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 Podcast: Aaron Haddock
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This week, we have a humdinger of a Guest. I’ve known Aaron since his early days in roofing and have watched him grow into one of the leaders in the Commercial space. He’s one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met. He’s written a book to help bring new people in, gotten involved in multiple business ventures, including Roofing Supply, Website development, and something about Peppers, or something like that. Oh, and we both used to be a lot different-looking. It took me over 5 years to secure the guest, and it was worth the wait.
And uh booyah. Ladies and gentlemen, what's up? Welcome back. It's your favorite time of the week. Once again, keeping it real time. And this is episode 271. And I feel like right now I'm on a East Texas swing with my keeping it real guests. This is kind of cool because I've kind of been in like little waves. I had some musicians and rappers and writers there for a while. Now I'm going back to my roots. And uh I'm extremely pumped for today because it's been five and a half years of keeping it real that I've literally been trying to track this one dude down the entire time. And I'll be danged if we didn't get it today. So it's an absolute honor to welcome the one and only everybody's best bud, Aaron Haddock, all the way from out in East Texas. And Aaron, welcome to the show, my friend. How's it going? Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01No, it's good. It's uh like you said, it's been been a little while. You said something about this a couple years ago, and I honestly just forgot. And then you sent me the uh you sent me the link and uh forgot again, and then and you wouldn't shut up about it. So I don't that's how it works.
SPEAKER_00I eventually I get the Grant Cardone, and ironically, that's where you and I met for the first time at Grant Cardone event in Miami. So it's only it's only befitting that I would just annoy you and hit you over the head until finally you're like, dude, shut the hell up, I'll do it. And hey, here we are. That's how you get the good guests, you just annoy the shit out of them until they agree, and then at the end of the show, they're like, you know what? I wish I'd have done that five years ago. So that's what we're gonna have. So, Aaron, my friend, let's kick this off and pretend. Like I had Jojo on the other day, everybody knows this guy in America, but I don't know if you're aware, keeping a Rio is an international program. I've got fans all the way in Saudi Arabia, I've got them in Nigeria, Uganda, all over the world. This is a worldwide program, so I'm sure three or four people over in Nigeria have yet hear of Aaron Haddock. Why don't we tell them a little bit about yourself and then we're gonna really go on some kind of a weird tangent?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's I would only expect that. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm Aaron. I live in uh outside of Tyler, Texas. Work with uh a couple different companies, but um kind of home base is ASAP roofing, and I'm uh one of the commercial managers there. Uh this will be in uh April. It'll be my ninth year there. So uh over eight years, almost nine right now. Uh been in the commercial space for about seven of those years. Uh heavy for about heavy for about six and a half to seven. Uh kind of tried to dabble in it for a little bit, but um that's really it's really about it, man.
SPEAKER_00Come to find out that commercial roofing is not something you can dabble in. So you just dove head headfirst into it, yeah, became an absolute beast. And before we even go further in, I do want to mention, folks, it's keeping it real. You guys know I've had 45 different authors on the program, including 21 bestsellers. This gentleman here is also an accomplished author, but I will say one thing. Aaron, I bought your book and somebody in my neighborhood stole it when Amazon delivered it. So somewhere in San Antonio, there's somebody that knows their shit when it comes to commercial roofing. They probably use it against me on a daily basis, but uh I got another author, so I want to talk a little bit about the uh because when you and I first met, you were pretty much getting into the industry, new at that point. It was just about seven and a half years ago that you and I met over there in Miami, and then I came back to Texas for a little while over there and hung out with you guys for a bit. And we got to go do some fun stuff. Tell me a little bit about those early days in roofing, because to me it was like, you know, I understand you've got a completely different set of skills. This was a whole new thing for you. And I've always kind of wondered like, what, what were you walking under that fell and hit you in the head that day, or what was the culprit, you know, that caused you to say, you know what? I think roofing sounds like it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_01So uh I worked in the automotive industry off and on. I um I was a mechanic for uh right at 12 years, uh, got sick and absolutely tired of it, moved away, did some other stuff, and then met my wife and moved uh to East Texas. She was a nurse here, and it just made more sense to for me to come because I was just kind of a didn't really matter, just not a bum, but just uh did whatever. Yes, yes, that's a good yeah. I lived in a van down by the river basically. Nice. Um I bet. Yeah, it was it was nice, it was a nice van. But uh went back to kind of what I knew in the automotive industry and did that for it's about four years here. And one of my good friends who you know, Dean Mice, he um he told me, He's like, Man, what what are you doing? He's like, just he said, Why don't you come sell roofs? I was like, man, I don't even know what a shingle is, dude. Like, don't you know, I I have no idea. So he he told me, he's like, Well, let me come and look at your roof and did the whole like I'm gonna, I'm all practice looking at your roof, and then you know, sold me a roof, and then uh told me what the commission was on it. And I was like, wait, hang on. So you made like 1,500 bucks for, you know, like I don't have a big house. It was like you made $1,500 for literally like three hours of your time. He's like, Well, it was a little bit more, but yeah, essentially. I said, Okay, he said, Well, I'm tired of this, and I've been wanting to get out of this industry for a little bit. So I talked to my wife and kind of told her is like she knew that I was tired of anybody that's been in the automotive industry for more than about three or four years is ready to get out of it. It's just if they can pull the trigger and get out of the comfort zone because the money's there, but it's it's just like anything else, you have to be able to want to get out.
SPEAKER_00Um there's always a tendency to snap in that industry, too. Much like retail, much like anything, you know, sales. That's how I ended up in this as well. I actually lost my mind one day at my roofing supply company in North Carolina, and the rest is history, unfortunately. But I think that's awesome. And you get in, and you know, like you say, right out of the gate, it's like, dude, I don't know anything about this. But you got with one of the best companies that I've ever been a part of and and had some of the best training. So let's chat it up a little bit because I want to get into your commercial stuff and all the other cool stuff you got going on, but you got to kind of lay that framework. So you get into residential, and I always love to ask this to everybody that's been on this show that's ever sold a roof. Tell me about that first one because you never know what the hell's going on until you get that first one, and that first one is either the one that's like, Yeah, this will be all right, or oh damn, what have I done?
SPEAKER_01So we had man, I I sucked. Like, they were like, Oh, you gotta go knock doors. It's like, oh, that's not gonna be that bad. And then you get to the first door, and you're like, I don't know if I really want to talk to these people, like maybe maybe this isn't for me. Um, so we had got went through the process, uh, knocked on what seemed to be like 7,000 doors, finally got on a roof, got you know, got the deal. And Roy, Roy asked me when Roy was, you know, he was doing all the paperwork and helping me out as well. And he goes, Well, what kind of shingles do they have? I don't, I don't know. What, you know, what was the pitch? I I could walk on it. I'm I'm not real sure. And it's all the stuff that you know they trained me to do, but then when it comes down to time to do it, you're like, I I have no idea. This is brand new to me. Um, so went through the whole process, uh, sold that one. Um, it was insurance, and then it was kind of, you know, you hear about the oh, it's gonna take a little bit to get your check, but you don't experience the hey, it's gonna be a little bit to get your check. So you're waiting and you're like, okay, I'm done with that. Okay, well, we you know, we submitted everything. Okay, well, when do I get paid? Well, when we get paid, you know, you'll get, you know, you you can you can get paid when we do, okay. And like three or four weeks later, I'm like, Am I getting stiffed? It's like, I don't know, you know, yeah. It's like I could really use some cash right now. Like my wife's been asking me, like, you've been doing all this, what what's going on? And uh finally got a check, and it was for it was it was just under like three grand. And I was like, I was man, there's no way. And in the meantime, I had done, I think, like one or two more, and then like everything kind of just started progressing. And you you know how it is when you do one and then you do another one, and then you see that paycheck from the first one, you're like, Man, maybe I should talk to some more people, and then it just kind of snowballs. Um, and I learned real quick, like, I'm really I'm I'm honestly not a salesman at all, like at all. I'm not the you know, come come buy from me. And um, yeah, and and I think that's I think that's why I did, you know, I do decent, but um, I realized real quick that um before I learned how to sell better, that there's there's ways that you can make more money. You can either sell to more people, you can sell bigger, bigger objects, or you can upsell people. And I realized real quick, okay, I'm not selling to I I might talk to 10 people or 15 people before I you know sell a roof. But if I talk to 20 people, I'll sell two roofs. So I just realized that real quick, hey, instead of knocking these 100 doors a week, I'm gonna start knocking, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my best to knock 100 and uh to 150 doors a day. Um, and you get a lot of people you know that aren't answering, but I mean it was just it, I realized real quick, you you get what you put into it in this industry. Um, and it just kind of snowballed. There was a couple times where I sat down with Joe and I was like, man, this this is not for me. It's like I I just I don't think I just don't think that this is for me. And I'll just give it time, just give it time. And and sure enough, after about six months, you're looking and everything's just progressed and snowballed, and now you're like, I don't have time for this. I need to figure out what to do with this, this, and this because this is all going on. So um just learning learning the ropes of it and then realizing um what can happen when you do put everything that people a good company teaches you into effect, uh, can really change, change the perspective of everything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no kidding. And I'll tell you, that's awesome because it's so true for everybody. You get that first deal, and it's like, oh dude, this is gonna be awesome. Like, I'm getting paid on Friday, but they don't tell you what Friday or what month of Friday it's gonna be. And you're just sitting there thinking, dude, is this a scam? And even when you know you're with a reputable company and you see the people around and they're telling you that, you can't help but wonder, what am I doing? Is this like, is this gonna cost me everything because I got this little, you know, wild hair that told me I was gonna go sell roofs for a living? But then once you start to get that pipeline open, it starts to flow, then you start getting the money coming in and you don't really even think about it anymore. And it's just like, oh, Friday, oh yeah, I better go put that check in the bank or you know, whatever. The company starts reminding you that you haven't deposited checks yet because you're not hurt anymore. And then you get to the other extreme. And the one thing that I always loved about the group that we had over there at ASAP was the personal development concept. Everybody in that group, like I say, you and I met in Miami. That was the first time I literally met anybody from that company. And it was at the 10X Growth Conference and a giant uh palatial suite up there. And I just remember thinking to myself, wow, every single person in this room flew to Miami, Florida. They're staying here, they're taking the time to do this. And this is a huge group of people. I'd say there was probably at least 30 or 40 people in that suite. And immediately I was impressed. And it's like, all right, well, this is going to be a lot of fun. Throughout the course of the next five years being a part of the group there, we got to do some really cool personal development things. We got to have some amazing in-house training. I tell Jojo just the other day, to this day, I go to get my oil changed or I go get a rental car, and I'm all like, Hey, is that uh is that the best we can do today? And dude, that guy right there, I love that dude because that works so hard, nobody in the world believes that it works the way it does. But I get free stuff everywhere just by using that. And I always said, you know, that's a million-dollar nugget that I got if I got nothing else, but I got so much from it. And one of the things was watching people develop within the organization, and you're one of the key people from the very beginning. You know, I went out there with you when I first got there, and we were joking about sitting at this lady's table, and she had like a whole bunch of like hand woven purses and stuff. And I don't even know if you ended up getting that deal or not, but I hope you did. That was a pretty cool memory right there for me. And that's the only one we ever had of a call together.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So on that one, it's kind of funny because we we I did get it, but they had it wound up being ACV and they wound up getting paid like $380. And you'll remember the the people that were there, they didn't have they did not have the money to their name. But I called and checked on them for probably a year after that, and finally she told me that she said, We just we sold our house, we just sold it as is, we're not messing with it. Okay, all right, so I can quick call quick call. There you go.
SPEAKER_00But the follow-up is still there, and that's the best part. You find out a year later, okay. I actually just had a lady that that happened to me with over here in San Antonio a couple days ago. Oh, I moved. I appreciate you following up on me, but I sold the house, and that roof is now their problem. But I thought that was kind of a cool, you know, just a memory that you and I have. The ladies were uh they were making these coin purses, and God only knows what they were selling them or where they were selling them or what they were doing with them, but lots and lots of coin purses in the house that day, and come to find out there was no money in them, but there was not it is what it is, so that's part of the deal. We start getting a little bit more involved in the industry, start to get more experience, and at that point, ASAP was really basically just a residential insurance-based company. There was no commercial division, really, to speak of. One day we get this announcement, and it's like, you know, we're gonna start doing commercial, and Aaron's gonna be taking over the commercial division, which is definitely not a minor task by any stretch. And I will say this I appreciate and respect what you put together because I had a good guy that was training me to do commercial in college station, and I couldn't have done it, you know, because it was just it was way too much for me. So let's talk a little bit about this. You get this wild bug, you start selling roofs, you struggle, you wonder if you're ever gonna get paid, you start getting paid, and then all of a sudden you're like, Man, I don't like this feeling about getting paid so frequently. So I need to step back and reassess my life, and I need to get into something else that's gonna get me paid even slower. So let's talk about the decision to get into commercial. What led you to that decision? Was that something that you actively approached them with, or were you approached by them?
SPEAKER_01Um, it was I was not approached by them. We had so we had done one or two other like commercial jobs, uh, one of them being um being one of the largest ones was still done to date. It was like one point 1.5 million or 1.2 million, somewhere right around there. Um, but that was one that just kind of like essentially fell in our lap. One of the one of the older reps, he knocked a house, knocked a house. He wound up being uh maintenance manager at this at a pretty large facility, and they lived right down the street. Hey, you know, we'll check your business for hail damage too. Checked it, it was leaking, wound up just progressing from there. Um, he left and they needed basically I I approached uh Joe and just asked him, it's like, do you need somebody to take over this account? Just I know that we just did the roof, but you know, if it if it helped y'all out, you know, I'll just I'll continue following up with them, just making sure everything's good. I'll do we do maintenance on it uh twice a year. Like I'll take over the maintenance. Like I know there's not really that much money in it, but I also knew that doing that would get me um kind of a foot in the door in you know a larger company. Um, and also with our our installer, um, you know, he's he's great. And I didn't know hardly anything at all about TPO and modified and stuff like that. So I knew that hey, if I go there and he goes with me, you know, it'll give me a chance to actually learn this stuff too. Um so I kind of just fell in it right just with just with that, and then just started looking at some bit like we everybody that's in the in roofing knows you get you know 57 emails a day that are hey, do you want to bid our project? Hey, do you want to bid our project? And I started looking at them as like, man, let me let me start messing with some of this. So some of the local ones that came up, I I just started bidding, didn't know, you know, honestly didn't know hardly anything about it, but just I'm gonna I'm gonna try it and just kind of see what happens. Wound up getting um there was a it was a the first one I got on my own was a um it was through a GC company, which we all know how that usually goes. Oh yeah. And um it wound up being it was the um uh grocerly grocery when when Walmart was adding all the like um grocery deliveries sections, it was the roof over that. So it was like a 40 square add-on to to Walmart. Well, learned a lot during that. Um learned that GCs will change plans in the middle and show you the plans, but not ever really send them to you, and then you're responsible for it because that's something that you signed off on. And well, no, we didn't lose money on it, but it was like a it was like a two or three month ordeal of you know, new construction, you gotta go back and put the roof on, and then you gotta go back and do the detail work when they put the AC and then go back and do the edge metal. And you know, when it's all said and done, I got the check and it was like $260. It's like, all right, well, we didn't lose money, so I'm gonna count this as a win. Um and then just I'm the kind of person that when I want to do something, I just do it. And I realized just talking, I talked to a lot of people about it, and just realized there is potential in this, and I'm gonna figure out a way to do this. So just kind of took, just went and basically took what I knew about residential, just talked to more people and do stuff. And went and talked to, you know, instead of knocking residential doors, I split it up to where I knew I would still be getting my residential as income coming in, and I knew the turnaround on commercial was you know three to six months generally. Um, so uh Tuesdays and Thursdays I would go knock commercial, and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I would knock residential and just kind of just went from there.
SPEAKER_00I saw all this going down myself, so I know how hard you worked, and I know how much you know goes into learning how to bid commercial jobs right out of the gate. Is you know, there's a lot of stuff there that could get messed up, and like you say, it's a blessing when you get one where you go through the entire thing, you kind of get kicked in the head a few times, you learn a lot, and if it ultimately net you a dollar profit, you're like, okay, cool. That was a good education. A lot of people have to pay to go to school. I made 200 bucks and I I learned a lot. So you take that experience and you, you know, probably look at it for a second and say, Oh, damn, you know, are they all gonna be like that? Is that really what I want? Or is it just easier to go out and do these residentials? But like you say, you're Aaron Haddock, you don't you don't quit, man. You're you're the guy and you've got it in your mind now. Okay, this is gonna be my thing. So you start building this up, and obviously they start bringing more people into the organization. It starts scaling pretty quickly to where all of a sudden, you know, now you're you're doing, you know, not one or two commercial jobs, but you got large commercial jobs all over East Texas, you guys are traveling into other states and so on and so forth. So tell me a little bit about this scaling as you go from just learning and you know, hey, I just bid the the the addition to Walmart to now we're bit we're bidding like humongous projects and and doing all this. So, how did you maintain your sanity? And I know that you maintained it for for the most part. What was always there, you know?
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, the little bit that was there, some of it stayed. Um, it was you know, kind of like just like residential. One of the things that um I always asked for referrals, every single, every, you know, who who else do you know that we can help? Who else do you know, you know, did everything everything went great? That's that's awesome. You know, who else do you know that you know could benefit from our service? And it's kind of the same thing. Um with the company that I took over and started doing the maintenance and all that on, I just started talking to them. Hey, you know, y'all are a y'all are a worldwide plant. Who else around who else around here, you know, can I help? And we wound up going um to Arkansas, uh Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, um, doing doing work for them, and then um got in with uh some of the co-ops and kind of learned about that end, and started realizing what's in there. So we got in with three or four different pretty large school districts um around East Texas. Um, and it was, you know, people saw what we did, realized that okay, these guys these guys know what they're doing, um, and just basically built up built off of that, a lot of it. A lot of it wasn't me. It was just relying on people that knew exactly what to do and learning from them until I can confidently say, okay, I do know this. Um and stuff, you know, I'd have we'd we'd have one to go look at, and hey, this is a roof that I'm not real sure about. You know, Alfredo, can you come with me and look at it? And he'd be in the car, he'd be in the truck with me, you know, it whether it's Oklahoma, you know, Tulsa, Oklahoma, or you know, right down the road. Just just knowing that knowing that you have that behind you is a tremendous load off your shoulders when it comes to that. Because I mean, you can mess up on a residential and forget, you know, a bundle of ridge and it costs you, you know, 75 bucks, 80 bucks. You can forget a section of TPO and it turns into a $20,000 mistake very, very, very fast.
SPEAKER_00But those are my favorite ones, the big ones. Yeah. I made a couple of them, but hey, you know, it builds character and it shows who we are as people. So I kind of want to. I'm doing the podcast in phases here. So we're in the early days, we're transitioning into the commercial world. Not to make light of the commercial world or kind of take it lightly, but I got a lot of stuff to chat with you here on. So we'll fast forward a little bit. You get into the commercial, you start really becoming a uh, you know, an expert in the field, learning, getting bigger jobs. And then what I think is the most noble thing is you decided to give back to the community in writing a book on how to get into commercial roofing and how to, you know, do the stuff that you literally just went through yourself. And I think that's very respectable. And I want to kind of ask you a little bit about it. Because, like I said, you're the 44th different author. I'm keeping it real. I want to learn a little bit about the process of writing the book. Obviously, personal experience is where it came to mind, but again, this is another one of those things where you know you just don't sit down and say, Oh, I'm gonna write a book on Thursday. Tell me a little bit about this process, getting the book together. Obviously, the ideas were all in your head, but what made you decide to do this at such an early stage? Number one, and tell me about the publishing process because everybody's got a different one, and you could be like Jim Johnson, who went up in the middle of the woods and just hung out for like three days in a deer blind and like wrote a book. So tell me about your experience.
SPEAKER_01Um I should have done that, that would have been a lot more fun, but but um man, you know, it was getting into transitioning from residential to commercial was it was hard. And the hardest thing about it was just kind of wrapping your head around, I guess when you talk about a residential roof, you're talking about you know, ten to twenty thousand dollars. When you talk about a commercial roof, you're talking about anywhere from ten thousand dollars to multi, multi-million. And I think just wrapping your head around the numbers was the hardest thing that I did because you go and do a presentation, and in your mind, you have the mindset of, man, I'm trying to get these guys to spend, you know, three million dollars. I I don't know, you know, and you go into that meeting with that mindset, well, it's not gonna go as well as it could if you're just hey, this is what it costs, this is what you need to do, and that's that's really all there is to it. Um, but when I kind of wrap my head around, hey, you know, when you're selling a residential roof, the best way I can describe it, when you're selling a residential roof, you're I'm talking to the homeowner, trying to get them to spend their money. When I'm selling a commercial roof, I'm talking to the facility manager, trying to get them to spend somebody else's money so it solves their problem, which makes it in my head 10 times easier because those people, when you're talking about a big facility, they need to spend the money. They have tax write-offs, they have everything that they have budgets. That money's already spent. It's just who they're gonna spend it on. Um, and if I can solve it the day-to-day life of somebody who lives in that facility that you know Brenda's desk is or has had a leak on it for six years. If I can get Brenda to shut up where you don't have to hear about it anymore, dude, let's fix your let's fix your issues right now. And that money's already spent, it's not their money. Give it, give it to me. Let's fix your problems. Um, and I and I think that was just getting my head around that was kind of a turning point um that made me realize, you know, really anybody can do this with guidance. And when I wrote it, you know, I I and I still am, you know, comparatively speaking, I still am relatively new at this, but it was fresh in my mind how I transitioned. And my thoughts were, you know, I can wait a little bit to do this, or I can do it now when I've just basically just got done doing this. Um, let's just let's go ahead and let's go ahead and you know write down everything that I did. Um obviously, you know, like you were talking about our trainings, um, the different stuff that we've done. I had notebooks of um of different trainings, mic code A trainings and step trainings, and I mean literally notebooks of it, and just going back through there and basically uh re-highlighting everything um that okay, this is relevant. This is I use this on this portion and just kind of organizing my thoughts. Um, my idea really wasn't to write a book at first, it was just to help other people, and then it came down to well, you know, essentially I have a book already written, so let's just let's do it.
SPEAKER_00There you go. And there's tons of people that are gonna uh gather a lot of valuable information, they're gonna progress their careers much quicker, and they're not gonna have the screw up. So I always love to ask this one final question for any author, and it's cool because people have these amazing stories. Have you ever had anybody that's come back to you and said, Aaron, I got your book, I didn't know anything about commercial roofing, I read this damn thing, and now I just put together, you know, a multi-million dollar bid and I'm gonna get it, and everything's awesome, and it's a hundred percent because of you. What kind of feedback have you gotten from the uh you know the peeps? Whoever stole mine probably is the one that wrote you the best review.
SPEAKER_01Um, so I actually uh one of the guys that read it, one of the guys that read it, he um he lives he lives around here, he works actually for a different company. Um, but he he's asked me a couple, he's you know how how ASAP ASAP is, and it's you know, we'll we'll help you. You know, it's not I'm obviously not gonna give away jobs, but if I can help you get something that I don't have a chance to get, anyways, then let's let's see what we can do. So um he actually he read it and he called me. He's like, Man, I I read this, I actually got this inspection. Is there any way that you can help me out with it? It's like, yeah. I said, Hello, let's go do the inspection. So I mean, went and did the inspection with him and kind of walked him through the whole process of how I go about stuff and um wound up getting he wound up getting that job. So it uh it was it was it was pretty it was really cool to watch because he had never sold anything but residential. And I mean, um it was actually it was really cool to watch, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that makes all that time, all that stuff that you went through, learning, taking your lumps, all seem worth it. And then it's like, damn, you know, that's just one guy that's local. You you've got to understand there's probably gonna be people all over the country that are gonna gather that and they're gonna, you know, one day there's gonna be a statue of you in the commercial roofing hall of fame, and I'll be standing there, you know, kind of doing the thing too. But there's gonna be a lot of people whose path you're gonna uh impact positively throughout their journey, and I think that's huge for commercial because it's not as it's definitely not as easy, and I think the path to get into it is kind of daunting for a lot of people, and just to have someone that says, Look, I just went through it. Here's the results I'm getting. You can do this too. Just kind of you know, follow what I did. And if you need anything, give me a call. So kudos to you, my man. You're doing a lot to give back to the industry. I love that, and that's the 30-minute mark of our podcast, which now puts me into quarter three here. So, quarter three, I want to talk a little bit about what else you've got going on, and of course, you've got another business venture over there in East Texas with Jojo. I'm fascinated by this as someone who has opened a roofing supply company from scratch in a totally new market, North Carolina, and you know, gone through the trials and tribulations of blowing it up way more than it was supposed to be, and then basically losing my marbles and you know, ending up in Texas. And I've also got a partnership currently with a local, you know, independent distribution in Ohio. So this is very near and dear to my heart. And I was talking with Jojo the other day on the show. I want to kind of get your input on this because again, I think it's awesome to have uh, you know, a diverse background in the industry. I think it's a huge advantage to be able to provide your own materials to yourself. And I know some people don't like that and they say, well, whatever, bro. But like I say, dude, invest the five to eight to ten million dollars out of your pocket, put all your stuff on the line, you know, put your reputation, your family, and all that, and then you can do the same thing. It's that easy. So let's talk a little bit about the supply side, Tyler Roofing Supply. You guys are, you know, what about two years in or so now? I'm guessing.
SPEAKER_01We're right at two, we're right about two and a half years. Um, we started, yeah, it's been uh spring of 24 is when we started, I believe. Uh so two and a half years in, and it's been one of the biggest learning experiences that I've ever had. It's the first, um, you know, Joe, Joe and I open it, but it's the first company that um that I've ever opened, that I've ever been been part of the startup with. Um but yeah, we started it just, you know, all these huge companies are getting they get basically discounts, they get better treatment from from the big three. Um that's just that's just the way that it is. And everybody in in the industry knows it. And you start looking at the profit margins that they're making, and you know, it's like, man, they're they're really, you know, a smaller company, they don't have any other choices. And our goal was to basically level level the playing field on that and make it to where you know we it doesn't matter if you do 75 million or you do, you know, thirty thousand dollars a year. Um we're gonna give you the same treatment, we're gonna help you out as much as we can. It's a company that we've we've probably helped more people that are getting into the industry that you know, somebody sends in an order to one of the big three and they forget drip edge or starter. Nobody's gonna call and say, hey, you know, are you forgetting drip edge or starter? Is there a reason that you didn't do this? But most of the time with the small with the smaller companies, we'll see, hey, they didn't put any poly, they didn't put any uh catnails, they are one roll short of synthetic, and we'll call them, hey, here's what I saw. I went ahead and I did a roofer, give you the plug there. Um, on the uh on the house that you're gonna do. And I noticed that you're gonna actually be, you know, it looked it looked a little different. You're gonna actually probably be about two squares short, you know. I see that you're doing this on a Friday. You'll probably be about 4:30 on a Friday afternoon when you need it. So you want me to go ahead and add that? And just catching little stuff like that that nobody else really does, um, it's helped us just kind of progress. And I mean, when we I don't I don't think we've lost a customer yet. When we get somebody, it's I mean, it's it's locked in pretty good. Um, our pricing is extremely fair. Um, it's I'm not gonna say cheaper than everybody, but if you're not a huge, huge company, then our pricing is is extremely fair. Um, but that's really kind of the premise behind it, just just trying to help and help help other people out where we saw a need in the industry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's that simple. It's those small guys that that get overlooked. And when I was in Charlotte, that was all I was able to focus on, obviously, is we had to outservice everybody. And like you say, people call and I'd say, well, you know, you what about this? What about that? Call them up and you know, hey, if you need me to run a roll of felt, this is back in the day when we used actual felt. And I remember I had to run like 10 rolls of felt to you know, Mooresville, North Carolina, which is an hour and a half away on Friday evening because my guy didn't do it right, but I saw it on the list. And you know, those people they come and they stay with you because they understand number one, they get it. You're fighting a huge fight, you've got to go up against multi-bazillion dollar corporations. When I was in Charlotte, we we got hit with a hail storm in 2011. And Aaron, I was told by my main manufacturer that I was SOL because the alphabet down the street was much more prominent than I was, so we had to get creative. Luckily, we you know, we've got friends in the industry, we're able to get shingles from a different plant, you know, and have our own LTL driver drop them down there for us. But that stuff can happen, and you have to realize, guys, this is this is big. And you know, these companies don't like when people come in and muddy the water up because it sort of exposes a little bit of that. So, one thing that you said about this distribution is it's been the biggest eye-opener, the biggest learning experience. Let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you've learned from that side. Because when you've got experience on that side of the business, everything is different and you see everything completely different. And I spent 15 years in distribution before I even got into contracting. So I still think see things from that side, you know, almost exclusively. Tell me a little bit about some of the things that you've learned in the two and a half years that you're just like, wow, dude, I didn't realize that was a thing. I didn't realize how prominent or how important that was.
SPEAKER_01I think the biggest thing that I that kind of opened my eyes was a small change on one side is a huge change on the other. Um, you you know, we'll we'll set a week and a half in advance, we'll set all of our deliveries, and then you'll get that one phone call. Hey, we had to, you know, we had to uh switch the date on this, which I understand now, you know, being on both sides, I totally get it. But okay, no problem. We'll we'll get it handled. No problem. When do you want it? Well, I need it this day. Okay, we'll we'll get it handled and then hang up the phone going, I'm not real sure how we're gonna get this handled. We're going to, but just now we will. Um, and whether it's, you know, we have two of the best warehouse guys and drivers that I can't say enough about them, but hey, do you need me to come in on Saturday and drop that Saturday morning instead? And I mean, it's not something that we ask, it's something that they want to see us go as far as we want to go. Um, so you know, it's the team that you surround yourself with, but I think that's probably the the biggest eye opener was just little changes on one. Somebody who sees a little change doesn't see the other side of that. Um, that and just, you know, all of the margins were big. Um, you know, you you think about you think about um the margins on shingles and accessories, and think, well, you know, your big product you're gonna make more money on. And it's not the case. You don't your shingles don't, I mean, they don't they don't have a margin essentially. Um, I would be willing to bet that the big three probably lose money on shingles, but they make up for it um, you know, everywhere else. Um, I think those are probably those are probably the two biggest things, and then just life lessons with open anybody that's open to business, just I mean, you go into it expecting one thing, and then you get punched in the face 47 times from the other direction, and you just have to figure out figure out what you're gonna do and how you're gonna fix it, and just roll with it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, after you get hit in the face enough times, your face just stops hurting, and then you're just like, All right, whatever. I'm walking forward through this entire thing. And I was talking earlier today about that, and it's like, man, just just life experiences. You get to a certain point and you think, Oh man, it's about to finally break through, and then something happens, and you're like, Oh, start over, and then you got to do it again, and then you do this, and something happens good, and you get really excited, and then it doesn't happen again, and you can't figure out why. And yeah, man, makes you wonder like, was it really that bad working in the auto shop? You know, like at least I knew I was going home at five, and and if someone's car blew up on the side of the road, it wasn't gonna be my fault, you know. But this is the life we chose. We've gotten into this, and I think you know, we've submerged ourselves. None of us are getting out of this. We're gonna be in the industry, you know. I'm I'm committed to working three weeks past my death at this point, just because. And I think that's what's cool about it. But as we continue to evolve, we continue to get a little bit older, dare I say. One thing I've been very proud of, and this is across the board for a lot of people that I'm close with in this industry. When you and I met, Aaron, we were both probably twice the men that we are today, right? Yeah, and it it was a horrific experience for me. We were doing that contractor's army thing at the office there, and my picture was up on the wall. And it was funny because just a couple of days ago, I played the video where we went and took the fat Chuck picture and smashed it. And I remember that so vividly, and it's like, wow, dude, that's crazy when you look at how you've evolved. But you've done, you know, you've done just as much, if not more. And number one, I want to commend you for that because it's hard. It's hard to get up, it's hard to get yourself focused. I tell people I get up and go to the gym six days a week, four of those days I'm there at 4 a.m. And and I've got the check-ins to verify it. It's discipline, it's not easy. You don't feel like doing it, but let's talk a little bit about that. Because when we first started, we were jolly and we were just having fun. I don't know if your fear came from uh the same thing I did of like, dude, I don't want to be that fat bastard that falls through the roof. That would be the most horrific experience ever. And I would probably have to get out of the industry, but I just felt like crap and I looked like crap. You were you're a handsome, dashing devil no matter what. But what was it like when you decided, hey, you know what? I need to uh maybe take this a little bit more seriously. I need to maybe do a little bit more to make sure that I can preserve myself for my family for the career and just for the quality of your own life. What was the decision like uh for you?
SPEAKER_01So I think everybody had everybody that's been through that and realized that they need to change something has that one thing that that stands out that they're like, okay, I gotta do something. And I had been, you know, you look at yourself in the mirror and you're not happy for a while. And you know, it is what it is, and oh, I'm getting you know getting older, and oh, I'm you know, excuse after excuse, and that's all that it is. But I was actually on the the thing that changed that I was like, okay, I'm joining a gym tomorrow. I am absolutely done with this. Is me and Hunter were at an inspection, and you know those like 85-year-old ladies that just don't care what they say. Oh, yeah, I love those ladies. Yeah, so she looked at me and she goes, Sir, are you sure you're not gonna fall through my roof while I was on the roof? And I was like, Okay, like, well, everybody talks about that one thing, and I was like, That was it, that that just did it. And uh, yeah, I know. So, no, I mean, really, but thank her, you know. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00It changed your life, it made you a better version of who you were. And I love those old ladies. We got one. Uh we did a roof for a lady over in Georgetown, Texas a couple weeks ago, and she just sent the final check. And bless her heart, she's a she's a spirited one, she's she's got some spunk. She had the due date on there, and she says, I didn't get this until four days before the due date, and I will not pay any interest on this, you know. I will not, and I'm like, Oh, calm down, you know, we're good. And yeah, I ain't gonna try to get her to pay any interest on it because I'm sure she could probably kick my butt. But you have those moments, and for me, it was that it was that hero card thing for that conference. And I literally went to the park over there in Tyler and I went for a walk that night, and it was like I've been doing it ever since. I've probably logged, oh god, five, six thousand miles since then of just doing morning hikes and doing the gym and all that, and you just you feel so much better about yourself, you got more energy. Life is much more enjoyable, and you know, with that, then you get you know, a more of a propensity to want to do, you know, even more things, Aaron. You've done you've started a roofing supply company, you learned commercial from scratch, you went through all the trials and tribulations, and now you've got this, and it's like, all right, now what else? And I know that you've started a couple other businesses, and I want to hear about these as well. Because to me, you went from you know, Aaron the residential sales guy to Aaron the multifaceted entrepreneur now, and I'm proud as hell of you because I've been here for literally the entire journey, and I want to hear a little bit more about stuff you got going on now because we haven't gotten to hang out for a couple years, and uh you've you've built the portfolio quite impressively. So, what you got going?
SPEAKER_01I appreciate that. Um got a I've got a few things going. So the roofing supply, roofing, obviously. Um, another actually one of the guys got a uh a personal trainer, and he helped me out, he helped me out tremendously. I kind of got hit the plateau. Where I lost a bunch of weight, but like, okay, I got you know, I'm gonna start working out and hit the plateau to where I'm not really doing anything. So got a got a coach. Um, and me and him started talking, and we actually opened up, and I don't even know if I can say it on here, but uh we opened up peppers, yeah, pepper uh peppers peppers and tides, yes, yeah. Um, so we started that. Uh that's been a little over, it's been almost a year. In November, it'll be a year. Um, and it's done, it was just kind of took all the experience that I've had over the last couple years, and he had never started a company before. Um, and so I just told him, I said, you know, let's start it. You have you have a client base built up, let's let's roll this together. You've been talking about wanting to start something. So we started that. Um, and it's almost it's probably 5x in the last three months. Um, it's gotten almost almost big enough to where I'm gonna have to hire somebody else to come in and do fulfillment and shipping and all that because it's every night for an hour, uh, hour and a half, two hours. Um, and then uh so that's probably the main thing. And then I got into um you I you had him, uh you had him on your podcast, Ryan Stewan. Absolutely good dude, really good dude. Um so I've been following him for a while, joined Apex and really got to know him, fished together, you know, sat down and talked, and um I did I took a class um with him about web website, basically website building. Um and I mostly took it because I built the website for the pepper company, and it's like there has got to be an easier way to do this. I really enjoyed it, but I don't have 60 or 70 hours to do this again. And it's like I want to, you know, kind of this is something that I'm interested in. So I'm more so just joined that, just uh joined the class just to kind of just learn something new and wound up like seeing, okay, well, I can actually make money doing this. So I've been building web building websites for uh different companies, um, some around East Texas, some in southwestern Oklahoma, just smaller companies that basically don't have an online presence. Um, just building it out for them and doing it basically affordably. Um, website for anywhere from 500 to 1200 bucks, depending on how many pages, but just something that I kind of just I don't know, didn't I didn't even mean to start it, but it just kind of happened.
SPEAKER_00That's how this stuff works. And it's like, you know, one day just decided I was gonna take a website class, and all of a sudden I'm the world's greatest website builder. And dude, I can appreciate that because I redid the Rio Blanco website myself, and I'm still working on it like a year and a half later because it's just been so time consuming, and I'm proud of what I built. Nothing pisses me off more though than these uh these bots that'll send me letters and they're like, I was looking at your website, and there's so much potential there, but man, it's kind of lacking in a lot of stuff. And I'm like, you know what? Up yours because I'm the one that built that, and just because of that, I'm not taking your help. So it's cool that you're helping people out because I can appreciate how hard that is and how important it is. We didn't even have a website up for like a year, and you know, when we we rebranded the company, it was like, all right, we have to make this thing a little bit cooler, and much respect to that. So I appreciate it, and this kind of brings me to the next uh kind of winding down type topic that we've got. You just talked about Ryan Stuman. I had him on about two years ago, got to meet him in person back in January, and uh I know that you guys went out and actually went spear fishing, and I never got to go spear fishing with you. I think I went duck hunting one time, and I think you were there when I did it over in Houston with Bruce and all that. I wasn't there that weekend. That's the only time I've ever gone hunting in my entire life, Aaron. And I had this like duck necklace that I was wearing, like all the carcasses, and like I felt like a real badass, but spear fishing was something that you guys were always big into. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm sitting over here in San Antonio, like, man, if those guys ever like invited my dumbass to go do that, I think that'd be fun. I could see myself being pretty good at it, but I want to find out a little bit about this story going spearfishing with Brian Stuman because this dude's got some amazing stories. One of the favorites that's ever been on my podcast was when he uh he broke his neck, and it wasn't because he broke his neck, but he starts it off and he's like, I'm driving this uh this side by side, and I look over, I see a fucking zebra. And that's like that's the greatest start to a story ever. So I gotta know how you guys ended up in a boat with Ryan Stuman spear fishing. Tell me a little bit about this.
SPEAKER_01So um, well, I guess back backpedal. When I got first got out of the automotive industry before I went back, I my way out was um I I had bow fished for a while, and I said, okay, well, I know how to do this, I'm gonna start guiding bow fishing. So I left Dallas, moved to Oklahoma on like literally like a spur of the moment. Like, I'm just gonna do this and I'll figure it out. Like I was young, it didn't really matter. Um, it doesn't work, whatever. I can always find something else, and uh open up a fishing guide business. Wound up when you take something you absolutely love to do and you make it a job, it makes it terrible. Um, so wound up kind of getting out, getting out of that, kept the boat, still went quite a bit, and then um, long story short, uh Joe and I joined Apex and we were talking to Ryan about it during one of the events. He says, Man, I want to do that. Okay. So um next time we went, next time we went, I I just sent a message, hey man, if you really want to go, you know, we're gonna be at Lake Texoma at this ramp at nine o'clock. Hop in, hop in. And that was two years ago. So he went and then we we've made it, I guess, an annual trip now. So we went uh this last this last year or two. So a couple of the apex guys, me, Joe, Ryan, uh guy named Cody that I knew in Oklahoma. Um, just just kind of a get out. We don't really we don't talk business, we don't talk really anything, it's just get out, have fun. Dude's having fun. Yeah, that's uh so that's kind of how that one wound up. He uh he's not bad, he's not great.
SPEAKER_00It's just fun and it's a good story, right? Because it's like, hey guys, guess what we did, and that's that's one of a kind. I don't bet anybody else can tell that story, so that's awesome. And I'm I'm happy to you know to be the one keeping it Rio to bring that out to the world. But Ryan Stuman out there, you know, bow fishing with these guys. I'm sure that was quite a uh quite an experience. I would have loved to have been a uh you know, a mosquito or something flying by. Just listen to that conversation. I bet there was millions of dollars of uh wisdom, and none of it was intentional. So that's the way that we do it, and I love everything about that. And I'll tell you what, my friend, we're coming up on the hour. This has been a quick one. I want to end the conversation with a couple quick things. Number one, let me give a quick shout out to my sponsors so that I don't forget, got a couple new ones on the board, which is Max Challenger and day 41 Thrive. Max Challenger for your insurance supplement needs, they are outstanding, good golfers as well. Day 41, I just signed up this past week. Gonna be a pretty cool program that's coming out here in the near future. Can't wait to be a part of that. And obviously, my friends at Roofer, love you guys. This is our fourth year as sponsors of Keeping It Rio. Everybody that uses Roofer, you guys are awesome. And Roofer, thank you guys for all you do. So, took care of the sponsor obligations there for the episode. Everybody can be happy. I want to ask you a couple going away questions here, my friend. As someone who's been in the industry who's kind of started at the bottom and worked your way all the way up to the top, and uh, you know, relatively short period of time. What's your advice to that 21, 22 year old that's watching this right now, thinking to themselves, man, I think I can do that, but I'm not 100% sure. What do you tell someone if they're kind of on the fence and they and they you maybe see something in them that they don't see yet in themselves? What's some good advice?
SPEAKER_01Jump at it, do it before you know. I started, I started when I was uh 32, and I wish I would have started when I was when I was 20, because it'd be you know it'd be a totally different story. But stick with it. It'll be it's it's it's very, very tough. Anybody anybody that says, hey, you're gonna hop in this and you're gonna do this and this and this, that might be true, but it's probably not gonna happen as fast as everybody that's trying to get you onboarded is saying, um, but keep up with it and don't get comfortable because as soon as you get comfortable, you're gonna stop making money.
SPEAKER_00That's it, folks. It's really that simple. There's a lot of hard work that goes behind it, a lot of discipline, but at the end of the day, the concepts are there, and as long as you follow that and you don't, you know, don't discount yourself and your own abilities. That's one thing I've learned over the years is there are a lot of people that could have been really successful and they quit on themselves. And the people that may have marginal talent, such as ourselves, we just have the personalities and we don't know how to quit. And at the end of the day, I've come to find that's more important than actually being smart. So I appreciate that. And before we uh bid adieu to the audience, I always like to ask, sure, you've got millions and millions of fans. I'm one of them, and I know that you're one of the most popular guys in the industry, but somebody new's watching this today, and they're like, Man, you know what? I like this guy, I'd like to learn a little bit more. Tell us a little bit about where our fans can find Aaron Haddock on social media and whereabouts in the world.
SPEAKER_01So uh social media would uh it'd just be on Facebook at Aaron Aaron Haddock. Uh it's a new one because my other one got disabled. So I'm trying to, yeah, that's bogus.
SPEAKER_00Whoever did that, not cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just trying to build trying to build up it back up right now. So um, but yeah, it's under Aaron Haddock, or you can send me an email, Aaron at asaproofing.com.
SPEAKER_00I love it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for sitting by watching episode 271. And Aaron, it was worth the five and a half years of waiting and begging and having to friendly remind you. I think the friendly reminder was something to the effect of uh you you were making a very profound statement about sometimes you just don't want to do it, but just fucking do it. And all I had to do was just you know casually say, Aaron, I know it's gonna suck. Just fucking do it, buddy. And I'm thankful that you did, my friend. I hope that uh you've enjoyed your time here on keeping it real. Hope to have you back sometime in the next five and a half years, hopefully a little bit sooner than that this time. But uh thanks for thanks for taking the time. You're one of my favorites, and uh I'm rooting for you for you know for eternity. I want to see you succeed to the highest levels. You're one of the nicest people in this game. So much respect to that, to the fans who watch Keeping It Rio. I love you guys, like I say every week. If you don't use Roofer, you're stupid. But even if you're not using Roofer and you're watching the show, you're not that stupid. So appreciate all that. We're gonna bid the the crowd adieu. And Aaron, stick around until after this amazing uh ad for my sponsor plays. We'll wrap up ours on the backside. But ladies and gentlemen, until next week, you know exactly what to do. Keep on keeping it real. We'll see you guys later. Thanks for watching. I found Roofer online about seven years ago, used it one time, and it's been the only thing I've used ever since. It's basically a program that makes your life a lot easier to measuring roofs, putting together proposals, things of that nature. Roofer fulfills every need that we have. Our homeowners are always impressed by the presentation. They're able to kind of look at things differently and learn at their own pace. They sign the documentation online. It's the number one CRM in the industry. Everything that you can get with Roofer is going to help your business grow. I think that y'all should do it for sure.