Signing off from ServiceCon 2025 with Will Riley! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Will Riley of ServiceCon. You can read the interview below or watch the recording.

Heidi J Ellsworth: Hello and welcome back to our final wrap up of Service Con 20 20 25 0, 20 25. Uh, my name's Heidi Ellsworth and Roofer's Coffee Shop has been here in the house with Will Riley and all of the service experts from this industry Will, this has been phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us. 

Will Riley: Yeah. And I, I, I appreciate being a part of it too. Yeah. And just like you said, it's, it's the industry experts. The industry leaders in my opinion Yeah. That are contributing to service. They were all here, they all crushed it. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: They crushed it. Yeah. It was, excuse me, it was so, I learned so much. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And the peer groups being able to sit and talk to all the contractors, the networking, and then all the presentations. It really came together so 

Will Riley: Well. It, it definitely did. Yeah. And thanks for being, uh, uh, you know, inviting yourself or, or participating in one of those. We needed help too. And facilitating those groups were important because a lot of contractors that came here have told me that that's what they desire. Right? Yeah. They want to be able to talk to each other. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: It's, you know, it's funny because I actually did help facilitate some of the peer groups, and I am not a, um, expert in service and maintenance. I just listened and ask a lot of questions. 

Will Riley: Yeah. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: And, um, but I learned so much just listening to the contractors, getting them to ask questions and bringing it out. I just think it was brilliant. And, um, having the rest of the speakers in there to really answer questions, but also just to listen to the contractors. Yeah. That's what's so important. 

Will Riley: Yeah. I mean, 'cause they gotta sharpen their tools too. Yeah. And they gotta constantly evolve with the times the, the change in, you know, the industry. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Will Riley: You have to adapt. So that's, that's cool for their full participation in the peer groups for their full participation in putting these, uh, these presentations together. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Exactly. 

Will Riley: And reimagining, like, what's the next level conversation look like? And things seem to me like they're trying to break it down easier and easier. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: They are. And they are. And people were just taking notes, but I like how they broke it down. And even some of the speakers were like, you know, my initial presentation, I kind of cut it in half so we could go deeper mm-hmm <affirmative>. And we could really talk about things that everybody needed. But what I loved was how the flow of the conference really started out with why 

Will Riley: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: And then really worked into how, and then went even to some higher levels and some more details like drones and marketing, but really had, um, a nice flow to it where everybody could kind of build up, um, at no matter what level of service they were at. 

Will Riley: Yeah. Yeah. And kind of having that, that journey almost from beginning to end. And that's kind of the beauty of what we have hosting Service Con is, is, is you have control of the agenda. Yes. Right. You can't dictate everything. But an IRE, you're, you're, you're at the, the, you're at the, whatever they submit to you and you approve, you have to kind of fill those as blocks. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Right. 

Will Riley: We're here, we're like, look, we wanna start at the beginning and then work our way through the end, and then we just put the right speakers to the right slots. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. And it really, it, it, it really worked. So I have to tell you some of my big takeaways. One of them was, um, doing more business with the customers you already have. 

Will Riley: Yeah. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: And that came from Cody mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I was really impressed with that. Um, it really overall just like taking care of the customers you have and growing that business relationship, um, what were some of your big takeaways? 

Will Riley: Yeah. You know, when to add another service truck. Yeah. Like different perspectives on when's the right time. Um, the other one that I loved the most too was like, reasons to reach back out to customers. Not just pass re roofs you've done, but 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Will Riley: Pass repairs you've done to get back on those buildings, to inspect them, to then put yourself in a position to retain the client at a bigger level. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: At a bigger level. 

Will Riley: Yeah. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. And, and really at, at the base of everything was take care of your customers. 

Will Riley: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: No matter what, if you take care of your customers, your business will grow. If you don't take care of your customers, it's not gonna grow. Which I mean, seems so obvious. Yeah. I think people forget about that. 

Will Riley: They do. They want, you know, customer service is like Tracy always says it's like faster, 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Right? Yeah. 

Will Riley: Communicate, uh, solve. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Will Riley: And if you don't have those components, then you know, you, your customers aren't gonna be happy. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. I have to tell you, one of the takeaways today that came out today's classes was, um, the importance of taking care of yourself and as business owners or service managers or where whatever you're doing in the business, if you aren't working on your container, 

Will Riley: The container 

Heidi J Ellsworth: On yourself, you are, um, your business is not gonna grow. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I thought that's not a normal 

Will Riley: Topic Yeah. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: That you have here at conferences. 

Will Riley: You're right. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: And I was really impressed with that. 
Will Riley: No, and that resonated too because he, he's right. You know, Greg had that conversation about, um, you know, working on a container. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Will Riley: Uh, you had kind of be there, but really, basically, 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Oh, he showed us, we had a little show and tell here earlier. Nice. 

Will Riley: When, when the containers fall, it's like, what do you do? You, you, you can only work on all these individual pieces, but the container itself is something to work on and that represents you me. Right. Right. So I looked at that as well and it's like, all right, what can I do? Because people rely on me. Right. Right. People rely on you. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yes. 

Will Riley: Exactly. Sometimes I'm the limit as to where we can go. And I heard you say that today too. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: I did say that 

Will Riley: Resonate with that 

Heidi J Ellsworth: I get in the way Yeah. Way too often. And so getting outta the way and letting the companies grow, um, that was a, a nor not a normal conversation that you would have at some of these conferences, but something that really resonated with everybody here. Yeah. And I think, um, I, that's what I part that was probably my biggest takeaway. Yeah. It's loving that you had different ways of talking, different topics that aren't normal. Yeah. And that's always fun. 

Will Riley: Well, we'll see what happens next year too, because obviously everyone's fired up about it. We had 126 chairs. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Will Riley: We had people in the back of the room. Yes, you did day one. And not everyone could be on every single presentation or, or listened to every single presentation, but we recorded it. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: So Yeah, 

Will Riley: In two weeks-ish, we're gonna release that to all the participants and then a lot of people reached out asking if they can buy those recordings. So those will be available too. That's great. In the service site. That's 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Great. That is awesome. And of course, we have been documenting this all along, so check out the playlist on our YouTube. Um, you can see from the very beginning when Will and I talked to right now when I say congratulations, will job well done. 

Will Riley: Thank you. So good. Thanks for, thanks for your help and push and, and it's a team effort. Really is, 

Heidi J Ellsworth: It was so much fun together. And you can, like I said, find all this information about Service Con and about Center Point Connect. 'cause I am gonna say that on a directory on Roofers Coffee Shop. So check it out and, um, put on your calendar for 2026 Service Con. We don't know the dates yet, but it's gonna happen. So 

Will Riley: It's gonna 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Happen. Stay tuned and you'll find all that information on Rivers Coffee Shop. So thank you Will so much for having us. 

Will Riley: Glad to be here. 

Heidi J Ellsworth: Thank you. And I wanna say thank you to our team, Megan Ellsworth, Jessica Bravo, and Zane who, um, <laugh>, sorry, Zane and Zane Delucci, um, who, and Erica who was here yesterday, and all the folks at home, um, who make all of this happen with thumbnails and videos and everything else. So thanks to the team at Roofers Coffee Shop and next week stay tuned on YouTube because you know, Karen and Alex will be live from nca. So a lot more coming your way. Thank you so much and have a great.