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3 Things You Must Do When Starting New Area
148 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, solarpreneurs.
The Excitement of New Sales Areas
00:00:42
Speaker
Today we're going to be talking about the three things you must do when starting a new area.
00:00:47
Speaker
All of us, it's summer season.
00:00:50
Speaker
We are grinding.
00:00:52
Speaker
Depending on when you're listening to this, you're probably starting a new area or about to start a new area.
00:00:58
Speaker
So what should you do when you go start a new knocking turf?
00:01:03
Speaker
We'll talk about all that and much more.
00:01:05
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:06
Speaker
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.
00:01:13
Speaker
We are free and available on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you can find your podcasts.
00:01:19
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in every Tuesday and Friday.
00:01:22
Speaker
We are coming at you with fresh new content, helping you make money.
00:01:27
Speaker
I am, if you're seeing the video version of this, I am in Utah currently getting ready to go on a little camp, going down to Zion National Park, doing some hikes.
00:01:42
Speaker
So I am not going to be knocking doors this week.
00:01:45
Speaker
So hopefully you all can make some money while I am taking a little leave here.
00:01:49
Speaker
I'm going to be back at it on Saturday and enjoying a little rest, relaxation, a little recharge.
00:01:58
Speaker
And I'll probably share some footage with that.
00:02:01
Speaker
But I wanted to do this episode today because last week I did start a new area and was able to get a deal just the second door I knocked in that area.
00:02:12
Speaker
And I owe it to a few of these strategies that we're going to be talking about today.
00:02:17
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So hopefully you can take out your pen and paper.
00:02:19
Speaker
Let's get into the three things you must be doing when you start a new
Identifying High Potential Homes
00:02:24
Speaker
area.
00:02:24
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Okay, so here's the first one.
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Speaker
Okay, you're pulling up maybe your company, maybe manager assigns area.
00:02:30
Speaker
However you figure out where you're going to go knock.
00:02:33
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The first thing you should be doing is marking off all the homes with pools,
00:02:40
Speaker
south-facing roofs.
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You should, if possible, figure out which ones have the electric vehicles, Teslas, new move-ins.
00:02:50
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If they have solar already, you should take a look at that.
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Maybe they don't have a ton of panels up there.
00:02:55
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Maybe you could do an add-on system with those.
00:02:58
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So this is the first thing I do when I start a new area is you go to whatever knocking app you're using.
00:03:04
Speaker
And you all know that's
00:03:05
Speaker
the easiest one to do this with currently, and thank you to our sponsor as well, is SolarScout because they have up-to-date knocking pictures.
00:03:14
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They have literally pictures from within a couple weeks last I checked.
00:03:19
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By pictures, I mean the satellite images of the homes.
00:03:21
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And particularly for me, it's
00:03:23
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very useful because I'm in San Diego where so many homes have solar already.
00:03:27
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And so it's just super useful to go and check off all the homes, see which ones.
00:03:32
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Maybe they only have eight panels up there, but it's a huge house.
00:03:36
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Those ones I'm definitely marking to do a potential add-on system.
00:03:39
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And then again, just seeing which ones have pools and potential higher users.
00:03:45
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This is the very first thing I'm doing.
00:03:47
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And also SolarScout, they have all the pins in there, you can see which ones are new move ins.
00:03:52
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If you're not using an app like SolarScout, you can also just go to Zillow or Redfin.
00:03:57
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This will show you all the new move ins, but just gives you a nice place to start and go those are the ones you could potentially start knocking at first.
00:04:04
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Make sure you stay till the end of this because the third secret I'm going to share is the one that's got me a deal and an extra eight grand next week just by doing this third thing alone.
00:04:16
Speaker
So stay till the end.
Demographic Tailoring Strategies
00:04:18
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Hey, but step number two,
00:04:20
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is just, if possible, learn as much as you can about the area you are knocking.
00:04:25
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Maybe it's a new town.
00:04:26
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Maybe it's a new city.
00:04:28
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Maybe it's just a place far away that you haven't been to.
00:04:32
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You can use sites like, I think it's citydata.com.
00:04:36
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You can go find the demographics of an area.
00:04:40
Speaker
Another cool feature, if you happen to use SolarScout,
00:04:43
Speaker
is you can look up the Spanish speakers.
00:04:46
Speaker
I don't think it shows you the demographics, but you can look up the Spanish speakers for the area.
00:04:51
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And then you can also go on some of these other websites and learn what is the ethnicity of this area.
00:04:58
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Because I believe that that's going to influence how you sell.
00:05:01
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Right.
00:05:03
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You know, depending on ethnicity, depending on what their culture is, may have to say, sell a little bit different, approach it a little bit different, build more rapport.
00:05:14
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So just know what type of demographics, also income, are they white collar or are they blue collar?
00:05:19
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Right.
00:05:21
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blue collar, more your working class, white collar, they may be more potential to shop around, get more quotes, more professionals.
00:05:31
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So just know that, know the differences and know anything about the area.
00:05:36
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Maybe you're not getting in an area where they are, I don't know, they built a new power plant.
00:05:42
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I remember when I was in certain areas of Texas when we were blitzing,
00:05:48
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Some areas you could point to like very specific things, new subdivisions going in.
00:05:53
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You know, I've got coaching clients in Nevada right now, in Reno.
00:05:57
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I know their big thing is a lot of people are moving from California, from other states, tons of new construction.
00:06:04
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And what does that do to prices?
00:06:05
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It drives them up, including electricity.
00:06:07
Speaker
So just know about the local circumstances of whatever neighborhood you're knocking, whatever area, and use that to your advantage.
00:06:13
Speaker
Okay, so that's step number two.
00:06:16
Speaker
Things like hot buttons, yeah, new construction, swapping out the wooden poles for metal ones, just anything you can use as fuel, right?
00:06:27
Speaker
So that's step number
Building Credibility with Testimonials
00:06:28
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two.
00:06:28
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Hey, and then last but not least, and here's the big one.
00:06:31
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Hey, this is so valuable.
00:06:35
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And this is the thing that...
00:06:37
Speaker
got me a deal the second door I knocked in this new area.
00:06:39
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Okay.
00:06:40
Speaker
So if you follow me on social media, you saw I actually did a little post about this already.
00:06:45
Speaker
But just to go a little more in depth is if you can talk to someone that already has solar, that's happy about it and get a little video testimonial with them, it is such a game changer.
00:06:56
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Okay.
00:06:57
Speaker
So for me, I started in this area last week
00:07:00
Speaker
And this specific area, surprisingly enough, it was they were kind of townhome type things.
00:07:06
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So in this entire subdivision, this entire HOA, there was only like two or three homes with solar, which is very rare in San Diego area.
00:07:15
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So I knew I'm like, OK, and my objection objection that's going to come up here is people think that they can't go solar and
00:07:23
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There's not enough social proof, not many people have done it.
00:07:25
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So I need to get just like social proof that solar works in this neighborhood that has been done.
00:07:31
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door to door sales team here in San Diego.
00:07:36
Speaker
And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
00:07:43
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:07:47
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Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
00:07:50
Speaker
But it's not a door knocking app.
00:07:52
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:07:56
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It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
00:08:06
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It's been working for a lot of teams across the country, and now I'm on board too.
00:08:10
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I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up.
00:08:15
Speaker
But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal.
00:08:20
Speaker
And they did.
00:08:21
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So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
00:08:30
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:08:34
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
00:08:36
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And so what I did is I'd go straight to the one that has the solar.
00:08:41
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There's two or three people.
00:08:43
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I go directly to one.
00:08:44
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I ask her what her experience is.
00:08:46
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Just come at it with like a service mindset.
00:08:49
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Hey, are you enjoying the solar?
00:08:50
Speaker
Has it been working well?
00:08:51
Speaker
How long have you had it?
00:08:52
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How long did the HOA take to approve it?
00:08:54
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All those types of questions.
00:08:55
Speaker
Just do a little check in.
00:08:57
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And then I told her about the referral program we do.
00:09:00
Speaker
okay i asked her if she's okay with us using her as a reference home because not too many people have solar in the neighborhood and it took some convincing she was an older lady but the the thing that works well for me is i just said hey um we are we're having inquiries hour we're meeting with a few people but a lot of neighbors are concerned that they're not allowed to go solar because obviously there's not too much solar here yet
00:09:26
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So we have a reference program where if we're able to use just you as a point of reference, we won't give any of your personal info, but just so we can like mention your name and address, then we would give you 50 bucks.
00:09:41
Speaker
If anyone takes advantage of going solar.
00:09:44
Speaker
And she actually took some more convincing.
00:09:47
Speaker
She was an older lady and she started actually like going back and forth.
00:09:51
Speaker
So she, she got me to a hundred.
00:09:53
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Okay.
00:09:54
Speaker
I'm like,
00:09:55
Speaker
She's like, oh, I don't know.
00:09:56
Speaker
That's not really worth it.
00:09:58
Speaker
What more can you offer me?
00:09:59
Speaker
And I'm like, let me check.
00:10:01
Speaker
Let me see if we have any additional incentives.
00:10:04
Speaker
Did the whole check on my phone.
00:10:06
Speaker
And I'm like, all right, we'll do 100, which I'm going to pay her out if anyone goes solar from the video we took.
00:10:14
Speaker
So she agreed to it after that.
00:10:16
Speaker
And I said, great.
00:10:17
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:17
Speaker
So part of it is we just get a quick little video with you.
00:10:20
Speaker
And that just helps us spread the awareness that, hey, solar does work here.
00:10:24
Speaker
So it's not a big deal.
00:10:25
Speaker
And then I pull up some examples, like, you know, in other areas, videos that we've done.
00:10:29
Speaker
If you follow me on social media, you see that I typically will get either a photo of or a video with my customers.
00:10:36
Speaker
Right.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I'm not just doing this for social media.
00:10:38
Speaker
It actually is very useful in the home.
00:10:41
Speaker
showing you the social proof, just having a whole folder of all those videos and photos saved.
00:10:46
Speaker
So I pull out the phone, show her that, hey, we've done this before and just say, hey, it's quick.
00:10:52
Speaker
I just asked you a couple of questions, get her on video.
00:10:54
Speaker
And then the very next door, I go to it, I drop that neighbor's name.
00:10:59
Speaker
I pull up the video.
00:11:00
Speaker
Did she tell you what we were doing out here?
00:11:02
Speaker
And instantly, I see the guard go down of this lady, set the appointment for the next day, and bada bing, bada boom, closed her up.
00:11:13
Speaker
And it was 100% I would not have gotten that deal if I did not go to this person.
00:11:19
Speaker
get a video first and use it as fuel, use it as ammo for the next neighbor.
00:11:24
Speaker
So trust me, this is probably the most powerful thing you can do.
00:11:30
Speaker
Just go to someone, especially for those that aren't in areas like San Diego, where a lot of people don't have solar.
00:11:35
Speaker
If you are getting that objection, oh, I want to wait till more people do it.
00:11:39
Speaker
I don't really, I don't think we can go solar.
00:11:41
Speaker
I don't see anyone have it out here.
00:11:43
Speaker
If you are in areas like that,
00:11:45
Speaker
Wherever you're selling, make sure even more important, go to those people that have the panels, ask their experience, and ask to use them as references, as points of reference.
00:11:56
Speaker
And then even bonus points if you can figure out where the most influential people in the neighborhood are.
00:12:02
Speaker
I don't know if I actually did this with this lady, but I think even better...
00:12:07
Speaker
I could have asked this lady, hey, is there anyone that everyone knows that's really popular in the neighborhood that everybody knows?
00:12:16
Speaker
And common career people are like firefighters, school principals, police officers, people like that, that have a high level of trust.
00:12:26
Speaker
And even better, if a lot of people know them in the neighborhoods, they can be considered kind of mayors of the neighborhood.
00:12:32
Speaker
If you can get in touch with those people and do this same strategy,
00:12:37
Speaker
Even better if they have panels on their house, it's game over.
00:12:41
Speaker
You're going to make your life so much easier.
00:12:43
Speaker
So try this strategy out.
Recap of Key Strategies
00:12:45
Speaker
Hey, would love to see, shoot a video with the next people.
00:12:48
Speaker
And I got this from, I think the first person I saw start doing this was Taylor McCarthy, actually.
00:12:53
Speaker
So shout out to Taylor McCarthy.
00:12:54
Speaker
If you follow him on YouTube, you'll actually see him just sometimes go get random videos with him.
00:13:00
Speaker
you know, strangers in the neighborhood that aren't even as customers.
00:13:03
Speaker
Okay, but it works.
00:13:04
Speaker
All right.
00:13:04
Speaker
So try this strategy out.
00:13:06
Speaker
Would love it if you go get a video, tag me, Facebook, Instagram, and let's just use the tools we have at our disposal to, you know, build that credibility.
00:13:18
Speaker
It makes all our lives much easier if people believe in solar and if they have a good experience.
00:13:24
Speaker
Hey, so those are the three secrets.
00:13:25
Speaker
Just to review them one more time.
00:13:27
Speaker
Number one, mark off all the homes with pools, south-facing roofs, electric vehicles.
00:13:33
Speaker
Number two, just learn as much as you can about the new area, demographics, ethnicity, local circumstances.
00:13:41
Speaker
And number three, go to the people that have the sorority.
00:13:44
Speaker
See if you can get a video or use them as a reference home.
00:13:50
Speaker
And make sure you actually pay them out.
00:13:51
Speaker
If you say you're going to pay them some money, if someone goes slower, make sure you pay them out.
Upcoming Guest Appearance and Team Invitation
00:13:57
Speaker
So yeah, that's it.
00:13:58
Speaker
Hope you guys try it.
00:14:00
Speaker
Hope you got something from this episode to go make you some money this week.
00:14:04
Speaker
And next episode, just to give a preview, I was fortunate to be featured on Brad Mortensen's podcast, founder of RepCard.
00:14:15
Speaker
He has a great podcast.
00:14:16
Speaker
It's all about...
00:14:19
Speaker
Okay, I'm blanking on the name, but the podcast is... I'll pull it up right now.
00:14:24
Speaker
It's called Rookie on Fire.
00:14:27
Speaker
So he goes through basically people what they wish they would have done different in their rookie year.
00:14:35
Speaker
So great podcast, even if you're not a rookie.
00:14:38
Speaker
Great podcast just to hear what people would have done different if they could go back to their first year selling.
00:14:44
Speaker
So go check out his podcast.
00:14:46
Speaker
And next podcast, I'm going to actually drop the interview that I was featured on so you can hear that and hopefully get some takeaways from that.
00:14:54
Speaker
So stay tuned.
00:14:55
Speaker
We got a lot of exciting guests coming up.
00:14:57
Speaker
Thank you for being a listener of the podcast.
00:15:00
Speaker
And remember, check out our sponsors.
00:15:01
Speaker
And if you are looking for an opportunity in solar, or if you're on a team that's not cranking right now, hit me up, shoot me a DM.
00:15:11
Speaker
We have applications open to join our team.
00:15:14
Speaker
A few setter and a few closer positions open.
00:15:18
Speaker
Hit me up.
00:15:18
Speaker
Would love to have you out here on the top solar sales team in America here in San Diego, California.
00:15:24
Speaker
So hit me up and hope you sell lots.
00:15:26
Speaker
We'll see you on the next one.
00:15:29
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:15:30
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:15:32
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.
00:15:42
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:15:49
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:15:52
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:15:57
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 Solopreneur.
00:16:10
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:16:19
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:16:21
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:16:24
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:16:29
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:16:32
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:16:34
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:16:36
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:16:41
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:16:42
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.