Solar Shorts

You might be wondering, what type of shorts am I talking about? Edible shorts? Nope. These are 100% cotton boxers. But to be honest, I don’t think I will have to eat my shorts – for three reasons:

• The fact that you are reading this. How did you find this link? Because it’s been passed by word of mouth from person to person, free. I haven’t done an ad campaign, just a web video and a few emails. This is part of my message to solar companies.  I know the economy is awful and your credit has hit the windshield in a thousand car pileup on Route 128.  Becoming the number one brand in solar has nothing to do with launching a multi-million dollar ad campaign, and everything to do with using web video and social media – just as I’ve done with Solar Shorts. After all, with solar energy we need to educate people, not market to them. What better medium to do this than with the web?
• The incredible promise of the solar industry in the wake of the passage of the Production Tax Credit and President Obama’s stated goal of tripling clean energy production within the next three years.  There are numerous solar companies that will need branding, web design, video, etc, and one of them will hire us – perhaps your company.
• We know clean energy marketing. We’ve helped wind energy companies tell their stories better and become leaders in the industry. Sure, wind is different from solar, but there are some fundamentals of telling the story of clean energy that cross all sectors. Click here to download a pdf with background information on Captains of Industry and samples of our work for renewable energy companies. 

Since I started this effort with my business partner and colleagues at Captains of Industry®, I’ve been struck by the responses. Many people I’ve interacted with have been feeling helpless as our economy has deteriorated. One day they’re talking to a client, the next day they get a terse email saying that person is no longer with the company. Budgets have been slashed all over. When people have seen me pledge to eat my shorts if Captains doesn’t land a solar energy account in 2009, they see it as an act of defiance and determination (funny but serious at the same time).  My hope is that this sense of determination spreads. All the negative talk is self-defeating. Every time a reporter uses words like “downward death spiral” to describe our economy, it spirals down more. Enough!  Here we are worried about our financial situation, and every roof in this country could be capturing the free energy of the sun today,  to help us all save money, rely less on expensive imported fuels, and halt global warming. The country that invented the Internet is going to reinvent energy – and I invite determined clean energy professionals to join in a discussion here about how we’re going to THINK POSITIVE and make this energy revolution happen. Please post your ideas here at Solar Shorts. You can also email me at any time: Tpage (at) captainsofindustry.com  But don’t wait until December, because I really don’t want to have to eat my shorts!  

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