By Emma Peterson. 

Honor the past, celebrate the present and get ready for the future at this year’s NWIR conference!  

Originally conceived in 2014, but officially founded in 2016, the National Women in Roofing (NWIR)'s goal has always been to support the women “breaking [the stereotype that the roofing industry is geared towards men] by pursuing a variety of career paths and demonstrating that a diverse industry is a stronger industry.” One of the ways they work towards fulfilling that mission is by hosting their annual conference, NWIR Days!  

NWIR Days is an event always full of opportunities for attendees to not only network and learn together, but to build each other up and create a stronger community of roofers. This upcoming NWIR Days will be hosted from January 17-18, 2026, at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Keep reading to learn more about the special events, keynotes and sessions happening at the upcoming conference! 

Special events 

On Saturday, January 17, attendees can attend one of two luncheons hosted by the DEI Committee and the NWIR Hispanic Council. Following lunch, attendees can choose from a variety of education sessions presented in Spanish or the inaugural Council Leader Training session. That evening will feature an optional ticketed event themed “Starry, Starry Night.” This is a great way to catch up with old friends and make new ones while celebrating 10 years of NWIR! The welcome event runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Day two is the “main event” and includes an exciting Grand Opening Kickoff Celebration marking NWIR’s incredible 10 years of existence! From speaking with the founders about the organization’s beginnings to looking ahead at the new areas of focus for 2026, this celebration will be a great way to learn more about NWIR.  

More highlights of the day include three blocks of informative education sessions and the 2026 Awards Luncheon featuring the 2026 World Awards and Rising Star winners. Later in the day, CertainTeed and QXO are hosting a networking event including refreshments and the QXO Challenge – A fun challenge/race that attendees can take part in and win prizes! 

Finally, the 2026 conference will end with the Closing Ceremony thanking outgoing chair Christee Roberson and installing new chair, Christine Mockenhaupt! 

Check out the full event schedule.

Education sessions 

This year’s conference boasts over a dozen different sessions across three blocks on Sunday, January 18, 2026. We can’t cover them all, but we wanted to highlight some of the ones that Coffee Shop crew members and customers are a part of:  

• Roofing is like a sandwich – Understanding the basics: Taught by Lynn Picone and Kimberly Santiago of GAF, this foundational course is perfect for anyone who is new to the roofing industry looking for a fun way to gain “essential knowledge of roofing systems, materials, terminology and common practices.” 
• Bridge the gap with your content – How to create videos that convert: In the modern era, video and visuals are the language of modern marketing. In this session, our very own Heidi J. Ellsworth will moderate a discussion all about building engagement and trust with an audience through video.  
• Strong teams and tough conversations – A panel discussion: Featuring Maya Irizarry of Solutions by Maya, LLC, Dave MacLean of the Certified Contractors Network and Elise Schmidt of Benchmark, Inc., this panel will dive into ways to strengthen your team with key communication tools. 
• Build loyalty, not turnover – Supporting working parents in roofing: Presented by the NWIR DEI Committee and moderated by The Coffee Shops’ Megan Ellsworth, this panel will talk about how you can support your employees as they navigate one of life’s biggest challenges – parenting.  
• Shark tank savvy: Software tools to help you up your game – Maureen Greeves and Mardee Billingsley of Tremco will dive into how contractors can use SafetyCulture, Smartsheet and 0365 Power Apps to make their operations more efficient.  
• What roofing can learn from HVAC and technology – In a session all about operational efficiency and service-based models, Sue Drummond and Angie Snow from ServiceTitan share what we can learn from the HVAC and tech sectors. 
• Speak up, show up: Building confidence in work and life – Whether you are asking for a raise at work or setting a personal boundary, Mandy Mcintyre (Level-Up Consulting) wants to help you find the language and mindset to stand tall.  

Explore all the education sessions.

Registration for NWIR Days 2026 is now open! There is also a special room block available at the Sahara for attendees. 

By Emma Peterson. 

You do not choose the roofing industry; the industry chooses you! 

Recently, The Coffee Shops’ crew members Karen Edwards and Megan Ellsworth had the opportunity to be interviewed about their journeys in the roofing industry. Karen didn’t plan on working in the industry. She shared in her interview that she started working in marketing and found herself at a lumber and building supplies company. That was her first taste of the contracting world, which would eventually lead her to meeting Heidi J. Ellsworth, and the rest is history.  

Megan, who is our multimedia manager, spoke about how her journey on the roof began in a baby backpack carrier, but she never saw herself working in the industry as an adult. But low and behold, Megan found herself returning to the industry as an editor when the first RoofersCoffeeShop podcasts released and has now fallen in love with the community.  

The interviews were conducted on the Roofer Reflections YouTube channel. Each video is hosted by Tats Nakagawa, Castagra’s CEO, and puts the well-deserved spotlight on roofing industry professionals. They interview people from all areas of the industry and discuss what drew them into the workforce, what they’ve learned over time, the trends they are seeing and everything in-between!  

Specifically, Karen and Megan’s interviews are a part of a specific series titled “Women in Roofing (Roofer Reflections).” This series takes the time to highlight the women who are pacing trails in a traditionally male-dominated industry. The guests are all passionate about their work and dedicated to making the industry more inclusive and accessible for all.  

Watch the entire interview with Karen to hear about how a marketing job turned into becoming g a leader in the roofing industry.  

Watch the full interview with Megan to hear more about coming into roofing and growing into her role as RoofersCoffeeShop’s multimedia manager.  

You can also check out the larger Women In Roofing (Roofer Reflections) playlist to hear from other women in roofing. 

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Spencer Jacobs, Jennifer Grove, Maureen Greeves and Megan Ellsworth. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Welcome everyone. I am so excited to have you all here today for this I am saying incredible Coffee Conversations. It's actually the last show of season four. My name is Heidi Ellsworth and this is Coffee Conversations on Roofers Coffee Shop. We are going to be celebrating Pride Month today. I am so honored and blessed to have this amazing panel to be having this conversation. And before we get started, I want to remind everybody this is being recorded and it will be on demand within the next 24 hours. So you'll be able to share this all your friends and family and really spread an amazing and wonderful message. So let's get started.

First of all, I would like to thank WTI. WTI is part of Tremco and they are an amazing, amazing company that does service work, production work all over the country. They restore, rebuild, and they have one of the most diverse and truly walk the talk companies that I've ever been had the honor to work with. So we are absolutely thrilled to have WTI and Tremco as our sponsors for today's Coffee Conversation. Thank you.

Okay. First of all, I would like to introduce our amazing panel. So first of all, Spencer, welcome to the show. We're so happy to have you here today. If you could, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company.

Spencer Jacobs: Hey everyone, it's Spencer Jacobs. As the bio says, been in construction pretty much my whole life. Came on board with Ruff Roofers about six years ago. Currently a service manager over here, so that incorporates our residential as well. Work with a great team. Can't speak highly enough at the company, but yeah, just look into the diversity and keep everything rolling.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Spencer, we're so happy to have you. Thank you. And Ruff Roofing, what a great company. I've known him for a long time. So welcome to Coffee Conversations. Next I'd like to introduce Jennifer Grove, president of TORI Construction. Jennifer, welcome to Coffee Conversations.

Jennifer Grove: Thank you. Thank you. Good morning everybody. Like Heidi said, my name is Jennifer Grove. I am owner and president of TORI Construction. We are a small family female LGBTQ owned business in the City of Chicago. We started out as general contractors and jumped towards specializing in roofing about three and a half years ago. And I have been loving every bit of it. We do everything from flat to steep to repair to, I don't know, a little bit of everything. We'll figure it out. If we can't do it, we'll learn. That's how we do. I love being a part of the industry and I love being able to spread the values and ideals of diversity through everything we do, everything. So thanks for having me.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great. Jennifer, we're so honored to have you. Thank you so much. And welcoming back to Coffee Conversations, one of my dear friends, Maureen Greeves with WTI and Tremco. Maureen, please introduce yourself.

Maureen Greeves: Oh, Heidi, thank you. I appreciate that I got invited back from last year, so I'm excited about that. Maureen Greeves, I live in Cleveland, Ohio and I've been in roofing since 2009, fell into it by accident and have been feel like so lucky to be in accepted and invited into this industry. It's full of amazing people who work hard and just are real committed, so committed to the industry. So looking forward to talking more with you today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This is going to be a great conversation. And last but certainly not least, the one who I'm very proud to introduce is Megan Ellsworth with Roofers Coffee Shop. Megan, please introduce yourself.

Megan Ellsworth: Good morning everyone. My name's Megan and I've been in roofing for about five or six years now and I fell into it also because of my mom, Heidi. I wasn't expecting to go into roofing or stay as long as I have, but I really love it and yeah, I'm just glad that we're having this conversation today. It's our third year having the Pride Month Coffee Conversations and I'm so happy that we do this and it's crazy to think that this is our fourth season. We started this during the pandemic in 2020 and here we are still.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It is amazing and it's most of you know because you hear Megan's name or see her throughout all the Coffee Conversations. She is our producer of the award-winning Coffee Conversations and we did actually win an award for Coffee Conversations. So that's pretty fun. And so I appreciate everything you do and also really bringing this to the forefront.

I have to put a shout-out to, we have some awesome people on the chat right now, Mandy and Ray and Brittany and all the ladies from National Women of Roofing who have also really helped to bring this to the forefront to bring diversity and to the celebration of Pride Month and all of the culture it's so important here at Roofers Coffee Shop. We just believe in it throughout our whole everything.

So we're going to get started and we're going to talk a little bit about, just give me everybody a little bit of history because I think sometimes we're all learning. I can tell you right now as Megan's mom, I have learned a lot and I continually always learn from my friends and everyone out there. So that is a big part of what we're doing today too in this conversation. So Megan, we would love to start with you on a brief history of Pride Month.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes. So Pride Month started in 1969 or 1970 with the Stonewall riots, and they started in Greenwich Village, New York as a riot started by a Black transgender woman and then the next year they wanted to follow up on that spirit of resistance. And so they started adopting the theme of gay pride as a counterpoint to the attitude of shame at the time. And throughout the '70s more cities started adopting this theme of gay pride and it became a massive celebration that we know today.

On the one-year anniversary of the riots on June 28th, 1970 thousands of people marched from the Stonewall Inn where the Stonewall Riots started in 1969 to Central Park in what was called the Christopher Street Liberation Day. And that was America's first gay pride parade. The parade's official chant was, Say It Loud, Gay is Proud. And I did this last year as well as a part of our Pride Month Coffee Conversations. I think it's just really important to know the history and know that we wouldn't have Pride Month without our transgender community and without the Black community. And I just think that's crucial and everyone should know that and be proud of it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is excellent. Thank you so much. Because I think we need to know the history. It's just like when you're thinking about all of our different cultures right now who are fighting for respect and for equity and equality and inclusion. So working together brings us all together and rises. In fact, Maureen, I would love it if you could share, you had looked up some of the statistics and of what's really happening out there today with the LGBTQIA+ community. I did it.

Maureen Greeves: Nice job. You did it, Heidi. You did it. You got through your first one. That's like the biggest hurdle, right?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know. Without stumbling everybody. You heard it for the first time. Okay, here we go.

Maureen Greeves: All right. So it is a celebration. So June is celebration, it's all about celebrating pride. So I struggled with a little bit of the data. I'm a data girl, so I wanted to share some numbers and some statistics, and Heidi entertains those feelings that I have. So thank you. And so I didn't want to bog down our conversation with some of the negatives here, but I think it's important to just throw out a few numbers. I always like to talk in numbers first and get things generalized. I'll start with just the percentage of US adults that identify as LGBTQIA+, and that is about 7.2% of the United States population. And if you look at the world population, it's about nine, 9% identify as that. Hot topics today, kind of hot buttons really. The transgender community, the trans, about 0.5% of the US population identify as trans.

And if you start going into the 13 to 17 year olds, then you're moving that number up in the trans to about 1.4% of the US population. So that's just kind of our representation overall in terms of census data could be skewed either way, but that's just where the numbers fall right now. Since 2015 when we all earned the right to marry and gained access to some very important pieces to make sure that we are able to take care of our families and our communities. We've seen an uptick really in some anti LGBTQA legislation. So right now, current climate wise, it's not super friendly, just it is what it is. So I've got some numbers, some research that I've done points to anywhere between 390 and always almost up all the way to about 525 pieces of legislation that's currently active or being proposed in state houses across the country right now.

So that's really the current situation. I've got, I know Of six pieces of legislation just in Ohio where I live that is anti LGBTQA+. And I think that one of the... But there is positives, right? So if we are talking about celebrating, 13, there's a record number of representatives in Washington right now. We have 13 openly, the most ever, the ever we've had before, right? 13 openly, LGBT representatives, congresspeople representing right now. So I think that's really super important. As legislation gets brought up, I think people are starting to get a little bit more active and comfortable in that role. So those are some positive things that are happening too.

Megan Ellsworth: I would also like to add that the first Gen Z Senate member, I think Senate member, was just elected into the Senate, Gen Z. So that's exciting. Yeah.

Maureen Greeves: Very exciting. Yes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It does feel like I'm hoping this is the break. I mean, sometimes there's a rise of negative before it breaks because of fear. People live by their fear. But it seems like the overall acceptance and the beauty of diversity is much larger, is much larger and will overtake a lot of this. At least maybe that's just my hopes because it does scare me too. It's just what's happening. Jennifer, I would love to go to you. I saw you nodding. What are some of the things that you are seeing and that you're experiencing in, not just in roofing, but overall?

Jennifer Grove: So I think with me it's kind of a unique situation. So I did not come out as a member of the LGBT community until I was 26 years old. I was in a heterosexual relationship. I had a child and then I found and fell in love with my now wife and happily ever after for 15 years now. I've seen things through both looking glasses, I think. Coming from a predominantly Italian Irish Catholic family, things that I am living now would've never crossed my mind back when I was in my teens. So to know that I've come that far, my family has come that far, I try not to look at the negatives as much because I know I'm living proof that you can grow past those, I don't think barricades is the word, but those predetermined steps that you're supposed to take.

So when I hear Maureen giving all those stats and things, it's very prominent, especially in Illinois right now and in Chicago, we have a lot of adversity across the board, be it racial, sexual, whatever. It's a mess over here right now. So to know that it's not just on the LGBT side of things, I guess I'm more comfortable with moving forward and not living in fear. I want to get above that fear. I want to continue to grow for my sake and for my small children. I have a 15-year-old and a six-year-old. I want them to know that the lives that their moms are leading are positive. You don't have to dwell on the negatives that get thrown at us.

I mean, they see it, they're aware of it, they know it. We live it every day. I'm not sheltering my children, I'm not throwing them in the fire when there's things on the news or riots downtown or whatever. I don't throw them into the center of that. But we have productive conversations and I think starting on one side of the world and growing and adjusting and living my life the way I do now, I wouldn't change it. And it's also helped me to teach my kids how to be accepting and loving and understanding of everybody, not just the ones who look at and talk like they do.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, that is so true. That is so true. And it feels to me a lot of times, I love what you're saying, Jennifer, because being Gen X, we raised our kids to love everyone. I really do believe that. There's a lot of us who are just like, it didn't matter, we just bring it on, man. Because we kind of came from the baby boomer hippie that Gen X. We just kind of came into it. And now when you watch the millennials and the Gen Zs, they're taking that and hopefully that's what they learned, but they're rising up and saying, "Hey, this is how we're going to have inclusiveness. We're going to believe we're going to be with everyone." So raising our kids that way I think is just so important.

Jennifer Grove: Absolutely. And that's the biggest thing, I mean, there's still people of my generation and my parents' generation that look at us like, "What are you doing? Knock it off. This is not the way the world is supposed to go right now," but I try to instill, especially in my kids that it's not about following the majority, it's about following your heart. And that's all I ask of them. And that it's just how we do it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. That's so cool. So true, so true. Spencer, I would love to hear your thoughts. What are you seeing in your role in the communities and your state? I know I want to get to the states here in a minute, but also in the industry. Tell us a little about.

Spencer Jacobs: So personally, I've had a pretty good experience so far in the roofing industry. My background, I've had a pretty rough patch. I know most people that are in the community have all different experiences. Personally, I don't have a great relationship with my family at this point. Coming into the industry, I'm at the point in my life where it is what it is. I'm going to live my life and blaze my own trail. You can't live in fear. So it's been great as far as just talking to people.

And I'm very open about my life and who I am as a person. And I think it's interesting because talking about kind of meeting people, I don't feel like a "trailblazer" really at this point, quote unquote, but I've had people, I bring my partner to industry events and I've had people come up to me after the event and go, "Oh my goodness, that's so amazing that you brought your partner. I would've never done that." Or just different personal experiences. And I'm like, yeah, I'm me. There's no question about that. And this is who I am. And again, so far it's been pretty good. Thankfully in Maryland at least there's not a lot of issues. There are a few bills that are on the negative side. I know that much, but nothing groundbreaking.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, we've had a couple comments. Thank you, Lisa. Heartbreaking on some of the statistics. So true. But Sarah Mueller's on here, and Sarah, thank you for being on here again. She says, there are still allies in Florida. Thank you for conversations like this. We need to keep them going. So Sarah, thank you so much. And Maureen, I'm going to kind of take that back to you a little bit because it is... I mean, I saw it just last night on the news, Missouri was just brought into legislation again last night or yesterday.

So on a state by state level, that does start to affect, I think beyond it just being wrong. Second of all, it's very much affecting how our business is, where people travel with some of the bans that we're seeing. People are like, I'm not going to go to Florida because of the... And Sarah, we're going to come see you, don't worry. But we're not going to travel to these states because of the laws against the LGBTQIA+ community. And so yeah, talk a little bit about that. You run crews across the whole country.

Maureen Greeves: Yes. Yes, we do. And I think-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, Maureen, we lost... Okay. There you go.

Maureen Greeves: You there? All right. Yeah, we run crews all across the country. It really hasn't come up. I think Spencer, Jennifer, I think my experience in roofing has been overall very positive. And I've had conversations internally with folks about traveling to different places and the climate, and I only can speak for myself when I say, if I don't go travel to Florida, then who wins? I don't win. If I don't go and represent in Florida or wherever it is, I don't want to single out Florida. But if there are, just because we face adversity doesn't mean we don't stop because that we would, who wins then? Nobody wins then. So that's kind of the way I look at things. It does make me a little bit sad. I think the climate, I'm older, I don't really care anymore what people think, but I think my kids worry.

My kids worry. My 17-year-old, my 16-year-old or 15-year-old, they're pretty tuned into stuff. And no one's more of a fierce ally than those two for the community and for protecting their moms. But I do think it probably weighs on them more than they say. And the more that language becomes... it is coming. We're going back a little bit. We're going back to, like you said, with some of the fear and predatory language, demoralizing language, demonstrative language, those kind of things. They eventually take a toll emotionally on our youth for sure, just because they're being formed and they're forming their opinions and finding their voice and their place. So I do worry about them a little bit more than I used to, but they're pretty strong girls. So I think they're going to be okay. I just wish it was a little different. That's all.

Heidi J. Ellsworth:

Well, I just looked back a year ago to where we were having this conversation last year, and this wasn't even in the top conversation, talking about legislation and what's going on. And I want to talk about some, but I am going to, we have some nice comments coming here that I want to share. So from Anna, she said, and Mississippi as well has had legislation. Gen Z here gives me a hope for a more inclusive and empathic future in this state. So rise up. There we go. John Kenny, John, recent Florida poll is that 68% of residents are not in favor of the recent laws, but put in place by a state legislator. These actions really crush our state in so many ways. So kind of what we were talking about before, sometimes maybe when these things happen, it brings everybody else up to say, wait a minute, that's 68%.

No, we're going to change the legislators who are in there. We're going to change the laws back. We're going to do the right things. And so having these conversations, I really do think we need to be very active in our state politics and our roofing day, our national politics, and also local communities just continuing to vote. So I do want to take one of the things someone, Lisa wants everybody to move to Florida and we'll all vote. So yes, I do love the keys. I just have to say, but I want to kind of go back.

So Maureen, you were talking about 7% of our population identifies LGBTQIA+. And I think that you have to then say, okay, at least 7% if not more, of the roofing industry is also of that community. Right? And so we need to look at that. So Jennifer, I want to start with you on hiring and diversity. You have a small business, you run and you own. I have, Roofers Coffee Shop is a small business. It is always on my mind. I want diversity. We want to find the best people to work, but I want a really diverse and rich culture for our company. How does that fit into your culture and your hiring?

Jennifer Grove: So actually, it's funny you should ask that. So not only am I a member of the LGBTQA+ community, my wife is also an employee of TORI Construction. So my wife is in the field in the trenches of all of this as a member of the community as well. So her perspective is a whole, she could give you a whole different version, I'm sure, than what I'm going to right now, she was actually, I told her, I'm like, "You should be actually giving this talk today, not me. You have more of this than I do, but..."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We should have had both of you. We'll have to move that for next year. Yes.

Jennifer Grove: Good. Yeah, we could do for next year. So with us, when my sister and I talk about things and we look at our hiring and we, I guess try to come up with our game plan, we are very content staying small scale. I don't need to be 50 employees, 75 employees, 300 employees. It's not for us. That's not our goal. So we take a lot of time and care into each individual person that we put into our positions. Mainly right now it's family based. We have a lot of, if not direct bloodline, it is in-laws, sisters, cousins, nephews kind of deals how we've been doing it for right now. But we are very aware of what our options are in terms of inclusion and given the opportunity to do so, it would not be a question. We are actually one of the few, if not, I don't even think there's any other actually if, I don't want to misspeak.

But we're pretty close to the only LGBT certified business within the roofing industry in our area right now. So for us, taking that step that was getting out of our comfort zone and choosing our path of hiring that we want to engage the community, we want to make it full circle. We want to be open to everybody. Have we had many people that want to be a part of what we're doing? No. But I'm not saying that door is never going to open and we'll never have the opportunity. But for right now, our workforce is, it is diverse. We've got White, Black, brown, purple, we've got gay, straight, elephants. I don't know. We're a little bit of everything, we really do within our workforce in our office. And everybody brings a different piece of the puzzle to the table. And as long as you fit into that dynamic of we are all pieces of a bigger puzzle, you have a place with us. We're not picky. As long as you can fit in that little jigsaw that we do, we'll make it work for you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Find the right fit, find the job. You know, there are so many studies out there right now, and I've presented on a couple of them that talk about that. That really to have a strong company, you need to have such diversity because it brings so many different types of emotional intelligence, of intelligence, of personalities, everything together to create this beautiful thing with creativity, production, operations, financial success, profitability. I mean, it's been proven over and over and over again exactly what you're saying, Jennifer. So Spencer, on that, I'm going to flip it. So one of the questions we have is what are you looking for in an employer? Because you've had some really great things to say about Ruff Roofing, but what are you looking for in an employer for you?

Spencer Jacobs: So I mean, just looking for people that are inclusive, looking for people that aren't judgmental. And a lot of this is a conversation, right? In the industry, you're not finding most of these companies. I don't need a company to change their logo to a rainbow. I like to see it. It's not helping anybody unless you're backing it up. Right? So when I come in and I'm talking to people, it should just be a normal conversation. So a lot of times people, I'm not going out and telling them about my personal life, the first thing that I meet them, we're talking about work. That's what we're here to do. We're here to get the job done. We're here to build an awesome product. At the end of the day then you can track a beer open and talk about our personal lives and have a great time after that.

So we're looking for that full circle experience. But yeah, so just looking to have a great open opportunity. And I'll say within the industry itself even, I'm going all over the place. I've been to California, Texas, couple other different states, Virginia and I meet all these different roofers. Everyone's been super accepting. No one's questioning me or going into anything about it. So it's just normal. You just want to be treated like a normal person because at the end of the day, it is normal.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly. It is normal. That is so true. And Megan, I would love for your thoughts on this, and I realize I kind of, sorry, skipped you on what your experience has been in roofing, but maybe you could talk a little bit about your experience, but then also I think you bring a unique perspective as a Gen Z and a lesbian and really kind of being part of this whole roofing community for a long time. So maybe you can share your experience and where you think.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes. So I identify as pansexual. You're close mom, but not on-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Sorry. Sorry everybody. I'm really trying. I've said it wrong.

Megan Ellsworth: That's okay. And I think my experience in the roofing industry has been totally normal because no one really, you don't walk, like Spencer said, you don't walk around with a pride flag covered in rainbow, dripping in sequins on the trade show floor. But I think the thing that I've liked the most about being queer in roofing is the moments where you realize someone else is queer and you're like, "Ooh, hi." And you just, there's an instant bond, especially, I went to the book club the day after National Women Roofing Day this year, and it was so fun to see these people that I know in the industry all gather around speaking on this book, that was this person's experience finding faith while being queer. And it was just really, really amazing to see all these people rally behind the idea of just being yourself and it doesn't matter.

So I think that's been my experience. And also I feel like if anything were bad to happen, I have a team behind me that would support me no matter what. And nothing has ever been said or anything. Also, my pronouns are she, they, so that I started putting that in my email signature and nothing's come of it, but I hope that that opens the door for someone else to feel comfortable to do that, even if it's a fricking just silly email signature kind of means nothing. But it's nice to have that door open. And then as for, what was the next question?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: What you look for in an employer?

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, yeah. I look for, I mean, really this is the job I've had for my adult life, so I look for working for my mom.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank goodness.

Megan Ellsworth: Just kidding. I would say I look for an employer that is willing to learn and willing to be taught by someone younger than them, different than them, whatever, that they are open and willing to be wrong in a situation and learn from that and be taught by someone under them. And I would say that Heidi is definitely that person. And-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: As you can tell, I'm still learning.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I am still learning all the time. And listen.

Megan Ellsworth: My favorite thing about doing these Coffee Conversations is I feel like every year I do push her boundaries a little bit more. Her comfort zone and the queer community has taken back the term queer, and it's been like this for a while, and I've always just been like, "Yep, queer, whoo-hoo. Love it." And I would say that actually when people ask, it's not, are you gay? What are you? It's I'm queer. You're queer. We're all queer when we're all here. And Heidi was like, "I don't know if we're allowed to say that" I was like, "It's okay. This is a learning moment. Here we go. We're all queer."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Megan Ellsworth: For just so you know.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: For Gen X and baby boomers, that is hard, right, Maureen? You're like going, yeah, it's not just me.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. And it is each person's preference, how they want to, I put a word to how they identify, but I would say that my generation has definitely brought that term back from the dead.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Spencer, the other day you said words are reclaimed. And I thought that was really, really good because I think we do get caught up in that we don't, and fear we don't understand.

Spencer Jacobs: Yeah. And I mean the big thing kind of piggybacking off the comment of what you're looking for, people wanting to learn and grow it's constantly changing, right? And that's everything. That's work, that's life. It's constantly changing. So all of this is just working with people that aren't afraid to have a conversation and grow from it. That's the biggest thing. Because if you can't sit down and just talk about these things and then move forward from there, you're just going to be stuck in the past and you're going to be hurting for talent. You're going to be hurting yourself as a person and you're going to be hurting your company.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, exactly.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's so true.

Jennifer Grove: And that's actually, that's a really good point, Spencer, that it's something that on the owner side of the industry right now, I feel like sometimes I see things differently than others do coming into a new company. And I have to remind myself that I'm still learning and evolving too, that I can't expect my employees to learn and evolve if I'm not continuing to do the same thing. So I feel like sometimes even, I'm only 40, I'm still on the younger end of things sometimes, right? 40 still kind of young some days?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's young.

Jennifer Grove: I still have to listen to my younger counterparts and I have to learn from nieces and nephews and friends, kids that are more in tune to the new terminology and the words and things that I kind of like you, Heidi and Maureen. I'm like, I don't think I would ever use that term. And that's referring to myself. You know what I mean? I just wouldn't. But if I'm not in tune to it and I'm not learning and growing and continuing to move forward, I can't expect others that are following me to do so. So for me, I know me personally, I have to look at it from both sides. I have to learn and grow. And I also have to teach others how to be accepting and willing to learn and grow. So I'm juggling lots of hats I feel like with diversity, inclusion sometimes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: The thing that I think is so important is what you all just said, and being willing to let people make mistakes. And so Ray is on watching right now, and I have to just tell you, Ray has said this to me before, "Heidi, it's okay to say it wrong. It's okay, but learn as you're going through it." Because man, I say stuff wrong all the time, but I try to always be kind and respectful and to learn as you go. And so sometimes I think between the generational learning, one of the problems is a lot of people are afraid to make a mistake.

They're afraid they're going to be, and I'm probably going to say this wrong too, the cancel culture or some of the things that are going on in that if you say the wrong thing, you're going to be attacked. And what I have found is that's not true if you're just willing, like Spencer said, to have the conversation. So Maureen, I would love for you to, I'm sure you've kind of seen, you've been so involved with National Women in Roofing and education and diversity. We have been able, even, we put a shout-out for National Women in Roofing. We would not have been having this conversation even five years ago.

Maureen Greeves: Oh yeah. No. And I want to first go back to Megan. I'm so happy to hear that your employer embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Megan Ellsworth: Me too.

Maureen Greeves: It's such a relief. But I was just thinking here, our Coffee Conversations last year, we focused a lot on pronouns and I've been a lesbian for the majority of my life, probably all my life. Let's just be clear. But then not realizing it for until later, like Jennifer, but I'm still learning. So for folks in that 80, whatever the math is that are not the non 7% that are on this call today, it's hard sometimes, even for the 7% of us to get to keep up with everything that goes on. Right?

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely.

Maureen Greeves: Oh my God. And so I think just, you said it, Spencer, just being willing to have the conversation and give yourself some grace to have that conversation, be open to understanding or learning. Those are important things. Those are important things even for our own community. And so we had a long conversation about pronouns. We had a long conversation about the growing letters on the LGBTQ. Right before the call. I said, I'm so old that I was around when it was just LG, there was no LGT. So just for the folks that don't identify with one of those letters, and as an employer, just being willing to open up and learn about them is really important.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. And just in case someone out there doesn't know what they all stand for, LGBTQIA, it's lesbian, gay, LG, bisexual.

Maureen Greeves: Do you need help, Megan?

Megan Ellsworth: Oh yeah, a little. Transgender, queer, intersex, asexual. Now there's also two spirit, so it's actually LGBTQIATS. And there's one more, but I'm not-

Maureen Greeves: That's what the plus is for Megan. That's what the plus is for.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, there's a plus. Yeah. That's it.

Spencer Jacobs: At the end of the day, be proud of who you are.

Maureen Greeves: That's right, that's what [inaudible 00:40:03].

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly is really what it comes down to. I love this conversation. So please, I do want to say in the chat, Mandy, thank you so much. Mandy is, she is in charge of the Real Roofing, runs it. I don't know if in charge sounds right, but I think you're also on vacation. So thank you for being here. But she puts some great numbers in the chat on diversity and how it helps your business she, with Level Up consultants, she does some great things for businesses, but I want to talk a little bit about businesses and just bring the business side of this into it. And when we're really looking at on rights, right? Paternal rights, pay equity. I'm going to say this word wrong, I hope I don't, but if I do, Mandy, I'm sorry. But intersectionality I think is, did I say it right, Maureen?

Oh, I'm so excited. And that is when in equity that women and men who are dealing with more than one. So a Black gay man would have two different things that are, he's cultures that they're working on. Mandy, I know I'm just screwing this up, but we just learned about this and I think it's so important. And when we are looking at pay equity for women, it has already been lower than men. And then when you look at it for Black women, it is even lower. And Hispanic women are at the very bottom. So as you are looking at all of this, and Maureen, you talked about this last year, so I just want to bring it back again, how important it's you had and Kelly getting married, paternal benefits, all the pay equity, all the things that go along with that. Talk a little bit about that.

Maureen Greeves: Yeah, so we talked about this last year and I think I will say the same. It's kind of the thing. So my wife and I have been together for 20 years. I'm sorry, we met in 2000, so 20 going on 24. And we got married in 2014 and we had already had two kids. 2006 we saw the birth of Mia. 2008 we had our Gabby and Maddie. So at that point I was a legal stranger to them, even though I was their other mother. But if you look on paper, I was a legal stranger. And so marriage, why is it important? Why was marriage important? Well, at that point in time, if that hadn't happened here, we would be sitting here 23 years together, no access to her medical if she needed it. No, she wouldn't have access to my health benefits, she wouldn't have access to my social security.

I wouldn't have access to my children, right before that, before we got married, I used to have to carry around a piece of paper that she had to sign that gave me rights to take them to a doctor's appointment. And I never had to use it, thank goodness, because in most of the people that I ran into knew who I was and knew my role. But we did. I still had to just in case, just in case, especially when we would travel somewhere and something happened, I'd have to go to an emergency room or something.

So yes, it mattered. And so I think when my company extended that and I found the health benefits and I knew that we could get married in New York in 2014, I called her and I mean was really not, it was the least romantic thing I probably have ever done in my life. It was like, "Hey, we can get benefits. Let's go get married in New York." That's it. That was it. Thank gosh she didn't leave me right then and there, right? So yes, that was the driver. That's the driver. For me it was it's about stability and providing for my family. So those are the drivers. Those are the deviant behaviors that I want to follow is making sure she has access to my 401(k).

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It is so true to have the rights to be able to get the benefits, to be able to have everything. Amy [inaudible 00:44:23], I'm so happy to have you here. It was all about the benefits for me initially, so putting that together. Spencer, now benefits wise, you and your husband, talk a little bit about the importance of that.

Spencer Jacobs: So again, just looking back to equity inclusion. So paternal leave if needed. We're engaged right now, so not quite married yet.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Congratulations.

Spencer Jacobs: We're working on that. And big thing for the benefits, I mean really it's a lot of same thing of healthcare who's... Estate planning type things. Because I know for myself, my partner actually works in healthcare. He's a PA. So a lot of times whenever there's a medical issue, who am I going to? And if I was in kind of some sort of situation here, of course I want him to be the one making much of these decisions. So we have a lot of legal documents already prior to this. But that's like the biggest thing looking forward to this now of I have the opportunity to make sure that going forward and building a family and just looking back to some of the challenges we face as a hurdle, kids aren't necessarily a hundred percent in the future, but it's definitely a hurdle. I know for most men that are looking to have children, the cost is very prohibitive and it's a lot of logistical challenges, but just making sure you have the support from your employer and the community around you to make sure those things happen.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Nice. Jennifer, how about you?

Jennifer Grove: So Deanna and I have been together since 2008. My daughter was nine months old when her and I got together. We got married in Chicago in 2014. I want to say it was roughly six months after the gay marriage bill was signed in Illinois, roughly right around there, maybe within the year. I don't remember the exact. And at that point, my sister and I were operating as TORI Construction, but my wife was working for another company. So my daughter and I were on our own with state insurance and different things. And we had tried to figure it out financially. Now what's the best way to go? And when we decided, when we found out we could get married, it was the same thing. Hey, those benefits are fantastic, let's just take it. Her employer was a little, they pushed back a little bit on it at first because even though her and I were married, my daughter legally was not her child.

So they gave us a little bit of pushback when it came to our daughter. In the end, we were able to figure it all out and they came around and it was something that works for all of us. But in some cases, I know heterosexual couples when they get married, if one part of the marriage has full custody or whatever, it's of a child that their spouse is, the insurance is kind of all go hand in hand. People don't usually question it. It's not a underwriter question. So when the employer kind of halted it, and it made both of us take a step back LIKE, hold on, wait a second. This is if we were a man woman couple and this was your kids coming in and they didn't have insurance benefits, would this employer have questioned it? So that was one of the hurdles that we had seen.

But again, it was an open conversation we were able to have with the HR directors and then with the insurance underwriters, and it was all figured out. But fast-forward, that was 2014. Fast-forward two years, my wife decides she wants to carry our now six-year-old. Now to know my wife, I never in a million years thought she would want to carry a child, let alone actually end up carrying our son full term. But it was one of the best experiences I think she's ever had. And she'll tell you she was the best fit pregnant person ever. But we came up against other hurdles when doing that, when it came to our hospital of choice, our doctors in their personal beliefs, in their opinions. And then when it came time to sign our son's birth certificate, most of the hospitals in our area are Christian, Catholic based or Franciscans, whatever they are.

And the birth certificate paperwork still says mother and father. And at that point, we were both very adamant with, well, he doesn't have a mother and a father. He has two mothers. So the woman had gone to HR at the hospital and explained what we were looking for. And turns out that following year, so Dylan was born in August, in January of 17, they were starting their new forms that had parent one, parent two. So actually we were one of the first families to utilize that a little bit earlier because both of our names should have been on there. We are both legally, his parents fighting biology. I can't fight that, but I can fight it legally because I didn't carry him. But he's mine. He has my last name, he has my personality, he's got everything, I just needed to be, we wanted to make sure we were covered legally.

So when the world started to shake a little bit, 2018, 19, 20, when everybody started being... that fear stuff started to pick up again. I'm not going to lie and say I did get a little nervous. That piece of paper may not have been enough to keep Dylan with me in the event that something did happen to my wife. Is that piece of paper enough? Does it hold as much legal ground as a standard birth certificate? I still honestly don't have a full answer to that. I don't know what the world could turn into one day, but it's definitely a fear that I don't think a lot of people realize that we live with, that it's something that until you're in that position or in our shoes, you don't see it.

As far as the world around us is concerned. Dylan is a Grove. He has two moms, he has a sister, he has grandparents, aunts and uncles that love him. And that is all there is to it. But in the legal world, I don't know. And I don't ever want to be in that position to have to test that boundary or fight for what I believe in my heart and my son knows is true. But it's one of those gray areas still in legislation I think that could one day the rug be pulled off underneath me? I don't know.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It needs to be fixed.

Jennifer Grove: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. Go ahead Megan.

Megan Ellsworth: I just love that. Thank you for sharing that. And Maureen and Spencer, thank you all for sharing everything that you've shared today. I'm so glad, that is what we're here for, is to make that experience heard. And so yeah, thank you. That was just very powerful.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, very powerful. Well, it makes you, every single person on here, and everybody who's going to listen to this, everyone can relate as a parent or an aunt or a sibling or something, whatever you're doing. And that should not be determined by what community you're in, by how you identify and any of that. And the legal needs to protect that. And we need to all keep that in mind. I will tell you, I'm fearful with what I see out there because of Megan and her friends and the community. And it's very... I just get mad at the news and yell at it, and it's just not right. And so we try to stay very kind of talking business and everything around Coffee Conversations, but sometimes there's just things that are just not right. And I say, today is the day that we're talking about that. That what's going on is not right.

So we have had some great comments. I just want to say Mandy did have to leave. Ray just said thank you for all your vulnerability and honesty this morning. I have to agree to what Megan said, what Ray said. Thank you all. I do want to kind of talk about, we always like to have some takeaways on how people can educate themselves, how they can become more, learn from all of this, become more empathetic. So I'm going to bring the PowerPoint back up, but before we're going to go over, I'm going to have Megan go over some of these that she has found some resources. But I want to talk real quick about Real Roofing by National Women in Roofing. I am in the midst of this taking these classes. It's something you can purchase from National Women in Roofing, and it is small videos and it's all on DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion.

And I have to say, I thought, oh, I've heard all this. We've been talking about it now for five years. I have a lot smarter people than me who help me all the time to be a better person and to say things right and to understand and to be educated. And I have been taking these courses from National Women in Roofing, and I have really learned great information. It's made me think, it's made me put things in place that I didn't really understand before. And then sometimes I'll go back and watch it a couple times because I need to, and I know, Maureen, I would just like you to speak on that real quick because I know you're also doing this course and we're doing it at the same time.

Maureen Greeves: Yeah, it's been an amazing experience. I have to agree, Heidi, right? I've been in, I'm part of it as well. And it has been an amazing experience for sure. And again, just kind of going back to, yeah, I don't know what I don't know. And embracing the fact that I need to better educate myself and learning also allows me to become a better ally when I need to step into those shoes. So for me, it's about that. It's about building my knowledge and building a language that I can become an active ally for the minority and the folks that are struggling with DE and I. It's a wonderful program. I love the format. It's video, short, interactive, little polls and puzzles and then you can share your thoughts on with some commentary. So it's very bite-sized pieces of information, but data rich and such content rich. But it's been a really good experience for sure.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it's really good. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make it available to all of our team, to our whole company. It is financial and it's important because that helps support National Women in Roofing to do more of this. But I would say also, if you have a large company, talk to them because you probably can work out some things and hopefully I'm not going to get in trouble with anybody on this call that I said that. But I do want to say, Amy said she has piloted the program Real Roofing and it's great.

And then Jennifer Stone, I love this. I have taken the course three times and I still get the answers wrong. So much to learn and still learn. Thank you Jennifer, for making me feel a little bit better. But it is great because it does ask and has you answer questions. So you can't just sit there and multitask while you're watching this video and let it kind of go over your head. You actually have to stop. They stop you every so often you have to answer questions. So it's really great. But what are some other resources, Megan? Do you put some of these together for everybody to be aware of and to learn more?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. So the big one to take away from today, I would say would be the Human Rights Campaign. They actually just announced that in terms of LGBTQIA+ safety the, and transgender safety, predominantly the United States is in a state of emergency in their eyes. And I'm a member of the Human Rights Campaign. You probably see them outside of your local Trader Joe's all the time. They were on my college campus, trying to get people to sign up. I donate every month. They do incredible work to help transgender youth, LGBTQIA+ youth, the queer community as a whole. And other communities too. BIPOC people, Native American communities. They just do really great work. I highly recommend you look into them.

And then also The Trevor Project is really great. They specifically work with young people, transgender youth and LGBTQ youth specifically like teenagers. And they're really trying to work on getting some of these bills that are trying to ban gender-affirming care to teens and children abolished to get those bills out of the way. There's also SAGE and Out & Equal, GLAD, The Okra Project. The Dru Project is one that recently came on my radar. And there's just so many good ones that you can go and be a part of donate to go to an event for, especially during Pride Month. It's so great.

And that's when the most fun activities are. That's when everyone's the proudest. And also, honestly, going to your local Pride parade and just being on the sidelines, cheering people on, saying, "Hey" to the drag queens. Pride is literally the best time of the year. It's so fun. I cannot wait for Denver Pride. And just like that's... And also just doing this, attending this Coffee Conversation and also maybe doing the Real Roofing. I haven't done that yet, but I really want to.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We're going to get you on it, Megan.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. And yeah, just being a good person.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, we... Yeah, being good person. So I am going to just real quick, Spencer, I want to start with you some last words? We're coming to the top of the hour.

Spencer Jacobs: Just keep having these conversations and we're all going to be better off.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you so much for being here today, Spencer. I can't tell you how happy I am.

Spencer Jacobs: Yeah, thank you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Jennifer?

Jennifer Grove: Just thanks for having us keep having these conversations. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when having these conversations. Just be open and willing to make changes where need be. And hopefully one day we don't have to have these conversations anymore.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, that would be great. We can celebrate, just go the parades.

Jennifer Grove: Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks guys.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Maureen, first last words, but also thank you again for sponsoring today, WTI sponsoring and just being such a light in the industry.

Maureen Greeves: Oh, thank you, Heidi. I love being a part of this. Thank you again for the invitation and thanks Roofers Coffee Shop for letting us have a voice today. It's June. Let's celebrate. Whoo.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We're all going to go find the parades. I love it. And Megan, thank you. Thank you for your leadership and for helping all of us. Any quick last words?

Megan Ellsworth: No, I just, I'm really proud to be a part of this industry and I truly would not have guessed that I'd be saying that if you had asked me even four years ago. And I am just very thankful that it's so open and which is great industry. So thank you for everyone that's here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. And I also want to say thank you, Megan, for the amazing job you do all year long. This is our season finale of our Coffee Conversations. So this is our season finale, but we're going to have live conversations coming to everyone in Florida. Megan will be there, she'll be getting us all in line and getting all the great videos. She'll be on camera too, I'm sure. And we also will be possibly having some special Coffee Conversations during the summer that's still kind of up, but we will let you all know. So from all of us, I'm just going to say love to everyone because that's how I feel right now after this great conversation. And I hope you have a wonderful summer and we will for sure see you at the beginning of season five in September on Coffee Conversations. Have a great day.

The Coffee Shop crew recaps the RT3 meetup and Roofing Alliance and NRCA ROOFPAC events at IRE 2023.

Editor's note: The following is a transcript of a conversation the Coffee Shop crew had after their RT3 meetup, ROOFPAC and Roofing Alliance events. 

Karen Edwards: Hi everyone, this is Karen Edwards and we are going to download on Monday, the day before the IRE started. So first of all, stop whispering, second of all we went to the RT3 meet up at SRS Distribution this morning and it was fantastic. So I’m gonna start. I thought it was fabulous. We had some amazing discoveries. We’re going to be bringing you all some fantabulous things. And then I would love to hear from my colleagues. Heidi, Megan, Lauren, let’s talk about today. It’s Monday, the show hasn’t even started yet and we are here one day ahead of time. Heidi, what do you think today? 

Heidi Ellsworth: I thought RT3 was amazing. We were at the SRS Headquarters. And we started out with a tour that was I mean, totally impressive. Counting the tech center and then going into the innovation lab, and the having Patrick Garcia spoke to us about the innovations of SRS which I mean seriously, the stuff that they’re doing with bots and artificial intelligence and lockers. I mean, you name it. It’s just so impressive. I loved it. I loved it. I thought we had some great conversations, some excellent discussion and then tonight, or I mean then when of course, you had to set up the booths. Right? So we’re still working on that. The ROOFPAC was incredible. I mean, people were at the ROOFPAC. They raised so much money. They sold six suit jackets. 

Karen Edwards: I know, the NRCA lined sui. Yeah. They are so fun. And they sold for like $2,700 a piece! 

Heidi Ellsworth: I know. I was like I wanted to, but it didn’t happen. Yeah, I’m telling you. It was so cool. And then the students, the students we met from Clemson and Cal Poly and Bradley, Texas A&M. CSU. Oh yeah. It was just a great night. Don’t you think? 

Megan Ellsworth: This morning, I did not go to the RT3 meetup, but I went to the National Women in Roofing brunch, which started with yoga led by Mandy McIntyre, which was so rejuvenating, and then you had a roundtable discussion about their book this year, which is titled Divinely Queer. By Jennifer Miracle-Best. But it was a really beautiful conversation just by like there was queer people in the conversation non queer people. People from all sorts of backgrounds just sharing their experiences and it was really beautiful and there were tears shed. And it was like, a really awesome, powerful, like super powerful. It was a really great way to start the day. And I shared some experiences and it was just like, really awesome. And then we set up the booth. 

Heidi Ellsworth: Where did you go to brunch? 

Megan Ellsworth: Oh I didn’t go to brunch because we had to go set up. That was booth time. But um, and then the Roofing Alliance party was really fun. And meeting all the teams and I talked to the CSU team and I said, I’m rooting for you guys. So yeah. 

Heidi Ellsworth: Okay, rooting for Cal Poly. But I want them all, but I’m just saying we’re going with our region’s right now.  

Megan Ellsworth: CSU! Yeah! I also really liked Bradley University. Victoria from Bradley. Fellow redhead. Really cool femme energy I really liked. 

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, watch. She’s gonna win presenter award 

Megan Ellsworth: I hope so. Lauren? 

Lauren White: So I got to go to RT3 this morning too. And we got to tour the SRS Distribution Center headquarters, which they just rolled our recently and built and it was phenomenal. I mean, just the facility itself. The way that they think of their employees and we go to see the guitars from all the previous concerts and they were also signed and it was very cool. Yeah. And just got to see people like the day-to-day work stuff because it was a Monday so people were there in the office and everybody was very wonderful. Had very good discussions about what to do with technology in the roofing industry and how to further promote and integrate technology into the roofing industry. Then then ROOFPAC was great. It was it was packed. Packed. Yeah. 

Heidi Ellsworth: I hope they were happy with the turnout. 

Lauren White: Yeah, the silent auction, live auction. Having a good time supporting the industry. I mean, some of the things for the live auction. I mean, there were lobsters, there were vacation days, there was National Women in Roofing had a package for the DEI committee education which I thought was a very cool and unique not unique, just different thing. I think different offerings for a live auction, as opposed to here are your 24 lobsters for the year. Yeah, very different. There’s all ends of the spectrum. And then we went to the Roofing Alliance and we go to be part of the coin toss slash selection of what time they were going, who was going next. 

Megan Ellsworth: When? Yeah, Wednesday. 

Lauren White: Yeah and the teams were there and they’re all very excited and just the energy there supporting them was great. And yeah, so then we had that event and everyone’s wonderful seeing just people from ROOFPAC coming to the Roofing Alliance event, you know, they’re around the same time so it was fun seeing everybody supporting both different spectrums from Political Action Committee community to student competition and furthering the industry. And now we’re back home in our time together. 

Heidi Ellsworth: I know I thought it was a great day. Tomorrow morning we’re going to start at 8 a.m. and we’re going to be ready for the booth. We’re going to start interviews on the soundstage. We actually have two booths. We’re in 9309 and 9533. Which is super cool. So you can find this in both places. And yeah, I think this week is going great.  

Everyone: We’ll see you tomorrow! 

Tune into our YouTube channel for live coverage from IRE 2023! 

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.  

Join RooferCoffeeShop® in celebrating Pride month with a conversation on why the LGBTQIA+ community is part of what makes the industry great. 

RoofersCoffeesShop celebrates Pride month this June with a special Coffee Conversation sponsored by Johns Manville. 

Co-host and award-winning podcast producer for RCS, Megan Ellsworth kicks off the conversation by offering a brief history of pride month. Pride was born out of the Stonewall Riot on June 28, 1969. “The Stonewall Inn was a prominent gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City and was stormed by police in a homophobic raid. So all these people kind of just fought back for their rights, basically,” says Megan. “It was really started by Marsha P. Johnson, who was a black transgender woman that started the movement really in full. Then the following year after The Stonewall Riots, organizers built on the spirit of resistance and decided to organize a march to Central Park and adopted the theme of gay pride.”  

Today, Pride parades that adopt the spirit of resistance and celebration of love of the LGBTQIA+ community have expanded across the nation, with more and more joining every year. June is now known as Pride month. “It's a massive celebration in being proud of who you are. It's really important to remember who started it and that we still fight for those people,” says Megan. She also shares her own coming out story “I came out when I was about 20 or so and have been out ever since.” 

Technical Director at Johns Manville Roofing Systems Division Zebonie Sulke has a similar story, “I have been in the roofing industry 11 years and have been openly out and gay since I was 20,” says Zebonie. “The roofing community has embraced me. I tell people that commercial roofing and roofing in general is a really good place to be; it's a hidden gem from a career opportunity standpoint.” 

It is safe to say that the industry is moving forward, taking steps towards being more inclusive and diverse while building on the progress of the past. Especially given the massive career opportunity that roofing represents to Gen Z and considering the future generations of roofing, a more inclusive industry that embraces all kinds of identities is a win-win. 

“I’ve been in the industry for a little over 10 years, and I came out at 12 ish, 13. So I have just living the life about 20 years strong now...my experience in the industry differed greatly depending on how I looked, truthfully,” says Assistant Branch Manager at Superior Distribution and DEI co-chair for National Women in Roofing (NWIR), Jess Cress. “But the industry as a whole has been quite accepting.” 

There is certainly still a way to go when it comes to true equity, however, the roofing industry is keen to learn and grow to be better. It makes sense that an industry centered around making others feel safe extends their arms to all communities.  

“My experience in the roofing industry has been very positive,” agrees Maureen Greeves with Tremco in Cleveland, Ohio. “I started a little bit later in my coming out process...it took me a little bit later, closer to my thirties to get it all sorted out and to start embracing it and coming out. So my journey was a little bit different.” 

Undoubtedly, inclusion and diversity are not only the key to building a stronger industry but a huge part of what makes working within this industry so great. “The roofing industry is filled with a bunch of hardworking people who embrace hard work, and work ethic, and innovation,” says Maureen. “From my experience, they've been really open and welcoming.” 

Read, Listen or Watch the entire Coffee Conversation to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community in roofing and to learn what you can do to celebrate your LGBTQIA+ employees in your business.

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.  

In the first-ever AskARoofer podcast we meet with Editor Lauren White as she teaches us what makes the website so special.  

In this inaugural AskARoofer Podcast Megan Ellsworth and Alice Reynolds interview Lauren White about RoofersCoffeeShop®’s sister site AskARoofer.  

Lauren White is the editor for RoofersCoffeeShop and AskARoofer. “I came from teaching into roofing because that's just how it happens,” says Lauren. “Now I have been with the company for two and a half years.” Over those two and a half years Lauren has fostered AskARoofer from a small forum into a full sister site for RoofersCoffeeShop, complete with podcasts now! 

AskARoofer is a website for homeowners and building owners to come to for information about all things roofing. A reliable resource for roof owners looking for more information on innovative roofing products, AskARoofer is the best place for non-roofing industry folk to educate themselves about the roofs over their heads.  

“Bob ‘ShingleWeaver’ McCrickard founded AskARoofer in 2005,” says Lauren. "Bob had a robust history in the roofing industry and had worked for a family company, had his own company, and eventually decided to start up this website, AskARoofer, to give homeowners and building owners answers to any questions and help contractors also kind of expand their offerings for home and building owners in the process.”   

When Bob passed away, it was his desire that RoofersCoffeeShop carry out the AskARoofer legacy. “We took over a couple years ago and have just been updating the site and rehashing it...changing platforms, and updating the information as much as we can so that it's still current and relevant for home and building owners,” says Lauren.   

AskARoofer is the perfect site for first-time homeowners, featuring a Roofing 101 section and plenty of answers to homeowner questions. “We have a forum for anybody to go on and ask whatever question they have,” explains Lauren. “It's really neat that people are able to get answers to their question. Instead of just Googling it, they're actually getting their questions answered from a real-life person who's in their area.”  

Lauren elaborates that this forum is a great way to connect a homeowner or building owner with a contractor in their area who has already been vetted and brought into RoofersCoffeeShop, “It's a reliable resource and a reliable contractor,” she adds.  

Listen to the rest of the podcast for a deeper dive into different sections of the website and a glimpse into what’s next for AskARoofer.   

By Evelyn Witterholt, RCS Reporter. 

Don’t miss this special episode of Coffee Conversations where we discuss the growth of the roofing industry with Gen Z leaders! 

Season 3, Episode 9 of Coffee Conversations, sponsored by General Coatings, welcomes Gen Z members and future leaders of the roofing industry. Join RCS Producer Megan Ellsworth as she discusses the growing industry with future Gen Z leaders Rohan Gupta, Ayushi Raj Dua and Declan Fay. 

Rohan Gupta from Huntington Beach, California is currently attending the University of Southern California in the Chemical Engineering program. He has a long history with the roofing industry as he was introduced to it at a very young age. “I was introduced to roofing about 10 years ago when our family business Polycoat purchased General Coatings,” he said. “I do plan to work in the family business after I graduate.” 

Ayushi Raj Dua from New Delhi, India is studying for her master’s degree in construction science and management at Clemson University. She worked as an architect for two years but recently decided to change her career path. Right now, she’s taking a roofing course at Clemson and has found it to be very eye-opening. 

She states that the roofing industry is “attracting people from different backgrounds,” and that roofing companies “can definitely give people of our generation a good opportunity to go out and get to be in the real world and understand how it really works.” 

Declan Fay is also studying construction science and management at Clemson University, but he also participates in numerous extracurricular activities. The student from Westchester, New York told us all about his involvement in the Roofing Alliance’s student competition. He will be competing at this year’s International Roofing Expo! “I’m looking forward to talking with people at IRE next week,” Declan told us. 

Declan also expressed interest in a career in the roofing industry. He said, “Through the Clemson roofing courses, I’ve been exposed to a lot of different routes in the roofing industry. Whether it’s estimating or with contractors or manufacturers, I’m still really interested in all of those and construction in general.” 

All of them emphasized how they want good work-life balance and freedom to express themselves in their future careers. We can’t wait to see what these future Gen Z leaders do next! 

Read, Listen or Watch the entire Coffee Conversations to learn more about the Gen Z perspective of the roofing industry!

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Colubia Roofing and Sheet Metal. You can read the transcript below or listen to the podcast. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Hello, and welcome back to another Roofer of the Month episode. I am so excited to be here with the people, founders, amazing executive committee of Columbia Roofing. Why don't you guys go ahead and introduce yourselves. I'm really excited. I haven't met two of you. I know Kendall well. So hello, welcome.

Kendall Ekerson:
I'm Kendall Ekerson. I'm the Director of Marketing here. I've been here a total of about 17 years. I did the math the other day, and so it took a few years off, but I'm back and excited to be here. Thank you.

Mark Carpenter:
I'm Mark Carpenter. I'm the founder and CEO of Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal. Started at 25 years out of the basement. Through some career moves and industry experience, started Columbia Roofing with a different value proposition, and we've been in the northwest. And about 10 years ago, we bought Long Beach Roofing in Long Beach, California. I had a relationship with them for a long time. So we have an office here in Tualatin, Oregon, in the Portland area, and in the Puget Sound in Kent, Washington.

Megan Ellsworth:
Very cool.

Chris Ekerson:
And my name is Chris Ekerson. I'm our General Manager, and I've been here for the majority of the 25 years. I started in 2002, really not knowing anything about the industry, and kind of worked my way up. I worked in our sheet metal division for a real long time and worked my way up through the ranks, and here I am working alongside these guys.

Megan Ellsworth:
Fabulous. Well, thank you for being here. I so appreciate chatting with you all and getting to know more about your company. So to start out, what type of services do you offer at Columbia? So I know sheet metal, roofing. Want to give us kind of just your elevator pitch?

Chris Ekerson:
Yeah, sure. So we're a commercial roofing contractor. We don't do much in the residential area, unless it's more specialty. But our focus in the area is really on commercial and industrial roofing, and that can be many different kinds, from flat roofing, restorations. We'll tear off and replace roofs. We maintain roofs. We do a lot of work in industrial settings as well. We have a lot of clients in the steel mill industry and things like that. The things that are maybe a little bit tougher to approach, we find a lot of enjoyment in that type of work as well.

Chris Ekerson:
We have a big focus in service. That's something that I think maybe differentiates us a little bit, is we have a very driven service department that can provide 24 hour leak repair service for our clients. We do roof cleanings and maintenance. We have what's called our Columbia Roof Advantage, which is a program that provides those annual or biannual cleaning services that are tailored to a specific customer's property.
We also specialize in seismic work. As we know, especially in the northwest and the Portland area, there's a lot of old historic buildings that are requiring seismic upgrades, so we do a lot of those services as well, in conjunction with our roofing.
We've played around. Mark can probably tell a little bit more on the history. We've done some stuff with green roofing in the past as well. But really, I'd say our core piece is commercial roofing and reroofing and service and maintenance.
As far as products, we do a lot of single plys which are the TPOs, PVCs, EPMs, those kinds of things. We do some modified roofing. We do a lot of shingle and things like that. We work with senior care facilities. We have a whole bunch of different vertical markets that we work with. But yeah, that's just kind of a round about of where we kind of fit in the marketplace. I don't know, Mark, if you could add anything to that.

Megan Ellsworth:
That's awesome.

Mark Carpenter:
Well, we look at different opportunities certainly, and sheet metal has been one of them. The vertical markets have been very good to us, and we're very specific on who we target and how we target them, what is the value proposition. But the service has been our core relationship builder, and we've done it for a very long time, about 25 years actually, and we know what we're doing. It's about the cost of building ownership and interruptions, what's the value of your roof you're taking off.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, yeah. That's great. Yes, all about service. That's so cool that you guys have a 24 hour leak protection. Is that what you said? That's really fabulous. I love that.

Mark Carpenter:
Right. [crosstalk 00:05:11].

Megan Ellsworth:
So this next question is my personal favorite. Oh, go ahead.

Mark Carpenter:
One thing we did do Chris touched on is, we started Columbia Green Technologies. That's been 12 years, 10, 12 years ago, when we developed the AVRS green roof system with trays and the full program. We got three patents on it, and eventually sold it off too. We got distribution, we got installations around the United States. We eventually sold it off, and it's still in business today, I mean Columbia Green Technologies.

Megan Ellsworth:
Wow. That's amazing. You said that was around 10 or 12 years ago?

Mark Carpenter:
Yeah, we sold it maybe five or six years ago, seven years ago.

Kendall Ekerson:
More like 10. It's been 10.

Mark Carpenter:
Yeah, it's been a while.

Kendall Ekerson:
Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
That's awesome.

Mark Carpenter:
It's seven.

Megan Ellsworth:
Wow.

Mark Carpenter:
That's kind of cool, so I gather when I talk to you.

Megan Ellsworth:
Well, that actually is a really great segue. So what is something that your company celebrates? That could be green technology or recycling, or maybe you actually celebrate a certain holiday, like go all out for it for your employees, or you celebrate. What do you guys celebrate? Do you celebrate your employees? What do you find joy in with work?

Kendall Ekerson:
I kind of made a few notes about them. It's an association actually that we're pretty big in, and you guys actually helped write a story about, is we support the Alzheimer's Association. A piece of our story is, Mark is my father, Chris is my husband. We all work here, we all work together. A family business, yay and nay some days, but it's in our family. Mark's dad, my grandfather, passed with Alzheimer's. Chris's grandmother, Nancy, she had a form of dementia when she passed a few years ago, and so it impacts us.
And then I had mentioned I took a few years off, and I actually went and I worked for them, and I saw a different side, and one thing that we have all realized is that, not only does it affect our family, but it can affect any of our employees' families at any time and they might need resources or they might need support, and so it's something that we've just continued. About 8 years, maybe even 10 years, we have supported the Alzheimer's Association. And so, that's something that we do here.
When it comes to walk day in Portland, we turn purple and do that. This year should be fun because it's actually going to be at the Oregon Zoo.

Megan Ellsworth:
Fun.

Kendall Ekerson:
And then trying to get all the employees together and all the kids. So, that's something we try to celebrate here actually, is working with that organization.
Well, there's many organizations too that we do work with. We like to give back to our community. And then something else this year that we've put a big emphasis on is celebrating safety, and actually this was Mark's brainchild, is we've created a safety program called, "I Have Your Back," and we're doing a big push on social media this month, calling it, "Safety September."
And yeah, we created this program called, "I Have Your Back," and we've always been real safe. We have people show up to our job sites and our ladders are tied off, our guys are tied off, or just different things. All the check boxes are done, but we kept having these little things pop up and we couldn't figure out why. So we tried to take it a step further of like, "Well, we need to have each other's backs. Maybe there's something that we don't always see ourselves. So how can we do this?"
And so if anybody's on our social media, you'll see there's like seven steps that we put in and just little things that people can do for themselves and do for others to just help each other have each other's backs. So that's a big thing that we're celebrating around here.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love that. That's amazing. That's great. And I love the slogans. That's fabulous.

Kendall Ekerson:
We're going to have some fun swag that comes out, and again, a piece of it giving back to the employees, that's a familiar thing. With school going back, we just did backpacks for employees' kids. We've done that for a while.

Kendall Ekerson:
We really try to give back where we can.

Mark Carpenter:
We try to fill them up with their school supplies and hand them to the families, whatever, how many kids they have. We do a lot of shopping. We didn't this year, but we gave a gift certificate plus the backpack.

Megan Ellsworth:
That's awesome. That's great. Wow. You guys are just hitting it out of the ballpark.

Mark Carpenter:
Yeah. We've worked at it too.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. So you kind of talked about your service program before. I'm interested to know, how do you define superior customer service?

Mark Carpenter:
There's a lot of aspects to it. It's certainly showing up, doing what you're supposed to do, but it's also setting expectations and trying to work with the client and saying what we can and can't do and being truthful with people. The Columbia Roof Advantage is a trademarked process what we have, and we look at it. It's a value proposition. It's about money, how much risk do you want, how much do risk do you want us to take on your building.
If it's an empty building that has no value, there's a different proposition than if they're still operating from underneath or a high-tech clean room, and there's different levels and costs involved. And we work with the owners or the responsible parties to understand what we can do and what their expectations are.

Megan Ellsworth:
Well, that's great.

Mark Carpenter:
Then you can show up and do what you tell them you'll do. But it's all in the technical piece of really understanding what they've got there in the assembly and knowing how it performs.

Megan Ellsworth:
Right, right. Great answer. Thank you. So last, or second to last question, why should building owners work with Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal?

Chris Ekerson:
Well, I'll start by kind of echoing what Mark said. You've got to do what you say you're going to do, and it really is about that value proposition. We don't sell out of the box roofing. We don't try to sell everybody the same thing. We really start by understanding what their needs are.
When we develop a relationship with a client and we initiate that work, our process is, I think, a little bit different and little bit more robust than what some other people are doing, and a lot of that is just based around communication. We want to have a true partnership with that client, not just sort of what we'd call a one and done. We don't want to just do the job and get paid and move on to the next one. We really want there to be an ongoing relationship and partnership toward them to where that customer knows that we have their back and we're going to take care of them.
When we start a project with a customer, we always let them know what the expectations are. We let them know, "Here's all the things that you can expect. Here's all the things that we should discuss." One of the things we do on our job walks is, we look inside their facility. We understand what's going on with their process, with their manufacturing, and how our process might affect theirs, and we really try to kind of think outside the box.
The other thing that we do is, when we start a project, we communicate daily with the customer. We'll set a schedule, we'll send them out daily updates with photos, all this stuff, and communicate, or communicate with the customer, almost to the point of not trying to annoy people, but we really want them to be informed on what's going on, and that just goes back to doing what you say you're going to do.
And then if there are problems, there's always issues that come up. There's never a perfect job, if you will.

Mark Carpenter:
It's roofing.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Chris Ekerson:
It's a chaotic industry. And we work a lot in the reroofing, so we're working on existing buildings that could have problems. So when a problem arises, it's how you navigate these problems, how you communicate on them, and how you work to solve those problems. And that's, I think, something that really sets us apart, is we really work hard. We focus everything around that relationship and that partnership with our client. It is about protecting their building and their asset, but we want to take care of the customer just as much and have a lasting relationship with them.
And then we will also follow up with, "Okay. We've installed our product," for example, "How can we continue to maintain it? How can we continue to make your life easy and make this a lasting product for the relationship?"

Megan Ellsworth:
Brilliant. Yeah.

Chris Ekerson:
Going back to setting expectations, one thing I always ask the client when I first meet them, "Well, what are you going to do with your building?" And they look at me like, "You're the roofing contractor. What's it to you?"
Well, we try and set expectations. If you're going to demo this building in two years versus put a chip manufacturing plant in it, there's a different technology and a different price point and different levels of risk that we try and ascertain from the company, from the ownership, or the controlling partner, and make sure that we match what their real needs are.
A lot of people don't think about that. They just think, "Well, I don't want it to leak. I don't want to pay any money," to, "It can't leak," or, "We're going to shrink the building next year."

Megan Ellsworth:
Right. Brilliant. Yeah, over-communication, expectations. Yeah.

Mark Carpenter:
Chris looked at a building last year and they didn't want to roof it last year. This year, they sent us a note, said, "Can you go look at it?" And oh, by the way, half the roof collapsed it was so rotted last year.

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh my gosh.

Mark Carpenter:
So they lost the roof. Should have done it last year.

Megan Ellsworth:
Wow. Geez.

Mark Carpenter:
Whoops. Didn't even think about leaving it. Whoops.

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh yeah. Oopsies. Oh well, better luck the next time, I suppose. Well, we here at Roofers Coffee Shop are very delighted to have Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal as the September Roofer of the Month. So thank you so much for chatting with me today. I just wanted to open the floor for any last words. And a really big congratulations. We love you guys. You're doing a great job, and we appreciate all your hard work.

Mark Carpenter:
Yeah.

Kendall Ekerson:
Well, I have to say that the statement echos back to you guys because we've appreciated the partnership with Roofers Coffee Shop, and the support, and I mean, you guys have just been great supporters of the industry, in general, so thank you.

Megan Ellsworth:
Thank you.

Mark Carpenter:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having us on and letting us be a part of this.

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Learn more about how the company supports their team with solid training, first-rate tools, professionalism, loyalty and rewards for a job well done. 

North American Roofing is made up of impeccable core values that supports a team of talented professionals, which is why they are the RoofersCoffeeShop® R-Club Roofer of the Month. RCS, podcast producer, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Brunno Batista, a newly hired coatings director at North American Roofing, to learn more about this great company. Listen to their conversation that celebrates the achievements of North American Roofing and how they are enhancing the industry. 

Brunno grew up in a roofing family, his grandfather starting as a roofer in Italy before leaving for Brazil when World War II began in Europe. He started a waterproofing company in Brazil, where Bruno’s father worked until moving to New Jersey in 1970. Once in America, Bruno’s father opened a roofing company, introducing Bruno to what would be his future career.  

“Every time spring break or summer or in the weekend or even the holidays I would help my dad,” said Bruno. “So that’s when I started roofing.”  

Bruno started at North American Roofing only five months ago. The company itself has been established since 1979 with a primary focus on commercial roofing. “We install EPDM, PVC, you name it,” said Bruno. “We install all type since [the] 1970s. It's a big name in our industry, North American Roofing.” 

Soon after its founding, North American Roofing became a second home to a group of talented, tight-knit installers, project managers, salespeople, technicians and managers. North American also makes it a point to celebrate their employees through recognizing an outstanding worker every month on their website.   

“Right now, I'm celebrating me and my friend Lee, he's also with me at the coatings division and that's what I'm celebrating right now, that we now have a coating division,” said Bruno. “A new division that is focused primarily in coatings, restoration, instead of putting all that roof in the landfill, now we have a chance to restore the roof." 

North American Roofing’s success can also be boiled down to their superior customer service. Bruno suggests that the key to business, especially in the roofing and construction industry, is building and maintaining positive relationships with customers. More so, adding that personal touch to every interaction with a customer, along with a job well done, is the best way to ensure the customer will remember and come back to the company time and time again. 

“If you maintain a relationship and be loyal to whoever you are [with], you're going to be very successful in what you do,” said Bruno. “I talk a lot, but at the same time I like to listen too, because it's important for you to listen to the customer, because they'll tell you what problems they have. And you, just by listening to them, [will] be able to find a solution.”  

Listen to the entire conversation to learn more about North American Roofing and why they are July’s R-Club Roofer of the Month.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Brunno Batista from North American Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Speaker 1:
Hi, welcome to the RoofersCoffeeShop, R-Club roofer of the month podcast. This is where we highlight a contractor in our R-Club each month to celebrate their greatness in the roofing industry. Listen to hear more about a great contractor.

Megan Ellsworth:
Hello, my name's Megan and I am with RoofersCoffeeShop. Today we're doing a roofer of the month interview with Brunno Batista from North American Roofing and I am so happy to be chatting with you. Hello.

Brunno Batista:
Hi, how you doing. Yes, my name is Brunno Batista. Also known by Brunno No BS. That's what people call me on social media. But it is what it is.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love that.

Brunno Batista:
It's just because I'm truly honest with what I do and what I say, and sometimes it have people loving or people hate me, but by the end of the day I can care less. I do what I do best with making fun out of my job and be happy what I do. I love roofing, and it's in my blood. It's part of who I am. So I'm good with that.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love it. That is a great way to live.

Brunno Batista:
Absolutely.

Megan Ellsworth:
Let's start out by having you just tell us a little bit about North American Roofing and how you got into roofing. Tell us about your start.

Brunno Batista:
A little bit older, you know. My grandfather was a roofer back in Italy. He used to do slate work. All handcraft made it. And World War II started to he decide to go to Brazil. And when he went to Brazil, you know to skip the World War II and my father was actually first generation of my family from my father's side that were born in Brazil. So my grandfather moved from Italy to Brazil and he's starting like a waterproofing company. So at that time, all they do was waterproofing. Building envelope from the top of the building all the way to driveway pavement.
In Brazil, which is a third world country, when you go on roofs in Brazil, especially in a commercial roofing there's no such thing at least at that time back in the days there was no such thing as a membrane. When you go on the deck, which is concrete, that's the roof. So my father, that's what he used to do waterproofing, because the slate work you don't see that. It's predominant in Europe, not in Brazil, like third world countries like Brazil.
So it was very happy in what he was doing, but he had opportunity to move to New Jersey in 1970s and he opened a roofing company. Therefore, they were union. He opened the company with one of his cousins. The company was very successful and it was a commercial roofing company. A local union Newark, New Jersey, I believe it was 04, the union. It was a very successful roofing company, hot mop and torch. That's what they used to do all day long.
But then in the end of the 80s my grandfather was very sick. He had stage four cancer, so he called my father to take over the business. So my father moved in 1993, I moved in 1994 and that's when I start roofing. You know when it was summer school, which don't get me wrong I used to love to go out and play with my friends and go out with my buddies and all that. But I also I loved money. So I was the only kid that had money. So every time spring break or summer or in the weekend or even the holidays I would help my dad. So that's when I start roofing.
But then I hate it. There was one point that I did not like it. I end up getting a scholarship and I moved to Florida. Moved to Florida, went to college and I completely left the roofing industry and I was working for a banking company. I was working for Morgan Stanley. I was underwriter, but I hate my job. It was nine to five, and I couldn't stand that type of job.
And I had a buddy of mine, he was my neighbor, next to me. We were like a half mile away from each other. Probably even less than that, and he used to work, actually he still works for Tremco, which is a [inaudible 00:04:31] manufacturer. It's been there for almost 20 years. And he told me, "Brunno, why don't you come and work for us." So I came back, I start working for a big manufacturer from the roofing contractor side. I start working for a big manufacturer, and from there I learn coatings, I became an expert in coatings because that's my specialty. But I learned all types of systems too as well. But I wasn't very happy. Company's very great, but I didn't grow much in the ladder, I was kind of stuck on the ladder. So I decide to take up different opportunities.
So moving forward, I end up working for North American Roofing, I be with North American Roofing now for about four months. I'm fairly new with the company. Not new in the industry, I've been doing roofing since I was 14, so I'm 43 now, so you can say 27, 20 years old. 20 years doing this.
North American Roofing is a commercial roofing company. They were being established company doing roofing since 1979. It's a 47 plus year old company. With primary focus in commercial, that's all we do. And our main focus is on TPO single plies in general. But we install EPDM, PVC, you name it. We install all type since 1970s. It's a big name in our industry, North American Roofing, you know.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Yeah, that's super cool. So you predominately are commercial roofing, and you said you mostly work with singly ply, would you say that's your specialty there at North American?

Brunno Batista:
Believe it or not I got hired to working for, they start to integrate a coatings division, because coating, which I've been preaching for several years now, coating's going to be the new future of industry. Especially now with the shortage of raw materials. People try to save more money. They thought that as another option to offer to our customers, because we have customers nationwide. We have license in 50 states, we have a billion squares installed all over the nation. We are 581 and DB rating, which is the highest possible you can get on the commercial side. So we've been roofing like I say for a long time, and as a smart company they decide, hey wait a minute, we want a piece of that cake too. And coating is the new go-to. Let's do this, and technology change too. If you look back, everyone used to do built up systems, and the torch, and don't get me wrong those roofs last forever, but the reality is they are very expensive, it's a lot of risk, hazards, risk of fire, and I say it's an old dinosaur, you know?

Megan Ellsworth:
Right.

Brunno Batista:
Because we've been doing it for the last 40, 50 years, but technology change. There are things that you probably know better than me now because you younger than me. Same thing with my kids. There's things that my kids sometimes I have to ask, "Hey, what is this?" Because I don't understand. But I'm always trying to keep it up with technology, so North American Roofing by hiring young talents, people with the expertise like myself. So I think that's the way to go. But my specialty working in the roofing industry is coatings, restorations. So that's my specialty.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love that. You're getting a piece of that pie, a piece of that cake.

Brunno Batista:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
So what is something that North American Roofing celebrates? And that can be an actual weird holiday that you guys celebrate, or more specifically maybe something that you like to celebrate your employees or your employees families or whatnot. What do you guys like to cherish?

Brunno Batista:
Well, we do have an internal employee of the month, which-

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh cool.

Brunno Batista:
We have an incredible woman, her name is Tiffany, she created this segment, it's internal, which we recognize every month in new employees, employees that became a star in our industry, at least with our company. So it's incredible to next thing you know you look in the email, I mean on the website of the company and you see your picture there. So it's very funny, and then they talk a little bit about themselves. So it's good. But we really celebrate, right now I'm celebrating me and my friend Lee, he's also [inaudible 00:09:37] with me at the coatings division and that's what I'm celebrating right now, that we now have a coating division. Because North American Roofing they didn't have a coating's division, and now we have that. So there's something to celebrate, a new division that is focused primary in coatings, restoration, instead of put all that roof in the landfill that will last years and years and hundred and hundred years, now we have a chance to restore the roof. So that's I think one of the good things to celebrate, you know?

Megan Ellsworth:
I couldn't agree more. That's great. I love employee of the month as well. That's just so fun and something to look forward to for everybody every month being like, "Ooh, is it going to be me?" Or maybe it's your friend or whatever. But that's really cool that you guys started the coating's division and you do the employee of the month. I think that's really special. How do you define superior customer service?

Brunno Batista:
For me, superior customer service, the most important thing is listen to your customer and relationship is the key. Like what we're doing right now. What we're doing right now is social media, it's you and the others hundreds and hundreds of miles away, which is fine, but nothing is better than that personal touch. Feeling, shaking hands. And I still believe in that. I still believe relationships are the key, to listen to them and provide a solution. And that's what we believe in. I think North American Roofing too as well.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's fabulous.

Brunno Batista:
If you maintain a relationship, and be loyal to whoever you are, you're going to be very successful in what you do. I tend to listen to people. Yeah, I speak a lot, I talk a lot, but at the same time I like to listen too, because it's important for you to listen to the customer, because they'll tell you what problem they have. And you just by listen to them, you'll be able to find a solution. Whatever solution will be, whether it's tearing off, put a new roof or a restoration with coatings. That will be the perfect thing is always maintain a good relationship and be very on time, be cordial, followup with your customer with leads, whatever you have to maintain that relationship. They want the single best top commercial roofing solution for service, we roof nationwide. We have a license in 50 states, we've been doing this for 47 plus years. So we are one of the top dogs when it comes to the roofing commercial side. Everyone knows North American Roofing. And even the name says North American Roofing, it's fantastic. Their stock here is a resource for our customers to extend the life of their current system and plan for upcoming projects.

Megan Ellsworth:
Cool.

Brunno Batista:
Because here's the thing, if you don't do preventative maintenance, I don't care how much the manufacturer give the warranty, if you don't maintain the roof realistically it will last probably eight years. Why? Because weathering is one of the main factors. My state is brutal. The rain, sun, sun, rain, so it create a lot of you got to remember you have pounding water sitting on your roof. All the water does not evaporate, next thing you know it creates the sun hits that the water is going to create almost like a magnify glass that will eat the membrane, so we need the coatings and you're done. That roof is going to be gone, and I see many case that people who bill the owners, they don't notice until it's too late. It's like the old saying, out of sight, out of mind.

Megan Ellsworth:
Right.

Brunno Batista:
So it's not leaking, it's good, and then six, even years later it start leaking and they give you a call, "Hey, I got a 15 year warranty let me check your roof." The next thing you know, you go on the roof, the roof is a jungle. There's trees come out of the drains, and you're like, "What the?" People from other trades dropped two screws and you see a mess on that roof, and sometimes when you let it go, it's too late there's not much you can do. So that's the reason us having the preventative maintenance program called StarCare. That's just something very good for our customers to preserve and restore the roof, you know?

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's brilliant. And you're also educating the building owner, and helping them stay on top of their roof maintenance, as well as continuing the relationship with your customers. That's great. Anything you'd like to say about being roofer of the month?

Brunno Batista:
I don't believe in competition. And don't get me wrong, I think it's very nice you had competitors, because if you don't have competitors, you can never improve yourself, because you always want to do better than the other person. I believe that the competition has to be a healthy one. The ones that everyone respect each other. So that's what I believe. I believe there's no competition, but at the same time because I'm not here to compete with anybody because this roofing industry is so big. But that's the reason when I bring people, when I interview people, sometimes I interview people from other companies they are competitors. But I don't see that as my competitor, I see that as someone that work in the same industry that I work. So that's what I like to do. And North American Roofing, they not upset with that. I guess they're very happy. And I'm very happy now they believe in coatings.
It's hard sometimes to change a company that has been doing single plies for over 40 something years, 30 years on the single ply industry. But little by little, because we have a great people in our company, but little by little I'm convincing everyone coating is the new solution, coating is the new solution. Restoration fully applied system is the new solution for the roofing industry. And finally they listen to me.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yay, yes. I love it. Well, we at RoofersCoffeeShop are super honored to celebrate you, Brunno, as well as North American Roofing as the July roofer of the month. So we're so happy to have you and this was a great conversation. So thank you for your time.

Brunno Batista:
All right, so let me do a little bit of dance, right?

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Brunno Batista:
Go Brunno.

Megan Ellsworth:
Go Brunno. Perfect.

Brunno Batista:
All right, so nice talking to you.

Speaker 1:
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