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Speaker 1 (00:03):

Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and 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 fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask 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. Should you even go on vacations as a Solarpreneur?

Speaker 2 (00:45):

How should you prepare for your vacations and the best things you should be doing during your vacations? You take them. That's what we're going to be covering today. Interesting topic, something I've thought a lot about. So let's get into it. How are you? I'm Taylor Armstrong. We're back with another episode. We are changing lives. We're changing the solar industry. And thanks for being a listener of the show. Appreciate all you guys do to share the love, share the podcast and reach out to others who are needing help. So we're all about in the industry. And that's what I appreciate about seeing guys that I interact with in the industry is most people are super giving, super willing to help out. So pat yourself on the back for that. Okay. Before we jump into the topics today, wanting to give a quick update, if you haven't already heard, we are launching a full on, uh, on, on board training app training platform.

Speaker 2 (01:46):

It's called Solciety. If you haven't checked it out, he can go check it out as solciety.co. It's launching, uh, July 1st. So depending on when you're listening to this episode may already be out, but if not go check it out. It's going to have some dope features that you're not going to want to miss out on. And I think it's going to change the industry. Okay. And I'm not just saying that cause it's me on there. Guess what? It's not just me on there. Spoiler alert. The reason I'm saying it's going to change the industries because we're getting the best of the best all combined in one place. Okay. I know I can speak for myself. I know I got some awesome stuff to share with you all, but when you add to me with, um, you know, Taylor McCarthy with Jay Pez with, um, a lot of other guests, we have James Swiderski.

Speaker 2 (02:35):

A lot of other people we have that are going to be featured on the platform. That's where the magic happens. They were trying to bring the best of the best all at your fingertips. So you can literally be sitting on the toilet. You can be learning from the top guys in the industry. So go check it out, get yourself on the waiting list. We are actually currently doing Beta testing with about 20 people. We're getting some great feedback and we're excited to launch it to the public. And we're also also doing some enterprise deals. Yeah. Some stuff I can't talk about, but you're definitely going to want to be on the list and see the full features and everything when it comes out on July 1st. Hey, so, um, yeah. Anyways, check it out. And the reason that I'm bringing this as well as, because we actually have one of the experts, one of our, um, trainers featured on Solciety is on, um, the episode is on the podcast, I should say next episode.

Speaker 2 (03:39):

So what I meant to say, and that is Taylor McCarthy guys. This guy has some buyer, some money tips, some, some of the best content I've heard for solar guys. So don't miss out. He's next episode. So today I'm going to kind of demo a few things that he talks about the jams on, but, um, just be prepared, go listen. The next episode it's dropping on Friday, it's going to be some sweet stuff. So Taylor McCarthy he's with a Knockstar. We've talked about him. We had, um, Danny Pessy his partner in crime. He was on a while back Taylor McCarthy, he is like the ying to the yang. These guys are awesome. And so we're going to feature him. So let's jump into the topic today. A few things that, uh, Taylor talks about is, um, first of all, obviously we're talking about like vacations, should you take them?

Speaker 2 (04:33):

But another thing besides that, um, Taylor McCarthy, something that he does is this guy's big on social media. And he will literally like manifest his goals. He'll call them out. Um, he sold, it was some crazy number of roofs, Taylor McCarthy. He also he sold roofs, alarms he's pretty much sold at all. But he tells this story about when he manifested the number of roofs he was going to sell. I think it was like a hundred roofs in a week. I don't know something and saying, and he puts it on social media. He says, Hey, how many do you guys think I can sell a hundred roofs in a week? Yes or no. He got the feedback. And then once people voted the yes or no, he used this as fuel to inspire all the people that voted. No, he takes a screenshot of this, puts it as a background on his phone.

Speaker 2 (05:24):

And then he's looking at this every probably, I don't know, hour of the day, just using this as few, holds it in the fire, be like, yo, I'm going to prove these idiots wrong. I'm going out. I'm closing a hundred roof deals in a week and he does it. So that's something I thought he was. Yeah. He had some awesome advice on is guys. If, especially if you're that, that type of person, you can use your heaters as fuel, try something like that, go out and make a social media post. See how many people challenge you see how many people say you're not going to do it. Use that as fuel, prove those people wrong, prove them wrong. It's that's a money tip. You're right there. The reason I'm saying that though is because, um, at the time of this, I am going on a little trip next week, going to Lake Powell.

Speaker 2 (06:18):

Um, that's in Utah, Arizona, if you guys have been there, probably the coolest lake, I would say in the world, you got there's cliffs. You can jump off of you get a houseboat. Um, I know like Sam Taggart he's as retreats there with his, um, door to door game. He'll do like leadership retreats and stuff there. Todd Peterson, he actually has a houseboat. He'll take a lot of the Vivian guys there. And um, a lot of door to door guys know about it. So I'm going there next week. Usually try to go there, um, in the summer. Um, but the way this all correlates is because trips are something I've really struggled with. Um, and anyone that's an entrepreneur, that's a Solarpreneur. I think you can probably relate in solar. We're not really making money for on a trip, right? Unless you're closing virtual, which that's cool.

Speaker 2 (07:09):

But lake Powell, I mean, I'm out there with basically no service. So ain't no close and virtual really for me out there. And let's be honest when we're on vacations, I want to enjoy the vacation. Okay. I don't want to be necessarily doing sales calls all day long, which maybe I differ in viewpoints with some people, but that's my line of thought. I want to enjoy the vacation. I want to go all out. I want to be a hundred percent in the vacation. Okay. And enjoying myself. Not to say you can't do other things, which I'll talk about here in a second, but what sh what should you do before the vacation? Okay. You should do. In my opinion, you should go all out. You should try to close as many deals as possible. You should do something like Taylor. McCarthy does make a social media post, get some haters, but go all out.

Speaker 2 (08:02):

Hey and the reason I do this. I say this is because when I started in pest control, I went on a vacation. I remember, I think I went on a cruise with my family and anyone that's doing the summer grind summer sales, you know, that summer vacations, it's basically a negative. Like you don't go on vacations. It's going to kill yourselves. But the reason that kills yourselves is because what happens with guys? What happened to me especially is probably about the three, four days before vacation. Guess what? I let my guard down. I said, okay, um, I'm going to check out mentally. I know I'm going on a cruise. Yeah. My head's not in it. So I'll just take it easy. I'll just coast. Get a few cells and be good. So three, four days before my numbers went, way down, didn't sell as much.

Speaker 2 (08:52):

Then obviously I'm in the, in the, on the cruise ship, on the vacation, you know, not making money. And then I get back. And especially first year ups, I had to basically relearn the pitch, um, relearn the door presentation and get back into the flow of it. So it takes me of the three, four days to get back to what my numbers were. So if you do the math on that, that's three, four days before the trip, three, four days after the trip, that's eight days basically of reduced selling. I've taken to adjust back into things and then that's a week on the trip. So you add that up. Now, all of a sudden that one week, it's a little worse, right? Well, that's 15 days. We're talking now. So this is the problem with vacations. And this is the problem I've always had. It's so hard to get back into things.

Speaker 2 (09:45):

And it's so easy to let your mind slip. It's so easy to not push as hard if before you went on the trip, especially in solar, it's like, oh, I don't need to go out and knock because, um, yeah, I'm going to be gone. So there's no point in setting up an appointment. Right? That's been my mindset at times in solar do so how do we overcome that again? Do a Throwdown like what Taylor McCarthy is talking about, do a challenge on social media and instead of taking the days before the trip to slow down, speed up. Yeah. That's what I've seen. The truly successful people do in this industry. There's lots of guys in this industry that take tons of vacations. And I used to think, oh, you can't take a vacation. You're never going to be successful. Some of the top guys, I know at like vivant, solar managers, they're taking more vacations probably than anyone.

Speaker 2 (10:36):

Um, but they're making more money than anyone I'm like, how are these guys doing it? And this is how they don't let trips become a thing where it's taken them 15 days or eight days to, you know, wind back into things. And their sales are slowing down before the trip. No, none of that. They're pushing extremely hard before they're closing tons of deals. Okay. I talked to my buddy, uh, Matt Crowder. He's um, he's been on the show. He's a district manager, Vivant Solar doing tons of deals. I remember we went to door to door con, um, we're hanging out a door to door con this last time. And he says, Taylor, yeah. Luckily I closed three deals before I came out here. There was like two days, you know, that he had to sell before he came out and go door to door con.

Speaker 2 (11:23):

And I'm like, dang, man, I didn't even, yeah, I didn't close any. I mean, I was actually gone the week before that too. But how many times have you been on trip? You didn't close any the week before you went on trip or you didn't get the results you wanted. This is what has to change. If you're going to go on a vacation, have it be something that you push extremely hard, you get a ton of deals lined up and you give yourself a shot at closing a boatload of deals before you go on a boat. That's what I'm doing, baby. I'm going to go on a houseboat and I want to close a boatload before I leave. So my goal this week is, um, I've got Monday and Tuesday. Um, it's when I'm recording this, I'm leaving on a Wednesday. So my goal is I want to close three deals before I leave.

Speaker 2 (12:13):

Okay. And I mean, I'm doing everything I can control. Okay. I know these people. I can't like, you know, for some, the sign up, I'm going to hear everything I possibly can. Everything that I possibly can, but what I did, I stacked my schedule. Okay. So I knew I want to close three deals. What's my closing ratio. How many deals do I honestly need to set up to give myself the best shot at that? For me, I've closed between 40 to 50% of the appointments I sit in. So that means I need to set up at least six appointments to have a good shot at closing. Right? So you need to be doing the math in your head to, if you have a goal, if you know you're leaving on a vacation, how many deals do you need to close before you leave? And then what's the math on that.

Speaker 2 (12:59):

Okay. I knew that what that math was, I knew when I was leaving. So I said, okay, Monday and Tuesday, I need to stack these appointments. It can't be, um, yeah, I mean, close same day deals, but I would rather just have my schedule stacked. I don't have to worry about, um, setting anything up. I can just go to these appointments, give myself the best shot at closing them. That's what I'm doing. I got a six appointments doctor in the next two days, and I know I have a good shot at closing, three of these bad boys. So do the math. Okay. And that's what I wanted to say is before you go on a trip, use that as fuel to push hard, use it as an incentive. Okay? Just envision the trip. How much more enjoyable is it going to be? If you know, you just closed out a handful of deals before you left on the trip and trust me, it is way more enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (13:51):

If you know, you got money coming in the bank. If you know you close deal before it trips are way more enjoyable. Okay? So that's what you do. And then as far as like during the vacation, that's another thing is for us, for us Solarpreneurs, it's tough to turn off. Okay. It's tough to turn our brains off. We want to be making money. We want to be feeling like we're improving. And that's something that I've struggled with too, is I just feel like I'm on a vacation. I can't, what am I doing? I'm not making money. It's tough to like, I'm not growing necessarily. But get rid of that mindset. You can grow in other ways though. So I talked about using, use the trip for other things, such as relationships. You don't need to be working a hundred percent in the trip.

Speaker 2 (14:45):

You shouldn't be working, you know, the same way you were before, but use it to focus on other things I've talked with a lot of successful people that, um, have, you know, thoughts on that. Like work-life balance. If it's a myth and what all these guys are saying is you work in seasons, K you there's no balance. Right? And we did an episode on this recently, but balance, it's a myth. Hey, they're seasons. So you push hard. And that's what I'm talking about. You push hard before a trip and then your balance is shifting. You're not working. Then what you should you be focusing on? You should be pushing hard towards those relationships. If for me, I'm married, sin, something I'm trying to improve on. I'm definitely not perfect. I struggle with them. Yeah. Not giving my wife enough attention. So you can go give her a shout out if you want.

Speaker 2 (15:38):

Tell her, sorry for me not giving her enough attention. But this is something that I'm trying to improve on is use these trips as seasons to improve my relationships, improve my relationships with my friends, with my family. And then number two, using, uh, using your vacations for learning too. Okay. I always bring a good book. Bring your audio books. You're not reading the whole time, but I just got done with 75 hard where you read, uh, the 10 pages every day. Okay. In my trips, I try to read at least 20 pages. So you use it as education. And that's how, for me, as a Solarpreneur, as an entrepreneur, that's how I get that part of my brain. That still feel like I'm making progress is I use it to, you know, improve my craft. I use it to learn new things that I can go back and implement right when I get back.

Speaker 2 (16:32):

So that's my thoughts on the vacations and Taylor McCarthy, he's going to talk more about his throwdowns. The vacations don't necessarily have to do with what we talked about, but I just got reminded of it because I'm going to be on a trip and Taylor McCarthy talks about his throwdowns. So go make sure you listen to the next episode. It's going to be lit. Share this with a friend, if you're going on a vacation. Okay. Remember those two things use it as fuel to push extremely hard to before you leave and then make sure you use your vacation time as the season to focus on your relationships and focus on yourself, improvements on your sales skills. Okay. Fuel that side of your brain too. So that's my thoughts. Let me know what you thought. Let me know if you guys have anything else that helps you as you're preparing to go on vacations, whereas you leave. And then remember when you get back, don't take forever to get back into it. Like I did push hard. When you get back, get your pipeline backflow and back full, and don't take forever to get back into the flow of yourself. Hope you enjoyed it. Listen to next episode. Love you guys. And we'll see you on the next one.

Speaker 3 (17:45):

Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode.

The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.