Brandon Strawder - Staying Safe and Making Money in the Off Season - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Brandon Strawder of The RIDGEPRO. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip.

Karen Edwards: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeshop.com. My name is Karen Edwards, and today we're going to be talking about how contractors can stay busy as we get ready to enter what's traditionally known as a slower season for those parts of the country where we experience winter.

And I am really excited to welcome Brandon Strawder from The Ridge Pro. Brandon, welcome.

Brandon Strawder: And great to be with you, Karen. Thank you so much.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, so for those listening out there who might not know who you are and what you do, can you just give us a little bit of an introduction?

Brandon Strawder: I'd love to. My name is Brandon Strawder. I'm the CEO of Strawder Family Innovations, which is a family partnership based in Northeast Ohio. We have a parent company of a product called The Ridge Pro, which is a steep slope roofing safety device. And how that came to be that we created a steep slope roofing safety device is, my father was a roofer for many years and had a near miss when he was getting a little bit older. His eyes were getting a little worse, his knees were getting a little worse. He slipped on a really steep roof and started sliding down toward the gutter. Fortunately caught himself, but we realized that that incident could have ended in tragedy.

So I have a wonderfully smart brother who's an engineer. My father had the roofing experience. I had a business background. We put our heads together, we came up with a design for an adjustable roof anchor that was meant just to really save dad when he was going on and off of roofs. But people started to see it in action, started to ask where they could get one. And one thing led to another, and now we have a product that we sell all of the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia. Pretty much everywhere you go, there's someone out there using a Ridge Pro. And we're incredibly grateful for 10 plus years of wonderful user experiences, feedback and looking forward to a lot of continued growth here in the years to come.

Karen Edwards: Wow. Yeah. So many times you see products that are unique and innovative, and they work because they were developed by a roofing contractor based on a need or a problem or an issue. And I love hearing these kinds of stories. That's fantastic.

Brandon Strawder: Yeah. You never know what you're going to get into one day to the next. So we had no idea, when the incident happened, how many people got injured, how many people were killed on an annual basis because of roofing-related incidents. And just getting involved in the industry really opened our eyes and gave us a real purpose to try and do something about all the people who are out there working on these dangerous, dangerous jobs to provide good service and put out a good product. Yet they don't always use safety.

So we're spreading our message. And you're exactly right, Karen. There's a million products out there. We do not claim to be the be-all, end-all of roofing safety. There's a lot of good tools you can use out there, but we're happy to offer a solution for a select set of obstacles that you may encounter on a roof and we look forward to serving the roofing public as best we can.

Karen Edwards: All right, so let's talk about, we are recording this right now and Thanksgiving's just around the corner and then we'll have Christmas. And we were talking about some snow maybe this winter and it's typically known as the slow season of roofing. But there are things that roofing contractors can do to keep their crews busy and maybe change their business model during this slow time. Could you talk a little bit about some of those ideas?

Brandon Strawder: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. My family business was in roofing and general construction for probably the better part of three decades. My dad is kind of semi-retired now, both my parents are. And I remember us boys, I want to say us boys, myself and my two brothers helping out with the roofs when we were young. And there was certainly a slow season where we grew up in Northeast Ohio, because there was a foot of snow on the roof for three or four months. Now it seems like kind of depends which part of the country you're in, and it kind of depends what mother nature is going to do. We don't know in December if it's going to be sunny and 75, or if it's going to be a complete blizzard whiteout.

So in preparation for the bad times when, as you call it a slow season, there are some things that I think we did in the past and things that I would suggest that others would do. The first would be trying to get involved with insurance companies, because there are so many emergency claims over the winter. There's good sides and bad sides. The bad side is, you might get a call at one o'clock in the morning to go put a tarp on somebody's roof. The good side is, they're always happening and they're incredibly lucrative. Insurance people, adjusters typically don't want to get up onto roofs.

Some do, most don't. So it's a big opportunity to pull out your ladder, go up a couple of stories, get a tarp on or do whatever's necessary and then have a substantial check come into you instead of waiting for the snowed to melt and the next roofing opportunity to come along. So that was one, was definitely insurance.

I would also suggest that there's a good business that's really picking up with the holiday lighting. I think the lighting industry is going to eventually become a year round thing where people are decorating their houses and showing off their properties year round. But as of right now, it seems to be really targeted to the holiday season for people to kind of end the year with a bang, be festive. And that provides a lot of opportunity, because as I know as I drive around the suburbs of New Jersey where I live, there are of houses that don't have holiday lights. A couple of them have way too many, but for the most part there is a lot of opportunity.

So those are certainly a couple of things you can do. And in addition to gutters and any kind of residential services with skylights or with chimneys, it kind of depends where you are in the country and where you are with your skillset. So those are a couple of things that I would suggest.

Karen Edwards: Sure. And those are services that, I think back to homeowners, they're not used to climbing up on ladders and attaching things to the roof, when you're talking about decorating or holiday lights. And so they may not always have safety in top of their mind. And relying on the professional who does this every day is certainly appealing to me as a homeowner. I don't want to climb up on the ladder and hang holiday lights.

Brandon Strawder: No, I don't blame you. I use the analogy, it's kind of like getting in the airplane, going up to 5,000 feet, opening the door and then putting your parachute on for the first time and then jumping. You don't want to be one of these homeowners or even a young professional that learns right at the last minute when things could be super dangerous and you haven't had experience to sort of rehearse and think about what you're getting involved in. So yeah, the Ridge Pro comes in really handy, but we do not sell to the general big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe's or anything like that for that reason. We don't want the regular person to get up on the roof and think that they're Superman or Supergirl because they are attached to the peak. There's too many complexities, too many variations of roofs that is just not suited for a non-professional.

So I am with you. For the regular person, stay off the roof, leave the job to the professional.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. And if we are talking about roof inspections and roof maintenance, I know that there are rules about safety and that OSHA monitors the fall protection use. But there's situations where I think some people think, ah, I'm just going to run up there and look at this real quick and see if there's a problem or not. I would think that the bottom line should be: safety all the time, safety equipment all the time. But we know it happens. So what are some recommendations for... How can we get people to be thinking about this? It's not just running up there and looking at this real quick. I still need to be practicing all the safety protection.

Brandon Strawder: Oh, definitely. Well, the first thing that we have done and we've started doing it in the past two years, is we refuse to acknowledge a roofer as a professional unless they're using safety equipment. And the analogy that I use for this is being on a football field in the NFL with everyone in pads, except the quarterback in a t-shirt and shorts. The person they just pull off the street and stick at quarterback. Everyone else is a professional. They know what they're doing. They're suited up, protecting themselves. And then you got this random person that thinks that they can just enter the roofing industry with no safety precautions, putting other people's lives on the line.

Being a homeowner, if you have an injury at your house, of someone falling off the roof, that's devastating to the homeowner. It ends up in the news, ends up in OSHA violations. It's just, why would you not do it? No matter if you're going on a roof for a second, why wouldn't you take the extra 20 seconds and just get set up properly?

So you're exactly right. It's hard to understand. I guess people have the reasons. One of the most common reasons I've heard is we've converted people from non-safety product users to becoming safety product users was: that's just the way that my older relative did it. When I worked for him, we did it for 30 years, we're fine. His dad did it this way, his dad did it this way. It's kind of breaking, changing the mentality of this cycle that people are in, like, I'm too cool for school.

But when it comes down to it, I can tell you stories all day long, all day long and all night long, about people who have called our office. They've talked about falls that people have had in their organization, and now they're looking to make a change. So they're searching for tools to get them, they and their employees, that they contractors, safe on the roof with equipment. So it's not an uncommon theme to hear about this stuff.

So we're doing our best of promoting safety, promoting professionalism, trying to encourage the industry to take a stand, working with OSHA on any kind of testing that needs to be done, any kind of variations that need to be done so we can get the best product out there. And it's a non-stop work in progress, and there always will be. We're going to keep pushing. That's our goal.

Karen Edwards: I think back when I first started driving, people didn't really wear seat belts. There weren't really car seats for children. But there was a mentality shift, I think, to that safety, to buckle up. And then states started saying, "Click it or ticket. You've got to wear your seat belt." And I think it took a lot of hard work, but I feel like we've turned that corner. And now the next generation coming in, they've grown up with all safety more in their mind. So maybe if companies like yours, and we keep talking about it and we keep having these conversations, we can start to see a little shift there too. That's my hope.

Brandon Strawder: I hope so. And with working with great partners like Roofers Coffee Shop and others, we have a great leverage in the industry to keep pushing the people that matter to promote safety across the industry. I think we're going to get it done sooner or later, but it seems to be getting better at the moment. But it comes and goes, as they say.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah.
Okay. So let's talk about what's new with the Ridge Pro. And you might have a new product?

Brandon Strawder: We do have one new product, and that is a longer extension poll that people have been asking for several years. We finally got it done. We've completed our testing process. Here's the backgrounds.
So up until this point, we have had an eight-foot extension poll that extends to 16 feet. And there's a couple of good things and a couple of bad things about that. First of all, not all roofs from the gutter to the peak of a roof are 16 feet. Some are further. So it was a little bit challenging for people to install the Ridge Pro on certain large houses across the United States. So that was challenge number one.

Challenge number two was getting the extension poll to people. So when you have a really large product that you're shipping, UPS or FedEx or any of the big shippers will charge an oversize fee of $150 for just shipping one unit. So we thought, okay, well, we will go through the postal system and that'll solve that. Well, the postal system takes all the packages that they get, no matter what size and they throw it into a machine and it crushes things and twists things. And we were having broken extension poll problems through the post office.

So we were in this situation where it was like if we send it one way, it's going to get broken and if we send it another way, it's going to be too expensive for the end user. Not to mention the fact that it's only really reaching 60 or 70% of the roofs. So we had to go in, and we figured out a way to create an extension pole that was seven feet long, that extends to 24 feet. And this is really exciting for us, because on an administrative side, it takes off a lot of the paperwork of doing damage claims. And the good side for the customer is it's not that much more expensive. It's not going to be a lot to ship, and it's going to reach way further from the ladder to the peak, so there's no extra reaching and straining to try and get that extra foot or two of reach to get the Ridge Pro installed on the peak of the roof.
So we're really excited about that. You're going to see that start rolling out here at the beginning of 2025, and I can't wait to hear the feedback. I think people are really going to love it.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. So did making it that one foot shorter solve the extra oversized charges for shipping?

Brandon Strawder: Yep, it did. So this is a complete side note off-topic, but when you send something in the postal mail and I didn't know this, you send something to the postal mail and it goes to the sorting center and it gets on a truck and then it's delivered. Well, on an oversized package, there's a completely separate mail stream for anything over, I want to say, 86 inches long. So it can be like four or five, six extra days from when your Ridge Pro and extension pole ship. The Ridge Pro will show up in day one or two, and then people were calling day three or four saying, "Uh, I ordered both, but I don't see the pole." It's in the oversized mail stream, and it's moving slower.

So a week goes by, and then sometimes you get a phone call that says, "You know what? I waited a week and my extension pole was broken. The post office destroyed it in the shipping process." So then we say, "Okay, we'll send you another one." But there's another week. So it was just a real headache to try and get those done. And it wasn't all the time, but it was just enough to be an annoyance that we wanted to take care of. So there is still the 16-foot option if you want to wait a week, or you can go to one of our retailers and pick one up without any problems. Otherwise, the 24 foot's going to be a great solution for everybody.

Karen Edwards: I like it. That, yeah, innovative solution to an interesting problem.

Brandon Strawder: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I can't wait.

Karen Edwards: Awesome. So as we are approaching the cold season, the holiday season, a Ridge Pro could be a great gift idea for the roofer in your life.

Brandon Strawder: I hope so, yeah.

Karen Edwards: How does someone, if they are interested in purchasing, how do they do that?

Brandon Strawder: Well, obviously you could go to our website, which is TheRidgePro.com. We always say, just call us directly. Because we want to hear what your needs are, what you are facing in the field. We want to certainly qualify you to be sure that you are professional and that you're not taking extreme risks that could hurt yourself, hurt the brand, hurt your community. There are a number of retailers across the United States that carry the Ridge Pro in stores. You can stop by, or you can check our website for the list of those locations. And then you can find some various other distributors throughout the North America that carry and ship a little more economically in certain parts of the North American region than we can from Ohio.

So there's lots of options, but we always say, give us a call and we'll give you the best option on how you can get it the fastest. And in one piece.

Karen Edwards: Now, you mentioned that it's in use around the world, Australia, Europe. We may have some listeners from outside the US. What's that process look like for them to obtain that? Same, visit the website? Contact you?

Brandon Strawder: Same thing. Yep. Our international shipping seems to be a well oiled machine at this point. And it came from a lot of years of trial and error, but we send stuff over to Europe and Australia all the time. We have great users. They're using it in so many interesting ways, dryer vents and installation of snow guards in Europe and chimney services. And so it's just been a wonderful experience to, as I mentioned before, start with one person in mind to stay safe and the word spreading literally around the world within just several years. And people finding innovative ways to use it every day. I couldn't be more proud of what we thought.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that's fantastic. And you're contributing to getting people home safely at the end of the day, which is the ultimate goal. Go home to your families and yeah, be whole.

Well, Brandon, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your keeping busy over the winter ideas, the story of the Ridge Pro. Now I'm sure as 2025 is just around the corner, we're going to be gearing up for some trade shows. I'm sure that contractors attending some of these trade shows, especially International Roofing Expo. Will you guys be there?

Brandon Strawder: We will certainly be there. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. Make sure you stop by our booth. Give us a hug, because we love our users and we'll give you a business card to share with one of your roofing friends.

Karen Edwards: I like it. Yes, share the love.

All right, well, thank you so much Brandon. And thank you everyone out there for listening to this episode of Roofing Road Trips. Please follow us on social media, because we don't want you to miss a thing. And also, if you want to learn more about The Ridge Pro, you can visit their directory on Roofer's Coffee Shop. It has all their information as well as how to contact them. So again, Brandon, thank you. It was a pleasure. We appreciate you.

Brandon Strawder: Thanks so much, Karen. Looking forward to talking with you again in the future. And thank you to all listeners.

Karen Edwards: All right, see you next time.

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