July 16, 2025 • 51 mins
In a world saturated with roofing conferences offering the same speakers and recycled content, the Limitless Roofing Summit stands apart as a refreshing alternative. This owner-only gathering isn't just another event—it's a carefully crafted experience designed to foster authentic connections that transform businesses and lives.
Dylan McCabe and Jenna Lawson, the driving forces behind Limitless Roofing Group, join us to unveil what makes their summit unique. Unlike traditional conferences, more than half the event focuses on peer-to-peer interaction through roundtable discussions, hot seats, and networking opportunities where owners can candidly share their biggest challenges. This vulnerability creates a space where genuine friendships form—relationships that prove invaluable when facing business obstacles.
"Running a business is really freaking hard," Dylan explains, "but it's way easier when you can talk to friends who can be real with you." This philosophy permeates every aspect of the summit, from the carefully selected speakers (actual successful roofing owners) to the intimate setting limited to just 300 attendees.
Perhaps most compelling is the focus on holistic success beyond mere profit margins. Dylan speaks passionately about maintaining proper boundaries, prioritizing family, and recognizing that wealth encompasses more than financial gain. He shares his concept of "death by got-a-minutes"—how constant small interruptions derail productivity and contribute to burnout—and offers practical strategies for reclaiming control of your time and energy.
With Limitless Roofing Group now encompassing over 530 companies nationwide, the summit represents a powerful opportunity to harness collective wisdom while building relationships that extend far beyond the one-day event. For owners feeling isolated or stuck, this gathering provides both practical strategies and the emotional support needed to thrive.
Ready to experience a different kind of roofing event? Join industry leaders at the Circle R Ranch in Flower Mound, Texas on October 15th. Visit limitlessroofinggroupcom/limitless-roofing-summit and use code LIMITLESS20 for 20% off your ticket. Be part of a movement that's redefining success in the roofing industry—one authentic connection at a time.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ty Cobb Backer (00:00):
And we are live.
Welcome back everybody toBehind the Tool Belt, episode
290.
I am your host, ty Cobb-Backer,and thank you for joining us on
this Wednesday edition.
We will be back right after ourshort intro from our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to Behind the Tool Belt, where the stories
are bold, the conversations arereal and the insights come to
you live, raw and uncut.
Every week, host Ty Cobb-Backersits down to bring you the
stories, the struggles, thelessons learned and the wins.
No filters, no scripts, justthe truth.
(00:52):
Please welcome your host ofBehind the Tool Belt, ty
Cobb-Backer.
Ty Cobb Backer (00:57):
Hey, welcome back everybody to our Wednesday
edition.
Hopefully you're not gettingrained out like we have been for
the past couple of weeks.
So, speaking of the last coupleof weeks, man, we've had some
really good, I think, episodes,good good content creation and
some educational stuff.
We talked a lot aboutamplifying your brand,
(01:19):
developing a company culturethrough leadership, creating
lasting authority whileexpanding your market presence,
and the seven part frameworkthat helps you connect with
homeowners, build trust andserve more homeowners.
And then last week, we talkedabout how AI is changing the way
that we operate.
And then today I'm superexcited about this we have two
(01:42):
powerhouses Jenna Lawson andDylan McCabe, the owner and
driving force behind theLimitless Roofing Group and
Summit, and here they are ourguest.
What's happening, guys?
How are you?
Jenna Lawson (01:55):
Hello Good, how are you?
Ty Cobb Backer (01:56):
Fantastic, fantastic.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Jenna Lawson (02:00):
Thank you so much, excited to be back.
Ty Cobb Backer (02:02):
Thanks for having me, man, and thank you
for being our guinea pig.
We tried something a littledifferent today, just to see how
it would work out.
Little subtle things thatnobody would notice, but if we
would have screwed it up theywould have noticed it.
But anyhow, you know, thisisn't just like you know.
(02:22):
You guys are here LimitlessGroup and the Summit but this
isn't just like another roofingevent.
It's for owners only, designedto help roofing company owners,
ceos, general managers tacklereal world challenges, share
strategies and walk away withpractical solutions.
And I know today we're going todive into why, behind the scene
(02:46):
behind the event, what makes itdifferent and how they're
helping transform the roofingindustry from the inside out.
So let's dig into this.
Dylan McCabe (02:59):
Yeah, I think the big thing with events and
conferences is everybody's kindof tired of seeing the same
speakers hearing the same stuff,and I totally get that.
But I think a conference iskind of like.
It's like if you ask somebodywhat their experience in high
school was, if you ask afootball player, you're going to
get one answer.
If you ask the star of thefootball team, you're going to
(03:21):
get a different answer.
If you ask somebody who'svaledictorian, you're going to
get a different answer.
If you ask somebody that gotbullied and dropped out, you're
going to get a different.
It's like it's what you make ofit, you know and so.
But what we, what we've triedto do, is create an event that's
a one day event, so it's it's.
It's not a conference, it's notmultiple days, but we try to
(03:42):
create a situation where you'relearning from other roofing
owners, not fake gurus or peoplewho happen to be friends with
people running the event, whichis so tempting.
I mean, it's our event and I'mtempted to invite people I know
really well to speak and stufflike that.
But we've just got a fewspeakers and then we've got more
than half of the time at theevent dedicated to roundtable
(04:05):
discussions, hot seats,networking, where you can open
up as the company owner and say,hey, here's my biggest
challenge and we're going tofacilitate that.
And then, as you share yourbiggest challenge, other people
at your table of 10 people aregoing to weigh in, ask questions
, give feedback, almost like amini mastermind.
It's not going to be that themastermind.
It's not going to be that thewhole day.
(04:26):
There's definitely going to bespeakers and time with vendors
and stuff, but that's the goal.
I mean our hope is that peopleshow up to the event, connect
with at least one or two otherroofing owners and walk away
with lasting friendship, becauserunning a business is really
freaking hard, but it's wayeasier when you can talk to
(04:47):
friends who can be real with you.
And if you're, you know, ifyou're like man, I don't know
how we're even going to makepayroll this month, but they can
talk to you, ty Backer, and youcan be like man.
I went through that too.
Here's how we got out of it.
It's, it's life-changing.
I mean, that's worth a thousandconferences right there, just
that one friendship connection.
Ty Cobb Backer (05:08):
Yeah, I can't agree more.
I know the last one that Iattended out in Kansas City Vic
and I, and I believe Hofstra waswith us I mean the atmosphere
was pretty amazing and for us tobe able to connect, I mean you
guys made enough time.
I think it was perfect.
The mixer the night before wegot to connect with people we
(05:30):
haven't seen in a long time, andbut what was really cool about
it was is that, like you hadmentioned, we were able to
network with people that I'venever met before John, john,
what's his last name?
Abernathy?
Dylan McCabe (05:42):
Abernathy yeah.
Ty Cobb Backer (05:43):
Yeah.
So I never met him beforepersonally and and to hear now I
knew of him, I knew what he wasabout, I knew he was a good
dude, but I never got it's.
It's actually giving megoosebumps right now.
But to have time, one-on-onetime, with him and listen to his
experiences because he'straveled a lot of same same
trails and roads that that Ihave and to listen to him talk
(06:07):
about business and then talkabout the Tamco shingle journey
that he's on now and and all ofthat stuff and how much just
from that conversation, right,was worth his weight in gold.
And then the next day, you know, we had plenty of time to
network with people.
The lunch was amazing, thespeakers were were just
phenomenal, and I think you guyseven asked me to go up and sit
in a uh like a, like a group,whatever um panel panel speaking
(06:32):
, uh engagement up there, and itwas just the questions that
were being asked and how, how Ifelt personally, right, because
I'm I'm still trying to figurethis shit out too.
I think some people are like, ohmy God, 17 years.
Well, how I made payroll, thatone time is I maxed my fucking
credit cards out.
That's if you want to know howI did it.
In those months where I canmake, I maxed my credit cards
out.
So so we, we you know businessisn't easy, right?
(06:55):
It takes a lot of tenacity, alot of grit and resiliency, like
you have to bounce back.
You can't not, you can't hide,you gotta suit up, show up all
those things.
But it gives you that time tocorner somebody, whether it was,
I know randy brothers was there.
Um, oh shit, um, uh, the other,randy, her, her, how do you say
his last name?
(07:16):
Yeah, yeah, he was there.
I'm, I'm horrible with names,by the way, I'll remember your
face, but it was such a greatatmosphere.
So let me ask you this whatinspired the launch?
Like, what gap, what void didyou see outside of what you've
already mentioned?
Like, what made you obsessed?
Because I know you got Jennaand obviously you know you've
(07:38):
surrounded yourself aroundamazing people but what?
What was the true driving forceof wanting to start the
Limitless Summit?
Dylan McCabe (07:46):
I mean, well, initially we wanted to really
bring our members togetherbecause we have a group with
over 500 roofing companies in it.
But if they're, if they're not,a part of our mastermind, they
don't ever meet each other.
So that's really the.
The big goal is to get ourmembers together.
And it's like oh man, you knowyou're, you're an hour away from
me, let's talk, let's havelunch, and and our, the guys
(08:08):
that join our group, are growthminded and they don't really see
other roofers as a threat.
It's like there's plenty offish in the sea, especially in
Dallas.
People talk about how manyroofing companies there are in
Dallas.
Well, who cares?
I mean, look at how manyhomeowners there are in Dallas.
There's just millions ofopportunities and so.
But we wanted to create anexperience where life change
(08:32):
happens, and that's not speakingin hyperbole.
I mean, if I going back to theconversation, if I'm struggling,
I don't know how the heck I'mgoing to make payroll.
It's been stressing me out formonths.
I'm starting to go from oneglass of whiskey on a Friday
night to two glasses a night forweeks in a row.
I'm losing my temper with mywife and my kids.
(08:53):
I don't really know how to digout of it.
Now I'm feeling shame anddiscouragement on top of the
stress.
So now you got some depressioncoming in.
Then I go to this event I don'twant to go because it's just
another stupid event.
But I pull myself.
Somebody said I should go andthen I meet Ty Backer.
We just happen to sit at thesame table and you're like, look
(09:16):
man, you know I didn't want to,I didn't want to share, but
like here's the table, here'sthe topic, and I'm just going to
go ahead and share it.
I don't know what the heck todo.
I've been stressing, I've beendrinking too much, and we make a
connection.
And then you say you know what,man, let's sit next to each
other at dinner tonight.
I'd like to hear more.
I'm going to the VIP dinner too, and you make a connection and
(09:40):
then over the next couple ofweeks I'm that guy and I can
talk to you and you help me digout of that mentally.
I mean, it's going to happeneventually, but it's how you get
through.
It is the thing.
To me it's like I'm watchingthe band of brothers series
again, I think for like thefifth time, and you see these
guys go through these awfulbattle scenes like Bastogne or
(10:00):
whatever, and some of the guyspull through and some of the
guys just fall apart and they'reall going through the same
battle, but some of themmentally and emotionally.
It's just too much, and sothat's the goal is to create an
environment to where that'spossible.
Life change is possible becauseif you get a grip on your
business, then your marriage canget better, your home life can
(10:21):
get better.
You can focus on other things,but when you don't know whether
you're going to survive or not,it's really hard to focus on
anything else.
Ty Cobb Backer (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, no, and you're so right.
Most of it's mindset.
And if you can attend anintimate, you know not saying
that this is a small eventwhatsoever, but the times that
you guys carve out for thatintimacy is so important,
especially early on in business,and to be able to listen to
somebody and really get theirear and ask them vulnerable
(10:51):
questions, like you were justmentioning.
Obviously it's much more thanmaxing your credit cards out.
You know what I mean.
There's so many other variablesthat play into how you got in
that situation and how you canpull yourself out of that hole.
And it's business, right.
There's ebbs and flows, there'sweather, there's insurance
companies, there's homeowners.
There's a lot of variables thattake place that you need to put
(11:12):
a lot of safety nets in and tobe able to sit down and get
somebody's ear.
Who has actually been throughall of those things and you're
going to find out too At leastfor me I've.
I've shared some prettyvulnerable stories with some,
some younger business owners andthey're like, really, he went
through that same stuff too.
It was like listen, it was ahell of a lot worse man, but we
just got to keep suiting up andshowing up every day, because a
(11:32):
lot of people rely on us andjust to hear that, just get
somebody like hype Right, andwhen they leave there, it's like
you know they they realizethere's another gear there that
I didn't realize existed, likeif he can do this, I can do this
Right, and and to be able tosurround yourself around that
energy.
Because that's what it is.
It's energy.
We, we we tend to clam up, keepto ourselves, we think we can
(11:55):
figure it out on our own and wefreeze right.
We're not even fighting at thispoint in time.
We're, we're flighting, we'rewe're running and freezing.
And I can't I can't express howmany times I've put myself in
that situation.
But now I have a network ofpeople because of events like
this, people all over thecountry that I can actually
speak to.
You call up I know, who havebeen down this before and lean
(12:17):
on.
And not that I'm looking formoney from them, I'm just I'm
looking for someone to listen tome and give me some sound
advice.
And with this type of summitthat you guys are setting up,
it's not a five day, like yousaid, it's not a whole long,
it's not.
It's not a $1,200 hotel roomand a $25,000 booth that you got
to pay for and all these, allthis stuff.
(12:38):
Next thing you know you'redropping 50 grand, it's, it's,
it's, it's a couple hundredbucks.
Right, it's a one day thing.
It's kind of like a smash andgrab, get what you need, take it
home and apply it and really,at that point in time, it's up
to that person what they takefrom it and start to apply those
, those principles or lessonsthat they had learned.
To listen to real people whohave been through this stuff and
(13:00):
I think that's the one thingabout social media today is like
everybody's just posting thehighlight reels, you know, and
that's what I enjoy about doing.
We're doing a fearless 44 rightnow and it's like the things
that I've been sharing is kindof like my journey, my
day-to-day journey, and me beingsuper intentional about like
man.
That is something that's reallygood that I can talk about
today.
That, because I'm experiencing,I'm going through it, um, right
(13:24):
now, and and kind of also maybesharing like a solution to it,
like this, how I got through it.
Like the kids were fighting, butI thought, instead of me
getting involved with the kidsand I I call my coworkers kids
sometimes I thought, you knowwhat, I'll just let the kids
work this one out, because I'vestuck my nose in places where it
didn't belong before and madethe situation a lot worse.
You know, and through thosetypes of little experiences and
(13:47):
and I'm sure once you're inbusiness long enough, you're
going to realize there's a timeand a place for for the leader
or the owner to get involved inand where they need to back off.
But that's just throughexperiences where I know that
I've made situations a lot worsethan they needed to be, or I've
made them a lot better thanbecause I elected to either stay
out of it or just come up witha solution for everybody to
(14:10):
compromise on, or whatever thecase might be.
But I love, I love, love, love,love what you do.
And so this question, my nextquestion, is for Jenna here.
Jenna, so what's your role inshaping this event and what's
been the most rewarding part?
Jenna Lawson (14:25):
Yes, I've been with Limitless for a little over
a year now.
I was, you know, previously forRoofCon, so I know that the you
know all the planning that goesinto an event.
And you know, with this summit,you know, last year it was at
the Chiefs Stadium and I never,you know, got to plan anything
like that anywhere.
And that was my first eventbeing back in the industry and
it was just like a, it was agame changer for me and I
(14:47):
realized that the summit, justthe one day event where there's
actual strategies, it's reallyexclusive.
You know we limit the number ofsponsors, all of that good
stuff, but it plays a big roleand I've seen, you know, the
impact that not this event butLimitless has in general of just
the members coming together andthen, you know, making the
sponsors are Limitless partnersbecause everyone that's going to
(15:08):
be there they're a Limitlesspartner Just feel special
because we want to be, you know,different than all the other
events out there and we want toprovide these actual strategies
because that's, you know, a hugething.
With you know, you can get themotivational topics, you can get
the skills, you can listen topeople's stories, but what can
(15:29):
you walk away with immediately.
And I was talking to Dylan acouple of weeks ago of who
should we have as a speaker, andwe decided on Jason Eustace,
owner of Eustace, roofing out inFlorida, and I mean he's done
it.
So it's like who can we put onthat stage that has done it,
that can talk about somestrategies and they can walk
away and implement itimmediately.
My role is planning the eventitself and then with Limitless
I'm kind of planning theday-to-day operations and then
(15:50):
kind of do some marketing.
So I'm kind of in alldepartments of Limitless.
But when it comes to this event, this is my passion and I can
really put my heart and soulinto it and it's really good
just to see all of the membersthere.
I mean, we've grown, dylan.
How many members have we addedon this year so far?
Dylan McCabe (16:07):
I think we've added about 250 companies this
year so far.
Jenna Lawson (16:11):
Yeah, and that's insane because when I first
started I was doing the membercheck-ins, I was calling, but it
was not this much, and rightnow we're pushing 530 companies
and we, you know, want to seeeveryone there at this event.
So it's just very, veryrewarding to see just the
progress that we've made in thelast year.
And this event is just kind oflike a it's a, it's a spank.
(16:34):
I mean, we're bringingeverybody together and we're
showing everyone what Limitlessis.
And it's not just Limitlessmembers.
We're opening up to roofingcompany owners in general with
the goal of, you know, teachingthem about Limitless and how we
can help you.
And with the sponsors.
You know we have the threehours of dedicated sponsor time,
which is a huge deal becausewe're limiting it to 300 owners.
(16:55):
So there's going to be so muchface-to-face time.
So I just can't wait to see theimpact that we continue to have
, not just with the event butLimitless in general.
Ty Cobb Backer (17:10):
No, I love that.
Jenna Lawson (17:11):
I love that.
How are you helping attendeesmaximize their experience,
especially with the sponsors andthe networking time?
Yeah, so I mean, you know, withwith events, you normally have
speakers going on at the sametime as the sponsor hour.
Everything's going to be in oneroom, so it's going to be.
You know, we'll have breaks,the hot seats, round table
discussions, but reallymaximizing the time, you know,
(17:32):
three hours with 300 attendeesis, I think, amazing, because
you know, if you're at a largescale conference, you have, you
know, big name speakers going onthe same time.
The expo floor is open.
There's just not much impactwith that and that's why, you
know, conferences are so manydays.
But with this summit, I meanit's all right there and I mean
you're destined to have at leastone good conversation, but it's
going to be way more.
But yeah, I mean I think thatthat's why we're different,
(17:55):
because we're really trying tothink of it from all the sides,
not just with the attendeeexperience, sponsor experience,
it's just everybody comingtogether as a whole and when
they're not having the sponsortime, they're learning from the
other owners.
That's really our main goal.
So SRS they're our main stagesponsor and great speaker, john
DeRosa.
(18:16):
He's the director of contractortraining.
He's going to be talking aboutsales accountability, and
Dylan's going to be talkingabout leadership, and then
Jason's going to be talkingabout how he built his roofing
company.
So I think you know all areasof that.
They can walk away withsomething and we'll be
finalizing our fourth speaker,but I think that you know we're
different in that way becausewe're thinking about it from all
(18:36):
sides of the angle, and thenyou know, with that time that
we're dedicating to specificallynetworking.
Ty Cobb Backer (18:43):
Now, I love that .
I love that because that was mynext question I was going to
ask you is one how did you, howdid you elect or select your,
your sponsors, and why did youspecifically choose those
sponsors to attend or sponsorthe event?
Jenna Lawson (19:02):
Yeah.
So last year we had a littleover 20, I believe, and you know
just the timing.
Last year we had to sign somecontracts with the Chiefs and
that took a little while, so wecouldn't actually promote the
event until a lot later than weplanned on.
So the attendance you know wehad the whole stadium.
You know we could have added onas many people, but with the
number of sponsors being alittle over 20 this year, we
were like let's limit it to 15.
(19:23):
We're going to only invitelimitless partners there to show
our appreciation for them beinga limitless partner.
So we really hand selected.
You know we have the PlatinumPartners SRS, qxo, atlas, tamco,
van Voxel.
We really were like, hey, let'stell them first and then we
went from there.
But we were very, veryselective on um, you know
(19:45):
wanting this only for limitlesspartners.
Just because 15 sponsors, 300attendees, I feel like that's
the perfect balance.
I feel like anything more wouldbe, you know, less face-to-face
time.
Ty Cobb Backer (19:55):
Yeah, no, no I.
And the reason why I asked youthat question, jenna, especially
because I know you've beendoing this a long time and your
experience for hosting eventsand things like that.
So I've watched you hone yourcraft over the years of becoming
like this amazing eventorganizer, and I've actually
reached out to you before, withDylan's Grace, of course, to
(20:19):
help us facilitate, which I hadto put on the back burner
because it is such a heavy liftto do something like this and to
have the bandwidth to do it.
So kudos to you.
But I asked you that questionabout the sponsors and the
speakers because I knew you'regoing to be very specific about
who's there and the message thatyou want to relay to the
contractors that are there, andI really dig that it's for CEOs
(20:41):
and owners only, because there'snot enough of that stuff.
And I think I mentioned thatthe last time you guys were on
the podcast and we were talkingabout the Kansas City trip.
And this question's to Dylanwhat kind of mindset shift do
you think owners need to make in2025 to thrive?
Dylan McCabe (20:58):
Well, and I think, something to point out too,
just before we move on, is youasked about Jenna's role?
In the event.
I mean no, Jenna, no event.
Let me put it that way.
No Jenna, no event.
So this event is happeningbecause of the work of Jenna.
I mean, we have ideas.
Miller and I are not eventplanners.
(21:18):
Jenna's a rock star.
But the other thing is it's forowners only.
So every other conference outthere is full of, you know,
salespeople and different people, so the vendors.
When people come by the boothto get swag, it's like am I
talking to the owner or not?
At our event, yes, a hundredpercent of the time.
But also I want owners sittingnext to owners at the tables and
(21:39):
talking to one another.
I think, for me personally, whatdoes a roofing owner need to do
to thrive?
Was that the question?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think they need to get theirpriorities straight, and so
that's what I plan on talkingabout, you know and I can speak
to the men in the in the crowdspecifically is you know, men
(22:00):
are prone to giving their theirhearts and their efforts and
their energy and their focus toothers, and men have affairs
with their spouses.
But I think business can becomean affair.
So I'm going to be talking aboutwhen business becomes an affair
, protecting the ones you loveand setting priorities in your
life, like when you go home.
(22:20):
When you get home, take thisthing that's a tool, a phone,
and put it face down on yourcounter, take your smartwatch
off and go all in on your family, invest in your family.
So anyway, I don't want to givethe whole thing away, but I
think you got to get yourpriorities straight and that
that's not just family time,like that's physical health.
If you're not physicallyhealthy, how can you be 100% as
(22:44):
a leader at your job?
So physical health, your faith,your relationship with God,
your finances, all of that yougot to have those four F's
family, fitness and finances.
You got to have thosepriorities straight.
It can't be work.
You know, if you're working 80hours a week, you're on the road
to burnout man.
Ty Cobb Backer (23:03):
Yeah, no, it works for short periods and
there's a time and a place whereyou got to kick it in high gear
.
But I, I a hundred percentagree with you on working just
as hard on your family as you doyour business right as your
finances right.
You have to put the time andenergy and I've you know, I've
stumbled.
Personally, man, I've failedmiserably in that department, I
(23:25):
mean going back decades Okay.
And so I a hundred percentagree with you, because I think
I think for a lot of us, men,and I'm sure, women business
owners too, I know for a fact.
So, men and women entrepreneurs, okay, in general, I think we
think we're doing the rightthing by working 80 hours a week
to provide for our family, okay.
But, like you said, if I'm notthere, if I'm not supporting my,
(23:49):
my children, it's, it's muchmore than brand new Nike shoes.
The first day of school, it'sactually being there and putting
them on the bus.
Right, that that first day ofschool is about being there when
they get home from school.
It's about being at the studentteacher conference, it's about
being in football games, becauseyou know you were talking about
, you know, wealth and income,right?
(24:10):
Wealth means an abundance notnecessarily monetarily right.
Wealth means lots of friends, agreat network, a healthy family
, a lot of spirituality, anabundance of right, not just one
thing.
It means an abundance of a lotof things.
Right, not just fixated on workand income, like a lot of
(24:34):
people associate the word incometo monetarily getting receiving
a paycheck every week.
Income has a lot to do withyour network, your family, like
the income again rolls into thewealth of you know it could be
knowledge, but I have to put thework in to make sure I have an
abundance of all these thingsright.
(24:54):
I have to put the work in.
I have to carve enough time outwhere I can put the phone down,
spend some quality time withthe family.
A couple of weeks ago I decidedto take the family on vacation,
just the last minute thing.
Like you know what F this.
It's time for them and Iactually did a really good job
of being where my feet were andnot stressing over because there
wasn't anything stress over,and I'm guilty of that.
(25:16):
I'll stress when there'snothing to stress over, because
there's nothing to stress over,like down to the stupidest
things.
Right, but I was in.
It's a skill, which is cool.
It's great that it's a skillbecause it's something I
actually can work on and getbetter at right Spending more
quality time with my kidsindividually not just collect,
not collective, but individuallyspending time.
If you have multiple kids,certain kids need certain things
(25:38):
.
Not all kids are made createdequally right, and finding that
out and all these things likethat's all a part of being an
entrepreneur.
Right, just like yourco-workers that you work with.
Not each co-worker is builtdifferently, but all of the time
and energy that I've came inI've put in to study the people
that I work with.
I need to put in the sameamount of time and study my
(25:58):
family too, and spend enoughtime with my family.
But not just that.
You know I read this book.
It's called just the one, Ican't remember the name of it.
But when you're at work, work.
When you're at home, be at home.
Right, and and eat more.
The one thing that you'refixating more on.
The other thing is going tosuffer.
So when you're at home, be athome.
When you're at work, be at work.
(26:20):
But I love that.
What is one thing, dylan, thatyou wish you would have learned
earlier?
You know getting into this.
Like I know, you came from adifferent industry, but it was
all kind of sort of you know,you've kind of spun it into the
roofing industry.
What is one thing that youwished?
And on this topic right of whatI'm saying like I'm a piss poor
(26:40):
father at times, but what I'msaying like I'm a piss poor
father at times OK, and I'mworking on that what is one
thing that you wished you wouldhave learned outside of spending
more time with your family andspirituality and all those
things.
Dylan McCabe (26:54):
Yeah, I think, just boundaries in general.
I mean, there's a book calledBoundaries written on this
subject.
But I, you know, before gettinginto roofing I was in health
care.
Before that, I was an apartmentmanager when I I moved to
Dallas to get a master's degreein theology and I managed the
single students building oncampus at Dallas Seminary and so
there were about 400 residentswho all knew me by name, had my
(27:16):
phone number, had my email, soit's almost like having 400
employees and I didn't have anyoffice hours posted in my office
.
I didn't have any rules orstructure.
It was like, hey, I'm here ifyou need me.
So from 6am till 12 at night, Iwas getting people would stop
me in the hallway, people wouldstop me on campus, people would
(27:36):
text me while I'm at the grocerystore, and it was.
You know, hey, dylan, you got aminute and I called it death by
God of minutes and I juststarted cruising toward burnout
man because there's zerodowntime.
I mean zero when 400 peopleknow you by name and they want
to ask you a question aboutwhere to get books for a certain
class, or their toilets cloggedor what it's.
(27:57):
Just it was crazy.
And so I'm like at my wits endand I talked to the apartment
manager of the married couplesbuilding across the street and
I'm like, andrew, how do you dothis?
Man?
You've got twice the amount ofresidents I do.
And like you're taking a fullworkload and you got a full time
job and you got a family, youhave three kids.
(28:17):
And like what do you?
How is this possible?
And he's like, well, do youhave office hours?
And I'm like, well, yeah, I'min my office all the time.
(28:37):
And he's like no, no, no, no.
Do you have office hours postedon your window?
And have you communicated thosehours to the building?
And I'm like, well, no, thistime, like Monday, wednesday,
friday or whatever, I'm here foryou.
You can drop in, you can textme, you can call me or whatever
outside of this time, shoot mean email and I'll get to it the
next day.
And if it's an emergency, like atrue emergency, like your
(28:59):
apartment's on fire, you cancall me and call 911 right after
that.
And then he said, said, andthen you're going to take the
next 90 days and you're going totrain every single resident in
the building on this structureyou just set and I did, man, I
had to over and over and over,like hundreds of times, people
stop me.
Hey, dylan, real quick, you gota minute and I'll be like hey,
(29:20):
is this about the building I'm?
This is outside of my officehours.
Yeah, I just have a.
Have a quick question?
All right, cool, is it anemergency?
No, all right, shoot me anemail, I'll get to it tomorrow
morning.
I'll be back in my officetomorrow at 8 AM and it puzzled
people.
People were like, oh, okay, butwhat they don't realize is a
hundred of those 10 minuteconversations.
It just completely derails yourlife.
(29:40):
So I wish I'd learned thoseboundaries your life.
So I wish I'd learned thoseboundaries and then I was able
to do my job better, enjoy myjob more, have downtime and that
applies to any business.
Just boundaries, man, you gotto have boundaries and that's
that goes with your time, itgoes with relationships, you
know, yeah, boundaries.
Ty Cobb Backer (30:01):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And what I've noticed, too, isthat it's our fault.
We condition people, you know,to be easily accessible to them
and wonder why we don't haveenough time on our our, our
hands to even perform our jobs,let alone because we're dying
from got a minute disease.
I love how.
I love that I'm going to steal.
How did you call it?
(30:21):
What did you call that?
Got a minute.
Dylan McCabe (30:23):
Death by God a minutes.
Ty Cobb Backer (30:24):
Yeah, death by God, a minutes.
I love that, I'm going to stealthat.
But I've noticed where I'vemade myself too readily
available for people and haveconditioned them because I don't
want to let them down.
I want to be the man on, youknow, just Johnny, on the spot
for everybody, and you possiblycan't do that.
And I love how you said andframed it as a boundary, like
(30:47):
there's there's boundaries, andboundaries isn't necessarily a
negative thing, it's just yourcondition.
You're going to have to gothrough reconditioning people of
like yeah, you normally respondwithin an hour if I email him,
right, and once you startconditioning people because we
have a service department thatyou know I've I've, like, love
(31:07):
servicing the crap out of peopleand that's why we've we've
created an in-house servicedepartment and I've seen our
service managers go through thesame exact thing that you're
mentioning.
I've seen the guys that cause.
I see the emails and I see thephone calls, I see the text
messages and you'll see whereBrandon okay, brandon is one of
our service managers forPennsylvania and he, right from
(31:29):
the get-go, he's conditionedpeople that if it's an emergency
they'll call him, if it's notan emergency, they'll email them
and they all know that they maynot hear from him for that day,
but at 530 in the morning hereplies back to every single one
of them with a solution andwhat time he'll be there to
service them.
And then I've seen otherservice managers that are just
(31:51):
getting the shit kicked out ofthem because now they've
conditioned people so if theydon't answer the phone in 2.3
seconds that client is upsetbecause he's conditioned them to
answer the phone every timehe's called there.
But if you start out right ortry to recondition them, just be
consistent with it would be myonly suggestion.
Like, just be consistent oflike replying back to the emails
(32:12):
, don't ghost people, not sayingthat you've done that, but I've
, I've.
I'm guilty of trying torecondition people but then go
from one extreme, from Johnny onthe spot to like just
completely ghosting people andtrying to find that happy medium
and being consistent, so thatway people know when they can
rely on me and when I'll bethere and when I'll respond to
them.
Dylan McCabe (32:34):
But I mean we all have boundaries.
I mean there's certain thingsyou're willing to do and certain
things you're not willing to doin certain times or
circumstances.
But I think people need towrite a few boundaries down on
paper, and I mean it goes withkids too.
If I'm in the middle, if I comehome from work, it's one of my
boundaries as well.
One of the things I protect isI'm home at five 30.
Every night we have dinnertogether as a family.
(32:55):
We go one by one and we ask ourdaughters was there any
challenges you faced today?
And then, what were thehighlights of your day?
And that fills up our dinnertime.
And I've got a 10 year old, aneight year old and five year old
.
And it's so funny the differentanswers.
You know the five year old willtalk about some funny thing.
It's just hilarious.
But I protect that, thatboundary.
(33:17):
But if I'm home and I'm talkingto my wife, I haven't seen her
all day.
If I ask her how she's doing,is there anything she wants to
tell me before we get intodinner?
And one of the girls comes upand is like dad, dad, it's like,
hold on, don't interrupt yourmom.
Your mom's sharing something.
Just just wait a minute.
That's a boundary, likeeverything's not immediate, it's
not an emergency, we're not inthe Navy seals, you can wait
(33:38):
Right.
So I mean we all boundarieswith ourselves.
It's okay to say no to yourself.
You know, there's times where Iwant a big giant bowl of ice
cream on a Tuesday night and abag of popcorn as I'm watching
band of brothers.
But I've got some fitness goals.
I'd really like to get down to12% body fat.
So which one am I going to sayyes to and which one I want to
(34:00):
say yes to the 12% body fat?
No to the giant bowl of icecream.
Most of the time I get thatright.
Ty Cobb Backer (34:08):
And that's that's such a good segue into
taking care of yourself so youcan take care of everything else
too.
You know, trying to find thatbalance and and and the
importance of you know Vic Vichad mentioned in in a comment
here where it's just as equallyimportant for those of us that
aren't owners.
Okay, and where I'm going withthat is is like, okay, so us
(34:29):
owners and CEOs can can attendthese events, so then we can
bring back this energy Right,and it only, it only improves
the quality of our businessesfrom the quality of content that
we're going to receive at anevent like this, like it ripples
down.
But also, most importantly too,is us taking care of us as
business owners, as fathers, asparents, as coworkers, whatever.
(34:50):
It all starts with the personaldevelopment.
Like watching my weight, I needto be down to 12%.
Well, it might sound selfishthat I need to take care of
myself before I can take care ofyou, but the bottom line is
it's no different from thatanalogy of like when you're on
an airplane care of you, but thebottom line is it's no
different from that analogy oflike when you're on an airplane,
airplanes crash and put yourair mask on first, then put your
, put your you know yourpartner's mask on.
Second.
It's because that way I canstill function, protect, take
(35:13):
care of.
And if I'm not taking care ofmyself, that is probably the
most selfish thing that we couldpotentially do to the ones that
we love.
If we're not taking care ofourselves and we are not here
today because we're not takingcare of ourselves and we die,
our health fails we won't behere to take care of our
children, our children'schildren.
Right now I'm experiencing someof that, not due to health
(35:36):
issues, but I have grandchildrentoday.
I have three children, threegrandchildren, three dogs, three
cats that rely on me and abeautiful wife at home.
And if I'm not taking care ofmyself mentally, physically and
spiritually, bro, I'm no good tonobody.
So that's where it all starts.
Dylan McCabe (35:53):
So, true man, my grandfather had his first heart
attack at 35 years old.
So you know, I mean you got totake care of yourself.
You don't know how long it'sgoing to last man.
And that goes back to the workan 80 hour a week thing and
neglecting your wife and yourfamily, your loved ones.
It's like, well you know whatif you do that and then in five
(36:15):
years you pass away.
If you could rewind and do itagain, I think you would work
less.
Nobody's ever going to go andget to heaven and go, man.
I wish I would have worked more.
Nobody's ever going to go andget to heaven and go, man.
I wish I would have worked more.
They're going to say I wish Iwould have had, you know, more
time with my loved ones.
I wish I would have grabbedthat bowl of ice cream with my
child or gone on a littleone-on-one walk or stop to smell
the roses or whatever.
(36:35):
But yeah, health is a big thing,especially to Miller and I, man
.
I mean we're talking about itevery day and I get blood work
done every six months about itevery day and I get blood work
done every six months.
I'm looking at my cholesterol,blood pressure, all the markers,
testosterone, estrogen,everything in between, because
it needs to be in balance.
I mean you, you should feelgreat.
(36:55):
There's no reason why youshouldn't feel great, I mean,
unless you're dealing with achronic disease which sucks.
You should.
Dealing with a chronic diseasewhich sucks, you should be able
to feel your best at whateverlevel you're at.
Ty Cobb Backer (37:09):
I 100% agree.
Now, jenna, I know you've beenin the personal development
space for a long time.
What are some areas that you'veslacked on and what you're
working on currently, right now?
That's a very good question.
Jenna Lawson (37:20):
I want to put you on the spot.
Sorry, I know that's a verygood question.
I want to put you on the spot,sorry, I know right, like I
should have journaled about thisbefore, I feel like just doing
what you don't want to do,that's going to sound so cliche,
but there's a lot of thingsthat I don't want to be doing.
That's not with work in general, but just sometimes.
(37:44):
I just don't want to do it andI I, you know push it off.
I push it off and then it justmakes it even worse when I
finally get doing it.
And you know, with work kind of.
You know, I started out as onething and I kind of slowly
transitioned to doing a littlebit of this, a little bit of
this, and thank God I'm good attime management.
(38:07):
But I think, by doing that andreally just doing what I need to
do on the spot, knowing thatmaybe I don't want to do it, I
have to do it right then andthere, because my energy is
going to keep going into thingsthat are easy to me and it's
just a routine.
But it's that thing that Idon't want to do, that I need to
do most, because once I do thatthing, it's going to be worked
into that routine and that's howa routine is built is by doing
something you're not necessarilywant to be doing, but, um, you
(38:30):
know it's going to have alasting effect.
So I think that that I've justowning owning your stuff and
just building something out ofthat, if that makes sense.
Um, yeah, I think that's whatI'm.
I'm still struggling with it,but I finally realized the
importance of just doing it,just doing what you don't want
to do.
Ty Cobb Backer (38:49):
Yeah, yeah.
No, procrastination is a killerof a lot of things.
So now I get that I'm ahorrible procrastinator and I'm
the same as you.
If I don't do it right now,it'll probably get put on the
back burner, like when you askedme for a logo yesterday, I was
like, oh shit, I was in themiddle of something when I
(39:10):
should have did it, like there.
And then knowing myself that ifI don't do this now, I probably
won't because I'll forget notbecause I don't want to, but
then laying in bed reviewingthat list of things that I
should have did, and now I gotto do it tomorrow and that's.
That's just one of those lessonsthat I think there's ebbs and
flows with that too.
You're just more they are tosomebody else, and I found that
(39:30):
to be my inbox and my emailthing.
That seems to be everybodyelse's problem.
That's why I filter a lot ofshit out and I got finally an
assistant, probably about a yearago, to help me filter and make
me a better, you know, humanbeing in general.
It's like I submitted like,okay, I need a, I need an
assistant, you know which whereI thought I could handle
everything and and it was justtoo much and I think one of the
(39:52):
biggest things I've all, I'vealways bit off more than I could
chew, it doesn't matter withthe amount of work or over
promising and under delivering,like, and I just I think for me,
I just got sick and tired ofletting you know people down,
situations down and not beingreadily available when I need to
be, especially for my family,and things like that.
But I really wanted to hear yourtake on it because you've I
(40:14):
know you're kind of in, you know, a different scenario and your
mindset might be a littledifferent right now.
And I know your focuses aredifferent right now because you
don't have, like you have a mom,amazing mother, but it's not
like you have children at homeand all those things.
And right now I know, and Ithink we've had this
conversation where you'refocused on your career right now
(40:35):
and have had, you know, thatopportunity to do that when and
you know, I'm kind of envious ofthat because, like I had a kid
at a very young age, like mypriorities, like were made for
me a lot of well due to some ofmy poor decision-making, but not
having children I wasn't a poorthing cause, because I love my
(40:56):
children today, um, and I didthat, but I feel like I'm
sticking my foot in my mouthright now, um, but you like
surround yourself around reallyawesome people.
I've watched your journey, I'veknown you for a couple years
now and and I am envious of theposition that you've put
yourself and you've been verystrategic and and your your
tactics on learning and workingyourself up I guess the
(41:16):
corporate ladder type of thingand your experiences and stuff.
So, as someone in your position,give us some knowledge of
somebody who is in your position, like, what would you have done
differently?
Okay, knowing what you know now, going back five years ago,
(41:40):
like would you have wanted to goto school?
Like, spend more time and like,like, give us, give us some
good stuff here.
Jenna Lawson (41:48):
I know I'm trying to rewind my life in the last
five years because it's been a.
It's been a journey.
Um, trying to rewind my life inthe last five years because
it's been a it's been a journey.
Um, I'll focus on what I did doand what after that go to what
I should have done.
So you know, I went to college,got a degree in communications.
I did internships.
I kind of I chose I need no, Ineed needed to pave the way, um,
(42:09):
in college, and that's what Idid.
I made sure I had an internshipevery semester.
I had no idea what I wanted todo.
I knew, you know, it's going tobe something in communications
and that's such a broad, broadtopic.
But I kind of did an internship, got my way in corporate
communications, marketing,social media, and then I
graduated and then I was like,ok, what now?
(42:29):
I mean, I have all of thisunder my belt, but what now?
So I started doing social mediafor an insurance brokerage and
then I started working forroofingcom after that.
So kind of everything started,you know, everything kind of
lined out the way that I wantedit to or the way I envisioned
and I had.
You know, I got a job doingsomething relevant to my degree.
(42:50):
So that way you know I had it.
But I definitely, you know, thatcareer mindset.
You know I try to.
You know with many lifechallenges I've gone through in
the last five years but Idefinitely wanted to focus on my
career more than anything and Ithink that that has been a
positive.
You know it's gotten me here.
But you know I took the risk ofbranching out of the roofing
(43:14):
industry and I started workingfor a company for six months and
that was work, work, work.
I mean no time for anything.
We couldn't even take a breakduring the nine hour workday,
930 to 630.
If you left at 630, you werelooked down, looked down upon
and it's like if you took alunch break.
No, it was pretty much likeyou're here to work, we don't
(43:35):
care about your personal life.
And so that was definitely.
It shaped my perspective ofwhat I do want in a position,
and you know, with Limitless Iwork remote.
I have everything that is goingto better me in the long run.
But going back to what I shouldhave done I know that went off
(43:55):
topic, but going back to what Ishould have done I should have
thought more about the.
You know where I was right thenand there I was too focused on
the long-term of things, but Iwas not where my feet were.
I was like, what is the nextbig thing?
What should I work towards?
I was always thinking abouttomorrow.
I was always thinking aboutnext week.
How can I?
(44:16):
I don't know, how can I bebetter?
And that's a good thing.
I was just so focused on thatthat I really started to neglect
people in my life.
That, you know, in that moment,or what I wanted to be doing.
You know, acting has alwaysbeen a passion of mine, but I
kind of put that off to the sidebecause I was so focused on
this one thing.
But I think that focusing onthe many things that life has to
(44:38):
offer and not just focusing onthat one thing, that and I know
that that was a long, long spiel, but if you know me, I love to
tell stories no, no, no.
Ty Cobb Backer (44:47):
I loved it and I really wanted to hear that
because, like I said, I'm kindof envious of the your, your
journey thus far because of thelack of baggage.
Now, I'm sure I know you havebaggage, but you know the, the
freedom I guess, the little morefreedom that I felt, I feel
like that you may have had.
But, man, I wish, I really wishI would have been as smart as
(45:07):
you are.
I mean you, you are just, youknow, you are an amazing person.
I'll just leave it at that, Um,but, but kudos to you and and,
uh, I I'd say if I got anythingout of that would be, if
anyone's listening, that mightbe around the age that Jenna's
in and can have.
The trajectory that that she'sbeen on is to keep keep an open
(45:28):
mind and don't be so fixated ona long-term goal, but create and
galvanize relationships, whichI know you have, but be where
your feet are, like you said,and enjoy the moment and learn
as much as you can and apply itto something later on in life,
whether it be another career orat the current career that
you're at now.
So I love that.
So thank you, Thank you forsharing that with us.
(45:50):
And dylan, what?
Where do you see the future oflimitless group and and then the
summit?
So give us, give us.
Where do you see the future ofthe of the group going?
Dylan McCabe (46:02):
and then, if you have any other future, bigger
picture plans for the summit Ithink the big vision for the
limitless roofing group, a GPOas a group purchasing
organization, is to become themost influential buying group in
roofing in the industry.
So I mean we essentially wesave roofers money, we come
together as one big group and wesave on everything from
(46:22):
shingles to general liabilityinsurance, you name it.
But if we get big enough, likeright now I think Jenna
mentioned we're about 530companies If we get big enough
like thousands of companies inour group, we will have serious
leverage on things likemanufacturer relationships,
supplier relationships, thingslike healthcare insurance where
(46:44):
you can get captive plans if youhave thousands of companies in
a group, stuff like that.
So that's it.
We want to become the mostinfluential buying group in
roofing, to where our companieshave benefits because the group
is stronger together.
You know we come together.
We're way stronger together.
And with the summit I meangoing back to the way we've
(47:06):
designed it.
It's meant to be a life-changingevent for owners.
Only it's a one-day event inthe Dallas area.
To be a life-changing event forowners.
Only it's a one-day event inthe Dallas area.
It's specifically in FlowerMound, texas, at Circle R Ranch.
There's a welcome mixture thenight before, all-day event the
next day and then a VIP dinnerthat night.
It's weighted heavily towardinteraction with other owners.
There are a few speakers, butit's weighted heavily toward
(47:29):
downtime and interaction withvendors and with other owners
and that vision will neverchange with our event.
It'll always be a small,impactful, you know environment
where you connect with otherowners.
Ty Cobb Backer (47:43):
No, I love that.
I love that Is there.
Is there anything that eitherone of you want to?
We're getting close to our onehour mark here.
Is there anything that you guyswant to add that we may not
have covered about the event, orsomething personally that you
want to share a nugget withanybody and with any of our
viewers or listeners?
Dylan McCabe (48:04):
Jen, I'll let you share any details on the event
that I missed.
Jenna Lawson (48:08):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean the schedule.
We kind of went over all ofthat Speakers, hot seats, hot
seats discussing challenges.
You know you're vulnerable onstage, you're vulnerable around
the room, but that's just.
You know.
What did you do to get out ofthat topic?
(48:34):
I feel like that was very, veryeffective last year.
You know this year we'rewanting to do the same thing,
but you know we're every yearwe're going to level up and so
super excited to just introducethat again the round tables and
the hot seats and really justyou know the exclusive giveaways
that we're having.
You know, with Limitless there'sexclusive deals offered to
members.
So the members are comingtogether and talking to our
partners and these are exclusivedeals that they would be able
(48:56):
to get on their own.
So the hope is to have thenon-members become members to
essentially get those deals.
So the impact is there and ifyou're an owner in Texas
especially, definitely this isnot a pricey event we would love
to have you there.
I think we're going to offer a20% code on this.
So we would love to have owners, decision makers, there, just
(49:20):
to learn from each other.
And even if you don't want tobecome a member of Limitless,
totally fine, You're going tohave impact regardless.
Ty Cobb Backer (49:26):
Right on.
I love that.
I love that.
Jenna Lawson (49:34):
If somebody wanted to sign up for the group,
what's the easiest way or whoshould they call or contact?
I would visit our website toLimitlessRoofingGroupcom to
become a member.
So it's a free group, it's ano-cost membership.
You fill out the first form andthen it takes literally around
five minutes and then, of course, if you don't finish it, we can
give you a call.
We can walk through it on thephone, but it's really just
getting some businessinformation from you, telling
(49:55):
you about our rebate programsand then getting you set up and
ready to save money, and thenyou can learn more about the
event and see the schedule indetail and all of that on the
summit part of our website.
Ty Cobb Backer (50:04):
I love it.
I love it.
Dylan.
You want to add anything tothat?
Dylan McCabe (50:14):
No, just we hope to see you there.
It's limited to 300 owners.
So, um, I would encouragepeople, roofers, all of us we
put it off till the last minutewith stuff like this, but I
would encourage you to buy ittoo.
What is it?
200 for general admission no,it's.
It's 99 for general admissionand we can get 20 off yeah, so
it's 99 bucks of a 24-hour event, I think it's.
Uh.
The roi is going to bephenomenal as long as you show
up and as long as you'reintentional to connect with one
(50:35):
or two other owners, but we'vegot it limited to 300 seats, so
look forward to seeing you guysthere.
Ty Cobb Backer (50:41):
Wow, wow, great man, I love what you guys are
doing.
Thank you so much for you know,coming on the show, making the
industry a better place thanwhere it was when you guys found
it, and thank you for everybodyfor joining us.
And if you got anything out ofthis, please, like love, share
it to somebody that you maythink might get something out of
it.
With that, big thanks to JennaLawson and Dylan McCabe for
(51:07):
joining us today.
If you're an owner or a GM in aroofing world, don't miss the
Limitless Roofing Summit October15th at the Circle R Ranch in
Flower Mound, texas, with awelcome mixer the night before.
Grab your tickets atlimitlessroofinggroupcom.
Slash limitless summit roofingsummit and use code limitless20
to get a 20% off.
This is your chance to connect,learn and walk away with real
(51:30):
strategies to grow your business.
Thanks for tuning in to Beyondthe Tool Belt.
We will see you next time.
Dylan McCabe (51:36):
Thanks, Ty You're welcome.
And we are live.
Welcome back everybody toBehind the Tool Belt, episode
290.
I am your host, ty Cobb-Backer,and thank you for joining us on
this Wednesday edition.
We will be back right after ourshort intro from our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to Behind the Tool Belt, where the stories
are bold, the conversations arereal and the insights come to
you live, raw and uncut.
Every week, host Ty Cobb-Backersits down to bring you the
stories, the struggles, thelessons learned and the wins.
No filters, no scripts, justthe truth.
(00:52):
Please welcome your host ofBehind the Tool Belt, ty
Cobb-Backer.
Ty Cobb Backer (00:57):
Hey, welcome back everybody to our Wednesday
edition.
Hopefully you're not gettingrained out like we have been for
the past couple of weeks.
So, speaking of the last coupleof weeks, man, we've had some
really good, I think, episodes,good good content creation and
some educational stuff.
We talked a lot aboutamplifying your brand,
(01:19):
developing a company culturethrough leadership, creating
lasting authority whileexpanding your market presence,
and the seven part frameworkthat helps you connect with
homeowners, build trust andserve more homeowners.
And then last week, we talkedabout how AI is changing the way
that we operate.
And then today I'm superexcited about this we have two
(01:42):
powerhouses Jenna Lawson andDylan McCabe, the owner and
driving force behind theLimitless Roofing Group and
Summit, and here they are ourguest.
What's happening, guys?
How are you?
Jenna Lawson (01:55):
Hello Good, how are you?
Ty Cobb Backer (01:56):
Fantastic, fantastic.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Jenna Lawson (02:00):
Thank you so much, excited to be back.
Ty Cobb Backer (02:02):
Thanks for having me, man, and thank you
for being our guinea pig.
We tried something a littledifferent today, just to see how
it would work out.
Little subtle things thatnobody would notice, but if we
would have screwed it up theywould have noticed it.
But anyhow, you know, thisisn't just like you know.
(02:22):
You guys are here LimitlessGroup and the Summit but this
isn't just like another roofingevent.
It's for owners only, designedto help roofing company owners,
ceos, general managers tacklereal world challenges, share
strategies and walk away withpractical solutions.
And I know today we're going todive into why, behind the scene
(02:46):
behind the event, what makes itdifferent and how they're
helping transform the roofingindustry from the inside out.
So let's dig into this.
Dylan McCabe (02:59):
Yeah, I think the big thing with events and
conferences is everybody's kindof tired of seeing the same
speakers hearing the same stuff,and I totally get that.
But I think a conference iskind of like.
It's like if you ask somebodywhat their experience in high
school was, if you ask afootball player, you're going to
get one answer.
If you ask the star of thefootball team, you're going to
(03:21):
get a different answer.
If you ask somebody who'svaledictorian, you're going to
get a different answer.
If you ask somebody that gotbullied and dropped out, you're
going to get a different.
It's like it's what you make ofit, you know and so.
But what we, what we've triedto do, is create an event that's
a one day event, so it's it's.
It's not a conference, it's notmultiple days, but we try to
(03:42):
create a situation where you'relearning from other roofing
owners, not fake gurus or peoplewho happen to be friends with
people running the event, whichis so tempting.
I mean, it's our event and I'mtempted to invite people I know
really well to speak and stufflike that.
But we've just got a fewspeakers and then we've got more
than half of the time at theevent dedicated to roundtable
(04:05):
discussions, hot seats,networking, where you can open
up as the company owner and say,hey, here's my biggest
challenge and we're going tofacilitate that.
And then, as you share yourbiggest challenge, other people
at your table of 10 people aregoing to weigh in, ask questions
, give feedback, almost like amini mastermind.
It's not going to be that themastermind.
It's not going to be that thewhole day.
(04:26):
There's definitely going to bespeakers and time with vendors
and stuff, but that's the goal.
I mean our hope is that peopleshow up to the event, connect
with at least one or two otherroofing owners and walk away
with lasting friendship, becauserunning a business is really
freaking hard, but it's wayeasier when you can talk to
(04:47):
friends who can be real with you.
And if you're, you know, ifyou're like man, I don't know
how we're even going to makepayroll this month, but they can
talk to you, ty Backer, and youcan be like man.
I went through that too.
Here's how we got out of it.
It's, it's life-changing.
I mean, that's worth a thousandconferences right there, just
that one friendship connection.
Ty Cobb Backer (05:08):
Yeah, I can't agree more.
I know the last one that Iattended out in Kansas City Vic
and I, and I believe Hofstra waswith us I mean the atmosphere
was pretty amazing and for us tobe able to connect, I mean you
guys made enough time.
I think it was perfect.
The mixer the night before wegot to connect with people we
(05:30):
haven't seen in a long time, andbut what was really cool about
it was is that, like you hadmentioned, we were able to
network with people that I'venever met before John, john,
what's his last name?
Abernathy?
Dylan McCabe (05:42):
Abernathy yeah.
Ty Cobb Backer (05:43):
Yeah.
So I never met him beforepersonally and and to hear now I
knew of him, I knew what he wasabout, I knew he was a good
dude, but I never got it's.
It's actually giving megoosebumps right now.
But to have time, one-on-onetime, with him and listen to his
experiences because he'straveled a lot of same same
trails and roads that that Ihave and to listen to him talk
(06:07):
about business and then talkabout the Tamco shingle journey
that he's on now and and all ofthat stuff and how much just
from that conversation, right,was worth his weight in gold.
And then the next day, you know, we had plenty of time to
network with people.
The lunch was amazing, thespeakers were were just
phenomenal, and I think you guyseven asked me to go up and sit
in a uh like a, like a group,whatever um panel panel speaking
(06:32):
, uh engagement up there, and itwas just the questions that
were being asked and how, how Ifelt personally, right, because
I'm I'm still trying to figurethis shit out too.
I think some people are like, ohmy God, 17 years.
Well, how I made payroll, thatone time is I maxed my fucking
credit cards out.
That's if you want to know howI did it.
In those months where I canmake, I maxed my credit cards
out.
So so we, we you know businessisn't easy, right?
(06:55):
It takes a lot of tenacity, alot of grit and resiliency, like
you have to bounce back.
You can't not, you can't hide,you gotta suit up, show up all
those things.
But it gives you that time tocorner somebody, whether it was,
I know randy brothers was there.
Um, oh shit, um, uh, the other,randy, her, her, how do you say
his last name?
(07:16):
Yeah, yeah, he was there.
I'm, I'm horrible with names,by the way, I'll remember your
face, but it was such a greatatmosphere.
So let me ask you this whatinspired the launch?
Like, what gap, what void didyou see outside of what you've
already mentioned?
Like, what made you obsessed?
Because I know you got Jennaand obviously you know you've
(07:38):
surrounded yourself aroundamazing people but what?
What was the true driving forceof wanting to start the
Limitless Summit?
Dylan McCabe (07:46):
I mean, well, initially we wanted to really
bring our members togetherbecause we have a group with
over 500 roofing companies in it.
But if they're, if they're not,a part of our mastermind, they
don't ever meet each other.
So that's really the.
The big goal is to get ourmembers together.
And it's like oh man, you knowyou're, you're an hour away from
me, let's talk, let's havelunch, and and our, the guys
(08:08):
that join our group, are growthminded and they don't really see
other roofers as a threat.
It's like there's plenty offish in the sea, especially in
Dallas.
People talk about how manyroofing companies there are in
Dallas.
Well, who cares?
I mean, look at how manyhomeowners there are in Dallas.
There's just millions ofopportunities and so.
But we wanted to create anexperience where life change
(08:32):
happens, and that's not speakingin hyperbole.
I mean, if I going back to theconversation, if I'm struggling,
I don't know how the heck I'mgoing to make payroll.
It's been stressing me out formonths.
I'm starting to go from oneglass of whiskey on a Friday
night to two glasses a night forweeks in a row.
I'm losing my temper with mywife and my kids.
(08:53):
I don't really know how to digout of it.
Now I'm feeling shame anddiscouragement on top of the
stress.
So now you got some depressioncoming in.
Then I go to this event I don'twant to go because it's just
another stupid event.
But I pull myself.
Somebody said I should go andthen I meet Ty Backer.
We just happen to sit at thesame table and you're like, look
(09:16):
man, you know I didn't want to,I didn't want to share, but
like here's the table, here'sthe topic, and I'm just going to
go ahead and share it.
I don't know what the heck todo.
I've been stressing, I've beendrinking too much, and we make a
connection.
And then you say you know what,man, let's sit next to each
other at dinner tonight.
I'd like to hear more.
I'm going to the VIP dinner too, and you make a connection and
(09:40):
then over the next couple ofweeks I'm that guy and I can
talk to you and you help me digout of that mentally.
I mean, it's going to happeneventually, but it's how you get
through.
It is the thing.
To me it's like I'm watchingthe band of brothers series
again, I think for like thefifth time, and you see these
guys go through these awfulbattle scenes like Bastogne or
(10:00):
whatever, and some of the guyspull through and some of the
guys just fall apart and they'reall going through the same
battle, but some of themmentally and emotionally.
It's just too much, and sothat's the goal is to create an
environment to where that'spossible.
Life change is possible becauseif you get a grip on your
business, then your marriage canget better, your home life can
(10:21):
get better.
You can focus on other things,but when you don't know whether
you're going to survive or not,it's really hard to focus on
anything else.
Ty Cobb Backer (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, no, and you're so right.
Most of it's mindset.
And if you can attend anintimate, you know not saying
that this is a small eventwhatsoever, but the times that
you guys carve out for thatintimacy is so important,
especially early on in business,and to be able to listen to
somebody and really get theirear and ask them vulnerable
(10:51):
questions, like you were justmentioning.
Obviously it's much more thanmaxing your credit cards out.
You know what I mean.
There's so many other variablesthat play into how you got in
that situation and how you canpull yourself out of that hole.
And it's business, right.
There's ebbs and flows, there'sweather, there's insurance
companies, there's homeowners.
There's a lot of variables thattake place that you need to put
(11:12):
a lot of safety nets in and tobe able to sit down and get
somebody's ear.
Who has actually been throughall of those things and you're
going to find out too At leastfor me I've.
I've shared some prettyvulnerable stories with some,
some younger business owners andthey're like, really, he went
through that same stuff too.
It was like listen, it was ahell of a lot worse man, but we
just got to keep suiting up andshowing up every day, because a
(11:32):
lot of people rely on us andjust to hear that, just get
somebody like hype Right, andwhen they leave there, it's like
you know they they realizethere's another gear there that
I didn't realize existed, likeif he can do this, I can do this
Right, and and to be able tosurround yourself around that
energy.
Because that's what it is.
It's energy.
We, we we tend to clam up, keepto ourselves, we think we can
(11:55):
figure it out on our own and wefreeze right.
We're not even fighting at thispoint in time.
We're, we're flighting, we'rewe're running and freezing.
And I can't I can't express howmany times I've put myself in
that situation.
But now I have a network ofpeople because of events like
this, people all over thecountry that I can actually
speak to.
You call up I know, who havebeen down this before and lean
(12:17):
on.
And not that I'm looking formoney from them, I'm just I'm
looking for someone to listen tome and give me some sound
advice.
And with this type of summitthat you guys are setting up,
it's not a five day, like yousaid, it's not a whole long,
it's not.
It's not a $1,200 hotel roomand a $25,000 booth that you got
to pay for and all these, allthis stuff.
(12:38):
Next thing you know you'redropping 50 grand, it's, it's,
it's, it's a couple hundredbucks.
Right, it's a one day thing.
It's kind of like a smash andgrab, get what you need, take it
home and apply it and really,at that point in time, it's up
to that person what they takefrom it and start to apply those
, those principles or lessonsthat they had learned.
To listen to real people whohave been through this stuff and
(13:00):
I think that's the one thingabout social media today is like
everybody's just posting thehighlight reels, you know, and
that's what I enjoy about doing.
We're doing a fearless 44 rightnow and it's like the things
that I've been sharing is kindof like my journey, my
day-to-day journey, and me beingsuper intentional about like
man.
That is something that's reallygood that I can talk about
today.
That, because I'm experiencing,I'm going through it, um, right
(13:24):
now, and and kind of also maybesharing like a solution to it,
like this, how I got through it.
Like the kids were fighting, butI thought, instead of me
getting involved with the kidsand I I call my coworkers kids
sometimes I thought, you knowwhat, I'll just let the kids
work this one out, because I'vestuck my nose in places where it
didn't belong before and madethe situation a lot worse.
You know, and through thosetypes of little experiences and
(13:47):
and I'm sure once you're inbusiness long enough, you're
going to realize there's a timeand a place for for the leader
or the owner to get involved inand where they need to back off.
But that's just throughexperiences where I know that
I've made situations a lot worsethan they needed to be, or I've
made them a lot better thanbecause I elected to either stay
out of it or just come up witha solution for everybody to
(14:10):
compromise on, or whatever thecase might be.
But I love, I love, love, love,love what you do.
And so this question, my nextquestion, is for Jenna here.
Jenna, so what's your role inshaping this event and what's
been the most rewarding part?
Jenna Lawson (14:25):
Yes, I've been with Limitless for a little over
a year now.
I was, you know, previously forRoofCon, so I know that the you
know all the planning that goesinto an event.
And you know, with this summit,you know, last year it was at
the Chiefs Stadium and I never,you know, got to plan anything
like that anywhere.
And that was my first eventbeing back in the industry and
it was just like a, it was agame changer for me and I
(14:47):
realized that the summit, justthe one day event where there's
actual strategies, it's reallyexclusive.
You know we limit the number ofsponsors, all of that good
stuff, but it plays a big roleand I've seen, you know, the
impact that not this event butLimitless has in general of just
the members coming together andthen, you know, making the
sponsors are Limitless partnersbecause everyone that's going to
(15:08):
be there they're a Limitlesspartner Just feel special
because we want to be, you know,different than all the other
events out there and we want toprovide these actual strategies
because that's, you know, a hugething.
With you know, you can get themotivational topics, you can get
the skills, you can listen topeople's stories, but what can
(15:29):
you walk away with immediately.
And I was talking to Dylan acouple of weeks ago of who
should we have as a speaker, andwe decided on Jason Eustace,
owner of Eustace, roofing out inFlorida, and I mean he's done
it.
So it's like who can we put onthat stage that has done it,
that can talk about somestrategies and they can walk
away and implement itimmediately.
My role is planning the eventitself and then with Limitless
I'm kind of planning theday-to-day operations and then
(15:50):
kind of do some marketing.
So I'm kind of in alldepartments of Limitless.
But when it comes to this event, this is my passion and I can
really put my heart and soulinto it and it's really good
just to see all of the membersthere.
I mean, we've grown, dylan.
How many members have we addedon this year so far?
Dylan McCabe (16:07):
I think we've added about 250 companies this
year so far.
Jenna Lawson (16:11):
Yeah, and that's insane because when I first
started I was doing the membercheck-ins, I was calling, but it
was not this much, and rightnow we're pushing 530 companies
and we, you know, want to seeeveryone there at this event.
So it's just very, veryrewarding to see just the
progress that we've made in thelast year.
And this event is just kind oflike a it's a, it's a spank.
(16:34):
I mean, we're bringingeverybody together and we're
showing everyone what Limitlessis.
And it's not just Limitlessmembers.
We're opening up to roofingcompany owners in general with
the goal of, you know, teachingthem about Limitless and how we
can help you.
And with the sponsors.
You know we have the threehours of dedicated sponsor time,
which is a huge deal becausewe're limiting it to 300 owners.
(16:55):
So there's going to be so muchface-to-face time.
So I just can't wait to see theimpact that we continue to have
, not just with the event butLimitless in general.
Ty Cobb Backer (17:10):
No, I love that.
Jenna Lawson (17:11):
I love that.
How are you helping attendeesmaximize their experience,
especially with the sponsors andthe networking time?
Yeah, so I mean, you know, withwith events, you normally have
speakers going on at the sametime as the sponsor hour.
Everything's going to be in oneroom, so it's going to be.
You know, we'll have breaks,the hot seats, round table
discussions, but reallymaximizing the time, you know,
(17:32):
three hours with 300 attendeesis, I think, amazing, because
you know, if you're at a largescale conference, you have, you
know, big name speakers going onthe same time.
The expo floor is open.
There's just not much impactwith that and that's why, you
know, conferences are so manydays.
But with this summit, I meanit's all right there and I mean
you're destined to have at leastone good conversation, but it's
going to be way more.
But yeah, I mean I think thatthat's why we're different,
(17:55):
because we're really trying tothink of it from all the sides,
not just with the attendeeexperience, sponsor experience,
it's just everybody comingtogether as a whole and when
they're not having the sponsortime, they're learning from the
other owners.
That's really our main goal.
So SRS they're our main stagesponsor and great speaker, john
DeRosa.
(18:16):
He's the director of contractortraining.
He's going to be talking aboutsales accountability, and
Dylan's going to be talkingabout leadership, and then
Jason's going to be talkingabout how he built his roofing
company.
So I think you know all areasof that.
They can walk away withsomething and we'll be
finalizing our fourth speaker,but I think that you know we're
different in that way becausewe're thinking about it from all
(18:36):
sides of the angle, and thenyou know, with that time that
we're dedicating to specificallynetworking.
Ty Cobb Backer (18:43):
Now, I love that .
I love that because that was mynext question I was going to
ask you is one how did you, howdid you elect or select your,
your sponsors, and why did youspecifically choose those
sponsors to attend or sponsorthe event?
Jenna Lawson (19:02):
Yeah.
So last year we had a littleover 20, I believe, and you know
just the timing.
Last year we had to sign somecontracts with the Chiefs and
that took a little while, so wecouldn't actually promote the
event until a lot later than weplanned on.
So the attendance you know wehad the whole stadium.
You know we could have added onas many people, but with the
number of sponsors being alittle over 20 this year, we
were like let's limit it to 15.
(19:23):
We're going to only invitelimitless partners there to show
our appreciation for them beinga limitless partner.
So we really hand selected.
You know we have the PlatinumPartners SRS, qxo, atlas, tamco,
van Voxel.
We really were like, hey, let'stell them first and then we
went from there.
But we were very, veryselective on um, you know
(19:45):
wanting this only for limitlesspartners.
Just because 15 sponsors, 300attendees, I feel like that's
the perfect balance.
I feel like anything more wouldbe, you know, less face-to-face
time.
Ty Cobb Backer (19:55):
Yeah, no, no I.
And the reason why I asked youthat question, jenna, especially
because I know you've beendoing this a long time and your
experience for hosting eventsand things like that.
So I've watched you hone yourcraft over the years of becoming
like this amazing eventorganizer, and I've actually
reached out to you before, withDylan's Grace, of course, to
(20:19):
help us facilitate, which I hadto put on the back burner
because it is such a heavy liftto do something like this and to
have the bandwidth to do it.
So kudos to you.
But I asked you that questionabout the sponsors and the
speakers because I knew you'regoing to be very specific about
who's there and the message thatyou want to relay to the
contractors that are there, andI really dig that it's for CEOs
(20:41):
and owners only, because there'snot enough of that stuff.
And I think I mentioned thatthe last time you guys were on
the podcast and we were talkingabout the Kansas City trip.
And this question's to Dylanwhat kind of mindset shift do
you think owners need to make in2025 to thrive?
Dylan McCabe (20:58):
Well, and I think, something to point out too,
just before we move on, is youasked about Jenna's role?
In the event.
I mean no, Jenna, no event.
Let me put it that way.
No Jenna, no event.
So this event is happeningbecause of the work of Jenna.
I mean, we have ideas.
Miller and I are not eventplanners.
(21:18):
Jenna's a rock star.
But the other thing is it's forowners only.
So every other conference outthere is full of, you know,
salespeople and different people, so the vendors.
When people come by the boothto get swag, it's like am I
talking to the owner or not?
At our event, yes, a hundredpercent of the time.
But also I want owners sittingnext to owners at the tables and
(21:39):
talking to one another.
I think, for me personally, whatdoes a roofing owner need to do
to thrive?
Was that the question?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think they need to get theirpriorities straight, and so
that's what I plan on talkingabout, you know and I can speak
to the men in the in the crowdspecifically is you know, men
(22:00):
are prone to giving their theirhearts and their efforts and
their energy and their focus toothers, and men have affairs
with their spouses.
But I think business can becomean affair.
So I'm going to be talking aboutwhen business becomes an affair
, protecting the ones you loveand setting priorities in your
life, like when you go home.
(22:20):
When you get home, take thisthing that's a tool, a phone,
and put it face down on yourcounter, take your smartwatch
off and go all in on your family, invest in your family.
So anyway, I don't want to givethe whole thing away, but I
think you got to get yourpriorities straight and that
that's not just family time,like that's physical health.
If you're not physicallyhealthy, how can you be 100% as
(22:44):
a leader at your job?
So physical health, your faith,your relationship with God,
your finances, all of that yougot to have those four F's
family, fitness and finances.
You got to have thosepriorities straight.
It can't be work.
You know, if you're working 80hours a week, you're on the road
to burnout man.
Ty Cobb Backer (23:03):
Yeah, no, it works for short periods and
there's a time and a place whereyou got to kick it in high gear
.
But I, I a hundred percentagree with you on working just
as hard on your family as you doyour business right as your
finances right.
You have to put the time andenergy and I've you know, I've
stumbled.
Personally, man, I've failedmiserably in that department, I
(23:25):
mean going back decades Okay.
And so I a hundred percentagree with you, because I think
I think for a lot of us, men,and I'm sure, women business
owners too, I know for a fact.
So, men and women entrepreneurs, okay, in general, I think we
think we're doing the rightthing by working 80 hours a week
to provide for our family, okay.
But, like you said, if I'm notthere, if I'm not supporting my,
(23:49):
my children, it's, it's muchmore than brand new Nike shoes.
The first day of school, it'sactually being there and putting
them on the bus.
Right, that that first day ofschool is about being there when
they get home from school.
It's about being at the studentteacher conference, it's about
being in football games, becauseyou know you were talking about
, you know, wealth and income,right?
(24:10):
Wealth means an abundance notnecessarily monetarily right.
Wealth means lots of friends, agreat network, a healthy family
, a lot of spirituality, anabundance of right, not just one
thing.
It means an abundance of a lotof things.
Right, not just fixated on workand income, like a lot of
(24:34):
people associate the word incometo monetarily getting receiving
a paycheck every week.
Income has a lot to do withyour network, your family, like
the income again rolls into thewealth of you know it could be
knowledge, but I have to put thework in to make sure I have an
abundance of all these thingsright.
(24:54):
I have to put the work in.
I have to carve enough time outwhere I can put the phone down,
spend some quality time withthe family.
A couple of weeks ago I decidedto take the family on vacation,
just the last minute thing.
Like you know what F this.
It's time for them and Iactually did a really good job
of being where my feet were andnot stressing over because there
wasn't anything stress over,and I'm guilty of that.
(25:16):
I'll stress when there'snothing to stress over, because
there's nothing to stress over,like down to the stupidest
things.
Right, but I was in.
It's a skill, which is cool.
It's great that it's a skillbecause it's something I
actually can work on and getbetter at right Spending more
quality time with my kidsindividually not just collect,
not collective, but individuallyspending time.
If you have multiple kids,certain kids need certain things
(25:38):
.
Not all kids are made createdequally right, and finding that
out and all these things likethat's all a part of being an
entrepreneur.
Right, just like yourco-workers that you work with.
Not each co-worker is builtdifferently, but all of the time
and energy that I've came inI've put in to study the people
that I work with.
I need to put in the sameamount of time and study my
(25:58):
family too, and spend enoughtime with my family.
But not just that.
You know I read this book.
It's called just the one, Ican't remember the name of it.
But when you're at work, work.
When you're at home, be at home.
Right, and and eat more.
The one thing that you'refixating more on.
The other thing is going tosuffer.
So when you're at home, be athome.
When you're at work, be at work.
(26:20):
But I love that.
What is one thing, dylan, thatyou wish you would have learned
earlier?
You know getting into this.
Like I know, you came from adifferent industry, but it was
all kind of sort of you know,you've kind of spun it into the
roofing industry.
What is one thing that youwished?
And on this topic right of whatI'm saying like I'm a piss poor
(26:40):
father at times, but what I'msaying like I'm a piss poor
father at times OK, and I'mworking on that what is one
thing that you wished you wouldhave learned outside of spending
more time with your family andspirituality and all those
things.
Dylan McCabe (26:54):
Yeah, I think, just boundaries in general.
I mean, there's a book calledBoundaries written on this
subject.
But I, you know, before gettinginto roofing I was in health
care.
Before that, I was an apartmentmanager when I I moved to
Dallas to get a master's degreein theology and I managed the
single students building oncampus at Dallas Seminary and so
there were about 400 residentswho all knew me by name, had my
(27:16):
phone number, had my email, soit's almost like having 400
employees and I didn't have anyoffice hours posted in my office
.
I didn't have any rules orstructure.
It was like, hey, I'm here ifyou need me.
So from 6am till 12 at night, Iwas getting people would stop
me in the hallway, people wouldstop me on campus, people would
(27:36):
text me while I'm at the grocerystore, and it was.
You know, hey, dylan, you got aminute and I called it death by
God of minutes and I juststarted cruising toward burnout
man because there's zerodowntime.
I mean zero when 400 peopleknow you by name and they want
to ask you a question aboutwhere to get books for a certain
class, or their toilets cloggedor what it's.
(27:57):
Just it was crazy.
And so I'm like at my wits endand I talked to the apartment
manager of the married couplesbuilding across the street and
I'm like, andrew, how do you dothis?
Man?
You've got twice the amount ofresidents I do.
And like you're taking a fullworkload and you got a full time
job and you got a family, youhave three kids.
(28:17):
And like what do you?
How is this possible?
And he's like, well, do youhave office hours?
And I'm like, well, yeah, I'min my office all the time.
(28:37):
And he's like no, no, no, no.
Do you have office hours postedon your window?
And have you communicated thosehours to the building?
And I'm like, well, no, thistime, like Monday, wednesday,
friday or whatever, I'm here foryou.
You can drop in, you can textme, you can call me or whatever
outside of this time, shoot mean email and I'll get to it the
next day.
And if it's an emergency, like atrue emergency, like your
(28:59):
apartment's on fire, you cancall me and call 911 right after
that.
And then he said, said, andthen you're going to take the
next 90 days and you're going totrain every single resident in
the building on this structureyou just set and I did, man, I
had to over and over and over,like hundreds of times, people
stop me.
Hey, dylan, real quick, you gota minute and I'll be like hey,
(29:20):
is this about the building I'm?
This is outside of my officehours.
Yeah, I just have a.
Have a quick question?
All right, cool, is it anemergency?
No, all right, shoot me anemail, I'll get to it tomorrow
morning.
I'll be back in my officetomorrow at 8 AM and it puzzled
people.
People were like, oh, okay, butwhat they don't realize is a
hundred of those 10 minuteconversations.
It just completely derails yourlife.
(29:40):
So I wish I'd learned thoseboundaries your life.
So I wish I'd learned thoseboundaries and then I was able
to do my job better, enjoy myjob more, have downtime and that
applies to any business.
Just boundaries, man, you gotto have boundaries and that's
that goes with your time, itgoes with relationships, you
know, yeah, boundaries.
Ty Cobb Backer (30:01):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And what I've noticed, too, isthat it's our fault.
We condition people, you know,to be easily accessible to them
and wonder why we don't haveenough time on our our, our
hands to even perform our jobs,let alone because we're dying
from got a minute disease.
I love how.
I love that I'm going to steal.
How did you call it?
(30:21):
What did you call that?
Got a minute.
Dylan McCabe (30:23):
Death by God a minutes.
Ty Cobb Backer (30:24):
Yeah, death by God, a minutes.
I love that, I'm going to stealthat.
But I've noticed where I'vemade myself too readily
available for people and haveconditioned them because I don't
want to let them down.
I want to be the man on, youknow, just Johnny, on the spot
for everybody, and you possiblycan't do that.
And I love how you said andframed it as a boundary, like
(30:47):
there's there's boundaries, andboundaries isn't necessarily a
negative thing, it's just yourcondition.
You're going to have to gothrough reconditioning people of
like yeah, you normally respondwithin an hour if I email him,
right, and once you startconditioning people because we
have a service department thatyou know I've I've, like, love
(31:07):
servicing the crap out of peopleand that's why we've we've
created an in-house servicedepartment and I've seen our
service managers go through thesame exact thing that you're
mentioning.
I've seen the guys that cause.
I see the emails and I see thephone calls, I see the text
messages and you'll see whereBrandon okay, brandon is one of
our service managers forPennsylvania and he, right from
(31:29):
the get-go, he's conditionedpeople that if it's an emergency
they'll call him, if it's notan emergency, they'll email them
and they all know that they maynot hear from him for that day,
but at 530 in the morning hereplies back to every single one
of them with a solution andwhat time he'll be there to
service them.
And then I've seen otherservice managers that are just
(31:51):
getting the shit kicked out ofthem because now they've
conditioned people so if theydon't answer the phone in 2.3
seconds that client is upsetbecause he's conditioned them to
answer the phone every timehe's called there.
But if you start out right ortry to recondition them, just be
consistent with it would be myonly suggestion.
Like, just be consistent oflike replying back to the emails
(32:12):
, don't ghost people, not sayingthat you've done that, but I've
, I've.
I'm guilty of trying torecondition people but then go
from one extreme, from Johnny onthe spot to like just
completely ghosting people andtrying to find that happy medium
and being consistent, so thatway people know when they can
rely on me and when I'll bethere and when I'll respond to
them.
Dylan McCabe (32:34):
But I mean we all have boundaries.
I mean there's certain thingsyou're willing to do and certain
things you're not willing to doin certain times or
circumstances.
But I think people need towrite a few boundaries down on
paper, and I mean it goes withkids too.
If I'm in the middle, if I comehome from work, it's one of my
boundaries as well.
One of the things I protect isI'm home at five 30.
Every night we have dinnertogether as a family.
(32:55):
We go one by one and we ask ourdaughters was there any
challenges you faced today?
And then, what were thehighlights of your day?
And that fills up our dinnertime.
And I've got a 10 year old, aneight year old and five year old
.
And it's so funny the differentanswers.
You know the five year old willtalk about some funny thing.
It's just hilarious.
But I protect that, thatboundary.
(33:17):
But if I'm home and I'm talkingto my wife, I haven't seen her
all day.
If I ask her how she's doing,is there anything she wants to
tell me before we get intodinner?
And one of the girls comes upand is like dad, dad, it's like,
hold on, don't interrupt yourmom.
Your mom's sharing something.
Just just wait a minute.
That's a boundary, likeeverything's not immediate, it's
not an emergency, we're not inthe Navy seals, you can wait
(33:38):
Right.
So I mean we all boundarieswith ourselves.
It's okay to say no to yourself.
You know, there's times where Iwant a big giant bowl of ice
cream on a Tuesday night and abag of popcorn as I'm watching
band of brothers.
But I've got some fitness goals.
I'd really like to get down to12% body fat.
So which one am I going to sayyes to and which one I want to
(34:00):
say yes to the 12% body fat?
No to the giant bowl of icecream.
Most of the time I get thatright.
Ty Cobb Backer (34:08):
And that's that's such a good segue into
taking care of yourself so youcan take care of everything else
too.
You know, trying to find thatbalance and and and the
importance of you know Vic Vichad mentioned in in a comment
here where it's just as equallyimportant for those of us that
aren't owners.
Okay, and where I'm going withthat is is like, okay, so us
(34:29):
owners and CEOs can can attendthese events, so then we can
bring back this energy Right,and it only, it only improves
the quality of our businessesfrom the quality of content that
we're going to receive at anevent like this, like it ripples
down.
But also, most importantly too,is us taking care of us as
business owners, as fathers, asparents, as coworkers, whatever.
(34:50):
It all starts with the personaldevelopment.
Like watching my weight, I needto be down to 12%.
Well, it might sound selfishthat I need to take care of
myself before I can take care ofyou, but the bottom line is
it's no different from thatanalogy of like when you're on
an airplane care of you, but thebottom line is it's no
different from that analogy oflike when you're on an airplane,
airplanes crash and put yourair mask on first, then put your
, put your you know yourpartner's mask on.
Second.
It's because that way I canstill function, protect, take
(35:13):
care of.
And if I'm not taking care ofmyself, that is probably the
most selfish thing that we couldpotentially do to the ones that
we love.
If we're not taking care ofourselves and we are not here
today because we're not takingcare of ourselves and we die,
our health fails we won't behere to take care of our
children, our children'schildren.
Right now I'm experiencing someof that, not due to health
(35:36):
issues, but I have grandchildrentoday.
I have three children, threegrandchildren, three dogs, three
cats that rely on me and abeautiful wife at home.
And if I'm not taking care ofmyself mentally, physically and
spiritually, bro, I'm no good tonobody.
So that's where it all starts.
Dylan McCabe (35:53):
So, true man, my grandfather had his first heart
attack at 35 years old.
So you know, I mean you got totake care of yourself.
You don't know how long it'sgoing to last man.
And that goes back to the workan 80 hour a week thing and
neglecting your wife and yourfamily, your loved ones.
It's like, well you know whatif you do that and then in five
(36:15):
years you pass away.
If you could rewind and do itagain, I think you would work
less.
Nobody's ever going to go andget to heaven and go, man.
I wish I would have worked more.
Nobody's ever going to go andget to heaven and go, man.
I wish I would have worked more.
They're going to say I wish Iwould have had, you know, more
time with my loved ones.
I wish I would have grabbedthat bowl of ice cream with my
child or gone on a littleone-on-one walk or stop to smell
the roses or whatever.
(36:35):
But yeah, health is a big thing,especially to Miller and I, man
.
I mean we're talking about itevery day and I get blood work
done every six months about itevery day and I get blood work
done every six months.
I'm looking at my cholesterol,blood pressure, all the markers,
testosterone, estrogen,everything in between, because
it needs to be in balance.
I mean you, you should feelgreat.
(36:55):
There's no reason why youshouldn't feel great, I mean,
unless you're dealing with achronic disease which sucks.
You should.
Dealing with a chronic diseasewhich sucks, you should be able
to feel your best at whateverlevel you're at.
Ty Cobb Backer (37:09):
I 100% agree.
Now, jenna, I know you've beenin the personal development
space for a long time.
What are some areas that you'veslacked on and what you're
working on currently, right now?
That's a very good question.
Jenna Lawson (37:20):
I want to put you on the spot.
Sorry, I know that's a verygood question.
I want to put you on the spot,sorry, I know right, like I
should have journaled about thisbefore, I feel like just doing
what you don't want to do,that's going to sound so cliche,
but there's a lot of thingsthat I don't want to be doing.
That's not with work in general, but just sometimes.
(37:44):
I just don't want to do it andI I, you know push it off.
I push it off and then it justmakes it even worse when I
finally get doing it.
And you know, with work kind of.
You know, I started out as onething and I kind of slowly
transitioned to doing a littlebit of this, a little bit of
this, and thank God I'm good attime management.
(38:07):
But I think, by doing that andreally just doing what I need to
do on the spot, knowing thatmaybe I don't want to do it, I
have to do it right then andthere, because my energy is
going to keep going into thingsthat are easy to me and it's
just a routine.
But it's that thing that Idon't want to do, that I need to
do most, because once I do thatthing, it's going to be worked
into that routine and that's howa routine is built is by doing
something you're not necessarilywant to be doing, but, um, you
(38:30):
know it's going to have alasting effect.
So I think that that I've justowning owning your stuff and
just building something out ofthat, if that makes sense.
Um, yeah, I think that's whatI'm.
I'm still struggling with it,but I finally realized the
importance of just doing it,just doing what you don't want
to do.
Ty Cobb Backer (38:49):
Yeah, yeah.
No, procrastination is a killerof a lot of things.
So now I get that I'm ahorrible procrastinator and I'm
the same as you.
If I don't do it right now,it'll probably get put on the
back burner, like when you askedme for a logo yesterday, I was
like, oh shit, I was in themiddle of something when I
(39:10):
should have did it, like there.
And then knowing myself that ifI don't do this now, I probably
won't because I'll forget notbecause I don't want to, but
then laying in bed reviewingthat list of things that I
should have did, and now I gotto do it tomorrow and that's.
That's just one of those lessonsthat I think there's ebbs and
flows with that too.
You're just more they are tosomebody else, and I found that
(39:30):
to be my inbox and my emailthing.
That seems to be everybodyelse's problem.
That's why I filter a lot ofshit out and I got finally an
assistant, probably about a yearago, to help me filter and make
me a better, you know, humanbeing in general.
It's like I submitted like,okay, I need a, I need an
assistant, you know which whereI thought I could handle
everything and and it was justtoo much and I think one of the
(39:52):
biggest things I've all, I'vealways bit off more than I could
chew, it doesn't matter withthe amount of work or over
promising and under delivering,like, and I just I think for me,
I just got sick and tired ofletting you know people down,
situations down and not beingreadily available when I need to
be, especially for my family,and things like that.
But I really wanted to hear yourtake on it because you've I
(40:14):
know you're kind of in, you know, a different scenario and your
mindset might be a littledifferent right now.
And I know your focuses aredifferent right now because you
don't have, like you have a mom,amazing mother, but it's not
like you have children at homeand all those things.
And right now I know, and Ithink we've had this
conversation where you'refocused on your career right now
(40:35):
and have had, you know, thatopportunity to do that when and
you know, I'm kind of envious ofthat because, like I had a kid
at a very young age, like mypriorities, like were made for
me a lot of well due to some ofmy poor decision-making, but not
having children I wasn't a poorthing cause, because I love my
(40:56):
children today, um, and I didthat, but I feel like I'm
sticking my foot in my mouthright now, um, but you like
surround yourself around reallyawesome people.
I've watched your journey, I'veknown you for a couple years
now and and I am envious of theposition that you've put
yourself and you've been verystrategic and and your your
tactics on learning and workingyourself up I guess the
(41:16):
corporate ladder type of thingand your experiences and stuff.
So, as someone in your position,give us some knowledge of
somebody who is in your position, like, what would you have done
differently?
Okay, knowing what you know now, going back five years ago,
(41:40):
like would you have wanted to goto school?
Like, spend more time and like,like, give us, give us some
good stuff here.
Jenna Lawson (41:48):
I know I'm trying to rewind my life in the last
five years because it's been a.
It's been a journey.
Um, trying to rewind my life inthe last five years because
it's been a it's been a journey.
Um, I'll focus on what I did doand what after that go to what
I should have done.
So you know, I went to college,got a degree in communications.
I did internships.
I kind of I chose I need no, Ineed needed to pave the way, um,
(42:09):
in college, and that's what Idid.
I made sure I had an internshipevery semester.
I had no idea what I wanted todo.
I knew, you know, it's going tobe something in communications
and that's such a broad, broadtopic.
But I kind of did an internship, got my way in corporate
communications, marketing,social media, and then I
graduated and then I was like,ok, what now?
(42:29):
I mean, I have all of thisunder my belt, but what now?
So I started doing social mediafor an insurance brokerage and
then I started working forroofingcom after that.
So kind of everything started,you know, everything kind of
lined out the way that I wantedit to or the way I envisioned
and I had.
You know, I got a job doingsomething relevant to my degree.
(42:50):
So that way you know I had it.
But I definitely, you know, thatcareer mindset.
You know I try to.
You know with many lifechallenges I've gone through in
the last five years but Idefinitely wanted to focus on my
career more than anything and Ithink that that has been a
positive.
You know it's gotten me here.
But you know I took the risk ofbranching out of the roofing
(43:14):
industry and I started workingfor a company for six months and
that was work, work, work.
I mean no time for anything.
We couldn't even take a breakduring the nine hour workday,
930 to 630.
If you left at 630, you werelooked down, looked down upon
and it's like if you took alunch break.
No, it was pretty much likeyou're here to work, we don't
(43:35):
care about your personal life.
And so that was definitely.
It shaped my perspective ofwhat I do want in a position,
and you know, with Limitless Iwork remote.
I have everything that is goingto better me in the long run.
But going back to what I shouldhave done I know that went off
(43:55):
topic, but going back to what Ishould have done I should have
thought more about the.
You know where I was right thenand there I was too focused on
the long-term of things, but Iwas not where my feet were.
I was like, what is the nextbig thing?
What should I work towards?
I was always thinking abouttomorrow.
I was always thinking aboutnext week.
How can I?
(44:16):
I don't know, how can I bebetter?
And that's a good thing.
I was just so focused on thatthat I really started to neglect
people in my life.
That, you know, in that moment,or what I wanted to be doing.
You know, acting has alwaysbeen a passion of mine, but I
kind of put that off to the sidebecause I was so focused on
this one thing.
But I think that focusing onthe many things that life has to
(44:38):
offer and not just focusing onthat one thing, that and I know
that that was a long, long spiel, but if you know me, I love to
tell stories no, no, no.
Ty Cobb Backer (44:47):
I loved it and I really wanted to hear that
because, like I said, I'm kindof envious of the your, your
journey thus far because of thelack of baggage.
Now, I'm sure I know you havebaggage, but you know the, the
freedom I guess, the little morefreedom that I felt, I feel
like that you may have had.
But, man, I wish, I really wishI would have been as smart as
(45:07):
you are.
I mean you, you are just, youknow, you are an amazing person.
I'll just leave it at that, Um,but, but kudos to you and and,
uh, I I'd say if I got anythingout of that would be, if
anyone's listening, that mightbe around the age that Jenna's
in and can have.
The trajectory that that she'sbeen on is to keep keep an open
(45:28):
mind and don't be so fixated ona long-term goal, but create and
galvanize relationships, whichI know you have, but be where
your feet are, like you said,and enjoy the moment and learn
as much as you can and apply itto something later on in life,
whether it be another career orat the current career that
you're at now.
So I love that.
So thank you, Thank you forsharing that with us.
(45:50):
And dylan, what?
Where do you see the future oflimitless group and and then the
summit?
So give us, give us.
Where do you see the future ofthe of the group going?
Dylan McCabe (46:02):
and then, if you have any other future, bigger
picture plans for the summit Ithink the big vision for the
limitless roofing group, a GPOas a group purchasing
organization, is to become themost influential buying group in
roofing in the industry.
So I mean we essentially wesave roofers money, we come
together as one big group and wesave on everything from
(46:22):
shingles to general liabilityinsurance, you name it.
But if we get big enough, likeright now I think Jenna
mentioned we're about 530companies If we get big enough
like thousands of companies inour group, we will have serious
leverage on things likemanufacturer relationships,
supplier relationships, thingslike healthcare insurance where
(46:44):
you can get captive plans if youhave thousands of companies in
a group, stuff like that.
So that's it.
We want to become the mostinfluential buying group in
roofing, to where our companieshave benefits because the group
is stronger together.
You know we come together.
We're way stronger together.
And with the summit I meangoing back to the way we've
(47:06):
designed it.
It's meant to be a life-changingevent for owners.
Only it's a one-day event inthe Dallas area.
To be a life-changing event forowners.
Only it's a one-day event inthe Dallas area.
It's specifically in FlowerMound, texas, at Circle R Ranch.
There's a welcome mixture thenight before, all-day event the
next day and then a VIP dinnerthat night.
It's weighted heavily towardinteraction with other owners.
There are a few speakers, butit's weighted heavily toward
(47:29):
downtime and interaction withvendors and with other owners
and that vision will neverchange with our event.
It'll always be a small,impactful, you know environment
where you connect with otherowners.
Ty Cobb Backer (47:43):
No, I love that.
I love that Is there.
Is there anything that eitherone of you want to?
We're getting close to our onehour mark here.
Is there anything that you guyswant to add that we may not
have covered about the event, orsomething personally that you
want to share a nugget withanybody and with any of our
viewers or listeners?
Dylan McCabe (48:04):
Jen, I'll let you share any details on the event
that I missed.
Jenna Lawson (48:08):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean the schedule.
We kind of went over all ofthat Speakers, hot seats, hot
seats discussing challenges.
You know you're vulnerable onstage, you're vulnerable around
the room, but that's just.
You know.
What did you do to get out ofthat topic?
(48:34):
I feel like that was very, veryeffective last year.
You know this year we'rewanting to do the same thing,
but you know we're every yearwe're going to level up and so
super excited to just introducethat again the round tables and
the hot seats and really justyou know the exclusive giveaways
that we're having.
You know, with Limitless there'sexclusive deals offered to
members.
So the members are comingtogether and talking to our
partners and these are exclusivedeals that they would be able
(48:56):
to get on their own.
So the hope is to have thenon-members become members to
essentially get those deals.
So the impact is there and ifyou're an owner in Texas
especially, definitely this isnot a pricey event we would love
to have you there.
I think we're going to offer a20% code on this.
So we would love to have owners, decision makers, there, just
(49:20):
to learn from each other.
And even if you don't want tobecome a member of Limitless,
totally fine, You're going tohave impact regardless.
Ty Cobb Backer (49:26):
Right on.
I love that.
I love that.
Jenna Lawson (49:34):
If somebody wanted to sign up for the group,
what's the easiest way or whoshould they call or contact?
I would visit our website toLimitlessRoofingGroupcom to
become a member.
So it's a free group, it's ano-cost membership.
You fill out the first form andthen it takes literally around
five minutes and then, of course, if you don't finish it, we can
give you a call.
We can walk through it on thephone, but it's really just
getting some businessinformation from you, telling
(49:55):
you about our rebate programsand then getting you set up and
ready to save money, and thenyou can learn more about the
event and see the schedule indetail and all of that on the
summit part of our website.
Ty Cobb Backer (50:04):
I love it.
I love it.
Dylan.
You want to add anything tothat?
Dylan McCabe (50:14):
No, just we hope to see you there.
It's limited to 300 owners.
So, um, I would encouragepeople, roofers, all of us we
put it off till the last minutewith stuff like this, but I
would encourage you to buy ittoo.
What is it?
200 for general admission no,it's.
It's 99 for general admissionand we can get 20 off yeah, so
it's 99 bucks of a 24-hour event, I think it's.
Uh.
The roi is going to bephenomenal as long as you show
up and as long as you'reintentional to connect with one
(50:35):
or two other owners, but we'vegot it limited to 300 seats, so
look forward to seeing you guysthere.
Ty Cobb Backer (50:41):
Wow, wow, great man, I love what you guys are
doing.
Thank you so much for you know,coming on the show, making the
industry a better place thanwhere it was when you guys found
it, and thank you for everybodyfor joining us.
And if you got anything out ofthis, please, like love, share
it to somebody that you maythink might get something out of
it.
With that, big thanks to JennaLawson and Dylan McCabe for
(51:07):
joining us today.
If you're an owner or a GM in aroofing world, don't miss the
Limitless Roofing Summit October15th at the Circle R Ranch in
Flower Mound, texas, with awelcome mixer the night before.
Grab your tickets atlimitlessroofinggroupcom.
Slash limitless summit roofingsummit and use code limitless20
to get a 20% off.
This is your chance to connect,learn and walk away with real
(51:30):
strategies to grow your business.
Thanks for tuning in to Beyondthe Tool Belt.
We will see you next time.
Dylan McCabe (51:36):
Thanks, Ty You're welcome.
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