Why face-to-face networking matters

RCS Influencer Trent Cotney says even though we live in an age of everything digital, person to person interactions are hard to beat.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with RCS Influencer Trent Cotney. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Tolle with RoofersCoffeeShop and I am here with Trent Cotney for the January 2025 influencer question. How are you Trent?

Trent Cotney: Doing great, good to see you again.

Alex Tolle: Good to see you, happy new year. So our January question is, how can roofing professionals build stronger relationships and foster professionalism within the industry in 2025?

Trent Cotney: Yeah. So I would say the key thing is to get involved, right? You know, I have a lot of communications like this where it's over, you know, Zoom or Teams or whatever. Um, you can communicate that way, but it's really hard to form those kinds of connections and bonds unless you're a person of person. So, you know, you and I just before I got on, we were talking about travel and you know, it, it, there's a lot of travel definitely during this quarter, but.

One of the benefits is you really get to solidify relationships, create lasting bonds with people in the industry that you have the ability to see. So, you know, we've got IRE around the corner, great opportunity to network, meet people. There's stuff going on 24 hours a day, pretty much, for five days or more. So, really encourage everybody to do that. I think that's the way it is. then locally, if you ever want to know what's going on, you ask your local supplier, distributor. If I ever want to know if something, they've heard us, you know, what's the latest gossip, I'm going to that front desk and they'll tell me, they'll tell me exactly. I've got, you know, the Rolodex here and I'll say, okay, is this true? Have you heard anything? What have you heard? And that's, you know, that's better than any, any social media out there is talking to, to distribution. That's, that's where I hear most of the good stuff. So my advice to kind of summarize is, is. 

You know, even though we live in an age of everything digital, a lot more convenient, trust me, but person to person is hard to beat. You really have, you're not going to make the same kind of connection unless it's person to person.

Alex Tolle: I totally agree. And actually the influencer response we just recorded was pretty similar feedback of you just got to have that personal connection. And the convenience of the teams and the emails and everything is so great, but nothing beats talking face to face, even if it's just a few minutes.

Trent Cotney: Yeah, yeah, that helps solidify those memories. you rarely do remember a team's conversation, but I absolutely remember conversations that I. 

Alex Tolle: Absolutely. All right. Well, thank you so much Trent. We'll see you at IRE.

Trent Cotney: Yep, see you there.