Ann marie DiSalvo

I attribute my success to staying connected with all the different groups I've been part of since moving to Nashville and continuing to grow my community. I've met so many people in the environmental industry, with nonprofits, and with other businesses that are around the same realm of what I'm doing. That's been the most impactful thing for me - just keeping building community and working with other like-minded people who care about the things I do. This has really helped build me up and helped build more of what I'm trying to do, and it's helped me learn so much. Since I didn't go to school for marketing, having to self-learn and share things and thoughts and ideas with other people has been crucial. Being part of Amicus Solar Co-op and attending their sales and marketing retreats every year, where we share thoughts and ideas with other solar companies, has helped me tremendously because I'd never been in a marketing role before. Overall, just staying connected with the community has been the most helpful thing in my career.

I would say to always stay connected, especially with those in your same job field or within your community that are doing the same thing as you, or just in the same field, maybe not the same job exactly. That has helped me in the long run since moving here almost a decade ago. You never know who you're gonna meet, and who you may do an event with later on, or may run into. Overall, just staying connected with the community and attending these events is so important.

The challenging thing with solar right now is that while we're doing great in our industry and our company is celebrating our 20th year this year, there have been ups and downs - my coworkers call it the solar coaster. A bill that got passed last year removed some solar incentives for residents, and that's been a challenge to still market towards something in a world where incentives are going away. Thankfully, as the years go, certain materials, especially solar, is becoming cheaper, so that's good. But the main challenge is the grid and our infrastructure, and trying to educate people how that switchover to renewable energy is beneficial for those who really want to rely on their energy every day and keep it going, especially for businesses that function 24-7, or homes or people where they're running medical equipment or storing food - it's really costly if they lose power. So we're really pushing for more battery storage in the solar world now, so when that grid does fail, they still have backup power for themselves. It's really just more about educating people and letting them know that the more Nashville grows, especially, the more our grid is having challenges. We're shifting to it as best as we can with the solar coaster of everything changing in the industry.

Caring for the planet is so important to me, and if I can influence at least one other person to care, it means so much to me. My passion towards sustainability and the environment is what drives my work, and being able to contribute what I'm good at towards a role that helps me fulfill that passion has been incredibly meaningful. Working with like-minded people who care about the same things I do and building community around environmental causes is central to everything I do.