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 fail.
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: What's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: We are back with another episode.
Speaker: Today, we're going to be talking about how to stop comparing yourself with others and why maybe you should compare yourself with yourself.
Speaker: Okay, all that and a whole lot more coming up.
Speaker: We are here to help you close more deals, generate
Speaker: I almost said close more deers, tripping, generate more leads and referrals and have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hope you're doing awesome.
Speaker: We're recording this right around Thanksgiving season.
Speaker: So I am grateful for all of the people listening to this podcast, all my peeps over on the show supporting this.
Speaker: Couldn't do it without y'all and just extremely grateful.
Speaker: But regardless of whenever you are listening to this, hopefully there is something you can be grateful about today.
Speaker: And that's part of what we're going to be talking about.
Speaker: Okay, so today something I've been thinking a lot about and actually been struggling with a little bit myself, just getting a little vulnerable here.
Speaker: We recently finished up a big competition over here, you know, company-wide.
Speaker: And we were seeing people close deals left and right.
Speaker: It was a three-week competition.
Speaker: We had a dude close 31 deals.
Speaker: A few people closed like 31 deals in the three weeks.
Speaker: And several people closed in like six, seven.
Speaker: I think we had someone close like eight deals in a day.
Speaker: So we've all heard those crazy numbers.
Speaker: And I've had several people that have had numbers like that on the podcast.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, um, just being, just throwing it out there, my sales for the three weeks, I got a total of five sales and that was it.
Speaker: So something that I was struggling with, I'm like, man, I'm out here grinding, um, competition season.
Speaker: I feel like I put in a good effort.
Speaker: You know, I could have worked harder.
Speaker: There's, I had my moments where it was a little lazy, but for the most part, I feel like I was pushing hard the whole time.
Speaker: I was grinding and ended up with five sales.
Speaker: So it was, I started getting pretty down on myself.
Speaker: You know, I'm in week three of the competition.
Speaker: I'm at like, you know, three sales final week, two, three sales.
Speaker: And I'm like, what, what am I doing wrong here?
Speaker: I've closed 150 deals in a year.
Speaker: I'm the solopreneur.
Speaker: Why am I not seeing the same level of success as everybody else?
Speaker: So not going to lie, it was tough.
Speaker: Just finishing out the competition.
Speaker: Results weren't what I expected and weren't what I wanted, but hey, I'm still here.
Speaker: Still made good money, don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Made some good money and deals I closed, got some good commissions on them.
Speaker: But it was a team competition, so it wasn't like I was going head to head with people.
Speaker: So at the end, it was kind of a bittersweet.
Speaker: We actually won the competition.
Speaker: It was a little bit bittersweet because I'm like, man,
Speaker: Our team won, but why didn't I contribute as much as I was hoping?
Speaker: So today I'm just going to talk to you about maybe you relate with this.
Speaker: Maybe you have had times where you felt the same, or maybe you're just closing everything you touch and you've never felt this way.
Speaker: If that's the case, you can skip the episode too if you want.
Speaker: But I think most of us have probably had times in our solar sales career, or maybe even we're just starting out,
Speaker: where we get in this negative mindset, we're comparing ourselves with others, we're not seeing the results we want, and we just can't get out of this funk.
Speaker: So I made some realizations, and I did a little research, and so I just want to talk through some of the things I realized and just talk about how it's, I think, affected my performance a little bit, comparing myself with everyone else.
Speaker: instead of just pushing hard myself.
Speaker: So I did a little bit of researching on this, just researching how does comparison hurt us.
Speaker: And what I found, this is according to a few articles from people that know science, researchers and all that.
Speaker: Comparison, number one, it's a waste of time.
Speaker: Grab the notes here.
Speaker: Number two, it lowers your self-esteem.
Speaker: Number three, it can give you anxiety and depression.
Speaker: We probably felt that when I was in the competition, I remember the last week, there were a few times where I was having appointments fall through.
Speaker: That was, I think, my biggest issue during this competition is I just had so many appointments fall through.
Speaker: And I would go into this appointment, even a few that were like solid.
Speaker: I had met with them one time and they're basically on board, but just didn't sign the docs.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, we'll sign for sure tomorrow.
Speaker: We all know how that goes, right?
Speaker: So I think on the last week I had that happen like four times where people just couldn't get them to sign push, push.
Speaker: And they're like, hey, come back tomorrow.
Speaker: We just don't want to sign it.
Speaker: I go back and of course they change their mind.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Or they text me and say, hey, don't come back.
Speaker: And what I did is I let that get in my head and I let myself just like kind of get down, take a longer break than I should have instead of going out and pushing.
Speaker: And it was because I was comparing myself with others.
Speaker: All right, so that's what we're going to talk about.
Speaker: How can we stop comparing ourselves with other people?
Speaker: And some practical things we can do.
Speaker: I'm going to give you guys four things that a few of them I realized.
Speaker: A few of them are just from doing a little bit of research.
Speaker: Okay, so number one is evaluating your own performance.
Speaker: We probably all know the best way to improve is compare yourself with yourself.
Speaker: That's the one person you should be comparing yourself with.
Speaker: That is...
Speaker: the you of yesterday, the you of last week, the you of last year.
Speaker: Yeah, you should compare yourself with that person.
Speaker: Okay, so something that I've found to just make that comparison and figure out are we actually comparing, we got to be measuring our progress.
Speaker: I've talked about this many times on the show, you should be tracking your KPIs, tracking your stats, and figuring out if you are really making that improvement.
Speaker: Hey, and then I think the best thing, the best, yeah, one of the best ways you can track this and make sure it's consistent is do your weekly planning.
Speaker: Hey, what I try to do every week, not perfect.
Speaker: But write out your wins, write out what happened good from the week, and then write out what can be approved.
Speaker: Just journal it, pen and paper.
Speaker: It's therapeutic.
Speaker: And this is one of the best things I've seen to really just make sure you're comparing yourself to yourself and improving.
Speaker: And one thing I actually didn't do this during the competition because I was going hard.
Speaker: I'm like, no, I don't need to do my weekly planning.
Speaker: So this probably would have helped.
Speaker: Hey, number two, how about have healthy competition?
Speaker: And I know we're saying don't compare.
Speaker: I just barely said don't compare yourself with others.
Speaker: But I think we do need to have the healthy competition.
Speaker: Something I was doing, I was comparing myself with the top guy at my company.
Speaker: And of course, I'm going to get depressed.
Speaker: Of course, I'm going to get depressed when I'm only at five deals and the top guy was at 30.
Speaker: Hey, so how about...
Speaker: not comparing yourself, but having the healthy competition with the guy that is one step ahead of you, with the guy that's about your same level.
Speaker: Hey, I heard this on another podcast.
Speaker: Can't remember which one it was, but someone said we should all have someone we're mentoring, someone we are coaching, and someone we're holding accountable, and then we should all have someone that we're competing with that's about our same level or just...
Speaker: a step ahead of us.
Speaker: And I think that's healthy.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, when I say don't compare yourselves, I'm not saying don't have competition.
Speaker: I think that's one of the best ways to drive production to make improvements, but just don't be getting all depressed.
Speaker: Like if we're just starting our first day swimming laps in the pool, we're not going to compare ourselves with Michael Phelps.
Speaker: We're not going to compare ourselves with those guys.
Speaker: We want to have the healthy competition of the people that are just above our levels or at about the same levels.
Speaker: And it's funny, I actually see this in our office currently.
Speaker: Two of our top guys, they have, I think, almost weekly or monthly, they're calling each other like every other day.
Speaker: They're going out together.
Speaker: And these two guys, they go back and forth.
Speaker: They're like probably top five in our office.
Speaker: But they are always having this healthy competition.
Speaker: They're about the same level.
Speaker: One will win one week.
Speaker: One will win the other week.
Speaker: And they do this back and forth.
Speaker: Funny enough, they're crushing it.
Speaker: So I think it helps to have someone that you can compete with and then also someone you're mentoring, someone that you can hold accountable and hopefully they can hold you accountable to.
Speaker: And then number three, realize that you might not have the same goals as other people.
Speaker: I did a podcast with Ricardo Ritchie a few weeks back.
Speaker: I think it was now.
Speaker: You can go listen to it again.
Speaker: But something he talks about is he will have these one-on-one sit-downs with his people.
Speaker: And they'll say, oh, I want to close.
Speaker: I want to be just like you, Ricardo.
Speaker: I want to install 200 plus accounts next year.
Speaker: And then he'll ask them what their schedule is.
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, well, you know, we just hang out in the mornings.
Speaker: We go out at like three o'clock.
Speaker: And something he talked about is the way they talk, it's not aligning with what they want to do.
Speaker: Rather, their goals aren't matching up with their actions.
Speaker: So you need to realize for yourself, what's your vision?
Speaker: What's the sacrifice you're really willing to make to actually hit what you want to achieve?
Speaker: And when you are thinking of comparing yourself, are you comparing yourself with someone who has maybe been on like a blitz for the last two weeks and they're working 12 hour days?
Speaker: Maybe you're someone like myself.
Speaker: I got kids.
Speaker: I got family.
Speaker: Say, so I know I'm not going to compare myself with someone that's out doing a blitz.
Speaker: You know, maybe they just came out, flew out here.
Speaker: They're going full steam ahead for three weeks at a time.
Speaker: And, you know,
Speaker: Um, yeah, like maybe I'm just, maybe I'm spending the time with my family in the mornings.
Speaker: So remember, you need to check yourself, figure out what your vision is, figure out what your goals are.
Speaker: And everyone's going to have seasons, right?
Speaker: So this last three weeks, I was going full steam ahead.
Speaker: But also, there's other times where I know I'm taking my foot off the gas a little bit.
Speaker: I got to spend a little time with the family.
Speaker: So realize what those seasons are for you.
Speaker: And don't compare yourself with other people that are in the season of grinding, going full steam ahead.
Speaker: But don't use that as an excuse either.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And then last but not least, speaking of Thanksgiving season that we're recording this podcast around,
Speaker: is you need to practice gratitude in everything you do.
Speaker: I think if you can have this gratitude mindset, it opens up the world, right?
Speaker: You're seeing things through the gratitude lenses.
Speaker: And one of my favorite podcasts, I keep referencing old podcasts, it's because I've had some amazing guests on here.
Speaker: But Earl Capulli, he is the gratitude man.
Speaker: He's gratitude mindset.
Speaker: He's
Speaker: When we were managing a team together, he would always have our team list out at most every meeting that I can remember, we would list out things we were grateful for.
Speaker: And he got us in the habit of just doing this three things a day that we're grateful for.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And what I realized, it's almost impossible to think negative.
Speaker: It's almost impossible to, you know, start envying people, comparing yourself when you're practicing gratitude in your life.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Start making that a habit.
Speaker: Journal three things every day.
Speaker: There's a lot of planners that have this too.
Speaker: Most planners that I've gotten, they have bullet lists, three things that you're grateful for that day, three wins.
Speaker: And it just gets you focusing on the positive, right?
Speaker: And it's the same principle.
Speaker: Forget what that's called, but when you're buying a car, you see that same car on the road that you were looking to buy in.
Speaker: when you didn't see it before because now that opened up your perspective right so same thing with gratitude when you're thinking of things to be grateful for that's what you're gonna see right but if you're thinking um i suck compared to this guy oh this has been a terrible week terrible month then you're gonna track those things in your life as well okay so these are some things that i got away from and i think i dropped the ball on a little bit during our competition hey and i know hey
Speaker: I might lose some, but I'm still undefeated.
Speaker: Just because I only finished with five cells in the three weeks, that doesn't define me.
Speaker: I'm the solopreneur, baby.
Speaker: I'm going to get out there.
Speaker: I'm going to keep grinding.
Speaker: So I hope you can have a positive mindset.
Speaker: I hope that even as you take some losses, take some fists to the face.
Speaker: Remember, just like Rocky said, it's not about how hard you can hit.
Speaker: It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Speaker: So keep that in mind.
Speaker: Hope you have a very grateful holiday season, Thanksgiving season.
Speaker: We're going to be back with you next week.
Speaker: We've got some killer interviews we are recording and there will not be a podcast this coming Friday.
Speaker: We're going to give it a holiday Thanksgiving and then we're going to be back at you next Tuesday.
Speaker: So hope you have an awesome week.
Speaker: I'm grateful for everybody.
Speaker: Love you guys and we'll see you on the next one.
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.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one shot.
Speaker: I'm running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
