0:00

Alex Alexic (00:01) Alright guys, welcome to Roofing Stories episode 7. I know we are kinda going live, this is the second episode we're recording today and it is live on Facebook so if you want to see previews of every episode before they go on YouTube, Spotify and so on, you'll be able to find them on my Facebook lives. NOISE So we are here with new special guests and something that we usually don't do and our first guest that is actually in roofing product production, NOISE which we didn't have a chance to talk to anybody in that supply chain, I would say. NOISE We usually talk to roofing contractors and people who are currently in the roofing industry, but it's a pleasure to have you, Joe. NOISE And yeah, the title of the episode is how Joe plans to revolutionize roofing industry and commercial roofing. So tell us more about yourself, Joe. Welcome. Joe Lambert (00:49) Thank you. NOISE and how much we're hoping. NOISE So, let's move with this. Welcome. Sure. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be on your podcast and it is an honor to be here and to share some information of the passion that I have in my career, NOISE which, you know, if you remember the old Godfather movies, it's like he said, once you're in, you try to get out, they pull you back in. That's kind of how I feel about the roofing industry. is once you're in it and you're, pull me back in. NOISE So, you know, roovers, roofing contractors, they probably quit every other day, but then they get pulled back in because they have that passion to be in the industry. NOISE So. Alex Alexic (01:23) Just when I was out, they pull me back in. NOISE Just one more roof replacement, just one. NOISE We need one more. Joe Lambert (01:42) Just one more, one more, yeah. NOISE So, yeah, so a little background is this. NOISE I came from a background of kind of marketing, advertising, NOISE sales, you know, background, but about 12 years ago, NOISE a friend of mine called me up one day and he said, NOISE hey Joe, man, I'm making all kinds of money over here doing roofing. And I was like, what are you talking about? And you know, I knew what roofing was, but I'd never really sold roofing or, you know, been involved with a roofing company. I knew like home improvement, things like that. So a hail storm had hit an area that I was living in originally from Tennessee. You probably can't tell by my accent, NOISE but I'm originally from the Knoxville, Tennessee area and they don't have a lot of hell there. Uh, so once about every 50 years you get this huge hail storm and that was one that came and it was this baseball size hail and destroyed like a five county radius, you know, all the roofs. NOISE And so he had gotten on with his company and, NOISE uh, was basically learning the roof restoration insurance business and was going door to door, knocking on doors, talking to people and, you know, inspecting their roofs. And he said, you've got to, he goes, you got to come over here. You would be great at this. And I was a little skeptical. You know, I was like, man, I'm not going to go knock on doors. NOISE You know, surely there's another way for me to make money besides knocking on doors. NOISE So I went and talked with their sales manager and the guy pitched to me, you know, their company and what they do and how, how easy it was. NOISE And, NOISE uh, you know, talking on doors was certainly part of it. And it was kind of, you know, it was a 10 99. NOISE independent contractor position. NOISE So, you know, what you, you got out there and hustled and you were grinding and whatever effort you put forth, that's the kind of money you can make. So I learned it pretty quickly, NOISE went out there and started knocking on doors, being from that area. Of course, I related to the people, you know, they were Tennessee people like me. And so, you know, they really didn't. understand the insurance business that well, so that, you know, cause they just had, they hadn't had to deal with it. And so I would go and knock on the door and say, Hey, I just want to do a roof inspection. We've had hail. NOISE I want to check your roof for hail. If you've had hail, NOISE there's a potential that the insurance company would pay for your brand new roof. So I started doing that, man. And one thing led to another. And I started getting customer after customer after customer, NOISE learn how to do adjuster meetings, met adjusters. you know, begin to get more experience of what I was looking for, NOISE got more experience talking to people. They would refer me to someone else. And I mean, it was true. I mean, I really did start making really, really good money in the roofing industry. And because I had a background, I was a little older at the time anyway, than most of the younger guys. So as soon as they had an opportunity for a sales management position, they came to me and said, Hey, would you be interested in teaching other people how to do this? And I really enjoyed that. So I said, yeah, I would love to do that. So we built a sales team. NOISE The company was growing. It was expanding. NOISE And they said, would you be willing to go on the road and help us start other branches of our company? And I said, yeah, I'll do that too. So I became a general manager of some of their branches. And then I began to go out and actually help them plant other branches. And the company really grew big time. So that was really my first introduction. Alex Alexic (05:03) you Joe Lambert (05:25) to the roofing industry was that storm restoration side of things. Alex Alexic (05:35) Of course, yeah. NOISE So what would you say is this decision to be, I mean, you said that from what I heard is that the money factor is something that you brought in, that you brought you in originally. NOISE So having this knowledge, having years of experience in the roofing industry, NOISE both as a product seller, NOISE as a service seller and so on. NOISE Is this a decision you regret? NOISE Or is this something you look into and say, I'm glad that I actually took the call and I went in for the money. Joe Lambert (06:11) And it's really the best decision that I've made. NOISE When I decided to actually take this position, here's what I looked at. I looked at what the potential was, not just to make really good money. And you can make good money quick, especially in the roof restoration business, you know, but if you're making the roofing industry a long -term career, then what I saw was that the roofing industry was beginning to change. It was 12, 13 years ago. The roofing industry was beginning to change. The model was changing. Technology was changing. Things were becoming more computerized, using your phone, NOISE the aerial satellite views, NOISE the CRM systems that you were gonna use. NOISE The old school. Roofing guys and not to criticize any of those guys because they kind of you know were the first ones they were the frontiersman of the roofing industry but you know the way they used to do it was you know drive up in their you know beat up truck and Give somebody an estimate on a napkin. You know, here's what we can do for you and That that's not really what we do anymore. You know, we could take a satellite view of a person's house You know, you know what you're looking for. Now you're working with insurance companies in certain situations. NOISE So technology's changed. And I really felt like that the people who got in on the ground floor of that and really learned it, not just the sales part of it, but the project management, how does a riff go on the products that you use again, the, you know, the CRM, how to keep up with your customers, the administrative part of it. All of those things combined, if you really learn those, I felt like that, that was a leap. into a great career that really you would never be without a job because roofing is not going away. You know, it's not one of those things that, you know, is here today and gone tomorrow. I mean, we're always going to need a, you know, roofing companies and a roofing industry because people need roofs, whether it's residential or commercial and we're ever growing. And if you ever go to any of these trade shows now, like, um, I've done the International Roofing Expo two years in a row. NOISE Dallas was last year, Las Vegas was this year. If you ever go to one of these trade shows, you'll see how advanced the roofing industry has become and how professional it is. So it's not just, again, the good old boy network. NOISE It's a really expanding, it's not just men, it's men and women. It's people from different countries, different nationalities, and it's a big technology kind of blast here that I'm seeing. So I felt like that that was, if that was going to happen, which it has, then I was going to set myself up in a career that was going to be able to take me through the rest of my years of working. Yeah. Alex Alexic (09:20) Of course. Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's extensive background. And I truly agree. NOISE There is a technology move. NOISE And even if we say that why the blue collar jobs won't be affected as much as white collar jobs will be, there is still going to be AI impact in roofing industry in the blue collar jobs. NOISE So I truly believe that this big marketing change and this change in the roofing industry and. Joe Lambert (09:35) in the industry, NOISE we'll call it a trance. No. Alex Alexic (09:50) In the world will come to all industries. NOISE So not just blue color or white color. It doesn't matter. It's coming for all of us, NOISE uh, in every single space in marketing, in roofing, in sales, NOISE everywhere. We already have people trying AI callers and you literally can get a call by AI. NOISE And yes, it is primitive at this point, but in a year or two, it will actually sound like a human and that's an issue. Right. So. Joe Lambert (10:05) Yes, it is going to be good at this point. Melanthas is failed. Alex Alexic (10:19) How do you manage to stay on top of the trends with the constant change? NOISE Because as I say, you want to revolutionize the commercial roofing. How do you keep up with the trends and evolution that comes faster and faster year by year? Joe Lambert (10:33) Well, I think part of that's my personality. NOISE You know, I am not the younger guy on the block anymore. NOISE I'm not the oldest, but I'm not the younger guy. But even as a young person getting my career going, NOISE I always look for innovative ways to do things and was self -teaching myself, self -taught a lot of things. I remember when I... went to college, NOISE this will tell how old I am, back in the late 80s, NOISE and you had one computer class. NOISE If you weren't majoring in computers, you could take one computer class, which is like intro to computers. NOISE And I went to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. And when we signed up for our classes, they had the little cards with little chads poked out in them and you. you went up and you grabbed your card from a particular table of a class you wanted to take and a time that you wanted to have. You got a card from that table. You went over to another table that was teaching a different class and got a card. And when you were finished, you went and handed those in and they ran those through their computer and it gave you a dot matrix printout of all your classes. Well, that's ancient now, right? So I just thought, you know, I'm going to learn everything I can over the years. NOISE So that was one thing. So you gotta have a passion to learn. You never can stop learning. NOISE YouTube, man, was great for me. When YouTube came out, I told my wife I was either gonna fix everything in the house or I was gonna blow myself up. So I haven't blown myself up, so I've learned to fix a lot of things by just, again, educating myself. NOISE We've got more knowledge at our disposal now via the internet and computers and... opportunity to learn than we ever had before. So you take advantage of those and then you surround yourself with good people. Surround yourself with smart people. Surround yourself with people who have different strengths and different weaknesses. And you learn from people where you're not very strong. Learn from others and maybe they learn from you where they're not strong. NOISE And so you surround yourself with good people and associate with good people. And if you want to be a higher level, higher ethical person and you want to really succeed in life, I think that you associate with those type of people. That's really a true statement no matter what you do in life. If you associate with people who are going to drag you down, you're gonna go down. But if you associate with people who are gonna bring you up, you're going to advance. And that's what I've tried to do along the way in the roofing industry is keep learning, surround myself with people. And never say that I know it all, because I don't. I don't know it all. I'm always learning no matter what my age is. Of course, yeah, I mean, that's definitely... It was so stressful because so many other things. Alex Alexic (13:39) Of course, yeah, I mean, that's definitely probably why you are so successful because you don't allow your age to stop you. And again, maybe this is something a question you don't want to answer, but how old are you? Because you brought it up. Joe Lambert (13:48) I'm actually, yeah, yeah, 58, 58 years old. Yeah. Alex Alexic (13:57) 58? Well, NOISE yeah, but I guess you take good care of yourself because I know many 58 people who are, you know, when they reach 50, they get children, they're like, ah, man, it's fine. I won't in life. I can let myself go. But unlike others, I think you take a good care of yourself, which is definitely why you, I think you'll last longer. And this is why you are still in the industry, but maybe that comes from being a seller, you know, because if you want to sell something, You need to look professional. You need to look like you need to demand authority by your looks. NOISE All right. And maybe that comes from that or maybe I'm mistaken. Joe Lambert (14:30) Well, you know, I agree with you. I think that, um, you know, there's something about some people, you know, have a great career, but then they let the other part of their life go, whether that be your health or what kind of shape you're in, um, what you abused or what you don't abuse, not, not judging anyone. Uh, but all those things play into, uh, how successful I think you're going to be. Um, and you've got to have, you know, a sharp mind, uh, no matter what age you are. And there are things that can cause you to have a foggy brain and there's things that can be more clarity to life. NOISE And so whether I'm at home or whether I'm at work, whether I'm with my wife, whether I'm with my kids, which my kids are adults now, you know, you want to be sharp and you want to be energetic. And so there are things that you really have to do intentionally to have that healthy balance. NOISE And if you want to have a long enduring life, You know, we never know how much time we have here, but you know, we certainly don't want to do anything to take away from that. So I've tried to do that. I mean, I'm not perfect by any means. And I have a good sort of, you know, spouse who's the same way. I mean, we have, you know, like thinking in that manner. And again, associate with people who are like that as well. And that's kept me motivated. NOISE You know, I do a lot of reading. I do a lot of, again, listen to podcasts, I listen to audible books, and I'm always trying to learn things. So that keeps you, I think, going and, you know, always communicating with people. NOISE You know, that's one of the things throughout my life that I found that has been a successful part is, you know, you can always communicate with different types of people. They don't always have to be like you. You can learn from people. Uh, and I've tried not to burn bridges, you know, and I'm trying to learn from people, even when I've left companies, I've tried not to be an enemy to that company. Hey, I'm leaving. I'm going to a different Avenue of life, but Hey, I want to stay in contact if we can. You never know when those roads will cross again, especially if you're in the roofing industry, you know, uh, you never know when you might be able to help those people or they might be able to help you. So I'm trying to keep that philosophy of life going in my career. Alex Alexic (17:01) Yeah, definitely. NOISE So because your extensive knowledge in sales, NOISE what is the biggest sales advice you have to other roofing companies and other roofing salesmen? NOISE What is your biggest sales advice to all of them? Joe Lambert (17:10) Yeah, training. NOISE You got to train your sales team and you got to continually train them and you got to continually, you know, I think, I don't think you, if you get the right people, the right sales team, you don't have to really motivate them. They should be self -motivated, right? The right team should be self -motivated. But what you have to be careful of is don't demotivate them. Don't do things to, you know, Alex Alexic (17:20) Mm -hmm. Joe Lambert (17:40) bring their energy down. NOISE And I think sometimes companies or working with sales team, they do things that demotivate people instead of continually to give them energy and give them tools to do their job. So training the right tools to do the job, NOISE opportunities to sell, NOISE let them go to training events, NOISE train from others. But training and having a really good chemistry of a sales almost like I'm, I don't know if you're a sports fan, but I'm a huge sports fan. I love all kinds of sports, but football is probably my, you know, my favorite sport. I played that in America football. NOISE Yeah. I played that grow growing up through high school and almost went to college to play, but. Alex Alexic (18:30) American football or... Joe Lambert (18:33) You know, you can have the greatest talent on a team and if you don't have the right chemistry, that team's not going to do well. We've seen that happen. We've seen like, you know, oh, this is the greatest team of all time and they don't make it to the Superbowl or they don't win the championship. So you really got to have a company that has the proper leadership. And I'd say the leaders are kind of like the coaches, you know, you got to have a head coach, you got to have coaches and you've got to have the players. Alex Alexic (18:34) Yeah. Mm -hmm. Yeah. Joe Lambert (19:01) And you've got to have the right leadership. You've got to have the right training and you've got to have the right chemistry. NOISE And when you can get all that stuff balanced together and keep it together, then you see companies really just grow and expand and explode with, you know, making profitable growth for their, for their company and their, and their people. Alex Alexic (19:31) Yep, absolutely. I mean, everything is about that and everything is about the synergy and the team game. NOISE As you mentioned, so many super teams were made, but that doesn't essentially guarantee success. If you have no training, if you have no union, if you have no teamwork, NOISE there is no success. NOISE Like you can have any amount of greatest players ever. That doesn't mean there'll be success. I mean, we can see that MJ went from... Joe Lambert (19:44) that happens. Alex Alexic (20:00) Chicago Bulls to Wizards, his own team, his own franchise, and he was so bad. Or we can see Shaq O 'Neal that he went to other team and he was absolutely awful. NOISE Right? I mean, if there is no team game, if there is no mental strength, there is no success. So definitely. NOISE But besides sales, besides your previous experiences and besides... Joe Lambert (20:07) You're a fucking idiot. NOISE Thanks, that's not so sad, so that... Yeah. Alex Alexic (20:28) having huge industry experience. Can you tell us more about your new avenue, your new work idea and what is the FibraSeal base? NOISE Why do you think this is going to revolutionize commercial roofing and coating roofing? NOISE Like, what is it all about? NOISE Why should we be aware of this industry change? Joe Lambert (20:44) Yes. Yeah. Well, one of the things I did again, while I was working in the roofing industry was learn as much as I can, whether it be residential or commercial and surround myself with people who were smarter than I was and who knew more that I could learn from. NOISE And one of those companies and one of those individuals that I began to learn from early on about commercial roofing and also about commercial roof coatings, was a guy by the name of Sonny Arwood. NOISE And Sonny owned a company back in the day called E Green. And E Green was a commercial roofing company, but did majority roof coatings. So I learned about roof coatings and what their benefits were and how they could be applied to a commercial roof system. NOISE And so, and this is, I'm talking hands -on learning, went out and did the installation, you know, did the cleaning of the roofs, the installation of the roofs. and went out and sold these coating jobs. And as I said a few minutes ago, don't ever burn a bridge because you never know when passing across again. NOISE So I went on my way into the roofing industry and Sonny continued to excel in his company. But one of the things he was doing was he was developing products, new roof coating products. If you're familiar with commercial roof coatings, one of the main ways that manufacturers want you to apply their coatings, is on seams and penetrations on a roof. And every roof has a seams and penetrations. And if you really diagnose the problem, about 90 % of all leaks occur where there's a seam or a penetration on a roof. NOISE So what usually manufacturers require most installers to do is do a three course method, they call it, where you put down coating on a seam or around a penetration, and then they want you to embed a polyester top fabric in the coating to give it tensile strength. Alex Alexic (22:19) you you Joe Lambert (22:40) they call it, and then you put more cutting on top of it. It's a very tedious top task. NOISE It's a lot of times the people who are installing that are on their hands and knees, they're trying to spread out the fabric to get it flat onto the roof so there's no creases, there's no way that water can get in, and it takes a long time to do. But Sunny was actually developing a product where there was no need for that three course. It was called Fiber Seal Base. And he worked with a chemist over 20 years ago. And this chemist actually was a chemist who worked with a variety of manufacturers across the world in developing products. So they'd begin to develop a product. He had an idea. And that's where FiberSeal Base came from. FiberSeal Base is a polyurethane acrylic hybrid chemistry in the coating. NOISE And it's already got fibers in the coating. Alex Alexic (23:26) you Joe Lambert (23:34) So when you put it down onto a seam and penetration, you don't have to use any fabric or anything. It's already there and it gets sprayed down normally and it's about 10 times faster than the regular method. So that's the flagship product. NOISE So backing up on my story again, Sonny and I stayed in contact over the years. I actually used his products and then about over a year ago, NOISE Sonny and I came back in contact. He had opened a, Alex Alexic (23:49) you Joe Lambert (24:04) an office in the Florida market, and that's where I was living. I live there now. And he needed someone to manage his new office. And we began to talk and one thing led to another. And I came aboard with a company called Fluid Applied Roofing, FAR for short, Fluid Applied Roofing. And so I began to manage the office, NOISE began to learn about the products. We manufacture several different kinds of coating. The fiber seal base is just one. That's our flagship product, is the fiber seal base. And if you go and look up floor roofing, you'll see this blue coating that gets sprayed down. That's the fiber seal base. But we make systems for metal. NOISE We make systems for single ply roofs like TPO, PVC, NOISE EPDM rubber. We make systems for modified vitamin roofs. We make systems for built up roofs. We can even do tar and gravel, foam. So we make systems for all these type of roofs, but the fiber steel base is always that flagship product that goes on all the seams and penetrations. And then you put your top coats on. So we do make silicones now as well. But most of our products are a polyurethane acrylic hybrid. So I work with them. I'm the director of training for our company. So I do a lot of training with contractors. We work directly with contractors. We don't have a middleman, so we're not. being distributed by anybody else, we go straight to the contractors and they go out and bid on jobs. We help them with that. We give them material calls. We give them support. NOISE If they need sales support, we help them in that avenue. NOISE But to tell you a little bit about coatings, roof coatings, the commercial roofing industry worldwide is about $4 .4 billion right now. Roofing Contractor Magazine came out with an article about two months ago, it was talking about the roof coating market. The roof coating market is the fastest growing segment of commercial roofing. And in 10 years, it's going to double in size. So it's gonna go from 4 .4 to about $9 billion, NOISE if they're correct, in their research and predictions in the next 10 years. So that just shows you that roof coatings are becoming more and more popular. And the technology is creating better and better and better products. So that's one of the things that our company really takes pride in is we really do a lot of technological research and testing and advancement in our coatings. But that fiber seal base is a game changing top product for most contractors, NOISE saves them a lot of time. It's an easier application and it is a quality durable product. One of the things you look for in roof coating products is the elongation because commercial roofs will move, especially like if you're talking about a metal roof, it moves, it contracts and expands. So you have to have coating products that will contract and expand with the roof to keep them from cracking. NOISE And so the fiber steel base, Alex Alexic (27:04) you Joe Lambert (27:19) Uh, has 500 % elongation factor, which means it, once it cures, NOISE it stretches. NOISE So another thing about roof coatings is once you put them on, they became a monolithic membrane on that roof. So again, we're talking about most leaks happen where seams penetrations. NOISE If you have a monolithic membrane on a roof, you have no seams or penetrations. NOISE So you're leak proofing that roof. So really that fiber seal base and the. the products we're developing at Fleet Applied Roofing and working hand in hand in those relationship of contractors is really starting to grow our business. We're expanding like crazy. NOISE We're nationwide now and we're actually getting ready to go into other countries as well. We're having those conversations. NOISE I have those conversations about once a week now. you Alex Alexic (28:21) you Joe Lambert (28:38) I hear you now. NOISE Yeah. NOISE Okay. Alex Alexic (28:47) Oh, can you hear me now? NOISE Damn, damn, yeah, sorry about that. I was muted because I was coming up with the questions, but I'm not somebody, as I said before while I was muted, NOISE I'm not somebody who has a lot of experience when it comes to roofing my, I didn't do roofing myself, but from the passion and from what you're explaining, it definitely seems to be a revolutionizing product, especially because... Joe Lambert (29:09) Which I'll always have to come back for another guy. buttons. Alex Alexic (29:17) Once you fill in the crack or the penetration as you said it spreads around which allows you to connect with other cracks which makes it Makes it the best product in the market for sure so how new is your product is this something that is quite new in the endorphin space or How long have you been in business? NOISE Joe Lambert (29:19) Well, NOISE yeah, so we have been in business, it went to market about 10 years ago, but our owner had this chemistry and the chemical makeup of this product 20 years ago. So he began to use it on when he was still a contractor, he used it on his own. Alex Alexic (29:45) you Joe Lambert (29:46) projects before even went to market with it, testing it, making sure it was going to work properly. NOISE So a little over 10 years ago, the company was formed, fluid applied roofing. NOISE We went to market with it. And then over the last 10 years, we've really grown, especially the last five years, we've expanded as a company. NOISE We've added several different members of our team. NOISE We now, again, opened another location here in Florida. And we look to probably double in size this year. We're developing new products. NOISE We've got a uracil caulk that we've developed that's going to get ready to hit the market. It's a low temperature type product to where if it's really cold, if you're a colder environment, you can use this product and it's not going to freeze on you and you'll be able to use it on roofs to do a lot of repairs. and things like that. If you have a customer that has a leaky seam or a leaky penetration and it's freezing outside, you can still use this product and go outside and be able to apply it. We also have developed what's called a water -borne silicone. NOISE Most silicones are not water -borne, so when you apply silicone, normally if you're spraying it, and that's what a lot of these contractors do, is they spray these through a spray rig. And if you spray it, you usually have to have a separate rig for silicone because of the makeup of it. You can't use it in the same rig as you do your other acrylic products. But this waterborne silicone, we call it a Novosil, can be actually sprayed to the same rig as your acrylic products. And it has a 700 % elongation in it. This happened to have a sample of it right here. And you can tell how it stretches. And so it's moving, when this gets on a roof, it's going to move with the roof at 700 % elongation, which is unheard of. So we're excited about our new products as we're expanding. And we're working with contractor. We have contractor training. We do a contractor certification for our contracts. So we just don't give them a product and tell them to go out there and put it on. We actually train our contractors and certify them on how to apply our products. so that they can offer 10, 15, and 20 year warranties to their customers. So that's important as well, is that we have these contractor trainings about once a month, once every other month, they're always full. We have people trying to get into the training because they want to learn how to use our product. And then we have contractors all over the United States who are applying our products to commercial roofs. NOISE And if you, again, if you go and look up fluid applied roofing, social media, or look it up on YouTube, you will see all kinds of videos because one of the things we try to do too is really take advantage of that social media platform to get out there and do a lot of videos and I do I try to do a lot of videos myself a lot of posting myself on social media. NOISE Alex Alexic (32:53) you Yeah, I mean, uh, social media is everything. And, uh, as we move forward, you already said it is important that we stick to the trends and, uh, be part of these trends. NOISE So why, uh, besides all of these reasonings, um, how do you think that, uh, commercial roofing industry will change in 10 years? I know you mentioned that you saw the article that, uh, roofing, uh, coating will increase. Joe Lambert (33:13) Enjoy the video. Yes. NOISE Yeah, NOISE well, I think it's, you know, it is backed up by research. I mean, there are quite a few different companies who, you know, they research and see what kind of products are going to technologically advance, what kind of products may not advance, what trends in the industry are going to be popular, ones that may, you know, decrease. NOISE You know, about 20 years ago or so, NOISE TPO's came on the scene. Alex Alexic (33:37) or double in size in the next 10 years. So do you think this article that you saw is backed up with some research or why do you think it will double in size in 10 years? Joe Lambert (34:01) And TPO's are a great roofing system. You know, they probably have taken up about 70 % of the commercial market is putting TPO's on flat or low slope roofs. But those are kind of getting to the end of their life as far as their life span. So you're either going to have to do a brand new TPO, which may be what you choose to do. Or if they're still sustainable, you can put a coating. So I want to clarify something. Not every roof can be coated. So I don't want people to think out there, well, he's like pushing coatings for every situation and every roof. No, I'm not. I think you've got to do almost like I used to tell my salespeople, you know, you can't push a product or a system on everybody you're trying to sell. NOISE An example was when you go to the doctor for a physical and if the doctor were to come in and all of a sudden didn't take your temperature, didn't take your heart rate, didn't take your blood pressure, didn't do any blood work. and they just wrote you a prescription. He said, go home and take these pills. You'll feel better. You're going to be like, what are you doing, doc? You didn't even like check me. So that is important not only in the medical field, but it's important in the roofing industry that when we're looking at a facility or talking to a customer, we find out exactly what are their needs. By using questions and doing an inspection of the roof, inspections are really... We've got to get on that roof and that's what we teach our contractors is get on the roof, NOISE inspect the roof, NOISE see if a coating would even be an answer to their problem because some roofs are too far gone. Some roofs have gotten really bad leaks, it's gotten saturated and you can't put coating on them because it'll trap that moisture in there. So those types of roofs, you have to put a brand new roof on. But for the roofs that can be sustained, NOISE coatings are a great answer. They're about Alex Alexic (35:32) you Joe Lambert (35:57) 50 % less the traditional re -roof so you're saving the customer money. They're energy efficient. The top coat or the finish coat that normally coatings are put on at the very end are about 85 to 90 % UV reflective. So we know UV rays are the worst enemy of most roofs. That's what eats away at the roof. So if you can reflect that away from the building, away from the roof, then you're going to sustain that roof for a lot longer. You're also going to lower the energy cost in that facility during the summer months, especially places like here in Florida, NOISE where it gets really, really hot. If you're reflecting the UV rays, NOISE then your air conditioning is not going to have to run over time. So it's going to be a cooler environment inside. NOISE So sometimes these roofs will actually pay for themselves over a 10, 15, 20 year period. NOISE You've got actually not a liability with your roof. You've got an investment. So if your roof pays for itself over a period of time, you've got an investment there. So a lot of benefits, it's tax deductible. In year one, NOISE there are some cities, some counties, some states which use a roof coating and they call them cool roofs. If you use that type of system on a commercial roof, they'll give you a rebate back to the commercial building owner. So you'll get so many cents per foot back. So you're actually getting a discount on the roof. So you have lower manpower. It doesn't take as many people to do coatings. You're not doing tear off of the roof. So you're not filling up the landfills. You're not having to bring in dump trucks. Logistics are not as complicated. You're doing a roof coating system. So there are a lot of benefits that can be explained and you can educate the building owner and they can make an educated decision based off your analysis. And that's what we're teaching our contractors. And that's what we're teaching people about roof coatings. And those are some of the reasons that it's going to continue to grow and expand. NOISE There are some cities across the United States where you can't put a new roof on a commercial building unless it's an energy efficient roof. So if you go to California, you're going to have to put energy efficient roofs on commercial buildings. If you go to the city of Boston, you've got energy efficient roofs on buildings. NOISE So I see this happening. more and more and more across the United States. NOISE A lot of our European countries and people like that, actually, they've been doing this for a lot longer than we have, putting energy efficient white roofs. NOISE Some of those places even put on their streets because we know that the streets can be absorbing the heat or they can be reflecting the heat. So there's all kinds of scientific research that goes into this as well, not just gibberish about, oh, you need a you need a roof coating. There's a lot of scientific backing and research in it as well. get that in the box and... Alex Alexic (39:14) Yeah. In Europe, for example, they are really pulling this idea of efficient roofs because as you know, big cities get very hot and they warm up during the day and at night they just release all this heat and it gets very hot. NOISE And what most European countries are really pushing for is you have all these big residential and commercial buildings having their roofs literally turned into parks to have energy efficient roofs. And it's a must to have. Joe Lambert (39:38) you Alex Alexic (39:47) because it's getting too hot. NOISE And I definitely see where US is going with that. And I think it's definitely a good idea, but many people, when it comes to utilizing new technologies, think that utilizing a new technology is most likely more expensive. So how does fiber seal base compare with, let's say, something that is now mostly used in commercial roofing industry? Why would the... Joe Lambert (39:55) I'm cooking something interesting. NOISE I think it's... Alex Alexic (40:16) Of course, there are so many benefits that you mentioned and I agree they are very good, but ultimately when it comes to moving to a different product, to a different way of doing things, how does it compare in price? NOISE How pricey or how more expensive your solution is to a normal other solution? Joe Lambert (40:19) Yeah, it's actually really competitive. NOISE You know, making the roof coatings and the chemistry of that, you know, the research certainly doesn't, it's not cheap to do all that research, but the makeup of the coatings, once they're developed and you're selling it to the contractor or to the building owner, it's very competitively priced. NOISE And another thing is, that it, I said this a few minutes ago, our fiber seal base allows a contractor to do the roof quicker. So you're not losing quality. A lot of times people say if you're doing it quicker, you must be like, you're not the same quality. Well, that's untrue. We're not talking about that. We're still talking about doing the same quality or better quality, but you're able to get a job done quicker. So if you're a contractor, what are you trying to do? You're trying to make more profit dollars for your company so your company will grow, right? And how do you do that? Well, you maximize your amount of money you're making on that project and you're lining yourself up to where once you're finished with this project, you're able to move on to another project. You're able to move on to another project. What costs you the most money as a contractor is when you have to have a huge labor force to do a job and you're camping out at that project. So you've got 10 guys on a roof. and you're there for six months. Guess what? That's cha -ching. That's costing you a lot of money. So with roof coatings, you're able to get in and out. Now, the bigger the roof, the longer it's going to take, of course. But compared to having to do a traditional rear roof, it's a lot faster. It's a lot more efficient. Again, less people and you have a competitive rise. NOISE Generally, again, if a building owner or company is comparing Alex Alexic (41:56) Yep. Joe Lambert (42:08) a roof coating system to a traditional re -roof, then you're usually going to be 30 to 50 % less for a roof coating system. but he wants. you Alex Alexic (42:39) Of course. NOISE So let's say somebody wants to try your systems because they're impressed by your knowledge, just like I am. I mean, I apologize, but I don't really know much about commercial roofing, but from what I'm hearing, it all makes sense and it's extremely beneficial product. NOISE So maybe I should have asked this before the podcast episode, but is there maybe an offer that you guys could make to somebody who is watching this podcast and wants to try your product? Joe Lambert (42:43) you guys to pay to somebody. I think all of this stuff in piano car scene. NOISE Well, I mean, you know, as far as an offer, what I would offer them is first of all, just let's have a conversation, you know, and let me get on a Google Meet call with them and show them some things or invite them to a contract or training. We certainly can give them some samples to try. But one of the most important things is let's let's engage in a conversation first. Alex Alexic (43:08) Is there any offer you could maybe make to them so they actually try out the product and see if they like it? Or this is something you are not allowed to say? Joe Lambert (43:22) And you can always reach out to me on social media. I'm on TikTok. I'm on Facebook. NOISE I'm on Instagram. NOISE I'm on X, which is formerly Twitter. You can reach me. My email is pretty easy. It's Joe. My name is Joe, J -O -E at fluidappliedroofing .com. So Joe at fluidappliedroofing .com. NOISE I'm also known on a lot of the social media as NOISE Renaissance Roofing Dude. So you can look up Renaissance Roofing Dude and you can probably find me on a lot of those things. NOISE So I would say the offer is let's reach out and have a conversation first. NOISE Let me tell you more about our product, more about our company and not just being a company that sells products, but here's a phrase, I stole this phrase from some other person so it's not my original phrase, but I really like it and I use it a lot. NOISE Most... It seems like most people who sell something to someone, whether it be a manufacturer selling to a consumer, NOISE a manufacturer, NOISE a roofing manufacturer selling to a contractor, NOISE most of the time that is a transactional relationship, right? So you call me up or you email me, I need X amount of your product. And I say, it's going to be X amount of money. So you pay me the money. I ship you the product. Alex Alexic (44:39) Mm -hmm. Joe Lambert (44:51) Well, that's still true, but the companies I think that will succeed and really grow are not the ones that are transactional, but the ones who have a transformational relationship. What I mean by that is we care about our contractors, right? We want, if you're a contractor, we want your business to grow. We want you to have all the knowledge of how to do these jobs. We want you to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. We want to work hand in hand with you. as a contractor and show you things about you. So that's one of the things that we really pride ourselves on because a lot of us come from that side of the industry. NOISE So not only do you get our product, but you get the experience of our team. You get that transformational top relationship where we want to help your business to grow. Because if you're not growing, what good is our products, NOISE right? So. That's what my offer would be, is let us help your business be transformed by new technology and the knowledge we have about Roof Coding in this world today. Alex Alexic (46:25) Yep, definitely. I mean, that's a good offer and I definitely recommend anybody who is in commercial roofing to reach out to you. NOISE And there is a thing that I took from the diary of the CEO by Steven Barnett. Maybe you watched the podcast, maybe you saw it, or maybe you did not. NOISE But everything or something he does at the end of the every episode is he asks the guest to ask a question to another guest. Joe Lambert (46:45) you could. NOISE Um, NOISE I think, uh, biggest mistake and, you know, if we're, NOISE if we're going to be honest, we make, we make a lot of mistakes in life. That's how we learn. NOISE Right. Um, I think. Alex Alexic (46:53) And just before you, we had a roofing company owner from Florida, NOISE Alex, and he asked this question, and of course you can refuse to answer it, but you can answer it if you wish, NOISE is what is your biggest mistake you ever made? And if you could, what would you do and how would you deal with it now? Joe Lambert (47:07) The biggest mistake in the very beginning, I think was letting the, um, the money aspect of the potential of being in the roofing industry drive some of my motives, NOISE you know, like, Oh, this is a great opportunity to make money. And that's a mistake because not that money is bad. I mean, money can do wonderful things, you know, um, Alex Alexic (47:25) Of course. Joe Lambert (47:35) But if you let the money drive you, NOISE then you're going to, number one, I think you're going to burn out because it's just going to make you burn out. I mean, because it's really about the people, right? Whether it's the people you're working with on your team of your company or whether it's the people that you're serving as a contractor or as a manufacturer. NOISE So what I try to do now is I let the people drive me. The passion of the people drive me. and not the money. But that was a mistake in the beginning. And that's really pushed a lot in the rupturing industry too. I mean, it's how much money you can make, how much money you can make, you know? NOISE And so that really draws a lot of people in, but I think I've seen a lot of people burn out, a lot of people make mistakes because of just letting the money part drive them. It's gotta be your passion for the people. Yes, I think I would go back to that phrase that I used earlier and it would be this. How are you letting your business transform your customers? What your customers are homeowners or building owners or whether your customers like mine are contractors. How are you letting your business and what drives your business actually transform those customers? Alex Alexic (48:52) Yep, for sure, for sure. NOISE And what would be the question that you would ask our next guest? you Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So it was pleasure to have you on Joe. And I truly believe that your product and the product you believe in and work for will transform the commercial roofing market. NOISE And I will definitely recommend it to my clients. And I would definitely recommend it to Robin if he happens to see this, this episode, because Robin has a big company trust roofing and he does a lot of commercial work. NOISE So I think your product is definitely something that we'll be seeing in 10 years time. Joe Lambert (49:37) It's all clear. Alex Alexic (49:54) And I definitely believe it will be one of the biggest. NOISE So yeah, thank you for being part of the show. NOISE Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast. Hopefully it was a good experience. NOISE That's all I can say. NOISE And definitely check out Joe Lambert, reach out to him, talk to him about his product and Fiber Seal Base and his company. Because from what I heard, I truly believe it's something that will change the industry and something you should check out. And... Joe Lambert (50:05) Thank you so much. It was an honor being here. It's a pleasure being able to speak with you and to share my passion about roofing and especially about roof coating. NOISE So again, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Alex Alexic (50:22) Yeah, tell Joe that you're coming from Roofers Edge and Roofing Stories podcast. So yeah, thank you for being part of the show and we can definitely run back next time. Yeah, thank you. Okay, well then.