September 11, 2025 • 20 mins
What happens when you combine roofing expertise with self-taught digital marketing skills? James from 4 Square Roofing reveals the blueprint that transformed his business from struggling startup to a lead-generating powerhouse without spending a dime on marketing agencies.
After 15 years in real estate's feast-or-famine world, James discovered roofing's potential in 2015 and recognized an opportunity. Rather than joining the legions of contractors knocking on doors after storms, he spent 500+ hours building an organic SEO strategy that would generate leads while he slept. His girlfriend thought he was "losing his mind" during those early days when the phone wasn't ringing—but his foresight paid off spectacularly.
James takes us behind the scenes of his decade-long journey, sharing candid insights about maintaining work-life balance as an owner-operator who handles everything from sales to warranties. Now married and expanding to a second location, he emphasizes that success requires patience: "It took me 10 years to get where I'm at now." His refreshingly straightforward advice for contractors—"take care of your people, put good material on there, and never let the reviews slip"—cuts through the noise of complicated business strategies.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is James's willingness to share exactly how he built his digital marketing foundation. While many guard their business secrets, he regularly mentors younger roofing company owners on SEO strategies and believes in lifting others up. His approach proves that even in traditional trades, combining craftsmanship with digital savvy creates an unbeatable competitive advantage.
Whether you're a contractor looking to reduce marketing costs or an entrepreneur in any field seeking sustainable growth, this episode delivers actionable insights from someone who's built success on his own terms.
4 Square Roofing: https://4squareroofing.org/
4squarerestoration@gmail.com
Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/
All the best!
Bill
Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/
All the best!
Bill
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there and welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
I'm Bill Gilliland, your host.
I am the principal at ActionCoach, business Growth Partners,
and I've got a super greatguest today.
I am very interested in hearinghis story.
It's James from FoursquareRoofing.
But before we get to that, justremember, hey, we've got the
(00:23):
Asheville Business Summit comingup on September 23rd.
It is time to get your tickets.
We are three weeks away-ish and, as we record this, it'll be
closer by the time you hear this.
So get those tickets.
It's going to be an amazing day.
We've got nine speakers.
I mean, it's all aboutleadership, marketing,
(00:44):
management, anything to do withbuilding your business.
Coming off the heels of Helene,we're in a unique position to
be able to blast off and takeour businesses to the next level
.
So, hey, james got James fromFour Square Roofing over in
Gallatin, Tennessee.
I'm super pumped to have you onthe podcast.
So, james, tell us a little bitabout yourself and about your
(01:08):
business.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Sure, I'm happy to be here.
I would say you know, I startedlife as a real estate agent at
20 and was a licensed realestate agent around greater
Nashville, where I'm from, alicensed real estate agent
around greater Nashville, whereI'm from, for around 15 years,
and about 15 years in I foundroofing because real estate can
(01:32):
be inherently inconsistent.
I mean, it can be great and itcan be either it's feast or
famine out there, and so Iultimately found roofing back in
about like 2015 and saw theopportunities and saw how
potentially lucrative the stormrestoration, exterior
(01:52):
restoration business could beand I just kind of pursued it.
And right around the time, ofcourse, the Internet was a thing
, of course back in 2016 to 2017time period, but not nearly as
relevant.
So if you could set up onlinebusinesses back then with
various organic SEO stuff, youwould have an advantage 10 years
(02:14):
later and where we're at now.
And so my company's had, withroofing, 10 years to marinate
with the online SEO.
I built all of my stuff myselfand I think that's been a huge
advantage in my business nothaving to rely on marketing
companies and just being able toreap the benefits of what the
(02:37):
internet can bring.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, so we'll talk a little bit about marketing.
That'll be some of the stuff tohear about your learning.
So well, that's interesting.
I mean, that's a it's not a bigleap, I mean, but it is kind of
leap to go from selling realestate and brokering real estate
to going ahead and getting in atrade.
So did you just jump in rightaway and start a roofing company
(03:01):
, or did you?
What was your path?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
start a roofing company, or or did you?
Yeah, what was your path?
Yeah, definitely not.
Uh, so it wasn't that easy, uh,to just start a roofing company
.
I mean, it might seem that way,but there's a lot of, uh, years
of of learning from otherroofing company owners and, uh,
you know, which I still haverelationships with today,
they're still my, some of mybest friends um, but learning
from people that were above me,and then you finally get to a
(03:28):
point in your life to where youknow, maybe you try your own
thing, and so I didn't reallylike door knocking with roofing,
and so I figured out a way todo digital door knocking through
Organic SEO, and so that justmade it even more so the better,
because I enjoyed the craft andthe trade of roofing and how
(03:49):
lucrative it could be.
I didn't like knocking doors,and so I was able to create the
online organic SEO, which stillfunctions to this day.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, we'll talk about that more in a minute.
Well, let me just ask you so,if you had to start over, what
would you do differently?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
If I had to start over, I definitely would have
picked it's kind of hard to saybecause I have a lot of
different things that I do but Iwould have probably tried to
pick one thing and really focuson that more than multiple
(04:31):
things.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And what do you mean by that?
Like one market or one, onebusiness?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I mean I had.
So you know, there was a timewhere I was juggling real estate
and roofing.
Oh, I got you.
I had to make a decision atsome point.
Okay, I can only do one, and sothat's.
I wish I would have you know,learned that a little quicker.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Maybe jumped in on the roofing a little quicker.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I understand I got it yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, and I understand that's a great
learning Because I mean mostpeople, a lot of people, when
they go into business, theystill have a job because you
want that paycheck, so I lovethat.
So what have been some of yourbiggest learnings as an owner?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
and an employer since you started.
You have to treat your peoplereally good, that you care for
your inner circle of people thathelp you.
You have to take really goodcare of your people and have
good people around you.
That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So get good people and take care of them Pretty
much.
I love it.
I love it.
So what are some of the commonmisconceptions about running a
business and how do you addressthem?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's definitely not easy.
I don't know if some peoplenowadays think it.
I mean, it took me 10 years toeven get to where I'm at now,
and so I would definitely notsay that's overnight.
So I mean, if you want to be anentrepreneur and not to say it
can't happen for people faster,it certainly does, but be
prepared to be patient.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I like it.
Yeah, I mean.
What's the saying?
An overnight success usuallytakes about 15 years.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I've heard that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
Yeah, best, yeah, wow.
So let's talk about that alittle bit.
So how did you learn that?
I mean, what, what, what wasyour?
I mean, just get in there andmess around and take some
classes, what'd you do?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
no, there was no real classes on it when I learned it
.
I mean, there was videos andthings like that and content
online that you could read andthat's that's basically.
Um, there was just a filter ofinformation that made sense.
As far as citations, backlinks,keywords, things like that, and
in roofing it's not overly hardbecause it's roofing roof
(06:52):
repair, roof replacement, newroof installation, your service
area cities which would be like30 miles local to your office, I
would think you know you justwork those keywords with
citations and over time andhonestly, I was afraid that AI
was going to potentially destroywhat I've created with the
(07:12):
organic, but it seems like AIactually pulls from all the
citations that I created overthe past decade.
It pulls from that information.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, ai is looking for answers, so if you have
blogs and things that can giveit answers, then that's what
it's looking for.
And so if you've SEOed andyou've backlinked and you've got
all that connections and stuff,then you've got all that.
So I mean, yeah, that's prettycool, but that wasn't an
(07:45):
overnight thing.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I mean, you just yeah , no, my, my girlfriend at the
time thought I was losing mymind, uh, because of, you know,
the phone wasn't, the phonewasn't ringing and you know, and
it just seemed like a lot ofwasted time on it.
But just somewhere at that time10 years ago I knew how
important reviews wouldultimately be online and saw
(08:10):
where the direction was goingwith it.
So I always have made sure Ihave a few bad reviews I think
most contractors that are reallyin the trenches probably do
because you can't pleaseeverybody.
But all in all, I have reallygood, stellar reviews and I've
worked really hard for them andI think that, having a little
bit of foresight back then again, I have a little bit of jump
(08:33):
maybe on some other, a littlejump A little jump.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think you have a lot of jump, I mean, because 10
years of stuff is I mean that's.
You know that's amazing and Ikind of like it that you did
that.
So where was the tipping point?
Like where, how long did ittake you to like go from the
phone not ringing to like youcould pretty much count on it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Pretty quick.
So back then it was prettyquick.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
A little longer now, I would think, with all the
noise.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Probably a little longer now.
Honestly, to this day, ofcourse, like I've done Thumbtack
, pay4leads, boosted Facebook,business posts, things like that
but never have I employed theservices of a marketing company
to take over all of my systemsand stuff and I've never done
(09:30):
that, so it's all been 100%.
I mean, the way I look at it is, I've never paid really for a
lead.
You know I've had my websiteproduces leads and then, of
course, all the online SEO andlocal and local.
You know word of mouth is hugein our business and I would give
the best advice I can give isyou know, if you can figure out
(09:52):
how to do residential roofing,it's actually pretty elementary.
If you can get it dialed in, itcan be extremely lucrative, but
just take care of your peopleand put good material on there
and you'll be good.
And you usually can always geta review and never let the
review slip, because they arejust as good as gold.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, I love it that you've grown it
organically.
It sounds like you haven't donetoo much with, like, paid ads
or anything like that.
I know it sounds like you'veexperimented some with it, but
not necessarily like didn't needit really no, well, yeah, I
mean, because I mean what canhappen is you're going through,
you know life.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You're like, well, hold on things, slow down a
little bit, and you're, and itcomes in waves, uh, like right
now it's in a really good wave,uh, and it can go up and down,
but consistently it generatesgross millions of roofing leads
of many types annually.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So how do you balance your personal life and your
business?
Running the business.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
My wife and I like to travel and we like to go
swimming and just plan forimportant things and spend a lot
of time with friends and family.
We actually have some friendscoming to stay with us from
Florida this next weekend hereat the house with their three
kids and we're trying to have afamily and things like that.
(11:17):
So actually my wife and I gotmarried in Costa Rica.
I went across Costa Rica fivemonths ago and she has an
insurance agency inHendersonville and so that's.
Another cool thing is we kindof can work off each other but
we do a lot of things.
Just, you know, we work hardand play hard, I guess you'd say
(11:38):
.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, congratulations on themarriage.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, she's awesome.
It really didn't hurt thesituation at all.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I love that.
Didn't hurt, it didn't hurt.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Not at all.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So you talked about having great employees, so what
qualities do you look for inemployees?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Hard work, hard as coffin nails.
I mean, you know, I work with alot of Hispanics and so I've
tried to have sales guys.
But that's another maybeinteresting thing is that.
So when the leads come in, theycome into my phone.
I go do the sales myself, I gosell the job myself, I'll put
(12:23):
the logistics together inrelationship with the
distributor on material schedule, all the labor, pick up, checks
, front end, back end checks,warranties and stuff like that,
and I just so.
I basically I've tried to dosales guys.
It's easier said than done, soI would say I'm an
owner-operator, so most of myemployees are Hispanic.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Got it, so at some point to grow, it sounds like
you want to probably add salesso that you can grow it a little
bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's getting there.
We're about to open our secondlocation at 119 Stadium Drive,
Suite B, Hendersonville,Tennessee.
Along with my wife's insuranceagency, we're going to put
another four-square more or lesspermanent location probably
there, Got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I like it.
I like it.
Okay, no problem, I love it.
So this is a quick fire round.
Just give me a couple ofsentences or a couple of words
on each one.
So BEPIC is a that's my taglineis an acronym.
So I'll just give you thedefinition of the letter and you
just tell me a couple ofsentences about each.
(13:34):
So the B stands for bring theenergy.
So what are your thoughts aboutenergy?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, it's everything I mean you know energy is all
around us.
Well, it's everything I meanyou know energy is all around us
.
If you bring bad energy intosomething, don't expect anything
good to come back out of it.
So I mean it's all, bring thegood energy.
Bring good energy, and that'sin particularly.
Everything is you can speakthings into life accidentally,
so you have to be careful whatyou say and do no question.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
I love that.
Okay, the E stands foreducation.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I mean it's part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I liked it.
I like it, got to educate.
How about P for planning?
What's your thoughts onplanning?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It's a big part of it , especially as you get older.
So I just turned 40.
And so planning is becomingmore of a thing now than what it
ever has been for me.
But yeah, it's super importantto have your, your house, in
order.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, love it, love it.
How about I inspiration?
Where do you?
Where do you either findinspiration or how do you be an
inspiration?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I try to help a lot of people, a lot of younger
roofing company owners in myarea that have questions about
SEO.
I'm like a open book for them.
I want to see them grow and anddevelop their thing into you
know something great uh.
So I try to, you know, helpguys as much as I can there and
uh, but my wife is my biggestinspiration, yeah I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I love it.
So c stands for commitment todo your own SEO and all that.
You must have been committed,so tell us about your thoughts
about commitment.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, the commitment part on the SEO, that's very
real.
So to do it right, I didn'thave a stopwatch in front of me
while I was doing this stuff,but I would say it's about 500
hours plus of.
It took over a year um to toreally get you know cause you
(15:44):
have to manually put all thisstuff and so, uh, it's it's.
It takes some seriouscommitment to get to get it
figured out, yes, but if you cancrack the code on it, it's very
much worth doing.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh yeah, 100% yeah, you got it.
I mean, you need it.
You need it regardless whetheryou do it or you hire somebody
whose job it is to do it.
Either way is fine, it's just.
Yeah, I think it's.
It sounds like it's justsomething you wanted, you were
determined to do and you likedoing it and you wanted the
results, so I love it.
I love that yeah pretty much.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Nobody could tell me any different on it.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, I don't blame you.
I don't blame you At some point.
It's kind of cool too, becauseif you actually did go to hire
somebody to do it, you wouldknow it.
I mean, they'd just be doingthe admin stuff because you'd
already know how to do it.
You would know it.
I mean you, you, you knowthey'd just be doing the admin
stuff because you'd already knowhow to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The updates and stuff like that, and I mean, and I've
thought about hiring people todo that stuff so I don't have to
keep up with it as much at thispoint, but I still, ultimately,
as of now, do all my ownupdates and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, no, I love it.
I love it.
So what words of advice wouldyou offer to other business
owners who are looking to grow?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Just definitely be ready for some patience and have
your education together and becommitted.
I mean, it's pretty much a lotof things you just spoke about
the.
You know not to say that itcan't happen overnight, because
it certainly can, I wouldimagine, for people.
But everything good comes withtime.
That's the thing about it.
(17:22):
It just takes time.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, it's a little bit of that compound effect,
right, you work and you get alittle bit better, a little bit
better, a little bit better.
So that's sort of how it is.
So, last thing, what's the bestway for someone to get a hold
of you?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You can probably just shoot me an email at four, like
the number four,squarerestoration at gmailcom.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, gmail got it dot com Probably the best way.
Well, this has been awesome.
I really appreciate you beingpart of the community and being
part of the trades and taking adifferent bent on it, actually
understanding that the marketing.
You know there's a lot ofpeople that are great
contractors who are not greatmarketers and they complain
(18:13):
because they don't have, don'thave the business they have.
But you've gone the other way.
You're a great contractor and agreat marketer, so thanks for
being a leader in that industryyes, my pleasure yep, hey, and
until next time, remember, getthose tickets to the Asheville
Business Summit.
We'll talk to you soon, and allthe best.
Hey there and welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
I'm Bill Gilliland, your host.
I am the principal at ActionCoach, business Growth Partners,
and I've got a super greatguest today.
I am very interested in hearinghis story.
It's James from FoursquareRoofing.
But before we get to that, justremember, hey, we've got the
(00:23):
Asheville Business Summit comingup on September 23rd.
It is time to get your tickets.
We are three weeks away-ish and, as we record this, it'll be
closer by the time you hear this.
So get those tickets.
It's going to be an amazing day.
We've got nine speakers.
I mean, it's all aboutleadership, marketing,
(00:44):
management, anything to do withbuilding your business.
Coming off the heels of Helene,we're in a unique position to
be able to blast off and takeour businesses to the next level
.
So, hey, james got James fromFour Square Roofing over in
Gallatin, Tennessee.
I'm super pumped to have you onthe podcast.
So, james, tell us a little bitabout yourself and about your
(01:08):
business.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Sure, I'm happy to be here.
I would say you know, I startedlife as a real estate agent at
20 and was a licensed realestate agent around greater
Nashville, where I'm from, alicensed real estate agent
around greater Nashville, whereI'm from, for around 15 years,
and about 15 years in I foundroofing because real estate can
(01:32):
be inherently inconsistent.
I mean, it can be great and itcan be either it's feast or
famine out there, and so Iultimately found roofing back in
about like 2015 and saw theopportunities and saw how
potentially lucrative the stormrestoration, exterior
(01:52):
restoration business could beand I just kind of pursued it.
And right around the time, ofcourse, the Internet was a thing
, of course back in 2016 to 2017time period, but not nearly as
relevant.
So if you could set up onlinebusinesses back then with
various organic SEO stuff, youwould have an advantage 10 years
(02:14):
later and where we're at now.
And so my company's had, withroofing, 10 years to marinate
with the online SEO.
I built all of my stuff myselfand I think that's been a huge
advantage in my business nothaving to rely on marketing
companies and just being able toreap the benefits of what the
(02:37):
internet can bring.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, so we'll talk a little bit about marketing.
That'll be some of the stuff tohear about your learning.
So well, that's interesting.
I mean, that's a it's not a bigleap, I mean, but it is kind of
leap to go from selling realestate and brokering real estate
to going ahead and getting in atrade.
So did you just jump in rightaway and start a roofing company
(03:01):
, or did you?
What was your path?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
start a roofing company, or or did you?
Yeah, what was your path?
Yeah, definitely not.
Uh, so it wasn't that easy, uh,to just start a roofing company
.
I mean, it might seem that way,but there's a lot of, uh, years
of of learning from otherroofing company owners and, uh,
you know, which I still haverelationships with today,
they're still my, some of mybest friends um, but learning
from people that were above me,and then you finally get to a
(03:28):
point in your life to where youknow, maybe you try your own
thing, and so I didn't reallylike door knocking with roofing,
and so I figured out a way todo digital door knocking through
Organic SEO, and so that justmade it even more so the better,
because I enjoyed the craft andthe trade of roofing and how
(03:49):
lucrative it could be.
I didn't like knocking doors,and so I was able to create the
online organic SEO, which stillfunctions to this day.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, we'll talk about that more in a minute.
Well, let me just ask you so,if you had to start over, what
would you do differently?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
If I had to start over, I definitely would have
picked it's kind of hard to saybecause I have a lot of
different things that I do but Iwould have probably tried to
pick one thing and really focuson that more than multiple
(04:31):
things.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And what do you mean by that?
Like one market or one, onebusiness?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I mean I had.
So you know, there was a timewhere I was juggling real estate
and roofing.
Oh, I got you.
I had to make a decision atsome point.
Okay, I can only do one, and sothat's.
I wish I would have you know,learned that a little quicker.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Maybe jumped in on the roofing a little quicker.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I understand I got it yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, and I understand that's a great
learning Because I mean mostpeople, a lot of people, when
they go into business, theystill have a job because you
want that paycheck, so I lovethat.
So what have been some of yourbiggest learnings as an owner?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
and an employer since you started.
You have to treat your peoplereally good, that you care for
your inner circle of people thathelp you.
You have to take really goodcare of your people and have
good people around you.
That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So get good people and take care of them Pretty
much.
I love it.
I love it.
So what are some of the commonmisconceptions about running a
business and how do you addressthem?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's definitely not easy.
I don't know if some peoplenowadays think it.
I mean, it took me 10 years toeven get to where I'm at now,
and so I would definitely notsay that's overnight.
So I mean, if you want to be anentrepreneur and not to say it
can't happen for people faster,it certainly does, but be
prepared to be patient.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I like it.
Yeah, I mean.
What's the saying?
An overnight success usuallytakes about 15 years.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Something like that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I've heard that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
Yeah, best, yeah, wow.
So let's talk about that alittle bit.
So how did you learn that?
I mean, what, what, what wasyour?
I mean, just get in there andmess around and take some
classes, what'd you do?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
no, there was no real classes on it when I learned it
.
I mean, there was videos andthings like that and content
online that you could read andthat's that's basically.
Um, there was just a filter ofinformation that made sense.
As far as citations, backlinks,keywords, things like that, and
in roofing it's not overly hardbecause it's roofing roof
(06:52):
repair, roof replacement, newroof installation, your service
area cities which would be like30 miles local to your office, I
would think you know you justwork those keywords with
citations and over time andhonestly, I was afraid that AI
was going to potentially destroywhat I've created with the
(07:12):
organic, but it seems like AIactually pulls from all the
citations that I created overthe past decade.
It pulls from that information.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, ai is looking for answers, so if you have
blogs and things that can giveit answers, then that's what
it's looking for.
And so if you've SEOed andyou've backlinked and you've got
all that connections and stuff,then you've got all that.
So I mean, yeah, that's prettycool, but that wasn't an
(07:45):
overnight thing.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I mean, you just yeah , no, my, my girlfriend at the
time thought I was losing mymind, uh, because of, you know,
the phone wasn't, the phonewasn't ringing and you know, and
it just seemed like a lot ofwasted time on it.
But just somewhere at that time10 years ago I knew how
important reviews wouldultimately be online and saw
(08:10):
where the direction was goingwith it.
So I always have made sure Ihave a few bad reviews I think
most contractors that are reallyin the trenches probably do
because you can't pleaseeverybody.
But all in all, I have reallygood, stellar reviews and I've
worked really hard for them andI think that, having a little
bit of foresight back then again, I have a little bit of jump
(08:33):
maybe on some other, a littlejump A little jump.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think you have a lot of jump, I mean, because 10
years of stuff is I mean that's.
You know that's amazing and Ikind of like it that you did
that.
So where was the tipping point?
Like where, how long did ittake you to like go from the
phone not ringing to like youcould pretty much count on it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Pretty quick.
So back then it was prettyquick.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
A little longer now, I would think, with all the
noise.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Probably a little longer now.
Honestly, to this day, ofcourse, like I've done Thumbtack
, pay4leads, boosted Facebook,business posts, things like that
but never have I employed theservices of a marketing company
to take over all of my systemsand stuff and I've never done
(09:30):
that, so it's all been 100%.
I mean, the way I look at it is, I've never paid really for a
lead.
You know I've had my websiteproduces leads and then, of
course, all the online SEO andlocal and local.
You know word of mouth is hugein our business and I would give
the best advice I can give isyou know, if you can figure out
(09:52):
how to do residential roofing,it's actually pretty elementary.
If you can get it dialed in, itcan be extremely lucrative, but
just take care of your peopleand put good material on there
and you'll be good.
And you usually can always geta review and never let the
review slip, because they arejust as good as gold.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, I love it that you've grown it
organically.
It sounds like you haven't donetoo much with, like, paid ads
or anything like that.
I know it sounds like you'veexperimented some with it, but
not necessarily like didn't needit really no, well, yeah, I
mean, because I mean what canhappen is you're going through,
you know life.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You're like, well, hold on things, slow down a
little bit, and you're, and itcomes in waves, uh, like right
now it's in a really good wave,uh, and it can go up and down,
but consistently it generatesgross millions of roofing leads
of many types annually.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So how do you balance your personal life and your
business?
Running the business.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
My wife and I like to travel and we like to go
swimming and just plan forimportant things and spend a lot
of time with friends and family.
We actually have some friendscoming to stay with us from
Florida this next weekend hereat the house with their three
kids and we're trying to have afamily and things like that.
(11:17):
So actually my wife and I gotmarried in Costa Rica.
I went across Costa Rica fivemonths ago and she has an
insurance agency inHendersonville and so that's.
Another cool thing is we kindof can work off each other but
we do a lot of things.
Just, you know, we work hardand play hard, I guess you'd say
(11:38):
.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, congratulations on themarriage.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, she's awesome.
It really didn't hurt thesituation at all.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I love that.
Didn't hurt, it didn't hurt.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Not at all.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So you talked about having great employees, so what
qualities do you look for inemployees?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Hard work, hard as coffin nails.
I mean, you know, I work with alot of Hispanics and so I've
tried to have sales guys.
But that's another maybeinteresting thing is that.
So when the leads come in, theycome into my phone.
I go do the sales myself, I gosell the job myself, I'll put
(12:23):
the logistics together inrelationship with the
distributor on material schedule, all the labor, pick up, checks
, front end, back end checks,warranties and stuff like that,
and I just so.
I basically I've tried to dosales guys.
It's easier said than done, soI would say I'm an
owner-operator, so most of myemployees are Hispanic.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Got it, so at some point to grow, it sounds like
you want to probably add salesso that you can grow it a little
bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's getting there.
We're about to open our secondlocation at 119 Stadium Drive,
Suite B, Hendersonville,Tennessee.
Along with my wife's insuranceagency, we're going to put
another four-square more or lesspermanent location probably
there, Got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
I like it.
I like it.
Okay, no problem, I love it.
So this is a quick fire round.
Just give me a couple ofsentences or a couple of words
on each one.
So BEPIC is a that's my taglineis an acronym.
So I'll just give you thedefinition of the letter and you
just tell me a couple ofsentences about each.
(13:34):
So the B stands for bring theenergy.
So what are your thoughts aboutenergy?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Well, it's everything I mean you know energy is all
around us.
Well, it's everything I meanyou know energy is all around us
.
If you bring bad energy intosomething, don't expect anything
good to come back out of it.
So I mean it's all, bring thegood energy.
Bring good energy, and that'sin particularly.
Everything is you can speakthings into life accidentally,
so you have to be careful whatyou say and do no question.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, you're exactly right.
I love that.
Okay, the E stands foreducation.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
I mean it's part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I liked it.
I like it, got to educate.
How about P for planning?
What's your thoughts onplanning?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
It's a big part of it , especially as you get older.
So I just turned 40.
And so planning is becomingmore of a thing now than what it
ever has been for me.
But yeah, it's super importantto have your, your house, in
order.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, love it, love it.
How about I inspiration?
Where do you?
Where do you either findinspiration or how do you be an
inspiration?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I try to help a lot of people, a lot of younger
roofing company owners in myarea that have questions about
SEO.
I'm like a open book for them.
I want to see them grow and anddevelop their thing into you
know something great uh.
So I try to, you know, helpguys as much as I can there and
uh, but my wife is my biggestinspiration, yeah I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I love it.
So c stands for commitment todo your own SEO and all that.
You must have been committed,so tell us about your thoughts
about commitment.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, the commitment part on the SEO, that's very
real.
So to do it right, I didn'thave a stopwatch in front of me
while I was doing this stuff,but I would say it's about 500
hours plus of.
It took over a year um to toreally get you know cause you
(15:44):
have to manually put all thisstuff and so, uh, it's it's.
It takes some seriouscommitment to get to get it
figured out, yes, but if you cancrack the code on it, it's very
much worth doing.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh yeah, 100% yeah, you got it.
I mean, you need it.
You need it regardless whetheryou do it or you hire somebody
whose job it is to do it.
Either way is fine, it's just.
Yeah, I think it's.
It sounds like it's justsomething you wanted, you were
determined to do and you likedoing it and you wanted the
results, so I love it.
I love that yeah pretty much.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Nobody could tell me any different on it.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, I don't blame you.
I don't blame you At some point.
It's kind of cool too, becauseif you actually did go to hire
somebody to do it, you wouldknow it.
I mean, they'd just be doingthe admin stuff because you'd
already know how to do it.
You would know it.
I mean you, you, you knowthey'd just be doing the admin
stuff because you'd already knowhow to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The updates and stuff like that, and I mean, and I've
thought about hiring people todo that stuff so I don't have to
keep up with it as much at thispoint, but I still, ultimately,
as of now, do all my ownupdates and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, no, I love it.
I love it.
So what words of advice wouldyou offer to other business
owners who are looking to grow?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Just definitely be ready for some patience and have
your education together and becommitted.
I mean, it's pretty much a lotof things you just spoke about
the.
You know not to say that itcan't happen overnight, because
it certainly can, I wouldimagine, for people.
But everything good comes withtime.
That's the thing about it.
(17:22):
It just takes time.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, it's a little bit of that compound effect,
right, you work and you get alittle bit better, a little bit
better, a little bit better.
So that's sort of how it is.
So, last thing, what's the bestway for someone to get a hold
of you?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You can probably just shoot me an email at four, like
the number four,squarerestoration at gmailcom.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, gmail got it dot com Probably the best way.
Well, this has been awesome.
I really appreciate you beingpart of the community and being
part of the trades and taking adifferent bent on it, actually
understanding that the marketing.
You know there's a lot ofpeople that are great
contractors who are not greatmarketers and they complain
(18:13):
because they don't have, don'thave the business they have.
But you've gone the other way.
You're a great contractor and agreat marketer, so thanks for
being a leader in that industryyes, my pleasure yep, hey, and
until next time, remember, getthose tickets to the Asheville
Business Summit.
We'll talk to you soon, and allthe best.
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