Dominick Fraser – Miami Vice Dishwasher to Top 100 Roofing Company

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show where we encourage and inspire blue collar leaders by telling the stories of those that have been there, done that, and

are usually still doing it.

They've built a business with their heart, their hands, and their hustle.

And today we are super honored to have Dominic Frazier of Frazier Roofing joining us.

So Dominic, welcome.

How's it going?

Dominic owns and runs Frazier Roofing, which is a top 100 roofing company, a title they've held since 2009.

He has been in business for since 2005.

So you guys hit the 20 year mark.

Congratulations.

Dominic is a husband, a father and a follower of Jesus.

So thank you for joining us, Dominic.

I'm super excited to dive in.

Thank you, Eric.

I'm happy to be here.

Awesome.

Well, to start out, like to hear, where did you come from?

What was childhood and growing up like for you?

That's how I start some of my interviews, by the way, I'm interviewing.

It's like, who are you and where did you come from?

just, so Dominic Frazier, I'm from Miami, Florida.

So go Cain's, go Cain's, even though, you know, we had a tough loss against Louisville last week.

uh My mom and my dad both met at the University of Miami.

ah So yeah, I grew up in a crazy,

family, uh Irish, Scotch Irish, uh five brothers, two sisters.

I was the middle child.

So yeah, we grew up in South Florida.

I just grew up on Biscayne Bay and just, you know, that's the only thing I miss about South Florida is the ocean.

Everything else, it changed after Hurricane Andrew, just on.

But that's a whole other story.

yeah, just the middle child.

I've been a jack of all trades throughout my 20s and 30s.

And I ran into roofing.

That's a whole, I'm sure we'll get into the story in my mid 30s.

So it's been a heck of a ride and God is good and he is faithful.

And yeah, man, just happy to help you in any way I can.

Awesome.

Well, you said your parents met while they were in college.

Do you have any formal college education or what did education look like for you?

Yeah, I feel kind of guilty for taking for doing five years of just having too much fun and not enough study.

uh So I went to Samford uh University.

And it's funny because when people were going, you went to Stanford?

I'm like, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

went this.

But no, went to Samford in Birmingham, Alabama.

uh I was a football player.

I was, you know, I was a pretty decent football player in high school.

And then I wanted to go play college ball, but I realized they were a lot bigger.

They were a lot faster and they were a lot stronger.

So I was like, forget this.

They hit too hard.

So I tried that for a year, but went to Sanford university and did the typical football.

Degree I got sociology degree which I have done nothing with in a minor and spit minor in Spanish Which I've done a lot with in the roofing industry

yeah,

that probably comes in handy, especially down in the southern United States.

you

Okay.

All right.

And you said you were kind of a jack of all trades.

You worked a lot of different jobs until your mid 30s.

Can you tell us a little bit about your work history?

Absolutely.

I would have never hired me.

By the way, if you saw my resume, you would never hire me.

uh I thought I was going to get into the family business.

So I'll start there.

The family business, I come from a line of really crazy, amazing entrepreneurs.

So my dad started a company called Royal Caribbean.

So Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, that was his.

So

wow.

It was his name.

So let me let me be very clear.

The name was his.

So him and Uncle Frank, young 20s, they had this company called Royal Caribbean and this guy by the name of Ed Stefan, this Norwegian says, hey guys, I really like that name.

Can I use it?

I'm starting up this cruise line and my dad being an entrepreneur and risk taker that he was goes.

Yeah, I'll give you the name of Royal Caribbean, but I would like to be your caterer.

I would like to cater all the food,

all the beverage, all the personnel, all the entertainment.

And Ed Stefan looks at my dad and goes, Lou, that was my dad's name, Louis.

Lou, what do you know about catering?

He's like, nothing, but I know how to run a good team in an organization.

Give me a shot.

for nothing, my dad gave Ed Stefan

the name

Royal Caribbean and he did build at one point in time after all the years of helping Royal Caribbean grow.

My dad was the number one caterer in the world and he was catering to the United States military, United Nations, Brown and Root, the list goes on.

But at one point in time, my father, Louis Frazier was the largest caterer in the world and I was his guinea pig.

um

My older brother, my older brother, Lou Jr., or Louis the second, he was the president of the company, 4.0 student, super, super sharp.

I was the C student, know, 2.0 student.

And my dad sent me off to the, the war zones.

was in the Haiti conflict.

I was in the Bosnia conflict and I was pretty much a jack of all trades again, like helping my, uh, my dad set up kitchens.

Because as a prerequisite to go work with my dad He said son you got to work two years on the ships Come on dad.

I got this degree.

I don't want to go work in those ships He's like suck it up.

You want to come work for me?

We're not doing we're not doing the nepotism thing.

So I worked two years with my dad For every single position on the ship from the pot washer.

I was a pot washer.

I was a dishwasher

I was a bartender, assistant bartender, excuse me, assistant bar manager, bar manager, a provision master.

So I was like the only American working on a particular ship in Italy.

And I didn't even speak Italian, but I spoke Spanish so I can kind of BS.

But yeah, that was my dad.

And I could continue to go down the rabbit trail.

My grandfather, Leslie Frazier, uh

There's a monument of my granddad in the Port of Miami and he was the founder of the cruise industry as we know it.

that dude was a character.

He hung out with movie stars, uh Marilyn Monroe and Earl Flynn was a buddy of his and they built hotels all throughout Jamaica, which by the way,

prayers for the people in Jamaica.

just got smoked by a category five hurricane.

um But yeah, total character, my grandfather.

yeah, so I started in the cruise industry, did all those jobs.

I came back from the ships and my dad put me in charge of recruiting.

So I used to go around all of Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia.

I was in the Philippines.

once a month recruiting and there was literal I was basically I was I was a headhunter and I would go and pick off the top chefs and the top waiters and maitre d's at all these nice

hotels like the Shangri-La in Southeast Asia and I heard I don't know if this is true but I heard there was like a bulletin of me in certain hotels like if you see this guy kick

him out of the hotel

Cause I would go pick off all their top talent, bring them back onto the cruise ships and you know, the rest is history.

But that was in my early twenties.

It's ah so after that, I was like, dad, I'm out of here.

I love you, but it's very, very difficult to work with your family.

uh I don't know if you've ever experienced that, ah but I went and opened up a smoothie franchise called the juice stop.

ah

you know, a buddy of mine out in Southern California, said, dude, let's take it out east.

We had all the rights for South Florida, so we opened up a juice stop.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

And from there, I just went on just, I was a jumper.

I jumped from one job.

You name a sales job, I pretty much did it.

The worst of them was I was a timeshare salesperson in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Eww.

That's gotta be bar none, the most dirty business, worse than a used car salesman, way worse than a used car salesman.

But I learned all the sales techniques and I was like, whoa, this is dirty.

um And somehow, someway, I stumbled into an Irish pub in Atlanta, Georgia, and I ran an Irish pub called McDuff's Irish

In between all these career jumps, was bartending just to pay the rent.

So I think I learned a lot of my people skills from bartending.

I was pretty much a shrink, you know?

And here's a hot tip for all your entrepreneurs out there or future wannabe bartenders.

If you don't know how to make a drink, here's the trick.

You say these two things.

Would you like the East Coast version or would you like the West Coast version?

And then the person will be like, no, I like the one with the vodka and the tonic and the grenadine.

So any of you could be a bartender now by asking, would you like the East Coast version or would you like the West Coast version?

Or you can say, hey, I can make that several different ways.

How would you like it?

And then the girl will be like, you can make a Cosmo by doing this, this, this.

And so there's your bartending tip of the podcast.

Um, but I had an Irish pup and it was about to kill me.

Um, right around this time, I was a very, very depressed individual.

I had lost my little brother, uh, with a freak, um, accident, uh, virus.

He, he had me visit.

He's like, Dominic, come visit me at Florida state university.

And his name was, Michael Robert Starbuck Frazier, but I

He didn't like the name Starbuck.

My mom's a hippie, another story.

But he didn't like the name Starbuck, so we all called him Buck.

And Buck was the best of us.

Out of the seven kids, was the golden boy.

But unfortunately, one night at Florida State University, and I was with him at the time, because we were inseparable.

He's like, Dom, I'm not feeling well.

I was like, let's go to the student center.

Took him to the student center.

the medical staff said he had bronchitis.

And I was like, okay, well, here's your medication.

And I stayed with him at his apartment at Fort Estate.

And I remember that night, he goes, this girl that he always wanted called him that night.

And she's like, let's go out.

And he's like, I can't, I'm not feeling good.

And the last things he said to me was, that's just my luck.

He went to bed.

He asked me if I would come sleep with him that night, like,

Bro, will you come sleep with me?

I'm not feeling that good.

I went to go sleep with him, woke up at, you know, in the morning and I just reached over and he was ice cold.

He had passed away in his sleep of a rare, rare disease called myocarditis.

It was just a freak thing.

So that ties into the whole bar thing.

I was pretty much depressed.

I didn't want to live.

I was trying to kill myself with Jack Daniels.

because I think I was too cowardly to pull the trigger which I had put the gun up to my head several times because I just I was miserable without my little bro and yeah yeah just

I remember I was praying to God I was like can you please get me out of this mess I was closing down the bar I don't know sometimes four in the morning I was like and my

relationship with God was hit or miss I was like a

I was a believer, but I wasn't a follower of Jesus.

I grew up in the church, but I really wasn't serious about it.

I think I was a lukewarm Christian at best.

And I was praying to God as a guy, can you get me out of here?

Please just get me out of this bar.

I'm about to, I'm not going to make it.

And lo and behold, I get a phone call and Hurricane Katrina just hit 2005.

And I got a buddy of mine.

He's like, Dominic, you speak Spanish, right?

You're from Miami.

I'm like, yeah, por supuesto.

uh Mas Omenos, more or less.

He's like, I need you to come be a gopher and basically babysit these 40 guys.

They're a hodgepodge of Latin American guys from Honduras and Guatemala and Mexico.

He's like, you're going to be their gopher starting in East Moss Point, Mississippi and put blue tarps on.

heading towards New Orleans, was a disaster.

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating hurricanes ever.

So that was my very long-winded response of my career path and an answered prayer

on how I got into roofing.

Okay, yeah, I have a friend that says, nobody ever plans to go into the roofing business, you wind up in the roofing business.

And I found that that's pretty true.

turns out it's not a terrible business all the time.

But doesn't seem like that's anybody's plan A.

That friend is very wise, yes.

ah But now I think it's the greatest business on the planet.

ah I tell everybody it's a recession-proof business.

I've been in this game for, well, yeah, 20 years now, 2005.

it is a roller coaster, but you can't tell me another job where you can work in the great outdoors, make six figures, listen to your...

your favorite radio station in the truck and go help people.

Tell me a better job on the planet than being a roofer.

Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.

That's awesome.

Well, it sounds like you came from quite a line of uh entrepreneurs and interesting personalities.

How did that shape your willingness to take risks and do something a little bit different?

Did that play a significant role?

Yeah, it's like that question.

And somebody has posed this to me before.

It's nature over nurture.

Like, do you have it or do you don't have it?

I think you either have it or you don't.

You cannot, you can't teach work ethic.

You can't.

It's, my dad called it the eye of the tiger.

And I think I had the privilege of learning from my dad.

I worked with him and he's like, Dominic, can tell if I'm going to hire somebody within five minutes.

right when the guy walks in his room.

By the way, he shakes your hand.

By the way, he looks you in the eyeballs.

You can tell someone's got the eye of the tiger.

So yeah, my dad was a crazy risk taker and he gave me a lot of advice.

Like I think the main, takeaway was never surrender.

Never, ever surrender.

ah He was a big Winston Churchill fan, know, World War II buff.

He loved Winston Churchill.

And I remember he would impersonate Churchill and say this to me as a child.

So I think it's embedded in me is when the Germans were bombing London, Churchill got up and did a speech and it was something like, never surrender, never surrender, never,

never, never.

And that was like the speech.

And guess what?

The English never surrendered.

ended up winning with the help of the Americans and the Russians.

But uh yeah, I think it helped having entrepreneurial, a dad like that who took a lot of risks.

He took a lot of risks.

And I think I just, it's in my nature, I think.

Yeah, interesting.

I think the never give up, never surrender is a theme we've been finding with lot of entrepreneurs and people that have really found success, especially in the blue collar

spaces, even military.

We've been hearing that again and again and again is you just keep going.

Got to keep going.

So.

Yes sir, yes sir.

It's hard to beat a man that doesn't quit.

Yeah, yeah, that's one of my favorite quotes is the man that cannot be defeated or the man that will not be defeated cannot be defeated.

That's it, man.

You gotta be a dogged, you just gotta be, I like the word, if you wanna give me a word, my word is stick-to-it-iveness.

It's an actual word, I didn't think it was a word.

Stick-to-it-iveness is a word?

But yeah, it's like dogged perseverance.

So give me that guy, give me the guy that doesn't quit over the Harvard grad or the guy with the degree all day long.

Give me the,

The guy who's the dog.

Give me that guy all day.

Or the girl.

Absolutely.

I can relate quite a bit.

were talking about working for your dad and yeah, I started working in my dad's company at a fairly young age and he didn't make me go work for somebody else, but he said, you're

going to start at the bottom and you're going to do work twice as hard for half the pay because that's what you have to do to earn the respect of everybody else.

So I started out.

Sweeping and making dump runs and was the laborer and had to work my way up so I can relate to that a lot um

they they took shots at me Because the boss's son,

you know, you're the boss's son.

So I remember They mocked me when I worked on the wind song the wind song was a giant sail ship and we went through from Miami to the Panama Canal up to California to Tahiti and

They were making fun of me.

They made me a name tag.

I'm gonna age myself a little bit

But this is when Miami Vice was a big deal.

I don't know if you remember the show Miami Vice, 1980s.

So my title wasn't Dominic Frazier, it was

Miami Vice Dishwasher.

That was my name tag.

So I know you've made the top 100 list for roofing contractors a few years in a row.

Can you tell us what that is or what that means?

uh Yes, sir.

So uh Contractor magazine has a top 100 and the funny thing was when I first got in the game I met a roofer out of Miami and as his name was Isaac with Isaac's roofing and When

we walked into his office on right when you walked in there was a display And it was like top 100 roofer and I was like, whoa, like these guys are serious

And it was always in the back of my mind.

I mean, even when we were a little mom and pop operation, not even make, we were losing money.

was like, wouldn't that be cool to have that plaque, that like that cool laminated, whatever it was plaque where it top 100 roofer.

So that was way in the beginning.

And lo and behold, I think it's really because of God's blessings.

We've honored him with our business and we've made this a kingdom business, which we can get into that.

Lo and behold, slow and steady over the years of grinding, we've become a top 100 grouping company.

And basically what they do is they do an audit on your books.

You can't throw out fake numbers.

So they do like a deep dive into your business to authenticate like are these legitimate numbers?

Are you fluffing your numbers?

ah And I think the first time we made it was like three years ago when we hit 36 million ah in one year.

And I think we were top like 80, like 89, 89 we were in the country.

But here's the cool thing that all the top, top roofers are commercial guys like you.

The commercial guys are the top 10, the top 25, because as you know, commercial, commercial, consider commercial the big leagues.

Like you can't screw up those jobs.

Those could be career enders if you screw up one of those big Walmarts or whatever.

ah But we're strictly residential.

We dabbled with commercial and we lost our butts.

Lost a couple million bucks actually.

We literally lost two million bucks in five years trying to chase the shiny thing that we weren't good at.

And we're like, okay, let's stop touching the stove and burning our hands.

We are strictly residential.

So we're residential and we're gutters.

So anything flat, we'll just sub it out.

are sending off to one of our sister companies, which we have a huge network of really amazing sister companies that we refer the commercial out to.

And they throw us a bird dog fee or whatever.

But yeah, the top 100 list is like the bragging rights, you know?

And it's funny because when you get in with some of these other networks in the roofing industry, they're like, you're number 87 this year, huh?

Like I'm number 67.

So yeah.

Come and catch me if you can.

I'm like, I'm come get you.

And it's kind of like a fun, and that's the way I like it is like make allies not enemies.

Too many contractors trying to like battle.

I'm like, you guys are doing it all wrong.

Like you gotta come together and collaborate and help each other out.

So I got partner, like I call them sister companies all over the country that we call each other thought partners.

I'll give you one example, this guy, Sean Sedaris out of Montana, him and Brandon Wagner roofing, they're on the top, they're ahead of us on the top 100.

we talk daily, like daily we share Bible verses from the, you know, the Bible app, but I keep on telling Sean, I'm going to catch you one of these days, buddy.

So you better get to work.

All right.

That's awesome.

That's great.

So you mentioned a couple of times when you first started, you were losing money and trying to go into commercial, you lost some money.

Um, I can really relate to this specialization there.

We've kind of done just the opposite.

We found that when we do commercial, we do well, we make money.

I can, that's what my guys are trained for and what they're efficient at.

And if we start a branch into other products or doing steep slope, that's when we lose it.

So we've done just the opposite.

We send all of our residential or steep slope to somebody else, but through those periods of losing money or, is there something else?

What has been the most difficult part of your journey in building your business?

Hmm, that's a good question.

The most difficult part of the journey is, you know what it is?

It's losing people that you love.

This is a cutthroat business.

uh Even though I'm not a big fan of Alabama, the roll tide, I'm a big fan of Coach Saban.

Coach Saban.

And he has an expression that says, mediocre people hate high achievers and high achievers hate mediocre people.

And it's my job to put the right players on the bus and get the wrong players off the bus.

So pretty much the hardest thing for me, because I got a heart.

I love my guys.

I love my guys and my girls.

So when we have to cut somebody and kick them off the bus because they're not sticking to the process, the standard, by far, that's the hardest part of this job.

I'll look at the Christmas pictures.

have a huge, that's like the highlight of our year is our big Christmas party.

This year it's going to be eighties theme.

So I will be busting out the Miami vice a white suit.

So that's what hurts me personally is when I see the Christmas picture, it's like a yearbook picture and the faces that aren't there on the team anymore.

That's the most difficult thing, but.

This business is not for the faint of heart.

So I warn people when they come in, like 96 % of roofing companies fail within the first five years.

Nine out of 10.

There's a reason for that.

This is not for the faint of heart.

You got to be a little bit nuts to get into the roofing game.

ah So that's an easy answer.

Just losing teammates that you poured into.

We're doing that this week as a matter of fact.

let go of some really people that have been with us for a long time.

That hurts.

It hurts.

Yeah, that's a common theme I've been hearing a lot is most successful leaders are not as worried about the numbers, their success, they love their people and they really pour into

them.

Yep, that's definitely like, if you ask me what my mission is, my mission is, it's Matthew 28, 19, and I, forget all the degrees, man, this is all you need right here, is the Bible,

but we are commanded, if you call yourself a Christian, a Christian, we're commanded, we're not asked to, we're commanded to go make disciples.

And my old pastor, Buddy Hoppin, used to say over and over again with his funny accent, he's like, disciples make disciples.

So that's what I'm doing here for my brief time on earth.

You know, it's like, that's my mission is to go pour into these guys, show them the love of Jesus.

And if you go to our main office, you'll see a neon on our front window, basically our creep.

and our creed is love God, love people.

And when I send my kids out, I got a 10 year old boy and a 13 year old girl, said it to my son this morning, go love on somebody today.

Go love on somebody today.

That's like, that's the mission.

That's great.

I think that separates a mediocre leader from a great leader most of time.

When were you most afraid as a leader?

Another good question.

um

When was I most afraid?

COVID was not fun.

COVID wasn't fun.

That was a troubling time.

But it turns out, even in those fears, like what's gonna happen next, we had one of the best years we've ever had, because people were home, you know?

So that fear turned out to be, okay, ignore that.

But...

trying to think my biggest fear I'll tell you I'll tell you when this is a good one when my wife and I seven years ago when we're trying to figure out our numbers at the end of

the year

We had no idea if we made any money or not.

So it just so happens, best hire of my life, I'm going to give her a shout out, best hire of my life, besides my wife, who joined me from corporate America, she was 17 years

corporate America with a Fortune 500 company, so couldn't have done this.

I have to give my wife a high five.

High five, Sarah, I love you.

Couldn't have done this without her.

But the scariest moment was at

When Sarah and I were trying to figure everything out and put our systems in place, we hired a girl by the name of Connie Blannet.

We called her our franchise quarterback.

She's a feisty redhead.

She came from a very successful roofing company called Perimeter, which a lot of people know.

Great outfit over there.

But when she came over, because her and my wife became friends, I asked her, I was like,

Are we making money or are we not making money?

You know, we were probably a three million ish, three million ish residential.

And she's like, please hold.

She went back, quick books, she's like, you lost $67,000 last year.

That was scary.

That was scary because we thought we were doing everything right, but we were actually losing money.

And she's like, well, this is what you got to do.

And she came from a company that already had a proven playbook.

So again, props to them.

um And she's like, this is what you need to do.

You need to bring in this CRM.

You need to do this with your crews.

Like, super wise girl.

um And we're surrounded.

If you look into our office, it's all alpha females.

And there's a strategy behind that.

I gave my wife 51 % of the company because we were doing military projects early on.

So we did Fort Stewart down in South Georgia and

we got these jobs because we were female-owned, more important than that, women have something that men don't have.

They've got the female intuition.

So, again, we got some alpha females in our office, and when we bring in our recruits, I can kind of look at the girls and go, thumbs up, thumbs down.

They'll be like, thumbs up.

But if one of them goes like this, I'm not hiring that guy.

And it's turned out like, I don't know.

They're good BS detectors.

that's gotta be the scariest moment is seven years ago when after we thought we had a successful year, we were told we lost $67,000.

That can be a bit terrifying.

think every entrepreneur that doesn't have an accounting background has been there where you're working your butt off, working, working, working.

The top line looks good and you find out, oops.

It's the bottom line that matters, not the top line.

That's it.

Man, what you just said was gold.

It's gold what you just said because there's so many guys walking around with their chests out and the you know, they're all and you'll see him at these conferences.

I did 100 million last year.

I did 70.

Whatever I did.

500 300 million.

Whatever the number is like, okay, what'd you keep?

What'd you keep?

So the more I've been in this game, I don't care about that top number.

I wanna see what you keep.

And that's something that I've recently said to uh my leadership team is I don't wanna be the big, forget the top 100 list.

Forget that noise.

Some of the best advice I ever got.

So this is for your entrepreneurs and your roofers.

This is for you guys.

Forget that big number.

ah A wise man once told me,

I'm gonna give them shout out Nathan Tibideau Nathan Tibideau with contractor coach pro uh That's our coach So anyhow, we definitely needed coaching Nathan said to me one time that

The

Best operation, $5 million roofing company with six killers out there in the field closing the jobs, not lead babies, but killers.

And you got a girl in the back office netting 15.

And it's like.

So that's 750,000 bucks.

You can't live on 750,000 bucks.

I'm like, sure I can.

It's like, yeah.

So don't get, that's to your young entrepreneurs out there.

Don't worry about that top number so much.

Get that profit margin where it needs to be and let the chips fall where they may.

Yeah, I think that was some of the best advice I got from my dad when I took over our business was the guys with big egos chase the top number, but I don't need to be doing

work for free.

Doing more work only counts if you get to keep more at the end of the day.

So efficiency, quality, reputation, you never sacrifice efficiency for scale.

Always focus on efficiency first and then scale.

Your dad's a very wise man.

So that should be like the theme of this podcast.

Efficiency.

Run a tight ship, man.

Batten down the hatches, especially right now.

I'm going to, Eric, I'm going to give you some alarming statistics that I got yesterday.

And this is for your insurance guys.

Not so much for your retail guys, but this is for your insurance guys out there.

Insurance claims, when claims are down 57 % this year, 57 % down.

And Hale claims are down 60 % this year.

And at the same time that claims are down, the insurance carriers are being way more tough and they're moving the goal posts.

it's like, what they're doing is they're separating, and I've heard from good authority,

that they're separating the weak ones from the herd.

So it's a tough market out there.

On top of that, I've heard this from coast to coast.

I'm in some masterminds with some really heavy hitters in the roofing industry.

Coast to coast sales are down 30%.

And I heard this from a local rep.

uh They're down 20 million squares.

So you

you add all these factors in with AI with everybody being scared right now with it you know you put all that together and you better have you better be squared away you better

be built for battle because it's not going to get any easier

Interesting, I had not heard that.

It seems like you guys are still growing even in this tough battlefield.

I think we're gonna hit 25 this year, which it's so funny because we set the goal for, I think the last Christmas, every Christmas party, we set a goal.

and we put it up on the big screen so everybody can see it.

Let's aim for that.

Last year it was 30 million.

So we're gonna be about five million short of our goal.

So we're down actually 17%.

We're down.

But if the industry is down 30 % and we're down 17%, I'll take it.

I'll take it.

again, battening down the hatches, running a tighter ship with higher profit margins.

For me, it's a better way to live.

Yeah, you don't need more stress, more work for less money.

Amen, brother.

wish guys would, I'm hoping one guy on your listening audience will hear that.

Because that will save you a lot of gray hair.

See this gray hair right here?

It'll save you from that.

Well, and you get into markets that are so competitive and you have guys that are giving work away for free or even losing money on it just to get the volume.

Man, if we all take a more moderate chunk and do it at a reasonable profit margin, we can actually serve our customers better.

We have more time, more energy to focus on the customer, take better care of them.

We have less stress.

We're making more money.

I mean grow, scale, try to get bigger, get out there and do it, but we need to do it the right way.

Amen, brother.

And we got to unite.

We got to unite the clans and get rid of all the chucks in a truck.

So I'm hoping these rough waters, I'm sure you've heard, um smooth seas have never, uh you can't be a skilled sailor on smooth seas.

I actually kind of have the crazy sea captain mentality.

When it's rough out there, I love it.

I love it.

I know these trucks in the truck that are giving away deductibles and just doing these big projects at cost so they can get the rebate check.

These dudes will be part of that 90...

it might not happen this year but it's not sustainable.

It's not sustainable.

There'll be that 96 % that won't make it after five years.

So I share this with the team.

This is a marathon not a sprint.

Let those guys be crazy.

This is the long game.

We're in this for the long game.

Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.

That's a big reason that we stay out of residential, a part of just finding that we do better when we specialize.

It's in our market anyway, in order to take on the big commercial jobs, you have to have real insurance, do everything legally.

You have to be bondable.

It takes a fair amount of overhead and two guys with a pickup and an air nailer is a shingling company.

And we just...

To be the kind of company you have to be to compete on the commercial jobs.

We just can't compete with two guys in a pickup, but five years from now, those two guys have different jobs and we're, still around serving our customers.

oh

100%.

Yeah.

Well, I know you come from a really unique family.

sounds like your grandfather, your father, your mother, we're all quite the personalities.

I'm sure that instilled in you a unique personality and growing up one of seven kids and uh an Irish family.

How do you think your personality has played a role in building your business, being a leader and a successful entrepreneur?

Great question.

ah My senior quote, my senior quote was, are the peacemakers.

ah As the middle child, I had to break up a lot of fights and I had to be a chameleon.

I think probably one of my biggest strengths ah is being able to speak to anybody on any level.

I'll talk to the janitor.

the same way I'm going to talk to the CEO.

So I think probably that is being uh malleable, being able to adapt and improvise and overcome.

Even when the hits keep coming, I don't freak out.

When the hits come, like, that's where I thrive.

I love chaos.

And my wife doesn't, by the way.

But give me the craziest customer you have.

I want that.

When there's a fire in the building, I'm not running away from the fire.

I'm running into the fire.

And that's been my thing for...

I'm not afraid of any man.

I'll fight anybody.

You probably get my ass kicked, but I'll come at you.

I'm a bulldog.

I'm, you know, I saw this saying from Clint Eastwood, which I admire Clint Eastwood.

Dude's like...

very very talented guy but he says don't don't let the old man in you know I'm closing in on 55 years old and I see a lot of my peers saying I'm gonna go retire and go to the beach

I'm gonna go retire and go ahead to the lake or wherever I'm never gonna retire I love what I do and yeah I think probably the number one attribute passed down from

My crazy family.

they, and I actually thanked my mom.

My mom just moved in with us with her five chihuahuas.

That's another story.

I'm not doing this podcast in my office downstairs, cause I'm afraid you're going to hear the dogs bark.

Another, but bring it on.

Give me the chaos.

I'll use one small example.

This is family related.

So this should be fun for your viewers.

My mom called me.

two weeks ago, living in Miami, Florida.

She's like, hey Dominic, she's got this country accent from Arkansas.

Hey Dominic, remember that time I said, you you said that if things ever got bad, can move in with you.

I'm like, yes, come and get me.

So I drove down to Miami two weeks ago and they said, by the way, your brother, I need you to drive him to Oklahoma city to live with his sister.

I was like, okay.

So I adapted, got my brother, King, and drove him to Oklahoma City, turned back around, drove back to Miami, picked up my mom with five chihuahuas, and just drove her back.

She's now living in our furnished basement downstairs with five chihuahuas, and my wife has not left me.

My wife has not left me.

So I'm giving you a very long-winded uh answer, but I think...

I've been battle tested since a young age and my dad always threw me into impossible scenarios.

So now when the fire comes, I'm like, I feel good.

Like I'm like, this is what I was built for.

Yeah, I can relate to that as well.

Maybe not quite as interesting as you, but my childhood was full of lot of adventures and challenges and getting through.

I was dad's helper.

So it didn't matter if I was 10 years old, if a truck needed moved, you got to drive it.

know?

So yeah, I got thrown into things at a pretty young age and learned how to do things pretty early.

I think I'm finding that's true of lot of entrepreneurs is you get thrown into situations where you figure it out or die.

There is, you don't have a safety net or a backup plan.

Like you win or you die.

So that's great.

Amen, brother.

You just sparked something in my brain.

um At my dad's funeral, and he was my hero, one of the nicest things I heard when uh this lady, Dorothy, went up, she was part of our family, and she went up there and she's like,

and Dominic.

Oh, and Dominic.

She's like, he was, and she called my dad the man.

She's like, he was the man's right hand man.

Dorothy is a character, she's also a pastor.

But um that was probably one of the highest compliments I've received in my life that I was my dad's right hand man.

I was like, I don't think she knows, hopefully she'll watch this.

But thank you, Dorothy, you spoke so much life into me when you said that.

That's awesome.

I love hearing about close family relationships like that.

We heard so many stories of broken families and difficult situations.

It's nice to get to talk to somebody that has that connection with their dad.

You've talked a lot about your wife and her role in the business.

This is a question I was going to get to a little later, but you keep bringing it up.

What does that dynamic look like?

What is it like working in the office with your wife?

Again, not for the faint of heart.

ah It's a challenge, but she and I, think, I don't think, I know that is why we have a very successful ah roofing company, is I'm all gas, she's all brakes.

I say it's dark outside, she says it's like, we are the opposites in all the right ways.

ah But.

No, the truth be she knows this and everybody knows this who's around the organization.

If it wasn't for Sarah, we would have been out of business a long time ago.

Um, she, her mind, you know, and, know, she went to Georgia tech, which is an engineer.

Really, you gotta be smart to get in there.

And, uh, she's also proven through corporate America, 17 years of flying all over the country for all these fortune 500 companies.

And she was the top of her field working with a bunch of dudes.

So she's tough.

You can't frazzle my wife.

She's just tough as nails.

And she holds me in line.

I didn't need a pushover wife.

My wife holds me accountable.

So when she came on, it's like when she came on and then when Connie converged with her, our prophets just went boo.

It's just like, whoa.

And we went, I'll give you the numbers.

We went from three to five, five to seven, seven to 15, 15 to 25, 25 to 36.

And then we're like, eh, okay, let's, let's, and then we did like a 26 and this year we're to be 25.

I think 25 is our sweet spot, but, um, unless we organically grow, we meet all sorts of folks and I shake hands and kiss babies.

I mean, I met one guy on a duck hunt.

Next thing you know, we opened up an office and it's one of our top offices.

So we don't plan to to expand unless God puts the right people in our place, in front of us.

But Sarah, if it wasn't for her, yeah, we would be toast.

So I thank God every day for my wife.

In fact, we're doing this class and this might be for all you guys that work with your wives or want to have a better relationship with your wives.

We're actually doing a course right now at our church called reengage.

Reengage highly, highly recommend you do this 15 week course with your wives.

It's been helping us tremendously.

We went last night at our local church fellowship Greenville and it's been uncomfortable.

I will warn you.

It's been very uncomfortable because we tell each other we had to get up in front of this group and share our marriage testimony.

I didn't know what she was going to say.

She didn't know what I was going to say.

But bro, like she broke down.

I even got a little like weak, you know, like when I was talking and but we're getting out of our comfort zones because we're in it to win it.

We will never say the D word in our house.

That's like forbidden, forbidden.

So any of you guys out there that never use that D word and win the wife, don't win the argument.

That was some of the best advice I've ever been given because I like to be right.

Bro, I like to be right.

I'm very competitive, but my mentor, give him a shout out, Jeremy Hogard.

He said to me, win the wife, not the argument.

So that's my best advice I can give for any of your audience that's working together with their spouse.

Win her, man.

Because at the end of the day, you can't take it with you.

You better.

You can take the memories, the memories.

Yeah, but you can't take all this stuff.

So cherish your wives or your husbands.

That's good advice right there.

What is the dynamic like in your office?

What role do you guys play and how do you work together in the office?

So we have a hierarchy and I'll tell you exactly how it goes.

we had to get really, really specific with our roles because I was crossed.

It wasn't her, it was me.

I was crossing over into everybody's lanes and they were getting upset with me or frustrated.

Sarah, I'm going to get, she's the owner, I'm the owner, but I'm the sales guy.

So my direct.

The direct report to me is Scott Eadie.

He's going on a hunt right now to South Dakota.

He's on the road to South Dakota to do pheasant hunting.

I'm jealous.

I got your back while you're gone.

So he is the director of

next weekend doing the same thing, so...

Eric, when we get offline, we're gonna hang.

So, yeah, Eckhart Ranch, Eckhart Ranch in South Dakota, it's fantastic place.

I went there two years ago.

So.

Director of sales is Scott Eady.

He's a former closer.

He was one of our number one closers.

So I want guys that know how to close and have been there and done that.

Similar to my cruise industry experience, you can't teach what you don't know.

So he's my direct report and he's got six territory managers that go down the branch, you know, at all of our six locations.

So I'm sales with Scott Eady.

in the territory managers than all of our sales managers.

On the other side of the tree is my wife, Sarah.

And underneath her is Connie, our director of operations.

And underneath Connie is our billing department, which our billing department is second to none.

My cousin, Peggy, 24 year state farm adjuster and Jeff Knutson.

They're both out of Florida.

um Jeff Knutson, 19 years independent adjuster.

So our billing department are adjusters speaking to adjusters.

We don't bring in PAs, because we've learned that when you bring in the PAs, it's a battle and it's a prolonged battle.

Our experience is we have adjusters on our team talking to adjusters and we don't do this.

We do, have you considered line option this?

Have you considered this?

And we're winning claim.

after claim after claim and getting tremendous supplements to the bill to the tune of over two million dollars this year alone and additional supplements because of the billing

department uh fantastic uh Connie is also in charge of the financials and underneath her is Megan Hogard she's been with us from the beginning Megan uh

She's the OG, the original gangster.

She's been with me by my side when we were like a two-man operation and I was sales, production, operations, and she's still stuck with us all these years.

She's a trooper and she's a godly woman.

She holds her own Bible study within our organization with some of the ladies.

Just coincidentally enough, her husband is my mentor and hunting buddy, and he's been teaching me how to be a redneck all these years.

and go skin and skin a buck.

Cause I'm a Miami boy.

So he's taught me how to skin a buck and run a trot line, a country boy, I can survive.

That's Jeremy.

And we have a great time together.

We just go out in the woods and blow things up and have a good time.

yeah, basically those are the two trees and we had to get super intentional again, cause we used to be like a running gun offense and I would frustrate a lot of people.

Now I know my role, Sarah knows her role, and we had it all laid out for us by our coach.

Again, Nathan Thibodeau and Jim Johnson, a contractor coach.

Bro, another shout out to you guys.

ah If it wasn't for those coaching, I don't think we would have been half as successful.

Wow.

think, especially in the residential realm, I'm hearing that a lot from a lot of people.

The having someone as an adjuster on your team makes a big difference because being able to speak that language is huge.

know on the commercial side, we don't do a lot with insurance, but when I do have to deal with insurance, it's really difficult because the, the way I bid stuff is just not the way

they price things.

And it's hard to.

It's hard to make the two line up.

I know what I had to do to do the job right, but I don't know what it is in their system or how it all works.

So interesting.

Was there something that significantly delayed your growth early on?

And if so, how would you do it differently?

Yeah, what delayed our growth is uh we didn't want to invest in positions.

Like I tried to do everything, Sarah tried to do everything, and we were burning each other out.

So when you have to step up to the plate and hire people that are expensive, that was very tough initially.

Initially.

But then we learned, hey man,

If we want to elevate, we got to delegate.

I forget who said that.

So we had to let go of our baby.

You know, this is our baby and we had to entrust it in other people's hands and pay them the money and trust them.

Even if they're going to screw up, that's the hardest thing to do is to hand over your baby and watch somebody just drop the baby.

ah That's tough, man.

But if you do want to scale,

which again, may be a good, may be a bad thing.

But if you do want to scale, you got to learn to multiply.

Forget addition, multiplication, not addition.

And similar to the disciples make disciples.

So um that's got to be the most difficult thing is when and where to hire that next salary.

Not to get too fat though, you don't want to get too many layers.

oh

That's gotta be the most difficult thing.

As far as my perspective is investing in future leadership and to let go of your baby and let somebody else raise it.

That's tough, man.

That's really, really tough.

I hear that from a lot of people.

think that's a really difficult transition and that's kind of where we're at in our business right now.

I talked to Randy Hurtado a couple of weeks ago and he said, wear as many hats as you can until you can afford not to.

And I think that was a big part of my business maintaining the efficiency that we did when we were smaller was

If I could do it, didn't have somebody else do it.

Like I did as much as I could, so I wasn't paying somebody.

But then you hit a point where you can't grow.

If you're doing all the work, you can't do anything.

So I think finding the right point to make that transition is huge.

Cause like you said, if you're, if you don't have sales and you're running a huge office staff, that doesn't work either.

So.

No, sir.

You gotta find the right time to make that transition and being too early or too late can be a hindrance.

Yes, sir.

It's a delicate balance, man.

It's a delicate balance.

you just said a name that I highly respect.

Randy Hurtado.

Love, love, love, love that dude.

He's the one that connected you and me.

ah But he and his right hand man just flew out recently to our headquarters in Atlanta.

And we sat down and, you know, some guys I can listen to, I got a little bit of HDHD.

uh

H.

D.

H.

D.

Is that what's it go?

What was it?

80 H.

D.

I can't even talk right now, but I got a little bit of that.

And I asked asked the ladies I can sit in a meeting for like one hour and then I'm out.

I gotta go breathe.

That's why I was probably probably why I was a good roofer is like I needed to be outside.

I can't don't box me out, freak out, but I sat with him, Randy and Mitch in our leadership team.

the entire day in the office.

I was like, Oh my goodness, keep talking, dude, keep talking.

Like he, and I think it was vice versa.

The feelings were mutual.

Like we gave them some really good hot tips.

They gave us some, I mean, we're already implementing and I'm going to continue to pursue learning from that gentleman.

Dude is wicked smart, wicked smart.

I mean, he worked with the Pentagon back in the day.

I don't know if I should be sharing.

I don't know if I should be sharing his top.

Secret clearance stuff, but that dude When he talks, I'll listen to that guy all day long So love love Randy Hurtado and DT roofing over there.

Those guys are doing it, right?

another guy that wound up in the roofing industry instead of doing it on purpose.

So you lose your IT security job working at the Pentagon and walk next door that happens to be a roofing company and take over.

uh

Randy, if the grid goes down and the whole place goes to heck, I want Randy in my trenches.

I want him on my side.

Yeah.

Is there something where you've had a significant change of mind as you've built your business, something that you thought or felt strongly about early on and now have seen it

from a different perspective and have really changed how you look at it?

Hmm.

uh That's a deep thought one right there.

Ask that question again for me.

Has there been something where you really changed your mind as your business has grown that it's helped you see it from a different perspective and has shifted how you look at

or think about it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When I first got in the roofing industry at the beginning, I thought everybody was out to get you and I was paranoid and I thought everybody was like cutthroat, which they kind of

were.

ah But the more and more I get out there and I shake hands and I meet the Randy Hurtados of the world or the John C.

Nacks of the world, the Reggie Brock's, the Mike Goldenstein's, there's a lot of good guys out there.

there's a lot of good guys.

And I'm like, no, like people, used to think it was like, we gotta go kick their ass.

Like let's, let's go put on the helmets.

I mean, I'm a football player.

You know, they might know our playbook.

We know their playbook.

Let's line up and see who's better.

And like, let's go, let's go battle.

It's not, it's not that way anymore.

It's not that way anymore.

Now it's like, Hey dude, I can't do this project.

I'll just give a shout out to Brandon Perk, Bergantis over at Restore America.

ah

We're starting to like hang out class act over there at restore America.

ah But we're going to start instead of battling these guys, we're going to go side by side.

Hey man, how can I help you and just work together?

So I think that's a major league shift from when I was in the business, you know, the early two thousands to now I see a shift where people are collaborating and helping each

other out.

Like the good guys.

They're kind of rallying around each other and becoming thought partners.

And let's go take out all the bad guys and all the checks in the truck.

that wasn't there 20 years ago.

No, I think that's a great change as well.

And even in pretty heavily competitive markets to build best practices, how can we best serve our customers?

Let's make sure we're serving our community, serving our customers well.

And we can still battle a little bit over price, but the cutting corners, doing things wrong, just trying to run people out.

I think that's kind of run its course.

We're finding that's not the best way to do business.

So.

That's a change I'm excited about.

Me too.

What major mistake do you wish you could have avoided?

Commercial going into commercial roofing losing two million dollars

That's a pretty easy one.

I trusted some guys that I shouldn't have trusted.

Hey, know, hindsight's 20-20, you know,

don't trust everybody.

You know, I trusted some guys that came into my organization that said all the right things, that had all the right references.

And we got in bed with them and we did some projects out of our comfort zone where they underbid all these big contracts in Florida and we just got murdered.

So.

vet people you know trust but verify i think that was president reagan back in the day like yeah you can trust people and i see the best in everybody which is probably a a flaw

i don't know but trust but verify if you got guys coming into your organization and they said oh i was this i was that don't take them on their word vet them because we didn't vet

these jokers and they burned us bad

And you know, to a lot of companies that could have been a death blow.

We could have been part of the 96%.

But we took our medicine, took a deep breath, said, all right, let's get back after it.

I don't trust people verify trust, but verify because a lot of there's a lot of bad players out there that will sell you a bill of goods.

And then when you're knee deep into it, you're like,

it's too late.

It's too late.

And you just got to take your medicine.

So.

That would be my advice.

Yeah, good advice.

The flip side of that question, have you made any what I call beneficial mistakes?

A mistake that cost you at the time, but helped you develop, grow, ended up helping you succeed?

Hmm.

Okay, I'll use a funny example.

I think it's funny.

There was a particular guy that came to us that everybody in my brother and sister was like, don't hire that guy.

Don't hire that guy.

He's going to drive you crazy.

But I heard in the back of my head, he who has no sin cast the first stone.

I just kept on erring it three times.

Even my

Top franchise quarterback in my office, Connie Blandon says, if you hire this guy, I'm walking.

But I'm a man of conviction and I just, said, heard, I felt the conviction.

Like if I don't go to bat for this guy and bring him into the team, I don't know.

I just, felt the conviction.

So I was willing to take a loss.

And it turns out that this young man that came into our organization is now our number one producer.

And he's an influencer across the industry.

And he's turned his life around.

um He's way more godly.

uh His posture is more towards God now.

And I'm so glad I didn't listen to everybody's like, don't hire that guy.

Because now he's a rising star in the industry.

He goes around, his name's Jacob Fuchs.

And if you look him up, you'll see him out there.

He is a force of nature.

And everybody told me I shouldn't have hired him.

And I'm so glad that I did.

Great, that's a good story.

We like to give people an opportunity in our organization as well.

I don't care where you're coming from as long as you're moving forward.

Amen.

ah Say that again.

I don't care where you're coming from as long as you're moving forward.

That's a uh key part of our mission statement is that we develop great people and the idea is less that we have great people but more that they're in development.

So no matter where you came from, no matter what your role is, I expect you to be growing and moving forward and we're going to all grow together and get better together.

Hey man, I don't care where you came from, but what was the last part?

I think that you're moving forward.

that you're moving forward.

Love it.

Keep moving forward.

That reminds me of Rocky Balboa.

Again, I grew up in the 80s, so forgive the Rocky references, but like when he's talking to his son, he's like, no matter how hard you get hit, it's how hard you get hit and keep

moving forward.

You gotta keep moving forward.

Like I can watch that like once a day just to get fired up.

All right, let's go.

But yeah, who cares?

uh I'm sure you've heard yesterday's history.

Tomorrow's a mystery.

Today is a gift.

That's why they call it the present.

yeah, man, just forget the past.

Like every single year on December 1st, which is the start of our calendar year, I look at the guys and I'm like, hey guys, it's zero zero.

Let's go hunt.

Let's go kill every single day.

And this has been my mentality from the beginning.

And if you go into our main office, there's a lion.

There's a lion from Tanzania, a painting from Tanzania.

We do some work there.

with the living water to ministry where we do wells.

Anywho, and the Samaritan Servants International.

So every single day at the beginning, I would just look at the point of the lion in our sales meetings.

I'm like, eat what you kill.

We don't hire lead babies.

If you're a lead baby, give me a lead, give me a lead.

Like this place is not for you.

This place is not for you.

You gotta go out of your cave every single day.

kill something and drag it back to the cave.

And if you don't do that, if you don't do that 365 days a year, you're not going to be welcome in this tribe.

um We are hunters, we are killers.

that's what we're looking for.

Lead babies, go work someplace else.

That's great.

Sorry, you brought up Rocky.

Have you heard Stallone's story behind that?

I heard he had a very abusive home.

He came from abuse, right?

Well, just the process of making that movie, he wrote the script himself.

He wrote that story and he wrote it with himself as the main character and really, really, really wanted to star in it, but he couldn't find anybody that would produce it.

He spent like two years trying to sell it and was like completely broke living out of his car.

And somebody finally offered him some money for the script, but they weren't going to let him star in it.

And I forget the numbers now, but at the time it would have been a uh life-changing amount of money for him broke and living out of his car.

And he turned it down because he had written the story to star in it and kept pushing.

And then when it finally came out and hit because he had kept ownership, you know, the return he got off of that was it made the amount he had originally been offered look like

nothing.

It's a pretty cool story.

You just segued into a beautiful thing

Don't be a sellout You know in this age of private equities, and I don't I don't care if I hurt feelings here Stick stick to your core values stick don't be a sellout.

mean Rocky Sylvester Stallone, which by the way went to the University of Miami again go Cain's He could have like taken that money and run

and what what what is what what is life been.

What what is life would have gone from there.

But he stuck to his core and he didn't sell out so all you listeners don't be sell outs.

Look at the statistics on people who the lottery they're broke within a year.

So that's why I say to all my buddies are some selling out the private equities.

Great you're get ten twenty thirty million then what.

Yeah.

Well, I think it's chase the dream.

If what you're doing is the dream, stick with it and keep going and push through and fight and persevere.

But if what you're doing isn't your dream, go find a dream.

Find something to chase.

So.

Amen.

Awesome.

What has been your biggest win as a leader?

I gotta go back to disciples making disciples seeing guys come in broken and seeing them walk out just knew like what happened to the other guy like new creations disciples making

disciples I'll give a shout out to Chris Massengill oh we have an annual getaway for just the dudes we call it guy getaway we did it at my lake house at 50 plus guys there and

Chris Massengill comes up to me, it's like, dude, will you baptize me?

It's like, I'm tired of living in the world.

I just, I want to change.

I'm like, tomorrow morning, meet me at the dock, 630.

Came down there, pretty cold by the way.

ah Came down there and a group of men came down to witness that.

Brother, give me that.

Give me that.

I saw that guy die.

He died and he came out a new man.

ah And I could tell story after story after story of men and women that have walked into our doors that are now completely different people and they're chasing Jesus instead of

the world.

Give me that

all day over the money.

Wow, that's incredible.

uh When you have a team that comes together like that and shares an experience like that, you guys have to have a killer culture where everybody's on the same page working

together.

That's impressive.

Yes sir, yes sir.

I think if it forget the top 100 forget all that stuff.

I really think pound for pound our culture.

You know, I've looked around and I've observed and there's some other ones out there, but our culture is second to none.

Like our guys will fight for each other.

The I mean.

Our guys are amazing and I heard this once that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Yep.

eats strategy for you can have the most amazing strategies you can hire the most amazing killers but if you don't have a

Sinek said that, I think?

Yeah.

well done.

So if anybody picks up one golden nugget from this podcast, write that down.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Because you could take your lumps.

You could take your hits.

But when you got guys on your right and girls on your left and they're fighting with you, it's like, all right, let's take our medicine.

Let's keep on moving.

Good stuff.

I think I know the answer to this.

can hear it just in your, your passion, your excitement about your job.

But if you could go back to 2004, would you choose to do it all over again?

thousand percent yes.

It's two thousand five and uh yeah man I I'll say this till the day I die is you find me a better job where you can work in the great outdoors helping people and you can make more

money than doctors and lawyers.

Please tell me what that is and a recession proof business and that all my top guys my top you know we call it the green jacket club.

give like a

like the Masters, all our guys in the Million Dollar Club, we call it the Green Jacket Club, send them to the, this year we're sending them to the Virgin Islands.

All those guys have servant hearts.

They wanna help people, like they don't sell with their wallet, they sell with their hearts.

That's the common denominator with all the top guys.

They're not transactional, they're relational.

So yeah man, I can't.

You know, some guys say, I wish I would have been like a professional athlete or, or, you know, that I'm like, forget that noise, man.

That's nah.

Uh, I would do it all over again, Eric and a heartbeat.

This has been a, the best two decades of my life.

And hopefully we can keep this thing rolling.

God willing.

Amen.

That sounds great.

You brought it up there.

had heard, I think I read somewhere you guys have a really unique incentive structure with some kind of unique incentives.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Gosh, it started with the bobbleheads.

So talking about culture, and after this call, I'm gonna get on a call with a guy who wants to talk about kingdom businesses, running a kingdom business.

But it starts with the small things.

People love recognition.

They love recognition.

So you would not believe we started this tradition of the bobblehead shark, and it's a shark with a little bobblehead.

My sale guys, whoever's got the number one numbers at the end of the month, they get the sales shark bottlehead.

These dudes will fight each other over these little cheap bobbleheads.

You'll go into some of our top closers houses and they have mantles with like dozens of these like on the top of their mantle.

And it's like a $25, $50 investment.

That little bobblehead, those little incentives, just to start, you know, we treat our team like a football team.

It's an organization.

um

My wife's the offensive coordinator, I'm the defensive coordinator, or the other way around.

you start gamifying, you know, gamifying your sales and the production and the bonuses, it all, man, watch what happens within your organization.

It becomes fun.

And we have a message board called Break Room, and a lot of people use group, whatever, but there's so much like challenging each other for lunch or dinner or breakfast, and

they're talking

crap.

and banter and you know we keep it rated PG you know on air so you got you gotta have incentive yeah man it's so much fun you gotta gamify your

business so it started with the bobbleheads and then it started with the golden hammer whoever's got the top sales within the organization at the Christmas party gets the golden

hammer and then it started with the green jackets

over the years

because I'm a golfer.

In my former life, one of my many jobs where I was a jack of all trades, I was a caddy on the BGA Tour.

That's another story.

uh Shout out to Eric Compton, another Eric.

I was his caddy and we had a heck of a time on the road.

And here's a fun fact, Chi Chi Rodriguez at the Puerto Rican Open told me I was the worst caddy he had ever seen.

That's a true story.

these little recognitions mean the world.

Mean the world.

I've shared this many times when you have a Christmas party.

I don't care if it's at the park with some cupcakes.

Have yourself an end of the year party, a mid-year party, and give away awards.

I don't care if it's a cheap piece of paper that says number one in sales.

People love

to be recognized.

that would be my advice to fellow roofing owners.

Man, I mean, we have quarterly events.

I'll go ahead and share that with you.

We have a guys and girls getaway to start off the year.

The guys come to the lake, the girls go to the spa.

Mid-year party, we call it camper con.

Everybody shows up with their campers in the middle of year.

We cook out amazing food.

We bring in keynote speakers.

like Reggie Brock and John Scenic and Jim John.

We bring in these all star cast and we have fun.

We play golf, we play for trophies.

The other guys who don't play golf, they go to the water park.

It's just fellowship.

You know, it's fellowship.

ah The fall right now, all the hunters are in the woods.

You'll see a lot of my guys wearing their camo and they have camo, Frazier roofing hats.

So the dudes are in the woods, they're out fishing.

My top producers.

They just went down to Louisiana and they caught a bunch of bull reds.

And if any of them were over 40 inches, we're putting them on the wall in the office to build that.

That's a, that's, that's a recruiting tool.

That's a recruiting tool, man.

Like if you're a hunter or a fisherman, you want to come work for us because nobody hunts and fish more than us.

Anyway, and then at the end of the year, we have our Christmas party and the girls go way overboard on this.

I'm like,

What are y'all doing?

But the last couple years have been more mellow, thank goodness, because I'm like, they sent me the bill, I'm like, what are we doing here?

No wonder.

oh But yeah, last year was a cowboy theme, know, cowboy and cowgirl, it was awesome.

And this year, we're to be doing 80s.

So I'm glad we're not doing any more formal Christmas parties.

But at that party, and I think

A lot of guys will ship, we give our bonus checks to everybody.

So that's an incentive for people to stick around till the Christmas party, right?

ah But additionally, we have the Rookie of the Year award.

I already have in mind who's going to win that total stud.

Sorry, I couldn't go to the game with you uh tomorrow.

ah And we have all these like the hero award.

The hero award is something that we base our entire

culture on it's called the hero sales culture if your audience is not checked out that check it out you can find it on Spotify it's by Nathan Thibodeau that's our whole mantra

and our whole creed is the hero sales culture everybody's got to fill in the gap um and we give away these awards and everybody's all jacked up for the Christmas party to get these

awards and this year we have a new thing

where we were really, really health conscious this year.

Very, very health conscious.

So whoever has the most steps award, every single month we throw up a bingo ball into this big bingo thing.

And for three categories, the most steps, which is Chris Parker right now and Trina Gardner, they're battling because we had a dude, one of our dudes had a heart attack last

year.

So we're like, hey, we're going to get healthy this year.

Stop eating all this fast food.

Get your steps on.

Number two is door knocks.

Whoever's got the most door knocks, which we track that on Spadio.

It's an app.

um Whoever's got the most door knocks gets a ping pong ball.

And lastly, reviews.

Whoever's got the most reviews gets a ping pong ball.

And at the Christmas party, this is going to be a new thing.

We're going to have, we're giving away three cruises.

All expense cruises.

and not the cheap one like the nice royal caribbean five-day caribbean deal

we're we're giving away basically six cruises uh...

you know get it created there you go

But yes, nice plug right there for Royal Caribbean.

So at the Christmas party, we're going to do the bingo thing, just a new addition, which we're always adding something new.

uh And we're going to give away three cruises for you and your plus one based on those three categories.

As you can see, every single month, every single quarter, we're gamifying.

It's a one big fun competition.

You gotta have that, man.

You gotta have the fun.

ah You gotta gamify it because if you don't, it's just like, it's just a J-O-B.

And I don't know about you, but I don't wanna go have a J-O-B.

Yeah.

that's really interesting.

We probably need to get better about that.

I think we've done that from time to time, but the last year or two, I've probably dropped the ball and we don't celebrate things as much as we should.

do it man.

Oh and one more thing and this is the funniest thing we have our weekly meeting every Monday at nine o'clock on team zoom.

70 plus people on there and when it's somebody's birthday we sing happy birthday and we embarrass them but sometimes it's like three different people's birthdays and the whole

team sings and it's the most it's a company it's just I can't think of the word it is like horrible but awesome.

at the same time.

Okay, yeah, that'd be really interesting, especially over a Zoom meeting.

It's hilarious.

It's like, you know, we start the meeting off on a positive focus.

That's something that we've learned.

Here's another golden nugget is even if the house is burning, you start every single meeting, no matter how big or small with a positive focus.

So, you know, that seems to like, all right, it sets our bearings.

Calm down everybody.

Yeah.

The house like today we, we.

uh We took a big loss on that house that we installed incorrectly because we didn't re-deck it properly.

But we still had a positive focus amongst leadership and we rolled into that meeting, the homeowner was cool and we're taking our medicine and it's like, it's not the end of the

world.

So that's a good nugget is before you start any meeting or every meeting, nah, just like the important meetings.

Started with a positive focus and

you know more more times than not it's there's a there's a good tone throughout the meeting

Okay.

I like the sandwich method.

You start positive, deal with what needs addressed, and then finish with a positive outlook.

Just like you're building a sandwich.

like it.

I can tell you're well read and have developed yourself as a leader, quoting Simon Sinek and Churchill.

Are there any particular resources that have stood out as being most influential to you?

Well, I mentioned it earlier.

It's the best-selling book of all time.

I wish more folks, and I wish I would have known this because I didn't become a follower of Jesus until late in life when I was 40 years old and I got baptized.

But I wish more people would look at this book and realize it's the best, number one bestseller for a reason.

It's changed the world and it's a love story.

So many folks look at this because

whatever the reason, as a rule book.

This is the greatest love story of all time.

And if you get into this book and just ask God, speak to me and open it up and just read it, man, that's the best advice I can give anybody.

And even if you're not a believer, let's just say some of your followers aren't believers.

I got non-believers on my team.

If you just read the book of Proverbs, that'll give you a PhD in business.

Holy smokes!

Just that alone, Proverbs.

And here's a helpful way to read Proverbs.

You know, today's the 30th.

Today's October 30th.

uh Go to Proverbs 30.

Open up to Proverbs 30, because there's 31 Proverbs.

And whatever date it is, if it's the 12th or the 15th, just open it up to that Proverb and grab one verse and let it marinate on your brain.

That's a...

That's kind of a cool way to read the Bible as well.

But besides the Bible, ah I love world war.

I love war and autobiographies.

I just read The River of Doubt, which is a book on.

uh

Yeah.

bro, you want to talk about a man?

Like Teddy Roosevelt was stud.

my God.

He did the River of Doubt at my age, at 55 years old and nearly died.

That dude is a man's man.

And when he was faced with adversity, for example, he lost his wife and his mom on the same day.

You know what he did?

He's like, I'm not gonna cry in my beer.

He went out to the freaking Badlands in South Dakota and just like you know what?

I'm just gonna man up and just physically get over this and like raise cattle So yeah, have a book club at Frasier roofing

so you know right now we're reading poems and prayers by Matthew McConaughey a writer writer a writer writer, right?

so Yeah

We have a nice little book club.

just, man, we read everything.

We read everything.

So how about you?

What do you like to read?

I really enjoy fiction.

Uh, I, I do the stupid thriller novels, spy novels.

I like military thrillers.

That's what I read for fun.

And then I mix in a lot of podcasts and I used to do, uh, I do one kind of business leadership book and then a fiction book and kind of balance the growing and having fun

growing and having fun.

Um,

Love it.

Do you know Vince Flynn?

Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah.

He's Vince Flynn and the Mitch rap novels.

That's probably my, that's my top five for sure.

Maybe top one.

So.

I read them all.

Read them all.

So good stuff, man.

And I like what you do.

You're mixing it up.

I think that's good for your brain.

You don't want to just be like one track, you know.

So I like that you're mixing it up.

I do the same thing.

You know, I read like a serious one and then I'll be like, all right, let's have some fun, you know.

So.

Yeah.

A lot of the leadership and business books, there's so much overlap that you read them.

If that's all you read, just, it gets redundant, repetitive, and you don't soak it in.

And man, especially as business leaders, we're always so busy and on the run and I spend too much time thinking about my business as it is.

It's nice to check out once in a while and have some fun.

So.

it a man i love sean ryan uh...

i was watching sean ryan last night talking about u a p east let's call it for what they are the u f o's u a p east and like underneath the water in the out in san diego the

admiral of my what john ryan is fascinating and i love the fact that he just became a a believer and uh...

anyways super cool dude

Yeah, I really enjoy his show as well.

He's got some great people on there.

We've talked a lot about going through hard things, persevering, taking your medicine as you put it, just sucking it up.

What is it that motivates you and keeps you pushing when things get hard?

my kids man are you kidding me I could get up right now and go to the cupboard and show you most of my coffee mugs are pictures of my kids and my wife and I and I give the advice

to to my teammates go get a mug and put your why on the mug if you're especially if you're a closer coffee is for closers and are you kidding me like so many people say

I would die for my kids.

How about you live for your kids?

Amen.

Don't even get me started, we'll be here for another five hours.

Like, what more motivation?

That's your greatest accomplishment.

Like so many people want to go out in the world and do this and do that, and they leave their kids and their wife behind.

I'm like, bro, that's your greatest discipleship opportunity.

They're watching you.

You know, I've heard the expression early in our marriage, caught, not taught.

Caught, not taught.

You can sit there and blah, blah, blah, argue what you with your kids, but your kids are watching you 24-7, 365.

It's caught.

So some of the coolest moments in my life with my children, I'm out here reading the Bible, drinking my coffee, my son will kind of snuggle up on me like, hey dad, what are

you reading?

I'm like, dude, let me tell you something.

And I've seen him like pray by himself and read the Bible.

like, you want to talk about like joy?

Man, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Watching my kids go close.

I got to baptize my son in a muddy creek.

It was freezing cold

too.

I saw my daughter get baptized.

My wife got baptized.

um If the Lord decides to take me tomorrow, I'm good to go.

Mission accomplished.

I get to spend eternity with them now.

I hate that phrase that I would die for whatever.

Like, man, that's the easy way out.

Like then you're done.

There's no work to do.

It's over.

You're the work is done.

If you're willing to die for something, are you willing to live for it?

Whatever that is, you know, whether it's your family or your faith or your goals or the business you want to build, whatever anybody's motivation is.

I just hate that phrase.

I die for it.

I live for it.

Go out and make it happen.

Do something.

Amen, Eric.

Amen.

Talk is cheap.

Yeah, I like the, might have to get a new coffee mug.

I've got, uh, I carry the same mug all day, every day.

And I've got our, uh, mission statement and company values plastered all over ours to try to keep the main thing, the main thing.

So.

Nah, I love it.

I love it.

Uh, did you have a major turning point?

know you've talked about a few kind of big wins.

You started pretty small.

There were a few years where you were losing money.

You've brought in new staff.

Was there a point in building your business where you were like, I made it like where you hit a big milestone.

You felt a level of peace or a level of comfort.

That's funny.

Well, you started the question off and I had the answer in mind, but then you ended it with, made it.

I don't think I've made it.

So I'll answer the first part.

we had a bit, we called it the big reveal.

And again, I'm going to circle back to Nathan Thibodeau.

We were introducing a whole new culture and it was called the hero sales culture.

We busted it out on a Thanksgiving.

and we called it the big reveal and we brought everybody into a room and we revealed it and it basically was what the hero sales culture is and basically in a snapshot it's

basically there's three types of people there's heroes you want to be surrounded by heroes the people that will take on the brunt of the customer even if it's not their

responsibility they never say it's not my job they own it they will stand in the gap you want to surround yourself with the heroes

the pre-Madonnas.

These are the guys that it's all about me.

I'm the big bad sales guy with the jacked up truck and know, testosterone filled.

Like we had to get rid of those guys because it's all about me.

And guess what?

That hurt.

That hurt our bottom line when we got rid of the egos and the guys were like, sales rules.

I am sales.

When we got rid of them, it kind of, it was like, oh crap.

Those are a lot of numbers.

And then there's the monkeys.

The monkeys are just order takers.

You give them an order and they go do it.

So those are the three types of people in the hero sales organization.

And we broke it out and like looking for heroes.

Prima Donna is not welcome.

We lost like three of our top producers right off the bat.

But coach Tebow said, dude, weather the storm.

When you weather the storm and you set the tone, it's going to come back.

That year we doubled our sales.

short, on that, when we made the shift, our sales doubled because everyone was like, oh crap, they got rid of the top producers.

What about me?

I better step up.

These guys actually mean what they say.

So I would highly encourage that.

But the second part of your question was have I ever thought like I made it heck no Heck no I Think that's probably the most dangerous spot.

I'm like I've made it you if you say you made it your toast Like every single day this this could all be taken away tomorrow um So I'm of the simple mindset that You got to get

out of your cave

You gotta go kill something.

You gotta drag it back into the cave every single day.

ah If you ever hear me say I made it, just please come kick me in the balls because that's a dangerous place to be.

That's fair enough.

Yeah.

Well, this is my favorite question.

I think you've answered it to some degree or not, but I know you're a follower of Jesus.

How has that shaped your leadership journey?

And then I'm going to add a second piece to that you've brought up being a kingdom business twice.

What does that mean and what does that look like?

So number one, changed everything.

I want to thank and give a shout out to my roommate in college, Brian Moore.

BMO, we call him BMO.

He was a stud outside linebacker,

Brian was observing me after college and he knew me better than anybody.

And basically he was like, dude, you gotta go get baptized.

I'm like, now I don't.

I grew up in Presbyterian Church.

I got baptized a baby.

I'm good.

I said the prayer.

I'm good.

He's like, you gotta get baptized.

I'm like, BMO, whatever, dude.

But he kept on.

He was persistent, you know, over the years.

Amen.

It ain't about a prayer.

It ain't about a prayer, man.

And he just stayed in my ear year after year.

And then finally, when I hit rock bottom, you know, about the time that I lost my brother and trying to kill myself with Jack Daniels, I heard him in the back of my mind.

Hey, man, you got to go get baptized.

And I called him.

I was like, tell me about this again.

Why do I need to get baptized again?

He's like, dude, just do it.

Like make a public profession to your Lord and Savior and go die.

you know, like, all right.

So I went to Calvary Baptist, excuse me, Calvary Chapel in Lilburn, Georgia.

And I got baptized by myself, no family, no nothing.

I was like, this is between you and me, God.

I'm going all in.

I surrender.

That was 40 years old, 40 years old.

So that changed everything because of a friend's love.

and he recognized that I wasn't I wasn't walking the walk you know I was talking the talk I wasn't walking the walk.

What was the second part of your question?

the how has that affected your leadership and then to tell me about the kingdom builders or kingdom business.

yep, King of Bist.

So.

it's affected everything.

I mean I used to be kind of a wild man.

You know, I was a brawler.

I owned an Irish pub where I was the bouncer.

I threw out an entire bachelor party one time by myself.

taking a lot of punches if you can't tell by my nose.

ah Because I couldn't hit back as the owner.

Anyway, I would just grab him by the back.

with five brothers, I can only imagine.

That's it.

So as these guys are swinging and hitting me, I could take a punch.

I was grabbing them by the back of their loop and like the top of their shirt.

I was throwing them out one by one.

So it's changed everything because I used to be a completely different person, like a completely different person.

I was an alcoholic, multiple DUIs.

I drove a car off a mountain one time, drunk and miraculously.

I know God's watching after me.

I know how many lives I've gone through, but one tree caught the car.

Like one tree off a cliff caught the car somehow.

So I'm so thankful to be here.

After I surrendered to Jesus Christ, my whole life has gotten way more peaceful.

It hasn't gotten easier.

A lot of people think, it's going to be all easy.

No.

Once you surrender, there's a big bullseye on your back.

um

And, nah, you're a target now.

You're a threat.

So when you're going through many trials and tribulations, you can almost consider it like a compliment.

Like, okay, at least I'm a threat.

So it's changed everything.

I'm not the same man that I used to be.

And I don't, I don't have the same friends.

A lot of my friends were like, that was a, know, Dominic's not fun anymore.

See you.

A lot of my friends left me, which is a blessing.

My parent, uh, my wife said when she first met me,

like all those friends suck anyways I'm like you're right so but kingdom business ah kingdom business is basically it doesn't belong to you and there's a quote by the guy who

owns Hobby Lobby Green uh he's a he's a very wise man ah but we have it up in our bullpen in our in our sales we have a bullpen where all the sales guys get together and train and

it

paraphrase that says

If you think you own what you have, you have huge problems.

And that to me in a nutshell is a kingdom business.

Like when the money comes calling, which we, we, the phone continues to go off the hook with all these investors and you know, mergers and acquisitions, private equities, they're

coming at us with all sorts of ridiculous offers.

And we're just, I simply say, and it gives me an opportunity to share.

you know the good news like we're not for sale working to this and a lot of people go what the heck is that like will give you a call i'd be happy to be happy to share with you my

bosses like what will call me up you know i don't know these guys backgrounds and like who was your boss i'm like ways to choose carpenters and she's and you're one of those jesus

freaks are you're a jesus freak i'm like

Hell yeah, I'm a Jesus freak.

He's the only chance where either one of us have a chance of getting out this earth alive.

Let me tell you about him.

Some people listen, some people don't, but that's not my job.

My job is to plant the seeds and the converse and it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict.

So that in a nutshell is what a kingdom business is.

It can't be just writing on a wall.

It's got to be shown through your actions and I hope

My team would back me up on saying that we run a kingdom business.

It's not about us.

It's never gonna be about us.

It's about him.

Amen.

That is great.

It, from everything I've heard, it sounds like that's a real core piece of who you are and how you do things.

And it shows in the culture that you've built.

Well, I have two more questions.

I know you got another appointment you've got to get to.

Um, when you're giving us your background, I know your first exposure to roofing was Hurricane Katrina and putting blue tarps on.

How did you get from there to starting Frasier Roofing?

It was a fun journey.

I jumped around so Frasier roofing didn't start till 2009 so there was a gap of four years where I was like Jumping around the roofing industry.

So I started with a company that's well known called Aspen Contracting they're out of the Midwest and They were the guys that showed up to storms with 50 trucks and put yard signs

in every single yard and just would just Just come they would just flood the zone

So I sold for them for a while and then I met a guy within their organization that was one of their top closers and he branched off.

He's like Dom, you want to come with me?

And instead of getting paid 35%, I'll pay you 50%.

I'm like, okay, I'll go with this guy.

I really didn't know what the heck I was doing.

I was just hooking and jabbing and rolling with the punches.

So I went with this guy for a bit and he taught me some things.

And then,

He moved out of town and I was like, all right, I'm gonna do this Fraser thing.

I can do this.

But I was like, no, no, a big storm hit out in Oklahoma City, softball size hell.

And I wasn't set up to go to Oklahoma City.

So I went with a guy by the name of Juan Ramon.

Shout out to my boy, Juan.

He's still out there hooking.

He's an OG original gangster with Empire Construction.

So I sold with Juan and Juan really helped us at the early stages.

of Frazier Roofing and I'm like, dude, how do I schedule jobs?

And he like walked me into his office and he had like this magnetic board and he's like, yeah, man, you don't know what the hell you're doing Dominic.

I'm like, I don't, that's why I'm here.

And you know what?

I'll give Juan props.

Juan said, hey man, can I tell you something?

It's like, I see you on the social media and you're always on the golf course.

You're never going to be successful.

So get off the damn golf course.

I'm like, yes, sir.

So I stopped.

I stopped.

I stopped playing as much golf and I started actually knocking doors and getting out there and getting my hands dirty.

So thank you Juan for kicking me in the rear end.

And then in 2009, after those jumping around, I'm like, hey man, I think I can do this.

And yeah, so we've been in business 16 years, Frazier Roofing.

So yeah, it's been a fun ride.

Yeah, interesting.

OK, last question to either settle or fuel the debate.

I ask everybody that comes on the show, if you have to use a cordless tool, which brand are you reaching for?

Gosh, this is a question for my wife.

I'm ashamed to say, and she's the handyman in the house.

ah But what does she have out there?

DeWalt?

Is it DeWalt?

Is that what it is?

yeah, yellow.

Yeah, Yeah, the Walt.

That's it.

That was one of her many jobs within Home Depot.

She was in charge of this particular tool division.

So, yeah, my guys make fun of me because I'm like, so did you put that together?

I'm like, no, Sarah did it.

You know, so she and when we moved recently, we wanted to get rid of all this stuff.

She's got tools upon tools.

I'm like, let's get rid of these tools.

She's like, no, I'm not getting rid of my tools.

So, yeah, so it's the wall.

I think that's a conversation common to most marriages, but maybe your guys's is reversed.

Yeah man, keeping it real.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

I really appreciate you coming on the show.

think our listeners will appreciate hearing your story um Man, just thank you.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it

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