Austin Blomquist's Insider Perspective: Overcoming Challenges in the Roofing Industry

After years of nurturing a passion ignited by his late father's patented product, Austin, a roofing company owner and marketing whizz, has taken social media by storm. With the tenacity of a bulldog and the precision of a seasoned marketer, Austin has trailblazed his way through the roofing industry, overcoming personal challenges and the pressure of familial expectations. Laying bare his motivations, he dives into the challenges and highlights of his journey, sharing intimate reflections on the trials of being a fresh influencer, his gratitude for his team's unwavering support, and his relentless pursuit of success.

Are you looking to amplify your online presence or boost your personal brand? Austin's been there, done that, and got the TikTok followers to prove it! In this episode, we delve into his innovative marketing strategies, exploring how he has utilized social media to grow his brand and his business. He shares insights on the importance of consistency and diversification, the art of storytelling, and the significance of community engagement. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newbie in the marketing world, Austin's experiences are sure to inspire and motivate.

But it's not all about the glitz and glam of social media. Running a roofing company involves challenges and responsibilities that demand integrity and strong leadership. Austin shares his ethos of prioritizing the homeowner's property, setting clear expectations, and handling problems with grace. He emphasizes the need to do right by clients, even if it means taking a loss, as this builds trust and loyalty. Be it showcasing transparency through social media or giving back to the community, this episode is packed with nuggets of wisdom on building a successful roofing business. So, buckle up and get ready for an enlightening conversation with Austin!

Transcript

Ty Backer: 0:00

Oh, and we are live, back once again behind the tool belt. You can't find it? No, I can't find it either. I'll tell you. Oh, we're live though. Oh, okay, that's over there sleeping again at the wheel. Um, but yeah, the episode two, oh seven of behind the tool belt, and I'm time. Your host and I got my friend David Bruto, who's co-hosting with me the equipment. I'm back everybody to episode 207 of Behind the Tool Belt. My name is Ty and I am your co-host this evening, along with David Bruno.

David Bruno: 1:48

Thanks Ty. I certainly appreciate it. Always good to see you guys. And again, we were talking about evolution a little bit here, and this is my first time in this new setup. This is great. I've got to see in the warehouse for the live episode for episode was that 200, right? And then at your old, your other facility over there, the old offices Now here in this new office. This is great. This is an awesome setup and kudos to Vic there for getting everything set up here this way. This is awesome.

Ty Backer: 2:15

And.

David Bruno: 2:15

Austin glad to see you there, man, looking forward to talking to you.

Austin Blomquist: 2:19

Dude, I'll tell you what I've been really looking forward to this. Everybody's going out right now, but this is right where I want to be with you guys. You guys are inspiration, Ty. I've been looking up to you ever since I've gotten in the industry and you're just somebody that I aspire to be, so I'm excited to get into this.

Ty Backer: 2:36

Thank you. Thank you so much and same to you, man. I mean. I remember the first time I met you was SRC, somewhere in Texas Couple of years ago. You did a breakout and you were talking about TikTok and how to reach people on TikTok and marketing and personal brand on TikTok, and Glenn was with me and we were so intrigued on how you were able to capture and cultivate such a following on TikTok and any social media platform really that we were inspired to try to follow in your footsteps as well. And even the cooler thing about that is that you're a roofing company owner at that too. So you're not just someone out there trying to I don't know hitting off the dopamine hits. I mean, you're actually using it to benefit yourself, other people's lives and have an impact, and you're using your huge footprint to do that. That's pretty cool, austin, and thank you for being you man.

Austin Blomquist: 3:49

No, thank you. And you know what? I was getting a little bit nervous before coming on this, and I think that's just what anybody feels. But if you speak from the heart, what can you be worried about?

Ty Backer: 3:59

Absolutely, absolutely, man. No, absolutely man, and it's great. It's been great to see you out and about too. We got to spend some time at Door2DoorCon last year Quite a bit of time. You're a good friend of Chris Hofstra, who's a good friend of mine, and I think he's the one that really connected us and through social media. We were actually having this conversation right before we came on here tonight. David came down and we were talking about because David's for Taste Marketing, that's why I thought he'd be a good fit tonight Marketing, branding, personal professional brand and stuff like that. And David does a great job of stepping outside his comfort zone and coming on podcast and hitting the live button, hitting the record button, and it takes some nerve to be able to do this.

David Bruno: 4:49

That's one of the things I was going to ask you, austin, is I got to take a look at your page today and some of the things that you've been doing? Are you an introvert by nature? This has kind of stepped yourself out there and started just putting yourself in front of people and having those conversations.

Austin Blomquist: 5:03

Well, really, the story behind all of this is my dad's product. So when I was 11 years old, my dad passed away but he left me with this patented product. So what it is, it's a snow retention coating. So it's a waterproof coating filed by Matrix, a special abrasive agri-granules.

Austin Blomquist: 5:20

Now I can remember being 10 years old and I would go over to my dad's and we'd be watching the Packer game together and he would have a sample set up against the glass and he had a piece of ice on it. We'd be just watching it melt. My dad loved the Packers and he loved Snowgrip and he loved golf. So really that's what we did we watched Packer games and we played golf and we watched the Snowgrip just grip and drip. So he was phenomenal. He was my best friend and after he passed away it was like how am I going to keep him close to me? And this product is one of those things that every time I'm making a video, I might be nervous or I might not want to be doing it at that time of the day, but I know that if I spend the time to make that video, I'm going to get one step closer to finding the right person to get this product out there. And what actually happened was I went and got my marketing degree and then I started a roofing company but I realized, hey, this product really isn't getting out there. I didn't really learn enough in marketing school to bring this product to market. Found out about the roofing industry, I'm like, hey, I might as well go and do some door to door sales and make some money. So I did that and I felt like I needed to make a bigger impact some way. Some way shape or form. I went back to my hometown, started my own roofing company with two guys. One guy is kind of a silent partner, he holds the license, and then my other partner is the production manager. But things were going great for the roofing company and I'm starting to think, like I think everybody, any good product or good company, they get to a spot where they almost want to give up. And that was exactly where I was at.

Austin Blomquist: 6:59

I had the snow grip install on these storage units and I was doing it with my best friend and we were just cracking jokes. I'm like, hey, this is probably going to be the last time I do snow grip. This is the pain in the butt, but lucky I like you, dad, I'm dealing in the sun and the stuff is dripping and I'm just like it's one of my first applications, so I'm figuring everything out. And I'm like David, what if I post a video of the snow grip application on that TikTok app that all these girls are dancing on? And I'm just like, coming from Northern Michigan, everybody hates on TikTok. That's just how it was. But I'm like, what do I have to lose?

Austin Blomquist: 7:38

So I decided to post a video of the application and overnight it got like 1.8 million views. And I was just like, dad, is that you up there controlling the TikTok algorithm? And that inspired me and I just got to thinking. I'm like, hey, this product led me to getting the marketing degree, led me to starting the successful roofing company. I'm like what more do I need to show these people for people to trust me and to take my product on and sell it? I'm like, well, I guess I'll get a couple hundred thousand followers on social media and then maybe they'll start to pay attention to me.

Austin Blomquist: 8:11

So the drive to get the following was to get the product out there. And I'll tell you what. I wouldn't have been able to do this if I was chasing a dopamine hit Like I could care less. But with this product it's just. I'm so passionate about it. I feel closer to him when I'm making these videos. And I'll tell you what. It's an unusual product. It gets attention. I think that every roofing company should be applying it because it's the safest solution for Snow Country. But it's also going to help your social media because it's such an unusual product. So this is kind of like cracking the code when it comes to the algorithms. Is using a product like this? So that's a little bit of a background of how things kind of got started.

David Bruno: 8:51

For me, that's good stuff and it's, you know, like when we talk about here, when you have something that you're passionate about, you've got that personal connection to it and you have fun doing it at the same time. That's when everything kind of comes together. You know, it doesn't really feel as much like you're. You know Obviously it's working in there challenges but it doesn't really feel as much like work when you're really enjoying. You've got that personal connection, what it is that you're doing and it sounds like, yeah, I got back.

Austin Blomquist: 9:18

No, and then you know, my viewers were able to see, like that authenticity and like the story like, and the thing is is that I want to Motivate other individuals that are trying to start a roofing company or bring a product to market that it is possible. And you got to keep going. And what's funny is it looks like a silly product. The videos that I do and a lot of roofers are like man, it looks like you're doing everything wrong. You know I'm not gonna install this product, but I like basically have a coffee cup and I'm pouring it down the panel and then I was talking to a roofer yesterday here at roofing process and I'm like, actually my application is 1.7 ounces per square foot, so that cup was how many ounces and I knew that the panel was this long so it was actually Calculated, so I got the right mill thickness. So there there's a lot like.

Austin Blomquist: 10:07

I put a lot of thought into it. It might not look the right way, but it worked and it's still holding snow today and you know that's the thing is. How can I show that to people to motivate them to say it is possible, chase your dreams? Hey, this might look like a stupid product to the world. It looks like a stupid product. They don't understand snow retention, but I think that's why so many people wanted to follow me, because they're like, what's this crazy product? If this guy can bring this product to market, I feel like they. They'll see that and it'll motivate them to bring their company to the market, right. So that's really what I think it's all about is is trying to empower people to do bigger things and to believe in themselves.

Ty Backer: 10:48

Love that, I do. I love that and I love your story too, austin on. You know, right away you felt as if it was kind of like an act of Providence when you got that 1.8 mil views on on that, you know what you thought was a silly, you know Real. Or video, that video that you did, you know, and you know I'm, I'm inspired by that story because you know to kind of find your purpose and, like you said about the impact, I love how you talked about the impact and how you want to inspire other people to, you know, post videos or bring their, their product to the market and stuff like that. It's like that's, that's what we're here for. We're here to inspire, we're here to serve and that product that you're talking about, that that was your, what you said, that was your dad or your grandfather's product.

Austin Blomquist: 11:40

Yeah, your dad's.

Ty Backer: 11:41

That's what I thought I did. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't saying that was your grandfather's, but you said it was your dad's product and how you felt like that's his legacy, right, and? And when people pass, at times I think some of us tend to fall into like this funk and don't know what to do and, and we become introverted and all of these things is just depression, depression sets right and we just don't know what to do. We don't know where to turn. We just lost her best friend, all of these things.

Ty Backer: 12:10

But but the point that that I'm getting to is is how you decided to pick the torch up Right and in his name and his honor and to continue to have him live on. You know is is. You went out. You you posted this silly, what you thought at the time Video that inspired so many people to like, love, comment, share. You know, and like you saw that, like all dad was that you up there. You know, and how proud of him, how proud he was of you To pick the torch up and and promote this product.

Ty Backer: 12:49

It, to me, is what that's really all about. It's like if your dog dies, go and rescue a dog out of the pound, Treat that dog with the most respect and give it the best life that is ever given, and like when, when a human being dies, that's real close to us in our life. That's what. That's how we need to take a look at that. Yes, it sucks. They're no longer with us, but what? What would they have us do? Right, look, or what can we do to make sure that their legacy continues to live on? And and you chose to pick the torch up and run with it?

Austin Blomquist: 13:18

We talk about this quite all day and you know, like one of the things is, when I was growing up, I mean I I had a learning disability, especially with my dad passing at 11 years old.

Austin Blomquist: 13:29

It was almost like I care less for school. You know, I was the type of guy that was like, if I can slide by, if I can cheat off somebody and not have to study, I'm just gonna get by. Because it was kind of like it from 11 to 16. It was like that was a tough age. My mom was like I don't know if you're gonna get into drugs or what's wrong with you, your total, your vibe, completely changed. So you know, that's, that's something where, like that, that was tough. You know, after he died and when I found like that passion for his products, I'm like I'm really gonna run with this. It was like doors were opening left and right.

Austin Blomquist: 14:07

When I went to college, a lot of my friends struggled with getting through their classes. Me with my learning disability, I knew I needed to get out of college so I could get this product out there. So I did whatever it took to educate myself to pass these classes and you know, honestly, I really am proud of myself for getting out of college in four years Because honestly, when I first started it, I'm like this is gonna be so hard. I don't know what I'm getting myself into and Really I had to make the most of it. I had a lot of pressure from, like, my mom and the rest of my family like there was two other people that went to Ferris State University and my family and dropped out. So I'm like, hey, the pressure's on, I need to get through college because really I want to just promote my product and if I need to prove it to my family and show that like I can do this, that's what I'm gonna do. But it was my motivator, kept me up late library studying because I just had such a passion for getting this thing off of the ground and it was like every single one of my marketing projects.

Austin Blomquist: 15:08

I would beg the teachers to say, hey, let me do it on snow grip, like international route, the international marketing class. Hey, can I please do it on snow grip. So then I was teaching, you know, the football players about snow grip and then we were presenting it and it was super cool that I had awesome professors that Gave me the chance and let me do that, because it was just, you know, nobody starts off Perfect, and I think that's that's the one thing that a lot of these new influencers like. I think that Everybody wants to be an influencer. Now, right, and everybody wants to get paid the big bucks, everybody thinks that they're worth. You know, all this money just coming right out of college, like you know, and it's like you got to put in the work, and so I'm like, hey, let's just build this and just keep building, building, building. And you know actions speak louder than words, let me just put this out there. And they just led to all these different things. You know, I just I wouldn't have gotten to start in my roofing company if it wasn't for me having the passion for the product, and it's like one thing led to the other.

Austin Blomquist: 16:08

And Now, after getting the hundreds of thousands of followers, like brands, like certain T and the catch-all and the equipler Are coming to me wanting to work with me, and that's seriously life-changing, like before, I'm truly like humbled because Seems like everywhere I'm stepping, it's like an opportunity and I'm just like, why was I chosen? Why am I In here? Why am I getting? Like? I don't know if it's luck, but it's like why me right?

Austin Blomquist: 16:38

And people are trying to tell me, like man, you're a good person, you truly care, you totally deserve this. You've been working so hard on this, but it's so easy to like have that voice in your head saying negative thoughts. Right, it's like, oh, you know You're not worthy, or you know, like you're not gonna get this product going. And then there's other people that I Hear talking about me in the background saying, you know, like, you know he's not gonna be able to get this off of the ground. That's a stupid product. He hasn't made it much sales with that.

Austin Blomquist: 17:06

And then when I have to go and be honest with people, when they ask me you know what are the sales for snow? Good, what are the sales for your roofing company? You know how much are you making for you know social media stuff, like I'm completely transparent and it's like, hey, like I'm not a, I'm not a pro, like I don't have a $10 million roofing company, but I do know how to take somebody from, maybe after college, and get them to the next step, to where that they they can keep going and I can connect them with people. Like, like you tie where. It's like, hey, now it's another resource. So now I've been able to to get this group of people that I can just rely on and when I'm going down to these shows, it's like I have that five, ten people that are like family now, honestly, that really support me. And I even have some different people that want to work with me now from these shows, saying like there's nobody more that I Would want to work with.

Austin Blomquist: 17:59

And now I'm trying to figure out how I can get these brand deals to basically pay To build a business, and that's something that, like, I respect so much from Utah because it's like a big gamble and it's a lot to start a business and actually to start hiring people and it's like how am I gonna make you know, payroll? But then you're like I've always made it happen. You know, I always pass those classes in college like I'll find a way to get the money to pay these people. I just need to put my foot in the water and and start somewhere. So that's. That's been something recently where I know I need to build a team To be able to scale this and to be able to really support my mission of making the world a safer place. I can't do it alone.

David Bruno: 18:43

Hmm, well, here's a question for you, austin. I mean, as you you were talking, you continue to delve into your story a little bit. How you got started in this, and you know how you're. You've kind of taken your father's concept and the product. How of you, what are some of the key things that you've done that really transform this thing and make it your own? I mean, you're taking the social media Aspect to a, to another level here, and you know, ty and I have talked about this a number of times and I hear, you know, during the course of a number of these episodes and these are the different guests that you know, social media and marketing, it's not an exact science. I mean, there are so many things. It's just a matter of testing the waters and trying to see some things and see what works and what people latch on to and what they're Responding to. And just because they don't necessarily respond does not mean that they don't take notice To those things that you're doing.

David Bruno: 19:29

For sure, because there's not always a like or a share doesn't mean that they're not in their mind.

Austin Blomquist: 19:36

You know paying attention, you know I mean you go through four years of college and I can remember like three things that really helped me with the social media and One of the first things that Dr D told me he was my international marketing teacher. He Said anything that you do in the short run that doesn't benefit you in the long run is an addiction and that hit hard with me. I'm like everybody's on social media. They're wasting all of this time. It's not going to do anything for them in the future. How can I get on social media and actually, you know, grow something and benefit me in the future? So that's when I instantly switched over all my social media to either snow grip or some type of personal brand to where I could, you know, show who I am, so I could get you know my foot in the door and work for a corporation or start my own business and sell deals and Show that transparency and show who I am. So that was the first thing. So when I switched over to all the different you know business stuff, so I'm not addicted and looking for that don't mean hit wasting my life.

Austin Blomquist: 20:41

Then he, then I went over and I was it was a communications teacher and he talked about Basically how journalists make news and it was really interesting because if you look at, like, how journalists like for the New York Times, you'll see all these headlines right and it's using significance, prominence, unusualness, big numbers, storytelling. So I knew that if I use the right hooks, told the right story, had the right significance, the unusualness. So that's where you know you have the snow grip video and it's an unusual product. You're pouring this stuff out of a cup onto a roof. And then you have significance where you're just like, hey, you don't want the snow to slide off of your roof. Now people are saying, oh, it's gonna cave in your roof.

Austin Blomquist: 21:29

So I figured out that, combining the unusualness with the significance, and then later on, when I started working with the equipler, started using some prominence where it was like how am I gonna market this equipler? Well, who bought the equipped there? I remember that the owner told me that Elon Musk bought 20 of them. So that was my caption Elon Musk bought 20 of these and Everybody knows Elon Musk. They're like no, he didn't. Yeah, right, show me, prove it. And it was great attention grabber to use that prominent figure. So what I tell roofing contractors or anybody that's trying to build their personal brand. They need to act like a journalist, because they're not gonna be able to get any attention if they don't.

Ty Backer: 22:12

Mmm, that's really good stuff. I had like 15 questions but I forgot every single one of them because I was so in tune with what you were saying. But that was. That was really good stuff and it's like the, the early part of what you started to say. There was, you know when, when you're starting out in business.

Ty Backer: 22:30

I was sitting here I was reflecting a little bit about like how, how I had to deviate a little bit when we first started out and and very little people know this we actually started out in siding, just siding. So I was a siding contractor, I'd work for a siding contractor and predominant, predominantly, we did siding. I Knew roof, I knew I knew roofs, I knew gutters, I knew windows. I mean, you can't really do be be in an exterior facet like siding and not know roofing and stuff like that. So when I had went out on my own, I started out doing siding. For like the first few months it was you know it. But but I realized like I needed to. I needed to Pivot a little bit over into some some other facets of the exterior construction Atmosphere because if I, if I was gonna make it, I needed to diversify a little bit and at that moment I was, I had mastered all of those things. I was a good roofer, I was a great mechanic on the roof. I could wrap windows. I was really good on a break. I could bend anything on on on the aluminum break, and so I had to. I learned early on that I needed to diversify if I wanted to keep that pipeline full, because I had mouths the feed, not just my own, but I had other people that went with me when I went out on my own.

Ty Backer: 23:52

Okay, so one of the biggest things and you touched on it there for a minute was the consistency of Of showing up every single day, even when I thought I was failing, right, but I kept showing up, I kept showing up and I kept showing up. Well, next thing, I knew people started to notice that, they started to notice the quality of work that we did. You know not, and I guess I doubted myself because, like, the roofing industry isn't the the most glamorous, especially we're talking 20 years ago. It was. There was definitely a different atmosphere out there. Very little of us had drivers, licenses and and that's all I'll say about that. But there we were, a rough crowd of people, right? This is where, like we couldn't go anywhere else, but but roofing at that in those days. Now things have have evolved into much more professional and professionalism when it comes to roofing today, and and or being a next-tier contractor.

Ty Backer: 24:51

But the biggest thing was, was that consistency and not quitting five minutes before the miracle happened and I hear, show me many people talk about you know, I just you know, I just don't think I can, I can handle it anymore. I just don't think. Well, some of that's because You're focusing your time and your energy in the wrong places Right, like, like, and you're not staying consistent enough in the places that you should be. Net said, that's something that you got to Figure out very early on. Okay, like.

Ty Backer: 25:19

So what are my strengths and what are my weaknesses? Right, like. So. If I'm not very good at accounting, then why am I wasting another six hours at night after I just worked 12 hours a day Doing my books, if I'm not very good at it, when my forte is, you know sales estimating, you know costing out a job, building out a job, scheduling the jobs. That's a whole forte learning how to schedule jobs and figure out how long a job is going to take, so then I can schedule the next job, like there's an art to that too. You know what I mean.

Ty Backer: 25:50

So I had all of these strengths, and I'm not saying that I don't know how To read a tape measure or that I don't know how to use a calculator, but it was like here I'm working 18 hours a day, right, and that's where people start to get burned out.

Ty Backer: 26:03

And I'm not saying that in the beginning you don't have to work 18 hours a day, and I think that's where a lot of people you know they did this whole mentality and the generation of work smarter, not harder, yes, but no Right, because you got to put into work, you got to put into time, especially early on, before you can even attract good help. Because if you're not leading by example you know you're, you're both personally and professionally You're not going to attract good people. No one's going to want to come work for you if you're, if you're cutting corners, if you're, if you're doing shatty work, if you're not paying your bills, all of those things that people don't necessarily, that you think they Don't see, along with the integral part of it, where the things that people don't see right and good things just start to happen. You know what I mean. It's sometimes it takes six months. It sometimes it takes six years. But I'll be honest with you it's taken me 15 years for overnight success.

Austin Blomquist: 26:58

Yeah, this is and.

Ty Backer: 27:00

I'm in the greatest season of my life right now. It's so 15 years to get here.

Austin Blomquist: 27:05

Yeah, one of the things I was telling one of the contractors I'm like I am so close with snow grip. I'm 90 98% there, but this is percent is going to be the most critical. You know, I got all the way here, but how am I gonna put the cherry on top and get this, get this done and actually build a business? Like I have all the people that Are supporting me, the contractors that want to buy it, the manufacturers that want to get involved, do different, you know, private label or possibly licensing agreements. Now, how am I going to finish it off and how am I gonna grow a team to be able to Be able to get it out there, you know, and be able to do those things that you know?

Austin Blomquist: 27:47

I, especially with the social media, like I tell people all the time that they really shouldn't try to focus on the social media, especially if they have a roofing company, because it's not something that's necessarily going to bring in the leads right away and a lot of people say, oh, I'm gonna go post on Instagram and post on Facebook and you see them oh, free roof inspection, or this or that, and nobody engages with it. I doubt that they really get anything unless there was a recent hail storm in their community. So it's like, why go on there and Waste all this time when you should be in other functions of the business, like writing estimates or following up or doing your accounting? And that's one of the things that I've had to learn the hard way, where, when I get so wrapped up with the social media and now I get these brand deals and now I have this pressure of making these videos for these companies, it takes me away from the roofing company, it takes me away from the snow grip and I'm like how am I going to just focus all my time on something that is really my clear, you know, vision, like, of what I want to do, and that's that's been super challenging to be able to balance that, especially when you have all these Awesome opportunities that are life-changing, like every single one of these the roofing company, working with these awesome companies and the snow grip it's hard to say no, because it's like I never expected I would be here two years ago.

Austin Blomquist: 29:12

I really didn't. I mean I I told that to certainty them like guys, like I Started as somebody that was disrupting the industry, trying to get free marketing. I didn't have a budget and I wasn't expecting you guys to call me. And as soon as they did call me, I'm like, I'm cleaning up my act. You know everything that happened before. It doesn't matter anymore. Like what are we gonna move and do in the future? So that's when I went back and I deleted probably 50 of my videos because it was either, you know, minor fall protection, things just didn't look safe.

Austin Blomquist: 29:42

And I started to think, like how am I influencing people? Like, now that I have this following, is it okay to do this on a roof? Is it okay to show that, to say that that's okay? And it started to really kind of like eat away at me, like I don't want to influence people the wrong way and say this is okay. And so the thing is is that my, my views have went down. But you know, I'm representing the industry better and I'm finding ways to like empower people and Especially with, like, when I give away boots and stuff like that for for the crews, like a lot of people might view that as, oh, austin just went down to the store, picked up some boots and he's looking for the dope.

Austin Blomquist: 30:20

I mean hit. He just wants to get views on his videos. But honestly, I don't post a video unless it's sponsored by a company. And that's where I say like, hey, I go buy boots for the crew and I want to do that out in the kindness of my heart. But now that I have this social media following, why can't I just send red wing boots or Wolverine a message saying hey, I have this idea of giving away boots to my crew. Would you fund it and I'd make a video about it? If they say yes and they send the boots, then I can do that.

Austin Blomquist: 30:48

But that's me. That's where I'm saying like I need to get these companies on board who want to make a bigger impact to the people that are installing the shingles. Those are the ones that, if it wasn't for the installers, we wouldn't be where we're at, the manufacturers and everybody wouldn't be able to. You know, go on these vacations, and so you hear these stories and you see what these guys go through and it's like how can I be Somebody that motivates other roofing companies to do better for their crew? You know, like I Go to roofing companies and I'm doing videos with them.

Austin Blomquist: 31:20

The crew isn't smiling, you know.

Austin Blomquist: 31:22

And I'm just like why isn't the crew smiling when I come to the job site as soon as I come with the boots and I'm dressed up as Santa Claus Could completely change the vibe right, and I break the ice and I show it.

Austin Blomquist: 31:33

Like you know, we all put our pants on the same way, you know, and I I just think that, especially with branding and like showing transparency, sometimes it I don't really want to have to come up with these ideas for these companies either, like I want them to come Up with the ideas and then I kind of better it and facilitate and say, like hey, here's the, the raw footage you sent me, but I'm gonna give you this recommendation, this recommendation, this recommendation To help it reach a better audience, a bigger audience, to you know, spread your message because you truly care and it's a balance right, like you know. And then when I'm trying to like prove to these companies like hey, like this is gonna work, like you should spend money on this, and I don't want to have to go out of my way to post the video, to have to prove it to them, like they should be able to see that.

David Bruno: 32:24

Hmm, the branding and the marketing and the social media, and that it doesn't get. You don't see everything. I think people tend to think that there needs to be a direct correlation or a direct ROI To every piece of the, to everything that you're doing and the social media To your point. Yeah, it's, that's. That's not the directly generator. I mean, there are a lot of things that I see, especially around this time of year, when things pop through my feed. I'm not sharing them. They're not things that I'm going to be able to clicking the like button or sharing with my, you know, with people in my network. But I'm certainly buying things from them, especially over the holidays, because there are things that are I find interesting. But I'm just not going to clog my own feed and my own page with all those sort of things. But it definitely does not mean that I'm not paying attention to it, that I don't recognize and it's not. But I'm not in that funnel with those businesses because it definitely certainly am.

David Bruno: 33:20

And this like to tie here. I mean I've got this shirt, I wear this shirt, this sweatshirt, all the time. The Thanksgiving Eve, the 21 turkey salute, I wear this all over the place. Tie has flooded. You know, the York County area with these, with these shirts in this brand, and there's no, probably no, direct Correlation or a direct ROI to those things. It's not like okay, well, I paid X amount per shirt and I've gotten X amount back, and that's not what it's. That's not the way that that plays.

Austin Blomquist: 33:49

These companies will go and spend whatever 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars going to a trade show and are they calculating their ROI on that? You know what is that leading to in the future. And it's fun because I get to have these conversations with these companies when I'm trying to close them and it's like, hey, what about a you know TV commercial? Do you see the direct? You know ROI on that, or are you trying to? You know, grow your brand? Where do you want to be in 10 years? If you don't do this today and if you don't do this for the next 10 years, then are you going to be at a hundred million dollar roofing company or are you going to be back at 40? And then are the people inside your organization even going to want to be there? Are you going to be able to hire new people when the other company is showing that transparency and giving away turkeys for Thanksgiving? I mean, those are the things that really you don't realize how important they are until you get that one deal or you get that sales rep, and you wouldn't have got it without that. And so it's like giving is receiving. You know you give and it'll come back to you. You know you do the right things and not every function of the business you're going to make an ROI on. You know it's like sorry, but there's sales and marketing and marketing. You put the money in and the salesperson has to sell the deal. So I'm doing the marketing. What are you going to do with the video? How are you going to sell it? Do you have the right retargeting you know stuff like that to capitalize on this opportunity. And most of the time they don't.

Austin Blomquist: 35:21

A lot of these companies are startups. You know they got funding and they say, hey, make some videos, we need to go viral and we want to get a thousand sales. I'm like what do you think? I got a crystal ball here and I can just, you know, do that for you. And that's the thing. As an influencer, you have to be transparent. You need to tell these companies that that's not how it works, like, either you do it with me or you don't. If you don't, then you're not going to get any views. If you do, it can lead to some opportunity, but I can't tell you what it's going to do.

Ty Backer: 35:51

Yeah, and that's a great point, because a lot of people think it's black and white. You know, if you spend XYZ on this area, that you're going to get an ROI on this area here. And I mean the best way to look at it. There's two ways you can look at it. Like set a budget you just set a marketing budget for, basically, maybe off of past sales. Or spend a set of budget for what you want to project, what your revenue sales are going to be right, so like, and that's a five to 10%. And if you're a $1 million company and you want to spend 10% of that, that's $100,000. And how you spend that or disperse that, you should see. And if you have some guidance or some mentoring when it comes to that kind of thing, you should get an ROI on that. Now, some of those things you can measure, that data, some of that stuff you can't measure. But what I think we're really talking about here is the difference between marketing and branding, because there's a lot of marketing strategies that you can do that you'll be able to get an ROI on. You'll be able to read what your ROI is. Now, the difference between branding and marketing is branding. You can't measure what your ROI is all the time. I can't tell you how many phone calls came in because of the billboard out on Route 30. I can't tell you how many phone calls came in because of our Facebook ads. Now, if they click on it, right, and it funnels through that channel, yes, we can count them as many times as they go that route, but what we're trying to cultivate, or what we're trying to captivate, is the more touch points than anyone else. Right, because if they don't know who you are, we've had this conversation a million times, david, and Vic's probably tired of me talking about it, because if I talk to you about this a million times, vic's heard it two million times. Okay, but this is the thing he who gets the most touch points wins. And however you spend your money to get that and the phone rings, who really gives a shit at the end of the day? Now, you should.

Ty Backer: 37:58

There is some, there's art to it. We talk about the art and there is some science to it. Right, you do have to follow the trends, right, and let's just say I'm going to use this, right, as an example. In the winter months, we tend to pull back some of our billboards why Less people are on the road, we tend to spend more money on SEOs and Facebook ads. Why? Because people are sitting on their couch, because it's cold outside and they tend to scroll Facebook more.

Ty Backer: 38:24

From spring, we peel back on some of the Facebook ads and throw more billboards out there, more yard signs, more things like that. Because there's more people out traveling and doing things and moving around. They come out of hibernation. So that's what I mean by like I don't know if that's art or if that's science to it or just using your yeah, a combination of both of just using your head that there's going to be less people on the road because they're freezing their ass off and they're going from point A to point B and they're not spacing out the window looking at your billboard.

David Bruno: 38:52

Yeah, like if you were to do a workshop or you were to do something like that, I would probably suggest that there should be none of the people who are involved in that that should leave without having one of your shirts or sweatshirt or something like that. And again, do you get a direct response from that? Does that direct ROI? I mean you could say, okay, well, I paid X amount for the shirts, but it's just a matter of, hey, those people who were in the workshop, they know what they're going to wear, that they're going to be proud of that, because that's some sort of, I guess, a learning or a certification to them of some kind. Yeah, so why not?

Austin Blomquist: 39:37

Well, really, when I started the roofing company, I was thinking about branding and marketing and the budget was very, very slim. I mean it's the first year. I mean you don't have any money to start with, right? So, thank God I had some good SEO and I live in a small town to where we could get some leads organically without paying for them. But it came down to how am I going to build my brand without having to pay to build my brand? I'm like, okay, well, I started asking people right, like, how do I do it? So one of the people I asked was actually Jen Silver and I said how am I going to grow my brand? And she gave me this awesome idea. She says why don't you team up? Well, actually I was telling her I'm working with these schools. I'm like how can I capitalize off doing these school roof replacements to build my brand? And she's like, why don't you team up with BHK and give 5% back to the school for building a playground or doing something like letting kids ski for the wintertime or something like that? And I was like, wow, that's such a great idea. So I kept that in the back of my mind and things kind of went on, I did another school roof for them and then I was finally able to present that to them and they love that idea. On top of that, they also had a school where the ice was coming off of the roof and I had some leftover product and I said, hey, I can go up there and install it myself. It was fun because actually the maintenance manager was up on the roof with me. You know he cares, he wants to make sure the kids are safe and it feels so good to make your community safer and to see a problem and just fix it and just take it into your own hands.

Austin Blomquist: 41:23

And that's what I think roofing companies aren't doing enough of, where they don't need to be on social media doing all this crazy stuff. And the thing is is they say, austin, can you teach me how to do it? Or to make these videos? And a couple of months ago I'm like sure I'll teach you how to do it. It's going to be a thousand bucks. And then the roofing company says, oh, that's out of the budget. I'm like then you shouldn't even be thinking about this right now. Like go out in your community and start doing some bigger things and don't worry about social media, you know, work on your SEO, work on your Facebook ads, the things that you're going to get a return on, and then maybe put branding on the side a little bit or do what you can. But don't put all your eggs in one basket here and think that you know you can go organic on social media and drive all your business for free, because that's not going to happen. But if you do those things for your community and make a bigger impact when you do get that lead, now you tell the story when you go and sell that deal where you say, hey, I'm connected with BHK. Did your kids go through BHK? And if they did, then I'm going to get 5% back to the school to do something bigger. Now, just having that in your pitch, even doing like free repairs.

Austin Blomquist: 42:38

So I wanted to do something with certainty where it's like, hey, we're giving back to the community, we're going to do free repairs. So the idea of that video would be you go and you see a roof with missing shingles in a lower income community Maybe you've seen that old lady shoveling snow years past where you know that somebody that could really use your services. You go and ask her hey, why haven't you done anything with your roof yet? Oh, you know, I just don't have the money. Oh, I can't find a roofer. Well, you know, here at Crown Roofing we teamed up with Certain Teed to give back to the community. We're going to go up there and we're going to fix the roof for absolutely no charge and we're going to say have a nice day.

Austin Blomquist: 43:16

What I realized after that is that was out of the kindness of my heart, like that was something where I'm just like I want to do this, I want to make a bigger impact.

Austin Blomquist: 43:26

Well, what if you go up there and there's a bunch of storm damage and missing shingles everywhere, where the repair is actually going to be worse for the homeowner when they have insurance? So now you get off the roof and you're like homeowner, I'm sorry to say, but I want to do this repair for you, but your insurance company will pay for this. That's something where, when I teach people how to sell and market, I don't want people to use that in the wrong way. I don't want to just teach something like that to the wrong person, because they'll go out and use that and say I'm going to do a free repair, knowing that they're going to go after the insurance. I want to be selective with who I teach this stuff to, because I don't want somebody to be looking for the dopamine hit. That's not trying to better the industry and the people around them, and it's all about them.

Ty Backer: 44:19

Yeah, now I like that. I like that a lot, and one thing that you touched on briefly there in the beginning that how the maintenance guy got up on the roof and you going out there with some extra product that you had. But the most important for me, anyhow, again reflecting back on my early days, was the relationships that I built early on that with those people that I still do business with today, all these years later, plus the network of people that I met through those people and those relationships that I built early on and was one of the probably biggest things that I was able to do to put ourselves out there and get those referrals and build a network, because that had become our net worth Still to this day. I mean, there's an investor, a local investor, that we do work for 15 years strong, but then not just that and that relationship, but all of his real estate friends have used us and still use us today, and those relationships blossomed into many more relationships was one organic way and really what it came down to was is being fair, being transparent and being trustworthy and also, importantly, doing a good job and if there was an issue because things there's going to be hiccups not hesitating by going out there and correcting what may have gone wrong right, because that's the lasting impression, because things are going to go wrong at some point in time, something goofy is going to happen. It's usually somebody that you know or someone that's close to a friend or a family member is the one roof that's going to leak, and Betty's roof.

Ty Backer: 46:00

But those are the things that early on in business, it's like you need to seek relationships. You need to go into real estate offices and say, hey, I'm David Bruno, you know, I'm with TC Backer Construction, these are the services that we provide, and maybe even at that point in time, maybe drop a name or two of some other people or and or referrals Like hey, we have, you know, some references here from from Keller Williams that we also do. You know free roof inspections, complimentary roof inspections at no cost, because a lot of times you can't go after the home run. You can't go after the home run. All of these relationships and all of these. You know these calm, sometimes, crumbs. You got to get the. You got to go through the crumbs right. You got to do the repairs. You got to do the free roof certifications. You know what I mean. You got to, you got to give an extended warranty on something. Go up and do some roof repairs and give it extended warranties.

Ty Backer: 46:57

Because what happens is if, if you're honest and you're transparent and people know that about you, if you're the one roofer out of the five roofers they had up there and you're the one guy that says no, this doesn't need replaced. That goes so far. Yeah, I mean. I mean, I don't know how many times we've heard that scenario where homeowners will say you know, we've had two other contractors out here telling us, you know that we needed a new roof and you're the first company to tell us that we didn't need a new roof. If you don't need a roof, we're not going to try to sell you a roof. We're not going to try to vandalize your roof so the insurance company pays for it. We're not going to do these things. And because if you're in it for the longevity of it and you're in it for the long haul, those are the things that you can't get. I guess what happens? You get desperate. I guess, especially early on, you get desperate, and then there's desperate times.

Ty Backer: 47:51

But, you can't let that affect your judgment and do a shitty job and or do shady stuff.

Austin Blomquist: 47:58

Yeah, and one thing I'd like to add on that is, sometimes you know, you have to make sure your organization like knows those relationships that you spent building for this company. And that was one thing that I had to learn the hard way, where the school said, hey, can you build a pavilion for us? Oh yeah, we can build pavilions. You know, I thought it was easy, right. Well, a little did I know that we had to build a whole foundation and it wasn't level and this and this and that. And you know, I had one sales guy trying to do it. He was busy project managing, he wasn't able to get it done. And then there's, you know, garbage left behind and then I bring in someone else to try to do it. You know he leaves material out and there's kids playing out in this playground.

Austin Blomquist: 48:41

I'm like guys, like like let's do some common sense here. Like this is a school Like this, this is a very important client of mine, like I need you to take this serious. And it was like it almost ruined the relationship with this school and I was actually out in Utah doing a snow grip job and the job was just going like everything was going wrong. I mean, there was supply, like the logistics, the truck wasn't coming with the material, we had a bunch of rain and it ended up I ended up being there for an extra two weeks but I was trying to virtually kind of manage this pavilion, this $4,500 pavilion that we're making, you know, and it ended up being like the bottleneck of the business and the biggest problem of the year, because I had the property manager calling me saying, hey, like the guys left stuff out, and then I'm calling my sales guys saying, hey, like you need to go back there and pick this up, and things just weren't getting done, unless I was, like I was realizing, like I didn't need to take things into my own hands, like this relationship is getting burnt.

Austin Blomquist: 49:44

And I knew, as soon as I get back from Utah you know I was driving back I got back maybe 11 o'clock at night the next morning, waking up at five o'clock in the morning and driving up two hours north of me to Houghton, michigan, basically in the middle of Lake Superior. And I'm there with a grinding wheel, you know, smoothing the edges around the pavilion, making sure that everything is perfect, cleaned up, you know, make sure that, like, the customer is happy, and for me to do that. That actually built the relationship, because there was a problem, you know, and my team was busy. I shouldn't have put that on my team. I didn't charge enough, they weren't incentivized enough.

Austin Blomquist: 50:27

I ended up losing money on it, but it was so important for me to keep that relationship that I knew that I had to take things into my own hands and that's something that I learned where I need to be, like having our why and our mission and why we're in business and our purpose and trying to serve the community and be there for these people. Everybody needs to know that they all need to be in a line, because if it's just me, it starts to. It was a really it wasn't a good feeling, but I didn't set the expectations clear on this job and I'm there's nobody else to blame by myself. I'm not going to put the blame on anybody else, but it's little things like that you'll run into and and it's it's like what. What can you do when you run into problems? How are you going to handle it? And that's part of running a roofing companies it's constantly putting out fires.

Ty Backer: 51:23

Yeah, no doubt you're a fireman most definitely, ben there did that for many, many, many years, man. But I can tell you this great leadership attracts great leaders. You know where you get everybody rowing in the same direction, where you're not the one that's on the job grinding out the corners to make sure that they're smooth, you will eventually, at some point in time, surround yourself around people that will nip that stuff in the bud before it gets to that point, but again, things will still happen. The longer you're in business, things tend to happen. I mean we've had freak storms come through in the midst of tearing roofs off already, and I mean we had to batten down the hatches. Did things get wet? Yeah, they got wet. We had to take it on the chin, we lost money. It's going to happen when you have a lot of other people involved, you work outside in the elements. I mean there's so many factors, materials, the product show up wrong, they don't show up at all. I mean it's going to happen, but it's how you respond to these situations when they happen is what is what change? Which is what makes the difference, and that's what I call the lasting impression that that homeowner or that maintenance man or that school or that person. That's their lasting, not the last impression, but the lasting impression that they have of you, the integrity, like look, I will go over and beyond, no matter what it takes, we'll tear the entire roof off this thing and make sure that this thing goes down right. And I can't tell you, over the years we probably had to take off two, maybe three roofs. One was because it was a wrong color. One was because our backs were turned and something went down and we discovered it and the homeowner didn't even know that this went down. But Glenn made the command decision like, hey, we're just going to take the roof off and put it down again. You know what I mean. But that's that lasting impression. You know what I mean. And those are the things that you have to do. You're going to lose money. There's no doubt about it. Before we even got profitable, we were five years into it before we could even say that we were actually even a profitable business, not because of the mistakes that we made, but the amount of money that went back into the business to conduct business and to grow the business and to brand the business and to pay a good, healthy salary.

Ty Backer: 53:51

Should those people that were just as motivated as I was. I needed to do something to motivate them so they could feed their families Right, and you got to make this not about you. This is about everyone else. This is those that you surround yourself with. That's what this is about, but, more importantly, it's about the homeowner that you're protecting Right, because, with roofing, we are protecting most people's largest, biggest financial investment that they will ever make in their life, and that's how important. That's how you got to look at it and that's how every single individual on your team has to look at it. This could be your mom's house. This is somebody's mother's home. This is somebody's grandmother's home. Would you want somebody doing this to your grandmother's house? How would you want the end product to be on your grandmother's home?

Austin Blomquist: 54:38

Yeah, it's, even when the guys get tired and they get lazy and the pressure is too much on the guns and you know, like little things like that and this year, actually, first couple of years, I was kind of the nice guy and I could tolerate a lot.

Austin Blomquist: 54:55

But when things don't go right and you keep seeing them reoccurring and like there was a couple of times where I kind of blew up a little bit on the crew, but it was something where they needed to know that this is like an area where we get 200 inches of snow and we can't have these low nails where it's transitioned from the house to the porch and you need to hand seal these because we need to do it right.

Austin Blomquist: 55:19

I never want to come back out here again. And you know, and you start to get excuses from the crew. You know our roofs never leak and we got insurance and it's like, hey, it's not about that, it's about the reputation of the brand and it's about doing it right. And sorry, I had to blow up on you guys, but this is super important to me that these roofs get done the best way possible and it's so easy when you're, when you're running, you know a busy schedule where you know I mean what if a couple of roofs were put on wrong or you know it wasn't nailed properly or over driven in certain areas, like I don't want to go home at night and think about that.

David Bruno: 55:57

And to both of your points. I mean when that's going to happen. It's about making it right. I mean, is it going to take a loss on the on that one or two jobs or a couple of jobs? Of course, right up front. But again, that's where we're talking about the return on that investment. I mean you do right by those people. I mean it's going to come back to you in terms of they're going to trust you, they're going to believe in you. They're going to say, hey, this, this business took care of me. It didn't start out that way, but the end result is they took care of me, they stood behind what they were doing, and it's going to pay back in referrals and just just good business being done, you know, and it's getting into that place to just be entrusted like and believed in what you're doing.

Ty Backer: 56:36

No doubt.

David Bruno: 56:36

Yeah.

Ty Backer: 56:38

No doubt. Well, what a great episode. I mean Austin. It's always a pleasure. David Bruno, you're always been a pleasure to be on the show. But, david, you got any last and final questions before we get off here.

David Bruno: 56:54

Not necessarily, but Austin answered a couple of those from when we started. You know, I just was really just curious about how you got into it, how you've kind of taken this thing on your own and kind of just shifted your approach to make it really yours and taking advantage of new technologies and things like that. I've seen our big part of what you've done, so that's really good stuff. I think this has been a great conversation. Yeah me too.

Ty Backer: 57:17

Me too, austin, austin, leave our guest here that are watching, with some golden nugget that you've learned over the past several years that you would like to share with everybody.

Austin Blomquist: 57:31

I would just say giving is receiving. I love that quote. I think everybody should wake up and start giving more and it'll fill their cup. Giving is what fills my cup and keeps me keep going. When you see that smile on somebody's face, what can you do to do more of it? You know, life is so fragile. I was just listening to a story of one of the roofers. Like sisters died yesterday and you know, with my dad passing away, it's like you know they're not going to want you to be sad, you know so. It's like it's tough. You never know what could be happening in somebody's life and you know just saying even like hey, ty, you're doing an excellent job with your company. You know I don't think enough business owners get the good job, you know, and it's like for other business owners. I see it Like, I see what you've done and I know it takes a lot, takes grit, takes time, doesn't happen overnight and you know, just compliment people once in a while and bring the best out of them.

Ty Backer: 58:36

Amen, amen, that's. You know, that's this over bullet man, you know, if you, you know you have to give it away if you want to keep it, and that's that's what it comes down to at the end of the day. And I think a lot of people on this earth are trying to figure out what their purpose is. And it's real, it's real easy, you know. Sum it up with one word serve. We're here to serve. We're here to serve each other, and if anyone ever wanted to know why their life might suck, it's probably because you may be a little too selfish. You don't serve others. So, anyhow, what an awesome episode. Episode 207.

Ty Backer: 59:13

Next week we have Tim Brown. Tim Brown will be in the house. I think that'll be our Christmas episode right before Christmas. Tim Brown is one of our, one of our sponsors. There you go Hook agency. It's funny.

Ty Backer: 59:29

There was something that I could have shared about Tim. Tim sent me a screenshot of Ryan Holiday has an ad on Facebook when he was on behind the tool belt, and it's had over, like I mean, a ridiculous amount of viewers. Okay, so Tim took a screenshot of it and right in the corner you can see hook agency. So I mean the the impact that your name being on something we have no idea how many people will see it and it's it's hard to measure sometimes. The ROI, you just got to get out there, you just got to stay consistent. I guess to sum this episode up is is have grit, stay consistent and don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens, and and make sure that you're serving others. So thank you, guys for another wonderful episode of behind the tool belt. You guys make this possible. You guys motivate us to want to improve this every single week. So thank you guys so much and we'll see you next week for episode 208.

Austin Blomquist: 1:00:33

Yep. Thanks Tim, thanks David Thanks.

Ty Backer: 1:00:35

Tim.

Austin Blomquist: 1:00:37

Thanks for watching.