Latest / Buying Local Podcast / Episode 37: David Byrne (Renua Energy)

Transcript

Episode 37: David Byrne (Renua Energy) · Buying Local Podcast

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The superpower that every citizen has is the ability to
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control where they spend their time, money and attention by
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focusing these on supporting local businesses who are having
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a profound impact on your friends, your family, and your
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local community. So if you want to change the
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world, you can start with buying local.
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Welcome back everyone, to buying local.
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I'm your host Mike Nelson from 5 Towers Media, Glens Falls Today
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and Saratoga Business Report. I am joined today by David
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Byrne, which I said that correctly.
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That's right. Yeah.
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Excellent. David is joining us.
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He is. He owns a company called Renewa,
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and he's going to tell us all about what Renewa is and does.
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And I believe you're also a veteran as well.
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Thank you for your service. Thank you.
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Appreciate that. What branch of the military were
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you in? I was in the army.
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How long were you in the army for?
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I was active for five years. So I I was commissioned in 2001.
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So that happened in June and then 911 happened and I was in
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New York at the time still because I went to College in New
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York. And then you know we we got to
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my first unit and ramped up and got shipped out to Kuwait and
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was over there for about a year and then came home for a year
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and then went back. To Iraq for a year and and then
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at that point I I had kind of completed my initial obligation
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and for family reasons I decided to get out.
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My son didn't know who I was at the time and it was important
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for me to be an effective dad and and so I, he was two years
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old and my wife and I wanted to have a large family I guess
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relatively speaking. You know we have a large family
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with four kids and and that was important.
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So we kind of pivoted at that point.
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That's a great choice to make and I thought, probably not an
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easy choice to make, I imagine either.
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No, it was very conflicting. And you know, to this day,
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honestly, I still think about that decision and wish that I
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could have done more. Yeah, I what if, what a crazy
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thing to be newly in the military, in the army and then
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something like 911 happens. What does that feel like when
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you're like, obviously, you know you're going to get deployed at
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that point. I mean that's, you know, like.
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Oh yeah, I mean, I I had an injury in college, so I I was
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held over after graduation from college for a couple months
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while I did physical therapy and got up to speed.
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And so as I mentioned, we were still in New York at the time
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and then my my wife was working down in New York City that day
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and. I it was hard for me to
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comprehend the whole thing. I mean, obviously my wife was
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fine and we were grateful for that.
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But I I ended up going down there and, you know, trying to
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help out in any way I could and then really trying to wrap my
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brain around the the magnitude of what happened.
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You know, So I I put on my military uniform and went down
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there just to see if I could help in any way.
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And you know, you're walking down these streets and they have
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these, you know, these morgues that they've identified and.
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And kind of centrally located. And they had written in this
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paint that was like dripping. It says like morgue and Oh my
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God. And dripping paint that it dried
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on these, like the sides of these buildings.
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And it just, you know, it looked like something out of a movie.
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Yeah. And I can't even imagine.
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Yeah. And.
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Yeah. The rest is history.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah. Well, again, thank you for your
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service and and commitments. And thank you.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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So, so let's talk about renewal. What?
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Sure. What is renewal?
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So Renewal is a clean energy company.
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And I I actually can explain how we got here by going back a few
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years. When I when I got out of the
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military, you know, I I had a sense that there were.
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Kind of competing interests, it also drove some of the decisions
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to to invade Iraq in the 1st place and you know some of that
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related to energy and etcetera. So I I didn't understand all the
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ins and outs of the geopolitics and the military industrial
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complex etcetera. But I just knew that I wanted to
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do something to make my country stronger, and I also wanted to
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do something to make us less dependent on the Middle East,
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because. Based on my experience in in
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Iraq and Kuwait, I I felt like we should depend on them for as
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little as possible. I felt pretty strongly about
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that. And so I I decided, well, I'm
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going to get into some you know, clean energy sector because I I
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believe in renewables. You know, the sun is there,
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let's harness the power of it. But then I I wanted to, you
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know, obviously also be an energy for.
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Energy independence purposes, which I felt was critical to
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national security, so I wanted to continue to try to make a
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difference in some way, shape or.
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Yeah, so I got involved just working for a small company at
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the time. I lived down in Red Hook, two
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hours South of here, and I started working for a company
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called Hudson Valley Clean Energy.
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I was an installer and I I was. I had a couple kids at the time
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and went on the way and I I got this job.
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I had to go in there. Five times in person to get this
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job. Oh, no kidding.
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You know, they they're trying to figure out what marketable
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skills I had coming, you know, out of a combat.
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Environment and having served and and the bottom line is I
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think it was tough for people to understand what what skills
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could transfer to the small business environment.
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And anyway, Long story short, I got a job working as an
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installer installing panels on residential rooftops And you
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know, so you're, you know, it's a summer day like today, you
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know, maybe 85 degrees and you're like, well, I'm a I'm a
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young fit guy. Yeah, I'm I'm just got back from
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doing. Tough stuff over over in Iraq
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and I can take on the world and then you're you're you're
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humping these panels up and down a ladder you know all day and
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then you're up on the rooftop and and the heat is just
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radiating off and and and it's you know Iraq could get hot
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right. It'd be like 120 degrees
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sometimes but it was kind of a dry heat and and it it it was
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just a different experience on the rooftop and and I, you know
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I I admire anyone who who does that for a living and and I was.
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Trying to support a family, you know, taking home, you know,
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after taxes and all that good stuff, you know, probably 13
6:34
bucks an hour. And you know, my wife was trying
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to buy, you know, healthy organic food, You know, for the
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young kids that it was like we, we didn't always balance our our
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monthly budget, but that's how I started in the solar industry.
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And then I was there for five years.
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And then I took a job working for a solar manufacturer, LG
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Electronics. And I was traveling all over the
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country, you know, working for LG.
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I I love my job. I was, I was really supplying
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panels to large scale developers or construction firms who were
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building very large scale projects.
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And it was a dream job. You know, I'd I'd take our
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customers over to Korea sometimes to see our factory and
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you know I had a corporate card. So that was that was awesome.
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And now it's a little different when it's my own company.
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And anyway, so I worked there. So you still have a corporate
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card anyway? Yeah, that.
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But back then we had big customers buying.
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You'd have some customers buying maybe. 30-40 fifty $60 million
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worth of product a year. So if you if you dropped $1000
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on a nice steak dinner, that was OK.
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Out at a trade show in in Vegas. You know it was OK?
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Yep, Yep. If I if I tried to do something
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like that, now my my office manager, who's my wife have some
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questions for me, yes, yes, I bet about a happy response, but.
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But that's how I got into it and.
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We do a couple different things at renewal.
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So we have one side of of the business which is a consulting
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side where we offer development services for large scale solar
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projects. And you know when I was working
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for LG for those five years, I met a lot of developers, I met a
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lot of large construction firms. It seemed like there was a need,
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there was kind of a a gap there and in in the services or at
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least in the supply of some of the services they needed.
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So, so we started doing, you know.
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Design consulting services for large scale solar, we we've
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we've worked on about 40 large scale projects here in New York.
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We we appear before the town boards and present you know our
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civil design and the environmental studies and you
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know all the due diligence we've done on the project to try to
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get it to notice to proceed so we can move forward.
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And then the other side of the business that's the solar you
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know development services, the other side is doing EV charging
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station installation. So we have.
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Electricians in house and you know a crew and we're hiring
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actually a couple people here in the next couple weeks to expand
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our capacity and we started off doing a lot of, I call it light
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commercial work. So we're working on like small
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like motels, hotels in the area. You know, we did Landmark Motor
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Inn down in South Glens Falls a bunch up here in Lake George.
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As I say, I saw a few on your website.
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Colonel Williams and. There there's several others
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that we did in South Glen or sorry in in Lake George and and
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throughout the Hudson Valley actually.
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And now we're we're kind of evolving and we're doing larger
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projects sometimes for car dealerships or other kind of
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larger commercial industrial clients who who need like a
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larger Bank of EV chargers from I mean we're going to start to
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see them like we see gas pumps now I would imagine right with
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the number of Ev's on the road every day is increasing the you
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know with what the, I don't say the legislation that's been
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passed as far as you know increasing the number of not
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just you know what the manufacturers are producing
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right, like what is it is it 2035?
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Yeah, that's what they're shooting for here in New York
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State. You know, I I think it's
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certainly an aggressive goal. Sure.
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And and we really enjoy just helping customers who who need
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these and and you know people have different reasons for for
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installing these. But you know if you're a car
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dealer and you know corporate is telling you hey you need this
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infrastructure built out before you can get EV product and they
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see it as a new revenue stream and you know really important to
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meet the demand in the area. Then we we feel like we're
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really making a difference that way too, you know and so
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question about the EV charging stations as someone who does not
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own an electric vehicle, right. How does it work?
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Like it does it. Does it work like a gas pump,
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You know where you go, you slide your card and it charges your
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card and charges you money. Is that you know, is that?
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Yeah. You can typically use a credit
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card in in some cases you have to have an app for that okay,
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okay. So that that's still I think a
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point of frustration in the market is a lot of.
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These software providers require you to download their app, and
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then there's various providers, and depending upon which one is
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in play in that given location, you have to install that app.
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But a lot of them do also allow for credit card transactions.
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And yeah, so there's different types of chargers.
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Also, there's like what we call Level 2 chargers, which are
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just, you know, they're. More cost effective, but they're
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also not as robust. They don't have as high
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capacity. They don't charge as quickly,
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right? That's to say they don't
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transfer time. So you know, for a lot of these
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local spots that we did, you know up in the George Doray
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Motel for example, was it was a small one we did, you know, we
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just did Level 2 chargers because.
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They might have folks who are looking to stay in Lake George
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and they have an EV and they're driving up from, I don't know,
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New Jersey and and they're they're saying, well, let's stay
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somewhere that has an EV charging station.
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And then you know for a lot of these, you know, smaller outfits
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that they could avoid losing revenue because they wouldn't
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lose to some of their competitors who already
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installed these on their premises.
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And so for example, Dorae Motel, they just have, you know, a
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couple ports, level 2 chargers, but.
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If they have clients staying, you know, desks staying
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overnight, then they can charge. Yeah, they plug in.
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What charge? You can get about 30 mph of
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charge. So you know, if they're charging
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for 8 hours, they're going to get, you know, a decent 200 full
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charge or whatever. Yeah.
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And now I believe I read something too about just
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recently that the industry has decided to use the Tesla type
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charger industry standard. That's the that now the industry
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standard, Is that correct? Yeah, all the momentum is headed
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that way. So there's a, you know, a
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testing and Regulatory agency which previously had approved
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the the older charger or the original charger, let's call it
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connector type and and then Chevy and Ford came online and
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said hey, we're going to support Tesla's.
13:15
Connector and that's been kind of I guess the tail is kind of
13:19
wagging the dog in the industry or you want to describe it but
13:22
they're they're kind of driving that that switchover.
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So now that testing and Regulatory agency has come
13:28
forward and said, well, we, you know, we, we support Tesla's
13:31
connector as well and that's going to be good for Tesla.
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If everyone's using your charger, right, like I'm sure
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they've got that patented. That's nice.
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Should buy that stock. If you haven't ready.
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Yeah. Yeah, right.
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Yeah. Doesn't everybody own a little
13:48
Tesla stock? They've.
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Been around, They've been around, yeah.
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So, and I'm sorry, how long did you say you've been doing this?
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Five years, Five years now. So you've just passed that magic
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number of pass fail for businesses, right?
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I don't know that there's anything magical about where
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we're at, but I can say that we we are growing and.
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You know my goal is never to be like the biggest or you know the
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biggest baddest company in New York.
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But we want to do the best work, we want to have the best
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reputation. So that's something we're
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working towards and and we're kind of organically growing as
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part of that process and you know we're we we're hiring a
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couple people it's going to put us right around 20 employees and
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that's amazing and I feel like that's a good place to be in and
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you know for me it's it's, it feels really good to be able to.
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Provide opportunities that allow people to, you know put food on
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the table. Absolutely in the fridge, You
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know, because that's that's important.
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Yeah. You know it's interesting to say
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that too because in the we just recorded an episode of Blue
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Collar Startup right before this and we were talking about that
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very same thing. And and also, you know, I give a
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shout out to Jason McGregor at Minnick McGregor down in
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Saratoga. You know, I was having a
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conversation one day with him. I think we might have been doing
15:08
a video shoot and and he was just making the same sentiment,
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right, without like, you know, like hey, this business provides
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for eight families. You know that for the people
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that work here and you know that's that's that's what's
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important to us and kind of and you know I just think it's
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amazing when when business owners start to look at their
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employees and the people and in like what we say in our company
15:31
is like you know the technically, yeah, they're
15:33
employees but we work with them like we work together.
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You know, they're not we don't own them like you know, they're
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helping us. We're helping them and the
15:39
business provides for these people and it's just a cool, a
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cool thing to to, you know, be a part of.
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Yeah, it can really become a platform that that supports a
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lot of, a lot of dreams. Yeah.
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And you know, I I work with. Friends of mine, I mean, I've
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hired friends and I know that's a little taboo sometimes and it
15:59
can go sideways very quickly. But in my case, it's actually
16:04
worked out really well and I'm grateful to work with people I
16:08
respect and I like and. You know, we we don't hang out
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all the time. Like you know, you know,
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sometimes some of us socially might get together but we're all
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busy. I mean you know, I have 4 kids
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and they're doing ski racing and travel lacrosse and you know all
16:23
this good stuff. So you know between the business
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and the family there's not a lot left in terms of budgeting time.
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But I guess my point is it for me it's been really rewarding to
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be able to work with with with some friends and then you know,
16:37
hiring new employees and and. Really just trying to make it a
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win. Win as much as possible.
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Yeah, that's awesome. And and how did you end up up
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here, by the way? Up here Okay, good question.
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So I came back from Iraq. We we wanted to move back to my
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hometown to raise a family, which was Red Hook and and then
17:01
like a couple years, well, a few years later.
17:06
My, my kid, actually, my daughter ended up really getting
17:09
into ski racing. She watched this movie about
17:10
Lindsey Vonn Okay. I think she was seven years old.
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So it was like 7 years after moving to back to Redwood area.
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And she's like, oh, I want to, I want to be like her.
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I want to be an Olympic ski racer.
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And we were skiing. You know, we were just kind of
17:24
learning. I I never skied growing up.
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We didn't, we didn't have a, you know, a pot to piss in.
17:28
So it wasn't really in the budget.
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No. And and so.
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I was learning with the kids. We initially we couldn't afford
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like goggles and like, you know, all the gear.
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We just kind of piecemealed together what we could.
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And then anyway, I I was just a dad trying to support a dream.
17:45
And one thing led to another and she actually became like really
17:48
into ski racing. Like it wasn't just like this
17:52
vision anymore. She was like really trying to go
17:53
after it and and working hard. And we couldn't.
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Make that happen. Just skiing twice a week.
18:00
You know, at Butternut where we were driving to, it was an hour
18:03
away from my home working all week.
18:05
And then I spend all Saturday and all Sunday at Butternut in
18:08
Great Barrington, MA, an hour away from Red Hook.
18:10
And so part of the decision point was finding a place closer
18:14
to mountains. And so we're one exit South of
18:17
West Mountain, which has a great, you know, ski racing
18:19
program. That's what I hear.
18:20
Yeah. And.
18:21
So my kids are there three days a week or sorry, six days a
18:24
week. Three of my kids and and also we
18:28
wanted to we were renting when I came back to the area my mom had
18:33
kind of like a mother daughterinlaw set up and and we
18:36
were renting and supporting her but we didn't have our own nest
18:40
egg investment and we wanted to buy our own home and and so in
18:44
you know I'd probably save like $400,000 by buying up here in
18:48
this area we bought in in the town of Monroe South Glens Falls
18:52
school district and. You know, this is before COVID,
18:55
but we got a nice five bedroom, you know, for with one acre for
19:00
under 300K, whereas in Red Hook it would have been probably 700
19:03
or something like that. So, so that that mattered, too.
19:08
That mattered. Yeah.
19:10
And so all the all the stars aligned and you ended up in
19:13
South Coast Falls. And and I really like the land
19:15
here. You know, the mountains.
19:17
During COVID, we used to go out to the Hudson River, actually,
19:20
which we could walk to, you know, 10 minutes from our house,
19:23
and we just go swimming in this inlet in the river and no one
19:25
was around. And yeah, that's cool.
19:27
You know, just being able to access the High Peaks or it's a
19:30
beautiful area that we live in up here and it's, you know, like
19:34
I say all the time like this is where people come to vacation.
19:37
Like it's it's a beautiful area. There's so much to do.
19:42
And you know the sunsets and sunrises are are pretty in any
19:45
direction, you know it's or from wherever you are looking at
19:48
them. But yeah.
19:50
I don't have a boat, but you know, I have some friends with
19:52
boats and Lake George and that's the key to life.
19:56
A friend of mine, years ago I had a boat and.
20:00
I had said to one of my buddies and I was like, hey, when are
20:02
you going to get a boat? And I was like, but I don't need
20:04
to get a boat. You would want a boat.
20:06
He's like, why would I ever buy one?
20:07
If you own a boat. Yeah, right.
20:09
Like, that's the move. Because you know, with the two
20:11
favorite, the two best days of boat owner, right, the day you
20:13
buy it and the day you sell it. And he's like, yeah, I don't
20:16
have that set of problems. He's like, I just show up when I
20:18
want to use it and go out with you.
20:19
And it's, it's great. No repair bills, None of that
20:23
stuff. All we do is win.
20:25
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
20:27
All we do is win Bogey's Pub and Grill at a Meadows Golf Club.
20:32
Not just for hungry golfers, they have a little something for
20:35
everyone. The pub side offers a nice
20:37
friendly atmosphere, televisions to watch your favorite sporting
20:40
events, booths for a nice lunch, a pool table, PGA golf
20:44
simulators with over 80 courses. They also have a formal dining
20:48
room if you're looking for a more traditional dining space.
20:53
So, so you moved to the area you build this business which I
20:57
think is amazing, 20 employees. So you guys you know it's a
21:01
healthy size business. What do you think the biggest
21:05
challenges that you you see on a regular basis with your company
21:08
right now? Yeah, great question.
21:11
And I just want to be accurate because I do have a few of those
21:15
twenty who are part time. Yeah, yeah, so.
21:17
That's fine. So we we're very family
21:20
oriented. We try to support, you know.
21:22
Families and and employees in their roles as moms and dads.
21:26
And so sometimes it works out just for someone to work part
21:29
time with us. I would say probably our biggest
21:34
challenge is, is finding, you know, motivated electricians who
21:41
who want to come on board because they're in very high
21:44
demand. And you know obviously there's
21:47
been a labor shortage for quite a while and you know sometimes
21:51
we're competing with much larger companies.
21:53
So we we like to connect with folks who are kind of like
21:57
minded who want to be in the small business world.
21:59
It can be quite a different experience in many cases and
22:01
being in a in a corporate environment and we we do our
22:05
best and you know every year we're trying to improve our
22:09
offerings to employees and so I would say definitely you know
22:12
finding. You know, really solid manpower
22:18
is is our biggest challenge. And you know, also I would say
22:25
on the technical side for our development services, you know,
22:27
for example, if you're hiring engineers and they're also, you
22:30
know, not not the easiest to come by either, which is
22:35
interesting in this because I don't know if you knew this or
22:37
not. And this is an old statistic.
22:39
It's probably maybe 10 years old, but 10 years ago and it
22:44
might still be is that Glen's Falls had the highest number of
22:49
engineers per capita than like any other place in the country.
22:54
And that was really this crazy thing just because of all the
22:58
different types of businesses that are locally.
23:01
I mean we have a high demand for all types of engineers in in
23:05
this area. It's really interesting thing,
23:08
but yeah, compared to other parts of the country.
23:11
I'm not looking hard enough. Well, you know it it really does
23:15
come down to two though that there's just so much industry
23:18
here that requires engineers, which is and it's really is.
23:22
I mean if you look around you know Glens Falls, Queensbury
23:24
getting down to Saratoga, you know there is just so many
23:29
organizations that or engineering type firms whether
23:32
it's environmental or or mechanical.
23:34
I mean it's it's crazy, there's a lot of industry in this part
23:37
of the country, but. Cool.
23:39
Yeah. Fun fact.
23:41
Yeah. Learn something every day.
23:43
That's right. That's right.
23:44
Of course, that could be completely off now because
23:46
again, that's an old, old statistic.
23:48
But it used to be, yeah. One other challenge for us Mike,
23:51
has been just the sales side, business development.
23:57
You know, particularly on the EV charging station side of the
23:59
house because you know a lot of people they they may want EV
24:04
charging stations but they may not feel that they need them,
24:07
right. So if you're a if you're a
24:11
business and you have you know a couple 100 employees in a decent
24:14
sized parking lot or you're a larger hotel, you know our job
24:19
is to help people see the merits of.
24:22
Of that business case of installing these and and there
24:25
are a lot of tax incentives as well, you know federal and state
24:28
tax credits etcetera. So it's our job to kind of help
24:31
them understand how it can benefit their business.
24:34
But the point is we don't get a lot of inbound calls.
24:37
You know there there's certain companies, you know, I was
24:41
talking with a friend of mine who's a residential electrician
24:44
and they're, they're doing pretty well.
24:45
They're locally based here and and they'll get, you know, 30 to
24:48
40 calls a day. Actually sometimes more than
24:53
that, like maybe 50 calls and then like 20 of those are solid
24:56
leads that they convert to. Yeah, to bookings, OK.
24:59
And so those are good numbers. Yeah, those are good numbers an.
25:03
You know he has a steady incoming stream of leads and and
25:06
we don't, we don't have that, we we don't, I mean we'll have that
25:09
once a month someone will call us and say hey I'd like to get a
25:12
quote from you because we, we saw you on the National Grid
25:15
website or whatever as a qualified, you know, approved
25:18
installer. But but all of our business
25:20
development is cold calling, right and that that takes a
25:23
special breed of of of salesperson to do that.
25:28
And so that's a that's a challenge.
25:30
Do you do those calls, David? I I used to when when we started
25:34
doing EV charging about 2 1/2 years ago.
25:38
I was doing that and I actually missed those days.
25:40
To be honest with you. I I really feel energized.
25:43
I Everyone's different. It must be the military
25:46
background. You got, you know you got you're
25:49
just a glutton for punishment, right?
25:50
You're like. I've been accused of that
25:53
before, but yeah, I, you know, people react differently to
25:58
that. But.
25:59
But for me, it's energizing to get out there and just try to.
26:02
Connect with people and see where it all goes.
26:04
But I'm just these days, I'm too busy kind of trying to lead the
26:08
company. So.
26:10
So we have a couple guys who do a really good job of that.
26:12
But the point is like I hired a veteran, you know, out in
26:15
Syracuse and he had the resume and you know he was polished and
26:21
seemed like he really had to drive.
26:23
And you know, he he lasted about 5 weeks and and then you know he
26:26
quit. And that's heartbreaking for me
26:29
because, you know, whenever I can hire a veteran, it's a good
26:31
day. And when I can give them an
26:33
opportunity to provide for their family, that's that's even
26:36
better, you know. And so anyway, the point is,
26:40
like, not everyone is built so that they can thrive in that
26:44
type of cold calling environment where you're physically showing
26:47
up and trying to connect with people in person.
26:50
It's hard. It's hard.
26:51
I'll tell you, I'll share a funny personal story.
26:55
So we're talking, I don't know how many years ago now, I think
26:59
it was like probably 2010, 2011. I worked for a a franchise out
27:05
of Albany that did sales training, right?
27:07
And I teach cold calling clinics and I would do a lot of cold
27:10
calling and. But at one point in time it got
27:13
me so stressed out that I started having like these weird
27:16
heart palpitations to the point I thought something was wrong
27:19
with me, went to the doctor they were getting, putting a heart
27:22
monitor on me, all this stuff. And then I I like realized by
27:27
because I went a few days without cold calling and my
27:30
heart got better. And so it turned out like I
27:32
literally gave myself so much stress from cold calling and the
27:35
expectation I was placing on it that I was having this weird
27:38
heart arrhythmia thing. So it cold calling's hard.
27:41
It's stressful. It's not for everybody.
27:44
I got over that obviously. And and and I I did become very
27:49
good at networking. I love networking, right?
27:51
So like, do we get, do we get connected through the chamber?
27:55
Are you actually? Yes.
27:57
I am a Chamber member and I did an interview with one of the
28:03
reporters here with Kate Kate. Yeah, Haggerty.
28:08
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kate Kate's great.
28:09
Yeah, So she put us in touch. Very nice.
28:11
OK, so. But I love the chamber at the
28:15
networking events. Like it's been huge.
28:16
I don't know if you're going to the I think the common roots
28:20
mixer is this evening. If you're listening to this, the
28:23
common roots mixer has already happened.
28:25
Because this won't go out till next week, but for us in real
28:29
life, yeah, tonight at 5:00. That's awesome.
28:32
That's probably something I need to improve upon, is just going
28:37
to more chamber events. I've been a member for I think
28:40
three years now. I went to the Christmas holiday
28:44
event this past season and that was awesome And.
28:49
I haven't been to too many other events.
28:50
Yeah, I tell people all the time.
28:53
I've always been a huge advocate of the Chambers of Commerce and
28:55
in any town I think it's a for small business especially, it's
28:59
an excellent way to get connected with other people in
29:02
the business community. And really, you know, I've
29:05
always, I've made my career off of networking and in sales
29:09
anyway. And but I can tell you that this
29:11
Adirondack Chamber, the team that they have right now, that
29:13
Trisha is leading Trisha, Amanda, now Ava, Carol, I mean
29:19
they're just, they're amazing. The events are amazing, very
29:23
accessible. You know, it's just, I can't say
29:26
enough good things about the chamber actually.
29:27
So, but what I do tell everyone is most, not most, much of the
29:34
power of the chamber for a small business person comes from those
29:37
events. And so if you're not hitting
29:40
those events, you're just not getting even half of what you
29:43
could be out of the chamber. I mean, those events are huge.
29:46
And so you should go. I will.
29:49
And today's, I mean, it's in your backyard basically today,
29:52
right? Southlands Falls, Common roots,
29:53
Great beer, great people. It sounds good and I I.
30:00
Will make more events. No pressure.
30:01
I will make more events. No pressure, but I'll be looking
30:04
for. It if I say I'm going to do
30:05
something, I'll do it. That's good.
30:06
So I'm so I'm intentionally not committing to this because I
30:09
don't know if I'm going to and I like it.
30:11
I like it. I will make more events, yeah,
30:13
no, they're great. So, you know, just a little
30:17
shout out for the chamber there, but awesome.
30:19
Yeah. So business development, you
30:22
know that's a I think that's a we've been trying to find we I
30:26
should say we've been trying to successfully hire a salesperson
30:30
for a year. You know what I mean like and
30:33
just trying to find the right person because it's a stressful
30:37
environment. Account managers we can find
30:40
right and anyone can do an account management as long as
30:43
you like talking to people, right.
30:44
And you want to help people, you can be a great account manager
30:46
but the the hunting part of business development is the hard
30:50
part and and that's that's what we're trying to find a hunter
30:55
and it's just it's challenging, it's challenging.
30:57
And what's interesting is sometimes you may not know it.
31:00
You may have that streak in you that that allows you to succeed
31:04
in sales. You don't know it.
31:06
And I would say that when I was getting out of the military and
31:09
then, you know, I started working as an installer and
31:11
solar and then I got a job doing residential sales for that same
31:15
company, You know, they gave me a shot.
31:17
I had to make more money. You know, I was supporting a
31:19
family. We're a single income household
31:20
and. And I I did sales for about 4
31:24
1/2 months until I had my landed my first deal.
31:28
And I'm so grateful to the owners of that company,
31:32
particularly my boss who who headed up the sales and and
31:34
marketing teams because he didn't fire me.
31:38
And if you would have fired me, you know, three months into it,
31:41
like, oh, you haven't sold. Anything like pack up your bags
31:45
and get out of here. I you know maybe I wouldn't have
31:47
had a career in in the solar industry and so I'm I'm forever
31:51
grateful for that and I try to take that experience and and
31:56
practice patience. You know when when we hire
31:59
someone in sales and you know we we we hired a a gentleman
32:03
recently, you know he's been at it for a few months and I said
32:07
you know. I I don't really care if you're
32:09
super motivated in in week one you know and you know if you
32:15
are, that's great you know coming hot out of the gates
32:18
here. But what I care about is you
32:19
know the 3rd or 4th or 5th month into this.
32:22
If you still get up every morning and you're feeling
32:25
hungry and you're willing to get out there and go hunting and and
32:28
you enjoy what you do. You know and you feel energized
32:31
by it and you know sure enough it you know it's tough and and
32:36
you know he. He had to go for you know
32:39
several weeks without really landing any deals and he was
32:42
getting nervous and and I said no, you know I believe in you.
32:45
I I know you can do this. You've done it in other markets
32:48
in other in other sectors, other industries.
32:51
I know you can do this but you got to believe in yourself
32:53
because I I believe in you and and you know and then he landed
32:56
some big deals and. You know there's always ups and
32:59
downs you know then then you get you get a customer who cancels a
33:02
couple big deals you know and that's tough and and that
33:05
happened in this case but I you know I I just kept encouraging
33:10
him and and I and and that's really because of my experience
33:13
when I started off in sales and and and they they believed in me
33:16
I didn't know myself whether I could do sales I it just sounded
33:19
fun but I was coming from an environment in which I was so
33:22
detail oriented you know in in a combat environment you know.
33:26
Where the devil's in the details and you have to really have
33:30
everything lined up and squared away and then But then once I
33:34
sold my first residential solar system, I was like hooked and
33:39
that's it, right? My confidence, just like it just
33:42
skyrocketed and then customers or prospects, they can sense
33:46
that. Listen, I'll tell you to your
33:49
point, I mean sales is hard, right?
33:51
And a lot of people don't realize how hard it is and you
33:54
you like you said you go months without closing a deal.
33:57
But man when you close that deal, how good does that feel
34:00
right? And then like you know I I it's
34:03
the ups and downs and I think that's the hardest part for a
34:05
lot of people. It's just the ups and downs and
34:07
being able to weather the the valleys of no sales.
34:11
But holy moly, I can there's nothing I I actually just said
34:16
to one of the guys in my office today or yesterday, I was like
34:20
how much do we like to close deals?
34:22
It's like there is nothing better than closing a deal, man.
34:26
Like when you're hunting and you're getting a win, what's
34:29
better, right? Yeah, absolutely.
34:31
And there'll be days like if we land a big deal.
34:35
And we needed it. We really, really needed it.
34:37
And I'll, I'll, I'll be in my office.
34:39
I'll just start yelling. Yeah, that's.
34:42
Great. And I I still, you know, I still
34:44
work above my garage a lot of the times.
34:46
So you know, my kids will, The kids are like, oh.
34:48
There's, you know, they'll be like, what's going on, Dad?
34:51
close the deal. Yeah.
34:52
And and I'll get down on my my hands and knees sometimes and
34:55
and give thanks you know when we close a big deal you know and
34:57
it's that the ups and downs you know and that that makes it all
35:00
worth it. It really does.
35:02
It really does And and you know and listen that's that's why we
35:05
want to have people like yourself on this show and and
35:08
talk about this stuff is because for small business guys and
35:12
girls you know like small business people it's it just
35:16
means so much right. When you get a deal, when you
35:18
close the deal and and and and that's one of the power or that
35:22
is the power of buying local right.
35:23
Because you really are supporting your friends, your
35:25
neighbors, and it's such a profound impact when someone
35:29
buys something from you versus buying it from a huge
35:32
corporation or a box store or whatever.
35:34
It is like no one's getting down their hands and knees and
35:37
thanking God that they made that deal, right?
35:39
You know what I mean? So it's, I appreciate you
35:41
sharing that. That's.
35:42
Great. Yeah.
35:42
And and I got to give a shout out, Yes, please do to Whiteman
35:45
Chevrolet. Yeah, right.
35:47
Right here in in Glens Falls. Yeah.
35:49
And you know, we had done a couple bigger, bigger deals, but
35:53
a lot, you know, they were primarily down in the Hudson
35:55
Valley. And based on connections we had
35:57
there and they gave us a shot doing this install for them and
36:04
a pretty big project, a lot went into it and it was quite
36:06
involved and just grateful to Amy.
36:12
Whiteman Brown and and her team for for giving us that shot as a
36:15
local company. Yeah, it's awesome.
36:17
I bought my last three cars from those guys.
36:18
So Amen. They're great people over there.
36:21
Go see Nate. So yeah, that's awesome.
36:25
That's very cool. So if.
36:26
Well, actually I got one more question.
36:28
Sure. So I know we're kind of running
36:31
running over a little bit but from a business standpoint,
36:36
right? Like you talked about, like you
36:37
know, you don't have a lot of inbound stuff coming in.
36:40
And so if I'm a business owner and I've got a parking lot and a
36:45
good amount of cars are coming in my parking lot every day, or
36:49
maybe I want to give people a reason to come into my parking
36:51
lot, right? Do I make money in those EV
36:55
chargers? You definitely will.
36:58
And you got to take a midterm view of it.
37:01
And the reason is because, you know, there's an upfront
37:05
incentive if you make it publicly accessible, there's a
37:09
federal tax credit. There's a state tax credit and
37:12
there's depreciation, savings okay, but sometimes it takes a
37:15
couple years to fully depreciate the asset.
37:18
If you're using it, you can use five year makers I guess
37:22
depreciation schedule and there there is the upfront investment
37:28
but you get a lot of that back and.
37:30
Then the point is, when you own that asset and you're operating
37:33
it, you know you you generate revenue every time someone uses
37:37
that because you own it. You know and and so there's all
37:40
sorts of fancy structures and deals you can have third party
37:44
ownership or lease deals or whatever kind of like ATM
37:47
structures. But I I get particularly excited
37:51
when people want to own and operate it themselves because I
37:54
think you know the the usage, the revenue streams will
37:58
continue to increase over time and and they get all these other
38:01
tax incentives, you know. Whereas if if they're doing a
38:05
lease deal or third party deal, that third party captures those
38:08
incentives. OK, yeah.
38:10
All right. And that was my question.
38:11
I was like, you know what you're talking about, Like people don't
38:12
necessarily aren't calling in, you know, if they want to put
38:15
these pumps in. But I was just like, well, I
38:16
mean if they can make money doing it, like, why wouldn't
38:18
they? Not only if maybe making money,
38:20
but maybe it's a draw to bring people to your business because
38:23
you have those chargers, right? Like gas is at A at a
38:26
convenience store, right. That's why they have the gas is
38:28
to get you there and then get you inside and grab a cup of
38:31
coffee. Right.
38:31
So. Exactly.
38:33
Any big deal with Stewart's coming down anytime soon?
38:37
No, they they already did some deals I think with New York
38:40
State, but do they have maybe charges?
38:42
They they do at some, yeah, yeah.
38:44
But we, we landed our first New York State deal which we're
38:48
pretty excited about. Yeah.
38:49
And you know we've been a, you know, a veteran owned small
38:52
business, it's called SDVOB. We're certified by New York
38:55
State and the federal government as such and we haven't really
38:58
landed any business in New York State, you know, over the past
39:00
five years, so. For me this has been a
39:02
significant development for us as a team.
39:05
You know we just you know it's not all finalized yet because
39:09
they have to vet you know all our credentials etcetera.
39:12
But but you know we we're what what's called the lowest
39:15
apparent bidder and so yeah we we we'll see where all that
39:21
goes. But I I'm, I'm optimistic it's
39:24
going to move forward and you know for me it's it's meaningful
39:27
because we're you know if it moves forward we'll be
39:29
installing these at you know. DMNA, which is deartment of
39:34
military and naval affairs, so basically National Guard
39:37
armories. Yeah, here on the eastern side
39:39
of the state. So that's amazing.
39:41
Yeah, well, I'm hoping it all works now.
39:44
Yes, come through. We'll see.
39:46
I'm excited, a little nervous at the same time because when
39:50
you're the lowest parent bidder, you're like, okay.
39:54
We gotta make sure we're operating efficiently.
39:58
That's right, all I's are dotted, Lt's are crossed and
40:00
things are moving on time. That's great.
40:04
So David, if people want to find.
40:08
Renewa Where do they find you guys?
40:11
Our website probably has the most information available.
40:14
It's renew energy.com. I'll spell that phonetically.
40:17
It's RENUA, so renew energy.com. I'm on LinkedIn as well.
40:25
My name is Dave Byrne, last name spelled Byrne.
40:31
It's awesome. Yeah.
40:33
Hey, thanks for coming in today and spend some time with us.
40:36
Really appreciate it. You know, thanks for employing
40:40
20 people in the community and and being a part of things and
40:42
and again, thanks for your service, appreciate that as
40:44
well. And yeah, we'll have to get on
40:48
again sometime and tell us about how that that project's working.
40:51
Out right. We might take a full hour for
40:53
that one. That's it.
40:54
That sounds good. She attached me on the right
40:56
day. Yeah.
40:58
Well, thank you so much for the opportunity and.
41:01
I My promise to you is I I will. Attempt to make it to more
41:06
chamber events. Yes, you hear that.
41:07
Trisha and Amanda and Ava and Caroline, everybody.
41:10
He is. He's making a tentative
41:12
commitment. If I don't have a travel
41:16
lacrosse commitment for my kids, or a ski racing commitment or
41:20
some other, it's awesome. Something else going on.
41:22
Well, thanks again, man. All right, thank you.
41:24
Thanks everybody for listening. Join us next time.
41:27
We've got some great people coming on the show just like
41:30
Dave and you know, keep listening and keep supporting
41:33
your local businesses. Thanks everybody.
41:36
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42:01
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42:08
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42:10
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