Brie Reis – From Addiction to Executive Leadership – A woman of color in the trades

So I snowballed from just like alcohol and marijuana and then I started using like cocaine and meth.

I do like this question and I get it a lot actually because there's like only one of me.

Like she's brown and she's a woman and she's a roofing business owner.

the night I tried cocaine for the first time and I was dating this,

guy

he's good guy, he's a good

to this day

and so he called me to his bathroom and he was in there with his cousin and you know, she's like got cocaine on the back of the toilet and I'm looking at this man like, I know

that you don't expect me to do some cocaine right now and in my head I'm not even kidding you, my inside voice was like.

angry like offended that this human being would even Suggest that I was gonna do some cocaine But when that rolled up dollar bill hand it to me.

I just did it in that crazy in that crazy

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show where we inspire and encourage the next generation of free thinking leaders by telling the stories of those that have

been there, done that, and are still getting it done, building a life that they love with their hearts, their hands, and their hustle.

I'm your host, Erick Loden.

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today I am super excited to have Brie Reese joining us.

Brie is the COO of Elite Roofing, one of the fastest growing roofing companies in the Denver area.

She is the lead operations coach for the Roofing Academy.

an online academy for roofing contractors.

She's a public speaker and was named one of Denver Business Journal's 40 Under 40, as well as Startup Weekly's Women in Business to Watch.

Bree is a wife and a mother, and

Bree, are very excited to have you joining us.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Well, we will dive right in.

We start out with everybody.

Could you tell us a little bit about your childhood?

What was it like growing up?

Yeah, so there were three of us, three of us kids.

I am the baby.

I'm a proud baby, just so you know.

Spoiled and all.

But we had a pretty good growing up.

I think if you asked all three of us our experiences growing up, you would get three different answers.

My brother is five years older than me and I've literally heard him tell stories and I'm like, I don't remember it like that at all.

I can't, it's a completely different way of interpreting that situation.

So I think that's pretty common in most families.

We're a blended family, so my brother, my mom was married prior to, both my parents had previous marriages, and so my brother's my half brother.

We have another half sister, oh, had she passed away.

So pretty healthy growing up.

I'm very, very, very close to my parents growing up.

um We have some family drama like always, um like all families do.

um But my parents really instilled em independence in us, I think, more than a lot of.

had the opposite of helicopter parents.

remember, um like, if you could find balance between neglect and helicopter parents, that's where my parents fell.

So I remember on many occasions um getting up to go to school and my mom was working nights.

So she wasn't up to like get us ready and out the door.

And I'm like in third or fourth grade just going to school with like my hair not done because I would just not do it.

um But she kind of had a very young age.

Like we, you know, did a lot of things for ourselves.

Both our parents worked.

um So just really naturally instilled this independence in us, which I think some

Some people may look in at that and look at it negatively.

I look at it really positively because I think it created who we are today and we're all like really go-getters and we just get things done and make things happen.

And we don't rely, we're not very codependent or anything like that, which, you know, not shutting down codependence.

I know that there's some positives and negatives to everything.

So we're all super independent and just go-getters, but.

Okay.

So what did education look like to you?

I'm on the flip side of education.

I'm not a standard learner.

I'm a self-teacher.

I don't like to be taught things.

I think it takes away the experience for me of figuring it out.

That's the fun part for me.

And so I graduated high school by the skin of my teeth and I did not go to college.

I am a non-college graduate.

went to a trade school for like medical lab technology or something like that, but I didn't finish and have never done anything even close to that field.

Just had the student debt from it.

but education-wise that's, you know, it's the same thing with my kids today.

I'm like, if you're going to go into a career that requires a college degree is the only reason you should go to college.

If you don't know what your career is going to be or...

You know, you're just completely uncertain, which is so hard at 18 years old and knows like what you're going to be when you grow up.

Especially now, I think the next generation is younger than we were at 18.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm like, just wait, just wait and figure it out.

I have two in college right now.

I have one in the Air Force and he tried college and it was the same thing.

I'm like, why are you going to college?

Like you went in like undeclosed or whatever it's called.

Why are you going to college?

Like you have no idea what you want to be, you know, and he didn't work out for him, but he had to learn that lesson on his own.

But so I'm like the opposite side on the education standpoint.

Go if you're going to be a doctor or a nurse.

Yeah, I've been saying that for a long time.

If you have a specific career track that requires an education, go for it.

Find a way to make it happen.

If that's your dream, chase after it.

uh I feel like my generation, probably your generation as well, we all just got funneled into college.

And if you didn't know what you were going to do, you got shoved into college.

And so uh there's a lot of people with a lot of student debt and uh working jobs that they didn't need that education for.

Yeah, it's so true and it's even worse now for the next generation because it's so wildly expensive.

I have a junior and she already has over $100,000 in student debt.

She's a junior, she's going be a teacher.

I'm like, how are you ever going to pay that off?

man, that's tough.

That's tough.

So I know we had Randy on the show a few weeks ago and he said that you just had a phenomenal, awesome story.

I know now you're working with him at Elite.

Can you tell us a little bit about your story getting from high school to joining him at Elite?

Yeah,

yeah, definitely.

I'm super transparent about it.

was the only one still in the home when my parents got divorced.

so foundationally, that really shook me.

at place in my life where I was kind of already questioning a lot of things like you do, know, 15, 16, 17 years old.

And I grew up in a faith-based home and my dad was a pastor.

you know, oh you know, gave my life to Christ at three years old, like genuinely and truly and completely created a relationship with God at that age.

you know, 15, 16 years old, like I just in my young spiritual maturity could not understand why there was so much pain and hurt in the world.

divorced.

And so at the same time of questioning my faith, um like the foundation that I grew up in.

crumbled around me.

And my brother was off at college and my sister had moved out and she was a teen parent.

She had, you know, my nephew, my first nephew at, she was 16 when she had him.

And so just all the drama from those things.

he was, he healed a lot of things in that time, but everything kind of crumbled around me.

And so I just...

turned to the world to solve my pain.

so I was, I started drinking, know, like kind of almost like a normal age for us millennials, I think like 16, 16 years old, smoking weed, know, stinking out of my house a

lot.

um

It wasn't like it was for the other kids.

It was a complete and total escape from pain for me.

I wasn't just going to have fun or hang out at a party or, you know, I was getting blackout drunk and just like, I was that girl, you know?

oh Everybody knows that girl at the party that it's like, my gosh, this girl clearly is not just here to have fun.

This is an escape for her and she's dealing with some things.

And that was me and that spiraled.

um

Most of my adolescence, teenagers actually, that's why I said I barely graduated high school.

I actually dropped out and went to night school my senior year and.

um

a teacher just signed off like a work study for me.

I didn't even have a job because I was pregnant.

It's the only reason I graduated from high school.

I did go back to that teacher with all my hours of work done and he was like, I didn't actually expect you to bring these back to me.

And I was like, well, you told me to and I graduated because of you.

And so I did do that, but I got pregnant at 17.

I was like five months pregnant when I graduated high school.

So at my son's graduation, he's 20 now, but at my son's graduation, I told him, you've walked across the graduation stage twice, once with me and now on your own.

Which he thought was funny, but.

So I just couldn't pull myself out of that hole.

My parents tried really hard, blessed their hearts.

They...

oh

sent me, they wanted to send me to a girl's home.

I was like, I'm not doing that.

So they're like, well, you can leave.

So I actually left my home at 16 years old, um lived with a friend for a little bit, came back, lived with them.

And then obviously they split like very, very shortly after they moved homes after that.

And um so I think my son was about like six months old or so when I tried um hard drugs for the first time.

So I was still pretty young.

So I snowballed from just like alcohol and marijuana and then I started using like cocaine and meth.

And just within like six months of that, I pretty much lost everything.

My parents took him, rightfully so.

My parents took him, I was just like living on friends' couches, whoever's couches I could.

I went to two rehab facilities in that timeframe.

And then in 2010, I was 22 years old and I found myself

pregnant again.

I was just like in so much like hurt and pain from not having my other son and I was like who's gonna let me keep this this child you know if I can't I'm not even taking care of

the one I already have you know

And so just being separated from this child that I love so much and then being pregnant with another one, it was just this wake up call to me and I re-surrendered my life to God.

And I called my mom and I was just like...

oh

just give me one more chance.

Let me move in with you.

Just give me one more chance to do it.

I'm gonna do it this time.

I got this child growing inside of me and she's like, let me pray about it.

She's like, let me pray about it.

And so she called me back.

She said yes.

And at the same time she was moving to Denver or to Casarock to work for my brother.

who was working as a sales rep for another roofing company.

So she was working as his know, his admin doing all his paperwork and things like that.

And so it moved me out of the city that I was in, into Castle Rock at the same time that my mom was starting to get into roofing herself.

And so it Randy really diving into roofing.

um And so he, six months later, broke off from that company.

and started elite roofing, you know, and so.

You know, he called me.

did a lot of walking during that period.

I probably walked five miles a day.

um Just to keep my mind busy.

I didn't do a standard.

I've done AA and all of those things through rehab and things like that.

are great programs for people that, you know, they literally save lives.

But for me, I'm not just going to sit in this room for the rest of my life and say, hi, my name is Bree and I'm an alcoholic and drug addict because I'm not.

You know, so it's just not my program.

says work a program and I did work a program.

My program was with the Lord.

um

But I did spend so much time walking during that time and I was walking, I remember my brother called me and he was like, hey, think I need, I'm starting this company, I already

knew about it.

And he's like, I need an admin, would you come work for me?

And I was like, Randy, do not hire me because I'm your sister.

Hire me because you think I can do the job.

And he was like, yeah.

You know, he was so full of it.

I was totally unhireable.

He like knew everything I just went through.

I was like six months pregnant, like six months sober.

But he, you know, he was like, yeah.

And that was, you know, one of the best things that could have happened during that time in my life, um for sure.

So at six months pregnant, ah I came on with him as his second employee.

My mom was the office manager and, you know, we were young and foolish and he gave me projects that didn't make any sense.

But the ones he did give me, I did well at and it gave me a purpose.

sorry, I'm going to roll back a little bit.

um Was there uh an impetus or something happened?

uh You said you had been kind of in a rough space and not doing well for quite a while before you eventually kind of dove into the harder drugs.

Was there something that happened around that time that pushed you that direction

You know,

said when I was between 16 and 18 and people were like, know, marijuana is a gateway drug and I'm like, no it isn't.

You guys don't know what you're talking about.

You know, it's just the lack of wisdom in your life and marijuana is a gateway drug.

Like, it puts you around people that potentially have other drugs and that's what happened to me.

remember...

the night I tried cocaine for the first time and I was dating this, he's good guy, he's a good guy to this day but you just don't know what you don't know back in those days and so

he called me to his bathroom and he was in there with his cousin and you know, she's like got cocaine on the back of the toilet and I'm looking at this man like, I know that you

don't expect me to do some cocaine right now and in my head I'm not even kidding you, my inside voice was like.

angry like offended that this human being would even Suggest that I was gonna do some cocaine But when that rolled up dollar bill hand it to me.

I just did it in that crazy in that crazy So, you know, I just don't think it just doesn't matter how

what you think inside about what you're gonna do or don't do.

When you get put into that situation and circumstance, things change.

And that's why marijuana is a gateway drug, because eventually it will lead to you being around other drugs.

And who knows what you'll do in that circumstance, but you just don't wanna put yourself in that circumstance to begin with.

So just through that, like that's a downhill slope.

You meet someone that does or deals with cocaine and that leads to the person that does and deals methamphetamines and that leads to, you know, the person that you're gonna use

with for the next six months.

Oh man, well thank you for sharing that for a young person out there that like you said, you don't know what you don't know.

And at 16, 17, what advice or wisdom would you have to share for the young person that's being enticed to head into that lifestyle?

Yeah, you know, my dad, I'll share some advice my dad gave me that I really wish I would have listened to.

And he said, you know, he called me boo boo and he was like, boo boo, you cannot have one foot, you know, one foot in heaven and one foot in hell.

Like you gotta pick one.

um

And I would say that like, it is much easier for someone to pull you down than it is for you to pull somebody up.

It is unwise for you to believe that you can help other people if you're not completely stable yourself.

So I would say like, just keep away from it.

For what reason would you surround yourself by people that use any type of intoxicant, even if it's drinking, you know, I think alcohol.

arguably one of the worst drugs because it's so readily available and acceptable and socially acceptable.

So just keep yourself away from those certain scenarios.

even my son today, he's 20 and he's in the Air Force, you know?

And so he's like, mom, like literally, you I'm like, you're playing too many video games.

I told him, he's like, mom, I literally can't leave my, my dorm.

He's like,

my barracks, he's like, you would prefer me play video games, mom.

And I was like, okay, I'm never saying anything to him about it again.

So that's what he's doing.

He's just trying to keep himself out of a scenario where there's drugs or alcohol, well, alcohol specifically in the military around.

if that means he plays too many video games, then he plays too many video games.

You just gotta pick your poison and hopefully it's not actual poison.

Yeah, well it sounds like you got him off on a better track and uh maybe he's listening to some of that wisdom you have to share.

Yeah, yeah, I he got to first-hand experience.

You know, I say we grew up together, you know?

So, you know, he went through all the ups and downs.

I think he was like, I got him back full-time right before I had my daughter.

um

And so he was five.

He was just starting kindergarten when I got him back.

So he doesn't remember a ton, but I remember about seven years old, I was like just having a moment of shame, you know?

And I was like, maybe I'm just, I just want to tell you how sorry I am again.

And he was like, mom, I have forgiven you.

Like basically like stop apologizing to me.

Can we just move on?

You know?

So, I don't know.

He's been through it, he understands it and he's on the other side of it for sure too.

So I hope he has a perspective that will, I mean, it hasn't always kept him out of trouble, um but I believe that as he matures and grows, it definitely has impacted to the

decisions that he has made as a man.

Good.

Well that brings us up to where we kind of left off.

So you're 22, you just got your son back, pregnant with your daughter and you start working for Randy at Elite.

What did life look like?

That's a lot going on.

You're getting clean, a full-time parent again, pregnant with the second and starting a new job.

What does life look like and what was that uh period of your life like?

Yeah, I just, and maybe it's rose colored glasses, but I just look back at that time as being really sweet for me.

Um, a ton of gratitude.

Uh, during that time, I was so grateful that for, for the job, um, I was clashing a lot with my mom.

We lived together and worked together and we were mom and daughter.

So I remember us being at odds a lot, which does tie into the elite story altogether.

Um, but I.

I remember I went on maternity leave actually and so the business did like, we did like half a million dollars in that like for six months of being a business, which is not a ton

of money in the roofing space.

More then than it would be now.

But I remember when I came back, Grady was like, I don't know if we can bring you back full time, you know, so he gave me like a little $2 raise and brought me back at part time

and that was perfect for me.

I just had this little sweet little baby girl.

I named her Truly Grace.

because that's what I believed she was and I still believe to this day that I didn't deserve another child and God gave me one anyways.

So that's my little chili gray.

She's 15 years old now, which is wild.

But I just remember a really sweet time, like a really sweet time coming out of addiction and just being so grateful for everything that was in front of me being returned and

restored back to me that I had.

loss.

That's awesome.

And I understand you're a mom of five now, is that right?

So I have birthed four, but I am a stepmom of four others.

So we are a family of with eight children, a total of ten.

Yes.

So can you tell us a little bit about that journey of uh meeting your husband and building this incredible family?

I would love to tell you that story.

So, we call them our marriage twins.

They played soccer together when they were seven years old and that's how we met.

They were on the same soccer team.

So we call them our marriage twins because they were born on the same day and they're the same age.

The ones mine is just, yeah.

So that's my teen parent child for me.

My husband is 12 years older than me.

uh And my daughter was, I think...

Two, yeah, two and a half when we met.

Crazy whirlwind love.

But I remember so sweet Mason, one of my stepkids, he was 13 at the time and my husband was just trying to be a good example to him so he would see me as a single parent with my

diaper bag and my lawn chairs and my purse and all this stuff, our cups, all the baby drinks and walking across the field and he would grab his son and they would come help me

carry.

stuff from my car to the field, you know?

so he wasn't trying to like, you know, hit on me or anything.

It wasn't like that at all.

Like he was really just trying to be a good example to his son.

So we would talk a lot during that time frame.

And he had a child really young too.

So the oldest, she's actually 31.

So I wasn't sure if they were actually, she would come sometimes.

So I didn't know, he didn't look like her dad.

So I didn't know if they were like a couple.

then also me, like my daughter's dad would come and Keenan, my son's dad would come at like different days, you know?

And so he didn't know what my situation was either, but like the last day of it, we exchanged our business cards.

um so that next Sunday, he called me really early on a Sunday morning and asked me to go to church with him.

And so where I was at and I was like, it was such a good start.

Take notes.

Men out there.

I was really just like, know, God bless me with these babies.

I have a career that I never thought I would have.

You know, if God doesn't bring me a spouse, like I'm okay.

You know, I'm just going to rock out this single mom thing.

I'm going to work really hard at making my brother's dreams come true.

And I'm good.

I wasn't seeking it out.

I wasn't like hoping for it.

It wasn't like this huge, giant desire of my heart to be.

to have find or have a husband and God brought me Eli and literally I met him in June when the soccer started and then August it ended and um we started dating in August and we were

married in November.

Wow.

Yeah.

So it was very hard to date with all these children in our lives.

We only had six then because we have two.

We've had two together since.

So it's very hard to date.

We were basically just putting our kids to sleep and, know, I'd go to his house and watch a movie or whatever.

He'd come to mine and we were just driving back and forth.

We were like staying up all night long, just trying to spend time together.

So he was a single dad.

I was a single mom.

So it's very challenging and we just like, I wouldn't recommend it.

I think when most people say this, like, God told me to marry this person.

I'm like, maybe check that against all the spiritual mentors in your life.

It's like one of those things that's like, can you really tell?

But like, I really feel like God impressed on both of us like that, like this was my person.

And so we got married.

It's been very challenging.

think the divorce rate for blended families is like 80%.

Like it's a remarriage is often in a divorce.

I was never married before, but I had all those other challenges that I brought in.

He had another, we had, so I said we're just as blended as blended could be.

I think at one point, so we had, we have six parents involved, because I have two and he has two sets as well.

So two moms and then their spouses.

And then um we had, they were in four different schools and three different school districts.

Wow.

a lot of window time, Just taxing us to grab.

time to run a roofing business?

It seems like you'd have to spend all your time just hauling kids around.

Yeah, I mean, luckily that phase of our life has ended.

Most of you know, like we moved to Florida.

So we live in Florida now two years ago.

And when we did that, we signed different agreements with the parents and we brought all the kids with us to Florida with us.

We brought all the kids to Florida with us, except for the big ones.

They're still back in Colorado.

She's 31 and Mason's 25.

So they stayed in Colorado, but everybody else we brought with us.

They're all college now.

And so like we're really at a different time in our life.

There's 30 years between the oldest and the youngest.

Yeah, so let me give you the age.

So 31, 25, well that's from Eli, my husband.

And then we have two 20 year olds, one mine and one his.

We have a 17 year old.

She graduated high school early, a year early.

So she's at college.

And then I have my 15 year old, Trulie Grace.

And then we have a four year old.

He's almost five and a one year old.

And let me just say.

uh

from four to almost 11 and that's about all I can handle.

I can't even imagine.

I just think they entertain themselves.

You have them really close in age.

It's like different.

So it is different when they get, it's just a different circumstance.

I tried to use to give people advice and I've stopped since I've had the second little one because I used to be like, have two, why don't you have one, have two.

They just entertain each other.

And then we had these two toddlers and I was like, my gosh, this is actually really hard.

I should stop telling people that it's easy.

Mine were five years apart.

I was a single mom with five years between those two.

And it's just different when there's not those big age gaps.

Those age gaps help a lot.

A lot.

But my husband's a stay at home dad.

My husband's a stay at home dad.

Yeah, we're upside down.

He kills it.

He's a way better parent than me.

Way better parent than me.

But we make it work.

Good for him.

Does he enjoy being at home with the kids all the time?

Yeah, so he has learned to enjoy it.

And I said earlier, I was like, this has not been easy.

Even in the upside down scenario, we do it very well with a ton of grace.

um I'll speak to any women out there that are even thinking about this sort of scenario.

Like your husband is built to be the breadwinner.

Do not hold money over your husband's head.

Do not hold your title over your husband's head.

My husband is the leader of my home.

It doesn't matter that I work and he's the one that stays home.

So we try to keep some female male norms, regardless of the fact that whether I'm bringing the money in or not.

When I was an employee and not a partner and Randy would give me a raise, I would call him and say, babe, we got a raise.

You know what I mean?

We do this together.

I couldn't get this raise if you weren't doing what you were doing at home.

great.

I feel the same way about my wife.

There's no way I could go to work and focus the way that I do if I didn't know she had things covered at home.

Yeah, you get it.

Did she stay home?

She does.

Yep.

We've tried to both work.

It's just too much.

Yeah, man being.

Home with kids is more than a full time job to try to do that and work.

I know not everybody is blessed to be in a situation where they don't have to do that, but uh man, it's a lot I.

I often come home from work and look at what all has happened in the day and still what all is left.

I'm like man, these families that everybody is working all the time.

How do they do it?

I don't get it so.

I remember when we made this decision.

um I came, was, it was like a crazy hail storm year.

We were super busy at elite.

My husband was a gym teacher at a Christian school and I'm sitting there on the couch one night and I'm sitting next to him.

just look at him like in tears and I'm just like, I have nothing left to give.

Like I am, I am empty.

Like if my energy, I was like blinking yellow and I'm like.

something has to change.

Like we cannot live like this.

And that's when we decided, we decided he didn't go back to school that next semester.

That was in December.

We had enough savings to get us through like six weeks of living without us both working.

And Randy didn't know that.

And that within four weeks of us making that decision, Randy promoted me to CEO so that he could focus on the academy and gave me a raise that was exactly the amount of money that

we needed that we were shortfalling.

Wow, that's pretty cool.

Well, that brings us back to the business.

um Can you tell us a little bit about the process of you working with your brother and your mom for a while and uh growing this family business into what it is today?

Yeah, so my brother is an incredible man.

He is an incredible man.

like God broke the mold with him.

I'm sure there's there's men out there like him, but I'm a little sister and so I'm a little bias to it.

But he's just always dreamed big.

I can't remember a time in my life that my brother post working didn't wasn't working two jobs like so he was also

five years older than me and we had one in the middle.

So we didn't have any stuff, right?

Like I fought with the middle one and he fought with the middle one.

But like, I can remember one time growing up that Randy and I got a fight.

So we didn't like come into this business with like resentment or like, you know, struggles or challenges.

Like he was always really supportive of me through my addiction, you know, even coming out of my addiction.

If I had no money, I had nothing.

I had nothing.

had a bag of clothes, you know, and

I would be like, Randy, do you and I have $20?

And he'd be like, for what?

know, like for what?

And I'd be like, I was still smoking at the time.

like, I just ate stickers.

Like I literally have no dollars, you know?

And he'd like, give me two 20s, you know?

Like he was always like slipping dollar bills into my pockets and things like that.

So we always had a good cohesion.

you know, I think some families that start that already have a lot of stuff going on, it's more challenging.

And that was the relationship with my mom where we were butting heads a lot.

And

I think I kind of alluded to it earlier, like I like to self teach and my mom's a teacher so that you can put that dynamic together.

She wanted to teach me everything.

She knew her knowledge and her foundations and her, you know, and I'm like, just give me the task and I'll figure out how to do it because like, I don't want you to tell me what

to do basically, you know, like that little rebel in me.

So it was, it was mostly healthy.

We'll say mostly healthy, but me and my mom were butting heads a lot and my brother was having to intervene.

So that's actually how I ended up in production.

It's because Randy was trying to split us up.

She was the office manager, I was the admin.

We hired an admin and he moved me into production.

And so that's when I really understood kind of what like some of my true skills are.

And I would say that God's blessed me with a mind that can see all the parts and the pieces and then pull those.

and then put them back in a way that's organized and efficient and functioning, which is perfect for production.

And had I not have been forced into that production role, I would never have learned that about myself, maybe in a different way, but in the circumstances I was, that's how that

was revealed to me.

So I loved production.

Loved it, I still love it.

I I still oversee it.

I don't do the things anymore, but.

Yeah.

So what all did that role entail and what were some of your favorite things?

I think it was just like all the puzzle pieces, you know, so you have like you're Steve and what this crew can do and what this crew can't do and being able to see all those

things laid out and then build a schedule that's like proper with places like you have all your zip codes that are close together and you're roofing close to each other and not far

apart and materials or just math, you know, so I think it's just all of it, all of the little variables that go into properly fulfilling.

a roofing project.

It just made sense.

What was the most difficult step that you experienced building this business?

The most difficult time frame or the most difficult step?

Let's do both

Okay, um Well, we'll go time frame You know, we're in Hale Valley in the Denver market So we're you know, a lot of insurance model roofing where we're relying on Mother Nature to

provide our revenue and that's just a complete uncontrollable So, I mean we went four years without a hail storm 19 to 22 19 to 23 then we got one in 23

23, 24.

Yeah, so 19, 20, 21, 22.

Yeah, so we were four years without a hailstorm in our market.

And so we went from growing 30 % year over year from 2010 to 2019.

We were just like cruising, just like this constant upward trajectory.

I'm actually really grateful for it because we learned so much.

But it's just hard when you go like we were half, let's say half the revenue that we were.

when we ended with no hail in 2019.

So by 2022, we had dipped almost in half.

you have to sit across from people and let go of people not because they're not doing a good job, but because you can't afford to keep them.

It's just a different thing.

So for me, and I think for Randy and our other partner, Cody too, that was definitely the hardest time for us.

I think I was still an employee at the time, not a partner.

I think Randy and Cody, I mean, they didn't take a paycheck for an extraordinary amount of time.

You the things that they had to sacrifice and um so on and so forth.

So that was absolutely the hardest time.

But we learned so much.

So there's like a toss up there.

You know, we were overstaffed.

You know, we were not paying enough attention to our overhead.

Like there's so much that was learned from that.

like we grew.

ah

by wisdom, not by revenue points, way more in those four years than we grew in wisdom in the first nine,

if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so what do you think the most difficult step was if that was the most difficult time period?

Yeah, I think the most difficult step.

Probably I would go with our highest revenue point back then and I and this is why I'm gonna say it was difficult and I wouldn't have known at the time but in hindsight I like

to explain it as we were fighting outside of our weight class Okay, so we were you know, we thought we were bad, you know, we were doing like 12 routes a day

just running a massive amount of production and like wearing it like a badge.

But I look back on it and I'm like, man, that we were fighting outside.

We were overproducing our ability to collect.

Does that make sense?

And so I think we think revenue wise, you know, I even remember calling Randy and being like, man, we just had a $3 million month, you know, like we just produced $3 million this

month.

And so it's just like.

You know, it's something to be proud of, but that fast of growth is damaging on an organization.

And it's much wiser to say, okay, don't slow down your sales, but slow down your fulfillment.

Most people are reasonable and, you know, stay at five, six, that's my sweet spot now, five, six, seven roofs a day.

That's where I actually keep the most of my cash is if I'm roofing, you know, five to seven roofs a day.

Okay.

consistently as opposed to you know consistently throughout the year as opposed to roofing 12 roofs a day in July August September and October

So same amount of sales, but I'll make double as much money.

That's a good equation.

Mm-hmm.

So hardest step.

Does it take a lot of restraint to do that, to not see those sales coming in and want to go for it, or have you kind of gotten over that, having lived through that difficult time?

It does take restraint in less for me, but for the people, everybody involved.

It's hard to explain that to a sales rep who thinks they have to say to a customer, we'll get your roof done next week in order to make the sale.

But it's the expectation and the anticipation of what they believe the homeowner is going to say that keeps them from just telling them the truth.

So there is a lot of

uh Organizational continuity that has to come around that concept and you do have to push back because people do want to say okay Everybody's in a hurry and you're like are they?

Are they really and I pride myself on that I mean I looked at I say I grew up in production and so when you're in a production role everything's on fire So nothing is

That's what it's become for me.

what happened?

Okay, let's just deal with it.

It's not a fire Like let's just get it done

Because otherwise you can't live your life like that.

You literally cannot live your life like that.

So maybe I've teetered too far on the other side where nothing is a fire.

I'm like, that's not a big deal.

We're gonna solve it just like the other one before.

And it might stress us out a little bit, but we're not gonna scale up to 12 roofs a day because we think the homeowners want us to do that.

A homeowner will let us know if they need us to rush it.

So just tell them we're six weeks out.

And they'll say, I need it done sooner.

And it's like, OK, we'll squeeze them in.

Solved.

That sounds like a great approach so as as CEO or COO sorry uh I know you said you kind of came out of production and Now I imagine you're overseeing sales as well uh How was that?

transition Moving from production to COO.

you don't okay?

don't oversee sales.

I'll tell you how it happened.

So in 2017, my mom was still working for us and the business had just outgrown her.

And she knows that now, so she'll listen to this later.

And she'll be like, yeah, you know, we just.

technology, all the things that have come in that amount of time.

And so um we parted ways with mom.

And so she started working for the Academy, which so she still worked for us about a year later.

She started a bookkeeping company, but Randy moved me from production into operations as operations manager.

And so I was all of sudden overfinanced.

And so I had been over production, now I'm over office, admin, and finance, and production.

And Rainy and Cody have always kept sales.

I don't know if you know me enough in this last 30 minutes that we've been on this call to know that I probably am not a good sales leader.

I can see that, yeah.

I don't like fluff.

I'm a direct communicator.

You know, I do so I don't really care that much how you're doing today.

I just want the stuff and the things to get done.

I've had to learn to communicate with salespeople.

I've had learned to be like, stop and be like, hey, oh, how was your day?

Oh, it's good.

Okay.

Can you make sure that, you know, like, A, B and C is done?

You know, I've had to learn to get along with that personality style.

I could not leave it.

I'm not an exhorter.

Randy is an exhorter.

He gets the most out of people.

He's a cheerleader, all those things.

I'm just completely a direct communicator, bottom line.

He's the yin to my yang.

Good, it seems like you guys work together well, but I can relate a lot to your personality.

Send me a text, send me an email.

I don't need the five minutes of how you doing, how's your day going, how are the kids to get to a 30 second question.

Yeah.

But they live in that.

They're offended if you don't also find out how they're doing.

we were talking a little bit of.

I may have as well, so uh you were talking about lessons learned.

Is there something you wish you would have learned earlier?

I don't think so.

I don't know if that's the right answer or not, but I think I learned everything in the timeline that I was supposed to learn it for what was coming next.

I just don't know.

I just think that we do.

learn our lessons in time for the next lesson.

I don't know if I would have pushed them all forward.

I think I needed to go through all those things that I've gone through as a business owner when they came.

And I will in the future as well.

I need to go through them as they come.

Okay, I think there's a lot of wisdom in that answer.

Okay, good.

Is there an area or a topic that you've really changed your mind about ah through the process of running your business?

Is there something that you felt strongly about and have since uh started to feel differently?

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

There's a few areas.

I'm to talk on people first and then I'm going to go to leadership.

um But I am very task oriented for the rest of the things that I've said and so and very independent, which I also shared already.

So I think going in to business and this career.

That's what got me through.

They say if you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together.

And that's been the mind shift for me.

I can put my head down and I can get a lot of work done in a short period of time.

I'm pretty productive.

m But I have learned to truly value the people around me.

If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would love to work on a team, I would have been like, no, just put me in my box.

and let me get things done.

And now I'm like, man, no, like I can, I'm a director.

I don't mind so much that something is done at 80 % if I could do it at 100%.

Like I've let go of all those things and I really want to empower the people around me to succeed and grow in value and worth in themselves.

Which I think that piece was always there, but trying to figure out how to relate that while working together.

And I'm still working on that.

still, that's always gonna be something I have to work on and is not just like always taking the lead and always doing the directing and allowing other people to pull up around

me as opposed to just, you know, letting other ideas really flow.

So I've put a lot of work in that in the last five, five, six, seven years.

um And it's not, you know, they say fake it till you make it.

It's not that anymore.

It's truly like, I'm like, my God, I need my team.

Like, what would I do without my team?

You know, before it's like, my gosh, how do I work with a team?

So that's really shifted.

And then I think from a leadership standpoint, we have three partners and one's my brother.

And so when I moved to Florida, that was really challenging on those relationships.

um And what came out of that challenge and friction between the three of us is...

a complete understanding of the lack of a need to compete with your partnership.

And what I mean by that is like, I can truly look at the skill set of my brother and appreciate it as opposed to be annoyed by it.

Okay?

So we tend to do that.

It's like judgment and grace.

Like we give ourselves grace and we give each other judgment.

But now it's like...

Like he really offsets my skills.

And so yeah, that does create some friction, but it is really, really, really healthy friction.

So I just genuinely appreciate the things that he has to bring and give to the business.

And he genuinely values the things I have.

And that's the same thing with our third partner and all those things are different.

And so if we can take all our strengths and put them together, instead of using them as a reason to

retract from each other because it's conflict.

There's really, I mean, our limitations completely go away.

So that's a big thing that's changed for me is that I haven't, don't sit in that frustration so much of like, my gosh, know, Randy's got another idea.

know, Randy's got another idea.

like, okay, like what's your idea?

Let's hammer it out, you know, and I'll let you know if I can integrate it.

You know, and so now we like, we'll actually sit and have those meetings as opposed to just being in this fear as soon as he has these ideas.

I'm like, you know, let's just sit, let's have an hour meeting.

You spit all your ideas at me and let me filter them and integrate the ones that I believe truly can be integrated into the business.

And he's like, yeah.

And I'm like, yeah.

You know, so it's, it's, it's developed into this really healthy, healthy thing for our businesses.

That's great.

So you've mentioned a couple times that you have moved to Florida and are now kind of running things remotely.

What has that process been like?

Has it been difficult?

not really.

think one of the positive things that came out of it's been good.

Of course, everything in life is difficult, but good, difficult.

Um, one of the positive things that came out of COVID, and I think you agreed to this, is that it did force our businesses into a remote environment.

And so now elite since COVID really has been a hybrid of that.

Like I said, we went paperless in 2017 and so our salesmen have not been in the office since 2017.

feel like, like why do they come except for to turn in paper packets?

So we haven't seen them since pre-COVID.

And so, you know, we had our first employee go remote shortly after COVID.

She moved to Georgia.

Um, now I have like employee in Georgia, employee in Minnesota.

I'm in Florida.

We have two VA's from the Philippines.

So I just think we've become this hybrid thing, but I also think that it was really healthy for the organization for me to step back a little.

And it did give people the opportunity to step up and in.

So our defines are more, our roles are more defined as a leadership team.

We've kind of, like I said, fallen into some of our strengths.

a little bit more and it was good for me to see how capable everybody else is even if I stepped out for a minute.

So it's been really good for the organization.

I think it's been really healthy for me.

um There's some challenges working from home.

um Just like there's challenges working away from home, I'm sure.

So that's been kind of, and I guess I'm really, really, really great on like one-on-ones with my team.

I'm really consistent.

They're really well agendas and things like that.

um it's like I go up every quarter and do like a team building event and just hang out with my staff at the office.

so I think we've really figured it out.

Okay, that's great.

But all our systems are online.

Technically, you should be able to do this from anywhere.

Production has to be in office.

We have an office for production repairs.

Our service technicians need to be able to have a warehouse.

it's good for, if customer wants to stop by, they have somewhere they can go.

We have three people in the office still, an admin assistant, our office manager, and our production manager.

And other than that, the rest of us are pretty much all remote.

Okay.

Have you found that you miss something by not just being shoulder to shoulder, able to communicate with full body language and everything?

Or have you guys been able to make things work with the technology available?

I found that I missed steps.

Okay, my step tracker is like really terrible working from home.

But other than that, no, no, we communicate more than we did before.

Except now I don't have to put a sign up when I need nobody to come in my office.

So I think we communicate extraordinarily well as a team.

We have a really great culture though, so there's not a lot of politics or, you know.

a lot of that fighting or anything.

So I think that helped.

Yeah, Randy and your mom were kind of the master of systems.

It seems like that probably plays a pretty significant role.

If everybody knows their role, their process, their system, they can go through that without having to pass stuff back and forth a lot of times.

Is that accurate?

Yeah, yeah, that's the objective of our system.

We sat down and maybe he talked about this, I don't know, so many years ago.

Now we do this with our clients, with the academy, and we wrote every single process that we do up on the whiteboard, and then we reorganized it.

So a lot of businesses, what they end up doing is who's got more room in their basin?

We refer to it as a basin.

What kind of workload can you handle?

em And so it's like, this person has more time just give them this this extra task do this do this and that happens as your business grows and Especially we grow really fast like we

did and so we just restructured it all it's like, okay Let's limit the handoffs if this one they say there's three processes, but it's really just one big process Like give that

to one person so we reorganized everything rename the titles presented new employee agreements to everybody

that's actually when I did that went over into the operations manager was when we did that.

So that was really good for us.

Um, so we do, we try to limit the amount of handoffs and you get, you get people's excuses like, I don't want my employee in QuickBooks.

Like you're, if you're, you're afraid, so afraid your employee is going to steal from you that you don't want them in QuickBooks or that they're like, like all the reasons that you

get, it's like, okay, so you're going to make this system really challenging.

because you don't trust your staff?

Like that's not healthy.

Like someone's gotta know what your numbers are in order to, you know, you're just gonna always be in charge of that.

You're never gonna, so it's just like, you gotta overcome those hurdles and the consulting side, but there should be main handoffs points.

Sales to production, production to accounting.

Those should be your major hand-to-handoffs and you know.

You should limit all the other ones in between.

Good, good.

That's some great advice.

That's something we need to learn a little bit better.

think if we went all remote, we would probably struggle because we end up handing stuff back and forth in the office quite a bit.

Okay, okay.

I think it's pretty common.

Yeah.

yeah, I think so.

Well, and so many of us.

We were not business experts.

We were not efficiency experts.

We learned to trade really well and then are trying to figure out how to run a business and it's a process.

It's a process.

So.

Get a whiteboard, write all your processes up and restructure them.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Is there a major mistake that you wish you could have avoided?

yeah, yeah, I have one big one that always comes to my mind when this question is asked.

And that is, had, he still works for me in fact, uh my main roofing crew, so main roofing crew, so think about how much money I could have paid him in one year.

He had Texas Workman's Comp.

Okay, and so I had missed an email from my Workman's Comp company saying that he was

that they won't accept that workman's comp.

So when the year came up for my audit and they saw that he still had that same workman's comp, I got $100,000 audit that year.

I had to pay workman's comp for that subcontractor for the entire year that he worked for us.

So that is the biggest mistake I've, it's like so easily, I mean, what kind of $100,000 mistake?

I mean, come on, like that's only yours.

Like that's my biggest, biggest mistake that I ever made.

It was a long time ago.

I was new to the auditing system and insurance and it's so complicated and complex.

So that was a real, real, real bummer.

Okay.

Randy, forgive.

all have something like that, a missed email, a missed signature that costs you.

You got to learn that lesson to cross the T's and dot the I's.

Yeah, email's so dangerous.

I can't wait till AI replaces email.

Ha ha ha

See that- that idea scares me.

I- I- I like being in the loop on stuff, but-

I know.

Yeah, it needs to be refined.

I can't wait till AI refines email.

Perfect.

What if I say perfect?

Would that make you feel a little better about it?

Perfect.

with that one.

Have you ever made a beneficial mistake, a time that you screwed up, made a mistake, but the lesson you learned from it was more valuable than the consequence?

I think with the right mindset, that's every mistake that you've made can be utilized.

Is it?

That's so funny.

So, but we don't spend any time together.

We do both believe that though, that is definitely a construct that we both sit on.

But even, I mean, even in this call, the things that I've talked about, like, I like.

So I'll tie in my drug addiction.

I would never take my drug addiction back.

I am not that person.

I say I close the book.

People are like, turned the chapter.

I wrote and I closed that book.

And so this is my new book that I'm living in.

But the things that I went through helped shape who I am today.

I would not be this version of myself.

without going through that.

I would not have two of my children without going through that.

So I just think everything, know, Romans 8.28, everything works together for those.

You know, I love that Bible verse and so I think that, and Randy does too.

you know, I think we can learn something from every mistake we make.

If we're not doing that, then it doesn't make the mistake worth it.

Yeah, he said he doesn't make mistakes.

He doesn't consider them failures.

They're just learning opportunities.

So.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And that's what he to our consulting.

Maybe he said it to you too.

He's like, paid all the stupid tax for our clients.

We paid all the stupid tax and we get to teach you guys all the stupid lessons that we learned already along the way.

To save you.

That specific tax.

And I do apologize, I have a little bit of a cold.

Um...

If you could go back and do it all over again, would you?

Yeah, yeah, I would absolutely do it all over again.

Three times over, probably.

I've loved it.

I've loved the whole experience of small business.

Even though it's super, super hard, it's been so extraordinarily m fulfilling operating a small business and the micro impact that you can have on people's lives and...

you know, from clients but to your customers and then the impact that it can be to your home, your own personal home.

It's just like a really, really amazing little space to live in small businesses.

Yeah, I love that.

Has it been difficult as a woman in a trade business?

Has that been uniquely difficult or?

So I do like this question and I get it a lot actually because there's like only one of me.

Like she's brown and she's a woman and she's a roofing business owner.

It's like I just don't go to many spaces that you know.

And I do like the question um because I think it's a fun question to answer.

because it's not probably a typical answer.

I think that one of my superpowers is that I just don't think like that.

I'm not walking into a room and counting normally how many brown people are in the room versus how many non-brown people are in the room and determining if my minority impacts

the way I'm gonna be received.

You know, and I understand why people do kind of think like that and I understand how culture tries to shape that mindset.

um But I just walk in every room like I should be there.

And why would I not have the credibility to be here?

And whether that's because I'm a woman or not a woman, I think that being a woman um gives me a power inside of a business room that a lot of men don't have.

And I'm gonna explain it to you, is because...

You know, my mom told me when I was like 22 or 23, she said, men see problems when they're like right here in front of your face.

But women, we have this ability to see problems when they're super far out.

We see them coming and men see them when they're like right here.

And so if I can bring that perspective and I can say, hey, Rand, like I see something coming, you know, I see something coming and he's going, oh yeah, you know, I can look at

it that way.

Like I can bring a different perspective uh into the room just by being what God built me to be.

And then the opposite side of that is he helps like men, you guys have this innate ability to just move on.

I love that about men.

I envy it.

We do not have that.

So I rely on my partners to be like, come off it.

You know, like it's time to move forward.

You've been sitting on this thing for too long.

Let's just move forward and see if that thing works itself out.

So where I don't have that ability, a man has that ability.

So I think we can play really well with each other if we do it with intentionality.

um So I think it's a good thing to have both sexes represented if we can, again, stop looking at the ways that we're different.

as negatives and start looking at those things as positives and how do we leverage those differences to create positive impact as opposed to limiting our own selves by saying, you

know, I'm not, you know, they're just not gonna listen to me because I'm a girl.

I'm like, man, let me come in with some really great information, build my credibility just like anybody else has to do.

And if they need that impact like I'm gonna find there I'm gonna find my voice em And I say that all that knowing is that you know, my brother is my champion and you can attest

to this because you talked to him first Randy Builds my credibility before me So I do think that is important that a woman has a champion in the space Because every room I go

into behind him.

He's already set a precedent that my voice is

um to be heard, it's worth listening to.

Not to be heard like, hey, my sister's coming in here listening.

It's like, no, this is her skill set.

This is what she's capable of.

This is what she's been through.

This is what she can bring.

You know, he has set that for me.

And so I get to walk in and I just get to reassure everybody that what my champion already said about me is true.

So

I do think from that aspect, it is good that women have champions in the industry.

um

But at same time, I think that we should approach the table differently than some, maybe a standard worldly view of that would be.

Okay, that's a great answer.

I love that approach that you earn your voice and you earn the confidence.

Yeah, I think more business should be done that way.

We spend time listening to people that we shouldn't and not listening to people that we should.

ah You look at the value they bring.

What has been your biggest win as a leader?

my gosh, my biggest win as a leader.

I'm gonna go with the people.

I can give you an example.

My finance manager, she's been with me 10 years and she started as my receptionist.

She didn't have a computer, we literally just needed somebody to answer the phones.

They were just ringing off the hook and our admin couldn't handle it, so just come in.

She would carry a cordless phone around in her back pocket and carry it around to whoever needed it.

You know, she worked at Subway before I hired her as that.

you know, she's now my finance manager.

She knows more about bookkeeping than I do.

You know, she, you know, we'll argue about how to do things in QuickBooks.

I'm like, it, she's right.

She's right.

She surpassed me.

You know?

So I think, I think that's been my biggest win.

And she's just one example of so many, you know, my production coordinator right now, she's young.

She's 25 years old, single mom, two kids, and she's

Crushing it, you know giving this young lady an opportunity to have a career that maybe in another scenario Nobody would give her that opportunity, but she's smart She's so smart

man, and she learns things and she doesn't like independently and quickly and it's like crazy how quickly she could pick something up so like just identifying that and leveraging

it and then seeing them success like succeed and excel

I think all the great leaders that I talk to, when you ask them what their biggest win is, they talk about their people.

Right, I'm not alone.

I like that.

Yeah

I can tell you've really developed and grown a lot as a leader.

You say you like the process of self-teaching and figuring stuff out.

Have there been any outside resources that you've leveraged to help grow and learn?

Yeah, yeah, I think.

my coach leading into it, my club says, you know, the mind is a dangerous place.

Never go in there alone.

And I think that's true.

You know, I think we can get drunk on our own thoughts, you know, we can get drunk on our own feelings, things like that.

And so I, we got a coach and I think we got him in 2017 um and he's been with us ever since.

And we rely on him for

direction, we treat him kind of like a fractional CFO, he determines what our pay structure is, like he really is, what are those things like, how do I pay myself?

Am I making money for my business or am I taking money for my business?

And trying to navigate that conversation and so having his voice in that, um really anytime we've, you know, hit some type of wall, he's there to guide us through it and...

I guess that's a little bit of a plug for ourself as the academy.

Like that's what we want to become to people too, is what he's been to us.

And I do think that you need resources of people that have been through the things that you are going through.

Emotionally you need that, mentally you need that, strategically you need that, lot of times financially you need that.

So I do, I think everybody should have some type of, you know.

When my daughter was born, named her Vignette Luella, my little one, my one-year-old.

And Luella is my spiritual mentor's first name, because the impact that she's had on my life over the last 30-something years that she's known me, because she's known me since I

was a child.

And there's just so much value and worth in saying, I don't know how to navigate this situation, and being able to pick up the phone and calling someone.

who has either been there, done that, or that you fully trust to guide you the right direction despite of you.

Okay, so not somebody that's gonna tell you what you wanna hear so that you keep paying their consulting fee, like someone that is actually gonna tell you what you need to hear.

That's huge.

I don't have an awesome, well, I took the business over from my dad, so he's been a phenomenal coach, but uh a formal coach, ah I don't have one, and anybody I've talked to

is just what you said.

They tell you what they wanna hear, they rattle off the latest business jargon to try to impress you, and they haven't been there, they haven't done it, so.

You

sounds like you guys are doing something kind of unique.

Randy talked about this as well with the Roofing Academy in that you guys are coaches that have been there.

You've done it.

You understand the market.

You're still involved in it.

Can you tell us a little bit about um the Roofing Academy and how that works?

If a contractor starts from scratch and signs up for the Roofing Academy, uh what is the process you walk them through and what can they expect in that process?

Yeah, so from start we just have a complete online learning portal that we really love people to go through in the beginning.

So online courses and really um every single avenue of starting up a business.

There's a production course, there's an accounting course, there's a course just for your administrative assistant.

So we have built out this course online that's just really, really, really wonderful.

But the meat of the business is in the one-on-one coaching.

We're very high operational very high fulfillment So we restructure the business kind of what I talked about before we take all the processes And we've done it so much now that we

can kind of say okay.

You're a one million dollar company This is the roles you need and this is what each role should technically be doing But we take all those so we don't have to like write all the

processes down on the board is basically what I'm getting at And so this is what?

This is how I explain it.

Okay, so I've talked to so many business leaders and all they do is complain about their people.

My people, my people, my people, my people aren't doing good, my people blah blah blah, you know, like it's just like this.

And I'm like, okay, well are your processes?

Like, well our processes aren't that great.

And I'm like, well, let's restructure the organization, get your processes squeaky clean, okay?

Get SOPs around those processes and then let's determine how awful your people are.

Because.

Maybe your people just don't have any stinking direction on how to get these things done.

So this is, know, what age were you when you started driving?

16 well probably 14 but

14.

So do remember being in a car before you started driving and you didn't really know how to get anywhere?

But then when you start driving, all of a sudden you understand how to get to places.

So as the business

owners or the business leaders, we build those cars so we understand the direction that they're going.

But then when we insert people into that, they didn't build the car, they've never driven the car before.

And we don't give them the time that they need to learn how to navigate.

just like we didn't know how to navigate before we stepped into the driver's seat of a car.

So that's why I just want to help people build that car and then create the structure around it that teaches their staff how to drive the car, um all while being profitable.

Sum it up.

Yeah, it's not about how much money we can make, it's about how much money we can keep.

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

That's gold right there.

I like that

What motivates you to keep pushing forward when things get hard?

I mean, I don't want to be cliche, you know?

I have, when I stepped into elite, I really had this deep desire to like make, like I wanna help make my brother's dreams come true.

Like my brother dreams really, really big.

You know, I know where he wants his life to be.

And I was like, I just wanna be a part of making that dream happen for him.

And none of that has changed in 15 years.

I want to be a part of like...

my brother's dream and um that has pushed me through a lot of the hard stuff, like knowing that like this is outside of myself and I also know that like um the further I can push

him forward, he always brings me along.

Like we're really a team at this point and so that's just a greater benefit for all the people that I love, you know.

I want to be a really good example to my girls, you know.

um

of what it can look like, you know, a woman in this world.

And obviously through what not to do, I'm very, very open with my girls about what I've been through, all my kids, and where I am now and how far you can come and measuring that

gain, you know, in your life.

So I think that's a big driver too, is like setting that example.

But I'm breadwinner for my family, you know, at the end of the day, that's the cliche part.

And I want to, you know...

Like that is gonna be at the end of the day what drives me forward is that I need to provide for my home.

And listening to both Randy and you speak about each other, it's evident you guys have a really strong relationship.

You, like you said, he, he might be your champion, but you've done nothing but lift him up and even talking about, you know, your, your dream is to make his dream come true.

Um, where does that come from?

How did you guys build such a close relationship?

Gosh, uh I think it does tie to...

Some of it's just gonna be grace.

But like I said, didn't have all I ever saw.

I was always just a little sister admiring her big brother.

We didn't fight.

Everything he did I thought was cool.

He was like the Abercrombie and Fitch senior in high school and all the girls loved him.

He drove a super cool car, literally the coolest car in the school.

You know, he's always working really hard and I just have always had an admiration for him, you know.

um So I think that's good and I think he's always had the same like brotherly little sister love for me and you know, through all the things that I went through that was hard,

I think that.

um

He didn't take responsibility for it, he was, I think, had a really big desire to help me get beyond it, you know?

I think he never wanted to see me living like that again.

um So I think backwards-wise, like he really wanted to pull me up with him.

But I think a lot of it is grace.

And now through the last 15 years, it's become that we've got to build this thing together.

Like there's something really special with our relationship because of that.

And the fact that he's the visionary and I'm the integrator and the way that we really kind of fit together.

And we've been through a lot together now in the last 15 years of this business.

And it's really, really pushed us together.

Like I said, we had that hard space.

and you're living on the other side of the hard space.

through some books I've read and things like that, I've heard a lot of that partnership, that visionary integrator, it breaks at 11, 12, 13 years.

There's something that happens in that timeframe that creates challenge in that specific relationship.

We have added um pressure of being brother and sister and the way that that all entangles itself.

um

But you're married too, so know, when you go through like a hard time of being married, there's like this beautiful time after that, little, little, you're like, my gosh, how was

I mad at you?

You're perfect and I love you and you're so sweet.

know?

Or is this just like you put your blind glasses back on and there's probably a little bit of that with Randy and I too.

Not that it's anything like a marriage relationship, but I know I just made it weird.

ah But there is some of that where we did, we went through something really hard.

we, you know, for all types of purposes could have gone two different directions, but instead of going two different directions, we pushed into that hardness.

We pushed into our flesh and the things about our own hearts that was ugly in that.

And we turned that into something good.

So you are seeing us at this really sweet spot that the last two years we've just been like really appreciative of each other almost because we almost lost each other.

Okay, It's very evident you guys have a lot of mutual respect and and a lot of humility to have built the business that you guys have built and as I've talked to both of you, know,

Randy said, hey, the person you really need to be interviewing is my sister.

She did all the heavy lifting.

She's the one that built this business and as I talked to you, you kind of say the same thing about him.

It's it's really cool to see the the mutual respect, the humility and the way that you guys work together.

So

Good to hear.

It's been a lot of work.

Yeah.

Well, this is my absolute favorite question.

You've talked about it a little bit already.

I can tell you are a person of faith.

uh What does that mean to you and how has that impacted the way that you've built your business and the way that you lead your business?

Yeah, I am absolutely a person of faith.

As I said in my story, I walked away from faith and I got a taste of what the world could give me and it was nothing that I would want to keep.

And I truly, truly believe that the Lord saved my life when I surrendered it back to him.

um And that is how I, it's the core of every aspect of who I am.

um It's my moral compass.

um It's the direction.

Um, Randy and I are and Cody, I know we talk a lot about, know, cause we're brother and sister, but we have a third partner that is pivotal to the leadership that we have at

elite.

but we really strongly believe that like, like this is God's organization.

And so he's going to lead it and we're going to do our best to follow the path that he lays out for it.

And we wanna honor Him and we give Him all the glory in it and all the profit and we'll put our hands to it, but He's really the one that's leading and guiding it.

There's a lot of pressure that comes off too when you do that.

And it's like, okay, this is not all on me to do.

And God is gonna, the ebb and flow of it, there's gonna be good times, there's gonna be little times He's gonna teach us lessons through it.

I think that is one of the biggest things we learned at the end of those four years of no hail was that we all had gotten become puffed up.

You know, we had this, you know, this, this medium big size roofing company.

Like I said, we're doing 12 roofs a day and you know, walking around a little puffed up.

And so when there was no hail for four years and then we all had to like pull back.

our blinders and be like, hey, like I wasn't the reason this business was successful for all those time, you know, because if I have to own its success, then I also have to own

the failure, you know, so if it's my, my it's because of me that this business was successful, then it's because of me that for the last four years, it's been struggling,

you know, so it's like a relief to when you lean into your faith and say, okay, God guide it, like, let me just be a servant of it, as opposed to just saying, I'm the one.

like causing this business to be successful.

But we truly function in that genuinely and fully.

we're not a faith-based company.

We don't just like only hire people of faith or anything like that.

But we do have a, um have you ever heard the phrase elusive gain?

Okay.

So elusive gain uh and elusive expense, it's like an unmeasurable in our organization based off a certain thing or action.

And so.

If we run our business on faith values, um there's an unmeasurable elusive gain in that.

We can't put it in a spreadsheet and measure how much gain we get from doing the right thing even if we're wrong.

It's like we don't.

We don't know the measurement there.

It's elusive to us, but we know that there's a gain.

It's the same thing when you lie, steal, and cheat.

There's going to be an elusive expense.

Maybe it's not measurable in the data, but there's an expense tied to that.

So it's the way, really, really the way that we look at it.

so that's, know, faith is one of our core values, faith, family, honesty, um safety, service, teamwork.

You know, that's kind of our values there, know, and family, that's really our main two.

That's awesome.

I'm going to steal that, the elusive gain and the elusive expense because you see that in the business world.

If you've been in business for any period of time at all, can see the businesses that are riding high on that and you can see the ones that are struggling because of it.

ah But like you said, it's hard to put, you can't put it in a spreadsheet.

It's hard to really put your finger on it, but you can see when it's happening.

That's awesome.

Is there anybody that you would recommend for us to reach out to and have on the show?

Somebody that has a really interesting story, works in a really unique industry that might be fun to learn more about?

em I don't know, what might be fun for you is just to interview our third partner.

Get an outside perspective on that.

My dad also is a consultant.

He's called himself an encouragement coach.

He's got an amazing story, if you'd ever want to hear that.

He was actually homeless at one point.

I don't know, not off the top of my head, not any more than that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we are always looking for really interesting stories and yeah, sounds like both of those are great ideas.

We got to just get the rest of the family and the rest of the team on here, right?

Right go to the whole the whole gamut

So my last question, I ask every guest to either fuel or settle the debate.

If you have a job to do with the cordless tool, which brand do you prefer?

Oh gosh.

I don't know if I can fuel this debate because I love it like in roofing industry there are like, there's this like space of women in the industry and they're like, oh, I get on

roofs and I like, I'm a roofing business owner and I'm like, I don't do any labor.

I'm not gonna pick up a nail gun.

Like why would I do that?

A bundle of shingles weighs 90 pounds.

I'm not picking up a bundle of shingles.

So I'm not gonna participate in the debates.

My debate is gonna be like, don't ask girls that.

Okay.

Fair enough.

wants more power to you, I'm not, but I can kill a spreadsheet.

There you go.

I love that you own it.

awesome.

Well, Bree, I really appreciate you taking the time and joining us.

This has been great.

It's been great getting to know you and your brother and the business that you guys have built.

It seems like you're doing something really incredible and I really appreciate you giving us the time.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

a great day.

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