Charles Antis - Intention on How I Hold The Business

This podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In TalkSpace, the leading virtual therapy provider is telling everyone, let's face it, in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at TalkSpace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to Talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider typically within 48 hours. And because you'll Meet your therapist online. You don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, TalkSpace is in-network with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co-pay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with TalkSpace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S space 80. That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code. Hi everyone, it's Bill Black, the exit coach from the Exit Coach Radio show. You know, one of the biggest questions I get on the show is what exactly goes into a business exit plan and when should I start creating mine? Well, I always tell people that the best time to start was 5 years ago, but the next best time is now because you never know when you might need it. So we put together a free report that describes what an exit plan is and what you should know. You can get it free by texting exit plan with no spaces to 44222. That's exit plan to 44222. Again, text exit plan to 44222. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And now here's your host, the exit coach, Bill Black. Well, hey everyone, thanks so much for joining me. Always a pleasure to have you with me. I have some very interesting guests today, and my first guest is particularly interesting. He is Charles Anttis, the founder and CEO of Antus Roofing and Waterproofing. He's a well respected and widely known roofing expert, but also an entrepreneur and humanitarian, and he's become one of the most trusted names in the roofing industry countrywide, but is also an inspirational business leader championing social, corporate policy and responsibility. Anti Roofing and Waterproofing just celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, or as Charles would say, for over 30 years we've been helping families keep safe and dry. So here's the thing is Charles has served on a dozen national and local boards for well-known organizations including the National Roofing Contractors Association. And where they've adopted all 165 Ronald McDonald homes across the country. He's used his business for good there. He's also a board member of the Roofing Alliance for Progress and locally serves on the Orange County Habitat for Humanity, Habitat OC through which Anus Roofing and Waterproofing has again donated every roof installation of every home built. By that organization since 2009/80 families housed and a million in-kind donations. He's received numerous awards, you know, too many, too many to mention in this short interview, but just in 2020, he received the 2020 Hispanic Leadership Award from Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I am a Impact 2020 award. 10 2020 Community Cup best overall project on and on. The list goes on and on. We're going to talk about the intention on how he holds his business. Charles, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining me today. It's a real pleasure to have you here. Thank you, Bill. I'm really happy to be here. You know, with that intro, and I could have, I could have gone on, there's so much that you've done with your company as your, you know, as your springboard, as your platform. I'd love to hear about how business owners are reaching out and really helping the community at large. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into starting Anus Roofing some 30 years ago. OK, I'd love to tell that story. I, you know, I, I, I, I ended up here not through great planning on my part. There was a lot of, lot of luck looking back now, but, you know, the, the one thing common with what I do today is I grew up in Oregon where almost every man that I could see worked with his hands. In a semi or dangerous job either in forest cutting trees or in the plywood or lumber mills, and that's, that's the common, that's the common thread I have cause I grew up in this place and, and when I ended up in California without a job when I was 21, I looked for a job as a laborer and the only job I could see was in roofing and that's kind of how I landed in roofing back in the summer of '84. Wow. So, so what did that instill in you when you saw, you know, these, these, you know, people, these men working these difficult laborist jobs, uh, what did that create within you that, um, you know, that has stayed with you to this day? Well, I think that's a good point. I mean, I grew up where labor was toil. It was, it was supposed to hurt almost or you weren't working hard enough, and And it's just the mindset I grew up with and I came to California though. I, I was recruited at college as a sales job and I was knocking on doors selling insulation in the, in the Pacoima Arlita in the valley in North LA and, and that's, so I thought I might try something else because I was recruited to sell. I thought I could sell it. I, I had sold a family one day and it was a deaf family. They, uh, they were deaf. They, they. You know, they, they couldn't hear and, and I really liked them and you know how you sometimes, as you should love the people you sell to, and I, I went back the next day, really excited to see them but also to pick up the check. But when I knocked on the door, nobody answered and then I, I looked through and I thought, well, maybe he can't hear and then suddenly I saw him look at me and he still didn't answer. And right after that I felt footsteps on the, on the porch. I turned around and the neighbor asked me to leave and And I asked why, and she said, because you're taking advantage of my guest friends, my neighbors, and I, I started to argue until she pointed to what the promises were in the contract, which I had not really read, and I agreed with her. And so that was the last day I sold insulation and that's when I looked at myself to your question. I am a laborer. That's how I grew up. I will go get a job in labor and all I could see myself. I couldn't even see myself uh bussing tables or or working in a restaurant. I unless I was going to learn how to wash dishes. That's how I saw myself. And so I think coming in that way. And, and working on hot ropes, tearing them off with dangerous conditions. You know, I think I do have today a deep respect for those people that, that supported me when I was young, my father, my grandfather, who had many injuries as a tree faller, as a, as a Timber cutter, but I also respect the laborers that are up on the roof today, and that's, that's an area that we could talk about where, um, you know, we have a million workers in the roofing industry, but a lot of them are taking advantage of. In fact, over half of them have stories on weeks or months of working for a company that didn't pay them because they knew they could get away with it likely because half of our workforce is an immigrant workforce. Interesting, interesting, and yeah, having that, having that respect from having worked harder having done it in the beginning really pays off. I know I I talked with a lot of um business situations where a new generation is taking over and they they didn't. They took the, took the elevator to the top, let's just say that way, you know, they didn't really work through the positions and so they don't have the respect of the workforce and they don't respect in turn the workforce. But you've done more with your business than just respect your workers and build up a successful business. What is your long term intent with your business because you've given back a lot? Where, where did that start and what's your philosophy with regards to your business? Well, you know, that goes back to Oregon too. I, I didn't know it until recently when as adults, when we reflect on the stories of our childhood, often they have much deeper meaning. And, you know, I told you that every, almost every man I knew was a laborer, but it's not entirely true because there was this one guy. And I don't know why he strikes emotion in me except that I get to be him a little bit today and his name was John Shirtcliff, and he owned the Shell Oil Station. Looking back, he probably had more than most other men, but yeah, to me, he was just another man. But I remember when I was 6 years old at the wooden Nickel Dave Parade in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. It's the biggest event of the year. I love that parade, and he would be at the end of the parade, and he would have These rolls of dimes and he would give us kids dimes and when I would walk out to get my dime, he would just hand me a dime. And this, this is a really important point. He didn't just hand me a dime, he held my stare. When I didn't know that an adult that I was worthy yet for this stranger to hold my star, he held my stare and he said, Here you go. And you know, and when I bought those two candy bars with that dime, you know, I, I never forget the way he made me feel. And this is what I felt back then, but I didn't know it until I reflected now is, oh my God, I, I respect my dad and all these men, but I want to be him. I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy who's lifting up everybody he's touching because he can. And I didn't know what my goal to do, but that's what put in my head that it took 40 more years to start to come to fruition. Wow, that's an incredible strong experience that that changed. It sounds like it really changed your life in a lot of different ways. What do you think, what do you think he was, he was trying to do this, this gentleman with the giving out the dimes and, and, and giving you a message at the same time. Well, thanks for asking. I, I, you know what, he, to your question, his long term intent was different than the long term intent that I've been taught since I've owned my business. His long term intent was to take what he has now and do with it. I don't know this entirely, but looking back, I think to some extent John Shercliffe said, you know what? I need, I need to be secure. I've got to take care of my employees. I got to take care of my family. I don't need to build them a castle of gold. If I have anything left over after my security, I need to give it back to those and build up community around me. And then there's a tradition, there's a tradition to do that when we look back 100 years, when we look back beyond these profit-taking years with these generations thrived and you know, if you look at generation to generation, we behave differently. One. Saves this next generation comes out and conquers a lot. The next generation says, I want what they had, and then, but more and then leverages in the next generation has to save it. But back here, if your intent is good and you want to build something good, then invest in community. And what I've learned now is I can do what John Shercliff did because I have that philosophy. I don't want to build a house of gold for my kids. I love my kids. I I suppose they might need a down payment on a house type thing. They might need their college paid for and that kind of beyond that, I don't want to turn them into monsters, but what I do want to do is take the excess of this business and reinvest in my people and everybody that I can reach in the community. And that what we found is, is just like Johnhircliff, if your intent. And actually, I don't want to say big. Whatever your intent is, once you think it's possible, I've learned that oh my goodness, it is, and we've been able to have big impacts, and I, and I'd love to tell you some of those stories. I'm getting too much caught up in theory. I'd like to get into what happened. Yeah, I'd love to hear that. And also, you know, what's interesting about when I read your bio is you've given so much within your station. In other words, you're in the roofing business and and you didn't have to, um, you know, pretend you were doing something else you took what you do, which is a very necessary service for for. Anybody who has a building obviously and you turn that into something that you could give and continue in your line of work and give so much to other groups like the Ronald McDonald House, like Habitat for Humanity or Orange County Habitat for Humanity, those types of things. That's because I have this thing in me that that that everybody could have in their own profession, but with me it comes out just like this. I can't let somebody have a leaky roof just because they don't have the money to pay. And I'll say that again because I think it's profound for my profession. I, I can't let somebody and their family and their kids have a leak over them when I know I can fix it just because they don't have the money to pay. And, and it sounds like an impossible task, but that's, that's what I've learned that I can do something about. Just like the doctor on the airplane, when, you know, we, we, we, we imagine any doctor on an airplane when he hears the pilot say we have a medical emergency that that doctor, he or she would raise his hand in that moment. We would like to think that he would, but, and I also believe that all of us know that that doctor is not going to turn around and send the bill for his service. So how am I different than that doctor? I have a different skill, but my skill is every bit as vital as his. We have one of the basic skills providing shelter. We can't survive without that, and we hold that. very seriously and if we hold it very seriously and if we say something like we exist to keep families safe and dry, which is what we say, then that's what happens. But I want to just quickly tell you why it started because I think everything that I'm saying doesn't make sense until I tell this story. Can I tell you the story that happened to me right when I started my business 31 years ago? Yes. Yeah, please do, please do. Yeah, I'll tell it quicker than normal because I know we have a lot to cover, but you know, I started this business because I started in the roofing and I and I didn't have enough work where I was working and so I was good at leaks. So I said, give me the leaks that no one can solve. I'll fix them for free. And I, and then I would win trust of people and so that's how I started my business and I became very good at that until one day I got a call from a lady and she had leaks in every room, and it sounded really good. But when I got there the next day, I noticed I was going to a really disheveled neighborhood until finally I. a house when I turned on the street where the home would be and it was really set back on a dead grass field, 4 walls and a relatively simple roof, and I, I didn't know what to think and I knocked on the door and then I was hit with this experience that I'll never forget. A woman answers the door with a really tired expression, like she has not had a good year. Before I could say something, I was hit with the smell of mildew that nearly knocked me down. And so then I'm just recoiling. I mean, it's like fight or flight. I'm having that reaction and I'm turning to leave, wondering what I'm gonna say. And suddenly I feel a tug at my finger. Completely opposite of the expression of her mom and me. There was a little 6 year old girl with blonde hair and an ear to ear smile who had probably the first visitor to her home she may have had all year for all I know. And she was just so happy. She grabbed my finger and she pulled me in, and what am I going to do? I followed her into this disheveled living room through this undersized hallway, and she turns right into her room, and I knew it was her room because she points to this my little pony poster on the wall. And, and, and, but, but as she smiles and looks at me pointing to the poster, I look at her feet and I see a mattress, and then I see 3 more and they have moldy bedding on them. And I just, I kind of lost it. I lost composure, I didn't know what to do. I was stuck. I didn't say I was going to do anything. I, I, I wanted to leave. I didn't want to leave, but I didn't know what I could do. I didn't think that I could. I had a mortgage payment to make, but suddenly the mom walked in with that same expression. You know, I don't know why it was that expression and not the little girl, but when I saw the mom come back in again with that hard look, I, something came out of my mouth that I never heard myself say before and I said, I'm gonna take care of your roof. And I, and I went up there hoping, praying that it was just like a hole, but the roof was just nothing, but I could see the plywood everywhere. So I, so I got a bunch of volunteers and we, we gave them a roof because we could. And, you know, I still didn't know that was a good idea, but every time I ran into one of those siblings that that were from the house, or every time I ran into the volunteers that I got to help me because I didn't have any employees yet at the time. It was like a moment, like a high five moment, like, hey, brother, hey, boom, high five, wow, what did we do? And, and today we have that. It took a long time to bridge this story, but we have it, it's called culture, you know, because when you do good together, when you join together in a common goal, you speak exactly the same language. And when you exactly the same language and your values are aligned and your story is real. It's right before you. It's ringing with authenticity and it changes everything. That's what started me on my journey, that story, and it's led to those claims that, that we donated all the habitat roofs, so I've been on the board for over the last 10 years. It leads to the story where we've got the NRCA, the National Roofing Contractors Association. To adopt all of the Ronald McDonald House roofs in the nation. In fact, I was 2 days ago in Camp Idlewild, where it all began 3 years ago with some of the people that were planning a new maintenance on that roof, and we're going to celebrate the adoption of all the roof, the roofs. We're going to have Fred Hill, the original founder out there. Why? Because he, he said yes, you know, it's like, if you think in terms of lifting your people and you think in terms of building the impact in the community, I've learned that it really happens. That's an amazing story. It really is fantastic how you began with that. The other thing that you do is not only give with your company, but you give up your time to many, many nonprofit boards. What can you tell our listeners about, you know, why you do that? Why do you serve on so many nonprofit boards and what do you, what do you get out of it? And, you know, why should, why should our listeners get more involved in their community? What are they missing out on? Um, the best night's sleep of your life. If you have a cause that you're aligned with and you can ask yourself what is that thing that could fulfill me and you could see yourself, what if I could do that and you find a nonprofit that has a great leader. I can't just be a passionate leader. It's got to be a great leader, but here's the most important criteria. Look at the board members. And ask yourself this. Does that board, oh my God, are those, do those people have what I want? Would I just be honored to sit with those people then if you then get involved and you will become who you hang around with. That's who I hang around with. Why do I serve on so many boards? Because I learned I could. I used to spend 40 hours a month on my habitat, uh, board. I was board member of the Year, volunteer of the year until I, I, I learned that in my Part who I am. I have so many other things that are so important to me. Like, like, not only do I, I need everybody to be safe and dry, but also I think it is unimaginable to ignore sick children. So I went to Sharon Ellis five years ago and said, Hey, I'm gonna to join this other board. Can I be on both boards? She said, Sure. So then I learned and I got asked to be on another board, and what I learned is if you volunteer and you make, you negotiate when you're asked to join, um, a nonprofit board, it's. You don't do 40 hours a month. They would rather have 3 hours placed where your expert branding, you know, whether mine is usually it's branding, messaging, storytelling. They want what I can give and they want what you can give. And so what I've learned is we're not the same, we're all completely different. Why not go in there and say this is uniquely who I am. This is, I'm a little bit vulnerable because I'm not perfect. By the way, I won't ever read the board packet. I say that not because I won't read the board because I don't want to. It's like I'm too busy. I'll intend to, but I won't, but I'm when I'm, you're really honest, you know what they say every time they say, OK, and so get involved with everything that fulfills you and be everything that you think you could. possibly be. And I promise you, you'll be happier, but also you'll be heard, you'll be relevant inside and outside your company. And, and that matters, I think, to a lot of people. It gives you a sense of, of purpose. It gives you a sense of who you are. It gives you a sense of legacy. You, you, you mentioned one thing that inspired you is uh Bay Bay Becalardo's book Doing Good at Work. Can you tell us what that book means to you and, and why our listeners maybe should uh pick that one up? Well, Bebo Landro and I have talked around the world together. She's like the CEO corporate social responsibility whisperer, and I'm a practitioner and so we have, we just finished the United Way course. We're teaching corporate social responsibility to CEOs and That book is amazing because she uses her life stories to really tell how we're fulfilled. We're happier individuals. We live longer, we sleep better. We're better husbands, we're better wives, we're better children, we're better parents. We're better employees, we're better bosses if, if we, if you, if you just get into it. So I'm sorry, what was the, I, I got excited. What was the question? I forgot. I started to go another direction. Well, I think you, you're starting to answer. It's like what's the book about and why should our listeners, uh, you know, maybe pick that up and you know the, the book, the do good at work is what it's, it's really about being fulfilled and, and the I'm in it in one section on page 142. She has, she, she quotes me on being vulnerable. I said, you know, it's typical being vulnerable at work, but actually it makes things a lot easier. And so she hits principles like that, and then she goes deep. Like 10 years ago being vulnerable work would seemingly get you executed, but it's not that way. And so she also goes and she makes a point. She makes a point in this book that I think is brilliant. It's not her point. She's quoting somebody else, but she says this. At any time in the history of civilization of mankind. The masses have been completely wrong about a basic concept that all are following. And today it is no different. She says in that book that People today chase the dollar over and over again, accumulating more and more instead of living in the moment and they're leaving themselves on the lowest rung of life's rewards. Now, I missed that quote a little bit, but it directionally got it. And I think that that book is so true, it really nails it. That quote really Knows what it's all about. If you want to live to the best of who you can be and you want the people around you to find out who they are and go live up to that, see themselves higher forever more than do good at work. And I think it's a book that I highly recommend. It's on Adam Grant of top 30 for the year, for good reason, so I would strongly recommend. So I'm glad you brought it up. I'm gonna call me right away and tell her you asked about it. Well, you know, you're, you're inspirational to us all. I mean, basically this is, this is terrific discussion about how you can, you know. Do more from from your station, wherever you happen to be. If you're a business owner out there and you do plumbing or you do you do any of the trades, you do anything, you can give back with what you do. You can give back with your leadership, get involved in local boards. It certainly is a message that I think we all need to hear and you deliver it so well. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your time and your experiences with us. Anytime, man, this has been fun. I appreciate you struck an emotion in me today and that is what it's all about being real, alive, conscientiously awake in the moment and I appreciate you wakening me today. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio. This podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and TalkSpace, the leading virtual therapy provider is telling everyone, let's face it, in therapy by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at TalkSpace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to Talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet. Your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, TalkSpace is in-network with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co-pay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with TalkSpace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code 80. That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S80.