Embark on a transformative exploration of growth and leadership with my friend William Stewart from RoofCon Revolt, as we share our personal trials and triumphs from the gridiron to the grind of entrepreneurship. This episode peels back the layers of what it means to turn stress into a driving force for productivity, while also touching on the human side of business—where authenticity and personal development are not just buzzwords but the cornerstones of inspiring others. We dive into William's own shift from pursuing a health science career on the football field to creating waves in the business world, revealing how past experiences shape our leadership skills and prepare us for the challenges of building a company from the ground up.
Navigating the tightrope between professional responsibilities and personal life, especially when your partner is also your co-worker, can be a circus act worth a ticket. Today, my guest and I share insights on how we've managed to maintain a work-life balance that respects our relationship and family life, even as we carve success in the same company. The episode doesn't shy away from the tough conversations about preserving individuality and supporting each other’s growth within a shared workspace, all while keeping up with the pitter-patter of little feet and the constant juggle of remote work.
Excitement buzzes as we discuss the lead-up to RoofCon 2023, an event promising to be a crucible for personal and professional evolution. With vendor spaces filling up and the community's heartbeat growing louder, we're gearing up for an event that's more than just a conference—it's a milestone of transformation for industry professionals. And there's a hint of something special in the air—a podcast revival that could take our personal and professional brands to new heights. Join us as we close with a challenge that's close to our hearts: committing to kindness in our daily lives, because sometimes, the smallest acts can spark the greatest changes.
Embark on a transformative exploration of growth and leadership with my friend William Stewart from RoofCon Revolt, as we share our personal trials and triumphs from the gridiron to the grind of entrepreneurship. This episode peels back the layers of what it means to turn stress into a driving force for productivity, while also touching on the human side of business—where authenticity and personal development are not just buzzwords but the cornerstones of inspiring others. We dive into William's own shift from pursuing a health science career on the football field to creating waves in the business world, revealing how past experiences shape our leadership skills and prepare us for the challenges of building a company from the ground up.
Navigating the tightrope between professional responsibilities and personal life, especially when your partner is also your co-worker, can be a circus act worth a ticket. Today, my guest and I share insights on how we've managed to maintain a work-life balance that respects our relationship and family life, even as we carve success in the same company. The episode doesn't shy away from the tough conversations about preserving individuality and supporting each other’s growth within a shared workspace, all while keeping up with the pitter-patter of little feet and the constant juggle of remote work.
Excitement buzzes as we discuss the lead-up to RoofCon 2023, an event promising to be a crucible for personal and professional evolution. With vendor spaces filling up and the community's heartbeat growing louder, we're gearing up for an event that's more than just a conference—it's a milestone of transformation for industry professionals. And there's a hint of something special in the air—a podcast revival that could take our personal and professional brands to new heights. Join us as we close with a challenge that's close to our hearts: committing to kindness in our daily lives, because sometimes, the smallest acts can spark the greatest changes.
Welcome back everybody to behind the tool belt, episode 222. We have another amazing guest with us today. Stay tuned. We will be back after our short intro from our sponsors. Some days I have to wear 15 hats, some days only get to wear one, but that's great. But then I find myself wanting to do more and help more and inspire, and inspire other people to want to do the same thing. And we're back. Welcome back everybody to episode 222, behind the tool belt.
Ty Cobb Backer:We were back in the great state of pennsylvania just recently. Uh, ascended or descended one of the two from um, dallas, fort Worth done. Now it's just Dallas this time. Sorry, I get to Texas. We've been to just about every city and in Texas there, but we were definitely in in Dallas when we got, I think. When we got to Dallas, I was like are we in Baltimore? At the airport? There I got was getting confused because we were flying around and and actually got to spend a day and a half with my friend William in utah prior to us going to Dallas. We attended the uh Uh, roof con road on the road. What is it? Road to roof con, road to, yeah, road to roof con with my friend, uh, william and and Diego and Erica and the whole crew from from roof con revolt and all those guys. So so William, my friend, william Stuart, with, uh, roof con revolt, probably wearing many hats over there how the hell are you, buddy?
William Stewart:Yeah, man, uh, wear a lot of hats. I'm doing good. How about you?
Ty Cobb Backer:I'm fantastic man, I was good. You know, what's funny is is I think it was two weeks ago. I asked vick a really stupid question. I said to him I was like vick, when, when is this not going to be so uncomfortable? And he looked at me and he threw one back at me that I've used on him before and he said never. And uh, so that meant suck it up, buttercup. And you know, if I had to choose a week that we weren't going to do the podcast and by no means not because Of you being on the show, but just of being tired, fatigued, um, worn out from being on the road this would have been definitely one of the weeks. But I think the difference between success and unsuccessful is that you do things Especially when you don't want to do them, and I feel like that's why this podcast has been as successful is because of the consistency. We haven't missed a wednesday, and I sure as hell wasn't going to miss it for William Stewart. So that's, that's how to hell I'm doing.
William Stewart:Yeah, yeah, funny. We actually just had a sales meeting yesterday where we were talking about you know what was your ideal work environment Like? How do you want to feel every day when you go to work and everybody says, oh, you know, stress-free, happy, you know the typical, like positive things? I was just like, well, I like stress, I want to be stressed every day at work Because that means I'm getting stuff done and I'm being productive and I'm growing.
Ty Cobb Backer:Um, for sure, For sure, if it was comfortable, there would be no success there. Success doesn't happen in the comfort zone, it definitely happens outside the comfort zone. And why? Why I was feeling, I guess, uncomfortable at that time was there. There was a lot going on.
Ty Cobb Backer:Uh, the last week and a half I was asked to be like a speaker on Eric Oh's um culture by weekly call. So he had asked me to come in and and you know that stuff still gets me nervous because I want to make Sure I articulate a message To those, you know, that are listening and that I can educate them and make them feel inspired and aspire them to do great things right. And then, somewhere in the mix, diego reached out to me and asked me to come out to Utah and speak with you guys out there. Sounds like oh shit. And then we had Mike Claudio on the show last week, um, which was the day before set up. So I knew we were gonna have to set up a smash lab quick um to you know, broadcast live from somewhere down there once we got to To Dallas. And then I had a couple speaking engagements. Why we were down there. I was on a panel um Of leaders with on the topic of leadership, and then I got the mc, a marketing panel down there.
Ty Cobb Backer:So it was like all of these uncomfortable things that's like like, how do you really prepare for that? You know what I mean? Kind of like we were talking about before the show here. It was like, you know, we weren't really prepared, you know, for I mean I guess we could have gotten prepared. But you know, this is what we do. We're professionals, right? We? We coach, we train, we mentor, we inspire people, and that there's not much to prepare for that other than from our past. You know, experiences, the things that we've gone through, right is is what Our preparation is. Is we, whether we knew it or not, we've been preparing for this moment, for this opportunity to, you know, get on a podcast and and articulate, hopefully, a message that other people can resonate with Um and that they feel aspire to, to go out and make an impact on other people's lives, right, I guess? That's if I had to sum it up, um, so our, our past experiences have prepared us for this. So that was our readiness.
William Stewart:Yeah, I didn't say that better. I mean, that's how it always is. I feel like if you you know growing and preparing are two different things, if you try to prepare for something, it can almost come across as fake. You know, like I'm trying to Make you think I'm somebody that I'm not actually day-to-day. But if you're growing, it's just who you are. Then you can just kind of hop on anything you know whenever and that's just that's who you are.
Ty Cobb Backer:I love that, I love that. And, william, let's get into a little bit of your background. So, leading up to you know, roofing industry. Have you always been in the roofing industry? Have you been in sales, like, let's give us probably the past five years Of your career that led you to where you're at now?
William Stewart:Okay, so well. Really, I guess, if you look at it that way, uh, my career has probably only been five years. To be honest, um, five years ago I was 19. So I was playing division one football, coast Carolina. Five years ago, I mean, I grew up in the roofing industry construction, all that, here in Myrtle Beach. My dad's a roofing contractor. He's a general contractor as well. My granddad, he was one of the biggest contractors in Myrtle Beach Back when, like Hugo came through, um, you know, owned one of the supply yards, all that stuff. So I grew up in the industry but it was, I guess, coming out of college and football and stuff.
William Stewart:I thought athletics and, uh, you know, like the health science field was what I wanted to do. That kind of changed. I did physical therapy for a little bit but I found out, uh, doctors don't make what you think they make, right. So, uh, I ended up just kind of helping my dad out, gotten to sales, working, uh, you know, starting. I started, you know, banging hammers and nails and stuff and shoveling dirt, doing all the grunt work as a kid. But then, uh, after college and stuff got into more, uh, I don't want to say like ownership, but like owner son, that kind of role that you play where you, you know you don't make all the decisions, but you make a lot of decisions but you also still do the sales and everything like that. And I did that for a while to help, you know, him grow his business a little bit.
William Stewart:Eventually I got to a point where I was getting kind of Frustrated. I want a little bit more. So while I was helping him I actually started a landscaping company Just to kind of be my own entrepreneurial like route and kind of learn more of an owner aspect of stuff. So I had a landscape company for a few years. Actually just recently sold that.
William Stewart:And you know, when I came on the roof con team I kind of had it in the background a little bit doing some hot end stuff. But once I got on to a roof con and revolt, kind of put that on the side and got rid of that. But I guess it all started my dad sent me, erica and another employee to roof con Through year 2022 and we just came to roof con, had a great experience. You know, I think I almost got tackled by Tim Tebow security guard. That's a funny story in itself, just because I had a prior connection to him through coastal football but, yeah, had an amazing experience and then a job opportunity opened up for Erica later down the road and Hunter flew me and Erica out to Dallas, to IRE, where we met him and Marcus for the first time. And, you know, one thing led to another and I became part of the team.
Ty Cobb Backer:I love that. I love that story because I think I think I may have met you at IRE. I know where we met. The first time was was in Austin.
William Stewart:Yeah, walking into the convention center, he's behind hunter and stuff. That's what it was.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I remember that moment for you with you, I guess, and then more, or I think we actually had a pretty significant conversation was in Austin. We're in Austin at a revolt retreat. Got to talk to you a little bit more there and and got to pick your brain a little bit about, like where you came from a little bit, because I didn't I don't think I remember I don't know if that was before, after IRE, but but I remember we was part of the.
William Stewart:I Was actually still part of the revolt team at that point. I mean, I still help out revolt now, but I definitely think I was still part of the revolt team, of that. Yeah, I mean I've grown a lot definitely. I was kind of, you know, and meeting all these guys and stuff, I Especially being kind of hunter's guests I guess, even though I was a, you know, employee friend, I actually refused to work for a hundred for a while. I was just like you know, I didn't want to, you know, cross that path working with my wife and stuff in the same thing, just to kind of butt heads and stuff. But no, it's great thing. By now it's kind of like I Guess shy, kind of to myself, so I didn't talk to all you guys as much I wish I would have taken advantage of. But no, definitely I had to met all y'all and be here.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, hindsight's always 2020, but you're here now and that's. That's really all it matters. So let's go back to your, your football, your stent and football there in college I would. Would you say that you know, you know traveling and and working or playing On a team atmosphere like that. Do you think that you've been able to apply the things that your coach or your team had instilled in you back then? Do you apply any of that into your leadership role today?
William Stewart:Oh, 100%. I think I probably had it a lot better than probably 90% of the country, if I had to say it on that way. I had a short stint. I graduated a year early from college because I Wanted to go for engineering originally and they told me it was gonna be three years of coastal, two years at Clemson. So in my mind that's five years for a four-year degree. That doesn't really make sense. So instead I swapped majors, did health, sciences and stuff, and so I graduated a year early, just from taking extra credits. I did that because I wanted to do three years of coastal, maybe two years sec somewhere, maybe Carolina, georgia, whatever. That didn't end up happening. But while I was at coastal, not only did I play D1 football, but my head coach at the time when I came on to it was Joe Moglia. I don't know if you ever heard that name.
Ty Cobb Backer:I don't think so.
William Stewart:So he started out and I'm pretty sure he started his career out Well. He coached football. I think he was like the youngest coach, high school coach in Delaware history or something. Then he got into finances. I was his whole degree. He worked at Merrill Lynch for a little while but I know he ended up at TD at Meritrade and he was the CEO there for like 20 some years. He took them from I Don't know if they ended up making his client, his client assets there something like 280 million and grew it to one some trillion like in the trillions or something like grew TD Meritrade to what it is today, basically Retired. Then he came to coastal to coach football where he, you know, grew our program tremendously.
William Stewart:But the fact that he was my head coached but he was also, like you know this fortune 500, you know CEO. That just happened to coach football. I got to pick his brain throughout my entire year there and kind of he applied a lot of the Stuff that he did while he was at TD at Meritrade to his football program and stuff like that. Like one of the things was he's got a patented slogan called bam right, bam stands for be a man and it's got this whole you know, list of morals that you got a. If you want to work in the company, you got to do this, this, this, live by these standards and you know everybody keeps each other accountable to stay with those standards and stuff. But I definitely a lot of the stuff that I learned from him, not just through the sports aspect but business aspect, that I just happen to learn from knowing him, it has been amazing All right and now give us a situation where you've had to apply some of these principles well On top of football.
William Stewart:I've just I've had a lot of opportunities, I guess, in general. So I'm also an Eagle Scout, which I mean like. So Hunter is also, diego actually is too, and there's a few other things. But I hold probably the leadership I learned and scouts more than More than college or anything set for football. Football obviously definitely helped me out, but you just learned to wear in situations where the younger guys coming up, no matter where you are. If you've been at a company a little bit longer, instead of thinking you're, you know, high and mighty and stuff, you'll actually grow the team better by you know saying like, okay, how do we help this guy figure it out? You know, how do we include them and help them learn? You know, don't just think, okay, they're behind us, let me keep moving forward and they'll follow me. You got to reach that hand back and you know, show them the ropes to get where they need to go, because if you help them grow, you'll kind of grow. Also, I guess you know I probably my time in coaching.
William Stewart:I helped my dad coach softball. He's got like or at one point had like, five I guess, nonprofit softball teams where you know some of the local Well, not even local probably all over South Carolina. He had girls coming that what couldn't necessarily some of them could but couldn't necessarily afford to play like travel, softball and stuff outside of the school sports and his Roofing company would actually sponsor them and get all these girls from across the state to play on these different teams and travel that way and stuff. I helped him do that for a while. So that was cool, getting to kind of lead.
William Stewart:You know those girls and stuff, some of the different football camps that I've hosted you know Merlin in the Merle Beach area, but really I guess most of it applied those just been, you know, trying to apply it in the state, applied to me and grow myself. So that can, you know, find my own way. You know it's starting a family and everything. Try to, you know. You know, connect you guys and make sure I do what I'm supposed to do to stay on track.
Ty Cobb Backer:No, I love that. Let's talk a little more. I like how you talked about when, when you were talking about the time you were in the Eagle scouts. We're, what I heard you say was is basically no, no, no man, no woman left behind. Now, granted, I know there's probably only young men in the Eagle scouts, but I needed to throw women in there too, because I was just thinking about how we can apply that to our life skills, whether it be at home with our families or work with those around us, right, and that's actually one of our values touches on not, you know, no man left behind, right, whether it be homeowners, whether it be predominantly our co-workers and our family and stuff like that. So let's dig into that a little deeper. Like, what does that actually mean? When you say that, like you know, it's, it's your obligation, your responsibility to to go back to the back of the line and help that person Achieve, you know, getting further up in that line. Like what, what does that mean exactly? What does that entail?
William Stewart:I think. To sum it up, you know I think it's Simon Sinek's book leaders eat last, right. So I mean that's the best way to say it is you know you got to make sure your team and everybody that's underneath you and that you're responsible for is taking care of before yourself, and that you know that applies to you know Sports team aspect that matter if you're the quarterback, the coach or whatever. You know those who you're responsible for, you have to make sure they have the tools they need, they're put in a position where they can succeed first, and inherently that'll happen to you too, you know. You know whether that's your family too.
William Stewart:You know If you're the husband, you're the breadwinner, you're the one that has to. You know bring in ends meet. You know each person in the family or team or whatever, has their role. You know the kids come first, and your wife, and then, once everybody's taken care of, then you can take care of yourself and worry about other stuff. But I think that applies to you know sports teams, business, marriage, family, anything. That's this you know you apply that aspect where you make sure everybody that you're responsible for is taken care of, then you know everything will fall in line when it's time your turn, though, you know.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, no, and I like that. I think I just had a conversation about this yesterday with somebody I was on a call with and I had actually brought up Simon Sinek and one of our roles or what is our role as a father or leader or whatever whatever it applies in, both personal and professional is that we're here to provide safety and security, and I know one of the biggest things that I pride myself in is creating a safe, secure atmosphere, like where everybody knows when they show up here that that door is going to be open. They know every Friday that ACH is it in the bank account. But it also goes much deeper than that, right, Like when things are falling behind, jumping in the trenches with your team and helping them pick up the pace or helping them figure things out and not being afraid to get my hands dirty right Like during COVID.
Ty Cobb Backer:Things got real weird here in the state of Pennsylvania and some people chose to stay home.
Ty Cobb Backer:But at that moment that was another reminder of me of why I continued to drive a pickup truck with a ladder on it, because I was running seven appointments a day, seven days a week ended up closing about a million dollars in business in just the amount of 90 days, just to make sure we could make ends meet, not for us, not for my family necessarily, because I knew we were going to be okay, but it was for the rest of the team that I needed to make sure, because we elected to just basically pay everybody right If they chose to kind of stay on board with us at that time.
Ty Cobb Backer:So I needed to make sure that everybody ate, and that meant no matter what it took. There were certain processes and procedures that I had to relearn that I had walked away from five years ago right, but that I had to reeducate myself on some of the new systems, some of the new processes, and even create and develop new ones along the way, because we were working a lot of people were working remotely at that time, but I knew what I had to do was is that I had to show up.
Ty Cobb Backer:Suit up, show up and did whatever, whatever it takes and that's kind of why I posted it yesterday, because I was reminded of that once again, that we're here to do whatever it takes. You know, no man or woman left behind. Now, of course, those that may take advantage of that, or those that may be incompetent, or whatever the case might be right Either they're going to level up or they're going to get pushed out within the organization. We can't necessarily do that at home with our children or our wife, but the moral of the story is is that we have to know what we signed up for, and that means, unfortunately, we may end up eating the crumbs that are left in the bottom of the bag, the bread bag, because everyone else got to eat right. But it is our responsibility, as, as your coach had stated. You know the bam theory be a man right, suit up, show up, even especially when I don't want to or I don't feel like it. But that's where, you know, I feel better about myself, because I did show up on the day that I didn't feel like showing up. So when we get off this podcast, I'm going to feel better and know that I did the right thing, because you know I invited you to come on the show. And what would that have looked like if I would have said hey, william, guess what we're going to? We're going to postpone this episode. You know I didn't. I didn't want to. There's a lot going on. I'm playing catch up this week from being in Dallas. I was away from my family for a good solid seven days and I could have made up.
Ty Cobb Backer:I don't have that luxury. Somebody was talking about the luxuries that we have, right, and luxuries as a as in, like excuses, right, I don't get that, that luxury. I don't allow that to become a luxury. You know excuses and procrastination and all these luxuries that we have as, as human beings, especially in America today, tim Grover. Tim Grover was saying that at, at, at, when the storm, like we don't get these. I mean, we have them, but but unfortunately I'm not going to put myself in that category where I don't get the luxuries of making excuses or even saying, hey, that's not my job, right, like that's not the mentality that we have around here. It is my job Some days I have to wear 15 hats, some days I only get to wear one, but that's great. But then I find myself wanting to do more and help more and inspire, and inspire other people to want to do the same thing.
William Stewart:Yep, Yep. And that always goes back to one thing that reminds me that my coach always ended. It too was like after all the things behind the bam. He would always tell us you know, now, these aren't rules, we don't have rules, but we have one standard, and that this is the standard.
Ty Cobb Backer:Absolutely, absolutely, and that's the thing Plus two, you want to gain respect for your team, those that are working around you, right that you want them to be able to, or want to, eat a bullet for you. You know what I mean. I can't even count on both hands and feet the people that I would eat a bullet for here friends, family, work associates, teammates. You know co-leaders, right and though, and I feel like they would do the same for me as well, and it's like you have. That's the culture that we're trying to build, no matter what it takes. If the state of Pennsylvania is on lockdown, we're all going to group together, right, and we're going to make sure that everybody eats, and that means in all nine states.
Ty Cobb Backer:At that time, I think, we were servicing seven states, you know. We had subcontractors, we had distribution, we had manufacturing. Like we looked at it as like, not just like on a regional level, but like a national level, like it is our moral obligation to stay open when other businesses elected to close down. You know what I mean. Like that was our moral obligation, and that was on a macro level, but more so on a micro level. Today, it's like I show up every single day for Vic. I show up every day for Sam open accounts payable. I show up every day for our team and, of course, I show up for my family as well, my immediate family at home.
Ty Cobb Backer:But the good thing is is I feel like she. You know Jana, rocket McKenzie, the grandbabies, even my son Jacob. They know that they're going to be okay because dad's okay. Dad woke up one more day. You know what I mean. And when I do that every morning, the change in topic here, a little bit like that's my first win. The second thing I open my eyes. That's win number one for the day. You know what I mean.
Ty Cobb Backer:And for me to be able to suit up and show up that I have a certain regiment in the morning and I thank God right away. Thank you, I thank him for everything that he's given me, everything that he's taken from me and everything that he has left me. I usually end my prayers and then I go, I get, I put my feet on the floor, I let the dogs out, I come back in, I read two, two books every single morning. One's a daily, actually, both of them are daily devotional books and that helps me put the armor on. I don't look at Facebook, I don't check emails, I don't really look at my text messages. Sometimes I can't help it when I get the notification, but but when I get to the office, that's when I you know, I prepared myself prior to entering into the office, so then I can suit up and show up and perform at the level that I know that I need to perform at today.
William Stewart:I like that, yeah. Yeah, I feel the same way too, especially. You know a lot of stuff is the last five years, I could say, definitely been a fast five years too. For sure, you know going from you know having my first son to having the second one now I got two boys every morning. You know your priorities and how they change and your perspective on stuff, especially when you have kids, just completely changes in a good way too. But yeah, just how I've seen stuff and what you're grateful for, you know just they come first and I'm just like I wake up and actually reminds me of a thing when I was a kid, my dad used to always play like ET, zigzag or all this stuff in the car. I remember riding home from like baseball games at like seven years old, just hearing this stuff. You know, looking at the, you know old school dives, radio, I was like, but before their screens or anything, just hearing this and wondering, but uh, zigzag.
William Stewart:You always say you know everybody in passing just kind of does stuff and doesn't think about it, like oh, how are you doing Good, I'm, how are you doing Like good? And you just you move on from it. It's like there was no thought put behind, oh, I'm good. But if you stop and you say something like, oh I'm great, but I'm getting even better, like put some thought and change it up, it'll stop people in their tracks sometimes. But like, oh, that guy said he was great, he's not just good, you know, um, to think about it. But I, you know you think about this kind of stuff like, oh, my kids, when I wake up and letting the dogs out, the little things would be grateful for that. We have that. A lot of people don't, even if they're stressful things. Like you know, every morning I wake six, 37 o'clock. It's usually to a baby crying right now. But I'm grateful for that because that means, you know, there's another day where we get to, you know, do stuff and live how we uh want to, you know.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, yeah. What's cool about that is you don't have to do it, you actually get to do that today. You know, you know, and, and, and that's that's what's cool. If we, if you, can change your mindset to that, right, like traveling on the road, like my coach, tony Wotley, told me that one day he's like look, listen, dude, because I was probably whining about something. And uh, he was like you know, you don't have to do this, bro, you get to do this. Like that's actually bonus.
Ty Cobb Backer:You know, someone's asking you to go out to Utah and it wasn't this circumstances, but it was something, something different. A while ago, he snapped me right back into reality real quick. It was like, yeah, bro, like they're asking you to go out there and this, first and foremost, this, has nothing to do with you. Right, and that's the, that's the catch 22 when it comes to leadership. Like, none of this has anything to do with me. This is about every single other person. If this is what I choose, or I elected to, to sign up for this leadership position that I'm in today, I have to remove myself from the equation, because now this is about everybody else. Do they have, you know, food on their table? Is there enough leads coming in? Is there? You know, whatever the case might be, whatever that is, that's it is my job, that that but but. But the cool thing about that is is to be able to surround yourself around people. You know, at some point in time, you know and I kind of chuckle with this that you know what's cool is that I don't have to make all the decisions.
Ty Cobb Backer:Today I asked my team what do you think about this? Or you decide. You know that's probably two of the most powerful words. I heard Craig Gruchel say that on a podcast and on how long ago that was. But he said two of the most powerful words that you could ever say to someone on your team is is that you decide. And that that's where that sense of empowerment, that sense of ownership comes in. You know, in the play war Now they have ownership and it's like, oh man, he's going to trust me to make this decision right and then not take it away from them.
Ty Cobb Backer:You know that's probably the hard part about leadership. Is is like, okay, it's easy to say to delegate. You know, once I delegate something to somebody, but then I have to make sure that I don't go storming right back into the room and yank it from them or critique how they did it, because just because they did it a different way, doesn't that make sense? It doesn't necessarily mean it isn't going to work. And if I can learn to pull the cotton out of my ears and put it in my mouth, I might actually be able to learn something from them. Right, because my mission was was to hire smart people, right. So now I need to allow smart people to do smart stuff.
Ty Cobb Backer:I can't take that authority or that ownership away from them, and I think that's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned over the years and I'm not by no means perfect at that. You know I still have bad days, I still still behave poorly, I still make mistakes, but that's where empathy has to come into play. So when they make mistakes, I have to empathize with that, because you know, through those mistakes, trials and errors, ebbs and flows. That's where I gained my experience, right and without our team making mistakes. I hope they don't, but they're going to, and I have to become callous to that right that they're going to make mistakes and hopefully it's not too costly, which usually isn't, and usually it's never as bad as we think it is.
Ty Cobb Backer:We tend to make it worse, right, being in the leadership position, like we will blow it out of proportion or whatever the case might be. But without those mistakes they can't gain the knowledge or the experience that I had the luxury of gaining 15, 20 years ago. Right and keeping my mouth shut even if I see them traveling down the wrong path. I have to keep my mouth shut and let them travel down that path, but I'm not holding my breath that they're going to fail. I'm actually curious to see if it's going to work. Maybe there is another way that I didn't know about. So let's see how this unfolds.
William Stewart:Yeah, I think I'm like kind of tiptoeing myself. You know, at the point I met in my career I feel like it's advancing really quickly but there's a lot more to come. I just don't know what it is. But you got to find that mark on the throttle. You know where it's like. You know you don't want to be too safe on it where you're not growing, but you don't want to be too far back on it where you could just throw everything to shit. You know you got to. You know just push the boundaries just enough to where you learn, but it's manageable.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, absolutely. And if you can create an atmosphere where people aren't going to get in trouble or scolded or reprimanded in some way, right, so they're more freely to think on their own right and they know that, okay, I'm willing to take a little gamble on myself here and make a decision, step outside the comfort zone here and make a decision and feel confident and comfortable enough that, if this is the wrong decision that I've made, that we're all going to pull together as a team and find the resolution for it and we're all going to learn from this and gain and grow. Do I keep throwing thumbs up there? So it keeps throwing thumbs up. Sorry about that.
William Stewart:I know that didn't do it for me apparently.
Ty Cobb Backer:I was hoping it was other people doing it, not me, but it must have been me, of course. Now it won't do it because I'm trying it, but yeah, no, that's cool. You mentioned something earlier, man. That's funny, because I actually did write this down as a question that I wanted to ask you. Was you know, how is it working with your significant other, and how do you guys maintain a level of work-life balance?
William Stewart:It's easy and it's hard At first, you know. So, erica Ridgeline, when we went out to Dallas the first time we met it was because she just took the job with Hunter to work with Roofingcom. And there Hunter kind of picked my brain a little bit about where I sat because I was still sitting with my dad's company. But I was a little bit frustrated there because, well, one working with family if we're just talking about working with family in that sense but it has with my dad a lot, because obviously he's the owner of the company, he always has been. But I'm, you know, the young buck coming up that learns a lot, is, you know, quivy to these new ways to do stuff. Let's try this, let's try this, let's grow. And he's not gonna say the old dog, but you know the old dog that wants to stick to his old tricks type thing. And so that's why I started my landscape company originally.
William Stewart:But sitting in Dallas I talked with Hunter a lot about you know, he had some opportunities. He just kind of floated about oh, we might hire this person, this person, and they found out that I was maybe in the market of a job because I was actually looking to maybe go into the military, which is something I always really wanted to do, not for the typical reasons. Most people would, you know, like most people go into the military because they either want to just do that cool GI Joe stuff or you know they have to like that's the last resort, that's just what's going to get them out of the rut of where they are At least that's how I've heard it from people that I know. But to me it was more just something that I always kind of wanted to do, just for like a patriotic duty, you know a sense, I guess, like a way to do some good in the world, even though I know on such a small scale. A lot of people say different stuff about that. But I didn't want to work with the whole.
William Stewart:But yeah, the thing I'm coming back to around Circle is I didn't want to work with her because I was afraid of, you know, but it has. I wanted her to have her own thing and be happy in her own career type thing and I'll do my stuff and we can kind of, you know, meet back at home. But he pushed it more and more and finally we're just like okay, I'll work with her vault, you can work with roofingcom. It'll still be completely separate and that's kind of how it happened at first. We would both work remotely but it was two separate things. If somebody was interested in revolt she'd refer to me. Somebody went to roofingcom, I'd give them to her. It was just kind of like like a small network almost of where we could just help each other out but still be independent and too much crossover.
William Stewart:But now that she's moved over to roofcom full time and I have to, there's definitely been a little bit of benefits and you know, I guess drags to it.
William Stewart:Part of the drag would be like okay, well, now all the leads that it's not just me getting leads, and then if she finds somebody she refers to me. We actually have to split everything straight down the middle now if we come across stuff. But the benefit is, you know the fact that we work remotely and have kids and stuff like that is, if I have to go do something, whether that's, you know, boxing, jiu-jitsu, whatever I want to do, gym, something like that or if I have to watch the kids, she can take over all my stuff, or I can take over her stuff. We can make a call if somebody's got to do something doctor's appointment, stuff like that. So, on top of being remote, us both working in the same, you know, company it's just. It just makes it so flexible, which is a super, super nice benefit. Especially, you know it might a lot of people wish for these kind of jobs and opportunities that come open and we're lucky enough to have one, you know.
Ty Cobb Backer:Now do you guys say to each other like okay, after 5 pm we don't talk, we don't discuss work?
William Stewart:Or no, I will say so. As far as working the other, we work together. As far as work goes, we're fantastic. Any issues that we have personally or stuff like that. We do do a fantastic job of keeping those, you know, separately completely from work. Like nobody in the company, even if we were having the biggest fight ever, is ever going to know that we're going to. Anything's going on right, like we do a fantastic job about that. But as far as what did you just say? I was just going off on a tangent.
Ty Cobb Backer:That's okay. I do the same thing all the time. I'm so glad I'm not the only one that has a brain fart during mid-sentence. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at you.
William Stewart:No, you're good.
Ty Cobb Backer:Okay, my question was is that you know like, have you guys made like a pact or a rule?
William Stewart:Oh yeah, that's what it was.
Ty Cobb Backer:I'm here, like you know, let's or weekend, sundays, is like our chill time, Like with you. Know that? That? Because Jana, and the reason why I'm asking you is because Jana and I had worked together for a long time and and, like we, we would have little things like Tuesday night back in the day, and we, just about a year ago or so, we decided to start doing date night again on Tuesdays. Now she's, you know, became like a, a stay at her mom, and she became like now she's a stay at home grandmother and kind of keeps the house on lockdown, which has become probably more of a full time job and a half for her, Like a job with overtime. Oh yeah, she's taking care of all of us, like she's the glue that holds this whole thing together. So, not to take anything away from a stay at home grandmother or mom or whatever, because that is a full time gig taking care of me on top of all the other kids.
Ty Cobb Backer:Oh yeah, I categorized myself in with the kids there, but like, have you guys, or you haven't really gotten to that point yet. You know what I mean.
William Stewart:We definitely have a jam packed schedule but we don't. We don't work traditional hours. Don't tell Diego. But yeah, so I mean you know, in the morning, I mean our day works right now we just got a Walker or four year old into preschool and karate. So those are his two extracurriculars he's doing right now and it was going to be T ball to where I was going to be the coach, but that didn't end up happening because just with the stuff I do and everything else, it was just, it was just too much. But we kind of just work when we can.
William Stewart:I mean, sales is a thing too, like you know, in roofing sales where you're going to homeowners, there's a soft spot where you got to, you know, work on stuff inside the company. There's a time like frame where you should probably meet with the homeowners and then five o'clock comes around. Nobody wants to be bothered at their home. So you know you get off at five o'clock with the vendors and stuff. It's been kind of unique where you know when people people could message you. You know six am If they're on the other side of the country they could be, you know eight pm at night. So I have some vendors that I'm close with. I'll be texting the guy you know and he'll send me a question. At like one 30 in the morning I might be at the gym. At one 30 in the morning I'll respond and I might sell something. Then it really just comes on. You know when, when you're working with these people do you just feel out who they are and how they are, and if it's more corporate they might stick to traditional hours.
William Stewart:A lot of these smaller companies, especially when you're working with the owner or one of the owners, they don't work like that though. It'll just you got to feel them out. When they're hot and stuff, you know you got to jump on it. When they're ready to bite and it doesn't matter what I'm doing at the time, I'll walk out of.
William Stewart:You know, if we're out to eat, unless it's an important dinner, if it's just like another you know Texas roadhouse, something like that that were just happened to eat an early dinner I'll walk out real quick, take a call, sell it real quick, come back in and then we'll finish our dinner and have a nice dinner. But also the contrary to that would be, since we work anytime of the day, eight o'clock, nine, 10 at night, anything like that. We also have a lot of free time during the day. So if during the day and I don't have anything going on no meetings or something we'll go take Walker to you know Broadway at the beach or something like that and he can go ride some rides and do some stuff. And you know we make stuff work. It just it's not a traditional schedule by any means but we make sure there's time to work and time to you know play throughout, just whenever it kind of fits in.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, yeah, no doubt. That seems like definitely a big, big perk to working at the same place and kind of the same hours, and I was just sitting there thinking I don't know how many times I had to get up and walk out of the restaurant and take a call, and it's kind of and that's one of the bonuses of working together, and she knows, you know what you're doing, and unfortunately it could be at eight pm at night. So, speaking of RoofCon, let's let's talk a little bit about RoofCon here before we get off here. It seems like we're cruising through here pretty good, man. It's a great, great conversation so far, so so. So tell us about RoofCon this year, man.
William Stewart:Excited. You know, last year was a fantastic year. We were coming off a shaky year of the year prior, which was actually my first year going, which I thought was fantastic, so I didn't know anything was kind of going up, but last year was a great year. So, coming off that year to this year, we've had a lot, of, a lot of perks. As far as being able to set this year up better, you know we already I forget the exact percentage, but we have a lot of space already filled. That usually takes, you know, half a year to get to, so we're filling up quick. This year have a lot of good vendors and a lot of new vendors too. To change it up, we do have I can't say who I think Diego might kill me, but we do have some really cool speakers already lined up. Ticket prices have remained the same this year. The only ticket I think that they added on is a ticket that allows the expo is free again, but if you want the expo and access to the breakout sessions, we added a ticket for that as well. So that's that option also this year.
William Stewart:Other than that, though I mean it's October 23rd or 25th we got two more shows that are single day events leading up to RoofCon. This is going to be in Dallas and then Cincinnati. Dallas is going to be called breaking into commercial and then Cincinnati is going to be mastering the insurance process. So those are going to be two single day events that we do. They're going to be really beneficial to kind of break out to other parts of the country also get different geographical you know interest, because I know the last couple of years has been Orlando. So doing Salt Lake, cincinnati, dallas and stuff definitely will try to bring in that audience from those other places for sure. And then I think next year we're working on maybe going to Nashville too. So that'll be a change of pace there. But this year is Orlando again.
Ty Cobb Backer:I love that. I love and I like Orange County Convention Center. We know it well because we're we've been a vendor. I think this will be our third year coming up fourth I think we've gone to four of them total. I think the first year we went I don't remember four or five years ago, I think, was our first roof. We took the team the first two years, I think, and then the past three years we've actually set up behind a tool belt. This will be the third year that we set up behind a tool belt and I know we really look forward to it, especially taking a lot of our team down there with us because of what we gain and get out of it and to share what I've got to experience with my team like that, because this is kind of where it all started for, for when we went down to this, you know Janna and myself went on like this. You know this real big self improvement, quick kick. You know, stepped it up to a whole another level. And then when we went to Roof Con, we saw I know we saw shit. It was like Ed Milet, john Maxwell and the iron cowboy and people like that.
Ty Cobb Backer:But not just that, but the conversations that we had with other contractors on the expo floor, you know, and how open and transparent everybody was.
Ty Cobb Backer:Because it was so cool Even if I didn't really necessarily run into anybody that was in our local market but to just run into contractors from all over the country and be able to have a conversation with them and ask them questions and have them open up so freely to me and then also vice versa I'd open up freely to them, like yeah, we're in a mostly retail market and you know at that time and and you know they would, you know, of course, everybody there's just big debate, you know, retail over insurance work, like that, and we dabbled with both now, but my first Roof Con we weren't necessarily, I mean, a storm would come through and I think the insurance copies were a little more laxed up in North and they are down south.
Ty Cobb Backer:But but anyhow, it's just, it's been a great experience and everybody that goes each year comes back and we kind of have like a little pow, wow, whether it's on the plane or at the airport or or when we get back, of like you know what, what nuggets everybody brought back and and how they're going to apply them, moving forward into you know, whether it be their personal or their professional life, and that's what's super cool about Roof Con. Ok, is that it's not just for necessarily business owners I mean, I mean predominantly it pertains to the roofing industry but there are so many good other personal development things that you take away from it after you leave there, like you're just not the same human being anymore. Oh yeah, experience that two or three day event. It's like you just come home a different person.
William Stewart:Oh yeah, and I mean I think I said too about all the you know companies are kind of they're like Roof Con, definitely Even like Revolt 2, which kind of had some you know overlap to is, you know, meeting guys like you know, gary Chapman was super awesome, especially at the couples of treat. And then I think, honestly, the most impactful person I've had the opportunity to meet through the companies though is probably, I want to say most impactful, but I will. I said most impactful because of what it's led to is the guy Chandler this is last name. I can't think of his last name. Yeah, I can't remember. I've come on this channel that you know I'm talking about because I've actually almost finished my book. I just sent it off to a content editor earlier this week to work on it. So I'm actually really excited about that. They get finished up.
Ty Cobb Backer:Cool. Congratulations on that. So the change here is here a little bit. Have I heard rumors of a podcast maybe coming back this year?
William Stewart:Me and Erica. We wanted to really start one just because, I don't know. I think now everybody from like Rufincom and I'm not saying like famous, but people are starting to know us a little bit more and to kind of maybe help. You know our careers as well. You know we want to start some kind of podcast or, you know, to have some kind of outreach offer, some kind of content, something like that, to just reach a larger audience. And I think Diego, wearing as many hats as he's wearing, wanted some help out with the rise above show as well. So I think he was trying to find out some kind of middle ground where we maybe take over that show a little bit too and start hosting some of the things, especially leading up to Rufcon, to promote some of the vendors and, you know, some other speakers.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, now, and I love that because you started to touch on a little bit like the personal brand, not necessarily becoming famous, but to help. You know, leveraging a podcast is definitely a good way to galvanize, like that personal brand, but not just your personal brand, but the professional brand as well, whether it be the rise above show, rufcon, revolt, you know all of those things encompassed, because there's a pretty good umbrella that you guys have over there, like this ecosystem that Hunter and, of course, you, all of you guys have, have created this, this, really, you know, living, breathing organism of an ecosystem that that is so inspiring to watch it come to fruition. You know, and if you can help, like broadcast, like hey, we're going to be here, or these speakers are going to be there, or this is what we're working on now. You know it has been, it has become a great platform for Vic and myself and Chris Baker and and those who who have and still continue to support behind the tool belt, because it didn't, it didn't start with me, it started with me, chris Baker and Shane DeGerry. I just wanted to give those guys a quick plug, but it gives you a platform to, you know, articulate that message or or promote whatever it was. And this started out and people who are on here listening right now have heard this story a hundred times but this started for us to promote a charitable, a local charitable event in our area up here, and we've just continued to do it and found that, you know, this is a cool way where we can share our experience, strengthen hope with people and and over time, it's created like this, this personal brand.
Ty Cobb Backer:So, very unintentionally, but knowing what I know about podcast and personal brand, I had no idea what it was really. Necessarily, four and a half years ago when we started this. I mean, I knew what personal brand was, but really didn't have any any idea or what direction to go in until I started to surround myself around people like you and Hunter and Diego and Eric go and started to to educate myself more on the literature that was available to me, you know, reading books and stuff, listening to podcasts and stuff like that, and and here we are where we have a podcast right, and and what an awesome platform for for anybody doing any in any industry to to create a podcast. But this is, I'm going to tell you, the hardest part about it is is staying continuous with it. You know, staying I can't think of the freaking word Consistent yeah, staying consistent with it, because that's the thing, that's how you gain a following. If you're not consistent with it, okay, like our.
Ty Cobb Backer:Our viewers know what to expect. They know we're going to start at five. You know, five minutes after whatever, whatever time we decide, and the one time that we did actually start on time, they gave a shit because they missed 10 minutes first, 10 minutes of the show. You know, but that shows you how powerful consistency is right. That's. We intentionally now wait till five after 12. We just recently, a couple months ago, switched to 12 o'clock just to jazz things up, to change things up a little bit. Now we have our Wednesday nights back that you know. This podcast has held us hostage, not just us, but but our families too. You know, wednesday nights we couldn't go out to dinner. Wednesday nights we couldn't. There was a whole lot of things we couldn't do come Wednesday night because you know it held us hostage and it's a sacrifice. You know, if you're going to do it, go all in. You know what I mean. You have to be consistent, and that's just another great example of staying consistent in every aspect and every facet of your life.
William Stewart:It's funny you say that too, because I'm I'm running in the same situation right now where the jujitsu classes I've been doing they're usually at six o'clock every night and I've been having to switch those up for the 12 o'clock classes, which doesn't always work out. But by doing the 12 o'clock I'm able to be home for dinner and help out the kids and stuff at nighttime, especially when the kids are going down. But you know, when they were always at six and I had to miss, you know, monday, wednesday, friday or whatever it was, it started to be a burden to an extent, especially on Erica, and had to kind of rearrange some of that. But definitely definitely agree right there.
Ty Cobb Backer:Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. Before we get off here, what is something that you want to leave our listeners or viewers with a little golden nugget? Before we get off here.
William Stewart:You know I'm going to leave it with this. I guess is just because I heard it earlier today and I agree with it. I think this week and every week, try to do at least two kind things for people every week and get consistent in that. I think we do. That might make some big changes in the world. Yeah, other than that, I mean for RoofCon especially, I got a discount code for anybody listening that wants to grab their tickets early. If you want 50% off tickets, you could type in Will50 in the discount code. That's WIL50. And I'll give you 30% off.
Ty Cobb Backer:Nice, nice. Now, if somebody wanted to reach out to you, what's the easiest way they can contact you?
William Stewart:The best way to contact me probably be just we're busy. People probably text my numbers 843-467-6025. You can try calling me, leave voicemail or, if you want to reach out to me via email, that'd be great too. My email is William at roofconcom Awesome.
Ty Cobb Backer:And then is there a website where they would put the code William50?.
William Stewart:So if you want, if you just go to roofconcom, it'll take you to the website, just click the drop down bar to secure my seat and you'll have your ticket options there to secure seat. Or if you're a vendor, there'll be a link there to go to the vendor page.
Ty Cobb Backer:Fantastic. We'll make sure that we get your contact information put in the comments here and, as always, we appreciate our viewers and listeners checking in with us at this lunch time hour, but don't forget to like, love, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Google Play, Apple and Spotify as of now. So you guys have a great day. The rest of your day, William. Thank you so much for coming on the show man. It was blast. You are a fountain of knowledge. So thank you for what you're doing and thank you for what you're doing for our industry. You and Erica over there are crushing it and I hope to stay in touch with you guys. And you guys have a great afternoon and thank you for tuning in.