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 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.
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: All right, what's going on?
Speaker: We are here with another episode, and this is actually the second take of this particular episode.
Speaker: We ran it yesterday, and then we looked back at the recording, and I guess we had a software issue or didn't know how to work it correctly.
Speaker: I'll take that one.
Speaker: Yeah, but no, it's all good.
Speaker: So this is going to be even better.
Speaker: We're welcoming back now for the second time.
Speaker: Mr. Solar Mike, Mike Winters, thanks for coming on the podcast with us today.
Speaker: Yeah, no, happy to be here again.
Speaker: So this will be good.
Speaker: Yeah, we we got the rough edges out.
Speaker: This is going to be the best podcast now ever because we practiced kind of.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: It's either going to be way better or it's going to be boring because we're going to be repeating the same stuff we were talking about yesterday.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: No, it'll be good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, no.
Speaker: So we're excited to have Solar Mike on because if you've not been following this guy on social media, he's absolutely crushing it.
Speaker: He, in my opinion, is one of the guys that is like must follow over on Instagram is dropping.
Speaker: Super entertaining, super informative content.
Speaker: And not only for homeowners that, you know, watch this stuff, but I've myself that I've been in the industry seven years, I've learned a ton from just watching his content and his journey.
Speaker: So definitely go give them a follow.
Speaker: But yeah, we're going to be jamming on social media.
Speaker: We're going to be jamming on referral partners and a whole lot more.
Speaker: So yeah, before that, Mike, do you want to, I know you gave it yesterday, but for the second time, do you want to give your background, maybe for people that don't know you and just how you got it?
Speaker: Well, thanks for saying that about the content.
Speaker: It started, and I'll talk about how it started, but yeah,
Speaker: It has kind of gone into... It initially started as homeowner content and now it talks to a broader audience a lot in the industry.
Speaker: I'm trying to comment on really what I'm going through during a day.
Speaker: A lot of the things that
Speaker: I post or something I learned that day or something that's just happening.
Speaker: I mean, that's what social media is.
Speaker: It's like, hey, this is my life and this is what's going on with it.
Speaker: But I started in solar three years ago.
Speaker: So December of 2020, right?
Speaker: Like middle of COVID, mask, mask.
Speaker: Full mask, knocking doors, can't go in the house.
Speaker: That's how I started in this industry, which was kind of crazy.
Speaker: But anyway, so that's where I started.
Speaker: Didn't have any social media experience.
Speaker: And knocking was great.
Speaker: That worked really well.
Speaker: But I definitely could sense...
Speaker: a lack of trust with just that approach.
Speaker: So I thought, well, how do I establish some credibility?
Speaker: And I had a friend.
Speaker: She's a genius.
Speaker: She knows social media.
Speaker: And I asked her to give me some strategy on
Speaker: if I were to turn the camera on and start recording myself, like what, what would that look like?
Speaker: And so we kind of came up with a plan, like let's make an account that's shows that you're credible, shows you're an expert and, and shows your personality.
Speaker: And I think that was sort of the foundation of where I started it.
Speaker: I did that six months into knocking really just kind of,
Speaker: Started turning the camera on.
Speaker: I think one of my first posts was a, I put a bunny in a backpack that's like clear.
Speaker: You wouldn't have seen this unless you went like way down the rabbit hole of my account.
Speaker: Like this is old.
Speaker: I should repost it.
Speaker: But I actually like put a bunny rabbit in a backpack and knocked doors with it.
Speaker: Like it was my pet.
Speaker: So I was just having fun with it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah.
Speaker: And it was good.
Speaker: And then it kind of turned into, you know, a way for me to really connect to the industry and I met a lot of people and a lot of – made a lot of relationships through it.
Speaker: So –
Speaker: Initially, I just did it to have fun and connect with homeowners, give myself maybe a few more leads here and there.
Speaker: But it's turned into a whole different thing for sure.
Speaker: So something I thought of as you're saying this, because I know there's reps that they hate knocking doors.
Speaker: They're looking for any way to not have to knock doors.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: you know, just go referral based and all that, which I know you do now.
Speaker: So at the time when you were first starting your social media page, was, was it a way for you?
Speaker: Like, Oh, I just want to get off the doors or was it just kind of like something you're thinking, I'm going to supplement what I'm doing?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good question.
Speaker: I definitely, so knocking doors works well and I, and I was okay at it like enough to, I'm still here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I, I built it enough to where like,
Speaker: I made a career out of this through knocking doors.
Speaker: When I started social media, in my mind, I thought in a year, I'm not going to be knocking doors.
Speaker: That was kind of like just a general goal.
Speaker: And it's not because knocking doors is like horrible.
Speaker: Every job sucks.
Speaker: Every job has parts of it that sucks.
Speaker: Like what I do now, the fact that I'm not endorsed, there's a lot of things that I don't like doing just like any other job.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So it's, it's just a trade off.
Speaker: I miss the simplicity of the doors, but really that transition was more like scalability.
Speaker: I feel like,
Speaker: The percentage of people that would listen to me knocking doors was small.
Speaker: And then my access, right?
Speaker: I can only talk to people on this street when I've got 90 million homes in the country that need this product.
Speaker: So it was really a long-term look at how do I take what I'm learning now on the doors and prepare myself to be able to do this everywhere.
Speaker: And I didn't really have that fully planned out, but I knew...
Speaker: that I really loved what I was doing.
Speaker: I love this product.
Speaker: I love talking about it.
Speaker: And I thought, how do I really like take this to more people?
Speaker: And that, that was kind of the goal.
Speaker: And then honestly, weirdly, like a year later after I started is when, um, I stopped knocking doors.
Speaker: It was about a year after that, that, uh,
Speaker: It just kind of happened that way.
Speaker: I met some people and started to get referrals and thought, well, this is maybe a better method to do this.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: No, that's awesome.
Speaker: Well, before I forget, I know we said this in the podcast yesterday, but it's funny how we even did this podcast.
Speaker: Or Meet Cute.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's talk about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I got to say this is too funny before I forget.
Speaker: But we were both just in San Diego.
Speaker: I think it was Friday night or something.
Speaker: We were, you know, taking our wives out on date nights, whatever.
Speaker: And we're at this taco shop and I see this guy just jumping around.
Speaker: I'm like, I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere on social media or something.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure he's that solar mic guy.
Speaker: And so I didn't talk to you yet, but I start, you know, pulling up Instagram.
Speaker: I'm like, okay, I better make sure it's actually him before I go and look like an idiot or something.
Speaker: I was like, this dude's getting creepy.
Speaker: Just staring at me.
Speaker: No, I was thinking the same thing when I saw you.
Speaker: I thought I've seen, cause I had seen your content before.
Speaker: And so once we finally like locked eyes and we're like, okay, like, yeah.
Speaker: We're probably we're in solar, right?
Speaker: Like we're in San Diego.
Speaker: You're tall and you have huge muscles.
Speaker: I was like, for sure we got this right.
Speaker: Yeah, you can spot solar, guys.
Speaker: But yeah, luckily I spotted you.
Speaker: And I think that's the first time we'd like officially met and, you know, talk to each other.
Speaker: And I'm like, man, I've been following you for a while.
Speaker: Started a fanboy on you and wife's like, whatever.
Speaker: It's like, oh, yeah, this happens all the time.
Speaker: This guy's famous.
Speaker: I didn't say that.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: But yeah, San Diego, there's a lot of us.
Speaker: There's just so much solar here.
Speaker: But yeah, we had some tacos, had a meal.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: Here we are.
Speaker: So yeah, it's so funny.
Speaker: But yeah, you are officially the first podcast guest that I've just like ran into in the public and hadn't talked to you before, hadn't been introduced.
Speaker: So it's definitely fate that we're on the podcast today.
Speaker: We're eating tacos together.
Speaker: But no, so jumping back into the social media stuff, Mike, so your goal in the beginning sounded like you're trying to just build more trust, start getting more leads.
Speaker: So did it go better or worse than you're expecting?
Speaker: Like, what was it?
Speaker: Was it frustrating initially?
Speaker: It's definitely so.
Speaker: Well, there's this idea that like, you know, is it about going viral and getting followers or like, how do I use this thing now that I have a thousand followers?
Speaker: And when I'm when I'm telling people that want to start because people ask me like, OK, I want to be on your team.
Speaker: Let's let's do social media like you do.
Speaker: And I'm like, well.
Speaker: It doesn't necessarily have to be like that.
Speaker: My beginning was, I remember I was like, I need nine posts, right?
Speaker: So there's a grid.
Speaker: So if you go to my account, you can't really scroll, but it looks like there's a bunch of posts, right?
Speaker: I just clearly remember this.
Speaker: I got to get to nine posts really quick.
Speaker: And then I'll start doing what I want to do, which was a DM strategy.
Speaker: So all it simply started out as is like, I'm going to make a video.
Speaker: I'm going to show my face, say I'm in solar.
Speaker: And then I'm going to start door knocking these people in DMS.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which we all get like a lot of spammy DMS.
Speaker: And that's how I started using it.
Speaker: And I remember I got about two or three installs from that.
Speaker: And I would say I did that for six months.
Speaker: Like I would just go to the coffee shop and just like spend a
Speaker: 20 to 30 minutes sending out these DMs before I went out and knocked.
Speaker: And it wasn't a ton of business that I got from it, but it kind of started this... Got my mind rolling on like, well, there's some value in this.
Speaker: I remember one of those clients is in a gated community, somewhere I couldn't knock.
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: So it was like, oh, I can see I'm already accessing people that I wouldn't have been able to access knocking doors.
Speaker: And that got me excited.
Speaker: And then I just kept going from there.
Speaker: That's all it was at first.
Speaker: Nine posts and I was going to start spamming.
Speaker: Like that was as simple as it was.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: And I know before you're talking about when we did our first podcast, it's like there's so many people that when you think about it, aren't getting solar from door to door guys.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And even.
Speaker: Mostly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a small percentage that do.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And even as I'm knocking doors, like maybe even two days ago, for example, I had an incident where we have our knocking app we use and people, you know, keep record of who's knocked there, who's been there.
Speaker: So I see this home that's been knocked on like 10 times and no one's come to the door.
Speaker: So like those people are pretty tough probably to get a hold of.
Speaker: So I'm like, okay, maybe the 10th time I'll be the lucky one where he actually opens the door.
Speaker: So I go there, I'm banging on the door, nothing.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay, no luck.
Speaker: But then as I'm walking away, I hear from like a side window that there's someone coughing in there.
Speaker: And so I just, I'm trying not to be a creep about it, but I just kind of go a little bit close to that window.
Speaker: And I'm like, hello, hello.
Speaker: Hey, how's it going?
Speaker: Just kind of shouting.
Speaker: I always yell.
Speaker: I always just like yelling is like just as good as knocking.
Speaker: Like, Hey, anyway, go on.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and so this guy, he comes to that window, but he's just like instantly starts, you know, what are you doing?
Speaker: You're creeping through my window.
Speaker: Get the F out of here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm like, Whoa, man, I'm just, I just, it just sounded like someone is in there.
Speaker: You don't have to come, but Hey, it's just about what's going on in the neighborhood.
Speaker: Did you hear?
Speaker: And I sort of trying to, you know, go through my presentation, but he's on edge.
Speaker: So he kind of half listens.
Speaker: But then at the end, he just kind of gets angrier, angrier, eventually just like snaps.
Speaker: And he's like, what if my kids were in there?
Speaker: You're looking through my window.
Speaker: Like, tell me what company you're at.
Speaker: And, you know, I got a video of it posted on my social media and pretty funny that he like flips out like that.
Speaker: Oh, you do?
Speaker: Oh, I want to go see that.
Speaker: I'll just send it to you later.
Speaker: But yeah, like the point is these people that just never come to the door, that just get pissed off with anyone knocking their door.
Speaker: It's like, how are they going to get solar?
Speaker: Probably not from someone knocking their door if they're
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Back like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But, you know, when you roll out something like what Mike has done, when you get the social media going, when you work out deals with referral partners, that's how you're getting a lot of people that, you know, maybe would never go.
Speaker: So because I think all of us that knock doors, we've all heard a lot of times, hey, I don't do business with people that come to my door.
Speaker: which to us, it sounds ridiculous, but it's like, you know, we live in a world where there's lots of scams.
Speaker: People are skeptical.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, there's just a lot of people that for whatever reason, they don't want to associate with someone that come to their door.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I get that.
Speaker: I mean, I'm, I'm the same way.
Speaker: Um, I think we all have some of that, but it is wild to be, to, to know what you have.
Speaker: So you're, you're knocking doors in California.
Speaker: You've got,
Speaker: you've got a way to cut their bill in half and they won't listen to you.
Speaker: It's, it's wildly infuriating.
Speaker: It's really frustrating to be like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: I'm right.
Speaker: You actually will pay less.
Speaker: And it's like, nah, I don't, I don't think so.
Speaker: And you're like, man, this is really wild to be rejected.
Speaker: I mean, it's like math, how good it is.
Speaker: It's just straight up math.
Speaker: And anyway, yeah, that's one of the things that's really hard.
Speaker: That's probably my favorite part about the sales portion of my job now.
Speaker: Because I like being virtual.
Speaker: I like having all the tools.
Speaker: But I like meeting with people that
Speaker: that trust me because they can see I've been, I've been doing this.
Speaker: So whether they come from a referral partner or, or my social media, that was the other thing I wanted to do with it is,
Speaker: Even when I was knocking doors, I would say like, here's my social media so you can see how I do my business.
Speaker: You know, there's customer videos on there and stuff like that.
Speaker: Because I want them to just see, okay, he's putting himself out there.
Speaker: He can be trusted, which is what, you know, what we think if someone's putting their business out for the world to see, that's someone that has a little bit more credibility and can be trusted.
Speaker: So even knocking doors and having social media and putting time into it, it has value just in that.
Speaker: Just to say like, hey, this person you're about to work with,
Speaker: Or they're going to refer someone to you to just have a place to say, this is who I'm talking about.
Speaker: This is the guy we're going to work with.
Speaker: Oh, it looks like he does help people.
Speaker: He's been doing this for a while.
Speaker: So even if you're not going to do anything crazy with it, it has value and just credibility.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: So do you find that now sounds like you're kind of like encouraging people to go check out your social media?
Speaker: Is that something you like say, hey, check out my Instagram before our appointment?
Speaker: I don't know if that's been something that you've been doing for a while.
Speaker: I did that when I was knocking.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I, I just say, and hopefully they don't look at something like, there's a lot of dumb videos that I've done.
Speaker: Like, but I also think it's good for them to see that.
Speaker: Like, Oh, this guy's, you know, he's creative.
Speaker: He's, he's having fun with his job.
Speaker: That's a good thing.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, I, I try to encourage, you know, let's say I get a referral.
Speaker: I'm not going to say like, Hey, before we meet, go to my Instagram.
Speaker: But you know, it's on, you know, I might be in an email or I might send them a video like, Hey, this is a house that has the same roof as you look at, look at how this one turned out.
Speaker: And it's, you know, a video from my page.
Speaker: So there's ways to sort of say,
Speaker: Hey, come look at me without saying, you know, Hey, come look at me.
Speaker: So I've done some of that.
Speaker: You know, what's really cool is when I'm in a virtual presentation, right.
Speaker: And they say anything.
Speaker: So I'll have like, there's several of my videos that help answer a question that a homeowner might have.
Speaker: So it's really powerful when someone has a question about like, Hey, what's the,
Speaker: how do they do a cement?
Speaker: I have cement tile.
Speaker: Like, how are they installing that?
Speaker: Are they taking my tile off?
Speaker: And I say like, Oh no, check these mounts out.
Speaker: And I have a video of like one of the installers explaining how we mount us on a cement tile roof and how the mount works.
Speaker: And so it's like in the presentation, we go to my page and we're viewing the video that I'm in with this guy.
Speaker: And it just like completely gives a ton of credibility.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, I'm sure it helps a ton.
Speaker: Yeah, I know I've a previous company I worked for.
Speaker: We actually had a YouTube channel and the easiest deal probably I've closed in my career was someone that actually had gone.
Speaker: It was targeted like San Diego solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And someone had searched that on YouTube and watched our video.
Speaker: And when I went home, it was like, they're just like, all right, how can I sign up?
Speaker: I already watched your video on YouTube.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're the guy, the guy's here.
Speaker: The guy in the videos here.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: I had one of those from TikTok.
Speaker: Like the wife came down the hallway.
Speaker: She's like the guy from TikTok.
Speaker: And I was like, sign here.
Speaker: Yeah, that's me.
Speaker: Sign here.
Speaker: No, but, um,
Speaker: Honestly, yeah, it helps so much to have that sort of exposure.
Speaker: It can help in certain situations.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: But yeah, so like a lot of people that listen to podcasts, and I'm sure you know, a lot of what I still do is door to door.
Speaker: I know a lot of guys that listen to podcasts are still going door to door.
Speaker: But for you, as you're transitioning, just to like out of door to door, working with your referral partners, doing this social media stuff.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: How did you know you were ready?
Speaker: Was there any fear just being like, okay, I'm not going to knock doors anymore.
Speaker: I'm going to go all in on the social media, on the referral partners.
Speaker: Was it kind of like you slowly transitioned into it or what did that look like for you?
Speaker: The latter.
Speaker: Slowly transition.
Speaker: I found a few referral partners.
Speaker: I joined a networking group.
Speaker: If you can get into a
Speaker: some sort of BNI networking group where like there's one of everything, right?
Speaker: 20 different industries in one networking group.
Speaker: And I got into this group and then really, and got a few referrals from them.
Speaker: I was like, this is a, I like this, this style of, of doing business.
Speaker: But I, but I had knocking doors.
Speaker: I never thought I would stop knocking doors because I,
Speaker: It works.
Speaker: If I have free time, why wouldn't I go do that?
Speaker: And if I live somewhere else, I feel like San Diego is pretty hard right now, a little difficult.
Speaker: And we've had a weird year, so I haven't done much of it.
Speaker: But I still might knock doors.
Speaker: To me, this is how I see it.
Speaker: This job is a marketing job.
Speaker: It's not a sales job.
Speaker: It's a marketing job.
Speaker: If you're going to build a career in it and be successful long term.
Speaker: It's about marketing.
Speaker: Knocking doors is, if you think of a pie chart, is like maybe 10% of what I do or something.
Speaker: But it's all lead gen.
Speaker: Knocking doors is just one form of lead gen that's super free and super easy to like
Speaker: go do.
Speaker: There's not much thinking.
Speaker: Look at a map, pick a street and like do it.
Speaker: So if that was my most effective way to get leads, that's all I would do.
Speaker: And I'm just in this constant open mind about a new lead source, whether that's
Speaker: a referral partner or knocking doors or messaging people on next door.
Speaker: There's just a billion different ways.
Speaker: And I found now that I've left door knocking and I'm zoomed out a little bit and I can see all the different ways.
Speaker: Yeah, there's just no need to keep yourself in that small window of opportunity.
Speaker: However, it takes so much grind to make that successful.
Speaker: That's what you're doing.
Speaker: That's what you're doing.
Speaker: You don't want to knock doors two hours a week.
Speaker: You need to really commit to it if you're going to make money out of it.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: So yeah, different way.
Speaker: I'm constantly looking for more new lead gen sources.
Speaker: So to answer your question, it was a transition.
Speaker: The referrals started coming in.
Speaker: And I started talking to like social media lead gen companies.
Speaker: Like there's a billion of those.
Speaker: I get like four messages a day.
Speaker: Hey Mike, a hundred bucks an appointment.
Speaker: You know, we're all offered these like, um, Facebook lead type campaigns.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I've explored all that.
Speaker: Like I understand the value proposition there and what they're doing.
Speaker: So it's a constant flux of different forms of lead generation.
Speaker: That's what I think this job is.
Speaker: It's like we should always all be looking for better ways to access homeowners and talk to them about what we got.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And it's like, you know, being in door to door for so long, I've seen guys over the years that, you know, there seems like they're not working anymore.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, Taylor, we've just been trying to do like online leads, working on referrals.
Speaker: And you know they're not really doing anything.
Speaker: Because there's guys like that too.
Speaker: Just let go.
Speaker: I've spent all day just reaching out to old leads, doing follow-up.
Speaker: It's hard work, man.
Speaker: It's just everything's a grind.
Speaker: So like...
Speaker: Everyone in solar should spend four to five hours a day prospecting.
Speaker: So if you meet someone that doesn't door knock and they're in the business and they're successful, they're spending the same amount of time that you're on the doors prospecting whatever it is they do.
Speaker: It's that part I mentioned that there's parts of the job that aren't fun.
Speaker: That's how sales is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's no way you can just get fed leads and just close deals because you have no value.
Speaker: The value and what we get actually paid for in this industry is creating interest.
Speaker: Like we have to, we have to create interest from a homeowner.
Speaker: Once they have interest, closing the deal is easy.
Speaker: That's not really what we make our money for.
Speaker: So every, every, no matter how you're doing it, if you're cold calling people and,
Speaker: you know, Florida and Texas.
Speaker: I tried out a call center thing in, in some, in Texas.
Speaker: And it was like, it didn't, it didn't go well.
Speaker: It was, but it's like everything, right?
Speaker: You have to just put in so many hours to, to make one, you know, deal close.
Speaker: And then,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, hopefully, hopefully you can turn something into it.
Speaker: But so, yeah, I've tried a lot of different things.
Speaker: They all take a lot of work, no matter how you look at it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I like what you're saying with, you know, transitioning into it, because I hope I'm sure some people are listening to this podcast and they're like, oh, Mike is just on social media.
Speaker: I'm going to stop knocking doors today and just...
Speaker: Just spend five hours a day setting up my social media.
Speaker: What people listening to this podcast need to understand is Mike's been doing this for years.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like these things, yeah, like I'm sure you'd agree.
Speaker: It's longer to, it's slower to set up now that you've got, you know, your system in place and working referral partners, social media over time, they're producing tons of results.
Speaker: But I think that's one difference between the door to door versus some of this stuff you're doing, Mike.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: It's going to take longer to set up.
Speaker: It's not going to produce like instant results right away.
Speaker: You have to keep your pipeline full, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's like to say like, I'm going to go, I'm going to not knock doors anymore.
Speaker: I'm going to do this other thing.
Speaker: Well, is that other thing going to fill your pipeline the same way?
Speaker: Probably not in the beginning.
Speaker: So it's like, I was talking about that sliver of door knocking as like one piece of marketing strategy.
Speaker: Well, add another piece, but don't, you know, expand.
Speaker: Don't necessarily cut one off and go for the other.
Speaker: That's not what I did.
Speaker: I always tried to make sure that like I have a pipeline.
Speaker: So you're not at risk.
Speaker: And the nice thing is if you have the door knocking skill,
Speaker: You can use it anytime.
Speaker: You can just go start talking to people.
Speaker: If you're not getting in conversations with homeowners through these other methods, then you need to go back to knocking doors.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So I wasn't able to just go from one to the other overnight.
Speaker: In fact, I feel like I'm just coming into my form now a year, a year after since I like stopped knocking.
Speaker: That was right.
Speaker: Like, you know, the industry was different than it is now.
Speaker: Like now it's, now it's harder.
Speaker: So like, I feel fortunate that I am in the spot I'm in and then I'm able to sell like in different parts of the country.
Speaker: California is still the best market for me, by the way.
Speaker: It's not like, we all kind of got scared, but.
Speaker: But then I'll get a bill from Florida and it's 17 cents a kilowatt.
Speaker: I'm like, I wish this was a California.
Speaker: I'll put, I can afford four batteries and still save them more money than people somewhere else.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: I know exactly.
Speaker: But yeah, well, I know you started at Sunrun down here in San Diego and, you know, obviously they're huge in the door knocking out here.
Speaker: So I'm curious, did you get any like, as you were kind of like doing more of the social media stuff, getting leads other ways, were they ever like, Mike, what are you doing?
Speaker: Get back on the doors or like, was there any?
Speaker: So that's a good question.
Speaker: It's not like it was.
Speaker: it's not like there was any negativity.
Speaker: In fact, they, they were great.
Speaker: There's so much about that, like culture.
Speaker: I liked and a lot of, I mean, that's where I started.
Speaker: Like I love, I love their clothes.
Speaker: I have so many sun run jackets and shirts.
Speaker: Like it's so good.
Speaker: I still have all of them.
Speaker: If you see me out and about, I'll probably be wearing one of their shirts because they have like the best clothes.
Speaker: But anyway, yeah.
Speaker: I understand they definitely weren't like, Hey, go do what Mike's doing because a door knocking company is built and like structured to kind of teach on a loop.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So there's so much, um,
Speaker: There's so many people going in and out the door, right?
Speaker: It's like 10 new people every week that are being recruited and 10 people leaving and quitting because it's just a very difficult job, right?
Speaker: And so you have to keep sort of that.
Speaker: Remember I said it's one marketing strategy.
Speaker: It's the one marketing strategy that you can teach a brand new person.
Speaker: And have them go do it like same day.
Speaker: And so you just loop that over and over.
Speaker: And it's like incredibly teachable, incredibly repeatable.
Speaker: So that's why there's a lot of solar people out there.
Speaker: And I feel like I'm talking to a lot of people in my social media because I know what it's like being in this sort of elementary school level loop of this profession where...
Speaker: those trainings and that structure isn't designed for someone that is sort of trying to find other ways to market.
Speaker: It's locked into that way that you can teach someone that's brand new how to do it same day.
Speaker: So I see, I see a lot of people that talk to me and they're kind of ready to like, maybe not stop knocking doors, but they don't need to hear that, that loop anymore.
Speaker: But yeah,
Speaker: I, it's not that I, I get why that happens.
Speaker: Like if I was running a door knocking company, I would do it exactly like that.
Speaker: Like it's, it's, it's how you do it and it works and they do, they do really well.
Speaker: And, um, I learned a ton.
Speaker: Like I, I loved my time there, but, um,
Speaker: Yeah, as you become more seasoned and you want to make a career out of this that maybe isn't necessarily door knocking, that's when social media can help and you start talking to referral partners and stuff like that.
Speaker: But yeah, no, they didn't discourage it.
Speaker: In fact, it was great.
Speaker: They worked with me on a lot of the posts and had a good time with it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: But yeah, like, do you, do you feel like, like, cause I don't know, some people are like, oh, I don't want to be out.
Speaker: Just having to leave, drive an hour away to these random neighborhoods.
Speaker: Do you feel like that's been a pro for you too, is just being all the, I don't know, I know you got kids and all that.
Speaker: Do you feel like it's a better, uh, lifestyle with that?
Speaker: Just closing virtual?
Speaker: Or was that not like a huge motivating thing for you?
Speaker: That was scary too.
Speaker: Like you mentioned,
Speaker: the other scary thing was closing not in home.
Speaker: Um, because you do enough of those, you realize like, this is really, you get really good at doing it.
Speaker: And that's what they reward you for at these, at these door knocking companies is like, I mean, we used to get clapping, right?
Speaker: You get, you get lots of claps and lots of prizes and like shoes for like closing these deals.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: Which you don't make money until it installs, but that's another thing.
Speaker: So like you get really good at getting these documents signed in home.
Speaker: And I was so nervous.
Speaker: Like, am I going to be able to do this on Zoom?
Speaker: The funny thing is my very, cause I was in COVID, right?
Speaker: My very first, my very first attempted close by myself was, was over Zoom.
Speaker: And this is true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I get on with this guy.
Speaker: And he says, let's look at the contract.
Speaker: And I'm like, okay, I'm so nervous, right?
Speaker: I've never done this on my own.
Speaker: I think I watched my mentor do like three of these and I was like, okay, I got this.
Speaker: And he's like, this document looks like a scam I used to investigate.
Speaker: And then he goes on to tell me he's a private investigator that like investigates companies for... I was just like, what is happening?
Speaker: I ended the call and I was like, I'm out.
Speaker: I'm never doing Zoom again.
Speaker: That was horrific.
Speaker: Like, I don't even know what that was.
Speaker: So the funny thing is, I tried virtual my very first time and I was like, that did not work.
Speaker: And now, you know, that was...
Speaker: I did a lot in home and now I'm back to doing only virtual.
Speaker: But to talk about what I think the advantage is, that was a transition where I think everybody in solar should learn that skill.
Speaker: It is something that when people join my team, I wish they had that skill because...
Speaker: it really matters when you want to, let's say, build something in another state or something.
Speaker: It's pretty easy for me the way I'm set up to like set up door knockers and help them close their deals in Texas, which I'm doing right now.
Speaker: And because I have the skill to close on Zoom, it allows me to... I was telling you yesterday, I went to like Indio and Coachella over there and I was talking to HVAC companies.
Speaker: Well, then I can just come back home.
Speaker: They got the referral.
Speaker: We closed the deal.
Speaker: And off we go.
Speaker: So it gives you so much freedom to be able to efficiently meet with people at the pace that's right, too.
Speaker: I feel like in-home appointments...
Speaker: definitely rushes the purchase of a $50,000 piece of equipment.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's like to the point where like I was taught a man home appointments, you would never give the sense that this thing costs 50 grand or that they're about to spend
Speaker: 100 grand over 25 years.
Speaker: You kind of just like avoid that because who would do that after meeting someone 10 minutes ago?
Speaker: Very few people.
Speaker: But so with Zoom, it's like with virtual, I can like, I can zoom out with them, give them the whole picture and say like, look, this is how solar works.
Speaker: This is how it's typically paid for.
Speaker: What are you, what do you guys think?
Speaker: And the fear was they're going to think about it.
Speaker: They're going to have me email them.
Speaker: But, and they do do that.
Speaker: But what happens is I've developed trust in that because I took my time.
Speaker: I didn't rush them to do anything.
Speaker: We might take two or three or four calls to get it closed, but then they're sticky, right?
Speaker: Then we've got it and we're moving forward and it's going to go.
Speaker: So definitely now like really happy and happy.
Speaker: Grateful that I have that skill because I think it works better.
Speaker: But man, I was nervous in the beginning because I just thought maybe I'm not going to close any of these.
Speaker: Like I might just fail.
Speaker: You know, I was really worried about it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So try it, try it on your next 10 and see what happens.
Speaker: You close the rate.
Speaker: It's going to be like one out of 10.
Speaker: Yeah, it will.
Speaker: Well, we're, I know.
Speaker: And, and yesterday, like we were talking about as you're, you know, working more with referrals with, um, leads from social media and all that.
Speaker: Like, I think sometimes in door to door, we get so caught up with, Oh, um,
Speaker: I go out, I get three leads.
Speaker: Like I told you this yesterday, I know I can go out to a neighborhood and probably get at least two to three appointments if I'm out there, like, say, four hours, right?
Speaker: Where if I'm just doing the digital thing, I don't know, like I haven't done that.
Speaker: But at the same time, you're like, well, hey, I might only get one, maybe a couple referrals during the whole week.
Speaker: But these are people that are actually sitting down and you're closing almost all of them.
Speaker: Where it's like, for example, last week I got, it was granted as one of my worst weeks for like no shows and cancellations, but I got like 11 appointments and only sat down with two of them.
Speaker: So I think that's one of the things that people need to think about.
Speaker: It's like, we need to focus more on the install and not just on going out and getting a couple of leads.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's the power of their referrals and what you're doing, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I found that... And I have made... I mean, it's like anything... I've made increasingly and done better as the years go by because I'm meeting more people and I have more reach.
Speaker: But it's... Now I can see that... I remember the numbers knocking door because I'm kind of numbery, right?
Speaker: I like numbers.
Speaker: And I loved...
Speaker: I loved the way they presented it at Sunrun.
Speaker: Like, hey, look, get this many bills.
Speaker: That turns into this.
Speaker: This turns into that.
Speaker: These are the percentages here.
Speaker: And I could sort of math out success.
Speaker: And it was cool.
Speaker: I loved that.
Speaker: It was so simple.
Speaker: It was like, oh, this many hours, this many bills, that many appointments.
Speaker: It was just like an equation for me.
Speaker: And I was like super into it.
Speaker: But I think the big difference was...
Speaker: I mean, I've never told anybody this.
Speaker: I'll tell you the story of like when I left.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And it has nothing to do.
Speaker: It's nothing against like anyone or anything.
Speaker: It was circumstantial.
Speaker: But I was knocking doors and I ran into this neighborhood here in San Diego.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like in the Kensington area.
Speaker: I love that area.
Speaker: Like it was great.
Speaker: And I was connecting with all these people and I had six like deals I signed in this one little area in a couple of weeks.
Speaker: And I was like, this is so cool.
Speaker: These people are awesome.
Speaker: Like everybody is into it.
Speaker: So they all started talking and they were like, no, we're out.
Speaker: Like they all canceled all six of these people.
Speaker: And it had to do with what I was selling.
Speaker: And I just realized like those people know more about solar than I do.
Speaker: And I had this sense that like, remember how I talked, like there's that loop that's taught for, for like new people in solar.
Speaker: Well, if you're a homeowner and you go get three quotes, you know more than that loop, that loop that they're teaching brand new door knockers.
Speaker: is less than a homeowner knows if they get three quotes from three different companies.
Speaker: That's what I realized is like, I'm meeting with people that know more about this than I do, which is like wild.
Speaker: And it's in not just like, maybe there's not, they don't know all the details I do, but the different ways, if you're just looking at like, let's say you're just selling PPAs, which is what I was doing.
Speaker: I didn't realize all these other methods and ways that people were getting into solar.
Speaker: And so that's really what killed it.
Speaker: These people literally, I felt, had more education than I did about what I was doing.
Speaker: And I was like, I've got to go take this myself to the next level.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, that's, yeah.
Speaker: I don't think I've ever had a deal, you know, stick or even clothes.
Speaker: I've had a few where they think they know more than me and they're just kind of being idiots and they still don't sign up because they think they know more than me.
Speaker: Those ones are frustrating, but, uh,
Speaker: But yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker: The reason I went off on that, you were saying like, I was talking about the math of like so many appointments.
Speaker: You were talking about you had 11 appointments and two sits.
Speaker: Is that like...
Speaker: I've realized that I will make more money if I have more quality appointments.
Speaker: Then just... It's really hard to get rejected and not trusted to that level.
Speaker: And it's really nice to be trusted, even if it's not as often.
Speaker: And then it turns into an install.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and I'm sure it's nice that you can go into these appointments knowing that it's not going to be an uphill battle trying to fight for the trust because sometimes on the doors, it's like, you know, I got to hype myself up so much that I'm going to go in there and get those doc signs, going to figure out a way to make them trust me and, you know, not taking over an answer.
Speaker: It's like stuff like that.
Speaker: There is some pressure.
Speaker: There's some pressure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like, yeah, I don't feel any pressure to like close a deal because now I can just look at them and say like, it's super obvious when it's time to sign documents.
Speaker: It's like, is everybody in the room on the same page?
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Have we got the right way to pay for this?
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: This is the next thing.
Speaker: So there's no like, there's no weird moment anymore where I'm trying to like push or pull because if there's any hesitancy, I just say, cool, like let's, let's meet again.
Speaker: And I click end meeting.
Speaker: Like it, there's no pressure to, um, to, to like close a deal or sign paperwork for something that's not really, really solid.
Speaker: I remember what that was like.
Speaker: Like you, you're trying to hit that equation.
Speaker: Like you're, you're thinking about that equation.
Speaker: Like, Oh, I've only collected this many bills this week.
Speaker: Oh, I've only closed this many deals this week.
Speaker: Like, and you went to the meeting and it's like, so I just remember those numbers just rolling in my head.
Speaker: Like, like I was just programmed to like hit these things.
Speaker: And so you sit in the meeting and you're willing to be a little pushy because you just kind of feel that pressure.
Speaker: And homeowners know that because I'm now on the other end of that.
Speaker: I have a lot of appointments with...
Speaker: I think I've canceled a few of your deals, actually.
Speaker: I've seen your name on a few contracts.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker: No, I'm totally kidding.
Speaker: But I have recognized some names I know.
Speaker: So what happens is, Doorknocker comes in.
Speaker: This is sort of like, to all of us Doorknockers, when you have a cancel and you never hear why, this is what happened on the other side.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So like a door knocker comes in, closes the deal, right?
Speaker: Sign documents and you're doing the site survey.
Speaker: Everything's going well.
Speaker: Well, that person is going to turn around and a lot of times ask around if like they should get another quote or they start doing research.
Speaker: I always felt like knocking doors.
Speaker: I was...
Speaker: I was getting so many people interested in solar, right?
Speaker: Like you would get them talking about it.
Speaker: They'd be like, oh, cool.
Speaker: And then they'd go get a bunch of quotes and never call you back.
Speaker: And I was like, wait, I'm the one that like got you excited.
Speaker: Like where I don't get anything.
Speaker: So a lot of times I'll get in with, you know, a meeting with someone that's already signed documents with another company.
Speaker: And if it was a door knocker, like they'll then talk to me about what was weird.
Speaker: This comes up a lot.
Speaker: Like they'll say like, yeah, it was just kind of weird.
Speaker: We haven't.
Speaker: And then I said, I've heard this multiple times.
Speaker: We haven't signed docs yet, but we thought we'd just talk to a few more people when the reality is they have signed docs.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's,
Speaker: So you always sense that when you're knocking doors and you're using that type of sales strategy.
Speaker: Like, do these people turn around and get a sense that I just sold like that?
Speaker: And they do.
Speaker: It happens a lot because I hear them tell me about it.
Speaker: Like, yeah, we did feel kind of weird about that.
Speaker: And so, yeah, then they end up canceling and...
Speaker: And going with Solar Mike?
Speaker: No, just kidding.
Speaker: It doesn't happen that much.
Speaker: But I have heard a lot of that other side.
Speaker: And it's kind of what I suspected when I was door knocking.
Speaker: But that's part of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, maybe what I'll do from now on, anyone that wants to shop me out, I'm just be like, okay, I've got a friend that, uh, that has, that has really good prices.
Speaker: So I'm going to have you, I'm going to have you reach out to him.
Speaker: He'll get you a quote and then, uh, just send them your way.
Speaker: Maybe that's the solution.
Speaker: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker: But yeah, it's funny.
Speaker: I've, I've actually had, um, I had someone reach out to me not long ago and said like, Hey,
Speaker: can you send this client a quote above mine so I can get this deal?
Speaker: I was like, no, no way, man.
Speaker: Like there's no way I'm not putting.
Speaker: I'm not going to say like much about it, but I've never priced anything that high.
Speaker: So no thanks.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: So before we run out of time, Mike, I wanted to ask you about, we talked a little bit about this the first time we did yesterday when we did the podcast, but just setting up these referral partners.
Speaker: I know that's a huge part of what you're doing in addition to the social media.
Speaker: So maybe someone's listening to this.
Speaker: They're like, okay, I'm not going to
Speaker: spend all the time, the years to set up the social media like Mike's doing.
Speaker: But I do want to set up these referral partnerships.
Speaker: I do want to start getting more referrals.
Speaker: So yeah, can you talk about that?
Speaker: What are some things you did to set up these successful referral partnerships?
Speaker: And what's some advice you'd have around that?
Speaker: So it's like we were talking before.
Speaker: It's not something you can just turn on because you're going to slowly work into it just like anything else.
Speaker: You can't just shut one off and turn the other one on.
Speaker: But the best... I want to answer this a little differently than I did yesterday.
Speaker: Yesterday, I said roofers and home service companies.
Speaker: Those can be really good.
Speaker: And I have a few that are my best partners.
Speaker: But what I've found is it's the personality of who you're dealing with.
Speaker: So I've seen a lady, she runs a Christmas light company.
Speaker: In fact, this is their time of year.
Speaker: If you called every Christmas light company, they have a bunch of clients.
Speaker: They use a ton of power.
Speaker: It's actually an easy conversation for them to have like,
Speaker: Hey, do you guys' bills go way up?
Speaker: I have a solar person.
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: So it's not necessarily like, yeah, a roofer is the perfect referral partner.
Speaker: But if the person at the roofing company doesn't really get it, that's what matters more.
Speaker: So I would say instead of looking at the best industries, look at the people you know that are connected to homeowners and find those personalities that would understand.
Speaker: This is a way to make money and help people out.
Speaker: And you don't have to learn anything about solar.
Speaker: And so that's what social media is cool too.
Speaker: Cause I can see like, Oh, like I like the way these guys run their social media account.
Speaker: I'm going to try and partner with them instead of, because they're more of a match for me.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So look around the people, you know, or search out the people that you might connect with.
Speaker: And then try there first, whether that's like a realtor or a car mechanic.
Speaker: Because it's just about the personality.
Speaker: If they get it.
Speaker: One of the members of my team was a car mechanic in Houston.
Speaker: And he, before we did anything, he installed three people at his work.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Cause he just like, he was just like, Hey guys, I'm going to do solar.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: Who wants it?
Speaker: So it's personality is what matters more than industry.
Speaker: Most people are in some industry where they're connected to homeowners where the conversation would be pretty natural to say like, hey, I can help out with solar if you guys need it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And what's like your approach for, you know, reaching out to these people?
Speaker: Um, I think you'd mentioned yesterday, you're, you know, giving them like half of the commission.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, like, is that, is that the case?
Speaker: You give them half the commission and what are you, what's like, do you have a word track?
Speaker: Cause you're like reaching out to these people to make it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I have a few scripts that I just, just something general.
Speaker: Like the, the goal is always the same.
Speaker: Like let's jump on zoom and,
Speaker: Once I get them on a zoom call, I can share my screen and be like, Hey, look,
Speaker: you're a loan officer.
Speaker: Look what this loan officer did.
Speaker: And I'll show them actually what the guy made.
Speaker: I can literally go behind the curtain and say, look, if you participate with me in this, this is what happens when we do that.
Speaker: And so, once I get them into a call, it feels like it's kind of game over because it's really obvious that
Speaker: it's easy for them.
Speaker: People, one thing you got to understand is like when you're running a small business, like let's say you're running an HVAC company and someone comes in and says like, Hey, add, add this vertical to your business.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: It's like, no, like we're not going to add solar.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's that sounds like a lot.
Speaker: So the barrier of talking to referral partners is like, look, you don't need to learn a thing about this.
Speaker: You just need to listen to me for a little bit so I can explain how it works and and.
Speaker: you can see that it's simple.
Speaker: So it's really getting them into that conversation.
Speaker: But a lot of people are hesitant because they're like, Oh, I'm not just going to add solar to my business.
Speaker: That's when people, when we're like, you guys, you'll get hit up, right?
Speaker: Like sell, sell life insurance.
Speaker: You get that on Instagram, like every other day, someone in DMs, like, I'm not just going to start selling something else because I'm so busy with like the thing I'm doing.
Speaker: So that's the difficult part is,
Speaker: It's just like knocking doors, just like cold calling.
Speaker: Getting a referral partner in a call where they're listening is the hard part.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's more like it sounds like it's kind of similar to as if you're setting up a solar appointment, you're trying to not dump a bunch of information.
Speaker: It's all sales.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And really, you're just trying to get them to...
Speaker: you know, sit down for another zoom or another appointment where you would explain to them and kind of sell them at that point instead of trying to like get them on board right away.
Speaker: But how I decide who I want to work with is usually the location.
Speaker: So it's like, I'll target an area I want to work in.
Speaker: Whether it's like, I mean, lately, like Illinois, some in Ohio.
Speaker: There's so many states now that are good.
Speaker: Like we're sitting on this spot that like solar feels weird right now because rates are really high.
Speaker: Money's expensive.
Speaker: Solar is more expensive in California because of the batteries.
Speaker: But there are 20 states, it feels like, sitting at 17 cents on average kilowatt hours.
Speaker: And you know what it's like.
Speaker: You've sold in LEDWP or something where it's like 20-something.
Speaker: And you still see these great savings.
Speaker: And so it's like, imagine if a whole state like North Carolina got to 22 cents a kilowatt hour.
Speaker: It is really different.
Speaker: So I encourage, like, it's important to think about how you're going to access those markets because they're not even started yet to where SDG&E started.
Speaker: When did they get over 20 cents?
Speaker: A long time ago.
Speaker: And look, we're still doing well here.
Speaker: So setting up to, like, sell in other markets is really my long-term strategy.
Speaker: Like, that's what I'm thinking is I want to be active with referral partners in business.
Speaker: North Carolina and Ohio and all these different places when the rates hit.
Speaker: Not even much more than where they are now.
Speaker: But right now, it's like so many of these places are neck and neck, right?
Speaker: Solar and their current utility bill are neck and neck.
Speaker: And there's really only those early adopters that are going, which is great.
Speaker: But it's coming.
Speaker: It's coming.
Speaker: 2026, they say.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: They say that's the biggest boom.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I say they say.
Speaker: I saw a research study on it, but yeah.
Speaker: It's exciting.
Speaker: I'm excited about it.
Speaker: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And with your referral partners, because I've heard some people, they're constantly communicating with their referral partners.
Speaker: They're...
Speaker: Um, maybe it's like a weekly check-in they do with them.
Speaker: Um, they run competitions.
Speaker: I think I've heard some people do with referral partners.
Speaker: So I don't know, like, what do you do?
Speaker: Does it like a list you have of all of them and you have a whole system around it or do you just kind of go with the flow and all of them send you a lead occasionally here and there?
Speaker: Yeah, it's, it usually runs off.
Speaker: Are we doing stuff?
Speaker: Oh, can you hear me?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, I can hear you.
Speaker: Yeah, okay.
Speaker: So what I realized is like, even my team in power.
Speaker: So like, I have a team of sellers and then I have these referral partners and I wanted to set up structure around like, okay, I want to have a meeting, right?
Speaker: That's how I was in solar.
Speaker: I was like, we need to have a weekly meeting, but everybody's so different.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: The way I'm running my business is different than everybody else on my team.
Speaker: And so it's become an individual thing, which makes it a little bit more of my time.
Speaker: But we also have big meetings that you can go to or whatever.
Speaker: But each referral partner is unique.
Speaker: I don't really have a lot of structure around it.
Speaker: I would like it, but it just doesn't...
Speaker: this doesn't fit because everybody's doing such a different thing.
Speaker: Like they're all in different businesses.
Speaker: The conversation really wouldn't, wouldn't go well with all of them together.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it's kind of custom for each one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Custom for each one, but, and the share amounts, like it's not always 50, 50.
Speaker: It could be like,
Speaker: maybe just a thousand and install, or I have like a 70, 30 one going on.
Speaker: It's a, it's adjustable what, what I can do with, um, with that.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: How do you decide, um, what that amount will be?
Speaker: Is it, it just, it's like, it's a decision on like investment.
Speaker: So if, if I am putting in more effort,
Speaker: to make this happen.
Speaker: So let's say you send me a list of leads that are not set appointments.
Speaker: You're like, Hey, this is our, these are our customers.
Speaker: These people might be interested in solar.
Speaker: Here you go.
Speaker: And I have to do the work of like getting those appointments set, then you get less.
Speaker: But if, if you hand me an appointment, it's like, these guys want solar really bad.
Speaker: Here's the bill.
Speaker: I get less because what you did has a ton of value.
Speaker: So it's gauged by who put in more value.
Speaker: And then, and then we try to match the value with, with what was done.
Speaker: So if, if I'm just selling the deal and, and I don't have to do anything, anything else, you know, then, then 50% like, great.
Speaker: I'm willing to share 50 with like,
Speaker: Like most, you guys probably have like an assist thing.
Speaker: Like you go close to someone else's deal that's new, you get 50 or something like that.
Speaker: So I think that's fair.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So do you tell them that like upfront or are you telling them, hey, depending on if you give me like, you know, a set appointment, it wants to go slower, then I'll give you 50%.
Speaker: If it's just like people that are reaching out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you kind of tell that with all the partnerships you set up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: I mean, it's just unique every time.
Speaker: Yeah, makes sense.
Speaker: That's good.
Speaker: Well, yeah.
Speaker: So I think the biggest thing I took from just today and then also a couple of things you said on the first podcast we did is just you're constantly looking for those partnerships.
Speaker: Like you mentioned yesterday that you went and did some door knocking in Coachella and you just had the mind shift where you're like, okay, I'm seeing HVAC.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: vans roll into these homes.
Speaker: Like why am I even knocking on the walls?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: No, what was crazy is like, it's all gated.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All gated community.
Speaker: There's HVAC vans everywhere, fixing air conditioners.
Speaker: I was like, I'm going to talk to them.
Speaker: You know, so I just went, I just walked into all their businesses and started saying like, Hey, you guys have an opportunity here.
Speaker: Let's take advantage of it.
Speaker: Not one of them had a referral partner for solar.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They all rejected me, told me to take a hike, but someone should be partnered with them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I mean, I had a few good meetings, but it was shocking to see, like, I expected them to be like, no, we got solar figured out.
Speaker: Like we have a company we go with none of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, that's in California.
Speaker: Imagine other markets too.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The rates there are like 20, 22 to 25 cents.
Speaker: And there's a ton of solar there and there's still a ton that will happen there.
Speaker: But, um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So I love that.
Speaker: And I think that's one of the biggest takeaways I've, I got from our conversation, Mike, and for anyone listening, it's just like, yeah, if you are purely door knocking, start to think, um, you know, who are these people around me that could be good referral partners and,
Speaker: maybe you're not just like mike was you see these hvac vans roll up um you see a maintenance guy you see uh maybe someone's coming to clean their house it's like all these things i didn't even think about but those could all be potential referral partners because they're talking with homeowners every day you know maybe they're handy man he's going to 10 other homes that don't have solar yeah you knock a street and you have 10 conversations three of those people
Speaker: Like if you find out what they do, like if they're a realtor or like they're going to do something where they talk to people that own homes and they might be, you know, like I said, you're looking for a personality.
Speaker: It doesn't maybe even matter what they do.
Speaker: So definitely when you're knocking doors, take that mindset out, out there, which is like, Hey, these people can help me find others for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Well, Mike, it's been awesome having you on the show today.
Speaker: And for anyone that's not following him, you're probably living under a rock.
Speaker: You should be following Solar Mike on Instagram.
Speaker: So go reach out, let him know you appreciate him coming on the show today.
Speaker: But before we wrap up, any maybe closing advice for people that are
Speaker: you know, maybe new or struggling setting up the social media referral partnerships or I don't know, just anyone that's maybe a question if they should be in solar.
Speaker: Any closing thoughts or advice?
Speaker: Get out.
Speaker: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker: Don't get out.
Speaker: I think I mentioned it earlier.
Speaker: You will be sad if you do.
Speaker: The boom for solar hasn't happened yet.
Speaker: And I remember when I came in,
Speaker: I came into San Diego two and a half, three years ago, and there was already this kind of like, are we near saturation?
Speaker: Like, have you ever felt that?
Speaker: Or you guys ever talk about that?
Speaker: Or you and your friends, like, talk about saturation for solar in San Diego?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Especially when you get on the streets.
Speaker: I mean, it's like a fear, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, they all have it.
Speaker: And then you hear people say, like, you guys have been here a hundred times.
Speaker: So you sit there and you think the thought, well, this can't go on for much longer.
Speaker: Like, how much more can I make out of this industry?
Speaker: And then there's this sense that, like,
Speaker: Let me squeeze what I can out of it and then go do something else.
Speaker: Well, I think that's a bad strategy, especially if you're in Southern California.
Speaker: It's easy to feel that.
Speaker: But go walk a street in Texas and you'll die like shingle roof south facing 10 in a row.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: And you look at their bill and they're at 18 cents and you're like, wow, if this was 22 cents,
Speaker: six of these houses out of 10 are going to have solar just like in California.
Speaker: So be here for that.
Speaker: Like figure out a way to be here for that.
Speaker: It's coming in the next, it's going to go on for 10, 15 years.
Speaker: Saturation, not even going to happen in California for at least another decade and other States, you know, even after that.
Speaker: So the solar, like,
Speaker: space has a lot of time in it there's a lot to do um and i guess when i started selling around the country that was like so eye-opening to me i did have that fear and i did have that sense and i knew other people were feeling it too that like okay this is limited i've got to just like put my head down and go hard and i'm saying like look up and be smarter and prepare for like
Speaker: a more expansive, like scaled out approach.
Speaker: That's what I try to help people do.
Speaker: Um, because I believe like the best is yet to come and that's certain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: Be excited.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's going to be good.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Love it.
Speaker: So yeah, having abundance mindsets, I think, you know, scared money, don't make money.
Speaker: It's like everyone should be out there thinking of the huge opportunity we have.
Speaker: And even people, you know, even markets where it does get saturated, I'm thinking California in 10 years, how many of these systems are going to need to be maybe replaced or maybe they need more panels.
Speaker: Maybe they need batteries.
Speaker: And we have retrofit batteries.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're,
Speaker: All of the solar companies are going to be doing retrofit batteries by next year.
Speaker: So there you go.
Speaker: Like that's a, that's a ton.
Speaker: And then guess what?
Speaker: Five years from now, like we're going to need to be doing that in other places.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there's a ton, there's a ton and you just, you have to just,
Speaker: No matter what solar company you're with, I know because I talk to people in all these different companies and the installer I use isn't perfect either.
Speaker: We all watch the industry ebb and flow, figuring it out.
Speaker: It's a young industry and no one's doing it perfectly.
Speaker: So you need a ton of patience and a ton of grit to just...
Speaker: sort of ride those hikes in interest rates and prices and install failures, problems with roofing and just be patient.
Speaker: Like it, it's going to be worth it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, yep.
Speaker: Good things come to those that are patient and we appreciate you being patient with this podcast.
Speaker: Anyone listening, it's the second time recording it.
Speaker: So I think it was even better.
Speaker: I think we got some good stuff.
Speaker: So much better.
Speaker: Yesterday was terrible.
Speaker: Trash it.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: No, it was fun.
Speaker: Glad to be here.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So thanks again, Solar Mike.
Speaker: And guys, go reach out to him.
Speaker: Shoot him a DM.
Speaker: Leave him a comment on his next post.
Speaker: And hopefully we're going to have you again.
Speaker: on the, uh, in the future, Mike, but I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker: Yeah, let's go get dinner.
Speaker: I'll see you at the taco place.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker: You bring your wife.
Speaker: All right, man.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thanks, man.
Speaker: Good to see you.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
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