Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
119. Book Reading Hacks For Top Solarpreneurs
33 Plays5 years ago
What are some of your favorite books for personal and/or business development? How many times have you read them? If you don't like reading or if you're a really slow reader, I am going to share some of the hacks that I have been using in order to improve in this area.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of the 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.
Upcoming Events and Offers
00:00:43
Speaker
What's up, solarpreneurs?
00:00:44
Speaker
This is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome back to the Solarpreneurs Podcast, here to help you close more deals, generate more leads, and become a top solar professional in today's cutthroat industry.
00:00:58
Speaker
but we're going to make sure it's not cutthroat for you because you know what the top solar experts are doing.
00:01:04
Speaker
I'm stoked to be with you today and I've got some exciting tips I'm going to share with you.
00:01:09
Speaker
But before that, I have a few announcements, I guess you could say.
00:01:15
Speaker
Number one, if you haven't already, go get on the list.
00:01:19
Speaker
We're doing a web class today.
00:01:23
Speaker
going to be three mistakes that I see over and over and over in the industry.
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm going to share with you some secrets that the top experts are using today.
00:01:32
Speaker
So that's webclass.solarpreneur.com.
00:01:35
Speaker
If you haven't already, go get on the wait list and that is going to be launching here very, very soon.
00:01:42
Speaker
So that's the first one.
00:01:43
Speaker
And the second one is I heard from my friend Sam Taggart.
00:01:48
Speaker
He's been on the podcast about a year ago.
00:01:51
Speaker
We had him on.
00:01:52
Speaker
He's actually one of our most popular episodes.
00:01:54
Speaker
So if you haven't already, go check out that.
00:01:57
Speaker
He dropped some closing tips, got a ton of feedback from it, ton of rave reviews.
00:02:03
Speaker
People loved it.
00:02:04
Speaker
So go check out that episode.
00:02:07
Speaker
But I got a text from him.
00:02:09
Speaker
about a week ago and just inviting me to his event.
00:02:16
Speaker
If you haven't been to it, it's door to door con.
00:02:17
Speaker
It's the best event in the industry for all our door to door professionals.
00:02:24
Speaker
So I want to invite you.
00:02:26
Speaker
He invited me and now I want to send our sorpreneurs special invite to door to door con as well.
00:02:34
Speaker
He did increase the prices this year, but that is because it's going to be a lot smaller event, obviously, with COVID going on.
00:02:41
Speaker
He's capping it at 500 people.
00:02:45
Speaker
And he is bringing in David Goggins, which I'm, yeah, it's crazy.
00:02:51
Speaker
I can't believe we're getting David Goggins at a DoritorCon.
00:02:54
Speaker
If you haven't heard his book, go listen to it.
00:02:57
Speaker
Guy is a...
00:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, got a mind of steel.
00:03:01
Speaker
So he's got some of the top speakers coming.
00:03:04
Speaker
And what he is doing for our listeners is he is giving, for our Solar Printer listeners, Sam Taggart is going to give us a buy one, get one free for tickets.
00:03:17
Speaker
So I'm actually going to make a page for it.
00:03:19
Speaker
I'll probably put that in either the notes for this episode or the next episode.
00:03:25
Speaker
Look for that in the show notes.
00:03:27
Speaker
But in the meantime, if you want to have early access and get yourself a buy one, get one free ticket, hit me up and then I can get you access to that.
00:03:36
Speaker
So two things.
00:03:38
Speaker
And also let me know.
00:03:39
Speaker
I'm thinking about maybe doing a meetup or some sort of mini events at Door2DoorCon.
00:03:45
Speaker
So let me know if you're going.
00:03:47
Speaker
And then I would love to plan something like that, hang out with my peeps.
00:03:53
Speaker
So let's, with that being said, let's jump right into
The Power of Reading for Growth and Sales
00:03:55
Speaker
the show.
00:03:55
Speaker
Today I want to share some tips that have helped me actually read a lot more books.
00:04:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:02
Speaker
And I know we're getting geeky here.
00:04:03
Speaker
Taylor, what are you, what are you even talking about reading?
00:04:09
Speaker
Well, if you're not reading books,
00:04:11
Speaker
You're not improving, right?
00:04:13
Speaker
We should all be reading every day.
00:04:14
Speaker
It's what helps us learn.
00:04:16
Speaker
No-brainer, especially if we're in sales, we need to be focusing on constant improvement.
00:04:23
Speaker
So I recently listened to a podcast by Russell Brunson.
00:04:28
Speaker
If you don't subscribe to his podcast, it's called Marketing Secrets.
00:04:32
Speaker
Really good podcast, especially if you are trying to learn marketing or want to hear more about that.
00:04:37
Speaker
But he shared a couple book hacks that just blew my mind, honestly, were actually really good.
00:04:44
Speaker
And a few of them I was already doing, but he just kind of put it into words.
00:04:48
Speaker
And then a few of them were things that I learned.
00:04:51
Speaker
So part of this episode is actually going to be from stuff that he shared in that podcast.
00:04:56
Speaker
So you can go listen to that for a little bit more detail in on it.
00:05:00
Speaker
And then I'm going to share just some things besides that that have helped me read more books, that have helped me retain more, that have helped me read quicker.
00:05:08
Speaker
Growing up, I did read a decent amount.
00:05:12
Speaker
You know, I would like read the Harry Potters and all that stuff.
00:05:15
Speaker
But then once I got to, it was probably college, I basically stopped reading.
00:05:19
Speaker
Hated it.
00:05:20
Speaker
Never wanted to read.
00:05:22
Speaker
Would read the textbooks, but that's about it.
00:05:26
Speaker
So this episode is especially for you if you don't like reading.
00:05:30
Speaker
or if you're a really slow reader like I feel like I was.
00:05:33
Speaker
So I'm going to share with you how to improve those things.
00:05:37
Speaker
So the first thing that I learned is you need to be listening to audiobooks.
00:05:45
Speaker
If you don't have an Audible account, go get an Audible account.
00:05:49
Speaker
And you should always be listening to some type of educational material while you're driving to appointments.
00:05:56
Speaker
That's actually something I learned from Brian Tracy.
00:05:58
Speaker
I think he talks about it in, might be psychology of sales.
00:06:03
Speaker
But Brian Tracy talks about how you should be making your commutes basically a library.
00:06:10
Speaker
Your commutes should be a classroom.
00:06:12
Speaker
Your car should turn into a classroom on your commutes.
00:06:14
Speaker
Because think about it, I'm typically driving about an hour a day right now, sometimes more.
00:06:21
Speaker
But a lot of people in the industry, I mean, you got appointments that are 30 minutes away.
00:06:26
Speaker
You're going out to turfs that are, you know, 30, 40 minutes away.
00:06:31
Speaker
If you've got deals in different areas or if you're helping your team close deals, you're probably driving, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 minutes to different areas to go knock with your team or to go follow up with people, go to referrals.
00:06:45
Speaker
So all these things adds up.
00:06:46
Speaker
I've had days where I've driven three plus hours in the car.
00:06:51
Speaker
And if you're not doing something useful in those three hours, then that's three hours wasted, basically.
00:06:59
Speaker
So that's the first secret from Brian Tracy.
00:07:02
Speaker
He says, make your car a library, make your car a classroom.
00:07:06
Speaker
Tune into this podcast.
00:07:07
Speaker
Hopefully this podcast is part of your commute.
00:07:10
Speaker
But also get audible, get some type of audio books.
00:07:15
Speaker
Listen to all the sales books.
00:07:17
Speaker
those are things that are going to help you.
00:07:19
Speaker
So that's the first tip.
00:07:21
Speaker
Always use that time where you're doing tasks.
00:07:25
Speaker
Maybe it's cleaning, driving.
00:07:27
Speaker
Use that to learn.
00:07:28
Speaker
Put in headphones.
00:07:29
Speaker
Put on Bluetooth.
00:07:30
Speaker
Use that time to learn.
00:07:31
Speaker
And tip number two is as you are reading, well, here's a big secret.
00:07:41
Speaker
If you get actual paper copies of a book, you need to be
00:07:48
Speaker
Well, if you want to get more out of it, you need to have the audiobook with the actual physical copy.
00:07:54
Speaker
And this is a really cool secret.
00:07:56
Speaker
For me, it's actually pretty tough to retain all the information.
00:07:59
Speaker
I'm definitely more of a visual learner.
00:08:02
Speaker
Always been that way.
00:08:03
Speaker
I learn more when I actually see the material.
00:08:06
Speaker
So I love audiobooks, but I tend to phase out, zone out.
00:08:09
Speaker
If I'm driving, I start to think about other things, start to think about other details.
00:08:14
Speaker
So if you really want to retain...
00:08:16
Speaker
and take that retention to another level, you need to be taking in the auditory information and then also seeing it visually.
00:08:22
Speaker
It's going to help you retain way more.
00:08:26
Speaker
And then the second secret with that, if you want to take your speed reading to another level, listen to the audiobook on double, triple, I think Audible even goes to four times, 4x speed.
00:08:39
Speaker
And let's be honest, you're not really going to hear any of that probably if you're just listening to it.
00:08:46
Speaker
But a big secret, if you actually have the physical copy, if you are looking at the words along with listening to the book, it's crazy.
00:08:55
Speaker
You can crank that baby up to like 4x speed and you're actually able to follow along.
00:09:00
Speaker
You're actually going to get stuff out of it.
00:09:02
Speaker
That's the only way I know of that you can actually put it to that quick and still retain something.
00:09:07
Speaker
But you're going to fly through books.
00:09:09
Speaker
So if you are someone that struggles with reading quick or that doesn't like reading,
00:09:14
Speaker
or just can't get through something, get a physical copy, you're gonna be seeing it, and then get the book on Audible, get the audiobook version.
00:09:24
Speaker
You're gonna fly through books, and trust me, you're gonna retain so much more, because you're gonna be taking it in visually and auditory.
Focus and Mastery in Learning
00:09:33
Speaker
And the last secret is don't, look, we're solopreneurs, we're entrepreneurs.
00:09:41
Speaker
You've probably heard CEOs read a book a week,
00:09:44
Speaker
They read all the time.
00:09:46
Speaker
They're always speed reading.
00:09:48
Speaker
I've never gotten close to reading 52 books in a year, unless you count the books that I read to my kid at night, tiny books.
00:09:56
Speaker
But you hear these myths, these legends of CEOs reading a book a week and just getting through so much content.
00:10:03
Speaker
And there's been times where I've tried to read a couple books a month and
00:10:08
Speaker
But guess what?
00:10:09
Speaker
When I do that, I do not retain very much information.
00:10:13
Speaker
It's so much I try to take in that I implement almost zero of it too.
00:10:19
Speaker
So I'm going to ask a question, and you ask yourself this.
00:10:24
Speaker
If you're reading, how much of what you read are you actually implementing?
00:10:28
Speaker
It's the purpose of any self-improvement book, the purpose of any sales book, is to go out and it's to implement what you're reading, right?
00:10:36
Speaker
So if you're reading these books and you're not implementing it, if your goal is to read 52 books a year, you're probably not going to implement hardly any of what you read, because who can actually read that many books and implement it?
00:10:50
Speaker
So what I want to invite you to do, go deep on a single book.
00:10:55
Speaker
Russell Brunson in his podcast, he talked about this, and his top earners in ClickFunnels, some of his top people, guys that are making the most money, he asked them the same question, like, how many books are you guys reading?
00:11:08
Speaker
And instead of saying, oh, we read 50 books, there are all these, their answer was that they read a single book, and they read it like 10 times.
00:11:18
Speaker
So they're digging deep, they're diving deep, they're taking in everything that they can take in,
00:11:24
Speaker
So the example he gave, Russell Brunson, he has his book, it's Expert Secrets,.com Secrets, those are two of his best-selling books.
00:11:32
Speaker
And Alex Urmosi, he is one of the top ClickFunnels earners.
00:11:36
Speaker
He goes and helps gym owners basically scale their gyms, scale their businesses.
00:11:44
Speaker
And that's what he did.
00:11:45
Speaker
Alex, he read Expert Secrets, Russell Brunson's book.
00:11:49
Speaker
He read it eight times when Russell asked him in the past year.
00:11:53
Speaker
So you're just going over and over and over this material.
00:11:57
Speaker
So that's what changes your life.
00:11:59
Speaker
If you can really take in and implement these books, if you're reading a marketing book, if you're reading a sales book, go read it eight times.
00:12:08
Speaker
And I've, I mean, I talk about it all the time, but probably my most quoted book or my most referred to book on the podcast is Closer Survival Guide by Grant Cardone.
00:12:18
Speaker
It is a good book, but honestly, the reason why it's the most referred to book is because I've listened to it seven or eight times now.
00:12:26
Speaker
And to be fair, that was the only audiobook I had on my phone for probably six months.
00:12:32
Speaker
So I listened to it over and over and over again.
00:12:34
Speaker
But if you do that, think of any sales book that has helped you.
00:12:38
Speaker
Any self-improvement book.
00:12:40
Speaker
I want to invite you to go read it again.
00:12:43
Speaker
Dig deep into it.
00:12:44
Speaker
Listen to it.
00:12:46
Speaker
And then get the physical copy.
00:12:48
Speaker
Especially any book that you're really trying to take in.
00:12:50
Speaker
If it's just something for enjoyment or something that you know you're not going to...
00:12:54
Speaker
have a ton of takeaways from then yeah listen to it all day but if you really want to dive deep you want to get as much as possible out of a book you're trying to take in go get the physical copy listen the audiobook and dive deep into it because that is when what's going to make the difference when I did that with the closer survival guide by Grant Cardone I had after that was probably when I was doing my best closing
00:13:19
Speaker
I was on, you know, the sixth time listening to that and I was actually implementing the things I learned.
00:13:26
Speaker
So that's the
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:13:27
Speaker
secret.
00:13:27
Speaker
So that's the three tips.
00:13:28
Speaker
Number one, make your car a listening library.
00:13:32
Speaker
Make it a classroom.
00:13:33
Speaker
Number two, get the physical book and get the audible version or the audio book.
00:13:38
Speaker
Number three, don't just read the book surface level.
00:13:42
Speaker
Read it on repeat.
00:13:43
Speaker
If you're trying to get as much as possible, dig deep into it.
00:13:47
Speaker
Whatever book you're trying to get the most takeaways from, read it two, three, four, or five times.
00:13:51
Speaker
That's how you're going to get the improvements.
00:13:53
Speaker
So I hope that helps.
00:13:55
Speaker
It's helped me a ton.
00:13:56
Speaker
And go get a book out there.
00:13:58
Speaker
If you want some recommendations, let me know.
00:14:01
Speaker
And I hope you keep crushing.
00:14:02
Speaker
We will see you on the next one.
00:14:05
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning into today's episode.
00:14:08
Speaker
I know when I got into the industry, I had almost no resources like this.
00:14:12
Speaker
So I hope this show is helping you get the success you deserve.
00:14:16
Speaker
If you found value from anything in this episode today, think about someone who can benefit so you and I can help people fulfill their potential.
00:14:24
Speaker
Zig Ziglar said if you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.
00:14:29
Speaker
So I promise by sharing this it will help you grow and improve.
00:14:33
Speaker
The value bombs on today's show will take you one step closer to success, but it's always to the degree that you apply and execute the principles.
00:14:41
Speaker
I've spent the last few years interviewing the top solar experts and helping other reps and businesses discover their potential.
00:14:48
Speaker
If you want more help achieving your goals, then I put together an exclusive video training on three hacks that helped me close multiple deals a week while knocking less than 10 hours.
00:14:58
Speaker
And who doesn't want that?
00:15:00
Speaker
So go check it out at webclass.solarpreneurs.com.
00:15:03
Speaker
Once again, that's webclass.solarpreneurs.com to get exclusive access to the training.
00:15:10
Speaker
and take your skills to the next level.