Pantheon2025: The Roofers’ Playbook for Successful Tech Onboarding | Podcast Ep. 244

Hello, contractors, and welcome to Toolbox for the Trades. My name is Jackie Aubel and I am live here at Pantheon 2025. You may hear a little bit of murmuring, a little bit of mumbling in the background, but that's because we are in the thick of it at Servicetitan's annual user conference. But trust me, you are not going to want to miss today's episode. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Welcome. Karen, you and I are live here at pantheon 2025. You are the COO of rooferscoffeeshop.com and a director at the roofing technology think tank. You have a really incredible perspective on where the roofing industry is headed and I am so excited to pick your brain. Karen, welcome to the Toolbox for the Trades podcast.

Thank you for having me, Jackie. It is so nice to be the guest and not the host.

Yes, you were telling me that before we hit record. So I love to ask an icebreaker question.

Yeah.

Because you are a podcaster yourself, I would like to hear what is your current favorite podcast right now?

Sometimes I like listen to the rewatch podcasts from, you know, shows from like the 90s, 2000s, when the grownups now watch the episodes and talk about it. I find that entertaining.

There was a podcast that I binged on a friend's recommendation called the Gilmore Guys.

Oh yeah.

And they did a whole rewatch of the entire show, the Gilmore Girls. And it just brought so much joy to my life. I find that even though I podcast from a business perspective, I love listening to comedy podcasts. I love listening to podcasts that just are a little silly because sometimes we get really serious on this show and I'm sure they do on. So tell us a little bit about the shows that you're involved with.

Well, roofing road trips is through Roofer's Coffee Shop. And we have partners that really help make our online community a community. And so we talk to them about thought leadership, about new technologies, about new roofing products. You know, we're getting into trade show season here and what are you going to be rolling out? You know, we want to snap sneak peek of what's to come. I'm also the host of Metalcast, which is a podcast for the metal roofing and construction industry. And that's been really, really interesting because metal is growing in popularity in roofing, in walls, in the barndominium trends. And so just being able to to talk to the experts in the field and learn about everything that's happening and then bring that Message to contractors and those in the industry. It's really fun.

That's awesome. So I am also so interested to hear how the heck you got into this industry. How did you get into roofing? How did you get into metal? I want to hear your origin story.

Yeah, yeah. It's funny because that's one of the things that everybody in the roofing industry has a story. Right? I didn't go to college and say I'm going to work in roofing. I actually thought I was going to be. I was a broadcast major for a little while because I was like, oh, I'm going to be a newscaster or I'm going to do something on tv. And. And then I realized how hard it is to get into that industry. And so I changed to a public relations degree in communications and I spent a little bit of time working in the nonprofit world. And then I was a grant writer for a local municipality and I met in the community a marketing firm that worked with lumber and building suppliers. And so I went to work in that industry. And yeah, I was like, well, this was a lot of fun. But, you know, working at agencies, wow, that's. That burns you out. It's very fast paced. There's a lot happening. And I got called from a recruiter that was recruiting for a major roofing manufacturer and that was Carlisle Syntech. And so I, I went to work for them and I. That's where I met Heidi Ellsworth and she is the president of Roofers coffee shop. Just had a great relationship with her. My role at Carlisle was working with their contractors to provide marketing support. Right. So case studies, mailers, all that kind of stuff. Swag. And it was fun because I got to travel, I got to meet contractors across the country and just help them, you know, help them grow, help them be better at their business. And I was there about five years and Heidi had moved back to the west coast and she got called by a brand new startup tech company. This was back in 09, I guess, and it was Eagle View, which most people are familiar with. They're the aerial measurement, imagery and measurement and data company. But they had just started and she was excited to go work there and she got a promotion to run sales. After about six months, she started in marketing and she called me and she said, hey, I need somebody, you know, that I know can come in here and, and do this job. And I was like, oh, I don't know, a startup Seattle area, you know. And this was two years after the 08. You know, if you remember what happened in 2008? And she just was like, oh, just trust me, this is such a great opportunity. And it was, it was such a great, fast paced learning experience. And that really got me passionate about technology because seeing the contract, contractors in general are kind of, you know, a little skeptical. Sure, yeah. I don't know about that. This is how we do it. We've always done it that way. Why should I try that? I trust my tape measure. They would say, I'm not going to let some computer tell me what the measurements are.

Sure, sure, sure.

But then you saw those that got.

It, those early adopters, and they were.

Like, I see how this could change my business. Right. I see the potential. I could make this many more calls in a day. I could do so much more. And it changed a lot of businesses. It changed a lot of lives for people. And that was thrilling. That was exciting.

That's awesome.

After I left Eagle View, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. And the roofing industry is such a wonderful community. I thought, well, I guess I'd better set up an llc, start my business. And then more people kept saying, oh, you're, you're available. And yeah, so for about, gosh, since 2016, I've been doing a variety of things, but more so with Roofer's Coffee Shop because Heidi again had said, hey, hey, I need help with editing. So I started their editing articles. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And that was in 2016. And so nine years. Wow.

I know, wow.

It's crazy. And now I'm the coo.

So from editing copy to coo, what a journey.

Yeah, yeah, it's been fun. And now we've got so many podcasts, webinars and learning opportunities, industry information, news articles, and great partners like service Titan, you know, who could come together to help contractors improve and grow their businesses. So that's what I'm doing now. But I neglected to say the roofing technology think tank. You mentioned that in my introduction. Another, you're going to hear Heidi's name a lot because she was talking to some folks in the industry and they were like, we need, we need faster and quicker adoption of technology in our industry. Sure, other industries are quicker or, but, but roofing is usually slow or I should say, to adopt. And so a group of 10 or 12 folks got together, kind of forward thinking leaders in the industry, and they said, we need to form an association that, you know, are people interested that we can give information back that we can help educate. And so the roofing technology Think tank was born. We are a 501c6 industry association and I'm their director. Contracted. We have about 100 or so members. We want to stay small and we visit different places inside the industry and outside the industry. One of our trips was to the Oracle Innovation Lab outside of Chicago.

Wow.

Yeah. They had one of those little robot.

Dogs there, which there's a robot apparently, walking around Pantheon. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm bracing myself for a jump scare.

Yes. Oh, no. It looks like a little dog. It's really cute. Okay, cool. It won't scare you. But then we go to different industry events and conferences and we do panels, technology panels, pitfalls, success stories, Q&As with contractors that maybe are not quite at this point in their career, but they know they want to implement more technology. So how can we give back? So that's a lot of fun. I really love being involved in that.

I can 100% hear it in your voice, just the way that you speak about it. And I love your experience because it so maps the journey that Service Titan has been on for quite a few years now. I joined the team in 2017, and it is wild to see how, when we first were really picking up speed, we were convincing contractors on the H vac, electrical and plumbing side. To start with, we were convincing them to get off pen and paper and to get on Software. Now in 2025, we are finding that those groups are a little. Are much more technologically savvy than they were 10 years ago, and it's just very, very cool. So I would love to hear some examples, if you have them, about common pitfalls that you see the roofers fall into when they're trying to adopt technology or success stories. I'll let you pick which one you want to go with first.

Yeah, you know, I think it's not knowing what to ask, you know, and understanding that. I've talked to contractors that they've like, we're, we're going to use this platform. We're all in on it. They've convinced me it's going to do everything. Well, I don't think there is one solution that does everything. Sure, there's always going to be, but everything has to work together. So one of the things that some of our members worked on was if you go to rt3think tank.com under resources, there's a technology landscape that really goes into what is a CRM? What is fleet management software? What questions should I ask of the vendor? What things should I be considering it helps them understand how other contractors are using it. What questions should I ask if I want to grow my business? Is this a solution that's going to grow with me? It's frustrating and it is sad for a lot of contractors because they do invest a lot of time and money. One of the other areas where I think some fail is you almost have to have, you have to have your internal champions, right? You can't have the owner of the company say, hey, we're going to, we're going to start using this cool AI tool. And then your team goes, I know he's not. Yeah, what are you talking about? Right? So you need those, the internal champions, you need the team on board. And I think that's one of the most common pitfalls.

Yeah, yeah. Managing the change management component. I mean, that's so interesting because that is what I hear time and time again from guests on this show, from people in this conference now talking about the change management. I made a observation with a former guest 2 years ago @ Pantheon, we were talking about, oh, and hey, there's this cool new thing called AI. And now I feel like 70% of our vendors, probably more, are AI forward. And it's kind of like, holy cow, that happened within just a two month span. I have whiplash from it. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a contractor who's trying to implement this into a company that may have hundreds of people.

And it's hard.

It's going to be hard regardless. You have, you know, five employees or 500, I think it is.

And you know, we were in the conversation I was having this morning, the topic was fleet management. And a former contractor was on there with us and he was saying, start now. The sooner you start, the better. Like if you only have four trucks and you're getting ready to add more, start putting these technologies in your vehicles, right? For that are monitoring, you know, cameras and they monitor the drivers and they see if you braked, you know, hard or if you rolled through a stop sign, you know, like, because you have to make it just become an everyday part of their life and not have it feel like it's Big Brother watching me. And so, you know, because change is hard. And so change management is really key, I think, to success in a lot of implementing new technologies and new solutions. It's exciting here, I'll tell you. Like you said, AI is everywhere.

Yeah.

And it was a topic this morning during the keynote. And I love though this is going to be really helpful for other Contractors is that you've got the company in Florida, the H Vac company that I can't. Great. Something. I can't remember their name right now, but they had used AI to get a job. From the homeowner calling the company to finding the dispatcher that was available, offering an appointment time they took it or the technician went to the diagnosed the problem, was able to fix it and like close it, and no one had to really touch it until they went to the house. So that's game changing.

Yeah, yeah, that is completely game changing. And it's wild just to see so many advancements in such a short period of time here. And it's interesting. What kind of advice would you give to roofers on your listeners, folks in the community if they're like, I have so much on my plate already. You know, I have all of these external forces, I'm managing a team, I have to watch my material costs. I have to make sure that we have calls, demand. And now also I gotta learn AI. Like, do you ever find yourself talking to a roofing contractor who is just like, I can't do it anymore, Please help me.

A lot of these contractors are using AI because let's see, their distributors have apps, right, that help them manage their invoicing their orders there. A lot of these distributors have built AI into that app, so they're already using it anyway. And so they don't have to figure it out because there are partners and companies that can help them figure it out. Just look at everybody that's here on the show floor, right?

Yeah.

If I want to use AI to answer my phone to schedule appointments, I don't need to figure that out because there's experts here that will do that for me. I always say if, you know, you're a contractor, you know roofs, right? You know how to install roofs, you know how they work. But you probably don't do your own taxes, right? Because you're not an accountant.

Yeah.

I hope you're not doing your own contracts because you're not an attorney. So, sure, you don't need to figure out AI. You can hire an expert that can help you do that. And so by coming to events like this and talking to people and seeing what's out there and then talking to your peers as well of, you know, hey, what are you doing? What did you use? What worked for you that you don't have to figure it out on your own. There's people out there that can help you and you just have to ask, right? Because I heard someone Today, Service Titan user that said, I had no idea that you guys had this. And I'm like, how often does that happen? You know? Look at who you're currently using to run your business. Look at who your current suppliers and distributors are and ask them.

Well, I think that also goes back to advice you gave earlier on in the recording, which is having champions with your technology. And a constant thread I see in folks that are the most successful with Service Titan and other technology platforms is they have designated folks on their team whose job it is to read the release notes, to join the webinars, to listen to the podcast, and to see are we making the most out of this investment. And I feel like the larger your investment for a certain technology, the more manpower you should dedicate to making sure you're leveraging it to its maximum capacity.

Right? Yeah, for sure. I. I was at a distributor two weeks ago and they were doing an innovation summit and they were talking about AI and one of the little nuggets that I picked up for personally, I'm like, you know when you install a new software or you update something, your iPhone, and there's this end user license agreement, and you go, scroll to the end, scroll to the end, click right. Well, you could just copy that and drop it into a chat GPT or a copilot, which I know. Summarize this for me and tell me what the key points are or the key changes and boom, boom, boom. In a couple of seconds you've got it. I was like, I've never read one of those things. I don't think ever, but maybe I should.

Yeah, I know. We could be just signing away our souls to those things and we wouldn't even know.

Right?

Yeah.

Oh, interesting that you say that, because I think it just made me think of data. Right. And the power of data. And there was a roofing contractor, and I won't say her name because. But she. She probably would share the story anyway if she was here. But I don't speak on her behalf. She did a lot of work with. With a tech company and it involved her website. And when she said, I'm not going to use you anymore, they. It caused maybe half the things on her website to not work anymore because she signed that agreement and she didn't own her data.

Shoot.

Yeah, so that's one of the key questions I always want contractors to ask is who owns the data? At the end of the day, it's yours, right?

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. So data, meaning website visits, meaning customer, customer data smart contact information. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's, yeah, there's characters out there that, that will take advantage.

Yeah, I'm sure. So among roofers, coffee shop, do you have roofers that do all types of work or do you specialize. Specialize in. Or are you an expert in like say service and replacement or new installation or commercial construction work? What does that look like?

It's funny. So we have all kinds of roofing contractors and we do a trend survey every year similar to a service. Titan has done one too. And we ask, you know, are you commercial, are you residential, are you new construction and replacement, insurance work, service work? And it's a good mix. It's almost about 50, 50, some half commercial, half residential. The climate's changing. I think especially we could do a whole hour conversation about what's happening with insurance work and storm damage and restoration and roof replacement. And there's challenges and the deductibles are going up and they're turning into percentages and whatnot. So I mean, that has some effect on the market. A lot more service and maintenance, I think emerging. Part of the reason is during, you know, Covid, there were material supply challenges, material shortages, and more building owners and even homeowners were saying, hey, how can I extend the life of this roof? Maybe it's got a few good years left. Is it a candidate for restoration? And you know, so through that we were seeing owners more interested in keeping the roof out of the landfill. They're saving money because they don't have to pay for tear off. There are fluid applied roofing systems out there that can be used to restore a roofing system and they come with a 10 year warranty. And then as long as you do that annual maintenance and take care of it, at the end of 10 years, you could install another, you know, system and get another 10 years of life in that roof. So that's, that's a really a growing area. And another area where we're seeing a lot of growth is in metal. Metal roofing is so resilient, it's so beautiful. There's so many amazing things that you can do with metal. There's patterns and colors and you know, it's a lot of versatility. It can mimic nature. There's this barndominium trend that's happening, which is really fun, but a lot of metal on the walls in there. So we really have a mix of contractors that do a lot of different types of work and a lot of them are looking to diversify and have additional offerings in their businesses because maybe They've only ever done asphalt shingles, right?

Yeah.

And maybe they see things changing. There's maybe new construction's down. I need to have another, another tool in my toolkit that I can offer to customers or even upsell. You know, metal is a little more expensive investment because it lasts a lot longer, you know, than asphalt. There's a lot of positive things. So how can they have that option for those who maybe want to make that investment? Maybe they're going to be in their home for the rest of their lives and they don't ever want to have to worry about the roof again.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's really interesting to see that the diversification of offerings and the growth, especially in restoration and metal.

And I would imagine that it's also interesting to see does Roofer's Coffee Shop. Do you guys represent all of North America? Like, where is your. Or is it worldwide?

We've had people from Canada on the site for a while, but we officially got our CA last year, which I didn't realize that that was a challenge. Like it's, you can't just go buy a ca. You have to have show that you really are in Canada. So right now, US and Canada, we do. If you check our Google Analytics, we have people from the UK and from other parts of the world that come over. So we're looking at maybe doing a little more. Especially over in Europe, we have RCS en Espanol that rolled out about a year ago. I mean, you've always had the ability to toggle between English, French and Spanish using Google Translate on the site. But, you know, now we've got a Spanish podcast. We have a Spanish speaking podcast.

I love that.

Yeah. And it's Lavols de Ruferos, the voice of the roofer. And yeah, so it's, it's really. That segment is growing so much because a lot of the industry is Hispanic and this is Hispanic Heritage Month while we're filming this.

Yeah.

So we usually do some podcasts surrounding that and things that happen in Europe though, and the UK and other countries. I feel like they're more innovative than we are. They, they have solutions that maybe have been over there for five or six years and are finally just making it to the U.S. so we see that happening a lot. So I think by us doing more in those markets, we're going to get a glimpse of what those innovations that are coming to the US are going to be. I don't know if we're just. We take too long to approve things, we examine them Too long. I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. That's so interesting, the way that works. I'm thinking about roofers in different parts now. I know North America and Canada and how different weather patterns in the areas they're in can make them expertise in certain types of materials and how being a part of a community like yours would be so important.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, weather obviously has. Plays a big role in what types of material you install. And we, the RT3 group had a company there called Vilpe V I L P E. And they make sensors, rooftop sensors. And they're based out of, I want to say Scotland, somewhere where it's rainy. It's really rainy a lot. And gray. Because he was doing a presentation because they just entered the US Market. Oh, so cool. And. But they've been over there for a very long time. And it's something like. For data centers, places where, you know, water is. It can get in your building. Yeah. And it cannot get in your building because think about a data center, all that computer equipment, you've got to protect that. And so it was interesting to, you know, hear their successes over there. And now they're coming into the US and they're met with like, oh, really, you know, that skepticism. But I think that there's cool things coming and that, you know, if we're able to bring that message of, hey, check this out. Did you see? You know, wouldn't this be a cool thing to have? Well, now you can. That's really fun.

That is really awesome. So I believe this is your first pantheon, correct?

It is, yeah.

So what do you think so far?

Oh, my gosh, you guys, you put on such an impressive event.

Thank you. That's my events team. Shout out to them. They are incredible. Wow.

Yeah. I had no idea what to expect. I'd not been here before I'd heard of it. And I was like, oh, they're in the convention center. I was like, how big is it? And I'm telling you, it's big. There's thousands of people here.

It is gigantic.

Yeah. And the classes are really broken down for each of the trades. Cause you've got H vac, you've got plumbers, you've got electricians, you've got roofing. So I attended one of the roofing sessions this morning. It was really interesting. I'm going to make sure I go, there's one later today. I think I'm gonna swing by. And then tomorrow morning, of course, is one. And we did some networking. You know there was networking set aside just for roofing. So it was great. I was surprised that the number of people that I did know that were here. Cause I was like, I'm coming all by myself. I'm not gonna know anybody. Oh, and you had all your friends here. I know. Yeah, yeah. All our partners and people. Oh, hi. How so? And met some new people, too. But it's great to see the level of product and technology that ServiceTitan brings to other trades is now coming to roofing. That's exciting. Because why shouldn't roofing contractors be able to have access to all that?

I know. It is really, really exciting. So I would love to hear how you first came across ServiceTitan and when you first started talking with our team and getting involved.

It's only been a few months. I mean, obviously I've seen a lot of service tighten in the news because over the last year or less, I've seen press releases, you've partnered with gas, you've partnered with SRS Distribution, you've partnered with ABC Supply, and like, Eagle View Hover. You guys have made the right relationships with the right leaders in the industry. So I think it's been with in the last year or so that I've started noticing and then thought, we want to learn more about that. And Service Titan came on board Reefer's Coffee Shop about two or three months ago. So that's where we really get to know you then. Right. Because we write articles about you, we get you on podcasts.

Yes.

You know, we do some webinars and educational sessions with you. And so it's been interesting. In my opinion, Service Titan is doing things the right way and you're only going to grow in the industry.

Yeah, it has been. Like I said, I've been here for eight years, which is incredible because it does not feel like I've had the same job for eight years by any means, because the company is constantly evolving, which is so cool. And I'm so happy that we're having you on the show because a few episodes ago, we had the leaders from Summit Roofing and Restoration in Tennessee on. And they were one of our first roofing beta customers who really came on with us and were like, all right, let's figure out how Service Titan can work for the roofing industry. We know it can. We're gonna have some speed bumps along the way. Are you with us? And they stayed with us. And now credit to themselves as well. They're an amazing company, but they're. They've hit $30 million in revenue, which is absolutely insane. And when I spoke with them, they spoke about all the things that you and I were talking about here, which is leadership, change, management, you know, sticking through with things. And this is a question I thought earlier on in our conversation, I want to circle back to it. You mentioned that you have resources that are like, what's a CRM? What kind of questions do you have to ask? Right. I would love to hear, as someone who's a technology enthusiast, really, when contractors come to you, when moving contractors come to you and they say, karen, I just. I started using this tool or the software, and it is just not working for me. And I am ready to rage, quit. What are some words of advice that you might have for them?

I usually look within the RT3 membership and try to find someone that I feel would be helpful for them to talk to. I had one of our newer members believe he's in Tennessee, but he said, I'm ready to start using AI in my business. How are contractors getting started using it? And I said, well, two of our members are in the consultant category, that they work with contractors every day. I said, I'm going to connect you with one. And you guys. And they just. Last week, I think they got on a call. I have not heard how the call went, but because that's why the organization exists is to help people, you know, just to give them somebody to talk to to say, here's my problem. And then they could say, oh, you know what? This company over here in this state, they had a similar issue. And the way that they dealt with it or got around it was by doing xyz. And it just is really helpful. And when you can share or connect with contractors, maybe in different parts of the country, right. They're not competing with each other, so they're just sharing best practice, what worked, what didn't work, what to avoid. You know, learn from this person's mistakes, and then that person maybe eventually will be one that a future someone who's struggling and says, I'm ready to quit. We can say, wait, go talk to Joe. He was in your shoes two years ago. He worked through it, and he'll tell you what he did and how he survived and how you can too.

Amazing. And I think also that's one of the benefits of events like this is you get to connect with people that you may never have run into in person before.

Right.

And you can make those types of connections. So I'm really excited that we have quite the roofing contingent here for pantheon 20, 25. And I can't wait to see what it looks like next year.

I know, I know. Yeah, I heard that it's not quite double last year, but it's significantly grown. The roofing contractors.

Yes.

Since last year. That's exciting.

It is.

And there's a whole little side of the expo hall that has all the roofing kind of grouped together. So it makes it real easy to just, you know, stop and see everybody at once.

I know it is. So, Karen, you've been so generous with your time. I know you've got. You got friends, you got partners that you want to chat with here. I so appreciate hearing your story and learning a bit about rooferscoffeeshop.com and roofing technology Think tank. I will link all of that good stuff in the show notes. Is there anything we should have talked about that we didn't get a chance to or anything you want to say?

You know, I just want to encourage contractors. If you're listening to this and you're thinking about implementing different technologies or different solutions, to visit both Those resources, our D3 think tank, go to Roofer's Coffee Shop. We still have a forum live, even though, you know, it's been around for a long time. But you can put questions out there, you can get answers.

Vintage tech.

Vintage tech. Yeah, I know. Yeah, definitely. Don't be afraid to ask for help or ask questions because there's so many people that are willing to help. The industry is just fantastic and nobody wants you to fail. Everybody wants you to succeed. And yeah, there's a lot of great resources and a lot of great people and a lot of great companies are. We have a directory on rooferscoffeeshop.com that you can go on. And I don't know how many listings there are. Hundreds and hundreds. But you know, of good resources and technologies like service titan RT3 has a solutions directory as well that lists out some solutions that users can comment on. It's open, you know, to say, hey, this was great, or no, don't, you know, this didn't work for me, but this did. So there's a lot of places. Don't just ask, ask the question, you know, because it can be overwhelming, especially if you're doing a Google search and you get how many results and you don't know this or that or what. But I, you know, rely on your associations and your relationships and you'll find success.

I love that. Karen, thank you so much for joining me live at Pantheon.

Yeah, this is so exciting to be here. I knew. The conference is only half over, so I've got another day and a half of activities and excitement, so thank you for having me.