Industry experts drive innovative programming.

METALCON, the metal construction industry’s only global event dedicated to the application of metal in construction and design, introduces its 2025 advisory council. Comprising leading experts across all facets of the industry, the council is dedicated to bringing new educational programming, hands-on skills training, clinics and demos and networking opportunities at this year’s event in Las Vegas this October.

“We are excited to announce the 2025 METALCON advisory council, a distinguished group of industry leaders representing contractors, architects, manufacturers, metal building and roofing experts, panel specialists, media consultants and industry associations,” says Judy Geller, METALCON’s vice president of tradeshows.

“This group is critical to shaping METALCON’s comprehensive, world-class education offerings, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of the industry. Their expertise, time and innovative ideas are what make METALCON the premier event for the metal construction industry.”

New council members for 2025:

Darren Cocca, contractor, Hamburger Contracting
Jared Hamburger, owner, Helix Metalforming
Michelle Kettering, CEO, LTD Exteriors
Marcy Marro, brand manager, MillerClapperton
Robert Tiffin, president, Silvercote and president, MBCEA
John Trifonoff, vice president, East Coast Metal Systems

Returning council members:

Liam Beal, E.I.T. structural design engineer, Package Steel Systems, Inc.
Tony Bouquot, general manager, MBMA and VP at Thomas Associates, Inc.
Paul Deffenbaugh, chief content officer, Deep Brook Media
Steven Gaynor, principal consultant, Pivoth Corp.
Todd Miller, president, Isaiah Industries, Inc.
Alan Scott, director of sustainability, Intertek Group plc

“These leaders bring a wealth of expertise and fresh perspectives to create new and diverse programming,” added Judy. “Their unwavering commitment ensures METALCON continues to deliver relevant, high-quality education to our attendees each year. We’re incredibly grateful for their support.”

METALCON 2025 takes place from Tuesday, October 21 – Thursday, October 23 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Registration opens in April.

About METALCON

Established in 1991, METALCON is the only annual tradeshow and conference devoted exclusively to the application of metal in construction and design. Produced by PSMJ Resources, Inc., in partnership with the Metal Construction Association, METALCON’s success is based on a dynamic exhibit hall, extensive educational programs and interactive learning opportunities. This is the event’s seventh time in Las Vegas. For more information or to register, visit www.metalcon.com.

By Lauren White.

Making new connections, meeting new people, having new experiences were all part of our focus for NWIR Days 2025.

Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of a conversation between the Coffee Shop crew about NWIR Days 2025.

Megan Ellsworth: I attended the yoga session for the first day of National Women in Roofing (NWIR) Days 2025, and Mandy McIntyre with Level Up Consultants was the yoga instructor. And it was really nice, because I had been flying that morning, and so it was nice to just stretch and see all my friends and get registered and get our goody bags and get our ribbons for the nametags. I loved the different ribbons you could add to your badge this year, and they had all sorts of fun pins to personalize it. And the yoga was a blast with Jessica, Itzel, Dani and Heidi  

And then I wasn’t able to, but everyone else attended the book club for Katie Goodman’s book Improvisation of the Spirit, and they had a good time. They did a bunch of improv activities and storytelling, and came up with some very creative and interesting stories that we all got to enjoy once the rest of us got in from our travel day. 

Then we went to dinner at the caverns outside of San Antonio, and that was really cool. We were 180 feet under the earth, in the earth, 18 stories down in a cavern, and we ate dinner and we got to ride the magic carpet back up out of the cavern.  

Lauren White: The caverns was very cool. That was the first time doing a type of event like this, which was really fun. Not everyone could make it, unfortunately, but it was a pretty unique experience, and definitely a talking point too, for people at NWIR Days, day two to talk about and share about.  

And then we rolled into day two of NWIR Days, with the theme of Focus.

Karen Edwards: So Katie, the author of the book for book club yesterday was our keynote, and she had a really nice talk that was interactive and had the audience members participating and understanding how you need to be present in the moment and not thinking three steps ahead because you miss things. And I thought that was really interesting. And I really liked the last exercise we did where you had to run and grab a hat, and your table mates had written down five random words, and you had the person who grabbed the hat had one minute to tell the story in one minute using all five of those words. It was so funny.  

Then we went into our breakout sessions. Lauren, Dani and I attended the power networking panel, which Lee Lipniskis with Levello Construction and Casey Troxclair from KPost Company moderated a panel with Kristina Hill with Harness and Heels and Home Shield Roofing & Exteriors, Brittany Wimbish with Fields Roof Services and Wendy Lucas with PB Roofing. And it was really interesting. I loved how they focused on who YOU are. Your name, your job and what you do is not what should define you. It should be more about who you are as a person. And they gave some really great tips on how to talk to people and have those conversations and ways to not be nervous and find success in networking and how it can change your career. And they shared their personal stories. So that was that was really helpful, I think for a lot of people in the room.  

Megan Ellsworth: In the first session I went to, it was about fighting the inferiority complex that was presented by Sarah Lechowich with True North Roofing and Rae Fistonich with Chinook Building Envelope Systems and it was a really, really great class. They had some fun, interactive questions. You could, you could, kind of had to reword to make it more like the some of the statements were, I am a failure. I should have like, why am I here? Whatever. And then you had to reword it and say it with a new way to think about a mistake you made or a feeling that you're having about being inferior to someone at work or whatever. And I really, really enjoyed that class. 

And then Heidi and I gave our class on podcasts, and it was really fun. We had a big turnout, and I got to learn about some podcasts that people are wanting to do, which was cool. Someone chat with me about wanting to start a podcast about Christmas, and the origins of Christmas, which was really cool. It was really fun to just talk about podcasts for an hour. And then the other class I attended was, the panel on the four different generations being in the workforce right now. So those are the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z. So they had someone from each generation on the panel, and people from the audience were asking questions, and it was kind of fun, and it got a little fiery at the end, with the different generations talking about each other. And my favorite part of that was my friend Lilli Tillman Smith from Principia Consulting was on that panel. 

Lauren White: I also went with several members of our crew to the metal roofing 101 session with John Sheridan of Sheridan Tools, Michelle Kettering of LTD Exteriors and Leanne Slattery with ATAS International stepped in for Renee Ramey from the Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) for this presentation. And we learned more about the benefits of metal roofing, and then most of it was a demonstration, and it was hands on. So they had a deck, and had some metal panels, and people from the audience were in there, able to drill them into the decking and ask questions. And so that was really fun to actually see it get installed on a fake roof, but see what it would look like.   

And then the last session I went to with Dani was how to engage with the next generation of roofers, concentrating on SkillsUSA, which I think is the first time there's ever been a presentation at NWIR Days about SkillsUSA. So John Esbenshade from the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) presented about that, and people were very interested. And especially for the last session of the day, people were engaged in asking questions, and how can they get more involved, and I'm glad that it was a good turnout for people as well.  

And then we all came back together for the awards and closing ceremony, and they presented the Rising Star and the WORLD Award winners. The Rising Star award winner this year is Sarah Sutton-Shouse of Raincoat Roofing in Chicago, Illinois. And then the WORLD Award, which was pretty special is Rachel Garcia from Malarkey Roofing in Oregon and she’s the chair of the NWIR Oregon Council, and of the five years that they've done the WORLD Award, four of them have been from Oregon and the Oregon Council. That was special. Then we officially welcomed our new NWIR chair Christee Roberson with Graham Roofing.  

They also, for the first time, did council awards for different councils across the states that had submitted either projects or who were just doing new and innovative things, which was really cool, and the first time they ever did that, so that was nice to recognize some of the council work. And then throughout the day, RoofersCoffeeShop was live streaming for people who weren’t able to attend in person. We also did diamond sponsor spotlights, which Megan created all the videos for.  

Megan Ellsworth: Yes, the spotlight videos were for each of the nine diamond sponsors and we made videos to spotlight an employee that's a part of National Women in Roofing that's doing great things. And then that wrapped it up, yeah? And anything else that I did?

Lauren White: Oh, and something else new they did this year was for lunch. They mixed it up because usually we sit with people from our regions, and this year they had different colored cameras because the theme was focus.

So everyone reached into a bucket and picked out a color - red, purple, green, blue - and then you sat at the table with a bunch of other people who picked that color as well, which was a fun way to meet new people and interact with them.

Karen Edwards: It was a long day, but overall, really great and really fun to see people. There were about 580 people in attendance this year, which is pretty amazing. Biggest year yet.

Lauren White: Looking forward to next year!

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Lessons to help make website design a game-changer for contractors.   

In today’s increasingly digital world, building a professional and effective online presence is essential for any business, a truth Sheridan Metal Resources has fully embraced in its latest website overhaul. Company leaders John Sheridan, owner of Sheridan Metal Resources, is working with Michelle Kettering, CEO of LTD Exteriors and sales and training coordinator at Sheridan Metal Resources to offer contractors vital insights drawn from personal experience, expressing the importance of connecting with website developers who understand the industry. “That website is going to be an extension of your business,” Michelle explains, urging business owners to invest time in researching and communicating their needs with developers to achieve an online presence that truly serves their brand. 

For Sheridan Metal Resources, a contractor-focused company, the revamped website isn’t merely a facelift. The updated platform includes a streamlined tool-buying and training sign-up experience for contractors, who can now access essential resources in one centralized digital space. John expressed that this new approach is critical as they incorporate more training opportunities, including international and Spanish-language options. “Once it’s set up the way we want, it’s going to be a really useful thing for people,” he shares, noting the platform’s evolving role in contractor education. 

The decision to refine the company’s website came from a need to manage the increasing demand for training and tools better and to broaden John’s reach internationally. Michelle states that a well-thought-out online presence “also helps us bring in people internationally,” building connections across borders that would otherwise be inaccessible. This expanded reach is also a foundation for partnerships with industry leaders, such as Malco and Sherwin-Williams, whose collaborations will further enhance the training options available on the platform. 

For industry professionals looking to expand their online footprint, Michelle has a clear message: “My biggest piece of advice is do your research, ask questions, make sure you have some kind of a connection with the people that are working on your website.” This advice, based on hard-learned lessons, is a reminder of the importance of strategic planning and careful selection of partners in digital development. The revamped Sheridan Metal Resources site aims to set a standard for contractor-focused digital platforms, making it a model worth following for anyone in the industry looking to expand their brand effectively. 

We had a full day of interviews, seeing old friends and making new ones, handing out swag and rocking the roof with hospitalities!

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a conversation the Coffee Shop crew had after the first full day of the International Roofing Expo. 

Heidi Ellsworth: We had an amazing first day at the International Roofing Expo (IRE). The soundstage, sponsored by SRS Distribution, was busy all day long. Karen and I did a lot of interviews. We also had an amazing Coffee Conversations with our contractor panelists who really talked about some great topics from says sustainability to AI, including labor and diversity.

And our team out on the floor, who had booth interviews, everyone loved them, and we had so many contractors come up, and just lots of great things happening. 

The First-timers Event was fun. Everybody had bracelets and it really was all about Roofing Respect, and we had so many people stop and say on their way in, we love RoofersCoffeeShop. So that was great. And then we did go to EagleView and KARNAK hospitalities. We love those guys, saw so many people from the industry. What the industry is doing to take care of the contractors is really phenomenal.

Alex Tolle: This is my first IRE and it was so much fun. First day, the first time going, I met so many contractors and I got three of them signed up for R-Club. I got to meet a lot of my current R-Club members including Blair from Wagner Roofing and Wendy Marvin from Matrix Roofing and Home Solutions and Michelle Kettering from LTD Exteriors and it was just so much fun to hang out with all these people.

Karen Edwards: This morning was amazing. Because we're located in the lobby. And while everyone was waiting to get into the show, because it didn't open until 11, and they might not have gone to the second session of their classes, they were kind of like what am I going to do now? And so everyone came to talk to us, everyone, everyone. We were busy.

We did a live podcast. We did a little live RLW, we are live on the TV in our booth, which was really fun. I've been coming to the IRE for a lot of years. And this might have been one of my most fun IRE's ever. And the feedback from our friends and family and supporters and our customers has been. "Wow, thank you for everything you do. You're so amazing. This is so awesome." And it is such a pleasure to be able to give back to the industry and to be able to bring the IRE live to others. That's what this is about. Megan, your multimedia team has been amazing. We've had crews going around the show floor we've had the soundstage. We have an overwhelming amount of content so people tune in and listen.

Megan Ellsworth: We really do. This is the first year we've had this. First year we've had two floor teams cruise the floor because we only had one crew, Lauren and James last year. That was great. Being able to get four types of content at the same time as soundstage content and then having that doubling with social media content was so great and to go back to the R-Club, I think my favorite thing about the R-Club is being at tradeshows and having contractors come up to us. And it's like we're all family. RCS and all the R-Club contractor members, we're all best friends.

And all night, we were at hospitalities for EagleView, and Karnak. And Alex was just mingling with all these contractors. And jokingly saying we're best friends now. But that's not even a joke. It's so true. We're all just best friends and that's what I love about this industry so much and I am constantly telling all my friends that if you need a job, look into roofing, because it's like one big family and I love it. I love it so much. And if you had asked me when I was 16 if I would be saying this today, I would have told you you're crazy. But I love it so much.

Alex Tolle: I think that's why I mean, it would have been cooler to be there earlier because there were so many contractors just hanging out. I think it was great to see all the contractors and to meet all of them and shake their hands and become their best friends. That is the goal. We have never had anybody focused on educating our contractors. And now that we do, they're like, "Oh, yeah, great. I love your website." R-Club brings so much value to them. And they don't necessarily understand that until they have someone to totally focus on it with them. 

So I got a lot of feedback today of things that we could add to the R-Club or things that can be better. Like people want insurance information, how to work with insurance, and I have somebody who wants to offer that to our R-Club, which is really cool. So I took a lot of notes today.

Lauren White: James and I were one of the floor crews who went out on the tradeshow floor for scheduled interviews, which was phenomenal because people were already ready and prepped with things that they wanted to talk about and products they wanted to highlight. And anytime we asked for a demo, everybody was super excited to give a demo. So even just between interviews when we had 10-15 minutes we were going over to our friends and just asking, "Will you fire up a machine? Will you show us how this works?" CIDAN was great and let us see some fun demos. We got KARNAK showing us some underwater demos of their products too, which was really cool. And we went to their hospitality later tonight, which was so much fun. And they're celebrating their 90th anniversary, which is amazing.

Megan Ellsworth: That's why I love our content, because it's so organic and authentic. I think authenticity is so important in media, because there's a whole generation of people, kids, whatever, that see all this really scripted content and TikToks and what not and I think just being authentic on camera is so important.

And that's why I love RoofersCoffeeShop. And that's why I loved day one of IRE. And I think it was a great day. It was so busy. The show floor opened at 11 and we got there a little before nine. We were trying to set up soundstage and y'all were trying to set up the booth. And there was constant traffic to the booth.

Lauren White: Oh, and we sponsored the First-timers Event right before the Welcome Party at Beer Park in the Paris and ABC Supply sponsored the Welcome Party. And we handed out our Roofing Respect bracelets with roofingrespect.com on them. And had a lot of fun with our friends at the EagleView and KARNAK hospitalities. Now we are finally home.

And that's a wrap on Day 1! Stay tuned for our recap of Day 2!

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Kelli Nolden with DoneRite Home Maintenance and Michelle Kettering with LTD Exteriors. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the webinar.

John Sheridan: Been training for about 20 years. I was lucky enough to run into Michelle about five years ago when I was training her husband, Chris. And back then we started to talk about... National Women and Roofing was just getting going. And we were talking about five years ago, getting a training set up that's an all women training so that we can bring more women into the business and have them not be intimidated by the physical end of the business. Most companies have women involved in the business, but it's all on the management end. But there's really no reason why women can't be involved in the actual installation end of things.

So that started the conversation with Michelle. Last year, maybe a year and a half ago, last summer, I did a training in Mesa, Arizona with Nicole Pinto, who couldn't make it here because of COVID. But she went through a three-day class and was able to go to her place in Seattle, installed her own roof with a little bit of help back and forth, communication back and forth with me. Pretty impressive. So Kelli, I met through her husband, Chuck. Again, I trained him several years ago. He's come to several trainings. We were actually on a project in The Bahamas together last year...

Kelli Nolden: Two years ago.

John Sheridan: Two years ago. Big, huge project. And Kelli was on the roof helping us through the whole project, so...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's excellent. Excellent. And Sheridan, on resources, you're doing training all over, but you also have Sheridan Tools, right?

John Sheridan: Right. So, we also sell tools to supplement the trainings. And we know the tools. If there's a tool in my booth, we've used it. And everybody in my booth is pretty much familiar with what we're using.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And we're going to get to that, the booth because you're going to love this, it's very good. So Kelli, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company?

Kelli Nolden: I'm Kelli Nolden. I'm from Wisconsin. And my husband and I have a business called Done Right Home Maintenance. We're mainly roofing, small construction. We've downsized and it's just him and I. So we do what we can.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So it's fun. It's nice. You and Chuck. It's cool. And we have the same thing over here, but Michelle, can you introduce yourself and your company?

Michelle Kettering: Yeah, Michelle Kettering, LTD Exteriors. We are based out of North Carolina. My husband and I specialize in slate and tile roofs. We've been in industry... I've been in the industry off and on over 20 years. I got started with my brother-in-law, Kurt Kettering. He started his company and he said, "Hey, I need some help. Can you come help me?" And I started, I had my own goals, wanted to venture out to the corporate world, and the roofing industry kept pulling me back in. Fast-forward to seven years ago, my husband encouraged me to start my own business and start my own roofing company. And so we did, and here we are. My capacity with metal is I work with a lot of copper and I make my own pipe boots and solder stuff. So it's just...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Very cool.

Michelle Kettering: ... What we do.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. And Michelle, you have to tell everybody what does LTD stand for?

Michelle Kettering: It stands for Living the Dream.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love that. I love that name. I love it. It's so awesome. So as you can see, the topic here today is really women in metal construction and how that is growing and really starting to five years now. Look what you have today, and we have a long way to go still, but let's talk a little bit about how both of you, Michelle and Kelli, I know they're a little bit different stories, but how you first got introduced to metal training. So how did you meet John?

Michelle Kettering: So as he mentioned, my husband was doing a training with John, and we went to dinner afterwards and we started the discussion. I was very interested when my husband said what had gone on in the training. I thought, "Well, I need to do this training. This sounds like fun." And so then John and I discussed training and things of that sort and bringing women in, and it was really exciting to talk to John about it because he was very intrigued by bringing women in. He wanted to actually do something to make it happen.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Michelle Kettering: So, that's where the conversation started and it's just kept on.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, I had this similar experience when I met John. We started talking and he was like, within the first five minutes, he's like, "Okay, so I know you're involved with this National Women and Roofing thing, but we need to get women doing metal and National Women roofing. How are we going to do this, Heidi?" So we're working on it. We're still, it's happening.

John Sheridan: It's way better than it was.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's happening.

John Sheridan: So, we're way closer than we were back in the day when we first started. And National Women and Roofing is too. They've grown exponentially over the last five years.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We're going to be ready to start bringing some of those demos, your demos, which we're going to talk about here in a minute to National Roofing Day, hopefully not this year, but the next. Kelli, how did you, and I know through Chuck, but give us your story of getting on the roof, starting working with metal and in your business through the trainings with John.

Kelli Nolden: I have been working with Chuck for quite a few years. We were basically doing the stone coated steel shingles, and when Chuck wanted to go to this roofing, it's like, "Wow, it's the middle of winter. We don't have anything going. Go." And he kept in touch with John, and when that fell into place for him to go to The Bahamas, I said, "I'll go." So, we went to The Bahamas for a month and worked with John.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Kelli Nolden: It was cool. It was cool.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Trial by fire.

John Sheridan: It was the opposite. It was like cracking the whip. I mean, we did good. We did really good and we were shorthanded the whole time. So, Kelli was a huge help and couldn't have done it without her. I mean, it was really good experience.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And John, you've created really this network of trainers across the country and it seems like once you train, you go in and train and then you bring them into your circle. And so you have Moises and Chuck. I mean a lot of these... Michelle, people are training. Kelli are training for you too. So tell about that. It seems like you're really doing an amazing thing with Train the Trainer.

John Sheridan: So again, that's still developing, but trying to expand the network, trying to be as inclusive as possible. So, up until a couple of years ago, I didn't do a Spanish class. We just started doing Spanish classes two years ago, and I should have done it 10 years ago because I've always had Spanish-speaking people in my classes and I can always get my message across, but it's so much different if somebody speaks the language. So, that the message gets across so much better first thing. The second thing is, I always try to keep in touch with people after a training. So, if they need help after the training that I can give them help. I couldn't do that with the Spanish students.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: True.

John Sheridan: You know what I mean? So, I have Moises now. If anybody has a question, I can refer them to him, he can talk them through it. So it's very important. To me, nobody becomes an expert in a two or three-day training, but if you follow up with them and can answer some basic questions, then they can get through it. And once they get through the first couple of jobs, they're good, they're good to go.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: But they have this full network to always rely to come back to, which makes a huge difference. So, if we're looking at... Sorry, early morning. If we're looking at some of the... And I'm not going to say challenges, but just the experience of actually starting to get in there to doing metal on the roof to, I know you're talking about how much copper, what was that experience, Michelle, when you started going... Because you're running the office, you're CEO of your company, and now you're out on the roof, which I know you've been and you were out there all the time, but now you're out there and you're forming and doing your metal and stuff like that. What were some of the challenges for you as a business owner and then also as really a woman on the roof?

Michelle Kettering: I didn't know the machinery, I didn't know the equipment. It was something completely new to me. It was intimidating. But having the support and people like John that they take that intimidation factor out of it for you, they walk you through it. That was the initial part where it was very intimidating. Once you let loose and you know how to do it's exciting. You're doing something to put things together. You're contributing to a whole roofing system. So it's just... My big issue is I want to be out in the field all the time. As you mentioned, I'm CEO of my company, so I can't be out there all the time.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So you're like, "Hold off on the copper, I'll be there tomorrow. Don't anyone touch my stuff."

Michelle Kettering: I actually have a story. I was doing a walkthrough on a job with one of our customers and Christian pulled up and he says, "Hey, date night tonight?" And I'm thinking, "I'm in the middle of a walkthrough with a customer." And he goes, "No, no, no, we have to go make copper pipe boots tonight." Date night consisted of being in the shop, making our pipe boots.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay, that's classic. I love it. I love it. So Kelli, the same question. You guys have your own company. You've been doing stone coated steel, so you've been doing metal roofs for a long time. Talk a little bit about how you all got into stone coated steel and the metal roofs, but then also when you did go to The Bahamas, what was that learning curve like?

Kelli Nolden: Basically the first day, John and I basically set out the tools and he explained tools to me the first half of the day. And we were supposed to be resting the first day, but yeah. The next...

John Sheridan: You didn't realize you were with me.

Kelli Nolden: No rest.

John Sheridan: That was the end of that. Yeah.

Kelli Nolden: The next morning he showed me how to run the panels, how to do the ends, how to do this, that, and I had everything. By the time we were done, I had the panels already for them to just... Handed them up. I ran the panels, did all the end work.

John Sheridan: It was huge. So all the work that we were doing on the ground, Kelli took over.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome.

John Sheridan: And we were able to hit it on the roof and it was constant. She had everything lined up and coming at us. It was perfect.

Kelli Nolden: So yeah, it was a learning curve.

John Sheridan: Learning curve.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Now are you in your own business? Are you doing more standing seam or more metal forming or are... Where are you with that?

Kelli Nolden: We're doing a little bit of everything. So, yeah, it's cool.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. Okay, so as we're... We answered one of these questions already I want to talk about for your businesses really, as you're looking at it, you're doing tile and slate with the copper and stuff. What are your thoughts going forward? Are you going to bring more metal in? Are you looking at doing more metal?

Michelle Kettering: Yes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So talk a little bit about that and how it's differentiating your business.

Michelle Kettering: Well, we've been so specialized for so long and we've enjoyed that, but we've also limited ourselves quite a bit with our clientele. So we want to offer other options to our customers that still have the longevity of a tile and slate roof, but without all of the costs and the maintenance and things of that sort. So, metal is something that we're definitely looking into incorporating, which is part of the reason why we started attending the metal cons so that we could familiarize ourself with what's out there, what machines, what tools.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: What are you seeing so far? I know you've been working in the booth doing demos the whole time. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but...

Michelle Kettering: So far I've seen our booth.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So you're looking forward to seeing what's out there. And I know you saw some different products in the booth too.

Michelle Kettering: So, the Diamond products.

John Sheridan: Very cool, yeah.

Michelle Kettering: We actually installed those yesterday on our mockup and they look really nice. We left it up last night. We came in this morning and it was, "Whoa. That looks really nice."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it looks really pretty.

Michelle Kettering: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. And what are you looking for, Kelli, future-wise with metal in your business?

Kelli Nolden: Actually, as Chuck and I are getting older, we're thinking of maybe just transitioning more to teaching and getting that going.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So, that's perfect and for you to be able to teach. And that was one of the things, really what you're doing, John, is trying to grow this network of trainers. And

John Sheridan: The cool thing about where people are located geographically is that some systems are dominant in some places. So Wisconsin, it's a metal shingle dominant. North Carolina may be standing seam dominates. Florida's a little different, Florida maybe the book West kind of products are hot right now and everything has to meet Miami mandate. So, the people that are with me geographically know the systems in their areas and are best suited to train those systems. So that's my vision of putting all these people together, let them do their thing in their locations, because they know it better than anybody.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That makes so much sense. I love it. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about what we're doing with the demo area. So John, you and I, we were like, "We need to get this training out there more." And so of course I volunteered John to do that.

John Sheridan: No pressure.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: No pressure. But we now have, there is a training zone on the Metalcon floor. So if you're watching this from Metalcon, go over to the demo area, check out the booth, it's training zone, you'll see it. Big signs. But talk a little bit about your inspiration. I mean, once, of course you were volunteered, but your inspiration for the booth and what's over there, John, right now for people to see?

John Sheridan: Well, my inspiration for the booth was that Sherwin-Williams sponsored it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes, that's so nice of Sherwin-Williams.

John Sheridan: That opened us up to all of the Sherwin-Williams manufacturers. So, once they decided to sponsor the booth, we have all those manufacturers that want to show their products at the booth.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

John Sheridan: Okay. So that was one part of it. I wanted to get as many different profiles with Sherwin-Williams products, painted products on them. So we have eight systems, I think from Sherwin-Williams that are associated with Sherwin-Williams. I also wanted to show the tools because I have a lot of tools that don't really lend themselves to stamp shingles or to the diamonds, but they do lend themselves to double fold European kind of style technology. So, the one end mockup is all tricky detailing with tricky tools.

So, that allows me to show tools also in the booth. So we have everything covered. We have all the entry level systems. It's set up, entry level, intermediate, and then expert. And anybody can come in and ask any questions in English or Spanish if they're interested in a training. I have a questionnaire. What kind of training are you interested in? What kind of products? Where you're located? Spanish, English, all women we're trying to set up an all women training in Mesa, Arizona.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Awesome. Yeah, we'll be promoting that. All the trainings. All the trainings are promoted on Metal Coffee Shop, which is also sponsored by Sherwin-Williams. Thank you, Sherwin-Williams. And so Kelli, I thought you guys were just working crazy over there to set up and do everything. What's your thoughts on this training zone and how did yesterday go? The first day with you doing the demos with Michelle? What kind of responses were you getting?

Kelli Nolden: I think they were pretty good. I was surprised. I was leery. I didn't know how they would respond to talking to women about stuff, but it turned out pretty good. So, I think it was good. I think it was good.

John Sheridan: I think we had really good crowds, a lot of people.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Did you have any women come up and ask about...

Kelli Nolden: Actually we did. Yeah. We had some that come in and thought it was nice that we were there because they had women on their crew that were very good. They were excellent workers.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Once you see it, then everybody wants to share that story and everybody wants to bring it together. What do you think of the training zone?

Michelle Kettering: I think it's great. The whole point of it is to allow people to walk in and touch the tools, get familiarized with it. Again, take some of that intimidation factor out of things. And it also gives the opportunity to display different types of installations that you can do.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right. And you saw as you were answering questions, I mean to go from being a trainer, being trained, I guess is the word, and then now training others and demoing and answering questions. How was that transition for you?

Michelle Kettering: That was interesting. I think I speak for both Kelli and I. We felt a little out of our element to begin with because we still feel like we're still learning...

Kelli Nolden: Being trained.

Michelle Kettering: We're still being trained.

John Sheridan: And it's a casual kind of atmosphere. Michelle keeps calling me the sham wow guy, but it's not like that. I'm not in front of a crowd trying to sell frying pans. We invite people in, and we try and let them participate in a laid back atmosphere. So it's real casual.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. Well, and as I'm really thinking about this chance of, I truly believe when anybody, someone who's speaking Spanish has someone speaking Spanish, helping in the training, it works for when you see other women doing it. You know, "Okay, I can do it too." But as we're talking about skilled labor in the next generation, I know Michelle, that you hire a lot of Gen Zs and you definitely have been a leader on that since I first knew you, we talked about that. How do you see getting women, more young women interested in the trades and specifically into roofing and metal roofing?

Michelle Kettering: So, that has been the challenge, getting the word out that this is something that women can do, especially young women. So, that has been quite a bit of a challenge that we're trying to figure out how do we get to the people that we want to train, but...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And so what are some of the things you've done to... And I know they come and go, I know hiring's hard, but what are some of the things that you are doing to get both men and women, but that younger generation, you were just saying you were training what, 20 new interns or something like that when you were on a call with us?

Michelle Kettering: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. So, what are some of the things that you're doing there?

Michelle Kettering: Well, we try to hire inexperienced people specifically so that we can introduce them to it. Early on, you realize whether they're interested, whether they're fit for it. And so we try to go to schools. Some of our community colleges in the area, they have recently partnered up with construction companies to start these training programs.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Awesome.

Michelle Kettering: And I'm hoping to be able to do something with John here that we can get into the community colleges as well and partner up so that we can get to a larger market.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: The trainings are already there and then now you have people coming out of school looking for jobs. "Oh, there you are," is the thing. So now, and as you're looking at, you and Chuck are going into wanting to be more full-time trainers and stuff. What are some of the things that you think are important, Kelli? As in to getting more, and I'm going to stick with the women, but getting more women involved and definitely younger women.

Kelli Nolden: I think just getting them the training that they could use, that they could advance with.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And really letting them know that they can do it.

Kelli Nolden: They can do it. Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think a lot of young women are told, "No, you can't do that." Right? That you can't...

John Sheridan: Now your one daughter's a welder, right?

Kelli Nolden: Yes.

John Sheridan: The other one just joined the fire department.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, I love it.

Kelli Nolden: Actually two of them are in the fire department.

John Sheridan: Two are in the fire department. So, if you take away that intimidation factor, there's no reason why you can't do it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It makes total sense. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about future trainings, John. Let's talk about what's the future. First, let's talk a little bit about Meadowview, because Meadowview, you're doing a lot of trainings there and you're bringing your training crew there. What's happening?

John Sheridan: So, Meadowview in conjunction with Grosso University, I'm doing a film session in three weeks in Chicago with Grosso University, and I'm going to bring my own photographer in. We're going to film for three days and we're going to break that down into 20 segments. They're going to go on Grosso University, anybody that looks up Meadowview and Grosso University, we'll have access to those 20 roofing segments.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

John Sheridan: Okay. So, that's...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... On Metal Coffee Shop too.

John Sheridan: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, exactly.

John Sheridan: You can come.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

John Sheridan: Megan.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: There you go. Megan.

John Sheridan: Talking to you, Megan. So that's the official start of the Meadowview push from our end, the training end. So that's one thing. National Women in Roofing, we're trying to get our first training set up in Mesa, Arizona or Burlington, North Carolina, which might be better for you.

Kelli Nolden: I travel well.

John Sheridan: Yeah, so do I. So Allentown, PA, Mesa, Arizona, Burlington, North Carolina, Chicago. Any one of those locations we can set up a training. So, we're working on that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And so if we have people watching this, which we will, a lot of people, how do they get a hold of you to start setting up those trainings?

John Sheridan: I'm going to dump that on Michelle. Okay.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Michelle, how do they get a hold of?

Michelle Kettering: Well, you can go to sheridantools.com and you will find John's contact information. I can also be reached via email at Mkettering@ltdexteriors.com. And if you just let us know what you're interested in training in, like John said, there's a questionnaire, we can set something up.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great. You can also go to Metal Coffee Shop and we're going to have that on the Sheridan directory also. And we'll have a signup form.

John Sheridan: National Women in Roofing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: National Women in Roofing we're working with. Yes. And so we are going to work with them, but right now we're just bringing National Women in Roofing is definitely supporting and promoting. They're here at Metalcon. We've got all kinds of good swag and stuff, but we also are just trying to really start this from the grassroots.

John Sheridan: And it all circles back to you. It all circles back to Metal Coffee Shop.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

John Sheridan: Because all of that information is available there. That's the hub. That's the hub that reaches out there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: All those and all of those there. And we can get you signed up on Metal Coffee Shop or just reach out to us and to Michelle. To John, to Kelli. You'll find us. And we want to start putting these together. And of course we'll start advertising them too as they get put together. So, okay. Last thoughts about women and getting more women involved in the metal construction, roofing, siding, just overall metal construction world. John, just some of your thoughts on why should women be getting involved?

John Sheridan: More familiar with the business, for one thing. If you're locked in an office and all you do is paperwork and you're trying to run a metal business and you're not familiar with what's happening in the field, you know how that is. So the more familiar you are with what you're actually doing, the better handle you have on running the company or being a part of the company and being a functional part of the company, not just overhead.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is such a great point. And I know Michelle, you go to a lot of trainings even outside of metal. I'm trying to remember the last, you were telling me you were a training and getting certified, but you had all kinds of certifications.

Michelle Kettering: We were certified in lead-based paint renovations and... Oh, what other certifications do we have?

John Sheridan: [inaudible 00:25:11].

Heidi J. Ellsworth: [inaudible 00:25:11]. That's the one that you were talking about.

Michelle Kettering: And like John said, you get these trainings and you have that connection between what's going out in the field and what you have going on on paper and it just makes you a stronger business.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, stronger. And you know what's the whole nine yards.

Michelle Kettering: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And Kelli, I mean kind of the same thing.

Kelli Nolden: Yeah,

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's what you've been seeing. I mean, as you guys have had your business, I am really inspired you and Chuck running this business together, the two of you and now going into training. What would you say to other wives, and I am just going to put this out there. My mom and dad were general contractors and it was always my dad's business. It was never mom's, right? But mom did tons of stuff there. And so as you're reaching out to more women to get involved, to get trained to be that part of it, what would you say?

Kelli Nolden: I don't know. Take every opportunity you can. And I guess don't throw them off the roof when you have the opportunity.

John Sheridan: Be patient.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it.

Kelli Nolden: Be patient and raise your hand when there's a Bahamas trip. Well, like Michelle said yesterday is we as women, we're thinking things through differently and you have to go about saying, "What are you doing?" A little more gently than... But it's all good. It's there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's a balance too.

John Sheridan: I mean, 20 years, I've probably had 10 women in my classes, so it hasn't been a lot. But the cool thing about that is they come in with no preconceptions. They come in, they're a clean slate. They haven't developed any bad habits and they're willing to learn. And they've been some of the best students I've had. Nicole...

Kelli Nolden: We ask a lot of questions.

John Sheridan: You know what I mean?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: A lot of questions.

John Sheridan: Yeah, a lot of questions. But they're all good questions. They didn't work for somebody that was a bad contractor and then come in and know everything.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

John Sheridan: It's just...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's cool. That's why you want to do it. You want to make your job easier.

John Sheridan: Yeah. Yeah, you finally got it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I got it. Okay. Light bulb.

Michelle Kettering: Well, to add to that, it's an opportunity for women to make a very good income in this industry that they otherwise would not have the opportunity without going to college or having some kind of education. This can allow maybe a single mom that is newly divorced or separated to get out there and make her own path. So for me, that's my drive to get women in here, give them that independence.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. That's so true. We talk about that so much. Well, I just want to say thank you. I'm as always inspired by all of you and thank you so much. I know you were all like, "Heidi, what are you talking about? Doing this at this show." But this has been a true conversation, a true talk, and we're going to be getting some video over from the demo area today. Megan's going to be over there, so we'll be able to also show that with this segment as we produce it after the show. So you'll be able to see these ladies and John as they are demoing and making it all happen over at the training center or training zone. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Michelle Kettering: Thank you, Heidi.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you.

John Sheridan: Thanks, Heidi.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And thank all of you for watching this MetalTalk. By the way, MetalTalk is an award winner here at Metalcon and yeah, and we are going for People's Choice. So if you're watching this, please go onto Metalcon, either the app or the website and vote for us for the People's Choice Award. So I want to make sure you guys all vote. So, okay.

John Sheridan: As long as you vote for us for Best In Show.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You got it. Best In Show, no problem. The training zone, is it...

John Sheridan: Like a cocker spaniel. Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. We'll be back and we will be on all kinds of interviews today, live coverage from the show. Thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you next time on the Next Metal...

By Cass Jacoby.  

Certification is the key to elevating the industry; we should all follow Michelle Kettering’s lead and never stop expanding our skills.  

TRIA Manual Certification is designed for entry-level and experienced roofers alike to expand their skills into tile. The certification covers all of the code requirements for the installation of tile roofs and is given to an individual who passes a 50 question, open book test on the manual.  

LTD Exteriors Inc. CEO Michelle Kettering scored 100% on her TRIA Manual Certification. Michelle is the founder of LTD Exteriors Inc. and started in the construction industry fresh out of high school, working with her husband and brother-in-law in their roofing business. In addition to being the CEO of LTD Exteriors Inc., Michelle is a part of National Women in Roofing (NWiR), and according to Tile Roof Training, a marketing genius.  

Her North Carolina-based company specializes in slate and tile roofs, especially for historic homes. They also perform a variety of roofing services including residential roofing, repairs, gutters and new construction roofing. It only makes sense that Michelle would certify her knowledge through TRIA and ensure she was up to date on codes and best practices.  

Michelle’s perfect scoring in her TRIA Manual Certification is a testament to how the roofing industry rewards those who continue to learn and grow their skills. Certification is not only a great way to show that your company is qualified, but is a great way to elevate the industry as a whole.  

We congratulate Michelle on her 100% score and her certification. Thanks for showing us how it is done Michelle! 

Learn more about LTD Exteriors in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.ltdexteriors.com. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, MetalCoffeeShop AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants. 

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

March Roofer of the Month discusses the importance of customer service and why women should pursue careers in the roofing industry.  

LTD Exteriors Inc. is a family-oriented roofing company who puts their employees and customers first. The leadership at LTD has over 20 years of experience in the roofing industry, and their commitment to excellence in management and service has contributed to ongoing success and a great reputation. 

LTD Exteriors is also the March Roofer of the Month for RoofersCoffeeShop®. This North Carolina based company specializes in slate and tile roofs, especially for historic homes. They also perform a variety of roofing services including residential roofing, repairs, gutters and new construction roofing.  

“LTD, we are a baby company,” said Michelle Kettering. “This September will be our fifth year in business.” 

Michelle is the founder of LTD Exteriors Inc. and started in the construction industry fresh out of high school, working with her husband and brother-in-law in their roofing business. Since then, Michelle has gained valuable knowledge, leading her to start LTD Exteriors. 

The company is known for excellent customer service and, in an interview conducted by RCS Podcast Producer, Megan Ellsworth, Michelle explained her methods behind providing great customer service: 

“It starts with your first contact with the customer, listening to the customer, their concerns. The other thing too, that is big for me, is educating the customer on what they're paying for, especially with the work that we do [that’s on the] higher end of the price ranges,” said Michelle. “For us, we want to make sure that the customer understands what is included in that price, why it is so high compared to, for instance, a shingle roof, and make them comfortable with what they're paying for. That, to me, is huge.” 

March is also Women’s History Month and Michelle shared a few guiding words for women interested in entering the roofing industry. 

“I was hesitant to fully dive into the industry. It was male-dominated and a little bit intimidating,” said Michelle. “Any women out there who are interested in it, just dive in. I have been welcomed into the industry with open arms and it's something that I truly enjoy doing, especially with the homes that we work on. It's a really good industry to be in and any women out there who put family before career, this is a great place to start.” 

Learn more about LTD Exteriors in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.ltdexteriors.com.  

RCS Influencers celebrates its fifth year of giving back to the roofing industry. 

RoofersCoffeeShop®, the award-winning website where the industry meets for technology, information and everyday business announces the 2021 RCS Roofing Influencers.    

RCS Influencers contribute thoughts and wisdom monthly through interviews,videos and articles on RoofersCoffeeShop concerning pertinent industry and roofing topics. The Influencers represent all facets of the industry including contractors, associations and industry service providers. Their insights are recognized in a special category on the site called RCS Influencers.   

“We have been asking important questions to diverse groups of RCS Influencers for the last four years and have found that they all have expertise in completely different areas of a roofing contractor’s business.  We have been committed to sharing that thought leadership since 2017,” states Heidi J. Ellsworth of RoofersCoffeeShop. “With our RCS Influencers’ opinions, tips or advice, our readers get a feeling for all sides of a topic. Our Influencers are true thought leaders in the roofing industry and bring diverse and informative perspectives based on their interactions and relationships.” 

We are proud to announce the following 2021 RCS Influencers: 

1. Rae July – Chinook Roofing 

2. Tammy Hall – CFS Roofing Services 

3. Pete Harding – Go Green Roofing 

4. Greta Bajrami – Golden Group Roofing 

5. Michelle and Christian Kettering – LTD Exteriors 

6. Danny Kerr – Breakthrough Academy 

7. Julissa Chavez – SRS Distribution, Inc. 

8. Rod Petrick – Ridgeworth Roofing Co Inc 

9. Charles Antis - Antis Roofing & Waterproofing 

10. Michelle Boykin and Curtis Sutton - Rackley Roofing 

11. Trent Cotney - Cotney Construction Law 

12. Thea Dudley – Pocket Protectors, LLC  

13. Heidi Ellsworth – RoofersCoffeeShop® 

14. Rudy Gutierrez - Shell Roofing Solutions 

15. Wendy Marvin - Matrix Roofing and Home Solutions 

16. Mandy McIntyre - 1st Choice Roofing 

17. Mike Pickel - Texas Traditions Roofing 

18. Marty Stout - Go Roof Tune Up 

19. Ashley and Seth Pietsch - Integrity Insurance & Bonding Inc 

For more information on the 2021 RCS Influencers, meet them here.  

About RoofersCoffeeShop 

As an award-winning website and online community, RoofersCoffeeShop is committed to being a roofing professional advocate by supplying consistent information, education and communication avenues for all roofing professionals, and especially contractors, while promoting the growth, education and success of the roofing industry overall. Visitors to the site continue to find excellent opportunities for sharing information while participating in important ongoing conversations concerning new technologies, safety and the overall roofing trade. From the rooftop to the board room, RoofersCoffeeShop is “Where the Industry Meets!” For more information, visit www.rooferscoffeeshop.com.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Xavier Carmona of Golden Group Roofing, Katya Khalimon of LTD Exteriors and Lexie Sutton of Cotney Consulting Group. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast here.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Good morning, welcome to Coffee Conversations. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and I'm a partner with RoofersCoffeeShop, and this is our Coffee Conversations. But today is really special, it's different. In fact, I'm not going to be here very long because Generation Z is taking over this morning. We have the brightest, young people in the roofing industry with us today to talk about Gen Z, recruitment, retainment, what matters and what they're doing with their careers in roofing. 
I can't tell you how excited I am. I have take zero credit for this great idea because this great idea came from Megan Ellsworth. Megan Ellsworth, who is the podcast and multimedia producer for RoofersCoffeeShop, and I have to say my daughter, and I'm very proud of, is actually taking over today. I am going to go back and I'm going to take the Megan role today, and Megan is going to be your host for today's Coffee Conversations. Thank you, Megan, for being here today and doing this. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes. Thank you, Heidi, for allowing this to happen. I think we have a great show ahead of us. We have wonderful young people throughout the industry here with us today, and I'm super excited, so thank you. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Great. Okay. I'm turning it over to all of you, Megan. I'm going to introduce this great group of roofing professionals and just remember everyone out there, this is a Q&A, question and answer, so please we'll be bringing you on, you can ask questions, find out everything you ever wanted to know about Gen Z, so here we go, have a great show. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh boy. Okay. Well, good morning everyone. Thank you guys for joining me. I'm so thankful and excited for this show. Today we have with us Lexie Sutton with Cotney Consulting Law Group. Then, Katya Khalimon with LTD Exteriors, and Xavier Carmona with Golden Group Roofing. I'm so excited to have you all, so thank you. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, [crosstalk 00:02:33].

Megan Ellsworth:
Well let's just start out with everybody, introduce yourselves, and why don't you tell us how you got into the roofing industry and let's start with Lexie.

Lexie Sutton:
Okay. My name is Lexie Sutton. I graduated from the University of Tennessee in may. I currently work for Cotney Consulting Group in sales operations. I got into roofing because my dad owns Rackley Roofing, so I've been around roofing my entire life.

Megan Ellsworth:
Sweet, thank you. Katya. 

Katya Khalimon:
Hi, my name is Katya Khalimon. I am graduating in may in a bachelor's in accounting. I actually have had no previous experience in the roofing industry, I have been in it for like a year and a half now. My roommates actually started working for the company I'm working for now, they were actually roofers. They don't work here any longer, but I stayed and I just took over just a lot of the office tasks and steps on the project coordinator [inaudible 00:03:41].

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. Fabulous. Xavier. 

Xavier Carmona:
I'm Xavier, I graduated from Assumption College in Worcester in 2019, and it all started with a summer job. Just a summer job with my best friend and his dad was doing roofing. We were just cleaning up, picking up the shingles, making sure that they were making its way over to the dumpster and, not going to lie, I took a liking to it. I mean, I like the whole construction fEel, the whole roofing feel, how you could be in and out in one day. And so, when my best friend's brother, he had a company as well, a little bit more corporate, so when I graduated college, the opportunity opened up to be a sales consultant there, so I took it right away and haven't looked back and spend about almost two years now, and I mean, it's been great. 

Megan Ellsworth:
That's great. You work for Golden Group Roofing, and Greta is the one of the owners of that, and she speaks so highly of you. When I reached out to her asking for a Generation Z employee, she was like, "Oh, I have the guy for you. This is great." It was so awesome. I was panicking because I was like, "I don't... Who do I... I need to get people." I'm so glad you're here. Let's just go backwards in the circle here and start back with Xavier, what do or did you look for at an employment job? What do you look for when you were looking for employment? 

Xavier Carmona:
To be honest with you, it's a little cliche, but people say they don't want to do the nine to five stuff, but I don't know. When I was looking for employment, I was looking for something maybe like a little out of the ordinary. I had done sales before, when I was in high school. I had worked for Vector Marketing in Cutco. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, they sell knives door to door. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh, cool.

Xavier Carmona:
I had done that for a little bit. I was looking something in the same realm and roofing came up and when I was asked to do roofing, I was like, "Well, I don't know. I'm out, I can't labor. I mean, these hands aren't [inaudible 00:05:59]." I was like, "No, there's a different side of roofing. There's a sales and marketing aspect to it." When they started talking to me a little bit about the sales and marketing and actually going out, meeting people, I liked that. 
Also I was an athlete throughout my whole life in college. I played four years of soccer, so that competitive aspect also came into play where it was like, "Okay, here are people who are getting four to five bids, you're one of those bids and you got to stand out, you have to make them feel comfortable with you and ultimately you have to get the win." I mean, that's a couple of things that made me like the position I'm in right now. 

Megan Ellsworth:
That's awesome. Katya, what do you look for in an employer?

Katya Khalimon:
I think my top thing to look for is, an employer that's also interested in me and what I have to bring, not just to the company, but what they can help me with throughout my life. I've had all of my employers, they've invested their time into me and what they can do to teach me more and how they can help me with life progression, and I think that's very important to look for somebody that doesn't just look at you as somebody that can make them money. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes, I love that. I also look for that. Lexie, how about you? 

Lexie Sutton:
I was going to say that when I was actually looking for a job, like I said, I graduated in may, so I was looking for a job in the middle of a pandemic. I think the most important thing for me was just job security because it became like very important for a company to be able to run, even if it was all from home, and so that was the most important thing to me. I guess that's going to be something that I look for from this point forward, if I was to look for jobs again, because we never really expected to be in this predicament that we're in now where you can't always work from the office, so a company needs to be able to function in like situations like we've been in.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. I'm also in the music industry and I know that you've done that in the past and you're now looking at Advent music things, we've talked about that, so with the pandemic, all that shut down, so I turned to roofing like full time and I'm sure that's what you've done too, so it's nice to be in a industry that the pandemic has affected, but maybe not as greatly as the music industry.

Lexie Sutton:
Right.

Megan Ellsworth:
What is your favorite thing about the company you guys work for right now? And anyone can just start, we don't have to go in this circle.

Lexie Sutton:
I think the thing is that every time we get somebody new, our employees just adapt and they just bring them in like it's part of the family. We always find a way to get along and figure out every punch that's thrown at us. I love that.

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh, I love that, yeah. 

Xavier Carmona:
[crosstalk 00:09:16] that's the education that the company provides. Whether it's implementing a new CRM or just discovering this new shingle, talking about it or talking about new ways of ventilating the home, for example, I know JF brought out like a new pro intake [inaudible 00:09:33], so little things like that. We are always trying to be like the, I would say at the brink of technology, I guess in roofing, so whenever something new comes into the market, we're always trying to jump on that to see if... and just implement it and learn, so I liked that.

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, I was going to say something along the lines of what Xavier said, just the whole technology thing. Then also the fact that I like see constant growth in the company, I see growth in myself with the company, but the company itself is constantly growing and evolving and that's really cool to be a part of. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. What is your guys' experience been so far in the roofing industry as a whole, maybe not necessarily at your specific company, but I know I met Katya [inaudible 00:10:19] this last year, and I know Lexie, you just started in a pandemic. What have any of your experiences been in the industry? Are you loving it? Are you like, "There's some things we need to change." What's your thoughts? 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah. It's been very interesting. I was very surprised when I first started my job just to see how this industry works and how it functions, and honestly, I know we had talked about this the other day and I think it's in the questions, but just like how far behind, in evolving that this industry is, it's really strange. Like how many people are just still, everything's on paper. There's no like software or anything, it's very interesting to see how people run their businesses in this industry, I think it's unlike any other.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. There can be a big gap, either very technology forward or maybe not so much. Sure. 

Xavier Carmona:
Building off of that, I can see the field aspect, when I'm out in the field, and we do try to implement more like iPads, more PowerPoints, more electronic services to our clients. When I'm going up against bids of a guy that has five bullet points, and he's just saying like, "Oh, you're going to get a new roof." It's like, "Wow." Sometimes you still lose people to these guys. 

Xavier Carmona:
Some people still go guys that are writing the five bullet points and I'm like, "Well, why would you do that?" I mean, he's not even recommending what your home needs, he's just telling you, I'm going to... In some cases, not even strip the roof, in some cases, I'm going to put a roof on top of a roof, and I'm like, "It's not the proper way, that voids the warranty." I try to explain to some people these things, but like Lexie said, some people are stuck in their ways, I guess. Even clients are stuck in their ways sometimes. 

Katya Khalimon:
For sure, yeah. I bet with the sales process during the pandemic, things have obviously changed and probably some, maybe older homeowners don't want to do a sales bid over zoom or whatever, they... Oh, I see a little cat tail. I'm so sorry. I just got so distracted. But yeah, they don't want to do it, resume they want to come in person and maybe your company is uncomfortable with that, so that's really interesting that you say that. 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah. I also think my biggest takeaway at the moment is, I was so surprised how many jobs are within the industry. I never thought that I could bring something to roofing. My school, and even when I started college, I never would have imagined that I would be working for a roofing company, and I think a lot of younger people should know that there's so much opportunity in this industry because I definitely didn't.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, and there's so much room for creativity as well. As an artist myself, growing up in the roofing industry, I always said, "Oh, I'm never going to work in the roofing industry, I'm an artist." Now being able to realize that, like there's so much room for creativity in this industry and it's wonderful. Yeah, that's awesome. We have some questions here from Megan McFadden, any tips or organizations to become involved with for recruiting sales reps for the roofing industry. Xavier, can you speak to that maybe? 

Xavier Carmona:
I mean, the way I got involved was, again, my best friend. His dad and his brother both had roofing companies, so my path was a little more predetermined, I guess, but I would say, "Why not? Why not go to colleges and the career fairs that they have there, why not? Why not set up a tent and just have one or two guys that work and work, that are smart, witty, and try to attract people because I've never seen any like roofing a career for as ever, so I had to reach out that way, honestly. Even high school career fairs, maybe there's a kid that doesn't know he can be involved in a trade as such as roofing, and you can get them there and mold them into a sales guy or sales woman. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, or a sales person. We have non-binary folks in the roofing industry, maybe, who's to say? Probably not, I don't know. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I love that, that's so true. People should really be doing that, because I remember in my high school, there were so many people that didn't want to go to college and wanted to just go into a trade, for sure. Let's see here. This is a fun question. Do you guys think that seeing a younger sales person on the job, homeowners tend to go with someone who is older or with the younger person?

Lexie Sutton:
Wait, repeat the question. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Do you guys think that a homeowner seeing a younger sales person on the job, would they tend to go with someone who is older or that younger person? 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say that you might get 5% of people that because of your age, they might say something like, "Oh, you look a little young to be a roofer, or how long you've been roofing for?" In my case, I had a guy that one day I went up against a competitor and he told the client, "Does this guy even look like he can carry a bundle of shingles?" I've seen it all and, yes, [inaudible 00:16:09]. You can get discriminated against when you're [inaudible 00:16:10].
I think if you bring education to the forefront and you really show them that, you know what you're talking about, I think you'll be fine. If there are some people that don't want to go with you because your age and that's fine, they weren't your client. But I think if you lead with education at the forefront and you know what you're talking about and your confidence they can sense that confidence, I think you'll be fine. I think age really, I mean, for me, it hasn't been too much of an issue. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Great. Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I'll work on that. 

Lexie Sutton:
God, listen, the age, the connection you build with the client, just how you speak with them, and if they can tell, you know what you're talking about. I think age doesn't really matter at the end of the day, yeah, like Xavier said, there might be some people who discriminate just because you look younger, they might think you don't know what you're talking about. If you build that connection with them, that's going to go [inaudible 00:17:16].

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. We have a really fun question from Wendy Marvin here, if you could wave the magic wand of change, I love that, what are the first changes you'd recommend to your company owners? 

Lexie Sutton:
Okay. I would like to force... Well, not just my company owners, I think this would be a collective effort, force us to have time that we spend together outside of work. We are so busy, especially since COVID hit, we've been busy with just like scheduling people out to space it all out, so we've been working almost seven days a week since COVID started. We haven't had time to just get together and relax and not talk about work and just have a connection, so I think that would be a nice thing to incorporate. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I love that. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, that does sound nice. Since I started my job during the pandemic, I haven't even been able to meet any of the people that I work with besides John Kenny. He came to visit Nashville, so I haven't met my manager or my coworkers or anything, so that would be really, really nice. It's so funny that that's such a stretch now, is, I wish I could meet my coworkers. It's so strange that this is a thing, but that is a good point. Just being able to get together and like make a connection with people, because I think that that is like probably one of the most important things about company culture, is just being able to like form relationships with your coworkers. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Here's a question, going off of that. I was talking to Breakthrough Academy the other day, and they just held an online trade show basically where they use this platform where you're like a little bubble on the screen and your little bubble gets to chat with other people, and so, you can see the bubbles bouncing around on the screen. Then, when you join a bubble group, you enter a Zoom... how this is, with your little box and you can see everybody. If your company were to do like a Zoom cocktail hour or something like that, would you attend, would it feel a little like, it's not the same? What's your thoughts on that? 

Katya Khalimon:
I think that'd be super cool, I think, especially in these times you have to adapt to whatever people create, things like this. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I also love. Everyone that attended the trade show like a couple of days before they sent out cocktail mixes to everyone, and I loved that idea. I thought that was so fun. Great, I love it. We do have a comment from Michelle Boykin here from Rackley Roofing. I love, love, love that Katya has National Women in Roofing postcards and Roofing Respect in the background. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I know, Lexie and I are some newer members to National Women in Roofing, I love it. My mum started it, so I feel like I'm kind of obliged to [inaudible 00:20:51]. Let's see, we have some really good... Oh my gosh, Wendy, hey?

Wendy:
[crosstalk 00:21:03], and here I am.

Megan Ellsworth:
Do you have a question? Do you want to join the convo? 

Wendy:
I think you guys are jumping all around and covering everything, I love it. I was wondering, I see the deficits and I feel much like being a woman owner. A lot of times youth makes people just make perceptions about you that may or may not be true that you're having to overcome, and what they were... I think it was Katya that said, just talking about ways that you have to talk people through it and get people to trust you and things like that. It's like, I too have been asked, "Oh, have you ever been on a roof before?" And I'm thinking, "I'm an owner. Yes, I have, but again, what does that have to do with the fact that I'm here giving you a bid kind of thing, so there's a lot of things we have to overcome, and I like that perception.
I guess the first question I have is, what are some of the ways that you guys feel like you use, and it's probably going to be more about the trade out in the field. What are some of the ways you use to bridge that gap? Especially older folks. I mean, we've still got folks that want us to mail bids to them, so we've got that, and then we've got the gamut of why don't you have a chat feature in your whatever, and it's like, we're trying as owners to try to get the whole breadth of customers, and I feel like it's the same concept with employees that there's a lot of bridging that has to be done. Tell me about what you guys think about how you would bridge those things with customers and with other employees? Because you could come up against an employee that doesn't want you there too. 

Lexie Sutton:
Again, it's important to remember some people are stuck in their ways and they're so comfortable in how they do things, so you have to be patient with all types of people. If you're incorporating something new, some people might catch onto it a lot quicker than others, or it might be a lot more open to doing things a different way and a lot more open to change. Some people they're very anxious with change, so I think it's important to take more time with those people and to ask them questions, ask them how they're feeling about certain changes, just so that everybody can adapt positively. 

Xavier Carmona:
Going to a client, I do both. I not only bring out the paper and pen and we have an estimate sheet, so I do the whole paper and pen thing, go through with them on paper, show them the spec sheets of depending what manufacturer we're using, and I leave it to them behind in the folder. Very old fashion folder, here's all the information, everything in paper. Then I also do the second, which is I have everything ready in a PDF, so I'll have the whole estimate ready and a PDF file. I'll have links, I'll have pictures to any website that they want to visit and maybe read upon it more. So I do both, so that way they can pick. Do they want the folder and the paper, or do they want the PDF and the website? Maybe they're on their computer all day and they just want to click in a couple minutes here and there, I have that option as well, so just... That's how I do it. I just give them the option to have both there so they can make their decision. 

Wendy:
Yeah, I love that.

Megan Ellsworth:
Thank you, Wendy. 

Wendy:
Yeah. Let me throw one more question out at you guys. What would you see in a job description that would entice you to be able to be interested in applying to a company? Because I'm actively looking. Not you guys, but we're looking to expand and I'm really interested in bringing in a newer perspective and things, because we're pioneering the industry in general being a female owner, and I think that, like you said, the secrets to keeping a business alive these days is we've got to embrace some technology, we've got to be able to pivot, like I think Katya was saying too, and Lexie mentioned it, just talking about those things, what would make you excited to apply for a company? 

Katya Khalimon:
Probably something that is going to allow me to be creative, like Xavier touched on earlier. It's like, we want to a job that we're able to embrace our creativity. A lot of young people don't realize that there is positions in the roofing industry that they can use their creativity. Some people really think that it's just like labor and like office work or something, but yeah, just something like that. Then also, like I said earlier, job security, something that we're going to be able to do whether or not there's a pandemic or not. 

Lexie Sutton:
I think it's important not to have such a cookie cutter post job listing out. I would think about right now, I'm looking to bring on more people, I've been onboarding for a while now, and every person that's joined recently, they said they loved that. I mentioned that we want new people that have no experience and we're willing to train them and to show them how we do things [inaudible 00:26:23] that made them feel very comfortable with just giving us a chance even. A lot of people feel like they aren't fit for this type of industry, but if you put it in there that we don't care that you have had no experience, we want people that are new and just excited about [inaudible 00:26:40], and I think that's huge. 

Xavier Carmona:
In terms of, from the sales perspective, obviously most people will push the commission. Commission, commission, commission, because that's important. Money is definitely a big factor, but try not to make that the main reach out point, the commission, try to make it more like you have a high a fun, a competitive, an environment where you're going to learn certain sales skills, how to get to the point. Pretty much you're going to get them from point A to point B, how you're going to help them get there, and what you think is your goals for them. What commission goals is? What the education goals is? And just say and tell them it's going to be a fun, high, competitive environment, and you'll attract the talent that you're looking for. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I would also say flexibility. That's one thing I really love, like love, love. About working for RoofersCoffeeShop, not only because my mom is my boss, but because the whole team we have, well, everyone is so flexible and we're also willing to cross train, and if I have something, a music opportunity that I have to go do, I can rely on my coworker to help me finish an ROW or a Coffee Conversations or something, because we're all just really flexible with our tasks.
Then also, I think putting in there that, I don't know how you would word this, but putting in like, you put people first, and again, I don't really know how to word that, but because RoofersCoffeeShop definitely does that, and something that I love that Heidi does is she always says, "If you're doing something that you were totally bored by come talk to me, we can get you on something else, we can find what lights you up, what sparks you." And during our Monday morning meetings every week, it's almost always, so how's everybody doing? What can we do different? What do you want to do? Oh, you like social media posts? Oh, let's have you working with Laurel, or you are totally bored by putting stuff into the backend, well, let's figure out something that really lights you up. 

Megan Ellsworth:
And so, I think flexibility is like the key, especially for this age of young people. We're, I feel like used to being really flexible and spreading our skills far and wide, maybe, so yeah, I think that might help you too.

Wendy:
I think you guys have a lot of skills to spread too, which is awesome. I will have Megan share my email with all you guys and I'd love to stay in touch. Thanks for what you're doing. This is great.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Thanks Wendy. 

Wendy:
See you guys later.

Megan Ellsworth:
We love Matrix Roofing here at the RoofersCoffeeShop. We have some really fabulous questions coming in. This is probably the most amount of questions I've really ever seen on a Coffee Conversations. This is from Michelle Boykin out of Tennessee with Rackley Roofing. Have you seen the importance of networking for your success in the roofing industry? 

Lexie Sutton:
Did you say, how do we see it? 

Megan Ellsworth:
Have you seen any results of the importance of networking in the roofing industry? 

Lexie Sutton:
Yes.

Xavier Carmona:
Yeah.

Lexie Sutton:
Oh yeah. I see some head nods.

Xavier Carmona:
Definitely. I mean, number one, real estate agents. I've had good connections with real estate agents, friends from high school or from college that they became real estate agents. I kept in contact with them. Definitely a great networking source right there. I mean, now in today's market, you really can't sell a house if it has an old roof or an old siding, so every time they need a new roof, they just called me out for either an inspection or either a quote, so I would say real estate agents, number one. 
Then, just other people in other trades. If they ever come up, they're doing a job and they see that they need a roof done, who are they going to call, they're going to call a guy they know is a roofer, so hopefully that's me.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love it. 

Katya Khalimon:
I think, networking for myself in general is super important. I met Megan at the IRE in Dallas last year and she changed my entire view on the roofing industry and made me so much more excited about it. I didn't know that I could meet people that were my age and I could connect with. At this point I was friends with my roofing crews, I was eating lunch with them. This was my roofing life, so, Megan was... it changed my entire outlook on it, so I think networking is super important because you're going to meet people that just help you grow and look differently at it.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I know. I also did not think that there would be any people my age in this industry when I started. But, like I said, I got into this six months ago and I really do hope that I'm able to like go to more networking events because I know how important that is. I love networking, so not being able to go to like trade shows and stuff is just like so frustrating, but that is something that I'm very excited about. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yes. Oh my gosh. I can't wait till trade shows are a thing again, because I've been going to trade shows since I was like this tall and they were so boring back then, but now they're so fun because I have friends, so yeah, hopefully we get to see each other in August at IRE, maybe.

Megan Ellsworth:
We have Megan McFadden is ready to come on. Megan McFadden, if you want to unmute and hit your camera... Oh, there you are. Yay. Okay. 

Megan McFadden:
Hi.

Megan Ellsworth:
Hi.

Megan McFadden:
Thanks so much for having me and letting me join this. When I saw this come through through National Women in Roofing, I was really excited to join and hear from some other people in the industry. I'd asked the question earlier, just regarding sales rep, so Xavier, thank you. There's a lot in a very short amount of time that I am looking to do. We typically have a sales training school and my wealth has just been really dry. We have a ton of other opportunities that are open with our office.
Megan, to your point in the creative fields, which seems a very easy draw in, and I'm getting a lot of candidate feedback since the pandemic of, well, it moves to commission only, and I'm really looking for something more stable and I'm trying to have that conversation of, we are very lucky to be in this industry during this time that, a lot of us were deemed as essential and in the states that we work in and not that anything is ever a recession or anything proof, which this last year has shown us, but that there is staying power and growing power in this industry. 
I had another question just to pick everyone's brain here. Something that we're also working on to bring in more talent into our company is, we have a pretty robust internal referral program where if you were to be an employee, you refer your friends, your sister, your son, or daughter. There's a pretty good monetary value attached to that, depending on how many days that the person stays on.
I'm wondering if any of you have used or utilized any sort of external referral programs specifically looking at maybe vendors that if you have an open position, you can blast it out to some of your vendors, even customers that as you're building that relationship with the customer, putting in there that we can offer you X, trying to come up with what that sweet spot would be for someone to say, "Wow, yeah, I like your company, and I know that my son would be very interested in joining." Has anybody tried that? Has it worked? Has it failed? Is that just a total terrible idea of just how curious of what the group thing? 

Lexie Sutton:
We've had a lot of our employees join just by somebody knowing them and us just talking to them or our other employees just being like, "Hey, I think you should come join and see what they have to offer." Or even some of our clients will be on a week long project at their house, so we get really close with them, especially for doing stuff inside as well. And then they see that we're a nice crew, we have a nice atmosphere, and they asked, "Are y'all looking for other people?" I have my friend's son, that's definitely worked for sure. 

Megan McFadden:
And do you put any bonus program associated with that or is it just more word of mouth? They see what you're doing, they realize that you're reputable and it, your name works for you instead of having to say, "Hey, if you refer somebody, we'll give you $500." 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, we actually haven't thought about doing any type of bonus program. That is a good idea, though. It is more of a just, "Hey, that's a nice guy. He brings a nice people, gives him more value to us." 

Katya Khalimon:
I would definitely be interested in a program like that though. Who doesn't love money? 

Lexie Sutton:
Right. That's what we're hoping for. It's just figuring out, well, what is that, that draws you in to say, "Oh, I have a little skin in the game here, if I refer somebody, I mean, it works very well for internally and everybody, every time that there's a new job opening, myself as the talent acquisition specialist, sending out that job description, the link to the posting on our website, as well as our little referral bonus sheets of what you need to do to get that moving. 
But again, just our biggest pain point right now, we just opened up a new office, a terrible timing at the beginning of March of last year that we're now, we've got a leader for that branch and we're looking to expand in that territory from a sales perspective, and it's just been a challenge, and even more so than I first started in the industry in August, so some things had waned from the pandemic and we hired two new sales reps within my first month. And now I don't know what it is, we're trying to get creative, we're putting content out, we're making videos about this is what we're hiring for, this is coming straight from the hiring manager and the opportunities with training with commission and where some people have gone, and it's just like my well is dry, and as a recruiter, everybody knows how frustrating that feels when you're like, "I have four of these roles and nothing to show for it." 

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. I mean, I know there's so many young people right now looking for jobs, especially straight out of college, so, and I myself have so many friends that honestly ask me all the time, "Is RoofersCoffeeShop hiring? Do you know anybody? I need a job." I think, I really like owning that referral bonus program because young people A) Need money. B) They have friends that are looking for jobs. C) The roofing industry is just awesome, and especially the friend, if I were to refer a friend, all my friends know that the roofing industry is awesome because I talk about it so often. I think that's a great idea and I think you should keep it up and it might not be yielding a lot of results right now, but I think it will.

Megan McFadden:
Well, if you have any friends in Chicago land, you can send them my way.

Megan Ellsworth:
Okay, I will. 

Megan McFadden:
It's a good day to be on a roof today, a little cold right now, usually it's great. Thank you guys for having me on, I appreciate it. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Thank you for joining. Love it. Wow, we're almost, we got about 20 minutes left in our little program here. We have a great question from Greta Bajrami of Golden Group Roofing, this is for all of you, would you recommend roofing as a career to your best friend graduating college? 

Lexie Sutton:
There's so much to do in the roofing industry. You could find your place and it can be the best fit for you, so I would definitely recommend trying it because you don't know, it might be... I graduate in may and I haven't started to look for finance jobs yet. I don't know if I'm going to go into finance because I'm very comfortable where I'm at and I love it. So, yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. 

Katya Khalimon:
I actually refer people all the time, but a lot of times I referred a ton of my friends to my dad. Anytime anybody talks about a job, I'm always like, "Well, my dad is probably hiring, so if you want job, then go work for him." Just because I know that his company is great. It's like, I do know that there is really, really, really great opportunities in the roofing industry. Just because somebody goes to college doesn't mean that they can't still find something in the roofing industry that is for them, for sure.

Xavier Carmona:
Yeah, I would too. Honestly, if somebody is graduating college and then, I think there is someone talented that they have potential. I think if they apply that to roofing, I think they could be very, very successful. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I agree. Yeah, for sure. We actually are hiring a high school friend of mine that I referred to the RoofersCoffeeShop, so everybody's going to be in roofing. 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, [crosstalk 00:41:35].

Megan Ellsworth:
We have another great question here from Sarah Mueller. Do you think that roofing companies can benefit from using social media like Twitter and LinkedIn? 

Lexie Sutton:
Yes. 100%.

Megan Ellsworth:
[crosstalk 00:41:53] louder for the people on the back.

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, 100%. I don't know why more roofing companies don't... People my age look for jobs on LinkedIn, so it's like, of course you should have a LinkedIn, you should have all social media platforms that you possibly can. If you can have somebody that's running a bunch of social media platforms for you, like then absolutely make a TikTok, and film people putting on roofs. You will a 100% not... that can only benefit you. [crosstalk 00:42:29]. 

Megan Ellsworth:
It shows that you're in the new and that you're keeping up with trends and that's super important to young people. They don't want to be bored, they want to be around people that are like them and that want to learn new things. If you can show them, oh, they literally on every social media platform that I can possibly search someone. It shows that it's a...

Xavier Carmona:
Just to add to that, I like the TikTok idea. I think that's great, honestly, especially if we're going to take people doing the work and stuff, I think that's awesome. I do think LinkedIn is vital though, because I do think if you are trying to attract top, top talent, I do think people will go on LinkedIn to see if the company has like a professional presence. But I feel like LinkedIn, when you go on LinkedIn and you look at the company and you see that they're posting and they have a good following and a good base and you go to their website and everything correlates together, you buy into it more. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I love the TikTok idea. That might be something on the precipice for RoofersCoffeeShop.

Katya Khalimon:
I have been telling people that they should do this. I'm pretty sure my dad, he's going to end up doing something like that, but yeah. When I'm making calls, before I even call on a company, I looked him up on LinkedIn and the amount of companies that don't have a LinkedIn is actually like very shocking, and it's... I don't know. I just don't think that as many people know in this industry, how important that is and how like that can actually benefit you so much long-term. I think that probably is one of the main ways that you could recruit young talent.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. Yeah, and if your dad does make a TikTok, I wrote a jingle for Rackley Roofing, so he could use that jingle. 
Just plugging there. We have a great comment here. Ooh, I love this comment. This is from Lorna Rojas. I think it is important to identify learning styles, to make sure we use the right approach in any area of the industry. And so, I think that's referring to onboarding, bringing someone on. Do you guys know your learning styles? Because I know in my middle school, in high school it was super like, this is your learning style and this is how you learn best, so this is what you should do to get good grades or whatever. Do you guys, have you seen that in your companies now, or when you were looking for companies to work for? 

Katya Khalimon:
Yes. When I was looking for job, [inaudible 00:45:31] actually, they made it very enticing and made it sound very appealing when they were telling me how I would be onboarding and stuff, and how I would learn. Also that's really nice that your schools did that because schools here did not do that. But yeah, I think that's super important. That's something that would definitely draw someone to a job, is just knowing that that company is going to like tailor it to them, and I think that the roofing industry I think Katya said something earlier about how a lot of companies don't want you to come in with this idea that you already know what you're doing. It's like, we want to train you to do what we need you to do, and I think that is like super important. 

Xavier Carmona:
I think for my company the learning process is pretty cool because I'm a more hands-on. I have to like touch things and see things. Not only does my company, they don't only get you in an office and show you videos and PowerPoints and you're reading word docs, but you also get two weeks where you're out in the field and you're actually just with the project manager at a job site, and you're just seeing the whole roofing process from the time that the roofer show up to the time where you're closing off the job and the client is happy and giving you the final paycheck. You get two weeks of seeing that whole process, and I think that was very vital because you see how all the components work together, you see how they install and you get to see maybe three or four different houses be done in that time, so you get a whole range of things, so I thought that was very helpful. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Cool. Yeah, love it. We have a question just for Lexie here. How did you network during the pandemic to find your job with Cotney Consulting Group?

Lexie Sutton:
Well, when I was looking for jobs, like I said, I actually looked on LinkedIn for jobs and I got my job with Cotney because my dad posted me on LinkedIn and Facebook and said that I was looking for jobs, so I had people calling me, offering me jobs everywhere, just from my dad's posts, which I should tell you in itself, the fact that my dad posted me and then I had all these calls from people offering me jobs that shows you how important LinkedIn or Facebook is, not just for people that are finding jobs, but just for people finding work or anything period. So yeah, I networking during the pandemic, the only thing that I've been able to do is use LinkedIn. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Okay, cool. Yes, and we have a comment here. It says, remember it doesn't just have to be a family member or a friend, it could be any of us in the industry who are excited to help. For any young people that are watching I don't know if there are, but I hope there are. And yeah, lean on the people in the industry that are a mentor to you or whatever, and everyone's here to help, which is great. Just something I love about the industry. Going off of that, who are some mentors to you all in the industry that have helped you come to where you are today? What's one thing that they did that really left a mark on you? 

Katya Khalimon:
I would say that, I mean, my mentors in the industry, like I said, I mean, my dad has been working in this industry for like ever, so anytime that I need anything, I guess I call him or Michelle Boykin, she's a woman in the industry who also never expected herself to be in the industry, so I've had to call on her a few times for things. Your mom, your mom was like a super Heidi when I was looking for jobs was so helpful and made me feel so good about looking for jobs in the industry. And then also she was probably a good percentage of why I took the job that I did and the job that I'm doing now, because she just completely assured me that I was making the right decision. She was like, "Yes, this is great. The roofing industry is the most beautiful place." And I don't know, those people though have been my saving grace.

Lexie Sutton:
Yes. Heidi is a great mentor. She definitely made me super excited about the industry and made me feel like I should be here and I need to be a part of it, and that there's a reason for me to be a part of it. Also I think my boss was a huge mentor for me because I was super anxious about joining. I knew nothing and they built my position for me. We built up the office when I started, so it was all new to everybody, and I love that. My boss just took me by a side I was right-side man, and I just did everything. I think getting out of the office too, because I was in the office for months, I didn't see the roofing aspect of it during COVID. He took me out there and he showed me in person how everything works and my understanding of it just blew up. I definitely understood it a lot better, so that was huge.

Xavier Carmona:
I would say my mentor was my friend and my boss, his name is Freddy. Man, that guy. When I first started off in the field, I was launched into the field, then there'll be scenarios where a client would ask me certain things about the roof a little bit more complex or complicated, and I would say, "Oh yeah, just give me one sec." And I would go and FaceTime Freddy real quick, and he would always pick up, then I'd ask him a question and I would go back and be like, "Oh, so actually this is the answer, I just talked to my [inaudible 00:51:27]... He was always there for me, whether it was FaceTime calling, whether it was I'm sitting at the kitchen table and they ask a question and I'm like, "Let's call Freddy right now and ask him what he has to say."
Then just calling him on the first ring he picks up and I'm like, "Do you see that? That's the owner, right? That he's picking up on the first ring, but he was there the whole step of the way for my first couple of months there, and he's the owner, he has a lot of things going on. He has a company to run and to still take that time to just make sure that I was doing good and learn what I had to learn. I got to thank him for that a lot. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah. I think it's very important for me to feel like my boss is the first person I want to call when something goes wrong, and I feel so comfortable calling him and asking him, because I know he's always going to be there and he's always going to figure out a way to make [inaudible 00:52:21].

Xavier Carmona:
And he goes in a good mood, so that helps too. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, that always helps. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes. I love that. We have a really awesome question here and we have some comments. Especially, I love all these comments regarding TikTok. Some people are already using TikTok, which is fabulous. Lucy Quigley looks like they're running a contest on TikTok and Instagram for their company. Then Richard Tooley said, "Remember to keep it professional and positive on TikTok and other platforms because roofing tends to have a bias that a lot of roofers are scammers, so he just wanted to say that it's good to keep it professional and positive, and I would agree with that. 
We have a article running right now about Alberta and how there are a lot of homeowners getting taken advantage of by people who are pretending to be roofing companies and that's just not cool. I love this question from Daniella. Do you think that the way Generation Z is described (in general) by marketing experts is accurate? 

Katya Khalimon:
I don't even know how we're described, how are we described? 

Megan Ellsworth:
Well, what I've heard is that, I hear a lot of two different sides of the spectrum. I hear that, we're lazy go figure. And then I also hear that Generation Z is like the most educated, the most technologically advanced generation, and I think both of those are very true. I feel like every generation at one point or another has been called lazy or whatnot, so who's not a little lazy here and there. What are your just thoughts, general thoughts on our generation in coming into the workforce that you're saying.

Katya Khalimon:
I think we have no attention span because we've grown up, with the internet at our disposal and we've been able to see and do whatever we want. We've had like resources that no generation before us had, so I do think that as far as like not having an attention span goes and everything like jobs, we want something that's exciting and that we're going to be able to get excited about and not get bored up quickly because I think that is a big problem with people my age is that we're super bored super quick, so a lot of young adults will start a job and then immediately get bored and quit. I think that that's super important. It's just to try to keep it exciting.

Lexie Sutton:
For sure, yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Any other thoughts? All right. 

Megan Ellsworth:
This is a question from Curtis Sutton. How do you determine a good roofing company from a great roofing company? 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say the employee. [inaudible 00:55:53].

Katya Khalimon:
No, I was just gonna say culture. 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say, so when a client is able to say that the workers said that the boss treats them right or that they talk good about the boss, because there's always this perception that when the boss isn't looking, the employees are out talking about the boss and just chatting and bickering and stuff, but when I've had multiple clients telling me that they've talked to the employees that are doing that labor and that they only have good things to say about the boss and when that's the case, something's being done right. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. Yeah, I think that's so true.

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, I think that goes along with company culture, because if a company has good culture, then usually the employees will have a better relationship with the boss and the employees will have a better relationship with each other. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, totally. We have time for about one more short, quick question. Let's see here. Oh my gosh, there's so many. Wow. This is wild.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I am coming back in because we only have a few minutes and I am busting out over here in the... I am so proud of all of you. This has been, I mean, the most questions, the most comments, I just can't even tell all four of you. I'm sending you all these comments and everything that has come across, do you have all, given... if there's a single person who walks away from this Coffee Conversations and isn't just besting with pride at our next generation, then they've totally missed it because you all are just tremendous, and the people who you work for are so lucky, so lucky to have you on their team to be team members, and it's just been great. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
I have to tell you the comments that have been coming through the folks who have watched today really want to know, how do we get more of you, right? More of your general remediation, more of your amazing talents into the roofing industry, and I just have to give one comment, is that, I think you really hit on it at a number of times in here, but you four have all become friends after today, right? You met earlier, you met the IRE, now you've met on this show. Now you're going to talk to each other. You're going to find each other at the trade shows, and how awesome is that to be able to provide this networking and these types of friendships while you're making a living? Would you agree with that, all of you? 

Xavier Carmona:
Yes.

Lexie Sutton:
Yes.

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, so we're coming to the end of our hour, so I had to take over again, take it back from this Gen Z for just a second, but I'm hoping you all come back because I have to tell you we need to have you come back and talk some more. The questions that are out there, what people are asking you are providing a lot of good information. And so, we will also have this on RoofersCoffeeShop, of course, where everybody can watch it again. They can get in touch through LinkedIn, which made me so happy. I didn't hear Facebook once, I heard LinkedIn a lot from all of you. Very nice. Thank you so much for being here today and thank you to the companies you work for. I'm friends with all of them too, and they are all busting with pride here too today to have you on, so make any last words. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I would just say that for the companies out there that are looking for the next generation to come work for you, just be flexible, be creative about your job postings, be on social media. Maybe Facebook's out the window, is what I'm thinking, but it's for the older people. Yeah, and just trust in this next generation, don't just make assumptions based on age or race or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation. You need to be open and willing to all people, if you are going to recruit correctly. Yeah, thank you everyone for coming on and listening to our little schpiel, and thank you Lexie, Katya and Xavier for joining me, it's been so much fun and I hope that we all stay connected and become best friends for life.

Lexie Sutton:
Thank you for [crosstalk 01:00:47].

Heidi Ellsworth:
That is perfect. Thank you all for being on the show today, thank you for watching. In two weeks, we are going to have another very well-known person from the roofing industry, Duane Musser with Ruth Pack here, talking about roofing day 2021. I hope Lexie, Katya and Xavier, that you all go, because I know we're going to pull Megan in too, that you all go to Roofing Day virtually and talk about the importance of the roofing industry and sharing your voice politically, that is so important. 
That's going to be here two weeks from now, so Duane will be joining us along with some special guests, so stay tuned on that, and please know that you can watch all the Coffee Conversations on RoofersCoffeeShop, on the Coffee Conversations page. That, Megan controls and takes care of, so thank you so much for this day and have a wonderful rest of the week.

Xavier Carmona:
Thank you, bye.