Roof Rejuvenation vs Replacement | Real Talk with Kaleb Lyles

Speaker 1 (00:00)
One thing that’s helped me the most

honest. It’s simple. It’s the simplest thing is doing what you say you’re going to do.

When things get tough or it doesn’t go just right or the customer kind of gets a little sideways or the job sideways.

making good on your

dad always operated with a handshake and eye

And he had customers that would wait eight months, a year and a half on new

so I’ve remembered that throughout the

Speaker 2 (02:02)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I am your host, Edmonds. And today I’m joined by somebody that I know you can get great value from. And when he wants to get to talking, you’re going to see how he can add great value. I mean, he has this incredible kind of resource that a lot of people is not doing, that he’s specializing in. I guess I can say certified in. Like he’s one of the only people that can do it in this market. So I’m so happy for him to talk about that.

But we’ll get to that. just I want to introduce you to my friend Kaleb Lyles who’s doing amazing things in the roofing space. Right. We are. Listen, if you got homes, mostly our investors, you got roofs over your head. We got to keep them up to date and Kaleb can help you with that. So I’m so excited again to introduce you to Kaleb Lyles. How are doing today, my friend?

Speaker 1 (02:59)
Doing good, Quinton. Thank you for having me on the podcast. Been looking forward to this.

Speaker 2 (03:05)
get in. Man, I listen. I’m excited to have you here. Of course, we’ve been doing some talking backstage and so I’m really excited for my listeners to be able to get to know you, what you do and for you to talk about what you bring to the table or should I say to the roof, right? To the air, right? ⁓ but I’m excited, man. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to dive right in. Of course, some people are getting to know you for the first time. So if you don’t mind just

Tell us a little bit about your story. Tell us what your main focus is these days. Tell us what market you’re in and just tell us all about what you do,

Speaker 1 (03:42)
Yeah, cool. Thank you. So Kaleb Lyles, we’re in Jackson, Mississippi market, and I’m the owner and CEO of Copper Masters Roofing. And so with this, it’s kind of a niche thing to be called Copper Masters. You know, everybody else is so-and-so roofing or this roofing company, that roofing company. So we actually niche to copper roofing, thinking at the start that we’re going to be like focusing and catering towards other roofing contractors and home builders.

But like everybody else, they’re trying to make a quick buck. And so we might not always fit into their scheme, you know, or what they’ve got going on or their bottom line. And so we saw where we had to kind of go back to the grassroots, so to speak. ⁓ My background is I’ve been roofing since I was a kid. I’m 44 when we’re recording this. And I’ve got pictures at like eight, nine, 10 years old on the roof with my dad. And I wasn’t just some kid that’s like, just ride along and drink Gatorade.

hey when we get to this job you start picking up all the rappers.

And by the time we get ready to leave, we need to have it all bagged up. So I’ve got fond memories. I didn’t know it, but my dad was getting like some good, you know, free labor out of me and everything at the time. But ⁓ it taught me how to provide for my family and

And then that’s just carried through all these years. So we’re in this market. I’m working this. My wife helps me with it. She used to get out there when we first got married and helped me with the work. Now she focuses on the books. That is actually springboarded her to her own company.

that she started with bookkeeping and accounting. And ⁓ we’re just able to service this Jackson, Mississippi market and ⁓ been here in this area my whole life. I’m not some guy that’s just flown in with a storm and set up shop and then maybe disappeared or I’m here doing mismatch work. Been here my whole life working in this area. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:29)
Man, I absolutely love it. I know one of the things that I wrote them that you said that piqued my interest is how you said, listen, we could be more like a boutique company. You know, we’re not, we, want to make sure that you get that we give you quality over quantity. And so I said, man, y’all sound like a company that’s really doing it the ethical, the ethical way for the people that you’re servicing, right?

Speaker 1 (06:54)
Yeah, so I mean we are a small smaller company, but I like that it’s right in that sweet spot, right? Where the big guys kudos to them. They’ve built it. You know, they’ve got huge multi-million dollar companies all the advertisement and trucks and they’re in and out. They’re taking care of every customer. Well, we know not every customer is your customer, right?

and so as a smaller guy, I’m able to dial in and focus on those customers and contractors and individuals that want to work with somebody like us that cares about quality work that doesn’t just want a cheap, fast dollar. Out of the three of cheap, fast and good, unfortunately, you can only pick two. if you cut corners on those, it will not pay off in the long run. ⁓

Speaker 2 (07:36)
Ha ha!

Speaker 1 (07:44)
So we’re just trying to take our time with it. Each customer, we’re able to give them a great experience. We’d like to treat them, even if we’ve got 40 or 50 customers or houses going, we’d like to treat each person as if they’re our only customer at the time that we’re working with them. And so being a smaller company, that’s kind of what it affords us the opportunity to do. And so that’s why I said it’s like a boutique, you know, roofing company.

Speaker 2 (08:07)
Man, I love it. And I’ll be honest with you, it ain’t, it’s not easy always in this climate to do things ethically, right? I mean, it’s easy to those who, when it comes natural to them, but you’re trying to keep up with big businesses and big conglomerates is coming in. You you got to stick to your guns and say, no, I’m going be ethical. I’m shoot you straight. The cost is the cost because I can’t cut corners, right? What I am giving you is quality product.

And so I love that. So let me ask you, what keeps the machine running smoothly for you?

Speaker 1 (08:42)
⁓ Having a good team that understands that. Our company obviously is not for everybody. Not every customer is ours. Well, not every employee or salesman, you know, or project manager is the right fit for our company. They have to have that same mindset and mentality. Yeah, we have to make a living, we have to pay bills, and we want to be rewarded for the things that we do within an organization. But

to work with us, they have to have that same mentality, put the customer first, and as long as we do that we have a good reputation, it’ll trickle down and we’ll make sure that we have everything that we need going forward. And so that’s one of the biggest things is the people that we have working for us, like I can trust them with everything that we have going on because they think like I think, I know they’re gonna take care of the customer the way that I take care of the customer.

Speaker 2 (09:29)
Man, I love it. I love it, man. I love it. So let me ask you this. know, we like to, you know, because these people that’s watching that they’re on real journeys, they have up and down, know, ups and downs. Sometimes the next the next day is not like the last day. Right. And so can you tell me about a time maybe that you faced some adversity? Right. Maybe like a deal didn’t go the right way. Things went sideways. You had to pivot fast.

Can you tell me some times like that to help out our viewership?

Speaker 1 (10:36)
Yeah, there’s been times obviously that we’ve signed up customers and they’ve agreed to work with us. They signed a contract with us or an agreement that, we were going to help them with an insurance claim or provide them a retail quote. And then only to come to find out, we do months worth of research and documentation and help them through the process. And they went with somebody else last minute once they got paid out because they were going to eat their deductible. they were like, I lost a job one time over $400.

And I was like, okay, well, let’s compare apples to oranges with what’s going on. know? And so that was one instance. Another is working for, you know, home builders and, you know, new commercial construction builders. Obviously, you want to get your customer in a home at a good value.

But they focus so much on all the interior things like a home, the Viking kitchens, the jacuzzi tubs, the heated floors. One of the two most important things on a structure, whether it’s residential or commercial, is the foundation and the roof of it. Those have to be top notch. You can’t skimp in that. And so we’ve lost builders because they’re like, oh, you’re charging too much. Are you trying to take advantage of the situation or something like that? It’s like, no, we’re going through all the proper steps. We’re making sure that we don’t have any callbacks and that you’re

handing over the keys to a structure that’s going to, you know, sustain the needs of your customers for years to come. So those are a couple little things that kind of are issues in our market.

Speaker 2 (12:05)
Yep. Yep. I get it, man. Thank you so much. This is the kind of stuff people don’t talk about. You know, this is the real stuff, right? This is the real side of us. I mean, real side of what’s what goes on. No leaves and something over $400. Right? I how frustrating how frustrating can that be, you know, and, but for me, that lets me know that you guys are in it for the long term. You’re in it for the long haul, y’all have longevity, because you’re doing it the right way. And so I love that, man. So let me ask you this.

no, no, you’re doing it, bro. And I hear you. hear you. But now you’re doing it, I mean, your wife is fond of business out of this. You are doing it, You know, so I’m excited for you. So let me ask you what what are you most focused on solving right now? Like, what’s the next scale? Like, what’s your next real goal?

Speaker 1 (12:54)
Yeah, so, you know, obviously we talked about earlier, we’re in this crowded market, we have all this traffic. And ⁓ so we got to thinking what’s something

that people need and ⁓ you know, it’s not really ⁓ being filled right now, that need that they have. And so actually about maybe four or five years ago, we saw this coming onto the scene with different ⁓ cleaning techniques for roofing and oils that you could degrease it with and things like that. But we got to thinking it’s like, man, if we’re cleaning something, that’s only a short term fix, one or two years. And then if you use degreasers on a roof, a roof is

made out of oils, and it’s going to degrease it, and it’s going to shorten the lifespan of it. Well, nowadays, insurance companies are doing these weird things with ⁓ percentage deductibles, not paying out, denying claims. And people have these 15, 20-year-old roofs. And everybody lives under a roof, whether you own it or you rent it, or you work under it.

And so we’re like, okay, what do need to do? And we saw this coming on the market four or five years ago, and I wish I would have jumped at it then. But in our local market, a lot of people are like cleaning roofs, right? They go up there and spray it. They may have somebody that does pressure washing of the driveway and like, yeah, I can throw some water at it. And some degreaser or some chemicals that are harsh when they clean it. So we’re like, we met these guys at a conference called Ugly Roof, Roof Rejuvenation.

and it just stuck. I just like the name. It’s something you can get ugly with, right? And ⁓ so we bought in and in the central Mississippi area and the state of Mississippi, we’re the certified dealer for ugly roof, roof rejuvenation. And so this process, we’re allowed to go through there and clean the roof, repair it, make little small

repairs to it, tighten things up here, there, and then rejuvenate it by spraying ⁓

chemicals, oils on there that are environment friendly that add five years. I can warranty a repair and a spray job with the Ugly Roof Rejuvenation for five years. One of my biggest competitors in the area, they only warrant a cleaning for two years, street free, where we can go five years on our repair and ugly roof. And then in five years, as long as there’s no major wind or hail,

Guess what? We’re gonna spray it again for reduced costs and get you another five years. So that really helps out in a market like this. And we all know money’s tight. I don’t care what they say. It’s tight for everybody. Groceries are going up, gas is going up, cost of rent’s going up. What you make it work is going down or fluctuates. It just can’t keep up, right? So if we can add years of life to a roof, then that’s where we’re at. That’s the next big thing for us. We’re pumping everything we can into it right now.

Speaker 2 (16:34)
man, I love that. I absolutely love that. And of course, you know, the next move, it can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. But I love it that you see this. And you’re like, hey, I could have jumped on it sooner, but forget that. It’s right in front of us now. And so I’m going jump on that. And I told you, the fact that you can add five years and then you can be like, well, no, Q, I can come back and add maybe another five years. After making this thing into 20? Yeah. That’s amazing, man.

That is amazing, brother.

Speaker 1 (17:05)
And so what you’ve done, what you’ve done, what we’re able to do with that is create a lifetime customer, if you will. They’re going to remember that you’re like, hey, let me help you out on this small land where when a hell storm really does happen or a wind event happens, your first phone call, hey, I think something’s wrong on the roof. We need to check it out. Hey, you actually do have damage. Let’s walk you through the process. Or they’re going to sell that house. They’re able to pass that on to the new owners. And then when they buy another property or they settle down,

They’re going to remember us for their roof work on the new property or ask for our recommendation if they’re in another state or something like that, you know?

Speaker 2 (17:42)
I love it, man. And you, I mean, you literally just walked me right into my next question because you just said you’re making possibly a lifelong customer, right? Or, you know, or the lifelong, you know, however they’re going to be in their home for that roof. Like, I don’t know if you have kids, but when your next generation, you talk about your dad had you on a roof when you was younger, when your, when your generation come that you can, you can make customers can be grandfathered then and you giving it off to your kids. Right. So you asked me to me to my next, my next question.

When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you? Because you talked about building a good team, you’re talking about retaining these customers. So tell me about building your relationships, brother.

Speaker 1 (18:26)
One thing that’s helped me the most

people want to focus on advertising and signs and commercials and all these things. But I found the one thing that I’ve benefited the most from

being honest. It’s simple. It’s the simplest thing is doing what you say you’re going to do.

When things get tough or it doesn’t go just right or the customer kind of gets a little sideways or the job sideways.

making good on your

of giving that customer the end job that they deserve, that they need. And that’s been the one thing is being honest.

dad always operated with a handshake and eye

and we’re gonna do this job for you. There were so many times, I can’t tell you back in the 90s and early 2000s, we never even signed contracts on tens of thousands of dollars worth of work or hundreds of thousand dollars worth of work.

And he had customers that would wait eight months, a year and a half on new

or re-roofs on a handshake.

and being honest to his word. And that gave him such a good reputation.

so I’ve remembered that throughout the

And today, if I go out and I sign a customer or one of my sales rep signs a customer, we’re to look them in their eye. We’re going to sign. We’re going to handshake and we’re going to sign that paperwork. But then it doesn’t stop there. We’re going to actually follow through immediately. We have a team that sends them, you know, the procedures for what’s going to happen next with their claim or their roof process or what they need to do or the information they need to

make informed decisions. so honesty is my number one thing and it trickles all the way down from me throughout my company. The foundation and the roof of my company are the two most important things to me.

Speaker 2 (20:12)
Yeah, man. Yeah, Kaleb, you can’t fake that. In relationships, honesty is going to either be there or it’s not. And people are to remember how you made them feel. They’re going to remember if you was honest with them or not. And so you can’t fake honesty, even if you are honest or you’re not. Because eventually, it’s going come back and bite you in the butt if that honesty is not out there. If you say one thing and do another,

That’s when we’re in a hard relationship. And I heard somebody say is that relationships are gained in drops, but lost in buckets. Meaning it takes a consistent drop to build honesty. But if you lose that honesty, it’s almost like taking a bucket and just turning it over. yeah, exactly. So I what you’re doing, Yeah, go ahead. You got it, bro. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:01)
It’s done.

No,

I’ve actually lost clients. I’ve lost builders. I’ve lost other roofing contractors in my market ⁓ from the type of work that I do. You know, it’s not going to be cheap and fast. It’s going to be slow and consistent. It’s going to be quality work. It’s going to cost a little more, but it’s going to be done right. When I walk away from it, the next call I want to get is, hey, we’ve got another project.

Speaker 2 (21:30)
Depart.

Speaker 1 (21:31)
But I’ve lost customers because I’ve detailed certain things out like a roof line for line, what we will, what we won’t do, what we will include in this or a chimney. One of my niche things first starting out when I opened this business was dormers and chimneys and flashing those with copper and soldering them and doing water tests on the old stuff to prove what was leaking, what wasn’t. And so I’ve done all these steps and it’s, I’ve basically outpriced myself.

because of what I did. But…

also had customers walk on my deal with them or what I was going to charge them because that cost too much. Only to get a phone call back a few weeks later or a few months later, a couple years later. like, hey, you remember working on or you kind of gave us a quote, but you were little too busy or we went with something cheaper or the insurance didn’t pay. And we’re having some problems. We need you come back and look at that. So I can’t tell you how many customers that I’ve lost and I’ve never seen them again or that I’ve lost and they have come back because they’re like, hey, something was different.

We need to actually get with you and figure this out.

Speaker 2 (22:37)
Yes, Yeah, man. You’re building relationships. You’re building it the right way. And I love it, man. I’m so excited for Copper Master Roofin to get all the exposure that you want, all the exposure that you can handle. And I’m just so happy to have you here so that we can provide this platform for you to get your message out.

Speaker 1 (22:55)
Yeah, yeah, it’s such a great service. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (22:58)
Absolutely. So listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn from you, hire you, ⁓ they want to learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Speaker 1 (23:13)
So if you’re wanting to do some collab work with me or anything like that, you know, I’m on my social media pages, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, you can reach out, it’s Copper Masters Roofing LLC. I’m all over with roofing contractors nationwide, so they know me already. But if there’s any realtors out there in the local market of Mississippi that want to work with me, look, we have a no hassle contact form on our website, coppermasters.pro.

fill out the contact form, snoop around, read all of our five-star reviews, look at our social media page and our gallery, fill out the contact form if you want us to work for you. If you just want to call and ask me a question, reach ⁓ out, 601-203-3030. I ⁓ monitor the calls. We may have somebody answer the call, but I’ll call back. Or nights and weekends, a lot of times it rings right to my phone. reach out, I’d love working with you. If you have a question as far as like, is this

roof done right, is this flashing done right, and I may never work with you, but if you just want to call and shoot me emails of pictures of it and get my opinion, let’s do it. I’m there for you. I want to make sure that it’s right, that at the end of the day, our customers are the ones that win and win big. So there it is.

Speaker 2 (24:27)
There it is, there it is. Y’all Kaleb Lyle, see the lady down. Listen, brother, I appreciate you for your time, your perspective for your story. We definitely need more people like you that’s doing it the right way. So again, I appreciate you being here, man.

Speaker 1 (24:46)
Yeah, let’s do it.

Speaker 2 (24:48)
Absolutely. listen, for those tuning in, if you got value from this, please make sure you’re subscribed. You want to make sure you get that alert when we drop an episode because I promise you we have more people like Mr. Kaleb Lows that is doing and building business the right way. So listen, thank you all for coming through and we’ll see you on the next time.