| From: Debi Schadel <debi@flockandrally.com> Date: October 14, 2016 at 8:41:47 PM EDT To: Matt Warren <matt@warrensolar.com> Cc: Tracie Broom <tracie@flockandrally.com>, Debi Schadel <debi@flockandrally.com> Subject: Re: Budget, meet the team, onboarding Hello Matt! Here are a couple documents you can edit directly in Google Drive. They are: 1. Discovery Questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y8tAGMeOlRUQfi9J7Ffs9wOYsb1CzdxcYKbtOVQSKuI/edit?usp=sharing. This is a list of simple Q&A’s. If you have any questions, you can highlight them and we’ll go over them together. and 2. A word selection exercise: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vPvk6H2bOTd0c05mXk5e8Y7oX5DC0YkTucmXVaN7S7k/edit?usp=sharing. This is a list of positive and negative words that describe Warren Solar. Please highlight as many words as you’d like. Also, do you use Dropbox? If so, let us know the email address associated with it and we can share a folder with you so you can drop information in there for us. to drop information into. Thank you!Debi On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 7:38 PM, Debi Schadel <debi.schadel@gmail.com> wrote: Sure! I’ll send as soon as I am back at my computer. Debi Sent from my iPhoneDebi Schadel 803-348-8861 On Oct 14, 2016, at 7:14 PM, Matt Warren <matt@warrensolar.com> wrote: I have the 28th at 2pm down. Please send the onboarding documents for me to start on. Meagan has two weddings this weekend so I’m able to work because little Maddie is at the grandparents. �� Matt Warren On Oct 14, 2016, at 7:02 PM, Tracie Broom <tracie@flockandrally.com> wrote: Hi Matt! We could meet Oct. 27 at 3pm, or Oct. 28 at 1:30 or 2pm. Would either of those dates work for you? Tracie Broom Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally: Integrated Communications for a Brave New South 701 Whaley Street, Loft 202, Columbia, SC 29201 | 415.235.5718 | Tracie@FlockAndRally.com | www.FlockAndRally.com | @TheYumDiary | @FlockAndRally On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 6:55 PM, Matt Warren <matt@warrensolar.com> wrote: Yes please send them. How about Monday the 24th 9am-11am? I’m working on answering questions /steps 1-3. Will get those back to you. Waiting on a few steps with my investors to land first before I will know how much budget I have each month to spend with you. I’m shooting for committing to your premium, platinum package. These next twenty days (until we meet) will be great for me to firm up that amount with my partners and investors. Let’s keep the communications going until we can meet next in person. Also, I had the idea that I would like to have lunch one afternoon on a Thursday from 11:30 to 1 PM with you for one of our Warren Solar leadership lunches. This is when we could update the team on our marketing and branding ideas as well as run things by the team to get feedback. You need to meet everyone and they need to meet you ladies so that they can understand the rockstars that are working with us and fighting for us. Maybe another lunch at Motor Supply ��Cheers! Matt Warren On Oct 14, 2016, at 6:17 PM, Debi Schadel <debi@flockandrally.com> wrote: Hey Matt! Happy Friday! We were wondering how the week of October 24th was for a meeting? In the mean time, I can send along some simple onboarding documents.Debi On Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 4:33 PM, Tracie Broom <tracie@flockandrally.com> wrote: Hi Matt! Because the Governor has called for evacuation of all coastal counties, we suddenly have a lot on our plates this week to reschedule a number of press events we had on the calendar (there’s a great deal of crisis communications paperwork affiliated with this process) and to accommodate evacuees. Did not want to leave you hanging! In the meantime, here is our process for bringing on new clients. These activities tend to happen over a 2-3 month timeline; more if significant market research is required: Establish scope of work and monthly fee cap Send service agreement for signing Set up first of 2-3 discovery/onboarding meetings, which tend to be 2 hours each Compile initial project notes based on discovery/onboarding findings Begin market research Determine plan based on project notes and market research Develop brand messaging/copywriting Develop visual branding Update web presence and social media with official visual branding and copy Roll out remainder of branding Begin social media and public relations campaign Begin marketing etc. etc.Let’s schedule our first meeting with the understanding that before we meet, we can be working on steps 1 – 3, including getting you some onboarding questions you can be working on answering before we meet! 🙂 Back with you soon! |
Warren Solar Discovery Questions
Basics A few structural questions, naming, and leadership
What is proper and complete name of the business and how is it spelled, including attention to capitalization and spacing.
- Warren Solar, LLC
- Warren Solar (marketing materials)
- What is the full name of each leader, relevant manager, and/or board members with his or her correct titles and contact information? THESE ARE ALL IN DEVELOPMENT
- Matt Warren, Founder and Senior Project Developer (possibly change to Founder and CEO)
- Not using CEO or President d- why? He doesn’t want to seem overblown, wants to feel accessible. We think he should use CEO.
- Jeff Keeney, Partner and Project Developer
- Project Developer
- Partner
- Frank Hemphill,
- In-house installer/construction guy
- Keeney Consulting, LLC- Legislative strategy, public affairs strategy, business affairs
- Won’t be on website as team member; behind the scenes; not a formal team member or employee.
- Just going to prep a plan
- Who are official company spokespeople?
- Matt Warren, Founder and CEO
- Matt Warren, Founder and Senior Project Developer (possibly change to Founder and CEO)
- Date founded: 2016
- Started developing Warren Solar + went into solar industry on Oct. 1, 2015
- Procured official LLC in 2016
- City founded: Columbia, S.C.
- Locations: 1201 Hampton St., Suite 3B, Columbia, SC 29201
- Are there any new locations in the works?
- Envisioning new offices opening in SC, NC and GA in the next year
- Cities where land value is Fa and solar generators might be one of the few options (or the only option) for offsetting power bill
- Envisioning new offices opening in SC, NC and GA in the next year
- Any service expansions in the works?
- Yes, too much to note here
- Solar generator and the international market
- Neighborhoods are being walled in (vs. individual houses being walled in, as has been the custom in a lot of places)
- Develop a presentation that Matt can give to the business community or to church groups
- Develop a press release
- SC Clean Energy Program
- Matt has registered this as a nonprofit with the SC Secretary of State.
- Solar hybrid generators would be dispatched by this program when SC has natural disasters.
- Don’t mention this until they’re successful doing solar
- Matt has registered this as a nonprofit with the SC Secretary of State.
- Warren Solar PowerPod
- Shipping container with 7 solar generators in it
- PowerPod Mini = one solar generator
- Can fit 7 in a shipping container
- 3 would power the TD Bank bldg in Cola
- They’re the size of downstairs desks put together
- Warren Solar PowerPod = 7 in one shipping container.
- Electric Cooperatives
- SCE&G and Duke are the power monopolies
- Matt’s competition is only focused on working in areas served by SCE&G and Duke.
- Because of 1:1 kilowatt hour credit offered by SCE&G and Duke.
- This credit is not going away.
- Matt’s competition is only focused on working in areas served by SCE&G and Duke.
- The SC Electric Co-ops are fighting tooth against solar companies like Matt
- Matt is now going after customers in the electric co-ops.
- Taking people “off the grid” with solar and battery storage
- He got 7 leads from a FB photo w/ this caption.
- This is a strategic implementation of the solar system w/battery storage
- They build the solar systems based on what energy people use in 12 months
- 100 % energy offset
- If solar can get you to 100% or 90% but then add caulking and energy efficient bulbs, you may get more than 100% energy offset, thus SCEG cutting you a check bc they owe you.
- Pple can get everything except their washers and their microwaves on solar/battery (pulls too much energy from battery)
- You can have both. Have solar for 96% of your house and then have SCEG for microwave/washer & dryer. Avoid spike SCEG times to save $. This is not technically “off the grid” but can say that (kind of a tagline)
- If you relied 100% on solar, that would be a lot of battery cost and you might have a blackout if you up your energy usage randomly.
- SCE&G and Duke are the power monopolies
- Service areas:
- Focusing on the the low lying fruit in SC and FL
- Mailing address for public-facing documents:
- 1201 Hampton St., Suite 3B, Columbia, SC 29201
- Email address for public-facing communications (info@, for example):
- Needs to set up info@warrensolar.com. Currently using matt@warrensolar.com
- Contact phone number for public-facing documents:
- Currently Matt’s mobile: 803-603-6580
- Will likely update to a general #.
- Who on your team will be the main point of contact for media, public appearances, and other public outreach?
- Matt Warren
- Who on your team will be the contact for Flock and Rally?
- Matt Warren
- Do you sponsor anything (currently or previously) in a formal sense or have official major partners? What are those partnerships?
- Yule Jam – sponsoring this Dec. 2016, benefits the Palmetto Project at $250 level
- Contemporaries member
- Shandon Presbyterian members
- Matt’s own, new NPO, SC Clean Energy Program
- What third party companies are also working on marketing, advertising, design or other outreach-related work?
- Shana Bertetto – web and graphics
- SolGen product marketing
- Emily Keeney – business affairs strategy
- What kind of outreach are you currently doing?
- Website in development
- Needs to set up Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +
- Sales sheet – one pager
- Leads are networking driven via word of mouth and referrals
- Matt has business cards
Meetings Finding a cost-effective schedule with ideal frequency and format for project meetings
- What is the best format for these meetings: Online, via phone or in person?
- 30-minute project update call every two weeks
- How frequently should we have a meeting?
- Who should be on the invitation list for these meetings?
- Matt
- Sometimes Shana for web/graphics conversations
Social Media / Online Resources Please give us the URLs for the following:
- GMAIL
- m.warren.solar@gmail.com
- TWITTER:
- @warren_solar
- https://twitter.com/warren_solar
- PINTEREST:
- @warrensolar
- https://www.pinterest.com/warrensolar/
- FACEBOOK:
- https://www.facebook.com/Warren-Solar-1352108331467474/
- YOUTUBE:
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc69l9A88v5O-ziMavK4N3g
- TUMBLR:
- https://www.tumblr.com/blog/warrensolar
- SOUNDCLOUD:
- https://soundcloud.com/warren-solar
- INSTAGRAM:
- https://www.instagram.com/warrensolar
- SNAPCHAT:
- @warrensolar
- Note: if @WarrenSolar is taken maybe we should use @WarrenSolarEnergy instead of @WarrenSolarLLC [to be descriptive]
Website
- Web domains and any additional domains that redirect:
- www.warrensolar.com
- Hostgator is domain registrar and hosting
- Do you have google analytics set up on your website?
- Who manages or will be managing website updates from a technical standpoint? Shana
- Who will be monitoring and adding to the website from content perspective?
Document and resource management
- What is your file archiving system?
- OneDrive and Dropbox
- [note, our Dropbox account for sharing files is info@flockandrally.com]
- Dropbox email address: matt@warrensolar.com or matthewtwarren3@gmail.com
- Which file types are digital and which are hard copies?
- Are there file types that you wish never to be stored digitally?
- We’ll need to discuss file access and security. Who on your staff has access to which level of files?
Brand identity Logos, graphic design, and other branded materials. If you have these files, please put a copy in Dropbox for us.
- Possibly ask Shana to do all of that below
- Digital files for logo, logo variations in eps, .ai, .jpg, .png and .pdf files.
- Logo, colors, fonts
- Ask Shana for logo pieces
- Existing logo usage guidelines.
- Letterhead: None
- Recent/past ads: None
- Recent/past collaterals: None
- Photos, both high-resolution and low/web res – this is very important for PR: No. Shana has chosen some stock photography.
- Photos from Products
- Fonts, typography, & useage: Get what we have from Shana
- Colors: From Shana
- Favicon: From Shana
- Stylesheet: From Shana
- Brochures: None from Warren
- Brochures from products
- SolarGen wants our input for their info
- We can create our own brochures
Existing Copywriting and Press Clippings – If you have these files, please put a copy in Dropbox for us.
- Fact Sheet
- N/A
- Name usage guidelines
- Warren Solar on public docs
- Warren Solar, LLC on legal docs
- Taglines [Is it optional or mandatory and are there variations on it]
- Saving the world, one panel at a time
- Mission statement, and for what length of time will it be in force?
- Not yet
- Vision statement, and for what length of time will it be in force?
- Not yet
- Official “About” statement, and are there any variations for different uses? How about a boilerplate “About” paragraph for press releases?
- Not yet
- Elevator Speech?
- Warren Solar is an independent sales organization (ISO) that provides comprehensive renewable energy solutions for residential, commercial, industrial and utility-scale applications. Solutions include conventional solar installations such as rooftop or ground-mount arrays; solar hybrid generators; solar tree and EV charging station installations; full-service monitoring and maintenance services; and in-house financing.
- Installation is either performed by Hemphill and Associates, our preferred vendor for projects under 1000 panels, or by installation partners such as Strata Solar out of Chapel Hill, NC and Radiance Solar out of Atlanta, GA.
- Why would I go solar? Because you can take full advantage of current government subsidies, which include state and federal tax credits, bonus and MACRS accelerated depreciation, which results in savings on your power bill. (TK needs rewrite)
- Expanded list and descriptions of projects, products and services
- See separate document under “Services”
- Word docs of your original website copy
- Existing sales sheet or sponsor benefits packages
- FAQs
- Training materials, how-to manuals, guidelines or best practices
- Keywords and SEO terms have you already identified
- Sample of prior press releases
- Press clippings (digital format, links and list of significant print/TV/radio coverage for which you don’t have links)
- Business Plan
Email marketing & content development
If you send out an e-news:
- To whom
- 1 page ad; teaser about power pod/power pod mini.
- Has 4,000 email addresses, but would want to send in batches
- What service do you use – would like to use a service; open to MailChimp
- How often do you see it going out?
- Who creates the content
- Blog content will come from Daniel Choe. Can we get his contact?
- Daniel Choe possibly will help with blog and newsletter topic content. He is currently pulling together research and content so that he can write blog posts, then we can distill those into newsletter copy blocks and social media posts to share.
- Based in CLT
- Brother of Matt’s neighbor, very tech savvy
- Matt still needs to evaluate his writing.
- Blog content will come from Daniel Choe. Can we get his contact?
- What purpose does the newsletter serve
- We will be able to answer this later after we go through the branding questions.
Mailed Newsletter:
- If you don’t send out a newsletter, do you have an existing email or mailing list
- Oversized postcards:
- Would like to put one out 1/month.
- 4,000 physical addresses
- Would like to do it in waves
- Subscription channels – where do people sign up
- Website
- Social media
- Input mechanisms – who inputs data that is collected in person
- Voice
- Educational and awareness
- Not self-promotion
- Likes Shutterfly talking about the content
- Ability to increase frequency of newsletters
- Where should newsletter traffic be directed?
- Directing people to a phone number to call, as first priority over directing traffic to his website.
Expert voice and inspiration Please put any documents or list resources into Dropbox
- Market research, and when was it collected.
- Data & details on your customer personas
- Industry magazines we should reference
- What blogs (with links) do you feel are important to your industry?
- What social media accounts/ influencers you follow or feel are important to your industry?
- Who are the most prominent thought leaders in your space that closely adhere to your ideals?
- What conferences do you attend?
Audience – Please modify
Strategy for the Power Pod Mini
- Farm to Table crowd – pitch to them: 6 shipping containers
- 6 shipping containers (movement of restoring used shipping containers)
- All side by side
- Example to research: Podponics
- They have a turnkey vegetable growing operation
- 6 side by side, walkway between 5 of them
- Would be better if they had a powerpod mini to help power this.
- Off the grid, site-secure, pesticide free vegetables (perfect climate condition), powered by renewable energy source to provide clean base power
- 6 shipping containers (movement of restoring used shipping containers)
- Cannabis Kit
Fwd: rates and services from Flock and Rally for Warren Solar
Inbox
| Matt Warren matt@warrensolar.com via netorgft2024525.onmicrosoft.com | Fri, Sep 23, 2016, 2:47 PM |  | |
| to me |
Matt Warren
Begin forwarded message:
From: Meagan Warren <meagan@meaganwarren.com>
Date: August 17, 2016 at 9:28:16 AM EDT
To: Matt Warren <matt@warrensolar.com>
Subject:Re: rates and services from Flock and Rally for Warren Solar
Interesting!
Meagan WarrenWedding Planner & Event DesignerMeagan Warren Weddings PO Box 1791 | Columbia, SC 29202
P 803.917.1761Wmeaganwarren.comFMeagan Warren WeddingsI @meaganwarren
Voted Best Wedding Planner of 2015 & 2016 by Columbia Metropolitan MagazineWeddingWire Couples’ Choice 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015The Knot Best of Weddings 2013, 2015 & 2016–
From: Matt Warren <matt@warrensolar.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at 4:10 PM
To: Meagan Warren <meagan@meaganwarren.com>
Subject: Fwd: rates and services from Flock and Rally for Warren Solar
Matt Warren
Begin forwarded message:
From: “Tracie Broom” <tracie@flockandrally.com>
To: “Matt Warren” <matt@warrensolar.com>, “Debi Schadel” <debi@flockandrally.com>
Subject:rates and services from Flock and Rally for Warren Solar
Hi Matt!
We had a great time lunching with you last Tuesday! Excited about the direction in which your business is headed. If you get to the point where you are ready to bring on someone to help with PR, social media, marketing consultation, etc., here are our rates and some notes on our company as well as our process.
Hope you are having a terrific week!!
Tracie Broom
Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally: Events + Communications for a Brave New South
701 Whaley Street, Loft 202, Columbia, SC 29201 | 415.235.5718 | Tracie@FlockAndRally.com | www.FlockAndRally.com | @TheYumDiary | @FlockAndRally
