RoofingisWomen.org is Live! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Shelby Smith from NWIR. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Megan Ellsworth: 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 seatbelts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip.

Alrighty. Hello, everyone. My name's Megan Ellsworth, here at Rooferscoffeeshop.com and you are listening to Roofing Road Trips and today I am tripping over to National Women in Roofing and chatting with Shelby Smith. Hello, Shelby. How are you?

Shelby Smith: I'm great. How are you?

Megan Ellsworth: I'm so good. I'm so excited to learn more about the National Women in Roofing microsite that you guys are launching. It's very exciting.

Shelby Smith: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate being given the opportunity to talk about it.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Okay, let's just dive right in and have you introduce yourself, and tell us a little bit about your role at Owens-Corning and at National Women in Roofing.

Shelby Smith: Yeah, perfect. My name is Shelby Smith. I'm an HR leader at Owens Corning. I do support for the roofing sales organization, so obviously passionate about roofing and women in roofing specifically for the context of this conversation. I've been with OC for 13 years, so I've been in the industry for 13 years and I've been partnered with National Women in Roofing for probably about the last six years. I started participating, I became a member of the industry recruitment committee and then this year I stepped up to be the chair of industry recruitment. I partner with Rae Fistonich, who is the vice chair.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. We love Rae also.

Shelby Smith: She's great. Oh, yeah, she's fantastic. She's fantastic.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about the recruitment and industry involvement committee and the work you all do?

Shelby Smith: Yeah, absolutely. We always joke, very few of us, maybe some people did, but most of us didn't grow up thinking, "When I get big, I want to work in roofing." We've all stumbled into the industry in one way or another, whether it was through someone inviting us in or us happening to get connected, but we've all had a lot of success in the industry and we've seen what opportunity there is and career advancement there is and growth and it's stable and people are always going to need roofs.

Industry recruitment is really just very focused on how do we reach out to women who are not in the industry today. There's a focus on women coming from other industries. There's also a very big focus on reaching the next generation of workers as well, through working with trade schools or organizations that help with career pathing for women. Our goal and our focus is really how do we share this great secret with other women and how do we get more of them involved?

Megan Ellsworth: I think that is so important and so special, and I'm constantly telling my friends, family members, people I meet on the street, "You have to join roofing, it's so fun," especially women. I think being in this industry can be so empowering, especially if you're a member of National Women in Roofing and seeing other really amazing women doing great things. I love that you've all started this community.

Shelby Smith: There's so many careers available. I think people think of roofing and you automatically think of an installer, which is an important job and available, by all means, to women. Think of anything that is involved in any industry. There's marketing, there's production, there's engineers and estimators and office managers and HR leaders. There's so many different career paths and opportunities and owners I think is really exciting, the number of owners that are women now. It's so much opportunity and just really opening other women's eyes to what exists.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so cool. The microsite that you all are launching is Roofingiswomen.org. Can you just tell us a little bit about maybe why you all are launching it and what its purpose is?

Shelby Smith: Sure, absolutely. You even hit on it. Anytime I run into somebody or my girlfriends, I'm always telling them what exists. We really wanted to create a tool that could be available for women who hear about roofing, have interest in roofing, want to know more and take all of our collective advice and encouragement and put it into a site where it's easily accessible, where we can start using that site whether you're advertising for an opening in your business or whether we're doing something at a local charitable organization. How do we put something out there?

The National Women in Roofing site is fantastic, and the resources for women in the industry are fantastic, but we're already in the industry. If you were to not be in roofing and check out that site and see like, "Oh, there's a training available around this product and I don't even know what that is, and never mind, overwhelming." The site was really designed for women who are not in the industry today and what do we want to tell them and show them to get them interested in knowing more.

Megan Ellsworth: That's so exciting. It's going to be great now when I meet people on the street. I can send them to the website.

Shelby Smith: Exactly.

Megan Ellsworth: What are some future goals and intentions with launching this new site? Maybe besides what you've already touched on, getting more women into the industry, what are some other intentions and goals for the site?

Shelby Smith: Yeah, great question. It launched just late last year, so the site hasn't really been in all that long just yet, but our goal is really how do we really reach the masses. How do we get this in front of other women? It started with a Fox Business story that Meg Ryan led around women in the industry and how they're underrepresented and what opportunity exists. She listed the site, which was fantastic. I think now, our committee is really focused on how to create tools that at the local level our councils can use and send women to this site, and how do we work with trade schools and send students to this site.

Our focus now is really the site's got a ton of cool tools, resources, stories that are available, but now how do we get those out? How do we get those more shared? We're just starting to pull analytics too and starting to take a look at what type of traffic we're getting today, but our committee's already focused on we really want to take it to the next level and how do we really help it blow up.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's really cool. What kind of trade schools are you all looking at? Is it regional, national and mainly are you just going towards trade schools geared towards women or trade schools just in general?

Shelby Smith: Yes, yes, yes, yes, all of the above. One of our goals for this year, exactly, is to build a toolkit for the local councils where they could actually take it to local trade schools and say, "Hey, there's lots of schools that have construction management that don't have roofing-specific training, so how can we get in front of those students and help them better understand roofing as an industry?" There's also national organizations that we partner with where we want to try to figure out ways to get our site included there or how do we partner with them on a larger level and a larger scale to reach, like I said, that next generation of worker as well.

It's really we're trying to target as many different areas as possible, but there are great schools out there that don't have roofing programs or do have roofing programs and we really want to help amplify that and accelerate women, anyone, honestly. Obviously we're always looking for talent in the industry, but how do we get more women open to and interested in the possibilities?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That also just makes me think of the Let's Build Camp for girls. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's so, so awesome. I got to interview some little kids doing the camp last summer and their excitement for plumbing and roofing and all these different trades is so pure. It's so pure. I love it.

Shelby Smith: Yeah, there's Jill of All Trades. There's a number of organizations that are really doing a nice job of targeting how do we get women, how do we get students, the next generation, one more open to the trades and understanding there's money to be made? Like I said earlier, I think when you hear some other industries that are really unstable and where you're seeing big layoffs and things like that, it's like the trades, there's a need. There will continue to be a need, so how do we help, like I said, amplify that?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's so cool. Going off of that, what are some positive outcomes or success stories that you've been a part of or heard since the launch of Roofingiswomen.org?

Shelby Smith: Yeah. One, I think the Fox News. We were really excited about that and the visibility of that. I'm still not collecting enough stories of, "Hey, I found your site. It brought me to an open job and I've applied." We're expecting more of those and there's actually work being done before next year's National Women in Roofing Day where when you register for the event, we're going to collect a little bit more information. I think that will help to highlight how women got into the industry and how they came to National Women in Roofing.

I think there's going to be some things that we'll be able to pull in, stories we'll be able to collect. Right now it's new, it's in infancy in regards to its launch and us getting it out there, but I'm hoping to have some of those. Maybe I can come back a year from now and share lots of good, intentional, specific stories.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that'll be great. We'll get to see you then and now.

Shelby Smith: Exactly. Exactly.

Megan Ellsworth: You said it launched at the end of last year. When did it launch exactly, and how are you pushing it to people out there?

Shelby Smith: Yeah, so the exact date, I couldn't tell you. It was September.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, okay.

Shelby Smith: It was September of last year that we got the site live, but didn't really start promoting it or advertising it straight away. Now, we also are going to launch a social media campaign, so how do we get that site out. Again, it's accessible. It's available. You don't have to have a login. Again, it's targeting people who are not in the industry today. If you are a roofer and you're hiring, you can put that link on your job postings and it'll bring women to the site. It's got resources, so resume-building tips and different tools and resources that will help women just as they're doing their career search. There's a link to the RoofersCoffeeShop open jobs.

Megan Ellsworth: Amazing.

Shelby Smith: Make sure, if you have open roles, that you're posting those there. It's driving some traffic to that site. It's also got stories of women who came from other industries into roofing, and just how they've grown and how their careers have flourished and the success that they've found.

Then also, one of the things that I really love is the Frequently Asked Questions, because we polled women and said, "Before you were in the industry, or when you talk to women who are not in the industry, what are the most common questions that you get? What do women really want to know?" We worked to put together a Frequently Asked Question list that really addresses a lot of those. "I don't know, what if I don't want to get on a roof?" Well, there's an answer to that question in there, and, "I heard their salespeople are only commission. Is that true?" There's an answer to that question in there. Just lots of great, like how do you make it less intimidating? How do you make it less foreign and completely different?

There are a lot of traits and skills. Women tend to be drawn more to retail and hospitality industries. If you look at the skills that it takes to be successful there, super transferable. You can be really successful in our industry. Yeah, a lot of that is built in to help drive that.

Megan Ellsworth: That's so exciting. What great resources for that, and people already in the industry who are looking for a new job. That's great.

Shelby Smith: Like I said, it's a resource for others to use. If you're going to an event and you're going to a career fair or something, put it on your material. Send as many people to the site as possible. It could only help you if you're trying to bring more women into the industry as well.

Megan Ellsworth: That's a great idea. I know that GAF also does the Roofing Academy, and there's all sorts of roofing academies through trade schools and different programs. If people are involved in that, get it in front of those people as well.

Shelby Smith: Yes, exactly. Oh, and Courtney is doing something similar, so we absolutely take advantage. Take advantage. It's for everyone to use.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great.

Shelby Smith: Like I said earlier, there is a war for talent. There's a shortage of talented workers available, so why not cast a wider net? Why not reach out to folks that have some, like I said, some really great skills and are hardworking, smart, driven individuals that just right now don't know about us?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Well, Shelby, thank you so much for chatting with me today about this. This is really exciting.

Shelby Smith: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, like I said, and appreciate the support for our organization and this work. It's a great team that I get to work on. There are a number of women on the team that play a big role in getting this across the finish line and next level. I feel pretty lucky to be surrounded by such fantastic women.

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. That's such a great feeling. I love that. Well, I can't tell you enough how excited we are for this new website. Everyone, go to Roofingiswomen.org right now and go check it out. Send it to all your friends. It'll be on the National Women in Roofing Directory, on RoofersCoffeeShop. You can also find it on our classifieds ad section where you can look for job postings and all sorts of good stuff. Go check it out, and we'll see you next time on Roofing Road Trips. Shelby, thank you again.

Shelby Smith: Thank you so much, Megan.

Megan Ellsworth: All right, we'll see you next time. If you've enjoyed the ride, don't forget to hit that Subscribe button and join us on every roofing adventure. Make sure to visit Rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on the next Roofing Road Trip.