Work Together to Elevate the Industry

RCS Influencer Danny Kerr says that Roofing Day attendees should have open, honest conversations that will elevate the industry overall.  

Editor’s note: Listen to the interview below to hear what Danny Kerr has to say about Roofing Day. You can also read the transcript below the interview. 

Hi, my name is Megan Ellsworth here at RoofersCoffeeshop. And today I am with Danny Kerr from Breakthrough Academy, and we're talking about the March influencer topic. And that topic this month is what would you like to have discussed at Roofing Day 2021? So Danny, take it away. What are you wanting to have discussed over there? 

Danny Kerr: Yeah. I was thinking a bit about this before we came into this and I was reflecting on the collaboration that we have internally in our membership and how rare that is externally in the general marketplace. And what I mean by that is our members are sharing all their best practices with each other, all their trade secrets. They're sharing their financials. They're sharing as much as they possibly can to help each other, and they come at the membership with us with the mentality of like, how much can I give? And that's what they're focused on versus how much can I take? And what happens is, especially when we have our events, we have 300 something people there. They're all focused on how much they can give. If you're an individual they're doing that, you also have 300 people trying to help you, which is a huge magnifying effect. 

Danny Kerr: We're all striving to professionalize this industry and bring it to a bit more of a standard. And it's hard to do that when everyone's holding their cards close to their chest and they're willing to share maybe some stuff, but they're going to keep the good stuff to themselves because they don't want to give away too much. And we're in a world where information is everywhere and you can probably grab most of that information anyways online. And to be able to have that just general tone within the roofing community, where everyone's like, you know what, let's talk about it. Let's get into it. And to be less afraid of what your competitor is going to be doing and more excited about what that will do for the industry by raising everybody, I think that's huge because there's definitely people in the industry that probably shouldn't be in here and there's definitely a lot of people that should be. And I think if the people who are trying to professionalize the industry are working together more, I think that's a much more powerful force. 

Danny Kerr: I've just been to a lot of conferences. I've been to a lot of different public events where I see everybody working together and although it is still collaborative, I do still feel there's a level of people will still wear a little bit of a face and they're missing the true in-depth relationships that could be had if they'd just let down their guard a little bit. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, for sure. I agree. I love that. I totally agree with making it more open and honest community and it already is. We are such a beautiful community here, but the honesty and the openness, I think that's great. How do you think that'll translate in Washington DC? 

Danny Kerr: I don't know. We'll have to see. I just think about things like when I go to some conferences, I talk about how we have our contractors sharing their financials, sharing their books, and they're not sharing it with all 300 of our members, but they certainly do share it with their group. And they're very open to talking about margins. They're very open talking about ratios of what they're spending on, what they're making, all that kind of stuff. And I bring that up and there is a bit of an older school mentality, which is like, never do that. You start doing that and you're going to get your competitor to take you over. 

Danny Kerr: When I think about advocacy, I know it's not as political, but it's like, that's something that I've been advocating for for a lot of years where it's like, we have to get over that. The world's changing quickly and that mentality, although in certain circumstances is valid. I don't think it's just, hey, put your financials online for everyone to see. There's a privacy that's important there. I think there's huge opportunity missed when people just put a block, a stonewall against that. That's just something personally I've been advocating for in the industry for a long time. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. I love it. That should totally be discussed. I think that's great. And we haven't really heard a perspective like that yet on this topic. So I love that you went there. What should contractors do to kind of start doing that? Should they engage with Breakthrough Academy or what should they do? 

Danny Kerr: Well, I mean, with all of that said, I do think it's important that you know you're in a safe space to be able to do something like that. And I think you want to be in a group for, you want to be in an organization or in a place where you know that the people who are there have been vetted at some point at some level. If it's all just open public forum, I do meet people where I'm like, I don't know if I trust you to be honest. 

Danny Kerr: And there is some level of vetting like BTA internally obviously, we have hours of vetting that goes on before somebody comes in, then they go through a six week course with us. We get to know them really, really well. And what that allows for is a group of very like-minded people that are all on the same page. And they all know that, hey, like I didn't just get in here randomly. I had to work for this. I had to prove that I am who I am here, but once you create that safe space, I think it's really cool. I think people let go of their guard. 

Danny Kerr: I think about a lot of the events we've done, even where people have never been to a public event with us before. They maybe only met us online. They even maybe starting to work with our coaches and starting to kind of get into the whole BTA thing that we do, but they're still a little bit nervous when they come to these events. They come and they're like, hi, I'm John. This is my business card. Good to meet you. And I just give them a big hug. I'm just like, welcome. This is the bar. These are your friends and let's go hang out. It's just like a different, a totally different vibe than I think a lot of people would expect from a business conference, but it just lightens people up. 

Danny Kerr: And I've always been a big believer that you need to be the same person you are with your kids and your family at the dinner table, as you are in your business environments. And it just allows for a much more open level of conversation, and it takes people from being, hey, what can I say and not say? What's the right thing to? Just be you. Just be you. Let it be. And I think there's certain organizations and I think you guys do a good job of this, I think that help with that, but I think if it's openly discussed and you give people almost immediate permission where they're like, oh, okay, I can just be me, totally, that changes the way these conversations happen over dinner and at night. And it allows people to just get that much deeper into where they're at and what they're looking for and where they can help each other. 

Megan Ellsworth: I love that. Yes. Thank you for sharing. Oh, what you said totally hit me. We should be the way we are with our kids and our family around the dinner table. We should be that way in all the things we do. I love that. So thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your opinions this month, and I will see you in April. Do you have any last words? 

Danny Kerr: No. Just let's get rolling. Industries about to start up here. Let's go make some money. Let's go hit the industry and let's rock and roll. 

Megan Ellsworth: All right. Thanks, Danny. I'll see you next month. 

Danny Kerr: Thanks Megan. See ya. 

Danny Kerr is the Director of Assessment of Breakthrough Academy. See his full bio here.