It all comes back to culture and mindset

RCS Influencer Randy Chaffee says there's a lot of room as business leaders in your community to lead the way towards sustainable, community-focused initiatives.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Randy Chaffee of Source One Marketing, LLC. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Tolle with RoofersCoffeeShop.com and I'm back with my very good friend Randy for another influencer response. Hello, Randy, so good to see you. So our September question is, how can contractors prioritize sustainability in their practices and effectively use it as a differentiator in their business?

Randy Chaffee: Yeah, it's a great question. It's one that we talk about a lot and it's at the forefront of lot of people's minds. So it's a great topic. I think the key, like a lot of things in business, is to build a mindset and to put it at the forefront of what we do, because it's not going to happen by itself.

So I think businesses have to decide that whether it's important to them. And there's different reasons for the importance of it to different companies. And I'm not to say in one way is more important than the other, but some people see it as really truly an environmental impact of importance, right? Others see it as, "Well, it's just something I probably ought to do because it's got a good marketing gimmick with it."

And it's probably some combinations of all, if we're really brutally honest, right? I think that it plays well in the world of marketing, but I think you should do most things because it's right. Not just because it plays well. And that's like an offshoot that you should take advantage of. And I think it's important to take advantage of. Some people look at it as taking advantage and see that negatively, but I look at it as if it's a subject that's important to you and you talk about it and you put that into place in your own business, your people take that out in the community. The community sees what you're doing.

So some people say, "Why don't you just do that and not say anything about it?" And I think you're missing in true business here for a second, you're missing an opportunity that probably shouldn't miss, it's valuable. But I think more importantly, if you're really altruistic, I think it's important that the more people you tell about what you're doing, people will go, "Hey, look at what Billy's roofing company is doing. I think that's a really great thing that they're doing these things. Maybe we should try to get involved somehow too."

So I think it really comes back to culture and mindset from the owner. Or if you have anybody within your business that feels strongly about it. I think we have to decide that's part of our day-to-day things as much as anything else we do.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, absolutely. like the doing it for the right reasons, doing the right thing for the right reasons. And then it does, it comes around and it helps you in the long run if you do things for the right reasons.

Randy Chaffee: It does, it does. I think a lot of times we in business, we don't do that. We do everything from a marketing standpoint, from an ROI standpoint. And that's a big part. That's what we're here for. They are called for-profit businesses, right? But with that said, there's a lot of room as business leaders in your community to lead the way a little bit and do it the right way for no other reason, for no notoriety, for just because it's the right thing to do.

And I think in today's society, we have a lot of people that care about that. And I think that really helps with employee retention too. Like a lot of employees, they want to be part of something a little bigger than just a paycheck. And I think if, as employers, you offer that opportunities for the people that want to be involved and say, "Hey, look, we do something more than just, you know, throw on roofs and get paid a bunch of money and pay you a tiny little bit of it, right?" They want to feel part of something bigger. I think that helps a lot in not only obtaining new employees, but maintaining them as well.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much. As always, Randy, appreciate your insights.

Randy Chaffee: Always great to be here. Thanks.