We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Monique Bright-Rodgers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Monique, appreciate you joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

Being the owner of an int’l solar company often feels like episodes of “I Love Lucy”. This story is a prime example of this. In addition to being based in South Florida, we are also in the country of Panama. This crazy story takes place there. I had a buyer from Canada, who lives in a remote set of islands in the Bocas Del Toro region. We’re talking at least an 8-hour drive outside of Panama City (on a good day), and then additional boat and ferry rides to your destination. There are no roads, very little cell signal, and no electricity. Completely off the grid! Every week they have a farmer’s market where the expats that live on the various islands get on their boats and meet for drinks and to socialize. The lack of available infrastructure means that the only way to attend this event is by boat. We figured it was a great opportunity to market our solar and electric vehicle products to the large expat community that attend every week. This could be a marketing gold-mine for our business, so I offered to deliver the merchandise for free. Back to the story…
So, this client ordered a solar system from us, and we brought it into the country from Florida. My husband wasn’t available, so my daughter’s boyfriend Chris agreed to come in town and help me with the drive on the long journey. We started out Sunday morning with plans on arriving that night and being ready for the Monday morning’s Farmer’s Market.
My colleague was storing the panels for me at his house about 5 hours out of the city. The plan was to stop by, quickly load the panels and get back on the road. As we get near his town there’s a lightning strike, and we see the power line snap and fly across the road into oncoming traffic. Immediately everything gets dark. Traffic stops. There’s been an accident, so we pull over to call the guy with the panels. He says that he lives close by so he will meet us on the road, because it’s dark, muddy, and dangerous outside. We wait and wait and wait. We know his house is only 2 miles away, but he’s not answering his phone and he’s not arriving. So, we decide to try to drive to his house, and now we see that a tree is down blocking the road. Suddenly good Samaritans with chain saws appear, and eventually they clear the roads, South Florida hurricane style! Now we see the guy we’re meeting, and he motions for us to carefully follow him. “Don’t get stuck!” he says. I look at Chris and he gives me a confident thumbs up. We got this!
Approximately 15 seconds later we were stuck. Stuck in the pouring, rain. It’s pitch black. At some point some neighbors show up with boards to help us out, and they notice that Chris is wearing flip flops. They start talking about beware of snakes… And he freaks out! It was hilarious… But all of this takes up time. We finally get the 11-passenger van unstuck and the panels loaded. As we prepare to leave, they inform us that it is too dangerous to drive where we are going at night. We must stay somewhere and go in the morning. We agree.
We find a hotel, in the dark that can check us in and secure/hide the equipment. I send a WhatsApp message to the buyer, and he is furious. He’s going on about how if we don’t get there by the time the market is over his day will be ruined! He had plans in the morning and this is not what he wanted. I remind him that we are delivering for free. I explain that we had a traumatic evening, and the roads are wet, muddy and dark, plus this equipment is heavy going up mountains. It’s dangerous. This guy did not care! So, I say that we will do our best.

We’re up at 4am the next morning and ready for the day. The Farmer’s Market closes at 12pm and it’s 3.5 hours away from where we are staying. The power is still out everywhere. The locals explain to us how dangerous the drive is and how there is no cell signal and warn us to be very careful. We take screen shots of the Google map directions so that we can get there no matter what. It’s a beautiful drive. Plenty of potholes, but there is gorgeous red clay, beautiful mountains, and ocean views. On the downside, there is zero phone signal. Spotify isn’t working and no bathrooms. Things are getting crazy. Chris starts speeding because he has to go to the bathroom, and we get pulled over. The police officer knows that he’s Jamaican, cause he’s wearing a shirt that says 100% Jamaican! He immediately starts giving us the runaround. He’s telling Chris that he must stay in Panama for 2 months to go to court for this ticket. And that speeding is very bad for Panamá. He’s giving him all-the-business and all the drama. My friend is freaking out, and I’m trying not to laugh. Then the cop sees me smile and says that he could just take him to jail for a week and it would be okay. At that, we both straighten up real fast! I must have said something correct in Spanish, after praying real hard, and eventually he let us go, but that sucked up an hour and now we are going to be late for the market.
We reach a gas station and a bathroom 15 minutes before the next ferry cutoff time to get the equipment on the boat at Almirante to cross over to Bocas del Toro. Upon arrival we will then have to find the boat captain that’s supposed to help us unload all the equipment onto his boat to take it to the client’s property, and us to the farmer’s market. It’s a little late, but we can make it before the market is over. We call the client. It’s about 9 am, and he’s kinda’ lit! Not full slurring, but he’s drinking and complaining. So, I go inside pay for the gas, and when I return, Chris looks distraught! So, I ask him, what now? He says… “I put unleaded gas in the van instead of diesel! And I filled it up! I am a mechanic, I build transmissions, I should know better, how could this happen?” Yeah! What the heck… and as he’s speaking, I can see the big Diesel Fuel Only sticker, right on the van. I said nothing, but we both had a look of help us please, all over our faces. This guy drove up, laughed for 10 minutes as we told our story, he showed other people, and they called a local mechanic. The mechanic drove up, told us “Tranquillo, don’t worry”, and that it would only cost $300, plus the replacement diesel gas to fix. REALLY! Just $300. more. OMG, plus the hotel stay, and whatever other drama comes next, right. So that takes 2 1/2 hours, and I have no phone signal at his shop. I can only imagine what the client must be thinking as we are now later than late. Then I hear someone saying that the ferry stops early today.
Yeah. It did. After they brought the van down from the lift, and we took a taxi to and from the gas station to put enough diesel in a can to get the van started enough to drive back to the gas station, the ferry closed. We got some cousin of the mechanic to help us with another route to the dock, and his phone worked enough to call boat captain, who fortunately for us he knew. They arranged to have him meet us at a different dock to pick up the merchandise. We also learned that this boat captain also owned the B&B where we were booked to spend the night, which was also on a secluded island, with a bad internet signal but plenty of hot water and a lovely room.
We got a few dock workers for hire to help us load the merchandise onto the boat, as lightning struck once again, and it began to pour. There was no roof on this boat, and his place was a 35-minute ride toward the Atlantic coastline. It was 3:30pm. We are now drenched, and tired from praying so hard on this rocky water, in the middle of nowhere, and nobody knows where we are.
We missed the client’s Farmer’s Market event. As we sail in the pouring rain the boat captain tells us that the client called him and said that he was so mad that we missed the Farmer’s Market that he refuses to come and meet us. He wants us to leave the goods at the boat captain’s home since we didn’t have the respect to show up on time and he’d get it when he was good and ready!
As a business owner sometimes, you just can’t…

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into the solar energy, electric vehicle, and solar LED lighting business in a very organic way. There have always been aspects of sustainable living, eco-consciousness, and holistic approaches on both sides of my family, and with my Caribbean’s husband’s family as well. While growing our family and creating businesses, we always have a natural leaning towards this way of doing things. Eventually, we started a green building company, and from that, we began to focus on clean energy. There was a lack of information and representation available to us people in these warmer regions. It’s hot, the sun is shining, why are we still paying electric bills? Then I learned of how many people didn’t even have the luxury of paying an electric bill, because they still have never had electricity. NEVER! That’s shocking and after being in business for 10 years, it’s still true in 2022.

So, our mission has changed and evolved. We absolutely sell solar and so much more, but we also focus on getting new companies and existing ones into the solar business. We are suppliers, and distributors, to these companies through our Distributor Partner Program, and we are always looking for more people worldwide to help enter this business. We also assist people with procurement of products for large and small solar projects, commercial buildings, residential orders, the DIY’ers, and solar bids for installers. We can provide product training and then some. We offer B2B financing to help people get started in the business, and we price our offerings to our Distributor Partners so they can be competitive in their markets and increase their profits. We operate in the USA, Latina America, and the Caribbean mostly, but we do service clients worldwide. I am most proud of helping people create and increase wealth using green technology, especially in underserved communities, and places hit most frequently with hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My youngest daughter and I moved away from our family to another country to expand the business. It was too difficult to excel in the solar market in Florida at that time. There were so many obstacles in place 10 years ago to prevent solar from taking off. We devised a plan and a tiny budget. We lived small on purpose! We eliminated distractions. I focused on work, and she cooked vegan meals and we chilled. Thanks to technology we stayed to close to family even while away. We dealt with all of the challenges, had faith and we built this business. It took some time, but eventually my husband Richard was able to leave his job, and together we are leading and growing this business! We go back and forth between countries, and we feel that our work matters. It has a positive impact on people’s lives.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that you have to have everything in place to get started. You don’t need all that stuff. Passion, direction, faith, and self-motivation go a long way. My go to phrase is, “If we needed it, we’d have it. If we don’t have, then we can make do without it.” I do my best not to let material things stop my progress. You can always use the excuse that doing more with less is eco-friendly. Let all that stuff go and keep it moving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thesolpatch.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesolpatch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesolpatchcom
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monique-bright-rodgers
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSOLPatch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Thesolpatch4392/