How a Roofing CEO Built a Brand Beyond Roofing

We focus primarily on higher and residential homes.

“We like to do whales, you know, obviously big roofs”

that we can win awards for. This is a little bit more of a big boy, big girl sale. If you don't get a foot in there, you're not going to win that store. - Thomas Drake is an entrepreneur,

roofing expert, and the founder of Tom Drake roofing company. He helps homeowners protect and restore their properties through premium roofing solution,

trusted expertise, and a customer first approach

built on quality and integrity. I actually try to go where nobody else is at. Do something else that's attractive. We involve our company with a foundation called Tackle Tomara, Australia's foundation,

given by the inner city kids and Dallas. That involves you with a whole array of people. You fail forward. You do the things that you like that you want to try. And those aren't all wins.

They're not supposed to be. The secret is-- [MUSIC PLAYING] It's not over, I'll tell how we're-- The living your legacy podcast for those who live

to leave a legacy. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, welcome back, everyone, for another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host, again, Jason Langen.

And we're here at the Sunny Miami Beach Studios.

They're in the World Cup fever.

And we've got a special guest here, Legacy Maker. And yeah, let us know your name, introduce yourself, and what's good. Yeah, my name's Thomas Drake. I'm a roofing CEO in Texas.

All right, so wait in Texas. Yeah, all right, which part is a big state, né? That will be the most controversial. Huge state, no, but primarily DFW. OK, yeah.

That's Dallas. Yeah, that's where we're. OK, OK, let's work for a shower about that. All right, all right.

“So Jesus, now I think roofing Dallas is hot.”

Don't get super hot, right? Yeah, hasn't got there yet this year. But generally, you get in the hundreds, hundreds, tens. Yeah, and that's-- Yeah, roof, it's even--

Yeah. It's crazy up there. So think out for drones, right? OK, but how many guys you got in your team? About 20.

About 20. And yeah, how do you keep them safe up there with it being so hot? Well, you've got to go over safety protocols. You got to make sure guys know what they're doing. No, sales guys do pretty well with it.

They don't have all the other guys that are round and might be sitting at cruise. Yeah. They've got to be all tied off with a harness. And you know, have all the safety equipment with them.

So no, we do very well. Our people are very well coordinated and take those precautions. Yeah, think out of cool. There's, they got the ice bags. Oh, yeah.

So Madello's their work, right? Oh, my God. And then they probably-- Hopefully they got sunscreen, right?

My wife's always like sunscreen sunscreen, right?

It's like the number one. I think a lot of them you see have the wicker hat. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, now they've got the ones with the Bluetooth fans, right?

Maybe upgrade them, you know? Wow. OK, so like, what kind of rules are we talking about? Housing, or-- So we focused primarily on higher and residential homes.

And there doesn't mean that we don't do a smaller home, regular home, no, what do you call a regular home? But we like to do whales, obviously big roofs that we can win awards for, we've done that a few years. And that's part of our culture.

OK, yeah. So what kind of rules do you get? I mean, I'm a muggle when it comes to this, right? Like if you're thinking about Harry Poggle, you got the muggles, then you got the wizards, right?

So I'll be asking you from a muggle point of view, right? But there's all different kinds of roofs, right? I think if I think about my home and Connecticut,

“it was like, shingles, I think you call them, right?”

And then the ones that I'm in Thailand, right? They got the tiles. Siles, right? Exiles, I might. OK, so like Texas, you're dealing more with tiles, probably?

Yeah, you get a lot of tiles. OK. And it's probably the best roofing material in Texas because of the hailed damage, right? OK, yeah, yeah.

A lot of people have shingles, a lot of people can't afford a tile roof. OK, yeah, I mean, for some of these homes, jeez, for up to it, for us to upgrade to a tile roof, you're by talking tens and tens of thousands of dollars.

It's not more, right? So I have one, like that on the house, but I bought it. You know, OK, I can't complain. Yeah. So yeah, luxury housing, are you trying to get into contracts

where they're building a whole new kind of estate, right? Of multiple luxury homes, or you guys are redoing the roofs of homes. It's a good question. So we're redoing the roof after storm damage.

I'm usually usually through their insurance company. OK, OK. So I've seen some Instagram stuff of like, there's some dudes like looking out for people and he'll

And he sees some nightmare stuff. And he'll just be like, or maybe he's a guy that they call the check on some roofs. And then he'll just be like, over here, slap you how they did the corner over here.

You know, because the owner is, we don't get to go on the roof

“and check, you know, so there's a lot of trust, right?”

So yeah, you've maybe, maybe you've gone up to some roofs. You've seen some horrible situations, right? What's going on when you go up there? Well, I personally don't go on roofs. Yeah.

Believe they're an eye on the company. Did you start off that way, like, going up on the roofs? Or I've never done it.

I've always used a drone for an inspection.

Got it, got it, got it. So moving the drone, are you able to get those details, like I'm saying? Absolutely. Yeah.

Absolutely. I think you can get enough of which you need. You know, I'm not saying I'm the best salesman on earth. Yeah. I was always, always very useful for me.

Absolutely. Yeah. So what are you looking for Ed? Like, so you talk about houses that have had damage, right? Yeah, you're looking for older roofs.

Yeah. So you're not necessarily trying to harass somebody that looks like they just got their roof done. Yeah, yeah. I mean, do they need a roof?

Yeah. Something I preach to our people, right? So you're looking for older roofs and there's signs that we teach the people to look for, it's to me. It's not hard, it's it look older, it is a look new, you know?

And then if they're in a hailsome, where the hails hit the house. Yeah.

And there's software that tells you that since not always accurate

and you actually have to do the old school work and get out and be a little bit of a storm chase or a little bit of a weatherman, right? Yeah. And it does pay off, by the way, for people that are able

to pivot quickly and get out and go chase a storm. I know I hate that people hate their phrase, but that's part of the business. What would he exactly mean, like go in chase a storm? Like for the weatherman, because if I've chased a storm

I know the storm is heading to my house and I'll take some kind of precautions. Or like, what do you mean? Well, I mean, after it's hit and it's decimated in area. Gotcha.

You just want to be one of the first people there. OK, OK, now I got you, now I got you. You don't want to be the last guy there. Yeah, yeah. So that urgency and then move to be able to be there. It looked good to be able to do what you got to do, right?

Yep. Represent yourself well. Yeah. If you don't get a foot in there, you're not going to win that storm. OK, now I totally understand how I was talking from the home

on her side.

I'm like, why am I chasing storms?

Yeah, you're not chasing them. You chasing down to the basement? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. Yeah. How big does the hill get down there?

It's big. Like golf, both. They look cool. Oh, my gosh. So what is that baseball?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, they have great fruit. Bigger in there. It goes through windshields, goes through.

There's a hail storm in Wiley, Texas in 2016, where it was actually going through roofs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It didn't people's TV. Oh, my lord. That sounds like free to arm a get in, or something.

Yes, but yeah. That's crazy. So who's doing the storm chasing in your team? Everybody. Everyone.

Everybody. I get out and do it. Yeah. I have to go to recently, but I had a big sprinter van, or a big logo on the side. We would take it out and now we would gang bust as what we call it.

I have the guys in it and I mean, you know, you see the movie old school, we're, you know, they ride through and they kidnap the guy in the black van. Yeah. It's crazy. Kinda how it felt like.

You know, you'd have storms and they don't deploy and I'd be out there with them. But after a guy be helping a customer here or there and then, you know, you got a couple guys lined up. It made it more, made it more exciting for the guys to work together. Yeah.

See in that camaraderie. Okay. From guys. Yeah.

“It's almost, you know, not like military, but they're team, you know, and that's how you,”

that's how you do it. So. Yeah. And so, I mean, the image that comes to my head is like a twister, you know, you got, you got the black storm chasing van and then you got the white storm chasing van.

It's like the good in the bad guys, right? And I guess in your version, who'd be like the, the other companies, right? Oh, there they are again. They're out there. Yeah.

But you just gotta make an impact on who you are. Yeah. You want to be there sooner than later. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a big key. Do people last in your team because it's hot, right? The weather's crazy. It sounds like hard work. It can be.

It can be. Uh, people that stick around are the people that obviously do well. Yeah. Okay. And it's not for everyone.

It's, you know, I came from the fitness industry, which is a pressure cooker sale. Okay. This is, this is a little bit different. This is a little bit more of a big, big boy, big girl sale.

Yeah. And there's many stages to it. And yeah, the weather adds, adds to the difficulty.

“That's why you know in this business, you can't have the ups and downs.”

You gotta be really steady when it's the time, right? So if it's on, that's the time to put the, put the effort in. That's the time to, if you're going to do overtime, that's the time. Yeah. You don't want to have to be out there when it's freezing outside, needing to add a couple

leads because I even met anybody in three months, right? Does that make sense? Yeah. Management organization, I know that there's a broad terms, but they come into playing

Yeah. Yeah.

“Man, I remember I, one of my summer jobs was putting up installing awnings, right?”

Getting up on the tall ladder as it'll just feel like, oh my Lord.

I'll get out of ladder. Yeah. I'll get out of ladder and I'll look at some stuff. But that's, you know, if you see that, that's like a rare, rare animal of the wild, right? Yeah.

Yeah. How about technology, right? Is there anything new technology is going on in roofing? Like, last I heard was like Elon Musk's solar panels. How are you guys doing?

You got solar panel roofs. It's a tile roof. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, the thought of it, I think, makes a lot of sense, like where I live with the

hail. Maybe not so much. I don't know how much that's going to damage your panels, right? Yeah. I've seen hail damage the solar panel.

Yeah. I've seen hail damage the shape will too.

So I've seen them, it's not for me, okay, but that doesn't mean a lot of people won't

buy those. Yeah. That, hey, if it does really make sense with the electric thing. So shingles are easy for me. They're easy to take off.

They're easy to put on. They're relatively inexpensive. Yeah. You know, if you're relying on a solar roof and, you know, and I have a big hail storm and nobody can, there's only one company that can put your roof on because nobody

does those. Yeah. It's a crazy, crazy amount. I don't. We haven't personally put one on.

No one's asked me either and that doesn't mean that there's others out there. But yeah, you'd be out and then you're solar roof, you know, I don't, I don't know. I don't know. You know, I had solar panels on my home for, I've only rented for probably four or five years.

We're fully well-liked. Yeah. They really enjoyed having the system. So you got to get up there and clean it. I would think.

Yeah. Yeah, I've seen that. So, you know, there's upkeep to everything in your own house, right? Yeah. What do you most excited about?

I mean, I should before we get into that, right? Let's talk about growing your business, right? Because a lot of a lot of people in, you know, some, any kind of construction or like, you know, smart home installation or these kinds of businesses, right? Growing their, their company from one truck to two trucks, right?

And there's a lot of competition, right? Talk about your, your kind of journey a little bit with that. Yeah.

“I think some of the secret is, because I mean, really like how attractive is roofing.”

Mm-hmm. You know, and I, and I actually cringe when I see some of the ads, you know, people are making roofing content, roofing content, roofing content, roofing content. Yeah. You know, as a customer, it's like, I get it.

You want to make sure somebody's going to do the job right. But in what point is it just cringe worthy, right? And how hard some people are trying with it, and I actually try to go where nobody else is at, okay? It's like, yeah, obviously do a great job with, you know, win awards.

And some awards have a good rating, but do something else that's attractive. Yeah. And that's why I, I do the stuff that we do with the Cowboys. Yeah. We involve our company with a foundation called Tackle tomorrow, Strauss Haley's foundation

or given by the University of Kids and Dallas, okay? You know, that involves you with, you know, a whole array of people, okay? And that's, that's who we want to rub shoulders with. Yeah. And the people that have a high standard of excellence, that have done some pretty, pretty

fantastic things doing something else. Yeah. Something that does get people's attention, right? When I meet people on the hand of my card and I'm like, yeah, you Cowboys fan? I'm getting a yes or a no.

Yeah. And it's going one way or the other, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. It's the easiest question.

Maybe I can ask somebody in Texas, right? Yeah. So, does that make sense? Of course. It does.

Yeah. And so, is that where that ring comes from?

Like, you know, this giant ring, let's talk about that a little bit, and I've never seen

anyone with a ring, so they I thought that was some kind of super bowl of rings. No, no, no. It's got to see. It's nice to go. They haven't won.

They've won that long and I ain't that old. Yeah. That's from a high school called Solina, okay. In Texas, and we donate to them, and they've won the, the state championship a couple years ago.

All right. Yeah. And then, and so they gave you that ring as, yeah, I guess it's like, it's like a donor, donor, and you know, I call it my older ring. Yeah.

You pull it off, man.

“Not many people can pull off a huge ring, like that, right?”

It's big. It's my college ring, but that went from 21 years ago, you know, a lot of things have changed. Yeah. But those kids, that was cool.

You know, I got to show up, stand on the sideline, and, you know, I had to bid you a high school game since I played them one. Yeah. Okay. I actually, so I did a little work with, when I lived in Vegas, right, I had a marketing

agency for a while, right, creative agency. Very good. Yeah. So I was doing a little work with a company that installed smart homes and stuff, right?

And like you, right, he kind of inserted himself with the Vegas Golden Knights, right? And they had won the championship, not so long ago.

rank. Sure.

You know, and that raised intense, man.

Like, I don't know if you've seen it, but like, you could open it up. It's got the whole stadium inside, right? I think it's the new ways of crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

So they get pretty intense. Yeah. We have, we have players in our suite. We have a suite at AT&T stadium. Okay.

We bring some of our top sales guys up there for games. Yeah. We'll have Charles Haley's at every game, you know, and he'll wear some of his reigns. Yeah. Drew Pearson's at a number of our games.

We've got an agreement with him for the next two seasons, uh, so exciting stuff. Yeah. So that's, that's more the part you're talking about. Do some different. Yes.

“And where do, you can't be word a mouth marketing, right?”

So when someone's talking, I'm sure you can have your testimonials on your website, right? But, and you got those social media posts, but it's like, you can't beat someone talking about your company. What's really there? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm big on that. I'm big on the, uh, the organic aspect of it, like, how, how we train our people to, to look for someone that they can align that with, right? Like, hey, are you interested, you know, yes or no?

So somebody's a fan. Yeah. We met any of those guys. And you know, obviously those are the friends of the company, right? Yeah.

It's like, oh, hey, then maybe somebody might stop by or hey, do you want to sign Jersey? Or, you know, there's so many avenues that you can take that and work that is from a business aspect and a relationship value, right? Yeah. And, you know, you, you got to deliver the goods, too.

So, you know, we donate, I donate to the foundation monthly, they put me on the advisory board. You know, we donate it all there, their charity events, okay, which put you together with, you know, a number of Hall of Famers they bring in, and it's, it's also the other people that are donate.

You know, you're meeting, you know, the chief of police is there. Yeah. For example, yeah. I just think it's, I think it's something that's pretty cool to be involved with. Yeah.

To know that you're also doing something good. So, it sounds like you're, you're a great networker, right? Did you learn this from anyone or you kind of just figured it out by yourself? You, you, you fail forward. Yeah.

You do the things that you like that you want to try. Yeah. So, even if something isn't, like, I've seen somebody do it, I'll try something, okay, and I do that all the time, okay, and those are in all wins. They're not supposed to be, right?

Yeah. If you try things, you're like, shit, yeah, it didn't work too good. Yeah, yeah. Right.

“But know, then you also have to learn from others, okay, and that's what a wise man does.”

Watch things that, okay, if I see somebody do something, and it's like, okay, yeah, I can do that. Yeah. Okay, I can do that. I can, I can maybe do it my way with, you know, like, if you can just see it.

So you have to have the vision, and then you just, you have to have some, some effort behind it. Yeah. So you have to put your passion with it. If you do those things, the most often they're not, it's going to work out for you.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't. Well, how about soccer? You enjoy a world cup at all? Well, you get into it.

My wife's from Brazil. Hey. And the label. The big win last night. Hey.

Big win. The people from Brazil, you know, love their soccer, right? So, especially here. Yeah. I, I have it particularly seen her watch a lot of soccer, but I know that, you know, it's

on that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We went to the, we went to the gallery of Mowland, Dallas, the other weekend. And I got her some some Brazil Jordan gear.

Okay. It was real happy with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Are there any games in Dallas?

Yeah. So it's funny. You ask. They actually bought out all the sweets. Okay.

You know. So the owners had to get all their stuff out of the sweets. I had to take all my stuff out. Yeah. They had to just roll it out on a car.

I'd never seen anything like it.

How much booze do you talk about? How stacked is your booze? No comment. There's none in there now. Yeah.

But, you know, there was this stuff in the sweet, you accumulate from football season, which is, which is a cool perk of having that, that sweet is big, big huge fridge in there. Um, no, they kicked us all out and, you know, the rumor is that even Jerry doesn't have any pole with anything there. Wow.

“I mean, the amount of money would have been astronomical, right?”

Yeah. I mean, they're covering up the Levi, oh, they are everything. They, they did physical changes to that building. Wow. We're working on it.

As they were getting, you know, us booted for a little while, I'm able to go back in there, obviously, when they're done, you know, pulling it, it's fine. You know, it's soccer. I mean, it's the soccer's biggest stage, right? Yeah.

To host it at home, brought a lot of business to it. For it's biggest stage. Yes. Sports, for it's biggest stage, you know. You know, I get a lot of Super Bowl, right?

It might be the single biggest event, right? But this is, this is different. Oh, it's not even Super Bowl, it's not even close to this. This is the biggest. This is so many people everywhere.

Yes.

Yeah, I've never seen anything like this.

Haven't they here? Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, it's been amazing for you. Join us here.

How much longer you got in a South Beach? A couple days. A couple days. All right. I play back Saturday.

All right. Nice. Well, there's going to be a lot of world cup action here. Yeah. Yeah.

Probably. I may tune in a little bit.

Yeah.

I mean, you walked down Ocean Drive.

Don't know what I have a choice. Yeah. I really don't, man.

I mean, South Beach and Miami.

“Such a melting pot of South American Latin culture is, right?”

Um, even more like the Latin games here is like all over the place more than the American games. Right? So, yeah.

“I mean, it's, it's going to be all over.”

Um, but yeah.

Thank you for joining us here, man.

Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for joining us again. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like he's got a lot of great tips that he can share that if you tune

“into his episode, I mean, figure out how he does it all, uh, but that's why he's a legacy”

maker. And that's why he's here. So thank you for joining us. And thank you guys for joining us. I will see you next time.