Duke Energy is an electric utility that services 7.4 million customers from Florida to Indiana.

Tampa Bay Solar has installed many residential solar arrays in Duke’s local footprint across Tampa Bay, from up North in Citrus county and as far east as Polk County

Like most electric companies in Florida Duke is a net metering utility, which means that Duke customers can bank kilowatts with the utility and use that power at a later date. This is done via a bidirectional meter that is installed by Duke after your rooftop array has been installed and passed county inspection.

Duke charges a $9 monthly connection fee that all customers have to pay, even if 100% of your energy comes from your solar array.

The bidirectional meter is normally installed a few weeks after the solar array has passed county inspection, in some cases it has taken Duke longer than a month to install the bidirectional meter, but in 2019 they seem to have corrected this issue.

How do I know all this cool stuff?

I’m the Director of Sales at Tampa Bay Solar, and I’ve been helping homeowners in Duke’s service area go solar since early 2017.

-Ben Alexander

TampaBaySolar.com

In reading Jordan Peterson’s book Twelve Rules for Life I was struck by his fourth rule:

“Compare yourself to who YOU were yesterday, not to who someone ELSE is today”.

In my work in solar sales I visit beautiful homes all the time, and many homes are clearly much more expensive than the humble home I reside in. Most of my clients are married, and when I run their credit and ask them their household income sometime I’m shocked by the number… especially those folks who are earning over $400,000 per year as a couple!

What you don’t know is how much debt other folks are holding, you might see a neighbor driving a new Mercedes but they won’t tell you about their $700 per month lease payment. The same goes for that gorgeous million dollar home that’s propped up with a $950,000 mortgage balance!

We compare ourselves to others on social media as well, when folks post pics of cars and vacations… and then I look out my window at my humble little 2013 Chevy Volt…

But when I compare myself today to where I was a year ago a very different picture emerges. That Chevy in my driveway is PAID OFF today, but still had a loan balance one year ago… my solar team was just getting started a year ago… my income this past month was far higher than January one year ago…

My house is far closer to being paid off today compared to my mortgage balance one year ago. By comparing my 2019 self to my 2018 self I have a clear idea where I’m headed. Both guys are still single, but the 2019 version is more confident, more comfortable with dating, etc.

This concept of comparing one’s present self to past self is very useful in detecting decline as well. Do you weigh more today than you did before? Do you have more debt? Is your income lower today than it used to be? Is your health declining from lack of activity?

I was unhappy with my body weight after Christmas and started fasting 16 to 20 hours each day. Here I am about five weeks later and I’m a little thinner and feel better already. I know that I merely have to stay on track to hit my target weight of 175 pounds and then STAY at that weight.

Look at where you are today and compare yourself to where you were a month ago, a year ago, maybe even five years ago. If there is something you’re not happy about take action now, today.

Ben

February 4rth, 2019

That’s NOT me in the pic above… got that from a random Google search.

She looks pretty chilly, eh?

The ambient temperature last night in Tampa was around 50 degrees, so the unheated pool in my subdivision was in the mid 50’s when I did 10 laps this afternoon.

Since January 1rst I’ve been doing an 18 to 22 hour daily fast (just eating dinner, really) and doing a daily cold water swim in the late afternoon, as my schedule permits.

I feel amazing, I’ve eliminated inches from my midsection and my chest and shoulders feel a bit bulkier. I’ve dropped 10 pounds, but some of that may have been muscle gains, hard to tell. My clothes fit looser, one of the signs that my weight is shifting in a healthier direction.

I’m dropping weight at the same rate I did when I used to run 4 miles each day, but with Intermittent Fasting I’m not tearing up my knees and ankles.

If you are not familiar with Intermittent Fasting there are many comprehensive videos about it on YouTube, and this is how I learned about it. If you’re overweight and feeling sub-optimal I’d encourage you to look into this.

There is a very specific level of mental sharpness that occurs towards the end of a fast. I’m actually experiencing that “high” right now as I write this. It’s 6PM and I haven’t had anything other than hot tea since midnight, which puts me at 18 hours fasting. I don’t feel hungry at all, but I’m going to dinner soon (with a lovely woman) and I’m sure the food will be as delicious as my companion…

I eat normal food for dinner, I’m not “keto” or vegetarian or any of that, I just try to eat a balanced dinner. I still drink some alcohol, but I’m keeping away from beer for the most part. The great part about fasting is the built in calorie restriction, even if I have a heavy meal of pasta and garlic bread that is mitigated by a much lower caloric intake before and after the meal.

When I hit the pool near the end of my fast I feel strong and razor sharp mentally. There is very little on the internet about fasting combined with cold water swimming, but the way I feel when doing both is frankly amazing.

I’m just under 200 pounds at this writing, my goal is to hit 175 and STAY there for the rest of my life. I think the swimming and daily fasting are a long term and sustainable way to make that happen.

Ben Alexander

January 23, 2019

I was blessed to have 2 daughters, and they were very girly girls with feminine interests.

Growing up they had zero interest in flying airplanes, riding motorcycles or shooting carbon fiber arrows with my compound bow. When I bought a pair of drywall stilts and did the “Uncle Sam” gig for the 4rth of July they didn’t even want to learn how to walk on stilts!

That’s me above, with 2 beautiful ladies from the Wesley Chapel Rotary club.

So IF I had a son this is some stuff I would teach him:

#1. Start lifting weights in your teens and take advantage of all that extra testosterone. You’ll look good and feel good, but understand that your newfound strength should be used towards noble purposes only. I was a lifeguard and a volunteer firefighter from my teens until my college years. Your role as a strong young man is to PROTECT those who are weaker than you. If you see someone getting bullied step in and help them out, even if that puts you at a social disadvantage, even if you have to punch someone in the head.

#2. Take on responsibility and grow into it. As a lifeguard I had to make sure little kids did NOT drown and this had life and death consequences. Society trusted me to take on this responsibility, at $9 per hour! When you are granted responsibility take this very seriously, you won’t become a man until you can be trusted with responsibility.

#3. Don’t grow facial hair if it barely comes in and looks wispy. Horrible look. I didn’t let me facial hair grow in until I was in my 30’s. Shaving your face daily decreases acne because the razor defoliates the skin. I shave in the shower, less nicks. Also, keep your nails clipped and neat. Use deodorant and shower often or you’ll smell like a used gym sock. Just be impeccably clean as much as possible, the ladies will like you for it.

#4. On that note… always be kind and gentle with women. You might be strong but you don’t have to be rough. My Mom is 70 years old, I always kiss her on the cheek when I see her, and also when I leave. Hold doors for everyone, if you’re walking with a girl walk on the side of the sidewalk that faces the street. If you ever see a woman being mistreated by a man step in and knock him out if needed. It probably won’t come to that, but I’ll gladly pay your bail money.

#5. Totally avoid people who do drugs and drink excessively, they’ll drag you down into their world, and it leads nowhere. Surround yourself with the kids in your class who are the top students, top achievers, the kids who have big goals. That peer group will lift you up and encourage you to be your absolute BEST.

#6. Learn how basic mechanical things work; internal combustion engines, motorcycles, airplanes, HVAC systems, solar, etc. I started buying used tools when I was a 13 year old kid working for an auctioneer, I still have those tools today and use them! Learn how to chop down a tree with an ax. Think about the skills you would need if we lived in a post apocalyptic world and learn those skills! At some point take a construction or manual labor job and work your ass off. You’ll learn valuable skills and feel great (but tired) at the end of each day.

#7. Don’t neglect your intellect. Make sure you read books outside of your school assignments. It can be science fiction, history, biographies, etc. The leaders in your generation will be the young men who are readers today. Your mind should be a giant curious sponge. Read up on Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, the Founding Fathers, Jesus of Nazareth, etc. Reading about the great moral leaders of the last 2,000 years and think about how YOU could be a leader in your generation, in your school, in your community.

#8. Decide to be a man of character and integrity. Lying is complicated and leads nowhere, decide early on to adopt radical integrity into your life. Do the right thing even if that is not always the easiest thing.

#9. Set some BIG goals for your life and work like a dog towards those goals on a regular basis. My business partner was a Navy SEAL. He had big goals as a teen and went to the Naval Academy, became a SEAL and retired as a full Commander! Now he runs a successful company because of a goal he had 30 years ago. If you want to become President of the United States set that goal NOW and work towards it.

… this is just a short list, I’ll add more later.

Ben Alexander

Jan 18 / 2019

About six months ago I came across the concept of Intermittent Fasting on YouTube.

Basically this: just don’t eat from bedtime until later the next day. I cut out breakfast and ate a later lunch. Fasting is anti-aging, it also triggers more testosterone and HGH production in the body, which all men need after the age of 40.

If I have a day when I eat breakfast or lunch I’ll go back to IF the next day. I ate too much on New Year’s Eve, on January 1rst I started 2019 with a 24 hour fast.

When I tried fasting six months ago I made the mistake of having coffee with cream and sugar in the morning, this messed up my results.

I switched to JUST black tea in the morning (with no sugar or cream) and extended my fasts 16 to 20 hours. It took some time to do this, If I get past 1PM without eating I can go until 9PM that night, easy.

My and my sister Andrea decided to drop 15% of our body weight. She’s up in NJ, I’m down here in Florida, we text each other to stay accountable.

I ate dinner last night at 8PM, I will eat nothing today until 5:30PM, so that will be a 20 hour fast. I feel really great. The longest fast I tried thus far was 24 hours, I’m going to try a 36 hour fast in the next few weeks. The more you fast (and get rid of stomach bloat) the more you get used to it.

I’ve lost over 10 pounds of FAT, the spare tire is getting smaller.

I’ve also noticed that my workouts are BETTER at the end of a 16 or even 20 hour fast. I’ll hit a 55 degree pool this afternoon for about 10 laps, and feel like a million bucks after I get out of the pool.

Check out the YouTube videos from Wim Hof to learn about the benefits of cold water immersion, I’ve been swimming in an unheated pool year round since 2011. Tony Robbins is a big adherent to this philosophy as well.

Ben

January 2019

Have you ever woken up with sciatic pain so bad that you can’t walk?

I have.

How about 30 pounds overweight with borderline high blood pressure as well?

That was my life back in September of 2018. I started going to Dr. Gary Torres every 2 weeks, he did acupuncture and chiropractic and I started to get better.

I’m pain free today with no drugs, no surgery! I’m back riding my motorcycle and doing normal stuff. I can even go up on a roof and look at a solar array without tumbling off!

For 2019 me and my sister Andrea (pictured above) decided to drop 15% of our body weight in order to make it to 2020 lighter and healthier. My goal weight is 178 pounds, Andrea’s goal weight is a closely guarded government secret.

She’s my accountability partner in this, so it will be fun, and since I’m single I have a great reason to slim down and stay that way. Most ladies want to date a guy in better shape, and I look better when I’m leaner.

Last year I discovered Intermittent Daily Fasting, but I failed to do it often enough. I discovered that I felt really good if I fasted 20 hours each day, and really bloated when I didn’t! This time I’m going to hold fast to IDF, only tea all day (with nothing added) until a healthy dinner after 5 or 6PM.

My stomach has gotten smaller even with my inconsistent fasting, so I no longer have the capacity to eat a ton of food. I want to see what happens if I do 20 hour fasts every day for multiple weeks.

If you’ve never tried IDF take a minute and watch Thomas Delauer’s clips on YouTube. Everything that he says is true; you feel better, less bloated, more aware, etc.. 5,000 years of medical wisdom from India and China probably has some wisdom in it.

Speaking of China… my health journey would be incomplete without acupuncture and chiropractic. Before my sciatica hit a few months ago I had not gone to see Dr. Torres in many years, and my lower back and shoulders were really out of whack.

I’m determined now to visit with Dr. Torres once a month or so to stay healthy. I pay him out of pocket, but if I lose weight and I’m pain free I can earn far more money and enjoy a much better lifestyle. Worth it. Your health is your WEALTH.

The other part of this picture is the Fitbit on my wrist. 10,000 steps per day, as my schedule allows. Yesterday I did 4,000 steps just climbing up on my roof and taking down my Christmas lights! I also knock on doors to generate solar leads… so 10,000 steps a day is a nice baseline for my health. If I get to the end of the day and I’m at 8,000 steps I just go out and walk around my neighborhood for 20 minutes.

The other piece is regular swimming in the large community pool in my subdivision. I’ve been swimming for many years, but my diet was poor. With the fasting, acupuncture and 10,000 steps the swimming works my upper body and rounds things out.

The last piece is yoga. I’ve been doing some yoga poses and getting more flexible. There are many people older than 100 years old who still do yoga and are also mentally sharp, active and healthy. There is no doubt that yoga does some very beneficial things to the human body that we don’t fully understand.

I might join a yoga studio, still kicking that idea around……………………….

In all I’m approaching my health as a daily hobby, spending some time and money on making my physical reality as optimized as possible at my age.

In summary: Fasting,  Acupuncture / Chiro , 10,000 steps, swimming + yoga!

If you would like to join our accountability group let me know!

Ben Alexander

January 4rth, 2019

For 14 years I owned a company that I was NOT passionate about, but it made me a living. It paid the bills, it got me 8 minutes of fame.

I was making a living, meh.

The day I sold that company was like a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders.

2 years ago I jumped fully into the solar biz and I found a MISSION that also helped me earn a decent living.

Every man needs a MISSION that ignites his passion and stretches him to his full talents and abilities. Solar gave me that, and now I’m building a sales team that shares my mission, my passion, and my purpose.

I feel very lucky to have aligned my income with my mission, most people are not that fortunate.

I get up six days each week excited and ready to go.

If you can find YOUR mission try to align that with your career. I tripled my income when that happened and my work became more meaningful. One of the main reasons I’ve found success is that my clients can see that passion in me, and want to do business WITH me.

This is not just another dumb sales job for me, and that makes a huge difference.

In 2019 Tampa Bay Solar is starting a program that identifies families who have lost a breadwinner due to combat (or in service as a firefighter or police officer) and we are installing one free solar array each month to help these families get rid of their energy costs.

If you know of a family that owns a home and has lost a breadwinner to death or disability please reach out to me via this blog,

Thanks!

Ben Alexander

January 2019

Starting in 2019 Tampa Bay Solar will donate one rooftop solar array per MONTH to a family in need.

We are looking for homeowners that have lost a breadwinner to either disability or death in service to our country. The home must have a south facing roof for the system to be the most effective.

As a veteran-owned organization we are aware of the financial struggles that a family faces when they lose a spouse or parent’s income.

The system will be a 16 panel solar array with an inverter, and this will lower the electric bill about $1,200 per year for the family in need. Since rooftop solar lasts 30 to 40 years this will have a long-term benefit for the family, and if they sell the home in the future they can also sell their home for a higher price.

Solar on a roof is the gift that keeps on giving!

If you know of a family in Tampa Bay that meets this criteria please reach out to me via the comments section of this blog,

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Ben Alexander

Sales Director

TampaBaySolar.com

January 2019

This morning I taught the last class in a 5 week Debt Free program at my church. This was my 2nd time teaching the class, one of the families who took the course 2 years ago paid off over $100,000 in debt since then!

It is my sincere hope that this second round will help more families do the same. This time we had 2 college kids attend the class, they will certainly benefit from what was taught, If every college kid in the United States took this class it would transform an entire generation.

Debt sucks, yet there is a trillion dollar marketing machine designed to convince the public that debt is ok, everyone does it, etc….

I always bring a pair of scissors to my last class and we encourage folks to chop up their credit cards.  One of my students was reluctant to chop up several of her credit cards, and this is what I told her:

“God honors commitment, by chopping up those cards you are making a commitment to your own financial stability, and your own freedom from debt.”

She actually went out to her car, got the cards and chopped ’em up! I was proud of her for taking that step, and that one small action will have huge repercussions for her financial future.

It was a great day.

Ben Alexander

December 2018

I run a sales team at Tampa Bay Solar, and one of the main challenges in that role is figuring out the best way to sell, then duplicating that technique with my team.

One of the best “natural salesman” I’ve ever witnessed is a friend of mine named Bill Siveter. He would go out with a door to door crew selling anything and personally close 25 deals in a few hours, while the next best guy might only close 10 or 15.

Bill was earning $50,000 a year selling newspaper subscriptions to hard-ass Philly customers when he was only 16 years old. Today he runs a nationwide marketing firm with countless sales reps working all over the country.

In a sales situation Bill always channeled a calm / good natured confidence and people intuitively trusted him. If he got an objection he would deflect it without losing his center. In many ways he was displaying an intuitive leadership energy that made it easy to close the deal.

In contrast to Bill I was recently watching one of the reps on my team at a sales call. To protect the innocent let’s call him “Joe”. Joe actually started speaking in a higher pitch when he was addressing the client… like the client was doing him a favor by talking to him. There was no leadership in that tone, zero influence. I stepped in at that point, turned the energy around 180 degrees, and closed the deal.

Joe had worked as a waiter before he joined my team, and the same type of submissive tone he was using with the client (that drove me insane) was similar to the tone he used to use as a waiter. Waiters are not leaders. No one follows a waiter.

No one follows a follower. Followers don’t close deals, they rarely earn a high income, and they tend to “settle” for a sub-optimal life. Fuck that.

In order for Joe to become a strong closer he needs to totally change his tone of voice and start to channel confidence and leadership in front of HIS clients.

Joe’s “waiter” tone actually rose at the end of each sentence, making him sound weak and unsure of his own statements. A leader DROPS the tone at the end of each sentence, this imparts solidity and strength to the statement.

In thinking about Bill and Joe I realized that effective salespeople have all adopted strong leadership characteristics. It is easier to trust someone who is clearly a leader, and trust is the unspoken objection in all sales transactions.

I’ve included a picture of MLK Jr. with this post because he closed one of the biggest deals in US history; he influenced our government to pass the Civil Rights Act, but more than that he showed people that change did not have to be violent. That’s leadership right there.

MLK Jr. was also a talented and passionate orator, a skill that he mastered as a reverend.

Ben Alexander

December 2018