When Deepwater Horizon happened and we had the crisis of that oil spill off the Gulf coast, I realized I could use a Twitter account as a news channel because I was talking to some of the environmental activists who I work with down in New Orleans and they'd been working in Gulf shores and they just said everything you see on the news is bullshit. They are not telling the truth about how bad this is. So I got on a plane and flew down there and started tweeting. And then I was like doing satellite video call-ins to news networks and in doing interviews and talking about what I had seen and that I'd been threatened with arrest by the sheriffs who were trying to tell me I wasn't allowed to document film, photograph. I realized that there was such an immense power as an activist in social media. This is Started to Store Front. Today's guest is actress and activist Sophia Bush. When Sophia was growing up, she envisioned herself as a cardiovascular surgeon and had her life mapped out accordingly. That all changed when she performed in a play to complete her arts credit in high school and was bitten hard by the acting bug. From that moment on, she threw everything she had into acting. Her hard work paid off a few years later when she was cast as a lead on the WB show One Tree Hill. The show would air for nine seasons, catapulting Sophia's career to new heights and making her a household name. And for some, that would have been enough. But as you just heard in the opening, she decided to use her platform as a celebrity to fight for causes she believes in and in so doing, rediscovered her love for her college major of journalism. So listen in as we cover everything from when she was just starting out in auditions and competing with the same three actresses for every role, how she initially wanted nothing to do with social media until tabloid culture forced her hand and how she's passing the time in COVID isolation. Now back to the episode. Welcome to the podcast on today's show, the legendary actress Sophia Bush is on. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you guys so much for having me. The first question is really selfish, right? So to me, we have a lot of founders on a lot of people who have started companies. The one question I've always wondered, because to me, it's like what you're really doing in some way is you're expressing your art, right? And so the question I always have for people in the entertainment world is, at what point did you get the bug? At what point did you know like this is what I want to do? I want to be on stage. I want to do theater. What was it? Was that first thing like for you? My first thing was a total accident. I always joke. I was on a pre-med track. I wanted to be a cardiovascular surgeon. I knew exactly how I wanted my life to go. And then I had an arts requirement at school that I kept putting off because in my mind, I had this really good friend that I grew up with who I'm still very close to. And she's a really traditional theater person who does musical theater and loves show tunes. And I didn't grow up like that. And so I was like, no, theater is her thing. I don't, I don't do that. That's, this is not for me. And then I did this play to fulfill my arts requirement. And I realized it was this sort of crazy moment. It felt like an earthquake because English had always been my favorite subject. And I realized that my favorite books on stage came to life. And that not just me as a reader, but an entire group of people as an audience could share in this cathartic experience, could share in humor, could share in learning about other people's lives and perhaps increase their empathy while watching. And it really threw my brain for a loop. And the rest of high school for me was spent doing so much theater. And then I told my parents, I wasn't going to go to medical school. I was going to go and send for a BFA. Oh, they were just thrilled.  And my dad's a photographer. And she was like, this is all your fault.  And now she thinks it's a thing people do. So it's so true. And now he's like, it is a thing people do. Yeah. And my dad was like, honey, it's going to be fine. She's so smart. She's going to be so bored. Give her a year and she'll be so bored. And the irony was that they weren't wrong. I didn't feel like I was being intellectually stimulated enough in the theater department that I was in. So I transferred into the journalism school and started studying journalism and political science. And I think my parents thought that was going to bring me back around. But I essentially was just studying other ways to tell stories and kind of maybe double down on my job. And then what goes from there? And so you're in theater, you're starting to really enjoy it. And then you kind of have this earthquake moment. What is the next step there? So if you're in startup, you're like, let me do this product. Let me do some testing. Let me find out what's out there. What's your next step at that point? Well, the next step for me was starting to go out and audition and work. And so my parents' rule was that I wasn't allowed to do that before I was 18. And I had to be in college. And so I was studying at USC and going out and just hustling and especially during pilot season, you know, I was going to class, I was taking a full course load and then going to two, three auditions a day and, you know, driving around LA, just trying to figure out how to make it work. And started working, did this cool movie for HBO with Ray Liotta and worked with Ryan Reynolds and worked on the first season of Nip Tuck. And I was just working. And then I booked my first regular job on One Tree Hill and had to pack up my life and move to North Carolina. And I think it was like 15 or 16 days. Something crazy. How long after moving or you're from here, but how long after getting into, you know, going to school and going to auditions, did that happen? What was that time frame? That was three full years. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Three years of being a full time student and auditioning full time as well. And it was nuts. And like the number of movies, you know, that it would get to me and one other person, like it would be me and Jessica Beale, me and Lindsay Lohan. Like it was always down to me and someone who was more famous than me at that time. And there was something so frustrating about that, but also so encouraging about it. Because I was like, well, okay, if I'm the other person who they think could do this job as well as this very established person, then I'm doing something right. So I just, I just kept my head down and kept the auditioning up. And I was talking to a friend of mine recently who talked about how it took her 10 years of full time hustle to, you know, be the lead on a TV show. And she was like, yeah, it took me 10 years to be an overnight success. And it's really true. You know, people don't see the years of the work that you have to put in. I think it's the same in the startup world, you know, you launch a successful company and nobody knows that it took you three years of sleeping on the floor of your office and five years at a hack job before that that you hated, you know, to make it work. They just see this instant, you know, that's what I wanted to ask you. And so were there some things that you thought acting would be or the process would be that once you were doing it, once you were doing all the auditions, booking these, these roles that it was completely different than you originally thought? Yeah, I mean, I think I had a sort of subconscious assumption because all of us are viewers, right? So you see a perfectly edited show or film. The score is amazing. The music is swelling. You're feeling the feelings. The sound mix is perfect. And it's designed to allow you to feel on every sensory level what you're watching with your eyes. And when you're making a television show or a film, it has to be silent on a set. You can't have an overlapping conversation the way that you would in real life because it screws up sound. So there's this strange delay. There's immense technicality. There's no music that makes you feel things. And it's so repetitive. And then, you know, I'll never forget when we first got out to Wilmington, it was mid-July. It was 100 degrees. It was 95% humidity every day. And we were filming episodes that were going to be airing at the end of September. So we all had to be in sweaters and leather jackets every day. And so we're on set. You can't run the AC. Yeah, you can't run the air conditioning because it also screws up the microphone picking up sound.  We're suffering heat stroke.  And like, there is nobody here to take care of us. You're melting.  And it's you and the crew.  It's about problem solving, being efficient, being as open as possible emotionally. But you got to do it on a timeline. For me, I really started paying attention to the DPs, the director of photography on every job I do. And I figure out how I can do my creative job in a way that assists them in reducing the amount of shots they have to shoot so that we can go home in 12 or 13 hours instead of 14 or 15 hours. Because that's the difference between the guys on my crew having dinner with their kids or not, you know? Absolutely. When you first got on the show, so two questions here. One, it's funny. In startup, we always think about the technology that was out at that time, right? And so here you are. One, did you know it was going to be just a complete success based on the cast and maybe some of the writing? No, no way. And we didn't know while we were on it. Because what networks like to do is they don't want you to ask for anything. And they really don't want you to ask for a raise. So they don't want you to know your show's doing well. So every year they'd say, well, you guys are on the bubble. Like maybe the bubble could burst and maybe you'd get canceled. And in hindsight, we're like, wait a minute, we were a huge hit show and we absolutely all deserved a raise, but we never asked for it because we were scared our show was going to get canceled. Oh, that's crazy. And by the time the show ended, so you had, at that point, a tremendous, almost a decade. And so you've seen social media go from zero all the way through Facebook, all the way through Twitter. And at some point, that's got to activate celebrity on a whole nother level. Was it something that that you leaned into pretty heavily or was it something that you were just like, oh, wow, this is a whole new world? No, it took me a while.  And there was a lot of like really horrible bully culture. And you didn't, you didn't have the option to have your own voice. And every time that you kind of wound up on one of those things, it felt really invasive. It felt untrue. It felt like it was really lowest common denominator, like icky vibes. And when social media kind of started, I didn't want to be any more open, because that stuff was kind of painful and weird and surprising. And we all went through it in our own ways, but people would have a narrative they determined about you. And then they would just make that the story. And for a very empathetic and sensitive and intellectual kid that was a weird world for me. And I think, I think it always really got to me because I had studied journalism and I just thought none of this is right. Like you don't do this to people, you don't treat people this way. So when social media kind of began, I didn't want any part of it. And I remember thinking that the cool thing about Facebook could be that I could at least have it be private and I could share, you know, photos and life things with friends at home. But there were all these really sort of insidious things happening that none of us knew about yet where, you know, quote unquote fans would hack friends Facebook accounts or do these like mirror accounts that looked exactly the same to get access to ours and then take all of our photos and then upload them to these fan sites.  And they were all over these fan websites. And it just felt like such an invasion of privacy, because I had not obviously shared that publicly. And so I really just didn't, I was like, I don't think so. Like this is not for me. And then the thing that turned the tide was knowing that there were people, because I wasn't taking my own place in those spaces, that there were people impersonating me, often who didn't spell check. And I was always so frustrated because I thought if you're going to impersonate, also if you're going to impersonate the girl who went to journalism school on the internet, at least spell check, it's quite literally the least you can do. But when Deepwater Horizon happened, and we had the crisis of that oil spill off the Gulf Coast, I realized I could use a Twitter account as a news channel, because I was talking to some of the environmental activists who I work with down in New Orleans, and they'd been working in Gulf Shores, and they just said everything you see on the news is bullshit. They are not telling the truth about how bad this is. So I got on a plane and flew down there and started tweeting. And then I was like doing satellite video call-ins to news networks and doing interviews and talking about what I had seen and that I'd been threatened with arrest by the sheriffs who were trying to tell me I wasn't allowed to document film, photograph, which is all illegal. There were private security for the oil company trying to keep people out of these public spaces to document what was happening. So I realized that there was such an immense power as an activist in social media. So that's what turned it for me. That's what got me on the platforms. And the cool thing I think has been to learn how to run my platforms as a hybrid of a sort of news channel, a reality check, a positivity spot, and occasionally do the thing I said I would never do when Twitter started and post pictures of food. I was like, who cares about your breakfast? And the irony is I do. I care about everyone's breakfast. I want to see that. And like, what are you eating? How did you make that? But that's a leap of faith that, you know, you got on a plane to New Orleans after the Deep Water Horizon blew up and all this fake news was happening. Did you ever imagine that you would be using your journalism skills?  What was it like to comb through information and be the source for so many people? Honestly, that's what I do every day. It's still what I do every day. I think it was less that I found journalism and more that it found me. I think it was always where I was going. And I think that my entire kind of purpose being a storyteller and doing what I do is that I'm always trying to figure out how to tell the truth. And for me, I don't know how to do one without the other. And I certainly don't expect everybody to do it the way I do. You know, some people want to be entertainers and have their opinions be anonymous and or invisible.  But for me, I've had the kind of activist journalist sensibility in me since I was a little kid. And I realized that loving to tell people's stories is why I love to be an actor, but that I quite literally could not be an actor and not use my platform this way. Yeah, you just couldn't do it. I really love that. We talked to so many founders where it's very similar. It's almost like they what they're doing today, whether it be a product they're creating or something they're trying to bring into the market is an expression of their true self. And the true self gets revealed once they've expressed it. And that art can take seven years to your point before around the startup thing. And so it's really beautiful that almost like you're just going, you're coming back to your own truth and you're able to share that. And because you've kind of you were enacting for so long, you appreciate it so much more as my guests, right? It's like you lean in harder. And you've sort of fine-tuned your craft on that too. Yeah. And I think for me, I realized that my expression of what I love to do is a hybrid of both of those things. And I've been able to continue to do both throughout my career. And I'm pretty excited about it. Yeah. No, I love it. I'm a huge fan of Jessica Yellen. How did you get connected with her? And she's amazing. She's truly just the greatest. Jessica and I, honestly, we just connected online because of activism and journalism. And we've really created this amazing overlapping friend group here in LA. And she's just so brilliant. And her ability to serve us the news, not noise as she calls it, is so helpful. And I think illuminating and helps people make sense of what's going on out there and to be at the upper echelon of the White House press corps. And then to say, there's got to be a better way for us to do this for the people, I just think is heroic and amazing. And yeah, she's such a light. Yeah, absolutely. To borrow a phrase from your own podcast, where do you see yourself going and what kinds of projects do you use yourself working on? Well, you know, with all of the kind of side effects of COVID happening right now, it's hard to know. I was four days away from starting to shoot my new show up in Toronto, which full circle moment I'm playing a cardiothoracic surgeon on. So I spent all this prep time before I went to Canada, scrubbing into open heart surgeries and shadowing incredible cardiothoracic doctors. Oh, my parents were like, of course, of course you are. This is great. So I was living my best life getting ready for this. And then obviously it's not safe for people to be on a set right now. So we have to wait. And honestly, the job is so good. It's so special that I'm perfectly happy to wait for it. And it's the opportunity to be still, you know, at first, I think a lot of us felt kind of tortured by being locked up at home. And what I've figured out in the last couple of weeks is it's up to me how I look at this. And if I take it from the perspective of this is an opportunity for me to be at home and to rest and to take care of my body in ways I never do, because I'm always on the run. I can really be ready for this show. So I can sit and watch incredible medical shows and documentaries. I can comb through YouTube and learn how to do a running whip stitch. And I can really just get nerdy and get prepped and also do things like this. I'm doing podcasts from my home office, which is exceptional because there's people who, you know, we've been trying to schedule interviews with for six months and between my schedule and their schedule, it's been so hard. And now it's easy. I'm cooking a lot. I'm hanging with the dog. And there's been some lightness now that I've started looking for it. And so I'm trying to use all of it as fuel in the tank for when I go up there and we're at work 16 hours a day again. Yeah.  It's really weird. It's for the first two weeks, I kept saying to my best friend, I was like, I feel like I have ants crawling in my veins. I don't know how to do this. I was so anxious. And then I, again, I decided to address the perspective and think about how this could be illuminating. And now it feels different. And now I'm really kind of into it. And, and for the last week, every day I wake up before my alarm goes off, which kind of feels like a sign of being rested and happy.  And I'm like, okay, all right, we're doing okay here. What's the communication been like between the producers of the show and the network? Because, you know, I deadline came out with an article yesterday about the future of the industry going forward post COVID how everything from the snacks at the craft service table all the way to crowd scenes where you have a lot of extras, all theoretically up in the air at this point, because we don't know how slow productions will be to react rolling forward. And I was curious if you had heard anything from the producers of networks about how they plan to handle it, when eventually they do get the production back up and running. We really don't know yet. Yeah. It's not lost on me that, you know, I'm getting to work with some of the most incredible medical doctors on this new job. And I talked to a lot of doctors and a lot of scientists and a friend who's an epidemiologist very regularly. And nobody knows it's it's a guessing game at this point, you know, never in our lifetime or the history of this industry have we lived in a pandemic with a contagion that works like this one does. You know, just this week, research came out about how they're beginning to suspect that in addition to affecting the lungs, COVID potentially affects the brain. When are we going to have answers on that? When are we going to know if that's true? You know, it's, it's all new territory. And as much as I'm dying to go back to work, because I'm so in love with this job, I'm also cognizant that this is a real global shift and that taking care of the health of large groups of people has to be the priority here. And so I don't know. I know that for us, the network ordered a second script from our writers, which feels great. You know, we're all wondering, are they going to, rather than shoot a bunch of pilots, are they going to maybe pick their four favorite shows and order them straight to series for eight episodes and see how they go? I mean, we literally don't know. Right. We don't know when we can go back and we just don't know anything. And so it requires a lot of surrender and also a lot of kind of checking in with ourselves. And the thing I keep coming back to is, I just have this feeling. I'm like, I have so much faith in this. I have faith in this group of people. I believe in what we're doing. I've worked on so many sets. I know when there's lightning in a bottle and when there isn't, and this feels like it could be lightning in a bottle. So I'm trying to hold that energetic line for my cast and my crew and then also just kind of put my hands up and go, I have to surrender to this. I don't know. Is there anything? So during this time, like I've been doing a bunch of, I signed up for master class as an example. I've been making cocktail shrubs while I've been at home. I tried to learn Italian for a little while using just different apps. Your hair. Yeah. Natalia has corn rows in my hair right now, which is you can barely see them, but whatever. Is there anything that you're leaning into that's particularly new that you've never done and maybe things that you've always wanted to do? I was really trying to do that for a while. I did the same thing. I signed up for master class. I signed up for this course at Yale. I told myself I was going to get my French back. I found this guy who can teach me the piano on Zoom and it was a whole, and I was making myself crazy. I was really making myself crazy. And so I told myself I was going to stop and I was going to focus on three things which are move my body every day for at least 30 minutes, make my celery juice and my vitamins and drink a whole jar of lemon water every morning and try to start powering through these books that have been in a stack next to my bed forever. I was like, I got to reduce. And so now I'm starting to feel like I'm getting in a little bit of a habit of those things. And now I'm like, okay, maybe I'll add in the Yale course next. And then I'll just sit with that. And then maybe in two weeks I'll try to see if I can start scheduling these piano lessons because that feels fun. And I'll just sit with that.  And I had a conversation with a friend of mine who said, you're not doing it wrong. It's a pandemic. None of us know maybe just being alive and surviving the stress of this for a little while is enough. And I thought, yeah, you're right. Okay, okay. And so my friend who I'm co quarantined with is a photographer and we've been doing these photo projects and I've been helping her on a project she's working on and little things, you know, I've been doing podcasts every day just stacking them up. And so as much as I do this thing where I go, I'm not really doing a lot. When I write out the list of what I've done, I realize it is a lot. And I can add to it very slowly. And that's okay. I think the pressure we're all putting on ourselves to use this time maybe isn't the point. I think we've all been running way too fast. And we can't keep up with ourselves and the planet can't keep up with us. And maybe the lesson in this is to figure out how to reduce, you know, reduce our expectations for ourselves that are unhealthy, reduce our impact on the planet, reduce our speed. Yeah, I love what you touch on in your your last episode of Work in Progress. When you say there's no right way to feel, there's no right way to be right now. And we're all just trying to be. And what feels good to us. So I love that. Thank you. Yeah, you know, one one step at a time. Anything you're watching on Netflix, anything that you're streaming? Ah, I'm watching Blue Planet. And I cry at the end of every episode.  And I keep just thinking about how this could be our opportunity to be different on the other side.  Super uplifting, I know. But it feels so important to plug into. What else have I been watching? What's in my list right now? I went and watched Parasite again. My God, that movie is so good. I am I'm about to start Orthodox, which I've heard is incredible. It's very good. Very, very good. Yeah, I'm really excited about that. I watched Black Panther again, because that movie makes me feel hopeful. Yeah, I don't know. I'm, I'm also open to recommendations. Oh, somebody was telling me, is it an HBO show that Rick Rubin's Shangri-La is apparently so amazing? It's an amazing show. And it opens up. So for me, at least, I'll speak personally, it just opened up my world to so many artists that I would have necessarily found or would have never showed up in the playlist because of the algorithm. Just blew me away. And his process is, it's similar. It's like it's, it's about being present. And it's about not letting time interfere with that presence and letting it breathe, letting the art, the music, the feel, whatever it is, just letting it breathe and then trying new things within that space. And so it's a great show. And I, it's funny. I mean, for me personally, it connected where he has a Spanish artist that comes on the show and everything she sings all the songs. So because I was born in Peru, I grew up listening to what we would call like Latin classics. And she sings all of those. And I just connected with it. And I've been playing the songs nonstop. And so because of COVID, we're at home. And so I was making ceviche the other day. And I'm FaceTiming my mom and I have the music on in the background. She's like, Oh, she's like, do you know, you know that song, you know that song really well. She's like, you grew up on that. And I was like, that's, there's a reason I'm connecting with it. And I didn't know. And then she was just like singing the songs while I'm making ceviche. And it was just like that, that moment, right? Where it was like, it all cool. And it was everything. It's like, what's the first step when you, when you, when you cook Peruvian food, you put on music. That's step one, right?  So we made Pisco Sour. And then it was like, yeah. And then I love the Pisco Sour. When we're allowed out of our houses, I'm coming over. I'm like, you're making ceviche and Pisco's, let's go. So good. Yeah. The cocktail game here has been we've been upping the ante. We had Lynette on from masterclass on the podcast. And so we got to, we got to, you know, she's been like, yeah, we've just been like, because it's a great way to just reuse fruit that's about to expire. And then you can, yeah. Last time we did a podcast with our friend who's a mixologist up in San Francisco. And he looked at our bar and had us make something with what we had. And we had this grapefruit shrug, shrug that you've made. And it was amazing. I need to, I need to get in on that. I need to learn about the shrubs. It's great. It's really cool. It's basically just take any fruit that you have left, put it in a jar, add one cup of vinegar and one cup of sugar, and then just let it shake it, let it sit for a couple days, two, three days. And then, and that's it, strain it and then put it in the fridge. And it lasts about three months. It keeps for three months. Whoa. And all you have to do is add tonic water to it. So you just take one ounce of that. You add a little tonic and then maybe a splash of your favorite spirit. And it's really amazing because you smell vinegar, but you don't taste it at all. Interesting. It's really interesting. It's almost like a kombucha. Like you can think about it in that cousin. It's like a cousin. Okay. That I will add to my sooner than later quarantine to-do list. This feels really productive and excellent. And it feels like I'm also just connecting with something, right? It's like I'm connecting with the fruit. I'm reusing it. I'm not throwing it away. Yeah. Like we're just using the earth in different ways, but I'm still able to use it for a cocktail. It's like the high and the low, the balance of the whole thing. One of the things I've actually started doing in Natalia, we've talked so much about this, but I finally am getting all my compost going and I have this huge, not huge. I mean, it's like a rectangular Tupperware container now that I keep on one side of my sink. And every time I fill it up, I bring it out. And I don't know. There's been something magical feels like it's happening in the backyard with the garden. And I talked for so many years about wanting to get bees. And then like a year, maybe a year, year and a half ago, the bees just showed up and they started building this massive hive in my wood pile.  They were listening. So, you know, again, one of the things I had the opportunity to do being home is I had this incredible organization come out here and rescue my beehive with me. And so we got them into a proper hive and now they have a little home and we're working on moving it over to where it's going to actually properly be. And yeah, it's like, I don't know. There's something about reducing waste again, reusing the stuff, composting, making these shrubs, helping the bees, you know, planting lavender for them. Like, I don't know. It all feels kind of amazing. Okay. So here's something that I've been doing. So one cup of water, half cup of honey, and then just put lavender or sage, whatever you have in there, let it boil, stir it. And then I use, so basically that's like a, it's almost like a simple stirrup, but it's all natural. And then I put like one ounce of that in my almond milk latte, and it just tastes fantastic. But you can also use it in cocktails. That's just another one. We use it in a cocktail the other day. Yeah. Oh guys, we should just do a zoom dinner and make things. Yeah. We'll start in like a cocktail. We've been doing a lot of wine tasting, so we have friends, we set up a Pinot Noir tasting. We did like France versus America. France versus California, Oregon. Wait, I've done that the last two Friday nights with some friends that are on the West side. We've been doing combinations. So it'll be a, we did a white, an old world white from France, and then a white from California. And then we did the same thing, old world red, red from California. And it's been really cool to learn about the regions and, you know, the terroir. Indefined wines you normally might not have found otherwise. Yeah. We're doing a beer one tomorrow. So the brewery that we're trying to launch that, it was going to city hall and everything was looking good until this happened. And so it got stuck because city hall shut down. So they're kind of down. They're like, what do we do at this time? You know, we don't have anything to do. In terms of the brewery.  And you can explain all their beer because their beer is so different. It's like nothing I've ever had. It's really, it's one of the basil infusion, which is amazing. It's just so amazing. Like pear. Oh my God. So we set it all up. Same thing. It's the same wine crew. And so sign me up. I'm in. It's delicious. And we have to send you the beer too. Okay. Okay. They're making, yeah, they're making the deliveries today. Usually we do it. So most of the friend group are doctors. And so it's also, there's a safety in that for me where I get to ask them questions about what is going on. What are you hearing? You know, they're at the front lines of it. Yeah. And after, after like the tasting is halfway through, they tell us what's going on. Yeah.  And so like she was on the call with governors. And so it's like, yeah, crazy, but it's fun. It's a lot of fun. It's so fun.  This is amazing. Yeah. You don't have to drive anywhere. You don't have to get an Uber. Yeah. Don't have to put shoes on. It's really nice. All the creature comforts at your disposal. I have indoor shoes now. And I love it. Yeah. I just have these, you know, floppy slippers that I live in and it's great. Yeah. It feels very Japanese, very Zen. Yeah. You know, I have one thing to ask Sophia, you know, you mentioned composting, you mentioned the beehive and we were talking about things that we've watched on streaming services. It reminded me of the documentary, The Biggest Little Farm. Are you familiar with that? That's in my queue also. So I, one of the things I did last week finally was I sat on Netflix and I did the My List because I realized I have these lists of things I know I want to watch. And then every time I sit down in front of the TV, I can't think of a single thing that anyone's ever made. And there's 8,000 channels and, you know, tens of thousands of things. So I went through and I made a list and that's in there. Everyone has told me how good it is and I can't wait to see it. They're not lying. Cool. I can't recommend it enough. Sophia, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been super fun. Do you want to just tell our listeners obviously where they can listen to your podcast and name your podcast? Sure. Yeah. My podcast is called Work in Progress and it is everywhere you find podcasts on Apple, on Spotify, on Google Play. And it's a really cool place to get a little nerdy and have a little fun and, you know, learn something and I just love it. I honestly, one of the things, because I've really been trying to think every day about what I'm grateful for during this, I am so grateful for video capabilities. Can you imagine if our parents, when our parents were our age, if this had happened and you couldn't video conference with anyone, you couldn't see other people? It's a hard, hard pass for me. I talk to my parents, I think more now than I did before this whole thing happened. Yeah. Like every other day, like, what are you guys doing? You want to just sit and hang out? Yeah, totally. The interpersonal connections that have come out of this are the true silver lining of being isolated and quarantined. Yeah, truly. Well, thank you so much. Thanks, guys. So fun. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I'm great to see y'all. The start of the storefront team consists of Diego Torres Palma, Natalia Capolini, Megan Conrad, Haley Nelson, and me, Nick Conrad. Our music is composed by Double Touch. They just released a new song on their SoundCloud that I highly recommend checking out. We've got more great episodes coming up in the near future, so if you aren't already, consider subscribing. This is a very supportive and helpful community of entrepreneurs, and we'd love for you to be a part of it. We'd also love to hear how you all are coping with this epidemic, so reach out to us on all the social media platforms at Startup to Storefront. And you can always go back and listen to any of our other episodes available wherever you get your podcasts and on our website, startupdestorefront.com. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.


Brad, as president of the Main Charitable Mechanics Association, you must be so excited about this big anniversary coming up and all the changes that are taking place here at the Main Charitable Mechanics. Tell us a little bit about it. Well, you're referring to the 200th anniversary coming up? Yes. That'll be coming up in 2015, but obviously it was an event like that, you start preparing for it now. Probably the greatest preparation we're doing is a strategic plan, which as far as we know is the first time that the association in its nearly 200-year history has undergone a strategic plan. So that's our big event for 2014, and then obviously whatever comes back from that plan will be enacting beginning in 2014, we hope, and then into the next 200 years. And with that anniversary coming up, you want people to know what you're doing here and what the association is all about. And a big part of it are the travel lectures. That's right. That's probably another anniversary that we should mention. This is the 101st season of a year of doing travel lectures here in Portland. Main Charitable Mechanics Association has been doing them here. These travel lectures are really, really interesting. These involve people who go around the world and shoot professional film footage of various places anywhere from Italy to France to Africa. Right here in the United States, like Yellowstone Park, we have a lecture coming up later this next year actually on San Francisco. My favorite is coming up here though in another couple of weeks or coming up shortly. And that'll be on Eastern Canada, be the maritime provinces and Newfoundland. We have a couple of professional lectures that are coming in to give that tour. What's nice about that is it's an easy one that almost anybody in Maine can take afterwards if they're interested. If you've been there already, you might want to come up and see some familiar sites that are on it. That's coming up on Monday the 18th of November. Well that one sounds especially exciting to me. I lived in Nova Scotia many years ago and had my first child there. But you're right. You can drive to those locations from Maine very easily. And the other big thing is we may be having the ferry again. Okay, there you go Leslie. And so the people who haven't been able to go for a long time, it will open up the world to them. So tell us a little bit about some of the things they'll be talking about in that lecture. It'll be the typical all the prime scenery of the maritime provinces, PEI, part of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick. And as you know, there's everything from the reversing falls to the highest tides in the world, highest tide change in the world. The beautiful Cape Breton Islands, Prince Edward Island, which is probably best known for Anne of Green Gables, and of course Newfoundland. The Vikings game to Lancer Meadow. There you go. And people go to Catherine Macaulay to see these. Great point. That lecture takes place at the auditorium at Catherine Macaulay High School on Stevens Avenue. Lectures start at 7.30. If you're a member of Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, the lecture is free. If you're not, it's only $5 per person to attend. These are great lectures. They start at 7.30, we'll have an intermission after about 45 minutes or an hour, and then continue after that. But when you think about where can you go anywhere for $5 today for that kind of entertainment, you can take your family. If you are a senior, you can get in actually for $4. And the seats are comfortable. Oh, they're very comfortable and beautiful. You can't miss. I mean, it's all auditorium style. So there are no bad seats in the auditorium at all, Leslie. Well, I'm looking forward to going if I can. And I know that our viewers will want to go. And there'll be information there about the upcoming films. Thank you. And again, it's an opportunity to see an area that's drivable. A lot of people, a lot of our people from Maine have been there. But to hear some real professionals narrate the film footage. Well, thank you, and look forward to seeing this. Thank you, Leslie. All right.


Hey, and good afternoon.  I'm Angela Brown, and I'm here today with Trevor Steiner And he is the owner of pristine clean solutions And I'm so excited that he's here today because He's gonna tell us something that we have never talked about on this show before and that is how to clean solar panels Solar panels on the top of your roof and you say what I got to clean them Well, maybe you hire Trevor and he cleans them for you But how do you clean them? It's a really good question and I know now that I brought it up You're probably wondering how do you clean solar panels? So now today we have the expert himself to explain to us how you clean solar plant panels Please help me welcome Trevor Steiner. How are you today doing good? Thank you All right, so cleaning solar panels first of all tell us what the heck is a solar panel? I've seen them on people's roofs, but what are they? Well, they're basically a You know electrical panels that generate electricity from the Sun And yeah, that's how you know how that works So is it like is it like a window you put a window kind of thing on top of your roof? And then somehow magically it transfers Yeah, and the energy yep more or less, you know to be honest I'm not too technical on you know how they work. I just clean them so I Just know the benefit side of it So I've got neighbors and they have solar panels on their roof and I Know a lot about cleaning, but I do not know squat about cleaning solar panels So I'm gonna lean on you to tell us first How you came into the cleaning of solar panels and then I'll let you explain to us What the whole process is and why it's important to keep them clean and all the things But how did you get started in cleaning solar panels? So I was a So I was a mechanic for automotive technician for the last 12 years It can be pretty hard on the body and so just wanted to kind of change career paths And you know to be honest, I'm not really sure exactly how I got into it Just one thing kind of fell into another I started out looking into like pressure washing and then that led to solar panel cleaning and Turns out I really enjoy it. I Enjoy getting up on people's roofs and I know a lot of people like her might be scared of heights and But you know, I enjoy it I enjoyed as long as I remember to take a minute every time I'm up there to enjoy the views then that's all that really matters So here you are on a roof and I'm curious to know What are we looking at here? So that's a they called a rotary brush There's a couple different manufacturers around the world. This one's a J. Raysenstein rotary brush. They're made in Italy So basically how it works is it hooks up to a pressure washer The pressurized water There's a transmission inside for the pressurized water spins the brush And then you're left with the water that comes out is basically just to rinse the panels There's different options when it comes to cleaning solar panels. There's water-fed brushes like you might use for cleaning windows Of course, the differences with those you have to put in some more elbow grease To get the job done this one. You kind of just does the work for you kind of just guide it back and forth And then you can also get into like robots You know that you use a remote control to kind of drive them around on the solar panels So there's a lot of different options, but I like you know so far. I'm liking what this one's doing for me So you said it has a pressurized Motor or something to it. It's just like high pressures It's like a pressure washer or is this more like it's just kind of a spinning brush Yeah, so there's no pressurized water coming out. It uses a pressure washer The pressurized water goes in goes into the brush into the brushes transmission and basically spins It's like a reduced gear. It spins the gear which which in return spins the brush head And then the excess water left, you know after it's done being pressurized the excess water is the rinse got it So when you are using this brush, do you use the brush first? Do you hose it down first? Do you put soap on it first? Like what what is the process for doing something like this? And I'm guessing you got to have a ladder to get up on The people's roofs. Yeah, and then you carry your gear up with you on the ladder like tell me how that works So yeah, so You know first most important thing is setting up the ladder making sure that's secure I have different ladder braces stabilizers Just to make sure it's not gonna fall over obviously and then from there the the rotor brush is kind of on a Telescoping pull it can extend like 39 feet. Oh, well, basically what I'll do is extend it up to the roof line Allow it to sit there leaning against the ladder. I'll get up there safely, you know And then from there I can pull up the brush. That's really all I take up there on you know an average cleaning Other than that like my phone take pictures, you know, maybe a TDS meter Just to test the water make sure it's good there nice and pure And then yeah, as far as starting the cleaning, I don't rinse them down first. I just I just go at it You know water starts as soon as you turn the valve on water starts coming out of the brush And you know and as far as soap like all If they're pretty dirty, you know, I'll use some soap that's it's from a company that makes a line of chemicals for solar panels So yeah, otherwise if they're not too bad, I'll just I'll just use just water so and so You said some soap if necessary, how do you determine if necessary? If they haven't been cleaned in a while I mean, I'll typically ask the customer first, but once I get up there and I see hey, they're pretty dirty then usually all Use like a foam cannon to kind of spray give them a light mist as some soap and and then go from there So, you know, there's different things to like if there's a lot of bird droppings or Smog residue things like that That's another indicator. You might want to use some soap. So The things that you just mentioned bird droppings or smog or things like that Does that affect the production or the performance of a solar panel? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah I mean anything does whether anything that's blocking that glass, you know, that's keeping the cells from kind of penetrating the sun's You know energy then it's definitely you want to have them as clean as possible And so how often I'm just on average and I guess there is no average But if there was how often would you clean solar panels? Yeah, so that's that's a question I get asked a lot You know the average is every three months for commercial and when I say commercial that's like hundreds if not thousands of panels It would make sense to get him cleaned every three months for residential the average is every six months But again, you know, if if the customer has let's say six panels on the roof It might not make sense to him to pay hundreds of dollars to have him cleaned twice a year You know, because you have to outweigh you have to think about why you're cleaning the panels, right? You're doing them. So they produce more so either you save money or Just generate more electricity in general to sell back or whatever the customer's plan is that they have set up You know, it's it's got to outweigh each other. So So I love this because there are a lot of things that I did not think about I go walking and I walk past my neighbors houses Who have these solar panels and I think oh, aren't they doing something our friendly? How cool is that? But I didn't think that they might actually be spending a lot of money in the cleaning process and Then I didn't think about cleaning them at all. Like I didn't it didn't even cross my mind I guess that could be dangerous. Do you have to like rope yourself onto the the roof or? Um, so I I do have I am prepared I do have harnesses and I have every you know, I'm big on safety So I've pretty much anything when it comes to safety But to be honest not every roof I harness in on you know It's all comes down to if I feel comfortable then I'm not gonna harness in and the reason why is that's just another rope another hose something else to trip on and kind of get in your way, so You know if it's necessary, I'll do it. Otherwise, you know, I don't and what makes it necessary that the pitch of the roof Yeah, if it's a pitch of the pitch of the roof if it's pretty steep or a lot of a lot of homes at least down here Like typically on the north side of the roof. They'll have a lot of algae build up or they call it lichen And that can get really slippery. So that's another reason why I would harness up So a question which is kind of off topic But if you're up on the roof anyway, and they do have some algae or something that's on the roof or moss or something That's growing or mold or what have you in addition to cleaning the solar panels. Can you also clean the regular roof? Yep? Definitely. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we can take care of that as well You know sometimes it So I mean when I get up on the roof I do a full inspection. So if they got gutters I'm checking those taking pictures letting them know Because I know, you know, that's you want the most out of the service you want to know Hey, because most people don't get up on the roofs, right? So they never yeah, they want to know what's going on. Is there do I crack tiles is, you know Do I have a crack solar panel, you know, whatever the case is so I let them know and we take care of it. I Love that. We just had our roof washed about a week ago And there was a contractor that was up there and taking pictures and what we discovered was there was a little tiny hole in the roof We're like woodpecker had been like pecking at the at the roof And it wasn't the same person that fixed it We had to have another contractor come out and fix the the hole in the roof But we would not have known that it was there had it not been for we hear the woodpecker But we didn't know the damage that was done and then somebody being up on the roof So I can see how extra jobs could come from that But oh how nice that he was able to take pictures so that we don't find ourselves with maybe a leak in the roof later on and It could have been prevented or something. It could have been next. Yeah So I want to stop for just a second. I want to say hi to everybody that's here. Hi you guys I'm so glad that you've joined us today Sin says hi Angela and Trevor Steph says hello from the UK. Hello from the US. Hello back I'm so glad to see that you've joined us. Sandy Miller says, how do I find a cleaner company? And that's a great question. How do you find a cleaner that cleans solar panels? Was was that the one from the UK? No, that was that was someone else. We don't know where they're from but great question So, yeah, I mean you can just I would start by just googling, you know solar panel cleaner near me or you know, I mean there's Speaking for myself. I'm doing all different types of marketing. So I mean sometimes you can find them on Facebook You know, sometimes you find them in a magazine, but you know, if you just want to go direct, that's your best option I think it's just searching online Have you gotten any business from next door? Um, yeah, yeah when I first started, uh, that's actually where I got a lot of my business And the reason I ask is because in the cleaning business we use next door a lot And we use it because a lot of neighbors talk to each other And I know that in the process of us selling our home in order to find some good contractors or pressure washers or people that Clean carpets or windows or whatever. We've gone to next one said hey, who in this area? Do you know it does a great job and has done this project for you? And I think adding that has done this project for you is key Because if you say hey, who has done roof cleaning, but it's somebody that has not cleaned solar panels That's not the person that I would want to come clean my solar panels I'd actually want somebody that has the expertise in solar panels Okay, so tell us the difference between just cleaning a regular roof washing a regular roof and washing solar panels. What's the difference there? um, so Mainly the technique so technique. I mean well getting rid of like algae growth.  You want to kill the algae And then it just depends on how severe it is sometimes you'll use a pressure washer to get it off Sometimes just a bleach and a rinse will work so um Yeah, it's a total different thing cleaning solar panels solar panels. You want to be careful, you know use Use the right um bristle brush something that's not going to scratch it or something that's not too soft to where Um, you know, it's not going to clean it as well And so would you use bleach on a solar panel or no? No, no The only chemicals I use is again going back to this company. Um They have a full line of chemicals just for solar panels So if there's paint over spray on them, they have a chemical for getting that off Um, if there's like stucco over spray You see that on on a lot of new builds You see that um because they'll build one, you know street of houses move on to the next And if they're painting the house on a windy day now All the solar panels on the next street have paint over spray. So Oh, wow. Yeah What are you going to do Well, and I guess you need to be aware of that because if if you don't If you have paint over spray that's going to make your solar panel solar panel and effective, right? Right. Yep Um, so how can you tell if your solar panel panel is dirty? Um, I mean if you can see it from the ground then, you know Then that's that's obviously, you know good, but um, otherwise Um, if you can't you know minus getting up on your roof and checking A lot of solar companies will give you like either an app or some way to track the progress Um, so like let's say you've had them installed for three years You can check the product's able to go back to the very beginning when they first went live See what they're putting out and then you want to go at least 12 months after that Um, and see what they're putting out And there's going to be there's going to be a lot of ups and downs because some days are more overcast than others But overall you should see a steady decline and then you know And then once you have them cleaned Um, you can do the same thing get them cleaned and then check a year after that and that'll kind of put you That'll allow you to kind of see hey Getting them cleaned every six months for x amount of dollars. Is it worth it? For my size of system how much electricity I use or maybe once a year Or maybe once every 18 months, you know every system's done for it every customer is done for it You know how much electricity they use so Um, so yeah So i'm going to ask you a couple of weird questions And I I mean this from the best of intentions, but there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers that are like, oh, I can clean my own windows Well, can you clean your own solar panels or is that something completely different? Um, you can So one thing I hear all the time is customers, you know, especially it's a one-story home They can kind of see them from the ground A lot of people will just get their garden hose out and give them a rinse down And that does it does the same thing rain does right it takes off the top layer of dust But it doesn't actually clean them and you're actually making things a little worse because you're using tap water Um, which basically when it dries it leaves all the calcium and hard mineral deposits So in a way you're making it worse by not using pure water um But I mean like I said you want to use pure water you want to get up there and actually give them a scrub with a brush It's like when you do your dishes, you don't just rinse them off and they're clean, right? You actually have to use the sponge scrub them, you know, so um so yeah, I mean I don't know if that answers your question, but well Do you recommend that uh do it yourself or climb up on the roof and use soap and water and scrub their windows? Or is it dangerous? I mean It does it is it important that you're trained and that you are certified and that you are insured and that you have workers come up and all those things I mean for me Business owner. Yes, all those things are important. Um to the average homeowner Obviously insurance and stuff might not you know apply to them but um, but yeah, definitely uh keeping safety in mind you want to make sure You have all the right safety equipment know how to set up a ladder The brush you're using you want to make sure the bristles aren't too tough and they're going to damage the uh, They call it an arc coating Anti-reflective coating some manufacturers are they put it on the top of the glass some they put it on the underside But you can't tell so why take the chance? So yeah, I mean I technically I wouldn't do it. Maybe if you do some uh research or maybe you have a background Using ladders and that sort of thing then maybe yeah, then I would say give it a shot, but um, I've also seen some some homes will have a Like uh, it's typically reverse osmosis or like a water softener That that's also hooked up to their outside spigot So I mean if you wanted to use that you can You know deionized water is a little better, but you know, it'll do the job It's definitely a lot better than using your typical hard water. So So if you live in an area with hard water that has the mineral components to the water How important is it that you do it more frequently or that you use some kind of a The chemical breakdown or something that's going to help Fix that because I mean I'm thinking in the back of my head. You might get etching like you would with Shower glass doors or something. Yeah. Yep Yeah, I mean definitely I you know I'm not sure to be honest. I'm not sure about If you're to just spray him once let's say with hard water if like obviously there's going to be um water spots But I don't know if that's enough to like etch it You know, you see a lot of times like sprinklers next to windows. It's just repeat every day every day for years um, that will eventually cause etching but um So yeah, does that answer your question? It's not I'm guessing that it's not as prevalent as if you were To have regular water on the windows from the tap Sorry say say that again So it's not you're not going to get etching like you normally would if you had sprinkling water hitting the windows Right like on a repeat basis, but if you're just spraying, you know, you spray down your panels with hard water again It's still not the preferred method And you're like I said you're doing a little bit more You're kind of it's being counterproductive.  So it's They're really not much, you know, any cleaner than they were Uh, good good good answer. Thank you for that I want to stop for just a second and say hi to all of our buddies guys. I'm so glad that you're here Mark White says hi angela great conversation so far. Hi mark and thank you for joining us This is a great conversation because this is one I've never had And now I'm learning from trevor just like you. I'm so excited Rachel rose is from england and she says hi. I'm hoping to get solar panels soon. So this is super helpful. Thank you Hi, rachel. I'm so glad that you're here and uh Thank you for joining us and I'm excited that you're getting solar panels. That's that's really cool I've thought about it what I haven't done it yet. Uh, Javier says hi there miss expert cleaner Hello, and I'm so glad your hair as well. I've tackled those omg I uh, yeah Wow Um laugh out loud. It's a battle in there. Yes, it is Um, so we are we are learning for the first time for those of you that are just joining us how to clean solar panels And so my question is if you're not going to do it yourself and I think trevor said something really interesting Why take the chance? Why take the chance and I I have to ask the question because like the other day my husband not For solar panels, but he wanted to climb up on a ladder and he wanted to clean Or replace the shutters on the front of our home And I had the exact same response Why take the chance if you fall off that ladder because he's not trained for ladders Nor is he licensed or insured or any of those things. He's just a diy guy trying to clean his shutters But if you fall off and you fall the wrong way and you're paralyzed for the rest of your life Is it worth it to you? Then whatever you would have spent to hire somebody that just does this for a living and the answer was oh, no Let's just hire somebody that has big ladders and does this for a living and within within a matter of a couple of hours A kid you not the same day somebody came out. They give us a quote They came two days later and they did the job and no one was the wiser And so like trevor said why take the chance if it's something you've never done If it's something that you're not trained to do If it's something that has a hazard to it like falling off your roof And you don't have the proper equipment like the proper water line Why would you take the chance on something as expensive as solar panels? I don't have a good answer for that Okay, next question So let's say i'm going to hire You or someone else to come clean my solar panels. What am I looking for in the company that I hire? um, so Besides the equipment you want to make sure they're using The right equipment right that they're using dinized water. They're using correct brushes Other than that you want to make sure they're insured, of course Not just for I mean I can't speak for anywhere else in the country or the world, but here in southern california It's it was a real battle trying to find an insurance company that will cover you for cleaning solar panels There's only one there's only one that I know of All the other ones it's not really their fault. It's just they don't have the category for it yet because it's it's somewhat of a newer industry um So that's definitely something don't just say don't just Take their word for it that they're insured actually see are they insured for For touching your solar panels Because you can be insured for doing roof washes as crazy as it sounds you can Be insured for getting up on the roof spraying water But the water is not supposed to touch the solar panels, right? Sounds kind of weird. Um, so yeah, you need to be insured for cleaning the solar panels Is that way more expensive? the insurance um a little bit Yeah, we found it anymore, but the once you um I mean going from working on the ground to being up on a two or three storey roof That's where the jump happens and then after that it's it's not too bad We found that in cleaning where if you are on ladders the price goes up And it's it's just because the risk goes up Yeah, definitely, and then the risk goes up with spraying water on somebody's roof as well. So So what kind of questions should you ask when you're hiring a solar panel cleaner? um I would say just try and ask as much questions as far as like me personally I'm all about educating the customer. So I would you know, I find it awesome Like if somebody has asked me a bunch of questions Um, as far as you know getting into the specs like how often should you clean them? How are you cleaning them? You know, I think that's important with anybody you hire You know, it might seem a little bothersome to ask a you know, accompany that all these questions But you're paying for the service. So you should I think you should know how it's being done, you know So I I know that there's a wide varying range of pricing for clean But is it in the hundreds of dollars or the thousands of dollars to have somebody come and clean? I don't know what the standard is on a roof. Let's say that you have 15 panels. Yeah Um, everyone does it a little a little gently some people charged by you know per panel Some people charge one story two story etc But yeah, you're looking in The low few hundred dollar range typically like on a normal residential system Okay, so that's that's uh, that's budgetable Is it possible that somebody could buy a package from your company that you just come out every six months every six months every six months And that's just out of autopay And you know what the house is and once you figure out the price Then you just come out on a routine schedule and it is what it is Definitely. Yeah, that's um, that's part of what I do. I offer reoccurring packages. So If it makes sense to you to get him clean three times a year You're basically saving about 30 percent or so So, yeah, I mean it's totally up to you I really prefer that. Um, I know that we've got like our h-fact company does that Where they just have us on a regular recurring schedule and they come out every three or four times a year or something and they check the The air in the spring and the fall and then they check the furnace or whatever it is that they do and replace filters And they got all the things that they do and they just call us to say we're on our way. I'm okay You know, yeah, it makes things a lot easier. You know one one less people are busy. So one less thing to worry about yeah Steph Smith says I really appreciate this information because I've been wondering about cleaning our solar panels for a while They've been on a good few years. So they must be filthy now And maybe they are I don't know So I am curious then Um, if you have solar panels and they haven't been cleaned in a while What are some of the things that you're looking at as far as getting them cleaned? Is it is it? A heavier duty clean is it like what we would do in house cleaning where you go in and it's a deep clean instead of just a maintenance clean Um, well again, if it's a something where it needs You know where it's heavy build-up. I would use soap Um, otherwise, like I said, I just use The regular brush. It does a pretty good job. It's got pretty stiff bristles, but not enough to damage the panels Um, so I mean sometimes you might need to go over them, you know two or three passes or you know Um, but yeah other than that you just get to cleaning them So the chemicals that you use at I eat the soap is it something that if it runs off under the shrubs or the trees It's going to kill those no no Okay, so it's it's earth friendly. Yeah, definitely okay Then are there any kind of debris or I'm going to say hurricane wind rain Something that's dangerous as far as the weather goes that could damage or destroy crack or break the solar panels Um, so what I've been told again, I don't know if this is every solar panel manufacturer I'm sure some are not as quality as others, but um for the most part. I believe they're Made the glass is made to withstand up to quarter in tail Uh-huh Yeah, I I've seen some cracked panels due to uh either rocks or golf You know people that live close to golf uh forces. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's some cracked panels and golf balls So Is this is a solar panel like a window Where the window has invisible gases inside the the glass sandwich of the window pane Is it like that with a solar panel where you have it it could get like a busted thermal seal or something Where it becomes clouded or foggy and it's not as effective Um that i'm not sure of I do know the cells beneath the glass can Get hot spotted and you'll be able to tell just by a visual inspection It's a lot easier to see those sorts of things when they're clean Um, I've actually cleaned some solar panels where a panel was completely like shattered It's kind of like um, what do they call that uh a temper proof glass where it's made to shatter um I've cleaned a panel and didn't notice that it was shattered until once it was clean so um Yeah, I mean as far as gases i'm i'm not sure about that So I I didn't know I was just curious because sometimes we see like a window and it looks like it's dirty And then you go to clean it and lo and behold like you said you didn't you didn't know it was shattered until you cleaned it And then you're like, ah, this is not just dirty. It's it's actually broke Yeah, that that happens with windows cleaning windows too. Um once once you get them nice and clean Then you kind of see the discoloration the kind of pinkish purplish, you know But yeah, I mean the solar panels it it can be an issue like I said if you don't have all the Proper PPE It's definitely an electrical hazard, you know washing a cracked solar panel. So So tell us if you will what is the proper PPE for washing solar panels? um So because I think I I think I saw on this picture that you had and I'll add it back here Um, you got boots on looks like you got some rubber boots on yeah, those those are uh Those are basically just waterproof boots. They do have more uh non-conductive boots. They have non-conductive gloves hard hats um, and again it goes back to um You know Kind of how i'm feeling that day to be honest sometimes, you know, I I gear up and sometimes I don't so Well, and that might also go back to the the type of roof that you're doing You said that there are times when your protective equipment could be a harness because of the pitch of the roof And so if you're if you're protecting yourself that way There might be something else that's required Based on the type of roof or based on the type of cleaning chemical that you're using Based on the type of weather that you're cleaning in and let's talk about weather for a second I know that when you clean a window It's better if you clean it on not a rainy day and not a sunny sunny day But like kind of somewhere in between so that you can not it doesn't dry too fast The water doesn't dry too fast, but then you can still see what you're doing Is that the same and is that true also for cleaning solar panels? um Is there a better weather to clean them in? Not really.  I mean on the other hand like if it's 110 degrees outside this is another question I get all the time is Because everyone knows it'd be spray water cold water on let's say your car's windshield on 110 degree day It's most likely going to crack With solar panels that's typically not an issue. There has to be an extreme temperature difference like um 110 degrees out and you put ice cold water on it But I mean the way my setup is You're already on a warm day. So the tanks are sorry the water is coming from my water tank So it's already pretty warm by the time it goes up. You know, let's say a hundred feet of hose It's actually pretty warm by the time it hits the solar panels So there's really no issue With having them crack. There's always a possibility that they can but you know, so I try not to schedule cleanings when it's a hundred degrees out, but You know plus nobody likes being up on a roof when it's a hundred degrees. So no And and for reasons people might not suspect if you get up on a roof And this is just logic because I have not cleaned any solar panels Okay, so this is not from my personal experience But if you climb up on a roof and you have the reflection of just the roof itself That's one thing reflection off of a solar panel is going to be so much brighter I can only imagine it would be glaring and blaring in your eyes. You probably have to wear sunglasses Yeah, yeah, they they definitely help Yeah, and I would imagine the heat could also be really hot and you could get sunburned really easily. Am I right? Yep. Yeah in the summer I have one of those big, uh straw hats and so yeah um Yeah, there's uh another thing I forgot to mention was uh wind When it's really windy. I don't get up on roofs either so And I would imagine for aerodynamic reasons if if You're the the odd thing up there.  Right, right And again, I know there's uh, I know you can harness in and and do that But the problem is getting up on the roof, you know, you want to be on a ladder when it's when it's really windy out so yeah And again, even though I have a ladder stabilizers You have to get to the top of the ladder to install the stabilizer first So, you know, there's always that getting on the ladder before you can take those safety measures So So How do you train to learn to become a solar panel cleaning expert? How did I get trained or how do I train? both Those are probably two different questions and both were really very interesting answers Yeah, um So a lot of it was just doing my own research being around other people and learning from them There's a few different people I that I learned from I actually have some people in the family that are uh fire fighters So they taught me all the ladder safety and you know As far as that goes and then everything else, you know, I just learned on my own so I love the fact that you learned from firefighters Because there is a lot of situational awareness that comes from being a firefighter where it's not just Trying to put out a fire But you have to know ladder safety and you have to know the weight of the hose that you're carrying And you have to know where your body is in relation to the ladder or what's behind you and what's in front of you And you have to be aware of Literally everything that's around you 360 and I would imagine it's very similar being on a roof Especially where you have a hose and you have a brush and you have wind and and the elements around you Making sure that you're cognizant of the fact that if you take one step back or do you go falling off a roof? right So this is different than just cleaning on flat ground Yeah, some roofs are definitely a lot trickier than others I mean, especially when it comes to walking on them Some people like to charge more for a Spanish style roofs Because you have to be there. There are a lot more at the clay tiles are a lot more brittle easier to break You have to know how to walk on them and really take your time Fortunately, I've never broken a tile and I'm pretty sure it has to do with my weight Because I've gotten on roofs right after you know the the homeowner did The homeowner was twice my size and he managed to break 10 tiles while he was up there and whoa Yeah, and he was hanging Christmas lights and I got up there and didn't break any so You win Yeah So This is a very interesting conversation and it's an interesting type of business And I'm really curious. Are there any safety precautions that you would Take that you maybe didn't know about in the very beginning that you are like you said now You know how to navigate Spanish bar tile. Are there things that you do now that make you more safe than when you started things that you've learned um Yeah, definitely there's a I know it's quite a bit and really it I mean besides getting I'm always getting more and more safety equipment It's like I said, I'm real big on that Anything I can do to make my job safer But really it comes down to safety equipment or not. It just comes down to you It comes down to being careful taking your time. Don't don't rush anything um, there's a lot of uh No matter what industry you're in there's always that need to kind of want to get the job done quick and you know and be productive But when it comes to getting up on roofs, you just you can't do it You just have to take as much time as you need if it takes three hours then it takes three hours, you know Well, and I love that because even with regular cleaning it comes down to the techniques that you know You got to have the proper tools and you got to know the techniques and I would guess it's a lot the same in cleaning solar panels because there are Just differences like you said in cleaning a solar panel and cleaning a regular roof And so once you know those now you have choices and you're armed and then based on the weather and the pitch of the roof and the time of the day and the where the sun is Then you can choose which technique is going to be best for that particular job Yeah Yeah, there's always a little um little differences.  So Is there um Anything different that you would clean from the glass of the the solar panel or the frame of the Do you clean it the same way or is there a different technique or a different tool that you used to clean the frames of the solar panels? Um, so the frames themselves, I really don't I don't clean them It's mainly I I guess the top face They get cleaned with a rotary brush, but as far as like the sides, I don't worry about it The only times I'll clean The frames is I don't know if you've seen they're basically just decorative. Um, they'll put them on the front sides they're like, um I don't explain it. They're like, uh Maybe three or four inch like, uh lips You know what I'm talking about? It just makes them the solar panel system on somebody's home look a little better Um, those all I'll just wipe down by hand Okay Yeah, again, it doesn't do anything of course with like affecting their productivity, but it's just you know Just that added extra a little touch. Yeah just cosmetic Yeah Are there different kinds of solar panels or are they all pretty much the same? Um, there's there's different uh sizes different outputs different Some have like micro inverters on the back of them. There's yeah, there's lots of different brands manufacturers And are they all clean the same way or are there differences to clean different things? Um, they're pretty much they all clean the same You know, they may be different sizes and and all that but they're all you're really doing is You're cleaning glass so Have you ever had anything malfunction while you were on a job? Um, yeah quite a bit all all the time.  That's why having tools and having spare parts is always handy Um, it's definitely I learned that as I go You know, whenever you go buy a fitting you should buy four of them You know one less headache in the future um I've actually had that that uh picture where you're looking at the rotary brush I've actually had that had that fall off the roof at one point. No and uh, luckily it didn't it's they're pretty they're made pretty durable so Luckily, uh, it was okay, but yeah, that was a learning experience as well So when it fell off did it just get dirty and now you had to like clean it up before you used it again? um, it's got these little uh, like uh end caps on it and nine times out of ten, it's going to fall vertical So it broke one of the end caps But basically what happened is uh, and it's funny. There's a palm tree in that picture it wasn't it wasn't at that house, but uh There was a palm tree that was overhanging onto the one of the solar panels And it kind of just brushed it and wrapped it up in it um, and at that point, you know, it's either You know, I can't really set the brush down at that point. So I I gave the uh, pull a good yank and it broke the fitting that connects the pole to the brush head and off it went Oh, no So then you had to get all the way off the roof and like go figure out how to fix it and all the things right, yep Yeah, I mean at that at that point I had to uh, I had to finish the job with a water fed pole again That's always it's nice having different options uh, so I was able to finish the job and get it fixed later on but But yeah, it's uh, hopefully that never happens again So are you bringing water then from a like a truck mount that you have? Are you using the customer's hose? Like what what's the process there? Um, so I have a water tank that will do your average size system, you know, maybe up to 30 40 panels Um, other than that if it's a bigger job, I can hook up to the the customer's water supply Um, which goes back into the tank and kind of keeps it filled up at all times Um, there's kind of like a float valve in there. So it doesn't overflow and kind of keeps it at the level I need it. Got it Uh, so mark white has a question and he says I may have missed it But how do you charge this by the square foot or panels? What is the standard or is or are both of them standard? um So I've never heard anybody charging by square foot. Um, I've heard people charging by the panel um And different factors like I said Spanish tile or one story two story the roof pitch I just charge a flat rate for one story and two story up to 30 panels If it's more than 30 panels, then I'll charge After that I'll go to charging per panel after that And then when it comes to commercial it's it's usually per panel You know when you have hundreds or thousands And is the process for cleaning the same as it is a residential versus commercial? um For the most part there's there's different uh, you know, obviously different things like they may the commercial building may have a ladder access um But when it comes down to cleaning it's it's typically the same Interesting So is there anything that you would recommend as far as somebody doing it themselves or really just I mean From what I'm hearing I would say do not do it yourself because there are a whole bunch of things that can go wrong And it would be easier to hire somebody that's already trained to do it But is there any advice that you would give to somebody that's thinking about doing it themselves? um Just uh do again do your own research and um keep safety in mind make sure you have all the right ladders I have a quite I mean Probably six or seven different ladders for different scenarios, you know Some homes just because they're a two-story doesn't mean they're actually a two-story standard, which is like 24 feet Uh, um, you know some of these houses, they're just building fire and taller even though they're still two stories Uh, so that's where like a 30 foot ladder comes in handy Sometimes there is no first story roof access on some homes So you have to go from the bottom to the top um some In in my opinion, it's better to um If you can to use a ladder to get from the ground to the first story and then the first story to the second That's just that's just my thinking. It's a little bit more work But if you're if you happen to fall off one of the two ladders you're falling one story instead of two Um either way, it's not probably not good, but um, it's probably not good to fall off a roof. No, not at all So are solar panels typically installed on the first story or the second story or does it matter? Um, typically they do it on the highest point. So the second story um, a lot of times if they If they'll run out of space, they'll put more on the first door But the second story is the preferred place. Yeah, the high wow Wow, okay. Well, that's just super inconvenient for you Yeah, I definitely do a lot more uh two stories. Um My guess would be is that the single stories, maybe the homeowners are doing it themselves Um, you know, because a lot of people don't have an issue getting on a one story But when it comes to two stories, you know, it's a little different. So it's scarier Yeah, yeah, so so tell me about do you have fear of heights? um Yes and no, I mean it it really just depends if if I feel safe then then uh, no, but you know if I feel unsafe then sure. Yeah Um, you know, like I'll I've been uh skydiving quite a few times and so I guess, you know, there's one thing But uh, yeah, it really comes down to if I don't feel safe then then yeah, it can be a little scary Well with skydiving you have a parachute and with uh cleaning solar panels you do not you just have a cryptic hose Yeah Right, so it's easier to fall off with no With no parachute. That's not cool So, um Tell us tell us a story about uh, I don't know something that you weren't expecting that happened while you were cleaning solar panels um Do you ever have a customer get involved a customer try to climb up your ladder?  I mean something weird No, um, that that is one thing I think about all the time though If the ladder falls over, you know, a lot of jobs I do myself. Um as far as the cleanings. It's just me out there Um, so I have thought about that quite a bit. It's never happened What would what would you do if it did? Uh, well, I have my phone on me at all times. So You know call a friend. Yeah call a friend Um, but other than that, I mean like my ladder my ladder is falling and I can't get off Yeah, um Yeah, other than that just the uh brush, you know falling off the roof that was one um I learned uh early on Because the hose that I take up there It's got a fitting on the end and you don't really want to just throw it off and let it hit the ground, you know It's not not good for him. So, uh, I'll take the uh valve end and kind of just lower it down until it touches the ground And then throw the rest of the hose um when I was first starting out I did that and um Basically once the valve hit the ground I let the rest of the hose go Not thinking that the hose was wrapped around me Yeah, so or the rest of the hose was on the roof, but once once you let it go it it goes down pretty quick And uh, so and you're standing on the edge of the roof.  Um No, no nothing uh severe anyways Okay, so I'm going to give you a clap for that and I'm going to hope that it never happens Okay, no job. No on-the-job injuries situational awareness and safety first Definitely, um going back to uh customers. I did have a customer uh not too long ago I was setting I just got there. I was setting up the ladder um And it was a had to go from the bottom of the top two-story roof And he thought it was a good time to tell me that he he used to work in uh roofing And he thought it was a good time to tell me that there he's had two friends throughout his career That died by falling off ladders. Oh my goodness. It's not comforting Well, here we go so Uh, his timing was bad. I'm sorry that that happened to you. Yeah, he could have waited till I was down at least but you know So have you ever had any difficult customers that you just couldn't wait until the job ended? Um no No, they've all they've all been pretty good awesome. I mean, um There are customers from time to time where they might point out a spot. I missed which I appreciate, you know Because I always want to do the best I can um You know, so I actually appreciate it if I miss something, you know, whether I have to it's later on and I have to go back, you know As long as it gets done Yeah, so there are a lot of people that and I say a lot of people I work specifically with a lot of cleaning companies and there are a lot of cleaning company owners that get really really offended when a customer says you missed a spot And it's because they put their heart and soul into the cleaning and they're expecting that the customer is going to say Wow, look how great it looks and they don't instead. They say you missed a spot And so then they feel like oh you highlighted the one thing that I missed instead of all the things that I cleaned And I I I understand that But I I've also learned to look at that as like a mystery shopper If we were to pay five thousand dollars for somebody to come into our company And they were to like a mystery shop and they were to kind of like, you know, hey come Let me tell you you missed a spot that would give us the insights of going Oh wait, I never look there when I do this particular job Let me use that information so that I can become better And the cool part about it is and I love this When we have a mystery shopper in our business and this is a customer that's willing To be honest with us and give us some candid information When we have somebody that's willing to do that, although it's painful and I don't like it either I like to think of it as instead of me paying them five thousand dollars for that service They did it for free. In fact, they paid me for my service and they paid me to be my mystery shopper So I kind of look at it as like I still won, right? I'm not happy that They gave me bad information, but I'm still happy that I got the information so I can be better next time Yeah Yeah, it's definitely just being, you know, transparent and honest. I think is always better, you know, some people Some customers may not mention it and then they might leave a bad review saying hey, they missed a spot Well, you know, that would have been nice information to have, you know So we could have resolved the issue so When someone leaves a rating and review for a solar panel cleaner What could they say that would help other customers know that you're qualified to hire them? um I guess just kind of repeat um everything that I do, you know license insured um Takes their time honest Communicates well so Yeah, just I mean anything really helps Cool Maybe uses uses top of the line equipment, you know, because I know um You know in my opinion in a lot of industries using The best equipment available is really what separates a lot of people Um, it's not to say that you can't do a certain job with With something else It just shows on one hand it shows you're you're willing to invest in making You know your job or your product's better or your service better um, but it's also I mean I don't know you're making your life easier as well. So So I use next door a lot and right now we're selling our home and right now We have probably six contractors a day out at our house doing different things from painting to Roofing and somebody's out fixing my deck as we speak right now And there's just a whole lot of stuff happening at my house And because I use next door a lot and I've asked people I'm in search of a contractor that does this specific job Who do you recommend that has done this job for you? So that is my question Then my answer is because I want to leave them a rating and review I take a picture of them in action. Like here's the guy fixing the deck Here's the guy pressure washing my house Here's the guy on the roof and the reason I do it and I usually try to get like their truck if they've got like A signage on their truck with the phone number and all the things or their logo or something like that on it And I like to get a picture of them on the roof for this reason I want to add that to my review Because I want to say something like I was thinking about doing this myself And I'm so glad I didn't because that guy has a bigger ladder than the one that I have He's up on the roof and I'm not insured to be up on my own roof He has the training which I don't have the training and he did a fantastic job. So check it out Higher trevor if you need your solar panels clean Because as as homeowners We're all kind of running in the same circles We all have solar panels or whatever it is we have and we all need them cleaned And we're all looking for somebody that we know like and trust that is insured That's qualified that has the best tools and all the things and we expect that that's a given we expect those things But when you look at it from the homeowner's perspective and for those of you that are joining us This is my recommendation to you get a picture of the person in action Because that way they can simply reshare that on their social media and go hey check this out This is a customer. We just served today and here's what they said about me So what that does is you've got the picture of them in action You've got your rating in review and hopefully it's five stars And you've got the reasons why you hired them and when they share that to their social media That allows people then to hire them because now they've got direct contact with that person And I always like to add in the phone number and oh by the way, here's their contact information You give them a call. So yeah Definitely. Yeah, it sounds like you're a good reviewer I do my best. Well, and it's it's because I myself am a business owner and coming from the cleaning end of things We want to help all of the other contractors that are out there doing this So in closing and I've loved loved loved this conversation. Where can our listeners go to find you? Um, you can check us out on our website. It's uh pristine clean solutions dot com You can check us out on facebook instagram Where else? I think that's Roughly about it right now Awesome eventually going to work on youtube and and other other platforms, but It's a lot to take care of Yes, it is when you go to youtube Please let us know because I want to watch all the videos if you up there cleaning the solar panels Okay Yeah, that is that is something that I've never done And I'll be honest with you. It's something I probably never will do that is not something I'll probably ever clean So I love the fact that you're willing to join us today And you're willing to give us all the deets on what it's really liked clean solar panels So I appreciate that and thanks to everybody that showed up today I love your comments and I appreciate you guys jumping in and asking questions and participating So we will uh, we will let you get back to your day because I do respect your time But until we meet again, please leave the world a cleaner place Than when you found it All right, thank you Thank you for joining us today trover steiner