CEO's You Should Know: Kevin Meany 9Rooftops

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to CEOs. You should knowtoday we have a very special guest,
Kevin meaning good to meet you,sir, Great to meet you, good
to be here. Congratulations on nineRooftops. We have to start there because
you know, you meet somebody who'sthe CEO of a company called nine Rooftops,
you're like, what is this?Is he roof or what's he doing?
No? Roots, Well, wedo cover a lot of territory.
Nine Rooftops actually is a merger ofeight different was it separate entities or separate

(00:25):
locations that you were working with them? A man? Separate entities three actually
separate businesses that we merged during COVIDof all things, Well, you mentioned
during COVID, because we certainly reshapedthe way we work as Americans during COVID
with the introduction of teams and zoomsand all the other opportunities. We had
to work from different locations. Well, when you merged three companies and you

(00:47):
can't suddenly travel to each office,of which there were nine different locations,
it presented some challenges that you mightimagine. And we mentioned nine different locations
is almost like one of those questionswhich one of these things don't Belongsburg,
Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, NewYork, Birmingham, Baltimore, Miami,
Bluffton, South Carolina. We tradedBoston recently for London. Yes, but

(01:10):
of those things that don't belong,I'm finding out by reading a little bit
about you that Bluffton may have actuallybeen the reason why you've been able to
put together these different entities under ninerooftops and expand the way that you have.
It's been a great location to beheadquartered in, easy to get in
and out of. But just beingin South Carolina has really made it easy,

(01:33):
easier than I thought it would beonly first moved here twenty five years
ago. You're the only person thatI know who actually has a clinical psychology
degree. I don't know if you'reanalyzing me right now. I'm close to
figuring you. Okay, I won'ttake there. I'm getting there. It
won't take long. The thing thatyou do, and it is a coin
phrase that you live by, isthat creativity is intelligence having fun, which

(01:56):
brings us to the purpose and themission statement of nine. Let's talk about
specifically about what your company does.Well, we're a full service marketing company,
but it's really today what that meansis we have a range of services
we provide, but most important isan insight or looking forward as we're looking
at a brand, taking data,doing the analytics, maybe applying data science,

(02:21):
that deep understanding of consumers, andthen solving a problem for a brand,
how do we sell more? Howdo we raise awareness? How do
we roll out a new product?You name it well? And this is
where your psychology degree is certainly goingto come into play. It certainly did.
It's pretty amazing the parallels between marketingand certainly strategy and database science and

(02:45):
understanding consumers and clinical psychology. Oh, that was not my plan when I
originally stepped into marketing. I justhappened to experience a marketing course when I
was in a PhD program for psychology. And here I am from any of
us inside a typical advertising business broadcastin particular, we may have gone to

(03:06):
Jay School. Looking back on itnow, I'm like, I wish i'd
think you more psychology and sociology studies, because that really would help me more
than And in your case, Iunderstand you do not have a management degree.
You weren't a business student in college. No, you're you're actually speaking
to someone who in high school wasmediocre at best, was told they probably

(03:28):
shouldn't go to college due to theirfather being such a good man. Somehow,
some way, I ended up doinga four year degree and about midway
through college discovered psychology and went froma C minor student to a straight A
student in the last two years.So says something about, yeah, if
it's of interest and we get engaged, we can perform really well. That's

(03:52):
where you found your natural bend.Where did you go to college? Alfred
University, Upstate New York, smallprivate school, but it was probably the
best place for me. You know. It was very cold in winters and
you had to spend time in thelibrary as there were three feet of snow
outside. You know, it's interestingin the state of South Carolina. Usually
if you live close to a collegecampus, you'll meet people who have lived

(04:15):
in lots of different places, bornand raised in California or in New York.
But usually when you get outside ofthat, most of our smaller communities.
Blufton's a little bit different because youhave a lot of people that come
there specifically because it's so beautiful,but you have an interesting resident track behind
you as well. California. Didmost of high school in California, obviously
did not go there alone. Wasthe family, and before that a little

(04:39):
bit of time in Mexico, andbefore that born on Long Island, New
York. Also my family. WhenI was in college, they moved to
Minneapolis, so did my fair shareof ice fishing. But now I live
in God's Country, right, I'ma big fisherman. I've never wanted to
go ice fishing. With the newwork environment that was brought on by COVID,

(05:00):
we're doing a lot of remote work, and then with your connections in
marketing, you really had kind ofa collision of a lot of great ideas
that came together, including how tomake nine rooftops one entity, bringing in
some people that you had worked withobviously before. Yeah, well it certainly
was a challenge. You know,we identified the opportunity for a merger bringing
one firm into Hours, which wasvery heavy in analytics and data. Research

(05:26):
company that I was running at thattime was really centered around creativity and commercial
production and content, and the othercompany had done a more regional work and
actually had developed a number of healthcarecampaigns for regional hospitals. Bringing them together
resulted in a much more powerful andmuch i'll say stronger company because the creativity

(05:54):
and the data science and the deepunderstanding of consumers worked very well. And
we have since formed a healthcare marketingdivision which is doing very well, focused
primarily on marketing providers. So asan advertising agency, there's a lot of
different things they have to come together. This is where you truly bring the
left brain and the right brain together, because you have to have a strategy,

(06:15):
as you mentioned, for the dataand the results that you've studied on
how to place the ads or radio, television, streaming or otherwise. But
you also have to have the creativityside and understanding bluffing. You've expanded that
to have a commercial facility for televisionand or other av production. When you
bring those two sides together, theright brain and the left brain, and
you're using the analytics and the creativityof it all, that's where the magic

(06:39):
comes together. That is where themagic comes together. And that's where when
COVID hit it became a real challengebecause suddenly we're not together. We are
all separate and apart. And it'schallenging enough when you have multiple locations,
but then when you have a locationas are one in Bluffin, which is
about one hundred people, and suddenlythey're now talking the halls or meeting at

(07:00):
the water cooler, or grabbing aquick lunch or just hanging out. Coming
up with ideas became a real challenge, but we did it. I still
when I look back on it,sometimes I think maybe COVID actually helped us
merge. It put a different typeof pressure on us and really caused us
to have to sort of scramble andfigure out, Oh my god, I

(07:24):
don't even know who these people arein Pittsburgh. Right, Sure, we'll
do video, whatever it takes.Let's try. Well, given out,
you brought it together intelligence having fun. That's the creativity. You have the
nuts and bolts and the analytics andthe ability to make sure that we are
reaching the right persons by using theavailable audio and television streams, and you've
got the creativity side, which isalways nuts and fun to hang out with.

(07:46):
By the way, you've probably seena lot of their work on television
because you've worked with incredibly large peoplefrom Microsoft to Coca Cola, the list
goes on and on, and becauseof that, you draw a lot of
attention here in South Carolina. Iunderstand you've been able to help out a
lot with our South Carolina Department ofTourism as well as the South Carolina Department
of Commerce. Let's talk a littlebit about the persons you work with in

(08:07):
the state of South Carolina. Youknow, it's fascinating. Let's say I'm
a New Yorker because that's where Ihad my first business, and I actually
the roots of nine Rooftops started thereand then I relocated to South Carolina.
And that was a very intentional move, primarily because my wife and I had
decided, Okay, we can getout of New York and be someplace near

(08:31):
the water the ocean here. Sowe presented and won a piece of business
in South Carolina, which was SouthCarolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
And for me, that was justa thrill to win a piece of
business like that. But to myamazement, I received the phone call one
week after we won that piece ofbusiness from Governor Nikki Helly. She simply

(08:56):
reached out to me to one congratulateme, and two to tell me that
she was unaware of us as abusiness growing in South Carolina and that she
is one hundred percent behind business inSouth Carolina, and if I ever need
any help or ever want to justtalk to her when I'm in Columbia give
her a call, which I didonce and I actually went to her office

(09:18):
and sat down. I've discovered thesame thing with the government mid Measter.
Very accessible, very open minded.I've heard people say it, and I've
realized it is true. This isa handshake. State you want to get
something done, you actually can sitdown with people in charge, whether it's
at the county level or at statelevel, which really helped us grow.

(09:39):
And having worked with a couple ofclients in similar situations as yourself in the
state of South Carolina, it seemslike from the Governor's office down to Harry
Litzy's office at Commerce or whichever agencyyou're talking with, they really have mapped
out their mission strategy and they reallyunderstand how they want to help CEOs.
Do you find that to be trueor am I just imagining that happens because

(10:00):
of the things I'm reading in thepaper. No, it actually happens.
Everybody seems to be much more alignedas far as what the goals are or
what type of industry they'd like tobring in, and it's all very supportive.
Our focus is growing the business andmaintaining headquarters here in this state.
The ability to hire people here,even if they're not local. Once they

(10:22):
come and they visit and they seewhether it's Hilton Head or if it's even
upstate, and they realize, wow, bald eagles flying here, it oftens
in the water. Communities are justvery warm and welcoming, so it makes
it easier to hire people. Andthere's a stickiness that comes with that.
Who wants to leave? Right We'lltalk to CEOs who are building a new

(10:46):
facility here that it has been onehundred and thirty million dollars building the Milo's
t facility here. They have alot of different people that are hiring,
could be just manufacturing types or HRmanager. Now you're a little different because,
as we talked about, this iscreedivity having fun. It's a little
different in that we really don't havea school of creativity. Do you find
it? Certainly after now being awardedone of the best workplaces in South Carolina,

(11:09):
people actually call up or email orgo to your web page and they
want to work for you because theythink it's going to be a fun place.
Do you have people that actually inthe state of South Carolina you have
hired or are there more people thatyou're bringing in. It's truly a mix.
You know, in my business youhave everything from well called a salesperson
or a person who manages business,to a data scientist to a copywriter to

(11:33):
an artist. There's plenty of talentin South Carolina. Some of the more
I say esoteric positions. If we'relooking for, you know, a well
seasoned creative director that's heavy in content. Yeah, we may be reaching outside,
you know, California or Chicago orNew York. But you know,

(11:56):
you look at the Management school atUniversity of South Carolina right here in Columbia
College at Charleston. There's just alot of talent here. And they call
it the Creative Coast. Really fromSavannah, Georgia up to Charleston. It's
really an area recognized as the CreativeCoast. Just a number of photographers and
writers and talent and creatives that arethere. It's fascinating, more encouragement for

(12:20):
citizens living in South Carolina possibly hearingabout your company for the first time.
The Governor's School provides some tremendous n'sopportunities for talent. Been a huge supporter
of that. Look at Clemson,the type of talent that come out of
these colleges, it's just amazing.I'm really excited to know that you are
very happy and blufton than most peopleare, to know that you are heading

(12:43):
up an organization that is truly aninternational organization and having an opportunity and creating
more opportunities for the state of SouthCarolina with our citizens, but at the
same time helping us promote the state. We were very fortunate when we started
working with South Carolina because when youlook at the wealth of riches here,
from the mountains to the ocean,to the golf courses, the water,

(13:07):
there's just so much to market.So as far as the client goes and
as far as building a program,it's easy. There's a lot of resources.
We're not selling a soap that's thesame as every other soap, and
it's got to be some kind ofmagic. We just need to make people
aware and package it. And it'sgreat and thank you again for helping us

(13:28):
do that, because that campaign isterrific for the Tourism Department. Thank you.
I actually wish that we were atyour house because I want to.
I don't have to drive it.I just want to arrive in the passenger
seat of your nineteen fifty five portionof speedster. Ah, I have a
soft spot for cars. Somebody askedme the other day, what do you
do in your spare time. I'mlike, I work, But work tends

(13:52):
to have a bed connotation for somepeople. Sure, for me, it's
yeah, I'm active in something toget a result, a positive result.
So that usually comes from what Ido in marketing, playing with the grandchildren
and maybe playing with their minds orplaying legos with them. And also cars,

(14:13):
there's tremendous It's almost like a timecapsule. When you look at a
nineteen fifty five, whether to Porscheor Chevrolet, it says a lot about
culture and where things were at andhow much the world has changed just sixty
years. Exactly what's happened. Yeah, and I like to tinker with them,
and I used to race a little. But those days, oh,

(14:33):
good for you, those days aremostly over, you know, certainly not
in a fifty five. I wouldn'tknow. I'd be afraid to even drive
it on the streets. Prefer airbags. Yeah. Nine Rooftops is the company.
The CEO is Kevin Mede. I'mso glad to know that you're here
in the state of South Carolina andyour company's obviously doing very well. You've
got grandkids, you've got a fiftyfive speech, You're living close enough to

(14:54):
the water to walk out and makea cast and catch some supper. You
got life by the tail. I'mexcited for you and good to meet you.
Well, thank you, and it'sgreat to be here because this is
another great town. I'm up herea lot in Colombia and just love it.