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: What's going on, solopreneur nation?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong back with another episode here to help your life easier in your solar cells journey, helping you crush it, helping you get more referrals, generate more leads, and dominate.
Speaker: It's what we're all about.
Speaker: So I wanted to give you a couple updates on the things going on around my neck of the woods here in San Diego.
Speaker: Just got back from a Mario Kart tournament with our sales team.
Speaker: And you'll be sad to know that I came in second place.
Speaker: Did not pull out the win, but we had $100 go to the winner.
Speaker: Had a cool little tournament.
Speaker: So if you're not doing fun little activities like that,
Speaker: I would highly suggest it.
Speaker: Do that with your teams.
Speaker: Get types of events, activities going.
Speaker: We do one weekly, but it can be a little much sometimes.
Speaker: So I would suggest maybe every couple weeks, get your team together.
Speaker: Throw an awesome activity.
Speaker: Get some food.
Speaker: And yeah, do tournaments.
Speaker: People love it.
Speaker: But yeah, I came in second place, and I grew up on Mario Kart.
Speaker: If any of you want to challenge me, I am down any time.
Speaker: I lost one match because that freaking blue shell came and hit me at the very end.
Speaker: If you know Mario Kart, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker: But anyways, so that's what's going on here.
Speaker: We're keeping the activities going.
Speaker: We are gearing up.
Speaker: Spring is coming quickly to the summer.
Speaker: Months are flying by.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: It's already almost done with Q1.
Speaker: So take a step back to look at where are you at in your goals.
Speaker: We're already done with the first quarter.
Speaker: We're going into the second quarter pretty quick here.
Speaker: So if you're not crushing it this year, start to analyze where are you at.
Speaker: And that's going to lead us directly into the episode, which is why should you have a coach?
Speaker: And the reason I'm doing this episode is because next episode we have coming up, we have Coach Michael Burt coming on.
Speaker: If you haven't heard of Coach Burt, he is a pretty high-profile dude.
Speaker: I saw him speak at actually Grant Cardone's 10XCon.
Speaker: And he has coached hundreds and hundreds of salespeople, probably into the thousands, business leaders, entrepreneurs.
Speaker: He has, I think, a dozen or two books.
Speaker: Anyways, we introduce him in the next episode.
Speaker: But you're not going to want to miss out on that.
Speaker: And it got me really thinking about why is coaching important?
Speaker: Obviously, we're going to talk more about that in the next episode, too.
Speaker: But just made me start reflecting, why should we have coaches?
Speaker: And when I first started in sales, that was pretty much unheard of.
Speaker: I was like, no one needs a coach in sales.
Speaker: You got a manager.
Speaker: you don't need a coach.
Speaker: But then as I've talked about in some previous episodes, I actually have hired many coaches and it has been, I would say, one of the single most important things to my growth, helping me close more deals, helping keeping me accountable and helping me grow as a salesperson and entrepreneur.
Speaker: So start to consider if you've never had a coach,
Speaker: I want you to consider getting one.
Speaker: And what top business people, entrepreneurs, they're investing in themselves.
Speaker: I think that's the first principle with this.
Speaker: If you're not investing in yourself, you are gonna have a tough time growing.
Speaker: I mean, I'm sure it can be done.
Speaker: There's guys that do it.
Speaker: But what you're doing by hiring coaches, you're accelerating your growth because you're talking with someone who's already taken the steps that you're looking to take.
Speaker: And that's something that you should look for in a coach who's been there, who's done the thing that you want to do.
Speaker: Okay, my background with this, I've always had kind of an improvement background, wanted to be better.
Speaker: And I think I've told some stories with this in previous episodes, but I was actually a music guy, a nerd.
Speaker: I guess some people call me the band geek, the band nerd back in high school.
Speaker: I was the one going to the band camps, going, you know, practicing.
Speaker: And I played this instrument called the marimba.
Speaker: It's percussion.
Speaker: So for those who don't know Marimba, it's basically a giant xylophone.
Speaker: You hold four mallets and you play this thing.
Speaker: People say you look like Wolverine or something.
Speaker: I guess you're only holding two in each hand.
Speaker: But you play this thing and you just jam out on it.
Speaker: You got four sticks in your hands.
Speaker: And you're practicing a ton, learning the grip, learning the technique.
Speaker: You're getting calluses on your fingers.
Speaker: So that was my background in high school.
Speaker: I was percussion.
Speaker: And I wanted to be the best marimbus in the world.
Speaker: That was my goal.
Speaker: And what I did is I would go and do pretty much what I'm telling you right now.
Speaker: I would go and look for the best people to learn from.
Speaker: And then I would go look for their summer camps.
Speaker: They had these summer camps you could go to.
Speaker: Every top marimbus had, you know, you'd pay and you'd fly out to wherever they were.
Speaker: I flew to one in Orlando and...
Speaker: I flew to one in Michigan, flew to one in Texas, all over the place, going to these camps, trying to learn from these top marimbus.
Speaker: And the thing about it was I was already at a disadvantage because I went to a small school, Kanab High School, Southern Utah, town of like 3,000 people, had 200 kids in my school.
Speaker: So you can imagine with 200 kids, there wasn't a ton going on with music.
Speaker: There wasn't a ton going on.
Speaker: with anything really I mean barely had enough kids to have even a school band at that size of school so I was already at a disadvantage no one even had no one even knew what a marimba was really in my town let alone had one there was one other guy I knew that had one in my town but besides that there was not even this instrument didn't even exist
Speaker: So I saved up, worked hard.
Speaker: My parents helped me buy a marimba.
Speaker: It was kind of like Christmas work and combined.
Speaker: They got me a marimba.
Speaker: And I would practice this thing sometimes like five, six hours a day.
Speaker: So I was going all out.
Speaker: And then I was just trying to be the best.
Speaker: They had this competition called the Utah Day of Percussion.
Speaker: So I was like, all right, I'm going to go beat out all these big kids in the city, all these big time kids.
Speaker: And I slapped that goal down.
Speaker: That was my goal.
Speaker: And that's when I started going to these camps.
Speaker: And then I think, was it 2010 or something, I went.
Speaker: After going to all these camps, after practicing my butt off six hours a day, I went and I locked down the first place.
Speaker: And everyone heard this kid get up on stage, Taylor Armstrong, first place, Marimba, Kanab High School.
Speaker: And all these kids at the huge scores, like, what the heck?
Speaker: Who is, what's Kanab High School?
Speaker: I don't even know that that town exists.
Speaker: No one even had been to this event at my school and didn't know existed.
Speaker: So the big key with this, the reason I'm sharing this story is because I think you can apply it to anything in your life.
Speaker: If you want to get good at something, you need to go seek out the best people, go listen to their content.
Speaker: And that's what this podcast is about is we're surrounding you with the top guys.
Speaker: We're getting the best of the best in the industry.
Speaker: We're putting them in your ears and we're giving you the shortcut to it.
Speaker: I would have loved when I was learning marimba, I would have loved to have like a marimba podcast or something like that to listen to.
Speaker: It didn't exist at the time.
Speaker: But that's the key.
Speaker: You need to be obsessed.
Speaker: Like Grant Cardone says, be obsessed or be average.
Speaker: Anything you're doing, there's success leaves clues.
Speaker: I think Jim Rohn says that.
Speaker: So you need to go seek out these guys, see what they're doing.
Speaker: Yeah, go to their events if they have them, pay them, do whatever it takes.
Speaker: If you're not the top guy in your office, go see what the top guy is doing.
Speaker: Okay, and if you are in a smaller company, maybe you're the top guy.
Speaker: But that's the disadvantage you have.
Speaker: If you're a smaller company, go out and go to events.
Speaker: Surround yourself with the top guys.
Speaker: You got door-to-door con, that's an event.
Speaker: You got these guys at Noxstar I was talking about.
Speaker: You got this and we're planning on future events and things to help you grow even more.
Speaker: That's the key with this.
Speaker: Go out, be coachable.
Speaker: Don't be afraid to invest in yourself.
Speaker: And any top, all these top entrepreneurs, top guys,
Speaker: They're investing, the number I hear is 15 to 20% in yourself.
Speaker: So start thinking about that.
Speaker: Are you putting 15 to 20% of what you earn into personal development, into growth?
Speaker: Okay, so if you're making six figures, which hopefully anyone in this industry is, are you putting, what is that, 15 to 20 grand?
Speaker: Are you investing 15 to 20 grand a year?
Speaker: If you're making 200 grand, you should be doing double that, 30 to 40 grand.
Speaker: Okay, so think about that.
Speaker: Start investing in yourself if you're not already.
Speaker: Okay, but just a couple reasons, I guess, why you should have a coach.
Speaker: Number one, they're going to help you see things you can't see yourself.
Speaker: Okay, a lot of times when we're just analyzing ourself, we're not good at giving ourselves feedback.
Speaker: We're not good at being honest with ourselves.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And when I first hired a coach, talked about it, but for my sales competition, he helped me see that I wasn't being honest in my routines.
Speaker: And he helped me break apart.
Speaker: Okay, what are you doing in the mornings?
Speaker: How much time are you actually spending selling?
Speaker: And that's the first time to that point, I started actually tracking how many hours am I putting on the doors?
Speaker: How many appointments am I booking?
Speaker: How many appointments am I sitting in?
Speaker: And then when I first started tracking it, I said, no wonder I'm not getting results.
Speaker: I'm only sitting in like two appointments a week.
Speaker: It's going to be pretty tough to close multiple deals a week if you're only sitting in two.
Speaker: So they're going to help you see things you can't see yourself.
Speaker: And number two, they're going to hold you accountable.
Speaker: At least a good coach should.
Speaker: They should hold you super accountable.
Speaker: And again, put your money on the line.
Speaker: If you're paying someone, that's going to add another element to it.
Speaker: If you have money invested in something, you're going to be much more likely to do it.
Speaker: I right now I have a trainer, fitness trainer.
Speaker: He gives me workouts every week.
Speaker: I have to send him videos.
Speaker: I'm the guy at the gym that's taking videos of my squats, which probably annoys people on my dead list, stuff like that.
Speaker: I have to send him the video every workout I do.
Speaker: And he breaks it down.
Speaker: He says, Taylor, your butt's not down far enough.
Speaker: And that's a big thing.
Speaker: He helped me improve, by the way.
Speaker: I was doing like those half squats.
Speaker: Okay, but your legs need to go below the parallel point and get down.
Speaker: So that's something I didn't see myself.
Speaker: He held me to it.
Speaker: And since I'm paying this guy, I'm paying a trainer.
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: I'm going to be way more likely to go to the gym because I'm like, well, freak, I don't want to waste my money.
Speaker: I don't want to pay this guy if I'm not going to show up to the gym wasting the money.
Speaker: So it's the same thing.
Speaker: Don't be afraid to invest in the coach.
Speaker: Make sure they're holding you accountable.
Speaker: And number three, like I mentioned in the beginning, they are going to save you tons of time because guess what?
Speaker: A good coach has already done the thing that you're trying to get to.
Speaker: Tim Ferriss has a book for the four-hour work week, if you haven't read that one.
Speaker: But he talks about go and model not the best person in the world, but the second best person in the world.
Speaker: I thought this was a cool little hack, something you can write down right here.
Speaker: So go model with the second best person in the world, because guess what?
Speaker: The first person in the world, they're going to charge a lot to coach people.
Speaker: They got the credibility.
Speaker: They got the...
Speaker: Credentials, they're the best, right?
Speaker: But what about the second best?
Speaker: What if you went out and paid the guy that got second place to Michael Phelps that was like a millisecond behind him?
Speaker: Okay, probably more than that, but maybe he was two seconds behind Michael Phelps.
Speaker: Do you think he's going to be a little bit cheaper and then Michael Phelps to pay and get results from?
Speaker: Probably is, and he's still pretty freaking good, right?
Speaker: Second best in the world.
Speaker: So that's a hack.
Speaker: Anything you're trying to get good at, you don't need to hire necessarily the best in the world.
Speaker: And sometimes they're not the best teachers anyways.
Speaker: I know I'm not the best in the world at selling solar, but I think I am better at teaching than
Speaker: then probably some of the best in the world okay so the best aren't going to always be the greatest teachers but think about that go look at the second best person in the world go look at the people that are getting results and model after them it's a little hack
Speaker: Okay, they're going to shortcut your success, any coach.
Speaker: And that's a way to find a good coach.
Speaker: We talk about this with Coach Bert in the next episode.
Speaker: But how do you know who to actually trust and who to hire to coach you?
Speaker: Okay, I think Jesus said in the Bible, by their fruits, you shall know them.
Speaker: So same thing if you're looking for a coach, look at their fruits.
Speaker: What have they accomplished?
Speaker: What have they done?
Speaker: If they have not sold anything, if they have not gotten decent results, better than you, then maybe don't model them.
Speaker: I'll be straight up and say it.
Speaker: I did 150 deals in a year.
Speaker: If you've done more than that, then maybe I'm not the coach for you because that's more than I've done.
Speaker: But if you've done less than that, then I think there's things I can share with you that are going to take your skills to the next level.
Speaker: But look at who's ahead of you.
Speaker: Look at what results they've had.
Speaker: Then that's the people you want to follow.
Speaker: That's the people you want to learn from.
Speaker: And anyone that's trying to coach out there, don't be afraid to say, hey, what results have you had?
Speaker: Especially if you're going to pay someone, you want to make sure these people are legit.
Speaker: You want to make sure they have walked the path that you're trying to follow and gotten the results that you're trying to get.
Speaker: So just some thoughts I had.
Speaker: Don't be afraid.
Speaker: Get a coach if you haven't already.
Speaker: And guys, we are opening.
Speaker: Speaking of coaching, we are opening very soon our new coaching platform.
Speaker: And I can't share all the details, but it's going to be game changing.
Speaker: You're not going to want to miss out on it.
Speaker: It's going to be super interactive and yeah, no one in the industry has done something like this before.
Speaker: So if you're not already on this wait list, go get on it.
Speaker: It's at soulciety.co.
Speaker: That's S-O-L-C-I-E-T-Y.co.
Speaker: We have the waitlist open right now.
Speaker: So go join the waitlist.
Speaker: You're going to want to be first to get on this.
Speaker: Okay, it's going to be special pricing and we're going to have the best of the best in the industry on our new coaching platform.
Speaker: Okay, and if you want to surround yourself with the best, this is where you start.
Speaker: Go to Soul Society.
Speaker: Okay, so we can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Speaker: Coach Burt is going to drop some value bombs.
Speaker: He is the best coach, I think, for sales probably in the game right now.
Speaker: So don't miss out.
Speaker: Share this with someone that you think
Speaker: can be improved by it and then make sure you're on the next episode so thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you soon 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 solar professionals and
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: and it's called Sol Society.
Speaker: This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
Speaker: Currently Soul Society is closed to the public and membership is by invitation only.
Speaker: But solopreneurs can go to soulciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a waitlist when a membership becomes available in your area.
Speaker: Again, this 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.
