December 2, 2025 • 54 mins
Most roofing companies get stuck around $2M–$3M…
And they stay stuck.
Not Randy Hurtado.
He helped take a sleepy roofing company from <$2M…
To over $30M in roofing revenue this year.
(And nearly $50M total across all their companies.)
In this podcast, Randy shares why most owners never break $5M — and exactly what to do about it.
You’ll discover:
- Why Randy QUIT roofing sales to grow the company (this sounds backwards, but it worked)
- The BIGGEST mistake owners make when expanding into new markets
- The right way to build a killer sales team (even if reps have ZERO roofing experience)
- How community involvement prints money (and earns long-term trust)
- And the real reason most companies stay “stuck” for years
This one’s packed with real talk and tactical advice. Especially if you’re feeling stuck in the owner-operator stage… or wondering what’s next after $1M, $2M, or even $5M.
Listen to the episode on Spotify & Apple Podcasts (284) 👇
🎧 https://roofingpod.com/spotify
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Links:
https://dtroofing.net
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC40CA_iIvloTsNSWEf2_lEA
https://www.instagram.com/dt_roofingandconstruction
https://www.facebook.com/DTRoofingandConstruction/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
It's not what you do when the storm hits, it's what
you did before the storm gotthere that makes all the
difference.
Last year we had a uh storm inin uh May.
And uh in June we had a sixpoint five million dollar month.
Why?
Well, because all thoserelationships came home guru.
It really comes down to and whatour secret sauce is, and I share
(00:21):
it with every roofing companyowner that I mentor and bore
into is relationships.
Relationships, relationships.
You can have the flashy, youknow, name and flashy or a
boring name, DT roofing.
It doesn't have this fantasticold name or color schema's black
and white, it's not literallyblack and white, it's not, you
(00:42):
know, super bright when you'redriving down the road.
But what we're known for, if youwere to go through our
communities that we serve andask people, what is DT roofing
known for in this community?
Very few will say roofing.
In the contracting world, theway we're represented is the guy
at a jumpsuit on the fiveo'clock news who took eleven
thousand dollars from an elderlylady.
(01:03):
I'm going to create a safecommunity of contractors that
are not only vetted by us, butwe're willing to back every job
they do with a monetary value.
Everybody sounds the same infront of a customer.
We have this many five-starreviews, we have this platinum,
this, or this master delete,that, or you know, this accolade
or that accolade, and thecustomer's going, oh, that's
(01:23):
nice.
And they're thinking in the backof their head, that's what the
last two roofers, the last twoplumbers, or whatever told me.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast.
I'm Jim Alean and I'm here tobring you insights from top
leaders in the roofing industryto help you grow and scale your
roofing business.
Randy Hartado, how are you, man?
I am well.
Thanks for having me on.
We both had uh had some early uhearly mornings this morning.
(01:49):
So we're, you know, for all theall the guests listening, boy,
Randy and I are running oncoffee right now.
But we're gonna get this donefor you and we're gonna have a
great produce some great contentand and get some great
information for everyone.
Uh Randy, uh Todd, let's uhlet's introduce you to our
audience if they don't know youalready.
DT Roofing, DT companies.
(02:11):
Out of the the the the theMetroplex or trying to stay out
of the Metroplex, you said.
SPEAKER_02 (02:18):
The Metro Mess, yes.
Yeah, we're located, yeah.
Yeah, we're located south andsouthwest of the uh DFW
Metroplex.
SPEAKER_00 (02:26):
So cool.
How did uh how how did you getinto roofing?
SPEAKER_02 (02:29):
Well, I my origin story is not that of most where
I had a family member or a dador somebody who was in
construction and it was just anatural progression to uh to the
roofing world.
I was actually a computer nerdfor 20 over 20 years, and I had
an office next door to uh thisto root to DT roofing, not in
(02:51):
the current building that we'rein, but uh uh I needed some
office space because I wasworking out of the house and it
just wasn't working out with asmany kids as we have and animals
and doorbells ringing.
It was just, it wasn't uhappropriate for a professional
environment.
So I rented some space and uhbecame real friendly with the uh
with my now partner, who is thesole owner of the company at the
(03:14):
time.
And uh we just uh hit it offreally well.
Um I understand business.
He understood how to put roofson.
And uh in an effort, uh truly aneffort to just try to help him,
uh, I started learning moreabout the roofing industry, uh,
offered to go and uh sell forhim on nights and weekends just
(03:34):
to learn it enough so I can givehim some feedback.
And uh yeah, that ended upturning into me uh ultimately
quitting my uh IT, well, notquitting.
Uh the company that I worked foruh was uh purchased by private
equity and didn't need myservices anymore.
And uh it was a godsend, noquestion.
(03:55):
Uh, but it gave me anopportunity to go into an
entirely different career.
Um my mom had four, I like tosay my mom had four boys, three
of them were in construction,one of them was a nerd, and uh
now four of them are inconstruction.
So um, and uh yeah, so I came onas uh as a way to help build the
(04:17):
company at the time.
It was it was existing, but itwasn't, I wouldn't say, you
know, standing back, it was uhreally doing everything,
checking all the boxes that youneed to for a successful
company.
Uh my partner knew how to putroofs on well.
He did carry a name in in thelocal church that he attended,
which is uh what happened toalso be the largest church.
(04:37):
And so generally when you have agood relationship with uh other,
you know, uh folks within yourchurch that that you're gonna be
who they call when they needyour services.
And so the company was movingalong.
It had never exceeded$2 million.
It started uh in 2009, and atthat point it was 2016.
(04:58):
It never exceeded$2 million inrevenue in a year, and he was
just looking for ways to grow.
And I just saw this hugeopportunity in front of me to
take something.
Uh, I had already helped thatsoftware company grow from a
million-dollar company to beingbought for several, several
times millions of dollars.
And so I I knew what it took tobuild a company, I just wanted
(05:20):
the opportunity.
And so I came on initially justto run the sales team and to
sell for the company.
And um ultimately after a coupleof years of taking it from uh my
first year in leadership to 3.7million to 5.8 million.
Uh, at 5.8 million is when Iasked for equity.
I just said, look, I'm not gonnado this again.
(05:41):
I don't want to spend 20 yearshelping somebody else build a
company so they can exit and I'mstuck looking for a job.
And so uh yeah, so he agreedultimately.
And um since we've uh grown intoWhite the Roofing Company, we
own a residential roofingcompany.
We own a commercial roofingcompany separately, and we can
(06:02):
talk about why that's the case.
Um, we also own a constructioncompany that builds homes, it
does remodels, additions,patios, pergolas, outdoor
experiences, a gutter company,and a garage door company.
Uh all separate businesses.
And um we've been verysuccessful in that.
Uh this year we should clearjust shy of$50 million in
(06:24):
revenue between the companies.
Uh, the roofing companies shoulddo uh the roofing companies
should be around 30 to 34million of that um this year.
So um God's been good to us.
We have an amazing staff of 82employees, and uh, we just
continue to thrive.
Uh we're in five different uhmarkets in our area.
(06:46):
We we are very intentional aboutfocusing on those markets.
We do get called out to theMetroplex, but only if we're
called.
We don't advertise out there andwe're not we're not
intentionally trying to get outinto the Metro Mess to compete
against 10,000 other roofingcompanies.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
But uh yeah, that's kind of the origin story.
30 to 34 million this yearavoiding the Metro Mess.
Yeah, and when and when peoplesee where we're fear that, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:12):
Not only that, but when people see where we're
located, we're technicallylocated in the sticks.
Um, they're like, where are youpulling this out of?
You know, I'm right in themiddle of millions of people.
It's it really comes down to andwhat our secret sauce is, and I
share it with every roofingcompany owner that I mentor and
pour into is relationships.
(07:34):
Relationships, relationships.
You can have the flashy, youknow, name and flashy, you know,
we're a boring name, DT roofing.
It doesn't have this fantasticalname.
Um, our color schema is blackand white, it's not literally
black and white.
Um, it's not, you know, superbright when you're driving down
the road.
But what we're known for, if youwere to go through our
(07:57):
communities that we serve andask people, what is DT roofing
known for in this community?
Very few will say roofing.
And not because we're not agreat roofer.
We win all the awards.
They love us for our roofingwork, but it's our
relationships, it's how we pourinto the community, it's how we
uh involve ourselves innonprofits and food banks and
(08:21):
just trying to give back becausewe realize it's the people in
our communities that make ourbusinesses successful without
them choosing to do businesswith us.
And so we love to give back inthat regard.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
I just did uh there'll be an episode released
right before this with uh with agentleman named Taylor Spears
out in uh South Jersey, who alsohas that same philosophy.
Like it one of the things hementioned in the episode was you
call yourself local, or you tryto call yourself local, but
you're not involved locally.
(08:52):
That's right, you know.
And he it was like one of thosethings like you you want to be a
local company, be a localcompany.
Right.
Right?
Like so that's fantastic, man.
So one of the things I uh youknow, community is is is is
great.
I want to go back a little bit.
Um we'll we'll definitely get Iwould love to get more into the
community aspect.
(09:14):
One of the things I think aboutRandy is I I I refer to it as
the art of luck.
And art of luck is luck is whenopportunity meets preparation,
right?
And so I feel like like youexecuted the art of luck a
little bit there with with withwhat happened and it and it you
know, there was there waspreparation, there was timing,
(09:34):
there was opportunity in frontof you.
You know how did you how did youdecide, man, this is yeah, this
is an opportunity.
Like this is an opportunity thatthat I've been preparing for in
my business career and and andthat the the the size of the
opportunity is is there, thepotential's there.
What was that what was that inyour mind that back then?
(09:57):
Before we carry on with theepisode, let's give a shout out
to one of our sponsors.
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(10:20):
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What was that in your mind thatback then?
SPEAKER_02 (10:34):
Well, you know, I'll uh the you know the old adage,
it's funny, the the harder Iwork, the luckier I get.
Um, but uh at the end of theday, I do, and I'm not shy about
it.
If you've seen anything that I'mon, I I just I've definitely
give God all the glory for allof this uh quote unquote luck or
the the um the talent that hasbeen given to understand things
(10:58):
from a different perspective.
What I saw when I looked at theroofing industry that I didn't
see in the corporate world whenI was doing IT security was um
relationships at a human level.
Uh in the corporate world, it'svery difficult, even though you
are working with individualswithin the corporations, you're
(11:19):
still dealing with a corporateentity that you can never have a
true relationship with.
For example, they're they'reconfided within their corporate
requirements on how they can docertain business.
And even if they do like you onthe personal level, there's
still, you know, there's stilluh specific areas that they
can't touch.
(11:39):
And and well, what I noticedwhen I was started selling for
DT roofing as a salesperson tokind of learn the business was
the relationships that I wouldhave and forge with homeowners
was amazing.
Like I would get a chance toactually talk to this person.
And, you know, I'm that type ofsales guy that when I walk into
(12:00):
a house, the last thing I'mthere to talk about is what I'm
there to talk about.
You know, I'm I'm looking, I'mscanning bookshelves, I'm
scanning uh accolades on on uhwalls.
I'm looking for something thatwe can connect with, right?
If I see somebody served in themilitary or if I see some, you
know, uh book that I've read uhon, you know, business or
(12:23):
biblical principle orapologetics or whatever, I'm
grabbing that.
I'm I'm I'm running with thatand gonna try to, because
ultimately I want this person tosee I'm just a human being.
You know, if my company's donewhat it's supposed to do online
with our SEO and with ourpresence, they know why they
called me out there as far aswhy I'm out there.
(12:43):
So let this person see that theymade a good decision because I
really like I want that, I wantthe response for me and all 20
of my sales guys for everycustomer to be I really liked
him or her.
And I I I I want to do businesswith them.
Not I have to because my roof isleaking.
I want to give them my businessand I want to tell my family and
(13:04):
friends about that.
So that was actually the ahamoment for me because I could
have went right, went right backto LinkedIn, and there's
probably a dozen companies thatwould have taken me on
immediately.
I was a top performer for mycompany, I was known in my
industry.
Uh, I would receive complimentsall the time by CTOs and CIOs
(13:25):
saying I've never had a salesmancome in and understand
technically their product thatuh that they're representing as
well as you do.
They normally bring an engineeralong with them, and you just
walked in by yourself.
There's no engineer here, andyou're answering our questions
as if you went to school doingthat.
And it's just who I amfundamentally.
I love to learn whatever craftI'm in.
(13:47):
I would take the developers tolunch just to pick their brain
and ask them questions that asalesperson has no business
asking because I wanted to notjust understand the surface
level of the software we areproviding.
I want to understand the why.
Why does it do that?
Why does it not allow that?
And when I understood that, thenwhen I would have a conversation
(14:08):
at the peer level with my cost,my customers in corporate
America, I wouldn't earn theirbusiness because of the
personality, I would earn itbecause of the intellect.
And that's something that was away that I could, you know,
master the corporate world inthat respect.
But when I started dealing withhomeowners, I didn't have to
show how smart I was.
(14:29):
I just could, I, I, you know, Iwas able to just build a
relationship with them and talkabout things in life and stuff
like that.
And I just got a lot offulfillment out of that.
And so um that was so that wasto answer the question, that was
my aha moment.
Uh, why I decided not tocontinue in the IT world and
just take this roofing thing.
(14:50):
My wife, I'm sure my my wifewill never tell me this,
especially now that it's workedout really well.
But she probably thought I wasnuts when I said, I'm gonna try
this roofing sales thing out,you know, from having to wear a
shirt and tie every single dayand go, you know, flying all
over the United States.
I mean, I I've shared this onother podcasts, but I used to
spend weeks at a time at thePentagon with the Office of
(15:13):
Secretary of Defense showingthem how to keep nation states
out of their network.
Like that's the type of work Idid.
So to come home and be like,babe, I'm going into roofing
sales.
Um, it was just, you know, butshe trusted me, and that's the
reason why we've been togetherfor 35 years because she trusts
me.
Yeah.
You know, but uh anyhow.
(15:33):
So yeah, that was my aha moment.
SPEAKER_00 (15:35):
Yeah, it's it's amazing, man.
This there's something, there'ssomething really special about
this industry, and there'ssomething special.
I could see that connectionbeing special, right?
That connection with thehomeowner serving someone on a
more individual level.
Uh, you know, it's uh from acorporate perspective, it's
like, oh, or even at thePentagon, right?
It's like you you know you'redoing important work, but it may
(15:57):
not just have that same not it'snot the same as as the Joneses
down the street.
SPEAKER_02 (16:02):
Well, because you're never gonna meet yeah, you're
never gonna meet the individualsthat you affected by your work
when you're helping, yeah.
It may assist the OSD in keepingChina out of the network so that
our nation's assets areprotected, but that's a very,
you know, high-level 50,000 footview uh where when I can go in
(16:24):
and affect change in a housewhere a lady, maybe a widow, has
had issues with her roof foryears and finally she has
somebody in there that caresenough to take the time to
really figure out the problemand then fix it and then get
that call after the big rain.
It it's not leaking, it hasn'tnot leaked in 11 years.
(16:44):
Thank you so much, you know, andthen just reach out to that
person for no reason threemonths later, other than just to
check in on her, you know.
You're not gonna do that at thePentagon level, like, yeah, you
guys, you know, they're gonna belike, uh we did business with
you.
Why are you calling us?
Like, you know, we don't needyou, you know.
So that was the big thing forme, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
It's just it's you're not gonna go ahead.
You're not gonna run into themat church or uh at the at the
you know, grocery store orsomething like that, right?
There's no it's such a uh now.
Um one of the things you saidwas you under you you you you
you true you you truly believethat you or you've you've your
your whole life have understoodthings from a different
(17:27):
perspective.
You've you've been able to lookat things from a different
perspective.
Explain that to me a little bitmore.
What what do you what do youmean by that?
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Well, what I mean is even if I can go back as far as
high school, I was that studentthat absolutely hated doing the
homework, but I would ace thetests.
I did, I thought it was I getit.
So why do I have to go home andwaste three hours doing all of
this stuff so you guys can say,you made me go home and do work
(17:58):
at if I get it, I get it.
And if I could pass a test, thenyou know, I think the best way
that uh, you know, if and maybethis doesn't fit the masses, so
maybe this is why they don't doit, but they should give
students the opportunity to say,I get it.
If I if I don't get at least abe on the test, if I get a be on
(18:18):
the test, then any marks I wouldhave gotten for not turning in
homework are null.
Because I was that guy that Iwas like, why do I have to write
a five, you know, paragraph orfive page whatever on this
topic?
I understand what you're saying.
I understand why, if it'shistory or if it's, you know,
math or what have you.
(18:39):
I I get I get it.
So let's take the test, let'smake sure I got it.
And when I pass, let's move on.
And that's actually part of, youknow, not to get too political,
it's probably it's part of oureducation system, is they try to
fit every student into a singlebox.
Um, that's why I don't likethings like a Texas.
We have common core and stufflike that.
Because as long as all studentscan pass this one test, then
(19:03):
we're good.
Well, what about the studentsthat could have gone much
further?
And what about the students thataren't quite there?
Like you have to teach to thestudent and not to a test.
And so um that that's kind ofhow I've always been.
I've all I'm also a veryhands-on guy.
Don't give me a book and saylearn it this way.
I want to get into it.
(19:24):
Okay.
When I when I started my garagedoor company, the very first
thing I did was I went out withour installers and to learn what
they go through on a dailybasis.
I don't want any business thatwe start for me to not
understand at least thefundamentals of what it takes to
execute that particular tradewell.
Um, I may not know the exacttroubleshooting efforts to make
(19:47):
sure that that operator isworking right, but I at least
understand the basics.
And um so yeah, that's that's Ithink that's where it comes
from.
Um and and I and I don't havequit in me.
Uh, I don't even understandthat.
I calm oftentimes I'll havefamilies, uh family and friends
will say, You need to relax, youneed to just unplug and just and
(20:13):
I try to explain to them Ithat's not me.
What you call, what you say, ifyou say you you just need to go
sit on a couch and watch some TVor whatever, for me the entire
time that show's on, I'mthinking about how I could have
been productive during thistime.
And it's something that I can'texplain, but it's a constant, it
(20:35):
creates more stress to know thatfamily and friends care so much
about me that they think thatI'm stressed out because I work
so hard than the actual workthat they think causes me
stress.
It's ironic.
I can't explain it, but that'sjust the reality.
And so I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:52):
I know that I I know that exact feeling.
So we're we're right there.
I have the same, the sameproblem.
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
I mean, even when I don't have work to be done at
the house, there's work to bedone on the ranch.
I have a 60-acre ranch and wehave animals on it, and there's
stuff to be done.
There's always something to needto be done.
I was up at, as we talked aboutin the backstage at backstage, I
was up at 3 a.m.
checking the retaining wall thatwe had put in to stop
floodwaters from you knowinfiltrating our new home to
(21:22):
make sure it's working, youknow?
And uh, yep, so that's thereason why I've been up since
three.
But so that's just yeah, thatthat hopefully that answers your
question.
But that's kind of how it'salways been for me.
It's how my brain works.
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh I'm I'm very similar in that.
I've I've talked about it on theshow a few times.
Like I I got into doing uhresidential rehabs back in, you
know, after the crash in 2008.
And on every on every projectthat I did, on every house that
I did, I I did one of thetrades.
Right.
Like because I wanted to knowwhat went into that so that I
(21:56):
knew what uh, you know, if thiswas a good bid or not a good
bid, or if I could evaluate thecontractor and that the sub that
was gonna be doing it.
And you know, like I just needit's knowing enough, right?
You gotta know enough, right?
And uh and once you know enough,it's helpful.
SPEAKER_02 (22:11):
It's also helpful to know too on a personal level.
Last night I spent all dayyesterday.
My sister-in-law moved on to ourranch because her uh
unfortunately her her husbandpassed away, and she's just not
gonna be able to uh make lifehappen uh on her own outside
with with the house that theywere left with, she was left
with and stuff.
So she's selling that house,she's moving on to our ranch,
(22:33):
and I have a barn dominium upfront that I had to do some
remodeling on.
And so yesterday I playedelectrician.
Uh, I played um, I hung a bunchof blinds throughout the whole
house to give some privacy.
Um, I I, you know, a couple oftrade.
I'll be a plumber later ontoday, uh, changing out some uh
and it's it's not because I knowall these trades perfectly.
(22:54):
I just know enough to get littlethings done.
And my wife, what's funny too,because when she sees me doing
it, she's like, How do you knowhow to do that stuff?
And I'm like, it's not that Idon't know how to do it.
Most of the time I just want topay somebody to do it because I
there's other things I could beproductive on.
I don't want to spend my timedoing that.
And uh, you know, and I have abunch of buddies in trades, so I
(23:17):
could just call on them and say,Hey, how can I pay you to do
this?
You know, so um yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
But just the the will in a in a in a in a YouTube
video will get get you get you along way a lot of times, right?
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
I mean, when we get off this call, I'm gonna be
looking up a two uh we have a wehave a backup vehicle at our
house for when one of ourvehicles is down getting
maintenance or whatever, and Ihave to change the battery.
Well, the battery happens to bein the trunk, and there's a
funky way to have to back.
So when I get off this call, Ihave it on my calendar to look
up on YouTube how to replace thebattery in a 2015 Cadillac, you
know, whatever car that is, ATSor whatever, you know.
(23:54):
Uh so anyhow.
SPEAKER_00 (23:55):
Yep.
It it it works.
Now, the the company DT DTroofing at you'd you'd mentioned
it had been around for someyears.
It it was, you know, kind of didtwo million a year.
Like that was the and and thatto me, that's a like that's an
owner operator making a goodliving.
Yeah, right?
Yeah.
It's uh and I know a lot of guyslike that, a lot of gals like
(24:17):
that, that that are like theythey're making a good living for
their family with this.
And what were what were two orthree of the first problems that
you saw from that from when youwhen after you became a salesman
and got to that, what would yousay, 3.7 and into the 5.8.
As as you were starting to getit like out of that
(24:40):
owner-operator stage, what weretwo or three of the first things
that made the most impact?
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What were two or three of thefirst things that made the most
impact?
SPEAKER_02 (25:42):
Ironically, me getting out of sales.
Um so in that transition of mebeing in sales and over sales,
over over sales and marketing,and then becoming half owner of
the company, I approached mypartner and said, I think I need
(26:03):
to get out of sales.
And he said, Are you crazy?
You know, we had five salesmenat the time, I was one of them,
and I was half the revenue.
And he said, I just gave youhalf my company, and now you
want to get out of sales.
And I said, No.
The reason why I need to isbecause I could be more
efficient with my time and hiremore salesmen and teach them the
(26:28):
way I was doing it, and we cangrow faster.
I said, at the time at the ratethat we are right now with me
being in sales, uh my daily, myday looked like this.
I'd get up around six o'clock,six fifteen.
I'd go into work, I'd be asalesman all day, I'd come home,
have dinner with the family,then I'd go sit at the kitchen
(26:49):
table with my laptop open, and Iwould order any of the roofs
that I had, my staff had.
I would handle all thesupplements for everyone, making
sure that that was all takencare of.
And um, I wouldn't get into beduntil like one o'clock, and then
I would start all over again thenext day.
So I basically told them, I waslike, I have the ability to do
(27:10):
this.
I we're just not gonna grow if Icontinue to do it this way.
So I need to hire more salesmenand then teach them.
And so that's exactly what wedid.
Uh, I got out, it was it was theyear of COVID.
So fortunately, and I sayfortunately, many of my now
salesmen uh or my colleagues,uh, they lost their job due to
(27:32):
COVID.
Uh, one of them was a uh was aradiologist.
Well, it turns out that whenpeople aren't outside playing,
they're not breaking their bonesand nobody needs to look at
them, right?
And so his the hospital heworked for let him go.
Great personality, great uhintegrity.
Uh, I knew him from church, so Iknew he, you know, faith was
(27:54):
important to him.
So, you know, and that's it,that's actually a little nugget
that I'll leave for youraudience is don't always hire
people for what they've done inthe past.
Hire them for things you can'ttrain on, right?
Hire for things like good moralcharacter, integrity, willing to
work hard, good time management,stuff like that.
You could teach them how to sellyour product, but when you hire
(28:17):
somebody that's already soldbefore, oftentimes you have to,
well, one of the things you haveto ask yourself is why are they
available for you to hire them?
Maybe they were not very good atall and they got fired, which
you can't really find out ifthey got fired.
You know, you call the othercompany, they can't disparage
them, right?
Or maybe the company that theyworked for was not a great
(28:39):
company, and they're gonna bringsome of those bad habits into
your culture.
You'll see behind me our four,our our uh company core values
quality, culture, community, andintegrity.
Those are all very important tous.
And so have bringing somebody inthat could potentially soil that
is not good.
So most of our sales guys, Ithink we have like 20, only two
(29:00):
of them ever sold a thing intheir life.
And uh, one of them was a in abillboard construction crew
boss, lost his business duringor his job during COVID because
uh people weren't paying foradvertisement on billboards when
there's no vehicles on the roadbecause no one's out on the
road.
So 16-year career doneovernight.
He came on board, he's beenconsistently one of my top
(29:22):
producers.
Four million dollars in oneyear, uh, I believe is his top,
you know, I'm sorry, 3.5million.
And um, he's now one of ourterritory managers, leading a
team of salesmen in one of ourterritories.
Um, so it's about finding peoplefor qualities that you can't um
you can't train on.
And that was probably thebiggest change within our
(29:44):
company when we went from thatmom and pop to you know, a
slightly mid sized company wasrealizing that I'm not going to
be able to do it all and remainefficient.
So let me back away, work on thebusiness instead of.
In the business.
And that year, the the next fullyear, we literally doubled our
(30:06):
revenue by doing that.
And so, of course, my partner,you know, he's just like, what?
Like, how did this happen?
I was like, you just gotta trustme.
So um, so yeah, that wasprobably the biggest aha moment
for us was, you know, let'sbuild and then we've used that
same model to expand into newmarkets.
(30:26):
You know, there are somecompanies that say, well, we we
are out of A county and we serveB, C, and D counties, but they
still only run their businessout of A County.
And then when they look at theirrevenue at the end of the year,
they wonder why 90% of theirrevenue came from A county,
(30:47):
right?
And if they were to actuallyopen up locations in B, C and D
and have salesmen that are hyperfocused on those areas.
They're not allowed to sell inthe others unless there's a
major storm and then we allblitz it for 60 days and then go
back to our respectiveterritories, then you can create
(31:09):
that 90% number in all four ofthe of the counties.
And so that was the aha moment,the secondary aha moment that we
had just in the last 18 monthswas we got to stop saying we
serve Johnson and Parker andErath and Somerville County when
90% of our revenue comes fromHood County.
Let's create teams in thoseareas, open up offices, have
(31:33):
brick and mortars so peoplerecognize us, get our guys
involved in the local chamberswith the realtors, with the
insurance agents, with theproperty managers.
And it's worked really well.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Yeah, that's uh I love that.
It's not just we serve the areasserved on your website, is what
I'm hearing there, right?
Like it's a good thing.
Yeah, because people will loadup.
SPEAKER_02 (31:54):
Yeah, people will load up on their website.
We serve this county, thiscounty, this county, or this
city, this city, this city.
I'm like, do you really servethem or will you are you willing
to take calls from them?
Like that's basically who wewere is we were willing to take
calls from those counties andsay we served it because they
touched the county that we're atwhere we uh we headquarter out
(32:15):
of.
But truth be told, we weren'treally serving them.
We were providing good work whenthey called us.
But and so now it's an entirelydifferent situation.
You know, Parker County, when weopened up that office, our very
first uh thing we did was wereached out to the local malt
shop.
It's literally called the maltshop in Weatherford.
(32:37):
And we knew that it was a localplace that locals loved.
And so we reached out and wesaid, we asked the owner, we
said, Where uh what is theslowest day of the week for you?
And they're like, Wednesdays,Wednesdays by far.
Like, great.
So in two Wednesdays, DT Roofingwould like to buy all the malts
(32:57):
from 11 to 1.
And we want you to put it up onyour Facebook page and we'll put
it up on ours, and we'll justmake this place, you know, busy
on that Wednesday.
You would not believe the linethat the the foot traffic and
the the people just drivingthrough, going through the
drive-thru just to get theirfree malt.
But they all experienced, theyall got a chance to talk to one
(33:19):
of our guys and it getintroduced to us and what have
you.
That's the type of communitystuff that we love doing is
getting in front of people,shaking their hands, telling
them in person a little bitabout because yeah, you can do
the ads, you can do the Facebookuh ads, sponsored ads and stuff
like that.
But nothing beats me standing infront of you and telling you our
story, telling you what weoffer, you know, why we're
(33:43):
different, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00 (33:44):
And the other part of that, and I I believe this
wholeheartedly, is that when youdo those things, the other parts
of your marketing work better.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
Oh yeah.
Because then when they theyremember talking to that nice
young man at that malt shopthing, and oh yeah, there's his
ad.
You know what, John, you need tocall that boy because we told
him we'd call him within thenext 45 days, you know.
And so it kind of reminds themon what topics or conversations
that they had already.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:10):
I think that a lot of contractors struggle early on
in uh in in in getting in thereand they're looking for that
the, you know, they they getthey get the home advisor leads,
they try to get on angie ornetworks or thumbtack and all
these different things.
They're they're trying to doSEO, they're trying to do Google
ads, they're trying to doFacebook ads, they're just
looking for that thing.
(34:32):
To me, the thing they most missmost often is community
involvement, that's it.
Relationships.
Uh and what would you tell a acompany that has that doesn't do
a lot of community involvement,but they're like, man, I really
feel like this is the way thatwe should do business.
What are some what's a strategyor some tactics that they can
(34:53):
execute that will start to getthem that traction in their
community?
SPEAKER_02 (34:57):
Well, I'd say at the professional level, start
connecting with people who needwho are professionals who need
your business in order for themto be successful.
Because the more tentacles youcan put out there in the home
service world, the better chanceyou have on leads coming in and
keeping the leads coming inconstantly.
You know, I've I've I've said itfrom stage at RoofCon, uh, you
(35:18):
know, it's not what you do whenthe storm hits, it's what you
did before the storm got therethat makes all the difference.
You know, last year we had a uhstorm in in uh May, and uh in
June we had a$6.5 million month.
Why?
Well, because all thoserelationships came home to
roost, right?
(35:38):
So get in front of those realestate agents, get in front of
those property managers, thoseinsurance agents.
If you're in a market that isprimarily retail, the insurance
agents may not be as big of adraw.
However, they do appreciate whenyou're willing to go out and
look at uh homes that they'reabout to write a policy for to
make sure there's nothing wrongwith that roof.
(36:00):
And it gives you an opportunityto do some repair work or maybe
even replace the roof.
Uh, but those relationships makea big deal because remember,
it's not just about therelationship, the the leads that
they'll send you in theirprofessional side, but when that
storm hits, they live in thecommunity.
So we got calls, come look at myroof.
And when you're done, my momlives two streets over, look at
her roof as well.
(36:20):
And so you get all these people.
So start there.
Um, you know, get involved withthe schools, find out how if
there's a program that you guyscan help sponsor.
Um, maybe there's a uh, youknow, I I know when I was a kid,
my mom made just enough moneyfor us not to qualify for the
(36:41):
lunch program, but we were stillpoor.
And so I appreciated that.
And so one of the things we didis we went to one of our local
schools and found out that therewas a standing balance for a ton
of the kids there.
So much so that they weren'tallowed to get lunch.
They'd just give them upbasically two pieces of bread
and cheese in the middle and go,here you go.
(37:02):
This is all we can give youbecause you have a balance.
So we went through and we wipedthat balance out.
And there was, you know, socialmedia posts about it and the
people talked about it andstuff.
Did we only do it because no?
We love giving back.
We love seeing uh, you know, uhwe love helping.
Uh, but it does make an impactin the in the local community
when they know that that's whatyou're known for, is not just
(37:25):
taking the money and justtucking it away, but sending it
back out and letting it grow.
Um, you know, the fruit.
Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
You talk, you spoke earlier, or you mentioned
earlier, that you guys separatedresidential and commercial.
Speak to that a little bit andthe the thought process behind
that.
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(38:18):
Speak on that a little bit andthe the thought process behind
that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:21):
Well, that yeah, and I'd love to even go a little
deeper into all of our companiesand why they're separate.
But specifically with res yeah,with residential and commercial,
what I learned early on was wewere trying to be a residential
company that dabbled incommercial.
But when we started to take itseriously, we realized that
everything about the twoindustries are different.
(38:43):
You know, um, the sales cycle isentirely different, the uh pay
structure for salesmen isentirely different, everything.
And so we just decided, look,and then we also had a couple of
situations where we we lostopportunity because the
customer, because we're we'rebig on post-mortem.
Like, ask the questions afteryou lose the deal.
(39:03):
Why did we lose?
Like, what was it about ourproposal, our your experience
with us, whatever, so that wecan learn from that?
Because you win when you learn.
And so uh one of the things welearned was somebody looked us
up and said, okay, it looks likethey focus on residential.
So I'm gonna go with this othercompany who seems to be hyper
focused on commercial.
(39:25):
And so we learned that was oneof the decisions, uh, deciding
factors.
But ultimately, we started acommercial roofing company
separate from our residential.
We brought in leadership.
Uh, that company has its owndirector, its own uh sales, uh
sales director, and directorover the operations has its own
sales team, its own repair team.
(39:45):
Um, and we're even its ownestimators.
In fact, I'm I'm going as farright now in that company.
I hired a software developer,and we're writing a program that
addresses some of the issueswith getting in bid requests for
new construction and the timethat it takes to get those bids
back out.
I won't give too much away, butso it's a software solution that
(40:07):
will not only benefit ourbusiness on the long term, but
also a potential SaaS solutionthat will deliver back to the
market to help other commercialroofing companies get their bids
out quicker as well.
And so constantly innovating,constantly thinking about better
ways to grow.
And so we just separated.
There were two separatecompanies.
(40:29):
And it it again came down to ouridentity.
Who are we?
Are we a commercial company?
Are we a residential company, orare we both, but we're just
separately, you know?
And so DT commercial roofingsystems and DT Roofing are two
entirely different companies.
And um, that's exactly why weseparated our construction
company, Kingdom BuilderConstruction and Guardian
(40:51):
Seamless Gutters and PatriotGarage Door and Service.
They are all DT companies, whichwhen you have a good brand in
your area, DT Roofing, when youlaunch a new product and you
follow it with a DT company,people automatically trust it
because they already know thoseguys that that roofing company
are involved and they're doingawesome.
(41:12):
So I'm gonna give them a call,uh, you know, to check out my
garage door.
And uh we did that because Ilearned early on that if you try
to be, you know, gyms, roofing,gutters, painting, and
construction, you really don'thave an identity at all.
You think that your customersare gonna be impressed by the
(41:35):
fact that you can do it all.
And what the customer actuallysees is that this guy has no
identity.
What does he do really well?
Because my roof is leaking, andI don't need the guy that does
painting really well, thatdabbles in roofing, to be the
one up there trying to figurethis thing out.
So Randy's roofing is probablygonna get the business over
Jim's roofing, siding, painting,and construction because there's
(41:58):
no identity there.
So we decided if we're gonna doany particular trade separately,
we're gonna make it its owncompany that allows us to also
follow the PL and make sure it'sactually profitable, that we're
not just adding a trade onto ourname that's sucking us dry.
Maybe we suck at siding, maybewe don't need to be doing
siding.
And and our roofing company isdoing really well and it's and
(42:20):
siding is draining the roofingcompany's profits, right?
And so when you have them asseparate companies, then you
know, should you be in thisbusiness or not?
And then the final thing is ifyou do decide eventually to sell
to private equity or what haveyou, you're not having to sell
the whole thing.
You just sell that piece.
You know, maybe roofing is whatyou sold off.
(42:40):
You could still maintain theother four companies and, you
know, continue down that path.
So there's a lot of good reasonswhy.
Now it's a little bit moreexpensive to go that route at
the beginning because yeah, ithas to have its own staff.
Where when you have it as allpart of it, then the same staff
members are kind of checking allthe boxes, but you're not going
to be very efficient at it mostof the time.
(43:02):
And I would challenge those outthere that think that they're
killing it, that that arepushing back on what I'm saying,
just break out your PLs um bythose trades and see if you're
actually profitable at all ofthem.
Or if there's one that's theoutlier that you really need to
be focusing on and just buildthat brand really well.
SPEAKER_00 (43:23):
It's it's it's very impactful.
It's there's a lot ofcontractors that that that
struggle when they go too widewith things, right?
And that brand identity comesback in.
Um and and that uh what I heardfrom you is that you're using
the brand I the brand equitythat you've built over the years
with DT companies or with DTroofing to kind of give that new
(43:46):
one a little jump start, right?
Like we're we're gonna give it alittle push, we're gonna give it
a little push, and then we'regonna we're gonna see if this is
a viable business on its own.
SPEAKER_02 (43:55):
I was gonna say for those that don't think that
that's the case, the first yearthat we launched our garage door
company, Patriot Garage Door inService, a DT company, it did
over a million dollars inrevenue.
And those are sold at liketwelve hundred dollars a pipe
pop, right?
Um this year, this year it'll dothree million in revenue.
And um, and so it doesabsolutely matter um how you
(44:20):
connect them.
I also wouldn't create themseparately and then name them
the after the parent company.
Like we did that a littledifferently with commercial
because DT commercial roofingsystems and DT roofing, there's
still a DT in there.
Uh, we only did that becauseroofing's still an element.
And so anyone that were to lookus up would say, well, they're
(44:42):
really it looks like they'rekilling it on the residential
side, and now their commercialis starting to pick up.
Commercial will do 12 million ofthat revenue this year.
And and and we're a newer,newish commercial company.
We ended up getting our jumpstart a couple of a little bit
less than two years ago by uhimplementing a program that uh
(45:02):
sales transformation group, uhRyan Groff, what he created a
um, I like to call it a businessin a box, but it's uh a program
that helps commercial orresidential roofing companies
who want to get into commerciallaunch a commercial roofing
company.
And it worked perfectly.
Like we followed exactly thesteps, and it wasn't that
(45:22):
expensive either.
So we were really blown awaythat it it worked as well as it
did.
But here we are now a couple ofyears later, and it's a$12
million business on its own.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:31):
So those, you know, the right, the right training
will always jump can can alwaysjump start you, right?
Getting the certain fundamentalsin place and having someone
that's been through it and andand being able to to execute on
that gets you now.
Let's get that.
Now we're at now we're now we'realready to second base, right?
(45:51):
Now we get now we just gotta gethome, right?
Like now we just gotta, youknow.
Um I wanted uh to speak on that,the brand and then the trust.
Now you've also recently becomethe CEO of the good contractor
list, um, which is uh uh wellyou can explain it a little bit
better than I can, but adirectory of of companies of uh
(46:12):
that are trusted uh to do goodwork in a in in their area.
Um how did that come about?
SPEAKER_02 (46:19):
Great question.
So uh so John Stuart Hill, he'sthe founder of the company.
He started the good contractorslist in 2011 because he was sick
and tired of contractors takingadvantage of homeowners.
He saw, he sold yellow page adsat the time and would hear
horror stories of contractorsthat would either sell a
(46:40):
customer something they didn'tneed when they're a simple
repair would have fixed it orand and gloat about it, or they
just weren't good guys that'dwalk off with deductibles,
they'd walk off with downpayments.
Um, you know, in the contractingworld, the way we're represented
is the guy in a jumpsuit on thefive o'clock news who took
$11,000 from an elderly lady,right?
(47:00):
And so he was sick and tired ofthat.
So he took a huge risk, first inthe industry to ever do anything
like this, and to say, I'm goingto create a safe community of
contractors that are not onlyvetted by us, but we're willing
to back every job they do with amonetary value.
At the time in 2011, it was a$10,000 guarantee.
(47:21):
Inflation has caused that now tobe a$25,000 guarantee.
But the way I got involved wasin 2019, I heard his commercial
on the radio and I thought,that's brilliant.
We're a good contractor.
We always do the right thing.
This could be a differentiatorbetween us and our competitors
when we're sitting in front ofthe customer because everybody
(47:42):
sounds the same in front of acustomer.
We have this many five-starreviews, we have this platinum,
this or this master elite, that,or you know, this accolade or
that accolade, and thecustomer's going, oh, that's
nice.
And they're thinking in the backof their head, that's what the
last two roofers or last twoplumbers or whatever told me.
And so when you're able to saywe're also members of the good
contractors list, where everysingle job we do, including this
(48:03):
one, is backed by a$25,000guarantee from a third party,
that builds instant trust forthe homeowner.
And what the homeowner is reallytrying to do when they're
interviewing contractors isfigure out who's the least risk,
right?
Because they wouldn't be callingyou if you didn't somehow have
some accolades that made yousound like you were a good roof
or a good HVAC guy, whatever.
(48:24):
They want to see who, which onedo I feel the best about?
And so when you lead with that,that's almost a no-brainer for
the homeowner.
If this guy doesn't do exactlywhat he said he's gonna do, this
third party is gonna come in andmake it right.
And so I got on the list in2019.
Two other of my companies are onthe list as well.
And I saw a huge uptick in thefrom my sales team on um the
(48:46):
comfort that the customer feltwhen they heard about that.
When they, you know, and so I Iimmediately approached the the
founder and I said, Why is thisnot nationwide?
Because this was only aDFW-based solution at the time.
And he said, Randy, I'll behonest with you, I don't even
know what it would look like totake it nationwide.
I built this in DFW.
And I was on it was honest, buthe just wasn't ready yet.
(49:09):
He was going through some healthissues at the time and just he
just wanted to just focus onwhat he was doing.
And uh, over several years ofprodding and what have you, he
finally decided he brought on aCEO that came from that world
and always and thought this iswhat was missing in the world
that he came from, because he hecame from the home advisor, the
(49:30):
Angie world.
And he said, This was was alwaysmissing because we would sell
leads to contractors, but thehomeowner didn't the only time
the homeowner got to choose thecontractor was to uh get five
guys that are calling themtrying to bid their the job, and
it was like, let's choose theguy that seems the least sleazy
(49:51):
or what have you.
And so now they get to go to awebsite and choose from a list
of contractors that have alreadybeen pre-vetted for them, and
every single one of them has theguarantee.
So I came on as the COO to takethe company nationwide.
That's as simple as that.
I I believe in it so much.
Uh fortunately, within mycurrent my companies that I own
(50:11):
locally, we have amazingleadership in place.
They don't need me to hold theirhand.
I'm not big on micromanaging.
I hire people because I trustthem.
And um, and so they're doing anamazing job.
It gives me an opportunity togrow something else.
And uh since I came on aboutcoming up on three months, we're
now in 18 new states.
Um, since we've uh been inbusiness, we've backed more than
(50:35):
five billion dollars worth ofjobs from our contractors, and
we just continue to grow.
And so, yeah, that's the goodcontractors list and why I
decided to come on as a COO.
SPEAKER_00 (50:45):
Yeah, that's cool, man.
Um, you know, it really is atrust thing with with with
homeowners, right?
With consumers, with and and soit makes a big difference to to
be that trusted contractor inthe area.
Um what would you say to theroofing owner that that kind of
feels stuck at their currentlevel, but they know they got
more?
(51:05):
They know they they they knowthat they have it in them to to
take it to the next level.
What advice would you give thatcontractor?
SPEAKER_02 (51:12):
I would say they're probably fall into two camps.
Either they're doing too much orthey're not doing enough.
And they can only be the one totell you that, right?
So I'm a big, I'm a big believerin as an entrepreneur, you wear
as many hats as you can untilyou can afford not to.
And then when you can afford notto, be very intentional about
(51:33):
the people that you hire and thepositions that they're
responsible for.
Nobody in my company has toquestion what their
responsibility is.
And when you hire somebody andthen you're very vague about
what their goals are, and you'reeither going to get somebody who
is not going to do their jobefficiently or they're going to
leave because they weren't led.
(51:53):
And so I would say if you fallinto the camp where you feel
like I want to grow, but I, youknow, but and you know in your
heart's heart that you're notdoing everything you could be
doing, wearing more hats to makeit happen, then get out, get out
of bed before nine and get outthere and make it happen and
grind.
(52:14):
If you're that guy that says, Iam doing too much, I was this
guy.
I'm doing too much.
And if I were to hand a few ofthese hats off, we could
probably do more um efficientlythan do that.
Start and and start with uh, youknow, sales obviously helps, but
you have to make sure thatprocesses like your marketing is
(52:36):
solid, whether you're bringingthat in-house or you're hiring a
company, um you have to makesure that all of the boxes are
checked in order to be asuccessful company.
Just showing up and being ableto do roofs well isn't enough.
That's the base, that's thethat's the entry level now.
It used to be, and yeah, I knowyou I noticed you smile, but
(52:58):
when our grandfather was, youknow, in the work, uh in the
workspace, the the the reasonwhy people chose somebody was
because of the quality of theirwork.
That was a differentiator.
Today, that's the bare minimum.
That's the that's thefoundation.
You you're expected to be reallygood at your craft.
(53:18):
So then what differentiates youis all the other stuff.
Getting out there in thecommunity, hiring good staff to
understand their job and beingefficient at it.
Um so yeah, that's what I wouldsay to those those people is to
either get out there and workharder or take a few hats off
your head and pass them off tosomebody else and make sure that
you can grow because growing,growing deep is important, but
(53:42):
if you don't allow the width aswell, you're going to burn out
and you're going to uhessentially hang it up.
And you might pass it off to ason that you know doesn't care
about it as much as you did andrun it into the ground.
SPEAKER_00 (53:57):
It happens.
That's self-awareness.
I love the framing there, theself-awareness.
Do I need to take off more hatsor wear more hats?
That that's fantastic advice.
Randy, thanks for your timetoday.
This has been another episode ofthe Roofing Success Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (54:11):
Thank you for tuning in to the Roofing Success
Podcast.
For more valuable content, visitRoofing SuccessPodcast.com.
While there, check out oursponsors for exclusive offers,
shop for merchandise, and signup for our newsletter for
industry updates and tips.
Also, join the Roofing SuccessFacebook group to connect with
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(54:34):
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insights.
The website link is in thedescription.
Thanks for listening.
It's not what you do when the storm hits, it's what
you did before the storm gotthere that makes all the
difference.
Last year we had a uh storm inin uh May.
And uh in June we had a sixpoint five million dollar month.
Why?
Well, because all thoserelationships came home guru.
It really comes down to and whatour secret sauce is, and I share
(00:21):
it with every roofing companyowner that I mentor and bore
into is relationships.
Relationships, relationships.
You can have the flashy, youknow, name and flashy or a
boring name, DT roofing.
It doesn't have this fantasticold name or color schema's black
and white, it's not literallyblack and white, it's not, you
(00:42):
know, super bright when you'redriving down the road.
But what we're known for, if youwere to go through our
communities that we serve andask people, what is DT roofing
known for in this community?
Very few will say roofing.
In the contracting world, theway we're represented is the guy
at a jumpsuit on the fiveo'clock news who took eleven
thousand dollars from an elderlylady.
(01:03):
I'm going to create a safecommunity of contractors that
are not only vetted by us, butwe're willing to back every job
they do with a monetary value.
Everybody sounds the same infront of a customer.
We have this many five-starreviews, we have this platinum,
this, or this master delete,that, or you know, this accolade
or that accolade, and thecustomer's going, oh, that's
(01:23):
nice.
And they're thinking in the backof their head, that's what the
last two roofers, the last twoplumbers, or whatever told me.
SPEAKER_00 (01:28):
Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast.
I'm Jim Alean and I'm here tobring you insights from top
leaders in the roofing industryto help you grow and scale your
roofing business.
Randy Hartado, how are you, man?
I am well.
Thanks for having me on.
We both had uh had some early uhearly mornings this morning.
(01:49):
So we're, you know, for all theall the guests listening, boy,
Randy and I are running oncoffee right now.
But we're gonna get this donefor you and we're gonna have a
great produce some great contentand and get some great
information for everyone.
Uh Randy, uh Todd, let's uhlet's introduce you to our
audience if they don't know youalready.
DT Roofing, DT companies.
(02:11):
Out of the the the the theMetroplex or trying to stay out
of the Metroplex, you said.
SPEAKER_02 (02:18):
The Metro Mess, yes.
Yeah, we're located, yeah.
Yeah, we're located south andsouthwest of the uh DFW
Metroplex.
SPEAKER_00 (02:26):
So cool.
How did uh how how did you getinto roofing?
SPEAKER_02 (02:29):
Well, I my origin story is not that of most where
I had a family member or a dador somebody who was in
construction and it was just anatural progression to uh to the
roofing world.
I was actually a computer nerdfor 20 over 20 years, and I had
an office next door to uh thisto root to DT roofing, not in
(02:51):
the current building that we'rein, but uh uh I needed some
office space because I wasworking out of the house and it
just wasn't working out with asmany kids as we have and animals
and doorbells ringing.
It was just, it wasn't uhappropriate for a professional
environment.
So I rented some space and uhbecame real friendly with the uh
with my now partner, who is thesole owner of the company at the
(03:14):
time.
And uh we just uh hit it offreally well.
Um I understand business.
He understood how to put roofson.
And uh in an effort, uh truly aneffort to just try to help him,
uh, I started learning moreabout the roofing industry, uh,
offered to go and uh sell forhim on nights and weekends just
(03:34):
to learn it enough so I can givehim some feedback.
And uh yeah, that ended upturning into me uh ultimately
quitting my uh IT, well, notquitting.
Uh the company that I worked foruh was uh purchased by private
equity and didn't need myservices anymore.
And uh it was a godsend, noquestion.
(03:55):
Uh, but it gave me anopportunity to go into an
entirely different career.
Um my mom had four, I like tosay my mom had four boys, three
of them were in construction,one of them was a nerd, and uh
now four of them are inconstruction.
So um, and uh yeah, so I came onas uh as a way to help build the
(04:17):
company at the time.
It was it was existing, but itwasn't, I wouldn't say, you
know, standing back, it was uhreally doing everything,
checking all the boxes that youneed to for a successful
company.
Uh my partner knew how to putroofs on well.
He did carry a name in in thelocal church that he attended,
which is uh what happened toalso be the largest church.
(04:37):
And so generally when you have agood relationship with uh other,
you know, uh folks within yourchurch that that you're gonna be
who they call when they needyour services.
And so the company was movingalong.
It had never exceeded$2 million.
It started uh in 2009, and atthat point it was 2016.
(04:58):
It never exceeded$2 million inrevenue in a year, and he was
just looking for ways to grow.
And I just saw this hugeopportunity in front of me to
take something.
Uh, I had already helped thatsoftware company grow from a
million-dollar company to beingbought for several, several
times millions of dollars.
And so I I knew what it took tobuild a company, I just wanted
(05:20):
the opportunity.
And so I came on initially justto run the sales team and to
sell for the company.
And um ultimately after a coupleof years of taking it from uh my
first year in leadership to 3.7million to 5.8 million.
Uh, at 5.8 million is when Iasked for equity.
I just said, look, I'm not gonnado this again.
(05:41):
I don't want to spend 20 yearshelping somebody else build a
company so they can exit and I'mstuck looking for a job.
And so uh yeah, so he agreedultimately.
And um since we've uh grown intoWhite the Roofing Company, we
own a residential roofingcompany.
We own a commercial roofingcompany separately, and we can
(06:02):
talk about why that's the case.
Um, we also own a constructioncompany that builds homes, it
does remodels, additions,patios, pergolas, outdoor
experiences, a gutter company,and a garage door company.
Uh all separate businesses.
And um we've been verysuccessful in that.
Uh this year we should clearjust shy of$50 million in
(06:24):
revenue between the companies.
Uh, the roofing companies shoulddo uh the roofing companies
should be around 30 to 34million of that um this year.
So um God's been good to us.
We have an amazing staff of 82employees, and uh, we just
continue to thrive.
Uh we're in five different uhmarkets in our area.
(06:46):
We we are very intentional aboutfocusing on those markets.
We do get called out to theMetroplex, but only if we're
called.
We don't advertise out there andwe're not we're not
intentionally trying to get outinto the Metro Mess to compete
against 10,000 other roofingcompanies.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
But uh yeah, that's kind of the origin story.
30 to 34 million this yearavoiding the Metro Mess.
Yeah, and when and when peoplesee where we're fear that, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:12):
Not only that, but when people see where we're
located, we're technicallylocated in the sticks.
Um, they're like, where are youpulling this out of?
You know, I'm right in themiddle of millions of people.
It's it really comes down to andwhat our secret sauce is, and I
share it with every roofingcompany owner that I mentor and
pour into is relationships.
(07:34):
Relationships, relationships.
You can have the flashy, youknow, name and flashy, you know,
we're a boring name, DT roofing.
It doesn't have this fantasticalname.
Um, our color schema is blackand white, it's not literally
black and white.
Um, it's not, you know, superbright when you're driving down
the road.
But what we're known for, if youwere to go through our
(07:57):
communities that we serve andask people, what is DT roofing
known for in this community?
Very few will say roofing.
And not because we're not agreat roofer.
We win all the awards.
They love us for our roofingwork, but it's our
relationships, it's how we pourinto the community, it's how we
uh involve ourselves innonprofits and food banks and
(08:21):
just trying to give back becausewe realize it's the people in
our communities that make ourbusinesses successful without
them choosing to do businesswith us.
And so we love to give back inthat regard.
SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
I just did uh there'll be an episode released
right before this with uh with agentleman named Taylor Spears
out in uh South Jersey, who alsohas that same philosophy.
Like it one of the things hementioned in the episode was you
call yourself local, or you tryto call yourself local, but
you're not involved locally.
(08:52):
That's right, you know.
And he it was like one of thosethings like you you want to be a
local company, be a localcompany.
Right.
Right?
Like so that's fantastic, man.
So one of the things I uh youknow, community is is is is
great.
I want to go back a little bit.
Um we'll we'll definitely get Iwould love to get more into the
community aspect.
(09:14):
One of the things I think aboutRandy is I I I refer to it as
the art of luck.
And art of luck is luck is whenopportunity meets preparation,
right?
And so I feel like like youexecuted the art of luck a
little bit there with with withwhat happened and it and it you
know, there was there waspreparation, there was timing,
(09:34):
there was opportunity in frontof you.
You know how did you how did youdecide, man, this is yeah, this
is an opportunity.
Like this is an opportunity thatthat I've been preparing for in
my business career and and andthat the the the size of the
opportunity is is there, thepotential's there.
What was that what was that inyour mind that back then?
(09:57):
Before we carry on with theepisode, let's give a shout out
to one of our sponsors.
Roofers, let's get real.
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steady stream of leads?
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(10:20):
everything in between.
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on the Roofing Success Podcastwebsite.
What was that in your mind thatback then?
SPEAKER_02 (10:34):
Well, you know, I'll uh the you know the old adage,
it's funny, the the harder Iwork, the luckier I get.
Um, but uh at the end of theday, I do, and I'm not shy about
it.
If you've seen anything that I'mon, I I just I've definitely
give God all the glory for allof this uh quote unquote luck or
the the um the talent that hasbeen given to understand things
(10:58):
from a different perspective.
What I saw when I looked at theroofing industry that I didn't
see in the corporate world whenI was doing IT security was um
relationships at a human level.
Uh in the corporate world, it'svery difficult, even though you
are working with individualswithin the corporations, you're
(11:19):
still dealing with a corporateentity that you can never have a
true relationship with.
For example, they're they'reconfided within their corporate
requirements on how they can docertain business.
And even if they do like you onthe personal level, there's
still, you know, there's stilluh specific areas that they
can't touch.
(11:39):
And and well, what I noticedwhen I was started selling for
DT roofing as a salesperson tokind of learn the business was
the relationships that I wouldhave and forge with homeowners
was amazing.
Like I would get a chance toactually talk to this person.
And, you know, I'm that type ofsales guy that when I walk into
(12:00):
a house, the last thing I'mthere to talk about is what I'm
there to talk about.
You know, I'm I'm looking, I'mscanning bookshelves, I'm
scanning uh accolades on on uhwalls.
I'm looking for something thatwe can connect with, right?
If I see somebody served in themilitary or if I see some, you
know, uh book that I've read uhon, you know, business or
(12:23):
biblical principle orapologetics or whatever, I'm
grabbing that.
I'm I'm I'm running with thatand gonna try to, because
ultimately I want this person tosee I'm just a human being.
You know, if my company's donewhat it's supposed to do online
with our SEO and with ourpresence, they know why they
called me out there as far aswhy I'm out there.
(12:43):
So let this person see that theymade a good decision because I
really like I want that, I wantthe response for me and all 20
of my sales guys for everycustomer to be I really liked
him or her.
And I I I I want to do businesswith them.
Not I have to because my roof isleaking.
I want to give them my businessand I want to tell my family and
(13:04):
friends about that.
So that was actually the ahamoment for me because I could
have went right, went right backto LinkedIn, and there's
probably a dozen companies thatwould have taken me on
immediately.
I was a top performer for mycompany, I was known in my
industry.
Uh, I would receive complimentsall the time by CTOs and CIOs
(13:25):
saying I've never had a salesmancome in and understand
technically their product thatuh that they're representing as
well as you do.
They normally bring an engineeralong with them, and you just
walked in by yourself.
There's no engineer here, andyou're answering our questions
as if you went to school doingthat.
And it's just who I amfundamentally.
I love to learn whatever craftI'm in.
(13:47):
I would take the developers tolunch just to pick their brain
and ask them questions that asalesperson has no business
asking because I wanted to notjust understand the surface
level of the software we areproviding.
I want to understand the why.
Why does it do that?
Why does it not allow that?
And when I understood that, thenwhen I would have a conversation
(14:08):
at the peer level with my cost,my customers in corporate
America, I wouldn't earn theirbusiness because of the
personality, I would earn itbecause of the intellect.
And that's something that was away that I could, you know,
master the corporate world inthat respect.
But when I started dealing withhomeowners, I didn't have to
show how smart I was.
(14:29):
I just could, I, I, you know, Iwas able to just build a
relationship with them and talkabout things in life and stuff
like that.
And I just got a lot offulfillment out of that.
And so um that was so that wasto answer the question, that was
my aha moment.
Uh, why I decided not tocontinue in the IT world and
just take this roofing thing.
(14:50):
My wife, I'm sure my my wifewill never tell me this,
especially now that it's workedout really well.
But she probably thought I wasnuts when I said, I'm gonna try
this roofing sales thing out,you know, from having to wear a
shirt and tie every single dayand go, you know, flying all
over the United States.
I mean, I I've shared this onother podcasts, but I used to
spend weeks at a time at thePentagon with the Office of
(15:13):
Secretary of Defense showingthem how to keep nation states
out of their network.
Like that's the type of work Idid.
So to come home and be like,babe, I'm going into roofing
sales.
Um, it was just, you know, butshe trusted me, and that's the
reason why we've been togetherfor 35 years because she trusts
me.
Yeah.
You know, but uh anyhow.
(15:33):
So yeah, that was my aha moment.
SPEAKER_00 (15:35):
Yeah, it's it's amazing, man.
This there's something, there'ssomething really special about
this industry, and there'ssomething special.
I could see that connectionbeing special, right?
That connection with thehomeowner serving someone on a
more individual level.
Uh, you know, it's uh from acorporate perspective, it's
like, oh, or even at thePentagon, right?
It's like you you know you'redoing important work, but it may
(15:57):
not just have that same not it'snot the same as as the Joneses
down the street.
SPEAKER_02 (16:02):
Well, because you're never gonna meet yeah, you're
never gonna meet the individualsthat you affected by your work
when you're helping, yeah.
It may assist the OSD in keepingChina out of the network so that
our nation's assets areprotected, but that's a very,
you know, high-level 50,000 footview uh where when I can go in
(16:24):
and affect change in a housewhere a lady, maybe a widow, has
had issues with her roof foryears and finally she has
somebody in there that caresenough to take the time to
really figure out the problemand then fix it and then get
that call after the big rain.
It it's not leaking, it hasn'tnot leaked in 11 years.
(16:44):
Thank you so much, you know, andthen just reach out to that
person for no reason threemonths later, other than just to
check in on her, you know.
You're not gonna do that at thePentagon level, like, yeah, you
guys, you know, they're gonna belike, uh we did business with
you.
Why are you calling us?
Like, you know, we don't needyou, you know.
So that was the big thing forme, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
It's just it's you're not gonna go ahead.
You're not gonna run into themat church or uh at the at the
you know, grocery store orsomething like that, right?
There's no it's such a uh now.
Um one of the things you saidwas you under you you you you
you true you you truly believethat you or you've you've your
your whole life have understoodthings from a different
(17:27):
perspective.
You've you've been able to lookat things from a different
perspective.
Explain that to me a little bitmore.
What what do you what do youmean by that?
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Well, what I mean is even if I can go back as far as
high school, I was that studentthat absolutely hated doing the
homework, but I would ace thetests.
I did, I thought it was I getit.
So why do I have to go home andwaste three hours doing all of
this stuff so you guys can say,you made me go home and do work
(17:58):
at if I get it, I get it.
And if I could pass a test, thenyou know, I think the best way
that uh, you know, if and maybethis doesn't fit the masses, so
maybe this is why they don't doit, but they should give
students the opportunity to say,I get it.
If I if I don't get at least abe on the test, if I get a be on
(18:18):
the test, then any marks I wouldhave gotten for not turning in
homework are null.
Because I was that guy that Iwas like, why do I have to write
a five, you know, paragraph orfive page whatever on this
topic?
I understand what you're saying.
I understand why, if it'shistory or if it's, you know,
math or what have you.
(18:39):
I I get I get it.
So let's take the test, let'smake sure I got it.
And when I pass, let's move on.
And that's actually part of, youknow, not to get too political,
it's probably it's part of oureducation system, is they try to
fit every student into a singlebox.
Um, that's why I don't likethings like a Texas.
We have common core and stufflike that.
Because as long as all studentscan pass this one test, then
(19:03):
we're good.
Well, what about the studentsthat could have gone much
further?
And what about the students thataren't quite there?
Like you have to teach to thestudent and not to a test.
And so um that that's kind ofhow I've always been.
I've all I'm also a veryhands-on guy.
Don't give me a book and saylearn it this way.
I want to get into it.
(19:24):
Okay.
When I when I started my garagedoor company, the very first
thing I did was I went out withour installers and to learn what
they go through on a dailybasis.
I don't want any business thatwe start for me to not
understand at least thefundamentals of what it takes to
execute that particular tradewell.
Um, I may not know the exacttroubleshooting efforts to make
(19:47):
sure that that operator isworking right, but I at least
understand the basics.
And um so yeah, that's that's Ithink that's where it comes
from.
Um and and I and I don't havequit in me.
Uh, I don't even understandthat.
I calm oftentimes I'll havefamilies, uh family and friends
will say, You need to relax, youneed to just unplug and just and
(20:13):
I try to explain to them Ithat's not me.
What you call, what you say, ifyou say you you just need to go
sit on a couch and watch some TVor whatever, for me the entire
time that show's on, I'mthinking about how I could have
been productive during thistime.
And it's something that I can'texplain, but it's a constant, it
(20:35):
creates more stress to know thatfamily and friends care so much
about me that they think thatI'm stressed out because I work
so hard than the actual workthat they think causes me
stress.
It's ironic.
I can't explain it, but that'sjust the reality.
And so I love it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:52):
I know that I I know that exact feeling.
So we're we're right there.
I have the same, the sameproblem.
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
I mean, even when I don't have work to be done at
the house, there's work to bedone on the ranch.
I have a 60-acre ranch and wehave animals on it, and there's
stuff to be done.
There's always something to needto be done.
I was up at, as we talked aboutin the backstage at backstage, I
was up at 3 a.m.
checking the retaining wall thatwe had put in to stop
floodwaters from you knowinfiltrating our new home to
(21:22):
make sure it's working, youknow?
And uh, yep, so that's thereason why I've been up since
three.
But so that's just yeah, thatthat hopefully that answers your
question.
But that's kind of how it'salways been for me.
It's how my brain works.
SPEAKER_00 (21:36):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh I'm I'm very similar in that.
I've I've talked about it on theshow a few times.
Like I I got into doing uhresidential rehabs back in, you
know, after the crash in 2008.
And on every on every projectthat I did, on every house that
I did, I I did one of thetrades.
Right.
Like because I wanted to knowwhat went into that so that I
(21:56):
knew what uh, you know, if thiswas a good bid or not a good
bid, or if I could evaluate thecontractor and that the sub that
was gonna be doing it.
And you know, like I just needit's knowing enough, right?
You gotta know enough, right?
And uh and once you know enough,it's helpful.
SPEAKER_02 (22:11):
It's also helpful to know too on a personal level.
Last night I spent all dayyesterday.
My sister-in-law moved on to ourranch because her uh
unfortunately her her husbandpassed away, and she's just not
gonna be able to uh make lifehappen uh on her own outside
with with the house that theywere left with, she was left
with and stuff.
So she's selling that house,she's moving on to our ranch,
(22:33):
and I have a barn dominium upfront that I had to do some
remodeling on.
And so yesterday I playedelectrician.
Uh, I played um, I hung a bunchof blinds throughout the whole
house to give some privacy.
Um, I I, you know, a couple oftrade.
I'll be a plumber later ontoday, uh, changing out some uh
and it's it's not because I knowall these trades perfectly.
(22:54):
I just know enough to get littlethings done.
And my wife, what's funny too,because when she sees me doing
it, she's like, How do you knowhow to do that stuff?
And I'm like, it's not that Idon't know how to do it.
Most of the time I just want topay somebody to do it because I
there's other things I could beproductive on.
I don't want to spend my timedoing that.
And uh, you know, and I have abunch of buddies in trades, so I
(23:17):
could just call on them and say,Hey, how can I pay you to do
this?
You know, so um yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
But just the the will in a in a in a in a YouTube
video will get get you get you along way a lot of times, right?
SPEAKER_02 (23:29):
I mean, when we get off this call, I'm gonna be
looking up a two uh we have a wehave a backup vehicle at our
house for when one of ourvehicles is down getting
maintenance or whatever, and Ihave to change the battery.
Well, the battery happens to bein the trunk, and there's a
funky way to have to back.
So when I get off this call, Ihave it on my calendar to look
up on YouTube how to replace thebattery in a 2015 Cadillac, you
know, whatever car that is, ATSor whatever, you know.
(23:54):
Uh so anyhow.
SPEAKER_00 (23:55):
Yep.
It it it works.
Now, the the company DT DTroofing at you'd you'd mentioned
it had been around for someyears.
It it was, you know, kind of didtwo million a year.
Like that was the and and thatto me, that's a like that's an
owner operator making a goodliving.
Yeah, right?
Yeah.
It's uh and I know a lot of guyslike that, a lot of gals like
(24:17):
that, that that are like theythey're making a good living for
their family with this.
And what were what were two orthree of the first problems that
you saw from that from when youwhen after you became a salesman
and got to that, what would yousay, 3.7 and into the 5.8.
As as you were starting to getit like out of that
(24:40):
owner-operator stage, what weretwo or three of the first things
that made the most impact?
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What were two or three of thefirst things that made the most
impact?
SPEAKER_02 (25:42):
Ironically, me getting out of sales.
Um so in that transition of mebeing in sales and over sales,
over over sales and marketing,and then becoming half owner of
the company, I approached mypartner and said, I think I need
(26:03):
to get out of sales.
And he said, Are you crazy?
You know, we had five salesmenat the time, I was one of them,
and I was half the revenue.
And he said, I just gave youhalf my company, and now you
want to get out of sales.
And I said, No.
The reason why I need to isbecause I could be more
efficient with my time and hiremore salesmen and teach them the
(26:28):
way I was doing it, and we cangrow faster.
I said, at the time at the ratethat we are right now with me
being in sales, uh my daily, myday looked like this.
I'd get up around six o'clock,six fifteen.
I'd go into work, I'd be asalesman all day, I'd come home,
have dinner with the family,then I'd go sit at the kitchen
(26:49):
table with my laptop open, and Iwould order any of the roofs
that I had, my staff had.
I would handle all thesupplements for everyone, making
sure that that was all takencare of.
And um, I wouldn't get into beduntil like one o'clock, and then
I would start all over again thenext day.
So I basically told them, I waslike, I have the ability to do
(27:10):
this.
I we're just not gonna grow if Icontinue to do it this way.
So I need to hire more salesmenand then teach them.
And so that's exactly what wedid.
Uh, I got out, it was it was theyear of COVID.
So fortunately, and I sayfortunately, many of my now
salesmen uh or my colleagues,uh, they lost their job due to
(27:32):
COVID.
Uh, one of them was a uh was aradiologist.
Well, it turns out that whenpeople aren't outside playing,
they're not breaking their bonesand nobody needs to look at
them, right?
And so his the hospital heworked for let him go.
Great personality, great uhintegrity.
Uh, I knew him from church, so Iknew he, you know, faith was
(27:54):
important to him.
So, you know, and that's it,that's actually a little nugget
that I'll leave for youraudience is don't always hire
people for what they've done inthe past.
Hire them for things you can'ttrain on, right?
Hire for things like good moralcharacter, integrity, willing to
work hard, good time management,stuff like that.
You could teach them how to sellyour product, but when you hire
(28:17):
somebody that's already soldbefore, oftentimes you have to,
well, one of the things you haveto ask yourself is why are they
available for you to hire them?
Maybe they were not very good atall and they got fired, which
you can't really find out ifthey got fired.
You know, you call the othercompany, they can't disparage
them, right?
Or maybe the company that theyworked for was not a great
(28:39):
company, and they're gonna bringsome of those bad habits into
your culture.
You'll see behind me our four,our our uh company core values
quality, culture, community, andintegrity.
Those are all very important tous.
And so have bringing somebody inthat could potentially soil that
is not good.
So most of our sales guys, Ithink we have like 20, only two
(29:00):
of them ever sold a thing intheir life.
And uh, one of them was a in abillboard construction crew
boss, lost his business duringor his job during COVID because
uh people weren't paying foradvertisement on billboards when
there's no vehicles on the roadbecause no one's out on the
road.
So 16-year career doneovernight.
He came on board, he's beenconsistently one of my top
(29:22):
producers.
Four million dollars in oneyear, uh, I believe is his top,
you know, I'm sorry, 3.5million.
And um, he's now one of ourterritory managers, leading a
team of salesmen in one of ourterritories.
Um, so it's about finding peoplefor qualities that you can't um
you can't train on.
And that was probably thebiggest change within our
(29:44):
company when we went from thatmom and pop to you know, a
slightly mid sized company wasrealizing that I'm not going to
be able to do it all and remainefficient.
So let me back away, work on thebusiness instead of.
In the business.
And that year, the the next fullyear, we literally doubled our
(30:06):
revenue by doing that.
And so, of course, my partner,you know, he's just like, what?
Like, how did this happen?
I was like, you just gotta trustme.
So um, so yeah, that wasprobably the biggest aha moment
for us was, you know, let'sbuild and then we've used that
same model to expand into newmarkets.
(30:26):
You know, there are somecompanies that say, well, we we
are out of A county and we serveB, C, and D counties, but they
still only run their businessout of A County.
And then when they look at theirrevenue at the end of the year,
they wonder why 90% of theirrevenue came from A county,
(30:47):
right?
And if they were to actuallyopen up locations in B, C and D
and have salesmen that are hyperfocused on those areas.
They're not allowed to sell inthe others unless there's a
major storm and then we allblitz it for 60 days and then go
back to our respectiveterritories, then you can create
(31:09):
that 90% number in all four ofthe of the counties.
And so that was the aha moment,the secondary aha moment that we
had just in the last 18 monthswas we got to stop saying we
serve Johnson and Parker andErath and Somerville County when
90% of our revenue comes fromHood County.
Let's create teams in thoseareas, open up offices, have
(31:33):
brick and mortars so peoplerecognize us, get our guys
involved in the local chamberswith the realtors, with the
insurance agents, with theproperty managers.
And it's worked really well.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Yeah, that's uh I love that.
It's not just we serve the areasserved on your website, is what
I'm hearing there, right?
Like it's a good thing.
Yeah, because people will loadup.
SPEAKER_02 (31:54):
Yeah, people will load up on their website.
We serve this county, thiscounty, this county, or this
city, this city, this city.
I'm like, do you really servethem or will you are you willing
to take calls from them?
Like that's basically who wewere is we were willing to take
calls from those counties andsay we served it because they
touched the county that we're atwhere we uh we headquarter out
(32:15):
of.
But truth be told, we weren'treally serving them.
We were providing good work whenthey called us.
But and so now it's an entirelydifferent situation.
You know, Parker County, when weopened up that office, our very
first uh thing we did was wereached out to the local malt
shop.
It's literally called the maltshop in Weatherford.
(32:37):
And we knew that it was a localplace that locals loved.
And so we reached out and wesaid, we asked the owner, we
said, Where uh what is theslowest day of the week for you?
And they're like, Wednesdays,Wednesdays by far.
Like, great.
So in two Wednesdays, DT Roofingwould like to buy all the malts
(32:57):
from 11 to 1.
And we want you to put it up onyour Facebook page and we'll put
it up on ours, and we'll justmake this place, you know, busy
on that Wednesday.
You would not believe the linethat the the foot traffic and
the the people just drivingthrough, going through the
drive-thru just to get theirfree malt.
But they all experienced, theyall got a chance to talk to one
(33:19):
of our guys and it getintroduced to us and what have
you.
That's the type of communitystuff that we love doing is
getting in front of people,shaking their hands, telling
them in person a little bitabout because yeah, you can do
the ads, you can do the Facebookuh ads, sponsored ads and stuff
like that.
But nothing beats me standing infront of you and telling you our
story, telling you what weoffer, you know, why we're
(33:43):
different, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00 (33:44):
And the other part of that, and I I believe this
wholeheartedly, is that when youdo those things, the other parts
of your marketing work better.
SPEAKER_02 (33:53):
Oh yeah.
Because then when they theyremember talking to that nice
young man at that malt shopthing, and oh yeah, there's his
ad.
You know what, John, you need tocall that boy because we told
him we'd call him within thenext 45 days, you know.
And so it kind of reminds themon what topics or conversations
that they had already.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (34:10):
I think that a lot of contractors struggle early on
in uh in in in getting in thereand they're looking for that
the, you know, they they getthey get the home advisor leads,
they try to get on angie ornetworks or thumbtack and all
these different things.
They're they're trying to doSEO, they're trying to do Google
ads, they're trying to doFacebook ads, they're just
looking for that thing.
(34:32):
To me, the thing they most missmost often is community
involvement, that's it.
Relationships.
Uh and what would you tell a acompany that has that doesn't do
a lot of community involvement,but they're like, man, I really
feel like this is the way thatwe should do business.
What are some what's a strategyor some tactics that they can
(34:53):
execute that will start to getthem that traction in their
community?
SPEAKER_02 (34:57):
Well, I'd say at the professional level, start
connecting with people who needwho are professionals who need
your business in order for themto be successful.
Because the more tentacles youcan put out there in the home
service world, the better chanceyou have on leads coming in and
keeping the leads coming inconstantly.
You know, I've I've I've said itfrom stage at RoofCon, uh, you
(35:18):
know, it's not what you do whenthe storm hits, it's what you
did before the storm got therethat makes all the difference.
You know, last year we had a uhstorm in in uh May, and uh in
June we had a$6.5 million month.
Why?
Well, because all thoserelationships came home to
roost, right?
(35:38):
So get in front of those realestate agents, get in front of
those property managers, thoseinsurance agents.
If you're in a market that isprimarily retail, the insurance
agents may not be as big of adraw.
However, they do appreciate whenyou're willing to go out and
look at uh homes that they'reabout to write a policy for to
make sure there's nothing wrongwith that roof.
(36:00):
And it gives you an opportunityto do some repair work or maybe
even replace the roof.
Uh, but those relationships makea big deal because remember,
it's not just about therelationship, the the leads that
they'll send you in theirprofessional side, but when that
storm hits, they live in thecommunity.
So we got calls, come look at myroof.
And when you're done, my momlives two streets over, look at
her roof as well.
(36:20):
And so you get all these people.
So start there.
Um, you know, get involved withthe schools, find out how if
there's a program that you guyscan help sponsor.
Um, maybe there's a uh, youknow, I I know when I was a kid,
my mom made just enough moneyfor us not to qualify for the
(36:41):
lunch program, but we were stillpoor.
And so I appreciated that.
And so one of the things we didis we went to one of our local
schools and found out that therewas a standing balance for a ton
of the kids there.
So much so that they weren'tallowed to get lunch.
They'd just give them upbasically two pieces of bread
and cheese in the middle and go,here you go.
(37:02):
This is all we can give youbecause you have a balance.
So we went through and we wipedthat balance out.
And there was, you know, socialmedia posts about it and the
people talked about it andstuff.
Did we only do it because no?
We love giving back.
We love seeing uh, you know, uhwe love helping.
Uh, but it does make an impactin the in the local community
when they know that that's whatyou're known for, is not just
(37:25):
taking the money and justtucking it away, but sending it
back out and letting it grow.
Um, you know, the fruit.
Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
You talk, you spoke earlier, or you mentioned
earlier, that you guys separatedresidential and commercial.
Speak to that a little bit andthe the thought process behind
that.
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(38:18):
Speak on that a little bit andthe the thought process behind
that.
SPEAKER_02 (38:21):
Well, that yeah, and I'd love to even go a little
deeper into all of our companiesand why they're separate.
But specifically with res yeah,with residential and commercial,
what I learned early on was wewere trying to be a residential
company that dabbled incommercial.
But when we started to take itseriously, we realized that
everything about the twoindustries are different.
(38:43):
You know, um, the sales cycle isentirely different, the uh pay
structure for salesmen isentirely different, everything.
And so we just decided, look,and then we also had a couple of
situations where we we lostopportunity because the
customer, because we're we'rebig on post-mortem.
Like, ask the questions afteryou lose the deal.
(39:03):
Why did we lose?
Like, what was it about ourproposal, our your experience
with us, whatever, so that wecan learn from that?
Because you win when you learn.
And so uh one of the things welearned was somebody looked us
up and said, okay, it looks likethey focus on residential.
So I'm gonna go with this othercompany who seems to be hyper
focused on commercial.
(39:25):
And so we learned that was oneof the decisions, uh, deciding
factors.
But ultimately, we started acommercial roofing company
separate from our residential.
We brought in leadership.
Uh, that company has its owndirector, its own uh sales, uh
sales director, and directorover the operations has its own
sales team, its own repair team.
(39:45):
Um, and we're even its ownestimators.
In fact, I'm I'm going as farright now in that company.
I hired a software developer,and we're writing a program that
addresses some of the issueswith getting in bid requests for
new construction and the timethat it takes to get those bids
back out.
I won't give too much away, butso it's a software solution that
(40:07):
will not only benefit ourbusiness on the long term, but
also a potential SaaS solutionthat will deliver back to the
market to help other commercialroofing companies get their bids
out quicker as well.
And so constantly innovating,constantly thinking about better
ways to grow.
And so we just separated.
There were two separatecompanies.
(40:29):
And it it again came down to ouridentity.
Who are we?
Are we a commercial company?
Are we a residential company, orare we both, but we're just
separately, you know?
And so DT commercial roofingsystems and DT Roofing are two
entirely different companies.
And um, that's exactly why weseparated our construction
company, Kingdom BuilderConstruction and Guardian
(40:51):
Seamless Gutters and PatriotGarage Door and Service.
They are all DT companies, whichwhen you have a good brand in
your area, DT Roofing, when youlaunch a new product and you
follow it with a DT company,people automatically trust it
because they already know thoseguys that that roofing company
are involved and they're doingawesome.
(41:12):
So I'm gonna give them a call,uh, you know, to check out my
garage door.
And uh we did that because Ilearned early on that if you try
to be, you know, gyms, roofing,gutters, painting, and
construction, you really don'thave an identity at all.
You think that your customersare gonna be impressed by the
(41:35):
fact that you can do it all.
And what the customer actuallysees is that this guy has no
identity.
What does he do really well?
Because my roof is leaking, andI don't need the guy that does
painting really well, thatdabbles in roofing, to be the
one up there trying to figurethis thing out.
So Randy's roofing is probablygonna get the business over
Jim's roofing, siding, painting,and construction because there's
(41:58):
no identity there.
So we decided if we're gonna doany particular trade separately,
we're gonna make it its owncompany that allows us to also
follow the PL and make sure it'sactually profitable, that we're
not just adding a trade onto ourname that's sucking us dry.
Maybe we suck at siding, maybewe don't need to be doing
siding.
And and our roofing company isdoing really well and it's and
(42:20):
siding is draining the roofingcompany's profits, right?
And so when you have them asseparate companies, then you
know, should you be in thisbusiness or not?
And then the final thing is ifyou do decide eventually to sell
to private equity or what haveyou, you're not having to sell
the whole thing.
You just sell that piece.
You know, maybe roofing is whatyou sold off.
(42:40):
You could still maintain theother four companies and, you
know, continue down that path.
So there's a lot of good reasonswhy.
Now it's a little bit moreexpensive to go that route at
the beginning because yeah, ithas to have its own staff.
Where when you have it as allpart of it, then the same staff
members are kind of checking allthe boxes, but you're not going
to be very efficient at it mostof the time.
(43:02):
And I would challenge those outthere that think that they're
killing it, that that arepushing back on what I'm saying,
just break out your PLs um bythose trades and see if you're
actually profitable at all ofthem.
Or if there's one that's theoutlier that you really need to
be focusing on and just buildthat brand really well.
SPEAKER_00 (43:23):
It's it's it's very impactful.
It's there's a lot ofcontractors that that that
struggle when they go too widewith things, right?
And that brand identity comesback in.
Um and and that uh what I heardfrom you is that you're using
the brand I the brand equitythat you've built over the years
with DT companies or with DTroofing to kind of give that new
(43:46):
one a little jump start, right?
Like we're we're gonna give it alittle push, we're gonna give it
a little push, and then we'regonna we're gonna see if this is
a viable business on its own.
SPEAKER_02 (43:55):
I was gonna say for those that don't think that
that's the case, the first yearthat we launched our garage door
company, Patriot Garage Door inService, a DT company, it did
over a million dollars inrevenue.
And those are sold at liketwelve hundred dollars a pipe
pop, right?
Um this year, this year it'll dothree million in revenue.
And um, and so it doesabsolutely matter um how you
(44:20):
connect them.
I also wouldn't create themseparately and then name them
the after the parent company.
Like we did that a littledifferently with commercial
because DT commercial roofingsystems and DT roofing, there's
still a DT in there.
Uh, we only did that becauseroofing's still an element.
And so anyone that were to lookus up would say, well, they're
(44:42):
really it looks like they'rekilling it on the residential
side, and now their commercialis starting to pick up.
Commercial will do 12 million ofthat revenue this year.
And and and we're a newer,newish commercial company.
We ended up getting our jumpstart a couple of a little bit
less than two years ago by uhimplementing a program that uh
(45:02):
sales transformation group, uhRyan Groff, what he created a
um, I like to call it a businessin a box, but it's uh a program
that helps commercial orresidential roofing companies
who want to get into commerciallaunch a commercial roofing
company.
And it worked perfectly.
Like we followed exactly thesteps, and it wasn't that
(45:22):
expensive either.
So we were really blown awaythat it it worked as well as it
did.
But here we are now a couple ofyears later, and it's a$12
million business on its own.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:31):
So those, you know, the right, the right training
will always jump can can alwaysjump start you, right?
Getting the certain fundamentalsin place and having someone
that's been through it and andand being able to to execute on
that gets you now.
Let's get that.
Now we're at now we're now we'realready to second base, right?
(45:51):
Now we get now we just gotta gethome, right?
Like now we just gotta, youknow.
Um I wanted uh to speak on that,the brand and then the trust.
Now you've also recently becomethe CEO of the good contractor
list, um, which is uh uh wellyou can explain it a little bit
better than I can, but adirectory of of companies of uh
(46:12):
that are trusted uh to do goodwork in a in in their area.
Um how did that come about?
SPEAKER_02 (46:19):
Great question.
So uh so John Stuart Hill, he'sthe founder of the company.
He started the good contractorslist in 2011 because he was sick
and tired of contractors takingadvantage of homeowners.
He saw, he sold yellow page adsat the time and would hear
horror stories of contractorsthat would either sell a
(46:40):
customer something they didn'tneed when they're a simple
repair would have fixed it orand and gloat about it, or they
just weren't good guys that'dwalk off with deductibles,
they'd walk off with downpayments.
Um, you know, in the contractingworld, the way we're represented
is the guy in a jumpsuit on thefive o'clock news who took
$11,000 from an elderly lady,right?
(47:00):
And so he was sick and tired ofthat.
So he took a huge risk, first inthe industry to ever do anything
like this, and to say, I'm goingto create a safe community of
contractors that are not onlyvetted by us, but we're willing
to back every job they do with amonetary value.
At the time in 2011, it was a$10,000 guarantee.
(47:21):
Inflation has caused that now tobe a$25,000 guarantee.
But the way I got involved wasin 2019, I heard his commercial
on the radio and I thought,that's brilliant.
We're a good contractor.
We always do the right thing.
This could be a differentiatorbetween us and our competitors
when we're sitting in front ofthe customer because everybody
(47:42):
sounds the same in front of acustomer.
We have this many five-starreviews, we have this platinum,
this or this master elite, that,or you know, this accolade or
that accolade, and thecustomer's going, oh, that's
nice.
And they're thinking in the backof their head, that's what the
last two roofers or last twoplumbers or whatever told me.
And so when you're able to saywe're also members of the good
contractors list, where everysingle job we do, including this
(48:03):
one, is backed by a$25,000guarantee from a third party,
that builds instant trust forthe homeowner.
And what the homeowner is reallytrying to do when they're
interviewing contractors isfigure out who's the least risk,
right?
Because they wouldn't be callingyou if you didn't somehow have
some accolades that made yousound like you were a good roof
or a good HVAC guy, whatever.
(48:24):
They want to see who, which onedo I feel the best about?
And so when you lead with that,that's almost a no-brainer for
the homeowner.
If this guy doesn't do exactlywhat he said he's gonna do, this
third party is gonna come in andmake it right.
And so I got on the list in2019.
Two other of my companies are onthe list as well.
And I saw a huge uptick in thefrom my sales team on um the
(48:46):
comfort that the customer feltwhen they heard about that.
When they, you know, and so I Iimmediately approached the the
founder and I said, Why is thisnot nationwide?
Because this was only aDFW-based solution at the time.
And he said, Randy, I'll behonest with you, I don't even
know what it would look like totake it nationwide.
I built this in DFW.
And I was on it was honest, buthe just wasn't ready yet.
(49:09):
He was going through some healthissues at the time and just he
just wanted to just focus onwhat he was doing.
And uh, over several years ofprodding and what have you, he
finally decided he brought on aCEO that came from that world
and always and thought this iswhat was missing in the world
that he came from, because he hecame from the home advisor, the
(49:30):
Angie world.
And he said, This was was alwaysmissing because we would sell
leads to contractors, but thehomeowner didn't the only time
the homeowner got to choose thecontractor was to uh get five
guys that are calling themtrying to bid their the job, and
it was like, let's choose theguy that seems the least sleazy
(49:51):
or what have you.
And so now they get to go to awebsite and choose from a list
of contractors that have alreadybeen pre-vetted for them, and
every single one of them has theguarantee.
So I came on as the COO to takethe company nationwide.
That's as simple as that.
I I believe in it so much.
Uh fortunately, within mycurrent my companies that I own
(50:11):
locally, we have amazingleadership in place.
They don't need me to hold theirhand.
I'm not big on micromanaging.
I hire people because I trustthem.
And um, and so they're doing anamazing job.
It gives me an opportunity togrow something else.
And uh since I came on aboutcoming up on three months, we're
now in 18 new states.
Um, since we've uh been inbusiness, we've backed more than
(50:35):
five billion dollars worth ofjobs from our contractors, and
we just continue to grow.
And so, yeah, that's the goodcontractors list and why I
decided to come on as a COO.
SPEAKER_00 (50:45):
Yeah, that's cool, man.
Um, you know, it really is atrust thing with with with
homeowners, right?
With consumers, with and and soit makes a big difference to to
be that trusted contractor inthe area.
Um what would you say to theroofing owner that that kind of
feels stuck at their currentlevel, but they know they got
more?
(51:05):
They know they they they knowthat they have it in them to to
take it to the next level.
What advice would you give thatcontractor?
SPEAKER_02 (51:12):
I would say they're probably fall into two camps.
Either they're doing too much orthey're not doing enough.
And they can only be the one totell you that, right?
So I'm a big, I'm a big believerin as an entrepreneur, you wear
as many hats as you can untilyou can afford not to.
And then when you can afford notto, be very intentional about
(51:33):
the people that you hire and thepositions that they're
responsible for.
Nobody in my company has toquestion what their
responsibility is.
And when you hire somebody andthen you're very vague about
what their goals are, and you'reeither going to get somebody who
is not going to do their jobefficiently or they're going to
leave because they weren't led.
(51:53):
And so I would say if you fallinto the camp where you feel
like I want to grow, but I, youknow, but and you know in your
heart's heart that you're notdoing everything you could be
doing, wearing more hats to makeit happen, then get out, get out
of bed before nine and get outthere and make it happen and
grind.
(52:14):
If you're that guy that says, Iam doing too much, I was this
guy.
I'm doing too much.
And if I were to hand a few ofthese hats off, we could
probably do more um efficientlythan do that.
Start and and start with uh, youknow, sales obviously helps, but
you have to make sure thatprocesses like your marketing is
(52:36):
solid, whether you're bringingthat in-house or you're hiring a
company, um you have to makesure that all of the boxes are
checked in order to be asuccessful company.
Just showing up and being ableto do roofs well isn't enough.
That's the base, that's thethat's the entry level now.
It used to be, and yeah, I knowyou I noticed you smile, but
(52:58):
when our grandfather was, youknow, in the work, uh in the
workspace, the the the reasonwhy people chose somebody was
because of the quality of theirwork.
That was a differentiator.
Today, that's the bare minimum.
That's the that's thefoundation.
You you're expected to be reallygood at your craft.
(53:18):
So then what differentiates youis all the other stuff.
Getting out there in thecommunity, hiring good staff to
understand their job and beingefficient at it.
Um so yeah, that's what I wouldsay to those those people is to
either get out there and workharder or take a few hats off
your head and pass them off tosomebody else and make sure that
you can grow because growing,growing deep is important, but
(53:42):
if you don't allow the width aswell, you're going to burn out
and you're going to uhessentially hang it up.
And you might pass it off to ason that you know doesn't care
about it as much as you did andrun it into the ground.
SPEAKER_00 (53:57):
It happens.
That's self-awareness.
I love the framing there, theself-awareness.
Do I need to take off more hatsor wear more hats?
That that's fantastic advice.
Randy, thanks for your timetoday.
This has been another episode ofthe Roofing Success Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (54:11):
Thank you for tuning in to the Roofing Success
Podcast.
For more valuable content, visitRoofing SuccessPodcast.com.
While there, check out oursponsors for exclusive offers,
shop for merchandise, and signup for our newsletter for
industry updates and tips.
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(54:34):
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