Episode 651 – Wyatt Everhart
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody, is Tom here with episode 651 of Screw the Commute podcast? I'm here with Wyatt Everhart. He's a Coast Guard veteran and part of Vetpreneur Month here on Screw The Commute. Every September, we honor our veterans that are entrepreneurs. But really, we're honoring all our veterans because we really, really want to let them know that their service is really, really appreciated by us so that we can do what we do relatively safely. So thanks so much to all our veterans out there. Now, Wyatt's an Emmy Award winning meteorologist, and now he's chosen to kick out on the bright side of the weather. And we'll tell you what that means in a minute. All right. Hope you didn't miss episode 650. That's Anthony City. He's 32 years, still active duty, but he's got a side hustle. He owns Tactics to Toys, LLC. It's an e-commerce store, specialize in collectible toys and strategy games that help with PTSD. Very interesting interview with him. Make sure if you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash and then the episode number. Anthony was 650 and Wyatt is 651. All right. Make sure you grab a copy of our automation e-book. Oh, my goodness. This is saved me. We actually estimated nearly 8 million keystrokes over the years and thousands of hours of fighting with my computer.

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[00:02:19] All right. Let's get to the main event. Wyatt Everhart is a veteran of the US Coast Guard. After completing his service and attending college on the GI Bill, he went to work in the field of broadcast meteorology. He completed a 20 year television career with his role as chief meteorologist for ABC 2 News in Baltimore. And then he decided it was time to shift his focus, and this is his quote, to the sunny days only by breaking into the solar industry. And today, his focus is on helping homeowners and businesses looking for a smarter way to invest their energy dollars by harnessing the power of the sun without getting burned. Wyatt, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:03:09] So it's a little bit of a loaded question there time, but I guess as ready as I ever will be.

[00:03:13] You know, when I was before, I knew that you were the chief meteorologist, ABC two, and I knew you were into meteorology, I said, That guy looks like one of those guys that's on TV all the time. 20 years worth, I guess. I guess so. But how did you fit all this stuff in? How many years did you put in the Coast Guard?

[00:03:36] Oh, man. You know, it's going back a little bit, Tom, at this point. But but you think back to the to the nineties and, you know, we were doing a lot of patrols off of Florida, really, between Cuba and Haiti and the Dominican Republic. There was just a lot of, you know, immigration, you know, trying to come across. And and it was our job to kind of, you know, kind of stand between us in Florida. So, yeah, for years it went by quick, you know.

[00:04:02] Well, did you did you run into Don Johnson down there with Miami Vice?

[00:04:06] And it's funny you say that, because growing up as a kid, you watch back when I did, you watch Miami Vice and you see like the Coast Guard and the high speed chases. And that is what kind of motivated me. You know, my dad and granddad were army, so I broke the mold. But I grew up watching Miami Vice. Right. So.

[00:04:25] Well, how many cigarette boats did you catch? Oh, man, we.

[00:04:32] It was funny. Yeah, it's a bit of a shell game down there, at least back then. I mean, it was a lot of that stuff, drugs, everything that was coming in, you know, freighters, hidden compartments. The speedboat thing I think was part of it. But I was on more the like the bigger, you know, bigger cutters. So we weren't chasing speed boats. We were more like interdicting the big boys, you know?

[00:04:52] Did you have to shoot across anybody's bow? Yeah. You know, I never did.

[00:04:58] But that that did happen. That didn't happen out there in the Caribbean, that's for sure. Yeah, they wouldn't stop. So you just took the engine out, you know?

[00:05:05] Wow. Before we get into the solar business here, I really interested in this, the meteorologist stuff, because we see all these blooper reels of and I was just watching some more today and and how this one guy, his dog kept coming in. His kid kept running into the shot. They put weird things on the screen behind him that weren't supposed to be the one guy. All the temperatures added like 1000 degrees. It's going to be really hot in Tempe today to be 1700 degrees. Yeah, this is live TV, right? For you did that for 20 years. How many years was it?

[00:05:45] It was right at 20 years when I when I finished up my kind of second contract as a chief in Baltimore. But I tell you, through those years, I mean, you typically start doing the weekend shift and then you go to morning shift and, you know, there's all kinds of crazy hours. But, you know, the weather guys out there, the meteorologist on air, it's it's not it's not as easy as it may. Look, you know, most of us are building all our own graphics. And I tell you, you put one extra digit and you're right, you just forecasted, you know, 900 degrees instead of 90. You know, so.

[00:06:16] This guy this guy just went with it. He says, you know, I'm not your dad, but you better leave because it's going to be 2300 degrees.

[00:06:26] You're going to get out of there quick.

[00:06:27] Yeah. Yeah. So any crazy stuff happened with you? I'm sure it did, but anything stick out?

[00:06:34] Oh, there's. There was so many things. And some of it, of course, would be accidental and some of it would be by design. The crew would prank you. I mean, I can remember the the green wall. Right. Well, I think you're a big tennis guy. You know, racquetball. Some of the racket balls are green. Well, one classic trick is they they throw one of those at you, you know, and you duck, but nobody at home, really. So why why did he duck? You know? So that was a that was a classic. And, you know, coming up on Halloween, there was one time they just right in the middle of like a three minute weather hit. They just lowered this kind of ghost scarecrow thing behind me from above and, you know, make you jump. So all kinds of things on live TV, man.

[00:07:16] Oh, man. Yeah, it sounds like a blast, but. But it is all hours. And they you like one of the guys they shove out and the the the beach when the hurricane's coming and your wind's blowing blowing you on the ground.

[00:07:32] I did my fair share of that. You know, as you go up the ranks and later in the career, you tend to be more the guy in the studio tossing to the newer guy out in the rain and the driving sleet and everything, you know. But I did my shirt. You know, the funniest thing that would happen, though, is the storm would be pretty bad, you know, and they're like, ah, we're going to come to you live. Stand by. And I'm telling you, it's like two times out of three, right? When they came to you, man, the wind would die down. It wouldn't look that bad, you know, just say, Well, you should have seen it 2 minutes ago. But yeah, there's a lot of timing with that kind of thing.

[00:08:02] I heard you say on one show, two degree guarantee. What does that mean? You guarantee that you're accurate to two degrees? I mean, what what's the yeah. How do you return that for a refund.

[00:08:15] I mean that's a good. Yeah well there's a lot of different obviously marketing and local news and then local weather is part of that. And I had a few stations. I mean, if you were a Channel three, it was easier because I had one time in my career I was the three degree guarantee. So, you know, so if you said it's going to be 90, it had to be somewhere between, what, 87 and 93? So, you know, I think what we did is we gave the viewers like a drawing. They got some type of Chatzky from the station for every time I. I missed. So you really you didn't want to miss too often.

[00:08:47] Yeah. So it's an interactive thing that's that's cool. But I did see now I don't know if this was as you roll a meteorologist because you also did a midday show but I saw you interviewing a husky was howling at you and I saw you eating a grasshopper. Now, is that part of your contract?

[00:09:10] Oh, man. I sort of built them extra for the munching on grasshopper. We we had a it was funny, the midday shows in the morning shows a lot of times the weather guy, you're going to kind of come in and do some of the fun segments. And I just remember that one. I think they were called the restaurant people or something, and they had all these freeze dried buggies, you know, new proteins to try hey, I'll try anything ten or 15 times, you know, but but yeah, you know, so fun stuff can come up like that.

[00:09:38] But yeah, I saw you doing a rowing, a water rowing machine and all kinds of interesting stuff. And I was able to watch for 15 minutes or so, I imagine through 20 years you got into a lot of stuff. So when you decided, I mean, did you. Basically get kicked out? Or did you decide then and they finally sick of you or what happened when you decided to go into the solar industry?

[00:10:06] Well, you know, I think I think a combination things happen, Tom. I mean, I always started out in my broadcast career, I was from the Maryland beaches, you know, and I said, what would it be, the end game? And I was like, Well, if I could ever be a chief back in one of the DC Baltimore big stations, that would be the ultimate. Well, I was able to pull that off, you know, and then then I did a couple of contracts and, you know, you're working these kind of crazy night hours and you're looking at getting married. And it just, you know, there was a variety of reasons, I think, that it just made sense to kind of what's going to be my new something new to target, you know, something that I can kind of do a little bit more on my own terms, you know?

[00:10:46] Now, did you plan this for a long time as a transition before you quit the TV? Or did you say, you know, I'm sick of this, I'm out of here?

[00:10:57] It was kind of starts to get in the back of your mind because the way the broadcast works for most stations on air, people that you see, they're going to generally be in a two or three year contract. And so what happens is you start getting near the end and you kind of think, geez, is the station going to offer me a big raise? Maybe, maybe not. Or am I kind of I want to try to do something else? So for me, it just kind of came up. I was at the end of a term and I just said, You know what? I had an opportunity, actually. I had met one of the CEOs of one of the local solar companies around the D.C. area and interviewed him actually on the on the midday show. And I kind of stayed in touch with him. And then it kind of got to the end. And I said, Hey, would you guys ever look at a weather guy's like, you know? So that's kind of how I kind of it happened pretty quick, actually, but it was kind of in the back of my mind.

[00:11:46] Well, that does seem like a good idea for a solar company and having a guy with weather credentials and stuff. So now I think the station did really want to keep you because from what I understand, they sent you to interview the bachelorettes. I don't know if that's a heat related thing or what.

[00:12:06] Well, so it's funny, Tom, whatever the local affiliate you're at. So I was at an ABC. They tend to piggyback some of the most successful shows locally. Right. So that was obviously The Bachelor. Bachelor that's been a big hit for ABC for gosh, I don't know how many seasons now. And so they would start to do local casting calls. And so who are they going to send out there? Well, I was the weather guy and at the time I was still a single guy, so they thought that was a good fit. So it was pretty fun to interview some of those some of the gals trying to get on the show, you know.

[00:12:37] Did you actually interview The Bachelor?

[00:12:40] No, I don't think I ever got the one who kind of won the show. But but the.

[00:12:44] No, I mean, the actual guy.

[00:12:47] Oh, oh, you're the guy who was going to field all these lovely ladies. No, but I got to say, they were there.

[00:12:55] Were they had a good they.

[00:12:57] Had a good setup. I'll just say that.

[00:13:00] Tell us about the solar industry. And I want to get into some things that could actually help. I mean, if business you know, if people want to get into the solar business or if they are thinking about buying solar for their home or business, I know there's a lot of scams out there. So what are some of the things people have to watch for when solar people come after them? Because we see it on online and on TV all the time. Get free solar panels. Don't get don't buy anything until you talk to us, you know? So what are some of the things that can go wrong there?

[00:13:34] Well, there's a lot, right? I mean, I always say it's a little bit analogous to making a financial investment decision. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of scams out there with, you know, different financial instruments, right? I mean, everything from, I guess, a reverse mortgage to a bad stock or what have you. So you kind of buyer beware, right? So I think it's the same mindset with solar. You know, you can get a very high returning good system, especially if your home is well set up for it. But on the other hand, you can I've seen some very questionable contracts and agreements out there that I've run into. So, you know, very much buyer beware. It's funny you say that. That segue from from the news. I mean, I remember seeing a story over the winter last year where they were you know, it's one of my old stations up in Michigan. They were, you know, had these some kind of sketchy solar actors up that way that were kind of pointing panels north and they were like in three shade and covered with snow. And, you know, it just didn't make any sense. But yet some of these people had signed up, you know, 20 year loans and stuff. So so it's certainly something that you want to you want to make sure you have a good advisor, a good company, just similar to being a cautious consumer in other areas, too, you know.

[00:14:54] Now that's something even if they're not in your service area, they can have you look over contracts and make suggestions and things like that, too, right.

[00:15:05] Absolutely. Tom, I mean, we talked a little bit about this before the show, but, you know, whereas the last almost five years now, I've really focused on, you know, signing up a lot of homeowners and small businesses for solar and the D.C. region, surrounding states. And then really the pandemic allowed us to start to do a lot more, even further away by Zoom and that kind of thing. But what I'm looking to do more and more into the future here, I think, is just kind of consult with people who maybe could be in any of the 50 states, but they're just kind of trying to make sure maybe they've got it down to two or three proposals. You want to make sure everything looks well. I mean, I kind of see myself as a solar guardian, if you will, in that way, maybe for for people out there that are that are looking at solar, especially now with the new tax credits they just passed, it's really going to be a pretty high payback in a lot of cases.

[00:15:56] Yeah. And so it's nice to have a third interested party looking over your stuff because they don't have any you know, they can point out things that might slide by if it was somebody that's trying to get a commission off of the sale. So that's a great potential service. But the one I kind of saw online, they were talking about, okay, you can get all this stuff for free, the installation free, all the equipment free. But it's like a lease thing and and the problems associated with it is there's a lease payment forever. You don't own the equipment and it might make it almost impossible for you to sell your house. So tell tell us about that leasing stuff.

[00:16:39] Yeah, it's interesting. And I think a lot of people, depending where they're watching from, I know certainly and you know, the kind of Maryland, Virginia, D.C. region. But I think really in almost all the states now, you're going to see these ads that might say get solar for four zero. It is clever marketing. I mean, it's it's what you have to think of is what typically a solar company might offer you is one of two things. It could be a zero down financed purchase. So a lot of these solar systems could be, you know, 30, 40, 50 grand sometimes. But they might offer you don't pay anything until you're installed and you start paying it like a payment against your electric bill savings after you're installed. It's not really zero. It's zero down.

[00:17:23] In a.

[00:17:23] Little big difference there. The other program you talked about, yeah, I mean, there is not in every state, some states do not allow these. But check in your state if there's a solar leasing program or PPA power purchase agreement program. A lot of times that's not going to make sense. I mean, they don't generally go forever. At least I haven't seen that. But but like 25 years, not uncommon at all. So you obviously that's something you want to take an even harder look at than just sort of a straight purchase of the home improvement. I mean, a lease is there's going to be a lot more. I think those contracts can be 30, 40 pages. So you definitely want to go through that or have me do it or someone that knows solar. Well.

[00:18:05] Well, right. And and the thing that jumped out at me is that the new prospective purchaser may not want to take over the lease payment. Then what happens? And so it could be very, very sticky is what it looks like to me.

[00:18:20] Yeah. I mean, the one thing I would say on is if it's a well done and generally not even a lease anymore, that that most of those are have gone away thankfully I believe. But a PPA is analogous to a lease you're agreeing to buy the power PPA power purchase agreement. A lot of times there's going to be 20, 25 years if you sold the home in five or ten years. I mean, just one tidbit you really want to make sure that you review that part of the of that agreement. Does it guarantee the transfer to the next homeowner? Is it going to be a big headache? Is there a friendly buyout option where you or the buyer could simply buy the system out and just have the home go with it as an own system? Little things that can make a big difference when you go to sell. Right. So very.

[00:19:05] Quickly. Yeah. And then being sucked in with no money down can really can really hurt you. Now, another thing that I wondered about is overrated panels. It seems like every panel on earth is is rated at a certain thing that only if you're in a spaceship holding the panel directly in front of the sun, they get that that. So how how can you really check out the quality of panels?

[00:19:35] That's a great question.

[00:19:36] Are they going to last and how how the rating how reasonable the rating is? Well.

[00:19:43] It's so there's two things there. Right. So obviously, you want to make sure you're getting a quality panel. A lot of times we talk about those as tier one panels, Tier one being. It's from a vetted manufacturer. You know, Bloomberg has looked at them and said they're financially stable. Large solar panel company, the US made panels are very available now for those that want to buy American Made. That's what I did with my house. So a good 25 linear performance warranty. You always want to see that on a panel.

[00:20:12] What is that.

[00:20:13] Now? So so a panel should come. You know, people say, well, jeez, if I put them up, it might look great the first year or two. But what about five, ten years from now? Are they going to be like my garden lights and not produce anything and just go out? That would be terrible. That means you really lost your return on investment. So a good manufactured panel is going to have that 25 year performance warranty. And generally it's going to say, hey, these panels cannot lose less than a half a percent per year. So that means, you know, ten years later, there's still 95% of day one performance. You want to make sure you have that warranty on the panel.

[00:20:49] Okay. So that's the the output of them. But you you just, I think, alluded to the look of them also. I mean, they look terrible.

[00:20:57] Well, the other thing I would say is, you know, generally the industry has gotten away from those kind of better companies, have gotten away from those kind of grid lines and tic tac toe stuff. You can get just like a nice jet black panel now looks nice on an aesthetically. And then the last piece time you talked about, Hey, man, or these really going to give me enough power, people could promise me the moon or the sun because is in this case. Look, at the end of the day, that's that's another one of those solar pitfalls I try to warn people about is any company could come in and say, oh, you know, you need this massive amount of power per year. If you have a large home such as Utah, I think you have a bigger house. Probably you're probably going to need a lot more than 15 or 20 panels, you know. But if they try to tell you that, you know, just a very small system can get you all your power, what's the production guarantee? What are how much power are you really saying I'm going to get with the system? It's important to figure that out.

[00:21:52] Okay. And how do you know if your house is really makes sense for solar? I mean, you mentioned trees and and the angle of the house and the roof. How do you know if you're if your house is is good for solar?

[00:22:11] That's a great question. I mean, at the end of the day, we generally good advisor or analyst will kind of put your house in the software and draw in the tree heights and really be able to dial in what can be done at your specific house. But just painting with a broad brush if you're a homeowner out there listening and you said, you know, I always kind of had solar in the back of my mind, but I wonder if my house possibly would even be a good fit. A couple of quick things. If we have large trees mainly on the south side of the house here in the north hemisphere, obviously we want the sun, we want the equator to be wide open if we can. So large trees on the south side of your house probably not going to work out well for you. But but if we can point them east or west and that's open, that may be an option. But generally here in the northern hemisphere, we want to point the panels south, southeast, southwest, you know, so we want to make sure there's not big trees in that direction.

[00:23:05] Now, do is this too much Rube Goldberg or can panels move during different times of the year and and times a day?

[00:23:18] You're talking about like trackable. Yeah. We don't see much of that in residential, that's for sure. I mean, the bang for the buck is really just kind of a nice, flush mounted, clean looking installation on the roof. Unshaded as possible part. A little bit of shade is okay with the new inverters can handle that, but not heavily shaded. Some areas you can find a good company to do like like our company does the the ground arrays but even on the ground every time you actually generally want to just have no moving parts you know, that's the big knock on on on on wind in some cases. Right. The mechanics can fail. So generally part of the magic of solar being high returning is it's very in a sense, very basic. I mean, it's there's no moving parts. We're talking silicon, aluminum, copper put together in a specific way. And if it's well installed and well angled and unshaded, you're going to get a lot of power out of it.

[00:24:09] Now, are these panels the standard size? Physically.

[00:24:14] They vary a little bit manufactured and manufacturer. The big thing I would tell people out there is listening to say three and a half by five and a half feet would be a good average if you want to kind of do the math and measure your roof if you're handy, kind of see how many panels might be able to fit. And then there's a bigger panel that goes generally on like industrial projects or roof building roofs, that kind of thing. They're a little.

[00:24:36] Bigger. Yeah. And I've driven through Virginia and there's some, like, fields that are 50 acres worth of panels. Unbelievable. I don't know who they're who they belong to. It must be a pretty big house.

[00:24:53] Yeah, that's. Well, that one is probably.

[00:24:56] That.

[00:24:56] One. That's a mansion or something. That's probably like a utility scale. Sometimes these utilities of the states are kind of mandating, hey, we want you to buy a certain amount of of, you know, renewable energy. So they'll actually come work out well for landowners. You know, they have some land that doesn't really have many other great uses and they'll lease them out. The land that is the lease the land to a to a solar producing company. But those are large projects. And I always say big picture, Tom. I mean, you think about it when you fly in, you probably fly into Norfolk fairly often. You look down, you'll see solar here and there. But it's not really there's a lot of open roof space. So my my thought is always, hey, with the all the open roof space we have and really the panel should extend the life of your roof. It kind of puts the roof in the shade. So why I personally I say don't use the land first, let's use the open roofs first, you know.

[00:25:50] Well, pretty much, does it? You know, if your roof is on its last legs, it's not a good idea to put solar on it and then have to take it off to do the roof, right?

[00:26:01] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's that's a big one. I said the most common time people look at and really should probably look at solar right before right after your replacing your roof because your roof is usually going to have like a 30 year warranty and your solar system should have a 25 to 30 year warranty. So that's going to match up very nicely. But yeah, there's no reason you want to put the panels up in three years later because you guys need to come pull my panels. I've got to put a new roof on it. It just wouldn't make sense, you know?

[00:26:28] Now, what about the people that are telling you, Oh, yeah, you can make money selling power back to the power company. Is that real? Is that pie in the sky? What is that?

[00:26:40] Generally, what we what we say is if you're fortunate enough that you've got a large, fairly large roof or maybe a fairly small power demand, maybe a natural gas in the house. So that minimizes how much electric you need in the winter. You want to go to 100%. I can show you a great return on investment up to about 100% of your power bill. When people start saying, Hey, I noticed I still got room for ten more panels, should I add them? Just maybe sell that back to the power company? It changes the math a little bit. I mean, the power company would give you like a wholesale credit. But most states, I don't think it makes sense to go much beyond a, you know, 100% of your bill, get your bill down to zero and call.

[00:27:20] Me happy with it. Yeah. Now, you you working on a book on this?

[00:27:26] Developing it. Yeah, probably starts with more of a special report, but you know, I've got a lot of content, that's for sure. And I'm working on a really actually, I'll be honest, Tom, just for having met you and kind of reading some of your work. It's inspired me to move in that direction for sure.

[00:27:44] Yeah, I mean, it's a great way to get the word out because people have all these questions and they're very susceptible to the shysters, you know? So you're giving them the real scoop. Well, a lot of people appreciate it. And of course, they'll they'll want to do business with you for sure. We've got to take a responsive break. When we come back, we'll ask why it what a typical day looks like for him in the solar business. And I don't know what happens when it rains. Does he take a day off or what?

[00:28:13] Watch those panels.

[00:28:15] So, folks, about 13 years ago or so, I was already selling online for 15 years at that point. And I thought, you know what, we're getting surrounded by scammers, you know, solar scammers and everybody else. That's and you're just kind of getting buried in in the noise. I thought, I'm going to do something to set myself apart. So I went on a journey, a three year journey to get the only licensed, dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world. Three years of background checks. And. Set curriculum checks and every other kind of check they can do on you. Before he got the license, because prior to this, a lot of for profit schools were getting lousy education to people and charging them a fortune and getting rich. And then the kids got nothing. So and it's adults. Adults, too are taking these classes. So started to school, teach the internet and digital marketing and 13 years later, it's still going strong. And we give. Big scholarships to military, law enforcement, first responders and nurses and their immediate families. So we really, really pro-military here and we love the people that helped make us safe and take care of us.

[00:29:40] So so that's it. Imtxc va org. And put slash military. If you happen to be military and you can see all the people we've helped in the service and the deal that we have for military folks. Bigger than that, we have a big program going to help persons with disabilities. So we have we're just starting a Patreon for that and we have a go fund me account that's helping people. We have two people in the program that are blind and another person has got mobility problems and they are making great progress. One has already started his own business online to help other people with disabilities. The other lady is totally blind and she got a job in the digital industry and is helping her husband's construction website really inspiring people. So check it all out at IMTCVA.org/disability. And then if you're military, put forward slash military.

[00:30:40] All right. Let's get back to the main event. We've got Wyatt Everhart. Here he is a Emmy Award winning meteorologist. He has eaten grasshoppers and he's I didn't get.

[00:30:53] The Emmy for that, but yeah.

[00:30:54] He sent her a quote of his he probably doesn't remember this. He says, If you see Charlie Manson on the road, make a U-turn. You even remember that saying that?

[00:31:11] I have no.

[00:31:12] Idea. So what.

[00:31:13] Happened the night.

[00:31:14] Before? What happened was there was a lady doing some kind of news report. And instead of whatever she was talking about, the Charles Manson came on the screen behind her, what she was doing. And you commented on her. So? So I think I remember that.

[00:31:30] And I still stand by that advice.

[00:31:32] Yes. All right. That's good advice. So so tell us about what's the daily schedule look like for you? Do you get up early? Do you meditate? Do you have a morning routine? What what's your story? What do you eat?

[00:31:43] Well, it's interesting because it was you know, I was always, by default, more of a night owl. So back in the day, I was doing those morning shows and you're getting up at two and going in at three to go in the air at four. That was torture for me. But but more of night out by default. But, you know, Tom, what's interesting is, you know, I got married a little bit later in life and I had a child a year and a half ago. Now, the toddler and Connor, he's he changes your schedule. You know, you're going to go on a different schedule once you have a young one running around the house. So more of a morning guy now probably up and Adam you know usually you know at latest like 730 and it's not crazy early but but by my old standards.

[00:32:22] Is and.

[00:32:23] Then you know yeah usually you just kind of kind of pretty quickly get the dog squared away get get him squared away. If the missus isn't in and just start like you kind of that digital check, catch up some emails and usually I kind of plan out my day because there's going to be more often than not at least one or two solar consultations, you know, a lot of times with someone in the region here. So it takes you know, it can take just so people know, if you book a solar appointment wherever you are and you probably want to anticipate, I would tell you an hour and a half to really go through it, really see what makes sense. And if they're trying to come in and give you a 20 or 30 minute, you know, it's probably something's not right. So is this because normally it takes about an hour at least.

[00:33:08] All right. But if it's Zoom, do you have already have pictures of their home and things like that or.

[00:33:14] Absolutely, yeah. There's a lot of satellite resources now. And when you're with a solar company, you get even additional ones that you don't find. You know, the Googles and the things of the world are helpful. But, you know, and Google Sunroof is one that's been out there a lot of people look at on their own. And that can give you an idea of your rough solar access on your plot. But there's there's a lot that I can I can do with my software. Yeah.

[00:33:38] Oh, great. Yeah. So you do some consultations then what.

[00:33:44] Yeah. Typically it's going to be finish, try to try to get done early in the day with the consults if I can. Sometimes I'll have one in the evening and that's fine. Try to get a workout in. I mean, I'm a big believer. This is one thing I have kept with me from from the military. You know, unlike you, I wasn't a huge high school athlete. I mean, I played some sports, but, you know, I wasn't what you'd call a jock back then, but the military made me one. So ever since then, I just believe in that, you know, try to try to get that at least 45 minutes to an hour or at least, you know, four or five days a week. So I'll get that in in the afternoon and then try to wind down toward dinnertime with the MREs and the little one, you know.

[00:34:22] Hey, was there was there pressure? Like probably not on you because you're pretty buff guy, but to keep their weight down for all the anchors and the people on air to look good.

[00:34:35] You know, I don't know, Tom. I mean, I think I will say this. It seems like I think of like Al Roker, you know, great guy. I don't know him personally, but, you know, he lost a lot of weight and more power to him. I'm sure it's probably very good for his long term health, obviously. But it just seemed like for the longest time he was that kind of jovial, big guy on air and he made a good run with that. So I think it's all case by case. You know.

[00:35:01] He's kind of especially I'm thinking some of these ladies that in the heels and the dresses and stuff, I'm just wondering if they get any cake.

[00:35:11] The truth of the matter is, is that the the ladies on air certainly get critiqued harder. I mean, it's everyone thinks they're an expert. It seems like, oh, what people should look like on air. But as the guy, you know, they might they might say something about that was a crazy tie you had on you don't you don't get the makeup thing or that kind of stuff. Yeah.

[00:35:28] So so how do people get a hold of you?

[00:35:32] Well, thanks for asking, Tom. I mean, I'm basically you can find me very easily with a Google and my LinkedIn at wyatt everhart or else my website allweatherpro.com.

[00:36:06] Yeah. My contact info is there as well.

[00:36:08] And you're on all the social media and your name is pretty unique. So you're on LinkedIn and I saw some interesting stuff on Instagram for you to.

[00:36:19] Yeah, it's what it was. It's interesting, you know, when you're in broadcast, they demanded that you're on everything and posting a ton. And I've got to be honest, since I got out of television, I don't post nearly as much, but. But I still do, you know, and you can still find me there for sure on the main ones.

[00:36:36] Now, when you were full time on air, were you still able to do other things like speaking engagements? It seems like you'd be, you know, known everywhere that people would want you to come speak and and can you collect for it, or did you have to do it on behalf of the station?

[00:36:53] No. When you when you do the you know, I did do quite a few everything from the you know, the rotaries to the a lot of schools, a lot of school presentations, you know, and I enjoyed those. Like, I mean, it's fun to talk to kids about weather and tornadoes and, you know, and try to keep them engaged. I always said if you can keep the the first and second graders engaged, you could yeah, you can do anybody. But yeah. So that was more just part of the job, you know, at that time.

[00:37:19] So you couldn't collect. Is that is that.

[00:37:22] Yeah. I think it would have been a conflict. Basically when you're in broadcast, the station basically owns the rights to basically everything you do.

[00:37:28] I see. I see. Got it. Got it. Well, thanks so much for coming on, man. Very interesting and informative is going to save people a lot of potentially getting robbed on solar. And then if they really want solar, what service area do you have now?

[00:37:42] Well, if someone just happens to be listening from anywhere, basically we're centered in the DC area, so we do like New Jersey, South to like Virginia, and we just entered North Carolina, but we're really that mid-Atlantic company. If I could get them signed up for a project with us in those states Central East Coast. But if they're outside that area, I'd still be happy to just talk to anybody or take a look at a contract just to make sure they're on the right track. Because I've got to tell you, Tom, the people that I have installed from four and five years ago that did it the right way are just ecstatic. I mean, they send me pictures of like they're $8 utility bills and refer their friends and it's it can really work out. Well, you know, again, if it's done right. Right. So just like anything else, buyer beware. But I. Oh, last thing, Tom. I just want to say thanks for thanks for everything you do. I guess this is like an all September thing for you, for the vets, because, you know, we just you know, these guys really I feel like what I did was pretty minor, too, compared to what guys have done since 911. So it's awesome that you kind of give back to those guys.

[00:38:43] Well, yeah, we we are very pro-military here and thank everybody in the I mean, Coast Guard is just I don't know if the the service is razz each other quite a bit, but I'm sure Marine wouldn't want people pouring into Miami with drugs and and guns and everything else that they did.

[00:39:03] Oh, yeah. We got along pretty well with the Marines. It was the Navy. We had a little bit of you know, they were like, oh, shallow water sailors, you know?

[00:39:09] But we we.

[00:39:11] We would joke with those guys, you know, hey, somebody's got to keep the, you know, the, you know, keep the keep the home front company. So it's just a know, friendly, friendly service members.

[00:39:20] Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, thanks so much for coming on, man.

[00:39:24] You got it, Tom. Thank you.

[00:39:25] All right, everybody, we're part of Veteran's Month here on Screw the Commute podcast. Make sure you support our veterans. Listen to the back episodes. We've got several more episodes to come and do anything you can to support our veterans because they have sacrificed quite a bit for us. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.