How Can Clean Energy be Dirty?
CEO B.D. Erickson sits down for a featured interview with the 'Walter Kronkite of Solar Energy' for a no holds barred discussion on clean energy, dirty electricity, and the future of solar.
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Nico Johnson has emerged as one of the most influential voices in the Solar Energy industry. He is the Founder of Suncast Media and the Host of Suncast with Nico Johnson which has a global audience in over 100 different countries. His time served in the Peace Corps gifted him with advanced bilingual capabilities and immense insight of emerging markets in Latin America. This experience became integral in his ability to help major renewable energy businesses scale on an international scope. Suncast with Nico Johnson consistently ranks on top trending podcast charts all over the world and has become a vital resource for thousands of eager professionals in the international solar energy industry.
Nico Johnson welcomed B.D. Erickson II on Suncast with Nico Johnson, Episode 359: "How can Clean Energy be dirty? EMF myth busting with B.D. Erickson, CEO of Satic USA". Over the course of the episode, B.D. delves into his entrepreneurial journey and shares how he was able to lay the groundwork for Satic Incorporated. He then demonstrates the inherent dangers and the costs of tolerating environments that have high levels of dirty electricity. He explains how these dangers are completely avoidable and can be measured and significantly mitigated within minutes. B.D. finally disabuses Nico of the false notions that are associated with the condition of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome.
Transcript
Nico Johnson: Hey there solar warriors. I'm Nico Johnson, and this is Suncast. Each week, I pull back the veil on the life and business insights of clean tech entrepreneurs building the most noble and impactful companies of our time. I hope what you learn from this conversation is a catalyst for your own growth. So thanks for tuning in, and welcome to our tribe.
Hey, solar warrior, thank you so much for investing. The only non renewable resource that you've gotten. That's your time. I promise I'll take care of it. My name is Nico and I am really, really stoked about today's interview with my friend B.D. Erickson from Satic Inc. if you're new here, and you're just checking out SunCast for the first time, I am so thankful for you. And I know B.D. is as well. I'd love it if you'd listen all the way through and then you'll hear ways that you can connect with us and give us your honest feedback about the episode. The best way you could do that would be to subscribe, rate or review or or share it with a friend on LinkedIn, or through your email. In the meantime, I intend to earn every inch of the next mile we're going to walk together. So thank you for tuning in. Have you ever wondered why your cell phone gets hot when it's charging? few folks realize the electromagnetism that's picked up as dirty electricity moves through the circuit, making things just less efficient, and that excess heat increases not just your phone's heat, but your energy bills, and it shortens the life of all of the devices and appliances around us. Well, B.D. Erickson noticed and his Missoula based Satic USA has been building clean electricity products to address this issue since 2008. And more and more solar installers are beginning to install Satic’s products alongside their inverters to ensure a clean operating system inside your home. If you're interested to hear how this Tony Robbins inspired and trained, powerful leader has found his home, back home in Missoula, Montana, growing the fastest growing solar company in that state, then I would encourage you to stick around. I get into how he came up with the business idea more than 10 years ago, when he sold Asia manufacturing energy efficient lighting to Middle Eastern clients decided he wanted to come back home and do something for the good people of Montana, and the solar industry at large. And if you are diggin’ what we're laying down here, then I would encourage you to subscribe to the show. And that'll make sure that you don't miss our twice weekly content just like this where more than 350 founders stories and startup advice are available right there in your podcast player or over at mysuncast.com but for now, get ready to tune up your skills solar warrior, as we tune in to another powerful conversation here on suncast.
All right, so warriors. Today we're going to dive into the entrepreneurial journey of a Missoula Montana based solar entrepreneur Mr. B.D. Erickson of a company named Satic. If you haven't heard of Satic I hope you'll take some time and jump over to our blog, where we link to some of the videos and information that no doubt after today's conversation, you'll be interested to learn more about, in particular, a topic that I was unfamiliar with the idea of clean versus dirty energy. B.D. has spent a lot of time thinking about it. He's gonna tell us more about it today. Here on today's conversation. Welcome to SunCast B.D.
B.D. Erickson: Thank you, Nico, pleasure to be here.
Nico Johnson: Pleasure is all mine. You've got a fantastic background in solar, not just in clean energy, but in solar. Specifically, can you give me a better idea or understanding of how you were first exposed to the concept of clean energy and solar, how they get ingrained into your life at an early age?
B.D. Erickson: What’s funny how you get on the, you know, your life path on your journey. as a little kid, you know, Dad has a job. And when I was a little kid, my family manufactured solar panels on a small town called belt, Montana. My dad was a partner in a company called Sunwise Solar. And we manufactured thermal was just warm air, right polycarbonate solar panels in the late 70s and early 80s. And my dad's part of the job was setting up dealerships. So we moved a lot. It was kind of hard on me in the formative years. I went to 11 schools and 12 years, but we set up solar panels sales dealerships from western Montana, all the way to eastern Nebraska. And so the houses that I lived in as a kid, not only had solar panels, they had solar panels, my family made It was the largest thermal solar manufacturer, I think west of the Mississippi. Is that right?
Nico Johnson: That’s exactly correct. How did you find your way to Montana, a state that I've long wanted to visit, but never been able to make my way they're born, for the most part and raised in Missoula, Montana.
B.D. Erickson: You know, as kids we moved around a lot, it was the place we always came back to. And then once I got to marriage, and you know, having kids age, I gravitated back to Missoula.
Nico Johnson: When you were coming up, you were coming up in this world where you were surrounded by not just entrepreneurship and sales culture, but also the early introduction of the idea of leveraging our resources, renewable energy, who were some early icons or Heroes for you that sort of made an indelible mark on your mind about how you want it to grow and your formation into a business person.
B.D. Erickson: Several answers to that one, you know, even though we're a manufacturer, my dad's role, was helping this entrepreneur in a new city get into a really foreign, interesting new business of selling solar panels. And so how they would get the customer and advertising around their business that had an impact on me and watching, literally watching these guys, and which ones were successful, and some weren't. Some had a great market and weren't successful. Some guys had a terrible market out in Wyoming, they thought you'll never make it. And they flourished. So a lot of it there didn't have anything to do with the product and everything to do with the entrepreneur himself. So in high school, I did, I participated in a few things. DECA was one distributed education class to America. And I ran the student store was a part of that. And we got to go to a sales seminar, a gentleman named Tom Hopkins, who was a really famous sales trainer at the time. And I remember as an award in high school, my senior year, I got to go to a really neat personal development seminar, my first one that also had an impact and kind of started me down that journey of personal development and coaching as well.
Nico Johnson: Yeah, you've got actually a tremendous, I remember when Dylan on your team. Hat tipped to Dylan Smith, who, who originally the outreach to get you introduced to SunCast. He mentioned, I think one of the hooks that he they used to sort of grab my attention was that you had worked with Tony Robbins, how important early in your career and perhaps in everyone's life, do you feel that that concept of personal development has been to you,
B.D. Erickson: I think, crucial. And so you know, what, I've made the leap from good to great without it, maybe I don't think at the level that I have, and the amount of influence and impact that I've had that have been able to have in people's lives. That's not you know, from my own greatness, I take some credit because I apply it. But you know, we're all taught. And so along the way we pick our mentors, and Tony Robbins was somebody that I really gravitated to, I loved what he was saying, I love the culture, the group aspect of it and the events and helping people walk on fire. I have I have been blessed to cry, more tears of joy than most rascals, you'll know. Because I lived that environment for a decade, you know?
Nico Johnson: Yeah, that's unbelievable man a decade of working inside the Tony Robbins organization. Surely that forms part of as you mentioned, the culture of the company and companies that you have built since then, I would be curious, and I perhaps I'm going to ask on behalf of everyone else who's listening and can't, can't tweet to me right now. But are there, you know, a few fundamental either life or business or both lessons that you took away from that decade with Tony Robbins that you try to pass along to your team and then other entrepreneurs that you're work with?
B.D. Erickson: Absolutely. I believe that one is service based leadership. As a leader, you know, leading means almost by definition out in front, right, you're leading, but if it's always about you make them as boring, it's always about you, right? And so at some point, you got to say, okay, I've shown you which way to go, we've gone and we didn't get killed, but I can't lead forever, it's time for you. And then you help the next person, you know, grow and develop and become the beautiful, unique, fantastic person that's inside them. For some of us that comes a little bit more naturally to be noisier out in front for others. They just they need more of a push but you're always amazed at what was in them something that you didn't even see you knew some good was in there. But you're blown away when you help them when you help them discover it. So one of the things I learned is it's not it's not a people you get to lead to follow you and some people that didn't have great motives have gotten a lot of people to follow them. So is that really what's important? No, I think it's the leaders that you create. You don't pass the torch Nico you light more torches, baby.
Nico Johnson: I love that. You know, it makes me think about whether or not we are born to lead or we can learn to lead. Are there things that you found, in your experience, both learning to train leaders as well as being a leader and lighting that torch inside of your own companies that are character traits that seem to indicate that someone is going to rise to the occasion?
B.D. Erickson: You know, that's that's a great question. And and The answer is if there is, I don't know, if I've identified it, what do you look for?
Nico Johnson: Then what do you look for somebody that's coachable. And sometimes..
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B.D.: You think the person that's big and out front has that, and maybe the person that's a little more laid back doesn't. And what happens is we, we wear our masks, we really do, you know, we find out what which click, we're gonna hang with in high school and we start to form that identity, right? And so one of the things about identifying that in somebody is making them
feel safe, to be vulnerable, to show you who they are. And to show you what they've got. And being vulnerable doesn't come easily to a lot of us. And anybody that's been embarrassed or shamed or something like that, by being vulnerable is not a comfortable space. But you have to be willing to be vulnerable. You have to you don't grow, you don't change, you don't experience new things. And so one of one of my jobs really, and I want to try and identify that as making them feel safe, so that we can pull back the layers and see their skill sets and what makes them shine and what they've really got in there. And so vulnerability, and being able to understand and appreciate their world, I think is a key. What career path
Nico Johnson: Did you not go down, but always thought you would.
B.D. Erickson: So when I was young, I thought I'd be in the music business at a rock and roll production company called North by Northwest Music Festivals. And we put on 20 to 30 band three day rock’n'roll festivals in Western Montana. And I thought that my career path would be in the music industry. We had a really big show 26 bands, and it rained Nico. Friggin’ rained man for three days. So who wants to put their cat their hacky sack and their frisbee in the car and go drive to a rainy muddy park and camp for three days, and it rained us out. And so we had we owed money to everybody, you know, our guests, and Pizza Hut and Mountain Dew and every sponsor and Red Bull and everybody. And that was a pivotal event for me because my girlfriend at the time and I just found out we were pregnant. And I had not graduated from university. I didn't know what I was going to be. I wanted to be a rock and roll guy, my concert gets rained out. And we're pregnant. And I was really unsure about my place in the universe to the point of being overwhelmed as suicide suicidal thoughts. And when I look back on it now and all that I've been through, and all I've accomplished at 20 they weren't as big a promise, but boy, they sure felt like it. So my dad, you know, good dad love me. said you're not you're not over Boy, you have not even started yet and collected me and drove me about three hours to Spokane, Washington to a Tony Robbins little event. But it wasn't Tony Robbins. He wasn't there. It was at a chiropractor's office. And it was on a screen and it was on a white wall. And we wrote some limiting beliefs on a board and we punched through the board. And I wept and something clicked. I came home about maybe a week or 10 days later, I got the finest compliment I've ever been paid in my life. It makes me cry. Thinking about it. I'm widowed I married a beautiful young woman gave me a handsome smart child. She was killed in an auto accident. But years ago she had said and we got back. She said I I saw someone in you. And I knew there was a great man and you but you hit him from us and who you've become since you came home from that event is more than I even saw in you. And to this day. That's the nicest compliment that I've received from someone that I loved and wanted very much to impress and feel proud of me.
Nico Johnson: Part of the story of Satic. It comes back to you know the beautiful person that she and you helped bring into the world your son, can you tell the story of how you became aware that there is a thing called dirty energy and help others understand what EHS is and how you sort of began to navigate and learn that world?
B.D. Erickson: Well, I was not an early adopter early believer, I'll tell you that I was actually kind of a skeptic dirty electricity, you know, nonsense. That's who who EHS electro hypersensitivity. Go get your foil hat. That was really Yeah, right. That was my attitude. I'll own it, you know. So we're living in Hawaii. My wife got her grad degree in geology on the Big Island New Age. And my son has perfect attendance in school, great little ukulele player and he's happy and he's he's, he's good spirited, perfect attendance and perfect grades. She's in an auto accident. She passes after about a year he and I are just lonely and sad and in a trance. So we moved back to Montana, paid back by her family in mind and the support that I really needed at that time raising this dude. So first year goes great, perfect attendance straight A student of the month. Everybody loves him there. They're singing his and I set my accolades. Well, about a year into it. Sleep is escaping him. He's missing school. He's grumpy, just sickly. It's just not him. So what is it is it because mom's gone and the trauma of that is it Am I not a good dad? You know, I really felt as his grades dropped in, his attendance dropped and his attitude dropped. And sleep escaped him and even leaving his room became painful. I felt that I'd failed. While she and he and and I felt it was me, I know what's what's, what's the X Factor, it's got to be that mom's not here to help. So what had happened, we had purchased a home kind of in our haste when we move back under the biggest power lines in Missoula, Montana, by some margin, just huge, right? Didn't think a thing of it. In fact, we'd actually been in the house a few days, when I said, Did you notice these huge power lines, oh, my goodness, go into the backyard here. And he and I had a good laugh. Well, his room is closest to that. So it's interesting how, you know, life paths diverge or converge. I had been selling a light bulb, green, high tech lighting, selling it in the Middle East, where electricity is very expensive as a very expensive light bulb. And one of its properties was a very efficient and high conversion of watts to lumens. That's what you're trying to do, right and try to turn try and turn electricity into light and get as very little heat and stuff as possible. And one of the byproducts was that it had very low harmonic distortion, very low interference, very low EMF. And so going down the road of what made it better, had opened my mind to the reality that dirty electricity, it's it's real, it's measurable, right? It's it's a real thing. Ask any ham radio guy about interference, ask any audio file about a popper taking the speakers when the fridge comes on bad guys, right? I mean, people know what it is, and they know that it's real. But do they make that leap now that if it's bad for your stuff, that it's bad for you? Right? There's the leap.
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as a scientist, you say, Well, you know, did the trucks driving the lines up there today, squish it down. Gas fall into the back of the truck if you tried to be analytical and look at why but boy, as far as you can see, either way, the grass underneath it is either dead or less. So it's doing something to the biological, next, dairy cows, that dairy that's a trillion dollar industry that is not just milk and creamer. That's ice cream. That's butter. That's cheese, that sour cream and all these things. Well, they know when they're dairy cows marigold, dairy, gold all the way to the Amish in Montana. They know what produces good quantity and flavor of milk. And it is documented beyond contestation that dirty electricity affects these animals, their attitude, the quality and production of their milk. In fact, they're so sensitive, they won't even step in a puddle at the dairy if there's stray voltage. So now the way the way I thought electric fences worked, is you got bit by it. And then you're smart. And she don't know man, cows don't get bit by electric fence. No way baby. They don't go anywhere near it. They can feel it. I had no idea I did neither the Amish taught me that right when I was on this journey. And so because of the FDA and some things, you're very careful about saying what's good or bad for a person right now. But you can say what's good or bad for grass. And you can say what's good or bad for a cow. And a lot of greenhouses and indoor grows, have the same documentation the plant is growing towards the light or the water source it's throwing away from the electricity is throwing away from the dirty electricity. And the the quality of your electricity in your greenhouse or your grow affects the size of this strawberry. It's beyond contestation, whether it's real or measurable and bad for you. So I think the question then becomes, well, how bad and that's a fair question. So do you want to smoke three packs of Marlboro reds a day You don't want to? But it is loved one in college? I think you're going to be okay. Right? So do you want to eat forever tries for every meal. No, you'll get plump, but a fry now and then ain't gonna hurt you. Yeah, so I think the discussion really starts to morph. Okay. So it's real, it's measurable, it's bad, how bad How much? And who? Because children are more susceptible as well, the developing biology is more susceptible. Okay,
Nico Johnson: how do you protect it? And then once you've protected it, how do you go about trying to eliminate it?
B.D. Erickson: So great questions once once we started, you know, and I'm just being my own doctor, you know, you got something, you Google it, you know, my elbows a little 20, you Google it, or whatever, you know. And so I started Googling his symptoms. And his symptoms were very well recorded on the internet, quite common for electro hypersensitivity. And I said, what he looked for all power lines is number one, like the biggest power lines in Missoula gone through my backyard. Next, the electricity that lives on the line, and then all these waves that were bombarded with, you know, the Wi Fi, and the phone and the cell, and the DHL, and just all that stuff, also has an effect. So it started with me becoming aware of it, what are the causes? What are the culprits? And then how do you read it? How do you measure it? So that took me to buying meters? I'm checking for electromagnetic fields now. And sure enough, they're off the chart. And I'm checking for interference on the electrical lines. And sure enough, they're off the chart. And so sure enough, what I had suspected, I would find, I found
Nico Johnson: a couple questions. What are the symptoms, some of the symptoms that were showing up with lithology? and other things? Right?
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, and sleeplessness, high blood sugar. So I watched a really great YouTube video on a doctor in Michigan. And she said, Well, you know, you can't say that we didn't know that dirty electricity, cause diabetes. Of course, we know, you know, if you want to give if you want to test diabetes medication on a rat, you can't feed the poor guy Twinkies for two years in hopes that he gets diabetes. Right? So what do you do you expose him to RF, you expose him with dirty electricity. The poor guy gets diabetes, and now you can trade them. So I was amazed at how much real tangible research and evidence existed. It's there. It's it's your one. Anyone is one Google Search away from knowing that there is a lot of very good case study and work that's been done. But it's still one of those things. That's just a little bit behind.
Nico Johnson: You mentioned off the chart, what is off the chart mean? And what particularly you measuring that's off the chart? What sort of tools do you need? There, there are some geeks that are listening, that will totally understand what you're saying. So don't hold back?
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, I love it. Okay. So so in electricity, for example, the voltage is the pressure and that gives off an electric field. The amperage is actually the electricity that's flowing. And that gives off a magnetic field. You know, magnetic fields, and electric fields are part of our everyday life. They don't necessarily hurt you or make you sick in small doses. But what's happening to us now, is we're living in an electrified world, we're living in a house that's electrified, and we've added all these devices, all these DC devices, like our phone and our tablet airpad. In an alternating current world, all LED lights, they actually strobe their light emitting diodes, they they flicker at 60 hertz. So we've added these things into an electrified world that raise these levels of electric fields, magnetic fields, interference and distortion. People know what this is, they just don't know, they know, maybe when you were a kid, and your mom vacuumed it put lines in the TV, or you've heard your sister's blow dryer on your radio or something, right? I mean, they exist. And so this distortion and interference has been really magnified. Just because of changes in the technological world. I mean, not necessarily blaming anybody, it's just you start plugging in a lot of DC devices, you start changing the way we light things, a lot of switch mode, power supplies, and then your wiring is an antenna. I mean, I grew up with antennas on cars, cars, have an ad antennas and yours, man, they got a fan. Now, you know, your wiring is this antenna. So it's picking up all these waves, etc. And then at night, you're laying your head right by the wall, probably pretty close to the wiring. And someone that maybe wasn't there 20 years ago, is present now and can potentially harm you.
Nico Johnson: I understand the introduction and I've got a neighbor who actually suffers from EHS as well I had no idea what it was until, you know, he was proverbially walking around with his with his tinfoil hat. One day and and drinking is hydrogen, water and all kinds of different ways that he's gone about trying to sort of clean his house and clean his body. But I'd like to touch ground on the main topic of what we tend to discuss here and SunCast and bring it home to folks because one of the things as I asked, How do you eliminate it? You got to answer the esoteric level on sort of a home cleansing level but you've also got answers specifically to our industries is something that occurred to me after I talked to you the first time is well how interesting what I hear you You saying BD is that we are both part of the solution and the problem, because we're solving climate change and the climate crisis. But it seems to me like we're introducing even more dirty electricity into the ecosystem. So can you talk a bit to as the largest solar installer in Montana, how you have gone about solving this problem for homeowners, but also for our industry? Thinking about the dirty electricity that were inadvertently creating?
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, no, great question. And and when I say that solar causes dirty electricity, I am not bashing solar on the number one solar guy in western Montana, I grew up in the house, I, I love it, I am, I am all for it, there are certain things that exacerbate dirty electricity. And these fields, there are several meters that you can buy Satic now make one we think it's the best in the industry, because we know we're looking for but a lot of companies make meters. And when you are in a home that has LED lighting, the numbers are five or 10x, when you're in a home that has solar, the numbers are 10, to 100x. So by the the operation of the inverter itself, it creates electromagnetic fields, it creates interference and dirty electricity, that are 10 to 100 times more than a home without. So what we what we engineered what we've manufactured in our, our main product line is our filter. And it's just like, it's like a Brita filter. It's not that terribly complex. You know, when I was a kid, the best drink of water you got was read are those not nowadays, we're all drinking bottled water. And we're using some kind of a filter to filter it, because there's more contaminants in it, then there were and we're aware of it, maybe there's not that much more in it, but we're aware of it. So we make plugin, and wire and filters that smooth out that way that remove the harmonics, the distortion, the EMF, the electromagnetic fields and those harmful things. So what's the result? Well, every once in a while when you charge your phone, it gets really hot, like abnormally warm, doesn't do it all the time, does it sometimes why sometimes lights flicker and things you know why? Well, there are times of day or used depending what you've got plugged in, etc. When there are higher levels of dirty electricity. When you filter it, here we go. Your audio sound is crisp your back your TV's cool back your fridge is cool, your phone charges fast and hot, your power bill goes down a little bit because you're not converting all this wasted electricity and heat in your DVR. And then your air conditioner trying to make the room cool. But your DVR is now a plug in heater. So your power bill goes down a little bit. And you have totally clean filtered power throughout your house for your stuff. And for the people at it.
Nico Johnson: Now, if I for example, use the Satic filter that you're describing. Do I also then need to still be worried about the LED bulbs? You mentioned that you had wrapped and sold these LED bulbs that had low distortion low harmonics, one of the reasons that you found out about the idea of dirty energy. And you know, I'm using what it is Mercury, right like one of the cheap ones you can get on Amazon, do I need to be worried about the the Elliot, the magnetic field of my mercury LED light if I'm using a static filter?
B.D. Erickson: Okay, so that's a great idea. Yes, we do make lights because they're a culprit. But there are things in our life that caused them. And so when someone's got EHS we kind of talked about earlier, okay, we know what's real, we know it's bad for you how much that's different for people, some people turn off the Wi Fi, you know, use their phone, intermittently in airplane mode, swap out all their lights, and get a filter. As for me, myself, that's not my son lives. That's not me, I'm still kind of a tech nerd. I love my AI stuff. And I love my things plugged in. So I'm more mindful of when and how I use them. But with a static filter, we're reducing that at least on the line by about 99.5%. So As stated before, you know, maybe you wouldn't want to smoke two packs a day, a couple cigarettes in college or entering a smoky bar occasionally, probably isn't that bad for you. So I have elected as a person, kind of not a, you know, a high dive into the pool approach. More use filters and be cognizant? And the answer to your question is even with dirty lighting and things, we can still reduce it by 90 95% just by adding the filters.
Nico Johnson: So well, it's one thing to be able to identify that this thing exists, that it's affecting a family member, and it's another to take the entrepreneurial leap to try and fix the problem. Help me understand that journey for you.
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B.D. Erickson: "That was that was an arduous and bumpy road. I am I am I am dusty and got some good scars from that one. So it's like carbon monoxide, you can't see it, you can't smell it. You can't taste it. And not everyone is sensitive to it. Now I'm not Nico, I can eat a half eaten corndog that I found in the garbage can at the fair and feel great. I don't get sick. You know, I just I feel good most of the time. And then somebody else who's actually quite like me and personality is suffering terribly. And so here's some things that kind of helped my brain get there. Number one, we don't have to mow our yard directly under those lines. The grass is not bushy, or it's bushiless. Yeah, so it's definitely having an effect. Now
Nico Johnson: So I think this is the product that you and I talked about before, which is the Power Perfect Box. Is that right?
B.D. Erickson: That’s correct. Power Perfect.
Nico Johnson: Was it Power Perfect that you're supplying NASA and Sears and when the world or was that the previous products that you were working on?
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B.D. Erickson II: Okay great. So we don't supply NASA with anything but what we do is we repurpose their patents a lot. So as American citizens we own NASA, once they declassify, then you can repurpose some of that stuff. So the shielding is more was sold to Sears and window world the power conditioners now are installed by some of the absolute biggest names in the solar industry and solar guys are really hard to sell. Because we're early adopters, or techno nerds, we love being the smartest rascal in the room, right? And so when I went to solar guys, initially, they kind of felt that I was bashing solar or inverters. I'm not at all. It could not be further from the truth. And maybe I'm wearing a foil hat.
And they love. They love to say, Well, I already know about that. And I've tested it. No, you haven't you stinker. But they love to say that. So I really had to go slow and say, Look, here's some meters. Let's plug them in. Here are some filters. Let's plug them in. To see it go down. Okay, let's just marinate on this for a second that that it is real. But here's a really nice value add. And when you add this value add Not only is the electricity not dirtier now that you have solar, it's cleaner than it ever was.
Nico Johnson: So a couple things that stood out to me when we first chatted you said incandescent lights are actually cleaning homes. And we've screwed all that up with LED lights. Could you tell me like just kind of go back to first principles here? Why? introducing these LEDs and we'll come back to solar in just a moment. But introducing LEDs like removed this is effective cleaning the home.
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, so so so things happen in life that just change our world dramatically. I got one for you. I'm in my 40s when I was young Blockbuster Video was on every friggin’ corner. Absolutely. Every major street blockbuster was just everywhere. Friday nights a rite of passage, you could always get out of the house. What were you doing? What do you Where are you going? Who you were gonna rent a movie? Right? It just got you out. And so you stand at blockbuster and your rent the movie? Well, Netflix comes to them and says, Hey, we have a different digital delivery idea and a different format. Do you want to partner up? They say no blockbusters gone? Netflix. And the digital delivery is everywhere. Right? Okay, so that a similar thing happened with our lighting. So we all used the Edison incandescent light bulb, 130 years, right? And it makes 95% he and only 5% light. So that's why they were called inefficient. But they clean electricity in that they just turn everything into heat, distortion interference, they don't care, they turn it into heat. So according to the Department of Energy, you got 20, maybe 30 light bulbs in your life, right? So each person had 20 or 30 electricity cleaners in their life. And I initially took them out not for LED, but for CFL for the currently compact fluorescent lamp. Well, isn't that a buzz? That's a buzzy poisonous bugger right there in it. You just you know that it has then you know, almost subconsciously that this isn't good. And you know what we? We were right. Our internal dialogue was right, these were not good. And so people put in 30 electricity dirtiers, if you will, that's not a word, but culprits we call and then all this DC stuff, switch mode, power supplies, the fax machine, the printer, the computer, the things with the funny black box and the cord. If it's got a box in the cord that needs that special cord, it's doing something buggy to the electricity, or that wouldn't be there. Right? And then it wasn't like we had one phone. We all have a phone. I've got three iPads for goodness sakes, Nico. I mean, so just life changed. And so did you need my products 30 years ago? No, you didn't need them. But because of the world we live in now, because of the lighting because of the DC devices. And again, the waves, everything come in wirelessly. You do. And so you know our products are made in America, they're warrantied for decades, they're proven to work, we'll send you a meter with it if you want, if it doesn't work, we'll send you your money back, you can't get hurt. And if you have solar or you use these lines, these are type devices, it's kind of a fun thing to think about. It's the meters are cheap, they're 100 bucks to plug it in and see what we're talking about. It is kind of a fun subculture to be honest with you. But just something neat to be aware of as a fellow human, a fellow traveler, you know,
Nico Johnson: yeah, and you've got clients all over the United States. And now it's expanding around the world in the solar industry who acknowledge the idea that, as you've said to me, you can make AC electricity run better on 1.6 amps than it did on five amps. What's the major reason why folks would want to sort of wrap in a static cleaning device a power power perfect box for a solar project? beyond just cleaning the electricity? How do what are your clients telling you that they're how they're integrating in their sales process?
B.D. Erickson: Well, that's, that's that's a great question. And, you know, a seller's often kind of a like thinker, and we always say, so it's its grain, is it clean? And so what we've been kind of talking about here is how the dirty electricity effects the biological, it's hard on everything. So when your DVR is really hot, and it is I guarantee it right now go put your hand on your DVR. It's hot. Is that good for the DVR? Well, no. And is that heat free? Well, those are watts No, so it's coming from our solar or coal or however, it's totally wasted electricity, which is nice. Not good for your air conditioner or the greater good. And when you clean that electricity and those things cooled down, several things happen. Number one, that thing is happier. Number two, your house is cooler, and that thing lasts longer. And your power bill goes down. So like, you know, we're not built on amps we're built on watts. So you know, making your air conditioner go from five amps to one amp, if you're paying eight cents a kilowatt hour, big deal, man that did not change your life. But if we're trying to make it on our roof, it makes a big deal. And if new devices are actually even taking more watts than they were because some of them are unusable and getting changed into heat. Well, now we're spending our money are putting solar on our roof, just to make our DVR hot. That's that's silliness. Right. And that's kind of an exaggerated way to get there, I suppose. But but that's really one of the byproducts that's happening. And so when you add this, you get more bang for the buck out of the solar, your power bill goes down a little bit more. And that's what our customers want to see. They get that first bill, they want to see that down, it helps that happen. And you've got this clean electricity for both devices and the biological, and we're all trying to compete. So you know, you always want to compete on price per watt. Boy, I sure don't, that you can only move that needle so far. before we're all doing it for fun. And I think everybody gets good panels, I want to think and uses good inverters. And I know a lot of great solar guys in Montana. So I'm not going to compete by not saying they're awesome. They are awesome. And I like him and we're pals. And when I see him at the pub, we high five. So this is a way that you can value add, set yourself apart, be unique and really have a better offering without one of the traditional methods of having a better offering. And it's something you can see right then like when you go solar, we're waiting for that bill. Right. Since we got installed the middle of the month, we're really waiting a month and a half. This is something that you can see right now, pa employment in your wired, or on your meter, you can see it and so people love to, you know, turn it off, turn it on, turn it off, turn on and watch the distortion go down, the EMF go down, the apps go down. They love it. And sometimes you need especially in solar, you need a little immediate gratification. That's right.
Nico Johnson: I love it. Even Yeah, and it's it's it's a lot less gimmicky than some of the other ways that folks are selling and solar, right. Like this is an actual tangible benefit that has lifelong advantages. Rather than I mean, God knows there's all kinds of sales incentives out there. But I love the idea that it can also be used as, as a way to differentiate yourself in the marketplace, when you talk about clean, green electricity gives sales folks the opportunity to create a little bit of fun, in fact, about whether or not their competitors are truly looking out for the homeowner in acknowledging that solar creates 10 to 100 times more energy distortion in the home and they are bringing a way to actually scrub that and and leave a net positive effect on their clients. You know, it's just little anchors that as a sales guy, I immediately latched on to Wow, if I had a residential solar program, I would certainly be finding a product like this to roll into my sales process for the Fudd alone like the it's Gee, it's beautiful. It's amazing, but being fear, uncertainty and doubt for those who are not indoctrinated in this sales lingo.
Nico Johnson: Hey, friend, thank you so much for tuning into SunCast today. Just a couple of quick announcements of we right back to the episode. First up is mission minded. If you have been listening, then surely you know that we have just recently launched a program I'm super proud of called mission minded. If you know someone who has been struggling to find that perfect fit in the clean energy industry, perhaps he or she has been a casualty of the massive downsizing in oil and gas recently, or perhaps just looking to level up in the industry where they've already found a home. I'd love it if you'd recommend them to us for our mission minded program. It's 12 weeks to the Clean Energy career you deserve. And if you do, there's a special gift that I have in store for you. That's right, we offer a 10% referral fee for every person who gets referred to our program. So if you know someone that might be a good fit, or maybe it's you please do us a favor send an email to Nico at my suncast.com or you can just direct them to events. My son cast comm forward slash dream job. That's all in the show notes for this episode, so you can go check it out there as well at my son cast Comm. Here's the thing too. If you've been longing for a community, outside of LinkedIn where you could plug in network, learn and grow, find people who are similarly passionate about different elements of clean energy as you well. We're about to relaunch our SunCast guild in our own private community, app, and all. So if you'd like to get the deets on that, make sure you're signed up for our newsletter, which is where we always share the goods and inside information first to our tribe of SunCast. insiders, I'll be sending out an email to subscribers about the guild relaunch in the next week or two. So be sure that you're subscribed or don't check out the become a member area at my son cast comm where we have some details, and you can get on the waiting list. Either way, I love that you're already a part of our tribe here as a listener. Thanks for that. Now, back to the show. Tell me something that's true for you that maybe very few people agree with you on BD.
B.D. Erickson: Well, one of them is this whole dirty electricity conversation. And I do get teased, I do get told, you know, I'm selling, you know, vaporware, which hurts my feelings because we're manufacturing in Montana with love, and that it's bad for you, whatever else. And so that's one of them. So you you nailed it when, when two sales guys go into a closing situation, you're gonna say, you know, we're going to do a great job for you, we're not going to void your roof warranty, it's going to be smooth. We're not going to track muddy feet, you're going to get a good deal price per watt blah, blah, it's that same thing? Well, what if you could say to somebody, well, is it clean? is green? Is it clean? Would you like to know if you have dirty electricity right now. And they go what and you plug the meter and right now they don't have solar yet. And they go something's on a meter. Why don't know what that is, I see that there's a number but I don't know what it is. And then you plug in the filter. And it goes down by 99%. Right there, you have a sales advantage. You've got a report tool, you've got a value add, you've got a unique offering. I'm not saying this because you know, we invent them and we sell them. I'm saying this, if you don't have it, you're crazy. Because it starts this great conversation right now. And you can solve it right now. It's, it's really a fun value.
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goals to 30. If 90, you know, the one year, three year, five year goals, and we had four or five big conquest that we wanted to happen and some big solar companies that we wanted to add. And if we know we got one of those life was never going to be the same again. Well, Nico, we landed them all, we landed. Thank you very much. And so the challenge here, and the angst here has been how do we build them all, because now we're in thought, we're installing 1000s of power conditioners per month, with every unit. And so what happens to your team, you kind of move their cheese, people are asked to grow a little bit or stretch and I tell people all the time, the reason that we have the best solar company in western Montana is not because we add a power conditioner at no charge. That is pretty awesome. But it's it's our team. And it's our corporate culture. And it's it's our buy in that if you phone rings here we've got seven lines from the top from me down to our, our newest little person, when you answer the phone, you're greeted with a smile. And we know the the approved or the the answers to the frequently asked fundamental questions and we have continuity of message from the top to the bottom, continuity of message and that's and that's by in and how do you get by and well, well gee, I got to swing my legs out of bed today. And you go I gotta swing him out of bed, put them on the cold floor, and I have to go off to work. Now we don't go off to fun. We go off to work, right? So as a human being, there's a few things that I want for me. Number one, I want to be compensated for my time. If I'm going to volunteer, it's going to be you know, snow skiing, if I'm going to be if I'm going to go somewhere and dedicated I want to be you know, paid for my time. But I also want to be part of something. I don't want to do it in a trance. I want to be building something I want to create something. I want to add value. I want to be recognized for what I do. I don't want office politics. I don't want to have a headache or be worried about someone stealing harshly to me, or speaking behind my back. And given me that gut ache. So our culture here is that number one, I don't expect you to come every day and built my dream, that's not fair. Let's find a way that you can come every day and build yours. And that by you building your dream and my building my dream and harmony, then we build them together. And we both get farther and, and that we're nice to each other. We speak with kind words, we use smiles, we watch our body language. And when we air, we both ask for forgiveness, and we forgive freely, because we're all going to air. And so when you air, you know what you do, you own it, and the minute you own it, it's so freeing, you feel so much better. And then the other person realizes you've owned it. That's all they wanted, was for you to acknowledge and apologize. That's all they needed. And the minute you acknowledge and apologize, oh, hallelujah, you're easily forgiven. And we can go and I'm telling you, we have bells here, the guys ring the bells, they sing, they whistle while they work. And that is not an accident. That comes from bi monthly meetings, where we talk about how much we love and appreciate each other. And the culture that brings and how much more enjoyable that makes come into work. It's not by accident is it is something that we do very intentionally.
Nico Johnson: it really is. And we all know that in sales, being able to give immediate value is is a key advantage. You know, it's not lost on me that the idea of indoctrination is something that being a decade working with one of the most iconic, personal development coaches in the world of the last half century, Tony Robbins, there is a lot more to building a business, the Tony Robbins way than just building a great product, right? mastering yourself is a key element to that. And you know, I've gotten the chance to get to know you a little bit. And it seems to me like you haven't just built a business that is raved about in Montana, and more broadly, simply, based on the credibility and reliability of your power conditioners. Help me understand why in a time, even during COVID, where business are contracting, your business is expanding and people are talking about it.
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, that's that's a great question. We are absolutely flourishing. Any corporation owner, you set the
Nico Johnson: I didn't have good mentors growing up, I didn't have any mentors in college to speak of that would help me find the right job. And so when I landed in jobs that were toxic, and not particularly appropriate for helping me scale and achieve personal growth and development, I wasn't able to filter it very quickly. You know, I'm still a Gen X, a Gen X are right on the edge of Gen X felt like I was being treasonous to the the sort of the planned process of colleges and a job within six months. And I was just kind of like, this isn't working for me. I thought it was a problem with me not a problem with them. How do you talk to that employee that feels they're stuck in that negative cycle? Or they they are trying to evaluate? Is it? Is it something with me? Or is it something with them?
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B.D. Erickson: Yeah, that's part of being vulnerable. And sometimes if you ask somebody, you know, where do you see yourself in two years or something? If they're not sure they're going to be there or with you, that maybe they feel put on the spot? Or that they're supposed to give some canned answer. And there's there's not I we don't expect anybody to work here until they die. You're invited to, you know, if
somebody came and said, You know what, I really need to spend a couple years living on an island somewhere, it's been on my goal list, I want to, we're going to help you get there. If somebody says, you know, there's a few things that I want more dramatic. I would love to have you.
Nico Johnson: interrupted you.
B.D. Erickson: no, you're fine. It's that you know, so do you want to play the guitar? Do you want to learn a skill set or develop something that you can't get here, you're safe to say that you're safe to own that you're safe to own your truth. And so we've got these great resources here. I mean, I'm a great headhunter. I've got great guys, I've got the best engineers on the planet from MIT, not to boast, I love them, I head on and they're fabulous. You know, our VP was the VP at Sun Edison. I was stolen from Dell computers, we've we've got great, we got great staff and great team members. So let's say you are a younger guy, and you say I love working here, we give consistent raises, everybody gets a raise at least once every six months, company wide, we give raised because we want buy in and we want people to stay. And as the company grows, we we share that. However, as I was saying, but if you've got an itch, you need to scratch. If you need to go on an adventure, if you need to summit Kilimanjaro, you're safe to say that. And then we've got this pool of resources here of these wonderful people that will help you get there. Wow, that will help you accomplish it. It doesn't have to be at static. That's That's silly.
Nico Johnson: That’s so cool. And then incorporates the idea that as a whole human work is and everything that you do that it contributes toward your, your lifelong goals. Right? That's right. I imagine that you get into conversations internally as well as in the community and broadly when folks find you know, find you and and ask for advice. What are some of the key lessons or takeaways from the important mentors in your life or career that you pass along to others?
B.D. Erickson: I have several obviously there there are two that I that I gravitate to. Number one, you know we're in this we're this cool kind of spiritual electric electromagnetic field being right. But we got our eyes and our ears and our senses. And that's why we take in data. So there's, there's an anomaly that happens that so well documented. It's not argued, but it's unique. So five people at Starbucks and they're out front, one's a sales guy in a phone and others on a first date and the person is looking their computer, other ones on their iPod and there's an auto accident right out in front. Now these people are sitting out in front. So you think they saw it, they heard it. Maybe they smelled it when the radiator dumped the antifreeze we all know that smell right. So the policemen go and they interview everybody and guess what they get? They get, they get five pretty varying degrees of the story, right? Or interpretations of the story who's lying? Nobody who's got an agenda, nobody. The guy on the first day was looking at her beautiful eyes as listened to every word that she said he was absorbed. The sales guy, maybe on the phone was visiting with this customer and where he had want, there was a tree or there was a sign, or there was a bush, you know, maybe there was a bike involved in a guy pedaled his bike everyday from college and is convinced there but he's trying to hit him, and subconsciously couldn't help but take the side of the pedal just a little bit, not even intentionally, just because and so the number one thing that I would make sure everybody tries to take away if you can, just because it seemed that way to you, does not make it real, it does not make it their reality, and they might have experienced something very different. Since it's happened right in front of you, and you're not lying. You think they must be? Oh, yeah, guess what, you might have been sitting behind a bush, it might even be you that was wrong. And so don't automatically assume that that it's the way you experienced it, and that if someone experienced it differently, that they're fibbin’. Instead, rather than asking to rebut or asking to refuse or asking a question, to argue, ask you a question, to learn to understand and appreciate and then they can say, Well, you know what, I was on this side of the bush, and I didn't have my headphones on, and I was looking at my computer screen. And so when they begin to tell you now, rather than being having your forcefield up or thinking that they're fibbing, if you can ask to learn, rather than or listen, let me say that better. If you can listen to learn, rather than listen to reply, you'll have a lot better human relationships. That's number one. Number two, it's not what happens to you. It's what you do with it. You know, I've got a I've got a buddy who is now passed away as my number one very best friend was just an absolute party boy alcoholic, asking him at one point why and trying to suggest he reel it in a little bit. He said, Well, my dad was now called my family memories at the barbecue or my dad drunk. My dad was drunk, what else would I be? I've got another friend Chris, or Josh, excuse me, who has never had a drink. And we're riding dirt bikes, and we landed this watering hole, and we're gonna have a beer and he's not gonna have a beer. And it makes no sense to me, because we've been riding dirt bikes all day, and we're going to get a beer. And he says, My dad was drunk at the family barbecue and fight with my mom, I hate it. What else would I be? So it's not that bad stuff happens to you, man. It's going to, it's what you choose to do with your experiences that will create your destiny. They absolutely Well,
Nico Johnson: thank you. Those are two fantastic examples. I know you are a self proclaimed expert recruiter, what do you first look for on a resume?
B.D. Erickson: resumes are tough, but the way the way somebody speaks, we have a tendency to say Aye. A lot, we have a tendency to say me. And when you listen to the person that says we and the person that says us, oftentimes they're a little more team oriented. years ago, when I was actually coaching on hiring, one of the things we would say is, you know, find the skill set that you need the thing that you're not good at, or the thing that your company needs, or the thing that you hate doing, and find somebody that's really great at doing that, right? And put them on that seat on the bus. No, no, no, was wrong, I take it back. I apologize publicly. Rather, find a happy, healthy person, and then teach them to do what it is you need them to do. So it's church, great if they've got that skill set. And that's where they've been experienced to their degree or their prior on the job training. But if you don't have somebody that can be happy, that can find a way to say yes, and find a way to win, rather than a way to say no or lose, you'll never go as far with that group of people on the bus, you just won't. Because bad things are coming, things are gonna break. I mean, you're on the roof. everyone's done it and you drop your cordless drill and slides right down the roof 20 miles an hour and goes right to the windshield of the customer's car. Right? It happens that stuff happens. So it's not whether or not that happened. It's how we respond to it now, totally. It's how we're going to feel internally how we're going to interact with people and how we're going to handle the customer. And I'm telling you, if you go in laughing to the customer, and tell him everything, you can actually get them to smile with you, as they're looking at the drill on the front seat of their Lexus.
Nico Johnson: Right. You are not going to believe this car. Don't hit me I didn't tie my mind. That's good. Well, you mentioned resumes are tough. How have you evolved the recruiting process then for yourself to be able to align with right minded individuals?
B.D. Erickson: So that's a great question too. It's aligning. It's aligning destinies. Okay. So you need to live on an island at some point. Okay? Do we have a vehicle for you to get there you need to learn marketing or do some public speaking or walk on fire or add value or do something, okay, great. Is there a way that you can do that here, and you can get paid for doing that. And you can add value, and we get farther, because you're able to do that. And so peeling back that onion of Okay, it's not called fun. It's called work, we're not going to go down to fun today, we're going to go down to work. But that's a huge part of our life. So if your job sucks, your life sucks. If you've got a gut ache all the time, your life stinks, man. So how can we identify who you want to be how you want to show up what you want to do what you want to accomplish, and then can that line up here, can can our journey and our destiny line up with yours. And by doing our thing, we get farther together, and you want to know what else that gets to change. I'm sorry, you don't have the same goals at 22 that you do at 42. We don't grow up, you change or you want to try new things. So open dialogue, like if if somebody is grumpy, I tell people here. If you've, if you've got to burn your saddle, don't own it. Come Tell me. If you need to go for it. We do what's called a walk in a talk. I love to take people for a walk and talk if you're blue. If you're upset, your feelings have been hurt, you're feeling disenfranchised. Let's go for a walk and talk and we walk around the block and you are free to just say it,
Nico Johnson: lay down
B.D. Erickson: lay it out, let's get there and sometimes just blurting it out, feels better. And other times there's not that easy of a solution. We have to get there together. But I'll tell you, when people feel heard, oh my goodness, you know what feels worse than feeling alone. or feeling unattached or unheard. That's, that's a terrible feeling. And so, you know, you can't you can't just be constantly visiting with the staff, you know, you got 40 employees, you can't do that on. But it has to be that if there's an issue, that it doesn't fester that we visit about it in a safe building way and try and find the solution. Bd if you could create or curate a small call three, maybe five book education for your 20 year old self. What do you think that would be? Oh, man, I don't think they were written that but I know what they are.
Nico Johnson: Even if they were written since.
B.D. Erickson: Okay, okay. So I gravitate towards technical reading, and I gravitate towards self help. But there's also what I call pleasure reading, like fiction in the story in the night or the dragon or the tail or whatever. That's pleasure reading. You're not you're not doing that to learn anything. You're doing it cuz it's fun, right? My favorite books have both my favorite books do help you grow. They do have a lesson. But they're in a narrative way where it's on a journey. And one of my favorites is can't hurt me, written by David Goggins. So he's one of the only guys to be a navy seal, you know. And now, Airborne Ranger. And what makes the story for me is not how he perseveres never comes. That's neat stuff. But lots of people have done that. It's a story, being human, and being vulnerable. And you know, admitting the time in second grade, when you pooped your pants, and that stuff and be involved, that makes it real, that turns it into pleasure reading, and so can't hurt me by David Goggins is one of another one is an author named Rene Brown. And her book is called Daring Greatly, oh my god, she's such a beautiful human being you just fall in love with her because she's asking you to dare greatly and do this great thing. But while she's also humble, admitting that she's imperfect, admitting that she's committed all these grievous errors herself, and that that's part of the journey. And, you know, doing it perfectly. That's not the story. That's not what that's a terrible book. And he woke up and was rich and happily ever. That's a terrible book. Instead, it's, it's what you had to learn, and what happened and what you did wrong, and how you grew. And as long as you learn from it, you stop doing it. I mean, we can forgive people of a lot of stuff because we want people to grow, and we want people to win.
Nico Johnson: So it can't hurt me, David Goggins Daring Greatly Rene Brown, is there another?
B.D. Erickson: Yeah. So awaken, awaken the giant within? Tony Robbins, of course,
Nico Johnson: he would make the list.
B.D. Erickson: Yeah, of course. And the reason for that for me is it has practical things that you can do. So what happens to us a lot, I think all of us you go to the personal development seminar or the workshop. It's awesome. You take five pages of notes, you feel great. You're home two days, and you are back to your old habits. Right. You are You are back to what you were doing and you enjoyed the event. You enjoyed the seminar, you've got your notes. Are you really rereading your notes and you putting those things into practice? I think that's that's where most people fall off. And I think a lot of you will have great content. There's a lot of great speech writers and and coaches. But do you Once you're on your onesy now and you're home, do you continue to do those things? So I think the one of the reasons that Tony Robbins book is so powerful, is it helps you to scratch the record you've been playing, and do things differently. Because now if we actually do things differently, we're going to get the different result. It's one thing to have in your head, to have the knowledge, you've got to create wisdom, you have to apply that knowledge to creating wisdom and getting a different outcome. And that's what it's all about creating the new outcome. Now of that,
Nico Johnson: I’ve said that for years that wisdom is knowledge applied, it's not direct acquired.
B.D. Erickson: That’s right, you got to do something with it.
Nico Johnson: Yeah, you will link to it as well. You also suddenly blinked a reference to a book that was an early one that I read and enjoyed Who Moved My Cheese, so that they move their cheese. So I love that you interjected that in the just the casual nature of your conversation will link to that book as well, Who Moved My Cheese? Well, as we as we start to round to home base here, before I ask our final question, I'm sure that more than a few solar warriors are going to be eager to learn more about you and the company and and how would they do that? What's the best way for people to engage with you?
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B.D. Erickson: So I'm reachable, I don't want to be the guy that sits in the ivory towers, that's a yawner. I hate that, I want to be reachable. So on LinkedIn, I'm B.D., I use my initials Bravo Delta, B.D. Erickson II on LinkedIn. And our company name is SATIC, S-A-T-I-C. I know it's an off name. It's an acronym for Sinusoidal Waveform
Technology Incorporated, we had to make clean power into a word. And that word came out to be static. So I've got two websites static USA, and static shield. But you know, Google My Business, there's, there's our emails and our phone numbers and our websites, you're invited to call. If you here because of this show. And you call I will give you free stuff on my honor. I am not a big fat, February. We want it we want people to engage, we want you to engage us and here's what we'll do, we will put our money where our mouth is, we will send you a meter, we will send you a filter. Here's what you got to do. You got to be a big boy and plug it in and see the difference and open the conversation. And if it doesn't work, if you think we're not, that's okay, have you met us you're safe, you're safe to think differently, you're safe to feel differently. In fact, maybe it'll teach us something. And so our products are guaranteed to perform. And if you're not happy, we will do the right thing. Guaranteed.
Nico Johnson: I love it. So we will certainly link to Satic USA from our show notes page, I'd encourage all of you out there to go check it out. And many companies that you would recognize brand names that were not at liberty to discuss on the podcast, have discovered the advantage of having power conditioning, energy cleaning, transforming sales, conversation, transforming power at their fingertips through the power of perfect box and I would encourage you guys to check it out as well. I have I've zero commission involved in in this BS. You're a young protege on BTS team, Dylan reached out just trying to figure out a way to get B.D. more exposure. And I admired so greatly the conversation that I had with him and then following on with B.D. that I had to have him here on the show. So I'm happy to be able to do it in PDF love getting to know you and learning more about the business that you've created. Let's end today as we always do with the bold prediction BD what one thing do you see happening in the market that perhaps nobody else is tracking? What's in your crystal ball looking into 2021 and beyond?
B.D. Erickson: That’s a tough question. And I have given us I've given us some thoughts. So so some interesting things have happened and not to just to keep plugging and clean electricity and EMF Eon. Don't plug your own stuff. There are some states and some municipalities looking at legislation right now to regulate the amount of dirty electricity. And so clean electricity, I think I'm gonna make two predictions here. One is that dirty electricity and EMF are going to be drug out of pseudoscience into mainstream science. And in two years, there will not be a power system or a solar system sold without a Satic or similar type device that won't be sold. That's number one. And number two, with the proliferation of the smart meters, and the ability to monitor humans. I think that it's going to be very interesting to see what privacy does for a lot of us over the next few years, and how privacy issues are addressed because I don't think it's all doom and gloom. And I'm not a guy that comes from a naysayer perspective. I don't want to say we're doomed. I want to say how do we fix it? Where do we go from here? How do we make it great?
Nico Johnson: B.D. Erickson is the CEO and founder of Satic Incorporated, we've been learning a tremendous amount today about not only personal growth, development, company culture, but also how to eliminate the idea of dirty energy from our striving to bring clean energy to the masses. Baby I am grateful for the opportunity to have met you and I look forward to Hearing more stories from our solar warriors as they engage with your company.
B.D. Erickson: Thank you so much. It's so gracious of you to have me on. God bless and good luck to all of you guys out there slugging it out in the solar industry. We love you. Keep going be well be successful.
Nico Johnson: All right. That’s it solar warrior as we are rolling through April 2021. I'm so glad that you've chosen to be here with us. I hope that you are saturated as I am with the enthusiasm, the joy of learning from someone like BD Erickson, what an inspiring entrepreneur you are BD, thank you for giving us your time to be here on the show, and teach us what it looks like to be a heart centered, thoughtful entrepreneur, raising the standard of education and employment right there in your hometown. If you are eager to keep learning, then you my fellow phylo. Math can find the resources and highlights from this and every other discussion along with the social media links, book recommendations, and more over at my suncast.com. And hey, since you're already going to be online and at myosin cast calm when you go to the show notes page to check out all those fancy details and links, click on my LinkedIn and you'll see where we've posted about this episode. You can comment and like that. And if you would share it, that'd be amazing. Of course, that all presumes that you care at all that you enjoyed this episode and you want to give back to BD or myself, I'd encourage you to connect with BD there on LinkedIn. hope you'll tune in again next week as we'll have another tactical Tuesday, another practical long form Thursday episode coming at you, just like we've done for the last five years and plan to do for the next five. We dig in here on the disruptive ideas and entrepreneurs. They're driving the clean energy economy forward. Remember, you are what you listen to. Thanks again for showing up solar warrior. It's half the battle.
