Run your Roofing Company like a Real Business with Randy Brothers!

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Here's your host, Adam Sand. Now let's get after it. Okay, guys, welcome to another episode of roofing business partner podcast. I have a absolutely special treat for you guys today. I am interviewing today the expert from the roofing academy. This is Randy Brothers of Elite Roofs. He has written a best selling book called Start, Build, Grow and he is running the roofing academy, which is a coaching course that we're going to dive into a bit today and learn how you can use it to help start, build and grow your roofing business from almost any, any level financially and get exactly what you're looking for from your business. So without any more, without any more pleasantries, Randy, welcome to the show, bud.

What is going on, man? Hey, sorry, can I clarify a couple things?

Absolutely.

I probably should have said that at time. It's elite roofing.

Elite roofing, yeah.

Eliteroofs.com so that kind of happens all the time because it's written on all of our marketing, but it's actually Elite roofing out of Denver. And then it's Start It, Build It, Grow it, the Contractor's guide to success.

Ah, okay. See, I was reading it off, I was starting reading it off of the book over your shoulder in the video here.

So yeah, it's Start It, Build It, Grow It, Contractors Guide to success.

Love it. Well, I don't know if you want.

To write down or not, but that way.

The sad part is, Randy, I've actually read probably half the book. I got half into it, but I didn't spend a lot of time on the COVID because all the good stuff's on the in between the two covers.

And I gotta tell you, I'll take that.

You cover a lot of excellent stuff in the book as well. And I really like the section on partnerships because as many know, my company sergeants, roofing is a partnership. And so it was great to read your, your insights on it. And I, I highly suggest anybody in the roofing business, if you're, no matter what level you're at, you would absolutely benefit from reading through the book and either getting the affirmation that you're Doing some of the right things and maybe get a different perspective on some other ways of doing things. So I guess I wanted to kind of get everybody a chance to get to know who they're talking to, because I know you're the real deal, but my listeners might not know who you are just yet. And I really think that. So tell me a little bit more about how you got started in the roofing industry.

Well, it's kind of interesting story because I kind of. I feel like I kind of got into the industry in kind of a random, kind of roundabout way. You see, I was originally wanting to be a builder. You know, I actually went to school for business. I always wanted to have my own company, and I thought I wanted to be in construction, and I wanted to kind of build homes and be like a custom home builder. So I actually kind of had this early on. That's what I wanted to do. I thought about that growing up and going into college. It's like that would. I always thought that was what I was destined to do. And then as I was working full time, kind of working for general contractor, building homes, managing projects, you know, as a superintendent, I was going to school full time. And towards the end of that, I was graduating and I kind of needed to figure something out. And that's when I actually started my own company. And originally we were doing construction, so we were trying to build, you know, basements, custom homes. We didn't really get too many homes built because I started this company right before the crash. So the crash happened, and what was a four or five year buildup of trying to build this company? Trying to learn as much as I can about, you know, building homes and that sort of thing. Little did I know the first thing to get cut out of people's budgets were custom homes.

Yep.

So come 2007 and eight, you know, my whole dream of being a custom home builder kind of went down the drain. And I had to start really thinking outside the box to figure out how to get myself out of a pretty, pretty tough hole that I dug myself into. And that was when a friend of mine, and I was just taking on whatever construction project I could take on at the time. I would build you a fence, I'll build you a deck. You need one window open, one window installed. Let's do it. You know, I was just taking on whatever work I could. And my buddy said, hey, man, I can get you a gig just going knocking doors, and you can make a hundred bucks every time you get someone to do an inspection for A roof.

And.

And I was like, I'll take whatever I could get at the time. So I'm like, sure, let's go knock some doors. So that's literally how the first ever experience I had with roofing. And it's funny because I haven't really told that side of the story very often.

We got a first right here on that.

I went that deep, deep, because that was just a sample. I did that for a few weeks, knocked some doors that I had no clue what I was doing. I was knocking doors and just basically trying to convince the homeowner to. To let us give her. Give her a free inspection. And some guy was coming in behind me, closing the deal. And I was literally just. Anytime I got that connection, I made 100 bucks. I'm like, cool, I'll do that. If I can do that three times a day, I could pay my car payment. You know, that's where I was in life. So.

And we've all been fast forward a little bit.

I actually went in to go work for a restoration contractor. That's when I got introduced to doing insurance adjusting. So by the time, you know, everything kind of started really piling up to where I kind of got in full desperation mode, I went and took a job as. Or I tried to pursue a career as an insurance adjuster. So working for the restoration contractor, fast forward, that kind of launched me into a short career in insurance work, doing it as an insurance adjuster. So I did that, traveled, moved to Texas, became a. Got a license there, and spent maybe a year and a half developing and chasing this dream to kind of get myself out of the previous dream that didn't work out so well. And from there, that's when I really started analyzing like, man, there's something to this roofing business. I was always intrigued by the business side of it. You know, it wasn't like I wasn't like a roofer. Came up my whole life. It wasn't like, you know, all I did was sales and that sort of thing. But I was a contractor that was also very business minded and always intrigued with entrepreneurship and business. And then I saw this industry of roofing. Like it just kind of, kind of just. It was just there, right? I'm just pursuing these different paths and these different careers, but for some reason, roofing just always kind of was there in the back of my mind, right? And then eventually I get a phone call from a friend of mine, I'm living in Texas, I get a phone call from a friend of mine, and I had Actually done a little bit of roofing sales in Texas in between deployments when I was working, doing insurance claims. But I get a phone call, hey, big storm happened in Colorado, in Denver. I can get you a job selling for this big roofing company in Denver. I'm like. At that point, I was like, man, I've spent a lot of time chasing these dreams, and I'm literally sitting there, you know, playing video games on Friday nights with no money. You know, I'm like, this is. I got. I got a bigger picture. There's bigger things to do here. So literally packed up my truck, put everything I owned in my truck, which wasn't much, it fit my truck, and strapped the bed onto the back and said Cyonara to Texas and drove to Denver with really no plan in place. I knew that I had an opportunity to possibly get a job working in doing roofing sales. So I just kind of went on faith. And that's. That's what brought me home. I'm. I'm local to Colorado, and that's also what kind of launched me into the roofing industry.

That's fantastic. And I really like the rags to riches type nature of the story because I think a lot of guys can really reflect and girls can really, you know, can really reflect on their own lives and see that, you know, if. If Randy can do it, maybe they can do it. And I really enjoy the fact that you. You're never afraid to take an opportunity. You literally bounced all over the. All over the country, right, trying to pursue what you wanted to accomplish. And so now you're at the point now. So, I mean, I kind of want to unpack a little bit about what you've. What you've accomplished so far. So what is it that you said that the roofing industry was always there? It was always something that was attractive. What is it that you think makes the roofing industry great compared to, say, decks and fences or siding or basement renovations or concrete? You know, what is it that you love about the roofing industry that kept you here? Even now that you're in the situation where you could go and meander into different things that you continue to grow? Roofing. So what is it that kept you there or. And what is it that got you to go in?

Well, when. When I was doing remodeling work, basements, you know, construction stuff, I was relying on homeowners to write me checks and to pay for the services. And oftentimes at the. At the time, that was when pretty much anybody could walk into a Bank and get a signature loan, right? So they were, they were getting these helocs, these home equity lines of credit. They're using that to refinish their basements or upgrade their homes. And I was, you know, building. I was trying to capitalize on that specific market crash happened. Bank stop lending. What's the first thing to go? They stopped doing these things, right? So through that I learned. I was like, man, I do not want to go back into an industry where I'm reliant on something out that. That far outside of my control, like homeowners writing the checks. Because. Because this is a, you know, construction is the first thing to go in a. In a. In a. In a poor economy, right? So that's why I was always intrigued when the insurance companies were paying for everything. So originally I was like, okay, insurance companies are paying for this stuff. And that's what led me into restoration work, remediation, fire and water restoration. So I did that for a while, and I thought that might be kind of a future and a career. But there's so many moving parts there. And at the end of the day, you're still just doing general contract work, trying to babysit too many trades, a whole bunch of things. And I'm just like, I just kept coming back to roofing. Like, okay, it just checked all the boxes. Can you scale it? Can you put in a model into an industry that at the time and kind of still is archaic? I mean, there's a. It's a very low barrier to entry, so it's easy to get into. Therefore, opportunity persists. Because there's a lot of people that get into the industry that don't necessarily know what they're doing in business. So they get in for the wrong reasons. They think it's easy. They think you should make a bunch of money. So I realized these things. I'm like, okay, business background, general contracting, sales. Let's try roofing. I think that could be a great thing because now the insurance companies are paying for it. So all those boxes checked. I just like, man, there's something in roofing, and I think I can make a good business out of it if I go into the roofing business.

That's really interesting that you say that, because a lot of those same things you say I hear are reasons that a lot of other people get discouraged by the roofing industry. A low barrier to entry. So there's constantly, always this competition coming into the market. And it really reminds me of that story of the two shoemakers. One goes to an island where nobody wears shoes. And one shoemaker says, nobody here wears shoes. I'm out of here. And then the other shoemaker says, huh, everybody, nobody here has any shoes. I'm going to make a fortune. It's all about your perspective and a lot of the things that you said, you know, such as the low barrier to entry, somewhat archaic, the fact that dealing with insurance companies, all those things are things that sometimes people take the wrong way. And I really like the positivity that you had there, especially considering you had to have faith and go through so many challenges to get to where you are today. So I guess to give everybody kind of the finish line. So where is Elite Roofing now? What is the company like? What is the picture of the company as it stands today? Because I recently you had some big news that really is something I think not a lot of roofers think about, is that succession. So I want to hear, I want everybody to hear about that.

I love it, man. You just gave me like goosebumps, dude. Because just a couple weeks ago I. Well, this is already something that's been kind of in the works and the roles have been changed over, over last year was a big transition for, for myself and, and my leadership team within the company. But you know, two, I think two weeks, three weeks ago now, well, middle of January, we were able to promote my sister to the role of chief executive officer. And that was probably one of the crowning achievements of my entire career. You know, getting to a point. And, and here's one thing that anybody listening to this can, can, can take away at all levels. Doesn't matter what level you're at. Like, if you understand that you're, you're on a personal development journey along with a business growth journey. And if you can figure out how to balance those two things and really get to know yourself, your own strengths, your own weaknesses, figure out who you really are and how you're wired, how God made you. And you'll start to figure out how to build a role within your organization that fits naturally, that you just naturally fit into. And too many of us think that we have to be the boss, we have to be the be all, end all and make all the decisions. And we don't let anyone else make decisions. We feel like we got to control everything, but maybe we're not that good at controlling everything. Maybe someone else can actually make a better decision than us. Just a thought, you know, so got getting to that point, like through all this personal development growth, we just. My partner and I both realized that our roles in our company, neither of us are cut out to be a chief executive officer. You know, we grew insanely over the last like five years. It's been, you know, 10x literally like, you know, throw grant, cardone, whatever you want to do. Like all these people go to this huge conference to promote 10x while they're going to these conferences. I've literally been 10xing my company, you know, we went from 2 to 20 million in about six years, less than six years. So in doing so, you realize a lot of things. Like you realize real quick what you're capable of and who you have on your team. That's really great because you're not going to get to that level unless you trust other people and surround yourself with people that can help you get there. And in doing so, it's just seeing the development, you know, she has played a role. She's done virtually every position in our company and then, then, then started hiring and basically hired a replacement along the way. And it's like, next thing you, next thing you know, you look back, she's got 25 people working under her. She's making great decisions for the company, you know, and, and my heart is really in teaching and coaching and helping the industry. It just, it just all aligned. My, my partner dominates when it comes to sales. Like he's our sales vice president. Like that's his role is to make sure that our company remains a sales company. He doesn't need to deal with all the logistics and the production and all the, you know, the, the finances, all that crap. It's like let, let someone else do that. And we got to that point and promoting her was, it was just really cool, you know, so I'm proud of the fact that, you know, we have one of the most, you know, fastest growing, most recognizable, you know, reputable companies in the country. And we have a 31 year old CEO female. You know, I love that that is.

Absolutely incredible story because it's not nepotism. It's not like oh sister got the CEO job like she, she earned it. She built that job for herself and put the people in place behind her to elevate her to the position to have be in the eyes of those people as the leader of the company. And I love that, you know, how you've been able to recognize where your strengths were, where her strengths were, where your partner strengths were. And I think so many roofers could benefit from hearing this story because I see a lot of roofing company owners at the beginning of their journey who sometimes can't see the forest through the trees and allow certain, certain mindset issues to get in their way. And I think a big thing to mention is, you know, you won't be able to see this obviously on the podcast, but behind Randy, you'll see there's a number of books, not just his own, but a number of other books. And one of them I hold quite dear to my heart is the seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Number one.

Yeah. And you.

That's the number one book.

And you. Yeah, I fully agree with it. I like that one. I know that you and I ended up reading the same book just last week because you were talking.

That was pretty crazy.

Yeah. And so how much do you think that that constant education is a role in your position growing from that, from that 2 to 20 million mark?

We'll put it this way, at the 2 million dollar mark, I was reading maybe a book a year, you know, and, you know, and that was a bit. I knew, I read a lot in college and early on in my career I was reading books and, and thought that was the thing. And I just, I'm a terrible reader. So really as, as Audible came along and started getting more and more, that just changed my game because I just, I'm a really bad reader. Like I'm, you know, partially dyslexic and it's like I have to read something a lot, so too long. That's crazy. Yeah, I write words all the time.

Like I write the third, like the third letter and have to go back and write too. That's crazy. I thought it was like the only one.

I can't believe I made it through school, man. I never read a full book in my life. Like before. Before, before, like an adult, really. To this day I've maybe physically read, I can count on, you know, one hand how many books I've read personally. Like read the words cover to cover, like parts, bits, pieces, cliff notes, but audible, game changer. So like just learning. I mean, I think as we grew and as I started to learn more and evaluate myself more and do more and more of a kind of personal deep dive, it freed up so many more things and the company just manifested and grew, you know, simultaneously. So, you know, that's what this year and then I've committed this whole year to, you know, as you know, I'm doing this Whole50 book challenge. It's like you read in books. You read a book that says the top CEOs in the world read 50 books a year. And I'M like, I want to be one of those, you know, not a CEO anymore, but I want to be, you know, that good of an entrepreneur. How do I get better? You know, we've already accomplished great things. It's like, how do you get better? And I'm like, education, I got to learn more. If I can out learn my competition, I can outgrow my competition. You know, not really competition, but really, you know, myself, as long as I'm constantly getting better, you know, how do you become the Michael Jordan of your industry? You have to outwork every single person and take every edge you possibly can to do that. And learning and listening and reading all the time is a way to do that for me.

So that's, I think that's really important that we cross that bridge because self education is absolutely, I believe, one of the keys to every, every business owner's success. Take roofing out of it. And I mean, I mean for, for my listeners, I mean, I know I've never shared this either, but I did the same thing. I read a book a week when I was on the oil rigs. I knew I didn't want this life. And I read a book a week while I was working on the oil rigs and I would carry a book around in my back pocket on the oil rigs, guys would have packs of cigarettes in their pocket. I'd have a book. And every time I had a break, if I was washing coveralls when I first started, I would be reading a book, sitting by the washing machine, you know, anytime I could. So I mean, self education is so crucial and I love that, you know, you say things like you wear a great, you know, you're not a big avid reader but you know, you found a way to overcome that by taking advantage of technology. But I think it's very interesting that a person who self reflects in that way also wrote a book. So I would love to know more about what made you decide to write a book because that's how I found you, is you stood up right next to me at IMG last year and told Gary Vee you were going to get a best selling book on Amazon and you did it. But I remember you saying that and you were like literally 10ft from me when you stood up. And that's how we first met. And I never really saw the come up to that point. So at what point did you decide? Because a lot of people out there would think, even myself every day I wonder who am I to be coaching people? You know, even though the Facts are the facts and the information works. You wonder what made you go and have the confidence to do that. What inspired you to write that book? What was the trigger?

It's so funny that you mentioned that because I think Gary V actually probably had something to do with it before that happened right before I was able to meet him and, and have that interaction because go a year, year and a half before that. And it's funny because, man, in my. I can't like my story in kind of the. The way I was brought up and, and how just life just all these different things that had happened, both good and bad and just. Just kind of just bizarre that you don't. That's just not. You don't normally hear about or see. You know, my family has always joked around, like writing books. We always like, someday that we're gonna write a book about this. I don't know how many times our family has said that over the years. You know, just the. The craziness that has happened over the years. And, and it just so happened that, you know, we, We. I went through what I went through losing everything and going to absolute bottom and then being able to turn that around from like L. To building a company step by step, piece by piece by piece that, you know, completely, you know, blew up and. And became, you know, one of the top 5%, you know, and now even like top 1% of companies as far as size goes and just growth and. And how fast we're able to do that. I was like, man one, that wasn't me. It wasn't just me doing it. It wasn't just my staff doing it. Like, you know, we had help and our faith helped us get there too. And part of that was like, that's kind of what stimulated a combination of seeing reading Gary Vee's book that, that, that said talked about becoming a media brand, becoming an influencer of an industry, and then even creating a TV show or his show he created and, and turning your company into a media company and all those things, it's just like, raw resonated with me. I'm like, somebody's got to do it. And this was at the time a couple people were kind of coming up. There was. There was just hitting all at once that some handful of people in our industry decided to kind of, hey, say, you know what? You know, maybe it's. Maybe it's on me. Maybe I can become a thought leader. But for me, it was. It was really just. I felt led, I felt called to do it. I felt like Somebody needs to step up and share with this industry the journey that you've had. And. And to be able to share how doing things the right way for the right reasons can. Can prevail over the. This whole mentality that industry has of get rich quick, you know what I mean? So it was like all that stuff together just kind of, you know, led me to. To say, you know what? If I'm going to do this, I'm gonna do it right? And it starts with a book I was analyzing. There's already competition. There's already people doing this. What can I do that? What do I have that. How do I differentiate myself? Right? And. And that's how I do all entrepreneurship. And I challenge and I teach my. My clients this as well. Like, you've got to do something different, be willing to do the things that other people aren't willing to do. Right. So no one had a book out. I mean, I guess there was one book out, but whatever. I don't. I've never read it. Never really put much interest in it, because the character behind it, I just. Whatever is what it is. So I was like, you know what? Somebody's got to do it, so I'm gonna go ahead and write a book. Let's see what happens. And it just so happened that I had an investment that I was able to cash in on, and I had some money set aside. I had a little bit of money at the time, and I was like, you know what? What else can I invest in then? Something like this. So I invested in the book. A lot of time, a lot of energy. Took about a year to write it. And it's funny, because about a third of the. I was almost halfway done with getting everything written out. I completely scrapped it and changed everything.

Yeah.

So the final product was different than what the initial vision was. And that's just business, man. That happens in all of business and all of entrepreneurship. So wrote the book, launched it worked with a great publisher, and we were able to get it to go bestseller on Amazon. And it's just so rewarding, and I'm just so grateful. It's not a money thing. I make nothing off the book. I have never even. I haven't even come close to got my investment back out of it. It's not what it's all about. It's about helping the industry, putting some information out there that, at the time, what I was just hoping people could find value in and hopefully avoid making some of the mistakes that I made. And that's kind of exactly what's happening? And I'm getting feedback all the time of, you know, people just giving me, you know, letting me know that I read your book and I implemented things and I've already changed my company. And that's just so cool to hear, man. That's just. You can't replace that, you know, so it was well worth the time and energy to put that together just for that fact alone that literally people's businesses and their lives are being changed by it.

So what do you think is the most important lesson in the book? If you had to summarize the book without going and grabbing one off the shelf, then reading the back of it. If you had to summarize it based on what you see. People, the results that people are actually getting and what people are actually saying they've learned from the book. What are the takeaways? What are. If someone goes and buys your book tomorrow, what can they expect to be to have plugged into their brain when they're done?

You know, this may be elementary, but every success in our industry, building a great company starts with self, okay? You gotta find yourself and really get in touch with who you are and what your strengths are. And then you have to implement process all the way along the way, like, so understand who you are, understand the value of process for absolutely everything and then surround yourself by great people. So values first, basically.

Yeah, it's people in process. I mean, I love that response. Because right now the mark, the industry is being taken over by the marketing aspect of the business. You know, there's, there's a lot of people out there right now that are selling leads. There's lead generation sites, there's, you know, there's all these tips and tricks and I'm one of the proponents of it. And there's a lot of stuff going on about there about marketing. And a big shift that I've faced in my business, helping roofers with their marketing is that they are lacking the process, the people, right. And they also don't understand their own strengths. And that's the harder conversation to have and probably the most important one. But it's important that that's one of the main reasons I wanted to get you on the show, is because after reading half your book, and again, it's not that it wasn't keeping me going, it's just lots of stuff go on and next thing you know, you forget about it. But it's is that I recognized right away how important process and how you get good people, disciplined people, disciplined thoughts, using discipline, actions, that kind of good to great philosophy from that book. A lot of those same parallels were in your book about good people and good process. And I wanted to make sure that I'm not the only one out there talking about mapping out your process and getting the right, getting the right systems in your business to grow it. So where do you see now that you're running the roofing academy? So tell me a little bit more about your experience with that, what that is, because I think that's a great next step. If they aren't going to read the book, then I think it's a great first step that they need to get into something, into some self education, just like we were talking. And the roofing academy is probably a great place to start. So what is the roofing academy and what does it do for the people in our industry?

Well, the academy, again, it kind of, it's ever evolving. But what it started out was I wanted to be able to take all the things in the book, all the things that we're teaching contractors and people to do and you know, be kind of more focused on the roofing specific because obviously that's my specific. You know, my failure was in, you know, I've been in a lot, right. I've done restoration, general contracting, all the, all of construction, you know, a lot of things. But really all the nuts and bolts of our business are in roofing. So the book is written for all contractors to be able to take these things. So the idea was to build a roofing specific virtual training course that helps people take the information from the book and implement into their business and automate that and be able to be able to come into your office and teach you how to build and grow and scale your roofing business without having to physically be there. Right? Because it's just way, it's, it's economical that way, right. And that's how I'm able to impact the industry and help a lot more people than just one on one, you know, stuff, you know, all of our time, we have to be careful with it. So how do I do that? How do I share this journey and teach people the things I've learned on a large scale? So I figured, okay, let's put this onto a virtual training platform and we put a ton of time and energy into that. And if the people that work with me and you'll get to know like I'm, as an entrepreneur, like it's do it right or don't do it at all, right? So again, I was halfway through producing this Whole program, self producing and for self production, I was pretty proud of it, right? Setting the camera up, filming myself, blah blah, blah, using whiteboards, that sort of thing. And I'm like, you know what? Nope, same thing. I had another investment. I'm like, all right, I had a little cash, like let me take this and invest into high level production and put a good amount of money into it and built out our own, my basement and use that as a studio. And we went all in on production to make it really, really high quality. So high quality mixed with, you know, a ton of content. Like way most everybody, they talk about, everybody has sales, canvassing, lead generation, marketing, right? That's something that's across every platform. All of them teach that how to, how to knock doors, how to, you know, sell roofs, whatever your system is, blah blah, blah. The reality of it is just having a system for sales, you're leg up on the rest. But the issue is nobody teaches the nuts and bolts of business. So that's where I saw the need, that's where I saw a difference in opportunity industry. So obviously we didn't get where we got without having a really, really good sales program. And we do like, that's like a bonus. So we teach entrepreneurship, business fundamentals of entrepreneurship, like how to hire, how to train people, how to build a training program, how to build employee agreements. We have, we have all like a ton of documents that you literally can download and plug and play to really build your company like a, like a real organization, not just a fly by night, shuffle paper around and try to figure things out as you go type of company. Right. So we wanted to add on the nuts and bolts of building a roofing company. So that's kind of what evolved into the virtual training of the roofing academy. And then from there, how do we help even more? We built this program out and then how do we help people more? It's, let's start doing like weekly events and then we're gonna do, we do live events and then we let me go to trainings and I'm able to go teach people in groups. And then we have events where we actually bring contractors to our office and we do a private event where you can really learn and, and see all the different nuances of our full infrastructure of our company. So it's just kind of evolved over time and now it's, you know, it's a membership platform that you literally have, you know, work at your own pace, how to work on your business, work at your own pace. We also have predetermined you know, online digital master classes, we have physical masterclasses and I also do one on one coaching. So I felt like in order to do it right, we wanted to be able to literally help contractors at every single level and provide value. And that's what we're striving to be able to accomplish.

And I like that you, I like that you're, you're trying to teach the fundamentals of business because in so much of what I hear from guests, you know that a big part of it is that, you know, I say you don't get an MBA on the roof, you don't get that, you don't get that business acumen from the other people around you when you start roofing. And considering the life, I guess the business path of so many people in the roofing industry is start out doing sales, then go start your own company and run a sales organization, subcontractors and roofers, or you're a roofer and you start out your own subcontracting agency, work for other guys and then you eventually, the sales guy tries to eventually grow his company to the point where he has a business and a brand and the roofing guy eventually tries to go to the point where he has a production department, a sales department, and they try and get to that next level. But neither one of those career experiences teach business. And the roofing academy has found a way to fill that gap and provide that to it to its clients and customers and people that follow that life and that journey. And it's such a valuable part of this industry. And we all benefit as roofing company owners and all the different job roles within there. If there are more good companies out there, there are more good jobs, there are more good, good roofs going on, customers, homes, there are more good, there's more transparency, there's more and there's more, there's more positive working back and forth with the insurance companies and con and builders and developers. And there's a, there's a better reputation overall for, of the industry that if people learn how to run the roofing companies like businesses, there might not be as many roofing companies, but there will be more roofing companies operating as real businesses and that's better for everyone. So I love that you're doing that for your users. So now is that where you connected the dots with getting a president is that you kind of realize that you can only put so much on your plate and so putting or not president, sorry, CEO. And so putting your sister in the CEO role is that now, what's allowed you to give more of your focus to the roofing academy?

Yes and no. Cause I've. It's a vision. Okay. And I teach this stuff is I've always known that I'm an entrepreneur first, roofer second. It's just. And I made that clear from day one. Like, I am an entrepreneur and I want to chase my dreams and I want to try different things. I'm never going to be just one business type of person, and I've always been. Built my company with that vision of build a company to where I can work on the business but also be able to chase other other things and do other things and help. And ultimately, you know, the, the real kind of motivation behind it all is to just help other people in the masses, like as many people as I can. And that's what I really love to do. It's my purpose, if you will. So there's always been a vision of, of building a business that way. So I kind of paved the way, so to speak, by doing every role, building the business and then facilitating bringing someone up behind me to do those things. And it just, it just naturally evolved to where she got better at each. At each thing than I was. Right. And just became better and better and got better and, and just really bought in and, and just her natural, natural abilities and also just natural hunger and desire to learn and grow and enjoy the journey, it just led her to naturally work her way into that position, which kind of naturally allowed me to facilitate my other, you know, dreams of helping others and, and I guess my bigger calling, the higher calling of, of helping others and, and sharing this journey with more people. So it's kind of killing two birds at one stone, if you will.

Everything happens for a reason. It seems like that. Absolutely. That's a bit of. Faith is a big part of that. So I love that. What's going on there? So I guess if you had to tell anybody right now how they could find you or how they could connect with you and what the next. What is the next first step for my listeners? What should they do first? Is it the book? Is it the roofing academy? Should they go connect with your Facebook page? What is the first thing that any roofing company owner listening to this podcast should do?

Well, first off, everything, you know, faith and family first. So, you know, go, go spend time more, Spend more time with your family. You know, make sure your value's in the right place. If I'm going to be salesy here, right, you know, you come to my Website. You can set up a call with me or just go directly on the website and see, you know, all of our programs and all the things that we do. It's the roofingacademy.com we try to keep it pretty simple. And we bought that URL and it's just, oh, roofacademy.com and you can see all about us. You can see we have our own podcast as well. We do the Start, Build, Grow show. We put out a ton of free content. We got YouTube channels. And then Randy J. Brothers on Instagram. Pretty much just either the Roofing Academy or Randy J. Brothers on all platforms. We're there trying to put out as much valuable content as we possibly can. And then, you know, if you want to work together, we have a membership program that, you know, it's kind of priced in a way that is very affordable for all levels and, and that sort of thing. So that's kind of where we're at.

Perfect. And I, I really do encourage everybody here that's listening to this podcast to go check out Randy's, Randy's different platforms and get to know his stuff. Because again, the self education is such an important part of getting everybody to the next level. And you, me, a number of the other people in this industry, we all have our unique piece of the pie that we can, that we can offer the roofing industry. And I'm not. I have that abundance mindset where I believe that there's a roofing company out there for every need and every service that all of us can do. So I fully encourage everybody to go check out what Randy's doing because he's definitely got a lot of great knowledge that he can pass on to everyone. The one thing that I wanted to ask you is that if you could see one major change happen to the roofing industry, if you could change one thing, what would that thing be?

You know what, like the greed.

Greed. That's an answer I haven't got before. I'd love for you to elaborate more on that.

You know, I feel like, and it's, and maybe it's not intentional, you know, by any, by no means am I, am I saying that people are just naturally greedy. I think the industry unfortunately kind of facilitates greed. People are changed when they come into money in a short period of time. And if they. That's why I preach values. If you don't have your values in place, it's easy to kind of fall into the, to the trap of hustle and take advantage of anybody you can just to get yourself more money, right? And, and that's what gives this industry a bad name. That's what causes people to run off with checks. That's what causes roofers to not pay people. That's what causes owners to not pay salespeople. That's what causes salespeople to, to lie and, and say things to homeowners that aren't true and aren't ethical. You know, that's what causes the, the, this whole get rich quick mentality. And I think if we all step up and do things for the right reasons, that this industry is a great industry that can take care of all of our families for generations to come. So if we can get the greed out of our industry, a lot more people will, will, will be in a lot better financial and emotional and spiritual situations.

Boom, man. I could honestly keep asking you questions forever, but I only got one more. But honestly guys, this is why you got to go check out out the roofing academy. This is why you got to connect with Randy and this is why you guys got to focus on self education, because there's a lot of great information and knowledge being put out there for free by people like Randy and others who are trying to increase the caliber of, and the base level of the quality of our industry. So one last question and I'll let you get back to your day, Randy. But I want to know, what is it that you see? What do you see transforming in the industry? Do you see any kind of technological transformations, insurance transformations, you know, regulatory, tax, anything that you see from a business perspective transformation that's going to change the industry as a whole? You think they're going to see something fundamentally different in the next two to five years?

Absolutely. Technology and training. Okay. I'm a third generation guy. My dad was a contractor, my grandpa was a contractor. My grandpa business owner, you know, a number of different businesses. You know, back then it was, you do everything yourself, you learn everything yourself, you put your time in and you figure it out as you go. 20 years later, you may have a business, right? You may have something worth, something you can pass on to your kids. Nowadays that generation is, that's the generation that's retiring, that's leaving the industry and the next generation coming up. We're a generation of technology. We're a generation of collaboration. We're a generation of understanding ourselves, you know, and our strengths more. And, and, and the use of technology is probably the biggest game changer because it allows us to, to do what used to take 20 years and do that in a handful of years with the right business plan, with the right structure, with the right training and with the right business coach. And now you're able to literally plug and play into a training program. Hint, hint, there's my sales. You can literally plug and play into a training program that already exists. And you can scale your business without having to, you know, put in the time and effort that our ancestors did when they were doing it.

And it's not as much of a old boys club only kind of thing. There's guys out there who have literally don't have the connections, who don't know a guy, who don't have an uncle that you know is a rich businessman. All those different excuses for why you're not where you want to be in life. None of those excuses exist anymore in that frame of mind because now they can plug into an educational program and elevate their mindset and change the paradigm through which they view the world and evolve how they handle challenges and overcome them using things like your program. Randy, that is awesome. Thank you so much. Is there anything, anything else you want to say before we hop off here?

Thank you, man. I've been watching your stuff and we got connected online and also kind of in a random way through fate, if you will. And I appreciate what you're doing for the industry and, and keep it up with the podcast and keep doing what you're doing on the marketing side of things and maybe someday we'll get to race.

Awesome. Thank you very much, man. I appreciate the race. Yeah, that, that, that Camaro, I know that thing's a beast.

So, yeah, we're both car guys, so, so, yeah, the, the Camaro, that's kind of my, my little, you know, guilty pleasure, if you will. And it's, it's getting ready to get upgraded this year, so.

Nice.

We'll leave you with a cliffhanger on that as to what's going to happen.

Nice.

Either get a new one or do a full on upgrade to it.

All right, well, guys, thank you so much for listening. And that again is Randy J. Brothers from Roofing Academy and Elite Roofing. So go check him out and we will see you again on the next episode. And that concludes another episode of the Roofing business partner podcast. Thank you so much. I do not take your attention lightly. I sincerely appreciate you coming out and listening to every episode. As usual, the. There's always a freebie at the end of every episode, so make sure to go to roofingbusinesspartner.com podcast and check out the show notes for this episode's free gift. On top of that, I also just wanted to ask you guys a small something, if you don't mind. Leave a rating, leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Just leave me a quick little note on what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, what I should do more of. Really appreciate it, and I look forward to having you back on the next episode. And I'm to going already in the workshop, figuring out what kind of value, what kind of lessons, and what kind of tips I can deliver to you guys so that I'm always continuing to make a bigger, better improvement in your roofing business every time.