Transcript
Speaker: Boom, what's going on, Solrepreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here, back with another episode.
Speaker: It's been a crazy week, so I apologize.
Speaker: We are getting this episode out a few days later than planned.
Speaker: I wanted to give a brief introduction.
Speaker: This was an interview that I received last year.
Speaker: It was on Jackson Rucker's podcast, Door-to-Door Success Secrets.
Speaker: I know he hasn't posted for a while on his show, but I felt like we did have some
Speaker: valuable things we talked about, especially dealing with getting started in digital marketing, which we all know is super important right now.
Speaker: If you're not online, you need to get online more than ever.
Speaker: Obviously, learn the door knocking too, but this is going to give you some good ways to get started.
Speaker: So I hope you enjoy the episode and let's jump into it.
Speaker: What do you call an underground group of solar professionals on a mission to create a more sustainable world?
Speaker: We call ourselves solopreneurs.
Speaker: And while some might call us crazy, foolish, and dissatisfied with the status quo, we're the ones taking action to create a better future for ourselves and the world.
Speaker: Solopreneur is dedicated to give you, the solar professional, the tools, skills, technology, and mentorship to take the industry by storm and sell more solar with less effort.
Speaker: We are solopreneurs and this is our story.
Speaker: But if you're brand new, I would say just first of all, picking up Russell Brunson's book.
Speaker: He's got expertsecrets.com secrets and might be tough to understand at first, but that's really, I think what opened my eyes.
Speaker: I like to call that like the forbidden fruit of online marketing.
Speaker: If you're like me, then you know door-to-door sales is an amazing opportunity to generate a successful future.
Speaker: But you also see that there are huge issues starting to emerge.
Speaker: Like, why haven't big door-to-door companies let selling and recruiting habits change in over 30 years?
Speaker: Or why is it that old door-knocking rules say you're better off in person than trying to use the internet to sell your product or grow your team?
Speaker: These are some of the blaring questions we face today.
Speaker: This podcast will show you how real door-to-door entrepreneurs like us are fighting the old status quo.
Speaker: And we aren't cheating by competing on price.
Speaker: Follow this podcast while I expose the shocking methods I'm using to build my million dollar dream team.
Speaker: Here's to the new tech approach without all those rusty DDD handcuffs.
Speaker: My name is Jackson Rucker and welcome to DDD Success Secrets.
Speaker: All right, welcome back to D2D Success Secrets.
Speaker: Today on the podcast, we have someone who was basically a nobody in the pest control industry for a while, then was able to jump into the solar industry and has been in the industry for the past three years, has been able to build up a six-figure income and totally change his life.
Speaker: And today on the podcast, we are pleased to have Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: So Taylor, welcome to the show.
Speaker: Ooh, yeah.
Speaker: Thanks, Jackson.
Speaker: Thanks for having me on, man.
Speaker: It's stoked to be here.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, um, what, uh, what was kind of your beginning?
Speaker: How did this all start your path?
Speaker: Yeah, so like you said, I pretty much came from nothing and I'm one of those people that's not like a natural sales guy at all.
Speaker: I know some people get into door-to-door sales or their sales jobs and just like dominate from the get-go, but I grew up in Kanab, Utah, super tiny town, southern Utah.
Speaker: middle of nowhere, basically.
Speaker: And when I got like into college, I realized that like I had been super shy in high school, basically didn't know how to talk to people.
Speaker: Now I was ponding on like doing a mission for my church, but I got thinking, I'm like, how am I going to do a mission for my church?
Speaker: If I'm like scared to talk to anybody.
Speaker: And I mean, just super shy kid, a little bit chubby.
Speaker: So I think I'm self-conscious because of that, things like that.
Speaker: So what I decided to do, I'm like, man, if I'm going to do this mission thing, I got to like figure out a way to change this, kind of just get out of my shell.
Speaker: I was walking through the halls of Southern Utah University one day and heard these dudes talking in the hall like, hey, come check it out.
Speaker: Pest control.
Speaker: We're slinging pest control.
Speaker: Come make six figures in four months.
Speaker: I'm like, what?
Speaker: You got to be kidding me.
Speaker: But I went and checked it out and you know how it goes.
Speaker: Classic.
Speaker: Just brought me into the pizza meeting or whatever.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Told me what they're doing.
Speaker: And me and a buddy, we're like, man, we're going to be rich.
Speaker: These guys are $200,000 in four months.
Speaker: Like, that's crazy.
Speaker: I'm going to buy a jet.
Speaker: I'm going to buy a Lamborghini.
Speaker: You know, you're thinking all these things, right?
Speaker: Everyone does.
Speaker: Yeah, seriously.
Speaker: I'm like just blown away that people can make that much.
Speaker: And then I started thinking, well, yeah, I mean, it sounds kind of too good to be true, but...
Speaker: I guess they're knocking doors.
Speaker: So it's pretty much what I'm going to be doing in my mission anyways.
Speaker: So I guess I might as well try it.
Speaker: So yeah, decided to try it out.
Speaker: Went and did pest control my first year in Dallas, Texas for, for Aptiv.
Speaker: It was Altera at the time, but Aptiv now.
Speaker: And yeah, it went okay.
Speaker: I started out super slow.
Speaker: And what I didn't know is that if you take time off in the summer, don't do things consistently, it really hurts you.
Speaker: So we had a couple like vacations scheduled and things like that.
Speaker: And anyone that does the summer grind, they know that taking, you know, a week or two off, it's basically the couple days before, you know,
Speaker: you're thinking about the trip and everything so it's super tough to be out on the doors and your production i think suffers for most people and then obviously you're gone a week and then it takes like a whole week to get back into it and basically remember how to sell so definitely had some rough times with that but it went well learned learned a ton um only did about a hundred which anyone in pest control it's definitely nothing to brag about but i mean first year and just kind of struggled through it
Speaker: So did that went on a two year mission for Elias church and then came back, did another summer of pest control.
Speaker: And I was thinking it was going to go way better.
Speaker: But that year I went on with one of my buddies that actually started his own company and
Speaker: And what I learned that year is it was a smart startup company.
Speaker: So basically things weren't even set up to go when we got out there.
Speaker: I mean, no website, no, nothing really established.
Speaker: And we basically helped him start the company the first week and I don't know, get his licenses and do all like business stuff.
Speaker: So we get out there and it's basically my buddy that started the company.
Speaker: It's two other guys selling and that was about it.
Speaker: So what I learned that year is it's super tough to sell if you don't have a good team behind you.
Speaker: And I think that's what was the huge lesson that year.
Speaker: I mean, we weren't going out.
Speaker: We're all going out kind of at different times.
Speaker: We weren't doing it consistently.
Speaker: And
Speaker: Obviously, my buddy, maybe not necessarily doing what he's doing.
Speaker: It's his first year just starting a company, but a lot of cancel, stuff like that.
Speaker: So, yeah, it was a huge lesson.
Speaker: If anyone goes out, especially what I learned that year, if you're a first-year rep or still learning, then you definitely want to have a team behind you.
Speaker: I know when we were chatting before, too, I think you said you went out one summer and it's basically you alone, too, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So my second year doing pest control, I was out there by myself, but, uh, I had already gone through a full year and I was in, uh, the same, same actual location as my first year.
Speaker: And so a lot of the places were still familiar.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, I was, I was by myself, but it was, it was definitely hard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So anyone that's been out by themselves, I mean, you know how hard it is.
Speaker: And especially if you're still pretty inexperienced like I was, I mean, it's best to have that training.
Speaker: And anytime you're on a team, if there's guys that are killing it and doing really good, then it's going to push you to be better.
Speaker: I mean, it's like guys playing with LeBron James, anyone that's playing with top level talent, it's going to push them to get better versus if you're out there alone or on a team that's not doing great.
Speaker: So yeah, that was a huge lesson and only did about a hundred.
Speaker: So that was my pest control.
Speaker: It's my pest control experience.
Speaker: Definitely wasn't anything great.
Speaker: So yeah, after that, I decided to make the switch going to solar and I still knew door door had huge potential.
Speaker: I've gotten to solar.
Speaker: This was about three years back and again, started kind of slow on that.
Speaker: But what I loved about solar is it was a lot more,
Speaker: I guess you'd say a little bit less knocking and more being in appointments and connecting with homeowners.
Speaker: I mean, you've done pest and show you not as you're trying to get typically quicker sales and now I like solar cause we got in the homes.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe I was thinking more on the lazy side too.
Speaker: Cause a lot less knocking more times being in homes.
Speaker: So that was kind of cool.
Speaker: But yeah, I just like being with the homeowners connecting with a more,
Speaker: And then commissions were a lot higher and eventually started slow on that.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: did about maybe 20 grand the first summer, but then decided to make it a year round thing, make the jump.
Speaker: My wife wanted to come out to California, experience things.
Speaker: So been a hire ever since.
Speaker: And cool.
Speaker: I've been able to grow my income ever since.
Speaker: And now I'm on track to do well above six figures.
Speaker: So awesome.
Speaker: It's been awesome.
Speaker: And then that's kind of my background as far as the door to door goes.
Speaker: And we can go a little bit into how I got into the online marketing stuff too.
Speaker: But yeah,
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: So where was it?
Speaker: Um, where was it that you started kind of having this kind of perspective shift that like the door to door industry wasn't what you always thought it was?
Speaker: Hey, Solarpreneurs, real quick.
Speaker: If you've been in the solar industry any amount of time, you know that in order to take it to the next level, you need to always be recruiting.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: ABR, always be recruiting.
Speaker: So if you need help with recruiting, I wanted to share with you something that helped me take my recruiting skills to the next level.
Speaker: We literally went from an office of less than 10 reps to 25 to 30 reps in less than three months.
Speaker: And we did this with reps that continue to sell with us.
Speaker: Two or three of them went on to become managers.
Speaker: Several of them were top producers in our office.
Speaker: And there are multiple reps that are still with us to this day, more than a year later.
Speaker: So what is it that helped me?
Speaker: I took up the services of Ryan Holman with Cells Recruiting University.
Speaker: He helped me develop a system to take my recruiting game to the next level.
Speaker: And he really helped me follow up with the recruits, schedule group interviews with them, get a huge pool of applicants coming in day after day.
Speaker: I wanted to share with you guys his link.
Speaker: If you are looking to take your recruiting skills to the next level, go to Calendly.com slash SRU forward slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: Once again, that's Calendly.com slash SRU slash Solapreneur.
Speaker: SRU is Sales Recruiting University.
Speaker: Ryan will help you take it to the next level.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So you and I both are doing similar things, but I think we both recognize it.
Speaker: What happened for me is I went to, it was Grant Cardone's 10XCon.
Speaker: This was two years ago.
Speaker: It was in Vegas.
Speaker: And that's the first time I saw Russell Brunson speak.
Speaker: And I'd heard of him before.
Speaker: I'd seen some like ads for ClickFunnels.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And who hasn't seen the ads for click?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's my question.
Speaker: On social media, you've probably seen his ads.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, I didn't really know what it was, but then I saw Russell speak and, um, I mean, you've seen him speak on stage, especially when he's selling stuff.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Basically like pitches stuff.
Speaker: It's makes it sound so simple.
Speaker: Just like an irresistible offer.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay, I got to check out what this guy's doing.
Speaker: So he had his offer.
Speaker: It was like three grand for 12 months of quick funnels and all his trainings, all that bundle that he sells.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And he made it sound so easy, like getting into the online world at the time.
Speaker: I didn't think that it could apply anything with what I was doing in solar, but I just thought I'm like, okay, well maybe this is a good, like, I don't know, side business type thing.
Speaker: I can build some funnels, make some money, sell some stuff online.
Speaker: So I bought his package and,
Speaker: And what I realized is I had no idea what to do with it.
Speaker: I heard him saying all this stuff, but I'm like, okay, I have ClickFunnels.
Speaker: What do I do now?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Now I am.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, I have no idea what to do.
Speaker: So I did experiment with just building funnels.
Speaker: I know you kind of did the same sort of thing where I was building funnels for companies and
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Actually, my first kind of client I got was going to Toastmasters meetings, which I don't know if you've heard of that, but it's where you go up and you practice speaking.
Speaker: Oh, I have heard of that.
Speaker: I don't really know much about it, though.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, they're just community groups, but there's all these little groups, and basically you just go up and practice speaking, and it's kind of on-the-spot type impromptu stuff.
Speaker: So my first client I got, I was actually wearing a ClickFunnels shirt to that meeting,
Speaker: And this old guy comes up and he's like, he's like, Hey man, do you build funnels?
Speaker: And I didn't really build funnels.
Speaker: Um, at that time I just had the shirt, but of course I'm not going to pass him on up and up an opportunity.
Speaker: You're like, you want me to help you?
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think I kind of stuttered for a second.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, I build funnels.
Speaker: I love building funnels.
Speaker: He's like, oh, man, I'm actually doing a startup.
Speaker: I got a startup going in.
Speaker: I actually need some funnels built.
Speaker: Do you want to meet and talk about maybe building some funnels for us?
Speaker: And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So I met with the guy and then ended up building some funnels for his product.
Speaker: So that was kind of the first experience I had with it, the first client.
Speaker: And how did it turn out?
Speaker: Yeah, it was okay as a startup and I followed, I took a course from, you know, Julie, Julie Stoyan is her name.
Speaker: And she teaches people basically how to get clients just building funnels and basically how to start making money if you're new at it.
Speaker: I just kind of followed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Agency model.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Just building funnels for people.
Speaker: So it was, it was okay.
Speaker: What I learned is with a startup, I mean, they don't necessarily know what they want a lot of times.
Speaker: So it was tough.
Speaker: Cause I was asking him like basically what he wanted it to be like and kind of how he wanted to market it.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: He had no idea.
Speaker: So that was a little bit tougher when you have people that you don't know what they want or it's a super new product.
Speaker: Yeah, it was a little bit tough as far as that goes.
Speaker: But yeah, no, building the funnel was good.
Speaker: I basically just found a template and did something super simple and plugged it in.
Speaker: That was my first client.
Speaker: That went well.
Speaker: But it did take more time than I expected.
Speaker: And my cells did kind of suffer because once I got this first client, I was so excited that I stopped focusing a little bit on like my cells game and.
Speaker: On solar you mean?
Speaker: Yeah, in solar.
Speaker: So I dropped the ball a little bit on that.
Speaker: So I got to thinking I'm like, I'm like, okay, I wonder if there's a way where I can like combine what I'm doing with ClickFunnels into solar because I already know solar.
Speaker: I already know how to sell.
Speaker: I know how to make money in that.
Speaker: And then I read expert secrets.
Speaker: That's Russell Brunson's book.
Speaker: Talked about that.
Speaker: But he talks about just like building the audience, becoming an expert in just teaching people what you already know.
Speaker: So I'm like, okay, well, Russell is saying to just teach people what you already know.
Speaker: So why don't I use ClickFunnels to teach what I already know and apply it to what I'm doing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I started looking for someone that was using funnels to get solar leads.
Speaker: Cause I mean, knocking doors, we've all locked doors and you see people that maybe don't answer the door.
Speaker: We need to get a community.
Speaker: People don't answer.
Speaker: And I started thinking, okay, I've got to be missing cells like from people that don't answer.
Speaker: So what can I do to maybe take this online?
Speaker: And so what I did is I just,
Speaker: started doing some research and I posted in the click funnels group.
Speaker: I mean, you can go on Facebook.
Speaker: There's a million groups for whatever you want to do.
Speaker: So I started posting around and I'm like, does anyone build funnels for solar?
Speaker: And then I run into a guy that's building funnels, getting leads through his funnels to generate solar leads and eventually just connected with this guy.
Speaker: His name was Ben Claybrook and took a course, bought some coaching from him.
Speaker: And he basically taught me how to use what I already knew in ClickFunnels and apply it in solar and start getting leads from that.
Speaker: So that was kind of my first, I guess, moment where I kind of was able to combine the two door to door.
Speaker: And then now online marketing, I was able to start getting some of my own needs, close several deals just off of doing that.
Speaker: And was able to have some success.
Speaker: So yeah, that's kind of where it started.
Speaker: And what I've learned is it's whatever you're trying to do, if you're trying to apply, I don't know, click funnels and door knocking, especially if you're new at it, then find someone who's just one step ahead of you.
Speaker: Find someone who's already done it.
Speaker: and get them to coach you or buy their course or I mean people like Jackson I mean you got people that are already doing this stuff so buy their coaching first then that's how you're gonna get the first step into it and then that's how I got started because yeah I guarantee without getting that coaching without jumping into it like that I mean I don't think I don't think I would have been smart enough to figure out this stuff on my own so it's just like find that person who's already doing it
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I'm just curious.
Speaker: So like when you, when you first started kind of getting your mind wrapped around what you could use your knowledge from door to door sales, as well as with what you've learned of online marketing and click funnels, what did that kind of look like?
Speaker: Like what was maybe I went, what I'm wanting to know is like, what was the main struggle that you were kind of going through when you first started doing that?
Speaker: Yeah, a good question.
Speaker: So yeah, my biggest struggle was just getting it consistent because I mean, a funnel, to get people in your funnel, you either need to figure out a way to get them to
Speaker: to go in like for free, like organic traffic or paper ads and then get them to go in that way.
Speaker: So my biggest struggle was to get them to actually go in the funnel.
Speaker: I was using paid ads through actually a Yahoo.
Speaker: I know it sounds weird, but this is how I guess I was taught.
Speaker: Yahoo Gemini has a platform where you can put ads, post ads on there.
Speaker: So what I figured out is that at first, yeah, I was killing it.
Speaker: And I mean, my ads were doing super well, but what happened is the ads started to do worse and worse over time.
Speaker: And when I originally started, I'm like, okay, sweet.
Speaker: I'm just posting an ad and I'm set for life.
Speaker: People are going to keep clicking on this.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, just spend 20 bucks a day, whatever, and just get unlimited traffic, unlimited people coming into the funnel.
Speaker: But what happens is if you don't go in and refresh that ad,
Speaker: If you don't go in and put new copy in it, if you don't go in and make tweaks, adjust things, that ad's going to start to do worse and worse and worse over time and not get your results.
Speaker: And then you're spending money and getting nothing out of it.
Speaker: So that was my biggest struggle at the time.
Speaker: It worked for about two months.
Speaker: And then after that started basically bombing and I wasn't getting leads anymore.
Speaker: So initially, I mean, that was just the big struggle is how do I take something new?
Speaker: How do I take this, what I'm doing, generating leads and keep it going forever?
Speaker: And then it will close deals off of it.
Speaker: So, um, yeah, it worked for about two weeks.
Speaker: What'd you do to like kind of optimize that or bounce back from that?
Speaker: Or like, it doesn't sound like you quit, right?
Speaker: Uh, so what did that look like?
Speaker: Yeah, so I'm still doing it.
Speaker: And what I started to do is, well, number one, you look at other people's ads and Russell talks about this all the time, but you got in funnel hack people, you look at what's already working and Russell has a super cool software now.
Speaker: It's called fill your funnel.
Speaker: I'm sure you're familiar with it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: What you can do, you can go on there and it's just a plugin.
Speaker: You can get it on Google Chrome.
Speaker: So it's a plugin.
Speaker: So any ad you see, you can just click a button and it's going to take that ad and immediately store it in the software.
Speaker: So you can go back and see that exact same ad at any time.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it makes it super simple.
Speaker: So before you had to just like take pictures and, you know, write stuff down or the old fashioned way, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It took forever and I hated doing that stuff.
Speaker: So that's helped a ton just going and seeing what's working for everybody and using stuff like, you know, similarweb.com.
Speaker: You can see kind of how people's traffic is going and based off of their funnels, their websites.
Speaker: So I started doing some of that, but honestly, Jackson, the biggest thing that's helped me is just building, starting to build a team.
Speaker: and getting other people to help me with things i don't know as well right so yeah i knew these i knew how to do these uh gemini these yahoo ads but what i didn't know and what i was just sucking at was were the facebook ads um i knew people were getting a ton of results off facebook ads but every time i put money on it was just like a black hole i mean i don't know what i was doing but i just could not figure out the facebook ads
Speaker: And I didn't want to take all the time to figure all this stuff out.
Speaker: So what Russell talks about, and I mean, anyone that's an entrepreneur, what you start to do and what you learn is that do what you're good at.
Speaker: And then things that you're not good at, you need to figure out someone that can do those things and then get the help you need.
Speaker: So right now I actually have someone that's running Facebook ads for me.
Speaker: They're killing it right now.
Speaker: And, um, but yeah, I think that's the number one thing that's helped me is yeah, do what I need to do at first when the ads weren't doing well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm just going and looking at all other people's ads and just always experimenting.
Speaker: I mean, once that ad cost starts going up, you got to go in there, you got to make tweaks.
Speaker: And then number two, the things that you're not good at, like Facebook ads, go and find someone that is good at that thing and pay them to do it.
Speaker: And you're going to get a return.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, I'm paying this guy to run it, Facebook ads, but...
Speaker: Huge return as I close my deals.
Speaker: And so they're ads that are specifically for the selling of solar, right?
Speaker: And now, so the process of doing that right now, are you, because each company can be different, but like for you, it's a new power, right?
Speaker: That you're working for, right?
Speaker: New power.
Speaker: New power.
Speaker: So like, are you running it as if you are new power or are you running it as if people are seeing Taylor and that's who the ad is coming from?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm running it.
Speaker: They're run a couple of different ads, but right now we're running it as just kind of as a California solar initiative.
Speaker: So not necessarily as a company and we're kind of making it seem like it's just something required by California.
Speaker: So that's the ad that's working right now.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, it's like off a business page on Facebook.
Speaker: Pretty simple, right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So community page.
Speaker: So it's kind of, I guess, kind of like a bait and switch.
Speaker: I mean, we're not trying to, we're not lying to people obviously, but we are making it seem like it's almost as if it were from like the state of California or like a community page.
Speaker: And then yeah, linking that up.
Speaker: And then, yeah, pretty straightforward.
Speaker: People just go into the funnel, submit their information.
Speaker: We have that all set up.
Speaker: So I get the text notification once a lead comes in, call them right away.
Speaker: And that's key too, as I'm sure you know.
Speaker: Anyone that's running ads, running leads, or whether it's in pest control, whatever industry you're in, you get a lead, you call them right away, and then you set up an appointment or...
Speaker: In solar, we set up on appointments.
Speaker: It's a different industry.
Speaker: Maybe you close them right there on the phone.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: That's kind of how we're working it.
Speaker: So I think it's constantly evolving.
Speaker: And I know I'm talking a lot about copying other people and funnel hacking and going out and finding the people that are crushing it.
Speaker: But I also think there's something to be said about experimenting with things on your own.
Speaker: Because it's like Russell Brunson and these guys didn't go out and
Speaker: do some of their original stuff and experiment with their own ads, experiment with their own processes.
Speaker: I mean, then they'd never have those things set up that we could go out and copy them.
Speaker: So I think it's super important to learn from what others are doing, but also if, if new ways pop up, I mean, if different things, I don't know, different websites, different social media, different things like that pop up, then I think it's important to go out and
Speaker: experiment with those things.
Speaker: We all know like Gary V. Gary V talks a lot about just like if there's a new social media thing.
Speaker: I mean, I have his book.
Speaker: It's called Crushing It over there.
Speaker: And it's like he's talking about if there's a new social media, there's, if you can be like the first one on that new social media and that thing starts, you know, going viral, a ton of people start going over.
Speaker: If you are one of the first people on that platform,
Speaker: then you're going to have a huge edge over all the people that got on late.
Speaker: So maybe that's how it is in recruiting too.
Speaker: Maybe there's a new social media that comes out.
Speaker: Maybe there's something new.
Speaker: You can go be the first person on that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And no one else is doing it.
Speaker: Then you're going to be crushing it in that.
Speaker: So yeah, I think it goes both ways.
Speaker: Looking at what people are doing in the past, having success with, and then,
Speaker: there's a new process or something, you know, new social media, something like that comes out, then experimenting with that.
Speaker: And maybe you're the first one that hits a big with something like that.
Speaker: And then you'll be the one teaching everyone how to do it and making the big bucks, selling your course and everything.
Speaker: That's my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So next question here.
Speaker: What, what problems in the way that people typically approach door or sales do you see people make?
Speaker: What, what mistakes and problems do they have that you see?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Door to ourselves.
Speaker: Um, I mean, we've trained hundreds and hundreds of solar reps here at our company.
Speaker: And I would say the number one problem is just lack of training, just lack of commitment to go out and train every day to role play.
Speaker: And anyone that's read like Grant Cardone's books, he talks about this a ton.
Speaker: I mean, you gotta be committed to go in and role play to go into train, um, to figure out what's going wrong.
Speaker: And it's something that if I didn't do, I know I, like I was saying in the beginning, I wasn't natural.
Speaker: So I had to go out and my first summer every night I was doing tons of drilling, tons of role playing.
Speaker: I would just go for like an hour, hour or two every night and I would go with the top guy.
Speaker: And I just say, okay, can we just role play, man?
Speaker: Just tell me what I'm saying wrong.
Speaker: Tell me what I'm doing wrong in my body language.
Speaker: Tell me what I'm doing wrong in my eye contact.
Speaker: We just drill it, drill it, drill it, drill it, drill it.
Speaker: And even doing all that, I mean, I still only hit 100 cells doing that.
Speaker: So if I hadn't have done that, I don't even think I would have made it through the summer.
Speaker: If I did, I probably would have got 50 cells.
Speaker: So that's the biggest thing I see.
Speaker: I mean, not everyone's going to be like the master cells guy.
Speaker: I'm not, you know, I'm top three in our company for sure, but I know I'm not.
Speaker: I know there's lots of people probably better at selling solar than me, but what I do is you just got to train every day.
Speaker: You got to be committed to training.
Speaker: You got to be training, committed to role-playing, figuring out what's going wrong and just executing on that strategy.
Speaker: Cause yeah, basically what I've been able to do is just study like crazy.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, you go to these conferences, these courses that help,
Speaker: you turn your commute time into a university.
Speaker: So I don't enjoy it without listening to podcasts, audible or some type of audio book.
Speaker: Um, so just doing all these things, I think that's what it is.
Speaker: And that's why I see people fell as they're just not committed to doing those little things and they just give up.
Speaker: So whatever it is you're trying to learn fits.
Speaker: You're trying to learn the door to door game.
Speaker: go out and find those top guys drill like crazy.
Speaker: And like I was saying, it helps a ton to be with a company where there are guys that are crushing it, that are doing really well.
Speaker: If you're in a company right now where the top guys not doing near what you'd want to be, then I think you've got to consider maybe moving to a company where guys are, you know, top level reps, it's got top level training.
Speaker: So it's going to be way easier to have success going into something like that versus a company that's not doing that great.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: doesn't have great training.
Speaker: So that's, that's the biggest mistake.
Speaker: I think just people not training enough, um, not willing to do what it takes to get to the level they want to be.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, next question I have for you here.
Speaker: Um, and then I have just a few rapid fire questions to just finish up here.
Speaker: Um, so like, what was it that made you look, cause we just, we discussed how you went to 10 X, uh, the 10 X conference, but what was it that changed your belief that you wanted to no longer be just a hundred percent only knocking doors?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think for me, it was just realizing that there's missed opportunities.
Speaker: I talked about people that wouldn't let me in the door, people that I couldn't even get to their door because there's a gate in front of it.
Speaker: So I just started realizing there's missed opportunities.
Speaker: And the second thing is, especially in solar, there's a lot of aspects of solar that you can't necessarily do on your own.
Speaker: So I realized I was missing a huge opportunity just by a lack of follow-up because I would go to these deals and then definitely wouldn't close all of them.
Speaker: I mean, you get people that wanted to think about it.
Speaker: You get people that's maybe their credit's bad at the time.
Speaker: So especially as I went to see Russell Brunson talk, talk about funnels and kind of online automation, things like that, like, and, you know, building teams, become an entrepreneur, like, man, I'm, I wonder how many opportunities I missed just by not mastering all those things.
Speaker: You got follow-up, you got the clothes, you got prospecting, you got all these things.
Speaker: And I'm one guy.
Speaker: So I, I,
Speaker: I mean, I was not doing very well on the follow up and a lot of different things.
Speaker: I was doing well on the prospecting and then I was doing okay on the closing parts, but yeah, huge lack of follow up.
Speaker: So what I learned is I just need to figure out this entrepreneur game and build a team.
Speaker: So what I've started to do is now I have a virtual assistant that actually helps me do a lot of these things.
Speaker: Also get referrals.
Speaker: That's another huge thing I was lacking.
Speaker: So I think it's important for, especially in solar, but whatever door-to-door industry you're in, I mean, just think of things that maybe you're not doing well on.
Speaker: Are you lacking in the follow-up?
Speaker: Are you lacking in getting referrals?
Speaker: And how could you use like online automation to help you with those things?
Speaker: So I started to hire, I hired a virtual assistant.
Speaker: She helps me out with a ton of those things now.
Speaker: And ever since I've been able to got help and also organization, talked about having a CRM or some way that you're going to organize all these leads.
Speaker: Cause it's huge.
Speaker: Um, if you can do that, what I have my assistant doing now is I'll close a deal and she'll send out, um, there's a service that's called send out cards.com, but it's basically a service where you can send out, um, gifts to customers, your prospects, things like that.
Speaker: It's all close a deal.
Speaker: And then I have it set up to where she goes in.
Speaker: She said,
Speaker: is out a gift to the client, ask for a referral, referrals right after that.
Speaker: She helps me out with that.
Speaker: She helps me organize the leads.
Speaker: She helps me out with follow-up and not, you know, you can only, you can only outsource so much too.
Speaker: So you gotta be careful with how much you do outsource.
Speaker: but it's just like figuring out what you can do.
Speaker: I saw all the things I was missing and I saw some of those that could be solved by click funnels that could be solved by online marketing, especially in a lot of recruiting things we were doing.
Speaker: And, um, yeah, I just figured out ways that we can automate a lot of those things.
Speaker: So I got send out cards in the past.
Speaker: I was spending hours and hours actually personally taking gifts to my customers.
Speaker: And it was great and they loved it, but it's like, um, all that, all those hours I spent taking them gifts.
Speaker: I mean, what if I could just automate that online?
Speaker: So that's when I discovered that service and now that's all instant.
Speaker: Now I don't have to spend hours.
Speaker: So the hours that I could have been closing other deals.
Speaker: Now I'm using those hours to go out and, you know, fill my funnel, go out and, um,
Speaker: fill my prospects.
Speaker: So I think that's what it is.
Speaker: Just recognizing things that maybe you lock on, seeing if you can automate it or outsource it.
Speaker: And then, yeah, don't be afraid to build a team.
Speaker: Cause I think, you know, any, any huge name, Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, Grant Cardone.
Speaker: I mean, you see what they post, you see what they do, but the reality is besides behind the scenes, the scenes, they have like a team of 50, a hundred people doing all these things.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So what can you do?
Speaker: What sort of team can you build to help you with anything I talked about?
Speaker: I got a guy running Facebook ads, got my assistant that's helping me with a lot of follow up.
Speaker: I'm helping you with a podcast.
Speaker: So I think that's where I started to realize it is just what can I outsource?
Speaker: What can I get help on?
Speaker: And then how can I use funnels to automate a lot of these things to help me get more prospects and clients?
Speaker: And that's kind of what we're trying to teach people.
Speaker: We've got our podcast and that's what it's all about is...
Speaker: figuring out how to help people build teams and just teaching solar cells to anybody to be entrepreneurs, not just focus on one thing.
Speaker: I mean, door knocking, that's one thing, but how can we teach people to be entrepreneurs and to learn all pieces of the game?
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I believe the door-to-door industry needs a lot more people like you who have gotten over the belief of the fear of, well, what would happen if I just start teaching people what I know?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so, uh, that's huge.
Speaker: So congrats on that because that's been able to help you, uh, go on to interview some big people and be able to start a podcast that has a following and be able to start making yourself an entrepreneur and not just a door to door salesman.
Speaker: And, uh,
Speaker: So your message and my message is very much aligned.
Speaker: And so thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
Speaker: Last question I have for you.
Speaker: What, what piece of advice would you give someone who's been in the door to door industry?
Speaker: for a while, but is brand new to digital marketing.
Speaker: I mean, you've already talked about a little bit of the team building and stuff like that, but what piece of advice do you think would be most beneficial for that kind of person?
Speaker: So I know I've talked a lot, talked about a couple of these things before, but number one, just going out and like I said, finding someone that's already doing that thing.
Speaker: But if you're brand new, I would say just first of all, picking up Russell Brunson's book.
Speaker: He's got expertsecrets.com secrets and might be tough to understand at first, but that's really, I think what opened my eyes to call that like the forbidden fruit of online marketing.
Speaker: because it opened my eyes to possibilities.
Speaker: My eyes were opened after that.
Speaker: So yeah, I think just starting out with that, go out and first of all, get those two books, just kind of consider the possibilities of what you could do if you had on, if you were using online marketing and then yeah, number two, just finding guys that are already doing stuff like that.
Speaker: So you got Jackson's podcasts, you got my podcast, which is solar printer podcast.
Speaker: um we're definitely applying these things in door-to-door um so go out and get coaching from guys like that and then yeah i mean just listen to podcasts just increase your knowledge of it and i think that's the biggest thing that helped me is just finding someone that's doing it and then just studying those things like crazy just become a student of marketing and
Speaker: think of ways you can kind of apply what you're learning to door to door or whatever industry you're in.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: Last question.
Speaker: Um, I wanted to, uh, wanted to just ask, like, what's, uh, what is your favorite book?
Speaker: Ooh, that's a tough one.
Speaker: Um, my favorite book, Harry, maybe, maybe,
Speaker: Yeah, so I guess that's kind of an interesting question.
Speaker: My book I like the most, but I would say it'll apply what we're doing.
Speaker: Put me on the spot, man.
Speaker: But honestly, I love Tim Ferriss' books, The 4-Hour Workweek.
Speaker: I thought it was awesome.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: He has this whole four hour everything.
Speaker: But, and yeah, Steve Larson, he talks about that a ton that that was kind of his gateway drug to online marketing.
Speaker: But yeah, four hour work week.
Speaker: I like, like a lot.
Speaker: And the reason I like it is because he talks a lot about outsourcing, which is what I were.
Speaker: So finding things that you don't like doing to outsource.
Speaker: And I thought that was super interesting because there's all these things that's,
Speaker: you know, you start to realize that there's things you're doing that might not be worth your time as much.
Speaker: Like how much time are you spending responding to emails?
Speaker: How much of what you're doing, you know, could potentially be passed on to someone else to do it.
Speaker: So yeah, I pay someone, my assistant, she's from the Philippines.
Speaker: Her name is Stella.
Speaker: I pay her 300 bucks a month and she saves me hours and hours in time.
Speaker: And it's like, yeah, so that's probably my
Speaker: I don't know, current favorites.
Speaker: Cause that kind of was another eye opener for me.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Cool, man.
Speaker: Well, you dropped some serious gold nuggets on our podcast today.
Speaker: Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker: Any last words that you want to leave with the audience here?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, definitely love to connect with anyone, part of your audience, Jackson.
Speaker: And so reach out to me.
Speaker: I'm on Facebook.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where can people find you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So just Taylor Armstrong on Facebook, Instagram, and trying to kind of up my social media game.
Speaker: But, uh, yeah, podcast we're posting weekly episodes, if not more.
Speaker: So that's the solarpreneur podcast.
Speaker: Um, love to hear people's thoughts on that.
Speaker: So then connect with us and yeah, just reaching out on Facebook.
Speaker: But yeah, I love to hear people's thoughts and, um,
Speaker: yeah that's about it but appreciate being on the show man and i'm excited for your podcast and where you're going doing great stuff and i'm glad we make the connection totally of course thank you taylor well thanks for coming on to the show today yep appreciate it we'll uh chat with everyone soon thanks again all righty thanks guys
Speaker: Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of DDD Success Secrets.
Speaker: If you're not subscribed already, be sure to do that right now.
Speaker: If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could do me a quick favor and rate and review the podcast.
Speaker: This lets the platforms know that I'm doing something right and that people like the content.
Speaker: It would be a huge help and I would be forever grateful.
Speaker: And be sure to head over to dddsuccesssecrets.com and pick up your free DDD Pro Series.
Speaker: This training video series is for training your own sales team on how they can start to auto recruit their own team in the future.
Speaker: It's stuff that your regional managers are probably never going to teach you.
Speaker: Until next time, my friends, peace out.
Speaker: Wow, what another value-packed episode of The Solarpreneur.
Speaker: Guys, if you couldn't tell, we spend a lot of time and energy to put these episodes out to hopefully give you just one strategy, one golden nugget that's going to launch your solar career to the next level.
Speaker: And we do it all for free.
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Speaker: so that we can help more solopreneurs like you to change the world.
Speaker: And as a gift for leaving us a review, we have a special training package exclusive for solopreneur listeners over at solopreneurs.com.
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Speaker: So take care of that now, and we'll see you on the next episode.
