Why Roofing Might Be the Fastest Path to the American Dream

[00:00:01] Todd Kavanaugh: It’s funny. We’ve had several meetings, and I think it
started last year when Roofing Contractor magazine added a column on the far
right-hand side of the “Top 10” list that wasn’t there before. That column is essentially
about private equity. Of the top 10, there’s only a handful now where that mark isn’t
“yes”. And I know every competitor out there is valuable, and there are a lot of
companies that are private equity (PE)-aligned that are doing great work. But for those
contractors like Baker who have chosen to remain independent or are looking at that as
an option, whether through employee ownership or other structures, what’s your
advice to them in competing against PE-backed platforms that maybe have access to
more resources than an independent contractor does?
[00:00:52] Reid Ribble: They’ve got access to more resources, but the one thing they
don’t really have access to is heart. And this is the thing that gets missed in very
entrepreneurial endeavors that are driven so much by local activity. Matt, you
mentioned before how generous you’ve noticed the roofing industry is. The one thing
you don’t notice in private equity-owned companies is that same level of generosity.
You notice the generosity in the senior leaders that have exited, and they take a portion
of that money and are very generous with it. But you don’t notice the generosity in the
private equity-owned companies that you see so broadly everywhere else.
What happens as a result of that is communities see it. So I do think that when you look
at independent roofing contractors who are competing with private equity, yes,
they’ve got more resources, but they often bring those resources with less heart. It’s
that human connection that still matters to the sales process, the customer service
process, and particularly in commercial, industrial, low-slope roofing, and institutional
roofing, where you’re building customers for the long haul, customers that don’t just
need a roof today and then it’s done, but need ongoing service. They’ve got budgets of
a quarter million or half a million dollars a year, every single year.
Those are the customers you’re looking for: that local hospital, that local university, that
local manufacturing plant that’s expanding. By getting in there and offering excellent
service and roof asset management programs, and also seeing these same people at
your kids’ concerts in high school or at a local football game or whatever, you’re
building these relationships in a different way that often doesn’t happen in an
equity-owned company.

[00:02:36] Matthew Elban: That’s great insight. Switching gears again, you served in
Congress from 2011 to 2017. When you first got to Washington, what was the bigger
shock, how different it was from what you expected, or realizing that running a roofing
company was actually better preparation than you thought?
[00:02:53] Reid Ribble: I think initially I felt completely lost. I had a really good staff; I
hired professional staff. I did something that most freshman members didn’t do when
they came in, I waited to hire staff until I had gone through orientation and got my
committee assignments. Almost everybody else who was elected, and I came in that
wave year in 2010 where there were like 70 new members, they were all former state
legislators, state senators, assemblymen, governors, or mayors. And they had people
that they brought with them. Sadly, those people also didn’t know how this bigger,
oddball organization, the House of Representatives, actually worked.
I waited until I got my committee assignments, and I said, “I need to go find experts”. I
was on the Agriculture Committee, the Transportation Committee, the Foreign Affairs
Committee, and the Budget Committee. I wanted to hire experts in those areas that
the House gave me oversight for, so that I would be as prepared as I could be. I
struggled a bit in learning the glossary, quite honestly. It probably took me five or six
months just to figure out what all the words were.
You’d go down, and you’d have a motion made on the floor to “recommit”. Now, I had
no idea what that was. Basically, a motion to recommit is a motion to send that
legislation back to the committee where you say, “You guys aren’t prepared enough for
this. We’re sending it back to committee to redo it”. If you’re in the majority, you always
vote “no” on any motion to recommit; if you’re in the minority, you always vote “yes”.
It’s just all propaganda, and it takes a while for you to learn the nonsense and then
what’s real and what’s not real.
Having professional staff that really knows the ins and outs of that was helpful. But I
did find that my business experience really helped, putting together a team of workers
and knowing how to manage people in a way that they wanted to stay with you. My
chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were with me the entire six years. Because I
hired professionals and kept my staff small so I could pay better, I hired people that
were a little bit older and more experienced, and I treated them right. As a result, my
staff was among the most efficient of the 435 in the House, both in DC and in
Wisconsin.
[00:05:22] Todd Kavanaugh: You said the word “nonsense,” and it just made me think,
six years in Congress and thirty years in roofing. Did you ever find yourself in a

committee meeting thinking, “This is exactly like trying to coordinate a tear-off in the
middle of a rainstorm”?
[00:05:38] Reid Ribble: Yeah, I did. Interestingly enough, I would often think back to
my days in roofing and find parallels. For me, most of those parallels showed up in the
communication side, where I would think, “This is the only place on Earth that people
would talk this way”. In the real world, nobody talks this way about anybody else.
There’s a lot of vitriolic name-calling, with people acting like six-year-olds and being
rewarded for it.
If that person worked for me in my roofing company, they would have lasted about an
hour or two, and I would have fired them. And yet in Congress, they get rewarded for
being childish. Just look at what’s going on right now: the government shuts down, but
you still have to pay your taxes. The federal government is never going to give every
American a rebate back on the taxes they paid because they didn’t get the services
they deserve for 5% of the year. It’s that kind of ridiculous nonsense. I looked at how
committed a lot of those people were, but also how others weren’t committed at all;
they were there for the fame or the legacy, but not serious about doing the work.
[00:07:00] Todd Kavanaugh: Talking a little bit about legacy, one of your signature
pieces of legislation was the Bridge to Sustainable Infrastructure Act, which addressed
a $16 billion annual Highway Trust Fund shortfall. Why was infrastructure, and
infrastructure funding, so personal to you as a former contractor?
[00:07:22] Reid Ribble: Well, I spent my life in construction. When you look at how we
do infrastructure in the country, roads, bridges, seaports, and federal buildings like
courthouses, the way that the trust fund was funded was just totally insufficient. We
would authorize $100 billion of spending when our taxation was only covering a third of
that. I took the entire Highway Trust Fund, put it on a spreadsheet, and showed all the
areas where money was coming in right down to the penny. Then I showed all the
spending, and the shortfall was right at the bottom.
I came up with like 15 or 16 ways of funding the Highway Trust Fund so that we were
actually paying for what we were buying. I remember making a speech on the floor of
the House where I said, “If something is worth buying, it is worth paying for”. Novel
concept, right? They were willing to buy stuff, but they wanted your children or your
grandchildren to pay for it. The problem is that they’re going to have roads to pay for
when they grow up; they shouldn’t be paying for their roads and our roads.

If we’re going to spend $100 billion, then we should prop up the trust fund to be at
$100 billion, because that net shortfall compounds interest all along. Today, the federal
government is paying more money in interest than they are for national defense. I was
passionate about construction because I knew it was absolutely needed. You guys
would make more money if your crews were not sitting in a traffic jam somewhere.
Simple things like making a three-lane highway into four lanes, separating light-duty
from heavy-duty vehicles with different concrete depths, would make driving faster
and safer. You could build that for as cheap as a six-lane highway with 12 inches of
concrete on the whole thing. It’s just hard to get anybody to have enough ideation to
solve these problems.
[00:10:29] Matthew Elban: You developed “Roofing Day in DC” during your National
Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) tenure, targeting representatives from all 50
states. One of the things you said was that the roofing industry, for the most part, in
Washington DC is virtually invisible. Did your congressional experience teach you
something about visibility and advocacy that the industry was missing?
[00:10:50] Reid Ribble: Listen, I was the only roofing contractor in Congress, possibly
the only one ever elected. You know how many roofing contractors came to see me in
the six years I was there? Zero. You’d think the one guy they’d want to come see is me.
They were invisible beyond the scope of what professional lobbyists could do.
When I went to NRCA, I said we need to completely pivot on how we’re going to do
advocacy. My Washington DC staff wasn’t exactly thrilled because that came down as
an edict, but I didn’t want to hear reasons why we couldn’t. Instead, I just said, “We’re
going to go ahead and do this, and we’re going to put the roofing industry right in the
faces of every congressional district out there”. That fly-in is now in the top five in the
country. Every office in the country has a connection to roofing contractors back in
their home district.
We’re finally being heard, and there have been big wins. Back in 2017, we influenced tax
policies that saved subchapter S companies literally hundreds of billions of dollars that
could be reinvested back into their companies.
[00:12:38] Matthew Elban: Yeah, and that’s really what it comes down to, right? We
want to invest in the people that we work with and in our company.
[00:12:47] Reid Ribble: All you need to do is look at the depreciation line on your
balance sheet. That’s where those tax dollars get reinvested back in, new trucks,
cranes, equipment, and modernization.

[00:13:07] Matthew Elban: In May 2024, on the Roofing Road Trips podcast, you said,
“The good news is we’re in way better shape now than we were a decade ago, and it’s
by a mile”. You were talking regarding workforce challenges, but the data is still pretty
tough with thirty-five thousand workers retiring annually from roofing. What makes you
optimistic that we will be able to achieve those numbers?
[00:13:38] Reid Ribble: We’re finding that we are finally focusing the industry’s
attention on it at a national level, getting manufacturers, distribution, contractors, and
consultants all focused on a single problem. This problem is really in our faces with all
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity going on, because the
roofing industry is very dependent on an immigrant workforce.
That’s why I was so passionate about professional certification. You can’t force
contractors to do what’s in their best interest unless they believe it’s in their best
interest. When we interviewed high school students, certification was one of the things
they sought. So we built a professional pathway for people to be professionally
certified with third-party authentication. Someone who can actually demonstrate their
skill is very proud when they get it. Baby steps taken one after another begin to
become miles. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best
time is today.
[00:15:44] Todd Kavanaugh: When you told that story about the roofing company
owner who identified himself as being “in construction,” I had a pang of guilt because
I’ve been guilty of that before. I’ve been here at Baker for over twenty years now, and
sometimes I feel like an imposter because I’m a marketer. In my previous life, I was with
an investment bank for several years. When I moving to North Carolina and got an offer
from a roofing company, it felt like a step down in my mind. I almost didn’t take it
because it was roofing. A lot of young people don’t really think about all the different
roles that reside in our industry. From your congressional experience, what did you
learn about the complexity of workforce policy and attracting talent?
[00:17:11] Reid Ribble: In Congress, knowing full well that the industry was drawing a
larger immigrant workforce, I focused on improving the pathway for people to come
here legally. Every wave of legal immigration in the United States has resulted in
improved and growing wages; every wave of illegal activity has pushed wages down.
How do we take the desire of millions who want a slice of the American dream and
make a pathway that is legal and rational?
The reason we have so many undocumented workers is that the legal mechanism
appears irrational to them. I tried to persuade my colleagues that we need to fix the

brokenness of the immigration program, but what I discovered was that nobody wants
to fix it because they would rather campaign on the brokenness. I also pivoted to
funding for technical and trade schools. It makes no sense to fund Pell Grants for
four-year degrees with less job demand but not fund someone going into trade school.
They only have to go two years, and then they’re a taxpayer with one-tenth of the debt
of a four-year degree. I often tell people, “You’re going to know you’ve got an
immigration crisis when nobody wants to come here”. Stop demonizing a whole class
of people that just want to have a better life.
[00:19:46] Matthew Elban: In February 2025, you made a speech at the International
Roofing Expo (IRE) keynote titled “Is the American Dream Dead?” and you challenged
the notion that opportunity is disappearing. How does that philosophy apply to getting
young people into the roofing career today?
[00:20:14] Reid Ribble: It does not take a boatload of wealth to get into the roofing
business. Someone can work for Baker Roofing for five or six years, learn a trade at your
expense, and then start their own company. I would bet you’ve probably started,
without even knowing it, 50 other roofing companies. There aren’t a lot of obstacles,
and the opportunity to move up really fast, from tradesman to foreman to project
manager to CEO, is right there in a decade’s time. It’s an untold story of opportunity.
We have to tell our stories in a more compelling manner. Part of my role when speaking
is to try to encourage people on what could be. I would have never guessed when I
started in the business at age 20 that my career would take this path.
[00:22:10] Matthew Elban: At IRE 2022, you gave a standing ovation quote: “We can
never expect young people to be drawn to our industry or respect what we do until we
respect what we do”. At Baker, the founding principle since 1915 has always been: “We
shall do good work at a profit if we can, but always good work”. Beyond mottos, what
does respecting what we do actually look like in practice?
[00:22:44] Reid Ribble: First of all, it’s showing up to work on time, doing the best
possible work, and ensuring the customer is always treated at the highest possible
standard. But it’s also working safely. A fatality can devastate a company’s well-being.
Respect starts by showing respect. Challenge yourself as a boss to be the best
possible employer. Instead of this desire to be interesting, have a desire to be
interested in people. If you’re interested in hearing their stories, respect for you tends
to grow.
When I left Congress, my staff gave me three-ring binders filled with every thank you
card I had received that I had never even seen. It was really important for me because

sometimes you don’t feel like you’re doing good work. In your roofing company, those
thank you cards need to be shared with the workers and the team. Those things get
people to feel the respect they deserve in their work.
[00:26:13] Todd Kavanaugh: I love your optimism. You said, “I spent way too much time
and too many hours worrying about things that never happened”. Could you speak to
us a little bit about that?
[00:26:44] Reid Ribble: I had a couple of employees that struggled with anxiety and
mental health. I realized about ninety percent of the stuff I worried about wasn’t even
real. Anxiety can be a killer of respect and joy. The biggest mistakes I made in hiring
were when I would hire somebody for what they know only to fire them six months
later for who they were. I began to hire people that had a different mentality and
attitude. I prefer to be the dumbest guy in the room because I knew if I surrounded
myself with really brilliant people, my life would be better. People that always want to
hire down do so because they have to feel superior, and that robs respect from
everyone.
[00:28:55] Matthew Elban: You coached varsity volleyball for twenty-five years while
running your roofing company and being active in the NRCA. I’m a varsity soccer
coach, and it is hard at times to balance that out. How did you manage it?
[00:29:28] Reid Ribble: This comes from things my dad taught me. You need to carve
up time into four priorities:
● Your relationship with your spouse.
● Your relationship with God and your faith.
● Your work.
● Your community, because it provides your livelihood.
I made it a priority to have lunch with my wife every day. I also made it a priority to get
involved in my church and my community. Coaching allowed me to take that
gymnasium and make it a classroom to teach students life lessons. When I ran for
Congress, everybody knew me through my church, community involvement, and
coaching. I was way better known than I thought because I was giving time throughout
my entire life to these things.
[00:32:05] Matthew Elban: I think of the word “service.” If it’s done with the attitude of
“What can I do for someone else?”, everything is woven together.

[00:32:44] Reid Ribble: That’s how you become a whole person. Having this servant
mindset is a significant part of that.
[00:33:00] Todd Kavanaugh: Sometimes as leaders, we think we have to deprioritize
those things, but prioritizing other elements makes us a better leader by example. Can
you share the advice you gave your grandson?
[00:34:00] Reid Ribble: My twenty-one-year-old grandson asked me what advice I
would give my 20-year-old self. Here are the first several things I told him:
● “No” is a full sentence.
● Being unbothered is a skill.
● Silence is a response.
● Most things you think are urgent can wait.
● Most things you will ever worry about will never happen.
[00:36:54] Reid Ribble: Here are the rest of them:
● Receiving respect is always greater than receiving attention.
● Apologies are empty without action.
● The best medicine is movement.
● You’re not for everyone, and that’s okay.
● Even if three million people have a dumb idea, it’s still a dumb idea.
● Don’t confuse being unwilling with being unable.
● Failure is more common than success. Learn from it, but don’t embrace it.
● Personal responsibility is the ability to see your future and then walk toward it.
● It doesn’t matter what you tell your kids; it matters what you show them.
● Instead of trying to be interesting, try being interested in people.
● Once you get a taste of quietness, you can finally stop chasing the noise.
● Don’t debate what being a good person is; demonstrate it.
● Inspiring people is greater than impressing people.
● Self-awareness is a gift.
● Be relentlessly grateful.
[00:38:25] Matthew Elban: Reid, thank you for sharing your unique journey from all
these different vantage points.
[00:38:43] Todd Kavanaugh: If you’re listening, remember: “We can never expect
young people to be drawn to our industry or respect what we do until we respect what
we do”.

[00:39:05] Matthew Elban: Thanks for listening. Please share this with your crews.
[00:39:14] Todd Kavanaugh: And remember, “We shall do good work at a profit if we
can, at a loss if we must, but always good work”. See you next time.