Limitless Roofing Show
We give you a seat at the table as we interview Owners, CEO's, and key executives in roofing companies. Our goal is to equip you with key insights gleaned from these conversations so you can achieve mastery in your roofing business.
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Limitless Roofing Show
From Heart Attacks to Partnerships: A Roofing Owner's Journey to Sustainability
What happens when a roofing company owner faces his own mortality through a series of heart attacks that were repeatedly misdiagnosed? For Austin Watterson of Royal Roofing, this life-altering experience completely transformed his approach to business growth and sustainability.
Austin's journey begins with an unexpected background—starting as a Sonic Drive-in partner at just 19 years old before transitioning to roofing at 30. Unlike many in the industry who build their businesses through door knocking, Austin leveraged his natural talent for relationship building. "I've knocked less than probably 500 doors in my lifetime," he reveals, having built his company instead through strategic alliances, referral networks, and later, digital marketing.
The conversation takes a profound turn when Austin shares the story of his health crisis. For months, he experienced what doctors misdiagnosed as back pain and muscle spasms. These were actually multiple heart attacks affecting his thoracic spine rather than presenting with the stereotypical chest pain. "Sixty percent of heart attacks are in your back, not in your chest," Austin explains, hoping his story might save others who mistake similar symptoms for muscle issues.
This brush with mortality forced Austin to confront an uncomfortable question: what would happen to his business if he wasn't around to run it? The answer led him to completely rethink his approach to growth and ownership. "I'd rather have part of a watermelon than an entire grape," he shares, explaining why he's now pursuing mergers and partnerships to build Royal Roofing toward becoming a $100 million company within three years.
Austin's wisdom extends to all roofing business owners wondering how to scale their companies without burning out. His advice? Define your end goal, build systems that don't rely entirely on your presence, and don't be afraid to share ownership with the right partners. "Most guys in business, if they were to take a month off work, what would their company look like?" he challenges listeners to consider.
Ready to transform your roofing business from a one-person show into a sustainable enterprise that could survive without you? Listen now to discover why Austin believes the days of "working off Excel spreadsheets and Big Chief tablets" are over, and how the right partnerships might be the key to unlocking your company's true potential.
all right, welcome to the limitless roofing show, where we give you a seat at the table as we talk to roofing owners so that you can get the insights, tips, tools, tactics to take your company to the next level. And today I've got a personal friend, austin watterson, on the show and he's the owner of Royal Roofing. So, austin, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you for having me on when you guys reached out. I'm glad you guys invited me on. I'm glad to help and share some of what knowledge I do have to help others as well.
Speaker 1:That's what it's all about. I mean, we were talking a little bit before we went live, and if you're a roofing about your background, how did you get into roofing? How long have you been with Royal Stuff like that?
Speaker 2:Okay, so how I got into roofing? I was in the restaurant business before this. I actually was a partner in Sonic Dragons at 19 years old. They made me a partner in a location and then got multiple locations and I was about 30 years old and I sold out my partnership there and started researching industries and what I wanted to do next and definitely wanted to stay in business. I was a big operations guy within Sonic and so that's why I don't handle a lot of operations. And so I looked at roofing and actually went to work for a company and the first thing they gave me was a blue post-it note with an address on it told me to go start knocking, knocking doors. And I sat in that Ford truck of mine and what the hell do I do to knock a door and I'm supposed to look at their roof. Well, the first door I knocked on, the lady told me yes, so I didn't know what to do as a 10-12 pitch roof and I waited three hours for a manger to come over and show me what to do. So that's that was my now. They're now that company, the big private equity company, so in Minnesota. So, uh, they obviously did done something right to get where they're at now.
Speaker 2:But, uh, I shortly left that company and and figured out pretty quickly that business is business whether you're flipping hamburgers or selling roofing, business is business and numbers is numbers. So I branched out on my own with a friend of mine and I, and we'd done this together for a few years and we split up in 2014. I started oil and I got married in 2013, had twin girls and uh gained a stepson and we uh she was an, she was an insurance agent and then she left the agency in 2000 into 2016 and been working within the company as well for many years. So that's how we got started and and and you know I was I was good with working for someone, but I realized quickly there was a need to to build all my, all my. I didn't knock doors, never have knocked doors. Really I've. I've knocked less than probably 500 doors in my lifetime and it's all relationship driven and I've built this company on relationships and so my door knocking was getting on my phone and then, when social media blew up, social media was good for me, but we've grown and grown in several years and you know, I made a joke the other day when people ask about biggest contracts and I'm like, well, the biggest job ever done is not my biggest contract.
Speaker 2:My biggest contract is about half a million dollars. My biggest job ever done was about just under 2 million and I never signed a contract with the people, I just done the job. So insurance paid out 600,000. I handled everything, got it all taken care of and turned into almost 2 million. I never even signed a contract with them. So I've always done business on handshakes and all that and we've had to evolve over time. So that's the business evolution is real. We've had to evolve over time. So the business evolution is real. And you have to do things, sign contracts to protect all parties involved, and the days of working off of Excel spreadsheets and Big Chief tablets are over and there's still people that try to do that. But you limit yourself with with where you're at and you have to have systems and processes in place for everyone and draw a hard line on stuff and and you got to be able to, you know, protect the brand and that's that's been our biggest thing is protecting our brand no, that's good stuff.
Speaker 1:So I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize you were an operations guy at sonic yep, you got to figure out how to to stop roadblocks in any part of the business and improve systems and and, yep, that was the sonic sonic. I actually my. I was the what, 17 years old and I actually got third place in the Sonic Games in 1998 or 1997 in Las Vegas. I enjoy that. There's people that are still near and dear to me. They gave me an opportunity. I've had a job since I was seven years old. My family raced horses. I lived on the racetrack and grew up there and I had a job. I learned quickly at a young age that my parents didn't pay money, so if I worked for them I didn't make anything. So I had to go work for others to make money.
Speaker 1:So so let's talk about, let's talk about royal a little bit more. You started the business in 2013. It's 2025 now, at the time of recording this. I know you guys have come a long way and, since you're a process-driven guy, I'm sure you've got some solid operations. Where are you guys hoping to land revenue-wise within the next year and within the next three years?
Speaker 2:I know you've got some targets in the future within the next year and within the next three years. I know you've got some targets in the future Yep, so we're we're, you know, finalizing a merger, trying to spread out across Missouri Kansas a little bit more. But our goal is to add a merger to buy a couple more companies and, you know, possibly acquire and, and we got we have. There's some really, really good sales guys out there that have, you know, they've bounced around but they don't have an end goal. And there's been some guys that you know started their own companies. It's had good success, but they want the.
Speaker 2:The grind of trying to do it all yourself is hard. It's real hard and trying okay. Well, now I'm. I'm trying to be an operator. I got to go be a salesman. I got to be operator. I got to go be a salesman. I got to help deal with this problem and trying to run production and trying to find a five-tool player that can go run their jobs. You can't ask all your salesmen to run their jobs. So that's been the thing for us. We've been able to create systems and processes. And how do you create better quality? Because you have to protect the brand. If you don't protect the brand, you'll end up with three-star google reviews consistently yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:So are you guys? Are you hoping to grow this thing to be like a massive 100 million dollar year company, or are you hoping to camp out around 20 or 30 one day? What are you looking at?
Speaker 2:Our goals on that is, yeah, as we're trying to merge and acquire, our goal is to get to $100 million and I think that's going to take probably three years to do it. But you know it takes a little bit of ramping up, but we've got some things in place. Now we're going to get very aggressive, from commission structures to allowing other people to make money too. It's not all about making money for Royal, not making money for Abernathy Roofing. It's a matter of making money for allowing others to make great income too and be part of the goal of the future.
Speaker 2:Private equity is coming hot and heavy in the industry. I mean, outside of the emails and text messages and phone calls you get, you know, 27 times a week. I know a lot of guys in the business and talk to several people we know and respect and you know, at some point you know you, you jump in. Why did you start your company? Well, I was going to pass on. I want to build a roofing business to pass on to my family. Some people want to do that.
Speaker 2:But you look at the boomers out there that their businesses, their, their businesses, are given away because their kids and grandkids don't want their business. Kids and grandkids don't want their business. So I can create. I can create stuff to pass on my kids or I can create some generational wealth for for us and for for, hopefully, additional people within our company. When you know whether we partner with private equity or we sell to private equity, you know I mean that's the stuff we got to look at and that's, you know that's going to be. You know three to five years down the road when we get into more of that. But you know the goal is number one. You have to take care of your customers and you have to take care of your team. But yeah, that's our goal is to get to get to the a hundred million.
Speaker 1:That's great and do do your. I know you mentioned you don't knock doors really because you're you're just good at building relationships and strategic alliances and stuff like that. But what about your sales guys? Do they knock doors or are they? Is their whole strategy to go build relationships as well? So sometimes the best quarterbacks- are not the best coaches.
Speaker 2:sometimes the best quarterbacks are not the best coaches. Sometimes the best coaches were never a good quarterback, and so that's a, that's a thing that it comes easy to you building relationships. Not everybody can go out and build a good relationship and there's killer door knockers that will destroy me every day of the week if we're out knocking doors. I know that and so I got I use my strength and that's and that's out talking people and building relationships. So we have a sales guy that started last Monday. He's already filed 10 claims and legit damage on us. He got in some areas and we've pointed him there. He's outdoing everyone else already and so, yeah, our sales guy has guys knock doors.
Speaker 2:But we also have a lot, of, a lot of high quality leads that come in. You know I have a lot of realtors, a lot of insurance agents that send us work. Uh, we do. We spend quite a bit of marketing too from you know google, you know google lsa, uh, gmb, you got your facebook ads all. So we get a lot off of that stuff as well, and we have a lot of previous customers and just a lot of referrals from our existing customers.
Speaker 1:That's good stuff. So you guys are rocking and rolling. You're growing. You're growing your team working on a merger. You want to expand to become one of the biggest companies and you've been in this for over 10 years. What's one of the biggest challenges you've faced? Because guys listening to this may think, man, that's great, like I don't know how they're doing it. I'm freaking, you know, climbing Mount Everest over here and feel like I'm not making any headway. What's one of the biggest challenges you faced? And let's kind of work through.
Speaker 2:And so I had a previous business partner and that didn't work out so well and I went into the mindset I'm never going to have another business partner again. And I actually had a conversation one day and you know I'm 44 years old now and I had a guy tell me this, probably seven, about, probably six, seven years ago. He's like never do business, never going to a partnership with someone that's out to prove themselves. You need to go and be, and that's usually someone, a younger person, because you there's never. It's hard to compromise when you're, when you go, he goes. Age is just a number. But somebody that's more seasoned in business, in their 40s and 50s and 60s, they've been there, done that and they're going to be pushing to the same goal and understand that it there's always compromises, just just like a marriage, just like anything else. And so, to be honest with you, I was just going to be my wife and I. We're going to run the business all that Well.
Speaker 2:After a series of heart attacks two years ago, that changed my mindset and so, to get a little personal on that, I had to sit there in my in the hospital room before my quadruple bypass and tell my wife how, what needed to be done, business wise and family wise if I didn't make it through my surgery. And I told her there's a lot of people she can lean on, but when it came to the roofing business, to our company, only let one person help make any decisions. You take input from several of these people, but only let one person be part of the decision making and that's John Abernathy. And that's where we went with it and and you know that was our conversation and you know told her, you know I, just like everybody else, I didn't have a estate planning and a lot of that stuff in place. And and so that's where, after I had got got out of surgery and went back to work, you know, a few weeks later, and get get going again, it, it. It changed my mindset of how I was going to set my family up and it was irresponsible irresponsible of me to think I was going to dump this company on my wife to run it and be more than a mom and pop. And we had a great team of people and we still do and the care and the love and the compassion from that team that helped me recover. But at the same time, what are we doing with the company. I owe it to those people as well. I mean our team. I owe it to them to make sure their lives are not ruined. We have Brooke tomorrow. She celebrates her what seven-year anniversary with us. So you have people that you want to make sure they're taken care of along the way too.
Speaker 2:And so the struggle with business is what's your end goal with business? Is what your end goal? If you don't have an end goal, it gets muddy for you and trying to run a business by yourself like, oh, I can't afford to make that investment. Well, how many people don't have somebody answering their phones 24-7? I mean, you got to make those investments to do that, the speed to lead and take care of people. And you know you got it. Is that a good investment, not a bad, or good or bad investment?
Speaker 2:I spent three weeks at college, but I sure as hell have paid for a lot of college, a lot of learning lessons over the years, and I've dumped. You know, I've dumped 30, 50, 75,000 and stuff that didn't work out. I've dumped 150,000 and stuff that didn't work out. I've dumped $150,000 in stuff that didn't work out. So those learning curves I like to have all that money back, but I wouldn't have made more money because I learned from that mistake, if you don't learn from those things.
Speaker 2:But to answer that question, the biggest thing is trying to this day and age, a one-man show is hard. And I say you're trying to run your company. You have a few sales guys without putting in you know, 70, 80, 90 hours a week, it's hard to keep that company profitable. Keep your team going, support your sales guys and then you're allowing them to be the five tool person they are. But if they're trying to sell and run their jobs, something's going to suffer. So you got to have guys that can run production and let your sales guys go sell and let them do what they're good at. If you're good in production, not good at sales, and get in production, not get. Don't get in sales.
Speaker 2:But if I said for after surgery is, how do I change the trajectory of this company? Because if I end up with having another heart attack a year from now and dying, what is the trajectory? I have to fix that and don't go. So I took a step back and how would I start a new company again If I start at score zero? I'm not going to do it alone. I want to do it in multiple people. It's called snowball effect and it's true. You can go okay, I want a hundred percent of the profit, or do I want 50% of the profit? Do I want 25% of the profit? Because 25% of the profit could be the same money I'm making with less headaches and have a team and growth and sustainability is a huge word for me, and COVID was a real reason that we business evolved tremendously and you have to evolve with it.
Speaker 2:If you're trying to plan for this quarter or right now, for what you think is going to happen this year, private equity is already two years ahead of us. They're already planning two and three years out. What are they going to do? They're coming to these markets and, yeah, we have great branding. We have billboards everywhere. We do a lot of digital marketing.
Speaker 2:I've built this on relationships and we started spending more money marketing and all that, but it's you got to have the right people. You have to have all that. So my number one thing, though repeat again, is there's a power in numbers. There's a power to have not just a sales team. That's good, and I'm talking business partners with the same like-minded values, interests to take and traject forward, because there's a lot of guys that are really good. That's been in this business for a long time and there's still and there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 2:I got, I got a really good friend that he does six, 700,000 a year in sales and he enjoys what he does. He, he has one guy that helps him with stuff and he goes and does it and that's what he's happy with. I get that, I respect that. But for me that stops if I'm not here tomorrow, if I kill over again. That's why I'm leaving my family to set my family up to deal with. So that's not fair to them. And I say family, that's family up to deal with. So that's not fair to them. And not and I say family, that's not my wife and kids, that's my wife and kids and and the other people within the company is, yeah, they can go get a job somewhere else tomorrow, but that's not what we're after. I mean we, we want more for them. So for us, that's what we're we're trying to do. So for us, that's what we're we're trying to do.
Speaker 1:Man. So what was it like? Two things I want to get into. One is the heart attack and then the other thing of partnership. Cause I agree with you, I you know, Miller Whedon and I are business partners in the limitless roofing GPO, and I think I would have given up if I hadn't had a partner to bounce ideas off of, to pray with, to think things through with. It is so much weight on your shoulders to grow a business all by yourself and you can't come home and bring it to your wife every night either. I mean, she needs a break from that stress too, and so if you don't have anybody, it's pretty isolating. So I'm so aligned with you on that. But let's get back into the heart attack thing, man, because I'm 45.
Speaker 1:I've thought about this too. My grandfather had his first heart attack at 35 years old. He ended up having to get a quadruple bypass and he lived to be 84, I believe, or 83. But, um, what was that like man? How did you? What was that whole experience like of having a heart attack? Did you start feeling sick leading up to that? Or were there any warning signs?
Speaker 2:Well, I do share this with as many people as I can, because I had a series of heart attacks. It started at the end of January and went to May and I didn't know I was having heart attacks and I had a ton of them and what was going on was I thought I had pains, I was having back pain, I was having neck pain, where it's coming up here and like a pinched nerve. Any physical activity I mean I could, I mean I could walk, you know 50 yards, and all of a sudden I feel this pinched nerve in my back and I'd sit there, stretch it out and I mean it, it take. And one of the signs of of a heart attack is shortness of breath. I never had shortness of breath. It took my breath away. Cause it. You know, you get kidney punch and you just kind of clench your breath or get hit in the ribs. You kind of clench your breath. That's what it did to me. Never put two and two together.
Speaker 2:But I went to a chiropractor, all that. It slowly got worse and worse. I went to my primary care and she started giving me nerve pills and pain patches and all that. She never once I told her every symptom I had, but yeah, it was all back pain. So I started getting these like I thought they were muscle spasms. Well, between your shoulder blade and your spine is your thoracic spine. Well, your thoracic. I figured out when I was sitting in the hospital and the doctors walk in and it says University of Kansas Cardiothoracic. Well, cardiothoracic. I'm a dumbass. My thoracic that wasn't because my primary care actually sent me to physical therapy for back pain, so she failed me big time.
Speaker 2:And so my I uh actually was in Oklahoma city mother's day weekend, went down there actually by myself to see my horses, and I had Thursday night my son graduated. I had a massive heart attack that night. Uh, friday I had a. Stopped at Brahms in Tulsa and grabbed some ice cream and a sandwich and had a massive heart attack getting back in my truck that that night, in the hospital or in the hospital in the hotel, I had another. I had to go sleep in my truck sitting up and dumb as me, but I never once zero chest pain all in my back. And so I ended up with two more major ones that weekend, three more major ones that weekend, and my wife I did. I told my wife I go. I can see why people commit suicide over pain. I'm not committing suicide, but it makes more sense because I can handle a lot of pain but we can't get answers. My primary care kept on kicking me back, kicking me back. Anyway, she's like I got you a new doctor, you go.
Speaker 2:In Tuesday went in that morning, told the lady little five foot two, 80 pound redheaded doctor. I told her my symptoms and she goes it's your heart, I go, it's not my heart. And she goes it is your heart, I go. No, it's not my heart. She goes. Why do you say that I go? If it was my heart, I'd be dead by now. And this has been going on since January. And she goes let me do an EKG and then we'll go from there. And she did an EKG and she goes you need to have surgery today.
Speaker 2:So, we're going to try to. I got you, we're going to send you over to a different hospital and we're going to try to get some stents put in. And then I went and got stents put in. Well, I went to go get stents put in and as soon as they went in to start, they realized they couldn't. I had four blockages One was 95% and the other three was over 85. Transferred me to KU Med and they give me Plavix. I'd wait five days for surgery.
Speaker 2:So I was having small heart attacks while I was in the hospital and one of the doctors walked in and and he's like your EKG is crazy. I go, what do you mean? He goes, you've had a lot of heart attacks or you've had a lot of STEMIs. I'm like what's a STEMI? He goes. He goes, don't Google it, but it's a massive heart. It's your widow maker heart attack. I'm like, oh, okay, he goes. Yeah, you had a bunch of those, you've had a bunch of these. I'm like, okay, well, good to know, but I'm lucky I'm still here.
Speaker 2:So I tell that story not to be dramatic or any sympathy. I don't. I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm doing it to save other people though, because I was a complete idiot and not go get other opinions. I mean when that doctor could diagnose me that quick. My wife told me the same thing. I told her she was nuts because I trusted our primary care. I was going to and all I ever knew heart attacks. Your heart's right here. No, your heart's connected to your thoracic spine. That's a. That was a muscle spasm. Use your heart's right here. No, your heart's connected to your thoracic spine. That's a. That was a muscle spasm. Use your heart having a spasm. So, talking to doctors, 60 percent of heart attacks are in your back no, they're not in your chest.
Speaker 2:Yes, 60, don't matter. You or miller could be. You guys are both good, healthy dudes and cholesterol is a big part of your heart health and you can have high cholesterol and look healthy like you look right now, and it's a lot to do with your cholesterol. But what they told me was there's a reason why a lot of guys in their 40s and 50s have massive heart attacks and die because it's never chest pain. They think there's a muscle spasm in their back, there's back pain. They don't doesn't correlate in their head to go to the hospital and I can tell you a massive heart attack.
Speaker 2:You are in full sweat mode within about a minute and you can't hardly breathe. You don't want to breathe. It takes your breath because you're trying to hold your breath to make the pain not be as painful as it is. So I never thought it takes your breath away or shortness of breath. No, it takes your breath away, and so I try to explain that to people. There's a difference and I guess if you're a technical person, then it's shortness of breath and taking your breath away is two different things. But I tell everybody that story. What my doctor told me too is 60% is in your back. That story. What my doctor told me too, is 60% in your back. People die from massive heart attacks all the time in their 40s and 50s because they'd never realized the heart attack.
Speaker 1:So what happens when you're having the you said massive heart attack a few times? To me that's like your chest starts killing you and you keel over.
Speaker 2:But you're saying, you're sitting there in your truck, you start having a lot of back pain in your upper back. That's what it originally started, as it felt like I had a pinched nerve at the top of my spine, right there at the base of my neck. That's where it started at, and then it got to right between my shoulder blade and my spine. It got, it got, you, could, you could. It felt like a, a muscle spasm, and it got to where you feel like I realized that there's a, uh, there's a pressure point right there that if you press on the pressure point long enough, it helps alleviate some of that pain. I figured that out because I'd have my wife and kid, my daughters, do that for me when it got that bad. Could you imagine if I would have died right there in front of my one of my daughters at the time of nine years old, sitting there pushing on dad's back and I I kill over and I think he, I think I got saved to to for my kids, not for myself but for my kids, because that would have run their lives and and so that's yeah, no, none in the chest is on the back.
Speaker 2:So it started going down my spine, my thoracic spine further the worse they got, and it was just, I mean, to this day you feel stuff and you still like, is that a heart attack coming on or is that? But never gets it. Never. I never had those muscle spasms Anytime you get a pain in your back, but it was. It would come. I mean it was like a bad muscle spasm and then just go away and I was fine. I mean, the one couple of those in Oklahoma city lasted an hour and a half to two hours. Oh yeah, yeah, I was sitting in Midwest City at a 7-Eleven for an hour and a half and it was 95 degrees out and I was wringing wet and I kind of thought I was just getting to be a bit of a sissy, because I've always been able to handle pain, but that was one of the pain most painful things I ever had in my life.
Speaker 1:So it's extreme pain, shortness of breath, or you're like kind of trying not to breathe to lessen the pain, and then it just goes away within an hour, hour and a half.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of them last, some of them were five or 10 minutes and you were fine. Most majority of them was was you know, under 10 to 15 minutes, and you go away and go back, go back to your day. I mean, I'd have to sit down in a chair and once it got out, once it it like it just went away. That's what's weird and I never crazy.
Speaker 1:How high was your, how high was your cholesterol you know what I don't remember? There's probably up like 250, 260, something pretty high yeah, more than likely.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's probably crazy, it's, it's. I'm not too bad at my. My cholesterol now is a little bit high, but not too bad. So you know I'm on cholesterol medicine but oh gotcha, you know, you know part of that. I mean, yeah, it was it was crazy and I and I share that story. Like I said, I don't need the sympathy.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:You know, my sympathy needs to be with my kids and my wife, but I need, I want to encourage others to pay attention to those symptoms. So and I've seriously, the more I've talked about it, the more people you realize. The more I've talked about, the more people you realize. People's like man. I wish I would have known that, because I was around somebody that had a massive heart attack and died, didn't know it was a massive heart attack and they were just having pains. So you know CPR can help save somebody. So most of the people in our company is certified in CPR now. So doing those things goes a long ways.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a big deal, man. Most guys, guys in particular are really not dialed into their health and it's something that miller and I my business partner and I are really passionate about. And I mean we've had both of us have had extensive lab work done. We've worked with different naturopath doctors, health clinics, and you know it's just, you know you only get one chance. It's not like you get to hit the rewind button any of this. If you haven't seen a doctor in the last few years, go get checked out, get some extensive lab work done, find out what your numbers are. You know if there's anything preventative you need to do.
Speaker 1:I gave a talk on this issue about six months ago at one of Randy Brothers events and I gave a talk on faith, family, fitness and finances like the four major areas of your life, and the fitness one. I broke down my take on fitness and supplements and health and all this stuff and started getting into what I have for breakfast and you know, eggs with olive oil and this and that and the other and um, and I just kind of challenged the crowd. Like man, if you're eating out every day and you're busy, I get it, but like you're going through McDonald's for the third time that week. That stuff's killing you, man. You know we weren't. God didn't create us to live off this fried, processed stuff.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:So the more natural you get, the more whole foods, things that are not processed at all. I mean, today for lunch I had Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts and, granted, they were really good. I think they're probably covered in maple syrup and sweet potatoes and chicken. I mean it was a very healthy, very tasty meal, but nothing was processed. So anyway, I appreciate you sharing that story. What did that do to you from just a life perspective? You're a business owner, you're a man of faith, you've got a family, you've got people that depend on you. How did that change the way you look at your day-to-day life?
Speaker 2:I still get pretty wrapped up in our business and business goals. My habit's gotten a lot better. I don't exercise near as much as I should. I mean most of my stuff's walking. I don't go to the gym or anything like I probably should. Uh, I had chipotle for lunch just before we got on the on the call here so, but I only ate about five bites that's. I'm still getting it, but I don. But I don't consume what I used to for sure. Man, I'm about 140 pounds down from my highest in 2019. No kidding, yeah, I was about four bills at one point.
Speaker 2:A lot of that I'll blame myself, self-induced. I had a bad family history of heart issues and health issues, but you know I have nobody to blame but myself on all that either. So it's easy to try to blame it on somebody else. But when you're laying there and you just got spatchcocked in the hospital, that's what I call it. You know how you spatchcocked in the hospital, that's what I call it. You know how you spatchcock a chicken. I was just that's what it felt like when they had me rip my breastbone ripped open and and surgery. So it was. It wasn't the best thing in the world, so don't want to go through it again, but I'd hate to see other people go through it yeah, no, it's good stuff, but yeah, it's, it's for the people around us.
Speaker 2:So, though and direction, it was nice because the company ran really well without me and without my wife and if other business owners. If it would have been a year before that, royal may not be in business today, but I had a good team and good things in place and was able to take care of a lot of and I say not in business, we wouldn't be where we're at.
Speaker 2:So we would have survived fine, but it would have been a different trajectory. But most guys in business, if they were to take a month off work, what would their company look like? That's a big question. What? What did your company look like if you took a month off work and it maintained sustained or drop? I mean you. You know that you have big effect in your business day in and day out. So everything should take a step back if you're not in the day-to-day. But the goal is to find the people and replace you with somebody better than you and I've.
Speaker 2:I am currently putting those teams together and as we're opening additional offices, we've got guys with taking profit shares, you know, taking a big profit share. All those offices we're going to open and and and a lot, of, a lot of opportunity for growth and have some end game for guys. It's never, never realized that the opportunity's out there for them, so used to like well, I gotta eat what I kill and what's my? What's this look like when I can't climb on roofs anymore? What, uh, what, what's? Guys love the roofing business and they bounce around to a couple different companies and they've never you know whether they had the money. They didn't have the they didn't want to go start their own company, or somebody that started their own company is just overwhelming. There's. There's people I know that, just like me, is man.
Speaker 2:When you're trying to run a company, I mean, yeah, you can go make really good money. When you're trying to run a company, I mean, yeah, you can go make really good money, but you're stuck doing it all and you're working until one, two, three o'clock in the morning trying to get paperwork done. Then you're back up gotta go meet the crew on a, get a build started and there's not enough hours in the day. And so, well, how am I supposed to give up? If I partner with someone, I'm going to give up half my income. Well, that's so short-sighted. Now, if I'm a partner, someone I'm going to make still make the same income, but less responsibilities. We're going to grow, and so that's where we're at right now is where we're going to go grow at a rapid level. I held back our. I held back our growth, so now I want to change that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm with you on that, because we talked about it before and we get approached by investors and buyers and stuff like that for our business as well, and the conversation is always OK well, how can we maximize value together? What do you want? What's the valuation, what are the numbers look like and all this stuff. But it comes back to one simple concept and that it for me personally. I'd rather have a part of a watermelon than an entire grape. I know by myself if it, if it's all mine, all the money's coming to me. Dylan McCabe can make some sort of impact, but if I align with the right people and build a dream team of leaders and partners, I may have a piece of that watermelon, but that may be 20 times the size of the amount that I would have had if I would have stuck with the grape what I call the grape mentality. So I think it's just really powerful when you get other people leading the charge like that with you. I think it's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so do you want to eat the whole watermelon in one bite, or you want to eat the grape in one bite? Go eat your grape, because it's a lot easier to maintain to eat one bite at a time. And if you try to, that's just like business. If you go and that grape, you can go and take one bite at a time. That watermelon, it takes lots of bites to get through it all. So look at your business that way too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so true. Well, man, we're coming up on the end of our time. Do you have any? If there was one thing you could say to other roofing owners listening to this, what would that be? What would be a parting piece of advice? What?
Speaker 2:would that be? What would be a parting piece of advice? You know, probably one big thing is sustainability. How are you going to sustain? What's your end goal? Is you got to figure that out?
Speaker 2:And if it's not, if that's what your vision is, you need to get with the right people. Surround yourself with like-minded people, accountability partners or other people in the business. You can, you can, you know, talk to someone that can mentor you and and there's, there's nobody better than someone else that's been there, done that. Don't go hire a business coach that does not know this business in and out. They haven't had the experience experience. Don't go hire someone from a different industry to be a business coach. Don't do that. It's a bad idea.
Speaker 2:So how are you going to sustain and maintain that's you know. If you want to just some people want to jump in the business, make some money and get back out in a couple years. More power to them. But through and go, grow a business and you have opportunity to, to, to know that you can grow it with more people then go find those people to merge and grow with, or sell or or take, take a smaller stake in it, to get a. Get that, that grape or that watermelon. So that's kind of my big, big advice.
Speaker 1:It's good stuff. Growing a business, it's like climbing Everest. Nobody climbs Everest alone. It's great advice, well, austin, from Royal Roofing man. Thanks a lot for joining us. Hey, thank you, I appreciate you having me on.