Home Services Success Stories

Roots, Roofs, And Real Service

• Peakzi • Season 1 • Episode 18

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Peakzi Podcast: Storms pass, but trust sticks. We sat down with Kerry White, owner and president of Americana Roofing in Weatherford, TX, to explore how a local contractor builds loyalty with clean jobsites, tenured crews, and a brand grounded in servanthood. It’s a story about doing ordinary things unusually well—moving a customer’s trash bin, securing gates so pets don’t slip out, and laying tarps to protect landscaping—because small acts signal big integrity.

Kerry traces the path from construction management to roofing, explaining why consistency beats shortcuts and how “Red, White, And You” reflects a deeper commitment to neighbors. We talk about the systems that keep promises: a CRM that automates expectation-setting emails, AI that accelerates a 52-week training plan into minutes, and weekly sessions that make every salesperson sharper without drowning the team in theory. The result is fewer surprises, clearer timelines, and a smoother restoration process for homeowners who often feel overwhelmed.

We also tackle the future of search. Competing in the crowded Dallas–Fort Worth market means getting found where people ask questions today—through large language models and conversational AI. Kerry shares why Americana partnered with Peakzi, what it means to optimize beyond traditional SEO, and how they’ve already seen a fourfold lift in AI-driven traffic. Layer that with third-party trust—RCAT voluntary licensing, Google Guaranteed, A+ BBB, and The Good Contractors List’s $25,000 guarantee—and you get a contractor willing to be accountable in public.

If you care about craftsmanship, clear communication, and technology that actually helps people, this conversation delivers practical takeaways you can apply to any home services business. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a trustworthy roofer, and leave a review to tell us the one small habit you think builds the most trust.

Peakzi Podcast: Home Services Success Stories

Julian Placino:

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories Podcast, powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. I'm Julian Placino, your host, and we have a great show in store for you today because we have Kerry White, who is the owner and president at Americana Roofing. Kerry, welcome to the show. How are you?

Speaker:

I'm great, Julian. I appreciate you inviting us to sit in with you this morning.

Julian Placino:

Absolutely. And we're excited to get to know you and the business as well. So let's jump in. So so you are the founder and owner of Americana Roofing. So what inspired you to start the business?

Speaker:

So I guess old, you know, originally it was, hey, I'm tired of working for other people. I think I can do as good of a job or better at what we're doing here. And that was the initial spark of it. But since then, you know, really kind of it's evolved from that. And, you know, today the community that we're here in, it's it's my family is rooted here. Uh, my kids went through, you know, youth soccer here, uh, went went all the way through the school system, uh, you know, uh, theater, football, track and field, uh, all the different clubs and all of that stuff. Uh, we our church home is here, and uh, we just really like where we are, and we're like, hey, this is a great place to just plant some roots and and turn around and give back to the community into things that we've learned how to do.

Julian Placino:

So it really is starting from a love for the community and wanting to give back and be of service to it. Oh, absolutely. But you personally, had you started a business before Americana? Did you what was your kind of background before all of this?

Speaker:

So my background is actually construction. My uh college degree is actually construction management. Uh, came out of school and went to work in the uh multifamily industry. I was working coast to coast all the way from Seattle down to Dade County, Florida, and um, and then yeah, cut my teeth in that business, ended up um fast forward through a couple other companies. I actually started out doing some home building and uh couldn't have picked a better time. Uh the 2008 real estate crash was right about the time I started that business. And so things things kind of had to take a shift here and there. And uh somehow I ended up I found myself in roofing uh through a friend of mine. Already, you know, in construction, I was familiar with roofing anyway, but uh through a friend of mine uh started doing more concentrated subcontractor type work as a as a roofing contractor. And from there uh I decided, okay, that I can do this. And um, and that was man, that was a long time ago. That was in 2010, I think it was 2009. Oh, wow. Uh that I kind of made that transition from general contractor to uh to uh focused uh service business like what we're doing now.

Julian Placino:

Wow, okay. So you have a very strong brand message, red, white, and you. So tell us a bit about the brand of Americana and what that brand message means.

Speaker:

So so I I started the name Americana way back, you know, back, I guess about 2009, 2010. And at the time it was the you know, just that classic American value of you know, hard work, um and and um yeah, and think I I guess kind of my thought was uh craftsman homes. You know, you remember the old homes that you could order out of Sears catalogs, and and they're just these beautiful old 1920s, 1930s houses that just don't get built anymore. And and so that was that was I guess the inspiration for the name is you know, just that classic American construction quality that that comes from way back early last century. And then growing from there, uh, you know, it it evolved into uh the the red, white and you. And and more so it's it's we love the red, white and you. And and that comes from a love from our country, a love for our neighbors. Um and uh and it's it's really boils down even to you know, one of our core values is servanthood, uh, which is so much more than just service. Service is going and helping people. Servanthood is serving people with a calling. And it's our calling to help our neighbors and to take care of them and treat them uh as we would want to treat, want them to treat us.

Julian Placino:

It's a real more than just the business, but a true service, uh calling to serve the community and excellence and to its highest degree. So I I love that brand message. So, Kerry, tell us a bit about your your team. Um your team handles everything from small repairs to full restoration. So, what sets your technicians and team apart, would you say?

Speaker:

You know, obviously you the the care that we care about our customers for starters, which we you know, I've already mentioned that. But you know, beyond that, the average amount of time that a crew has been with me is over 12 years. Uh we we try to keep the same guys involved. Uh all the you know, we get the the people on the crew will change out over time, but my crew leaders have been the same for this entire time. Uh many of the crew members on those teams have been the same for this entire time. And that way we know we don't have to retrain. We we figure something out, we stick to it, and it's the same today, tomorrow, and and next year. And and we don't have to go back to square one and retrain. It's it's we know we've got that consistency in place. And that that makes a huge difference uh for us in in just being providing a great service to folks. They know that they're gonna get that when they call us, or you know, if they have a second or third problem down the road, then uh they know they already know what they're gonna expect.

Julian Placino:

So it sounds like you have great tenured leaders and then also a proven process that is shared, you know, throughout um as you continue to grow in your business. And you don't have to start from scare one, you're not reinventing the wheel because you have a process. Absolutely, yes. Yeah. Can you share a bit about that? Like what sets your process apart from other home services organizations in roofing?

Speaker:

You know, I mean, at the at the nuts and bolts of it, we're doing the same thing every other roofer is out there doing. We're tearing off shingles, we're putting on new shingles, we're you know, we're fixing leaks, we're replacing roofs after storms, that sort of thing. It what it boils down to is we're taking a little bit of extra time to do simple things. You know, put some tarps on the ground uh instead of just letting all the trash go off all into the yard. Um things like uh, hey, we're pulling up to Mrs. Smith's house today. Her mail, her, her trash can is still down by the mailbox. Grab that and bring it up to the house for her. Just simple things that that show the folks that, hey, we we really do have an interest here beyond just you know putting a roof on and getting paid here. We we want to be your friend later on. When I always tell people, you know, we don't we don't try to take shortcuts because I'm gonna run into you one day at Walmart and I want you to go, hey Kerry, it's good to see you. How are you? instead of you know hiding on the next aisle so you don't have to talk to me.

Julian Placino:

So it sounds like doing the fundamentals extraordinarily well and just treating your customers well with with with a high level of customer service.

Speaker:

That's what it is.

Julian Placino:

Awesome. Well, well, something that um I know that you're quite very public about because you mentioned it on your website that is that you've embraced modern technology and AI in a traditionally quote unquote old school industry. So, what exactly does that mean and how does that benefit your customers?

Speaker:

You know, I I see AI as being you know the current, the new revolution. You know, we had the industrial revolution back uh you know what, 100 years ago or so, and and then uh the technology revolution is is we're in the middle of it right now. And so we're trying to be early adopters of a lot of this technology. And uh, you know, one of the things uh here just a just several years ago, we finally decided, okay, we need to be on a we need to get a uh customer relationship management software. And so just doing that, uh we did it in order to help us organize our stuff and make sure we're not missing things with customers and take good care of them. But you know, beyond that, the you know, just some of the new aspects of that sort of thing is is really shown us some ways that we can serve our customers that we didn't expect. Uh, just things like automating um emails to the customer, hey, when we come do your roof, you can expect this. You're gonna, you know, if you mow your yard, it's gonna make it easier for us to clean up. Yeah, make let's make sure that the gates, I mean that the the pets are put away so that they don't get out through a gate. You're just simple things that we we try to convey that to the homeowners anyway, but now we can automate that and and that goes out automatically. And then, you know, beyond that, uh, you know, we're using you know, we're using the AI in our own office work. Um I I sat down with uh Chat GPT and put together a 52-week training calendar uh for for my for my sales staff, uh, and it literally took three minutes to do a 50-week calendar. I went through it and we tweaked a few things here and there, and then we take each one of those weeks and we produce a a 15-minute long uh training overview for for our weekly meetings. And you know, just simple things like that. It's you know, uh the whole AI sounds so scary, you know. We've all seen you know, Robocop and or um Terminator. Terminator, but but uh but it's it doesn't have to be that scary. And uh and so I've learned and I'm still learning, hey, this is a fantastic tool. It's just as good of a tool as our nail guns and and compressors and and hammers and stuff like that. So it it's it's been it's been a learning curve, but it's been fun too.

Julian Placino:

So I heard uh use case for communication to the customer, setting expectations. Um, and ultimately that comes down to um really creating an overall better experience with the customer, whether it's the communication or also training your your technicians who are your boots on the ground in front of your customers, you're living the service, so all that uh works together well. Um so speaking of AI, of course, this show is powered by Peakzi, you're a customer of Peakzi. So what's been your experience using the Peakzi platform?

Speaker:

You know, so we're still fairly new to Peakzi, uh, but uh the first time I ran into and became aware of Peakzi was uh probably close to a year ago, and I I heard um I heard your founder speak at a at a seminar I was at, and it was extremely eye-opening. Um it was eye-opening and educational. And so uh, you know, we're we're very happy with with what Peaksy's doing for us right now with uh you know, with our our, I guess, for lack of a better term, our AI SEO work. And um and but above that, I'm I'm really excited about and the vision that that Peaksy is casting for the AI industry and and and breaking it down and going, hey, this is manageable, you know, this is this is stuff that you can do and and not uh not have to to get left behind by the technology.

Julian Placino:

I'm curious, how would you articulate that vision that you caught from from our founder?

Speaker:

Well, the first thing was uh, you know, he he was speaking about the the the meeting that I was at, he was speaking about how the the new um large language models, you know, chat, GPT, Gemini, those sort of things, are they they're some they're not replacing Google search, but they they're replacing Google search. And and that more and more that's gonna become the the standard and that the search works different than just a normal Google search. And so so when he when he started explaining that, I I immediately saw, okay, we need to get we need to get ahead of this. And um because you you know the the whole SEO game, the whole Google search game, it's it's it's hard to stay on the top of the of it. It's hard to get your name into the map pack, it's hard to get your name number one on Google. Um especially if you're in a super saturated market like we are here in in Dallas Fort Worth. Uh there's there's oh there's probably five, six, seven hundred roofers in DFW at least. And so it's it's very hard to keep your name relevant just in normal SEO. And so when I saw the opportunity to get in real, real close to the ground floor on the on the search engine work for the March language models, I thought we got to jump on this right now.

Julian Placino:

Gotcha. So it sounds like it comes down to visibility and how people are searching for information nowadays, and how are you going to get ahead of that? Kind of like what pay-per-click was with Google back in the day. Now it's AI search, right? So um, so any kind of like outcomes or results you can speak to, having been on the platform for X amount of time?

Speaker:

You know, I actually I've got um we've been on for I think three months now, and we've already seen probably about a at least a fourfold um increase in our in our traffic on the on the large language models. Um the uh and actually I'm supposed to meet uh actually with my um um my my rep here in a couple of hours. Nice. We're gonna go over this past month's numbers and and see what kind of tweaks we need to make and that sort of thing. So uh, but so far, so good. It's been it's been uh we're seeing some good progress.

Julian Placino:

Good. Well, thank you, Kira, for sharing that feedback. And it sounds like it's uh it's producing some results, and uh you definitely see the benefit in it. So that's really, really great. So um so back to American Americana. And uh Americana is backed by the good contractors list with a $25,000 guarantee. So why was it so important to join this list and what does this mean for your prospective customers?

Speaker:

So, you know, I first became aware of the good contractors list probably 10 or 15, 10 or 12 years ago, uh eight or 10 years ago, roughly. And uh, and it was a very admired company at the time. We were we were still, I guess, we were in a growth phase. And I honestly, I didn't feel like we were worthy to be on that list. Uh, not that we weren't being forthright with our customers and and and trying our best to do good work. I just felt like at the position we were in, we weren't, it wasn't really the thing for us to to pursue. And so um we had actually taught had a discussion with them way back then, and we had reached out to them. Well, here just a couple of months ago, they reached back out to us and they said, Hey, you guys are doing great stuff out there. We we see your web presence, we see your community presence. Let's have a conversation again. And so we did, and and and um and so everything, everything will kind of lined up that uh that it was meant for us to be a part of the good contractors list. And you know, they're it it's great that they uh that they I guess advertise for us and say, hey, if you need a great contractor in this part of the DFW, here's the guys to talk to. And um and it's it's fantastic that they put the $25,000 guarantee on that. And because I mean, who wants to put down $25,000 and say, yeah, that guy way over there is gonna do good work for you? And if he doesn't, I'm gonna pay for it. I mean, nobody does that. Yeah, there's very, very few opportunities out there for that sort of a guarantee. And so the big picture of it was it's just one more thing to give our customers a good assurance that uh that we're gonna come to the table with good quality.

Julian Placino:

Yeah, and I think all of that speaks for itself. It's one thing to say you can do something, it's another thing to have sort of that third-party kind of association like the good contractors list. Um, you're also Google guaranteed A plus better business bureau rating, RCAT, and top manufacturer certification. So there's all these things that you're doing that the marketplace is taking notice of. So certainly commend you for all of that excellent quality. Um, and of course, a lot of that has to do with building trust and something that you're known for is educating overwhelmed um homeowners because um restoration can overwhelm homeowners, right? So educate and guide um people so they can feel confident in this process.

Speaker:

So so obviously when we meet up with a new homeowner that you know, maybe they called us straight off of Google and they don't don't really know a lot about us, we'll we'll kind of broad brush over, hey, yeah, we're we're licensed with a voluntary licensing through RCAT. Um Texas does not require roof licenses. So we actually have a voluntary license. Um, you know, we're Google search, Google Guaranteed, we're we're on the good contractors list. So we'll give them all of that resume. Um, and and but then we follow that up with that. What that all really means is that we're going through the extra steps to make sure to give you a good, a good project uh and um and a smooth process. And so you know the bigger thing there is we're we're trying to take care of them and and do the right thing. And then the flip side of that though is that all of those things push us to to a higher standard. Um, you know, if if um if the good contractors list says, hey, we're gonna back you, but you know, we're we're putting 25,000 of our money saying we're gonna back you, well, to me, that means I've got a $25,000 bounty on my head if I don't do the right thing. And so, you know, just it it just pushes all of those different things just push us to to try to improve, to try to uh to try to position ourselves to uh to to take good care of our neighbors.

Julian Placino:

Yeah, it's it's a way of putting your money where your mouth is, right? Just like right up front, drawing, drawing the line in the sand. Right, right. This is what we're gonna do for you right up front. And I think that's a great way to build trust. So um, so Carrie, we're we're just about to land the plane here. You have been serving the North Texas area uh with excellence for for 20 plus years now. So looking ahead, what is your vision for the business and what kind of impact or legacy do you want to leave behind for community, your customers, your employees? Tell us that.

Speaker:

You know, it's not about the money. I mean, it is about the money because we don't we wouldn't be doing this if we weren't getting paid, obviously. We gotta we gotta make money somehow to feed our families. But it's I don't, I'm not here to be the next 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 100 million dollar company. It's I could I I could care less about about doing that. I want to I want to provide a good trusted service. I want I want people to look and go, yeah, those are the guys that we need to hire. They're professional, they're trusted, um, they have integrity and quality in what they do. And I don't want anyone to ever have to question. that hey am I making the right choice in hiring somebody here I I want them to know that that that they're making a good decision and then me as a company owner beyond that I want to provide and it's actually part of our mission statement I want to provide um a good a good place to work for my for my team um I want to provide a um a roof over my family's head obviously and then and then I want to provide a great service to to my community and so if I can just wrap all three of those together in one take care of my family take care of my team and take care of my community and uh and give back on each one of those whenever I get the opportunity then yeah that's that's really that's gonna be that's gonna be a whole lot that's gonna make me a whole lot more happy than than looking at my bank statement at the end of the month you know what I mean I love it I think that's a that's a great and inspiring vision ahead so uh so carry it's been really great uh getting to know your story and and sharing more about it with our audience here so uh close us out tell us your website your social media how do folks connect with you tell us all that okay so uh the website is americana roofing dot net not dot com it's the dot net and uh social media you can find us is Americana Roofing on Facebook and Instagram uh we just launched our YouTube channel and uh there's there's not a lot of content there but we're working on getting that built up and um but uh the the bulk of if you really want to take a look and get a feel for what kind of a company we are you'll see that for sure if you go to to uh Facebook and take a look at us.

Julian Placino:

All right and we'll make sure to have all your contact information and show notes in the show notes as well. So uh Kerry, this has been a true pleasure. Thank you so much for for sharing your story on the show today. Julian thank you so much. Well everyone that is it for today's episode thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time on the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business.