Richard Carroll - Wisdom of Experience - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Richard Carroll of Carroll Consulting Group. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Intro/Outro: 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.

Richard Carroll: Hello.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Welcome to-

Richard Carroll: It's good to see you again.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This is the first live Roofing Road Trip in Sisters, Oregon Richard. I am so excited.

Richard Carroll: I'm so privileged to be the first one.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Tell you what. So hello everybody. This is Heidi Ellsworth with Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeShop, and I just had to start it out with that this is our first one. This is just so exciting because usually we're on the road, or in my office, on a Zoom, but the world is opening up. And when you said, "Hey, I'm going to be in Sisters," I thought, "Let's do it."

Richard Carroll: I'm so happy to be here. For people that haven't been to the Pacific Northwest, and you're going to do a podcast, come to Sisters. It's a bucket list item to come to Pacific Northwest.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We'll take care of you.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We'll take care of you. So Richard, I would love for you to introduce yourself to all of our folks out there. Tell us a little bit about you, about what you've been doing. Let's just start the whole thing because I'm really excited about talking about all the things you have going on.

Richard Carroll: Okay, perfect. My name's Richard Carroll. I'm the co-founder of the Carroll Consulting Group. I was born and raised in the northeast in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I had an opportunity to go to college at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Nice.

Richard Carroll: I studied mechanical engineering. My junior year, I got married to my beautiful wife Mary Beth-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh.

Richard Carroll: ... and we're celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary this year.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Congratulations.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. It's exciting.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Richard Carroll: I'm very, very blessed to be able to have someone like Mary Beth.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And I have three children, three grown children, Alyssa, Brianna and Devlin, and recently, well, he is almost two years old now, the cutest grandkid in the world without a doubt, my grandson Luca.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love that.

Richard Carroll: It's funny. When people used to show me pictures, and they say, "Isn't he's cute," or, "Isn't she [inaudible 00:02:06]," "Yeah." And I didn't have much of an interest, but now that I have my own kid, "Oh," he's the best looking kid ever. It's hilarious.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: My dad used to say, the only reason you have children is so you can get grandchildren. I was like, "Thanks dad."

Richard Carroll: We love having our grandson.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: We're looking forward. My two girls are in the planning stages for some more, so excited about that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is so great. Well, and so let's share. You and I re-met, because we've known each other for years through the different, through NRP, through a lot of different associations. But we connected again at the recent Roofing Technology Think Tank RT3 live meetup at Oracle-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... which was so cool.

Richard Carroll: That was awesome.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So you really, you're really getting involved in the industry, and I love that with your consulting business and everything that's going on. I would love for you to share with everybody a little bit about your history in roofing-

Richard Carroll: Okay.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... because we have definitely met many times on the path over the last 30 years.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. It's like everybody, well, not everybody, but a lot of people, I fell into the industry. I was in college.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I needed some extra spending money. Walking through campus, new construction, guy standing near a truck. "Hey, are you guys hiring?" "Yeah." I remember the guy ripping the cardboard off of a keg of asphalt, which I didn't know what it was at the time. And we didn't have Google back then-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... so I wrote the address down. Next day, I show up at that office, and the first time I realized I was applying for a roofing job was the company had roofing in their name. So I applied, and I got the job. And started out as an apprentice. They worked around my college schedule, which was awesome. And then I became a journeyman, and then a foreman. I was fortunate enough to work for a company that traveled all over the US. They worked for the government, so we did a lot of military base work.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it.

Richard Carroll: And I also got to travel around the world.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So it was a lot of fun. I got a lot of experience, learned a lot about diverse cultures. And growing up in Philadelphia, I was exposed to a lot of diversity, but I felt like I was privileged to be able to travel.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. That's awesome.

Richard Carroll: So eventually we ran across an asbestos roof. The owner of the company decided because I was the one that went to college that I should probably be the competent person. So I ended up going to Georgia Tech and getting a supervisor's license, and then-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, excellent.

Richard Carroll: ... we started doing asbestos removal on roofs. Eventually I became the license holder, and because all the states we worked in, I had to get licensed. So I guess I became the in-house asbestos expert-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... and eventually I started my own business.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it.

Richard Carroll: So it was very, very good for the Carroll family.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: Eventually I ended up selling the business, and I went to work for the investment group that bought the business.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. That's happening a lot today-

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... to a lot of people.

Richard Carroll: I was so lucky, and in order for me to build my business acumen, it was because of the diversity of the companies I was working for.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: Every two years we'd buy, sell-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: So I got to work for manufacturing, or industry. And it was an excellent time, and I learned a lot.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And then another investment group came to me, and said, "Hey, we purchased a roofing company. We know you used to be in roofing. Would you mind coming to help us?" So I came back to roofing about eight years later, and then eventually I got the itch to own a roofing company.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Again? Yeah.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You can't get away from it.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. They keep bringing you back-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... no matter how you get away. I actually own two roofing companies, and up until recently, and then I retired from the business-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... but I wanted to stay engaged. So we started the Carroll Consulting Group.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: What a rich history.

Richard Carroll:Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. I love the fact too, starting out with asbestos, because I remember when I first got in, you don't hear about it as much. We know it's still there. You just don't hear about it as much today as we did in the nineties-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth:... and eighties, and nineties. That was what every, and that was a big, big, big deal.

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. So I'm really interested because I see a lot of these things talking about asbestos and of trends that we see. So starting when you first started out in roofing to today, I'm just really interested to hear what you see as some of the things that are really changing, the trends that have either stayed the same, or have totally ... I could think of a couple of them. And I'd love to hear what your thoughts are.

Richard Carroll: Well, I recently, I just read an article, and I don't know if it was put out by the NRCA. It might have-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Usually.

Richard Carroll: ... about the construction industry being so far behind in technology.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And I think the roofing industry is a perfect example of that. There wasn't a lot of change-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: ... and then we had the pandemic, and many of the companies that I'm working with now, they have a dedicated individual that's responsible for technology.

Heidi J. Ellsworth:And they have to have it.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's crazy. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So it's exciting for me. I was up in Canada last week visiting two of my customers, and one of them does a lot of torch work-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay.

Richard Carroll: And they're having a hard time with their insurance, both companies. So what they're looking for is flameless technology. So one of them's working on something on his own ...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And the other one's using some of the things that are in the industry. So you have to stay on top.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: And I would say for 20 years, even when I was working in the businesses, same old thing every day. Things are changing very rapidly. So I think you need to have a dedicated person in technology that's staying on top of things. I have a couple customers that do modular construction, so they're roofing in a warehouse.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, wow. No way.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. That's awesome.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Tell me about that. That is interesting.

Richard Carroll: Oh, it's so cool. It's the one facility that I went to. They're building a school.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay.

Richard Carroll: And so they built. They put all the plumbing, all the electrical, all the walls up, and they make it in pods. They can fit on the back of a truck.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And the roofing, they put on top, and then when they get to the job site, it's like Legos. They put it together. Now, I haven't seen that in action. I'm looking forward to it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's very cool.

Richard Carroll: But it's exciting. And talking to the roofers-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: a lot of them are young guys, and a couple guys that have never worked on a roof outside.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: They've all done it in the manufacturing. Oh, my.

Richard Carroll: You guys don't know what you're missing. Got to be outside in the weather.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: But yeah, I think that's part of the future.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: Solar, green roofs, cool roofs, all that stuff, we've talked about that stuff from the eighties on.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: But it never really grabbed. But now I think it's the rate of return on those products are starting to pay off, so people are starting to invest.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it's definitely going to happen because I'm with you. I was going to the green build, listening to all the solar back in the nineties, early two thousands, and I was like, "Solar, solar." I was such a huge advocate. And then it's just like, eh.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And then now, whoosh all over again. And I do think the contractors, if you look at, there were some amazing contractors in the early two thousands who really embraced solar-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And they're so far ahead of the curve now, they're getting all this work, because it takes a little while to get into it.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. It's not something typical in roofing. It's new, and there's a nuance to being able to put solar in, and be able to give you an evaluation for your customer, making sure you're doing the right thing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: But I think the government is spending a little bit more money with rebates, and so are the power companies. So it's catching on. It's nice to see.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, it is. It is. The other thing, and I would love your thoughts around this, the other thing that I'm seeing may just be because I'm more involved than I used to be on this level, but it seems like we have some amazing younger generation, whether it's family generational, or even young people coming into the industry who are starting their own roofing businesses, who are taking over the roofing businesses, and bringing all this technology. So I guess I want to go back to that thought. So I just don't remember that as much when I first started out. It just seemed like kids had their place, listen, and my dad was a contractor, so I can relate to this, whereas today, you're seeing that next generation so much more involved. You're seeing them at all the events. They're very active in associations, young professionals. What are you seeing that way?

Richard Carroll: Well, from my viewpoint, I want to be a hundred percent honest. When I was in roofing for the first 10 years, I never told anybody I was a roofer. I was embarrassed.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I was like-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So many people say that.

Richard Carroll:And I didn't know that I was embarrassed.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I didn't know that I was saying that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And then finally I ran into another roofer, and they called me out on it. They're like, "Why do you say you work in construction?" This roofing has done so much for my family and my life. It's a great career.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And I think now that we started talking about it, and I've just recently heard about maybe 10 years ago.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So I think we are attracting some people. Also, there's an easy way to make a career, and make some money working in roofing where you don't need to have a special education.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: And I don't think we did a good enough job messaging that. And I think we do now.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So one of the things I know that you're working on really, and so I want to switch to Carroll Consulting. So let's start with, first of all, maybe tell everybody a little bit about your focus, and what you're helping, and how you're doing it, and then also just really why you started it. You said that in the beginning, but I'd love to hear more.

Richard Carroll: Well, getting up at 3:30 in the morning for 40 years is a grind. So I made the decision that I was going to retire. But talking to people in the industry, they're like, "Stay engaged." And I wanted to, because I want to give back. So when I announced that I was going to retire, I went to visit some of the people in my peer group, and some friends, and they said, "Hey, can you come and help me with this," and so "without having an adult beverage." And someone said, "You should start your own business." And another person at the table said, "If you start your business, I'll go in with you."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh my gosh. Awesome.

Richard Carroll: So that's how we ended up with Carroll Consulting. But the main reason was I wanted to give back. I feel like I have a lot of knowledge in the industry.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And I think I have a lot to give. I just didn't want to go sit at the lake and fish. I wanted to stay involved. And the other reason was I felt that by giving back to the Roofing Association, that was my way of saying thank you-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... for what they did for me. And so that was the main purpose, but it's morphed into more than I thought it was going to be. And it's very exciting-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... being able to go into a company, which is strange-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... because I was always on an island. The guy up the street was terrible, the worst roofer.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right. Right. Right. Yes.

Richard Carroll: So you never shared anything. And one of the things that helped me was peer groups. And I've been in peer groups for a long time, so I was allowed to learn a lot of best practices from other roofers like Curtis from [inaudible 00:13:55] or Jeff from [inaudible 00:13:56].

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I have so many people that have helped me through the years. So I really appreciate that. And I thought that I could reach out to some of the smaller contractors that maybe don't have the bandwidth for a peer group and help them, so.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think it's needed. I need peer groups, and to really talk to people about what's going on, and what's happening. I also love the fact of giving back because I feel the exact same way. In fact, when I got first started with RoofersCoffeeShop, I also had consulting, marketing, consulting business. And it is. It's a whole different way of going. And it's so fun because you get to walk in and talk to all these companies, and really be a part of their culture, and understand what's happening, and share your knowledge, and then watch them grow. And then you go on to the next. It's very cool.

Richard Carroll: There's nothing better than having someone starting to explain a problem, and you're like, "Okay, I know the answer."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: "I've been down here."

Richard Carroll: "I've already done this."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And you have an explanation on when it didn't work, and why it didn't work, and when it did work, and why it worked.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: Yeah, it's exciting. I really have enjoyed being in Carroll Consulting, and being able to travel around, and talk to people, and help them out.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And you've found some focuses for that. As you've been talking to everybody, you're starting to see some areas that are definitely in need of. And so I want to, recruitment, retention, retirement.

Richard Carroll: We call it the three Rs.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: A long time ago, I thought I did a tremendous job recruiting talented people-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: ... but I lost them. And then I started doing exit interviews. And when I started talking to people, and God, I had an ego. "I'm treating you great. You can't leave me," typical roof speak.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And they're like, "Rich, I don't see a future for me." And then I realized that I spent a lot of effort doing the recruitment, but once they came on board, I let them go.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So we tailored our business around retention, and we wanted people to retire with us.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: When I was younger, people worked for one company-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... and they retired there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: That's a rare system.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It doesn't happen too much.

Richard Carroll: So what I've done, every one of customers we put a plan together for the recruitment, the retention, and retirement. And the recruitment revolves around where they're at. Are they involved in the community? We try to get them involved in the community.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Richard Carroll: They don't have to ask, "We're looking for a project manager." Go out in the community and work. Put your name out there. The PM will find you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes.

Richard Carroll: Okay. So social media, obviously that's a big thing, community colleges, trade schools, high schools.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: I have one client that put on a class at a community college for building-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... and they do a small section on roofing. Now, they're not allowed to solicit the students, but when the students graduate ...

Heidi J. Ellsworth: They find them.

Richard Carroll: They're going to go, and say, "Hey, I enjoyed how you taught me, and I would like to come work for you." So we try to build a recruitment program together. We also set up an interview process, and we try to get the people involved within the company to do the interview. And we don't want 30 people in an interview-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... but we want to get some of the people that really hold your corporate values to be involved in the interview process-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... and get them to buy-in. I want one of my top people to say, "I think this person would be a great fit," and either build what I was thinking, or maybe I wasn't thinking that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So we try to train the companies that to try to get their people involved. And then once that person does come on board, we want to make sure that you're having six-month reviews. You're talking about their goals. And the reviews are not a disciplinary review.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: It's a review of what they're going to do the next six months-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... so they can reach their career goals. When you do that with people-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love that.

Richard Carroll: ... people can see the future-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: ... and you're going to retain them longer.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I don't don't know if you're going to hold them till retirement, but you're going to have a better shot at it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I think holding to retirement is hard nowadays. Just people are mobile, but that could also change. But one of the things that I have seen too is when they get involved in the industry, and so we have been trying through, because we have people all over the country, and they're through the different associations or National Women in Roofing Councils, having our folks get involved with the industry, and start making friends in the industry makes such a big difference. And that was not the way it was.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right? I remember when I first started, it was very your own company-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: But I was in trade shows, so I did get to go to all the trade shows.

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: But I think it's really interesting what you're saying along that line, that getting people involved in a local community, getting involved in the industry, that's so important for retention.

Richard Carroll: Right. If they're outside of work, and they build the connections with other businesses, it's exactly right. It keeps them engaged.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: They find out the latest trends. They don't feel like they're stuck in a corner, and no one's paying attention to them. So I agree that when they started the National Women in Roofing, I was so excited about that because a lot of the women in our organization felt left out-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... because it was a man type of thing.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So we put as many people as we could in the National Women in Roofing Association.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll:They went to the monthly meetings. They were excited. I could hear the chatter in the office.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So yeah, it's awesome that the industry's doing things like that now. And it was just such a hurdle to share.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I was not a big sharer. I thought I had all the secrets.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know.

Richard Carroll: And then once I got into a peer group, and I started hearing some of the people, and what they were doing, I was like, "Wow, I didn't never even thought of that."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And then I realized that if you're doing your job properly, and you're doing a good job, you really shouldn't have to worry about anybody.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: No.

Richard Carroll: You just go out, and do your job, do your work, and yeah, you'll end up making the money that you think you should make-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... and then you can treat people fairly.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: So that's what we try to do.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Which is so key-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... the treating everyone fairly, but getting them involved. And I think now you're a hundred percent right, it was also secretive, and that's changed. At least you see the people who are successful, that has changed. And to be able to, like you said, recruit, retain, and retire, recruitment, retention, and retirement it takes an open conversation to really get the good people there, and that they know roofing is cool. I think that's one of the things we've found is people, we first hire them, and they get involved, and they're like, "Yeah, roofing? Really?"

Richard Carroll: I thought it was a tough sell, but it's not.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Not anymore.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We're changing it.

Richard Carroll: There's too many examples of successful businesses out there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I don't know how many hundreds of families we've affected-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... and supported. I'm very proud of the industry, and I stand at the top of the mountain, and yell, and telling everybody about it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: When you think about it, everybody needs a roof.

Richard Carroll: Yes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So even during recessions, even during some of the craziness that's been going on during COVID, we were essential workers. Yeah. It's so important. So with what you're saying, I think it's so cool when you're talking about not holding all the secrets, or not thinking you're an island. You've said that a couple times. So why and how should roofing contractors out there look at getting training, and consulting, and joining a peer group? What's some of your advice, and why should they really, really look at going down that road?

Richard Carroll: Once again, I think it's about getting involved. I've been involved with roofing companies that I'm not going to send my people to the IRE.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: All they're going to do is party.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: They're going to come back with knowledge. They probably will have a few drinks, but they're going to-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It's roofing. Hello.

Richard Carroll: They're going to come back with something. So convincing them that by interacting with other people, you're going to be more successful, and all you have to do is look at the successful companies in this country.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And you'll see it.

Richard Carroll: They're participating in everything.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: That's the success. The NRCA, National Women in Roofing, RT3, you name it. They're involved, and they're successful.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Roofing Alliance.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Just so many. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: You have to get involved, and I would divvy up in your company. If it's a service type of organization, have your service manager.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: If it's an operations thing, have operations. If it's someone in the office in accounting, have them involved in accounting. It doesn't have to be exactly roofing-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... but get them involved in organizations. They're going to come back with ideas, and then you sit down, and have an open discussion with them.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: It's hard to start every new idea-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: ... but you want to listen.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: So once again, I think it's engagement, having your employees engage, and you shouldn't be afraid.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: So I think you're right. Associations, and if you're worried about your competitor being in the same room, then get involved on a regional-

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... western states, right, or go national, National Roofing Contractors Association. There's always ways, but really this peer groups is also becoming ... We're actually doing, just starting to do a few peer groups. We're going to be doing a marketing peer group on RoofersCoffeeShop, just because I've talked to so many marketing people who are like, "We would just like to talk about what you're doing with Google Ads-"

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: " ... across the country," but you're doing peer groups that are going to really bring people together on these three Rs and the whole thing.

Richard Carroll: Right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Tell us a little bit about that.

Richard Carroll:Well, I'm actually partnering up with a couple people that run peer groups.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay, perfect.

Richard Carroll: What I think Carroll Consultants' going to bring to the table is once we can get some of our customers involved in the peer group, and they learn some best practices, we can help them implement that. That's where I-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Brilliant. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: We struggled. I would go and come back with 20 great ideas-

Heidi J. Ellsworth:Right.

Richard Carroll: ... and then three months goes by, go to another group, and they're like, "Well, what did you implement?" I'm like, "Yeah, I didn't do anything."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know, because there's so much to do.

Richard Carroll: You're working on the business.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: You don't have time to work. You're working in the business. You have time to work on it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: So what we do at Carroll, what the Carroll Consulting Group is, we're going to get you involved in one of three peer groups. I think everybody knows who some of those peer groups might be.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: I won't mention their names, but we're going to get them involved in the group. And then once they come back, and they say, "We really like this idea," and we're going to sit down with them, and go through a plan on how they can implement that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it.

Richard Carroll: But we're going to encourage them to join a peer group, or get involved.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: Because even if it's not a peer group, even if it's FRSA in a couple weeks-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: They're going to learn something. They're going to run into somebody during that meeting on the floor, and they're going to start talking, and they're going to hear something that they didn't know.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Carroll: And that's what we encourage is that they get involved, if it's national, local, however they're going to do it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Going to the classes. I think about ... We've presented at Florida and most of the shows, and people are taking all these notes, and then I know how that works because I do the same thing. I get home. And then, so to have that help, that accountability makes such a difference. Wow. So how can contractors get involved with you?

Richard Carroll: Pretty easy. The best way to reach us is our website, and it's ccgrp.online at ccgrp.online. When you click on the webpage, there's a Contact Us button in the top right. All you have to do is click that. You can fill out a form, and we'll reach back out to you. Or there's an interactive calendar. So if you want to schedule a free consultation at your time-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great.

Richard Carroll: You can pick the time, and then we'll do a Zoom meeting, or we'll do a phone call, and hopefully we can help you somehow.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Create altogether.

Richard Carroll: So I'm usually involved in the first consultation, and depending on what you're looking for, I might have one or two other people, someone that is retired in the industry that might be able to come help you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. And we didn't talk about that earlier, and I meant to, so I want to talk about that now. So you are also working with other retired roofing professionals.

Richard Carroll: Yes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: How great is that?

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: All this knowledge, all this experience, it's exactly what people need.

Richard Carroll: Yeah. It's funny how it morphed into this, but once it started, then I started making phone calls to people that either sold their business but still wanted to be active, or maybe they were an executive, and they retired.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Mm-hmm.

Richard Carroll: I recently placed somebody on a board. We do a board member selection. If you have a board-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Oh, great. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... I highly encourage, if you have a board, reach out to us. Most of the boards I find in the roofing industry are family owned,

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Carroll: And the next door neighbor's on the board, and they're not getting the benefit they really need. I recently placed somebody from Fargo, North Dakota with a company in Florida, and they have nothing to do with roofing, and they've been to three board meetings, and the owners called me, and said, "This person is fabulous."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love that. Wow.

Richard Carroll: They have a diverse board now-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... and they're hearing things that they wouldn't have heard.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Diversity of thought.

Richard Carroll: Yeah.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: You have to have diversity.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: You have to have a whole mixture of things to be able to put it in a pot, and it comes out, the recipe comes out perfect-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Perfect.

Richard Carroll: ... so.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: One of the things I'm really excited about is, so if you need that website, you can also find it on the Carroll Consulting Directory on RoofersCoffeeShop.

Richard Carroll: Perfect.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Because you're joining us. We're going to be at our first podcast. We're going to have you on there, and you're going to be writing some articles for us-

Richard Carroll: Perfect.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... which I'm so excited to really bring some of that knowledge, and maybe from some of your other retired friends.

Richard Carroll: Perfect.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: But those are the kind of things that we want to keep bringing out through RoofersCoffeeShops. You'll get a big chance to see how great this is, check out the directory, and really watch for ongoing content that will help give you some of the tips, some of the nuggets you need to get started.

Richard Carroll: Yep.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: Thank you.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you.

Richard Carroll: We're very excited-

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Carroll: ... so.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This is so great. Well, thank you. Thank you first of all for being on our first live-

Richard Carroll: All right.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... in Sisters Oregon Roofing Road Trip. That's pretty exciting. And I got to put a special thank you out to the team because they pulled all this together for us. But we'll be doing a lot more this direction. And thank you again for coming, and we'll have you back again-

Richard Carroll: Perfect. I'd love to come back.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: ... over a lot of those great topics, so.

Richard Carroll: Well thanks for having me. This was awesome.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. And thank you all for watching. I'm just so excited about this, and we'll be keep bringing you all this great information, whether it's on Zoom, whether it's online, or whether it's in person. So be able to sure to check out the directory for Carroll Consulting on RoofersCoffeeShop. Also check out all their articles. We're going to have a lot of great content that's going to help you with those three Rs of recruitment, retention, and retirement. But also check out all of our podcasts, all of our Roofing Road podcasts underneath the navigation of RLW, and our podcast with 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. And we'll be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Intro/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.