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
The Hidden Cost of Being a Roofing Owner with Erick Hernandez
Most reps don’t realize what it really costs to run a roofing company…
Everyone wants to be the boss.
Make the big money.
Call the shots.
But no one talks about the real cost —
👉 The stress
👉 The sacrifice
👉 And the leadership it takes to keep the culture strong
In this episode, Erick Hernandez from E&D Premier Roofing shares how he built his company from the kitchen island, to a full team of 30+… and why just being a top sales rep doesn’t mean you’re ready to run the show.
Inside, you’ll hear:
✅ The truth about overhead, margins, and profit splits
✅ How to build a sales-driven culture without sacrificing values
✅ And why most new owners fail when they try to “go out on their own”
If you’re an owner (or thinking about becoming one) you need to watch this.
Watch now to learn what most people never talk about.
Links:
https://edpremierroofing.com
https://www.facebook.com/EDpremierRoofing/
https://www.instagram.com/edp_roofing/?hl=en
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I had an individual who used to work for me and he was bringing in some serious revenue. In six months that he was with me, he brought in about 1.3, 1.4 million. I think I paid him a little over$300,000 in commissions. He was just deal after deal after deal, right? But he wasn't good for the culture. It's not just about money. Money is a very big important factor in what it is that we do. But if money is the only thing that a certain individual has to offer, like I don't necessarily want them on the team. Social media, at the end of the day, uh is it's king. It's it's what helped us get to where we're at. People buy from people they know like and trust. If you just constantly put in real, fruit fruit fruit, they're gonna get annoyed, tired of it. So I started adding some of my personal, my personal life in it just to create that emotional engagement. There's a lot of people out there that don't understand what it takes to be in the position that us owner operators are in, right? Just because you're a very good sales rep or you brought you bring in two, three million dollars a year, doesn't mean that you're gonna be successfully running the company.
SPEAKER_04:Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Aline and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business. Eric Hernandez with END Premier. How are you, man? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Thank you for that, brother. Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Um down in the in the roofing mecca, in the in the land of uh in the land of the roofing contractors, where where competition is at its highest, right? You survive and thrive in the in in the Metroplex. How's it going? Tell everyone uh a little bit about END and and about yourself and how you you know how you got how you got how you got started roofing and how how the the journey's been for for for uh for you know successfully growing END.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sure thing. So um I started the company we officially started it in February of 2019. Uh prior to that, we had in 2016, we had a really bad hailstorm here in Wiley, Texas. I'm talking about a great great group size hell, went through the decking all the way inside, broke sheetrock. And so, yeah, um, that's when I started with my dad. My dad's actually a subcontractor, and he's been working for um one of his contractors that he still does work for up to you know this day. And so growing up, I was always on a roof. I was always on a roof. My dad would always take me to work with him, but my dad never necessarily wanted me to go into the roofing industry. He wanted me to, you know, go to school, get the degree, you know, the whole American dream, sit in an office in the AC. Um, but I think it was more because my dad really didn't know the business side of it, he just knew the labor side of it. And then so he didn't want me to have to work as hard as him. And so he never really encouraged me or let me go work with him and learn until 2016. You know, I was a man, I was a manager at a pawn shop for five years, and I learned a lot of really good things at the pawn shop, you know, how to read customers, how to sell, how to communicate, the customer service. I mean, I just learned like the pawn shop was very viable for me to be able to be successful now. And so 2016, things didn't work out at the pawn shop. I asked my dad if I could work with him, and I saw that he had a lot of work. He told me yes. He told me that his only concern was the heat because it can get really hot out here. And I ended up working with my dad for about three and a half years as on the labor side. So I started off picking up trash, I started off uh, you know, just clean, making sure everything was good, making sure the guys had water, whatever they needed. And then eventually, towards the end of it, I was installing, I was doing the whole nine yards. Uh, it wasn't until I was uh one of the houses that we were finishing up, I was cleaning the yard, right? And I saw a contract on the floor and it said$18,000. So I folded it up and I put it in my pocket, and then I went and I talked to my dad, and I'm like, hey dad, how much do you think that material costs? And then he did his numbers in his head, it was like like six thousand. And I'm like, and how much is he gonna pay you? And then he was like like four thousand. I'm like, dad, he's making eight thousand dollars and he's not even here, right? Not knowing that the business side was actually a little bit more difficult, you know, it's it's it's a lot more difficult mentally, right? It's not not necessarily on your body, but it's now that I'm on this side, it's uh it's a lot more stressful and whatnot. Very lucrative, but very uh stressful. And then so that's when uh E and D, you know, the light bulb went off in my head. You know, I went, you know, and I went to Versa print or Vista print, made some cards, and I the cards just sat in my truck for like seven months because I didn't know what to do or how to do it. I just knew that I wanted to be the owner of a roofing company. Um, so I got a little bit of traction in about 2018, got a couple houses here and there. What I would do is um I would pack my bag in the morning, right, with clean clothes, and then I'd go work with my dad all day in the sun about 4:30, 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Once my my appointments were, I would always schedule my appointments later on in the afternoon. That way I could uh still go and work with my dad, you know, so I could make some money. And then I would find the nearest LA fitness to me, walk in, take a shower, walk, you know, put my clean clothes back on, walk right back out, and go and uh try to get a contract, file claims, you know, to get a roof. I did about six, seven the first year, 2018, and then in 2019 um is when I started getting more traction. Social media at the end of the day uh is is you know, it's king. It's it's what helped us get to where we're at today. And so social media, I would always post, and then I learned the algorithms and I learned how to post and and how to make it you know more personal because you know people buy from people they know like and trust. If you just constantly putting real fruit fruit fruit, they're gonna get annoyed, tired of it. So I started adding some of my personal, uh my personal life and it just to create that emotional engagement, emotional attachment. In 2019, I hopped off the roof. I told my dad, hey dad, in order for me to do what I have envisioned up here, I can't come up, I can't do, I can't sell a job and then help you do it. And then at first, they help me, it's because it's my it's my dad and a whole bunch of my uncles that worked for my dad, my brother, my cousins. And so when I first got off the roof, they didn't take it very uh they didn't take it very good, right? They thought that I thought that I was better than them because I wasn't getting dirty anymore because I was over here just doing this side of the business. But eventually, once they saw, you know, that I was for real and what we've been able to accomplish now as a company, you know, I think I've I've I've earned their respect um little by little. And so it's a huge accomplishment. Um, I the relationship with me and my dad was a little iffy at first whenever I was making the transition, but it's just my dad was trying to teach me something that he had never done before, right? My dad knew how to be a sub. My dad knew how to go out there and and work for the companies. But whenever my dad would come and try to give me advice on, you know, who to hire, who not to hire, what to do, what not to do, they're gonna steal from you. Just be careful, this isn't that. I'm like, dad, at the end of the day, I have to go through all this. People are gonna do whatever they're gonna do, they're gonna steal from me there. But though these are learning lessons that I have to go through. That way I can start picking up red flags sooner than later, whenever it does happen again, if it happens again. You know, this industry is very cutthroat. So, but yeah, man, that's basically how we got started. Uh, I I got started in my house on my uh in a little studio, and then from my studio, we outgrew it, went to the kitchen island from my kitchen island, then went to my living room. Like I would move my couches, put two two tables, and then put some chairs, and then I would have people come in and talk to us, the suppliers, public adjusters, whatever. And um, yeah, that's where we started until we finally got our first office space in Mesquite, Texas. It was maybe like a 1200 square foot office. Well, we started with one 600 square foot, and then the tenants next door left. So then I walked over there, saw the space, and then I I asked the property management company if I could cut a hole in the wall and make it one big office. So then we did that, and then the team the team kept growing. So then we needed some warehouse space, so they had available units like right in front of us with warehouse space. So I moved to production over there, and then like production was there, and then we were there very, very uh maybe like about two or three months with all these new all this new space, and then we had to make a large pivot um and come to where we're at now. So now I have a 76, 7,600 square foot office. I got one, two, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. I've got 12 offices, a big old meeting room, a big old warehouse, a conference room. I mean, just everything that we need to be able to grow into the company that that we're planning to be.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. That that's awesome, man. I I have a a lot to I think there's a lot of good things to talk about around that. The the first one that I that I thought of is, you know, from an ownership level now, you know, what were some of those early lessons you learned from like picking up trash and cleaning up and just bringing water to the guys? And like, you know, what were some of those early labor lessons that you learned that you still use at the highest, you know, uh in in running the business today? Before we carry on with the episode, let's give a shout out to one of our sponsors. Roofers, let's get real. You're great at building roofs, but are you great at building a steady stream of leads? That's where job numbers marketing comes in. They know the roofing industry inside and out, and they'll help you dominate Google, Facebook, reputation management, and everything in between. If you want more quality leads, more book jobs, and more growth, visit the link in the description or the sponsors page on the Roofing Success Podcast website. You know, what were some of those early labor lessons that you learned that you still use at the highest, you know, uh in in running the business today?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, just just staying organized, right? Staying organized. I mean, even just picking up trash, there's a way that that if you follow a certain process, you know, it's easier on you the way you pick it up, the way you put it in the dumpster. I mean, just finding ways to to work smarter, not harder. And so, and then that's what we ended up doing over here at the company. I mean, that's been a lot of trials and tribulations, but we're we're getting there for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so process is is sounds like what you learned there. It's like, hey, let's let's create a fish and process in that. Now that the next one, which was a hard one, when you picked up that piece of paper and folded it up and put it in your pocket, said$18,000 on it, and you're like, my goodness, man, there's eight thousand dollars here. You know, you were like, you didn't realize some of those, like what like what really went into that eight thousand dollars, right? Like what what you you thought that was just cash in the bank. You know what I mean? Like, we all think that way. It's like when we when we look at someone else's uh bank account, right? It's easy to be like, oh yeah, that was easy. That you you got that, that was easy money. What were the lessons that that that you've learned now looking back at that$18,000? You're like, oh man, I know I know what that$18,000 is now. Like how is that how has that changed uh you know through through time now? Looking back at that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's a very good question because now thinking back of it, you know, looking back at what the profit is, you know, and what the margins are, you know, we we've got some of the you know, some of the best margins and I think in the construction space, but it just so I think there's two different types of owner operators, right? There's some owner operators that don't necessarily want to have all the overhead, right? Um, all the the systems in place, they want to run real lean and mean, just a one-man show, right? And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, there's been several companies that have been started from END and they run like that. They run real lean and mean, and and and they're they're out there and they're killing it, right? And um now looking back at what the overhead is here with everything that we have in place, you know, the rent, the CRM, the our insurance, I mean, all that good stuff. It's just it's it doesn't all go straight into our pocket, right? So the way that we pay is uh is and I know I get a lot of kickback from from some of my mentors, but we do a 1050-50 split, right? And so it's it's it's it's fairly common here in North Texas. Yep. And so what some of the some of the questions that I was always I would always get from some of the sales guys, some of the newer sales guys is like, why are you taking 10% off the total contract, right? Why can't you just pay your bills with the 50% that are going to you? And so sometimes it's kind of hard to explain that to the you know, to the sales guys, they just think that, you know, if we have maybe 50,000 going out in commissions that one Thursday, they literally think that we're putting$50,000 in our pocket and we're walking away, you know, walking to the bank, and it's not necessarily like that. And so I think, yeah, just now seeing that there was an eight thousand dollar profit, especially the way that we're running and operating here, like it's yeah, you you need it.
SPEAKER_04:Like you need it. What are some of the things you believe that you need it for to run the company the way that you guys want to, right? The the build, you know, having the the big, the big beautiful office, the you know, having training rooms and having all of the resources for your team, like you know, how how does that how does that look like?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so here we have um we've got a really good system to where we've got an operations manager. Under the operations manager, we got three project managers that are in charge of all of the production for right now, right? So right now, um three roops a day is what we'd be able to do. And before, like, so we're we're a full service general, we're full service general contractors when it comes down to storm restoration. So if there's a garage door, fencing, whatever needs to be done that's on that insurance estimate, we facilitate. Uh, before the sales guys used to have to project manage the job from start to finish, right? And then that's why we were doing the profit sharing. Now that we've got the three project managers, at first we started them off just watching the jobs, just watching the roof, the install. All the trades still fell on the project, on the sales guys. But we recently transitioned away from that, and now our sales, our Salesforce, all they do is sell. They don't project manage, they don't call any of the vendors, they don't call any of the any of the subcontractors that we do use, um, to go out there and meet them to get bids, to get estimates. So their their main job is to just go out there and get more deals. Why uh the reason that we did that is because some guys would have a really big month, let's just say in April, 200,000 in sales, right? And then in May, they'd bring in maybe 20,000, 25,000. And then so I'd start asking them, like, hey, what happened? Like, why did you go from here to there? Because like it's because I did, you know, I sold nine jobs last month, and all the jobs had four different trades, so I had to be back and forth. Like, I didn't have time to go get another job um to find more work. So easy fix. I'm not like, all right, sounds good. Boom. And then so I ended up adding more to the company overhead by having these uh these three PMs now, right? But it's it's running more effective, more efficiently, right? Yeah, and then the way that I incentivize the PMs, um, because they get a salary, a weekly salary, and they get a company van and they get a company gas card, right? But the way that I incentivize them because now they're doing a little bit more work than just watching the roof go up, now they're going and getting gutter estimates, windows, this isn't that. So it's a tier system, they can get up to a$200 uh bonus, trade bonus on each job, depending on how many trades there are. So if they've got five projects going up this week, uh, and all of them have they just say three or more trades, they get an extra thousand dollars. Nice, and then so the trade bonus that comes out of the job that that that actually gets integrated into the job cost. But the actual overhead, what we pay them, that's just company overhead.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, what do you think the difference is? Like when you're when you're when you're you know, why not just run it lean? What do you feel the advantages that you have in in in in you know kind of building the all of the infrastructure that you've built? I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors. I talk to contractors every day that feels stuck, not because they're not working hard, but because they're missing the structure to grow 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. Why not just run it lean? What do you feel the advantages that you have in in in in you know kind of building the all of the infrastructure that you've built?
SPEAKER_02:My thing is always so I went, I used to um back in 2021, 22, I knew how to sell a roof. I knew how to sell a lot of roofs, I knew how to make a lot of money. I didn't know how to run and operate a company, right? I didn't go to school for business or any of this stuff. And so I wasn't very, very good in school to begin with. I barely graduated high school. And so I could go out there and talk and knock on the door and you know, and and convince people to use me and and why I why to use me. But then whenever it came down to actually building the company, I ended up going and hiring a business coach, uh business consultant. His name is Mike Claudio with WinRate Consultant. Shout out to Mike. Yeah, um, and he literally, him and his team literally taught me how to run and operate. The first ever event that I went to, it was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, because he would have quarterly meetups. He still has quarterly meetups, so where like he teaches all this in person. And um, I met uh Dave Owens from I believe Roofcrafters from Florida, Tampa is his main, I think his main I think he's like in three or four different states, but Tampa's where he lives. And then something caught my attention. He got a whiteboard and he drew five boxes, and then he put sales, marketing, operations, HR, uh, like all the key roles, right? And then he asked everybody, raise your hand if you're wearing all these hats. And so everybody rolled their hand for the majority, right? And then he put CEO at the very top, right? And he goes, If you guys are trying to build a business that'll run on its own, this is the only box that you need to be in, and you need to find somebody to be in the sales, in the operations, in the HR. This so the first time I heard that, I'm like, I need to do that, I need to do that, and then so yeah, so then that's my very first hire was or um admin hire was Mr. Noah Gonzalez, which he's actually he still works here, and he is now our operations manager. I started him off in production. He started off as a sales rep. And then whenever he heard me say that my next hire is gonna be someone to run production, he pulled me to the side and asked me, like, hey, what does that consist of? And he's got a well, he's got a construction and welding background, so he's he's very like what we do isn't necessarily hard, right? Um, like putting things together, material orders and all that, it's fairly easy. So he was able to catch on real quick. We started them off, you know, super low, and then we worked our way up, and then now he he literally runs production. Like I think that's especially if you're if if you've got the plans, the vision to grow into a like a like a big company like I do, I think delegating tasks um is important, right? Because my phone used to ring all the time, every day, all day, as soon as I would wake up, five o'clock in the morning, right? Especially with production. Uh, like if we had a roof going up and something was missing or this and that, they would call me. And then so I think that's that's allowed me to be able to work on the company instead of in the company by being able to delegate things. So now whenever somebody calls me for production, I still hear them out, I still give them advice, I still coach them as much as I can. And then before I hang up, I'm all like, all right, I need you to go put it in the file, and I need you to call Noahy, and he's gonna tell you exactly what to do. Right? So I don't ever, I don't ever not make myself accessible to the team or think or or make them feel like I'm off limits, right? Because I could do every single role that we have, I could I could fill in one day for Noah if he's not here. Right? Do I like ordering material and scheduling crews? Probably not. Because whenever I did it, I was literally ordering material today for tomorrow and trying to find my my calling my dad. Hey dad, I got a house for you tomorrow. Like, let's go. And so he's found a system to where like everything that's turned in this week on Friday, he makes the build sheet and he orders all the material for the next week. So for the next week, we already have all the jobs that were going up, who the sales rep is, who the project manager is, and who the foreman is. So it's very, very um there's a process now.
SPEAKER_04:There's a process now. You had said that over as you've been building this up and and and growing the company, some of the your your dad was giving you advice uh on things, and and some of the lessons uh were lessons that you needed to learn yourself. So as you looked out at that org chart, you saw sales, you saw marketing, maybe production, right? Like you saw the HR finance. As you started to put these pieces into place, as you started to build out each of these divisions, what were some of those, what were some of the lessons that came with it?
SPEAKER_02:I think one of the biggest lessons that I learned is uh this last year and a half to two years is making sure that you keep your the company culture intact. Right? The culture intact. Um, once you get one bad apple, like it literally spreads faster than you even know it. And then so um I had an individual who used to work for me and he was bringing in some serious revenue. Like in six months that he was with me, he brought in about 1.3, 1.4 million. I think I paid him a little over$300,000 in commissions. Um, he was just deal after deal after deal, right? But he wasn't good for the culture. Um to me, it's a lot, to me, it's not just about money. Yes, money is a very big important factor in what it is that we do, but if money is the only thing that a certain individual has to offer, like I don't necessarily want them on the team. Um our core values, which is evolved, discipline, persistence, and relationships, like if there's any type of core value misalignment, like now, knowing what I've gone through, and I I just I make the cut. I don't give nobody the benefit of the doubt. Like I we it's like you hire slow and fire fast, right? So as soon as I see somebody, you know, affecting the company culture or somebody that's just not aligned with us anymore, I I pull the plug. I have well, not just right away, obviously, but I have conversations with them first. And then I pull the plug. But yeah, just just making sure that at the end of the day that you don't let anybody take your peace away. Because this is already a very, very stressful job, right? And especially having a big team, um, you're trying to keep everybody happy. Like my thing is like right now I've got about 23 sales reps. Uh, everybody in total, we consist of 32 people, right? That work directly for the company. 22 of them are sales reps, everybody else is W-2 in the office or PMs, project managers. And so right now the culture is very, very great because everybody gets along with everybody. But the moment that somebody starts, you know, I can tell right away. The pawn shop taught me how to read people very good. Right? So I can tell whenever somebody is having a good day or a bad day, and then I can and then I always have a conversation with them. I always put them to the side and talk to them and be like, hey, you good? Like, you have anything on your mind? You know, sometimes there's money issues because we all know that it takes about two months for you to start making some money here because it's it's straight commission. And so, yeah, just keeping that that that culture intact. Uh, my dad would always uh come in here and then he would just be like, you need to be careful because I saw the sales guy and the one of your other subs talking, and they're gonna end up stealing from you, and this is and that. And I'm like that until until we actually know that this is what they're doing. Like, I don't want to even put that in my head because there's no reason to put that in my head, right? So my dad is just very old school, very, very protective. You know, my dad immigrated from Mexico when he was a you know younger, and so my dad was always my dad grew up kind of just always like making sure that he was safe, and I guess that's what him and my mom do nowadays, right? Because my mom, my mom actually cleans her office twice a week, and so she comes and cleans. The office, and so whenever my mom sees something that isn't right, or if she sees somebody here late at night, she calls me right away. Hey, this truck is here. What, like, what is it? Do you want me to tell them to leave? I'm like, mom, relax. It's it's this person, like they're okay. And so they're just you know being protective, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:Well, it's a different mindset, right? Like it and I don't think it's just just possibly because of you know they're immigrating over and things like that. I think that a lot of people have that mindset. They they operate, I think a lot of people operate from the perspective of fear, right? And and and so when man, that it's a hard thing to get through sometimes. It's a hard thing to think about when it's like you start thinking about all the things that could go wrong, right? And and focusing and and getting really into that, like, man, well, now what if this person steals from you, or what if what if they go out and start their own company, like you've had happen, right? Like you've had people go and still you you you mentioned it, like that they're going out running lean, doing their own thing. There's two to me, there's two ways to look at it. And I'd love your perspective on this. My perspective is uh, and I've seen it in the roofing industry over and over again, and a people are gonna leave, right? Like, let's just like they're they're they're just your employees, they're not, you know, they're not tied to you beyond that. They don't have a an obligation because you gave them the opportunity to sell a roof, or even if you trained them how to sell a roof, like you don't, you don't to me, you don't have an they don't have an obligation to you, right? They don't it's if if something starts going wrong or if they have dreams that are bigger than what are what they can accomplish within your company, man, that you know, like they're gonna move on. Now, in that you can say, Yeah, man, I I I you know I've heard a lot of contractors go down the road of fuck them, really to to say it bluntly, right? Like, and and be very abrasive and be very um, you know, uh, you know, take it personal and and and really get frustrated with it. I've seen other contractors that go, man, look how many come look how much opportunity has come from what I've created, right? Like I created an opportunity for this person, they went and started their own thing and created more opportunity for other people. How do you keep your mindset in check? You know, uh as these potential problems like that, if you want to even call them problems, like as those potential fears come up inside of you. Before we carry on with the episode, let's give a shout out to one of our sponsors. If you and your team aren't trained on AI yet, you're already falling behind. Competitors using AI are generating more leads, closing jobs faster, and running leaner. The AI Roofing Revolution gives your team the training to implement AI so you stay ahead, not scramble to catch up. Don't wait until you're losing. Get trained now at the link in the description or the sponsors page of the Roofing Success Podcast website. Potential problems like that, if you want to even call them problems, like as those potential fears come up inside of you.
SPEAKER_02:So I I always tell everybody, you know, like one of our modos, one of our sayings right now that we have, oh, so we have this uh we have a monthly founders' day, which is uh basically like instead of doing one-on-one interviews, we interview everybody on a like in a group setting, and we give them a like a two-hour presentation, hour, hour and a half presentation on what it is we do, um, what our vision is, or like we go over the core values, how they get paid, like the from start to process, right? And uh just because sometimes it's just easier to talk to 10 or 15 people, and then some of them are like nope, this isn't for me, and then they leave instead of me, you know, having individual interviews every day. But one of the the the slogans that we're using is start here, succeed anywhere, right? Because I'm I'm I'm a very big uh proponent on that because I came from, you know, I when I started, I went to go work for another roofing company for three months, right? But like in the transaction of me trying to learn everything, I went to go see if there was anything else I needed to learn. And I went with the intentions get in, learn, and then leave. So part of the like once I start getting to know everybody and I have started having one-on-ones with them, I started asking them like what their like long-term goals are, what their short-term goals are. And like if they tell me that they want to start a roofing company, I'm like, great, that's awesome. I once was at a roofing company and now I'm here. I'm all like, as long as you uh stay loyal, loyal to the company while you're here and don't do anything that that'll jeopardize the company, you will always, I will always be a phone call away. Right. And there's been five companies that have left um that have started here, and three of them I still go have lunch with. I still have a daily conversation with. The other two, if I see them, I'll say hi to them, but it's just uh it wasn't the the the the the the there could be some nasty breakups every once in a while. For sure. But but my thing is like I I'll get up there on my in front of my room and I'll tell everybody I know that you guys have bigger plans. Some of you guys might have bigger plans, and this is just a way for you to facilitate that. This is just uh this is just your automobile to get you to that. Like I had the other day, I had one of the guys say that he wants to get into real estate. I'm like, okay, so you want to get into real estate, that's that's awesome. Let's set up a plan so that to see how much volume you need to do here so that you can put money to the side so that you can buy your first investment, right? And then whenever it's your time to go, it's your time to go. So one of the core values, uh pause under underneath the relationship is to remain honest with yourself and with us. So as long as you're honest and you're transparent, and you come to me and you tell me, hey, my time here is done. Thank you for everything, you will always be welcomed back. It gets to the point to where like I even go into the CRM and I'm like, all right, you got five active jobs. Which ones do you want? Take them with you because then I don't want that. Like, I'm I'm I'm gonna reassign the jobs, and once I reassign them, and then you tell me you don't want them anymore, and then now you're still trying to get them. Now we're gonna have tension, and that's what I don't want.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:At the end of the day, I'm a very big proponent, and there's work out there, I can go get it. Right? I want to keep everybody on the team for as long as I can, but I know that when their time comes, it comes. The longest I've got two people that are still with me that started out at my house. Hunted, which is now my sales trainer, he's been with me for four years. And then Luis, uh, the roof doctor, Morales, he's been with me for three years, and he was my first million-dollar producer, right? And and Luis has had Luis has, you know, me and Luis have had conversations, you know, he doesn't want to do roofing the rest of his life, but right now, this is what's paying him and is paying him well. And he's gone, he's seen the headaches that I've gone through and and the stuff that I've gone through whenever you know people leave or whenever just in general. And he's like, man, I don't want to I don't want those problems. I just want to be able to make money. And you know, and there's a lot of people out there that don't understand what it takes to be in the position that us owner operators are in, right? Just because you're a very good sales rep, or you brought you bring in volume, two, three million dollars a year, doesn't mean that you're gonna be successfully running the company. I think at the end of the day, it's all about building people up. Um, the start here, succeed anywhere, that goes back to we're not just teaching you how to make money, right? We're teaching you how to make money, we're teaching you essentially to become the best version of yourself. Um, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. Um, I had to lead from example from 2019 to 2021, 22. I was very, I was doing a lot of cocaine and I was drinking a lot, right? You're just your common roofing roofer, yeah, whatever. And so um I I want to say that I ended up losing one of the you know, one of the first guys that joined the team, I that helped me win early on. I feel like I lost him because he couldn't take me serious, because I was always drinking, I was always high, I was always showing up, hung over. Uh sometimes I wasn't even showing up, you know. Um, and so I feel like whenever that happened, like I'm like, okay, like you lost him. Like, what are you gonna do so that you don't lose another good, you know, another good guy? And so I decided I went literally cold turkey from one day to another, and it'll be three years, and December 10th, it'll be three years. No, no drugs, no alcohol. And so I've lost a lot of weight. Um, I've got up to like 375 pounds right now. I'm down to 250. Uh, I started lifting a little bit, you know, I started going to the gym, I started eating healthier, essentially becoming the best version of myself, right? So I'm I feel like I gotta lead by example, right now. Am I gonna get everybody to be like me and to stop eating to you know to eat healthy and to go to the gym and to stop drinking? No, I'm not, right? But I'm not ever gonna encourage them to do something that will affect them or their family.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. That and that's that that's a big leadership lesson to learn, right? And as you're as you're growing the company, I I always think that like entrepreneurship and building a business is personal development in disguise, right? Like there's a lot that you have to, a lot that you have to learn. And congratulations for that, because it it it takes a lot to to go, man, to have that self-awareness. I think that's it, it's it's always it's been studied that self-awareness is one of the one of the traits of someone who like a of a good CEO. They're self-aware. Like you had to look in the mirror and go, man, I'm not, am I someone who people would should want to follow? And and and and you make your changes in your life. One of the things that I've seen of people who do make changes in their lives or who do who are very uh proactive in the in their in their the betterment of themselves, stopping drinking and partying and fitness and health and you know whatever else goes along with that, is that it's funny how how much influence you have on others that you don't even realize. Did you see any react anyone in your team, like did it happen that any part of your team you're like, oh yeah, I didn't even realize it, but when I stopped doing that, some of my team kind of went in the same direction. Did that happen with you? Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I used to just always tell everybody to meet me for lunch here, and then the lunch would turn into shots, and then more shots, and then next thing you know, everybody was canceling appointments, rescheduling for the next day because we're just gonna stay and drink. And then so when I when I first stopped drinking, we would still go out to the same place, but they would wait to see what I would order, and I would just get a water, uh, you know, clip soda, and then that's everybody be like, all right, we're not drinking today. And so finally they saw, right, that I'm not drinking. Um, but yeah, I had my operations manager Noe, he has been sober too for I think two, three years. Like he went, like as soon as I did it, I think he was like right after me. Um, yeah. My GM Chris, he just started his journey as well. Um, it's just and now he's starting to see and realize like how much potential he has and how much more opportunity there is whenever you're just focused.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's amazing, man. And and and a lot of times I I would say that we don't even realize the influence that we have. Right? You you didn't even real, you probably didn't even realize it. But now when you go to lunch and you you're still going to the same lunch, there's just it's just a slight change. Now everyone's going, they're hitting out back back to their appointments, they're doing their thing, they're they're being more successful financially from it. They're you know, the company's the company is being is is is achieving a greater level of success, and all of it just builds upon it. So then everyone can look back and go, man, that was uh, you know, maybe like it it does take take take that. So for people listening, man, if you haven't taken those steps, you know, be self-aware. Look at yourself, you know. Hey, am I someone that people would want to follow? You know, um, and and it doesn't have to be all at once. You could make small changes over time, you know, but but it's a great thing. I want to talk to you a little bit about recruiting the team because you've gone to, like you mentioned a little bit ago, kind of a group recruiting process, right? Let's walk through that. Uh talk about it a little bit. How do you how do you attract people to come to uh you do like a presentation of the opportunity to work there? Walk us through that from the beginning all the way through the you know training and onboarding. 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, visit the link in the description or visit the sponsors page on the Roofing Success Podcast website. Your full AI team is ready. Walk us through that from the beginning all the way through the you know training and onboarding.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so we started the Founders Day uh maybe about five or six months ago. And uh we were trying to build the team at the beginning of the year. The first hailstorm that hit here in the in North Texas was March, like the first week of March, right? And I we it was taking too slow, like the process that we had, because we had them filling out a disc assessment and then sending a video, and then it was just like a lot of people like weren't even doing that, so it was we weren't getting people in the door. And so I mean, this storm season, I was even out in the sales field. That's how that's how busy we were, right? In March and April, I mean, I did I ended up setting about 225,000 myself. And so that was the first time like in three years that I had been like actively like in the sales position. And it's just because like we were like our we were we were down in bodies and so in manpower. And so what happened was uh I went back and I started seeing like what we were doing. Like we have we had indeeds uh, I mean, we had uh ads on Indeed, on Whiz Hire, I mean social media, uh and then it's just it just wasn't working, right? So we started like Chris is the one that brought up the idea, like let's just bring everybody in as a group, we'll call it the Founders Day, and then we'll go ahead and uh still use Indeed, still use WizHire, still use social media, right? So we make a little uh of a PDF of like Founders Day, and like so what we do is we bring people on once a month, and the reason that we do that is because we put them through a 14-day like boot camp, as I guess you would say, right? From nine to five, Monday through Friday here. Um, our sales trainer Hansen puts them through, like he's got an agenda to where every day he talks about something else. That way, whenever the guys go out in the field, they know somewhat of what's going on. They're not just like, uh no. Um, our goal is for Hansen to get these guys um in the first 30 days to be able to know how to run the inspection, how to file a claim, how to meet the adjuster, and then how to just and then just just to that point where you know the the insurance scope and the the first check comes in. Then at that point, they're underneath the team lead, and then the team lead goes and helps them facilitate that work order, pick colors out. So it's it's an ongoing, it's an ongoing project. It's an ongoing, you know, thing. But that's one of the things that that has really worked for us is doing the 14 days, you know, in in the in the office, yeah, and going over everything, going over examples, going over the CRM, going over Hell Recon, going over everything that we utilize, basically giving them the whole playbook on what it is that we do. We just don't necessarily go in depth in everything, right? Yeah, because we're trying to get these guys up on roofs as fast as they can so they can get paid. And so one of the challenges that we give them to is the first week is like, hey, this is your first week. Um, your homework for this week is to uh generate five five inspections. So go on your Facebook, tell everybody that you're you know that you started a new career, go down on your uh your your contacts, hit up all your friends and family, just tell them that you need a, you know, that you need a roof to practice on. And I just want to see if if you're capable of generating five five leads, right? Whether we close them or we don't close them or anything, I just want to see that they put in the effort to generate the five leads. And so that's one of the first things that we get them to do. And then, you know, and then we walk them through the through the process. If any of the if any of them do get an inspection while they're in the still in the 14 days, then one of the team leads or one of the closures goes and runs that inspection with them. That way Hansel can stay teaching everybody. Uh, we go door mocking twice too as a company so that they can see and feel what it's like to be out on the doors. Um, we have in the our other house and in our warehouse, I have an actual mock-up of a roof, right? So it's our it's it's it starts at the floor, it's about a nine pitch, goes up about six feet. And then so I've got a flat roof to show them what a flat roofing system looks like. I've got the gable going down, and then I got a small valley in the middle, and I got step flashing. I've got almost every component that you can think of. That way we can take them there and we can show them what to look for and what you know what it's supposed to look like. Show them the the terminology of the material of the structure. I always tell the guys it sounds better whenever you say, like, you see that piece of facial board, yeah, it's it's rotten. Instead of saying, like, you see that wood right there, Mr. Homeowner, that wood right there, yeah, it's not good no more. So it's just it's just you sound more professional. Before it was just like go out there and get it. Like this, you know, like our training wasn't what it is now, and there's been a lot of trial and error on trying to get the training down right now. This is what's been most uh you know effective, and so this is what we're sticking to right now. And then every Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have like a continuing education uh hour, so where everybody comes in, especially the newer guys, or if we see somebody that hasn't been performing, or somebody that on their on their KPIs, you know, they did 30 inspections but didn't sign anybody, then we know that there's there's there's some type of problem from coming down and talking to the homeowner, right? So whenever we see that the the guys turn in scorecards every Friday, whenever we see that we uh we put we tell them like, hey, we need you to try to make it to these, this one, and this one, because we're gonna be going over this and that. And so they're they're they're good about showing up and yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So using the KPIs, using the KPIs as feedback into into continuous training. Yes, right? Like, hey, like that that that's great. So you're you're recruiting, you're you're attracting people to come, you you have this event, you you explain everything that's gonna happen, the company, the culture, the all of that. Then you if if they're interested from there, they move into the the 14-day uh process. What what do you think like it from a percentage-wise, like um of the people that show up for Founders Day, how like what percentage of them move in? Like, have have you seen on average people moving into the the 14-day training?
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SPEAKER_04:Like what percentage of them move in? Like, have have you seen on average people moving into the the 14-day training?
SPEAKER_01:Maybe like about 80. Nice. Yeah, about 80 of them, right?
SPEAKER_04:And then how many make it how many of those 80% make it through the 14 week or 14 days?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, usually they make it first, you know, through the first 30 days. Um, and then I've just I've had since we started this, I think I've only had two that just like said, like, hey, this isn't for me. Yeah. Um, and then this last one that we did, I had two of two guys be like, as soon as because I started, there's a slide that says, like, this is a commission-based job, like there's no base pay. Like, if this isn't something that is gonna, you know, be an issue, then we suggest that you know, you don't waste your time and and you get up and leave right now, you know. And then so that helps us a lot.
SPEAKER_04:Just you know, do you filter that in the job ads too? Like in the in the ads that you're posting to attract people to Founders Day? Like, are you saying, hey, this is a commission-based opportunity, so people are are filtered in that uh like before they even come a little bit, or or are you just saying, Hey, come and see, and we'll talk about it from here?
SPEAKER_02:On the indeed ones, yes, on the indeed and Wizire, whenever they're going, because we get a lot of candidates from there, and then we I send them a personalized message, like as soon as they nice, you know, fill out the form. I you know, I go on there and like, hey, how you doing? I'm Eric. I'm one of the founders of End Premier Uven. You've made the first initial step to do this, this, and that. Founders day is on this day, and then I kind of give them instructions, and then the day before I give them, I send them another video, and then I tell them where to park and where to come in, and like that we'll you know, we're eager to meet them. Nice. And so, but yeah, I mean, it's just uh we do a lot of social media. Like I've got two uh I've got two videographers that are always here, so they're always filming, like whenever we do company events. Uh like we're going to the state fair next Monday on the 6th as a company. You know, we get a big party bus. Uh, we all go, we meet here, we we we go for about three or four hours as a team. Uh, we, you know, the company pays everybody's way in and gives them$50 worth worth of tickets to be able to, you know, to buy lunch. And everything else is on them. But that's just a day that we take off. So we there's too much money in this industry for for the owners just to want to do everything by themselves, and and there's just too much, right? So we we're very big on giving back, not just to our team, but like back to the community as well. Like, just we're givers.
SPEAKER_04:Nice, nice man. Let's talk about those social media strategies because that was one thing you mentioned early on, and I definitely wanted to hit on with you. You know, you said kind of getting started. That was that was a little bit of your like how how you got things going was through posting on social media. What why did you why was that why did you start posting on social media? Like, was it a certain person? Was it a certain like I heard that this is gonna be the the way to do it, or you just started doing it? Like, how did that come to be where you're like, I'm I'm going to become active on social media?
SPEAKER_02:We just uh I was seeing what other companies were doing, yeah. Right. Um, we have another mentor, her name is uh Kimbo Garcia, which she is now Skyline Properties, but she also owns a consulting firm, C E O A C E O E F. And um, and she's actually one of our mentors as well. And she would always, when she was starting out, um, back then when she had RKG roofing and construction, um, she would put out all this free content, right? So I told Daisy, my wife, I'm like, hey, I need you to follow Kimba and I need you to learn as much as you can. She used to she used to put a lot of uh free stuff out there before she started her consulting firm. I mean, she still does, right? Yeah, but when I saw that, like Kimba's Kimba was one of the first ones that we started following for you know to try to grow my social media, uh, picking up little nuggets that she would leave. And uh, and that's where I learned, you know, the whole algorithm, the whole 80%, you know, you and then 20% business commercials. Before, when I first started, it was just roof, roof, roof, roof, roof. Like you'd get onto my socials and it'd just be a picture of a house, another one, another one, another one. Like, who wants to see that now looking back at it, right? And then so I never really wanted to post my personal life or my kids or anything on social media. I wanted to use it strictly for work, but it it would have like we would have never been able to accomplish in the early stages what we did. And then so I, you know, she would always talk about the algorithm, like get people to engage with you on a personal level. And so I started making stuff like that. I started, you know, making pictures of I would talk about me and my wife, I would talk about me and my kids, and I would put emojis on the on the on the text and like make it eye catch you. And so it worked. Like a lot of people would engage, like, comment, and then I learned that if you comment back, it pushes it up on the algorithm. And then so I learned how to utilize social media to where I was posting more about my personal uh progress than I was the company. Company, but whenever I would post about the company, everybody who engaged with my previous post would see it, not necessarily engage with it, but they would see it. Right. And I got to the point to where like I I got a lot of referrals from people I never knew because of the social media. Right. It's crazy, right? I didn't do any door knocking. When I first started, I didn't do any door knocking. It was all social media. All social media, all referrals, everything. And I got to the point to where like I got the company. I try to teach everybody how I did it, but there's some people that don't like to talk on camera. There's some people that really don't want to show anything on social media that they just want to go and knock. Right. So I had to transition from okay, what God is here isn't going to get us there. So then I started getting deep into like the like the door-to-door and learning the pitches and going out there with the guys and and just finding all different types of ways to generate deals, right? I mean, from networking events to insurance agents, real estate agents, um referral partner. I mean, just everything, code calling. I mean, we we do a little bit of everything.
SPEAKER_04:And you should. If you like if you had to, if you had to put together a playbook for like just a step-by-step playbook on someone to get started and and and and build up their social media muscle, right, to start to to get this thing going for their company, what would be the steps that you would take?
SPEAKER_02:Man, I I would have them, I would encourage them to post something about whatever their hobby is, right? I'll use one of our new guys, for example, his name is Lee. Lee's into the like into the car, like fixing cars up and like fast cars and stuff like that. So his audience is different than my audience, right? A lot of the people that follow him are a lot of car, you know, car people. And so I told him, I'm like, hey, just make your post about your cars, about your hobby, and then keep doing that, and then throw in some roofing stuff. And now he's starting to generate deals from his car people, right? So I just think that you will have you can't be scared if you're trying to use social media as a platform, you can't be scared to post and be um how is it like vo vulnerable? I can't say that word. Vulnerable, yeah, yeah. Vulnerable, yeah. Yeah, you know, because sometimes I share some things that that a lot of people would be like, dang, like like why are you sharing that? I'm like, because it's it's like I'm human and I'm trying to make an uh uh an emotional connection with whoever's on the other side of that, right? So that's awesome, man. Whoever's trying to use social media. What I did too early on is I went and I started adding um people that I knew from school, but that I didn't necessarily talk to, right? And then if I would go to their mutual friends and they had 200 mutual friends, I'd add them too. And then so I started creating like just a whole bunch of people that I know who they are, but I really didn't talk to them in person. And then that's I mean, I've gotten a lot of a lot of uh referrals from that. Like a lot of people know who I am because of it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's awesome. That that's a great way to get started. Hobbies, people post about your hobbies to get the conversation going, go and find people that you were connected to, or maybe one degree or five, you know, that what's the six degrees of separation, right? Start going down that channel, friending people, getting becoming part of the conversation. Looking back at the highs and lows of of building END Premier Roofing, you know, what what's the single biggest lesson you'd want another roofing company owner to know about your journey?
SPEAKER_02:Make sure you have contracts in place. Make sure you have contracts in place. Um, because one of the one of my mentors told me that once you get to a certain level, like it's yeah, you're gonna start getting hit with lawsuits, you're gonna start getting hit with with all different types of things. Like it's just part of the game, right? Like they even told me, like, I would say I'm sorry, but like I'm gonna congratulate you because you've reached another level. And so um, we have a lawyer on retainer now to help us with all these documents because before I would just type up like this is your pay structure, this isn't that, boom, sign it. And now it's an actual form from the lawyer that we have uh just to make sure that at the end of the day they're protected and we're protected, right? So just making sure that everything is in place.
SPEAKER_04:I had an attorney uh back in the day that that that said, hey Tim, you know, you know why they call them contractors? It's like, why, Kaz? He's like, because they work off of contracts. I was like, boom. That was uh that was one of those aha moments for me. Eric Mann, I appreciate your time today. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to the Roofing Success Podcast. For more valuable content, visit Roofing SuccessPodcast.com. 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 to 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.
