Austin Blomquist on Building a Legacy

Pete: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Roofr Report. I am your host, Pete McKendrick, and we are joined today by our May Roofr of the month. Excited to have him on, I've known him for a while and, watch him kind of grow in the industry. So, very excited to have you on Austin welcome Austin Bloomquist.

How you doing Austin?

Austin: How are you doing today, Pete?

Pete: Great man. I'm excited for this one. we have known each other for a number of years, And, seeing you do some cool stuff in the industry and excited to kind of run through that and get your story hear where you've come from and how you got into this.

we always joke that, you don't find roofing. Roofing finds you. So,

Austin: Mm-hmm.

Pete: usually has a colorful backstory of how they ended up where they're at. excited to dive into it and hear a little bit about what you're going on. introduce yourself, introduce the company.

how long have you guys been in business? How big are you as a company? how many employees do you have? Stuff like that. Just kind of basic information about what you guys have going on.  

Austin: Sure. Yeah, so I'm the owner of Upper Peninsula Roofing Company. We've been in business for, the second year now. I've been in the roofing industry for six years. my senior year of college I went and chased a hailstorm in Nebraska and so that's kind of when really started.

As far as the residential roofing scene, I've been in the roofing space pretty much my whole life. My dad actually developed a product called Snow Grip. unfortunately he passed away when I was 11 years old, but it's always been my mission to bring that product to the world, I've been kind of close to the roofing industry and I've always been kind of watching it. And so I went to college, got my marketing degree, and then, I found out that there, there was these guys going out knocking on doors and a lot of money, you know, selling these roofs. And I said, well, what am I gonna do outta college?

And I just didn't have the capital to bring my product to the next level. so I started selling roof door to door. I basically went all over the country. I mean Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Georgia. Carolinas, worked for multiple different contractors and really gained that experience.

Then I, could see that there was a huge need for more roofers in my local town, Iron Mountain, Michigan, there's like three roofers in this town. I always heard that the prices were high they weren't reliable, and they weren't picking up their phones. I'm just like, I can do that. I can be reliable. I can pick up my phone, help with storm damage because there wasn't anybody else really doing anything that was like insurance focused In my hometown, it was all retail. so there was a couple storms that came through and next thing you know, I started selling roofs working with some other contractors in the area.

And now I've branched off and started the roofing company on my own.  

Pete: Very cool.

Austin: I'm basically just a one man show. I, I do have one sales rep. I do have one assistant, like an office manager. but we're starting slow and that's okay. I always hear with roofing companies, when they try to scale too fast, they can run into problems.

And so I'm trying to take things slow, create a well-oiled machine before I start to really scale this business. the vision is to be the household name for roofing across the upper peninsula of Michigan, the upper peninsula is. connected from the Mackinac Bridge to the lower peninsula of Michigan, but only about 5% of the population of Michigan actually lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan. And so like, it's, it's a bunch of smaller towns that are kind of spread out. But like I said, there's just not a ton of roofers.

And so, if there's three roofers in town and there's, a couple thousand people that are reaching out for roofing services, we only need to sell. If we sell a hundred roofs, I mean, that's fantastic,  

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: it's like you don't need to be in a huge populated city to sell a lot of roofs.

And so yeah, that's kind of a little bit of the background.

Pete: I like it. it's interesting, you know, because I do think it's something that happens quite often with newer companies you go to all these shows, you listen to all these people speak, and it's all about scaling and, you know, everybody wants to get huge.

Austin: Mm-hmm.

Pete: had a lot of conversations recently with roofers about. finding that sweet spot that works for you, making comfortable money and running a company that's lean and organized and, being happy with that. not having to get huge or, branch out into other areas  

like you said, like if you guys can become that neighborhood Roofr for the upper peninsula, like. You're in a great spot, right? Like you, you know, you kinda take over that area and you could easily do, a significant number of roofs every year do pretty well and stay pretty lean,  

So I think that, it's really interesting. talk a little bit about your background, from a marketing standpoint and how that's played into, your success so far with the roofing company.

Austin: Yeah, so I'll rewind a little further before, everything started it all. happened with my dad's product. from a young age. I remember going with him to different jobs and he'd say, do you see that snow sliding off that roof? That's a problem. Well, this snow grip product can fix it.

And I always just remember him having samples and it had ice on it and it was holding there like a vertical pitch. And I just remember my dad's passion it's always been my dream to bring that product to the world. so I got a marketing degree in college and I thought that's what it was gonna take to, launch this thing.

Well, then I soon found out what it takes to really run a successful business and you need people, I found that I was bottlenecking myself so many times where it's just like. I have this website set up. I don't have all the systems in place. I don't have the samples ready to send out to people.

I don't have the information that people need. I knew that I needed to team up with a larger coding company because my product involves a waterproof coating followed by, aggregate granules that embed into the coating that protrude outta the coating. And that's what actually grips. Snow on the Roofr. And so I thought to myself, I'm like, how can I get known? How can I get these larger coding companies to pay attention to me? I'm just this, you know, this kid from Iron Mountain with population of 10,000 people. Nobody knows me. I don't have this marketing budget. You know, I don't have any credibility other than, oh, I just got a marketing degree, you know, oh, look at me.

Right? But I'm still, you know, my lower twenties then, and it's just like, okay, what can I do for that credibility? And so, it's kind of a, a cool story. So I was installing my dad's product on a metal Roofr. And I was with my best friend at the time. we were installing it on a super hot day, and this coating was like running off the Roofr, like it was drying too quick.

Like there was so many things that were going wrong. And I just remember thinking to myself, I'm like, dad, you're lucky. I love you so much because I wouldn't be installing this product if I didn't. And I tell my buddy, I'm like, Hey, can you take a video of me installing this, because this is ridiculous.

this is crazy. This is comical almost. And he took the video and I was watching it and I'm like, what if we post this on TikTok, that app that you see, like all these girls dancing on, there's nobody posting anything roofing related, but you can see that these girls are getting millions of views.

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: I try to post the snow grip on there and what if it gets a million views? we just kind of laughed about it. I'm like, I'm gonna try it out. I posted the video on TikTok and it got over a million views overnight,  

Pete: That's crazy.

Austin: dad, is that you up there controlling the TikTok algorithm?

And ever since then I was just like, okay. in that moment it was like a light bulb went off and I was like, okay, I can get 200,000 followers on social media, having marketing degree and have a roofing company, I. That can really bring a lot of credibility to me. so I started really focusing on my personal brand and documenting, my success over the years.

And so it was like every day I was, taking videos in the field editing all night, selling roofs all day, and it was like 12 hour days. But I had That goal. I'm like, I know if I can get that following and if I can get my name out there, I'm gonna start getting recognized by some of these larger coating manufacturers.

And so, kind of started unfolding. a year after I did that install with my friend, I had 200,000 followers. I was just like, how did this all happen? dreams become reality. And what I realized when your dreams become reality, it turns into a lot of work. now I kind of had some ammunition to go to these trade shows.

So then I started going to the International Roofing Expo and Roofr Con and Roofing process. Every roofing conference that I could possibly go to, to shake the right person's hand to get this product in the right place. I never knew, how it was gonna unfold, but I just thought if I keep shaking people's hands, keep networking, it's going to happen sometime.

And so. Through trial and error, working with multiple different coding manufacturers. Some said, Hey, this isn't the right time. You know, we have to meet our quarterly goals. Other ones said, you know, we don't wanna take, the liability and the ownership in it. And it was like from one coating to the next,  

And then finally, I actually found. Fluid Applied roofing, and was kind of a crazy story. So I was with, Tim Brown from Hook Agency and I said, let's, let's go up to this coating company. We were at International Roofing Expo. He had his video guy and I said, I'm gonna go pitch. This coating company on video and see if they wanna make the world a safer place.

Let's see if they go for it. And I go up to 'em and I show 'em the snow grip and I'm like, Hey, you guys need to put granules in your coating for any Roofr coating jobs that are in snow country because that snow is coming right off that coating. And it's going to damage the gutters. It's gonna cause liability for the building owner.

All you gotta do is put these granules in the coating and they loved it. And I was just like, okay, sweet. let's keep talking. And so now after years of networking and shaking people's hands, I finally got myself in the right place with the right coding company that's going to actually really take some ownership behind it.

Pete: It's cool.

Austin: to, work out that licensing deal. it's, been a long time coming, but if you really have something that you're working towards and have it in the back of your mind all the time, I find that life will move you to, that success. so yeah, that's really the story behind it.

And as far as the social media alone, I never knew that 200,000 followers was gonna open up so many doors other than just for my product. Snow Grip. And, my roofing company. But now I've been able to work with some awesome brands. I mean, from, red Wings boots to Wolverine, boots to Equipped or even the Better Business Bureau, they reached out, I did a video with them.

what I've been doing for every function of the roofing business, You got financing, you got like technology, you got equipment, you got all these different things that you're using within your roofing company. I've been able to work with all of those different companies as far as like a partnership type of an opportunity where I actually make videos for them while I'm in the field working on these jobs.

And so like for equip her. let me, you know, rent an equipped for free and I can go and get this work done. the catchall gave me some free catchalls I got free subscriptions from other tech companies to give my customers the best Roofr possible.

And especially starting off, you don't have a ton of capital to go and buy an equip or to buy a catchall system or to get a new website. And so for companies to come in and be like. if you make a video for me, we'll make you a website. If you make a video for me, we'll give you this rental, we'll give you this.

And so I've been able to get many things for my roofing business based off the fact that I have this large following on social media. So, yeah, that's kind of the background about how the social media ties into to everything.

Pete: Yeah, it's interesting, right? Like I think it's interesting to see, what you have going on and how you've gotten to where you are utilizing all these things, but always with this one singular focus, right? Like you've had this one thing in the back of your mind driving all these ideas, and all these things that you've become known for in the roofing space.

just trying to get this product off the ground in the background. And, it's an interesting driving force, to the whole social media piece The roofing company piece, And all the things that you've done, always going towards that one goal.

you're in your second year what are some of the challenges that you've faced? running a roofing business. we talked to many roofing businesses you do too.

Like you said, you're dealing with a lot of like the product manufacturers and stuff like that. What are some of the biggest challenges for your company?

Austin: Starting a company is not easy. There's a lot involved. countless hours of to, you know, build out all your marketing stuff and, you know, get your website up and get everything polished. And, one of the biggest challenges that I had was getting my builder's license.

Andin Michigan, you could get a roofing specific license, but if you wanted to do gutters or siding you would need another license for those I ended up getting my full builder's license.

And so, I. Having to study for that. took, months of studying and, hundreds of hours you have to go into a test facility where they pat you down and make sure you're not cheating or anything like that. And then it's a time test and you're looking at this big set of plans.

And I've never looked at a full set of plans like that. I've just been doing roofing and so to know like. All of these different codes and how things are installed drop ceilings tile floors interior stuff cabinets and what's the minimum of this and the minimum of that. It was a huge learning curve for me. I wouldn't be able to run my roofing company without that license. one of the biggest hurdles for contractors in Michigan is actually getting that license. It's really not the same as far as if you're gonna compare it to like Texas, like anybody can be a Roofr down there.

Same thing in Georgia. some of these other contractors that I worked for in the past, they didn't need to take a test like that's not open book in some testing facility. even in Wisconsin, which I'm right on the Michigan, Wisconsin border, it's all online to get your license.

it's, a lot harder to say the least, to get your license in Michigan.  

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: That was definitely a hurdle. I think every company that starts out, customers, will question your credibility and being young, that's another thing. so having, the right, pitch,  

when I'm telling a customer about me, I really had to figure out my story. when I learned how to really tell my story of what I do, especially with the social media and my dad's product, and what my vision is, it really allows them to understand me more. If I just went to a customer and said, here's your quote, it's $20,000.

When do you wanna get it done? I want to spend at least. 40 minutes with that customer just talking about all types of different things. I wanna build a friendship with them. getting outta my own head, I think that was one of the hardest things for me.

I always struggled with school and confidence and with my father passing away I always had that voice in the back of my head saying, you can't do it. trying To get past that voice in my head. I definitely think that my faith, with God has, helped me with that.

And having some awesome people in my inner circle that, mentor me and help me with those things. it's always been a growth mindset. definitely a lot of challenges, but now I'm finally starting to feel free and I really feel like this is where I can start to excel because. I got my story in place. I'm genuinely wanting to help my customers. [00:15:00] Before, like when I first started in roofing, I was thinking about the paycheck. I was like, I need to make money. But then I realized that when you're selling, customers can tell if you're in it for the money or to help them.

they can just read that off your body language. the big switch happened, when my closing rate really started to increase, is when. I thought to myself, Hey, wanna help my local community. My, my family's been, working in this community. my great grandpapa had one of the first gas stations in Iron Mountain, my grandpa had the first I. firm, and was the only architect in this town. he built a lot of the banks the YMCA and a bunch of buildings here. And so like, my, my name and my community is already well known. So, really I wanted to just keep on that family history of helping the town.

and now with my new sales guy, I'm like, we gotta think of this as we're going out and helping people. There was a hailstorm that occurred. last year on May 18th. there's not other roofers in town that do insurance work. with all of my knowledge from working across the country, chasing these storms, I'm like, somebody has to let these homeowners know, there hasn't been a hailstorm in Iron Mountain in 30 years.

And now that we have inch and a half, two inch hail, it's like. These roofs got damaged and they have a lot of old roofs around here. And so an old Roofr combined with with large hail isn't a good mix. And so now you can just drive around and say, okay, that roof's 20 years old. That definitely has damage. But you have to go into it saying, I want to help my community. I want to help them save some money so they can put some money into something else, like putting their kids through college. And so. what really makes me happy is making people happy and going into the community that my family's been supporting for so many years and being able to make a difference and save these people, you know, $20,000 on their Roofr. Like, that's what really, really drives me. And so now it's, it's really, how can I help and. Where am I most needed? And, and that's something where, when I was storm chasing, there was 20 other roofers in the neighborhood all doing the same thing as me. They had fancy trucks and nice shirts on and nice pants.

And I was like, they've been doing it for 10 years, so these homeowners don't need me. They have 20 other roofers in the neighborhood. I felt like the conversations I was having with some of those homeowners. They didn't need me. They, and, and I didn't, I didn't feel like they appreciated me being there to provide them that service.

But it's a totally different story with my hometown here where me, they want to talk to me. There's not other roofers knocking on their door. And so when I'm the first Roofr that knocks on their door, well, they're willing to have a good conversation with me and use me if we get the job approved.

That's some of the challenges, but

Pete: No, and it's an interesting point because like I was telling you before we started recording the podcast, we had a hailstorm a couple weeks ago, here in Kentucky, The homeowners are looking for that local person they wanna work with that neighborhood guy,  

the outside guy means nothing, like you said, they don't relate to him. They know they're not gonna have a relationship with that guy. So they're looking for that. I. you know, that local field, that neighborhood guy that they can count on that they know is gonna be there.

a guy made a very interesting point. I was joking with you. it was funny to watch the local roofers go on the offensive And tell. The homeowner's, this is how it is. You gotta be careful who you work with, We're the local guys. Make sure that you work with somebody local and the homeowners have kind of heated that message.

You know, I know that they've turned away a lot of out of town, roofers in the beginning there. but one of the guys said something very interesting and he said. You. If you're looking at me as a local Roofr and you're looking at a guy who came from out of town who is ultimately gonna support you if a year from now or two years from now, you have another issue with the work that was done potentially  

do you really think that guy's coming back from, a thousand miles away to do a repair? No. So now you're having to come back to me anyway, and I thought that was a really interesting point Yeah, you might get a better deal at that moment in time from that guy  

But ultimately is it gonna cost you in the long run? it's a much more meaningful relationship if you can work with that neighborhood, Roofr, that local guy. And you know, and I think from your standpoint as the Roofr like, it, it's a very, it's very smart insight early on for you to realize sure, we're all in this to make some money, but.

Ultimately that can't be the goal, right? Because the homeowner's gonna read right through it, If the contractor is there to make a buck and that's all he cares about, it's probably not gonna end well. It's probably gonna be a very unique, and probably rocky relationship between the homeowner and the contractor.

ultimately the contractor is not gonna be someone you can count on, right? So, it kind of goes both ways, So I thought it was a very interesting point and very good insight that you realized early on, like, Hey, this can't be the focus, right?

I can't focus on the paycheck 'cause it's just not gonna work. It's not gonna be an effective way to pitch, it's not gonna be an effective way to gain business down the road. we're dealing with something very similar here we're in an area that normally doesn't get hit with storms.

now they got hit with storms We have guys here who are roofers, local roofers, but they're not guys that do, storm work. it makes it tough for the homeowner to know who to work with you being able to step up and say, Hey, I know what I'm doing here.

gave you some street cred for sure.  

Austin: it's

Pete: very cool.

Austin: it's a small town and I meet with the same adjusters all the time and so now I, I know 'em all personally and so they're like my friends, we'll go out to lunch together. I was actually on a Roofr the other day and it was a blown off shingle and I FaceTimed this adjuster because I knew it was AAA claim, and I know that there's only one adjuster in this area for aa. I FaceTimed him and the homeowner's, you know, down on the ground. I'm up on this two story Roofr and I'm like, Hey, what do you think about this wind damage? These nails look like they're a little bit overdriven. I don't know if this was wind related or if it was an installer problem. he was like, lift up the shingle, and check this out.

And he's like, yeah, that was more of an installer issue and the roof's kind of old, so that's more of a wear and tear issue. And I was just like, cool, I'm not gonna have the homeowner call on this claim. able to show the homeowners that I have a real relationship with the local adjusters too.

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: I really use it to benefit me and to boost my credibility ultimately your reputation is so important, especially in a small town when you're, meeting with adjusters You can't just call out hail damage or wind damage that's old or, more of like wear and tear because now you're gonna be looked at from that guy as you're just a storm chaser.

You don't actually care, you don't wanna do things. it's super important for me to do things by the book if there's no damage, I tell the homeowner, Hey, I can give you a bid on this job. there's just not enough damage up there to be covered. sometimes there is, and if there is, I tell all the adjusters if I find damage I go down, I show the homeowner, I said, here's all the pictures. You know, ultimately I'm not gonna tell you to file a claim, but if you want to file I would be more than happy to represent you. Like, I'm not out here. Here's the contract, let's call in the insurance. You know, like, let's get this moving forward.

Like I'm not a sales guy that's gonna. it down your neck. Like I just wanna help people, give them the information so they can make an educated, decision is really, where I'm at with things,  

Pete: Now let's talk about. The future for you, right? Like, what do the next couple years look like, for you as a whole, right? Like personally and also for, the roofing company, your product. Like what's the plan?

Austin: I try to not think too far ahead. I try to just do my best every day, but I still have some good goals Just like I told you before, the snow grip is what really drives me. And so what my really long-term goals are is to really get that product, all over the world.

Right now, we're across, most of the states and snow country, but I would like to get up into Canada. I would like to get overseas, but as far as the roofing company, I would like to. keep running it the way that I'm doing it. And really what I found is when you don't have a big operation, you don't have a lot of overhead.

And if I'm doing most of the sales, I'm able to really focus on more of the profitability. Like I don't care as much about high revenue, I don't care to do five or $10 million in sales, but if I can keep it from one to $3 million in sales for the next. Five years consistently. I would love to build up, enough money to bring on a general manager then start branching off get more locations and really start branding the company as that neighborhood Roofr  

And I think that there's a huge opportunity right now, as far as SEO goes and getting organic leads This isn't an oversaturated market. if I was gonna start a roofing company down in Dallas, Texas, if somebody searched roofing company near me, I would be on the 50th page on Google.

Well, up here, like I said, there was three roofers and so now I'm actually the second person on Google for here, and it's just crazy. What a little bit of SEO, just having a good website, having some five star reviews. Can really do for you in a small town. And so after I really kind of build my brand here in Iron Mountain, then I want to branch out to Marquette, Michigan, Escanaba, Houghton. These are all smaller towns, kind of like Iron Mountain. But I want to duplicate it in multiple areas Really what I want to do is I want to bring affordable roofing back to the upper peninsula of Michigan. Like, that's what I've always wanted to do. that's why I got into it.

in my hometown, I heard so many, things about roofers charging, a thousand dollars, $1,200 a square for retail roofs that are, walkable because they're so busy, they're just throwing high numbers at these

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: just like, you could do this for. $600 a square and still make great money on these jobs.

the contractor wins and the homeowner wins. And that's good if you ask me. my long-term vision is to, really bring affordable roofing back and give people reliable service and build out a team that does the right thing. that's kind of my long-term goal for the roofing company, I love documenting the work. I love featuring this stuff on social media. I love working with new companies like the Equipped Your company and even I worked with the shingle manufacturer certainty. And so I really look forward to building those partnerships with awesome companies, to uplift me into the roofing industry so it can position me as an expert  

Long term, I would love to be known as the Roofr coating professional to where everybody knows that I'm an expert in Roofr coatings and I have the solution. we see private equity coming into the roofing space and buying up these roofing companies, and it can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing.

But if it came to that one day in, 10 years and maybe there's some more competition coming into this area, and I'm moving on to. my snow grip. I wouldn't mind if I sold the company or had a general manager that, wanted some ownership and gave him the keys to everything let him thrive and keep supporting the community.

I want to take things slow, but I also have some goals and I definitely think they're reachable if I just stay consistent.

Pete: Yeah, I love it. I think slow and steady growth, right? I think you're on the right track there and for sure, like you're not. Overwhelming yourself and overwhelming the business and, you know, gives you guys the opportunity to potentially continue to steadily grow over the next couple of years and see where it takes you.

Like you said, we're in probably a time where things are changing in the roofing industry quicker and more than they ever have before. you never really know what. You know, a couple years from now, we'll hold for sure and, man, it's been a great story. I really enjoy having you on Austin. I think there's been some great information here if someone wanted to find out more about, the product that you have, where would we go?

how do I find out more?  

Austin: So the best thing to do is probably just to email me directly. my email is info at 9 0 6 Roofr dot com. if you send me an email and you're interested in snow grip. I'm trying to have everybody email me in the same place now.  

Pete: Yeah.

Austin: everything's just gonna come to one email now and then I can connect you with Fluid Applied Roofing.

We can get you set up as a certified installer, get you all the resources that you need, and, we can definitely, get something started for you.

Pete: Cool, man. I appreciate you jumping on and, sharing your story today and, wish you the best of luck, as you continue to grow glad Roofr could be a part of it. congrats on being, you know, may Roofr of the month. Thank everybody for listening and we will see you guys next time on the Roofr report.

Thank you, Austin.

Austin: Thanks, Pete.

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