Building Roofs and Reputation with Bryson Lanier

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. All right. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae filling in for Bill Gilliland with your local business training and coaching firm, Action Coach Business Growth Partners.

0:44I'm excited to have Bryson Lanier with Little Bird Roof Company as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today. So, Bryson, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community. Hey, good morning. I first appreciate the opportunity to talk with you all today about Little Bird. Uh, my name is Bryce Lanier, moved to North Carolina in 2007, uh, and, uh, uh, started Little Bird Roof Company and its parent LLC, the Mount Workshop Project in 2017. Uh, originally I worked as an independent subcontractor for a decent size residential roofing company in Western North Carolina in 2020, uh, kind of in the middle of the pandemic decided to go out on my own and establish a full service roofing company instead of working as a subcontractor.

1:43And that's how Little Bird was born. I had a slightly different vision than a lot of the contractors I worked with. I think it's really easy to become a budget roofer. You're incentivized, you know, one by the money and then two by the ease of the process to take on easy, high profit margin jobs and to shy away from the difficult installs. And Little Bird was just built to kind of provide a quality experience for our customers and to focus on jobs that most contractors shy away from, whether it's your seat or shake or your slate or historic homes, things that have a lot of moving parts that are a little bit more difficult to navigate.

2:35Oh, yes. I'm sure doing the historic homes, especially are pretty tough, right? I mean, they bring their own challenges. I think once you get into it, the customers are so great to work with. We like an informed educated customer where we're having um deeper conversations than just put a roof on uh so recently we were working with a customer in biltmore forest who has a a slate roof that was put on in 1938 and was adamant that we get the um get the slate from the same quality that they got it from in 1938 uh i think a lot of people would see that i would throw a red flag uh that you don't want to work with this guy or it's going to be difficult we see a an educated customer that knows what they want and i think that if we are professional and knowledgeable and we explain the process to customers like that then we end up in a wonderful situation where the customer knows what to expect we know what to deliver and at the end of the job you're looking at this beautiful project with a very happy customer and you have the you pride in business ownership that our company can handle uh things that other companies uh see as challenges we we see as challenges as well but we see them in a good way instead of we don't want that or it's going to be too big of a headache gotcha yeah That's the tools that we're looking for.

4:11Yeah, yeah. So you see them as an obstacle, but it's not like something that you don't want to take on. You gladly take on the obstacle. You just want to learn a little bit more about it. I love that. Okay. So, yeah, if you had to start your business, you know, this kind of goes into the next question here. If you had to start from square one in your business, what would you do differently?

4:33I would probably hire my operations manager on day one. uh i i've been very fortunate to hire wonderful guys that uh that work with me that have helped me build this company uh helped helped me focus on the vision of the company and trust them with their department uh the first year that i was in business i had a lot of sales experience I had a lot of experience being on site, working with the crew. Um, but the production, you know, from, from sales to invoicing, there were gaps in my knowledge or places that I wasn't comfortable. And I, my first hire, uh, was a guy named Anthony Swetteri. He's, uh, an ornithologist.

5:27He runs a national nonprofit. He has a previous job experience as a home inspector. And he is very detailed. He's a scientist. Everything that he does is documented and written out and planned. And he was just a great kind of counterbalance to the way I operate. So it allowed me to talk to customers, spend more time with customers, spend more time on sales and marketing, and be able to trust somebody that once we had a job in contract, that he was going to be on top of every facet of that job until completion and invoicing. And all I really had to do at that point was circle back with the customers to get their feedback on the experience.

6:24Uh, and he just kind of completed that professional, uh, um, so if I, if I could go back, he would have saved me a lot of time and running around if I had hired him day one instead of a year into business. Okay. Yeah. Okay. No, I love it. I love it. Now, the operations manager that you did go with, I mean, was there anything in particular, because obviously you had to interview for him, was there anything particular you were looking for for an operations manager as far as personality or work ethic or anything like that? Definitely. So I'm an Iraq vet, and I was a satellite systems operator. And I was wonderful in the field.

7:09I didn't like being in the rear. I know my strengths and weaknesses and Anthony pretty much every one of Anthony's strengths is a weakness of mine and every one of mine and vice versa and then two I have a rock climbing past and Anthony was a guy that I climbed with all over the east coast I think it makes it real easy to trust somebody in business that has been on the other end of a rope 500 feet off the ground with you. I knew who he was. I knew his intelligence level. And I knew that, like I said, his strengths were my weaknesses. So it was just a natural fit with somebody that I knew and trusted.

7:58Perfect. I love that. Love that. So what have your biggest learnings been as an owner since you started your business? you know i think with roofing and with western north carolina um communication with the customers has learning how to do that efficiently and professionally has been really important we we transcribe all of our phone calls uh so that if my sales team or project manager or operations manager has a conversation with you that we don't end up in that brutal game of um telephone game where the customer either misunderstood something or a salesman misunderstood something we're able to go back and look at our phone calls and and reading back word for word what was discussed um which i think makes you know all parties involved comfortable um i think learning to educate customers about the process has been a really important thing to learn.

9:09A better educated customer makes for an easier overall process. I think companies get real comfortable assuming that the people that they're talking to know the information that we're talking about. yes so taking a step back and realizing that this person's likely hearing all this information for the first time and being thorough and explaining all the ins and outs uh has made for a better experience and less sticker shock at the end of the job um not having x-ray vision as a roofer is difficult because we're going to tear into roofs we're in a mountain community the way guys were doing things 30 years ago is not the way we do things than currently so we don't know what we're going to get into and if you're one of these companies that goes out and just sells sunshine to your customer everything is going to be perfect this is the least expensive we could do it for you're going to set your customers up for sticker shock or disappointment when you tear into a roof and there are multiple layers or wildlife infestations or ventilation systems are proper.

10:29Having a customer that knows what to expect is invaluable. So I think that was a big thing to learn, learning the software that goes into running a company this size. we initially started as a company focused on high quality. We were going to do one or two jobs a week and do them well and go after those hard jobs like we discussed. Helene hit and we had 100 roofs in contract in the first three weeks after the hurricane. If we had not had the software in place to integrate with the supply houses and our measurement software, then we would have had to hire 10, 15 people to manage that workload. But we were one of the few companies in the area that had those systems in place where our current staff was able to adjust and adapt to that influx.

11:34And I'm sure, you know, with your customers kind of knowing what to expect during the job and kind of not have that sticker shock, I bet you it prevents, you know, negative reviews. Is that correct? So far, we only have five-star reviews on whether it's Google, Yelp, any of those platforms. We haven't received even a four-star review to date. It's because we take the extra time. to go through it. Our, you know, our automated emails and reminders and text might be annoying to some customers. We've definitely gotten negative feedback that the automations can almost pester. In business, you're going to find customers that appreciate stuff like that and then customers that are not.

12:26And it's a balance in between. and I would rather be overly thorough and send a text every once in a while that we're not bothering you, that's just an automation, than I would for a customer to feel like they're left in the dark and have a crew show up at 8 o 'clock in the morning on some random day and they're not expecting it. Yeah, no, you're exactly right, Bryson. And I'll be completely honest with you. If I was going to have something done with my roof, I'm going to honestly keep you guys in mind. And that's just being 100 % honest because I love, I'd rather you over communicate with me than under communicate.

13:02Cause I mean, I hate it. And someone, like you just said, you know, somebody shows up at your house, you have no idea what's going on. I'd rather you over communicate with me rather than just somebody just showing up at my house and on a day that probably doesn't work well for me. So yeah, definitely. I love it. Love it. Um, so, so getting into that a little bit more, what are some common misconceptions about running a business? Would you say uh that it's not always going to be easy or profitable um you know i i've got friends uh that are commission based uh i have friends that sell huge solar systems and make or make a lot of money in waves and then i have friends that they work for the same business for the last 10 years.

13:56They know exactly what to expect going into work. They get to put it down at five o 'clock. Their paycheck's always going to be the same. I think I'm right in between that, where it does come in waves as a business owner. Some months are incredibly profitable, and the next month could be abysmal. And if you're not prepared for those ups and downs, then stress can kill you. I also think that growth requires discomfort. It's impossible to grow within your comfort zone. So as a small business owner, in-size business owner, a large business owner, I think you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable or with being outside of your comfort zone um and then my job as a business owner in regards to my family and my employees is not to transfer those highs and lows to them but to keep them steady you know uh my wife doesn't need to know every great success or every great failure or she's on the same up and down stressful path that i'm on uh so i think keeping that to myself uh running the business giving my employees a comfortable place to work but also keeping them motivated um is super important you know we can have a month that seems like it sets us up for a year and then profit and that you have so many guys um so you know it's it's fluid uh helene kind of highlighted um that you can build a wonderful company inside you know this great community and think that you have everything dialed in and then those communities needs can change and um uh you have to adapt with it.

16:00One of the things that I took from my years of rock climbing is that if you're only interested in success, you would do something easy. But if you are trying to accomplish something difficult, that frustration almost, frustration does let you know that you've kind of found the challenge that you are looking for. So instead of letting frustration shut you down, frustration kind of has to be a motivator that you know or a reminder like you're trying something difficult work hard at it okay so how do you handle taking vacations while running a business this is always a good uh well you know um this year will be easier than last uh roofing uh is is weather dependent um your summer vacations as a roofer are pretty much non-existent asphalt products do not stick down in freezing temperatures so we we typically squirrel away metal cedar shakes slate jobs decks fences framing uh things for the winter kind of try and build up that work for the cold months because we know that asphalt products won't be installed post-Helene, we were doing everything.

17:24We were a treaty company. We were a water mitigation company, interior, exterior. We're handling insurance claims left and right. Now that we're back on a normal pattern, January and February, when the workload slows down, it helps all of us get refreshed for springtime when people clear that tax hurdle and the weather warms up and we get along those days and then we're firing on all cylinders. So, you know, you're taking trips out of the cold to go somewhere warm normally in January and February and kind of refreshing and come back. Yeah, sounds like a trip to Miami is in the cards pretty soon, huh?

18:12All right. So, yeah, what have you attributed, you know, to your growth so far in your business? Anything in particular? Uh, you know, um, learning how to use the resources around you. We, we are credentialed with a number of different manufacturers. Uh, if we install a roofing system, uh, then we have our guys take tests on those roofing systems, how they're supposed to be installed, use all corresponding products. That way we can register warranties with the manufacturer. I'd like to think that I'm going to be around in 50 years but if I'm not, my customers will still have all the warranties because we are listed as professional installers for all these different systems that we install.

18:59We wanted those credentials just so we could prove that we were the company that people wanted to work with. Building those relationships with those manufacturers that are things a billion dollars worth of certainty products last year so certainty is now helping us with marketing and sending us leads from their website or uh everything from door hangers to business cards to educational opportunities for my roofing crews and my salesmen. The people that make the products that we install have been an incredible resource for business building. They've seen it before. They've helped other companies grow, and they're just as incentivized as we are to see our company grow.

19:53We grow with them. They grow with us. uh so that's been a that's been a great resource and so how do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business you shut things off at certain time five o 'clock six o 'clock p.m or i don't i don't feel that i really have the ability to shut everything off when i i'm i'm a father, my husband, uh, I've got kids, uh, that are all involved in sports, you know, extracurricular activities and deserve my time. Uh, when I get home, I do have difficulty shutting it off, or at least this last year has been difficult because, um, normally when somebody calls you with roofing needs, it will not normally, but it has the potential to really be affecting their life you know post-Helene it rains water's dumping in the attic it's ruining their you know pictures and memories and and they're desperate to get somebody out there right now or at least be heard and get a game plan for the following day for um you know taking the next steps of fixing their issues so we do have an emergency line that i monitor personally um It doesn't ring as often as it did last year, so it's getting easier to balance.

21:26I think having a start point and having an end point of every day helps balance my guys. I enforce that. Sometimes I'll call my operations manager at 5.30, and when he doesn't answer the phone, I smile and know that he's at least taking time for himself. because burnout was hard to avoid post-Holene. I had guys that were working for monks in a row, so we all faced burnout. I think we've all gotten better this year about taking time with our families and knowing that it'll be okay to get to it tomorrow, but we still want to be responsive to customers that are going through a crisis. Okay. So what, you know, you kind of talked a little bit about this earlier, but, you know, how do you go about fostering a positive and productive work environment for your employees?

22:31You know, my guys have unlimited time off. Nice. I think that that kind of, you know, regulates itself. If my project manager who's on site for every install takes three weeks off when he comes back some people are going to be frowned at um we're we're a we're a team we want you to be able to take as much time off whatever you need within a reason and i think just the communal respect and everybody having their you know designated jobs. Uh, uh, I, I know that like my sales guy would feel guilty if he left for two months and we didn't have anything to do. Um, everybody in the company knows everybody else's job so we can cover down for a certain amount of time.

23:23Um, but, but when people are gone, it's noticeable. So, you know, unlimited time off, I tell them they could take as many months off each year as they wanted to. They normally only take a few weeks. We meet every Friday for a few hours. We know each other. We spend time with each other outside of work. I think everybody cares about each other and we know the opportunity that we have to be successful and it depends on everybody. um so you know i just having a having a tight-knit team listening to your people and uh and trying to just navigate things that happen in their life whether their mom gets sick or they need to spend more time with their kids uh just listening to that making that happen and then trusting that they'll put the work in when they come back okay so now we're going to head into what's called the quick fire round.

24:33Um, so basically what I'm going to do is I'm going to spit out one word. I want you to tell me what this one word means to running your business.

24:45Education. Well, education is key in all facets of the job. Having educated employees that can explain things to customers that can further the customer's education.

25:03We, being in Western North Carolina, not all of our customers call Western North Carolina their primary home. Florida building codes can be drastically different than North Carolina. The way we do things in certain parts of the country is different. um you know florida deals with high wind we we deal with snow and freezing temperatures um i i think that not only knowing the right things to do here but knowing where our customers come from allows us to have deeper conversations uh with people that might not even be in the state when they're making the decision on what to do on their roof uh so that that part of having an educated sales team and an educated customer is really important.

25:53Having an educated crew, knowing how each roof system is installed, things can be different from manufacturer to manufacturer. Once again, that's why we have our crews take test. If I am putting on a certainty roof or a GAF roof or a standing seam metal roof from Best Buy Metals, the crew that is on the job has passed the test on that specific material so they know what to do. That way we don't eliminate warranties that would have been available to customers. And then I think education on just the community, knowing the ins and outs of Western North Carolina, it's kind of a little bubble. whether you're putting solar panels on a roof or you're dealing with a house up in wolf laurel that's going to experience higher winds than you'd see in Asheville or Lake Lure.

26:55Just knowing those little idiosyncrasies, those little differences between communities so that you can address them appropriately is huge. So, you know, my, my, my crew has been doing this for a long time and we were prepared for the little things that pop up in a job because we've done our research. We've done our due diligence. We, we've, we've taken those extra steps to be prepared for that job. We've educated ourselves along the way. Nice. I love it. Love it. Next word is planning. What? Oh, planning. So planning, once again, I have to champion Anthony's contribution to our company. Anthony is the best I've ever seen when it comes to explaining what's going to happen the day of an install, being prepared, talking to customers ahead of time.

27:54Where should we put the materials? Where should we put the dumpster? Do we need to make contact with your neighbors? Do you have a shared driveway? way um anthony is fluent in both spanish and english uh so our crews get uh installation instructions and daily work orders in both english and spanish with a full site layout a full material list they never walk into a job not knowing what they're going to be doing what's on site, what they might need or all the little things that go into a job. Uh, so I think we're, we're very, very prepared, uh, uh, for every day's worth of work. Um, and you know, once again, that, that, that makes our crews, uh, feel comfortable.

28:45Um, I think eliminating surprises as much as possible by just being thorough upfront, you know, really exposes the difference between our companies and other contractors in the area. Inspiration.

29:07Inspiration outside of just wanting to provide for my family is we want to be more than a roofing company uh we um our charitable outlet is wild bird research group it is a national non-profit that is run by anthony my operations manager uh he's an ornithologist you'll find him at the nc arboretum on the weekend you know teaching classes to kids he goes to costa rica every february to track migratory patterns of birds that he's banded up here in western north carolina we want to be a company that gives back to the community. And I think with my background in rock climbing and Anthony's background in rock climbing and the Warnithology, that preserving natural areas and being more than just a moneymaker for our family, but being a positive influence on the community is our inspiration.

30:09Nice. Nice. I love that. uh and lastly commitment commitment is our commitment to the customer uh we do the extra things we take the extra test we we jump through hoops that other companies don't jump through because like we discussed before roofing companies come and go uh most companies come and go um our commitment to our customer is if something happens to me if i'm in a car wreck next year my business shuts down that your warranties don't evaporate your roof was installed the right way uh these are transferable warranties these warranties oftentimes don't depreciate if you get a manufacturer's defect 49 years from now and i'm out of business you have a a manufacturer sometimes a 300 year old company like in the case of saint gobain that still has your warranty registered.

31:08So our commitment is that we don't cut corners. We do things the right way. I tell customers, everybody's roof looks the same the day after install, whether it's a good install or a bad install. Five, 10 years down the road, it becomes noticeable if a bad company cut corners. You have a manufacturer's issue. They come out and they say, hey, it wasn't installed the right way. That's why it's falling apart. They didn't use enough nails. They installed this one. It was 20 degrees outside. Our commitment to our customers is that we are not going to make those mistakes, that we are going to do things the right way the first time.

31:49And when we leave them, they're going to have a product that they're confident in. What words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow? So your reputation is everything. When you start a business, you're going to be put in positions where you could potentially be doing a job that is not going to be profitable. If you gave the customer your word that you were going to do it, you honor that commitment to your customer. It might cost you money the first year in business, second, third year. of this. It might cost you money your entire business life. But your reputation is more important than an extra 10 % profit margin on a job.

32:37I was raised, my dad always taught me that honor is a gift a man gives himself. So give yourself that gift starting a business. it will it's beneficial in the day to day it's beneficial in the long run you know 30 years down the road losing a thousand dollars on the job will not be a big deal not running an honorable business having a reputation of being dishonest is a business killer and rightfully so okay so what would you say is the next big thing for Little Bird Roof Company next big thing for little bird roof company is uh just how to grow appropriately um it's it's it's like a snowball you know you kick you kick this positive snowball off the top of a mountain and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger learning how to navigate bigger things is is the big challenge um we're constantly just trying to educate ourselves on how to be a better company um we're getting more comfortable taking uh bigger projects we're moving into the commercial space uh more than we have in the past um in the past we've mainly focused on residential commercial is a different uh different beast so i think moving into that commercial side of things and then you know we've worked with a lot of home builders in the area we've worked with a lot of other companies just professional connections take us in directions where we're following somebody else's vision more than than our vision so just learning how to support that I wouldn't be surprised if we get into custom home building in the future.

34:42After Helene, we wore so many hats. We made so many connections with different subcontractors and different builders that it's opened doors into areas that a roofing company normally wouldn't step into. So we just want to step into those areas with the same attention to detail and focus on quality that got us where we are in Little Bird. okay and lastly what's the best way for someone to find you or get in touch with you uh you know we we got a great um we get a lot of word of mouth recommendations uh we've got a website we've got a good google presence you know we're constantly working on seo and trying to expand that uh i prefer customers to call me directly um getting an email gives you a little bit of information but we we value those personal connections we get more information when we have a conversation with somebody on the phone so uh you know reaching out to us directly getting an inspector on site uh while the customer's there uh instead of you know we don't do a lot of this door knocking and just throwing a ton of estimates out we have a very high close rate so um getting in touch with us personally over the phone um or requesting a meeting at a supply house to go over products.

36:04Uh, uh, that's, that, that's our, um, that's the best way to, to once again, you know, educate the customer and explain who we are and make them feel comfortable with, with deciding to, to use us as a roofing company. Perfect. What's that phone number and email? Uh, phone number is 828-551-1314 for my personal line. We also have a, uh, uh, uh main office number which is 828-678-BIRD uh and then the email address is just bryson at birdroof.com perfect perfect any social media presence social media we're on facebook and instagram uh oh where else are we um yeah i mean i'd say facebook uh facebook's our number one And Instagram's pretty good.

36:55We do the TikTok and LinkedIn things as well. But I think we're easier to reach. And it's easier to see our work with Facebook and Instagram. Perfect, perfect. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all that you're doing. We certainly wish you continued success and really appreciate you coming on the podcast today. Hey, we appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part.

37:31It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. it's free for you at gift from bill.com that's gift from bill.com hey and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business send me an email directly just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com that's my personal email that i read no one else reads it first there's it's not screened it's my real email Just send it to me.