Melissa Chapman & Monica Vornbrock - Overcoming Contractor Challenges in 2024 - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Melissa Chapman and Monica Vornbrock of The GLO Group. 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. Fasten your seat belts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip.

Heidi Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to a Live Roofing Road Trips from Western Roofing Expo. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and we took the Roofing Road Trips truly on the road to meet up with Monica Verbrock and Melissa Chapman to talk about what's happening culturally in the roofing industry. I tell you, even just being here at the show, we have so much to talk about. These ladies are in the perfect place, at the perfect time for what I would call an awakening industry that's starting to think culturally and to really look at things. First of all, welcome to Roofing Road Trips.

Monica Vornbrock: Thank you.

Melissa Chapman: Thank you so much for having us.

Heidi Ellsworth: Let's start with some introductions. Melissa, can you start?

Melissa Chapman: Sure. Melissa Chapman, co-founder of the GLO Group, been in the industry for quite some time. You and I have a long history.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes, yes.

Melissa Chapman: And I'm just, one of the things that really motivates me in doing what I do every day is I love this industry. I've been in it forever, and I just love helping others and helping contractors specifically help them with their business. That's my why, that's why I'm here and I'm really happy to be here. Thank you.

Heidi Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. And Monica.

Monica Vornbrock: Well, I am the other co-founder of the GLO Group. And a lot like Melissa, I mean, there's something bigger than the bottom line. The bottom line is very, very important and that is a goal and that is what we focus on. But the people, being able to help people feel valued, understand that there's a better culture to be had in a company where people feel empowered, people feel safe to speak their mind, to be more innovative, more creative, being able to create that in this industry that I've been in for a couple of decades maybe, well decade and a half. Yeah. That's my why.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's why. I love it. Why are we here? 'Cause we want to share all this with you. It's so important. Okay. I'm going to start with where we just were with the legislative luncheon.

Melissa Chapman: Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: Because blown away by McKay Daniels speech presentation, I would really love to hear your lady's thoughts on it because it was all about mental health and how important it's that we start acknowledging mental health, specifically suicide and just what a toll that is taking on roofing, construction overall and our society. Melissa, let's start with you. What'd you think?

Melissa Chapman: Well, it was astonishing and a little alarming to be honest when he gave us some statistics that in 2022 we lost 400 people from falls off the roof. And then come to find out, well, we lost 6,000 people to suicide.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes.

Melissa Chapman: That was mind-blowing to me and a real wake-up call in terms of, you're right, it's important. We need to talk about the importance of taking care of our team, our people.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Chapman: And it's such an important part. And I know it's hard, especially for men to ask for help, but as McKay beautifully put it, contractors are tough. Contractors are tough. They grit through, they push through a lot of adversity and challenges and they're tough enough to ask for help when they need it. And that's what we really want to encourage. For me, it was a real wake-up call that this is something that really needs to be incorporated into all contracting companies culture.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, it does. And it is so true because you think about working on a roof is not easy.

Melissa Chapman: Right.

Heidi Ellsworth: And so many of the people in our industry have come from the roof and now are running their own businesses, whatever. But you think I'm just going to work through it. And Monica, I mean that's what you were just talking about, about people and culture. We have to start doing things a little bit different. And I think it is, at least we're talking about it right now.

Monica Vornbrock: And I think that was the refreshing part of it. It is an alarming statistic. It is scary to see that it's happening, but it's so amazing to see that it's being brought up to the light, that somebody's speaking about it.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Monica Vornbrock: And I think that's the first step, right? Awareness. You have to be aware and you have to accept that it's happening so you can then tackle the issue and actually address it and fix it.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. So much. As you guys are, I mean, the GLO Group has really set a precedent, first of a kind to really work with contractors on culture, on succession, on people and all those things. Melissa, talk to us a little bit about what motivated you all to start GLO Group. And really, I've seen GLO Group evolve too, as you have seen challenges that contractors need help with. Talk about that a little bit.

Melissa Chapman: Well, that's a really good point. I mean, we got into this business because we saw a need. We saw consistently organizations that were very siloed or didn't really integrate well with one another and utilize the tools and the people and the skills that they have to really maximize their opportunities. And so that was how we began. And then it has evolved into it's more than that. It's not just the challenges. It's like now we have been able to identify real solutions to help organizations align, to help organizations get more connected to one another and to be more effective in what they're doing and ultimately be more profitable.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. And because if you aren't in tune with your people and what the challenges of what's going on in that business, you're not going to be profitable, bottom line. What are some of the common challenges that you're seeing, Monica, with contractors?

Monica Vornbrock: Some of the challenges that we're seeing is labor shortage continues to be an issue, adoption of new technologies and platforms and communication. I think in overall those three.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Monica Vornbrock: And when I think of the way that we impact with the labor shortage for an example, is it's not just about finding people and bringing them to the roof. It's training them, it's retaining them. It's then maintaining a culture where these guys know that there's a growth plan, that they have a future in a company where they feel safe, not only physically safe, but safe to contribute, safe to be innovative, bring solutions to the table. That's one of the challenges, how we address that.

Heidi Ellsworth: And when you think about over 30%, and I know it is higher, I think I'm using an old stat, is Hispanic. That okay, now you've just brought in not just the culture of construction, but another culture basically, that we are trying to all come together with. And the subcontractors out there. How is communication and dropping those silos, what is that looking like with the language change barriers?

Monica Vornbrock: It's interesting because we've done workshops where we have half of the attendees are Spanish speaking and very little English. Whereas the other part of the team, it's only English speaking, right?

Heidi Ellsworth: Right.

Monica Vornbrock: You add the language barrier, but it all goes back down to that communication piece, communication styles, being able to say, hey, I don't understand what you're saying. Instead of saying yes, yes. Which is something that we tend to do. I learned English when I moved back to the US and the first thing you do is you say yes, because you're like, I'll figure it out later. I don't want to look weak. I don't want to look like I don't know what I'm doing. The reality though is that once you break down those silos and you create that safe environment, people are able to say, hey, I don't understand. Can you repeat that? And the other people can say, hey, do you understand what I said?

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Monica Vornbrock: And it just opens up that flow of communication. That language barrier is not as strong as it is otherwise.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. And I mean it's so cool that you are able to do your classes bilingual and really be able to start breaking those. But Melissa, as we look at it, how are some of the ways, I just think you guys have helped us with our communication and personalities and understanding each other and it really helps. I mean, when you really sit down and you can say to somebody, okay, look, you're having a moment. Let's talk about this instead of making it things. But with construction, I think it goes back to what we were talking about about mental health. A lot of times they don't want men, and sorry, nothing personal, but they don't want to acknowledge that we're not communicating or that you're not hearing me or that you're not knowing. What are some of the things, how are you helping contractors break those silos but also increase the communication?

Melissa Chapman: Well, it really boils down to culture and what kind of culture the organization or the company has. And if leadership is really intentional about creating an environment where I want to hear what you have to say, I want to understand your challenges and I want us to solve these together, that is the first step to a journey of success. Because if you have that open mind and that growth mindset, that really helps bridge that gap that you may have in communication. We teach people different ways and how to communicate things that could be otherwise perhaps feeling uncomfortable because with conflict resolution and how to approach conversations that you're focusing on the what and not the who.

And those tools that we teach to help really, let's get to the bottom line, what's really the root of the issue so that we can be of the mindset of how do we solve it, how do we get better? If any organization or any company that is looking to try to elevate their game, that's really what it boils down to is really understanding that being open to other people's opinions and ideas is a really great thing. The more heads the better, right?

Heidi Ellsworth: So true.

Melissa Chapman: That's one of the ways. We also have tools that we provide to help with that. It's communication. We talked about retention. If you have a culture that creates that environment, you're going to retain your employees.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes.

Melissa Chapman: Not only that, but you're going to have built-in recruiters for you. You're going to have your employees that say, this is a great company. You want to work for us. And you're not going to lose laborers over a dollar to the competitor because your culture is set in a way that I don't want to leave here because they care about me.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Chapman: They give me tools and resources to make me a better person, make me a better employee. There's a growth opportunity for me. Those things, we really focus on helping organizations there.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Monica Vornbrock: And one of the things is, and we'll say this till we're blue in the face, leadership, right? It's really important to get the leadership board because all of those things happen when leadership understands that you don't have to be the smartest person in the room to be successful. You want to grow your team, you want to be a team player and you want to teach your team to be that way. Everybody has an impact on everybody else in that team, but it starts with leadership accepting and understanding that. It's so important.

Heidi Ellsworth: And we were just talking about this right before we started this podcast, but sometimes that's not easy. It's not easy.

Melissa Chapman: No, it's not easy letting go.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's not easy letting go.

Melissa Chapman: And it takes trust and it takes the mindset that, okay, there may be some mistakes, but those are learning opportunities.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes.

Melissa Chapman: You want to start slow, but the most successful companies are team led companies. They're not led by one individual.

Heidi Ellsworth: Right. And that is what makes it work. And I've seen that. I've seen that in our own company. I've seen it in my role, no matter even sometimes that letting go is so hard, but the growth that comes with it is just out of this world.

Monica Vornbrock: And it connects directly to that mental health piece because then it helps avoid that burnout and feeling like the world's on your shoulders. Now you can share this workload with your team.

Heidi Ellsworth: What are you seeing from the contractors who you've worked with? What are some of the results?

Monica Vornbrock: Well, some of the things that we're seeing, that mental health piece, being able to feel like, oh, I can actually take time off or I can do what I do best for my business. I can grow my business instead of working in the business and doing the small things that you have a team that you hired that you're supposed to trust, right?

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes. You're supposed to trust.

Monica Vornbrock: You hire people, they're good at what they do for a reason. Let go.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Monica Vornbrock: That's one of them. We've seen creativity, innovation. People are bringing ideas to the table, solutions to the table in terms of client experience, right? The bottom line, they're more consistent. All the touch points in the process of taking care of your clients are very consistent now because everybody knows where they fall, where their responsibility lies and they know how to stay in their lane and just offer support when they need it.

Heidi Ellsworth: Right.

Monica Vornbrock: It eliminates redundancies, which saves on cost.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. Yep.

Melissa Chapman: And I mean, we've seen, after a year of working with an organization, we've seen 92% of our clients have seen an increase in profitability. There is a direct connection.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. Well think about how much it costs to recruit, and then if you can't retain them, how much... It's just...

Melissa Chapman: Well, and it's even just the internal communication, people following processes.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Melissa Chapman: You're eliminating redundancies, you're reducing mistakes, you're reducing your callbacks, your punch lists get smaller. All these things are the benefits of this work that we do.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. I think, again, I said this at the beginning, I'm going to say it again. Your timing is perfect. It's like, we've probably been talking about this for 20 years, right?

Melissa Chapman: Right.

Heidi Ellsworth: And no one was really listening, and now it's that time where they're realizing and I think the labor shortage has helped people understand, but I also think the call to diversity within the industry between cultures, genders, everything has also taken this to the next level.

Melissa Chapman: Mm-hmm.

Heidi Ellsworth: Have you seen that?

Melissa Chapman: I would agree, absolutely. And quite frankly, the more diverse your team is, the more successful you're going to be because you're going to have different perspectives and they're going to be able to punch holes through any kind of idea that you may bring forward in a way that's constructive, so that you can then anticipate any challenges or risks in advance. Really leveraging a diverse team, it really has many benefits.

Heidi Ellsworth: Right. You want to hear all the voices because your customers are all the voices.

Melissa Chapman: Exactly.

Heidi Ellsworth: And it makes sense. Okay. How do people get in touch with you? How do they get started with this?

Melissa Chapman: Well, I mean they can reach out to us. We have a website, glogroup.com. Our email, let's chat@glogroup. They can always, even 855-GLO-today. Isn't that cute?

Heidi Ellsworth: I love it. Yes.

Melissa Chapman: But yeah, I mean, we're always available. We're at almost every trade show. We're really committed to the industry, having been in it for many years. Yeah, I mean, we're around.

Heidi Ellsworth: You're everywhere. And we can get you in touch anytime. But I also know that you have some new initiatives coming up. Do you have a new initiative that you'd like to share?

Monica Vornbrock: We do and we want you to stay tuned for that. But it's going to be released the beginning of next year.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yep.

Monica Vornbrock: And all we can say right now is that it's going to help propel what we love the most, our contractors and our industry.

Melissa Chapman: Right.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Monica Vornbrock: Yeah, that's it. Otherwise I get carried away.

Melissa Chapman: Yeah, it'll be a resource that will help contractors scale their business in a very organic and effective and quick way.

Heidi Ellsworth: That is cool. See-

Monica Vornbrock: Stay tuned.

Heidi Ellsworth: You hear it here first-

Melissa Chapman: Stay tuned, it's coming, January.

Heidi Ellsworth: Every time. It's coming, January. Okay. And you can always find the GLO Group on the Roofers Coffee Shop directory with all the information. Plus, I have to tell you a lot of great articles, great videos, we've done a couple webinars, podcasts, things that really can help your business right now. Go find their resources and then get in touch with these ladies because they will take your business to the next level in this new year. You're planning now, plan on it. Thank you so much.

Monica Vornbrock: Thank you.

Heidi Ellsworth: Good luck with the show today-

Monica Vornbrock: Thank you.

Melissa Chapman: You too.

Heidi Ellsworth: And all the great stuff that's been going on. For everyone out there, please visit the GLO Group directory and also check out all of our podcasts under the read, listen, watch navigation under Roofing Road Trips or on your favorite podcast channel, please subscribe and set your notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time, and literally this time, we are seeing you on Roofing Road Trips.

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