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Reflecting on 2024
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2024 is coming to an end, and it's the perfect time to look back at our progress not just in solar, but also in life. This episode is going to outline some things to ponder on as the year ends, and what we can do to be better in 2025.
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Transcript
Introduction & Sales Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
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 the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Avoiding Mistakes & Industry Insights
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you 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, following up like a pro and closing more deals.
Defining 'Solarpreneur'
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solar printer? You might ask a solar printer is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to feed mastery. And you are ors today we're going to do a reflection on the year of 2024.
Reflection & Year Review
00:00:45
Speaker
Have you taken the time to review your past year?
00:00:48
Speaker
review your goals, review the things you achieved.
Spreading Christmas Joy
00:00:52
Speaker
If you answered no, then this podcast is for you. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Taylor Armstrong. We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Reflection Questions for Growth
00:01:04
Speaker
Hope you're getting in the Christmas spirit or the spirit of whatever season you're in when you're listening to this podcast.
00:01:12
Speaker
But if you're watching the video version of this, got my Santa hat on. We are spreading Christmas joy. We are saving people money. That's the best gift we can give right now is the gift of solar panels. Makes a great gift for the yeah kids, for the wife, for the husband. That should be the going joke during all of December. okay So ah use that one. yeah But I wanted to do this episode on how we can just reflect on the past year. yeah a lot of ha A lot has happened. There's been ups and downs. There's been highs and lows. So I'm going to go through a series of questions that you can use to help yourself reflect on the year and really just track, measure, adjust, um and identify things you can potentially approve improve for the year coming up. Feel free to use this in any trainings, in one-on-ones with your reps. I think it makes a great little activity exercise to do ah with your team.
Jen's Funnel & Insights
00:02:08
Speaker
Okay, so let's jump into it and shout out before we get into the questions here. I want to shout out Jen's funnel over at a Momentum. Yeah, Momentum is this company. I'm in his little men's group right now, went to his retreat, and these questions actually came from him.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm going to give him credit where credit is due a great program. If you want to get more into just, you know, mental, emotional training like that, but, uh, hopefully he it doesn't mind that I steal some of his questions because, uh, literally went through these today with in a zoom training that he did. So thank you,
Taylor's Personal Achievements
00:02:42
Speaker
gents. Yeah, but we're going to go through them and I think you can apply these to solar apply these to everything that happened ah throughout this past year of 2024 or whenever you're listening. Okay. And so, uh, and feel free to pause. I'm going to go through the questions. I'm going to give examples of what I wrote down for the answers. And I would recommend, um, this is a good episode to pull out a pan of paper and notebook. Cause these are questions that you should reflect on here. If you're like me, sometimes we just listen to podcasts mindlessly. Maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're driving, but, uh, take some time, maybe you really re-listen to this when you have pad of paper, pencil, pen,
00:03:18
Speaker
And that's going to be the way that you can maximize this exercise. So question number one, 2024 reflection. What was the greatest aspect of this past year? What was the greatest aspect? Okay, so maybe you crushed your goals this year, ran a marathon. I don't think of what were the greatest things that happened of 2024. And hopefully this should be easy.
00:03:40
Speaker
ah maybe some of you had tough years you know we're always trying to improve so some of my greatest aspects of my greatest things of twenty twenty four where i was able to ah achieve several goals that i'd set um i felt like i did a much better job at tracking my goals and actually achieving them hey one of which was um reading more books and i probably read.
00:04:02
Speaker
I don't know, since
Personal Challenges & Struggles
00:04:03
Speaker
high school college. The way I did this was simply just keeping a list on my phone, just on the reminder section and just tracking the books as I read them. And I'm probably going to do an episode here coming up on all the books, um the books that I felt ah were the most impactful for me. So i'm tune in for that one. But ah yeah, that was one goal I hit, reading more books than I have maybe ever. And um you know competing in Jiu Jitsu, some of you that follow me, you've seen I've done ah several competitions over these past few months, paid off a few debts. So those are some achievements that I had in 2024. So take a minute, you can pause it, write down your greatest aspects, greatest greatest achievements. Okay, number two for 2024 reflection,
00:04:49
Speaker
What were the hardest things you experienced over 2024? Hey, um, for me, it was, we had our third kid. Um, we got a six month baby now, the time of this recording and just adjusting to that, dealing with lock asleep, dealing with trying to juggle, having a third kid, getting a bigger vehicle, things like that. It was hard.
00:05:10
Speaker
And then just still continuing to adjust in net metering 3.0, which ran in California. Still trying to get sales volume up, build our teams. you know It's no it's no ah secret that solar took a hit for a lot of people this year. you know California, it's still a tough market. We're still rebounding from you know a little bit tougher sales process without an ad batteries.
00:05:35
Speaker
It was an adjustment. hey and um you know I companies, so I had to adjust to a new sales process, new installers, takes a minute, and I had to learn some tough lessons. It would have done a lot better sales-wise if I would have adjusted a little bit quicker. so Those were some tough things, some hard things for me in 2024.
Goal Setting for 2025
00:05:54
Speaker
Again, pause it, write down what were some hard things that you went through.
00:05:58
Speaker
this last year over 2024 okay and then number three what are things that you're still coping with so maybe of the hard things you just listed is there some things that you're still working through some things that you're still coping with hey for me it was um yeah i'm still coping a little bit with adjusting three kids Still coping a little bit with, um, you know, I had nasty tax situation, which I've done episodes on in the past. Long story short, you know, claim some of that COVID covid money went through a long audit, paid the price for that. So I'm still paying off the IRS and finish that audit and paying fees penalties. So that's something I'm still coping with is going through, you know, paying off some IRS debt, just being transparent. Hopefully you hopely can learn lessons.
00:06:45
Speaker
IRS is not to be trifled with. um But yeah, so write down things that you're coping with, things that you're going through.
Introducing Solar Scout
00:06:53
Speaker
hey And now that you've done that, now we're going to turn the page, turn the corner, and now we're going to look towards 2025. And um if you're watching the video version, we'll probably put up a little graphic of this. hey um But 2025, and make sure you stay till the end. You're going to want to listen to all these questions. But ah the first thing of 2025, what is the most important thing for this next year? yeah Maybe you can identify it one word. What's your one word that you're focusing on for 2025? If you have to condense it to one word. If for me it was process, I want to focus on the process. any Anyone that follows an MBA,
00:07:33
Speaker
If you fall, and I think it was, I don't know, four or five seasons ago, but when they brought on Joel and bead, uh, they started bringing on these really good players for the Philadelphia 76ers and their little like slogan was trust the process because they sucked for so long. They finally started getting decent.
00:07:49
Speaker
and their whole thing was trust the process. In other words, hey, I know we suck now, but if you trust the process, we're going to get better. So I like the idea that not that I suck right now, but process and we can all have better processes. So that was my one word that I'm focusing on for 2025.
00:08:06
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego. And as we were gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Professional Goals & Team Expansion
00:08:22
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout. But it's not a door knocking app. It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:08:31
Speaker
It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later cancelled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood. It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too. I'm going to be one of the first to use Solar Scout in San Diego so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about Solar Scout on my show. You need to get my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:08:56
Speaker
So go to solar scout dot app forward slash taylor And book a demo with them and you'll get 10 off your first month when you sign up That's solar scout dot app forward slash taylor Okay back to the show Hey, in question two, what is the most important professional goal ah of this upcoming year? Okay, so think of any way you can define professional. For most of us listening to podcasts, probably going to involve solar, right? um Do you want to grow your team? What number of cells do you want to get? Speaking of that, do you even know how many cells you finished with this year? And this is a good thing to ask yourself, like what was your effort level level this year? If you have a team, how many cells did your team do this year? How many actual installs did you have? yeah A lot of people will throw out the sales numbers, but look, hopefully you're tracking this. How many of these actually installed? What was your cell to install ratio?
00:09:50
Speaker
Um, even better if you have how many appointments you sat in, they have good thing, good number to know. So you need to know your numbers. And, um, I think as you do that, that'll help you identify some 2025 professional goals that you want. Hey, so for me, um, myself, I'm continuing to grow my team. Hey, we're at, um, I run a squad here in San Diego. So we are at, uh, about 13 reps right now on our personal squad here on my personal squad.
00:10:20
Speaker
Hey, um, goal is work. I'm trying to get the best, the best 25 reps, um, 25 full time, just killers that are doing, you know, multiple six figures this year. So speaking of that, if you do want to look into joining our team, we will post a link in the show notes or, uh, in the comments section, go, if you're listening on a YouTube or any other platforms, go click on that. And there is an application to potentially look into joining our team. We have blitzes coming up. We have a few different options. So um yeah, see if you're fit. Not going to be for everybody. um Feel free to go click the link below and apply.
00:10:59
Speaker
Hey, um but the other thing for me is just continuing to knock out the IRS situation that I encountered. I continue to get all that. We just got a new car, so want to pay that off for 2025 as well. um So yeah, those are a few things for me.
Personal Goals & Family Focus
00:11:16
Speaker
So again, that's most important 2025 professional goals. And next question is, what is your most important personal goal for the upcoming year?
00:11:26
Speaker
um Maybe you need, like myself, for me, wait we just had our third kid, so um I just want to also devote time to the kids. a um Something I realized going to some of these workshops that Jen's did is I need to have intentional time with family. I need to have and intentional time with kids, because if not,
00:11:51
Speaker
Sometimes I get home nine o'clock at night. A lot of weeks I wasn't even seeing my kids. So one of my personal goals for 2025, and I would say most important, is just scheduling intentional time with the wife, with the kids. They have at minimum like a monthly um outing plans with each of my kids. So it's going to be different for everybody. But hey, maybe it's family, maybe it's spirituality.
00:12:18
Speaker
Um, but yeah, that's a good one to go through. What's the most important to personal goal? Hey, and this isn't all inclusive. This isn't meant to be like a goal setting podcast per se, but this is more reflection and then just kind of narrowing down. What are your most important things for the upcoming year?
Lessons Learned & Improvement Areas
00:12:34
Speaker
Okay. And then the last couple of questions here are what were the top three lessons of 2024? Okay. I guess this is a reflection again. Um, so what did you learn? What were three things you can take away from 2024? And this one was tough for me. You know, so many things that happened. I'm not a guy that like journals. I need to be better at that, but there's so many different lessons we could talk about. I'm sure I do you narrowed down to just three. Hey, but the ones I came up with were just being more intentional, uh, living in the moments and, um, just that I control my future.
00:13:08
Speaker
I can make choices that will affect my future and I can control my own destiny. right So narrow for you, narrow it down. What were three lessons that you learned that you went through in 2024? And then last thing, last but not least, 2025, what are three areas of improvements that you want to make in the upcoming year? ah Mine were, um again, being more intentional with family, time with kids. um Number two,
00:13:36
Speaker
just being better at tracking and measuring and adjusting goals and metrics. you know We talk about this on the podcast, but just knowing your numbers for sales, knowing your numbers for conversations, appointments, set all these things, but then tracking them and actually reviewing them. yeah One thing I noticed is I'm pretty good at tracking the numbers, but reviewing and adjusting fell short on that. right There were lots of months where I didn't really go through the numbers. I tracked them.
00:14:04
Speaker
but I didn't go through and measure and adjust them. ah So those are two big things that I'm going to improve. Number three is just being clear on the goals that I have, making sure they align with my vision and making sure they align with what I want. hey so Let me know if you like this type of content. um We may do a more in-depth goal setting podcast and a great resource for that um is I follow a guy named Michael Hyatt.
00:14:32
Speaker
He does a whole goal setting, of course, every year, um, usually at the beginning of January. Um, I believe it's called your best year ever. We can link it in the show notes, but if you want a full, like it's a two day workshop where you go super in depth, identifying all the different areas and just going way, way more in depth in this stuff. Feel free to
Holiday Wishes & Future Plans
00:14:53
Speaker
check that out. Okay, but hopefully this helped. And um yeah, let me know if ah let me know if this helped you or your team. We'd love to hear your feedback. And shout out to Jen, thank you for giving me these questions and helping me reflect on the year. Okay, and so um next next week, if you are listening to this when it comes out, we it's gonna be Christmas, so Merry Christmas. We'll take a little break from the podcast for the next week. Hopefully you can spend some time with family. Be intentional.
00:15:23
Speaker
and ah take a little time off. I know all you solarpreneurs you want to work on Christmas Day, but please at least take Christmas off. he Spend some time with your
Announcing Soulciety
00:15:32
Speaker
families. I know these guys out there that just work too much. yeah So take say take some time off and we got some exciting guests coming up.
00:15:40
Speaker
here in the future. And we'd love to see you also at door to door con coming up right around the corner in January. So grab your tickets if you have not already for that. The ah coupon code is Armstrong 20 gets you 20% off tickets for door to door con. Can't wait to see you there. Enjoy the holidays. We'll see you next time.
00:16:00
Speaker
Hey, solar printers, quick question. 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? 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-start level. 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, and it's called Soulciety. 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. Currently Soulciety is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled. So go to Soulciety.co to learn more and join the learning experience now. This is exclusively for Soulciety listeners so be sure to go to Soulciety.co and join. We'll see you on the inside.