Dashaun Bryant – From College Dropout to Roofing Sales Powerhouse | Mindset, Hustle & Building Roof Hustlers

I was able to teach him to do what I did.

And they would start they started making money.

And I started getting addicted to watching other people win.

So I come out the garage, I look at my my girl at the time,

I'm like, I got an idea. She's like,

what? I'm like, I'm finna start a YouTube channel,

I'm gonna name it roof hustlers,

and we're gonna take over the roofing industry.

And she looked at me like I was crazy.

you don't gotta be good to win at it.

Like you can suck and still make money in the roofing industry.

But are you a good dad? Are you a better like are you a better man?

Do you grow?

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show,

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today

I am pretty excited. I am joined by Deshaun Bryant.

Deshaun is one of the most r recognizable personalities in roofing sales training.

He is the founder of Roof Hustlers,

a sales coaching and consulting company focused heavily

on door-to-door roofing sales,

mindset, communication, objection handling,

and insurance restoration sales.

He built his reputation first as a high-producing roofing salesman and later

as a trainer traveling around the country coaching roofing companies.

And Deshaun brings an incredible amount of experience.

I think it's gonna be a great conversation.

Even if you're not in sales or not in the roofing industry,

he's got some wonderful nuggets of wisdom to share with us today.

And I'm excited for the conversation.

So Deshaun, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me having me.

I'm excited. ~ I think it's always an honor and a privilege and a pleasure

to be on somebody's podcast, across pollinate networks,

'cause, you know, it's a big responsibility somebody putting you in front of their,

you know, their community. So I'm always honored to be here.

And like I say, all business is show business,

man. So I'm excited to show up and bring some value.

Awesome. Well, we'll dive right in.

~ we like to start every show going clear back to the beginning and just

~ learning a little bit about you and your foundation and somebody that

has been as successful as you.

Where do you come from? What was childhood like for you?

Man. So born and raised in ~ Manatee County,

Florida, which is pretty much Brainerd,

Florida, 941. grew up in a single parent home.

My mom raised four kids. My mom's,

my uncles, my grandma. Like I grew up around that close-knit family.

used to see my dad every now and then,

every other weekend, but I grew up in grew up in the hood.

I wouldn't call it the projects.

I wouldn't call it the ghetto,

but it was the hood, right? And ~

Just

like everybody, my generation,

I'm thirty five, and grew up outside,

grew up playing sports, you know,

my whole ideal, my whole mindset growing up was ~

I w I was gonna be a football player,

you know, gonna make it in football.

I used to play football my entire life up until freshman year of college where

I ended up flunking out. But, you know,

growing up that's what it was all about.

It was about being outside, being in the neighborhood,

playing throw up, bust up. We used to play marbles,

used to play Manhunt. And that was the whole goal growing up in

~ becoming a football player. And I used and I love music.

I've always been I I loved music my entire life.

I actually rapped

For a vast majority of my life from eight years old up until about 25,

26. Actually, we made a mixtape last year.

So s I still make music. Roof Hustlers,

our brand. we created our own intro.

We did we we've done music videos to ~ showcase our talent within door-to-door sales

and just letting people know you could bring all aspects of like who you

are to your profession. So whole whole ordeal was to go up,

play football, and make it to the NFL.

That was the dream.

And then like around ten or eleven years old,

I went to a performing arts school.

And actually that's when I kind of fell in love with performing.

I used to do acting. I used to do ballroom dancing,

monologues, all of that type of stuff.

So that's like my first taste of performing.

And that's when I kind of fell in love with the stage in the sense of like,

yeah, I want to play sports, but I love being up in front of people.

I've always been an extrovert my entire life,

so I've always loved getting in front of crowds and performing.

When I was like 10, 11 years old,

I used to do battle raps in in the in the lunchroom,

where we used to do beats on the on the trash can.

Ha ha.

And I was the guy that used to freestyle.

And we was making mixtapes at like 13,

14 years old, 15 years old. So yeah,

football was the dream. Football and music.

And if if you told me as a kid I would be selling roost as an adult,

I would have told you you was lying,

right? And ~ yeah, got got made it through,

made it out of high school, went to college up in Massachusetts,

and I actually flunked out because I wasn't prepared.

to be self governed. I wasn't really ready to be my own boss,

to be my own disciplinary. And I went to college for one reason,

just to get away from my mama.

I just wanted to get away from authority.

You know what I mean? I didn't want nobody telling me what to do no more.

And I actually flumped out of college and came back home and I just got to work.

Just started working, working,

working and ~

ended up in this roof and stuff like around the age of twenty five.

But from eighteen to twenty five I was just all retail as far as like working

in grocery stores, working at the mall.

J you know, just my mind was very closed.

I didn't even think about sales,

man. That never even crossed my mind growing up.

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Okay. And y you mentioned that you ~ started out in college mostly to

get away from your mom, ~ but

Yeah.

that you flunked out, dropped out of college.

now a little bit older looking back,

what are your views about education?

Is it college education necessary,

helpful, a waste of time? What are your thoughts there?

~

I think it depends on what you're going to college for,

as far as like if you're going to be a doctor,

you're going to be a lawyer, you're going to be,

you know, just those very intricate careers where you need a college education.

Because I don't want my doctor to learn from YouTube,

right? Like I want him to go to medical school,

Ha ha ha.

get an MD. But do I think college is necessary for you to succeed in this

new world that we live in? No.

Do I think college is valuable?

Yes. Why? Because

You ain't gonna meet a Mark Zuckerberg on the corner,

man. Like you gotta go to college to meet people like that,

to meet the Mark Zuckerbergs and you know those people that actually

go to college and you build networks and it's still I still got some friends that

I know from college that we still got really strong networks that

I met through college. So I think one of the biggest valuable things

of going to college is the relationships and the people that you meet.

But do I think you need it to succeed in today's world?

No, but

I'm not that guy that's like college is a scam.

I think long as you're intentional with why you're going to school is very valuable.

But if you're just going to learn the basics like math,

English, history, stuff, nah. I don't think you need college for those things.

Okay. I appreciate that. That's ~ not far off of my viewpoint as well.

So ~ well you said you were about twenty five when you got started in roofing,

~ that that was not what you imagined when you were younger.

~ so what what did that look like?

How did you get into the roofing industry?

so I've always been a people person.

I've always had the ability to talk to anybody and I've always wanted to

be the best at what I did. So I I used to be a bagger at Publix and I

was the best bagger in the company.

Like I was the best bagger, point blank period.

Like if you came through my my line with $300 worth of groceries,

it was all going in the same car,

right? You need two carts. I was gonna bag the shit out of them groceries,

right? So ~ like 25 years old,

my best friend

and his really good friend. We just was going out to a bar,

just like just hanging out. And I'm just talking to everybody,

'cause I'm a social butterfly.

Like I'm not that guy that go out and stand in the corner.

I'm that guy like if we go to a club,

I'll be like, I'll be back. And I'm just gonna go like neat meander through

the entire club. Like just

end up frolic somewhere. So I'm just talking to random people and

the dude named Brian, he saw me just,

you know, bouncing from group to group,

talking, talking, talking, talking.

And at the end of the night, you know,

we wrapping up the night and he come up to me and he's like,

hey, listen, man, I know I don't know you like that.

He's like, but I got a job I think you'll be great at.

Because he was building the sales team.

And he's like, I got a job I think you'd be great at.

And I said, I'm down. I didn't even ask him what it was.

I just knew where I was working at.

It wasn't

Giving me what I wanted financially.

Yeah.

And I was like, I'm down. We had a kid on the way.

We didn't want to do daycare. And we didn't know how we could create

a schedule that allowed our kids not to go to daycare but still,

you know, be present with them.

So he told me it was Dota Do Sales.

That was like in November. I didn't get a car until like I think February

of the next year, going into 2025.

So this is 2024. I met him. So going into February of 2025,

I ended up getting a vehicle. And I called him back.

I'm like, hey man, I know you said you had a job I think I'd be great at.

I'm like, I'm down. Like I got a vehicle now.

And they called me in for the makeshift interview because it's roofing.

And pretty much it's like, do you breathe?

Do you got legs? Yeah. Can you learn a script?

Yeah, we got a job I think we'll you'll be great at.

So they brought me in, gave me the script,

told me to learn it. And that first week I got into roofing sales.

I ended up closing four deals my first week,

and I realized I was either home or this was too easy.

And I realized I was home.

man. Wow, that's quite the beginning.

And ~ so I'm guessing there was a few steps between ~ that first sales

job and starting Roof Hustler.

can you help

Yeah.

connect the dots? What what were some major points in your career there?

So one one of the major points was the guy that hired me,

which is Brian, he told me the first day he brought me in for the interview,

he like, You gonna be my trainer and I'm like,

No, not me, man. I'm like, No,

I'm just trying to sell and mind my business,

bro. Like I Like this is my first day trainer,

like no. And ~ probably about eight months into the game,

he started forcing me to train people.

He didn't he didn't give me an option.

He would hire new people and he'd be like,

Take him in the field. Go teach what you know.

And I'm like, I don't know nothing.

Like, I'll I don't know what you want me to teach him.

But I I would take him in the field and

I was able to coach him. I was able to teach him to do what I did.

And they would start they started making money.

And I started getting addicted to watching other people win.

So like without a title, he just made me the trainer.

So every time we would hire new people,

He would put him under my wing.

He would send me out in the field and I would train him.

And then next thing you know, he built the canvassing team.

And he like, you're responsible for the canvassing team.

So everybody we hire, I'm coaching them,

I'm training them. I'm training the other reps.

I'm training the canvassers. So this about

Two years into the game and I'm just training,

coaching, and we winning. But this is all just pure talent.

Like this just pure talent. This is no coaching,

no training. This is just me reverse engineering the things that I would

do in the field and teach it to other people.

Like I I wrote out my, you know,

just a quick little expectations and standards,

just what I live by. And probably like two years into the game,

I'm knocking doors.

And I knock on this dude's door and I sell him.

And he's like, man, you really good.

He's like, who your coaches? Who your mentors?

I'm like, nobody, man. This guy giving talent.

He's like, do me a huge favor,

man. Go look up this guy named Grant Cardone.

And I'm like, all right. And this Grant like eight years ago,

nine years ago. So I go home, look him up,

and I'm watching his videos.

And where I come from, I've never seen nobody speaking like that.

You know, you don't got a money problem,

you got an income problem. Like if you ever care about the price of a book,

you'll never get wealthy. Like every industry got a gap in it.

Look for the gap. Stop trying.

So he says something. Every industry got a gap in it.

If you can close a gap, you'll make a lot of money.

And then I just got the biggest aha moment of my life.

I was like, I can't be the only guy that got took out for two days and they say,

All right, man, you got it, go on your own.

I'm

like, that gotta be an industry standard.

So clear as day, I'm a firm believer that visions come vertical,

right? I think God give everybody a vision.

And he needs you to manifest that vision.

And if you don't manifest it, he gotta give it to somebody else.

Why? Because he needs that creation in the world.

Like he's telling you, I need that in this world.

So clear as day, I heard the words like somebody literally was speaking in my ear.

It said, Start a YouTube channel,

name it Roof Hustlers, you'll take over the roofing industry.

Like I heard it clear as day. So I come out the garage,

I look at my my girl at the time,

I'm like, I got an idea. She's like,

what? I'm like, I'm finna start a YouTube channel,

I'm gonna name it roof hustlers,

and we're gonna take over the roofing industry.

And she looked at me like I was crazy.

And I remember going into the office,

my sales manager, Brian, the guy that brought me in,

I'm like, bruh, I got this idea.

He's like, What's the idea? I'm like,

I'ma start a YouTube channel, I'm gonna name it roof hustlers,

and we're gonna take over roofing industry.

And he even looked at me like,

Alright, if you say so.

And just went back to doing his work.

So I just went home that night and I'm like,

I'm finna do this thing. And I got I thought of the idea on a Tuesday.

I recorded my first video on Thursday and ~ we created the Instagram,

we created the YouTube channel and we just got to work.

I was actually one of the first people on Instagram that was talking about roofing.

Cause I couldn't find it when I was getting started.

So

We would just be out there knocking doors,

I'd just pick my phone up and I would just have little epiphany.

I'd just be like, Man, when you in the neighborhood,

blah blah blah blah blah and after that Grant Cardone video,

I started reading books, I started going to seminars,

I started going to conferences.

And that was the momentum swing that created all of this stuff.

And I remember I called that homeowner and I said,

Hey man, I just want to call and say thank you.

He was like, For what? I'm like,

'cause if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have like pursued this information.

Cause after I found Grant, that's when I made my first ten grand in a month.

And after that is it it it was on fire ever since.

man, So how has Roof Hustlers developed from just a a YouTube channel

and Instagram post to the the business that you have today?

Yeah, so ~ we started putting out videos in twenty seventeen and I remember when

I was just praying for a hundred people to watch my video.

Just let me

can't wait till we get to a hundred people like my gosh and then we grew

to a hundred and we grew to two grew to three.

So twenty seventeen we just putting out content just consistent consistent cause

I made a commitment the day I started Roof Hustles like it don't matter

how long it takes for us to like get momentum I'm willing to just work

on it every single day. And we would put out content every single week,

two to three posts a week and then we kept building momentum.

First roofing company paid me to come talk to their sales guys in twenty eighteen.

So a company in Orlando hit me up,

just like, hey man, one of our sales guys keep raving about your videos.

We just wonder could you come up and just,

you know, speak to the team. At that time,

Erick, I ain't have nothing. I'm like,

of course I'd love to come speak to the team.

And I ain't have nothing. All I had was like my eleven door to

do roof commandments and that's it.

And

I went up there, spoke to them.

They paid me like $300 in gift cards.

And I was excited. I'm like, my gosh,

like it's starting to work. And we just kept putting out content,

content, consistent, consistent.

Next thing you know, I started getting DMs.

People started hitting me up. So we started building momentum.

Certain roofing companies would reach out.

And then ~ first company that ever hit me up called American Roofing,

based out of Tennessee, they hit me up in 2020.

They was like, hey man, our guys love your videos.

We was wondering, do you come out and do in-person training?

I'm like, yeah, I can do it.

And I I charged them three grand,

which is laughable now. But I charged them three grand.

I came out there for a full weekend,

and that was my first training,

February of 2020. So I started in 2017.

I didn't really get booked for a full weekend training until 2020.

After that one training, it just caught crazy momentum.

I ended up training 10 companies in 2020.

I came back in 2021, we trained 30 companies.

We came back in 2022, we trained about 35,

40 companies. in 2022, I landed a deal with GAF,

which is one of our big shingle manufacturers.

They paid me to fly around the country.

I did all of their big EVS events,

which stands for Expert Value Speaker.

So I was one of their first speakers that did every regional event his first year,

because that's how highly requested I was.

And ~ ever since 2022, man, it's just been on a trajectory just out the roof.

~ I spoke at my first RoofCon at 2020.

I did every major speaking event.

I've been asked to speak at one since then.

I did my first keynote at RoofCon 2024.

I opened up the entire event. I did the first keynote and I spoke

at every major event, RoofCon,

Dotadokon, SRC Summit. I do trainings for supply companies,

manufacturers,

I've trained Atlas, the the entire Atlas shingle manufacturing sales team

and from from that first year in twenty twenty it's been on fire ever since.

Just putting out consistent content and growing and learning from some

of the best in the industry and then coming back and teaching that to

all of the sales reps.

That's awesome. I love the entrepreneurial spirit in that story that

~ somebody calls and asks for something you've never done before and

the answer is yes.

Yeah.

I I don't know how we're gonna do it or I don't know what it's gonna look like,

but if you're gonna pay me, the answer is yes.

Let's do it. I had

nothing prepared. For the first training I ever did,

I had nothing prepared. Just went out there,

talked to him for an hour, and we knocked doors every day for like seven hours.

And now we got a way better structured training program when we come

out and train people. We got an online academy now.

Like we got so much more structure and like we've we've we've built something that

allows people to come here to facilitate the growth.

But in the beginning, it was just getting out there and figuring it out as we go.

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Well, I know y you know, you didn't do much for a formal college education.

y you mentioned that y you're an extrovert,

you have a lot of just kind of natural people skill and talent in that arena,

but ~ moving into speaking professionally at gigs that size,

did you do anything to develop your speaking skills and your presentation skills,

or is that something that just came pretty natural to you?

it came pretty natural, but also like I said,

I went to a performing art school as a kid.

So I've all I've been speaking in front of crowd since I've been ten years old.

~ yeah.

So,

you know, I I did monologues in front of a crowd of like three hundred people when

I was eleven years old. Like I said,

I used to rap battle.

When I was in college we was making music,

the last dance of the year, I got to get up and perform in front

of the whole college, like we did a whole performance in front the whole college.

So speaking in front of people was easy.

The part that I had to learn to develop was structures and systems and processes.

I'm just a natural

performer. Like I just know how to get up on stage and do my thing.

Like I can improvise at the highest levels,

but I'm way more structured now.

We know how to put together talking engagements and things like that.

But I now I never did no preparation.

Now I did I have attended a lot of events.

I paid for a lot of training. I read at least two books a month for

the last nine years.

So since we started creating roof hustlers,

I read at two books month two two books a month.

I go to at least three to four conferences a year.

I've paid for numerous coaching and training programs from Coach Michael Burt

to Erick Thomas to Myron Golden to I've learned from some of the best

in the industry. So I've been in I've been around a lot of great people where I've

learned how to speak and I've been coached on speaking.

But naturally, yeah, it just came to me.

But I also paid to polish these skills up.

Okay. And so are you still doing any sales kind of y yourself or an income driver,

or are you a hundred percent on Roof Hustler now?

We're a hundred percent on roof hustlers,

so we do about forty trainings a year where we fly around the country coaching train

sales teams. I'm also a national sales coach and trainer for a company that

I came on board for this year.

we have our own online academy.

I'm also a mentor in another coaching academy.

my boy Adam Benzman. I'm I'm a mentor in his academy.

And I'm just always coaching, training,

mentoring people. But the reason I stopped selling was because about twenty twenty

two I closed the deal.

And I'm in the house selling the homeowner.

And they like, We're so excited to work with you.

And I'm like, I'm excited to work with you too.

Like, I feel you. And there's like,

No, no, no, we know who you are.

And I'm like, What you talking about?

And then the homeowners flip her phone around and she's showing me

all my YouTube videos and like all of my my clips on Instagram.

And that probably was the last time I sold somebody because it's very difficult

to sell, you know,

five hundred thousand to plus a million dollars worth of roof while you're

on the road coaching and training and then you got installations and

you can't be there. So I just wanted to protect my reputation.

So I stopped selling intentionally in twenty twenty two and we've been full time

roof hustlers, coaching and training,

mentoring since twenty twenty two and beyond.

Okay.

Was that a a scary jump to make?

Was it tough to kind of give up the income from a a successful sales career

or was that an easy transition?

I was terrified. Actually, I had a lot of internal conflict.

The thing I battled was I built my brand around selling,

right? So the reason why people followed me is because I was I

was giving out insight, I was giving out perspective,

giving out strategies, tactics,

principles, but I was also still closing deals.

So the sales reps loved that like I was in the game.

They was like, Man, we love that,

yeah, you you get put out videos,

but you closing deals like us.

And I had an internal conflict of

How do I still keep the integrity of the brand when I don't sell roofs anymore?

And ~ one of my coaches said, How do you show other people how to elevate

if you don't elevate yourself?

Mm.

Like, how how do you show people like,

yeah, you can go be a coach and trainer,

but you still gotta sell roofs to to make it work?

And I was like, Man, you you right.

And I'm a just a firm believer that ~

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,

right? If you chase two chickens,

you catch none, right? Chase two rabbits,

you catch none. So I realized it's this book called Essentialism.

And the non-essentialist, he put 25% of his effort in every single direction,

and he thinks he's moving the needle.

But the essentialist just focus on one thing,

and he gives that one thing a hundred percent,

and he can really move that needle in the direction that he wanted to go.

So I was like, you know what?

Worst case scenario, if it don't work,

I know how to sell. Like I can always go back and just sell roofs.

Yeah.

And ~ we went all in on it and by the graces of God,

my calor had my calendar has been filled up every year from twenty twenty

one and beyond.

That's awesome. Good for you. What was the most difficult step

in building Roof Hustler?

~ I think the most difficult step in building roof hustlers for myself

was learning to quote unquote run a business.

And when I say run a business,

I don't like like everybody say they run a business,

I don't necessarily technically have a business.

I got a high paying job. Why? Because my business don't run without me.

Like I am the business. People want Deshaun to come out,

culture train their sales team.

But the part that I had to develop was

business acumen, business principles,

meaning as developing contracts,

Asking people for twenty thousand dollars.

It's not easy. Everybody think it's easy to just tell somebody it's twenty thousand

dollars to come and train you for the weekend,

and everybody gonna be excited.

So it took me a while to develop business acumen,

half up front, half when I'm done,

developing the contracts, the questionnaires,

the follow-up strategies, doing coaching calls after you do

the trainings because I'm just such an energetic person.

I just wanna come in, get your people geeked up,

rah, and then I leave. And then one of my coaches was like,

What's

your follow-up? I'm like, follow-up.

They're yeah, what you do once you come in and train them.

How do you keep them producing?

I'm like, I didn't even think about that.

So so we had to create all of these systems and processes.

So that was the most difficult part because I'm not a very detail-oriented person.

So when you're not detail-oriented,

it's very difficult to come up with those systems and processes.

So that's probably the most difficult part for me:

the actual business acumen, right?

Like those.

system driven and process driven things that allow you to thrive because once

I once you get me in the building it's game time.

But it was just developing all of those things.

But other than that, everything else is pretty easy.

Okay. Well that maybe ~ runs right into my next question.

~ what is your favorite aspect of your job and what is your least favorite aspect?

My favorite aspect of my job has to be coming into

an environment, humbling a group of egotistical salesmen.

Cause these guys be making $150,

$200, $300,000 a year, $600 grand a year,

and they use money as the scoreboard.

So how do you get a guy that makes over $300,000 a year to look at you and be like,

yeah, show me, coach me, right?

So my favorite part is coming in and breaking them down and building them back

up and

Showing them that is levels to the game,

right? Money isn't the ultimate deciding factor that shows if you actually kill

in the game, because in the roofing industry,

you don't gotta be good to win at it.

Like you can suck and still make money in the roofing industry.

But are you a good dad? Are you a better like are you a better man?

Do you grow? Have you been in the roofing industry for twenty years or have

you been growing for twenty years?

And a lot of people aren't growing,

they're just existing. So coming in and showing people that is a new level to it,

that's probably the most exciting part.

Cause when I leave, you know, a lot of these grown men on day one is kinda hesitant,

reluctant. On day three, they're like,

Do you gotta leave? Like, man,

we love you being here. Like we we ev everything you've brought out of us.

Like we we're excited about that.

So helping people tap into that next level,

probably my favorite part. the part that I enjoy the least would probably be

All of the email that come after me doing the trading.

I know it sounds silly, but it's like I gotta send all of the documents,

I gotta send all of the PDFs, I gotta set up new co like all the detailed stuff.

I just despise it, man. It's not an excuse not to be good at it,

but that's probably the part I enjoy the least.

Yeah, I can get that. ~ it sounds like you provide a lot more than just sales

training, kind of a

yeah.

a comprehensive training to to level up to become that better man.

I mean what when someone hires you for a training,

what can they expect to get? What kind of change can they expect out

of their ~ salespeople and and where does the inspiration come for those things that

you add outside of just tactical sales?

~

well I just learned early in the game that

In order to help somebody get better at sales,

you don't actually help them get better at sales,

which sounds counterintuitive.

It's like, what you mean? You don't help them get better at sales,

get better at sales. You help them become a better person.

You help them become a better man,

right? You help them develop better habits,

better thought process, more discipline,

more integrity. Show them what it's like to have principles in their life.

Show them what it's like to develop your self-talk.

Like all of these internal drivers that once you spend more time working on demand,

your sales will naturally improve.

You don't work on sales and then improve.

No. So I learned that early in the game because a lot of my mentors,

they're not necessarily salespeople,

they're personal development people.

And I learned that my sales went through the roof when I started working on

the inside, like taking care of the inside,

the the the inner work, right?

Developing better habits, developing a better thought process.

Like I'm a certified mental performance coach because I learned that

the better you can control your mind,

the better you can control your suc success,

the better you can control your life.

So yeah, we teach sales, tactics,

strategies, and principles, but the ultimate goal is we want to help

you become the best version of yourself.

Because in our industry or in life in general

God God gave us three simple instructions when he first created this universe.

He said, Be fruitful, have dominion,

and then multiply. So to be, to do,

and to have. The problem with most industries,

they just do, do, do so they can have,

have, have. But nobody becomes.

Right?

Mm.

So we are human beings, not human doings.

And everybody focuses so much on doing things so they can have the things that they

want. But if you don't become the better version of you,

You will do these things, you will have these things,

and then you will destroy these things because you haven't become

the person that you need to become to sustain the success that you are after.

So I learned that once I started getting coaching from my principals,

I'm like from my coaches, I'm like,

wow, okay. The ultimate goal in life is about becoming the best version of you,

right? And everybody says that,

right? Become the best

Yeah.

version of you, but nobody does it.

So

Yeah.

we we get people out their comfort zone.

To start becoming the best version of you.

So what does it look like when I come out and train?

Day one, we come through and we dismantle the mindset.

We challenge people. We we we tell people the reason why you don't go

to that next level is because you're immature.

Most salespeople are very immature.

So now I got grown men in a room,

like, dang, am I immature? Yes,

you are, right? So we challenge their maturity.

And then the first thing we do is we we we develop the mindset.

We give them eight to kin eight to ten key principles,

what we call the epitome of a hustler,

which is once you change the way you think,

you'll change the way you live.

Right? So we we develop the mindset on day one.

I

also come out, I do one-on-ones with every single sales rep.

So I sit down with every sales rep individually,

like what we're doing. I make them fill out an evaluation sheet.

What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses?

Areas I need to improve, new skills I want to develop.

And we sit down and we unpack everything.

We give them strategies, tactics to overcome weaknesses and the things that they

want to improve. we do office training where we actually teach the skill sets.

And then after we done with office training,

we actually go in the field. I go in the field and knock doors with the sales team.

Can show them how to implement the skill sets that we just taught them.

And then after a full weekend of training,

I sit down with the leadership team and I I I

I show them all the gaps in the game,

what they can do to start leading the sales team better,

what this sales guy needs individually,

what this sales guy needs, who got the potential to be a leader,

who need to be fired. Like all of these little insightful things.

I know it's not crazy, Erick, but I'm like,

why you got this guy here? Like,

what's the purpose of this man?

So ~ we we do a very holistic training to when I'm done,

it's not about motivation. We create a transformation.

We don't motivate, we activate people.

Good stuff. Well, a a lot of what you said there reminded me of one

of my favorite quotes. It's hanging above my desk.

It says, ~ is your charisma taking you places that your character can't keep you?

So you you talked a lot about kind of the comprehensive training,

becoming a better salesman by becoming a better man.

I know you dove into this industry relatively young,

twenty five. I know you mentioned a lot of mentors,

but how did you develop this process?

Where did that incredible wisdom come from about developing a a a better man?

Is that something that you kind of intuitively learned,

or is that did that come from somewhere?

~ well I grew up without my pops,

right? So my dad wasn't really in my life like that,

and then he died when I was fourteen.

So my entire life I've been trying to figure out what it is to be a man.

Like I was raised by women, so I don't care what nobody say no woman

can teach you how to become a man,

right? She can teach you how to treat a woman,

but she can't teach you how to become a man.

So I always wanted I always had like a natural pool of like what does

it look like to be a a better dad,

a better, you know, boyfriend,

all of those good things. So I just started seeking men who already embodied those

things that I wanted to become.

Right. So Erick Thomas, one of my favorite mentors,

he'd been married for

35 plus years, no adultery,

was homeless, got a PhD,

you know, he's very he's a pastor,

he's very like God-driven. So he was one of my coaches,

~ Coach Michael Burke, which was phenomenal coach.

He believes in the seven highly effective habits of,

you know, by Stephen Covey, which is you work on the mind,

the body, and the spirit. Another one of my coaches,

Myron Golden.

Everything

he teaches biblical principles.

So I started learning. I'm like,

man, the most successful people that I look up to,

they all principle driven and they principles is what guides their behavior

to becoming better men. They're not very emotional.

So I always say, people ask me all the time,

how do you find mentors? How do you find I say

The mentors you're looking for should be based off the season of

the life that you're in. So if you're trying to develop sales,

you want to go find a good sales coach.

If you're trying to become a better man,

go def go go follow somebody that got good principles,

good standards, good morals, right?

If you're trying to get your finances in order,

maybe you should find somebody that's good with money.

So just the men that I looked up to,

one thing I never noticed about them,

well the th the biggest thing I noticed about them was they wasn't talking about

money in the sense of like, I make a million dollars a year and this and that.

They was like

I'm present with my kids. I've never cheated on my wife.

you know, I'm I'm governed by biblical principles.

Everything is about being a better person,

showing up in life. So that's what really inspired me to want to become this better

man. And I just noticed as we started coaching and training more people,

they was already making money.

Like that wasn't the issue. They was already making money.

It's just they wasn't investing into themselves.

They wasn't doing any inner any inner work to have a better life.

Good stuff. A lot of wisdom there.

I know a a lot of people are pretty intimidated by sales.

That's a a scary thing for them.

Why is that? Why are most people afraid of sales?

And this is just my opinion. ~ first and foremost,

I think the biggest reason people are afraid of sales,

I think the number one thing is rejection.

I think a lot of people minimize rejection.

But ~ it don't feel good talking to thirty people a day and they all telling you no.

Right? Like, I don't care who you are,

you need a certain level of like internal confidence to know that they're

not telling you no. They're just saying they're just saying no.

Like it has nothing to do with you.

And most of us work professions where you don't you don't deal with that much

rejection, bro. When you work at a grocery store,

you know, people excited to come to the grocery store and buy groceries.

You work at a restaurant, they came there to eat food,

serve me at a high level, right?

if you're if you're a fitness instructor,

people coming to you to, you know,

get in shape. But us we going to complete strangers,

knocking on your door,

And

trying to persuade you about a product that you might know you need,

but you don't want to spend that type of money on.

Yeah.

And it takes a lot for people to get told no all the time.

So I think rejection is one of them.

I think the second reason why people are afraid of sales is I don't think people

enjoy routine that much. I don't think people enjoy systematic ways of thinking.

I think most people enjoy doing what they want to do.

man, I don't need nobody telling me what to do.

I want to do what I want to do.

And in order for you to be good at sales,

phenomenal at sales, you need a systematic way of thinking.

You gotta be okay with being put in a box to outgrow the box

to do phenomenal things. AKA you need a script,

you need a system, you need processes,

you need, you know, certain things that you do with every single person.

And you gotta become obsessed with mundane,

tedious like tasks.

And I don't think people enjoy that,

man. People like doing whatever they want to do.

And I think then the two things I think that really hold people back from sales,

rejection and then systematic ways of thinking,

like doing a routine every day to get the same results.

It that's really interesting. I've heard a lot of salesmen that I've talked

to is that the thing they love about sales is that it's not necessarily routine.

you know, they get a lot of diversity.

They get to be out in the field and kind of do what they want.

But you're saying the the most successful ones,

you still get you get a diversity of clients,

of environment. You're out in the field doing your thing,

but you need to have routine systems in place to be as successful as possible.

1000%. Like I tell like I like to use everybody loves sports,

but you think of any good song,

any good athlete, like it don't matter what it is,

Steph Curry shoot the ball the same way every time.

Like he never changed up his shot.

Like the diversity is you get to play different people every game,

so you get to use different skills on people.

But to make that three-pointer shot,

it's the same mechanics. And

When in sales, it's the same mechanics to get to the the same results.

You might be dealing with different personalities,

the day might be diverse. Like you never know what you're gonna get,

right? You can go out there, one day it's a phenomenal day,

the next day you're dealing with like crazy people every day.

But that systematic ways of thinking,

that routine, that beginning, middle,

end, those asking those buy-in questions,

those walking people through the process all the time,

that thing never changes. And

I tell people if you say something different in every single sales scenario,

you're probably not winning at a high level.

Man, there's a lot of wisdom there.

if you guys are listening on 2x speed,

you need to slow this down and listen to that again.

So I know y you just talked a lot about you know,

rejection hearing no. ~ I know one of the talks you give,

something you talk about a lot,

is the art of no.

Mm-hmm.

why is learning to be comfortable hearing no so valuable and how do people do that?

Well, first and foremost, we as salespeople,

we will avoid difficult conversations so we don't gotta hear the things that

we really need to hear or wanna hear.

Mm.

And

know is one of ~ Like, who wants to meet a girl,

right? And ~ three days talking to her,

you ask her the most difficult questions possible and it don't align with where

you see your life going and you say,

You what, you gorgeous love. This just don't make sense though for

us to keep talking. Let's just let's just end this right now.

Nobody wants to do that. They will play that game for six to eight months,

knowing there's no alignment, knowing that they're not going in the same direction,

but they like, maybe I can change their mind.

So they will they will waste eight months of their life trying to date somebody

or trying to become with some,

like get together with somebody,

and eventually everybody just says,

I just don't think we we going in the same direction.

So it took them a year to get to the know that they could have got to

the no in three weeks, right? It's the same thing with sales.

If we are to kill the deal, let's get to the no early.

So let's just talk about those uncomfortable things.

What is your budget? Our minimal,

our minimal level of engagement is our average homeowner spends anywhere between

$2,500 to $5,000. If we're just talking about people going through the insurance,

right? If you sell a retail rules,

our average client spend anywhere between twelve to twenty thousand dollars.

Is that within your price range?

If they like, nah, you know what?

We might not be a good fit. Hey,

you stay blessed. Let's move on.

Like, let's

Let's get to the no as soon as possible before we expend any unnecessary resources.

And sales reps would rather lie to themselves and be like,

no, I got this one. He he thinking about it.

No, this guy, he like in the process.

This dude told me, like, yeah,

he wanna buy, but like we took that like because it feels better to

lie to yourself and make you feel like you got something that's keeping you busy,

right?

When in reality you just say, you know what,

they not a good fit. I'm gonna go find five new clients.

I'm gonna go pursue ten new clients.

So let's get to the note early.

I don't like to waste my time.

And I used to be extremely nice my first year in sales.

Well the nice guy finished last.

That is like a universal principle.

I always tell people, Erick, you know why the friend zone exists?

Like with men and women? Cause it's men stupid enough to live in it.

That's why the friend zone

~ man.

exists, bro.

You know what I'm saying? So it's the same thing with sales.

You would rather live in limbo than to just get a definite answer.

So we teach our sales reps, man,

let's get to the no early, bro.

Ask them as many uncomfortable questions as you can on the front end.

And if it makes sense, cool. If not,

cool. Let's let's not waste our time.

I I would imagine that probably actually increases your ~ success and sales 'cause

a a lot of customers probably appreciate that.

They nobody likes the long winded sales pitch.

Nobody likes the person that keeps bugging them after they've tried to

say no nicely a few times. so somebody that can just get out front and say,

Hey, is this a fit or not? And if it's not,

I'm gonna leave you alone. ~ y you you probably close more deals with that approach

than the

The long way around, is that accurate?

Then yeah, then trying to be the nice guy,

you definitely save yourself some time.

Now, is it some homeowners that need time to think about it?

Yeah, that's a real thing. But even with them,

let's give them the opportunity to tell us no.

Hey, so Mr. Erick, we already talked about the good,

the benefits, how I can serve you,

if the numbers make sense, and we've talked about worst case scenario,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do you just set up a definite day?

Hey, I'm gonna follow up with you on Wednesday,

Mr. Erick. May you just let me know yes or no whether this makes sense

for us to move forward.

And you give them the freedom to say no.

Because I've learned through studying and falling in love with human nature

and just sales and everything,

88% of humans are non-confrontational.

The word no falls under the level of confrontation.

Like people don't like that word no because they feel like it's gonna come with

pushback, or it's gonna come with,

you know, that's like if you like,

Deshaun, man, you should come to my party on Saturday.

Instead of saying, thank you so much for inviting me,

Erick, but no, I can't make it.

I already got prior obligations.

People would rather say this. ~ man,

yeah, let me see what let me see if I can make it.

Yep.

No, let me let me see what I can do.

And then the day of the party,

they want to be like, ~ man, something came up.

Sorry, I couldn't make it. You knew you couldn't make it the day he asked

you to come.

Yeah.

But instead of just being direct and having these,

you know, very uncom candid conversations,

people would rather beat around the bush.

And that's why people struggle with sales.

Hmm. Well, as much as you can have those uncomfortable conversations and

get to that no early, I know I mean part of sales is helping people overcome

barriers and ~ being a little bit persuasive.

What what are the most common mistakes that people make when trying

to persuade someone?

they're bad listeners.

Mm.

That's that's the that's first mistake,

they're bad listeners. and what do I mean by that?

Most sales reps think the more you know,

right, and then the more you share,

they'll buy. But I believe in the opposite.

I need my homeowner to talk more than I talk.

How do I do that? By asking them great questions.

And then after I ask a great question,

I should just listen. Just shut up and listen.

Because information changes situations.

So if I can't get the information out of my homeowners,

how can I close them? And at the end of the day,

it's my responsibility to get my homeowners to feel good about buying.

It's not my job to necessarily convince them,

and I'm glad you use the word persuade,

not convince, right? So it is my responsibility to persuade my homeowners

to want to buy. But first thing I gotta get them feeling good about buying.

How do you get people to feel good about buying?

You get them to talk about themselves or you get them to talk about what

it is that they're after, right?

What it is that they want. So I think most sales reps struggle because they spend

more time talking than they do listening.

And the second thing that I feel like a lot of sales reps struggle with is it's

a s like it's simple, obviously it's sales,

but most people don't want to ask for the sale.

Like they hope if they spend enough time with that person,

they'll be like, let's do this.

And it don't work like that way.

You gotta listen.

Ask really good questions and then ask those buy-in questions.

What would stop us from doing business today?

If I'm able to get the price where you need it to be,

like, do you believe we the company that can execute on the things that

we said we'll do? Yes. Do you like me?

Yes. Is there any reason why we couldn't do business today?

No, I like everything that I'm hearing right now.

Also like just those buy-in questions and just being a good listener

and then asking them do they want to buy.

My first year, Erick and I sit in the house with somebody for an hour

and a half hoping they say yes.

You what I Because I'm like, if they like me,

I like them. They wanna do this.

And if I ask them for the business,

they won't like me no more. So I'm just gonna wait till they wanna do it.

Mm.

And I just learned that a lot of people are bad listeners because they figure they

got more information. The more they share,

the more people will wanna buy.

But actually the more information you give people,

the more they gotta think about it,

the more they gotta think about it.

It delays the the buying process.

And then just asking them for the sale,

baby. But I learned this years ago.

One of my coaches taught me, ~

The main reason why people do anything in their life,

in life in general, is just 'cause they feel like it.

Mm-hmm.

So so it's my responsibility to get my homeowner feel like buying.

Yeah. I know I always looked at it as ~ rather than selling something,

we're here to solve someone's problems.

And so you have

Mm-hmm.

you have to listen to hear what their problems are and then decide whether that's

in your capacity or not to solve ~ Because

To solve.

I I made a personal rule a few years ago that ~ I don't buy any products that solve

a problem I didn't know I had before the salesman called.

Like if if I have a problem, I will go find the solution and I don't mind spending

money to solve it. But if I didn't have a problem before you told me about it,

that's not a problem I need to spend money to solve.

So if you're not listening,

Amen.

you're not hearing what their problem is and and you can't solve it.

And ignorance is truly bliss, right?

So what we do in roofing sales,

that's what we do. We do exactly what you said.

We'll give you a free inspection.

And now we done found a problem you didn't even know you had.

You had a hole in the roof, you got damage on the roof,

you got leaks coming in. Cause it's a this off a fresh door knock,

right? So it's my responsibility to provide the information

to make my homeowners want to solve their own problem.

It's not my

Mm.

responsibility to try to solve that problem.

Right. I look at it like this.

I've never met somebody with a flat tire air that I had to convince them

to change it.

Yeah. Good stuff.

You know, somebody with a flat tire,

they say, Help me. Man, I need you to help me change this tire.

So once we identify the problems,

it's my responsibility to educate my homeowners about that issue that I found

to the point they look at me and say,

Well, what I need to do next? And then they want to solve their own problem,

which means they feel like doing this,

and it makes sales ten times easier when people want to solve their own problem.

man. Well I know you've trained now thousands of salesmen.

you are kind of the name in sales training,

at least in the roofing industry.

in your experience, what separates successful salesmen from unsuccessful?

Can can you tell when you start a training which ones are gonna really

do well and which ones aren't?

yeah, it's it's pretty evident.

and it's basic stuff, but I've learned,

man, it's the basics that's hard to do.

Like, everybody wanna do the the fancy stuff.

The basics is the most difficult thing to master.

So the few signs that show me somebody gonna be a successful salesperson,

first and foremost, they're extremely humble,

which means they're good, but they looking for inches.

Like they looking for inches. I go train a sales company and it'd be the top guy.

That's like, I'm so excited to sit down with you,

Deshaun. I'm so excited you here.

Man, I'm just trying I'm trying to get better.

And it'd be a guy in the middle of the pack that's like,

man, why they brought him out here?

Man, what what we need training for?

So the ability to be coached. Because the best in the world,

they all got coaches. Chris Brown got a dance coach.

Beyonce got a vocal coach. Tom Brady,

he won six Super Bowls. He still had a coach.

So the guys that's eager to get coached,

they usually outperform everybody else.

~ so that's one thing I noticed.

They're coachable, ~ humble, right?

The second thing I've learned is ~ typically the best reps that I run into,

they have a they have a hunger for learning.

Which means they don't live on their heel of wisdom,

right? They don't be like, Well,

I know this, I know that, I know this,

I know that. They actually more excited to figure out the things that they don't

know.

And most sales reps, ~ I meet a lot of guys,

man, I've been doing this ten years,

man. I've been doing this twelve years,

thirteen years. And I'm like, Yeah,

but you in the same spot, dog.

Like all you still sell. Why you ain't elevated to a GM or something,

you know what I'm saying? Like why haven't you expanded yet?

And it's because of some things that you don't know.

So another thing I see is the reps that's eager to learn.

They always learn and they're always chasing knowledge,

reading books, going to events,

going to conference, going to seminars.

Cause our industry, the roofing industry,

unfortunately, is one of the most it's so weird,

man, 'cause our industry is the only industry where people talk

bad about conferences and getting training and getting coached.

But I've never met an athlete

Yeah.

who performs at the highest levels on his own.

Yeah. You know, but sales reps in our industry they they just so arrogant about it.

So the people that enjoy like continuously learning,

the people that are culture. And third one,

I just say the people who possess

a lot of aqueous. And what is aqueous?

to reluctantly accept the thing without protest.

Which means anytime you get some high coaching in your life,

most people gonna ask you to do things that's counterintuitive to how

you would do it. And some of the best sales reps I've met,

they'll be like, mm, I wouldn't do it that way,

but I'm gonna trust you. And they'll do it.

And then they'll get results. And they'll be like,

dang, I never thought about doing it that way.

And they stuck that's how you add new tools to your tool belt,

right? To do something that you normally wouldn't do.

But I'm try it anyways. And boom,

now you now you're getting results that you haven't experienced before.

So to break it all back down, they're coachable,

right? They they humble, they possess a n a certain level of humility.

They're always ego eager to learn.

Like they they never sitting on they know everything.

They like, okay, it's always another level to go to.

And they're willing to do things that they normally wouldn't do,

that's uncomfortable, but they know it'll help them grow.

Hmm. Well, Deshaun, I know you said that you kind of came naturally to sales.

You have quite a bit of natural charisma.

You're a people person. You like to talk.

for someone that isn't that, do you think that work ethic can overcome

a lack of natural charisma in sales or or do you need that raw talent?

No,

I think I think you could put in the work to get better at this.

I I've seen guys do it numerous times.

I've seen some of the most introverted people learn how to put on a show.

They've learned how to l like they'll almost go into the field

and become a completely different person just for three,

four hours.

Yeah.

And then when the day over, they go right back in their shell.

Like they just right back to being quiet.

But it's it's a constant pursuit of improvement.

So

Me, I was naturally a people person,

right? So it was easy to talk to people.

The difficult thing I had to learn how to do Erick was close people.

I couldn't close in the beginning.

Like people either went did business with me because they really liked me,

but I had no s no no closing techniques.

I wasn't bold. I wasn't firm. Man,

I used to run from uncomfortable conversations,

all of those things. So I was a natural people person.

I wasn't a natural firm person.

So I developed those skill sets over the years,

being more firm, being more direct,

like improving my grammar, and improving my vocabulary.

Those things I had to work on.

So I do think an introverted person could be phenomenal at sales because

It just ha it's about having the awareness to be like,

okay, this is what I'm naturally good at.

What comes difficult to me? Okay,

these things come difficult. Okay,

how do I dedicate time to work on these skills?

Instead of relying on my strengths too much,

how do I, you know, improve some of my quote unquote undeveloped skills?

I don't want to call them weaknesses,

but maybe those skills are undeveloped yet.

So how do you develop those skills?

So I've seen a lot of guys that aren't people people that outsell the people people.

Okay. So y you mentioned that you learned some some new vocabulary,

some new language techniques to increase your closing ability.

what were some of those things you discovered?

What what are the differences in language between people that close

and people that don't?

I believe people who close are more assertive.

I think people that don't close a lot are very passive.

So, for example, when I was first like my first few years,

I would never ask people if they actually wanted to move forward.

It was just like, hey, it's just a free inspection,

man. If we find damage, you know,

we can show you how to help. But in reality,

you don't gotta do nothing, man.

We just it's just a free inspection.

So we would do a lot of free inspections,

then I'll come back and they'd be like,

well, you know, we we decided we don't want to do anything,

but we appreciate the inspection.

And I was like, I'm tired of wasting my time.

So what we did was something I developed and I learned was so before

we do inspection, we would say,

hey, if there is damage, you would want to take that next step to move forward,

right? If if we did find any issues,

you would want to take care of them before they got worse,

correct? Just asking those firm direct questions.

Boom. Sales numbers started going up.

following up with people that say they want to think about it instead of saying,

okay, just let me know and you're ready.

Cause that's that's me. I'm I'm not forceful.

At my core, I'm not a forceful person.

Hey, just let me know are you ready,

man? No big deal. I realize I had a pipeline full of people that want

to think about it. So I'm like,

okay, how do we start getting them to the finish line?

Hey, you already got all the information.

What's really stopping you from moving forward?

Because there's really nothing else left to think about.

We just need to make a decision.

So what do we do? What do we need to do to make you feel comfortable moving forward?

And those were things that I couldn't do because in my mind,

that was being too pushy, that was being overly aggressive,

and nobody likes pushy salespeople,

blah, blah, blah. And I just realized like,

no, you're not being pushy, man.

You're the facilitator. And as a respectful facilitator,

it's your responsibility to help people make decisions.

Man, Well, I know there's a lot of people kind of freaking out right now.

There's a lot of changes coming with ~ AI and automation of a

lot of sales processes. do you think sales is becoming easier or harder

in this new industrial revolution,

the tech revolution here?

I

love it, honestly. Like, it it's it's almost like I don't know if you ever play

you play Halo Growing Up, you play Halo?

~ probably not for twenty five years,

Yeah, I know, right? But you remember the first Halo that came out,

but Yeah.

right?

yeah.

Yeah. Like, I look at it now, it's like you Master Chief,

and then you got the little

The little computer that be telling you everything you need to know.

Like she do all the extensive detailed work.

She she map out the map. She tell you what type of enemies in there.

She tell how to best pursue the the the the best plan of action,

the best way to go in there and kill everybody.

And you're like, thank you. Boom.

Now they done eliminated eighty percent of your thinking.

Now you can just spend your 20% on the thing that you phenomenal at,

which is stepping in the house,

closing the deal, making money.

So I love the way AI is showing up.

If I can get an automatic response so I don't gotta text people back,

love it, right? If I can have it set up to do follow-ups for me,

I love it, right? If you can call my office and I can't answer the phone,

but I got an AI agent that can answer that phone and set up an appointment

for the next two days while I was asleep,

I love it. Now, I think it's an enhancement,

I don't think it's a replacement.

Now

People that's like relying strictly on AI,

your business, I don't think it's gonna thrive at the level that it should because

I don't I don't believe high tech will ever replace high touch.

Like, I don't think I don't think that'll ever happen.

It's like, what we gonna do in the future?

You gonna interview an AI on your podcast,

bro? Like

There there are people doing that right now,

but it's not something I want to listen to.

Exactly, right? It's like

so I do think it's so many benefits of AI.

I think it's a I think it's a beautiful learning curve.

I think it can close people gaps faster.

I see a lot of value in it. I mean the way we use ChatGPT to like help

us in roofing sales, man, we could be like,

hey, give us a list of ten areas that got hit with inch and a half storm within

the last six months. They'll cook it all up.

Brrrr.

They'd be like, do you want to know the income medium?

Yes. Brrrr. Which area got the most homeowners in it?

Br like they'll give you all of these details.

Now you're just that much more efficient.

But you can't go make it knock a door for you.

You can't make it go, you know.

I just think in the future, I think humans will get tired of AI.

And they'll just want to go back to talking to people.

It's just like a group of people out here that don't,

they're tired of iPhones. And they're like,

you know what? I'm going back to a flip phone,

bro. Like, I don't want to. Like.

See because it's too distracting.

So they're like, I want to go back to just using my phone and what it's for.

So I I I think it's a really good enhancement for what we're doing.

I I I think it's beautiful. I support it.

I used to be against it. I'm not no time for Chat GPT.

I I I like studying. And now I'm like,

I like studying a little bit more efficiently.

Good stuff.

Is there a lesson that you wish you would have learned earlier?

Yeah,

~ I probably would say the lesson that I wish I learned earlier when

I first got started in sales was the better you are

at having uncomfortable conversations,

the more money you'll make and the less tension you'll have in your life.

Right? 'Cause I've just learned all of the stress that comes from salespeople

or just humans in general, right?

Is usually for things is usually coming from things out of your control.

So you stressed about things that's not in your control.

Or it's things that in your control that you avoid.

And when I was young in the game,

I avoided any uncomfortable conversation,

man. Like I didn't wanna I didn't wanna do that stuff that made my stomach hurt.

And you know what I'm talking about.

Like it's just certain things you step into a conversation,

you like, I know this is gonna suck,

man. And you go in there and then it don't be as bad as you thought it was.

So I wish at a younger age,

at you know, twenty five, even younger than that.

learn how to have uncomfortable conversations because every uncomfortable

conversation doesn't have to be conflict,

it don't have to be an argument.

It's just like, hey, let's just talk about this very uncomfortable thing.

Let's get it out the way. Because I've learned the more you like run from it,

the bigger it gets.

So now I just like to have uncomfortable conversations on the front end.

Let's just get it out the way.

Whatever it may be, no matter who it is.

I don't I don't text people. I don't have uncomfortable conversations through text.

You either call me or to me it ain't real.

Yeah.

I listened to another podcaster that liked to say,

~ conflict deferred is conflict magnified.

And

Yeah.

It's bigger than it need to be.

So let's just deal with it early.

Yeah.

Is there an opinion you once held ~ strongly that you've changed your mind about

based on your experiences?

~

so many.

I guess say one of the biggest things I've changed my mind about was money,

right? And ~ I learned a few years ago,

those who can't talk about it don't make it.

And ~ I grew up in a household where we didn't talk about money.

I never knew how much money my mama made.

you ask somebody how much money they make,

they say that's none of your business.

And that was normal for me. So once I started getting around people that made money,

I've noticed how comfortable they was talking about money,

how comfortable they are asking for money.

So I was always taught money don't grow on trees.

All these like silly things. And then I'm like,

ain't money made out of paper?

You know, it's made out of paper.

Last time I checked

We need trees to make paper, so clearly it must grow on trees,

right? So it's just a lot of little simple beliefs that I've never thought about.

And I tell people the worst way you can go through life is

not questioning your beliefs. So I used to be that person that didn't like

to talk about money. I avoided asking homeowners like their budgets or

any of those things because it was uncomfortable for me.

And now I've learned this poor business acumen to be in any business environment

and you don't talk about money.

So that was one that I've outgrown.

So I talk to my kids about money.

My kids know when I leave in the house I'm making thousands of dollars.

Like I I give them money, we talk about money,

and I want them to always be comfortable.

I I tell my kids, ask me for money if you want it.

I might tell you no, but keep asking.

I might change my mind.

man, good stuff. Good stuff. I if you could go back to twenty five

and had the opportunity to do it again,

is there anything you would do differently?

yeah,

for sure. the first thing I would do differently,

I would start reading way earlier.

I wouldn't have waited two years to start reading books and going

to conferences and going to events.

I would have become more disciplined earlier.

I wasn't used to freedom. I came from a regular job,

man, like

When somebody tell you all you gotta do is knock doors four hours a

day and they're not breathing down your back and they like just go do what

you wanna do and just, you know,

report back your results.

I used to go chill with my homies for two hours,

then go outdoors for two hours and say I worked for four hours.

So like I wasn't really disciplined in the beginning.

So I would go back, read books,

educate myself earlier. I would get more discipline,

create a very strict schedule,

stick to it, put in the work. And I guess say the last thing I would

do differently from the beginning is I would have started studying success sooner.

I didn't really study success.

I treated it like a job. I was just like an employee when I first started.

I didn't really take ownership of what I was doing.

I was just doing my job. So I would go back and take ownership early

and understand that, okay, you're a ten ninety nine sales rep,

this is your business. Start treating it like it's yours and

not the company's business. And I pretty Don't get me wrong,

I still turned out good from the way that I started,

but I would have did that earlier.

Okay.

What mistake did you make that cost you the most money?

That's a good question. What mistake did I make that didn't call that cost

me the most money? it'd probably be something that we already kinda talked about,

which was ~ I didn't have enough uncomfortable conversations in the beginning when

I was dealing with homeowners.

I've had a few people in the beginning when I first got started,

I would help people get approved,

they'll take their checks and they will go do like something completely different

than what we discussed. You know,

like they would take their money and go on vacation,

they would take their money and you know,

pay for something they deem more important.

And I would be sitting there like

I thought you was a good person.

So like I thought ever so I would say I would I I would go back

and ~ I wouldn't have trust people so ignorantly.

Mm.

I tr I used to trust everybody.

I I no they said they gonna do it.

I would just take people for their word.

Now, like eleven years into the game,

everybody everybody who knows me know I love all my homeowners.

I don't trust none of I don't trust now.

I treat all like criminals.

I

I appreciate that attitude and yeah,

I think anybody that's been in probably any business for a length

of time feels similarly. You yeah,

Yeah. And

you

they be trying to make it seem like we the crooks.

Like you know like they make it like they reluctant of us.

Like, well, I don't feel comfortable paying you,

blah blah blah. It's like I don't feel comfortable with you getting the check.

That's what I don't feel comfortable with.

Yeah, yeah. ~

You

know? But nobody don't want to talk about that stuff because homeowners just

as shady as contractors.

yeah. Yeah.

You

know, and contractors just take the hit.

But homeowners, man, they so shisty.

So I don't try I would I wouldn't trust people as much as I do.

Mm. Okay. Well, I know you talk about reading a lot of books.

You've read two books a month for nine years.

You go to a lot

Yeah.

of conferences. You've had some ~ personal mentors,

~ maybe some more virtual mentors,

people that you follow and watch.

What has been your best resource to grow and develop?

my best resource for to grow and develop,

period, reading books. Yeah, I I think reading trumps everything.

Don't get me wrong, conferences is nice,

mentorship is phenomenal. you know,

programs, ~ academies, like little,

you know, if you could pay for like somebody's Patreon and get around those people

that have done high-level stuff.

But ~ the two I would say reading books,

because reading books do a lot of things.

First of all

It improves your comprehension,

your ability to understand understand things.

it also gives you twenty years of somebody's life and like a hundred

and fifty pages. So you can come out here and try to figure out things on your own,

or you can go learn from somebody that's already did it,

implement it, get results. So reading a book changed my life in ways

I didn't even know was possible,

man. Like after I read the ten X rule,

I made my first ten grand. it's taught me how to study better.

It taught me how to

It improved

my memory, my retention. Just ev but I I read a little bit different than most

people. I'll read a book and when I read a book,

let's say if I read two chapters,

I'll I'll close the book and I'll just find a blank page like in

my notebook and I'll recollect everything I remember.

Just write it all down. Just to keep the retention good.

Then once I write down everything that I remember,

I'll go teach it to somebody. Even if I haven't fully mastered it yet,

I'll go teach it even immaturely.

And that helps me retain the information better.

But reading is my my my number one go to.

Warren Buffett spent the first six hours of his day reading books.

Mm.

Because it's so many gaps in this world.

And this they say if you wanna hide something from somebody,

put it in a book.

I think that's becoming more and more true with ~ modern generations.

And now people like to fight me on this one,

Erick. They'd be like, But I'm listening to audiobooks.

Is it the same thing? No. No, not at all.

And they say, Well, why not? I say,

Okay, well, what's the last audio book you listen to?

They'll tell me I'll black well,

tell me what you learn. And they'd be like,

Well, you know, ~ exactly. Like,

you're not even t you're not even dialed in into the audiobook,

'cause let's just be honest, right?

If we had to be very practical.

If you listen into an audio book,

what you most likely doing?

Something else. Driving, yeah.

Driving, right? Most people driving,

right? Now if you're driving, most of the humans I know don't just drive.

Ha ha.

So you

probably you know what I'm saying?

You probably on your phone. You're probably you doing something.

So yeah the book is playing, but you're not really paying attention to the book.

Then you gotta go rewind it. You gotta go rewind it.

When I read a book, I can't do nothing but read.

I can't

read I can't like I can't talk to you right now and read a book and listen

to you it like it don't work like that.

So reading has changed the game for me in ways that I can't even describe.

It's it's improved my focus. It's improved my my mental stamina.

Like it's just so many benefits that come from reading books.

And then the second thing I would say is mentorship.

Yeah, paying somebody. You gotta pay to play,

man. You can't learn sh excuse my language,

but you can't learn nothing off YouTube,

bro. Like you can, but that's the free stuff.

You grow by paying to get around somebody and they sit down

and have conversations with you.

Like you doing podcasts, bro. You learn things from people that you can't

get off YouTube. Like it's

Yeah. All the time, every week.

all the time. It's so many benefits to the podcast.

First benefit is, yeah, you're building a community.

You you you influencing people,

you helping other people grow.

The number one benefit of the podcast is you get to get around people that

did amazing stuff. They get to teach you things.

And you're like, ooh, that's good.

I keep that for myself too. Ooh,

I keep that for myself too. So you get around people who typically

got to pay thousands of dollars to get an hour of this person's time.

You get it for free and you get extremely valuable information.

And nobody don't want to pay for that.

Everybody wanna be like, man, you you should fit,

man. You don't need these guys to teach you that.

Okay, well tell that to the guys that done paid to get around other high level

millionaires, learn one thing,

come home and change their entire business.

Man, good stuff. You're just full of wisdom today.

So w what advice would you ha have for someone that wants to do what you've done?

And when

you say do it out done, you mean roofing sales or do you mean like starting

I guess ~

your own endeavor?

Let's go. Starting your own endeavor.

Yeah, I feel like that's kind of your niche is it it's in roofing,

but the ~ the information, the tactics,

the the risk that you've taken is ~ common to a lot of industries.

It it wouldn't have to be roofing,

Mm-hmm. No, I don't.

I don't think, for you to be successful.

So

It's just roofing, like you said,

that's just our niche. That's just the vehicle that we've we've chose to impact.

I always tell people roofing just my congregation.

You know what I mean? Like I'm like a yeah,

I like that.

that's just my congregation. Them the people I preach to.

But if I was to give somebody advice on starting what I want to start,

first and foremost,

Trust your gut. So whatever it is you want to do,

go do it. Don't go run it by a bunch of people.

Don't go go run it by five people and be like,

hey man, I got this idea. What you think?

Hey, I got this idea, what you think?

No. Just go do it. Cause when I started Roof Hustles,

my kids and mom was like, I don't like that name.

And if I'd have listened to her,

I would changed the name. But Roof Hustles is like it's if you ask me it's

one of the best names in the roofing industry.

Why? It don't got nothing to do with Deshaun.

You know what I Everybody else brand got their name in it.

This this and that. Roof hustlers.

It it speaks to the community.

What do we do? We be hustling.

What we sell, roofs, bro, be roof hustling.

You know? So whatever your idea is,

trust it. Second thing is, give out value.

Value, value, value. Free value.

Give out free stuff. Why? Because the way God created this universe,

you reap what you sow. There's no such thing as

Putting out something and getting nothing in return.

Now you might not get it when you want it,

but it's gonna come in due time.

So don't run your idea by nobody.

Just you got an idea, trust the process,

go, boom. Second thing I would say,

find a way to bring value to the marketplace.

You gotta give before you get,

right? Give out free information,

education, some form of fashion that people can take practical stuff that they

can take, go implement, get results.

third thing I would say is build a brand.

Yeah, build a business, but build a brand.

People buy brands before they buy products.

People buy brands before they do b like before they buy your business,

right? So people buy brands. So roof hustlers is a brand.

Deshaun is the brand, right? People love me.

But they love the brand of roof hustlers and what it represents and who he is.

And I think most people try to

start a business or start an endeavor but they don't build a brand and what

is your brand your brand is what people is what people say about you when you're

not present that's your brand right marketing is what you want to tell people about

yourself so marketing is what you tell people about you branding is what people

say about you to other people so what is your brand it matters do you

got a brand that's not on time do you got a brand that's inconsistent

you got a brand of cursing you

You got a brand of being aggressive.

Like, be mindful of that. Everything you're doing,

you're creating a brand. And then

One thing I would say is ~ start where you at.

If if if you at ground one, kick it with ground one people,

level one people. Don't try to start something and go to somebody that's been doing

something for 20 years and be like,

hey man, can I can you promote my stuff?

Can you do no go go to a ground level guy,

other people, and then work your way up.

~ I feel like a lot of people don't respect the next level because they

so focus on the top.

Hm. Yeah.

And sometimes all you need is that next level,

right? Like my camera guy, I didn't go find the most expensive camera guy when

I got started. I met my camera guy because we was working out together.

I'm like, what you do? He's like,

I shoot videos. I'm like, that's crazy.

I do videos. I'm like, man, I need somebody to film me.

He was like, Really? I love to film.

Boom. That's how I met my cameraman.

Now we've done been doing business together for six and a half years.

You know?

Yeah. I think there's a lot

of ~ a lot of value to those relationships where it w when you're both hungry

and you can both help each other and that relationship is mutually beneficial,

sometimes those relationships,

those the business that comes out of that relationship grows a

lot better when you're both hungry and you're both at the same level than when

one of you's hungry and the other one's already successful.

They don't I I feel like they don't I feel like you're just a number then.

Yeah. You you're just another client.

You're the next guy. And a lot of the times you're the the little guy.

You know, they've they got big clients,

they've got really successful people they work with,

they've got their personal relationships already dialed in and you're just

the the extra that they threw in 'cause you were willing to pay.

You look at LeBron, he picked his best friend to be his manager.

Yeah.

He picked Rich Paul to be his manager.

Now, Rich Paul, one of the most well-known sports agents ever.

He ain't never managed a person in his life.

LeBron was the first person he ever did it for.

So LeBron, even LeBron being at the level that he was,

he didn't go find a level 10 manager.

He found a person that was right there with him,

bro. We both get into this NBA.

Women know what we're getting into.

Let's go kill the game together.

Right? So those are just some things.

Also, and then the last thing,

so first and foremost, don't run your idea by too many people,

right?

Trust your

gut. second I Build that brand,

right? and then most importantly,

the last thing I would say, get a customer before you get an LLC.

That's good. Yeah, I see stuff.

Maybe no Arta!

~

man. Everybody's all online. I had this great idea.

I registered an registered an LLC.

What do I do next? Like, man, you don't need to worry about the LLC till

you have some movement. Like yeah.

We did ten trainings. Ten trainings before we started Rufus.

You can operate as a

you can operate as a sole proprietor for a long time.

You can get the business going before you start worrying about everything else.

So Yep. Yep.

You could be an independent contractor.

Like

just a ten ninety nine. You go in and sell companies,

they just write you a ten ninety nine.

You was just a you was just tip work or whatever you want to call it.

But like you said, I know people that be like,

I got an idea, I got the name,

I got the logo. Here go to LLC.

I'm like, How many customers you got?

They like, none.

I'm like, man. So we we we we trained ten companies before we even created Roof

Hustle's LLC. Only reason I created the LLC because I sat down with some tax people.

They was like, You need to create a LLC now.

Like you making money. You need to figure that out.

So I was the opposite, man. I made money first and then we went back and

did all the business stuff.

Yeah. Good stuff. So i if you had to go back and start from scratch,

no roof hustlers, you're just a sales guy,

what would you do? Would you stick with roofing?

would you do something different?

no, if I can go back and start from scratch,

no roof hustles, no nothing. Like at twenty years old I'd have got in

the sales and I definitely would have sold roofs,

hands down. Yeah, because it's it's a high it's a high ticket commission.

You can make anywhere between two to five grand,

two to six grand per roof. it's a it's a business that's a need.

Everybody need a roof. every year a new market is opening up.

So what do I mean by that?

It's 2026. Now we can go back and knock doors that's built in 2008 because they're

getting 15 years old, 17 years old now.

So it's a constant opening of new markets every year.

Everybody needs a roof. And it's the it's it's the one thing that

I tell everybody if you're gonna sell anything,

don't sell commodities, sell needs.

Sell things people need. People don't need solar.

Solar is a commodity. People don't need pest control.

It's a commodity.

People don't need alarms. They should get but they don't need 'cause it's

a commodity. If you live in a really nice neighborhood where you

can leave your garage up, why would you buy a security system?

You know? But everybody need a roof.

Point blank period.

Good stuff. yeah.

You know what I'm saying? They might run from

it, but they gonna need one eventually.

Like you said earlier, it's that thing that nobody wants to buy though.

~ I I always said for my second career I'm gonna sell a commodity ~ commodity.

I wanna sell speed boats or four wheelers 'cause nobody has ever written

me a check and been excited about it.

Never.

You know what I'm saying? Cause I

Mm-hmm.

like you right, nobody ain't bought that jet ski and they like they they write

you that check for that jet ski,

they're like, Woo, I can't wait to take this on the water.

They write

Yeah.

you that check for that roof, they be like

Like it's a dr it's a drag every time,

Yep. They're never having a good day.

man.

you know, but hey,

I just I just improved your property value and I just gave you peace

for twenty years.

Yeah. Yeah, there's real value in it.

There's dignity in it, but nobody's ever excited to do it.

So

Never.

y you mentioned that the best resource you had to grow and develop was a book.

when can we expect a book authored by Deshaun Bryant?

~ that's actually something we get into the finish line this year.

It's called the virtues of the hustler,

which

Okay.

is the ten virtues you need to embody just to be able to do anything at

a high level or just sales, just life in general.

I'm a very spiritual person. I don't got no church home,

but I believe in a lot of biblical principles and I love virtues and I love

know, I like Greek philosophy.

I just love I love Eastern philosophy,

period, right? Yeah, because we Western philosophy.

So I love Eastern philosophy, period.

So I try to operate out of principles a vast majority of my life.

So I try to teach the men that I train.

Like, man, try to eliminate your emotions from certain scenarios,

like systems, formulas, principles,

and feelings. I believe those are four things that run our universe:

systems, formulas, principles,

and feelings. And I try to teach men to operate out of their systems,

their formulas.

And they principles. Be aware of your feelings,

but don't let them make decisions for you.

So we're creating the virtues of the hustler,

which is if you embody these virtues,

it'll lead you to success. So that's what we're working on this year,

man. I gotta get it finished. I gotta literally no lie,

Erick. It is 90% done. It's just I gotta finish one more chapter,

then I gotta send it out to get edited and all that good stuff.

So

Okay. And if someone wants to engage your services or engage with some

of the free resources that you have available,

what's the best way to find you and get a hold of you?

we easy to find. Anywhere you see the bow tie,

you'll see this guy. For y'all who don't know,

I wear a bow tie every day. I go out and outdoors.

I've been doing it since my second day of sales.

I've been wearing a bow tie every day.

And ~ our logo. ~ believe

W why is that? I I feel like there's gotta be a story behind that.

Why why is that?

it or not, ~ it ain't no deep story.

So what happened was we used to make music.

We did a music video where we all dressed formal.

And I wore a bow tie to the music video.

And my baby mama, she was like,

You look good in a bow tie. I'm like,

You think so? She was like, Yeah.

So then I get in the sales like two months after that.

First day we go out knocking doors,

no bow tie. And the dude that was training me,

like, we ended the day and I was like,

I got this bow tie at home, man.

I think I'm gonna wear it tomorrow.

And he was like, You should. I was like,

Yeah, I'm gonna try. So that next day I come out,

I wore a bow tie.

And ~ the reactions was priceless.

Like, I mean, everybody loved it.

Everybody's like, my gosh, I love your bow tie.

Like, you look so good in the bow tie.

And I was like, that's my differentiator.

How do I help myself stand out from other door-to-door sales reps?

Just look good while you're doing it,

right? And it's hard for people to forget me,

because if I knock somebody's door and they'd You already been here,

and I'll be like, You remember the bow tie?

They'd be no? I'd be like, well,

we've never met. Pleasure to meet you,

Deshaun. And like I go to my pitch.

And ~ it's just it's almost like a alter ego.

Once I put the bow tie on, it's game time.

You know? But yeah, that's how it came about.

Just taking risks, man. I've always been the guy that,

~ I'm a very rebellious soul. I don't I I hate doing what everybody else does.

You know. Like I on social media with people doing trends,

I refuse to do Yeah, I

yeah. I think that's probably true for

a lot of entrepreneurs. We like to be creative.

We like to do our own thing our own way.

we don't like to fit the mold and do what everybody ~ else is doing.

So, ~ but

Yeah.

then it l as you talked about earlier,

there's the the value to being you know,

disciplined with your system, your process and being in that box.

So I think there's a balance there.

It is. It's like Lil Wayne, and then I tell everybody where they can find

me at a lot of people get mad at Lil Wayne because he don't listen to other rappers.

And he'll meet a new rapper and they'd be like,

You don't know who I am? and he'd be like,

No. And they'll get offended and he'd be like,

I don't listen to rap music. Like,

I don't listen to new up and coming rappers because I don't want to

be influenced by them.

Always want

Mm.

my sound to sound original. So I was the same way.

I never watched nobody in roofing.

I've never watched the roofing sales trainer.

All of my training came from outside of the roofing industry.

And then I would bring it back to the roofing industry and teach them

the principles that I learned.

So that's why I train and coach so different than everybody else

in the roofing industry. Because I've never learned from nobody

in the roofing industry. But

Yeah. And so

i I mean, for the people you're training,

how how do you avoid that same pitfall for the people that you're training?

In what way?

well, I mean, now you're the guy giving the training in the roofing industry.

how do you keep them from just kinda parroting what you're doing

and having that influence? how do they make

~ yeah.

it their own and be original and kind of own it?

Well, one thing we don't teach is ~ we don't teach charisma.

We don't teach personality. we tell everybody,

be yourself. Like you learn these tactics,

learn these strategies, learn these principles.

But learn within the wheelhouse of you.

So if you're a very detailed introverted person,

I'm never gonna tell you to like get out of that box and be more intr extroverted.

I say, How do you just become the best introverted version of you?

Like

How do you step into your authenticity?

Because that's all I did. I was just being myself every day.

I wasn't trying to be nobody else but the best version of Deshaun.

So I teach sales reps. When we go out and knock doors,

so one thing I say, Erick, I'd be like,

what's up, lovely lady? How you doing today?

boss man, what's cracking, baby?

Right? And then I watch a sales rep be like,

hey, lovely lady. I'd be like,

don't say that again. Don't don't ever say that again,

Yeah. ~

bro. Like,

he'd be like, why you say it? I say,

because I say it in my everyday life.

Like that's my everyday language.

That's not something I say because I'm selling people,

right? That's how I like sales reps will be like,

man, how you get away with calling women's girls?

Because I'd be like, girl, don't need to worry about it.

Like I talk to I'm like, because that's how I normally talk to people.

So I don't want you to focus on trying to be me.

Be you. However, you talk to people in your regular life,

bring that to sales, right? Be your most authentic self.

But then just add the strategies,

the tactics, and the principles to who you are and then it it enhance it.

But don't don't try to be nobody else 'cause the you only know how to be one person,

which is you. The worst thing you can

Yeah. Good stuff.

do is try to be somebody else.

It's too much work.

Well back to

You know?

the back to the question there before we got sideline.

~ I know I'll I'll

Yeah.

put the link to Roof Hustlers in the show notes.

Are there other places that people can get a hold of you or engage with you?

Yep, like we say, anyway you the bow tie,

you'll see this guy. you can find us on Instagram at Roof Hustlers,

TikTok at Roof Hustlers. I don't use it that much,

but we there. YouTube, Roof Hustlers,

Facebook is Daeshawn Bryant, and that's D-A-S-H-A-U-N.

Cause for some reason everybody wanna spell it with a E.

I don't know why.

But anyways, Dayshawn Bryant, and anywhere you see Roof Hustles,

you'll see me, you the Bowtie,

you see this guy, shoot us a DM.

Say what's up. I saw you on the from the Ground Up podcast.

And I respond to 95% of my DMs,

unless you're one of those marketing people.

But everybody else, I respond to ninety-five percent of my DMs because

I love the people. Without y'all,

this wouldn't be possible and the brand wouldn't be growing the

way that it's growing. So we love and appreciate y'all immensely.

Good stuff. And ~ I know you focus primarily in roofing,

but it sounds like I mean, you just teach solid sales principles,

solid sales

Mm-hmm.

tactics. are you open to expanding the brand outside of roofing?

If if someone in another industry wants to engage your services,

~ is that available?

Yeah, I've actually trained marketing companies.

I've trained a marketing company before.

I've trained a HVAC company. They call and services.

I taught them how to go door to door and generate business.

HVAC.

I got a a realtor lady that I she saw me s my friend runs a networking group

and I trained in the networking group and she's like,

Can you come speak to all of my realtors?

I got a homie who who runs a football team and I came and spoke to

his football team as well. So we we we trying to let me phrase this,

we're going to expand outside of the roofing industry.

That is the ultimate goal. But like I said,

this my congregation, I'll never leave But yeah,

I'm open to any industry, baby.

I'll come in and bring that heat,

period.

Good stuff. Yeah, it sounds like the wisdom,

the principles that you bring are ~ pretty universal.

It's not specific to roofing and just going back to what you just said,

you you're not teaching someone how to sell a roof.

It you're teaching them how to sell,

how how to engage their own personality,

their own character in a unique way to ~ get people to make that decision they need

to make. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Good stuff.

Well, this is my favorite question.

~ you've kinda touched up against it a few different directions here,

but are you a person of a particular faith tradition?

And if so, how has that affected your career?

so I

I grew up in the church. Not heavy,

but my mom knows to make me go to church.

My dad was a deacon in the church.

So I always grew up in the church.

And ~ I'm a heavy, heavy, heavy,

heavy believer of God. I always say I do the sewing,

he do the growing. I'm not that good.

I'm the vessel. I it's just my responsibility to deliver the message.

But I have no specific religion that I believe in,

like no Catholic, no nothing like that.

But I do believe in the word of God.

I do do a lot of Bible study and I I believe in any and majority

of spiritual practices. So I'm heavily,

heavily anchored in my faith. I'm a firm believer that

Like I don't live in doubt. I don't doubt me.

And it ain't because I'm arrogant.

It's just because if you read the Bible,

the word doubt don't exist in it.

Like you can't even find the word doubt in the Bible.

So I don't doubt myself. And they said you only need the faith of a mustard seed,

right? But I got the faith of,

you know, like a like a like a peach seed,

like a big one, you know what I'm saying?

Like I got a lot of faith that the man upstairs always gonna make things happen.

I trained over 175, almost 200 companies over the last six years.

My first four years I have no website.

I've never paid for one marketing.

Ad like I I've never done nothing and I've sold I've booked my calendar every single

year. So people ask me, like, how you done this stuff,

Deshaun. I man, all I can do is I give all the glory to God.

I give all the graces to God. And like I said,

I do the sewing, he do the growing.

And every day, I pray every day before I knock doors.

Like it's non negotiable for me.

Like when we pull up in the neighborhood,

I get the whole team together,

we do a quick little prayer, and then we go knock doors every single day.

So I'm just very heavily faith based,

man. humans too.

imperfect for me to experience the things I've experienced in my life.

Okay. Well, is there anybody that you'd like to see on this show?

Somebody that has a a cool business,

a cool career, a cool story that you'd like to learn more about?

Adam Bensman. Like I know him,

but it'd be dope to hear some of the questions that you ask me.

It'd be dope to hear him answer some of those.

~ Kenny Brooks, the funny salesman.

It'd be nice to see him on here as well.

I'm a big fan of him as well. A big supporter.

I try not to be fans of people.

I like to support people. I know it sounds silly,

but it's like

There's a distinction.

Yeah, it's a distinction. Like I ain't no fan of no man really.

Like, but I'm big supporters of people 'cause we all human,

man. But

Adam Benzman, my boy Kenny Brooks,

the funny salesman. And let me think.

Who else I follow? Is this girl named

Low something. I don't know what she do.

I don't know her name. But she does high ticket sales.

And I found on accident on on Instagram.

But she a light skinned girl, got really curly hair,

and she does high ticket sales and she make millions of dollars and she just

be at the crib. Like she don't even travel.

She don't do nothing, just high ticket sales.

I think it would be dope to learn a little bit more about her as well.

Okay. Well, I might ~ ask you to make a connection offline here to a

few of those guys that you know and see if we can't get to come on

and learn a little bit more about what they do.

So

Yeah, I'm down.

awesome. Well, Deshaun, thank you so much for giving up the time to spend with us.

you are just full of wisdom. as we discussed,

I think the the principles that you teach,

the wisdom that you have is applicable far outside of roofing.

~ anybody that's in sales, anybody that interacts with humans

can probably benefit from the the principles,

the wisdom that you have to share.

So thank you so much for taking the time and sharing that with us.

Thank you for having me, man. It's an honor,

a privilege, and a pleasure. Like I said,

it's it's it's so much responsibility when somebody allows you

to interact with their communities and their people.

And like I said, I don't take it lightly in the beginning.

So thank you so much for having me on here.

Thank you for allowing me to be myself on here as well.

And man, you keep doing you keep doing what you're doing,

man. You ask really good questions.

You're a great podcaster, man.

It's rare you meet a dude that runs a podcast and he don't spend a vast majority

of his time talking about himself.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

And thank you guys for joining us here on From the Ground Up Show.

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