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 fell.
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: Okay, we are here in the studio with one of my favorite people in solar, and I'm super excited to be here with her, Mrs. Lindsay Tuyofu, right?
Speaker: Am I saying that last name, right?
Speaker: Heck yeah.
Speaker: I had to practice it.
Speaker: Nailed it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And if you don't know Lindsay, she is behind the scenes of pretty much everything you see going on in solar and just has all the connections, knows everybody in solar at this point.
Speaker: So it's going to be an awesome podcast.
Speaker: And you just got done running SolarCon, right, Lindsay?
Speaker: Yeah, yes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Literally running.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so she is the one behind the scenes where if you're seeing things go smoothly, if you're seeing people function, it's probably because Lindsay had a hand in that.
Speaker: I'm excited to ask her how she does all this because we know most of us in solar cells, we're ADD, we're super spacey, got things going on.
Speaker: But you've helped a lot of guys and, like, helped out in a lot of events.
Speaker: So, yeah, let's get into it.
Speaker: So do you want to give us just your background, Lindsay?
Speaker: I knew you've been in door-to-door forever.
Speaker: So what's, like, your door-to-door background?
Speaker: And how did you start getting in all these connections with Solar?
Speaker: Yeah, I actually started as an admin in the door-to-door alarm side.
Speaker: And I saw how much money these reps were making.
Speaker: And I'm like, dude, I could go out and knock doors and talk to people.
Speaker: I'm like really happy and I think I can do it.
Speaker: And at the time, some of the guys were like, no, like you're a girl.
Speaker: Girls are emotional.
Speaker: Like probably not a good idea.
Speaker: And I'm like, try and hold me back.
Speaker: I'm going to get this done.
Speaker: So anyways, I just dove right in and absolutely loved it.
Speaker: When I started knocking doors, I had this.
Speaker: transference of energy when I was connecting with people that I didn't get anywhere else.
Speaker: And I just loved it so much.
Speaker: But my passion for operations actually started when I was knocking doors because I realized that
Speaker: Everything that was happening on the doors was one part of the sale.
Speaker: But then when the installers came and installed it, they didn't always install it the way that we sold it.
Speaker: And so I'm like, man, I saw that one little gap.
Speaker: And then I realized, like, what's the difference between one company versus another one's operations?
Speaker: This one company was willing to totally dominate no matter what.
Speaker: And I knew for a fact that they would always deliver quality for the customer.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: regardless.
Speaker: And then some of the other companies that I had been with kind of fell short on the customer service side.
Speaker: And so that's where I started to find this really deep passion.
Speaker: I ended up getting interested in the solar side and transferred to solar operations.
Speaker: And I got transferred across the East Coast and opened a couple offices out there.
Speaker: And then decided to come home to San Diego and ran some offices out here and loved it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, who doesn't love San Diego?
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Born and raised.
Speaker: I keep telling my parents, I'm like, you guys screwed me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Born and raised in this beautiful place.
Speaker: And now I travel all over the world and nothing compares.
Speaker: And now you're in Utah, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What are you thinking?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: You know, it's but you know what?
Speaker: Utah is the land of entrepreneurs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's a lot out there.
Speaker: It's one of my favorite places to be because it's like being on a fast train.
Speaker: Yeah, no joke.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That's where my parents live, Highland, Utah.
Speaker: Pretty close to everything out there.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's crazy to see the growth.
Speaker: And, yeah, I was telling you before we started, I probably would move back.
Speaker: I'd consider moving back there, but my wife likes it too much here now.
Speaker: Utah's great.
Speaker: Utah's beautiful, but there's nothing like San Diego.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: That's a nice place.
Speaker: But yeah, and so you've had a ton of experience, Lindsay, and so you knock doors for alarms, right?
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I briefly did in solar.
Speaker: Back then, we used to sell with this pamphlet, and we would, like, draw the panels on the roof because it would take, like, two, three weeks to get a design back, a proposal.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: No, Senobi back then.
Speaker: No, Senobi back then, man.
Speaker: Yeah, it was rough.
Speaker: And it was like, I think we used to get draws.
Speaker: So you go and present.
Speaker: You get an X amount of commission when you present.
Speaker: Or you get an appointment, and then you come back a couple weeks later, present.
Speaker: You get another draw.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So on and so forth.
Speaker: Now I'm like, dude, Senobi's legit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, I wish I had this back when I was doing that.
Speaker: Yeah, well, it's funny, like, me and you, we both know Mike Brand, too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: On the podcast, too.
Speaker: But he was telling me back when you guys were selling out east that someone had to come notarize.
Speaker: Like, I don't know if it's the designs or something, but, like, every time you sign it, they had to send out, like, a mobile notary to, like, get things going.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because they didn't even know how to, like, permit it back then.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So it was, like, brand new.
Speaker: Well, and permits were taking, like, eight months.
Speaker: So you go and you present.
Speaker: You wait a couple weeks for the actual design.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You get a mobile notary.
Speaker: Then you have to get, like, all these wet signatures.
Speaker: And I know people on the East Coast still deal with wet signatures.
Speaker: But then you have, like, all these random, like, townships and whatever else.
Speaker: And I swear everything's run by the mob out there.
Speaker: It's a thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He told me, too, that the person that used there in the mobile notary was one of your customers, though.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So she would go and she would just, like, vouch for everything.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like, oh, I did this on my own house, too.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Just, like, lock down the deal.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: In fact, I was telling someone, I was laughing, because now everything's digital, right?
Speaker: Everyone's able to track the pipelines digitally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, back then we had a filing cabinet and every drawer was like, you know, permit or presentation not sold yet.
Speaker: And then it's like sold, waiting, pending, permit or stipulations or...
Speaker: Wow, that's old school.
Speaker: It was intense.
Speaker: Yeah, wow.
Speaker: A lot has changed since then.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, and what's cool now, we have tools like Sonobi.
Speaker: Yeah, we just got done with Scott Hyde on the podcast too.
Speaker: But seeing some of these things, it's just like revolutionized it and made it way quicker.
Speaker: And Scott, he was just talking about how like it's an alarm.
Speaker: You guys can go get the same day sales.
Speaker: Like same thing, I was in pest control.
Speaker: So we're used to just these like quick sales cycles and solar is completely different.
Speaker: So when I started out, I was like, wait, I can't just like sign them up now.
Speaker: I have to go back three days later or two days.
Speaker: Yeah, it still took a while when I got in in 2016.
Speaker: So, yeah, I know you've seen it change.
Speaker: Well, what is it that you think or what do you like now about what you're seeing with Sanobi?
Speaker: I know you're working with them.
Speaker: You're starting sales for Sanobi, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm their director of sales.
Speaker: You know, it's interesting.
Speaker: Through my career, I've had the opportunity to consult a couple hundred companies.
Speaker: And during my experience in consulting, I saw so many companies put band-aids together, like CRMs and other tools, because they wanted... They saw something someone had, and they liked it, but they wanted to give their own flair to it.
Speaker: So they're like, oh, I'll just put these tools together and try and make my own thing to make it work.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: you know, going through the process, I'm like, man, some of these companies are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pairing up these things that don't really make sense or, or they're not using it to its entirety.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so when I was going and I was asking all these questions to these companies to identify, you know, why they chose that tool, what it does for their company, what they're trying to do, and then how to scale it, um, with their, with their sales.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I learned when I ran into Sunobi, I actually met Sunobi at Door2DoorCon.
Speaker: And it was funny because my husband built decks and he was talking to his buddy and he's like, man,
Speaker: He's like, babe, my buddy was telling me about this company called Sonobi and they're amazing.
Speaker: And he's just like, they're going to put everyone in the ground.
Speaker: And I'm like, whatever, BS, I haven't seen anything like it.
Speaker: And literally when I saw them at Door to Door Con, I was like, okay, my husband's been telling me all about this thing.
Speaker: I need to sit down and watch it.
Speaker: And so I sat down and I cried.
Speaker: like they, I mean, between Scott and Titus, they just opened up the doors of all the things that they had been working on.
Speaker: And I literally cried because I'm like, man, everything that I've seen across the industry of what people are needing and what they're trying to create, Sanobi has already created.
Speaker: Not everything is released.
Speaker: There's still things, obviously, that are still in the making.
Speaker: But the reason why I,
Speaker: now pledge to noby is because I've seen their commitment to do things differently and that they, they really thoroughly think things through.
Speaker: I mean, even if you just go to their website, it's very different than everybody else's different experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm like, for me, I'm all about the experience.
Speaker: That was actually one of my favorite things about Sam Taggart.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: His little one-liners, like, it's all about the experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it really is.
Speaker: And so the experience that I got with Sanobi that first day at Door2DoorCon changed my world.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Because I saw the future.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm like, I need this.
Speaker: I got to be a part of this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they're changing the game for sure.
Speaker: And, yeah, we'll link to the podcast with Scott because, you know, we went super in-depth on all the features of Sunobi and why it's awesome.
Speaker: So definitely go check that out.
Speaker: But, yeah, it's just cool to have all these tools now where before, like you said, it's just like you had to create all these integrations.
Speaker: You had to go to 10 different places to see, like, what the progress was for your customer, where the design's at, all these things.
Speaker: So, yeah, Sunobi makes it super simple, super easy now.
Speaker: Which is nice because as you know, the more we can simplify it for ourselves, but also for the customers, cells just come that much quicker when it's simple.
Speaker: It's so true.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Well, there's a lot of tools out there that are very simple.
Speaker: So I like I definitely don't want to take away from the simplicity of other tools.
Speaker: But the way that Synobi presents itself, especially for the customer experience, is absolutely incredible.
Speaker: Yeah, I know, 100%.
Speaker: So speaking of simple, I know something you've done for, like, a lot of different people now in solar and across all door-to-door.
Speaker: Like, you've probably worked with all the big names.
Speaker: I mean, Sam Taggart, Jake Hess, SolarCon, one of the founders, organizes all of SolarCon.
Speaker: And, I mean, I'm sure the list goes on and on.
Speaker: Any other big names in door-to-door, you've worked with pretty much everybody, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, tons of people.
Speaker: So I'm curious to know, like, well, I guess before that, I want to hear a little bit about SolarCon.
Speaker: You guys just got home with SolarCon.
Speaker: So did you recover?
Speaker: I mean, yeah, a week or something.
Speaker: My sweet husband, I think I was out for like two whole days.
Speaker: My kids are like, Mom, hello.
Speaker: It was real intense.
Speaker: Well, I was out for like two days and I didn't even like organize it.
Speaker: No, but like the energy that's in there, it's the most beautiful thing in the whole world.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's nothing like it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was incredible.
Speaker: Was this the biggest event you've like put together, organized?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So, yeah, we had an incredible turnout.
Speaker: Tons of vendors, tons of attendees.
Speaker: In fact, I was talking to Mike, a friend, when we were there and he was like,
Speaker: man, I haven't seen some of these people in a decade.
Speaker: And I'm like, I know, it's like a massive reunion.
Speaker: It was so good to reconnect with everybody.
Speaker: And it was wild.
Speaker: Yeah, it was so cool.
Speaker: And that's what I like best about it is just you get to connect with all the people.
Speaker: It's like a big solar family reunion and just get to see all the familiar faces.
Speaker: So the networking alone is super powerful.
Speaker: But then just hearing from all the speakers and getting insights and all the new stuff coming out.
Speaker: Yeah, there's so many incredible people that have, it's like the hardest part I feel about SolarCon is that not everybody can speak, right?
Speaker: Like there's not enough time.
Speaker: There's some people who are like, man...
Speaker: this is too long.
Speaker: It needs to be shorter.
Speaker: There's some people who are like, make this a whole week long.
Speaker: And it's like, there's so much knowledge.
Speaker: There's so much experience that goes on that not everybody can speak.
Speaker: And so one thing I would say, if anyone is listening and is like bummed that they didn't get to speak at SolarCon is like, don't give up, like keep pursuing it because
Speaker: So many people have value to add.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And it's genuinely just a timing thing.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Yeah, even I, I was like, I wanted to speak a slower phone, but I spoke it at the first year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So maybe next year.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Get Lindsay to put on a good word.
Speaker: I got you.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: But yeah, so it was a great event, though.
Speaker: And yeah, I think everyone that went got tons of value from it, tons of connections.
Speaker: So is there any like story?
Speaker: I know you were all behind the scenes and you were saying before we started, you know, you see things that happen behind the scenes that none of us do coming up.
Speaker: But do you have any story or any like funny stories about SolarCon or any any stuff that was like a headache to plan or anything?
Speaker: So behind the scenes insights you can give us.
Speaker: Well, I'm giggling because it's my job to make it all happen, right?
Speaker: And so I truly like working with Jake.
Speaker: Jake is our visionary.
Speaker: And working with Jake is one of my most favorite because...
Speaker: the way he visualizes and kind of plans out the flow and like what he's thinking.
Speaker: And I'm like, oh yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So like he'll like, we literally will FaceTime late at night and I giggle because like his family's in the background and my family's in the background and we're just sitting there painting this picture like, oh my gosh, it'd be so cool if we do this and this and this.
Speaker: So when, uh, when I get to execute, it's like we get to bring it all to life.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's crazy because it's like tons and tons of stuff just rising from the ground.
Speaker: So you walk in and it's just like all concrete floors.
Speaker: And then a couple hours later, all of a sudden, it's like this masterpiece all put together.
Speaker: When we were setting up, we accidentally tripped.
Speaker: And there's pipe and drape.
Speaker: And we pushed one and like all the rows of all the booths fell down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Like, hours of putting all these things up and just, like, one little tip because it's all connected all came tumbling down.
Speaker: So we're just like, dang.
Speaker: Just these simple little things that, you know, nobody ever really thinks about or notices.
Speaker: But I'm just like, okay, it's okay.
Speaker: We're just going to keep rolling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: That was like the day before it started.
Speaker: A couple of hours before.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: So were you laughing about it in the moment or were you like people stressed?
Speaker: I was freaking out.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, I mean, vendors were not there yet.
Speaker: Like we hadn't opened it up to the public yet.
Speaker: But I was, it's just little things.
Speaker: Like we're all pressed for time and everything's like down to the second.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we actually ran into a...
Speaker: So getting ready for the performers, we had a super tight schedule with AV.
Speaker: So AV was coming in first.
Speaker: Once they get everything set, the performers were going to come in and there's a gatekeeper.
Speaker: at the at the salt palace and even though it was on the schedule the gatekeeper was like no like there's some mix-up and i'm like oh my gosh like everything's burning down because we were 30 minutes late and so it like had set everything back and so we actually didn't end up finishing until like one or two in the morning
Speaker: When we had projected to get done at like nine.
Speaker: So it was that one little setback.
Speaker: So anyways.
Speaker: Like domino effects.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: I'm like just these little things that people don't see, right?
Speaker: And it doesn't matter because the whole point is for them to experience the magic.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's like our most favorite part.
Speaker: Yeah, we had no idea, but we got it all worked out.
Speaker: Yeah, everyone loved it, it seems like.
Speaker: I know, yeah, it was great.
Speaker: Yeah, and I'm sure you've learned a lot, like, organizing all these events, because how big of a team is it to, like, organize all of SolarCon?
Speaker: So we have marketing with Brent and Neil.
Speaker: And we've got Jake, who's over sales.
Speaker: We have Joe, who handles all of our personnel and media.
Speaker: And then Tiana, Brenda handle all of our vendors.
Speaker: Nick handles all of our speakers, slides, some of our media stuff.
Speaker: We have a whole media team.
Speaker: And then I'm on the event side.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker: It takes a village.
Speaker: And Trey.
Speaker: Can't forget Trey.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: He's our fearless CEO.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, can't forget him.
Speaker: A lot of people.
Speaker: And, I mean, that sounds like a lot more people than you had last year.
Speaker: Is the team growing a lot?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: The first year it was Jake, Joe, Jonah, me, and Neil.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Tiana.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: So it was like, it was cool to add more team members because we were able to accomplish more.
Speaker: I felt like the stress levels were not as high because it was just nice being able to delegate.
Speaker: But in delegating, right, communication, some of those operational things, just learning how to scale and grow businesses, it can be challenging.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Well, and I know most of us listening to this podcast, we're not all going to go out and start the next, like, SolarCon or put on events this big, I don't think.
Speaker: But I think there's a lot that can be applied.
Speaker: Like, all of us, most of us are part of, like, team meetings.
Speaker: I've tried to, like, run events, things like that.
Speaker: Some have gone better than others.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you having so much experience with, like, running events and being part of all these trainings with Sam Tagger and, you know, smaller scale, like, seminars, things like that.
Speaker: What advice do you have for people like maybe trying to do like a smaller scale, like just running things in general, running like a meeting smoothie or if people want to do little events for like their team or company?
Speaker: Like what are some lessons you've learned over the years that you could do?
Speaker: and share with our listeners.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One of my favorite was when I used to knock doors, we had correlation and everybody had a role.
Speaker: Every single person that came to correlation had a role.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And each person that had a role had a specific intention.
Speaker: So like the DJ, you know, in the group, his intention was to play music.
Speaker: Well, what type of music?
Speaker: It was the music that was going to pump everybody up to go knock doors, right?
Speaker: Then you've got the motivational thought, the person who's going to support people in getting their mindset right.
Speaker: Get out all the excuses and just get ready to go knock doors.
Speaker: Then you've got the person who may be over trash, making a clean environment or numbers board or leadership board or whatever.
Speaker: Finding the people, one, who do the role.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because every event, every job, even in a home, has a role.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so as long as everybody knows their role and they're bought into the role.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's like an orchestra.
Speaker: Then you have all your different instruments, and you all come together and blend and make one beautiful sound.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, I think of like, you know, if you go to church or something, too, you've got someone handing out the programs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You've got like a chorus or directing the music.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So it's cool, but I don't think most of us, like, I don't know, I've been part of a lot of teams, and most of the time, I know for me too, like, I make the mistake of just trying to do everything.
Speaker: Like, I get there, and I'm like, oh, shoot, I've got to, like, get the slides going.
Speaker: I've got to, like, get some music rolling.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: I've got to, like, structure it, yeah.
Speaker: So for events, specifically for events, that's where I've learned that every single person on the team has their own unique sound.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And when we all mush them together, it really does make one beautiful sound.
Speaker: Like Solarcon wouldn't be what it is.
Speaker: Not just with our voices.
Speaker: Like we're just merely the people who had the idea.
Speaker: It's everybody else.
Speaker: It's you guys who come and show up and, like, put your own flavor into the mix.
Speaker: And all the people who drop content or are constantly leveling up or even with our vendors.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Our vendors and their booths and just the way that they showed up, like, so inspiring.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Absolutely inspiring.
Speaker: And so, you know, we may have made a sound, but it wasn't until everybody else joined in where it really created the biggest sound.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did you guys get a lot of feedback?
Speaker: Like, I don't know, first year to second year, was there a lot of feedback where you guys changed a lot of things or kept it pretty similar?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So the first year, we got lots of feedback, which, I mean, both years were super positive.
Speaker: Any constructive criticism they gave the first year, we tweaked for the second year.
Speaker: This year, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Just with, like, the outprobed love and support.
Speaker: buy-in um a lot of people send scouts and they just want to see like what it's like if they want to come and um they were all just like dude i just popped in for a minute i just wanted to see what was going on i'm all in for next year yeah we already have like a massive um amount of people reaching for vendors like i have no doubt that we'll be sold out of vendors in the next couple months wow that's incredible
Speaker: Which is insane because I'm like, there's still people who don't know about it.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: And so this is like, we're not doing this.
Speaker: This is the people doing this.
Speaker: This is the industry saying, we love this.
Speaker: We want this.
Speaker: We want more of this.
Speaker: And so they're the ones pushing the vision.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: And yeah, we're just talking like our friend Mike Brand that went, he wasn't even planning to go to SolarCon.
Speaker: Yeah, I was there and he was there for something else.
Speaker: I'm like, hey, just come pop in for a couple hours.
Speaker: See what you think.
Speaker: And he was like blown away.
Speaker: He's like, oh, why haven't I been coming to these things?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, they don't know.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like they don't know.
Speaker: So it's as simple as you just opening your mouth and being like, hey, dude, like come hang out with me for a little bit and just come check it out.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: And especially people that have been in this a long time.
Speaker: Like he saw people he'd sold with 10 years ago.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, you're going to meet up there.
Speaker: Me being one of them.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: I hadn't seen Mike in for, I sent him like a Merry Christmas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And my, my mom actually teaches his kids piano, but I haven't seen him in almost a decade.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: So that's cool.
Speaker: So if you're listening and you did not come to SolarCon, what are you thinking?
Speaker: You better be there next year because it is an awesome event.
Speaker: So definitely grab your tickets.
Speaker: But yeah, and so just to change gears a little bit here, Lindsay, you've worked with a lot of hype producers, producers,
Speaker: Like we're talking about Sam Taggart, J.C.A.S., all these people that generally were known as disorganized people.
Speaker: We can't get it together.
Speaker: And it's funny.
Speaker: I don't know if you remember this, but the first time I did a podcast with Sam Taggart, I scheduled with him probably like three, four times.
Speaker: And he kept on just either like not showing up or just forgetting about it.
Speaker: I don't know what happened.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then finally I'm like, all right, what do I need to do?
Speaker: How can we like get a solid time?
Speaker: And he's like, oh, try texting my assistant, which was you at the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I texted Lindsay and she got him on the schedule.
Speaker: I'm sure you had to bug him about it.
Speaker: But you were the only person that could make it happen where we finally got Sam locked down for a podcast.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So I don't know what you did, but somehow you helped him actually remember it.
Speaker: And be organized.
Speaker: And so it's a funny story about like, how do you what's some of these things that you hope?
Speaker: What do you feel like your strengths are?
Speaker: And maybe for people that are generally disorganized, like, what do you do?
Speaker: What do you suggest?
Speaker: How do you help these people become organized and just play to their strengths?
Speaker: I actually have gotten way better over the years, and I feel like I'm way more dialed now.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: So over the last little bit, I always thought, like, oh, if I just write it down on a notepad or if I, like, put it in my calendar, then it's going to be a thing.
Speaker: But I was...
Speaker: Doing multiple things.
Speaker: So I typically like to have multiple streams of revenue coming in, like anybody else.
Speaker: And I was finding that I was inundated with so many different avenues.
Speaker: So I would be working on something, and then I'd be pulled away, and then I'd get distracted and do something else.
Speaker: And then at the end of the day, I had nothing done.
Speaker: And then I'm like, man, then I'm behind.
Speaker: And then I feel like I'm working more hours.
Speaker: And I feel like I'm this giant workhorse that's constantly working and not receiving the results that I actually want.
Speaker: I actually started following this woman named Jordan Page.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: My wife also.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Fun, cheap, or free.
Speaker: She's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah, she's cool.
Speaker: She's got this incredible calendar book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she talks about time blocking.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So in middle school, you know, they had A days and B days.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or they would do like, you know, a couple hours to do one thing, a couple hours to do another thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What I found when dealing with multiple projects where it's all needing my attention because I'm the only one working on it, I had to allocate specific time frames.
Speaker: So it'd be like, you know, from nine to 12 days.
Speaker: my whole sole focus would be on one specific topic.
Speaker: And I was able to achieve so much more.
Speaker: Like some people would allocate a person for eight hours to accomplish whatever.
Speaker: And I just found if I just hone in for two, three hours on that one thing, I end up completing the project.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, I mean, I have hundreds of calendars all throughout my house.
Speaker: I think my husband's like, no more calendars.
Speaker: So once I met Jordan Pages, I saw her calendar and I started time blocking.
Speaker: I'm like, I haven't gone back to anything else because it's been so valuable.
Speaker: But when I started to do 75 hard phase one, I actually found out, because I was trying to balance between like building a business, you know, running Sinobi,
Speaker: working out date night, being a mom, keeping the house clean and laundry and all the things and like still having time for family and friends.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: My sweet spot, what I found was waking up at like 3.45 in the morning, hitting the gym at 4 a.m., getting a solid like 45-minute workout, but I had to shower at the gym.
Speaker: By showering at the gym, I actually gained almost two to two and a half hours in the morning of sheer production where it was like my house was quiet, my phone was quiet,
Speaker: All of the admin things that I couldn't get done during the day because I was on meetings or I had to take phone calls, I was able to accomplish in that two to two and a half hour window.
Speaker: All before my kids got up from school or for school.
Speaker: So I like knocked out my work stuff.
Speaker: I was able to dedicate like a full hour to my kids morning routine, do school drop off, come back, knock out my meetings from the whole like situation.
Speaker: 9 a.m.
Speaker: to 3 p.m.
Speaker: do school pickup wrap up all my stuff and still have time for my family my husband wow that's amazing so it's like I filled my cup I executed at work and I was able to do all these other things but it the mindset and the diligence I mean you don't have to do 75 hard but the diligence in doing it and being committed to something changed everything for me yeah that's huge and
Speaker: And so you're saying you would just shower at the gym and then just go like straight to work after that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But like getting dressed, prepped, and ready.
Speaker: So like there was no, so context to give you like the opposite.
Speaker: So when I did work out and I did go home and I did shower and get prepped and ready at home, it's like I was not getting ready until...
Speaker: eight nine a.m whereas before i would be totally done by 5 45 a.m yeah it's like what's the difference i don't know i was just i mean there was other than like the commitment to just be done yeah versus not yeah yeah no that's true
Speaker: Yeah, and I think there's so many concepts from that.
Speaker: Just focusing in on one thing we were just talking before this about.
Speaker: This is something that Ashton Buswell talked about, too, at SolarCon.
Speaker: I don't know if you saw that, but just focusing 100% on whatever you're doing at the time.
Speaker: Because so many of us just get distracted by phone notifications coming in.
Speaker: And I was telling you, like, even something I'm trying to improve on is just, like, when I'm at the gym.
Speaker: I'm responding to people.
Speaker: I'm getting customers.
Speaker: I'm, like, getting questions asked.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, my hour workout turns into, like, a two-and-a-half-hour workout.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: I was just, like, checking all these things.
Speaker: Well, and in that point, we're robbing Peter to pay Paul in our energy, right?
Speaker: And then it's, like, our overall production and efficiency significantly drops because we don't,
Speaker: We're not really caring about our bodies in that instance, our bodies, right?
Speaker: And so just dedicating very little time to ourselves that we all actually give ourselves, especially in that gym time.
Speaker: Say, okay, my whole focus right now is this next 30 minutes.
Speaker: If I just focus on this 30 minutes, I'll execute it, and then I can let that thought go and move on to the next one.
Speaker: Yeah, that's big.
Speaker: Yeah, and do you have, so do you do this, like, every night you're going through and just doing, like, a nightly planning for the next day or?
Speaker: Yeah, so in that planner, it has, like, I always plan for the next day.
Speaker: So even down to, like, the dishes.
Speaker: So I will unload the dishes in the morning, and then at nighttime I'll load the dishes, and in my calendar it'll be, like, you know,
Speaker: Did you plan for the next day?
Speaker: Did you unload the dishes?
Speaker: Did you do one load of laundry?
Speaker: Just like some real basic things.
Speaker: And so I'll do like my little night checklist.
Speaker: in preparation for the next day so that I win for the next day because I already know exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker: There's no, like, waking up and be like, what am I going to do today?
Speaker: Who am I going to talk to?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like knocking doors, right?
Speaker: Like, back in the day, we used to have these prequel cards.
Speaker: Did you ever use those?
Speaker: Yeah, I still use them sometimes.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: They're amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's just a physical card where you write the customer's name, email, phone number, address.
Speaker: And I always had my stack of prequel cards where it was like, okay, I'm going to go see this person on this street at this time.
Speaker: And so I always had –
Speaker: Just an idea of what I was going to do, where I was going to go, where I was planning on going.
Speaker: And so carrying that same mentality into work or family or any type of relationship supports me in actually educating or executing and getting the results that I want.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: And, yeah, I mean, so many of us are disorganized.
Speaker: I think that's big for solar people.
Speaker: Like, it seems like you're different than most solar cells guys because you're, like, organized.
Speaker: So did you kind of see that gap?
Speaker: Like, what would you be?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like, an assistant for Sam, you're just like, all these cells guys are super disorganized.
Speaker: There's a need for this.
Speaker: Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker: And it's tough because I wouldn't say that they're necessarily disorganized that there's so many creators in the space.
Speaker: And so how do you how do you teach an artist to be organized?
Speaker: It's like you don't teach an artist to draw in the lines, right?
Speaker: Because they create art.
Speaker: And so it's learning how to work with artists and allow them to create their masterpieces without getting in the way.
Speaker: And so creating a plan that works for anybody or yourself or myself, it's like not, it doesn't like my husband, it doesn't work for him to wake up at three 45.
Speaker: Like there's no way that he would ever do that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So for him, he finds creative ways to take care of himself, um,
Speaker: and, and to stay organized, but organization is really like, okay, what's the end goal?
Speaker: If your end goal is to, you know, for you start a podcast, uh, see guests, things like that.
Speaker: It's like, what can you do for yourself to set yourself up for success?
Speaker: It may not be waking up at three 45, but it may be, Hey, I'm committed to have 10 conversations with people a day and maybe get two people on the calendar every single week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or every couple days to do some podcasts.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So when you have your eyes set on what you're committed to do or your vision of what you want to do, then you just take committed action and just organize it in that sense and say, okay, if I want however many people on the podcast, then I need to talk to however many people and get however many appointments on the books.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like I try to take just a certain time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you said, time blocking and doing it.
Speaker: That's why it's still work on.
Speaker: You probably saw me.
Speaker: I tried to knock out like six podcasts at once.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: So it's the same concept.
Speaker: Now I can come back and focus more on selling.
Speaker: Yeah, I ran into Everett Brewer over at stores, and he's like, dude, I have a year's worth of content because I took the three days that I could get as many people in for a 10, 20-minute podcast and just knock it out super quick.
Speaker: So when you know stuff like that and you organize it around events, then it's like you truly can set yourself up for the rest of the year because you've already handled your business.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And you've worked with all these high producers.
Speaker: Something I'm curious about, if people have like an assistant or say someone's listening to this, like, oh, I need like a Lindsay in my life.
Speaker: I need someone to help me be more organized.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: like do you have any tips on how to better like work with like an assistant or something like you and sam like did you like weekly meetings or how did you guys work like efficiently and i don't know maybe stuff you saw that doesn't work as well like how do you effectively work with an assistant or if someone needs a higher help i was just talking to my sisters about this because we have a buddy of ours that's looking for an assistant and um finding an assistant is not easy it's like finding um
Speaker: Finding someone that like your energy jives with where you can like you get to know the person so well that you like know what types of foods they eat and like what makes them tick.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was thinking, I was laughing because my husband was telling me I started out as his assistant.
Speaker: And I remember in the summertime, I was like, man, you should probably just send me home.
Speaker: It was for summer sales.
Speaker: I'm like, you should probably just send me home because I'm like sitting out by the pool.
Speaker: I'm not really working, but you're paying me.
Speaker: And he's like, no, no, no.
Speaker: Like I'm paying you because when I need you, I know you're there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was like, interesting.
Speaker: So then I started to create ways to add value, like doing laundry, picking up groceries, sweet treats, keeping a car clean, organizing receipts, you know, whatever.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Aside from finding a person, it's like being very clear on what you need.
Speaker: So if you're like, hey, my goal is to get however many people on my podcast, make sure that I'm talking to X amount of people.
Speaker: And, you know, I don't know if Scott went into this in his podcast, but he talks a lot about doctrine and principle.
Speaker: And he did, he talked about it at SolarCon.
Speaker: But when you, when you speak in truths or
Speaker: Or just light of I need this one thing, not micromanaging assistance to say do it this way, but to allow them to be their own creative self and get to the end result on their own.
Speaker: But they know your end goal of what you're wanting to accomplish.
Speaker: And so when that's an alignment, however they get there is how they get there.
Speaker: But if you can just say, like, this is what I want, this is what I'm looking for, this is what I'm not looking for, then they can go and carve their own path.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: So it's almost like you can help show them, but ideally you want to just be like, hey, I don't care how you do it.
Speaker: Like, just have the level of trust where, like, get it done.
Speaker: You decide how you do it.
Speaker: So the concept of doctrine principle application when I first came over to Sanobi was really hard because I came from corporate places or other work environments where it was very structured and more micromanaged.
Speaker: Like, I want it done this way and that.
Speaker: And that's it.
Speaker: And so we can do those things.
Speaker: But what happened for me is like I felt like I was in this box where I couldn't be creative because I was told to do it a certain way.
Speaker: And that's actually what inspired me so much to work with Jake, Joe and Jonah and Neil, because it was like, Lindsay, we see how creative you are.
Speaker: just come do your thing and like sprinkle fairy dust all over our, our conference.
Speaker: And I was like, really?
Speaker: I'm like, this is amazing.
Speaker: So to have the freedom to do my thing, even though it's my team's vision and what they have, like all their ideas and whatever, the beautiful part of, of the combination is that I get to take all of that and turn it into real life.
Speaker: And so that's the same with assistants or anyone in any position.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: Yes, we all have some form of control where we want to tell people, okay, do it this way because this is how it works.
Speaker: At the end of the day, people can accomplish the same thing, but it won't look the same because all of our experiences are very different.
Speaker: And so being able to be hands-off and say, okay, I want to make a million dollars.
Speaker: However we do that, I don't care, but that's where we need to go.
Speaker: And every single thing you do on a daily basis needs to support people
Speaker: that end goal.
Speaker: If it doesn't support that end goal, then that's not what you should be doing.
Speaker: That's powerful.
Speaker: Yeah, anything is just like empowering people.
Speaker: I just got done listening to this book called Speed of Trust by Stephen R. Covey, I think.
Speaker: But he talks a lot about like you think about all the time you have to take.
Speaker: Like if I'm working with you, I'm like, all right, Lindsay, when you do it this way, this way, this way, I have to explain to you every single step and work together, do everything.
Speaker: Versus if I can just say, Lindsay, I don't care how you do it.
Speaker: This is our goal.
Speaker: Just get this done.
Speaker: And then, like, think of how much quicker that is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And it doesn't, there's no, like, disappointment, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's very, it's so, it's crazy.
Speaker: The thought process of that is so crazy because it would seem like that would be the natural go-to, but it's not.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think you have to get to that point, too.
Speaker: It's like if you hire someone brand new, maybe it's not to the level where you can just say, go get this done.
Speaker: But it's probably like, you know, as you're more trained up, as you trust each other more, then I think that's ideally what you want to have happen.
Speaker: And I'm sure that's cool that you can just do what you want with SolorCon and they trust you to do it.
Speaker: And, like, look at the results.
Speaker: Incredible.
Speaker: So, Lindsay, it's cool to see, like, just, I guess, the ripple effects you've had with everyone in solar without us really knowing.
Speaker: The last thing I wanted to ask you about before we kind of wrap up here, you have so many connections in the industry.
Speaker: Everyone knows you, whether they know it or not.
Speaker: They know you, like, you know, behind the scenes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So what have you do?
Speaker: Do you have any advice on like networking in general?
Speaker: I know it's super important to network in business and solar.
Speaker: It's important to have those connections.
Speaker: You never know where you're going to end up next.
Speaker: So how have you built this network and how do you like connect with so many people?
Speaker: How do you know so many people?
Speaker: What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I am a fly on the wall.
Speaker: So one thing I've had a lot of people tell me I need to like brand myself and post on social media and like post pictures of all the people that I'm with.
Speaker: And I'm like, man, I just developed these really deep relationships with people that I guess it just feels like family.
Speaker: So I don't need, I don't feel the need to post, but it would be incredible because I absolutely love everybody I'm connected with.
Speaker: I learned from my business coach many years ago.
Speaker: to just add value.
Speaker: So one, I'm always listening.
Speaker: There will be times that I insert my opinion or my thoughts, but I typically go into any relationship open and listening.
Speaker: The other thing when I network is I find what the other person's needs are.
Speaker: And then if I'm unable to deliver a
Speaker: whether it's just knowledge or service or whatever, I like to connect them to somebody who can support them and grow their business or their personal life.
Speaker: And so for me, my business coach always said, add value, add value, add value.
Speaker: And it's really like me asking you, and I asked you earlier, like, what can I do for you?
Speaker: What are you lacking in your life where you feel like, hey, if I just had a little bit of information about this or if I knew someone who could help me do this?
Speaker: And so I love asking people what I can do for them or ways that I can show up for you because you never know.
Speaker: Sometimes it's just one little thing that someone says that inspires you to take committed action.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, right, I mean, look at SolarCon.
Speaker: There's one conversation that...
Speaker: Jake and Jonah had at RoofCon.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden it was a phone call to me and Joe and Neil.
Speaker: And then here we are a couple of years later.
Speaker: And so many beautiful things and so many connections have come from it.
Speaker: And so the other thing I'll say is taking committed action.
Speaker: I met this gentleman behind stage at SolarCon and he really wanted to meet Hayes.
Speaker: And he had mentioned that he had been rejected in a couple of conversations and was just really nervous.
Speaker: And I'm like, man, one thing that I've learned this last year is that you have a very small window sometimes to take committed action.
Speaker: And that's when you take it.
Speaker: I'm like, you're literally 10 feet away from this man.
Speaker: When will that ever happen again in your life?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where he is like willingly standing there having conversations with people.
Speaker: like right now is your opportunity and you're either going to take it or you're going to watch the opportunity close right in front of you and he's like okay okay okay and then he went in and he did and he set up a meeting and it like so that that taught me a really valuable lesson one that i had already known but i got to see it in real life it's like
Speaker: moment to moment to moment, we have windows of opportunity and we're either going to lean in and take committed action to achieve it and either receive, you know, the results that we want or get rejected, which like Bob Proctor talks about the terror barrier, right?
Speaker: So a form of rejection or just hitting this wall over and over and over.
Speaker: We can,
Speaker: We can keep hitting that wall or we can take all the force, our power, passion and enthusiasm and break through it and finally receive exactly what we want in life.
Speaker: Yeah, that's powerful.
Speaker: And yeah, I've seen it in you.
Speaker: And, you know, Solar Joe is another great example.
Speaker: You guys are just connectors connecting to everybody and always looking at value.
Speaker: He's a beast.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's like I text both of you for like, you know, when I run out of podcast guests, it's like, I know I'm going to talk to like you.
Speaker: I'm not going to talk to Solar Joe.
Speaker: Like, what's going to get on the podcast?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, yeah, I think as you have that mindset, I mean, it seems like you've kind of built a career off it, just, like, helping other people, just looking for gaps in what they're doing and just, yeah, going in and helping them out.
Speaker: Like, with Sanobi, did you reach out of that whole connection?
Speaker: How did you start working with Scott?
Speaker: Well, it was crazy because...
Speaker: I actually wasn't planning on going to door to door con.
Speaker: I was, I literally had my baby the next day.
Speaker: It was like super intense.
Speaker: But I, I love, that was one of my favorite events to go to because I love to network.
Speaker: And over the last six years, every single year I've met someone that has changed my life drastically.
Speaker: And when I met Scott, it just,
Speaker: It just blossomed, and he texted me, and he's like, I have to have you on my team.
Speaker: And I'm like, I mean, I feel like I'm very knowledgeable and experienced, but, like, I didn't feel like I was, you know, like the way that he was describing it.
Speaker: And so I, anyways, I just, I trusted and leaned in, and I'm like, dude, this is home.
Speaker: Like, Sinobi is everything, everything.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: Well, yeah, now all came from networking.
Speaker: Yeah, yes.
Speaker: Had I not, yeah, had I not gotten out of my comfort zone, even being super pregnant, like I still was committed to go network and it has literally changed my life.
Speaker: For the first time I found my home.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that wouldn't have been possible had I not taken committed action to open my mouth and meet people.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, it's really cool to see what you've done, Lindsay.
Speaker: And yeah, I can't wait to see, you know, the next events you're at is everyone knows it's gonna be awesome when Lindsay's behind an event.
Speaker: So we appreciate you every everything you've done for the industry and continue to do.
Speaker: And so if people want to reach out to you or network or connect more with you, what's the best way to do that?
Speaker: I'm on Instagram, Facebook.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I always throw my number out there.
Speaker: People are always welcome to text me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If anyone needs to collaborate or whatever, that's my favorite.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, you know I'm going to be reaching out to Lindsay for help on whatever I'm doing.
Speaker: But we will put her Instagram.
Speaker: What's your Instagram if people want to hit you up?
Speaker: I actually think it's Lindsay Drew now.
Speaker: Try to make it easy for people.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes.
Speaker: So go give Lindsay a shout out.
Speaker: Let her know you appreciate her for being the master networker and just being behind everything.
Speaker: And then as we wrap up here, is there any like for maybe a new rep that's starting or someone that's trying to build a team?
Speaker: Would you have any just final words of wisdom just to wrap up before we say goodbye here, Lindsay?
Speaker: Confidence is everything.
Speaker: When you trust and believe in yourself, you know that what you have to offer the world is enough and needed.
Speaker: And you all are so, so powerful.
Speaker: And so by taking all of who you are and infusing it into everything that you do, naturally people will flock to you.
Speaker: And so whether you're growing a team, whether you're expanding a business, whether you're building a podcast or just wanting to make more friends, going out trusting yourself that you are worthy, that you are worth it, that you are enough, and showing up as all of who you are, you will get exactly what you're looking for.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Straight fire right there.
Speaker: Lindsay, thanks again.
Speaker: And guys, remember, have confidence in everything you do.
Speaker: Network whenever you can, whenever possible.
Speaker: And just get organized.
Speaker: Okay, stop being so affected by the ADD and everything you struggle with.
Speaker: So thanks again, Lindsay, and we'll talk soon.
Speaker: And can't wait to see you at the next event.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: Hey, solarpreneurs, wanted to take a quick second and introduce you to our sponsors, Pi Syndicate.
Speaker: They are your all-in-one solution to manage your money like a pro, save thousands in taxes, and invest for your future.
Speaker: So if you're anything like me, you're making great money in solar, but you don't know what to do with it.
Speaker: Go book a call with these guys today.
Speaker: They will give you a free money evaluation and tell you how you can invest your money, tell you what to do with it, and make sure you are not letting that hard-earned solar money go to waste.
Speaker: So go down to the show notes, book a call with them today, and get the help you need for your future money.
