00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080
Do you think that we are heading towards a recession?
00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.219
Roofing pre 2020 were the happy times and everything
00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:09.240
was just going well and easy and anyone could
00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.480
do it. COVID changed that. And the reason why
00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:13.480
COVID changed that is that it basically doubled
00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.800
prices. How do you train roofing contractors
00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.480
in your classes about positioning? The roofing
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.339
industry has overcomplicated things. And I think
00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:23.800
that we've been so focused on the backend systems
00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:26.199
and processes and standard operating procedures,
00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:28.379
your different softwares and marketing. You've
00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:30.179
seen a lot of roofing come. that are marketing
00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:33.000
companies that do roofing. There is demand for
00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.960
customer service, and I think the supply is pretty
00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:38.560
low. And what are the things in the roofing industry
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:40.399
that you are not happy with? There's a company
00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.539
locally here that just went out of business,
00:00:42.579 --> 00:00:44.920
and what they did is one of the owners has a
00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:47.020
government position, and they kept stringing
00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:48.899
out their production, their labor crews, for
00:00:48.899 --> 00:00:50.799
a few weeks, and they racked up about three,
00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:52.759
four weeks of money that they owed them, and
00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:55.320
then told them, we're not gonna pay you. If your
00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:58.100
skill is a nine, but your communication is a
00:00:58.100 --> 00:01:00.359
four, Your effectiveness is a four. It doesn't
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.539
matter what you know or what you can do if you
00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:04.560
can't communicate that to somebody. The first
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.819
core principle in master your craft is slow down.
00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:09.700
So many mistakes are made by rushing. Yes, on
00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:11.980
the micro level, when you're dealing with a customer,
00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:14.200
slow down. Maybe you have to talk to an insurance
00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:16.439
adjuster about one of your customers claims.
00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.060
Slow down. Take a deep breath. Slow down. Try
00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:21.379
to control your emotions. Welcome to the latest
00:01:21.379 --> 00:01:24.000
episode of season two of the Roofing Millionaires
00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.900
podcast. The only roofing podcast where we don't
00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:29.290
promote anyone. and we don't sell you anything.
00:01:29.430 --> 00:01:31.870
In this episode we are sitting down with Chris
00:01:31.870 --> 00:01:34.769
Zimmerman, owner of At Your Service Roofing in
00:01:34.769 --> 00:01:38.310
Ohio, co -founder of Master Your Craft and someone
00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:41.689
who has spent 15 years in this industry figuring
00:01:41.689 --> 00:01:44.569
out what actually separates roofing companies
00:01:44.569 --> 00:01:48.000
that survive from the ones that don't. We talk
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.560
about what really happened to the roofing industry
00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.780
after Covid, why crisis opening more locations
00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:56.939
while everyone else is shutting down, the communication
00:01:56.939 --> 00:01:59.920
gap that is silently costing roofing salespeople
00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:03.120
thousands of dollars every single week and the
00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.079
tool he and his partner John are building to
00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.780
fix it. We also get into something nobody is
00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:11.319
talking about honestly by customer service has
00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:14.319
become the rarest competitive advantage in roofing
00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.080
right now and what it actually takes to build
00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:20.080
it. If you find any value in this episode, please
00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.419
like and subscribe to our YouTube channel and
00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:24.939
leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts
00:02:24.939 --> 00:02:27.319
so we can keep bringing conversations like this
00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:34.009
one to you. Let's dive in. Would you just briefly
00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:37.080
introduce yourself? Sure. I grew up around the
00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:40.319
trades. My dad had a roofing and remodeling company.
00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:42.419
He was in real estate and we were constantly
00:02:42.419 --> 00:02:44.900
fixing up houses when they became vacant. But
00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:47.099
I never had any want to be in the roofing industry.
00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.280
And really like everybody in the roofing industry
00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.879
found my way back into it kind of out of desperation.
00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:54.560
I needed a place to turn to and then kind of
00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.240
fell in love with it, so to speak, which sounds
00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.159
really odd. But I own At Your Service Roofing.
00:02:59.379 --> 00:03:01.699
We're headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. We also
00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:04.349
have a branch in Cleveland, Ohio. I think that
00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:06.129
you'll probably see some more branches coming
00:03:06.129 --> 00:03:11.090
over the next year or two as well. And opened
00:03:11.090 --> 00:03:14.770
at your service in 2005, but really didn't really
00:03:14.770 --> 00:03:19.009
get into the roofing side until about 2011, right
00:03:19.009 --> 00:03:23.819
around there. And so now I also am a co -founder
00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:26.620
with John Sienak in Master of your craft. John
00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:28.979
and I have two other companies which serve the
00:03:28.979 --> 00:03:31.580
roofing industry as well, as well as a supplement
00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:34.879
company and a few other companies there as well.
00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:36.939
And so, and a big part of what I'm doing now
00:03:36.939 --> 00:03:39.780
is working with Owens Corning as their Owens
00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:42.819
Corning university. I'm part of their speaker
00:03:42.819 --> 00:03:46.580
tour. And so I, I just. About wrapped up my first
00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:48.939
year with them and did about 40 events nationwide.
00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:51.500
So that's kept me pretty busy as well. Okay.
00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.139
That's interesting. How does it feel like being
00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:59.400
in an industry or in a company for 15 years?
00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:01.439
Because I know that you have been part of this
00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:04.539
like since 2005, if I'm not wrong. How does it
00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:07.919
feel like being a part of an industry that you
00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:10.979
did not want to be a part of? for 15 years. Yeah.
00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:12.860
Well, I mean, I've been asked this question a
00:04:12.860 --> 00:04:14.219
few times and, you know, I don't think there's
00:04:14.219 --> 00:04:16.220
many people in the roofing industry that when
00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:18.000
we were little boys or little girls thought,
00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:19.800
you know, when I grew up, I want to be a roofer.
00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.540
And so we all kind of find our way here on one
00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:27.180
kind of weird path or another. But once I was
00:04:27.180 --> 00:04:29.300
in it, to be quite honest, I mean, the money
00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:32.879
was too good to go anywhere else. And I ended
00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:35.540
up falling in love with it, so to speak, because,
00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:37.720
you know, one, I was good at it. You know, everybody
00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:40.360
enjoys things that they're good at. And so I
00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:42.819
did very well in sales. And when I started the
00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:45.079
company and was building the company, like we
00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:47.740
had a lot of success, not like monumental success
00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:49.959
or anything crazy, but it was, it was good. And
00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:52.620
so that was good. You know, that kept me feeling
00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.139
rewarded and happy. But what I love about the
00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:58.500
industry is the opportunity it affords people.
00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:00.620
It's an industry for second chances. There's
00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:02.660
a lot of people that have criminal histories,
00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:05.279
drug addictions that they're fighting and going
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.540
through recovery. And it's an industry where
00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.980
someone who has had some bad decisions, has had
00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:15.470
some failures can kind of... reinvigorate themselves
00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.009
and find success. There's a lot about the industry
00:05:18.009 --> 00:05:19.810
that I'm not really happy with and I'm doing
00:05:19.810 --> 00:05:22.129
my best to change those things. But there's just,
00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:24.810
there's a lot of rewarding things in this industry.
00:05:24.850 --> 00:05:27.050
And it's just kind of where I found myself and
00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:29.350
you might as well enjoy the ride. This is such
00:05:29.350 --> 00:05:31.290
a nice thing that you just said that this is
00:05:31.290 --> 00:05:33.509
an industry that gives you second chances. But
00:05:33.509 --> 00:05:36.329
I have been hearing a lot lately, Chris, is that
00:05:36.329 --> 00:05:38.990
after COVID, like there was a boom in the industry.
00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:41.449
Everyone was selling retail jobs, insurance jobs,
00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:44.769
and everything was happening. But now, since
00:05:44.769 --> 00:05:48.310
a year or six months back, everything has been
00:05:48.310 --> 00:05:51.949
changing. There is so much depression out there.
00:05:52.110 --> 00:05:55.209
I don't know whether it is related to the circumstances
00:05:55.209 --> 00:05:58.029
or the situations we are having in the world.
00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:00.910
in terms of wars and everything going on. Or
00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:03.850
people are saying that this is not an industry
00:06:03.850 --> 00:06:07.209
that it used to be a few decades back. What are
00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:09.910
your thoughts on that? And do you think that
00:06:09.910 --> 00:06:13.189
we are declining or heading towards a recession?
00:06:13.850 --> 00:06:16.610
roofing industry particularly. Yeah. Well, I
00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:20.269
mean, COVID changed everything. And my take on
00:06:20.269 --> 00:06:23.230
that is that the people who are dissatisfied
00:06:23.230 --> 00:06:25.550
with the roofing industry or some of the things
00:06:25.550 --> 00:06:30.870
that we're seeing are more about, it's less about
00:06:30.870 --> 00:06:33.509
society and more about the industry. It used
00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:37.019
to be easy. And it's just not easy anymore. And
00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:40.180
I say this at a lot of my classes that I'm a
00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:42.519
history guy, like watching history documentaries.
00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:45.040
I like reading about history. And in World War
00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.959
II, in the beginning of World War II, Nazi Germany
00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:50.519
was very, very successful. and the U -boats were
00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:52.899
out sinking everything and controlled the Atlantic
00:06:52.899 --> 00:06:54.860
and Blitzkrieg and all that kind of stuff and
00:06:54.860 --> 00:06:57.120
they were killing it. And that time in German
00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:59.459
history was called the happy times. And I joke
00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:02.300
around that that roofing pre 2020 were the happy
00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:05.139
times and everything was just going well and
00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:08.360
easy and anyone could do it. And COVID changed
00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.779
that. And the reason why COVID changed that is
00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:14.259
that it basically doubled prices inside of a
00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:17.029
year. I mean, when I got into the industry, I
00:07:17.029 --> 00:07:20.029
think we were on $2 .60 a square, $1 .60 per
00:07:20.029 --> 00:07:23.290
square. And when COVID hit, we were at $330.
00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:28.050
And that's 10, 12, 15 years. with very little
00:07:28.050 --> 00:07:30.529
increase. And now, you know, at least in my market,
00:07:30.850 --> 00:07:34.810
we went from 330 a square to 500 a square virtually
00:07:34.810 --> 00:07:37.589
overnight. And we're now we're in the, you know,
00:07:37.750 --> 00:07:40.269
600 a square. So in something that only raised
00:07:40.269 --> 00:07:43.470
20 % over 10 years, it then doubled in a couple
00:07:43.470 --> 00:07:45.889
of years. And so that's going to be that's that's
00:07:45.889 --> 00:07:47.930
going to have consequences. Insurance companies
00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:51.259
can't up their rates fast enough to keep up with
00:07:51.259 --> 00:07:54.160
that kind of increase in cost. And I think that's
00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:56.800
where we've seen on the restoration side of the
00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:59.240
business where claims have gotten so difficult
00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:02.220
is really that's the main driver of that. And
00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:04.339
so again, you've got people that it used to be
00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.860
easy and now it's not. Now for me personally,
00:08:07.339 --> 00:08:09.980
I love COVID. I was actually thinking about selling
00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:13.899
my business in 2020, 2021 or getting out of the
00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:16.040
industry because I was bored. It was just rinse
00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:17.759
and repeat. It was really doing the same things
00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.319
over and over and I'm a starter. I'm a problem
00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:22.649
solver. And so when things got really, really
00:08:22.649 --> 00:08:24.529
tough, that's for me, that's like, okay, great.
00:08:24.629 --> 00:08:26.529
Now there's challenges, there's problems to solve.
00:08:26.769 --> 00:08:29.009
And, but for most people that wasn't the case.
00:08:29.009 --> 00:08:31.589
And I think that's where most of the kind of
00:08:31.589 --> 00:08:34.049
fear, uncertainty and doubt in the industry is
00:08:34.049 --> 00:08:35.950
kind of coming from now. And there's a lot of
00:08:35.950 --> 00:08:38.009
people out there panicking. The sky is falling,
00:08:38.169 --> 00:08:40.629
you know, claims and restoration that's dead.
00:08:40.789 --> 00:08:43.590
It's got to be retail and private equity is a
00:08:43.590 --> 00:08:46.190
real concern for most companies. And so there's
00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:48.850
just, you know, with AI right now and technology
00:08:48.850 --> 00:08:51.320
moving as quickly as it is. And so, yeah, it's
00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:53.860
going to create a lot of fear, but whenever there's
00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.259
massive changes, there's massive opportunities.
00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:58.039
And so I think for the people that are able to
00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:00.960
kind of take a deep breath and slow down and
00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.840
evaluate things and make some good decisions,
00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:04.820
there's even more opportunity now than there
00:09:04.820 --> 00:09:07.779
was pre -COVID. Speaking of that, do you believe
00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:11.200
that there are other sides to this? story as
00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:14.279
well like I meet people all the time and they
00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.820
say that people are homeowners are not ready
00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:19.559
to pay they just want the cheapest option like
00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:23.379
the market is really bad I can't take jobs because
00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:26.620
the cheapest guy always takes it and now I don't
00:09:26.620 --> 00:09:29.240
want you to get into that sales side of things
00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:31.559
like how you can close more deals and stuff like
00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:34.000
that but one thing you mentioned in in earlier
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.480
part of this interview is that you are going
00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.960
to launch new locations in the coming time as
00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:42.379
well. So in a market where everyone is saying
00:09:42.379 --> 00:09:45.399
that, okay, I might have to wrap up, how come
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.679
you open more locations and have more business
00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:51.240
if people are really not willing to pay? Well,
00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:54.279
I mean, maybe I'm crazy and dumb. Like that is
00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:56.279
a possibility that I'm just making mistakes.
00:09:56.539 --> 00:09:59.009
But generally speaking, I think that Yes, cost
00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:01.350
of living is very high in it right now, but you
00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:03.789
still need a roof and roofs aren't going to get
00:10:03.789 --> 00:10:06.370
any cheaper. And so you can look at like the
00:10:06.370 --> 00:10:08.669
real estate market. When prices shot up around
00:10:08.669 --> 00:10:11.450
COVID or coming out of COVID, I don't think that
00:10:11.450 --> 00:10:13.529
there's really any markets that have receded.
00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:15.450
Like the prices haven't gone down. They may have
00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:17.909
flatlined and plateaued for a while and allowed
00:10:17.909 --> 00:10:20.299
other things to catch up. But either way, those
00:10:20.299 --> 00:10:22.639
who sit on the sidelines end up getting hurt.
00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.679
Between financing and the fact that prices are
00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:27.559
going to continue going up, people still have
00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:29.700
to have roofs. And so it's really more about
00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:32.639
how you position yourself. So I just think that,
00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:34.559
again, there's people getting out of the industry.
00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:36.500
We've seen that. We've seen a lot of companies
00:10:36.500 --> 00:10:39.200
close. And I've been calling for this for years.
00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:41.539
We're actually about two years behind where I
00:10:41.539 --> 00:10:43.940
thought we would be. I call it the thinning of
00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:46.830
the herd. Again, when it was so easy before COVID,
00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:49.190
you have something that's very, very easy and
00:10:49.190 --> 00:10:51.379
something that has no barrier to entry. right?
00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:54.200
And if your state, like in Ohio, there's no licensing
00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.779
for roofers. And so if you got a pickup truck
00:10:56.779 --> 00:10:58.500
and you throw a ladder in the back, you're a
00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:01.039
roofer. And so the industry as a whole, regardless
00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:03.019
of what state is, is a pretty low barrier to
00:11:03.019 --> 00:11:05.480
entry. And so it got a little out of control.
00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:08.200
There just got flooded too many. And so their
00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:10.419
market needs to correct itself. There needs to
00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:12.200
find balance. And I thought that was going to
00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:13.700
happen a couple of years ago. It's taken longer
00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:15.340
than I expected, but I think we're seeing it
00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:17.519
now where there's a lot of companies that are
00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:19.700
going out of business. And so again, that's just
00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:21.740
more opp... Opportunity, I think for those that
00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:23.480
are that are staying in the business There's
00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:26.220
more people out there that are as far as like
00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:28.620
your sales team or production teams, you know
00:11:28.620 --> 00:11:30.940
The employees are more readily available. There's
00:11:30.940 --> 00:11:33.440
less options for homeowners and there's still
00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:38.080
a a void in the market, I think, of people that
00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:40.919
want to do it on a more local level that are
00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:43.799
quality of work driven, that are relational.
00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.600
And so what you're starting to see, I think,
00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:50.080
is the industry is heading in one of two directions,
00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:53.440
either the private equity direction or in the
00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.600
really small hyper local and small direction
00:11:57.600 --> 00:11:59.639
owner operators. And there's still a kind of
00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:01.820
a sweet spot in the middle that I think fits
00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.000
my vision and values and what my company is all
00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.100
about. And so I see a lot of opportunity. You
00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:09.580
are right about it. And it's always about demand
00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:11.720
and supply. And one thing that you just mentioned
00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:14.740
that it can go in the private equity direction
00:12:14.740 --> 00:12:17.600
or it can go towards the solo operator. And one
00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:20.639
thing that I used to say is that roofing is like
00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.860
a business that we had a few centuries back.
00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:27.220
Like every community had a farm. And if someone
00:12:27.220 --> 00:12:29.720
would ask like, who has the best milk? Everyone
00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:32.039
would go like it's Uncle Bill's farm because
00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:34.350
that is the power of a local business. And if
00:12:34.350 --> 00:12:36.429
you can create a roofing business like that,
00:12:36.649 --> 00:12:38.789
like if your community asks like who is the best
00:12:38.789 --> 00:12:41.549
best roofer for us, it's you, it's Chris. So
00:12:41.549 --> 00:12:44.110
that is maybe the future or it is the private
00:12:44.110 --> 00:12:46.149
equity. But one thing you just mentioned is that
00:12:46.149 --> 00:12:49.529
it is also about how you position yourself. So
00:12:49.529 --> 00:12:51.610
obviously you have multiple locations and you
00:12:51.610 --> 00:12:53.769
have branches and you have a leadership team
00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:58.409
as well. How do you train your team or how do
00:12:58.409 --> 00:13:00.450
you train roofing contractors in your classes
00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:03.570
about positioning or what is your positioning
00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:06.649
strategy for the coming time for your roofing
00:13:06.649 --> 00:13:09.269
company? Yeah. I think that our positioning is
00:13:09.269 --> 00:13:12.090
really a return to customer service. The roofing
00:13:12.090 --> 00:13:15.769
industry has overcomplicated things in my opinion.
00:13:15.929 --> 00:13:18.490
And I think that we've been so focused on the
00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:21.570
backend of your, you know, systems and processes
00:13:21.570 --> 00:13:24.690
and standard operating procedures and your different
00:13:24.690 --> 00:13:26.750
softwares. and marketing, you know, you've seen
00:13:26.750 --> 00:13:28.450
a lot of roofing companies that are marketing
00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:31.110
companies that do roofing, or they're sales companies
00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:34.070
that operate in the roofing space. And so for
00:13:34.070 --> 00:13:37.809
us, you know, we see there is demand for customer
00:13:37.809 --> 00:13:40.809
service, and I think the supply is pretty low.
00:13:40.929 --> 00:13:43.409
And so that's really where we're kind of positioning
00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:47.190
ourselves is a company that is you know, educated
00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:51.529
enough to know how to operate in the retail space
00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:54.110
or the restoration space. But the focus isn't
00:13:54.110 --> 00:13:56.789
about our commissions and our revenue and our
00:13:56.789 --> 00:13:59.169
money. The focus is on customer service. And
00:13:59.169 --> 00:14:01.309
I often tell people, like, you can't fake that.
00:14:01.429 --> 00:14:03.370
You know, it's pretty easy for your customers
00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:06.889
to sense it. And so those that are really concerned
00:14:06.889 --> 00:14:09.590
about the customer and care about service, I
00:14:09.590 --> 00:14:11.990
think are in a position to do really well. You
00:14:11.990 --> 00:14:14.409
know, again, that the roofing industry for years
00:14:14.409 --> 00:14:18.139
has been about sky diamonds and, you know, Lambos
00:14:18.139 --> 00:14:21.120
and Rolexes and, you know, scaling the company.
00:14:21.139 --> 00:14:23.200
And we've kind of idolized people that were able
00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:24.820
to do those things. And there's nothing wrong
00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:26.379
with those things. Like, I want to be very, very
00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:28.379
clear. I'm not saying that those are bad things.
00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.159
That's not what my focus is. That's okay. But
00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:34.120
I think that again, there's just a void for local
00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:36.019
companies and not just the roofing industry like
00:14:36.019 --> 00:14:39.639
anything. There's a real void society, our culture
00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.419
remembers what real customer service used to
00:14:42.419 --> 00:14:44.799
look like. And I think it's gotten fairly rare.
00:14:45.059 --> 00:14:47.960
And I think there's going to be a demand for
00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:50.409
that. Chris, don't you think that customer service
00:14:50.409 --> 00:14:53.309
is something that a customer experiences once
00:14:53.309 --> 00:14:55.970
they have became your customer, but in order
00:14:55.970 --> 00:14:58.769
to make them your customer, you have to make
00:14:58.769 --> 00:15:02.090
the sale first so they can experience what kind
00:15:02.090 --> 00:15:05.070
of customer experience or customer relationship
00:15:05.070 --> 00:15:08.169
strategy that you have in your company. And I
00:15:08.169 --> 00:15:10.950
think so it is easy for you to say, because you
00:15:10.950 --> 00:15:14.070
have been into this industry for like last 15
00:15:14.070 --> 00:15:16.250
years and you have that reputation, you have
00:15:16.250 --> 00:15:18.980
that strategy and you have that experience as
00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:23.480
well to just like make things work but if someone
00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:26.000
like me or if there is someone just starting
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:29.679
out they have these fears and they find it difficult
00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:32.379
to show up against guys like you or companies
00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:36.159
like yours and if they have to like yes maybe
00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:39.279
they want to have the best customer service but
00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:42.940
they are against guys like yours so how can they
00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:46.639
show up against companies like yours or or like
00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:49.120
big companies and make the sale in the first
00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:51.779
place so the customer gets to experience what
00:15:51.779 --> 00:15:53.919
kind of customer service they have. No, that's
00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:56.899
a great question. So I think a lot of those things
00:15:56.899 --> 00:15:59.379
that you just mentioned are based on assumptions
00:15:59.379 --> 00:16:04.000
and fears and not in reality. So I was talking
00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.399
with a good friend of mine, and he's a very sharp
00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.000
businessman. And he said, Chris, with your brand,
00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:11.059
you could do this and you could do this. And
00:16:11.059 --> 00:16:14.200
I said, well, I said, my brand is strong inside
00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:16.840
the industry. Other roofers know who at your
00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:19.580
service roofing is. Homeowners don't. And he
00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:21.539
goes, no, Chris, you've been around for 15, 20
00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:23.740
years and you've done, you have great reviews.
00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:26.440
And I asked him, I said, name three roofing companies
00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:29.279
here in our, where we live other than my company.
00:16:29.470 --> 00:16:31.889
And he named one and I said, well, yeah, but
00:16:31.889 --> 00:16:33.690
they're like, their business is on your street,
00:16:33.830 --> 00:16:35.809
right? Like you drive by them every day. And
00:16:35.809 --> 00:16:37.309
he goes, well, yeah. And I said, well, that doesn't
00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:39.490
count. So name any other roofing company and
00:16:39.490 --> 00:16:42.250
he couldn't name a single one. So in the roofing
00:16:42.250 --> 00:16:44.990
space, because most of it, like, yes, there's
00:16:44.990 --> 00:16:47.750
repair work and you can do maintenance agreements,
00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:50.129
but for the most part, you make a sale and that
00:16:50.129 --> 00:16:52.350
person doesn't need you. You know, that, that
00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:54.090
house doesn't need a new roof, hopefully for
00:16:54.090 --> 00:16:57.129
20 to 30 years. And they might move and need
00:16:57.129 --> 00:16:58.950
a house or refer you and that's, that's, that's
00:16:58.950 --> 00:17:01.850
all fine and well. There's branding and, and
00:17:01.850 --> 00:17:04.470
is really difficult in the roofing space. And
00:17:04.470 --> 00:17:06.970
so I think a lot of people assume those things,
00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:09.309
but they're not necessarily true. The other thing
00:17:09.309 --> 00:17:11.390
that I would, I would tell people is you have
00:17:11.390 --> 00:17:14.269
to prove it to your customer, not tell them,
00:17:14.450 --> 00:17:16.369
right? You have to show them what you're going
00:17:16.369 --> 00:17:19.200
to do, not. Tell them what you're going to do.
00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:21.160
Every single person that they meet with is going
00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:23.480
to tell them the same thing. We use really great
00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:25.940
products. We've got great reviews. We're going
00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.599
to communicate well. We really care about you.
00:17:28.619 --> 00:17:30.579
And there's no way for them to differentiate
00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:33.400
between them. So this is a topic I'm actually
00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:35.660
doing a training in master your craft next week.
00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:38.039
Um, and this is something, a class that I do
00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:40.980
for Owens Corning on selling value and not price.
00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:43.160
And really when it comes down to that, what I'm
00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.980
telling guys is you have to prove it, not talk
00:17:46.980 --> 00:17:49.000
about it and it's the same thing with customer
00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:51.559
service you have to show proof here's you know
00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:54.579
social proof here's testimonials and actual things
00:17:54.579 --> 00:17:56.660
that have been said but far more than that here
00:17:56.660 --> 00:17:59.160
are the things that we actually do like here's
00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:00.940
a picture of it here's what's going to happen
00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:03.220
here's what our workflow looks like here's what
00:18:03.220 --> 00:18:05.799
every step of the way because if you just tell
00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:09.059
them it means nothing if you show them it it
00:18:09.059 --> 00:18:12.279
has a lot of impact and people are willing to
00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:15.819
pay more to receive more but if they don't understand
00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:17.920
they're going to receive more, then of course
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:21.079
they want to pay less. So there's brand new companies
00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:24.700
out there that can survive. It's all about their
00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:27.579
message and their narratives. And so I think
00:18:27.579 --> 00:18:29.910
like you said, you know, If you're feeling that
00:18:29.910 --> 00:18:32.309
way, I think that that's, I want to challenge
00:18:32.309 --> 00:18:34.529
that. Is that based on like evidence in real
00:18:34.529 --> 00:18:36.970
world examples or is that based on your fears
00:18:36.970 --> 00:18:39.509
and assumptions? Because my guess is primarily
00:18:39.509 --> 00:18:41.470
it's based on fears and assumptions and you need
00:18:41.470 --> 00:18:43.450
to just put that out of your mind. It's actually
00:18:43.450 --> 00:18:46.250
correct because I have read so much about branding
00:18:46.250 --> 00:18:49.890
and one thing that I have noticed is that it's
00:18:49.890 --> 00:18:52.680
all assumption like A human mind, even you and
00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:56.500
I, we see so many advertising online and offline
00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:59.019
every single day, but we hardly remember. If
00:18:59.019 --> 00:19:02.559
I ask you like name three headphone brands, you
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:04.960
won't know any. No, even in the home services,
00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:07.539
if you ask for an HVAC company here locally,
00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:10.559
like I can probably name a couple maybe. But
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:12.819
I also think that when I go, when I need that
00:19:12.819 --> 00:19:16.500
guy, I don't immediately go to those names. Those,
00:19:16.500 --> 00:19:18.740
those names seem big. They have lots of overhead.
00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.480
There's like, you know, I'm more. likely myself
00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:24.559
as a consumer if I needed an HVAC electrical
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:28.460
plumber to post on Facebook and ask my network
00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:30.960
who they trust and who they recommend. I mean
00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:34.660
I just did a my oven the heating element went
00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:38.079
out and so I still just googled and looked at
00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.500
reviews and and then basically made a phone call
00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:42.500
and the first person that was able to take that
00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:44.359
call and schedule an appointment quickly is the
00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:46.299
one who got the job. People especially in this
00:19:46.299 --> 00:19:48.750
industry but really people anywhere. have a really
00:19:48.750 --> 00:19:50.849
hard time getting out of their own perspective
00:19:50.849 --> 00:19:54.089
and into the perspective of their friend, neighbor,
00:19:54.390 --> 00:19:57.230
potential customer, whatever it is. And our perspectives
00:19:57.230 --> 00:20:00.309
are clouded with so many things from inside the
00:20:00.309 --> 00:20:02.490
industry. But again, if I had to name three electrical
00:20:02.490 --> 00:20:04.230
companies, I would have a really hard time doing
00:20:04.230 --> 00:20:06.670
that. And they're at least having lots of touch
00:20:06.670 --> 00:20:09.150
points. They a lot of times have the fleet of
00:20:09.150 --> 00:20:11.829
vehicles with wrapped vehicles. And so if you
00:20:11.829 --> 00:20:14.730
have a hard time creating a brand in plumbing,
00:20:14.990 --> 00:20:17.490
electrical, HVAC, roofing is going to be even
00:20:17.390 --> 00:20:19.430
harder because there's way more all of those
00:20:19.430 --> 00:20:21.769
other things you need licensing for. There are
00:20:21.769 --> 00:20:24.470
barriers to entry and still those companies have
00:20:24.470 --> 00:20:27.089
a really hard time building a brand, like a true
00:20:27.089 --> 00:20:29.309
brand that really means something. And so in
00:20:29.309 --> 00:20:34.089
roofing, I think it's over emphasized, overvalued.
00:20:34.430 --> 00:20:38.119
If you're a new guy just starting out, It really
00:20:38.119 --> 00:20:40.420
all comes back down to service. How quickly can
00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:43.579
you return their call and get out on site? How
00:20:43.579 --> 00:20:46.380
much are you really looking to solve their problem
00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:48.640
rather than sell them something and make money?
00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:51.819
And how concerned are you with helping them versus
00:20:51.819 --> 00:20:53.960
getting a paycheck or a commission? And if I
00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:57.000
am not a new guy, how can I make myself memorable?
00:20:57.140 --> 00:20:59.240
Because I think so that is something that you
00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:01.720
are referring to as well. If you can make your
00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:05.339
company memorable for the human mind, then you
00:21:05.339 --> 00:21:07.640
can become the brand that they want to work with.
00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:11.140
But unfortunately, if I am a roofer, I have a
00:21:11.140 --> 00:21:13.619
lot of opportunities, but because of the limitations
00:21:13.619 --> 00:21:16.559
that I have in my mentality, I can only think
00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:19.220
of trucks, truck wraps. I can only think of yard
00:21:19.220 --> 00:21:22.700
signs. I can only think of all these stereotypical
00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:24.940
things that other roofing contractors are doing,
00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:27.980
but that is not something that is going to make
00:21:27.980 --> 00:21:30.779
me memorable. So with all that experience that
00:21:30.779 --> 00:21:34.039
you have, what are your recommendations for the
00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:35.940
roofing contractors in order to to make their
00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:38.019
companies memorable or how are you doing it?
00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:40.829
People remember how you made them feel. They
00:21:40.829 --> 00:21:43.029
don't remember what you told them. They don't
00:21:43.029 --> 00:21:44.950
remember what they saw. Like you just said, you
00:21:44.950 --> 00:21:47.049
can think of some yard signs and some truck wraps
00:21:47.049 --> 00:21:49.730
and maybe some commercials on TV. But again,
00:21:49.750 --> 00:21:51.490
there's a roofing company here that's been in
00:21:51.490 --> 00:21:54.029
my market for, for like a hundred years. They're
00:21:54.029 --> 00:21:56.170
like third generation, fourth generation. They
00:21:56.170 --> 00:21:58.509
sponsor the Cincinnati Reds. They're all over
00:21:58.509 --> 00:22:01.809
radio and TV. And if I still go down to my, and
00:22:01.809 --> 00:22:04.289
ask the random person, I go to the grocery store
00:22:04.289 --> 00:22:06.089
and just stop somebody and say, can you name
00:22:06.089 --> 00:22:07.869
a roofing company? They're not going to be able
00:22:07.869 --> 00:22:10.769
to name that company. And so people don't remember
00:22:10.769 --> 00:22:12.650
those things. So the question becomes what do
00:22:12.650 --> 00:22:14.890
they remember? And whether you like it or not,
00:22:15.089 --> 00:22:17.430
they remember how you made them feel. You know,
00:22:17.569 --> 00:22:20.069
Adam Benzeman has been a, I have followed Adam
00:22:20.069 --> 00:22:22.450
Benzeman for a long time and he talks about three
00:22:22.450 --> 00:22:24.289
things that you need is trust, need and money.
00:22:24.509 --> 00:22:27.410
Money I think becomes slightly irrelevant because
00:22:27.410 --> 00:22:29.569
if you need the work done, you gotta have the
00:22:29.569 --> 00:22:32.009
work done. And even the difference between my,
00:22:32.089 --> 00:22:34.410
the Delta, the difference between the highest
00:22:34.410 --> 00:22:36.569
price bid and the lowest price bid often isn't
00:22:36.569 --> 00:22:39.859
that egregious and so money's not super relevant
00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.920
the need well either they had a storm and they've
00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:44.960
got a problem there's a need there or they're
00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:47.680
if they're calling me there's a need that they
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:49.220
know the roof's old they know the roof's leaking
00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.519
whatever it is and so ultimately it really comes
00:22:51.519 --> 00:22:54.660
down to trust and trust is an emotion you know
00:22:54.660 --> 00:22:57.329
it's not well a formula Well, they have this
00:22:57.329 --> 00:23:00.170
many reviews and this rated and been in business
00:23:00.170 --> 00:23:02.730
this long. Therefore I trust them. That's just
00:23:02.730 --> 00:23:05.130
not the way it works. And so when you're out
00:23:05.130 --> 00:23:07.269
on site with them, they're going to remember
00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:10.829
how you made them feel. Trust is a feeling. And
00:23:10.829 --> 00:23:13.069
so I don't know how many people in the roofing
00:23:13.069 --> 00:23:15.009
industry ever stopped to think about that and
00:23:15.009 --> 00:23:17.900
to think about when you trust someone. When you
00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:20.259
have that feeling of trust, what is it that that
00:23:20.259 --> 00:23:23.359
person did that gave you that feeling? And you
00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:25.980
can then use that as a model and replicate that.
00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:29.299
And so I want, when my people are on site with
00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:32.079
that homeowner, if their focus, if their concern
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.700
is on that person and serving them and solving
00:23:34.700 --> 00:23:37.480
their problems, not steering them to the outcome
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:40.039
that they want, not trying to pitch or sell them.
00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:43.299
I think that they're going to, that's a really
00:23:43.299 --> 00:23:47.650
key way. of building that trust and giving them
00:23:47.650 --> 00:23:50.269
that feeling of trust. And, you know, we want
00:23:50.269 --> 00:23:52.609
them to. They should trust us. We do have a long
00:23:52.609 --> 00:23:54.410
history of doing things the right way and taking
00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:56.750
care of people. And again, this isn't a gimmick.
00:23:56.890 --> 00:24:00.099
It can be a gimmick. Like, you can... push that
00:24:00.099 --> 00:24:02.619
message and really try for those things. But
00:24:02.619 --> 00:24:04.440
if you're not actually truly committed to them,
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:06.059
I think that you're going to have short -term
00:24:06.059 --> 00:24:08.299
success and long -term failure. But yeah, again,
00:24:08.299 --> 00:24:11.579
I think what is it that translates into the feeling
00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:14.119
of trust? And then how do you replicate that?
00:24:14.140 --> 00:24:16.140
How do you deliver that on a consistent basis?
00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:19.299
It's such a nice example that you can be a company
00:24:19.299 --> 00:24:22.519
that sponsors everything locally, but the local
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:25.559
people still don't remember you because you have
00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:28.200
failed to connect emotionally with them. And
00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:31.349
I think so. that people love to think that humans
00:24:31.349 --> 00:24:34.269
make decisions with logic alone, but that's not
00:24:34.269 --> 00:24:37.730
the case. We make the decisions with logic and
00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:40.049
psycho. So it's and where psycho always comes
00:24:40.049 --> 00:24:42.930
first. There is a reason that we are called psychological
00:24:42.930 --> 00:24:45.930
creatures because psycho comes first and we rarely
00:24:45.930 --> 00:24:48.630
focus on the psycho part. The reason I am bringing
00:24:48.630 --> 00:24:52.359
this is that Earlier in this interview, you mentioned
00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:54.740
that roofing contractors are obsessed with systems
00:24:54.740 --> 00:24:57.519
and SOPs and processes and scaling and writing
00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:00.160
everything down on paper, making calculations,
00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.119
equations and seeing that, okay, I will hit 10
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:05.579
million by next year and then giving them this
00:25:05.579 --> 00:25:08.200
feel good emotion. And that all feels good on
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:10.779
paper, but you are someone who trains these people
00:25:10.779 --> 00:25:14.220
as well. Do you face a hard time training these
00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:16.640
people or actually bringing them to the reality
00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:19.720
that logic alone won't make you a great company?
00:25:19.819 --> 00:25:22.720
So I don't think I struggle with that. You'd
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.559
have to ask the people that I consult for, but
00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.359
most of the people that I consult for, I continue
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:29.920
consulting for. Or if I do a private training,
00:25:30.220 --> 00:25:32.339
well over half of the companies that I do a private
00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:34.579
training for bring me back for another private
00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:36.700
training. And so that tells me that they're getting
00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:39.150
value out of it. So I think that I'm doing okay
00:25:39.150 --> 00:25:41.329
with that. The question then it becomes how.
00:25:41.630 --> 00:25:44.369
And so I can tell them what they're doing wrong
00:25:44.369 --> 00:25:46.329
and I can tell them what to do. And it's going
00:25:46.329 --> 00:25:48.470
to have very, very little effect because we're
00:25:48.470 --> 00:25:51.869
not logical, rational beings where you are emotional.
00:25:52.289 --> 00:25:54.569
So what I have to do is show them. I have to
00:25:54.569 --> 00:25:57.369
get them to believe it. They have to see it in
00:25:57.369 --> 00:26:00.210
their eye. And so there's an exercise that I
00:26:00.210 --> 00:26:02.809
do, which is kind of exactly what you're talking
00:26:02.809 --> 00:26:04.890
about where I'll take a calendar. Like if you
00:26:04.890 --> 00:26:06.690
take a big whiteboard. And in the middle of the
00:26:06.690 --> 00:26:09.789
whiteboard, I just write one to 60, right? And
00:26:09.789 --> 00:26:13.210
that represents days. And then I go above that
00:26:13.210 --> 00:26:16.509
timeline and I ask them every single thing. I
00:26:16.509 --> 00:26:18.970
want them to give me everything that happens
00:26:18.970 --> 00:26:23.160
in the normal life cycle of a sale. from the
00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:25.920
initial phone call to the inspection, but really
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.039
needle in and when do the notes get updated into
00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:31.140
the CRM? When do you order your measurements?
00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:33.680
When did you produce an estimate? You know, blah,
00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:35.599
blah, blah, everything. And what you're going
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.119
to see is there is just, if here's the timeline
00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:40.319
of the dates, there's all this stuff up here.
00:26:40.380 --> 00:26:42.710
I mean, there's a ton of things. And then I go,
00:26:42.710 --> 00:26:44.170
okay, great. And then I choose like a different
00:26:44.170 --> 00:26:46.250
color and I come below the timeline and I go,
00:26:46.250 --> 00:26:48.150
let's look at it from the customer's perspective.
00:26:48.349 --> 00:26:50.549
And I said, from the customer, where do they,
00:26:50.809 --> 00:26:52.650
okay, there's the initial call. And they're usually
00:26:52.650 --> 00:26:54.369
in the beginning, the first few days, there's
00:26:54.369 --> 00:26:56.170
a few different touch points and then there'll
00:26:56.170 --> 00:26:58.509
be a big gap and there'll be a couple more. And
00:26:58.509 --> 00:27:00.509
then they sign a contract and then there's a
00:27:00.509 --> 00:27:03.210
big gap and then they install the roof. And so
00:27:03.210 --> 00:27:07.299
this is a, when you see it. I can explain it.
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.380
I can tell it, but it's not going to have any
00:27:09.380 --> 00:27:12.619
real impact. When they write it out and they
00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.720
see it, they immediately see these large holes
00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:18.819
and gaps. See how there's, you know, 50 to 80,
00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:20.759
a hundred different things up on the, on the
00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:22.819
backside of the company, but there's only like
00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:25.980
10 or 12 for the customer. And usually what happens
00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:28.140
is by the time we get done, I step back and,
00:27:28.140 --> 00:27:30.319
and I don't even say anything. And the owner
00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:31.619
of the company is looking at it and he's like,
00:27:31.619 --> 00:27:34.140
Oh my God. And I go, you see it, right? And he
00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:36.200
goes, yeah, I see it. I said, see, you've been
00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:38.440
viewing this thing from your perspective the
00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:40.660
entire time, how to make your company more efficient,
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:43.160
how to be better trained, how to be more consistent,
00:27:43.240 --> 00:27:45.599
how to be this, how to be that. And you've completely
00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:48.160
forgotten to think about your customer's experience,
00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:51.799
what they see, what they feel. And, and so again,
00:27:52.410 --> 00:27:54.750
I can tell them that but they're not going to
00:27:54.750 --> 00:27:56.690
really grasp it but as soon as they actually
00:27:56.690 --> 00:27:59.609
see it and they decide oh my goodness look at
00:27:59.609 --> 00:28:02.630
this now we can go at least now you believe it
00:28:02.700 --> 00:28:06.059
Now we, we've also visually, we can see the gaps,
00:28:06.119 --> 00:28:08.859
the holes in the timeline, and we can now start
00:28:08.859 --> 00:28:10.720
to go in and fix this. And let's talk about,
00:28:11.059 --> 00:28:14.140
let's view this as a customer of XYZ roofing
00:28:14.140 --> 00:28:16.319
company. What are they experiencing? What are
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:18.279
they thinking? What are they, you know, and we
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:20.859
can walk through and plan that out. And the results
00:28:20.859 --> 00:28:22.859
that they have from that are generally pretty,
00:28:22.859 --> 00:28:25.670
pretty extensive. And what are the things in
00:28:25.670 --> 00:28:27.809
the roofing industry that you are not happy with?
00:28:27.970 --> 00:28:30.670
There are sales people that I tell them, don't
00:28:30.670 --> 00:28:32.829
get too big of a pipeline. If you get too big
00:28:32.829 --> 00:28:34.490
of a pipeline, they're just going to fire you
00:28:34.490 --> 00:28:36.960
and they're going to just... absorb your pipeline
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:39.180
and they would rather lose you than have to pay
00:28:39.180 --> 00:28:41.539
the commissions out on those. And man, is that
00:28:41.539 --> 00:28:44.319
just, it's slimy and shady. There's a company
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:46.859
locally here in my market that just went out
00:28:46.859 --> 00:28:49.059
of business. And you know, I don't celebrate
00:28:49.059 --> 00:28:50.880
people's failures, but when this company went
00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:53.079
out of business, I was, I was generally pretty
00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:55.619
happy about it. And what they did is one of the
00:28:55.619 --> 00:28:58.559
owners has a government position and they racked
00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:00.299
up, they kept stringing out their production,
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:03.039
their labor crews for a few weeks and they racked
00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:04.859
up about three, four weeks of money that they.
00:29:04.809 --> 00:29:07.170
them and then told them, we're not going to pay
00:29:07.170 --> 00:29:10.789
you. And then the Latinos community that was
00:29:10.789 --> 00:29:13.809
doing the labor, you know, threatened lawsuits
00:29:13.809 --> 00:29:16.410
or threatened whatever. And they said, if you
00:29:16.410 --> 00:29:18.670
do anything, we're going to call ICE and have
00:29:18.670 --> 00:29:21.250
you deported. Absolutely disgusting behavior.
00:29:21.309 --> 00:29:24.130
And that happens, you know, more than you probably
00:29:24.130 --> 00:29:27.589
think. Vandalism in the roofing industry is rampant.
00:29:28.109 --> 00:29:30.650
It's gotten really out of control. It's really,
00:29:30.650 --> 00:29:33.630
really bad. And you know, where guys go up and
00:29:33.630 --> 00:29:36.329
mimic wind damage, try to mimic hail damage.
00:29:36.450 --> 00:29:38.630
Finally, the industry is starting to call that
00:29:38.630 --> 00:29:40.930
out a little bit and you're seeing these videos.
00:29:40.930 --> 00:29:42.809
I mean, I get people that send me the videos
00:29:42.809 --> 00:29:45.150
before they post them because they know I speak
00:29:45.150 --> 00:29:46.829
out about these things and they'll send me the
00:29:46.829 --> 00:29:49.170
video and be like, hey, you know, my customer
00:29:49.170 --> 00:29:52.089
videoed this outside their window at the neighbor's
00:29:52.089 --> 00:29:54.289
roof and there's a guy up there damaging the
00:29:54.289 --> 00:29:57.630
roof. And so this industry is pretty quick to
00:29:57.630 --> 00:30:00.250
talk about how bad the insurance companies are
00:30:00.250 --> 00:30:03.029
and how bad the suppliers and the manufacturers
00:30:03.029 --> 00:30:05.640
are. greedy and keep raising prices. And yet
00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:08.079
a lot of them don't want to look internally at
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:10.420
some of the things that they're doing. And so,
00:30:10.420 --> 00:30:12.259
yeah, the roofing industry has a lot of problems
00:30:12.259 --> 00:30:14.059
and they're deep seated and they're pretty...
00:30:14.119 --> 00:30:16.980
widespread. And so those are, those are the primary
00:30:16.980 --> 00:30:19.680
things that I really struggle with. And that's
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:21.980
why John and I in Master your Craft, we have
00:30:21.980 --> 00:30:24.200
an application process. Like you're not allowed,
00:30:24.380 --> 00:30:26.720
you know, we sell training and we don't even,
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:28.400
if you go to the website, you're, you're going
00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:30.200
to get very, very little. We're not going to
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:32.299
show you much, even like what the topics are,
00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:34.460
what we do until you've been through an application
00:30:34.460 --> 00:30:36.940
process. And we spend about two weeks vetting
00:30:36.940 --> 00:30:39.079
that company. We actually deny about a third
00:30:39.079 --> 00:30:42.240
of the people that try to buy our, our products.
00:30:42.339 --> 00:30:44.099
And I don't know many companies. that do that
00:30:44.099 --> 00:30:46.579
that actually you know make it difficult to buy
00:30:46.579 --> 00:30:50.619
or turn buyers away but John and I know how rampant
00:30:50.619 --> 00:30:54.309
that is And we don't want to help those people.
00:30:54.690 --> 00:30:57.569
And so we put up, you know, paywalls. We put
00:30:57.569 --> 00:30:59.509
up a lot of different guardrails to make sure
00:30:59.509 --> 00:31:01.650
that the people that are getting our content
00:31:01.650 --> 00:31:04.150
are people that we want in the industry and we
00:31:04.150 --> 00:31:06.250
want to help succeed. Cause there's just a lot
00:31:06.250 --> 00:31:07.670
of companies out there that we don't really want
00:31:07.670 --> 00:31:09.849
to help in any way, shape or form. I had another
00:31:09.849 --> 00:31:12.170
question for you, but you just mentioned that
00:31:12.170 --> 00:31:15.450
there are a third of roofing contractors that
00:31:15.450 --> 00:31:18.670
can't make master aircraft. So what is the criteria
00:31:18.670 --> 00:31:21.599
that you follow for roofing contract? to get
00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:24.460
into your training. So our mission is to create
00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:27.059
a community of like -minded contractors committed
00:31:27.059 --> 00:31:29.140
to protecting homeowners and running a good clean
00:31:29.140 --> 00:31:32.440
business. And so that's really the bar. Do you
00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:34.660
care about protecting homeowners and do you run
00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:37.059
a good clean business? And I don't want to get
00:31:37.059 --> 00:31:40.329
any deeper than that, but it... It's really not
00:31:40.329 --> 00:31:42.750
that hard to find out those things. John and
00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:44.630
I are very in tune with the industry. I mean,
00:31:44.650 --> 00:31:46.410
the community is large enough at this point where
00:31:46.410 --> 00:31:48.609
we can go into our own community and say, Hey,
00:31:48.849 --> 00:31:51.529
this company in this market has applied. Most
00:31:51.529 --> 00:31:53.829
likely there's a, we've got a company or two
00:31:53.829 --> 00:31:56.109
in that market and they'll usually come back
00:31:56.109 --> 00:31:58.230
and say like, dude, they're a great fit. I know
00:31:58.230 --> 00:32:00.410
those guys, they do a good job. They really,
00:32:00.410 --> 00:32:02.869
you know, uh, live out the vision and values
00:32:02.869 --> 00:32:05.309
of master your craft. Or they come back and they're
00:32:05.309 --> 00:32:07.619
like, dude, I'm telling you, like, I'm not, you
00:32:07.619 --> 00:32:09.859
do what you want to do, but I know those guys
00:32:09.859 --> 00:32:11.700
and they don't really fit the culture here. And
00:32:11.700 --> 00:32:14.740
so we've got an actual process for what we do
00:32:14.740 --> 00:32:16.640
for vetting. But yeah, it usually takes us about
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:18.460
two weeks. It's really not that hard to figure
00:32:18.460 --> 00:32:20.200
out. And that's what we're looking for. Do we
00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:22.460
believe that that company is committed to protecting
00:32:22.460 --> 00:32:24.279
homeowners and running a good clean business?
00:32:24.299 --> 00:32:26.380
And if the answer is no to either of those, then
00:32:26.380 --> 00:32:28.480
we just respectfully decline and just say, hey,
00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.119
I'm sorry. Unfortunately, we're not able to.
00:32:30.180 --> 00:32:32.500
If you want to reapply in the future, you can.
00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:35.859
But honestly, those companies become... they
00:32:35.859 --> 00:32:39.119
operate under a different set of values aren't
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:41.740
really going to get the value out of our training
00:32:41.740 --> 00:32:44.339
either. Like our training is set up for those
00:32:44.339 --> 00:32:46.279
people that are already operating in a certain
00:32:46.279 --> 00:32:48.599
way and if you don't operate that way then this
00:32:48.599 --> 00:32:50.200
training is not gonna be super relevant there's
00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:52.059
just not gonna be a lot of like cohesion and
00:32:52.059 --> 00:32:53.599
it's gonna be a waste of their time and money
00:32:53.599 --> 00:32:56.940
anyway. And so it's not us trying to be jerks.
00:32:57.119 --> 00:32:59.480
Um, I go, this isn't going to be good for you
00:32:59.480 --> 00:33:01.539
and you're not going to be good for our community.
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:03.859
And so let's just not do business together, but
00:33:03.859 --> 00:33:05.799
we wish you the best and good luck out there.
00:33:05.900 --> 00:33:08.640
You are right. You can't be everything to everyone.
00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:10.940
You have to be something to someone. Besides
00:33:10.940 --> 00:33:13.779
this, you also mentioned earlier that there are
00:33:13.779 --> 00:33:15.700
things in the industry you are not happy with
00:33:15.700 --> 00:33:18.279
and you just share them. You also said that you
00:33:18.279 --> 00:33:21.500
are doing some things to solve these things.
00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:24.019
Is there anything that you are doing besides
00:33:24.019 --> 00:33:26.559
master your craft to make the roofing industry
00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:30.039
up? Yeah, so John and I have two other businesses
00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:33.240
which are relatively young. The first one is
00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:35.819
called Unit 5 and it's an ice impact testing
00:33:35.819 --> 00:33:38.519
laboratory. And we are doing some incredibly
00:33:38.519 --> 00:33:41.099
cool things there. We are building a mountain
00:33:41.099 --> 00:33:44.519
of data and we have a deeper understanding than
00:33:44.519 --> 00:33:47.299
anything we've ever seen. Most, most, not all,
00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:50.140
but most scientific studies that have been done
00:33:50.140 --> 00:33:53.119
regarding ice impacts on shingles. I believe,
00:33:53.279 --> 00:33:55.680
and this is my opinion, it's not a fact. that
00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:58.819
someone has come to that testing facility, that
00:33:58.819 --> 00:34:00.819
whatever, and said, here's the outcome we want
00:34:00.819 --> 00:34:02.660
you to come to and here's the money that we're
00:34:02.660 --> 00:34:04.450
going to give you. And they designed the test
00:34:04.450 --> 00:34:07.029
to get to the outcome. And so John and I are
00:34:07.029 --> 00:34:10.050
big believers in objective truth. And so we decided
00:34:10.050 --> 00:34:12.809
to write that wrong and kind of solve that problem.
00:34:12.929 --> 00:34:16.110
And so we are testing thousands of products and
00:34:16.110 --> 00:34:17.590
I don't want to go too much deeper into that
00:34:17.590 --> 00:34:19.750
one. The other one is actually one that I would
00:34:19.750 --> 00:34:21.429
like to talk about a little bit. And that's a
00:34:21.429 --> 00:34:24.469
product called Gladstone. And Gladstone is an
00:34:24.469 --> 00:34:27.559
AI software that John and I have built. The easiest
00:34:27.559 --> 00:34:30.519
way to describe it is to say that John and I,
00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:32.599
as well as a couple of other people in the industry
00:34:32.599 --> 00:34:36.119
have kind of downloaded our brains into AI. And
00:34:36.119 --> 00:34:38.460
we, it took about a year to build and then we
00:34:38.460 --> 00:34:40.860
beta tested it for, I don't know, four months
00:34:40.860 --> 00:34:42.860
maybe. And we've actually been live with that
00:34:42.860 --> 00:34:45.659
product for about two months. And we did what's
00:34:45.659 --> 00:34:47.940
called like an early access. We just, we're still
00:34:47.940 --> 00:34:50.280
working out some last kinks, getting the user
00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:53.360
interface modified, but we've, we are revenueing
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:55.900
and I'm, we're targeting a July for full launch.
00:34:56.389 --> 00:34:59.170
And so that will be something that is a per user
00:34:59.170 --> 00:35:01.829
base, like any person can just buy and there's
00:35:01.829 --> 00:35:04.489
no application process. And so for a certain
00:35:04.489 --> 00:35:06.610
dollar amount, which I'll just say right now,
00:35:06.690 --> 00:35:08.489
we're targeting a hundred dollars per month per
00:35:08.489 --> 00:35:10.969
user. And this software will integrate basically
00:35:10.969 --> 00:35:13.269
with your email. And the easiest way that I can
00:35:13.269 --> 00:35:15.989
think or say it is it's, it's like John having
00:35:15.989 --> 00:35:18.889
John or I writing your emails. So John and I
00:35:18.889 --> 00:35:20.889
have been teaching in the industry for a long
00:35:20.889 --> 00:35:23.610
time and we used to teach the what here's what
00:35:23.610 --> 00:35:25.460
you need to do. They go, Chris, I have this problem.
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:29.260
I go, okay, here's what you need to do. And that
00:35:29.260 --> 00:35:31.480
helped, but it didn't solve the problem. And
00:35:31.480 --> 00:35:33.659
so then we started teaching the how. Well, here's
00:35:33.659 --> 00:35:35.960
what you need to do, but here's how we do it.
00:35:36.119 --> 00:35:38.820
And then last year we started teaching the why.
00:35:39.019 --> 00:35:40.940
Here's again, you've got this problem. Here's
00:35:40.940 --> 00:35:42.500
what you need to do. Here's how to do it. But
00:35:42.500 --> 00:35:44.960
here's why you need to do it this way. And if
00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:47.719
you understand the why, then when things change
00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:50.780
and you can pivot on your own, because you actually
00:35:50.780 --> 00:35:53.039
understand why you're doing these things. And
00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:55.099
then we realized all of these things help, but
00:35:55.099 --> 00:35:57.360
they haven't solved the issue. And John said
00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:00.179
something on stage that really hit me. And he
00:36:00.179 --> 00:36:03.900
said, if your skill is a nine. but your communication
00:36:03.900 --> 00:36:07.340
is a four, your effectiveness is a four. It doesn't
00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:09.460
matter what you know or what you can do if you
00:36:09.460 --> 00:36:12.340
can't communicate that to somebody. And so that
00:36:12.340 --> 00:36:15.159
is a massive problem in our industry is that
00:36:15.159 --> 00:36:17.800
people in this industry tend to lack a high level
00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:22.070
of communication. And so we We built the program
00:36:22.070 --> 00:36:25.429
to do that. And so it streamlines your communications,
00:36:25.710 --> 00:36:28.010
whether that's with your customer, maybe that's
00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:30.730
with the adjuster, maybe that's with whoever,
00:36:31.030 --> 00:36:33.409
like whoever you're dealing with in your business.
00:36:33.769 --> 00:36:36.650
And so the AI tool will already read the email
00:36:36.650 --> 00:36:39.250
that comes in and will basically already have
00:36:39.250 --> 00:36:43.030
a draft written for you that you can then proofread
00:36:43.030 --> 00:36:45.210
and use as training. You can send that email
00:36:45.210 --> 00:36:47.409
if you want, you can then tweak it. And most
00:36:47.409 --> 00:36:50.730
of the AI programs that are out there. are prompt
00:36:50.730 --> 00:36:53.050
-based. It's good data in, good data out. If
00:36:53.050 --> 00:36:55.289
you don't give it good prompts, it's not gonna
00:36:55.289 --> 00:36:57.590
give you good outputs. And most of the people
00:36:57.590 --> 00:36:59.829
using it don't know how to give it the right
00:36:59.829 --> 00:37:03.329
prompts. And so we didn't go that way. Our system
00:37:03.329 --> 00:37:05.230
will collect information. We will ask you, do
00:37:05.230 --> 00:37:07.690
you have this piece of information? And so we
00:37:07.690 --> 00:37:10.289
ask you, you upload whatever you do have of those,
00:37:10.530 --> 00:37:12.730
and then that's what everything is based on.
00:37:12.989 --> 00:37:15.570
And we don't wait for you to give a prompt and
00:37:15.570 --> 00:37:18.059
ask for something. We deliver it. And then you
00:37:18.059 --> 00:37:20.360
can prompt it to change it and tweak it and edit
00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:22.559
it if you like. And so what we're seeing from
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:25.420
that has been really astounding. I am shocked
00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:27.920
at how advanced it is because we're really still
00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:30.840
on version one, right? Like we just launched
00:37:30.840 --> 00:37:33.800
and granted like through training it and beta,
00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:35.619
we've been through many different versions. But
00:37:35.619 --> 00:37:38.000
as far as like officially, it's just the first
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.639
version. We have got a laundry list of development,
00:37:40.980 --> 00:37:42.659
you know, software development that we want done.
00:37:42.989 --> 00:37:45.829
And it's going to be incredibly more powerful,
00:37:46.210 --> 00:37:48.610
but it already is. The feedback that we've gotten
00:37:48.610 --> 00:37:51.309
has been far better than I imagined. And so the
00:37:51.309 --> 00:37:53.650
people that are using it are reporting not only
00:37:53.650 --> 00:37:56.550
better success, but the real beauty is the amount
00:37:56.550 --> 00:37:59.489
of time that they're saving. And so most people
00:37:59.489 --> 00:38:01.730
that are using this product are saving somewhere
00:38:01.730 --> 00:38:04.969
between five and 10 hours a week of their time
00:38:04.969 --> 00:38:08.070
while also getting better results. And so they're
00:38:08.070 --> 00:38:10.210
making more money in less amount of time. That's
00:38:10.210 --> 00:38:12.809
more efficient. They can then either use that
00:38:12.809 --> 00:38:15.409
time to kind of restore the work -life balance
00:38:15.409 --> 00:38:18.150
and spend more time with family and hobbies,
00:38:18.150 --> 00:38:20.369
or they can use that time to go out and sell
00:38:20.369 --> 00:38:22.730
more and, and make more money and grow their
00:38:22.730 --> 00:38:25.150
business, whatever it is. And so that's something
00:38:25.150 --> 00:38:27.050
again, that, that John and I are super proud
00:38:27.050 --> 00:38:30.190
of. And again, that product is called Glidestone
00:38:30.190 --> 00:38:32.849
and it's actually very simple to use. You don't
00:38:32.849 --> 00:38:35.389
need a lot of training. There's not a big onboarding
00:38:35.389 --> 00:38:38.489
process. It's pretty simple. What is the primary
00:38:38.489 --> 00:38:42.190
purpose of this software Gladstone because you
00:38:42.190 --> 00:38:45.130
just touched a couple of points like communication
00:38:45.130 --> 00:38:47.750
with the insurance adjuster, communication with
00:38:47.750 --> 00:38:49.769
the customer, communication with the team or
00:38:49.769 --> 00:38:52.050
communication with the vendors or anything. But
00:38:52.050 --> 00:38:55.949
is that primarily a software, communication software
00:38:55.949 --> 00:38:58.590
that a roofing company can use to communicate
00:38:58.590 --> 00:39:01.769
with the adjuster because it has your knowledge
00:39:01.769 --> 00:39:04.530
and your brain integrated in that? Yeah. So I
00:39:04.530 --> 00:39:06.550
want to be very, very clear that this is not
00:39:06.550 --> 00:39:09.800
a like claims handling software. That's not what
00:39:09.800 --> 00:39:12.699
it's designed to be at all. It's a communication
00:39:12.699 --> 00:39:15.840
software. It's meant to streamline to make more
00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:17.900
effective and more efficient communications.
00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:21.300
But yes, it is trained on, again, most of the
00:39:21.300 --> 00:39:22.699
other things that are out there. There's a lot
00:39:22.699 --> 00:39:24.900
of guys that have been building their own chat
00:39:24.900 --> 00:39:28.440
GBT model or using other softwares, but those
00:39:28.440 --> 00:39:31.159
softwares are all still based on either what
00:39:31.159 --> 00:39:33.960
that user knows and has put into it, or what's
00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:36.639
just out there in the public space. And that's
00:39:36.639 --> 00:39:40.000
not what ours is. Ours is downloading John and
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.480
Mai's brain. So not only the leverage points
00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:46.079
that we use, not only the data sets that we use,
00:39:46.199 --> 00:39:50.199
I think that the model is trained on a tighter,
00:39:50.400 --> 00:39:53.239
better set of data than anything else that's
00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:56.199
out there, but it's also going to communicate
00:39:56.199 --> 00:39:59.099
in the tone and the way that we communicate.
00:39:59.320 --> 00:40:01.900
And so if you're a salesperson in the roofing
00:40:01.900 --> 00:40:04.670
industry, You know, if you're talking to an insurance
00:40:04.670 --> 00:40:07.030
adjuster and you're like, Hey, I need drip edge
00:40:07.030 --> 00:40:10.230
on the rakes and ease. If you, the homeowner
00:40:10.230 --> 00:40:12.030
reads that email maybe, and they're like, what
00:40:12.030 --> 00:40:14.730
is drip edge? What's a rake? What's an Eve? And
00:40:14.730 --> 00:40:16.949
so then you've got to switch your speak. And
00:40:16.949 --> 00:40:18.230
then when you're talking to the homeowner, you
00:40:18.230 --> 00:40:20.389
got to say, well, you know, uh, it's a metal
00:40:20.389 --> 00:40:22.070
flashing goes around the perimeter of the roof.
00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:25.019
You know, and the EVE is like the gutter line
00:40:25.019 --> 00:40:26.860
and the rake is the edge of the house that's
00:40:26.860 --> 00:40:29.420
on an angle. And you know what I mean? And so
00:40:29.420 --> 00:40:32.860
I don't think that other programs are doing those
00:40:32.860 --> 00:40:35.059
things. They're just not doing the communication
00:40:35.059 --> 00:40:38.159
piece very well. Another example I would give
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:43.000
is John and I do these classes. And so, I mean,
00:40:43.059 --> 00:40:47.099
we probably each do 40 to 60 a year. And there's
00:40:47.099 --> 00:40:49.400
on average of a hundred roofers in the room.
00:40:49.820 --> 00:40:52.380
And I asked them almost every single time towards
00:40:52.380 --> 00:40:54.760
the end of the class, I say, what percentage
00:40:54.760 --> 00:40:57.300
of today's information do you think you're going
00:40:57.300 --> 00:41:00.960
to retain? And the most common answer is 20%.
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:05.090
And I said, okay. And now. I think that's fair.
00:41:05.489 --> 00:41:07.510
Now, how many of you are going to planning on
00:41:07.510 --> 00:41:10.090
going back to your office and training your team
00:41:10.090 --> 00:41:12.469
on these things? And you know, everybody pretty
00:41:12.469 --> 00:41:14.690
much says yes. And I said, okay, and when you
00:41:14.690 --> 00:41:17.590
train them, you take 20 % of the content and
00:41:17.590 --> 00:41:19.510
you train them, how much, what percent are they
00:41:19.510 --> 00:41:22.269
going to retain of yours? And they go, Oh crap,
00:41:22.630 --> 00:41:25.789
20%. And I said, what's 20 % of 20 %? I believe
00:41:25.789 --> 00:41:30.210
is 4%. And so another way of looking at Glenstone
00:41:30.210 --> 00:41:36.090
is or imagine if there was something that retained
00:41:36.090 --> 00:41:39.469
a hundred percent of every training John and
00:41:39.469 --> 00:41:42.849
I did. And then that was writing your emails
00:41:42.849 --> 00:41:45.489
and handling your communication. It's just, it's
00:41:45.489 --> 00:41:48.650
hard to really kind of grasp the gap between
00:41:48.650 --> 00:41:51.250
those two things. And so, you know, one other
00:41:51.250 --> 00:41:53.010
huge problem that we have in the industry is
00:41:53.010 --> 00:41:55.550
that it's become so complicated, especially on
00:41:55.550 --> 00:41:57.869
the restoration side. So not only internally
00:41:57.869 --> 00:42:01.670
do you have all of these softwares and you go
00:42:01.670 --> 00:42:03.269
into your sales meeting and they've got these
00:42:03.269 --> 00:42:05.489
directives and things they want you to do, and
00:42:05.489 --> 00:42:07.969
you've got to learn your price conditioning and
00:42:07.969 --> 00:42:10.349
objection handling. But on the claims side, on
00:42:10.349 --> 00:42:12.389
the restoration side of the industry, it's gotten
00:42:12.389 --> 00:42:16.010
incredibly difficult and all of this training
00:42:16.010 --> 00:42:18.329
and knowledge that you have to have. And so recruiting
00:42:18.329 --> 00:42:20.409
has become very, very hard. See, in the happy
00:42:20.409 --> 00:42:22.809
times, you just tell anybody that had a little
00:42:22.809 --> 00:42:25.369
hustle, a little... You know, get up and go,
00:42:25.670 --> 00:42:27.389
Hey, you know, if you come knock doors for me,
00:42:27.409 --> 00:42:29.769
you can probably make a hundred, 200 grand. That's
00:42:29.769 --> 00:42:31.650
not the way it works anymore. You know, now it's
00:42:31.650 --> 00:42:33.349
like, Hey, if you, if you go out there and you
00:42:33.349 --> 00:42:35.369
really hustle and you really grind and you study
00:42:35.369 --> 00:42:37.469
and you take the training, you know, in like
00:42:37.469 --> 00:42:39.769
four months, you'll get a pretty good size commission
00:42:39.769 --> 00:42:43.210
and that doesn't sell real well. And so the other
00:42:43.210 --> 00:42:46.170
thing that Gladstone does is it takes a low skill
00:42:46.170 --> 00:42:48.630
person. And when I say, I talk a lot about low
00:42:48.630 --> 00:42:50.329
skill and high skill and medium skill people.
00:42:50.519 --> 00:42:53.139
What I generally mean by that is experience,
00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:55.820
but you know, you can still have a low experience,
00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:57.880
high skill guy. They're just pretty rare, but
00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:00.659
it takes your low skill people and it, you know,
00:43:00.699 --> 00:43:02.840
I ask guys in these classes, how long does it
00:43:02.840 --> 00:43:05.239
take for you to take a low skill guy and get
00:43:05.239 --> 00:43:07.800
him to like, like a medium to high skill guy?
00:43:08.199 --> 00:43:09.679
And generally the answer is somewhere between
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:11.900
six months and two years, but I always hear the
00:43:11.900 --> 00:43:14.909
answer. If possible, it'd take a year. Or like,
00:43:15.010 --> 00:43:17.070
if it ever happened, it would take this long.
00:43:17.250 --> 00:43:19.309
Meaning a lot of guys wash out of the industry
00:43:19.309 --> 00:43:22.309
before that happens. And so this is a way that
00:43:22.309 --> 00:43:25.230
you can take a low -skill, low -experience guy
00:43:25.230 --> 00:43:28.750
and he is communicating at a high level, at a
00:43:28.750 --> 00:43:31.269
very effective level immediately. And that's
00:43:31.269 --> 00:43:34.110
not going to happen through ChatGBT. That's not
00:43:34.110 --> 00:43:35.670
going to happen with some of these other programs
00:43:35.670 --> 00:43:37.769
and things that we see out there. I'm going to
00:43:37.769 --> 00:43:40.760
come back to how Gladstone is. helping with the
00:43:40.760 --> 00:43:43.179
recruiting. But allow me to make a comparison
00:43:43.179 --> 00:43:45.739
here. I don't know if it is right or wrong, but
00:43:45.739 --> 00:43:49.599
what you just said about the communication. Nowadays,
00:43:49.780 --> 00:43:53.760
what contractors do is that they, if they have
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:56.579
a query, they just go to Facebook group or any
00:43:56.579 --> 00:43:59.159
kind of social platform that they use. They post
00:43:59.159 --> 00:44:01.880
it in that group. And then there are a bunch
00:44:01.880 --> 00:44:05.260
of comments under that post on how to handle
00:44:05.260 --> 00:44:08.389
this situation. And there are bashes and pulling
00:44:08.389 --> 00:44:10.829
a leg and everything else as well. Do you think
00:44:10.829 --> 00:44:13.210
that I don't know that if that is a comparison
00:44:13.210 --> 00:44:15.590
we should make with Gladstone or not, but if
00:44:15.590 --> 00:44:18.630
that has to be made, do you think that Facebook
00:44:18.630 --> 00:44:21.429
groups and these kinds of groups give you more
00:44:21.429 --> 00:44:25.329
exposure to experience of other roofing contractors
00:44:25.329 --> 00:44:28.409
as well? Because now you are giving your messages
00:44:28.409 --> 00:44:32.150
and your problems to contractors like with the
00:44:32.150 --> 00:44:34.829
years of experiences and with different locations
00:44:34.829 --> 00:44:38.320
and backgrounds and cultures and mindsets. And
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.099
it's not just you and Joan, but now there are
00:44:41.099 --> 00:44:44.500
like 100 or 1000 or 5000 members of that Facebook
00:44:44.500 --> 00:44:47.219
group. So the Facebook groups have been instrumental
00:44:47.219 --> 00:44:50.019
to the industry. It just allows them to communicate
00:44:50.019 --> 00:44:52.440
and see that, oh, this isn't just my problem.
00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:55.099
Everyone's having this or to get new ideas and
00:44:55.099 --> 00:44:57.219
to pass those along. It's been very, very good.
00:44:57.400 --> 00:45:00.360
However, right now, yes, I think that, you know,
00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:02.519
one of those problems that Gladstone solves is
00:45:02.519 --> 00:45:05.059
the time that it takes you to formulate. So if
00:45:05.059 --> 00:45:07.380
you, you're a smoothing salesperson and you wake
00:45:07.380 --> 00:45:10.559
up, you've got four emails from an adjuster on
00:45:10.559 --> 00:45:12.760
a supplement or whatever, who knows, whatever
00:45:12.760 --> 00:45:15.340
it is, you have to frame your mind. Those four
00:45:15.340 --> 00:45:17.679
different, uh, customers have different situations.
00:45:17.780 --> 00:45:19.940
One's a wind claim, one's a hail claim, and one
00:45:19.940 --> 00:45:22.480
has this shingle and that shingle and this. And
00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:25.380
so for you to respond, you have to reevaluate
00:45:25.380 --> 00:45:28.329
the whole file. and kind of familiarize yourself
00:45:28.329 --> 00:45:30.110
again with that file and then you think well
00:45:30.110 --> 00:45:31.730
there's probably I don't know should I write
00:45:31.730 --> 00:45:33.429
it this way should I do this I don't know what
00:45:33.429 --> 00:45:35.170
to do I'm gonna go to Facebook and I asked the
00:45:35.170 --> 00:45:37.889
question and then there's 35 answers and you
00:45:37.889 --> 00:45:40.320
know from experience that Five of those are pretty
00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:42.539
good and 30 of those are probably pretty terrible,
00:45:42.539 --> 00:45:44.559
but it still takes you an hour to figure out
00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:47.079
which five are the five that you want and, and,
00:45:47.079 --> 00:45:49.519
and siphon through those. And then you got to
00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:51.820
take those five comments that were good comments
00:45:51.820 --> 00:45:53.780
and think about that and then write your email.
00:45:54.039 --> 00:45:56.940
Or if you're using Gladstone, you open your email
00:45:56.940 --> 00:45:59.840
and the email that John or I would write is sitting
00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:03.400
there waiting for you. And so it saves a tremendous
00:46:03.400 --> 00:46:06.059
amount of time on those things. But to answer
00:46:06.059 --> 00:46:07.940
your question a little bit more directly about
00:46:07.940 --> 00:46:10.900
the. Facebook groups, you know, yeah, I spend
00:46:10.900 --> 00:46:12.940
some time on those. Like I own one of those Facebook
00:46:12.940 --> 00:46:16.039
groups. Master your craft is John and my Facebook
00:46:16.039 --> 00:46:19.119
page. He named that roofing siding and more is
00:46:19.119 --> 00:46:21.219
John's Facebook page, but I spend a lot of time
00:46:21.219 --> 00:46:24.460
there. And there's 40, 45 ,000 people there.
00:46:24.519 --> 00:46:27.320
You also have a lot of these other Facebook pages
00:46:27.320 --> 00:46:32.360
that have 60, 80 ,000 people. And there's a lot
00:46:32.360 --> 00:46:35.460
of people out there that can learn a lot from
00:46:35.460 --> 00:46:38.579
reading those posts and comments, but it's a
00:46:38.579 --> 00:46:40.500
small percentage of people because it takes a
00:46:40.500 --> 00:46:43.480
lot of discipline. to you have to learn who are
00:46:43.480 --> 00:46:46.440
the people you want to value their comments and
00:46:46.440 --> 00:46:49.159
who are not. And so you have to spend a lot of
00:46:49.159 --> 00:46:51.579
time on there thinking about it and before you're
00:46:51.579 --> 00:46:54.820
really going to extract any value. But once you
00:46:54.820 --> 00:46:57.699
do, you can extract a lot of value. And so, but
00:46:57.699 --> 00:47:00.099
most guys get on there and they're new to the
00:47:00.099 --> 00:47:02.159
industry. They don't know these things. They
00:47:02.159 --> 00:47:04.820
put a comment out there and they get, you know,
00:47:04.840 --> 00:47:07.179
20 different guys giving them 20 different ideas.
00:47:07.400 --> 00:47:09.659
And basically it's just confirmation bias. The
00:47:09.659 --> 00:47:11.980
one that sounds like what they wanted to do or
00:47:11.980 --> 00:47:13.400
what they were thinking. They're like, yeah,
00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:15.719
you're right. That is what I should do. And then
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:18.019
they go out and do that and they kind of shoot
00:47:18.019 --> 00:47:20.260
themselves in the foot. And so John and I have
00:47:20.260 --> 00:47:23.539
been trying to train people. on objective truth
00:47:23.539 --> 00:47:27.159
and critical thinking and shift the mindsets.
00:47:27.300 --> 00:47:29.880
And it's difficult to do. Like, how do you shift
00:47:29.880 --> 00:47:32.199
the mindset of an entire industry? Especially
00:47:32.199 --> 00:47:34.059
there's all these new guys that are still flooding
00:47:34.059 --> 00:47:37.960
into the industry. And so that's where the Gladstone
00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:40.019
concept really came from. You know, when we started
00:47:40.019 --> 00:47:42.239
Master Your Craft, it was with the intention
00:47:42.239 --> 00:47:46.800
of training many people... at one time. So I
00:47:46.800 --> 00:47:48.559
probably have on average about five people a
00:47:48.559 --> 00:47:50.360
day in the industry that reach out to me for
00:47:50.360 --> 00:47:52.440
help. Chris, I've got this issue. Here's what's
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:55.619
going on. Can you help me? I can't stop my day
00:47:55.619 --> 00:47:57.760
and do that with five different people every
00:47:57.760 --> 00:48:00.539
single day. But I can get on a Zoom or, you know,
00:48:00.820 --> 00:48:03.519
a digital training and deliver a piece of content
00:48:03.519 --> 00:48:06.199
that dozens or hundreds of people can then watch.
00:48:06.360 --> 00:48:09.199
And so it makes my time and therefore my output,
00:48:09.500 --> 00:48:12.599
my influence, my whatever, a lot more efficient.
00:48:12.880 --> 00:48:15.059
And so it's really the same thing that there's
00:48:15.059 --> 00:48:16.960
only so many people in the industry that truly
00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:19.360
want to master their craft, that truly want to
00:48:19.360 --> 00:48:22.320
learn at a deep understanding how to do those
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:24.460
things. And so that's great. And for them that
00:48:24.460 --> 00:48:26.500
that's fantastic. But for the rest of the industry,
00:48:26.920 --> 00:48:29.460
there's some real problems and it's the homeowners
00:48:29.460 --> 00:48:31.869
that are suffering. And so that's kind of why
00:48:31.869 --> 00:48:34.849
we created the, the GlideStone tool is to help
00:48:34.849 --> 00:48:37.670
really anyone. It's not a silver bullet. It's
00:48:37.670 --> 00:48:40.590
not an easy button that just automatically, you
00:48:40.590 --> 00:48:43.150
know, changes everything, but it's as close to
00:48:43.150 --> 00:48:45.130
an easy button as I've seen in this industry.
00:48:45.789 --> 00:48:48.909
And again, you can understand the what, maybe
00:48:48.909 --> 00:48:51.489
the how, maybe even the why, but if you can't
00:48:51.489 --> 00:48:53.389
communicate those things, it doesn't really matter.
00:48:53.550 --> 00:48:55.630
And that's something that John and I have shown
00:48:55.630 --> 00:48:58.139
over the years to be very good at. And so again,
00:48:58.159 --> 00:49:01.320
you know, the ability for that person to log
00:49:01.320 --> 00:49:05.579
in to the platform, have the file already built
00:49:05.579 --> 00:49:08.059
and have a response that's coming directly out
00:49:08.059 --> 00:49:11.059
of the brain of me and John and other core people
00:49:11.059 --> 00:49:14.050
is a pretty darn powerful. I just have a few
00:49:14.050 --> 00:49:16.170
more questions for you, Chris, that you just
00:49:16.170 --> 00:49:18.550
mentioned that Gladstone can help with recruiting
00:49:18.550 --> 00:49:21.309
as well. And correct me if I am wrong here, but
00:49:21.309 --> 00:49:24.469
what I can think of is that it definitely does
00:49:24.469 --> 00:49:27.250
not help with creation of systems and processes
00:49:27.250 --> 00:49:30.389
since it is a communication tool. But let's just
00:49:30.389 --> 00:49:32.650
say that if I am a roofing contractor and I am
00:49:32.650 --> 00:49:34.969
struggling with hiring the right people and I
00:49:34.969 --> 00:49:37.889
think so that everyone runs for a paycheck and
00:49:37.889 --> 00:49:40.730
people just don't want to do quality work anymore.
00:49:41.030 --> 00:49:43.539
Like I have all... those stereotypical beliefs
00:49:43.539 --> 00:49:47.159
that roofers hold. Can Gladstone help me with
00:49:47.159 --> 00:49:50.119
the interview process of the candidate that I
00:49:50.119 --> 00:49:53.119
want to interview? Not yet. So currently it is
00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:56.820
based on, it is a communication tool, but our
00:49:56.820 --> 00:50:01.019
roadmap has way more than that. So I think, and
00:50:01.019 --> 00:50:03.119
I don't know what the timeline is, we've actually
00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:05.880
got an open round of investment going on. And
00:50:05.880 --> 00:50:08.199
so the lion's share of the money that we're raising
00:50:08.199 --> 00:50:11.400
is to speed up development. So I know that...
00:50:11.179 --> 00:50:13.579
if we have X dollars, we can have everything
00:50:13.579 --> 00:50:15.920
on our development roadmap in probably about
00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:18.340
four months. But if we have to bootstrap that
00:50:18.340 --> 00:50:21.159
and reinvest the profits into that, it could
00:50:21.159 --> 00:50:24.579
take a year or two or possibly even longer. So
00:50:24.579 --> 00:50:26.260
I don't know what the timeline is, but we, one
00:50:26.260 --> 00:50:28.920
of the things that we envision is it's not just
00:50:28.920 --> 00:50:32.239
on John and I on how we, you know, help a homeowner
00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:34.719
when they have an insurance claim. It's not just
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:37.869
on how we write emails. people want a lot of
00:50:37.869 --> 00:50:41.250
other information from us. And so I think that
00:50:41.250 --> 00:50:44.889
there is a way we have just hundreds of hours
00:50:44.889 --> 00:50:48.269
of our recorded content built into the brain
00:50:48.269 --> 00:50:52.050
of the AI and it is able to speak in our tone
00:50:52.050 --> 00:50:54.889
and our inflection and our word choice very well.
00:50:55.210 --> 00:50:57.809
And there will be a version hopefully soon where
00:50:57.809 --> 00:51:00.360
you can ask anything. And it's basically now
00:51:00.360 --> 00:51:02.500
instead of having John and I inside your company
00:51:02.500 --> 00:51:05.380
writing your emails, you have John and I inside
00:51:05.380 --> 00:51:08.199
your company as a private consultant full time.
00:51:08.300 --> 00:51:11.159
And so you might say, Hey, I've got, you know,
00:51:11.320 --> 00:51:14.159
interviewee A who had these strengths and weaknesses.
00:51:14.219 --> 00:51:16.320
And this is the things that they said. Here's
00:51:16.320 --> 00:51:18.880
interviewer B. You might record those interviews
00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:21.500
and just upload them into Gladstone. And you're
00:51:21.500 --> 00:51:24.340
going to have either John or I, or a hybrid of
00:51:24.340 --> 00:51:26.900
us saying here are the red flags that we see
00:51:26.900 --> 00:51:28.539
with each of these. Here are the pros and the
00:51:28.539 --> 00:51:31.840
cons. Here's what I would do personally. But
00:51:31.840 --> 00:51:34.099
if you can do either one, but if you're going
00:51:34.099 --> 00:51:35.800
to do this one, you need to be looking out for
00:51:35.800 --> 00:51:37.599
these things. If you're going to hire this person.
00:51:37.579 --> 00:51:39.639
you need to really look out for these things.
00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:43.099
And so it can become a tool that, again, it's
00:51:43.099 --> 00:51:45.840
like having John and I sitting in your office.
00:51:46.039 --> 00:51:49.219
And what was your testing process when you were
00:51:49.219 --> 00:51:52.119
creating this? Like, did you have anything like
00:51:52.119 --> 00:51:55.480
that where John and you like would write your
00:51:55.480 --> 00:51:58.059
responses to a specific scenario and then you
00:51:58.059 --> 00:52:01.199
would have Gladstone review that specific scenario
00:52:01.199 --> 00:52:03.900
as well and then see and cross match that what
00:52:03.900 --> 00:52:07.639
kind of response both of you generate and may
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:10.099
calculate that. Yes. Yeah. And what's funny too
00:52:10.099 --> 00:52:13.099
is that John and I are usually going to approach
00:52:13.099 --> 00:52:15.219
the exact same situation from a very different
00:52:15.219 --> 00:52:17.579
angle. And that's one of the beauties about Mastercraft
00:52:17.579 --> 00:52:20.019
and what we do and how we teach is we're not
00:52:20.019 --> 00:52:21.960
telling you, here's what you should do, here's
00:52:21.960 --> 00:52:24.099
the right way. What we're doing is telling you,
00:52:24.119 --> 00:52:26.159
here's what I would do, but here's what John
00:52:26.159 --> 00:52:28.300
would do. Both of these are going to work. The
00:52:28.300 --> 00:52:30.760
real secret sauce, the key is understanding that
00:52:30.760 --> 00:52:31.960
even though we're both coming from different
00:52:31.960 --> 00:52:34.679
angles, we're both using the exact same principles,
00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:37.769
the same understanding. And so, yes, so when
00:52:37.769 --> 00:52:40.250
we, we first, we uploaded and trained all of
00:52:40.250 --> 00:52:42.989
the documentation and all of those things, all
00:52:42.989 --> 00:52:45.590
of our leverage points, all of our, the way that
00:52:45.590 --> 00:52:48.110
we do things. And we also, you know, whenever
00:52:48.110 --> 00:52:50.409
John and I are doing a training, we're usually
00:52:50.409 --> 00:52:52.849
miked up, right? There's a little DJI mic hanging
00:52:52.849 --> 00:52:55.289
on the shirt. And so we're able to put all of
00:52:55.289 --> 00:52:57.619
that transcriptions right into it. And so we
00:52:57.619 --> 00:52:59.840
started by feeding it all of those things. And
00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:02.000
then we gave it real world data. Like I own a
00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:04.739
roofing company and we also have all of the companies
00:53:04.739 --> 00:53:07.440
in the master craft community. And so everything
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:10.360
that we do, we test first in my business at your
00:53:10.360 --> 00:53:12.860
service roofing, and then we test it in a select
00:53:12.860 --> 00:53:15.400
group of master craft businesses. And then we
00:53:15.400 --> 00:53:19.239
test it to the wider master craft community before
00:53:19.239 --> 00:53:21.360
we actually, you know, bring it out to the public,
00:53:21.559 --> 00:53:24.219
to the market. And so, yeah, we took it with
00:53:24.219 --> 00:53:26.500
my company first and then with a select group
00:53:26.500 --> 00:53:31.460
of other companies and we allowed it to create
00:53:31.460 --> 00:53:33.989
its own output. And then went back and said,
00:53:34.230 --> 00:53:36.610
you know, this, this is a word that should rarely
00:53:36.610 --> 00:53:39.989
ever be used, or this was too assertive, or this
00:53:39.989 --> 00:53:42.010
was too technical, or, you know what I mean?
00:53:42.150 --> 00:53:44.670
And, and just a lot of those things back and
00:53:44.670 --> 00:53:46.969
forth before it really started to work itself
00:53:46.969 --> 00:53:49.570
out. And it's now at the point, I told this story
00:53:49.570 --> 00:53:52.050
on another, I think podcast, but there's a guy
00:53:52.050 --> 00:53:53.929
that was using the software and I didn't necessarily
00:53:53.929 --> 00:53:56.480
know who the ones were that were using it. So
00:53:56.480 --> 00:53:59.000
he reached out to me and he's in the mastercraft
00:53:59.000 --> 00:54:00.820
community and he's a friend of mine. He goes,
00:54:00.940 --> 00:54:03.099
Chris, I'm really stuck on this one. Here's the,
00:54:03.099 --> 00:54:05.179
the latest, you know, responses. Here's some
00:54:05.179 --> 00:54:07.380
of the information that I have. And this is the
00:54:07.380 --> 00:54:09.320
response that this is the email that I was going
00:54:09.320 --> 00:54:12.360
to send. And I read it and I thought, man, that's
00:54:12.360 --> 00:54:15.280
really good. I thought, man, these guys in mastercraft,
00:54:15.340 --> 00:54:17.480
they're really starting to get it. They're really
00:54:17.480 --> 00:54:19.840
starting to understand it. What a beautiful email.
00:54:19.880 --> 00:54:21.579
And I go to, you know, my head, I said, there's
00:54:21.579 --> 00:54:23.159
a couple of little things that I would tweak,
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:25.559
but very, very minimal. and it's not even really
00:54:25.559 --> 00:54:27.519
worth talking about those things so I responded
00:54:27.519 --> 00:54:30.099
back to this person with two words and all it
00:54:30.099 --> 00:54:33.059
said was solid gold and the next response I got
00:54:33.059 --> 00:54:35.639
was good because I ran it through Gladstone and
00:54:35.639 --> 00:54:37.820
that's the email that it put out and I thought
00:54:37.820 --> 00:54:41.570
so On one hand, I'm like, well, I thought these
00:54:41.570 --> 00:54:43.969
guys were learning, their skill level was increasing.
00:54:44.170 --> 00:54:45.889
So I was disappointed there, but on the other
00:54:45.889 --> 00:54:48.190
hand, I was seeing what Gladstone was doing in
00:54:48.190 --> 00:54:50.550
the real world. And yeah, I mean, my, my response
00:54:50.550 --> 00:54:52.869
was, man, that is solid gold. Like I was a proud
00:54:52.869 --> 00:54:55.570
dad. Like, yes, that is beautiful. And then the
00:54:55.570 --> 00:54:57.909
feedback that we've had, I keep going back to
00:54:57.909 --> 00:55:00.389
my operations director going, what's the negative
00:55:00.389 --> 00:55:02.349
feedback? And he's like, well, there's not really
00:55:02.349 --> 00:55:04.210
like negative. There's some things to tweak.
00:55:04.690 --> 00:55:06.449
There's some bugs and kinks that we got to work
00:55:06.449 --> 00:55:09.289
out. Um, but nobody is saying. that this is taking
00:55:09.289 --> 00:55:11.670
them more time. Nobody's saying that they're
00:55:11.670 --> 00:55:14.090
not getting results. Some of the feedback has
00:55:14.090 --> 00:55:16.730
been absolutely outstanding. And there's a couple
00:55:16.730 --> 00:55:19.150
of companies that are really diligent about tracking
00:55:19.150 --> 00:55:20.929
everything in their business where the owner
00:55:20.929 --> 00:55:23.710
has got processes in place to track time, how
00:55:23.710 --> 00:55:25.590
long it takes to respond to an email, how long
00:55:25.590 --> 00:55:28.170
it takes for a file to close, how long it takes
00:55:28.170 --> 00:55:30.909
for the, like everything. And he's, the feed,
00:55:31.050 --> 00:55:33.070
the data that we've seen there has been shocking,
00:55:33.150 --> 00:55:35.329
to be quite honest. I mean, there, there's...
00:55:35.230 --> 00:55:37.369
There's, there, there, there people are saving
00:55:37.369 --> 00:55:42.050
like 20 to 40 % of their time. And that's, that's
00:55:42.050 --> 00:55:44.570
pretty crazy to me. Is there anything that you
00:55:44.570 --> 00:55:48.269
feel you can add to this interview? Well, I tend
00:55:48.269 --> 00:55:51.989
to get the question a lot of if you could tell
00:55:51.989 --> 00:55:54.570
a new guy in the industry, one piece of advice
00:55:54.570 --> 00:55:57.650
or things like that. And so there might be, and
00:55:57.650 --> 00:56:00.079
I don't know your audience that well. But I'm
00:56:00.079 --> 00:56:01.820
guessing that those people that are watching
00:56:01.820 --> 00:56:04.039
it, there might be some people thinking like,
00:56:04.360 --> 00:56:06.179
what's one thing that you can point me to or
00:56:06.179 --> 00:56:08.719
what should I be doing? So I'll rattle off a
00:56:08.719 --> 00:56:10.940
couple of my kind of standard answers at this
00:56:10.940 --> 00:56:12.900
point, but I think I stand by them. I think that
00:56:12.900 --> 00:56:14.340
they're important. The first thing that I would
00:56:14.340 --> 00:56:16.860
tell people is actually the first core principle
00:56:16.860 --> 00:56:19.719
in master your craft is slow down. So many mistakes
00:56:19.719 --> 00:56:23.019
are made by rushing and, and so one, yes, on
00:56:23.019 --> 00:56:25.280
the micro level, when you're dealing with a customer,
00:56:25.599 --> 00:56:28.079
slow down. Maybe you have to talk to an insurance
00:56:28.079 --> 00:56:30.579
adjuster about one of your customer's claims.
00:56:30.780 --> 00:56:33.280
Slow down. There's so many mistakes that are
00:56:33.280 --> 00:56:36.000
made when we're rushing. Just take a deep breath,
00:56:36.219 --> 00:56:40.199
slow down, try to control your emotions. When
00:56:40.199 --> 00:56:41.800
you're dealing in the restoration side of the
00:56:41.800 --> 00:56:44.960
business, objective truth is key. Evidence is
00:56:44.960 --> 00:56:48.420
evidence. Truth is truth. And so focus on those
00:56:48.420 --> 00:56:51.300
things. Quit trying to win with arguments. Quit
00:56:51.300 --> 00:56:54.019
trying to win, you know, by just trying harder
00:56:54.019 --> 00:56:58.380
and start focusing on on evidence and facts and
00:56:58.380 --> 00:56:59.639
truth. And then another thing that I would tell
00:56:59.639 --> 00:57:03.340
people is read. For me, I don't know if you can
00:57:03.340 --> 00:57:06.159
see on there or not, there's a bookshelf in my
00:57:06.159 --> 00:57:08.960
office here and so you gotta read. There's so
00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:11.219
much knowledge and wisdom and experience out
00:57:11.219 --> 00:57:13.019
there that you don't have to learn on your own
00:57:13.019 --> 00:57:15.920
that you can take from other people. Now me personally,
00:57:16.119 --> 00:57:19.260
I like to actually read. I'm older. When I listen
00:57:19.260 --> 00:57:22.440
to an audiobook, it's playing and I start thinking
00:57:22.440 --> 00:57:25.019
about something else and then 20 minutes go by
00:57:25.019 --> 00:57:27.429
and I go, oh wait, I haven't... I haven't been
00:57:27.429 --> 00:57:29.750
paying attention and so, or I've got to listen
00:57:29.750 --> 00:57:32.090
to the audiobook in many, many different sections.
00:57:32.349 --> 00:57:34.429
I just don't, it doesn't work good for me. I
00:57:34.429 --> 00:57:36.630
don't care. If it does work good for you, then
00:57:36.630 --> 00:57:38.789
do it. So whether you actually read a physical
00:57:38.789 --> 00:57:42.139
book, you have an audio book. You have an AI
00:57:42.139 --> 00:57:45.420
program summarize the book and put it into notes
00:57:45.420 --> 00:57:47.260
or what, I don't care what it is, but I would
00:57:47.260 --> 00:57:49.860
highly encourage people to read. And I would
00:57:49.860 --> 00:57:52.760
say for the most part, I mean, shoot right here
00:57:52.760 --> 00:57:55.539
next to me is Chuck Tokey's complete field guide
00:57:55.539 --> 00:57:57.800
to successful sales leadership. So, you know,
00:57:57.880 --> 00:57:59.800
I teach on these things and I'm still sitting
00:57:59.800 --> 00:58:02.800
here reading. And so generally speaking, I would
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:05.389
say read from outside of the industry. You know,
00:58:05.429 --> 00:58:08.429
read things on leadership, read things on sales,
00:58:08.690 --> 00:58:10.969
read things on systems and processes. There's
00:58:10.969 --> 00:58:13.650
a book called Blink that I absolutely love. Simon
00:58:13.650 --> 00:58:16.409
Sinek, his books start with Y particularly, but
00:58:16.409 --> 00:58:18.829
also, you know, Leaders Eat Last and a host of
00:58:18.829 --> 00:58:20.929
other ones have been really instrumental for
00:58:20.929 --> 00:58:23.550
me. So yeah, I think those are, that's kind of
00:58:23.550 --> 00:58:26.710
my generalized advice to the younger generation
00:58:26.710 --> 00:58:28.949
or the guys that are new in the industry. There's
00:58:28.949 --> 00:58:31.750
a wealth of information out there that you have
00:58:31.750 --> 00:58:34.440
access to and I would take advantage of it. My
00:58:34.440 --> 00:58:37.239
last question to you is that before starting
00:58:37.239 --> 00:58:39.579
this recording, you were talking about creating
00:58:39.579 --> 00:58:43.380
an impact and living a legacy and like living
00:58:43.380 --> 00:58:47.079
an impact to this world. So right now, at the
00:58:47.079 --> 00:58:49.639
stage of the life where you are at, what kind
00:58:49.639 --> 00:58:52.320
of impact do you want to live in this world?
00:58:52.500 --> 00:58:54.840
That's a, that's a heavy question. I don't have
00:58:54.840 --> 00:58:57.619
a master plan. I don't think things work in the
00:58:57.619 --> 00:58:59.559
world of business and really the world of life
00:58:59.559 --> 00:59:03.460
timing and, and kind of luck are probably more.
00:59:03.440 --> 00:59:07.119
significant than plans and strategy and execution.
00:59:07.480 --> 00:59:10.579
And so when I look at things, I like to kind
00:59:10.579 --> 00:59:13.139
of forecast out, vision a number of different
00:59:13.139 --> 00:59:16.440
situations or really, I shouldn't say that. I
00:59:16.440 --> 00:59:18.659
vision an outcome and I realize that there's
00:59:18.659 --> 00:59:21.239
probably many paths to that outcome and if I
00:59:21.239 --> 00:59:23.860
choose one path and one thing doesn't go right,
00:59:23.900 --> 00:59:28.059
I'm cooked. And so I focus on the general direction
00:59:28.059 --> 00:59:30.500
of working that way, knowing that I might break
00:59:30.500 --> 00:59:32.940
off in many different paths and looking back,
00:59:32.960 --> 00:59:34.699
the actual path that it took to get there might
00:59:34.699 --> 00:59:37.059
be very different than what I expected it to.
00:59:37.340 --> 00:59:39.900
And so I can tell you that I feel like John and
00:59:39.900 --> 00:59:43.639
I have had a small, but statistically relevant,
00:59:44.019 --> 00:59:46.579
measurable impact on the roofing industry. And
00:59:46.579 --> 00:59:50.460
that is my initial goal is to change this industry.
00:59:50.760 --> 00:59:53.079
Now how, to what degree and what percentage,
00:59:53.079 --> 00:59:56.250
I don't know. But to have a real impact on the
00:59:56.250 --> 00:59:58.590
industry and shift at least part of the industry's
00:59:58.590 --> 01:00:01.429
mindset towards things like objective truth,
01:00:01.809 --> 01:00:04.590
towards customer service, towards it all. Everything
01:00:04.590 --> 01:00:07.110
comes back to service first and truth second.
01:00:07.289 --> 01:00:10.309
And if I can get a chunk of the industry leading
01:00:10.309 --> 01:00:12.869
that way, thinking that way, then I'll have,
01:00:12.909 --> 01:00:17.250
I'll feel successful in my career. And then I
01:00:17.250 --> 01:00:19.630
can see a day where I exit the roofing industry
01:00:19.630 --> 01:00:21.949
and it's the same thing, but to the broader.
01:00:22.199 --> 01:00:26.880
you know, public. I've got some thoughts on where
01:00:26.880 --> 01:00:29.800
things might go or where that reach might be,
01:00:29.860 --> 01:00:32.079
but I think that the core message is the same.
01:00:32.340 --> 01:00:35.159
It's service, right? Most humans who are truly
01:00:35.159 --> 01:00:37.510
happy... are people that serve other people.
01:00:37.610 --> 01:00:39.690
It's littered through the Bible. It's littered
01:00:39.690 --> 01:00:42.130
through most, you know, holy books and religious
01:00:42.130 --> 01:00:44.050
teachings. That's where true happiness really
01:00:44.050 --> 01:00:46.889
comes from. And then that's, I think, number
01:00:46.889 --> 01:00:49.389
one. And then number two is truth. Our society
01:00:49.389 --> 01:00:51.889
and our culture, truth has been eroded. Social
01:00:51.889 --> 01:00:53.710
media, you know, you can get on social media
01:00:53.710 --> 01:00:57.110
and craft a... You look one way and that's not
01:00:57.110 --> 01:00:59.650
really what reality is at all. And that's eroded.
01:00:59.789 --> 01:01:03.090
truth. And I think parts of our political spectrum
01:01:03.090 --> 01:01:05.550
and things that are happening there, there's
01:01:05.550 --> 01:01:07.090
an eroded, you know, this phrase of like, well,
01:01:07.210 --> 01:01:09.829
my truth. I'm like, there's no such thing, in
01:01:09.829 --> 01:01:12.070
my opinion, there's no such thing as my truth.
01:01:12.110 --> 01:01:14.369
There is the truth. And then there might be my
01:01:14.369 --> 01:01:16.170
opinion or your opinion, but there's still the
01:01:16.170 --> 01:01:19.409
truth. With AI, I see a video right now and I
01:01:19.409 --> 01:01:22.369
have no confidence whether that's real or AI
01:01:22.369 --> 01:01:25.610
generated. I have no clue. And so truth is becoming
01:01:25.610 --> 01:01:29.530
scarce. It's kind of under attack. And so I think
01:01:29.530 --> 01:01:32.489
that if I'm on my deathbed looking back, if I'm
01:01:32.489 --> 01:01:34.570
happy with what I've done and I'm happy with
01:01:34.570 --> 01:01:38.170
my legacy, I will have brought a larger attention
01:01:38.170 --> 01:01:42.510
and focus and desire for service and truth to
01:01:42.510 --> 01:01:44.300
allow. number of people. I think that's what
01:01:44.300 --> 01:01:48.099
I would view as success. Thank you so much for
01:01:48.099 --> 01:01:50.000
your time, Chris. And maybe next time we sit
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:52.920
down, we'll talk about secrets of happiness and
01:01:52.920 --> 01:01:56.340
how you can live a purpose -led life. But I really
01:01:56.340 --> 01:01:59.059
appreciate you giving your time to this podcast
01:01:59.059 --> 01:02:01.860
today. And I pray for you and all the businesses
01:02:01.860 --> 01:02:03.780
that you are doing and all the people that you
01:02:03.780 --> 01:02:06.480
are helping keep doing that. And my best wishes
01:02:06.480 --> 01:02:08.980
are with you. Thank you for your time. Once again,
01:02:09.059 --> 01:02:10.480
have a great day. Thanks for having me.