Small Business, Big Growth

Charles began his career as a roofing professional in 1984. Since then, he has become one of the most trusted names in the Southern California roofing industry, as well as an inspirational business leader championing social corporate responsibility.

Charles believes that his purpose is to give more, and to inspire his employees and other small and mid-size companies to make a difference by volunteering and giving financially to causes in their communities.

Top Takeaways:

• Be adaptive and question everything 
• A good story will retell itself even when you are not physically present
• Err on the side of generosity with your stakeholders 

[00:30]Intro 
[03:30] The dawning of Antis Roofing 
[08:43]The power of NEVER saying "no" 
[15:07]Creating a beautiful culture 
[23:45]Implementing community in your company 
[30:55]Honoring the labor of your employee 
[33:45]Growing your business in a constantly changing world
[44:35]The purpose behind Charles Antis  

Tatsuya "Tats" Nakagawa is the Co-Founder/COO of a roof coating manufacturing company called Castagra where they help contractors and commercial property owners solve difficult roof (tar & gravel) coating challenges.

Over the years Tats has helped launch hundreds of products and co-authored the book Overcoming Inventoritis: The Silent Killer of Innovation (Forward by Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple).


Top Takeaways:

• Put yourself out there and challenge yourself to not settle for mediocrity
• Having a well rounded team that will keep you focused on your goals is essential to the growth of your business
• Setting maintainable goals is the key to achieving long-term goals

[00:30] Intro of Tats

[05:40] Building a company from scratch

[09:30] Positioning yourself for opportunities

[12:30]How to maintain momentum as a company

[19:18]Understanding changes in the market

[23:39]Building an amazing team

[36:06]The art of delegation

[39:04]The importance of personal health in business

[44:32]Setting goals that are maintainable

Connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatsuya/
https://www.castagra.com

Growth starts mindset. If you want to grow your business you need to think of ways you can create opportunities instead of just catching them. In this episode, Sam talks about how to apply the growth mindset in both sale and marketing to produce growth for your business. 

Top takeaways:

- The difference in creating vs catching opportunities 

- How to shift from a 100% referral business to accelerated growth through sales and advertising

- Advertising tips to create more opportunities with a small budget

Gary Nolt is the President of Cassel Signs based out of Lancaster, PA. They create custom fleet graphics and vehicle wraps to help businesses drive their brand. Gary talks about how the Cassel brand was established and how he has a built culture around core values. 

Top takeaways:

-Importance of building a culture around learning

-Significance of developing your brand’s mission

-Effectiveness of building brand awareness through fleet graphics 

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Gary’s Podcast

[05:35] Building Business Relationships with the Right People

[12:06] Creating a Culture for Growth

[16:53] Attracting a Good Workforce

[23:48] Developing an Authentic Mission

[27:42] The Purpose of Fleet Graphics

[35:13] Investing in your Brand

[38:28] The Cost Effectiveness of Vehicle Branding

[43:58] Being Able to Learn

Stand-Out Quotes:

“Business is people. I mean it doesn't matter what type of work you are in, if you're not in the business of people, you may be selling yourself short.  Your clients are people, your team is people, and you know it is about how you care for your team.”

“I'm not going to lose it if bad mistakes happen. That's how we learn. That's how we grow up. We have a young team, so it's expected. I know a lot of young people with a lot of big ideas and Hey, they’re gonna make mistakes. When you make a mistake, you own it. You know that's what we say, just own it and move on."

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-nolt-41890980/

https://casselteam.com/

Ryan Shantz is the founder of SumoQuote based out of Calgary Canada. SumoQuoute is a SaaS tool that helps contractors create quick professional quotes. In this podcast, Ryan explains the importance of contractors focusing on the customer experience. 

Top takeaways:

-Establishing a good customer experience

-Improving closing ratios

-Considering others’ perceptions

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Ryan’s Podcast

[05:48] Winning More Sales

[08:41] Creating an Effective Customer Experience

[14:05] Increasing Closing Ratios

[18:11] Creating Separation Between Competitors

[21:58] Traditional Business Owners Supporting Innovation

[28:03] Creating Unique Value

[31:40] Putting Yourself in Your Customer Shoes

Stand-Out Quotes:

“Customer experience, if there's one thing that I think we can all continue to focus on and all get better at is putting ourselves in our customer's shoes and trying to think about what matters to them and then engage with them more along those lines.”

“The two big leavers that I think about in sales are one intake. And so you want to find a good company, somebody you can trust to help you with that obvious. Right. So that's a big one. The second one is then just increasing the percentage of jobs that you're winning from those interests. Those are the two big ways to keep increasing revenues. 

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-shantz/

https://www.sumoquote.com/

Jim Johnson is the founder of ContractorCoachPro based out of New Braunfels, Texas. They work with contractors in helping them improve their processes so that they can achieve their goals. Jim explains how he learned to effectively coach businesses in ways that foster growth.

Top takeaways:

-Establishing your business goals

-Adapting to changes in sales processes and environments

-Identifying perceptions of customers

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Jim’s Podcast

[09:27] Ability of Contractors to get to the Next Level

[13:33] Identifying Your Business Dream

[15:52] Establishing Contractor Goals

[23:32] Process of Virtual Sales

[30:56] Perception of Small Contractors

[36:58] COVID-19 Effects on the Sales Process

[42:24] Need for Custom Coaching

Stand-Out Quotes:

“There are lots of platforms out there where the hallmark could walk outside and take a picture of their house and go put whatever roofing material they want on there. So they can see what it would look like before it even gets done. And so do I really need to go through and show them 900 samples of stuff? Now, could I in a digital way, create the right mechanisms so that they see that good, better, best type stuff. And I am not really a good, better, best type.  I'm more, best, better, good. I am like, here's the great stuff. This is what you really want. Cause that is how people buy.” 

“But if we build it together and you have a lot of personal investment into it is something you believe in, you'll be more persistent with it. And it's different for everybody. A smaller contractor has a different set of resources and skills available to him than somebody that's larger. And so it is very custom what we do whenever we work with somebody. And so where is that starting point? 

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-johnson-9a9aa722/

https://www.contractorcoachpro.com/

Sam Taggart is the Founder of D2D Experts based out of Lehi, Utah. They offer solutions for Door to Door sales companies to help them become more efficient. In this podcast, Sam talks about how he helps contractors to organize their team to maximize their sales efforts.

Top Takeaways:

-Building your organization around the idea of selling

-The importance of streamlining your sales training

-Structuring your team to promote employees to management

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Sam Taggart’s Podcast

[06:57] Sam’s Journey to Starting His Own Consulting Business

[08:56] The Importance of Being Good at Sale

[20:07] The Keys to Sucess for Sales Reps

[29:38] How to be Consistent in Sales

[32:19] The Value of Hardwork

Stand-Out Quotes:

“There's no substitute for hard work. Obviously there's the marketing side and there's all the web stuff, but I think a lot of people in today's society,  want to do everything possible to get off the doors. And I would say, I want to do everything possible to free up my time to get on the doors. Because I know when I'm out doing activity, that means talking to potential prospects. That means money.”

“It was a  very hard transition to quit my job.  I was a VP of sales. I had spent two years of putting in the sweat equity to build something really cool to reinvest and reinvest. So I went into this desert meditation retreat and I literally felt called, it was one of those things that hits you. And I was like I have to do this event. From a unity standpoint, I wanted to bring some honorable change to the door to door space as we know it.”

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-taggart-27256962/

https://thed2dexperts.com/

Marcus Stoltzfus is a Co-Owner of Liberation Tiny Homes based out of Lancaster, PA. He started the business 5 years ago with the idea of supporting individuals who desire to live in a smaller home. This encompasses minimalism which is essentially living within your means.

Top takeaways:

-The growing industry of tiny home manufacturing

-The importance of growing your business on social media

-Being willing to embrace changes in the workforce

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Marcus’s Podcast

[6:16] Stepping Stones for Building Your Brand

[11:46] Being Transparent on Social

[19:33] What Liberation is Doing to Promote Themselves Today

[24:15] Having a Consistent Voice on Social

[29:41] The Value of Marketing for Small Businesses

[32:45] The Challenge of Entrepreneurship  

Stand-Out Quotes:

“Building your brand and message around something is important because I think it's so easy for us as owners to kind of look to the left, look to the right, whatever everyone else is doing and offer this mash-up what all of our competitors are doing and like take that to the market instead of internalizing like, okay, well, what are our strengths?”

“How much do you want to grow your business? So I kind of challenged them a little bit and I was like, you gotta put in the time entrepreneurship is staying late, it's getting up early. It's putting the time in it, you're dead tired, but I got to post something, you know, like it's, it's, it's a want and a drive.”

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-stoltzfus-b98480b4/

https://www.liberationtinyhomes.com/

Paul Armstrong is a consultant at eNthusaProve LLC. Their mission is to inspire you to lead your teams into claiming their entire goal-achieving potential, and to empower leaders who want to build on the very purpose of what it means to be human. Human-centered leadership is what they're all about.

Top takeaways:

- How to dominate your workplace and get inspired every day

- Why other people must buy into your dreams

- Being humble yet confident in the pursuit of excellence

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Paul’s background

[04:45] How to get people to buy into your dreams

[06:25] Interpretation of the story of Genesis from the bible

[07:25] Staying focus and not get confused as a leader

[08:45] How to use the right tools for procurement

[10:53] What can be done differently because of that extreme desire to want to delight the customer

[12:42] Ways to become a leader in the industry

[13:56] Understand your industry that it takes a different level of dedication

[16:43] Skills needed to stay in your lane and be authentic.

[21:46] Identifying what is your purpose for wanting to be a leader

[27:15] Think deeply what kind of company do you want to be?

[31:16] Creating value and outperform your competition

[33:04] Find people with a technical specialty

[40:29] Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation

Stand-Out Quotes:

"Many people are familiar with Genesis when God said, Adam, I'm going to give you dominion. If you look deeply into that word, dominion, it means to be the boss."

"Understanding what it meant to improve a process and improve people's ability to create value and contribute to the purpose. And so while on the surface, it looked like process improvement. It was also a lot of just how do we get folks so that their talents are blossoming better and we're getting more fruit from each person."

Connect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paularmstrong/

https://enthusaprove.com/

Andy Near is the Chief Executive Officer at Empire Contractors LLC. The company's main objective is to set a new standard for roofing companies. They feel that the customer should experience the smoothest and easiest process when getting a new roof installed. They do this by regularly training employees and associates in-house.

Top takeaways:

- How technology can be used in the roofing industry

- Ways to deal with contractors and clients and exceeding expectations

- Practical tips to structure your company to be people first and profitable

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro to Andy’s background

[03:23] Getting professional contractors is key

[04:45] How Andy got started in this industry and succeeded

[06:25] Experience of making your business heard and getting referrals

[07:25] The unique approach to being a people-first business

[08:45] How to use the right lens to look through the industry 

[10:53] What can be done differently because of the desire to delight the customer

[12:42] Ways to become a leader in the industry

[13:56] Understanding your industry takes a different level of dedication

[16:43] Skills needed to embrace technology in the roofing industry

[21:46] Identifying what is your purpose for wanting to be a leader

[27:15] The considerations that go into the construction of a building

[31:16] Realizing you are a service provider

[33:04] Tactics for serving clients well

[40:29] The problem with direct mail marketing

[43:30] How to stand out from the competition

[49:30] The way to seek out proper manufacturers

Stand-Out Quotes:

"Your competitors are the people that are going to embrace technology. They are going to be growing and reaching into demographics and sectors that you are not going to reach."

Connect:

https://www.roofsbyempire.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-near-b4a01839