Emilie Oxel O'Leary

I attribute my success to my faith, 100%. God blessed me more than I can ever imagine or put into words, but having a strong faith and trusting Him, guiding me, having Him guide me and opening doors - I would not be the person I am or the business that I have if I didn't have my faith.

My advice would be jump in it and try. Get out of your comfort zone and just try it, and find your niche that you can bring your skill sets to, because you'd be surprised how many women from different industries can transition successfully into solar. I've seen women come from real estate, hospitality, and senior living who are now killing it in this industry. We have what's called Solar Sisters - a small group of women who see each other at trade shows and have so much fun together. It's really fun to have your own tribe. This is a very male-dominant industry - 99.9% of the day, every call that I'm on, it's typically with men, and there's not a lot of women owners that do what I do. So I want to influence other women to come into this space and be rockstars, because we are so good at multitasking and we have different perspectives on how things could get done. A lot of women can be in an industry for years, take all those skill sets, and bring them over to this industry and really make an impact.

The biggest challenge right now is that there's a lot of competition coming into this space because they see what's in the horizon - they know there's going to be a lot of projects that will need decommissioning and recycling. The challenge for me is to continue to be a leader and continue to be out there doing what we do at the best of our ability, because there's a lot of fly-by-night companies that come into this space and sometimes they can really ruin the reputation. They'll say they're going to recycle everything and then they don't, and that's the worst. On the opportunities side, there's so much innovation coming into this space when it comes to recycling - better machines, better AI, advancement not just with equipment but even with solar panel manufacturing and high wattage to be more efficient. There's a lot of growth when it comes to innovation and new opportunities. People have patents and designers, and even colleges are starting to have degrees in sustainability and circularity. Companies like Estee Lauder are looking for directors of sustainability. Companies are really starting to see the value of recycling, so they're either hiring someone to head it up or developing a department to support that. What I see in the future is just a lot of great momentum in education, job creation, and invention. We also have an administration right now that is not supporting solar - he's an oil and gas guy, and a lot of people have lost their jobs, companies have gone bankrupt, funding has stopped to so many critical solar projects. There is a really downside to our industry right now because of the administration, but my goal is to keep pushing forward and keep putting a positive light in what we do, because it's going to change in a couple years.

I would say integrity and doing what's right. In my business, there's clients that want to do the right thing, and it can cost more money. You could easily throw stuff in the trash, throw all these panels in the dumpster, and the dumpster can go to the landfill, and you're going to fill the earth with all this waste. How does that make you feel? So I try to do the right thing, even in personal life, you know, you want to make good decisions. So I try to make good decisions, and even if I lose money on it, I'm going to do the right thing. It goes back to my integrity and making good decisions, partnering with good people, surrounding yourself with good people that want to support you and believe what you do. I trust people, and I think they trust me too.