In this episode of the Think Biz Solutions podcast, we sit down with Bret Woods, owner of Little Brothers Roofing. Bret shares his fascinating journey from the restaurant industry to launching his roofing company in January 2020, right as the world shut down. Learn how he differentiated his business by bringing a strong focus on customer service to the construction world. Bret also provides crucial insights into roofing quality, explaining why simply meeting national code or manufacturer instructions is just the bare minimum. He discusses the challenges of running a business through personal setbacks and significant weather events, such as the devastating Norman hailstorms. Plus, hear his valuable advice for new entrepreneurs on embracing failure and his bigger picture vision for raising the bar for the entire roofing industry.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
And
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
it sounds so different in your own head,
right?
Like I hear mine and I'm like,oh, it's not bad.
And then I hear it recorded andI'm like, that is the worst
thing I've ever heard in mylife.
Like, how does anyone deal withthat?
It's so nasally and horrible.
No, we, I mean, everybody'svoice is like, it's its own
thing.
Which, by the way, I
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
hit record.
Ha
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
ha ha ha.
There he
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
is.
No
SPEAKER_00 (00:37):
face.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome toa Tuesday morning at the Think
Biz Solutions podcast studio.
We have Mike.
UNKNOWN (00:47):
Ha ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_00 (00:48):
What up, what up?
Yeah, it is.
(01:16):
The magician himself, thewizard?
The wizard.
Grazie.
What was your Memorial Dayweekend like?
It was sweatier than I wouldhave liked it to be.
But we have a clean home.
We have a happy baby girl.
We made some money.
It was a good weekend, so Ican't complain.
But do we have any complaintsfrom our lovely guest over here,
(01:37):
Brett, my good sir?
Well, first off, before we askfor complaints, maybe we just
ask, tell us about who you are.
Who is our lovely guest thisweek?
Brett Woods in the house.
SPEAKER_01 (01:48):
We're
SPEAKER_00 (01:52):
a little punchy.
I felt left out.
I wasn't making any noise.
Yeah.
So my Memorial Day weekend, notthat you guys asked.
No, I'm just kidding.
No one had asked.
I was like, I want to know whatwas bad about Brett's
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
weekend.
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
No, there was nothing bad about my weekend.
So Monday, yesterday was mybirthday.
And so my wife...
Happy birthday.
Thank you.
So my wife made sure that I didnothing, which is the best
birthday.
Excellent.
When we first started dating,she was always like, oh, I got
to...
So I had this like...
birthday curse, right, for along time when I was younger and
stuff, my birthday was alwayshorrible and all this stuff,
(02:29):
because, you know, parents,right, but...
So I told her about thisbirthday.
And so she's like, I got to makeit the most special day
possible.
Well, the most special day forme is doing nothing.
Right?
Like just sitting down and justnothing.
Right?
And I'm like, we got to sit atthe house all day.
And so she literally was like,this year I'm doing whatever you
want to do.
And I think what you want to dois nothing.
(02:50):
And I was like, we got it down.
We figured it out.
That's right.
That's right.
Good birthday to happen.
Excellent.
I could have calculated yourastrology chart if you didn't.
Like, I got you.
We get those birthday in That'sfair.
That's fair.
Our family cursed holiday isThanksgiving.
(03:12):
Oh, really?
And it's my favorite holiday.
I love Thanksgiving.
Mine too.
But every single year, somethingbad happens.
Like my parents got in a carwreck one year.
They're fine.
Then another year, mymother-in-law got news that she
has cancer.
On Thanksgiving?
On Thanksgiving.
What doctor is like, hey, let'sgo ahead and call this lady.
(03:36):
She needs help.
But she's also fine.
She's...
She's doing well.
But it's just something.
Every single year, there's beena thing.
So, darn Thanksgiving.
Well, if you ever have a cursedholiday, I have like 200 more
that I can pull out of my pocketfor you at any time of year.
We got you on holy days.
We can make something happenspecial.
(03:57):
Well, say...
Say that somebody has a cursedroof.
Who would we find to help uswith a roof just in bad shape?
I was just giving this guy areview the other week.
What was it?
Little Brothers Roofing orsomething like that?
I don't know who you'd call.
Yeah, no, we live in Oklahoma.
(04:18):
I see a lot of those.
I see a lot of those.
And so I'm presumed that therewas a reason for you to start...
Little Brothers Roofing, my goodsir?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe not a good one.
So was it just somebody had aroof that needed to be fixed and
Redwoods was the only man tosolve it?
I wish it was that easy.
No.
So I got into constructionbecause at the time my daughter
(04:43):
was a little less than one and Iwas in the restaurant industry
and I'd been a manager in therestaurant industry for a long
time.
And I...
I just couldn't get her.
So me and my daughter's mom atthe time weren't...
Now we're best friends, but atthe time we weren't seeing eye
to eye.
We were angry at each other.
And so I couldn't ever get mydaughter because she was like,
(05:04):
you can have her on the weekendand was fighting me on it.
And in the restaurant industry,that's the busiest time of the
week.
So I'm never having weekendsoff.
I never have a weekend off.
And so...
I went on to Indeed and appliedto 50 different construction
companies.
Because I was like, you knowwho's not working on the
weekends?
It's construction, right?
(05:26):
And so I applied to 50 differentconstruction companies.
Red River Roofing gave me a callback.
And I got the job at Red River.
And I've instantly fell in lovewith being able to be outside
all day, every day, goingdifferent places.
And I started out in theirrepair division.
So I actually started out doingthe roofing work.
And what...
(05:47):
I always knew I wanted to be insales.
I took a massive pay cut goingfrom restaurant management into
being an apprentice at a roofingcompany.
Huge pay cut.
So I go, hey, I always know Iwant to be in sales because
that's where the money's at.
And I know I've got a long wayto get there.
I'm like 21 or 22 at this time.
And I'm like, I know I've got along way to get there, but I
(06:08):
want to be in sales.
So I talk to Steve, the owner ofRed River Roofing.
And I go, hey, I saw you posteda job on Indeed.
I would love to...
I did that five or six times.
I would love to apply for it.
Hey, you're not ready.
I'd love to apply for it.
Hey, you're not ready.
You're not going to fit.
It's not going to be a good fitfor you.
Which ended up being the biggestblessing.
Sometimes rejection is thebiggest blessing that you can
(06:30):
get.
He kept telling me no, kepttelling me no, kept telling me
no.
Finally, I go, well, I'm goingto go out and do my own thing
then.
I had someone at the time investin the company, which I say
invest.
It was$1,000.
It's not really a companyinvestment.
At the time, At the time, I'mgoing, whoa, my goodness.
(06:51):
And yeah, we can do this.
And so I just had to hit theground running and learn from
there.
But I started the companybecause I wanted to be in that
sales role of being able to domore.
That's awesome.
So y'all have been a businessfor how many years now?
Coming up on six.
Excellent.
Coming up on six.
(07:11):
Very nice.
So we started January of 2020,which, you know, as anyone
knows, is the greatest time tostart.
Three weeks later, the worldshuts down.
So it took me six months to getmy first client.
But, you know.
Hey, I mean.
Even when there's a pandemic,you still need a functioning
roof.
That is true.
You especially need a roof.
(07:32):
It's the thing you have to stayunder.
And people in that industry thatwere like already ready to go,
they knew what they were doingat that time, killed it in 2020
because everyone was outside.
Everyone was inside all dayworking from home and they would
go, hey, I want to go outsideand do my garden and do my lawn.
And then they were deprived ofthe human connection.
(07:53):
And so you had door knockersgoing by, not actually knocking
doors, but just waving fromoutside.
you know hey let's let's talkabout your you know and and
people were open to it becausethey would just needed the
conversation yeah and uh so likeother roofing companies i know
like killed it that year andthat year well the next year um
norman got obliterated so it gota hailstorm that that took out
(08:15):
basically 80 percent of norman'sroofs um i mean like just
absolutely annihilated it's likethree inch hail crushed it Yeah.
And then my roof had to getreplaced during that time.
Oh, did it really?
Yeah.
So then October, right afterthat, like it was like six
months later, it got anotherthree inch hailstorm that took
out almost all of the same.
I mean, Norman literally gotreplaced and then replaced in
one year.
And so yeah, roofing companieslike that, that timeframe
(08:39):
worked.
crushing it yes and i knewnothing about roofing back then
so yeah well i knew aboutroofing nothing about sales i've
lived in in my house for fiveand a half years and my roof has
been replaced twice oh mygoodness but you just got you
just got an upgrade though so itwon't get replaced next time it
hails yeah hopefully hopefullyso and we have solar now that's
(09:00):
what i'm talking about theupgrade yeah yeah that'll keep
it from getting so it's uh imean it's it's In fact, you got
solar from the one and only,right?
I did.
Mr.
Dirk himself.
Dirk Neitzel.
That's right.
He's been a podcast guest.
So go check out his episode ifyou haven't heard it.
(09:22):
But you are like one of the mostknowledgeable people I've...
ever met when it comes toroofing.
I'm actually going to even go astep further and say you are the
most knowledgeable person aboutroofing because I don't know
that many roofing people.
That's fair.
I mean, you truly love what youdo and it comes out when you
(09:43):
talk about it.
What has kind of been the thingthat has made you so passionate
about your work and what you do?
Great question.
Great question.
You guys want to send promptsnext time?
No, I'm just kidding.
No, yeah, no, I like liveanswers too.
(10:05):
But no, so that's a greatquestion.
What makes me most knowledgeableor makes me most passionate
about wanting to beknowledgeable is one, I'm always
somebody that's loved working.
Um, I got a job when I was 14and have worked full time
basically since then.
Now full time for a 14 year oldis like 26 hours, right?
But, uh, legally, but, um, likeI've worked, I mean, I worked
(10:29):
all throughout high school,worked all throughout, you know,
when I got out of high school,instantly worked.
I've never not been a worker.
And one thing I've always doneis taken a lot of pride in what
I do.
And I really have to say, I haveto thank Red River for the
culture that they have there.
Now, Red River is struggling.
(10:50):
I think the owner, the owner'sready to retire and it's,
they're struggling.
But at the time when I was withRed River, the culture there
was, we are the best at what wedo, right?
Like period.
They were, I mean, and at thetime they were incredible.
Um, you know, like we would havemeetings constantly of like,
Hey, we have to get this, youknow, this is a problem that
we've ran into, you know, and ithasn't been solved because
(11:12):
roofing is not cut and dry,right?
Like it's not a lot of it is,but, but when you get into the,
some of the more difficulthomes, some of the bigger homes
like it's not just hey this isthe solution for this you follow
x y or z protocol right and alot of times it's hey you have
to get this custom fabricatedyou have to get this problem
fixed right like like andarchitects don't like to make it
easy right so theoretically itworks right but when you
(11:36):
actually
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
want to make it pretty
SPEAKER_00 (11:38):
right right and they are doing fantastic at their job
right there are some beautifulhomes out there and but that's
why you know roofers get paid somuch as they got to keep the
water out of the homes and it'sit's a lot of liability.
That was the biggest learningcurve for me was liability
insurance was nuts on roofingcompared to any other company.
(12:02):
But So I've always been somebodythat wanted to be...
I love their culture there thatit was like, hey, we are the
best at what we do.
And I've always wanted to be thebest at what I do as well.
And so I just kind of alwayswanted to expand my knowledge
base.
And I never wanted to just staystagnant and go, hey, I'm not in
it for the money.
I'm not in it for just doing itto do it.
(12:22):
Or to collect money and then getout of the business.
I'm in it because I love it.
I love the...
freedom it gives me to make itto every one of my kids games
and practices and, and be therefor, if my wife is having a
horrible day, I can go and dropby and stop by and give her some
lunch, you know, and, and justbe there for her as well.
(12:44):
You know, I love the freedomthat it offers.
And if, if I love that, then Ihave to make sure that what I'm
doing is the best of the best.
Um, yeah.
That's really cool.
And I, I think that, um, thatshows in the work that you do.
And you've had a lot of successwith your company coming from a
place where you were, you werejust wanting to be able to do
(13:07):
more sales.
You couldn't, you were like,gosh, darn it.
Well, I'm going to start abusiness, which, which I
honestly think more times thannot is how we, we get great
businesses is that somebodygets, uh, dissatisfied at a
company that they were at andthey know that there is
something more out there.
And so tell us a little bitabout your, your journey through
(13:30):
success and what has made yousuccessful inside of the roofing
industry.
Yeah.
So I can't, and I feel horriblecause I can't quote this person.
I don't remember who it was, butI remember seeing or, or
listening to a podcast at somepoint and somebody stating, uh,
When you're able to bringmultiple industries together and
(13:52):
use what works in one industryand bring it to another
industry, you can set the barfor a different, you know, for
something else, right?
For a new type of company or anew type of thing that people
aren't used to in that industry,right?
And the one thing that Irealized whenever I did leave
Red River and started my owncompany is that you call, at the
(14:12):
time, you were to call anyroofing company And I mean, the
person that answered the phoneis grumpy, right?
Like you get, pick up the phoneand call them.
And this is the person that's alot of these companies.
This is the person that sits inthe office all day and all they
do is take phone calls, butthey're angry.
And I came from customer serviceand restaurant industry, right?
(14:32):
Where it doesn't matter what youdo, you make the customer happy
because they're going to comeback, right?
Like period.
And so I, I've, implemented thatinto my business instantly where
i go every time i answer thatphone it's hey how's it going
you know and i'm a really happyperson in general most of the
time anyways right so it's nothard for me to just have a good
you know outlook on answeringthe phone but I realized that
(14:55):
was where it was lacking, right?
And there wasn't a whole lot ofcustomer service in
construction.
It was all, hey, you're honoredto do work with us, right?
Because we're the best at whatwe do.
So you're going to call us anddeal with us being grumpy.
And it's like, no, no, no.
If we're going to be the best atwhat we're going to do, then
let's be the best in everystandard.
And so that was one of thebiggest things that I had a lot
(15:18):
of success with.
And I still have a lot ofsuccess with.
I keep almost all of my clients.
And that's because I constantlygo back and check up on their
roofs.
We do a six month, you know,checkup program that even though
we know that we installed thatroof, there's no issues with it.
We know there's not gonna be anyissues with it, but sometimes
things happen, right?
You have a tree that grows overthe top of the house.
You have, you know, whatever itis, you know, you go, Hey, we
(15:41):
can catch that on the front end.
And so the biggest thing is wehave a huge return on clients.
And that blows people away whenI talk to people about that and
roofing, because most of it, infact, I was talking to Dirk
about that because when he wasin, or he is in solar, but he
also deals with a lot of clientacquisition, right?
Because it's like you, youinstall it and you move on.
(16:01):
Well, that roof is going to lastseven to 12 years in Oklahoma.
On average, the average rooflife is seven to 12 years
because you know, in my case,you know, and so I'm going to
continue that relationship withthem constantly because when
it's time to replace it again, Imean, as everybody in sales
knows, right?
(16:21):
Like the best customers whenthey've already sold to, right?
Like they're like done.
Yeah, absolutely.
I already trust you.
This is a hot lead.
This is like, you're going toget it no matter what.
Right.
And so that was something thatwe implemented early on was just
instant customer, customersatisfaction and customer
service.
It was just instant.
When you call me, I don't wantit to be, oh, God, I've got to
(16:43):
call this guy.
Even if it's the fifth timeyou've called us because we did
something wrong and we have tocome out there and fix it again,
and I know it's going to cost memoney to go out there and fix
it, and I'm like, I don't care.
When you call me, I'm like, hey,how's it going?
Oh, I'm so sorry about that.
Let's come out there and we'lltake a look.
So that's where we've had a lotof successes.
Oh, that's amazing.
(17:05):
And you just kind of, you oozemastery of your industry
whenever you are talking aboutit, whenever you're speaking on
it to anybody.
So we're really excited for yourpresentation.
But that mastery also has tohave come with a couple of
stumbling blocks, right?
We started coupling at thebeginning of COVID.
We're trying to get the salesthat we want to do.
So what's something that despiteall the research and the
(17:26):
learning that you do take on foryourself to gain that mastery,
what's something that we can'tlearn from the internet or from
a book from Brett's experience?
Hmm.
Great question.
Great question.
Um, so, um, Hmm.
I don't know what that's goingto answer this.
And in what regards and roofingor in business or anyone, the
(17:50):
thing that, First hits your gut.
Okay.
Um, so you can hear that, butokay.
So I'll do roofing because a lotof business and sales, you can
get, you find a book, right?
You can find it in a podcast andyou can hear someone talk about
it.
Um, one, I would like to iterateon that though, is, is not every
client is for you.
I've had to tell people, hey,I'm so sorry.
(18:14):
And I do this all the time whereI tell people, hey, even though
if we don't do any work for you,give me a call and I would love
to tell you because there's alot of bad roofing companies out
there.
This industry has a bad rap fora reason, right?
And I go, hey, let me know whoyou're thinking about using and
just so I can tell you, hey,whether or not I've had a bad
experience with them or whetheror not I go, hey, I've been on
(18:36):
roofs of theirs and it'sfantastic.
They do a great job, right?
And I do and And I truly meanthat.
Every time I go out to someone'shouse, I'm not trying to sell
them.
I'm just trying to let them knowwhere they're at on the health
of their roof.
And then I want them to make thebest fiscal decision for them.
But sometimes the best fiscaldecision is like, hey, don't go
(18:57):
with the cheapest person.
There's some bad companies outthere.
I drove past three stinkingroofs this morning that were
getting replaced.
It's raining, by the way.
The decking is saturated.
There's water getting in theirhouse right now.
And I'm like, come on.
Of course, there's no projectmanager out there.
There's nobody watching the job.
And the crew's getting paid toget it done.
So they're like, all right,guys, let's go.
(19:18):
They don't care.
And so the best fiscal decisionSince it's not always the
cheapest option.
But to really answer yourquestion, my answer to that
would be manufacturer'sinstructions or code is the
baseline.
(19:39):
So when people go, oh, Iinstalled it up to code, that
doesn't mean that they did agreat job.
Sometimes code doesn't cover it,right?
The code is national.
Well, roofing is very different.
You go down to Texas and you'llsee very different types of
roofs than you will here.
You go to Arizona and you seevery different types of roofs
than you do here, right?
You go to New York and you seevery different types of roofs
(19:59):
than you do here.
So for example, in commercialroofing, down here, there's
single ply and there's Anyway,single-ply is what we're talking
about because I can get down awhole rabbit hole.
So we'll talk about single-plyroofs, which just means there's
one layer, one barrier inbetween the decking and the
roof.
So single-ply, the most commonforms of single-ply are TPO down
(20:21):
here, which is that white stuff.
It's on this roof as well atthis building.
It's that white plasticmaterial.
It's actually a thermoplasticmaterial.
And you heat weld it down toeach other.
You go up north and TPO doesn'tdo very well.
Everything is EPDM.
EPDM is rubber.
And EPDM doesn't get heat weldedbecause it melts in the heat.
(20:44):
It gets glued.
Well, all of those glues downhere gets so hot that EPDM
doesn't do well.
And so national guidelinesare...
hey, this is what you should doon a national level.
Manufacturer guidelines are,hey, I mean, manufacturers are
national, if not international,which I actually believe that
(21:07):
roofing products aren't allowedto be international because of
EPA and all the other differentchemicals and stuff that are in
them.
But I could be wrong about that.
I don't know.
I'm not in manufacturing.
But, you know, so...
National guidelines doesn't meanthat it's the right thing for
the right area, right?
And so for in Oklahoma, I don'tinstall anything under 40
(21:31):
degrees Fahrenheit because everysingle time I've been called
back out on a repair has beenbecause of a job that we did and
it was 36 degrees.
Well, manufacturing instructionssay 32.
Anything above freezing is fine.
It'll adhere.
But we don't do it under 40anymore.
Unless it's an emergency andthen we take heat guns and melt
(21:53):
everything together and makesure that everything's sealed
down.
So manufacturing instructionsand code coverage or code is a
baseline.
Yeah, it's the bare minimum.
And if you're not installing upto code, if you're not
installing up to themanufacturer instructions, run.
Don't use that company becausethat is the bare minimum.
(22:16):
I mean...
But yeah, that would be myadvice.
Well, and that also just goesback to the understanding that
you brought from customerservice as well.
It's just do more and do itbetter than what's expected.
Right.
Go above and beyond.
It gives you better quality.
It gives you better customerbase.
It gives you just a better nameas a company as well.
(22:37):
So again, I think that's a goodlittle tagline for Brett Woods
is go above and beyond.
manufacturer's standards.
Oh, I thought you were going
SPEAKER_01 (22:45):
to say
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
better ingredients, better pizza.
Not below 40 degrees.
Not below 40 degrees.
Brentwood's never below 40degrees.
So we do have a lot of listenerswho are business owners or
entrepreneurs.
And what's one piece of advicethat you would give to somebody
who's just starting out and wastrying to save themselves from
stresses that maybe you cameacross when you were first
(23:08):
starting?
I know when I was firststarting...
I have more, uh, stresses that Igave myself than what I would
like to admit.
So, uh, if, if we ever want tohave just a dedicated podcast,
so yeah, it's like, and anotherthing, me and Ben did that.
(23:30):
Yeah.
Last Tuesday, we were justsitting there going back and
forth.
I'm still working on thoseprayers.
Those are on the way.
UNKNOWN (23:38):
Um,
SPEAKER_00 (23:39):
Yeah, so great question.
My answer to that would be don'tbe afraid to fail.
You have insurance for a reason.
You have all these things for areason.
If you don't have insurance, getit.
SPEAKER_01 (23:56):
Right.
Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:58):
Exactly right.
So my thing would be don't beafraid to fail.
And don't beat yourself up forfailing, but always do AARs,
right?
After action report.
And so that way you can go, whathappened?
What can we do better?
And what went wrong?
I've had my fair share of jobsthat have gone bad.
(24:18):
And that's why I said I keepalmost all of my customers,
right?
Because there are some timeswhere I'm like, oh, we messed up
and I'm so sorry.
And we fixed it.
Of course, we'll fix it, right?
We don't ever not fix it, but wewill.
We'll do it.
Excuse me.
We'll do everything we can tohelp get the problem resolved.
But, I mean, nobody's perfect,right?
I'm not Jesus.
(24:38):
And so no matter how much myhair looks like him.
I know everybody can't see Brettright now, but he does have
beautiful hair.
It's luscious curls.
It's nothing like Rob's, allright?
We have another buddy whoseactual name is...
is hair and uh and it's glorioushe legally changed it when his
(24:58):
hair uh started growing out yeahno that makes total sense though
is um you know so much of thetime we we end up regretting not
the things that we do but thethings that we don't do and it's
uh it's it's actually a bunch ofbig studies that have, have
(25:21):
done, you know, surveys over thecourse of people's lives that
have shown, you know, we may notbe proud of some of the
decisions we've made, but wedon't, we don't regret as much
the decisions we've done.
Cause we always can be like, Oh,well I learned from this.
I did, you know, but things thatwe don't do, we have, we have a
lot of regrets.
So with fear of failure, don't,Don't let that hold you back.
(25:45):
No.
A hundred percent.
And it's really important toalso, I love the Alex Hormozy
adage of the real metric ofsuccess is who fails faster than
everybody else.
And that's what actually makesyou the winner.
What makes you the best in yourfield is you were willing to
fail more than everyone else andwork on it.
And in my opinion, and I've saidthis a lot in different aspects
(26:07):
of life as well, but it's only afailure if you let it be you.
Right.
And, and so I, when you dothings that you allow to take
you out of the game, right?
When you do things that allowyou to, to, to go, Hey, I can't
do this anymore, you know, orwhatever.
Um, that's when it's a truefailure.
(26:27):
And, and sometimes there arethings that do that, right?
Like I've, I was talking toJason, uh, Taraz's, um,
Wednesday last week, I think.
And, uh, we're talking aboutJason's a, uh, uh, Legal lead
shark.
Payroll and legal lead shark.
He's a cool guy as well.
Fantastic guy, by the way.
Phenomenal guy.
(26:48):
Can't wait to have him on herebecause he's phenomenal.
I'm having to hold Brett backbecause he's got so many
connections.
We just got to reel him back in.
So much love to you.
I'm sorry.
This is all you, Brett.
This is all you, bud.
I'm sorry.
I'll stop referencing people.
How dare you?
(27:09):
Yeah, but I was talking to Jasonand he realized It really helped
me realize that I've had a lotgoing on in the last year and a
half.
Lost multiple parents.
I mean, just a lot go on.
And to not dive deeper intothat, but...
if you don't allow that to takeyou out of the game, right?
(27:31):
Then you're, if you keep movingforward and sometimes you've got
to move forward at a snail'space, you know, sometimes it's
not all, all gears ahead, youknow, or full steam ahead.
And I don't know, uh, what isthe word?
Uh, nevermind.
Uh, but you know, sometimes youreally have to, um, just keep
moving in little bits.
(27:51):
You know, it's, it's like, ifyou are trying to lose weight,
you just got to keep, keepmoving, right?
Going to the gym for twominutes.
It's like, uh, uh, uh, James isa James clear who does, uh, uh,
Atomic Habits, right?
Oh, yes.
Phenomenal book, by the way.
But it's like he talks about,like, get yourself in the
(28:12):
mindset of you're someone whodoes this, even if you can't
hardly get yourself out of bedin the morning, right?
Through business, I've lost,while running my company, I've
lost multiple parents, beenthrough a divorce, been in
multiple legal battles of, youknow, I mean, like, you're
constantly going to get setback.
Personal legal battles, notcompany.
But just to clarify, yeah.
(28:34):
But, but like you're constantlygoing to be in this, this
station of there's always goingto be something else pulling you
down.
You just got to keep movingforward.
Yeah.
And you were a testament tothat.
Keep moving forward mindsetbecause you're always here every
Tuesday.
We love seeing you.
We love having you here and yourenergy just maintains itself for
(28:55):
you because you, I would presumeyou have something bigger that
you're also kind of gettingafter because you've got a
bouncing baby roofing company,six years old now.
You're doing everything you'vegot going on in your life.
You're surpassing all of theseobstacles.
So what's the bigger picture forBrett then moving forward?
(29:16):
That's a great question.
You guys ask really goodquestions.
Mostly no, it's all Nolan.
I don't know.
Oh, there you go.
We copy off each other'shomework.
So bigger picture.
Well, and I've said this earlieras well, but it's not about
money for me.
I'm in this to make money,right?
(29:38):
And I am a for-profit companybecause I have to pay the bills
and support my family.
But it's not about money for me.
I'm currently working on,slowly, but currently working on
putting together training forother roofing companies to help
bring them up to standards.
My goal in this bigger picturewould be to help the homeowners,
(30:01):
because the homeowners are theones who suffer, right?
Every single time.
When a contractor fails, thehomeowner suffers.
And so my goal in this is to getother contractors up to higher
standards and allow...
homeowners to stop having tobear the burden of dealing with
the crap companies that are outthere, right?
And so...
(30:22):
the people who are in it justfor the money and have no idea
what they're doing.
I mean, I hear stories all thetime in my industry of like, oh,
yeah, I've been in roofing forsix months.
I decided to start my owncompany and just go sell.
And I'm like, what do you knowabout roofing?
And the only reason our industryis like that and plumbing isn't
or HVAC isn't is because youhave to go to school for those.
(30:44):
So anybody who owns one of thosecompanies, they've been to
school for years.
HVAC is a two-year full-timecertification.
It's an associate's degree Andyou're there every day for like
eight hours, right?
And plumbing is also, I thinkit's like a one-year class,
right?
One-year course of you have toget a license.
(31:04):
And then you have to dointernships under licensed
plumbers and stuff, right?
And under licensed HVACtechnicians.
And so electrical is the sameway, right?
And so roofing really should be.
I'm a big advocate for roofing.
more requirements to get intoit.
And it'll kick all those salesguys out.
It'll actually bring a lot ofmoney into the industry because
all the big money will come inand buy up the roofing companies
(31:25):
that are already there.
And that way they'll keep them,they'll go, hey, you know about
roofing, I just want to investin your company and allow you to
do it.
That's amazing.
That is big.
Big picture stuff, Brett.
That's awesome.
And it just enfolds ineverything that you know,
everything you're good at.
So Brett, as the master ofrafters, the sheik of shingles,
and the duke of double ply,where else can people find you
(31:48):
as we're wrapping up here today?
Well, I've got Facebook.
I need to get with the...
I don't know.
I was trying to think ofsomething with a G for Google
for you.
No, I need to get with Garrett.
The Googler Garrett.
(32:08):
That was horrible.
My
SPEAKER_01 (32:12):
nickname
SPEAKER_00 (32:14):
in high school.
I passed all my classes.
And I'm Google.
But no, I don't have a bigonline presence.
But I do have a website.
I do have– solittlebrothersroofing.com.
We do have our Facebook page,which I hate social media.
So it's not– I do post on thereevery month or so.
(32:36):
It's like we know a couplepeople that can help you in that
direction.
Yeah, yeah.
So we've got your website,littlebrothersroofing.com.
Biggest way to contact me wouldbe my phone number.
Okay.
Go ahead.
No, no, hit me with thosedigits.
Okay.
So my phone number is, what'syour number?
No, 405-365-0456.
And if anyone ever has anyquestions about roofing
(33:02):
whatsoever, give me a call.
We can highly recommend you,Brett.
So as we're signing off heretoday, we always got to remember
to stay sharp.
Think biz.
And
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
it sounds so different in your own head,
right?
Like I hear mine and I'm like,oh, it's not bad.
And then I hear it recorded andI'm like, that is the worst
thing I've ever heard in mylife.
Like, how does anyone deal withthat?
It's so nasally and horrible.
No, we, I mean, everybody'svoice is like, it's its own
thing.
Which, by the way, I
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
hit record.
Ha
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
ha ha ha.
There he
SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
is.
No
SPEAKER_00 (00:37):
face.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome toa Tuesday morning at the Think
Biz Solutions podcast studio.
We have Mike.
UNKNOWN (00:47):
Ha ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_00 (00:48):
What up, what up?
Yeah, it is.
(01:16):
The magician himself, thewizard?
The wizard.
Grazie.
What was your Memorial Dayweekend like?
It was sweatier than I wouldhave liked it to be.
But we have a clean home.
We have a happy baby girl.
We made some money.
It was a good weekend, so Ican't complain.
But do we have any complaintsfrom our lovely guest over here,
(01:37):
Brett, my good sir?
Well, first off, before we askfor complaints, maybe we just
ask, tell us about who you are.
Who is our lovely guest thisweek?
Brett Woods in the house.
SPEAKER_01 (01:48):
We're
SPEAKER_00 (01:52):
a little punchy.
I felt left out.
I wasn't making any noise.
Yeah.
So my Memorial Day weekend, notthat you guys asked.
No, I'm just kidding.
No one had asked.
I was like, I want to know whatwas bad about Brett's
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
weekend.
SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
No, there was nothing bad about my weekend.
So Monday, yesterday was mybirthday.
And so my wife...
Happy birthday.
Thank you.
So my wife made sure that I didnothing, which is the best
birthday.
Excellent.
When we first started dating,she was always like, oh, I got
to...
So I had this like...
birthday curse, right, for along time when I was younger and
stuff, my birthday was alwayshorrible and all this stuff,
(02:29):
because, you know, parents,right, but...
So I told her about thisbirthday.
And so she's like, I got to makeit the most special day
possible.
Well, the most special day forme is doing nothing.
Right?
Like just sitting down and justnothing.
Right?
And I'm like, we got to sit atthe house all day.
And so she literally was like,this year I'm doing whatever you
want to do.
And I think what you want to dois nothing.
(02:50):
And I was like, we got it down.
We figured it out.
That's right.
That's right.
Good birthday to happen.
Excellent.
I could have calculated yourastrology chart if you didn't.
Like, I got you.
We get those birthday in That'sfair.
That's fair.
Our family cursed holiday isThanksgiving.
(03:12):
Oh, really?
And it's my favorite holiday.
I love Thanksgiving.
Mine too.
But every single year, somethingbad happens.
Like my parents got in a carwreck one year.
They're fine.
Then another year, mymother-in-law got news that she
has cancer.
On Thanksgiving?
On Thanksgiving.
What doctor is like, hey, let'sgo ahead and call this lady.
(03:36):
She needs help.
But she's also fine.
She's...
She's doing well.
But it's just something.
Every single year, there's beena thing.
So, darn Thanksgiving.
Well, if you ever have a cursedholiday, I have like 200 more
that I can pull out of my pocketfor you at any time of year.
We got you on holy days.
We can make something happenspecial.
(03:57):
Well, say...
Say that somebody has a cursedroof.
Who would we find to help uswith a roof just in bad shape?
I was just giving this guy areview the other week.
What was it?
Little Brothers Roofing orsomething like that?
I don't know who you'd call.
Yeah, no, we live in Oklahoma.
(04:18):
I see a lot of those.
I see a lot of those.
And so I'm presumed that therewas a reason for you to start...
Little Brothers Roofing, my goodsir?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe not a good one.
So was it just somebody had aroof that needed to be fixed and
Redwoods was the only man tosolve it?
I wish it was that easy.
No.
So I got into constructionbecause at the time my daughter
(04:43):
was a little less than one and Iwas in the restaurant industry
and I'd been a manager in therestaurant industry for a long
time.
And I...
I just couldn't get her.
So me and my daughter's mom atthe time weren't...
Now we're best friends, but atthe time we weren't seeing eye
to eye.
We were angry at each other.
And so I couldn't ever get mydaughter because she was like,
(05:04):
you can have her on the weekendand was fighting me on it.
And in the restaurant industry,that's the busiest time of the
week.
So I'm never having weekendsoff.
I never have a weekend off.
And so...
I went on to Indeed and appliedto 50 different construction
companies.
Because I was like, you knowwho's not working on the
weekends?
It's construction, right?
(05:26):
And so I applied to 50 differentconstruction companies.
Red River Roofing gave me a callback.
And I got the job at Red River.
And I've instantly fell in lovewith being able to be outside
all day, every day, goingdifferent places.
And I started out in theirrepair division.
So I actually started out doingthe roofing work.
And what...
(05:47):
I always knew I wanted to be insales.
I took a massive pay cut goingfrom restaurant management into
being an apprentice at a roofingcompany.
Huge pay cut.
So I go, hey, I always know Iwant to be in sales because
that's where the money's at.
And I know I've got a long wayto get there.
I'm like 21 or 22 at this time.
And I'm like, I know I've got along way to get there, but I
(06:08):
want to be in sales.
So I talk to Steve, the owner ofRed River Roofing.
And I go, hey, I saw you posteda job on Indeed.
I would love to...
I did that five or six times.
I would love to apply for it.
Hey, you're not ready.
I'd love to apply for it.
Hey, you're not ready.
You're not going to fit.
It's not going to be a good fitfor you.
Which ended up being the biggestblessing.
Sometimes rejection is thebiggest blessing that you can
(06:30):
get.
He kept telling me no, kepttelling me no, kept telling me
no.
Finally, I go, well, I'm goingto go out and do my own thing
then.
I had someone at the time investin the company, which I say
invest.
It was$1,000.
It's not really a companyinvestment.
At the time, At the time, I'mgoing, whoa, my goodness.
(06:51):
And yeah, we can do this.
And so I just had to hit theground running and learn from
there.
But I started the companybecause I wanted to be in that
sales role of being able to domore.
That's awesome.
So y'all have been a businessfor how many years now?
Coming up on six.
Excellent.
Coming up on six.
(07:11):
Very nice.
So we started January of 2020,which, you know, as anyone
knows, is the greatest time tostart.
Three weeks later, the worldshuts down.
So it took me six months to getmy first client.
But, you know.
Hey, I mean.
Even when there's a pandemic,you still need a functioning
roof.
That is true.
You especially need a roof.
(07:32):
It's the thing you have to stayunder.
And people in that industry thatwere like already ready to go,
they knew what they were doingat that time, killed it in 2020
because everyone was outside.
Everyone was inside all dayworking from home and they would
go, hey, I want to go outsideand do my garden and do my lawn.
And then they were deprived ofthe human connection.
(07:53):
And so you had door knockersgoing by, not actually knocking
doors, but just waving fromoutside.
you know hey let's let's talkabout your you know and and
people were open to it becausethey would just needed the
conversation yeah and uh so likeother roofing companies i know
like killed it that year andthat year well the next year um
norman got obliterated so it gota hailstorm that that took out
(08:15):
basically 80 percent of norman'sroofs um i mean like just
absolutely annihilated it's likethree inch hail crushed it Yeah.
And then my roof had to getreplaced during that time.
Oh, did it really?
Yeah.
So then October, right afterthat, like it was like six
months later, it got anotherthree inch hailstorm that took
out almost all of the same.
I mean, Norman literally gotreplaced and then replaced in
one year.
And so yeah, roofing companieslike that, that timeframe
(08:39):
worked.
crushing it yes and i knewnothing about roofing back then
so yeah well i knew aboutroofing nothing about sales i've
lived in in my house for fiveand a half years and my roof has
been replaced twice oh mygoodness but you just got you
just got an upgrade though so itwon't get replaced next time it
hails yeah hopefully hopefullyso and we have solar now that's
(09:00):
what i'm talking about theupgrade yeah yeah that'll keep
it from getting so it's uh imean it's it's In fact, you got
solar from the one and only,right?
I did.
Mr.
Dirk himself.
Dirk Neitzel.
That's right.
He's been a podcast guest.
So go check out his episode ifyou haven't heard it.
(09:22):
But you are like one of the mostknowledgeable people I've...
ever met when it comes toroofing.
I'm actually going to even go astep further and say you are the
most knowledgeable person aboutroofing because I don't know
that many roofing people.
That's fair.
I mean, you truly love what youdo and it comes out when you
(09:43):
talk about it.
What has kind of been the thingthat has made you so passionate
about your work and what you do?
Great question.
Great question.
You guys want to send promptsnext time?
No, I'm just kidding.
No, yeah, no, I like liveanswers too.
(10:05):
But no, so that's a greatquestion.
What makes me most knowledgeableor makes me most passionate
about wanting to beknowledgeable is one, I'm always
somebody that's loved working.
Um, I got a job when I was 14and have worked full time
basically since then.
Now full time for a 14 year oldis like 26 hours, right?
But, uh, legally, but, um, likeI've worked, I mean, I worked
(10:29):
all throughout high school,worked all throughout, you know,
when I got out of high school,instantly worked.
I've never not been a worker.
And one thing I've always doneis taken a lot of pride in what
I do.
And I really have to say, I haveto thank Red River for the
culture that they have there.
Now, Red River is struggling.
(10:50):
I think the owner, the owner'sready to retire and it's,
they're struggling.
But at the time when I was withRed River, the culture there
was, we are the best at what wedo, right?
Like period.
They were, I mean, and at thetime they were incredible.
Um, you know, like we would havemeetings constantly of like,
Hey, we have to get this, youknow, this is a problem that
we've ran into, you know, and ithasn't been solved because
(11:12):
roofing is not cut and dry,right?
Like it's not a lot of it is,but, but when you get into the,
some of the more difficulthomes, some of the bigger homes
like it's not just hey this isthe solution for this you follow
x y or z protocol right and alot of times it's hey you have
to get this custom fabricatedyou have to get this problem
fixed right like like andarchitects don't like to make it
easy right so theoretically itworks right but when you
(11:36):
actually
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
want to make it pretty
SPEAKER_00 (11:38):
right right and they are doing fantastic at their job
right there are some beautifulhomes out there and but that's
why you know roofers get paid somuch as they got to keep the
water out of the homes and it'sit's a lot of liability.
That was the biggest learningcurve for me was liability
insurance was nuts on roofingcompared to any other company.
(12:02):
But So I've always been somebodythat wanted to be...
I love their culture there thatit was like, hey, we are the
best at what we do.
And I've always wanted to be thebest at what I do as well.
And so I just kind of alwayswanted to expand my knowledge
base.
And I never wanted to just staystagnant and go, hey, I'm not in
it for the money.
I'm not in it for just doing itto do it.
(12:22):
Or to collect money and then getout of the business.
I'm in it because I love it.
I love the...
freedom it gives me to make itto every one of my kids games
and practices and, and be therefor, if my wife is having a
horrible day, I can go and dropby and stop by and give her some
lunch, you know, and, and justbe there for her as well.
(12:44):
You know, I love the freedomthat it offers.
And if, if I love that, then Ihave to make sure that what I'm
doing is the best of the best.
Um, yeah.
That's really cool.
And I, I think that, um, thatshows in the work that you do.
And you've had a lot of successwith your company coming from a
place where you were, you werejust wanting to be able to do
(13:07):
more sales.
You couldn't, you were like,gosh, darn it.
Well, I'm going to start abusiness, which, which I
honestly think more times thannot is how we, we get great
businesses is that somebodygets, uh, dissatisfied at a
company that they were at andthey know that there is
something more out there.
And so tell us a little bitabout your, your journey through
(13:30):
success and what has made yousuccessful inside of the roofing
industry.
Yeah.
So I can't, and I feel horriblecause I can't quote this person.
I don't remember who it was, butI remember seeing or, or
listening to a podcast at somepoint and somebody stating, uh,
When you're able to bringmultiple industries together and
(13:52):
use what works in one industryand bring it to another
industry, you can set the barfor a different, you know, for
something else, right?
For a new type of company or anew type of thing that people
aren't used to in that industry,right?
And the one thing that Irealized whenever I did leave
Red River and started my owncompany is that you call, at the
(14:12):
time, you were to call anyroofing company And I mean, the
person that answered the phoneis grumpy, right?
Like you get, pick up the phoneand call them.
And this is the person that's alot of these companies.
This is the person that sits inthe office all day and all they
do is take phone calls, butthey're angry.
And I came from customer serviceand restaurant industry, right?
(14:32):
Where it doesn't matter what youdo, you make the customer happy
because they're going to comeback, right?
Like period.
And so I, I've, implemented thatinto my business instantly where
i go every time i answer thatphone it's hey how's it going
you know and i'm a really happyperson in general most of the
time anyways right so it's nothard for me to just have a good
you know outlook on answeringthe phone but I realized that
(14:55):
was where it was lacking, right?
And there wasn't a whole lot ofcustomer service in
construction.
It was all, hey, you're honoredto do work with us, right?
Because we're the best at whatwe do.
So you're going to call us anddeal with us being grumpy.
And it's like, no, no, no.
If we're going to be the best atwhat we're going to do, then
let's be the best in everystandard.
And so that was one of thebiggest things that I had a lot
(15:18):
of success with.
And I still have a lot ofsuccess with.
I keep almost all of my clients.
And that's because I constantlygo back and check up on their
roofs.
We do a six month, you know,checkup program that even though
we know that we installed thatroof, there's no issues with it.
We know there's not gonna be anyissues with it, but sometimes
things happen, right?
You have a tree that grows overthe top of the house.
You have, you know, whatever itis, you know, you go, Hey, we
(15:41):
can catch that on the front end.
And so the biggest thing is wehave a huge return on clients.
And that blows people away whenI talk to people about that and
roofing, because most of it, infact, I was talking to Dirk
about that because when he wasin, or he is in solar, but he
also deals with a lot of clientacquisition, right?
Because it's like you, youinstall it and you move on.
(16:01):
Well, that roof is going to lastseven to 12 years in Oklahoma.
On average, the average rooflife is seven to 12 years
because you know, in my case,you know, and so I'm going to
continue that relationship withthem constantly because when
it's time to replace it again, Imean, as everybody in sales
knows, right?
(16:21):
Like the best customers whenthey've already sold to, right?
Like they're like done.
Yeah, absolutely.
I already trust you.
This is a hot lead.
This is like, you're going toget it no matter what.
Right.
And so that was something thatwe implemented early on was just
instant customer, customersatisfaction and customer
service.
It was just instant.
When you call me, I don't wantit to be, oh, God, I've got to
(16:43):
call this guy.
Even if it's the fifth timeyou've called us because we did
something wrong and we have tocome out there and fix it again,
and I know it's going to cost memoney to go out there and fix
it, and I'm like, I don't care.
When you call me, I'm like, hey,how's it going?
Oh, I'm so sorry about that.
Let's come out there and we'lltake a look.
So that's where we've had a lotof successes.
Oh, that's amazing.
(17:05):
And you just kind of, you oozemastery of your industry
whenever you are talking aboutit, whenever you're speaking on
it to anybody.
So we're really excited for yourpresentation.
But that mastery also has tohave come with a couple of
stumbling blocks, right?
We started coupling at thebeginning of COVID.
We're trying to get the salesthat we want to do.
So what's something that despiteall the research and the
(17:26):
learning that you do take on foryourself to gain that mastery,
what's something that we can'tlearn from the internet or from
a book from Brett's experience?
Hmm.
Great question.
Great question.
Um, so, um, Hmm.
I don't know what that's goingto answer this.
And in what regards and roofingor in business or anyone, the
(17:50):
thing that, First hits your gut.
Okay.
Um, so you can hear that, butokay.
So I'll do roofing because a lotof business and sales, you can
get, you find a book, right?
You can find it in a podcast andyou can hear someone talk about
it.
Um, one, I would like to iterateon that though, is, is not every
client is for you.
I've had to tell people, hey,I'm so sorry.
(18:14):
And I do this all the time whereI tell people, hey, even though
if we don't do any work for you,give me a call and I would love
to tell you because there's alot of bad roofing companies out
there.
This industry has a bad rap fora reason, right?
And I go, hey, let me know whoyou're thinking about using and
just so I can tell you, hey,whether or not I've had a bad
experience with them or whetheror not I go, hey, I've been on
(18:36):
roofs of theirs and it'sfantastic.
They do a great job, right?
And I do and And I truly meanthat.
Every time I go out to someone'shouse, I'm not trying to sell
them.
I'm just trying to let them knowwhere they're at on the health
of their roof.
And then I want them to make thebest fiscal decision for them.
But sometimes the best fiscaldecision is like, hey, don't go
(18:57):
with the cheapest person.
There's some bad companies outthere.
I drove past three stinkingroofs this morning that were
getting replaced.
It's raining, by the way.
The decking is saturated.
There's water getting in theirhouse right now.
And I'm like, come on.
Of course, there's no projectmanager out there.
There's nobody watching the job.
And the crew's getting paid toget it done.
So they're like, all right,guys, let's go.
(19:18):
They don't care.
And so the best fiscal decisionSince it's not always the
cheapest option.
But to really answer yourquestion, my answer to that
would be manufacturer'sinstructions or code is the
baseline.
(19:39):
So when people go, oh, Iinstalled it up to code, that
doesn't mean that they did agreat job.
Sometimes code doesn't cover it,right?
The code is national.
Well, roofing is very different.
You go down to Texas and you'llsee very different types of
roofs than you will here.
You go to Arizona and you seevery different types of roofs
than you do here, right?
You go to New York and you seevery different types of roofs
(19:59):
than you do here.
So for example, in commercialroofing, down here, there's
single ply and there's Anyway,single-ply is what we're talking
about because I can get down awhole rabbit hole.
So we'll talk about single-plyroofs, which just means there's
one layer, one barrier inbetween the decking and the
roof.
So single-ply, the most commonforms of single-ply are TPO down
(20:21):
here, which is that white stuff.
It's on this roof as well atthis building.
It's that white plasticmaterial.
It's actually a thermoplasticmaterial.
And you heat weld it down toeach other.
You go up north and TPO doesn'tdo very well.
Everything is EPDM.
EPDM is rubber.
And EPDM doesn't get heat weldedbecause it melts in the heat.
(20:44):
It gets glued.
Well, all of those glues downhere gets so hot that EPDM
doesn't do well.
And so national guidelinesare...
hey, this is what you should doon a national level.
Manufacturer guidelines are,hey, I mean, manufacturers are
national, if not international,which I actually believe that
(21:07):
roofing products aren't allowedto be international because of
EPA and all the other differentchemicals and stuff that are in
them.
But I could be wrong about that.
I don't know.
I'm not in manufacturing.
But, you know, so...
National guidelines doesn't meanthat it's the right thing for
the right area, right?
And so for in Oklahoma, I don'tinstall anything under 40
(21:31):
degrees Fahrenheit because everysingle time I've been called
back out on a repair has beenbecause of a job that we did and
it was 36 degrees.
Well, manufacturing instructionssay 32.
Anything above freezing is fine.
It'll adhere.
But we don't do it under 40anymore.
Unless it's an emergency andthen we take heat guns and melt
(21:53):
everything together and makesure that everything's sealed
down.
So manufacturing instructionsand code coverage or code is a
baseline.
Yeah, it's the bare minimum.
And if you're not installing upto code, if you're not
installing up to themanufacturer instructions, run.
Don't use that company becausethat is the bare minimum.
(22:16):
I mean...
But yeah, that would be myadvice.
Well, and that also just goesback to the understanding that
you brought from customerservice as well.
It's just do more and do itbetter than what's expected.
Right.
Go above and beyond.
It gives you better quality.
It gives you better customerbase.
It gives you just a better nameas a company as well.
(22:37):
So again, I think that's a goodlittle tagline for Brett Woods
is go above and beyond.
manufacturer's standards.
Oh, I thought you were going
SPEAKER_01 (22:45):
to say
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
better ingredients, better pizza.
Not below 40 degrees.
Not below 40 degrees.
Brentwood's never below 40degrees.
So we do have a lot of listenerswho are business owners or
entrepreneurs.
And what's one piece of advicethat you would give to somebody
who's just starting out and wastrying to save themselves from
stresses that maybe you cameacross when you were first
(23:08):
starting?
I know when I was firststarting...
I have more, uh, stresses that Igave myself than what I would
like to admit.
So, uh, if, if we ever want tohave just a dedicated podcast,
so yeah, it's like, and anotherthing, me and Ben did that.
(23:30):
Yeah.
Last Tuesday, we were justsitting there going back and
forth.
I'm still working on thoseprayers.
Those are on the way.
UNKNOWN (23:38):
Um,
SPEAKER_00 (23:39):
Yeah, so great question.
My answer to that would be don'tbe afraid to fail.
You have insurance for a reason.
You have all these things for areason.
If you don't have insurance, getit.
SPEAKER_01 (23:56):
Right.
Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:58):
Exactly right.
So my thing would be don't beafraid to fail.
And don't beat yourself up forfailing, but always do AARs,
right?
After action report.
And so that way you can go, whathappened?
What can we do better?
And what went wrong?
I've had my fair share of jobsthat have gone bad.
(24:18):
And that's why I said I keepalmost all of my customers,
right?
Because there are some timeswhere I'm like, oh, we messed up
and I'm so sorry.
And we fixed it.
Of course, we'll fix it, right?
We don't ever not fix it, but wewill.
We'll do it.
Excuse me.
We'll do everything we can tohelp get the problem resolved.
But, I mean, nobody's perfect,right?
I'm not Jesus.
(24:38):
And so no matter how much myhair looks like him.
I know everybody can't see Brettright now, but he does have
beautiful hair.
It's luscious curls.
It's nothing like Rob's, allright?
We have another buddy whoseactual name is...
is hair and uh and it's glorioushe legally changed it when his
(24:58):
hair uh started growing out yeahno that makes total sense though
is um you know so much of thetime we we end up regretting not
the things that we do but thethings that we don't do and it's
uh it's it's actually a bunch ofbig studies that have, have
(25:21):
done, you know, surveys over thecourse of people's lives that
have shown, you know, we may notbe proud of some of the
decisions we've made, but wedon't, we don't regret as much
the decisions we've done.
Cause we always can be like, Oh,well I learned from this.
I did, you know, but things thatwe don't do, we have, we have a
lot of regrets.
So with fear of failure, don't,Don't let that hold you back.
(25:45):
No.
A hundred percent.
And it's really important toalso, I love the Alex Hormozy
adage of the real metric ofsuccess is who fails faster than
everybody else.
And that's what actually makesyou the winner.
What makes you the best in yourfield is you were willing to
fail more than everyone else andwork on it.
And in my opinion, and I've saidthis a lot in different aspects
(26:07):
of life as well, but it's only afailure if you let it be you.
Right.
And, and so I, when you dothings that you allow to take
you out of the game, right?
When you do things that allowyou to, to, to go, Hey, I can't
do this anymore, you know, orwhatever.
Um, that's when it's a truefailure.
(26:27):
And, and sometimes there arethings that do that, right?
Like I've, I was talking toJason, uh, Taraz's, um,
Wednesday last week, I think.
And, uh, we're talking aboutJason's a, uh, uh, Legal lead
shark.
Payroll and legal lead shark.
He's a cool guy as well.
Fantastic guy, by the way.
Phenomenal guy.
(26:48):
Can't wait to have him on herebecause he's phenomenal.
I'm having to hold Brett backbecause he's got so many
connections.
We just got to reel him back in.
So much love to you.
I'm sorry.
This is all you, Brett.
This is all you, bud.
I'm sorry.
I'll stop referencing people.
How dare you?
(27:09):
Yeah, but I was talking to Jasonand he realized It really helped
me realize that I've had a lotgoing on in the last year and a
half.
Lost multiple parents.
I mean, just a lot go on.
And to not dive deeper intothat, but...
if you don't allow that to takeyou out of the game, right?
(27:31):
Then you're, if you keep movingforward and sometimes you've got
to move forward at a snail'space, you know, sometimes it's
not all, all gears ahead, youknow, or full steam ahead.
And I don't know, uh, what isthe word?
Uh, nevermind.
Uh, but you know, sometimes youreally have to, um, just keep
moving in little bits.
(27:51):
You know, it's, it's like, ifyou are trying to lose weight,
you just got to keep, keepmoving, right?
Going to the gym for twominutes.
It's like, uh, uh, uh, James isa James clear who does, uh, uh,
Atomic Habits, right?
Oh, yes.
Phenomenal book, by the way.
But it's like he talks about,like, get yourself in the
(28:12):
mindset of you're someone whodoes this, even if you can't
hardly get yourself out of bedin the morning, right?
Through business, I've lost,while running my company, I've
lost multiple parents, beenthrough a divorce, been in
multiple legal battles of, youknow, I mean, like, you're
constantly going to get setback.
Personal legal battles, notcompany.
But just to clarify, yeah.
(28:34):
But, but like you're constantlygoing to be in this, this
station of there's always goingto be something else pulling you
down.
You just got to keep movingforward.
Yeah.
And you were a testament tothat.
Keep moving forward mindsetbecause you're always here every
Tuesday.
We love seeing you.
We love having you here and yourenergy just maintains itself for
(28:55):
you because you, I would presumeyou have something bigger that
you're also kind of gettingafter because you've got a
bouncing baby roofing company,six years old now.
You're doing everything you'vegot going on in your life.
You're surpassing all of theseobstacles.
So what's the bigger picture forBrett then moving forward?
(29:16):
That's a great question.
You guys ask really goodquestions.
Mostly no, it's all Nolan.
I don't know.
Oh, there you go.
We copy off each other'shomework.
So bigger picture.
Well, and I've said this earlieras well, but it's not about
money for me.
I'm in this to make money,right?
(29:38):
And I am a for-profit companybecause I have to pay the bills
and support my family.
But it's not about money for me.
I'm currently working on,slowly, but currently working on
putting together training forother roofing companies to help
bring them up to standards.
My goal in this bigger picturewould be to help the homeowners,
(30:01):
because the homeowners are theones who suffer, right?
Every single time.
When a contractor fails, thehomeowner suffers.
And so my goal in this is to getother contractors up to higher
standards and allow...
homeowners to stop having tobear the burden of dealing with
the crap companies that are outthere, right?
And so...
(30:22):
the people who are in it justfor the money and have no idea
what they're doing.
I mean, I hear stories all thetime in my industry of like, oh,
yeah, I've been in roofing forsix months.
I decided to start my owncompany and just go sell.
And I'm like, what do you knowabout roofing?
And the only reason our industryis like that and plumbing isn't
or HVAC isn't is because youhave to go to school for those.
(30:44):
So anybody who owns one of thosecompanies, they've been to
school for years.
HVAC is a two-year full-timecertification.
It's an associate's degree Andyou're there every day for like
eight hours, right?
And plumbing is also, I thinkit's like a one-year class,
right?
One-year course of you have toget a license.
(31:04):
And then you have to dointernships under licensed
plumbers and stuff, right?
And under licensed HVACtechnicians.
And so electrical is the sameway, right?
And so roofing really should be.
I'm a big advocate for roofing.
more requirements to get intoit.
And it'll kick all those salesguys out.
It'll actually bring a lot ofmoney into the industry because
all the big money will come inand buy up the roofing companies
(31:25):
that are already there.
And that way they'll keep them,they'll go, hey, you know about
roofing, I just want to investin your company and allow you to
do it.
That's amazing.
That is big.
Big picture stuff, Brett.
That's awesome.
And it just enfolds ineverything that you know,
everything you're good at.
So Brett, as the master ofrafters, the sheik of shingles,
and the duke of double ply,where else can people find you
(31:48):
as we're wrapping up here today?
Well, I've got Facebook.
I need to get with the...
I don't know.
I was trying to think ofsomething with a G for Google
for you.
No, I need to get with Garrett.
The Googler Garrett.
(32:08):
That was horrible.
My
SPEAKER_01 (32:12):
nickname
SPEAKER_00 (32:14):
in high school.
I passed all my classes.
And I'm Google.
But no, I don't have a bigonline presence.
But I do have a website.
I do have– solittlebrothersroofing.com.
We do have our Facebook page,which I hate social media.
So it's not– I do post on thereevery month or so.
(32:36):
It's like we know a couplepeople that can help you in that
direction.
Yeah, yeah.
So we've got your website,littlebrothersroofing.com.
Biggest way to contact me wouldbe my phone number.
Okay.
Go ahead.
No, no, hit me with thosedigits.
Okay.
So my phone number is, what'syour number?
No, 405-365-0456.
And if anyone ever has anyquestions about roofing
(33:02):
whatsoever, give me a call.
We can highly recommend you,Brett.
So as we're signing off heretoday, we always got to remember
to stay sharp.
Think biz.
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