A recruiter told 18-year-old Aaron Colvin he could make as much as $20,000 in a month selling residential solar door to door. Instead, the work brought long stretches of rejection, uncertain commissions, travel costs and a sales culture he later described as isolating. Colvin’s experience, reported by Brendan I. Koerner for WIRED on January 13, 2025, is one worker’s account—not a representative earnings report or proof that every solar crew operates the same way.
What happened to Aaron Colvin?
In August 2023, just before starting college, Colvin met a bodybuilder recruiting for Freedom Pros, which WIRED described as Freedom Forever’s door-to-door sales arm. The recruiter cited earnings of up to $20,000 in a month. That was a recruiting claim reported by the magazine, not a verified or typical result.
Colvin left college to try the work. Early on, he went to Florida for a sales “blitz”—a period of concentrated door-to-door selling in a different market. In spring 2024, he returned for a longer run with friends, and the crew moved to Sunder Energy. The days combined sales practice, extensive door knocking and travel between locations.
The demands were difficult to reconcile with the promise of quick earnings. Colvin estimated that he faced about 850 face-to-face rejections before his first closed deal. At one point he said, “I’ve been doing solar at least 20 days, I have not got a single sale yet.” He also described spending roughly $30,000 in total on self-help books, online courses and coaching. Those are his estimates as reported by WIRED, not audited totals or industry benchmarks.
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How did the door-to-door solar sales job work?
Setters and closers
The article distinguishes between two roles. “Setters” initiate contact and book appointments; “closers” pursue signed contracts. That division matters because the person who first knocks on a door may not be the person negotiating or closing the sale—and commission expectations can depend on the role and the deal’s eventual progress.
Blitz travel and the sales pitch
A blitz meant taking the crew to another area for an intensive stretch of door knocking. During the Florida trip, WIRED reported that the crew’s script invoked utility-pole hardening after hurricanes and claimed electricity bills could rise close to 40 percent, then led into a solar pitch. The figure was part of the instructed sales script described in the feature, not a verified forecast for a homeowner’s bill.
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Travel and prospecting also shaped the economics of the job. Colvin’s account describes moving among crews and locations, facing poor prospects and dealing with expenses while trying to close enough business to earn. The feature does not establish how travel costs or lead generation are handled across the wider solar-sales industry.
Why did the commission dispute matter?
Colvin said he expected at least $3,500 from one closed deal but initially received $180. Sunder Energy’s spokesperson told WIRED that the homeowner canceled, so no further commissions were due and any initial commissions paid were reversed. The two accounts describe the same deal differently: Colvin’s expectation and initial payment, and the company’s explanation that cancellation affected the commission.
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Colvin’s colleague Connor Dougherty said he believed another deal would yield roughly $6,000 and later received $600. WIRED reported that the closer could not convincingly explain the shortfall. Sunder Energy’s spokesperson said both men could have raised concerns with other sales leaders, department heads or company executives.
These disputed examples do not establish a standard commission rate or prove that similar outcomes are typical. They do show why a headline earnings claim is not enough to understand a sales role. Anyone considering commission-based work should seek clear written answers about how a commission is calculated, when it becomes payable, what can trigger a cancellation or reversal, and which costs the worker must cover. The feature does not provide industry-wide rules for those terms.
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Why did Colvin leave, and what did he do next?
By summer 2024, Colvin had moved among crews and locations, and he returned to New York as the fall semester approached. He went back to Niagara University, left solar cold calling and later tried other sales roles. The feature presents the return to school as a change in his path, not as evidence that every door-to-door salesperson will burn out or leave.
Colvin described both the appeal and the cost of the work. The sales culture framed intense effort as a route to transformation and success; he said he was determined to keep going even with no money in his bank account. After returning to school, he reflected, “When all you do is grind, and you come back to how the average person lives, something in you dies.” Later, he characterized the culture as isolating, saying, “I was out of their propaganda. I could not be brainwashed anymore.” Those are his retrospective judgments about his experience.
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What this story can—and cannot—tell you about solar sales
WIRED’s account is about particular workers, crews, companies and events in 2023–24. It does not establish current compensation conditions, an industry-wide rate of burnout, or how common commission reversals are. The article reported that Freedom Forever claimed more than $1 billion in gross revenue for 2023 and that Sunrun reported $2.25 billion in revenue for that year; company revenue figures do not tell a prospective salesperson what they will earn.
For a worker evaluating a similar opportunity, the practical lesson is to examine the terms behind the pitch rather than treating a recruiter’s best-case earnings claim as a forecast. Ask for the commission plan in writing, including cancellation and reversal conditions; clarify travel, lodging and other out-of-pocket expenses; and find out how appointments are generated, what training and supervision look like, and how to raise a pay concern. The WIRED feature raises these questions through one reported case, but it does not answer them for employers generally.
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