Latest / Port City Profiles / The Roofer Who Lost His Own Roof w/ Sean Claire | Ep 1

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The Roofer Who Lost His Own Roof w/ Sean Claire | Ep 1 · Port City Profiles

• 0:00
  People will devalue the roofing trade.
• 0:02
  Think about it.
• 0:02
  We're parents, right?
• 0:03
  We got young kids.
• 0:04
  What do you tell your kids about where to go and be in the future?
• 0:07
  You tell them to be a roofing contractor?
• 0:09
  Nothing sex about being in the trades, but they're needed.
• 0:11
  So Wilmington's full of so many cool businesses doing great work, and most of them never get to tell you how they're helping and, more importantly, why they're helping here in the community.
• 0:20
  So I decided I'm going to ask them.
• 0:22
  I'm your host, Rich Cardona, and this is Port City Profiles.
• 0:26
  Sean, dude, thank you so much.
• 0:27
  You're literally the first guest here on Port City Profiles, man.
• 0:30
  This is my first ever podcast.
• 0:32
  I've never done this before.
• 0:33
  So thanks for having me.
• 0:34
  Of course.
• 0:35
  And Sean is super charismatic.
• 0:36
  And that's why I love you.
• 0:38
  Like, I see you.
• 0:40
  He is a neighbor.
• 0:41
  Of course, he lives across from me.
• 0:43
  But like this dude, like talks to everyone in the neighborhood, which might help in your business.
• 0:47
  And we could get into that in a little while.
• 0:49
  But first, let us know about your business and when you started it and why you started it.
• 0:53
  So I own Fortitude Roofing, residential roofing company.
• 0:56
  We do a little bit of commercial.
• 0:58
  We established ourselves in 2018 after Hurricane Florence.
• 1:01
  I roofed as a kid, and I loved it.
• 1:04
  I hated it at first, but then I turned to really like it because it's being outside.
• 1:08
  Who knew you in roofing as a kid?
• 1:09
  My dad.
• 1:10
  He was a roofer?
• 1:11
  Nope.
• 1:12
  He was an advertisement.
• 1:13
  He was in sales, traveling sales.
• 1:15
  But we grew up in a small town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, and we grew up in a small town outside of Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1:21
  And when I turned 14, like the area, everybody knew one another small towns.
• 1:25
  Right.
• 1:26
  So when I turned 14, my dad goes, you're 14 now.
• 1:28
  You're not going to drive your mom crazy all summer and stay home.
• 1:31
  You're going to go learn the value of a dollar and a workout thing.
• 1:35
  Yeah.
• 1:35
  You start with Jeff and Steve Monday.
• 1:38
  So he got me a job with the roofing company and I hated it at first.
• 1:42
  And then it turns out he didn't put you in sales, though.
• 1:44
  Now, you're like 14.
• 1:46
  You know, he just wanted me.
• 1:47
  Oh, that's of course.
• 1:47
  No, no, I'm going to.
• 1:49
  Yeah.
• 1:49
  Get out of here, kid.
• 1:50
  Yeah.
• 1:51
  Started and then really liked it.
• 1:53
  Being outside, working with my hands, you know, the sense of accomplishment of what you
• 1:58
  achieve at the end of the day you know and plus i'm so i'm adhd man yeah i didn't know that as a kid yeah i didn't know that as a kid but like honestly as an adult you find this stuff out and roofing when you just when you roof you just get up and go yeah get up on the roof tear off dry in load up the roof go so you don't really have to think about much so it fit my your fit my personality right so you were just like engaged up there on the roofs ripping off shingles and stuff i'm assuming
• 2:24
  You didn't have to think about much, man.
• 2:25
  You just go, you know, and then you get up and you learn the process.
• 2:29
  As soon as you learn the process, you can start predicting what happens next.
• 2:32
  And when you start predicting what happens next and take an action without being told to take action, you become very valuable.
• 2:38
  Sure.
• 2:40
  And then, you know, you get put on with a good crew.
• 2:42
  That's what happened.
• 2:43
  Yeah.
• 2:43
  I kind of just took two and got on with a good crew, had some great mentors from a young age.
• 2:48
  And every summer.
• 2:50
  I would go back for four years.
• 2:52
  And even when we had extended breaks from school, I'd always get back out on the roof and loved it.
• 2:59
  Graduated, went to college, graduated from college.
• 3:02
  What did you study in college?
• 3:04
  Psychology.
• 3:04
  Okay.
• 3:05
  You know why?
• 3:05
  Why?
• 3:06
  I had no idea what I wanted to do.
• 3:08
  You know, the psychology resonated with me, so I liked it, but it's not a profession that you can have unless you go back to school for another eight years, you know.
• 3:15
  Fast forward, you know, go through corporate America, was in technology, moved a lot, moved out from, we were in Atlanta, and then we got recruited out to Silicon Valley.
• 3:25
  What?
• 3:25
  Yep.
• 3:26
  Spent three years out in Silicon Valley, and then we moved down to Southern California.
• 3:29
  What are you doing out there?
• 3:30
  Technology.
• 3:31
  Early stage technology, emerging technology, venture-backed technology.
• 3:35
  Let me rewind real quick to...
• 3:39
  when you were going back for the summers and stuff like that, like we, we both have children.
• 3:44
  And what I've learned with my kids at a young age is like, it's like one week it's this one week it's this.
• 3:50
  And I'm just like, make up your mind already.
• 3:51
  And like, once they find something they like, I'm like all about it.
• 3:54
  But like in high school, you know, like it's easy.
• 3:57
  You're growing, you're dating, you got your buds and all this stuff.
• 4:01
  So it's like, I'm just kind of surprised that you didn't venture out to, uh,
• 4:05
  There was nothing else that interested you besides roofing like it had you on a grip like that.
• 4:10
  The older I get, the more religious I get.
• 4:12
  I love it.
• 4:13
  And the more that I can reflect on why things have happened and and all that.
• 4:18
  I mean, even until I was about 30, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted to work for myself.
• 4:25
  So small town growing up.
• 4:27
  I knew that I was going to leave Cleveland.
• 4:29
  I knew that I was going to go explore different things.
• 4:31
  Profession, no idea what I was going to do.
• 4:33
  And I was looking for purpose and just kind of just kind of floating along.
• 4:38
  Right.
• 4:38
  And I knew something was missing.
• 4:39
  I jumped around a lot.
• 4:43
  and I was looking for purpose well you fast forward to 2018 we had just moved back to the east coast to be closer to our family from Silicon Valley we were here for three months literally just getting established and Hurricane Florence comes through demolished the coast there was so much so much devastation there wasn't enough contractors I just felt compelled this is why I call it my divine intervention moment
• 5:11
  I just felt compelled because I was looking for purpose, Rich, to go out and try to help other people.
• 5:17
  And talked to my wife.
• 5:19
  She said, if that's what you want to do, she's like, I've been with you for so long.
• 5:22
  And we've moved around the country.
• 5:24
  And she goes, if that's what you want to do and you believe it, then I'll support you.
• 5:28
  So I go, all right.
• 5:29
  Tendered resignation.
• 5:30
  Went into business for myself.
• 5:32
  Worked for a couple general contractors.
• 5:33
  It's kind of like a repair technician.
• 5:35
  But I realized like...
• 5:36
  Anyone who can set expectations, deliver on expectations, be fair priced and provide a good customer experience and a good product, they're going to be successful.
• 5:48
  What was the learning curve for you, though?
• 5:50
  After doing corporate stuff or whatever, did it kind of come back fast or were you like, holy crap, things emerge so much?
• 5:57
  No, it's like riding a bike, man.
• 6:00
  But it's just different scenarios.
• 6:01
  Sure.
• 6:01
  You know what I mean?
• 6:02
  Like there's different pitches, different elevations, different safety protocols and all of that.
• 6:06
  But when you work with your hands once and you kind of understand the general practices, you can take to it, you know, you gotta, you gotta look into it and you gotta practice it.
• 6:14
  It's not something that you can't just show up and do.
• 6:16
  You've got to study.
• 6:17
  It's like a craft.
• 6:18
  You got to study it.
• 6:19
  Um, so we did.
• 6:21
  So you launched fortitude.
• 6:24
  Tell me how you went about finding the type of people you wanted to work with.
• 6:27
  Because like,
• 6:29
  Let me just put it this way.
• 6:30
  Like, you're a super cool dude, but I also know I don't think you like to deal with a lot of bullshit.
• 6:36
  So, like, tell me about how you started to build out the team and like how that carries into like where you are now.
• 6:41
  Like the vision is like, these are the type of people I want to work with.
• 6:44
  These are the type of people I want to serve my clients.
• 6:46
  So when I got going, I wrote down, I still have this piece of paper.
• 6:50
  I wrote down on a piece of paper, our tagline.
• 6:53
  Yep.
• 6:54
  our mission statement and our core values, right?
• 6:56
  And our tagline is integrity and craftsmanship.
• 6:58
  It's on all of our trucks, all of our shirts, all of our business cards, everything that we do, Fortitude Roofing, integrity, and craftsmanship.
• 7:03
  Everything that we'll do will be done with the highest level of integrity.
• 7:06
  All the work that we do will have the highest level of craftsmanship.
• 7:09
  The mission, positively impact our communities through our work.
• 7:14
  I didn't tell you this just yet, but in 2018, after we moved, we were only here for three months.
• 7:19
  We just had our fourth kid, Vance.
• 7:21
  He was two weeks old.
• 7:22
  Florence came through.
• 7:23
  So we just moved.
• 7:26
  From the left coast to the right coast.
• 7:30
  And we're just getting established in here.
• 7:32
  And then all of a sudden, boom.
• 7:34
  Dang.
• 7:35
  The roof failed.
• 7:36
  Whole house had to get gutted.
• 7:37
  We were homeless for 60 days.
• 7:39
  We had to go back up to Raleigh, spend time with extended family, go back up to Ohio, take Millie out of school, find new schools for her.
• 7:46
  And yeah, so we rented a home in Emerald Isle, somebody's beach home.
• 7:51
  FEMA was in there.
• 7:52
  And then I found these people on Airbnb, wrote them up a sob story about what happened.
• 7:57
  And they go, we'll open up our house to you.
• 7:59
  And they did.
• 8:00
  And that's how we got established up in Carter County.
• 8:02
  And that's, you know.
• 8:03
  Holy crap.
• 8:04
  I did not know this.
• 8:05
  Yeah.
• 8:06
  So this is a question I always intend to ask here on the show, which is you must be acutely familiar with the problem that you're trying to solve.
• 8:14
  And well, number one, you were exposed to it at a young age, but then like you literally had to deal with it and you were homeless because of your roof failing.
• 8:21
  Dude, Rich, I remember people, I would show up and people would thank me for just calling back.
• 8:26
  Yeah.
• 8:26
  I'm like, how can you run a business if you're not calling people back?
• 8:29
  Good Lord.
• 8:29
  And they would thank me after they would pay me, you know, and I'd be like, no, I should be thanking you.
• 8:33
  Yeah.
• 8:34
  So anyway, so we defined our core values.
• 8:36
  I had to find our core values right from the get go.
• 8:38
  Yeah.
• 8:38
  We got three of them.
• 8:39
  Develop leaders, provide an unmatched customer experience, impact our communities by giving back.
• 8:44
  Right.
• 8:44
  A lot of people want to contribute to the community.
• 8:47
  And like it's I think it's sometimes hard because like you have your core mission, but then like you also want to do something on the side.
• 8:53
  So for me, that might be like doing podcasts with people from the church or being like, hey, come in and do your testimony or, hey, if you want to do a college application, make a cool video here or something like that.
• 9:03
  Trying to give back.
• 9:04
  What does giving back look like on your end?
• 9:06
  Well, we do it in two ways.
• 9:07
  One is through our work, right?
• 9:08
  Because if you think about my own personal experience, how my life got flipped upside down, we get to make an impact every day.
• 9:15
  And that's why we have that customer experience core value.
• 9:19
  Because roofing is competitive.
• 9:20
  There's a lot of roofers out there.
• 9:22
  We strive not to be just another roofing company.
• 9:26
  So, you know, if we give a great unmatched customer experience...
• 9:30
  It's a way to separate ourselves.
• 9:31
  And then we get to do their work and we get to protect them.
• 9:34
  And a lot of people just think a roof is just a roof when it's not.
• 9:37
  You take my own personal experience and that's what we're preventing.
• 9:40
  That's what we want to prevent.
• 9:41
  So that's one.
• 9:43
  The other way is with financially.
• 9:46
  So we try to give back, man.
• 9:47
  I have a child with autism and I saw firsthand that.
• 9:50
  the effects of autism.
• 9:51
  And, you know, my, my family's life, it's not better or worse.
• 9:55
  Yeah.
• 9:55
  Right.
• 9:56
  But it's just different.
• 9:57
  And one out of 31 children, one out of 31, man, are born with autism these days.
• 10:02
  It was never like that.
• 10:03
  I don't know.
• 10:03
  So we take proceeds every month and we donate back to the North Carolina autism society.
• 10:07
  Amazing.
• 10:08
  So for any customer,
• 10:10
  that might be watching this, thank you.
• 10:12
  Because you have, we've taken your proceeds and have given back to autism and we're making a difference.
• 10:17
  98 cents out of every dollar, I think it's 98 cents, out of every dollar stays into the local community for autism-related causes.
• 10:24
  Every time Fortitude Roofing gets a Google review,
• 10:27
  We make a donation.
• 10:27
  Amazing.
• 10:28
  Yeah.
• 10:28
  So, and then we'll partner up with them for the walk runs.
• 10:31
  I mean, so I'm kind of jaded.
• 10:33
  I'm kind of biased because it's directly impacting me.
• 10:36
  But if you think about it, we're only a couple of degrees separated from somebody impacted by autism.
• 10:41
  Yeah.
• 10:41
  Yeah.
• 10:42
  I'm glad to hear that.
• 10:43
  I'm glad we kind of led with that.
• 10:44
  Now let's talk about when someone comes to you, like what is typically rich call, Sean, why?
• 10:50
  Like what is going on?
• 10:51
  And I could definitely tell you, I'm assuming it's not because everything's perfect because no one cares about the preventative.
• 10:58
  Right.
• 10:58
  So it's like, tell me what it's like the first call, what someone's actually needing when they call you or what they think they need.
• 11:05
  People call us for different reasons.
• 11:06
  I mean, you know, like, geez, man, we were.
• 11:09
  Hubert, North Carolina, Swansboro, North Carolina, last week, there was a tornado that came through, like a little micro tornado that came through.
• 11:15
  So we came into the office and calls were coming in right at 6 o'clock in the morning when we were showing up, and it was just one after another, after another, after another.
• 11:24
  People's fences were down, shingles were in their yard.
• 11:27
  So that's really severe, and that's not an everyday thing.
• 11:31
  People might call us because they see stains on the ceiling.
• 11:35
  People may call us because their roof is coming up to 20 feet.
• 11:38
  21 years old time to be replacing right what is that like range that people should be thinking about that yeah yeah be careful who you ask because we'll get a different answer yeah honestly building products are not made the way that they used to be made sure okay so a life of a roof is going to be 15 to 25 years depending on the manufacturer the weight of that product how is it installed
• 11:59
  proximity to the ocean, wind, stuff like that.
• 12:02
  So people may need a roof around that time, but people are calling you.
• 12:05
  They got leaks.
• 12:06
  They got maybe a shingle down or whatever.
• 12:08
  And then obviously, I'm sure people just want a quote like right away.
• 12:13
  But like, it's not that easy, I'm assuming.
• 12:15
  Like, no, it is.
• 12:16
  Okay.
• 12:16
  It is.
• 12:17
  Um, technology is awesome these days, man.
• 12:19
  Back in the day when I was 14, 15, man, like they had an estimator that would go out and he would walk roofs, hand measure those roofs.
• 12:28
  It would take, he'd have to manually do math and crunch numbers and all that.
• 12:32
  Now it's, you spend 50, 60, 70 bucks.
• 12:35
  You get a measurement report, you know, the exact surface area of that roof.
• 12:39
  And then you plug it into your, you know, your CRM and boom.
• 12:43
  Yeah.
• 12:43
  And if you're good and if you know your numbers, you're able just to go right off the spot.
• 12:47
  We sell jobs at this price per square.
• 12:50
  Your roof has X amount of squares.
• 12:52
  Boom.
• 12:53
  Let's say people are not awesome and they need some roofing things and they decide not to call Fortitude and they call someone else.
• 13:01
  What are some things they should be looking out for that might be not like I'm saying bad or anything, but like.
• 13:07
  When I get an oil change and they're like, you want us to replace your filter?
• 13:10
  I'm like, no, unless my car is going to explode, just change my oil.
• 13:12
  What are some things people need to look out for in terms of maybe upsells or anything like that that might not be necessary?
• 13:17
  Yeah, yeah.
• 13:19
  One is be careful of those guys that are showing up.
• 13:21
  We do like door knockers.
• 13:22
  We live.
• 13:23
  Think about where we live.
• 13:24
  Dude.
• 13:25
  It's all the time.
• 13:26
  Now, in full transparency, man, like we do the same thing.
• 13:28
  We do door knocking, but we have a different approach to it.
• 13:31
  But a lot of these door knockers, I'd probably say nine out of 10 companies, they're going out there and they're just saying storm damage.
• 13:37
  There's this.
• 13:38
  Yes.
• 13:39
  Their goal is to get on the roof and have you open up an insurance claim.
• 13:42
  Watch out for that.
• 13:43
  That's garbage.
• 13:44
  Okay.
• 13:45
  That's not the right thing.
• 13:46
  Tell me what happens if I go down that road.
• 13:48
  Like, I'm convinced.
• 13:49
  And I'm like, you're right.
• 13:50
  And then I call USAA or whoever.
• 13:52
  And I start out through that process.
• 13:54
  What's detrimental about that?
• 13:55
  It's just a shady business practice.
• 13:57
  There's stings going on.
• 13:58
  People are fictitiously making damage to roofs.
• 14:02
  Completely unethical, right?
• 14:04
  So just watch out for that.
• 14:06
  And then there's been something in the news, I think right before Christmas time, somebody out of...
• 14:10
  It was either Raleigh or Charlotte, a big market.
• 14:13
  There was a sting operation.
• 14:14
  Guy got busted, caught on camera, fictitiously making damage.
• 14:19
  Oh, dang.
• 14:19
  And yeah, now there's, I think there's 18 felony counts.
• 14:22
  Felony counts, man.
• 14:24
  Ridiculous.
• 14:24
  So watch out.
• 14:25
  Watch out for that.
• 14:26
  Sure.
• 14:26
  The other thing, too, is the high sales pressure.
• 14:29
  Somebody is showing up at your door.
• 14:30
  Obviously, it costs the business time and money for that person to show up.
• 14:34
  You've got overhead on your trucks, gas, right?
• 14:38
  Then they've got to go walk your roof, all that.
• 14:41
  So they're there for a reason, and they're being paid to be there.
• 14:44
  So companies want to protect against that.
• 14:47
  So a lot of them will be like, you don't leave without selling something.
• 14:51
  That's some of our competitors' models, right?
• 14:54
  Yeah.
• 14:54
  It's a roof.
• 14:55
  Yeah, man.
• 14:56
  You want to be very consultative.
• 14:58
  You want, you want to have somebody that sits down there that gets to know you first, listens to you.
• 15:02
  And it's just honest.
• 15:04
  Yes.
• 15:04
  And you can, you, people are smart.
• 15:06
  They can decipher bullshit.
• 15:07
  Yeah.
• 15:07
  You know?
• 15:08
  So, so I hit you up and you tell me what needs to be done.
• 15:12
  And I'm like, okay, what is usually the process?
• 15:15
  Like, what do I have to do?
• 15:16
  And then like, once that's done and we know we have a contractor or whatever, what does it look like?
• 15:22
  You know,
• 15:23
  as time goes on and you're helping out with the roof.
• 15:25
  Oh yeah, yeah.
• 15:26
  Well, it depends on what the scope is.
• 15:29
  Let's say my roof is 22 years old and I'm like, Sean, I listen to your podcast, it's gotta go hook it up.
• 15:35
  And it's like a whole freaking thing.
• 15:37
  Typical roof, something like that shingle, we'll contract with you.
• 15:40
  We've got a four step process.
• 15:41
  We've got this down to science.
• 15:43
  And we do every deal the same way because we wanna have expectations.
• 15:46
  We wanna set right, we wanna set expectations.
• 15:50
  can kind of piggyback off of that and tell you why we do that is we had a crawl space issue remember a couple years ago when magnolia greens flooded yeah in the street you know like kids are walking around in the street i was walking out my water water was like over my knees in the middle of the street cross place flooded terrible experience with the uh with the contracting company to get out there encapsulate our crawl space and
• 16:14
  No expectations were set.
• 16:16
  Money exchanged.
• 16:17
  Nothing like when people showed up, they showed up and they just, you know, to do the work.
• 16:22
  I always think that would be the money pit.
• 16:25
  So, yeah, a terrible, terrible experience, right?
• 16:29
  And part of our core values is unmatched customer experience.
• 16:31
  So we do everything the same way.
• 16:33
  We have a four-step process from start
• 16:35
  To completion.
• 16:36
  And then we have an account team that actually supports each one of those steps.
• 16:42
  So, you know, after you contract, you'll be with me or a sales representative, you know, and you'll go all the way up to the contracting phase.
• 16:48
  After the contracting phase, you'll kind of be in that dead limbo time, right?
• 16:52
  Where we're ordering your materials and scheduling your job.
• 16:55
  We have a point of contact.
• 16:56
  What's that kind of timeline look like?
• 16:57
  It depends on the season.
• 16:59
  Okay.
• 16:59
  You know, when you're busy, when you're in the middle of summer, you can be anywhere from six to eight weeks.
• 17:04
  Anything over six, I start to get a little nervous about.
• 17:06
  Sure.
• 17:07
  Right.
• 17:07
  And then things will slow down and it might be a two-week, three-week backlog.
• 17:11
  Okay.
• 17:11
  Right.
• 17:11
  And then we'll have account team members that'll be there during the job.
• 17:15
  Yeah.
• 17:15
  Yeah.
• 17:16
  And then there's an inside what we call a customer success manager there that there for phone calls just to deliver on that core value.
• 17:23
  I've seen you guys before and I'm like driving by and then the next day I'm like, is that done?
• 17:30
  I'm like, it's.
• 17:31
  Yeah, man.
• 17:32
  Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
• 17:33
  Yeah.
• 17:34
  So we've got an awesome crew.
• 17:36
  Yeah.
• 17:36
  Amazing.
• 17:37
  Yeah.
• 17:37
  Amazing crew.
• 17:38
  Fortitude roofing would be nothing without the people that work inside of it and then the people that actually that actually do the work.
• 17:45
  How fast are you guys in?
• 17:47
  Or how fast can it be?
• 17:48
  A day?
• 17:48
  A day.
• 17:49
  That's insane.
• 17:50
  I mean, our crew's phenomenal, man.
• 17:51
  Yeah.
• 17:52
  These guys are amazing.
• 17:55
  They'll take off a roof, put a roof back on, leave the home, leave the ground better than they found it, and be out of there in a day.
• 18:02
  Being a business owner is solving problems, right?
• 18:04
  So like your job is to serve people.
• 18:07
  My job is to serve people.
• 18:08
  What kind of relief are people feeling when it's done?
• 18:12
  Or is it kind of just like, I can't believe I had to spend that much?
• 18:15
  Like, is it one of those both where it's both?
• 18:17
  Yeah, it's both.
• 18:19
  You know, like we we tell everybody about roofing and about what a roof actually does.
• 18:24
  It's not just roof.
• 18:24
  It's peace of mind.
• 18:25
  Right.
• 18:27
  And some people understand that.
• 18:28
  Some people don't.
• 18:29
  But there's still a price associated with it.
• 18:31
  And it's steep, man.
• 18:32
  Construction's not going down.
• 18:34
  Right now, today, is the lowest that construction will ever be.
• 18:38
  Because materials are going to increase.
• 18:40
  Labor rates are going to increase.
• 18:42
  Materials, if we keep exporting materials or importing materials, they're going to get tougher and tougher to get.
• 18:48
  So prices are only going to go up.
• 18:50
  What kind of things are you hearing from your customers when you're done?
• 18:54
  Like how happy are they or relieved?
• 18:56
  Is there anything that they're just like, cool, I don't have to think about this anymore?
• 18:59
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:00
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:00
  I mean, and that's what we strive to do, right?
• 19:03
  They get a roof.
• 19:04
  They spend their money with us.
• 19:06
  And we want to make sure that it's not in vain, if you will.
• 19:10
  Sure.
• 19:10
  Right?
• 19:11
  Anyone who works with us, man, we appreciate it.
• 19:13
  We don't take that stuff for granted because of all the choices that they have when it comes to contractors.
• 19:19
  So...
• 19:20
  We try to go above and beyond for these guys, and we stand behind our work.
• 19:23
  We're not perfect.
• 19:24
  Mistakes are going to happen.
• 19:25
  Every now and then, property damage will get damaged.
• 19:29
  I can't sit here and tell you that someone's flagstone or somebody's siding's never gotten shipped.
• 19:34
  We'll own it.
• 19:35
  We'll take care of it.
• 19:36
  And if there's ever an issue with our installation, even if there's not, even if there's somebody that thinks that there's an issue, we'll come back.
• 19:42
  That's what we do.
• 19:43
  What is, I would say...
• 19:48
  a misconception or myth when it comes to the roofing world that, that people might have, uh, that, that you're like, it's not actually like that.
• 19:58
  I want to say people will devalue the roofing trade.
• 20:02
  Why is that?
• 20:03
  Think about it.
• 20:03
  We're parents, right?
• 20:04
  We got young kids.
• 20:05
  What do you tell your kids about where to go and be in the future?
• 20:08
  You tell them to be a roofing contractor.
• 20:09
  Yeah.
• 20:10
  You might tell them to be a business owner, but do you tell them to actually be a roofing contract?
• 20:14
  No.
• 20:14
  I'm grooming Allie to take over this at some point.
• 20:16
  There's nothing sexy about it, man.
• 20:17
  And even the – I think that's in all the trades.
• 20:21
  Nothing sexy about being in the trades, but they're needed.
• 20:24
  Your AC goes out in the middle of summer, dude.
• 20:26
  You're miserable.
• 20:26
  But that's the thing, though.
• 20:29
  I've heard a lot of podcasts in here talking about it.
• 20:31
  This is one thing AI cannot do.
• 20:33
  Plumbers, HVAC, all this stuff, there's going to be a point where it's a premium.
• 20:38
  Yeah, I'll come out today.
• 20:40
  Yeah.
• 20:40
  thousand dollars for a service call like that's not irrational to me so i hope what you're saying is changing as time goes on because like yeah i mean i know what you're saying like no one wants to do that but like it might actually be a very sexy profession in the end well it will be i mean i mean look at what ai is doing look at mark benioff laying off you know 5 000 this stock price goes up i mean you're seeing that on big companies ai technology will enable
• 21:06
  Right.
• 21:08
  But actually doing work and working with your hands, that's never going to go away.
• 21:11
  I don't think so.
• 21:12
  Yeah.
• 21:12
  It might be robotics.
• 21:14
  Yeah.
• 21:14
  That actually do.
• 21:14
  There's robots that are being developed right now to actually install shingles.
• 21:17
  But I don't I don't see that going away.
• 21:19
  But I do think a common misconception is that roofing the trades and the work that actually gets done is devalued by society.
• 21:28
  Hmm.
• 21:28
  Think about what a roof does for you.
• 21:30
  Think about what a trade does for you.
• 21:32
  Yes.
• 21:32
  You can't live without it, man.
• 21:33
  That's right.
• 21:34
  Who are the type of people you work with?
• 21:36
  Now, this is very different than like maybe what I do, right?
• 21:39
  But like for you, I'm assuming it's kind of agnostic.
• 21:41
  But is there a certain type of people that you work with generally?
• 21:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 21:44
  we have our ideal client profile, right?
• 21:46
  Yeah.
• 21:48
  And these are the people that live, it's tied into our service area, right?
• 21:51
  We service the beach, beach communities a lot.
• 21:54
  So, you know, most of the time we're working with homeowners that are remote, you know, that are, have a beach home.
• 22:03
  Then we're working with, we service up in, you know, we're out of Jacksonville, you know, and,
• 22:08
  Lejeune's right there.
• 22:09
  So we work with a lot of millage.
• 22:10
  So it's kind of all over the place, to be honest with you, man.
• 22:13
  Figured.
• 22:14
  We're tapping into commercial too.
• 22:15
  So we're talking to property managers and building owners and stuff like that.
• 22:20
  So it's kind of all over the map.
• 22:22
  Yeah.
• 22:23
  With Fortitude, is there anything that you look back at now and you're just like,
• 22:30
  I shouldn't have done that.
• 22:31
  Like, what's a mistake that actually was very valuable for you to learn?
• 22:35
  And then we could end with where you see Fortitude going in the future.
• 22:39
  I've got a lot.
• 22:40
  Nine out of 10 businesses go out of business in the first five years.
• 22:43
  Out of that, you know, nine out of 10 businesses go out of business in the next five years.
• 22:46
  Right.
• 22:47
  So we're coming up to eight years.
• 22:49
  We've been very fortunate.
• 22:51
  Myself, as well as the business, have been very fortunate to have amazing people.
• 22:57
  past, present.
• 22:59
  We've had people come and go, man, but we have been very fortunate to have some great people that have been aligned with our vision, that take ownership of their tasks.
• 23:08
  So we've had, we were able to make it past that mark.
• 23:11
  Well, now that we're here, man, we've got to work just as hard to stay here.
• 23:13
  But I would say if I had to do something over again, I would probably...
• 23:19
  put in processes sooner.
• 23:20
  Sure.
• 23:21
  Define KPIs sooner and not be, I try to be everybody's best friend.
• 23:26
  I want people, one of our core values is to develop leaders.
• 23:28
  And part of that is like, I see, I see what I went through in corporate America.
• 23:32
  I don't want people to have that same experience for me.
• 23:34
  So a lot of times I see these, I see my people as, as people, right?
• 23:39
  They're fathers, they're, you know, sons, um, what have you, you know, they're,
• 23:46
  They've got mouths to feed.
• 23:46
  So a lot of times I'll inconvenience myself, my family, for the sake of other people.
• 23:52
  And a lot of people will appreciate that.
• 23:53
  They'll see that.
• 23:54
  They'll recognize it and they'll appreciate it.
• 23:55
  But I've been burned and it sucks, man.
• 23:58
  So I'd be a little bit more strict about who we put in these roles, what we give them, and then be very strict about these are your KPIs, deliver upon them, or we will probably exit you sooner.
• 24:10
  That makes sense.
• 24:10
  Yeah.
• 24:11
  Okay, so if people are interested in potentially working with you or they have an inspection they might want done and they're like, hey, I'm at 18.
• 24:18
  I just heard Sean say, you know, if you're at 20, maybe you need to think about something.
• 24:22
  How will people find you and anything else you want to share?
• 24:25
  Yeah, let me back up.
• 24:26
  So if you're coming up to 20, yeah, it's definitely time to talk.
• 24:29
  And even if you're not prepared to take action, if you just want an honest assessment of your roof, call us.
• 24:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:34
  Go to our website, find us on Google.
• 24:36
  Yep.
• 24:36
  We've got an office in Leland, another one up in Swansboro.
• 24:39
  Our numbers are all over Google.
• 24:40
  Sweet.
• 24:41
  Social media, what have you.
• 24:42
  How would you end with what it is that still like really makes you passionate about this?
• 24:49
  And I see you working all the time, dude.
• 24:51
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:52
  So we're at a point now where it's kind of like, okay, our brand's established, right?
• 24:57
  Yeah.
• 24:58
  Now to me, what gives me excitement is trying to give back and build people.
• 25:02
  So I want to be in business, be actual, develop people.
• 25:06
  grow the company, go down new roads, create new economic opportunities for people.
• 25:11
  Yeah.
• 25:11
  But to be able to give back and develop people.
• 25:13
  Yeah.
• 25:14
  You know, that's, that's important to me.
• 25:16
  I look at all the people that are in our organization now and where they've started and where they've gone and where they are now and how they matured.
• 25:23
  That's awesome.
• 25:24
  What's the biggest turn between you now and you in 2018 when you launched this thing?
• 25:29
  Risk.
• 25:30
  Mm-hmm.
• 25:31
  risk.
• 25:32
  We're at a point now where we're almost, I don't want to say too big to fail, but we've got, it used to be just me and another guy and we'd go out and do a job.
• 25:40
  Awesome.
• 25:40
  You know, and then move on to the next one.
• 25:42
  Now it's kind of like, Hey, we've got a brand, let's keep it up and let's make sure that we can take care of the customers that we've already served, go out and acquire new customers, get into additional, you know, revenue streams or growth markets and grow the company.
• 25:55
  Yeah, of course.
• 25:56
  Right.
• 25:57
  But now that when you're, when you're at a certain point, you gotta, you gotta maintain it.
• 26:00
  Like I said earlier,
• 26:01
  since we're here and we've worked really hard to get here, we've got to work even harder just to stay here.
• 26:06
  Yeah.
• 26:06
  Makes sense.
• 26:07
  Yeah.
• 26:07
  Of course.
• 26:07
  Like an athlete.
• 26:08
  Yeah.
• 26:09
  Right.
• 26:09
  Yeah.
• 26:09
  If you're on the, if you're in the MLB, you've got people that are right behind you.
• 26:14
  I want to take your job.
• 26:16
  No different.
• 26:16
  Running back in the NFL.
• 26:18
  You're numbered all times.
• 26:19
  So.
• 26:19
  Yeah.
• 26:20
  Okay.
• 26:21
  Anything you would want to say to the Wilmington people to close out or anything like that if they want to link up with you?
• 26:27
  Yeah.
• 26:27
  Well, I mean, thank you.
• 26:29
  Thank you for calling us and considering us.
• 26:31
  Like we said, our mission is to give back.
• 26:34
  Yeah.
• 26:34
  To make, you know, to positively impact our communities through the work that we do.
• 26:38
  We have an opportunity to do that every day.
• 26:40
  Yeah.
• 26:40
  We wouldn't be able to do that if our phone didn't ring.
• 26:43
  Yes.
• 26:43
  You know, so thank you.
• 26:44
  When's your next event or run or walk for autism?
• 26:47
  Anything like that?
• 26:48
  We're done for 2026.
• 26:49
  Okay.
• 26:49
  It's normally in the springtime.
• 26:51
  Okay.
• 26:51
  And we did two of them.
• 26:52
  We did one up in Moorhead City and then we did one down here in Wilmington.
• 26:54
  It's awesome.
• 26:55
  Okay.
• 26:56
  We'll link that in the show notes as well.
• 26:57
  But Sean, dude, thank you so much for coming on the show.
• 27:00
  Oh, man.
• 27:01
  Thanks for having me, man.
• 27:02
  This is awesome.
• 27:02
  Appreciate you.