Contractor Convos Featuring Tre Rudig of Core Contractors

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Host Ryan Groth interviews Tre in this edition of Contractor Convos about Core Contractor’s Denver impact with their “Core-munity Outreach.”

Tre Rudig manages marketing and brand positioning with Core Contractors in Denver, Colorado. He sat down with Ryan Groth of Sales Transformation Group to talk about how Core is making a difference. You can watch the interview here or read about it below.

Tre told Ryan that last year, the owners at Core Contractors began an initiative to have each employee take a paid day off every quarter and volunteer at a nonprofit of their choice. “That’s a full eight-hour paid day, times four quarters, 32 hours per employee per year and at the time, I forget the exact number, but the total goal for our company rolled out to be 1,024 paid volunteer hours.”

The policy was implemented in January 2018 and Tre says that while they only achieved about half of their goal hours, they were able to engage with several great nonprofits, including one that has volunteers work with middle and high school students to learn life skills. Another group that Core employees volunteered for is Neighborhood Rehab Project which helps people who are either uninsured, underinsured or cannot afford a new roof. Ten or 12 employees went out and replaced a roof for a family in need. One employee spearheaded an effort to put together survival backpacks for the homeless over Christmas. He raised $5,000 and distributed 100 backpacks right before the holiday.

The inspiration behind the community involvement movement was Core founding partner Andrew Schmidt, who is heavily engaged in the community. He’s recently been nominated for the 9News Leader of the Year. He knew that for the volunteer initiative to be successful, it would need to be employee driven. “A number of us raised our hands and now there's a group of about six of us on a committee that we call the Core-munity Outreach,” Tre said.

The group began meeting and knew that they wanted to do a team project that is roof related, similar to the Neighborhood Rehab Project, but also wanted to be sure they were involved in ongoing service such as food bank drives and other activities. “It's obviously been a great situation to have Andrew as the leader that he is for the community outreach activities, and it's sort of been inspiring and driving the rest of us sort of to follow suit,” said Tre.

Tre said that Andrew ‘s inspiration for giving back came from a conversation with one his mentors. His mentor said that the true joy in life is moving the needle in someone else’s life. Tre says that Core tries hard to find the balance with sharing their good deeds. They think it’s important for customers and the public to know about their community support but the driving purpose behind this is not because they are trying to look good but because they are trying hard to move that needle in someone else’s life.

“So, if you are a contractor interested in starting a community outreach program, where would you start?” asked Ryan. Tre says, “At the top, I would start by asking your co-workers what are they passionate about? Don't even bring up the word non-profit or giving back or community service or whatever, however you want to phrase it, civic engagement.

Ask them what they're passionate about in life. Some will tell you their dog, some will tell you their kids. Some will say I love mountain climbing. Well, anyone of those passions, I guarantee you there's five or six non-profits out there that are involved with what these people are passionate about.”

Listen to the full interview here. Would you like to talk with Ryan about what you are doing? Contact him at rgroth@salestransformationgroup.com.