April 28, 2025 • 47 mins
What happens when you dare to stand out in an industry where everyone looks the same? Adam Ross of Honeybee Roofing discovered the answer when he traded in traditional red, white, and blue branding for bright yellow trucks that literally stop traffic.
"When I had one truck, people told me they saw our trucks everywhere," Adam shares, describing how his distinctive branding transformed his business visibility in Rockford, Illinois. Within just 30 days of rebranding, their SEO performance skyrocketed, proving that sometimes the boldest moves bring the sweetest rewards.
But Honeybee Roofing's success stems from something much deeper than eye-catching colors. Adam has built his $2.25 million company on relationship foundations that most contractors overlook. While competitors chase storms hours away, Adam focuses on serving his local community with what he calls "unreasonable hospitality." His philosophy is simple yet profound: "We treat our clients like neighbors because they are neighbors."
This relationship-centered approach has yielded remarkable results. Adam recounts how a single relationship led to a contract for 14 duplexes—a job that generated more revenue than their entire previous year combined. "I had two hours of work into that specific project but years of work into the relationship," he explains, revealing the compounding power of consistent connection.
Beyond business strategy, Adam shares candid insights about balancing entrepreneurship with family life and faith. From establishing financial systems to creating meaningful routines, he demonstrates that success comes from small, consistent actions rather than grand gestures. His humility shines through when he advises: "Be open to the fact that other people know things you don't."
Whether you're a roofing contractor looking to differentiate your brand, an entrepreneur seeking sustainable growth strategies, or a business owner navigating work-life balance, Adam's journey offers practical wisdom you can apply immediately. Ready to transform your approach to business relationships and create a brand that truly stands out?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
all right, welcome to the limitless roofing show,
where we give you a seat at thetable as we talk with roofing
owners so that you can get thetips and the tactics and the
insights you need, hopefully, totake your business to the left,
to the next level, because our,our audience is roofing owners.
So today we've got adam rosswith Honey Bee Roofing and he's
doing some really unique thingsto stand out in his market.
(00:30):
We're going to get into that.
But, adam, welcome to the showman.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thanks a bunch, Dylan .
Good bee hat and good to spendsome time with you.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, and for those of you listening, I forget to do
this pretty much every time,but we run a GPO, a group
purchasing organization.
We're kind of like Costco youjoin, you save.
It's that simple.
We negotiate deals with SRS,beacon, crms, bookkeeping all
the things you spend money on inyour business.
We negotiate group discountsfor our members, and Adam is one
(01:03):
of our members.
We negotiate group discountsfor our members and Adam is one
of our members.
If you want to learn more aboutthat, it's totally free to join
and the website isLimitlessRoofingGroupcom.
All right, so let's get intotoday with you, adam.
Tell us a little bit about yourcompany.
Where are you at?
Where are you located?
What's your target revenue thisyear, maybe in three years?
(01:23):
Just kind of big picture forHoneybee.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, so we're out of Rockford, illinois, which is
northern Illinois.
We're about west of Chicago,which is a super cool market.
We're pretty isolated but we'rea good-sized region almost half
a million people out here.
So it's really, like I said,it's separated from the big city
(01:49):
but there's a lot of us here.
It's a cool town to serve.
My wife and I moved to Rockfordwhen we bought our first house
almost 20 years ago and we thinkit's a really cool area, so
excited and love to serve thecommunity here.
We say we treat our clientslike neighbors because they are
(02:09):
neighbors.
So that's one thing aboutHoneybee Roofing is that we've
been really focused on superhigh level of customer service.
I just read the bookUnreasonable Hospitality and I
was like, yes, that's us.
That's like want to beremembered, for of course we
want to do great work but wewant to treat our clients that
(02:33):
we work with in our communityreally well and be remembered
for that.
This year our revenue is two anda quarter million Really
fortunate to have really greatpartners.
Like through Limitless isanother place we find really
great relationships, but withour supply house, with our
(02:54):
manufacturers, the crews that wework with and really even
referral partners in thecommunity.
That, literally, is what hasbuilt our business and it's been
a fun journey that I kind offeel like I've been, like they
say, along for the ride, like Ihave the vision, but I'm just
kind of watching it play out andgetting to live it out.
(03:15):
Uh, day by day.
It's been awesome that's greatman.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Where are you hoping to land revenue wisewise in the
next three years?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So probably I have like giant goals and then as we
take the path we kind of see ifwe have to steer or adjust.
But about three years we'relooking to be around 10 million.
It's like some big jumps.
But, um, we made a really bigjump, uh, from two years ago to
(03:50):
last year.
And why just make one big jump?
Let's just keep yeah, no,that's.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's great, it's.
It's something that comes up inour group is guys want to scale
well, and the conversationalways ends up going.
You know, know, it starts withsales but then it immediately
goes to systems and processesand streamlining the whole
business and, you know, removingall the friction everywhere.
That's great, but let's, let'stalk a little bit about your
appearance, because you have aunique brand.
(04:20):
You stand out brand.
You stand out your videos,stand out your t-shirt, your hat
.
What gave you the idea forhoneybee roofing?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Where'd the honeybee concept come from?
Well, this wasn't our firstbrand.
Our first brand was reallyboring but patriotic, which I
thought was really great.
Really boring but patriotic,which I thought was really great
, and I loved the patriotic.
So it was hard to let go.
But I went to a conference andI heard the first talk at my
first roofing conference was onbranding and the first thing he
(04:58):
said was if you have red, whiteand blue in your company logo,
stand up.
And I looked and it's like halfthe room and window, uh.
So I've read the book by danantonelli called branded, not
blanded, and uh, one of thethings was like you want to have
a mascot or some kind ofcharacter like the geico right
(05:21):
or um, captain crunch or thecheerio, uh b and um kind of
funny.
But one thing when we went thered, white and blue route, it
hit me I was like man, myfavorite color is yellow and I
like the bright and the cheery.
We should have done somethingyellow with the company.
(05:41):
And so then, when we had achance, we decided to rebrand,
which felt like a huge risk, um,but Dan Antonelli says like, if
you feel like it's a big risktoday, at whatever you're at and
look at where you want to bedown the road.
The risk never gets smaller andthe effort never gets less.
Um, so I was sold on um,northern Illinois.
(06:05):
We can't roof all year round,right?
So we're like squirrels and wepile up our nuts all summer long
and we stash them somewhere andeat off of that stash all
winter long and I'm likecounting these acorns and I'm
like I think I have enough torewrap our trucks, redo our
websites, repurchase our gearand really God has been good
(06:29):
Again a lot of goodrelationships, a lot of guidance
and obviously we made itthrough that winter and the
rebranding super paid off.
We get a lot of leads from ourtrucks driving around town.
When I had one truck, I hadpeople telling me I see your
(06:49):
trucks all over town becauseit's that bold.
And it surprised me that withinlike 30 days it also increased
our SEO, just like organicthrough Google.
We were getting more leads on abrand new website than we had
on our previous one, so it'sbeen a really cool payoff.
(07:11):
And it's a lot of fun with thecommunity.
We have these stickers that wegive out all over the place.
I order like 5,000 of them at atime and people go around and
like people I just met today.
They're like oh, I'll put thison my water bottle and carry it
with me everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm like oh, that's such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So is the?
Is the comparison of thehoneybee have to do with, just
like diligent work, or what?
What is?
Where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
yeah.
So I guess I never likefinished that circle to how we
got to the honeybee.
But, um, so my favorite color,some kind of mascot.
I was brainstorming through allthe different animals that
could be yellow.
I went to the bee and was like,oh, bee could be like scary or
dangerous or harmful, like whatabout honey bees?
(08:07):
Kind of sounds sweet, kind ofsounds fun, and I really loved.
Again, I talked about investingin our community and serving our
community.
I really liked the idea of how,like it takes thousands of bees
to work together to make theircommunity survive and they're
all working together, playingtheir part, serving their role,
helping each other out, andthat's really like our attitude
(08:29):
towards our community is, uh,our community has done a lot for
us and we want to do a bunch totry and help and serve our
community.
And now I like all the puns.
I'm like being sweet or you'llbe excited.
You call this.
I don't have the acronym, butStarbucks has what they call
(08:51):
like the Starbucks experience,what everybody should expect or
what their staff should expectto be treated and the experience
a client would have encounteredgoing into a Starbucks.
And we defined the Honeybeeexperience and it's this acronym
S-W-E-E-T.
It's sweet.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Nice man, that's great.
And the colors, I meaneverything just stands out.
You know, I'm in Dallas where Ican't drive to work without
seeing a roofing truck, but theyall look the same, they.
But they all look the same,they do they all look the same.
Every logo has something thatlooks like a house and then it's
(09:36):
got the roofing name and itsays roofing, and usually
roofing and gutters, or roofingand siding, or roofing and
construction or whatever.
But your brand really standsout.
So how many years have you guysbeen in business now?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
This is our third season in business.
Our second season is HoneybeeRoofing.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Second season is Honeybee Roofing.
So you know I mean businessowner to business owner.
Here nobody really knows whatit's like to start something
from scratch.
Start hiring people, you startto be responsible for their
payroll.
It's a lot to run a businessand to handle sales and
(10:14):
marketing and then you get intothe operations and then managing
your finances.
Like you mentioned, you can'troof all year.
So managing that cashflow stufflike that, what's been one of
the biggest challenges you facedin the last couple of years?
Take us through that and ifit's a specific story, great.
Or maybe if it's a certainissue in the business, or maybe
it's just you as a leader, butwhatever, that is what's been
(10:39):
one of the biggest challengesyou've faced you've faced.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, um, last year.
So we uh I went into businesswith the whole intent that we're
going to be retail focusedcompany and if storms come
through, we'll be equipped andprepared and educated to help
our neighbors through theprocess.
But, um, we're going to focuson just organic growth.
I feel like I have more controlover that and, long-term,
there's less variables that Ican't forecast or plan for Last
(11:16):
year.
So my first year was incredible.
This tornado came through andthree days later this giant hail
storm comes through and withinlike two months, I had enough
money stashed.
This was wild.
I quit my full-time job aftertwo months worth of work here.
But then the second year in,there's basically no storms to
(11:40):
speak of, but they well, therewere.
They were like three or fourhours away and probably half of
the companies up here they allwent and they got Airbnbs down
in that area and they sent theirguys down there.
And to me, it's just a valuethat I created the company to be
(12:02):
able to better serve my family,for my, when we hire teammates,
for them to become betterpeople and better serve their
family, so going four hours outof town and just spending life
away from family doesn't makesense.
So, um, well, knowing thatthere's like work out there to
harvest that I'm activelychoosing not to pursue, and
(12:25):
going through a season, um, thatwas kind of slow and just
really trusting the process andthe plan and like building
things um grassroots, so tospeak.
Um, so we went through umprobably like three months where
it was like, you know, it feelslike week to week or month to
(13:00):
month, but really the solution,so to speak, to that, to like
wrapping up with 300% growthfrom one year to the next,
except that we had really goodrelationships that bring us a
job here, bring us a job there.
It was really fun at the end ofthe season for us, like winding
(13:24):
down in October, really, andthen we can sometimes work in
November.
Um, the beginning of October, um, we were at like double our
revenue from the year before,and then, um, I got this HOA uh
job, uh that we won for was uh14 duplexes and that was like
(13:45):
enough to fill the rest of theyear and that one job from one
relationship was more revenuethan we had done the year before
yeah, that's great, and it'smostly retail work, right that
one actually was a storm claim Ihad nothing to do with and I
(14:06):
feel a little not guilty but Ifeel bad, for the previous
roofer had a relationship withthe president of the HOA who
moved out of town during theclaim process so he was no
longer a part of the processwhen the approval came through.
And this one relationship that Ihad got voted in to be the
(14:30):
president and said, well, ifwe're gonna hire somebody to
take care of all this work forus, I'd like to hire somebody
that I know will answer thephone, will do good work, will
respond if there's issues.
So I had two hours worth ofwork into that specific project
but a couple of years worth ofwork into the relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So what do you think is the biggest thing you learned
during that difficult timewhere you're going week after
week going oh man, we need morecoming in?
What was something you learnedas a business owner during that
time?
What?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
was something you learned as a business owner
during that time.
I just posted on Facebook lastnight or today something about
our habits and I can't like.
I really appreciated the bookAtomic Habits.
I didn't study it well enoughthat I can quote him well, but
there's something about likewe're not our goals or our
(15:25):
results, we're the habits andthe process and the things we
actively do over and over again.
And so during that slow seasonit gives me a chance to be
really intentional.
What are the things I do overand over again that are going to
be beneficial, over and overagain, that are going to be
beneficial?
And then that creates a routinefor as we bring on more sales
(15:51):
folks we don't have a sales teamyet, it's all me and all my
referral partners.
But as I bring on guys I workedfor a roofer a while back and
our sales just like would sitaround the conference room
waiting for leads to come in,and that's not our culture here.
(16:11):
And we're going to build a teamof folks who are building their
own business, figure out theirown thing, and not necessarily
storm chasing, but really beingdiligent and intentional about
what are the habits andactivities I can do each day.
That'll grow things a littlebit, a little bit and just keep
stacking.
So the takeaway or the thing tolearn is like just stick with
(16:31):
those right activities.
If you believe it's right,don't give up when it's hard or
when it's slow.
And so I had tons of lunches,tons of coffees, tons of
spending time with realtors,insurance agents, folks in other
trades people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So it sounds like you're a real networker.
It sounds like that's somethingyou do naturally.
So how do you do that?
I mean, if you want to make arelationship with an insurance
agent, are you driving up totheir office just popping in, or
are you going to a networkingevent?
What's your practice with that?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
three different chambers of commerce I try to go
to.
I do go to as many of theiractivities or events as I can,
which sometimes is a lot andsometimes is not, and just which
is one of the cool things I'dlike to do, like BNI, but the
time commitment on that they'relike really rigorous on.
There's penalties if you don'tshow up.
(17:37):
But I like to go to activitieslike that where there's business
folk and just get to knowpeople.
When I first started networkingI could show up and like wonder
how can I convince somebody towant to buy from me?
And I really have learned thatgetting interested in other
people will make them interestedin us.
(17:59):
And there's probably, if I gointo a room, probably like zero
people in that room that need aroof today.
So I don't need to have thepressure of like what can I sell
today.
I get to find out what's cooland neat about all of those
people in the room, what can Iget excited to dig into, to
learn more about who they areand what they do.
(18:20):
And then naturally they kind ofsome folks reciprocate and they
ask more about us what do we do?
And then, um, again, I I feellike I want to provide customer
service up here.
I feel like we're here rightnow.
But something that I do is likewhen I meet with folks, when I
go out for coffee, when I go outfor lunch, I send out like
(18:43):
little thank you notes.
And I had lunch with a dudeyesterday and I was like, hey,
thanks for blocking out the timeto have lunch together.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, looking up to
follow up on XYZ, and then Ieven bought these like little
vinyl stickers that are like oneinch square, that are just our
honeybee man logo, and I sealthe envelope like you do the old
(19:05):
wax seal with a little honeybeeman sticker.
So it's a lot of serving.
There's a book, go Givers, sellMore.
That kind of mindset.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Man, that kind of mindset man, that's good stuff
and it's clearly working.
And if you're doing, you knowtwo and a half million in
revenue and you're not payingout a bunch of sales commissions
.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, that's a great, that's a great living,
that's a lot of, that's a lot ofcushion.
It's insane To go from sellingcell phone contracts for another
company on their payroll, ontheir time clock, to being on my
time clock and my payroll.
I can just say God has beenvery, very good.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, as you're doing that andyou're the main sales guy right
now, how do you balance?
You know you've mentioned Godand so you're a man of faith.
You've got your family, you'vegot your physical fitness, your
health, and then you've got yourfinances, your business stuff.
(20:17):
How do you keep all that inbalance?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The finance stuff I'll say is the hardest.
I feel like I have good systemsfor our checking accounts.
After the first year I learnedthat I need a separate account
for money that comes in untilthe job is complete and all the
invoices on that job are paidout.
(20:43):
Then I move it into like aninsurance account.
Then I have a separate savingsaccount for like what I call my
end of year bonus or businessprofits, and I'm intentional
about what percentage we moveover there.
But as far as like QuickBooks, Ihave like over 365 days there's
(21:04):
like eight, that my QuickBooksis like clean and precise, but
as far as like all the differentpriorities in life, how do I
keep things in balance?
I don't know.
It's probably days that lookbalanced and that there's days
that don't.
I think it depends who youlisten to right.
(21:25):
People say balance isn't thegoal, and I think you can look
at a day and it looks likeyou're not balanced.
But depending on the time frame, I feel like you have achieved
like balance or your prioritiesare lined up right.
How do I achieve balance?
(21:45):
Well, a lot of time intolearning and, as I do that, just
more ideas and tips and thingsto create one new individual
habit at a time, not gianttransformations.
I recently started cold plunging, like two and a half weeks ago.
(22:06):
Right now I still just do it inmy bathtub.
Um, and I was doing like abunch of ice and my wife's like
let's go out and buy a bunch ofice packs, so now we can just
freeze all these ice packs andum, you know, it's one habit for
my health and for my mindset.
Um, it spends five minutes aday investing in that um and
(22:34):
atomic habits talks about, about, I think it's habit stacking or
something like that.
So I mean, like the routine is,I go, I turn the bathtub on to
start filling the water, I gograb the ice packs to throw it
in and then I go do mydevotional while the bathtub's
filling up and it's like whatkind of efficient routine can
(22:56):
you create?
Ed Milet says, and probably abunch of folks not to touch your
phone for like first 45 minutesof the day.
There's nothing on there that'sgoing to steer you towards your
goals, and maybe that's anotherthing is like kind of a small
group of folks that I spend timewith so I'm not distracted by
(23:19):
things that are not going tomove us towards the things that
are important.
But I certainly mess things uptoo, man, my health like there's
some weeks or months that areawesome and some that are
horrible.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's funny.
Yeah, I know.
For me, I've told the storymany times about managing an
apartment building and having400 people who know you by name
and having to develop somepretty hardcore boundaries
between work life and personallife or family life or whatever,
and I've just carried that oversince that was back in 2009.
(23:56):
And for me it's keeping aroutine, very routine driven
wake up pretty much close to thesame time every day, go to bed
at the same time, wake up, havebreakfast same thing, read the
Bible I want to hear somethingfrom the Lord, get some words,
some encouragement, some, sometruth, so, and then, uh, have
(24:21):
breakfast and then work out.
And uh, and then work, and thenat about five o'clock man, I
mean, unless there's just somecrazy urgent thing happening,
which is extremely rare with mybusiness uh, I leave and I'm at
home by five 30.
My wife is finishing up dinner.
Our three girls are told tocome wash hands, come to the
(24:43):
table and we all have dinnertogether and we talk about what
was the high point of the day.
Did you have a low point of theday?
Um, and it's just dedicatedfamily time.
There's no screens, there's nonothing.
Um, and then we, you know, haveour little evening routine with
them, put them to bed and thenmy wife and I have about two
hours together or alone.
(25:04):
If we want to spend it together, which we usually do, we'll try
to find something clean towatch, like Nate Bargett he's
our latest thing that we've beenwatching.
He's one of the only cleanstand-up comedians.
That's made it really big, butthat's kind of the way I've
tried to balance it out that wayyou're, you know, just keeping
everything in check, but I feellike if any one of those areas
(25:32):
becomes too big, the others allsuffer.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
So, anyway, it's just something I like to bring up A
lot of guys tend to reallystruggle with that and they make
work, the finance part, biggerthan faith and family and
fitness.
To me, the whole reason I'mdoing this is for my family and
(25:54):
our future, so it's dumb if I'mwaiting till the future to
invest in my family.
Um, you mentioned, uh, going tobed at the same time.
Waking up at the same time.
Not going to bed on time islike a day destroyer.
Um, I don't know if it's, I'mlike I'll be 44 this year and
(26:17):
and um, I don't know if it comeswith age more or what, but like
it's so hard to wake up on timeand get that routine going if I
didn't go to bed at the righttime and I hired a virtual
assistant because of that reason.
Um, that's why I picked the onethat I picked.
(26:37):
Um, I asked the question aboutstaying accountable.
When you're remote completely,how do you keep yourself
accountable to the tasks thatyou've been assigned?
And her answer was it allstarts with how you begin the
day.
So I make sure I go to bed ontime so that I can wake up on
time.
And then she said and then I domy devotions and my routine to
start the day.
(26:58):
And I was like that was heranswer to keeping herself
accountable to keep a goodroutine for the day.
I thought that was really wise.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's good stuff, yeah, and you and your spouse
has to be on board for that too.
I'm thankful I'm not in amarriage where one person is a
night owl and the other whatever.
We both like to try to get tobed by 10, 15-ish and sit and
talk for a minute and then go tosleep.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
What's hard for me is my kids are getting older.
In the last six to nine monthsI've had to draw a boundary for
me that it's okay to go to bedbefore my kids.
I'm not worried about themmaking good choices.
I know that I don't have toworry about their decisions.
It's just like as the dad, theprotector.
(27:45):
I want to make sure everyone'sin their place, everyone's safe
and sound, before I turn off forthe night.
But having an 18 and a16-year-old, I just have to have
faith everyone's going to besafe and sound, even if I go to
bed before them.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Oh man, yeah, we started having children later
than you.
I'm I'm 45, but we've got threelittle girls that are, uh, five
, seven and nine, and yeah,that's.
I don't think I'm ready forthat Like I like it right now.
They're all in bed, we're, weare out of the bedroom.
Bedtime routines over by eight,30 at the latest, but I know
(28:25):
it's coming where they're goingto be.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's discipline I could tell you, though there's
probably like a window in therewhere you and your wife get that
time at the end of the day, andit's a lot shorter.
But now I'm in this windowwhere, um, now I go to bed
before my kids, so we don't getany time after they go to bed,
(28:46):
but they're gone during the weekfor hours at a time.
So last night our kids went toyouth group and my wife and I
went on a two-mile walk togetherand then we hung out at the
house for a little bit and wentup for coffee, all while the
kids were, uh, gone.
So like it's different blocksto get that time together.
(29:07):
Um, having big kids is likeit's a big deal man I don't want
him to move.
I don't want them to be far awayand keep seeing less and less
of them.
But my son works for me, sothat's been fun.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh, nice man, that's great.
So so what?
What advice would you have,based on what you've learned so
far, what you guys have donereally well building
relationships and branding forother guys that are thinking,
man, I don't really have as manyrelationships like that as I
like or getting those kinds ofreferrals.
(29:46):
What would you recommend forsomebody like you mentioned
atomic habits, just startingsmall, something little that
somebody can start chipping awayat.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, building relationships, um, I guess first
you have to be the kind ofperson people want to have a
relationship with.
Um donald miller, hisorganization is called story
brand, and their whole marketing, um, theory, so to speak, or
strategy, is that you want tomake the other person the hero,
(30:21):
not yourself the hero.
Uh, naturally, we go around andwe want to come across as the
hero and super duper and special.
But, dylan, you want to be thehero in your story.
So if I come into your storytrying to be the hero, you are
going to push me out of yourstory because I'm trying to take
the main character role thatyou want to play.
(30:42):
Um donald miller teaches that,uh, if I want to be a part of
your story, I should come alongas a guide, offer advice.
What can I give?
What can I contribute?
Um, and I think people, uh, Idon't know, um, there's probably
people, uh, I don't know, um,there's probably people out
there that don't connect withthat and care about that, and
that's fine.
(31:02):
I, there's plenty out therethat do, and I'll connect with
those people.
One thing I see, though in ourindustry it's really weird Like
you go to events and there'ssome folks that are like so open
, so generous with their time,ideas and advice, so giving and
kind.
And then there's some folksthat walk into the room and
(31:25):
they're like we're here tocompete, I want to dominate,
you're the enemy.
We have to do better.
And like.
I bump into folks at the supplyhouse and I'm always like hey,
how's it going?
Hope you have a good day, staysafe out there, good luck out
there.
And some dudes are like highfive, shake hands, fist bump,
whatever.
And some dudes are like andlike.
(31:47):
I think that, uh, to me I'm ofcourse like all the rest of the
contractors in this region arecompetition, but really the
biggest competition is me.
I feel like when I sit downwith a client and it's maybe
different sometimes, I feel likewhen people are doing storm
work but when I'm doing retailstuff and I sit down with a
(32:08):
client, I really know who I'mcompeting with and I don't feel
like in that moment I'mcompeting with anyone.
I feel like in that moment it'smy job to present myself and my
company as best as possible sothat they want to do something
right now, today, and not haveto compare to all the folks.
(32:29):
But also I want to up my gamein the way I serve them and the
way I present our company andour products and make them feel
so that, as they do talk toother folks down the road.
But as far as like the onehabits, like, be the kind of
person you would want to befriends with, which usually
starts with being interested inthe people that you're in front
(32:51):
of.
Do it a bunch and thoserelationships start to stack up.
But that's an atomic habit.
It starts off at no return justeffort, just effort, just
effort.
But you have to believe thatonce you find an atomic habit to
(33:14):
invest in, that you put thateffort in over time and it
starts producing bigger andbigger compounding results.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Man.
I love that I.
That's been a big life lessonfor me personally.
I had a mentor in in Biblecollege that, uh, and I mean he
was a true mentor.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I went to Bible college once upon a time too.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Nice, yeah, he, uh, he was a true mentor.
He, we, he did, we did lifeside by side invited me to his
house multiple times for dinner.
We met at his office.
He was a professor at the Biblecollege.
We met his office once a weekand went through different books
and pray together.
We went on mission tripstogether and he was a philosophy
(33:56):
major at A&M and I loved thatbecause I came to Christianity
as a.
I was a very passionate skepticand God did some really powerful
things to turn my eyes to Jesusand change all of that.
But growing up without a dadaround and growing up as a
dominant male, I was a reallyintense guy, had a lot of
(34:17):
passion and love to preach andteach and stuff like that.
So constantly telling peoplestuff that I knew, constantly
Right.
And I remember he met with meone time and he said, dylan,
when you're with other people,it's not about you, it's not
about what you're passionateabout or what you're excited
about or what you learned thisweek that you're fired up about,
(34:41):
it's about them.
And he said you, when you spendtime with other people, you
need to focus on getting to knowthem.
Who are they?
Where have they been?
What are they interested in?
And he said most people you're.
He said you're going to find.
Most people are just walkingaround sharing their biography.
They're just talking aboutthemselves all the time.
(35:03):
He said you're going to meetvery few people who have a
genuine interest in you.
And it was.
My mind was blown because hewas so right.
He was so right so I startedmaking it a practice from that
point on to just get to knowpeople, and prior to that I
really didn't enjoy being aroundpeople very much.
(35:24):
It was kind of a transactionalthing, like, okay, I want to
interact with you, tell you whatyou need to know, and move on
and go about.
Back to what I'm into, and itreally taught me to actually
enjoy people and I had to reallypray through that too, just
saying God, give me your heartfor people.
You love people.
Life is all about relationshipsand I'm so thankful for that
(35:46):
because now, like I, can sit andtalk with you and genuinely
enjoy your company, whereasbefore you know, back in my mid
twenties, I just wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I can relate.
I grew up thinking I was alwaysright and if anyone ever
disagreed with me I needed tolet them know.
Of course Couldn't have twoideas float out there that
weren't aligned and just let itbe.
I had to make sure we left theconversation with only one idea,
(36:21):
and it being mine usually.
But people's favorite topic isthemselves.
Usually that's how I sell, too,is I dig in and get to know
folks.
I called it at the beginning,our whole first year, I said our
business model was slow andsteady, just dig in deep and
(36:45):
grab on and we get a lot ofreferrals, a lot of folks who
put our stickers on their coffeemugs.
But because I take my time andI go deep and I spend time and I
get to know people and, like Ihave clients who are like, hey,
when can we grab lunch?
When are we going to hang out?
Now that this is over and, um,I feel like the more we're
(37:10):
interested in others, the morethey want to spend time with us
and uh, really to.
It's more fun to live that way,to make other people happy and
to make their day bright, ratherthan focusing on my day being
bright and then most of thepeople around me not wanting to
be around me.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, right, it's so true, so true, yeah.
And it changes, like, like yousaid, it changes the way you
sell, it changes the way youoperate.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It really changes everything, when that's that's
the focus and I can say, um man,some of the folks that I've met
in our industry that havemassive companies like when I've
introduced myself, or go up andchat with them they're the
friendliest, most generous,caring people, and I found that,
(38:00):
too, when I worked a full-timejob for somebody else.
The more successful people were,the kinder they were, the more
generous they were with theirtime Not to say that they'd let
you take advantage of their time, but they're just nice, really
great quality people, and that'sbeen actually.
(38:21):
I'm grateful that, as I've metsome of those folks and been
interested in them, they'veopened up to allow me to stay in
communication with them andbounce ideas and questions,
ideas and advice.
How in the world does somebodythis is a god thing for real I
say, um, maybe there's some likemindset and attitude towards it
(38:45):
as well, but first and secondyear in business to have the
cell phone numbers of somebodydoing 40 million dollars in
sales and 60 million dollars insales and they answer my texts,
they'll take my phone calls,they'll give me advice Unreal.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, it's so good.
I heard somebody say when I wasI've had so many different jobs
over the years, but when I wasin my I think it was 19, my
sister, my older sister, got mea job at a at Morgan Stanley,
dean Witter to, to go intotraining as a stockbroker.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
And, um, yeah, I didn't stick with that very long
, but one of the guys that Iworked, the guy that I worked
with in his office, I mean hewas just like stereotypical
stockbroker and his he wasprobably in his late twenties,
early thirties and he was making, you know, three to five grand
a day and he'd leave as soon asthe market closed at three
o'clock and he's just likeliving a crazy life.
(39:46):
It's who you know that gets youthere and it's what you know
that keeps you there.
And he was so big on onrelationships too, but it's like
but, but you've still got butyou've got to perform, you've
got to put in the work.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So it's who you know that gets you into the position.
It's what you know that keepsyou there.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's good.
Yeah, that's good.
All of us are wherever we are,mostly because of other people
around us.
What they've shot, showed us,taught us, um, trusted in us,
allowed us to yeah, um.
I've always said I've donesales for a long time.
I've always said almosteverything I know, everything I
(40:32):
do, I've just stolen from others.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Oh yeah, I mean and that goes back to why it's so
critical who are you surroundingyourself with?
And I saw a post on Facebookthe other day and it said
something like surround yourselfwith successful people.
The conversation is differentand I've found that to be true,
(40:56):
like in the world ofentrepreneurship and I've gotten
to know quite a few verysuccessful entrepreneurs here in
Dallas, the you know the.
The way they talk aboutbusiness is different.
I've gotten to know severalinvestors.
The way they talk aboutinvesting is different than the
average Joe walking around whothinks investing is, you know,
saving all your life tohopefully retire and be able to
(41:17):
pay your bills.
It's like really good,investors are not thinking that
way.
They're thinking how can Itriple X my money or five X my
money in the next three years?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Um, so anyway that's super different mindset than, uh
, when folks are living paycheckto paycheck.
I heard Myron Golden yesterdaysay that poor people, middle
class and wealthy people thinkof money three different ways.
Poor people think that money isto pay their bills, Middle
(41:51):
class think of money as likesavings and security.
And wealthy people think ofmoney as a tool to make more
money and they don't live off ofthe money that their job brings
in or their work brings in.
They live off of the money thattheir money brings in, and I
think robert kiyosaki has saidthe same thing.
It's like I'm not at that level,um, but you're right, it's
(42:15):
smart to hang out with peoplethat are at a different level to
stretch us and bring us there,hopefully.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, totally man.
Well, Adam, I'm sure we couldgo on for another hour talking
about business and life andleadership.
I think this has been greatbecause we have talked about
leadership.
We've talked about character,even though we didn't call it
that.
But when you said, be the kindof person other people want to
be around, that's a charactertrait.
(42:43):
Any last thing you would share?
If you had one thing to sharewith fellow roofing owners, the
most important thing to you,what would it be today?
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I would say this to anyone probably and I feel like
from my side, our conversationhas been going this way you
talked about how, once upon atime, you were like a staunch
unbeliever.
Right, and I would say to anyoneout there, whether you're a
believer or not, really behumble in what you think or
believe about yourself right nowand what you think that you
know, and be open to the factthat other people know things
(43:27):
that you don't.
And I talked about how I usedto be convinced I was always
right.
I always had to let everyoneknow how they were wrong if they
didn't agree with me, and thatwas rarely actually the case,
and I didn't win any friendsthat way, but often I was wrong
and too prideful to recognize it.
(43:47):
And so in business, inrelationships and in your faith,
I would say and even if you'rea Christian, I would say, be
humble to acknowledge orrecognize that maybe everything
you think, that you believe orknow to be true, maybe we don't
have a firm understanding on itstill and there's more that we
(44:07):
can learn.
So be open to well.
First pursue it and open tofolks who disagree with us and
see if you can learn and growfrom that.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
That's so good.
Be humble, yep, there's.
There's so much to learn fromeverybody, so much to learn from
life, from people, from kids,from movies, I mean it's just
endless.
So that's great.
I, you know you.
Occasionally you get around andknow it all, and it's it's.
That's usually when you're mepersonally I'm trying to figure
out how to exit the conversation.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Well, that's funny.
Before you figure out how toexit this conversation, as I've
said a bunch that I'm interested, try to be interested in others
and dig in and learn from otherpeople.
I'd love to flip that question.
And what's your one piece ofadvice before you let us sign
off?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Man, it's similar to what you said.
I had another mentor that whenI moved to Dallas.
That was the president of oneof the biggest privately held
insurance brokerages in the USand we're not talking State Farm
or any of those, we're talkingmore of the insured companies
and different things but he wasvery wealthy.
(45:24):
He was a man of God.
He was a great family manHusband, wife, husband, dad.
He was the elder of a church Igot to preach at when I moved up
here that I preached at for ayear in Texas and he was another
example of the kind of personyou just wanted to be around
more.
And he he had a great sense ofhumor, he wasn't prideful and it
(45:48):
was all about you when you werewith Dan Browning, I mean, he
was just, he was just awesome.
But I um I don't know if Iheard it from him or from
somebody else, but it's just asimple truth that I think he
said it.
People are going to forget 90%of what you say, but they're
never going to forget what it'slike to be around you.
And I've heard other people saylike that people won't forget
(46:11):
how you make them feel orwhatever.
But I don't know if that's apart of it, but I think it's
true, Like just being around Dan.
He was a loving guy, he wasfunny, he was also a man's man.
He was just a reallyinteresting package of a person
and I never forgot that, becauseit's like going back to what
(46:31):
you said.
It doesn't matter what you know,it's like what's it like to be
around you, and so that's myprayer.
You know it's like what's it,what's it like to be around you,
and so that's my prayer.
You know it's like God, pleasemold and shape my heart that I'm
.
I'm the kind of person that, uh, leaves an impact of love.
And when I screw up, I try toreally keep quick accounts and
I'll.
I called a guy yesterday andapologized for being too intense
(46:51):
in a meeting and said look, man, I was too focused, was
impatient, I got pretty intense.
I'm sorry, Will you forgive mefor that?
So it's like you can screw up,it's okay, but just striving to
be that kind of person anyway.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
That's right.
It takes humility to apologize.
I think it actually does a lotmore for relationship than
proving to people that I wasright.
Yeah, thanks for sharing thatGood tip.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, man.
Well, Adam, thanks for being onthe show.
Really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Me too.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
It was great.
all right, welcome to the limitless roofing show,
where we give you a seat at thetable as we talk with roofing
owners so that you can get thetips and the tactics and the
insights you need, hopefully, totake your business to the left,
to the next level, because our,our audience is roofing owners.
So today we've got adam rosswith Honey Bee Roofing and he's
doing some really unique thingsto stand out in his market.
(00:30):
We're going to get into that.
But, adam, welcome to the showman.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thanks a bunch, Dylan .
Good bee hat and good to spendsome time with you.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, and for those of you listening, I forget to do
this pretty much every time,but we run a GPO, a group
purchasing organization.
We're kind of like Costco youjoin, you save.
It's that simple.
We negotiate deals with SRS,beacon, crms, bookkeeping all
the things you spend money on inyour business.
We negotiate group discountsfor our members, and Adam is one
(01:03):
of our members.
We negotiate group discountsfor our members and Adam is one
of our members.
If you want to learn more aboutthat, it's totally free to join
and the website isLimitlessRoofingGroupcom.
All right, so let's get intotoday with you, adam.
Tell us a little bit about yourcompany.
Where are you at?
Where are you located?
What's your target revenue thisyear, maybe in three years?
(01:23):
Just kind of big picture forHoneybee.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, so we're out of Rockford, illinois, which is
northern Illinois.
We're about west of Chicago,which is a super cool market.
We're pretty isolated but we'rea good-sized region almost half
a million people out here.
So it's really, like I said,it's separated from the big city
(01:49):
but there's a lot of us here.
It's a cool town to serve.
My wife and I moved to Rockfordwhen we bought our first house
almost 20 years ago and we thinkit's a really cool area, so
excited and love to serve thecommunity here.
We say we treat our clientslike neighbors because they are
(02:09):
neighbors.
So that's one thing aboutHoneybee Roofing is that we've
been really focused on superhigh level of customer service.
I just read the bookUnreasonable Hospitality and I
was like, yes, that's us.
That's like want to beremembered, for of course we
want to do great work but wewant to treat our clients that
(02:33):
we work with in our communityreally well and be remembered
for that.
This year our revenue is two anda quarter million Really
fortunate to have really greatpartners.
Like through Limitless isanother place we find really
great relationships, but withour supply house, with our
(02:54):
manufacturers, the crews that wework with and really even
referral partners in thecommunity.
That, literally, is what hasbuilt our business and it's been
a fun journey that I kind offeel like I've been, like they
say, along for the ride, like Ihave the vision, but I'm just
kind of watching it play out andgetting to live it out.
(03:15):
Uh, day by day.
It's been awesome that's greatman.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Where are you hoping to land revenue wisewise in the
next three years?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So probably I have like giant goals and then as we
take the path we kind of see ifwe have to steer or adjust.
But about three years we'relooking to be around 10 million.
It's like some big jumps.
But, um, we made a really bigjump, uh, from two years ago to
(03:50):
last year.
And why just make one big jump?
Let's just keep yeah, no,that's.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's great, it's.
It's something that comes up inour group is guys want to scale
well, and the conversationalways ends up going.
You know, know, it starts withsales but then it immediately
goes to systems and processesand streamlining the whole
business and, you know, removingall the friction everywhere.
That's great, but let's, let'stalk a little bit about your
appearance, because you have aunique brand.
(04:20):
You stand out brand.
You stand out your videos,stand out your t-shirt, your hat
.
What gave you the idea forhoneybee roofing?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Where'd the honeybee concept come from?
Well, this wasn't our firstbrand.
Our first brand was reallyboring but patriotic, which I
thought was really great.
Really boring but patriotic,which I thought was really great
, and I loved the patriotic.
So it was hard to let go.
But I went to a conference andI heard the first talk at my
first roofing conference was onbranding and the first thing he
(04:58):
said was if you have red, whiteand blue in your company logo,
stand up.
And I looked and it's like halfthe room and window, uh.
So I've read the book by danantonelli called branded, not
blanded, and uh, one of thethings was like you want to have
a mascot or some kind ofcharacter like the geico right
(05:21):
or um, captain crunch or thecheerio, uh b and um kind of
funny.
But one thing when we went thered, white and blue route, it
hit me I was like man, myfavorite color is yellow and I
like the bright and the cheery.
We should have done somethingyellow with the company.
(05:41):
And so then, when we had achance, we decided to rebrand,
which felt like a huge risk, um,but Dan Antonelli says like, if
you feel like it's a big risktoday, at whatever you're at and
look at where you want to bedown the road.
The risk never gets smaller andthe effort never gets less.
Um, so I was sold on um,northern Illinois.
(06:05):
We can't roof all year round,right?
So we're like squirrels and wepile up our nuts all summer long
and we stash them somewhere andeat off of that stash all
winter long and I'm likecounting these acorns and I'm
like I think I have enough torewrap our trucks, redo our
websites, repurchase our gearand really God has been good
(06:29):
Again a lot of goodrelationships, a lot of guidance
and obviously we made itthrough that winter and the
rebranding super paid off.
We get a lot of leads from ourtrucks driving around town.
When I had one truck, I hadpeople telling me I see your
(06:49):
trucks all over town becauseit's that bold.
And it surprised me that withinlike 30 days it also increased
our SEO, just like organicthrough Google.
We were getting more leads on abrand new website than we had
on our previous one, so it'sbeen a really cool payoff.
(07:11):
And it's a lot of fun with thecommunity.
We have these stickers that wegive out all over the place.
I order like 5,000 of them at atime and people go around and
like people I just met today.
They're like oh, I'll put thison my water bottle and carry it
with me everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm like oh, that's such a great idea.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So is the?
Is the comparison of thehoneybee have to do with, just
like diligent work, or what?
What is?
Where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
yeah.
So I guess I never likefinished that circle to how we
got to the honeybee.
But, um, so my favorite color,some kind of mascot.
I was brainstorming through allthe different animals that
could be yellow.
I went to the bee and was like,oh, bee could be like scary or
dangerous or harmful, like whatabout honey bees?
(08:07):
Kind of sounds sweet, kind ofsounds fun, and I really loved.
Again, I talked about investingin our community and serving our
community.
I really liked the idea of how,like it takes thousands of bees
to work together to make theircommunity survive and they're
all working together, playingtheir part, serving their role,
helping each other out, andthat's really like our attitude
(08:29):
towards our community is, uh,our community has done a lot for
us and we want to do a bunch totry and help and serve our
community.
And now I like all the puns.
I'm like being sweet or you'llbe excited.
You call this.
I don't have the acronym, butStarbucks has what they call
(08:51):
like the Starbucks experience,what everybody should expect or
what their staff should expectto be treated and the experience
a client would have encounteredgoing into a Starbucks.
And we defined the Honeybeeexperience and it's this acronym
S-W-E-E-T.
It's sweet.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Nice man, that's great.
And the colors, I meaneverything just stands out.
You know, I'm in Dallas where Ican't drive to work without
seeing a roofing truck, but theyall look the same, they.
But they all look the same,they do they all look the same.
Every logo has something thatlooks like a house and then it's
(09:36):
got the roofing name and itsays roofing, and usually
roofing and gutters, or roofingand siding, or roofing and
construction or whatever.
But your brand really standsout.
So how many years have you guysbeen in business now?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
This is our third season in business.
Our second season is HoneybeeRoofing.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Second season is Honeybee Roofing.
So you know I mean businessowner to business owner.
Here nobody really knows whatit's like to start something
from scratch.
Start hiring people, you startto be responsible for their
payroll.
It's a lot to run a businessand to handle sales and
(10:14):
marketing and then you get intothe operations and then managing
your finances.
Like you mentioned, you can'troof all year.
So managing that cashflow stufflike that, what's been one of
the biggest challenges you facedin the last couple of years?
Take us through that and ifit's a specific story, great.
Or maybe if it's a certainissue in the business, or maybe
it's just you as a leader, butwhatever, that is what's been
(10:39):
one of the biggest challengesyou've faced you've faced.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, um, last year.
So we uh I went into businesswith the whole intent that we're
going to be retail focusedcompany and if storms come
through, we'll be equipped andprepared and educated to help
our neighbors through theprocess.
But, um, we're going to focuson just organic growth.
I feel like I have more controlover that and, long-term,
there's less variables that Ican't forecast or plan for Last
(11:16):
year.
So my first year was incredible.
This tornado came through andthree days later this giant hail
storm comes through and withinlike two months, I had enough
money stashed.
This was wild.
I quit my full-time job aftertwo months worth of work here.
But then the second year in,there's basically no storms to
(11:40):
speak of, but they well, therewere.
They were like three or fourhours away and probably half of
the companies up here they allwent and they got Airbnbs down
in that area and they sent theirguys down there.
And to me, it's just a valuethat I created the company to be
(12:02):
able to better serve my family,for my, when we hire teammates,
for them to become betterpeople and better serve their
family, so going four hours outof town and just spending life
away from family doesn't makesense.
So, um, well, knowing thatthere's like work out there to
harvest that I'm activelychoosing not to pursue, and
(12:25):
going through a season, um, thatwas kind of slow and just
really trusting the process andthe plan and like building
things um grassroots, so tospeak.
Um, so we went through umprobably like three months where
it was like, you know, it feelslike week to week or month to
(13:00):
month, but really the solution,so to speak, to that, to like
wrapping up with 300% growthfrom one year to the next,
except that we had really goodrelationships that bring us a
job here, bring us a job there.
It was really fun at the end ofthe season for us, like winding
(13:24):
down in October, really, andthen we can sometimes work in
November.
Um, the beginning of October, um, we were at like double our
revenue from the year before,and then, um, I got this HOA uh
job, uh that we won for was uh14 duplexes and that was like
(13:45):
enough to fill the rest of theyear and that one job from one
relationship was more revenuethan we had done the year before
yeah, that's great, and it'smostly retail work, right that
one actually was a storm claim Ihad nothing to do with and I
(14:06):
feel a little not guilty but Ifeel bad, for the previous
roofer had a relationship withthe president of the HOA who
moved out of town during theclaim process so he was no
longer a part of the processwhen the approval came through.
And this one relationship that Ihad got voted in to be the
(14:30):
president and said, well, ifwe're gonna hire somebody to
take care of all this work forus, I'd like to hire somebody
that I know will answer thephone, will do good work, will
respond if there's issues.
So I had two hours worth ofwork into that specific project
but a couple of years worth ofwork into the relationship.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So what do you think is the biggest thing you learned
during that difficult timewhere you're going week after
week going oh man, we need morecoming in?
What was something you learnedas a business owner during that
time?
What?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
was something you learned as a business owner
during that time.
I just posted on Facebook lastnight or today something about
our habits and I can't like.
I really appreciated the bookAtomic Habits.
I didn't study it well enoughthat I can quote him well, but
there's something about likewe're not our goals or our
(15:25):
results, we're the habits andthe process and the things we
actively do over and over again.
And so during that slow seasonit gives me a chance to be
really intentional.
What are the things I do overand over again that are going to
be beneficial, over and overagain, that are going to be
beneficial?
And then that creates a routinefor as we bring on more sales
(15:51):
folks we don't have a sales teamyet, it's all me and all my
referral partners.
But as I bring on guys I workedfor a roofer a while back and
our sales just like would sitaround the conference room
waiting for leads to come in,and that's not our culture here.
(16:11):
And we're going to build a teamof folks who are building their
own business, figure out theirown thing, and not necessarily
storm chasing, but really beingdiligent and intentional about
what are the habits andactivities I can do each day.
That'll grow things a littlebit, a little bit and just keep
stacking.
So the takeaway or the thing tolearn is like just stick with
(16:31):
those right activities.
If you believe it's right,don't give up when it's hard or
when it's slow.
And so I had tons of lunches,tons of coffees, tons of
spending time with realtors,insurance agents, folks in other
trades people.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
So it sounds like you're a real networker.
It sounds like that's somethingyou do naturally.
So how do you do that?
I mean, if you want to make arelationship with an insurance
agent, are you driving up totheir office just popping in, or
are you going to a networkingevent?
What's your practice with that?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
three different chambers of commerce I try to go
to.
I do go to as many of theiractivities or events as I can,
which sometimes is a lot andsometimes is not, and just which
is one of the cool things I'dlike to do, like BNI, but the
time commitment on that they'relike really rigorous on.
There's penalties if you don'tshow up.
(17:37):
But I like to go to activitieslike that where there's business
folk and just get to knowpeople.
When I first started networkingI could show up and like wonder
how can I convince somebody towant to buy from me?
And I really have learned thatgetting interested in other
people will make them interestedin us.
(17:59):
And there's probably, if I gointo a room, probably like zero
people in that room that need aroof today.
So I don't need to have thepressure of like what can I sell
today.
I get to find out what's cooland neat about all of those
people in the room, what can Iget excited to dig into, to
learn more about who they areand what they do.
(18:20):
And then naturally they kind ofsome folks reciprocate and they
ask more about us what do we do?
And then, um, again, I I feellike I want to provide customer
service up here.
I feel like we're here rightnow.
But something that I do is likewhen I meet with folks, when I
go out for coffee, when I go outfor lunch, I send out like
(18:43):
little thank you notes.
And I had lunch with a dudeyesterday and I was like, hey,
thanks for blocking out the timeto have lunch together.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, looking up to
follow up on XYZ, and then Ieven bought these like little
vinyl stickers that are like oneinch square, that are just our
honeybee man logo, and I sealthe envelope like you do the old
(19:05):
wax seal with a little honeybeeman sticker.
So it's a lot of serving.
There's a book, go Givers, sellMore.
That kind of mindset.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Man, that kind of mindset man, that's good stuff
and it's clearly working.
And if you're doing, you knowtwo and a half million in
revenue and you're not payingout a bunch of sales commissions
.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, that's a great, that's a great living,
that's a lot of, that's a lot ofcushion.
It's insane To go from sellingcell phone contracts for another
company on their payroll, ontheir time clock, to being on my
time clock and my payroll.
I can just say God has beenvery, very good.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, as you're doing that andyou're the main sales guy right
now, how do you balance?
You know you've mentioned Godand so you're a man of faith.
You've got your family, you'vegot your physical fitness, your
health, and then you've got yourfinances, your business stuff.
(20:17):
How do you keep all that inbalance?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
The finance stuff I'll say is the hardest.
I feel like I have good systemsfor our checking accounts.
After the first year I learnedthat I need a separate account
for money that comes in untilthe job is complete and all the
invoices on that job are paidout.
(20:43):
Then I move it into like aninsurance account.
Then I have a separate savingsaccount for like what I call my
end of year bonus or businessprofits, and I'm intentional
about what percentage we moveover there.
But as far as like QuickBooks, Ihave like over 365 days there's
(21:04):
like eight, that my QuickBooksis like clean and precise, but
as far as like all the differentpriorities in life, how do I
keep things in balance?
I don't know.
It's probably days that lookbalanced and that there's days
that don't.
I think it depends who youlisten to right.
(21:25):
People say balance isn't thegoal, and I think you can look
at a day and it looks likeyou're not balanced.
But depending on the time frame, I feel like you have achieved
like balance or your prioritiesare lined up right.
How do I achieve balance?
(21:45):
Well, a lot of time intolearning and, as I do that, just
more ideas and tips and thingsto create one new individual
habit at a time, not gianttransformations.
I recently started cold plunging, like two and a half weeks ago.
(22:06):
Right now I still just do it inmy bathtub.
Um, and I was doing like abunch of ice and my wife's like
let's go out and buy a bunch ofice packs, so now we can just
freeze all these ice packs andum, you know, it's one habit for
my health and for my mindset.
Um, it spends five minutes aday investing in that um and
(22:34):
atomic habits talks about, about, I think it's habit stacking or
something like that.
So I mean, like the routine is,I go, I turn the bathtub on to
start filling the water, I gograb the ice packs to throw it
in and then I go do mydevotional while the bathtub's
filling up and it's like whatkind of efficient routine can
(22:56):
you create?
Ed Milet says, and probably abunch of folks not to touch your
phone for like first 45 minutesof the day.
There's nothing on there that'sgoing to steer you towards your
goals, and maybe that's anotherthing is like kind of a small
group of folks that I spend timewith so I'm not distracted by
(23:19):
things that are not going tomove us towards the things that
are important.
But I certainly mess things uptoo, man, my health like there's
some weeks or months that areawesome and some that are
horrible.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's funny.
Yeah, I know.
For me, I've told the storymany times about managing an
apartment building and having400 people who know you by name
and having to develop somepretty hardcore boundaries
between work life and personallife or family life or whatever,
and I've just carried that oversince that was back in 2009.
(23:56):
And for me it's keeping aroutine, very routine driven
wake up pretty much close to thesame time every day, go to bed
at the same time, wake up, havebreakfast same thing, read the
Bible I want to hear somethingfrom the Lord, get some words,
some encouragement, some, sometruth, so, and then, uh, have
(24:21):
breakfast and then work out.
And uh, and then work, and thenat about five o'clock man, I
mean, unless there's just somecrazy urgent thing happening,
which is extremely rare with mybusiness uh, I leave and I'm at
home by five 30.
My wife is finishing up dinner.
Our three girls are told tocome wash hands, come to the
(24:43):
table and we all have dinnertogether and we talk about what
was the high point of the day.
Did you have a low point of theday?
Um, and it's just dedicatedfamily time.
There's no screens, there's nonothing.
Um, and then we, you know, haveour little evening routine with
them, put them to bed and thenmy wife and I have about two
hours together or alone.
(25:04):
If we want to spend it together, which we usually do, we'll try
to find something clean towatch, like Nate Bargett he's
our latest thing that we've beenwatching.
He's one of the only cleanstand-up comedians.
That's made it really big, butthat's kind of the way I've
tried to balance it out that wayyou're, you know, just keeping
everything in check, but I feellike if any one of those areas
(25:32):
becomes too big, the others allsuffer.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
So, anyway, it's just something I like to bring up A
lot of guys tend to reallystruggle with that and they make
work, the finance part, biggerthan faith and family and
fitness.
To me, the whole reason I'mdoing this is for my family and
(25:54):
our future, so it's dumb if I'mwaiting till the future to
invest in my family.
Um, you mentioned, uh, going tobed at the same time.
Waking up at the same time.
Not going to bed on time islike a day destroyer.
Um, I don't know if it's, I'mlike I'll be 44 this year and
(26:17):
and um, I don't know if it comeswith age more or what, but like
it's so hard to wake up on timeand get that routine going if I
didn't go to bed at the righttime and I hired a virtual
assistant because of that reason.
Um, that's why I picked the onethat I picked.
(26:37):
Um, I asked the question aboutstaying accountable.
When you're remote completely,how do you keep yourself
accountable to the tasks thatyou've been assigned?
And her answer was it allstarts with how you begin the
day.
So I make sure I go to bed ontime so that I can wake up on
time.
And then she said and then I domy devotions and my routine to
start the day.
(26:58):
And I was like that was heranswer to keeping herself
accountable to keep a goodroutine for the day.
I thought that was really wise.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's good stuff, yeah, and you and your spouse
has to be on board for that too.
I'm thankful I'm not in amarriage where one person is a
night owl and the other whatever.
We both like to try to get tobed by 10, 15-ish and sit and
talk for a minute and then go tosleep.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
What's hard for me is my kids are getting older.
In the last six to nine monthsI've had to draw a boundary for
me that it's okay to go to bedbefore my kids.
I'm not worried about themmaking good choices.
I know that I don't have toworry about their decisions.
It's just like as the dad, theprotector.
(27:45):
I want to make sure everyone'sin their place, everyone's safe
and sound, before I turn off forthe night.
But having an 18 and a16-year-old, I just have to have
faith everyone's going to besafe and sound, even if I go to
bed before them.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Oh man, yeah, we started having children later
than you.
I'm I'm 45, but we've got threelittle girls that are, uh, five
, seven and nine, and yeah,that's.
I don't think I'm ready forthat Like I like it right now.
They're all in bed, we're, weare out of the bedroom.
Bedtime routines over by eight,30 at the latest, but I know
(28:25):
it's coming where they're goingto be.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's discipline I could tell you, though there's
probably like a window in therewhere you and your wife get that
time at the end of the day, andit's a lot shorter.
But now I'm in this windowwhere, um, now I go to bed
before my kids, so we don't getany time after they go to bed,
(28:46):
but they're gone during the weekfor hours at a time.
So last night our kids went toyouth group and my wife and I
went on a two-mile walk togetherand then we hung out at the
house for a little bit and wentup for coffee, all while the
kids were, uh, gone.
So like it's different blocksto get that time together.
(29:07):
Um, having big kids is likeit's a big deal man I don't want
him to move.
I don't want them to be far awayand keep seeing less and less
of them.
But my son works for me, sothat's been fun.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh, nice man, that's great.
So so what?
What advice would you have,based on what you've learned so
far, what you guys have donereally well building
relationships and branding forother guys that are thinking,
man, I don't really have as manyrelationships like that as I
like or getting those kinds ofreferrals.
(29:46):
What would you recommend forsomebody like you mentioned
atomic habits, just startingsmall, something little that
somebody can start chipping awayat.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, building relationships, um, I guess first
you have to be the kind ofperson people want to have a
relationship with.
Um donald miller, hisorganization is called story
brand, and their whole marketing, um, theory, so to speak, or
strategy, is that you want tomake the other person the hero,
(30:21):
not yourself the hero.
Uh, naturally, we go around andwe want to come across as the
hero and super duper and special.
But, dylan, you want to be thehero in your story.
So if I come into your storytrying to be the hero, you are
going to push me out of yourstory because I'm trying to take
the main character role thatyou want to play.
(30:42):
Um donald miller teaches that,uh, if I want to be a part of
your story, I should come alongas a guide, offer advice.
What can I give?
What can I contribute?
Um, and I think people, uh, Idon't know, um, there's probably
people, uh, I don't know, um,there's probably people out
there that don't connect withthat and care about that, and
that's fine.
(31:02):
I, there's plenty out therethat do, and I'll connect with
those people.
One thing I see, though in ourindustry it's really weird Like
you go to events and there'ssome folks that are like so open
, so generous with their time,ideas and advice, so giving and
kind.
And then there's some folksthat walk into the room and
(31:25):
they're like we're here tocompete, I want to dominate,
you're the enemy.
We have to do better.
And like.
I bump into folks at the supplyhouse and I'm always like hey,
how's it going?
Hope you have a good day, staysafe out there, good luck out
there.
And some dudes are like highfive, shake hands, fist bump,
whatever.
And some dudes are like andlike.
(31:47):
I think that, uh, to me I'm ofcourse like all the rest of the
contractors in this region arecompetition, but really the
biggest competition is me.
I feel like when I sit downwith a client and it's maybe
different sometimes, I feel likewhen people are doing storm
work but when I'm doing retailstuff and I sit down with a
(32:08):
client, I really know who I'mcompeting with and I don't feel
like in that moment I'mcompeting with anyone.
I feel like in that moment it'smy job to present myself and my
company as best as possible sothat they want to do something
right now, today, and not haveto compare to all the folks.
(32:29):
But also I want to up my gamein the way I serve them and the
way I present our company andour products and make them feel
so that, as they do talk toother folks down the road.
But as far as like the onehabits, like, be the kind of
person you would want to befriends with, which usually
starts with being interested inthe people that you're in front
(32:51):
of.
Do it a bunch and thoserelationships start to stack up.
But that's an atomic habit.
It starts off at no return justeffort, just effort, just
effort.
But you have to believe thatonce you find an atomic habit to
(33:14):
invest in, that you put thateffort in over time and it
starts producing bigger andbigger compounding results.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Man.
I love that I.
That's been a big life lessonfor me personally.
I had a mentor in in Biblecollege that, uh, and I mean he
was a true mentor.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I went to Bible college once upon a time too.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Nice, yeah, he, uh, he was a true mentor.
He, we, he did, we did lifeside by side invited me to his
house multiple times for dinner.
We met at his office.
He was a professor at the Biblecollege.
We met his office once a weekand went through different books
and pray together.
We went on mission tripstogether and he was a philosophy
(33:56):
major at A&M and I loved thatbecause I came to Christianity
as a.
I was a very passionate skepticand God did some really powerful
things to turn my eyes to Jesusand change all of that.
But growing up without a dadaround and growing up as a
dominant male, I was a reallyintense guy, had a lot of
(34:17):
passion and love to preach andteach and stuff like that.
So constantly telling peoplestuff that I knew, constantly
Right.
And I remember he met with meone time and he said, dylan,
when you're with other people,it's not about you, it's not
about what you're passionateabout or what you're excited
about or what you learned thisweek that you're fired up about,
(34:41):
it's about them.
And he said you, when you spendtime with other people, you
need to focus on getting to knowthem.
Who are they?
Where have they been?
What are they interested in?
And he said most people you're.
He said you're going to find.
Most people are just walkingaround sharing their biography.
They're just talking aboutthemselves all the time.
(35:03):
He said you're going to meetvery few people who have a
genuine interest in you.
And it was.
My mind was blown because hewas so right.
He was so right so I startedmaking it a practice from that
point on to just get to knowpeople, and prior to that I
really didn't enjoy being aroundpeople very much.
(35:24):
It was kind of a transactionalthing, like, okay, I want to
interact with you, tell you whatyou need to know, and move on
and go about.
Back to what I'm into, and itreally taught me to actually
enjoy people and I had to reallypray through that too, just
saying God, give me your heartfor people.
You love people.
Life is all about relationshipsand I'm so thankful for that
(35:46):
because now, like I, can sit andtalk with you and genuinely
enjoy your company, whereasbefore you know, back in my mid
twenties, I just wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
I can relate.
I grew up thinking I was alwaysright and if anyone ever
disagreed with me I needed tolet them know.
Of course Couldn't have twoideas float out there that
weren't aligned and just let itbe.
I had to make sure we left theconversation with only one idea,
(36:21):
and it being mine usually.
But people's favorite topic isthemselves.
Usually that's how I sell, too,is I dig in and get to know
folks.
I called it at the beginning,our whole first year, I said our
business model was slow andsteady, just dig in deep and
(36:45):
grab on and we get a lot ofreferrals, a lot of folks who
put our stickers on their coffeemugs.
But because I take my time andI go deep and I spend time and I
get to know people and, like Ihave clients who are like, hey,
when can we grab lunch?
When are we going to hang out?
Now that this is over and, um,I feel like the more we're
(37:10):
interested in others, the morethey want to spend time with us
and uh, really to.
It's more fun to live that way,to make other people happy and
to make their day bright, ratherthan focusing on my day being
bright and then most of thepeople around me not wanting to
be around me.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, right, it's so true, so true, yeah.
And it changes, like, like yousaid, it changes the way you
sell, it changes the way youoperate.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It really changes everything, when that's that's
the focus and I can say, um man,some of the folks that I've met
in our industry that havemassive companies like when I've
introduced myself, or go up andchat with them they're the
friendliest, most generous,caring people, and I found that,
(38:00):
too, when I worked a full-timejob for somebody else.
The more successful people were,the kinder they were, the more
generous they were with theirtime Not to say that they'd let
you take advantage of their time, but they're just nice, really
great quality people, and that'sbeen actually.
(38:21):
I'm grateful that, as I've metsome of those folks and been
interested in them, they'veopened up to allow me to stay in
communication with them andbounce ideas and questions,
ideas and advice.
How in the world does somebodythis is a god thing for real I
say, um, maybe there's some likemindset and attitude towards it
(38:45):
as well, but first and secondyear in business to have the
cell phone numbers of somebodydoing 40 million dollars in
sales and 60 million dollars insales and they answer my texts,
they'll take my phone calls,they'll give me advice Unreal.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, it's so good.
I heard somebody say when I wasI've had so many different jobs
over the years, but when I wasin my I think it was 19, my
sister, my older sister, got mea job at a at Morgan Stanley,
dean Witter to, to go intotraining as a stockbroker.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
And, um, yeah, I didn't stick with that very long
, but one of the guys that Iworked, the guy that I worked
with in his office, I mean hewas just like stereotypical
stockbroker and his he wasprobably in his late twenties,
early thirties and he was making, you know, three to five grand
a day and he'd leave as soon asthe market closed at three
o'clock and he's just likeliving a crazy life.
(39:46):
It's who you know that gets youthere and it's what you know
that keeps you there.
And he was so big on onrelationships too, but it's like
but, but you've still got butyou've got to perform, you've
got to put in the work.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So it's who you know that gets you into the position.
It's what you know that keepsyou there.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That's good.
Yeah, that's good.
All of us are wherever we are,mostly because of other people
around us.
What they've shot, showed us,taught us, um, trusted in us,
allowed us to yeah, um.
I've always said I've donesales for a long time.
I've always said almosteverything I know, everything I
(40:32):
do, I've just stolen from others.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Oh yeah, I mean and that goes back to why it's so
critical who are you surroundingyourself with?
And I saw a post on Facebookthe other day and it said
something like surround yourselfwith successful people.
The conversation is differentand I've found that to be true,
(40:56):
like in the world ofentrepreneurship and I've gotten
to know quite a few verysuccessful entrepreneurs here in
Dallas, the you know the.
The way they talk aboutbusiness is different.
I've gotten to know severalinvestors.
The way they talk aboutinvesting is different than the
average Joe walking around whothinks investing is, you know,
saving all your life tohopefully retire and be able to
(41:17):
pay your bills.
It's like really good,investors are not thinking that
way.
They're thinking how can Itriple X my money or five X my
money in the next three years?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Um, so anyway that's super different mindset than, uh
, when folks are living paycheckto paycheck.
I heard Myron Golden yesterdaysay that poor people, middle
class and wealthy people thinkof money three different ways.
Poor people think that money isto pay their bills, Middle
(41:51):
class think of money as likesavings and security.
And wealthy people think ofmoney as a tool to make more
money and they don't live off ofthe money that their job brings
in or their work brings in.
They live off of the money thattheir money brings in, and I
think robert kiyosaki has saidthe same thing.
It's like I'm not at that level,um, but you're right, it's
(42:15):
smart to hang out with peoplethat are at a different level to
stretch us and bring us there,hopefully.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, totally man.
Well, Adam, I'm sure we couldgo on for another hour talking
about business and life andleadership.
I think this has been greatbecause we have talked about
leadership.
We've talked about character,even though we didn't call it
that.
But when you said, be the kindof person other people want to
be around, that's a charactertrait.
(42:43):
Any last thing you would share?
If you had one thing to sharewith fellow roofing owners, the
most important thing to you,what would it be today?
Speaker 2 (43:04):
I would say this to anyone probably and I feel like
from my side, our conversationhas been going this way you
talked about how, once upon atime, you were like a staunch
unbeliever.
Right, and I would say to anyoneout there, whether you're a
believer or not, really behumble in what you think or
believe about yourself right nowand what you think that you
know, and be open to the factthat other people know things
(43:27):
that you don't.
And I talked about how I usedto be convinced I was always
right.
I always had to let everyoneknow how they were wrong if they
didn't agree with me, and thatwas rarely actually the case,
and I didn't win any friendsthat way, but often I was wrong
and too prideful to recognize it.
(43:47):
And so in business, inrelationships and in your faith,
I would say and even if you'rea Christian, I would say, be
humble to acknowledge orrecognize that maybe everything
you think, that you believe orknow to be true, maybe we don't
have a firm understanding on itstill and there's more that we
(44:07):
can learn.
So be open to well.
First pursue it and open tofolks who disagree with us and
see if you can learn and growfrom that.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
That's so good.
Be humble, yep, there's.
There's so much to learn fromeverybody, so much to learn from
life, from people, from kids,from movies, I mean it's just
endless.
So that's great.
I, you know you.
Occasionally you get around andknow it all, and it's it's.
That's usually when you're mepersonally I'm trying to figure
out how to exit the conversation.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Well, that's funny.
Before you figure out how toexit this conversation, as I've
said a bunch that I'm interested, try to be interested in others
and dig in and learn from otherpeople.
I'd love to flip that question.
And what's your one piece ofadvice before you let us sign
off?
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Man, it's similar to what you said.
I had another mentor that whenI moved to Dallas.
That was the president of oneof the biggest privately held
insurance brokerages in the USand we're not talking State Farm
or any of those, we're talkingmore of the insured companies
and different things but he wasvery wealthy.
(45:24):
He was a man of God.
He was a great family manHusband, wife, husband, dad.
He was the elder of a church Igot to preach at when I moved up
here that I preached at for ayear in Texas and he was another
example of the kind of personyou just wanted to be around
more.
And he he had a great sense ofhumor, he wasn't prideful and it
(45:48):
was all about you when you werewith Dan Browning, I mean, he
was just, he was just awesome.
But I um I don't know if Iheard it from him or from
somebody else, but it's just asimple truth that I think he
said it.
People are going to forget 90%of what you say, but they're
never going to forget what it'slike to be around you.
And I've heard other people saylike that people won't forget
(46:11):
how you make them feel orwhatever.
But I don't know if that's apart of it, but I think it's
true, Like just being around Dan.
He was a loving guy, he wasfunny, he was also a man's man.
He was just a reallyinteresting package of a person
and I never forgot that, becauseit's like going back to what
(46:31):
you said.
It doesn't matter what you know,it's like what's it like to be
around you, and so that's myprayer.
You know it's like what's it,what's it like to be around you,
and so that's my prayer.
You know it's like God, pleasemold and shape my heart that I'm
.
I'm the kind of person that, uh, leaves an impact of love.
And when I screw up, I try toreally keep quick accounts and
I'll.
I called a guy yesterday andapologized for being too intense
(46:51):
in a meeting and said look, man, I was too focused, was
impatient, I got pretty intense.
I'm sorry, Will you forgive mefor that?
So it's like you can screw up,it's okay, but just striving to
be that kind of person anyway.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
That's right.
It takes humility to apologize.
I think it actually does a lotmore for relationship than
proving to people that I wasright.
Yeah, thanks for sharing thatGood tip.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, man.
Well, Adam, thanks for being onthe show.
Really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
Me too.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
It was great.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!