The ROOFLUTION | Podcast on RSS.com

The ROOFLUTION

by Derek Laliberte

Home and Garden Personal Journals Philosophy

Season 1

Hitting the slopes

I love the simple symbolism used with snow skiing. Don't know what you're getting yourself into; look for a green circle, a blue square, or a black diamond. Green equals easy, blue is intermediate (love that word), and black means "buckle up, we're going down." The ski slopes don't tell you that a green circle indicates a slope between 6% and 25%, a blue square is between 25% and 40%, and a black diamond is a slope at 40% and higher. Do you believe it would be more likely for you to mistakenly choose the wrong ski slope if they weren't color coordinated? I can tell you firsthand that my wife wouldn't like skiing anymore, which's a fact. Thank goodness for those pictures. As a roofing contractor whose mission is to revolutionize the industry, we like the standard sport of skiing set for the rest of us. Yes, even the roofing industry. Okay, maybe just Roofle. Like the sport of skiing and the degree of a hill's slope, you probably don't know that slope of your roof. If someone were to ask you if you have a low, medium, or steep slope, you likely could take a guess but wouldn't it be so much easier to look at a picture and be done with it? Knowing the slope is significant in factoring how much product a roofing contractor needs to complete your installation; therefore, it's critical to understand. Is it a 4/12? Is it an 8/12, 12/12, or is it higher? Rather than explain to you that it's the number of inches in rise or height over the run, which is length, we ask for your address and let you pick from a picture. Chances are we are going to be nearly perfect in our estimate. Unless of course your roof is as steep as El Capitan, and you mistake it for a roof that is as flat as the Indiana countryside. By the way, it's pretty flat here, which is probably why my wife enjoys the skiing.

My wife, the sales coach

My wife and I had a plan. I would drive around to all the dealerships after she got home from work in her car until I found one, and then we would go into negotiations with the dealership together. That seemed like a great idea until I brought her into the sit down with me. My wife was an absolute bulldog, as she was unwilling to pay the asking price. In all sincerity, the car we were looking at was probably priced to sell, not to sit there and collect dust. She still demanded they drop the price, and when they didn't budge, she abruptly got up and walked out. "Hey, hun, you know I need a car by tomorrow, right?" It didn't matter; she was not going to be taking advantage of or ripped off. Not a chance! I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it was the intimidation of a pregnant and irritable woman in her third trimester. Or perhaps it was a salesperson who knew better than to mess with her on that particular day, but he just caved in to her demands. Oh, by the way, this has happened on more than one occasion with her. All I could think of was what happened to my wife that she believed she would be ripped off? There must have been some salesperson at some point in her life that did a number on her. After fifteen years, I can honestly say that there has never been; that's just how she feels about salespeople. It's unfortunate because, after a career in sales and marketing, I can tell you firsthand that there are plenty of salespeople representing the profession with integrity and honor. I'm an optimist so, I believe there are far more salespeople on that end of the spectrum than on the dirty side. I'm not naive; I get there is a stigma that surrounds our profession. Although the stigma seems to be fading with more and more companies changing their culture and proving it to us through quality marketing & advertising, it appears to be still very much alive today. But that's not the case for me. No, I don't have time to mess around with all the cheesy sales moves. I can assure you; you will never get the song and dance from me or anyone on our Roofle team. The price is the price, and we believe it's an excellent price. So much so that we are willing to guarantee it's the lowest price, but we don't necessarily expect you to just come back to us because of the cost. For Roofle, it's all about being a resource for our customers. A resource in our industry, or sales for that matter, is someone who will always answer your questions and recommend the best solution regardless if it benefits them. So, if you're talking to me or anyone on my team for that matter, you will never get a biased answer. You can't because I've already instructed everyone on the team to imagine the customer is your pregnant wife, who doesn't have any time to mess around. When I say we're going to be a resource, that means answering your questions and concerns even when you're considering another contractor, even if you chose another contractor. When I say we will be a resource, that's what we intend to be.

Everyone has a brand story

…And it was either a great story, or a not so great story, but trust me we all have one. Once upon a time someone once told me that when a person is ‘sold’ something they will do everything in their power to prove to others why it was a bad decision and when someone ‘buys’ something they will go to extraordinary amounts of effort to convince others why it was the right decision. I agree but I would add one small caveat to that guideline. That’s because sometimes we actually buy something but the experience is so awful that in the end we feel as if we were completely duped. I want to walk you through two different examples to prove my point. Do you want the good story or the bad story first? Ok cool, I flipped a coin and we’re going with the bad one. I’m pumped because it probably makes sense to end on a good note. I was once sold windows in my living room. We had met with two sales people at this point and were about to invite the third stranger into our living room to pitch us on his glorious windows for what would seem like the next three hours (that we will never get back). He went on with his presentation well after he needed to and since my wife and I were in the market we chose to go with his company and his product simply because he was the best of the worst. Just so I am completely transparent, all my energy was exhausted listening to sales people hold a heat lamp up to my window and then allowing me and my wife to think over the discount he offered while he smoked two cigarettes in my driveway. “Well, what do you think? Are you ready to book an install?” I actually felt disgusted but when he threw in an additional discount if we wrote a check I couldn’t barely contain myself. Well, the windows sucked. They basically never patched all of the gaps along the trim allowing air to flow through like a jet engine. Not to mention the condensation build up on our picture window that took nearly 8 months to finally be replaced. The customer experience was atrocious. Two years later they actually called me again asking if I wanted to replace my home's windows and forgot we were a customer. To this day there’s a sign in my yard that says “ask me about my windows and I will tell you a horror story.” I’m kidding of course…about the sign, but hopefully you understand my point. Now think about it. What’s your horrible brand story? Got one?

"I've never lost a foosball game"

Have you ever been asked if you love to win or hate to lose? Think about it for a second while I tell you how I feel. Ok, here goes...I hate to lose. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Absolutely can’t stand it. When people think about losing all they ever think of is sports. For me It’s not just sports, it’s much deeper than that. Although most of the time the thought of my team winning a championship sounds nice, it’s not exactly realistic these days. I tend to categorize a season as successful based on whether or not we lost to our rival. Just for the record…Not a Packer fan (not a Bears fan either. I’m a competitor, as thick as they come. Always have been and probably always will be. I don’t want to lose at anything. It’s really bad I know, and I’m ok with that. Hey, at least I’m honest about it. It could be a test score, could be a board game, and once back in college it was foosball. It’s a really long story so I will spare you the very intimate details but let’s just say my roommates and I once decided who would get to keep our foosball table over a best-of-85-game-series. In case you’re not sure that’s the first one to 43 wins. It got ugly, not going to lie but rest assured I didn’t lose. We had this rule that you could challenge a team to a duel at anytime of the day by yelling out “FOOS!” The opposing team had 15 minutes to report to the table or the game would be considered a forfeit. It’s important for you all to know that there were zero forfeits during this series and a significant amount of questionable ‘bush-league’ tactics made in attempt to trick us into a forfeit. Setting the alarm for 3am may have been one of them... Listen below!

What is normal again?

All week I’ve been staring at an empty canvas. Typically, I’m overflowing with ideas for content for this column but not this week. No, I usually find inspiration in the simple things, or those things that bring me joy. It creates an environment that inspires humor and positivity but this week all I can seem to think about are those things that don’t. What a downer! It’s really not my style and for that I apologize. Listen to me, I sound like a country song. I should say it started Sunday when I watched my favorite football team (who I can’t get rid of and I won’t name out of embarrassment) lose again. Taking them to a whopping 0-3 record on the season but that’s not when it started. No, it started Monday morning when my 10 year old son woke up with a cold. My wife and I just looked at each other and knew we couldn’t let him go to school. In any other year we would load him up with some cough drops, a scoop of cough syrup and send him on his way, but not right now. I called the school to report his absence. “He’s not feeling well today, he won’t be in.” Followed by the immediate response of “what are his symptoms?” I mean, I knew that was coming. “It’s just a little cough, we will monitor it and keep you posted.” I think it was the school nurse or whoever the school system has assigned the role of “Covid Tracing Czar” who called my wife back to let us know we needed not only to get a negative test back for him, but we would also need to pull our daughter out of middle school immediately. Let me spare you from how that story unfolded. Let’s just say she was pissed. That was only Monday and to be completely transparent with you, I knew for a fact it wasn’t COVID…and it wasn’t. Test came back negative and everyone is back in school and doing great. But that was just the start of the week. The week got much worse (Take Tuesday night for example) but I won’t go there. This podcast was never intended to go there however, that did get the idea train rolling again. Somewhere between a thought of something none of us can agree on and something we can all agree on-the empty canvas I was staring at began to fill up with ideas. The idea of what is normal and what isn’t normal started popping in my head. Think about how all of our lives have been affected by this pandemic and instead of all the negativity try and really focus on the positive. You may have to dig deep but there’s a few things underneath the surface that are obvious. First of all my marriage flourished. For the first time in a decade I’m fairly certain my wife and I were completely on the same page. Not like we weren’t before, but now we are qualified for “The Amazing Race” because we can function like a winning team. Our family is closer than ever. We have spent more time at home as a family around the dinner table than ever before. Not only do I better understand who my kids are, I understand what motivates them and how they feel about stuff. We’ve gotten closer with our closest friends. We’ve had sit-down dinners with huge spreads of food and conversations about deep meaningful topics. We’ve gone on bike rides and walks, spent time outside playing catch. I never thought that I would ever feel normal again. Only thing is, I was feeling the normal I was looking for 10 years ago. I was telling a friend recently that 2020 has had a real 1998 vibe to it. Then there are things that aren’t normal. Take calling in sick for your son as an example, or watching an NFL football game without fans in the stadium. How about attending church service virtually for six months, or wearing a mask in public. I remember seeing those people when I was kid and thinking, “what a weirdo!” Now, everyone wears a mask. Well, technically not everyone and in some cases we get judged for it which has become sort of normal but has led me to this conclusion. What is normal and even more importantly when things do go back to normal, will we even recognize it?

Blackout Restrictions [Don't] Apply

Blackout Games [Don’t] Apply We got a dog this year. The kids and I put up a real campaign full of bi-partisan advertising and rallies in our living room all to gain that one vote we needed-from Mom. She was an undecided voter and in order to get the dog, we needed an unanimous decision. It was a successful campaign, coming in just under $3,000 bucks. Not too bad considering I was the primary, ok the only fundraiser on the campaign trail. Couple things I learned from this experience. If you want a dog that doesn’t shed you need to find one that has some poodle in it and second, you may need to take out a loan. Naming the dog was easy in our household. We are true Minnesota fans through and through. Make no mistake the perfect name for a new puppy was none other than “the centerfielder KIRBY PUCKETT!!!!!!” I know at the beginning of the pandemic there was a lot of talk trending on social media about families having ‘Covid babies’ but for those of us who are done, I saw far more people opting out for puppies instead. I am happy to say we all love our little Cavapoo, Kirby. He's the newest member of the Laliberte family and we’ve done our best to mold him into a true ‘Twinkies’ fan. As you’ve already been made aware from earlier podcasts that I am a Minnesotan who migrated southeast (easy on the south) twenty years ago to the land of Hoosiers and what you can probably already guess, there are no Minnesota sports teams on television here. Our solution has been to pay a little extra for things like the Sunday Ticket to get the Vikings games and the Big Ten network to watch the Gophers play. It really has been a nice little compromise, but we’ve never paid for the MLB package. That was until this year when Major League Baseball announced a shortened season of only sixty games and an expanded playoff race of 16 teams. Couldn’t have been more excited. In fact I’m still excited as the Twinkies just took over 1st place in the Central and have locked up a spot in October. There’s only one problem though…that’s the blackouts. In case you don’t know what a blackout is, it's essentially a game that is not allowed to be aired through the MLB package because a local television affiliate owns the rights to the market. For the NFL that’s easy because the games are aired on the major networks. For example, the Colts who are obviously a market team for where I live here in Indiana will always be shown on the local CBS affiliate. Makes sense doesn’t it? Well, it’s a bit more complicated and illogical for Major League Baseball. Fort Wayne, which is three hours from Chicago, four hours from Cincinnati, three point five hours from Detroit and nearly four hours from Cleveland is apparently a market for the Cubs, the White Sox, the Indians, the Tigers and I’m not sure who the Reds are but that team as well. I can tell you for a fact in twenty years of living here I have never watched one of these teams on local television in this market. So naturally, you can understand my frustration when my son and I sit down with a bowl of popcorn and our dog Kirby Puckett to watch the Twins try to clinch the division only to find out we are going to have to watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’ instead because they’re blacked out against the frickin Reds! You’ve got to be kidding me, right? In case you're wondering, out of the 60 games the Twins played we only were able to watch about 10 games. I felt bad for the guy who answered the phone on Monday, I really did. It’s not his fault someone above his pay grade is greedy. Fort Wayne has got to be one of, if not the only market in the country that is claimed by four completely different markets who’s only relation is a three hour drive away. Blackout games in Fort Wayne for professional baseball? Please! Don’t worry, if you don’t live in one of our markets, you can still use our software we don’t mind. Oh yeah, WIN TWINS!

Mike Eruzione, United States of America

Let me start by asking you if you’re really reading this? Look, I would love to call myself a writer, I really would, but if you just listened to this it would be that much easier for you. Trust me, you can’t listen to a typo. If you’re willing to just click on the link above you can hear me read these columns to you on Spotify and RSS. "Great moments are born from great opportunity, and that’s what you have here tonight. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight." There’s this moment in a server’s life that resembles somewhat of a crossroads. Allow me to explain. The setting for this column begins with a table of hungry patrons patiently waiting for their entrees sitting in your section on a very busy Saturday evening. In all likelihood it’s probably a special occasion. Maybe an anniversary or a birthday dinner. It doesn’t matter though, because what you do next will likely spoil it. As you speedily approach the table with someone’s very hot dinner plate which is holding the Sicilian sea-bass resting on your forearms you realize there are only seven plates and there are eight people. As you set the food down in front of each salivating customer, finally getting around to the one person (who usually is the one voted most likely to freak out in high school), you immediately realize that you never put their order into the kitchen. This is where we find our crossroads. Believe or not you have a few options. I should know them, as this is my story and you can find it right there in the non-fiction section. Option number one, you can lie and throw the kitchen right under the bus.’They’re really backed up in there tonight, they probably just miss-counted the sea-bass or forget to cook it. "I’ll run in there and check it out asap.” That’s likely the most commonly used option because you can probably still salvage a tip if you play your cards right. You might lose your job, but hey, not your reputation. The second option is to not do anything drastic but again is a lie. “Let me go to the kitchen and check on it, it’s probably just sitting under the food warmer.” Meanwhile you speed walk back to the kitchen like your diarrhea just came back and yell out “I need a sea-bass on the fly.” This one is fine because the kitchen can whip up a hot bass in two minutes and steal the wilted spinach from someone else’s order. Simple, you still save your tip but screw over your fellow servers tips by backing up all of their orders. As you walk back to the table in just under 4 minutes you are the hero of the show. “Here you are mam, so sorry for your wait. Can I get anyone a refill while I’m here?” That brings us to the third option which is simple really. It’s called honesty (BTW, not a popular move amongst the boys). All you have to do is sincerely apologize to the customer and make it right. Typically involves bringing over the manager, maybe comping a free meal but the odds the customer will return to the restaurant are very likely and your empathy card might actually pay off in the end. I have to admit its the road less traveled. “You can’t be any geek off the street. Gotta be handy with the steal if you know what I mean.” Sorry, that’s Regulators. So, which option best describes you? Be honest, remember it’s not good to lie. Are you greedy, maybe a little misleading or are you full of integrity and honesty? When I was twenty four I knew exactly who I was and certainly wasn’t option three. And now, at 40 years old I’m the honest one. In fact, I’m not only the honest one in this case I’m the manager who is coming by the table to make sure everyone’s experience of our restaurant is not tarnished.

You Gotta Believe

This year marks the twentieth year I’ve lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If you’re wondering where in the world Fort Wayne is you and I were not that different. Once you get through Chicago it’s another three hours away on the other side of the state. My heart has always been firmly grounded in Minnesota but I’ve grown to love it here, it is my home. On the way to Fort Wayne from Chicago you pass an iconic institution known as Notre Dame. You likely won’t notice it because it’s off the beaten path but it’s there and it’s magnificent. I’m a gopher fan, don’t mistake it but my kids have grown up believing Notre Dame is something special. I tell you all of this because I am surrounded by Irish fans. Technically I’m surrounded by Cubs fans, Hoosiers, Boilermakers, Wolverines and some team named the Colts (I think they’re a rugby team) All I can say about all of that is “Skol Twins” (That was a shout out to my colleague Matt Brown who is a legend). I can’t tell you the year but I can tell you about the famous speech former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz delivered once upon a time. It was a memorable speech that started off with the phrase “you gotta believe.” It sets the premise for the entire inspirational message. I love it, because the message resonates with the core of who I am and that phrase, “you gotta believe” is something I wake up with in my head everyday. I’ve always believed in optimism, that something good is going to happen. I’ve always looked forward to something and that mentality has driven my spirit. I don’t believe in coincidences but I do believe in the mantra of a positive attitude. Maybe that’s why Notre Dame is always in the spotlight? A school from South Bend, Indiana that believes they are going to win the college football national championship every year. Can you imagine what that must be like? And they actually get pretty close sometimes. If you’re a Minnesota fan like me you likely don’t have that feeling with our teams. Back in 2014 I started believing in things. All things really, and it was interesting because things started to happen that never happened before. I found a random woman's purse on the side of the toll booth outside of Chicago and spent all day looking for her. I didn’t ask for anything in return I just wanted to get it back to her. I couldn’t imagine what that must have been like for her. Wouldn’t you know it, the very next day I won a new Xbox at a seminar I attended. “The winner is Derek Lulabrrete, I’m not sure I said that right (it’s fine, happens everyday). I went to bed that night thinking things were possible that I never once thought before. It’s silly I know, to think if you do nothing other than think positively that good things will happen but, they did. Not just winning things either, all things. My marriage improved, my relationships improved. I got raises and promotions, I even was publicly recognized in my community for a few awards. I started to believe and I started to see the world differently. I was literally a walking, talking Optimist Prime!

"Got room for one more if you still want to go to Aspen."

“I’m a man, I’m 40!” Those were the infamous words Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy. When I thought about turning 40 this year I thought about buying a shirt with his words on it and just hitting the town. Because that’s what a 40 year old would do right? Well, I turned 40 in March and hitting the town for me (or anyone) meant hitting the living room during quarantine to see my family. So, yeah-that didn’t happen. This past week I got an anonymous package in the mail containing a shirt that read “I speak fluent movie quotes.” Thought for sure it was my from my wife, but it wasn’t. It’s still an open case so if you bought me that shirt-thanks! All I need to do is drop about 15lbs. and I’ll wear it out sometime. No, but seriously when you think about your life you often look back on it and see the successes and the failures, the accomplishments and hardships. To tell you the truth I think about how I got to this very place in my life often and I don’t believe it’s by any coincidence. My greatest accomplishment may be similar to most of yours in having a successful marriage. Actually let me take a moment to tell my wife Happy Anniversary before the 17th (great, got that out of the way). I think about how proud I am of my kids and their “not getting a call to the principle's office or detention record.” I think about my career accomplishments and all I have achieved I’m my life and I am grateful. I’m sure we can all agree on that right? Of course we can, that’s easy. Then there are those moments in our personal history that don’t seem like accomplishments or don’t seem like they were that significant at the time but looking back on them now were monumental, sometimes even pivotal. I’m probably going to blow your mind right now, you might even stop listening to me forever after this one, in fact I may lose all credibility with you for good or (and this is a BIG one) I may say something so dumb, that I TOTALLY REDEEM myself for. Ok, here it goes. One of the greatest and most pivotal moments in my life, was going to the movie theatre when I was 14 years old not once, but multiple times to watch Dumb & Dumber on the big screen. I know, crazy and stupid all at the same time. “Thanks, Barn. There you go.” Seriously, that one movie has shaped my entire being. Based on my beliefs God just threw a lightning bolt at me. I can recite that movie from beginning to end, word for word. I can’t help myself. I’ll be in the middle of conversation with anyone. It could be a serious conversation and I find I’m drawing on Lloyd Christmas for my reactions. “No way, we landed on the moon.” "Alpine Drive, big place.” "Can’t be too careful, a lot of bad drivers out there.” “Why you going to the airport?” “Few baseball cards, sack of marbles (cough), Petey.” Speaking of Petey, my daughter named here 4H calf this year Petey, is that bad? No, it’s not bad. She’s 13 and she loves Dumb & Dumber and I love that she loves it. There are a lot of other things that she could love that I wouldn’t be that proud, this isn’t one of them.

Like a G6

In 2016 I went to dinner with my pastor and his wife when a song by the band 'Train' played over the radio. “Don’t you just love this band, Derek?” We were in California and I was feeling pretty free to speak my mind. Not to mention, who lies to their pastor? I couldn’t do it. “Ahhh not really a fan of this band at all,” was my response. What followed was what we would call an extended moment of silence. On one hand I was feeling good about my choice to be honest in that situation and on the other hand I was terrified they were going to ask me who I liked. Luckily they didn’t and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We were on our way to this fancy Mexican restaurant on the coast and to this day these lips have never tasted better chips and salsa. Sorry though, I can’t for the life of me recall the name of the restaurant. I think I was too busy eyeing the parking lot. It was just smashed with nothing but Lambo’s and Range Rovers. This wasn’t your average Chi Chis, this was big time. I remember an open parking spot next to a Pontiac G6 and thought to myself, "we should probably park our rental right there." My pastor and I were on the same page-about where to park that is, not our music choices. That Pontiac G6 though. Let’s talk about it for a second. If you weren’t living under a rock for the past 40 years you likely know who Oprah is, right? Whew, had me worried for a second. If you know who Oprah is or you don’t know who Oprah is you definitely remember that time she surprised her studio audience by giving each of them a car. Those cars were Pontiac G6’s and there were 276 people in the stands that day. At $28,500 a pop that’s a grand total of $7,866,000 bucks. Whoa…Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure she did the same thing in 2010 as well with a Volkswagen. That’s incredible. All of that talk about a G6 to tell you this (but also just to give you some insight into how my mind works). She started yelling, ok maybe shouting depending on your opinion “you get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everyone gets a car.” If you were in the audience that day you hit the jackpot. Even if you didn’t want to keep the thing you could sell it and turn a 93% profit (remember taxes). Oftentimes as sales people, especially roofing sales people or home remodeling sales people (actually all sales people) we get inquiries asking about a “free quote.” If you’re in sales you know exactly what I’m talking about and if you’re not in sales you asked for one. Either we don’t realize, we forget or we just don’t care about the effort that goes into producing that quote. For example do you know the average roofing contractor likely pays a third party for electronic measurements of your roof? It could cost as much as $100 to get that quote for you. Heck, I spent a considerable portion of my career in software development and a full quote could take as much as 80 hours to produce. That’s a big chunk of change. And for what? So the customer can just take that quote and use it against another contractor? It’s fine everyone, we all do it. Some people would say that we live in the era or age of the customer and I would agree. Any piece of information that we want is right at our fingertips and the personal touch of a salesperson isn’t always needed and if it is the value add that we offer is trust. Trust broken down into credibility and reliability. Do you have proof that you can solve my problem? Are you going to do what you said you were going to do? That second one is actually a rule in the Laliberte household. The point is, why beat around the bush with a song and dance, why not just let people know upfront (if you can) the price of what they want? Sure, you might risk being commoditized but at least you won’t be wasting anyone’s precious time.

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