Building With Purpose – Doug Roe, Code Red Roofers

Building With Purpose – Doug Roe, Code Red Roofers | Charting Opportunities

Doug Roe: [00:00:00] Gave us our first 20 roofs to do, and uh, we started right then and there. It got so good that by 2005 we ended up getting, I ended up going and sitting and getting the roofing license so I could do any type of roofing. So now we do roof, we do, uh, shingles, tile, metal, flat roofs, um, residential re-roofing communities, uh, townhouse projects, things like that.

So, and it’s been, it’s served us really well, but we’ve made, we’ve made every mistake you could probably make in the last 21 years, uh, you know, starting a business from nothing, especially one you don’t know anything about. Um, you know, you’re bound to do that. And we have. And, uh, by the grace of God, we’re here 21 years later, so, so 2004, [00:01:00] right.

When you got started, um, overnight success or was it kind of a challenge to start getting business running and talk about some of the challenges early on as you, as you got started. So, right off, right off the jump street, uh, it was not, it was not instant, instant success. We jumped in and we decided. We wanted to jump into the roofing business.

We wanted to make a few million bucks and then get out. I mean, that was the whole business plan. It wasn’t, wasn’t very thought out. And we didn’t really know a whole lot about roofing. Um, my business partner knew about business and he assumed I knew about roofing. I came from the. You know, framing construction world.

I didn’t really know anything about roofing. Um, but we learned, uh, as we started going, we learned, um, you know, you start off with sub crews and you just kind of sub it out. Price per square. And, um, you go from there. For us, the hardest thing was we were brand new. We had a new name, no one ever heard of us, [00:02:00] and how do we get to work?

So, you know, luckily we were given 20 roofs by a friend of mine who owned a roofing company, and that got us started. And, um. Once we got started, you know, word of mouth kind of took over from there and we jumped into some, some new construction stuff. The, when hurricanes hit in Florida, all the roofers run away from the contractors.

So the contractors were begging anybody and everybody to work for them. We didn’t know better, so we went to work for them. And, uh, it did, it served us well for a little while. Um, but eventually we switched back to a model of just residential re-roofing and high-end communities or apartment complexes.

Townhouses, things like that. So, so you’re mostly, mostly residential roofing into commercial. Um, what, what sets you apart from competitors? Why are they, why is, why is code red growing and expanding and, and doing so well as you started to kind of get some steam? So, code Red, I, [00:03:00] I, we’re a faith-based company.

I’m a Christian. Christian man, always have been. Uh, I grew up in the church. And, um, my mom had a prophecy before I was even born that I was gonna be a preacher or teacher or something. And I ran from that calling for 44 years of my life. Um, because I didn’t wanna be a preacher. I didn’t wanna live on 40 or 50,000 bucks a year.

I was also taught that money was wrong and, and all that stuff. Later on in life, she’s now telling me that’s not what I told you. You know, the love of money is the root of all evil and all that stuff. So she. Yeah. Anyway, here we are. So, I I, I never wanted, never wanted to be the preacher. I wanted to be. Um, I wanted to do something to make millions of dollars.

I mean, that was it my whole life. I chased money. Um, I got married right outta high school to my high school sweetheart, Jennifer. Uh, we’ve been together for 35 years, and literally I had two goals when I was in high school. One [00:04:00] was to marry her, and two was find a way to make millions of dollars and we’ll ride off into the sunset.

The first one was easier than the second one for sure. Um, so, you know, I started chasing money very quickly. Her dad, uh, my father-in-law, very wealthy guy, um, and he had everything that I wanted. He had the Porsche nine 11. He had the Rolex, you know, the boat, the house on the water, and all of it. And, um, I really, really, really was on a mission to get that stuff.

I, I, I never stopped for a minute to. Per se, figure out what success was for me. I just believe money was success. Um, and, and then the more of it I got, uh, the more successful I would end up being. So I chased it for a long, long time, um, for about 15 years of Code Red Roofers. Um, you know, we had some really good years.

We had some really terrible years. We had some years where we were gonna [00:05:00] close the doors and, uh, everything in between. And I just remember a pivotal moment one day. I said it was just, it was crazy. So I, I kind of just bowed my head and I said, Lord, if you’ll just let us be able to pay our bills, um, I’ll do whatever you want me to do.

So it seemed like from that point forward, um, around 2017 is when it really started to click. Some things started to happen. Um, I hired a guy named Chris, and, uh, it brought him in as a sales guy. And, uh, he was a friend of my wife Jen’s. And at that time we just started sales training. Uh, we brought in, we just introduced a CRM software system, uh, to take control of our leads that were coming in and, you know, follow up with our customers and, you know, have a database of all this information.

And we hired a consultant and, um, I started training the sales guys and it was, it was working really, really well. And then all of a [00:06:00] sudden. This guy Chris, he overdosed on heroin. And it, it kind of shocked me. I never dealt with drugs before and it happened in the middle of a day, uh, at work. You know, my first reaction was, was he in one of my trucks or was he in one of his trucks?

You know, that’s it. It, it was kind of a big deal. And at that point in my life, I cared about my employees, but I didn’t really care for my employees. I mean, I, I would, I was nice to them, but I didn’t hang out with them after hours. I didn’t hire my friends because if I hired a friend. Ultimately you have to fire people.

I mean, we’re in the business of hiring and firing. So, you know mean Chris overdosed on heroin. He ends up out at, out at a place called Dunlin. And Dunlin is a Christian rejuvenation program for men addicted to drugs and alcohol. And, uh, because of the prompting of my wife and, uh, me being friends with his girlfriend, uh, Patsy, at the time, I, I ultimately went out to Dunking and.

Yeah, because he didn’t have any [00:07:00] family that lived in town. They agreed that through his 12 month process, they would allow me to come out and visit with him on Saturdays. Saturdays was game night, so 65 guys in Dunking. So I started going out to game nights on Saturdays and I could bring, they were allowed to have candy and sodas and stuff like that on Saturday night.

So I would bring, you know, a bunch of candy, soda chips. Chick-fil-A, they called me Chick-fil-A, Doug for a long time. And we, and I’d go out there on a Saturday night and we’d just play games for three or four hours. And we played Pictionary mostly. And uh, when Chris was in the program, they gave him a big brother to help him get through the program.

And then eventually Chris got a little brother. So I was going out there to play Pictionary with two or three guys, but every guy had a big brother and a little brother. And about three months into it, there was. 30 to 40 guys on game night outta the 65 that were out there. So what was costing me 20 to $30 on a Saturday night was [00:08:00] costing me about four or $500 on a Saturday night.

And this was during a timeframe where the business wasn’t making, you know, tons of money. We, we were making enough money and I was making enough to pay myself a salary. Um, but as I was going out there and hanging out with these guys, these guys were praying for me. They were praying for my business. Um, and they were, you know, talking to me about all kinds of stuff, and I just, it was odd to me because it was like, why are these guys praying for me?

Like, they’re stuck out here for 12 months. I get, I get to go home to my wife and kids and anyway, it, it was something that impacted my life because they, they talked to me about many different things. One of the things they talked to me about was my pursuit of money, um, which I just told you guys about.

And one of the things they challenged me on was I was talking about a Rolex. I’m not anti Rolex, so if anyone in the room has one, good for you. Uh, and it has nothing to do with the Rolex. It had everything to do with what it was doing to me inside. So they challenged me on the Rolex and they [00:09:00] asked me, why, why do you want this Rolex?

And I’m like, ’cause I deserve it. ’cause I earned it. You know? I gave every, every excuse. And they kept challenging, challenging, challenging, and. I remember one of ’em said, if you can’t be honest with yourself, you know, who can you be honest with? Um, and there’s no wrong answer. So why do you want the watch?

And after about two hours of that, you know, it came out that I wanted the watch. ’cause I wanted everybody to know that I had a 10 or 20,000 watch. You know, that’s, it’s a piece of jewelry, that’s all it is. Um, and then they started to challenge me on the car. You know, why do you want the Porsche? And we went through every one of those, every one of those things.

So. After a few of those conversations, I wasn’t really convinced that, um, I was going to, I was, I was still convinced that I was gonna buy the car and the watch and everything else. And, um, I was fortunate enough a short time after that to have enough money left over to write myself a shareholder distribution check that was gonna pay off all my [00:10:00] debt and leave me enough money to get the watch.

And, um, one of the things that I was learning from these guys was. To journal, spend time in the morning praying, reading my Bible, and uh, writing down, you know, notes and talking to God, writing out prayers basically. And, um, I’d leave the house every morning at four 30 or five o’clock and spend about an hour and a half doing that.

And then I would go to work for the day and um, come home. And one morning I just got that shareholder distribution check. And, uh, it was burning a hole in my pocket. I was ready to pay off my debt and buy, um, buy the watch. And, you know, this is something that I had spoken to my wife about. She was absolute, absolutely not against it.

And we had made friends, um, Dunlin, like I said, was a Christian rejuvenation program, drug and alcohol program for men. And some of the people that graduate from there, they stay and they work there. A friend of mine who. [00:11:00] He’s a friend of mine now. He wasn’t a friend of mine then he actually graduated the program, moved to Bon ffe, Florida and started a program just like Duncan called the Farm.

So Jen and I had become really good friends with them. Uh, we, we started to open a, a site in the panhandle a few years ago ’cause of hurricane hit there. And um, so we were there quite a bit. And as we were there, um, we were just, we hit it off. Jeremiah to me is like. Uh, you know, even though I’ve got three brothers of my own and a sister, he’s like the little brother I never had.

And I was the big brother that he never had. So we hit it off really well, and then Jen and his wife Christina hit it off really well. So one morning I was on my way out the door to go journal. I was in a hurry this morning. Like I, I feel like I was always in a hurry no matter what. No matter what I was doing, I was always in a hurry.

So on the way out the door and Jen said, can I go with you this morning to, to, uh, to journal? And I said, sure. So she gets ready and I usually [00:12:00] go to the boat ramp where it’s nice and quiet. So we ended up going someplace else, which was closer. And as we’re talking, we listened to a podcast, we prayed together, journaled a little bit, and then I was kind of praying before we were done.

And Jen said, Jen started crying. And I’m like, why are you crying? And she said, I just feel like, um, I feel like God told me that we should give money to Jeremiah and Christina. And I’m like, okay. So I mean, giving giving wasn’t something that was new to me. Like we gave 10% to the church. So it was like, you know, if Fred’s gonna give some money, I, in that timeframe it was like, maybe I’ll take a little bit from there to give here.

And she said, I said, okay, how much? And she said, 5,000. And I’m like, like she had no idea. Like, it was like, this is my watch money. So, you know, she had an idea, but it was like, it was my watch money. So. Reluctantly, I said, yes. I only, I don’t carry a checkbook, I just have [00:13:00] counter checks from the bank. I only had one with me, so I wrote a check for $5,000, signed it and drove her home.

And I pulled in the driveway and it was like, she can, she’ll tell you if you ask her after this, she needed to get outta my truck immediately and shut the door, because if, if she would’ve spent one more second in my truck, I would’ve taken the check back from her. ’cause I, I was torn. It was like, that was my watch money, you know?

So she got out and I went to work, and by the time I got to work, she had already been to the post office to send it out because she knew that if she put it in the mailbox, I might take it back. So she sent it out and I struggled with it for, I don’t know, I struggled with it for a little bit until uh, I received a, a phone call from Jeremiah.

Um, kind of just explaining to me. How much that, uh, amount of money meant to him and to his family and to their future. And you know, [00:14:00] for me it was just a watch for him. For them it was, you know, life changing. And, um, that was my first real act of, um, giving money away. And that’s what started, that’s what planted the seed in me, basically to start giving through my business.

Um, I started to, I decided that I was gonna use my business to give second chances to these guys that worked, that lived out at Dunlin. So I started bringing them on. I started hiring those guys and, and building an environment where we could hold them accountable. Uh, um, I. And then eventually, uh, we started the Love Your Love Your Neighbor program.

So I’ll give you a, a second to sip some water. Goals changed, right? Yeah. So you were chasing money. You were after the Porsche, you were after the watch. Um, and it. It shifted from, um, I’m, I’m trying to make as much and get profitable, maybe sell the business to, through the, um, you know, discussions with the group, Hey, now I’m not trying to chase money.

May I’m, [00:15:00] I’m, I’m giving away money. Right? Right. The business is starting to pick up and we’re doing well. Um, and so you’ve got, Jeremiah’s is kind of the initial, Hey, I’m, I’m starting to give, and it feels good, uh, to the, the program of, um, you know. Giving a roof away, right? Yeah. Love your neighbor initiative.

Um, so talk us, I mean, it, it’s, it’s a huge, um, you know, thing that you do for the community and giving back, and I don’t think that you promote that or market that. No. That’s just something that you do internally. So what is the program? Uh, how did it get started? Whose idea was it? So, let me back up just for one second.

Yeah. Before I jump into that. So when I, when I gave the, uh, money and it was gone and then Jeremiah called, I, I was released of that tension within me, um, as far as giving the money versus buying the watch and all that stuff. And it was, it was a done deal. And the very next day, my son, my oldest son who was playing baseball competitively.

Six [00:16:00] days a week. He was a part of the Fellowship of Christian athletes and he gave me this, he gave me this bracelet, so I put this. I put this on my wrist in place of the Rolex. Um, and again, I don’t have a problem with people wanting Rolex. It’s just what it was doing to me. So I, I switched, uh, you know, $10,000, 5,000 Rolex with a I am second bracelet, and that was my, that was my motto.

And a few months later. Jen and I would find ourselves in, um, in Germany. Right. And, uh, we were sent there by a, a tv, uh, company that we were doing, um, commercials with. They took us to, um, Munich, Germany, and we stayed in one of the most fabulous hotels. Uh, they had the most amazing cars. The Porsche nine 11 was everywhere.

Uh, they had Ferraris and BMWs and everything that you can imagine. We did the BMW experience. So everything that I was chasing in my life was all in one, you know, or [00:17:00] two blocks. And it was like, it, it was, it was impressive. Um, and every day we would walk across from our hotel through these places called beer gardens.

And then on the way, there was a store called Ashley’s Jewelry Shop right there in Munich, Germany. And they had the most amazing Rolex right in the window. My wife pointed it out to me every day for the, for three days in a row. Um, she’s like, look at this, look at this watch. You know it. And she’s like, this is the one you want, but it’s even better.

And it’s, it had like rubies and all kinds of different jewels in it. Um, and she’s like, I think we should go in there and buy that watch. And I would walk away and, and day two she did the same thing. And then day three, I’m like, let’s go back to the room. So we went back to the room to talk. When I, when I decided to give up that money in the truck that day and hand her that check, I never told her that was my watch money.

She just thought we were giving them $5,000. And I agreed to it. In my mind, I had made the shift. It was my watch money. [00:18:00] When I put this on, I was not going back. And so I get to the room, I’m like, what are you doing? Why do you, why do you keep trying to get me to buy this watch? And she’s like, it’s ’cause you’ve always wanted it.

You deserved it. And we’re here in Germany and why not buy it here? It’s better. You’re, no one’s ever gonna have one like this. You’re never gonna run into anybody that has the same, same Rolex as you. So I explained to her, I’m like, listen, that day that I gave you the money in the truck, you sent it to Jeremiah.

I gave up the Rolex and I put this on. And she’s like, I didn’t know that. You didn’t tell me. And that’s when I found out that I did not communicate with my wife very well. So that became something that we started to work on pretty aggressively. At least I did. So we left the hotel. After having that conversation, I’m feeling confident that we’re on the same page now.

And we walked right past Ashley’s jewelry store again, and Jen’s like, how about this one instead of the Rolex? There was another one. And, and it was, you know. Probably equally as cool. [00:19:00] So I went over and looked at it and the name of the watch was Sin, SINN. So I said, so we’re gonna go on there and I’m gonna take this.

I am second bracelet off and I’m gonna strap sin to my wrist. And we both kind of looked at each other laughed. And ever since then, it’s never been a topic of conversation. So the Love Your Neighbor initiative was, it was something, it was never called the Love Your Neighbor Initiative until about a year and a half ago.

It was called, you know, free roof giveaway. Um, I don’t remember who came up with it. I had a business partner, business partner at one point in time. Uh, it may have come from him, it may have come from me. I’m not a hundred percent. Um, but I remember the first roof that we ever gave away. Um, it was to an older woman.

It was on a manufactured home. Um, and the way that we did it then is at least the work part of it is identical to the way that we do it now. Um, once we decided to give [00:20:00] this older woman, uh, a roof that she couldn’t afford, um, my wife was involved, my business partner’s wife was involved. Girls in the office were involved.

People that worked at Code Red were involved. And the very first one we did, we did more than the roof. We did the roof. We changed some toilets out, we ripped some carpet up, put some wood floors down. We fixed a sink. We did some landscaping, uh, mulch. Um. I think we cut the grass painted. We did all kinds of stuff.

We, we did way more than the roof. And it, it was never, I, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say it was necessarily ever about the roof. It was, it was more about helping people. So we just wanted to help her. Um, the guys that came from Dunking, I just wanted to help them. I wanted to give second chances to people that literally, um, seemingly didn’t deserve a second chance.

Um. And I even wrote out a business plan on paper and it, it didn’t even look right on [00:21:00] paper, but it has worked really, really well for the last seven or eight years. It’s, it’s been phenomenal. Um, so anyway, the first one was just to give her free roof away, and then why don’t we do it every quarter? Um, and so we were just two men owning this roofing company.

We didn’t have a whole lot of organization. Uh, we didn’t have a whole lot of women working for us. Uh, hired this girl named Carly about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago. And Carly asked me if she could take the free roof giveaway and turn it into something special. And I said, sure. So she changed the name of it to the, um, love Your Neighbor Project.

And she came up with, um, a system where people within Code Red Roofers could nominate people from the community. Sales guys could nominate people that they’re trying to sell a roof to that didn’t have the money. Um. Anybody and everybody within Code Red Roofers could nominate whoever they wanted. And it, [00:22:00] it changed the whole dynamics of the, um, of the way that we do it.

Um, she, I remember the first one after that when she changed the name. We had about six people show up to nominate people for roofs. And it was, my neighbor needs help with a roof. And they would give a presentation and we’d bring it up on, we have this massive. A hundred inch, um, smart board tv so we can zoom in on Google Earth and spin it around and look at all of it and measure it and do everything you need to do to street view and everything else.

And they’d give a presentation of, of why they thought that person should be nominated. Um, and then the next person would come and do do it as well. And, uh, we had five or six of ’em just cycle right through and. It made them more a part of the process. So before it was about me and my business partner, maybe my wife and his wife feeling good about it.

And then it, then it became something where, you know, people that literally work for us were getting involved in [00:23:00] and going out and helping the community in a real way. Uh, and they got to be a part of the front end of choosing, choosing some of these people. So now it’s the Love Your Neighbor initiative.

Um. It is amazing ’cause we just gave away our fourth roof this year. Prior to Jen and I flying here the other day, we were at, uh, a friend’s house. Um, they couldn’t afford a new roof and the insurance company was, you know, putting pressure on ’em. They were gonna have to take money out of their 401k and pay the fees and whatever.

It goes with that. And, uh, so they were nominated by my wife and then my daughter. I loved them just as much and, and she, uh, she wrote this big long thing and came up with a, a PowerPoint presentation and nobody else had done that. So, um, you know, they ended up winning and so we were able to go over and present her with her new roof, uh, prior to coming here.

And it [00:24:00] was, it was really special. She’s someone that we’ve known for a long time. Jen and I went to high school with her, her husband, and she was actually a sales rep at, uh, a BC Supply, which used to be called Bradco back in the day. She was my tile rep. So it was nice to be able to help someone who, uh, who was nice to me at one point in time and gave me, you know, special pricing and stuff back in the day.

So it was, it was the one that was so far has been closest to my heart to, to do. But this kind of stuff has changed the dynamics of my company, like giving. Um, in 2017, 2018 is when Chris went to Dunking, uh, 2018. 2019 is when I gave up my Rolex money. Uh, the same timeframe is when we started giving, uh. The free roofs away.

And then Jen and I had made a decision that we were gonna give, uh, 15% of all the money that came in our house away to church and charity. And then eventually 20, [00:25:00] and now we’re at 25%. We give away 25% every dollar that comes in our house. Um, Jen’s ready to move to 30. I’m still stuck on 25 ’cause uh, 30 scares me a little bit, but.

The reason we, the reason we’re doing that is a, we’ve seen what a difference it makes in the community. We see how God brings it right back to us every single time. Um, and not, I’m not saying that if you give to the poor that God’s gonna throw money at you, but it, it’s one of these things that we just feel like, we’ll, never.

We can’t lose no matter what. If, if we give of our time or of our efforts of our money, um, it always comes back somehow, some way. Uh, and it always comes back better than, than it was when it went out and. The feeling you get when you give to someone is much more fulfilling than the Rolex or the nine 11 or the 47 Freeman.

Um, but to put it [00:26:00] into perspective or put it into numbers from 2018 to present in 2018, we were doing about $7 million a year in roofing. And this year we’re, we’re pushing, um, probably 30 to $35 million in sales in 26. Million dollars in revenue is what we’re projecting for the end of this year. So in a seven year, eight year time span, we’ve gone from a $7 million company to almost a $35 million company and it’s five x.

So God didn’t just write me a check and sent it right back to me, but he sent me a ton of work. He sent me a ton of employees, and I’ll be honest with you, I am the CEO of coed roofers. Uh, I’m not a CEO, I’m just a, I’m just a guy that, um, I’m just a guy who had some, had this spiritual thing, impact my life, changed my course.

And since I’ve changed my course, all I’ve really done [00:27:00] is done what God has asked me to do with my business. So I can’t take any credit for the. 7 million to 35 million. I can’t take any credit for all the wins that I’ve had, um, other than the fact that I was just obedient and I did what he wanted me to do.

And it’s impacted my life. It’s changed the life of my Jen and my, it’s changed our lives together as a married couple. It’s changed our family’s lives and it’s changed 240 lives of the people that work for me. And then it goes even beyond that. Those 240 people represent a thousand people in Martin County that.

That rely on Code Red Roofers to pay their bills every month because all of them have kids, all of them have wives, all of them have husbands. And um, it just became this really amazing thing. And then word of mouth, you know, gets around, Hey, did you hear what Code Red’s doing? I got a call from another roofer, and I don’t know if you guys know this, but in our, in my industry, especially in Florida, roofers don’t talk to one another.

They, [00:28:00] they, I don’t have the same feeling that they do, but they hate us for whatever reason. I feel like we’re the big guys on the block and they, you know, they take every shot at us, they possibly can. I have no problem talking to other roofers. I have no problem helping other roofers. Uh, and I’ve done it several times.

Um, when they get into trouble, they will call and, and I will have no problem. Go sit down and talk to ’em. Uh, I have no problem holding them accountable when their sales guys say things that are ridiculous about Code Red. But. I believe that if, if you’re trying to do something and become successful at it, help somebody else that’s trying to do the very same thing and ultimately you’ll be rewarded for that anyway, I say all that to say a fellow roofing contractor or a competitor of mine called me up one day and he’s like, Hey, I’ve got this girl Caroline working over here.

I don’t have enough work to keep her busy. She knows how to do everything. She knows how to do permitting. She knows how to do admin stuff in the office. Um, she’s kind of a jack of all trades. Do you want her. And I said, [00:29:00] sure, send her over. We’ll interview her. So she came over, um, she’s Puerto Rican and, um, I didn’t know that she was black, so I, I, I just, I didn’t know she was Puerto Rican until one day someone walked into the office and we needed someone to speak Spanish and she started speaking Spanish to them.

And I’m like, you speak Spanish? She’s like, yeah, I’m Puerto Rican. So. Anyway, I have a special connection with Caroline. She started out in the permitting department and she worked in the call center from there, and she just liked being outside. So OSHA has become something that’s a real stickler for us, or a real thorn in our side.

Um, the OSHA finds cost us a lot of money every year, so Caroline said she could, uh, and wanted to be the safety officer for Code Red Roofers. She’s a woman and she was able to get every one of these guys signed up for their OSHA 10, OSHA 20. Uh, she goes around the jobs and if they’re not wearing their harnesses, she lets ’em have it.

But it all came from [00:30:00] a guy that owned a roofing company that says, I have this girl. She’s, she was in addiction. I feel like she will fit in really good with the people over at Code Red Roofers. Would you interview her? And we did. And of course. She fit right in and we hired her. She’s been with us for probably three years now.

Um, she gave me a big hug the other day and told me, I hope you do good in North Carolina. She says, I know you will. So, so, Doug, when you first got started, right? And, and part of your story is that you were calling on roofers contractors and nobody would call you back, or it’d be a long time before they call you back and the service was poor, um, and you’re.

You know, mission was, Hey, I’m gonna call you back. Right? And we’re going to communicate. Right? And that’s just out of the fact that nobody else was doing that. That was an advantage for you. And while you’re still, uh, in the mindset, I’m chasing money and I’m trying to grow, um, whether that switch would have flipped and the, you know, the culture and the value and the goals [00:31:00] and the objectives or not, I think you still would’ve been successful, right?

But the culture change. Now you’re giving away money. Not only does it feel good, but there’s also a lot of. Synergy with the culture inside of the company, with the employees like you’re talking about. Right, right. So you mentioned, hey, you know, I’m not necessarily hiring and working with friends, um Right.

But as I’m, you know, reaching out to some of the employees and trying to, you know, do some due diligence before we have this conversation. The, just the, the joy and Yeah, the, the, the love from, uh, your employees that they have and, and towards you and your leadership, uh, is, is really admirable. And so, um, I was talking to Brandon earlier and it’s, Hey, we’ve got a faith-based company.

We’re going to call you back. We’re gonna communicate. Yeah, we’re gonna do a good job. We’re gonna stand behind what we do, we give back to the community. It just seems like it’s a no fail formula for, for success. So it’s, it’s just an awesome, uh, game plan that, you know, [00:32:00] obviously you’ve been blessed to, to, you know, lead and, and the company has done well.

So there’s, uh, the giving towards Jeremiah, there’s the love of your neighbor, and then also, um, you know, talk about Project Lift and the, the involvement with him. Yeah. So I, I have the. I had the opportunity to be a part of a, uh, Thursday men’s breakfast just with a lot of guys business leaders in my church.

And then, uh, some of them don’t go to my church. They’re just business leaders of the community. And, uh, one of them, um, is the CEO of Project Lift. Project Lift is kind of like, uh, they do kind of the same thing as Dunking, but they, they work with the younger generation. The, the kids that are still in high school that are drop dropping out.

Uh, the kids that are more than likely gonna be pushed in the direction of a trade. Um, so at Project Lift, they teach kids how to work on cars. Um, they teach ’em how to do HVAC work. And, um, so it, it just [00:33:00] came up one, uh, Thursday morning at this breakfast. I was talking to Bob and he was saying that he had reached out to several local businesses to kind of.

Um, do business with, or have them partner with Project Lift in some sort of way to, um, kind of help each other, you know, you help us help the kids and, and, uh, nobody was interested in that. So I, I was, a couple days later, I was walking in the morning before I went to work and I called him and I said, Hey, I don’t know how, but the Code Red Roofers would like to partner with Project Lift somehow.

I said, we’re dealing with the same. Same type of guys here, uh, or same type type of kids. Um, on my side, Duncan was strictly men, so we’re dealing with men. But you know, some of these men had women, uh, wives that were in addiction that are working for us as well. And then Bob’s dealing with the, the kids on the project lip side of things.

So it, for me, it was like a no brainer. What can [00:34:00] we do to partner with these guys? And for us at Code Red Roofers, the next, the next piece was. Um, we own our own roofing company. We own a gutter company, and we need, um, metal manufacturing. Um, the, the big roofing contractors in Florida that are really, really, really making it are the ones that own their own metal manufacturing companies.

They, they bend all their own, um, accessory metals, and they make all their own roof panels. Um, and then, and then they also sell to the public. So that was the next piece. So we bought, um, a couple breaks and some shears. And, uh, we put ’em in a project lift building and we partnered with Project Lift. We started a company called Mission Field Metals.

Um, and basically I’m, I’m the owner of Mission Field Metals and a few of my employees as well, uh, and Bob, um, with Project Lift is one of the owners as well. And basically, um, our machines are [00:35:00] in Project Lift building the kids from Project Lift Bend, all of our accessory metals. Um. They’ve been doing it for about three or four months now.

Um, so by the end of the year they will, you know, we’ll have six months of solid buying accessory metals, strictly for mission field metals bent by these kids who are being taught how to use this machinery. And then eventually the next step would be, uh, we’re talking about a, uh, roofing school, teaching them how to sell, teaching them how to.

You know, be on the production side of things, um, teaching them how to install that kind of stuff. So right now, the, the, the big piece is the mission field metals and, and working hand in hand with them. We’ve got the roof panel machines coming here in the next six weeks. So when the panel machines get here, they’ll learn how to run the roofing panels as well.

And then January 1st, 2026, we’ll be selling to the public and, um, producing all of our own. Sheet metal for co red roofers. So [00:36:00] yeah, one way, um, roofing company giving away a roof, right? Uh, not all business owners have as, um, you know, conducive of, uh, giving as, as that any advice to business owners of how they can give back and the community give, give and, and kind of what they can do regardless of kind of the structure of their business.

So I think even if, I mean for us, we, in the beginning we couldn’t afford to do that, but we could. We can always afford to give of our time. You know, there’s, um, these guys that come from Dunking, whatever age they were when they started using drugs, that’s where their, that’s where their life paused. So if it was 15 or 16 years old, they’re 16 years old until they get free of drugs and then they, then they start to take off.

So they never learned how to, how to put together a budget or manage their own money. They never learned how to buy a house or, uh, buy a car. They never learned how to, uh, be a husband, you know? Um, [00:37:00] and so if you can’t afford to give money or if you can’t afford to give a, a, something as expensive as, as a roof, like we couldn’t in the beginning mentoring somebody, um, it’s like I’m, I’ve had this new mindset that every level that I hit, I wanna reach down and pull as many people up with me that as I can.

And those are the people that I’m, that are usually working for me a hundred percent. My kids, uh, every plateau I hit, or every, every milestone that I hit, you know? Um, I wanna teach my kids how to manage their money, how to, how to treat their wives, how to treat their husbands. Um, so any advice that we can give to people.

I, I find that there’s a lot of people, especially in my industry, that. Uh, had parents, but their parents either didn’t know enough or they just weren’t around to teach ’em how to do some of these things. And some of these things are really easy to do and all of us in this room know how to do something.

Um, and it’s just taking what we know how to do and instilling that into the younger generation so [00:38:00] they can end up on the right side of things when they grow up. So, uh, if you can’t afford to give ’em money right off rip, you know, start with your time, um, it all comes back. No matter what, it’s, it’s just amazing how it all comes back.

I’ve sat down with several of them and helped them right outta budget. Chris, the one that I started the story with, he did eventually end up being done with Dunlin. Uh, he married Patsy, who was his girlfriend. Now she’s his wife. Uh, they had his first kid who’s what, four years old now? Five, five years old now.

Um. I wrote a handwritten budget with him seven years ago on a napkin, and he, he still has it hanging on his refrigerator at his house. Um, now his finances have changed for the, for the better. Um, and he’s, but he still, he hangs it there just to remind himself to live on that budget. And that’s, that’s, I mean, when you start helping people manage their money, um, it’s amazing how few [00:39:00] people in America have three or $4,000 in the bank.

People that work and make. 70, 80,000 bucks a year and they don’t have a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Um, you know, giving these guys opportunities, helping them set up a budget, um, a lot of them are, are making, you know, 90 to a hundred thousand bucks a year doing the jobs that they’re doing for us.

And, uh, the ones that are not making that much, if we can help them maximize, uh, how far their money will go and teach ’em how to live on less, um. They’ll be better off for it. So, and I’m willing to help any of ’em with anything, any time. I mean, I, I suggest books that I, you know, that I read. Um, one of the biggest books that I was impacted by was, was, um, leadership, not by the book.

And it’s about, um, the story of Hobby Lobby. And the owner of Hobby Lobby, you know, the hobby Lobby’s worth billions of dollars. This guy’s giving away 80% of his money every single year, um, to the tune of billions of dollars. [00:40:00] And that’s one that really impacted me. But all the things that he did, he did a lot of things.

He gave health insurance. He started a small hospital for all of his employees to get MRIs and, uh. Scans and stuff like that. So anything and everything that we can do to, to help our employees, the better off and, and the harder that, the harder that you work to better their lives, the harder they’re gonna work to better your life and, and work their butts off for you too.

So it’s a, it’s a win-win for everybody. It’s.

Take some questions. Yeah. If anybody’s got any questions?

Yes, sir. Um, 2017, 2018 to take off with your employees and to write the check for the materials and the other things like how hard was it to commit to the first roof? Um, from a financial, mental, per, because the business wasn’t as strong. Right. Right. You [00:41:00] mentioned earlier, um, but to commit and say, God, we’re gonna do this no matter what it takes.

How hard was it to commitment or had you kind of crossed that barrier to close the things leading into it? Um, it was hard to, to do that. It was hard to shuffle some things around and, and make it, uh, make it happen. Um. Because things were tight, money was tight. I mean, we were doing way less work than we’re doing now.

And, uh, I’ll give you a contrast for that one. We just did one this year in the second or third quarter. Um, typically the roofs that we do that are, uh, free, um, are the, they’re usually less fortunate people. It’s usually a small up and over shingle roof, maybe a five or $6,000 roof. You know what I mean?

And the last one we just gave away, not the last, not the last one we gave away last week, but the one prior to that was over $40,000 tile roof. And it, it’s typ typically is not the, [00:42:00] um, typically not the dollar range that we’re looking to do Free roofs in, usually a person that’s got a $40,000 roof is not a person that is needing help from us.

One of our sales guys had been out there giving her a quote on her roof. She didn’t have the money to do it, and then she had. A tragedy happened and he, when he, one of the girls on the call center picked it up and started calling, uh, to follow up and the lady was crying on the phone and somebody walked into, um, her son was in his thirties.

Someone walked into the shop where he was welding and shot him six times and killed him. So. She, Alexis, who works for me in the call center, she was so moved by that, that I think she ended up praying with this woman and then hung up. And then she called Curtis, who was the sales guy and said she doesn’t wanna do the roof because her son was murdered.

So the next opportunity to, um, nominate someone for a free roof, Curtis shows up. He’s the sales guy [00:43:00] who’s, if he gets her nominated and we do the roof, he’s losing his commission on it. Alexis. Um, Alexis is in the call center, but if she gets this person to sign over the phone, she gets a percentage of it too, so she’s walking away from it.

And there was one other person, so there was three people that came in to nominate this woman and because of the vote and because that one pulled on the heartstrings the most that you know, uh, no. No mother ever wants to have to live through the pain of getting their kid killed. Um, that kind of just resonated with us.

So we went to tell her that she was getting the free roof, and it was, it was very impactful. And the people, I wasn’t there on that one, but there was about 10 people that went and took her flowers and cookies and all kinds of stuff to let her know that, Hey, you get a free roof. Um, she was crying. My employees were crying.

I mean, everybody was, uh, crying mess. I had people calling me like, it was the most impactful thing ever, and I can’t believe you missed it. And I, I wish I didn’t miss it. I was off doing something else, but. [00:44:00] That’s a contrast for, so the first one was very, very tough to give away, uh, because of money. Um, this one typically would be tough to give away, you know, uh, 30 or 40,000 roof is a big deal for us.

Um, but it was more about the, the story that was behind it and how it was going to impact this woman’s life. So that’s the reason we did it. But that blew through your budget for the year then, right? Like you probably budget this, like in the, the line item. The, um, love your neighbor. Yeah. Somewhere, right?

So a 40,000 roof is, is probably $40,000 for the year. And they say, you know, one roof flows through the entire thing. So that’s, that’s a great, great point. So that, another thing that happened is almost all of our people are a hundred percent on board with this initiative. We, we now give all of our employees, uh, get profit share checks for, you know, the profit that the company makes.

So everybody gets a profit share check. So we’ve had a, a handful of people out of the 240 that say to us, [00:45:00] well, listen, if we give away this roof, is that gonna affect our profit share? And my answer is always, yes, it’s gonna affect your profit share, but your profit share is gonna be better than it would’ve been if we didn’t do it.

And we’ve even offered to give these these people that if it doesn’t work, if you feel like it doesn’t work out, we’ll give you, give you your money. ’cause we don’t want you to feel like you got. Cheated on this deal, and every one of them that have ever brought that up have never, they’ve all been impacted by it somehow.

Some way. It’s, it’s, it’s just been an amazing thing that we do. It’s not, it’s nothing that we like, this is the first time I’ve ever talked about it in front of anybody other than employees. Like we talk about it internally. We don’t use it as an advertisement. Uh, we don’t put it on social media. We don’t.

Um, we don’t tell the world about it. We don’t feel like that’s what we’re supposed to do, but these guys asked me to come here today and talk about giving and how it’s impacted my business. And I would tell you, uh, it, I would tell you that it’s probably the biggest reason my company five x in the [00:46:00] last eight years is just because of the giving component.

And then I can tell you from a personal standpoint, you know, my, my financial situation has changed dramatically over the last seven or eight years as well. So, you know. I think the more that we do to help people out, the more that’s gonna come back to us in some shape or form and, you know, um, it’s better to give than to receive.

And my wife and I believe it and we live by it and we own the company. So that’s what we dictate to happen in our company and it works. So, um, fantastic. Um, you know, impact, um, you know, fascinating journey. Um, awesome leader, great job. Um. The questions. Anybody else? Yeah. Yeah, because I love the transition.

Yeah. It’s interesting. I’m listening to a, um, kind of a podcast with St. Michael Angel and, you know, battling evil devices and it talks about the opposite, agreed as charity. And that’s exactly what you’ve [00:47:00] done, right? Right. You have embraced charity. Um, what’s your view of mine now? My view of money now is money’s a tool.

So I’ve, I’ve had the money in my hand. I could go buy a Rolex any day of the week that I wanted to now, right? So that was the big thing in my life, the first big thing. Um, but because I, because I now understand why I wanted it, um, I’d rather give that money to somebody else, then put a, put a watch on my hand.

Um, I feel the same way about the boats and the cars and stuff like that. I mean, I still want. I still want, um, a specific car, but it shifted from a nine 11 GT three to a 1969 Ford F 100 Hot rod, you know, so it’s, it’s pretty much the same money, but it doesn’t scream to the world. It know, $400,000 car.

It’s a, you know, it’s a 1969 truck. Money’s a tool. [00:48:00] Money, money can be used. Uh, I, I, I. There was a calling on my life from the time I was, uh, before I was even born, you know, and I ran from it. Um, but I, I feel like this is what God wanted me to do all along. He wanted me to go into business and he wanted me to use my business as a, um, kingdom driven business.

And, um, so I think I fulfilled the, uh, calling that was on my life. Um, I just, I just didn’t know that it was in this capacity rather than the others. So. Okay, thank you. But money is absolutely, uh, it’s a tool where we can help people and we can do good for the community. So.