"Are You Too [BLANK] For Roofing Sales?" | Overcome Discrimination of Age, Gender, Race & More

Hey, whether you're brand new in roofing sales, you're looking at the industry, or even a seasoned rep, you might have asked yourself, am I too blank for roofing sales? Too young, too old, too tattooed, have too much of a criminal history. Maybe you're concerned about your race, your ethnicity, your sex, your gender, your sexual orientation. Any of these questions run through your mind and I get them via email a lot. Just this week I got an email, hey, am I too old for roofing sales? I'm 64 years old and I'm looking to make a change. I lost my job because of COVID I found your videos. This industry looks awesome. I get another guy, 58. Hey, I'm an old fart at 58. Which, by the way, you're not. But he says, I'm an old guy at 58. Am I too old to get in the industry? And then literally, I think it was yesterday. I get an email from a kid. And by kid, I mean a real kid. He's like, hey, when am I too young for roofing sales? And I said, driver's license can get on a roof. You're not too young. He goes, I'm 15. I said, guess what? Go knock doors. By the time you're 16 and you have a driver's license and maybe even a vehicle, you're going to kill it. You just need to be able to get out there. That's it. So listen, in this video, we all have obstacles, we all have challenges, and it's all trapped between our ears. There is a reality. Let's face it, people are horrible. People say horrible things. They judge us prematurely based on how we look, how we talk, whatever it is. And this video is going to be teaching you some things, some lessons that I've learned from running sales teams myself, from running sales meetings, from having companies fly out to meet with me one on one. I know what people go through. And I'm going to teach you in this video how to embrace this. Because the reality is this industry has no boundaries. No, you're not too young. No, you're not too old. No, your skin color. Yes. Can be anything. It doesn't have to be white. You don't have to be a man. Your sexual orientation can be whatever it is. Because what matters most is how you show up and take care of people. Will you experience adversity? Will you experience put downs? Yes, you will. You can. It's going to happen. And it sucks that people suck. But I'm going to be telling you now that this industry will Level the playing field. And I want to share a few tips with you. I had a company come out to work with me, alright? And the company had one black guy and he faced some things that he shared and at the door, you know, racial stuff at the door in areas that are really white and people are hesitant at the door. It sucks, you know, and other people have dealt with tattoos. I just got off the phone with someone who spent some time in prison that ended up in this industry. Clean cut, getting his life together. But he's scared about his past. That's what he could fall into. Another gentleman I talked to all tattooed. Hey, I made poor choices and I don't really want these tattoos anymore. But I'm tattooed up to the neck. How do I look more professional? Well, listen, there's a pot for every lid and all that matters is being able to embrace who you are, be confident with it and show up and know where you fit. Listen, just because our job is to get customers to say yes to us does not mean that we have to say yes to them. This industry is changing for the better. It used to be completely male dominated. Now I am getting emails from women entering this industry left and right, women starting businesses in this industry. I know, it's crazy. I feel like I'm in the 50 sharing this. Like, duh, come on, it's 2020. But this is reality. Things are changing. Yes, there's still institutionalized racism. Yes, there's obstacles we will face. And the story I'm going to share about myself, this is not a simulation. I am a white man. I have a lot of privileges. But I want to share my experience to help you be able to figure out how this might apply to you because you're not too old, you're not too young, you're not too anything. All right, now what you might not see on video, because I have a big personality. I'm five foot three. I am a short man. I've been teased my entire life. I've been called a midget. I used to be when I was a kid in all star goalie and soccer. I had to get pulled because of my height. Yeah, these are all minor things. I still have a lot of great things and privilege going for me. But it planted seeds of doubt, of lack of self confidence in my own mind. And showing up at doors, you know, people, I've been called a midget before. These things don't make you feel very good. They don't make you feel very confident. But then I realized there are people that resonate with me. And my wife helped me see it. She goes, adam, you're not an intimidating guy. She says, what I'm intimidated by is someone who stays standing over me who I don't feel like I could take. And she laughed. She goes, adam, the reason you did so well, because I did so well selling stay at home moms I loved. If I got a one legger, I'm like, I will earn the trust, the credibility. I'm going to have the stay at home mom in my corner. And when dad comes home, like, it is a done deal. Most of my customers were acquired that way, but most men, most men wouldn't have that advantage. So she says to me, my wife, her name's Gina. She goes, adam, it's because you're not intimidating. If you show up there and be like, I could take you. And I laugh. She's like, no, I'm serious. It's just like, it's a natural response for people to be like, okay, not threatening. So that was my experience. So I found a way that I wasn't really comfortable. And I said, hey, I can put this to work in an advantage for me. And everybody has their sweet spot. There are some people, if you're tattooed up the sleeves and up the neck, you know, the reality is maybe if you're in some hoity toity neighborhood, you might get looked at a little differently. But if you're in a different neighborhood, like the other day I bought an atv, for example. I needed a plow for my new house. I get this atv guy runs a tattoo shop. Nicest freaking dude in the world. Super grounded, lets my wife use the bathroom in his house. He's got a trailer in front with all this tattoo stuff. I talk with him like, this is one of the kindest people I've ever seen. Looks can be deceiving. But that neighborhood that he was in, that he happened to live in, like, this was the norm. Everybody has a sweet spot. I had some sales guys that were just like, you know, I need a working class community. That's my language, that's what I speak. Boom. That's it. So whatever. However you identify, however you view yourself, there are other people that are like you or that accept you for who you are. Because, yes, indoor to door sales, we have a, you know, seconds to make an impression. Doesn't matter if we're old, doesn't matter if we're young. Certain things, to be honest, like, women, I feel like, have an easier time at the door because of what I just said. I'd consider my advantage more like a woman's advantage. Some short guy who's not super intimidating a woman shows up at the door. There's a different type of connection that doesn't feel as threatening. A young kid that's a young adult. We used high schoolers as canvassers. Not by any other reason than they were the kids of the sales guys. And they could go out and make some money, but they had a very different experience going door to door. Right now. If you're an older person, there's a different thing of wisdom that is people. What are they? They just like, look at you as wiser. And maybe if you show up and you're like, hey, I got a bunch of experience, they assume you have a bunch of experience. Even you're brand new. If you're black, Mexican, Asian, whatever it is. And I've worked with people of all ethnicities. There are, one, finally starting to be good people. Two, yes, there's always going to be racism there. That sucks. And I wish I had some magic bullet to say it's not going to happen. But there's also neighborhoods that you would feel at home in, period. There's types of people that you will feel at home with. And you just start to learn. It doesn't mean you have to change exactly where you go or anything, but you need to learn to just embrace what you're viewing yourself as a disadvantage into an advantage into this industry. So the answer to this video, am I too blank for roofing sales? The answer is no. If you're tattooed, you do what you need to do to feel comfortable. Maybe you wear long sleeves or sun sleeves. Okay? Maybe you just let it go and learn to embrace it. If you're short like me, who cares if you're a woman? Use that to your advantage. Find a way to use it to your advantage. You know, I've even had times where I'll. We worked in a area with a high Hmong population, and if there was a Hmong person on my sales team, they probably would be greeted differently at the door than me as the outside only white guy in the neighborhood. This is unfortunately how people are. But we can't control who lives where or who we're working with. What we can control is our internal experience in our mind. There's a book I'm reading right now. It's far overdue. It's called the Magic of Thinking Big. And I recommend you read it because in the book, what inspired this video, frankly, is a whole section. Am I too young? Am I Too old. It's this internal dialogue that blocks our ability to succeed based on our own experience of I'm too this or I'm too that. Well, guess what? There are other people that don't see that way. In one of those, there was a guy that came out, sales guy. I'm not going to share details because he'll know who he is. He comes out by me and I pull the owner aside of the company because I was running a training session for the whole team. And I say, that guy, he is going to be your number one salesperson. And to me, I saw it was crystal clear. The guy is incredibly talented. Incredibly talented. He's got the drive. His previous job was in a position that would beat any normal person down, literally. And he's got this bright, shining personality and a strong will to connect to people. He just so happens to be black. He just so happens to be crazy tall and crazy buff. But you know what? I just thought I saw it. I saw the talent. I know how to spot talent. Pull the owner side. He's gonna be number one salesperson. Three months. Three months goes by. I get a phone call from him. He goes, adam, I never told this to you. No one's ever believed in me and I didn't believe in myself. And the owner of my company told me that you pulled him aside and told him I'd be a number one salesperson. And I want to thank you because you helped me believe in me. And I want this video to have that feeling on you that you're not to anything, that this industry will accept everybody. There are horrible people out there. Yes. But all that matters is your own internal experience, what you bring to the table, because it will mirror other people. No matter what, you're going to get door shut on your face. It happens, okay? You're going to get slurs. I've had people screaming at me all types of things that are not pleasant. I've been in situations that are not pleasant. And all that we can control is the magic of how we think and how we view ourselves. And if you can learn to embrace your diversity, embrace your unique characteristics. Short, tall, black, white, Asian, Mexican, South American, African, Australia. It doesn't even matter if you can just embrace who you are and bring your best you with confidence to the people that you serve. You have the control to make anything happen. Young, old, or anything in between. And I really hope that this video helps you see that in yourself. And even though I don't know you, I can't see through YouTube. Watching you watch this. But what I can say is that I actually do believe in you. I'm serious. Okay. We don't even know each other yet, but I know that if you are taking the time to watch this channel, to invest in the betterment of your career, your life, your income, you're believing in this. And I believe in you doing this. So if I'm the only person that believes in you, call me, email me. I will give you my number. I will talk with you, because there's no to anything in this industry. And I'm really on a mission to change how this industry communicates with people, the people that it brings in to sell for great companies. So you need to believe in you, because you know that I do. I believe in you. And you should believe in you. And that's all I've got for this video. Not going on anything more than that. We're leaving that at this one. If you want more, there's plenty of playlists to watch. And I hope to see you more. I hope to see you soon. If you want to share the conversation, drop a comment. But this is about you. We'll see you next time.