SPEAKERS

Dylan McCabe, April Hall

Dylan McCabe  00:00

Roofing CEO Show Episode Number 25 Welcome to the roofing CEO show by limitless. My name is Dylan McCabe, your host and in every episode we give you a seat at the table is we interview owners and CEOs of roofing companies and also industry experts so that you can get the tips, the tactics and the roadmap you need to take your own company to the next level. Now in this episode, I talk with April Hall, she grew up in the construction industry. And she really developed some expertise. And in 2011, she founded a company that equipped contractors in the storm restoration business. And ever since then, she’s been working with business owners roofing business owners around the US, she founded the SRC summit, which is one of the premier roofing conferences, a limiteless is going to be there, we’re going to be representing our roofing CEO groups there. And in this episode, April is gonna really expound on how to have the right mindset. You know, running a business is really hard. And the biggest problem or the biggest challenge is the mental game. What does it mean to have the right mindset? How would you rate your own mindset on a scale of one to 10? Are you just crushing it on a level 10 was your mindset around three or four, wherever you might be April’s got some amazing tips for you. And I also want to tell you that going to the SRC summit is something we’re really passionate about. So if you’re going to be there, definitely come and greet. Introduce yourself to us, we would love to meet you. And if you haven’t done so already, check out our Facebook group, we have a Facebook group unlike any other. It’s especially a place for owners, CEOs and key executives to collaborate and discuss with one another. We don’t allow any vendor ads in the group. We don’t allow any spam. We don’t allow people to post videos and links to other pages, or websites. It’s all about collaboration. So you can say, Hey, guys, here’s a challenge I have in my business, what’s the best feedback you can give me, and you get all this great feedback from other owners and CEOs of roofing companies around the US, we would love to have your feedback and your collaboration there. Also, if you haven’t done so already, you need to be using company cam in your business. We are all about simplifying and streamlining processes in the companies we work with in our CEO groups. And company cam has done that in a way unlike anyone else, just go to company cam company cam.com slash limitless. And you can get a 14 day free trial. See for yourself how many steps it takes out of the process of that one critical element of the sales process, which is getting all the right images and having them streamlined straight to your CRM before and after. Make a repeatable process that all of your sales team can use just go to company cam.com slash limitless. Alright guys, let’s get into this discussion with April Hall. Alright, as I mentioned, I have a special guest on the show today April hall with SRC summit. So April, thank you for joining the show.

April Hall  03:01

Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here appreciate you having me on.

Dylan McCabe  03:04

I’m excited too, because our big mission is just connecting owners with the best resources, the best people possible. And you have done that so incredibly well. And you’ve launched SRC, and you guys have these amazing annual events that we’re gonna get into get into some of the meat of what you share at those events and what people can experience. But before we do all that, I kind of want to give you a chance to just share your background and you know, who is April hall? How did you get into this industry and all that good stuff?

April Hall  03:35

Yeah, well, I mean, it started a very long time ago. So I have a construction background. My family, they do custom built home. So I grew up with that. And so I was on the job sites a lot with my dad, my mom ran a lot of stuff in the company. Like all the book work, you know, made everything happen. And, you know, for finite group blueprints with my dad, you know, so I just grew up in the industry. And so it was a natural transition or, you know, progression to get into the roofing industry when I was in college. And so, I had met a business partner then and we opened up our first roofing and construction company in college. And you know, we did a lot of residential, we had a hailstorm, and then also did commercial right away. And so I’ve always loved the industry has been great to take a little break from it got back into homebuilding for a few years, and then just transitioned back into roofing. So it’s been quite a while. And after a while I was just working in different markets and seeing the industry from you know, different states, we saw that there was no standardized training for the industry. So back in 2011, we created industry’s first insurance, restoration sales training. So we launched that here in Dallas, and you know, contractors, you know, I figured hey, it’s going to be the target markets going to be Dallas, right? There’s a lot of roofing contractors here. Well, it was like four months later, contractors are flying in from all over the United States. So just really started to scale the company and listen to the needs and other things. So what you know needs to happen in the industry. So created the overhead and profit seminar. And from there, I just saw a bigger need to create a conference. And so back in 2013, the first SRC was created was called the IRC. I’ve rebranded it since then. And so yeah, it brings in, you know, contractors from all over, but we have several different speakers and vendor. So that’s really the quick background.

Dylan McCabe  05:24

That’s great. And I, you know, I just love the idea of SRC, obviously, we are going to be vendors at SRC, we see a ton of value in that. So limitless will be there. And a lot of other really key people in the industry, you’re going to be there too. And I just love what you’ve done to bring people together because something special happens when you get to just sit across the table from somebody who has years or even decades of experience. And you can pick their brain and say, Hey, you know, even if somebody meets you, and they can say, Gosh, April, I know you’ve had experience in commercial roofing in residential. I’ve dabbled in commercial a little bit, but want to get into it, to get your feedback as somebody who’s been there is priceless. And you’re just amplifying that with src. So let’s let’s talk about, you know, you going from growing up in the industry, launching training, and now this event, what is it? Like? I mean, what makes SRC different than other events out there?

April Hall  06:24

Yeah, well, great question. Thanks for asking, you know, SRC, I’m really big on delivering value. And so I always do pull contractors after the events. And each, each time I do anything, I always want to make it better the next time. And so the top two things that I get for feedback is one contractors always say, wow, I had no money, I had no idea I was going to learn that much. And so I’m big about delivering value, putting excellent speakers, excellent content, to where, you know, attendees can take that back, and they can implement it right away. You know, I’m not big on you know, there’s a lot of conferences you go to, you know, it’s a pitch Fest, right, you’re gonna go out there, and they’re gonna give you maybe some great bullet points. But hey, by my other system for whatever it is that we don’t do that at SRC, we give you so much value you can take back us right away. The second top thing that I get back for feedback from contractors is the networking. So just as you mentioned a moment ago about being able to connect with other contractors, and you know, just have that conversation and make that relationship and learn from one another. So I mean, the contractors come together, they learn from one another, and you know, they, they get so much knowledge and just those relationships, it’s priceless. And so I love doing that. I love bringing the industry together for that. And it’s very different. The majority of attendees that go to the esrc seminar business owners, and they come from all over the United States. So the majority of attendees you’ll see are going to be either owners and or general managers.

Dylan McCabe  07:51

It’s so good. And I’ll it’s your passion, because you know, I’ve spoken a few times now, and something I’ve heard you say, repeatedly is bringing industry experts together. And I think that’s critical, because you truly are limited by the kind of people that you collaborate network with, I mean, birds of a feather flock together. And if you want to run around, I mean, just like growing up, you know, you run around with the wrong crowd, you’re going to get into the wrong stuff. And you notice, some of these other kids are doing other things, and they’re excelling at sports. They’re making good grades, it really does determine kind of the the boundaries on your own success. And it’s the same way in business. Yes. You know, I remember when I wasn’t very entrepreneurial, and I met a couple of guys that were super entrepreneurial. And the way they talked about money, the way they talked about business, the way they talked about solving problems was so different. And then you start running in that entrepreneurial world and you start to rub shoulders with other entrepreneurs, we’re making millions of dollars or even some billions of dollars. It’s just a different crowd.

April Hall  08:47

It is. Your network is your net worth, right.

Dylan McCabe  08:52

Yeah, right. Exactly. So let’s talk about that. When you when you say bringing industry experts together, and I love that it’s not a big pitch fest. Because that’s you know, we have a Facebook group, the limitless roofing CEO group. And a lot of people don’t read the group rules, but it’s actually one of the rules there are no there’s no spam, and there’s no advertising allowed. Because almost every other Facebook group I’m a part of all the good stuff just gets buried in advertising. And I have to delete comments every day. And I’m like, Hey, I really like your, your the value you can bring to this group. But please read the group rules again. They’re there for a reason. We want value we want excellence. So So what kind of industry experts can people expect to encounter this or see?

April Hall  09:36

Yeah, well, I mean, gosh, go to SRC seven.com I believe there’s 40 plus speakers. There’s a couple more that still need to be added. But there are several industry experts meaning roofing contractor magazine puts out the top 100 Roofing Contractors of the year each year and so a lot of them are on that top 100 list. And so these are real experts in the industry. And what I like about them is that they’ve had such a You know, a high level of success. And what they’re doing is, you know, they want to give back. And it’s so cool to bring them together, no matter if they’re on the commercial panel, the industry expert panel, if they’re speaking individually, they’re up there. And they’re giving their time tested knowledge and the things that have helped them be successful, but also things of what happened, what not to do was equally as important. So those are the type of contractors that we have there. You know, definitely go to the site and take a look at it. There’s so many, one of my ones that I started, oh, gosh, is probably a year and a half ago. And like I mentioned before, you know, I like to do things based on the industry needs. So I talk with contractors all the time, they tell me their pain points, the things that they want to gain more knowledge on. So about a year and a half ago, or so, I created the commercial panel, just because contractors are asking, Hey, you know, I want to get into commercial or, you know, how do I break into it? You know, once I’m in there, how do I keep, you know, brokering more commercial jobs, etc. So, this year, it’s a $350 million commercial panel. And that’s what’s been sold within the last year. So these are top experts that are going to answer all those questions.

Dylan McCabe  11:04

Wow, see, I just love that. I mean, it’s it’s not about you know, and consultants are great programs are great. But it’s, it’s totally different. When you get to hear from someone who has a proven track record, who’s already done it, who’s learned through the school of hard knocks, and develop a successful method that they’re they’re willing to share. And that’s worth 10 times more than the cost of any conference. So I just love that. Well, one of the things you discussed is mindset. You know, when we were talking about this during this podcast interview, and I’ve heard mindset, mentioned by a lot of influential people in this space, and I’ve heard mindset mentioned over the years, too, and I’m a big believer in attitude and leadership books always taught mentioned attitude at some point. But what do you mean by mindset? That can mean a lot of different things? So what does it mean to get your mindset right to be an effective business owner?

April Hall  11:59

Well, I think Henry Ford said it right. He says, whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right, right. And so your perception really is your reality. You know, it shapes and it influences our decisions. The people that we meet, the experiences that we have, you know, you can look at, you know, I’m sure everybody’s heard, hey, this glass half full or half empty, right? It’s how we, how we look at the world. You know, I was reading, gosh, what was a it was some statistic recently, with last couple months or something. It was very, very interesting. It’s, it’s something like we produce, what was it, like 50,000 thoughts a day, and 70 to 80% of them are negative. And so I mean, that’s 1000s what 40,000 bad thoughts will be produced per day. So we really have to, you know, take a step back and control we’re thinking about have a positive outlook on life, have a great, you know, forward thinking, right? I mean, if we are in business for ourselves, and we’re having negative thoughts of, Oh, I think it’s not gonna work. Or you know, what you’re thinking about what can go wrong? Guess what’s gonna happen? It’s gonna go wrong. So you have to have a good mindset. And, you know, be positive be around people like minded individuals, one of the opening keynotes for src. Did you take a look at that yet, by the way?

Dylan McCabe  13:17

Oh, yeah. Okay,

April Hall  13:18

so I’m so excited to announce that Keith craft, he is amazing. He’s a leader. He’s a thought leader. He’s a pastor. He’s a speaker. He’s an author. He is spoken in front of so many high end individuals. And I mean, I go to his church, I’m part of his mastermind group, his mastermind group is amazing. He does on all over the United States. He was a business owner before he was ever a pastor. So the things that he teaches our business skills and right mindset, so he’s always talking about when you elevate your thinking, elevate your life. And so he is opening keynote is on mindset. And he’s going to put that into business. And it’s going to be amazing. Like, it’s I’m so excited to have him there. But yeah, I think mindset, you have to have the right mindset to be successful in business.

Dylan McCabe  14:02

That is so good. You know, and I agree with that. 100%. And I think that there’s some people listening this and may be thinking, you know what, that sounds great. You can be positive, but things still go wrong. And how’s that gonna affect my, you know, basically, what good is it going to do me to focus on mindset when Listen, I got to deal with reality, and sometimes reality blows up on you, how would you respond to that?

April Hall  14:25

Oh, you just got to change your thinking, right? Look at the whole COVID thing. You know, what I do for a living and as I bring people together, so, you know, we shut down for several months, I had no control over that. But you know what, in business, you have to pivot, right? You have to figure out the very next step and keep moving forward no matter what happens, right? And so I mean, I’m doing that now. And you know, the last couple events have been great. I’ve done want to wait a few months but didn’t want to July did one October, I wanted people to feel safe. And so I instituted a bracelet system, meaning when you check in, you’re gonna pick a bracelet in order to show your level of comfort of being around people, right? So if you could green it means Hey, I’m good to be here, shake your hand, maybe give me a hug, right yellows a little bit more conservative, you know, fist bump, Alibaba, and read social distance. And that has been amazing. It’s really helped people know where they stand. And so on implementing that SRC, I do have some companies now, big corporations, they’re really on lockdown. Like some of my business sponsors, I have a couple of them, they are just not allowed to be in person. So I am, you know, pivoting again, once more. So they’re having a booth, and they’re going to be able to be there digitally, like virtually so they can have all their marketing, and we’re going to have a screen setup. So they’ll have different reps that are going to be there virtually, and anybody who visit their visits are going to be able to talk to you. So it’s always about having a positive mindset and moving forward and figuring it out as you go along.

Dylan McCabe  15:53

Yeah, so if I hear you it’s really it’s I mean, it’s not about like changing reality, reality is what it is, it’s just the way you think about it, and the way you respond to it. And you’re clearly a very solution minded person. And, and I think about, you know, I think about the Navy SEALs I love, I love learning about the navy seals, it’s always inspirational when you get somebody writes a book or does a speech and they say, look, it was hard for me, but I broke through. And here’s how. And if you study the Navy SEALs a lot, I think I just finished my fifth book on the seals last month called transformed by Remy adalet, Kay, they actually teach mental toughness in the seals, because they realize you could get some farm boy from Kentucky to join budds. And he just crushes it. And he didn’t grow up in a place where he could swim a lot. And then you get some guy from the beaches of Florida, it looks like he was, you know, a Greek god embodied. And he fails. Why is it has nothing to do with the physical ability that point and so they teach four major things. And that is goal setting positive self talk, because of what you said most of our self talk is negative goal setting positive self talk deep breathing and visualization just to kind of think through things before they happen, which is what people do when they give speeches or whatever it might be. But I think it’s amazing, because they realized when they started teaching mental toughness, which is just mindset, they dramatically increase their pass rate at budds. It’s still small, but they dramatically increased that tiny little number of people have passed to a bigger but yet still small number. And, and that’s the key. And when you hear these guys talk, a lot of them say it has nothing to do with your physical ability. Like it has nothing to do with your ability to tread water for five minutes straight with a with deer on your back. It’s all about how you think about that. And how would you say that shaped your journey in? Like, what’s one thing you practice as far as mindset, mental toughness, you know, solid mindset practice that you’ve had to do when you got the news and COVID hit. And you couldn’t do this event the way you thought you would, what’s something that you had to focus on to enable you to break through that that barrier?

April Hall  18:05

You know, it’s in business, no matter what type of business you run you’re involved in, you’re gonna have things that you have to figure out, right? So the mental toughness, you have to have a strong backbone, especially in this industry, the seminar industry is very tough, a lot of people see, you know, they see the end result, but they don’t see all the hard work, and things that have to go on in order to make it happen. And so, with that, you know, it’s tough. I mean, I just know, as far as I’ve been doing this for a long time, I know the process of it. So I just gotta trust the process. And so when something somebody is not able to sponsor because of COVID, which is completely out of my control, guess what, there are so many other people that can step in and do that. So you just work a little bit harder, and you make it happen.

Dylan McCabe  18:48

So what’s some advice you would have for somebody listening this right now? And they would say, look, April, I’m inspired by your story. You’ve worked through some challenging time with COVID like a lot of people have, but you’re successful. You’ve got SRC going, you’re this, you know, you’re you’re an industry influencer. And I feel like I can’t generate the kind of mindset you have what’s what’s one piece of advice you’d have for somebody thinking that right now.

April Hall  19:14

You know, you just gotta surround yourself with good people. You know, if you feel alone, which has happened a lot with COVID, and we’ve been, you know, away from people, it’s been really tough on on a lot of people. So you got to reach out, you know, take the extra steps, step out to somebody who, you know, ask advice a lot of times in this industry, you know, let me step back. Basically, a lot of people are available so many times, you know, someone’s like, gosh, I really want to talk to that person, you know what, find them on social media or reach out, ask them a question. The best thing and the best way you can learn in life is ask questions, reach out to people that you want to know more about, you know, read a good book. I mean, we just been such it’s such a weird year, right? It’s so different by You know, I surround yourself with good people who’d be , if not try to reach out, like we are on zoom. You know, read good books and go to church, do whatever you can to change your mindset just to be around positive influences, you know, somebody who’s negative, and they’re bringing you down, you know, sometimes you just have to sever those relationships.

Dylan McCabe  20:18

You know, I think that’s so good, because a lot of people, it’s not really just the mindset, that’s a challenge, the biggest enemy, going against them is isolation. And people don’t ask for help. And one of the things that you mentioned that you you wanted to discuss in mindset is a willingness, a willingness to learn. And that takes that takes some humility that takes saying, Hey, I don’t have all the answers. And I’m and I’m also struggling, let’s say with whether it’s a mindset or my business is not where I wish it would be. So let’s, let’s unpack that a little bit. Why do you think willingness to learn is one of the keys to the right mindset?

April Hall  20:53

Well, when you put it towards this industry, I mean, over the years, I’ve seen this industry change dramatically. I mean, we’ve brought in so many different types of technology. And really, the contractors and the ones who haven’t adapted to that they’ve fallen behind. So they really have to stay up on top of what’s happening in the industry and go to events like this, and just that they can learn, you know, from one another, I have contractors, I’ve been moved anywhere from, you know, three years to 15 plus 20 years, a lot of the times my best, you know, testimonials come from the ones that have been in the business the longest, because sometimes they’ve been stuck in there doing the same thing for a long time. And then they, you know, they change, you know, they sometimes go hey, are, you know, you bring up a new concept, or were like, Hey, I used to do that, and I forgot about it. So I’m going to implement it again. Or, hey, that’s a new idea. I haven’t even done that before. And so they implement it, you know, even with like, well, law, the law in Texas has changed over the last year. So, you know, it doesn’t matter how long anybody’s been in the industry, you know, you’re going to learn something by attending SRC, because we’re going to stay on top of all that. And you can always learn something from other contractors. So in life, no matter what business you’re in, you always have to be learning.

Dylan McCabe  22:06

You really do you know, and you find people that even if they are, you know, successful in the eyes of most other people, most really successful people are constantly learning. They’re reading books, they’re going to lunch with other business owners, they’re asking for advice. That’s a great sign of somebody that’s humble and doesn’t believe they know it all. But you also come across people who, they’re stuck. And they’ve got a lot of reasons for why they’re stuck. And they’re not really interested in hearing anything else. And I think it’s it’s critical to be to be a learner, you never really arrive at success. Success is a process and failure is a process to it. So you’ve got to be a learner, not in a you know, just that whole idea of sharpening the soul, the mind, the mind needs to constantly be sharpened. And there’s that Bible verses says, As iron sharpens iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another. And, and obviously, that’s what people get by going src. But that needs to be a daily practice.

April Hall  23:02

It does. Yeah, you just can’t go once the knob, you know, just stop implement anything, you got to keep staying up with it. And you know, read US Marine books. Most millionaires, United States are reading between I think it’s like 40 to 60 books per year. And a lot of times, we think, oh, gosh, when you get to that type of success, you don’t need to learn anymore. Well, that’s so far from the truth. I hear that a lot. I mean, you have to constantly keep learning, and innovating and growing. And so yes, I agree with you on that.

Dylan McCabe  23:28

Yeah, because things are constantly changing. And thank God for audible. makes it a lot easier now. So with With that said, you know, having the right mindset, you can attend these great events. Let’s talk about attending SRC, because we’re going to be there, it’s easy for us, it’s a no brainer for us, just because we know it’s a great event. And also it’s in our neighborhood, we’re in Dallas. events going to be in Frisco. So let’s talk about how can people attend? What’s the call to action here?

April Hall  23:57

You know

Dylan McCabe  23:58

Steps?

April Hall  23:59

I mean, SRC summit.com, it has everything on there, you’ll see all the speakers. There’s an agenda. It has the tickets on the page, we do VIP or general admission, and it shows exactly what it is between the tickets. We do group rates on the general admission tickets just increase the cart and group rates start at three people or more. And then it populates those group rates. And so yeah, it’s happening January 23, through 25th. And so as we get closer to the event, and the ticket price goes up, so you know, definitely people need to register a little bit earlier if you’re looking at saving some money if they’re traveling Dallas, because it’s such a great hub you can get here from anywhere, and you can usually get pretty decent flights and rates for that. Well. As far as you know, the traveling I’ve been amazing hotel rates for SRC, Embassy Suites is connected, and that’s the one that’s on site at the convention center. That’s only 157 per night. But I have a bunch several other hotels on the venue section. They go down as low as 79 per night. So There’s something for everybody. There’s a ton of different space around here got great, great group rates, and there’s a lot of stuff that you can do. Right? That’s fine, too. So it’s a neat area.

Dylan McCabe  25:10

Great. And for those of you listening to this, we will put the link to the event in the notes to the podcast. So you can just look at the podcast on your, on your smartphone and see a link to the website right there in your notes. We’re going to be there. I think it’s a no brainer. You know, there’s a lot of conferences and we as far as limitless, goes, we picked just a few that we’ve attended that we’re going to attend in 2021. And this is one of them. So I think it’s key that you’re making it easy for people to attend, you’re going to have the wristband situation to put everybody at ease, and people are going to get a quipping, that’s what they’re going to get. They’re going to get equipping, connecting networking from industry leaders. People have a proven track record. And yeah, I think I think everybody should attend. So we will be there. We hope to see you all there in April. I look  to meeting you in person. And so thank you for being on the show and letting us all be a part of this.

April Hall  26:03

Yeah thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I look forward to seeing you at SRC

Dylan McCabe  26:07

great conversation with April Hall. I love that Henry Ford quote that she mentioned whether you think you can or you can’t You’re right. And I really like how she set up a conference, no sales pitches. It’s all about equipping she’s got I think she said a $350 million Commercial Roofing panel. Wow, I’m so excited about this event guys. So you definitely need to check it out whether it’s for this year or if you missed it this year. Listen to this podcast after the fact for the upcoming year. Like I said, if you haven’t done so already, if you are not using company cam in your business to take images and give everybody put everybody on the team on the same page, even in a live live as you upload those images and do those before that take multiple steps out of the process, streamline the process, save time and save money with company cam. Just go to company cam.com slash limitless. We use it with my business partner Ray tight general contracting and you need to be using it as well. And also if you haven’t joined our Facebook group, just do a search for on Facebook for a limitless roofing SEO group. Looking forward to seeing you in the group and I will catch you guys in the next episode.