Roofing Success

Why Most Roofing Companies NEVER Break $5M with Randy Hurtado

• Jim Ahlin • Episode 284

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Most roofing companies get stuck around $2M–$3M…
And they stay stuck.

Not Randy Hurtado.

He helped take a sleepy roofing company from <$2M…
To over $30M in roofing revenue this year.
(And nearly $50M total across all their companies.)

In this podcast, Randy shares why most owners never break $5M — and exactly what to do about it.

You’ll discover:
- Why Randy QUIT roofing sales to grow the company (this sounds backwards, but it worked)
- The BIGGEST mistake owners make when expanding into new markets
- The right way to build a killer sales team (even if reps have ZERO roofing experience)
- How community involvement prints money (and earns long-term trust)
- And the real reason most companies stay “stuck” for years

This one’s packed with real talk and tactical advice. Especially if you’re feeling stuck in the owner-operator stage… or wondering what’s next after $1M, $2M, or even $5M.

Listen to the episode on Spotify & Apple Podcasts (284) 👇
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Links: 
https://dtroofing.net
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC40CA_iIvloTsNSWEf2_lEA
https://www.instagram.com/dt_roofingandconstruction
https://www.facebook.com/DTRoofingandConstruction/

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SPEAKER_02:

It's not what you do when the storm hits, it's what you did before the storm got there that makes all the difference. Last year we had a uh storm in in uh May. And uh in June we had a six point five million dollar month. Why? Well, because all those relationships came home guru. It really comes down to and what our secret sauce is, and I share it with every roofing company owner that I mentor and bore into is relationships. Relationships, relationships. You can have the flashy, you know, name and flashy or a boring name, DT roofing. It doesn't have this fantastic old name or color schema's black and white, it's not literally black and white, it's not, you know, super bright when you're driving down the road. But what we're known for, if you were to go through our communities that we serve and ask people, what is DT roofing known for in this community? Very few will say roofing. In the contracting world, the way we're represented is the guy at a jumpsuit on the five o'clock news who took eleven thousand dollars from an elderly lady. I'm going to create a safe community of contractors that are not only vetted by us, but we're willing to back every job they do with a monetary value. Everybody sounds the same in front of a customer. We have this many five-star reviews, we have this platinum, this, or this master delete, that, or you know, this accolade or that accolade, and the customer's going, oh, that's nice. And they're thinking in the back of their head, that's what the last two roofers, the last two plumbers, or whatever told me.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Alean and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business. Randy Hartado, how are you, man? I am well. Thanks for having me on. We both had uh had some early uh early mornings this morning. So we're, you know, for all the all the guests listening, boy, Randy and I are running on coffee right now. But we're gonna get this done for you and we're gonna have a great produce some great content and and get some great information for everyone. Uh Randy, uh Todd, let's uh let's introduce you to our audience if they don't know you already. DT Roofing, DT companies. Out of the the the the the Metroplex or trying to stay out of the Metroplex, you said.

SPEAKER_02:

The Metro Mess, yes. Yeah, we're located, yeah. Yeah, we're located south and southwest of the uh DFW Metroplex.

SPEAKER_00:

So cool. How did uh how how did you get into roofing?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I my origin story is not that of most where I had a family member or a dad or somebody who was in construction and it was just a natural progression to uh to the roofing world. I was actually a computer nerd for 20 over 20 years, and I had an office next door to uh this to root to DT roofing, not in the current building that we're in, but uh uh I needed some office space because I was working out of the house and it just wasn't working out with as many kids as we have and animals and doorbells ringing. It was just, it wasn't uh appropriate for a professional environment. So I rented some space and uh became real friendly with the uh with my now partner, who is the sole owner of the company at the time. And uh we just uh hit it off really well. Um I understand business. He understood how to put roofs on. And uh in an effort, uh truly an effort to just try to help him, uh, I started learning more about the roofing industry, uh, offered to go and uh sell for him on nights and weekends just to learn it enough so I can give him some feedback. And uh yeah, that ended up turning into me uh ultimately quitting my uh IT, well, not quitting. Uh the company that I worked for uh was uh purchased by private equity and didn't need my services anymore. And uh it was a godsend, no question. Uh, but it gave me an opportunity to go into an entirely different career. Um my mom had four, I like to say my mom had four boys, three of them were in construction, one of them was a nerd, and uh now four of them are in construction. So um, and uh yeah, so I came on as uh as a way to help build the company at the time. It was it was existing, but it wasn't, I wouldn't say, you know, standing back, it was uh really doing everything, checking all the boxes that you need to for a successful company. Uh my partner knew how to put roofs on well. He did carry a name in in the local church that he attended, which is uh what happened to also be the largest church. And so generally when you have a good relationship with uh other, you know, uh folks within your church that that you're gonna be who they call when they need your services. And so the company was moving along. It had never exceeded$2 million. It started uh in 2009, and at that point it was 2016. It never exceeded$2 million in revenue in a year, and he was just looking for ways to grow. And I just saw this huge opportunity in front of me to take something. Uh, I had already helped that software company grow from a million-dollar company to being bought for several, several times millions of dollars. And so I I knew what it took to build a company, I just wanted the opportunity. And so I came on initially just to run the sales team and to sell for the company. And um ultimately after a couple of years of taking it from uh my first year in leadership to 3.7 million to 5.8 million. Uh, at 5.8 million is when I asked for equity. I just said, look, I'm not gonna do this again. I don't want to spend 20 years helping somebody else build a company so they can exit and I'm stuck looking for a job. And so uh yeah, so he agreed ultimately. And um since we've uh grown into White the Roofing Company, we own a residential roofing company. We own a commercial roofing company separately, and we can talk about why that's the case. Um, we also own a construction company that builds homes, it does remodels, additions, patios, pergolas, outdoor experiences, a gutter company, and a garage door company. Uh all separate businesses. And um we've been very successful in that. Uh this year we should clear just shy of$50 million in revenue between the companies. Uh, the roofing companies should do uh the roofing companies should be around 30 to 34 million of that um this year. So um God's been good to us. We have an amazing staff of 82 employees, and uh, we just continue to thrive. Uh we're in five different uh markets in our area. We we are very intentional about focusing on those markets. We do get called out to the Metroplex, but only if we're called. We don't advertise out there and we're not we're not intentionally trying to get out into the Metro Mess to compete against 10,000 other roofing companies.

SPEAKER_00:

But uh yeah, that's kind of the origin story. 30 to 34 million this year avoiding the Metro Mess. Yeah, and when and when people see where we're fear that, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Not only that, but when people see where we're located, we're technically located in the sticks. Um, they're like, where are you pulling this out of? You know, I'm right in the middle of millions of people. It's it really comes down to and what our secret sauce is, and I share it with every roofing company owner that I mentor and pour into is relationships. Relationships, relationships. You can have the flashy, you know, name and flashy, you know, we're a boring name, DT roofing. It doesn't have this fantastical name. Um, our color schema is black and white, it's not literally black and white. Um, it's not, you know, super bright when you're driving down the road. But what we're known for, if you were to go through our communities that we serve and ask people, what is DT roofing known for in this community? Very few will say roofing. And not because we're not a great roofer. We win all the awards. They love us for our roofing work, but it's our relationships, it's how we pour into the community, it's how we uh involve ourselves in nonprofits and food banks and just trying to give back because we realize it's the people in our communities that make our businesses successful without them choosing to do business with us. And so we love to give back in that regard.

SPEAKER_00:

I just did uh there'll be an episode released right before this with uh with a gentleman named Taylor Spears out in uh South Jersey, who also has that same philosophy. Like it one of the things he mentioned in the episode was you call yourself local, or you try to call yourself local, but you're not involved locally. That's right, you know. And he it was like one of those things like you you want to be a local company, be a local company. Right. Right? Like so that's fantastic, man. So one of the things I uh you know, community is is is is great. I want to go back a little bit. Um we'll we'll definitely get I would love to get more into the community aspect. One of the things I think about Randy is I I I refer to it as the art of luck. And art of luck is luck is when opportunity meets preparation, right? And so I feel like like you executed the art of luck a little bit there with with with what happened and it and it you know, there was there was preparation, there was timing, there was opportunity in front of you. You know how did you how did you decide, man, this is yeah, this is an opportunity. Like this is an opportunity that that I've been preparing for in my business career and and and that the the the size of the opportunity is is there, the potential's there. What was that what was that in your mind that back then? Before we carry on with the episode, let's give a shout out to one of our sponsors. Roofers, let's get real. You're great at building roofs, but are you great at building a steady stream of leads? That's where Job Nimbus Marketing comes in. They know the roofing industry inside and out, and they'll help you dominate Google, Facebook, reputation management, and everything in between. If you want more quality leads, more book jobs, and more growth, visit the link in the description or the sponsors page on the Roofing Success Podcast website. What was that in your mind that back then?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you know, I'll uh the you know the old adage, it's funny, the the harder I work, the luckier I get. Um, but uh at the end of the day, I do, and I'm not shy about it. If you've seen anything that I'm on, I I just I've definitely give God all the glory for all of this uh quote unquote luck or the the um the talent that has been given to understand things from a different perspective. What I saw when I looked at the roofing industry that I didn't see in the corporate world when I was doing IT security was um relationships at a human level. Uh in the corporate world, it's very difficult, even though you are working with individuals within the corporations, you're still dealing with a corporate entity that you can never have a true relationship with. For example, they're they're confided within their corporate requirements on how they can do certain business. And even if they do like you on the personal level, there's still, you know, there's still uh specific areas that they can't touch. And and well, what I noticed when I was started selling for DT roofing as a salesperson to kind of learn the business was the relationships that I would have and forge with homeowners was amazing. Like I would get a chance to actually talk to this person. And, you know, I'm that type of sales guy that when I walk into a house, the last thing I'm there to talk about is what I'm there to talk about. You know, I'm I'm looking, I'm scanning bookshelves, I'm scanning uh accolades on on uh walls. I'm looking for something that we can connect with, right? If I see somebody served in the military or if I see some, you know, uh book that I've read uh on, you know, business or biblical principle or apologetics or whatever, I'm grabbing that. I'm I'm I'm running with that and gonna try to, because ultimately I want this person to see I'm just a human being. You know, if my company's done what it's supposed to do online with our SEO and with our presence, they know why they called me out there as far as why I'm out there. So let this person see that they made a good decision because I really like I want that, I want the response for me and all 20 of my sales guys for every customer to be I really liked him or her. And I I I I want to do business with them. Not I have to because my roof is leaking. I want to give them my business and I want to tell my family and friends about that. So that was actually the aha moment for me because I could have went right, went right back to LinkedIn, and there's probably a dozen companies that would have taken me on immediately. I was a top performer for my company, I was known in my industry. Uh, I would receive compliments all the time by CTOs and CIOs saying I've never had a salesman come in and understand technically their product that uh that they're representing as well as you do. They normally bring an engineer along with them, and you just walked in by yourself. There's no engineer here, and you're answering our questions as if you went to school doing that. And it's just who I am fundamentally. I love to learn whatever craft I'm in. I would take the developers to lunch just to pick their brain and ask them questions that a salesperson has no business asking because I wanted to not just understand the surface level of the software we are providing. I want to understand the why. Why does it do that? Why does it not allow that? And when I understood that, then when I would have a conversation at the peer level with my cost, my customers in corporate America, I wouldn't earn their business because of the personality, I would earn it because of the intellect. And that's something that was a way that I could, you know, master the corporate world in that respect. But when I started dealing with homeowners, I didn't have to show how smart I was. I just could, I, I, you know, I was able to just build a relationship with them and talk about things in life and stuff like that. And I just got a lot of fulfillment out of that. And so um that was so that was to answer the question, that was my aha moment. Uh, why I decided not to continue in the IT world and just take this roofing thing. My wife, I'm sure my my wife will never tell me this, especially now that it's worked out really well. But she probably thought I was nuts when I said, I'm gonna try this roofing sales thing out, you know, from having to wear a shirt and tie every single day and go, you know, flying all over the United States. I mean, I I've shared this on other podcasts, but I used to spend weeks at a time at the Pentagon with the Office of Secretary of Defense showing them how to keep nation states out of their network. Like that's the type of work I did. So to come home and be like, babe, I'm going into roofing sales. Um, it was just, you know, but she trusted me, and that's the reason why we've been together for 35 years because she trusts me. Yeah. You know, but uh anyhow. So yeah, that was my aha moment.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's it's amazing, man. This there's something, there's something really special about this industry, and there's something special. I could see that connection being special, right? That connection with the homeowner serving someone on a more individual level. Uh, you know, it's uh from a corporate perspective, it's like, oh, or even at the Pentagon, right? It's like you you know you're doing important work, but it may not just have that same not it's not the same as as the Joneses down the street.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, because you're never gonna meet yeah, you're never gonna meet the individuals that you affected by your work when you're helping, yeah. It may assist the OSD in keeping China out of the network so that our nation's assets are protected, but that's a very, you know, high-level 50,000 foot view uh where when I can go in and affect change in a house where a lady, maybe a widow, has had issues with her roof for years and finally she has somebody in there that cares enough to take the time to really figure out the problem and then fix it and then get that call after the big rain. It it's not leaking, it hasn't not leaked in 11 years. Thank you so much, you know, and then just reach out to that person for no reason three months later, other than just to check in on her, you know. You're not gonna do that at the Pentagon level, like, yeah, you guys, you know, they're gonna be like, uh we did business with you. Why are you calling us? Like, you know, we don't need you, you know. So that was the big thing for me, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just it's you're not gonna go ahead. You're not gonna run into them at church or uh at the at the you know, grocery store or something like that, right? There's no it's such a uh now. Um one of the things you said was you under you you you you you true you you truly believe that you or you've you've your your whole life have understood things from a different perspective. You've you've been able to look at things from a different perspective. Explain that to me a little bit more. What what do you what do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, what I mean is even if I can go back as far as high school, I was that student that absolutely hated doing the homework, but I would ace the tests. I did, I thought it was I get it. So why do I have to go home and waste three hours doing all of this stuff so you guys can say, you made me go home and do work at if I get it, I get it. And if I could pass a test, then you know, I think the best way that uh, you know, if and maybe this doesn't fit the masses, so maybe this is why they don't do it, but they should give students the opportunity to say, I get it. If I if I don't get at least a be on the test, if I get a be on the test, then any marks I would have gotten for not turning in homework are null. Because I was that guy that I was like, why do I have to write a five, you know, paragraph or five page whatever on this topic? I understand what you're saying. I understand why, if it's history or if it's, you know, math or what have you. I I get I get it. So let's take the test, let's make sure I got it. And when I pass, let's move on. And that's actually part of, you know, not to get too political, it's probably it's part of our education system, is they try to fit every student into a single box. Um, that's why I don't like things like a Texas. We have common core and stuff like that. Because as long as all students can pass this one test, then we're good. Well, what about the students that could have gone much further? And what about the students that aren't quite there? Like you have to teach to the student and not to a test. And so um that that's kind of how I've always been. I've all I'm also a very hands-on guy. Don't give me a book and say learn it this way. I want to get into it. Okay. When I when I started my garage door company, the very first thing I did was I went out with our installers and to learn what they go through on a daily basis. I don't want any business that we start for me to not understand at least the fundamentals of what it takes to execute that particular trade well. Um, I may not know the exact troubleshooting efforts to make sure that that operator is working right, but I at least understand the basics. And um so yeah, that's that's I think that's where it comes from. Um and and I and I don't have quit in me. Uh, I don't even understand that. I calm oftentimes I'll have families, uh family and friends will say, You need to relax, you need to just unplug and just and I try to explain to them I that's not me. What you call, what you say, if you say you you just need to go sit on a couch and watch some TV or whatever, for me the entire time that show's on, I'm thinking about how I could have been productive during this time. And it's something that I can't explain, but it's a constant, it creates more stress to know that family and friends care so much about me that they think that I'm stressed out because I work so hard than the actual work that they think causes me stress. It's ironic. I can't explain it, but that's just the reality. And so I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

I know that I I know that exact feeling. So we're we're right there. I have the same, the same problem.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, even when I don't have work to be done at the house, there's work to be done on the ranch. I have a 60-acre ranch and we have animals on it, and there's stuff to be done. There's always something to need to be done. I was up at, as we talked about in the backstage at backstage, I was up at 3 a.m. checking the retaining wall that we had put in to stop floodwaters from you know infiltrating our new home to make sure it's working, you know? And uh, yep, so that's the reason why I've been up since three. But so that's just yeah, that that hopefully that answers your question. But that's kind of how it's always been for me. It's how my brain works.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure. Uh I'm I'm very similar in that. I've I've talked about it on the show a few times. Like I I got into doing uh residential rehabs back in, you know, after the crash in 2008. And on every on every project that I did, on every house that I did, I I did one of the trades. Right. Like because I wanted to know what went into that so that I knew what uh, you know, if this was a good bid or not a good bid, or if I could evaluate the contractor and that the sub that was gonna be doing it. And you know, like I just need it's knowing enough, right? You gotta know enough, right? And uh and once you know enough, it's helpful.

SPEAKER_02:

It's also helpful to know too on a personal level. Last night I spent all day yesterday. My sister-in-law moved on to our ranch because her uh unfortunately her her husband passed away, and she's just not gonna be able to uh make life happen uh on her own outside with with the house that they were left with, she was left with and stuff. So she's selling that house, she's moving on to our ranch, and I have a barn dominium up front that I had to do some remodeling on. And so yesterday I played electrician. Uh, I played um, I hung a bunch of blinds throughout the whole house to give some privacy. Um, I I, you know, a couple of trade. I'll be a plumber later on today, uh, changing out some uh and it's it's not because I know all these trades perfectly. I just know enough to get little things done. And my wife, what's funny too, because when she sees me doing it, she's like, How do you know how to do that stuff? And I'm like, it's not that I don't know how to do it. Most of the time I just want to pay somebody to do it because I there's other things I could be productive on. I don't want to spend my time doing that. And uh, you know, and I have a bunch of buddies in trades, so I could just call on them and say, Hey, how can I pay you to do this? You know, so um yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But just the the will in a in a in a in a YouTube video will get get you get you a long way a lot of times, right?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, when we get off this call, I'm gonna be looking up a two uh we have a we have a backup vehicle at our house for when one of our vehicles is down getting maintenance or whatever, and I have to change the battery. Well, the battery happens to be in the trunk, and there's a funky way to have to back. So when I get off this call, I have it on my calendar to look up on YouTube how to replace the battery in a 2015 Cadillac, you know, whatever car that is, ATS or whatever, you know. Uh so anyhow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. It it it works. Now, the the company DT DT roofing at you'd you'd mentioned it had been around for some years. It it was, you know, kind of did two million a year. Like that was the and and that to me, that's a like that's an owner operator making a good living. Yeah, right? Yeah. It's uh and I know a lot of guys like that, a lot of gals like that, that that are like they they're making a good living for their family with this. And what were what were two or three of the first problems that you saw from that from when you when after you became a salesman and got to that, what would you say, 3.7 and into the 5.8. As as you were starting to get it like out of that owner-operator stage, what were two or three of the first things that made the most impact? I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors. I talk to contractors every day that feels stuck. Not because they're not working hard, but because they're missing the structure to grow without chaos. Or their culture's falling apart because their team's unclear, unaligned, or just burned out. And when change hits, they're reacting instead of leading because time and priorities aren't under their control. Day 41 Thrive helps to fix that with proven strategies for growth, culture, and leadership that actually work. Ready to thrive beyond the storm? Visit the link in the description or visit the Roofing Success Podcast website on the sponsors page to start your journey today. What were two or three of the first things that made the most impact?

SPEAKER_02:

Ironically, me getting out of sales. Um so in that transition of me being in sales and over sales, over over sales and marketing, and then becoming half owner of the company, I approached my partner and said, I think I need to get out of sales. And he said, Are you crazy? You know, we had five salesmen at the time, I was one of them, and I was half the revenue. And he said, I just gave you half my company, and now you want to get out of sales. And I said, No. The reason why I need to is because I could be more efficient with my time and hire more salesmen and teach them the way I was doing it, and we can grow faster. I said, at the time at the rate that we are right now with me being in sales, uh my daily, my day looked like this. I'd get up around six o'clock, six fifteen. I'd go into work, I'd be a salesman all day, I'd come home, have dinner with the family, then I'd go sit at the kitchen table with my laptop open, and I would order any of the roofs that I had, my staff had. I would handle all the supplements for everyone, making sure that that was all taken care of. And um, I wouldn't get into bed until like one o'clock, and then I would start all over again the next day. So I basically told them, I was like, I have the ability to do this. I we're just not gonna grow if I continue to do it this way. So I need to hire more salesmen and then teach them. And so that's exactly what we did. Uh, I got out, it was it was the year of COVID. So fortunately, and I say fortunately, many of my now salesmen uh or my colleagues, uh, they lost their job due to COVID. Uh, one of them was a uh was a radiologist. Well, it turns out that when people aren't outside playing, they're not breaking their bones and nobody needs to look at them, right? And so his the hospital he worked for let him go. Great personality, great uh integrity. Uh, I knew him from church, so I knew he, you know, faith was important to him. So, you know, and that's it, that's actually a little nugget that I'll leave for your audience is don't always hire people for what they've done in the past. Hire them for things you can't train on, right? Hire for things like good moral character, integrity, willing to work hard, good time management, stuff like that. You could teach them how to sell your product, but when you hire somebody that's already sold before, oftentimes you have to, well, one of the things you have to ask yourself is why are they available for you to hire them? Maybe they were not very good at all and they got fired, which you can't really find out if they got fired. You know, you call the other company, they can't disparage them, right? Or maybe the company that they worked for was not a great company, and they're gonna bring some of those bad habits into your culture. You'll see behind me our four, our our uh company core values quality, culture, community, and integrity. Those are all very important to us. And so have bringing somebody in that could potentially soil that is not good. So most of our sales guys, I think we have like 20, only two of them ever sold a thing in their life. And uh, one of them was a in a billboard construction crew boss, lost his business during or his job during COVID because uh people weren't paying for advertisement on billboards when there's no vehicles on the road because no one's out on the road. So 16-year career done overnight. He came on board, he's been consistently one of my top producers. Four million dollars in one year, uh, I believe is his top, you know, I'm sorry, 3.5 million. And um, he's now one of our territory managers, leading a team of salesmen in one of our territories. Um, so it's about finding people for qualities that you can't um you can't train on. And that was probably the biggest change within our company when we went from that mom and pop to you know, a slightly mid sized company was realizing that I'm not going to be able to do it all and remain efficient. So let me back away, work on the business instead of. In the business. And that year, the the next full year, we literally doubled our revenue by doing that. And so, of course, my partner, you know, he's just like, what? Like, how did this happen? I was like, you just gotta trust me. So um, so yeah, that was probably the biggest aha moment for us was, you know, let's build and then we've used that same model to expand into new markets. You know, there are some companies that say, well, we we are out of A county and we serve B, C, and D counties, but they still only run their business out of A County. And then when they look at their revenue at the end of the year, they wonder why 90% of their revenue came from A county, right? And if they were to actually open up locations in B, C and D and have salesmen that are hyper focused on those areas. They're not allowed to sell in the others unless there's a major storm and then we all blitz it for 60 days and then go back to our respective territories, then you can create that 90% number in all four of the of the counties. And so that was the aha moment, the secondary aha moment that we had just in the last 18 months was we got to stop saying we serve Johnson and Parker and Erath and Somerville County when 90% of our revenue comes from Hood County. Let's create teams in those areas, open up offices, have brick and mortars so people recognize us, get our guys involved in the local chambers with the realtors, with the insurance agents, with the property managers. And it's worked really well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's uh I love that. It's not just we serve the areas served on your website, is what I'm hearing there, right? Like it's a good thing. Yeah, because people will load up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, people will load up on their website. We serve this county, this county, this county, or this city, this city, this city. I'm like, do you really serve them or will you are you willing to take calls from them? Like that's basically who we were is we were willing to take calls from those counties and say we served it because they touched the county that we're at where we uh we headquarter out of. But truth be told, we weren't really serving them. We were providing good work when they called us. But and so now it's an entirely different situation. You know, Parker County, when we opened up that office, our very first uh thing we did was we reached out to the local malt shop. It's literally called the malt shop in Weatherford. And we knew that it was a local place that locals loved. And so we reached out and we said, we asked the owner, we said, Where uh what is the slowest day of the week for you? And they're like, Wednesdays, Wednesdays by far. Like, great. So in two Wednesdays, DT Roofing would like to buy all the malts from 11 to 1. And we want you to put it up on your Facebook page and we'll put it up on ours, and we'll just make this place, you know, busy on that Wednesday. You would not believe the line that the the foot traffic and the the people just driving through, going through the drive-thru just to get their free malt. But they all experienced, they all got a chance to talk to one of our guys and it get introduced to us and what have you. That's the type of community stuff that we love doing is getting in front of people, shaking their hands, telling them in person a little bit about because yeah, you can do the ads, you can do the Facebook uh ads, sponsored ads and stuff like that. But nothing beats me standing in front of you and telling you our story, telling you what we offer, you know, why we're different, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

And the other part of that, and I I believe this wholeheartedly, is that when you do those things, the other parts of your marketing work better.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah. Because then when they they remember talking to that nice young man at that malt shop thing, and oh yeah, there's his ad. You know what, John, you need to call that boy because we told him we'd call him within the next 45 days, you know. And so it kind of reminds them on what topics or conversations that they had already. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that a lot of contractors struggle early on in uh in in in getting in there and they're looking for that the, you know, they they get they get the home advisor leads, they try to get on angie or networks or thumbtack and all these different things. They're they're trying to do SEO, they're trying to do Google ads, they're trying to do Facebook ads, they're just looking for that thing. To me, the thing they most miss most often is community involvement, that's it. Relationships. Uh and what would you tell a a company that has that doesn't do a lot of community involvement, but they're like, man, I really feel like this is the way that we should do business. What are some what's a strategy or some tactics that they can execute that will start to get them that traction in their community?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I'd say at the professional level, start connecting with people who need who are professionals who need your business in order for them to be successful. Because the more tentacles you can put out there in the home service world, the better chance you have on leads coming in and keeping the leads coming in constantly. You know, I've I've I've said it from stage at RoofCon, uh, you know, it's not what you do when the storm hits, it's what you did before the storm got there that makes all the difference. You know, last year we had a uh storm in in uh May, and uh in June we had a$6.5 million month. Why? Well, because all those relationships came home to roost, right? So get in front of those real estate agents, get in front of those property managers, those insurance agents. If you're in a market that is primarily retail, the insurance agents may not be as big of a draw. However, they do appreciate when you're willing to go out and look at uh homes that they're about to write a policy for to make sure there's nothing wrong with that roof. And it gives you an opportunity to do some repair work or maybe even replace the roof. Uh, but those relationships make a big deal because remember, it's not just about the relationship, the the leads that they'll send you in their professional side, but when that storm hits, they live in the community. So we got calls, come look at my roof. And when you're done, my mom lives two streets over, look at her roof as well. And so you get all these people. So start there. Um, you know, get involved with the schools, find out how if there's a program that you guys can help sponsor. Um, maybe there's a uh, you know, I I know when I was a kid, my mom made just enough money for us not to qualify for the lunch program, but we were still poor. And so I appreciated that. And so one of the things we did is we went to one of our local schools and found out that there was a standing balance for a ton of the kids there. So much so that they weren't allowed to get lunch. They'd just give them up basically two pieces of bread and cheese in the middle and go, here you go. This is all we can give you because you have a balance. So we went through and we wiped that balance out. And there was, you know, social media posts about it and the people talked about it and stuff. Did we only do it because no? We love giving back. We love seeing uh, you know, uh we love helping. Uh, but it does make an impact in the in the local community when they know that that's what you're known for, is not just taking the money and just tucking it away, but sending it back out and letting it grow. Um, you know, the fruit. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

You talk, you spoke earlier, or you mentioned earlier, that you guys separated residential and commercial. Speak to that a little bit and the the thought process behind that. I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors. If you and your team aren't trained on AI yet, you're already falling behind. Competitors using AI are generating more leads, closing jobs faster, and running leaner. The AI Roofing Revolution gives your team the training to implement AI so you stay ahead, not scramble to catch up. Don't wait until you're losing. Get trained now at the link in the description or the sponsors page of the Roofing Success Podcast website. Speak on that a little bit and the the thought process behind that.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that yeah, and I'd love to even go a little deeper into all of our companies and why they're separate. But specifically with res yeah, with residential and commercial, what I learned early on was we were trying to be a residential company that dabbled in commercial. But when we started to take it seriously, we realized that everything about the two industries are different. You know, um, the sales cycle is entirely different, the uh pay structure for salesmen is entirely different, everything. And so we just decided, look, and then we also had a couple of situations where we we lost opportunity because the customer, because we're we're big on post-mortem. Like, ask the questions after you lose the deal. Why did we lose? Like, what was it about our proposal, our your experience with us, whatever, so that we can learn from that? Because you win when you learn. And so uh one of the things we learned was somebody looked us up and said, okay, it looks like they focus on residential. So I'm gonna go with this other company who seems to be hyper focused on commercial. And so we learned that was one of the decisions, uh, deciding factors. But ultimately, we started a commercial roofing company separate from our residential. We brought in leadership. Uh, that company has its own director, its own uh sales, uh sales director, and director over the operations has its own sales team, its own repair team. Um, and we're even its own estimators. In fact, I'm I'm going as far right now in that company. I hired a software developer, and we're writing a program that addresses some of the issues with getting in bid requests for new construction and the time that it takes to get those bids back out. I won't give too much away, but so it's a software solution that will not only benefit our business on the long term, but also a potential SaaS solution that will deliver back to the market to help other commercial roofing companies get their bids out quicker as well. And so constantly innovating, constantly thinking about better ways to grow. And so we just separated. There were two separate companies. And it it again came down to our identity. Who are we? Are we a commercial company? Are we a residential company, or are we both, but we're just separately, you know? And so DT commercial roofing systems and DT Roofing are two entirely different companies. And um, that's exactly why we separated our construction company, Kingdom Builder Construction and Guardian Seamless Gutters and Patriot Garage Door and Service. They are all DT companies, which when you have a good brand in your area, DT Roofing, when you launch a new product and you follow it with a DT company, people automatically trust it because they already know those guys that that roofing company are involved and they're doing awesome. So I'm gonna give them a call, uh, you know, to check out my garage door. And uh we did that because I learned early on that if you try to be, you know, gyms, roofing, gutters, painting, and construction, you really don't have an identity at all. You think that your customers are gonna be impressed by the fact that you can do it all. And what the customer actually sees is that this guy has no identity. What does he do really well? Because my roof is leaking, and I don't need the guy that does painting really well, that dabbles in roofing, to be the one up there trying to figure this thing out. So Randy's roofing is probably gonna get the business over Jim's roofing, siding, painting, and construction because there's no identity there. So we decided if we're gonna do any particular trade separately, we're gonna make it its own company that allows us to also follow the PL and make sure it's actually profitable, that we're not just adding a trade onto our name that's sucking us dry. Maybe we suck at siding, maybe we don't need to be doing siding. And and our roofing company is doing really well and it's and siding is draining the roofing company's profits, right? And so when you have them as separate companies, then you know, should you be in this business or not? And then the final thing is if you do decide eventually to sell to private equity or what have you, you're not having to sell the whole thing. You just sell that piece. You know, maybe roofing is what you sold off. You could still maintain the other four companies and, you know, continue down that path. So there's a lot of good reasons why. Now it's a little bit more expensive to go that route at the beginning because yeah, it has to have its own staff. Where when you have it as all part of it, then the same staff members are kind of checking all the boxes, but you're not going to be very efficient at it most of the time. And I would challenge those out there that think that they're killing it, that that are pushing back on what I'm saying, just break out your PLs um by those trades and see if you're actually profitable at all of them. Or if there's one that's the outlier that you really need to be focusing on and just build that brand really well.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's it's very impactful. It's there's a lot of contractors that that that struggle when they go too wide with things, right? And that brand identity comes back in. Um and and that uh what I heard from you is that you're using the brand I the brand equity that you've built over the years with DT companies or with DT roofing to kind of give that new one a little jump start, right? Like we're we're gonna give it a little push, we're gonna give it a little push, and then we're gonna we're gonna see if this is a viable business on its own.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say for those that don't think that that's the case, the first year that we launched our garage door company, Patriot Garage Door in Service, a DT company, it did over a million dollars in revenue. And those are sold at like twelve hundred dollars a pipe pop, right? Um this year, this year it'll do three million in revenue. And um, and so it does absolutely matter um how you connect them. I also wouldn't create them separately and then name them the after the parent company. Like we did that a little differently with commercial because DT commercial roofing systems and DT roofing, there's still a DT in there. Uh, we only did that because roofing's still an element. And so anyone that were to look us up would say, well, they're really it looks like they're killing it on the residential side, and now their commercial is starting to pick up. Commercial will do 12 million of that revenue this year. And and and we're a newer, newish commercial company. We ended up getting our jump start a couple of a little bit less than two years ago by uh implementing a program that uh sales transformation group, uh Ryan Groff, what he created a um, I like to call it a business in a box, but it's uh a program that helps commercial or residential roofing companies who want to get into commercial launch a commercial roofing company. And it worked perfectly. Like we followed exactly the steps, and it wasn't that expensive either. So we were really blown away that it it worked as well as it did. But here we are now a couple of years later, and it's a$12 million business on its own. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So those, you know, the right, the right training will always jump can can always jump start you, right? Getting the certain fundamentals in place and having someone that's been through it and and and being able to to execute on that gets you now. Let's get that. Now we're at now we're now we're already to second base, right? Now we get now we just gotta get home, right? Like now we just gotta, you know. Um I wanted uh to speak on that, the brand and then the trust. Now you've also recently become the CEO of the good contractor list, um, which is uh uh well you can explain it a little bit better than I can, but a directory of of companies of uh that are trusted uh to do good work in a in in their area. Um how did that come about?

SPEAKER_02:

Great question. So uh so John Stuart Hill, he's the founder of the company. He started the good contractors list in 2011 because he was sick and tired of contractors taking advantage of homeowners. He saw, he sold yellow page ads at the time and would hear horror stories of contractors that would either sell a customer something they didn't need when they're a simple repair would have fixed it or and and gloat about it, or they just weren't good guys that'd walk off with deductibles, they'd walk off with down payments. Um, you know, in the contracting world, the way we're represented is the guy in a jumpsuit on the five o'clock news who took$11,000 from an elderly lady, right? And so he was sick and tired of that. So he took a huge risk, first in the industry to ever do anything like this, and to say, I'm going to create a safe community of contractors that are not only vetted by us, but we're willing to back every job they do with a monetary value. At the time in 2011, it was a$10,000 guarantee. Inflation has caused that now to be a$25,000 guarantee. But the way I got involved was in 2019, I heard his commercial on the radio and I thought, that's brilliant. We're a good contractor. We always do the right thing. This could be a differentiator between us and our competitors when we're sitting in front of the customer because everybody sounds the same in front of a customer. We have this many five-star reviews, we have this platinum, this or this master elite, that, or you know, this accolade or that accolade, and the customer's going, oh, that's nice. And they're thinking in the back of their head, that's what the last two roofers or last two plumbers or whatever told me. And so when you're able to say we're also members of the good contractors list, where every single job we do, including this one, is backed by a$25,000 guarantee from a third party, that builds instant trust for the homeowner. And what the homeowner is really trying to do when they're interviewing contractors is figure out who's the least risk, right? Because they wouldn't be calling you if you didn't somehow have some accolades that made you sound like you were a good roof or a good HVAC guy, whatever. They want to see who, which one do I feel the best about? And so when you lead with that, that's almost a no-brainer for the homeowner. If this guy doesn't do exactly what he said he's gonna do, this third party is gonna come in and make it right. And so I got on the list in 2019. Two other of my companies are on the list as well. And I saw a huge uptick in the from my sales team on um the comfort that the customer felt when they heard about that. When they, you know, and so I I immediately approached the the founder and I said, Why is this not nationwide? Because this was only a DFW-based solution at the time. And he said, Randy, I'll be honest with you, I don't even know what it would look like to take it nationwide. I built this in DFW. And I was on it was honest, but he just wasn't ready yet. He was going through some health issues at the time and just he just wanted to just focus on what he was doing. And uh, over several years of prodding and what have you, he finally decided he brought on a CEO that came from that world and always and thought this is what was missing in the world that he came from, because he he came from the home advisor, the Angie world. And he said, This was was always missing because we would sell leads to contractors, but the homeowner didn't the only time the homeowner got to choose the contractor was to uh get five guys that are calling them trying to bid their the job, and it was like, let's choose the guy that seems the least sleazy or what have you. And so now they get to go to a website and choose from a list of contractors that have already been pre-vetted for them, and every single one of them has the guarantee. So I came on as the COO to take the company nationwide. That's as simple as that. I I believe in it so much. Uh fortunately, within my current my companies that I own locally, we have amazing leadership in place. They don't need me to hold their hand. I'm not big on micromanaging. I hire people because I trust them. And um, and so they're doing an amazing job. It gives me an opportunity to grow something else. And uh since I came on about coming up on three months, we're now in 18 new states. Um, since we've uh been in business, we've backed more than five billion dollars worth of jobs from our contractors, and we just continue to grow. And so, yeah, that's the good contractors list and why I decided to come on as a COO.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's cool, man. Um, you know, it really is a trust thing with with with homeowners, right? With consumers, with and and so it makes a big difference to to be that trusted contractor in the area. Um what would you say to the roofing owner that that kind of feels stuck at their current level, but they know they got more? They know they they they know that they have it in them to to take it to the next level. What advice would you give that contractor?

SPEAKER_02:

I would say they're probably fall into two camps. Either they're doing too much or they're not doing enough. And they can only be the one to tell you that, right? So I'm a big, I'm a big believer in as an entrepreneur, you wear as many hats as you can until you can afford not to. And then when you can afford not to, be very intentional about the people that you hire and the positions that they're responsible for. Nobody in my company has to question what their responsibility is. And when you hire somebody and then you're very vague about what their goals are, and you're either going to get somebody who is not going to do their job efficiently or they're going to leave because they weren't led. And so I would say if you fall into the camp where you feel like I want to grow, but I, you know, but and you know in your heart's heart that you're not doing everything you could be doing, wearing more hats to make it happen, then get out, get out of bed before nine and get out there and make it happen and grind. If you're that guy that says, I am doing too much, I was this guy. I'm doing too much. And if I were to hand a few of these hats off, we could probably do more um efficiently than do that. Start and and start with uh, you know, sales obviously helps, but you have to make sure that processes like your marketing is solid, whether you're bringing that in-house or you're hiring a company, um you have to make sure that all of the boxes are checked in order to be a successful company. Just showing up and being able to do roofs well isn't enough. That's the base, that's the that's the entry level now. It used to be, and yeah, I know you I noticed you smile, but when our grandfather was, you know, in the work, uh in the workspace, the the the reason why people chose somebody was because of the quality of their work. That was a differentiator. Today, that's the bare minimum. That's the that's the foundation. You you're expected to be really good at your craft. So then what differentiates you is all the other stuff. Getting out there in the community, hiring good staff to understand their job and being efficient at it. Um so yeah, that's what I would say to those those people is to either get out there and work harder or take a few hats off your head and pass them off to somebody else and make sure that you can grow because growing, growing deep is important, but if you don't allow the width as well, you're going to burn out and you're going to uh essentially hang it up. And you might pass it off to a son that you know doesn't care about it as much as you did and run it into the ground.

SPEAKER_00:

It happens. That's self-awareness. I love the framing there, the self-awareness. Do I need to take off more hats or wear more hats? That that's fantastic advice. Randy, thanks for your time today. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

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Jim Ahlin

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