Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Einstein's Disease. Through real world insights and powerful conversations with industry leaders, we help you break past limitations and rethink success. Are you ready to push the boundaries of what's possible?
Good evening. This is Greg Ellers, your host of Einstein's Disease. And tonight I have the fortune of having back an old friend, Jonathan Duquette. Jonathan, how are you doing tonight?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Good, and you?
[00:00:28] Speaker A: I'm doing great. It's good to see you again. Jonathan is the founder and owner of Go Nano. We had Jonathan on back in March.
Just a great story.
It's really when I think about what Einstein's disease is about, entrepreneurs helping people out, our viewers and listeners. We got some wonderful feedback the first time we talked to you because you are successfully building something across a big audience. You found an addressable market and you found a way to do something that's unique through your nanotechnology.
And with all that being said, the reason that I wanted to have you back is as a leader of a company, you find yourself tacking, whether it be challenges, whether it be trying to improve your product, improve your customer service in the world that we're in today.
When I was reading about, Charles shared with me your new warranty program. And it's great. It's a subscription service like many people are used to, but not quite as often. But you're the leader of a company and you've helped millions of people out with their roofs. You've got some great dealer networks. I've met some of your dealers already.
You've got to educate them. You have to educate your old customers. You got to be thinking about moving forward.
And so you're facing different challenges of business. Before, you were just running, saying, I've got the. I've got a new product. This is what it does. People were happy with it. Now you're growing your business and you're building a bigger moat around your product. You're building a more sustainable for your dealer network to be able not only to continue to sell your product, but most importantly, to keep their customers and your customers very happy. So I really want our listeners out there that are business owners that are trying to figure out how to tack with their business. Jonathan, like you did, you didn't change what you did. You're trying to provide more. And that's what has to happen with every business. If you don't change, you die. And you're seeing that. I'd like you to share a little bit about what you're doing and most importantly, how you're overcoming some of Those challenges. Because that's what we really want to explore today.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, Greg, really great question right there.
Yeah. Go Nano has been out there for over six years now, right. So we saw a lot of things. We are in pretty much all the markets, all the states and all the province in Canada as well. So we saw so many different roof. But what set us apart is really the research part, right. What we've been doing is just testing shingles and seeing like how they age in different market and how do we address these little, these little, these market. Right. Differently maybe. So what we found out is that for example, in Texas, a shingle will age a lot faster than every everywhere else, right? Because it the suns, the heat, all of that humidity, sometime the rains, the contraction, it's gonna age shingle really, really rapidly. And what we face that, right. So what we look when we talk with consumer. What are you looking for right now? The model that we were utilizing is that you either have a 5 year warranty to 15 years old warranty, depending on the age of the roof. Right. Let's say it's a younger roof, it's gonna be 15 older roof, it's gonna be 5 to 10 year prorated or warranty. But going forward we were like, why? We have all the data we've been working with, it's called Green Center Canada. And we tested our product on a shingle that was disposed. Right? It was a shingle that was in the yard. And we brought up shingle from Texas as well and tested those shingles. And we apply our solution called Revive Extreme on these really, really old shingle. And, and what we found out is that not only the shingle was okay now and much better, it was actually better than a brand new shingle.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: So when the data show for impact resistant wind resistance flexibility, that 15 years old shingle, after the application of our product, that shingle turned out to be.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Better from that testing. How much testing did you do?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: We invested, right? We invested over $750,000 in research and every year we're just continuing that because our goal is just to gather as much of data as possible because that's what's needed in the market, right. There's so many people out there that are gonna be like, oh yes, our product is great. Where's data, right? What have you done to showcase that it's really gonna work? And it was normal when we started. We had nothing, right. And it's hard to get at the beginning, but that's where we reinvested all our money at the beginning, and that's really our mantra now in the company is like, really, let's push and let's see, like, what the. What the data is going to show us. And during that data phase, what we found out is that, hey, why not? We could offer homeowners a way of peace of mind for the rest of their life, right? Because it's like everything else. If you maintain your car, you're doing the oil change and you're doing all the maintenance, literally, it's going to be good for over 200,000 miles, right? If you're doing everything that's supposed to be done to it, right? Same thing with a leather jacket. Go outside with your leather jacket, don't do anything on it. After five, six, seven years, it's gonna start a crack. But if every year you take a little bit of time and just treat the leather, make it look good, 20 years later, that coat's gonna be as good as when it was new, right? Maybe some ripple or little things like that, but it's silicon. It looks amazing.
So the idea of starting a new warranty was, hey, if you have a brand new roof, if we come back every five years and retreat it, you're going to be good for 100 years.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: 100 years, 100 years.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Because the data shows us that we slow down the aging by 80 to 90%.
But if we do it every five years, literally, it's never really going to age. And the other thing that we found out during our research is that we are not only decreasing the aging speed, but we are increasing the impact resistance, the wind resistance.
So for a market like Texas, this is amazing, Right?
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Right?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: To know that, hey, okay, I just spent 25, 30, $35,000 on that new roof.
Hey. And I can maintain it, right, with a subscription. And then every five years or three to five years, there's going to be someone that's going to show up.
Look, your roof, inspect your roof. But at the same time, if it's needed, we're gonna retreat it right away. And then you're not scared about that next L storm, right? You're fine. And same thing, same ideology for older roof. With revive extreme we have, it's gonna be up to 40 years of extra, extra life.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: That's fantastic. And I was doing some research. Cause I was thinking about looking at your new subscription service. And we'll get into some of the other. The challenges that you have in terms of communication and how you've overcome those. But the normal homeowner spends anywhere from 2 to 10%. I know that's a wide variance every year on home maintenance.
So what you're really doing is you're providing them the ability to insert this into their home maintenance program every five years, but also allowing that 30 or $40,000 roof to last forever into perpetuity. Really, because you own a home, you're probably not going to be around for that hundredth year, but the house can be and your product can. And that's what you're trying to. That's what you're going to achieve with this. So you're the CEO of this company, you're the founder of this company and you're making this tact and you're going in this direction.
How did you go about thinking about messaging this to your dealer community, to your consumers?
Talk to us about that process because that's work. You're doing something that's in the end going to improve the product that you've given them. Right. And help the dealers out because they're going to be able to provide something that lasts longer, works well for them. But at the same time it's education again. And we talked about the first time and it's one of the biggest challenges that anybody faces when they start a business. Everybody thinks they know everything and they don't need what you've got. Right. So now you're back in that education again. Tell us how you thought about that and what's been your process, because that's a challenge.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: It is. Because as you grow a company, what you found out is that everything that you add, it's another company within the company, right. So everything that you change has major impact, right. Especially when you're. We're at over 270 dealers across North America, right. In two country Canada and the U.S.
so there's a lot of different things that you need to. So it's not like, oh, I think of that, let's run it tomorrow. No, it's gonna take a lot more plan than that. We are actually rolling it out right now. So we're testing out the market with couple of people, right? You're not rolling it out to everyone right away because it's too complicated. So the way on how to do it the right way is really start with small place and with your trusted one. Let's get it started. And once you have a process and everything's built around it, then you start to enlarge it, right? You start to provide it to more and more people. That's really the main goal. So at Gonado, we Have people that's been with us for over five years now.
So these guys knows exactly all about the processes. Right. So it's going to be the first one that we're going to go through because we trust them and start building that whole new model with them.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Right. And back to one of the big challenges. And I know we've talked about this before and we're going to continue to talk about it, but you just get people to say, no, I don't want to do that. This is too hard.
What's been some of the feedback that you've gotten, how does you've had to make some changes, even though as you roll it out, right, you're providing the messaging, Charles is providing. Somebody in your company is providing that messaging.
And those are challenges that you have to face. And how do you. What have been some of the challenges that you've experienced with your dealer community in this so far?
[00:11:18] Speaker B: So it comes back to the beginning, right? Is there is going to be some people that are happy about it, there's going to be some people that are not happy about it. Right. The idea behind it is really to look forward and where we are aiming for, right.
As a brand, our idea is to become the largest company in the space because we have the best product. We are building the best network out there. So is. And our idea is to give the best solution to the homeowner.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: And when we think, when we talk to our network, what we are always saying is that it's consumer first, right? So it's not about only you, it's about the consumer. But our dealer likes it too. Why? Because now we provide them a way on how to make money again in five years. Right? Right. Who doesn't like us most of the time is the roofer.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: The roofer.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: We have a lot of roofer with us, but it's saf time. They like the model too, Right. But some of them don't because they're like, oh, now I won't have to ever replace roof. And that's where I'm making a lot of money. So that's probably the people that don't like it the most. But again, we're in the game for the homeowner, right. We want the homeowner to save the money. So when you turn everything back to the person that's literally buying or purchasing or investing in you, then that should be the end idea. And a little bit like Derek Roth that was on a segment with you earlier, that's from Texas Roofing, basically what he was saying is a little bit the same. Right. He started with Go Nano, turned out to launch a roofing company, but now Go Nano is actually like the best way for him to go and get these customer when the roof needs to be replaced. Good. But now, hey, I have something different for you. You won't ever have to call me again for replacing a roof because we're gonna make sure that that roof stay there forever.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: So the value prop there is amazing.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: No, that. That is excellent. Listen, I'm gonna cut this segment off. We have to go to our sponsors.
But I look forward to having you back. This is. It's gonna be a great conversation. Thanks a lot.
Hi, this is Greg Ellers, and I'm back with our guest tonight, Jonathan Duquette. Jonathan, I enjoy having a conversation with you because you're scaling a business across all of North America, Canada, United States, and every part of these areas are different. We were talking before about the fact you're in Canada and what goes on down here in Houston with respect to a roof and what your product is able to solve for consumers and is a lot different.
And the problem that you decided to overcome was, how do I make this last forever? And you've come up with a subscription, you've come up with the revive, you've found some new ways to do that, but you're still dealing with 270 people in different areas. There aren't all down here where it hails. They're in Montana, they're in Canada, they're in Michigan.
Where people might not ever know that it's working.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Right.
But that's what people don't know if their roof's working until it leaks. So it doesn't matter if they know whether Go Nano is working. They just don't want it to leak.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: They don't want it to deteriorate. But you're rolling out a new program, and as the leader and founder of the company, you're dealing with people in different markets, different dealers that have levels of success.
When we talk about the solutions and the ways that you were able to overcome some of those different me in Michigan versus, you know, yourself down here in Texas. We've got a different message. You've got a different addressable market, different revenue model.
How do you go about that? Because you can't send out a memo or you can't send out a corporate and say, here's what we're doing.
Because it doesn't affect me.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: No.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: So talk to our viewers and our listeners a little bit about what's that like as a CEO of a company that can't, you know, send out messaging to everybody because everybody thinks they're special, but they're really in different markets and you need them.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, the way I see it is that yes, you have Go Nano, but within Go Nano there is multiple businesses.
By that I mean it's a different business on how to market here in Texas. It's a different business on how to market to Florida. It's gonna be different challenges, right? So it's really different. And the way that you approach it is literally different.
So one way that we figure it out is hiring people right within the company that's gonna be basically manager. They're gonna be and they manage a certain amount of dealers in certain market so that it can work. But something else that we figure out that works really well even if it's not the same market, but we try to do groups, right? It's around seven to 12 dealers per groups. And even if one is in Texas, one is in Michigan, one is in Canada and one somewhere else, it works well. Because it's not because you're only in one market that someone else from another market cannot help you.
And that's something that I figured out really, really young because it comes back to Einstein disease, right? And Stein was one of the first person or Leonardo da Vinci to really work it out in a ways that if you work on multiple things at the same time, it's gonna create really great ideas, right? So if you work only in one market all the time, it's gonna be hard to develop new ideas. Ideas because you're only looking at a bird eyes view of your little sphere. But when you start looking up and you're seeing problem from outside and you're like, okay, this guy has that problem, but he solve it that way. But I can use something about that in my market, but turn it and make it that way. So that's really where it gets really interesting is once you have all of these problem, but you try to solve them, but then you create new ideas on how to overcome all of them.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Right.
And I like the way that you frame it with a business is within a business because in a sense that's what it is.
So you've brought in regional managers, if we can call them that for sake of anything else. So these regional managers, do they have.
How does your hierarchy go in your company with respect to getting to Jonathan?
Because knowing you, you're very personable. You like to be, you really want to be on the front lines. I don't know that you want to be on the roof, but you want to be right there with the, with your dealers. So you've had to build because your company's grown and you've got other obligations.
You know, your, your operational expense, your capex to be able to continue to make these new, to enhance your product and everything else. You've got a lot of different, a lot of hats to wear. So you've made this investment, you've got these regional managers, you, what's that been like?
How has that process been in terms of rolling it out, in terms of that feedback? Because sometimes regional managers, they kind of want to always win a trophy, but you don't really know what they're doing.
I only say that because I've had a lot of them, so I'm not disparaging anybody. But you've got to manage people then versus the vision of your product and your company growing. Now you're in, now you're bringing a whole new element in.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: It comes back to what I was saying earlier. Let's start by testing it, get some KPIs out. Let's try to figure out how do we measure all of that, right? Because okay, you're a manager, you're managing, let's say 10 or 15 people. But how do we manage or what's the KPI to see if what you're doing really works or doesn't work, right? So it comes really back to that. And again, business within a business and you have to make it, you have to learn pretty much everything. And yes, I like to talk with people, but all the people knows is that the way that Go Nano started is that I was the one going to sell, install, right? Doing the customer service, I was doing the accounting, I was doing everything by myself at the beginning. That's how I started the business. I was actually a dealer. That's how I started the company. Once I became successful, I was like, good, let's go to Texas right away. Because it's a 12 months a year market. What I found out people here never replace their roof by themselves. It's true insurance normally. So I was like, what's the problem? Flew down to Texas, went doing door to door to try to understand what's the market here, right? So that's where a leader will be like, okay, it doesn't work, nobody can find a solution. Let's get down there and let's try to figure out what's the problem, how to overcome that problem. Then what I did is that I went to see the governor of Texas. I went to Austin. I want to meet with them. I was like, what's going on with the insurance industry? I started asking question and then I got answered. And then we started working together. Not together, but I started with their answer. I was like, okay, now that's the way to that market here in Texas. We're going to work it out, right?
[00:21:10] Speaker A: No, because what you're sharing with the audience is you see the problems and you didn't come up with all those answers the first time.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: No.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: There was a lot of either slam doors, slam phones, unreturned emails, something or another, and you were able to work your way around it.
When you think about this, now your business is starting to. It's six years now, so it's getting some level of maturity.
Businesses kind of like dog years, but probably in half. So, you know, because of the amount of times your business changes during the year about the different. Whether it's the people or the thoughts and everything else, your business changes a lot over the course of a year. Much more so than just we do as people.
You've got some challenges ahead of you because you're thinking bigger.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: What's your process for thinking? How do you go about that? What's the next thing that Jonathan is thinking about for Go Nano? But what's the process that you use? Because that process is something that has changed from when you first started and you were a dealer to when you got two to get 20. And then now when you're a position with regional managers, you're continuing to grow your business. What's your process and how has it changed? What are some of the mistakes or misconceptions you've had as you've grown your business? Texas is a great example. You mentioned the fact you were able to meet with the governor and the insurance inspectors to learn things.
Well, what's next?
What's your thought process as you move forward?
[00:22:54] Speaker B: So there's four pillars at Go Nano that we call them. It's the win, win, win, win. So first off is the homeowner or the consumer. That's the first person that wins. Right. Second, it's our dealers.
Third is us Gonado, and the fourth is the planet. Right. So everything needs to be aligned that the four pillar wins. Everything that we try to launch. At one point we decided, okay, let's start a new product, let's launch a new product.
We found out that it might not have been the best idea. Why? Because, yes, we had a win for Everyone but who was not winning was our dealer. The reason was we were complexifying the whole process.
Every time that you add a new product in a business now, it's more training, more question, more resource, more everything. Right? So everybody kind of lose because now the focus is elsewhere, where the focus should be the roof. And that's what we are trying to do right now. And that's why as well at Go Nano, what we are changing right now, it's like reducing a little bit or all of our product or we were like going to the cars and to the windows and at one point we're like, no, let's back it up and let's focus on what we are really good. We have a pattern. We, we have everything. We have all the data, all the tech, like everything for the roof, let's focus on that. Let's work with insurance company, let's work with. And already that it's humongous. So that's the main thing. But long term comes back to the same thing. I don't think asphalt shingold should be on the roof in 20 years. I don't think that's the product that should be installed. So my way of thinking is like, how can we create the next product generation of roofing? And that's what we are working on right now. Because in long term, we have to figure out a better way that's affordable, that will last for a longer period of times and that won't be beat up with Alstorne because it's just gonna go up. Right. Alstorm will just be.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: And shingles are from a waste standpoint, a big deal too. But with that, let's cut away. I look forward to coming back for this next segment with you, Jonathan. With that, we're going to send you to our sponsors. This is Greg Ellers, your host of Einstein's Disease. We'll be back shortly.
Hello, this is Greg Ehlers, host of Einstein's Disease again tonight. I'm back with our wonderful guest and good friend, Jonathan Duquette. Jonathan, it's great to have you.
I like this segment for our show because having you back on the show, we can kind of talk about some things that might be a little bit more esoteric to some folks, but it's big. And that's the future of roofing. You touched on it at the end. You kind of stole my thunder coming into this. I was gonna try and blindside you a little bit, but you didn't let me. But anyway, it's where's roofing going and where does that how does. How do you see your company as roofing changes? We clearly have a better product than we had 10 years ago.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Let's.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: That's the first place to start. Some of the technology's gotten better. Whether you're grade one to grade five, something's better than what it was because there's money that's being spent in the industry.
But it's going to change a lot or maybe. And that's where I wanted to pick your brain, get your vision, look through your glasses and share how you see things going, where they're going and what that does. As the leader of a company that is on the forefront and has the best product to be able to solve problems for your current. For everybody that has a house for up to 100 years, but in 20 years or 10 years, something new or maybe even sooner. I'm interested to hear what you think some of the structure on that's going to change what it looks like and what that does for your company. Because that's a big challenge.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah. When it comes to the progress in the asphalt shingle industry, actually it decreased over time just because in the 70s there was about 180 manufacturer of asphalt shingle in the United States. Nowadays there's about four to six really major player. And when it comes to business. Right. You know, business. So once you own the market, how do you make more money? Not by creating something better. That's gonna last longer. No. Because you have shareholder that you.
They need to make more money. Right. So if you come with something that's gonna last for 100 years, not good for your shareholder. Because now in 15 years or 10 years, they won't have any sales. Right. So that's a little bit the problem in the industry right now is that people are not looking really ahead on how to again or for pillar. That planet is one of them. Right. These major companies most of the time will only look at profit.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: And that's the main pillar. It's not the homeowner, it's not the consumer, it's not the planet. It's the profit that comes out of it. And that's a little bit the problem of where we are at right now. And yes, us being a smaller company.
My idea is not to be in the roofing space for the next hundred years. Right. My idea is to figure out how can I solve the roofing problem.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Right. Creating a product that's gonna last and that people won't be scared of the next hailstorm. It's gonna be good on their Roof and they can change it. And that comes back a little bit to the mentality, right. Of the European mentality. If you go in Europe, you will never see an asphalt shingle roof, right? You'll see tiles roof, metal roof. You're gonna see things that last for longer.
Here in North America, we've been, we got the idea of, hey, I don't care about the next owner. It's me, my time, and let's just get the cheapest option right away and not thinking ahead in the future, right. I think, and I hope that's gonna change some law and some regulation will come into place to change that. But right now, as a better product than asphalt shingle, you have, yes, you have clay tiles, you have concrete, but not how like all the older houses or even newer homes are not built for structure. They're structured for the weight, right? So you need something that's going to be as light or even lighter of an asphalt shingle, but better in long term and that it can be easily repaired. Right. So that's the way that we've been approaching that process and that next product that we want to launch, right? Something that's easy to install, that can be repaired easily, but as well, that won't create as much waste and that can be that it's not just thrown away, but you can recycle it in the future.
So that's really your thought process at GoNeno on how can we make it better. And yes, maybe the bigger guys out there won't like us for sure.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: That's all right.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: But our idea is again, the four pillar. That's our value at Go Nano and that's the way that we are approaching that whole model.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: No, that's fantastic.
So leadership and the solutions, because we're really getting a chance to get some insight into your company and the way you run things.
And it's exciting. And I know that our viewers and listeners appreciate the ability to get that firsthand in an authentic way, because the challenges are real.
When you think about when you get up regular week, what are some of the first things that you always want to make sure are not going to be a problem that week? What is it? Is it the. Is it messaging? Leadership? What. What do you do to try and get off your plate because you know that you have either been dealing with the same storm for a few weeks or you see one coming and you want to get things off your plate, not because they aren't important, but because as a leader, either you're able to delegate it or you're able to, you're able to tie it off.
How do you think about your week that way? Because get the easy stuff off because you know that hard stuff's there.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no, great question again.
I think when you go like, when you start, you're like, oh, the day to have that, it's gonna be a lot easier. And there is a really good book out there. It's called, It's Millionaire Mind. And in Millionaire Mind book, this says like, oh, as you, you go ahead and let's say you have a rental property. The first time that someone calls you for the toilet that leaks, it's a 10 out of 10 problem, right. Second time it's gonna be a six. The third time is gonna be a three because you figure it out a way. So the way that I've been approaching the whole business is the same mentality, right? So as soon as I see a problem, try to figure out what can we put in place so that next time it happens we have process in place or employee delegate. As the leader, as the CEO. What I found out is that every week is a 10 problem. Not every week, but every week there's going to be a new problem that have been solved yet. And it's just a much bigger problem than the problem that I had three years ago. So that's where it put a lot of pressure because you have to always be in the lookout of everything. And as you grow, there is more and more problem that arise. There's more people that don't want you to succeed, there's more stuff like that. So you really have to always be on the lookout, but as well really be and hire key people around you to make sure that they can manage what once was difficult for you, but that it can help you with what's actually right here, right now. And how do we solve that problems so that we go forward?
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, that's a great answer. Because I know some of the different businesses that I have.
I know on Sunday what I'm dealing with. That's going to be difficult.
It's not even a question.
It's the things that come up, like you said, that are unplanned. And initially it might start out as a 10 out of 10, but maybe your life experience, your business experience is able to get that resolved pretty quickly.
Tell us as we close out this segment, from a leadership standpoint, you've got a good team around you. You've built a team.
When you started to build your team and you made mistakes, how fast were you able to resolve those mistakes, whether it was somebody you hired or a policy or something that somebody suggested, you went with it and you rode that pony and then all of a sudden you realized that was wrong direction to go. And how is it when you have those, what's your messaging? How do you go about dealing with those types? Because you've been at this six years and it hasn't been a straight line.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: No, I think at the beginning it's hard because you don't know what you don't know.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: So it's hard to say, okay, that person is bad or that person is good.
Some people, I should have fired them a lot faster than what I did. Right. Because I didn't have the experience at that time. But you learn from that. Right. And once you start learning from bad experience, then you start building around what I want. Right. And what I don't want.
So for me and like the culture at Go Nano is that we need to have fun. Right. If we are doing, we're in it, but we're not having fun. We don't have a good chemistry between us. And it is just robotic. And it's not like, hey, we go to a cottage, but we don't talk together, then it doesn't work. No. At Go Nano or the main culture is like, everyone's a friend. You have to be able to work with your peers and everyone's at the same level. Yes, I am the CEO, but I will take my, I don't know, assistant or whatever, their idea at the same level as me. Because the main problem is either when you're starting, you think that you know nothing and everything that you think is not good, which was my case at the beginning. Over time, you trust yourself, but on the longer term, really to trust as well, the whole team. But trust yourself with what you've been accomplished, what you accomplish, and with that.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Especially on the trust element and team, we're going to close out this segment. When we come back, we're going to talk to Jonathan about Jonathan. With that, we'll go to our sponsors. And this is Greg Ehlers, host of Einstein's Disease.
Hi, this is Greg Ellers, host of Einstein's Disease. And we've had the fortune of having my friend Jonathan Duquette back today.
Jonathan, it's been a great hour.
I absolutely enjoy listening and hearing how your company's doing. And just to catch up with you, I know you're busy and I'm busy. And it's fun to catch up in this last segment because we don't get to talk about this enough in our lives.
As you move forward in success, there's things that Jonathan has in his mind, there's satisfaction for Jonathan. Your whole life is not just about Go nano. You've created a culture. You've got your four pillars, you've got people that have found a place where they can work, and you're providing opportunity for them to grow personally, professionally, create a family, the whole bit. All of that comes with a heavy level of responsibility that sits on your shoulders.
But there's other things that you want. There's other things that business leaders like to do. I'd like to kind of spend this last 12 minutes in a conversation about what is it that Jonathan is thinking about as he moves forward and the company's success and you're provided treasure to be able to take on an endeavor that is near and dear to you. We've been talking for an hour and I think environments come up a handful of times, which is absolutely important.
Where do you see your spare time?
Where do you want to go and do some things, whether it's with attribution or without attribution, that is important to you.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
I don't know the exact path. Right. Is the same as launching, starting a business. You don't know exactly where it's going to go, but you're going to find again, you need to go about your value.
One of the things that I love the most is helping people. Right.
That's the part that I love the most about Go nano. Right. It's our dealer network. When. When the dealer calls me is like, thank you so much about that opportunity. Now I have like a business. I can work my schedule, I can do this, I can scale it. I have so many possibilities.
That's like, okay, I made it right. That's the thing that makes me so happy every day.
But outside of that, I just see myself in the long run going out there and be capable of helping people.
For me, the way I see, money is a tool. Right. It's like everything else, but it's really. It's a construction job. But how. What can I bring to the people? I have just so many other idea in the future on how can I bring more to the planet, more to the people as well? So it's not only about you. Because if you work. When I was 20, 21, 22 years old, it was all about me, right? It was like, I want to make money for me. I want to have the nice car, I want to have this, I want to have that. It's still important today. I like it. But if you fulfill your life only on that, you're going to die and nothing.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Right?
[00:39:29] Speaker B: Right. So how can you do something good every day to someone? Like even if you go and just order something, make the person laugh, that's little thing that's going to bring you joy, but going to bring joy in their life. And that's where I want to go with all of that is how can I help more people? I don't have the exact strategy on how to do that, but that's where I want to go. Same thing for the planet. What difference can I make on this planet so that when I die, I know that I made something good for the people and for the planet and then I'm successful and.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: And because this is.
It sounds touchy feeling in some ways, and some of it may sound arrogant or egotistical, but we all have things that we like to think and do outside of work and it becomes a passion. And as you said, the environment is an important element.
When you think about the other business leaders and people in your community that you work with, do you find a element of a trend with respect to what business leaders are trying to.
Where they're trying to endeavor to provide help to people?
Because I asked that question.
I had, I don't know, 25 interns this last year, one of my businesses. And listening to what they see as their future, where they'd like to go is always a better tell for me in terms of thematically where things are.
But the environment, we've talked about it for many, many years, but it seems to be a bit more acute. I mean, being today in Texas and the storm seemed to be getting a little bit more. Do you find that to be something when you talk to other leaders that you talk to, Is it something that's really on. On. On top of mind for leaders to be thinking about, do you think? Not at all.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Not really. I think especially in the roofing space. Right.
I don't want to put everyone in the same basket, but I'm probably really a black sheep. For what? For.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Is that why you wore a black shirt or.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: Probably, yeah, yeah. But it's just like.
It's another way of thinking. But that other way of thinking is the reason why I'm here today. Right. That's why I'm talking with you today. So it's okay to be different. And like I'm looking at the other leader, let's say, in the roofing space is people that go train five days a week Wake up at three, at three in the morning, do this, do that. But what I can say is that, and I think it's not said enough who you are, that's important, right? You need to ride with what's your value, not someone else value. I see so many courses out there about like being an alpha male and being this, and that's the way that you're gonna succeed in life. And that's what I was thinking younger too. And I didn't break my character back then to try to become someone that I was not. So I think as you grow, you need to understand what's really important for you and get started on that. And that's gonna be really the next step. And once you fulfill on that, then it doesn't really matter what everybody else think, right? Because people were saying at the beginning that it was crazy when I first started, go nano. Oh, it's never gonna work. Why? It's bull, it's bs, it's, this is that. But when you have a sense of purpose and your goal is not only about the money, yes, at the beginning it was a little bit more about money because I was $70,000 in debt when I started.
But over time it's more about like what's my next project and what's gonna, what it's gonna bring. Because if it's only about money, you're gonna, your goal is only to sell the company and then you cash out the money. And what else? You see so many story about people that sold their company and they don't have any purpose after, right? And then they get into depression. So the idea is it's not about the money, doing it for a bigger thing in your life.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: So what I hope our viewers and listeners hear there from Jonathan's perspective is it's alright to not see yourself as a disruptor, but to see yourself as who you are. And if you're different, you can still build a business. If you're different, you can still do a lot of exciting things. It's not about conformity, it's about being comfortable in where you are in your station in life. As you mentioned, when you're younger, there's different goals and your risk factors might be higher or your risk factors might be based upon certain things, just money.
Now you, I think you eloquently put it, your risk factors in what you're focused upon is always evolving. And that evolution that you're going to have as you move forward is going to continue to take you on some of your passions as being the black sheep in the roofing industry that cares about the environment.
But in the end, that's something that for you personally is going to be important and will keep you from selling your company to continue to grow your company and make it what it is.
As we close this out for our viewers and listeners, as a business owner, what would a bit of halftime advice be before they go back out for the second half of their their business day? What would you share with them?
[00:45:32] Speaker B: I would be trust yourself, trust your gut, really go about what's important for you and never stop dreaming or thinking, right? I started over 10 businesses before go Nano. So it's not about the first business, not about the second. It's about finding the right thing, the right timing.
So it's a matter of time. So just go out there, be yourself, crush it and make it worthwhile, right? And just be like, have I done everything that I could? If the answer is no, then go back and try again. But what's important too to understand it's sometime it's good to stop when it doesn't work. I see too many entrepreneur being on a failed idea and trying to push it out, but it's a failed idea. So, so just get out there, get your basic know what's your cost of acquisition, of starting, if it is it scalable, will it work? Just go on the basic, read books, learn. And yeah, because being an entrepreneur, unfortunately it's not at the school that you're gonna learn it. It's gonna be true book, true experience and true mentor. So just go out there and get all the information that's possible.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: That's fantastic. Listen, it's good to see you, my friend. That was, that was a great hour. I appreciate you taking it out of your day and I look forward to having you back again in a year or so and see where things are. This is Greg Ellers. I'm the host of Einstein's Disease.
If you are listening to us on podcast, that's great.
You can also download NOW Media on Roku and get to see my beautiful face whenever you'd like. With that, I will end tonight's episode that thank you very much. This is Greg Ellers with my guest Jonathan Duquette and we'll see you next week.
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