Roofing Road Trips Podcast: Charles Antis

 By Lauren White, RCS Reporter.

During these trying times, it’s important to stay curious and leverage forward.

Charles Antis, the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing, and his team have found ways to stay busy giving back to those in need.  Whether that is delivering food, providing space for a blood drive, or keeping families safe and dry, they are curious about ways they can serve their community.  Charles, also an RCS Influencer, visits with Heidi J. Ellsworth, RoofersCoffeeShop® partner, about how Antis is lending a helping hand during this pandemic.

“It’s all about communicating and over communicating with both the insides and the outsides of your organization… your team and all of your people, because we’re all scared.  We don’t have a way for our brains to contextualize what’s happening out there. We don’t have stories to compare against it,” Charles shares. “My focus is, with my team and with my family, to try to focus on the opportunity and the positives as much as possible while being educated in dividing and conquering to cover ourselves in the climate we’re in.”

During these times of uncertainty, the Antis Roofing and Waterproofing team is concentrating on their “essential service of keeping families safe and dry,” Charles explains.  However, they are also operating in a new capacity, besides working remotely. Charles shares, “I’m really excited to see my team adapting, keeping folks dry, and still helping with the community as well.”  Their new focus is on “surviving and thriving.”  

One way they are adapting and helping the community is by providing 6,000 square feet on their Antis Campus for the American Red Cross to host a series of blood drives.  Charles is actually speaking with Heidi from the blood drive in this podcast.  The idea for this donation came from Susan DeGrassi, the VP of Human Resources and Cause at Antis Roofing and Waterproofing, who also is on the board of the American Red Cross.  

Her consistent curiosity leads to creative ways to give back.  In addition to instigating the blood drive, Susan realized elderly people and children weren’t getting the food they needed.  After speaking with Charles, Antis Roofing and Waterproofing donated their time and money to help the food insecure.

For smaller businesses, now is the time to “leverage forward,” as Charles puts it, and remind people why you are in business.  Charles shares a story of when his pool guy, Nick, came to clean his spa. He brought with him a blow-up inner tube and a blow-up beach ball saying, “Charles, I was thinking about you and your family, and about your kids.  I’ve got something for them because it must be different [for] them being home right now.” As a smaller business, worried about his clientele, Nick asked himself, “What can I do right now?” and made his company memorable. Charles explains, “He [Nick] lives to really enhance this thing that families have in their home to make them feel close together...Nick’s given us something that’s added to our quiet, family-only time as we’re isolated.”

While roofing professionals aren’t doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, and others working on the front lines, there are still things we can do to help.  We can help people keep their homes and businesses safe and dry, we can give back, we can support local companies, we can buy online, we can stay curious, and we can keep pushing forward and support one another.

As Charles says, “We’re all in this together.”

Listen to the podcast to hear more from Charles about how Antis Roofing and Waterproofing is giving back to the community.  Check out the RoofersCoffeeShop® podcast page for even more.