There’s a New Power in 2018: Learn More From RSRV’s Justin Mikkelson
Written by Meg Seitz · Photography by Julia Fay
Justin Mikkelson was living in the deep, cold of a Minneapolis winter when he got a phone call from a friend in sunny California. That friend was asking Mikkelson if he had any interest in getting started in solar – solar as in the solar panel business.
Mikkelson asked his friend what the current temperature was in California. “When he told me it was 75 degrees, that’s all I needed to hear,” Mikkelson recalls.
Just a couple of weeks later, Mikkelson was in Southern California getting started in solar.
That was five years ago. {continued below}
Today, Mikkelson is a Co-Founding Partner at RSRV Power, a rising star and industry leader in affordable and customized solar solutions for homes. RSRV believes there’s a new power for the future – clean, green energy, sustainability, and efficiency. They also believe in a power we should talk about more often in business – and that’s world-class customer service.
“It’s really a fun process to educate the customer on their current energy situation, and then show them an alternative option that’s really affordable,” Mikkelson says. “Then, it’s even more fun to tell them we can make solar happen for them faster than they realize – we’re talking 30 to 45 days versus 90 days.”
“It’s really a fun process to educate the customer on their current energy situation, and then show them an alternative option that’s really affordable,” Mikkelson says. “Then, it’s even more fun to tell them we can make solar happen for them faster than they realize – we’re talking 30 to 45 days versus 90 days.”
That difference is what RSRV is all about.
After years in both sales and solar, Mikkelson and business partner, Beto Gomez, wanted to start their own company because they felt they could do solar better, faster, and more aesthetically pleasing from sales to design to home installation.
RSRV Power is doing just that. Mikkelson and Gomez lead that effort, managing all sales and strategic efforts; Sam Myton does all electrical and structural design before the permitting process begins.
Though their HQ is in Charlotte, and they do business in the Boston area and Providence, RI area, RSRV does the majority of their current business in South Carolina, a state where there are better – and currently more – federal and state rebates available for customers. That’s changing in this new year. Duke Energy in North Carolina is offering a solar rebate in 2018; it’s a new bonus for customers in North Carolina, a state known to be a top producer of solar energy.
“I always knew I wanted to do sales and run a business, I just didn’t realize it’d be vacuums or solar panels,” he shares with a laugh. “But it’s all led me right here.”
With that said, it’ll be an exciting year for the RSRV team. They will be powering up California, Florida, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. very soon, as well.
With his laid back, West Coast vibe, Mikkelson is a perfect blend of thoughtful and cool – he also appears to be game for the adventure of it all.
A native of Coeur d’Alene, a city in the northwest corner of Idaho, Mikkelson took off from Idaho after school to race dirt bikes competitively in California.
“My buddy and I, we just took off from Idaho with our dirt bikes, living in a van, just traveling around, racing bikes,” Mikkelson remembers. “It was a blast.”
They did that for three years before it came time to settle down and get full-time jobs. Mikkelson started in sales, selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. And he did it well.
“I always knew I wanted to do sales and run a business, I just didn’t realize it’d be vacuums or solar panels,” he shares with a laugh. “But it’s all led me right here.”
Meet the Author: Meg Seitz is the Founder and Managing Creative Partner of toth shop, an agency with one goal: Elevate your brand’s content through powerful writing, creativity, and strategy. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Queens University and Founding Partner of the children’s book series, “Bea is for Business”.
She’s an English major with an MBA, so she can talk Homer’s “The Odyssey” just as well as she can talk sunk costs – though she’d much prefer the former.
Meet the photographer: Julia Murray, owner of Julia Fay Photography, feels most at home behind a camera with a story to tell on the other side. Her business began during her sophomore year of college, while majoring in radio and tv broadcasting. Now residing in Charlotte NC, she primarily shoots weddings and other local small businesses like her own. Her favorite part about her job is the connection it brings between art and people.
