From Electrician to Solar Entrepreneur: Building Vegas Family Solar with Peter Ponce De Leon

SPEAKER_01:American builders has a raise of dream. One brick, one beam, building the American Woo. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of American Builders. I am here today with Peter Ponce de Leon of Vegas Family Solar. Peter, thanks for coming on. We'll start with a little bit of background, like we stall start all episodes. Just provide the audience with some context on kind of who you are and how you made it into this world of solar installation service, all that.

SPEAKER_00:Okay, great. Appreciate that. Yeah. Well, um, I'm operating here in the southern in southern Nevada, and um I was raised in the trade. I was um I got into the trade, the electrical trade. And solar is really a derivative of the electrical trade. And uh solar is a very basic portion of the electrical trade. And I have some content on my website, and you can see how I break it down quite easily. Um, but I've been in the trade since I was about 19, maybe 20 years of age, and uh today I'm 50. Um, so I've been in the trade for quite a long time, and I was raised and born in Northern California in San Jose. So I came up in the trade, I came up in the union and went to a five-year apprenticeship program. I moved up in the ranks in the union. I used to manage um some of the biggest projects in the country, at least at the time. And the last project I was um part of management was the uh Apple uh

SPEAKER_00:headquarters in Cubaquino, California. So um I was raised in the trade, and this is basically um not all that I know. I'm a student of many, uh a few other things, but uh electrical designing systems, installing systems, managing men. It's something that I've been doing forever. And I said, hey, what the heck? So I relocated my family out here to Las Vegas because the Bay Area was just so expensive, even being a uh union electrician who's a foreman, a general foreman, it's still quite expensive to live in the most expensive city and basically in the entire US of A. So I uprooted my my family about uh 10 years ago here. We moved to Vegas and we opened up shop here in Las Vegas. And um, here in Vegas, it's actually um almost an automatic to at minimum consider as uh an option for you because there are no, there are basically no shading issues here in Vegas.

In Northern California, you got trees,

SPEAKER_00:power lines, you got every type of tree you can think of from apple trees to avocado, avocado trees, pine trees, redwood trees, you name it. So shading is a major issue. Here in Vegas, shading is almost never an issue. In addition to that, Vegas gets uh um probably the most sunlight out of all the entire US. I mean, we get more peak sun hours in 89% of the continental US, and um, and that in that basically just includes those places that are livable. Like we're not talking about like uh Death Valley or something. So it's really a no-brainer. Um, and that's how I got into the industry. It's really quite simple for me to uh transfer from pure electrical to doing solar along with other electrical projects.

SPEAKER_01:So, did you know that, hey, I'm gonna go to Nevada and I'm gonna start a solar company, or was it I'm in Nevada, now what do I do? Like, how did you pick solar?

SPEAKER_00:Very good. That's a great question. Um, I actually came to Nevada to um become a financial advisor. Um, I wanted out of the trade, and I was working 60 hours a week in California, managing huge projects, killing myself. My family lived a great life, not me. I worked so many hours. So I said, I'm done with this. And I came to Vegas to become a financial advisor, and I was, and we did well. The pandemic happened and it shut down everything. And um, I wasn't sure what was going to happen to the financial advising industry. And it was tough getting started here in Vegas. Vegas is a very clicky city, it's uh it's very transient. So the trust level um is not there when you meet new people because people come and go in the city. It's less transient than it was 10 years ago, but it still has that uh kind of um people don't, you don't, it's hard to earn people people's trust here.

So it took me about

SPEAKER_00:a year or two to build up uh a nice agency. We did well, and then the pandemic just completely crushed it. And then my men back home in the Bay Area, they were still working because uh electrical was uh I forgot what the government uh uh categorized it as uh like it like they they they necessary or whatever it might be, right? So they were still working. I was like, holy molys, and I was at home not knowing what was going to happen in in the financial uh services industry, even though we we sold a ton of life insurance at that time. So I hedged. I'm an investor and I hedged. I said, okay, I have the skill set, you know, I know how to, I'm a I'm a really good electrician and I have a ton of experience. Um, so let me just open up a shop as a hedge. So I opened up my shop as a complete hedge, and um one thing led to another. It just started booming.

Um, people were were were uh uh uh showered

SPEAKER_00:with stimulus checks, so they stayed home and they completely just remodeled their homes. That's what they did. And my phone was ringing nonstop. And so I had to sit down and think, hey, what do I really want to do? You know, I love economics and the financial advising and finance and you know, economic history and all this stuff. And uh, but um in finance in the financial services arena, I had to call and chase people. Like I'm like, hey, you know, you this financial product, you know, you said you wanted to move some money or you buy this to do this estate plan or or buy this insurance policy, whatever it might be. But in the electrical industry, my phone was blowing up. People were calling me and they were hunting me down. I was like, wow, you know, okay. So we went all in. We went all in on the electrical side.

And of course, solar just fell right into place because, like I said, we are

SPEAKER_00:in Las Vegas and solar was booming at the time. We had the 30% tax credit. Uh, people are like, hey, do you do you do solar? Do you do solar? And I said, Well, I certainly can. So I said, Hey, you know what? We certainly need to um implement solar into uh the things that we do. And it was really quite easy because solar is a very easy electrical installation. It's a one-day project, right? Maybe two days tops, uh, three if it's a rather large project. Um, it's a very simple installation. And and um, so we jumped in and started installing solar. And and so now we do solar. We uh we install um, we design and install solar, service solar, um, all the and other electrical projects too, from commercial to industrial. So that's how I got into the industry here in Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_01:That's perfect context. Let's focus in on that moment where you said, okay, we're gonna go all in. Um, and I'm glad you added that context of, hey, you already were doing electrical work, just kind of, you know, things pop up and then you really narrowed in on solar. Let's say you're talking to somebody who's in a very similar scenario. No, you know, they've got an electrical contracting business and they're thinking about narrowing in specifically on solar. What are those maybe two to five things that they have to do to sort of get started, whether that's certifications, insurance, you know, partnerships, what are kind of the core things you need to do to get up and running?

SPEAKER_00:That's a great question. That is, um I would recommend people to understand the variety of systems that are available to customers. You know, you have uh two or three dominant systems that require knowledge of their uh software, getting certified as an installer for their equipment, learning those systems. And it's quite easy if you have electrical background and you went to school for this, it's really simple. Um, but you still have to go through um the training courses for be it Tesla or N Phase or Solar Edge or EG4 or EcoFlow or REC solar panels, whatever it might be, you still need to dedicate that time to hammer down and pass those certifications or get those certifications and pass those tests. And then once you uh are able to do that, you understand the variety of systems that are out there.

Like I know um solar contractors, they just focus on one system basically or two systems, but

SPEAKER_00:customers are saying, hey, I don't want that system. I want um this system. Like we're doing a rather large eco-flow system um with REC panels. And this customer specifically um wanted uh that equipment. And he's like, hey, I called everybody in town, the big guys and the small guys, and they're not certified to do this and they don't want to do this. And that's because you know, they're running a cookie cutter shop and they're pigeonholing themselves into systems that uh um I did well when the tax credit was in effect and people really didn't give a rip. Like, yeah, you know, it's gonna save me money, go ahead and install it. So I'd understand the variety of systems that are available. And if you're a true electrical uh electrician, you know, who came up the right way, you can adapt to different systems. It's really simple, it's really all the same stuff. So that'd be one. Another thing

SPEAKER_00:I would uh caution young contractors getting in and attempting to install solar is to understand that um the money has to be right for you to do the job. And that might go without saying for a lot of folks, but a lot of big companies they went out of business, medium-sized companies, they went out of business once things slowed down. Because for the simple fact, they weren't making much money. Like solar, there's not a ton of money to make on a solar project. And I had marketing teams come up to me who who I know personally, who are my friends, and tell me, Peter, we're gonna get you all these deals and you're gonna make the money on the volume. And I go, well, that doesn't make sense because I'm not, I don't own a retail company where I sell packaged goods like canned goods and pre-packaged food, where I have to sell a whole bunch because my margins are so thin. No, I'm taking risks.

I'm

SPEAKER_00:managing land, labor, and capital. I have men on the roof, you know, penetrating uh uh people's properties and installing these electrical systems. Like we're not, if I can't make money on that one job, then I'm likely going to walk away from it because it's not worth the risk. So a lot of the big ones, they went out of business because they weren't making the money. They were living on the advances that the banks, the finance companies were giving them. And, you know, they got ahead of themselves. And you know, they they just so the money has to be right because you are taking risk. And um, if you're not, if you're not getting paid properly, you're not making the money, you have a huge incentive to rush through that project and cut corners. And that system will have problems in the future, and you're gonna get called back to go and fix it. And it might cost you two, three, four thousand

SPEAKER_00:dollars to go back and fix what you you kind of messed up on because you're under the gun by not bidding the project right. So that that'd be that'd be uh another one. Make sure the money's right.

SPEAKER_01:So you I'll kind of summarize that and then you can feel free to correct or add on. But it's like step one, understand the landscape of who are the systems and providers that are out there. Step two, you go through a pretty typical process of getting certified and training with each specific one, so you can kind of be a certified dealer of each product. Um, and then step three, kind of understanding the numbers and what you're getting into. Is that a fair summary? And then I have some follow-up questions to that.

SPEAKER_00:Oh, totally. Absolutely. You hit it on the head.

SPEAKER_01:Okay. So then when it comes to getting licensed or uh, you know, certified with specific specific providers, is there an upfront cost associated with that process? Do you need to have capital ready to deploy or is this something you can do day one?

SPEAKER_00:No, no, you don't need capital to be certified with the companies um that like EcoFlow or EG4. It doesn't cost any money. It'll take some time, it'll take some energy, focus, but nothing uh in terms of money because these companies they want you to sell their products. You know, they want you to be certified with them because they're hoping that, hey, you'll you'll put their products on people's property so uh they can keep uh you know that business going and going. But you will need money, um, you will need credit, like uh you will need a lot of credit. I'd say, you know, you'd have to go to vendors and say, hey, listen, I'm a new contractor, I'm a new installer. Can I get a line of credit with you guys? And you got to qualify for that. And if you're new and you don't have a history of business and you don't have money in the bank, it's real easy to be declined.

So you will need lines of

SPEAKER_00:credit from several distributors and you'll need credit cards, um, your own personal credit cards as well. And uh, so you got to build yourself up and have good credit and have money in the bank.

SPEAKER_01:Would would you recommend this being a sort of add-on side service? Um, or is this something where you would say, hey, you need to go, if you're gonna do solar and you're gonna do it right, you have to go all in, or could you kind of play both sides of it?

SPEAKER_00:If you're a big shop with the right personnel, and I mean you're surrounded by people who can design and install systems themselves, like I can sit down, I can draw out with a pen and pad and design a solar system, big, small, using various different types of equipment. So if you're a shop who has um like six, seven, eight men who can do that, then yes, you can do whatever you want because you're simply qualified to do so. And there are shops out there that can do that. There are maybe two shops out here in Las Vegas outside of us who can do that. Um, but most can't. So, unless you have the expertise, I won't attempt to do that because you might end up biting off more than you can chew and uh costing your company a lot of money, and not to mention your reputation. So I wouldn't necessarily uh uh uh uh recommend that somebody go down that route.

Um, you got to be all in on solar for the most

SPEAKER_00:part.

SPEAKER_01:Okay, let's talk a little bit about partnerships specifically. Who are some of the um you know types of businesses or individuals that you are looking to partner with? Yeah, that could be general contractors who are building lots of homes, that could be roofers who are already on the roof. Like who who are those pillar uh partnerships that somebody should make sure they have established in order to kind of create some sort of recurring business coming in from those?

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's a good question. I would say general contractors for sure. General contractors they do um uh you know complete remodels, um, kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels. Like we have a custom home that we're doing currently, and right now we're in the phase of basically just the uh the first floor. The second floor is the next phase, but the gentleman has Tesla, a whole Tesla system, and he wants to get rid of it. This is a this is the very wealthy, wealthy guy, by the way. He wants to get rid of his Tesla system because he doesn't like the customer support, and he wants me to install a new system on it, and uh it'll likely be it won't be Tesla, by the way, it'll be a different system. So, general contractors, they talk to people who are not only qualified who have money, but um ask the general contractor, hey, you know what? You're doing my bathroom, do you know another plumber? Do

SPEAKER_00:you know another electrician? I'm thinking about getting solar, or I'm thinking about getting a generator backup or battery backup. Do you know anybody who you can recommend? So, general contractors, hands down, probably the best uh person that you want in your sphere of influence that you can lean on and partner with. The next person would probably be real estate agents, uh uh, really good real estate agents. Um, first of all, they don't like solar, by the way. They they want their customers to stay away from it. But here in southern Nevada, in the deserts of southern the southern Nevada, like there are no trees, right? It's really strange. You can see that you can see for miles and miles in front of you. So when you're driving around, you see all these homes, and basically not everyone, but I'd say about 18%, 15% of the houses at least have glass on their roof. So you're driving around

SPEAKER_00:town, you're like, man, I just bought a new house, and all I do is see solar. You're gonna think about it and you're gonna bring it up to your real estate agent. So if your real estate agent is qualified, they got a lot of business, or they're the head broker, they're like the main agent for that brokerage, that's another person you want to partner up with as well.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've heard, I mean, those are two common um sort of areas when it comes to all sorts of different types of home service trades businesses. The realtor and the GC, just two important contacts to have. And if you own a trades business, you know, how do you start thinking about how you build out those relationships? I want to talk about just generally the value of solar. What would you say what are kind of like the top three criticisms or skeptics points of view that you get when it comes to solar? And and it's it's obviously a little unique when you're in Nevada because there is sort of, you know, how much sunshine are you getting? And so if you could kind of speak to how that impacts other parts of the country as well, that could be helpful.

SPEAKER_00:You do you yeah, you do get some skepticism um about solar out here. And what I find is that it's unfounded almost entirely, or they have a misunderstanding, or they're uh criticizing solar, but a very small aspect of solar. Not that it's it not that it doesn't like have a return on it itself within you know seven, eight years, ten years, however it might be for the individual. But the I usually get just kind of blatant attacks. It's a scam. Okay, well, why is it a scamp? You know, well, it's not renewable. Well, nothing's renewable. I mean, we're all gonna die. This Macabon, it's not it's gonna die at some point. I mean, nothing is truly renewable. Um, so I think the attacks that solar get now are kind of really low-level attacks by the almost bottom of the barrel type of thinkers, if you will, um, here in the deserts of southern Nevada at least.

Um, so I think those attacks are are going

SPEAKER_00:away because we have hardcore conservatives out here who I service and they all have solar, right? You know, because when it comes down to uh when it comes down to it, it comes down to economics. What's gonna win the day? Does it save you money? Well, yeah. Okay. Everyone wants to keep more money in their own pockets. So I would say that most of it is unfounded at this point. Um and uh, you know, and a lot of a lot of people who who really don't like solar, a lot of them even actually have solar here, you know.

SPEAKER_01:So right. It is funny how an energy source has become like a political thing. It's like why how how did politics and solar energy even get commingled at any point?

SPEAKER_00:But um, anyways, people people are real easily led by their pride and their ego for sure. Yes, yeah, you know, people are unfortunately people are you know, once that ego turns on, your pride turns on, you dig your heels in, and you know, you might you might go down with the sh the the ego shift if you're not careful.

SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Um, let's talk a little bit specifically about the business model of solar. So you mentioned, right, kind of step three of getting started is knowing your numbers um and understanding that. Walk me through the model, the kind of just the typical economics of your average solar job. How does the revenue flow and what are the margins looking like?

SPEAKER_00:Okay, so there's two different types of jobs that you can do. One is a cash job where people are gonna pay out of their own pocket, and then one is gonna be financed. What we're experiencing now after the 30% tax credit has ended, solar has really slowed down. Like we're not doing as many projects as we were last year, but they're beginning to pick up for several reasons, and I'll touch on that afterward if you'd like. But we're getting a lot of uh cash buyers right now. And the cash buyers, uh, well, for one, they're qualified, and two, they're already sold on getting a system. Like when someone reached out to us and they're a cash buyer, they don't need to be closed, if you will. They've already made a decision that solar is something that they want and they're gonna move forward. Now it's just a matter of time. Can they find the person who they know, like, and trust who comes off as a

SPEAKER_00:real professional, not a sales guy on a uh, you know, like a little laptop and you know, yeah, I drew your system out and this is what it's gonna be, but someone who actually knows what they're talking about because the consumer, they're doing their homework. They're YouTubing, they're Googling, they're using AI, like they're going into the consult, uh, like dude, super knowledgeable, and they'll spot out a fraud or fake or someone who is less they perceive as less knowledgeable as them rather quickly. And if someone's gonna come in, uh, our next system, I think it's a cash buy $74,000. Okay, if the guy's got $74,000, the family of the household got $74,000 cash, okay, they've had some success in their life. They've been places. They've, you know, they've made silly mistakes and you know, they've been around the block a few times, so they can snip things out rather quickly. Um now, those

SPEAKER_00:margins are good because if you're able to get that deal, um, you know, in your contract, you want to protect yourself. Like I tell all my cash buyers, and most of our buyers are cash buyers. Hey, we tell them, listen, you know, this is to protect myself, you know, this is what it's gonna take to move forward. Like uh, I don't want you, I don't tell them this, but the risk that we take is that they cut and run, or or they, you know, say, hey, we're gonna sue you, we're not gonna pay you for this, whatever it might be, because you just don't know how people are, and you hear stories about that all the time. So you want if it's a cash buyer, you want to make sure that you're protected from day one. Because let's say that you go out and you buy $20,000 with the with worth of equipment from your vendor on credit, and if the deal goes south, well, you owe your vendor $20,000.

They're not gonna

SPEAKER_00:take back that, pay take back that equipment. So you need some a few bucks up front, and you need you need to get paid on progressive pay. Okay, you need some money up front. Okay, and once we put glass on the roof, we expect one more payment. If we don't get that payment, we don't continue forward. Once glass is on the roof and so and so, like you need to um have markers where you get some money to continue so that you have that adequate protection, you'll sleep better at night. If you don't do that, and say you got three of these jobs going on, or five or six, you're not gonna sleep at night. Okay, it's gonna be um very distracting to your piece for sure. And your partners won't like it either, they're not gonna sleep either, right? And if your your employees find out that you're not sleeping well because you might not get paid, well, they might cut and run. Well, I'm out of here, this

SPEAKER_00:guy's not solvent. So uh that would be one thing for the cash buyers. For the financing, the financing is really great because it doesn't put us under any risk. Because our vendors actually work with banks that finance our products. Um, so it's a really wonderful tool where we sell a system and uh the system's closed, they sign the agreement, they qualify for financing through the uh through uh the the bank that works directly with our vendor. So now the bank will actually um write a check to the vendor or operate on credit where we have no risk. The risk has been transferred from uh me to the financial institution. And that makes us feel really, really good. And they will actually give you portions of that project at certain points of the project, like uh after inspection, you get like maybe 30, 40, 60 percent of the money. Um, post-inspection and post-commissioning, you get the rest of

SPEAKER_00:your money. And solar is like a one or two-day job. So, you know, the the points where you get those dollars are almost in material because it's a short cycle of a job. Uh, but those are the best jobs. And to get qualified with those banks, like I said, you'll need to have some credit, some history, money in the bank, um, be worthy, that type of thing. So those are the two ways, and you want to hook up with a a vendor that finances in-house to transfer the credit from and transfer the risk from you to the financial institution.

SPEAKER_01:Right. So the vendor is the one who basically oversees or at least takes on a lot of the manual work related to financing. You guys kind of make the connection, and then the the bank that is financing, they'll pay the vendor so you can get the materials, you do the installation, and then that bank will pay you at sort of certain checkpoints in the project. Is that a fair summary? Yeah, got it.

SPEAKER_00:And those are wonderful too, because there's no negotiating with the customer, like we're negotiating with the customer currently about how much he's gonna pay us at certain checkpoints because he's a cash buyer. The man is an attorney, so he understands risk. He understands that hey, we're just protecting protecting ourselves, and uh, you know, but it it's a little bit longer. So the best way is to go with the finance companies because there's no risk on my part whatsoever. I just need to do the job properly.

SPEAKER_01:Right. Makes total sense. Let's talk about sales and marketing specifically. What are what are some things you've done? And I mean, you can hit on sales, hit on marketing. They're you know, in some ways one and the same. What are some of the things you have done that you have found to be pretty successful sales motions or initiatives? Um, and then maybe some things where you tried them out and you're like, okay, well, we're not gonna try that again. Some good things that have worked out well, and then maybe some things that haven't worked out so well that you learned from.

SPEAKER_00:Oh, totally. Like sales and marketing is always a uh a mystery. It's like an active trader who trades stocks and trying to just figure out this Rubicon and or or or this this you know the this riddle that's unsolvable. Because if it was solvable, then you know, like someone would deliver would have delivered to me the silver bullet or I would have discovered it already. But it's a constant moving target because sentiment changes, um, algorithm changes, the price of marketing changes, the promises marketers come to me, um, they never change. They always promise me the world, right? You know, it's always gonna be great if I just give them you know a bunch of money and uh you know they throw numbers at you. Um, but marketing it is always a tough one because for one, sentiment changes.

So here in Las Vegas and all across the United States, the big marketers, and some of which who I know, they

SPEAKER_00:ran amuck in this industry. They completely overpromised and under-delivered. But they didn't just over-promise and underdeliver to the consumer, they actually did that to the installer themselves and left them hanging. Um, so the consumer caught wind of this. Um, they're like, you know, we don't want to deal with any sales organization, any salesman. We don't want to even consider solar right now because you guys have um, you know, left the uh uh uh gave the industry a black eye. Now, most people who have solar are very happy, but there are some who are not, and they are extremely vocal, and they're letting it be known. So much that here, the contractors board in uh southern Nevada, they have what's called their solar task force that was established just last year, and they're hunting down all the bad solar organizations and they're gonna tar and feather them once they catch them.

They have

SPEAKER_00:been. So, since sentiment changes, the marketing strategies have to change. You have to be more creative and actually telling your customers that, hey, I know that um there are a lot of snakes out there, but we're not a snake type of thing, right? You know, you can trust me. And there's still a barrier up there. So the best way to market yourself is to create content where people can look you up and watch your content and hear you out, hear your story. Most sales organizations can't do that because they're the or marketing rather, they're they're marketing bait and switch. Hey, the government's gonna pay for your solar, hey, um, no money down, no money out of your pocket. Um, that that catches the eye of people, but it doesn't bring them into the realm of trust. If someone says, hey, I can save you a bunch of money, yeah.

I kind of I look and it catches my attention because that's just my

SPEAKER_00:my greed, my my self-interest operating. And we're we all are operate that way. But wise people, people have been around the block a couple of times, they stop themselves. Oh, you know, wait, I heard that before. Yeah, you know, you know, and then the skepticism wall gets built back up. So uh marketing is a huge challenge right now. So you want to create content and let people know who you are, where they can find you, and where they can hear your story, hear about uh uh uh everything that you've been doing. Like on my webpage, we have you know tons of videos where you can watch content of ours, of me speaking and talking about this industry and my thoughts. And if that gels with you, if I'm articulating messages that make sense to you, well, you're likely going to be like, oh, I I think I kind of like this guy. I think I might like him.

I might call him up, and then they will open up the

SPEAKER_00:lines of communication, and now you have a chance to sell and close that deal. Until then, you're you're in no man's land. Selling is an entirely different skill set when it comes to marketing. Like selling is uh, you know, there's different uh ways to sell and close. You know, you can you can be the hard closer and browbeat people in, you can be the line manipulator, uh, the schemer closer. There's a lot of them that get a lot of deals to do that. They don't last long, they the industry purges them, you know, at some point. Um, but they they make money in the in the meantime and they get deals. Or you can be the expert closer, you can be the communicator, you can be the person who knows everything about the industry inside and out, and that's what people like.

They want to sit down with an absolute professional because people who have a property, who work professionally, who might be being

SPEAKER_00:paying cash, if they're getting finance, you know, they did their homework and they want to sit down with somebody who knows their stuff. So uh uh marketing, it's gonna be challenging. Um, the most important thing that you want to protect is your reputation. Your reputation is everything. Without your rep, you are done. You're gonna spend a bunch of marketing dollars, and man, this is not working out. In terms of sales, you want to be the professional in your space. That that's what I'd say about sales and marketing.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I mean to kind of sum that up, it's you want to elude or elicit trust, expertise, and professionalism, both in the marketing aspect of things through the content, and then also on the in-person when you're ready to close. Uh oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_00:100%. Like we spend marketing dollars currently, right? And uh, you know, most of the marketing dollars, it's not gonna, it's not gonna do anything for you. It isn't. People are just kind of clicking around. Um, you know, uh people were interested at the, you know, we we have some great videos that are out there, and people felt the informational form and they and they give us information, and we call them, you know, and and and they don't want to talk all of a sudden, right? So people are finicky, you know. Oh, you caught you caught me in the moment, and I loved what you're saying, particularly about this new demand charge at NV Energy, which is the utility company that sells electricity to the uh to to to to all of us here in southern Nevada, they're gonna raise our rates April 1st through what's called this new demand charge.

So we have a whole marketing campaign around that currently,

SPEAKER_00:and yeah, we made we put together a great video, right? People love it, they fill out information, but when it's time to talk, they're like, Well, you kind of maybe caught me up in the moment a little bit, right? So, marketing is extremely tough. That's why content creation is uh far more effective. And uh your reputation, um, referrals, um, and that's where you're gonna begin. You know, you don't want to dump a ton of money into your marketing out of the gate because you might not hit the bullseye. And you might say, wow, we spent tons of money on marketing, and you know, and now we're gun shy.

SPEAKER_01:So well, on that note, um, where can people find you on social media, your websites, and then who do you want reaching out? Whether it's homeowners, general contractors, um, you know, where can they find you and who do you want to reach out?

SPEAKER_00:Beautiful. Yeah, um, so you can find us at VegasFamilySolar.com. We have tons of content. Um, we have a YouTube channel, Vegas Family Solar, as well. On Instagram, you can find me at Vegas Family Solar, where I create a ton of content, tons of short videos, three, four, five-minute videos on my Facebook page, uh, Vegas Family Solar. And if you're here in Southern Nevada and you're a general contractor or you're a homeowner thinking about battery backup or solar or servicing your current solar system, and you're concerned about or you're concerned about the new demand charge, demand charge that's happening April 1st, where we're going to be charged on little 15 minute increments. Um, give us a call and you want a free consultation. We'll definitely see if we can help you out.

SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Thank you so much, Peter. You got everybody.

SPEAKER_00:Thank you.