Get Your Knuckles a Little Scratched Up: Putting in the Work with Cameron Burns

Cam: Hey, man, I'm really sorry, but there is no spray in the world that is gonna fix this. You're gonna be looking at a reroof.  

Pete: There's always a learning curve when you're starting a company like this. I don't think it's talked about enough.  

Cam: Well, the stove is hot. That's the only way that I learn.  

Intro: You are listening to the Roofr Report, the ultimate podcast for roofing professionals, business owners, and entrepreneurs.

Get insider access and hear about the highs, lows, and tails of triumphs from thriving business owners. Brought to you by Roofr. Hosted by Pete McKendrick.  

Pete: Alright, hey everybody. Welcome back to the Roofr Report. I'm your host, Pete McKendrick, and we are back with another Roofr of the Month series. And, um, I'm really excited about this one.

I think this is a Roofr of the month first for us. Uh, we are joined today by our, I believe, our first ever, ever Canadian Roofr. So welcome Cameron Burns from OK Roof revival. And, uh, congrats on being Roofr of the month man. Excited to have you.  

Cam: Awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys having me on.

Pete: Yeah, man. So excited to dive into this. This will be, uh, you know, an interesting one. Obviously you guys are gonna, uh, a different market than what we're used to talking about and, uh, you know, so it'll be a kind of a unique conversation here for, for some of our folks in the states that listen and to get an idea that you guys do things the same.

Right? Totally. Let's start there, man. Let's talk about. OK. Roof revival. And, and just tell us a little bit, how many, how many years have you guys been in business?  

Cam: Yeah, totally. So, uh, we started off, we incorporated in December of 2022. Uh, so I actually don't come from the roofing industry. I worked in oil and gas construction for like 15 years.

Had my first kid on the way and decided that was an excellent time to, uh, pursue the entrepreneurial dream and start a business. Um, it worked. We all survived. Still married, still have the kid. And, uh, going into our fourth year in business now, um, so we started off actually with, uh, a roof rejuvenation products.

Doing the spray on application adds years of life to asphalt based roofing systems. Uh, and we're operating in the west, west side of Canada. Beautiful British Columbia. Uh, we're in the interior, uh, in Kelowna. It's called the Okanagan Valley here. So it's a really cool place. Lots of fruit growing and wine growing and stuff.

And, uh, not the typical cold Canadian winters that everyone thinks of, uh, when they, when they think of the neighbors up north. It's a little bit more mild here. Um, so yeah, when I started off, I kind of saw myself, uh, in competition with the roofing industry. You know, I, uh, I found this product that it's a fraction of the cost of a reroof.

Uh, it extends the life out, keeps, uh, waste out of the landfill for a longer period of time. And, uh, I was just bamboozled by it. I'd never heard of anything like it, and, uh, figured I could sell the heck outta that. So we may as well dive in. Um, year one, we became, uh, one of the most successful rejuvenation companies in Canada in a market of 120,000 people.

Uh, we did about 500,000 in revenue in year one. Year two, we acquired the national distribution rights for our rejuvenation product, which is Roof Restore, uh, formally known as Grainer shingles. And that's when we started to dabble in the roofing side of things as well too, because with any rejuvenation product, um, not every roof qualifies.

You know, if your shingles are all curled up, like you look at the roofs and you know, you're like, buddy, there's no. There's no spray that's fixed in this problem for you, you know? Yeah. Um, so we hired an operations manager. He ran a roofing company for about 18 years and started on single family residential reroofing on the retail side of things as well too.

Growing that side of the business out, growing our rejuvenation network as well too with Roof Restore. We have, uh, active licensed applicators in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, wow. And Vancouver. And we take care of the Okanagan interior market as well too. And, uh, yeah, just continued to grow the business, learning more and more every year and, uh, really enjoying the space.

It's a great industry to be a part of.  

Pete: Yeah, man. Well, I'm excited to have you on and, uh, so let's talk a little bit about the beginning, right? Let's, let's go back a little bit. You said you were in oil and gas construction, you know, talk a little bit about your experience there and, uh, and what really, you know, made you.

Flipped a switch made you pull the, you know, go for it. I mean, obviously that's a big, like you said, you're having your first kid, that's a heck of a time to say, Hey, let's go take a shot at this. Right. Uh, what were some of the key things that made you decide to, to try to go for it there and, and get out of that industry that you had been in for a while?

Yeah,  

Cam: totally. So, the, the schedule's a big one, like the money was really, really, really good. Uh, but the shift was six in one, six days on, one day off. And, uh. The old saying is six, six and one till you're done. And that can be 10 months, you know, nine months where you're far away from home. And, you know, as, as a younger single man, it was no issue at all to travel around and then end up with a few months off, I'll cashed up, but uh, after I got married.

Had the kid on the way, just knew that I wanted to at least be home every night. Um, so the funny part about it is I, I do get to see the little man, but I arguably work more now as a entrepreneur running a proofing company than I did in the oil and gas sector.  

Pete: Now it's seven days a week instead of six.

Right.  

Cam: Yeah, exactly. I lost that one day off. Uh, yeah. But yeah, so that was really the big push for me. And I just, I always had the entrepreneurial drive. Like I grew up in, uh, Edmonton, Alberta, and I had four or five clients whose driveways I shoveled for snow every time it snowed, which was often in Edmonton growing up right from like eight or nine years old.

Um, I on breaks off from pipeline, like you'd work a project, then spring breakup comes, you'd have a few months off. I spent, uh, two summers kind of dabbling in running a junk removal company, um, and did OK. But whenever I got the call, uh, golden handcuffs always drag you back in because, uh, the, the pay was quite substantial.

Um, and so I had little bits of dabbling in it, and I just, I'd always known that I wanted to run my own thing, and when I found the roof, rejuvenation product, roof restore, I was just like, this makes tons of sense. I, I can sell the heck out of this.  

Pete: Yeah, that's a cool start. I mean, you know, it's, I think so many times you get.

Guys that dabbled in the roofing space, right? Whether they came in as a salesperson or maybe they were on a, a labor crew, and then they see an opportunity to branch out and start their own thing. But, um, this is, um, I think a very interesting angle that you took, right? Like you really weren't in the roofing industry at all, right?

So you obviously, you know, you weren't really exposed to it. There wasn't a lot of experience there. But you leverage the roof rejuvenation piece. You kinda learn the, the lay of the land, right? To kind of learn the industry and, and get a good understanding of the roof itself. Um, obviously that's a much different approach, right?

Like you have, like you said, you gotta kind of understand what's saveable, what's not saveable. Um, you know, you're getting on a lot of roofs that way. Probably a, almost a higher volume. I would assume you guys are probably pumping those out at a much higher volume than you can a roof replacement. Right?

So you're, you're getting exposed to more roofs. So it is unique. It's a, it's, it's very interesting to me that you, you know, thinking about it, right? The angle you took allowed you probably to gain a ton of knowledge in a really short amount of time.  

Cam: Without a doubt. And it, it is very much the same, right?

It's it's lead gen, race to face, get out, do an inspection, let them know if they qualify, um, and then try and close the sale, right? So when I did year one, uh, of, of 500 grand in revenue, our average ticket size is 2,700 bucks, right? So it's, it's, it. We have about a 40% close ratio on rejuvenation. And as the years have gone on, it's become a lot easier because people are more and more aware of it.

Uh, you have some larger players entering the space now. Um, but yeah, I, I think it's been a great entry into the roofing industry because. The necessity of, uh, the, the higher number of jobs, like on on the re-roofing side, that would've been like 2.5 million in revenue for roof replacement with that same number of leads.

Yeah. So as we've carried on, I think it's been pretty beneficial for us. 'cause we got pretty good at lead gen, you know, and, and getting in front of folks and quoting them.  

Pete: I was gonna say it probably was or is extremely important for you guys to essentially beat the Roofr right to the. To that roof to be able to quote it and, and pitch the rejuvenation before they all go in and potentially pitch a repair or pitch a, a complete reroof.

Cam: Not necessarily. It's funny actually, like what I've found is time has carried on. Like I said, when. When I started, I felt like I was in competition with the roofing industry. What I've discovered since then is that rejuvenation is actually just one of the greatest add-ons to roofing of all time. It's a lower CPC in terms of marketing, when you're looking at how much more costly it's becoming with all forms of advertising to get in front of a homeowner, well, when you offer rejuvenation, you have people who are looking.

Before they're even Googling a Roofr, they're looking at moss removal or uh, you know, roof cleaning, roof rejuvenation. So you're getting in front of clients earlier in the life cycle than you would as just a Roofr who's being called for the replacement. You know, a lot, a huge portion of my clientele, they're in that 15 to 18 year range of roof.

Well, what we're able to do is lock them into the customer journey and make them raving fans of OK roof revival by extending out the life of their roof by five years, lining it up so that worthy, eventual person that comes and does the replacement for them as well afterwards. Um, so. Yeah, it's, it's such a powerful tool to have when you're communicating with any homeowner as well, because we really take a consultative sales approach rather than a persuasive one at.

OK. Roof revival, and part of our whole mantra when we come down is that we're not just trying to sell you a roof. You know, I actually use that line jokingly all the time of like, if you call a regular roofing company and they show up, guess what they're gonna say? Yeah. Uh, looks like you need a new roof, man, you should buy one from me.

Uh, whereas we come with a range of options trying to explore what matches their budget, their timeline, their needs, and, and do it from a place where it's, it's not all just five figure tickets, you know, there's some smaller ones and it gets you in the door a little bit quicker.  

Pete: Yeah, I, that was actually gonna be my next question is how often do you think that the roof rejuvenation has landed you, the roofing job?

Ultimately,  

Cam: pretty much every roofing job I've ever had. I would say it's more this year that we're focusing in, uh, uh, at all of our home shows and with our updated marketing of really being Roofrs first. It's, it's been a slow transition with the business overall where. We recognize rejuvenation has its place, but that's all my first roofing projects where it was a call for rejuvenation, where someone's budget conscious, uh, they're trying to explore options outside of replacement, and we come down as the person who has those options and communicate with them.

Hey man, I'm really sorry, but there is no spray in the world that is gonna fix this. You're gonna be looking at a reroof, you know, and talking them through that you already have yourself positioned as, um, a problem solver for them. So naturally they have a higher level of trust. Like the entire reason I started actually roofing was just from clients in that situation that were like, no, I want you to do my roof.

I trust you with what you've brought to the table. Why can't you do it? And I got tired of. Not having a good answer to that question. So we just started roofing.  

Pete: Right. Yeah. It makes perfect sense, right? It's kind of like the next logical step, right? It's just to add that sort of Yeah.  

Cam: Well, and it's, it's a super fun time to, to be a business owner, to be exploring any industry.

I, I equate a lot of similarities between the oil and gas industry that I was formerly part of, and the roofing industry today in terms of people guard information and they hide it. When I first started on the pipeline, when I was younger. The, the old saying was, one plus one equals skid hook. Like, shut up, don't ask a question.

You know, you, you, you're not paid enough to know that you gotta sit in that seat for two or three years before I teach you the intricacy of this, uh, specific installation. Right? Yeah. Bought the Canadian Roofing specifications from the CRCA and just read 1300 pages back to front until we understood it really, really well.

You know, the first, uh, roofing contracts that we worked on, rather than subbing them out on piecework, we convinced guys to work hourly with us because that way we were able to slow down the entire process to ensure that we were getting a quality installation as we kind of learned alongside these subs we were working with.

Um, yeah.  

Pete: What would you say now, obviously quite a, a little bit of a different entry to, you know, some of the other folks that we talked to with the roof rejuvenation early on. But what did, what would you say were some of the biggest challenges that you guys faced in year one and even going into year two and now adding.

The roofing piece, you know, what are some of the biggest challenges that you've run across?  

Cam: So one of the biggest challenges off the hop is it needs to be warm enough to rejuvenate. So while roofing can slow down during the winter months, rejuvenation just stops. So your ability to generate revenue is, is literally frozen when it's frozen in terms of only offering rejuve.

Uh, the other one was in year one, probably not having the depth of understanding that I do now about an entire roofing system with. Uh, any sort of coating product or rejuvenation product, it's treating the asphalt shingles, right? You've also got your decking, your underlayment, your leak barrier, your flashing your hip and ridge caps.

All of these different components that make up a roof. So I would say, uh, like I've reroofed two roofs for folks that I sprayed in year one, three years ago. We just reroofed them this January where we essentially prorated the cost of the rejuvenation. 'cause we went back out for an inspection and looked.

And I was like, damn, this is probably one of the first roofs I looked at. I wouldn't spray this today as I did in year one. Uh, and so just operating in an ethical fashion, we're going back to these, uh, these first few before we had as much of an idea as to what we're doing now and just making that right and, um.

Yeah, that, that was a challenge. 'cause there's two or three where then you, you know, you're giving away a few thousand dollars discount to someone that you weren't really anticipating. But, um, it's been a challenge, but also really, really beneficial because that helps us to have the excellent reviews that we do in our market.

And like those are great testimonials in their own right of. Uh, why you should choose. OK. Roof revival for rejuvenation or reroofing. 'cause we'll always make it right. No one's perfect, but, uh, we learn as we go on and get better.  

Pete: This is an interesting topic, right? 'cause I think it's one that we, obviously on the roof of the month series, we have a lot of folks on who are.

Um, you know, they're, they're in their first year of their company, right? Or second year of their company. And so they're very early on in the process. A lot. Now we're running into more and more that didn't come from a roofing background, right? So, um, I find it very interesting, right? Because no one really ever talks about the learning curve.

Every once in a while they'll mention like a mistake that they made or something they had to fix, or, you know, we roofed the wrong house or we put the wrong color. You know, these type of things like come up even with seasoned Roofrs. But, um, I find it very interesting, right? That you're like, you're talking here about hey, you know, going back and looking like, Hey, three years ago I did this roof.

Looking at it today, I am like, knowing what I know, probably wouldn't have done what I did. Right? And so there's a learning curve, right? And then I think there's always a learning curve when you're starting a company like this. I don't think it's talked about enough, right? Like it's OK to make some mistakes early on and, and figure it out, right?

Cam: Well, the stove is hot, Pete. Like, that's the only way that I learned, man. I have to touch it a few different times. Like so with, uh, with the rejuvenation side of our business, having the national distribution right? All these companies operated in a very similar fashion. Greener shingles became Roof Restore, and so I have the Canadian distribution rights, uh, and my cohort, this gentleman named Brian, uh, has the America distribution rights for it.

Then you have roof Rejuvenate, um, go Nano, which is in a rejuvenation product. It's in nano silica coating. Um, everyone kind of operated in the same fashion where it was you would sell someone x amount of products to go and spray roofs and you would sell them a territory with exclusive rights for 250,000 people typically retailing for like $5,000.

And then they know that that's section of the market is theirs. Right? So when I first started, that's kind of what I was pitching as I gained the national distribution rights. And it was from going to the, uh, the Canadian Roofing Expo in Toronto. I actually somehow managed to wheel being the diamond sponsor of that thing in the last minute, which I thought was pretty funny.

I actually still have the, uh, the little placard there on my wall. But somehow my, the Roofr store name was on top of. Beacon and Aiko and TAF and I was just like, oh man. Wow. Uh, and, and it was from listening honestly, when I was at the Roofing Expo. So I was there trying to, uh, recruit new dealers, right, and new markets in Canada to add rejuvenation on as a service with Reroofing.

And it was from listening to everyone there that I changed how we operate entirely away from that model. There was two things that I heard from Roofrs, like across the board when I was speaking to just Roofrs. One was, uh, I don't like tote minimums or like minimum purchase amounts. You know, when I deal with IKO or GAF or Malarkey or whoever, they don't tell me that you have to buy this number of bundles each year.

Uh, and so I don't want any constraints on minimum purchases. The other one that I found really interesting was speaking to companies that were expanding into other markets in the Toronto area and them talking about how they don't need exclusivity and they don't want it because what it ends up doing is constraining them from being able to offer that service and additional markets as their business grows.

And so we made, uh. The decision just to switch. 'cause we were early on in building out our network. We talked to who we had already signed and now what we do is we offer province-wide licenses. So there's no restrictions on your ability to operate within that province if you want to grow. Uh, and we have no tote minimum purchase requirements as well too.

That's how a distributor makes all their money is in selling totes. So that's why everyone puts a minimum on 'cause they wanted like, oh, you're moving this product or, or move along. Right. Um, we're, we're kind of trying to take the approach of working with people in each market where it's not the only thing that you're doing.

You can run a rejuvenation business well and, and make really good money. It has really great margin. Um, but I think where it makes the most sense is when you pair it with roofing, uh, and, and put it together.  

Pete: I ask this question to everybody. Who do you think, as you guys have grown here over the last couple of years?

Who do you think was your most integral hire? It could be either a person or, or a position, specifically a position. Uh, but who was probably the best hire that you've made?  

Cam: Oh, man, that's a tough one. Uh, I'd have to say, uh, my business partner Dan, uh, he, he joined the company after we'd been open for a year and a bit.

Um. And is our sales manager and is the only other fellow I know that has, uh, tortured himself quite as much as I have in trying to get this thing launched and successful. Um, yeah, Dan's been with me through the trenches as we went out last year and did the Roofing Expo in Ontario. We were, we were in Ontario for like two months doing different home shows and shows around.

Living in Airbnbs and trying to juggle sales back in our home market in the Okanagan while we were all over Canada. And uh. Yeah, he just got back from Vancouver Island like two days ago and he is going back for the Nanaimo Home Show this weekend. So I, I would have to say Dan, I hope he doesn't watch this though.

We don't like to be nice to each other. It's weird to compliment himself.  

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's always interesting to hear, right? Like I, I think a lot of times it ends up being someone like that, like a partner or a operations manager or someone you know that came in and can really help kind of. Split their responsibilities.

Right. Someone you can trust is, is really the kind, the kind of the common theme in that. And, uh, those people sometimes are hard to find. So  

Cam: yeah, like he's so integral to what we've done. So for instance, we like starting with rejuvenation in a $2,700 ticket, right? Um, year two we doubled our revenue from year one and mostly still just rejuvenation.

We've pro proven our proficiency at, at the lead gen side of things. Then year three doing a lot more residential roofing. And so our revenue numbers didn't grow that substantially because our rejuvenation side of the business suffered a bit as we were trying to recruit new dealers in different markets and focus more on the re-roofing side of things.

Well, I got a lead, uh, in our local market for a roof and sent Dan down for it and uh, he ended up closing, I think it's a $130,000 roof for a single family residential with uh, Bravo synthetic tiles. Nice. And now we're starting to, we're like, they're flying installers up to our shop here in Kelowna. We're building a tiny mock roof similar to the homeowner's roof in our shop, uh, doing the installation there and then moving on to do it at this gentleman's house as well too.

And. Having Dan as my partner, like through that process, if that was another lead that I went to and this person was like, no, I want this product that isn't distributed in Canada and is impossible to figure out how to get up here. I just would've been like, alright, this is not my customer. Moving on to the next one, you know?

But Dan really dug in and now has given us an entirely new revenue stream, right? Where when it went from. Rejuvenation to then reroofing specifically with asphalt. We are looking at one customer avatar now, going to do this successful six figure roof installation opens up a whole nother side on the luxury market side of things that we're just so excited to get after.

It's, we sort of are, are approaching it with our new marketing is we have kind of three options, right? We have the, the budget rejuvenation will extend out the life of your roof until eventual replacement. Then we have the mid-level tier of asphalt replacement, and then we have the never talk to a Roofr again, section with 50 year warranties on products for standing seam and for, uh, these synthetic tile installations.

Pete: Yeah, it's interesting, right? Because we have, like in the United States, there's these products, you know, especially certain markets specifically, you know, think California, you think Florida, you know, these products, these specialty products are really popular. You know, slate and barrel tile and Spanish tile log, that kind of stuff down in Florida.

And, um, you know, products like Brava, DaVinci, those products have really kind of taken hold and, and do a really good business here. But they're much rarer where you guys are at. Like you don't really do a lot of business like that up there, do you?  

Cam: No, totally. And it was funny 'cause the first one was Spanish barrel tile, which is way less common of, uh, architectural style for a home in British Columbia.

Sure. And like I was, I was stoked. It was Dan's project, right? But when I looked at it, at first I was like, Spanish per tile, who the heck am I gonna sell that to here? Like whatever. Cool. We got a really good size roof with a decent margin and we're gonna learn a new install. And then afterwards looking at it, they have a synthetic slate and a synthetic cedar as well too.

And like Cedar is super, super popular, west Coast style out here in, uh, in British Columbia. And this new product, when you look at it, um, a, a good friend of mine runs a business down outside of Vancouver called South by Southwest Roofing, and he specializes in cedar roof rejuvenation, which is like this entire other process, and it's expensive as all heck.

And he gets flown to all like the big mansions in Canada to, to redo their cedar roofs and bring them back to the original coloration. But when you look at cedar roofs. It the amount of maintenance that's required to keep them looking nice in comparison to these synthetic tile products that are good for 50 years and just look amazing.

The color doesn't fade on them. Like, to me it's, I'm, I'm so excited to add this, uh, add this product line and, and, uh, sell a whole bunch of moments. I'd rather sell $130,000 roof than 10, $13,000 roofs. It just sounds like, like a better deal, you know?  

Pete: Yeah.  

Cam: But still making sure that we offer the entire range so that we can service everyone in the valley.

Pete: Yeah. Very cool. I mean, obviously you guys have done really well with kind of like diversifying, right? Your offering here. What other things do you guys offer? I think I saw gutters is one, right? So you guys are doing some other stuff as well.  

Cam: Yeah, totally. So, and that was like. Part of the midyear pain, I'd say was, uh, we did the holiday lighting, which is, is good business certainly, and having the recurring revenue.

Um, but I'm gonna be passing off my, uh, my yearly install clients to a, another company I'm working with locally. Um, gutter cleaning we're starting to sub out as well as moss removal. 'cause on the rejuvenation side, um, you get a call from moss removal a lot. So having an upsell for the physical moss removal and then doing the spray.

Um, we do permanent lighting installations just 'cause we've done lighting every winter now. And we have a really, really cool product cellebrite that we really like. Um. Working with subcontractors to make sure we can handle every style of roof installation. Uh, like our, our torch on guy and torch on's way bigger in Canada, I think, than it is, uh, stateside.

It has to do with. Different companies in different markets that have, uh, strangle holds on on them. And, uh, yeah, our, our torch on company and team that we work with are the best in the valley, you know, uh, metal installations as well too. We have really, really great subs for that. Um, so, and, and gutter replacements as well too.

I would love to, when I look at our, our shop that we have rented here with way too much space and way too much rent every month, part of it is 'cause I can't wait to have. A gutter machine and a brake machine and a full metal shop in the back, you know, so, right. We kind of try to take the approach where if we have a really good partner that we can work with in our market to, to fill a need, um, then what we've shown we're really, really strong at is, is the lead generation and getting to the table, right?

So being able to, uh, cross promote things where you can still recoup a little bit of your marketing cost, but offer it at a fair price to the consumer. Um, so yeah, gutter replacements, uh, as well too is one that we're sold a lot more of last year and we have a, just as long as we can find the sub to work with and partner where we know that their work is gonna be executed to our, uh, quality standards and that they're tech savvy enough to use company cam and show progress as they like complete installations, then uh, we're happy to, to add it into our repertoire.

Trying to do less. I'm a, I'm a bit of a crazy a DD kid and uh, the first year in business we were like taking landscaping contracts and like, whatever, just to like try and keep the lights on, but really recognizing we're trying to focus, uh, more in, on our home market, just roofing rejuvenation to roof repair and working with sub partners to take care of the other ones.

Pete: Nice. Let's, because you touched on it there with company cam, but how important has the tech side of it been for you guys as you've. Grown and scaled and you know, like you, you mentioned using subs, like how, how important has it been to incorporate all the tech into the day-to-day operation?  

Cam: Oh, vital.

Like, incredibly so it, I, uh, I don't know how people did it on a pen and paper and how you could grow from that level. Like when you look at. Um, the number of clients that we act like, we'll go to a home show on a weekend and book 40 clients and like 30 of them in with appointments, right? If you don't have automation or ability to change your your job board, uh, you get yourself into a world of hurt really quickly.

Uh, company Cam weirdly has been the one, uh, platform that I've used since the beginning of the company, and it always makes me laugh 'cause when my, uh, uh. Original partner told me about it. I was like, we're gonna pay money for an app that takes a picture and keeps it organized. Like, don't really see the value there, man.

Yeah. Uh, but it's been the one steady, consistent. So we, we started on jobber as a CRM and it worked really well for just rejuvenation. But as we got into more complex projects, like a re-roofing project, needing to be able to customize the job stage changes, that was the thing that, uh, that brought me over to Roofr.

We had, uh, just finished integrating and switching over to Job Nimbus, which took like three months and was a pretty painful process and no one really knew how to use it when I saw the, uh, instant Estimator tool that you guys had, and I, I jumped on a call with, uh, Nick actually did my onboarding and.

Switched CRMs again and for the last time, I'm Roofr, ride or die for a while now. Um, and it's been really cool to watch, watch you guys grow and, uh, take all those sorts of things into account, right? Like I love that. Um, I end up beta testing a a lot of new features for you guys. I think it's part of the reason I got asked to be a Roofr of the month is 'cause I'm definitely the squeaky wheel.

Uh, the Roofr team's been amazing and I'm not shy. With any sort of new rollout to immediately be like, this part's awesome and this part's terrible. You need to fix, it's fixed or change this. And just watching how you guys have pivoted and the changes you've made to the platform in the last year. Like now having the mobile app is.

A game changer and a half, you know, uh, the increase in automations, uh, integrating, tagging in. Like I get so excited for, uh, the, the masterclass each month with you and Nick. 'cause I'm like, OK, there's, there's new things that are coming up. Something new. Yeah, something new. Um, and yeah, so the tech side of it's in integral, right?

Just being able to integrate all in one platform. The roof measurement reports. 'cause I used. Roofr for measurement reports before I used it for A CRM just 'cause they were economical in comparison to EagleView or any of the other platforms. And it just turned into a no brainer. I won't lie, I didn't wanna switch CRMs again, like I was actually pretty mad about it.

But it's uh, it's been an awesome ride so far. And yeah, updating like time of year, you know, as you're trying to rehash former leads rather than having to go in and. Message each one individually. Just building a communication template and a new automation and Roofr, and then moving all those clients into a new job stage and sending out messaging to all of them with the dynamic fields is super, super helpful.

So I would not be here without the tech side. It's uh, yeah.  

Pete: Yeah. It's crazy to look back. You know, I remember when I first started in it like. A little over eight years ago, right? We saw so many companies that were fairly large, you know, like five mil plus companies, pen and paper, like straight pen and paper, you know, like three ring binder kind of stuff.

And it's amazing, honestly, what those guys were doing. Totally manual, you know, like with just no, like very little. And if some of them with no tech at all involved in the company. And you know, you look at that today and like you said, the volume of customers and the amount of jobs and customers that you're dealing with.

It's crazy to think that you could do that with no tech involved, no automations, you know, having to manually try to stay on top of that and communicate with everybody and stuff, it, it's nuts.  

Cam: I don't know how anyone did it, honestly. Yeah. Like I am not the most organized person in the world. Uh, I, but with, with tools available, um, it becomes a lot easier to set reminders for yourself.

Yeah. To stay on top of things like the time-based automations. I have those set up in my workflow so. If someone's sitting in this stage for too long and we didn't have a follow up tasks, uh, created or just weren't ready to go on it at all. And, um, yeah, tech is very important. I would fail immediately if it was a pen and paper business for me, it would be lost in the shuffle of my desk.

Pete: Well, and you know, and I think that that's a big part of it, right? Like back in the day, you had so many things slip through the cracks. That's ultimately why a lot of home improvement contractors got the reputation or as a whole, as an industry. That's why we had the reputation that we had. It's like, well that guy never calls me back, or you know, they don't show up when they're supposed to.

And you're like, yeah, I can completely understand why. You know? So, um, you know, obviously the tech is, has been huge for that. So what's the future hold for you guys? What's the future of. Of OK. Roof revival, or what are you guys looking to do here in the next three to five years?  

Cam: I, um, I, I try to temper my own goal structure nowadays, but, uh, yeah, I would like to become one of the, uh, largest and most respected roofing companies in British Columbia, in our province for sure.

Uh, working with the partners that we have through our, uh, our distribution network with Roofr Restore. We're bidding on some really large multifamily reroofing projects in the lower mainland, executing with our partners down there. So, um, yeah, I'd like to become a household name I in British Columbia, that's just synonymous with like a fair assessment of what to do with your roof, you know, and whether it be rejuvenate or replace or what, what you're gonna replace it with.

Um, a big part for me in starting this company was kind of hate capitalism. Honestly. I'm one of the only CEOs I think that does, but I just really want to beat the helm of an organization that people can be proud to, to be part of. You know, uh, I want to have really good equity incentive programs in place.

We're getting benefits for our workers this year. I just wanted. Grow something with, uh, anyone who's crazy enough to help me grow it. I guess  

Pete: I like it. Talk a little bit re just really quick here, about your market, because I think, you know, obviously when we talk about the US everyone talks about, you know, Florida, Texas, how competitive it is there.

Um, you know how there's so many Roofrs, you know, and, and talk a little bit just for people that don't know your market well. How competitive is it? How big of a market is it? How many Roofrs are there? Do you guys have strict licensing there? Kind of like we have in Florida. Is it more like Texas, where it's the wild, wild west?

Cam: Yeah, it's interesting. So the makeup, a big part of the market comes down to geography. Um, I can actually try to pull up a map of where we are is in the center of bc uh, the greater surrounding area. We have about 120,000 people. And then down in Vancouver, which is about four hours away, that whole little valley, I think is about 2.8 million people.

So there is, uh, steep, steep, steep competition. Uh, there are, are tons of Roofrs in any of the larger markets. So here we are in Canata. That's the, uh, the old dividing line. So Vancouver down here is a really, really big market, like 2.8 million people if you include the Frazier, uh, valley there. And we're over here in the Okanagan, so it's uh, really lame people call it Kelowna formula.

Uh, 'cause it's surrounded by vineyards and it's super hot all the time. So it's, it's a wicked place to live. This is like a hundred mile long lake. Um, and yeah, like plus 30, plus 40 in the summer. And then. The winter, it's like plus one or two. I'll let you guys convert that into a fair. I was gonna say that's healthies for the listeners.

Uhhuh, but, so there's not a crazy amount of snow in here. One thing that's really interesting about BC is 'cause it's just filled with mountains. So you have all of these smaller markets that don't really have as many contractors, or they have like what I call captive contractors where they don't really have to have a good Google review because they're the only person working in that market.

So. We've expanded a bit by like, we're doing home shows, uh, in Penticton. It's an hour away. Merritt is an hour away. Vernon Camloops, which is two hours and really sort of spreading out across the interior to try and service it all. But yeah, tons, tons and tons of competition in terms of accreditation. Um, it's interesting.

Uh, there's the, the. The B-C-R-C-A, it's the Canadian Roofing Contractors Association. And then each province has its own, uh, kind of chapter. And it's an interesting organization. They're, they're kind of self-regulated in a sense where you need to be like invited to join, um, have to have red seal Roofrs of, uh, like a metal brake shop, um, core safety rating, a few other things.

Uh, and those companies are the only ones that are really able to bid on like larger government projects, uh, doing schools or anything like that. So in the, the top. Top tier in echelon. There is, um, barrier to entry, but in terms of like the bottom end of the market and coming in, it's, it's wide open. Lots of competition though, but it's, it's,  

Intro: yeah,  

Cam: it's a really interesting time to, to be in the industry, right?

Because you still have those guys with $5 million companies that are doing it pen and paper and looking to be in a position to sell sometime soon probably. And then you have tons of upstarts companies that are adopting and adapting technology. Uh, and once we were starting off purely on the lead gen basis side of things, people are recognizing, um, like I have a, I have a go high level account too, and I, I've had 90% of the marketers that try to sell you something basically are just building automations and workflows and sales funnels and go high level and attaching that to a Facebook ad and, and booking appointments for Roofrs and then trying to sell those leads on.

So there's, you have to be creative in how to. Continue to be on top of lead generation. Um, but for anyone who's willing to get out there and go knock a few doors, get your knuckles a little scratched up, there's, there's plenty of business to be had.  

Pete: Yeah. No, it's interesting. It looks like you guys have a, a big area there to cover in a lot of opportunities, so.

Very cool, man. Well, I appreciate you jumping on Cameron. This has been awesome, man. It's good to, to get a fresh take on it and, and, and talk about a little bit of a different market than what we're used to. So, um, but yeah, it looks like you guys have, have done a great job of kind of scaling the business so far and, and definitely heading in the right direction and got a lot of cool stuff going on, man.

So I appreciate you jumping.  

Cam: Yeah, man, I appreciate you guys having me on and if anyone wanted more information on the Roof Restore side of things, you can just reach out. I'm sure they'll have my, uh, my contact info there with, uh, the podcast when it comes out, either in Canada or I can put you in touch with Brian down in the States.

He's a really great guy and, uh, yeah, just looking to continue to grow with the industry and see where she all goes. It's a fun time to be in it.  

Pete: Yeah, man. For sure. Yeah, and it looks like you guys have a good market there, so. I appreciate it man, and thank you. Congrats on being root for the month. So, uh, excited for that and ex uh, glad that we've been able to take the ride with you here and continue to grow with the company.

So. Uh, you know, excited to see where you guys go and, and how we can help along the way.  

Cam: Totally, man. I hope I get some of those. Nick and Pete socks, I never won one of the raffle spins. I know they're limited editions,  

Pete: so Yeah. We'll have to get you some as a Roofr of the month. I think maybe you get a pass, maybe you could get some outside of the masterclass.

They get up the marketing team for sure.  

Cam: Totally. OK, well thanks so much for having me on, man. And thanks, uh, for continuing to put out all the content.  

Pete: All right. Thank you again, man. Thank you everybody for listening, and we will see you next time on the Roofr Report. Thanks everybody.  

Intro: Hey everybody, thank you for listening.

Check us out next time on the Roofr Podcast, but  

Pete: until then, be sure to like us, subscribe to us, and check out all our other episodes on YouTube and Spotify.