Javier Puerta

Episode 256 is a good one. Today, I’m chatting with my buddy Javier Puerta, who also happens to be America’s Newest ABC Supply Branch Manager. From humble industry beginnings, to working with some of the best in the business, to packing up and heading back to his Hometown to build and open a new Branch from scratch. Does name recognition alone guarantee instant success? Tune in and find out.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Once again, it's your favorite podcast. Y'all know what it is now. It's keeping it real. It's been your favorite for almost five years. Today, episode 256 is in the house, and I could not be more excited because I've got my very good personal friend here as a guest. But not only that, I've got America's newest ABC branch manager coming straight out of Laredo, Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome newest branch manager, golf buddy, overall great guy, former sales rep for myself, and just legend of the game, Mr. Javier Puerto. Welcome, Chief, to the show. What's up? How's everything going for you right now?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Man, we're rocking and rolling. It's uh it's picking up pretty quick. We're uh breaking records quick.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Breaking records, folks. And that's gonna be the theme of today's episode because I've seen this guy break records on the golf course, I've seen him break records at the boardroom, I've seen him break records everywhere, and he's just getting started. So let's kick the episode off by going back in time a little bit. Obviously, you're sitting right now in your brand new ABC location in Laredo, Texas. I can even smell the newness through the screen. Like this thing is brand new, folks. And this has been quite the journey, I'm sure, to get to where we're sitting. I always like to go back in time, start at the beginning, and kind of work our way up into modern times. So I've known you for many years through the industry, even before you're with ABC. Give the fans worldwide a little bit of your background here, and then we'll kind of run with it and we'll just turn this into the most awesome episode in the history of podcasts.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Yeah. So I actually got into roofing back in like 2016. Had a buddy of mine, Jason Ramitas, he's in Houston, his little brother of Chris Ariago, out in Houston, and he asked me if I wanted to go do roofing. And I was like, Man, I don't want to go door knock. Like, that's not what I do. And it's like the scariest thing that they to even think about is go going on door knocking. It's just nervous. But I know you guys do, you guys kick ass at it. But to me, yeah, I don't kick ass at it. I do it, but oh, you're a trainer. I got stories, trust me. But, anyways, he told me uh to to give it a try, and I was like, Well, man, I'll go interview and I'll I'll see what it's about. And it was uh for Texas Roofing Supply, it was a small little mom and pop shop in Houston, Stafford. It was tough to sell there. Um, the guy used to work at SRS, kind of bad reputation, and it was it's kind of hard to sell. So man, I did it for like a year and I just got tired of you know the nose because of the guy that I was representing. So I started, I was a contractor for another year after that with uh Eric Beveridge um out in Houston. Man, when we started, we were doing maybe one or two roofs a week. Now he's doing like 30 a week, and he's built a superstar team. Uh man, if you guys don't follow him, he's super cool guys. He's always posting motivational videos, motivational pictures, um, just everything motivational. He's how to start a business. He's he's a super cool guy. I work with him for about two years, and he actually, some of the stuff that I I implement now as a manager, I got from him. For example, like one of the biggest things is I hate for people to call me boss. I absolutely don't like it because I don't like to be, I don't want to be put up here when you know I just want everyone to be here. Like, I don't look down on anyone. So I actually correct my associates all the time. I tell them, like, well, I'm not your boss, I'm not anything, I'm your partner. We're in this together, we're growing the Laredo branch together. And I got that from him. I would always call him, Hey boss, how are you doing? He's like, dude, don't call me that. Like, we're friends, we're partners, like, let's do this together. So that stuck with me. So I did that for about a year, and then I don't know, I wanted to move back to closer to home because I was missing Laredo at the time if you can even think of that. It was I was missing Laredo, and there was an opportunity to be the versical rep with J Rodriguez and Ian Wilson. And um, I actually talked to Chris Adiaga because I asked him for a lot of advice, and I say, Hey man, have you heard of these guys? Who are they? What's what should we do here? And he said, Man, if you're gonna do it, do it for Ian Wilson. That guy's gonna open a crap ton of stores for you. And um, so yeah, I interviewed with J Rod. I interviewed with Ian Wilson, and I was there for about two and a half years, moved to San Antonio from there. Um, man, I actually was like three and three or four years with Versico, Karnak, GAP. We did a bunch. I had San Antonio, I had Corpus, I had the Valley, I even had Laredo. So kind of doing the rep life for a little bit, and then I actually got into ABC by accident. I was doing a training down in McAllen or actually Harlington with with Adolfo, the manager down there, and we started talking. And I told him, I was like, Man, I really like ABC's operation. If there was anybody that I would go work for as a distribution, I think it'd be ABC, man. You guys have the biggest, the biggest warehouses, the inventory, you got the trucks, you got the the professionals, like now you guys are it. So he told Jim Walker, my boss, hey, this guy wants to come and work for ABC. I didn't say that. I said that if there was somebody that I would want to go work for, it would be ABC. Week later, I went to go do a training at 461 where where I used to work at with Brent. And um he says, Hey man, I heard you want to work with us. And I said, I mean, I I would if the opportunity presented itself, but I'm not looking. And we actually went back and forth for like six months, and uh, we went to TPC. Uh, we were doing a trade show there, I forgot what it was, and I don't know why I just walked up to Brent and I said, You know what? I'm ready. Let's go. I want to get into ABC supply, and he made it happen. You know, a year later, for um a couple months later, I started with ABC, and now it's been five years. Next next in two months, it'll be five years.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

That's pretty amazing, and it's crazy to think that it's been five years already, but I'm very familiar with this whole story because I buy my stuff from that ABC. You were my rep. Yeah, and Brent, you know, he's my uh dude that goes up and whoops up on me when we go play golf and all that stuff. But what a great group. And dude, I'll be honest with you, I didn't realize that you started an independent distribution as your first. That was me. I opened up a roofing supply company in North Carolina that was independent and basically built it from scratch, you know, with some some help. And it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. And I know what you mean when you're like, hey, I've got to sell against, you know, someone inside our own deal, maybe not so much the deal that I had to work with, but I was fighting with ABC Supply. They were literally like a mile down the road from me. And when I started making a little bit of an impact, ABC kind of treated me like a bug and like squashed me a bit. So I earned some respect along the way. And I know how hard it is to start a branch in a new market, but let's talk a little bit about your transformation into ABC from there. So I knew you and you were over there with J-Rod and Ian and all those guys, and moved over to ABC. We start working together. Tremendous experience. You are awesome to work with. I will say that 100%. Nothing ever was bad. If we ever had anything that was even slightly wrong, it was like, let's just take care of it and fix it. And I'll be honest, there was really never anything. Only one time I think we had something that we had to adapt and overcome, and we did. So I see your leadership right out of the gate as someone that would be considered as a, you know, a role for a position in branch management and things like that. Funny how that plays out because I thought that years ago. I was like, that's pretty good the way y'all handled that. That's why I've been loyal to ABC. So you're in, you're you're doing your sales here in San Antonio for what, four years down here?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Three and a half, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Getting a good base established, getting your customers, you know, having fun doing your stuff, getting yourself established. And then this opportunity presents itself in Laredo. Now, one thing I've learned is usually guys that have been doing it for like three and a half, four years don't typically get these types of opportunities because there's usually a long line of people that have been in the company for years that have, you know, kind of paid their dues or whatnot, and feel like that that's the line that it should be in. So I want to ask this number one, being a guy that was there for such a short period of time, what was it like getting that opportunity offered to you? Tell me a little bit about, you know, I remember exactly how it was the day that they asked me if I wanted to move to Charlotte, and it was like, let's go, baby. Didn't think about anything else. What was your hey hobby? You want to go to Laredo and start a branch from scratch, moment like for you?

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Do you know what's crazy is that when they first asked me that, I told them no. It's not crazy.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I told them that's a big, big, big thing to think about.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Well, because I I fought my butt off to get out of here. I mean, there's before the before I even came down here and I saw the growth, I was like, wow, there's a lot growing. But there wasn't that happening when I was here as a child, when I was here as a you know in the in my early 20s, that wasn't happening. And Laredo is very, it's about who you know. If you're not in that part of the group, you're you're not being successful, like, and that's changed, like it's more open-minded here. It's not very uh political, and it's just it's just changed. Laredo has a different feel to it. You can see it on the growth, absolutely. But when they first uh asked me if I wanted to move to Laredo, I said, absolutely not. I want to stay in San Antonio, and you actually have two more branches that are opening here. We're opening up Bernie and we're opening up Grissom. And I fought for Grissom for the longest time. And then as I as I came down to visit my parents, because my parents live here in Laredo, my wife's parents live here in Laredo. I saw the opportunity. And when I saw the opportunity, and I don't mean like the opportunity of growth, I saw dollar signs everywhere. There's so much work in Laredo, there's so much new construction, there's so many big warehouses. I mean, it's one of the largest import-export cities, and that's what we thrive on, Laredo. So we got thousand, two thousand, five thousand, six thousand square warehouses that are just ready to be roofed and new construction. And man, I saw dollar signs when I saw it for some reason it just clicked. I called Jim Walker, my boss, and I was like, Hey, you know what? I want to go to Laredo. What do we got to do? And what's crazy is that he had actually pumped the brakes on Laredo because I don't think he could find a manager that was willing down to willing to go down to Laredo. So he pumped the brakes. And when I told him, he's like, All right, full steam ahead, let's go find you a location, a spot. So took a couple of trips down here to Laredo, and I found this warehouse that we're in right now, it's super central. You know, it's it's it's in the what we call the south part of Laredo, but it's now turning into the center of Laredo because the south is just expanding so much that I'm right in the middle. So I strategically picked this place because it's I can go left and right and go and deliver everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, I think that's the most important aspect of the whole thing. And when we were in Charlotte, it was the same deal. Like we were dead center in the middle of Charlotte, North Carolina, and everything was accessible from where we are. And you just brought up my next question. This is kind of a good segue. I was gonna ask, as the branch manager, you know, with a company like ABC that's obviously got some experience with opening locations, you guys have like, you know, what, four or five of them nationwide now? And it's like, okay, as the guy that's gonna be moving down there, as the guy that's gonna be running that branch, it's gonna be putting your heart and soul into it. What type of input do you get into the process of picking a building, figuring out, you know, those types of logistics and coming up with those kind of things? How in depth was your involvement when it came to that part?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

It was a unique situation because you're the managers are usually never involved in greenfield finders and all that stuff. But Jim Walker brought me in here knowing that I had so much knowledge of a Laredo, I'm from here. So he picked a couple of spots and he's like, is this a good location we would go visit? I was like, You don't want to be here, the traffic's gonna be bad in and out, you're gonna spend an hour trying to get out of traffic here. We just visited so many places and we landed on this one. So, to be honest, when you get out of the training for branch management, you don't really know where you're gonna land, but I knew where I was gonna land already, so I was involved from the beginning from like dealing with landlords and like leasing and all that stuff. I was involved in all of that, and what's crazy is that the guy that ended up um that we ended up leasing with, I know him, he's one of my friends, so that kind of helped to close that deal. Um, but yeah, I mean, we were I was involved through all of it from start to finish, construction to open doors.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

I think that's the most fun part of the entire journey, and I think the more involved you are in the time, it's stressful as all get out, and you're probably thinking, Oh my god, you know, but once you get you get that's starting to echo a little bit for some reason, all right. Okay, sorry, it was echoing, it still is a little bit, but once you get into this process and you start doing the uh the uh you know the the in-head in-house stuff with moving into the building, setting up the warehouse, hiring staff, basically getting everything ready for your opening day. Hey, tell me a little bit about the experience as that goes. How did you find people that that would you know come into your team? Did you bring experience from outside in for the setup? Or was this all done with your in-house team?

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, so I mean, the construction part was obviously we just hired somebody local. We usually have an ABC team that does it because they know how to do our buildings and all of our setup, but we hired someone local. Um, the interviewing process was kind of it was tough because we had a target date of when we were gonna try and open, but it kept getting pushed back. I mean, I moved here in July, and think about it, we didn't get our COO and we didn't get going until end of January. So think about that. I was here for seven months during construction, and I started interviewing like in October, November. So imagine you're going through all these interviews and telling them, like, yeah, we want you to be part of our team, but hey, you can't start until three or four months, right? Like it's like nobody's nobody's gonna take that. Everyone, if everyone's interviewing for a job, they're looking for a job where they're gonna start in a couple weeks, if anything. So it's kind of it was kind of tough. Um, but when I ended up starting the actual interviews in January, early January, now that I knew that we were gonna open, um zero experience. Everyone in my team is zero roofing knowledge. Well, one of them does, but um zero roofing knowledge, zero ABC experience. So I had to train everyone from commercial roofing, metal roofing, clay uh tile roofing, everything's like Chinese to them because imagine coming into my store right now and saying, Hey, do you guys have uh plastic caps? The most basic thing in a roof, plastic caps. And they'll come and ask me, Havi, do we have plastic caps? And it's like, come on, man, like so. I mean, you gotta kind of like be in the middle and say, Yeah, I mean, these guys don't know, you know. Like, let me let me go up there and train them. So it's a lot of training, but I love it. I like it. They they adapt to my style of like the leadership style, the culture that I'm building in my branch. I mean, I love it. My people were growing into like a family now.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, dude, that's awesome, and I love that because it's probably the hardest thing in the world that you just took on by not having any real experience, you know, one guy. But this is this is something that's almost unfathomable to me because you're going in, and when I did it, I had plenty of experience around me. I had, you know, years of experience helping me with the process. We had we hired people that were brand new, and we brought people in that were brand new, and those people were fine to train. But starting from square one with nobody of any experience, I can't even imagine. So you get this going, you start teaching your people, you start realizing, okay, we've got some good potential here. We've got some people that are showing initiative, that are trying to learn, that are showing up, that are putting their heart into it. We're gonna build a winning program. And then you start to see some of these things, you know, start to materialize and develop. Like, tell me about one of your team members that you hired, maybe one in particular. Maybe you don't want to even call one out in particular, but as many as you'd like, who you've seen maybe take a step in growth from day one to now, or someone that's just completely, you know, become a sponge and has learned as much as humanly possible in that short period of time and is now you know totally proficient and able to go out here and ultimately help your team win.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, I'd say, I mean, I don't I wouldn't call him my most valuable guy, but I mean, yeah, sure, he is my most valuable guy. He's a driver, and what's funny about him is I didn't even want I didn't even call him for an interview. He submitted his resume and I got his piece of his resume and I put it off to the side, and I never called him for like two weeks. And then one day he called the branch like 10 times, not kidding, trying to get a hold of me. And everyone just kept telling him, like, dude, he's in a meeting, he's in a meeting, he'll get back to you. So I never took his call, and not because I didn't want to, it's just because I was and they did it with so many interviews and resumes to go through that I didn't have anyone to pick, you know. I didn't know this guy, so he shows up and I'm in a meeting and he talks to my dispatcher, and my dispatcher after the after the whole meeting, and after I became available, I didn't even get to meet him in person. He leaves, my dispatcher comes up to me and he goes, Dude, we have to hire this guy. He's persistent, he's good, he's crane certified. And I said, All right, well, then bring him for an interview. And when I first met him, he was super quiet, didn't want to talk to anybody, he was just here to work. But as I started peeling those layers, he turned into a superstar. Um, he does all my crane loads, he's a Mr. Fixit. If a truck is broken down, he doesn't even ask me, he just fixes it and tells me, Hey man, it's done. We already fixed it. Um, he's been such an asset for this branch, and like we wouldn't be where we are without that guy.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, dude. Shout out to the drivers of the world. I mean, I drove a conveyor truck for 12 years. I know that's the that's the hard job. That's the work, and that's the the people that really go out there, and that's the hard work. Sometimes it gets overlooked. And I always love when the branch managers are the people that are you know in charge of the operations, give those guys the credit because I'm too old to go roofload houses now. You know, I could probably run the crane if you needed me to, but it's been a while. I'd probably uh, you know, maybe lose some stuff before it got to the top. But it's awesome to hear that, and it's awesome to know that you've got people that come in that are that persistent. Obviously, this dude sees the value, he understands what this is gonna be, and I think that persistence is is invaluable. I think later on down the road, when the guy's not a truck driver anymore, sales, and then potentially somewhere down the road, maybe having his own type of situation, you know, you may have just brought someone in that's gonna be the next version of you down the road. So I think that's pretty amazing and I love it. And this has been an awesome, you know, kind of buildup to what we've got going on at ABC and Laredo. We've got our location, got everything built out now. You got all your inventory in place, you've got all your people in place. It's time to rock and roll now, bro. It's been six months of build and anticipation and waiting. And I'm sure during that six months you probably went back and forth a thousand different times. You know, am I crazy? Am I good? Am I crazy? Am I good? You ended up on I'm good, and I think that's definitely the case. But tell me a little bit about the anxiety building up leading up to this. Was it all just I'm gonna commit 100% of my time into this? Because I know you're also a good family man, you do a lot of stuff for your kids, your wife. How about the how about the you know, dividing of the time? Because when I went to Charlotte, dude, I didn't have that much time to divide, I was pretty much all in on it for a while, and it was brutal. But how are you able to keep that balance while also making sure that this task stays on on point, that your timelines are met, and that when it's time to go, everybody's ready, dude. We just open the door and it's like game on. We've been doing this for years.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Yeah, the construction part was it was honestly to be honest, it was it was very laid back because they took so long, it it was they were dragging their feet, the permits took a long time with Laredo. It just it just it was it was stretched out. We were supposed to be open in October or November, the latest, and we were two two and a half months behind. So there was a lot of time where I was not doing much, and even Jim Walker knows. He was like, Man, I know you're not doing much, you know. Visit your clients, visit your potential clients, do your homework, look at the roofers, go talk to your builders. But there's only so much you can do when you're talking to the builders. All the next question at the end of the conversation is when are you guys gonna open? And at the time I didn't have a date, so it just I just stopped kind of going as consistently as I was. But now that we're open, I think it's funny that you say that it's because like two weeks ago, my son was like, Man, I've been wanting to hang out with you, but you're so busy with work, you don't have time anymore. And I said, Man, it's only gonna be like this for a little bit. I need to get this place rolling a hundred percent, get to my goals. I have goals that I need to meet. So, I mean, it teaches them that you have to have a goal in the end. You're not just swinging it and shooting from the hip just to get a sale. Like you have to set goals. So, as a matter of fact, every month I sell a dollar amount goal that these group of people have absolutely destroyed every single time I put a goal, they they get to it. So it was relaxed during those six months of construction. Now that we're open in February, the last three months, it's been very, very chaotic. Um, I'm kind of like a duck on water. My my feet, my mind, everything's going 100 miles an hour, but I can't show that to my team. I gotta stay level for them. Let them worry, let them be chaotic. And I I'm I'm the guy that's gonna fix it. So I gotta stay level.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

That's it. I always tell people that, you know, the way that people react is gonna be based 100% on the way that you react, especially if they're following you. And I've seen some of the craziest stuff, and I've been standing in front of homeowners thinking to myself in my mind, like, oh my god, like this is a big deal. But if you say, you know what, hey, we've we've been through this before, it's gonna be all right, it's not that big of a deal. You can keep the situation under control, and people are gonna maintain their composure. And I think that's huge because this is a big deal. You're bringing a major brand into a uh city that never had an ABC supply, right? Like the people that are there have been loyal to whoever they've been buying from for all these years. So you bring an ABC in there, and I wanted I wanted to know this. Is it immediately like a positive reception? Did you have anybody that was like, Man, you know, freaking ABC? Are you serious? Like, I've been buying from Bob's rooping supply for the last 40 years, and Bob's cool, and like, you know, we don't really want ABC. Was it, you know, how is the reception as far as that goes with the contractors that you go visit? Because you got to build a whole new client base from scratch, starting at zero. You got to go talk to everybody. So, what's some of the feedback you're getting from the contractors along the way?

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Man, I thought the name was gonna sell itself. I'd be completely honest. I thought the the name was gonna sell itself, but it's it hasn't. It's been a struggle. Um, I mean, they know about us, but they don't know us. Like the people that are in this building, they know the name, but they don't trust us yet. So it's been a lot of like, hey, give us a chance to show who we are. Um, we can't just say, hey, we're ABC supply, we can service you like no other. They're gonna be like, Well, we've been been we've been serviced just fine without you, so why do we need you? Yep. So there's been a little bit of a stroke, I'm not gonna lie, even with the big old ABC name, but we're getting there. The builders are starting to come around, the the contractors, they're definitely coming around. What's helping us is um my sales guy is very fluent in Spanish. And when he was going out fishing for whales and getting a builder, getting those big roofers, I told him shift your focus to the guys that buy cash, the guys that don't feel comfortable going into big stores like ABC Supply. You know, they're going to Home Depot because they just pay over the little counter and and then they get their material and they go on their way. Maybe those guys are a little intimidated with ABC because they think that we don't speak Spanish, or maybe we're too corporate for them. But I told him, Go focus, go focus with them. And for a couple of weeks, man, he um he put water bottles in his ice chest, tacos every morning, and he would drive by the the the job sites and just hey guys, we're ABC supply, give them a hat, give them a carpenter pencil. They love that, the framers. And slowly these guys just started rolling in and they just started coming to buy and buy. And what we found out is that these guys are the ones build working for the builders, so even they started whispering into the builders' ears saying, Hey, you guys should go buy from ABC. I mean, we're the ones installing your roofs, and we want to work with these guys. So they started vouching for us, so I kind of flipped it. I want I gained the builders' trusts through their builder, through their labor guys, and it's hoped us a lot.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, dude, that's the way to go, right there. You see, you you find the people that feel like they maybe aren't appreciated. And my business partner here at Rio Blanco, Jason Shumway, he owns Bradford Roofing Supply in Columbus, Ohio, independent roofing supply company that he literally has funded himself, has no investors, no partners. He's you know done the entire thing himself. And it's like, what do you do? You go find the little guys who feel unappreciated and you make them feel appreciated, you make them feel important, you make them feel like you know they matter to you because at the end of the day, they really do, and their loyalty is going to be there for you because when everybody else was kind of treating them like crap or like they were hasbins or whatnot, here comes someone that's actually saying, bro, you you we love you, we want you here. And I will say this, people of Laredo, this dude right here is the best at that because my company is not one of the top 10 companies in the world or anything stupid like that. I have a small roofing company, we do good business, we have fun. I was always treated like I was absolute gold. I am still at ABC right now, and you know what? If you're watching this, anybody in Laredo, it's weird because when I did a roof in Laredo like about three years ago, somebody from Laredo watches my podcast because I met them there. So they were in a roofing supply company with different initials. But if you guys are watching this show, this guy right here is gonna take care of you, he's gonna treat you like gold. Took me golfing on my birthday, took me to you know, the the ABC golf tournament two years in a row. We were on the same team, and you probably could have found a bigger contractor to schmooze during that event. But I feel like I was the king of the world because it's like, dude, my rep chose to play in this tournament with me. So I appreciate that as that aspect of things, and that's where loyalty comes from, you know? And I think you're gonna build a solid foundation with those guys, and then like you say, word travels fast. When these guys tell their friends, and then they tell their friends, and the next thing you know, you got ABC. You're not just the new guy in town. Now you're ABC like everybody knows and loves. So I think that's an amazing way of going about it. And I love the entire, the entire process. So we get this going, we got the process, we're figuring out, okay, number one, it's not as easy as it seems because you can't just throw the ABC logo out there and say, hey guys, come with us. People are gonna have to be schmoozed a little, they're gonna have to, they're gonna have to find out for themselves. So you get these these guys on there, you start service them, you start doing your things. Now it starts growing a little bit. What's it look like now moving forward for you? Okay, this this last year has been a whirlwind of activity. You've you've you know gone from being here to there to opening a branch to going through the entire building process to hiring training, putting a team together. Now this is ready to go. You're open. The official grand opening is in what'd you say, 15 days? 15 days, May 16th, 1104. May 16th, folks. And from May 16th on, it's now official. This is ABC Supply. This is your boy, you're gonna be taking care of everybody. So, what does the future look like as far as vision? We'll just go with vision. Obviously, results and vision don't always line up, and sometimes it's a lot harder than what people think, but what's the ultimate vision? What do you consider year one victory at the end of year one when you look back and say, you know what? This, this, and this went really well. These are wins. What are some of those wins you're gonna use to build upon the future?

SPEAKER_02 29:37

I mean, man, the first one is definitely gonna hit the sales goal that we wanted. Um, I do want to promote someone from a position that they're in to a higher level. Like if that driver wants to be a, you know, he wants to move into an inside position or a man, even a dispatcher, just create an opportunity for someone in in my branch. I'd want to do that for someone. But for the branch, obviously, we got to sell that the we're we're starting a brand new branch. You're gonna be in a hole for a little bit, but I want to get out of that hole as soon as I can. So the way we do it here in Laredo, I can't really rely on roofing because Laredo's is a small city. I mean, we're only 280,000 people, 260,000 people. I can't just rely on roofing. So, man, I've I'm pushing windows, pushing interior doors, I'm pushing stucco, and people have been asking for brick. And when I we talk to these builders, they're like, Can you offer all these segments? And I'm like, I can, but I'm gonna do it in my time. I can't do it all at once because I'm not gonna put myself in a position where I'm gonna fail. I want to be an expert in every single one of these product segments before I'm gonna go and sell it. Now we we're experts in Windows, I mean, in uh roofing for sure. I mean, we're the largest distributor in the nation. Commercial roofing is my background. This is what I'm good at. As a matter of fact, I'm I'm pumping out commercial like crazy now. Windows, I actually stole a guy from a competitor, and he's my window guy now, so he's pumping out Windows for us. The next project we have is Stuck Home. So, overall goal is hit our sales goal, and then just from there, just build off of that goal.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

I love that. And you get the team together, you get everybody rallied, and you see some success. Now, obviously, this is me being the the optimist and pessimist, and just being real because I've been through it. Let's say that you're going and everything's going pretty good, and then all of a sudden it just kind of dies a little bit, and you hit those little those little lulls around the way that are bound to happen. They happen with every business, especially when you're new. How are you gonna keep your team motivated and feeling like things are going forward if they start to think things like, Man, you know, it's not as big as I thought, as quick as I thought, it's not going as fast. And that's I know that sounds almost like an asshole question, but it's not. I mean it like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 32:04

It happens, and you you get yourself in those positions all the time. If as even in sales, when I was in San Antonio, it dies out. Even right now in central Texas, it's a slow time. I mean, everyone's kind of struggling in central Texas. We haven't had a major storm in I don't know, what 19 or six years since a good, good storm. But you know what's funny is when people ask when it when I interview, everyone always gives you the cliche. If you can describe yourself in one word, what would it be? And I always say that I'm adaptable. You put me in this position where I've been uncomfortable or whatever. I adapt and we move forward. So I've never found myself in a position where I couldn't get out of a hole that I put myself in or was put in. So even when it slows down here in Laredo, which it will, we're gonna hit a wall at one point. We're gonna have to pivot and adapt and get out of that hole or go over the wall, find a new product segment, find a new contractor somewhere. Shit, I haven't even have a goal of selling into Mexico. I mean, Monterey is two and a half hours away, just as far as San Antonio is. Oh, I have the connections here in in Laredo with with trucking and people that can I can go drop off stuff in their warehouse and then they take it to Monterey for me. The the the vision is big, but you also have to bring yourself down to earth uh every so often with when your vision's so long and so so big, you also have to do baby steps, you know, one step at a time, move the football, you know, every 10 yards, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yep, absolutely. And I think that's such a great mentality to have going into it, and it is humbling at times, and you realize, man, you know, I was picked to do this for a reason. Sometimes I question my my sanity and I wonder what the reasons were. But then when you get to that that first big win, you get to that guy that you find that that was persistent, and you bring him in, and all of a sudden you realize, man, I got a dog here, I got a guy that's got a real future, and you start to see the the positives. It really is worth all the time and effort that goes into it. It's worth all the time that you spend stressing out, wondering what the hell was wrong with you the day that you decided to do it, all the times that you go through the process and you think, man, you know, is this gonna work? Is this gonna be okay? Am I gonna am I gonna be able to do it? You know, and it's all human nature, but you start seeing these little wins. And I think that your mindset, just from being through the different experiences, and that's what's so important, I think. And and for me, it was the same thing. I got to do distribution for a long time before I got into contracting. So I understood what it was like on that side. I understood, like, you know, your guys can can have a flat tire on the side of the road, and my my delivery doesn't show up, it shows up 10 hours late because of something beyond anybody's control. And it's how you adapt and overcome those things that really prove that you're you're gonna be able to succeed at it. So, like I said, this guy right here, folks, is the best at it. It it's it's no surprise to me that you were able to get into this position as quickly as you were within the ABC organization to build the team and to get it going. And I can't wait to see what the future is gonna be like. So let's uh let's chat a little bit more about that future, and then I got a couple personal things I want to talk about, but you've got the team in place. How many people right now are on the ABC Laredo team?

SPEAKER_02 35:23

We have eight. Eight. We have three two drivers, one helper, one dispatcher, two inside, and a sales guy.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Nice, nice. What's the ultimate vision look like as far as total team members in your mind right now, today? Knowing that it probably won't end up being the way that we envision it in our mind ever, but perfect scenario, five years from now, you've got how many people running that show?

SPEAKER_02 35:47

I'd say we can officially run strong with the goals that I want with like 20 people, you know, everyone working hard, 20 people is solid.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

I think 20 is good. That that's a good solid number. You can you can really focus on quality and have a good solid chemistry with that number, and everybody can be a part of a family. And I think the best part about that chemistry is when you do eventually bring in that bad apple that's gonna happen. It happens all the time. Everybody gives their best impression when they're doing an interview, and then you find out after the fact, well, there's a reason they were looking for a job that day, or there's a reason they're unemployed, but it kind of helps police itself. You build that strong culture where everybody's part of the team, everybody's been contributing since day one. They're not gonna let anybody come in and mess it up. So I think what you've built is gonna be an absolute beast of a company, and I can't wait to see this all play out. So I would like to transition a little bit into a couple personal questions, if I may. Now, after you left, the uh did you freeze? Oh, yeah, you did for a second there. I thought you were scared about the personal questions coming up. So after you left, I was very fortunate to get placed with another sales rep here with the ABC on Riddaman. What'd you say it was? 461.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

461. I even knew the number. And that's been an awesome experience as well, Sierra. She is another one who I think really exemplifies what ABC is about, much like yourself. Young, gets in there, shows ambition, and is able to start to kind of come up the corporate ladder, so to speak, pretty quickly, you know. And I gotta say this, she does an amazing job for us here in San Antonio. And I asked this morning a question of my ABC rep because I I have America's newest branch manager gonna be on the podcast, and I need to know some stuff about this guy from some of the closest people in the industry that he knows, people that he's worked with. So I reached out directly to Sierra, and I I gotta ask you this. Did you know that your driving absolutely scares the daylights out of Sierra Smith of ABC Roofing Supply? Did you know what?

SPEAKER_02 38:05

She's not the only one.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

This was the only thing that she really had to say was I don't really know anything funny, but his driving scared the you know what out of me. And that amazes me because I would think that her driving would scare the crap out of me. So to have someone that would scare the crap out of you say that they're scared the crap out of is pretty good. But I will say this I've ridden in golf carts with you many times, and I've never felt like we were, you know, in any kind of jeopardy or anything like that. So I give props to your driving skills. From what I've seen, they're amazing. Apparently, though, might have a little bit of a reputation out there, so just be aware of that fact. Apparently, you you've got a heavy foot, extra a couple of extra uh heartbeats from people that are sitting passenger because they're not in control. I feel like the man's got control. You're riding a race car, and you got to trust that the race car driver knows what they're doing, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:00

I drive with my knees a lot because I'm on two phones. I have my personal phone and my work phone, and I'm trying to type, and so I'm driving with some.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

And no, that's not this is satire, officer. This never really happens, don't worry. I'll be a reporter does not do that when he's driving, he's just joking.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

I went to I went to lunch with Brent, the manager, and we went to lunch. He had his, I think he was like some enchiladas. I don't know what he ate. I see, I'm sure. As soon as we got back to the branch, he opened the door and he he barked.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Well, now see, that's that's a story I wasn't even knowing that I was gonna get today. And it's going into the arsenal. I like that. It was fun. Making the boss man puke. That's tremendous. So, like I say, we've been in golf carts together many times. You and I have played golf numerous times together, it's always a lot of fun as a branch manager now in Laredo. One of your jobs is to go out and find some of these new upper echelon contractors and and big time people. You've been practicing your swing, you out there taking guys out to the links in Laredo and showing them what's up and breaking course records. What's going on with your golf game? You know what's crazy?

SPEAKER_02 40:13

You built me up as a golfer, and I ever since I left San Antonio, I have not swung. I have not swung a golf club. When I came back to Laredo, I picked up the basketball again. So I'm in a basketball league every Monday, every Wednesday. We play as a 35 and up. We want back-to-back championships. I'm back to hooping every every every day.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Hey, I love it. But the golf is fun, and I'm not gonna lie, we always had a great time playing golf. I played in the ABC golf outing uh just a couple weeks ago, and check out what we got. This was this year's giveaway, man. It was one of these turtle box things, and then bad boy clocks in at about 250 bucks retail. So you've gone to all of them, right? I think I've been to every one of them because I had a badass sales rep that invited me. I got the shoes, the shoes are sitting right over here. I'm looking at them. I still haven't worn them because I got some other shoes like a week before the ABC tournament last year, just so I would look good at the ABC tournament. So I've had brand new shoes the entire time, and they're well broken in now. I've been playing a lot, but that was always a good time. And one day I'm gonna come to Laredo and we're gonna go play golf just for old time's sake because I appreciate that. And like I said, you always made me feel like I was more important than I really was, and that meant a lot to me, and that's why I'm staying loyal with ABC, you know, after you're gone, and that's why we're doing a podcast today, bro. You're one of my favorite people in the industry. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to sit down and chat about it because you know it's pretty cool, and I know that it's been a whirlwind of activity. I know you got a lot of stuff going on, so let's uh let's talk a little bit about this upcoming event you guys have in 15 days. Anyone that's in or around Laredo, what are we looking to what are we looking to have over at ABC Supply? Where are we looking to have it and what is gonna be going on?

SPEAKER_02 42:09

It's gonna be here at the branch. Uh address is 120 Ranch Road 6086C. Um, it's gonna be from 11 to 4. We're gonna have Kona Ice, we're gonna have tacos, we're gonna have burgers, we're gonna have Mexican hot dogs, we're gonna have we're gonna have beer for the guys and girls, whoever wants to come and drink. I might set up a margarita machine. I still don't know. We're gonna have mariachi, we're gonna have two radio stations. I think a TV station reached out to us and they want to be a part of it as well. Cop could a couple of politicians want to uh participate. I know it's there there's like voting going on here in Laredo, so they want to use the the platform to promote. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

All right, the difference in the community. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

I told them I'm not gonna pick either side. You guys can come and do what you want. You come show face. Um, but yeah, but it'll be a bunch of it's bouncy house for the kids. Uh, we're gonna do some giveaways. Manufacturers are gonna show up and give away some stuff too. They're gonna be available to talk about products, so yeah, we're inviting uh homeowners and as well, all builders and contractors. It's gonna be a fun event.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Absolutely, it's gonna be a fun event. It's it's it's your pride and joy, and watching it from square one. I remember when you told me it was at the golf outing last year, as a matter of fact, when you're like, dude, I'm getting a branch, and it was like, wow, that's that's pretty damn badass. And here we are, just a little bit over a year later. You're sitting in your office, you got this thing up and running. Congratulations, dude, because that is far more difficult than people will probably ever really give it credit for unless they've actually been through it. So I know the hard work, I know the hours of of not sleeping and just being like, Oh, I'm gonna have a stroke and I'm gonna end up laying on the floor for the next 10 years. So, congratulations on that. Final words before we go. Anyone that Watching this potential clients in the Laredo area, contractors, builders, property managers, you name it. Time for your sales pitch, bro. Give it to them. Why should someone in Laredo switch where they're at or switch their allegiance? Or why should they just give you a chance and see what's going on with your branch at ABC?

SPEAKER_02 44:21

We have a group of people that just care genuinely about everything that they do and everything that they're being taught, you know, for it to be the product, for it to be the way we deliver services, the way that we deliver products, the way we are safe on the on the job sites. It just give us an opportunity to be part of your business. I mean, we're not asking you to completely switch from the competition. We just want you to explore another avenue of service, and we can provide that, whether it's price. I mean, I don't like to sell on price. Anybody could sell on price, but what we sell is value, and we can be a value to you with on-time services, on-time deliveries, product knowledge. A lot of that here's in Laredo, there's not a lot of product knowledge for man, shingles is bad, but commercial roofing, man, that's where I come from. And I can build you a spec, I can build you a roof. I from that from deck up, shout out to Ian and Jay. They mentored me for all of that stuff. But but yeah, I mean, we're just we're here to support the growth of Laredo. We're excited to see the the growth of Laredo, and like I said, super, super excited to be a part of it. This is personal to me. I'm from here, I grew up here. Um man, I just want to be part of the success story that Laredo is becoming.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Hell yeah, man. And I'll tell you what, as someone that's been your friend for the last seven years that I've been here and have worked directly with you for the last several years, man, it's gonna be awesome. And I know I say it like 15 times already, but if you're in Laredo, dude, this is your guy. Nobody's gonna do better, nobody's gonna treat you better, nobody's gonna be more professional and thorough, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice, not to at least give a shot. So we're gonna leave it at that. Before we bid adieu to the audience for today, hobby, I got one last thing to discuss with you, my friend. And you know what that is? What's that? My sponsors over at Roofer. I gotta give a huge shout out to my sponsors at Roofer because they're my sponsors. I love them to death. They've been my sponsor for four years. I'm on episode 256 of Keeping It Rio, and I think they've been the sponsor for well over half of them now. So pretty awesome with Roofer. You're all-in-one solution for CRM, for roof measurements, for material ordering. I literally order my materials from ABC directly from the CRM, and it shows up at the doorstep the next day like clockwork. And then I send my bills and I get paid. I've collected for two jobs since we started this podcast. So shout out to Roofer, always getting better, but they are already the best. And for all the people that watch Keeping It Rio, it's not just a roofing audience by any means. I've had people from all over the world, all different walks of life. And I appreciate everybody that watches the show. This has been a personal, awesome episode for me. And I hope you guys have enjoyed it. And I hope it gives a little bit of insights into what happens when you get a good opportunity in life and you take it. I think really that's kind of the underlying theme of this entire episode is you get a shot, you know. He didn't take it at first, but then he took it. And look, ball's gonna be run all the way down into the end zone. This dude's gonna spike it and he's gonna be a champ. So thank you, Javier Puerto, for your time today. Stick around. I'm about to cut this off. We're gonna play the Roofer commercial. You and I can end our conversation on the backside. But until next week, ladies and gentlemen, keep on keeping it real. We'll see y'all next week later.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

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