Welcome And Meet Adam

Julian Placino 0:00

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. I'm Julian Placino, your host, and we have another tremendous show in store for you today. Because today we have Adam Vaillancourt, who is the founder and owner of Adam Vaillancourt Roofing and Gutters. Adam, welcome to the show. How are you? Great, great, man.

Adam Vaillancourt 0:24

Thanks for having me.

Julian Placino 0:24

It's awesome to be here. Absolutely excited to learn more about your leadership story, the business. So let's jump in. So you are founder and owner of Adam Vaillancourt Roofing and Gutters. So tell us a bit about the business and also your day-to-day focus, Adam.

Adam Vaillancourt 0:41

Well, the day-to-day focus. It's funny. I was talking earlier with uh teammates, and I'm like, my day-to-day now is stay out of everybody's way. Because I've hired such and we have such great uh staff and leadership and employees. Um, you know, as the company has grown, um, it is I I can tend to be a perfectionist, and and that's great in some areas, but um, you know, in other areas, it's like, hey, you gotta let your team grow, you gotta let your team figure things out. So I do a lot of the a lot of mentoring, um, a lot of discernment in certain meetings to offer, like, because I mean I've been doing this 20 years, so people might have great ideas or thoughts, and I could tell them, hey, well, this would be the pluses you're gonna get by doing this, and this is potentially the hazards by doing these certain things. So I do that. I do some technical training with with a lot of the roofing techs um on the on, you know, at various meetings. I attend some of the roofing training meetings throughout the weeks and then some of the leadership meetings. So I mean, my day-to-day is fairly limited. I'm not putting the 80 hours in like I did for two decades. Um, but yeah, like I said, the team has grown and uh they're doing a great job. And a lot of times it's like I let them grow. It's you know, I let them do their job. I've hired great people uh that do a tremendously

Getting Out Of The Team’s Way

Adam Vaillancourt 2:10

good job. So, you know, you you gotta let the team carry the carry the vision, uh, if that makes sense.

Julian Placino 2:16

So it sounds like there's a heavy focus on leadership, growing your people, mentorship. And I know we'll speak about this a little bit later. One of your key principles is is focusing on the people. So it sounds like you're already beginning to kind of tease that out. So I think that's great. Um, so Adam, with with so many roofing companies out there, what do you think Adam Vaillancourt Roofing and Gutters does X exceptionally well that sets it apart from the competition?

Adam Vaillancourt 2:42

Well, what we've done is we've been very, very consistent over 20 years, and and consistency really is the key to this business, you know, um, ever since I started, and continually what we do is like is making sure you're how you're serving people and listening to your customers and paying attention to your customers' needs and wants and focusing on what are our customers telling us they want us to get better at. They won't always directly tell you you have to tease that out because people, a lot of customers, they don't want to people don't want to hurt your feelings, they don't want to offend you. But if you're if you put yourself in a position where you're unoffendable and to learn what we can do better and what we can improve and that we've never arrived, you can get the that in intel from your customers. Um so we pay attention to our customers, I think, better than any organization out there. And by doing that, listening to our customers' needs, wants, and desires, and and not being offended by a customer hurting our feelings because it's about them, not us, we will tease those things out slowly and and meet meet their demands. Like, because really anybody customer, the one thing in a business is they can fire you anytime they want to. You know, they just can. So, um, and they're the most important thing. So that makes sense. That's really what we focus on, you know. And so it's very simple, really, in a complicated business. I mean, it can be complicated, but it's very simple.

Julian Placino 4:13

Interesting. What I heard is that being open to real criticism for the sake of continuous improvement, right? Um, and and getting that feedback from your customers. So any interesting aha's that you received from this process over the past, let's say, year?

Adam Vaillancourt 4:30

Uh, sure. Like our customers will tell us, like, um right now, one main

Customer Feedback Without Ego

Adam Vaillancourt 4:35

major focus is would be communication. Like, and then we ask specifically in what areas of the business do you feel that we might not be communicating to the level that you need us to communicate? And so, in in certain areas, we will go dive into those areas and say, well, how can we improve communication with our customers? As we're scaling and growing and serving more people, our desire is to serve them with the same degree of quality as you serve more, and uh, and that is obviously a difficult task, or everybody would do it and they'd be running 20 plus million dollar organizations. Um, that's that's difficult. It's difficult to do. So um, I mean, the the the whole team is focused on that. Um, our values are tied to that. Um, and if that makes any sense.

Julian Placino 5:24

Okay, okay. So so let's go a bit into talent culture and also hiring because as as I'm speaking of the choir here. It's like it's the people is what makes the business great, right? So, what do you think that Adam Vaillancourt Roofing and Gutters, as a place to work, has done to differentiate itself to attract the best talent out there?

Adam Vaillancourt 5:43

Okay, so foundationally, what it really came down to was uh I I always knew that people want to know that they matter, an employee matters to an organization, and what they do matters. In other words, they matter and what they do is making some kind of a significant contribution in in the world, in society, in the area they serve to their customers. It if you can do that, um and you can build around that, you you'll you'll attract the best people. Uh so that our our values tying into all that makes a big difference. Um and then when we hire people um and bring them on board, we have uh we interview them very thoroughly because we want to make sure when we bring somebody in that it most importantly, it's a right fit for them, not necessarily for meaning they have the attributes, they're gonna be successful in the position, they're going to win in whatever they do. So everybody has natural attributes, they have natural skill sets, they have giftings and they have deficiencies. We want to make sure we're hiring them that they're gonna be naturally built to be successful in the department that they're hired for. So we tease all that out very early. And and and I learned that from making major mistakes early running the business and not hiring the right people and not putting them in the right seats and through that pain and still being successful or degrees of success, but you know, we had a we learned, you know, we learned and grow and grew and evolved. Nobody does this thing perfectly. If I would love to find the person that does, I don't think they exist or they're lying. So you know, it's just unpredictable, man. Yeah, you know, but we but you know, we were always willing to grow and step outside ourselves to to learn and evolve, and and realize, like you said, like the foundation, learn what we're doing wrong so we can do it better. Um, so I mean, by doing that, you're a high probability that that that employee and that I don't even call them employees, I call them teammates. You know, our teammates are going to to to win, be successful, and thrive. Um, and then we're growing, we're always growing and we're uh evolving. So there's opportunity for people to come in in a certain position and and move and elevate themselves into a possible leadership position or move into a different department if this isn't they're not succeeding in this one area and they're succeeding in another area. So I I think by doing that, it gives people um, hey, I want to come work for you. You know what I mean? I I believe in what you're doing, I believe in that vision. I want to make a difference too, I want to make a contribution too. And um, and and we we uh we we we thrive in that, you know, and and and we and we thrive in people uh you know, I remember I remember people would make mistakes and I would be laughing and they'd be like, Well, they couldn't believe that I wasn't upset with the mistake. And I'm like, I was like, no, this is exciting, you know, and they don't get it because it's like, okay, well, what did you learn and how can you grow and how can you evolve? And it's like, okay, well, your mistake by learning and admitting it, you can show five other people in the organization to not make that mistake. So is it it really a negative if you learn? No, like that negative can impact five other people in a positive way. So it's like when you put somebody in a position in an environment where, hey, you can make mistakes, you learn, it gets uh the transparency out there. Well, and and it creates that culture. Um, so I mean, there's a number of reasons why. And a lot I I can speak for my employees, but I'd love for them to share why too, you know. Maybe we could do a podcast down the road and they can say why they want to be here, you know. That makes sense.

Julian Placino 9:45

Speaking to your internal customer, which is your your employees, your teammates, right? But a lot of good things that got through. The first one that I thought was really cool is that uh you said you are very intentional about helping people feel like they actually matter. You also suss out through a very detailed interview process, the values, making sure all that lines up and overall just the match with the organization. Also, another really cool thing is that you made you sort of facilitated a culture of learning and not beating people down because of mistakes, but actually valuing it and using them as teaching opportunities that you can scale whatever came out of that to the entire organization, right? I think those are

Hiring For Fit And Letting People Grow

Julian Placino 10:20

those are really good. So, what are some things that you do intentionally to invest in your people to level them up? So much of what you do right now is mentorship. So, what are some of those things you do to grow your people?

Adam Vaillancourt 10:30

Yeah, well, we um we do some. I mean, so first of all, like we have strong leaders, like we hired strong leaders, strong leaders that want to grow and evolve, and and the and we're always evolving. And I and I took that on personally too. I realized uh, you know, maybe in 2015, 16 what I had to do and mature and grow and learn. So we're always learning and growing because you can't give what you don't have. So that happens, and then that starts cascading down into the the other leaders, you know, and and people think, well, um I'm not running a department. It doesn't make you not make you a leader. You can silently be leading by the examples you take. So, I mean, we do a lot of um a lot of uh roof technical training, a lot of in-house training. I mean, this is a it's a trade, so you have to do a lot of uh mock demo setups of roofing uh situations on jobs. Um, we bring guys out in the field, our techs, we do ride-alongs with them and do live ride-alongs. We do uh video um analysis on roofs and and look at those in the classrooms and analyze the data and and and point out certain things that we see, or some of the experts see. Um, we have production meetings we have once a week where we put the roofs up on screens, uh, and we all and we analyze every single project with all the photos, and that's a major teaching moment because you have over uh you know, probably a hundred years of expertise in the room at one time going over the job. So people that are newer get to be trained by someone with I mean a hundred years of experience combined in that room with some of the leaders uh and some of the technical, highly skilled technical people. It just it everybody's learning, you know, you're constantly learning. So those are some of the things um that we do.

Julian Placino 12:33

So it sounds like you've established like a culture of learning as well, it's just ingrained into the people, the way you run the business. I think that's really great.

Adam Vaillancourt 12:42

Yeah, we never want to practice on anybody's roof. I've been saying that for decades.

Speaker 1 12:46

Yeah.

Adam Vaillancourt 12:47

Not doing it.

Julian Placino 12:49

So um, anyways. Yeah. So so Adam, what's the pitch? Let's say there's a top performer out there looking for maybe a new organization to come work for. Like, what's your pitch? Why do you think top talent in the roofing industry should come work for Vaillancourt?

Adam Vaillancourt 13:05

I honestly I don't mean to be arrogant about this, but I believe like our our people, our organization, the culture we've built, um it will be uncomparable. Atmosphere, I mean, and we're used to the environment because we walk around it on a daily basis. And and you know, everything that's really special, we all get used to after a while, it becomes a new norm. But when people from the outside come in that haven't worked for this in this environment and this culture come in, it's kind of intoxicating. Um, and they say it. So then we're like, oh yeah, we remember how Meg, because we're all listen, we're perfectionists too. Like we're always trying to fix broken stuff, we're always trying to get better, and that happens in the day-to-day. But when someone from the outside comes in and they're like, Oh my god, I miss you guys, I miss this environment, or if they they had to leave for various reasons, they they miss it, you know. Um so it's like it's it's hard to explain. Um, but we've heard it from past employees that have had to leave to go work in a different organization for various reasons, or they mute, they moved or something on what it was like here compared to where they went. And some people come back, left, you know, for a reason, and the the grass is greener somewhere else, and they've come back because it's not. Um so, and that's a credit to the the team. It's a credit to the team, and it's a credit to all the customers that decided to choose us.

Julian Placino 14:35

Love it. I think that's great. And that sounds like you're you're kind of creating an open challenge, too, right? So come test it out. It's go come come do a ride along with us, check out the business. So I think uh I think those are all good points. So um, so Adam, I want to move into a bit more of your your own personal success story, right? Because I know the story goes you started with a small crew, a pickup truck, and a vision just to change the reputation of the of the roofing industry. So um, so that's where to present a real quick. What what what's the after? How many team members do you have right now?

Adam Vaillancourt 15:02

Oh my god. Maybe Kim can help me out with that. Kim, what do you think? You're back in the back.

Speaker 1 15:09

We're over 50.

Julian Placino 15:10

Over 50. Okay, okay. So so start with this whole concept of the vision. Like you said you you want to change the reputation. What was it about the reputation of the roofing industry that you wanted to change? When I started, okay.

Adam Vaillancourt 15:26

That's great. Like listen, small visions turn into big visions. You know, I it was very simple. I I worked for contractors in my 20s um that were doing well financially, um, but they weren't serving customers to the degree that they could and they should, I believed. And and there was some success there financially, but I was working for them. And even though I was getting paid very well, I was very inhab very unhappy internally because we could have done it better. We could have given them more. And and then I watched the employees. Um I was a top performer, so I always got treated well because I could produce a lot. They weren't getting treated all that well. And I said, This is just raw. And I watched it and I felt it, and I said, when I do this on my own, I'm gonna do everything different. And and and how I paid people and how I treated people and how I treated my customers. And I had people very early on be like, Well, you can't pay people that much. You pay people how much? You can't pay them that much, you're not gonna make it. And they they said that a lot in a lot of different areas. You can't do this, you can't do that, that's not gonna work. But I believe like um customers just deserve more, and it was fractured. The industry was fractured, it was just smaller roofing businesses. Um, we had a bad um image. Roofing didn't have the same um value as a plumber or an electrician, or those guys were you know getting paid better or getting treated better, and all they're the roofers showing up, and you know, it was just kind of like uh this image of an old beat-up van or guy showing up to a job site, and it and and I was like, This is this is wrong. This is a uh um a trade, this is very hard work. We and and a lot of guys um didn't charge for the services they were doing either, and and and sometimes they didn't charge

Training Systems That Prevent Rework

Adam Vaillancourt 17:35

enough for the services because they weren't providing very good service. If you provide excellent service, then you create value, then people don't mind paying for that. And and uh so there was a lot of wood to chop and doing that, but like you say, it's it's all built day-to-day efforts. It is literally day-to-day efforts and consistency over a period of time and holding on to that vision. All of a sudden you wake up someday and you're like, wow, how did this get built? You know, but it you know, because I'm exhausted from doing it. I'm like, oh my goodness, like some people were like, Oh, you know how to do it, you can go do it again. I'm like, oh my gosh, I wouldn't want to do this again. Brutal. It was brutal.

Julian Placino 18:17

Um, how would you match it up out of like looking looking at life now, looking at what the original vision was there? How how close did you you get to to doing it? How would you rank yourself? We we did it.

Speaker 3 18:31

That's awesome. Wow, and and how does that feel? Tell us how you feel about that. Um the effort, the um the pain, uh the struggles, the um all of it is uh worth it. Um so yeah, I mean it's um it can it is a lot. Um my heart pours out to anybody in the trades that uh that is in the struggle that that's working this. Like I have a lot of respect for people in this business and all the other trades and the pain they go through and the struggles. Um, but it's worth it.

Adam Vaillancourt 19:30

It really is worth it. Um like I said, I wouldn't want to do it again when I started I was 29 and I'm and I'm 51 now, but uh um I'm glad I started when I was 29 because the 29-year-old body performs a lot better than the 51, but I have a lot more of the of the brain power, I guess, and the experience that I didn't have at 29. So uh it's exciting to to down to download that into the next generation. There are people working in the organization that are I'm like 32, 33, and I'm like, wow, I I I didn't have that kind of mentoring at 32 and 33, and I think it's an honor to be able to give them that kind of mentoring and to watch them be more successful than you are in the various departments because you and you're happy that they're better than you. I mean, a guy a long time ago said one day everyone's gonna be better at every area of the business than you were, and you get to sit back and clap your hands and applaud and be grateful that that happened, you know what I mean? Um when there's no ego anymore, you know, or very little, you know, to to see that.

Speaker 3 20:43

So yeah, it's been uh it's been uh getting a little teary-eyed. It's been um wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

Julian Placino 20:53

Well, congratulations to you, and I hope you're able to really be present with that feeling because you really have built a tremendous business and also you made a a lot of difference in people's lives, right? Um, so so the the the two success success success factors was really setting out to do something different than the industry to help change your reputation. Um, the second, of course, you mentioned really focus on people, but the last thing you already started to begin to touch on it, which is giving back, right? So, what exactly does that mean from your perspective?

Adam Vaillancourt 21:21

Well, it's it can be in multiple areas. Um you know, at first, at first, um for me, I found out when I was doing this trade um kind of accidentally as I was serving people, that you know, when you when you really really serve a customer with your whole heart, you can leave an impact. In other words, um that's how I built a reputation. I wasn't good at convincing someone we were good. I was good at working the job sites to a high level and having them go, wow. I've never and it and it left them with a Feeling of like, wow, that was a tremendous experience. And then the

Changing Roofing’s Reputation Through Service

Adam Vaillancourt 22:05

next day they would be wherever they would be working or whatever, and they would tell somebody about that experience. I didn't do it because I got another job from them saying that. But I my intention wasn't to get another job. My intention was to serve them to the best of my ability. And that impacts people because it gives people hope. They're like, wow, that was tremendous. And then it raises the standard in the industry because people that want to want business have to raise their standards. So all that can be happening in an organization. Like we've helped raise the org levels in other organizations, and then other people doing it helps to raise our standards. So I mean, that's all happening. I mean, it can be giving back to it could be it could be growing and learning and having to evolve as a person because you want to be able to feed your team with the knowledge and the wisdom. I mean, it can be the black and white can be, you know, we make we make money and then we give back to organizations and communities like um the local food pantries or uh addiction recovery or share program in Milford or the food banks or the various scholarships that we do or roof giveaways. But I learned we do roof giveaways once a year and uh during the holidays, and and I I stole that from somebody uh of the Railroof Company in Pennsylvania, and I was like, Well, that's a great idea, and then we've got and then it's funny, is there's other companies in New Hampshire that give roofs away, and sometimes they're like, Well, they're they're copying us, it's like good, somebody else is getting a free roof in New Hampshire because we started a roof giveaway, and other companies are giving away roofs now, too. That's a good thing, right? I mean, it yeah, it's a good thing. So, like I mean, it it can be everywhere if you want it to be, and if you hire the right people. Um I don't know if that makes sense to you. You know what I mean? Uh it does.

Julian Placino 24:07

It seems like the common theme I got there, Adam, is that you just really do pursue excellence in every area of the business. And it first started with focusing on the customer, not focusing on all of them, but just the one, right? And then you would organically get referrals, you build a reputation for that, but really translating that in every other area of the business. Uh, and I think that's great, Adam.

Adam Vaillancourt 24:24

Yeah, I remember a story was uh when I was smaller and I had to answer the phones, a customer would be like, Well, you're not really good at answering your phone. And I explained to them why. I said, Well, I won't answer my phone until 12 o'clock. I said, Because that day, the most important customer is the customer's job side I'm on that morning. That you have to pay attention to that morning are critical, critical for the success of that job. And and then I said, Well, and then when I'm on your job, I won't answer the phone until noontime for the next customer because you'll be the most important customer that day is the job I was on. And foundationally, stop worrying about the next customer, focus on the customer that's right in front of you, and and you know, and build that way. Now, obviously, we had a lot of people answering phones now, but we started from that vision of but when you get me, you're gonna get all of me. Yeah, get me. Um, because my I made a promise to them, you know.

Julian Placino 25:30

Yeah, I think that's a great principle to live by for sure. So, like if you focus on everything, you focus on nothing, right? So um, all good points. So, so Adam, let's switch gears a bit. Let's talk a bit about Pixie because this uh this podcast here is powered by Pixie, and you're a Pixie customer. That's the reason why we we came together, right? So, first off, how would you describe to other home services leaders what Peaky is?

Adam Vaillancourt 25:51

Oh man, you're challenging me on that one. It's like because other people in the organization really are the ones running the Peakzi and doing all the AI stuff. This stuff is like changing very fast. Um, but I I we're gonna be on the cutting edge of all of it. I know that much, because all of it's gonna be a big impact to helping our customers and our employees. And like that's where we are. We're foundationally about in the people business, helping people. So, like, from but for me to break down all of Peakzi, I'm not gonna be able to do that. Um, because that's not my wheelhouse. We're so big that I have like people that run the Peakzi part of it, uh, and and working that to the degree that they are.

Julian Placino 26:36

So then give us just some insight in terms of the landscape, then, right? Of AI and roofing. Why is it important for you as a business owner to begin to think about these things and use tools like Peakzi to help you get ahead of the curve?

Adam Vaillancourt 26:51

Well, what we're realizing is how people search online is going to change drastically. Um what I've heard from other organizations recently is they're on the cutting edge of how using AI and the marketing for their business and what that's doing. That one guy literally basically said, if I were you, I would just talk to AI for hours and answer all the questions that it needs to answer from you because you have all the proprietary understanding of the entire organization. You're out of Balcor from out of Balancor roofing. And if you get that out out there in the you know, out there on AI, it's like you're gonna you're gonna move up and get get more opportunities to serve the customers. And we have to be in the in the front in the front of you know the customers calling us. You know, there's this there's this saying like uh I remember getting this a long time ago. It was on a

Giving Back And Focusing On One Customer

Adam Vaillancourt 27:45

little packet of sugar, it says, uh, he who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers in a well is not so apt to get the dollars as he who climbs a tree and hollers. So you have to be out there in front. If you do good work and you're not out there, then customers don't have an opportunity to call you and use you and experience what you can give them and be able to grow an organization healthy and do all the things that we want to do altruistically. So it is very, very important to us to be on the front lines of all the changes that are happening.

Julian Placino 28:22

Okay. Yeah. So the biggest thing I got is that you have seen in a very tangible way the nature of searches changing, how people are looking for home services, right? And that's one of the reasons why you you came on board with Pixie.

Adam Vaillancourt 28:35

100%. Yep. We're always going to be turning over new stones if it turns, if it, if it turns out, turns out to help our customers and help our employees. Um, yeah. Like I said, that's foundational. So our decisions are easily made in that area. Yep.

Julian Placino 28:50

Okay. Any kind of initial feedback, even from a high level from your team about what the experience with Peakzi has been so far?

Adam Vaillancourt 28:57

Uh, I think we're getting, I think our team's very happy, right? Are we getting some? Yeah, we're getting this very happy very early. Like everything's so new, it's gonna move so fast. But we're we're very, very excited. And um, and we have a bunch of nerds in the company. We always say, hey, we have a bunch of nerdy people that love it and uh and get excited about it. And uh, and I love seeing their excitement and when they when they're utilizing and learning these. I mean, this is uh, you know, um big, big, big change that's going on and uh for the better, I believe. It's gonna help a lot of people. So good.

Julian Placino 29:33

And what do you think is the risk to other home services leaders if they do not adapt AI tools like these?

Adam Vaillancourt 29:41

Um it will be hard for them to scale their organizations, I believe. Um they could get they could get left behind. Um and maybe that maybe they don't want to scale. I don't know. Some people are happy with smaller organizations and smaller businesses, you know. Uh like I said, it's painful to to grow it, to grow it and scale it to that level to to where we are. Uh not everybody can handle that kind of a that kind of uh beating, I should say. But yeah, they uh they uh they they they uh they would need to evolve. Like everything is the evolution, you know, you're constantly evolving, you know what I mean. We have to evolve, we have to innovate, um we must. I don't want us to be afraid to not, because then then you're then you're making decisions based on fear, but there's a lot of wisdom in in and looking at what's coming up and how to utilize it um to stay stay on the front end of it all. Yep.

Julian Placino 30:49

Okay. So

AI Search Shifts And Why Peakzi

Julian Placino 30:50

anything else you'd like to mention about Peakzi before we begin to close out here, Adam?

Adam Vaillancourt 30:55

Yeah, not right now. Not not right now, no. Okay. Back with my team and do more homework.

Julian Placino 31:01

Yeah. We'd love to get gather their perspectives, maybe in a later episode as well. But I appreciate you sharing what you did. So, Adam, we'd like to close out with a few kind of lightning round questions, just fun questions to kind of get to know you a bit more. Um, so if you're ready for that, let's jump in. Okay. So, um, what's the funniest service call or customer moment that you experience or can recollect?

Adam Vaillancourt 31:23

So there's a lot. And I read that and I was like, oh my gosh, like, okay. Um, the one that came to mind was um I was on us on a call visiting a customer, um going over their project, and um customers tell me stuff, like I'm pretty authentic, like I and and so this customer was like people go through stuff, they go through pain, they go through struggles, and and I can pick up on those things. And and I'm not a hugger, but out of nowhere, I literally felt like this person needs a hug. And like so I hugged this person, and I'm not a hugger. It's like, wow, that was powerful. And and I was able to like have um some empathy for what they were going through and understanding, and so I left the appointment and I called my very good friend who was also a sales guy, meeting a different customer in another part of the state, and I started telling him the story, and then he goes, Adam, I was hugging a customer at the same time you were hugging a customer for real. She was on a sales call trying to go going over a roofing project, and probably had a similar situation where he ended up hugging the customer. Now he is a hugger, so he hugs a lot more customers. I was a hugger, and I still felt like I had to hug this person, and so it's like when we talk about us doing more than just roofs, people are going through stuff. People are going through stuff, and they need a roof, they need a service call. We have the ability to respond to that, meet their needs where they are, and and and stuff leaks out, and they're going through struggles. Um, so that those are unique experiences that we get to do, and what a blessing it is to be able to do that. Um that one's pretty unique, but there's there's thousands, thousands and thousands that we've experienced. My employees have experienced their teammates.

Julian Placino 33:22

Um, but yeah, that's just one of them. That's and that's a great one. Because, like you said, you want to leave behind a feeling, right? And what better way to do it than that, and to have it happen at the same time and you not being a hugger? That's great. That's one for the bucks for sure. So, um, so Adam, what's something interesting about you that most people don't know about? Like your team that's worked with you for a long time. If they found this out, they'd be like, Whoa, that's uh didn't know that about Adam. What would you say?

Adam Vaillancourt 33:44

Well well, I'm gonna drop a bomb on you guys. All right, let's hear it. Uh, so I give back to food pantries. Okay. You know, and and give and I've given tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to food pantries. I went to a food pantry, I used a food pantry at one point in my life.

Speaker 1 34:06

Really?

Adam Vaillancourt 34:06

I I I I I got sober in 2003. Oh, wow. Started my business in 2004. So go figure. So I'm in long-term recovery. I've been in long-term recovery. And uh my 20s, it was a there was a rough, rough point in my life, you know. Uh, and I don't regret ever having to go through that. It made me the person I am today, but people would never have expected that I had gone through such hardship that I had had to go to a food pantry and eat at one point, you know. So, like that, they're like, wow, that's crazy. And I'm like, yeah, it is, but uh, yeah, like uh I'm not bashful as people in the company that do know that. I'm not I don't hide that because somebody already always knows somebody that's gone through that is in recovery that is recovering from something, someone's always recovering from something, you know, whether it could be addiction or this or some trauma or some event. So um, yeah, like that has fashioned me and uh into the leader that I'm able to be today through all that stuff. So Adam, that is inspirational on many fronts.

Julian Placino 35:22

That transcends home services, man. And like, no, no, no, it really does. It gives people hope, right? I mean, it's like a lot of times people just show the highlight reel, but you're very open to be vulnerable where you came from, where you are, and the process it takes to get there. I think that's that's really, really awesome, Adam. Thank you for sharing that. Um, a couple of questions here for you, and then we'll close out. What do you think is the future of the roofing industry in one word or phrase?

Adam Vaillancourt 35:47

Oh, future of the roofing industry. Um I would say uh

Lightning Round And Adam’s Legacy

Adam Vaillancourt 35:55

word or phrase would be uh continuously evolving and improving towards to achieving excellence. Like it will get um it will get continue to improve. It will get better, the service will get better, the world it's yeah, it's we've gotten a lot of momentum in the last 15 years that's gonna start to to grow and move even faster.

Julian Placino 36:25

And you're right there on the forefront of all things. So Adam, final question here for you. What when it all said and done, and you've already had such a tremendous career, but it seems like you're still going, right? But what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? What do you want to be known for?

Adam Vaillancourt 36:41

Um I legacy, I mean I wanna I wanna s I'm gonna stay involved. Um, I mean, like I said, I'm 51 years old. There's no retirement for people like me. Um you know, I want to continue to feed and be a consultant in the industry and and continue to um learn and grow in my in my own knowledge and understanding and and continue to give back to other home improvement industries and and teach in the teaching end of it. So that won't you know, and I spend a lot of time with my my son and my daughter and and what they're gonna turn into and and and watching that uh grow is is is an amazing feeling. Um so yeah, like there's no uh exit strategy for me and what I'm called to do, you know, maybe not 80 hours a week, non-stop grind, but um continue to help wherever I can.

Julian Placino 37:44

Continuing to give back and just continue to live out like your purpose, your values, everything that you've you've said, all the things that have made you successful. I think that's really awesome. So um, Adam, this is a really great interview. Thank you for your time, sharing your story. If you would share with our audience what's your website, your social handles, how how does everyone connect and learn more about you?

Adam Vaillancourt 38:04

Yeah, yeah. We're uh we're at www.adamvrroofing.com uh in our direct line, 603-673-0006. Uh please reach out for our services. We'd love to be able to serve as many people as we possibly can. Awesome.

Julian Placino 38:22

And we'll make sure to have all that contact information in the show notes. So, Adam, this has been a true pleasure. It was really great getting to know you.

Adam Vaillancourt 38:29

All right, man. Thank you very much.

Julian Placino 38:31

And everyone else, thanks for tuning in. Um for uh thanks for tuning in to the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. We'll see you next time.