To Tip or Not To Tip?

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Lauren chat with Charles Antis of Antis Roofing and WaterProofing and Wendy Marvin of Matrix Home Solutions. You can read the interview below or  listen to the podcast.

Alice Reynolds:

Welcome to the AskARoofer Podcast, a podcast for people with roofs. My name is Alice Reynolds. I'm a new homeowner.

Megan Ellsworth:

And my name is Megan Ellsworth, a roofing enthusiast. And we are with RoofersCoffeeShop.

Alice Reynolds:

We want to share the knowledge of the contractors we work with every day with home and building owners.

Megan Ellsworth:

So, please join us as we talk with industry experts, roofing contractors, business owners, and more to answer all of your burning questions about the health and maintenance of your roof.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the AskARoofer Podcast. My name is Megan Ellsworth, and I'm with Lauren White from askaroofer.com and rooferscoffeeshop.com. Say hi to the people, Lauren.

Lauren White:

Hello everyone.

Megan Ellsworth:

Super excited to be chatting with two pioneers today, Wendy Marvin and Charles Antis. I'm just going to let you guys dive right into introducing yourselves, if that's all right. So, Charles, why don't you start us off? Why don't you tell the people who you are and what you're about?

Charles Antis:

Well, I'm a roofing contractor down here in Southern California, and I sell to the homeowners association market in that whole SoCal basin all the way down from San Diego up to Malibu and San Bernardino. But I specifically sell to HOAs, but I'm from where you're at. I'm from Oregon. I'm a country boy. Grew up in a small town, Myrtle Creek, Oregon, right off the I-5. And I grew up there where every man I knew worked with his hands either in the forest, on those logging camps, or in the lumber mills. And so I learned to do labor. When I found myself in California, I discovered roofing and I discovered that I loved finding the leak that no one else can solve. And then I could win that trust, and then we could do business. And so that's what got me in business 34 years ago, and that's what carries us today down here in Southern California.

Megan Ellsworth:

Love it. Fabulous. I always forget that you're from Oregon. That's really cool. Wendy, you're also from the Pacific Northwest. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Wendy Marvin:

I am. I am. So, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Matrix Roof and Home Solutions. We are a primarily residential company in Vancouver, Washington, just across the bridge from Portland, not BC or DC either way. So, we're in the area. I like to call us a customer service company that happens to install roofs. We found that our company kind of based on really poor contracting experiences. And then in a 2016, when I bought my partner out and kept on going, we just... When you start in an industry where you can answer your phone and show up on time for appointments and you're better than 50% of the people out there, it's a good thing. And so I know one of the things that I love about working with Charles and working with you guys is we're all trying to do what we can to help our industry be better and kind of show the way of different things that we can do to be better. So, it's kind of a cool group to be a part of.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah. Glad to have you here. Well, thank you both. All right.

Lauren White:

Yes, we're very happy to have you both and to share your expertise. So, this podcast is really about the season of giving and giving back, and the roofing industry does such a great job of doing that. So, what are some of the ways that you've experienced the roofing industry kind of as a whole, we'll dive deeper into it, but that the roofing industry has given back to others?

Wendy Marvin:

My experience has been tied mostly to the National Women in Roofing, and then associations that we're members of. And the National Women in Roofing in particular has been an incredible organization in the local chapters to partner with all kinds of things. I've seen some do drives for firefighters, wool socks and water to be delivered to sites, and then we've had where they adopt families, all kinds of things like that. And then the association level, we just are such an amazing industry, and just money going towards family supporting education. Yeah. Yeah, that's been my experience. Charles will probably blow us up for 10 minutes on this one.

Megan Ellsworth:

All right, Charles, I'm ready.

Charles Antis:

I was swimming down all sorts of lanes right there. The roofing industry is a phenomenal industry. And I think that... I'll tell a personal story, just a storyette in essence. I can't... When I walk into a home and family's got a leak and I realize there's no money to pay and there's mold in the home, I can't in good conscious go home and sleep that night. And I didn't know that it was a common feeling with great companies across the country. It's not like we all have a policy, but I'm telling you hundreds of times. The CEOs that I hang out with and myself were like, "Let's patch it." And who am I, when I have this skill, and I'm there, I got my truck there to not do something to keep that family safe and dry when I have that on my tagline?"

And so it becomes a dutiful industry where we take that we are the providers of shelter really seriously. And then when you see what happens when we work together, that's where you see magic beyond magic, like the National Women in Roofing, like the reason I wear these socks that [inaudible 00:05:39] Ronald McDonald's socks. I told a story to a group of roofers from the Roofing Alliance five years ago, how when my premature twins were born, one day I had indigestion and I couldn't go in and do skin on skin with my little son, Charlie. I told these roofers how it was Ronald McDonald House that had a granola bar there that I took because I didn't want to pay them back because I was avoiding them, but I ate it. And I remember later that day, lying on that gurney in NICU with Charlie, four pounds, asleep on my naked chest because that's what would give him the best chance to survive.

I told that story to a group of roofers, and 80 of them unanimously raise their hands and said, we will provide all of the roofing for all of the Ronald McDonald houses across the country from this point forward. And I've seen this happen in a relatively quick period of time. And today, we do that. And so that's an industry that does a lot together. I've seen us lift the standards of roofing together, marching in Washington 400 strong. And I've seen us right now talking about Boys and Girls Club. I just joined the board. I made the first public announcement, as I was doing a keynote two nights ago, that I am joined the board of Boys and Girls Club of Central Coast. And the reason I'm joining that board is because we can have impact, building career specific training in high schools through Boys and Girls Club participation across the country, and maybe we can also patch the ribs and keep them safe and dry.

That's what the roofing industry does together. Together, we're doing a lot. And our ambition is... I could keep talking, but I think I made the point with those couple of stories. When you see what the roofing industry's doing, then you get why all these things are happening. Did you know that over 30 universities across the country, starting at Clemson, is now teaching higher learning roofing education. We're the only trade that's there. We're really unifying, we're creating a pro certification that we imagine in a few years all roofers will need to go through. And there's a spend on that, a spend in building strong workers. And there's a strong push for building bridges all the way to the people that do the work. And at Antis Roofing, that's where my focus is more than anything. And we'll talk about that later when we talk about how we reward our people at the holidays.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yes, absolutely.

Wendy Marvin:

Hey, Meg, one more little point on that point.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah.

Wendy Marvin:

And it's a smaller one, but no means any way to toot our own horn, but to just to Charles's point, we just had an industry kind of come together where locally our local treasurer of the city of we live in put a thing out on Facebook and said, "Hey, I've got a weird situation. We've got a lady that's being evicted from her trailer. She's elderly. She's having problems. It's leaking and that's part of why they're throwing her out. Who can help?" And 30 people tagged me in the thing because we're out in the community and we have this kind of mind. I was able to reach out and say, "Yes, we're in." Just the Charles of the world, that's how we think. And we were in. And then I was not only able to do that, I was able to turn around into our industry and say, "GAF, how can you help us?"They stood up for us and sponsored all of the material necessary to do that.

Megan Ellsworth:

Wow.

Wendy Marvin:

Our distributor ended up jumping in and supplying all the plywood that needed to be done. And then that with the community, we came together. And this kind of slum lord that is out there doing this thing to senior people living in trailer parks where they're renting spaces, the land is worth more with them off of it and they can sell it to developers, and so they're trying to kick people out. We had legal come together. So, it's not even just our industry. It's seeing yourself as that different level of business owner, and then that you're working to do a larger greater good.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah. Well, that's amazing. I love that GAF and your distributor stepped up. That really shows the sense that the whole industry is all very like-minded like that. And that goes right into the next question.

Charles Antis:

One quick sentence.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah.

Charles Antis:

One quick sentence to capitalize on that. GAF, Beacon Supply, IB Materials, those are three companies, and Eagle Tile, that on every give, over a hundred gives in the last dozen years, they've always said yes to me. And those are for Boys and Girls Clubs, Habitat for Humanity roofs, Ronald McDonald House roofs and others. It's pretty amazing

Megan Ellsworth:

That is amazing. I love it.

Wendy Marvin:

Good people.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah. Well, that does go like right into the next question, which is how are you and your company active in your local community? So, I'd love to hear maybe another story from each of you about what do you do in your community to give back?

Wendy Marvin:

Well, I'll jump in because we'll let Charles finish up. Yeah, we are Habitat for Humanity participants. We do new roofs. We participate in the women build out there. You do repairs. They've got new grants available now for repairs. We're working with the industry to teach maintenance. A lot of times, some of the newer homeowners don't realize the maintenance that it takes to keep a home up, so we're working with that. Done a couple lot of things in the pot about teaching women how to use power tools, different things like that.

Megan Ellsworth:

Very cool.

Wendy Marvin:

And when you get out there and you have this kind of mind, you meet other people who have this kind of mind, and you hatch a lot of really amazing things together. And I've been really lucky. I'm a baby compared to people like Charles in our industry, but I was exposed to people like that through my participation in boards and different organizations that I just jumped in feet first with, and you just start to become a business owner rather than just a roofer. And there's nothing wrong with being just a roofer, but we need to see ourselves as business owners and people who can make an impact. And you have something to offer. Doesn't matter who you are, what you are, what color you are, gender, it doesn't matter. There's something that you can give that's really unique and special in and of yourself, and you just have to figure out what that is and people are around you that can rally and help with that.

Megan Ellsworth:

Well said. Yeah. I love that. Charles, what are some ways that you... I know you guys do blood drives and all sorts of stuff. And during the pandemic also, especially the blood drive thing, I thought that was so cool that you guys did that. And you should share that story about that man that goes skydiving.

Charles Antis:

Oh, yeah. Well, it's cool because who knew we'd be turning 6,000 feet into this blood space where we've had a couple thousand people come through and we've got, I think 6,000 life saving units of blood. Because before that it was the habitat builds. We've donated the last, I say 98 habitat roofs. Somebody told me today it's 91, but either 91 or 98 habitat roof., it's 1.5 million in roofing. We've been that over the last 12 years. So, we're really avidly donating and we're doing all these things, but it doesn't stop with... Again, it's not just those roofs. It's all these other things. During COVID, all of a sudden we heard the elderly in our area weren't getting enough food, and I finally heard and believed of food insecurity. I just got it, especially when I delivered that box of food at that condo to that elderly woman who was, I was told,, hungry.

And when I got inside and I laid that box of food down, and this is when all of our habitat builds were shut down. This is April, May, 2020. This is like our culture stuck because everyone's scared. I'm scared. And I walk inside, and all of a sudden, I hear her coming toward me and I see her in this old thin nightgown and she's saying something, and it's kind of hitting me funny. And I realize she's saying, "Bless you, bless you." But I'm just hearing... I'm just worried she's getting too close. And I set the box of food down and I turned to get up. And when I turned toward her, she said, "Bless you" again. And in that moment, I just felt alive, blessed, like I got it, like, oh my God. And then I felt so good. I was so excited to tell my team what had happened.

And then she said, "Wait a minute." And I heard her and her walker down the hallway. I thought she was going to get me a gift. And I was already thinking how I was going to decline it at a politeness. And then instead, she came back with a completely flat tube of Colgate toothpaste, asking if I could help her get some more. And in that moment, it was so powerful because there's so much we can do if we open our eyes. And it matters to our people inside and outside the company, but there's so much more that needs to be done. And that's when we started doing blood drives, because Susan DeGrassi, who's on the National Women in Roofing Board serving with you guys, Susan is on the American Red Cross Board of Southern California and she's very, very active in this. And Susan told me right away, not only did she say food insecurity, but she's a blood insecurity. There's not enough blood.

They closed down all the small clinics. What can we do? And within two weeks, we had our first blood drive. We had all this space sterilized and we've left it available for community use since, and we've had 80 blood drives. And the reason it matters is at first, people come and it's like a library, nobody talks. But you know how we are. We know the story. The story must be told why. And so we did a simple thing. I got a little room, we got every quarter, and we said, "Please tell why you give." And we heard some beautiful stories. And you're thinking of the story of Nigel who was doing a military parachute jump. And he was scheduled to give blood for the first time later that day. And on his way out, his shoot didn't open. And Nigel told me he knew he was going to die.

And he said, right then, he made a deal with God. He said, "God, if you let me live, I promise I'll give blood for the rest of my life." And then Nigel says, "That was 34 years ago. God kept his part of the bargain. Now, I'm keeping mine." And so when you hear a story like that, it's so powerful. And there's more. You got to tell another one. I can't just tell that story.

Lauren White:

Absolutely. Geez, I'm crying over here.

Charles Antis:

This story really hit me. And it's a guy. And I don't remember his name, but I'm going to say it was David. David, in his thirties, was struck with a condition where he had too much iron in his blood and he had to go into a clinic to remove a pint every week. And he resented it. He felt cursed. Until one day, he went into the clinic and he met a little girl who needed a pint of blood every week to live. And he said, "Charles, I give gratefully every week now knowing my blood makes a difference." And I thought, wow, what a beautiful story. And my dad's story was simple. I think giving blood and holding blood drives was easy for me because my dad, his simple act of kindness, and I remember from my very earliest memories, was having his arm bandaged every two months and he have a little pin on. And eventually, that pin turned gold.

We ask, "Dad, why do you give?" And he says, "Son, I do it because it's the right thing to do." And that's my dad. He taught me to do the right thing, and I've learned that you can invest in doing the right thing. And so where I spend my time, where our company, what we do, but I'm on eight boards. I spend 75% of my time not running or chasing sales like I used to. I don't chase sales at all. I mean, I know I would help there, but wow, if I stay here and I see myself, like Wendy, her company as a customer service company, I see myself as the chief people awakener. And if I hold it like this and I donate my time, I attract people like Susan DeGrassi, and they stay and they roar, and our work shows up. We're in a highly dangerous field and you have all these people doing all this dangerous detail work on the edge and you wonder why everything leaks.

But when you put purpose into a job, then... We have another saying here, and that's that every nail matters. 200,000 parts on the average roof we install. And if you have guys that stay with you, that understand the value of their hands providing shelter, then they do good work and those roofs last to full warranty. And so it comes back to us. It's not like I'm a saint. I just figured out, through the school of hard knocks, where to invest my time and my money, and that's in people.

Lauren White:

Dang.

Megan Ellsworth:

Wow.

Lauren White:

Round of applause. Oh my god.

Wendy Marvin:

I always hate doing podcasts with Charles.

Megan Ellsworth:

I love that.

Wendy Marvin:

That is just amazing.

Lauren White:

It really is. Yeah.

Charles Antis:

You guys are easy to talk to. That's a secret in life. Spend your time only with people that are non-toxic to you, only with people that are the ones that think that everything matters. And then you can emulate the most beautiful stories together. So, I tell a story based on who the audience is, and that's who I perceive is listening and who you guys are. And I think that we speak better when we're with people that we trust.

Megan Ellsworth:

Totally.

Wendy Marvin:

A hundred percent.

Megan Ellsworth:

Love that. That resonates.

Lauren White:

So, speaking of trust, why should our audience, home and building owners, work with contractors who, one, they trust, but who also, like you both, give back to their communities? Why is that an important thing?

Wendy Marvin:

I just feel like you are dealing with someone who has a larger capacity to be here long term. When people get out of being a me contractor and they start to become a we contractor... And I'm so bummed because I think I thought I coined that, and then I found a book that had it in there and I was like, dang it. My journey to become a we contractor was not from the beginning of my company. It was a money making thing for our family. We traveled, we had this great thing, we were planning for retirement. And then when I split for my business partner and became a solo person, I realized that I just felt like there was something missing in my life. And what's missing is the passion and the stuff that Charles talks about and that I'm talking about now. And we were missing that camaraderie that comes from when you give back, that thinking about more than yourself.

And as soon as you start being that person, it just blows my mind how it becomes this huge ballooning mushroom that just never stops growing. You meet a more amazing people, your name is on other people's lips. And I think for us, for me, our company, trust is huge. What we do is not typically visible to our customers. It's a very hidden, very unknown thing. People don't study about how to get a roof or how to do a roof. And they don't really ever, some of them do, but not most of them don't get up there with us. So, they're trusting that we are educated professionals. They're trusting that we're up there on the roof. And if you see somebody that's out there in your community at the share events, at the habitat events, at the whatever other fundraising event it is, and they're giving back to the community, as a homeowner, you want your money to be following those kinds of people, who you know that they're not making $50,000 on you and trying to scam me for every dollar that they can get.

They're the kinds of people that are making enough to keep their company open and to be here in the long term, but they're also really concerned about making sure that the community that has made them who they are are benefiting from their success too.

Megan Ellsworth:

Well said. Voting with your dollar is how I would put that. So true.

Wendy Marvin:

That's a big power we have nowadays, right?

Megan Ellsworth:

Charles, why should home or building owners work with a contractor or hire a contractor that gives back to their community?

Charles Antis:

Well, the best stat that sells it to anyone that works at a company that understands that the cost of attrition is Antis Roofing has a 90% retention rate. And the industry as a whole has only... I think it has a 54% attrition rate, which means half of the roofing companies will lose more than half of their people this year to other companies or out of industry. So when you... Imagine that times half of a workforce times 30 remote job sites times 200,000 parts per job. Imagine the opportunity for error with a constantly flexing workforce. And so that's the number one money thing.

It's night and day difference. And now, they might get a roof done, performed at a cheap price, but there's no way the quality can be there because the retention is not there for the oversight because this is... Imagine a nail. To a homeowner that doesn't know this, we use nails and fasteners all the time and we go do roof repairs all the time, five year old roofs, 12 year old roofs, 15 year old roofs, roofs that are supposed to be 30 year roofs and they're failing just because a fastener wasn't put in far enough or put in too far. There's a finesse, there's a art to roofing. It's not a brute labor. That's why in Germany, it's held high. That's why we hold it high. That's why the brand of roofing is lifting. But people need to be educated on why the price is not the same between vendor to vendor. And I think this is a good education.

And the thing about it is to the contractor that's listening, it's counterintuitive. I can't spend more money. They know we're high price. Well, everyone knows we're highest price. And it sucks, in a way, I admit it, but we're still getting jobs. Why? Because people are smart enough today and educated enough to know that this is what brands that last look like, like Wendy said. I can tell you an awesome story that happened six months ago that our new CEO of the roofing industry, McKay Daniels, put in his newsletter when he called me and said, "Charles, I need a quote on why social good is good for a company." And I said, "Okay." This just happened last night. Devin Wench was in a board meeting on a Zoom screen like this.

So, there was six lit up boxes, his, and there was all the board members. And then there was 30 voices from the homeowners, but they were not boards of directors so they were not in this decision. So, Devin was doing the presentation. We had a lot of outstanding contracts. And suddenly, the treasurers interrupted Devin and said, "You know what, we're sick of Antis." And Devin was like, "Whoa, this is odd." You guys are always high priced, you cost more. And we think it's because you had that what you do at the Honda Center and you're spending money.

And he was talking about a suite and these corner, these tickets we gave away to nonprofits to see hockey games. And Devin said, "So, I think you're talking about the community corner where we help nonprofits." "Yeah, we don't want to pay for that." And this is a night. This is what I imagine happening. This is happening. Oh my God. Devin's just sitting there. Suddenly, there's a voice, no screen, no pictures of voice. "Excuse me. Excuse. Can I talk? I happen to know Charles." I still, to this day, don't know who it was. "I happen to know Charles and I happen to know they do good work." So, she started to tell a story. And then the treasurer said, "No, you cannot talk. You do not have the floor now."

And he was right, but then she said this, she said, "I will not be silenced." And she told a story of what we did for a nonprofit. When she was done, every other board member said something positive about our company and they signed every outstanding contract. I hope one of them is listening and they can weigh in and tell me if I'm wrong. I think that's a story that kind of... Because I got to be honest with you, why are we doing this? We can't afford... No, someone just asked me to another roof. It just happened again. We just donated a 200 square roof to Orange County Rescue Mission. And I swear they bounced an email back, "Hey, we got another place." I didn't even want to open the email.

But you know what? We've already got people joining us to do it. It's like, why does that work? Because everybody shows up, not just to swing the hammer. They show up to build something that's beautiful. They show up to build shelter for everyone.. And they understand the value of that. You should watch our guys. You ever watch some of the Antis videos? Go on Antis websites. I can't think of social media. I'm on LinkedIn, but go on all of the other and look at Antis and you'll see the pride. We are the [inaudible 00:26:41] on your roof. Most of my men come from Latin America, so we build bridges all the way to them. We do career... We do emotional intelligence training, all of these higher learning things that we can't really translate the same if you're born in another country.

So, we bring an out of country trained staff to teach them. We're teaching them English. During even a busy schedule, we're having them come in during the day. We bring a university and we're teaching them English so that they can advance their careers. We're investing in them. And the other thing... I know I'm jumping the gun,, but I'm on this role. But what are we doing for our employees for Christmas? We're doing something that I started doing a dozen years ago when I took all of them into my home and made them breakfast one of the time. And I asked them what their lives were like and their memories, and they told me about this tradition in Mexico called aguinaldo. And Aguinaldo is a tradition where it's actually law with major corporations where you give about a 10% to 20% chunk every November to give to the families at this time so that they can refresh and clean and get things they need.

It's more than just Christmas. It's aguinaldo. And I learned the spirit of that, and we learn to do this thing, whenever we had good years and the rains comes, roofing in California's feast famine. When we had good years, we would take a tremendous chunk, 10% of that profit, and we would throw it into aguinaldo and they would get big bonuses at the end of the year. Well, this is a year that we don't have big profit. This is a year that... And this... I'm not complaining. This is just like we're been in drought all year. We finally got a little rain last week. It'll help a little, but [inaudible 00:28:04]. So, we were scheduled to make. And I'm going to... Well, we're going to... A few hundred thousand profit. I'm just going to say that. And that's not very much, because this is scary if you're only making that, if you're a 20 million company.

But we decided to give all of it to aguinaldo. We're giving it all to our employees. Because why? Because we can, because they need that, because we believe that. And that's the way we've been doing... We don't know if we're going to continue aguinaldo in the future. I'll say that right now. We think that we might have a meeting at the beginning of the next year and say, "Hey, aguinaldo is this target that looks like you're making more money than you think you are. Remember aguinaldo?" But it's not set, so we're thinking of rolling that into salaries and just lifting salaries more. But my point is we're thinking always on new ways to build bridges, not just to me and where I'm from, white boy born in the mountains of Oregon and now here. No, I'm thinking of my mostly Mexican born and first gen people that do all of the work on the roofs. And I'm thinking how... And that's where we've made major strides, and that's where I'm most proud.

When I walk on the job sites, my men and I, we look at each other in the eye and we smile. And I only say men, Wendy, because I haven't been lucky enough to have the first female roofer up on the roof.

Wendy Marvin:

You'll get there, Charles.

Megan Ellsworth:

Wow, that's amazing. And you're so right. That is why people want to work with contractors that are active in their community, and giving back not only to the community but to their employees. And it's just better vibes, really, for a lack of better words.

Charles Antis:

We also... We don't have a hard time hiring. And I've never said it that way. I don't want to say that, but I hear people telling me in the last two years, in the different industries, Charles, there's nobody there. And I hear them. That's what they're seeing, there's nobody there. That's not what we're experiencing. Every time we need to hire, we have people there because people talk. It's those little stories. It's not the big press stories we get. I love those because you need the stories told, but it's the small stories, lip to lip, house to house, manager to manager. I love that.

Wendy Marvin:

Well, employers want to be part of something greater than just a job. I think that is one of the most beautiful parts of... And I don't know, Megan, is it Gen R now? Gen Z, Gen whatever. Whatever the gen, that's the [inaudible 00:30:29] gen, I love them. But I feel like that is one of the biggest generations of just like, don't talk to me about the new car you're going to give me. Tell me what I'm going to mean to you. Tell me what it's going to matter that I work with this company. And when you've built a company that people feel like it's a family and it's a part of something greater, it's the biggest gift you can give.

Megan Ellsworth:

Absolutely. Well said. Yeah, absolutely. So, we're going to shift a little bit. This next question has been one that we've been getting a lot on askaroofer.com from different home or building owners, especially as the holiday season is coming up. And that is, should a home or building owner tip their roofer after a job well done? And do you see this happening often? Are people trying to tip? What's the etiquette there?

Wendy Marvin:

I know my guys get tips a lot of times, most of the time. And I think for just general purposes, what we hear from the homeowners is they just had no idea how hard it is, the work that we do. And so they see the guys out there going the extra mile. I think one of the comments we got a couple weeks ago that just made me so proud was, the lady told us that she had given our guys tips and mentioned that she really wasn't going to because she's sick of this tipping generation and they want to tip through the drive through and they want to tip for coffee and everything. And she said she watched our guys get up in the morning and there was still frost on the roof, and she watched them work solid until lunchtime. And she watched them come down and have lunch and they laughed together on her porch. And she offered them water and they said, "No thank you."

And then they got back up and they finished her roof in a day. And she says, at the end of the day, they're dragging themselves off the roof. You could tell they were exhausted. And one of the young men stopped to straighten her solar light that may or may not have gotten bent in the course of the service. But she said it touched her so much, just that small act of caring enough about her house that she just wanted... She said, "I almost felt like I wanted to just go inside and hand them my entire savings." And I just thought that was so cool. It's just a way to be able to show above and beyond that you're appreciative of what they do. And our guys... I don't want to make any mistake. Our guys do not expect that.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah.

Wendy Marvin:

They really don't, but it really impacts them and makes them feel cared for and loved when that does happen.

Megan Ellsworth:

Aw, that's so sweet.

Wendy Marvin:

Good stuff.

Megan Ellsworth:

Do you guys see people tipping more during the holiday season or during this time of year more than usual, or is it just kind of job to job?

Charles Antis:

Well, I'll say I haven't... So, I started as Blue Cross. I was doing the [inaudible 00:33:27] and all the repairs and stuff. And I don't remember a lot of tipping. I don't remember a lot of tipping back then, but I remembered how I felt when people noticed me. And I think that's what, as an employer, you can notice them, but also how you can help keep them safe. Because we don't expect tipping. I told you, we give a huge chunk of aguinaldo around now.

Megan Ellsworth:

Right.

Charles Antis:

We're taking care of them. And I wouldn't want... I don't think people should feel obligated to tip, but here's where you could really help. And I'm sure you're going to at times, but it might be... I mean, if you tip, I'd say put a card in there and tell them why. Then it has a lot more meaning.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yeah.

Charles Antis:

Say what you just said, "You guys were laughing on my porch. You were up early working hard. I appreciate that." But you could make sure they always have water. Because this is what happens on job sites. We have safety, we have water, we have water, as OSHA requires, but sometimes things just run out or leak or whatever.

Wendy Marvin:

Or get warm.

Charles Antis:

When you're thirsty and when you're humping hard, and all of a sudden you need water... I used to do that. I remember being light headed up on roofs. I shouldn't have taken those risks. So, how you can help is always make it really easily available. My wife does, always, since COVID, for UPS and everybody, she's got water, she's got snacks. So, blood sugar, think blood sugar, nuts, maybe a... I'd rather it be a healthier candy bar. I'm trying to talk about healthier diet right now.

But I mean, that's a big thing you can do. I think that's the most important thing, but I'm not going to say don't tip. But it's not something that I hear about. Actually, when I heard this question, I asked, "Do people get tips?" And I heard [inaudible 00:35:01]. In Southern California, it's not that common, or maybe I don't always hear about it. But one thing that is really cool, it's that interaction. When they pause, give them... Do you want to give them a help? Give them a good review with the company. Write a Yelp review. Because the company, we need those, especially we service HOAs and we're selling to five people, but there's 500 there, but I have to keep five happy. There's 495 that could be unhappy with this, so we need good reviews. So, give that guy a good review and his company. That's the best thing.

That's a better win for him than the money because he wouldn't be at this company if he wasn't getting money. But the thing that I want to point about a good company is guys reciprocate. So, I've told this story many times, but I remember when I got a call from a guy who went to, on a Friday, went out to do a roof repair. And while he was on this house, he met the wife who gave him something to drink, and then she told him about her husband who was dying of cancer and showed him the leak they had under their deck. And we also knew how to do decking. And he said, "Charles, if you donate the material, I'll donate my Saturday and we'll get this family safe and dry." And it was like...

So, I think that the real world is we reciprocate. And my rule is, and what I try to teach my people is, to err on the side of generosity with everybody in all your interactions. And I know the math doesn't add up, but it does. And so my job... So, being generous with those that I sell to, I would like them to consider where that money would serve them best. But if they feel so inspired, I would say sure.

Megan Ellsworth:

Awesome. I love that.

Lauren White:

That's wonderful. Yeah. So, kind of tying it all together, are there any kind of charitable events that you two are doing during this holiday season or just in general? And how can home or building owners get involved in some of those? How do they find out about what you're doing or get involved in Habitat or Ronald McDonald? What are your suggestions for that?

Charles Antis:

Well... Go ahead.

Wendy Marvin:

Oh, I was going to say, Facebook is still sadly one of the places that I... Everybody keeps going, "Staff Facebook? Nobody uses Facebook." I'm like, "A lot of people use Facebook." We use that a lot in our area just for notification of events and things. And so we don't tend to publish a lot of what we're doing just because we kind of just do it. But when we do things like collecting socks for the firefighters and we go to the community, we ask for that kind of stuff. So, I would say just keep an eye out on social media areas. For older folks, a lot of times, they're still looking at things like the newspaper. That's a really great place to find events that are coming on. And I would say, for my company, we have our few that we focus on. And again, habitat's a big one for us. The Women Build specifically is a big part for us, and community partners always reach out to ask how they can help us be a part of that.

But I think a bigger thing is just even bringing to us what you think is important, what you've been involved with. We've found a lot of really smaller charities that needed our help. And again, I'm on a different level than Charles, that just even 150 to $250 can help. And we found them through our customers. And so when we send out our thank you letters, we always try to say, "Hey, we're working with..." Cascadia Tech is one of the charities we work with, and it's because that's the skills trade school in our area that we've partnered with. Bring your stuff forward too and find those companies that do give back. And that's just another way to partner. And contractors from our side, they're going to remember you. That's the part that is like... We don't do this to sell ourselves, but the end result, you cannot deny that it helps with relationship building and trust building in the community. And it's a two-way street. Our customers love us and we love them right back.

Megan Ellsworth:

Amazing. I love that idea, of bringing your ideas forth to a company that you love and trust. That's brilliant.

Wendy Marvin:

Yeah.

Charles Antis:

We do those. We love participation with our people inside our company mingled with all of our stakeholders, and that includes property managers, supply chain people, because we donate all the habitat roofs, usually about seven a year. We also are allowed to have four habitat builds a year. And that allows us to bring, used to be 20, I think now it's smaller numbers, but 15 of our different stakeholders. And then Meals of Love at Ronald McDonald House. Traditionally, we would do Meals of Love. We go in and prepare together. And so yes, we announce it on our social media. We'll also send out invites. And this week, this is speaking season, I MCed the 40 Under 40 the other night. Last night, I arrived in a helicopter with the co campaign chair on Double [inaudible 00:40:16] McDonald House to a crowd at this place called Hangar 21.

And I came up on the stage where we auctioned off a California love drop for 10 people. Now, so everyone else is buying trips someplace, but we auctioned off and somebody paid $2,000 to take 10 of their friends come with the California Love Drop, which is this company, Antis Roofing, Wahoos Fish Tacos, Monster Energy and Yogurtland, where we've gone like 400 drops to police, fire, hospitals. They get to choose to which frontline responders or volunteers we go to. And then we're going to go and we're going to feed. And we're going to say thank you, and then we're going to talk about it on the KLOS Heidi and Frank Show on the next Friday. And then we'll have the video feed and we'll put pictures in. So, we have this whole routine that we're able to do. But when that's not working, we're just scrappy. We're doing the same thing as Wendy.

In fact, the California Love Drop, this is a pretty organized thing that I'm giving you right now that I'm telling you. But man, sometimes we show up in watts handing out backpacks because we hear there's a gap and we can. And then we end up having a memory that will be with us forever, and everybody that showed up there. And then just like when I delivered that box of food or when that guy told me why he donates blood story. And so I think that it's really important to get involved. And a company like Wendy's or mine, you just have to reach out to. So, if you're listening to this and you're our local market, reach out to corey@antisroofing.com, because she's the one who's going to send that off to the Promised land to bring you to one of our events.

Megan Ellsworth:

I love it.

Wendy Marvin:

Mine would be info@matrixroof.com. We'll give you the same thing. Yeah, we just love to help out.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yes. And you can find both... I believe both of your companies have directories on rooferscoffeeshop.com, and you're also available on askaroofer.com. I think there's contact info there as well. Thank you so much for being on and sharing your wonderful stories. This was amazing.

Lauren White:

It really was. Thank you.

Charles Antis:

Anytime.

Wendy Marvin:

We appreciate you guys bringing this stuff up. You guys are amazing too. Thank you.

Megan Ellsworth:

Yay. Well, we wanted to share the love during this holiday season. And thank you again. And to all of those listening, make sure that you subscribe and hit the bell to ring for notifications so when we post next. Thank you guys again. We love you.

To learn more, go to askaroofer.com and ask a question if you have a question about your roof. It's really that simple. And make sure to follow us on all social media's @askaroofer_rcs. Make sure to follow us as well on your favorite streaming platform, and we'll see you next time.