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How To Use Networking To Get Solar Leads - Michelle Lowry
59 Plays4 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast
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 Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
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.
00:00:43
Speaker
What's going on, solopreneurs?
Michelle's Experience in Door-to-Door Sales
00:00:44
Speaker
I am excited today because we have another female door knocker who is crushing it in the industry, and she calls herself the queen of door-to-door.
00:00:53
Speaker
Is that right?
00:00:54
Speaker
Is that what you call yourself, Michelle?
00:00:56
Speaker
The D2D queen.
00:00:57
Speaker
Okay, D2D queen.
00:00:59
Speaker
Reversed a little bit.
00:01:01
Speaker
But anyone that calls themselves the D2D queen, I figure we got to get them on the show, hear what they're doing.
00:01:07
Speaker
hear how they achieve this royalty in door-to-door.
00:01:11
Speaker
So Michelle, I'm super excited to have you on today.
00:01:13
Speaker
So welcome on the podcast again.
00:01:16
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be fun time here.
00:01:20
Speaker
So we're just talking a little bit off the camera here before we hit record, just kind of your background and you've been in door-to-door probably longer than I think pretty much anyone I've heard of.
00:01:32
Speaker
What is 15 years?
00:01:33
Speaker
Is that right?
00:01:34
Speaker
In January, it'd be 15 years.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:37
Speaker
15 years.
00:01:37
Speaker
Holy cow.
00:01:39
Speaker
I started in 2007.
00:01:41
Speaker
Jeez, that's long.
00:01:43
Speaker
So you, most people, you know, don't last that long.
00:01:45
Speaker
And like we were just talking about before, almost everyone is looking for a way to get off the doors, but Michelle's like, no, bring it on.
00:01:52
Speaker
I want to stay in the doors.
00:01:53
Speaker
I'll stay here until I can't walk anymore.
00:01:57
Speaker
I love being at the doors.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:59
Speaker
So we're going to hear all about that journey, Michelle.
00:02:02
Speaker
And what's even cooler is right now she's with Power, which another cool thing is a lot of them are focused on virtual selling.
00:02:09
Speaker
I know and kind of different ways of Legion, but Michelle, she's still grinding, she's knocking doors.
00:02:15
Speaker
So we're gonna hear all about it.
00:02:17
Speaker
So Michelle, do you want to just tell us kind of your journey, how you got started in door to door and how you ended up in solar and your story behind that?
00:02:24
Speaker
So I started in door to door in 2007, January of 2007.
00:02:28
Speaker
And I just answered an ad at that time.
00:02:31
Speaker
I was a military wife.
00:02:33
Speaker
So I was in Fredericksburg, Virginia on Quantico Marine Corps base and was looking just to make some side money.
00:02:41
Speaker
And I answered an ad in a paper, which back, you know,
00:02:45
Speaker
15 years ago, they did that.
00:02:47
Speaker
We opened up a newspaper, right?
00:02:48
Speaker
And you see classifieds.
00:02:50
Speaker
So I don't know if people know what those are anymore, but I entered, I saw just my eyes just got drawn to this little one-liner that said, do you want to make $600 to $1,000 a week?
00:03:03
Speaker
And at that time, I didn't know better and didn't know it was commission-based because there was such a range.
00:03:08
Speaker
I just was like, hey, that sounds interesting.
00:03:11
Speaker
But it was a very vague ad.
00:03:12
Speaker
I answered it.
00:03:13
Speaker
Nobody told me.
00:03:14
Speaker
It was door-knocking, first and foremost.
00:03:16
Speaker
I just answered an ad.
00:03:18
Speaker
It was for ADT security, like an authorized dealer for ADT.
00:03:23
Speaker
And I went in to interview.
00:03:25
Speaker
I called the number.
00:03:26
Speaker
They scheduled an interview with me, went in there.
00:03:31
Speaker
The guy interviewed me, still didn't tell me it was for door knocking.
00:03:34
Speaker
He just said, hey, you're going to be selling alarm systems.
00:03:37
Speaker
I was like, great.
00:03:38
Speaker
You know, ADT is a big company.
00:03:39
Speaker
And I thought, you know, maybe it's in-house customer service or, you know, people come to us and whatnot.
00:03:46
Speaker
So went through a three-day training program, still did not know it was door to door.
Challenges and Transitions in Sales
00:03:52
Speaker
I figured I was commissioned a commission-based job and at that time it was like $250 in the alarm system and I was like well this seems like great money still and so I've already invested three days of this so let me go into the training so then I show up on a Monday ready to go and then I get put in this white van and I'm thinking I'm either getting trafficked right now
00:04:16
Speaker
And I don't know it or where are we going?
00:04:19
Speaker
You know, all I heard is we're going to the field and I'm like, I'm about to get chopped up or something.
00:04:26
Speaker
But I'm like, Hey, you know what?
00:04:27
Speaker
I'm invested four days now.
00:04:29
Speaker
So let me get in this white van.
00:04:31
Speaker
Right.
00:04:32
Speaker
I'm with a team of people.
00:04:35
Speaker
with a team of people.
00:04:35
Speaker
And finally, some guy who was my team leader at that time was like, yeah, we're going to go hit some doors.
00:04:41
Speaker
And I'm like, what is that?
00:04:42
Speaker
You know, we're going to go door knocking and talk to homeowners.
00:04:45
Speaker
And then he says, nobody told you this was a door knocking job.
00:04:48
Speaker
I'm like, no, like what's door knocking?
00:04:51
Speaker
So yeah,
00:04:52
Speaker
He's like, well, you know, just hang in here for the day and you'll see what we do.
00:04:56
Speaker
So now I'm like, well, I'm in the stand.
00:04:58
Speaker
We're going God knows where and I'm in it to win it today.
00:05:01
Speaker
So I do it.
00:05:04
Speaker
And it was the best day of my life.
00:05:06
Speaker
Really?
00:05:07
Speaker
Wow.
00:05:08
Speaker
I wish every recruit said that.
00:05:10
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:05:11
Speaker
For me, it was exciting because I'm like, whoa, we're knocking on random doors, talking to random people.
00:05:18
Speaker
The alarm systems are free.
00:05:19
Speaker
We're giving them away.
00:05:21
Speaker
This is going to be way too easy.
00:05:22
Speaker
How come not everyone's getting a free alarm system today, right?
00:05:26
Speaker
So it was different.
00:05:30
Speaker
And the way I am as a person, and especially in sales, my personality is I love going against the grain.
00:05:37
Speaker
I love doing things that are challenging to myself.
00:05:40
Speaker
And so I'm like, this has to be the most challenging thing ever, you know, knocking on strangers doors.
00:05:45
Speaker
So, um, and so I, I did it.
00:05:48
Speaker
I liked it.
00:05:49
Speaker
It was super easy.
00:05:50
Speaker
Um,
00:05:52
Speaker
And of course there's hard days, you know, in Virginia, it drops down to like 30 degrees and we're knocking in the winter time, it's January.
00:05:58
Speaker
So I'm freezing my butt off.
00:06:00
Speaker
And so, but I always thought to myself, like, you know, where it's warm, it's warm inside of a house.
00:06:07
Speaker
So get in one.
00:06:09
Speaker
And, you know, I'm door knocking, you know, and just my goal is to get in the house and talk to a homeowner.
00:06:14
Speaker
And it was, it was great.
00:06:15
Speaker
You know, I had a really good training team and,
00:06:18
Speaker
They taught me the door to door mindset and along the way, I just stuck with it.
00:06:23
Speaker
I moved as a military wife, moved to Texas.
00:06:25
Speaker
So I did transition and pivot along the way into different jobs, but it always led me back to door to door.
00:06:31
Speaker
And to me, that's the bread and butter of any business, whether you're a realtor, whether you're selling solar, home security.
00:06:40
Speaker
Um, it's, it's super important to be in front of a person.
Strategies for Success in Solar Sales
00:06:44
Speaker
It's better than being on a, on a phone call or, you know, even virtual business is great, but I think people crave that human interaction.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, no question.
00:06:54
Speaker
I agree 100%.
00:06:55
Speaker
So I got to ask Michelle, what did your husband think of all this?
00:06:58
Speaker
You come home, it's your first day knocking, and you didn't even know that it was door to door.
00:07:03
Speaker
Was he surprised when you said you're knocking on doors?
00:07:06
Speaker
Well, first of all, he's like, Michelle, you went to work at 930.
00:07:09
Speaker
How are you coming back at 1030 at night?
00:07:12
Speaker
Because door to door when you're knocking, I mean, maybe I worked for like,
00:07:17
Speaker
a very disciplined company, but we were out until like the very last door we knocked was like nine o'clock at night.
00:07:23
Speaker
Wow.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:24
Speaker
And so, and we could be like a whole different part of Virginia.
00:07:27
Speaker
We could be maybe even like in Maryland.
00:07:30
Speaker
Some days we drove up to Baltimore, Maryland.
00:07:32
Speaker
or Washington, D.C., or South Virginia.
00:07:35
Speaker
Nobody told me these things when I got hired.
00:07:37
Speaker
But let me tell you what, I'm so grateful they didn't tell me.
00:07:40
Speaker
Because if someone told me, like, you're locking doors for 10 hours day one, I probably would have been like, hmm, let me think about this.
00:07:47
Speaker
Like, let me just think about it.
00:07:48
Speaker
But you know, when I did it day one, I was like...
00:07:52
Speaker
oh, this is like, this is so cool.
00:07:54
Speaker
You're talking to different people, you know, this is amazing.
00:07:57
Speaker
And I'm a people person and I love talking to people.
00:08:00
Speaker
And now I've learned, like I've mastered the art of door knocking.
00:08:05
Speaker
And that's why the guys here are like, you're like the door to door thing.
00:08:09
Speaker
Like you just don't like, you just love being at doors.
00:08:13
Speaker
And I just teach people, we're teaching our team how to hit doors, knock doors, play the number game and stuff.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's so cool.
00:08:20
Speaker
Because like I was telling you before we started, I know quite a few people in power your company and a lot of people have been in door to door like a couple years and they start saying, Oh, I want to figure out how to just do online leads, how to not knock anymore.
00:08:34
Speaker
Then they spend all this money, go hit and miss leads for them.
00:08:40
Speaker
And then their closing percentage goes down virtual.
00:08:42
Speaker
So nothing against virtual.
00:08:43
Speaker
I know guys are having a ton of success virtual, but to your point, I think you can never replicate that face-to-face interaction.
00:08:51
Speaker
It's just so much easier.
00:08:53
Speaker
You'd probably agree just to educate people, to help them understand, to read their objections and really just, I don't know.
00:09:00
Speaker
I think my closing ratio has always been much better face-to-face, which is why I tell people, you know.
00:09:07
Speaker
especially starting out, go get that interaction and go hit some doors.
00:09:11
Speaker
Cause I think you'd probably agree when you can knock a door, when you can close a deal in person, it's going to make you that much better on, on a phone or, you know, in virtual cells or in virtual appointments too.
00:09:22
Speaker
Would you agree?
00:09:24
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:09:25
Speaker
And there's like a psychology behind door knocking.
00:09:27
Speaker
Like you have to be prepared for the worst.
00:09:29
Speaker
You're going to have people slam doors on your face.
00:09:31
Speaker
You're going to, I honestly, I embrace the mean ones.
00:09:35
Speaker
Like, and I even tell them like, Hey, I'm so thankful you're so mean to me.
00:09:40
Speaker
me today because honestly that means that everybody coming behind me statistically is going to be nice.
00:09:44
Speaker
Every neighborhood has like that one mean guy and I thank you that I encountered you sooner than later.
00:09:50
Speaker
So and they're like what the heck like she's like and then they feel bad you know they feel terrible.
00:09:54
Speaker
So
00:09:55
Speaker
And they're like, you know, I'm so sorry.
00:09:57
Speaker
It's just so many people have knocked on my door today.
00:09:59
Speaker
And I'm like, I understand.
00:10:01
Speaker
I totally get it.
00:10:01
Speaker
That's how serious we are about helping people go green.
00:10:04
Speaker
I'm going to tell you, I probably won't be the last one to knock on your door.
00:10:08
Speaker
But, you know, I tell my guys all the time, be happy, embrace the mean ones.
00:10:13
Speaker
Like, don't let them get to you that, like, statistically, they're going to exist.
00:10:16
Speaker
They're there.
00:10:17
Speaker
Like, and just thank them for being mean and move along, you know?
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:20
Speaker
And so...
00:10:21
Speaker
I love that.
00:10:22
Speaker
I'm going to use that line next time.
00:10:23
Speaker
I toy with homeowner.
00:10:25
Speaker
I toy.
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny.
00:10:27
Speaker
It's even funnier when you're so kind about it too.
00:10:30
Speaker
You know, I joke with them.
00:10:32
Speaker
They tell me you're like the fifth person that came to my door today.
00:10:35
Speaker
And I'm like, great.
00:10:36
Speaker
Did I win anything?
00:10:37
Speaker
Did I get like a prize of some sort?
00:10:39
Speaker
And so they're like, what?
00:10:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:42
Speaker
They send the ugly ones first.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yes, I love that one.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:46
Speaker
You know, they sent all the ugly guys first.
00:10:48
Speaker
Here I am, number five, the pretty girl.
00:10:50
Speaker
So this is where you say yes.
00:10:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:52
Speaker
Exactly.
00:10:53
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:10:55
Speaker
And yeah, now obviously you're in Dallas.
00:10:58
Speaker
Love Dallas.
00:10:59
Speaker
That's actually where I started off my, I guess, selling journey.
00:11:03
Speaker
I started selling pest control in Dallas, clear back in, it was like 2012.
00:11:08
Speaker
And, yeah, I don't know if it's changed much, but in the summer of 2012, it was brutal.
00:11:12
Speaker
I can't believe, you know, I was similar to you.
00:11:15
Speaker
I was out there knocking nine, ten hours a day.
00:11:18
Speaker
And in Dallas in the summer, you know how it is.
00:11:20
Speaker
You're just, like, sweating.
00:11:21
Speaker
You're begging for
Balancing Family and Work
00:11:22
Speaker
water every other door.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah, I had to do it.
00:11:25
Speaker
I had a two year, I have a two year old son and I door knocked up until I was like eight and a half months pregnant.
00:11:31
Speaker
So when I was pregnant, I door knocked.
00:11:33
Speaker
That was the best time because people were like, do you want water?
00:11:35
Speaker
Do you want food?
00:11:36
Speaker
Oh my gosh, you're knocking.
00:11:37
Speaker
And I'm like, that's how serious I am about putting food on the table.
00:11:40
Speaker
Like this is amazing exercise.
00:11:41
Speaker
And I would joke around about, you know, can I just come in?
00:11:44
Speaker
I think I'm in labor and just joke around.
00:11:49
Speaker
But it was just like, I just love the door knocking.
00:11:52
Speaker
It kept me healthy.
00:11:53
Speaker
It kept me busy.
00:11:56
Speaker
you know, people were just like, she's pregnant and she's door knocking.
00:12:00
Speaker
I'm like, I'm pregnant.
00:12:01
Speaker
I'm not dead.
00:12:02
Speaker
Like, come on out.
00:12:03
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:12:04
Speaker
No, I got mad respect for you and Suli Zink.
00:12:08
Speaker
She was on the show about a month ago, but she knocked while she was, I think, eight months pregnant as well.
00:12:14
Speaker
So I'm like, man, what am I doing?
00:12:16
Speaker
Complaining.
00:12:18
Speaker
My feet hurts.
00:12:19
Speaker
And we got pregnant ladies knocking on doors.
00:12:21
Speaker
Yes, absolutely.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny right now while we're talking it's like the windiest I've ever seen it in San Diego here and got rain coming down.
00:12:31
Speaker
And I'm like, man, this is a this looks terrible to go out and knock in but there's people in you know, Colorado and he's knocking and I'm here complaining so
00:12:41
Speaker
yeah I don't know it's great to have people like you guys and the summertime my guys are like it's so hot I can't wait and so you know it's summertime and you're saying it's hot but when the wintertime rolls around you're gonna say oh I wish it was hotter you know because you're right I'm like I think it's just a matter of switching your mindset and knowing what you're out knocking for you know
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:02
Speaker
So and people respect that, you know, like winter seasons, everybody's off season.
00:13:07
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, that's when we should be at the doors because everybody's taking the winter season off, you know, and here we are behind them.
00:13:16
Speaker
So a step ahead of them.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, no, and I think you've probably done trainings on this, but for those that are knocking hard, you know, fall, winter, spring, that's the off season for mostly summer reps, right?
00:13:29
Speaker
So listeners got to understand that that's when people are getting hit up less.
00:13:33
Speaker
And in my opinion, like we're both in probably saturated markets, Dallas and San Diego.
00:13:39
Speaker
And for me, it gets a lot easier to sell out here during the winter because I'm not getting the, oh, you're the 10th guy this week that's come to my door.
00:13:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:13:48
Speaker
We've been hit up all the time.
00:13:49
Speaker
So I think it's a great time if people can get out there and, you know, push themselves even harder.
00:13:54
Speaker
And people, we're in the buying season.
00:13:56
Speaker
Come on, it's the holidays.
00:13:57
Speaker
So November, December, everybody's looking to buy, you know?
00:14:01
Speaker
So we're catching them riding that buyer's season of the year.
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:04
Speaker
for sure so michelle um tell us about how did you transition into solar then you did what was it 14 years off and on of alarms then is that right before you got into solar so you know when you're canvassing i don't know if you've ever had this happen to you like you probably get hit up by multiple companies solar pest control um
00:14:25
Speaker
roofing companies everyone's like oh look you know a door knocker let's scoop her up and so solar was probably one of the most hit up businesses and I just thought to myself like no way like I've heard how expensive solar is I'm I'm in the business of giving away free things like alarm systems and instant gratification and I send an alarm it's installed same day and I'm paid the next week like this is too easy um
00:14:50
Speaker
Solar is a whole different game.
00:14:51
Speaker
So then, you know, I had guys approach me with them power last year and I was leasing an office within the same building as a solar company and, you know, conversation, they would talk about solar and they try to recruit me and I'm like, no, it's okay.
00:15:08
Speaker
I'm good.
00:15:09
Speaker
I'm comfortable.
00:15:09
Speaker
I'm running my own authorized dealer.
00:15:12
Speaker
I'm fine making the money I'm making.
00:15:13
Speaker
I'm all right.
00:15:16
Speaker
Then I would see them, I would see the people coming in, I would hear them clapping and I would kind of just got curious, popped my head in a couple of meetings or talking about how much they're making.
00:15:26
Speaker
And I'm like, wait, what?
00:15:28
Speaker
How much y'all making solar?
00:15:30
Speaker
So they were like, oh, we didn't tell you how much we made.
00:15:32
Speaker
I was like, no, yeah, that would have been nice a month ago to know.
00:15:37
Speaker
Now they caught my attention.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:40
Speaker
So then initially they hired me
Mindset and Motivation in Sales
00:15:43
Speaker
on their team just to teach door to door.
00:15:45
Speaker
You know, I'm like, let me just watch what you guys do.
00:15:49
Speaker
Give me 30 days.
00:15:50
Speaker
Give me 30 days to learn solar.
00:15:52
Speaker
And if I get it, I'll run with it.
00:15:54
Speaker
So 30 days straight solar training, put my alarm business on the back end for a bit.
00:15:59
Speaker
And then just solar was just one of those things.
00:16:02
Speaker
I'm like, why is everyone not doing this?
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:06
Speaker
And so I learned and mastered solar at the door.
00:16:09
Speaker
And then I learned how to duplicate that and share what I do at the door and just really how to help homeowners in the solar industry.
00:16:17
Speaker
And I'm like, it's the same door to door concept.
00:16:19
Speaker
It's just a different product, you know, and helping it make sense to homeowners.
00:16:25
Speaker
And so I just stuck with it.
00:16:26
Speaker
And then I loved it and I still love it.
00:16:29
Speaker
And I'm still,
00:16:30
Speaker
recruiting people to do it and then focusing on the door-to-door side because power, it's a virtually ran business, but they don't have a lot of the door-to-door people.
00:16:40
Speaker
So,
00:16:41
Speaker
People are craving to be at the doors now, though, and now they know that, hey, the door-to-door queen knows what to do at the doors with solar, so why not?
00:16:49
Speaker
So we run an amazing training program here out of our office, and we bring several power consultants through our doors, and they train on sales.
00:16:58
Speaker
They train on educating homeowners at the doors.
00:17:02
Speaker
They train in appointments.
00:17:04
Speaker
They utilize us, and we run these projects with them, and it's just a ton of training, which is great.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:10
Speaker
I personally focus on door-to-door.
00:17:13
Speaker
Okay, that's awesome.
00:17:14
Speaker
And yeah, anyone I've seen that has done alarms, they've always had a ton of success transitioning to solar.
00:17:23
Speaker
I don't know what it is, but probably alarms is, seems like it'd be a harder sell to me.
00:17:27
Speaker
I don't know, you tell me.
00:17:29
Speaker
Alarms, you guys are, yeah, you guys are hardcore out there.
00:17:32
Speaker
So it seems like it'd be an easy transition, switching over to solar and just saving people money.
00:17:37
Speaker
A lot of similarities, I guess, with that.
00:17:39
Speaker
But yeah, did you see any similarities or things in specific that helped you from your alarm background and then now applying them in solar?
00:17:47
Speaker
Anything in specific that you feel like has been super helpful knowing alarms and kind of your background in that?
00:17:53
Speaker
I think that I'm in the business of saving people money, period, in general.
00:17:58
Speaker
It's like not, I'm not a security consultant or a solar professional.
00:18:02
Speaker
I'm a people person.
00:18:03
Speaker
Like it's, I'm in the business of saving people money.
00:18:06
Speaker
So as an authorized dealer, we would give the equipment away for free.
00:18:11
Speaker
So we would, so now we are adding a payment.
00:18:14
Speaker
So I am adding like anywhere from a $45 to $65 payment.
00:18:20
Speaker
home security payment to somebody, but it made sense to them because it's peace of mind.
00:18:23
Speaker
It's something that they need.
00:18:25
Speaker
It's, I used to feel like home security was a luxury, but it's actually a necessity, right?
00:18:32
Speaker
So just coaching homeowners and understanding that.
00:18:35
Speaker
And then their biggest savings is they're getting a system for free, you know, cameras, home automation and stuff like that.
00:18:41
Speaker
So, and then I sold for the largest company, which was ADT.
00:18:44
Speaker
So that was a no brainer.
00:18:46
Speaker
That was not a very hard system to sell.
00:18:48
Speaker
So for me, it was kind of easy.
00:18:49
Speaker
It's free, it's ADT, and we're giving you some peace of mind.
00:18:54
Speaker
Then transitioning into solar, at first it was a little nerve-wracking because I'm going from giving somebody a free product to now,
00:19:01
Speaker
educating homeowners on saving themselves on their energy bill.
00:19:05
Speaker
So the savings aspect was there.
00:19:07
Speaker
So now we're talking about saving thousands of dollars over a 25 year period.
00:19:11
Speaker
So once the numbers made sense to me, it was easy to make it make sense to homeowners.
00:19:15
Speaker
And it took the nerve wracking part of feeling like I'm about to ask somebody to finance a product for like, you know, 25 years, that's like $40,000 or $70,000 depending on the system size.
00:19:25
Speaker
And so,
00:19:30
Speaker
But once I learned how to do it, it was easy.
00:19:32
Speaker
Once I learned how to do it, it's like, okay, you know, I'm still in the business of saving people money.
00:19:36
Speaker
And so I'm not actually charging them this because this money they're already spending, you know?
00:19:41
Speaker
So I'm not adding an additional payment to somebody's pocket.
00:19:46
Speaker
It's a payment that's already there.
00:19:48
Speaker
So that was the difference.
00:19:49
Speaker
I'm not adding another bill like I would for home security, but it's just when you break the numbers down for somebody else,
00:19:57
Speaker
know and he helped them make sense as to how that money's spending and what they're saving what they've already spent and what they're gonna spend over the next 25 years i just felt like it kind of went hand in hand yeah and now it's neat because i can use my um homeowners for the lawn side and um use them to quote unquote flip them into solar customers as well yeah so yeah the
00:20:20
Speaker
huge advantage and no, a lot of similarities, I think between that, I mean, yeah, you're saving people money, I guess.
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:27
Speaker
I mean, we're pitching it.
00:20:28
Speaker
There's no upfront costs for alarms or solar, I guess, technically.
00:20:32
Speaker
Right.
00:20:34
Speaker
And so, yeah, before I know when your superpowers to Michelle is just, you talked about just educating homeowners because, um,
00:20:40
Speaker
What you just said, I think, especially out here in San Diego, that's half the reason that people haven't gone to solar is because they thought there's a big upfront cost.
00:20:49
Speaker
There's misconceptions they heard.
00:20:51
Speaker
It's just the education part.
00:20:53
Speaker
So I think we both agree that education is so huge because if people really understood what solar is, they're not going to pay anything out of their pocket.
00:21:01
Speaker
It's going to be a cheaper bill usually than what they're paying.
00:21:04
Speaker
that they're going to have the ownership aspect it's like who's not going to do that come on if they don't understand i always joke around i'm like going solar is like an iq test like it's almost a no-brainer like i'm gonna take and if and sometimes i'm like wait i just help i just told this homeowner how much money they're gonna save how why are they not going solar like you're not doing my job so it has to make sense yeah but i personally take the education piece
00:21:33
Speaker
And I apply it to everyone I come across, like realtors or, you know, tax CPAs and people that I feel like homeowners throw toward me.
00:21:44
Speaker
Like they're like, well, I don't want to go solar because my CPA said this.
00:21:48
Speaker
I don't want to go solar because my neighbor said that.
00:21:51
Speaker
Or I don't want to go solar because my realtor said this.
00:21:53
Speaker
Then I started realizing, you know what, it's not the homeowner's fault.
00:21:57
Speaker
It's not even the realtor's fault.
00:21:58
Speaker
There's so much miseducation.
00:22:00
Speaker
So what can I do to jump those hurdles?
00:22:02
Speaker
So now we do lunch and learns for realtors.
00:22:04
Speaker
We do lunch and learns for CPAs.
00:22:06
Speaker
We do lunch and learns for anybody that's going to become an objection to me.
00:22:10
Speaker
I'm now going to make my friend.
00:22:11
Speaker
I'm now going to educate them on the solar industry because they don't know.
00:22:16
Speaker
You know, it's not their fault.
00:22:17
Speaker
They don't know because they don't know what they don't know, you know, so I need them to get out of my way.
00:22:21
Speaker
So I need to educate them.
00:22:23
Speaker
I'm talking, you know, like we bridge these gaps now.
00:22:26
Speaker
So for me, it's more than just being a solar professional.
00:22:28
Speaker
It's just being an educator in general.
00:22:31
Speaker
So now I'm doing these lunch and learns.
00:22:33
Speaker
I'm talking to realtors about.
00:22:35
Speaker
the solar industry.
00:22:36
Speaker
And now they invite us back to when they do an open house, Hey, can you come in to our open house?
00:22:41
Speaker
Because we're going to do an open house in this home.
00:22:44
Speaker
I'm selling has solar panels on it.
00:22:46
Speaker
Can you educate them?
00:22:47
Speaker
But guess who's going to be at those open houses, the neighbors, right?
00:22:50
Speaker
That don't have solar panels on their home.
00:22:53
Speaker
So now we go.
00:22:54
Speaker
And so we educate homeowners on going solar and then we flip them into our referral partners.
00:23:00
Speaker
So now they're sending us customers.
00:23:02
Speaker
So we get them green certified.
00:23:04
Speaker
So we get them green certified.
00:23:05
Speaker
They come through some trainings and now they get to brand themselves as a green as a green realtor.
00:23:12
Speaker
So now those are my referral people.
00:23:14
Speaker
If I'm going to sell a home or if I'm going to have a homeowner that's telling me, hey, you know what?
00:23:21
Speaker
I want to learn more about the reselling my house with solar panels on it.
00:23:25
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to connect you to a realtor that's green certified.
00:23:29
Speaker
They're green certified now.
00:23:31
Speaker
They've gone through our training courses.
00:23:32
Speaker
They understand what solar is.
00:23:34
Speaker
So now when it's time to sell your house, this is the realtor that you want to use.
00:23:38
Speaker
Um, and so we give them some business and they give us business and, you know, so now we're bridging these gaps.
00:23:45
Speaker
We're same thing for the CPA, CPA, um, tax accountant.
00:23:48
Speaker
Can you please tell me how these tax credits work so I can educate homeowners on them?
00:23:53
Speaker
And if I can't educate homeowners on them, I'm going to send them to you.
00:23:56
Speaker
Now I want to make sure that the CPA they're talking to is a friend of mine.
00:23:59
Speaker
So I know that they're educated in solar.
00:24:02
Speaker
They know how the solar tax credits are going to work.
00:24:04
Speaker
So I'm not sending them to some random person.
00:24:07
Speaker
So now the CPAs are our friends, they're our referral partners, and I'm sending them to a CPA that's educated in solar.
00:24:15
Speaker
And then, you know,
00:24:16
Speaker
cpas they send us business because you know we're sending them business so it's literally like just a huge world of education and bridging these gaps of people that are in my way so and um and you know so it goes outside the homeowner it's educating people that should know about solar which is pretty much everybody right yeah so i think that's so cool because um
00:24:39
Speaker
Especially out here in San Diego, I see it all the time where just like you're saying, the CPAs don't have the education or the realtors, they don't have the knowledge about solar.
00:24:50
Speaker
They just want to like sell the home quicker.
00:24:53
Speaker
And for me, it's like every time I get that objection, oh, let me talk to my CPA.
00:24:57
Speaker
Let me talk to my realtor.
00:24:59
Speaker
It's almost like I'm just crossing my fingers at that point.
00:25:01
Speaker
They're going to say it's a good thing.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker
I'll tell them, well, hey, look, I know you want to talk to your CPA.
00:25:08
Speaker
Let me connect you to my CPA because my CPA is green certified.
00:25:12
Speaker
My realtor is green certified.
00:25:14
Speaker
Now, they don't need to sell your home, but the proper questions you want to ask them, hey, is your CPA green certified or is your realtor green certified?
00:25:22
Speaker
And they'll say, well, what's green certified?
00:25:23
Speaker
Are they certified in solar?
00:25:25
Speaker
Are they educated in solar?
00:25:27
Speaker
So they'll be like, no, not really.
00:25:29
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:29
Speaker
So then they're probably the last realtor you want to talk to.
00:25:31
Speaker
So stay with your realtor, but let me connect you to mine because he's certified and he's going to tell you the ins and outs of everything about going solar and having glass on your roof.
00:25:40
Speaker
That's the person you want to talk to, right?
00:25:42
Speaker
So then now we're connecting them to realtors who are knowledgeable, but that's because we took time.
00:25:49
Speaker
an hour or two we brought them breakfast tacos and margaritas or whatever they wanted and we're talking to realty firms that have like 45 realtors in their office so i'm just feeding them i'm asking for about an hour or two of their lunch break i'm going in there and i'm telling them about me and i'm telling them about solar and not only are we establishing relationships with realtors but they become our referral partners so like i the last one we did we got like two referrals out of it
00:26:15
Speaker
So, and they were like, hey, we've got somebody to send you.
00:26:18
Speaker
And I'm like, great, because I'm going to be calling you when the next person that's like, well, let me ask about, you know, and the realtors, they are also educating us.
00:26:27
Speaker
So,
00:26:28
Speaker
They educate us on the appraisal.
00:26:30
Speaker
They teach us about how the homes are getting appraised and the proper percentages.
00:26:35
Speaker
Cause you know, sometimes homeowners will ask me, well, what kind of value is this going to bring to my house?
00:26:40
Speaker
And honestly, I couldn't tell them one way or the other.
00:26:43
Speaker
So I'm like, well, let me talk to my realtor.
00:26:46
Speaker
Cause this is where they educate me is where they educate us.
00:26:48
Speaker
And they tell us, you know, about the different, um,
00:26:53
Speaker
benefits of people, you know, or Zillow, they send me really cool Zillow reports.
00:26:56
Speaker
I'm like, Hey, can you send me a Zillow report real quick?
00:26:59
Speaker
And then I send them a Zillow.
00:27:01
Speaker
I send my homeowner a Zillow report and they're like, okay, I feel a little more comfortable.
00:27:05
Speaker
I'm like, you see in the Dallas market.
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:07
Speaker
Look at that.
00:27:07
Speaker
You know, 7% of houses are selling quicker because they have solar panels on them.
00:27:12
Speaker
And this came from a realtor.
00:27:14
Speaker
So, you know, it just helps to have those relationships with people.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's super powerful nugget right there.
00:27:20
Speaker
I love that.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, I never thought of like asking the green certified realtor question.
00:27:25
Speaker
So yeah, I'm gonna start doing that for sure.
00:27:28
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:27:29
Speaker
And honestly, it kind of puts their homeowner in the kindest way it puts them in their place.
00:27:33
Speaker
Because
00:27:34
Speaker
And they're going to go ask a realtor and who knows if that realtor even likes solar or not, because they're going to get a very biased answer.
00:27:41
Speaker
So it's good to control that part where like, hey, use your homeowner or and if they say my realtor is not green certified.
00:27:48
Speaker
OK, cool.
00:27:49
Speaker
Let's get them green certified.
00:27:50
Speaker
First of all, that way they get the right.
00:27:52
Speaker
They're given the right information because solar right now, the misinformation is out there and it's.
00:27:58
Speaker
it could get in our way, you know?
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:01
Speaker
Love that.
00:28:02
Speaker
No, I think that's a cool thing that I've heard a lot of people at your company at power doing is just the networking aspect.
00:28:08
Speaker
And I think that's where a lot of the typical door to door companies, um, a lot of these guys that came from alarms, they're not doing these things because, um,
00:28:16
Speaker
you know, a lot of us are just like, Oh, let's just go hit more doors.
00:28:19
Speaker
We're not going to take the time to like educate.
00:28:20
Speaker
We're not going to go out and make connections with realtors, with CPAs.
00:28:24
Speaker
Let's just put that down and knocking more doors.
00:28:26
Speaker
So I think it's good.
00:28:27
Speaker
But yeah, I think there's something to be said about just networking like that and building those relationships because that's supplementing your door to door, you know, leads.
00:28:36
Speaker
You're probably getting leads all the time from these realtors, people that you educate and
00:28:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:40
Speaker
How do you go about, Michelle, how do you go about, let's say someone's never done these lunch and learns.
00:28:45
Speaker
Do you just like hit up, cold email them, say, Hey, can I come to your office?
00:28:49
Speaker
Or how do you like go about building these connections and just get your, get your foot in the door with these people?
00:28:55
Speaker
Instagram.
00:28:56
Speaker
I look at, we look at Instagram.
00:29:00
Speaker
well, I say Instagram, social media in general.
00:29:02
Speaker
Like I won't just go and like look at multiple, um, realty companies.
00:29:06
Speaker
Like I want to look at like the last company we worked with, they're one of the top realtor companies in, um, the Dallas area.
00:29:15
Speaker
They're called the real Dallas realtors, I believe.
00:29:18
Speaker
Um, and I look at their social media content.
00:29:21
Speaker
I look at how active they are, how big they are, what they're doing.
00:29:25
Speaker
We even attend their events.
00:29:26
Speaker
Like they have, they had a really, they got ranked, I think the top,
00:29:29
Speaker
company and so they had this huge celebration it's like all right let's support them as much as we can let's show up to their events so when it's time for us to send them an invite to like our events and they show up to our events they it's just really establishing that relationship with people um
00:29:46
Speaker
And so Instagram's the way I like to do it with these roofers.
00:29:49
Speaker
Roofers, we'll just call them.
00:29:51
Speaker
Hey, have you considered adding solar to your book of business?
00:29:54
Speaker
And Power is really designed to be able to onboard companies like roofing companies because it's designed around recruiting.
00:30:02
Speaker
There's multiple ways you can make money through Power and whatnot.
00:30:04
Speaker
So just the way the platform's laid out, it works.
00:30:08
Speaker
creates different ways for us to leverage that business so like i said you know we bring roofing companies to our doors all the time everybody's looking to add solar to the book of business and nobody's really our competition they're really not like there's enough roofs in the javas area for everybody and i figured they're gonna do solar with or without me and i'd rather it be with me so um i onboard them onto our our team we train their team um
00:30:34
Speaker
we just showed them how to work solar integrated into their, their business.
00:30:39
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:30:41
Speaker
And yeah, what are your results?
00:30:42
Speaker
Like, do you feel like it's a pretty steady stream or referrals you get, or is it kind of like, you know, depending on seasons or do you have any, I don't know, case studies?
00:30:50
Speaker
I think like right now the referral business is kicking up for us with roofing companies cause they're on their down season.
00:30:56
Speaker
So right now they're looking for, um, business because, um,
00:31:01
Speaker
business for roofing companies in the Dallas area ramps up about March or April.
00:31:05
Speaker
Cause that's when we get a lot of health storms that pass through here.
00:31:09
Speaker
And then when health storms pass through here, they have to, to deal with, you know, people filing claims on the roofs and stuff.
00:31:16
Speaker
So they get super, super busy between like March and, you know, October, and then they're down cruising kicks into the winter time.
00:31:25
Speaker
So then that's when they're like, all right, time to work our solar market.
00:31:28
Speaker
And yeah,
00:31:29
Speaker
But by then, they don't really know how to run their leads.
00:31:33
Speaker
So they pass us their book of business.
00:31:36
Speaker
So that's really the idea.
00:31:38
Speaker
I'm probably giving all my secrets away.
00:31:40
Speaker
It's okay.
00:31:41
Speaker
But the idea is you want to tap into roofing companies because they have like 3,000 leads.
00:31:47
Speaker
We have cost centers we work with.
00:31:48
Speaker
And we just have people comb through these leads.
00:31:50
Speaker
And then we just do 50-50 splits on commissions, depending how involved we are with the homeowners.
00:31:56
Speaker
I mean, I'm sorry, how involved we are with the roofers.
00:31:59
Speaker
It could be an HVAC company, a roofing company.
00:32:01
Speaker
It could be, I just have a company that they're a gutter company and they're on their down season and I just onboarded them and they onboarded five of their people.
00:32:10
Speaker
So we train these companies.
00:32:12
Speaker
We have a...
00:32:15
Speaker
So within power, we have our own training entity.
00:32:19
Speaker
It's called team 10 X. So we provide full mentorship, full trainings, especially on the door to door piece.
00:32:26
Speaker
So people connect with us and, um,
00:32:28
Speaker
It's just, like I said, we're not a starving company and we're not a selfish business.
00:32:35
Speaker
Like we work with the business heart.
00:32:37
Speaker
Like duplication is key.
00:32:39
Speaker
There's enough roofs, like I said, for everybody just to learn about solar.
00:32:43
Speaker
And I don't look at people like they're my competitors.
00:32:45
Speaker
Like these are my running partners.
00:32:47
Speaker
And so I teach them what I want them to know and help them grow their businesses.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it's super cool.
00:32:55
Speaker
You guys have an abundance mindset for sure.
00:32:58
Speaker
And it's helping everyone grow.
00:33:00
Speaker
And just you coming on this podcast, sharing these things, a lot of people would, I think the people having success in this industry, they're not afraid to share the stuff that's working because it's only going to help us up level and help us all more have success.
00:33:13
Speaker
And let's be honest, out of the people that listen to it, there's probably a very small percentage of people that are going to go and actually try these things.
00:33:21
Speaker
So if you're listening,
00:33:22
Speaker
Go try it.
00:33:23
Speaker
Let Michelle know you appreciated her fire knowledge on the podcast.
00:33:29
Speaker
But yeah, so my question is, Michelle, too, is like I said, all of these door-to-door companies, all these organizations just preach 100%.
00:33:36
Speaker
Just go knock on doors.
00:33:38
Speaker
You don't need to do anything else.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I've seen it the flip side where people focus too much on just like the networking aspect.
00:33:45
Speaker
They're saying, oh, I'm not really going to go knock doors, even though I don't have any appointments set up.
00:33:49
Speaker
I'm just going to go try and get more referrals or do follow ups or try and network and get leads that way.
00:33:55
Speaker
And then they spend so much time on that and don't, you know, don't really get results from either from knocking when they're spending so much time just waiting for referrals to happen or doing follow ups.
00:34:06
Speaker
So for you, how do you balance this between going out and hitting your doors and working these partnerships and networking?
00:34:12
Speaker
How do you balance all that?
00:34:13
Speaker
Do you have like a specific schedule or I don't know, times during the week where you're working with the real estate people or what's your kind of schedule and how do you balance all that?
00:34:24
Speaker
it just varies.
00:34:24
Speaker
Like it's very easy for me because I work with a very, very strong team.
00:34:30
Speaker
So it's really, we function as one.
00:34:33
Speaker
It's not just me running my business by myself.
00:34:35
Speaker
Like my team, um, for instance, Eddie today, you know, he, um, brought in his roofing company.
00:34:41
Speaker
He's learning how to have the conversations with roofers, how to go solar.
00:34:46
Speaker
So, um,
00:34:48
Speaker
You know, he'll ask me to sit in on a meeting or I'll run the meeting and Eddie sits back and he's learning and we extend these meetings to other people.
00:34:56
Speaker
We had another guy come and sit in.
00:34:58
Speaker
Robbie's like, can I sit on in this meeting?
00:35:00
Speaker
I'm like, absolutely.
00:35:00
Speaker
It's a constant teaching thing.
00:35:03
Speaker
So if I'm doing this and I'm like, I have an appointment, then I can pass my appointment to somebody else, you know?
00:35:11
Speaker
It just varies, like the roofing company, they're like, hey, we wanna hit the ground running.
00:35:16
Speaker
So the way power is designed is there's a mentorship program inside of it that allows like roofing companies to come in and split their business with us.
00:35:24
Speaker
Cause they're like, hey, we want to get solar up and going, but we need results quickly.
00:35:29
Speaker
So then they'll tap into us and they'll use our closers to run these projects for them.
00:35:34
Speaker
And they'll sit in on all of our appointments.
00:35:36
Speaker
those shadow me when I'm door knocking so I try to break it up like right now we're doing a blitz so I'm sitting here the team's out blitzing um but we just try to break it up we'll do like a 10-day blitz and then or we do a lot of events for power we travel a lot um we were in California last month so like the leadership would travel and then um
00:35:59
Speaker
And, you know, whoever on our team, our sales team wants to come with us, they travel with us.
00:36:03
Speaker
We were in San Antonio over the weekend.
00:36:06
Speaker
Really, it is about showing our face to within the power family.
00:36:12
Speaker
So we work our business in multiple ways.
00:36:14
Speaker
So if I'm not hitting doors.
00:36:17
Speaker
I'm doing events within power because I'm getting that exposure.
00:36:21
Speaker
So people within the power family who are struggling with their cells, they're like, I need a mentor.
00:36:26
Speaker
So I'm going to tag Michelle.
00:36:27
Speaker
I'm going to tag Tony or I'm going to tag Daniel.
00:36:29
Speaker
They, they're going to work with a team 10 X because they want to boost their cells.
00:36:35
Speaker
So, but it all starts in training, right?
00:36:37
Speaker
So even though power is designed to be around independently and virtually, it's,
00:36:42
Speaker
we make ourselves accessible to them because we don't want to have them suffer.
00:36:47
Speaker
We don't want them to face plant in the business.
00:36:49
Speaker
So there's times where I'm not even hitting doors at all because I'm busy training or I'm busy with getting tagged in a project that I'm working with somebody or an appointment.
00:37:00
Speaker
But I always...
00:37:02
Speaker
lead them back to like, Hey, this is what you want to do.
00:37:04
Speaker
You want to hit doors.
00:37:05
Speaker
So let's shadow me for like a week.
00:37:07
Speaker
And, um, or, you know, San Antonio, they don't have a big door to door market.
00:37:12
Speaker
So they were like, would you mind coming to San Antonio for like a week?
00:37:16
Speaker
That's why I call myself the DDD queen.
00:37:17
Speaker
Cause I just, I'm everywhere.
00:37:19
Speaker
I love it.
00:37:20
Speaker
I love being at the door.
00:37:21
Speaker
I love getting people excited about it.
00:37:23
Speaker
And I'm like, man, this is too much opportunity, you know?
00:37:28
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:37:29
Speaker
So it's just finding a balance.
00:37:30
Speaker
It helps if we're, if you're with a really good team of people and we don't do things selfishly.
00:37:38
Speaker
And it's easy for me to ask somebody to do something for me or with me.
00:37:42
Speaker
If I'm in turn doing something for them and with them, and it makes the balance piece very good.
00:37:48
Speaker
I mean, it helps, it helps us.
00:37:50
Speaker
Yeah, 100%.
00:37:51
Speaker
I love that.
00:37:52
Speaker
And so for new reps starting out, if you have like new reps join your organization, do you have them go just knock doors and say, don't even focus on building like referral partnerships and just have them go hit the doors or do you kind of have them build both at the same time?
00:38:07
Speaker
Well, in order for somebody to succeed, they have to make money, right?
00:38:10
Speaker
So otherwise, if they don't see money within the first three, four weeks, then they're going to leave.
00:38:15
Speaker
So a lot of people within the power family, they join, but they don't have the solar knowledge.
00:38:22
Speaker
So the first thing is training them for a week.
00:38:24
Speaker
So we put them through a one week, like boot camp, solar boot camp.
00:38:27
Speaker
They come through here, they learn.
00:38:29
Speaker
But we teach them in increments.
00:38:31
Speaker
So we actually are not teaching solar 100% of the time.
00:38:35
Speaker
I'm teaching them how to set an appointment.
00:38:38
Speaker
So I'm like, piece number one, because if you don't know how to set an appointment, everything else is fruitless.
00:38:44
Speaker
I can teach you everything you need to know about silver.
00:38:47
Speaker
But when there's so much to know and you're going to get overwhelmed, you're going to be like, this is too much information.
00:38:52
Speaker
Your mind when you're at the door or at the table with the homeowner is going to go like a hundred different ways.
00:38:57
Speaker
So we teach them appointment setting things.
00:39:00
Speaker
only first and obviously that comes through knocking doors so you want to knock doors or you want to hit your warm market which is your family and your friends so we teach them how to leverage social media their family their friends and then we teach them you know the door knocking pieces and we take them to the doors
00:39:17
Speaker
And if we can teach them how to knock the door and, and set an appointment, then the learning part follows right after that.
00:39:25
Speaker
So now you've set an appointment.
00:39:27
Speaker
Now you're going to work with a mentor and now you're going to get to see what that looks like to be in a home.
00:39:32
Speaker
And there you're going to learn about the solar pieces.
00:39:35
Speaker
And then week two, we start teaching solar one-on-one, how to have those conversations and whatnot.
00:39:40
Speaker
But so it's pretty neat stages that we go through with, with our new hires.
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:45
Speaker
Super important.
00:39:46
Speaker
I agree for sure with that.
00:39:48
Speaker
Just taking it by stages.
00:39:49
Speaker
Cause I've seen, I mean, I've been doing this five, five and a half years now.
00:39:53
Speaker
And, um, half the time I see a rep fell, it's cause they're trying to jump stages.
00:39:58
Speaker
They're trying to go out and close deals.
00:40:00
Speaker
They see these big commissions coming from closing deals.
00:40:02
Speaker
They're like, Oh, I just want to move straight to that.
00:40:05
Speaker
And they've set like four appointments up to that point.
00:40:07
Speaker
It's like, no, get good at setting the appointment first, then get good at having those appointments show up.
00:40:13
Speaker
And do that for, you know, a while until you're really good at that.
00:40:17
Speaker
And then you transition because so many people just want to get the quick, you know, big money when they're not even good at doing the small steps that will lead to that.
00:40:26
Speaker
So, um, yeah, I think that's super important for, especially for any new rep listening to this.
00:40:31
Speaker
Don't try and jump all these steps.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:33
Speaker
And don't reinvent the wheel.
00:40:34
Speaker
Like if you see something working for somebody and sometimes it might, you know, what works for one person may not always work for another person, but ideally, um,
00:40:44
Speaker
With solar, like if you can learn different, like if you can take the best from different people and just kind of figure out what's going to work for you.
00:40:51
Speaker
When I say don't reinvent the wheel, I mean like take the time to just go into training and train.
00:40:57
Speaker
People get super selfish and they're like, well, I don't want to work because I have to split my commissions.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:02
Speaker
So this option a is you run your own cells and you face plan and make $0 or option B is you work with a mentor and you split your commissions, but you're, it's literally paid training.
00:41:13
Speaker
You're getting paid to be in a house and just be eyes and ears and take notes, you know?
00:41:18
Speaker
Um, and you make half.
00:41:19
Speaker
And when I say half commissions, I mean, $5,000, come on, like you're paying, you're making $5,000 to sit and listen and watch really top industry trainers train, you know?
00:41:30
Speaker
And that's what I call like pay training or you can try to go out on your own and do it.
00:41:35
Speaker
But, you know, then some of them will, they won't train with us and then they end up circling back like, okay, I need your help.
00:41:41
Speaker
So like, okay, great.
00:41:42
Speaker
We're still here to help you.
00:41:44
Speaker
So that's awesome.
00:41:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:45
Speaker
Well, Michelle, last couple of questions I had for you before we wrap up here.
00:41:49
Speaker
I know you, I know I made you skip your lunch.
00:41:51
Speaker
So.
00:41:51
Speaker
I don't want to hear your stomach grumbling on the, I'm just kidding.
00:41:56
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so you mentioned you have, you said you had a two-year-old right now, or is that right?
00:42:02
Speaker
I have a 16 year old, a nine-year-old and a two-year-old.
00:42:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:05
Speaker
Holy cow.
00:42:05
Speaker
Three kids.
00:42:07
Speaker
So, um, yeah, Mike, I'm always interested hearing about that stuff.
00:42:10
Speaker
Cause I actually just had my second kid.
00:42:12
Speaker
He's three weeks old now.
00:42:14
Speaker
And, um, yeah, so cute guy, but I don't know how people do it.
00:42:18
Speaker
I haven't, I mean, I felt like we barely handle one kid and now we're adding another one in the mix and I'm not even doing that much work because my wife, she's, you know, like feeding them, taking care of them.
00:42:29
Speaker
So I'm always super interested here.
00:42:31
Speaker
How do you like manage being a mom and taking care of these kids and still going out and knocking, still building out and going and building your business?
00:42:39
Speaker
How do you manage it all and still, you know, keep a good relationship with your family and everything?
00:42:44
Speaker
Well, this is the good thing is this is why you want to be your own boss.
00:42:49
Speaker
First and foremost, this is, it's amazing working for myself.
00:42:52
Speaker
I have worked for other people before and that's when it, it may, it complicated my life having to show up at a certain time and then leave at a certain time.
00:42:59
Speaker
And now it's finding that balance between work and, and honestly, there's never a balance.
00:43:07
Speaker
There is no balance.
00:43:08
Speaker
Either your work takes a hit, your family life takes a hit.
00:43:11
Speaker
But I think the key to that is being, um,
00:43:15
Speaker
honest with yourself and honest with your family and explaining to your family, Hey, you know what?
00:43:20
Speaker
It's the summer months.
00:43:22
Speaker
And, um, this is the peak of what I do or mommy has to go to work, you know, and I'm gonna be gone for like 10 hours today, but Sunday is going to be our day.
00:43:31
Speaker
This is the day where I'm going to dedicate that day to you.
00:43:34
Speaker
And this is what we're going to do that day.
00:43:36
Speaker
And whatever I plan for that day, I have to stand by.
00:43:40
Speaker
And throughout the week, I have to remind them of that day because it's going to take away from whatever happened.
00:43:44
Speaker
Like, you know, if I wake up on a Monday and be like, hey, I'm going to work today, but don't forget about Sunday.
00:43:49
Speaker
Like Sunday, this is what we're going to do.
00:43:50
Speaker
Right.
00:43:51
Speaker
And then, you know, Tuesday, like, hey, have you, do you have any ideas about Sunday?
00:43:55
Speaker
Like, are we still good for that?
00:43:56
Speaker
Are we on our date?
00:43:57
Speaker
Our date is going to be great.
00:43:59
Speaker
They're like, yeah, you know, and then Wednesday rolls around.
00:44:01
Speaker
They haven't really mentioned anything about it or like, are you guys still good with that?
00:44:06
Speaker
Are we still doing that Sunday?
00:44:07
Speaker
Like, how did your day go today?
00:44:08
Speaker
You know, still communicating with them, especially my six year old.
00:44:11
Speaker
She'll text me throughout the day.
00:44:13
Speaker
I'll send her pictures of things that I'm doing.
00:44:15
Speaker
you know, she thinks it's the coolest thing.
00:44:17
Speaker
She follows me on social media.
00:44:20
Speaker
She's 16.
00:44:21
Speaker
So she knows like senior 18 year olds that are like, mom, people want to do business with you.
00:44:26
Speaker
She makes my TikTok videos.
00:44:28
Speaker
So I actually get her involved, which makes her super excited.
00:44:34
Speaker
And I act like, I don't know what I'm doing with TikTok.
00:44:36
Speaker
So she gets excited.
00:44:37
Speaker
Like I got these door knocking pieces.
00:44:39
Speaker
Can you do me a favor?
00:44:40
Speaker
Can you put this together and make it look really cool for me?
00:44:42
Speaker
And she's just like, sure.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
I'm like, so I call her like my social media person.
00:44:47
Speaker
It's just like, she's easy to please, you know, I might pay her here or there to do something special for me.
00:44:52
Speaker
Um,
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:54
Speaker
So just getting them involved.
00:44:55
Speaker
My nine year old is the one that I have to keep super like, all right, Sunday we're doing this, right?
00:44:59
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:00
Speaker
You know, if I'm traveling, make sure I bring them back something cool or so it's just, there's never like, there's sometimes where, yeah, you know, they might be upset because, you know, like, oh man, you're going somewhere again.
00:45:12
Speaker
There's some days where they're like, yes, mom's going out of town and we get to do this without her.
00:45:17
Speaker
And so like, it just really varies on their mood, honestly.
00:45:22
Speaker
So just getting, you know, just having those conversations and being clear with the expectations and just trying to stick to that.
00:45:29
Speaker
If I say I'm going to do something on a Sunday with them doing it, if I say I'm going to have lunch with my daughter on a Friday doing it, because I think the disappointment sets in when you don't follow through.
00:45:41
Speaker
I think that's where they start disliking your job.
00:45:44
Speaker
So they're like, well, mom, you didn't show up to lunch with me on Friday.
00:45:47
Speaker
Why not?
00:45:48
Speaker
You know, and learn when to work them into your schedule.
00:45:52
Speaker
And, you know, just standing by that.
00:45:55
Speaker
And it does help.
00:45:55
Speaker
Yeah, my two-year-old, he has no clue what's going on.
00:45:59
Speaker
he's in preschool and he's having a blast.
00:46:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:02
Speaker
Like whatever.
00:46:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:04
Speaker
That's super cool.
00:46:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:05
Speaker
And I think every successful person I've talked to with family, yeah, they say something similar.
00:46:10
Speaker
Suli, she was similar thing.
00:46:12
Speaker
She does like these three week blitzes and then a week she's taking a week off every month, just spending pretty much a hundred percent with her family.
00:46:20
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's kind of what I hear just from you and from almost anyone successful in business that's trying to raise their families.
00:46:26
Speaker
They just have these seasons of time.
00:46:29
Speaker
um you know where they're going super hard maybe it's for the week then like you said they're dedicating a day or two to just their family and uh no I respect you guys a ton just for being able to manage it and especially being the mom because um I don't know does your husband does he step up and uh like does he help help out a lot with them too or is he super busy with his job and all that
00:46:49
Speaker
He's like a big support piece.
00:46:51
Speaker
So that's great.
00:46:52
Speaker
You know, he, when I do need him to like watch the kids, you know, he's watching, there's a lot of respect now there.
00:47:00
Speaker
So he's like, oh my gosh, you know, these kids, you know, so much respect to you.
00:47:05
Speaker
Now I'm spending like summer days with them and I'm like, whoa, you know, and I'm like, yeah.
00:47:10
Speaker
So there's a huge that, you know, having a support system is super important and the
00:47:16
Speaker
I think most importantly, being forgiving to yourself, being merciful to yourself, because I used to take things super hard on myself.
00:47:24
Speaker
Like I used to be that mom that never wanted to put her kids into preschool.
00:47:29
Speaker
So, and I did not put my oldest two in preschool.
00:47:32
Speaker
I took pride in being a stay at home mom for seasons at a time.
00:47:35
Speaker
And I would work four hours in the evening.
00:47:37
Speaker
So I was with them all day long, went to the PTAs, events, functions, and
00:47:42
Speaker
And then like from five to nine, I knocked doors.
00:47:46
Speaker
So I was like, all right, five to nine, those are my hours.
00:47:48
Speaker
I'm going to knock doors, pre-make dinner.
00:47:49
Speaker
And sometimes I missed having dinner with my kids, you know, but to me, those were, that was my hours.
00:47:54
Speaker
Those were my hours.
00:47:55
Speaker
I had to be outdoors.
00:47:56
Speaker
But before that, hey, I showed up to the luncheons and I showed up to the PTA meetings and what I needed to do as a mom.
00:48:02
Speaker
at that time and kept the house clean and did everything.
00:48:05
Speaker
But then when I had my two year old, I was on, on the go.
00:48:09
Speaker
Like I was very integrated into my work life and I had to decide like, you know what?
00:48:14
Speaker
I'm going to put him in preschool because now he's two and he's driving me nuts and he's,
00:48:18
Speaker
and the officer's writing on walls and doing crazy things.
00:48:21
Speaker
So he needs to be in preschool.
00:48:23
Speaker
And it hurt me at the beginning to put him in preschool.
00:48:26
Speaker
But then I realized like, no, he's okay.
00:48:29
Speaker
He's doing fine.
00:48:30
Speaker
Like he's, he's loving it, you know, and I'm picking him up and he's super excited and he's learning.
00:48:36
Speaker
And I had to forgive myself for going against what I did not do really with my older kids.
00:48:41
Speaker
Like they didn't go to preschool until they were like ready for pre-K and stuff, you know?
00:48:46
Speaker
Um,
00:48:46
Speaker
But the little guy, it took a lot to put him in the foot.
00:48:50
Speaker
Also, he's a boy.
00:48:50
Speaker
They're uncontrollable.
00:48:52
Speaker
So I was like, yeah, you're going to preschool, son.
00:48:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:56
Speaker
I'm about to do that.
00:48:57
Speaker
Our kid's just turned two as well.
00:48:58
Speaker
He's a boy.
00:48:59
Speaker
Yeah, he's bouncing off the walls right now.
00:49:01
Speaker
So I don't blame you.
00:49:04
Speaker
that's a lot well no you gotta hand it to support systems and yeah i mean same with me my wife is that sometimes i'm like man i got the easy job i just go out and knock some doors when she's dealing with like tantrums and kids drawing on walls and all that like i don't know screaming homeowner or screaming kid send her flowers like send her flowers like once a week
00:49:24
Speaker
I need to.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:26
Speaker
So no, ton of respect for that, Michelle.
00:49:28
Speaker
And I don't want to take too much more of your time, but last question or two I had here, I guess, first of all, before I forget, where can people connect with you more on social media and reach out if they want to, yeah, connect with you more?
00:49:42
Speaker
So I have two different platforms on, um, or two different profiles on Instagram.
00:49:47
Speaker
I'm under for solars, um, solar sunshine girl, which you'll find me under, um, that's for Instagram.
00:49:54
Speaker
And then I have a door to door one.
00:49:56
Speaker
That's door to door queen also.
00:49:58
Speaker
So they're pieces.
00:50:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:01
Speaker
And then, you know, you can find me on Facebook, Michelle Lowry.
00:50:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:04
Speaker
Sweet.
00:50:05
Speaker
So yeah, for our listeners, definitely go give Michelle a shout out.
00:50:08
Speaker
Let her know you appreciated her coming on the show.
00:50:11
Speaker
And then last question, Michelle, if you had to leave, I don't know, one word of advice for people out on the doors, maybe they're having a super tough day out there or they're in a slump.
00:50:23
Speaker
What's your words of advice that you give people when they're maybe in a slump or they're not producing or lots of rejection?
00:50:29
Speaker
Anything you had to say, anything you have to say for that?
00:50:32
Speaker
So two things, it's all in the mindset, right?
00:50:36
Speaker
Wake up every morning.
00:50:37
Speaker
You have the opportunity to make two things.
00:50:40
Speaker
You can make money and create opportunity or you can make excuses and zero money.
00:50:45
Speaker
So there's no like in between, there's no like meshing them together.
00:50:50
Speaker
Like you got to wake up every morning and check your mind.
00:50:52
Speaker
Am I going to make money or am I going to make excuses?
00:50:55
Speaker
Am I going to create opportunity or am I going to create excuses?
00:50:58
Speaker
And you got to just decide which one along the way.
00:51:00
Speaker
And at any time during the day, you can switch it over.
00:51:02
Speaker
Right.
00:51:03
Speaker
So just checking your mindset is that that's like always going to be the number one thing that I tell people.
00:51:09
Speaker
And then, you know, 97, three rules, what I call it.
00:51:12
Speaker
97 percent of people are going to tell you, you know, you already know that.
00:51:15
Speaker
Just know that when you're at the door, you're going to hear 97 percent knows.
00:51:19
Speaker
So you got to account for every person that tells you, no, great.
00:51:22
Speaker
I'm closer to my three percent.
00:51:23
Speaker
You're only looking for your 3%.
00:51:26
Speaker
That is it.
00:51:27
Speaker
And I tell that to my guys all the time.
00:51:28
Speaker
Like if somebody tells you no, thank them.
00:51:30
Speaker
Thank them for telling you no.
00:51:31
Speaker
You know, say, hey, you know what?
00:51:32
Speaker
Thank you very much.
00:51:33
Speaker
I needed that no.
00:51:35
Speaker
I'm one door closer to my yes.
00:51:37
Speaker
Just always create affirmations for yourself.
00:51:40
Speaker
You're 93%.
00:51:42
Speaker
97.3 you know and i just tell myself that every time it's a numbers game so if you're at the door just always check your mindset check your check you know and if you're failing guys you know there's two things there's failure and then there's failing right so be merciful be merciful with yourself you're gonna fail that's a given it's part of the process create air create a margin for air know you're gonna make mistakes at the door and that's fine that's okay don't be hard on yourself
00:52:08
Speaker
Again, falls back into mindset.
00:52:09
Speaker
Check your mindset.
00:52:10
Speaker
Stay positive at the door.
00:52:12
Speaker
Talk to yourself.
00:52:13
Speaker
Reaffirm things.
00:52:14
Speaker
I knock on doors and I tell myself all the time, everything I touch turns to gold.
00:52:17
Speaker
Everything I touch turns to gold.
00:52:20
Speaker
Every homeowner, I have exactly what they're looking for.
00:52:24
Speaker
No matter what product it is, if it's alarm systems or solar, I have exactly what they're looking for.
00:52:29
Speaker
And then just reaffirming to yourself, you know, law of attraction.
00:52:32
Speaker
So just stay super positive.
00:52:35
Speaker
Have that energy at the door.
00:52:36
Speaker
You know, you sell two things, transfer of energy and a transfer of certainty, right?
00:52:42
Speaker
If you're certain at the door, they're certain.
00:52:44
Speaker
If you're certain, you believe in your product, they believe it.
00:52:46
Speaker
If you have the right amount of energy, then you're going to transfer it over to them and stay certain and have that energy.
00:52:54
Speaker
That's it.
00:52:54
Speaker
That's probably more nuggets than I meant to drop.
00:52:57
Speaker
No, take all the nuggets.
00:52:59
Speaker
That's all the important things for me.
00:53:02
Speaker
No, that's awesome.
00:53:03
Speaker
Perfect way to end.
00:53:04
Speaker
And remember for our listeners, remember, neither choose the pain of discipline or the pain of missing your potential.
00:53:09
Speaker
Which one do you want to choose?
00:53:11
Speaker
So I think Michelle would agree.
00:53:13
Speaker
Choose the pain of going through the discipline and waking up every morning, going through it, staying positive.
00:53:18
Speaker
That's where you're going to have the most rewarding career, I think, in solar cells.
00:53:22
Speaker
So Michelle, thanks again for coming on and to our listeners, go let her know you appreciate her.
00:53:27
Speaker
And Michelle, thanks so much for your time.
00:53:29
Speaker
And we'll let you grab your lunch.
00:53:32
Speaker
So we don't hear your stuff.
00:53:33
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:53:34
Speaker
It's a privilege to be on.
00:53:36
Speaker
It's a privilege to be here.
00:53:38
Speaker
I really do.
00:53:39
Speaker
And, you know, Eddie talks highly of you.
00:53:41
Speaker
I've followed you on social media.
00:53:42
Speaker
So when he said your name, I'm like, I know exactly who that is.
00:53:45
Speaker
Are you kidding me?
00:53:46
Speaker
Like what a privilege it is.
00:53:47
Speaker
Thank you so much, Eddie.
00:53:49
Speaker
So yeah.
00:53:50
Speaker
Thanks to Eddie for connecting us.
00:53:52
Speaker
So we'll be in touch, Michelle.
00:53:54
Speaker
Thanks for everything.
00:53:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:53:55
Speaker
Thank you very much.
00:53:58
Speaker
Hey Solarpreneurs, quick question.
00:53:59
Speaker
What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day?
00:54:09
Speaker
For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite level solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level.
00:54:21
Speaker
That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new learning community exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with top performers in the industry.
00:54:32
Speaker
And it's called Solcitee.
00:54:34
Speaker
This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give Solar Pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds for, are you ready for it, less than $3.45 a day.
00:54:53
Speaker
Currently, SoulCity is open, launched, and ready to be enrolled.
00:54:59
Speaker
So go to SoulCity.co to learn more and join the learning experience now.
00:55:07
Speaker
This is exclusively for solopreneur listeners, so be sure to go to SoulCity.co and join.
00:55:14
Speaker
We'll see you on the inside.