Ty Cobb Backer: 0:00

Welcome back to Beyond and Told Welt everybody. Today's guest is Steven Spence from Project Map It. And today we are going to talk about AI, what he's learned with AI, and how they are using it at Project Map It, and what he is seeing on the road while traveling with ABC and Certaintied siding. We have a kind of a belief system that either we're going to push you up or going to push you out. I don't want to be around five other people that aren't pushing themselves to succeed. Success isn't about taking, but giving value first. Compensation follows contribution. Always. This is true authenticity. It's the truth. Every week, this is our story. We share with you our journey. We share with you our scars. Please welcome your host, Ty Cobb Backer. And we are back. Thanks for joining us today on this rainy Wednesday afternoon here in the great state of Pennsylvania. I have my good close friend Steven Spence with Project Map It Today. First appearance for 2026. That's right. Steven's been on the show quite a few times over the over the years. This is our sixth year, Vic, or our seventh year. Last year was our sixth.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I think it was sixth.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:11

Okay. We came up on our sixth, sixth year, sixth, sixth season, however you want to cut that up. Six years we've been doing this solid every single week for 52 weeks a year for six years. So here we are. And Steven's been on quite a few of them, especially some of the older, earlier. You know, down in the old studio. He's done it virtually with me. He's done it um in studio at in the in the newish kind of Smash Lab setup that we have here at the office now. And we'll, I'm sure, be here when we get the new studio set up. So my man Steven, how are you doing?

Stephen Spence: 1:47

Good man. How are you? I'm looking for it on Facebook. I don't see it live, but I just wanted to see any comments or anything.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:53

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 1:53

But I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:55

Yeah, man. That's good. That's good stuff. Um, did you find it?

Stephen Spence: 2:00

Vic will help. He always does.

Ty Cobb Backer: 2:02

Ticky Tiki Talk. He is the man behind the scenes that takes care of a lot of stuff for us. So let's let's jump right into it. So, anyone who's not necessarily familiar with you know Project Map It, because I think every time we we get together, we don't normally talk about what it is that you do. So let's start the the year outright and explain to people, you know, what Project Map It is, you know, what problem it solves for contractors and and maybe what's coming with with Project Map It.

Stephen Spence: 2:32

Yeah. So we are an interactive map. We are awesome. Uh we're built for contractors. Our biggest contractor in the industry are roofing companies and siding companies. Excuse me. They make up about 93% of our total portfolio of customers. So we know the roofing business very well, hence our really good partnerships with a bunch of supply companies and Certain Teed, obviously, as you mentioned. Thank you, Mr. Vic. Uh so imagine an interactive map. So our system provides a homeowner proof that you are the best company in the business, right? When you're right, when TC Backers at a home, that customer might also have two other companies there and they're seeing which one they want to go with, right? So our platform provides confidence for that homeowner that TC Backer is the best one for the job. And we're just an interactive map, but we're very simple but very powerful system interactive map allowing you to like filter by, let's say, shingle or siding color. Uh you can click a button that says, Hey, I want to look at a Moray Black landmark roof or uh, you know, a certain teen monogram Savannah Wicker siding job. And within seconds, the map changes, and then a gallery view will change of all the pictures that your team has uploaded of said color. So it gives quick access points for a homeowner to see jobs that you've done in the color that they're looking for and that you're local, trusted, and proven. There's a lot more to it. We we're a review platform, we have a public profile page, which is actually, you know, if we get into the AI piece, we do feel our public profile page is going to be something that becomes very relevant. We haven't really talked about this page ever, really, with our customers. And now we're that's all we're talking about. That and the fact that we're a great sales tool. That's great.

Ty Cobb Backer: 4:16

That's great.

Stephen Spence: 4:17

That's it in a nutshell.

Ty Cobb Backer: 4:18

Yeah, no, that's awesome. So what problems, you know, does it solve for contractors to to you know differentiate themselves from everybody else and build trust with homeowners?

Stephen Spence: 4:32

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about reputation, right? You want to show that you are the one that's working in the neighborhoods uh that your sales consultants are going to. So, you know, people always want to see location. So pins on a map, when I dive into a certain city or town or even community, and I can see 15 jobs that you've done three streets from you, from your house, that local reputation helps. Um, we have a way to collect reviews. So, you know, reviews are a very big piece in the landscape for a residential contractor. Um, we have a review platform, which is really, really good. So we helped solve a problem. We didn't actually know that a lot of people were using our review platform, and then we started realizing, oh crap, a lot of people are using our review platform. Not only that, they love our review platform. We had a company that collected 200 reviews, Project Map It reviews were our own review platform. So they collected 200 Project Map It reviews and 60 Google reviews in two months. Big company, like a $50 million a year company. But they called me just to brag about it. Hey, Steve, I want you to know our sales team absolutely loves how easy it is to capture reviews as soon as the job is done. So we solve that problem for people, you know. Um, and then ultimately we just want people to be able to have a tool to showcase their digital footprint.

Ty Cobb Backer: 5:49

Yeah, no, that's great. So that that one particular feature, would you say that would be the underestimated feature that most contractors don't know about?

Stephen Spence: 5:59

Yeah. I mean, our you're talking about our review platform. Yeah, our review platform. It really is. So we've really tried to push it out a lot more lately. And obviously, when we're talking sales, we've changed our sales pitch a little bit with the landscape of AI changing in our public profile page. So we we kind of bookmark our tool into three places. We always and we will always stand behind this. And I've I've had hundreds of you know, owners over the last eight years text, Facebook message me, call me personally, and tell me uh how Project Map It helped them close a deal, right? So we will always say that the first box that you put Project Map It into is providing your sales team a sales tool.

unknown: 6:35

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 6:36

Right. So that's the first thing. But then yeah, a close second is becoming this review platform. Um I present, like you mentioned, all over the US with certainty. We're doing a lot of ABC supply shows coming up here in February and March. And we have a really killer presentation. And when I ask contractors in the audience, so like, how do you collect reviews? And they tell me, Oh, we got these tap cards, or we email through our CRM and all that stuff. And I'm like, cool, what kind of reviews are you looking for? I mean, Google, which everybody is, right? I mean, everybody wants a Google review, but my follow-up question always, and 100% of the time this happens, Ty. My follow-up question is, what if the homeowner doesn't have a Gmail account?

unknown: 7:11

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 7:12

And I get answers sometimes, like, everybody has a Gmail account. I'm like, bullshit. Sorry for my language, but that's not true. My mom is still using like an AIM account or something like that. Uh, and then the second thing is, what do you my second my question is, well, if they don't have a Gmail account, what other platform are you asking to get a review on? And they're like, um, that's a good point. They it's like deer and headlights. Like, you gotta have a backup. Like Google is the number one, right? We all want Google reviews, but even like, and no knock on BBB or Angie or Yelp or any of those, but you have to set up accounts to leave a review on all those platforms. So we are our own review platforms. So just think project map it review system, very similar to Google, right? You leave a star review and you write a testimonial on our platform. So it's the same makeup, but you don't have to have a login. We have spam built spam filters and all that stuff baked in. So a homeowner, so a contractor, I go to Vic's house and I say, Hey, Vic, is there anything that TC Back Reconstruction has done that would not want you to leave us a five-star review? And Vic says, No, you guys did a bang up job. Right there, I have you know, right, human psychology. I have a commitment verbally. So then my next follow-up question with Vic is gonna be do you mind leaving a review for us? I'm gonna walk around the house, pick up all the nails, just do one final sweep while you leave the review. Vic's Vic's not gonna say no. He's already verbally committed like 30 seconds earlier. So now when I'm talking to Vic, I'm like, hey, I, you know, with our system, you can pin a QR code right to your phone. So you just click a bookmark on your phone. It opens up a QR code. The the homeowner scans the QR code, it opens up a Project Map It like landing page with different review platforms. Google always being the first, but then Project Mappet's a good second one. And I can ask Vic, hey, do you have a Gmail account? Vic says, No, I don't have a Gmail account. Cool. We use this system called Project Map It. It's a review platform. Just click on that review, uh, the Project Map It logo, it's gonna open up. You don't need to log in or anything, you just leave the review. That's and so you're still capturing a review. And when you talk about AI and reputation signals and stuff like that, the reviews are very important, not because of the five star. They're important because of what people write about your company. So it's the written component. So if you're only looking for a Google review, and if the homeowner doesn't have a Google review and you lose out 50% of the customers, you're asking for a Google review because they don't have a Gmail account. Now you can gain those 50% back by using Project Map, but it's still written material about you on the interw.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:26

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 9:26

So it's still gonna play in your favor.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:28

Yeah. Now, how is it showing up on the interweb?

Stephen Spence: 9:31

So it lands on Project Map It's map, right? So it's it directly goes to the portfolio page. And then on top of that, we do have a landing page that has like just like you have a Google page, there's there's a page that you could link that takes you directly to the Project Map It review page. And and on that page, it doesn't just show Project Map It reviews, it'll also show um Google reviews.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:52

Okay, cool. Now, I I how how does it um communicate with Google? Because I know when like if you search TC Backer, you go down a couple pages, Project Map It pops up. So, like, how how did that how when did that start happening? Why did that happen and why is that beneficial?

Stephen Spence: 10:10

Yeah, so you're talking about our public profile page, which is like that third box that we're really starting to promote because of the way AI is the way the consumer, right, the homeowner, is searching companies in York, Pennsylvania, in which company we should get to. So if you want to get into the AI thing, I can tell you about the the page that you're speaking of. The so to understand our product, there's a there's a public profile page. We call it the PPP. Sounds kind of silly, but it's the public profile page. And on that page, it basically takes all the data from your map project map it map and just puts it in a nice neat form as a one-page landing page on a website. So think of it as like a an extra online presence for you, like your Angie page, your your whatever manufacturer you use, that all manufacturers have like, you know, a certified pro page kind of thing. Um, Roofer's Coffee Shop is a great friend of ours with a great directory page. You can be an art club member for $425 a year and get this amazing surplus of AI energy, if you will. So think of it as like just a directory page that just has information about your web, about your company. That's the page that's fine. And and funny enough, I like not many people do anything with that public profile page. The thing that really helps is like writing a project description. You know, hey, this was a 35 square, you know, house that we put a roof replacement on. There was a dog named Rover in the yard that was super nice all day long. Um, you know, the the homeowner brought out lemonade for the crew, just a great experience all around. Or gutters needed to be replaced because soffit fascia was rotting out. So, you know, that was an extra, an extra thing that we did for our homeowners. So something unique to every project you do, right? Um, those project descriptions is what like AI search engines and Google SEO or Bing, whatever you want to call it, that's what they eat up. So anyway, you have a page, Ty, that you're saying is on the second page, but you've never done anything with that page. Yeah, no, we haven't. So now imagine like if you use our new AI built-in project description tool that we have, that we're we're still it's in its in its infant stages, but I think within the next five days, we'll have it locked in where it's gonna make it real easy for contractors to write that job description just by literally speaking into your phone and summarizing the job.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:28

So this is a new feature you're talking about.

Stephen Spence: 12:30

It is, yeah. And we did it specifically, well, specifically because if you're not gonna do anything with AI, you're gonna be behind the curve when it comes to software companies like ours. Um, but yeah, that's a public profile page. So then it gets into like how searching is becoming different online for homeowners.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:47

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 12:47

So if you want us to dive into that, we can dive into that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:50

Yeah, go for it for sure. Yeah, tell us more about that because you know, I want to know personally, and I'm sure some of our or you know, most of our listeners want to know, you know, because like you said, if you're not somehow getting involved with AI on on some level, um, whether it's helping you create content, uh, writing your blogs, what whatever the case might be. I mean, there's so many different ways you can use it. Uh, so explain to us, you know, how a contractor who signs up for Project Map It can be using AI.

Stephen Spence: 13:20

So we've been we've been presenting for Certain Teed, and I re Certain Teed asked me to do two different presentations this year. I do one at nine and one at one o'clock. The one at nine is about marketing and just your online presence all together, and the one at one is about sales. And I will be honest with you, the the one at nine where I talk about online presence is actually more fun for me because I'm used to doing the sales one all the time. So it's kind of a new subject for me, right? And I spent a long time uh researching it. We have a lot of great marketing agencies in the in the roofing exterior remodeling space that I reached out to. And um so I've learned a lot. And so I'll start this with a caveat that I am by no means an expert like Tim Brown, who's here. And Tim, feel free to you know tear everything I'm saying apart. Um, and I always say that, but I just I talk to marketing agencies and everything. So let's let's just talk about like SEO versus GEO. Do you know the difference?

Ty Cobb Backer: 14:15

Yes, but explain it to us.

Stephen Spence: 14:16

Yeah, so SEO search engine optimization, still a really big part in the world of uh home home construction industries like yours. Uh GEO is generative engine optimization. Uh, you talk to one marketing agency, they're like they're the same thing. It's just good online presence. You talk to another one, and they say, yeah, there is a difference, and the shift is going more towards generative engine optimization. Either way, there's definitely a difference, right? On how a homeowner searches a company when they need a new siding job, a new deck, a new roof, a new bathroom, whatever. You call it call it whatever you want, whatever project you're looking for. So in the past, right, like we would if I if if I'm looking for a roof, I would go to the internet and I would type in roofer what? Roofer near, finish the sentence, Vic, roofer near me, right? And when I type roofer near me, it used my website, the company's website, their Google business profile, their reviews, it used that main domain part of their company and look for all these SEO key terms, and then it would it would compile a list, right? So Google, you put Roofer near me, your county, Pennsylvania, and then Google would pop up a list. And and and roofing companies would always want to be on that first page, right? It's like, man, I gotta be on the first page. I can't have TC Backer be on the second page, right? Right. And and what what the consumer would do, the homeowner's behavior was they would they would see a list and they would click on each of the websites and they would research them and they would look at the Google reviews and they would decide after some research which company they're gonna use. Right. However, now it's not just a list. People aren't just searching Roofer near me, and I'm not putting you on the spot, but what what different ways are people searching your company now, Ty? Not just saying Roofer near me, where are they going?

Ty Cobb Backer: 16:01

They're they're going to not just you mean outside of Google?

Stephen Spence: 16:04

Outside of Google.

Ty Cobb Backer: 16:05

Um AI. Yeah, they're they're going to Chat GBT.

Stephen Spence: 16:08

Yeah, I literally on my phone in the top right, it's like where I touch the most is ChatGBT. Yeah. Right. So so instead of typing Roofer near me, now the consumer is typing in, hey, I live in York, I live, I live in York, Pennsylvania, and I'm looking for a certified contractor with this manufacturing company that has over 222 Google reviews. Like they're being specific. Yeah, oh yeah. Right. And and so instead of a list where the homeowner in the past a list would pop up and I would research a bunch. Now now ChatGBT um what does ever the research for you? They do the research for you and it spits out one, two, maybe three companies. And so now the end user, the homeowner, they're not doing a ton of research. They're believing ChatGBT because they're like, ChatGBT does the research for me. So now if it spits out one company after I pose a question, that homeowner is using that one company. So now it becomes very important, right, for companies like yours to really be able to work with the fact, the the knowledge that people aren't just saying refer to me, they're asking specific questions. So how do you how does TC Backer come up in a in an AI search, right? And that's the biggest thing.

Ty Cobb Backer: 17:19

And so that's the biggest push, I think, right now for for a lot of us. I don't know if everybody's adapted to the change, but that's that's one of those things where if you you know want to stay ahead of the curve, it's definitely AI right now. Everything's just about AI driven, you know, like you said, because it it's doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us in our day-to-day, you know, operations here. I mean, anything from content to um shit, it could even build you a website, you know. You know, Tim's on here, but not that it would, you know, be perfect and do everything that you need it to do, but essentially it could do it could write a script for a podcast. It could do, I mean, anything and everything, you know, it's not much. It'll make yeah, I think it's gonna make it. I I've said it and I've read it and I've seen it. Janna's here to visit us. Hi, honey.

Stephen Spence: 18:07

Hi, Jana. Come on in, come give me a hug. Come give me a hug right now. I don't see these people often. He never texted me.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:17

I'm live. Yeah, I'm live.

Stephen Spence: 18:19

It's okay. He never texts me. We were having a never text me that he was getting a legend award either that I would have gone to.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:24

I know. I won't get there. It's Jana's fault that you didn't get him.

Stephen Spence: 18:29

It's too late now. I'm not a guy that plans the day on.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:31

Unfortunately, we have room for you. So now you're committed to coming tonight. I can't. I'll send you the information.

Stephen Spence: 18:39

All right. So let's let let's focus on what we just talked about as far as these are things that when I talk about them, people are like, oh shit, I didn't even thought I didn't think about that. Right. So on your website, do you have a QA page? Do you have like questions and answers, FAQ page? On I'm sorry, on your on your TC Backer construction website.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:59

You know, you'd have to ask John that. I I don't think we do.

Stephen Spence: 19:03

So if not, any contractor, think about like if I'm going, if I'm on a chat GPT and I'm asking questions, yeah, right, then why don't I go to my website and put questions that I know homeowners are going to ask? Yeah. Because then AI search engines will be able to catalog that. Yeah, that's so that's a good question.

Ty Cobb Backer: 19:17

No, that's that's great because we've we've recently brought most of all that stuff back in in-house again. Um with you know, we were talking earlier where we kind of just went through and started scrubbing everything and revamping everything. And and one of those things were, you know, and and big shout out to Hook Agency here, he helped us get back on track. We've had things so diluted and replicated that it was actually it was it was hurting our search results because there was just there was so much replication of of stuff, and we had so many locations. Tim and his team actually helped us get back on track with that, and now John kind of has the reins.

Stephen Spence: 20:00

John said we have, I'm I'm laughing because I'm looking at my computer. Everybody, when you see me looking down, it says, yes, we have FAQs out the butt. Okay. Yeah. So so here's what I'm saying. Like, yeah, here's I'll tell you one thing that I think every single roofing company should do, whether it's metal roofing, coatings, it doesn't matter. Shingle, you should get a subscription. And this is not a plug. This is like just truth. Like you should be an R Club member to Roofers Coffee Shop. If you want, um, I don't know, if someone, if you just want to put in the comments, look me up, or just go to Roofers Coffee Shop and you know, message them through Facebook or whatever. But like they are a great directory page. And this is the thing that AI does, right? SEO looks at your your and your eminent domain, your your main domain, your your website, your Google business profile, your Google reviews and stuff like that. AI in seconds pings billions of websites and is trying to see consistencies across the board. So having a directory page on Roofers Coffee Shop, having a directories page on like Certain Teeds, Find a Pro or your Manufacture JF, all that stuff becomes very important, right? Like because you want that stuff to be consistent across the board. Um, so another big thing is the NAP. Anybody know in here know what NAP is? I know John is. John probably could say John probably does. Name, address, phone number. So the name on your Google Business profile should be in the address and the phone number and even your email should be the same, whether it's on Yelps, whether it's on your Facebook page, like make those the same because AI is looking for those consistencies. Oh, this one has the same exact name, address, and phone number here as it does here, here, here, here, and here. And when it does that, it it be it becomes a better trust signal. So then the answer that AI provides back is going to be more likely to be your company. Yeah, which is why your project map it profile page and writing job descriptions is gonna what we believe is gonna be very, very important. It's not necessarily our page getting found. Yeah, it's AI finding the information when it pings billions of websites about your company because like Google is making a big push. And Tim Brown, if you're still on here, Jordan, tell me if I'm wrong, but Google's making a big push of like reputation trust signals, right? Like they want to Google AI, they want to see companies like yours that are doing relevant work with fresh content um that shows real world application. That's exactly what project map it is. We're locations on a map to show that you're local. We are project description driven now with AI. So now I can write a unique description in under you know a minute for every job, and and it's gonna be fresh content for that page. And what we're hoping is over time, AI will be able to sniff that out.

Ty Cobb Backer: 22:49

No, that's great. That is such great information for anyone listening that that owns a business and has a website. I mean, it doesn't even have to pertain to you know the roofing industry, but particularly everywhere the the yeah, the roofing industry. If anybody out there is listening that uh owns a business, that that bit of information right there is is good. That was a good nugget.

Stephen Spence: 23:11

Like I have a directory page on Roofers Coffee Shop. I asked Alex Toll, who is my main point of contact for that. I said, Hey, can we rewrite it? And can I put an FAQ section on the bottom of my directory page? So yeah, just send me over the content and we'll get it up there. Oh, that's good. Social media, Jordan's talking about social media, very, very important to be on that presence. Everything that's showing reputation, it's all about it's 100% all about your reputation.

Ty Cobb Backer: 23:34

Yeah, it's online reputation.

Stephen Spence: 23:36

Maybe keywords, I don't know. I'm not an expert here, but maybe SEO key terms and blogs and stuff like that are important because it's fresh content. But of course, but like it's really going towards like you show me that that customers trust your business, yeah, and AI will will say thank you for that, and they will put you in front of the customers.

Ty Cobb Backer: 23:53

No, that's that's awesome. Yeah, man. Okay, so let's let's talk a little bit about your your travels with uh ABC and and Certainty, like what's that about and what are you seeing out there and hearing from contractors, not just with AI, but like in in the industry. Like what's yeah, like PE was a thing there for a minute. I and and I'm sure it still is, but like anything else, it it fizzles out. Like, so what's what are you hearing out there?

Stephen Spence: 24:18

So I travel, uh, Certain Teed does a really cool job. They they ran out like NFL and MLB stadiums. So I've been, I think, now to 23, 22, 22 stadiums in the last three years. That's crazy. And I get to present, like I said, two different sessions. Um, Certain Teed wines and dines you, so it's been a lot of fun. Um, there's not a lot of cost for us because we're a partner of theirs, and it's it's nice. They they treat us and their contractors well. But I go, um, I've done three shows. We were at Ford Field, Detroit, we were at Nashville, um, the Titans, where they play, and we just got back from New Orleans, the Superdome. Um, so trends, things I'm seeing, things I'm hearing is like definitely the companies that aren't the top companies that are doing the things that like John is saying with you know, keeping the updated website and the things that you and I talked about with Vic and the things you're doing here at TC Backer. Uh, there they're team there are there are companies that are struggling from last year. So there is there is that struggle. Um we didn't have many customers that just had to quit altogether or close down shops. So that's I love I love that.

Speaker 1: 25:24

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 25:25

And hopefully 2026 there'll be a surge. Yes, PE is still around. I have people in that space that are friend that I'm friends with that come to some of these shows. So I talk to them and introduce them to companies and stuff like that. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's honestly like in my world, in my conversations, it's all about like just what the hell do we do with this AI shift? Yeah, like what to what can we do to position ourselves in a world that is gonna be ruined by AI and the world is gonna go to hell in the next two years, three years. I'm I all jokes aside, I mean, I have to do AI, but yeah, I mean it's yeah, it's an AI world, man.

Ty Cobb Backer: 26:08

I think I was a little leery of it at first. You know, I mean, not like six months ago, Larry, but like going back a year or two ago, I was kind of like, nah, I don't want it to ruin me like Tom Tom and Garmin did. Yeah, like I can't drive around the neighborhood without punching in an address because I gotta watch my GPS. And that was like my first fear of like, you know, it's gonna, it's gonna make me dependent on it where I can't think for myself because I'm gonna continue continuously asking questions where you know, now I don't have uh critical thinking skills and I don't have um there's something else because I was on this kick for a minute, like, you know, if you're gonna use it, like use it intelligently, like so true. So so I wouldn't have to hire as many people. Do you know what I mean? Or a coach or or a mentor, or not that I wouldn't, and and I'm not saying don't hire a coach or a mentor. It's very important that you do those things, but there's questions you can ask it that you would have to pay a lot of money for.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer: 27:04

Okay. To to to hire someone to ask these questions or build out SOPs or KPIs, and and like, so we've been using it in ways of helping us write things out, you know, letting it do the heavy lifting where it's it's actually saving us money. So I don't have to pay someone that would take me sometimes years to create a whole book, you know, uh hard copy and digitally, uh, a book of SOPs, right? And clean it up and do spell check and all these things and even point things out to us that we might be missing. Okay, so I really feel like AI is gonna produce more millionaires than any other dot-com, the the what whatever big booms that we've had that have created wealth. And whenever there was a transfer of wealth, I think this is gonna be the next biggest transfer of wealth, whether you're an existing company or some nerd at home that's really good on the computer that that can design something, you know, to help somebody, you know. Yeah, I mean, there's for f find a pain point. I mean, there's so many different pain points you can find using to help people, you know, solve their problems.

Stephen Spence: 28:14

I mean, Rocky, I mean, we got like our kids are young and they literally can multitask like Mofos. They can be on the, they could be watching a television show, playing Snap, like doing Snapchat or playing a game on their thing and hold a conversation at the same time. I see stuff all the time, like 16-year-olds can become millionaires pretty easily now with AI.

Ty Cobb Backer: 28:34

Absolutely, absolutely for sure, you know, cutting up content and stuff like that. I always go back to that because, you know, to be able to churn out, you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to, you know, it's one thing capturing the content, but the other thing is is editing it. I've had so much, I have so much content on all of my devices that that I used to never do anything with, like because I didn't have the bandwidth to sit down and download it into this app that I would have to edit everything and put the subtitles on the bottom and what color they're gonna be, and all and clean up, take the ends and the ands and the ums and all yeah, all of that out of the content now where it's like you can just run it through an app and it's like boom, it's done. And it gives you 30 of them to choose from. And then you can edit from there. So it saved so much time in just the content creation world itself, which is where, which is where a lot of things are. You know, how how you promote your business, how you create uh omnipresence, how you create a brand like starts on social media with content, good content. And the problem is now is that you got to find that way to break through all the noise that's out there, okay, because it's saturated. The roofing industry is so saturated, any industry, plumbing, HVC, what it whatever, you know, is so saturated with content now. So AI kind of helps you differentiate yourself from the competition, whether it's you know, um, still imagery, whether it's um, you know, enhancing the colors, whether it's you want a roof to blow up and and you know, uh, and then be put back together real quick. What whatever can catch somebody's attention span because because of AI and and short form content, our attention spans have shrank. So do you need to captivate their attention in the first 1.3 seconds?

Stephen Spence: 30:26

Agreed. I there's this, there's this garage company. They have it's a red, they their logo's red. I can't remember the name of it. They're on my TikTok feed all the time, and it's like this six foot nine marketing director, and the butt the owner's like this hunched over older man, probably probably my age, that's like five or five foot four. And their videos are the funniest freaking videos I've ever seen. Like, I I've I don't comment usually on TikTok, but I even had to. I was like, look, if I lived in your area, you would be getting my business if I needed a garage to work.

Ty Cobb Backer: 30:58

Right. And they found that way to differentiate themselves from everybody else out there. It's doing it because they've gotten creative, and like Vic just said in the comments, it's helped him think more critically. Yeah. You you know, more creatively, maybe not even necessarily critically, but more creatively, you know, and on how to prompt it.

Stephen Spence: 31:17

Music. Do you use it for music at all? Just curiosity. Yeah. So like we, you know, we have customers that don't respond to us, right? Like we're just trying to help you. We don't want to be. I've seen software companies in in your sp in our space where it's like customers complain that we don't that they don't that that that that software company doesn't help them enough, doesn't support them enough. Yeah, we we support like crazy. We we take we take a lot of pride in it. So we have customers that we'll email, but they don't respond. We've called, they don't respond. We tried texting, they don't respond. And it's like, what do you do? So, like, you know, we'll use AI to say, look, we don't want to come across as an asshole to this company, but can you give me this is the email we've been sending? Can you give me a better way of saying it that puts urgency in like and also has the tone of like, we're just here to support you. Would you rather have someone support you or not? Yeah, and it does, it helps like it does help us a lot when when it comes to SOPs on how to reach out for retention and things like that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 32:13

Absolutely. And even if it's not the way that you want it, at least open your mind enough to, oh wow, I like half of it, the other half I don't like. And it allows you to put your own spin on it. Yeah, you know, no, if you if you're using that it that way, but I I can definitely see where it could it could potentially make people lazy. Um I I'm less lazy.

Stephen Spence: 32:33

I'm like, I go down these rabbit holes of because in in Chat GBT you could do a deep research dive, yeah, right, an agent dive and all this stuff. And I I mean I go down those. I went down that whole rabbit hole trying to prepare for the certainty events.

Ty Cobb Backer: 32:46

You know, and I'm starting to use it to you know to to double check, cross-reference our our our books here. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like help help me find a gap. Where's there where's there some deficiencies? Create me a budget. I want it to be this much revenue with this much net profit with with it with a net profit of this. So where does my payroll need to stay? How much can I spend on marketing? How much, you know, all of these things. And that's why I say like I would need to hire somebody for tens of thousands of dollars to take months to deep dive when all I gotta do is download an Excel spreadsheet of last year's books. You know what I mean? Like for free, yeah. Except outside of the the the monthly subscription or whatever it might be for.

Stephen Spence: 33:30

I need to do that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 33:32

Yeah. You know, so there's something out there for somebody that, you know, and I just started down this rabbit hole with this, but you know what I mean, to to do that. But again, um it's gonna only improve the quality of our business, it's gonna help us be more efficient, run more lean, all these things that we've been talking about. I mean, we're we've been, I think we've done a good job um staying out on the forefront between John and our marketing. We use it in our marketing every day.

Stephen Spence: 33:57

That's what it sounds like.

Ty Cobb Backer: 33:58

Um, and in our content creation, the podcast, there's yeah, there's not much AI that's not involved with it. Even even the uh platform that we use, the StreamYard, yeah, has now is up to date on it. Like everybody is anything.

Stephen Spence: 34:12

I would I was talking because the Rufers Cough shop does a bunch of different types of podcasts and everything, and they were talking about StreamYard, they brought that up, and then they were they had some others that literally like from this podcast that you and I are doing. I don't know if StreamYard does it, but there's some out there that you can click a button and it'll create like nine shorts for you. Yeah, and they're very accurate. Yeah, StreamYard does it now. Vic is saying it does, yeah. Like it's a like that's amazing.

Ty Cobb Backer: 34:35

Yeah, that would take hours. Yes. I remember Vic and I both use it, used to take hours to try to create a 15-second thing.

Stephen Spence: 34:45

Well, that's this is the next step I'm doing on my website. I'm putting all these podcasts on. Vic's gonna hate me and be like, can you send them to me again? But like I'm gonna I'm gonna tag all these podcasts on there just to show everybody that might be researching Project Map, but like, yeah, like Steven is an amazing team of Pat, uh Perla, Ashley. I'm gonna name them all Maddie, Marcos, Olivia, Pete, Ryan, like our amazing team. Like, check them out. And and that's again a reputation builder.

Ty Cobb Backer: 35:10

Absolutely.

Stephen Spence: 35:10

If I was never on a podcast, I just talked to a certain teed rep the other day. Uh, this person just started with Certain Teed. Shout out to Molly Quinn. And and she said, like, I'm gonna I'm gonna check you out. I'm gonna re I'm gonna research Steve Spence podcasts. And I talked to her this morning coming up here, and she's like, Yeah, there were tons of podcasts for you. Reputation, man. It's all about reputation signals, AI. So okay.

Ty Cobb Backer: 35:32

So before we wrap this up, that I got one probably AI question for you here. Um so in one sentence, what what what does AI allow contractors to do better than ever before?

Stephen Spence: 35:46

Well, you answered all of that. I'm not a contractor. If you're talking about on the marketing side, I can talk about that. But I mean, as a I would I would pose it more as a question where it's AI is a thing. Every contractor that might watch this episode, AI is a thing, and people are searching differently than they did a year, two years ago. Yeah. So no longer are they saying landscaper roofer near me or anything like that. They're asking AI questions. And AI doesn't just look at your website, AI looks at everything out there on the World Wide Web about your company. So get yourself get yourself out and all the different reviews, yeah, all the different third-party sites, whether you're on there on a manufacturer site or whatever, and and try to beef up those different third-party sites so that when AI pings a million, a billion different websites, they're seeing you more than just on your website. It's all about showing uh fresh content. So think fresh content on your website. Maybe, like we talked about, put an FNQ, FAQ page on there. Um, make sure that your your name, address, and phone number are updated on all the different third-party sites that are out there that have your name. Just Google your name and see like what sites come up and then go to those sites and update them. Um, but that's that's where the world's headed. It's where the in your specific industry, Google, AI, they're all looking for you to show your reputation and that you're the best one. So that when someone asks AI a question, AI can use all those reputation signals, fresh content, fresh, like look at the work we've done, all that stuff. AI can then say, This is the company that answers your question because this is the company I found out on the World Wide Web, not just your website, that has the most information that that shows that you are the most reputable one.

Ty Cobb Backer: 37:38

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 37:38

All about reputation, everybody.

Ty Cobb Backer: 37:40

Yeah. No, that's a great response. I mean, outside of uh the the only other better response could have been, what can it do? That's well, that's freaking true too. You know, what what can it do? So, anyhow, Steven, this this has been an awesome conversation and thank you for making AI practical and and and not intimidating. I think hopefully, if anybody got anything out of this, hopefully we we help them ease their mind that you know it's not so intimidating. Everybody's using it. If you're not using it, please jump on the bandwagon.

Stephen Spence: 38:10

Can I say one more thing, two minutes or less? Yes, sir. I'm on your podcast. I'd be remiss if I did not mention Roofers in Recovery, a nonprofit organization that your company, my company, and and uh our buddy Jimmy Hammond in Indian Indianapolis did. We hosted three golf tournaments. We raised about $49,000 this year with the three tournaments. If you're a contracting company, not just a roofing company, but if you're a contracting company, um your industry, specifically roofing is the highest, but your industry, the contracting industry is the highest percentage of drug and alcohol and mental um mental issues that people have, right? So as an owner, as a human being, as an employee of that company, um, I encourage everybody to talk to your employees. I encourage everybody to have something in place. Maybe at your maybe at your meetings, you talk about it once a month. Um, but educate your employees because more than likely, you probably have an employee or more that is suffering from sort of mental disease or drug and alcohol addiction. I'm not saying everybody does. I'm not saying that, just the percentage-wise, national percentage probably dictates that. So just educate your team, be that owner that um takes care of your employees, and everybody could be sober and everybody could be totally mentally sound, but still educating them because more than likely someone in your office that works at your place. How many people do you have, Ty, here in TC back or all over? In in this in all three locations? We're we're just under 70. So you have 70 people. I guarantee you, out of those 70 people, a lot of them have friends that are also struggling.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:50

Yeah.

Stephen Spence: 39:50

So education is very important, and I just encourage everybody to do that. Roofersinrecovery.org. You can go there, and there's a there's obviously a content. Contact us page that you can speak with somebody there to get resources and stuff to help you get educated yourself. So I just want to say thank you, Ty. Yeah, his his tournament here in York, they did the best. I think you guys, what, 27,000, 28,000, 29,000? Baltimore, my tournament, we brought in 21. Brand new tournament, Jimmy Hammond out in Indianapolis brought in too. So total $49,000 to roofers and recovery. I just wanted to say thank you very much, Ty, for jumping on that that wagon.

Ty Cobb Backer: 40:26

No, we love it. We love it. And you know, I just want to add one more thing to what you were saying. Because um, and not only those that are that are struggling with, you know, to bring up to your team, um, you know, I and as as somebody who's been on both sides of this um thing, you know, anybody who has suffered from somebody in their life that has been dealing with with drug addiction and and alcoholism, you know, sometimes they need a place to, you know, go and talk to somebody because whether they know it or not, we we make people around us sick as well, too, whether it's codependency, um, co-signing stuff, covering things up, the fear, the PTSD, all those things. Um, you know, and they may not even realize that they're going through things. They may not know why they do certain quirky things or fear certain, you know, um aspects of their life, whether it's crowds of people or high-tone pitches or or whatever the case might be. I mean, it it we affect everybody when we when we tear through people's lives, we affect those around us and permanently scar people that that don't seek help um or may not even think that they need any help. So I just wanted to throw that out there too. It's not just about, you know, those that that have suffered or struggled with the disease, but it also their family members too that have experienced it with them. So that's there's there's programs out there too um for that. So I just wanted to bring that up because that's not talked about enough too. Like, what about the parents? What about the the significant others, you know, that that go through the same shit essentially that that person's going through that's suffering from you know alcoholism or whatever.

Stephen Spence: 42:00

I love it.

Ty Cobb Backer: 42:01

Yeah, so I wanted to put that in there. So if if if you want to learn more about Project Map It um or catch Steven on the road with ABC supplier certain teed, check the show notes. Vic's gonna go ahead and put the links in there and potentially if we can get the the tour stops from from Steven here, we'll we'll put them in the comments. And as always, thank you guys for listening to Beyond the Tool Belt.

Stephen Spence: 42:21

Don't do not hang up yet. It's not our fault Vic didn't have the battery ready. Vic, next time be I want you to tell everybody where you're going today at five o'clock. I know you don't like to brag, and I know this is a tough thing for you because you're one of my best friends, and I know you don't like to say things, but I want you to tell the world what you're what what honor you're getting bestowed upon today.

Ty Cobb Backer: 42:45

Um let's do it. It's been okay. So, oh, all right. This might be another 10 minutes here. Because I want to go back. If I'm gonna bring it up. Okay, so about 10 years ago, we we went and did uh a home show. Our first, I think I want to say it was probably one, maybe, maybe longer, 12, 15, who knows how long ago it was. So our intentions was to go out there and get get the brand recognition, set some appointments, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. And I was approached by a lovely person. Uh, her name is uh Lori Lori, and asked me if I would want to join the York Builders Association. And I and I was like, you know, I don't know. She's like, well, we'll give you a discount on the booth. I was like, yeah, I'm in. I'm in. So my intent was just to get better deals by just being a board, like I'm not a board member, but just a member of the York Builders Association. And a year or two went by and our booth got bigger, and we started to get more brand exposure. And you know, I would I would speak with the lovely people that that work for the York Builders Association a couple times a year. They'd ask us how we were doing, and is there anything more that we can do for you? But then they approached me one year, probably about eight, 10, eight, 10 years ago, and asked me if I would want to be a board member. I was like, man, I don't know. Like I'm busy all the time. And and of course, as persuasive as Lori Lori is, I was like, sure, I'll do it. So I became a board member. So that's at one meeting a month. And and I showed up, you know, a couple, maybe two, three more years, and then she asked me to be the uh, I think treasurer. I was like, oh my God. Now now I'm moving up to the exec board, which is now another different meeting once a month. So now it's two meetings a month. And then from there, treasurer, secretary, um, vice president last year. And now um we're we're moving into the the president seat at the York Builders Association, which I've been recognized by the National Home Builders of You know Association. Um, I've gotten you know awards from from them from holding the positions that I've held over the years. And I'm saying this because I just don't want people to think that they just picked me, like, you're a great dude. We're gonna put you in. It's taken a lot of hard work. And now since then, I I'm there for uh financial. I'm on I sit on the financial advisory board there. I sit on the Workforce Now program, which is a nonprofit that encourages students to get into the trades. Uh, I think I'm vice president there. Um, I'm on now, I'm on the home and garden board. Um, we just had a meeting yesterday. We got the home show coming up, uh, the home and garden show coming up in February. So come check us out there. I believe that's February 12th, 6th through the 8th, February 6th through the 8th, down down there at the um, what do they call it now? The Uts. Is it the Uts Expo? Yeah, Uts Potato Chips Expo Center in New York here. Um, and so I do there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes, like you said, Steve, that I don't, you know, I'm not like rack, you know, grandiose about like, hey, check out me. I do it because I'm passionate. I'm passionate about this industry. Um, I'm passionate about the the local business owners using, you know, other business owners. I'm passionate about workforce now and and getting student more students involved um with with the trades because the average age, and this is going back a couple years ago when I last pulled the statistic. And I mean it could probably go back five years, it's probably changed today. The average construction worker is 55 years old. Okay, I know AI is coming into things, but AI is not gonna replace you know, uh a siding installer. Uh AI is not gonna replace window installers, plumbers, HVAC. It may help and enhance our industry, which I've already seen it do that. And I didn't mention roofing because I do know that they're trying to come out with a mechanical roofing machine, which I mean, there's always gonna have to be somebody that's gonna have to operate it. And I don't think with the complex complexity of a lot of roofs, it I think there will be a time and a place to use it, um, especially for safety purposes.

Stephen Spence: 47:02

Yeah, I have person.

Ty Cobb Backer: 47:04

I think we met the person here in York. Were you with me?

Stephen Spence: 47:07

Yeah, and I've also been to their shop and I've yes with Roofers Coffee Shop.

Ty Cobb Backer: 47:10

No doubt. So um, anyhow, so yes, long story short, tonight's the night. We got 91 of us, 92 with Steve, um, that will um come and celebrate with us the uh the commitment that I've made to um our our local you know construction industry to try to make it a better place than it was when we found it. So um I I I feel like they they saw something in me and they think that hopefully, hopefully, you know, and this is what's crazy about the whole thing. It's not even about what I'm bringing to it, it's been about what I've gotten out of it. I mean, I Lori Lori has been such a great mentor to me. She is one of the hard, hardest course leaders. I mean, this lady is is bulletproof and she's into the same stuff. Like she's into books, we share books with each other. I mean, she and and just sitting on and learning how real meetings are supposed to be held with with secretaries, treasurers, pretty much like CEO, CFO, you know, having a board. You know, I wouldn't probably know as much about those things if it wasn't for me stepping outside my comfort zone, but her graciously asking me if I would want to participate and be a part of York County, which is which we're the number two um um builder association in the state of Pennsylvania. We just got that. Like we're only like 60 out and I'm we're talking Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, you know, uh uh Wilkesbury, like big, big, big, big, big cities that swallow us. Yep. Uh, we're just kind of a blip on the map, but Lori Lori's busted her ass to to retain, and you know all about retain HD, to retain members, to recruit new members, to to have the the second largest in the state of Pennsylvania is is pretty cool. And for me to slide into the position that I am at this time where we're going for the number one spot in the state of Pennsylvania to be the builder association.

Stephen Spence: 49:00

So I appreciate you sharing that. And I know you work really hard for the community. It's one of the first things I learned about you six years, seven years, whatever it was a long time ago. Yeah. So I just wanted to make sure you said that out loud and on a podcast because you deserve it. Good job. And and good job, Lori Laurie. Yeah, her shout out for sure. Yeah, she sounds amazing.

Ty Cobb Backer: 49:18

Yeah, her and her husband Sean are amazing people, amazing. And they'll be there tonight.

Stephen Spence: 49:22

You may now end your podcast if you'd like.

Ty Cobb Backer: 49:24

Okay, that's it. That's all for everybody. Um, you know, thank you, thank you for listening behind the tool belt. You know, where we try our damnedest to help build better businesses, better teams, and better lives. So we will see you next week. Um, next week, I'm not sure exactly what we're doing or what we're talking about, but be here or be square. Thanks for joining us.