Karen Gable

I've been very blessed to have mentors everywhere I've worked. Stacy Umbrower at Grafton would be the most recent, and currently James Horskamp and more so his son Chris at Energy Select. Mentors are huge - they help you understand what's happening and reel things in. I've always gotten really close with my mentors. I think that's the best way to have a mentor - you really open yourself up and share your shortcomings and your fears, and then they can really help you, especially in a field where you're working with other people. I think you have to be able to deal with yourself first in order to be able to work with all these other folks. My social work background has been instrumental too - I connect with people very easily thanks to the social work, and listening is a huge skill in any kind of sales, which many salespeople don't do very well. That really worked for me.

When I was hesitant about going into solar sales because I didn't think of myself as a salesperson, James Horskamp told me to just give it a try. He said, 'You're not selling anything, you're educating.' That really changed my perspective and helped me see that I could be successful in this field. It made the whole thing roll off easily for me because I wasn't trying to push products on people - I was helping them understand their options and make informed decisions.

It's a wonderful field and you can be extremely successful. The money is very lucrative if you can find your niche and do well in it. I make three times what I made as a social worker, which is crazy, and I've never made the kind of money that I make now. It's fantastic in that sense, but you have to give it your all. You have to work really hard at it, you need to listen, you need to follow up, and you need to be on kind of seven days a week. You're at the mercy of customers - they all have full-time jobs and families and they're busy. They want to talk at 7pm, you need to be open to that. 10am Saturday morning, you've got to be open to that. You've got to protect yourself too or you're burnt out, but it is very much customer service. You want to be rolling out that red carpet for every customer, make them feel like they're the only customer you're working with, give them everything that they deserve. If you enjoy people and enjoy meeting with them and helping people out, you're going to love it and you'll get the rewards because you'll do well yourself financially. You've got to manage your time well - a lot of different skill sets come into play. It's very freeing - I don't have to tell anybody if I want to take off and go out to lunch or go on vacation, I can work virtually. Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of the revolving door - a lot of people come in and they just can't do it. They can't connect with people, or they don't want to give it the time, or they're not good at following up. But if you can succeed, it's wonderful and can be very lucrative for a young family.

Things are changing in this industry right now with that 30% federal tax credit going away for residential customers. We're all looking for different ways to meet people and find folks and be able to reach out. I've been working a lot with churches - I've become known as the church solar person because I'm working with 6 or 7 churches now and I've closed several. They get that direct pay, which is exciting. I've also had success with retirement communities - I got the first Asbury retirement community to go solar and now have 9 cottages over there that have gone solar. These are folks who have a little extra money but are also really wanting to do something good and give back in some way.

Helping people and giving back have always been central to who I am. Throughout my social work career, I was always looking to help - whether it was working with mental illness, intellectual disability, troubled teens, or families having a tough time. After 9/11, I was moved to act and became a volunteer firefighter in both Frederick and Emmitsburg for a few years, just to give back. It was such an incredible time in our country and that was inspiring. Even now in solar sales, I love helping families save money and I think it's the right move for the planet. I'm passionate about animals too - I'm involved with the Feral Cat Rescue Association and Nirvana horse rescue, trying to save horses from slaughter. In my personal life, my husband and I have a lot of respect for one another - we make big decisions together. We're very active - we love boating, which has become our new hobby. We started with a little 22-foot boat and graduated last year to a 34-foot Sundancer, and we're excited to explore the Chesapeake Bay. I'm also a huge sports fan - I was totally in heaven during the Olympics. We go to Washington Capitals hockey games and Commanders football games. We also love hiking. Now that we're in our 60s, we're trying to do something every year while we can still be mobile - we've been to Alaska, Ireland, and this year we're going to the Mediterranean Sea.