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
STOP Calling Yourself ‘Local’ If You Don’t Do THIS with Taylor Speirs
Just because you pay taxes in a town doesn’t make you “local.”
In this episode, Taylor Speirs from Veterans Roofing breaks down what it really means to serve your community, and why too many roofing companies are getting it wrong.
Taylor reveals the hard truth: If you’re not showing up, giving back, and actually being a face in your town, then “local” is just a word on your truck. His “Mayor of Your Town” mindset flips the script on what it takes to stand out and dominate—especially when everyone’s racing to buy leads or out-market the next guy.
Learn how Veterans Roofing built a powerhouse brand by pouring back into their own backyard. From road cleanups to dugout roofs and breast cancer awareness drives, Taylor proves that doing good is the best marketing plan of all.
Whether you’re a rep or an owner, you’ll see why being truly local is your biggest sales advantage.
Listen to the episode on Spotify & Apple Podcasts (283) 👇
🎧 https://roofingpod.com/spotify
🍏 https://roofingpod.com/apple-podcasts
Links:
https://veteransroofingnj.com
https://www.facebook.com/VeteransRoofingNJ
https://www.youtube.com/ @VeteransRoofing
https://www.instagram.com/veteransroofingnj
PODCAST SPONSORS:
- JobNimbus Marketing: https://roofingpod.com/jobnimbus-marketing-get-started
- Day 41 Thrive: https://roofingpod.com/day-41-thrive
- AI Roofing Revolution: https://roofingpod.com/airoofingrevolution
- The Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance: https://roofingpod.com/RSRA
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
0:00 – Why Being “Local” Doesn’t Mean What You Think
2:12 – Starting Veterans Roofing During COVID
5:25 – The Real Reason Homeowners Say “Roofers Are All the Same”
8:47 – From the Marines to Roofing: How Military Values Shaped His Business
12:35 – What Most Sales Reps Don’t Understand About Their Role
17:50 – Cross-Training Your Team: Sales, Production & Office Staff
22:10 – Real Marketing: Community Involvement That Actually Works
28:35 – The Shirt Strategy That Turned Customers Into Walking Billboards
36:40 – How to Become “The Mayor of Your Town” and Be Unforgettable
The backlash that I kept getting from from customers was just it left a bad taste in my mouth. That seems like something that's so difficult for people nowadays is just following through with what you're gonna you're saying you're going to do. That backlash is on us to pick up the pieces and try to put it all together and show them, hey, we're not all like that. One of the things that I love to do and I started off doing and I teach guys, especially my sales staff, it's a little uh training that we call mayor of your town. So anytime we have a new sales guy or somebody that needs to be out there and speaking to people, is just being the mayor of your town. I've heard some funny things. The the mayor of the town means that any store that you walk into in your surrounding area, does the cashier light up when you walk in the room? You shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a local company just because you pay taxes in the local community. If you're not doing anything for that community, what makes you local other other than your zip code?
SPEAKER_01: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. Taylor Spears, how are you today? I'm doing good, Jim. How are you? Good, man. Glad to have you on. Uh I really enjoyed some of the conversations that we had and that and that I I heard you having in the group out at the RSRA annual event in October. I was like, man, I'd love to have Taylor on the on the show and and just talk about his business. You're doing such cool things. Um let's talk about your business. Veterans Roofing, South Jersey.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, all over.
SPEAKER_01:How did you yeah, how did you get into roofing, Taylor?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so like you said, we are in South Jersey. Obviously, you are aware that there's a difference between the North Jersey and the South Jersey. It's not just New Jersey, but to us here, I'm in southern New Jersey and got into veterans roofing, started the company about four and a half years ago. It was back when COVID really started hyping up and people were losing their jobs. And myself and my wife, uh, when I was separating from the Marine Corps, I had a couple jobs lined up. And then in June of 2020, once COVID really started kicking off, obviously all those job opportunities and everything that we thought that we had available to us quickly dissipated and went away, uh, adding on to the fact that my wife was also seven months pregnant at the time. We kind of had to buckle down and really try to figure things out. So quickly we turned to different trades and different opportunities that we used to be in before uh the military. And one of those things was construction. Immediately started to get into construction with a fellow roofing company in the area. And uh one of the people that I was uh good friends with, his name is Paul. He's actually my business partner, and he saw that I was working for this other roofing company, and he was also working for another construction company himself. So, I mean, that was a good relatability point. And we were speaking on that fast forward a couple months. The company that I was working for really wasn't upholding the standard that here at part of RSRA and part of the group that we all stand on is that's taking care of our homeowners and being upfront and forward and honest, transparent communication and making sure to put the homeowner first. And unfortunately, when you're in a role of sales for a roofing company and something goes wrong with the production side, that homeowner, that customer that you built the trust with, that you had those ties with, those long conversations, ate at their dinner table, and they said yes to you because they believed what you were showing them and how you were going to take care of them and take care of their home as if it's their own. The backlash that I kept getting from customers was just it left a bad taste in my mouth. So shortly after working with that company, I I parted ways. And then my business partner, Paul, he was experiencing some simil similarities. He was living on a in a beach town brigantine, and there's a lot of contractors that not right now, but when we got hit by the storms uh over the years, there's all kinds of contractors that just pop up and just disappear after the work is done. And when they have an issue, there's nobody to call on. And we were just kind of we got tired of just watching people get taken advantage of and ours ourselves get taken advantage of. So we wanted to make a change to that. And we got together and we started Veterans Roofing.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, man. And that it's a it's a very common, it's an it's unfortunately a very common story, yeah. Right? That the the company you're working for just wasn't living up to the promise to their customers. Um and and and so what did you guys feel like we could do different?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the main things was just staying true to our word. Like that seems like something that's so difficult for people nowadays is is just following through with what you're gonna you're saying you're going to do. Some simple things like after the job is gonna is completed, we're gonna come back and do another cleanup. If you say you're gonna do that, and you don't have to say that, but if you do say it, just follow through and just do it. Otherwise, don't say it because that's what gives contractors like us a bad reputation because they categorize us in the same group. So it's unfortunate when there's so many people that are trying to either fly under the radar and not be truthful and straightforward, and it that backlash falls on us to pick up the pieces and try to put it all together and show them, hey, we're not all like that. So we truly try to, every communication, every time we come in contact with the homeowner, we're trying to make them feel that they are not just a number. Because I was listening to one of your podcasts earlier, and what your guest had mentioned was that for a homeowner that's getting their roof done, this might be the only time that they ever get their roof done. And only time. Only time. So to us, we just we play it off because some of us are doing one roof a day, two roof a day, three, four, five. When you're doing so many roofs a day, it's very repetitive. And to us, there's nothing that can go wrong. And anything that could possibly go wrong, we've experienced before, and we know how to react to that scenario or proactively prevent that from happening. But to every homeowner, this is all new to them. So when they see that there's a sheet of plywood that's all black and covered in water damage, to them it might be the end of the world thinking that their house is about to fall apart. But to us, it's like, no worries. We're just gonna pull it off and change it. Give us five minutes, it'll be a brand new piece. Don't even worry about that. And but it's it's amazing how something so common like a sheet of plywood, we replace plywood on every roof. And then you have times where you interact with a homeowner and they think it's the end of the world. But just relating to them and telling them it'll be okay and giving them that reassurance every step of the way has been one of our tickets to success in our highways to be able to make sure that we do separate ourselves by just voicing ourselves and following through.
SPEAKER_01:And it's it seems like the simplest thing to do. It does. It really does. Right? It's it seems like the simplest thing to do. I I wonder why it's so hard for people. It's just, it's a crazy thing. Um, you know, you're a military veteran, a marine veteran. Do you, you know, how did that, you know, how did the your your time in the military maybe impact your business life?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So some of the things that brought on from prior military experience was obviously the level of discipline and taking care of to the brothers and sisters to our right and left. And that's something that we do here. We our company is very tight. We're not a company that is at the end of the day, everybody goes off and does their own thing. There's uh you see my production staff and sales staff hanging out outside of work. All of our kids get together. Out of, I think it was a year and a half ago, I had five of the girls in the office, five or five of the girls in the office all get pregnant at the same time. So I had an office, yeah, I had an office of six girls, four of them got pregnant at within two months of each other. So they and then they all they're now they're all back with their babies, and it's it's great because everybody here is growing their family, everybody's very family oriented, just like the prior in the military, everybody's very family-oriented, everybody's together. We're in this together, so might as well make the most of it. And one of the things in the Marines is like you just get used to the suck and you just endure it, but it makes those memories with your brothers and sisters to your right and left. So that's the great part about what we do here, is we make sure to include everybody. And if something's not going right, hey, by your side, we're gonna get through this and we're gonna push each other. And then also we've been able to give back to vets, prior military, and people that are so active, as well as bring on and hire. We've got a lot of prior army, marines, uh, navy, air force. We have every branch except for Space Force. We know Space Force yet, but we hire world high. So I get to employ.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. Yeah, that's right. I had uh a friend of mine in the agency space. Um, he was an he was an army veteran, and and he we we had a conversation once, and he we had a conversation and he he talked about um oh and uh hopefully I get the lingo right, but an un undetermined ruck march or something like that, where like you don't know how far you're going. It's like, hey, grab your stuff, you're carrying it with helping your teammates out, getting like we got to go. And we don't know how far we're going, how long it's gonna take, if there's a hill in front of us, if there's a like we don't know what's going on. We're just going. And I felt that that was another thing that was like, there's something about that military training that's like, we may not know what the outcome is gonna be. We're just gonna keep going forward. Like, we're just gonna keep on moving and making decisions. Um, you know, what were some of those, what were some of the how what are some of the lessons that you've learned in being in business ownership now? And and how have how has your mindset shifted, you know, pre-business owner to to now being in business for a while? 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 Nimbus 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, what were some of the how what are some of the lessons that you've learned in be in business ownership now and and how have how has your mindset shifted, you know, pre-business owner to to now being in business for a while?
SPEAKER_00:So one of the main things was the when you're not a business owner, you don't fully understand what goes into making a company tick. You don't fully understand the background of all the operations and how every single piece of the puzzle actually does come together to make the machine go. And if everybody is not doing what they're supposed to be doing, if everybody's not pitching in and helping out, then it it could really hurt the company because that person's there for a reason. And when I used to work for other companies for even the prior to the military, there was plenty of jobs that when I was there, I didn't ever really understand the bigger picture when it came to hiring or raises or what can justify a raise, what can't justify a raise. And I've seen now it's when we sit down and talk about raises or money, it's typically I try to have a more open conversation with uh my staff. And that's more just showing them the the sales. And I I show them off the sales, hey, are we doing more work right now than we were prior to your last when you were getting paid uh a year ago and you're looking for a raise now? Are we doing more or less work? What part did you contribute to that? How are you part of the success? Because I'm all for everybody getting a piece of the pie, but how are you contributing? And if you don't know how you're contributing right now or you're not contributing in your eyes, let's walk through it. Let's sit down, let's talk about it. And that's been one of the hardest things being a business owner. Uh, this is my first business. So learning the ropes and truly making sure that everybody can understand those the SOPs and all the literature that comes along with it. Because sometimes it's like with us as business owners, we just do things. There's no black and white. We don't have the choice. If something's broken, we fix it. We don't have the option of that's not my job. That's not even a word that comes across the that phrase does not come out of a business owner's mouth. That's not my job. If you own the company, it's all your job. Right, hire people to assist. But at the end of the day, if they drop their pack or if they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, somebody needs to pick it up. So making sure that staff understands how crucial their role is, and they're important, no matter how big or small their job is, from the person that answers the phone, the guys selling the jobs, the guys installing the jobs, everybody plays a part in how we are overall successful or not success, successful.
SPEAKER_01:So, in the in the realization of that and and and in the execution of it now, and I'm sure there's been some ups and downs in those conversations over the, you know, over the years and trying to figure that out. What have what what have you gotten to now? Like these are the three to five things that have helped me be successful in that communication process and and and having that open communication with the with the team members so that they're fully on board with us.
SPEAKER_00:So I sit down and I do have that conversation with them, and we try to really put it into perspective. Uh, just for example, the other day, uh, we brought on a new sales manager and I was running through some numbers with him, and I broke down the projects for most recent projects that we were selling. And I wanted to show him how much difference it makes when a salesperson does their job properly or doesn't do their job properly. And what we did was we ran through a couple of different projects and anything that was wrong, anything from just a simple pipe boot, because a pipe boot, for example, is so over like underrated and overrated at the same time. Granted, our guys have stock on the trucks, so all of our rigs got extra pipe boots and uh we've got tubes on top for extra drip edge. We have all kinds of preventative measures to ensure that we're properly equipped when we go to a project. But if you don't have that pipe boot, yes, it might be five, ten, fifteen dollar pipe boot or an ultimate for obviously more, but it's not just that pipe boot, it's also you have to drive to the supply house and get another pipe boot if you're missing it. Like it's not just the cost of the pipe boot. I have my guy needs to drive, he needs to go get it, needs to drive back. That's fuel, that's it's off site, that's all kinds of different things that can go wrong at the job site. When my if somebody's off site, that's supposed to be on site because the estimate and the sale is supposed to be accurate. So we plan for everybody to be there. And obviously, that was not really something that is really stands out to people when they think about just a simple pipe boot. It's just a pipe boot, just go grab another one. But it's not just a pipe boot, it's so much more than that. And you really don't understand that unless you have the background and the extra steps that are required in order to get that pipe boot. So that's one thing is being very open and transparent is a big one that's been helpful.
SPEAKER_01:I think that another thing that I heard there is that it's understanding what impacts things have down the ripple effect of things, right? Like it's not just that we don't have the pipe boot, like the crew doesn't have the pipe boot to install, but then someone has to do this. Then it has to, like, then that has to go to invoicing for something, and it has to go through accounting for, you know, like there's a ripple effect to all of that, right? Added to the work order, work order gets changed. All the it's two minutes here, five minutes there, 10 minutes there, 15 minutes there, a half hour drive to Home Depot and back or wherever you're going, or to the you know, ABC and back or whatever, right? Like it's it's it's the it just it there's a huge ripple effect. And I I I I want I I thought of that as you were saying that, like that's it, that that's an impactful lesson from a communication standpoint for your team, is helping them understand where the ripples go. Um, you know, I I'm a I'm a I'm a visionary business owner, if you in EOS terms, visionary and integrator. So I just go fast and break a bunch of stuff. And like that's like I I need someone that helps me slow down and and categorize things and say, okay, hey Jim, let's wait until next quarter to to try that, right? Like let's do that. That's too much or that, or to that to that point. Hey, if we execute this, we're gonna break all of these things, right? Just by doing that. And so it's very impactful to have that that vision of that, but then also what I'm hearing, it's the communication of that. Anything else that you've done team-wide, do you do it to it from a training perspective, maybe from a uh meeting perspective? Like what are other things that help with that communication rhythm between between team members and and and to try to minimize all of those ripple effects?
SPEAKER_00:So one of the things that we found pretty productive and effective is that we have our sales staff run projects. So our company is we are retail and primarily in the residential market. So the way that our setup is, is I've got a sales team, got production team, and I've got an office team. And the production team does all the installs, they handle all the materials, they do everything. Sales staff, they find leads, they're running leads, they're selling jobs, following up, and they're helping with advertisement and different community events. And obviously, Office handles all the back end. So for us, typically a sales guy is not running a project, and because they're appointment, appointment, appointment, appointment, and they're just go, go, go. So typically what we do to put it in perspective for them to appreciate the efforts and the long hours and the work that production staff does is we do cross-training. So we'll take sales staff and we'll put them on a roof and have them run the job, have them show up at the yard at 6 a.m. And normally I'm a prior sales guy, I get it. Uh, usually I'm going to the gym at 6 a.m., but I know there's plenty of sales guys that are sleeping until 9 a.m. or they don't have an appointment till noon, so they'll sleep till 11, or they'll just mess around. And but obviously, what we try to do is show them a different life and the life that they're also supporting and why their role is not just their paycheck. Your paycheck is as a salesperson, it's easy to look at it as, well, if I sell it, then I get paid. If I don't, I don't get paid. But also back to that ripple effect that you were pointing out. If they don't sell that roof or that repair or that shed or a piece of fascia or gutter project, you name it, it might be small and minuscule to a salesperson that gets paid a percentage. And it's a small percentage at that, it's a small payday at that point for the smaller job, but same amount of work when it comes to the contract and the inspection and the communication and pushing everything through, still a lot of the same amount of work, but different payday. But that that payday only really affects the salesperson at that point, and they forget that that job also employs somebody on the production side. It puts somebody to work, it keeps the the supply house moving materials, even if it's small to small to you with your pay, it's it's the ripple effect makes it continuingly to it continues to grow as it uh expands. So cross-training is has been super beneficial. I had production staff was working with the office yesterday. Had one of my office girls go to a job site and work with the with a crew for a day. So yeah, we we do some some odd things with our staff just moving around just to see different perspectives.
SPEAKER_01:They they need to, it's it's great to have people see other perspectives because especially like sales and operations or sales and fulfillment in any business is like they there's always a conflict between sales and up sales and ops sales sales and and fulfillment. And uh, you know, and so but when they when people get to walk in each other's shoes, it's that you get to understand, oh these are the this, these are the phone calls that you're getting from the homeowner, right? Like, oh no, oh, this is what you're dealing with on the uh on this side of things. Oh that okay, yeah. I it it it it yeah, it makes sense and it and it takes away the the the that's easy. Just why don't you just just go sell? Like, or why don't you just go, you know, just build the job. What are you doing? Just go build the roof. How hard is it? You know, like you're you've built 150 this month or whatever, right? Like, let's go. Like, go build another roof. Um, but boy, they things can get screwed up really quickly. Um, that same kind of along the same vein of that, that I I I from getting to know you a little bit, it's like um that's your internal team and and helping them work together and can and connect more and the family aspect and bringing people together. One of the things that I loved about your story and what you guys are doing is also uh your outreach into the community. So you're you're you're building the kind of the family uh network inside of the business, and and you're also, you know, just from a business perspective, that cross-training and things like that, getting people to understand each other. You're doing a lot of things in the community. Uh, we talked about marketing at the RSRA event, and everyone's like, oh, what's the next new shiny thing? And you're like, yeah, we go out in the community. Like we we we serve our community, and that goodwill in the community has generated a good amount of business for us. Um isn't it crazy? Like, and so I think this is one of the most overlooked things. Relationships and community. Everyone is going, what lead source, what lead aggregator can you buy the best leads from? What you know, what digital marketing effort is the best? Do you put does direct mail work? Does cold, does telemarketing work? Does you know, all the like what what works the best? And and you're over here going, I just go hang out in my community. Right? Like, and it's more than that, but but it's like, man, I'm just gonna go take care of my community, and they're gonna take care of me and and uh talk about that a little bit. What's your guys' pro like what how did you how did this become kind of your core marketing effort? 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. What's your guys' pro like what how did you how did this become kind of your core marketing effort?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it really started off uh when I was younger. I would always see soccer teams with a pizza place on the back. And that would be the jersey, and that's what I wore. I wore a jersey and we would go get pizza after a game or after a practice, and it would be sponsored by the the pizza place. And every team had some type of sponsor on the back, and that's what I saw. Like, I didn't at that time I was really young, I didn't really understand the whole ins and outs. Like, I'm like, why are they paying for this? Maybe their kids on it, and maybe they get something back. I I didn't really know the ins and outs back then, but something became apparent as the years went on, and now that I have kids, it around here at least, there's not teams with letters on their jerseys anymore that belong to different organizations. And so I started diving deeper into it, and one of the things that we started to realize was there's not a lot of companies in our area that are giving back. Our area is a very tough area for any industry. So we are right outside of Atlantic City and Atlantic City with the casinos and everything else, and all the beach towns, and that already brings a different type of culture because we are not year-round uh flourishing when it comes to the amount of workload that's coming in, because you could have a seasonal business that's on the boardwalk, and unless it's summertime, you don't have any business. So there's a lot of different companies that they're they're prioritizing the time that they are getting paid and they're they're using it for themselves more than others. And one of the things that I wanted to make a difference, and as well as my partner, Paul, we wanted to make sure that we were taking care of our home communities. As I mentioned, he grew up in a short town. I grew up right off the coastline, and both of us realized in our different types of area, I was on land, he was on the shore. Uh, we noticed it was a similarity where there wasn't a lot of companies that were giving back. Maybe they just weren't open about it, maybe they just weren't doing it. But we see a lot of companies that were claiming to be local companies. One of the things I love to say is you shouldn't be allowed to call yourself a local company just because you pay taxes in the local community. If you're not doing anything for that community, what makes you local other other than your zip code? So we define local as you are involved, you're participating, you're showing up. Uh just last weekend, I went with one of our sales staff members and we did a cleanup at for uh a road cleanup for his town. Something simple like that. And we've been doing that for years. When we first started doing that, and that's for years we've been doing that, and that's four times a year. And we just separate, we split up, and a couple of us will go each time. And it takes an hour because they have a good group there. In the beginning, nobody knew us, knew us at that point. And just this past Saturday, when I was there, every single person at that group either used us for their roof or one of their family members used us for their roof. And now when we show up, we get hugs, we get greeted with love. And it's because we're involved in doing something so simple to us to volunteer an hour of time. If you could it's an hour of time. So that was something that I realized this past Saturday that was really impactful because everybody that was there was just they're like, Oh, like get in our picture, take a picture with us. And things like that really go a long way. And continuing off of that, we we we go across all kinds of different areas when it comes to community involvement. It's not just the road cleanups, and I I I mentioned to you earlier before we got into this, was uh the parades. So we've got three Christmas parades that we're involved in this coming uh December. Uh we've got Toys for Tots box right out front of our office, and we're doing collections and donations. We've got uh we we do a little bit of everything just because we, I mean, we have fun with it. And I'd rather spend that money on being part of the community rather than sending it to Facebook or any of these other paid lead sources. And that for us, when we realize that we can just reinvest that same money back in the community and get a much better return on investment. Granted, you don't get that hard lead right in your hand. Immediately, but it comes after some time. Something as simple as this shirt that I'm wearing right here. This shirt is I don't know if you can even see it. Yep. There you go. Fight hard. Kick ass.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So this is our breast cancer awareness shirt. And one of the things that we have sweatshirts with these logos, and we do a push where we choose somebody in the area that's a local survivor or fighter. And we go ahead and exchange these for free on our end. We don't charge anything for them. We do a lot of in-house printing. And what we do is we do a donation exchange. So if you can afford a dollar in exchange for a shirt, you get a shirt. If you can afford$100 for a shirt, if you want to give that as a donation, here's your shirt. And we don't print any regulation on it. You have to donate something. And what that has done for us is it gives a higher sense of meaning for these people that are wearing our logos and our lettering because they realize that it's not just us that they're supporting. They realize that it's more impactful and it's got meaning. And those types of interactions, those are going to be with us for a lifetime. And we have billboards walking around. When you go into the local shopping center, you you go anywhere in this area, you'll see veterans roofing, and they have nothing to do with us whatsoever. Like you just we get calls all the time and we ask. And our we have uh an automated bot that asks, we have our online form if you want to sign up for an appointment. It asks everything. We always try to find out how people heard about us or how why are you calling us? Like what led you to us? And one of our number one responses overall is we just see you guys everywhere. Can you like and we try to like can you like tell me a little bit more about that? What does that mean? Well, we see like your trucks, we see shirts, we see you supported my son's baseball team, like all kinds of stuff. Uh, and that's just continuous.
SPEAKER_01:And I wrote a book about that, Taylor. Like, this is it's it's more from a digital marketing perspective, but it's about being the best known roofer, right? Like, it's that's the name of the book, and it's like best known will be best, right? But then, but that I see you everywhere, when you hear that from someone, how does that make you feel? It feels great, and you know it feels great, right? Like, it's fantastic. Like, wow, that's we're doing something here, and and I love the creative ways that you've gotten to that. I promise you that in the future, if you ever do choose to invest in in other forms of marketing, all of that work that you've put in now, all of the community involvement, all of the shirts, all of the trucks, all of the all of the relationships and hugs that you've had, all of your marketing will perform any other marketing you do will perform better. Because that's your those are still the same people that you would be marketing to. It would just be another touch point to them. It's fantastic, man. Like it it gets skipped so often in business is the relationship and just just the brand recognition in the community. Like, there's nothing it it's very challenging to compare to. And I I think I've I had a conversation with another RSRA member who they have a smaller company, and we were talking and and uh we're talking about marketing, and I was like, no, no, just go build relationships. Like that they were at an earlier stage of their business or uh, you know, and didn't have a lot of extra time money to spend to invest in marketing. It's like, man, relationships are where the money is. Like, that's where the money is. Uh you ever heard of that book, never, never eat alone? Like, there's a book called like never right, like it's that type of concept. Like, man, just just be there, be in the community. I've had I've had so many people on the podcast that have done similar things. And some people get more more uh creative with it than others. Like, I think I feel like you guys are doing some really creative stuff, but the creative things that you're doing are also feel like you. They don't feel like it doesn't feel like you're trying to make these shirts to get awareness, right? Like it feels it's authentic to you and your team and your and and the heart of the company, the culture of the company. Um, uh the guys down at black and white roofing down in Missouri, like they're you know, they're wearing crazy clothes and one black shoe, one white shoe, and driving around in a big you know, excursion limo that's half black, half white, and everyone's like, who are these guys, right? Like, but that's their personality, right? Like, there's a but it and it's so that brand is important. Uh, the community involvement is is extremely important. So parades, charity, uh, charity work, uh, things like that. What other things are uh have been some some some other things? And then yeah, let's start there. What other kind of campaigns do you have going or or what other involvement do you have that's been impactful?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so one of the ones that I mentioned at this year's RSRA event was one of the things that helped us out a lot and gained endless recognition because we get uh a great thank you from the community. And that's we replace roofs on different types of baseball and football, the baseball dugouts, football field, where they keep their equipment at. We'll go ahead and tackle those. We'll replace those for free. And the reason why we do that is because if it's a baseball team, the baseball team loves it, gives us a shout out. The community that that baseball team plays for loves it, gives us a shout out. We get to get that recognition on the spot of us in that feel-good. Like that's a boost. That that that energy that you get from doing something good versus something bad. Like doing something bad and like it's not you know, feel good afterwards, but doing like a good deed just it's overpowering and it makes you want to do more, especially when you can put a smile on somebody's face. And what that has done for us additionally is one of the best thank yous that we've been continuously getting now is we get either a plaque or a banner that is a permanent fixture that gets placed on the field or on the building. Most recently, we did a football equipment building, and they per a massive thank you veterans roofing banner. And it's it, they it was nothing, there's no advertisement whatsoever at this place. And you're pulling into this nice long street that leads up to the football fields, and all you see is this big concrete wall, and they anchored it in and they did job and beyond. And at first, we we weren't expecting anything like that. We just thought, like, maybe for that one, maybe a banner on the field because everything was so clean and like pristine. There was no nothing. So, with that, as like just as big as it is, and we've gotten countless calls from that area since then, just pointing out, and they acknowledge us helping their their their kids' football team, they acknowledge us giving back to their community. That building is something something that they played in years ago, and it just continues. And we do that for the schools, we do that for teams, we do that whenever we see one an opportunity, we we go for it.
SPEAKER_01:There's a another company that uh that I've had on the on the podcast before, Jeff and Matt with True North Construction. Um Matt was really uh uh really is a big proponent of Little League in in general. He came up through Little League and feels like it's it's a really valuable thing for kids to play. And so he coaches little league and he does other, but they like rebuilt the snack shacks and did stuff like that too. That like and just similar stuff. And the it's it's fantastic. Like there is no Google lead that will that that that will turn out better than that, right? Like the whatever you spent on that roof, whatever you invested in that roof, it's it's it's a it's an ex exceptional marketing expense, right? Like, and it'll it'll you know, and it's just good to do. You know, like it's just it's great for the community that you're able to get out there and do that and make these things nice and you know, make sure that the the the team has a great facility or a storage, you know, all of that stuff. It it's um so I think that's that's fantastic, man. Um uh anything else? What else what else are you working on? What else are you guys doing? And then let's throw some ideas around for the future. What are you thinking? I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another 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. What else are you guys doing? And then let's throw some ideas around for the future. What are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I mean, we've always got oh my gosh, I can tell you about it. Yeah, where's I got an idea right now that is going to be taking place tomorrow, and it might be like the wildest one yet, but we'll we'll see. So one of the one of the organizations in the local area that we work with, it's called Last Salute Military Funeral Honor Guard. And what they do is they perform honor uh ceremonies, military ceremonies for those that pass away either while in service or after doing their service. So they have a couple Humvees and they do a transport, they they do everything. They do colors, taps, they get together with a few local VFWs, and they've been down or in Jersey again. They've been down to DC, they've gone all across the different states in the area, and they try to say yes to as many people as they can, but they're they're busy every day here, and that's one of the things that we help out with. We well shave every now and then and we put in our uniforms and we go help out. And that's a company that we it's not even, it's a not it's a not it's a charity company, it's not nonprofit. But with them is one of the things that they do is they donate so much time and resources. So rather than just giving back uh by supporting them, one of the things that we're they have a uh a newspaper that they deliver, and they have a gentleman that takes care of all the photography and he's a volunteer, he's a prior Navy, and he does all the photos, he does uh all the delivery for the newspaper. The newspaper is just to raise awareness. It shows the different events that they're working on, the things that they have going on, whether it's a school talk, because they go to the local schools and they'll just do education, they'll bring in when a Marine gets back from boot camp in the area, they'll go uh meet up with him and hang out with him or her and the Air Force and all these other branches, they all they're so receptive of what this group does. And it's such a great like pride that I have. And so one of the things that we're actually gonna be doing is I have a Chevy tracks that's all lettered up, and we were using it for like the PR side of the company, where if we have an event going on, it would get loaded up with everything, and that would go. So the gentleman that does the photography for Last Salute, who volunteers all this time, and he really dedicates his life to this. We're giving it to him to have the only thing is he just needs to leave it lettered. So he's going to be using that now because his truck the other day he was delivering a newspaper to us, and his truck when he was pulling away, and he does it all for Vaughn, he's not making money, so he's it's falling apart, like exhaust barely just about fell off. And not nothing wrong with that for him, but I was like, Man, what can we do?
SPEAKER_01:So, what an opportunity for you guys to help him out, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:And yeah, so we're gonna be giving him that letter truck, and we're also gonna in turn, he's gonna be using it for all of his runs for the newspaper, all of his events that they do, and we have a bunch of literature in place for him to be signing off for responsibilities and and then just hold harmless and everything else and everything that goes into that aspect. But he's going to also now be in exchange for him getting the vehicle, is uh he's always been a good word of mouth for us, but he's also going to be dropping off different little displays for us, or if we want to run some type of promotion or have uh the VR news, he's gonna include it with the papers as well because everybody he's delivering those papers for with it, it ties right in. They're doing things with the community, they're at the schools, they're at different events, they're at the doing all kinds of things. They do weddings, they're help helping people get married because they got a cannon that they fire off. And even my wife, oh wow, when we got married, we got married on a golf course, and here we were with Last Salute, and we had their cannon right up on the the front of the T box for the first hole. And she pulled the pulled the cord and fired the cannon on the golf course. We got a little backlash from the golf course, but the golfers called the golf course was fine with it. But some of the golfers were kind of confused why we were firing cannons on the golden. Some of the golfers, yeah. But that that's one of the that's one of the biggest things that we have uh that's about to kick off. And uh additionally to that, we also the Eagles are doing pretty good right now, and there's a lot of Eagles sponsor, uh a lot of people that support the Eagles in our area. So one of the things that we did last Super Bowl is we did a tie-in of the Eagles and Veterans Roofing on the back of the shirt, and so we gave that to a bunch of Eagles fans, and now to uh that was a while ago, and we still have we still see people wearing them. And countless amounts of time goes by, and we still see people wearing our original stuff from years ago. So we have an order that we're about to complete, and we're about to start handing out those, and those are all going to be free in exchange for them taking a picture, posting it online, tag us and say go Eagles. And not everybody's an Eagles fan, but it it's the fun, it's it's so fun. So that's one of the big things we have coming up.
SPEAKER_01:That makes me think of like uh I've talked about it for years, and a lot of other people from a marketing perspective have talked have talked about it for years, and it's that companies today need to be a media company in some way, right? And and and uh, you know, essentially the when you when you talk about the veterans roofing brand, it's your you know, the the gear, the all of the all the stuff that you're doing is so fantastic. My friend Dave Carroll that owns dope marketing, also like just fantastic branding. And he would go to a trade show. I remember the first trade show I went with with uh that they were at and we were at, and he was handing out these dope marketing sweatshirts, and it just says dope really big across the chest and marketing small across, you know, below it. And um man, I saw people walking through the airport with those afterward herds, like you'll people be it's just stuff creating things that and we try to do that too when we would go to trade shows. It was like first we had like like different types of swag, and we're like, man, no one, you know, let's make other things uh that are that are that that are impactful. We had a best known roofer shirt um that we gave away, some other creative ones that I've seen in the industry. Um there was a a law firm that did some had a had a really great uh marketing team. Uh shout out to Alex and uh those guys. They like they had like if you've ever seen them in the in the industry uh of John C neck where like it's a it's a shing it's a Pringles logo that says shingles on it, right? Like instead of instead of Pringles, it says shingles, right? Um there's a I remember someone made, I think they made one year they made like a Hooters logo and it said roofers or something like that, right? Like, but it's just taking things and then they just giving it away, right? And it had their other information on it, maybe like a small logo in the back or something like that, kind of what you're kind of thinking of or talking about doing. They reminded me of that, right? With the Eagles stuff. Like, man, how many, how can you incorporate your brand in a fun way and and and get that out into the community through merchandise, like through merchandise. And and it sounds like you guys are doing some printing in-house, so it's not it's probably pretty affordable to you to do that. And even if you do have to go to a shop, it's not that bad. Like, it's really not that bad to get stuff done. And um, I love that, man. That that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's we've had a lot of people try to, and we've seen people do giveaways for clothing and everything else. And one of the things you pointed out was having that funny aspect on the front, but they still had their branding on the back. And a lot of people fail to realize that a lot of people don't want to just wear a brand a lot of times. It's not just the brand, you have to incorporate some other deeper level of meaning in order for them to wear it. Like, I'm not gonna go wear uh like a Nike or Adidas or like ooh, I gotta wear those. I'm not like a brand sponsor. I'm not, I'm not, I don't need to wear that type of a sweatshirt. But if it had something incorporated in it, like a joke or something funny or something relatable or something that I was proud of, then absolutely I would wear it. And that's where a lot of people they fall short because they're like, oh, I want to give away stuff too. I can give away my shirts and they'll just start wearing them, also. Like, no, your shirt's going in the trash can. And that's the brutal truth, right there, is they don't realize that cool, you you tried to do the same thing, you printed off all these shirts. All those shirts are gonna be one use. They're gonna wear it today and it's going in the trash tomorrow. Or they might put it in their drawer and never wear it. Uh, how do I know this? Because I have a drawer filled with these and I've been meaning to throw them away.
SPEAKER_01:So like whenever I'm out painting or doing something that I'm like, I'm gonna get this is gonna be ruined, right? Like, oh, grab one of those, right? Um, and it's always the what is it, the glidian, itchy, like terrible, you know, it's they you know, because people go cheap on them. You know, we always went with, I think it was Next Level was the one of the brands I really enjoyed. We've been doing Gildan. We love the the Gildan's good, yeah. Yeah, like, but like nice stuff, right? Also, not not just with your logo and with some cool like mark or or like some cool cool connecting message with it, but also stuff that people would wear and that it's comfortable and it's nice and it's you know, um, might cost you a couple extra bucks per shirt, but that couple extra bucks, that couple of extra bucks makes people wear it around town and not while they're just doing their landscaping, you know. Um, so that's fun stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00:One of the easiest things that you can do, especially to get your name out there, your face out there for if you're a new rep or an owner that's trying to start up a company, being the mayor of your town and going through this little training of being the most recognizable person when you walk into a store, walk into a restaurant, or anywheres that you go, you want to be as recognizable as the mayor of your town, whether it's your name or your face. Ideally, both of those together, because that works out great. But every time you walk into a shopping center or a Walmart and you see somebody that at the end, and when you are getting ready to leave and the old man is right there, he's checking on receipts, and everybody's just flying by waving them off. If you just take the time to speak to that person and give them the time of day and ask him how his day is going and ask him if what he's been up to. Like, are you watching the game this weekend? Who cares? Just treat him like a human, treat him something different than how everybody else is doing, and you will get a result from that because what you're doing is you're not doing what mainstream media is doing, you're not doing what everybody else is doing, because then you and them get stuck in this little robotic method of communication. Kind of like I always tell everybody, and I'm guilty of doing it in the beginning of this conversation was how are you doing? I'm great, how are you doing? I'm great, nice weather, yeah, nice weather. Think it's gonna rain? No, I think it'll hold off. All right, have a nice day, and then you leave. Every time you go to a little market and you're checking out and you're just grabbing an energy drink, that's the little conversation that goes back and forth. But instead, if you try to break up that monotony and uh that conversation, the robotic theme, and you just look at their name tag and you say, Hey, good morning, Sally. And you just use their name or throw something else in there. Give them a smile and you ask them about the drink that you're getting. Grab a random drink and say, Hey Sally, do you know anything about this? Like, is this a good flavor? Because uh I've never seen it before. And then who knows? Maybe Sally ends up being a caffeine addict and she gives you all the information when it comes to that energy drink, or she recommends another one. And the recommendation has always bit me in the butt a little bit whenever I go to a restaurant and I'm speaking with the server, and we always have great conversations, and that's actually how I pick up my wife. Uh, she was the bartender. It's always a great skill to have. And now every time we go, I always love to ask them like what their favorite entree is, not a recommendation. I like to ask what their favorite meal is, and typically I ordered that meal and they're like, Oh, really? And the reaction that they get because when you go to a restaurant, you see a server all the time, or people are like, I don't know what to get. Like, what do you recommend? And they're just like, I don't know what to recommend. Because now, in their eyes, they're trying to pick something for you specifically. Yeah. And they're thinking they they look at a guy and they're like, all right, he wants steak, or they they have to already start to have those snap judgments about you, and they have to start to figure it out. And that actually, it's it's a lot of times it's a negative for people because now they're putting in an uncomfortable situation. And to make it a more positive, ask them what they love to eat, what their favorite entree is. If you want to know what drink to get, ask them what their favorite drink is. But then when they say it, if you say something along the lines of, ah, that sounds nasty, I'm gonna get this. You just have to suck it up. If you order what they suggest, automatically their eyes light up. And that's a great way to keep the conversation going and then expand on that and keep it moving in the right direction. And you take away all the tension because everybody says, What do you suggest? Or do the robotic method of great weather. Yeah, great weather. Have a great day. So just break up that monotony.
SPEAKER_01:I see why you call it the mayor of the town because it's a politician thing, right? Like it's you know, the shaking hands and kissing babies type of stuff, right? Like it's it's getting out there and having having conversations and getting people having more memorable conversations, getting people to know you, real, you know, remember you. Um so so do you train all your sales reps on this? It's like, hey, this is this is this is what we expect of you. Is this like, is that an expectation of be working as a rep at veterans? Like, hey, this is how we're gonna help you to help yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it's it's a method to make sure that they became a referral source themselves. We want to not just represent the the brand, but we also want to make sure that you're a face to the community as well. If you're coming into this company, the expectations are you're involved with the community. If you are giving a pushback to that or you're not willing to donate some time throughout the year or be involved, this isn't the right company for you. And we're pretty straightforward with that. We let people know that if you're not going to participate in any event, then you're not going to participate in this company. And that's something that has been super beneficial for us because we have a lot of people, and just like every company you go through, you get good hires and bad hires. And we've really been able to hone in over the years of making sure that we aren't just beating around the bushes. We are we're trying to be as straightforward and as transparent with our hires as possible, just to make sure that they understand. Because if we're like, ah, you know, we're involved with the community, you don't have to do anything. Yeah, you'll fit in just fine. We're setting ourselves up for failure.
SPEAKER_01:So we try to be that expectation.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And it's it's amazing what you can learn by going on a uh a mayor of the town if you want to go incorporate that. And I love to take sales guys on that. And one of the things that I love to do is go to their town, go into the Home Depot, and ask the gentleman that's in the exterior section, hey, do you recommend anybody for a roof here? And when they recommend somebody, because think about how many homeowners go to Home Depot or Lowe's or any of those types of stores. And when they walk in there, they're looking, they're trying to pick out the tile that they want for their bathroom or the shingle color that they potentially want for their roof. And and that's a lot more common than people realize. There's a lot of random people that go in there. And just because you don't see them when you're shopping, because you might be shopping at 6 a.m., there's people that are there all day that do see these people shopping, and that's the employees. And those employees are in their different areas. And if you ask a question, it's not their area, like, hold on one sec, let me, and they go over the intercom and say, Hey, clean up an aisle five. They let you know they they call the right person for it. They don't do it, they don't try to answer the questions. They uh let me get somebody that's better equipped to answer these questions. Talk to that person. Who does that person recommend? And also, how's their day going? And what about this area do they know? What kind of knowledge do they have in the roofing industry? Like they called you over to answer my questions. What's your history? What's your background? And it might not be an initial tie, the first conversation, but now as you go in there, look for that guy.
SPEAKER_01:What I love about that style of relationship selling is and what I think a lot of people miss is it's the one-to-many relationship, right? Becoming memorable. So you're becoming memorable to your community, you're becoming memorable to you know the person working at Home Depot, you're becoming memorable to the to the bartender, to the wait, waiter or waitress. You're becoming memorable to people. You're you're making friends, really. Like it's it's you're making friends with people, and and that that that is that one-to-many relationship that that gets built over time. And there's a lot of good, I mean, fantastic sales reps that will tell you that. I mean, and companies that have gotten built on relationships that when the phone, like when for a lot of storm restoration contractors, when a storm comes through, people just know who to call. They just call their friend, right? There's a there's a uh a sales guy in the in the Minneapolis Twin Cities area, Dan Walrak, that got um a lot of attention a couple years back, where he sold like 18 million himself in a storm. Um but it was what what what he's what I've heard him talk about is it it's it's it's the work that he put up put in up leading up to that, right? Like it's the conversations that he had and the relationships that he built and the all of that over so much time that when it was time they knew just call Dan. Dan will get it taken care of, right? Um, and so that's the that's the type of marketing that sticks. It's not just hey, they clicked an ad and now they're calling someone and it doesn't really matter. Um, but all of this type of stuff, it will make your marketing better, as I mentioned in the past. Like if you actually, if people know you and then they go on Google and it's like, oh, veterans roofing, I saw them at the parade, I'll call them. Right? Like, and so all of it builds upon it it itself. Um, you can build a fantastic business on relationship marketing. As we talked about, I think for I really believe that this is this is the path for a if for bootstrapping. Like if you if you are bootstrapping your company, man, it's all about this. Like it's it should be, this should be your main focus in building relationships. And maybe, you know, depending on the market that you're in, maybe you're building relationships with insurance agents, maybe you're building relationships, maybe you have a focus on who you're building those relationships with. It's not just going out to eat every day and meeting all the waiters and waitresses, right? Like you can also be intentional about some of the, you know, the like who you're who you're trying to develop those relationships with. But being part of the community, it's it's fantastic. So, you know, we talked about a couple, like when we talked a few days ago, we talked about the adapt and overcome mindset. And I think that was probably a you know something that that you learned in the military. How have you applied that to business?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so obviously as a business owner, you any problem that comes about, you're ultimately it's going to fall on your plate if you don't have the proper procedures in place to prevent it from doing so. So you always, there's always gonna be something that's gonna pop up that's gonna be different. I saw somebody post on RSRA the other day where they had multiple layers of shingles, then plywood, then tile, then shingles, then wood, then tile, like an obnoxious amount of layers. And you can prepare as much as you want for what's gonna happen. At the end of the day, there's always gonna be some curveball that comes at you and it's like, what do we do with this? And that's the adapt and overcome methodology and the mindset. And that is essentially just making sure that no matter what life throws at you, you've got to figure it out, especially as a business owner. Who do we have to turn to? Who do we have to ask? My my junior sales staff, they have a sales manager, and then my sales manager can ask me if he doesn't know. And same thing with the production staff, they all have their different levels that they can turn to somebody, and somebody can answer that question for them. But you don't always have somebody to turn to. Sometimes you just got to figure it out yourself. And that happens more often than not when you're trying to grow or expand or start your company or combat different types of things that are out of our control. Sometimes you can't control everything. So that's where the adapt and overcome. You just need to figure it out. You rather than worrying about all the negatives, everything that's going wrong. Okay, I'm going to get through this. I will. And you tell yourself that. And now when you start to transition and you look at it on that method of mindset and how you immediately go to, I just need to be solution oriented. I just need to figure this out. Doesn't matter everything that's gone wrong at this point. I need to figure it out. I need to come up with a solution now. And that's where the adapt and overcome uh it originated from the military and it's continued. And I try to teach everybody within the company that same type of mindset where, yes, something goes wrong and I get it. Let's figure out a solution. And then it's also now put in something for future that will prevent it from happening again because otherwise it's gonna happen again. This may have been a once in 100, but now that we're on the topic, it is that one time. Let's just, if it takes an extra couple of minutes, let's just implement so it never happens again. We'll never even see it again.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And that's that it's just a continuous iteration. It's a feedback loop that you're creating. You're always going to have obstacles to overcome. And that doesn't matter what size business you get to, what like there's always another problem. And sometimes problems get amplified at through growth stages, right? Like it's it's crazy how these things happen. You didn't from our previous conversations, you didn't plan on, you didn't strive to be an entrepreneur. You didn't strive to be a business owner. It wasn't like something that was like, man, this is what I want to, I want to do when I when I'm when I, you know, if you could go back to to those days when you were leaving the Marines and you had the struggle in the in in finding the job and all, you know, you had to adapt and overcome the challenge that was in front of you. You know, what what would what advice would you give yourself now if you going back to that that guy that was like you know going through it back then?
SPEAKER_00:So when you're in the military, you're so used to that steady paycheck. You get paid on the first and 15th of every month, no matter what. You're used to the vacation allowance where you can go ahead and take your days off, and you got that guaranteed uh days off that you're gonna get paid for no matter what, because everything is salary. You know that if you are living off a base and you're married, you got kids, you got all these different housing allowances and food allowance, you have everything taken care of. And one of the struggle points is when you're transitioning away from that, and so many people, especially in the military, they get so used to that steady paycheck that they seek it afterwards. And that's something that I that's the route that I was taking. I was going to go into law enforcement. I was that was my transition. I was going to stay with that steady salary and that that guaranteed pay at the uh what I thought, uh guaranteed job. But with COVID shutting everything down, I realized that I can't just be comfortable. I can't just look at it on in that point of view to, hey, I have all this lined up and I'm good. Uh, because sometimes plans are just gonna get shaken up, they're gonna go wrong, not everything's gonna go your way. And I, if I could say something to myself back then, it would give myself a bigger boost of confidence to just do it, to just stay consistent and just keep doing it, because there was a lot of hesitation going into starting our own company, uh, going into this industry. It's very competitive, especially in this area. There's a couple big names that have been around for decades. And those names, they've always controlled this area just because everybody knows them. They have the jingle on the radio that everybody I've heard the jingle since I was in fifth grade. I know those companies, and they just establish themselves so well, but they also get comfortable. And that complacency aspect that a lot of people get into, that's what hurts them. And just to stay hungry, don't get comfortable, and you can do it. No matter what it is, just keep pushing and don't give up.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, man. Thanks for your time today. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast. Thank you for tuning into 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 videos. 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.