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
Branding as Sweet as Honey: Adam Rossman's Standout Roofing Strategy
What happens when you dare to stand out in an industry where everyone looks the same? Adam Ross of Honeybee Roofing discovered the answer when he traded in traditional red, white, and blue branding for bright yellow trucks that literally stop traffic.
"When I had one truck, people told me they saw our trucks everywhere," Adam shares, describing how his distinctive branding transformed his business visibility in Rockford, Illinois. Within just 30 days of rebranding, their SEO performance skyrocketed, proving that sometimes the boldest moves bring the sweetest rewards.
But Honeybee Roofing's success stems from something much deeper than eye-catching colors. Adam has built his $2.25 million company on relationship foundations that most contractors overlook. While competitors chase storms hours away, Adam focuses on serving his local community with what he calls "unreasonable hospitality." His philosophy is simple yet profound: "We treat our clients like neighbors because they are neighbors."
This relationship-centered approach has yielded remarkable results. Adam recounts how a single relationship led to a contract for 14 duplexes—a job that generated more revenue than their entire previous year combined. "I had two hours of work into that specific project but years of work into the relationship," he explains, revealing the compounding power of consistent connection.
Beyond business strategy, Adam shares candid insights about balancing entrepreneurship with family life and faith. From establishing financial systems to creating meaningful routines, he demonstrates that success comes from small, consistent actions rather than grand gestures. His humility shines through when he advises: "Be open to the fact that other people know things you don't."
Whether you're a roofing contractor looking to differentiate your brand, an entrepreneur seeking sustainable growth strategies, or a business owner navigating work-life balance, Adam's journey offers practical wisdom you can apply immediately. Ready to transform your approach to business relationships and create a brand that truly stands out?
all right, welcome to the limitless roofing show, where we give you a seat at the table as we talk with roofing owners so that you can get the tips and the tactics and the insights you need, hopefully, to take your business to the left, to the next level, because our, our audience is roofing owners. So today we've got adam ross with Honey Bee Roofing and he's doing some really unique things to stand out in his market. We're going to get into that. But, adam, welcome to the show man.
Speaker 2:Thanks a bunch, Dylan. Good bee hat and good to spend some time with you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for those of you listening, I forget to do this pretty much every time, but we run a GPO, a group purchasing organization. We're kind of like Costco you join, you save. It's that simple. We negotiate deals with SRS, beacon, crms, bookkeeping all the things you spend money on in your business. We negotiate group discounts for our members, and Adam is one of our members. We negotiate group discounts for our members and Adam is one of our members. If you want to learn more about that, it's totally free to join and the website is LimitlessRoofingGroupcom. All right, so let's get into today with you, adam. Tell us a little bit about your company. Where are you at? Where are you located? What's your target revenue this year, maybe in three years? Just kind of big picture for Honeybee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're out of Rockford, illinois, which is northern Illinois. We're about west of Chicago, which is a super cool market. We're pretty isolated but we're a good-sized region almost half a million people out here. So it's really, like I said, it's separated from the big city but there's a lot of us here. It's a cool town to serve.
Speaker 2:My wife and I moved to Rockford when we bought our first house almost 20 years ago and we think it's a really cool area, so excited and love to serve the community here. We say we treat our clients like neighbors because they are neighbors. So that's one thing about Honeybee Roofing is that we've been really focused on super high level of customer service. I just read the book Unreasonable Hospitality and I was like, yes, that's us. That's like want to be remembered, for of course we want to do great work but we want to treat our clients that we work with in our community really well and be remembered for that.
Speaker 2:This year our revenue is two and a quarter million Really fortunate to have really great partners. Like through Limitless is another place we find really great relationships, but with our supply house, with our manufacturers, the crews that we work with and really even referral partners in the community. That, literally, is what has built our business and it's been a fun journey that I kind of feel like I've been, like they say, along for the ride, like I have the vision, but I'm just kind of watching it play out and getting to live it out. Uh, day by day. It's been awesome that's great man.
Speaker 1:Where are you hoping to land revenue wisewise in the next three years?
Speaker 2:So probably I have like giant goals and then as we take the path we kind of see if we have to steer or adjust. But about three years we're looking to be around 10 million. It's like some big jumps. But, um, we made a really big jump, uh, from two years ago to last year. And why just make one big jump? Let's just keep yeah, no, that's.
Speaker 1:That's great, it's. It's something that comes up in our group is guys want to scale well, and the conversation always ends up going. You know, know, it starts with sales but then it immediately goes to systems and processes and streamlining the whole business and, you know, removing all the friction everywhere. That's great, but let's, let's talk a little bit about your appearance, because you have a unique brand. You stand out brand. You stand out your videos, stand out your t-shirt, your hat. What gave you the idea for honeybee roofing?
Speaker 2:Where'd the honeybee concept come from? Well, this wasn't our first brand. Our first brand was really boring but patriotic, which I thought was really great. Really boring but patriotic, which I thought was really great, and I loved the patriotic. So it was hard to let go. But I went to a conference and I heard the first talk at my first roofing conference was on branding and the first thing he said was if you have red, white and blue in your company logo, stand up. And I looked and it's like half the room and window, uh.
Speaker 2:So I've read the book by dan antonelli called branded, not blanded, and uh, one of the things was like you want to have a mascot or some kind of character like the geico right or um, captain crunch or the cheerio, uh b and um kind of funny. But one thing when we went the red, white and blue route, it hit me I was like man, my favorite color is yellow and I like the bright and the cheery. We should have done something yellow with the company. And so then, when we had a chance, we decided to rebrand, which felt like a huge risk, um, but Dan Antonelli says like, if you feel like it's a big risk today, at whatever you're at and look at where you want to be down the road. The risk never gets smaller and the effort never gets less. Um, so I was sold on um, northern Illinois.
Speaker 2:We can't roof all year round, right? So we're like squirrels and we pile up our nuts all summer long and we stash them somewhere and eat off of that stash all winter long and I'm like counting these acorns and I'm like I think I have enough to rewrap our trucks, redo our websites, repurchase our gear and really God has been good Again a lot of good relationships, a lot of guidance and obviously we made it through that winter and the rebranding super paid off. We get a lot of leads from our trucks driving around town. When I had one truck, I had people telling me I see your trucks all over town because it's that bold. And it surprised me that within like 30 days it also increased our SEO, just like organic through Google. We were getting more leads on a brand new website than we had on our previous one, so it's been a really cool payoff.
Speaker 2:And it's a lot of fun with the community. We have these stickers that we give out all over the place. I order like 5,000 of them at a time and people go around and like people I just met today. They're like oh, I'll put this on my water bottle and carry it with me everywhere.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, that's such a great idea.
Speaker 2:It's awesome.
Speaker 1:So is the? Is the comparison of the honeybee have to do with, just like diligent work, or what? What is? Where does that come from?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I guess I never like finished that circle to how we got to the honeybee. But, um, so my favorite color, some kind of mascot. I was brainstorming through all the different animals that could be yellow. I went to the bee and was like, oh, bee could be like scary or dangerous or harmful, like what about honey bees? Kind of sounds sweet, kind of sounds fun, and I really loved.
Speaker 2:Again, I talked about investing in our community and serving our community. I really liked the idea of how, like it takes thousands of bees to work together to make their community survive and they're all working together, playing their part, serving their role, helping each other out, and that's really like our attitude towards our community is, uh, our community has done a lot for us and we want to do a bunch to try and help and serve our community. And now I like all the puns. I'm like being sweet or you'll be excited. You call this. I don't have the acronym, but Starbucks has what they call like the Starbucks experience, what everybody should expect or what their staff should expect to be treated and the experience a client would have encountered going into a Starbucks. And we defined the Honeybee experience and it's this acronym S-W-E-E-T. It's sweet.
Speaker 1:Nice man, that's great. And the colors, I mean everything just stands out. You know, I'm in Dallas where I can't drive to work without seeing a roofing truck, but they all look the same, they. But they all look the same, they do they all look the same. Every logo has something that looks like a house and then it's got the roofing name and it says roofing, and usually roofing and gutters, or roofing and siding, or roofing and construction or whatever. But your brand really stands out. So how many years have you guys been in business now?
Speaker 2:This is our third season in business. Our second season is Honeybee Roofing.
Speaker 1:Second season is Honeybee Roofing. So you know I mean business owner to business owner. Here nobody really knows what it's like to start something from scratch. Start hiring people, you start to be responsible for their payroll. It's a lot to run a business and to handle sales and marketing and then you get into the operations and then managing your finances. Like you mentioned, you can't roof all year. So managing that cashflow stuff like that, what's been one of the biggest challenges you faced in the last couple of years? Take us through that and if it's a specific story, great. Or maybe if it's a certain issue in the business, or maybe it's just you as a leader, but whatever, that is what's been one of the biggest challenges you've faced you've faced.
Speaker 2:Well, um, last year. So we uh I went into business with the whole intent that we're going to be retail focused company and if storms come through, we'll be equipped and prepared and educated to help our neighbors through the process. But, um, we're going to focus on just organic growth. I feel like I have more control over that and, long-term, there's less variables that I can't forecast or plan for Last year. So my first year was incredible. This tornado came through and three days later this giant hail storm comes through and within like two months, I had enough money stashed. This was wild. I quit my full-time job after two months worth of work here. But then the second year in, there's basically no storms to speak of, but they well, there were. They were like three or four hours away and probably half of the companies up here they all went and they got Airbnbs down in that area and they sent their guys down there.
Speaker 2:And to me, it's just a value that I created the company to be able to better serve my family, for my, when we hire teammates, for them to become better people and better serve their family, so going four hours out of town and just spending life away from family doesn't make sense. So, um, well, knowing that there's like work out there to harvest that I'm actively choosing not to pursue, and going through a season, um, that was kind of slow and just really trusting the process and the plan and like building things um grassroots, so to speak. Um, so we went through um probably like three months where it was like, you know, it feels like week to week or month to month, but really the solution, so to speak, to that, to like wrapping up with 300% growth from one year to the next, except that we had really good relationships that bring us a job here, bring us a job there. It was really fun at the end of the season for us, like winding down in October, really, and then we can sometimes work in November.
Speaker 2:Um, the beginning of October, um, we were at like double our revenue from the year before, and then, um, I got this HOA uh job, uh that we won for was uh 14 duplexes and that was like enough to fill the rest of the year and that one job from one relationship was more revenue than we had done the year before yeah, that's great, and it's mostly retail work, right that one actually was a storm claim I had nothing to do with and I feel a little not guilty but I feel bad, for the previous roofer had a relationship with the president of the HOA who moved out of town during the claim process so he was no longer a part of the process when the approval came through.
Speaker 2:And this one relationship that I had got voted in to be the president and said, well, if we're gonna hire somebody to take care of all this work for us, I'd like to hire somebody that I know will answer the phone, will do good work, will respond if there's issues. So I had two hours worth of work into that specific project but a couple of years worth of work into the relationship.
Speaker 1:So what do you think is the biggest thing you learned during that difficult time where you're going week after week going oh man, we need more coming in? What was something you learned as a business owner during that time? What?
Speaker 2:was something you learned as a business owner during that time. I just posted on Facebook last night or today something about our habits and I can't like.
Speaker 2:I really appreciated the book Atomic Habits. I didn't study it well enough that I can quote him well, but there's something about like we're not our goals or our results, we're the habits and the process and the things we actively do over and over again. And so during that slow season it gives me a chance to be really intentional. What are the things I do over and over again that are going to be beneficial, over and over again, that are going to be beneficial? And then that creates a routine for as we bring on more sales folks we don't have a sales team yet, it's all me and all my referral partners. But as I bring on guys I worked for a roofer a while back and our sales just like would sit around the conference room waiting for leads to come in, and that's not our culture here.
Speaker 2:And we're going to build a team of folks who are building their own business, figure out their own thing, and not necessarily storm chasing, but really being diligent and intentional about what are the habits and activities I can do each day. That'll grow things a little bit, a little bit and just keep stacking. So the takeaway or the thing to learn is like just stick with those right activities. If you believe it's right, don't give up when it's hard or when it's slow. And so I had tons of lunches, tons of coffees, tons of spending time with realtors, insurance agents, folks in other trades people.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you're a real networker. It sounds like that's something you do naturally. So how do you do that? I mean, if you want to make a relationship with an insurance agent, are you driving up to their office just popping in, or are you going to a networking event? What's your practice with that?
Speaker 2:three different chambers of commerce I try to go to. I do go to as many of their activities or events as I can, which sometimes is a lot and sometimes is not, and just which is one of the cool things I'd like to do, like BNI, but the time commitment on that they're like really rigorous on. There's penalties if you don't show up. But I like to go to activities like that where there's business folk and just get to know people. When I first started networking I could show up and like wonder how can I convince somebody to want to buy from me? And I really have learned that getting interested in other people will make them interested in us. And there's probably, if I go into a room, probably like zero people in that room that need a roof today. So I don't need to have the pressure of like what can I sell today. I get to find out what's cool and neat about all of those people in the room, what can I get excited to dig into, to learn more about who they are and what they do. And then naturally they kind of some folks reciprocate and they ask more about us what do we do? And then, um, again, I I feel like I want to provide customer service up here. I feel like we're here right now.
Speaker 2:But something that I do is like when I meet with folks, when I go out for coffee, when I go out for lunch, I send out like little thank you notes. And I had lunch with a dude yesterday and I was like, hey, thanks for blocking out the time to have lunch together. I really enjoyed our conversation, looking up to follow up on XYZ, and then I even bought these like little vinyl stickers that are like one inch square, that are just our honeybee man logo, and I seal the envelope like you do the old wax seal with a little honeybee man sticker. So it's a lot of serving. There's a book, go Givers, sell More. That kind of mindset.
Speaker 1:Man, that kind of mindset man, that's good stuff and it's clearly working. And if you're doing, you know two and a half million in revenue and you're not paying out a bunch of sales commissions.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a great, that's a great living, that's a lot of, that's a lot of cushion. It's insane To go from selling cell phone contracts for another company on their payroll, on their time clock, to being on my time clock and my payroll. I can just say God has been very, very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Well, as you're doing that and you're the main sales guy right now, how do you balance? You know you've mentioned God and so you're a man of faith. You've got your family, you've got your physical fitness, your health, and then you've got your finances, your business stuff. How do you keep all that in balance?
Speaker 2:The finance stuff I'll say is the hardest. I feel like I have good systems for our checking accounts. After the first year I learned that I need a separate account for money that comes in until the job is complete and all the invoices on that job are paid out. Then I move it into like an insurance account. Then I have a separate savings account for like what I call my end of year bonus or business profits, and I'm intentional about what percentage we move over there.
Speaker 2:But as far as like QuickBooks, I have like over 365 days there's like eight, that my QuickBooks is like clean and precise, but as far as like all the different priorities in life, how do I keep things in balance? I don't know. It's probably days that look balanced and that there's days that don't. I think it depends who you listen to right. People say balance isn't the goal, and I think you can look at a day and it looks like you're not balanced. But depending on the time frame, I feel like you have achieved like balance or your priorities are lined up right. How do I achieve balance? Well, a lot of time into learning and, as I do that, just more ideas and tips and things to create one new individual habit at a time, not giant transformations.
Speaker 2:I recently started cold plunging, like two and a half weeks ago. Right now I still just do it in my bathtub. Um, and I was doing like a bunch of ice and my wife's like let's go out and buy a bunch of ice packs, so now we can just freeze all these ice packs and um, you know, it's one habit for my health and for my mindset. Um, it spends five minutes a day investing in that um and atomic habits talks about, about, I think it's habit stacking or something like that. So I mean, like the routine is, I go, I turn the bathtub on to start filling the water, I go grab the ice packs to throw it in and then I go do my devotional while the bathtub's filling up and it's like what kind of efficient routine can you create?
Speaker 2:Ed Milet says, and probably a bunch of folks not to touch your phone for like first 45 minutes of the day. There's nothing on there that's going to steer you towards your goals, and maybe that's another thing is like kind of a small group of folks that I spend time with so I'm not distracted by things that are not going to move us towards the things that are important. But I certainly mess things up too, man, my health like there's some weeks or months that are awesome and some that are horrible.
Speaker 1:That's funny. Yeah, I know. For me, I've told the story many times about managing an apartment building and having 400 people who know you by name and having to develop some pretty hardcore boundaries between work life and personal life or family life or whatever, and I've just carried that over since that was back in 2009. And for me it's keeping a routine, very routine driven wake up pretty much close to the same time every day, go to bed at the same time, wake up, have breakfast same thing, read the Bible I want to hear something from the Lord, get some words, some encouragement, some, some truth, so, and then, uh, have breakfast and then work out. And uh, and then work, and then at about five o'clock man, I mean, unless there's just some crazy urgent thing happening, which is extremely rare with my business uh, I leave and I'm at home by five 30.
Speaker 1:My wife is finishing up dinner. Our three girls are told to come wash hands, come to the table and we all have dinner together and we talk about what was the high point of the day. Did you have a low point of the day? Um, and it's just dedicated family time. There's no screens, there's no nothing. Um, and then we, you know, have our little evening routine with them, put them to bed and then my wife and I have about two hours together or alone. If we want to spend it together, which we usually do, we'll try to find something clean to watch, like Nate Bargett he's our latest thing that we've been watching. He's one of the only clean stand-up comedians. That's made it really big, but that's kind of the way I've tried to balance it out that way you're, you know, just keeping everything in check, but I feel like if any one of those areas becomes too big, the others all suffer.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, it's just something I like to bring up A lot of guys tend to really struggle with that and they make work, the finance part, bigger than faith and family and fitness. To me, the whole reason I'm doing this is for my family and our future, so it's dumb if I'm waiting till the future to invest in my family. Um, you mentioned, uh, going to bed at the same time. Waking up at the same time. Not going to bed on time is like a day destroyer. Um, I don't know if it's, I'm like I'll be 44 this year and and um, I don't know if it comes with age more or what, but like it's so hard to wake up on time and get that routine going if I didn't go to bed at the right time and I hired a virtual assistant because of that reason. Um, that's why I picked the one that I picked.
Speaker 2:Um, I asked the question about staying accountable. When you're remote completely, how do you keep yourself accountable to the tasks that you've been assigned? And her answer was it all starts with how you begin the day. So I make sure I go to bed on time so that I can wake up on time. And then she said and then I do my devotions and my routine to start the day. And I was like that was her answer to keeping herself accountable to keep a good routine for the day. I thought that was really wise.
Speaker 1:That's good stuff, yeah, and you and your spouse has to be on board for that too. I'm thankful I'm not in a marriage where one person is a night owl and the other whatever. We both like to try to get to bed by 10, 15-ish and sit and talk for a minute and then go to sleep.
Speaker 2:What's hard for me is my kids are getting older. In the last six to nine months I've had to draw a boundary for me that it's okay to go to bed before my kids. I'm not worried about them making good choices. I know that I don't have to worry about their decisions. It's just like as the dad, the protector. I want to make sure everyone's in their place, everyone's safe and sound, before I turn off for the night. But having an 18 and a 16-year-old, I just have to have faith everyone's going to be safe and sound, even if I go to bed before them.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, we started having children later than you. I'm I'm 45, but we've got three little girls that are, uh, five, seven and nine, and yeah, that's. I don't think I'm ready for that Like I like it right now. They're all in bed, we're, we are out of the bedroom. Bedtime routines over by eight, 30 at the latest, but I know it's coming where they're going to be.
Speaker 2:That's discipline I could tell you, though there's probably like a window in there where you and your wife get that time at the end of the day, and it's a lot shorter. But now I'm in this window where, um, now I go to bed before my kids, so we don't get any time after they go to bed, but they're gone during the week for hours at a time. So last night our kids went to youth group and my wife and I went on a two-mile walk together and then we hung out at the house for a little bit and went up for coffee, all while the kids were, uh, gone. So like it's different blocks to get that time together. Um, having big kids is like it's a big deal man I don't want him to move.
Speaker 2:I don't want them to be far away and keep seeing less and less of them. But my son works for me, so that's been fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice man, that's great. So so what? What advice would you have, based on what you've learned so far, what you guys have done really well building relationships and branding for other guys that are thinking, man, I don't really have as many relationships like that as I like or getting those kinds of referrals. What would you recommend for somebody like you mentioned atomic habits, just starting small, something little that somebody can start chipping away at.
Speaker 2:Well, building relationships, um, I guess first you have to be the kind of person people want to have a relationship with. Um donald miller, his organization is called story brand, and their whole marketing, um, theory, so to speak, or strategy, is that you want to make the other person the hero, not yourself the hero. Uh, naturally, we go around and we want to come across as the hero and super duper and special. But, dylan, you want to be the hero in your story. So if I come into your story trying to be the hero, you are going to push me out of your story because I'm trying to take the main character role that you want to play.
Speaker 2:Um donald miller teaches that, uh, if I want to be a part of your story, I should come along as a guide, offer advice. What can I give? What can I contribute? Um, and I think people, uh, I don't know, um, there's probably people, uh, I don't know, um, there's probably people out there that don't connect with that and care about that, and that's fine. I, there's plenty out there that do, and I'll connect with those people. One thing I see, though in our industry it's really weird Like you go to events and there's some folks that are like so open, so generous with their time, ideas and advice, so giving and kind. And then there's some folks that walk into the room and they're like we're here to compete, I want to dominate, you're the enemy.
Speaker 2:We have to do better. And like. I bump into folks at the supply house and I'm always like hey, how's it going? Hope you have a good day, stay safe out there, good luck out there. And some dudes are like high five, shake hands, fist bump, whatever. And some dudes are like and like.
Speaker 2:I think that, uh, to me I'm of course like all the rest of the contractors in this region are competition, but really the biggest competition is me. I feel like when I sit down with a client and it's maybe different sometimes, I feel like when people are doing storm work but when I'm doing retail stuff and I sit down with a client, I really know who I'm competing with and I don't feel like in that moment I'm competing with anyone. I feel like in that moment it's my job to present myself and my company as best as possible so that they want to do something right now, today, and not have to compare to all the folks. But also I want to up my game in the way I serve them and the way I present our company and our products and make them feel so that, as they do talk to other folks down the road.
Speaker 2:But as far as like the one habits, like, be the kind of person you would want to be friends with, which usually starts with being interested in the people that you're in front of. Do it a bunch and those relationships start to stack up. But that's an atomic habit. It starts off at no return just effort, just effort, just effort. But you have to believe that once you find an atomic habit to invest in, that you put that effort in over time and it starts producing bigger and bigger compounding results.
Speaker 1:Man. I love that I. That's been a big life lesson for me personally. I had a mentor in in Bible college that, uh, and I mean he was a true mentor.
Speaker 2:I went to Bible college once upon a time too. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, he, uh, he was a true mentor. He, we, he did, we did life side by side invited me to his house multiple times for dinner. We met at his office. He was a professor at the Bible college. We met his office once a week and went through different books and pray together. We went on mission trips together and he was a philosophy major at A&M and I loved that because I came to Christianity as a.
Speaker 1:I was a very passionate skeptic and God did some really powerful things to turn my eyes to Jesus and change all of that. But growing up without a dad around and growing up as a dominant male, I was a really intense guy, had a lot of passion and love to preach and teach and stuff like that. So constantly telling people stuff that I knew, constantly Right. And I remember he met with me one time and he said, dylan, when you're with other people, it's not about you, it's not about what you're passionate about or what you're excited about or what you learned this week that you're fired up about, it's about them. And he said you, when you spend time with other people, you need to focus on getting to know them.
Speaker 1:Who are they? Where have they been? What are they interested in? And he said most people you're. He said you're going to find. Most people are just walking around sharing their biography. They're just talking about themselves all the time. He said you're going to meet very few people who have a genuine interest in you. And it was. My mind was blown because he was so right. He was so right so I started making it a practice from that point on to just get to know people, and prior to that I really didn't enjoy being around people very much.
Speaker 1:It was kind of a transactional thing, like, okay, I want to interact with you, tell you what you need to know, and move on and go about. Back to what I'm into, and it really taught me to actually enjoy people and I had to really pray through that too, just saying God, give me your heart for people. You love people. Life is all about relationships and I'm so thankful for that because now, like I, can sit and talk with you and genuinely enjoy your company, whereas before you know, back in my mid twenties, I just wouldn't.
Speaker 2:I can relate. I grew up thinking I was always right and if anyone ever disagreed with me I needed to let them know. Of course Couldn't have two ideas float out there that weren't aligned and just let it be. I had to make sure we left the conversation with only one idea, and it being mine usually. But people's favorite topic is themselves.
Speaker 2:Usually that's how I sell, too, is I dig in and get to know folks. I called it at the beginning, our whole first year, I said our business model was slow and steady, just dig in deep and grab on and we get a lot of referrals, a lot of folks who put our stickers on their coffee mugs. But because I take my time and I go deep and I spend time and I get to know people and, like I have clients who are like, hey, when can we grab lunch? When are we going to hang out? Now that this is over and, um, I feel like the more we're interested in others, the more they want to spend time with us and uh, really to. It's more fun to live that way, to make other people happy and to make their day bright, rather than focusing on my day being bright and then most of the people around me not wanting to be around me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it's so true, so true, yeah. And it changes, like, like you said, it changes the way you sell, it changes the way you operate.
Speaker 2:It really changes everything, when that's that's the focus and I can say, um man, some of the folks that I've met in our industry that have massive companies like when I've introduced myself, or go up and chat with them they're the friendliest, most generous, caring people, and I found that, too, when I worked a full-time job for somebody else.
Speaker 2:The more successful people were, the kinder they were, the more generous they were with their time Not to say that they'd let you take advantage of their time, but they're just nice, really great quality people, and that's been actually. I'm grateful that, as I've met some of those folks and been interested in them, they've opened up to allow me to stay in communication with them and bounce ideas and questions, ideas and advice. How in the world does somebody this is a god thing for real I say, um, maybe there's some like mindset and attitude towards it as well, but first and second year in business to have the cell phone numbers of somebody doing 40 million dollars in sales and 60 million dollars in sales and they answer my texts, they'll take my phone calls, they'll give me advice Unreal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so good. I heard somebody say when I was I've had so many different jobs over the years, but when I was in my I think it was 19, my sister, my older sister, got me a job at a at Morgan Stanley, dean Witter to, to go into training as a stockbroker.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And, um, yeah, I didn't stick with that very long, but one of the guys that I worked, the guy that I worked with in his office, I mean he was just like stereotypical stockbroker and his he was probably in his late twenties, early thirties and he was making, you know, three to five grand a day and he'd leave as soon as the market closed at three o'clock and he's just like living a crazy life. It's who you know that gets you there and it's what you know that keeps you there. And he was so big on on relationships too, but it's like but, but you've still got but you've got to perform, you've got to put in the work.
Speaker 2:So it's who you know that gets you into the position. It's what you know that keeps you there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's good. Yeah, that's good. All of us are wherever we are, mostly because of other people around us. What they've shot, showed us, taught us, um, trusted in us, allowed us to yeah, um. I've always said I've done sales for a long time. I've always said almost everything I know, everything I do, I've just stolen from others.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean and that goes back to why it's so critical who are you surrounding yourself with? And I saw a post on Facebook the other day and it said something like surround yourself with successful people. The conversation is different and I've found that to be true, like in the world of entrepreneurship and I've gotten to know quite a few very successful entrepreneurs here in Dallas, the you know the. The way they talk about business is different. I've gotten to know several investors. The way they talk about investing is different than the average Joe walking around who thinks investing is, you know, saving all your life to hopefully retire and be able to pay your bills. It's like really good, investors are not thinking that way. They're thinking how can I triple X my money or five X my money in the next three years?
Speaker 2:Um, so anyway that's super different mindset than, uh, when folks are living paycheck to paycheck. I heard Myron Golden yesterday say that poor people, middle class and wealthy people think of money three different ways. Poor people think that money is to pay their bills, Middle class think of money as like savings and security. And wealthy people think of money as a tool to make more money and they don't live off of the money that their job brings in or their work brings in. They live off of the money that their money brings in, and I think robert kiyosaki has said the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm not at that level, um, but you're right, it's smart to hang out with people that are at a different level to stretch us and bring us there, hopefully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally man. Well, Adam, I'm sure we could go on for another hour talking about business and life and leadership. I think this has been great because we have talked about leadership. We've talked about character, even though we didn't call it that. But when you said, be the kind of person other people want to be around, that's a character trait. Any last thing you would share? If you had one thing to share with fellow roofing owners, the most important thing to you, what would it be today?
Speaker 2:I would say this to anyone probably and I feel like from my side, our conversation has been going this way you talked about how, once upon a time, you were like a staunch unbeliever.
Speaker 2:Right, and I would say to anyone out there, whether you're a believer or not, really be humble in what you think or believe about yourself right now and what you think that you know, and be open to the fact that other people know things that you don't. And I talked about how I used to be convinced I was always right. I always had to let everyone know how they were wrong if they didn't agree with me, and that was rarely actually the case, and I didn't win any friends that way, but often I was wrong and too prideful to recognize it. And so in business, in relationships and in your faith, I would say and even if you're a Christian, I would say, be humble to acknowledge or recognize that maybe everything you think, that you believe or know to be true, maybe we don't have a firm understanding on it still and there's more that we can learn. So be open to well. First pursue it and open to folks who disagree with us and see if you can learn and grow from that.
Speaker 1:That's so good. Be humble, yep, there's. There's so much to learn from everybody, so much to learn from life, from people, from kids, from movies, I mean it's just endless. So that's great. I, you know you. Occasionally you get around and know it all, and it's it's. That's usually when you're me personally I'm trying to figure out how to exit the conversation.
Speaker 2:Well, that's funny. Before you figure out how to exit this conversation, as I've said a bunch that I'm interested, try to be interested in others and dig in and learn from other people. I'd love to flip that question. And what's your one piece of advice before you let us sign off?
Speaker 1:Man, it's similar to what you said. I had another mentor that when I moved to Dallas. That was the president of one of the biggest privately held insurance brokerages in the US and we're not talking State Farm or any of those, we're talking more of the insured companies and different things but he was very wealthy. He was a man of God. He was a great family man Husband, wife, husband, dad. He was the elder of a church I got to preach at when I moved up here that I preached at for a year in Texas and he was another example of the kind of person you just wanted to be around more. And he he had a great sense of humor, he wasn't prideful and it was all about you when you were with Dan Browning, I mean, he was just, he was just awesome. But I um I don't know if I heard it from him or from somebody else, but it's just a simple truth that I think he said it.
Speaker 1:People are going to forget 90% of what you say, but they're never going to forget what it's like to be around you. And I've heard other people say like that people won't forget how you make them feel or whatever. But I don't know if that's a part of it, but I think it's true, Like just being around Dan. He was a loving guy, he was funny, he was also a man's man. He was just a really interesting package of a person and I never forgot that, because it's like going back to what you said.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter what you know, it's like what's it like to be around you, and so that's my prayer. You know it's like what's it, what's it like to be around you, and so that's my prayer. You know it's like God, please mold and shape my heart that I'm. I'm the kind of person that, uh, leaves an impact of love. And when I screw up, I try to really keep quick accounts and I'll. I called a guy yesterday and apologized for being too intense in a meeting and said look, man, I was too focused, was impatient, I got pretty intense. I'm sorry, Will you forgive me for that? So it's like you can screw up, it's okay, but just striving to be that kind of person anyway.
Speaker 2:That's right. It takes humility to apologize. I think it actually does a lot more for relationship than proving to people that I was right. Yeah, thanks for sharing that Good tip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. Well, Adam, thanks for being on the show. Really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2:Me too. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:It was great.