Roofer of the Month: Umbrella Roofing - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Josh Yandle from Umbrella Roofing. You can read the interview below 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.

All righty. Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at Rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I'm so excited to be chatting with our August Roofer of the Month. Josh from Umbrella Roofing. Hi, how are you?

Josh Yandle: Good, thanks. How are you guys doing?

Megan Ellsworth: So good. So excited to have you as the Roofer of the Month. Congratulations. Whoop-whoop.

Josh Yandle: Oh, thanks. Appreciate it. Happy to be here.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, you guys are doing great things. Just learned you're in Eagle, Colorado. I'm in Denver, so love Coloradans. I'll just have you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Umbrella.

Josh Yandle: Awesome. So I'm longtime mountain native, born and raised in Eagle, Colorado. My business partners are Jake Borah and Derek Barton. They've helped me basically and build the business. They're also longtime local and natives of Eagle County, Colorado. Jake's family goes back into the 1800s with I think six generations here. And then Derek Barton has lived here pretty much the same amount of times as me since the early eighties.

So we're a residential and commercial roofing contractor. We have pretty much all full-time employees. The residential projects that we do are similar to a lot of other guys commercial size projects just because of the scope and the size of the projects in general. But we are kind of a, I would say a medium-sized company with 30 to 40 full-time employees in Eagle County and about the same size in Pitkin County. We own the Eagle County division of Umbrella Roofing, which started in Pitkin County.

Megan Ellsworth: Got it. That's amazing. Congrats.

Josh Yandle: Yeah, thanks.

Megan Ellsworth: Would you say that Umbrella has any specialty? I know you said you do commercial and residential. Would you say you have a specialty?

Josh Yandle: Yeah, I mean, I would say our specialty is just really highly complex, detailed roof systems in general. So we are really good at the hands-on really complex, difficult projects. We like those projects. We find that we are a lot more competitive on those type projects just because of the way that we're structured with full-time employees versus a company that uses mostly sub crews.

Megan Ellsworth: Got it.

Josh Yandle: So I would say we do, I mean, I guess if I had to pick one thing that we specialize in, I would say probably synthetic roofs and specifically DaVinci shakes and slate. We do a lot. I mean, we've got a full sheet metal shop, so we do a lot of custom metal as well.

Megan Ellsworth: Awesome.

Josh Yandle: But I think the majority of work we do is synthetic products.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. Y'all are really full service. You do have a sheet metal shop, that's incredible. And we love DaVinci. I love the look of their shake and slate. I think it's so great.

Josh Yandle: I agree. Yeah, I think their slate is one of the best looking products on the whole market, so.

Megan Ellsworth: Truly, truly agree with that. What is something special that Umbrella Roofing celebrates? What's something, it could be birthdays, holidays, company culture. What do you guys celebrate over there?

Josh Yandle: I mean, we have a great culture for sure. One thing that we're really proud of, or I guess a few things that we're proud of, is just we've really tried to focus on building the company in a way that allows us to give back to our local community. So we do a program called 1% Close to Home, which allows us to donate 1% of our gross revenue back to the community. And sometimes that is by just knocking on someone's door who is, let's just for instance, a school teacher that can't necessarily afford to have the roof replaced or whatever. And those are the type kind of 1% programs that we really like cause we just get the roof done and not give them a bill. And it usually ends in tears and hugs and it's a great thing.

So another thing that we do is a part of that 1% is we've built over a thousand bikes within Eagle and Pitkin County and Garfield County, and donated those bikes to mostly second and first grade students. But generally it's one or two schools a year, and it's an entire class. So this year we did two different schools, entire second grade classes and built bikes for these little kids. And it's a full day event with a lot of volunteers, but it's awesome. And it's amazing watching the kids riding around with their new bikes.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh my gosh, that is so heartwarming and so pure to think about all these little kids and you build them. You don't just buy the bikes, you go the extra step. You're building these bikes. Wow.

Josh Yandle: Yeah. They all get shipped in on a big truck in boxes. And then we've got a team of volunteers that come out and help us construct hundreds of bikes and then size them for the kids. A lot of years the fire department will get involved and donate helmets to all the kids.

Megan Ellsworth: Nice.

Josh Yandle: Or at other years we've had to buy them. But either way, it's just another part of the donation and it's awesome. So it's really fun to see all these bikes riding around town for the next couple months and it's pretty awesome.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh wow, that's so fun.

So kind of going off of that, I mean, you've already shown your support of the community, your work within the community. How would you define superior customer service?

Josh Yandle: I would say, I mean, it's kind of a broad question, but I would say if I was to define superior customer service, it would be... I'm not a huge sales strategy, you know, "This is how you sell every customer. And once you hit this check mark, you get to this part." I like honestly, spending time sitting at the coffee room table, building an actual relationship with every one of my customers and understanding the needs. I mean, every customer is different. So there's not a specific way to sell to one specific customer. It's some customers can afford this type of a roof system. Some customers can afford this type of a roof system. Some people need this, some people need that. So it's on a case by case basis of really just diving in and truly caring what their needs are and not just trying to push a sale.

I would say a good percentage of the projects that I end up going to, I will sometimes sell myself out of work by telling them that they don't need a roof or they don't need to get a repair or maybe it's not as big as they thought. And sometimes it's the opposite and it's, oh my gosh, this repair is actually a re-roof.

So I would say just upfront saying it like it is, but also being flexible and understanding each individual customer is the biggest thing. And then following through, being able to communicate. We're set up with a really good support system of actual managers and superintendents and middle managers and our CFO is involved. And so having that full circle start to finish, clear lines of communication, super consistent all the way through to where the customer can build that trust within the company and knows who to go to for what. That can be really confusing for customers. Sometimes there's a list of five guys they got to call and they don't know who to call for what job or who's the follow-up person or who's the warranty person or whatever. So I think just kind of training your customers and just communicating well and being honest.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. I think that was a great definition of customer service.

Josh Yandle: That kind of drug on for a while but you know...

Megan Ellsworth: No, you did great. That was awesome. So definitely going off of that, why should home or building owners work with Umbrella Roofing?

Josh Yandle: So I would say our quality is kind of the biggest reason that most people go with us from job to job. We are very consistent in, we have actually read the manufacturer instructions on all of our installs and understand those, and we care. We live in the community. It's a small community. There's not thousands of roofers. It is competitive, but it's also a very small community where I will see the customers that I sold roofs to in the grocery store or at church on Sunday or at the 4H auction or whatever. And it's very important to stick with what you say and follow through on what you promise. So I mean, that's very important.

Also, a big thing for Umbrella is safety. So we are an extremely safe company. We have very high expectations of our employees. Some employees don't like following the rules and don't like being safe, and they don't last long working for us. They are required to wear safety gear 24/7, and we're very strict on that. So that in turn will protect the customer's property and keep them out of court as well.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. And no one wants to go to court and everyone wants everyone to be safe, so that's absolutely number one priority.

Josh Yandle: That's right. Exactly.

Megan Ellsworth: So why are you an Art Club member? What's one of your favorite things about being a part of the Art Club and Roofer's Coffee Shop?

Josh Yandle: Sure. Okay. So in full transparency, I didn't have a ton of experience with Roofer's Coffee Shop prior to Umbrella Roofing winning Da Vinci Masterpiece or the Roof of the Year last year for Da Vinci.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Josh Yandle: And so after winning that, and we had worked with Art Club a little bit before with Kathy, but I wasn't really, I hadn't dived into it, I guess, so to speak. And since then I've been introduced to you guys and just the big network that surrounds Roofer's Coffee Shop, which I love. Some of the things, I'm a big podcast and tutorial video, and I like to watch those videos and listen to them while I'm driving.

And so that has been really awesome for me is just getting on and kind of reassuring a lot of information, but also learning a ton of new information. Hearing how other companies do it across the United States, or having specific items that I'm looking for. They've got, you guys have great resources within your website and just the whole platform of, I can get product info on one tab. I can watch tutorial videos on another tab. I can get educational resources support on another tab, business development, learn marketing strategies. It pretty much covers everything you would need...

Megan Ellsworth: Literally.

Josh Yandle: On kind of a website, especially if you're learning roofing or a roofing owner, a roofing employee. I mean, there's a lot of different, I guess, things that you can utilize it for.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. Oh, that's great to hear. Well, we're glad that you won the Da Vinci competition and then got introduced to us and that you're a part of the Roofer's Coffee Shop family now. So welcome.

Josh Yandle: Thank you. [inaudible 00:13:19].

Megan Ellsworth: And congrats again on being Roofer of the Month. You guys are great.

Josh Yandle: Awe, thank you. Yeah, we really, really care and we love this kind of stuff, so we appreciate it.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. Okay, last question. What would your walk-up song be?

Josh Yandle: Okay, so there's a side of me that wants to go back to some nineties rap, but at the same time, I'm a huge Metallica, probably Enter Sandman type guy. And I've had that walk-up song for lots of middle school football games, so.

Megan Ellsworth: I love that. That's a great one.

Josh Yandle: Can't go wrong with that one.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Well, Josh, thanks so much for chatting with me today, and congrats again for Umbrella Roofing's Roofer of the Month. You guys are great.

Josh Yandle: Awe, thank you so much. Appreciate it Megan.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Everyone out there listening, you can learn more about Umbrella Roofing on Rooferscoffeeshop.com. They have a directory, and if you're in the Eagle County area, check them out. Make sure if you need roof repairs, a new roof, anything, hit up Josh, they'll get you taken care of. And thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you next month.

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.