Roofers in Recovery with Paul Reed and Eric Oberembt

Hey, everybody, it's Jim Johnson here, head coach at Contractor Coach Pro and your host with Contractor Radio. And we have a special broadcast today. Normally, we record these and put them out there on YouTube and Facebook and our podcast channels and that kind of stuff. But today we're gonna go live because we've got some of the most impactful leaders in our industry that are doing something that they're amazingly passionate about. And we've been watching what they're doing, and we wanted to help out. And for those of you that don't know, they run this Roofers in recovery thing, helping folks in the roofing industry that have substance and alcohol abuse issues. And I thought it was something that was something that people wouldn't normally do, like setting up this thing to help others and really not receiving any kind of financial benefit doesn't really go well with us as contractors. And what we do, we want to make a bunch of money and do all that kind of stuff. But they have some really strong reasons and some really strong passion behind this, and I thought it was worth doing some things to help them out. And so we're doing this event called top rep Sales training. And we thought, hey, if we're going to do this event, why don't we help roofers in recovery and we'll do a little giveaway. And what we're doing is we're giving away a Traeger Grill, a raffle. That raffle is $20 to buy a ticket and get six tickets for 100 bucks. And we're gonna put all the names into one of those spinny things, and we're draw one out, and somebody's gonna win a Traeger Pro series. Of course it's a pro series. We're a contractor coach pro and wi fi and all that other good stuff. Grill. And we're gonna raise a bunch of money for Roofers and recovery because we believe strongly in their mission and what they're doing. So we want to talk to them today. They called us and said, hey, let's meet. And we met, like, how can we help out? And I thought one of the best ways that we could help out with this was to bring them on and talk about what Roofers and recovery is doing and the mission they're on and how people could get involved. So without further ado, let's go ahead and bring on our amazing guest today. We've got with us Paul Reed and Eric Oberint. Did I say it right, Eric? Did I get it? I don't think anybody pronounces that name. How do you say it?

Oberant.

Oberant. Got it that time.

Yep.

I thought just the cough you did was how you pronounce it.

That is exactly how most people do it. They go, Eric. And then that's just kind of.

And Paul, welcome to the show. Appreciate you guys being here. We were trying to get Jonathan Sherwood on. He is also one of the three key players in what's going on at Roofers in Recovery. Unfortunately, he was having some Internet technical difficulties because he's Jonathan Sherwood. He's always in his truck. He's always doing something, helping out other roofers. And so he was unable to join us, but we'll see him again in the future. So, Paul, was this your idea, this whole Roofers and recovery thing? Like, tell me how it all came about.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Jim. First off, thank you for getting us on here today. Really appreciate this and the support you guys at Roofing Contractor Pro have really been with this. Listen, we started that. So it's, you know, no secret that I've been over, you know, coming about 14 years and Eric is, I think, leaving, coming up on 13 and Jonathan's got some time as well. And it was really kind of a vision I really had for five, six years of how can I get back to the industry. Because, you know, I'm really looking at like I'm a blessed man that I got a second chance, really, by God, to allow me to get sober and get successes and things I've had in my life. And there's part of in the big book that we have that talks about you can't keep what you have unless you're willing for you to get back. And so that's kind of a motto that we try to live on. And so one of my ideas, you know, years ago is maybe I could open some sober living houses and you know, and eventually kind of got the point of like, maybe I could do a scholarship. And then really then meeting with Eric one day, we kind of started talking about, you know, maybe we could do a foundation and start a 501 and start this Rupert Recovery. So really kind of started from there of us just really knowing that in order for us to kind of keep what we have, we got to be able to willing to give it back.

So, yeah, that's kind of a big thing with AA is, you know, kind of go through the program and a lot of those folks, the way they give back is to be sponsors, right? They sponsor guys are coming into the program, support them and you're Like, I can't just do that. I gotta, like, help a bunch of people. So this is pretty cool what you guys are doing. And who are you with, Paul? Like, just let everybody know the company you're with and the role you play in that company.

So one of the owners at Northwest Roofing here in Denver, obviously, and we also do a store into the new era. But it's interesting, you know, Eric and I were talking a few months ago that we almost introduced ourselves more with the roofers and recovery than we even do with our own companies anymore. So it's became a huge passion for us to do. And, you know, I think one other thing I want to add of why we really wanted to get that out, there was. There is kind of a stigma, you know, from someone that's recovering from alcohol or addiction, drug, that, like, oh, my gosh, you know, look at that person. That's awful person. We wanted to just kind of stand up and, you know, with our platforms and we've been around for a long time, we want to stand up and say, hey, recover. And there's a way to have success, you know, even though if these things have happened in your life. So that's really another reason I wanted to bring that up while we're doing this is to stand up and say, hey, you might have been down right now or in the paths, but there's another path. And you know, look at what stuff we're doing and let's go.

Yeah.

It'S a. It's one of those things, like, I think we all have something like this. Right. There's something that's in our past we hope, or maybe even we're dealing with today that we don't broadcast. Right. There's a stigma that goes along with it. And alcohol and drugs has that. That associated with it. Like, if we've had those problems, we almost, like, don't want to tell anybody.

Right.

Like, we try to keep that in the closet back there. It's a skeleton. We don't want anybody to know about it. Then whenever it comes out later, because invariably it's going to come out, people are like, well, can I believe everything else the guy says?

Right.

And there's also the stigma that's. Anybody that's had that kind of an issue is a bad person. Right. And that's not. That's not necessarily the case. Right. Eric, tell us a little bit about your involvement. Why are you involved, who you're with? Let everybody know who you are.

Yeah. Thank you, Jim, again, thank you for having us this is obviously a big deal and super important to us. I own DNM Roofing here in Omaha. Owned this for a long time, and been in the business for a while. A while back, Paul talked about it. So not to tell the same story, but we. We met and kind of became friends a few years ago and found out that we had a lot in common, you know, just in history and roofing and. And. And other items. Right. And so we kind of. We kind of started connecting on that and. And wanted to figure out a way to, like I say, to. To give back, and couldn't really figure it out right away. And then I remember we had just a bunch of quick phone calls and. And being like, well, can we do this? Could we do that? Could we, you know, whatever it is. And then one day he called and said, hey, let's. Let's do a foundation. Let's. Let's figure out how to send people to treatment. Because what we realized was, for us, and this isn't everybody, but for us, our lives were saved. My life was saved because I got the opportunity to go to a treatment center, and I got to live in that bubble for, you know, 30 days, whatever it is, where I was just submersed into recovery, Recovery, recovery. And I didn't have a bunch of outside influences that I was having to deal with, so I wasn't having to deal with work issues or family issues or whatever. Like, we all still have that running in our head, but I didn't. I was. I was there to focus on the one thing. And the one thing was. Was recovery. And we realize that not a lot of people get the opportunity to do that because it's expensive and there's, you know, not everybody has insurance that covers it. And also, to Paul's point, people don't want to talk about it. And so when we got the opportunity to. To come up with this foundation, we wanted kind of the mission of it was to be able to send people to treatment to get that help and then be able to, you know, come home and have the support from other people in the group, in the industry. And. And then kind of to your point earlier, you know, what it's really morphed into is that we've got this really neat community of people that have gotten to know each other. And there's one thing that we all talk about in. With alcoholism or drug abuse or whatever is that people that are in that world and have lived that world, we're the only ones that really get it. So we can sit here and have this conversation and you can ask questions and you want to have knowledge and, you know, try to understand where we were, where we came from, how we got there and how we got where we are now. But only another alcoholic or another drug addict really gets what we've been through. And it's hard to explain it to a normal person, right? It's really hard to explain that. And so I think that the people out there that were maybe scared to talk about it before, they let their guard down a little bit when they see me, Paul and John and some of the other guys out there talking about it, and they know that we get them and that we understand what they're going through more so than somebody that hasn't been through that before. And I think that maybe gives them the courage because. Because it takes a lot of courage to make that phone call. And it gives them the courage to call one of us and ask for help. Because asking for help for guys in this industry, that's an alpha oriented industry of a bunch of men, generally speaking, we've got women in roofers in recovery as well. But the numbers are the numbers and it's just an alpha oriented male industry. Nobody wants to ask for help. And that's why we're here, is so that we can answer the phone when somebody calls and asks for help.

So that's interesting because it was one of the questions I had for you. You know, like, you called me a normal person. I don't know if that applies necessarily, but I haven't had these issues, so I can't understand. I haven't walked in your shoes before, and I have a big appreciation for being able to have a conversation with people that have walked in your shoes before. And so I see the value in that. One of the questions I had, because as you look at this industry, and if you, if you're any on Facebook or social media, all that stuff, you see it all the time. The talking about drugs, the hey, let's go have a beer. You know, the man, I'm hungover today, especially in like the really rough Rufus groups. And I wonder if those aren't really like cries for help. In part. And secondly, do people really want the help? It's just the alpha part keeping them from doing it. Do you think that most of them want help?

Who knows, right? You know, like, not everybody. Not everybody needs recovery, right? And we don't. We don't sit here and preach and say that we think that everybody should stop drinking or that, you know, even somebody that's you know, like, you know, but like, people that are out there having a good time, if you're having a good time and it's not affecting your life and your family and your, you know, everything that's close to you, then it doesn't apply. Right. But we're. We're there. We're there to support the people that realize that there's something wrong and they want to get better. Does that. I mean, does that make sense? I mean, kick in.

I. I think it's the sense of being mindful, right? Like, being mindful of what it's doing to your life. Like, I can go have a couple of beers with my buddies and then not have a beer for three weeks.

But understanding the grips of addiction, it's pretty hard to be mindful.

Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of people don't understand what's really happening. I know I lived for a long time, for many years, until it got, you know, completely awful and, you know, mental hospitals, things like that. But for many years where I just thought that was normal, where, like, that was just my life and the people around me, that was just. And that's just what happened. And so I didn't personally know that there was another way to live. I thought it was normal to, you know, go do a roof and get a check for a couple thousand dollars and go spend half of it on coke, you know, like, that's what you did. And so I think, what part of our mission is to get that message out there, you know, for some of those people? Because, like I was saying, that's great, that you could drink. Like, that's fine. That you could drink and smoke some weed on weekend or whatever. Like, we lost our privilege to do that because it got better for us. But our mission is to get the word out there that, hey, if you choose, you may think that you have a problem, there is a solution, and we're here with it whenever you're ready. You know, we're not trying to shove it down anybody's throat, and, you know, we hang out with a lot, drink, and that's fine.

So I have a question. Are there. Are there any signs that might be warning signs that you could share with the people watching today that maybe it's a problem?

Absolutely. So to me, if you own a roofing company, right, or you're a top salesman or just a regular salesman, I think that anytime you miss work because you're too hungover or you're drunk or you're high or you go to work high, I absolutely think that in my opinion, you definitely have a problem. Because I look at it like this, Jim. Like our industry we're in, it's a unique industry. Like you don't have to be real smart or talented to make money in our industry. Like that's just a fact.

That's a fact.

Million times.

But you have to be smart to keep it, but not to make it.

Well, that's where the bonus comes in. But to me, if you are not able to perform job because of drugs or alcohol, you know, either being hungover constantly, you know, leaving work at 3 o' clock to go drink. Yeah, let's give us a call.

What about when it comes to family stuff? So that, that's a work related thing when it comes to family stuff with some of the warning signs there.

I think when you're not engaged with your kids at all, you know, I know a great success story that we have from San Juan that he shared on our Tuesday night meeting the other night. And it was, it was awesome. He was talking about how now over the last year and a half, life, it's important for him when he's home, it's all about his kids. And he hangs out with them before for many years before. When he got home it was just like, hey, it's time for dad to relax and beer because dad's had a hard week and the kids better shut the hell up because Biden for him. But now like all of a sudden the family is important to him. And so I think if you're missing family time, kids are hanging out with the guys and you're hanging at the shop too long, you know, it's gonna get into the family, which that's why we're doing all this right. Is to our family and generational things anyway.

That's how, that's how you change lives, right? That's how you change lives is when you have families involved, you've got kids involved and you got, you know, wives and husbands, whatever. And when you get to. When you get to help change a family dynamic that was poisonous, if you will, you know, and you've got a constant battle at home. And if the only thing that you're. If the only thing that you're. If your main focus during the day kind of to what Paul said is how fast can I get done with whatever I'm doing so that I can go get high or I can go get drunk? If that is on the forefront of your mind more than I'm excited to go home and see my kids or I'm Excited to go home and spend time with the people that love me. Maybe it's, you know, maybe it's something you need to think about, that's all.

What about families that have a history of alcoholism or drug abuse? Like, for example, my maternal or paternal father, he had that problem. I didn't know him hardly at all, really. Only met him a couple of times in my life. But I know that that was one of the things he was dealing with. And so that brought attention to it for me. And I do question myself a little more than maybe I would otherwise. Like, if I ever feel like I come home and I go, God, I have. I had a hard day. I need a beer. Like, if that's the first thought that I'm having when I'm walking in the door, it's like, maybe I don't need that beer. Right. And in my world, I'm able to control that. But I think a lot of people do they have a predication, maybe because of family history or example or any of that kind of stuff.

Absolutely. I know I did. Right? Like, I know I did. I know it runs. And so when Eric was talking about that, all I could think about was about breaking a generational curse, you know? And my mom. When I was a little kid, my mom used to tell me all the time, she. Her uncle, she had eight uncles, and seven of them died of an alcoholic death. And she warned me that. I mean, I got sick of hearing my mom say that. Like, I could. I was like, I don't even care. I just. So did my mom saying that, but it was true. Right? And so my family, on my mom's side, my dad's side, you know, all my cousins, like, five cousins that are in roofing, that should all be in roofers and recover with me, but, you know, it's. So when Eric spoke about that earlier, all I could think of. Generational generation. And I think there is a lot to that.

Yeah. My biggest blessing is that my daughter has never seen me drink and will never see me drink and act the way that I did in my past.

I was just gonna say that. It's one of the things I noticed, like, because I. You told me how long it's been for Eric. It's been 13 years, right?

Yeah. I think I'm just a shade under 12. Yeah.

Okay. And your daughter, I think, is younger than that. What is she?

She's six.

Six. Okay, so six years old, so she's never seen that. And it's one of my favorite moments and one of the Few reasons why I enjoy Facebook every single Sunday is ice cream with his daughter. I think that is so cool. What a different trajectory she'll be on versus maybe what you were on from the example set to you. Like, she'll treat her kids to ice cream. That would be really cool. How are you guys hoping to impact this industry? I mean, there's Alcoholic Alcohol Anonymous. People could go to that, right? And they can join AA groups and that kind of stuff. How are you hoping to impact our world a little bit differently?

I think with.

In our.

In our world, you know, we have meetings, so we have a recovery meeting every Tuesday night. And we started that during COVID because we started a recovery meeting every Tuesday night. And I feel it's pretty unique about ours. You know, it's. It's a roofers in recovery. So when we get on, it's. It's interesting. A lot of people share. They're talking about stuff that happened to them, you know, in roofing. You know, crappy homeowner kept a check and, you know, they wanted to drink because she. Smith owed him $8,000. And so, you know, our job, and we have a preamble that we wrote is, you know, we're not technically affiliated with aa. We're a roofers and recovery meeting that pushes people towards AA. You know, we're based off the 12 step principles like AA, but our biggest thing is to, you know, my ultimate goal is to kind of break that stigma of Most people. Look, we don't realize it, but most people in the world, in the country, look at that in construction and especially roofing, that they're damn near all addicts or alcoholics look down on us, you know, like, we're horrible people because we're drunkaholics. And so, like, I have this weird thing in my head that we could get this out here and go like. And we've recovered and we're good people now. So I had a trick idea.

Always relate to, like, we're somewhere between ditch digger and garbage. So it's like that's. That's the perception of the consumer out there. But the cool thing about this industry and one of the things that I've really enjoyed in the last. It's really kind of been about five or six years. We started to connect better. We started to get to know each other better. Whether it's at an event, I don't think we lost Paul. I think his video just went out. Whether it's at an event, we've been more open and more willing to talk with each other, more willing to share with each other, and also a little bit more vulnerable. This idea that, hey, we're not all perfect, right? And realizing who we are, like how we're perceived by the consumer, but then looking at each other and you look at each other and go, dude, that guy's really smart. He's sharp. That guy has accomplished amazing things. That guy over there, boy, look at all the people he's impacted in his business and the lives he's changed. We have a lot more to be proud of, I think, than what the consumer out there perceives us to be. And what I see. Do you guys see the same thing at that change? Because you've been in it a while now, Paul. You've been as long as. I think. Have you seen that change in the. Over the history of our. Our industry?

I think we've 100% seen it. And I think to your point that it's not about us projecting it to the. To a consumer. I think that we're very passionate about making. Hoping that everybody in the industry sees it and knows that it's a different way to live and it's a different way to do things. And to your point that we can all help each other, we're not all competition. Everything that we do that gives us an opportunity to raise. To raise the industry up to just be better people and to be doing the next right thing every time. Because that's definitely a stigma in this industry. That. That is not. What happens on the majority of people that own roofing companies is that they're not always doing the next right. They're not. Paul and I were talking about the car the other day. How many times we've had to write something off, right? Like how many times we've had to write something off because we're knew that it was the right, you know, like, it was just. It was the right thing to do, even if it wasn't the right thing to do, even if we shouldn't have had to, right? We did it. We did it anyway. And there is no other trade in the world that does that, right? Plumbing, like, to your point, plumbing doesn't write things off, you know, because they're worried about something, you know, fence people don't write things off. They. You get a bill every time. And so. Yeah, exactly. And so I think that once we. I think our secondary idea, hopefully, is that as we raise awareness for this, it gives the opportunity for guys like, you know, you and what you're trying to do in trying to raise the Industry up to surround yourself with better, better people all the time. And then hopefully, more and more people see that light and want to be part of that instead of part of the other spectrum. Right. The other end of it.

Yeah. My whole mission in this whole thing is that to bring light to the fact that you can do it right, and it allows you to do it better. There are shortcuts. There are things like that that you can make a bunch of money really quick and all that other good stuff, but it doesn't last very long. And you see so many people go out of business. I'm sick and tired of watching 70 to 80% of contractors go out of business because they don't know how to run a business. They know how to sell or they know how to install, but running a business is a whole different animal, and we're trying to shed some light on that and help with that. I love what you guys are doing because the way you're doing it is bringing awareness to something that wasn't talked about very much. It was really quiet, and it's making it okay to talk about it like you can. Hey, I like those guys in roofers and recovery. I mean, look at them. Look what they did. That's impressive. And they're willing to say it out loud. And that's the cool thing is, like, I have got more respect for the two of you and Jonathan Sherwood than I do a lot of other owners. Because you're vulnerable. You're willing to say, hey, life was crappy before, and this is why. But I got a handle on it, and look what it's done to change my life. I wanted to help you follow that same path if I can. And to me, that's. That's what it's all about on this planet. Right?

And don't kid yourself. We got plenty of people that look at us too, and go, oh, it's those goddamn sober roofers. I know.

We got.

We got plenty of those too, but we can't. We can't help everybody.

So super funny. So let's remind everybody there's still just real quick. We're kind of into this pretty good. Let's remind everybody that's watching right now, One of the reasons we're doing this is we're here to help raise money for roofers and recovery. We've got our event going on top rep. It's a sales event that's going on. And if you go to toprepgiveaway.com youm can enter the raffle to win a free Traeger grill. It's a 570 Pro Series Wi Fi Badass Traeger Easy Bake Oven. Just saying that to pick up people that use Traegers. I'm a stick burner, old fashioned guy. But it's a cool thing to give away. We didn't want to give away a boring thing like another cooler yeti or any of that kind of stuff. It was like, hey, let's give away something that people really want to use and it's another place to spend your time that maybe you could do that instead of having a beer or smoking a joint or whatever it is that you might want to do. Alternately, it's an addiction and I'm a proud person of that addiction, to be honest with you. So you guys probably see my post and stuff on Facebook every once in a while. So that's why we're here. Anybody that goes and does that today, if you're interested in going to Top Rep giveaway, you'll instantly get a hundred dollar coupon towards Top Rep for your registration and you'll have a chance to win that. You can get one ticket for 20 bucks or six tickets. So an extra ticket for 100 bucks. So if you want to help out a bunch of roofers that are looking for help and, and a part of this roofers and recovery thing, we encourage you to go out there. You don't have to go to the event to help out with roofers in recovery, but if you do, we want to give you something special for that. So guys, what's the best story that you've had from roofers in recovery?

No, I guess we kind of need to be a little bit careful about that.

Yeah, we don't have to say anybody's name.

I mean we, we, we've had, we've had a couple of, we've had a couple of people that we've, that we've been able to have the opportunity to send a treatment that are absolutely flourishing and their lives are changing. And I know that probably the thing that Paul was maybe thinking of was, you know, there was somebody that came to one of our very first meetings like well over a year ago and he is a large part of the group now and helping people and people look to him for some guidance now. And he has completely revolutionized and changed his life. I think every single one of those stories, I don't think one of them is better than the other. I think they're all miracles and they're all amazing and getting the opportunity to watch that and feel like you had that much to do with it is like that. That's more reward for me than anything else that. That we do.

Sounds like the coaching world, watching you guys do some amazing things and knowing we don't have that much to do. You guys did all the hard work, right? It's rewarding. It's enjoyable. I. Paul, I got a question.

I agree with that, Eric. I think. Yeah, go ahead.

So was it almost two years ago now or a year and a half ago? You did storm into the new era, right? I remember that event. I was on a. I was on a wheelie deal coming in there because I had torn my Achilles.

Oh, yeah.

It was the first event I did. It was six days after my surgery, and there's no way I was going to miss it because it was unique. It was different. It was. It was more about the person than it was about the business, it seemed like to me. And I thought a lot of people spoke from the heart. They shared some stories that they maybe wouldn't have normally shared with folks, and they were actually pretty vulnerable. And out of that whole thing, did this roofers and recovery kind of come out of that? Was there some conversation there? Was it happening before? Was that kind of the connection of it? Because we do our contractor fellowship thing. I think you guys are aware of that. And that kind of came out of that. There was this, hey, you know, there's a lot of guys here that are talking God, and I didn't realize that in our industry. And so I like to talk about God every once in a while too. So let's do this contractor fellowship thing. Did Reefers and recovery kind of come out of that a little bit?

Yeah, it absolutely did. And I mean, just kind of touch on that. The reason we started dormant New era, which we have another one, Covid really screwed it up. The venue we wanted to have it at this year with the Bible museum in Washington, D.C.