Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Speaker: What's going on solopreneurs?
Speaker: Taylor Armstrong here with another episode.
Speaker: Today we're talking about how to create your sales identity and why it's so important.
Speaker: All that and much more coming up in today's episode.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong and as usual we're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals.
Speaker: and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Hope you're doing well.
Speaker: Hope you're crushing it this summer.
Speaker: Taking advantage of the long summer days.
Speaker: I know it's so much easier to catch people home when you can go there at nine o'clock at night.
Speaker: It's still light outside.
Speaker: Take advantage of it.
Speaker: Close a lot of deals and hope you crush it this summer.
Speaker: So today, this is actually the second run through of this episode.
Speaker: I forgot to turn my mic on the first time, so hopefully this goes even better now that I've had a little practice run of this.
Speaker: But before we jump into the episode, just wanted to thank everyone that has checked out SoulCity so far.
Speaker: This episode is brought to you by SoulCity.
Speaker: And if you don't know what that is, that is our sales training platform.
Speaker: It's where you can connect with other solar pros, get live feedback, and
Speaker: and responses on your pitches and presentations and get training from the best in the business.
Speaker: So if you haven't checked that out, go run over to soulcide.co and you can check out what Soulcide has to offer you today.
Speaker: And let's jump into the content today.
Speaker: We're going to be talking about your sales identity.
Speaker: And I think this is one of the most important topics we could discuss because really more than anything else, your sales identity is what shapes your career.
Speaker: And the reason we're talking about this today, I recently am reading a book, would highly recommend it.
Speaker: It is called The Power of One More.
Speaker: It's by my good friend,
Speaker: Okay, he's not my good friend, but hopefully he'll be my good friend one day.
Speaker: But my man, Ed Milet.
Speaker: Okay, the guy is a legend.
Speaker: Hopefully you all are following him.
Speaker: If you haven't already, go check out his book, The Power of One More.
Speaker: And that is actually the inspiration behind today's episode.
Speaker: And you can read the whole book, but just the idea behind this book is that The Power of One More...
Speaker: us doing one more of something can literally change our lives.
Speaker: And Ed Milet talks about how his dad was an alcoholic, basically said he's going to quit alcohol one more time, ended up doing, changed his life.
Speaker: And that's just been a huge factor in everything he does, is just doing something one more time, change the course of his life.
Speaker: And so the first chapter of his book is
Speaker: It's called One More Identity.
Speaker: And as I was reading this, I'm like, man, this is so powerful.
Speaker: I need to share it with my friends here on the podcast because I relate so much with it.
Speaker: And if any of you have been in sales, you probably know that you've had to change your identity.
Speaker: If you've had any success, you've had to change yourself from maybe a low producer to a high producer, whatever you thought.
Speaker: you had to change your identity around it.
Speaker: And first, I think it's important to really kind of define what the identity is.
Speaker: And Ed Milad does this too.
Speaker: He says, what we perceive about ourselves is what we believe about ourselves.
Speaker: And so that applies specifically to sales so much because basically the result that we perceive is what's going to happen, whether it's in closing deals or whether it's you thinking you're a high producer versus a low producer.
Speaker: Whether it's you thinking you can close X amount of deals in a month, probably what's going to happen.
Speaker: And I know that's happened to me over and over in my life.
Speaker: And I've shared these stories before, but I grew up in a home, had great parents, dad's a dentist, had a great upbringing.
Speaker: But I grew up super chubby.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I grew up super shy.
Speaker: And what kind of fed those thoughts was that I was literally introduced as a chubby, shy kid.
Speaker: My parents would introduce me as, they wouldn't say I'm chubby, but I would get introduced as a shy kid.
Speaker: And then my mom, and you know, no offense to her if she's listening, great mom, but friends would come over.
Speaker: My mom would tell my friends, Hey, make sure he doesn't have any more cookies.
Speaker: He's only allowed to have one cookie.
Speaker: They would laugh and things like that, right?
Speaker: And so these things shaped my identity.
Speaker: In Ed Milet, he talks about how our childhood kind of shapes us like that.
Speaker: But how many of you have gone through similar things, similar identities that you've had to break through?
Speaker: That's one of the reasons I got into cells in the first place because I knew I was a shy kid.
Speaker: That was my identity.
Speaker: I knew that in order to change it, I had to do something drastic.
Speaker: So I thought, okay, why not get into door-to-door sales?
Speaker: I am a door knocker.
Speaker: And anything I've achieved success in, I've had to become that.
Speaker: When I did cross country in high school, I said, I'm a runner now.
Speaker: When I did music in high school, I'm a drummer.
Speaker: And the more I took on those identities, the more success I had.
Speaker: And it's the exact same thing in sales.
Speaker: I've talked about this story too, but I never had a breakthrough in sales until I changed my identity around being just an average sales rep to changing my thoughts.
Speaker: Okay, I'm a top sales rep.
Speaker: I can win the competition.
Speaker: Hey, ever since I started, I never saw insane results.
Speaker: When I started to change that identity, I didn't have any extra training.
Speaker: There were no secret lines.
Speaker: It was just one simple shift in my mindset.
Speaker: And so that's why it's so important.
Speaker: Ask yourself, what is your identity right now?
Speaker: Do you tell yourself that you're an average rep?
Speaker: Do you tell yourself that you can only close so many deals a month?
Speaker: And if you've got that junk in your head...
Speaker: Start thinking, how can I change that?
Speaker: And so we're going to talk a little bit about how, but I really like the comparison that Ed Milet gives in his book.
Speaker: He talks about your identity as a thermostat, and everyone has an internal thermostat.
Speaker: The example he gives, your fitness identity.
Speaker: He says, let's suppose you lost 20 pounds at one time in your life.
Speaker: Despite being armed with the best weight loss recipes or workout regimens, a year later, you added all that weight back on.
Speaker: You're right where you started.
Speaker: That's because when your fitness identity thermostat is set at 75 degrees, it means you're comfortable carrying 20 extra pounds.
Speaker: And try as you might, you'll always drift back to that 75 degree setting.
Speaker: Okay, so really we can have an identity in any aspect of our life, whether it's in sales, whether it's in fitness.
Speaker: He gives, you know, income examples too.
Speaker: But how many of us have a thermostat?
Speaker: Maybe your thermostat for sales right now is set at 10 sales a month.
Speaker: Okay, we hit this level and that's all we achieve.
Speaker: Okay, one of my friends...
Speaker: works at Sunrun.
Speaker: He talked about a really good rep at their office, went to one of their meetings one time and said, oh, this guy's a stud.
Speaker: He made 40 grand on a deal he closed, huge system.
Speaker: And then I asked him, well, what does this guy make a year?
Speaker: Over a million?
Speaker: He said, no, this guy has never made
Speaker: He's made 300 grand.
Speaker: He makes it every year.
Speaker: When he hits 300 grand, he stops.
Speaker: That's his thermostat right there.
Speaker: His thermostat is set to 300 grand.
Speaker: He hits it and he stops.
Speaker: And that's good money.
Speaker: I mean, you can't blame him.
Speaker: That is good money.
Speaker: But are you settling?
Speaker: Some of us are setting our thermostat for one thing.
Speaker: Maybe it's 100 grand.
Speaker: Maybe it's 200 grand.
Speaker: Maybe it's 10 cells in a month.
Speaker: How can we crank that thermostat up?
Speaker: How can we get to the next level?
Speaker: So think, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10.
Speaker: or one to a hundred, what is your thermostat at in your relationships, in your sales, in your income, in your fitness?
Speaker: I think it's super powerful to go and rate that because you can't change it if you don't have the desire or you don't know what you're at right now.
Speaker: Hey, and so that's the first step in all this.
Speaker: Go rate yourself, figure out what your thermostat is at right now.
Speaker: And then number two, how can we actually change our thermostats
Speaker: How can we change our identity?
Speaker: For me, it was I hired a coach.
Speaker: Hey, my first big breakthrough that I've talked about on the show is I always was the average rep.
Speaker: I hired a coach.
Speaker: He had me write every single day.
Speaker: My affirmations drilled it into my head.
Speaker: I am a top rep.
Speaker: I am the top rep.
Speaker: I am the best at my company.
Speaker: Nobody closes more deals than me.
Speaker: Took on those affirmations and I just made them a part of who I was.
Speaker: And then I backed that with the actions I took.
Speaker: I refused to be out there less than eight hours in a day.
Speaker: Okay, which to me, that sounds like nothing.
Speaker: But at the time, that was a lot of time to work for me.
Speaker: And so affirmations are super big in this.
Speaker: But then Ed Milet, in his book, he talks about three things we can do to change our identity.
Speaker: And the first one he says is faith.
Speaker: And he talks about how we need to have faith to change our identity.
Speaker: He quotes Matthew 17, 20 through 21.
Speaker: Truly, I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.
Speaker: Nothing will be impossible for you.
Speaker: So do you have faith to change your identity?
Speaker: I like this one.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: For all you Jesus loving folk, I did my two year church mission.
Speaker: And this was how this was the basis of everything that we used in the gospel we were teaching.
Speaker: We had to teach people to have faith before.
Speaker: they could repent, before they could do anything else, they had to have faith.
Speaker: And I think it's the same as we're trying to change our identities.
Speaker: At number two, you've got to have the right intentions.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Um, Dead Mylett talks about how so many people just give excuses.
Speaker: Oh, I'd give myself more credit if I got promotion.
Speaker: My life is a complete mess since I got divorced.
Speaker: I'm a failure since I had to claim bankruptcy during the pandemic.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We just beat ourselves so much.
Speaker: But he says we need to flip the script.
Speaker: We need to apply good intentions to all parts of our lives.
Speaker: And then that's how we're going to begin to change it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We need to have those intentions.
Speaker: We need to have the actions backing those motivations.
Speaker: And then third, th is is one of my favorites, is just have good associations.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then Ed Milet, he compares it.
Speaker: We can't increase, it's going to be really hard to increase our thermostat.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If we're hanging with people who are at 50 degrees, if we're trying to get to 100 degrees, it's going to be tough to crank that thermostat up for hanging around those cold people.
Speaker: So this is huge.
Speaker: You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with.
Speaker: So make sure you are having good connections.
Speaker: Make sure you're getting with people who are at 100 degrees.
Speaker: That's why I think it's so important for those that aren't producing at a high number.
Speaker: That's one of the first things you should look at.
Speaker: What are the top guys in my office doing?
Speaker: What is my culture?
Speaker: And if it's with a bunch of people who are at 50 degrees that are barely working, you need to ask yourself, maybe I should be looking at different opportunities.
Speaker: Now that's been another big factor for my success.
Speaker: So think of that.
Speaker: And then obviously there's some people who are at 50 degrees, maybe you got close friends or family.
Speaker: that are going to be tougher to leave behind but make sure you're always helping increase their degree right don't let people drag you down you can get with people who are going to increase that internal thermostat so there's three things that you can do number one have faith
Speaker: Number two, have good intentions.
Speaker: Number three, have good associations.
Speaker: And just use affirmations.
Speaker: So if you're having a rough time, hire a coach like I did.
Speaker: Get in our Soul Society program.
Speaker: Okay, hit me up.
Speaker: I can either see if coaching would be a good fit or recommend you someone to be a coach.
Speaker: But it starts with your internal dialogue.
Speaker: What are you telling yourself?
Speaker: And if you have some rough internal dialogue, have that self-confidence.
Speaker: Super powerful exercise right here.
Speaker: Write down every single negative you have in your life.
Speaker: Maybe you're telling yourself, I am a low producer.
Speaker: I can't close this many deals.
Speaker: Whatever you have.
Speaker: in front of you that's, I can't, write it all down and then light that thing on fire, literally light it on fire and watch those negative emotions just burn in front of you.
Speaker: Or another thing that Ed Milet does, he just does this mentally.
Speaker: Every negative thought, he mentally draws a cross through it, mentally crosses out until it's so blocked out he can't see it in his head anymore.
Speaker: Take yourself through some of these exercises.
Speaker: I promise this is the number one thing that's going to help you change more than any sales training.
Speaker: More than any secret one-liner we tell you, it's the stuff between your ears that matters more than anything.
Speaker: 80% is mental.
Speaker: 20% is the cells' techniques, the cells' skills.
Speaker: So make sure you don't forget about that.
Speaker: Make sure you get it right.
Speaker: Hope this helps.
Speaker: Send this episode to someone who could use help on their internal and their mental dialogue.
Speaker: and hope you have an awesome week.
Speaker: Hopefully you are staying super positive, even when the days are hot, even when the days are tough.
Speaker: Get out there, keep grinding, and thanks again for being a listener of the show.
Speaker: Love you guys, and we'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker: what's up solopreneurs hope you enjoyed the episode 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 one of the top questions i get asked on instagram on facebook by our listeners is taylor where should i start what episodes should i listen to in the podcast
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
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.com.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet.
Speaker: So you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
