Keepin It Rio Podcast
Keepin’ It Rio Podcast
Hosted by Chuck Allen | Powered by Roofr
Keepin’ It Rio brings real conversations with real people — from roofing pros and entrepreneurs to creators and community leaders. Hosted by Chuck Allen, each episode dives into stories of business, mindset, and life with humor, honesty, and a whole lot of Rio energy.
Whether you’re growing a business, chasing goals, or just love a good conversation, this show will keep you inspired and entertained.
Stay real. Stay motivated. Keepin’ It Rio.
Keepin It Rio Podcast
Keepin It Rio Episode 259: Matt Radford
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Anyone who knows Matt knows that he’s one of the nicest people around. When he announced that he was going to be leaving Roofr a couple of months back, I wondered what was up. Luckily, he reached out and asked if I wanted to do a podcast to find out. I’m guessing that I said yes, because Episode 259 is live. Enjoy!!
Because we've been here before. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back once again. It is your favorite time of the week. It's keeping it real time. And honestly, right now it's actually Memorial Day at 6 a.m. here in San Antonio. I just told my guest I'm waking up here. I already went to the gym this morning, but I just got done with a big old cup of mushroom coffee. That is rise mushroom coffee. If uh anybody from Rise Mushroom Coffee is watching the show, you guys should sponsor me because I'll drink your product live on the air every week. So that's out of the way. This is going to be an awesome episode, folks. It's number 259 in the series, which is insane to me as well. When you think about that, it's almost the five-year anniversary of keeping it real. This coming June is five years of doing this little show, which never thought that was going to be the thing, but here we are. I love doing it. And it's because I get to speak to folks like today's guests. And ladies and gentlemen, a lot of you guys in the roofing world know our guy today very well. Been around and been, you know, in the game for several years, someone that we've seen very visibly through the last several years, through his previous career. And now this gentleman has kind of transitioned into something else. But I got to say this still the same guy, and this is going to be so much fun because it's awesome to catch up with my good friend today, ladies and gentlemen, straight from Canada. The one and only. I was gonna say roofer, Matt, but I'm just gonna say Matt the Roofer now. That's right. Matt Ratford, my friend. Welcome to keeping it real. How are you doing today, my friend?
SPEAKER_04I'm doing great. I didn't know when I booked this that it was 6 a.m. your time. So kudos to you for your energy. I don't know what's in that mushroom tea for mushroom coffee.
SPEAKER_01I get up, but I already did my full workout this morning. I went to Crunch Fitness over here in San Antonio. I already did my deal. So yeah, great. I'm just treating it like a regular Monday. And honestly, I love doing these in the morning. This is when I'm at my best. I'm downhill from 6 a.m. on. It's like so get them out of the way early, and these tend to be the best episodes. So, anyways, let's do a little catch. Happy Memorial Day, happy memorial day to all the American viewers. I was thinking about that this morning as well. And I'm here in San Antonio, and definitely we want to give them a moment to thank all of the folks who serve our military, especially those who you know gave their lives for our freedoms. Um, you know, there there could be a whole political debate about everything that's going on in the world right now, but these folks gave their lives so that we would have the world that we live in and be able to get up at 6 a.m. and do podcasting. And right, you know, when you when you look at the grand scheme of things, we've got it pretty dang good.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, everything we watched you guys we we watched as a family last night the Memorial Day concert on television, and it was uh it was really interesting. My kids like to see all the different military uniforms since the American Revolution up to today, so it was really cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, there we go. So yeah, wonderful day here, and I'm excited because, like I say, you and I have been friends through the years, and I saw, I guess it's been what about maybe five, six months ago now. Has it been? Maybe not even that long. It just seems like it that you kind of made an announcement that you were gonna be, you know, taking a different direction and kind of you know shifting gears. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about it, my friend. Tell me, tell me what's going on with you right now, and uh we'll we'll dive off and and take some turns along the way, I'm sure. But how's everything going? And uh tell us a little bit about the situation.
SPEAKER_04It's fantastic, Chuck. I'm so happy right now. I have a great job with a great roofing company, Delta Roofing up here. Um, they're based out of Toronto, Ontario, but we just opened up a secondary location in Kitchenery or Kitchener, Ontario, and uh it's a commercial roofing company. We specialize in industrial commercial roofing and uh you know, I'm business development manager, so I'm helping them with processes. I've one of the first things I did when I joined the company was got them set up with Roofer. And uh yeah, you know, I know the software, so it's uh it's a no-brainer, right? So I'm doing a lunch and learn with the team on Wednesday to start getting the uh the estimators and stuff on board with that. So really looking forward to that. But I'm driving around doing inspections, got a company truck and got my little mobile office set up with my laptop stand and everything, and and that's my new happy place. I think for me, like I took up the I took the uh well, I didn't take a break from Facebook. I I got rid of like Facebook, Instagram, everything. Um, because I've been doing it like working from home since 2018. See, a lot of people don't realize that before Roofer, I was working from home for a company called Mr. Roof Repair. And with that, that's where I started doing online sales. Um, I was using different software to like look at the roof, Google Maps, Google Earth, get the measurements, send the quote to the customer via email. They would do a Zoom link, you know, all that yada yada, doing the online sales thing. And then that led up to me working at Ruper. So all through COVID and everything, I was working from home. And like I'm working from home today. I still work from home on Mondays, you know. I call it marketing Mondays where I do my marketing stuff. But um, working from home, it it's great for a while, but it it does uh it does play on you a bit. You you miss that interaction. I miss being on the roof and and you know, talking to customers that you know, I've I've got a nice tan right now. I'm the only one in my family here in Canada that has a a tan. So um we haven't had that much sunshine. So I'm I miss that of vitamin D and just being out there. And uh I've I'm I'm really happy right now with my my new career, and and the company is fantastic. They're they're wonderful people, it's family run, family operated, and uh, you know, that's what I like. I like that small, that small company field. It's not gonna stay small forever, though. We're gonna grow that baby to oh, no doubt.
SPEAKER_01And this is so fascinating because I totally understand where you're coming from here. Yeah, I myself, for the first 12 years of my career in this industry, I was a truck driver. And I basically was the guy that delivered the shingles to the job sites for the roofing contractors. We had a conveyor belt on our truck and we would throw the shingles on and they'd go up the conveyor belt, and guys would spread them out. And you know, if we were ever real super lucky, there would be uh nobody else at the job site, so there'd just be two of us, and we get to roofload entire houses by ourselves. So I understood the physical aspect of it, and I'm I'm a high energy guy. I don't know if you've ever really paid much attention to that, but uh fairly high-energy guy. I like to be around people and I like to do stuff. And yeah, that 12 years was great. And I had a life-changing opportunity, which was to move to Charlotte, North Carolina. We were gonna open a branch of that company. I'm gonna basically build that, you know, with one other guy. We're gonna build a team and then we're gonna make it, you know, really awesome. And I went down there and I realized something immediately.
SPEAKER_04What's that?
SPEAKER_01I'm not an office guy. And it literally got to the point with me where I was there for about two and a half years, and it it was wearing on me so badly because I was literally in Charlotte, and for that two and a half year period, I really have no memories whatsoever. I was going to work, working all day. We got hit with a hailstorm, and it was like we blew up from this little small warehouse to having to get multiple facilities around town. We went and bought a bunch of new trucks and hired a bunch of drivers, and I was working, you know, 90 plus hours a week for months. And I literally completely one day just snapped and I lost it, Matt. And I was like, pretty well established. I was the branch manager, you know, the guy that everybody actually thought was the owner of the company. And I just one day was like, you know what? I'm done. One of our customers said something that flew me off the handle. And uh, that was the last time I ever set foot in that building. I literally walked away that day and I was like, whatever happens from here, I am not going to ever let anything get to that level as far as just being stir crazy goes. So yeah, I totally get that. And and you know, being outside, like you say, I'm here in Texas, it's hot here all the time. I played golf and I got sunburned.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'd be burnt like bacon.
SPEAKER_01It's it's tremendous. So I love that, and that's your background anyway. You know, we remember from from years gone by that doing roofing and being out there in the field was was the thing. So you get a chance to go back. Tell me a little bit about the process, you know, as far as making that decision. You're feeling this way about it. And I know that you love Roofer, you know, they're everybody at Roofer is awesome. It's nothing about the opportunity there, but it's just a personal preference to not, you know, sit in front of a computer all day, every day.
SPEAKER_04And yeah, and like like you said, like with your job, it starts to eat at you, and then you start to like get bitter towards people and it starts to affect your attitude and stuff. And I could see that coming out in me even with some of the co-workers at Roofer, right? You know, and I wasn't cooperative and it's like, I don't want to do this anymore. So, you know, it it just came to a point where I just felt it was the right thing to do for me to go, you know. Um, I've I've always been a small government, small corporation, small business. You know, I like my I like my I like my local government, I like my local church, I like my local bakery. So I like things small and local, right? And roofer is great, it's it's blossoming into a big corporation, but I'm not a big corporation guy, you know. I like the the small businesses. So um I brought up, I came on to Delta Roofing. We're gonna grow this company, and uh, you know, I see myself retiring here in another 10 or 15 years. So that's I love that. Yeah, and that's it's just all led up to it. I just got tired of sitting at a computer. Um, talking to roofers on Reddit, helping people on Reddit and and Facebook and LinkedIn with um identifying roof issues and stuff is is great, but it's not the same as actually walking a commercial roof with a property manager and pointing out the deficiencies and how we can help them. You know, there's a big difference in that fresh air approach over the digital approach. You know, the digital approach has its place, but I just I just got tired of it. And and like I say, Chuck, um, you can take the roof or off the roof, but you can't take roofing out of the roofer, you know. I know there's there's roofers out there that are like 60 years old and they're still climbing up on the roof, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, and you know, it's it's a way of life, and you've been doing it for so long. And and 27 years this year. People don't understand, but anybody that's been in it, it's like, yeah, I get it, dude. You know, and so you make this decision, and I'm sure that it was something that you kind of had to, you know, weigh the pros and cons of because you've got a good setup, you've got a nice, steady, stable, you know, source of income. You're gonna jump back into the the contracting side with a small company that is established, but is not, you know, like you say, it's not, you know, one of the top five in the world or anything like that. Not yet. Not yet. Exactly. I love that. I'm feeling the same way about my company too. And so you make this decision and you go in and say, okay, I'm gonna do this. You, you know, obviously you've got a family that you you support and and do everything you can for your your wife, your family, and and want to make sure that they're taken care of. When you converse with them, was this something that they, you know, kind of universally said, Hey, that's great. We think that would be awesome that you'd get out of the house a little bit too, dad. Or, you know, was there any kind of hesitation on that side, or were they fully supportive of the decision?
SPEAKER_04U at first, my wife was like, What? You're leaving Roofer? You know, and I think a lot of people were um when when I made the announcement, like, you bleed blue. Um, but she trusts me, right? And uh as much as that, like she doesn't just trust me, she she trusts God, you know, we're we're a Christian family, and and she knows that the Lord has me right where he wants me. So um he takes care of me too and and uh kind of guides me on the right path. So she trusted him, she trusted me, and uh having her support through it is uh has been great. Like if she were to push back and argue, it would have been it would have been harder. But uh no, my wife has been supportive. My kids, they're just like, meh, you know, they're they're young. Yeah, they're all under 13. They're like that. I'm lame, you know. I'm a I'm a 50-year-old dad to four kids that are under 13, so I'm lame. You know, I'm I'm the Gen X parent to a bunch of you know, six seveners, whatever that is, you know, the whole I love it. Yeah, but no, they're they're very supportive, very supportive, you know. A little a little worried at first, like making the transition from one job to the next job. And and at first, like it was uncertain. I had I had left Roofer before I had even had another job lined up, right? So I just made the decision to uh to leave Roofer and then just left it in the Lord's hands. But as soon as I announced that I was leaving Roofer, I mean, the opportunities and and like the text messages and the phone calls and the LinkedIn offers, they all started piling up. And I was like, whoa, I mean, it was it was actually very, very uh flattering and humbling at the same time to see uh when there's so many people struggling to look for work that people were just throwing it at my feet. So um, you know, I I weighed all my options. I looked at all the different offers that I had on the table, and and Delta Roofing fit with me uh morally and and uh you know ethically, and and I just it's a great company. I absolutely love what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01That's tremendous. And you know what? So many parallels. You see, you know, with all the folks I get to speak with on this podcast, so many different backgrounds, so many different, you know, levels of experience and expertise and all different things in life, but it kind of it amazes me how some things just parallel each other. Your story and mine are very similar as well. When I had my blow up in Charlotte, trust me, I had no idea what I was gonna do. I was I had moved eight hours plus away from my hometown in Ohio. I really didn't have time to make any good friends there in Charlotte. So the day that I left, I got about 10, 15 calls from our clients there. And I was like, you know, this is flattering, but I had to get the heck out of there because it was just the memory of just everything was gonna drive me nuts. I ended up randomly in Texas and I started working for a company there. I was there for seven and a half years, and it was the same thing. One day I was like, hey, you know, I'm looking to make a change possibly. And the the overflow of people that reached out, and it was just like, wow, you know, that really made me feel awesome because it's like, I guess you do well by people, and I guess good news does travel just as well as bad. You know, you don't realize it because nobody goes around really saying nice things about people in modern times. It seems like that's kind of uh, you know, it's almost frowned upon, unless you're trolling people, you're not cool. But it's nice when you see these kind of opportunities in front of you, and then you get to sit down and kind of think logically and say, okay, this is the right fit for me. So you move into this role now, and you get out and into the field, and it's been a few years since you know, physical labor and stuff.
SPEAKER_04So it's like riding a bike, Chuck.
SPEAKER_01Come on, it's like riding a bike, and I know what riding a bike feels like, but I also know what riding a bike feels like after not riding a bike for like 15 years. So you get out there in the field, you start doing a little bit of physical labor. Let's talk about this, Matt. Yep. At any point, have you regretted your decision? Because man, my legs don't move, or I can't get my arms to quite do what I need them to do. You didn't even have any soreness, did you? You just went back in like nothing, like nothing.
SPEAKER_04No, I love that, and that's you know, I have like I said, Chuck, I have four kids under 13. We play baseball, we play soccer, heavy lifting as it is. You know, I'm out in the country chopping wood with an axe. You know, I don't use one of those machines like the sissy. Um, like out of you know, 30-pound mollaks out there splitting logs, so climbing up ladders and walking roofs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're you're a different kind of animal, and I I forget about that sometimes. Like, yeah, you you're right up there with guys like Brock Lesnar. I see these guys that are chopping wood and stuff, and I forget about that. So splitting them no soreness for Matt when he gets back on the roof, he's just like boom, back in the saddle.
SPEAKER_04I wouldn't say no soreness. Uh-huh. I I am I'm sunburned. All right.
SPEAKER_01Well, hey, that's a good kind of soreness to have, right? Yeah, it is. Yeah. If you've got to have a problem, I think being sunburned is probably, you know, don't do it too many times because from what I understand, that's not good. Yeah. Um, people have been telling me that for 40 years. But a little bit of vitamin D is good for you, and it's good for the soul. So it is. You get back out of here into the field, you start kind of you know getting your stuff going again, getting your mojo back in. You do uh, you know, business development, you like you say, there's a kind of a different that's not production manager, that's not sales rep, but that's got kind of a unique twist to it. Tell me a little bit about the position that you you were able to get yourself into here and what you're doing as part of that role.
SPEAKER_04Okay, I'm helping the company first of all with processes, you know, modernizing um different processes, bringing Roofer in, company Cam. Um, so there's that aspect of it, and then also standardizing a lot of the training processes for using the various tools, creating um SOPs, because you know it's very important that um processes are documented so that and standardized across companies. So when you do scale, you can train people on the same process, right? So I'm building out a lot of these um SOPs for just different procedures and stuff like that. Um, that's one of my main things I do on Mondays when I'm sitting here at home working from home. Um, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I'm on the road, and that's where I go out and I um foster new partnerships, uh, talk to new companies, uh, new property managers, uh, big property management uh owners, have meetings with them and uh tell them about Delta Roofing, how we can serve them and grow the business that way. Um so there's that side of it, and then uh there's the marketing side too. I work with the marketing team to uh read through all of the uh the blog posts that they do for us. I look at all our LinkedIn social media posting. Um I've approved, do all the approvals and everything. But I'm also, you know me, I like video. I'm also setting up my green screen again, and I'm gonna start shooting some uh marketing videos for the company as well, and they'll be embedded in the blogs and and on our YouTube channel and stuff. So developing the YouTube channel, I'm still working on the Delta Roofing Facebook page. I manage the social media accounts as well. Um, and uh yeah, it's great. I'm looking forward to getting some video content out and uh and seeing how that does. And I'm not totally off Facebook. If you uh go to the Delta Roofing Facebook page, you can follow us there. And anytime you leave a comment or a message, I'm the guy you'll talk to.
SPEAKER_01So there you go, ladies and gentlemen. So, yes, this is this is tremendous, and I love the fact that you've gotten yourself so involved in in you know different aspects of this company. You're you're fully developing, you know, business relationships, like you say. So let me ask this, Matt. You come on board, you've got this position. Obviously, there's a need for someone to come in and do what you're doing and to help scale the company from these these different fronts. Tell me a little bit about what you're starting with. You get there, you know. I've seen companies that have, you know, yeah, we've got a website, but it's like circa 1989, or you know, like the second website ever created in the the history of the internet, or you know, things are so far behind. What were you working with? Did you have a fairly good base to get started with? Are you starting from scratch, or you know, what's that look like?
SPEAKER_04Very very established company. Um, with commercial and industrial roofing, uh, the marketing isn't such a big aspect of it because you're not like competing for homeowners as much as in the residential world. So um they having a lot of relationships with property managers and facility managers and big corporations and and stuff like that, that like that's already established. So um my main focus was uh in the processes, like getting the processes down, getting them standardized. You know, when you have all the all the different estimators um doing things differently, you got to make sure they're all on the same page because that's step one to scaling is making sure that you can grow your team. And the only way you can grow your team is by standardizing your processes and documenting everything so that there's a a single source of truth. So one person isn't saying, Oh, you do it this way, another person isn't saying you do it this way. You have a standard um single source of truth, which is the SOP documents, and uh that becomes the holy grail or the holy bible of your company. So that's my main focus right now is getting the processes intact. Um, right now I'm starting with the office, getting them going with Roofer. And uh of course, I know Roofer inside and out, so um getting it set up is uh it's been a challenge for first of all, learning the process and how the company does things because you don't want to go in and with a wrecking ball and just like you're not doing it that way anymore. Um, you're gonna do it my way. You kind of want to adapt to how they're already doing things, get a feel for it, and uh and then let the software kind of work into their flow. So basically, I take like what they're doing in the real world and then apply a digital model to that. So it's the same type of process, it's just now digital rather than physical. Um, so that's my main focus right now. And then I'll move to the field, getting the guys on company cam and uh showing how that integrates with Roofer. So that's my main focus right now. The marketing stuff is a secondary thing, um, it's more for visibility and brand awareness and stuff like that. Like we've we've been to a uh a few events, uh Uh property manager events and stuff like that, and had booths there, and and uh there's more trade shows and stuff coming up. So that that's more of the marketing thing, it's more of an in-person business-to-business marketing.
SPEAKER_01I love it, and you just totally teed this one up for me because my next question is something that you just really kind of just led me right into with what you said there, and it's this okay, you go to an established company, and your job is to refine the processes to make this more streamlined, more efficient, more profitable ultimately. And you've you've got an established group of folks that have been there, you know. And I don't know anybody at your company, but I'll use like you know, Betty, the receptionist, has been here since 1989, or you know, whoever's collecting the the accounts receivable lady has been there since you know five years and she's got her own system. And Matt's coming in and he's kind of changing everything up, and she's not trying to use Roofer because she's been using something else, and you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of thing. Have you faced any kind of adversity from the establishment as far as people within the organization saying, dude, you know, really, why do we have to do all this? It hasn't been bad, and you know, this guy Matt's awesome, we like him and everything, but you know, anything like that popped up so far?
SPEAKER_04No, I mean uh the one of the things I like to to do when I when I join any company or work for any company is is like I I want to come in and let them know that I'm I'm with them, you know, I'm I'm I'm working for them. That's something that Richie taught me at Roofer. Like he's there to work for the people that he's working with, um, to help them succeed and help the company grow. So um I I think that standard was set even before I worked there by um Scott. There's two Scots and management, Scott Ricardo and Scott Slagger. And uh I think they set the tone early that this is something that the company needs, and um the entire team's on board, and they're at they're actually very excited about it. So um having a great company culture is uh is key. And this company had a great culture even before I came in. Um they're they're yeah, they're very uh egalitarian, like they're they're frank. I love the the candor, like there's no hidden meanings or anything. If they you know these they say something, they mean it. If they don't like something, they tell you. Um, and I I really appreciate that candor. And uh um, no, it's been great. I've had no pushback or anything um so far. I mean, yeah, I haven't started working with the roofers in the field yet.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, enjoy the office staff because they're usually the pleasant ones. It's the guys in the field who now all of a sudden are like, wait a minute, you know, we're supposed to take pictures, we haven't taken pictures for years, and we haven't done this and that. And that's gonna be a whole new experience, I'm sure. But you get the the people in place and you've got the culture. I'm sure that the roofing crews are all on board with that as well, or they wouldn't be a part of the team. So I would anticipate it's probably gonna be a smooth transition as well. You're always gonna get that one guy, it's always me. I was joking the other day. I went to pick up stuff at ABC Supply, and we made a very specific system with Rio Blanco. Um, and we're our goal was to spend, you know, some time to really develop our SOPs and to put this into a good organizational flow so that we can you know become more streamlined and then we can start to scale, which we're at that point now. But throughout the process, it's been like, okay, this has been good, but it's we need to do this, and then I'm the one who doesn't put the photos in the the roofer file. I'm the guy that gives the address instead of the name or the name instead of the address. And I keep telling myself, I've got to just yeah, I gotta do better. I need a guy like Matt to like crack the whip on me. Yeah, I'm bad too.
SPEAKER_04I'm telling them all to upload their PDFs into the roofer attachments, and then I don't do it when I go out in the field, and so it's it's it's a I'm a roofer.
SPEAKER_01I always tell people, do as I say, not as I do. I mean well, and when I'm on my game with that stuff, I'm probably one of the best in the world, but yeah, it happens.
SPEAKER_04Having my having my office set up in my truck with the little swivel laptop stand, like that's that's way better. So now I'm not like pushing things off to do them later, everything's done, like right there. You know, I'm in between jobs, I go parking at Tim Hortons and grab a you know medium double double. And and you know what a double double is.
SPEAKER_01I know everything about Tim Hortons. Okay, if you would I'll tell you this, Matt. Yeah, I highly encourage you this. This is a shameless plug for the other show that I'm on, which is on Mondays. I do a podcast called Going on Daily, and it's actually a daily show that's on six days a week, and it's actually there's a huge announcement coming up like next week, like huge. Last week we had the revelation from one of the co-hosts that the Tim Hortons coffee beans may have the slight assortment of the coffee beans where the cats are eating the cherries, and then their the cherry seeds are going through their digestive digestive tract. They are crapping out these cherry seeds, grinding them up, putting them in coffee. And someone told me that may have been a secret ingredient in Tim Hortons. So I swore off of Tim Hortons after 30 years just last Monday, one week ago. And you know what happened that next day, I saw that they're building a Tim Hortons here in San Antonio, which is the only thing I've asked for for seven years. So I did a little research and I found out that it's only a rumor about those cherry beans. Yeah, so I'm gonna go back to Timmy's and uh I'm excited. We've got something in common, but yeah, I'm all about it.
SPEAKER_04Ohio is is littered with Tim Hortons.
SPEAKER_01We don't have them down here, but we're about to get one.
SPEAKER_04Oh wow, I didn't know it was that far down. That's great.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah, we're we're literally getting one here in San Antonio. I saw it the other day. I thought now San Antonio's perfect.
SPEAKER_04So order a double double, see if absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I mean I was disappointed though. I don't know in Canada if they have it the same way that we did in America, but when I went up to Ohio a couple months ago, I stopped there and I'd always get this donut called the strawberry vanilla, and it was basically with strawberry filling, and they had like vanilla on top with sprinkles. Come to find out they stopped making it, and I think it's because I moved. I may have been the one that kept that strawberry vanilla alive for like 10 years because every day I'd get two of them, and uh they were like, Yeah, we we don't make those anymore. I thought so they do that.
SPEAKER_04They released something for a while just to tease you, and then yeah, it's like the little pizzas, the little pizzas from McDonald's. You remember those, the personal pan pizza from McDonald's?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm old enough, and you and I are similar in age, so I don't know if they had this in Canada back in the day, but we had like the full McPizza, it was like a whole like you could get like a large pizza and take it home to the family, and I mean that's from what I remember back in the 80s. I mean, I was definitely a young, young boy at that time, and pizza was pizza, but felt like it was actually kind of good, and just maybe the presentation wasn't ready back in the 80s. We just weren't ready for McPizza, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Maybe maybe personal pan pizzas like in in high school, in high school in grade nine, we go to McDonald's and grab like three or four of those personal pan pizzas for lunch, right? And so oh man, yeah, they had that like crumb crust crumble on the bottom of it. The brand oh, it's good.
SPEAKER_01It's like the uh I've learned a lot about Canadian cuisine over the last couple months doing the other show. Oh, yeah, I came to find out quite a few things. Actually, you guys in Canada, you you'll know about this. You have a thing called craft dinner, yeah. It's not called that here, it's called craft macaroni and cheese. I learned that because my friend Becky over in Canada was like talking about craft dinner, and I had no idea. She showed me a box of it, and I was like, wow, that's the exact same thing with a completely different identity. So yeah, yeah, there's a lot. I was gonna do a care package, and we were gonna send stuff across the border with like stuff from Texas and stuff from Canada, but yeah, not to be political, but it's very expensive to send things across the uh countries right now. So just gonna hold off on that for a bit.
SPEAKER_04But there's I I've I've been to the to the states and looked at some ingredients on on some of y'all's food. That's all right. I had to had to throw in a y'all there. That's for sure.
SPEAKER_01You're from Texas, I've seen you here before, so I know so.
SPEAKER_04You read the ingredients on some of the American products compared to the Canadian products, and there's some stuff on the American side that I just can't pronounce, you know.
SPEAKER_01So it's uh I don't know what yeah, and it's like, how do you have that many vowels like side by side by side like that? Why are there so many X's in that word? And like, yeah, I don't know. I can't try and Canada hides that much more healthy because I don't trust any of that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Canada hides it by just calling all of those things that we pronounce we can't pronounce, they just call it natural flavors.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. We have natural flavors too. And I'm like, where do you get rainbow unicorns for my energy drink? Well, what is a natural rainbow unicorn flavor? Where do we acquire this? Yeah, and I've never found the answer. So somewhere there's a rainbow unicorn tree that we don't know about, and they're squeezing it out for C4, and it's all natural.
SPEAKER_04So the conspiracy theorists think that the food they're poisoning the food to kill us all off, but I think it's the other way around, they're putting preservatives in the food to keep us alive longer so we pay taxes longer.
SPEAKER_01I agree. I think uh, you know, we're gonna we're we're the guys that are out there, we're gonna be roof until we're 200, and then it's gonna be like, all right, that's good, and then we'll just kind of you know, we'll look like go to bed one day and that'll be the end of it.
SPEAKER_04But there, yeah, we're gonna pay millions to support the the future generations, and we'll look like a piece of beef jerky is we'll look like a piece of beef jerky up there on the roof, all brown and wrinkled.
SPEAKER_01I know. I uh I gotta stop with that nonsense. I have been pretty good the last couple years, but hey, one other thing, and I'm not trying to get off subject here, but you're a resident Canadian, and I had another thing that I was very obsessed with a couple weeks ago about Canada, and I think you probably know about this place as well. And since I've got you on keeping it real, I'm gonna ask you your thoughts on this kind of heinous little story I found. Sure. And basically, we were doing theme park week on our other show going on daily, and everybody always goes for the best, right? Like, what's the best theme park, you know, and what's the best this that I'm the opposite. I'm like, what's the worst of the worst? And Matt, I come into the worst theme park in the world, and it's this place in Canada right by uh Niagara Falls, and it's called Marine Land.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, are you familiar with Marine Land? I haven't been to Marine Land. How old am I? 49 this year. So I I last went to Marine Land when I was 11 years old. So it's been a couple days, it was nice back then, back in the 80s, like it was hopping, it was a nice place, you know.
SPEAKER_01But uh, everyone loves Marine Land. I even know the theme song. Like, I got this this whole history on it, and here's what happened to Marineland. Your story is very similar to everyone else that I've spoken to that knows of it. Everyone used to go there when they were kids, and it was all about the same age age group. Marineland was cool. Well, guess what? In the 90s, or right when covet hit, marine land like took a huge dive downhill. It's currently no longer in business, it's been closed down for like a year. But I started like digging into this whole thing, and there were like really horrifying conditions there, and like all these animals were dying, like 200 animals died, or some crazy number, and like 20 of them were since 2019. But when they shut the thing down, they left all the dolphins and whales and stuff there. And as far as I could see, they're still there to this day. And it's like they were like going crazy, they were showing pictures of the whales like smashing their heads against the wall, and like I thought, you know, uh that's marine land. So I just wanted to let you know your childhood memories are intact, but this thing turned out to be a nightmare, and great.
SPEAKER_04Now I'm gonna go down a whole rabbit trail later on. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01You're like me, that's what happened, and now I know everything about the history of marine land, I know everything about it, and it's like, dude, I kind of wish I didn't. So the moral of the story is if you're gonna look for you know something, always choose the best because the worst is always gonna end up disappointing you. And yeah, we don't do marine land. Damn you you disappointed me.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, we don't do theme parks as a family, everything's just so expensive and exploited these days. So I guess I bought a boat, I bought a boat last week. Oh nice, yeah, just a small little motorboat with a little 9.9 horsepower outboard motor, take the kids fishing and go out on the lake and go on Lake Erie or up to Lake Ontario and and go out. Lake Erie. Yeah, yeah. Lake Erie is like maybe a 45-minute drive for me. Um I know all about Lake Erie. Yeah, if I go, if I went straight across Lake Erie, I'd end up in, you know, I think somewhere in Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_01You know, it's yeah, you'd you'd be like near Cleveland, I think, or yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's actually where my family came to Canada from Pennsylvania back during the American Revolution. So here's a little Memorial Day trivia for you. As a Canadian citizen, my ancestors wanted to remain loyal to the British Empire. So during the American Revolution, they were Pennsylvania Dutch from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Mennonites, and they wanted to remain loyal to the British Empire, so they they came to Canada during the American Revolution. A lot of Mennonites they kind of divided uh during that time period. A lot of them went to Mexico and a lot of them came to Canada to avoid the the war and uh any conscription or anything like that to get into the military. So that's how my family came into uh the Bay of Quinty around Belleville, Trenton area on Lake Ontario, and then just spread out from there. So my family's been in Canada for a few hundred years.
SPEAKER_01There you go. See, I mean I have something right there that nobody that tuned into this episode thought they were gonna learn today. Yeah, and I bet you a hundred dollars that you didn't think you were gonna be given the lineage of the Radford family today, either. So keep it a rios always on, you know. We're we're just we're fluid, we're making things happen. So let's talk a little bit about some of the stuff in this industry, okay? You get back into the roofing side of it, you're always gonna be a guy in the industry, obviously. Yeah, you spent years talking with people. I want to kind of go back through memory lane just a tad bit with you because I've had some of my favorite memories in the roofing industry, a hundred percent directly related to you. So let me go back in the time machine just a brief moment here. Two things in particular that really will always stick out to me. Okay. Number one, back in 2023, three years ago, I was in Fort Lauderdale, and it was because Business 411 was having one of their training sessions, and Roofer had an event the day before. And I went down there and I'm there, and you were there, and I think it was for that. I'm pretty sure it was for that. It was either that or RoofCon. I don't know, but you and I were there, right? And it was in Florida. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it was RoofCon.
SPEAKER_04No, RoofCon, no, I think it was the other one. I think it was the Rooper thing, a TJ Martel, right? McCormick was in there on that one too. TJ was there, yes. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. So, yeah, we go to the the Rooper thing, yeah, and I come downstairs that morning from the hotel, and I walk out. I'm just gonna get a glass of water or coffee or whatever, and just enjoy the beach and the scenery. I look over and I'm like, hey, check it out, it's Matt. I'm gonna go say hi to this guy. So we sit down, we're chatting, and out of the corner of your eye, you saw oh, a naked squirrel. Yes, exactly. You know exactly where we're going with this. So it was a little tiny lizard, and it was like ch-ching. And I thought, oh, you know, it was obvious to me right then. This guy, I don't think they have these in Canada. So you got up and started like taking footage. You had a selfie stick with you, and you were like walking behind it and like perfect angle, yeah. Like doing its thing. Well, as you're doing all that, I kind of come back to the back and I'm like, I like getting footage of people getting footage. This is one of my things. I don't know what it is, but I turn the video on and I'm like, you know, here we are. And so we've got the the wild Canadian, you know, he's not in his natural habitat, he's currently hunting, you know, the the giant predatory iguana here at the beach, and you're walking behind it all slow. And I think that's one of my favorite videos that I ever did. And anytime I see an iguana or a little thing, even to this day, I see him all the time over here. You always cross my mind, you know. I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but every time I see an iguana, I'm gonna think of Matt Radford for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_04So I think he's yeah, we don't have those here. We all our critters have fur, you know. We got bunny rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks, and you know, no liz, no lizards running around. So I was like, look at that little Jurassic Park guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. We've got dinosaurs down here, and they just don't realize that you know that's what they are, or else they probably would take over. So yeah, that was one of my favorites. Yeah, another one was I guess it's been probably that same year, or maybe the following year, at I think it was maybe at When the Storm. You come to Win the Storm in Dallas like a couple years ago, yeah. And this uh, I always I I love doing my podcast, I've been doing it for five years. There's people in the industry who do podcasts, and you kind of look up and say, Yeah, that's pretty cool. I like how they do it. Well, beyond the tool belt was one where I look at that set, and I'm just like, dude, this thing is like amazing. This guy's invested in it. He goes to these events, he's got all these cool screens and like bars and cages and welding and stuff together. And I'm like, man, this is awesome. So it was always kind of like a quiet hope that one day I would get an opportunity to be a guest on that show. And the day I got to be a guest on that show, I also had an esteemed co-guest, and uh it was you yourself. So I've always enjoyed the fact that that was the time I got to be on there, and we got to cut it up and have a great time. And yeah, it's just always a lot of fun seeing you know your friends at the industry events and doing stuff like that. Yeah, but I guess my question for you is now that you're not in that role of you know being required, I guess, to a degree. And I know you were probably never like forced, like nobody was like, Matt, we're gonna hit you with a cattle product, you don't show up at RoofCon this year, you know. But you you were at these events a lot from your previous position. What about now? As a guy that's gonna be in that that role with the company, is that something that's still gonna be interesting to you in any way? Is it gonna be beneficial? Are we going to be seeing the great Matt Radford at any roofing events in the future just so we know we can bring our pads and and paper so we can maybe get an autograph or something? You know, what's the what's that look like for you now in this new world?
SPEAKER_04Um, yeah, I I definitely plan on coming down um to some of the events. Um it's not as needed as much now because before, you know, my client base were roofers. So when I was with Roofer, um I'd go to the events and talk to roofers to try to get them on the software. So this would be more of a learning experience for me to go and see what's new in the industry. So now I'd actually be a roofer attending the events, so um, yeah, some of the major events, you know, maybe not win the storm because we don't have a big insurance market up here in Ontario, but uh you'll definitely see me around the IRE and RoofCon. And I'll be around the roofer booth too, saying hi to the old uh the old Roofer family over there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. And you know, it it's really cool because, like you say, this time around, it's gonna be a completely different perspective. Yes, uh every every single episode, and I I I've they've been great to me for years. Yeah, it's awesome to see that you know you have that that still that feeling, and everybody's like, you know what, it's cool, we get it. It's it's oh yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be where I am.
SPEAKER_04I wouldn't be where I am today without Ruper, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's that's awesome. Yeah, and okay, you just you you're awesome at this this interviewing stuff, Matt, because you know exactly how to lead a conversation, and that's because your experience with the podcast and everything. But the next kind of line of questioning I was gonna have is okay, so you're going to be coming to some events. I love what you just said this time around, it's gonna be as a roofer, and it's not gonna be as a consultant, someone that's trying to teach people what they need and trying to, you know, basically get them to invest in a service for their company. You're now going in as the consumer, you're going in as the contractor that's coming to learn. I would only assume that prior to your time at Roofer, events like this did not exist. If they did, they were not super prominent. So going in now as a contractor, what are you expecting out of events that you go to? What are you looking to learn? What are you looking to develop as far as helping your business, helping the company go forward? It's going to be a completely different perspective. So, from a different, fresh set of eyes, what are the expectations on stuff like that now?
SPEAKER_04Well, um, for me, it's mostly looking at just Different companies and how they're implementing different technologies using AI. I want to get feedback, like listen to some of the lunch and learns they have there, the the uh um the speakers that they have there talk about their experiences with AI, you know, even robocalls, um, having AI do your answering, your phone answering. I get mixed, mixed feedback on some people like it, some people don't. Some people say it's better to have a human. So getting like real-world application to these things. This is what I want to go to these events for to learn from people who have already tried and failed at certain things, so I can avoid those mistakes myself. But also, I have a long list of integrations that I need Roofer to implement. So, yeah, let's go.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm with you on this, and I know that you know because you've been you've been listening for all these years.
SPEAKER_04There's a lot of stuff Microsoft Outlook integration. Microsoft, right?
SPEAKER_01We just did we just literally changed everything over to Gmail just so that it would. So I know and I know, and I don't want to go down that road, but uh nope, I'm with you 100%. We love it, and everything's gonna continue to develop and get better. I love the perspective that you're gonna come in, and now it's like, okay, I am going to actually get the opportunity to visit some of these other things to hear from some of these other people that before you didn't really get a chance to because you were you know man in the booth, so to speak, or if you weren't, you're probably grabbing a quick bite and didn't get to run around and see what everything was there. So I thought that's gonna be cool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I love my pastries. Yeah, so I've always run around. No doubt about that. I wonder if you're gonna be able to do that. John Tucker would bring yeah, John Tucker would bring me a pie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh John Tucker, shout out to him. He is a very unique individual, and I like John Tucker a lot. He's definitely got a personality, and I saw him at Win the Storm, and he was like dressed like he just got out of bed, just walking around, and I thought, there you go, you know, that's that's what our industry is about. Yeah, you can walk around roof con or win the storm dressed like you just got out of bed, and kind of blended right in. So blend right in, you look like a roofer. I love it, and that's uh that's what I love about our industry is we get to meet a lot of folks throughout the course of our careers through these social media channels. And this is gonna kind of be like my we'll start winding down a little bit. We're at 47. I told you I'd try to keep it about an hour. So I'm yeah, yeah. I'm pretty stealth with my timing here. That's fine. We talk about the social media, the aspect of it. You're still gonna be doing that with the company, but basically, Matt, you are a social media personality presence, whether you ever intended that to be the case or not, you've been that for the last several years through Roofer, getting yourself out there, promoting the brand, doing the videos, doing the podcasts, doing the posts, just being incredibly visible. And a couple months ago, you made an announcement. It was like, hey, you know, I'm I'm done. Like, I'm leaving social media. I'm just gonna May 1st was the day. And honestly, thank you because I didn't think I would get a chance to talk to you on a podcast ever again.
SPEAKER_04No, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I thought that would be the end of Matt. And I was like, man, I wonder what's gonna happen here. We gotta figure it out. So tell me a little bit about that decision. I'm sure it's all tied together with the decision to say, you know what, I need to get fresh air, I need to do something. But that's that's you know, I guess in modern times, it would kind of be considered extreme. But I also see now you're not looking for the same people, you don't need the same audience. So tell me a little bit about this decision to just up and say, you know what, I'm done, and how that has uh affected you personally to this point in time.
SPEAKER_04Well, one of the big things that made me decide to leave Facebook, especially and Instagram is that I'm not a very political person, and I don't like to hear about people's political opinions and people arguing over politics. You know, I'm we're all just you know cattle on a cattle. No, we're cattle. We're cattle on a giant tax farm, and people are just arguing over which farmer they want to, you know, be under. So that's the way I see it. So I I got sick and tired of people arguing over politics and world events, like their opinions actually changed anything. And uh just the just the culture online, the the rage bait culture, uh, where people are just put posts out intentionally to get people mad and get them to react and get in the comments and argue so that they could get you know boosted up in the algorithm. And you mix that with AI slop where people just start posting whatever chat GPT prompt suits their fancy and tickles their ears, and they post it as their own wisdom. Like I just got tired of it. Like it's uh I like I like the the whole be authentic, um, you know, like be yourself, and there's no authenticity anymore on on social media. Not only that, but from uh a personal standpoint, um that's a that's a plug for Eric O'Bram, too, right?
SPEAKER_01The BLC absolutely, Eric.
SPEAKER_04He's the man, yeah, he's authentic. Like I like that. There's there's a few guys that are uh you know authentically authentic, and and he's one of them. But uh I just got tired of the drama, the the fakeness, the and and from a personal standpoint, I found myself like opening up my phone and I'd go to check my bank account. And before I even check my bank account, you know, I'm thinking about something, I would click Facebook. Next thing you know, I'm in a doom scrolling for like half an hour, and I'd be like, How did I get here? And I found that it's actually uh I've become addicted to it.
SPEAKER_01It's intentional, you know, we're constantly being programmed, and I'm like, you I want to check my bank account, I want to check my email, but I see this little red circle with a one or a two, and I'm like, Two, oh my god, like if I don't check right now, like these two people might be, you know, they might be down in the well, and I may be the only one that they're calling for help, and I'm ignoring them, so I've got to stop exactly what I'm doing. Yeah, I gotta check my social media.
SPEAKER_04My light would come on at one o'clock in the morning, my phone would light up, and I'd be like, Oh, who's that? Two, and then next thing you know, I'm scrolling because you get that addiction. Then you're checking one thing, and then next thing you know, somebody sends you a reel, and then you're flipping through reels, and then you just spent two hours one in the morning to three in the morning. Yeah, so uh I need to retrain my brain to kind of I don't know if it's a midlife crisis or whatever that I'm going through at age 48, but kind of retrain my brain to how I was back when I was 16 years old in 1993, just living life, enjoying the moments, smelling the flowers, watching the bumblebees, you know, paying attention to the little things that actually matter in life and getting out of this worldliness, you know, spending time with my kids, going fishing. You know, my daughter, she's 12 years old, and she took a fish off the hook for the first time and she loved it, you know. So putting worms on hooks and just doing all that stuff. Getting out there getting really a little bit. Yeah, that's right. Getting off the social media off, you know, and and with that, I want to lead by example for my kids, right? Like they don't have social media, they don't have cell phones, and and I don't want them to as long as they they don't have to. So I barely use my cell phone now. I I leave it home when I go to church. Um, I I really I don't even know where it is right now. Same with my work phone. I gotta carry that with me more now because I got customers calling me. So in business hours, um, I got my work phone, but no social media or anything like that. I I had to retrain my brain. I was starting to get into a depression there when before I left Roofer. You know, I was really starting to feel it. Um, so getting off the social media was was key. And not only that, but then also like I just got my driver's license, Chuck. A lot of people don't know that. I've never had my driver's license, so um, you know, I'm gonna say this. You can cut this if you want, but you don't actually need a driver's license to drive in Ontario. You only need one if you get pulled over.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, I feel like that's a universal rule, and it's like, you know, I've I've seen these videos here when I'm doom scrolling, and one of the funny things is the uh, you know, you don't need a license if you're traveling, you only need a license if you're driving, sir. So they carry this nonsense all the way to the highest level, and it's like, well, I was traveling in a car, Your Honor. I wasn't driving in a car, I was traveling, and it's like, man, you know, hey, congratulations. You're the second person from Ontario that I've met in the last month that got their license at kind of a later stage in life.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, like like I told you on the last time I was on the podcast, like I'm a recovered alcoholic, I was homeless, I was addicted to you know, percocets and oxycottons, and you know, ended up on the streets of Toronto drinking mouthwash up till 15 years ago, right? And that's when the Lord dragged me out of that, uh kicking and screaming, you know, not of my own free will, but um, I I came out of that, and you know, that led to getting sober and you know, joining the church and and cleaning myself up and eventually getting my driver's license, and and that was key in getting my new job. So, like I left Roofer, I got my driver's license, I got my new job and got my truck and a gas card and everything, and it's it's wonderful. So, um, yeah, I mean it's the personal growth that I've experienced just in the past four or five months has been tremendous. You know, I feel great, I'm pushing 50 years old, and you know, I've I have my 24-year-old son here now, too, from my first marriage, and uh we had a little bit of a push-up contest last week. I know we're getting close to time here, so I'll keep it short.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, hey, hey, man, we can get three hours if you want. I just you know, out of respect to you, I know you've probably got million-dollar deals to go sign up. I'm thinking I've got one appointment, I'm doing another podcast after this, and I've got one rooping appointment today.
SPEAKER_04And well, it's marketing it's marketing Mondays, it's marketing Monday, so I'm at home working, doing all marketing stuff. But I had a push-up competition with my 24-year-old son and uh my 13-year-old son, he'll be 14. 13 going on 14. I have to make sure I say that. Absolutely, that's very crucial. My 14-year-old did uh three push-ups, my 24-year-old, he did nine push-ups, and then I did 30. And uh like you boys are getting soft, so I'm at the peak. I'm doing pretty good for 50 years old. You know, I'm I'm sharp, my mind is sharp, I feel great. Being off social media has helped eliminate eliminate some of that uh that brain fog. Um getting my license has boosted my confidence. You know, I'm out in the world, I'm taking my kids fishing, and we're going places now instead of you know having to get an Uber or or get the wife to drive me or something like that, right? So that's been good, Chuck. It's been really good. And it's you know, I didn't leave Roofer out of any ill will towards them or anything like that. I love them, they're a great company. It was just for me personally and my family, it was just time to move on and and get back to my roots.
SPEAKER_01Yep, hey, I can totally appreciate 2024. I spent the entire year just not having any stress. Yeah, and when you get to a point where you don't have stress like that anymore, it's very that's also addictive. And I'm at the point now where it's just like I'm not gonna let myself get stressed, I'm gonna enjoy this this ride that we have, and you never know. I was uh coming out of the the t-shirt store the other day. I open up my I open up my Facebook as soon as I get in the car, and the NASCAR guy, Kyle Bush, just suddenly passed away. Yeah, I heard and like he won the race like five days before that, and everything was cool. Just like fell down and didn't wake up. And I thought, man, you know, you you hate that that happens, but it's such a reminder, you know, nothing's promised, you know. I always think about that. I could walk outside, slip. I live on the third floor, I slip on a banana peel and roll down the stairs. That could be it. So you got to be able to enjoy your life and you've got to do stuff that you love because if you don't, you you regret it later and you think, yeah, what if I would have done that and I didn't? And I always respect those that take that chance and say, you know what, it's worth it to me, even if it doesn't end up working out the way I envisioned, even if it's not perfect, I'm gonna stay the course and do it. And you, Matt Radford, are my hero because you have done this, and I think that uh that's gonna be awesome to watch your progression as we go. So, yeah, final question I have is a two-parter. Um, you said you want to retire from this this company, so that's you know, we still got many years. I'm I'm gonna do this. Um we're the same age, so I've still got at least 10 before I'm deciding to call it a day in that next 10 years. What are you looking to accomplish specifically with the company, with yourself? And then if there is anybody that's you know still wants to have a little bit of personal interaction, are there any other channels with which they can stay in contact with you?
SPEAKER_04Um, okay, so the first part, um, where do I see myself in the next 10 years? I want to grow this company in the sky's the limit, right? Like uh commercial roofing, you can go national, international, global. Um, so there's so much opportunity there. I want to I want to grow this company as much as I can, and not for my own personal merit, but because like like I said, Rich Richie taught me this at Roofer 2. The more you grow, the more people you can help. You know, growth means hiring. Hiring means you have employees with families that are supporting their families. So now with growth, you're you're actually helping helping families support each other, right? Um, so there's that avenue. I want to see how many people we can actually employ and and grow the company to employ so that we're we're growing our economy here in Ontario as well, but not just here, branching out across Canada and then maybe down into the US. You know, you guys really need a a bit more of a Canadian twist on your roofing industry down there.
SPEAKER_01I'm doing my commercial jobs in San Antonio. You guys are hired all day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, we'll maybe we'll use IKO. We'll talk we'll talk about coatings, we'll talk about doing some coating jobs after some codes.
SPEAKER_01I love coatings. We're getting ready to do some good ones, so that's that's my my deal.
SPEAKER_04So that's that's the idea is just growth, growth mindset right now, but um also staying humble. Uh, like you said, with with age, we start to realize that it could be one slip and fall before you you're gone, right? Like a uh a pastor that I know from uh from Jacksonville, Florida, I think it was his son-in-law, passed away at 48 years old. He was driving down the highway and just boom, had a heart attack, and he died behind the steering wheel and and and crashed his car. Um, so every time I have a chest pain, I'm like, oh Lord, Lord Jesus. Here we go. Come into me, Elizabeth. I know, I know, you know. It could be a little sharp little pain, even a little heartburn. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry for all those things. Um but yeah, focusing on staying humble and uh and uh just just growth. Um, I I'm really focused on family right now. Like I grew up without a dad, so I really want to be there for my kids. And maybe there's a little part of me that wants to live through my kids and give them all the things that I never had, like the dad that goes fishing. And I grew up watching Leave It to Beaver, so I'm you know, I want to be the Leave It to Beaver kind of dad. So um that's that's my main focus is is family growth with the company, like massive growth, getting it, getting it established, um, and just helping as many people as we can. There's some charitable things that the company does too, um, over in Africa, helping schools and churches that need new roofs, and then there's opportunity there to go and help uh communities in Africa with their roofing needs as well. So um looking forward into getting into more of that um and and doing more of that overseas.
SPEAKER_01Um contact with a friend of mine who's actually doing a donation type program for Uganda. She went over there and it's that exact thing. They needed help with the roofs and things like that. And we've been taking donations on the morning show, so she's right there in Canada. And and like I say, I think that's an awesome thing to do for humanity. And I'm not even a bit surprised that the company that you're with is doing things like that because it's a reflection on the kind of guy that you are. I am extremely honored to call you my friend. It meant the world to me when you texted me and said, here's my number, you know, let's stay in touch. Yeah, and you know, that's you're you're stuck with me now. Like I'm I'm I'm like a flea. You'll be kind of, oh, it's Chuck again. Yeah, and uh I'm gonna stay in contact throughout. We're gonna follow each other's journey because we're kind of running the same path. I mean, I'm doing the same thing now with Rio Blanco. We're looking to grow, we're looking to put some more people in place, build that team up to be something really special. And yeah, at the foundation, once again for us, it's Roofer. So thank you to them for the sponsorship of the podcast. Everybody that watches keeping it Rio. Thank you guys so much. And Matt, I can't thank you enough, my friend. This has been such a blast catching up and learning about what's going on with you. And and I feel so happy knowing that the stress of just you know not being locked up in the cage all the time. It it it changes your demeanor. And I understand completely. So yeah, glad to see that everything's good, that you're happy, that everything's going well. And we'll we'll touch base again here on the podcast down the road. Yeah, we should do this yearly.
SPEAKER_04We should do it, we we should do a yearly podcast, Chuck.
SPEAKER_01Every time we do a weekly one if you want. I don't, I don't even care. So we'll definitely catch back up down the road and stick around. I've got to play a wonderful ad for my sponsor, which y'all know who that is. And until next week, I always like to end it with keep on keeping it real. See you guys next week. Grab for that hang on here, man.
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