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Where Should You Focus Your Time In Sales?
78 Plays2 years ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
Introduction 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 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.
What is a Solarpreneur?
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.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey, what's going on, solopreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
Today, we're going to be talking about the highest leverage activities you should be focusing in in your solar sales career.
Podcast Goals and Listener Appreciation
00:00:53
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All that and a whole lot more coming up.
00:00:55
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on the Solopreneur podcast.
00:00:58
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My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:00
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I'm your host.
00:01:00
Speaker
We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals, and have a much better time in the solar industry.
00:01:08
Speaker
Before we jump into the podcast, I want to thank our latest reviewers over on Apple Podcasts.
00:01:16
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Sorry, I'm trying to look at this from my computer.
00:01:19
Speaker
In my old age, my eyes start going bad.
00:01:21
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So I have to get a little bit closer to screens these days.
00:01:25
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Don't get old.
00:01:26
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It's not fun.
00:01:27
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Starting my third decade here on this planet.
00:01:31
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Okay, but we had a review from Sherm G84.
00:01:37
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He said, no matter how many times I listen to an episode, I always feel like I learn something new.
00:01:43
Speaker
Love the podcast because when I'm struggling, I can pull up one of my favorite episodes and find that I have not been doing.
00:01:48
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I think he said find something that I have not been doing or something that I need to be doing.
00:01:53
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Taylor, I appreciate your podcast to the fullest, man.
00:01:55
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Thank you for what you do for all of us in the solar industry.
00:01:59
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Sherm Martin.
00:02:00
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Sherm, thank you so much.
00:02:02
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Appreciate that.
00:02:03
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And that is one of this podcast, obviously, during the Christmas season.
00:02:08
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That's one of the best gifts you could give me.
00:02:09
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So thank you means a lot.
00:02:12
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And then we had one other one from Trey Sistrunk.
00:02:17
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Like the names.
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These names are awesome, by the way.
00:02:20
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Like my name, just Taylor Armstrong.
00:02:23
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Can't compete with these cool names.
00:02:24
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But this review, it says, super helpful.
00:02:27
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I've been in the solar industry for five years now.
00:02:29
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And it's a constant solar coaster.
00:02:31
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Taylor always knows how to reel me back in when I need it the most and give me huge pointers to increase my cells.
00:02:37
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Trey, thank you.
00:02:39
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Means so much.
00:02:41
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And I appreciate everyone that has left us reviews in the past.
00:02:44
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that's shared the podcast, that's tagged me in their Spotify Most Listens podcast, things like that.
00:02:52
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Yeah, it's said it time and time again.
00:02:54
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It's what keeps this show rolling.
00:02:56
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So appreciate it so
Focus on High-Leverage Activities
00:02:58
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much.
00:02:58
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Okay, so let's jump into the topic.
00:03:01
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And that is the highest leverage activities you can have in sales.
00:03:07
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And so recently I did a podcast on a book that I'm reading currently.
00:03:13
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This book was introduced to me by the one, the only Ashton Buswell.
00:03:19
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He's been on the podcast multiple times.
00:03:22
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Great guy.
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One of the greats in the solar industry.
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So go shoot him a follow if you're not following him.
00:03:28
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But his book that he we're doing a little book club in our company right now.
00:03:33
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So the book we're going through, it's called Chop Wood, Carry Water.
00:03:37
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I did a podcast on one of the principles from that book.
00:03:42
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I think this was two episodes ago, three episodes maybe.
00:03:46
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One of the principles is how discouragement is basically evil's greatest tool against us.
The Pitfalls of Multitasking
00:03:53
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And that's what holds us back in so many things.
00:03:56
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So you can go listen to that.
00:03:57
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But just an overall takeaway I got from this book is
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reading it is just that we need to be focusing on the highest leverage activities.
00:04:08
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And we've been doing some calls with Ashton.
00:04:12
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It's I think it's a cool idea.
00:04:13
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If you're not doing this, great to have a little book club, do some zoom discussions, discuss it in your correlations.
00:04:21
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I think it's a great way to get people engaged, get people involved.
00:04:25
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Hey, but something we talked about in our latest little book club discussion we had on this is just that so many of us focus on multiple things, different things at the same time.
00:04:40
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And a lot of times it holds us back.
00:04:43
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And if you're like most people in solar, most people in sales, a lot of us, we want to be in 10 different places at once.
00:04:52
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Right.
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I think it's practically a prerequisite that you have to have ADD for this job.
00:04:57
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You have to have, you know, be bouncing off the walls.
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You have to have just kind of that unfocused personality.
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Maybe you don't, but a lot of people in this industry do.
00:05:11
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A lot of us call it dropouts, things like that.
00:05:15
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And not to say that's like a requirement, but just a natural thing that I see in a lot of people in the solar industry and in door-to-door sales, in sales in general.
00:05:25
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And so one of the downsides that comes to that, which by the way, I think it can be a superpower having ADD.
00:05:32
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And I think it helps in a lot of ways.
00:05:34
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But one of the downsides is that sometimes we don't put enough focus on one thing.
00:05:40
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right we all want to be putting thinking about a real estate different investments uh different businesses we can start up different uh streams of income all those things are good but how about how about focusing on one stream of income till it actually becomes a stream instead of having all these little tiny trickles of water okay how about focusing on one to actually have it become a river
00:06:09
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I think most millionaires would agree is that they had one stream that they focused on before, you know, giving a ton of focus to other ones.
00:06:20
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A misconception that I heard a lot of times beginning in my sales career is, oh, every millionaire has seven streams of income.
00:06:30
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And that may be true, but again, we need to practice focusing on the one thing, on the highest leverage activities that are making us money and become really, really good at that one thing.
Mastering the Fundamentals: 'Chop Wood, Carry Water'
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And the most successful people in solar that I've seen, they're really good at dialing in that focus.
00:06:51
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If you're just focusing on closing more deals, they know that's what's going to make them the most money.
00:06:57
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You can grow a team, you can do other things, but I think the highest earners are closing a lot of deals.
00:07:03
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That's their main focus.
00:07:05
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Okay.
00:07:07
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So going back to the moral of this book we read, Chop, Wood, Carry Water, which you can get it on Audible for, I think it was five bucks.
00:07:17
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Pretty quick read.
00:07:18
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It's like two hours.
00:07:19
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Okay.
00:07:20
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And side note, I think I mentioned this, but Spotify now includes so many different audio books now with the $10 a month you pay.
00:07:30
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So great investment.
00:07:32
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If you don't have Spotify, go get it.
00:07:34
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It has a ton of like sales, personal development books that are included on it.
00:07:39
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Hey, but Chop would carry water.
00:07:41
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Okay.
00:07:43
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Keep getting sidetracked here.
00:07:44
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See, I got ADD.
00:07:46
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Chopwood Carrywater is basically saying that we need to focus on the most important principles, the fundamentals, if you will.
00:07:58
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And you can read the book, but that's kind of the premise is it's an archer learning from his sensei.
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He says, sensei, when are we going to go train?
00:08:07
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When are we going to shoot the arrows?
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He's learning.
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He's trying to master his archery.
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And the sensei is like, you know what?
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We're not even going to shoot at targets.
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We're not even going to pick up a bow.
00:08:19
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The first six months or whatever of their training, all they're doing is chopping wood and carrying water.
00:08:25
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Okay.
00:08:26
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Same principle goes to karate kid, right?
00:08:29
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Before he's practicing the kicks, the karate chops, the punches, he's waxing on, waxing off.
00:08:36
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Right.
00:08:37
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So the same thing applies, I think, in most any skill we're trying to learn.
00:08:43
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The greats are awesome at one thing.
00:08:46
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They're awesome at the fundamentals.
00:08:49
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Bruce Lee says, I fear the man, not the man that knows a thousand kicks, but the man that has done one kick a thousand times, I think is the quote, something like that.
00:09:02
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So what are highest leverage activities in sales?
00:09:05
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What are fundamentals in sales?
00:09:07
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What are the things that make us money?
00:09:09
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What are, so to speak, chop wood, carry water activities in sales?
00:09:14
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Well, probably if you are in door to door, it's probably getting out there and pounding the payment, knocking the doors, right?
00:09:22
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So whatever point in your career, whatever point you're at, this is the challenge that I would give to you is figure out what are these things?
Preparing for 2024: Identifying High-Leverage Activities
00:09:33
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We're at the end of 2023, but now you should be preparing for your 2024 goals.
00:09:39
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or whenever you're listening to this, you should be preparing yourself to hit big goals.
00:09:43
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You need to figure out what are those high leverage activities?
00:09:47
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What are those fundamentals that you need to do day in day out to make you the most money?
00:09:53
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And most people listening to this, it's probably going to be prospecting, which leads you to closing more deals.
00:09:59
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And this is something we talked about in our call.
00:10:02
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with Ashton is the three things he's focusing in on for the next year is he's going to have more connections.
00:10:09
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He's going to have a try to have a connection with God, with his body, which is, you know, exercising, getting his health right with his wife, with his kids.
00:10:20
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So he's having the connection.
00:10:21
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Number two,
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He's going to do the prospecting.
00:10:25
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And number three, he's going to close.
00:10:27
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He's going to get more closes, have more closing opportunities.
00:10:31
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Hey, and so that's a good example of something you could do for yourself.
00:10:36
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Take out the three most high leverage things, make you the most money.
00:10:41
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Also focus on relationships.
00:10:44
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Hopefully you don't leave all relationships to the side.
00:10:48
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But pick the top things you can do and focus in on those.
00:10:51
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Don't try to do 10 million different things.
00:10:54
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And I'll admit, this is a mistake I make a lot.
00:10:57
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Because I have this podcast, because I also run a coaching group, coaching program, because I'm in multiple different coaching groups myself, sometimes I get distracted.
00:11:07
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So as I say these things and issue the challenge to you guys, it's also a challenge I'm issuing myself.
00:11:17
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to pick the things I want to focus on, to hit more doors, to get in my prospecting so I can be in more closing opportunities.
00:11:28
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After listening to this, go write down what are your highest leverage activities.
00:11:34
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I think I have invited people to do this in the podcast before, but go write down every single thing you do in sales or really you can do it, anything you do in your life right now.
00:11:46
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What are the things that only you can do?
00:11:48
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What are things that maybe someone else could do?
00:11:51
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Maybe you could hire someone else to do.
00:11:52
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Maybe you get an assistant.
00:11:54
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Focus in on those things that are the highest leverage activities that are making you the most money and try to outsource the rest or just stop doing it.
00:12:05
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Delegate it.
00:12:06
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Whatever you need to do.
00:12:07
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Okay, so that's the challenge today.
00:12:09
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Figure out what are your highest leverage activities.
00:12:14
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Whatever your goals are for this coming year, identify what are the top two to three things that are going to make me the money.
00:12:22
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What are the things I should focus in on?
00:12:24
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How can I make this stream of income a river before even focusing in on the other activities?
00:12:30
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And then number two,
00:12:32
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Just go write down everything you do in your day to day life and figure out how you can focus in on the high leverage things and titles in to your big stream, your big river of income.
00:12:45
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Focus in on that.
00:12:47
Speaker
Hey, so that's the challenge.
00:12:49
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And that's today's episode.
00:12:51
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Hopefully it helps you send this to someone that has ADD that's focusing on 10 different businesses.
00:12:56
Speaker
It's funny, a lot of my friends in solar, they'll call me and they'll be like, oh, Taylor, you know, I'm starting to also do some life insurance on the side.
00:13:06
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I'm starting to, you know, someone that told me that the other day and I have guys that call me that say they're in different opportunities.
00:13:16
Speaker
And some of them are making great money in solar.
00:13:19
Speaker
Some of them, I think they get distracted by these shiny objects.
00:13:22
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We all have shiny object syndrome.
00:13:25
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So try to put the blinders on, try to focus in on solar, which I think is the modern
Why Solar Energy is a Prime Opportunity
00:13:30
Speaker
day gold rush.
00:13:30
Speaker
That's why we have the Solarpreneur podcast, because I think it's the best opportunity right now.
00:13:36
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So don't let it pass you by.
00:13:38
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Don't be the person in five years that looks back and says, oh, I could have made a lot more money in solar.
00:13:43
Speaker
I could have focused my time a lot better.
00:13:45
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Yeah, I don't want that to happen to you.
00:13:48
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So that's the episode.
00:13:50
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Tune in next episode.
00:13:51
Speaker
We've got one of my good friends and mentors, Jake Ransom.
00:13:56
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He is over here at Legacy Power.
00:13:59
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He is running an entire division.
00:14:02
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He's a director of sales over here.
00:14:05
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And really just someone that is the lifeblood of our region, our organization over here in San Diego.
00:14:13
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So we're going to be jamming a lot on culture, a lot on how to get your reps in the right mindsets to make solar cells fun again.
00:14:20
Speaker
That's his presidential campaign.
00:14:24
Speaker
So tune in.
00:14:25
Speaker
You're going to hear from him.
00:14:26
Speaker
And here are some great tips on how you can boost your culture in your office, in your company, and take your 2024
00:14:35
Speaker
or your next months whenever you're listening to this to the next level.
Free Sales Diagnostic Offer
00:14:39
Speaker
Thanks for coming on listening to the show today and we'll see you on the next episode.
00:14:43
Speaker
Peace.
00:14:44
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs.
00:14:45
Speaker
Are you sick and tired of spinning your wheels every month and not seeing your sales increase?
00:14:50
Speaker
Well, so was I and the truth is...
00:14:52
Speaker
I was never able to improve it until I figured out what was going wrong.
00:14:56
Speaker
So that's why I'm excited to announce for a limited time, we are doing a free sales diagnostic.
00:15:01
Speaker
You'll break down your sales process, figure out the holes in your business and see how we can help you improve.
00:15:07
Speaker
So at now we have six bucks for this month.
00:15:10
Speaker
So book a call now, don't miss out.
00:15:12
Speaker
What you're going to do is send an email to taylor at solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:17
Speaker
That's taylor at solarpreneurs with an S dot com.
00:15:20
Speaker
I'll send you out a calendar link and we will figure out a time that works best.
00:15:24
Speaker
So shoot that email and let's increase your sales.