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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
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.
Speaker: what's up solopreneurs welcome to another episode and i'll be honest this is the second time i'm recording this episode right now i had some fire money content that i was spitting and i don't know what happened because i didn't press record but i go and replay the recording and dead silence crickets so i'm back for another one so hopefully it's even better than the first time i recorded it
Speaker: But I am currently in Lake Powell, Utah right now, so just to preface this, if you hear some waves hitting the shore here, that's what's going on.
Speaker: Standing on top of a houseboat right now, recording some content for my solarpreneur peeps.
Speaker: So I'm dedicated, I want to show you guys that I'm committed to helping you improve your lives as solar sales professionals.
Speaker: So let's jump into it.
Speaker: This episode today, I want to talk about gratitude.
Speaker: We've had a lot of guests on that have talked about the importance of gratitude.
Speaker: Earl Capulli was one probably about a month ago.
Speaker: He is known as Mr. Gratitude.
Speaker: so go listen to his if you haven't already but the reason i'm thinking so much about this is because i went to a conference a couple weeks ago in dallas texas um you guys probably heard me talk about it was the knockstar conference i'm danny pesce taylor mccarthy that have been on the show they run the knockstar movement did an awesome event so definitely check out going to their next one but at this event they brought a guest his name is john israel if you haven't heard of him he is known as mr thank you
Speaker: A little bit different than Mr. Gratitude, but Mr. Thank You.
Speaker: And what he did was he wrote five thank you cards a day for 365 days straight, every day.
Speaker: And it took him about an hour and a half a day on average to write these cards.
Speaker: So these weren't just little notes.
Speaker: These were full blown, thought out thank you cards.
Speaker: And he couldn't write them to more than three people.
Speaker: So he couldn't just keep writing thinking cards to his wife.
Speaker: He could only do a max limit of three per person throughout the course of a year.
Speaker: Pretty incredible what he did.
Speaker: So he wrote a book on it.
Speaker: He's spoken at all types of conferences.
Speaker: And he's really created a movement and changed people's lives in the process.
Speaker: Super inspiring dude.
Speaker: And the reason I got thinking about him so much is because I'm on this boat reading his book.
Speaker: It's called The Mr. Thank You Project.
Speaker: And in the book he just documents the journey, what he did, and talks about it.
Speaker: And so the reason I'm thinking about it so much is because I had an experience actually before I left on this little trip that went hand in hand with some of the things he talks about.
Speaker: So I'll get to that in a second.
Speaker: And actually I shared this experience on Instagram.
Speaker: So if you're not following already, go shoot me a follow at Taylor J. Armstrong.
Speaker: and I shared kind of a crazy story that happens.
Speaker: Got some feedback from some listeners.
Speaker: But the reason it reminded me is Mr. Thank You, he talks about this thing called the gratitude loop.
Speaker: And what happened was he was at an event eight years ago and he's speaking at it.
Speaker: After he gets done speaking, one of the ladies at the event comes up and says, hey John, appreciate your message.
Speaker: This is exactly what I came to the conference to learn.
Speaker: Tells him thank you.
Speaker: And his response was, yeah, well, I missed a couple of big parts that were really important to the whole message.
Speaker: I was running short on time.
Speaker: I'm sorry about that.
Speaker: It could have been better.
Speaker: So he basically shot down the appreciation that this lady showed and the lady's like, okay, well, I thought it was great.
Speaker: Then she turned and walked away.
Speaker: And as he went on to think about this, he's like, what was I doing?
Speaker: Did I just respond to someone's thank you with an apology?
Speaker: What is wrong with me?
Speaker: Okay, and so I got thinking about this.
Speaker: How many times do we do this?
Speaker: It sells people.
Speaker: How many times do we do this in our lives where someone is trying to give us thanks?
Speaker: We shut it down.
Speaker: We say, oh, no, it's nothing.
Speaker: We gotta change these things and I've done it time after time, even a lot of our listeners here.
Speaker: You all have shot me messages like, hey Taylor, thanks for the podcast.
Speaker: Thanks for what you shared today, that's exactly what I needed.
Speaker: This helped me close the deal, things like that.
Speaker: And I wanna apologize to Zoles that I have shot down that thanks at times.
Speaker: Because I know for sure I've responded with people, ah, it was nothing.
Speaker: Yeah, well that episode wasn't that good, but glad you got something from it.
Speaker: I've sent out messages like that in response So this was kind of a slap in the face to me as I was reading this is and that's his point with it is we need to accept compliments and reflect gratitude and
Speaker: Okay, so his point is, if someone takes the time to give you a gift, pay you a compliment, or acknowledge the great work you do, pause, soak it in, and say thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker: There's something to be said for being humble, and there's another thing to be said for allowing others to contribute to your life.
Speaker: It's not as much about glorifying you as it is honoring the vulnerability and generosity of another person bold enough to take the time to appreciate you.
Speaker: So if you're someone that struggles accepting thanks from other people, let that be a lesson to you.
Speaker: We all need to practice this thing.
Speaker: He calls it the gratitude loop.
Speaker: What it is is when you open a gratitude loop, that's you expressing gratitude, saying thank you.
Speaker: And if that loop is left open, how do you feel?
Speaker: He gives an example, if you went up to a crowd and says, hey, thank you for, I don't know, thank you for being my friends today.
Speaker: They just stare at you, say nothing.
Speaker: What's that going to feel like?
Speaker: It's going to feel awkward, it's going to feel weird.
Speaker: If you go say thank you to the crowd, they do nothing, don't even acknowledge it.
Speaker: It feels like a slap in the face, right?
Speaker: It's uncomfortable, it's weird, almost seems offensive.
Speaker: That's his point with the gratitude loop is when we go around we say you're welcome.
Speaker: That's closing the loop, right?
Speaker: So don't leave gratitude loops open and then the second piece That I learned from his book as I'm reading here is give up the need to be appreciated for your generosity and
Speaker: And the story that goes along with this, the reason I'm thinking about so much about this right now is because on my Instagram I actually talked a little bit about what happened but the experience was is that before I left on this little trip I'm on
Speaker: I made it a personal goal, I said, okay, I want to close three deals before I leave.
Speaker: I got Monday and Tuesday is all this week.
Speaker: I want to close three deals.
Speaker: Okay, that'd be pretty good, right?
Speaker: Two days of working, close three deals.
Speaker: And the reason I set the goal, too, is because I knew I had a handful of solid appointments set up.
Speaker: I'd give myself a good shot to actually attain the goal.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: And so I go out, it's in this neighborhood, there are condos, and here in California the good news is with condos, townhomes, H-Ways can't restrict homeowners from putting solar up there.
Speaker: They can make it super difficult, but they can't restrict it.
Speaker: So I used this to my advantage.
Speaker: This area didn't have any solar yet.
Speaker: So I said, okay, I'm gonna go out.
Speaker: I'm gonna close everyone in the neighborhood.
Speaker: They don't even know they can have solar.
Speaker: First thing I do, I talk to the HOA president.
Speaker: Okay, and I'll make this a short story since I already shared the majority of it on my Instagram.
Speaker: But I talked to her, actually set up an appointment, but then she canceled the appointment because of some confusion.
Speaker: She thought it was like a government program where she was getting free solar.
Speaker: It wasn't.
Speaker: So she said, okay, yeah, you lied to me.
Speaker: I'm not going to meet with you.
Speaker: Cancel the appointment.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, I got three other appointments set up.
Speaker: No problem.
Speaker: I'm still going to close some deals.
Speaker: These people are stoked.
Speaker: They're like, no way.
Speaker: Yeah, we want to go solar.
Speaker: We didn't even know we could have solar here.
Speaker: Go to them.
Speaker: As I'm about to close the first one on the week,
Speaker: The guy says, okay Taylor, well this sounds awesome, but you know what, let us talk real quick to the HOA president just cause, I don't know, we don't want to be the first ones in the neighborhood doing this, and we want to make sure it's all good.
Speaker: So what happens, they go and talk to this HOA president, and she just slams the door on him, she says, this kid,
Speaker: He lied to our community.
Speaker: He told me it was a free government program.
Speaker: This isn't it.
Speaker: She just completely shuts him down, talks him out of the cell, and I lose this cell, and then the other ones cancel appointments.
Speaker: Turns into a disaster.
Speaker: So it went from being this golden area, I was going to close all these deals there, now this HOA president just completely throws a wrench in my plans and just ends my hopes at hitting my goal on the week.
Speaker: So I was devastated.
Speaker: So I come up with this plan, I said okay, this area, there's guaranteed there's going to be deals and I can even probably go back and close these deals that I had.
Speaker: I just need to get back in the good graces of this HOA president.
Speaker: So her name is Carol.
Speaker: I come up with this idea.
Speaker: I said I'm going to go give Carol a thank you card.
Speaker: I'm going to be like Mr. Thank You.
Speaker: Like John Israel.
Speaker: Give her a thank you note.
Speaker: And even better, I'm going to give her a box of cookies to go with it.
Speaker: That's something we do for our customers.
Speaker: We send them little gifts, cookies, treats, stuff to kind of stand out, help them remember us.
Speaker: So I said, she didn't buy it, but I'm going to send her some cookies.
Speaker: So I go, I pick up these cookies.
Speaker: um box of four cookies from uh dirty dough here in california that's uh bennett maxwell his company they make some giant cookies that have all these crazy flavors she's a single old lady i'm gonna give her a box of 40 giant cookies and a thank you card so i go right to thank you card
Speaker: dropping on the porch and then i'm just like okay she gets home at five i'm gonna get a thank you wife i'm gonna get a text from her a call saying hey taylor i'm so sorry you're the best come close my whole neighborhood on solar so i'm waiting i'm waiting i'm working i'll look at my clock at five no texts no calls like okay maybe she's running late i wait wait wait six o'clock comes nothing no text seven o'clock eight o'clock nine o'clock ten o'clock
Speaker: No calls, no texts, nothing.
Speaker: I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker: Did Carol not get this?
Speaker: and I actually delivered it to another neighbor if it was the one that I had almost closed but that's you know canceled, delivered it to them, got a thank you text from them so I'm like okay I know they got them, what's going on?
Speaker: I wait two more days the time of this recording it's been about a week now and guess what?
Speaker: still no thank you texts no acknowledgments absolutely nothing and
Speaker: Yeah, it was a little sad.
Speaker: I was hoping I'd get something, but I didn't, and that's the reality of it.
Speaker: And I actually used to write thank you cards to my customers.
Speaker: But this experience with Carol reminded me of why I got discouraged writing thank you cards.
Speaker: Because sometimes I would write dozens and dozens of thank you cards, get nothing in return.
Speaker: People wouldn't even acknowledge it.
Speaker: And I did get results from it, I did get an extra referral here and there, people remembering, but it was discouraging that sometimes people wouldn't say anything.
Speaker: So John's point with this is we need to give up the need to be appreciated for generosity.
Speaker: How many times have we given something, then been discouraged when people don't say thank you?
Speaker: So John's point is, now this may sound counterintuitive after explaining the whole gratitude loop.
Speaker: Yes, when people don't reflect back that they received or valued our gifts,
Speaker: compliments or acknowledgements, the natural reaction is that something is missing, the loop fills open.
Speaker: True gratitude is expressed with nothing expected in return.
Speaker: When you feel the frustration that someone didn't appreciate what you did for them, just remember, you never know what other people are going through in their lives.
Speaker: Accept that you did a good thing, pat yourself on the back, and move on.
Speaker: Okay, so this reminded me, like, okay, well, I sent this good thing to Carol, thought it was gonna change,
Speaker: changed my success in the area but it didn't and that's okay so i'm trying to be okay with that and john goes on to talk about how when he was on day i think 50 of sending out all these thank you cards he got really discouraged because after 220 thank you cards only 20 people responded to thank him for the card or even acknowledges acknowledge that they got it
Speaker: And he ended up talking to One of his friends later they'd sent a card to They said John I got your card a few months back, but the reason I didn't even say thank you or respond to it is Because I was going through so much pain in my life.
Speaker: I was going through a really tough breakup and
Speaker: I just couldn't be present to anything positive in my life.
Speaker: So thank you now, but that's why I couldn't.
Speaker: I just was in some pretty heavy stuff to be able to respond.
Speaker: So think about that.
Speaker: Next time you're expressing gratitude, trying to say thank you, don't expect anything in return.
Speaker: Be happy with what people
Speaker: Respond whether they respond or don't respond.
Speaker: Okay, and the challenge is for our solopreneurs, go out and write thank you cards to your customers.
Speaker: Write thank you cards to your managers.
Speaker: Write thank you cards to those that have helped you get to this point of success in your sales career.
Speaker: and that's how we're going to change the industry how many how many salespeople are out there they're just focusing on the money don't care about their clients this is how we show that we care about our clients and guess what the side effect is going to be you are going to get more referrals you are going to get those people that send cards back to express appreciation
Speaker: Hey, but if you don't, it's not the end of the world.
Speaker: How about if you send 100 thank you cards, you don't get one extra referral, you don't get one person saying thanks for the card back, can you live with that?
Speaker: So that's the challenge.
Speaker: I'm going to get John Israel on the podcast soon.
Speaker: He's lined up.
Speaker: We're waiting for him to lock down the time with him, so if you know...
Speaker: John Israel, go out and shoot him a message.
Speaker: Say, hey man, we need you on the Solar Prenuer podcast.
Speaker: Yeah, we're going to get him on.
Speaker: But in the meantime, he was actually on Sam Taggart's Door-to-Door podcast.
Speaker: You can go listen to his experience there if you want to search that episode.
Speaker: But let's elevate ourselves to that mindset of gratitude.
Speaker: That's how we're going to change this industry.
Speaker: And that's how we're going to really have a better attitude ourselves to go out and close more deals and be grateful for the things that are happening to us, even in times like this, when you're getting shut down by HOA presidents and when deals are canceling.
Speaker: when everything seems like it's going to crap, that's how you're going to get through these tough times, is expressing your gratitude and elevating your level of gratefulness to something like John Israel.
Speaker: Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Go out and send it to someone who's going through a tough time.
Speaker: Go out and write a thank you card today.
Speaker: Let me know your experience with it.
Speaker: And yeah, I hope this turned out better than the first time.
Speaker: Again, second time recording it.
Speaker: But appreciate our listeners.
Speaker: And I'm grateful for all of you listening to the show and sharing this content and implementing the strategy we talk about.
Speaker: So go out and close some deals and we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker: Hey SolarPrinters, quick question.
Speaker: What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
Speaker: For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals
Speaker: and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
Speaker: That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry.
Speaker: It's called Solciety.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: Currently Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only, but solopreneurs can go to soulcity.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
Speaker: Again, th is is exclusively for Solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now.
Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker: We'll catch you again in the next episode.
