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Can Solar be Sold as a Summer Sales Program - Suli Zinck
71 Plays4 years ago
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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 (00:42):
What's going on. Solarpreneurs Taylor Armstrong, your host here, and we have the first female guest ever on the Solarpreneur podcast. I'm super excited. So we got a Suli Zinck. Can I say your last name? Right. Zinc. Okay, so, so will you, thanks for coming on the show, I'm so excited to finally have a girl knocker on, so appreciate it. Appreciate you coming on,
Speaker 3 (01:07):
But I'll be honest. Taylor, yours was one. When I was looking into the solar industry, yours is one of the first ones that I like found. And I was like, oh, he there, there's not like a ton of like episodes, not a ton of people. This is definitely where I'm going to start because it's going to be like, he's going to be methodical and he's going to give you tips. And it's exactly been that since like what, when I started listening to you back in November. So
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I've been following your podcast too, and your story and, um, pretty amazing stuff. So yeah, I will say we've been, yeah, I've, I think I've scheduled a one or two other girls to come on and both of them like fell through, um, um, one of them, one of them like just no showing me and then like one responds. I'm like, all right, maybe I'm not going to chain get girls on if they do this. So maybe I left kind of bad days, my mother, but yeah. But God, we made it work and no, um, you guys are crushing it with your team and I know there's some powerhouse ladies in the industry, so I think it's important. And actually, I remember now that I think back, I remember one of my like lower reviews on the PA I think it was like three stars or something, but, um, one of the reviews was like, Taylor focuses so much on like guys, Neil, he just says, here's the thing guys. And like, he never brings on me in girl.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
They was like, that is going to be my one full year. And then we like failure by two of us. Go see.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So yeah, that's when I realized, like, I, I gotta be, uh, you know, conscious that the ladies listen to the show and not, you know, just suggest everyone by guys and stuff like that. So glad we're making it happen though. Um, but yeah, so slowly, do you want to maybe get into your story a little bit? I know you just did an awesome interview on the, uh, the door knocker podcasts. So we probably won't go quite as in depth as you went on that podcast. So people go listen to that to you, if you want to hear kind of her full in-depth story, which was awesome. But I, yeah. Do you want to give us just a little bit of the background for people who don't know you on the podcast or?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, so I'm Sui, Juliana, Zuli all the weird games. People call me on the doors, whatever floats your boat. But, um, I started in the door to door industry 13 summers ago. This is my 13th summer. Um, I just came in with like the mindset. If I was going to give up, you know, a good jo
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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.
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?
Introducing Suli Zink
00:00:44
Speaker
Taylor Armstrong, your host here, and we have the first female guest ever on the Solopreneur podcast.
00:00:52
Speaker
I'm super excited.
00:00:53
Speaker
So we got Suli Zink.
00:00:55
Speaker
Am I saying your last name right?
00:00:57
Speaker
Yes.
00:00:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:59
Speaker
So Suli, thanks for coming on the show.
00:01:01
Speaker
I'm so excited to finally have
00:01:03
Speaker
a girl knocker on so appreciate it appreciate you i'm excited like i'll be honest taylor yours was one when i was looking into the solar industry yours is one of like the first ones that i like found and i was like oh yeah there's not like a ton of like episodes not a ton of people this is definitely where i'm gonna start because it's gonna be like he's gonna be methodical and he's gonna give you tips and it's exactly been that since like what when i started listening to you back in november so i'm kind of yeah
00:01:33
Speaker
I appreciate that.
00:01:34
Speaker
And I've been following your podcast too and your story and pretty amazing stuff.
00:01:38
Speaker
So yeah, I will say we've been, yeah, I think I've scheduled one or two other girls to come on and both of them like fell through.
00:01:47
Speaker
One of them like just no showing me and then like when it responds, I'm like, all right, maybe I'm not going to try and get girls on if they do this.
00:01:55
Speaker
So maybe I left kind of bad days in my mouth, but yeah.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:01
Speaker
But glad we made it work.
00:02:02
Speaker
And no, you guys are crushing it with your team.
00:02:04
Speaker
And I know there's some powerhouse ladies in the industry.
00:02:08
Speaker
So I think it's important.
Addressing Criticism on Female Representation
00:02:09
Speaker
And actually, I remember, now that I think back, I remember one of my lower reviews on the podcast, I think it was like three stars or something, but one of the reviews was like, Taylor focuses so much on guys, and he always just says, here's the thing, guys, and he never brings on any girl guests.
00:02:27
Speaker
Taylor's like, that is going to be my one goal this year, and then we fail you by two of us ghosting you.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
So yeah, that's when I realized I got to be conscious that the ladies listen to the show and not just address everyone by guys and stuff like that.
00:02:44
Speaker
So yeah, glad we're making it happen though.
Suli's Journey in Sales
00:02:49
Speaker
But yeah, so Suli, do you want to maybe get into your story a little bit?
00:02:53
Speaker
I know you just did an awesome interview on the Door Knocker podcast.
00:02:57
Speaker
So we probably won't go quite as in depth as you went on that podcast.
00:03:01
Speaker
So people can go listen to that too if you want to hear kind of her full in depth story, which was awesome.
00:03:06
Speaker
But yeah, do you want to give us just a little bit of the background for people who don't know you on the podcast here?
00:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm Sui, Juliana, Zuli, all the weird names people call me on the doors, whatever floats your boat.
00:03:20
Speaker
But I started in the door-to-door industry 13 summers ago.
00:03:25
Speaker
This is my 13th summer.
00:03:27
Speaker
I just came in with like the mindset if I was going to give up, you know, a good job, I was going to make it count.
00:03:33
Speaker
And
00:03:34
Speaker
I ended up my first summer, I just asked the team, they're like, hey, what is the number one girl did, how many accounts, pest control accounts did she service this summer?
00:03:44
Speaker
And when he told me it was like 311, I was like, all right.
00:03:49
Speaker
But originally, the person who recruited me was like, look, if everything fails and sucks, I'll at least pay for your plane ticket, everything, so at least you have fun while you're out here.
00:03:57
Speaker
And so those three weeks ended up turning into 13 years later.
00:04:04
Speaker
ended up, that girl had did 309, and I finished with 316 that summer, and then there was just no turning back for me in the door-to-door industry when I saw that there was just no cap on basically my pay.
00:04:23
Speaker
There was just a cap with companies, and so once I realized that, I was like, there's no way that I was going to go to a nine-to-five, and
00:04:35
Speaker
two summers in, I get married to my husband of 10 years now, and then I recruited him to be my service pro.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then I got in trouble for having him be a service pro because I would have him work through his lunch breaks.
00:04:47
Speaker
I would be calling him on Sundays like, hey, we're going to go do these homes and we're not even supposed to.
00:04:52
Speaker
Like he's a W-2 employee.
00:04:54
Speaker
He's like, I'm a church.
00:04:57
Speaker
Let me go to church.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:04:59
Speaker
And so my branch manager was like, Sue, you can't be doing this.
Competitive Mindset and Coaching
00:05:03
Speaker
Like there's, this is,
00:05:04
Speaker
he works for us, not for you.
00:05:07
Speaker
And, and then the following summer,
00:05:12
Speaker
um I we had our first kid and I knocked until I gave birth to her on the doors like eight months pregnant and still did more than like my team leader on the team and it was just no turning back like I just I just have one of those like mindsets I just feel like I'm a little bit different in the sense like I I've seen the money I've seen the success I've seen what this industry can do and
00:05:35
Speaker
I just now want to have a lot more women be in the same space.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
No, that's incredible.
00:05:41
Speaker
And no, I got mad respect because my wife, she's actually, I think seven months pregnant right now.
00:05:47
Speaker
So, um, yeah, but she's not, she's not moving much.
00:05:51
Speaker
Like I can't even imagine trying to get her out on a door.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:58
Speaker
Just imagining that just blows my mind that you would even, you know, attempt to knock eight months pregnant.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker
So pretty incredible.
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:08
Speaker
But yeah, I was wondering, have you always been like that competitive?
00:06:11
Speaker
Because I see, I don't think there's a lot of girls.
00:06:13
Speaker
They're like, oh, what's the, what did the top girl, female rep do?
00:06:16
Speaker
And then want to beat it?
00:06:17
Speaker
Is it, have you always just been like super competitive your whole life or where did that fire come from?
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, and so that's like one of the tips that I give to like men or people in general in the door to door industry when they are looking at female reps in the sense of like who they're wanting to recruit like any woman who's like been in like sports for more than one year or done piano lessons for more than a year of been in karate for more than a year.
00:06:42
Speaker
or have done anything consistent that, that had a little bit of competition for more than a year.
00:06:48
Speaker
Those are definitely the people that definitely the girls that you do want to want to start with.
00:06:53
Speaker
And yeah, I was super competitive, uh, period, but, um,
00:06:59
Speaker
It's weird because in the industry, like I, my husband says it all the time.
00:07:03
Speaker
He's like, you're humble in public, but in private, you're not.
00:07:06
Speaker
And so I like will not like, you know, I'm just like, oh, good job.
00:07:10
Speaker
And like, whatever.
00:07:10
Speaker
And I'm like, how much did they get?
00:07:12
Speaker
Like, that's how I have to do better than that tomorrow and whatever.
00:07:16
Speaker
But yeah, so those are definitely a quality that you want to look for when you're looking for girls to recruit.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, I can only imagine like a Sunday game night at your house.
00:07:28
Speaker
You're gonna have to invite me over to one of those things.
00:07:30
Speaker
My husband and I are not allowed to play games like together.
00:07:34
Speaker
We just don't do games because it's like he doesn't care enough and it bugs me like that he won't even like compete in like Uno or anything like that.
00:07:46
Speaker
So we just don't do card games.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, I want a competition.
00:07:51
Speaker
That's funny.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:54
Speaker
Well, you can come next time you're in San Diego, let us know because me and my wife, we get into it quite a bit.
00:07:59
Speaker
So we'll play in Monopoly or something.
00:08:02
Speaker
I'm known to just pop up when people tell me like, hey, just come over here at any time.
00:08:07
Speaker
I typically just show up.
00:08:09
Speaker
okay well let's do it we'd love to have you but no that's awesome so what was your background were you like a sports background then or music or yeah so I did yeah so I did soccer um for a few years actually got like a full ride scholarship to go and play soccer I was just a I played goalie but I played like board I also did basketball too but I was like
00:08:33
Speaker
more of like the sucky offense player but like I was gonna be like the best defense player like typically they were just always calling me just play defense but I wasn't that great of a shooter I wasn't that great of an athlete I was just competitive with us all yeah that's awesome
00:08:49
Speaker
yeah well no that's good and yeah I mean any um yeah I think that applies to you know girls and guys anyone with a sports background um yeah you've probably seen it too but guys that have like wrestled and done yeah just like kind of endurance sports too I think are great at this because especially out on the doors it's a mental grind you know and yeah track and field piano like anything consistently yeah
00:09:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
So yeah, definitely a nugget right there as you are recruiting.
00:09:20
Speaker
But no, that's cool.
00:09:21
Speaker
And so pests.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, again, you can go listen to the other interview.
00:09:25
Speaker
I think you went pretty in depth in that, Zulie.
00:09:27
Speaker
But just the short version, why did you decide to switch from pests to solar then?
00:09:33
Speaker
And what was because I came from a pest background, too.
00:09:35
Speaker
I don't know if you knew that, but.
00:09:37
Speaker
I did two summers of pest control and you were much better than me.
00:09:43
Speaker
I would, you know, I, you would have destroyed me in pests.
00:09:46
Speaker
I think my best summer is like 120 accounts or something.
00:09:48
Speaker
So those reps actually make the best seller reps.
00:09:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:53
Speaker
That's good.
00:09:54
Speaker
They're low maintenance.
00:09:57
Speaker
No, that's, it was funny.
00:09:58
Speaker
That's actually how female knockers started.
00:10:01
Speaker
And so I did my first summer, um,
00:10:04
Speaker
three 16 and then my very last summer before I transitioned into solar I was the number one rep in the company I had serviced
Coaching Platform for Women
00:10:12
Speaker
uh a thousand and twelve uh pest accounts in like 156 uh knocking days but before that summer had before that summer um had started I you know basically went to like the leadership about how we needed to
00:10:29
Speaker
have a program for women in the company.
00:10:32
Speaker
And it wasn't even like, you know, I'm not even trying to say like, hey, girls are better than guys, guys are better than girls.
00:10:38
Speaker
It's more of just like a space and just a little bit of awareness that I just saw a lot of regionals and team leaders who are flying to Vegas and Arizona.
00:10:50
Speaker
and all these other states to basically recruit more men.
00:10:53
Speaker
And I'm like, why don't we just make this space a little bit more inviting for the 40% of people we're not even tapping into who are returning from their missions, who are doing all these things.
00:11:02
Speaker
And they're literally in our backyards.
00:11:05
Speaker
And, but basically I was just kind of dismissed a little bit.
00:11:08
Speaker
And so I was like, and this was before I did the thousand accounts.
00:11:14
Speaker
And so when I came home,
00:11:15
Speaker
in September, just throughout the summer, I just seen how many women were rooting me on that didn't even know me.
00:11:20
Speaker
And they were just like texting me and they were just like keeping track of like what I was doing during the summer because I would just post weekly updates and the amount of like women who would just like reach out to me.
00:11:31
Speaker
I was just like, so like, it kept me going and I'm on a team where there's not even like women period.
00:11:38
Speaker
And so that was like the biggest thing for me.
00:11:39
Speaker
So I swore once the summer ended,
00:11:41
Speaker
that I was going to do something to give back.
00:11:43
Speaker
And so I'm not a social media guru.
00:11:47
Speaker
I am not the, the, I don't even dress fancy.
00:11:50
Speaker
I don't even feel like I fit in with like the cool crowd, but I'm like, I'm going to start something, even if it means that I just pay it like out of my own pocket.
00:11:58
Speaker
And so I started, I finished knocking for pest control in September.
00:12:02
Speaker
And then I was like, I'm going to create a coaching program or a coaching platform for
Breakthrough in Solar Sales
00:12:07
Speaker
women in the industry.
00:12:07
Speaker
And it doesn't matter what the shirt that they're wearing, but I want to teach concepts that could be used in alarms that could be used in dish that could be used, um, in solar and whatever industry basically for women, because when we're going into a lot of these teams, a lot of the men are focusing their training and it's just kind of like, we forget about the emotional side.
00:12:26
Speaker
And I used to actually not want women on my team.
00:12:30
Speaker
And I felt like this is a way of me giving back and making up for that mindset that I bought into of not wanting women on my team.
00:12:38
Speaker
And so in October, when I basically started this platform, I started recruiting, um, women just from different, I know, I know I wasn't recruiting.
00:12:47
Speaker
I basically created this coaching program and I put it out there and I was surprised at how many people I signed up and I wasn't doing it to be rich or anything like that.
00:12:56
Speaker
I think I had like 15 people.
00:12:58
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:59
Speaker
And, um,
00:13:00
Speaker
I had some from Vivid or alarms at some from past and some from dish and then from solar.
00:13:07
Speaker
And I'm coming from the highest summer that I've ever had in pest control, like off of this high doing financially great.
00:13:14
Speaker
Like everything's great.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I felt like a hypocrite.
00:13:17
Speaker
I'm like, I'm over here coaching women in the industry and I've only known pest control.
00:13:23
Speaker
So I was like, screw it.
00:13:24
Speaker
I'm going to go and do blitzes like with everyone just for, as a learning tool to be a better coach and to be a better mentor.
00:13:32
Speaker
And so I fell flat on my face when it came to alarms and bless the hearts of the people who do alarms.
00:13:37
Speaker
I'm never going to do that again.
00:13:42
Speaker
And then I went and did dish and I was like, okay, you guys do not get paid enough.
00:13:45
Speaker
This is way too easy.
00:13:47
Speaker
And then I had this one girl who was on this team doing solar and
00:13:54
Speaker
crap that's probably going to sound crappy on your crappy on your on your kidney I want your car to get broken into
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
And so I was like, you know what?
00:14:06
Speaker
This girl had told me that she was the only girl and no one on her team had made a sale for solar like that month.
00:14:15
Speaker
And I literally overheard teaching her concepts about like mental toughness and the only reason that you're not going to get a deal is because you're not going out there, you know, on the doors.
00:14:27
Speaker
I was like, all right, well, I've got to go do a blitz with them.
00:14:31
Speaker
And so I ended up going and doing a blitz with their team.
00:14:35
Speaker
And I basically fell flat on my face on the first three days.
00:14:39
Speaker
And I was like, what am I doing?
00:14:42
Speaker
And it was basically the competitiveness in me that I was like,
00:14:46
Speaker
There's no way that I can't like make this happen.
00:14:48
Speaker
Like I am telling this girl that I am like mentally tough and I can do all these things.
00:14:53
Speaker
Like I'm gonna have to figure it out.
00:14:55
Speaker
There was no pitch for solar.
00:14:57
Speaker
There's no manual.
00:14:58
Speaker
There was no nothing.
00:14:58
Speaker
I basically wrote up a pitch.
00:15:00
Speaker
I basically just put everything together and I was like, all right,
Managing Emotions in Sales
00:15:05
Speaker
And then finally day three, I set a bunch of appointments before lunch and I ended up closing one and I closed one every day for the next three days.
00:15:14
Speaker
And I left with like 30 grand and was like, okay, that was a fluke.
00:15:18
Speaker
I have to do this again.
00:15:20
Speaker
And so I invited a couple of my pest control buddies.
00:15:22
Speaker
We didn't tell anyone.
00:15:23
Speaker
It was just about five of us.
00:15:25
Speaker
And we would meet up every morning just like we did in pest control.
00:15:28
Speaker
And like, again, there's no training, no nothing.
00:15:30
Speaker
We just do like our role plays with each other.
00:15:31
Speaker
We shared our pitch and then
00:15:34
Speaker
we'd go set appointments before lunch.
00:15:36
Speaker
We were on the doors by like 11 AM, like every single, or 10 30.
00:15:41
Speaker
And then every day, each one of us comes on with a deal and we're going home with like 50 plus K a week, all of us.
00:15:47
Speaker
And I'm like, what the crap?
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:50
Speaker
And then, um, it was from there that basically my solar journey started, but basically my
00:15:57
Speaker
female knockers page just kind of like evolved from that mindset and from that little accident.
00:16:02
Speaker
Like I always tell people that I got into solar by accident and here I am.
00:16:06
Speaker
Wow.
00:16:07
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:16:08
Speaker
That's a cool story.
00:16:10
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, it's awesome.
00:16:12
Speaker
You're able to connect and cause I think that's a big issue with like, I don't know, maybe guy manager, stuff like that is.
00:16:20
Speaker
maybe the girls feel like they can't understand their perspectives point of view.
00:16:24
Speaker
I know that's always for me.
00:16:25
Speaker
I brought out my sister-in-law actually.
00:16:28
Speaker
And she really struggled.
00:16:30
Speaker
I wish this was like three years ago.
00:16:32
Speaker
So I wish you would have been training in the solar space at that time.
00:16:37
Speaker
Cause I was just like, I was like, all right, just get out there, knock harder.
00:16:40
Speaker
Just do it.
00:16:41
Speaker
She was a,
00:16:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, she was a pretty emotional girl, and I just – I didn't really know what to do.
00:16:47
Speaker
I'm just like, I don't know.
00:16:48
Speaker
Just get out there and just go knock towards him.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah, just go do it.
00:16:51
Speaker
I do it.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah, so it was rough and, you know, didn't have a very good summer and everything.
00:16:58
Speaker
But, yeah, what do you think, like, for you, what you've seen, Zulie, as you've coached all these female reps and lady knockers and all that, have you seen that there's, like –
00:17:08
Speaker
I don't know, maybe a way that they like to be coached or treated that's different than like the guy reps or what have you seen that, I guess, from a female perspective?
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah, well, one, we're not teaching the concept of just how to compartmentalize our emotions because a lot of times we're talking about like women and how emotional we are, but men are just as emotional.
00:17:31
Speaker
But what you guys are really good at is compartmentalizing.
00:17:34
Speaker
Like you guys can put things aside
00:17:36
Speaker
and emotions and just go do what you got to do.
00:17:39
Speaker
Whereas us as women, that's one thing is just, we're just not being taught how to put our emotions aside or how to put them in a box just for a short time while we focus on what we need to do in front of us.
00:17:51
Speaker
And so I spent a lot of time just working on the mindset aspect in the sense of like,
00:17:56
Speaker
how we compartmentalize, like how we can overcome anxiety.
00:18:00
Speaker
How is it that we can overcome like the negative things that are happening?
00:18:03
Speaker
Because once women can figure that out on your teams, like the success is going to be endless.
00:18:10
Speaker
And so like my whole goal in female knockers is not to have all of us women knocking on freaking one team, on one team.
00:18:18
Speaker
But my whole goal is all of us, no matter what shirt that we're wearing, because we're all going to have,
00:18:24
Speaker
we're going to be in different phases of our lives, but to be able to have that unity and know like, Hey, I'm going to have someone who's going to understand and have my back and root me on where I'm at.
00:18:34
Speaker
Exactly where I literally want to be a big sister in the industry for women in every aspect of like, you're there in pest control.
00:18:41
Speaker
Like let's figure out how you can level up in pest control, but you're going to have to start with your emotions.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's huge because for me, I don't know if this is wrong, but what I've seen is pretty much any girl that can figure out the emotional part of it, I see them have success.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yes.
00:18:57
Speaker
The teams I've been on, it's like, I don't know.
00:19:00
Speaker
For me, it seems like people are nicer to girls.
00:19:03
Speaker
It seems like they'll hear them out more.
00:19:06
Speaker
I was always jealous of that.
00:19:07
Speaker
I remember doing pest control.
00:19:09
Speaker
I'm like, man, you can get through way more of your pitch than
Advice for Male Managers
00:19:12
Speaker
I can.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:14
Speaker
But it's true.
00:19:15
Speaker
And I focus on the reasons I focus on the things that we have a leg up on as women in the industry and that we can like look at them as like strengths rather than, you know, rather than weaknesses.
00:19:28
Speaker
And I feel like in solar, especially for me, my emotional side and how emotion and like how much emotion I put into like my deals, like people feel it like it's just it's just a different dynamic than a guy who's just, you know, just going through it.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:19:43
Speaker
But yeah, for you, Sully, do you have any, I don't know, like stories or examples of times where you coached like some girl reps that maybe were struggling or super emotional?
00:19:54
Speaker
And I don't know, wanted to go home, things like that.
00:19:56
Speaker
And like specific things you did to turn it around.
00:19:58
Speaker
I don't know if you have any.
00:20:00
Speaker
examples of people you've coached or anything like that yeah so I'll be honest um so I've actually had like a couple girls actually just on my team um and uh they had been in another industry and they'd been with another company and um they basically always used their emotions and the negativity to
00:20:22
Speaker
to get in their cars and to go home and to let it bleed over to the next, to the next day.
00:20:29
Speaker
And then we worked together again and I actually had her come out and we started just focusing on all the positive things.
00:20:36
Speaker
We actually took away all the things that, that was negative for her in her life.
00:20:40
Speaker
And the biggest thing was having a car.
00:20:42
Speaker
The biggest thing was being a driver.
00:20:43
Speaker
It was being the driver and how easy it was for her to be able to get back in the car or get over here.
00:20:50
Speaker
taking that one thing away because we recognize that that was like one of her weaknesses and where, what she would use to be able to let it bleed over to the next day.
00:20:59
Speaker
She ended up being one of the top producers this year, just by focusing on that one little thing.
00:21:03
Speaker
Is she still emotional?
00:21:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:05
Speaker
Do we still have rough days?
00:21:07
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:07
Speaker
But we were able to see a lot, a lot more success just by taking away a couple of the little things that were triggers for her.
00:21:15
Speaker
And so I, and so a lot of the girls who reach out to me who are having emotional days,
00:21:19
Speaker
and things that stink, we basically just work on, find out like what some of their triggers are.
00:21:26
Speaker
We remove some of those triggers and it just makes it a little bit better to focus on the things that they can control.
00:21:31
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:21:32
Speaker
It reminds me of, you read The Power of Habit, that book.
00:21:36
Speaker
They talk about triggers and all this stuff.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:41
Speaker
Exactly.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, super important principle.
00:21:43
Speaker
And it's so true.
00:21:45
Speaker
I think a lot of people struggle with that, being the driver and whatnot.
00:21:48
Speaker
But it's like, if you're on a diet, you need to get the Oreos out of the kitchen, right?
00:21:52
Speaker
Get the stuff that's tempting out of the way.
00:21:54
Speaker
It's not tempting anymore.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:57
Speaker
It's the same thing if you're struggling to knock the door or whatever it might be, that trigger, like you were saying.
00:22:02
Speaker
See if you can figure out a way to eliminate it.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of people just solves the problem instantly.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
So, yeah, that's powerful.
00:22:09
Speaker
And what about like for guys?
00:22:11
Speaker
Let's say you're, you know, a guy is managing a team with girls.
00:22:16
Speaker
Have you seen guys be super successful with it?
00:22:19
Speaker
And what would you say to like me, for example, if I manage a team, I'm trying to help the ladies out.
00:22:26
Speaker
Would you have any tips for like a guy trying to manage the ladies on his team and help him?
00:22:30
Speaker
yeah yeah it's just gonna be like focusing on the little things like what what a lot of people don't understand it's like women are not we're not like yes we're wanting equal pay and all these things but the little things like really like matter to us like a shirt that actually fits a girl like actually having incentives that doesn't include a freaking wallet that's just for everyone or a pocket knife
00:22:56
Speaker
Or freaking like the little things just really go a long ways in the sense of like texting and actually calling like what I do and why I don't have car partners as a leader in my car because I also use that time.
00:23:12
Speaker
to be able to follow up on reps.
00:23:14
Speaker
Like I'm always like driving in from like an appointment or to a house or whatever.
00:23:18
Speaker
So I'm thinking about that rep who may have had like a bad day.
00:23:22
Speaker
I'm thinking about that girl who talked to me about this and I'll shoot her a text or a call or like, Hey, how are you feeling today?
00:23:27
Speaker
Like using that time in my,
00:23:31
Speaker
to focus on the business in front of me, but take care of the people around me as well.
00:23:35
Speaker
So every night, like when I'm coming home, I'm reaching out to someone on my team to just ask them how their day was, to just ask them like what it is that I can train on tomorrow that would help them personally.
00:23:47
Speaker
And it's every day, it's going to be like a new rep.
00:23:49
Speaker
And so everyone knows that I'm going to reach out at some point or time in another.
00:23:53
Speaker
And it's just something so small is like calling them regularly and like, Hey, how was your day?
00:23:59
Speaker
Hmm.
00:23:59
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:01
Speaker
How do you like, remember, do you have a system set up to like, I don't know, remember, Oh, this rep's having a hard time or keep track of all their, I don't know how big your team is, but do you have, I don't know, a system in place to remember, Oh, I need to call this rep or they were struggling with this or their numbers are down.
00:24:17
Speaker
Or is it just going to come to you while you're driving?
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:20
Speaker
So one, it's like I have a good relationship with all the girls that they're just like coming to me.
00:24:24
Speaker
But two, we have a group chat.
00:24:26
Speaker
So like on our group me, if I see that someone doesn't have a set or if like someone's numbers like isn't up or or it's I just don't see like any doors knock or anything like I'll reach out to that person and like, hey, what time today can I come and knock with you or like, hey, and so.
00:24:44
Speaker
I base the day, like when it's, if I have like a no show or an appointment that's not there, I'll go and look at group me and see who's producing and who isn't.
00:24:52
Speaker
I'll just start from there.
00:24:54
Speaker
And then at the end of the night, when I am going home, I'm just starting with someone who actually texted me and reached out to me about like an issue or problem or something.
00:25:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:03
Speaker
I love that.
00:25:04
Speaker
And I like the, I like your point about the little things, the shirts and the incentives and stuff like that.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:13
Speaker
I didn't even think about that, but I can see why that'd be a big thing.
00:25:16
Speaker
It's like, at least give me a shirt that fits.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:20
Speaker
Like even just that, like I had some girls come over here from another company and they're like, what the, like, they're different from them.
00:25:26
Speaker
Like these are actually like women's shirt.
00:25:28
Speaker
And I didn't even like realize like how big of a deal.
00:25:31
Speaker
like it was to them and it was literally an $11 shirt.
Sales Model and Work-Life Balance
00:25:36
Speaker
yeah no that's true yeah I'm just thinking uh I don't know if you watch The Office do you watch The Office yes okay I'm just I'm just thinking of the one where Michael takes them all to the mall the girls like like to the mall and takes them all to Victoria's Secret remember that episode yeah so maybe not no to that level yeah yeah
00:26:02
Speaker
But I think that is really important just being, you know, aware that girls probably maybe they don't want to go dirt biking for the day or whatever.
00:26:10
Speaker
Maybe they want to go.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:12
Speaker
Maybe they don't want to go on a golfing trip or like, I don't know.
00:26:16
Speaker
There's a lot of little things.
00:26:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:19
Speaker
No, that's important.
00:26:21
Speaker
So cool.
00:26:21
Speaker
No, that helps a lot.
00:26:24
Speaker
And yeah, I guess I wanted to ask you too.
00:26:27
Speaker
So how many people are you managing right now?
00:26:31
Speaker
So at the beginning of the summer, so like our whole team, there was probably for the whole summer about 35 of us.
00:26:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:39
Speaker
And so I had another co-manager and then there was like another guy on the team.
00:26:46
Speaker
We're just kind of like I had recruited him, but he had like a bunch of guys.
00:26:49
Speaker
So we were just,
00:26:50
Speaker
because we all came from pests we just kind of wanted to stick together and so yeah I think he had about uh 15 and then I had about 25 of like my own yeah so we kind of just like combined and ran the summer together
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah, big team.
00:27:06
Speaker
And sorry, I guess I know before we started the call here, yeah, we're just talking about how you don't like to call yourself the boss and stuff, but you're just almost like, no.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I just want to be the sister.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:23
Speaker
Like, even when I have the girls like introducing me and we're like, yeah, like this boss, she's taking, I'm like, no, I'm just like a team member.
00:27:31
Speaker
I was like, I never want to look at myself as above them.
00:27:35
Speaker
I truly look at them as like, especially in solar, like my, my mindset is just a lot different.
00:27:40
Speaker
Like I truly feel that I'm an employee of them.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:43
Speaker
Like I, that I need to continually like take care of them.
00:27:46
Speaker
Obviously take care of myself first, but like they come first.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
I'm sure that's a huge key to your success and they can feel, you know, that you really care about them and appreciate them.
00:27:58
Speaker
I'm sure you learned this on your mission and everything.
00:28:00
Speaker
But speaking of missions, I think that was one of the keys to success we saw in like our missions is the more you care about people.
00:28:07
Speaker
the more they're going to respond because it's like, oh, they actually want me to get baptized or whatever because they love me and they really believe in this.
00:28:16
Speaker
As opposed to just the number.
00:28:18
Speaker
No, exactly.
00:28:19
Speaker
I probably kept people longer, you know, just because they're not a number than who I should have.
00:28:25
Speaker
And I have like some reps who are super protected of me or just like, why don't you let them leave?
00:28:29
Speaker
Like, you're just too nice.
00:28:30
Speaker
Like, you're just like, listen to some of that.
00:28:32
Speaker
I'm like, it's okay, guys.
00:28:33
Speaker
It's okay.
00:28:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:35
Speaker
And it's super important though.
00:28:36
Speaker
Like Zig Ziglar says, the more people, you know, the more people know you care.
00:28:42
Speaker
I forget the quote, I'm butchering it.
00:28:44
Speaker
But when people see you care, that's how they're going to, you know, respond to you and want to do business with you too on a team.
00:28:51
Speaker
It's true.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:54
Speaker
But the point I was, I think what I was going to ask you before I got distracted by that is also like the family aspects.
00:29:00
Speaker
So I know you're a mom.
00:29:02
Speaker
How many kids do you have now?
00:29:04
Speaker
So I have three.
00:29:05
Speaker
I have a nine-year-old.
00:29:07
Speaker
I have an about to be an eight-year-old and then a two-year-old.
00:29:10
Speaker
Nice.
00:29:10
Speaker
Cute, cute.
00:29:13
Speaker
So that's impressive to me.
00:29:16
Speaker
I have one kid right now, one on the way here in a couple months.
00:29:20
Speaker
And so something that I really respect about you is just being able to do all this and have the level of success that you've been able to achieve.
00:29:29
Speaker
um while being a mom for three kids I don't even know because I'm with one kid I feel like I'm uh you know already not there as much as I need to be and yeah not the best dad at times things like that so um maybe this doesn't apply to everyone who isn't a parent but how do you manage your time being like a mom and being there for your kids and all that how do you manage like the family aspect of everything
00:29:53
Speaker
So I'll be honest.
00:29:55
Speaker
And I, one person that I love in this industry is Michael Donald.
00:30:00
Speaker
And, um, one thing that he talks about is seasons.
00:30:03
Speaker
And so I just, I, I no longer, um, you know, have this like guilt of what I used to when I was in pest control and I wouldn't see my kids.
00:30:13
Speaker
So till the, till the evening, but we have the mindset, like my kids understand it.
00:30:18
Speaker
And so do my husband, that there's a season that there's going to be a season for everything.
00:30:22
Speaker
And right now my season is going to be solar.
00:30:24
Speaker
My season is in this industry is basically just like building and being able to set up our family into a position to where that season is going to be just us.
00:30:35
Speaker
And so because my, my, my husband is like bought into like the fact of like seasons, we, we just have like that mindset, like right now, like to like this very second, it's just going to be a season and it's going to end.
00:30:48
Speaker
And I know that there's going to be a season and a time and a place for me to be with my family.
00:30:52
Speaker
And with my kids and because we both just bought into it, it just, there's no more guilt.
00:30:57
Speaker
Like he's just a thousand percent in and it just worked out.
00:31:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's true.
00:31:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
I do remember Mike O'Donnell talking about that too.
00:31:06
Speaker
And anyone that has a family, that's a topic I love is like the whole work-life balance, but any successful person I hear, they always, they say pretty much the same thing.
00:31:16
Speaker
There's no like balance.
00:31:17
Speaker
There's just going to be ups and downs, different seasons, times when you're focused on different things, right?
00:31:23
Speaker
But when we are with our family, it's like we are with our family.
00:31:26
Speaker
Like my husband has to intentionally like turn off my phones and put things down and things like that.
00:31:33
Speaker
So he's like, okay, this second, this season, this time, this moment is for us.
00:31:37
Speaker
And I'm like, you're right.
00:31:38
Speaker
So it's just about communication and working it together.
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah, I love that.
00:31:44
Speaker
And your husband's name is Walter, right?
00:31:46
Speaker
Walter?
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:48
Speaker
So what does Walter think of all this?
00:31:50
Speaker
Is he, I know he's probably used to the whole kind of sales life by now, but does he, is he kind of the stay at home dad then while you're off slinging deals?
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:01
Speaker
So it's just kind of like funny because people are like, well, you know, they'll try to like get me to talk to like
00:32:05
Speaker
these women who have kids and like try to recruit them and try to do that.
00:32:08
Speaker
I'm like, guys, there's, you know, there's hot buttons and not every woman is as mobile as me or has like a companion who, who is, is willing to sacrifice.
00:32:17
Speaker
Like my husband was, he had a great job.
00:32:19
Speaker
Like he loved it.
00:32:20
Speaker
He was going to school.
00:32:21
Speaker
He's making like six figures.
00:32:22
Speaker
He was doing all those things.
00:32:25
Speaker
But he saw that my season was going to get us to our end goal a lot sooner.
00:32:30
Speaker
And so when COVID hit,
00:32:33
Speaker
And he just saw how anxious it was going to be for me to worry about a babysitter for our kids, him not being at work, different things like that.
00:32:41
Speaker
He decided that his season was to be the best stay-at-home dad.
00:32:45
Speaker
Like, he legitimately is a lot more patient of a father.
00:32:48
Speaker
He's a great cook and he freaking takes care of the house a lot better than me.
00:32:53
Speaker
And so, you know, roles are, are, are, are different for everyone.
00:32:58
Speaker
And so he enjoys our kids.
00:33:00
Speaker
He enjoys the season.
00:33:01
Speaker
He enjoys cooking.
00:33:03
Speaker
He enjoy, like, he knows my stats better than me.
00:33:05
Speaker
Like he's always kept spreadsheets.
00:33:08
Speaker
He, he knows what I did from like,
00:33:10
Speaker
my first year in pest control, like it's a sport to him.
00:33:12
Speaker
Like he can tell you which rep that I competed with, which month.
00:33:15
Speaker
He can tell you everything.
00:33:16
Speaker
He can tell you which company, which rep has the best rep.
00:33:20
Speaker
And like, it's like the NBA for him.
00:33:22
Speaker
Like he thrives off my life.
00:33:26
Speaker
And so he is just so bought into it that he just saw how much less anxiety that I would have by him doing a great job at home with the kids.
00:33:34
Speaker
So we never questioned me being gone
00:33:37
Speaker
and one parent being home with the kids and he's just an all-star stay-at-home dad.
00:33:43
Speaker
So he's like the analytic, he has all the stats and analytics down and it's almost like a side-by-side announcer for, for,
00:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, Rick texted me the other day and he's like, hey, I'm knocking in Nashville and I know you slayed it over here.
00:33:59
Speaker
Like, what cities did you do well in?
00:34:01
Speaker
I'm like, I have no clue.
00:34:02
Speaker
Give me a sec.
00:34:03
Speaker
I'm going to text the hubby.
00:34:05
Speaker
Literally in 30 seconds, the hubby texts me a list of places that I did well.
00:34:09
Speaker
And I sent it to Ricky and he's like, oh, Walter.
00:34:13
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's incredible.
00:34:15
Speaker
yeah so he he thrives off of like the door-to-door industry and he's just a cheerleader so so do you ever come back to him and like I don't know a slower day or anything and he'll like be slinging off the stats saying oh how many doors did you talk to how many home water and start going through stats like that to make sure you know we would get in arguments like it had to get to the point where like he because I would be in like competitions for us and whatnot and like
00:34:43
Speaker
I do not pay attention to numbers.
00:34:44
Speaker
That's like one thing about me.
00:34:45
Speaker
Like I will not look at stats.
00:34:47
Speaker
I will not check them throughout the day.
00:34:49
Speaker
And when I come home, he's like, you know, if you would have only did one more account, I'm like, leave me alone.
00:34:57
Speaker
I don't even want to know who won.
00:35:00
Speaker
But he's secretly like, because he knows that I don't check it, it like stresses him out because he's like wanting me to win.
00:35:07
Speaker
And he knows that I just care less than he does.
00:35:09
Speaker
So...
00:35:11
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:35:12
Speaker
We might have to have him on the show and go through like the stats to hit to be successful on the doors or whatever.
00:35:17
Speaker
Yeah, I need to have him actually on my podcast.
00:35:20
Speaker
I'm going to do that.
00:35:21
Speaker
That's good.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah, you should.
00:35:22
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:35:24
Speaker
Well, no, that's good and always helps a ton to have a supportive spouse and, you know, make sure you're on the same level and explain to them that they're seasoned and make the time.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, one of our interviews, Ashton, I don't know if you know Ashton Buswell, but
00:35:39
Speaker
Um, he's over like VPSLs at legacy, but that's one of his big secrets is he coaches all his reps just on, um, I think he says having him set aside just like one day a week or one evening a week, go on your date night or whatever.
00:35:55
Speaker
And that's like his big thing.
00:35:56
Speaker
He's like, he's like set aside one night, do your date night, take a break from appointments.
00:36:01
Speaker
Get your date nights in.
00:36:02
Speaker
Good job, Ashton.
00:36:03
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that was cool.
00:36:05
Speaker
And that's like something he coaches all of his reps.
00:36:07
Speaker
Like, I'm sure whether they're married or not, he's like go on a date or whatever.
00:36:12
Speaker
I need to do that.
00:36:13
Speaker
Take time for yourself.
00:36:15
Speaker
So that's cool.
00:36:15
Speaker
And I love hearing about hearing about people's just way that their seasons and the ways they make it work.
Blitz Approach in Solar Sales
00:36:22
Speaker
So yeah, speaking of seasons, Sully, I know before the recording, we're just talking about how you sort of brought the whole pest control idea of the summer sprint over to solar.
00:36:32
Speaker
And you guys are obviously crushing it.
00:36:35
Speaker
How many deals is your team doing on these like blitzes and stuff?
00:36:38
Speaker
What's like an average blitz?
00:36:39
Speaker
How many deals would you say you guys do?
00:36:42
Speaker
So basically my team in a, it was like 136 days, we sold 4.7 megawatts.
00:36:47
Speaker
We had 3.9 still in the pipeline to have been installed and we've still got 1.9 and that's in 137 knocking days that we had in the summer.
00:36:55
Speaker
So yeah.
00:37:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:37:08
Speaker
And you guys are just in Texas, right?
00:37:10
Speaker
Or any other?
00:37:11
Speaker
We're just in Texas.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:13
Speaker
We just, we just traveled to different cities here in Texas.
00:37:15
Speaker
We just call ourselves the Pure Blitz Squad.
00:37:18
Speaker
And we do 18 days on and we do a full week off and I make people go home.
00:37:23
Speaker
I'm like, I wasn't supposed to run a team.
00:37:25
Speaker
I was literally going to do one week a month for a whole year and call it good.
00:37:29
Speaker
But
00:37:30
Speaker
the whole team thing came by accident and just organically.
00:37:34
Speaker
And I was like, I'm supposed to be traveling.
00:37:36
Speaker
So if I'm going to do this, we're taking a week off and I'm going to go live my life.
00:37:40
Speaker
And so it's why people see a lot of like traveling stuff like throughout the summer.
00:37:45
Speaker
Cause I'm like, because I'm making the schedule, I'm choosing to leave and make people go home.
00:37:50
Speaker
So it's been kind of nice.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool.
00:37:53
Speaker
And so you have a house out there in Texas or what's like, yeah, so we don't, so all of my, we've been doing like Airbnbs and so I'm actually closing on a, on a property here, like right now in Texas, because the housing that I've spent on reps have just been like crazy.
00:38:10
Speaker
And so I'm basically just setting stuff up to where I'm not having to, to, to worry about housing, but, um, we've been in Airbnbs all summer.
00:38:19
Speaker
Wow.
00:38:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:20
Speaker
And so when you, when you get your house closed on, is that, are you just going to still be traveling around and then go back to your house for that week?
00:38:28
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:30
Speaker
Like literally the, like I'm, I'm kind of like in no man's land.
00:38:34
Speaker
I like our, this property that we're going to get, it's literally going to be a rental.
00:38:38
Speaker
It's literally going to be on Airbnb like the rest of the year, but during the summer it's going to be used to house reps because I'm cheap and don't want to keep spending 20 grand a month on housing.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:49
Speaker
And so I'm like finding a way to like house reps.
00:38:52
Speaker
And then like my place in Utah is like rented out and have tenants on the top and bottom.
00:38:57
Speaker
Like our properties are like rented out and I live nowhere.
00:39:00
Speaker
Like I am like this homeless.
00:39:02
Speaker
Circus, traveling circus.
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:05
Speaker
And so until I settled down on solar and I kind of want to ride this tax credit, I'm just not choosing a place to be, but I'm going to be everywhere.
00:39:15
Speaker
Yeah, might as well.
00:39:16
Speaker
No, that's, you guys are crushing it.
00:39:18
Speaker
And so like, is this, you're doing it all year round, just this blitz model though, or are you just, so we weren't supposed to do a post season.
00:39:26
Speaker
That was another thing.
00:39:27
Speaker
Like all this stuff just happens as like my team grows and people wants different things.
00:39:32
Speaker
And so we were, I was supposed to be done August.
00:39:34
Speaker
And then I had girls on the team.
00:39:36
Speaker
It was like, look, well, I want to transition into closing or,
00:39:40
Speaker
I want to like get a head start for like next summer.
00:39:43
Speaker
And then it's like, Hey, I want to recruit this person.
00:39:45
Speaker
So basically what my post season is, it's just like, it's, they're just low key Vivint schedule where I'm just allowing people to come and test it out.
00:39:53
Speaker
And I'm actually like looking and sharpening the saw of like people that I want to be leaders to take over next summer, but I only want to be a summer program.
00:40:02
Speaker
The reason people just still see me working right now is because I'm prepping training and recruiting to set up a good next summer model.
00:40:09
Speaker
Okay, interesting.
00:40:11
Speaker
That's cool.
00:40:12
Speaker
And I don't, to my knowledge, I don't know if there's anyone else doing just like a pure summer model in solar.
00:40:18
Speaker
Is there?
00:40:19
Speaker
No, no, no, it's, it's, it's why I refuse to let it fail.
00:40:26
Speaker
You're pulling it by the teeth.
00:40:28
Speaker
I am pulling it by the teeth.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
So this is my, uh,
00:40:32
Speaker
I'm definitely sharpening things up and putting a lot of things together in place to basically set up for April 1st when we started again.
00:40:39
Speaker
Wow.
00:40:40
Speaker
And yeah, what's incredible is you guys are in this summer, I'm sure you've done more than most like year round solar companies.
00:40:49
Speaker
There's probably not too many year round solar companies that do that for the entire year, let alone in the summer.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:40:58
Speaker
Now, what's your arguments?
00:41:00
Speaker
I guess would that just come from pest control or what's your argument?
00:41:03
Speaker
Why did you even try to just do that when everyone else in the solar industry is doing all year round?
00:41:08
Speaker
What's your argument for this?
00:41:10
Speaker
So because I I actually dabbled in a couple of solar companies before I came here.
00:41:16
Speaker
And again, like I.
00:41:20
Speaker
I'm new to this.
00:41:21
Speaker
Like, I don't even know what I'm doing.
00:41:22
Speaker
It's why I reached out to so many people in solar before I even started, because like, I know if I'm coaching people who don't know what they're doing, that I need to be taught and be coached what I don't know.
00:41:32
Speaker
And from the solar places that I've been and the different companies, what I saw, it's just, it's just a lot easier to be relaxed when you live in the location that you're knocking.
00:41:43
Speaker
It's why I would never knock in Utah when I was doing pest control.
00:41:46
Speaker
The summer that I did, I spent more time at my auntie's house.
00:41:49
Speaker
I spent more time with my grandparents.
00:41:51
Speaker
I spent more time at barbecues than I did like actually knocking doors.
00:41:55
Speaker
And so I just had that same mindset.
00:41:57
Speaker
I was like, look,
00:41:58
Speaker
If I can convince people to leave their homes and come to a place where they have no friends, where they don't have no family members, like, aren't they going to work just a little bit quicker?
00:42:07
Speaker
Aren't they just going to work a little bit longer?
00:42:09
Speaker
But the reason I wanted to change it from the way that pest control dynamic was, where it was literally just going to stay for the full summer, is because I felt like there wasn't enough of a break.
00:42:18
Speaker
like mental space, like physical breaks.
00:42:21
Speaker
It was just go, go, go.
00:42:22
Speaker
And I wanted to find like a happy medium.
00:42:25
Speaker
And so I saw when people can see the light sooner or they can see the end date a lot sooner, they're going to work a little bit harder.
00:42:35
Speaker
So I wanted to have end dates every single month that people could be like, look, it's 18 knocking days.
00:42:40
Speaker
Anyone can do anything for 18 knocking days, as opposed to saying, hey, for 365 days out of the year, let's just go knock three or four hours every day.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah, no.
00:42:52
Speaker
That's just what it was for me.
00:42:54
Speaker
I just knew that people were just going to be a lot less lax when they saw that there was going to be an end date each month.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, that makes sense.
00:43:03
Speaker
And yeah, I was telling you before we started the recording that a lot of this stuff is you're describing like what I do and I can see that my numbers are just because in my head, it's like, oh, I'm doing this all year round.
00:43:15
Speaker
I don't need enough more than three or four hours a day.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, we justify more when we live there.
00:43:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:22
Speaker
And I've seen that.
00:43:23
Speaker
I think that's the curse of the solar industry is everyone coming, like so many lazy reps.
00:43:29
Speaker
That's the big thing in the solar industry, I think, is you won't see this level of laziness in like any other doorknocking companies.
00:43:37
Speaker
But we also like miss out on a lot of things too.
00:43:41
Speaker
Like there are some people who just need like an extra week to think about it or like, so I feel like
00:43:46
Speaker
We have lost some deals because it's like we are coming and going from like different cities that we basically set up appointments for like other solar companies to come in and take after, you know, so it's pros and cons, I feel like.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, that's true.
00:44:03
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it's just like, if you can get in there, close the deals.
00:44:07
Speaker
You guys do a lot of like same day appointments too, things like that.
00:44:10
Speaker
Yeah, especially yes.
00:44:13
Speaker
Like it's like same day or die.
00:44:15
Speaker
It's like same day or next day, like period.
Managing Expectations and Performance
00:44:18
Speaker
And I just, I just incentivize like so much on same days and next days that it just like, we push it like so hard.
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it's no secret.
00:44:27
Speaker
I think that's how people do high numbers in solar.
00:44:31
Speaker
That's all Mo Fall.
00:44:32
Speaker
I don't know if you know Mo Fall.
00:44:33
Speaker
I keep bringing up successful people in the industry, but that's basically, I think what he did do.
00:44:38
Speaker
He just brought over what was working in alarms and other industries and applied it to solar.
00:44:43
Speaker
And now they're doing a similar thing to you, blitzing all over the place and
00:44:47
Speaker
just working hours.
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:48
Speaker
Your same day tips.
00:44:50
Speaker
I remember listening to it and I was like, this is money.
00:44:52
Speaker
If people aren't doing this in solar, they're out.
00:44:55
Speaker
So yeah.
00:44:56
Speaker
Helps a ton.
00:44:58
Speaker
So yeah.
00:44:59
Speaker
How would you like, I don't know, maybe someone that's used to work in just the year round model like myself, I'm used, I'll be honest.
00:45:07
Speaker
I haven't knocked more than probably four or five hours in a day for,
00:45:12
Speaker
I don't know, probably like six months at least just because that's what I get.
00:45:18
Speaker
You know, book my same day or whatever.
00:45:20
Speaker
And I'm like, sweet, I'm off the doors.
00:45:21
Speaker
Just hit up that appointment, go close it.
00:45:24
Speaker
And so how do you turn around?
00:45:25
Speaker
I don't know if you've brought in recruited people that are used to that model and maybe have some laziness in them of not knocking as much and coming out and doing a blitz.
00:45:35
Speaker
Do you have any tips for like how to break that or how to shift that mindset to going to like a blitz model versus just doing like three or four hours a day?
00:45:43
Speaker
Maybe like you're used to as a year round rep.
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:46
Speaker
So it's hard.
00:45:47
Speaker
I'm actually dealing with that.
00:45:48
Speaker
Like right now with like people who've been doing like year round and stuff like that.
00:45:52
Speaker
And so I basically managed the expectation and it's why I like the Airbnb model because I let my reps know at the very beginning, like, Hey, these 18 days are for you to judge me.
00:46:04
Speaker
And for me to judge you at the end of the 18 days, you know, if you feel like this is the team for you, if you feel like great, Hey, like we're going to move on to the next blitz, but it's also for me to be like, Hey,
00:46:15
Speaker
If I feel like your negativity or your mindset, or you're just not adding value to this team, it allows me to be able to be like, Hey, the Airbnb ends at this date.
00:46:24
Speaker
Like that's it.
00:46:25
Speaker
And it's one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to have Airbnb is because I just didn't know how well these people were coming and going and what the dynamics would look like.
00:46:34
Speaker
So for one, letting them know that at the very beginning that, Hey, every single blitz is a trial.
00:46:39
Speaker
And at the end of the 18 days, if we're going to work together and it's going to be great, hey, I'll book you another Airbnb.
00:46:45
Speaker
But if it's not, we're going to have to part ways and be friends.
00:46:48
Speaker
And so when people had that expectation that every blitz was going to be a trial and that there was a certain amount of kilowatts.
00:46:55
Speaker
So I actually every single month in order to not be charged their rent back, they had to hit certain milestones.
00:47:02
Speaker
And so people were always doing at least the minimum.
00:47:04
Speaker
And that's all I required minimum as well as a positive attitude.
00:47:08
Speaker
And if they had those two things, they could keep coming on.
00:47:11
Speaker
And so when I have like some of the year round reps who are coming in and they're like, holy cow, I've never knocked six hours in a day.
00:47:19
Speaker
And like, what not?
00:47:20
Speaker
Like, I'm not sure if this is for me.
00:47:22
Speaker
And so it makes it to where the expectations are already there.
00:47:25
Speaker
And they can approach me and I don't have to be the bad guy about like, hey, this is what our team is prepping for next summer.
00:47:31
Speaker
If it works, great.
00:47:32
Speaker
If not, the solar industry is endless and plenty of people will take you.
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:47:38
Speaker
I think that's so important though.
00:47:39
Speaker
And so many solar companies aren't doing that setting expectations with their reps, especially year round.
00:47:44
Speaker
Well, yeah, as most companies are year round, I think that's super important for our listeners.
00:47:49
Speaker
Even if, um, you know, maybe you are doing three, four hours, but set the expectations, the milestones that people need to hit.
00:47:57
Speaker
Cause it's like, you can go get mad at them for not producing, but if they didn't know they needed to post two deals that week or whatever it was, then I mean,
00:48:05
Speaker
how can you get mad at them?
00:48:06
Speaker
You know, they didn't know what the expectation was.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
So, um, yeah, I love that.
00:48:10
Speaker
Give people milestones and give them, uh, give them something to work towards or else there's going to be like, you know, there has to be like a consequence or there has to be something in order to hurt a little bit.
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:48:21
Speaker
And, um, yeah, I know we'll,
00:48:23
Speaker
Well, we're running a little bit short on time.
00:48:25
Speaker
Don't want to keep you super late.
00:48:27
Speaker
I know we're going on like 10 o'clock there, your time, which you said you're a night owl.
00:48:32
Speaker
So that's cool.
00:48:34
Speaker
But yeah, last couple of things, Lily, what's your guys schedule
Maintaining Team Focus and Performance
00:48:37
Speaker
for a blitz?
00:48:37
Speaker
What is your, I know you're saying 18 days on then a week off.
00:48:41
Speaker
What's like your schedule during that blitz?
00:48:42
Speaker
Do you have meetings every day or what does that look like?
00:48:45
Speaker
So, oh yeah.
00:48:46
Speaker
Like that's like a big thing.
00:48:48
Speaker
Like when I brought other people, they're like,
00:48:50
Speaker
you guys meet every day?
00:48:51
Speaker
And I'm like, you don't?
00:48:53
Speaker
Like, how do you guys even learn?
00:48:55
Speaker
So we basically meet at 10 a.m.
00:48:58
Speaker
every single morning.
00:48:59
Speaker
We train from 10 to 10.45.
00:49:00
Speaker
Our reps are on the doors between 11 and 11.30.
00:49:05
Speaker
We knock from 1130 till three o'clock.
00:49:07
Speaker
Then we have lunch from three o'clock to four o'clock.
00:49:10
Speaker
And then they're knocking from four o'clock to dark Monday through Friday.
00:49:14
Speaker
And then on Saturdays, we only knock till four o'clock.
00:49:17
Speaker
And then Sundays, no one works unless they want to.
00:49:21
Speaker
Okay, awesome.
00:49:22
Speaker
Now, are you for meetings, you guys swapping trainings or do you kind of run it?
00:49:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:49:29
Speaker
No, it's never a guessing game.
00:49:30
Speaker
Like there's some I'm OCD.
00:49:33
Speaker
And that's one thing with women.
00:49:35
Speaker
Women reps, they want to know that there's a little bit of structure.
00:49:40
Speaker
And I feel like I kind of overly structured.
00:49:43
Speaker
So to go into those meetings, we're like, hey, guys, what do you guys want to learn about today?
00:49:46
Speaker
Like, what do you guys want to like?
00:49:49
Speaker
One, it's showing your team that you don't really care.
00:49:51
Speaker
You didn't really put a lot of effort and thought into what it was that they were struggling the day before.
00:49:56
Speaker
So me and my other co-managers, yes, each single day we would have like one of our lead, our lead setters would take one day, we would take a day and we would rotate.
00:50:06
Speaker
And so every single day there was going to be a planned lesson, a planned discussion.
00:50:10
Speaker
We were going to make sure every single day that everyone had time to be able to role play, but we would have a concept every single day.
00:50:17
Speaker
And then we would incentivize on the doors based on those concepts.
00:50:20
Speaker
Hey, if you go and do like this concept that we taught today or whatnot, you're going to be able to receive X, Y, Z.
00:50:26
Speaker
So every single day we are training, we are role playing.
00:50:31
Speaker
I just don't believe in this once a week Zoom meeting that a lot of solar companies do and just kind of like let their reps come and go.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:40
Speaker
No, it's, I think that's super important.
00:50:42
Speaker
I noticed that too.
00:50:43
Speaker
Actually, I'm with Jason Newby and his squad, if you know him, but that's one of the things that he brought over that I saw, like an instant boost in people's numbers.
00:50:53
Speaker
It's just like meeting because
00:50:55
Speaker
I think, in my opinion, the main purpose is if you meet, people are actually going to go out and work, right?
00:51:02
Speaker
Like if you're not going to meet the likelihood that people drag themselves out and actually go out, it's like way lower.
00:51:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:09
Speaker
I have so many girls is like, how do you get out of your car?
00:51:12
Speaker
Like, how do you get to area?
00:51:14
Speaker
Like, how do you do all these things?
00:51:16
Speaker
And like, the biggest thing is they're meeting once a week.
00:51:21
Speaker
It's not their fault.
00:51:23
Speaker
I know.
00:51:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:24
Speaker
No, it's because, yeah, I've brought other people on that are seeing way more success to meeting every day.
00:51:28
Speaker
And it's like, you show up, you got your game clothes on, you got your
00:51:32
Speaker
game phase, you just get in the right mindset versus you trying to drag yourself out and do it all yourself.
00:51:39
Speaker
I think that's a big secret for people that are managing teams or trying to boost their numbers.
Resources and Community Support
00:51:45
Speaker
Maybe consider meeting every day or just doing mini-butzes because I think that might be the future.
00:51:51
Speaker
I'm seeing almost more and more people I bring on.
00:51:54
Speaker
Even if they are year-round, they're doing mini-butzes like that throughout the year and going to different areas and mixing it up because...
00:52:01
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:52:01
Speaker
Yeah, it is tough.
00:52:02
Speaker
So it makes it more fun.
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:05
Speaker
Well, Zoe, we appreciate you coming on the show and don't want to take up your entire evening.
00:52:10
Speaker
Hopefully you got some dinner.
00:52:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:16
Speaker
But if people want to find out more about I know you got your own podcast and everything.
00:52:19
Speaker
So do you want to tell people where they can find out more about you and possibly I don't know if you're still running coaching or whatever you're doing.
00:52:26
Speaker
So let's hear about.
00:52:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:28
Speaker
So you can find me on female knockers, uh, unite.
00:52:33
Speaker
Uh, I do do coaching, but since solar was just so new and I feel like I'm just trying to put like so many things together for me, I want to be intentional.
00:52:43
Speaker
Um, and so right now I'm just doing a lot more educating just on my female page, my female knockers.
00:52:48
Speaker
You can, I'm, uh, also my podcast is sales with Sui twice a month, every single month.
00:52:53
Speaker
I'll drop some nuggets.
00:52:54
Speaker
Um,
00:52:55
Speaker
basically the same thing that I teach in some of my coaching calls and things like that and so you can find me on Spotify and all the same spots you can find Taylor pretty much yeah no yeah awesome podcast I've been listening to them too so yeah they play it I hope guys can listen to them too right it's not just girls yeah okay I have some episodes in there just for the guys so check out the titles
00:53:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:20
Speaker
And I follow the female knockers United page.
00:53:22
Speaker
So I think guys, correct me if I'm wrong.
00:53:24
Speaker
I think guys are allowed to follow that too, right?
00:53:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:28
Speaker
It's an open public page.
00:53:30
Speaker
So I love it.
00:53:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:53:31
Speaker
So yeah, go follow all that.
00:53:33
Speaker
Suli's dropping great content in there.
00:53:35
Speaker
And yeah, I learned a ton from her podcasts and stuff she shares.
00:53:39
Speaker
So go shoot or follow.
00:53:40
Speaker
So Asuli, thanks for coming
Closing Advice for Solar Professionals
00:53:42
Speaker
on today.
00:53:42
Speaker
And before we let you go, do you have any like, I don't know, final tips or things you wish you knew first getting in the solar industry that you want to share with our solar printers before we say goodbye here?
00:53:53
Speaker
Yes, definitely find people who have content.
00:53:56
Speaker
I remember the first solar company that I started with one, they basically gave everyone two shirts because they basically planned on you or one shirt because they planned on you never coming back.
00:54:06
Speaker
So that's already like a red flag for me.
00:54:10
Speaker
But two, if you're going to find someone who is going to train you, who is going to basically teach you from A to Z exactly what to do, you're definitely going to find success.
00:54:19
Speaker
Just control the controllables and just focus on the little things.
00:54:22
Speaker
It doesn't matter which industry you're in, you're going to find success if you just focus on the things you can control.
00:54:27
Speaker
So yeah.
00:54:27
Speaker
Love it.
00:54:28
Speaker
Appreciate that.
00:54:29
Speaker
So guys, go give Suli a follow, control the things you can control, like she just mentioned, and make sure you find a good mentor, because I think those are the keys to having success in the industry, for sure, and have meetings every day.
00:54:42
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:43
Speaker
Thanks so much, Taylor, for having me.
00:54:44
Speaker
Like, literally, I fan-girled your podcast for like a while.
00:54:49
Speaker
It's literally one of the reasons that I have the success that I do, and I
00:54:53
Speaker
I share your podcast with everyone.
00:54:55
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:54:56
Speaker
That means a ton.
00:54:57
Speaker
And that's like why I've kept it going.
00:54:59
Speaker
So love hearing comments like that.
00:55:02
Speaker
Appreciate you, Suli.
00:55:03
Speaker
So go give Suli a follow and Suli will be in touch.
00:55:05
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on the show.
00:55:07
Speaker
Have a good one.
00:55:08
Speaker
See ya.
00:55:10
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, quick question.
00:55:12
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.
00:55:22
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.
00:55:34
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.
00:55:45
Speaker
And it's called Solciety.
00:55:47
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.
00:56:06
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:56:12
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:56:20
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:56:27
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.