Roofing Success
The Roofing Success Podcast is a show created to inspire roofing contractors to achieve optimal success in their roofing businesses. The host, Jim Ahlin, is the co-author of the book, "Internet Marketing For Roofing Contractors, How to TRIPLE Your Sales and Turn Your Roofing Website Into an Online Lead Generation Machine", and Co-Founder of Roofer Marketers, the Digital Marketing Agency for the roofing industry. On each episode, Jim will be sitting down with industry leaders to talk about their processes, the lessons they learned, and how to find success in roofing.
Roofing Success
He Put the Wrong Roof On—Then Turned It Into a Marketing Goldmine with Brett Tesson
He put the wrong roof on. Yep—wrong color. Wrong shingle. Whole thing had to come off.
But instead of hiding it or blaming someone else… Brett Tesson OWNED it. Replaced the entire roof. No excuses.
And what happened next? That mistake became the best marketing moment his company ever had.
In this episode, Brett shares how Tesson Roofing became one of the most trusted roofing companies in the region—not by being perfect, but by doing the right thing when it’s hard.
You’ll learn:
- Why extreme ownership builds loyal customers (and crews)
- How Brett scaled by serving people—not just “selling”
- What to do when your crew messes up (and how to turn it into a win)
- Why frozen Snickers & Gatorade can win you more jobs than business cards
- The real secret to supplier loyalty (it’s not about price)
If you care about building a company rooted in service, honesty, and long-term partnerships—this is a must-watch.
Links:
https://tessonroofing.com
https://www.facebook.com/TessonRoofing
🤖 Have a question? Ask this customized ChatGPT for the answer! Specifically designed for this episode, it’s here to help! https://roofingpod.com/chatgpt-268
Listen to the episode on Spotify & Apple Podcasts (268) 👇
🎧 https://roofingpod.com/spotify
🍏 https://roofingpod.com/apple-podcasts
PODCAST SPONSORS:
- The Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance: https://roofingpod.com/RSRA
- PowerUp Agents AI: https://roofingpod.com/power-up-agents-ai
- Day 41 Thrive: https://roofingpod.com/day-41-thrive
IG: https://www.instagram.com/roofingsuccess/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/roofingsuccess
Join Our Facebook Group: https://roofingpod.com/facebook
📱 Text Jim @ (612) 512-1812 – Say Hi!
💬 Leave Us a Review: https://roofingpod.com/review
What do you do when your team puts the wrong roof on a customer's house? If you're Brett Tessin, you own it, fix it and turn it into your biggest marketing win. In this episode, we're unpacking the power of extreme ownership, true service and building partnerships that last Brett shares how Tessin Roofing scaled by focusing not on shortcuts but on relationships with customers, crews and suppliers. Brett Tessin is the founder of Tessin Roofing in St Louis, missouri. Starting during the 2008 recession, he grew from cutting lawns to building one of the most respected roofing companies in the region, all while pioneering a W-2 sales team before. It was cool. Brett's approach is deeply personal. He serves his crews, gatorade and Frozen Snickers, meets with his suppliers to align expectations and leads a company where doing the right thing is the business model. He's built a loyalty from second grade friendships to his entire staff by being someone worth following. If you believe in building a business rooted in service, accountability and long-term impact, this episode will show you how it's done.
Speaker 1:Let's jump in with Brett Tesson of Tesson Roofing. Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Alleyne and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business Brett Tessin. How are you today, man? Wow, my friend, how are you, good man Tessin, roofing St Louis, missouri, missouri, missouri, missouri.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm the Missourian, that's right, missouri.
Speaker 1:All right, did I get that? You can't go wrong. No, and yeah, I got to know you. I've been getting to know you a little bit over in the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance and you know, just for the audience, this is a story that I told Adam this to the other day. I was like man, I remember when I think I told you this too, I was like I remember the first call you were on and I was like, oh yeah, that guy's different. Yep, he's, he. He's thought about his business a lot and he's put a lot of effort into it and he's he's really executing on a high level. Um, I could tell it from the you know what, as soon as you open your mouth, like, oh yep, that's someone who's been doing it. So I'm excited to have you on, man, you guys have built a fantastic business there. And, yeah, tell everyone a little bit about your story how you got into roofing, how Tessin was was born.
Speaker 3:Well, it's a startling company. Back when I was 25 years old I'm 41 now it was like a long time ago. Well, I mean, it was basically I owned a little long-haired company, landscaping company that I started when I was in junior college and I enjoyed it. You know, I was 19 years old and I had a buddy that was in the roofing industry and he'd been doing a little while and I said, hey, man, I'd love to get in front of your sales manager and just talk and visit with them. What you do sounds, sounds fun, you know. And so, uh, after like six weeks of just harassing my buddy, derek, and going over to his apartment with my resume resume, knocking on his door, I'm like man, derek, you're making it hard on me, you know. So he finally put me in front of his sales manager, kevin, and kind of laid it out, and it was straight 1099, straight commission. And I said, well, I would love to learn it, as you guys do. So from like 7 o'clock to 4 o'clock I learned the exterior contracting business and then I would go home, grab my trailer and just go out and cut grass all evening and then cut grass on the weekends and any type of little landscaping projects. I couldn't handle mall shops, small walls and stuff. I had another buddy, nick, that was doing it and we worked the deal and he took care of it. So I did that for another about a year or so, year and a half, and then I was able to step out to the theater contracting side completely. I keep it.
Speaker 3:And then about two years or so after that, I went off on my own right there in 2008, 2009. You know, the economy was booming. Everybody was unique times, you know. But I didn't try it better and I felt as if I I had to put you know, shed some light on it. I thought, you know, I am very low overhead in comparison to a lot of these guys that have built something up and have gone through these really good times before the bottoms fell out, you know. And so I just looked at it like I had an advantage because I didn't have that kind of overhead, and so that's how it all started back in 2009. Um and uh. Yeah, it's been a fun journey, challenging, fun journey. But adam is right, roofing sales is personal development in disguise.
Speaker 1:in disguise disguise man, for sure, for sure. That's a heck of a time to start a business. Yeah, you know that's a. You know, one of the nice things was labor was really available at the time.
Speaker 2:It was, it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we would do that. There was no shortage of labor, for sure People were happy to sell you material too, anything.
Speaker 1:That's right. Anything Like please, please, work with us. But there wasn't as much, you know, but that was a good realization from a business perspective, is you know, and maybe that's an idea? Do you feel like you're an optimist? Right, because you found something to me. I, what I heard is you found something like an advantage. That advantage you had like, oh, I have this advantage over these guys like I'm, and I see it here. I may not have the experience, I may have only been in this for a couple of years and you know I was cutting lawns full time and doing this part time, and you know, but you saw this advantage. What do you think that was in you, that that that noticed that Like, is that something that was learned or innate, or just in you?
Speaker 3:I like to consider myself a pretty positive guy. You know I try to look at the positive side of things and put in what I want to get out. And yeah, you know I had to. I had to look at the bright side, which was I was off on my own. It was really scary. I didn't know exactly what I was doing because in the lawn care business I was not running it like it. You know, my personal account, my business account all in one, and you know it was just this big mess. But you know I thought, hey, as long as I have money and you know I'm able to pay the one or two guys I was working with me, it was fine.
Speaker 3:But when I got off into this side of things a couple of years later, that's when we realized, okay, we really need to be diligent on how we account for things. And everybody back then had a full page in the yellow pages, in the phone book, right, like you weren't really a good version company unless you had a full page. Now, if you were maybe two pages next to one, another right, and that was like a gazillion dollars to me. It's like there's no way I could participate at that level of full page, like I'm looking for, like this little guy here, you know, like, and so, uh, yeah, I didn't just go out and create it, but yeah, yeah, it was my look back now I'm yeah, would it be this different? I would do that different. But you know, I'll get to those, that's that you know we'll get to those.
Speaker 1:That's that's great hindsight. We'll get to some of that. Those are lessons for others. How did you get it started? I mean, the economy wasn't great. The you know everything was, you know, kind of slow. What, what was the? What were those initial years like?
Speaker 3:Well, they were a little challenging and you know, I talked to my mom at the time her and I, you know really close. I grew up a single family household, just her and I and I told her, you know, look, I just don't like what I'm seeing and the way people are being treated, because what I saw that was going on in the industry was the customers weren't being taken care of at the level they deserved to be taken care of, and a lot of that was out of my control, because once you get it turned over to another department, if they don't take care of things the way that you present them, then it makes you out to look like a liar, right, and I don't want to be a liar. So I had some customer service challenges there. There were crews that weren't necessarily getting paid or, if they were, then weren't necessarily getting paid correctly, and so I felt like, you know, I believe I can serve the clients better, I believe I can bring more fairness to the crews and if I just focus on working hard for people, serving them at a high level, um, and not try to get too fancy, stick with what I know, not get too far outside of my comfort zone, which is really easy to do when you need revenue.
Speaker 3:Right, you need revenue. Now you're, you know, you know roofing, siding gutters. You don't know anything about fencing. You don't know anything about fencing. But there's a $4,000 fence there, you know. It's like, well, all right, maybe scale it back a little bit and focus on what you know. So that was challenging, had to learn that, and yeah, so just really focused on service, whether that would be servicing the client or servicing the partnerships that I had with the crews and the suppliers. And that's how I view those things. I view all three of those things as partnerships.
Speaker 1:I love that. Let's go into a little bit more detail on that, because that's what everyone says they want to do, right? It's a very good expression that comes out. It comes out in words, but a lot of times it doesn't get executed in practice. So let's start with that. Customer partnership what?
Speaker 3:you know what were the things that you implemented early on and then, have you know, have one of those things evolved into over the over the years? One of the things was so we used to run everything off of Manila folder paper system. Right, that's what you know. Roofs were red, siding was green, we had it color coordinated and it worked, but it wasn't something that I thought was going to be able to be scalable at the level that I wanted it to be.
Speaker 3:But most importantly is being able to communicate with the customer and making sure that their wants, needs and desires are met and they're met in a timely manner. So that was something, um, that I learned early. You know, coming from the last company that I had worked for. We had a CRM system. It was extremely robust, extremely detailed, and you know I'm not an extremely detailed guy, I'm a salesman at heart, right.
Speaker 3:So you know, bringing that in, I was fortunate enough to have Guy Sack that 30 days in to starting the business. Um, I convinced him to come, come on board and work with me, and he's a smart guy, he's got a good computer background and he really complimented in the areas that I left, and so, uh, we learned that, yeah, we had to service the customer, answer our phones, and one thing that's great about this business is like, if you answer your phone, when you do what you say you're gonna do. When you say you're gonna do it, I mean it's Gallup, top 5%, top 10% the clouds open up, like the sun starts shining it's like, wow, I just repeat this model.
Speaker 3:You know, and you straight people, the way you want to be treated. But yeah, I mean, from an execution standpoint it was, you know, really helpful to have a system and a CRM system rather early into it, you know. But there was a cost associated with that and we didn't have, you know, we didn't have much money. I had people that owed me money. You know, leaving previous employer. You know how does that work out for most sales reps when they leave their previous employer in this industry generally not well right.
Speaker 1:That's one thing I thought needed improvement too they usually get a bonus, like if the money comes in with a little extra just to top it off. Hey, have a nice yeah exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that to me it makes a lot of sense and that's the foundation, right. But it's easy when you're small, yeah, or maybe easier because you're you're so close to everything, um, what, I don't know if we talked about this at all, but, like, how many roofs did you guys build last year? How many reps do you have now? Like, you guys are at at scale now, right, yeah, um, and then how do you, how do you carry that into a team the size of yours? Yeah, before we carry on with the episode, let's give a shout out to one of our sponsors.
Speaker 1:I talk to contractors every day that feel stuck, not because they're not working hard, but because they're missing the structure to grow without chaos, the structure to growth without chaos, or their culture's falling apart because their team's unclear, unaligned or just burned out and when change hits, they're reacting instead of leading because time and priorities aren't under their control. Day 41 Thrive helps to fix that with proven strategies for growth, culture and leadership that actually work, Ready to thrive beyond the storm. Visit the link in the description or visit the Roofing Success Podcast website on the sponsors page to start your journey today. How many roofs did you guys build last year. How many reps do you have now? Like you guys are at at scale now, right, yeah, um, and then how do you? How do you carry that into a team the size of yours?
Speaker 3:yeah, so we have 40 people here in the office and sales, uh side of things, outside of the subcontracted crews and really you just got to do it one person at a time and let you know when you sit down with someone. You know we want people with servant hearts, right. We want to know that you care about the end result, you care about the things that we've built this business on it's honesty, integrity, doing the right thing. You know it's easy to say hey, you know I want to do this or this is who we are. But what it boils down to, I think, really is do you own your shortcomings? When you make a mistake, do you own it? Do you try to pawn it off? Because sometimes with mistakes come pain, and a lot of times that pain is money. Are you willing to pay to do what's right? I mean, if you're not, if you're not willing to step up and own something you know, extreme ownership is one of my favorite books, right? I'm, I'm sure a lot of you listening but like, if you're not willing to step up and pay to make something right, then are those? Do you really believe in the values that you say you believe in? You know, earlier this morning.
Speaker 3:Uh, I've had a sales manager and one sales reps come in and sit down with me and um in and sit down with me and um, the sales rep. We put the wrong color roof on the person's house. They picked a tan roof and then texted him later and said, hey, we want to go, maury black, right, and and so really it's a breakdown of communication on our end. And the lady, what her desire was either A you give me all my money back or you change the rules file, and so we're changing the rules file and that sucks. But you know what I mean. That's who we are, right, yes, and that's who we want to be. That's who we want to be known as a company that does what they say they're going to do, and I think that is really part of the execution. Stop being up when it's hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big one to step up on, but you have to right. And now what can come out of that on the other end is a customer that has much more respect for your company, that has much more respect for your company. They will never say you know, my goodness, they look they made a mistake internally and they came out and replaced my roof with the right color. Like how much, what? What kind of story then I think about that? Like what kind of story gets told about your company outside of your, your interactions with with that person, right with that homeowner? And it's the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do over there replacing this brand new roof and the neighbors are like what are they doing?
Speaker 3:well, they put the wrong color shingle on, but they came back out and they're making it right. So you know that, oh my god. That right there, I think, speaks volume, because ruch aren't cheap. Right, and for the consumer, you want to know, if you're going to part ways with a lot of money, that the company you're giving it to is going to do the right thing. And that's what really separates a lot of companies is do you do the right thing?
Speaker 1:What other things stand out to you that in that, in that customer relationship, that customer partnership, the customer journey that you guys have done over the years, that has made a difference with the customer, maybe also with your team.
Speaker 3:I think generosity is extremely important. I think when people know that money is not what motivates your day-to-day everybody look, we got to make money and we should make a lot of money. And I think Adam says it right Money is the thank you note. That's how you can tell whether or not you're doing well. Um, but when people know that you're willing to listen, to hear them out, and decisions are being made not solely based around the cost of the decision, based around what is the right decision in this particular situation and you know it doesn't you don't always walk away feeling financially well about it, but you try to minimize those. And the good thing about it is you learn a lot really quick when you lose money or you pay money. I always try to look at the bright side of things and so, yeah, make decisions based upon what's right, not what's motivated by money.
Speaker 1:And when you are that person and people know that that's who you are they know that when things are don't always go right, that you're going to stay there as you were saying that, as soon as you said the word generosity when you started that conversation, what it made me think of is how good your team must feel knowing that you guys are doing that or are willing to do that. It's not a conversation of all right guys. We've got to figure out how to hide this one. Of all right guys. We've got to figure out how to hide this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a, you know, like now you're putting them in an ethical dilemma. You know right, when they come to work, you know, you know, all of a sudden they're in an ethical dilemma, like, oh man, I got to lie to this homeowner because we screwed up and I don't want to, we can't, you know, we don't want to take ownership of it because we're going to lose money on it. And you know, boy, I could see that in the like how that would have a huge impact on the team. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:uh, when people believe in the company they believe and the people that lead at the company, I think it gives them a lot of peace of mind and confidence when they're in front of the consumer right, because they know that they have a support group behind them that is going to step up if something happens. We're in roofing. It's a high risk business. I mean, at the end of the day and my guys hear me say it all the time I say we're risk managers. That's what we do Every single day. We're risk managers in the roofing exterior contracting arena. Our first job is to manage risk and it's very risky business.
Speaker 1:It is. I don't think I mean everyone looks at it for the opportunity that's in front of them, like, oh, there's a lot of money, there's a lot of this, there's a lot of that. But if you, if you think about that like that's what you're doing on a day-to-day basis, how do you manage your partnerships? What are the partnerships that you have with your subcontractors? In those relationships, they're fantastic.
Speaker 3:A lot of guys have worked with us for many years. They're very loyal to us. They appreciate the partnership. I mean. We constantly my project support. Guys are constantly buying the cruise launches. We're, you know, dropping off gatorades, ice or you know all the things that you should be doing, really right. Uh, you should be doing that, bringing frozen snickers out in the afternoon. Give the guys a second round of energy. Show them that you care, like when you show people you care when you act like a human being, um, and you treat people the way that they should be treated and not treated as a commodity. We treat materials as a commodity, not humans, right? So we do those things and we instill that in our guys to to want to make sure that those people are happy that we do business with, whether it's our suppliers.
Speaker 3:How do we make our suppliers life easy? Well, we, we get out in front of what it is we need from them. We sit down and we set expectations. I sit down with every single one of my suppliers at the beginning of the year and I say what, what are you putting down on your card? Your sales report for me, like I want to make sure that we're both on the same page so that you don't go make this unrealistic number and expect something out of me that you're not going to get. I want you to be rewarded and taken care of, but I want to make sure, because what we do with them affects their overall goal. So if we can sit down, get on the same page, that's really important.
Speaker 3:And then do what's expected of us really well Send over orders in advance. We usually book our jobs out three to five weeks in advance and that makes it really easy for the suppliers to do business with us. And some of the byproduct of that is when they sit down and talk about pricing, they know that we're going to make it easy to do business. They know that we're going to pay them on time. Those are ways that you become good partners with your suppliers, with your subcontractors, right. You hold everybody Well. You hold yourself accountable to that same level.
Speaker 1:So that's the there's. It's amazing how, how many adversarial relationship dynamics are usually created in these relationships. Like, if that's a, those are probably a whole lot of jumbled words to say about it. But like, like you're thinking of how do I win versus how do I win it with my, with my supplier, distributor, Like, how do I win, how do I get more? How do I? And then and then, same thing with your subs and same thing, with that mindset of always winning. It's like an adversarial relationship.
Speaker 1:What I love what you just said is man, let's go sit down. I want to see the metric you have for me. Like, let's make sure we're on the same page. We have a budget, we have our goals and our expectations, our KPIs that we're trying to hit. Do they match up? Do they align? Is this something you know? Because it all comes down to expectations, Absolutely Right. And with customers, with subs, with your distributors, if they have an expectation that you're going to buy X amount and all of a sudden you're not buying that amount and they're, and what's going on over here, how come they're not buying from us or what? You know that? That that's insightful. What, what, what has come out of some of those conversations. What have been some of the big things that have helped your business get to where it is because of that type of thought process and intentionality around those partnerships.
Speaker 3:Well, people, you become a desirable partner, right? People want to do business with you. They know what they're getting when they do do business with you. There's a peace of mind factor there and really I mean, if you got someone that's easy to do business with, that's going to pay you on time, you're probably going to give that person some pretty aggressive pricing, probably going to give that person some high level service, right, yeah, if I see delivery drivers out and about, let's say at a gas station, if I see one of the delivery trucks in a gas station, I will intentionally pull in that gas station, figure out how many guys are on that truck and give them each money to say, hey, thank you for what it is you do, thank you for doing what you do day in and day out, risking, sweating, doing everything you do for our company. I need you to know that. We appreciate it and we recognize it. Right, let triplesples down when they pull up to your job site and they see that it's a test on route. Okay, and it's maybe it's a friday afternoon, it's the last drop. They, they treat that delivery.
Speaker 3:I think, from what I can tell and I tell by the fact that we don't have the problems that some of my other contractor friends have. You, just when you show appreciation, um, it goes a long way and it doesn't cost much, If anything can show your appreciation to people and be genuine about it, and so I think that what we get out of it, I think the byproduct of that, is people work hard to serve and make sure that we're happy because we know that we're doing the same in return for that. Like we'll send lunch to a supply house, right? I mean, launch brings people together. I mean look at me, I know I, but it does. It brings people together and and and that's just there's one way. As we show our appreciation and I think, in turn, people, um, take care of us. They just take care of us. That's what I say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If you were to give advice to someone who wanted to build a business rooted in this type of service and partnership mindset, what would what would be some principles that you would, that you would say that they should follow to do that? I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors. As a roofing marketing agency owner and coach, I've seen it all Great marketing wasted because no one follows up fast enough. That's why I built Power Up Agents, not just a receptionist. Our AI handles the entire customer journey, from answering the first call to booking the job, to post job surveys and reviews 24-7, inbound, outbound, even multilingual. If you want leads followed up instantly and customers nurtured automatically and customers nurtured automatically, visit the link in the description or visit the sponsors page on the Roofing Success Podcast website. Your full AI team is ready.
Speaker 1:If you were to give advice to someone who wanted to build a business rooted in in this type of service and partnership mindset, what would? What would be some principles that you would that you would say that they should follow to do that?
Speaker 3:Well, first and foremost, be honest. Right, Be honest even when it's not easy to be honest or you have to make those difficult sign calls. That is so important. I can deal with issues, a lot of issues, but if someone starts to lie or become dishonest, but if someone starts to lie or become dishonest man, it really it's hard to do business with that person. If someone comes in and they lie to me, that discredits a lot and I question whether or not I want to continue to do business with them. It's probably going to be no. Want to continue to do business with them? It's probably going to be no. And that's whether you, you know, be honest with your crews, be honest with your suppliers.
Speaker 3:So honesty, obviously the big deal, right. I would say make sure you have the desire to serve right, You've got to have that desire. If you don't have that desire, you may want to reconsider what it is you do, um in this industry. So that desire. But humility, this, this humility, is a big one. I think when guys start to become, they start to get to a certain success level. They can change who they are. They can, they can start, they. Sometimes they forget where they came from, you know, and because they've been, you know, handsomely rewarded financially. Loyalty, being loyal is very important. Those are the three things I think I would really want to make sure that we're at the top. The humility.
Speaker 1:One is a that that's a big one because, um, boy things, yeah, a lot of people, I don't know if they say they say it a couple of different ways right, like I mean, the money changes you or is it just amplifies who you really were? Right, Like you know. So, if you're kind of an already you know, you know, get a little money, um, you know, you know. So I mean that that that's a big one to focus on, and and that, being grounded in where you came from, and and and do that you, you've become very team focused also, right, and the, the service in the service of your team. Do you feel that that has kept you home, kept kept you humble in ways, or is that just your, your, your that that you love to serve?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I do love to serve. Yeah, yeah, I do love to serve. I have a mom that comes in twice a week. She always makes sure that I'm humble. I love my mom. She's great. We call her Mama T here at the office. She's with this infamous Mama T and supported some contractors.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, being able to serve people. It brings me a lot of joy and I surround myself with like-minded people that have that, and some people you know, some guys you have to have the conversation with, especially when they start making a lot of money. I've had to have those conversations before and, um, they're not always the easiest conversations to have but, um, sometimes they're warranted and they're and they're really needed, really needed. And, um, you know one thing, I think when you get to a certain level in life, you have an obligation to give back right, and giving back can be a great way to bring some humility to what it is you do and to know that it's way bigger than you.
Speaker 3:What you do is way bigger there's, there's, it's much bigger out there than you do. So be humble, be thankful. Yeah, you know, it's simple. I'm thankful every day when I can come into a place of business, that I get to work with some of the most amazing people and, yeah, it's stressful, but I get to do it with people that I truly love and care about and that care about me and the business in return. So that's one.
Speaker 1:I remember you. I remember you telling me I mean some of the people that you, that you work with, you've known since elementary school. Yeah Right, like you know, what's it like building something with people that have you know, that knew you, you know, as a fourth grader, you know, or as a you know, yeah, that new fourth grade Brett, you know new fourth grade brett, you know.
Speaker 3:So, um, actually, the guy derrick that I was referring to earlier, uh, and the sales manager, kevin, uh, that, like those guys, got me into the industry. Both of them work here now. They do great, fantastic guys. But I mean, yeah, it can be challenging when you know, I have guys that I've been friends with since second grade. But you know, one of the things you know, I mentioned loyalty. These guys are loyal, they're very loyal to me, they protect the organization, right, um, and and that I mean, how do you put a value on that? So, yeah, you know, the dynamic can be there and some of these guys are like your brothers, but at the end of the day, they know that I'm the one that has to make the hard decisions. When the hard decisions get made and when we win, it's generally a reflection of what they've done, you know, and and so, yeah, it's rewarding.
Speaker 1:Challenging, yeah for sure the question that came up in my mind around that is you know well, I think loyalty is earned. How have you continued to earn their loyalty and the rest of your team's loyalty?
Speaker 3:they get to see how I respond in the difficult situations that are presented, and those are generally the situations where that's when the rubber meets the road who, who are you? Are you actually who you say you are, and and. And. They get to see that and they're part of that, and I think they know, when there's issues, whether they need help. I need help. They know that that I'm there and it's important. That really breeds loyalty. They know I care, they know I'll do whatever I have to do for them, and so I don't know, if you can't be loyal to a guy like that, then it ain't.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, so be someone, who, who, who you can be loyal to Right, or people can be loyal to earn their loyalty. You know, you've, you've talked about like you're one of your, your role in your company and kind of what you do on a day-to-day basis. A lot is painting a vision and motivating people. Can you unpack what that looks like inside your company more on a day-to-day basis?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you paint the vision starts with the vision, um, and really serving people is the vision. Right, you do you want to be happy with where you're at and where you're going in life, and if you do, um, if you truly care, you know people. People want to be appreciated, people want to know that they're making a difference, people want purpose, right, and so when you can show people this is what we do, this is the purpose behind it and the byproduct is this, right, and when you, when you paint that vision for them and they can become part of something that's bigger than them, that attracts the right people, right, they have to buy into it. Nothing's given. We don't give anyone anything. You earn it. Right, we set you up for success, absolutely, we set you up for success. We invest in people.
Speaker 3:That's what I do. I invest in the stock market. If I'm willing to take money and put it into a company that I'm not even on a day-to-day basis, but I'm not willing to take money and put that into someone that I believe can be part of improving the vision, you know what am I doing? I do believe in investing in people, heavily investing in people, and they know that, and I proved that right up front, and so when they see that they are, generally, they'll buy into the vision. They'll follow your lead and lead, and you have to hold them accountable. We have a lot of young guys here, a lot of people in their early 20s, uh, and you know, they want to make a difference, they want to feel like they're making a difference and they want purpose. Right, I think that's human nature.
Speaker 1:Definitely. What is what is investing in people? Look like, what is you know? I mean building people up. Is it, is it the training that you're bringing to them? Is it like, what are the? What are the tangible things that you're investing in and you're for your people?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so all of my people are w2 people, so they all get paid a salary, right, even the sales reps. Um, all of my people get company vehicles, company gas cards. Um, they're all my vehicles are nice, they're newer vehicles and they get all of the gear. They need the safety, they need everything. So, right off the bat, they see, wow, you know, a lot of people in this industry are just 1099. And, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's how I started off too. There's nothing wrong with that, right, it really helps from an overhead.
Speaker 3:You know, we can unpack that as a million ways, yeah, but but making that initial investment in there and showing that, look, this is what we're going to do to help see you succeed, this is what we expect in return, and we're going to put the time into it, we're going to put the resources into it and we're going to make sure that you have the personnel in place to help support you.
Speaker 3:It costs a lot of money to do all of that, and I think when people realize that you truly care about their success, you know, my number one job here is to be the lead servant. My number one job here is to be the lead servant, to serve people at a high level so they can go out and service the end customer. And when they see that and they see the financial commitment, the time commitment, we usually know pretty quick whether or not they're going to last. We don't hire big bulks of people at one time. I have a lot of friends that do that and they have some success with it and whatnot. It's a different model but for us we sit down on a one-to-one basis and we let people know what we bring to the table what?
Speaker 1:uh, when? When looking at your journey from you know, from 2008, 2009, as you were, as you were going, what was the journey of this investment? Because, because I you know, it's tough in the beginning, right Like there isn't a lot to invest. So for someone that's building to this level, when does it make sense to make those kind of investments? Or and then, on the other side of that, what can you do when you're not able to? Or or maybe something like that. I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors.
Speaker 2:Stop going at it alone, because growing a roofing company today is not what it was like even three years ago. Not with the economy, not with private equity, not with AI taking over the world. And let's not forget insurance, rewriting the rules. Join the community of roofers who don't really like roofers. We share our winning secrets to help each other dominate in today's fast changing and unpredictable times. Click the link in the description to apply to join the description to apply to join when?
Speaker 1:when does it make sense to make those, to make those kind of investments? Or? And then, on the other side of that, what can you do when you're not able to? Yeah, or or maybe maybe something like that. No, that's a good question.
Speaker 3:Um, one thing that I see, um from a lot of contractors that are starting off that are new, is they don't write a business plan, right, they don't have a real roadmap on where they're going and how they're going to get there. A lot of them were just really good salespeople and they know that if they can just show people how they do what they do, then they too can be successful. And that's how I started off right, and that's how I got a lot of friends that work here. I said this is what I do do, this is how we do it, um, and these are the end results when they get it this way.
Speaker 3:Um, so you got to figure out what your business model looks like, right, because in this business there's two lines, there's 1099 and there's w2, right, and so each of them have different, uh, conversation pieces to them. Uh, and you have to figure out what the cost is. You know, with the with the business plan, comes the budgeting. So that's one thing that it's not always, especially for salespeople. We're not always super interested in sitting down and creating budgets and figuring out what things are gonna talk. What I like to do with people is is reverse engineer the results and figure out where their income, where they want their income to be, and then work backwards from there. Adam's got an awesome income tracker, um, that people put together. But there are two separate lengths and each of them have different answers to them.
Speaker 3:But I think at the end of the day, you gotta figure out your roadmap and your road map and it's important to keep your blinders on. It's very easy to look over and see what someone else is doing and think that you have to do that right. You have to think of it like you're in the Kentucky Derby and you're the horse running the race. You can't look over. There's blinders on those horses and they just look at what's in front of them. They know that they've put in the training, they've done what they needed to do to get there. Now run your race, stay focused. Don't worry about the other guys. You need to know what it is that they're doing, how they're operating, to an extent, but stay focused and run your race.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's that. One of my favorite memes is the picture of Michael Phelps swimming and the other guys in the lane next to him about a, about a, about a whole body length behind him, like looking over at him while he's swimming. You know, um, and that that's a good. That that's that that's a good. That's good advice, also, because everyone's journey is going to be different. Everyone starts in a different place. Everyone, you know everyone has a slightly different vision on how they want to execute in their business, how they want to take care of their people versus another company taking care of their people, how you want to take care of your customers versus how someone else takes care of their customers. What was that? What was? I'm assuming that you made a switch to w2 when did? Did you do that more in recent time, when the, when the laws started changing, or did you do that early on?
Speaker 3:no, I did. It probably was like six years into the business, I guess seven, eight years something, something like that it was. It was about eight years ago.
Speaker 1:So you were. So you were W2 before. W2 was cool yeah.
Speaker 3:I was 32 before W2. I made the switch when I realized that, you know, I had created a culture that was designed around making money in the beginning. Right, it was designed around making money. It wasn't designed necessarily to help your fellow teammate, mom, and you know what part of the challenge that you face is is there's a variety of challenges. I I basically broke my business back down because when I stepped back and looked at my business, I wasn't extremely happy with what I saw, nor did I think that I had a business that was going to be, that was going to provide me the lives that I wanted to live and the quality of life to do it. I wasn't. I didn't like what I saw, so I had to make a change and that was a monumental time for me.
Speaker 3:I learned so much about myself. I can tell you these things because I made these mistakes right. Like, as I'm saying, we are where we are because of the mistakes that I've made, and they've been big mistakes at times, you know. But, uh, you know, we switched to duck from 1099 to w2 and, at the same time, we switched from doing insurance proceeds agreement to writing twoats and selling things. So it I lost people right.
Speaker 3:I had to revisit the commission structure to do this and I had to try some things out. Um, we didn't go straight from 1099 into the business model that we're in now. There was some trials and tribulations between, between those two phases, um, but you find out who you are when you're back into the corner. My revenue took a huge hit, huge hit, and it it wasn't ideal, but I knew that if I really wanted to get out of my business what I thought we were capable of, then I had to make a change and it took 18 to 24 months for me to finally realize that, yeah, it was the right thing to do. And now I look back and I'm like thank God, thank God, you know that we did that, that we made that transition, and a lot of those people they're no longer with the organization.
Speaker 1:So the organization had to change, the team had to change. There was an evolution in it, in that transition is what I'm hearing. Absolutely, there was. Yeah, what were you know? There's a big, you know. I mean this was like, you know, like I joked around your W2 before, w2 was cool. Who was doing W2 10 years ago? Nobody, and few of us, right, yeah, people must have thought you were nuts. They did. They still might. Yeah, they might yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you know it's. I think it goes back to the investing in people thing. Outside of like, hey look, I want to be. You know, I want to do what. I want to stay within the confines of the law, right? Yes, that that's important, but it goes down.
Speaker 3:You know it goes back to, and you really think, investing in people wanting to do things the right way, knowing that there's going to be, there's going to be more of a cost associated with it. But we can attract good, talented people. And you know, in this business, when you do straight commission, or in any business for that matter, it takes a little while to ramp things up right and those can be really stressful times when you leave a job for you know making money to going into something that you're not making money and you're expected to learn a ton of things quickly. It's not easy. What we do is not easy and you know people need a lot of help and guidance throughout that process and to come in and put in the hours that really are needed, to put in and not receive anything for potentially months on end, it shrinks your talent pool best for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet. What's your take on the future of the roofing industry? A lot of things have changed since 2008, 2009. Where do you see this going?
Speaker 3:Well, I see it becoming more and more of a retail market. Well, I see it becoming more and more of a retail market, given the way the insurance companies are operating, which I don't necessarily think that that's a bad thing it's. I think AI is playing a huge role, as you know. I mean, you're like at the forefront. I love talking to you about what you had to go. I hear a couple guys. They're like listen to what jim's got going, and so that's awesome. Uh, you know, I look at when I first started off, we hand measured everything right, something as simple as hand measuring. We pull hundreds of Eagle View reports every month. We and it integrates with our CRM system and it moves over and the estimates are created and things are so much more streamlined now than ever before and I can only imagine what that's going to look like in three years in five years, and what the technology is going to do for our industry, you know how, how do you, how do we?
Speaker 1:because you're a real, you know I how, how do you, how do we? Because you're a real, you know I mean you're. You're very committed to your team and loyal to your team. Have you thought about how we navigate this with the team?
Speaker 3:Yeah, First thing I do is I call you and I surround myself with guys like you that know AI, right, but yeah, so we do, you've got, we have done things just in the last six months and bringing in that support for for people, um, that I guess wasn't really available, um, yeah, but I all I'm I keep an open mind to everything. I want to hear what's out there and what's available, because there's things in the past that I listened to that I thought, no, that that's not, it's not a right shit right now. But now I look at it and I go, yeah, that plugs in nicely, right, um, so there's a lot of that that's eye open, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, if you had to give, if you had to give uh, people listening, you know your best advice, what you know on how to be successful with their roofing company, what would it be?
Speaker 3:well, do what you say you're gonna do. When you say you're gonna do it, that's for sure. Uh, answer your phone. I know these aren't fancy things, I don't really have a lot of fancy stuff to give you. You know, like, wake up early. Uh, you know, take care of your people, look for opportunities to help, whether that's in your community, whether that's the person in front of you. Right, we try to really be Jared's people.
Speaker 3:I'm a Christian. I believe I put my faith in God and my finances I put that in God's hands. And when I did that, that changed everything for me too. Like you know, I talked to people and they have, you know, a Christian belief. And I asked him I said do you do you tie? Do you tie 10% of your egg? And they looked at me like I'm crazy. And they look at me like I'm crazy and like they say you give 10%, like, wow, how come, you know?
Speaker 3:And I tell people I say, look, once you start tithing, you can't afford not to tithe, because you see the benefits that come along with it and and it's remarkable, uh, so you know, and and I pray, uh, big, bold prayers, uh, for what I want in my business. Um, I pray that god brings the right people in and removes the wrong people that aren't supposed to be here. And I'm just telling you it works. I'm sure if you can walk through my office and see the high quality people that are here and it's not because I ran some ads or it's just it's you know, I'm living proof of that. But, yeah, just do the right thing. Help people out. Don't make everything about money. Money is truly a byproduct of how well you serve people. It really is. I love when Adam said you know, it's just like. It's like a thank you note. It's so true, it really is. Yeah, don't be afraid to spend money on on investments investing in your company, investing in your people. It will pay dividends if you do it right.
Speaker 1:It will, man Awesome, appreciate your time. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast. You too. Thank you for tuning into the Roofing Success Podcast For more valuable content, visit roofingsuccesspodcastcom While there, check out our sponsors for exclusive offers, shop for merchandise and sign up for our newsletter for industry updates and tips. Also join the Roofing Success Facebook group to connect with other professionals and stay updated on the latest trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, like, share and leave a comment. Your support helps us continue to bring you top industry insights. The website link is in the description. Thanks for listening.
