September 8, 2025 • 62 mins
Ever wonder what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who struggle for years without breakthrough? Tobiah Rocker's story might just hold the answer.
From borrowing a neighbor's lawnmower as an eight-year-old to fund a school field trip his mother couldn't afford, to building Roof Bullies, a thriving roofing and restoration company, Rocker's journey demonstrates the power of unwavering focus and strategic positioning. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma—home to the historic Black Wall Street—shaped his understanding of both racial dynamics and business opportunity.
The pivotal moment came when Rocker, with zero roofing experience, dramatically underbid a church roofing project. Rather than retreating in embarrassment, he invested $4,500 in a premium ticket to RoofCon, immersing himself completely in an industry where he observed only one other Black business owner among thousands of attendees. This bold move accelerated his learning curve by years, connecting him with multi-millionaire mentors who shared their expertise freely.
What truly distinguishes Rocker is his philosophical foundation: "No one is going to save you," he emphasizes, taking complete responsibility for his success path. At 35, he remains laser-focused on building generational wealth before pursuing personal relationships. His "Squirrel Theory" of success—that success, like a squirrel, cannot be caught by chasing it directly but through strategic positioning and patient value delivery—offers a refreshing counterpoint to hustle culture.
Perhaps most compelling is Rocker's commitment to creating opportunities for others, particularly in trades that remain resilient against AI disruption. His advice to young entrepreneurs? "Try everything, then make a decision and be obsessed with it."
Ready to transform your approach to business and life? Listen now and discover how Tobiah Rocker's principles can help you attract success rather than frantically chase it.
https://www.instagram.com/_mrrocker/?hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiah-rocker-1b7b2317/
Email us at manhoodmatterspodcast@gmail.com
Follow us on all Socials: Manhood Matters Podcast
Host: StéphaneAlexandre
IG: @stephanealexandreofficial
Music by Liam Weisner
Sponsored by www.OnsiteLabs.net
(833) 878-3323
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The philosophies that I live off of is you're going
to die, tobiah.
That's inevitable, and youdon't know when it's going to
happen.
So you can't take no days forgranted and you have to give
everything that you have, nomatter how tired you are,
exhausted, mentally drained,that doesn't matter because it's
(00:21):
not about you.
That philosophy allows me tounderstand that I have to show
up for this business everysingle day that is an amazing
philosophy mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
How old are you?
35.
Rocker is his last name, whichis very fitting because tobias
rocker is indeed a superstar.
I got a chance to sit with himso he could share his secrets
about his principle-basedsuccesses, his past failures and
his perpetual learning.
Now, if you're seeking a lifeof abundance and feel that
(00:57):
you've tried many things and yethaven't cracked it, you just
haven't gotten that break yet.
This conversation is for you.
But don't just follow the show.
Please share this episode withat least one friend.
I guarantee you there issomeone you know who could use
this recipe for success, Knowingthere's something else, and
they just aren't fulfilling thatpurpose.
(01:18):
Today, Tobias Rocker speaks ofthat purpose.
He shares his principles, hisideologies and the secrets that
have made him successful andcontinue to elevate his company.
Thank you, family, for pressingplay on this enlightening
episode.
I'm glad you did and you willbe too.
Welcome to Manhood Matters.
(01:39):
Let's get to it.
(02:00):
Tobiah Rocker.
Yes, sir, Welcome to the show.
Brother, my man, my man.
Glad you're here, Appreciate youhaving me, Of course, Of course
Anytime.
I do these whenever there'ssomeone that I kind of admire
look up to.
I always feel funny saying thisbecause you're a lot younger
than I am and I say I look up toyou, but I don't look at the
age, I look at theaccomplishments, I look at the
body of work and I think you'vedone some amazing things.
(02:22):
I've only met you once, but Iheard you speak at an event.
I thought you were impressive.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So now we're going to go back to the roadmap that got
you from where you started towhere you are today.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So it has always kind of started like years ago, like
when I was probably in themiddle school, and my first kind
of business that I kind of tookon is like I had a neighbor and
he had.
He was an old man, he had alawnmower in his garage and he
always kept his garage open buthe never used it.
So one day I kind of seen mygrandpa we cut this yard and it
(02:56):
kind of inspired me like, oh,I'm gonna cut some grass and
this is like when I was, youknow, probably eight, something
like that.
So I went next door, jumped thegate, took my neighbor's
lawnmower and gas can and snuckit on the side of his house and
I just knocked on my neighbor'sdoors and told him I'll cut
their grass.
(03:16):
And they, when they asked mehow much they'd do it but I'll
do it for being a kid I was like$10, you know $8, you know
whatever.
Kid, I was like ten dollars,you know eight dollars, you know
whatever.
So, um, the thing is it onlytook me time.
So I cut probably five people'syard on my street for ten
dollars and then I made 50 bucksand I had to.
I ran out of gas.
(03:36):
I had to kind of ask somebodywhat should I do?
And then I got on my bike, wentup to the street, got some gas,
rode back, spilt it all overmyself.
It was just like an experienceof starting something.
So from there I've always hadand started businesses.
In regards to my access when Iwas a kid I was just doing it to
(03:59):
what I can do.
So it was another situation.
Once I got into middle school.
I had a particular guy.
His name was brown gravy and hewas a crackhead, but he had a
car.
Okay, and brown gravy, if Igive him, you know, five dollars
or whatever ten dollars, he'lldrive me wherever, as long as
you know he can put gas in thecar.
Yeah, and he had, like this,this old little van, but it fit
(04:23):
like five, seven people.
So my school gave us these jumprope for heart envelopes and
they gave us some shirts andthey told us to go home and get
donations for this jump rope forheart.
They gave me an envelope.
I went into my neighborhood,got a lot of money, took it back
, gave it to my teacher and Ikind of found out that my
(04:44):
teacher didn't even she kind ofkept the money.
So I found the envelopes in thebooklets of Jump Rope for Heart
, and I took probably 20 of them.
And then I got about seven ofmy homeboys that I played sports
with and we all piled up inthis crackhead's car Brown Gravy
, brown Gravy and we went tothis particular neighborhood
(05:07):
just raised money from hey, themiddle school, the Jump Rope for
Heart, yeah, and they donate,donate, donate, and then we kind
of just Kept that, kept themoney.
But the way that I did it, Ijust I gave them $20, $50.
But I kept the remaining fromeverybody that was in the van.
You gave them a commission, Igave them a commission.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Because they didn't know what the business plan was.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Absolutely.
So it was just more of meseeing what my teacher did
because I was like, oh no, I'mturning this money in.
But once I seen that I was like, well, if she going to keep it,
I'm going to keep it.
And it kind of took me toanother position where I start
buying these boxes of candy fromthis wholesaler and it was like
(05:50):
peanut brittle and gummy bearsand it was in a luxury little
box.
So I went to Walmart, got sometubs filled up, these like 15
containers with candy and thosemy same friends that we did the
Jump Broke for Heart with.
We just took these tubs andthen we sold candy in high
prestigious area so I sold itfor like something that cost me
(06:13):
a dollar.
I sold it for $10.
Yeah, you know, I just made mymargins.
And you were how old at thatpoint?
I was in the seventh grade,Dude.
That's crazy, yeah.
So it was just like I've alwayskind of typically been this way
.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You were destined to be well, not to be.
You were an entrepreneur backthen, and you were destined to
never work with anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Period.
That's crazy, because my mom,she was never able to afford
school clothes and shoes.
And you know we wanted theJordans, we wanted to be super
fresh.
But you know my mom being asingle mom, having me and my
sister, you know she could onlydo so much right.
So for me I wanted a lot.
So and plus, I didn't want totake from my mom either.
I knew it was my responsibilityto kind of do what I had to do.
(06:59):
So me being in that kind ofentrepreneur space and me making
my own money, I never looked atmy mom to give it to me.
So I've always tried to dosomething to make my own money.
So I didn't have to ask anybodyif I wanted to eat, if I wanted
to buy some clothes, if Iwanted to go on a field trip
that costs $30.
And I wasn't able to go on afew field trips because my mom
(07:22):
wasn't in a position.
So that was the main reason whyI took my neighbor's lawnmower
and cut those yards, because itwas a field trip and it cost
like 30 bucks.
That was my reason and like, oh, if she doesn't have it, I'm
just going to go make it myself.
So it just spiraled into likemy adulthood.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And I got to jump in because it's such an interesting
story, because a lot of peoplecould have made a sharp left
turn into something that wouldhave landed you in a whole lot
of trouble.
You're taking your life in avery different direction.
I always look at guys who endedup I don't know whether it is
selling drugs, whether it'sweapons, whether it's whatever
it is things that kind of lendyou, you know, a lifetime of
imprisonment.
And I look at those guys andthey're business savvy
(08:07):
entrepreneurs.
They just picked the wrongvehicle, the wrong product.
Yeah, what was it that keptyour moral compass in check so
that, yeah, I'm going to play inthe gray area a little bit,
right, I'm going to raise moneywhere I'm not going to give it
out.
But then look at the example Iwas given and at that point
you're in middle school.
Yeah, but what was that thingthat kept you from taking that
sharp left turn?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I mean, the thing is I had a I mean I had a cousin
that got shot in the head forbreaking into a vehicle and he
was the only one that got killed, and it was four of them.
I've played in that world.
We used to break into houses.
We used to.
You know that was ourEnvironment.
You know we call it kick door.
So it's just like you weregoing to a neighborhood, kick a
(08:51):
door in and just take as muchstuff as you want and get out of
there.
Because, culturally, if you'rein a neighborhood and you have
Friends and buddies and peoplethat you look up to, that move
in that frequency, it doesn'tseem too criminal.
It just seems like, oh, this iswhat everybody's doing to make
money because you are a productof your environment.
(09:12):
So for me, I've been on thatside of the track and I was
blessed to not go with my cousinthat night and who's to say
that could have been me.
So that was a pivoting point ofseeing how serious this is.
Yeah, so I was able to pivotthrough an experience of I was
(09:34):
supposed to go with them and Ididn't and that took place.
So it allowed me to pivot.
I don't want to die justbecause I'm breaking in.
You know we were kids.
We're stealing things thatwasn't even valuable, you know.
So it's just like that's whatallowed me to pivot and take my
friends and go sell candy and godo jump rope for heart, because
(09:55):
I just lost a family memberfrom doing this particular thing
and I had common sense at thatage, so that's what made me
really pivot in the space ofstaying in a gray area.
But it's better than sellingcrack with my friends or
breaking its houses.
So Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So those are the early days.
And where did you grow up.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So I grew up in Oklahoma, okay, tulsa, oklahoma.
My dad he's from Atlanta and mymom's from Oklahoma.
Okay, so me and my sister hasalways been back and forth from
Atlanta and Oklahoma my wholeentire life.
So we have like a countryperspective and we have a city
perspective.
So we kind of always bounceback and forth in those
(10:37):
realities.
But being raised in Oklahomait's just a country town, a lot
of gang banging, but there was alot of wealth building due to
Black Wall Street and thingslike that.
So it's it's a balance of theopportunity, what it used to be
and just where it is now.
So growing up in Oklahoma youdon't have, especially after
(11:00):
Black Wall Street, you don'thave too many political or
entrepreneurs.
That's Black, that's successful, like you have in Atlanta.
So you typically are stillaround a frequency that still
resonates from that Black WallStreet era.
So being a Black man in Oklahomastarting a business is pretty
(11:23):
difficult because you don't havethe support you would have in,
like in Atlanta, like here.
In Atlanta people want tosupport black, they want to work
black.
In Oklahoma it's a little bitof the opposite.
They would rather work with awhite organization, just simply
because that's just what hasbeen programmed for our culture,
because there's no successfulblack companies.
(11:45):
So if you're so used to goingto predominantly white schools
being around predominantly whitepeople being around all
successful white businessesanytime a black business arrives
, you have to kind of go througha lot of trial and error to
make your stamp.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I used to have such a racist perspective against
white people because I didn'tunderstand them and they didn't
understand me.
So me, going through thejourney of living in Oklahoma, I
developed white friends, Ideveloped white families that I
was very, very close and strongwith.
So it allowed me to kind ofunderstand like white people are
not too much racist.
(12:25):
They just don't understand usand what is portrayed in our
culture.
They only see us gangbanging,violent, crazy, over-sexualized
due to the media and content andthings like that.
So they can't help but to thinka certain way.
So as you connect with them andyou show them a different light
(12:46):
of education, intelligence andthings like that allows them to
get a better understanding.
So for me, I took that data andonce I got into industries where
I had to start dealing withwhite people when I got into the
roofing space the onlyprestigious areas in Oklahoma
are predominantly white I had toclose my own deal.
(13:07):
So I didn't have, I didn'tstart with a roofing company.
I didn't start, you know, withanything like that.
So through my lessons of lifeit allowed me to know how to
close a white gentleman, asian,indian, whoever it is, just due
to my journey ofentrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Indian, whoever it is , just due to my journey of
entrepreneurship.
Yeah, not to stray too muchfrom the topic at hand here, but
to push back a little bit, Ithink there's an aperture
through which they choose toview us sometimes, where I think
, if given, not given, a choice,the choices are there.
I think sometimes, if it's moreconvenient for them to look
through this lens as opposed tothis other lens, because it
bothers me sometimes when I,when I feel like I have to
(13:48):
perform right, I don't have toput the way I am now, the way
you are, still where.
We are sure we can cut up alittle bit more, we can relax,
we can use more colloquialismwhen we're talking to each other
.
There's so much we definitelycan do.
We can relax just like any, anyethnicity, when they're at home
and they're comfortable andthey're around their folks.
There's a certain way they theycommunicate which you don't do
(14:11):
with the outside world all thetime.
Um, I'm all I've heard so muchof.
They won't say it to me thatway, but it's like oh, we like
you.
You're a little bit differentyou.
You don't sound like the otherguys.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You don't act like that.
Why?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
can't it all be like you?
For sure, stuff like that, sothat always kind of rubs me the
wrong way.
But I know exactly what you'resaying when you say you had to
learn to deal with them.
And this is the way it is,because, yes, overall, I don't
think people wake up and chooseto be racist.
If it benefits you, if it'sconvenient, you continue, even
though you realize it's probablynot the best way to be.
But if it's convenient for meand it helps me and it puts more
(14:44):
money in my pocket and it keepsme in a situation where I have
more advantages as opposed tothe next person, I'll take it
Absolutely Right.
You mentioned one prettytraumatic experience that you
had that kind of changed andkind of shaped you a little bit.
Were there others?
Tulsa?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oklahoma has a full season of first 48.
We're extremely smalldemographic.
When a first 48 comes to aparticular city, it's Chicago,
it's Atlanta, it's Florida,memphis, memphis, you know, it's
somewhere that's pretty big,yeah.
So for us to be able to make iton the first 48, it gives you a
(15:24):
perspective of like, it's a lotof crime, it's extremely a lot
of crime Per capita, and it'sextremely small.
It's a neighborhood just fullof you know, murder, deaths,
killings.
It just is senseless.
They have succeeded Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what I mean, because I think about the
pillar and what tulsa representsto us as a community, the
thriving community that it was.
And I was crushed and burned,burned down, bombed to death,
yeah, just massacred, and whenwe look at what it is today, the
only phrase that comes to mindis them.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They have succeeded yeah, they play a longer game
than anybody.
So with that, and even when Ijust think about black wall
street, like I have familymembers who had businesses doing
black wall street.
So people have to understandwhen you look at pepsi and
coca-cola and bank of americaand all of these high,
prestigious 500 corporations,these are the businesses that we
(16:27):
would have to this day.
We will be the Coca-Cola's, wewill be the Bank of America's
and things like that, becausethese business and these
corporations started a hundredyears ago and it just been able
to continue.
So those bakeries, those breadmanufacturers, starbucks, coffee
shops, all of these Fortune 500companies that would have been
(16:50):
a lot of blacks catch on to thisparticular way of economic
stimulation, then it jeopardizesour bloodline.
(17:12):
So for that, always knowing thatbeing in a predominantly area
that was successful with, youknow, blacks and things like
that, and to see it now likeyeah, you look at it, like, yeah
, they definitely accomplishedwhat they sought out to do.
But also it's the resilience ofwhat we have to be in order to
(17:35):
even have enough mentalfortitude to push towards
entrepreneurship, seeing thateverything that we typically
work from they take it away.
So for me, I couldn't fall in acategory, because I have a lot
of black men that was around methat always pointed a finger at
the system and the man and allof these things, but they never
(17:56):
did anything through theireveryday life to exceed and to
position their families to be ina better position, because
they're so fixated on whatsomebody did to them.
And I didn't want to fall underthat category.
It's like, yeah, you guys areextremely knowledgeable about
what the man is doing and whatthe system is doing, but you
(18:16):
guys are still gettingassistance from the man.
You guys are still using theprograms that they're going,
know, going to the liquor storeyou're part of the system you're
part of the system, so you canspeak about this as much as you
want, but what are we going todo so far?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
and it's okay to be transitional in that phase,
meaning it's okay to be part ofthe system.
If there's a plan and you'reworking towards that plan, yeah,
if you're born into it, what doyou do?
Right, this is just what it is.
But, like you decided at somepoint, you were practically a
baby when you said this is notright.
There's something I want to doabout it, for sure.
And then decided to dosomething about it absolutely,
(18:52):
man.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
My environment has molded me to be this thing that
I am today.
I'm just trying to take mytoday and move it forward to
better my future family and myfuture bloodline, because it has
to start with somebody.
Everyone has that one person intheir family that changes the
(19:14):
trajectory of correcteverybody's life.
That's why I have such aforward mindset.
I've been able to have theseblinders took off my eyes to see
things for what they really are.
So now it allows me to get outof this victimizing mentality
because we can find ourselvesbeing exactly there and just
(19:38):
saying, okay, what can I dotoday to move forward?
And I only have control overwhat I have control over.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Control the controllables.
The noise is going to be there,no matter what, point blank.
Ignore the noise, focus on yoursolution, focus on your why,
focus on what you're trying toachieve, because the noise is
going to keep coming at you,point blank and granted.
Obviously, there is a system inplace that doesn't favor you,
doesn't favor me, it exists.
So, yes, the battle issomething you have to go through
, but you just have to decidethat you're going to go through
(20:09):
it and understand that it'sgoing to be a little harder for
you than it is for someone else,absolutely so.
With that said, how did youstart your business and why?
What's the name of the business?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
The business is Roof Bullies, so it's a roofing
company Roofing and constructionRoofing and construction Gotcha
Restoration Okay.
Company roofing andconstruction.
Roofing construction gotcharestoration okay.
So I had a pastor and I wasdoing like remodels and things
like that.
In oklahoma there's aparticular church in black wall
street that's still there.
It's one of the originalchurches from black wall street
(20:38):
that I was raised in.
So every four or five years youknow know, they change pastors
and I don't too much understandit, but it's a thing Like every
few years a pastor will movefrom a different state, come to
a church that they get moved to,and he was just particularly
one.
He was the first pastor that waskind of, you know, in his early
(20:58):
40s he knew what was going onand things like that.
So he was kind of like a youngpastor.
So, as we connected, one day Iwas getting a smoothie and he
came in he was like, yeah, wewere replacing the roof on the
church.
And I see, you know, I see youon Facebook kind of posting this
and this, go ahead and do a bid.
So I went ahead and did the bidfor the church before even you
(21:22):
know, I had no idea aboutroofing, just completely lost.
What were?
You know?
I had no idea about roofing,Just completely lost.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
What were you posting if you had?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
no idea about roofing , so I was posting kitchen
remodels.
Gotcha Okay, flooring.
And just you know I was doingfix and flips.
And I had a relationship with abuddy of mine that was a
contractor, gotcha, so I didn'tunderstand contracting work, I
just understood money.
So it's just like have a client, he wants a remodel, I go to my
(21:49):
buddy how much you gonna chargeme, redo the floor, the just do
everything.
He'll tell me 5500 or whateverand I'll go to the my client and
be like I can do it for 8500.
Yeah so it's just like I didn'tunderstand the elements of
contracting.
I just understood likebrokering.
You know, he sent me the bid,he sent me this long email and
it was asking questions and thenit asked for a price point.
(22:11):
So I looked at the roof and Ijust put 165 000 and submitted
it.
A week or so went by.
I was like hey, did you givehim?
He's like, yeah, we received it.
We just went ahead and went adifferent route.
Okay, but he was like you know,I want to show you.
So he came and the bid who wonit Was like 360,000.
It was a metal roof.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Oh my god, I thought you went.
I thought you overbid, Ithought you went too high.
You went.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So he couldn't take you seriously, couldn't tell me.
That gave them an indication.
He does not know what he'sdoing.
Yeah, your quality he's donelike, and plus, I didn't have a
roofing company established ormine, no, google, no, nothing.
So just like a, you know, a twoman in the truck, kind of feel
so.
But what that did was in themidst of that I was going down
(22:58):
this rabbit hole of roofing.
You get ads.
Once you start clicking oncertain roofing, or you click on
, it's going to pop all overyour all over the time, all over
.
So I jumped into the roofingalgorithm and then I began to
see it was a conference it'scalled roof con, yeah, and it
was in like a week or somethingand I was seeing the packages
(23:18):
like gold and platinum, and Ithink the most expensive one was
like $4,500 and it gave youaccess and things like that.
So I just I bought the $4,500gold member ticket.
It was in Orlando, so when wasthat?
This is probably four years ago, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So your company is still well-established, but
relatively new, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
So I flew down a day early because I have a buddy
that stays in orlando and he waslike what you up past, like I
got a roofing convention going.
He was like roofing convention,like you and roofing, and I was
like I'm, I'm thinking about it.
Proofing keeps, yeah,presenting itself and I kind of
explained that too.
But I was like, yeah, you know,I want to get a better
understanding about it.
So I'll go to this conferencecalled RoofCon Got an Airbnb for
(24:04):
because the event was likethree days.
Yeah, stayed there for likefour.
So I go to this RoofConconvention and it's about 4000
people there, yeah, and I'm kindof amazed to a certain degree
because I'm just like, when Igot here, in the parking lot is
Range Rovers, rari's, lambo'syeah, it's the property Huge
(24:25):
trucks I mean trucks waspredominantly a big thing Big,
dually big trucks, big wraptrucks, like just this is what
you're seeing outside thisconvention.
As I checked in, it was a guy,his name was Woody.
He was just like, hey, man, youknow, you know, kind of
introduce yourself.
Yeah, I'm in PDR, he's in dentrestoration, so when a hailstorm
(24:46):
comes, he's the individualsthat will fix the dents out of
your car.
So he comes to the roofingconventions for a network to
connect with other roofers, tosend him vehicles, gotcha.
So that's his game, white guy.
You know, if you kind of sitback and look at him he looks
racist.
But he's the nicest, sweetestguy, because we all know there's
(25:08):
that, look that.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Look.
Yeah, they have the oakley song, oakley sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's always scary to look, just I'm just that look
so, it's just like and they'dbe the most cool dudes in the
world and just like for us, theywill see us with dreads, yeah,
with probably a scully on, andjust assume, and assume what.
We're just exactly vicious.
But then when you meet him it'slike oh, he's just sweet,
exactly it's it goes hand inhand so I'm at the convention.
(25:35):
He takes me and he just beginsto introduce me to this
supplementing company and thisroofer and this roofer and this
roofer and this roof and this PAand this guy who teaches sales
and this guy who teachesdifferent suppliers.
He was introducing me to people.
I was just like what's a PA?
so you know, I mean, whyeverybody's so big about the
(25:58):
suppliers, and you know I wasjust in this world, lost.
But he's introducing me and I'madding him on instagram,
facebook connecting.
Yeah.
So, as I'm going through thisconvention of 4 000 people, I
didn't see one black person thatowned a roofing company.
It was one black speaker.
His name is deshaun.
I know him, yeah.
(26:18):
So sean bryant, deshaun bryant,he the out of all 36 speakers.
You know he was only the blackguy, yeah, and so I'm kind of
watching him from a distance.
Just I don't want to introducemyself, cause I like to observe
somebody and I know I'm going tobe here for three days and it
allows me to kind of see how heis, how he move, you know, just
(26:39):
watching, because he's the onlyblack person that's on his panel
.
So I'm like, what is it thatyou do?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Let's see if you're just there just to bring a
little color to it, or do you?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
actually have some substance, absolutely.
So that's what I'm viewing andseeing from that perspective.
And then after the event, thelast day, they have all these
vending booths.
It was probably 65 booths.
I went to every single booth,got content, information,
contact, and I just came backwith a suitcase full of
brochures, flyers, softwares, soI can begin to start doing my
(27:13):
due diligence on everything.
I'm also going to theseretreats and resorts that a lot
of roofers were doing.
It was this company calledRevolt and they basically it's a
whole bunch of roofers and wego out to cabins and we all just
connect and kind of talk aboutthe industry, kind of it was
just retreats basically.
So I went to a lot of roofingretreats.
(27:34):
I went to a lot of roofing.
You really went all in.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
You invested.
Listen, man, I don't.
You dove in, I'm not playing.
I've been to RoofCon and I knowroofing companies who don't go
and I don't understand why, asan established roofing company,
you don't have to send 10 peopleOne of the managers, someone
you have to have some type ofrepresentation there, yeah, and
if they do go, they're spendingmaybe $300 or $400 for the price
(27:59):
of hey, just entry, but youhave access to nothing else,
absolutely, and you just went inand threw it all in there,
Because they are stuck in theirways and they're stuck in their
processes.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
People who created these conferences they're moving
more like social mediainfluencers and bringing
community together.
For myself, I was able to get ajumpstart of nothing but value
and information andconversations and, like I talked
to close friends of mine tothis day that sold their roofing
company for $23 million, $46million, $16 million, $8 million
(28:38):
.
So not a bad exit Not a badexit at all and all they do is
go start another LLC and open upanother roofing company to
compete with what they used todo so to sell that one so it's
justlike.
The conference has changed mylife and it helped me to get
years of trial and error to thepoint of you know there's
buddies, that's that.
You know I have black friendsthat's in roofing but but
(28:59):
they're not killing it.
You know they haven't been ableto go to that next level
because of the lack ofunderstanding about insurance
and restoration.
You guys are only moving off ofone vertical when it's dealing
with this roofing space.
Like we got water, we got fire,we got wind, we have hail, we
have storms, we have thosetrades.
(29:19):
That's implemented into theactual restoration process.
So I've been in the industryabout four years, like three
years and a half, but I waslearning my first year.
Second year I start stormchasing, going to work for
roofing companies, working formonths, closing deals and the
(29:41):
person who owned the company ranoff to China and stole over $7
million.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Didn't pay anybody.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Huh, didn't pay anybody, absolutely not.
They took all money,restoration, all checks and
moved overseas.
So I had experience in thisspace, everything is not going
to be rainbow.
So my experience of you know,working for restoration
companies, storm chasingcompanies, watching the process
(30:11):
of, if a hurricane hits florida,what those steps look like.
Okay, once the water ties out.
Okay, now the electric.
Okay, general mode general.
Okay, you can do this.
Let's help feed people, clothepeople, put them in apartments
okay, where's their homes?
Okay, do you have a contractorto help facilitate to this?
Oh, you need water mitigation.
(30:32):
Oh, you need water mapping.
You need, you know, windfenestration, like it's a whole
world in that restoration space,to the point where I was able
to get that information and dataand leverage it in the future.
I tell people it took me almostfour years to be this
knowledgeable in this space andI went through hell to do it.
(30:56):
Being in roofing.
You close a deal and thenyou're expected to get an
$85,000 check for some work thatyou did.
Then the client keeps it andthen this client keeps it.
Then you know you go intobecause your systems and
processes wasn't structured.
You didn't have your contractsstructured to the point where,
if they keep the money, you puta lien on their property and go
(31:18):
through that process and thenit's like, oh, you'd rather not
even go through the court thing,because that's not your world,
that's not what you do.
You haven't learned that.
You have to learn howaggressive you have to be.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, and those are things that you learned going
through a roofcon puttingyourself in that space, meeting
all the right people, because itwould have taken you over a
decade to learn that stuff onyour own.
Absolutely and more.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I have roofing friends that's been in roofing
for 20 years.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, don't know this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And they're like bro, like I've helped so many of my
buddies make an additional two,three $400,000 added on to what
they do by just implementingsmall things to their already
established companies,implementing small things to
their already establishedcompanies.
So we are in a space ofbuilding a reputation building,
notoriety building.
(32:07):
You know all of these thingsthat you need to.
When a person thinks aboutroofing, they want to pick you,
so you want to think about roofbullies that's it well.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
it sounds like the business right now is thriving.
I've seen you do it, I've kindof watched from afar and 100%
would definitely recommend yourcompany time and time again,
just from what I've seen fromthe outside.
Talk to me about your personalphilosophies.
Some of them you apply to yourcareer, to your business, but
how?
Those shape who you are now andaffect your priorities.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
One, no one is going to save you.
That, right there, allows me toknow that I do not wait or
depend on anything or anybodyfor what I want in my life,
because everything that I gothrough no one's going to care
about but me through no one'sgoing to care about but me when
(33:05):
it's dealing with my successpath.
I've always had a mindset ofjust being resilient in whatever
it is that I do, because timehas always shown me that,
whatever industry that you arein, as long as you put the time
in, the energy, the focus, ifit's not working out, it's
because of you, and it's yourresponsibility to find out and
(33:27):
figure out what it is to allowyou to be in whatever this
position that you visualize andsee yourself in.
Yeah, so I don't know how toprioritize my life outside of
what I'm focused on.
People always talk about thiswork-life balance.
It's not a work.
It's not a life it's not.
It's impossible.
(33:47):
So, for me, my philosophies arealways based off of knowing
that I have to do what needs tobe done or it will not happen.
And if I don't do what I haveto do while I'm on this earth, I
am doing a disservice to myfamily, my future kids, my
(34:08):
bloodline, because everythingthat I complain about oh, I
didn't have nobody to set me upthis way.
Oh, I didn't have nobody toteach me.
Oh, I don't want to be a manthat speaks of all these things
that I complained about growingup.
And then now I'm in a positionto be the change.
I want to be the change, I'mgoing to be the change.
(34:30):
So my focus is always wrappedaround.
I have to make this work and Ihave to put our family on the
same page, and I have to put ourfamily on the same page so
we're not allowing ourgeneration that's coming up to
go through so much turmoil,confusion.
It's just all it is isconfusion.
Our bloodline just don't knowwhat to do.
(34:50):
I'm structuring my life that itallows anybody in my family to
look at me and be like I'm goingto do any and everything that
he says, because the lifestylethat he lives and the way that
he moves is a reflection of whatI look at as success when it's
dealing with my appearance andmy body, my health, how I eat,
how I talk, how I articulate,how I everything I have to be a
(35:14):
reflection of what I want peopleto move, because if you're fat
and lazy, you can't tell me whatto eat.
I can't tell me when to work outyour reflection of who you are.
You just run in your mouth thephilosophies that I live off of
is You're going to die to buy,and that's inevitable.
(35:35):
Yeah, and you don't know whenit's gonna happen.
So you can't take no days forgranted and you have to give
everything that you have, nomatter how tired you are,
exhausted, mentally drained,overwhelmed, that doesn't matter
because it's not about you.
That philosophy allows me tounderstand that I have to show
(35:59):
up for this business everysingle day.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
That is an amazing philosophy mindset.
How old are you?
35.
Are you married?
No, okay, dating no.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay.
So I'm in a relationship withmy business to the point where I
can't Don't have time for it.
It ain't that I don't have timefor it, it's like, as a man, I
want to bring my family intoparadise.
I want to bring my family intostructure.
It is my responsibility tocreate the order in my household
(36:30):
.
A man that doesn't have hislife together or where he wants
it to be is a chaotic man, and Idon't want to be a chaotic man
to a woman because it's going toaffect our relationship and me.
Being a serial entrepreneur, I'mgoing to pick my business over
any woman that I will ever bewith, because I care about my
(36:51):
business more than I care aboutme.
Having somebody to lay with atnight or someone to support me
or be my companion lay with thatnight or someone to support me
or be my companion it's just apart of my ideology.
It's just.
You know, I've been inrelationships and I seen how you
not picking the right personand not having the right woman
can be detrimental to yourbusiness and your mental space
and your focus.
(37:11):
So, living in a generationwhere everyone is pretty much
damaged, I'm such a want to helpand heal a person.
That energy that I'm pouringinto all your childhood traumas
and issues I'm taking away frommy business and my family and my
focus.
I have enough mental issueswith my family, so it's just
(37:33):
like me adding that on right now.
I had a gentleman years ago Iwas probably 20 years old.
He said, bro, you don't have toworry about being married until
you're at least 40, becauseeven at 40, you have more time
in front of you than you'vealready lived.
So it's with that mindset.
(37:55):
If God has a woman in store forme, she's walking a certain
journey and I'm walking acertain journey and we connect.
I'm not going to stop what Godhas for me.
I'm not in control of anything,so I can be as intentional as I
want to be to try to findsomebody.
But that may not be my journey.
This is my journey.
Entrepreneurship is my journey.
(38:16):
Entrepreneurship is my focus,my, my purpose on this earth.
So I have to show up and getthat established first before I
even entertain and go into thatworld.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I don't know where your friend was or that old man
who told you what he told youwas a long time ago for a lot of
us, because we had it backwards.
Obviously, you have a lot offriends, family members, you can
see most people did itbackwards.
Right, you're 20 years old, 21years old, and you go and have a
kid and you have a second, andthen you're in this marriage and
then you're trying to establishyourself in the business world.
(38:51):
You're struggling, and then youcan't struggle in the business
world and do what you have to doand give it your all because
you have to take care of thesekids and this person.
So, yes, a lot of us did itbackwards because the role model
wasn't there or because, simply, we didn't have the advice or
just awareness, rather just tokind of see hey, this is the way
it should be, this is the way Ishould do it.
Some people realize this veryearly on.
(39:12):
You did.
But yes, I think I would agreethat you wait and you build
yourself and you have somethingthat is impenetrable, that is
strong, and you can bring afamily into that.
Then you guys never have toworry about money or anything
like that.
But I guess what I want to askis what's the point of all of it
and I guess this is more of asentimental question than
(39:34):
anything else.
Right Because you're married toyour business, else right
Because you're married to yourbusiness.
But at the end of the day, isthere an end goal to?
Yeah, I want to do this so thatI can have the family to raise
and not have to worry aboutmoney and I can pass on these
teachings.
Or is it just for the sake ofchasing more and chasing more
you?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
know what I mean.
It's for the sake of having itestablished across the board
financially, like Jews andAsians have for their family.
It's not too much.
I don't want it to be a chase,because I think success and
money is like a squirrel to me.
It's like you can't catch asquirrel.
(40:13):
You can't run up to a squirreland touch it or grab it.
Run up to a squirrel and touchit or grab it.
But if you sit down and youfocus and you create or you
think of a way to createsomething that's attractive and
then you think, okay, what dosquirrels like?
They like nuts.
Okay, they like acorns.
Okay, all right, cool, let'stry a nut.
(40:35):
So I will take this nut andposition myself by a lot of
squirrels and I will be patientand I will be still and I will
be focused and you will see thatover time that they will notice
you see, you see you.
They might not deal with you,but they'll see you.
They okay, he's over there, butthen the squirrel is hungry and
(40:58):
he's been looking for nuts allday, but he knows I'm there.
So I'm sitting there patient,I'm just holding it.
Once that first squirrel comesand grabs the nut and seeing
they were safe and everythingwas good, that will begin to
vibrationally allow othersquirrels to know this is what
he has, to the point where I canjust hold my hand out with nuts
(41:21):
and then a whole bunch ofsquirrels just grab, grab, grab,
grab, eat.
I feel like that's what successis.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
That's a wonderful analogy, I mean.
I think it's gonna go over alot of people's heads.
So I'd encourage people torewind this piece, because it
sounds initially, when you firststarted speaking, like what the
hell is brother talking about?
you know squirrels ands and nutsand shit, but as you're
speaking, because the first partof it was find out what they
like.
We all know what squirrels like, but if you're thinking about
(41:48):
success as a squirrel, well,what attracts success?
Doing your research, like youdid when it comes to the roofing
business, and going to RoofConand paying to be in the room and
learning from all these people.
So you had to first do theresearch, then you had to
position yourself in a way thatbrings and adds, creates value
for these people and thesebusinesses to come to you.
(42:10):
Then you had to deliver.
Once they see that beingdelivered, then they can trust
it and at that point peoplealways say well, why do the rich
keep keep getting richer?
Because they deliver value andpeople know that they're
established.
So now you got your open handand success is coming to you and
you don't have to chase it,that's right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So that's where I am, and sometimes it takes a little
time and sometimes you have tobe a little patient.
I'm doing what I can do lockingin, staying focused,
establishing and havingeverything that I'm in control
in, but I am presentingsomething that will allow this
(42:47):
thing to move as it needs tomove.
So in life, I'm not too muchchasing anything.
I'm not chasing success.
I'm not chasing to look acertain way.
I'm not chasing to havewhatever this big house, these
cars I'm chasing stability,structure and just a foundation
for my family, for us to goacquire some dirt and build
(43:10):
whatever it is that we want.
If our aunties and grandmaswant to live next to us, go
ahead and build a house on theland.
I want that access.
My success is coming from aplace of establishing a asset
that we can actually leverage asa family.
So that's where I'm at.
Wonderful man.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I feel like your audience if you were a speaker.
I'm sure you are, but if youwere to be on stage doing a TEDx
, yeah, I think that youraudience would be the kid in
middle school who aspires to bean entrepreneur, or maybe
doesn't know that he needs to beor she needs to be, but that
person needs to listen.
Then there's a 20 somethingyear old who just hasn't figured
it out.
Yeah, I have a son that agewho's like what do I do?
(43:53):
I'm not sure.
And then there's a 30 year oldwho might be feeling a little
discouraged.
Facts because, like man, Ihaven't done it yet.
What am I doing?
I'm already 30 and you know,when you turn 30, you feel like
your life's about to be over.
Oh, my god, I'm so old.
Right, it's not.
Until you hit, you know, youget a little older, you realize,
oh, I wish I could be 30 againabsolutely.
But when you're in your 20s andyou hit 30, you're like, oh my
(44:15):
god, I'm still not rich, I'mstill not successful.
What's happening?
My life is over, right?
So if you're talking to thataudience, that 10 year old boy,
20 year old, any of the 30,something who hasn't figured it
out yet, it's a wide range.
But what's your advice?
Speaker 1 (44:28):
My advice is always try everything, bro.
Who cares?
What do you think you like?
What do you think you wouldwant to do?
Whatever you think you would do, instead of thinking about it,
go, try it.
You have 10 years to fail.
(44:48):
You have 15 years to fail to beable to be in a position to be
successful for the rest of yourlife.
If you are sitting here lookingat your current now and being
discouraged, you're going to dielike this.
Like I explained, my blindersgot took off a long time ago.
So when I talk to a 50 year oldman, we can't make it seem like
(45:11):
we didn't have men in our lifetelling us the same thing all
over and over and over again.
If I was 20 again, if I was 30again, if I was 40 again.
We've been hearing it all ourlives.
So by me always hearing it, Inever adopted the concept of
time, of being too late, becausethis is my perspective about my
(45:35):
life.
I am just allowing worldlythoughts to be intrusive and
invasive to make me feel likeI'm running out of time.
And that goes for relationships, business, it goes for
everything.
So my advice for a 20 year oldthat's just lost, it's just like
okay, if you're lost, what isit that you think you want to do
(45:57):
?
Oh, I think I want to.
Okay, then start directing yourenergy towards doing that yeah
because let's just say you do itfor two years, bro, or three
years.
You're only going to be 23years old and you're going to
find out that you don't like it.
Yeah, pick something else.
Let's just say you do that forfour years, one year, six months
(46:17):
, whatever it is, but I'm hereto tell you, once you get to 30,
you have to make a decision.
And whenever you make thatdecision because this is what
has happened from the age of 15to 30, you had 15 years to
experience life Right, fail many, many times what you like, what
(46:45):
you like, what you kind of like, what you wish you would have
came back what you got some sexin whatever industry that that
is and say that you are willingto die before you do something
else.
The mindset has to be if youdon't figure this out, you are
going to be a failure to yourwhole entire family.
(47:05):
And this gift you wasted itbecause you could not make a
decision.
Once you make a decision andyou stand on that decision, your
life experience and your workethic, the universe and God is
going to reward you and put youthrough a journey that he's
(47:28):
going to make sure that thatthing that you chose works,
because faith without works isdead.
But the main thing is youhaving to work.
So when I speak with anybody,it's like I've read a book.
It was called the power of oneand it was basically about one
(47:49):
of the analogies was aboutMickey Mouse and this artist.
He drew Mickey Mouse and that'sall he drew.
He was just Mickey Mouse allthe time.
And then all of a sudden,mickey Mouse.
He put in a newspaper and heonly wrote about Mickey Mouse
and then he'd start writingabout Minnie Mouse.
But in this process whathappened is that Mickey Mouse
(48:10):
was his thing.
He maximized Mickey Mouse wherehe had to add Mickey and Goofy
and all of these othercharacters, as it established,
but in the newspaper it was onlyabout Mickey Mouse.
As years progressed, thisMickey Mouse character has now
turned into Walt Disney.
(48:31):
This Walt Disney has now turnedinto Universal Studios and all
of all of this real estate thathe like.
It became a multi trilliondollar industry.
But what happened is that hestarted with Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
People have to understand where you start is
the process of where you want toget and where you want to build
and where you want to projectyour life to be.
But if he got off course andstart doing something else for
Mickey Mouse, he wouldn't be whohe is today.
So try everything for 15 years,whatever time that's going to
(49:09):
be Right.
Make a decision and make thatone thing be obsessed with it
Right.
Give everything that you have,because every leader, every
entrepreneur, every athlete thatwe can think of, who's been
iconic and powerful, their basewas something yeah, if it's
(49:30):
music, if it's entertainment, ifit's an iPhone, if it's PayPal,
if it's Amazon, if it'swhatever, it started with one
thing.
So I'm always I'm a hugeadvocate, and I've had a lot of
different businesses in my lifetoo.
I've been in logistics, I'vebeen in delivery, I've been in
(49:50):
taxes, I've been in concerts,I've been in construction.
So I've been in logistics, I'vebeen in delivery, I've been in
taxes, I've been in concerts,I've been in construction.
So I've been in different.
I've been in several verticals,and this is why I am Taking
your own advice, taking my ownadvice.
You know I'm telling you what Idid Like I've tried it.
I tried so many differentindustries but my journey has
allowed me to be this diverse inthis.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
I can pivot off so many different verticals because
my experience but I alwaysremind people, these businesses
say you try something and itdoesn't work.
You have to remember again.
It's working for someone else.
So the common denominator hereis you Period.
So you still have to go back tothe fact that if it's working,
it's working.
Whether it's insurance, whetherit's roofing, whether it's
whatever it is restoration, youname it it does work, it works
(50:33):
Right.
So now can you live through thehardship and make it work?
And the second thing that youtouched on also is something
that I actually heard the younglady, emma Green, who's a
multibillion dollar founder.
She said people overestimatewhat they can do in one year and
they underestimate what theycan do in 10.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Man, there's no stopping you?
Speaker 1 (50:53):
There ain't no stopping you.
And then if you add thephilosophy of one, and then
there was another audio, andthis is one thing I know about
myself, and if I showed you myAudible, I'm on a membership
where I at least buy at leastone credit a month.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, me too.
I got to get your list.
Most definitely, I'm interested?
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, for sure, and I'll show you and I add that to
my personal development, likethat's a part of my personal
development.
So for me there's another book,and a lot of books is kind of
common, as you know.
You have those popular bookslike it's 48 laws about.
You know, you have these books.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Sure, how to Win Friends and Influence People and
all that know.
You have these books how to winfriends and influence and all
that.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
So you have I can grow rich.
All of you have standards thestandards, yeah, and their
standards.
For a reason.
That's right, and sometimesI'll be.
You know my, my personality.
I'm not a follower, sosometimes I gotta get out of my
way and, like man, just checkthis book out.
So it's just like it's anotherbook.
It's called like a 12 week work, four hour work week, four hour
work week, and they haveanother one.
(51:54):
But we're we're on the samepage so four hour work week.
Yeah, and basically what thatbook taught me was, when we
start a business, okay, at thebeginning of the year I'm going
to make a million dollars thisyear, energy's high first
quarter goes past, then we're inour second quarter.
He was just like okay,realistically I've only made 50.
So, all right, five hundredthousand dollars, that's what
(52:16):
I'm gonna make.
So you readjust the contractyou're made with yourself, most
definitely but, this is whathappens first quarter lit
excited.
Second quarter still lit, kindof excited.
Third quarter you're a littlediscouraged.
Reality check, reality check.
Fourth quarter you compromiseI'm not gonna do 500, but I'm
(52:36):
gonna do 100 and you make 100.
And this is what we do.
We keep readjusting.
We the time that we giveourselves is too much time.
I stop making my goalsassociated to years because it's
too broad.
What I've learned and what I'vedone for myself is I've
(52:57):
implemented that thought process, but I do it in 12 weeks.
Whatever my goal is, I make itfor 12 weeks.
So if you implement your mainfocus on one thing and then you
condense your time to a moretighter restraint, it allows you
to have pressure applied everysingle day where you know for a
(53:22):
fact, I have to put some energytowards my business.
Today, now that you're able tofocus on one thing, let's focus
on giving you time restraints.
Let's focus on compounding.
I had a buddy.
He had a ball, a red ball, andhe squeezed it and he made it
disappear in front of my eyes.
Fuck me up.
(53:43):
I was amazed I'm talking aboutamazed and in my mind, that's
right.
How?
How the fuck you do that, bro?
How did you do that?
How did you do that?
Right?
It's called pressuredeprivation, it's something.
It's like that.
It's well.
Basically, you position yourhands well when you squeeze the
(54:06):
ball.
It's a foamy ball, so you pressit to the point where it may go
between your fingers.
It gives the illusion of itdisappearing because he closes
it and it read back up here.
The analogy of what I receivedfrom that is that he showed me
something that I felt wasimpossible, but once I
(54:28):
understood what he did, it'spossible and it can be taught.
So in life and in this businessworld, the things that we feel
like it's impossible For us todo, it's not impossible, we just
don't know how to do it.
Yet that, also In this journey,has allowed me to understand.
We honestly can do anythingthat we put our minds to, and if
(54:51):
we're not getting the resultsthat we want, it's just because
we don't understand it.
We have to be relentless infiguring out this information of
taking our business to the nextlevel.
Yeah, I ran into a buddy ofmine last night.
He came up to me.
He was like bro, I'm just soproud of you, g.
Like you found your thing.
You dig what I'm saying, likeeverybody out here trying to
(55:13):
find they shit, like we all outhere just trying to find our
shit.
And you found it yeah, and I cantell because every time I get
on your instagram, bro, you juston some roofs, you just, you,
just a roofing ass, motherfucker, that's what he said.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
That'd be a great name for a company roofing ass
motherfucker.
Roofing ass motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
So itoofing ass motherfucker.
So it was like when he saidthat to me.
I'm not looking at it like that, I'm looking at it as man.
I got so much I have to learnabout this business.
Insurance is changing andshifting Retail shifting and
moving the economy.
I'm finding my niche in regardsto this space to maximize the
(55:54):
opportunity.
So as long as Mother Nature isbeing tempered with and she's
all over the place, we're goingto have hailstorms, we're going
to have hurricanes, we're goingto have.
No one can stop Mother Nature.
Stop mother nature right.
As long as the insurancecompanies don't go out of
business and bankrupt across theboard, this is an industry that
(56:15):
we will always be able to makemoney from.
I know how much good I can do.
I can take a, a yn off thestreet and say oh, if you don't
want to sell when they, knockingthese shingles off, clean up
everything, all five of y'all.
I'll pay y'all three hundreddollars a day to clean up all
these shingles and throw it away, and every day I have a roof
(56:35):
that I'm putting on.
So 300 times five or six.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
It's a lot more than to make anywhere else just work
in minimum wage or some fastfood place.
So it's the good that you giveback to the community.
Also, I love your purposebecause it's not totally.
Obviously, if we're not notselfish, a term sometimes has a
negative connotation.
Right, it's self-centered,which is a good thing, because
you got to take care of selffirst.
That just makes sense, period.
But you do take care of otherpeople in the process and not
(57:03):
leaving anybody behind as longas they'll listen.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
So that's a beautiful mindset to have as well because
the only thing like I have, youknow, when my homeboy, you know
, get out of jail from layingdown for 16, 17 years, they have
the same mindset that we werewhen we was 18 years old.
You know, 17 years old, I havebuddies who's just now getting
out of jail.
I was around when these likethe things that I used to do.
(57:29):
It shows me how blessed I trulyam and how how much favor that
God has over my life.
I can't waste that gift.
I can't waste not showing upand doing my part for one person
, two person.
I'm not.
I'm not saying that I can situp here and change the whole
world, and Tupac said it I ain't.
I might not change the world,but I will spark something in
(57:52):
somebody to be the one to changethe world.
So when I bring a YN on aproject, I see how excited they
are with a chainsaw.
I see how excited they are whenI bring my bobcat guys in and I
say watch him.
And I'm like, hey, bro, let himride it for a little bit,
because we're in the field,we're in the woods.
(58:14):
What you going to break, youknow.
All right, hopefully a tree,hopefully a tree.
So just pull this knob back,pull this down, grab this, put
it up.
It has exposed them, just likethat, into a world that they
didn't think they wereinterested in.
So guess what?
I know you got felonies, allthese tattoos on your face, you
(58:35):
know, and nobody's going to hireyou.
But guess what?
No one cares about who's in hisBobcat truck.
Do what I asked you to do beingable to be in these worlds and
having these understanding, Ican begin to start plugging in
our youth to these trades.
That's going to be highlyneeded we're getting out of it.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
Correct, I was going to say everything you just
mentioned.
None of it can be taken away byAI At all, not anytime soon
anyway.
Right, so you're creatingpretty much the future Point
blank bro.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Yeah, trades are going to be the last thing that
technology can take over,because there's not a robot,
there's not a machine that cango into a small area and put a
drywall up, do some electricwork, do some flooring work.
There's not an ai that can puta whole roof on.
(59:25):
Yeah, so the only thing thatthat would change is we're
decades away.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
I mean we're, yeah, we'll be gone.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, will itcome?
Sure, initially it'll be asuper high premium, because if
you buy one of those robots,we're talking about a million
dollars per for sure, right?
So companies are not going tobe rolling out opening up the
checkbooks to say, well, I wantto save on six laborers because
one robot won't take a break.
Come on, you're, we're too faraway, so for a long time trades
(59:52):
are going to be.
That's the new set ofmillionaires, man.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
And that's the agenda that I'm on.
We have all these content guyscredit stocks, transportation,
things.
That's always been amulti-trillion dollar industry,
but Tesla can take awaylogistics, stocks can be took
(01:00:17):
away with AI, credit take awaywith AI.
So now, with this trade space,it's like that's what I'm on.
I'm in the world and I'm in theindustry to teach
African-Americans, predominantlythis industry, this world, this
space.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Where can we find your business yourself?
How can we follow you?
How can we support you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So you can go to wwwroofbulliescom.
That will be the channel toconnect and book appointments.
My Instagram is Mr Rocker, soit's at underscore Mr Rocker, my
LinkedIn.
To buy a rocker LinkedIn ismore business.
(01:00:59):
Instagram is just my lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
And I'll make sure that's all in the show notes as
well, so someone's listening.
Can you just go ahead and clickon that and it will take them
directly to your pages?
Perfect, and it will take themdirectly to your pages Perfect.
Now, I do have a tradition onthis particular podcast where at
the end of every show, someonehas to read the outro, doing an
impression Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Who could I impersonate?
Okay, I do a Jamaican.
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Oh my God, Are you Jamaican?
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
No, I ain't Jamaican at all.
Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Are you about to do a Jamaican accent?
I'm going to try.
I'm going to attempt.
Let's see how good yourJamaican accent is, brother,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Please support us by following the show.
Leave us a five-star rating onpodcast.
Thank you so much for listening.
Well, catch you next week.
We share conversationssurrounding real issues.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Real deal that every day man perspective.
We're true, a podcast for all,but our point of view.
The philosophies that I live off of is you're going
to die, tobiah.
That's inevitable, and youdon't know when it's going to
happen.
So you can't take no days forgranted and you have to give
everything that you have, nomatter how tired you are,
exhausted, mentally drained,that doesn't matter because it's
(00:21):
not about you.
That philosophy allows me tounderstand that I have to show
up for this business everysingle day that is an amazing
philosophy mindset.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
How old are you?
35.
Rocker is his last name, whichis very fitting because tobias
rocker is indeed a superstar.
I got a chance to sit with himso he could share his secrets
about his principle-basedsuccesses, his past failures and
his perpetual learning.
Now, if you're seeking a lifeof abundance and feel that
(00:57):
you've tried many things and yethaven't cracked it, you just
haven't gotten that break yet.
This conversation is for you.
But don't just follow the show.
Please share this episode withat least one friend.
I guarantee you there issomeone you know who could use
this recipe for success, Knowingthere's something else, and
they just aren't fulfilling thatpurpose.
(01:18):
Today, Tobias Rocker speaks ofthat purpose.
He shares his principles, hisideologies and the secrets that
have made him successful andcontinue to elevate his company.
Thank you, family, for pressingplay on this enlightening
episode.
I'm glad you did and you willbe too.
Welcome to Manhood Matters.
(01:39):
Let's get to it.
(02:00):
Tobiah Rocker.
Yes, sir, Welcome to the show.
Brother, my man, my man.
Glad you're here, Appreciate youhaving me, Of course, Of course
Anytime.
I do these whenever there'ssomeone that I kind of admire
look up to.
I always feel funny saying thisbecause you're a lot younger
than I am and I say I look up toyou, but I don't look at the
age, I look at theaccomplishments, I look at the
body of work and I think you'vedone some amazing things.
(02:22):
I've only met you once, but Iheard you speak at an event.
I thought you were impressive.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So now we're going to go back to the roadmap that got
you from where you started towhere you are today.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So it has always kind of started like years ago, like
when I was probably in themiddle school, and my first kind
of business that I kind of tookon is like I had a neighbor and
he had.
He was an old man, he had alawnmower in his garage and he
always kept his garage open buthe never used it.
So one day I kind of seen mygrandpa we cut this yard and it
(02:56):
kind of inspired me like, oh,I'm gonna cut some grass and
this is like when I was, youknow, probably eight, something
like that.
So I went next door, jumped thegate, took my neighbor's
lawnmower and gas can and snuckit on the side of his house and
I just knocked on my neighbor'sdoors and told him I'll cut
their grass.
(03:16):
And they, when they asked mehow much they'd do it but I'll
do it for being a kid I was like$10, you know $8, you know
whatever.
Kid, I was like ten dollars,you know eight dollars, you know
whatever.
So, um, the thing is it onlytook me time.
So I cut probably five people'syard on my street for ten
dollars and then I made 50 bucksand I had to.
I ran out of gas.
(03:36):
I had to kind of ask somebodywhat should I do?
And then I got on my bike, wentup to the street, got some gas,
rode back, spilt it all overmyself.
It was just like an experienceof starting something.
So from there I've always hadand started businesses.
In regards to my access when Iwas a kid I was just doing it to
(03:59):
what I can do.
So it was another situation.
Once I got into middle school.
I had a particular guy.
His name was brown gravy and hewas a crackhead, but he had a
car.
Okay, and brown gravy, if Igive him, you know, five dollars
or whatever ten dollars, he'lldrive me wherever, as long as
you know he can put gas in thecar.
Yeah, and he had, like this,this old little van, but it fit
(04:23):
like five, seven people.
So my school gave us these jumprope for heart envelopes and
they gave us some shirts andthey told us to go home and get
donations for this jump rope forheart.
They gave me an envelope.
I went into my neighborhood,got a lot of money, took it back
, gave it to my teacher and Ikind of found out that my
(04:44):
teacher didn't even she kind ofkept the money.
So I found the envelopes in thebooklets of Jump Rope for Heart
, and I took probably 20 of them.
And then I got about seven ofmy homeboys that I played sports
with and we all piled up inthis crackhead's car Brown Gravy
, brown Gravy and we went tothis particular neighborhood
(05:07):
just raised money from hey, themiddle school, the Jump Rope for
Heart, yeah, and they donate,donate, donate, and then we kind
of just Kept that, kept themoney.
But the way that I did it, Ijust I gave them $20, $50.
But I kept the remaining fromeverybody that was in the van.
You gave them a commission, Igave them a commission.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Because they didn't know what the business plan was.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Absolutely.
So it was just more of meseeing what my teacher did
because I was like, oh no, I'mturning this money in.
But once I seen that I was like, well, if she going to keep it,
I'm going to keep it.
And it kind of took me toanother position where I start
buying these boxes of candy fromthis wholesaler and it was like
(05:50):
peanut brittle and gummy bearsand it was in a luxury little
box.
So I went to Walmart, got sometubs filled up, these like 15
containers with candy and thosemy same friends that we did the
Jump Broke for Heart with.
We just took these tubs andthen we sold candy in high
prestigious area so I sold itfor like something that cost me
(06:13):
a dollar.
I sold it for $10.
Yeah, you know, I just made mymargins.
And you were how old at thatpoint?
I was in the seventh grade,Dude.
That's crazy, yeah.
So it was just like I've alwayskind of typically been this way
.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You were destined to be well, not to be.
You were an entrepreneur backthen, and you were destined to
never work with anybody else.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Period.
That's crazy, because my mom,she was never able to afford
school clothes and shoes.
And you know we wanted theJordans, we wanted to be super
fresh.
But you know my mom being asingle mom, having me and my
sister, you know she could onlydo so much right.
So for me I wanted a lot.
So and plus, I didn't want totake from my mom either.
I knew it was my responsibilityto kind of do what I had to do.
(06:59):
So me being in that kind ofentrepreneur space and me making
my own money, I never looked atmy mom to give it to me.
So I've always tried to dosomething to make my own money.
So I didn't have to ask anybodyif I wanted to eat, if I wanted
to buy some clothes, if Iwanted to go on a field trip
that costs $30.
And I wasn't able to go on afew field trips because my mom
(07:22):
wasn't in a position.
So that was the main reason whyI took my neighbor's lawnmower
and cut those yards, because itwas a field trip and it cost
like 30 bucks.
That was my reason and like, oh, if she doesn't have it, I'm
just going to go make it myself.
So it just spiraled into likemy adulthood.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And I got to jump in because it's such an interesting
story, because a lot of peoplecould have made a sharp left
turn into something that wouldhave landed you in a whole lot
of trouble.
You're taking your life in avery different direction.
I always look at guys who endedup I don't know whether it is
selling drugs, whether it'sweapons, whether it's whatever
it is things that kind of lendyou, you know, a lifetime of
imprisonment.
And I look at those guys andthey're business savvy
(08:07):
entrepreneurs.
They just picked the wrongvehicle, the wrong product.
Yeah, what was it that keptyour moral compass in check so
that, yeah, I'm going to play inthe gray area a little bit,
right, I'm going to raise moneywhere I'm not going to give it
out.
But then look at the example Iwas given and at that point
you're in middle school.
Yeah, but what was that thingthat kept you from taking that
sharp left turn?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I mean, the thing is I had a I mean I had a cousin
that got shot in the head forbreaking into a vehicle and he
was the only one that got killed, and it was four of them.
I've played in that world.
We used to break into houses.
We used to.
You know that was ourEnvironment.
You know we call it kick door.
So it's just like you weregoing to a neighborhood, kick a
(08:51):
door in and just take as muchstuff as you want and get out of
there.
Because, culturally, if you'rein a neighborhood and you have
Friends and buddies and peoplethat you look up to, that move
in that frequency, it doesn'tseem too criminal.
It just seems like, oh, this iswhat everybody's doing to make
money because you are a productof your environment.
(09:12):
So for me, I've been on thatside of the track and I was
blessed to not go with my cousinthat night and who's to say
that could have been me.
So that was a pivoting point ofseeing how serious this is.
Yeah, so I was able to pivotthrough an experience of I was
(09:34):
supposed to go with them and Ididn't and that took place.
So it allowed me to pivot.
I don't want to die justbecause I'm breaking in.
You know we were kids.
We're stealing things thatwasn't even valuable, you know.
So it's just like that's whatallowed me to pivot and take my
friends and go sell candy and godo jump rope for heart, because
(09:55):
I just lost a family memberfrom doing this particular thing
and I had common sense at thatage, so that's what made me
really pivot in the space ofstaying in a gray area.
But it's better than sellingcrack with my friends or
breaking its houses.
So Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So those are the early days.
And where did you grow up.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So I grew up in Oklahoma, okay, tulsa, oklahoma.
My dad he's from Atlanta and mymom's from Oklahoma.
Okay, so me and my sister hasalways been back and forth from
Atlanta and Oklahoma my wholeentire life.
So we have like a countryperspective and we have a city
perspective.
So we kind of always bounceback and forth in those
(10:37):
realities.
But being raised in Oklahomait's just a country town, a lot
of gang banging, but there was alot of wealth building due to
Black Wall Street and thingslike that.
So it's it's a balance of theopportunity, what it used to be
and just where it is now.
So growing up in Oklahoma youdon't have, especially after
(11:00):
Black Wall Street, you don'thave too many political or
entrepreneurs.
That's Black, that's successful, like you have in Atlanta.
So you typically are stillaround a frequency that still
resonates from that Black WallStreet era.
So being a Black man in Oklahomastarting a business is pretty
(11:23):
difficult because you don't havethe support you would have in,
like in Atlanta, like here.
In Atlanta people want tosupport black, they want to work
black.
In Oklahoma it's a little bitof the opposite.
They would rather work with awhite organization, just simply
because that's just what hasbeen programmed for our culture,
because there's no successfulblack companies.
(11:45):
So if you're so used to goingto predominantly white schools
being around predominantly whitepeople being around all
successful white businessesanytime a black business arrives
, you have to kind of go througha lot of trial and error to
make your stamp.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I used to have such a racist perspective against
white people because I didn'tunderstand them and they didn't
understand me.
So me, going through thejourney of living in Oklahoma, I
developed white friends, Ideveloped white families that I
was very, very close and strongwith.
So it allowed me to kind ofunderstand like white people are
not too much racist.
(12:25):
They just don't understand usand what is portrayed in our
culture.
They only see us gangbanging,violent, crazy, over-sexualized
due to the media and content andthings like that.
So they can't help but to thinka certain way.
So as you connect with them andyou show them a different light
(12:46):
of education, intelligence andthings like that allows them to
get a better understanding.
So for me, I took that data andonce I got into industries where
I had to start dealing withwhite people when I got into the
roofing space the onlyprestigious areas in Oklahoma
are predominantly white I had toclose my own deal.
(13:07):
So I didn't have, I didn'tstart with a roofing company.
I didn't start, you know, withanything like that.
So through my lessons of lifeit allowed me to know how to
close a white gentleman, asian,indian, whoever it is, just due
to my journey ofentrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Indian, whoever it is , just due to my journey of
entrepreneurship.
Yeah, not to stray too muchfrom the topic at hand here, but
to push back a little bit, Ithink there's an aperture
through which they choose toview us sometimes, where I think
, if given, not given, a choice,the choices are there.
I think sometimes, if it's moreconvenient for them to look
through this lens as opposed tothis other lens, because it
bothers me sometimes when I,when I feel like I have to
(13:48):
perform right, I don't have toput the way I am now, the way
you are, still where.
We are sure we can cut up alittle bit more, we can relax,
we can use more colloquialismwhen we're talking to each other
.
There's so much we definitelycan do.
We can relax just like any, anyethnicity, when they're at home
and they're comfortable andthey're around their folks.
There's a certain way they theycommunicate which you don't do
(14:11):
with the outside world all thetime.
Um, I'm all I've heard so muchof.
They won't say it to me thatway, but it's like oh, we like
you.
You're a little bit differentyou.
You don't sound like the otherguys.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You don't act like that.
Why?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
can't it all be like you?
For sure, stuff like that, sothat always kind of rubs me the
wrong way.
But I know exactly what you'resaying when you say you had to
learn to deal with them.
And this is the way it is,because, yes, overall, I don't
think people wake up and chooseto be racist.
If it benefits you, if it'sconvenient, you continue, even
though you realize it's probablynot the best way to be.
But if it's convenient for meand it helps me and it puts more
(14:44):
money in my pocket and it keepsme in a situation where I have
more advantages as opposed tothe next person, I'll take it
Absolutely Right.
You mentioned one prettytraumatic experience that you
had that kind of changed andkind of shaped you a little bit.
Were there others?
Tulsa?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oklahoma has a full season of first 48.
We're extremely smalldemographic.
When a first 48 comes to aparticular city, it's Chicago,
it's Atlanta, it's Florida,memphis, memphis, you know, it's
somewhere that's pretty big,yeah.
So for us to be able to make iton the first 48, it gives you a
(15:24):
perspective of like, it's a lotof crime, it's extremely a lot
of crime Per capita, and it'sextremely small.
It's a neighborhood just fullof you know, murder, deaths,
killings.
It just is senseless.
They have succeeded Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You know what I mean, because I think about the
pillar and what tulsa representsto us as a community, the
thriving community that it was.
And I was crushed and burned,burned down, bombed to death,
yeah, just massacred, and whenwe look at what it is today, the
only phrase that comes to mindis them.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They have succeeded yeah, they play a longer game
than anybody.
So with that, and even when Ijust think about black wall
street, like I have familymembers who had businesses doing
black wall street.
So people have to understandwhen you look at pepsi and
coca-cola and bank of americaand all of these high,
prestigious 500 corporations,these are the businesses that we
(16:27):
would have to this day.
We will be the Coca-Cola's, wewill be the Bank of America's
and things like that, becausethese business and these
corporations started a hundredyears ago and it just been able
to continue.
So those bakeries, those breadmanufacturers, starbucks, coffee
shops, all of these Fortune 500companies that would have been
(16:50):
a lot of blacks catch on to thisparticular way of economic
stimulation, then it jeopardizesour bloodline.
(17:12):
So for that, always knowing thatbeing in a predominantly area
that was successful with, youknow, blacks and things like
that, and to see it now likeyeah, you look at it, like, yeah
, they definitely accomplishedwhat they sought out to do.
But also it's the resilience ofwhat we have to be in order to
(17:35):
even have enough mentalfortitude to push towards
entrepreneurship, seeing thateverything that we typically
work from they take it away.
So for me, I couldn't fall in acategory, because I have a lot
of black men that was around methat always pointed a finger at
the system and the man and allof these things, but they never
(17:56):
did anything through theireveryday life to exceed and to
position their families to be ina better position, because
they're so fixated on whatsomebody did to them.
And I didn't want to fall underthat category.
It's like, yeah, you guys areextremely knowledgeable about
what the man is doing and whatthe system is doing, but you
(18:16):
guys are still gettingassistance from the man.
You guys are still using theprograms that they're going,
know, going to the liquor storeyou're part of the system you're
part of the system, so you canspeak about this as much as you
want, but what are we going todo so far?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
and it's okay to be transitional in that phase,
meaning it's okay to be part ofthe system.
If there's a plan and you'reworking towards that plan, yeah,
if you're born into it, what doyou do?
Right, this is just what it is.
But, like you decided at somepoint, you were practically a
baby when you said this is notright.
There's something I want to doabout it, for sure.
And then decided to dosomething about it absolutely,
(18:52):
man.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
My environment has molded me to be this thing that
I am today.
I'm just trying to take mytoday and move it forward to
better my future family and myfuture bloodline, because it has
to start with somebody.
Everyone has that one person intheir family that changes the
(19:14):
trajectory of correcteverybody's life.
That's why I have such aforward mindset.
I've been able to have theseblinders took off my eyes to see
things for what they really are.
So now it allows me to get outof this victimizing mentality
because we can find ourselvesbeing exactly there and just
(19:38):
saying, okay, what can I dotoday to move forward?
And I only have control overwhat I have control over.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Control the controllables.
The noise is going to be there,no matter what, point blank.
Ignore the noise, focus on yoursolution, focus on your why,
focus on what you're trying toachieve, because the noise is
going to keep coming at you,point blank and granted.
Obviously, there is a system inplace that doesn't favor you,
doesn't favor me, it exists.
So, yes, the battle issomething you have to go through
, but you just have to decidethat you're going to go through
(20:09):
it and understand that it'sgoing to be a little harder for
you than it is for someone else,absolutely so.
With that said, how did youstart your business and why?
What's the name of the business?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
The business is Roof Bullies, so it's a roofing
company Roofing and constructionRoofing and construction Gotcha
Restoration Okay.
Company roofing andconstruction.
Roofing construction gotcharestoration okay.
So I had a pastor and I wasdoing like remodels and things
like that.
In oklahoma there's aparticular church in black wall
street that's still there.
It's one of the originalchurches from black wall street
(20:38):
that I was raised in.
So every four or five years youknow know, they change pastors
and I don't too much understandit, but it's a thing Like every
few years a pastor will movefrom a different state, come to
a church that they get moved to,and he was just particularly
one.
He was the first pastor that waskind of, you know, in his early
(20:58):
40s he knew what was going onand things like that.
So he was kind of like a youngpastor.
So, as we connected, one day Iwas getting a smoothie and he
came in he was like, yeah, wewere replacing the roof on the
church.
And I see, you know, I see youon Facebook kind of posting this
and this, go ahead and do a bid.
So I went ahead and did the bidfor the church before even you
(21:22):
know, I had no idea aboutroofing, just completely lost.
What were?
You know?
I had no idea about roofing,Just completely lost.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
What were you posting if you had?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
no idea about roofing , so I was posting kitchen
remodels.
Gotcha Okay, flooring.
And just you know I was doingfix and flips.
And I had a relationship with abuddy of mine that was a
contractor, gotcha, so I didn'tunderstand contracting work, I
just understood money.
So it's just like have a client, he wants a remodel, I go to my
(21:49):
buddy how much you gonna chargeme, redo the floor, the just do
everything.
He'll tell me 5500 or whateverand I'll go to the my client and
be like I can do it for 8500.
Yeah so it's just like I didn'tunderstand the elements of
contracting.
I just understood likebrokering.
You know, he sent me the bid,he sent me this long email and
it was asking questions and thenit asked for a price point.
(22:11):
So I looked at the roof and Ijust put 165 000 and submitted
it.
A week or so went by.
I was like hey, did you givehim?
He's like, yeah, we received it.
We just went ahead and went adifferent route.
Okay, but he was like you know,I want to show you.
So he came and the bid who wonit Was like 360,000.
It was a metal roof.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Oh my god, I thought you went.
I thought you overbid, Ithought you went too high.
You went.
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So he couldn't take you seriously, couldn't tell me.
That gave them an indication.
He does not know what he'sdoing.
Yeah, your quality he's donelike, and plus, I didn't have a
roofing company established ormine, no, google, no, nothing.
So just like a, you know, a twoman in the truck, kind of feel
so.
But what that did was in themidst of that I was going down
(22:58):
this rabbit hole of roofing.
You get ads.
Once you start clicking oncertain roofing, or you click on
, it's going to pop all overyour all over the time, all over
.
So I jumped into the roofingalgorithm and then I began to
see it was a conference it'scalled roof con, yeah, and it
was in like a week or somethingand I was seeing the packages
(23:18):
like gold and platinum, and Ithink the most expensive one was
like $4,500 and it gave youaccess and things like that.
So I just I bought the $4,500gold member ticket.
It was in Orlando, so when wasthat?
This is probably four years ago, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So your company is still well-established, but
relatively new, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
So I flew down a day early because I have a buddy
that stays in orlando and he waslike what you up past, like I
got a roofing convention going.
He was like roofing convention,like you and roofing, and I was
like I'm, I'm thinking about it.
Proofing keeps, yeah,presenting itself and I kind of
explained that too.
But I was like, yeah, you know,I want to get a better
understanding about it.
So I'll go to this conferencecalled RoofCon Got an Airbnb for
(24:04):
because the event was likethree days.
Yeah, stayed there for likefour.
So I go to this RoofConconvention and it's about 4000
people there, yeah, and I'm kindof amazed to a certain degree
because I'm just like, when Igot here, in the parking lot is
Range Rovers, rari's, lambo'syeah, it's the property Huge
(24:25):
trucks I mean trucks waspredominantly a big thing Big,
dually big trucks, big wraptrucks, like just this is what
you're seeing outside thisconvention.
As I checked in, it was a guy,his name was Woody.
He was just like, hey, man, youknow, you know, kind of
introduce yourself.
Yeah, I'm in PDR, he's in dentrestoration, so when a hailstorm
(24:46):
comes, he's the individualsthat will fix the dents out of
your car.
So he comes to the roofingconventions for a network to
connect with other roofers, tosend him vehicles, gotcha.
So that's his game, white guy.
You know, if you kind of sitback and look at him he looks
racist.
But he's the nicest, sweetestguy, because we all know there's
(25:08):
that, look that.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Look.
Yeah, they have the oakley song, oakley sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's always scary to look, just I'm just that look
so, it's just like and they'dbe the most cool dudes in the
world and just like for us, theywill see us with dreads, yeah,
with probably a scully on, andjust assume, and assume what.
We're just exactly vicious.
But then when you meet him it'slike oh, he's just sweet,
exactly it's it goes hand inhand so I'm at the convention.
(25:35):
He takes me and he just beginsto introduce me to this
supplementing company and thisroofer and this roofer and this
roofer and this roof and this PAand this guy who teaches sales
and this guy who teachesdifferent suppliers.
He was introducing me to people.
I was just like what's a PA?
so you know, I mean, whyeverybody's so big about the
(25:58):
suppliers, and you know I wasjust in this world, lost.
But he's introducing me and I'madding him on instagram,
facebook connecting.
Yeah.
So, as I'm going through thisconvention of 4 000 people, I
didn't see one black person thatowned a roofing company.
It was one black speaker.
His name is deshaun.
I know him, yeah.
(26:18):
So sean bryant, deshaun bryant,he the out of all 36 speakers.
You know he was only the blackguy, yeah, and so I'm kind of
watching him from a distance.
Just I don't want to introducemyself, cause I like to observe
somebody and I know I'm going tobe here for three days and it
allows me to kind of see how heis, how he move, you know, just
(26:39):
watching, because he's the onlyblack person that's on his panel
.
So I'm like, what is it thatyou do?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Let's see if you're just there just to bring a
little color to it, or do you?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
actually have some substance, absolutely.
So that's what I'm viewing andseeing from that perspective.
And then after the event, thelast day, they have all these
vending booths.
It was probably 65 booths.
I went to every single booth,got content, information,
contact, and I just came backwith a suitcase full of
brochures, flyers, softwares, soI can begin to start doing my
(27:13):
due diligence on everything.
I'm also going to theseretreats and resorts that a lot
of roofers were doing.
It was this company calledRevolt and they basically it's a
whole bunch of roofers and wego out to cabins and we all just
connect and kind of talk aboutthe industry, kind of it was
just retreats basically.
So I went to a lot of roofingretreats.
(27:34):
I went to a lot of roofing.
You really went all in.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
You invested.
Listen, man, I don't.
You dove in, I'm not playing.
I've been to RoofCon and I knowroofing companies who don't go
and I don't understand why, asan established roofing company,
you don't have to send 10 peopleOne of the managers, someone
you have to have some type ofrepresentation there, yeah, and
if they do go, they're spendingmaybe $300 or $400 for the price
(27:59):
of hey, just entry, but youhave access to nothing else,
absolutely, and you just went inand threw it all in there,
Because they are stuck in theirways and they're stuck in their
processes.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
People who created these conferences they're moving
more like social mediainfluencers and bringing
community together.
For myself, I was able to get ajumpstart of nothing but value
and information andconversations and, like I talked
to close friends of mine tothis day that sold their roofing
company for $23 million, $46million, $16 million, $8 million
(28:38):
.
So not a bad exit Not a badexit at all and all they do is
go start another LLC and open upanother roofing company to
compete with what they used todo so to sell that one so it's
justlike.
The conference has changed mylife and it helped me to get
years of trial and error to thepoint of you know there's
buddies, that's that.
You know I have black friendsthat's in roofing but but
(28:59):
they're not killing it.
You know they haven't been ableto go to that next level
because of the lack ofunderstanding about insurance
and restoration.
You guys are only moving off ofone vertical when it's dealing
with this roofing space.
Like we got water, we got fire,we got wind, we have hail, we
have storms, we have thosetrades.
(29:19):
That's implemented into theactual restoration process.
So I've been in the industryabout four years, like three
years and a half, but I waslearning my first year.
Second year I start stormchasing, going to work for
roofing companies, working formonths, closing deals and the
(29:41):
person who owned the company ranoff to China and stole over $7
million.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Didn't pay anybody.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Huh, didn't pay anybody, absolutely not.
They took all money,restoration, all checks and
moved overseas.
So I had experience in thisspace, everything is not going
to be rainbow.
So my experience of you know,working for restoration
companies, storm chasingcompanies, watching the process
(30:11):
of, if a hurricane hits florida,what those steps look like.
Okay, once the water ties out.
Okay, now the electric.
Okay, general mode general.
Okay, you can do this.
Let's help feed people, clothepeople, put them in apartments
okay, where's their homes?
Okay, do you have a contractorto help facilitate to this?
Oh, you need water mitigation.
(30:32):
Oh, you need water mapping.
You need, you know, windfenestration, like it's a whole
world in that restoration space,to the point where I was able
to get that information and dataand leverage it in the future.
I tell people it took me almostfour years to be this
knowledgeable in this space andI went through hell to do it.
(30:56):
Being in roofing.
You close a deal and thenyou're expected to get an
$85,000 check for some work thatyou did.
Then the client keeps it andthen this client keeps it.
Then you know you go intobecause your systems and
processes wasn't structured.
You didn't have your contractsstructured to the point where,
if they keep the money, you puta lien on their property and go
(31:18):
through that process and thenit's like, oh, you'd rather not
even go through the court thing,because that's not your world,
that's not what you do.
You haven't learned that.
You have to learn howaggressive you have to be.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, and those are things that you learned going
through a roofcon puttingyourself in that space, meeting
all the right people, because itwould have taken you over a
decade to learn that stuff onyour own.
Absolutely and more.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I have roofing friends that's been in roofing
for 20 years.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, don't know this stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And they're like bro, like I've helped so many of my
buddies make an additional two,three $400,000 added on to what
they do by just implementingsmall things to their already
established companies,implementing small things to
their already establishedcompanies.
So we are in a space ofbuilding a reputation building,
notoriety building.
(32:07):
You know all of these thingsthat you need to.
When a person thinks aboutroofing, they want to pick you,
so you want to think about roofbullies that's it well.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
it sounds like the business right now is thriving.
I've seen you do it, I've kindof watched from afar and 100%
would definitely recommend yourcompany time and time again,
just from what I've seen fromthe outside.
Talk to me about your personalphilosophies.
Some of them you apply to yourcareer, to your business, but
how?
Those shape who you are now andaffect your priorities.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
One, no one is going to save you.
That, right there, allows me toknow that I do not wait or
depend on anything or anybodyfor what I want in my life,
because everything that I gothrough no one's going to care
about but me through no one'sgoing to care about but me when
(33:05):
it's dealing with my successpath.
I've always had a mindset ofjust being resilient in whatever
it is that I do, because timehas always shown me that,
whatever industry that you arein, as long as you put the time
in, the energy, the focus, ifit's not working out, it's
because of you, and it's yourresponsibility to find out and
(33:27):
figure out what it is to allowyou to be in whatever this
position that you visualize andsee yourself in.
Yeah, so I don't know how toprioritize my life outside of
what I'm focused on.
People always talk about thiswork-life balance.
It's not a work.
It's not a life it's not.
It's impossible.
(33:47):
So, for me, my philosophies arealways based off of knowing
that I have to do what needs tobe done or it will not happen.
And if I don't do what I haveto do while I'm on this earth, I
am doing a disservice to myfamily, my future kids, my
(34:08):
bloodline, because everythingthat I complain about oh, I
didn't have nobody to set me upthis way.
Oh, I didn't have nobody toteach me.
Oh, I don't want to be a manthat speaks of all these things
that I complained about growingup.
And then now I'm in a positionto be the change.
I want to be the change, I'mgoing to be the change.
(34:30):
So my focus is always wrappedaround.
I have to make this work and Ihave to put our family on the
same page, and I have to put ourfamily on the same page so
we're not allowing ourgeneration that's coming up to
go through so much turmoil,confusion.
It's just all it is isconfusion.
Our bloodline just don't knowwhat to do.
(34:50):
I'm structuring my life that itallows anybody in my family to
look at me and be like I'm goingto do any and everything that
he says, because the lifestylethat he lives and the way that
he moves is a reflection of whatI look at as success when it's
dealing with my appearance andmy body, my health, how I eat,
how I talk, how I articulate,how I everything I have to be a
(35:14):
reflection of what I want peopleto move, because if you're fat
and lazy, you can't tell me whatto eat.
I can't tell me when to work outyour reflection of who you are.
You just run in your mouth thephilosophies that I live off of
is You're going to die to buy,and that's inevitable.
(35:35):
Yeah, and you don't know whenit's gonna happen.
So you can't take no days forgranted and you have to give
everything that you have, nomatter how tired you are,
exhausted, mentally drained,overwhelmed, that doesn't matter
because it's not about you.
That philosophy allows me tounderstand that I have to show
(35:59):
up for this business everysingle day.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
That is an amazing philosophy mindset.
How old are you?
35.
Are you married?
No, okay, dating no.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay.
So I'm in a relationship withmy business to the point where I
can't Don't have time for it.
It ain't that I don't have timefor it, it's like, as a man, I
want to bring my family intoparadise.
I want to bring my family intostructure.
It is my responsibility tocreate the order in my household
(36:30):
.
A man that doesn't have hislife together or where he wants
it to be is a chaotic man, and Idon't want to be a chaotic man
to a woman because it's going toaffect our relationship and me.
Being a serial entrepreneur, I'mgoing to pick my business over
any woman that I will ever bewith, because I care about my
(36:51):
business more than I care aboutme.
Having somebody to lay with atnight or someone to support me
or be my companion lay with thatnight or someone to support me
or be my companion it's just apart of my ideology.
It's just.
You know, I've been inrelationships and I seen how you
not picking the right personand not having the right woman
can be detrimental to yourbusiness and your mental space
and your focus.
(37:11):
So, living in a generationwhere everyone is pretty much
damaged, I'm such a want to helpand heal a person.
That energy that I'm pouringinto all your childhood traumas
and issues I'm taking away frommy business and my family and my
focus.
I have enough mental issueswith my family, so it's just
(37:33):
like me adding that on right now.
I had a gentleman years ago Iwas probably 20 years old.
He said, bro, you don't have toworry about being married until
you're at least 40, becauseeven at 40, you have more time
in front of you than you'vealready lived.
So it's with that mindset.
(37:55):
If God has a woman in store forme, she's walking a certain
journey and I'm walking acertain journey and we connect.
I'm not going to stop what Godhas for me.
I'm not in control of anything,so I can be as intentional as I
want to be to try to findsomebody.
But that may not be my journey.
This is my journey.
Entrepreneurship is my journey.
(38:16):
Entrepreneurship is my focus,my, my purpose on this earth.
So I have to show up and getthat established first before I
even entertain and go into thatworld.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I don't know where your friend was or that old man
who told you what he told youwas a long time ago for a lot of
us, because we had it backwards.
Obviously, you have a lot offriends, family members, you can
see most people did itbackwards.
Right, you're 20 years old, 21years old, and you go and have a
kid and you have a second, andthen you're in this marriage and
then you're trying to establishyourself in the business world.
(38:51):
You're struggling, and then youcan't struggle in the business
world and do what you have to doand give it your all because
you have to take care of thesekids and this person.
So, yes, a lot of us did itbackwards because the role model
wasn't there or because, simply, we didn't have the advice or
just awareness, rather just tokind of see hey, this is the way
it should be, this is the way Ishould do it.
Some people realize this veryearly on.
(39:12):
You did.
But yes, I think I would agreethat you wait and you build
yourself and you have somethingthat is impenetrable, that is
strong, and you can bring afamily into that.
Then you guys never have toworry about money or anything
like that.
But I guess what I want to askis what's the point of all of it
and I guess this is more of asentimental question than
(39:34):
anything else.
Right Because you're married toyour business, else right
Because you're married to yourbusiness.
But at the end of the day, isthere an end goal to?
Yeah, I want to do this so thatI can have the family to raise
and not have to worry aboutmoney and I can pass on these
teachings.
Or is it just for the sake ofchasing more and chasing more
you?
Speaker 1 (39:50):
know what I mean.
It's for the sake of having itestablished across the board
financially, like Jews andAsians have for their family.
It's not too much.
I don't want it to be a chase,because I think success and
money is like a squirrel to me.
It's like you can't catch asquirrel.
(40:13):
You can't run up to a squirreland touch it or grab it.
Run up to a squirrel and touchit or grab it.
But if you sit down and youfocus and you create or you
think of a way to createsomething that's attractive and
then you think, okay, what dosquirrels like?
They like nuts.
Okay, they like acorns.
Okay, all right, cool, let'stry a nut.
(40:35):
So I will take this nut andposition myself by a lot of
squirrels and I will be patientand I will be still and I will
be focused and you will see thatover time that they will notice
you see, you see you.
They might not deal with you,but they'll see you.
They okay, he's over there, butthen the squirrel is hungry and
(40:58):
he's been looking for nuts allday, but he knows I'm there.
So I'm sitting there patient,I'm just holding it.
Once that first squirrel comesand grabs the nut and seeing
they were safe and everythingwas good, that will begin to
vibrationally allow othersquirrels to know this is what
he has, to the point where I canjust hold my hand out with nuts
(41:21):
and then a whole bunch ofsquirrels just grab, grab, grab,
grab, eat.
I feel like that's what successis.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
That's a wonderful analogy, I mean.
I think it's gonna go over alot of people's heads.
So I'd encourage people torewind this piece, because it
sounds initially, when you firststarted speaking, like what the
hell is brother talking about?
you know squirrels ands and nutsand shit, but as you're
speaking, because the first partof it was find out what they
like.
We all know what squirrels like, but if you're thinking about
(41:48):
success as a squirrel, well,what attracts success?
Doing your research, like youdid when it comes to the roofing
business, and going to RoofConand paying to be in the room and
learning from all these people.
So you had to first do theresearch, then you had to
position yourself in a way thatbrings and adds, creates value
for these people and thesebusinesses to come to you.
(42:10):
Then you had to deliver.
Once they see that beingdelivered, then they can trust
it and at that point peoplealways say well, why do the rich
keep keep getting richer?
Because they deliver value andpeople know that they're
established.
So now you got your open handand success is coming to you and
you don't have to chase it,that's right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So that's where I am, and sometimes it takes a little
time and sometimes you have tobe a little patient.
I'm doing what I can do lockingin, staying focused,
establishing and havingeverything that I'm in control
in, but I am presentingsomething that will allow this
(42:47):
thing to move as it needs tomove.
So in life, I'm not too muchchasing anything.
I'm not chasing success.
I'm not chasing to look acertain way.
I'm not chasing to havewhatever this big house, these
cars I'm chasing stability,structure and just a foundation
for my family, for us to goacquire some dirt and build
(43:10):
whatever it is that we want.
If our aunties and grandmaswant to live next to us, go
ahead and build a house on theland.
I want that access.
My success is coming from aplace of establishing a asset
that we can actually leverage asa family.
So that's where I'm at.
Wonderful man.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I feel like your audience if you were a speaker.
I'm sure you are, but if youwere to be on stage doing a TEDx
, yeah, I think that youraudience would be the kid in
middle school who aspires to bean entrepreneur, or maybe
doesn't know that he needs to beor she needs to be, but that
person needs to listen.
Then there's a 20 somethingyear old who just hasn't figured
it out.
Yeah, I have a son that agewho's like what do I do?
(43:53):
I'm not sure.
And then there's a 30 year oldwho might be feeling a little
discouraged.
Facts because, like man, Ihaven't done it yet.
What am I doing?
I'm already 30 and you know,when you turn 30, you feel like
your life's about to be over.
Oh, my god, I'm so old.
Right, it's not.
Until you hit, you know, youget a little older, you realize,
oh, I wish I could be 30 againabsolutely.
But when you're in your 20s andyou hit 30, you're like, oh my
(44:15):
god, I'm still not rich, I'mstill not successful.
What's happening?
My life is over, right?
So if you're talking to thataudience, that 10 year old boy,
20 year old, any of the 30,something who hasn't figured it
out yet, it's a wide range.
But what's your advice?
Speaker 1 (44:28):
My advice is always try everything, bro.
Who cares?
What do you think you like?
What do you think you wouldwant to do?
Whatever you think you would do, instead of thinking about it,
go, try it.
You have 10 years to fail.
(44:48):
You have 15 years to fail to beable to be in a position to be
successful for the rest of yourlife.
If you are sitting here lookingat your current now and being
discouraged, you're going to dielike this.
Like I explained, my blindersgot took off a long time ago.
So when I talk to a 50 year oldman, we can't make it seem like
(45:11):
we didn't have men in our lifetelling us the same thing all
over and over and over again.
If I was 20 again, if I was 30again, if I was 40 again.
We've been hearing it all ourlives.
So by me always hearing it, Inever adopted the concept of
time, of being too late, becausethis is my perspective about my
(45:35):
life.
I am just allowing worldlythoughts to be intrusive and
invasive to make me feel likeI'm running out of time.
And that goes for relationships, business, it goes for
everything.
So my advice for a 20 year oldthat's just lost, it's just like
okay, if you're lost, what isit that you think you want to do
(45:57):
?
Oh, I think I want to.
Okay, then start directing yourenergy towards doing that yeah
because let's just say you do itfor two years, bro, or three
years.
You're only going to be 23years old and you're going to
find out that you don't like it.
Yeah, pick something else.
Let's just say you do that forfour years, one year, six months
(46:17):
, whatever it is, but I'm hereto tell you, once you get to 30,
you have to make a decision.
And whenever you make thatdecision because this is what
has happened from the age of 15to 30, you had 15 years to
experience life Right, fail many, many times what you like, what
(46:45):
you like, what you kind of like, what you wish you would have
came back what you got some sexin whatever industry that that
is and say that you are willingto die before you do something
else.
The mindset has to be if youdon't figure this out, you are
going to be a failure to yourwhole entire family.
(47:05):
And this gift you wasted itbecause you could not make a
decision.
Once you make a decision andyou stand on that decision, your
life experience and your workethic, the universe and God is
going to reward you and put youthrough a journey that he's
(47:28):
going to make sure that thatthing that you chose works,
because faith without works isdead.
But the main thing is youhaving to work.
So when I speak with anybody,it's like I've read a book.
It was called the power of oneand it was basically about one
(47:49):
of the analogies was aboutMickey Mouse and this artist.
He drew Mickey Mouse and that'sall he drew.
He was just Mickey Mouse allthe time.
And then all of a sudden,mickey Mouse.
He put in a newspaper and heonly wrote about Mickey Mouse
and then he'd start writingabout Minnie Mouse.
But in this process whathappened is that Mickey Mouse
(48:10):
was his thing.
He maximized Mickey Mouse wherehe had to add Mickey and Goofy
and all of these othercharacters, as it established,
but in the newspaper it was onlyabout Mickey Mouse.
As years progressed, thisMickey Mouse character has now
turned into Walt Disney.
(48:31):
This Walt Disney has now turnedinto Universal Studios and all
of all of this real estate thathe like.
It became a multi trilliondollar industry.
But what happened is that hestarted with Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
People have to understand where you start is
the process of where you want toget and where you want to build
and where you want to projectyour life to be.
But if he got off course andstart doing something else for
Mickey Mouse, he wouldn't be whohe is today.
So try everything for 15 years,whatever time that's going to
(49:09):
be Right.
Make a decision and make thatone thing be obsessed with it
Right.
Give everything that you have,because every leader, every
entrepreneur, every athlete thatwe can think of, who's been
iconic and powerful, their basewas something yeah, if it's
(49:30):
music, if it's entertainment, ifit's an iPhone, if it's PayPal,
if it's Amazon, if it'swhatever, it started with one
thing.
So I'm always I'm a hugeadvocate, and I've had a lot of
different businesses in my lifetoo.
I've been in logistics, I'vebeen in delivery, I've been in
(49:50):
taxes, I've been in concerts,I've been in construction.
So I've been in logistics, I'vebeen in delivery, I've been in
taxes, I've been in concerts,I've been in construction.
So I've been in different.
I've been in several verticals,and this is why I am Taking
your own advice, taking my ownadvice.
You know I'm telling you what Idid Like I've tried it.
I tried so many differentindustries but my journey has
allowed me to be this diverse inthis.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
I can pivot off so many different verticals because
my experience but I alwaysremind people, these businesses
say you try something and itdoesn't work.
You have to remember again.
It's working for someone else.
So the common denominator hereis you Period.
So you still have to go back tothe fact that if it's working,
it's working.
Whether it's insurance, whetherit's roofing, whether it's
whatever it is restoration, youname it it does work, it works
(50:33):
Right.
So now can you live through thehardship and make it work?
And the second thing that youtouched on also is something
that I actually heard the younglady, emma Green, who's a
multibillion dollar founder.
She said people overestimatewhat they can do in one year and
they underestimate what theycan do in 10.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Facts.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Man, there's no stopping you?
Speaker 1 (50:53):
There ain't no stopping you.
And then if you add thephilosophy of one, and then
there was another audio, andthis is one thing I know about
myself, and if I showed you myAudible, I'm on a membership
where I at least buy at leastone credit a month.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, me too.
I got to get your list.
Most definitely, I'm interested?
Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, for sure, and I'll show you and I add that to
my personal development, likethat's a part of my personal
development.
So for me there's another book,and a lot of books is kind of
common, as you know.
You have those popular bookslike it's 48 laws about.
You know, you have these books.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Sure, how to Win Friends and Influence People and
all that know.
You have these books how to winfriends and influence and all
that.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
So you have I can grow rich.
All of you have standards thestandards, yeah, and their
standards.
For a reason.
That's right, and sometimesI'll be.
You know my, my personality.
I'm not a follower, sosometimes I gotta get out of my
way and, like man, just checkthis book out.
So it's just like it's anotherbook.
It's called like a 12 week work, four hour work week, four hour
work week, and they haveanother one.
(51:54):
But we're we're on the samepage so four hour work week.
Yeah, and basically what thatbook taught me was, when we
start a business, okay, at thebeginning of the year I'm going
to make a million dollars thisyear, energy's high first
quarter goes past, then we're inour second quarter.
He was just like okay,realistically I've only made 50.
So, all right, five hundredthousand dollars, that's what
(52:16):
I'm gonna make.
So you readjust the contractyou're made with yourself, most
definitely but, this is whathappens first quarter lit
excited.
Second quarter still lit, kindof excited.
Third quarter you're a littlediscouraged.
Reality check, reality check.
Fourth quarter you compromiseI'm not gonna do 500, but I'm
(52:36):
gonna do 100 and you make 100.
And this is what we do.
We keep readjusting.
We the time that we giveourselves is too much time.
I stop making my goalsassociated to years because it's
too broad.
What I've learned and what I'vedone for myself is I've
(52:57):
implemented that thought process, but I do it in 12 weeks.
Whatever my goal is, I make itfor 12 weeks.
So if you implement your mainfocus on one thing and then you
condense your time to a moretighter restraint, it allows you
to have pressure applied everysingle day where you know for a
(53:22):
fact, I have to put some energytowards my business.
Today, now that you're able tofocus on one thing, let's focus
on giving you time restraints.
Let's focus on compounding.
I had a buddy.
He had a ball, a red ball, andhe squeezed it and he made it
disappear in front of my eyes.
Fuck me up.
(53:43):
I was amazed I'm talking aboutamazed and in my mind, that's
right.
How?
How the fuck you do that, bro?
How did you do that?
How did you do that?
Right?
It's called pressuredeprivation, it's something.
It's like that.
It's well.
Basically, you position yourhands well when you squeeze the
(54:06):
ball.
It's a foamy ball, so you pressit to the point where it may go
between your fingers.
It gives the illusion of itdisappearing because he closes
it and it read back up here.
The analogy of what I receivedfrom that is that he showed me
something that I felt wasimpossible, but once I
(54:28):
understood what he did, it'spossible and it can be taught.
So in life and in this businessworld, the things that we feel
like it's impossible For us todo, it's not impossible, we just
don't know how to do it.
Yet that, also In this journey,has allowed me to understand.
We honestly can do anythingthat we put our minds to, and if
(54:51):
we're not getting the resultsthat we want, it's just because
we don't understand it.
We have to be relentless infiguring out this information of
taking our business to the nextlevel.
Yeah, I ran into a buddy ofmine last night.
He came up to me.
He was like bro, I'm just soproud of you, g.
Like you found your thing.
You dig what I'm saying, likeeverybody out here trying to
(55:13):
find they shit, like we all outhere just trying to find our
shit.
And you found it yeah, and I cantell because every time I get
on your instagram, bro, you juston some roofs, you just, you,
just a roofing ass, motherfucker, that's what he said.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
That'd be a great name for a company roofing ass
motherfucker.
Roofing ass motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
So itoofing ass motherfucker.
So it was like when he saidthat to me.
I'm not looking at it like that, I'm looking at it as man.
I got so much I have to learnabout this business.
Insurance is changing andshifting Retail shifting and
moving the economy.
I'm finding my niche in regardsto this space to maximize the
(55:54):
opportunity.
So as long as Mother Nature isbeing tempered with and she's
all over the place, we're goingto have hailstorms, we're going
to have hurricanes, we're goingto have.
No one can stop Mother Nature.
Stop mother nature right.
As long as the insurancecompanies don't go out of
business and bankrupt across theboard, this is an industry that
(56:15):
we will always be able to makemoney from.
I know how much good I can do.
I can take a, a yn off thestreet and say oh, if you don't
want to sell when they, knockingthese shingles off, clean up
everything, all five of y'all.
I'll pay y'all three hundreddollars a day to clean up all
these shingles and throw it away, and every day I have a roof
(56:35):
that I'm putting on.
So 300 times five or six.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
It's a lot more than to make anywhere else just work
in minimum wage or some fastfood place.
So it's the good that you giveback to the community.
Also, I love your purposebecause it's not totally.
Obviously, if we're not notselfish, a term sometimes has a
negative connotation.
Right, it's self-centered,which is a good thing, because
you got to take care of selffirst.
That just makes sense, period.
But you do take care of otherpeople in the process and not
(57:03):
leaving anybody behind as longas they'll listen.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
So that's a beautiful mindset to have as well because
the only thing like I have, youknow, when my homeboy, you know
, get out of jail from layingdown for 16, 17 years, they have
the same mindset that we werewhen we was 18 years old.
You know, 17 years old, I havebuddies who's just now getting
out of jail.
I was around when these likethe things that I used to do.
(57:29):
It shows me how blessed I trulyam and how how much favor that
God has over my life.
I can't waste that gift.
I can't waste not showing upand doing my part for one person
, two person.
I'm not.
I'm not saying that I can situp here and change the whole
world, and Tupac said it I ain't.
I might not change the world,but I will spark something in
(57:52):
somebody to be the one to changethe world.
So when I bring a YN on aproject, I see how excited they
are with a chainsaw.
I see how excited they are whenI bring my bobcat guys in and I
say watch him.
And I'm like, hey, bro, let himride it for a little bit,
because we're in the field,we're in the woods.
(58:14):
What you going to break, youknow.
All right, hopefully a tree,hopefully a tree.
So just pull this knob back,pull this down, grab this, put
it up.
It has exposed them, just likethat, into a world that they
didn't think they wereinterested in.
So guess what?
I know you got felonies, allthese tattoos on your face, you
(58:35):
know, and nobody's going to hireyou.
But guess what?
No one cares about who's in hisBobcat truck.
Do what I asked you to do beingable to be in these worlds and
having these understanding, Ican begin to start plugging in
our youth to these trades.
That's going to be highlyneeded we're getting out of it.
Speaker 2 (58:53):
Correct, I was going to say everything you just
mentioned.
None of it can be taken away byAI At all, not anytime soon
anyway.
Right, so you're creatingpretty much the future Point
blank bro.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Yeah, trades are going to be the last thing that
technology can take over,because there's not a robot,
there's not a machine that cango into a small area and put a
drywall up, do some electricwork, do some flooring work.
There's not an ai that can puta whole roof on.
(59:25):
Yeah, so the only thing thatthat would change is we're
decades away.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
I mean we're, yeah, we'll be gone.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, will itcome?
Sure, initially it'll be asuper high premium, because if
you buy one of those robots,we're talking about a million
dollars per for sure, right?
So companies are not going tobe rolling out opening up the
checkbooks to say, well, I wantto save on six laborers because
one robot won't take a break.
Come on, you're, we're too faraway, so for a long time trades
(59:52):
are going to be.
That's the new set ofmillionaires, man.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
And that's the agenda that I'm on.
We have all these content guyscredit stocks, transportation,
things.
That's always been amulti-trillion dollar industry,
but Tesla can take awaylogistics, stocks can be took
(01:00:17):
away with AI, credit take awaywith AI.
So now, with this trade space,it's like that's what I'm on.
I'm in the world and I'm in theindustry to teach
African-Americans, predominantlythis industry, this world, this
space.
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Where can we find your business yourself?
How can we follow you?
How can we support you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So you can go to wwwroofbulliescom.
That will be the channel toconnect and book appointments.
My Instagram is Mr Rocker, soit's at underscore Mr Rocker, my
LinkedIn.
To buy a rocker LinkedIn ismore business.
(01:00:59):
Instagram is just my lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
And I'll make sure that's all in the show notes as
well, so someone's listening.
Can you just go ahead and clickon that and it will take them
directly to your pages?
Perfect, and it will take themdirectly to your pages Perfect.
Now, I do have a tradition onthis particular podcast where at
the end of every show, someonehas to read the outro, doing an
impression Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Who could I impersonate?
Okay, I do a Jamaican.
Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Oh my God, Are you Jamaican?
Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
No, I ain't Jamaican at all.
Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Are you about to do a Jamaican accent?
I'm going to try.
I'm going to attempt.
Let's see how good yourJamaican accent is, brother,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Please support us by following the show.
Leave us a five-star rating onpodcast.
Thank you so much for listening.
Well, catch you next week.
We share conversationssurrounding real issues.
Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Real deal that every day man perspective.
We're true, a podcast for all,but our point of view.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.