a book called Chop Wood, Carry Water.
Speaker: I forget who the author is.
Speaker: You can look it up, but it's only five bucks on Audible if you want to go get it.
Speaker: I was recommended this book by my friend Ashton Buswell.
Speaker: He is definitely, I think, one of the goats of the solar industry.
Speaker: He's been in solar since, I think, 2014.
Speaker: And just absolute beast of a salesman.
Speaker: Just belongs, I think, on the Mount Rushmore of solar, I would say.
Speaker: But he recommended this book to us.
Speaker: We had a little call with him, company call.
Speaker: And I've been listening to it.
Speaker: I'm not finished with it yet, but it's really cool.
Speaker: It's just a bunch of stories put together.
Speaker: A guy goes and trains with this like sensei in Japan.
Speaker: It's his dream to become like a samurai archer.
Speaker: So this whole book so far is just basically stories that his sensei is teaching him, just kind of life lessons.
Speaker: And a lot of them have to do with cells.
Speaker: A lot of them have to do with life.
Speaker: A lot of them have to do with business.
Speaker: Some of it, I think, is a stretch that a Japanese sensei is really teaching this guy stuff.
Speaker: And it gets, you know, kind of cheesy, I would say, that I wouldn't expect some of these stories.
Speaker: Like, they're talking about Kobe Bryant and stuff.
Speaker: So I'm thinking, I feel like they weren't going to be talking about Kobe.
Speaker: And it's kind of like Americanized.
Speaker: I'm like, if I'm in Japan at some dojo, I feel like I'm going to be in the middle of some monk village where
Speaker: They don't have anything and they don't even know who Kobe is.
Speaker: But anyways, good lessons nonetheless.
Speaker: So in, it's actually chapter 11.
Speaker: They told a funny little story that got me thinking.
Speaker: So the story is, you can go listen to it.
Speaker: He tells it better than I do.
Speaker: I think the author is Joshua Milton, now that I remember.
Speaker: But the story is, they're going on
Speaker: they're chopping wood, carrying water.
Speaker: He's kind of like Mr. Miyagi.
Speaker: Essentially, chopping wood, carrying water is their version of waxing on, waxing off before they get to the actual techniques.
Speaker: Just doing the basics, right?
Speaker: So as they're chopping wood, carrying water, it gets super hot.
Speaker: So the sensei's like, okay, you know what?
Speaker: We're going to the lake.
Speaker: We're going to go cool off.
Speaker: So while they're walking to the lake, he tells his student, he's like, hey, have you heard what evil's greatest tool is?
Speaker: And the student is like, no, let's hear it.
Speaker: So he goes on to tell this story, and you can go listen to it.
Speaker: But the basis of it is, he's like, there was a witch that was retiring from her witchcraft.
Speaker: Okay, I know.
Speaker: Intriguing title just right off the bat.
Speaker: Intriguing story.
Speaker: And since she was retiring, she decided to sell all her tools.
Speaker: So she's having a yard sale, selling all her potions, her whatever, witchcraftery, all this stuff.
Speaker: So she's selling, you know, the greed, the lust, the jealousy, adultery, just all the evils you can think of.
Speaker: And basically they're like, yeah, I'm picturing my head like,
Speaker: garden tools to have this magical power to make people greedy, lustful, whatever.
Speaker: So she sells pretty much all of them.
Speaker: And she gets to the end.
Speaker: And there's just a couple of tools left.
Speaker: And so the last tools, she has someone come and buy one.
Speaker: It's all like rusted, doesn't look that valuable.
Speaker: And she's like, oh, no, actually, you know what?
Speaker: This wasn't supposed to be here.
Speaker: No, no one's buying this tool.
Speaker: And the guy's like, that's weird.
Speaker: This one's like ancients.
Speaker: Seems like no one would want this.
Speaker: So she puts it back in her house, doesn't sell it.
Speaker: And then when she's on her deathbed, her niece comes and her niece is in witchcraft training.
Speaker: And the niece is like, hey, Andy, I want to be the greatest witch in the world.
Speaker: Why didn't you leave me any of your magical tools, your evil weapons?
Speaker: And she lets her like freak out for a little bit.
Speaker: And then basically she says, sweetie, go look under the bed.
Speaker: She puts this ancient tool that she didn't want to sell.
Speaker: And she goes on to tell her niece, this is the greatest evil weapon I have of all.
Speaker: And this is the tool of discouragement.
Speaker: So there you have it.
Speaker: So the story goes on to say that the niece took this evil sorcery of discouragement and
Speaker: went on to rule the world, became like the greatest witch the world has ever known because she used this evil tool of discouragement to discourage people from their dreams, to stop people from achieving greatness.
Speaker: She knew if she could get people discouraged, they were going to fail at everything they wanted in life.
Speaker: So that's the story.
Speaker: Hopefully it was groundbreaking.
Speaker: You can go listen to the chapter if you want to hear it more in depth.
Speaker: But it got me thinking,
Speaker: How many people get discouraged in solar cells?
Speaker: And I think discouragement really is the reason why people fell at this job.
Speaker: They quit.
Speaker: They don't achieve the goals that they set out to achieve in solar because they get discouraged.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so think about that.
Speaker: I went, I was just thinking my recent failures or recent times where I haven't achieved my goals.
Speaker: I think I shared on a recent podcast, we were in a competition and it didn't go my way.
Speaker: Let myself get discouraged.
Speaker: And I did way worse than I think I could have because let myself get in my head, got discouraged.
Speaker: Let that affect my attitude out on the doors, my attitude in my closes.
Speaker: discouraged because I h ave a cancel here and there.
Speaker: How many of us has been discouraged in our career and let it affect ourselves?
Speaker: So think about that in three specific ways that I know I have gotten discouraged.
Speaker: You probably have too.
Speaker: Number one is comparison.
Speaker: They say comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker: If we compare ourselves to other people that are crushing it, that are doing way better,
Speaker: which we're going to hear them on the podcast.
Speaker: Sometimes we can let ourselves get discouraged.
Speaker: This dude, he's been in the industry for six months.
Speaker: He closed like 20 deals this month.
Speaker: What's going on?
Speaker: I only closed six deals.
Speaker: I've been grinding.
Speaker: We let ourselves, we get that negative self-talk.
Speaker: We're going to get discouraged.
Speaker: So don't compare yourself with the top people in the industry.
Speaker: right we see guys like ricardo ritchie many people that have been on the show closing insane amounts of deals we need to compare ourselves with our version um our with with who we were last month that should be a comparison we make so that's number one the second way is focusing on the outcome instead of the input
Speaker: How many of us focus on the fact that we only closed six deals when we wanted to close 12?
Speaker: How about we focus on the inputs?
Speaker: Did we actually put in the hours?
Speaker: At the end of the day, if we put in the conversations, the hours, if we put in our input, then we got to be happy with the results.
Speaker: We got to accept the results that come from that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So instead of focusing on the results, the outcome, what was your inputs?
Speaker: And don't get discouraged by the end results if you actually do put in the inputs.
Speaker: And then number three, I think I know I've gotten discouraged many times when I let myself get too high or too low.
Speaker: And you've probably heard these things.
Speaker: You've probably gone through them yourselves.
Speaker: But if you are too high,
Speaker: then I've noticed I stopped pushing as hard.
Speaker: Some weeks I'll be on a streak where I got four or five deals by Wednesday.
Speaker: I get high and then I'm like, you know what?
Speaker: It's probably good.
Speaker: I can just work a half day.
Speaker: I want to spend time with my wife, my kids, which time and place for that, right?
Speaker: But if you're pushing for deals, you don't get too high.
Speaker: Because you never know, maybe those five deals all call the next day and cancel, then all of a sudden you're at zero.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So don't get too high.
Speaker: Don't get too low.
Speaker: A great example, I saw this.
Speaker: I was actually out knocking with one of my buddies, Mike, out here in San Diego.
Speaker: We had planned to meet up later in the afternoon, hit a couple doors together, all that.
Speaker: And we meet up
Speaker: And he's like, hey, so he ended up being late.
Speaker: He's like, hey, sorry, I'm late.
Speaker: Just got done closing my fifth deal.
Speaker: It's like four o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker: I'm like, you closed five deals today already?
Speaker: And yeah, he had closed five deals and he's still meeting up, heading out knocking.
Speaker: And in my head, I'm like, wow, if I close five deals, would I still come back?
Speaker: And he just got done driving an hour, I think.
Speaker: I'm like, would I still come back and go out and knock doors if I hit five deals on the day?
Speaker: And it just made me think, okay, this is what separates the contenders from the pretenders.
Speaker: They are never satisfied.
Speaker: Another example, my boy, uh, Caesar that I work with on our team, he closed 50 deals in a month.
Speaker: This is a couple months back.
Speaker: And we finished off a competition.
Speaker: We won our competition.
Speaker: Then the very next day, he posted a picture at 10 a.m.
Speaker: He was back out knocking doors.
Speaker: 10 a.m.
Speaker: the next day, training two new reps.
Speaker: I'm like, man, 50 deals on the month.
Speaker: Just got done grinding on an all-out blitz competition.
Speaker: And he's out 10 a.m.
Speaker: the next day, training two new reps.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: So it made me realize, like, I need to check myself.
Speaker: I need to make sure I'd be willing to do that because...
Speaker: When I first saw that, I realized right now I'm probably not willing to do that.
Speaker: If I close five deals in a day, I know I would be very tempted to go home
Speaker: but made me realize this is what the greats are doing.
Speaker: That's what separates the, you know, Michael Jordans from the rest, the Kobe Bryants from the rest.
Speaker: I'm listening to Tim Grover's Relentless book right now.
Speaker: Great book if you haven't listened to it, which, by the way, it's actually on Spotify.
Speaker: If you have Spotify, you can listen to a lot of audiobooks for free.
Speaker: So you can listen to that.
Speaker: I shouldn't, I guess, not free, but you have to have a Spotify account, right?
Speaker: Ten bucks a month.
Speaker: But you can go listen to Tim Grover's Relentless book.
Speaker: He talks about the cleaners, right?
Speaker: The cleaners are like the top 1%.
Speaker: They're the people that are willing to go the distance.
Speaker: They're the people that are never satisfied.
Speaker: The closers are good, but the cleaners are the greatest.
Speaker: The cleaners are the people that are going all out, that are closing 50 deals in a month and going out the next morning at 10 a.m.
Speaker: So I hope this helps.
Speaker: Don't let yourself get discouraged.
Speaker: That is the devil's greatest tool, I think, in anything great we want to achieve in life.
Speaker: That is the greatest reason that I see people quit in this industry.
Speaker: They get discouraged.
Speaker: So whenever you find yourself getting discouraged, just stop for a second, pause, pause,
Speaker: Take a deep breath.
Speaker: Realize you're getting discouraged and just reset, right?
Speaker: Try to let yourself get discouraged.
Speaker: I know maybe easier said than done, but maybe let yourself be discouraged for two minutes and then just let it roll off your back.
Speaker: Okay, so next episode, we're going to be having someone on that has, I think, mastered the art of creating a vision for himself in solar.
Speaker: This is someone that has been on the podcast, who's actually one of our, I think, first guests on the show, going back to Clear It In, I think 2019.
Speaker: But his name is Ty Williams.
Speaker: He is over the entire door-to-door division of Sunrun, which is biggest solar company right now.
Speaker: So make sure you tune into that.
Speaker: This guy is another one of the greats of the solar industry of door-to-door.
Speaker: You don't want to miss out when this guy speaks.
Speaker: People listen.
Speaker: So tune into next episode.
Speaker: We're going to be hearing from Ty Williams.
Speaker: But don't let yourself get discouraged.
Speaker: Hope that helps.
Speaker: Go crush it this week and we'll see you guys on the next episode.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
Speaker: What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day.
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
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Speaker: who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
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Speaker: We'll see you on the inside.
