March 9, 2026 • 23 mins
Susan Manning is the proud owner of About All American Roof, a female owned, family run roofing company that has been serving the community since 1989.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to our CEOs You Should Know series.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Eric rodrig Is.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today we're marketing International Women's Day by speaking with Susan Manning,
the owner of All American Roofing.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Susan, so, first tell me about All American Roofing and
its mission statement.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All American Roofing was started in nineteen eighty nine. My
husband and I started it and we came down from
Long Island and we started this roofing company. We were
lucky enough to after like two years it really boomed
because of Hurricane Andrew. Perfect time for you. And one
(00:37):
thing that I saw down here was the customer service aspect.
How we were brought up and our work ethic wasn't
down here at that time. And we just grew, I
think because of how we responded to the customers and
we gave it our role, you know, and the company
(00:59):
grew and grew, grew and grew. At one point we
had like one hundred and eighty seven people working for us.
That was when those four hurricanes hit I think that
was two thousand and four and five, where those hurricanes
crisscrossed Florida, and we just continued to grow Unfortunately, in
(01:23):
twenty fourteen, my husband passed, but unexpectedly of course, he
was only just fifty seven years old, and it was
me with my three young boys. And because I think
because I was so involved with the business and working
every day, that helped me almost get past the tragedy,
(01:48):
tragedy of what happened. The people that work for me
are wonderful. People asked me all the time, how do
you do everything you do? You know, how do you
work this company and work the other things you're involved with,
all the volunteer work, and then go home and take
care of an autistic child? How do you do that?
(02:10):
And I say, it's my employees. I have to tell
you I have wonderful employees. My office manager started with
me when she was nineteen. I think she's fifty five now. Well,
most of the employees are there over twenty five thirty years,
and now the second generation has moved in, you know, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, cousins.
(02:35):
So I have like the oldest staff which are great
with customer service, and then I have the youngest staff,
which are incredible on the computers and you know, all
the IT stuff helping. So everybody works together as a team,
and it really does well.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
What inspired you and your husband to take on the
role of owning All American Roofing and what's been the
most rewarded part of it so far?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
To be honest with you, my husband had his masters
to be a history teacher. Okay, I had my degree
to be in fashion. How we landed at All American
Roofing is he was roofing during the day when we
lived on Long Island and going to school at night,
(03:24):
and he did so well in the roofing company they
asked us to be a partner in their roofing company,
and Long Island we were very young, like twenty three
and twenty five, and they asked him to sign a noncompete,
which we signed, not knowing we were young kids. It
(03:48):
was a two hundred mile radius, and you know, after
a year or two he was not happy there. So
when my parents decided to maybe relocate to Florida when
they retire, he went on his soapbox and said, let's
go now, I'll open up a company down there. Me
(04:09):
and Susan will open up a company. And let's why
are we waiting, Let's all just go to the warm
weather now, and that's what happened. That was nineteen eighty
eight and eighty nine we opened up All American Roofing.
What's for warding is I can help a lot of people. Financially.
(04:33):
We've become very successful. We've grown our company to we
put about twenty million dollars a year. That's our sales
for our roofing company. And I love the feedback I
get from the people saying what a pleasure it was.
(04:53):
The crews were nice, the office was nice. I love
my new roof I get such pleasure out of that.
And financially, I'm able to do a lot of fundraising
and giving back. And that's you know, that really is
important to me, especially for autism related things that are
(05:18):
needed because of my son, who's very low functioning. Orts.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You've created a number of businesses, it's not just All
American Roofing. So how do you personally define success as
a leader in this business environment?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's all up to your employees. People ask me all
the time, how do you do so much in one day?
How do you handle all the different companies and then
go home and take care of your son. It's my employees.
I have the best employees They are so respectful to
(05:53):
me and loyal to me, and I am to them.
I remember one time somebody said, I can't believe how
much your employees do for you, and one of the
employees answered, that's because we don't want to disappoint you.
And when he said that to me, I was like,
(06:16):
they don't want to disappoint me. I was like floored
by that, and that just showed me how much like
they really cared. When my husband passed twelve years ago,
everybody stepped up, like you can't believe, you know, people
really stepped up to help me keep the company going.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You mentioned you're from originally Long Island, New York, but
now you call South Florida home. So what role does
South Florida play in shaping the organization?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I love South Florida. I love Florida. I drive and
look around and say, wow, I can't believe I live here.
Even though it's been thirty seven year years, I still
drive around South Florida and I love it. I think
the sunshine, the people, the healthy lifestyle that people live.
(07:13):
I just love it here. And I love to help
the schools, Browid affordable Housing, all different kind of fundraisers.
Feed the poor. I'm always Paul Kastronova is always asking
me for donations for things. I'm always like, yes, okay, yes, okay.
(07:36):
I love to be part of the community, helping the community.
You know. In twenty eighteen, I stopped paying Google because
first of all, I didn't understand being all school. Honestly,
I didn't understand like s CEO SEO. It was like,
(07:56):
what is all this right? We were paying Google so
much money every month to advertise, and I said, I
have no control over this. I am a bit of
a control freak. I definitely am type a personality. And
I said, you know what, I am going to brand
our name. That's when I started getting involved in radio.
(08:23):
Then I went to TV billboards, you know. I wanted
to brand our name, and people started googling all American
roofing instead of just roofing contract, you know. And that's
how we grew from like an eight million dollar company
(08:46):
to a twenty million dollar company was just from branding advertising.
What I had advertising on TV, I put the money
instead of paying Google. I put the money, and that
I would recommend that for anybody, volunteer, get your name
out there, you know, do good it'll come back to you.
(09:08):
It definitely comes back.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You mentioned that you dealt with hurricanes shortly after you
moved here. You've lost your husband. But what has been
the biggest challenge you've faced as the owner and how
were you able to overcome it?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I think finding good employees. Once I find them, they stay,
that's no doubt. If they don't stay, that means they
weren't there there to work there to begin with. But
I would say I do not lose any employees a
(09:41):
year that I hire. If for any reason they relocate
to another state, that's when they leave, but not that
they leave because they're unhappy with the job. I'm very
transparent on what the job would be and what their
responsibility these would be, and what I expect from people.
(10:03):
I expect one hundred and ten percent loyalty. I don't
want anybody just working just to collect a paycheck. I
want them to actually care and be involved with the business.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
What innovative strategies have you been implementing to keep things
thriving at all American Roofing.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I think the best thing we ever did was to
brand the company with advertising. You know, not advertising so
much on Google, but advertising locally, helping schools, locally, getting
our name out. I think that all helps to make
(10:47):
the business grow. Referral business is probably the best business
having a great reputation. There's a lot of people that
are not doing the right things in business. They don't
do the right things by people. We always try to
do the right thing. If we make a mistake, it's
(11:07):
not intentional. And I'm always there for the customers. I'm
there answering the phones. I'm there if there's an issue.
I don't hide behind an office. I actually sit with
the administrative staff in the company so that I can
see what's going on because some type of personality.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Exactly are you currently using AI and how do you
think it's going to actually impact the company?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, we actually are. We started using AI to come
up with ideas as far as to post on social media,
So we do use AI for that. You know it
every Monday. It gives us idea. There's a girl in
(12:01):
my office that does that posting. It takes her now
only ten minutes. AI comes up with the ideas to post,
She copies and paste and it goes out to all
the social media accounts or email blasts. I don't think
(12:23):
I'll ever have AI answer the phones. I'm not sure.
I'm not at that point right now. I do think
that people like to hear a human voice to help
them answer the phones. Right now, I have eleven administrative
staff and we answer the phones and do all the
(12:44):
administrative things to help the people, because once you sign
with us, we take over, we pull the permits, we
handle everything from beginning to end. We try to make
it really easy for the homeowners because I think everybody
is super busy. I don't think people are sitting home
(13:05):
and can do research themselves or whatever. So we really
try to make it easy on the customer.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
What's your vision because the world is changing so much,
but everybody's got to have a home. Nothing's going to change.
So where does all American roofing go in the next
five years.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I would like to continue to grow the business. I
would like to continue to do fundraisers for different causes
that are to get to my heart. I would like
our name to be out there knowing that people can
trust us to be honest with them and to put
(13:45):
a good product on their house so they feel safe
in their home. You just mentioned it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The need to give back to the community, and your philanthropy.
Tell me why is community engagement in philanthropy so important
to you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
It's important to me because I think if you give
with your heart and I'm not talking just money, I
am talking time. I think time is more important. You know,
It's so easy just to write a check and give
to a fundraiser, right What I do is I actually
get involved in the fundraising. I'm usually in charge of
(14:25):
all the silent auctions, and that means putting all the
gift baskets together, you know, getting all the restaurant and
gift cards and everything together. I save all my points
every year on all my credit cards just so that
I can turn them into gift cards for the silent
(14:48):
auctions that I'm in charge. I'm in charge of two
silent auctions a year, and I sit there sometimes I'm
on I have one day off, it's a Sunday, and
I'm making the basket so on someday and I'm putting
things together, going home goods to get like everything, to
put the baskets together. And I think to myself, sometimes,
(15:10):
if I can find time to do this, I don't
imagine if everybody just gave a little bit of their
time imagine the world what it would be. It would
be so much nicer and to like extend that hand
to somebody, especially there's so many single parents now that
(15:33):
can use an our babysitting, you know, so that you
could go do your food shopping without the kid grabbing
everything off the aisle, or even you know, go get
your hair done or your nails done, or just go
for a walk peacefully. You know, if everybody would reach
out to their neighbor or their friend, especially with all
(15:55):
the special need children that there are in this world,
you know, give back with your heart. It'll come back
to you. It comes back to you a million times over.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What advice do you give to somebody who aspires to
become a business owner or a CEO.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Respect your employees Number one. I don't know how people
expect respect back if they can't be respectful to their employees.
I would look at each employee and see what their
straints are. That's what I do, and then put them
(16:33):
in that position to succeed, because if they become successful
in their job, they're going to want to go further
and become more successful. Don't be condescending with people. Don't
think you know so much listen, you know, like be
a listener, don't And when you explain something that you
(16:56):
want done, explain why you want it done that way.
There's so many people I see that just say do
this and do it this way. Whenever I want somebody
to do something a certain way, I explain to them
why I want to done that way. So that you're
sharing your knowledge, you know, and don't think you know everything,
(17:18):
Like listen to the young people. Maybe they can teach
you something you know. I don't know. I'm I don't
know what to say. I just think be fair and
honest with clients. Treat everyone the same way. We treat
everybody the same way. Whether you live in a mansion
(17:42):
or whether you live in a little two bedroom home.
We treat everyone the same way. It makes no difference
to us what price your house is, what price your
roofing job is. Everybody is treated exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
What does this year's International Women's Say theme of give
to gain mean personally to you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's kind of like what I was just saying, Give
what your heart, it'll come back. You'll gain I promise.
I promise you you'll gain it back, not only with
how you feel inside, but it seems like it comes
back to you in ways. With more clients, you're drawn
(18:26):
to more clients, more referrals. Just go out there and
give a little bit and expect nothing back. It'll come
back to you.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Who was a woman who embodied that, give to gain
mindset and then inspired you.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I would have to say my grandmother. She came from Italy.
I think she was fourteen. She was married at fourteen.
Pretty scary. She hardly spoke English, spoke broken English. She
(19:02):
owned a grocery store, an Italian grocery store. She would
go and buy real estate, like an on Long Island.
She would, you know, get her monies together and buy
real estate. I grew up in her house. We used
(19:23):
to have to go to her house almost every night,
you know. And I grew up. The police ate dinner there,
the priests eate dinner there. The real estate brokers eight
dinner there, the bankers ate dinner in her house. Like
I grew up with all that around me. She was
(19:46):
a powerful woman, but you would have never known looking
at her. You know, she didn't She wasn't pretentious. She
gave to all her children and her grand children. She
bought property, maybe sixty fifty years ago in the Hamptons,
(20:09):
she bought seven lots water lots for five thousand dollars
a lot, and people told her she was crazy, like,
no one's ever driving out there. You know, no one's
ever driving out there. What are you that's like wasteland?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
What a visionary?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I know? She she was. She was. She taught us
all to work hard. She used to say, you could
make a million dollars a year, but if you spend
a million and one, you will always be poor. That
was one of us sayings.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
She's right, Grandma's right again.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So I would say she was a big influence in
my life. And my mom was similar to her. My
mom's ninety four. She's she she always We always did things.
Knowing my mom and dad we could fall back on,
you know, like they always made us feel go we
(21:12):
support you, We support you, So to take the risksy
was easy for us because we knew we always had
the backing in case we fell. And I fell a
couple of times, you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Always got back up.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I always got back up. Just right.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Is our final message you want to leave to our listener.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You know, just do the right thing every day. Look
at yourself in the mirror and know that each day
you're doing the right thing. Lose the anger. If you're angry,
try to lose the anger. Live your life. Life short.
My husband passed at fifty seven, very suddenly, you know,
(21:58):
don't what's the past is the past. You can't change it.
Let's just move on, you know. Try to help somebody
open the door, like, let somebody pass through the door,
especially old people, somebody with children. Simple things. It'll make
you feel better inside, you know, say good morning as
(22:21):
you're walking past someone like. I don't understand where everything went.
I really, I really don't, and I really try to
live my life in a peaceful way. I accept what
has happened in my life. I don't want My children
(22:41):
said that their dad passed away, you know. I when dad,
dad passed away, I said to them, you know, remember
all the good times, Remember all the places he took you,
remember all the family memories. Don't live your life like
angry or sad. Many people don't have a mom or
(23:04):
a dad, you know, and you're lucky enough to have
I'm still here. We have all aunts, you guys have
all aunts, uncles, cousins here. You know, live your life
in a peaceful manner. Do the right thing every day.
(23:25):
You know, I'm not saying you're never going to make
a mistake, but don't intentionally hurt anyone.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Susan, thank you so much for joining me and us
for this edition of CEOs. You should know that was
Susan Manning, the owner of All American Roofing
Welcome to our CEOs You Should Know series.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Eric rodrig Is.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today we're marketing International Women's Day by speaking with Susan Manning,
the owner of All American Roofing.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Susan, so, first tell me about All American Roofing and
its mission statement.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All American Roofing was started in nineteen eighty nine. My
husband and I started it and we came down from
Long Island and we started this roofing company. We were
lucky enough to after like two years it really boomed
because of Hurricane Andrew. Perfect time for you. And one
(00:37):
thing that I saw down here was the customer service aspect.
How we were brought up and our work ethic wasn't
down here at that time. And we just grew, I
think because of how we responded to the customers and
we gave it our role, you know, and the company
(00:59):
grew and grew, grew and grew. At one point we
had like one hundred and eighty seven people working for us.
That was when those four hurricanes hit I think that
was two thousand and four and five, where those hurricanes
crisscrossed Florida, and we just continued to grow Unfortunately, in
(01:23):
twenty fourteen, my husband passed, but unexpectedly of course, he
was only just fifty seven years old, and it was
me with my three young boys. And because I think
because I was so involved with the business and working
every day, that helped me almost get past the tragedy,
(01:48):
tragedy of what happened. The people that work for me
are wonderful. People asked me all the time, how do
you do everything you do? You know, how do you
work this company and work the other things you're involved with,
all the volunteer work, and then go home and take
care of an autistic child? How do you do that?
(02:10):
And I say, it's my employees. I have to tell
you I have wonderful employees. My office manager started with
me when she was nineteen. I think she's fifty five now. Well,
most of the employees are there over twenty five thirty years,
and now the second generation has moved in, you know, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, cousins.
(02:35):
So I have like the oldest staff which are great
with customer service, and then I have the youngest staff,
which are incredible on the computers and you know, all
the IT stuff helping. So everybody works together as a team,
and it really does well.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
What inspired you and your husband to take on the
role of owning All American Roofing and what's been the
most rewarded part of it so far?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
To be honest with you, my husband had his masters
to be a history teacher. Okay, I had my degree
to be in fashion. How we landed at All American
Roofing is he was roofing during the day when we
lived on Long Island and going to school at night,
(03:24):
and he did so well in the roofing company they
asked us to be a partner in their roofing company,
and Long Island we were very young, like twenty three
and twenty five, and they asked him to sign a noncompete,
which we signed, not knowing we were young kids. It
(03:48):
was a two hundred mile radius, and you know, after
a year or two he was not happy there. So
when my parents decided to maybe relocate to Florida when
they retire, he went on his soapbox and said, let's
go now, I'll open up a company down there. Me
(04:09):
and Susan will open up a company. And let's why
are we waiting, Let's all just go to the warm
weather now, and that's what happened. That was nineteen eighty
eight and eighty nine we opened up All American Roofing.
What's for warding is I can help a lot of people. Financially.
(04:33):
We've become very successful. We've grown our company to we
put about twenty million dollars a year. That's our sales
for our roofing company. And I love the feedback I
get from the people saying what a pleasure it was.
(04:53):
The crews were nice, the office was nice. I love
my new roof I get such pleasure out of that.
And financially, I'm able to do a lot of fundraising
and giving back. And that's you know, that really is
important to me, especially for autism related things that are
(05:18):
needed because of my son, who's very low functioning. Orts.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You've created a number of businesses, it's not just All
American Roofing. So how do you personally define success as
a leader in this business environment?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's all up to your employees. People ask me all
the time, how do you do so much in one day?
How do you handle all the different companies and then
go home and take care of your son. It's my employees.
I have the best employees They are so respectful to
(05:53):
me and loyal to me, and I am to them.
I remember one time somebody said, I can't believe how
much your employees do for you, and one of the
employees answered, that's because we don't want to disappoint you.
And when he said that to me, I was like,
(06:16):
they don't want to disappoint me. I was like floored
by that, and that just showed me how much like
they really cared. When my husband passed twelve years ago,
everybody stepped up, like you can't believe, you know, people
really stepped up to help me keep the company going.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You mentioned you're from originally Long Island, New York, but
now you call South Florida home. So what role does
South Florida play in shaping the organization?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I love South Florida. I love Florida. I drive and
look around and say, wow, I can't believe I live here.
Even though it's been thirty seven year years, I still
drive around South Florida and I love it. I think
the sunshine, the people, the healthy lifestyle that people live.
(07:13):
I just love it here. And I love to help
the schools, Browid affordable Housing, all different kind of fundraisers.
Feed the poor. I'm always Paul Kastronova is always asking
me for donations for things. I'm always like, yes, okay, yes, okay.
(07:36):
I love to be part of the community, helping the community.
You know. In twenty eighteen, I stopped paying Google because
first of all, I didn't understand being all school. Honestly,
I didn't understand like s CEO SEO. It was like,
(07:56):
what is all this right? We were paying Google so
much money every month to advertise, and I said, I
have no control over this. I am a bit of
a control freak. I definitely am type a personality. And
I said, you know what, I am going to brand
our name. That's when I started getting involved in radio.
(08:23):
Then I went to TV billboards, you know. I wanted
to brand our name, and people started googling all American
roofing instead of just roofing contract, you know. And that's
how we grew from like an eight million dollar company
(08:46):
to a twenty million dollar company was just from branding advertising.
What I had advertising on TV, I put the money
instead of paying Google. I put the money, and that
I would recommend that for anybody, volunteer, get your name
out there, you know, do good it'll come back to you.
(09:08):
It definitely comes back.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You mentioned that you dealt with hurricanes shortly after you
moved here. You've lost your husband. But what has been
the biggest challenge you've faced as the owner and how
were you able to overcome it?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I think finding good employees. Once I find them, they stay,
that's no doubt. If they don't stay, that means they
weren't there there to work there to begin with. But
I would say I do not lose any employees a
(09:41):
year that I hire. If for any reason they relocate
to another state, that's when they leave, but not that
they leave because they're unhappy with the job. I'm very
transparent on what the job would be and what their
responsibility these would be, and what I expect from people.
(10:03):
I expect one hundred and ten percent loyalty. I don't
want anybody just working just to collect a paycheck. I
want them to actually care and be involved with the business.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
What innovative strategies have you been implementing to keep things
thriving at all American Roofing.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I think the best thing we ever did was to
brand the company with advertising. You know, not advertising so
much on Google, but advertising locally, helping schools, locally, getting
our name out. I think that all helps to make
(10:47):
the business grow. Referral business is probably the best business
having a great reputation. There's a lot of people that
are not doing the right things in business. They don't
do the right things by people. We always try to
do the right thing. If we make a mistake, it's
(11:07):
not intentional. And I'm always there for the customers. I'm
there answering the phones. I'm there if there's an issue.
I don't hide behind an office. I actually sit with
the administrative staff in the company so that I can
see what's going on because some type of personality.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Exactly are you currently using AI and how do you
think it's going to actually impact the company?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, we actually are. We started using AI to come
up with ideas as far as to post on social media,
So we do use AI for that. You know it
every Monday. It gives us idea. There's a girl in
(12:01):
my office that does that posting. It takes her now
only ten minutes. AI comes up with the ideas to post,
She copies and paste and it goes out to all
the social media accounts or email blasts. I don't think
(12:23):
I'll ever have AI answer the phones. I'm not sure.
I'm not at that point right now. I do think
that people like to hear a human voice to help
them answer the phones. Right now, I have eleven administrative
staff and we answer the phones and do all the
(12:44):
administrative things to help the people, because once you sign
with us, we take over, we pull the permits, we
handle everything from beginning to end. We try to make
it really easy for the homeowners because I think everybody
is super busy. I don't think people are sitting home
(13:05):
and can do research themselves or whatever. So we really
try to make it easy on the customer.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
What's your vision because the world is changing so much,
but everybody's got to have a home. Nothing's going to change.
So where does all American roofing go in the next
five years.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I would like to continue to grow the business. I
would like to continue to do fundraisers for different causes
that are to get to my heart. I would like
our name to be out there knowing that people can
trust us to be honest with them and to put
(13:45):
a good product on their house so they feel safe
in their home. You just mentioned it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The need to give back to the community, and your philanthropy.
Tell me why is community engagement in philanthropy so important
to you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
It's important to me because I think if you give
with your heart and I'm not talking just money, I
am talking time. I think time is more important. You know,
It's so easy just to write a check and give
to a fundraiser, right What I do is I actually
get involved in the fundraising. I'm usually in charge of
(14:25):
all the silent auctions, and that means putting all the
gift baskets together, you know, getting all the restaurant and
gift cards and everything together. I save all my points
every year on all my credit cards just so that
I can turn them into gift cards for the silent
(14:48):
auctions that I'm in charge. I'm in charge of two
silent auctions a year, and I sit there sometimes I'm
on I have one day off, it's a Sunday, and
I'm making the basket so on someday and I'm putting
things together, going home goods to get like everything, to
put the baskets together. And I think to myself, sometimes,
(15:10):
if I can find time to do this, I don't
imagine if everybody just gave a little bit of their
time imagine the world what it would be. It would
be so much nicer and to like extend that hand
to somebody, especially there's so many single parents now that
(15:33):
can use an our babysitting, you know, so that you
could go do your food shopping without the kid grabbing
everything off the aisle, or even you know, go get
your hair done or your nails done, or just go
for a walk peacefully. You know, if everybody would reach
out to their neighbor or their friend, especially with all
(15:55):
the special need children that there are in this world,
you know, give back with your heart. It'll come back
to you. It comes back to you a million times over.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What advice do you give to somebody who aspires to
become a business owner or a CEO.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Respect your employees Number one. I don't know how people
expect respect back if they can't be respectful to their employees.
I would look at each employee and see what their
straints are. That's what I do, and then put them
(16:33):
in that position to succeed, because if they become successful
in their job, they're going to want to go further
and become more successful. Don't be condescending with people. Don't
think you know so much listen, you know, like be
a listener, don't And when you explain something that you
(16:56):
want done, explain why you want it done that way.
There's so many people I see that just say do
this and do it this way. Whenever I want somebody
to do something a certain way, I explain to them
why I want to done that way. So that you're
sharing your knowledge, you know, and don't think you know everything,
(17:18):
Like listen to the young people. Maybe they can teach
you something you know. I don't know. I'm I don't
know what to say. I just think be fair and
honest with clients. Treat everyone the same way. We treat
everybody the same way. Whether you live in a mansion
(17:42):
or whether you live in a little two bedroom home.
We treat everyone the same way. It makes no difference
to us what price your house is, what price your
roofing job is. Everybody is treated exactly the same.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
What does this year's International Women's Say theme of give
to gain mean personally to you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's kind of like what I was just saying, Give
what your heart, it'll come back. You'll gain I promise.
I promise you you'll gain it back, not only with
how you feel inside, but it seems like it comes
back to you in ways. With more clients, you're drawn
(18:26):
to more clients, more referrals. Just go out there and
give a little bit and expect nothing back. It'll come
back to you.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Who was a woman who embodied that, give to gain
mindset and then inspired you.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
I would have to say my grandmother. She came from Italy.
I think she was fourteen. She was married at fourteen.
Pretty scary. She hardly spoke English, spoke broken English. She
(19:02):
owned a grocery store, an Italian grocery store. She would
go and buy real estate, like an on Long Island.
She would, you know, get her monies together and buy
real estate. I grew up in her house. We used
(19:23):
to have to go to her house almost every night,
you know. And I grew up. The police ate dinner there,
the priests eate dinner there. The real estate brokers eight
dinner there, the bankers ate dinner in her house. Like
I grew up with all that around me. She was
(19:46):
a powerful woman, but you would have never known looking
at her. You know, she didn't She wasn't pretentious. She
gave to all her children and her grand children. She
bought property, maybe sixty fifty years ago in the Hamptons,
(20:09):
she bought seven lots water lots for five thousand dollars
a lot, and people told her she was crazy, like,
no one's ever driving out there. You know, no one's
ever driving out there. What are you that's like wasteland?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
What a visionary?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I know? She she was. She was. She taught us
all to work hard. She used to say, you could
make a million dollars a year, but if you spend
a million and one, you will always be poor. That
was one of us sayings.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
She's right, Grandma's right again.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
So I would say she was a big influence in
my life. And my mom was similar to her. My
mom's ninety four. She's she she always We always did things.
Knowing my mom and dad we could fall back on,
you know, like they always made us feel go we
(21:12):
support you, We support you, So to take the risksy
was easy for us because we knew we always had
the backing in case we fell. And I fell a
couple of times, you.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Always got back up.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I always got back up. Just right.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Is our final message you want to leave to our listener.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You know, just do the right thing every day. Look
at yourself in the mirror and know that each day
you're doing the right thing. Lose the anger. If you're angry,
try to lose the anger. Live your life. Life short.
My husband passed at fifty seven, very suddenly, you know,
(21:58):
don't what's the past is the past. You can't change it.
Let's just move on, you know. Try to help somebody
open the door, like, let somebody pass through the door,
especially old people, somebody with children. Simple things. It'll make
you feel better inside, you know, say good morning as
(22:21):
you're walking past someone like. I don't understand where everything went.
I really, I really don't, and I really try to
live my life in a peaceful way. I accept what
has happened in my life. I don't want My children
(22:41):
said that their dad passed away, you know. I when dad,
dad passed away, I said to them, you know, remember
all the good times, Remember all the places he took you,
remember all the family memories. Don't live your life like
angry or sad. Many people don't have a mom or
(23:04):
a dad, you know, and you're lucky enough to have
I'm still here. We have all aunts, you guys have
all aunts, uncles, cousins here. You know, live your life
in a peaceful manner. Do the right thing every day.
(23:25):
You know, I'm not saying you're never going to make
a mistake, but don't intentionally hurt anyone.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Susan, thank you so much for joining me and us
for this edition of CEOs. You should know that was
Susan Manning, the owner of All American Roofing
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