Danny Braught – The Future of AI and Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Danny Braught from LMH Agency. You can Read the interview below or Listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello, and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from Roofer's Coffee Shop. This is Heidi Ellsworth, and we are going to talk about something that everyone is talking about and that is AI, artificial intelligence. We knew we needed to get an expert to really come and help us understand what's happening with this overall, but then how is it effecting roofing? That's really what we all care about.

We invited Danny Braught, with LMH Agency, to come and talk to us about what we should be doing with this AI stuff. Danny, welcome to the show.

Danny Braught: Thank you for having me, Heidi.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You and I met at IRE this year. It was such a great circumstance that you walked up, we were doing the soundstage. We got you on the soundstage. LMH is doing such cool stuff with SEO, AI, you name it, video, across the board. Let's start there. Let's start, if you could introduce yourself? And then, talk a little bit about LMH.

Danny Braught: My name is Danny Braught. I'm with LMH Agency. Or, Lokal Media House is what it stands for. We've been in business since 2014, helping everything from large businesses down to your mom-and-pop contractor shop over the years. We really specialize in home service contractors, here over the past two years, to take them to the next level of marketing through local SEO, paid ads as well as programmatic CTV and then website design and development. So really, taking people to the next level through engaging digital and making sure that they're in the right places that they should be to get those leads, when people are looking for them.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's excellent. That's excellent. You have a really interesting, your journey, of how you got here. Maybe you could share that with us a little bit.

Danny Braught: Yeah. I actually started out in door-to-door sales and I still absolutely love it. One of my team members this week came up to me and said that when I picked up my headset and started calling, they're like, "You look so happy when you're calling." I actually really enjoy it. I did door-to-door sales for a couple years, and then this is the fifth business that I've actually been a part of.

I really enjoy the whole entrepreneurial journey and working with people, and really making a difference. The biggest thing about us is that we really care about our clients and we really care about making a difference in their business. Because otherwise, there's no reason for us to even be around. Having a small, medium-sized business that's just spending money on marketing, and having somebody just spin their wheels doesn't help the business. It actually very much hurts the business. So we're very big on making sure that we are making a difference and making waves for our clients and partners that we're working with. So that, that way, it really helps them to grow their business. And also, consult with them on what they can do to make a difference in their business. Even if it's something that we don't actually offer.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's how we feel, too. I think that's why you and I connected to so well when we were really looking at that, is that we have the same philosophies that Roofer's Coffee Shop that you have in your company. It makes it fun to work together. But I would love ... It's Lokal Media House is LMH. I would love to hear, tell us about the local because you spell it L-O-K-A-L. It feels like there's a story behind that.

Danny Braught: The story behind that is prior to starting the agency, Lokal was actually my publishing company for a surf-based magazine that was all about inland surf sport. So paddleboarding, river surfing, the new surf parks that are starting, wake surfing. It is based off of very much Hawaiian and the way that things are spelled. That was something that was came up with by a business partner and I for our publishing company. When we started the agency, we just transitioned it over. The magazine really turned into the agency, over the years.

That was actually started back in 2010. In 2014, when we started transitioning into being an agency, due to the fact that people were asking us to do things that were outside the scope of the magazine. Then, the agency really organically grew from there, with working with big manufacturers of boats, and boards, and all sorts of different equipment that we've worked with over the years.

Then, getting more into the marketing side of things, it was all about helping out our local communities. I also owned a local business here, it's called DFW Surf. There's still five locations. It's a paddleboard, kayak and bike rental shop that I turned into a gym membership, where people have unlimited access because moving a 12-foot paddleboard or a 16-foot kayak, or taking a bike somewhere to go ride it, is hard. People are able to go to that location and just pick up the equipment. It's always new equipment because we were transitioning it out every two years. That way, they always have the latest equipment. They don't have to worry about storing it was the big thing. I transitioned out of that company in 2017, but it's still around, still doing great. My business partner, actually he was just asking us to help him with remaking a new homepage for their website. So we still have a great relationship.

That's one thing for me, life's all about relationships. So having those relationships and making sure that they continue on. So really, Lokal comes about from just having that local community. Something I'm sure you know about, with the way that everything works in Oregon, is it's very much a localized thing, and making sure that everybody in the community's really taken care of. Being that up grew up in Oregon before moving to Texas, through high school I was in Oregon and into college.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Danny Braught: It's very much a community-based thing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I'm with you. That is so important. Of course, all of our roofing contractors out there, that's what they focus on, their local area, to take care of their community and protect them.

Okay, the title of this podcast and how I started out was all about AI. We're going to get to that next. There is, there's so much buzz around it. But I would love your insights, what you're seeing with AI and really, how you see it effecting the roofing industry?

Danny Braught: So, there's a couple different ways that it's effecting the roofing industry. One is through the different tools of using drones mixed with artificial intelligence, when it comes to being able to do measurements of houses. But then, there's also the side of ChatGPT and some of the marketing aspect of it as well.

I was actually at a plumbing, heating and cooling contractors association event a couple weeks ago and gave a speech on AI, and on ChatGPT specifically. And how companies are able to use it, and that's not just for the marketing aspect of it. But they can also use it ... Because most people that are contractors are not writers, it's not something that they like to do. They're more kinetic and wanting to work with their hands, and building something. That's actually how I got started out. I was in masonry after high school, building houses, and doing foundation repair, and all of that stuff. I'm not really much of a writer myself, honestly.

ChatGPT's made it so that they're able to take their ideas and create new stuff from it, with their ideas. That goes from writing blogs to being able to use it to come up with standard operating procedures, being able to put out all sorts of different stuff. I actually have an entire library that I can share with you of prompts that people can use, and then they can put in their information, and it will help to generate new ideas for them.

Whether it's their sales plan, their marketing plan, building out a new brochure, any of that, where they can take it and they can then take the information that's given back to them from ChatGPT, and mold it into a marketing piece for them, without having to spend the agonizing two-and-a-half hours trying to figure out if the copy's all right, and then using another thing like Grammarly that helps you with your grammar, so that that way, you don't look like an idiot because, "Oh, there should be a comma there, and there should a be a colon here." Well, what's the difference? I'm just trying to make people understand what words I'm trying to say.

Being able to use tools like that makes a huge difference in the roofing industry, as well across all sorts of different industries, what you can do with it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I've been hearing the same thing. I've been talking to contractors who are like, "Yeah, we use this to write our job descriptions. We use this to write our blogs." There's so many different ways that it's being used.

I think there's also a lot of fear. What is some of the things that contractors should watch out for?

Danny Braught: Well, when it comes to AI, the thing to understand is that you're training something and its intelligence. It's really not artificial anymore, honestly, because they are so intelligent, but they need you. They need the person and the creativity behind it, and they need you to ask the question to come up with something. I wouldn't really fear it too much. It's just more about the way that you're using it, is what it comes down to.

Most people think that it's going to replace your job and everything. Well, learn how to work with AI instead of working against it. It actually makes it so that you're more valuable because you understand how to use the AI to be more efficient, because then you're able to get more stuff done.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Danny, it's really interesting because, just in the last week, I know this is going to probably sound weird, but just in the last week, I've had all these meetings where people are bringing in AI for meeting notes. It actually creates to-do lists at the end of the meeting. I don't know. I'm like, "Wow, it's happening." It's moving that fast.

What are you seeing? Along with obviously what we're already talking about, the writing and everything. Now, the meeting notes. What are some of the other things that you think AI's going to really start effecting?

Danny Braught: There's a lot of different pieces. But what you're saying about meeting notes, we require everybody to use that on all of our meetings. Then, it automatically takes it through an API, and it connects it into HubSpot, which is what we use for our CRM. So that, that way, you're able to keep all the meeting notes. You can have other ones that you open up on your phone, so when you're sitting down with somebody, you have a full transcript of what you actually talked about.

With the other things that it's going to be able to do in the future, there's a wide variety that we could talk about for so long, of things that it's going to be able to help out with. But really, the automation of being able to use it in your business, and how much more efficient it can make you and the people within your business. Because you can have it doing your team events, coming up with different team events. Helping you with your core values and coming up with core values. Mission statement, job postings.

You could even have it come up with drink ideas for you. "All right, I have these five different kinds of liquor at my house and this kind of beer. What kind of drink can I make?" It can spit out and tell you something that you can do, something that you can make, or even recipes. I've used it to create a workout and to come up with a specific workout for what muscles I wanted to target. There's a ton of different things that you can do with it.

There's also, now, places where you can build a whole website through AI, and then it builds it into a drag-and-drop system.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Danny Braught: I haven't had a chance to try it out. I actually have one pulled up in another tab that I wanted to just see what it's like, so I was going to build a personal website for myself, and just see how it does and what it creates.

But there's a lot of different ones. But the thing that it's never going to be able to replace is soft skills. The emotion and the things that go behind it, it's going to be very hard for it to get to the point where it's able to replace any soft skills. And then, also, anything where it comes into building and the ... Not building anything, because it can definitely build stuff. But, the intelligence of it to be able to fix and understand very complex things that you really need to be able to see and get your hands on, is going to be a little bit more of a difficult thing for AI to really get into.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, I do think it's interesting because this is a little bit different, but it's kind of the same thing. Now, if you have a question or you don't know how to do something with a certain software, or even inspecting a roof, you can Google it. You can watch a YouTube video on it. AI is drawing from all of that, pulling from all of that. I think it is going to be amazing, how much help we're going to be able to get at the tip of our fingers. Whereas, how often do we always say if somebody asks a question, "I don't know, Google it." This is where it's all going.

Danny Braught: Yeah. Something that you're going to start to hear a lot more about here in the coming months is going to be something called Gemini that Google's coming out with. Google's coming out with a program called Gemini. It's a little bit different than Bard that they already have, which more of the search style. This one's going to be able to pull multiple things at once. If you put in and you're asking it in a picture, and you're wanting to know what's in the picture, what color is the picture and those sort of things, it's going to be able to pull in from different pieces of the AI to be able to give you answers. That, we don't have those sort of ones out. It's thought to be considered a ChatGPT killer. And OpenAI, to really compete in that space with OpenAI.

Gemini is one to look into, that Google's going to be coming out with. They don't have an actual launch date yet for it, but it is something that we'll probably be looking at Q1 '24 is when it'll be coming out.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Just one last thing on AI, which we've also been hearing a lot of. But also, it's starting to be used somewhat with equipment. Where equipment, I don't know if it's really AI or just really great data, it's wild what we're looking at right now. But, when you can have geo-locate for your tools, that it watches the seams on how it's welding. The equipment, we're hearing all kinds of things that are coming into that, that it's going to really change ... Because a lot of what we talked about is on our phones or on our laptops, but the tools on the roof, the machinery on the roof is starting to change that also.

Danny Braught: Yeah. Being able to use AI to do damage detections during storm season, and really being able to see what kind ... Seeing it up close, and then it's able to take it versus large datasets, so that, that way, it can see what is this, how was it caused and be able to compare it against this huge dataset that takes you years, and years, and years as a person to build up. And still, you're not quite sure. It's able to get it so minute into what it's coming into, that there's going to be new tools that are coming out. There already is some, where you're able to use it and it's automatically going to be able to tell you what this is from, what the damage was caused by.

Eventually, I'm sure that AI, I know that there's one already out there, that they're working on this, where it's going to be able to tell you what kind of shingle it is.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Danny Braught: So that you know exactly what shingle it is, where did it come from, who the manufacturer is, is it discontinued anymore. So being able to see that sort of stuff, so that you don't have to go through as many hoops trying to get something. Well, it's a disco shingle. All right. Well, we already know that because the AI told us that that's what it was from so it helps you with getting the replacement with the insurance faster.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah. I used to have to know what type of shingles were on in my first job, working for Malarkey. I would love to have an app to do that for me.

Okay, I want to move on a little bit because you have a new ebook out for contractors. It's on Roofer's Coffee Shop, along with all your information, your directory, all that kind of stuff. But, this ebook can really help contractors overall with SEO, and technology, and everything that's going on. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Danny Braught: Yeah. We have a couple different ... We actually just uploaded another ebook, I think it was yesterday or today that we've put on there. Which is a course on how to get your Google business profile up and optimized. Because the Google business profile is more important, honestly, than your website even right now, when it comes to people finding you. So, making sure that your updating it, you're maintaining it and you're optimizing it. There's a lot of different steps that most people think, "Oh, I just put it out there and it's there now."

Well, there's a lot that you can do to get it so that you're showing up in the top three Map Pack, which is what you see when you search on Google, is your Map Pack rankings. There's a lot of things that you can do to effect that, so that you show up more often in the radius around you, because it's very much localized to the radius around you. There's different optimizations you can do so we put out a course that is, I want to say it's a seven-step course that's put out. You can sign up for that on Roofer's Coffee Shop. Then, from there, you're going to receive emails.

Instead of giving you the whole course all at once, and trying to knock it all out, it's going to be little steps that you can do so that you can take 30 minutes out of your day, 20 minutes out of your day, and do these optimizations. And, continue to learn it. Then, it gives you the whole course at the end, so that, that way you're able to learn each different piece. Because if you take one whole thing and you just knock it out all in one sitting, it normally doesn't stick. There's some things that you need to continue to go back in and do, over time. We really want you to understand each different piece and how you can get to the top of the rankings.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it, I love it. See, those are the kind of things, I love the bite-size. I just don't have that much time in my day to spend two or three hours. So like you said, it goes back to the AI, it goes back to right now, just taking little bite-size micro courses, to be able to improve your marketing. I think that's brilliant.

Danny Braught: Yeah. Then, you can also use, when you're updating it and you're putting in your services, and it asks you for a description on your services, then you can lean right back on AI. You can come up with your service description a lot easier, because you might have four words for it. Well, you can put that into ChatGPT, come up with a description that fits exactly what you want to put in there. It'll help you out so you can use AI to even update your GBP as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. It all works together. The world is changing, Danny. Thank you for helping all the contractors stay in front of it.

Danny Braught: Yeah, definitely.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I also have to say, thank you for helping us. Because I have to say, we have been thrilled to partner with you. You've been checking out our websites for SEO. You're looking at all of our Google My Business, everything that's out there. It's been great. We've learned a lot and we're excited to share all that.

Danny Braught: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing the results from it all, too.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Danny Braught: I know your guys' website is huge, having over 27,000 pages on it. Going through each different one and coming up with what needs to happen to be able to get you guys to rank even better has been a lot of fun for our team.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, I'm glad. Well, we have seen some of the early results and boy, have we learned a lot, Danny. Thank you. We'll be talking about this more on our next podcast, I'm sure.

I would love for you to just share how contractors can get a hold of you, but also how do they start this journey? I think that's the hardest part. It's always hard to make that initial phone call or fill out that form because you don't really know. Talk a little bit about your recommendations for contractors getting started, to learn more about optimizing their sites, optimizing their marketing and obviously AI.

Danny Braught: Yeah. As far as how they can get in touch with us, it's just lmh.agency. Very easy, there's no .com. It's just lmh.agency. If you go to lmhagency.com as well, it'll take you to the same site. But, just lmh.agency. From there, we can help you out. We're more than happy just to talk with people and give them insight into what they can do.

But, Google Business Profile is going to be your number one thing that you should have set up. Making sure that you have that set up, making sure that you have a website, that it's functioning. The number one thing that people don't do when they want a really pretty website is they take the phone number from being very large in the right-hand, top corner and they move it to somewhere that's harder. Most people, when they're coming to a website and they're a doing a little bit of research on your, the main thing is that there is a call-to-action for them to be able to easily give you a call so that they can get in touch with you. Then, the next step is making sure you actually pick up the phone.

Something that we see a lot of times, is that clients, they'll come on with us, they'll get a bunch of leads, but then they're not answering the phone. If you're not able to answer the phone, find another service that can answer those calls for you. Because if you don't answer it, 80% of people are not going to leave a voicemail. They're going to move right onto the next company instead, and find somebody who can solve their problem. Making sure that you're really answering those phones is going to be a big thing, too.

As far as finding out more information on us, visit the website. Or send me an email, just danny@lmh.agency. I'll make sure to get back to you same day. You can also, once I get back to you, there's a link in my email signature that allows you just to book a meeting directly with me on my calendar. That makes it very easy for people.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's awesome. You know what, everyone out there, you can find all of this on the LMH Agency directory on Roofer's Coffee Shop. You can find the eBooks, you can find the contact information and you can find a lot more information that you didn't even know you needed, that's all there. Along with, we're going to have great articles, videos. The content, LMH is content-rich, so lots of great stuff for you.

Danny, thank you so much. Thank you for everything.

Danny Braught: You're welcome. Will you be at RoofCON?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We will not be at RoofCON. But I bet a lot of contractors will be out there, so they should be looking for you, right?

Danny Braught: Yeah. We'll be at RoofCON. Then also, IRE coming up in Vegas.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Danny Braught: Next year.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Perfect. That's where we met, we'll see each other again there. We'll have you on the soundstage.

Danny Braught: Awesome.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. Well, thank you again for being here today. We're going to be doing these podcasts pretty regularly, so everyone, stay tuned to learn more about how to optimize your marketing, from Danny and LMH Agency. Danny, thanks a lot.

Danny Braught: Thank you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you, all, for listening. This is the kind of stuff we keep trying to bring to you, so you grow your business, find out all that new stuff out there that's maybe a little scary, but now it's not so much, and how it can help you and your business. Be sure to check out all of our podcasts under the Read, Listen, Watch navigation, under Roofing Road Trips. Or, on your favorite podcast channel, be sure to subscribe and set those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time, on Roofing Road Trips.

Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi, from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.