Dive into our latest episode where we explore the unique dynamics of family businesses, focusing on International Construction Services led by brothers Fernando Posada and Miguel. They embody the perfect balance of tradition and innovation, emphasizing the importance of safety in the roofing industry and how modern technology, like drones, is shaping their business operations. Learn how they navigate the complexities of leading a family business with mutual respect and strong communication, ensuring that their inherited legacy continues to thrive. Discover the strategies that set them apart from other roofing companies, such as a focus on crew safety and quality service, along with their commitment to growth through modern marketing techniques. By sharing their insights and experiences, this episode aims to inspire the next generation of family business leaders. Join the conversation, and don’t forget to connect with us on social media for more tips and inspiration!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to the Leader Mentality Show with Rob Clemens
.
Today, we're going to talk alittle bit about something that
anybody who's been in thebusiness world might have
experienced, and that is allabout family businesses.
If you're in a family business,you want to establish yourself,
you want to maintain theculture of the business.
You want to make your own path,though, and so how do you do
(00:43):
that?
How do you keep that perfect,synchronous transition from the
current ownership to the newownership?
How does it work?
I'll tell you what.
Today, I have two very specialfellows on the show because
they're doing it right now, anddoing it in an epic way.
I want to introduce to the showfrom International Construction
Services.
We have Fernando Posada andalso Miguel.
(01:06):
Welcome to the show, fellas.
Thank you for having us.
Man, good to have you.
It's a two-for-one specialtoday.
I don't usually get to do two,so this is going to be great.
Man Guys, I know a lot aboutyour business because I did some
research leading up to the show, and I've also heard of you
before, started in 1995, whenyou guys were probably like
negative five years old Youngguys, right, but your dad
(01:29):
started this, and he started itwith a purpose and a mission.
I want to get into that alittle bit and how you guys came
into play.
But before we dive into allthat, what are you guys up to
lately, man?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, right now I'm in the middle of remodeling a
BB&T Bank.
We're actually opening up oneof our first storefront offices.
So when my parents started thebusiness, my mom and father
started the business.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
He had a neck and he was the head.
And, by the way, before we geton from that, was mom the
serious one or dad the seriousone?
Are they both serious?
My dad is the more serious one.
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Usually they both serious.
My dad is the more serious.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Okay, gotcha.
Usually they got to transitionoff of each other a little.
It's a perfect mix.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, gotcha, but she was more in the house office
scheduling and he was in thefield.
But we're in the middle ofremodeling a BB&T bank
Fulfilling one of their dreamswas to have a big storefront
office.
Okay, they kind of built theoffice that we're in right now.
Yeah, like a plan B.
It looks like a house, okay.
Okay, so in case businessdidn't work out, oh, it still
(02:31):
can be a house.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It still has a house, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, as you see now, since 95 businesses, you know
we're still in businessstorefront office.
You know big signs, big tealroof, because those are our
colors.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Teal.
Yeah, nice, Sean's up.
By the way, You're in coastalCarolina country here I see it
all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But yeah, we're in the middle of remodeling that
BB&T bank and we should be ableto move in within the next seven
to eight months.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's awesome, man, well done.
So you, fernando.
You are actually the vicepresident of the company, miguel
, you are the operationsdirector.
Take me on a day-to-day of whatyou're doing as the operations
director at the company.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Day-to-day man.
I just make sure all our citiesare doing all the work is
correctly, all the guys are tiedoff correctly, our boots on the
ground are making sure the jobsare done correctly on time
Quality, making sure safety isall good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Just everything that we promise on the front end with
the builders that we have.
Make sure that all getscompleted.
Man, I like that.
Let's stay on this subject fora minute.
We talk about roofingprofessional roofers and I want
to get into a little bit aboutwhat makes you special, and I
kind of feel like you're tellingme that, but when you get into
the roofing side, you talkedabout safety.
How do you install safety in abusiness that's traditionally
not really that many peoplebeing safe?
I mean, how do you get thatestablished throughout your
(03:49):
company?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it hasn't been easy.
It hasn't been easy.
It's definitely a battle thatwe still face, you know, 30
years later.
It's something that every daywe're having that conversation
Every day.
It's a reminder.
That's kind of how you face itEvery day.
All our air managers will grabour roofers before they even all
out on the roof and inspect alltheir safety equipment, mm-hmm.
Do you have the correct anchor?
(04:11):
Do you have the correct harnessthat you have to tie up from
the D ring on the back?
Do you have the eyewear?
Do you have?
It's a checklist that they runthrough.
Yeah, cool, now you have it,let me see you put it on and
then you're on the roof.
Now you can get up, becausewe've had we've had
circumstances now we don't seeit as often yeah, but you,
you'll check a roof, you'llcheck a crew and they're doing
perfect.
(04:31):
You drive away like let me justgo back 20 minutes, I forgot my
uh camera yeah, let me go 20minutes later.
And then there, no hard hats, nothis no man guys come on, you
know.
So sometimes it feels like youknow management cares more about
getting these guys home.
When you help them realize, hey, it's to get you guys home
safely, it's not just becausethere's going to be fines.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
We also offer a reward system.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay okay, that's been a game changer for us.
Yeah, it wasn't always rulingwith an iron fist saying there's
a fine if you're not doing it.
Yeah, yeah, we actually say youknow what We'll also give
little bonus for this job, thisproject, If we come out surprise
inspection and everything is inorder.
Yeah, man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
That's modern management to me.
You know, it's like the oldschool style management was hey,
we're going to penalize you ifyou don't do this, we're going
to.
You know, we're going to writeyou up if you don't do that.
But what about, like theopposite thing, which is
rewarding those who are actuallybuying into the mission, and
that's really powerful.
One thing I know about theroofing industry and you guys
(05:28):
know I have a little backgroundon this too it's that the guys
on that roof are a differentbreed.
And when I say they're adifferent breed like, they'll
stand up looking 40 feet down atthe ground and not even sweat
it.
You know you got to be specialto even do it in the first place
.
The guy's breakfast is.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Red Bull.
Yeah, they eat breakfast RedBull and then they're going home
.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, exactly yeah, it's like you're sweating out
everything on the roof, you know.
So I can feel you on that, butit does because that is part of
it's in the blood a little bit.
You do have to keep remindingthem.
I'll tell you one thing I didyears ago and I own a
construction company as well Ihad that I actually put a
message up on the board.
(06:06):
You guys ever hear of a NASCARdriver named Dale Earnhardt?
You've probably heard of DaleEarnhardt.
Right, you're like, okay, sothe original Dale Earnhardt, he
died on the track and it waslike I showed this to the people
because when they saw it, mystaff of guys who were working
out on the field.
I said, why did I show that toyou?
And they said, well, becauselife is precious.
(06:28):
And I was like, yeah, life isprecious.
And they're like becausesometimes if you take little
side cuts, maybe it can causeyou problems.
I'm like, yeah, but I said, butthe bigger thing I'm trying to
tell you is NASCAR.
After that happened, they gotserious about safety.
All of a sudden they're like,yeah, let's get safe about our
cars, let's get safe about theway we're doing this thing.
(06:48):
I said don't wait untilsomebody dies before you get
safe, and you know, sometimesyou got to get that message out.
So well, well said, man, Iappreciate that you're doing
that.
Now, fernando, for you, you arethe vice president of the
company.
What would you say is like yournumber one thing you're doing
on a day to day?
What would you say is yournumber one thing you're doing on
?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
a day-to-day Representing the company.
Yeah, okay, that's my thing.
I'm checking on, for example,just so you know how it works
internally.
I'm out selling we both sellbut that's where I spend most of
my time is selling business,trying to get new contracts out,
(07:26):
networking, doing the eventsand all that.
Once we're able to landaccounts, that's when it goes to
the production team and that'skind of what he says we're
ensuring that we're meeting thescope of work of all our
customers.
He looks over the scope andhe's like cool, we can handle
this, this is how we're going tohandle it, Assigns crews and we
go from there Right on.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So that's kind of my job is to be the face, in that
sense of representing, alwaysshaking hands and trying to
establish our footprint in newcities where we want to grow.
It's kind of cool because Ifeel like, especially in
construction in general not justroofing, but construction you
have to establish early on thatyou're a professional company,
because there's so manycompanies that are not really
professional.
So the first thing you're doingon that public face is saying,
hey, check us, check us out.
No, no, not at all, man, it's abrute.
(08:10):
Well, and you get it like theproblem and with respect to your
dad's business and your mom'sbusiness that you guys are
taking over, the challengebecomes a lot of people will get
good at something working withtheir hands and then they think
I'm going to go out and start abusiness.
You guys have probably hadpeople who worked under you and
then they were like oh, I'mgoing to go start a business,
right, and the problem is islike yeah, you know how to do
(08:33):
the process, but you don'tnecessarily know how to do the
accounting, do the editing, dothe managing, do the marketing,
all the little things you'retalking about.
So To that point I think it'simportant to have the public
face, but it's also important toback up what you're saying.
So I want to go there next.
I want to talk about that alittle bit.
You guys have a slogan, I'msure, kind of a way that you put
(08:54):
it out there.
How do you keep your entirelarge organization?
How many people do you haveworking for you right now?
About 20.
That's a lot of people, right,the more people you have.
How do you keep that messageconsistent with them on a
day-to-day?
Is it through job site meetings, morning meetings?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
How do?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
you do that Right now .
We have meetings every Thursdayand Friday with our production,
with our in-house staff, andjust one thing that we, as you
said, our slogan would kind ofbe ICS is International
Construction Services, I isintegrity, c is consistency and
S is satisfaction.
Okay, so that's one thing wepride ourselves on.
We kind of end it in all ourmeetings kind of all saying that
together, kind of like a hoorahtype of team effort.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, a little hoorah effort.
Right, you got a little fistpumping.
I dig that.
The biggest challenge I thinkyou run into is like when you
have that first obstacle of theday, right, like it's like we
leave, we're all feeling good,pumped up, ready for the day,
and then you run into anobstacle.
The mindset there is veryimportant.
Do you have like foremen on thejobs?
(09:56):
Who kind of take the mantlewhen you're not there?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So, yeah, we have a foreman in all the cities that
we're in, that we're operating,and that's exactly how we
operate and how we tell them.
That's how a decision would bemade on their end, yeah right.
Um integrity if you seesomething wrong with the roof,
the homeowner might not see itthe way we do, but that doesn't
mean that we can't get itcorrected because we know it's
wrong.
Oh yeah, you correct it whenyou know it's wrong.
(10:19):
Um consistency, we keep doingthat day in, day out.
You know we give them a goodquality roof, we give them good,
good service and then it'sgoing to lead to satisfaction.
You know, always think aboutthe customers In construction.
It's tough.
It's not like a restaurantwhere you get a steak and send
it back.
It's tough in constructionbecause there's different ways
to go about it.
Happy customers that maybewatch the YouTube video and the
(10:41):
YouTube video says this is howyou do my roof.
You put the end of yeah rightright right, you know we see it
all, but at the end of the day,they're the customers, so we
would like them to walk awaysatisfied with what we're giving
them.
If that takes a little bit moretime explaining to that
homeowner that watched theYouTube video and is an expert,
explain to them, kind of, why wedo it differently.
Explain to them that maybethese shingles might be
(11:01):
different manufacturer specs,whatever the case may be, we
want them to walk away satisfiedwith the product that we're
giving them.
And those three words, thoseare the key words for us to
continue our growth, because ifwe're operating from the ground
up, the roofers also know thisas well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, when they'rein the field, they might see a
bad framing.
Hey, don't just cover up theframing issue, don't just cover
it up.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
But, man, it's such a mindset thing though, because
it's tough when when you guysare up at the top and you are at
the top of your organization inyour respective positions.
But it's tough sometimesbecause these guys who are
working on the roof they'rethinking it's 115 degrees up
here I'm nailing.
The sooner I get done with this, the quicker I can go back to
my family and get off this roof.
So it's hard to reallyestablish that, guys.
(11:42):
It's so important to call thetime out and do it the right way
.
But I respect that a lot.
Man, that's something peopleneed to know.
What would you saydifferentiates you from other
roofers?
There's a lot of roofers outthere.
What would you say is the thingthat makes you guys most unique
?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't know.
I'll just answer first and thenI'll go ahead.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I would say to base it on those instances.
Like you said, it is tough, butwith us, instances, right, like
you said it is tough, um, butwith us.
We're hands-on with the rooferson a daily basis.
You know, I think, I think wespeak to every single crew we
have.
We have more than 25 plus, anda lot of them are checking in
with us, um, just because ofwhere we started.
(12:20):
You know, my father taught usthe business.
It wasn't come sit beside meand learn what I'm doing.
Go to the field, get up on theroof right, it was go to the
field, get up on the roof, hangout with the roofers, see what
they go through.
This is why they don't want towear that hard hat after eight
hours in the summer.
So he wanted us to get a feelfor that.
Wow, so we have a differentrespect for them.
(12:41):
They've seen us work in thoseconditions.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So it's not like oh these guys, the son's owner.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You know, that's how it works with us.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We've been out there we've done repairs, we've been
with the crews, so weestablished that relationship
and now they've seen us grow aswell.
Some of the roofers have beenthere since my father started
the business, yeah, so they'veseen us grow into our roles and
they're like these guys arelegit, they got respect, what we
have to say.
They understand where we'recoming from, because I get what
they're coming from, we get whatthey're coming from, but hey,
we also have to abide by certainrules.
(13:09):
There's a certain way to goabout this business and we've
been able to tweak it.
That's kind of where our successis is that we're able to train
crews and help those crews, thesubcontractors.
They grow underneath us as well.
Okay, yeah, yeah, if you abideby the safety, abide by the
quality and I have no problemswith your guys you can train the
next crew and put them underand work for you.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm going to keep giving you jobs.
It's one of the few businessesyou can do that in.
Man Well, okay.
So I do want to ask thisbecause this is kind of an
interesting subject that I thinkit applies to all businesses,
though we tend to think of whatyou do, but really, if you went
to any restaurant right now, anyretail store right now, just
anywhere, there's somebodythat's doing and we need to make
(13:51):
sure we understand how it feelsat that level.
Right, because, as you said,fascinating People think why
doesn't the guy want to wear hishard hat?
The homeowners who might belistening right now, why doesn't
he wear the hard hat?
But then you get outside, it's95 degrees.
You got sweat, sweat's comingdown off the hard hat.
You know it's hot up there.
You can't see.
You've been wearing it for sixhours Wearing those harnesses.
(14:12):
They're pinching you, they'rehot, you know.
So there is an element of it.
It's like you just got to takeyourself out and understand what
it feels like to be that personand they got to get the vision
to why what they're doing is soimportant, so cool stuff.
So, man well, guys, well done.
I can see that you're running areally high quality business
and I respect that.
You're carrying the mantle thatyour dad and mom started a long
(14:35):
time ago, so let's go into thata little bit Now again.
Operations director vicepresident, tell me a little bit
about what the transition hasbeen looking like for you guys.
What's different from when yourdad and mom were running it
solely to what you guys havedone, and how have you started
to establish your value in thebusiness?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
A lot has changed but at the same time, not much has
changed.
Okay, yeah, we bring, we bringfresh ideas.
You know, for, for example,just real quick off the cusp, I
would have never been able tohire a full-time videographer
for our company.
Yeah, it was, it wasn't gonnahappen.
They're like what is that?
Yeah, so we, we, we met on it.
(15:15):
We're like we kind of need one.
You know it's, it's more newsocial media, it's the, it's the
new wave.
You know it's a way to get out.
Yeah, so how do we convincepops and mom, who's a little bit
more old-school, right, yeah,and we were able to get them
because we needed a yard guy atthe time.
Yeah, so we're like all right,uh, part-time yard guy,
part-time videos and wait, holdon a yard guy like cutting the
(15:35):
grass.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Sorry, we call him the yard guy.
He's the warehouse warehouse.
I thought you're gonna get yourlawnmower got it now that's
thinking, all right yeah we'relike a warehouse, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Warehouse help and we were able to convince him and
we knew like after about a monthwe're going to see the value in
his videos we're going to seethese videos and we know our
father's more visual.
Yeah, he's going to love thevideos too.
He's like why don't we justmake him do his full time?
Oh, no doubt, hey, we need thisposition filled, but he could
also do this and that's Ishmaelhere who's with us today?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Shout out to.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Ishmael.
He's off camera now, but heended up after about a month.
Our father saw the value inmaking videos full time and
doing this he's like no, no, no,let's bring him back in.
Find a warehouse guy.
He's going to be full timesocial media All right.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So there's one of the pro tips for those people who
are listening.
You might be like I'm in myfamily business how to establish
it.
First thing you have to do isyou've still got to work through
the channels, even thoughyou're taking it over.
Because look, at the end of theday, if you just went in like
we need to hire this full-timevideographer, you might not have
ever.
You wouldn't have ever gottenthere.
So you had to kind of negotiateto help them see the value.
(16:45):
And I do want to circle around,but tell me what you think.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's kind of good to piggyback off what you just
said.
That's how we've approached it.
You have to respect whatthey've done Because, at the end
of the day, we've only beenhere, for I've been here for
coming up on seven, a year,after me was six, and they've
done it for so long a certainway.
So who are we to come in andsay this is what we're doing,
correct?
And you, you know, and and, bythe way, you know he didn't we
(17:09):
didn't get these positions ortitles, the set the first day we
got here.
We had to work and you know,find our, find our place, and
you know we all have the samegoal.
Yeah, it's easy, we want togrow.
We're all eating from this, youknow, um, it's a, it's a, it's
(17:29):
a profitable business, it's agreat business.
We've been blessed, and sowe're all moving towards the
same direction and it's how dowe check all the boxes?
How can we work together withyour insight, you know?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
my father generation what we bring to the table and
it's I think it's been a perfectmix, so cool, we get lucky
because we can work together.
Dude, you guys did get luckylike straight up, because it
doesn't always work out thatseamlessly.
But one of the things I've beentrying to talk to businesses
about recently is the power andunderstanding of how generations
can work together to have amore complete business.
And the case in point is yougot certain age groups who, who,
they?
They have that old school hardwork ethic, if you imply that
around the company.
(18:11):
That's kind of what I feel likeyour mom and dad did.
And then you get that newschool level of understanding
how to mass market.
I think the better at that.
You know it's like you don'tput your ad in the phone book
anymore.
That's probably what your momand dad did early on, right, but
like now, you're realizing thisis all about quick impressions
and as we get more into the GenZers becoming our number one
customers, we better very muchembrace quick hits.
(18:34):
Man, get that YouTube video.
So, miguel, I want to ask you alittle bit.
You from the operationsstandpoint, I'm sure that you
have a little taste in themarketing and you have to do
some things.
How has YouTube changed yourbusiness?
How do these videos change yourbusiness?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's changed tremendously.
We've actually started ourYouTube channel as well A while
back.
We have about, I'd say, 100subscribers.
Now, Everything that we doeither our trainings, our
warehouse videos, our outsidevideos, our installation videos
are all on YouTube and, justhonestly, we've grown from
people reaching out to usthrough YouTube from
(19:09):
subscriptions, comments, reviewsgo to YouTube.
So, just altogether, it'shelped us tremendously Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So you guys do a lot of the how-to videos If I may
chime in from those how-tovideos on.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
YouTube.
They've actually asked us tohost seminars.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, we've had guys come in customers you know some
of our large customers like canwe send our supervisors to go
learn, cause they, they knoweverything?
They kind of know everythingabout building, yeah Right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Can we send them to go learn the nitty gritty about?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
roofing with you guys Well yeah, I understand these
little.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
you know these mini, actually big dog houses that we
have, yep, and we're throwing upa roof showing them.
You know the details,intricacies flashing here, ice
and water, the whole nine Bigdog houses like Great Dane dog
houses.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to put a
10-12 pitch on it.
Well, you know, here's thething that I thought was kind of
cool.
You talked about the how to.
They think they understand it.
There's a little bit of artform to.
Here's how you do it and youmake it look so complicated.
People are like, no, no, no, Ineed to call Fernando and Miguel
(20:17):
and International, but no, Ifeel you on that.
Tell me a little bit about youguys.
When you were younger andgrowing up, Did you think when
you were 7, 8 years old, 10years old, that you were going
into the roofing business?
Tell me about your paths, man.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
We'll start with you.
I'll be honest Growing up Inever once saw myself getting
into the business, even justthrough school.
I was completely different,seeing it now as an adult, kind
of what they were going throughmaking sure the business is
running smoothly, making sureeverything was getting done.
So as a kid I just never reallysaw myself.
As a nine I see them stressedout.
(20:52):
I'm not ever going to beinvolved, never, never, never.
Now, being older, you know mybrothers will.
Just I see everything they wentthrough.
Now it's on our shoulders so Idefinitely respect everything
they've gone through.
I'm for sure now I love it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I can't say anything about it, man.
You guys have said the wordrespect a number of times here
and I love that, man.
It's like such a cool thingbecause I feel like that one
reason you guys ever hear thestory about how the business is
thriving, then the kids takeover and the business goes down
you had to have heard it.
It's a lifelong cautionary tale, but I feel like it's because
the respect wasn't there.
They didn't understand the hardpassion that the parents had
(21:27):
when they started or whoeverstarted it.
They just that passionate whennobody was looking, when you're
putting in the 16 hour days andjust nobody even understood that
.
And then the kids take over.
They're like, well, you know,good, but you guys are really
like seriously having therespect.
So I dig that man and I betthat's passing through your
whole organization.
So well done on that.
Yeah, so all right.
(21:47):
So, fernando, what about you,man?
Were you going to be a littleroofer from the age of six?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
never.
I was supposed to be, uh, messiand ronaldo right now playing
soccer, yeah, like a millionsomewhere.
You know that type of thing.
That was.
That was the goal, um, and Iactually played a
semi-professional a little bit.
I played in australia, I playedin Colombia, but, you know,
after you know, pay is not whatit's supposed to be.
You know, at such an entrylevel, yeah, yeah, I just
(22:13):
decided to come back and see ifmy father needed help at the
time and he didn't really wantto bring me on board because he
thought I'd take a step back.
You know, just kick back.
Yeah, yeah, but that's why Isay I play with the chip on my
shoulder because, okay, that's,you think I'm going to come in
and relax?
No, no, no, I've seen.
To pick up on what you weresaying is that we've seen the
(22:34):
struggle?
Yeah, you know, I saw themstart.
You know, in a rental apartmentwith you know the little TV,
dinner boxes writing on a littleyellow notepad the schedule,
the roofing schedule.
I've seen them take late nightphone calls, early mornings, my
father driving, commuting, everysingle day.
I saw that grind and that'sstill with us today.
(22:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's stillwith us today and that's kind of
where the biggest mesh that Isee is.
Maybe my generation doesn'tknow about that work ethic.
That's needed.
You know to really get you.
You know to to really get you.
You know to have nothing.
Yeah, yeah, create something.
Luckily we didn't have to dothat, cause I look at them, I
don't know if I would be able to.
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's real Nothing.
No.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I started from a with a headstart we and it would be
almost disrespectful if we wereto let it fall.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So that's why we play with that chip on our shoulder
and we only want to keep growing, because if you're not growing,
you're dying.
So that's kind of where we comeand we approach it every single
day.
That work ethic that we sawback when we were growing up.
We remember that and it's stillwith us today and that's why we
approach it just with our owntwist.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Very real man.
I appreciate that If you lookup on the board the people off
screen can't see it.
But I talk about.
That's my brand of leadershiplearning continuously and
enthusiasm for what you do.
But one of the things that yousaid that hit me in the
leadership is guys there's abeautiful thing that happens.
You're young guys I'm less youngnowadays, but anyway you know.
(24:03):
But I know what it was like man, you start off as a little kid
and it's all about what I needto survive.
As you get older it's a littleless what you need and a little
less and a little less to thepoint where now you can give it
back, you can help others grow.
So the way I see you guys isyour parents set you up for
success.
Now you get the blessing ofsetting everybody else up for
success.
So that's really cool, man.
I want to talk about thatsports thing a little bit.
(24:25):
You know I use a lot of sportsanalogies in business.
Like a lot, like anybody wholistens to the show.
I'll go out, I'll do a publicspeaking event to a room full of
people.
I'll be like any sports fansand if no hands raised, I'm like
oh boy you get ready for somestories you're
Speaker 2 (24:40):
not going to understand.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
But you know the deal is it's so synonymous with
business.
Man, how did you practice?
What was your mindset going in?
You know, when the defense didsomething the offense wasn't
expecting, how did you adapt toit?
That's the marketing side,right.
What have you brought from yoursports career into the business
that you feel like helps yousucceed?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Playing like you're a professional.
Yeah, what do professionals do?
Their bodies, their tempo, theyeat, right, you know.
They study the game film.
They train every day.
Yep, that's what we have to doas business owners to watch it
grow.
To read the market yeah,market's slow, market's fast.
When is it time to, you know,make a good investment?
When is it good to make a goodplay?
Um, see, see what's out there.
(25:23):
See what's working for othercompanies, see where marketing
is going to take us.
Um, yeah, and again,consistently hone on your craft,
my sales craft.
My, when I go to these meetingsit's not perfect, but I'm
consistently tweaking see what Ican do.
Why didn't, why don't I getthis account?
How do I get this next one?
I got this one.
What I do?
well, you know, that's the thingyeah, always tweaking what you
can do and just approach it likeyou're a professional athlete.
(25:45):
Every day, try to work on yourcraft and get better every day.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Man, that's fire right there.
I'll tell you why I love whathe just said.
The thing is, if we approachedeverybody loves sports.
It amazes me.
After the Super Bowl is over,we'll all sit down and be like,
oh, did you see what they did inthat game?
I can't believe they did that.
We are breaking down things thatreally don't matter.
In the big scope of things, itdoesn't matter who won the Super
Bowl.
I mean, it makes us excited,but it really doesn't matter on
(26:13):
your day-to-day.
It's not going to help you feedyour family, but why don't we
put more of that time andpassion into what we do for a
living?
So when you talked about it,you know some people just take
the oh woe with me approach.
Oh man, it's, it's a shame,business is slow.
I wish we had the marketingmoney, these other people, and
I'm like if you were a sportsteam, you wouldn't just lay down
you go all right, we got tochange the strategy.
(26:34):
And what are they doing?
That's working.
How do we adapt?
So, um, you on the operationsside, I'm sure you have a lot of
that.
What would you say is thebiggest challenge that you see
coming in the roofing industry,and how are you guys adapting to
it?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Technology.
Honestly, Right now we're doingdrones all over All our air
managers have drones and kind ofjust keeping up with the market
of mainly just how fasttechnology is coming.
There's machines alreadyroofing.
Obviously there's astronomicalprices.
But just keeping up with thatmarket technology-wise, honestly
, that's to make that it'scoming pretty quickly that we
(27:06):
don't really see, yeah, and it'slike staying ahead of that, and
that's where you guys come inhandy.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That's a cool story, guys.
It's really neat to hear abouthow you've gotten to where you
are and what you're doing withthe business.
So now, as we get towards thatlast few minutes of the show I
want to talk a little bit aboutfor the people who are in a
family business whether you'retaking it over, whether you're
just working in it, whetheryou're the parent or the kid.
Tell me a little bit about atip you might have that you
(27:33):
would give to somebody who's inthat situation how they can
thrive.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
One tip I would say is as a family, we can always
get on each other's nerves, butno business is business and
family is family, and maybe it'show we were raised as well.
Our bond as brothers can neverbe broken.
No, matter what it is and that'sone thing that we take, you
know, pride that we can go headto head about something, a
problem.
At the end of the day, you knowhey bro, love you bro, we're
(27:57):
good, like that's business Kindof.
That approach is that businessis business and family is always
going to be family and kind ofwe always take care of each
other.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Dude, you know what I love that answer so much.
The reason I say that is whenwe're in life, man, you want to
know that you can get into adisagreement with somebody who
really has your best interest atheart.
Isn't that a beautiful thing,man?
And in a family business,hopefully, if your family
culture is good, you have thatopportunity.
I can't always know if I don'ttruly know what's in your heart,
(28:25):
if I don't know if you're in itwith me, I can't know when
you're necessarily have my bestinterest at heart.
Hey guys, I'm going to wear mybathing suit to work today.
What do you think?
Oh yeah, that's a great idea,rob.
But like you guys, you know youcan disagree.
You know you can probably saysomething that like some
constructive criticism, butthrough that friction you're
going to come out with somethingbetter at the end of the day.
Man, that's powerful.
(28:46):
I love that.
Yeah, yeah, cool.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
So to piggyback off of kind of what he said and what
you were saying about thebathing suit.
Mine is honesty.
You have to just be fullytransparent with everybody in
the business we all.
At the end of the day, we'relooking for the same goal.
We want to grow the company.
All want to make money, youknow, but at the end of the day
(29:07):
we are family.
It's good to be brutally honest.
That way, there's never amisunderstanding.
You know exactly where we standon certain subjects.
This is where I'm standing.
That's where you stand, cool,mm-hmm, we were room.
There's room to disagreements,but as long as you're brutally
honest yeah that's my, that's mybiggest takeaway and that's why
, you know, felt there's beensuccess here, because what you
may not like, what we have tosay now, there's ways to say it,
(29:30):
but at least you said it, man,and it's hard because you don't
want to hurt people's feelings,especially people you care about
.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
But you talk about the communication style.
I like what you said and thisis a tip I have for all managers
Look, you can't go through lifejust oh.
Hey man, good job today.
And I was making a joke, Inever tried to wear a bathing
suit to work, but the recordshow, but no.
But if you did, it's not easyto maybe hurt somebody's
feelings, but if you communicateit properly, you know.
(30:00):
Here's one that I have, and wetalked about this in the past.
Some of the best advice I everheard was from one of my mentors
in business and he said youknow, there's people who like
the fashion statement.
They'll go to.
You know, work with earrings on, okay.
And it's hard to have thatconversation.
Hey man, I, you know, I don'tknow if the earrings are your
way, but he said listen, herehere's a way of looking at it.
A guy am wearing earrings.
I'm never going to sell a jobbecause they're like man, I like
(30:23):
your earrings, I'm going togive you the contract, but they
might not do business with mefor it.
So I'm not saying, change whoyou are, but if I could maximize
my success, if I couldguarantee I'm going to sell a
job.
I'm going to listen, man, andsometimes it's not easy to hear
what you got to hear, but youknow what, if I know the
person's really looking out forme, like your family business,
(30:45):
then it all works out right.
Cool stuff, man, awesome dude.
Well, hey you guys, man, Iappreciate everything you
brought to the show today.
A couple of good-looking guyshere working in the construction
industry.
Man, I definitely think youguys got a long way to go and
you're going to take yourbusiness to new levels.
With that being said, tell me alittle bit about how people can
find out more about you andyour company.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Follow us on Instagram.
A-i-n-t-l.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
What is it?
Ics underscore, inc.
On all social medias Instagram,tiktok, youtube, x.
Now that it's called EverythingAll the social medias.
Ics underscore, inc.
Underscore.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Man see that's the operations manager taking over
right there.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Stay tuned.
You know it's for people alsoto learn.
Our content is based aroundtrying to teach you something.
So if you want to learnsomething about roofing before
you, you can be in Colorado.
You're shopping around forroofers.
You can look at our contentjust to see you know anything
that you might learn to be ableto speak to that roofing
contractor coming to your houseNice man.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, I'm going to tell you one thing that I really
appreciate about what you guysdid today.
I got a vibe from you thatyou're not looking like you got
to go get every job in town.
You want to be the bestcontractor option for the people
who are picking you, but you'renot looking at this like hey,
look, I must crush allcompetition.
It sounds like to me you'vebeen invested in making a better
brand of business betterroofing brand of business for
(32:05):
everybody.
So well done, man.
I appreciate having you guys onthe show.
All right, fernando Miguel andyou guys check out International
Construction Services.
They've got a lot to offerWherever you are.
They're all over the place.
Check them out online and, forthose who are listening, we hope
you got something good today.
If you're in a family business,just know there's a right way
to do it.
There's also wrong ways to doit, so make sure you always live
(32:27):
with respect.
I like that a lot and justknowing that sometimes the
brutal honesty is the best thingwhen you know you're all in it
together.
So we'll leave you off withthat.
We want to thank everybody forlistening, thanks to our
sponsors, and make sure to likeand share us on social media.
(32:56):
And with that I'll say we'resigning out with the Leader
Mentality Show and Rob Clements.
Welcome to the Leader Mentality Show with Rob Clemens
.
Today, we're going to talk alittle bit about something that
anybody who's been in thebusiness world might have
experienced, and that is allabout family businesses.
If you're in a family business,you want to establish yourself,
you want to maintain theculture of the business.
You want to make your own path,though, and so how do you do
(00:43):
that?
How do you keep that perfect,synchronous transition from the
current ownership to the newownership?
How does it work?
I'll tell you what.
Today, I have two very specialfellows on the show because
they're doing it right now, anddoing it in an epic way.
I want to introduce to the showfrom International Construction
Services.
We have Fernando Posada andalso Miguel.
(01:06):
Welcome to the show, fellas.
Thank you for having us.
Man, good to have you.
It's a two-for-one specialtoday.
I don't usually get to do two,so this is going to be great.
Man Guys, I know a lot aboutyour business because I did some
research leading up to the show, and I've also heard of you
before, started in 1995, whenyou guys were probably like
negative five years old Youngguys, right, but your dad
(01:29):
started this, and he started itwith a purpose and a mission.
I want to get into that alittle bit and how you guys came
into play.
But before we dive into allthat, what are you guys up to
lately, man?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, right now I'm in the middle of remodeling a
BB&T Bank.
We're actually opening up oneof our first storefront offices.
So when my parents started thebusiness, my mom and father
started the business.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
He had a neck and he was the head.
And, by the way, before we geton from that, was mom the
serious one or dad the seriousone?
Are they both serious?
My dad is the more serious one.
Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Usually they both serious.
My dad is the more serious.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Okay, gotcha.
Usually they got to transitionoff of each other a little.
It's a perfect mix.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, gotcha, but she was more in the house office
scheduling and he was in thefield.
But we're in the middle ofremodeling a BB&T bank
Fulfilling one of their dreamswas to have a big storefront
office.
Okay, they kind of built theoffice that we're in right now.
Yeah, like a plan B.
It looks like a house, okay.
Okay, so in case businessdidn't work out, oh, it still
(02:31):
can be a house.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It still has a house, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, as you see now, since 95 businesses, you know
we're still in businessstorefront office.
You know big signs, big tealroof, because those are our
colors.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Teal.
Yeah, nice, Sean's up.
By the way, You're in coastalCarolina country here I see it
all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But yeah, we're in the middle of remodeling that
BB&T bank and we should be ableto move in within the next seven
to eight months.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's awesome, man, well done.
So you, fernando.
You are actually the vicepresident of the company, miguel
, you are the operationsdirector.
Take me on a day-to-day of whatyou're doing as the operations
director at the company.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Day-to-day man.
I just make sure all our citiesare doing all the work is
correctly, all the guys are tiedoff correctly, our boots on the
ground are making sure the jobsare done correctly on time
Quality, making sure safety isall good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Just everything that we promise on the front end with
the builders that we have.
Make sure that all getscompleted.
Man, I like that.
Let's stay on this subject fora minute.
We talk about roofingprofessional roofers and I want
to get into a little bit aboutwhat makes you special, and I
kind of feel like you're tellingme that, but when you get into
the roofing side, you talkedabout safety.
How do you install safety in abusiness that's traditionally
not really that many peoplebeing safe?
I mean, how do you get thatestablished throughout your
(03:49):
company?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it hasn't been easy.
It hasn't been easy.
It's definitely a battle thatwe still face, you know, 30
years later.
It's something that every daywe're having that conversation
Every day.
It's a reminder.
That's kind of how you face itEvery day.
All our air managers will grabour roofers before they even all
out on the roof and inspect alltheir safety equipment, mm-hmm.
Do you have the correct anchor?
(04:11):
Do you have the correct harnessthat you have to tie up from
the D ring on the back?
Do you have the eyewear?
Do you have?
It's a checklist that they runthrough.
Yeah, cool, now you have it,let me see you put it on and
then you're on the roof.
Now you can get up, becausewe've had we've had
circumstances now we don't seeit as often yeah, but you,
you'll check a roof, you'llcheck a crew and they're doing
perfect.
(04:31):
You drive away like let me justgo back 20 minutes, I forgot my
uh camera yeah, let me go 20minutes later.
And then there, no hard hats, nothis no man guys come on, you
know.
So sometimes it feels like youknow management cares more about
getting these guys home.
When you help them realize, hey, it's to get you guys home
safely, it's not just becausethere's going to be fines.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
We also offer a reward system.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay okay, that's been a game changer for us.
Yeah, it wasn't always rulingwith an iron fist saying there's
a fine if you're not doing it.
Yeah, yeah, we actually say youknow what We'll also give
little bonus for this job, thisproject, If we come out surprise
inspection and everything is inorder.
Yeah, man, I love it.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
That's modern management to me.
You know, it's like the oldschool style management was hey,
we're going to penalize you ifyou don't do this, we're going
to.
You know, we're going to writeyou up if you don't do that.
But what about, like theopposite thing, which is
rewarding those who are actuallybuying into the mission, and
that's really powerful.
One thing I know about theroofing industry and you guys
(05:28):
know I have a little backgroundon this too it's that the guys
on that roof are a differentbreed.
And when I say they're adifferent breed like, they'll
stand up looking 40 feet down atthe ground and not even sweat
it.
You know you got to be specialto even do it in the first place
.
The guy's breakfast is.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Red Bull.
Yeah, they eat breakfast RedBull and then they're going home
.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, exactly yeah, it's like you're sweating out
everything on the roof, you know.
So I can feel you on that, butit does because that is part of
it's in the blood a little bit.
You do have to keep remindingthem.
I'll tell you one thing I didyears ago and I own a
construction company as well Ihad that I actually put a
message up on the board.
(06:06):
You guys ever hear of a NASCARdriver named Dale Earnhardt?
You've probably heard of DaleEarnhardt.
Right, you're like, okay, sothe original Dale Earnhardt, he
died on the track and it waslike I showed this to the people
because when they saw it, mystaff of guys who were working
out on the field.
I said, why did I show that toyou?
And they said, well, becauselife is precious.
(06:28):
And I was like, yeah, life isprecious.
And they're like becausesometimes if you take little
side cuts, maybe it can causeyou problems.
I'm like, yeah, but I said, butthe bigger thing I'm trying to
tell you is NASCAR.
After that happened, they gotserious about safety.
All of a sudden they're like,yeah, let's get safe about our
cars, let's get safe about theway we're doing this thing.
(06:48):
I said don't wait untilsomebody dies before you get
safe, and you know, sometimesyou got to get that message out.
So well, well said, man, Iappreciate that you're doing
that.
Now, fernando, for you, you arethe vice president of the
company.
What would you say is like yournumber one thing you're doing
on a day to day?
What would you say is yournumber one thing you're doing on
?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
a day-to-day Representing the company.
Yeah, okay, that's my thing.
I'm checking on, for example,just so you know how it works
internally.
I'm out selling we both sellbut that's where I spend most of
my time is selling business,trying to get new contracts out,
(07:26):
networking, doing the eventsand all that.
Once we're able to landaccounts, that's when it goes to
the production team and that'skind of what he says we're
ensuring that we're meeting thescope of work of all our
customers.
He looks over the scope andhe's like cool, we can handle
this, this is how we're going tohandle it, Assigns crews and we
go from there Right on.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So that's kind of my job is to be the face, in that
sense of representing, alwaysshaking hands and trying to
establish our footprint in newcities where we want to grow.
It's kind of cool because Ifeel like, especially in
construction in general not justroofing, but construction you
have to establish early on thatyou're a professional company,
because there's so manycompanies that are not really
professional.
So the first thing you're doingon that public face is saying,
hey, check us, check us out.
No, no, not at all, man, it's abrute.
(08:10):
Well, and you get it like theproblem and with respect to your
dad's business and your mom'sbusiness that you guys are
taking over, the challengebecomes a lot of people will get
good at something working withtheir hands and then they think
I'm going to go out and start abusiness.
You guys have probably hadpeople who worked under you and
then they were like oh, I'mgoing to go start a business,
right, and the problem is islike yeah, you know how to do
(08:33):
the process, but you don'tnecessarily know how to do the
accounting, do the editing, dothe managing, do the marketing,
all the little things you'retalking about.
So To that point I think it'simportant to have the public
face, but it's also important toback up what you're saying.
So I want to go there next.
I want to talk about that alittle bit.
You guys have a slogan, I'msure, kind of a way that you put
(08:54):
it out there.
How do you keep your entirelarge organization?
How many people do you haveworking for you right now?
About 20.
That's a lot of people, right,the more people you have.
How do you keep that messageconsistent with them on a
day-to-day?
Is it through job site meetings, morning meetings?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
How do?
Speaker 3 (09:13):
you do that Right now .
We have meetings every Thursdayand Friday with our production,
with our in-house staff, andjust one thing that we, as you
said, our slogan would kind ofbe ICS is International
Construction Services, I isintegrity, c is consistency and
S is satisfaction.
Okay, so that's one thing wepride ourselves on.
We kind of end it in all ourmeetings kind of all saying that
together, kind of like a hoorahtype of team effort.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, a little hoorah effort.
Right, you got a little fistpumping.
I dig that.
The biggest challenge I thinkyou run into is like when you
have that first obstacle of theday, right, like it's like we
leave, we're all feeling good,pumped up, ready for the day,
and then you run into anobstacle.
The mindset there is veryimportant.
Do you have like foremen on thejobs?
(09:56):
Who kind of take the mantlewhen you're not there?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
So, yeah, we have a foreman in all the cities that
we're in, that we're operating,and that's exactly how we
operate and how we tell them.
That's how a decision would bemade on their end, yeah right.
Um integrity if you seesomething wrong with the roof,
the homeowner might not see itthe way we do, but that doesn't
mean that we can't get itcorrected because we know it's
wrong.
Oh yeah, you correct it whenyou know it's wrong.
(10:19):
Um consistency, we keep doingthat day in, day out.
You know we give them a goodquality roof, we give them good,
good service and then it'sgoing to lead to satisfaction.
You know, always think aboutthe customers In construction.
It's tough.
It's not like a restaurantwhere you get a steak and send
it back.
It's tough in constructionbecause there's different ways
to go about it.
Happy customers that maybewatch the YouTube video and the
(10:41):
YouTube video says this is howyou do my roof.
You put the end of yeah rightright right, you know we see it
all, but at the end of the day,they're the customers, so we
would like them to walk awaysatisfied with what we're giving
them.
If that takes a little bit moretime explaining to that
homeowner that watched theYouTube video and is an expert,
explain to them, kind of, why wedo it differently.
Explain to them that maybethese shingles might be
(11:01):
different manufacturer specs,whatever the case may be, we
want them to walk away satisfiedwith the product that we're
giving them.
And those three words, thoseare the key words for us to
continue our growth, because ifwe're operating from the ground
up, the roofers also know thisas well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, when they'rein the field, they might see a
bad framing.
Hey, don't just cover up theframing issue, don't just cover
it up.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
But, man, it's such a mindset thing though, because
it's tough when when you guysare up at the top and you are at
the top of your organization inyour respective positions.
But it's tough sometimesbecause these guys who are
working on the roof they'rethinking it's 115 degrees up
here I'm nailing.
The sooner I get done with this, the quicker I can go back to
my family and get off this roof.
So it's hard to reallyestablish that, guys.
(11:42):
It's so important to call thetime out and do it the right way
.
But I respect that a lot.
Man, that's something peopleneed to know.
What would you saydifferentiates you from other
roofers?
There's a lot of roofers outthere.
What would you say is the thingthat makes you guys most unique
?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I don't know.
I'll just answer first and thenI'll go ahead.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I would say to base it on those instances.
Like you said, it is tough, butwith us, instances, right, like
you said it is tough, um, butwith us.
We're hands-on with the rooferson a daily basis.
You know, I think, I think wespeak to every single crew we
have.
We have more than 25 plus, anda lot of them are checking in
with us, um, just because ofwhere we started.
(12:20):
You know, my father taught usthe business.
It wasn't come sit beside meand learn what I'm doing.
Go to the field, get up on theroof right, it was go to the
field, get up on the roof, hangout with the roofers, see what
they go through.
This is why they don't want towear that hard hat after eight
hours in the summer.
So he wanted us to get a feelfor that.
Wow, so we have a differentrespect for them.
(12:41):
They've seen us work in thoseconditions.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So it's not like oh these guys, the son's owner.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You know, that's how it works with us.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We've been out there we've done repairs, we've been
with the crews, so weestablished that relationship
and now they've seen us grow aswell.
Some of the roofers have beenthere since my father started
the business, yeah, so they'veseen us grow into our roles and
they're like these guys arelegit, they got respect, what we
have to say.
They understand where we'recoming from, because I get what
they're coming from, we get whatthey're coming from, but hey,
we also have to abide by certainrules.
(13:09):
There's a certain way to goabout this business and we've
been able to tweak it.
That's kind of where our successis is that we're able to train
crews and help those crews, thesubcontractors.
They grow underneath us as well.
Okay, yeah, yeah, if you abideby the safety, abide by the
quality and I have no problemswith your guys you can train the
next crew and put them underand work for you.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm going to keep giving you jobs.
It's one of the few businessesyou can do that in.
Man Well, okay.
So I do want to ask thisbecause this is kind of an
interesting subject that I thinkit applies to all businesses,
though we tend to think of whatyou do, but really, if you went
to any restaurant right now, anyretail store right now, just
anywhere, there's somebodythat's doing and we need to make
(13:51):
sure we understand how it feelsat that level.
Right, because, as you said,fascinating People think why
doesn't the guy want to wear hishard hat?
The homeowners who might belistening right now, why doesn't
he wear the hard hat?
But then you get outside, it's95 degrees.
You got sweat, sweat's comingdown off the hard hat.
You know it's hot up there.
You can't see.
You've been wearing it for sixhours Wearing those harnesses.
(14:12):
They're pinching you, they'rehot, you know.
So there is an element of it.
It's like you just got to takeyourself out and understand what
it feels like to be that personand they got to get the vision
to why what they're doing is soimportant, so cool stuff.
So, man well, guys, well done.
I can see that you're running areally high quality business
and I respect that.
You're carrying the mantle thatyour dad and mom started a long
(14:35):
time ago, so let's go into thata little bit Now again.
Operations director vicepresident, tell me a little bit
about what the transition hasbeen looking like for you guys.
What's different from when yourdad and mom were running it
solely to what you guys havedone, and how have you started
to establish your value in thebusiness?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
A lot has changed but at the same time, not much has
changed.
Okay, yeah, we bring, we bringfresh ideas.
You know, for, for example,just real quick off the cusp, I
would have never been able tohire a full-time videographer
for our company.
Yeah, it was, it wasn't gonnahappen.
They're like what is that?
Yeah, so we, we, we met on it.
(15:15):
We're like we kind of need one.
You know it's, it's more newsocial media, it's the, it's the
new wave.
You know it's a way to get out.
Yeah, so how do we convincepops and mom, who's a little bit
more old-school, right, yeah,and we were able to get them
because we needed a yard guy atthe time.
Yeah, so we're like all right,uh, part-time yard guy,
part-time videos and wait, holdon a yard guy like cutting the
(15:35):
grass.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Sorry, we call him the yard guy.
He's the warehouse warehouse.
I thought you're gonna get yourlawnmower got it now that's
thinking, all right yeah we'relike a warehouse, okay, good.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Warehouse help and we were able to convince him and
we knew like after about a monthwe're going to see the value in
his videos we're going to seethese videos and we know our
father's more visual.
Yeah, he's going to love thevideos too.
He's like why don't we justmake him do his full time?
Oh, no doubt, hey, we need thisposition filled, but he could
also do this and that's Ishmaelhere who's with us today?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Shout out to.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Ishmael.
He's off camera now, but heended up after about a month.
Our father saw the value inmaking videos full time and
doing this he's like no, no, no,let's bring him back in.
Find a warehouse guy.
He's going to be full timesocial media All right.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So there's one of the pro tips for those people who
are listening.
You might be like I'm in myfamily business how to establish
it.
First thing you have to do isyou've still got to work through
the channels, even thoughyou're taking it over.
Because look, at the end of theday, if you just went in like
we need to hire this full-timevideographer, you might not have
ever.
You wouldn't have ever gottenthere.
So you had to kind of negotiateto help them see the value.
(16:45):
And I do want to circle around,but tell me what you think.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's kind of good to piggyback off what you just
said.
That's how we've approached it.
You have to respect whatthey've done Because, at the end
of the day, we've only beenhere, for I've been here for
coming up on seven, a year,after me was six, and they've
done it for so long a certainway.
So who are we to come in andsay this is what we're doing,
correct?
And you, you know, and and, bythe way, you know he didn't we
(17:09):
didn't get these positions ortitles, the set the first day we
got here.
We had to work and you know,find our, find our place, and
you know we all have the samegoal.
Yeah, it's easy, we want togrow.
We're all eating from this, youknow, um, it's a, it's a, it's
(17:29):
a profitable business, it's agreat business.
We've been blessed, and sowe're all moving towards the
same direction and it's how dowe check all the boxes?
How can we work together withyour insight, you know?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
my father generation what we bring to the table and
it's I think it's been a perfectmix, so cool, we get lucky
because we can work together.
Dude, you guys did get luckylike straight up, because it
doesn't always work out thatseamlessly.
But one of the things I've beentrying to talk to businesses
about recently is the power andunderstanding of how generations
can work together to have amore complete business.
And the case in point is yougot certain age groups who, who,
they?
They have that old school hardwork ethic, if you imply that
around the company.
(18:11):
That's kind of what I feel likeyour mom and dad did.
And then you get that newschool level of understanding
how to mass market.
I think the better at that.
You know it's like you don'tput your ad in the phone book
anymore.
That's probably what your momand dad did early on, right, but
like now, you're realizing thisis all about quick impressions
and as we get more into the GenZers becoming our number one
customers, we better very muchembrace quick hits.
(18:34):
Man, get that YouTube video.
So, miguel, I want to ask you alittle bit.
You from the operationsstandpoint, I'm sure that you
have a little taste in themarketing and you have to do
some things.
How has YouTube changed yourbusiness?
How do these videos change yourbusiness?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's changed tremendously.
We've actually started ourYouTube channel as well A while
back.
We have about, I'd say, 100subscribers.
Now, Everything that we doeither our trainings, our
warehouse videos, our outsidevideos, our installation videos
are all on YouTube and, justhonestly, we've grown from
people reaching out to usthrough YouTube from
(19:09):
subscriptions, comments, reviewsgo to YouTube.
So, just altogether, it'shelped us tremendously Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So you guys do a lot of the how-to videos If I may
chime in from those how-tovideos on.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
YouTube.
They've actually asked us tohost seminars.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay, we've had guys come in customers you know some
of our large customers like canwe send our supervisors to go
learn, cause they, they knoweverything?
They kind of know everythingabout building, yeah Right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Can we send them to go learn the nitty gritty about?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
roofing with you guys Well yeah, I understand these
little.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
you know these mini, actually big dog houses that we
have, yep, and we're throwing upa roof showing them.
You know the details,intricacies flashing here, ice
and water, the whole nine Bigdog houses like Great Dane dog
houses.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to put a
10-12 pitch on it.
Well, you know, here's thething that I thought was kind of
cool.
You talked about the how to.
They think they understand it.
There's a little bit of artform to.
Here's how you do it and youmake it look so complicated.
People are like, no, no, no, Ineed to call Fernando and Miguel
(20:17):
and International, but no, Ifeel you on that.
Tell me a little bit about youguys.
When you were younger andgrowing up, Did you think when
you were 7, 8 years old, 10years old, that you were going
into the roofing business?
Tell me about your paths, man.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
We'll start with you.
I'll be honest Growing up Inever once saw myself getting
into the business, even justthrough school.
I was completely different,seeing it now as an adult, kind
of what they were going throughmaking sure the business is
running smoothly, making sureeverything was getting done.
So as a kid I just never reallysaw myself.
As a nine I see them stressedout.
(20:52):
I'm not ever going to beinvolved, never, never, never.
Now, being older, you know mybrothers will.
Just I see everything they wentthrough.
Now it's on our shoulders so Idefinitely respect everything
they've gone through.
I'm for sure now I love it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I can't say anything about it, man.
You guys have said the wordrespect a number of times here
and I love that, man.
It's like such a cool thingbecause I feel like that one
reason you guys ever hear thestory about how the business is
thriving, then the kids takeover and the business goes down
you had to have heard it.
It's a lifelong cautionary tale, but I feel like it's because
the respect wasn't there.
They didn't understand the hardpassion that the parents had
(21:27):
when they started or whoeverstarted it.
They just that passionate whennobody was looking, when you're
putting in the 16 hour days andjust nobody even understood that
.
And then the kids take over.
They're like, well, you know,good, but you guys are really
like seriously having therespect.
So I dig that man and I betthat's passing through your
whole organization.
So well done on that.
Yeah, so all right.
(21:47):
So, fernando, what about you,man?
Were you going to be a littleroofer from the age of six?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
never.
I was supposed to be, uh, messiand ronaldo right now playing
soccer, yeah, like a millionsomewhere.
You know that type of thing.
That was.
That was the goal, um, and Iactually played a
semi-professional a little bit.
I played in australia, I playedin Colombia, but, you know,
after you know, pay is not whatit's supposed to be.
You know, at such an entrylevel, yeah, yeah, I just
(22:13):
decided to come back and see ifmy father needed help at the
time and he didn't really wantto bring me on board because he
thought I'd take a step back.
You know, just kick back.
Yeah, yeah, but that's why Isay I play with the chip on my
shoulder because, okay, that's,you think I'm going to come in
and relax?
No, no, no, I've seen.
To pick up on what you weresaying is that we've seen the
(22:34):
struggle?
Yeah, you know, I saw themstart.
You know, in a rental apartmentwith you know the little TV,
dinner boxes writing on a littleyellow notepad the schedule,
the roofing schedule.
I've seen them take late nightphone calls, early mornings, my
father driving, commuting, everysingle day.
I saw that grind and that'sstill with us today.
(22:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's stillwith us today and that's kind of
where the biggest mesh that Isee is.
Maybe my generation doesn'tknow about that work ethic.
That's needed.
You know to really get you.
You know to to really get you.
You know to have nothing.
Yeah, yeah, create something.
Luckily we didn't have to dothat, cause I look at them, I
don't know if I would be able to.
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's real Nothing.
No.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I started from a with a headstart we and it would be
almost disrespectful if we wereto let it fall.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So that's why we play with that chip on our shoulder
and we only want to keep growing, because if you're not growing,
you're dying.
So that's kind of where we comeand we approach it every single
day.
That work ethic that we sawback when we were growing up.
We remember that and it's stillwith us today and that's why we
approach it just with our owntwist.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Very real man.
I appreciate that If you lookup on the board the people off
screen can't see it.
But I talk about.
That's my brand of leadershiplearning continuously and
enthusiasm for what you do.
But one of the things that yousaid that hit me in the
leadership is guys there's abeautiful thing that happens.
You're young guys I'm less youngnowadays, but anyway you know.
(24:03):
But I know what it was like man, you start off as a little kid
and it's all about what I needto survive.
As you get older it's a littleless what you need and a little
less and a little less to thepoint where now you can give it
back, you can help others grow.
So the way I see you guys isyour parents set you up for
success.
Now you get the blessing ofsetting everybody else up for
success.
So that's really cool, man.
I want to talk about thatsports thing a little bit.
(24:25):
You know I use a lot of sportsanalogies in business.
Like a lot, like anybody wholistens to the show.
I'll go out, I'll do a publicspeaking event to a room full of
people.
I'll be like any sports fansand if no hands raised, I'm like
oh boy you get ready for somestories you're
Speaker 2 (24:40):
not going to understand.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
But you know the deal is it's so synonymous with
business.
Man, how did you practice?
What was your mindset going in?
You know, when the defense didsomething the offense wasn't
expecting, how did you adapt toit?
That's the marketing side,right.
What have you brought from yoursports career into the business
that you feel like helps yousucceed?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Playing like you're a professional.
Yeah, what do professionals do?
Their bodies, their tempo, theyeat, right, you know.
They study the game film.
They train every day.
Yep, that's what we have to doas business owners to watch it
grow.
To read the market yeah,market's slow, market's fast.
When is it time to, you know,make a good investment?
When is it good to make a goodplay?
Um, see, see what's out there.
(25:23):
See what's working for othercompanies, see where marketing
is going to take us.
Um, yeah, and again,consistently hone on your craft,
my sales craft.
My, when I go to these meetingsit's not perfect, but I'm
consistently tweaking see what Ican do.
Why didn't, why don't I getthis account?
How do I get this next one?
I got this one.
What I do?
well, you know, that's the thingyeah, always tweaking what you
can do and just approach it likeyou're a professional athlete.
(25:45):
Every day, try to work on yourcraft and get better every day.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Man, that's fire right there.
I'll tell you why I love whathe just said.
The thing is, if we approachedeverybody loves sports.
It amazes me.
After the Super Bowl is over,we'll all sit down and be like,
oh, did you see what they did inthat game?
I can't believe they did that.
We are breaking down things thatreally don't matter.
In the big scope of things, itdoesn't matter who won the Super
Bowl.
I mean, it makes us excited,but it really doesn't matter on
(26:13):
your day-to-day.
It's not going to help you feedyour family, but why don't we
put more of that time andpassion into what we do for a
living?
So when you talked about it,you know some people just take
the oh woe with me approach.
Oh man, it's, it's a shame,business is slow.
I wish we had the marketingmoney, these other people, and
I'm like if you were a sportsteam, you wouldn't just lay down
you go all right, we got tochange the strategy.
(26:34):
And what are they doing?
That's working.
How do we adapt?
So, um, you on the operationsside, I'm sure you have a lot of
that.
What would you say is thebiggest challenge that you see
coming in the roofing industry,and how are you guys adapting to
it?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Technology.
Honestly, Right now we're doingdrones all over All our air
managers have drones and kind ofjust keeping up with the market
of mainly just how fasttechnology is coming.
There's machines alreadyroofing.
Obviously there's astronomicalprices.
But just keeping up with thatmarket technology-wise, honestly
, that's to make that it'scoming pretty quickly that we
(27:06):
don't really see, yeah, and it'slike staying ahead of that, and
that's where you guys come inhandy.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
That's a cool story, guys.
It's really neat to hear abouthow you've gotten to where you
are and what you're doing withthe business.
So now, as we get towards thatlast few minutes of the show I
want to talk a little bit aboutfor the people who are in a
family business whether you'retaking it over, whether you're
just working in it, whetheryou're the parent or the kid.
Tell me a little bit about atip you might have that you
(27:33):
would give to somebody who's inthat situation how they can
thrive.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
One tip I would say is as a family, we can always
get on each other's nerves, butno business is business and
family is family, and maybe it'show we were raised as well.
Our bond as brothers can neverbe broken.
No, matter what it is and that'sone thing that we take, you
know, pride that we can go headto head about something, a
problem.
At the end of the day, you knowhey bro, love you bro, we're
(27:57):
good, like that's business Kindof.
That approach is that businessis business and family is always
going to be family and kind ofwe always take care of each
other.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Dude, you know what I love that answer so much.
The reason I say that is whenwe're in life, man, you want to
know that you can get into adisagreement with somebody who
really has your best interest atheart.
Isn't that a beautiful thing,man?
And in a family business,hopefully, if your family
culture is good, you have thatopportunity.
I can't always know if I don'ttruly know what's in your heart,
(28:25):
if I don't know if you're in itwith me, I can't know when
you're necessarily have my bestinterest at heart.
Hey guys, I'm going to wear mybathing suit to work today.
What do you think?
Oh yeah, that's a great idea,rob.
But like you guys, you know youcan disagree.
You know you can probably saysomething that like some
constructive criticism, butthrough that friction you're
going to come out with somethingbetter at the end of the day.
Man, that's powerful.
(28:46):
I love that.
Yeah, yeah, cool.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
So to piggyback off of kind of what he said and what
you were saying about thebathing suit.
Mine is honesty.
You have to just be fullytransparent with everybody in
the business we all.
At the end of the day, we'relooking for the same goal.
We want to grow the company.
All want to make money, youknow, but at the end of the day
(29:07):
we are family.
It's good to be brutally honest.
That way, there's never amisunderstanding.
You know exactly where we standon certain subjects.
This is where I'm standing.
That's where you stand, cool,mm-hmm, we were room.
There's room to disagreements,but as long as you're brutally
honest yeah that's my, that's mybiggest takeaway and that's why
, you know, felt there's beensuccess here, because what you
may not like, what we have tosay now, there's ways to say it,
(29:30):
but at least you said it, man,and it's hard because you don't
want to hurt people's feelings,especially people you care about
.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
But you talk about the communication style.
I like what you said and thisis a tip I have for all managers
Look, you can't go through lifejust oh.
Hey man, good job today.
And I was making a joke, Inever tried to wear a bathing
suit to work, but the recordshow, but no.
But if you did, it's not easyto maybe hurt somebody's
feelings, but if you communicateit properly, you know.
(30:00):
Here's one that I have, and wetalked about this in the past.
Some of the best advice I everheard was from one of my mentors
in business and he said youknow, there's people who like
the fashion statement.
They'll go to.
You know, work with earrings on, okay.
And it's hard to have thatconversation.
Hey man, I, you know, I don'tknow if the earrings are your
way, but he said listen, herehere's a way of looking at it.
A guy am wearing earrings.
I'm never going to sell a jobbecause they're like man, I like
(30:23):
your earrings, I'm going togive you the contract, but they
might not do business with mefor it.
So I'm not saying, change whoyou are, but if I could maximize
my success, if I couldguarantee I'm going to sell a
job.
I'm going to listen, man, andsometimes it's not easy to hear
what you got to hear, but youknow what, if I know the
person's really looking out forme, like your family business,
(30:45):
then it all works out right.
Cool stuff, man, awesome dude.
Well, hey you guys, man, Iappreciate everything you
brought to the show today.
A couple of good-looking guyshere working in the construction
industry.
Man, I definitely think youguys got a long way to go and
you're going to take yourbusiness to new levels.
With that being said, tell me alittle bit about how people can
find out more about you andyour company.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Follow us on Instagram.
A-i-n-t-l.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
What is it?
Ics underscore, inc.
On all social medias Instagram,tiktok, youtube, x.
Now that it's called EverythingAll the social medias.
Ics underscore, inc.
Underscore.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Man see that's the operations manager taking over
right there.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Stay tuned.
You know it's for people alsoto learn.
Our content is based aroundtrying to teach you something.
So if you want to learnsomething about roofing before
you, you can be in Colorado.
You're shopping around forroofers.
You can look at our contentjust to see you know anything
that you might learn to be ableto speak to that roofing
contractor coming to your houseNice man.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, I'm going to tell you one thing that I really
appreciate about what you guysdid today.
I got a vibe from you thatyou're not looking like you got
to go get every job in town.
You want to be the bestcontractor option for the people
who are picking you, but you'renot looking at this like hey,
look, I must crush allcompetition.
It sounds like to me you'vebeen invested in making a better
brand of business betterroofing brand of business for
(32:05):
everybody.
So well done, man.
I appreciate having you guys onthe show.
All right, fernando Miguel andyou guys check out International
Construction Services.
They've got a lot to offerWherever you are.
They're all over the place.
Check them out online and, forthose who are listening, we hope
you got something good today.
If you're in a family business,just know there's a right way
to do it.
There's also wrong ways to doit, so make sure you always live
(32:27):
with respect.
I like that a lot and justknowing that sometimes the
brutal honesty is the best thingwhen you know you're all in it
together.
So we'll leave you off withthat.
We want to thank everybody forlistening, thanks to our
sponsors, and make sure to likeand share us on social media.
(32:56):
And with that I'll say we'resigning out with the Leader
Mentality Show and Rob Clements.
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