Frank Farmer - Training that is all About Profitability! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Frank Farmer of Metal Roofing Consultants and Heidi Ellsworth, RoofersCoffeeShop Owner. You can read the interview below, or listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi, explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Good morning, and welcome to Roofing Road Trips from Roofers Coffee Shop. This is Heidi Ellsworth, and I am here today for this podcast with, I have to be honest, someone that I've really wanted to interview and visit with for a very long time, and that is Frank Farmer with Metal Roofing Consultants. Many of you will know him from American Metal Roofs. Just an inspirational thought leader and mentor within the roofing industry, so I'm so excited for this podcast today. Frank, welcome to the show.

Frank Farmer:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here to chat and to share.

Heidi Ellsworth:
You know, I've been following you. I've watched your business, I've watched what you've done with helping other contractors and really giving back, so I really am honest when I'm saying this is just for me a highlight to be able to share what you've done to our audience at Roofers Coffee Shop. Just for those who may not have been stalking you or following you, like I have, why don't you take a few minutes, introduce yourself again, talk a little bit about Metal Roofing Consultants, then I'd love to hear about your history and how American Metal Roofs plays into that.

Frank Farmer:
Sounds great. Yes. Metal Roofing Consultants really came about because American Metal Roofs became so successful in that we had people that were contacting us, and we had people who wanted systems. We helped some dealers, some people get involved in the metal roofing business. We hooked up people with manufacturers and they just didn't know their way around, quite honestly, I wish there was something like that when I started. This is really a love to share and to give back because we have been extremely blessed.
A little bit about my background. I'm trained as a physician. I decided I did not want to practice after finishing medical school, and I started an apartment locator service, a small business that I cut my teeth on. I was very young. I was the youngest person accepted in medical school at Michigan State University, so I started an apartment locator service and I looked good, and I smelled good, and I was broke. People that worked for me made more money than I did, and nobody knew it, but that's the way a lot of businesses operate. The guy looks good, but he's virtually broke.
About two and a half, three years into that business, I had a friend who was selling home improvements, and he connected me and said, "I think you'd be a great salesperson." Oh, my gosh. My perception of a salesperson was a slime ball, so that wasn't really... I'm a physician [inaudible 00:03:03], that's not something that I was going to entertain, but when we sat down for lunch, he showed me the kind of money that he made with professional selling. I can remember, this was 1985-86, it was October, and he'd already made $45,000. Well, that was twice what I was making. I said, "Well, maybe there's room for one more good person." That's really how it started.
I got involved selling windows. It was six months later that I closed down my company, so I was dual role. In my first year... well, I have to tell everybody. When I first started, I didn't understand there was any systems. I didn't understand. I thought you just shucked and jive and pulled it out of the air and said what you wanted to. I was mimicking what I thought a salesperson was. I struggled mightily. I was 0 for 30. I ran 30 appointments. Now, that will shake you to the core. Fortunately, I learned a step selling system, and then I started combining that with what I had been taught in medical school consultatively, and my sales just started to explode. 
My first full year, I made 60, my second year almost a hundred, my third year I was way over a hundred and never looked back. I was blowing everybody away with results. I didn't think it was anything special for really quite some time, but I had the owner of the company come to me and he wanted to know if I would train some other people. I started training. Working with that, I realized that although there was a system in place, nobody really followed it, it wasn't a great system, so the reality is that I started training people there, took over an office. Fast forward 13-14 years later, I was the Vice President of Sales of the company that was in the top 20 in the United States and doing very well.
I thought I was going to own that company. Actually, the owner sold it to a family member, so I quite honestly felt like I got a raw deal. That's what led to starting American Metal Roofs. I started American at the end of '99, early 2000. I sat down and took a legal pad, wrote a line down the middle of it, and wrote everything I liked about the home improvement business on what side and everything I didn't like on the other side, and quite honestly, the stuff I didn't like was three times as long as the stuff on the left side. I just vowed I was going to correct some things. It's all faith based, do unto others, and it has served me well. 
When I started American, I started from scratch, there was nothing. Running a small office, hired one person. First thing I did was I wrote an in-home sales presentation that we could close on the first night. I designed marketing pieces, I designed a website, I wrote scripting so that I could hire somebody so we'd get qualified leads, and I started putting systems in place that I had learned and built in the window business is what I did.
First year in sales in metal back in 2000, we solution 1,060,000-

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow.

Frank Farmer:
... and we went to about 1.6 million the next year. It was only a couple years after that we were recognized by Inc. Magazine as Inc. 500, as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. It's really through that, the systems that I had learned before, that started American. After we perfect the systems in American, that brought us full circle to helping others in starting MRC, Metal Roofing Consultants.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. That's inspirational. One of the things, just to dive a little bit deeper, but I think it's interesting because I was starting a lot of my marketing and my sales career at the same time that you were and I remember people, my family even, have the same opinion of salespeople as like you can't do that for a living, that's not a good thing, but yet, I found in time, I love it. It's such an amazing, as you said, professional career, with systems and science and intuition, that all built into it. It is. I love hearing you say that because I think there was a lot around that, especially during that time when we were both starting out in our careers.

Frank Farmer:
Right. Yeah. It has served us well. When we talk about systems, and what we do to help contractors, is we help them understand, first of all, a couple basic principles. I'm talking about helping them with the sales part of their businesses, not necessarily some of the other things like that scripting and install, installations, things like that, but the very first thing they've got to understand is that they're all taught that buyers are liars. I mean, that's just a mantra that salespeople [inaudible 00:08:41]. That is incorrect. What you really have is you have a customer who has a preconceived idea of what they need and what they want. We call that a box A mentality. When we as consultants help them understand what they really need, show them problems that they didn't even know existed, it disrupts them, and they realize what they were thinking was wrong. It might be wrong product choice, it could be what they thought they had to do to fix their house, and it disrupts it. You become the authority and you show them solutions and they want you to do the work for them. You don't force things on people.
When we're working with companies, we find that we run into two types of companies. We run into the type of company that is a take company and a company that is a make company. There's a difference. Take company sits around waiting for a customer to come to them, waiting for a hailstorm, waiting for a windstorm, for a weather event. The make company really doesn't pay any attention to that. They have a systematic approach to generating a lead, they're going to learn marketing, they learn hot buttons, they're looking for people that fit their niche, and they generate leads, so that when there's not a weather event and other things going on, they have business.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Right. Yes.

Frank Farmer:
That's [inaudible 00:10:13] you get to create a stream of business that's coming to you. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes.

Frank Farmer:
When we work with them, we help them understand that the very first step is to generate a lead, and then to set an appointment. There's skill in setting appointments. There's a whole process, it's all scripted, and again, for instance, people constantly say to me, "So, what's that mean?" When we run an appointment pre-scripted, we make sure all parties are there, they have a serious instance, they understand that metal's going to cost three times the cost of asphalt. We believe they have the ability to pay because we now have technology and we have developed methods that we can work with the big credit companies and do soft pull and they won't even know I looked at their credit. It's inexpensive. We don't waste our time with somebody that doesn't have the ability to purchase, that's looking for low bid. That's just not who we are. Through those systems of helping people with sales, across the nation, across North America, across Canada, work with companies all over North America, the average last year, the average salesperson generated $6,000 of net business for every appointment they ran. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow.

Frank Farmer:
That was the average brought into the company. The systems really, really... they really, really work.

Heidi Ellsworth:
They work. One of the things that you talk about in those systems, and you mentioned it earlier, was the one-day close. Now, with you just saying about doing your research ahead of time, if this customer can afford it, if it's what they really want, if it's what they need, that makes a lot of sense. Can you talk about that a little bit more?

Frank Farmer:
Yes. I sure can. Okay, so if we go through... let's go quickly through the sales process. Once we have... first, well, you have to have a lead that's somewhat qualified and it starts as an unqualified, you make it qualified, it was through scripting, and you start the education process with the customer at that point. When a sales rep gets there, he has a method that he's going to go through that's going to start with a scripted introduction. The customer doesn't know it's scripted, but it's so that we have control, and that the customer isn't jerking us all around.
We get into, immediately after an introduction, we end up sitting down with that customer and we'll ask a lot of questions, where the questions we're asking at first are very superficial because... and we will use something called active listening. Active listening is where if the customer says something, we literally will reflect it back or say something like, "Wow, that's interesting. Tell me more." Through active listening we build trust with that customer and that customers says, "Oh, he's really interested," versus a normal salesperson ask a question, writes a note, ask another question, writes a note. It's not conversational, they don't learn about the value system of that customer, they don't learn what that customer's looking for. 
We will take 20-30 minutes and find out everything that customer knows and what their dreams and wants are, get conversational, and they're saying in their head, "I like this guy. I like this guy. They're great." Okay. Then, we tell them we're there to help them, give them factual information. We don't want them to spend any money that isn't necessary. Our process is one of inspection. We're not just... anybody can look at a roof and say, "Oh, it's got a bad shingle." Our inspections go deep, that we're looking, we're filming, we're taking pictures. We're bringing in... we carry a baggie; we bring stuff in from the roof out of the gutter. We make it real in front of that customer because this roof has deteriorated in front of their eyes over the last 15 years, so they got used to it.
Then, we come inside, we do a complete inspection in an attic. We've got all kinds of equipment. We educate the consumer as to what we should find, what we should not find. We let them record the results, so that when we're taking data, and they get a result that isn't good, they're saying, "Oh, my. I'm in trouble." Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Frank Farmer:
Now, I'll give you an example. Everybody's gone to a doctor. I'm trained as a physician. You're sitting up on the table and take the stethoscope out. He puts the stethoscope on your chest, and he says, "Take a deep breath." You take a deep breath, you let it out. Then he goes around to the next quadrant in the back. Take a deep breath, up and down. He goes to the third quadrant; it goes up and down as you take your breath. Then, what thought would go through your mind if, all of a sudden, he stopped and said, "Oh, my," and went and wrote a note?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Frank Farmer:
You see, you know that's not normal. That's an abnormal action. That's the same principles that we teach, and that the customer is seeing, that all of a sudden, they're coming to the conclusion, "Oh, this is much worse than I ever thought." You see, that box A we talked about earlier, they said they weren't going to do anything right now. Now, they're saying, "I've got to do something sooner." Because you're such a professional [inaudible 00:15:55] consultant and sales, they like you and they trust you and you're going to show them solutions later, they want you to do the work.
We inspect, then we sit down, and we'll do a presentation that's customer-centric, where the customer is involved making choices. After that, we will go and have them pick product, we price, present payments, and close the sale. Whole process, two and a half hours. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow.

Frank Farmer:
That's the process of a one-day sale. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
I know we're going to talk about this later on, towards the end of the podcast, but this is all... I mean, this is a very high-level glimpse of what you teach during your training classes, during your hands-on training classes.

Frank Farmer:
Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I just want everybody to hear that and know, I mean, if you're already like me going, "Yes, yes," this is the kind of stuff you can really practice, get done, work with Frank and his team to have that kind of training.

Frank Farmer:
Yeah. It takes people who work their butts off and had mediocre sales and turns them into superstars. It's mind blowing to see the transformation that happens when somebody comes out of a four-day class. It's incredible. A lot of work, but it's an investment in oneself. It's a whole different way to do business.

Heidi Ellsworth:
As you look at... okay, so for the owners, the roofing company owners out there right now, no matter what you do, whether you're doing asphalt or metal or what you're doing, this kind of class can teach your sales team to make the company more profitable and I think that's the key is... and it goes right back to what you were saying, Frank, it's all clicking with me, is right customers, right products. Can you talk a little bit more about the importance of profitability for these owners?

Frank Farmer:
Yes. I sure can. The principles that we have here are people-based, not product-based. MRC has even grown even more that we're working with doctors and dentists and people in the medical field and ambulance because it's about people. If you want results, everything you want, somebody else has. Everything. It's how you treat those people. I want to talk about profitability. We get profitability two ways. By being able to increase the value of what we sell, and we get profitability by teaching business owners to be more efficient at each step of their business and pick up a point here, point here, point here. Pretty soon you're talking about some real money. 
When I talk about building more value, we really need to understand uniqueness. I could give you an example that's outside of roofing. Let's just... let's go to groceries. Okay? If we went to Walmart today, we could get 20 pounds of rice, white rice, long grain rice, that 20 pounds of rice would cost us $8.48 today, this [inaudible 00:19:13]. That's 21 cents a half a pound. Now, you can get that same rice packaged in an Uncle Ben's, same white rice, and Uncle Ben isn't going to get 21 cents a pound, they're going to get 61 cents a pound, three times as much because it's recognized as a brand. Nothing changed. Same darn rice, however, if we make that unique and Uncle Ben adds some butter and some garlic and makes it unique, they sell that same half pound for $1.79. I'm going to take it to roofing.
You have roofers out there who are out there selling commodity like rice, as cheap as they can put it on and make a living, that's it. They get 21 cents a half a pound. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Frank Farmer:
In comparison, you have someone like us who understand how to build uniqueness into the product. In other words, we could sell the same shingle as somebody else, but through solving problems with ventilation, through specialty calks, through wrapping the pipe boots on a roof, so they don't deteriorate, and showing customers how those roofs will pay for themselves with energy savings or solve their ice dam problems. You see, we don't just roof, we solve problems. The problems have pain associated and when you fix pain, you make money. We make our whole system unique, so that customer sees the value and they pay us more.
How much more? Selling metal roofing, we will get per square two to three times what our competitors get per square. Now, their roof in no way similar, it will not do the same things as ours because of all the uniqueness that we've built into it and the level of care and the level of service and comfort in the way that we can take pain away from customers give us the profitability.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes.

Frank Farmer:
Now, with profitability comes something else. It does not mean that you just keep lining your pockets with cash and get filthy rich, although you're going to make a lot of money. It gives a business owner the ability to hire staff and take these systems that we teach, so they don't become prisoners to their own business. It takes money to have an assistant. It takes money to have somebody in an office staff, or to have a separate marketing department or to have separate people to do call center work, but once you get all of that established, the business doesn't own the business owner anymore. He can take vacations, he can take extended time, he can work away from the business. Okay? That's the ability when you develop a system and develop a business that you can step away from because of profitability.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Isn't that the goal we all have? You and I were just talking about that earlier. That is it. 

Frank Farmer:
Yes. It is.

Heidi Ellsworth:
What I really like about what you're talking about there, too, is helping contractors, companies, salespeople, because I think it's also, it's on the company level, but it's also on a personal level when you differentiate and differentiate your business, your products, how you're doing things, and then start creating a sense of exclusivity with your customers. You talk about that in your training. Can you share a little bit more on that?

Frank Farmer:
Yes. If you're going to establish exclusivity, and I mentioned earlier, we could sell the same shingle to somebody else. Exclusivity is going to get set up based upon all the other things that you add into your roofing shingles, if we're talking about the roofing business, that provides a system. See, we don't sell a shingle. We sell a roof system that's designed to solve many, many, many problems for our customer. You methodically look at everything that you do, and you set up things that make it exclusive. Now, you can even have private label underlayment, you can have private label products, you can have things that you get researched that others in your area aren't using, but you know if they don't use it, it causes problems. Anything that you can do to set yourself up so that your system is different.
As a company, you need to look different also. When I started American Metal Roofs, I wanted to look very franchise-like because if you're driving down the street and you want a burger, and you're not familiar with that town, and there's Bob's Burgers. They make the greatest burgers at Bob's, but you see a McDonald's, you pull into McDonald's. Why? You recognize it, it's a brand, it's trusted, so I wanted to look like a brand entrusted. We looked franchise immediately and people said, "We've seen your TV ads all over the place." That was like the second or third appointment that I ran, and I thought, "I can take advantage of everybody else's advertising by just looking good and professional." We did, and that's how we started.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. 

Frank Farmer:
When you see somebody that is professional looking, carries themselves, uses forms, understands how to letter a truck right, it doesn't cost a ton of money, but you have to understand psychologically what is that customer looking for because they're afraid. When you can take that fear away from them, they want you to do the work, but if you look like everybody else and you're selling a commodity, it's lowest bid work all the time.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes. I think that that is so true and... we were having a little echo there. One of the things I love about what you're saying, too, is... and you started this off with the questions of really listening, active listening to the people because I know when we have companies come and try to sell to us, as a consumer for our home, I want that trust. I also want respect. I want people to respect me, respect my time, and really kind of... Everything you're saying leads to that, leads to that trust factor, and contractors learning that and learning your program, there's a lot to it. I guess I'm trying to say that there's a lot there that they need to take the time to think through that whole process with your systems.

Frank Farmer:
Yes. You know, Heidi, it even goes to our first consultation, we're working with somebody, we don't end up working with two thirds of the people that we talk to because they're looking for something that is different. We don't want them to spending money that isn't necessary, but the very first thing that we do is we listen to them, we have them contact us. We'll do a free 30-minute consultation and try to hear where they're at, but when I say we don't end up working with, sometimes we can send them to resources that are free to them, that they don't need us. They're not necessarily maybe even ready for us yet, but we'll help them, and they'll come back to us a year, two years, three years later. I don't want them spending money that isn't necessary. 
They can go to MetalRoofingConsultants.com and click on consultation. In the first 30-minutes, and it's me, we're going to sit and talk about their business and I'm going to listen. I'm going to ask a lot of questions and find out where they're at. Only then, through brainstorming, do they need sales help, do they need first of all to understand the overall system that's out there, maybe we need to point them at a marketing person, first of all, to help them get a basic website. I'm not talking about an online brochure. I'm talking about something that generates leads. People come to me and they say, "Oh, I got this great brochure or website and it's got lots and lots of [inaudible 00:27:57]." You don't have to, but it doesn't do nothing for them because it doesn't talk to the customer, isn't what the customer's looking for.
Our goal is to put them or aim them at whatever resources that they need. If we can help them, we literally join hands and take them through. Some people we will mentor, some people we will put them through planned programs. Salespeople will go through a bootcamp and learn skills in four days. It transforms them, it really does. There's all different kinds of things that we can do. I would recommend if they just want to pick up the phone, if you want to write down a phone number. They can call 810-963-0021 and talk to Sue. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Okay.

Frank Farmer:
Sue's my personal assistant. She will set up a time where we can have a Zoom call, and it's just friendly, over a cup of coffee. Okay? What I find with dealing with business owners is they have trouble being transparent. If we can get past that fear, so we can just be transparent, we know they're calling because they want some help, but I hope they're calling because they want to make a lot of money. That's the goal. Okay? There's enough people just to take people's money for a ride. We're about helping people. As I started and said I wish something like this would have been available to help me break into the metal roofing business. I understood the home improvement business, but not necessarily the metal roof business when I started. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well, and I think that's really hard because I think there's a lot of companies out there who look for sales training, who look for how to improve the systems and the profitability, but when they aren't talking to someone who really understands roofing, it's harder. It's not that the systems and the selling processes aren't right. It's just to be able to talk with you, who have done it, and your team, that makes such a big difference. In fact, smooth... go ahead.

Frank Farmer:
I want to say this. So much sales training isn't sales training. So much sales training is hype, and it gets you excited. You go home and you really don't know what to do. We're set up with systems that you literally have manuals, you have forms, you can pick up a phone and call somebody and say, "How does this work?" We work... we even have an organization of dealers if they want to join that and really compete with that and compete with people all over North America but depends on whatever they're looking for is our goal to try to help them find it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love that. I love that so much. We're getting close to the end of our show, but before we go anywhere, I would love for you to just talk a little bit about the four-day training that's coming up in April.

Frank Farmer:
Sure. Yeah.

Heidi Ellsworth:
How it's going to work, so that... for everyone out there, there's plenty of time to get involved, to send your salespeople. It's the beginning of the season, perfect timing on this, so Frank, let them know what's happening.

Frank Farmer:
Okay. In that four-day training, first of all, they need to understand this is not passive, it's active, it is intense. They're going to go from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30. Sometimes we really get going and people got questions and they want to stick around until 6:00. That's fine. That's not a problem. They'll have some things that they can learn in the evening, a little bit of homework. We can take people who have no knowledge of the roofing industry and take them through and learn basic roofing terminology. We can take them and help them start to understand the basics of a presentation. When somebody comes to our sales bootcamp, they are given a sales presentation that they can take, and they can alter. 
They're going to learn it as it was designed for American Metal Roofs, but they can literally plug their company in here. Some of them hire us even to help alter their books, but they've learned a system that works, and we're going to take them through that whole process of how do you do that proper survey. We spend a ton of time on how to gather information. We teach them body language, what's that customer really saying? We teach them then how to inspect, what do they need? Here's the equipment that you need, where to go get that stuff. It's not expensive. They can outfit themselves with equipment that will transform what they're doing. Then, how to properly do that inspection in front of that customer, so that you're not telling them, so the customer is discovering for themselves.
They'll learn the uniqueness of how we take them through a customer-centric presentation and find out more information while all the time we're showing them how this roof will pay for itself because the customers going to start to understand this is a little bit more than we thought. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah.

Frank Farmer:
We proceed through then how to demo each segment of your roof, but it's customer-centric, it's not talking about features, it's talking about solutions for the customer. How to do a proper price presentation and the psychology of a price presentation. How, if you're going to discount, how your discounting should be done. How long it should take to do that. Where to get financing if they don't have financing. If they have financing, show them how to use the payments to close on monthly, and then, ultimately, how to get a sale today instead of coming back later. They will leave with contracts; they leave with all the forms they need. There's nothing for them to go figure out. They leave with everything, literally almost a business in a box.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Wow. That is... so again, how many times have you gone to training's and you kind of left all excited, but you're right. You don't have anything tangible to actually get to work with.

Frank Farmer:
Correct. Yeah.

Heidi Ellsworth:
This you will.

Frank Farmer:
Right.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That, I think is key. Key for the company, key for the salespeople, key for the operations, across the board. Now, this is a live event, and we... the vaccines are out there, we're getting so close, so this is a live event in April. It's going to be perfect to get everybody out there. Tell them a little bit about the location.

Frank Farmer:
Okay. The location is just outside of Lansing, in Charlotte we have a center that's built up and they will be socially distanced. They'll be about eight feet from each other, so they're going to feel comfortable in that environment. We don't put hundreds of people. We limit our classes. They're very small. A typical class for us never exceeds 10 people. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Perfect, nice.

Frank Farmer:
They're small, one-on-one, working. We want them to succeed. This isn't about packing a stadium with 200 people in it where you can't even figure out what's going on. This is one-on-one, learning, working, doing it, asking questions. I have trouble with this, how would you get past this? My customers, my area, everybody thinks theirs is unique, but how do we work through that to get that done for them?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Get it done. First step for everyone out there, first step, make the phone call. Make the phone call, go to on Roofers Coffee Shop, this is everywhere on the Coffee Shop, so it's in the directory for Metal Roofing Consultants, there's an ad that you can click. We've made it very easy to get to this... to get Metal Roofing Consultants, excuse me, and really, I loved how you said earlier, Frank, start with a call. Call and talk about your business, where you're at, take that 30 minutes, and then, look at sending your salespeople to the boot camps. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
There will also be more of these throughout the summer?

Frank Farmer:
Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth:
This isn't one and done.

Frank Farmer:
Yes. No, well, they'll be many opportunities, and once they plug in and make a phone call or contact us online, we're not going to bombard them with advertisements. That's not what we do. If we sense there's something we can do to help them, and there's not something happening until later on in the summer or fall, we'll say, "Listen, you want us to reach out and contact you?" Everything we do is very close knit. This is not big. This is about specifically helping people become successful and take the programs that we've had, that we've done very well with, and help them expand their businesses.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Frank. Thank you for sharing your history and everything-

Frank Farmer:
I want to say one last thing. Okay?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes.

Frank Farmer:
There may be some people out there at Roofers Coffee Shop that say, "Well, I'd like to be involved in the metal roofing business, but I don't even have a supplier yet." You know what? Pick up the phone and call me. Let's discuss what your goals are, what you're looking to do. I'll head you towards suppliers that are in the industry that can fit the need that you're looking... on a first name basis and you can say, "Frank called." Okay? We're very well-connected. I sit on the board for the Roof Alliance. Sit on the governing board for a company organization called [Epic 00:37:53], so I know the people in the industry. I'll be glad to guide you. I didn't have anybody do that for me and that's... I'll just do it. It's simple when you know the contacts [inaudible 00:38:03]

Heidi Ellsworth:
That's roofing right there. That's the heart of roofing. Everyone reaching out and saying, "Hey, let me introduce you, let me get you to the right people. Let me help you grow your business. Let me help you take your business, so you can retire someday." You know?

Frank Farmer:
Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It's all of those things together and I think you just gave me goosebumps because ride on, Frank, that's exactly what the industry needs is people reaching out and saying, "Hey, we can help you get to that next step. Just ask. Just pick up the phone." 

Frank Farmer:
Yep. You got it. We're here, it will be the best phone call you ever made. 

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Well, and we talked about this earlier on, but being a small business owner myself, I know how scary this can be, I know how scary it is to take that step to put this on, commitments there, to show your business, and that it's worth it every step of the way because I'm... for so many reasons. You've said them so eloquently today.

Frank Farmer:
Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Frank, thank you. I want to do this again. I think we have a lot of things we could talk about. 

Frank Farmer:
Okay. I would be glad to. Also, if they don't want to make that call and they want to hear a little more, I didn't mention earlier, but if they go to MetalRoofingConsultants.com, they're going to see a podcast called Let's Be Frank, which is a series that I've done. There's dozens there that they can listen to. They're not about a bunch of BS. They sit down with a piece of paper, when you're listening to them because it's just how to help you. We started a second one called, In the Right Lane. My partner, who runs the install side of our business, Dan Lane, has started a series of podcast, so there's a few of them that are there that will help them from the install side in systems.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Be sure to look at the directory for Metal Roof Consultants on Roofers Coffee Shop. We have Frank's podcast on there, we have Lane's podcasts on there, we have videos, we have information about the training, and most importantly, we have the links to get to Metal Roofing Consultants and to be able to get to their website and get so much more. If any of this, you haven't caught anything, it's all there, it's very easy, and it's definitely something that's going to help build your business to the next step.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Frank, thank you again so much for being here today.

Frank Farmer:
You're welcome. It's a pleasure. Glad talking to you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you. For everyone listening, thank you for taking the time to listen to this on your favorite podcast channel. Also know that all the podcasts are listed under the read, listen, watch section at Roofers Coffee Shop, along with webinars, videos, e-books, anything you need to help educate you and your company anytime, all on demand. Have a great day. Thank you so much for being part of listening to this podcast today, and we'll see you on the next Roofing Road Trips. 

Speaker 1:
Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the RoofersCoffeeShop.com