Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Faith, Forgiveness, and Five-Star Roofs with Phillip Arthurs of The Roofing Dudes
What happens when a CPA heeds a divine calling and trades spreadsheets for shingles? Join us for a captivating conversation with Phillip Arthurs, the chief executive of Roofing Dudes in Birmingham. Phillip takes us through his unique journey from the world of accounting to leading a thriving roofing business. Discover how his real estate ventures and a well-timed shift in faith steered him into the roofing industry, where he has made waves with innovative practices like on-site production coordinators. These coordinators ensure every project is meticulously executed, guiding the company to consistently earn five-star reviews. Learn why hiring licensed and insured contractors is crucial, and how the Roofing Dudes’ commitment to professionalism and communication elevates their client relationships.
But that's not all. We also tackle the challenging themes of fear and self-doubt, uncovering how faith and forgiveness can transform one's perspective. Through Phillip's insights, we discuss aligning personal identity with a higher perspective, recognizing and dismissing negative self-talk that can hinder personal growth. Discover the profound peace that comes from reverence and honesty, along with the integration of business and ministry in Phillip’s work, which is infused with faith-based values. Explore how these principles not only shape his approach to roofing but also offer a blueprint for living a life filled with integrity and love. For those curious to learn more, Phillip invites you to explore their extensive online resources and YouTube channel dedicated to navigating the complexities of the insurance process.
#gnpbirmingham #RoofingDudes #FaithInBusiness #BirminghamAL #EntrepreneurJourney #FaithAndBusiness #CommunityBuilders #RoofingExperts #LicensedAndInsured #RealEstateToRoofing #IntegrityInBusiness #HomeImprovement #ClientCommitment #PersonalGrowth #FearToFaith #FaithDriven #RoofingLife #InnovativeContractors #BusinessWithPurpose #HomeownersTips #FaithAndWork #MindsetShift #BuildingWithFaith #ConstructionInsights #BirminghamBusiness
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we're speaking to Good Neighbor Phillip Arthurs, and Phillip is the chief executive dude at the Roofing Dudes in the Birmingham metro area. Philip, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing fantastic, patricia, thank you so much for having me on your show.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's great to see you. It's great to get to know you. I met you through a networking group. I met your partner through a networking group. Tell us a little bit about what inspired the Ring dudes and how you got into the industry?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good question. So, patricia, I was actually well, I tell people I'm a recovering CPA. I worked at a local firm here, warren Averitt, for years and then got into consulting and became a CFO and did the whole corporate route and as I got older I just felt this calling into real estate and flipping houses it's something I've always wanted to do. So I said you know what, I'm going to do this. So my wife and I started. We got a real estate license, we started flipping houses and it was going really well. Covid hit and it actually, funny enough, during that time initially the prices of real estate skyrocketed, so we ended up doing really well on some flips that the house just appreciated in value before we got the flip finished even so that went through our favor and I'll tell you, I'd say, early of 2021, the Lord spoke to me and said that I needed to go to the roofing business and I listened and, funny story, I just I don't know why and I got out of it.
Speaker 3:And then the real estate housing market everything just kind of went to put it was not good. So it was a very timely exit out of that. I got into the roofing business and God has just wonderfully blessed my family and my business partners and I, and it's been a fantastic ride. So I know that's probably not what you were expecting to hear, but you know when, when, when the father speaks, I try to listen.
Speaker 2:Well, what kind of roofing projects do you specialize in, the roofing dudes, and what makes the roofing dudes approach unique?
Speaker 3:the roofing dudes and what makes the roofing dudes approach unique? All right, so we specialize in all types of roofing. We have the residential side and we have commercial side. Um, one of like our bread and butter would, I would say, would be the residential side. And we have on-site production coordinators. They come to the project before it gets started to help it get going. Then they'll go to the next one get it going and they come back through and then they they're there during and they're taking photographs and documenting everything. Then they come then at the end and they do a quality check and take more photographs, document the entire process. That is, that is something that is unique. It's not unique to all, you know, for all roofing companies, but it is for a lot, a lot of companies. They they'll rely on a, on a salesperson, to check the quality and making sure the right materials, land and make sure they're installing the correct color. And I even heard some horror stories from other roofing companies where they installed the roof on the wrong house. So you know that we, we we have that onsite production coordinator. That that sets us apart. Also, our communication and our professionalism we are. Our tagline is professional roofing, made simple. If you go to our, our website, theroofingdudescom, um, you can see that we've got a lot of reviews. It's connected to Google. You can go on Google and check us out as well. Uh, right, around 250 five-star reviews right now, and people are talking about our core values. They're talking about our professionalism and our communication. You'll see that all throughout the reviews that we've gotten, that really sets us apart. People feel comfortable with us.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of nefarious companies out there fly-by-night roofing companies. Birmingham gets a lot of storms. I was talking to a guy in our B&I group the other day. He's an insurance guy. He was telling me some horror stories about these guys that are from out of town. They just take advantage of people or they'll come up there and they'll create damage on the roof where there is no damage, which can actually get you caught up in a lawsuit too. So knowing who to trust is a big deal, and I tell customers, patricia. I tell them I said you know you don't have to use us, but definitely make sure they have a home builder's license. Make sure they have workers' compensation insurance, because if somebody gets hurt on your roof and they don't have that insurance, that person could come after you and sue you. Make sure you have general liability insurance, because if they drop something through the roof and destroys your grand piano or something, then that's a big problem. You want to make sure they can pay for that.
Speaker 3:Also, make sure they pull permits. It costs us a lot of money, but we like to do things on the up and up. We pull permits when required. Sometimes some cities and counties don't require it, but if it's required we're pulling a permit. Wired, we're pulling a permit and uh yeah, I mean those are to me is like those are. That's a bare minimum, you know, in in hiring a roofing company. But we go over above and beyond that with our excellent communication, our professionalism. We have a really strong team. Um, we're located here in pelham and we've got a, a nice office and our employees come here and we have a good culture, a nice office and our employees come here and we have a good culture, really big on culture and the customer experience. So all of that, I would say, is what sets us apart.
Speaker 2:And you do. Roofing made simple, right. You're approachable. You're the roofing dudes, but they're. Roofing is a challenging industry. It's technical, it's challenging. You deal a lot with insurance. These are the back end things that roofing consumers don't know about. But what are some of the biggest challenges you face? Is it insurance? Is it technology?
Speaker 3:Lately it's been insurance. We're very technologically advanced here at the Roofing Dudes. We we're probably more forward thinking than most roofing companies. I would say, um, but yeah, the insurance is is becoming more difficult with inflation and it mostly I think inflation is the biggest thing you know and insurance companies are taking longer to pay and they're denying. There's a couple of them floating around, a couple big ones that advertise on super bowls and stuff like that, that come through with like a deny first approach, not 100% of the time, but I'd say like majority of the time, and I can definitely see that people will have have like cheaper policies, end up getting way worse service and get more denials. It's usually the people in the higher end homes, the nicer neighborhoods, that have a really expensive policy that they don't have any issues with. They'll approve them.
Speaker 3:So, um, the you know, picking the right insurance company is important. I would do your research. You can Google it. You can just say what roofing companies do roofers hate. That's a good way to figure those those out. Okay, and you'll, you'll get a lot of uh. There's two primary ones. I'm not going to mention their names, but uh, they, they. They typically have issues with denying stuff. They and I've heard this too from from attorneys, because I've talked to some attorneys I'm like this what they're doing is criminal and they're like well, they have well-paid lawyers. They actually think it's cheaper for you to take them to court and if they end up losing, they can still save money overall in the big picture. Because that's just how they are, because a lot of people, unfortunately, are willing to just lay down and let them take advantage of them and they try to cast doubt on our integrity too, which makes me really angry. But that's why we take really good photos.
Speaker 3:We have a very well-trained team of insurance supplementing agents. They're project managers, internal in our business. They are experts at Xactimate, which is the software most insurance companies use, are experts at Exactimate, which is the software most insurance companies use, and they are we're your advocate. Okay, if you have a roofing issue, we are advocating for you and we will. We'll send emails. We have our strategies that we go about to help. If we know you have roof damage, we're going to stick with you. We've had customers. It took us a year to get it approved, but we're going to do the right thing. One of our core values is be helpful, and that's one way that we're helpful to our customers is making sure that they do not get taken advantage of and they got legit storm damage. We're going to make sure they get what they deserve.
Speaker 2:And the effects of the storms which have hit the United States just have. It's affected how the insurance companies are responding to roof damage and really it's at a point now where, even if you think you've got replacement cost insurance on your roof, there's a pretty good chance you don't know what you've got. What you've got I mean, I would have your insurance looked at before you have, you know, the opportunity for roof damage, because a lot of people are now their insurance is covering a depreciated roof. This is not something you want to know after you've had several shingles blow off and a large limb go through your roof. But a lot of people don't have that replacement cost insurance anymore. They think they do but they don't. So you do some financing for that purpose, absolutely, but I think what I'm trying to iterate is that now we're in a place where you don't put your roof on and forget about it for 20 years. You need to have people up on your roof looking for damage to maintain the existing roof, because now roofs are much more expensive than you think.
Speaker 3:Absolutely year, two years or so on shingle roofs and probably every five to 10 years on a metal roof. We'll go in and do some routine maintenance. It's a lot cheaper than getting a new roof, but we resell nail pops and re-caulk some things in the penetrations, and if a boot needs to be replaced, we can also do that. So that will actually help extend the life of your roof. And this is going to be even more important based on what you're saying with with these insurance companies are are going more towards the actual cost value, acv value which will depreciate your roof and you won't get, you know, the extra um if, if you maintain it, your roof should last longer.
Speaker 3:Uh, and also you, you need to be careful who who you use as your roofer as well, because if they don't understand ventilation which I found most of them don't understand ventilation then they don't properly ventilate your attic. Your shingles are going to cook from the inside out, so the heat you know the sun's beating down and then you've also got the attic super hot. Your energy bills are going to be higher and your shingles will start losing the granules they call it blistering and the granules will actually start falling off the shingles and you'll start seeing a ton of granules in the downspouts. Now you'll also see that too, after you get a brand new roof, that you're going to have some granular loss. But this is kind of like rapid granular loss where it's a lot and you'll see it really thick built up in your gutters if that's happening.
Speaker 3:And then there's also an issue where I've seen roofers overventilate a roof where it basically caused airflow confusion, where they put a ridge vent up and they put gable vents and they put a powered vent and then the air doesn't know what to do and it ends up circulating it and just it doesn't do anything, it has zero effect. So really need to understand, make sure you know who's touching your roof, because they could cause you some significant money down the road. You think you're saving money going with somebody cheap, but you're going to pay for it. It's just you're either going to down the road and typically the down the road option ends up costing you more than you would have saved on the front end. So that's my little public service announcement.
Speaker 2:Well, phillip, you're at Roofing Dudes. That's the Roofing Dudes. You are all about customer service. Yes, ma'am. How do you ensure a top-notch experience for your customers from start to finish?
Speaker 3:Communication and our core values be helpful, be responsive, be responsive, take initiative, be humble and kind. We we are very protective of our culture and our customers feel that, uh, you know I like to say we're like hitting the easy button because they're a job may be going sideways and things are going wrong, but the customer never knows it right. Right, we handle it and we communicate very well. We actually are holding our people accountable internally to make sure they're doing the right things for communicating. And again, I would encourage anybody to go check out our five-star reviews on Google. People talk about our communication a lot a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, what about you, philip? It's an exhausting, all-encompassing job running a business and also roofing right. It's not simple. You would like it to appear simple, but it's not. What do you do to revive yourself? What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:So most of my time right now I'm in the stage of life where I have two kids. I have an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old and they keep me really busy. They're very active in sports and I really enjoy watching them do what they love to do, like diving and gymnastics and cheerleading, and then my son with baseball and flag football and basketball. They're very involved with that stuff and we and we love, we love doing that.
Speaker 3:Outside of that you know I like to play guitar and I like to fly. I'm a, I'm a instrument rated pilot and enjoy when I have the opportunity to go fly to to do that.
Speaker 2:And let's double click on your life a little bit. Everyone, especially entrepreneurs, I've found, have a defining challenge that it was a hurdle that created something new, something possibly better in their life. Do you have one of those stories?
Speaker 3:better in their life. Do you have one of those stories? Oh, absolutely. Um, I'd say a few years back, um, I was dealing with fear and uh, and self-deprecating thoughts Maybe that was the right way to put it.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I understand they.
Speaker 3:They go around and around and around right Negative self, self-talk, you know, the you're not good enough, nobody likes you, just all kinds of stuff. And I read a book and it basically opened my eyes up to like agreeing with those negative self-thoughts is a sin because it's not what God thinks about us. So I came to that realization and held onto that and, um, I pray and ask God to forgive me for for having those two, for believing those negative thoughts about myself. The fear, the doubt, the anxiety just went. It went away. Um, my, my kids stopped waking up fearful at night.
Speaker 3:It was like that's, there was like this spirit that was in our house just left, um, and, and I don't allow it to come back and, uh, you know, and it really made me realize you know who I am, who my identity, my true identity, my identity is in christ and I want to help more people. Um, I want to disciple more people and I get the ability to see people every day. Like my whole team, you know, I encourage them to pray with people in their homes. I mean, we're operating as a business, as a ministry model, and we're going to continue to further that because we truly want to help people and see good things for them.
Speaker 2:I love that you said that. That is my belief system too. Anything that is not love is not God.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Anything that is not God does not belong. That's right, simple right, like roofing.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, another big piece that kind of goes hand in hand with that was forgiveness. I had to forgive myself, I had to forgive others. I had to go ask people for forgiveness and come to the realization that I was lying to myself. I might've been lying to others, you know. And so coming to that realization is just tell the truth, be honest and walk in love. And right there, that was the game changer for me. You know, the Bible says to fear God and God alone, and that's where you find true peace, which it doesn't to human conventional wisdom. It does not make sense, to that. You would want to fear something to get peace, but it's the only God, is the only thing I fear, and in that it's more like a fatherly respect, a reverence, you know, respect, and I feel protected, I feel at peace, I feel joy, things that I hadn't really felt much, you know, in my past. And that's where, where I, where I stand and where my identity rests, where I stand and where my identity rests.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful. I mean, that's a great thing, that's a great takeaway for the roofing dudes. Is there another takeaway that you would like to put out there?
Speaker 3:before we close this out. No, I can't really think of anything that I mean. That was probably the biggest thing for me, you know, and I just know that I need to be more effective in my community and in life. I've got to be balanced across core parts of my life, you know my walk with God, my physical fitness and my health, my relationship with my family and then, of course, being a good steward of what God gave me and doing what I need to do to make the best possible business that I can.
Speaker 3:And you know, I tell people all the time that this is God's business, not my business. He gave me the vision for it and he told me to do it and I'm trying to be obedient to that. And I say try, because I fail sometimes, I fail every day. And I say try because I fail sometimes, I fail every day probably, but I try to repent, ask forgiveness, keep moving forward. You know, just not trying to wallow in the guilt or anything like that, but just hey, I'm apologizing to people when I've done wrong and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 2:That's all you can do. How can our listeners learn more about the Roofing Dudes? Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Well, they can go to theroofingdudescom and we also have a YouTube channel and we're releasing videos a lot on the insurance process. I found that most customers don't understand the insurance process as it relates to roofing and siding and gutters. So we're putting out some information to help bring some clarity to people on what does it look like, because it's actually pretty complex. But we're going to release about 15 videos here soon to walk people through the journey of what does that insurance process look like, and then we're going to release some other videos around that as well. But yeah, that's what I would suggest. And, if you're local, to release some other videos around that as well. But, yeah, that's, that's what I would suggest. And or, you know, if you're local to the Birmingham area, you need a roof inspection. We offer free, free inspections and call 205-732-7231.
Speaker 2:And I will link to that website in the description below. Thank you so much, Phillip, for coming by and sharing the roofing dudes and sharing yourself with us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Patricia. You have a blessed day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.