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The #1 Source of Leads that People Forget About
47 Plays4 years ago
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's going on. Solars Taylor Armstrong here, your host, back with another episode, we're coming up on Christmas at the time of this recording. So if you're listening to this, when it's first coming out, Merry Christmas to you, hopefully you have a great day of no, so and So okay. You can take a break on Christmas, but if you're listening to this after the fact happy new year or happy summer, whenever you're listening to this hope you are having a prosperous year and are dominating. So today we're gonna keep it a little bit interesting and forgot to do my usual. We're here to help you generate more leads, referrals, and have a better time in the industry. So, sorry, I forgot about that, but we're gonna jump right into it. And first, before getting the content just need to say we are not going to have an episode on Friday if you're listening to this when it comes out because Friday's Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Okay. And I'm about you. But I typically don't listen to a ton of podcasts on Christmas Eve. So we're gonna take it a, we're going to take a day off and bring it to you the following Tuesday. So next Tuesday, we are releasing the interview with the one and only Michelle Lowry. She calls herself the queen of door to door. I think I'm getting that right, but fantastic episode we had with her. We're gonna be previewing that a little bit today, getting you excited for it. So for now we're keeping it here. Hope you have a great holidays. So the topic of 10 day is just really alternative Legion. And it got me thinking, I am going to Utah for the holidays. I'm leaving on the 23rd of December. I'm gonna be there for about a week, week and a half, and knock gonna be, you know, knocking on doors during that time.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So how can you still be, be generating leads? And the reason I started thinking about this is because I heard from Michelle, Rishi is in the power organization, which if you haven't heard of power you love him. You hate him. There's a lot of people that hate power. Okay. It's basically kind of a network marketing in solar. They get their recruits kind of have it be a downline, like the network marketing organizations. So a lot of pros to it. Some people hate that model. A, but I know though there's guys crushing it, having a ton of success too. And what's really interesting about what they do is not a ton of 'em door knock. And there's something to say. Some of 'em maybe don't see as much success as they could. If they were door knocking for the listeners of the podcast. First premier peeps.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You probably heard me talk more than anything about door knocking, just because I think that's the single best way to go out there and get leads. You can start as a beginner day one, go out and set a same day appointment knocking on a door, make a $10,000 commissio
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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 fell.
00:00:19
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.
What is a Solarpreneur?
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
00:00:42
Speaker
What's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong here, your host, back with another episode.
Christmas Break Announcement
00:00:48
Speaker
We're coming up on Christmas at the time of this recording.
00:00:52
Speaker
So if you're listening to this when it's first coming out, Merry Christmas to you.
00:00:55
Speaker
Hopefully you have a great day of no selling solar.
00:01:00
Speaker
Okay, you can take a break on Christmas.
00:01:03
Speaker
But if you're listening to this after the fact...
00:01:06
Speaker
Happy New Year or happy summer.
00:01:08
Speaker
Whenever you're listening to this, hope you are having a prosperous year and are dominating.
00:01:14
Speaker
So today we're going to keep it a little bit interesting and forgot to do my usual.
00:01:22
Speaker
We're here to help you generate more leads, referrals and have a better time in the industry.
00:01:27
Speaker
So sorry, I forgot about that.
00:01:29
Speaker
But we're going to jump right into it.
00:01:31
Speaker
And first, before getting into the content, just need to say we are not going to have an episode on Friday, if you're listening to this when it comes out, because Friday is Christmas Eve.
00:01:45
Speaker
And I don't know about you, but I typically don't listen to a ton of podcasts on Christmas Eve.
00:01:51
Speaker
So we're going to take a day off and bring it to you the following Tuesday.
Upcoming Interview with Michelle Lowry
00:01:58
Speaker
So next Tuesday, we're releasing the interview with the one and only Michelle Lowry.
00:02:05
Speaker
She calls herself the queen of door-to-door.
00:02:09
Speaker
I think I'm getting that right.
00:02:11
Speaker
But fantastic episode we had with her.
00:02:13
Speaker
We're going to be previewing that a little bit today.
00:02:16
Speaker
Getting you excited for it.
00:02:17
Speaker
So for now, we're keeping it here.
00:02:19
Speaker
Hope you have a great holidays.
00:02:22
Speaker
So the topic of today is just really alternative legion.
00:02:27
Speaker
And it got me thinking, I am going to Utah for the holidays.
00:02:32
Speaker
I'm leaving on the 23rd of December.
00:02:34
Speaker
I'm going to be there for about a week, week and a half.
00:02:38
Speaker
And not going to be knocking on doors during that time.
00:02:42
Speaker
So how can you still be generating leads?
Lead Generation in Solar Sales
00:02:45
Speaker
And the reason I started thinking about this is because I heard from Michelle Lowry.
00:02:51
Speaker
She is in the Power organization, which if you haven't heard of Power...
00:02:57
Speaker
You love them, you hate them.
00:02:58
Speaker
There's a lot of people that hate power.
00:03:01
Speaker
It's basically a kind of a network marketing in solar.
00:03:06
Speaker
They get their recruits kind of have it be a downline, like the network marketing organizations.
00:03:13
Speaker
So a lot of pros to it.
00:03:15
Speaker
Some people hate that model.
00:03:17
Speaker
Hey, but I know there's guys crushing it, having a ton of success too.
00:03:22
Speaker
And what's really interesting about what they do is not a ton of them doorknock.
00:03:27
Speaker
And there's something to say some of them maybe don't see as much success as they could if they were doorknocking.
00:03:34
Speaker
For the listeners of the podcast, for our solopreneur peeps, you probably heard me talk more than anything about door knocking just because I think that's the single best way to go out there and get leads.
00:03:45
Speaker
You can start as a beginner day one, go out and set a same day appointment, knock on a door, make a $10,000 commission,
00:03:53
Speaker
depending on the market and depending on the system size, right?
00:03:57
Speaker
So door knocking is always going to be the bread and butter in my opinion here.
00:04:02
Speaker
But I think it's important to at least realize that there are other ways of lead gen out there.
00:04:08
Speaker
We've had a lot of episodes on, you know, alternative forms of lead gen.
00:04:12
Speaker
So you can go back and listen to the levels that go more in depth, pros and cons of both of them.
00:04:18
Speaker
But I'm just going to reiterate a few things that I think are really important and then just give you a sampling of some ideas.
00:04:26
Speaker
And we're going to go more in depth as well on Michelle Lowry's episode.
00:04:30
Speaker
She calls herself the queen of door-to-door.
00:04:32
Speaker
So she is in the power organization, still knocking a ton of doors.
00:04:36
Speaker
That's her bread and butter too.
00:04:38
Speaker
But she recognizes that there's a lot of other ways to get leads.
00:04:42
Speaker
And if you're not doing these things,
00:04:44
Speaker
I think you could be selling yourself short.
00:04:46
Speaker
So it's important to realize them.
00:04:48
Speaker
It's important to start opening yourself to the idea of generating other leads.
00:04:53
Speaker
But a word of caution to those that embark on the other forms of lead gen.
00:04:59
Speaker
Make sure it doesn't take the place of you going out and grinding, of hitting doors, of putting in work and effort.
00:05:06
Speaker
Because I've seen it way too many times in this industry.
00:05:10
Speaker
You guys say, I don't want to knock doors.
00:05:11
Speaker
How else can I get leads?
00:05:13
Speaker
I don't want to knock.
00:05:13
Speaker
I'm just going to focus on referrals.
00:05:15
Speaker
I'm going to focus on online marketing.
00:05:17
Speaker
I'm going to focus on going to BNIs, business networking.
00:05:22
Speaker
And guess what?
00:05:23
Speaker
They see, you know, that's more of like a long-term game.
00:05:27
Speaker
Right.
00:05:27
Speaker
Because they're getting slow leads coming in that way.
00:05:31
Speaker
Where if they focused, you know, most of their effort on hitting the doors and then also did those things on the side, they would see way more success because they're waiting.
00:05:42
Speaker
They're playing the long game and they're not willing to go out there.
00:05:46
Speaker
So just whatever you do, do not let these things replace your bread and butter, which I think should be door knocking.
00:05:54
Speaker
Whatever you're doing to get most of your leads, don't abandon ship and just dump all your eggs in other baskets.
00:06:01
Speaker
I think you should have a primary form of lead gen, which for me is door knocking.
00:06:06
Speaker
And then the rest should be supplemental, right?
Leveraging Personal Connections
00:06:10
Speaker
So here's what we're going to talk about today.
00:06:12
Speaker
Two things.
00:06:14
Speaker
And the first, just previewing a little bit about Michelle Lowry's episode next week, we go more in depth on this, but she talks about how she does lunch and learns for real estate agents.
00:06:28
Speaker
And then also they've got some roofers that they work with.
00:06:32
Speaker
They get tons of leads out in Dallas, Texas, where she's working just from working with these roofers and doing lunch and learns with real estate agents.
00:06:42
Speaker
Okay, and I will admit I have not done this myself.
00:06:46
Speaker
It's something that I'm going to try.
00:06:49
Speaker
But maybe you call up a real estate organization offer to put on a lunch and learn.
00:06:54
Speaker
And Michelle, she's going to tell you how she goes about doing this in the next episode.
00:06:59
Speaker
So, you know, don't take my word for it.
00:07:00
Speaker
I've never actually done it.
00:07:02
Speaker
Okay, but...
00:07:04
Speaker
I thought that was a unique way.
00:07:06
Speaker
And then also working with roofing organizations, particularly roofers that don't do solar already.
00:07:13
Speaker
Guess what?
00:07:13
Speaker
These people have a huge source of solar leads because they're on the roofs of your potential customers.
00:07:20
Speaker
Right.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I thought that was genius.
00:07:22
Speaker
If you can use, utilize their network, utilize their customer base and work out some sort of agreement, some sort of partnership, you
00:07:31
Speaker
that could be a lead source that just blows up for you.
00:07:34
Speaker
Okay, so again, listen to the next episode.
00:07:37
Speaker
She's going to talk much more on that.
00:07:39
Speaker
Okay, but two things just to kind of preview that.
00:07:42
Speaker
Okay, but the number one source of leads that I forget about sometimes being in this industry for almost six years now, and I see experienced people forget about this too, because this is primarily something that you do when you're first starting out, but I think it's important also is
00:08:01
Speaker
No matter how long you've been doing solar, you need to remember this one thing, and that is utilizing your power base.
00:08:10
Speaker
Hopefully you know what a power base is, but that is the people that are closest to you, your inner circle of contacts.
00:08:17
Speaker
So that's your friends.
00:08:18
Speaker
That's your family.
00:08:19
Speaker
That's your people you go to church with.
00:08:21
Speaker
That's your guys on your basketball team that you go play, you know, your rec league, whatever.
00:08:28
Speaker
That's your gym buddies.
00:08:30
Speaker
That's your, in my case, jujitsu people that I do jujitsu with.
00:08:35
Speaker
It's utilizing all those people because not only can they be a great source of solar leads, a lot of these people are homeowners.
00:08:43
Speaker
But the other thing that I'm realizing, they can be great recruits, especially if you're playing on, let's say, a rec league or if you're going to, you know, fighting jujitsu like myself.
00:08:54
Speaker
I'm already seeing that there's potential recruits from these.
00:08:58
Speaker
Matter of fact, I've got one coming in here soon.
00:09:00
Speaker
Just need to find a time to meet with them.
00:09:04
Speaker
So don't underestimate the power, pun intended, of your power base.
00:09:10
Speaker
And if you haven't, if you're starting out, if you have not done this, this is the number one thing that I coach our new reps to do.
00:09:19
Speaker
Go take out your pen and paper.
00:09:21
Speaker
Take out your contacts on your phone.
00:09:24
Speaker
Write down all the people who own homes.
00:09:27
Speaker
Write down all your buddies that parents own homes that could potentially go solar.
00:09:32
Speaker
Get it out on a piece of paper.
00:09:34
Speaker
And then that is how you start working your power base.
00:09:38
Speaker
Your first sales should be your family members.
00:09:41
Speaker
And if you have not sold your family, you need to check yourself.
00:09:45
Speaker
Do you actually believe in your product?
00:09:48
Speaker
I actually had an experience last week with a buddy of mine in solar.
00:09:53
Speaker
And if he's listening to this, sorry to call you out, but you got to sell to your friends and family.
00:09:59
Speaker
I was hanging out with one of my buddies and he is also in solar.
00:10:05
Speaker
And we were at one of his, it was his brother-in-law's house and they don't have solar.
00:10:11
Speaker
So I get talking to him.
00:10:13
Speaker
I'm like, Hey, you guys got solar yet?
00:10:16
Speaker
And he goes, Oh, we, uh,
00:10:18
Speaker
No, we don't.
00:10:19
Speaker
We've been here about a year and a half.
00:10:21
Speaker
And I was actually going to check it out.
00:10:23
Speaker
But then my brother-in-law, who is my friend that sells solar, told us to just get on a discount program for electricity first and just do that.
00:10:35
Speaker
And if it still gets really bad, then we can maybe look into solar.
00:10:39
Speaker
So at that point, he's telling me that he suggested him to not get solar, to first get on, look at some discount programs.
00:10:48
Speaker
And then maybe do it.
00:10:49
Speaker
And we're talking about we're in Southern California where the discount programs are still usually like, I don't know, 25, 30% cheaper than you could get solar for.
00:11:01
Speaker
And that's still selling high.
00:11:04
Speaker
So at this point, I'm like, dude, are you kidding?
00:11:06
Speaker
Obviously, I'm not going to call him out in the family gathering with everyone.
00:11:11
Speaker
But in my head, I was like, are you kidding me, man?
00:11:13
Speaker
Like, you got your brother-in-law and he does not have solar in one of the most expensive states for electricity?
00:11:22
Speaker
You got to be kidding me.
00:11:24
Speaker
So I was surprised.
00:11:28
Speaker
But just goes to show if you have family members, do not be embarrassed to sell them your product.
00:11:35
Speaker
If you are embarrassed or if you are not pushing your family, friends, co-workers, whatever, if you're not pushing everyone you know to get on your product, are you really sold in your offering?
00:11:49
Speaker
Probably not.
00:11:50
Speaker
Hey, probably not.
00:11:52
Speaker
If you're not pushing them, so check yourself.
00:11:54
Speaker
If you have not made your power list, if you have not sold all your family and friends and potential people that you know that could have your product,
00:12:05
Speaker
Go and do this today.
00:12:07
Speaker
Most powerful sales you can get.
00:12:08
Speaker
And I see new guys come in all the time.
00:12:11
Speaker
This is where I was at a disadvantage because I grew up in Utah.
00:12:15
Speaker
We recruit people out here in California.
00:12:18
Speaker
Some of these new recruits come in.
00:12:20
Speaker
They're coming in with 10 sales under their belt in their first month.
00:12:24
Speaker
How do they do it?
00:12:25
Speaker
They sold their family and friends.
00:12:28
Speaker
So I was jealous of all those people.
00:12:30
Speaker
They got super easy, quick sales just because they knew people out here and I didn't.
00:12:38
Speaker
So huge advantage if you know people in your market, but also think outside your market.
00:12:44
Speaker
My first sale or one of my first sales were my parents in Utah.
00:12:50
Speaker
So just because you don't have family in your market is
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, guess what?
00:12:55
Speaker
There's companies outside of your market that are doing solar.
00:13:00
Speaker
So even if you don't work with installers in those particular states, hit me up.
00:13:05
Speaker
I can connect you with people that work in basically every state.
00:13:11
Speaker
Not every state, but I would say at least probably half the states.
00:13:15
Speaker
I can figure out a way to help you get glass on the roof of your family and friends.
00:13:21
Speaker
Hit me up if you don't know how.
00:13:23
Speaker
It's a little bit of a rant, but I just got thinking, especially as you are going to your holiday parties here, coming up on Christmas, you're going to be hanging out with family.
00:13:33
Speaker
You don't have to sell solar, but make sure people know what you do.
00:13:37
Speaker
Does your family even know that you sell solar?
00:13:39
Speaker
Have you told them about your product?
00:13:41
Speaker
Did they know that you don't have to pay thousands of dollars out of your pocket to have panels put on the roof?
00:13:47
Speaker
They might not even know that.
00:13:49
Speaker
So your job when you're going to your holiday parties, when you're going to these family gatherings, at least make sure people know, right?
00:13:58
Speaker
At least explain to them, give them some education at the very least.
00:14:01
Speaker
And you don't have to be like annoying about it.
00:14:04
Speaker
We're not doing MLM network marketing where you have to be that annoying guy that like sends all your friends and family information.
00:14:11
Speaker
messages on Facebook, right?
00:14:13
Speaker
Where it's obvious you're going to pitch them something, but you can be casual about it.
00:14:19
Speaker
Say, Hey, how's work going?
00:14:20
Speaker
What do you do?
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:21
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing solar.
00:14:22
Speaker
It's cool.
00:14:23
Speaker
If you guys ever like looked into it for your house, it doesn't have to be an awkward conversation.
00:14:29
Speaker
And you're not going to push them, obviously, if they express no interest, then whatever.
00:14:34
Speaker
But they should at least know what you're doing.
00:14:37
Speaker
And you should be the first one they hit up if they are going to go solar.
00:14:42
Speaker
The worst feeling in the world will be seeing Aunt Susie have panels added on her roof by some rando company.
00:14:52
Speaker
out in North Dakota because you didn't tell her that you were doing solar.
Community Awareness in Solar Business
00:14:56
Speaker
Right.
00:14:57
Speaker
So make sure they know that make sure you don't let those ones slip through the cracks.
00:15:03
Speaker
And then the last little story I have with this is, you know, go to church or something too.
00:15:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:08
Speaker
I've gotten, uh, I think two or three cells this year just from people from my church and
00:15:15
Speaker
Okay, so give good reason to go to church.
00:15:17
Speaker
So all you sinners out there, get yourself to church.
00:15:20
Speaker
Guess what?
00:15:22
Speaker
In addition to hopefully being a better person, maybe you'll get some extra sales this year by going to church.
00:15:29
Speaker
So use that.
00:15:30
Speaker
And another point with that, I mean, make sure people at your church know what you're doing.
00:15:35
Speaker
Hey, you can bring it up casually.
00:15:37
Speaker
We'll be sitting in Sunday school and I'll bring up a comment about door-to-door sales because that's all I do.
00:15:43
Speaker
It's my life.
00:15:44
Speaker
I sell solar.
00:15:46
Speaker
So any like principle, even if I'm talking about the gospel, the scriptures, whatever, a lot of times it's going to come from like the story of, you know, me out there selling solar.
00:15:58
Speaker
So you're not, you know, that's not the purpose of church.
00:16:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:01
Speaker
So, I mean, I guess don't get greedy with it.
00:16:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:04
Speaker
But people can know at your church that you're doing solar.
00:16:08
Speaker
And even in competitions, I think I've told this story before.
00:16:11
Speaker
If your company has sales competitions or whatever, use that as an excuse.
00:16:17
Speaker
Go hit up the people at your church or maybe the people that you don't know as well, but are more acquaintance types.
00:16:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:25
Speaker
Hit them up.
00:16:26
Speaker
That's a good reason.
00:16:27
Speaker
Hey, I'm in a competition.
00:16:29
Speaker
I know we haven't talked much at church, but we're just doing this competition in our company to see how many people we can get information about solar.
00:16:39
Speaker
Have you guys ever looked into it?
00:16:41
Speaker
drop by their house.
00:16:43
Speaker
One of a huge, well, a huge sales organization that actually one of my buddies used to sell for living scriptures.
00:16:50
Speaker
Maybe you heard of them.
00:16:51
Speaker
These are like church videos about Jesus, like cartoons, right?
00:16:57
Speaker
And these videos are marketed to members of the LDS church, right?
00:17:03
Speaker
Church of Jesus Christ.
00:17:05
Speaker
And what are they doing?
00:17:06
Speaker
They're just working their power base essentially, right?
00:17:09
Speaker
Because if you come by, if you're a member of that church, you say, hey, we're doing living scripture videos.
00:17:15
Speaker
You heard of them.
00:17:17
Speaker
You're already a member.
00:17:18
Speaker
Well, if you're selling those things, you're probably a member of that church already.
00:17:22
Speaker
You have a connection.
00:17:23
Speaker
And then really it's a warmer lead.
00:17:26
Speaker
So in a way, they're just working the power base.
00:17:29
Speaker
So remember, always build those connections, especially during the holidays.
00:17:33
Speaker
Make sure your friends and family, your neighbors know.
00:17:36
Speaker
That's another thing I can't believe.
00:17:38
Speaker
I'll go into neighborhoods all the time where I will sell, not all the time,
00:17:43
Speaker
But there's been a handful of times where I have sold people solar where they've literally told me that their neighbor worked for a solar company or sold solar, whatever.
00:17:55
Speaker
So it blows my mind if you are in a neighborhood and you have not told your neighbors about what you're doing.
00:18:02
Speaker
Make sure you do that too.
00:18:04
Speaker
That would be another terrible feeling to see your next door neighbor go solar with another company knowing you could have helped them out.
00:18:12
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So do not let those people slip through the cracks.
00:18:16
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My rant is over.
Holiday Greetings and Future Episodes
00:18:18
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Have a good Christmas party.
00:18:19
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Have a good time in the holidays.
00:18:22
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And we will see you again next Tuesday.
00:18:24
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Don't miss out with Michelle Lowry's episode.
00:18:28
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Super powerful on alternative legion, on how she manages her time with a family, being a mom, and just being a super powerful female door knocker in the solar industry.
00:18:43
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So check it out.
00:18:44
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Happy holidays.
00:18:45
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And we'll see you on the next one.
00:18:48
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Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:18:49
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.
00:18:59
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.
00:19:11
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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.
00:19:22
Speaker
And it's called Solciety.
00:19:24
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors 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.
00:19:43
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:19:49
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So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:19:57
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This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:20:04
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.