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How To Have More Success In Solar Than You Ever Dreamed Of
0 Playsin 48 minutes
A few weeks back, I got invited by Jon Soriano in the Valor Impact Podcast to talk about my story and how I achieved growth in solar. Continuing to produce in solar is always motivated by our own personal goals, and the endless possibilities we could provide for ourselves in the industry.
This old but valuable episode teaches us how to evaluate how well we use our time by conducting a "time study" on our daily routine. It's important to keep an eye on our limited hours on the doors; spending them wisely guarantees better results.
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Transcript
Introduction to the podcast collaboration
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs, wanted to introduce this episode real quick. This is taken from a podcast I had the opportunity to be on called the Valor Impact Podcast. We will link to the show, but a great solar specific podcast.
00:00:15
Speaker
If you want to check it out, we went through a ton of topics, how do you close more deals than you can ever dream of, how to balance your time in solar. So hope you enjoy today's podcast.
Taylor Armstrong's journey to success
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong. 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 fell.
00:00:47
Speaker
I teach you 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.
00:00:59
Speaker
What is a solarpreneur? You might ask a solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery. And you are about to become one. Taylor Armstrong, otherwise known as the solarpreneur, uh, Taylor right now, he currently actually has the largest podcast in the solar space. Uh, he has the most downloads and any other podcasts in the solar industry right now. He's recognized as uh, as a, as a great voice in our space. Um, He's also been in solar over a decade, Dorado as a whole in ah for 13 years. He's a husband. He's a father. He has over 600 career installs. ah He's a builder of people, builder of teams. And so, Taylor, such an honor have you here. Thank you. Yeah, I was telling you, it's been my dream to come on the podcast. Been waiting for it. And I always thought it because, you know, you're like, oh, conflict of interest. He's got a podcast. We can't.
00:01:50
Speaker
No, we're doing it. We're doing the Solopreneur Valor Impact Podcast Collab. Come on, let's go. I mean, honestly, your your podcast, you know, the whole reason we call it the Valor Impact Podcast, because it's just we want to make an impact. But you are somebody that has made a tremendous impact in the solar space. I know that I'm sure many people hit you up saying, Taylor, or man, the podcast you did with this person or something you said on this podcast, they like changed their sales game. It maybe helped them. They wanted to quit, but they kept going. And so I know you're someone that has made a huge impact in this space. And so i want to honor you for that.
00:02:23
Speaker
Thank you. But tell us
Early sales experiences and transition to solar
00:02:24
Speaker
about you. Tell us about your background. Tell the viewers that maybe don't know you, just your background, ah how you got into solar, even what inspired you to start the podcast, yeah you know, and how you've been consistent all these years. But just give us a quick kind of background story on you. Yeah, for sure. um Yeah. I mean, everyone's anyone that's seen my podcast has probably heard the story many times.
00:02:41
Speaker
So apologize if it's like the 20th time hearing it. But um yeah, i grew up in a small town in southern Utah. I did door to door in pest control. The first did a summer of that. Then I did a two year church mission. I did another summer pest control. And for me, originally, the reason I got into doorto door to was because i don't know if I've told this part as many times, but I struggled just with like I was a super shy kid. i hated talking to people.
00:03:06
Speaker
But I knew I wanted to go on this church mission where I would have to be talking to everybody and talking about God and all that. So I'm like, OK, well, if I'm doing this and I'm like terrified to talk to strangers right now, I need to do something out of my comfort zone and figure out how to kind of break out of the shell. So that's when I first heard, you know, you get the pest control recruiters going to the campus, giving you free pizza. And I was just super broke. I would do anything for some food because I was a musician. even have time for like a good job on campus.
00:03:34
Speaker
So like, sweet, I'll go get some free pizza and hear about this opportunity. And then they're just talking all the numbers. so They got you. They got you a pizza. Yeah. So anyone that knows me, I'm a sucker for free food. $10 investment went a long way for them. Yeah.
00:03:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i was so broke. My buddies made fun of me, but we would go to places um and I had so little money. I would donate plasma just to like buy my next meals. And of course, my parents would have to help here and there when I was going to school. But we would go on like school trips and I had so little money that out I would take like people people's leftover food so don't have to like buy my own food. wow You know, trips like that.
00:04:11
Speaker
But anyways, yeah, no, I just got into it from that. And it was pest control. Pest control. That was the pizza for pest control. Okay. And then I did a summer that. went on the church mission, went and did another summer after, helped a buddy kind of start his company. And that didn't go super well. And so after this second summer, when I was back from my mission, i had a buddy that i had done the mission with that. um He went and did solar for the summer. He was thinking of pest control. He ended up doing solar. And then we compared just like our bank accounts and how much we made over the summer. And he had made like three times as much as I did in the summer doing solar. And then on top of that, I asked him how much he was knocking because in pest control, you know, it's a grind. You're out there from like 9 a.m. m to 9 p.m. every day. And so I asked him and he's like, oh, we're probably knocking.
00:04:57
Speaker
you know, maybe like five hours a day and then we're in appointments and stuff like that. And I'm like, you're telling me you made this much money and you didn't even have to knock 12 hours a day. It's like, no, half the time I was like in AC and houses, just telling people about solar.
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm like, bro, are you kidding me? So I'm like, okay, hi you got me. I'll go try it. And then, uh, went out and tried it. And yeah, just saw the lifestyle. sixteen Yeah. Right. 16. Yeah. Yep. So came out in China and San Diego.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah. We were up in a lake in the empire first, but you've been California all your nine years. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. Yeah. I love, man, it's funny because you hear so many people say this market's tapped out. California is hard, but yet you're someone that's been consistently in this market for nine years, you know, and some people they're like, oh no, don't want to sell anymore. I'm going to go to, know, harder markets. But really this, this market is the one where you solve the biggest problem.
00:05:48
Speaker
People have a huge need. And also like it's a proven concept. right like You don't have to worry about people being like, I don't believe solar because they see it on multiple homes. yeah Props to you for your for your consistency. what What would you say has helped you be so consistent? Because I'm sure there were many times where you could have quit.
00:06:03
Speaker
There were many times where you could have maybe gone back to best control or taken another sales job. What has allowed you to stay planted in one market for nine years? Yeah, well, i would just say really for me, it's kind of the only option. Like I came out here from Utah. I have no connections
Commitment to solar and introduction of SolarScout
00:06:17
Speaker
out here. I have no family. And so we have kids now. We have a house, all that.
00:06:22
Speaker
and So especially now, it's like I got no other option. So when you're forced to do something, a mortgage that's the only option. Yeah. So anyone go make yourself broke again, right? Go buy a house and then you're forced to work hard. So that's been a big thing. And it's just i like I was telling you earlier, i came from, I was a musician. That's why I wanted to be going to college and everything and going to school.
00:06:41
Speaker
And I think back to that, I was just, we were practicing like three, four hours a day. i was playing percussion and my dream was to become like a college music professor. People, they're fighting. You got 50 people fighting for one job out in the middle of Iowa or whatever. And then they're going to make like, you know, maybe 40, 50 grand in a year being a college professor. So I just think back and I'm like, OK, the alternative, I can either show up for myself, show up for my family where I can go take like another job where, you know, they tell me clock in, clock out and I make what they tell me I'm going to make. And so every time I'm facing, don't know, demotivation or not wanting to work, not wanting to be consistent, I just think back to that. I'm like, okay, well, I really am super blessed to be out here, like living in one of the best cities on the planet, the weather, and I get to choose my own schedule. So I can either be consistent, show up, or I can face the alternative. And that's, you know, go back and take whatever other job. Because really, you think about it, the money we make in solar, even if you're a pretty mediocre solar solar guy, you're still going to be making more than yeah you've vast like or pretty much any other job. In San Diego, yeah. Yeah. So I mean, a of people would do a lot for just to make 100 grand.
00:07:48
Speaker
I know. Solar, if you just install what, two accounts a month? Yeah. Maybe even one. Yeah. You know, in this market, you can make six figures. Now, what what what inspired you to start the podcast? Like how long ago did you do that? And what was the inspiration behind it Yeah, I think I started that and I think it was like end 2018.
00:08:04
Speaker
And I always had the idea because I'm the type of person that I love. Like if you get me into something, then um I'm going to do everything. I'm going to like buy courses. I'm going to like go watch YouTube videos. We have these, you know, we have the rock, paper, scissors competition and that we do at our correlation sometimes. So that yesterday I lost the rock, paper, scissors competition. I'm like, I'm like, so annoying. I never win this freaking game. You zero one I think I got like second one time, but now I won. Yeah. Second was the closest I ever got in.
00:08:32
Speaker
but So I'm like, you know what? So yesterday I was like, I was like so frustrated. I'm like, chat GPT. Like, how can I win rock, paper, scissors? I'm like sick of like. There is actually a small strategy. There actually is. I've heard about it, but anyways. And so like i don't know. That's just like how I've been like, cause I'm not a person that's naturally good at things. I feel that i have to work harder than an average person to be like decent at something.
00:08:52
Speaker
So that's just how I was in solar too. I was never the best guy. I was never a top performer, but I was a guy that I want to like learn as much as I can to try to become, improve myself, be better. So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
00:09:07
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. But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:09:18
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called SolarScout. 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. 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 given neighborhood.
00:09:37
Speaker
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 SolarScout in San Diego, so I decided to partner up. But I told them, hey, I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show. you need to give my listeners a great deal. And they did.
00:09:52
Speaker
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. That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:10:04
Speaker
Okay, back to the show. And felt like that's been one of like my superpowers, I guess, is even though i'm not naturally good at things, i'm I'm extremely motivated to learn, to like improve. And so i think that was the motivation for the podcast. I'm just like, there's not, I hear people doing big numbers. The company was with at the time, we had some, you know, decent people, but none nobody that was like doing insane numbers.
00:10:27
Speaker
So like, man, I want to like be able to connect with people from these other companies that I hear are doing really big numbers. And i don't know if you knew this, but my first guest was ah Ashton actually. Yeah, he, yeah he had turned me down. had, I had invited him. I'm like, Hey, can I take you out to lunch dinner and just like pick your brain? so I was there is it actually, was that our old, old office? Yeah.
00:10:46
Speaker
I actually remember that. Cause I was there. Yeah. that's what i made That was your first episode. I had no idea. Yeah. i One of the first I'm done. Maybe that was the second time you had him on. Cause I think that was like 20, maybe that was 2021 actually. Cause if you're saying you start in 2018, yeah, it would, it would have been, ah that would have been like the second time you had him on. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, so he was one of my first guests because he turned me down like, he's like, oh, no, I don't have time. you know, he shut me down.
00:11:09
Speaker
But then I was like, well, what if I approach him in the form of like a podcast? Say, hey, I know you're a busy guy, but if we we can feature you on this podcast. It's going to go out to the whole industry. And then I approached it from that angle. And sure enough, he's like, OK, we can do that. wow And so I'm like, hey.
00:11:23
Speaker
Talk about a lesson in value proposition, right? When people tell you no they're not really saying no. They're just saying that you haven't brought me enough value. Yeah, exactly. The moment you're like, oh, pocket that was value. but Same conversation, same questions. What what changed? Just the value proposition. That's crazy. That's awesome. Yeah. So, Yeah, from there, I just, and I got a lot of value from that.
Podcasting reach and consistency in success
00:11:41
Speaker
I'm like, wow, okay, this is kind of cool. And people started to recognize it. There wasn't really anything like that at the time when I first started. think that's part of why Ashton shut me down. Because at that time, like 2018, people were pretty guard like guarded. They didn't want to share their outside of their company. They're like, ah we're going to keep what we do within our company. right I think my podcast was kind of the first one that, you know, started reaching out to people and people started sharing more. What's your reach now? I would say it has gone down from what it was, you know, back when solar in any M2 and all that we're getting more, but I would say I'm averaging, you know, 10 to 10 to 12,000 downloads views. whatever you out yeah What do you want to call it? that's a lot well So yeah, I mean for considering the audience of solar, I'm like, okay. Yeah. One thing love your story, Taylor is I just, I see a a a principle of being consistent.
00:12:29
Speaker
You know, i love you said something. You're like, Hey, i wasn't the best at it, but I just went and worked hard. I work harder. Yeah. And I think people sometimes like that's such an underrated skill set. People sometimes think like, oh, well, I'm not good. So now i'm not going to do it. It's like, no, no, no. What you lack in skill, makeup and work ethics. right And then what happens is over time you get better.
00:12:46
Speaker
And then now maybe you do have to work a little bit less to generate the same results. Right. Obviously, the man you are today, you have to work less to make the income that you make today, where maybe four years ago you had to work twice as hard to make the income you make today. And so I wish more people understood that. And and that that is one thing I've admired just working with you the last two or so years is you're very consistent.
00:13:04
Speaker
Like I found out a few weeks ago, we were hanging out with your wife and your wife's like, Taylor has not taken a Saturday off. And know if that's factual, but to her it was factual. to her she's like i have not seen my husband in a saturday in years yeah and then that hit me though i was like are you for real like he hasn't taken a single saturday off she's like no he hasn't and then but i was like that's so like in some ways i'm kind of like taylor hang with your family sometimes on saturday but also in other ways is i was like very wild and very i was like that's crazy that he's been so consistent on Saturdays that to you, you probably wake up on Saturdays, you don't even think about it anymore. Like to you, it's not even a question.
00:13:40
Speaker
To you, it's so ingrained in you that you're like nope, Saturdays, I just go and knock for a few hours, right? And so like, talk us through that. Like, ah tell us more on that whole like, hey, I wasn't the best at it, but I went and worked hard. Like, what were some principles you followed that have allowed you to be very, very consistent? Like maybe even on the on the Saturday piece, like what do you do or what have you done to be like, nope, Saturday, every every single Saturday, that's work, work, work, work. Yeah, well, and first of all, I think she partly says that because she's trying to like get me in trouble and have you be like, hey, tell to take some time off. you know Because I've definitely taken some Saturdays off. But but anytime and and in town, if I'm in town, then yeah. He's taken like five Saturdays off in 10 years, guys. And that to him, that's some Saturdays. Yeah, yeah. but That should be enough, Natalie. Five Saturdays and and one one Saturday every Tuesday. Yeah.
00:14:25
Speaker
yeah Yeah. If I'm out of town, you know, I'm not working. But ah no, I think just so you're asking like what principle or what's what's like. Yeah. like what What have you done to be so consistent all these years? OK, that's that's what i hear about. It's just like your kind of formula hasn't been anything elaborate or crazy. It's just been like, no, I've just been very consistent and a few things. You know, I've worked the hours I've worked from, you know I always maximize prime time and maximize Saturdays, probably holidays. Right. Yeah.
00:14:51
Speaker
You know, maybe you stay. plant You've also stayed planted in one area. yeah we've seen this and We see so often in this industry, people just go from area, area, area, thinking that the next area is a gold mine without realizing that no, the gold mine is actually in working your area. and So you've done these things, whether you realize them or not, that yeah have gotten you the success you have. So like what are just some of those things from your perspective?
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, I would just say not focus as much on the time as because especially doing this now coming on 10 years, it's like if I think oh I need have to go knock like seven, eight hours day after day after day, then yeah I can be kind of like daunting at this point. I wouldn't say I've necessarily been the hardest worker every time, but I have been consistent just in the fact that I hit the numbers I need to.
00:15:32
Speaker
So it just goes back to I think most door knockers know the principle of putting in the input, knowing your ratios, how many homeowners you need to talk to, how many appointments you need to get. And so I would say more than just being the hardest worker. Yeah, it's like hard, hard work, but also knowing the numbers like that.
00:15:47
Speaker
So when I go out in the area, instead of thinking, oh, I got to be out here for the next six hours or whatever, I just think, OK, I'm going to go out and have 10 conversations or whatever number I know I need to hit for that day. And, you know, we have the whole little tally app. I'll just be checking it off. So I make it more a game of, OK, I'm going to talk to this amount of people. And I'll some days where like if I'm not feeling it, then I'm like, OK, well, I'm just going to go at least talk to this amount of people.
00:16:08
Speaker
It's that I know you've probably heard guys like Michael O'Donnell talk about this, just the whole mini habits thing. Where if you don't feel like working out, at least go show up to the gym and do one pushup. And then chances are, you're probably going to more than one pushup if you put in the effort. So I just remember the same thing. I'm like committing to just say, I'm going talk to one person.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah. But then after you talk to that one person, you're like, I'm going to go do another one. I'm already out here. Might as well do another one. So yeah, even on days where I feel like it's the last thing I want to do is be out here knocking. I'm like, okay, well, I had made the commitment. I know i didn't need at least talk to this many homeowners. I'll go hit that number, even if it's say six homeowners or whatever on a day where I'm just like, a if I hit the sixth, then chances are going to do at least a few more. uh, if I'm really not feeling it, then at least I know I hit the six.
00:16:52
Speaker
I'll usually have booked at least one appointment by then. Yeah. And then it's like, okay, you know, some days it's just going to be whatever, but at least do the minimum output where you know you're going to get get the results that you need. yeah So that's how I've treated it is um just like kind of like a marathon.
00:17:09
Speaker
There's going be times where you're sprinting, but in order to win the marathon, just keep doing those little things day after day after day. And, you know, it's like the podcast too. There's times all the, there's days where I feel like I don't want to do a podcast at all, but you know, I pay like editors. I have like my assistants to go and edit it and they'll be constantly hitting me up. Hey, do you have the podcast for tomorrow?
00:17:28
Speaker
And I'll get home 10 o'clock at night and be like, oh my gosh, they're bugging me about a podcast for tomorrow. All right, guess I got to record it. So there's be times where I'm like recording something at midnight just because I got them bugging me. I know I got like give them the next podcast. So I think that goes, you know, the principle in that too is just, um, I think it's valuable to have people you're mentoring people, you're training that you got to show up for. Cause if you're going out with someone to an area, if you got people on your team, there's guys that are like, Oh, I don't want to be a leader. i just want to out and produce. But if you're leading someone and if you need to show up for them, then it's like more, much more likely you're going to show up because you can't leave your guys hanging out.
00:18:04
Speaker
I mean, I even love that example with your editors in a way you you feel accountable to them where you're like, I don't want to let them down. You know, especially if I said I was going to do something right. Like, hey, you're like, let my word be my word. Yeah, I love that. And, you know, would you say that do you experience burnout from time to time?
00:18:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, not like I wouldn't say like burnout where um I want to get out of solar or whatever. How how does Taylor Armstrong recharge? Like what? What do you what have you done over the years to kind of keep yourself fresh? Right. And kind of keep that ax sharp. Yeah, because I'm sure after I'm sure after a while you maybe start to feel dull and especially nine years and solar, you can kind of like it's very repetitive. And, you know, so how how do you keep yourself sharp?
00:18:45
Speaker
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00:19:19
Speaker
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