Richard Peake and Ryan Clark - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Ryan Clark from Old South Construction and Richard Peake from RC Sales Group. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro/Outro: Welcome to Stories From the Roof, from rooferscoffeeshop.com where we tell the stories of roofing professionals from around the globe.

Megan Ellsworth: Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I'm so excited to be with Ryan Clark and Richard Peake on a Stories From the Roof podcast. Hi. Hi, gentlemen. How are you?

Ryan Clark: Good, how are you?

Richard Peake: Hi, Megan, how are you today?

Megan Ellsworth: Doing good. Excited to get to know you both a little bit more. Stories From the Roof podcast is all about hearing stories from the roof and getting to know contractors and how they got into the roofing industry and hear about all the amazing projects that you are doing, so I'm really excited. Let's dive right in and have you both introduce yourselves and give a little backstory on where you're from, who you work for, what do you do?

Richard Peake: My name's Richard Peake. I'm a senior project manager with Old South Construction. I've been in the roofing industry going on nine years this month, and we kind of specialize in single-ply membrane, particularly Duro-Last PVC along with shingles and some standing seam metals as well.

Megan Ellsworth: Very cool. Ryan, let's hear your story.

Ryan Clark: Sure. I'm the sales rep for Duro-Last in the state of Alabama. I've been with Duro-Last since 2002. For five years was the quality assurance tech rep and then since 2007 to current, I've been the sales rep for the state. Kind of grew up in the industry in the roofing world and went to college and then went to work for Duro-Last and been at it ever since, so it's been a great experience.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. Fabulous. Let's dive into the next question, which is how did you get into roofing? Richard, could you just go a little bit deeper on how you got into this industry?

Richard Peake: Sure. My degree is in mortuary science. I was a forensic pathologist for several years with the state and then transitioned over to pharmaceutical sales. My path to commercial roofing has been very, I guess, non-traditional in that my good friend who owns the company was in the process of trying to build a commercial sales team. I had extensive experience with pharmaceutical sales and building teams and programs and sales processes. He asked me in one of these periods that most pharmaceutical people experience, which is either you're being bought or you're buying someone in an acquisition and you usually get six months' severance to sit at home and work on your golf game. It was during one of those periods that he approached me and said, "Hey, we want to build the team. This is what I'm looking to do. Can you help me?"

I said, "Yeah, I can give you six months at best, could be six weeks," and that was almost nine years ago. It's a very non-traditional way into the roofing, but from my perspective, it's very symbolic of most sales. It's all about relationships. It's all about building credibility and confidence in the product and the services you provide. That's what we've leaned on and so far it's been a pretty good path.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great to hear. Well, we're glad that you're here. Ryan, let's have you explain how you got into roofing.

Ryan Clark: Sure. Like I said, I grew up in the residential roofing sector, I guess. I was right out of high school and then worked with a few companies and myself going through college and ended up graduating from college in 2002 with a history degree, of all things, from the University of Alabama and was just looking for a job at the time and had encountered Duro-Last, was looking to hire a quality assurance inspector technical rep, and I had applied for that, ended up getting hired, and have been with Duro-Last ever since. It's a great company. Like I said, I started out in the quality assurance inspection side from '02 to '07, and then currently, since '07, I've been an independent sales representative here in Alabama.

Megan Ellsworth: Great. Amazing. Well, glad to have you here. Thank you both for giving us a little insight on your backgrounds. The main reason why we're here is to chat about the Riverton Intermediate School project. Can you give us a little bit of an overview of what that project looked like?

Richard Peake: That project came to us as an opportunity through a general contractor who was doing some internal upgrades in the school. The issue was that it was a standing seam metal roof that was over 20 years old and literally from day one it had some pretty extensive leaking issues. They just never could figure it out, couldn't get it to stop, and most recently it was pretty severe when it came into some of the advanced media areas, and so they really needed to protect some of the equipment and the technology they were upgrading, so we had an opportunity to talk to them about that. But as with most schools, it's extremely budget-sensitive.

Megan Ellsworth: Right.

Richard Peake: When we looked at the price of a standing seam metal, this job ended up being a little over 1500 squares. The more economical way was to do a flute fill retrofit over the existing standing seam without having to tear it off. We put a 60 mil gray Duro-Last membrane, the cover board, fully adhered down to the cover board, and then we ended up welding the vinyl rib systems to make it give the appearance and the look of a standing seam metal roof

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's awesome. Very cool. You mentioned they had very precious equipment that you wanted to protect, and also with a school and such a big job, you have a tight timeline. How did you make it all come together in the end?

Richard Peake: Well, the first request was to do it during the entire summer program.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay.

Richard Peake: Unfortunately, this school is a year-round school, so they had not only full-time students, they had summer students as well in the program. We literally had to do daily coordination with the principal, the student resource officer, the SRO, drop off/pickup line for the buses, breaks at cafeteria, where we were working, and we were very limited as to what areas we could work during school and other areas that were sensitive to that other environment of pickup/drop off exposure to the kids. We worked a lot of this job, as through the summer and fall came in, at night and on weekends. That helped to avoid a lot of the issue of getting involved with the students, the students' safety, interruption of the school program as we're drilling screws into the metal deck, obviously underneath you're going to hear it so it was a daily coordination between our superintendent, daily, myself, Ryan with material delivery, as well as with us having to coordinate with other activities of the school.

Megan Ellsworth: Then Ryan, with that timeline and material delivery, how did you work with that?

Ryan Clark: Yeah, it was a large job like Richard said, and having to coordinate around the school system along with a lot of trucks in and out, took a lot of coordination from his superintendent to the guys in the field to just the school system in general. It just took a lot from our end to making sure we didn't slow down their progress and making sure that deliveries were on time as much as we possibly could, coordinating everything to the crew, to the job site with the drivers. Fortunately, it worked out really good. The overall phasing of the job went well. I don't think we had any delays, and this was right before a lot of the supply chain really went crazy that we were able to supply the material.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. That's great. You've built up a long list of school projects in your region, Richard. What makes you successful in this area.

Richard Peake: Well, as I mentioned before, I think the key to any business is relationship business, building a reputation of doing what you say you're going to do, when you're going to do it, and if something goes awry and it will, it's a matter of time, not if, it's a matter of when-

Megan Ellsworth: So true.

Richard Peake: ...handling it in the most responsible way possible. We've focused our target over the last six, seven years of the school world. In Alabama, it is a at bid-at-large project, but there are also influences of being able to get qualified and be the most qualified contractor when that opportunity comes up. Relationships and key relationships with suppliers like Duro-Last and Ryan, we know that if they tell us it'll be there on a certain day, it's going to be there. We know that the material will be accurate, shipments will be correct. Again, things happen, but it's an exception, it's not the rule.

The second is that when you're working around schools, there's a giant concern about safety, the integrity of the men that are on the roof, interaction with students and the potential interaction with that, and knowing that we have started to utilize every school that we've performed roof work on as a reference point, and now we have several hundred that we can provide a new potential candidate or client say, "Feel free to call any of them and ask them any questions you want." Periodically I have clients call me back, "Hey, so-and-so called, was checking out your references."

I said, "Well, I hope that this is a good reference."

"Oh no, it was great. We told them best things in the world." It's not just me, it's our superintendent, it's our supplier, it's the men on the job, all the way down to our office personnel working together to make sure that every experience is unique, every experience is special, and in the event, and it will, again, go awry, that we handle it in the right way, we resolve those issues quickly, and leave them satisfied.

Megan Ellsworth: Well said. Yeah, exactly. That is exactly it. This is a question to you both. What makes you smile when you think about doing these jobs, especially for schools and what makes you get up in the morning and smile when you think about your job?

Richard Peake: For me, it's simple things of, again, being able to use a particular client as a reference and know hands down, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that things went well, in the event that something did go awry, the integrity of who we are and how we handled it, it was a non-issue with the client. The second is that when we get special awards like the recognition for the Riverton Intermediate, it's 1500 squares. It's 74,000 linear feet of vinyl ribs. It's 2,800 feet of gutters and 1600 feet of downspouts, fascia metal, soffit metal, all the details, makes for a giant project, but that we did this while they were in school, year round, with no issues, no conflicts, zero complaints from parents and staff, that makes me smile because that tells me, as a project manager, as a senior project manager, as a chief financial officer, as one of the thousand hats of sales manager that I get to wear, we as a team are doing the right thing at the right time.

Megan Ellsworth: Love that. Ryan, what makes you smile about your job?

Ryan Clark: Like Richard said, it's very relationship-driven, business-oriented and just getting to deal with a different scenario each day, getting to deal with different people each day to solve the problem. Roofs are out of sight, out of mind, and typically people are not concerned about a roof until it's dripping on their desk or being a problem in their building or their home, and then we become very important people. Being able to solve problems, just being able to be that point of contact, for me, to be the point guy a lot of times, to try to work with someone like Richard and their company and to solve problems and to do it professionally.

Megan Ellsworth: Customer service with an emphasis on custom. Duro-Last Specializes in building roofs and relationships. For more than 45 years, Duro-Last has been 100% committed to forming personal relationships with contractors. They are here, there, or anywhere to help with the tools you need to succeed. Duro-Last's dedicated quality assurance department and technical support staff are always available to provide support and answer questions because you deserve one-on-one service for one of a kind roofs. Call 800-248-0280 or visit duro-last.com to learn more today.

Do either of you have any tips for new people starting out in roofing?

Richard Peake: Yeah, and I still consider myself new in roofing because I'm learning every single day. I might've sat behind the desk for close to nine years, but I literally came into this industry with just enough knowledge to make me dangerous. Grew up in a construction family, had the basic premises about roofing, but realized in the first hour and a half I knew nothing about that.

I always tell everyone, "Go in with no preconceived notions. Go in, forget everything you thought you knew to begin with, and then turn around and partner with someone like a Ryan Clark at Duro-Last who has the knowledge, the facilities, the resources, and has the patience to take time to teach you the right way, the profitable way, and then never be hard on your goals. Have a goal, have something to reach to, but be fluid." I mean by that is life is a constant change. Work is a constant change. Just because something doesn't go your way, don't let it destroy you. Take a step back, reassess it. Maybe there's a reason why it didn't work and if you open your eyes and your mind and be calm about it, a lot of times that self-assurance will come back and you say, "Okay, no problem. Let's do plan B," because it will happen. Again, like I said before, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and just have to be prepared for that.

Networking, to me, is probably where I think has paid off a lot as well.

Megan Ellsworth: If you love conversations like Stories From the Roof, you're going to love Roofer's Coffee Shop's Coffee Conversations. This insightful series is now in its fourth season and features guests that talk all about what is important to the roofing industry and even delves into topics no one else is talking about, like diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as Pride month. Listen to these hour long conversations live on the second and fourth Thursday of each month, or on demand at www.rooferscoffeeshop.com.

Richard Peake: Coming into the industry, there are a lot of competitors you run into and they let you know quickly it's their sandbox and you're not welcome to play in their yard. But again, if you're honest and upfront and ethical, you do the right things, it doesn't take long to realize that you're more than just a Chuck in a truck, which is a slang term we use in our industry of those that just don't carry themselves professionally and don't attempt to do the best and have the honesty and the integrity. Once you demonstrate that through your personal life, through your office life, your world life, it doesn't take long to start breaking barriers down. That's been a big advantage as well, being able to do that and say that we're not just shyly or embarrassed to say, "Hey, I'm a commercial roofing contractor."

I have a six-year degree in the medical industry and had a great career for many years. I wish I would've known about this opportunity when I was 25 instead of the other paths because it's such an excitement every day, something new every day, an opportunity every day, the chance to be the hero, the problem solver every day. It makes me excited to go to work every day.

I'll just say too that opportunities to continually learn are something that, and I'm 57 in a second career, if you will, to become the resident expert for this product and our company and in our market and things like your podcast and the educational aspects of being able to driving down the road, clock in at any time that I have a moment, and listen to the archives of that, it makes me smarter. It gives me an opportunity because either I have an opportunity already in nine years that I can say, "Aha, I've been there," or a week later I'll run into a situation, "Hey, I heard something similar about that." Continuing education is incredibly important for me, and it should be for all of us that want to be a continuing professional in this.

The second that I would say and follow up with is that as we continually create our path, we should always be grabbing those around us, laterally and below us, and make them a better contractor, make them a better roofer, make them a better person because we're only as strong as our weakest person. If the industry and the community and the market looks at us as a Chuck in a truck, somebody who just has a ladder in the back and is not responsible and ethical, we're not doing ourselves any favor. I think that our responsibility closing out is that we have to pull everyone else up with us. There's enough biscuits on the plate, as we say in Alabama. There's enough food for everybody, there's enough opportunity for everybody, but you have to come to the table prepared and dedicated and focused and willing to be worthy of sitting at the table.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Richard Peake: If you do that, there's nothing that's going to stop you. There's enough opportunity out there.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, exactly. Ryan, any last words before we lose you?

Ryan Clark: I would say you've got to surround yourself with people, in our industry and really any industry you're in, that you can mentor from, learn the trade from. Roofing in general, people look at it, I think from an aspect of it's a pretty simplified, easy trade. In a way, it really is, but there is a lot of moving parts and pieces.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, well said, well said. Last question, how long have you been following your Roofer's Coffee Shop and what's your favorite thing about RCS?

Richard Peake: For me, about six weeks.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Richard Peake: I love the fact that, again, it's accessible to me at my time. My time is precious and a lot of times I'll have a two hour windchill opportunity between jobs and it's a great way for me to either decompress from the one before, pick up extra tidbits, but I love the availability that at my convenience on a Saturday afternoon sitting on the back deck, I could pull up an archive and learn something.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. Well, thank you both so much for chatting with me today and sharing your wisdom. This has been fabulous. We hope to have you back sometime soon, so thank you so much.

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