Roofer of the Month: Janney Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Derek Janney and Todd Piorkowski of Janney Roofing. You can read the interview below, listen to the recording or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Welcome to the hottest podcast in the roofing industry. Get ready to meet the stars of the rooftops, the shingle sensations and the gutter gurus. Each month we'll climb up to the top to shine the spotlight on one remarkable roofer who's nailing it. We'll dive deep into their stories, their triumphs and the secrets behind their sky-high success. Don't miss out on these industry insights, incredible tales of resilience and the passion that keeps these roofers at the top of their game. Tune in, subscribe and follow us on this incredible journey as we crown this month's Roofer of the Month. Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and we are back with the April Roofer of the Month. And I am so honored and excited to be celebrating our April Roofer of the Month, that is Janney Roofing. Hi guys, how are you?

Todd Piorkowski: We're doing great.

Derek Janney: Doing great. How are you doing, Megan?

Megan Ellsworth: I'm doing so well. I'm so excited to chat with you,

Derek Janney: As are we.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. So why don't you gentlemen just introduce yourselves. Derek, go first. Tell us a little bit about you and Janney Roofing.

Derek Janney: Perfect, thank you Megan. Yes. So I'm Derek Janney, president of Janney Roofing. We're based out of Orlando, which is our headquarters, but we have offices in Tampa and Jacksonville and cover a lot of region in Florida. We're a part of a larger group that's Legacy Restoration and Southern Renovation and Roofing. And so our group altogether is the largest residential roofer in the nation now. So we represent the Florida circuit of that. Yeah, so it's a really big deal that just happened for us.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Oh my gosh, that's huge. Congrats.

Derek Janney: Yes, and it all started here. I was a 19-year-old kid during Hurricane Charlie, and the guy told me, "Do you want to sell a roof?" And I said, "What does sell a roof mean," and I went out with him the next day.

Megan Ellsworth: I beg your pardon?

Todd Piorkowski: Yep.Derek Janney: He sold three and I decided I'd think I'd like this job. And I've stuck with roofing ever since. Did a few other things in between with some nonprofit and some church work, but really have stuck with it. And yeah, we're proud of Janney Roofing. We have to hear more about it today. And Todd's been with me. He's known me since I was 11 years old.

Todd Piorkowski: That's right.

Megan Ellsworth: Amazing.

Derek Janney: But Todd's been with me as a right-hand guy in leadership training. The first sales guy that I ever hired was Todd, and now he's over our entire brand of leadership development, so he's a mentor of mine.

Megan Ellsworth: Amazing. Todd, tell us a little about-

Todd Piorkowski: Derek's been a mentor of mine as well, so thank you for that brother.

Derek Janney: Thank you man. That was sweet and all.

Megan Ellsworth: That's so sweet. Okay, Todd, so what's your role and tell us a little bit about you.

Todd Piorkowski: No worries. I've done a little bit of everything, but as Derek said, came on as sales, first sales guy. We built a team from scratch and to become what we are today. My current occupation, if I could say that, is the corporate trainer for Janney Roofing and also taking out a new role with the platform Legacy Restoration nationwide. So it's exciting to see the growth and the opportunities. It's really, like I said in the video last year, the opportunities are endless and I'm excited to be a part of that. We're going places and I'm glad to be on for the ride.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. It's a fun ride I bet.

Todd Piorkowski: It is. Indeed.

Megan Ellsworth: So you said you do a lot of residential work. What would you say is Janney's specialty?

Derek Janney: I would say, well, our go-to about our specialty is asphalt shingles. So we are with Owens Corning currently we're one of about 800 platinum contractors. I'm sure you're familiar with the programs. And actually this is my last year to be one of the advisory board members. So we've really got to have a front seat to what's going on in the industry. But 85% of what we do is asphalt shingles. And our installation process is second to none. We put on entire roof systems, not just mix and match.

Todd Piorkowski: Frankenstein roofs is what they call them.

Derek Janney: Yeah, there's a lot of guys who try to do the bare minimum. But asphalt shingles is our go-to. We do our own metal, we fabricate our own metal standing seam. We do tile roofs, we do all types of roofs. TPO, we've done coatings, but our go-to every day Megan is asphalt shingles.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, very cool. That's amazing. We love OC. We love Owens Corning. Okay, this is my favorite question because every company is a little bit different in company culture and what you stand for. So share something with us that Janney Roofing celebrates. It can be actual holidays or birthdays, it could be company culture, it could be anything under the sun. So what do y'all over there celebrate?

Derek Janney: I'm going to let Todd answer first. I have a lot, but I want to hear what he has to say.

Todd Piorkowski: No, I appreciate it. Well, everything you mentioned we do. The biggest thing about Janney, of course, being a family company is how we started is we treat everybody like family.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it.

Todd Piorkowski: We love each other. We honor each other. We're loyal. We got each other's backs. We celebrate the wins. We have great dialogue, just anything we can do to make ourselves get better, we challenge ourselves to get better. And that's the biggest thing about our culture. And I've heard it spoken one time that whatever's written on the walls is also felt in the halls, and that is the culture of Janney Roofing. So it's really powerful that we have a chance to do that every day. And I think beyond that is the culture. We don't just do roofing per se as we give back. And our four core pillars are honesty is always first, integrity being a person of your word, number three is quality and that's quality of labor, materials, and warranty, and then lastly is generosity and not just money, time as well. And we've had the pleasure and privilege to be a part of so many different things.

Derek Janney: Yeah, that's right.

Todd Piorkowski: And one of the coolest things we get a chance to do is support an organization called World Hope, which is in Nairobi, Kenya that Derek's father started more than 20 years ago. I've been there, Derek's probably been there a hundred times. So we don't just come to work to do roofing. We know that a portion of everything that we do at the day to day goes overseas and goes around our country and around our town to help make a difference in people's lives. And our mantra is, and our mission statement is we're trying to change the world one roof at a time.

Derek Janney: Changing the world a roof at a time. And our people know that and believe that.

Megan Ellsworth: I love that.

Derek Janney: It's on all of our trucks. It's everywhere. We're here to make a difference and give back. Too much is given, much is required. But when you talk about celebrating, I would say what we celebrate the most is our people.

Todd Piorkowski: True.

Derek Janney: So we have a bi-monthly staff meeting. And so Todd just talked about these four words, right? Honesty, equality, integrity and generosity. And once a month, four people from our leadership team will celebrate somebody who's exemplified one of those traits. So we celebrate that. We celebrate the person who gets the most reviews. We're the highest rated roofer in the state of Florida. 98.6% of our reviews are five star reviews. And so we have a team that works very hard on that. And as soon as the review comes in, actually the guy who's on the other side of this camera helping us, his wife works for us and she puts those in the chat and we all get so excited about these five star reviews.

Because I'd say that if we become not the highest rated roofer, we've got to strip that off all the trucks, that'll cost us more money. So please keep them coming.

Todd Piorkowski: There you go.

Derek Janney: But we celebrate our people. The greatest achievement we've gotten is not being the highest rated roofer. It's being two out of the last three years, the best place to work in Orlando. And that's voted by our people. There's nothing I can do about that.

Todd Piorkowski: Now, ironically, Derek did not know this, but the shirt that I'm wearing is from two years ago, the highest rated, best place to work.

Derek Janney: Oh, that's cool.

Todd Piorkowski: On my shirt right here on the sleeve that he's talking about. We did not discuss this. This is totally unplanned. But yeah, that's a high accolade because it's voted up by our people.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. That is a high accolade. That's huge.

Derek Janney: It's fun for us because it means the people that we care about, they notice it and they notice that we care about them. I tell people this, it used to be my job. I was the only one. I used to go pull the permits, get the material, sell the roof, supervise the roof, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you name it. And now we've got enough people that do all that. And I say now my job as the president is to take care of you, the people. My job is to make good choices for our team. So if you're not doing your job and I got to do your job for you, you're in trouble because I'm trying to make sure you could pay your mortgage and you can pay for school and do all those things.

So our people are what we celebrate. We do an awards banquet, which will come up, the date's coming out, but it's in May. And we have in each department an MVP. We have four departments now, and we celebrate our MVPs who have exemplified the best, they get voted on. It's a really neat thing that happens. We get guys who... sales guys get a certain accolade for a certain number of sales they get. So that's what we celebrate. We celebrate wins, and we celebrate a lot. My dad always says, "Derek, you celebrate too much." I'm like, "You've got to celebrate."

Todd Piorkowski: You got to celebrate.

Megan Ellsworth: You have to.

Derek Janney: Yeah, you have to. And people got to know that's something that we're excited about. That's the benchmark.

Todd Piorkowski: I'll tell you what-

Megan Ellsworth: And I have to say-

Todd Piorkowski: I've been with Derek since a long time. I'm not an old man. I'm just a young man with old hair. I'm a young man with old hair, I tell people. But I was actually on my downturn, I had to get to go with [inaudible 00:08:59] else, and Derek said, "Hey man, can you join me and help me build this thing the right way?" And I tell you what, he has re-energized me and we celebrate. It's a big deal and-

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Todd Piorkowski: Thank you for that, Derek helping us get excited about what you do every day. It's great honor.

Derek Janney: Thank you Todd.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. And I mean, Orlando's not a small town.

Todd Piorkowski: Anymore.

Megan Ellsworth: So to be the best employer or place to work in Orlando, that's huge. That's like thousands and thousands of people.

Derek Janney: Well, just to clarify that, there's different groupings.

Todd Piorkowski: True. Medium-sized company.

Derek Janney: Based on our size company. So there's probably four groupings, but just I want to be full disclosure, we weren't out of everybody.

Todd Piorkowski: True.

Derek Janney: But in our division there was probably a hundred people they submitted or more than submitted, a hundred that got accepted, then we were number one out that so-

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Derek Janney: We're hoping to get it this year.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, congrats.

Derek Janney: Yeah, thank you.

Megan Ellsworth: Congrats. Good luck.

Derek Janney: Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. So how would you two and Janney Roofing define superior customer service?

Todd Piorkowski: I'll let you take that one.

Derek Janney: Yeah. This is my favorite topic. So I like to... One of my favorite books, which you should read is Excellence Wins by Horst Schulze. He's one of the founders of the Ritz-Carlton. And I stumbled on this book and it revolutionized the way we did business. We were a good roofing company, but we coined this phrase that we're a customer service company that just so happens to do roofing. So servicing the customer, I mean, we have customer service agents who are talking to them on a regular basis. We have touch points beyond all belief where we're bringing you a coffee mug at the beginning. I'm going to let Todd tell you the process of sales because it's very customer-centric, but we want to be the Ritz-Carlton of roofing. So there's nothing against Holiday Inn. We don't want to be the Holiday Inn. We want to be the Ritz-Carlton of roofing.

So the bar is set so high. I mean, even our packets that we give out to homeowners, I went and picked out specific paper card stock and I went through picking it to make sure it was going to look right and be perfect. And we didn't just put the J logo on the front, we embossed it because what does that tell a customer? If they focus on these details so well, that's how they're going to focus on our job.

Todd Piorkowski: Yes.

Megan Ellsworth: That's so true.

Derek Janney: And we always want them to leave as raving fans telling everybody about us. I mean, when you look at these reviews, they're listing multiple people. They're talking about their supervisor sales rep, the customer service agent, and you can get multiple individual names in these five star reviews. You're winning with your customers. So we just try to do a step above and excellence is the bar. That is the goal. We're not going to hit it every time. But if we said, great was the goal, then we'll get good. Excellence is the goal.

Todd Piorkowski: That's right.

Derek Janney: And we want to be perfect. We're not going to be, but you have to set the bar that high so customers feel that and see it. They see the first class side of it.

Todd Piorkowski: Yeah. The two words you'll never hear of Janney Roofing when it comes to quality and everything we do is good enough. We don't do things good enough. Excellence is the goal. Perfection, only one perfect person ever to walk the Earth, we celebrate that coming up next week with Easter. But that's the difference. And you know what? Derek is one of the most creative and ingenious minds that I've met in my life. He sees things that most people can't see. The attention to detail and marketing is, I've told you that before, it's amazing. But here's the thing-

Derek Janney: I got to pay him for saying all this.

Todd Piorkowski: What Derek-

Megan Ellsworth: You're a hype man.

Todd Piorkowski: What Derek created... Here's the thing. Derek creates and it bleeds over to us, so we catch it. It's not taught, it's caught. The passion we have is caught.

Megan Ellsworth: I like that.

Todd Piorkowski: And what he is able to do is create a customer experience. That's what we provide is a customer experience. No other roofing company that we know of that does what we do the way we do it, nobody makes the connections we do with our clients the way we do it. They come away like, "Man, our industry unfortunately has a black eye a lot of times because of how people treat their clients and how the things that they go through and business practices," we stay away from that. We want to separate ourselves based on the integrity and care of our company and our family values and our Christian culture. All those things are what we separate ourselves with. And customer experience is number one.

Derek Janney: So I say this, we do have this little thought process that we're making positive deposits. So the customer has an experience from the time they try to get you to come to an estimate. Whether they call in for that, whether they go online or was the online experience good for them? Was the phone call good for them? That's the first customer touch. It's either a negative withdrawal or a positive deposit. And you go all along the way. Did the sales guy show up on time? Do we present well? Were they late? That's a negative. We're trying to get up to the point where we have the build of the roof, which is the toughest part. What if a shingle falls and slashes your screen? Well, if you have all these positive deposits, they're going, "It's not that big of a deal because these guys are great."

So everybody knows they're a part of making this journey of the customer, we call it, we've coined it, it's the Janney difference.

Todd Piorkowski: That's right.

Derek Janney: We are down here in Disney World, so we want to make a magical experience with us that you leave going, "I wish I could do my roof again." Nobody says that, but I wish those people would come back and bang on my roof. So if we're passionate about it, obviously you can tell. And so we miss the mark. I mean, I talked to customers that are upset with us and you're going to mess up. We're going to drop the ball. It's what do you do with that mess up and that's just a character lesson in general.

Todd Piorkowski: Derek's always said, "Finish strong." It's not how you start all the time, it's how you finish. And that's our goal all the time. It's huge.

Derek Janney: We could have honestly gone on for that for about another 30 minutes.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, we can keep going. The next question kind of slides right into it. So I mean, why should homeowners work with Janney Roofing? You mean so many things.

Derek Janney: I'll let Todd close it. I believe I tell everybody on our staff, we have probably 40 sales reps now. Todd does the training and I'll pop in. I don't have a formal role in it, but I'll pop in and I typically say the same thing. I could go on a lie detector test right now, and you make a kid say, "Derek, are you guys the best company in Orlando," I would pass it in flying colors because we're the best is why they should use us because we do every roof as if it's our mother's roof.

Todd Piorkowski: That's exactly right.

Derek Janney: It's my grandpa or grandma's roof. And you have our word. We will make things right. We will always do the best we can. And the backing that we have now, we don't really get to say this often, but to be over $300 million revenue organization with the support and resources we have, the customer's safe. We're not going to close doors and walk out. And just looking at what other customers have said, you can't make that up. The best thing we have going for us to say, just if you haven't looked at our reviews, just go online and then call us back. And they're ready to go. They're ready to go.

So why us? Because we're the best choice there is. I mean, look, we're not always going to be the most inexpensive, but there's a statement in life that says, "You get what you pay for."

Todd Piorkowski: Exactly right.

Derek Janney: And we will be here when the going gets tough. If there is a problem, we are going to answer the phone and we'll show up to fix it. Now we don't want to have any problems, but the reason they should use us is it is an experience and we're passionate about our customers. That's my take.

Todd Piorkowski: That's true. And value. People want value. They work hard for what they have and want to make sure they're making good investment. Are we the cheapest? No. We were voted best in Orlando. We weren't voted the cheapest because you get what you pay for, just like he said. And we do roofing systems. We have service. We have warranty. Everything we back up. I mean, it's just different. And you know what, both of us are homeowners. So we put ourselves in the homeowner's shoes in their house.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely.

Todd Piorkowski: And we don't just talk about price. That's the last thing we talk about. What kind of company do you want to work with? What's important to you? Help us make you part of the Janney Roofing family. And at the end of the day, we also want them to say good things about us so they can refer their friends and neighbors to us. And the highest compliment is getting referral or when you're doing long enough where you're now doing their kids' roofs.

Derek Janney: Yeah.

Todd Piorkowski: That's huge. That's huge.

Megan Ellsworth: Huge.

Derek Janney: So maybe you are old Todd.

Todd Piorkowski: Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth: Maybe not.

Todd Piorkowski: Maybe not.

Megan Ellsworth: I love it. Okay, so man, we're flying through these. You guys are professionals.

Todd Piorkowski: When you're passionate about what you do, you don't have to rehearse.

Derek Janney: That's right.

Megan Ellsworth: Exactly. Exactly. Why are you all... why is Janney Roofing an R-Club member? And what's one of your favorite things about Roofers Coffee Shop?

Todd Piorkowski: Well, you guys we're in art club because of you. When I had the privilege of sitting down with your mom, Heidi Ellsworth, our fearless leader and our mentor as well at the FRSA Conference in Orlando last year, she had given us an opportunity to become a member of R-Club. And I even have the little pin on my lapel that I shared with you earlier. So a little R-Club pin. It's been a tremendous asset. And then the cool thing is not just me and not just a few of our leaders, but when you guys gave us the opportunity as a company-wide to actually participate and have a one year free subscription to the R-Club and have all the access to all the articles and all the resources and stuff, it's a tremendous deal. And of course, last year when I shared doing the soft skills training that Jereme Cadorette, our executive vice president, found online with the MetalCoffeeShop and it's just been a game changer for our production team. So the R-Club is a part of us because we're a part of you. We thank you for that.

Derek Janney: Well, the soft skills training that was done, that was one of the most... Those production guys couldn't stop talking about how amazing that was.

Megan Ellsworth: Really?

Derek Janney: Yeah. Literally. I mean, Todd went in and did that, but it was awesome. So yeah, I mean, I think just knowing the resources that you bring to us to bring to our team, you have a little bit for everybody. It's not just sales centric. There's a lot to learn. And so to be a part of this is a big deal for us.

Megan Ellsworth: I'm so happy to hear that.

Derek Janney: Yeah, tell your mom we said so.

Megan Ellsworth: That just makes my heart sing.

Todd Piorkowski: There you go.

Megan Ellsworth: I will. I absolutely will. Well, gentlemen, we've gotten down to the last question, and this is probably the best question, and it is, what would your walkup song be? So you're walking out onto a sports field, the big game. What's the song that's playing behind you?

Derek Janney: Todd, you can go first.

Todd Piorkowski: Wow. Well, mine is usually to a deaf audience, so I'm not sure... That's not true. I did a charity event not too long ago, and the song I walked out for is called Walking on Sunshine, I think the cranberries of the group. Yeah, I'm walking on sunshine. That was a song I came up to. So that's what I think comes to mind currently. That's my-

Megan Ellsworth: That's a great one.

Derek Janney: So my favorite one, I had a chance, I had an opportunity to win 40 Under 40. You remember that?

Todd Piorkowski: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Derek Janney: And I got to pick my song. I forgot the name of it, but it's by Drake, and it's called Big Rings because it says, I got a really big team. They need some really nice things because I can't do... I say to people, any of these little individual words I've gotten, I just happen to be the name, but it's all of us who have done it. I couldn't do any of this without it. So anything that's team. But Big Rings is the song. Big Rings by Drake.

Megan Ellsworth: I love that.

Todd Piorkowski: [inaudible 00:20:13] change mine, it'd probably be the original theme to Rocky or Eye of the Tiger. Those are my two other [inaudible 00:20:17].

Derek Janney: I can see that.

Megan Ellsworth: Those are good.

Todd Piorkowski: Back to the-

Megan Ellsworth: Great choices.

Derek Janney: What would be your walkout song?

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, man. Everyone always does this to me.

Derek Janney: And?

Megan Ellsworth: I don't know. I think it would probably be... it would be Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac.

Derek Janney: Okay, nice.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Yeah, the 1997 live taping specifically.

Todd Piorkowski: Was about to say, you must be in [inaudible 00:20:45] young girl. That's cool. Fleetwood Mac.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, gentlemen, thank you so much and congratulations on being the April Roofer of the Month. I can't think of another company that deserves it more.

Todd Piorkowski: Wow, we're honored. Thank you for having us part of that. It's a big deal for us to be recognized.

Derek Janney: Thank you Megan for the time and for doing this.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. It's our pleasure. Everyone out there go check out the Janney Roofing directory on Roofers Coffee Shop and Ask a Roofer. And then if you're on the Orlando, Florida area, check them out. Look at their reviews, look at their website and what are you doing? Hire them.

Todd Piorkowski: There you go.

Megan Ellsworth: So gentlemen, thank you so much and we'll be seeing you at the Coffee Break in a couple weeks. That's a wrap on this month's episode of Roofer of the Month. Thanks for joining us on this journey. We'll catch you next time for more rooftop celebrations. Make sure to subscribe and follow the rooferscoffeeshop.com podcast page for more. And go to rooferscoffeeshop.com or askaroofer.com for more information.