Stories From the Roof S1: E6 with Corey Johnston - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with Corey Johnston. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast here. 

Vickie Sharples: Hi there! This is Vickie Sharples with Roofers Coffee Shop. Today, we would like to introduce you to Corey Johnson. We are happy to feature him as this month's Featured Roofers Coffee Shop Stories from the Roof podcast.  Corey has been in the roofing industry since 1987, and currently works at the Contractor Support Specialist, involved in training for Tremco North America and Canada. So, Corey, welcome to the show.

Corey Johnston: Thank you.

Vickie Sharples: Corey, you first came into my consciousness from your YouTube channel, Contractor's Corner by Corey. You actually are doing something that I always wanted to do. I thought it would be fun to have quick little videos with tips and tricks on different little hacks that people do. Over the years for the Coffee Shop, people have sent me little examples of things they do, and I thought how nice it would be to have something like that, that I could promote, and along came you. How did you come up with this idea?

Corey Johnston: Well, this idea came about from contractor training that I do. Some of my superiors noticed that I can give a lot of tips and tricks of the trade for application. I've been a roofer pretty much my whole life. I also have a few ideas that are inventions that help the roofers with their application. Tremco just wanted to get that kind of information out in a YouTube platform. The idea behind it is just to make the roofer's life a little easier in any way possible, by giving them tips or tricks of the trade, or some type of tool or device that they could use.

Vickie Sharples: It's really fun to watch them. We will encourage people to go on and find your YouTube channel.  I was wondering a few things. You've been around for 32 years. Who taught you to roof, where did you come from?

Corey Johnston: I started out roofing when I was about 15 years old. My stepdad is a shingler, or was a shingler. He's retired now. I got into doing some shingling, just for some spare money for school. Eventually, I got into roofing on a full-time basis. Had enough of school at that point. My stepdad was the first person to teach me about shingling. Later on, there's a host of foremen, supervisors, as well as getting my apprenticeship and my journeymanship. Lots of training all around.

Vickie Sharples: Now, what do you think is the most valuable less you learned in roofing?

Corey Johnston:  I think one thing that my stepdad, Lou, had taught me right away was to work smart, not hard. As everybody knows, roofing is a very rough and tumble industry, and its hard labor, hard work. Any way I could maybe come up with a smart way of doing things instead of a back-breaking labor way.  Another thing that Lou taught me as well, is he wanted me to work with him, not for him. He stressed that as being important, and I can definitely see why. It's better to have a teammate than somebody who is just working underneath you.

Vickie Sharples: Well, I think that gives you the opportunity to learn more. If you're just giving me instructions, then I'm just following, I'm not learning as much. You know? I think the teammate mentality, that everybody works together, that's very wise. I think that's quite wise. So, I was thinking, that you're in Alberta, Canada. I would assume, because of Tremco, you work primarily commercial now. What's the weather like there? Just out of curiosity, in Canada? I'm in Southern California, so I would have no idea what your challenges are on the roof.

Corey Johnston: Yeah, I live in Calgary, Alberta. We have a very unique weather pattern, in Calgary. We have weather fluctuation ... I can't do the translation in Fahrenheit, but it could be minus 22 in the morning, and plus two in the afternoon. This actually causes quite a few problems roofing. Expansion, contraction, splits, very extreme weather. We've got to keep our eye to the sky all the time, because a weather system could blow up and over the mountains rather quickly. It's also very warm in the winter time, so we have the ability to roof all year round here as well.

Vickie Sharples: Oh, you do? That's interesting. I would just figure you'd have four dead months. See, some of your tips and tricks that you can offer are ways to get around how you're going to work in some of that weather. I've seen some unique things over the past on how people warm up, which are probably not legal or correct to do, warm up a tube of caulking in your tail pipe. That's probably not the best one. Maybe that's illegal to do. There was a gentleman that went on one of our Instagram feeds, and he was showing up how he gets his generators ready in the morning. There's great, great information that you're going to be able provide over the years, with tips and tricks. I was wondering, also, you talked about working ... I'd like to ask some questions that may be the same questions I've asked somebody else, because I'm always interested in how they answer. There's a lot of great feedback out there. I think, I was wondering if you could say, in a few words, describe the most important trait in an employee, or a teammate? For the people out there that are working with people.

Corey Johnston: I guess, I've done a lot of training throughout the years. I've had a number of apprentices work with me. The guys that I've had the most success with are interested in learning, they challenge themselves. They want to learn everything they can in the roofing trade, with any system that they're working with. The most important thing is to have a person who has interest in what they do.

Vickie Sharples: Yes. If you're interested, then you might love it, and then you never work a day in your life. That would be ... Although, roofers are the hardest working people because you're 20 foot in the air, and sometimes on an angel, and in the sun. I have so much respect for what you do. I've never actually wanted to do it, I just help you guys all communicate with each other, that's my role.  I was going to ask, what makes you smile when you think about your job?

Corey Johnston: With the job that I'm doing right now as the Contractor Support Specialist, I get to go meet up with contractors in their shops, or different locations and venues that we do. I like just socializing with the roofers, they're my kind of people. I've been a roofer my whole life, so I get along quite well and can connect with them. I really like showing them, and teaching them something new. I don't subscribe to the idea that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I've learned new things all the way along my career, and still learning things. I guess, one thing that's a really big highlight in what I do right now for my job is just watching somebody learn something new for the first time, and just watching the light go off when they see that.

Vickie Sharples: You know, I would think that would be very rewarding, too. I think this is really ... I think you're very fortunate to be able to do that, very rewarding. What other questions do I have? Any tips for the .... Oh! We talked about before, and I was interested in, your educational programs. You have different things available in Canada, but I think when we spoke before you talked about how continued learning, that you can actually become journeyman. You have things different in Canada than we have. Would you tell us about that?

Corey Johnston: Yes. It's actually different between each province. So, in BC, British Columbia, for instance, they're more unionized. When guys start into the roofing trade, they get into an apprenticeship program right away. I would highly recommend anybody go through their apprenticeship program. In Alberta, at least when I started roofing, it wasn't really something that was pushed too much. I didn't actually go for my apprenticeship until I was eight years into roofing. It held me back a bit in my career. I was always in a role as a non-certified journeyman, which was $1 or $2 less an hour, didn't get into a Production Foreman position until I got my credentials. I would recommend to anybody that's new in the trade, or serious about roofing, go out and get your journeymanship, get your apprenticeship behind your belt. Anywhere along the lines, if you can increase by doing different workshops, or different manufacture programs, it just makes you more valuable as an employee, and it's much better job security.

Vickie Sharples: Very smart. I think, for example, the NRCA does have programs that they offer, but I really have to educate myself better on what opportunities. I hope to, eventually, put a page up with all the training and school opportunities. I have that on my things to do for the website. I also use my website to promote Contractors Corner by Corey, because I like to ... Every time I think I came up with a great idea, somebody already did it. Darn you! I'm very excited to support you in this.  You would like people to send you in their tips for you to do or share. I mean, you can actually share them doing them, too, also. If somebody has a good tip, they can send them to you, is that correct?

Corey Johnston: Absolutely. The platform of the YouTube channel is to share tips and tricks of the trade, anything that will help other roofers, make their life a bit easier while they're working. If there are tips or tricks ... There's probably tons of them out there. If there are tips and tricks of the trade that a contract wants to forward, yes. In some circumstances, maybe we will even put them into a video, if they like. We'd like to share that information with the community, and we'd like to give everybody a chance to have a voice as well, if they want to share that with others.They could reach out at an email that I have, which is AskCorey@TremcoInc.com. It's listed at the end of each of the videos. Give a shout out, and we'd be glad to have others participate.q

Vickie Sharples: Well, I want to say that Corey is spelled with an E. So, it's A-S-K-C-O-R-E-Y, just in case somebody didn't want to make it to the end of the video, although I don't know why they wouldn't. Another thing is it would be fun if they subscribed to your channel. All this is going to do is continue to grow. There's nothing like this. There's little things like it in other trades, but there really is nothing like this in the roofing industry. We have particular tools and tricks that don't apply to everybody else. Your channel is really needed, and I'm very excited about it. They could just go on and subscribe. Then, I think when you post a new one, we get notified when that happens. That way, they'll always know. Then, of course, they could always look at the Roofers Coffee Shop, and we help post and promote those, too, for you. The last thing I wanted to say, I think we kind of covered it. I was going to say, any tips for the new guys starting out, like save your money, or always wear socks? I think we covered a lot of it. Is there anything else that you wanted to say that would help other people?

Corey Johnston: I think maybe the same thing. Get as much training as you can.

Vickie Sharples: Yeah.

Corey Johnston: The roofing industry is shrinking up, as far as good workers go, it's hard to find good workers. The more training that somebody has, the more valuable they are. It also keeps your job interesting.  If you just punch the clock, it can be mundane, and the same old, same old. I, at least, find it interesting to learn new stuff along the way.

Vickie Sharples: I agree. I think that people don't realize, if you have a good education in roofing, you can get a job anywhere. I remember somebody telling me a story a long time ago, that they would literally pick a vacation spot, and spend a month there. He would work locally, through his vacation. They'd go to a nice part of town, a nice part of the country, and then he would just get a job for the summer, a few month working there, so that they could stay there and be on vacation. I thought that was so funny, but so telling. If you get a career in the roofing industry, it's a great career for life. I wanted to stop today, because I'm chewing your ear off. I wanted to really thank you for your time because I know how busy you are. It was really important for me to talk to you, because I think you have something really special. You're a nice guy, not just because you're from Canada.

Corey Johnston: Thank you very much. I have to thank RoofersCoffeeShop.com for promoting this channel, and getting the word out. Super valuable, and we did the IRE not too long ago. I want to thank you guys for participating with the Contractor Corner by Corey Coffee Booth that we had going on there. That was awesome! Thank you guys very much.

Vickie Sharples: Well, we really appreciate it. I look forward to interviewing you again next year, and hearing all new stuff. Thank you very much for listening today. We enjoy bringing you these interesting people, to learn a bit more about our beloved roofing industry. Don't forget to visit us a RoofersCoffeeShop.com. You can find our podcast there, or subscribe to our podcast channel. We look forward to bringing you more great information in the future.