S2:E10 Coffee Conversations - Gen Z Takeover - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Xavier Carmona of Golden Group Roofing, Katya Khalimon of LTD Exteriors and Lexie Sutton of Cotney Consulting Group. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast here.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Good morning, welcome to Coffee Conversations. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and I'm a partner with RoofersCoffeeShop, and this is our Coffee Conversations. But today is really special, it's different. In fact, I'm not going to be here very long because Generation Z is taking over this morning. We have the brightest, young people in the roofing industry with us today to talk about Gen Z, recruitment, retainment, what matters and what they're doing with their careers in roofing. 
I can't tell you how excited I am. I have take zero credit for this great idea because this great idea came from Megan Ellsworth. Megan Ellsworth, who is the podcast and multimedia producer for RoofersCoffeeShop, and I have to say my daughter, and I'm very proud of, is actually taking over today. I am going to go back and I'm going to take the Megan role today, and Megan is going to be your host for today's Coffee Conversations. Thank you, Megan, for being here today and doing this. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes. Thank you, Heidi, for allowing this to happen. I think we have a great show ahead of us. We have wonderful young people throughout the industry here with us today, and I'm super excited, so thank you. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Great. Okay. I'm turning it over to all of you, Megan. I'm going to introduce this great group of roofing professionals and just remember everyone out there, this is a Q&A, question and answer, so please we'll be bringing you on, you can ask questions, find out everything you ever wanted to know about Gen Z, so here we go, have a great show. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh boy. Okay. Well, good morning everyone. Thank you guys for joining me. I'm so thankful and excited for this show. Today we have with us Lexie Sutton with Cotney Consulting Law Group. Then, Katya Khalimon with LTD Exteriors, and Xavier Carmona with Golden Group Roofing. I'm so excited to have you all, so thank you. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, [crosstalk 00:02:33].

Megan Ellsworth:
Well let's just start out with everybody, introduce yourselves, and why don't you tell us how you got into the roofing industry and let's start with Lexie.

Lexie Sutton:
Okay. My name is Lexie Sutton. I graduated from the University of Tennessee in may. I currently work for Cotney Consulting Group in sales operations. I got into roofing because my dad owns Rackley Roofing, so I've been around roofing my entire life.

Megan Ellsworth:
Sweet, thank you. Katya. 

Katya Khalimon:
Hi, my name is Katya Khalimon. I am graduating in may in a bachelor's in accounting. I actually have had no previous experience in the roofing industry, I have been in it for like a year and a half now. My roommates actually started working for the company I'm working for now, they were actually roofers. They don't work here any longer, but I stayed and I just took over just a lot of the office tasks and steps on the project coordinator [inaudible 00:03:41].

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. Fabulous. Xavier. 

Xavier Carmona:
I'm Xavier, I graduated from Assumption College in Worcester in 2019, and it all started with a summer job. Just a summer job with my best friend and his dad was doing roofing. We were just cleaning up, picking up the shingles, making sure that they were making its way over to the dumpster and, not going to lie, I took a liking to it. I mean, I like the whole construction fEel, the whole roofing feel, how you could be in and out in one day. And so, when my best friend's brother, he had a company as well, a little bit more corporate, so when I graduated college, the opportunity opened up to be a sales consultant there, so I took it right away and haven't looked back and spend about almost two years now, and I mean, it's been great. 

Megan Ellsworth:
That's great. You work for Golden Group Roofing, and Greta is the one of the owners of that, and she speaks so highly of you. When I reached out to her asking for a Generation Z employee, she was like, "Oh, I have the guy for you. This is great." It was so awesome. I was panicking because I was like, "I don't... Who do I... I need to get people." I'm so glad you're here. Let's just go backwards in the circle here and start back with Xavier, what do or did you look for at an employment job? What do you look for when you were looking for employment? 

Xavier Carmona:
To be honest with you, it's a little cliche, but people say they don't want to do the nine to five stuff, but I don't know. When I was looking for employment, I was looking for something maybe like a little out of the ordinary. I had done sales before, when I was in high school. I had worked for Vector Marketing in Cutco. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, they sell knives door to door. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh, cool.

Xavier Carmona:
I had done that for a little bit. I was looking something in the same realm and roofing came up and when I was asked to do roofing, I was like, "Well, I don't know. I'm out, I can't labor. I mean, these hands aren't [inaudible 00:05:59]." I was like, "No, there's a different side of roofing. There's a sales and marketing aspect to it." When they started talking to me a little bit about the sales and marketing and actually going out, meeting people, I liked that. 
Also I was an athlete throughout my whole life in college. I played four years of soccer, so that competitive aspect also came into play where it was like, "Okay, here are people who are getting four to five bids, you're one of those bids and you got to stand out, you have to make them feel comfortable with you and ultimately you have to get the win." I mean, that's a couple of things that made me like the position I'm in right now. 

Megan Ellsworth:
That's awesome. Katya, what do you look for in an employer?

Katya Khalimon:
I think my top thing to look for is, an employer that's also interested in me and what I have to bring, not just to the company, but what they can help me with throughout my life. I've had all of my employers, they've invested their time into me and what they can do to teach me more and how they can help me with life progression, and I think that's very important to look for somebody that doesn't just look at you as somebody that can make them money. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes, I love that. I also look for that. Lexie, how about you? 

Lexie Sutton:
I was going to say that when I was actually looking for a job, like I said, I graduated in may, so I was looking for a job in the middle of a pandemic. I think the most important thing for me was just job security because it became like very important for a company to be able to run, even if it was all from home, and so that was the most important thing to me. I guess that's going to be something that I look for from this point forward, if I was to look for jobs again, because we never really expected to be in this predicament that we're in now where you can't always work from the office, so a company needs to be able to function in like situations like we've been in.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. I'm also in the music industry and I know that you've done that in the past and you're now looking at Advent music things, we've talked about that, so with the pandemic, all that shut down, so I turned to roofing like full time and I'm sure that's what you've done too, so it's nice to be in a industry that the pandemic has affected, but maybe not as greatly as the music industry.

Lexie Sutton:
Right.

Megan Ellsworth:
What is your favorite thing about the company you guys work for right now? And anyone can just start, we don't have to go in this circle.

Lexie Sutton:
I think the thing is that every time we get somebody new, our employees just adapt and they just bring them in like it's part of the family. We always find a way to get along and figure out every punch that's thrown at us. I love that.

Megan Ellsworth:
Oh, I love that, yeah. 

Xavier Carmona:
[crosstalk 00:09:16] that's the education that the company provides. Whether it's implementing a new CRM or just discovering this new shingle, talking about it or talking about new ways of ventilating the home, for example, I know JF brought out like a new pro intake [inaudible 00:09:33], so little things like that. We are always trying to be like the, I would say at the brink of technology, I guess in roofing, so whenever something new comes into the market, we're always trying to jump on that to see if... and just implement it and learn, so I liked that.

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, I was going to say something along the lines of what Xavier said, just the whole technology thing. Then also the fact that I like see constant growth in the company, I see growth in myself with the company, but the company itself is constantly growing and evolving and that's really cool to be a part of. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. What is your guys' experience been so far in the roofing industry as a whole, maybe not necessarily at your specific company, but I know I met Katya [inaudible 00:10:19] this last year, and I know Lexie, you just started in a pandemic. What have any of your experiences been in the industry? Are you loving it? Are you like, "There's some things we need to change." What's your thoughts? 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah. It's been very interesting. I was very surprised when I first started my job just to see how this industry works and how it functions, and honestly, I know we had talked about this the other day and I think it's in the questions, but just like how far behind, in evolving that this industry is, it's really strange. Like how many people are just still, everything's on paper. There's no like software or anything, it's very interesting to see how people run their businesses in this industry, I think it's unlike any other.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. There can be a big gap, either very technology forward or maybe not so much. Sure. 

Xavier Carmona:
Building off of that, I can see the field aspect, when I'm out in the field, and we do try to implement more like iPads, more PowerPoints, more electronic services to our clients. When I'm going up against bids of a guy that has five bullet points, and he's just saying like, "Oh, you're going to get a new roof." It's like, "Wow." Sometimes you still lose people to these guys. 

Xavier Carmona:
Some people still go guys that are writing the five bullet points and I'm like, "Well, why would you do that?" I mean, he's not even recommending what your home needs, he's just telling you, I'm going to... In some cases, not even strip the roof, in some cases, I'm going to put a roof on top of a roof, and I'm like, "It's not the proper way, that voids the warranty." I try to explain to some people these things, but like Lexie said, some people are stuck in their ways, I guess. Even clients are stuck in their ways sometimes. 

Katya Khalimon:
For sure, yeah. I bet with the sales process during the pandemic, things have obviously changed and probably some, maybe older homeowners don't want to do a sales bid over zoom or whatever, they... Oh, I see a little cat tail. I'm so sorry. I just got so distracted. But yeah, they don't want to do it, resume they want to come in person and maybe your company is uncomfortable with that, so that's really interesting that you say that. 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah. I also think my biggest takeaway at the moment is, I was so surprised how many jobs are within the industry. I never thought that I could bring something to roofing. My school, and even when I started college, I never would have imagined that I would be working for a roofing company, and I think a lot of younger people should know that there's so much opportunity in this industry because I definitely didn't.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, and there's so much room for creativity as well. As an artist myself, growing up in the roofing industry, I always said, "Oh, I'm never going to work in the roofing industry, I'm an artist." Now being able to realize that, like there's so much room for creativity in this industry and it's wonderful. Yeah, that's awesome. We have some questions here from Megan McFadden, any tips or organizations to become involved with for recruiting sales reps for the roofing industry. Xavier, can you speak to that maybe? 

Xavier Carmona:
I mean, the way I got involved was, again, my best friend. His dad and his brother both had roofing companies, so my path was a little more predetermined, I guess, but I would say, "Why not? Why not go to colleges and the career fairs that they have there, why not? Why not set up a tent and just have one or two guys that work and work, that are smart, witty, and try to attract people because I've never seen any like roofing a career for as ever, so I had to reach out that way, honestly. Even high school career fairs, maybe there's a kid that doesn't know he can be involved in a trade as such as roofing, and you can get them there and mold them into a sales guy or sales woman. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, or a sales person. We have non-binary folks in the roofing industry, maybe, who's to say? Probably not, I don't know. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I love that, that's so true. People should really be doing that, because I remember in my high school, there were so many people that didn't want to go to college and wanted to just go into a trade, for sure. Let's see here. This is a fun question. Do you guys think that seeing a younger sales person on the job, homeowners tend to go with someone who is older or with the younger person?

Lexie Sutton:
Wait, repeat the question. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Do you guys think that a homeowner seeing a younger sales person on the job, would they tend to go with someone who is older or that younger person? 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say that you might get 5% of people that because of your age, they might say something like, "Oh, you look a little young to be a roofer, or how long you've been roofing for?" In my case, I had a guy that one day I went up against a competitor and he told the client, "Does this guy even look like he can carry a bundle of shingles?" I've seen it all and, yes, [inaudible 00:16:09]. You can get discriminated against when you're [inaudible 00:16:10].
I think if you bring education to the forefront and you really show them that, you know what you're talking about, I think you'll be fine. If there are some people that don't want to go with you because your age and that's fine, they weren't your client. But I think if you lead with education at the forefront and you know what you're talking about and your confidence they can sense that confidence, I think you'll be fine. I think age really, I mean, for me, it hasn't been too much of an issue. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Great. Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I'll work on that. 

Lexie Sutton:
God, listen, the age, the connection you build with the client, just how you speak with them, and if they can tell, you know what you're talking about. I think age doesn't really matter at the end of the day, yeah, like Xavier said, there might be some people who discriminate just because you look younger, they might think you don't know what you're talking about. If you build that connection with them, that's going to go [inaudible 00:17:16].

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. We have a really fun question from Wendy Marvin here, if you could wave the magic wand of change, I love that, what are the first changes you'd recommend to your company owners? 

Lexie Sutton:
Okay. I would like to force... Well, not just my company owners, I think this would be a collective effort, force us to have time that we spend together outside of work. We are so busy, especially since COVID hit, we've been busy with just like scheduling people out to space it all out, so we've been working almost seven days a week since COVID started. We haven't had time to just get together and relax and not talk about work and just have a connection, so I think that would be a nice thing to incorporate. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I love that. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, that does sound nice. Since I started my job during the pandemic, I haven't even been able to meet any of the people that I work with besides John Kenny. He came to visit Nashville, so I haven't met my manager or my coworkers or anything, so that would be really, really nice. It's so funny that that's such a stretch now, is, I wish I could meet my coworkers. It's so strange that this is a thing, but that is a good point. Just being able to get together and like make a connection with people, because I think that that is like probably one of the most important things about company culture, is just being able to like form relationships with your coworkers. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Here's a question, going off of that. I was talking to Breakthrough Academy the other day, and they just held an online trade show basically where they use this platform where you're like a little bubble on the screen and your little bubble gets to chat with other people, and so, you can see the bubbles bouncing around on the screen. Then, when you join a bubble group, you enter a Zoom... how this is, with your little box and you can see everybody. If your company were to do like a Zoom cocktail hour or something like that, would you attend, would it feel a little like, it's not the same? What's your thoughts on that? 

Katya Khalimon:
I think that'd be super cool, I think, especially in these times you have to adapt to whatever people create, things like this. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I also love. Everyone that attended the trade show like a couple of days before they sent out cocktail mixes to everyone, and I loved that idea. I thought that was so fun. Great, I love it. We do have a comment from Michelle Boykin here from Rackley Roofing. I love, love, love that Katya has National Women in Roofing postcards and Roofing Respect in the background. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I know, Lexie and I are some newer members to National Women in Roofing, I love it. My mum started it, so I feel like I'm kind of obliged to [inaudible 00:20:51]. Let's see, we have some really good... Oh my gosh, Wendy, hey?

Wendy:
[crosstalk 00:21:03], and here I am.

Megan Ellsworth:
Do you have a question? Do you want to join the convo? 

Wendy:
I think you guys are jumping all around and covering everything, I love it. I was wondering, I see the deficits and I feel much like being a woman owner. A lot of times youth makes people just make perceptions about you that may or may not be true that you're having to overcome, and what they were... I think it was Katya that said, just talking about ways that you have to talk people through it and get people to trust you and things like that. It's like, I too have been asked, "Oh, have you ever been on a roof before?" And I'm thinking, "I'm an owner. Yes, I have, but again, what does that have to do with the fact that I'm here giving you a bid kind of thing, so there's a lot of things we have to overcome, and I like that perception.
I guess the first question I have is, what are some of the ways that you guys feel like you use, and it's probably going to be more about the trade out in the field. What are some of the ways you use to bridge that gap? Especially older folks. I mean, we've still got folks that want us to mail bids to them, so we've got that, and then we've got the gamut of why don't you have a chat feature in your whatever, and it's like, we're trying as owners to try to get the whole breadth of customers, and I feel like it's the same concept with employees that there's a lot of bridging that has to be done. Tell me about what you guys think about how you would bridge those things with customers and with other employees? Because you could come up against an employee that doesn't want you there too. 

Lexie Sutton:
Again, it's important to remember some people are stuck in their ways and they're so comfortable in how they do things, so you have to be patient with all types of people. If you're incorporating something new, some people might catch onto it a lot quicker than others, or it might be a lot more open to doing things a different way and a lot more open to change. Some people they're very anxious with change, so I think it's important to take more time with those people and to ask them questions, ask them how they're feeling about certain changes, just so that everybody can adapt positively. 

Xavier Carmona:
Going to a client, I do both. I not only bring out the paper and pen and we have an estimate sheet, so I do the whole paper and pen thing, go through with them on paper, show them the spec sheets of depending what manufacturer we're using, and I leave it to them behind in the folder. Very old fashion folder, here's all the information, everything in paper. Then I also do the second, which is I have everything ready in a PDF, so I'll have the whole estimate ready and a PDF file. I'll have links, I'll have pictures to any website that they want to visit and maybe read upon it more. So I do both, so that way they can pick. Do they want the folder and the paper, or do they want the PDF and the website? Maybe they're on their computer all day and they just want to click in a couple minutes here and there, I have that option as well, so just... That's how I do it. I just give them the option to have both there so they can make their decision. 

Wendy:
Yeah, I love that.

Megan Ellsworth:
Thank you, Wendy. 

Wendy:
Yeah. Let me throw one more question out at you guys. What would you see in a job description that would entice you to be able to be interested in applying to a company? Because I'm actively looking. Not you guys, but we're looking to expand and I'm really interested in bringing in a newer perspective and things, because we're pioneering the industry in general being a female owner, and I think that, like you said, the secrets to keeping a business alive these days is we've got to embrace some technology, we've got to be able to pivot, like I think Katya was saying too, and Lexie mentioned it, just talking about those things, what would make you excited to apply for a company? 

Katya Khalimon:
Probably something that is going to allow me to be creative, like Xavier touched on earlier. It's like, we want to a job that we're able to embrace our creativity. A lot of young people don't realize that there is positions in the roofing industry that they can use their creativity. Some people really think that it's just like labor and like office work or something, but yeah, just something like that. Then also, like I said earlier, job security, something that we're going to be able to do whether or not there's a pandemic or not. 

Lexie Sutton:
I think it's important not to have such a cookie cutter post job listing out. I would think about right now, I'm looking to bring on more people, I've been onboarding for a while now, and every person that's joined recently, they said they loved that. I mentioned that we want new people that have no experience and we're willing to train them and to show them how we do things [inaudible 00:26:23] that made them feel very comfortable with just giving us a chance even. A lot of people feel like they aren't fit for this type of industry, but if you put it in there that we don't care that you have had no experience, we want people that are new and just excited about [inaudible 00:26:40], and I think that's huge. 

Xavier Carmona:
In terms of, from the sales perspective, obviously most people will push the commission. Commission, commission, commission, because that's important. Money is definitely a big factor, but try not to make that the main reach out point, the commission, try to make it more like you have a high a fun, a competitive, an environment where you're going to learn certain sales skills, how to get to the point. Pretty much you're going to get them from point A to point B, how you're going to help them get there, and what you think is your goals for them. What commission goals is? What the education goals is? And just say and tell them it's going to be a fun, high, competitive environment, and you'll attract the talent that you're looking for. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I would also say flexibility. That's one thing I really love, like love, love. About working for RoofersCoffeeShop, not only because my mom is my boss, but because the whole team we have, well, everyone is so flexible and we're also willing to cross train, and if I have something, a music opportunity that I have to go do, I can rely on my coworker to help me finish an ROW or a Coffee Conversations or something, because we're all just really flexible with our tasks.
Then also, I think putting in there that, I don't know how you would word this, but putting in like, you put people first, and again, I don't really know how to word that, but because RoofersCoffeeShop definitely does that, and something that I love that Heidi does is she always says, "If you're doing something that you were totally bored by come talk to me, we can get you on something else, we can find what lights you up, what sparks you." And during our Monday morning meetings every week, it's almost always, so how's everybody doing? What can we do different? What do you want to do? Oh, you like social media posts? Oh, let's have you working with Laurel, or you are totally bored by putting stuff into the backend, well, let's figure out something that really lights you up. 

Megan Ellsworth:
And so, I think flexibility is like the key, especially for this age of young people. We're, I feel like used to being really flexible and spreading our skills far and wide, maybe, so yeah, I think that might help you too.

Wendy:
I think you guys have a lot of skills to spread too, which is awesome. I will have Megan share my email with all you guys and I'd love to stay in touch. Thanks for what you're doing. This is great.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Thanks Wendy. 

Wendy:
See you guys later.

Megan Ellsworth:
We love Matrix Roofing here at the RoofersCoffeeShop. We have some really fabulous questions coming in. This is probably the most amount of questions I've really ever seen on a Coffee Conversations. This is from Michelle Boykin out of Tennessee with Rackley Roofing. Have you seen the importance of networking for your success in the roofing industry? 

Lexie Sutton:
Did you say, how do we see it? 

Megan Ellsworth:
Have you seen any results of the importance of networking in the roofing industry? 

Lexie Sutton:
Yes.

Xavier Carmona:
Yeah.

Lexie Sutton:
Oh yeah. I see some head nods.

Xavier Carmona:
Definitely. I mean, number one, real estate agents. I've had good connections with real estate agents, friends from high school or from college that they became real estate agents. I kept in contact with them. Definitely a great networking source right there. I mean, now in today's market, you really can't sell a house if it has an old roof or an old siding, so every time they need a new roof, they just called me out for either an inspection or either a quote, so I would say real estate agents, number one. 
Then, just other people in other trades. If they ever come up, they're doing a job and they see that they need a roof done, who are they going to call, they're going to call a guy they know is a roofer, so hopefully that's me.

Megan Ellsworth:
I love it. 

Katya Khalimon:
I think, networking for myself in general is super important. I met Megan at the IRE in Dallas last year and she changed my entire view on the roofing industry and made me so much more excited about it. I didn't know that I could meet people that were my age and I could connect with. At this point I was friends with my roofing crews, I was eating lunch with them. This was my roofing life, so, Megan was... it changed my entire outlook on it, so I think networking is super important because you're going to meet people that just help you grow and look differently at it.

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I know. I also did not think that there would be any people my age in this industry when I started. But, like I said, I got into this six months ago and I really do hope that I'm able to like go to more networking events because I know how important that is. I love networking, so not being able to go to like trade shows and stuff is just like so frustrating, but that is something that I'm very excited about. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yes. Oh my gosh. I can't wait till trade shows are a thing again, because I've been going to trade shows since I was like this tall and they were so boring back then, but now they're so fun because I have friends, so yeah, hopefully we get to see each other in August at IRE, maybe.

Megan Ellsworth:
We have Megan McFadden is ready to come on. Megan McFadden, if you want to unmute and hit your camera... Oh, there you are. Yay. Okay. 

Megan McFadden:
Hi.

Megan Ellsworth:
Hi.

Megan McFadden:
Thanks so much for having me and letting me join this. When I saw this come through through National Women in Roofing, I was really excited to join and hear from some other people in the industry. I'd asked the question earlier, just regarding sales rep, so Xavier, thank you. There's a lot in a very short amount of time that I am looking to do. We typically have a sales training school and my wealth has just been really dry. We have a ton of other opportunities that are open with our office.
Megan, to your point in the creative fields, which seems a very easy draw in, and I'm getting a lot of candidate feedback since the pandemic of, well, it moves to commission only, and I'm really looking for something more stable and I'm trying to have that conversation of, we are very lucky to be in this industry during this time that, a lot of us were deemed as essential and in the states that we work in and not that anything is ever a recession or anything proof, which this last year has shown us, but that there is staying power and growing power in this industry. 
I had another question just to pick everyone's brain here. Something that we're also working on to bring in more talent into our company is, we have a pretty robust internal referral program where if you were to be an employee, you refer your friends, your sister, your son, or daughter. There's a pretty good monetary value attached to that, depending on how many days that the person stays on.
I'm wondering if any of you have used or utilized any sort of external referral programs specifically looking at maybe vendors that if you have an open position, you can blast it out to some of your vendors, even customers that as you're building that relationship with the customer, putting in there that we can offer you X, trying to come up with what that sweet spot would be for someone to say, "Wow, yeah, I like your company, and I know that my son would be very interested in joining." Has anybody tried that? Has it worked? Has it failed? Is that just a total terrible idea of just how curious of what the group thing? 

Lexie Sutton:
We've had a lot of our employees join just by somebody knowing them and us just talking to them or our other employees just being like, "Hey, I think you should come join and see what they have to offer." Or even some of our clients will be on a week long project at their house, so we get really close with them, especially for doing stuff inside as well. And then they see that we're a nice crew, we have a nice atmosphere, and they asked, "Are y'all looking for other people?" I have my friend's son, that's definitely worked for sure. 

Megan McFadden:
And do you put any bonus program associated with that or is it just more word of mouth? They see what you're doing, they realize that you're reputable and it, your name works for you instead of having to say, "Hey, if you refer somebody, we'll give you $500." 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, we actually haven't thought about doing any type of bonus program. That is a good idea, though. It is more of a just, "Hey, that's a nice guy. He brings a nice people, gives him more value to us." 

Katya Khalimon:
I would definitely be interested in a program like that though. Who doesn't love money? 

Lexie Sutton:
Right. That's what we're hoping for. It's just figuring out, well, what is that, that draws you in to say, "Oh, I have a little skin in the game here, if I refer somebody, I mean, it works very well for internally and everybody, every time that there's a new job opening, myself as the talent acquisition specialist, sending out that job description, the link to the posting on our website, as well as our little referral bonus sheets of what you need to do to get that moving. 
But again, just our biggest pain point right now, we just opened up a new office, a terrible timing at the beginning of March of last year that we're now, we've got a leader for that branch and we're looking to expand in that territory from a sales perspective, and it's just been a challenge, and even more so than I first started in the industry in August, so some things had waned from the pandemic and we hired two new sales reps within my first month. And now I don't know what it is, we're trying to get creative, we're putting content out, we're making videos about this is what we're hiring for, this is coming straight from the hiring manager and the opportunities with training with commission and where some people have gone, and it's just like my well is dry, and as a recruiter, everybody knows how frustrating that feels when you're like, "I have four of these roles and nothing to show for it." 

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. I mean, I know there's so many young people right now looking for jobs, especially straight out of college, so, and I myself have so many friends that honestly ask me all the time, "Is RoofersCoffeeShop hiring? Do you know anybody? I need a job." I think, I really like owning that referral bonus program because young people A) Need money. B) They have friends that are looking for jobs. C) The roofing industry is just awesome, and especially the friend, if I were to refer a friend, all my friends know that the roofing industry is awesome because I talk about it so often. I think that's a great idea and I think you should keep it up and it might not be yielding a lot of results right now, but I think it will.

Megan McFadden:
Well, if you have any friends in Chicago land, you can send them my way.

Megan Ellsworth:
Okay, I will. 

Megan McFadden:
It's a good day to be on a roof today, a little cold right now, usually it's great. Thank you guys for having me on, I appreciate it. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Thank you for joining. Love it. Wow, we're almost, we got about 20 minutes left in our little program here. We have a great question from Greta Bajrami of Golden Group Roofing, this is for all of you, would you recommend roofing as a career to your best friend graduating college? 

Lexie Sutton:
There's so much to do in the roofing industry. You could find your place and it can be the best fit for you, so I would definitely recommend trying it because you don't know, it might be... I graduate in may and I haven't started to look for finance jobs yet. I don't know if I'm going to go into finance because I'm very comfortable where I'm at and I love it. So, yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. 

Katya Khalimon:
I actually refer people all the time, but a lot of times I referred a ton of my friends to my dad. Anytime anybody talks about a job, I'm always like, "Well, my dad is probably hiring, so if you want job, then go work for him." Just because I know that his company is great. It's like, I do know that there is really, really, really great opportunities in the roofing industry. Just because somebody goes to college doesn't mean that they can't still find something in the roofing industry that is for them, for sure.

Xavier Carmona:
Yeah, I would too. Honestly, if somebody is graduating college and then, I think there is someone talented that they have potential. I think if they apply that to roofing, I think they could be very, very successful. 

Megan Ellsworth:
I agree. Yeah, for sure. We actually are hiring a high school friend of mine that I referred to the RoofersCoffeeShop, so everybody's going to be in roofing. 

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, [crosstalk 00:41:35].

Megan Ellsworth:
We have another great question here from Sarah Mueller. Do you think that roofing companies can benefit from using social media like Twitter and LinkedIn? 

Lexie Sutton:
Yes. 100%.

Megan Ellsworth:
[crosstalk 00:41:53] louder for the people on the back.

Lexie Sutton:
Yeah, 100%. I don't know why more roofing companies don't... People my age look for jobs on LinkedIn, so it's like, of course you should have a LinkedIn, you should have all social media platforms that you possibly can. If you can have somebody that's running a bunch of social media platforms for you, like then absolutely make a TikTok, and film people putting on roofs. You will a 100% not... that can only benefit you. [crosstalk 00:42:29]. 

Megan Ellsworth:
It shows that you're in the new and that you're keeping up with trends and that's super important to young people. They don't want to be bored, they want to be around people that are like them and that want to learn new things. If you can show them, oh, they literally on every social media platform that I can possibly search someone. It shows that it's a...

Xavier Carmona:
Just to add to that, I like the TikTok idea. I think that's great, honestly, especially if we're going to take people doing the work and stuff, I think that's awesome. I do think LinkedIn is vital though, because I do think if you are trying to attract top, top talent, I do think people will go on LinkedIn to see if the company has like a professional presence. But I feel like LinkedIn, when you go on LinkedIn and you look at the company and you see that they're posting and they have a good following and a good base and you go to their website and everything correlates together, you buy into it more. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. I love the TikTok idea. That might be something on the precipice for RoofersCoffeeShop.

Katya Khalimon:
I have been telling people that they should do this. I'm pretty sure my dad, he's going to end up doing something like that, but yeah. When I'm making calls, before I even call on a company, I looked him up on LinkedIn and the amount of companies that don't have a LinkedIn is actually like very shocking, and it's... I don't know. I just don't think that as many people know in this industry, how important that is and how like that can actually benefit you so much long-term. I think that probably is one of the main ways that you could recruit young talent.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. Yeah, and if your dad does make a TikTok, I wrote a jingle for Rackley Roofing, so he could use that jingle. 
Just plugging there. We have a great comment here. Ooh, I love this comment. This is from Lorna Rojas. I think it is important to identify learning styles, to make sure we use the right approach in any area of the industry. And so, I think that's referring to onboarding, bringing someone on. Do you guys know your learning styles? Because I know in my middle school, in high school it was super like, this is your learning style and this is how you learn best, so this is what you should do to get good grades or whatever. Do you guys, have you seen that in your companies now, or when you were looking for companies to work for? 

Katya Khalimon:
Yes. When I was looking for job, [inaudible 00:45:31] actually, they made it very enticing and made it sound very appealing when they were telling me how I would be onboarding and stuff, and how I would learn. Also that's really nice that your schools did that because schools here did not do that. But yeah, I think that's super important. That's something that would definitely draw someone to a job, is just knowing that that company is going to like tailor it to them, and I think that the roofing industry I think Katya said something earlier about how a lot of companies don't want you to come in with this idea that you already know what you're doing. It's like, we want to train you to do what we need you to do, and I think that is like super important. 

Xavier Carmona:
I think for my company the learning process is pretty cool because I'm a more hands-on. I have to like touch things and see things. Not only does my company, they don't only get you in an office and show you videos and PowerPoints and you're reading word docs, but you also get two weeks where you're out in the field and you're actually just with the project manager at a job site, and you're just seeing the whole roofing process from the time that the roofer show up to the time where you're closing off the job and the client is happy and giving you the final paycheck. You get two weeks of seeing that whole process, and I think that was very vital because you see how all the components work together, you see how they install and you get to see maybe three or four different houses be done in that time, so you get a whole range of things, so I thought that was very helpful. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Cool. Yeah, love it. We have a question just for Lexie here. How did you network during the pandemic to find your job with Cotney Consulting Group?

Lexie Sutton:
Well, when I was looking for jobs, like I said, I actually looked on LinkedIn for jobs and I got my job with Cotney because my dad posted me on LinkedIn and Facebook and said that I was looking for jobs, so I had people calling me, offering me jobs everywhere, just from my dad's posts, which I should tell you in itself, the fact that my dad posted me and then I had all these calls from people offering me jobs that shows you how important LinkedIn or Facebook is, not just for people that are finding jobs, but just for people finding work or anything period. So yeah, I networking during the pandemic, the only thing that I've been able to do is use LinkedIn. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah. Okay, cool. Yes, and we have a comment here. It says, remember it doesn't just have to be a family member or a friend, it could be any of us in the industry who are excited to help. For any young people that are watching I don't know if there are, but I hope there are. And yeah, lean on the people in the industry that are a mentor to you or whatever, and everyone's here to help, which is great. Just something I love about the industry. Going off of that, who are some mentors to you all in the industry that have helped you come to where you are today? What's one thing that they did that really left a mark on you? 

Katya Khalimon:
I would say that, I mean, my mentors in the industry, like I said, I mean, my dad has been working in this industry for like ever, so anytime that I need anything, I guess I call him or Michelle Boykin, she's a woman in the industry who also never expected herself to be in the industry, so I've had to call on her a few times for things. Your mom, your mom was like a super Heidi when I was looking for jobs was so helpful and made me feel so good about looking for jobs in the industry. And then also she was probably a good percentage of why I took the job that I did and the job that I'm doing now, because she just completely assured me that I was making the right decision. She was like, "Yes, this is great. The roofing industry is the most beautiful place." And I don't know, those people though have been my saving grace.

Lexie Sutton:
Yes. Heidi is a great mentor. She definitely made me super excited about the industry and made me feel like I should be here and I need to be a part of it, and that there's a reason for me to be a part of it. Also I think my boss was a huge mentor for me because I was super anxious about joining. I knew nothing and they built my position for me. We built up the office when I started, so it was all new to everybody, and I love that. My boss just took me by a side I was right-side man, and I just did everything. I think getting out of the office too, because I was in the office for months, I didn't see the roofing aspect of it during COVID. He took me out there and he showed me in person how everything works and my understanding of it just blew up. I definitely understood it a lot better, so that was huge.

Xavier Carmona:
I would say my mentor was my friend and my boss, his name is Freddy. Man, that guy. When I first started off in the field, I was launched into the field, then there'll be scenarios where a client would ask me certain things about the roof a little bit more complex or complicated, and I would say, "Oh yeah, just give me one sec." And I would go and FaceTime Freddy real quick, and he would always pick up, then I'd ask him a question and I would go back and be like, "Oh, so actually this is the answer, I just talked to my [inaudible 00:51:27]... He was always there for me, whether it was FaceTime calling, whether it was I'm sitting at the kitchen table and they ask a question and I'm like, "Let's call Freddy right now and ask him what he has to say."
Then just calling him on the first ring he picks up and I'm like, "Do you see that? That's the owner, right? That he's picking up on the first ring, but he was there the whole step of the way for my first couple of months there, and he's the owner, he has a lot of things going on. He has a company to run and to still take that time to just make sure that I was doing good and learn what I had to learn. I got to thank him for that a lot. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah. I think it's very important for me to feel like my boss is the first person I want to call when something goes wrong, and I feel so comfortable calling him and asking him, because I know he's always going to be there and he's always going to figure out a way to make [inaudible 00:52:21].

Xavier Carmona:
And he goes in a good mood, so that helps too. 

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, that always helps. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yes. I love that. We have a really awesome question here and we have some comments. Especially, I love all these comments regarding TikTok. Some people are already using TikTok, which is fabulous. Lucy Quigley looks like they're running a contest on TikTok and Instagram for their company. Then Richard Tooley said, "Remember to keep it professional and positive on TikTok and other platforms because roofing tends to have a bias that a lot of roofers are scammers, so he just wanted to say that it's good to keep it professional and positive, and I would agree with that. 
We have a article running right now about Alberta and how there are a lot of homeowners getting taken advantage of by people who are pretending to be roofing companies and that's just not cool. I love this question from Daniella. Do you think that the way Generation Z is described (in general) by marketing experts is accurate? 

Katya Khalimon:
I don't even know how we're described, how are we described? 

Megan Ellsworth:
Well, what I've heard is that, I hear a lot of two different sides of the spectrum. I hear that, we're lazy go figure. And then I also hear that Generation Z is like the most educated, the most technologically advanced generation, and I think both of those are very true. I feel like every generation at one point or another has been called lazy or whatnot, so who's not a little lazy here and there. What are your just thoughts, general thoughts on our generation in coming into the workforce that you're saying.

Katya Khalimon:
I think we have no attention span because we've grown up, with the internet at our disposal and we've been able to see and do whatever we want. We've had like resources that no generation before us had, so I do think that as far as like not having an attention span goes and everything like jobs, we want something that's exciting and that we're going to be able to get excited about and not get bored up quickly because I think that is a big problem with people my age is that we're super bored super quick, so a lot of young adults will start a job and then immediately get bored and quit. I think that that's super important. It's just to try to keep it exciting.

Lexie Sutton:
For sure, yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Any other thoughts? All right. 

Megan Ellsworth:
This is a question from Curtis Sutton. How do you determine a good roofing company from a great roofing company? 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say the employee. [inaudible 00:55:53].

Katya Khalimon:
No, I was just gonna say culture. 

Xavier Carmona:
I would say, so when a client is able to say that the workers said that the boss treats them right or that they talk good about the boss, because there's always this perception that when the boss isn't looking, the employees are out talking about the boss and just chatting and bickering and stuff, but when I've had multiple clients telling me that they've talked to the employees that are doing that labor and that they only have good things to say about the boss and when that's the case, something's being done right. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Awesome. Yeah, I think that's so true.

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah, I think that goes along with company culture, because if a company has good culture, then usually the employees will have a better relationship with the boss and the employees will have a better relationship with each other. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, totally. We have time for about one more short, quick question. Let's see here. Oh my gosh, there's so many. Wow. This is wild.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I am coming back in because we only have a few minutes and I am busting out over here in the... I am so proud of all of you. This has been, I mean, the most questions, the most comments, I just can't even tell all four of you. I'm sending you all these comments and everything that has come across, do you have all, given... if there's a single person who walks away from this Coffee Conversations and isn't just besting with pride at our next generation, then they've totally missed it because you all are just tremendous, and the people who you work for are so lucky, so lucky to have you on their team to be team members, and it's just been great. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
I have to tell you the comments that have been coming through the folks who have watched today really want to know, how do we get more of you, right? More of your general remediation, more of your amazing talents into the roofing industry, and I just have to give one comment, is that, I think you really hit on it at a number of times in here, but you four have all become friends after today, right? You met earlier, you met the IRE, now you've met on this show. Now you're going to talk to each other. You're going to find each other at the trade shows, and how awesome is that to be able to provide this networking and these types of friendships while you're making a living? Would you agree with that, all of you? 

Xavier Carmona:
Yes.

Lexie Sutton:
Yes.

Katya Khalimon:
Yeah.

Megan Ellsworth:
For sure. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, so we're coming to the end of our hour, so I had to take over again, take it back from this Gen Z for just a second, but I'm hoping you all come back because I have to tell you we need to have you come back and talk some more. The questions that are out there, what people are asking you are providing a lot of good information. And so, we will also have this on RoofersCoffeeShop, of course, where everybody can watch it again. They can get in touch through LinkedIn, which made me so happy. I didn't hear Facebook once, I heard LinkedIn a lot from all of you. Very nice. Thank you so much for being here today and thank you to the companies you work for. I'm friends with all of them too, and they are all busting with pride here too today to have you on, so make any last words. 

Megan Ellsworth:
Yeah, I would just say that for the companies out there that are looking for the next generation to come work for you, just be flexible, be creative about your job postings, be on social media. Maybe Facebook's out the window, is what I'm thinking, but it's for the older people. Yeah, and just trust in this next generation, don't just make assumptions based on age or race or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation. You need to be open and willing to all people, if you are going to recruit correctly. Yeah, thank you everyone for coming on and listening to our little schpiel, and thank you Lexie, Katya and Xavier for joining me, it's been so much fun and I hope that we all stay connected and become best friends for life.

Lexie Sutton:
Thank you for [crosstalk 01:00:47].

Heidi Ellsworth:
That is perfect. Thank you all for being on the show today, thank you for watching. In two weeks, we are going to have another very well-known person from the roofing industry, Duane Musser with Ruth Pack here, talking about roofing day 2021. I hope Lexie, Katya and Xavier, that you all go, because I know we're going to pull Megan in too, that you all go to Roofing Day virtually and talk about the importance of the roofing industry and sharing your voice politically, that is so important. 
That's going to be here two weeks from now, so Duane will be joining us along with some special guests, so stay tuned on that, and please know that you can watch all the Coffee Conversations on RoofersCoffeeShop, on the Coffee Conversations page. That, Megan controls and takes care of, so thank you so much for this day and have a wonderful rest of the week.

Xavier Carmona:
Thank you, bye.