S-5! Live from New Orleans

Rob Haddock talks about sharing the knowledge on metal roofs in his Metal Roofing A to Z class, and the importance of being a lifelong learner in this industry.  

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with Rob Haddock, the founder and CEO of S-5! You can read the interview below or watch the recorded livestream. 

Karen Edwards: Hello, and welcome to the Roofers Coffee Shop sound stage at the 2022 International Roofing Expo in New Orleans. I'm Karen Edwards, your host for the week, and I'm really excited to be joined by Rob Haddock from S-5! Welcome. 

Rob Haddock: Well, thank you very much, Karen. Thanks for having me and hello to everybody who is here or not here. 

Karen Edwards: Or not here. Right. And that's why we're doing these videos because there are some people that couldn't make it. So we want to bring a little bit of taste of the show to those who maybe couldn't be here. 

Rob Haddock: Sure. Great. I'm sure everybody's glad you're doing this. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, yeah. It's fun. Because if you can't be here for whatever reason you can follow along. And that's what we like. Tell us, for who might not know what S-5! does. 

Rob Haddock: S-5! is a technology and a product family that is all aimed at making it easy and prudent to mount things to metal roofs, especially standing seam roofs, but also face attached roofs in prudent ways that last the life of the roof and are engineered and certified to be what we claim they are. 

Karen Edwards: Wonderful. And I know Rob, I see you speaking at a lot of different events, METALCON, you had some classes here. What were your sessions that you did here? 

Rob Haddock: It's a program that I call A to Z or I bill it different names in different events, but here it was, Understanding Metal Roofing in part one and part two, and other places I call it A to Z and Metal Roofing from A to Z, everything you ever wanted to know, maybe some things you didn't want to know. 

Karen Edwards: Do you need to know it? And speaking of Metal Roofing From A to Z, he wrote the book. This is a really nice broken down in parts about the history of metal and just anything that you did or didn't want to know. And metal is just, it's really hot right now. It's growing. 

Rob Haddock: Metal has been growing in the marketplace for decades actually, but it is on a steeper growth curve now than in earlier decades. A lot of people don't realize how much of the market is metal roofing. And it depends whose statistics you believe. According to MBMA and Dodge Primary Construction, metal has been somewhere between 28 and 34%. It goes up and down year over year of Dodge Primary Construction, which is nonresidential, one and two story buildings, excluding high-rises, and hotels and motels. 

And so that's the biggest market share in the roofing industry really. If you compare it to single ply as a whole, it's not, but if you compare it to EPDM, or PVC, or TPO, it's a larger market share than any of those. In residential, it's about 15% of that market in reroofing choices. And that's more than any other roof type in the residential sector, except for asphalt shingle. 

Metal is a popular roof. And there are a lot of reasons why. When I teach things about metal roofing, my whole philosophy is that, we sell as a company. I love to educate people on what I know. I've spent 50 years learning, so there's no reason other people have to spend that long. 

Karen Edwards: Share the wealth, share the knowledge. 

Rob Haddock: Exactly. And as a company our philosophy is, the more you understand in this field of practice, the more you're going to want to buy our stuff. So we sell by education. We like to educate a customer so that he can make intelligent buying decisions when we're talking about commercialization. But in a general sense, we feel like the more everyone knows about metal roofing, the more they can relate to it, understand about it in general, whether they're customers of our product or not. It just promotes understanding and promotes metal. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. And I know that as a partner on Roofers Coffee Shop, we do a lot of promotion of your education and webinar series. 

Rob Haddock: You do. And thank you for that. 

Karen Edwards: Yes. Yes. It's fantastic content and information. I like it because it can be consumed when someone has the time to do it. 

Rob Haddock: Exactly. 

Karen Edwards: It's recorded. So if you can't make a live session, watch it when you have the time and learn. 

Rob Haddock: Exactly. And we do similarly, when we do webinars, and we do trainings, and we do different blogs and so on, and post a lot of that kind of stuff on our website. It's not so commercialized. It's more just informational. 

Karen Edwards: Right. Right. It's not, "Hey, buy our product. We're the best." It's, here's what you need to know. Here's how to do it. Here's what's important. And just to deliver that information in an easy to understand way. 

Rob Haddock: Exactly. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. 

Rob Haddock: As I said, the more you understand about this field of practice, the more you'll be inclined to want to buy our stuff. Of course, we want you to buy our stuff. I'm not going to lie. 

Karen Edwards: Yes. 

Rob Haddock: But we want you to do it because you understand that it's the right thing to, you understand why it's better than some other goods that may be out there in the marketplace. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. So if I'm a contractor and I really want to diversify and get into metal, what should I do? How should I start? I know you guys offer tons of support and training. What's the first step, I guess? 

Rob Haddock: Wow. 

Karen Edwards: I know, big question. 

Rob Haddock: I didn't grow up when I was a little kid saying, "I want to be a metal roof contractor." 

Karen Edwards: Right. 

Rob Haddock: I don't think too many people do. I just sort of fell into it. I don't really have a silver bullet answer to that question, but in general, I would say learn all you can. 

Karen Edwards: Yeah. 

Rob Haddock: And you know, Karen, I've had quite a number of people, I've been teaching these kinds of classes for 25 years or more. And I've had a remarkable number of people come to me years later. In fact, just before I came here for this interview, there was a guy at our booth who stopped and said, "I want to thank you personally. I went to one of your seminars here at this convention some number of years ago. And it's helped me enormously to build my business." So learn all you can and never stop learning. When you stop learning, you're ready to go six feet under. 

Karen Edwards: Getting that kind of feedback is just so rewarding. 

Rob Haddock: It is. 

Karen Edwards: And what you give to the industry, with sharing your knowledge is just, it's invaluable. And you've probably helped 100s just like that guy to be successful. 

Rob Haddock: Well, thank you for that. I have had a number of them come and thank me, and that is very gratifying to me. 

Karen Edwards: Nice. So if somebody is here at the expo, where would they find you in the show floor? Do you know your booth number? 

Rob Haddock: We're at 2527. 

Karen Edwards: 2527. That's perfect because it's right in the middle. 

Rob Haddock: Look for the big gold roof up there and the S-5! Logo, this- 

Karen Edwards: Or for the guy in the cowboy hat. 

Rob Haddock: Right. 

Karen Edwards: There's not too many walking around here. 

Rob Haddock: True. And most of them are related to me. 

Karen Edwards: Just follow Rob, he'll guide you to the booth. If you weren't here either, and you missed the educational session, the IRE does offer the ability for you to purchase recordings so they can listen on their own time, when they have a chance to, and learn, Metal roofing A to Z, everything there is to know and help you be successful in your business. So, Rob, thank you so much- 

Rob Haddock: My pleasure. 

Karen Edwards: ... for being here, for giving back, for being part of the roofing industry, we appreciate you. And if you're not able to be at the show, you can visit S-5!'s, Roofers Coffee Shop directory. And on that directory, you'll find kind of everything in one place, links to educational, links to the website, information on different products. Check that out. We will be broadcasting, even though it's the last day of the show, we're still going to be broadcasting all day long. So subscribe to our YouTube channel and ring that bell so that you get those notifications and you'll know when we go live. We'll see you at the next one. Thanks, Rob. 

Rob Haddock: You bet. God bless you. God bless you all. Bye for now. 

Learn more about S-5! in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.S-5.com.