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, so we are here live at SolorCon, and we've got someone that's going to be just sharing all the secrets in social media, which if you are not on social media, I think that's a huge aspect that we should all be using in solar, and just in general, building our brand.
Speaker: So we got Heather...
Speaker: Flacky, right?
Speaker: Yes, flacky.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah, you got it.
Speaker: Thank you for having me, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker: Me too.
Speaker: And you came highly recommended from Jake, you know, Jake Hess, founder of SolarCon over here.
Speaker: He came up to me and always like, hey, man, you got it.
Speaker: We got one of the experts in social media.
Speaker: You got to do the podcast.
Speaker: So thank you.
Speaker: All right, say less.
Speaker: Let's make it happen.
Speaker: Hey, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker: And that means a lot coming from Jake.
Speaker: So I'm ready.
Speaker: Let's let's give some secrets out because you're right.
Speaker: That's where everybody is these days.
Speaker: And I know it might feel a little cliche to say that, but it's a good reminder because some people feel, you know, I have a website or I have other things that really need to be on social media or maybe they don't personally like it or want to be on it.
Speaker: But that's where your audience is.
Speaker: So I'm ready to share some secrets and help some brands.
Speaker: Okay, let's do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I want to hear a little bit like about your background, Heather.
Speaker: Like, you know, how did you get into social media?
Speaker: Was this something you've been doing all growing up or how it's like your background and being involved in social media and everything?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So I'll tell you, the origin of my story actually goes back a little further than I think I personally ever realized.
Speaker: But my background and degree and everything is actually in education.
Speaker: So I was a teacher for six years.
Speaker: But I love social media back then personally, and actually had a teaching Instagram.
Speaker: And I think that might have been where that spark happened for me, but I didn't realize it when I was teaching.
Speaker: I was very deep into that career.
Speaker: But I left it and then actually switched to aesthetics for a while.
Speaker: And my success story from social media or like seeing the value that it brought to a business was when I was doing that.
Speaker: So I had what I used to call a unicorn moment.
Speaker: I used to do lashes and brows, all the girly stuff and social and aesthetics.
Speaker: And I had a video go viral.
Speaker: It got 20 million views in under a week.
Speaker: And I was shocked.
Speaker: I was like, wow, this is never going to happen again.
Speaker: This is so neat.
Speaker: It led me to over 120,000 followers on TikTok.
Speaker: I have almost 20K on Instagram now.
Speaker: And then Facebook combined led me to about 340,000 audience members.
Speaker: And I was blown away.
Speaker: And I was like, wow, I can grow a massive business and reach millions of people on social media.
Speaker: And I didn't pay a dime at all.
Speaker: I post, I mean, it was free, it was TikTok.
Speaker: I just filmed it, posted it.
Speaker: And that's where I started falling in love with content creation more because I was trying to challenge myself.
Speaker: Like I've never taught that video, but I have had a few that have gotten a million, four million, stuff like that.
Speaker: But that's kind of where that sparked for me.
Speaker: So I don't have like a degree in media or marketing, but part of it was self-taught.
Speaker: I just wanted to learn because back then I couldn't afford like a really good media team or marketing materials.
Speaker: And so I was doing it all on my own.
Speaker: And I was like, this is my avenue to success.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like, you know, I tell guys in my podcast all the time, social media, it's really like our digital business cards.
Speaker: And like, believe it or not, I've had customers even go look me up on social media.
Speaker: And, you know, so I think it's super important to think about it.
Speaker: And even if you don't want to be like huge or whatever, just like at least have it be something that you're like, you know, cleaning up and not being an idiot on social media.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Definitely something to consider if you're using it for work.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: But you're right.
Speaker: A lot of people these days, before they exchange phone numbers, they will say like, hey, what's your Instagram?
Speaker: What's your TikTok?
Speaker: What's your Snapchat?
Speaker: And it is like a digital business card.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Do you still use it?
Speaker: Do you still have like that old brand of the, you know, esthetician stuff and everything?
Speaker: So I actually transformed it into the page I'm still using now.
Speaker: I just changed it to my own name and I started posting content like, hey, I've made a career change.
Speaker: I'm actually more on the media side now.
Speaker: I've learned a lot about content strategy and I don't have a degree in it, but I went and got double certified in content strategy because I wanted to learn how to grow my business.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so I started doing that.
Speaker: So I started making videos along those lines, which was perfect for my audience because my audience was a lot of other female business owners, other estheticians and a lot of like cosmetologists.
Speaker: And it's still very heavy beauty industry, but they are finding value in it because I was showing them what I was learning and how to be more successful and reach their audience.
Speaker: And that's what I really honed in on at that time was, you know, if you post, it goes very global unless you have a little strategy behind it.
Speaker: And so I started learning how to post, when to post, what to post to reach like my audience.
Speaker: And that's where I started realizing that when I talked to other business owners, that was their pain point.
Speaker: We don't know how to reach our audience.
Speaker: And obviously we're very busy.
Speaker: We don't have time to post and create content.
Speaker: They're doing a million other things.
Speaker: So I really got on that avenue and never looked
Speaker: Yeah, love it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we're excited now because she's super involved with SolarCon.
Speaker: I know you were kind of like the social media person helping with SolarCon and helping, you know, other solar companies and all that.
Speaker: So, yeah, how did you go from being like this whole beauty thing and getting plugged into solar?
Speaker: How did that whole transition happen?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So shortly after I had that viral video, I started really taking a look at I'm like, wow, I'm actually falling more in love with content strategy and content creation than my actual job of being an esthetician.
Speaker: So I started talking to a couple of other estheticians in the industry at the time, and they were like, I have the same issue.
Speaker: Like, I want to post, I want to build more of an audience, but more clientele.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But how do I do that?
Speaker: So I started helping them with what I was learning.
Speaker: And I was like, I think I could turn this into maybe a side hustle.
Speaker: That was kind of my first thing was like, I'll train a couple other women and help them.
Speaker: And then it started snowballing.
Speaker: So then I was like, you know what, I'm going to make this my career.
Speaker: I found this new passion that I didn't know I had, you know, and...
Speaker: Started doing that and just through conversation, started connecting with business owners in different niches.
Speaker: And so I started my own company.
Speaker: I have my own LLC.
Speaker: It's called Spotlight Social Media because I was talking to a business owner one day and I used the phrase, like I've learned how to put someone's business in the spotlight.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And he was like, that could be a cool name.
Speaker: And it stuck.
Speaker: So spotlight social media, putting your business in the spotlight.
Speaker: And just through conversations, started connecting with people.
Speaker: I've worked with like dog trainers.
Speaker: I worked at the painting company, an auto detailer, just started helping local business owners make content and then post it in a valuable way to bring more clientele in.
Speaker: And then one day through just conversation, I met Jared Gillespie from Fusion Power.
Speaker: And he asked me what I did and I told him and he was like, we need that exact role at our business.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And it was kind of a cool story.
Speaker: I came in the next day, which was my birthday, and they hired me.
Speaker: And so that was a fun birthday.
Speaker: Yeah, and I worked at Fusion for two years, and then that was my segue to meet Jake.
Speaker: And now I've been very heavily involved with solar companies on the media side.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And very honored to be on SolarCon's team.
Speaker: They have a great media and marketing team.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Do you still work with Fusion Power?
Speaker: Those guys too?
Speaker: Indirectly.
Speaker: I left Fusion, but I still keep in touch with all of them.
Speaker: They all still live really close by.
Speaker: And Trey Skousen, the CEO of Fusion, is the CEO of SolarCon.
Speaker: So I'm happy to still be working with him.
Speaker: And then, of course, with Jake and everybody else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I had Jared on the podcast.
Speaker: I think it was like two, three months ago at Door to DoorCon.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, yeah, he's a good guy.
Speaker: I was going to say, he's probably, sounds like you're still working with him, but he'd probably be sad to lose you.
Speaker: Just, yeah.
Speaker: Indirectly, with Fusion, you know, they have the top Arizona rep and top sales rep in the nation, Luke Ward.
Speaker: And I've been doing his social media as well.
Speaker: Luke was so well known in the industry, but didn't have any online presence.
Speaker: So we got him on there.
Speaker: And now Luke is speaking here at SolarCon and has led to some cool speaking engagements.
Speaker: Not all because of social media, but it's definitely amplified the reach for him.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: But he's an incredible person, too.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so like we're talking about before we started recording, I know like not everyone in solar, there's a lot of guys that have a lot of success even without social media too.
Speaker: So it's not like, you know, it's not like a do or die type thing, but I think it's something that definitely helps, you know, like build the brand.
Speaker: Like you're talking about with Luke, it's probably helped kind of propel them into more opportunities, speaking, things like that.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So for those reps, you know, people listening to this that maybe like, oh, I don't care about social media.
Speaker: Like, what would you say maybe in working with like Luke or other people you've seen helping SolarCon?
Speaker: What would you say is like the importance of building it?
Speaker: Like, why would how would you convince someone to like, OK, maybe I should start doing social media?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What's your argument for those people?
Speaker: Yeah, a lot of times when people say that, if they have a hesitation or if they say something like, you know, I don't need it, I have a website instead or word of mouth or I have referrals, whatever.
Speaker: Those are great.
Speaker: But social media is it's more consistent.
Speaker: That's where the culture is right now.
Speaker: That's where a lot of trending things happen.
Speaker: And you have way more eyes on that than you do your website or something else.
Speaker: So I like to give them examples, though.
Speaker: And I'll use Luke as a reference since we just talked about him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we got Luke on social media and people started contacting him.
Speaker: Hey, man, I love your story.
Speaker: Can you come on my podcast?
Speaker: Do you want to come speak at our conference or our summit that's local in your area?
Speaker: Luke actually got some recruits from it.
Speaker: He got a recruit not too long ago and that guy sold three deals in a week.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And so you just never know who's going to see your content.
Speaker: And it just kind of reminds me of that.
Speaker: You miss all the shots you don't take.
Speaker: Like this is that situation.
Speaker: You might not be successful overnight and that's okay.
Speaker: It does take a little dedication and consistency, but that's where the audience is.
Speaker: You know, Gary Vee will be here at solar con tomorrow.
Speaker: And that's one of his most popular quotes and things that he talks about is,
Speaker: That's where your audience is.
Speaker: So even if you don't like it or you don't want to show face, you can still be on social media in other ways.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's faceless content, but that's where everybody's at.
Speaker: You have to get in front of like that's where everybody's attention is and that's where you need to be.
Speaker: So I would give them that argument that you're missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: And like you're saying, I think anyone listening to this, you got to understand it's not like you start posting for a week and then all of a sudden you see.
Speaker: You know, all these recruits pouring in or whatever.
Speaker: Like, it's something you have to be consistent with.
Speaker: Just like, you know, I do this podcast.
Speaker: I didn't really get people listening to it for the entire first year.
Speaker: But it's like, yeah, over and over and over.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And now the cost of the crucial it is.
Speaker: Imagine if you gave up after a week like that, you know, I do tell people like I want to be so honest and raw about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There are those rare stories that I call the unicorn story where some people get lucky and, or, you know, maybe not even lucky, but a video goes viral and they have some overnight success, but it's not always like that.
Speaker: But once you're just you, like going back to your question too, about what I argue with them is like, you're the content, whether you're in an untapped market or a very saturated market, people want to know what like you have to say.
Speaker: That's why your listeners listen to you.
Speaker: They care about your perspective.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or that's why they listen to somebody else.
Speaker: They like their perspective.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you're the content.
Speaker: And if you don't make it, someone might not hear something great that you have to say or someone else might not be saying what you have to say.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I encourage everybody to do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can't really lose.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and like especially, you know, when it comes to recruiting and all that, like what I changed, I thought this was really good advice that I got from a guy from Pest Control.
Speaker: He's one of the top like Pest Control recruiters.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And he says now when he recruits, he doesn't even like get people's phone number.
Speaker: He just says, hey, I'm going to add you on Instagram.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because he knows, like, he's got his whole, like, lifestyle, his brand on Instagram.
Speaker: And now when he sends them a message, they can click on that.
Speaker: Now they see, okay, this guy's, you know, like, going on all these cool trips.
Speaker: It's like, look at the lifestyle.
Speaker: And that's, like, one of his top recruiting secrets is instead of his getting a phone number, he's, like, you know, adding them on social media, Instagram, and all that.
Speaker: That's very smart.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So a ton of different ways we can apply it.
Speaker: And so, yeah, I want to talk maybe about like some strategies a little bit for, you know, not maybe not like super high level.
Speaker: But I guess before that, like some guys are like, oh, I don't have time for to do all this social media stuff.
Speaker: And
Speaker: I'm sure with Luke, maybe that's how it was.
Speaker: He hired you to kind of like implement things.
Speaker: So do you think it's like important for older guys to have like to know all the ins and outs or like have a basic understanding?
Speaker: Or like because what's I don't know what's pros and cons of you kind of like building it yourself versus maybe hiring you or like an agency?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: What's the difference?
Speaker: What's pros and cons between those?
Speaker: No, that's a good question.
Speaker: And a lot of times people, when they first start, they do start themselves.
Speaker: And sometimes that's necessary.
Speaker: That was my situation.
Speaker: I couldn't afford to hire an agency or invest a lot into ads or a media team.
Speaker: So there's some advantageous things to know in the basics so that you could run it to kickstart it.
Speaker: And then there's also a lot of advantages to having a media platform or sorry, agency do it for you just to take that off of your plate so you can focus on other things.
Speaker: And that's what I've been doing to help.
Speaker: I don't know if I would say pros and cons, but I would say there's an advantage to knowing basics so that you can, again, get your content in front of the right people, knowing a little bit of a content strategy.
Speaker: And it's very simple things too.
Speaker: I think social media can be very intimidating to people sometimes because there are a lot of advances recently.
Speaker: So much AI and the chat GPT and some people putting out some really very high quality hype videos and it can look like, oh, wow, I can't do that.
Speaker: So I'm not going to try.
Speaker: But there's so much advantage to just doing the raw, authentic stuff.
Speaker: And so I don't want people to feel intimidated to get started.
Speaker: Either way they go, because you just need to get out there.
Speaker: So, you know, an advantage of having a company and then the task is off your plate.
Speaker: They might have that understanding that the business owner doesn't, so they can post at the right times, use the right hashtags.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Make sure the content aligns with their brand, things like that.
Speaker: But there's nothing wrong with doing it yourself.
Speaker: And there's great resources out there, like listening to a podcast like this.
Speaker: I've listened to so many like this so that I can learn these things.
Speaker: You can get free certifications on it, watching some YouTube videos.
Speaker: I know YouTube University isn't always reliable, but there's a lot of good stuff out there.
Speaker: And I would encourage anybody that no matter where you are, just starting out or you're already really advanced, either direction you go, as long as you're on a social media platform, again, you can't lose everything.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think it's good.
Speaker: You know, maybe have a base if you got a bunch of money.
Speaker: Like I know Luke was already crushing it and everything.
Speaker: So he's probably like, oh, it's totally worth it to spend a little bit to help speed things up.
Speaker: You know, what's interesting about Luke is, yes, Luke does very well.
Speaker: Top sales rep has a great, you know, he comes from humble beginnings.
Speaker: He shares a really great story and he'll be speaking, which is going to be really cool to hear his story and where he is now.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: But Luke and I kept it pretty simple.
Speaker: We went down the path of very like raw organic cell phone footage.
Speaker: Luke would drop me cell phone footage from knocking doors, being at different trainings he would attend.
Speaker: And I would just cut it up and put up different material from him.
Speaker: I attended a lot of the fusion trainings where Luke trains.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And would just, you know, get little snippets of these little golden nuggets he would give his team and even Zoom meetings.
Speaker: I mean, content is everywhere.
Speaker: Like there's no lack of content.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he would send me cell phone, everything he ever sent me was cell phone footage.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: And we just cut it up, put some fun animated captions or a catchy title, you know, and I would apply, of course, the content strategy I personally use and the hashtag strategy that I use.
Speaker: His was very organic and his page did really well.
Speaker: He's got a few thousand followers.
Speaker: He's been on stages.
Speaker: Again, he got a really solid recruit just recently.
Speaker: He's had others, but this one, we were super thrilled to see that guy again, three deals in a week.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: I mean, that's winning to me.
Speaker: So it doesn't have to be this high production commercial grade, you know, set up.
Speaker: It can be cell phone.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And be very successful.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you don't have to have like millions of followers either.
Speaker: Like I've seen guys that have like less than a thousand followers, like do really well recruiting off social media, just having some basic stuff.
Speaker: So I think that's an issue I see is people just overthink this and like, oh, it's so much time, so much preparation and all that.
Speaker: But the shift that happened for me is, especially for guys that are managing teams, doing trainings already, I didn't even think about this, but it's like all the trainings you're already doing for your team, you could easily just put up your phone, buy a $20 tripod off Amazon, get a little clip-on mics for like $50 and...
Speaker: You've got like all this content.
Speaker: So that's something that I started doing recently.
Speaker: I'm like, why wasn't I doing that for all these years I've been managing teams?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why wasn't I like recording every training and that's easily can be used for like social media?
Speaker: Yeah, you just hit two really hot topics.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called SolarScout.
Speaker: But it's not a door-knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
Speaker: It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use Solar Scout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about Solar Scout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them, and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: So yes, the number of followers is very irrelevant.
Speaker: Jake actually just shared that on stage earlier himself today.
Speaker: It is irrelevant because if you have 100 loyal followers, that can make your business way more successful than someone who has 15,000 AI bots.
Speaker: Like that brings no value.
Speaker: So number of followers is irrelevant.
Speaker: Oftentimes people with low following, they still have pretty good reach.
Speaker: They look at their analytics.
Speaker: You just never know, you know, how your content is going to do.
Speaker: The second thing you said, what were you just saying?
Speaker: Well, just say, yeah, like recording.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker: I tell people a lot of times with social media, what you want to do essentially is document, not create.
Speaker: There's so much pressure around creating content that it has to be perfect and the lights and everything.
Speaker: But document what you're doing.
Speaker: That's what people want to see.
Speaker: Like, because that's the real relatable stuff.
Speaker: If everything's too...
Speaker: perfect and polished it's not relatable to your average rep or consumer or whatever but when it's that raw documenting your day um people relate and that's where you can actually have a really strong avenue to recruit people like look this is what we actually do you know and they want to be on your team or this is what i actually make or this is our actual results of our work whatever and that's how you can grow your business
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think being real, being authentic, like you said, it's like people relate way more when you're talking about, I think, failures and all that.
Speaker: You're not trying to be this perfect person.
Speaker: And that's some of the best like podcasts I've actually seen is when I talk about like, hey, I got my teeth kicked in today.
Speaker: Like I didn't get the cell, whatever.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I think that's been one of the best, most helpful things that helped me grow the podcast and, you know, just my brand in general, too.
Speaker: It is some of the most popular solar videos that I've been involved in that I posted were on the doors, just raw content and them knocking doors and showing the realness of it.
Speaker: Either a really successful appointment and being like, hey, I killed it today.
Speaker: I got this appointment and did this or got my teeth kicked in today.
Speaker: I got the door shut in my face a million times.
Speaker: But this is what happens.
Speaker: And people appreciate that honesty.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean, whenever you got that person that's just being like a dick on the doors, whatever.
Speaker: I always pull my camera.
Speaker: I'm like, I got to get this.
Speaker: I love this.
Speaker: That's good, though.
Speaker: Like, that's actually a strategy, a more controversial material that does better.
Speaker: Like, we've all seen it.
Speaker: The haters are going to hate it, but it boosts your content and your analytics.
Speaker: So, you know, throw a little spicy content out there.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so just to kind of start wrapping up a little bit here, Heather, what are some ways I know we could like go super deep on, you know, all the hashtag this, that.
Speaker: But what are maybe like some more basic things?
Speaker: Someone's like, OK, I've never really done much with social media.
Speaker: Like, what are some basic things as far as like, I don't know, maybe how much should you post?
Speaker: Like some basic hashtag stuff.
Speaker: Can you talk maybe just like some basic things that people would start doing if they're not already using social media?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's rapid fire a couple basic tips.
Speaker: So one of the first ones I'll go back to document.
Speaker: Don't create.
Speaker: Don't feel pressure around all the equipment and everything.
Speaker: Just start showing you your day, your knowledge.
Speaker: You're the content.
Speaker: Just document it.
Speaker: Hashtags.
Speaker: Something that I see, a really common mistake I see is hashtagging things that are way too broad.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Hashtags are actually a form of SEO, which is search engine optimization.
Speaker: So think if you go to Google and type in something you want to look up, you typically don't type in a full question or sentence.
Speaker: You might type in, you know, solar company, Arizona.
Speaker: Oftentimes it's the niche you're looking for and then your location.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can do that in your hashtags to reach more of your local audience.
Speaker: And then again, if you're more on a nationwide, you could do more statewide or regional.
Speaker: But, you know, I'll use Arizona for an example, because I'm from Arizona.
Speaker: When I was working with Fusion, we would do things like Arizona Solar Company.
Speaker: That was like the number one search...
Speaker: term phrase or a phrase is to find it.
Speaker: So hashtagging a little more in your niche is really beneficial and including your geolocation.
Speaker: Because if you just put, if I just hashtag podcast today or solar, that's going to go to everybody in the world who's ever looked up something with the word podcast.
Speaker: And that's global.
Speaker: Same thing with solar.
Speaker: That could even be like solar system planets.
Speaker: Like it's not very specific.
Speaker: Think about what you would Google to find your business or your industry and put that into your hashtags.
Speaker: You know, Solar Company, Arizona, or Solar Podcast, Solar Entrepreneurs, door-to-door experts.
Speaker: Like, that's your audience.
Speaker: Let's see, what else can I give you?
Speaker: Content strategy.
Speaker: I'll throw one out for content strategy.
Speaker: So I use a content strategy called the five C's.
Speaker: I won't go over all of them today, but I'll give you a couple.
Speaker: One of them is connection.
Speaker: Think about what you want your audience to connect with you on.
Speaker: Like, is it you as a person, your lifestyle, things like that?
Speaker: Something else is called community.
Speaker: And this is one of the best tips to reach a larger audience.
Speaker: Think about some posts you can create that your community would want to share.
Speaker: Memes do really well.
Speaker: Inspirational quotes do really well.
Speaker: People often post those because they know people will reshare them.
Speaker: So it could be a really, I'll use the quote one for an example.
Speaker: It could be a really great quote that you align with, but you know that if you share it, your audience is going to align with it too and share it.
Speaker: And then your page is getting seen more.
Speaker: So having those community content strategy posts is really good.
Speaker: Other ones that do really well is, you know, if you collab with somebody, setting something like this, like if you tag me and I tag you, we collab, we reach each other's audiences.
Speaker: So doing those things, all those basic tips can get you to a really strong start and then you can grow from there.
Speaker: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker: So if people were to start maybe like focusing on one platform, what would you like to tell them like Instagram or what's like, I don't know.
Speaker: Instagram, 100%.
Speaker: Instagram is like my holy grail because you can have the photo that sits there on your grid feed and those they're there forever.
Speaker: People can scroll your page and go back and find an old post and that can still you can still monetize off of it.
Speaker: It can still reach the right person at the right time.
Speaker: You have your videos, their version of TikToks, you know, the reels.
Speaker: People love video content right now.
Speaker: Everybody's got that short attention span.
Speaker: So seeing something quick and satisfying is nice.
Speaker: But then, you know, you can write out your captions.
Speaker: And so you can do your hashtags and people can read something really long or short and sweet.
Speaker: So I would say Instagram.
Speaker: Instagram also has the most wide range of demographics.
Speaker: And so age range, gender, everything.
Speaker: They have the largest audience in those categories.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So 100% would say Instagram.
Speaker: One final tip, if you don't mind, I'll give real quick is understanding a platform's purpose.
Speaker: You know, YouTube is very intentional.
Speaker: We go to YouTube with a specific question.
Speaker: We typically don't go to YouTube and just randomly scroll.
Speaker: If we want to randomly scroll, we typically go to TikTok and that's more for entertainment.
Speaker: Instagram too, that's a little more personal.
Speaker: You follow your friends, you go there for entertainment as well.
Speaker: But understanding the platform's purpose is
Speaker: That can help you align with your audience as well.
Speaker: You don't want to get on YouTube and post a bunch of random stuff and not educate your audience because people, again, go there with intent.
Speaker: So if you want to be super entertaining and witty and crazy, you might find more value in, you know, maybe TikTok videos.
Speaker: So it's a good little nugget too.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: So would you recommend like, you know, like multi-purposing all the platform, like you post on Instagram and then share like the exact same thing on all the other platforms?
Speaker: Or do you generally like not do that as much?
Speaker: That's a good question.
Speaker: And I had this conversation with our camera guy that's here, David Musa.
Speaker: He does all of our videography for SolarCon.
Speaker: We just talked about this the other day.
Speaker: We're going to be on a social media panel together tomorrow.
Speaker: And we were talking about platform purpose and repurposing content.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's nothing wrong with putting the same video on all the platforms, but it's not going to serve your audience because if we post the same clip on YouTube and then on your Instagram and then on TikTok, if they go to your TikTok first and they go to your YouTube for more and they find the same clip, they're going to leave.
Speaker: So it might lead to a view, but they're not going to find the value because it's the same video.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So doing things like recording something like this and then putting the 15 minute clip on YouTube, use Instagram or TikTok for a 60 second or 90 second reel to lead them to the full one.
Speaker: So diversifying it a little bit.
Speaker: That's a good content strategy as well.
Speaker: If you just put it on the same thing all the time, it's not going to provide a lot of value.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Doing some long form stuff like this, like you said, recording trainings and stuff is awesome because you could do a lot of cool stuff.
Speaker: And then maybe LinkedIn, you just type up, make sure you head to my YouTube.
Speaker: I'm posting a training on, you know, 30 minutes of XYZ.
Speaker: So now you have a LinkedIn post leading to YouTube.
Speaker: Maybe they see the Instagram reel first, but they all interconnect.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think there's because there's, you know, I'm sure you've seen like the different apps.
Speaker: I think there's one like called Later or something where you can like literally post the same thing on like all these different platforms.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But yeah, like that's something I've tried to do is I have like a virtual assistant and yeah, I'll have her maybe do a clip here and then make it longer for him.
Speaker: I'm still trying to learn all this, but I know that's kind of like helped me mix it up a little bit.
Speaker: And that's the thing too, is like, I think it's, you're not going to try to do all this at once.
Speaker: Like maybe just start on one platform because it'd be overwhelming.
Speaker: You're like, oh, Heather's telling me I have to go create like 20 different things and all these different platforms.
Speaker: That's your challenge.
Speaker: By the end of today, 20 platforms.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's true.
Speaker: I think it's smart to start with one, get comfortable, give yourself some time to learn and then add an additional one, you know, and if you need to, it's okay to start there.
Speaker: Maybe you do post the same video on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker: You still have the chance to reach different audiences, but eventually once you feel more comfortable, you're in a more comfortable place on your social media journey, it would be good to diversify it a little bit, especially if you're using it to grow your business.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: And what about last couple of questions here, Heather?
Speaker: Like, I know there's now obviously we got all this AI stuff, the chat GPG, chat GPG.
Speaker: I know, say that five times fast, right?
Speaker: Tongue twister.
Speaker: And there's even, I'm sure you've seen this, like you can literally use AI to make videos of you.
Speaker: There's like...
Speaker: It's called like, Hey Jen, yeah, it will just make videos for you using your like face and voice and all this stuff.
Speaker: So yeah, how have you, I don't know how that's played a part in your business, your strategies and all that.
Speaker: But is that like a good idea?
Speaker: Is that something you recommend?
Speaker: Like, hey, go use AI, chat GPT, or how do you use like AI?
Speaker: And how's that change social media for you and your strategies and all that?
Speaker: Yeah, I've used it a little bit.
Speaker: But because I like the raw, what they call UGC, user generated content, I haven't tapped into it as much as maybe some other people.
Speaker: But it's a little more just preferential for me.
Speaker: But one that I do like, and that could be helpful for people who are a little intimidated to be on social media, or maybe you just don't want to show your face, fear of speaking, whatever the hesitation might be.
Speaker: For an example, there's an AI app called InVideo.
Speaker: And it's faceless content, you tell it,
Speaker: create a 30 second clip about installing solar panels and it generates a clip for you.
Speaker: You can even tell it to be witty, make it comical.
Speaker: You could tell it to be very professional and polished and it's faceless content.
Speaker: So it makes it for you.
Speaker: You can make sure you like it and then you could post it.
Speaker: And then once you're comfortable with it, you could do it within a minute.
Speaker: So there's a lot of advantages to that on time saving, going back to someone who's maybe doing it themselves, tapping into a couple of apps like that could be helpful.
Speaker: You can also ask ChatGPT to, I've done this a little bit and I've used it a couple of times, but not always.
Speaker: I think it's still developing.
Speaker: And so sometimes it's not always a hundred percent reliable, but I have asked it a couple of times, like show me the most, the top 10 hashtags for this niche or this topic and it will generate them for you.
Speaker: So if you feel like you're starting fresh or your idea is a little half-baked, AI could really help you in that way.
Speaker: Definitely time-saving.
Speaker: For sure.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: That's just one recommendation I have.
Speaker: So I'm curious to see where it goes.
Speaker: I've seen some also some AI fails, which is kind of funny, but so it's still still developing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I at least for me personally, I'm using it more on like kind of creating ideas and all that because like you said, you can tell it.
Speaker: Hey, give me.
Speaker: you know, in the solar space, give me ideas, 10 different content ideas or whatever.
Speaker: So I think maybe for people starting out, it's good to just kind of like brainstorm with or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Kind of go back and forth.
Speaker: Hey, what are some ideas?
Speaker: Do you use chat GPT for like topic ideas too?
Speaker: Like what's trending or yeah.
Speaker: I've seen it used for that too.
Speaker: I think that's really cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, always evolving.
Speaker: You can't use it for everything, but I think it's, you know, good maybe, especially for maybe people starting out just to go back and forth, getting ideas or,
Speaker: I think so, too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I never would want to become too reliant on it because if it wasn't working one day or you had to generate it yourself, you know, you want to have that skill set to at least a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But A.I.
Speaker: is very cool.
Speaker: It's cool stuff.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: A little scary sometimes, but it's cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, cool.
Speaker: Well, and so if people want to maybe like start working with you or I don't connect with you more, Heather, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker: My digital business card.
Speaker: I'm guessing you're on social media.
Speaker: I'm guessing.
Speaker: Just one platform.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So I always tell people to find me on social media.
Speaker: That's part of my like success story too, is I don't give out business cards.
Speaker: I never have.
Speaker: And I've never had a website.
Speaker: I have done all of my business through my social media platforms.
Speaker: So my handle on all social media platforms is my first and last name, Heather Lackey Official.
Speaker: And yeah, you can find me on there, message me, start the conversation.
Speaker: I like that authenticity too.
Speaker: I like to have just very...
Speaker: laid back conversational discussions with business owners or people who just want some advice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just right through Instagram, TikTok.
Speaker: I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook.
Speaker: I'm pretty much on all of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then, yeah, if people, as far as people thinking, oh, it's going to take a lot of time.
Speaker: Well, first of all, I know we talked about you can, you know, hire someone, help you.
Speaker: But if they're like, okay, I'm just starting out.
Speaker: I'm going to try some things myself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: How much like time as far as like, okay, am I posting once a week or what's like a strategy?
Speaker: How much should you post?
Speaker: How much time should it be like daily, weekly, or what's a good way to start?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: And my answer might be controversial.
Speaker: It's very subjective.
Speaker: So of course, the more you post, the more people you're going to reach.
Speaker: So there's a strategy behind that.
Speaker: If you're posting every day, you have more chances to, you know, fall into the lap of the right audience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But you do not have to post every single day to be successful.
Speaker: The key here is consistency.
Speaker: So if you get on there and say, okay, I'm going to start this today, or I'm going to maybe rebrand a little bit.
Speaker: I'm going to start using my social media more.
Speaker: Commit to some type of schedule.
Speaker: Maybe that's Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Speaker: And that way you just become very reliable and credible for your audience.
Speaker: So if you posted this week and then didn't post for two weeks and then you posted every day for one week and then you went in my for three weeks, I might not be a very loyal follower because I don't know when you're going to post stuff and I can't rely on you.
Speaker: If I know that Taylor releases his podcast every Friday at noon, that's cool.
Speaker: If it's once a week and it's reliable, I'm there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I just tell people be consistent, pick some kind of pattern.
Speaker: Even if you just start out twice a week, do that until you're able to do more and take on more.
Speaker: Some of the top people, though, you know, they post every day 10 times a day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But oftentimes they have a pretty strong team behind them that helps.
Speaker: So, you know, it depends on your situation, but just find what works for you.
Speaker: Just be consistent.
Speaker: Show up.
Speaker: That's the biggest thing you can do is just show up for your audience and you're going to win.
Speaker: Yeah, love it.
Speaker: So guys, go give Heather a follow.
Speaker: Let her know you appreciate her coming on the show.
Speaker: And yeah, I think that's probably the most important thing I would say too, is just being consistent.
Speaker: That's like the one thing more than anything else that's helped me grow a podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like it's like it's a humbling moment whenever you after you've been in it for a while and you go back to the beginning, you're like, wow, I've really shown some growth.
Speaker: I did that when I was in aesthetics.
Speaker: My first few videos, I was like, that was horrible.
Speaker: Or I sounded horrible, but you grow.
Speaker: So you got to give yourself some time.
Speaker: Yeah, love it.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Well, thanks again, Heather.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Go tell her thank you, and we look forward to seeing you more involved in the solar industry, at SolarCon, at the events, and thanks for everything you're doing in the industry.
Speaker: No, thank you, Taylor.
Speaker: I appreciate it, and thank you to everybody who tuned in.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: We'll talk soon.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
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