Conversations Unveiled: Inspiring Journeys and Entrepreneurial Spirit

We are live from Rowdy's with the Contractors Network. This is the Homeowner Show. My name is Kevin Hackett, and with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Homeowner Show. We're so glad. Hey, we're live. People are waving at us. Yeah, stuff's happening.

We're saying hi to everybody.

How you doing, Kev?

I'm good, man. How are you doing?

Doing really good, man. All right, dude, I got, I got called into a weird one. I, I, I'm looking at my phone and I'm talking at the same time. I'm not used to the camera being on me while you talk.

I know, we're both Hey, yeah, we're both on the same camera right now.

And I can't cheat like I usually do.

Nope.

So, uh, yeah, dude, we're out here at Rowdy's. Uh, we're having a good time. I'm one bourbon in.

Oh gosh.

So the night is young. Um, but things will improve.

That's true. They have to.

Yeah, dude, I got, I got called into a weird one this week.

Okay.

Um, I got called to help on the restoration of a historic building I don't know if I can like mention who it is or—

Where is it?

It's here, like in Spring.

In Spring?

Yeah, here in Spring.

Okay.

It's a building, it's like close to 100 years old. Thing was getting destroyed by carpenter bees.

Oh really?

And it was a situation where like it had been going on for a long time, they let it get out of hand, and it was just a little itty-bitty house, but I mean, they called us in like, can you help us save this thing? It's like, yeah, it's no big deal. So it took a long time.

Wow.

But I mean, that's fun. It was really fun because like most people don't know that carpenter bees are really docile. Like they're not aggressive and they don't sting, right? And but like there's these guys working on the house and like the bees, they're very curious.

They're big. And they're big. Yeah.

And they'll get up in your face and like, so these guys are running like scared little girls, all like these big construction guys.

That's awesome.

So we get to kind of like walk in and be like, hey, like walked right through the middle of them. Like, who is this guy?

Who is this guy? He must like wield a sword.

Yeah. So anyway, uh, that, that one was pretty cool. We can talk about that one, uh, some more.

Yeah, but, um, but I did something crazy. I, I really get— we really got to talk about this one.

Okay.

So I haven't even told you this, but we are rebuilding the— that, that fence, that little small fenced-in area in our back backyard, uh, right outside our back door.

Yeah, yeah.

That thing was falling down like crazy. I mean, like rotted. It was awful. Um, I reset 17 posts.

Jeez.

And the other ones—

You must have done that since I've been there. I was there not too long ago.

I know. I was. Yeah, it happened last weekend.

Okay.

Um, it's not finished. The fence isn't finished. But, um, yeah, we need— we gotta talk about it because I didn't use concrete.

Okay.

I used the expanding foam stuff.

Oh, the expanding foam stuff.

Yes, we have to talk about it.

Yeah. All right. We may wind up doing a full review on it, but I'll, uh, I'm, I'm game.

Yeah, it's, it's gonna be interesting.

So that stuff is cool.

I do— you have no idea how cool it is.

Is it expensive? That's what everyone really wants to know.

It is.

It's, um, you buy it by the bag, right?

You do. Um, we got 2, 2 posts out of each one because we weren't going too deep. If you went very deep, because that, you know, ours is only gonna be about a 3-foot fence, right? So we only had to put a foot down in the ground on each one of these, so it wasn't like super, super deep. And so we were able to get 2 posts with 1 bag, which to me made it feel better.

Uh-huh.

Uh, so a bag of concrete's like, I don't know, like $6.50 for the quick-set stuff.

Okay.

And it weighs 50 pounds. Jeez. All right, yeah, so I don't want to do that. Um, this other thing I can— like, my child can pick up, and, uh, it was 14 pounds? No, $14.

Oh, $14.

It was like double the price, but—

Half the work.

Oh, not even close to half. Like way less than half. I mean, one, I had, I, I had 10 bags of it.

Uh-huh.

And it was way less weight than a bag of concrete for all 10 bags. And, uh, man, it was, it was nice. It was real nice. I mean, because after you're hauling around, you the wood, like digging holes and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you don't want to carry around 50-pound bags of concrete on top of that.

No, no, no. So, all right, well, let's, let's start the night off right. Who's, who's sponsoring tonight's episode?

Well, yeah, we, uh, sponsored tonight, uh, by Lone Star Appliance Repair. So we're really, really thankful for them. Uh, if you want to give them a call, uh, the best way to get them is by calling 936-647-2364. And, uh, man, they've got They have some really cool stuff that they do. Yeah, but, but primarily, I mean, any appliance you need repaired.

Yes.

That's gonna be their specialty.

And I, I know one of the things that's going on nowadays is these boards are going out on equipment. It's not so much mechanical anymore as much as it is like electrical.

It is.

And, and sometimes local companies like Lone Star, they have access to the parts better than some of the dealers do.

Oh, quicker too. And you don't have to deal with the dealer, they'll do it for you.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, one, we like supporting local businesses.

Sure.

2, Sarah's a good friend. She's a fantastic business owner-operator. They just do an incredible job. Like I said, she's come out and fixed appliances for us on a couple of occasions now. She saved our dryer. I mean, she kept us from dying from a gas leak. She worked on our dishwasher. I mean, and every time, it's the people that she sends out are great. They're not grimy or weird. Um, or, you know, drinking Bud Light. Um, also weird, also weird. So, I mean, yeah, uh, but just a fantastic company. So give them a call, reach out to them if you have any appliance. That's right, you know, because you may be looking down the barrel going like, oh my gosh, I can't afford a new refrigerator right now, but it's probably cheaper just to go ahead and get that one that you have fixed, get it back up on its

feet.

I mean, yeah, absolutely. Refrigerators in like It's crucial. Freaking expensive, man.

Yes.

They're so expensive. So, yeah.

Get it repaired.

936-647-2364 is how you will get them. So—

Yep. And we got a— we got a guest sitting at the table.

Yes, we do.

Ready to chime in.

That's right.

Let everybody know who you are, man.

Yeah.

Hi.

Uh, my name is Marquise Mitchell. I go by The Roof Don. Do, uh, content creation. Been a roofing contractor for over 11 years.

Mm-hmm.

And now I'm in distribution. So I bring shingle supply to the roofing industry here in the Houston marketplace, and I do it in a little bit different of a way. You know, I bring content and business incubation to the contractors, and they don't have to pay for that. They just do business with us at RSI.

Okay, and you have a show.

Yeah.

What's the name of your show?

Yeah, so I have a podcast called Roofing on the Rise.

Okay.

And we go over the innovations in the roofing industry and the people that bring that innovation to us. Okay.

And so you actually had our buddy Justin O'Neill on your show the other day.

Yeah.

And are you one of his suppliers?

Yes, actually, he's one of our main accounts at Roofing Supply Incorporated. We love Justin O'Neill. And honestly, I've had a lot of success taking that podcast room to his house. We went to—

Oh, the bourbon room?

Yeah, to the bourbon room where we set up. Man, I had like 5 or 6 people reach out to me just off of that podcast and then off of the reels that I cut from that podcast. So I'm blessed that I'm able to have something like this. Um, definitely not a— not as mobile as this. This is definitely awesome, um, to be able to bring to the, the industry. So, uh, pretty, pretty, pretty, uh, blessed with that. I'm also on the board of directors for the Houston Area Roofing Contractors Association.

Okay.

I'm on the marketing, uh, board with them as well, the marketing committees. Um, they got 2 committees, membership and marketing, and then the RCAC committees as well. So I've joined those too.

Okay, you, you may have actually— some of your shingles may actually be on my roof.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's, he's done— we have 3 buildings on our property and he did all 3 of them.

Oh yeah.

Um, and it was like a 40-year shingle that he put on there.

Oh yeah, what kind? I don't know, they're green.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't remember what brand it was.

I was just like, whatever you say, Justin, just put it up there.

Yeah, Justin's, uh, very brand loyal, so it's GAF. So more than likely you have a GAF.

Okay.

Uh, I don't know what the color is, to be quite honest. I don't, I don't do green.

Whatever it was, my wife wasn't happy with me.

I'll be honest, with green, like, I was a contractor for 11 years, so with green I was always like, here, sign a, a form so that you can make sure that you're signing for this color.

This color.

Because, yeah, well, that's just because you surely got a good deal on that, right? Probably.

Probably. Yeah, but like, you know, no deal is worth my wife's happiness. Let me just mention that now since she's probably watching.

Right.

Yeah, on the—

I know mine watches like every single one of my lives, the whole thing, to make sure everything's good.

She's watching to make sure you don't tell stories on her. That's what—

Well, here's the thing is that when I do, because I mean—

Which means I need to goad one out of you now.

So she does Facebook. Or excuse me, so she does TikTok videos while I'm not home.

Oh, okay.

So, and that's cool because I do a lot of content whenever I'm not around her.

Uh-huh.

So it's, it's kind of a trade-off, but like, you know, when I'm networking, like right now, um, you know, if, if the kids are awake, then she's probably not doing videos. But like in the evening, if I'm still networking, which I probably will, she's gonna be doing TikToks, bro.

Like she's making them or she's watching them?

Yeah, she's doing— she's making TikToks. She creates as well.

Okay.

Yeah, we're in it. We're a creator home, so we'd like to create more than we consume.

So are the ones that she's making, are they about you? No. No, you're not even brought into the process?

No, she's not either.

Okay. Oh, she's making them for other people?

She's not in mine.

Oh, okay. I got you.

Right. So like, I don't— I wouldn't want her to have me in hers. It's all about being original and being authentic.

Yeah. So what are hers about?

There's a lot of voiceovers. So like, you know, some funny, you know, like women empowered. Uh, I mean, and I love women. Like, I was at the Houston, uh, Business Women Association last night at SEAL. Uh, shout out to the Business Women Association at Houston. Uh, but like, bruh, I'm not trying to, to get in between her and her content creation at all.

Right.

It's weird. It's different. It's like I don't know, like just weird girl stuff.

Huh.

Voiceovers.

Interesting.

I don't know.

Looks like we're having technical— what's going on, man?

Yeah, so one of our cameras just lost Wi-Fi connection, so I'm trying to get it back.

Oh, that's fine.

We're good. Yeah.

Everybody can hear us, they just can't see us.

Yeah.

They can't see— they can't see me or they can't see—

They can't see anybody right now. Oh, really? I mean, I could put it on one of our cameras to see us, but Sure, I'm moving around.

Okay, you can put it on there. Let the people see what's going on, man. It's fine.

Here it is. Look, see, it's this camera right now.

You want me to try and get this one up?

We might need to because it's just not connecting.

Technical difficulties, ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah, it's always fun.

It happens.

The Homeowner Show.

It happens.

You see that one?

It's about the journey, not the destination.

That's right.

That's what I always say. I really preach this big. I think the journey is extremely important.

All right, we're gonna, we're gonna get it up here in just a second. So you, you're on— what was the name of the board that you're on again?

Houston Area Roofing Contractor Association.

Okay, so what does that do?

So Houston Area Roofing Contractor Association provides education for the contractors in the area, Greater Houston area. They're connected with the Greater Houston Area Building Association, GHBA.

Okay.

And also RCAT, Roofing Contractor Association of Texas. So those are a few associations that help govern what we do in Texas. One of the big things that we're doing is licensing with contractors in Texas, a voluntary licensing, um, because it's not required in Texas. It is not required. But here's the thing is I sit in circles all the time, and I— these are, these are pretty, pretty high-up circles, right? And these are contractors and business owners. And, and, and they gripe— I'll watch my mouth here— uh, they gripe a lot about the issue of, uh, Chuck in a truck coming up and stealing a job or undercutting them or whatever, but then they won't go get voluntary licensed.

Right.

Well, why are you griping?

Right.

Get off your butt and go and study the test and go and get the licensing. Study the test and test out. and pass. And if you can't pass, then study harder.

Yeah.

Like, this is what— that's the reason why there's a 2-chuck in a truck that's coming up behind you and taking your jobs and undercutting you.

Yeah.

You don't, you don't have any, anything to say that you're different or better, right?

Yeah.

So I'm glad to hear that there's a test, um, and I'm asking for a very specific reason. Like, what, what, what do you have to make on this test in order to pass?

I have no clue.

No, you haven't taken it?

Just, just No, I just joined the government committee.

Okay.

Right, actually haven't actually joined the government committee, but I'm about to join the government committee.

Okay.

So I'm in like the marketing committee, about to be in the membership committee, on the board, and they're just like cycling me into each committee. Like, yeah, right, just pop up, you know. Well, because pretty excited about it.

The same thing happens in our industry. It's just a little bit different because we are licensed through the state.

Yeah.

Right?

But it also depends on what department of the state that you're in as to how much governance and oversight that you actually have.

Right.

We had a big issue come up a couple years ago where, you know, most people don't realize this, as an industry you can lobby to move out of a department and there's nothing they can do to stop it as long as that other department's willing to take you.

Yeah.

And so our industry was talking about moving over to this other department and this this guy who's in our business group, like, kind of stood up and talked and said, look, I own an air conditioning company in that department right now. You guys don't know what you're doing moving over there. Like, you want to talk about how bad it is now? Just you wait.

Yeah.

Because, like, for, like, for, for us, we have 2 inspectors for all of South Texas. All of South Texas.

Yeah.

Like, just in Houston, there's over 30,000 companies like mine.

Yeah, that's not enough inspectors.

No, right? I mean, you, you can't even— I mean, like, if you did 5 a day and you worked 365 days a year, you're not hitting half of it.

No.

And so it's, it's just a ridiculous thing to even assume that we're gonna— like, that, that, that kind of regulation is going to have any sort of effect. So I'm happy to hear that you guys have something going on. I mean, when we talk to other people who do shows like ours in other states, I'm thinking like Eric G up in Portland, Um, and, and just some of the other ones, when, when we talk to them and say like, hey, there's no regulation for roofing in Texas, they're like, what?

Right.

Because that's not the case in most other states.

Right. So yeah, so Ohio just put some legislature out there for the same thing because—

For roofing?

Yes, for roofing. Oh wow. Um, so, you know, they were unregulated up until now? Well, there's— they still are. They still have to, you know, go through the voting process. I don't know what that— what happened with that. Been doing a lot of networking, so I don't know what day today is. Actually, I know it's the 25th, but I thought it was going to be Friday the 25th, so half of my crew is not here because I'm an idiot.

You don't calendar very well?

I do. I use Calendly though, so like it just Yeah. Gives me all my appointments. I have it all integrated so that it sends text message, automatic emails, and all that good stuff. So, uh, I mean, it took me a little bit, but Google Calendar is the big thing.

No.

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I—

Are we back up now?

Well, yes, we are. We're back up, kind of.

Welcome.

We're good. Um, the thing is, like, calendars—

He's like, we're good.

We, we live and die by them, man.

Yeah, we do.

I was talking to, um, I was talking to someone today and I was like, you need to, you need to like put that on your calendar.

Yeah.

And he goes, it was on my calendar. Yeah. I just forgot about it.

You know, it's hard, man. Whenever you, you know, uh, you know, with having a podcast, it's a lot. And, um, I mean, I don't know how many broadcasts that you guys do a week or a month, but I do 3 to 6 a week and it's a lot.

Yeah.

And then adding in, in between that, Uh, social life and then your job and everything else, and it's a lot. Like, and then editing video and then editing and then putting it somewhere, and like, takes time. A lot.

Yeah, it takes a lot.

So where, where do we have time to do anything else? Do you watch TV?

No.

Yeah, me neither.

I mean, I try, right?

But I tell my wife to put it on like the background so that I can like at least hear something.

Yeah, like, no, like for me, the This and this is dude. This is just so much fun. So I've got an eight-year-old boy, and he loves baseball. Like when I say he loves baseball, I mean he loves baseball. And so we will watch. So I'm a Rangers fan. Obviously, I'm wearing Rangers hat.

Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, I know. We'll forgive you.

Well, it's fine. I mean, we're in first place. So um, so well, you know, whatever.

It happened all season, but that's like two games.

We spanked that ass.

Yeah, I don't think so. Excuse me. I don't think so.

Excuse me.

Yeah, well, but okay. We'll see what happens. I'm sorry, but he, he's literally in every pitch, every single pitch at 8 years old. And so, dude, I got a 9-year-old.

We're gonna have to get together.

Yeah, man, it is so much fun just sitting there watching baseball with him. And so that, like, whenever I do watch TV, it is—

So you must have watched— to do that, you must have watched the Rangers get spanked by the Astros whenever they were here.

Yeah, that one time, right? Yeah.

I was at that game, so I was just like, yeah. Okay. I got—

I see.

Yeah, we— was it because of you?

Our size has season tickets, so— oh really? Yeah, so like, you know, bring me a contractor or two and like we'll take you out, bro.

Let's do this.

Okay.

All right.

What do you have to wear, an Astros cap?

You don't. Oh, even better.

See, that's no fun.

I'll even— I'll even—

I'll—

I'll even buy you dinner. Okay.

Oh wow. I mean, we are—

we are giving him free content, man.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, let's go.

We're doing free content right now, so I don't know. Love it.

Maybe we can broadcast from the Astros game.

Dude, I guarantee you people are watching right now.

Yeah, of course.

Oh yeah, sounds like an Astros game.

Well, it is kind of loud out there, but I don't know. No, it's all good, man.

So have you, have you met anybody good here tonight?

Actually, I've met quite a few people that know Ivan Sanchez, which is running for city council here in Houston. actually in the corner over there with the 360 photo booth, and then the dentist over here as well.

Yeah.

Well, they're actually marketers for the dentist, and that marketing company actually seen me at a Millennials event, a networking event last Friday with Ivan Sanchez and Magic Johnson, and the— I think it's called the Black Expo. So it's a new expo in Houston with only Black business owners and they service to the Black industry. And so they brought them together, both, both, uh, both events, and it was huge. Um, and they seen me there, so it was kind of cool. And then like IGD Plumbing, I quoted their roof like 6 months ago. Um, they didn't buy, but it's okay, they still like me, right? He didn't need it, but I was trying to sell it to him, right?

Sure, sure.

Um, But he's a very quality guy.

Like, do one of these numbers to you?

No, he didn't.

He actually—

I was, I was starting to fall asleep. I've been here since like 3 o'clock, so, you know, I had my, I had my, my, my booth set up and, and I was like kind of nodding off looking at Facebook scrolling or whatever. And, and he walked up and I looked at him, I was like, no freaking way. And then, and then he came in for the handshake and I was like, man, nice to see see you, you know, is, uh, and so we reconnected and he— I remember, like, he remembers me.

Yeah.

So it's cool. Like, so yeah, I mean, there's quite a few people here that I know. Um, I brought my public adjuster Jamie Wazewski with, uh, West Group Public Adjusting. Um, I've used him for about 5 and a half years. He does a lot of free services for contractors, um, even if they don't use him. Like, he wants to help educate the contractors so that they don't get in trouble. Yeah, that's a big issue right now. Unauthorized practice of public adjusting. Like, if you do insurance and you cannot talk about price, you cannot talk about anything but scope. That is it. That is what is damaged at the property.

That's it.

Yeah.

If you talk about anything else than that, there is an SIU here in Houston with TDI, Texas Department of Insurance, and they are actively going after contractors that are breaking this law.

What's, what's SIU?

Special Investigations Unit.

Ah, okay. Yeah, you don't want to be involved with them.

No, no. And if you, if you are, like, if you write good estimates, you're gonna hear from SIU, right?

It sounds like something that Dick Wolf would produce. SIU.

Yeah, you were quick. Oh yeah, yeah.

Hey, so I heard you mention GAF earlier, and I've seen some stuff on— are they the guys doing the, the solar shingles?

Yes, actually Justin O'Neill has put a few of those.

Oh, really?

Yes, and we took my podcast to his whiskey cigar room.

Yeah.

And we talked about GAF Solar, the ES shingle. Um, that was actually like 4 or 5 episodes ago, so if you're watching Roofing on the Rise, go back and check that out.

Okay.

Uh, GAF's ES Solar shingles is an actual shingle, so it's like a TPO, a piece of TPO almost. It's, it's nice and pliable. Um, And it is non-rack mounted, so it's, it's, it's different. So depending upon who you are or what you think about solar, um, I mean, I know a lot of things about solar, and solar gets hot, and so do roofs, right?

Sure.

And so it's mounted directly onto the roof deck, um, and I just feel like without, like, extreme additional ventilation that there is definitely going to be degradation of panels in the future for sure.

Yeah.

Um, but I don't think it's really about real, like, efficiency. And, and don't take that the wrong way, right? Like, if you're watching, please do not sue me. That's not what I'm going after.

In creating electricity or efficiency?

Yes.

So, okay, so if you think about that's what you measure a solar panel with is, is, is your degradation of efficiency, what that's going to be able to put out throughout the next 10, 15, 20 years.

Right.

So normally, you know, you're getting a longer period of time because it's got some, some air that runs up in between it. I don't know exactly how that they've done it. I don't know if they use the heat, but heat breaks things down. And so I've, I've got to only imagine that it's got to be an accelerated rate for the ES shingle. I don't know though, and it's not measurable because ES is new.

Yeah.

So like, there's no lab that is going to tell us right now what has happened with that.

Yeah, I mean, because it's such a new product.

Yes.

There's a lot we just don't know yet.

Yes, it's just not— it's like having a— getting a Tesla solar roof. Like, you're really buying the Rolls-Royce, right?

Yeah.

You're not buying—

You're buying the logo, the label.

Exactly.

Yeah. You're, you're not, you're not buying the solar. You're buying the slate look of the, the solar.

Right.

But like, we, we need people to do that though, right? Because this is, this is how we innovate. This is how we test. This is how we find things out.

If you need a GAF ES solar shingle roof, you can reach out to Fair Claims Roofing. Justin O'Neill is an awesome guy. I definitely partner with him on a lot of roofing.

Yeah, I mean, I think he did like the first one in Houston, didn't he?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

Okay, so I can't emphatically say yes, and neither can he, because we've heard rumblings that there was somebody else, but I'm almost 100% positive yes.

Well, until they take credit for it.

Well, here's the thing.

He's the first one to take credit for it.

Well, GAF gave him that recognition. They came and shot footage of him, nice professional videos. So they gave him that accolade, so I doubt that they would give it to anyone else. But anyway, that's just me.

Okay, okay, interesting stuff, man. Dude, thank you so much for sitting down. It's good to meet you.

Absolutely.

I mean, I think we've been like crossing paths online, just never got to meet in person.

Yeah, I mean, really, I think that content— I don't think, I know— I know content is a way in which to meet and to understand other people.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Um, so Now that I— like, I know I've seen your guys' stuff, I just haven't sat there and watched it.

And it—

we were talking about that earlier, content. Like, or do you watch TV?

No.

Why? Because we don't have time to watch the TV, right?

Yep.

But like, I'm definitely gonna have to jump on, sit down, and watch some episodes.

Well, and, and the great thing is like podcasts, you can listen to it too. Like going up, right? A lot of, a lot of these guys, uh, you know, people are driving, at least in Houston, you're driving up and down the road all day.

A lot of windshield time. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not gonna watch something, but I can listen to something.

Yeah.

And, uh, you know, who wants to really look at our ugly mugs?

Oh wow.

That's—

yeah, I'm telling you, we were faces made for radio. That's right.

And somehow we went radio bravado, went for the video.

Dude, I— okay, let me ask, you guys both watch baseball?

Yeah. I don't.

I don't watch sports, period. I had 2 people today tell me that I look like Alex Bregman. I have no idea who that is.

Well, I mean, he's an astro.

Is that who it is?

Okay. But yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't think so.

Yeah, I don't either.

I tried looking him up and I was like, I don't really see it.

But I don't see it either.

Like 2, like today, 2 different people. Females? No, one male, one female.

He's a lot taller than you too.

Well, that doesn't really say anything. We are in a bar.

That's true. Um, it's true. I don't get to say you're short very often. You're not, but like, you're not.

But it probably compared to him, I am. Yeah, you are.

Yeah.

How big is he?

I don't know.

He's probably at least 6'4.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm, I'm right there. I'm tickling 6 feet.

Dabbling.

Yeah.

That is hilarious.

I don't see Alex Bregman, though. It's fine.

I—

it's fine.

I don't care. No, I looked him up. I think I'm more handsome.

Of course. So I think so, too.

The hair is so much better.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

So, all right, man, we got, we gotta bring, we gotta, we got a bunch of guests to get through, but thank you so much.

Thank you for having me on. Yeah. Um, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna definitely watch some more of you guys' stuff. And if you're watching Roofing on the Rise, easy to, to find on any platform. I'm everywhere. So you can link to it.

Yeah. And if, if you're a roofer, how do you get ahold of you?

Oh, Roofing Supply Incorporated, 210-919-8987. I do have a out of area, area code. I do have a local one, I just don't give it out.

Okay, why, why would you? Why does it matter?

I—

It doesn't matter.

Because I have, I have, I've been doing business for over 11 years on one cell phone. Yeah, and so I might as well do all business there. And then like my wife, she has my digital phone, so everything I take videos on, she calls that like if I, if my phone dies or something like that.

So yeah, he has a walled garden. He's protecting it.

Yeah, I got two phones. Hey, all right.

What you love?

All right.

Have a good day.

Good see, bud. What do you think, man?

It's good, man. It's always I always enjoy talking to people that are around roofing because it's like a it's a huge industry around here.

And like we just had that tornado come through.

I know.

And did you hear about the two guys that died? No. Yeah, there was there was two guys. Uh, that were working on a building and that tornado came through on Lake Conroe.

Yeah.

And knocked the building down, killed 2 guys, injured a bunch of other guys.

Wow.

And, and so I saw some, uh, saw some reporting on that and it was like— and then I saw that there was a lot of hail. Uh, yeah, you can put the— if you want to, you can put those headphones on that way you can hear us.

Uh, yeah, and you know what I say about that. Rain, yes. Hail, no. That's right, that's what I say.

Hey.

Um, so yeah, it was crazy, crazy weather event that wasn't even supposed to happen, right? Like, there was, there was like a 5% chance of rain and all of a sudden tornado.

I know. So a big tornado.

Big tornado.

It's big.

Did you see the pictures?

I did.

It was nuts.

I was like, you gotta be kidding. That was right. They were— that picture that's been floating around.

Yeah.

Was, um, was taken from my old neighborhood.

Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right.

It was in April Sound. That's right. I'm not there anymore.

So, all right. So one of the fun things about doing the show live at Rowdy's is people show up. People show up.

We don't know who they are.

So we're going to have you introduce yourself. Welcome.

This should speak to how good of an interviewer that you and I are.

That's true.

Because we've never met.

That's right.

We're about to have an amazing conversation.

Yes, we are. Yes, we are.

Tell us about yourself.

Can you guys hear me?

Am I good?

Yeah.

If you can hear yourself, then everybody else can hear you. Can you hear you? Yes. So you probably want to get a little bit closer to it.

A little bit closer. Okay, it's my first time in a podcast, so congratulations.

Welcome.

So my name is Jennifer Lopez. I'm part of the Cromey's Law Firm.

Okay.

I'm the customer service manager there. I've been with the company for about 2 years now. Okay. And, um, yeah, so we're a construction real estate law firm. She has been in business for about 16 to 17 years now.

She?

Miss Carolyn Cromey.

Okay.

Yes. So she's the, uh, the owner, the managing partner.

Right.

Unfortunately, she's not here today.

Sure.

Due to her speaking at a conference in Chicago.

Oh, wow. Yes.

Yes. So she's—

I've never said that before, Craig. I've never said I'm not at that place due to my speaking engagement in a large city elsewhere. I've not said that before. Have you?

I have.

Okay. Well, back to you. I'm just kidding. Well, well, great.

So I'm not gonna lie to America.

I'm gonna tell the truth. Yeah, I did once. Um, so, all right, so a law firm that really— okay, so you, you're, uh, your business—

okay, hang on, because I think I know who she is. She's written a book, right? Yes. And she has a show, right?

Yes, a podcast.

Isn't— okay, is this— okay, hang on, let's see how good my— is the book, Stop Getting Screwed?

Quit Getting Screwed.

Oh wow, okay, there you go.

That's one of her books, uh, Quit Getting Screwed.

Which is great because it's a pun, right, for contractors to quit getting screwed. And yeah, that's a good— man, that was good.

I'm sure she's happy, her marketing team is happy that you explained, all right, how that works.

Well, I, I, I'm like, this is great. I've— we've We've never talked to someone that does this specifically.

And then her show is a different name, right?

So she has a podcast, it's called Quick Getting Screwed.

Oh, it's the same. Okay.

Yes. And then she also has 2 books, so Quick Getting Screwed and then Quick Getting Stiffed.

Ah.

So one teaches—

Make that one work, Kevin.

Oh yeah.

Here we go.

Ready?

That's what it sounds like. That's what it sounds like. Nothing. Sounds like nothing.

All right.

Yes. So we help contractors, you know, all across the United States, business owners as well, you know. Yeah, they don't receive payment, we help file liens, send demand letters. We help with their contracts as well. Yeah, you know, um, new build contracts, residential remodel contracts, master subcontract agreements. So pretty much the one-stop shop for contractors.

Okay, so help us understand, like, how bad is it that y'all's business exists, that it thrives, that, that this is now necessary.

Oh yeah, we see, you know, the little guys getting screwed over, and that's why we, we're stepping in and we help, you know, the subcontractors get paid, right? You know, we see a lot of things in their contracts that we help review, and we're like, wait, these are a whole bunch of red flags. Let's make sure you're well protected. Yeah, negotiate this part and whatnot, because it's It's brutal out there.

And that's really interesting. So, so let me ask this question. So you've— so if I were a subcontractor, but I, I was going to, like, my primary job was to go find GCs to, to do jobs with, could I come to you and, and get a, get a contract kind of built so that I can hand it to them, say, here's my term, or here's my contract, here's my terms, or whatever? proactively so that whenever, whenever whatever happens at the end, on the back end, if something doesn't work well, I already know that I'm, that I'm secure.

Right.

So usually with subcontractors and GCs, the GCs aren't going to sign the subcontractor's contract. They're going to give them— the GCs are going to give them their contracts. And it's like, that's when we'll step in and review that contract. Red flag, red flag, negotiate this, take this out.

Okay.

You know, all of that.

So let me— here's my guess. At that point, the general contractor is just going to go to the next guy. That's my guess.

Not all the time. You can negotiate it, and that's when we can step in and say, okay, well, let's negotiate this contract and make sure you guys— it's aware, it's well balanced between both parties. You know, like both parties are going to be well protected. It's not just the GC or it's not just the subcontractor being protected, you know, it's both parties.

That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.

And, and so I, I want to know how effective these liens are.

Like, what, what's—

do you know like the percentage of them that actually end up getting paid out?

Well, we have a 90% success rate as far as collecting payment for our client.

Okay.

Unfortunately, there are some that we don't always guarantee it because we don't know.

Yeah, sure.

So then that's when we'll have to file a lawsuit to foreclose on those properties to get our client paid.

Wow.

So it's a whole process.

So I mean, is that something that's actually possible? Like if you don't pay the contractor, is it depending on the size of the contract, the size of the amount that you can then foreclose on a property? How does that work?

So it just depends on the state. So, you know, here in Texas it's a lot harder to foreclose on a homestead property.

Yeah, okay.

You know, so Texas protects—

Very much so.

Your homestead property, and it's going to be a lot harder to try to get paid on a residential home than a commercial property.

Okay.

Because a lot of the times what we see is contractors are being hired by the tenants of a commercial property, and we can lien the inside.

Okay.

If that makes sense. And not necessarily the, the building, but what's inside of the building and sell it so that our client can get paid.

Interesting.

So it's a lot easier with commercial. It is possible with residential, but just as long as it's not a homestead and it belongs to like an investment home or, you know.

Oh, if it's like an investment— okay, if it's like an investment property, it's much easier for you guys. Okay, that makes, that makes sense.

Yeah, because an LLC can't have a homestead, right?

Yeah. So not legally.

Not legally.

I'm sure there's people out there trying to do it. Yes, I'm sure.

Get away with it.

So do you guys do business just in Texas or you guys do business elsewhere as well?

All across the United States.

Really?

Yeah, we have clients in New York, even in Hawaii. We've had even people reach out to us from Canada wanting for us to draft their contracts because it's so hard finding a contract— I'm sorry, a construction attorney to be well known to have a well-written contract, if that makes sense. So what we let them know is you're going to have to hire somebody in Canada, make sure that attorney has all the legal stuff that Canada requires. But yeah, so we're getting calls from all over the United States.

So based off your experience, I don't want you to like speak factually because I doubt that there's a way for this to be factual. But based off your experience, what would be the worst state to be a homeowner?

I would say Texas.

Really?

Well, I'm sorry, so for a contractor, it's—

For a— no, for like, for like the individual homeowner, like what's the worst? Like where are you most vulnerable as a homeowner for a contractor to come after you?

Well, I, I'm not sure what the other state is, but there's another state that also protects homesteads. But other than that, no other state protects—

Oh, really?

Yeah, it's just Texas. And I don't want to say that— not too sure on the other state, but I know for sure there is another one.

Do you know what the other state is that protects homesteads?

I would have to double-check on that.

You have to double-check?

Yes.

I'm gonna talk to Kevin. I'm gonna Google search here for a second.

Yeah, I know there's another state and I forgot, but—

No, it's fine.

Yeah, other than that, your homestead is not protected in like Florida, you know, Georgia. Yeah.

Wow.

So you can file liens. It's a lot easier to file liens on homes outside of Texas.

So is that— I mean, so, so you've got contractors out there that obviously they're doing all kinds of work. for these, for these people not getting paid. Do, do you find that a lot of contractors just don't file the lien because it's just not worth it? Like, the likelihood— they feel like the likelihood of getting a lien, uh, paid is just, who knows, like, either, either it's not gonna, it's not gonna go through, or I mean, that, that homeowner might own that home for 15 more years and they don't ever get paid on it. Do you find that that happens a lot? I mean, it's hard to know because y'all are actually getting the people in your door that are asking for that

service. But what, what do you think the, the number of contractors out there that just feel like, I can't get this paid, so I'm just not gonna try?

So I, I will say that we do get a lot of calls, you know, saying that they want to file a lien, and then we'll let them know a lot of the times it's too late for them to file the lien when they reach out. So it's not necessarily that they don't want to file liens, it's just that every state has certain deadlines that you have to follow, um, to be able to file your lien. So we'll have people calling saying, I have a job that I'm being owed for from 2021, and that's when it's like too late, too late.

So what's your— what is the timeline in Texas?

In Texas, if it's for a residential property, You have 60 days to send your notice of intent and then file your lien, 90 days.

Okay.

And then for commercial properties, it's you have 90 days from the month that you're owed, and then it'll be 120 days when you officially file your lien.

Okay. Well, that makes sense because a lot of commercial stuff's owned by people that don't live in the area and they get more time. But so, okay.

So real quick, I've got some answers here. Okay, that I think are interesting. So according to this, uh, there are 2 states that have zero homestead exemptions.

Really?

Yeah, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Oh, okay, okay.

Um, and so that might be the best— 2 of the best states to like be a swindling contractor.

I don't know.

No doubt. Just go around filing liens, who knows.

No doubt.

But like, you know, if you're a contractor in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, know that you've apparently have a lot of leverage to, to go after individuals on their homesteads.

And there's also certain states that you have to be registered with the board of—

Right.

Oh yeah.

You know, so it just varies.

And so then there's— there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 states that have the broadest homestead protections, which is Texas, Florida, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

All in the South.

Uh, I mean, you could— well, not South Dakota.

Oh, South Dakota.

Um, I thought— well, it kind of depends on how you think about Iowa and Kansas too. I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, they're like Midwest.

Yeah, the Midwest. Um, yeah, so I, I think that that's very interesting. Would, would there be a situation where, um, a contractor might come to the law firm to just get some coaching?

Oh, is that, is Is that an option?

Yeah. So we also have, um, you know, we offer a free 30-minute consultation. So anytime they don't know how to move forward with a certain situation and they're like, I want to learn from this, we try to teach them as much as we can in the consultation, but we also refer them back to our free educational website.

Oh, okay.

Which is the subcontractorinstitute.com.

Or just like, hey, go buy our book.

Go buy the book.

Learn a lot.

Well, I mean, that's Look, I, I think I, I'm really intrigued with this because I think that there are a lot of guys out there that they wind up getting into owning their own business, and contracting is a great opportunity, especially where we live. I mean, there's, there's a lot of building happening, a lot of work.

A lot of work.

And, um, it's— I mean, even, even a lot of people from Mexico that are here that are just absolutely doing an amazing job And they're able to make more money than they could anywhere else. And so there's a lot of opportunity.

So there's high demand.

Absolutely.

So I think that's actually a really interesting question because there are so many migrant workers, particularly here in Texas. I mean, like, does Texas have any protections for those people?

So you can still file a lien, you know, regardless of your status.

Okay.

So that's why we have Spanish sister company called Defensor de los Contratistas, and it's basically for all of our Spanish-speaking contractors that need help with contracts, filing liens. It's everything that we offer with the Cromings Law Firm. It's just we do everything in Spanish.

In Spanish. Yeah, yeah. And I just, I think that there's so many contractors that they want to just go out and run their own business because they've worked for somebody else and just either they're not a good employee or they just feel like they got screwed over and over. And so, but they don't know what they don't know, right?

They don't know their rights.

Exactly. Yeah. And so it sounds to me like the, the Quit Getting Screwed book would be a great place for any contractor to really start. Yes. And learn some, some stuff. I mean, yes, you know, if you're trying to build your business, that's a good place to— for some super foundational stuff, right?

Yes. And especially like on on our website, the Subcontractor Institute, we also offer free forms, free educational videos that Ms. Carolyn has uploaded herself and kind of teaches them about bids, what to look out for, and bigger commercial contracts and all of that. And also all of the lien laws for all 50 states are on there as well.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Yes.

Fantastic. Well, and so if there's contractors, I mean, across the country, I mean, this People people listen to this show from all over the country.

Oh yeah.

If they need to get a hold of you guys, like how do they how do they do that?

Oh yeah, just give us a call. You can always you know either Google the Cromins Law Firm or go to our website thecrominslawfirm.com and then there's a section where you can fill out a free for a free thirty-minute consultation and then I'll reach out to schedule that for them.

Okay.

So how long is your boss going to be in Chicago?

She'll be back by Tuesday.

By Tuesday?

Yes.

Call her. And tell her she needs to see if she can go have dinner at the Girl and the Goat. At the Girl and the Goat.

Okay.

Yeah, Stephanie Izard is the chef.

Okay.

It will blow her freaking mind.

So, so Craig's actually flown to Chicago to eat there.

Oh, okay, okay.

For that reason.

There's a restaurant out there?

Oh yeah, yeah. For that reason, gone to Chicago to eat at the Girl and the Goat. No. Yeah.

So you just went Strictly for that.

No, it wasn't the only reason. There was a couple other chefs we wanted to go see while we were there.

But it was to eat.

It was to eat. It was worth it. Oh yeah.

Okay, you guys, I've told you this story.

Yeah.

Do you want to hear? Like, oh yeah. So we had planned the trip for— we had started planning the trip 6 months out. We started making our reservations 3 months out. At 3 months, I called them and I said, hey, I'm gonna be here these 3 dates, I'd like to have dinner. We're totally booked. So sorry. Seriously, I'm 3 months out. And they're like, no, we're totally booked.

That's insane.

I was like, what do I do? And like, I'm flying up there to have dinner at this place. Like, what should I do? And she said, look, we open the doors at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Stop in at 4. We'll see what's going on. We'll see if we can get you in. I'll be there. So that, like, the very first day, it was like, okay, let's go there. So good, good preface for this story is I went to A&M, and I typically wear my ring pretty much everywhere I go.

Gig 'em.

Yeah, thank you. I still love him. Yeah, I know. Anyway, so we get there at 4, and we go to the front desk, and the lady's like, do you have a reservation? No, we don't. That's why I'm here at 4. That's why I'm here at 4. And she goes, she goes, well, would you like to wait and see if we can get you in? I was like, yes, that's exactly why we're here right now. And like, there was nobody sitting in the restaurant.

Not yet.

And so they're like, well, just have a seat in the waiting area. And if you'd like to have a drink, we'll send somebody by. Great. No problem. Girl comes by, gets a drink order. Another girl walks by and, you know, gives a little greeting.

How you doing?

Good. How are you? She, she's— as she's walking past us, she stops, comes back, and she goes, is that an Aggie ring? And I was like, yeah, how do you know that? And she goes, I used to date the nicest guy from A&M before I moved up here. I just— he was so sweet. I mean, we're not together anymore, but I just— he was such a nice guy. And so we just got to talking, and she's like, well, what are you guys doing here? It's like, well, we're, we're here to see some chefs. We got a conference going on. Um, we're just here to have a good time in Chicago. And she goes, oh, you guys— so you guys got reservations? No, we didn't have reservations. They told us to come here at 4 o'clock, see if we can

get a table. And she goes, oh, well, give me a minute. She goes around to the back, she comes back, and she goes, come with me. Takes us to the chef's table in the kitchen where we spend the next 3 and a half hours—

What?

Having the most amazing dinner. And like all night, like we had stuff that we wanted to try, right? like that we wanted to order, but like all night long the sous chefs are walking over and like, hey, you really need to try this. Hey, you really need to try this. Hey, you really need to try this. So like 2 things I had when I was there that just blew my mind. One was duck tongue, crispy duck tongue.

How was that?

Incredible. Incredible. The other thing was blue cheese ice cream.

How was that?

Oh, it's so good.

Really?

It had like a blackberry compote on top. And like, it was one of those things where like my wife didn't want it even though she loves blue cheese. And I was like, I was like, I don't know, it just sounds so funky.

Yeah.

That like, I almost, I have to try it. And the sous chef looks at me, he's like, no, you gotta have it. And I was like, okay, like, let's bring it on.

Amazing.

Did you say that it sounded funky?

Sounded funky.

The blue cheese ice cream.

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you picking up on that.

I did. Yes, I did.

So, wow. So anyway, if she— if you talk to her like, look, Stephanie Izzard, Girl and the Goat.

Girl and the Goat. I'm gonna text her right now.

Yeah, yeah, do it.

All right, well, thanks for coming.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, thanks for sitting down. All right, have a good night and, you know, meet some good people because there are lots of them here.

Thank you.

All right, cool. All right, man. Yeah, it's good.

Hey, dude, do you, do you want to jump on real quick? Come on for 5 minutes because I want everybody to get to meet you. Did you, did you meet this guy?

No.

Come on, man. We've only got like, like 5 minutes, but I wanted people to get to, to hear what— all right, so tell everybody. Yeah, get the mic there.

Pull it down.

Yeah, you're good.

There you go.

Okay, so right off the bat, tell everybody your name.

My name is Ollie.

Ollie?

Yes, sir.

Okay, and how old are you?

13.

13. So, and what do you do?

Um, so I go like I'm like kind of like a photographer, videographer kind of.

Yeah, with Viva Houston, right?

Yeah.

And you told me how long you've been doing this?

3 years.

Look at this dude, man. He's all branded out.

He's— yeah, he's been— he's 13, he's been doing it for 3 years. I know, amazing, dude.

Yeah, so I met you, I met you before the show started, right? And you were telling me about all that, and I was blown away about all the stuff that you do. It's incredible. Did you start it on your own?

Yeah, so when I was 9, I actually started Started a podcast on my own called Talking Nation Sports, and it was just me on my phone just recording about like the new latest sports and so on to publish it to Spotify. And after the next year, we rebranded, called it Viva Houston. Got my uncle because he used to be with ESPN Deportes.

Okay.

And Univision Sports.

I think.

I'm not sure.

Okay.

And, uh, so we got him. He's like our host now. He's like the face of UVA Houston.

Yeah.

And then we go out to, um, local events talking to people, interviewing people, trying to get to know people.

Yeah. So, um, how'd you find out about this one?

Uh, my dad is actually with, uh, Victory Smiles. He has a business called D Media.

Okay.

Which is a media agency.

Are they the ones with the, uh, the camera thing over there?

Yeah.

Oh, nice. We need, we need to get over there.

Yes, we do.

Okay.

All right.

Would you, would you take a picture with us over there?

Sure.

Yeah. Okay.

Awesome. Let's do it.

So, so what, so you're, you're doing events and what, and what do you do when you go to these events?

So when we go like to events, like, uh, we went to the Sugar Land, uh, Cowboys, uh, 2, 3 weeks ago, and we went to, uh, interview some people at the game, see how their experience was. And we went to go by the— I forgot what it's called, like where the players are.

Yeah, yeah.

We went down there.

The dugout.

Yeah, the dugout.

Yeah.

So we go down there, record some videos, and like right there at the instant I edit the video, chop it up, and put it out to Facebook. Like, like right there, like 10, 15 seconds, I'm done. So, uh, that day I think I had like 5, 6 pieces of content I put out like in the 30, 40 minutes that we were at the game. So, uh, it was, it was really fun. So we just go there, take videos, take pictures. Yeah. And, um, it's— yeah, that's basically it.

All right. How many followers you got right now?

Um, on Facebook we have 22,000.

Oh my gosh.

Um, Instagram, we have 1,000. We're still growing that one.

Uh-huh.

And I think we have, uh, 50, 60 on YouTube. Not that much.

Wow. And you said you're 31?

31.

31 years old? 13.

13.

I thought that's what he said.

Dude, you, you are killing it on Facebook.

That's awesome, man.

That's awesome.

Yeah, he's got more followers than we do.

Yeah, he does.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Oh dude, that's freaking awesome. So I'm super glad you're here, man. You're doing it right. Like, just keep making content, man.

That's right.

That's what you got to do.

Awesome.

So is your dad encouraging? He likes you doing this stuff?

Yeah, he's actually the one that helped me rebrand. He's kind of like, he helps us. So when we first started, I saw my uncle, he tried doing his like own kind of show.

Yeah.

But we were like, nah, that's not how you do it. will, will, um, lead you in the right direction. So he came with us and then, um, we put some money into it. We're still, uh, investing into it. And, uh, this June, hopefully, uh, we're gonna go to the NBA Finals.

Nice.

Wow.

So, uh, so who's, who's the coolest person you've interviewed so far? Or who was your favorite interview? Not the coolest. We don't want to like, you know, um, who's your favorite?

There was one, uh, The pitcher from the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.

Okay, do you remember his name?

I don't remember his name, but I do have the video. I think it's somewhere on Facebook.

Okay, what did you like about it?

It was just to meet him. Like, 4 or 5 years ago, I wouldn't have that experience. I would just have the same experience as all the fans, just being there.

Yeah.

And now I get to be there with the media credentials and go talk to the players. And then we were also at a concert Um, a Colombian singer. I didn't really have a good time because that's not my music, so—

Okay.

I'm more into hip-hop, but, uh—

Okay, so who do you like that does good hip-hop? You need to educate us because we don't know.

Yeah, uh, I like J. Cole.

Okay.

Or Drake.

Or Drake. Okay, okay.

I know those names. Yeah, yeah.

Do you?

Yeah.

I don't.

Okay.

I need to— I need to get with it, apparently.

Yeah, yeah, they're They're pretty popular in the, uh, okay, in that realm. So I don't know any of their songs. I just know I don't know the names.

Okay, so we, we gotta, we gotta get some other people. But if people want to follow you, let's, let's get you some followers. Uh, where do people find you?

On Facebook, it's, um, Viva Houston Podcast. Okay. And on Instagram, it's Viva Houston Media.

Viva Houston Media.

Okay.

What about, what about, are you on YouTube?

Yes, I think it's just Viva Houston.

You live in Houston?

Yeah.

Okay, so if you guys get the chance, go over to YouTube, follow him there, because, you know, it's nice to make money making videos on YouTube, right? Yeah. Yeah, uh, follow him on Instagram, but like, obviously you can jump on the party at Facebook with the other 22K. Yeah, it's awesome, man. You're doing awesome. So dude, thank you, thank you for jumping in on us, and tell your dad to come over if he gets a chance too.

Thank you.

All right, sir. Fantastic.

I know.

Oh, it's so good.