The Original Roofing Company - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Mike Coddington of The Original Roofing Company. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to the hottest podcast in the roofing industry. Get ready to meet the stars of the rooftops, the shingle sensations and the gutter gurus. Each month we'll climb up to the top to shine the spotlight on one remarkable roofer who's nailing it. We'll dive deep into their stories, their triumphs and the secrets behind their sky-high success. Don't miss out on these industry insights, incredible tales of resilience and the passion that keeps these roofers at the top of their game. Tune in, subscribe and follow us on this incredible journey as we crown this month's Roofer of the Month.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Toll with Rooferscoffeeshop.com and I am here for the R-Club Roofer of the Month podcast. Our January Roofer of the month is The Original Roofing Company out of Las Vegas, Nevada and I am here with Mike Coddington. How are you doing, Mike?

Mike Coddington: Doing great, Alex. How are you?

Alex Tolle: Good. So glad to have you here and we're excited to celebrate you guys as Roofer of the Month. So if you can just start off by introducing yourself. Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there.

Mike Coddington: Yeah, like you said, my name is Mike Coddington. I'm the COO here at The Original Roofing Company. I've been here with the company for 21 years. Started, I had two stints. I started in 1997 as the safety coordinator and developed a safety plan and back in the time when safety was kind of a secondary thought, progressed up through the company as sales, took a short stint away and wanted to move out of Las Vegas. So my family and I moved out to Houston and moved away. That was in 2006 and then eventually moved back in 2012, started working back here at the original roofing company. 2013, I took upon the operations role and I've been running it ever since.

Alex Tolle: Amazing. Were you in roofing when you were in Houston or were you doing something different?

Mike Coddington: I was in the construction industry, not in roofing. I worked for a manufacturer of building products, so working directly with home builders, selling products for residential.

Alex Tolle: Roofing always keeps you here. You can't leave roofing once you're in it.

Mike Coddington: It draws you back in. [inaudible 00:02:17] from the movies. Right. It's just pulling you back in.

Alex Tolle: Yeah.

Mike Coddington: But it's been an amazing ride.

Alex Tolle: Awesome. So what services do you guys provide? Maybe what's your specialty?

Mike Coddington: Wow, what is our specialty? I like to say we do anything, any type of roofing system other than your spray foam. And I'm quite confident, our specialty is all those systems that we do perform. We've been here in the Valley for over 60 plus years.

Alex Tolle: Wow.

Mike Coddington: We started 1964 and really evolved from a residential cedar shake install company to... Morphed into shingles and tile and then ultimately transitioned into the commercial space, roofing space with all the different types of low-slope systems. So our specialty is really, we really hone in on the commercial at this juncture. We hone in on that commercial side because of our diversification. We do any type of single ply systems, but also we have a full-service metal shop, so we fabricate metals and then install different types of panel systems and wall panels in different fascia soffit. So really completing the whole envelope.

Alex Tolle: Wow, that's amazing that you guys do your own metal fabrication.

Mike Coddington: Yeah, it gives us a little bit of a competitive advantage and when we're going to market, we can package that together and gives our customers a one-stop shop for not have to worry about multiple subs. We can fill in that gap there for them.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, that's amazing. So at The Original Roofing company, what's something that you guys celebrate? Maybe birthdays or you do an Employee of the Month? What's something that you all celebrate?

Mike Coddington: Well, we celebrate really is we celebrate our team and our relationships and our team from our staff all the way down to our customers. You're catching us for the January, but we're coming off our December Christmas party and really that's our time to really celebrate the longevity of our team. We have something what we call as the core team, and so we put on a Christmas party for the entire staff. We're running a staff of about 250 people right now. And really that Christmas party is really a time for raffles and prizes for the team. Our core team represents about 50 percent of our employees.

Alex Tolle: Okay.

Mike Coddington: So our core team comprises of anybody that's been with the company five years plus. So about 50 percent of our staff has been with us five years. And once you get into that core team, at the Christmas party, we have raffles and you can enter to win a truck. So we give away a truck for the field guys and then for the management staff, they're entered into a raffle, like a lottery type thing for a trip to Hawaii. Because we really feel like without our team, there's not really anything to celebrate. You know what I mean?

Alex Tolle: Right.

Mike Coddington: Without them, we don't have a company. So that's what we really focus in on is on our team, is really giving back during the holiday time. Longevity is really key for us, being in an industry that's really high turnover, we pride ourselves on that. We offer bonuses for the team to stay for the longevity and they stay with us. So that's really something that we really like to highlight.

I don't want to say secondarily, because it's right there in a 1A is we celebrate our long-term relationships with our trade partners, our manufacturers and our customer base, the GCs and home builders. In fact, in October we celebrate our 60th anniversary and what we did is we did it more as a customer appreciation and we brought everybody in and did an event out at where everyone could come in and drive these exotic cars, Lamborghinis and all this and have this race and do a bunch of laps out there. It was a real hit. I mean, our team really put a lot of time and effort into it, but really we wanted to showcase not only our team, but also the partners that have made us successful over the last 60 years.

Alex Tolle: That's amazing. I love that you celebrate your partners and everybody because you couldn't have your business without them.

Mike Coddington: Exactly.

Alex Tolle: Their support and continuing to work with you, it's a very important part of the business. That's amazing. Also, you give away a truck and a trip to Hawaii? That is awesome. I mean, like you said, the high turnover in the industry and really just in a lot of industries right now, there's just such high turnover. That's a great incentive to want to stay with a company that wants to celebrate you and wants to give back to you. I love that.

Mike Coddington: Yeah, we're really pride ourselves on it, as I was looking at it in December for the Christmas as we prepare for it and 15 percent of the team has been with us 20 years plus and I'm just amazed. We have some employees have been with us 42 years, 32 years and so we're proud of that and we like celebrating that.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, that's not something you hear of, I feel like very much anymore. People being with a company 40 years. That's incredible. Back to the customer side. How do you all define superior customer service?

Mike Coddington: I think we simply put, it's proactively understanding and just meeting the customer's needs. We're in a service industry, we're putting on roofs and we're protecting products and people's businesses and also their homes. So it starts with just a clear understanding what the needs are and then just communication along the way, consistently delivering quality products. And there's times when we don't deliver, but we follow through and make sure that we do the right thing every time, even if we have a mishap. That's superior customer service, from a positive experience, from start to finish, even if we have a little bump in the road along the way, we want to finish well. And I truly believe that that's how we've been able to sustain our long-term relationships and really our hold in the Valley over the 60 years because of our commitment to customer service and just doing the right thing.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, that's great. I think it's important for customers to see too. You might... Things happen, we're all human, mistakes can happen, but to be able to come back from that and fix it and show, "Yeah, yeah, we're human, we made a mistake, but here, we'll fix it and go above and beyond to make it up to you," is really important. So I love that you guys do that. So I mean, we kind of just explained it, but why should homeowners building owners work with The Original Roofing Company?

Mike Coddington: I would say from our reliability and our commitment here, obviously, from our longevity here in the Valley. Let's face it, people wouldn't be working with us 30, 40 years if there was something, if we were just some "Fly by night," and just not really committed to quality. I think over... Customers can look at us with... We have over seven decades of experience here in the Valley and we continue to evolve with the different types of systems. We're always innovating. We're trying to find better ways and more efficient ways, more cost-effective ways to install a quality product that really fulfills the needs for the customer. So we're going to be here and we're going to stand behind our product. We're not going to just come in, fix it and then we're nowhere to be found four or five years from now. We're going to follow through on everything that we've committed to.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, that's amazing, having that. The time that you've put in to the Valley that you're in, people are going to recognize that. You've been there for, you said 70 years, over 70 years?

Mike Coddington: Well, actually 64. We celebrated our 60th anniversary this year.

Alex Tolle: That's amazing. People notice things like that. Clearly you've been around, you know what you're doing. You've built the credibility with the community that you're in and it makes a big difference. So Mike, why are you an R-Club member and maybe what's one of your favorite things about Roofer's Coffee Shop?

Mike Coddington: R-Club member, it's a community. It's networking opportunities. We get our heads down and we're doing our thing, but having a platform to connect with other people, using some of the resources, get into different forums and talk with other roofing contractors across the country. There's a lot of benefit to that and really you can brainstorm ideas on how to really improve the roofing industry and find a way to advance it and the importance of quality roofing. So we like that. It really sums up the favorite things about it. I love what your organization is doing and just the awareness and the continual drip on getting roofing knowledge out there, so I really appreciate it.

Alex Tolle: That's so great to hear. And that's exactly what we want the R-Club to be, is somewhere for you to connect with other contractors and to be able to learn from each other. It's so interesting to see contractors on complete opposite sides of the country connect on the exact same issues, even if they're totally different climates. Maybe they're a residential and a commercial contractor, but they still have... There's so many ways that you guys can still connect and that's what we strive to do is to bring everybody together. So I'm glad that you're getting the most out of it.

Mike Coddington: Yeah, and a lot of times in your own local market, you can't do that, reaching out to a competitor. So it's a non-threatening way to get in there and build relationships. I mean, let's face it, no matter at the end of the day, we're in a service-based industry and it's all about relationships and building rapport and learning from one another and trying to improve.

Alex Tolle: Yeah, and you can never stop learning.

Mike Coddington: Exactly. Exactly.

Alex Tolle: Okay, last question.

Mike Coddington: Uh-oh.

Alex Tolle: Maybe the most fun, what would your walk-up song be?

Mike Coddington: My walk up song. Okay. My walk-up song would be, "Lose yourself" by Eminem.

Alex Tolle: Yes, I love it.

Mike Coddington: There's so much of, that's really your hype song for a lot of people, whether you're in sports or what have you, but it's just being motivated and driven to persevere and not give up. You know what I mean?

Alex Tolle: Absolutely.

Mike Coddington: No matter what you're facing, the different challenges every time there's going to be a new challenge. And like you said, if you're not learning something new every day, sometimes you're learning, it's hard. But you've got to just get that motivation that he talks about in that song. So it's really one of those. That would be it.

Alex Tolle: There's something about the beat of that song too that just makes you want to move, just move forward. I used to use it as on my running playlist and it was a good way to start because just the beat of it just really gets you going. It's a great one.

Mike Coddington: Yeah, it's funny, I throw that in there. I have it on a running playlist. I'm not going to be running anymore, but two times I finished a half-marathon on a random shuffle and I've crossed the finish line with that song coming on and one time at the end where it's like you can do anything you set your mind to and that's really what any of us are capable of doing if we just set our mind to it and persevere and especially here in this roofing industry, there's so many things to learn and you continue on. So that would be it for sure.

Alex Tolle: That was the perfect song. Might be the best answer yet. Well, Mike, thank you so much for joining me. Congratulations again on the January 2025 Roofer of the Month, the first one of the year. We are so excited to celebrate you and The Original Roofing Company and everybody on your team. So thank you.

Mike Coddington: Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate the opportunity.

Alex Tolle: Of course. And we will catch you all on the next Roofer of the month.

Outro: That's a wrap on this month's episode of Roofer Of the Month. Thanks for joining us on this journey. We'll catch you next time for more rooftop celebrations. Make sure to subscribe and follow the RoofersCoffeeShop.com podcast page for more and go to RoofersCoffeeShop.com, or AskARoofer.com for more information.