How I Went From $19,000/yr to Over $140,000 in 8 Months With Roofing Sales Door to Door

Hey, guys, Adam here, the roof strategist. And welcome to another video. I want to share with you my story of how I ended up in the roofing sales business. Because I've been getting some emails lately, people wondering if I'm selling currently, what I did in the industry and why I'm here. And it's probably very similar story to you, especially if you're a new salesman or maybe even started a company. So I had my undergrad degree in psychology, which, by the way, leads you nowhere. Learned a lot, applied to what I was doing, but from there I went in, studied some natural medicine stuff, and I was broke. I was a massage therapist making $19,000 a year. And my breaking point was when in my early 20s, I had to email my mom to ask her for 20 bucks to fill my tank with gas so I could drive home to see my family for a family reunion. I said, this is ridiculous. I'm in my 20s. I literally can't afford gas to see my family. So my stepfather's name is Ron. Ron was in the roofing sales business. He goes, hey, Adam, you can earn six figures selling roofing. And I was like, what the hell? Are you serious selling roofing, six figures now? To me, at that point, that amount of money was like, I couldn't even track it. I wouldn't even know what to do with it if I had earned that type of money. So I took his advice, went on Craigslist. I applied to five companies, little did I know, in Madison, Wisconsin, at the time, it was a massive hailstorm that just hit. So of course I got offers from all these different companies, and I chose an owner, his name is Jesse, who I actually believed in and who had integrity. And to this day, Jesse and I are friends. And he gave me more opportunity than I could ever imagine. And I'm forever grateful to Jesse for that. So I took the job. And in the nature of all things roofing, I had no training, right? Jesse was busy. Everyone else who was around me was busy. And I was not even at the point because I was in a satellite office given even a hail map. So it was here. This is a three type shingle. This is a dimensional shingle. Go knock doors, sell free inspections. And I remember the first time I got on a roof, I looked down, I was like, this is hail damage. People replace roofs for this. I had no idea what I was doing, and I had to figure it out on my own. So went out, knocked doors, got my teeth, kicked in, yelled at, rejected. I was like, how do people do this for a living. So I was leaving the gym from a workout, covered in sweat in my gym clothes and, and I see a for rent sign for a commercial building next door to my gym in Madison. And I see this sign, I call him up and say, hey, is this the owner? And he says, yes, it is. I said, hey, I just drove by your building. It looks like the roof is in pretty bad shape. And there is this just a hailstorm that just came through. You might have hail damage and we might be able to get it replaced with your insurance coverage. Are you interested in having me take a look? That was it. I mean, I just went on a whim here on my cell phone driving by. He said, sure, when can you come by? I said, how about in an hour? I had an appointment set. The first job I ever sold was a commercial property. It was a small one 90 squares. And after I sold that job, I was fired up because I felt the commission. Six weeks later I got paid. I was running with $1,000 in my bank account with, you know how it goes, six weeks, eight weeks from selling a job to making a living. And at the point, I was still trying to juggle my massage therapy deal with selling roofing. And everyone in my family said, Adam, you're nuts. You can't sell. You can't leave the stability of my $19,000 a year, if you can call that stability, to go sell roofing. You have no training, it's commission only. You have no idea if it's going to work. So that first commission check I'll never forget went into my bank account for a little more than $2,000 by the way. Yes, the margin sucked on that job. I learned a lot from that one. But that $2,000, 2,200 bucks meant the world to me. I was like, holy smokes, it's possible. So I left the massage deal. I went all in. And in my first eight month season, late in a storm. So 1.4 million in sales and that first year earned just shy of 90,000. That then carried over because I had jobs in another commercial property that I developed later on come through and I generated about $140,000 of income in eight months and from there went on to become the COO of a multi state storm restoration company. So I was traveling all over the country helping people set offices, work storms, train our teams, write our direct mail, work on our marketing, manage all of our crews, and after that ended up in a consulting place helping businesses and salesmen just like you all over the country. And even in Canada do the same thing. So my goal, my inspiration with this channel is to help you, the salesman, you, the new owner, you, the owner who's growing your team, finally get the information, the training from someone who actually cares about the outcome, who doesn't really have anything in it. Yes, you can buy my material if you'd like, but I don't push it for. Right. I'm here to help you guys sell and have all the resources that if I had even earlier, I probably could have done double that. So that's my story. And today I continue to help salesmen and owners like you through this channel, along with a full suite of marketing in very similar industries that I do, that's also a passion project. So I hope you get a lot out of this channel and I hope this answers some of your questions about who I am, how I came to be, and the other thing that I wanted to share with you, especially owners, is what it takes to hire and grow a team. Because there's a lot of people who were like me and are like you, who are looking for an opportunity to make a real living, to make a difference. You can find that server who served tables. Maybe you're out for dinner and beers with the guys after work and you're like, holy smokes, that guy's talented. Imagine what he could do if I could get him in this position. Right? They're a people person, they're driven. And all of a sudden they're going from making 30,000, 40,000 a year, maybe with this inconsistent income, to finding a literally recession proof job. Because it hails everywhere. Well, not everywhere. Everywhere that we work, it hails. And it doesn't matter if the economy is booming or not or busting. We're talking about having job security. Especially if you're a salesman watching this channel. If you can sell well, you will never be without a job. There will be roofing companies who will hire you and get competitive on their pay, and you can start your own business doing it. And this being willing to do what it takes to knock doors, to make sales and to put yourself out there, be genuine, be authentic, just communicate well and help people and find a company who shares those same values will change your life and it'll change the lives of the people you hire, the people you serve. And the other day, by the way, because I'm not still roofing, I got a phone call from one of the jobs I sold my first season selling. He says, hey, Adam, I. I got your name and I forget the gentleman's name, but he got my name and it took a minute to dig up because this was years and years and years ago. He says, hey, you did his roof. I want you to do mine. And I ended up calling Jesse, the guy that's now running his company. I said, hey, Jesse. And this other gentleman, Phil, I said, hey, I got this guy that called and they were out of the office. It was a holiday weekend. The guy called me back again and said, hey, Adam, I really want you to do the job. So I had to put him in touch. And that's what makes this job so fulfilling. So I. I hope you guys found some inspiration from this video. If you want to see the marketing material that I've used and developed over the years, you can check it out. It's the Roofing Sales Accelerator Marketing Pack. There's a link in the video description. There's also an ebook I put together called the Three Tricks to Get to the Kitchen Table. There's a link to the video below, so click Thumbs up like the video. Drop some comments below. I love to provide my feedback on the videos that you guys suggest, so we'll see you on the next one.