S2:E6 Coffee Conversations Getting to Know the Roofing Technology Think Tank (RT3) - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with Wendy Marvin and Karen Edwards, of The Roofing Technology Think Tank. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast here.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Good morning, and welcome to Coffee Conversations. My name is Heidi Ellsworth, and I'm a partner with RoofersCoffeeShop. We are so proud today to have two of the most brilliant roofing ladies on the show with us today, talking about technology. I want to welcome Karen Edwards, who not only is the executive director of RT3, Roofing Technology Think Tank, but she's also the editor of RoofersCoffeeShop, so she wears many hats. Yay. And it's so fun to finally have her on Coffee Conversations. I am really excited to welcome back Wendy Marvin with Matrix Roofing out of Vancouver, Washington. Wendy is on the board of RT3, and so she has been incredibly active. And not only with ideas and helping to lead RT3, but she's also been very active in incorporating as a roofing contractor.

Heidi Ellsworth:
We are excited today to talk about that, talk about how to bring technology into your roofing business, and also just some of the things, what we see, where we're going. We're really excited to bring a lot of different people on with Q&As, questions on how to bring technology into their business, how to get involved in Roofing Technology Think Tank, and also just to share some of their war stories on technology, especially with COVID. In everything that's going on, we all have our hands full and we need technology more than ever. So this is going to be a great morning.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Before I turn it over and start asking some awesome questions to Karen and Wendy, I want to remind all of you that this is all about you. This is questions and answers. I hope you all have your coffee. If you look on your panel, you can ask questions, and we will bring you on. You can either come on where we can read your question, you come on audio or you come on video. And who makes all that magic happen in the background? Megan Ellsworth. So watch for Megan, our podcast producer, and chat with her in the background through the chat or through the questions, whatever works best for you, and then we'll get you on the show with your questions. Ladies, are you ready?

Wendy Marvin:
Thanks for having us.

Karen Edwards:
Yep.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Awesome. Okay, I know I gave a little bit of an introduction, but Karen, can you start out and just introduce yourself and share your history in the roofing industry and with RT3?

Karen Edwards:
Sure. I'm Karen Edwards, and I am the editor at RoofersCoffeeShop, but I'm also the director at RT3, the Roofing Technology Think Tank. I have worked in the roofing industry specifically for about 20 years, started out in Carlisle with Heidi many years ago, and then moved on to Eagle View and now I have my own business where I help people in the industry with marketing. And I'm the director at RT3, like I said. This organization was started in 2016 by a group of forward thinking industry leaders who recognized the need for the roofing industry to use technology more. The roofing industry is typically behind. Even construction as a whole, it feels like we're always left to the table. This group of professionals said we need to get together, we need to study, we need to learn, and we need to help get that message of technology out into the industry.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, and you and I were there together on that. When we first started, there were some key people in the industry who were just like, "What are we going to do?" Remember that first time in Chicago, and we didn't even know really what we aught to call it, and we thought, "This is a think tank. This is what we need to do. We need to bring all this technology together." And it wasn't too much after that, that Wendy you joined. So tell us a little bit about yourself, your business, how you got involved.

Wendy Marvin:
I founded a roofing company back in 2007, and we were primarily residential. Started just because of bad customer service, and recognized that it was something we wanted to do different. We've grown our industry. We're now doing roofing and home solutions, so now I have interior handyman services in Vancouver. I love our industry. I founded the company, again, just because we needed a vehicle to have a business and do some different things, but what I found in our industry is just this amazing group of professionals, and I'm so honored to just be around you guys sometimes. It's just like, "Oh, yeah, I've been here for 35 years, and I'm doing all these things," and it's like, what other industry can you say that about anymore? It's crazy.

Wendy Marvin:
I jumped on the RT3 Think Tank, was a no brainer. It was a group of industry rockstars. You guys don't give yourself enough credit. It was an opportunity to what I felt like was to speak to our industry to help with advancements, to look at an industry that is predominantly conservative and try to help people move along through some scary things that are changing and growing. Love the group, love the people, love being plugged in. I've learned so many silly little things that I have helped my business with just by being around these people. So it's been a great opportunity.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I have to tell you, I feel the same way. I learn something every single time. I mean, there are so many amazing software companies involved. There are so many different manufacturers, distributors. I mean, it really has brought such thought leaders together from the industry, from all different parts, and with the whole idea of bringing technology back in and finding things outside where maybe we can help bring them into the industry. You know what, I'm going to switch up the questions just a little bit, but talk a little bit about that. I mean, what's some of the things you're seeing with our membership where they're looking outside the industry? One I'm thinking of, Michelle with the translator. How are they bringing those things into the industry and then sharing it through RT3?

Karen Edwards:
Yeah, it's what we do when we do our live in-person meetups. We were not necessarily at a place that is in the roofing industry. We have been. We were at OMG. We had planned to be at Sika, but that fell through this last spring. But when we went to Microsoft, we spent time at their innovation lab. We got to see things that they were working on for Boeing that can do facial mood detections, whether you're angry, whether you're sad, whether you're ... We saw different sensors. And so after we tour, we learn, we get educated on something, we go back and we brainstorm and we say, "How can this apply in roofing? How could we use this in the roofing industry?"

Karen Edwards:
Michelle Boykin, if you're on, hi. I hope you are. They were our Innovator of the Year last year, Rackley Roofing. She is their chief integrator and is always looking for some new technology or something that can make their business better, more efficient, make it easier, safer. They used these translator pods that one person wears one and another wears the other one, they're ... Wendy has them, okay. Awesome. And that's how she found out about them, it was from Michelle. You can set what language it is, and you speak and the other person can understand you because it translates in real time. There is a slight delay. Wendy, have you tried it?

Wendy Marvin:
We love it. So this is the earpiece that you put in your ear, and then this is piece charging, and then you download some software that you put on your phone. The only time I ever have any issues with it is when we're using large groups. It has a hard time with multiple conversations. But it's crazy to have that piece in your ear having a conversation. I have non English speaking employees, and we're always having to have meetings and translate and do these different things, and it's really breaking some barriers for us. It's been great. And Michelle is exactly where I heard about it from.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Take that one step further, because sometimes when we think about technology, we think, "Oh, it has to be big things, robots, the cloud," all these different things. Sometimes it's as simple as seeing something on Amazon that you think, "Hey, that my work to help our business better." Talk a little bit about that, about that incorporation of technology into your business, and how this think tank is able to bring all these ideas together.

Wendy Marvin:
I think the biggest key to me for the think tank is you can see things on Amazon, but there's always that, "Is that really going to work for me?" And what you have on the RT3 group are a group of industry professionals who have done this stuff. And so when Michelle talked about the translators, I was like, "Which one did you use?" And she told me. And when we talk about things like the meetup that we had at Microsoft with Ken Kelly, "Which program did you choose? And why?" I think that those connections are really important. It can be something that's simple. I know during the pandemic, one of the things we added was a online program called SweetProcess. All it is is a online login system to be able to document policies and procedures. We've been doing it by hand. We've been writing them out.

Wendy Marvin:
I've got four people working on them, and we're trying to share documents and make sure we have the most updated content and everything. Now, we have a website, we log in, I can log changes that need to be logged, somebody else can change them. They can comment on the ones that I've made, "Hey, this part of the process doesn't work, maybe that way let's add this." There's so many opportunities out there to streamline, because I think that's the key right now. We need to efficiently run the inside of our business so that the outside of our business can get started. And then there's even technology hitting out there that you think, "Oh, there isn't really much we can do on a roof that they can change." Oh, there's a lot coming.

Wendy Marvin:
The other things we've bought on Amazon have just been, we link our printers, we've got computerization. And that sounds silly for some people, but for some people in our industry, they're still struggling with computers and things. It's just a trusted group of advisors that you can go to to say, "How does this work? What do you think? Would you recommend it doing it a different way?"

Heidi Ellsworth:
One of the things that I love about it is that it is all parts of the industry. I know I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but sometimes when ... Okay, so let's talk real quick, Karen, about 3M. I mean, 3M was just so inspirational to all of us on so many different levels, who would have known? I mean, I guess I shouldn't say it that way, but I really didn't. I just thought, "3M, cool," but I had no idea. Share a little bit about that and the ideas that came from it.

Karen Edwards:
That was amazing. RT3 does two to three, we call them live meetups ... I know the cat's playing in the background, so enjoy a little bit of kitty love this morning.

Wendy Marvin:
Hi [crosstalk 00:12:38].

Karen Edwards:
I can see him. We think big. We said we want to be at Microsoft. We want to be at 3M. How innovative are they? We went into 3M through Maureen Kavanagh, who works in the roofing granule area. We spent the day there. We toured their world of innovations, which was incredible, and we learned about all the different things that they do. It's true that anywhere you are, you're within five feet of a 3M product. I mean, if you're at your desk right now and you have Post-it notes sitting on your desk, there's a 3M product there. But what we were able to do, we heard from a couple of their folks about things that they are working on and what they've done, and then we went into our brainstorming mode.

Karen Edwards:
What was cool about being at 3M is that they are a company that allows their team to spend 15% of their time working on new ideas and new innovations. SO we came up with, oh gosh, a big long list that we gave to Marie and we said, "Here's your 15%." What if 3M could make a film that would deliver skylights that could support the weight of a human body and prevent falls? We just said the sky is the limit. We put all these things out there, and then we've got this list to share with them. Who knows? Maybe something will come out of that.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, from that think tank. I mean, look at the things that 3M has come out, because I think a lot of times when we talk technology, people are thinking software, they're thinking computers, they're thinking phones, whatever it may be. But there are technologies out there right now that are literally saving our world, like the smog resistant or smog eating, however you say it the right way, granules from 3M. That's a new technology that we learned a lot about, plus their safety gear. We ended up with their glasses. Their safety glasses are so cool, and the technology makes them comfortable, so people want to leave them on. Those ended up on every table at National Women in Roofing Day. It's just this group of people and how they come together really does make a difference, and it spreads out further.

Heidi Ellsworth:
We have John Williams, thank you so much from Renaissance Roofing. He wants to make sure that we're going to email him some info on the translator unit. So we have his email, and John, we will. Karen, we're chatting up and talking about all these cool things we're seeing out there, how do people on the website that you can now see, how do they find more information on this kind of stuff? How did they find information on the translator?

Karen Edwards:
Well, Heidi is showing this website which just rolled out on, I think it was Monday or Tuesday. It's brand new. We had a website before, this is a remodel, because we want to develop this solutions directory. So Heidi, if you click on Visit the Directory on your screen, this is just getting started.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I don't know where it's [crosstalk 00:15:53].

Karen Edwards:
You passed it. It's right above there. Right there, Solutions Directory. So visit the directory, and we're asking ... We're working out a couple of kinks in the website right now, and when we feel we're ready, we're going to put the word out there. We're going to say, "Hey, we want to know about the solutions that are out there." And if you move the screen a little bit, Heidi, you'll see the categories if you scroll down. So you can look through these. See, there's a logo that didn't render, so these are the kinks we're working through. But if you are looking for things in the category of jobs, like productivity, you can see all the solutions there. These cards are created to allow people to comment and talk about it and say, "I've used this. This is great. This worked for me." Or, "No, this is terrible. Why would anyone put it on this directory? I don't know."

Karen Edwards:
But we want it to be a resource, specifically for the roofing industry that says, "Here are the solutions. Here's how it works." We'll have to ask Michelle maybe to add that translator solution up there. I know she's also using virtual reality for safety training, that might be something we want to add there. We're building this out. We're going to open it up and invite the public to submit solutions, to comment on solutions that are out there, and hopefully grow this into a really nice resource for the recommended [crosstalk 00:17:17].

Heidi Ellsworth:
And you can see how easy it is just to leave reviews. I hope everybody leaves a very nice review for RoofersCoffeeShop, of course. This is where you can talk back and forth about what you're experiencing and what you're seeing with different technologies and different software. Karen is just incredibly humble, but I would really like to also recommend these posts. In fact, Karen, I'm going to be quiet for a second. Talk about, really quick, you have all these blogs on here and they go into SmartBrief, right? Every week?

Karen Edwards:
Yeah. There's a newsletter, SmartBrief Newsletter, comes out Monday and Wednesday. It's a really good compilation of what's going on in construction, in roofing, and then RT3 has a section at the bottom where we share our news, our articles, our information. Our blog has a lot of articles about what people are doing in the industry, the Owens Corning partnership. It's a place to find out quickly what's happening. And that newsletter is twice a week. I find it very interesting but I might be a little biased. You can sign up, go to the website rt3thinktank.com to sign up to get the newsletter and stay on top of what's going on.

Karen Edwards:
I will mention too, Heidi, and I know probably we'll talk about this a little later, but I think it's important to talk about the structure of RT3 a little bit.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Karen Edwards:
We are 501(c)(6), we are small, and we've done this on purpose. We've limited our full membership, our corporate and individual membership to 100 spots, that's it, because we want to be nimble, we want to be responsive. We want to be able to make decisions, do things on the fly. We don't want to be bogged down by a more formal structure, so that was with a purpose. And then we have 25 additional spots. We have associations who are members, NRCA is a member, CRCA out of Chicago, RCAW, Washington, is a member, MRCA, so-

Heidi Ellsworth:
Western states.

Karen Edwards:
Western states, yeah. Those association members interact, attend our meetups, and then can take that information back to their associations and share. Because we are small, and we're nimble, and we're fast, when the pandemic first hit in March and shut everything down, our board said, we were like deer in the headlights, "What is going on? We don't know." And we said, "We need to pull our contractors together and share with the industry." We had Trent Cotney on our panel, Steve Little from KPost, who was a member as well, Ken Kelly from Kelly Roofing. We pulled together this webinar in a matter of three days, I think, and send it out to the industry, and had over 500 people sign up and 400 and some attend, because people were just stuck, "What do I do? What do I do? Are they shutting down job sites? Am I allowed to work?"

Karen Edwards:
It was so well received, we actually did three of them, three weeks in a row. If you didn't see them, they are available on our website, too. They're posted on our blog and on our YouTube channel, that you can go back and watch. But then the rest of the industry caught up with us and started doing their own webinars. Beacon, GAF, and the distributors and whatnot were doing, so we stopped. We said, "Okay, the industry's getting what they need from all the other people in the industry." And we did our part by blazing that trail, so to speak. I think that-

Heidi Ellsworth:
And even ... No, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Karen Edwards:
There was such a need for that information so quickly that we actually developed a new level of membership. Because we want to stay at 100 with the 25 associations spots, but we want to be able to interact more with the industry and get involved, so the board created a membership level called a community membership. That gets pretty much the same perks as regular full members. There's just no voting rights, and they don't attend live meetups. But they do attend virtual meetups, and we have virtual meetups, typically on normal times, three times a year. We have shifted our in-person to virtual, as most other people did, and our community members are invited to those, and that is in October ... I know I'm talking a lot, so stop me if you have a question.

Karen Edwards:
In October, we did an extended meetup, 90 minutes, and we did some breakouts. We looked at, what does the industry need now? If we were to want to pursue a technology project or funding, what would we do?" We're exploring those kinds of things, and we invite the community, the rest of the industry, to consider becoming a community member. You get added to our Slack channel, you get to come to the virtual meetups. It's an opportunity, like Wendy says, just to hang out with some brilliant minds and pick up useful tidbits that you don't even realize that you're going to get by being part. And it's only $250 a year to be a member. It's not expensive.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, you know what, I really want to take that, what you just said Karen, and I want to shift that over to Wendy. Because Wendy, I'd love for you to talk about the value you see for your business, for you personally and professionally. Talk about the Slack channel. You're still good in Slack. I'm not so good, I'm trying. We have all different ... varying from really great, interactive, but there's just so much between the website and the Slack. First of all, explain what Slack is for those people out there right now who are like, "What in the heck are you talking about?" And then second of all, how you're using it for your business.

Wendy Marvin:
Slack is just a live feed channel, basically, that allows you to push information out to people and communicate with each other. You can make different categories, but our main Slack channel, people find amazing things and they push it out to the group, and then we have a little discussion about it. A lot of times, and especially our group, somebody somewhere will say, "Oh my gosh, I've already used that, here's what I'm finding. Here are some ways that I didn't realize it was going to impact my business." One of the things that came up is somebody mentioned something with Elle and I when we were talking about technology, and it sparked me to remember that ...

Wendy Marvin:
We've got a Keep at Work program that we participate in, and we keep our guys on salary if they have a light injury, and they stay at work. We were talking about ways to increase technology and monies that might be available for things, and I went, "Wait a minute, somebody said something somewhere in our group talking about labor and industries has the availability for funds to help supposedly buy computers to keep these guys working in the office." Well, then we were talking about the VR glasses, and so that transitioned into talking about somebody that's being kept at work is a valuable employee. They're just not being used in the capacity that they really contribute. There are dumb things, like some people have them count pieces of paper, just to keep them busy.

Wendy Marvin:
Well, what if you gave that guy a set of VR glasses, and then had your guy out in the field that might be new and not as experienced, but he gets to be on a roof working while your guy's on the desk, stuck, but feeling useful, because now they can talk to each other. Your guy on the desk can see what the guy in the field is doing and say, "Hey, don't do this, do that. Move this, do that." Just those silly things are just the most amazing ways to collaborate. So then I would have the ability within Slack to send a message to Michelle Boykin if I wanted to, to say, "Hey, what are you guys finding at Rackley that ... Program-wise, how's that working?" It's just an instant channel communication model that really helps keep everybody in touch.

Wendy Marvin:
We don't use Slack in our own business, but I use Teams and a very similar app where we've set up chat channels. What's beneficial about those types of environments is you can categorize. If you want to talk about a project that you are working on, you can keep that channel all by itself. You're working on the Chamber's project, whatever, then all of those notes and all of that information is there for anybody that's in the field, working from home, working remotely. Oh my gosh, how many people are working remotely right now and we didn't plan for that? And we're all on the same page. You can scroll back and look at the notes previously, so you don't have to go back to Heidi and go, "Heidi, what did we say about that so and so?" Or try to find an email out of your five million emails. It's another tool to be able to use within your business.

Heidi Ellsworth:
The thing about Slack that is cool for RT3 is that you do have to be a member or be part of the community group to be into Slack. That's a benefit, in that you are going to be able to ... Some of you are asking questions saying, "How do we do all this? How do we get this information?" Well, that's one way, but it's also obviously totally free and open to ... Our whole goal is to disseminate information about technology into the industry, and we do that through the website, through SmartBrief, through RoofersCoffeeShop, through all the other publications, roofing publications. We're constantly putting information out there.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, if you want to just get a little bit more in depth, and you want to be able to chat directly with Wendy or with other people who are doing things, then that's really where that Slack channel and being able to be in there gets the job. We also obviously have the RT3 forum on RoofersCoffeeShop, so just so many ways to really ask questions and get involved.

Karen Edwards:
I want to mention too, the new podcast that we launched. It's been just about a year. Ryan Groth is one of our board members from Sales Transformation Group, and he is the host of the podcast. The format is he's been looking at highlighting a technology solution, but not from the perspective of the solution provider, from the perspective of contractors. So he'll have some contractors on who were talking about their experience with it, how it helped, what they did. That helps to educate from a third party perspective, so it's not just that solution provider saying, "Oh, hey, we're great. You should use us and here's why." It's hearing from actual contractors who have used the solution. So that's another way. The episodes are about 30 minutes max long, so great to listen to during your drive or in your morning while you're having your coffee.

Heidi Ellsworth:
All those good times. I love this. Wendy, you sparked the questions. We have Emory Smith. Thank you Emory for being on. We always love having you here, said, "VR collaboration on site, genius, genius."

Wendy Marvin:
Great, yeah.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And then we have Steve Rice who has a question. Now, Steve, I'm not sure if you want to come on live, check with Megan. We can either read your question to Wendy or we can bring you on live if you would like to visit. I'm not going to read your question yet, because I want to find out what you want to do.

Wendy Marvin:
Let me throw something out there while we're waiting on him. I know that technology can be really scary. If you're starting as a brand new roofer or a small, small business, and you're trying to figure out all of this, sometimes looking at this stuff is overwhelming. I will tell you, I'm 13 years in business and I get overwhelmed sometimes with our team because we've got ... She mentioned KPost Roofing, they roofed the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, okay, so we're in another level in those things. But these people are probably the most giving, wonderful, "I'll do anything to help you," group of people. And if you're starting out and you're brand new, I'm probably the kid that's going to be the help for that kind of stuff.

Wendy Marvin:
If you're looking at just how to set up an email system, we can help with that too. This is not just about the world of technology that can overwhelm you. This is about taking those baby steps that we've all been through to help you get your business on this path. I think that's important to know, because there's the whole gamut of the world of the roofing industry is in this group.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It's roofing professionals helping roofing professionals, contractors helping contractors. There's no catch, it's just truly helping. It looks like we have Steve Rice as a panelist, so you want to come on with your audio or video?

Megan:
He has no way to speak at the moment, so if you want to just read the question.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Okay, perfect. That's exactly what we needed. When a field employee is on the roof, what do you use to stream the video to the employee in the office with the VR headset? Wendy.

Wendy Marvin:
It's Wi-Fi. It's set up on Wi-Fi. My system is not fully up and running yet, so just fair warning. Again, I'm still in that setup stage. But it's a phone system setup where you've got your glasses, and then you either download an app to your phone or you do streaming from your phone so that you have that access. And then there's the secondary same app that you would log into online. Microsoft is the one that we've heard the most about in the system. Yeah, it's just like using your cell phone.

Heidi Ellsworth:
The other day when we were on a call with Tom with Harness, he actually had the glasses on, and they looked just normal.

Wendy Marvin:
They're a pair of safety glasses, [crosstalk 00:32:30].

Karen Edwards:
What Tom had on were ANSI safety glasses that had built-in computer. You could see the computer in the glasses. It's crazy.

Wendy Marvin:
Well, [crosstalk 00:32:43].

Karen Edwards:
And they're not that expensive.

Wendy Marvin:
There are glasses where you could have your earpiece in for your phone, and then the glasses that Tom was talking about had a camera in them, also the computer side, but the camera so that you're talking. But the VR thing we're talking about, and this is where it gets messy for roofing a little bit, is all encompassing, covering your vision field to start with. That's the older technology. And literally, you can put things on the screen and move them, and the person in the office can make visual marks on what you're looking at, to circle an area or do things. Those are two different technologies. Again, it's like, "Hey, I'm interested in this technology, what do you think I should start with?" Because if you talk about VR, two to $3,000, we're talking about a pretty good chunk of change. But if you talk about those glasses, what did Tom say? $800?

Karen Edwards:
Yeah, it wasn't as much as the HoloLens.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Besides Rackley Roofing, which was the Innovator of the Year last year, they're using them for safety and for safety training, but the other person I know who is using those is Ken Kelly with Kelly Roofing out of Florida. He's doing-

Wendy Marvin:
Ken is another level.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Another level, with the glasses and the Microsoft integration, so pretty crazy.

Wendy Marvin:
But think about this, here's the silly solution. How many times have you facetimed with your phone? How many times have you used the virtual Facebook app with your phone to talk with a family member? You can do the same thing on the roof, right? Here's not a $3,000 solution, here's the solution you can use every day, but you're not thinking about using it in that manner. So now, get your guy in the office on the phone, have him FaceTime the guy that's on the roof, and they can do virtually the same thing. It's not as slick and whatever, but there are ways to use the existing technology that we have, and it's not as expensive too to get you to that point.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Doug Keller, thank you so much. He's on here right now and he's just saying the exact same thing you are. As a simple way of getting real time information, short of VR glasses, you can set your people up with a Zoom account, right?

Wendy Marvin:
Yeah.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Or FaceTime, however that works on their phone. They just switch the camera to the backside, and they can connect with the office and they can see exactly what the person is seeing on the roof, as well as talk to them. That's what we're talking about, think tank. How do we do it at all these different levels? And how do we start bringing it in? I do have someone who's going to be coming on to ask a question, super excited about this. Megan, do you want to bring on Lee Lipniskis from Core out of Denver, Colorado?

Karen Edwards:
Ooh, Lee.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Megan:
Yes.

Lee Lipniskis:
Good morning, ladies.

Wendy Marvin:
Good morning, Lee.

Karen Edwards:
Hi Lee.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Welcome to Coffee Conversations.

Lee Lipniskis:
Thank you. Wendy, I have a question for you. The RT3 webinar about COVID was super successful, what are some other educational opportunities through RT3 for contractors?

Wendy Marvin:
Oh, my gosh, well, I think the main one we're focusing on right now are the podcasts, and just trying to engage more people and even more sponsors, just people to recognize that there's a ton of people out there who want information. We're looking for cross platforms, which is interesting. We try to stay in our lane. We've got roofing and then roofing products and the roofings, but you know what, there might be an architectural framing product that would work. And so those are good things in the post. The big thing for me is RT3's blogging and posts, I read them, and I can't say that about a lot of things. So I'm always learning new information. I'm always learning about new technology through that. I don't know. Karen, is there anything else you can think of that's coming up, other than meet-ups?

Karen Edwards:
Yeah. If you've been to the IRE, the International Roofing Expo, you're on an informal [inaudible 00:37:10] email list. And they started a newsletter this year, and RT3 contributes. I think it's twice a month their newsletter comes out, and we have an article in once a month. Look for that. You can probably sign up for it on the Roofing Expo's website when you sign up for updates. I think this month's article, it was about wearable technologies and how they're being used in the roofing industry. We're always trying to educate in multiple ways. When we get back together in person at the events, we usually submit to speak and bring some contractors together for a panel. We don't always get selected, because there's always a lot of choices. But when we do, we've been able to educate people that way as well.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, one of the things when we go back to live events, sometime in probably 2021, hopefully.

Wendy Marvin:
2021.

Heidi Ellsworth:
2021. One of the things, and this was the brainchild of Mike Davis with East Fork, is that he wants to start doing pop ups at the different trade shows, where basically everybody would give their cell phone and we'd have a group chat, and they would say, "Hey, we're popping up at the circle bar, come check it out. We're going to talk technology, we're going to share ideas, and we're going to do things." But the community members or the RT3 members are basically just doing these little pop ups. And that goes back to that nimble, flexible thing that Karen was talking about, instead of having everything so organized. Well, it's all organized, but I should say structured that we are able to do these kind of pop ups. Lee, you're always there, we know that. And so those are great opportunities.

Heidi Ellsworth:
We did have Kim Ashcraft ask, what's the name of the podcast? How do they find it on their channels? Karen.

Karen Edwards:
Good question. RT3 Podcast. Whichever service you use, we're on Spotify, we're on Apple, you can search for RT3, you may have to spell it out, Roofing Technology Think Tank, and it should show up.

Wendy Marvin:
RT3 Podcast brings it up.

Karen Edwards:
Yeah, okay. Perfect. RT3 Podcast.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. We have links on the partner podcast page on RoofersCoffeeShop for RT3 Podcast, so you can-

Karen Edwards:
It should be in our directory. Is it in our directory as well, on RoofersCoffeeShop?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes, it is in our full directory with everything on there, so you can click through and get it. That's the beauty of all of this is our whole mission of getting it out as many places as possible, like Roofing Contractor Magazine, they're doing a bunch of things right now with the awards, with their Best of Success Series right now. It's there, too. It's everywhere, so you'll find it. Emory, I hear that you want me to read this, so I'm going to. Now, if you want to come on, just tell me again. Wendy, this is for you, Emory, "Scope has great tools for helping young businesses with their daily challenges, is there a way we could create a similar network of semi retired roofing business leaders to assist young roofing companies? Or is it already in the works?"

Wendy Marvin:
We've talked about it. It's swimming out there. We've definitely talked about it. Again, I think what's interesting about our industry worldwide, nationwide specifically ... I'm on the board of Western States also, and when you start to get plugged into our industry, we kind of already do that. You just have to ask. Nobody is going to search you out and say, "Hey, you look new, do you want to learn how to do ..." But if you try to get involved in the community, and that starts with your local groups that you can join. NRCA is a huge opportunity. But even up to the NRCA level, I'm in Vancouver, Washington, right? I'm not Chicago. I'm not a huge business. I'm chatting up with the people from NRCA. I'm chatting up with Reid Ribble. I'm talking with these people that are real people who are so approachable and so nice.

Wendy Marvin:
And then yes, to her point is we have talked many times about getting some type of council together or some type of a consulting group when you're new, because I chant this often, and it's funny, but it's not funny, construction is filled with a lot of people who are very good at their trade, and they're not really great at business. When you look at an industry like ours that has an 80% failure in the first five years as a new roofing contractor, that's why we're here. That's why we're scared and we want to help and we want to make things better, but you got to reach out and plug in and recognize that you're not just a roofer, you're a business owner. You deserve the same respect that someone who is doing anything deserves, as a business owner.

Wendy Marvin:
You're a rockstar, and you need to get plugged in. And when you get plugged in with the group, then you start getting those kinds of conversations that you go, "Holy moly, I didn't know I could do that." Or, "I didn't know I was supposed to do that." Things that will get you in trouble that you don't even know, like how you're handling deposits or just silly things that you just pick up. The best thing you can ever do with this group, show up at the damn circle bar, pour yourself a drink and don't say anything. Just sit there and listen. And that's what I've been with you guys for the last six, seven years. I just listen when I'm there, and I just have learned so many little tidbits along the way. That's just awesome. Yeah, well, we're working on it, hopefully we get there.

Heidi Ellsworth:
In case anybody's wondering where the circle bar is, it's out in the Western States.

Wendy Marvin:
[crosstalk 00:43:26].

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, and they do a fabulous job. Wendy, like she said on the board, I'm on the advisory board that is just a great group, so that's where you meet. I do want to have a couple of questions from Doug Keller. He can't come on, but there's a couple of questions here. Oh, we already talked about the Zoom account. "What is nice about using Zoom also is if it is something like a repair and they're unsure of the location, the office or service manager can pull up the building ..." Hold on Doug, I'm getting your question here. "Can pull up the building on something like Google Earth and share that screen and actually point or mark the location as they talk to the crew on the roof." That takes me to also a number of the software providers.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And so Doug, you're 100% right, because there is ... I mean, obviously you're right. But there is a bunch of software companies out there now who are also doing that with their roofing applications, where they are taking the pictures on the roof, where they're geo locating, where they're pulling up aerial imagery or Google Earth. Wendy, what are you using for that in the field to gather information and data?

Wendy Marvin:
I knew you were going to come to me on that. I was trying to pull it up. Actually, we're still a little behind the times with that particular one. We're using Google Earth a lot. Eagle View, any of the local providers that do satellite imagery, obviously, are pretty rampant in our group. We had a really neat discussion at our RT3 breakout this last group, where we were talking about the use of ... We had one of the people in our group, Maureen, who is a soccer mom, and they are using vests on the soccer field to track the movement and to look at strategically how the people who are playing soccer are executing the sports plan, okay. It's an aerial view, or whatever, but it's looking at the movement of the organizations.

Wendy Marvin:
We started having a conversation about how to use that software, which is completely unrelated to our industry, I wouldn't say it was [inaudible 00:45:47], and give us the ability to track efficiencies on the roof. Because we're looking at those kinds of things now when we're looking at cost savings and money and ways to keep your business alive, right? We're looking at accountability, because you can tell when they're on the roof and when they're not on the roof, and when they arrive on site. But they're wearing a vest, and the vest just literally has a chip in it, then they get on the roof, and then you can track movements.

Wendy Marvin:
Well, then you bring your team back in house, and you start talking about, "Okay, look, I'm talking about efficiencies here. Look at this whatever over here, he's standing here and he's been here for 10 minutes, get him involved." Or, "Tear off this section and then don't have to move the material. Tear off this section. Be ready for the material to be delivered on the roof in that area. Let's talk about efficiencies of how we're doing it." We're a little behind. We're not using any of the on-roof cameras yet or anything like that, because it's expensive and it's clunky. And to be real with you, roofing guys break things a lot. We wanted to look at another alternative, and there's another option that we're exploring right now is that vest technology.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That you found on the soccer field.

Wendy Marvin:
Right, yeah.

Karen Edwards:
Yeah. If anybody becomes a community member, you will be invited to our February virtual ... Well, we have one in December, but our February one actually has lined up a presentation from a company that has those trackers. It's not in a vest. It's put on the belt. And they're going to educate us on the technology, how it works, why it matters, and then some other solutions they're going to talk about as well for a company that maybe ... Like Wendy isn't ready to take that step, he's going to talk about some other options that are available for contractors to consider. We're looking forward to that in early February.

Heidi Ellsworth:
You know what I love ... and I'm just going to read this from Doug again. Doug, next time we're going to get you on here, you just have some great comments, but it goes right to what you're saying, Wendy. He's saying, "Most of the tools you need to do this, most people already have, and there is no minimum additional costs. There are always better, more efficient ways, but you can start with the tools you have, your phones, vests, figuring out tracking people," all those things. I added that, Doug, sorry. "Tools that you have and make the changes from there that work best for you. The main thing is to start using the tools that you have more efficiently." And that's exactly what you're saying. This doesn't always have to be big dollars.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Oh, I know, before COVID everybody was like, "Phones are a terrible thing, people shouldn't be on their phones." Now it's like you can't live without them. I mean, it was that way before COVID. But it really is a whole different mentality, and I think Doug is really spot on with this, on what everyone's saying.

Karen Edwards:
Heidi, I want to share that I just discovered the other day ... I have an iPhone, and it updated the iOS. My apps moved around, and that's because there's this app that showed up. I know you guys can't see it, but it's a translator. I can speak into this in English and it speaks back in Spanish exactly what I said. So anybody with an iPhone, try it out. I did. It was fun.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's perfect.

Wendy Marvin:
There's an app I have too that's on Android, that we've used. But again, it's just to try to think about how you can do things differently. I think sometimes when you're so busy ... We're just coming out of that season. We're just coming out of that, "Oh, my gosh, I can't breathe," season, but when you're head down and you're just doing, use this COVID time. That's what we've tried to do, but use this COVID time, use this winter to really look at your business and think, "How could I do that? And how could I do it differently that might eliminate a couple steps that would make it more efficient?" You just have to think through things. You have to think through what you're doing and how it could be different.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. We have just a few from John Kenny with Cotney Consulting Group, which by the way, we love Cotney-

Wendy Marvin:
Love him.

Heidi Ellsworth:
We love John. Thank you for being interested. Love it, efficiency and accountability, that goes back to the vest. But technology overall, I think that's really what we're talking about. And Emory also says, "This conversation will revolutionize the tailgate safety meetings. We must use technology." So-

Wendy Marvin:
Oh my god, safety apps talk about that, hello. COVID apps, immediately, we have guys in the field that are doing their COVID compliance. They hit a button to say that they agree, they hit the address, it's done. Tom with Harness has been a great one at that with a little free apps all over the place. Safety is the big one you can use with that, and-

Heidi Ellsworth:
That's really interesting.

Wendy Marvin:
... the documentation of what you did and when you did it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. And you'll find a lot of that on here. Harness is on here, a lot of safety companies that are doing some amazing things, and I love it. Mary Shanker, so excited to see you on here. And she had a question, "What is the actual name of the glasses?" I don't know if we know that, but we could probably get it out there. Tom's glasses that he was showing us and some of the other VR.

Wendy Marvin:
Mary, get your [crosstalk 00:51:09]. Do you know, Karen?

Karen Edwards:
I don't know, but then I know the Microsoft version is called HoloLens, H-O-L-O, lens, L-E-N-S. I don't know the name of the one that Tom had, but we can find out and let you know, Mary.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. We know how to find you, Mary, up there in Maine. We have just about eight minutes left, and I wanted to talk just a little bit again about, and Wendy, maybe you can wrap this up, on how people can get involved, how people can really start coming and being a part of RT3 and why, as a contractor. I know we talked about it earlier, but I just think it's so important to hear it straight from somebody who's seen such success as being involved in RT3.

Wendy Marvin:
Well, at this point, I mean, no brainer. $250 a year to become a community member, you have to do that. We're almost at capacity for the full memberships, but once you're a community member, then you're going to know if something comes available if you want to transition into that next level, either as a company or individual. I cannot tell you enough about the success of being around the right people, and having these people that ... Even Karen is one of my resources, like, "Hey, I'm seeing this in my marketing part, what do you think?" And people help you. If you don't think you need that, go back about six months from now, in March, holy moly, we were all reeling. And Karen touched it, we were all going, "What the heck. What do we do? How do we survive?"

Wendy Marvin:
And as a business owner, I'm going, "I have 25 employees, how am I going to keep them safe? How am I going to keep their family safe? How do I keep the freight train of herding cats of the Washington State who decided construction wasn't essential, or whatever?" I was on the phone with Cotney, I had a letter in my trucks within the first day, and I wasn't working with him then. He's a person I've met through this. I met him for the first time at our RT3 meetup, I think it was the Microsoft one. He just has free resources. He threw out a letter to me. The letter was in the truck because there was some ambiguity between non essential and essential.

Wendy Marvin:
The local association memberships, you cannot put a value on the free resources and steering you out of the wrong places that you will have with these people. Again, it's $250 a year, my goodness. That isn't even a blip. Stop coffees for two months, seriously.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And this is all nonprofit. I mean, this isn't a moneymaker.

Wendy Marvin:
No.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It doesn't claim to get it all out there, and so-

Wendy Marvin:
The consulting alone, I laughed about the Trent Cotney thing. Seriously, the Trent Cotney consulting is worth 10 to $20,000 in just freebies and watching him and other things. Not to mention, the ken Kellys of the world. I know I've taken too much time. But Ken met us at Microsoft, and he is deep in Microsoft, and I'm talking hundreds of thousands deep, so okay, never the level. But he talked about them having a hailstorm in Florida, and he was able to use satellite imagery to identify by zip code who had hail strikes. They had pictures and bids, and the canvassers went out to the field and sold roofs, "Not a question, you have a hail strike on your roof, here is your bid. When do you want us to fix it?"

Wendy Marvin:
Are you kidding me? That's just another level. And that's all basic technology, that isn't anything rocket science and stuff. But that's somebody with that mindset that you're going to have access to by becoming a member here that is just worth millions.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It is. I have to tell you, if you don't want to be a member, that's cool, because you can get all this information on the website. You just don't get that one on one that Wendy's talking about, which is so cool. Although, what Wendy said earlier I think is so important, whether it's RT3 or Western States or NRCA. A shout out to Amy, she's on here, thank you, from NRCA. Whatever group, I mean, obviously you're here today with RoofersCoffeeShop and the resources we try to get out there. So anyone who's listening to this afterwards, this is the kind of stuff, this is what makes roofing great. This is the stuff that just rocks our world and brings the roofing respect all the way around.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Karen, real quick, just in a minute, what do they do? They go to the website? If they want to, if they're interested, how do they sign up?

Karen Edwards:
Go to the website, scroll to the bottom of the page, and the three membership levels are there, the individual, the corporate and the community. They just select community. Sign up now, that little button at the bottom of community. Hit Sign up now, it'll take you to the page. You'll get signed up and then you'll hear from me. We'll get you set up in Slack, send you all the links and resources that you need, and the invitations to the upcoming virtual meetups and tech talks.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. And for any manufacturers or distributors who are out there right now listening to this, I'm just saying, this is a great marketing tool to give to your contractors.

Wendy Marvin:
Come play with us.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. This would be great for your loyalty programs. You can't help get a little sales and marketing in there whenever we are together. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Wendy, for being here today, for sharing this knowledge and for everything you do for the industry, for your involvement, for bringing this and helping roofing to continue to just ... The professionalism of the trade and everything that groups like RT3 bring to it just means the world. Thank you.

Wendy Marvin:
Thank you, Heidi. We appreciate it.

Karen Edwards:
Thanks for having us, Heidi.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you. I want to thank everybody for being on the show today, again, Coffee Conversations. I mean, I could go for another hour on this topic. This is just the coolest thing. Surprise, surprise, in two weeks, we're going to be having Jennifer Stone and Renae Bales from National Women in Roofing on this same Coffee Conversations. Yes, I am treating myself to all the favorite people out there and organizations, so that we can bring information to all of you through Coffee Conversations. Talking about recruiting and retaining women into roofing, what National Women in Roofing is doing and some of their initiatives. It's going to be fabulous. It's going to be fabulous. I'm so excited to have those ladies on the show.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That will be December 3rd, 6:00 AM Pacific, which I love, and I get harassed about on a regular basis, but I'm so happy all of you are on here. Thank you, Wendy, I know we're on the same timezone.

Wendy Marvin:
Yep.

Heidi Ellsworth:
So join us. You can listen to all of our Coffee Conversations in our read, listen and watch section of the website, where you can read it, you can watch it or you can listen to it anytime you want, however you want, riverscoffeeshop.com. I appreciate all of you. Thank you for being here today, and have a great day. Thanks.