Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
Speaker: I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Okay, what's going on, solopreneurs?
Speaker: I'm excited for this episode.
Speaker: We've got something a little bit different in store for you here, and a good friend of mine coming on the show, I actually had the privilege to be on his podcast a few months back.
Speaker: So today we got a Philip Sessions on the show.
Speaker: Philip, thanks for coming on the show with us.
Speaker: Hey, glad to be here, Taylor.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker: And just a little introduction.
Speaker: We did a podcast a few months back, but Philip, he is a speaking coach.
Speaker: He has his business called Speaking Sessions.
Speaker: He coaches people to improve their speaking skills to get on stages and really just improve their communication.
Speaker: And the reason I wanted to have him on is because if you think about it, so much of what we do here at Cell and Solar Panels involves speaking.
Speaker: Think about it.
Speaker: You got to be a good speaker to sell the panels.
Speaker: You got to be a good speaker to train other sales reps, to run a company.
Speaker: A lot of different ways you can apply it.
Speaker: And so it's a topic I've been pretty interested in for a while.
Speaker: And yeah, I'm excited to have Philip on to kind of share how we can improve this crucial skill.
Speaker: So, Philip, do you want to share with us, I don't know, maybe your background, a little bit how you got involved in the...
Speaker: coaching people on to speak better?
Speaker: Yeah, so I'm still full time at BMW manufacturing.
Speaker: Actually, I'm a logistics automation engineer for them.
Speaker: So basically, I program robots to deliver parts to the line.
Speaker: But at one point while I was there, I got into HR with training development for the company.
Speaker: and how I got into the whole speaking part was through this job.
Speaker: So there was an opportunity to help with leadership and professional development, and one of the things was presentation skills for the entry-level management.
Speaker: And it got me thinking, okay, this is something that's being sought after here at BMW.
Speaker: I bet there's other places like that.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: I want to get on stage, and I want to speak, and I'm sure there's other people that are in that same boat.
Speaker: So if I'm already developing this here at work, why don't I develop this for outside of here?
Speaker: And I had been in the fitness coaching space for a while and I was really wanting to make a pivot into something else.
Speaker: And so it almost kind of fell on my lap, if you will, but I feel like it was something that was destined to start happening.
Speaker: So at the beginning of this year is when I really started diving into the speaking coaching.
Speaker: And so I've got a group coaching program.
Speaker: I do one-on-one coaching.
Speaker: Of course, I've got the podcast and been on several stages myself and created one stage so far of my own.
Speaker: So continuing to do that and be able to help people out with that.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: And yeah, I think when I came on your show, we probably talked a little bit about this, but I don't see too many like engineers that have kind of that entrepreneurial desire to go out and start something on their own.
Speaker: So I don't know, were you, have you always been kind of like an entrepreneur too?
Speaker: Or what made you, I guess, decide to try to start like monetizing this instead of just kind of doing it on the side?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So engineers, definitely, they think way too much into everything.
Speaker: Before getting started.
Speaker: And even though I may be an engineer, I feel like I'm the total opposite because I'm like, Hey, what do I need to know just to get started?
Speaker: So I feel like I'm more on that salesperson side, even though I wouldn't claim to be a salesperson either.
Speaker: Although I'm having to get better at that as I get into creating my own business and selling my coaching services.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But with engineers, they definitely don't like to do that.
Speaker: And really with my background, a lot of my family are entrepreneurs.
Speaker: Both grandpas on both sides of my family.
Speaker: They had farms, which you could say that's kind of one of probably the original entrepreneurship things.
Speaker: But they had farms growing up.
Speaker: And then my dad, he had a landscaping business and an uncle who had a maintenance shop for diesel mechanics stuff.
Speaker: And then I had my, one of my grandpa's then went from farming or so I was great grandpa.
Speaker: And then the grandpa, he actually got into the muffler business.
Speaker: And so two of my uncles took over that one does it stuff.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: I've got a lot of entrepreneurship blood within me.
Speaker: And just that desire to be able to create my own income and be able to control my income is really what pushed me to get out there and help people.
Speaker: Because in the corporate world, unfortunately, no matter how hard you work, you're limited unless if you're on a commission basis.
Speaker: And even then, depending on the company, you may be limited there.
Speaker: Whereas an engineer, I get a salary and that's it.
Speaker: So I wanted to be able to control more of that.
Speaker: Wanting to control my income more and help people, more importantly, is the desire to go out on my own.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think it's awesome because I talk about it on my podcast all the time.
Speaker: Probably my least favorite customer type for solar are engineers.
Speaker: No offense.
Speaker: Because, you know.
Speaker: I'm totally offended now.
Speaker: I'm going to hang up.
Speaker: No, please don't hang up the podcast.
Speaker: I'm just kidding.
Speaker: But no, it's just like a lot of them, like you said, they just analyze it like crazy.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, I'm going to read every word of the contract before I sign.
Speaker: I want to know like the exact components of every solar module, where it's made, every single piece.
Speaker: And I'm like, come on, man.
Speaker: Isn't it enough to know that you're going to save money?
Speaker: That's not enough for you?
Speaker: They're like, no, I got to know every detail.
Speaker: So it's cool to see you, you know, not having to have everything figured out and just kind of jump into it.
Speaker: Because I think all of us as entrepreneurs, like we both have that in common.
Speaker: We're trying to build out different things in our coaching programs.
Speaker: The podcast, we never have 100% figured out.
Speaker: We're always trying to make improvements to that.
Speaker: So it's like at some point you just got to dive into it.
Speaker: And I'm sure it's the same with speaking too, right?
Speaker: Just got to start small.
Speaker: Start small.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And I actually want to bring a point real quick, which I'm sure we'll get into this later, but knowing your audience is an important thing in sales.
Speaker: So if you know that engineer, they're going to want to know those details.
Speaker: And some of them may not be relevant to actually getting solar on their roof, but for that person or in your mind, it doesn't feel relevant, but in their mind, it is relevant.
Speaker: I want to know what the photosynthesis or whatever the sale is made of and how it absorbs it.
Speaker: And what's the, uh,
Speaker: What would you say?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: What's the, how well does it absorb it and everything?
Speaker: And how, how long does that battery last things of that nature that most people there, is it going to save me money?
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: But that engineer, they're going to want to know those details that literally the engineering, the way it's made, how it works.
Speaker: the things that you normally wouldn't talk about.
Speaker: So really knowing your audience and be able to speak to them helps.
Speaker: Now you don't have to know every single detail because he can't expect you to know or she can't expect you to know all the details.
Speaker: But if you're able to speak a little bit on that to give them that, that's a good thing to do in sales.
Speaker: So you know your audience and be able to speak to them.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: That's super important.
Speaker: Know your buyer types, know what their hot buttons are, and yeah, whether you're speaking or selling, I think both apply a ton.
Speaker: So yeah, the other thing that's cool, Philip, I was looking at your Instagram all before that, and I think you mentioned it.
Speaker: You just did your first speaking event.
Speaker: Is that right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So I was reading your description.
Speaker: It sounded pretty up and down, kind of like a roller coaster going on.
Speaker: So do you want to tell us how that went?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it went overall, it went very well.
Speaker: I was kind of crazy trying to figure things out, really trying to figure out the marketing speakers.
Speaker: Getting those in place was not a problem at all.
Speaker: Beakers were phenomenal.
Speaker: And really coming into it, it was like the goal was to get a hundred people there.
Speaker: And I was kind of, I was called the Upstate Small Business Conference because here in Greenville, South Carolina, we call it the Upstate here.
Speaker: And I know there's Upstate New York, but this is
Speaker: Upstate of South Carolina.
Speaker: And so I was like, okay, I'm going to call it that.
Speaker: It's going to be for business owners.
Speaker: We're going to get like 100 people as a target.
Speaker: Well, had like very low ticket sales.
Speaker: And finally, probably the last month of marketing is when ticket sales started going up.
Speaker: But it only got to about 30.
Speaker: So I had to come in and tell the speakers like, look, I know expectation was about a hundred people plus, but unfortunately I've only made 30 ticket sales.
Speaker: So there's the expectation to have only about 30 people and the speakers were like, Hey, that's cool.
Speaker: You know, that's pretty awesome to get that many sales.
Speaker: Like they were really supportive of that.
Speaker: And then we get to the event, four people show up that aren't the speakers.
Speaker: Oh my gosh.
Speaker: I'm so embarrassed, but the speakers were really supportive.
Speaker: And we're like, dude, no, this is still awesome, man.
Speaker: Like four people, it's better than nothing.
Speaker: And so we're like, man, I know so-and-so that did an event and they're kind of famous now.
Speaker: And it's like, they didn't even have that many people, all this stuff.
Speaker: And they were just really supportive.
Speaker: So we did a pivot within that to go from more of a conference to a mastermind.
Speaker: And thanks to Doug Mitchell, I know a mutual friend of ours, he was the one that really helped with that pivot there.
Speaker: But I was embarrassed, to be honest, because I'm like, ah.
Speaker: man i was supposed to be like 30 people and here's like four people show up but it was still a great event overall great experience and honestly gave me a lot of good credibility within the the public speaking space especially for online within my networks because it's like hey philip was willing to put his name out there and put himself on the line his money on the line to do this he's not just talking about oh yeah build a stage or oh yeah get up and talk like he's willing to go actually create that stage so even though
Speaker: It may have been a failure in a sense of the number of people that showed up.
Speaker: It was still a success because those that were there and attended got a lot out of it.
Speaker: The speakers enjoyed it a lot.
Speaker: And, you know, I did it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: You know, most people can't say they did that.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: No, I was super impressed just reading that.
Speaker: I'm like, wow, that takes guts to just try to organize your own thing.
Speaker: Because I remember I actually took like a speaking, I don't know, like a master class.
Speaker: Someone kind of like you that had a business training speakers.
Speaker: And one of the things they had us do when they're coaching is just do like a practice event.
Speaker: So basically just some of my friends and family and get them to come watch you speak and practice your speeches.
Speaker: I remember just doing that.
Speaker: I was like super nervous, kind of embarrassed to like have to bug my friends and family.
Speaker: Just like, hey, we just come to my house and I'm going to do like a practice speech for you guys.
Speaker: Like I'll make cookies.
Speaker: I'll make like food and stuff.
Speaker: Just please come.
Speaker: I'm like, wow, this is this this is this hard to just get friends and family or I can't imagine like running my own event and.
Speaker: trying to organize all that.
Speaker: So I know it's got to be tough, but, um, yeah.
Speaker: So, I mean, good for you for putting yourself out there and trying it, but, uh, yeah, I mean, after now having done it, you have any, uh, I don't know, lessons you learned or like things you maybe would have done different or, uh, or anything like that.
Speaker: I would have started earlier for sure.
Speaker: And then also getting with the speakers about like, Hey, I need things at a certain time that would have helped just with organization, but starting earlier with the marketing and everything and really talking about it more.
Speaker: Cause I had one of my buddies was that we talk a lot on social media even.
Speaker: So it's the algorithm should be showing him my stuff.
Speaker: He's like, you know, I really didn't see it that much.
Speaker: And so trying to find ways to be able to market without just seeing like I'm throwing up on you about my event so much.
Speaker: So but really just pushing it out sooner and then reaching out to individuals directly about that.
Speaker: And one other thing I want to mention as well is I had a couple of sponsors for the event.
Speaker: I had to go and tell them like, hey, I know the expectation was 100 plus people here.
Speaker: We're only at 30.
Speaker: How?
Speaker: how do you feel about this?
Speaker: And I was willing to start giving some money back if they wanted that because I didn't want them to have given me so much with the expectation of 100 people to be there to see their logo and everything else.
Speaker: And yes, that was a hard conversation to have as well, but I knew it needed to be had.
Speaker: And they were pretty awesome and very lenient.
Speaker: We're like, nah, man, don't worry about it.
Speaker: It's kind of a part of business.
Speaker: You know, we try something that doesn't work out.
Speaker: So the sponsorship was very awesome as well and very helpful there too.
Speaker: But
Speaker: Yeah, really the biggest thing just going and marketing sooner, talking to people in the local area and really refining what that was because I kept it a little too open with being for small business owners.
Speaker: If I would have niched down even more, that would have helped as well.
Speaker: So next time I'll definitely niche down more to make that event more specific to somebody so people resonate with that then.
Speaker: Oh, it's for small business.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Yeah, it might not be for me.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: No, that's cool.
Speaker: Yeah, good for you, man.
Speaker: But yeah, I know for our listeners, it's like not everyone is going to go out and organize their own speaking events.
Speaker: But what we're going to get into more here is just how speaking can be applied in solar and especially guys who want to step into management, guys who want to run teams or business owners in solar.
Speaker: I think some of the most powerful business owners are also some of the best speakers.
Speaker: And those people that have grown their solar teams more than anyone are like phenomenal speakers.
Speaker: You see them on stages.
Speaker: They know how to motivate a team.
Speaker: They know how to get people to take action.
Speaker: So that's what I want to kind of segue into here, Philip, for our guys listening that are in solar.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: What would you, besides those, what would you say are like some benefits in speaking or maybe for people that are scared?
Speaker: Because, um,
Speaker: you probably heard this stop, but I read all the time that like people fear speaking more than death itself, like crazy stuff like that.
Speaker: And so like, why, why is it important to learn speaking or maybe what's some other benefits that you could think of to, I don't know, encourage people to learn more speaking skills.
Speaker: So you have to have confidence.
Speaker: I mean, especially in sales, when you get told no, all the time, you don't have confidence to keep going past that.
Speaker: No, you're not going to last in sales long.
Speaker: And not to mention, you need to be confident because people won't believe in you or believe that you believe in your product, especially with solar.
Speaker: So
Speaker: When I was in college, we had this presentation and I had a friend, one of my college friends, he literally did the whole project.
Speaker: I mean, so again, it was an engineering, so we made it or he made an electronic stethoscope for us.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: A PowerPoint literally 30 minutes before the presentation was like, hey, me and my other friend, he's like, hey, here's what you're going to talk about.
Speaker: Here's how this thing works.
Speaker: Here's what you're talking about.
Speaker: Here's your slides.
Speaker: We go into the presentation.
Speaker: He got the worst grade.
Speaker: And why did he get the worst grade?
Speaker: Because he sounded, I mean, he was so nervous.
Speaker: He sounded unconfident and he sounded like he didn't really know what he was talking about.
Speaker: And due to that lack of confidence, due to that nervousness, even though he got a 90, so it wasn't like he got a failing grade on his presentation.
Speaker: But remember,
Speaker: He did every single thing on this thing.
Speaker: The PowerPoint, he made the electronic stethoscope, the circuitry, all that.
Speaker: And yet he got the worst grade because he was so nervous with his speaking.
Speaker: So let's take this over to sales.
Speaker: Think about that.
Speaker: If you're the one that's nervous compared to somebody else, even though you may have all the knowledge, you may know how to handle all the rebuttals.
Speaker: But if you're nervous, you're so nervous that your potential client, potential customer recognizes that,
Speaker: they're probably not going to want to buy from you because they're not sure if you really know your stuff or not.
Speaker: So being confident is a huge thing when it comes to sales, because people are going to trust somebody more that's confident.
Speaker: I think as well, like when you're walking through an area that you're probably not supposed to be in, but you walk through and you look like you're supposed to be there, people don't stop you.
Speaker: But if you kind of look around like, where am I supposed to go?
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: People end up stopping you like, hey, can I help you?
Speaker: It's the same thing.
Speaker: If you look like it sound like you know what you're doing, people are going to more likely listen to you.
Speaker: Now, I'm not saying don't know what you're doing, but be confident even if you may not know everything 100%.
Speaker: Because when you're first starting out in sales, especially, you don't know everything.
Speaker: You're not going to know what people are going to come back and give you rebuttals on.
Speaker: So just be confident and you're going to close more deals that way.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: Just like that movie, Catch Me If I Can.
Speaker: You seen that?
Speaker: Where he's pretending to be like, yeah, I don't know, college professor and pilot and all that stuff.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, same idea with it.
Speaker: I mean, you just got to figure out ways to be confident.
Speaker: And I've been knocking on doors out here in San Diego for like six years now.
Speaker: And I still get like nervous almost every day when I go out there.
Speaker: So I think a lot of times you just got to, you know, just go out and put your shoulders back, put your chin up, focus on that body language and just...
Speaker: go out and do it.
Speaker: And same thing in speaking, you're never going to be like 100% prepared.
Speaker: You're never going to be 100%, especially starting out, but you just got to start somewhere.
Speaker: So for you, Phillip, like what do you, for people you coach, I'm sure you get people that are still really nervous to get on stages, still really nervous to do that first presentation and whatnot.
Speaker: But what are some things that you do to maybe help your students or people you coach develop that confidence?
Speaker: Yeah, to get out of their own headspace.
Speaker: I mean, think about it when you're on stage and when you're trying to sell somebody product or a service, it's not if you're only focused on you, if you're only focused on getting that commission check, they're going to see that.
Speaker: But when you're focused on them, that confidence is going to come out.
Speaker: And a lot of times that confidence is what when we're focused on ourselves and what people are going to perceive of us, we lack that confidence.
Speaker: And that's what creates
Speaker: creates the nervousness.
Speaker: That's what creates us not doing our best.
Speaker: But when we focus on the other person, we're in that more like giving mindset, if you will, versus taking and receiving mindset.
Speaker: So when we're just trying to pour into somebody else, we're not focused on ourselves anymore.
Speaker: So focusing on the other person and forgetting yourself is what I tell people to do.
Speaker: Because when you stop focusing on yourself is when you can truly serve that person.
Speaker: So remember, whether you're getting on stage or going and knocking on that door and going in for that sales presentation,
Speaker: It's not about you, it's about the person in the audience or that person there on the other side of that door.
Speaker: That's the biggest thing, just getting out of your own head and realizing it's not all about you.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: And one of my favorite sales books called The Greatest Salesman in the World, but that's a big focus of the book is just basically loving the person that's sitting across the table from you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And as you, you know, just focus on like the needs of that person.
Speaker: Everyone, everyone wants what's in it for them, right?
Speaker: So you focus on what they want and focus on serving them.
Speaker: I think that comes across in what you're saying.
Speaker: And yeah, same thing in solar too and helping other people.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: yeah it's huge yeah and then i also mentioned knowing your product as well i mean we think about think about a bank teller what do they do and i don't obviously i don't have any money on me right now most of us have cards but what they're taught to do they're not taught to look at every single fake $20 bill or $1 bill whatever fake money what are they told to do they're supposed to know how a real dollar feels how it smells how it looks when you crumble it up how does that feel when you look up in the light how
Speaker: How does that look?
Speaker: When you look at that, they go based on the real thing.
Speaker: They don't practice on the fake thing.
Speaker: So they know that dollar bill inside and out every way around.
Speaker: So when it comes to solar cells, when it comes to speaking about whatever your speech is about, know it, know your product, know your service, know your topic.
Speaker: And you can't go wrong.
Speaker: Don't focus on what you don't know.
Speaker: Focus on what you do know and master that.
Speaker: Yeah, well, no, it's true.
Speaker: I've seen, you know, I've seen people that are supposedly great speakers come out and butcher a speech because they don't know like the topic super well.
Speaker: And then I've seen people that maybe it's like their first presentation ever, but they crush it just because they research the topic.
Speaker: They know their stuff.
Speaker: They sound super sharp out there.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: I think really that's one of the biggest secrets to being a good speaker with sales too is knowing your topic, knowing what you're talking about.
Speaker: And then even if you're a beginner, even if you're brand new, you can come across as like super polished with this stuff.
Speaker: Would you agree?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And actually, I'll bring up Doug Mitchell again.
Speaker: He talks about legacy so much.
Speaker: And actually, that's what I made him talk about.
Speaker: I was like, hey, you're going to talk about legacy, not building great sales teams.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: At my event.
Speaker: And he had been talking about legacy so much.
Speaker: And he was so nervous.
Speaker: He was up all night trying to finalize his presentation, get it all right.
Speaker: And he got up there and he did awesome.
Speaker: But it's because he's been talking about legacy for so long.
Speaker: And
Speaker: While he still used the slides he had and went through those slides, I mean, he didn't really even need them because he could just talk about legacy all day.
Speaker: And he felt like, oh man, I'm not gonna be able to, but he had been talking about it so much.
Speaker: Just saying the same thing for you in sales, whatever your product or services get consumed by it, know it inside and out.
Speaker: And then you're not gonna need that sales script or that presentation.
Speaker: You can just speak on it.
Speaker: And when you speak from the heart, it comes off so much better than just having a memorized script script and regurgitating it.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: And yeah, Doug Mitchell is awesome, by the way, for our listeners.
Speaker: He was on the podcast a few months back, so we will throw it in the show notes.
Speaker: But yeah, he gave a great podcast on build and sell teams.
Speaker: So go check him out.
Speaker: Shout out to Doug.
Speaker: But awesome.
Speaker: And so another thing we do with solar is I talked about, you know, building teams, growing teams.
Speaker: And I think the most some most successful solar companies out there have great leaders who are great speakers who can really talk and motivate
Speaker: their teams.
Speaker: So let's say, I don't know, I'm a person trying to get into like sales management, Philip.
Speaker: I'm trying to improve my speaking skills.
Speaker: I want to step into like managing a sales team.
Speaker: So what are some like, I don't know, step by step things this sales person could do?
Speaker: Let's say I haven't spoken much before, haven't really done any presentations.
Speaker: So what would you coach this guy up on?
Speaker: Or what are some like steps you'd have this future sales manager take to improve your speaking skills?
Speaker: So start with the end in mind.
Speaker: Begin with the end in mind.
Speaker: What does that end goal look like for you?
Speaker: So it's about becoming that sales manager.
Speaker: And then start looking at other sales managers.
Speaker: What is it that they do that you find successful in them?
Speaker: And then really leverage your skill set.
Speaker: Don't try and recreate who you are because you're unique.
Speaker: Lean into those skills that you have and then also delegate the skills that you don't have.
Speaker: And then work on that speaking because that's going to be a huge thing.
Speaker: And to me, most leaders that don't do that well as a leader are not transparent enough.
Speaker: It's okay to not have every single answer.
Speaker: It's okay not to know everything.
Speaker: But if you let people know that, hey, I don't know that, let me get back to you.
Speaker: Just like in a sales presentation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: But a lot of people, when they go to be a leader, they think they have to know every single thing.
Speaker: They have to be the person involved in everything.
Speaker: And that's not the case, but you have to be able to speak properly and then also be strategic as well.
Speaker: Because as you're leading teams, you have to put people in the right places, put people in the right seats on the bus.
Speaker: So start learning how people work, how people function and be able to put them in the right spots because some people are going to be better at training.
Speaker: Some people are killer at sales, but they suck when it comes to trying to teach somebody else, figure out who works, where, where their strengths are.
Speaker: And if you can start doing that.
Speaker: Before you move into management, that's going to be better.
Speaker: But learn how to also bring that out in people because management is also, in my mind, about coaching people also.
Speaker: So begin with that end in mind.
Speaker: Find the strategy of where people are going to fit on the bus and bring out the best in those and then be transparent about what it is that you do and don't know.
Speaker: Don't just be like, oh, yeah, I don't know that.
Speaker: I'm just going to let you guys know right now I don't know that.
Speaker: Don't come straight out and say that.
Speaker: But as it comes up naturally in conversation, like, hey, I'm not sure.
Speaker: Let me get back to you on that.
Speaker: Or I need to check into that real quick and just let them know where it's at rather than saying something and BSing because they're going to know when you're BSing.
Speaker: They're going to know when you're not telling them the truth or you're just making something up.
Speaker: So just come right out with it.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think it's good to have goals for sure and kind of know where you want to go with it.
Speaker: But I would say, too, for those looking to get in management, just practice and actual speaking.
Speaker: Like I remember when I first started out in solar cells, I wasn't managing or anything, but I would go to my cells manager and be like, hey, I know you guys train all the time.
Speaker: You probably run out of stuff to train on.
Speaker: Do you mind if I did just did like a training and helped you guys out with it?
Speaker: And they were super happy that I go.
Speaker: Yeah, sure.
Speaker: We do.
Speaker: We do trainings all the time.
Speaker: So by all means, be our guest.
Speaker: And I went up and I remember the first time I asked to do that, we had like 20 potential recruits come in that day.
Speaker: It was like usually we have 30.
Speaker: I don't know, 20 to 30 people there, but we had like 20 extra people that were just checking out the company.
Speaker: So we had like full house, 50, 60 people in the office.
Speaker: I'm like, Oh freak.
Speaker: What did I get myself into?
Speaker: So many more people here, but like helped a lot.
Speaker: And then, you know, the company owner side was like serious about trying to step into management.
Speaker: They saw I was serious about training other people.
Speaker: So I think that's a good tip that I would say too, for
Speaker: maybe someone that's new that you want to step into management, just go to your management, go to your company owners, say, Hey, I'm looking to like kind of stick the next step.
Speaker: And I want to train other guys.
Speaker: I want to, uh, in the future, be able to run teams, lead teams.
Speaker: Do you guys mind if I started doing some trainings and I guarantee you, well, probably 99% of company owners are not going to say no to that.
Speaker: So they're going to see that you're ambitious.
Speaker: They're going to see that you want to take the next step.
Speaker: And then the other thing that's really cool is the more you teach something, the more you present on something, the more it gets solidified in your head, too.
Speaker: So I think it's another kind of side effect of presenting because for you, do, Philip, I'm sure you learn.
Speaker: You probably learn so much more about speaking as you've started running your business and speaking.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because you've got to study techniques and all that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes, one thing to know something and apply it for yourself.
Speaker: But when you have to go back and teach it, that's when you really learn it or you learn that.
Speaker: Oh, crap.
Speaker: I really don't know that much.
Speaker: So going back and learning that.
Speaker: But I want to kind of point out two things you just mentioned.
Speaker: One, you told the management what it is that you want it.
Speaker: A lot of people also don't do that.
Speaker: So management doesn't know how to manage you either, which goes back to that transparency.
Speaker: It needs to go up the ladder and down the ladder.
Speaker: And then the other thing as well was that you created value of some sort.
Speaker: You didn't just say, Hey, you know, I want to get into management.
Speaker: I get a lot of people that say, Hey, I want to get on stage and speak.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, what do you want to speak about?
Speaker: How are you going to speak?
Speaker: They don't have any clue, but you said, Hey, I want to get into management.
Speaker: You know, I could come in and do some trainings.
Speaker: You told them what you could possibly do.
Speaker: And then they were like, yeah, let's go ahead and do that.
Speaker: But you also try to provide that value instead of just saying, hey, get me into management and left it at that.
Speaker: Like you took that initiative to say you want it to.
Speaker: But then you also took the initiative to say, this is what I can do to help out with that.
Speaker: Yeah, and probably even better, like saying even a topic, like you said, maybe not even just saying, hey, I want to do training, but hey, I've noticed our team is struggling with with I don't know this specific cell with knocking enough doors or I've noticed that we're struggling with this specific objection.
Speaker: Do you guys care if I do a training on this presentation?
Speaker: Especially if you already have it premeditated, what you're going to speak on.
Speaker: It's going to be like... Yeah, it's blowing out of the park.
Speaker: So that's a good tip for sure right there.
Speaker: But no, and so a ton of different ways we can apply the speaking here.
Speaker: And then as far as like...
Speaker: leadership, how would you say guys looking to get into leadership?
Speaker: How would you say speaking is important and like being a good leader and maybe motivating and I don't know, stepping into more leadership roles?
Speaker: Any tips you'd have on that, Philip?
Speaker: So communication is going to be so important for you because that's mainly what leaders do.
Speaker: I mean, it's not just speaking.
Speaker: Obviously, it's very important, but you also have to learn how to communicate via email and text message.
Speaker: Because while speaking, you can see my emotions.
Speaker: You can see if I'm angry or if I'm happy or if I'm just kind of even kill.
Speaker: But when it comes to a text or an email, people will perceive what they think your emotions are.
Speaker: So finding ways to be able to make sure that if you're trying to say something that, hey, I need to correct you.
Speaker: And unfortunately, it's an email, which is really not a great way to do it.
Speaker: But if you have to kind of do that in an email, you're
Speaker: making sure that you're over explaining something so that way they understand that hey i'm not mad at you i just need to address this the elephant in the room i need to address this situation here in this email and so really learning how to communicate and over communicate even because a lot of times we have all this knowledge in our head just like you all have knowledge about solar if you come to me
Speaker: I know you put it on the roof, it somehow goes into a battery and it powers up the house, right?
Speaker: Instead of using electricity from the power lines, I'm using electricity from the sun that comes through and charges the battery.
Speaker: So I don't know a lot of details about it and maybe you don't either, I don't know.
Speaker: But if you can't explain to me and give me all the details so I can really understand these things as a leader and communicate and over communicate, then it's hard to be a good leader.
Speaker: It's hard for people to follow you because they can't literally follow what it is that you're saying.
Speaker: So make sure that you over communicate and get the things that are out of your head.
Speaker: That common knowledge to you is not common knowledge to the employee.
Speaker: The things that you may learn in meetings and you've been talking about for three months, it's finally just coming around to the employees.
Speaker: So make sure that the employees also know and have that background information.
Speaker: So I always say over communicate, especially when it comes to getting into leadership, because you can...
Speaker: You can never over communicate.
Speaker: Obviously, there's like top secret things, which I don't know about in solar if there's really top secret things.
Speaker: But in the automotive industry that I'm in, there's secret things.
Speaker: We're working on projects for models that are coming out in three, four, five years from now.
Speaker: And so we can't share all that information.
Speaker: So there are things you can't share, but the things that you can...
Speaker: over communicated.
Speaker: I mean, speak like you're speaking to a fifth grader, so they can make sure that they understand not to talk down to them, but just to make sure that the information is passed along and even go back and Hey, did you understand exactly what I was asking about or trying to ask in a way that they can make sure that you can make sure that they actually understood.
Speaker: So ask them to kind of summarize what it is that you asked them to do or told them about just to make sure but over communicate for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: No, I love that.
Speaker: And I make the mistake all the time because being in solar six years now, it's like sometimes I forget that new guys are coming in their first day and I'm like almost acting like they should know all these things.
Speaker: So especially for people that are experienced in solar, a lot of new guys and especially...
Speaker: If you haven't learned already, people you're selling, you got to make things as simple as possible and do baby steps.
Speaker: And like Philip said, don't overcomplicate it.
Speaker: Just make sure they really understand things.
Speaker: And I think that's a big secret in training other people and also in yourselves for sure.
Speaker: And training the audience to think about it.
Speaker: I just learned this that and it makes sense.
Speaker: But I would think that in order to be able to sell some solar panels, you'd probably have to go on the roof and take a look at it or especially maybe more so in roofing than solar.
Speaker: But really, you don't need to.
Speaker: You could go on Google Maps or some kind of map and then map it out and say, OK, you're about this many square foot for your your house, your roof, whatever.
Speaker: And you can give an estimate kind of based on that.
Speaker: And I think it's a little bit more on roofing side than solar.
Speaker: But still, you don't have to actually go climb up on the roof anymore to make sure you can go look at some Google images and see, OK, so we can do for you.
Speaker: kind of thing yeah educating on that as well so over communicating that because as somebody in solar for six years you're like yeah well duh i don't have to go on a roof anymore but for me if i'm a customer i'm like oh man you got to come out to my house and check on this and i gotta find the time but when all along you never even had to come you could have just been like hey what's your address okay plug it in
Speaker: All right, cool.
Speaker: I see you got, you know, 2,100 square foot house, you know, probably be about this many solar panels.
Speaker: This was going to look like, you know, obviously you wouldn't go and tell me all the price and stuff like that over the phone, but still you could get a lot of information before coming in.
Speaker: Although I feel like you're going to have to come out and look at it and it's going to take a lot longer.
Speaker: So really just explaining all that stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's lots of tools that we have in solar to be able to do that and, you know, show them digital images and all that.
Speaker: So hopefully.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But explaining those tools and showing those tools.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe they don't want to know, but you might get that engineer that, Oh, they want to see all that cool stuff.
Speaker: Other people may not, but just giving them more information they need.
Speaker: Don't overwhelm them with information, but like, Hey, let's show you this.
Speaker: And they'll give you signs if they're like, all right, this is too much.
Speaker: Like eyes are getting glazed over, rolling back.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: pay attention to them and over communicate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you can always, that's another secret I think in sales and speaking to is you can usually tell when people are getting overwhelmed or checking out of your presentation, checking out of your,
Speaker: sales talk, whatever.
Speaker: So I think that's another big secret is paying attention to other people and, um, you know, how you're being perceived out there as you're doing your presentations.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, big secrets.
Speaker: And then, um, just to kind of start wrapping up here, Philip, another thing I think I struggle with and I still struggle with sometimes is just preparing my actual presentations to our teams and,
Speaker: Even, you know, like for podcasts, sometimes I just get brain dead and just have no idea what I'm going to talk about.
Speaker: And then sometimes it's like I spend way too much preparing and just overthink it.
Speaker: So do you have any, I don't know, advice for people that maybe they're trying to prepare like a presentation for their teams or just, you know, maybe they're speaking to whatever, speaking at church, speaking in their community or
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: What's your, do you have like a framework for preparing presentations or stuff that helps you to not like spend hours and hours and not overthink it and just be more effective in that?
Speaker: Yeah, so I do podcasts a little differently.
Speaker: I'll start there.
Speaker: So podcasts, usually it's, I have a couple questions I have in mind.
Speaker: I know their background a little bit.
Speaker: I don't do a ton of research.
Speaker: Most people I get on, I kind of already know them a little bit.
Speaker: But if I don't, I'll do some research and I'll have a few questions based on who they are and the...
Speaker: So my goal of my podcast, my podcast is to help people get better at public speaking and get on stage.
Speaker: So I had that goal in mind.
Speaker: And then I take whatever their background is.
Speaker: So for you, we talked about sales and how pretty much the same kind of conversation, but for
Speaker: flipped where how does speaking help you in sales?
Speaker: And you talk to me about that on the podcast, but just basically taking that what your expertise is in and be able to ask questions around that.
Speaker: So that's what I do with the podcast.
Speaker: Now, when it comes to speaking,
Speaker: and having a presentation, I usually go with like three to five points.
Speaker: I don't like to go for more than that because then it becomes too much information for people to absorb.
Speaker: So if you're trying to speak on a specific topic, again, begin with that end in mind.
Speaker: What is the end goal?
Speaker: What do you want people to take away from your presentation?
Speaker: first of all, and then reverse engineer that, you know, work backwards and say, okay, here's three or five points that would support that end goal that I want to have for them.
Speaker: And then talk about those three to five points and really give stories with that because you don't want to just give facts.
Speaker: You actually want to tell stories as well to draw emotion.
Speaker: right think about with solar cells if i just came to you and i'm like all right look this is what your how many square feet your house is your electric bills this much if we did this kind of solar you could pay it off the next amount of years and really wouldn't cost anything out of pocket but you're going to save this amount of money for a month like okay cool but what does that really i mean besides the money what does that do for me because i feel like oh maybe
Speaker: You're going to be in my space because you have to get on the roof and you're going to install it.
Speaker: And it's going to be so inconvenient for me.
Speaker: So again, understanding that audience, but then telling a story with it and bringing out emotion and using those other testimonials from previous clients and like how this, oh, this client, they were worried about how it was going to mess up their roof.
Speaker: And it really didn't because of X, Y, Z and how we take care of this and make sure that the roofs are up to spec and whatever, that they're always going
Speaker: really in really good shape and everything.
Speaker: And then they were able to save all this money and they were able to go maybe on a trip to Disneyland or something like that, but just trying to draw off that emotion and tell those stories.
Speaker: So keep it to three to five points and tell stories within that presentation to really draw off those emotions for people.
Speaker: So important.
Speaker: That's nugget for sure.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Stories are so powerful in sales and everything we do.
Speaker: And so, okay.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: And so stories, yeah, just so important to draw out that emotion and help people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: create a buying decision or help people take action.
Speaker: Because if you're training a team, a lot of times if you're just spitting out facts and figures and all that, they're not going to take action.
Speaker: It's like, hey guys, let's go hit 50 more doors today and you can make an extra $20,000.
Speaker: Most people don't care about that money, but if you can get people to understand the why behind it, whether it's sell-on or whether it's motivating your team, that's what's going to cause them to take action on it.
Speaker: If you can tie whatever that monetary thing is to, hey,
Speaker: I don't know, you can buy your mom a car or whatever.
Speaker: Help people figure out what their deeper whys are.
Speaker: And same in sales.
Speaker: If you can tie in a story, hey, we just helped your neighbor cross the street.
Speaker: She was on medical equipment.
Speaker: She was on a fixed income.
Speaker: Going solar literally helped her not afford food this month because she was tied up in bills.
Speaker: She's on a fixed income.
Speaker: Now we're helping someone be able to
Speaker: like go out to dinner and extra time and not have to stress about their bills being on a fixed income.
Speaker: So stuff like that, super important and so effective in yourselves and in your speaking, I think for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or even right now in California with all the brownouts and rolling blackouts and, you know, whatever other color outs you got going on out there.
Speaker: I mean, that's another thing.
Speaker: Like, how inconvenient is it to not have electricity at your house?
Speaker: Well, guess what?
Speaker: The sun is always out every single day.
Speaker: You're always going to have electricity no matter how the power grid is right now.
Speaker: I don't know exactly how it's set up, but I'm guessing that y'all aren't on some kind of crazy shared thing where even though you create energy, you have to go give it to the company, then they give it back or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah, lift that battery.
Speaker: There goes another example.
Speaker: Like, hey, do you want to be without power?
Speaker: Get some solar.
Speaker: You're not going to be without power again.
Speaker: We can make sure that you have...
Speaker: a battery large enough that'll last all night for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, make sure you're selling them a battery if you tell them that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Out here, people, it's optional to get a battery.
Speaker: But if they don't get a battery, they're still relying on the grid.
Speaker: But my mistake, but I've told a couple times in the podcast that I didn't know that.
Speaker: So I was telling my customers that they'd always have a power.
Speaker: And then when they didn't, I was getting calls of pissed off customers all the time.
Speaker: So make sure you know what you're saying.
Speaker: Well, that's an upcharge.
Speaker: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker: I mean, I guess technically it is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: But yeah, if you want that, yeah, make sure you get that battery.
Speaker: See, I know that.
Speaker: So I know something for solid.
Speaker: You knew more than I did starting out.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: But yeah, know your product, know your audience.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: So awesome.
Speaker: Philip, it's been awesome having you on here today.
Speaker: And so if people want to hear more about you or check out your podcast, what's the best way to do that?
Speaker: Can you give a little call to action for our audience here?
Speaker: Yeah, website is speaking sessions.com.
Speaker: You can find my coaching, my podcast, things like that.
Speaker: You can just go look up speaking sessions.
Speaker: That's the name of the podcast, or you can find me on Facebook at the real Philip sessions.
Speaker: That's with one L best places reach out to me and happy to offer a free 30 minute consultation.
Speaker: Anybody that wants to talk about speaking, see how I can give you a couple of tips to help you get better at speaking.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So guys, go check Philip out and check out his podcast because what we're doing in sales, speaking is a crucial part of that.
Speaker: So I'd recommend everyone that's doing sales training, add speaking training to that.
Speaker: So it's only going to help you in whatever you do.
Speaker: And it's the more you train, the more it's going to be solidified in your head.
Speaker: So keep that in mind as you're out there learning new sales techniques and training your teams.
Speaker: So thanks again for coming on the show with us today, Philip.
Speaker: Go reach out to him on what's your Instagram if people want to connect with you there, Phil.
Speaker: I am Philip Sessions.
Speaker: Okay, easy enough.
Speaker: Okay, we'll put that in the show notes.
Speaker: So everyone go shoot him a message.
Speaker: Let him know you appreciated him coming on the show.
Speaker: And thanks again.
Speaker: So hopefully we're gonna have you again sometime in the future when you got a million people at your event.
Speaker: How about that?
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: That sounds great.
Speaker: Maybe we can do it before then though.
Speaker: That might be a little bit, but it'll happen for sure.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We'll get you some more people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I appreciate it, man.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thanks.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
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