Epic Entrepreneurs

Building Roofs and Reputation with Bryson Lanier

• Bill Gilliland

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 38:30

In this week’s Epic Entrepreneurs episode, guest host Cliff McRea from ActionCOACH Business Growth Partners sits down with Bryson Lanier, owner of Little Bird Roof Company, to explore the story behind one of Western North Carolina’s most trusted roofing businesses.

Bryson shares how his background as a subcontractor and military veteran inspired him to build a company focused on craftsmanship, integrity, and customer education. From historic homes to complex slate and cedar shake projects, Little Bird takes on the jobs others avoid—backed by meticulous planning, strong communication, and a commitment to doing things right the first time.

Listeners will hear insights on:

  • Building a reliable, growth-minded team
  • The power of customer education and communication
  • Lessons learned from scaling during post-storm rebuilding
  • How trust, balance, and reputation fuel long-term success

Bryson also opens up about leadership, work–life balance, and his desire to use business as a force for good—through community engagement and supporting wildlife research led by his operations manager.

If you’re a business owner striving to grow with purpose and integrity, this conversation is a masterclass in doing just that.

🎧 Listen now to discover how Little Bird Roof Company is raising the standard, one roof—and one relationship—at a time.

Guest contact info:

bryson@birdroof.com

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Di9AdpbYL/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.instagram.com/littlebirdroofcompany?igsh=NTFweXg0eTVwano5&utm_source=qr

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/


SPEAKER_01:

All right, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae, filling in for Bill Gillan with your local business training and coaching firm, Action Coach Business Growth Partners. I'm excited to have Bryson Lanier with Little Bird Roof Company. That's the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today. So, Bryson, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer the community.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, uh, good morning. I first appreciate the opportunity to talk with you all today about Little Bird. Uh my name's Bryce Lanier. Moved to North Carolina in 2007 and uh uh started Littlebird Roof Company and its parent LLC The Mount Workshop project in 2017. Uh originally I worked as an independent subcontractor for a decent-sized residential roofing company in Western North Carolina in 2020, uh kind of in the middle of the pandemic, decided to uh go out on my own and establish a full-service roofing company instead of working as a subcontractor. Uh, and that's how Little Bird was born. Um, I had a slightly different vision than a lot of the contractors I worked with. I think it's really easy to become a budget roofer. You're incentivized, uh, you know, one by the money and then two by the ease of the process to take on easy, high profit margin jobs and to shy away from the difficult installs. Um and Littlebird was just built to uh kind of provide a quality experience uh for our customers and to focus on jobs that most contractors shy away from, whether it's your cedar shake or your slate or historic homes, things that have a lot of moving parts that are a little bit more difficult to navigate.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yes, I'm sure during the historic homes especially are pretty tough, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, they're they bring their own challenges. I think once once you get into it, um the customers are so great to work with. Um we like an informed, educated customer where we're having um deeper conversations than just put a roof on. Uh so recently we were working with a customer in Biltmore Forest who has a uh a slate roof that was put on in 1938 and was adamant that we get the um get the slate from the same quarter that they got it from in 1938. Uh I think a lot of people would see that would throw a red flag uh that you don't want to work with this guy or it's gonna be difficult. We see uh an educated customer that knows what they want. Um, and I think that if we are professional and knowledgeable and we explain the process to customers like that, then we end up in a wonderful situation where the customer knows what to expect, we know what to deliver, and at the end of the job, you're looking at this beautiful project with a very happy customer. And you have the you know, pride and business ownership that our company can handle uh things that other companies uh see as challenges. We we we see as challenges as well, but we see them in a good way instead of we don't want that or it's gonna be too big of a headache. Gotcha. You know, that's the that we're looking for.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. So you you see them as an obstacle, but it's not like something that you don't want to take on. You gladly take on the obstacle, you just want to learn a little bit more about it. I love that. Definitely, definitely. Okay. So yeah, if you had to start your business, you know, this kind of goes into the next question here. If you had to start from square one in your business, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, I would probably hire my operations manager on day one. Uh I I've been very fortunate to hire wonderful guys that uh that work with me that have helped me build this company, uh, helped help me focus on the vision of the company and trust them with their departments. Uh the first year that I was in business, I had a lot of sales experience. I had a lot of experience being on site, working with the crew. Um, but the production from sales to invoicing, there were gaps in my knowledge or places that I wasn't comfortable. And I my first hire uh was a guy named Anthony Squatieri. He's uh uh an ornithologist, he runs a national nonprofit. He has a um uh his uh previous job experience as a home inspector, and he is very detailed. Uh he's a scientist. Everything that he does is uh you know documented and written out and and planned, and he was just a great kind of counterbalance to uh the way I operate. So um it allowed me to talk to customers, spend more time with customers, spend more time on sales and marketing, and be able to trust somebody that once we had a job and contract, that he was going to be on top of every facet of that job until completion and invoicing. And all I really had to do at that point was circle back with the customers to get their feedback on the experience. Uh and he just kind of completed that professional uh experience. Um so if I if I could go back, he would have saved me a lot of time and running around if I had hired him day one instead of a year in the uh business.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah, okay. No, I love it. I love it. Now, the the operations manager that you did go with, I mean, you know, was there anything in particular, you know, because obviously you had to interview for him. Was there anything particular you were looking for for an operation manager as far as personality uh or or work ethic or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. So I'm an Iraq vet uh and I um I was a uh satellite systems uh operator, and I was wonderful in the field. I didn't like being in the rear. Um I know my strengths and weaknesses, uh, and um you know Anthony, pretty much every one of Anthony's strengths is a weakness of mine, and every one of my, you know, and vice versa. Uh and then two, um I have a rock climbing past, and Anthony was a guy that I climbed with uh all over the East Coast. Uh I think it it makes it real easy to trust somebody in business that has been on the other end of a rope 500 feet off the ground with you. Um, I knew who he was. Uh I knew his intelligence level. Um, and uh I knew that you know, like I said, his his strengths were my weaknesses. So it was just a natural fit with somebody that I knew and trusted.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect. I love that. Love that. Um, so what have your biggest learnings been as an owner since you started your business?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh you know, I think with roofing and with Western North Carolina, um communication with the customers has learning how to do that efficiently and professionally has been really important. We we transcribe all of our phone calls uh so that if my sales team or project manager or operations manager has a conversation with you, that we don't end up in that brutal game of um telephone game, where the customer either misunderstood something or a salesman misunderstood something, we're able to go back and look at our phone calls and and read back word for word what was discussed, um, which I think makes you know all parties involved comfortable. Um I think learning to educate customers uh about the process has been a really important thing to learn. Um, a better educated customer um makes for an easier uh overall process. Uh I think companies get real comfortable assuming that the people that they're talking to know the information that we're talking about. Yes. So taking a step back and realizing that this person's likely hearing all this information for the first time and being thorough and explaining all the ins and outs uh has made for a better experience and less sticker shock at the end of the job. Um, not having X-ray vision as a roofer is difficult because we're gonna tear into roofs. We're in a mountain community. The way guys were doing things 30 years ago is not the way we do things any uh currently. So we don't know what we're gonna get into. And if you're one of these companies that goes out and just sells sunshine to your customer, everything is gonna be perfect. This is the least expensive we could do it for. You're gonna set your customers up for sticker shock or disappointment when you tear into a roof and there are multiple layers or wildlife infestations or ventilation systems aren't proper. Um, having a customer that knows what to expect is uh is invaluable. So I think that was a big thing to learn. Uh, learning the software that goes into running a company this size. You know, we initially started as a company focused on high quality. Uh, we were going to do one or two jobs a root a week and do them well and go after those hard jobs like we discussed. Helene hit and uh we had a hundred roofs in contract in the first three weeks after the hurricane. Uh if we had if we had not had the software in place to integrate with the supply houses and our measurement software, then we would have had to hire 10, 15 people to manage that workload. But we were one of the few companies in the area that had those systems in place where our current staff was able to adjust and adapt to that influx.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm sure, you know, with your customers kind of knowing what to expect during the job and kind of not have that sticker shock, I bet you it prevents, you know, negative reviews. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00:

So so far we we only have five-star reviews on whether it's Google, Yelp, any any of those platforms. We we haven't we haven't received even a four-star review uh to date. Um it's because we take the extra time uh to go through it. Our you know, our our automated emails and reminders and text might be annoying to some customers. We've definitely gotten negative feedback that that the the automations can almost pester. In business, you're gonna find customers that appreciate stuff like that and then customers that are not. Um and it's a it's a balance in between. And I would rather I would rather be overly thorough and you know send a send a text every once in a while that we're not bothering you, that's just an automation, than I would for a customer to feel like they're left in the dark and have a crew show up at eight o'clock in the morning on some random day and they're not expecting it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, and you're exactly right, Bryce. And I and I'll be completely honest with you. If I was going to have something done with my roof, I'm gonna honestly keep you guys in mind. Uh, and that's just 100% honest because I love I'd rather you over-communicate with me than undercommunicate. Because I mean, I when someone, like you just said, you know, somebody shows up at your house, you have no idea what's going on. I'd rather you uh over-communicate with me rather than just somebody just showing up in my house and on a day that probably doesn't work well for me. So yeah, I definitely, I love it, love it. Um, so so getting into that a little bit more, what are some common misconceptions about running a business, would you say?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh that it's not always going to be easy or profitable. Um, I I've got friends uh that are commission-based uh companies. And I have friends that sell huge solar systems and make are are make a lot of money in waves. And then I have friends that uh they they work for the second business for the last 10 years, they know exactly what to expect going into work, they get to put it down at five o'clock, their paycheck's always going to be the same. I think I'm right in between that, where it does come in waves as a business owner. Some months are incredibly profitable, and the next month could be abysmal. And if you're not prepared for those ups and downs, then stress can kill you. Um, I also think that that growth requires discomfort. Um it's impossible to grow within your comfort zone. So as a business, small business owner, size business owner, large business owner, I think you have to get control with being non-comfortable or with being outside of your comfort zone. Um and then my job as a business owner in regards to my family and my employees is not to transfer those highs and lows to them, but to keep them steady. You know, uh my wife doesn't need to know every great success or every great failure, or she's on the same up and down stressful path that I'm on. Uh, so I think keeping that to myself, uh, running the business, giving my employees a comfortable place to work, but also keeping them motivated is super important. You know, we can have a month that seems like it sets us up for a year and then profit than that we have so many guys. Um so you know, it it's it's fluid. Uh Helene kind of highlighted um that you can build a wonderful company inside you know this great community, and think that you have everything dialed in, and then those communities' needs can change and um uh you have to adapt with it. Uh one of the things that I took from my years of rock climbing is that if you're only interested in success, you would you would do something easy. But if you are trying to accomplish something difficult, that frustration almost frustration does let you know that you've kind of found the challenge that you are looking for. So instead of letting frustration shut you down, frustration kind of has to be a motivator that you know or a reminder, like you're trying something difficult, work hard at it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So, how do you handle taking vacations while running a business? This is always a good one.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, you know, um this year will be easier than last. Uh roofing uh is is weather dependent. Um your summer vacations as a roofer are pretty much non-existent. Um asphalt products do not stick down in freezing temperatures. So we we typically squirrel away metal, cedar shake, slate jobs, decks, fences, framing, uh things for the winter, kind of try and build up that work for the cold months because we know that asphalt products won't be installed. Uh post-Helene, we were doing everything. We were a tree company, we were a water mitigation company, interior, exterior, we're handling insurance claims left and right. Um that we're back on a normal pattern, uh in February. When the workload slows down, it helps all of us get refreshed for springtime when people you know clear that tax hurdle and the weather warms up and we get a lot of stays, and then we're firing on all cylinders. So um, you know, you're uh you're you're taking trips out of the cold to go somewhere warm, normally in January and February and kind of refresh and then come back.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sounds like a trip. Uh trip to Miami is in the cards pretty soon. All right. So yeah, what have you attributed, you know, to your growth so far in your business? Anything in particular?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, you know, um learning how to use the resources around you. We uh we are credentialed with a number of different manufacturers. Uh if we install a roofing system, uh then we have our guys take tests on those roofing systems, how they're supposed to be installed, use all corresponding products. That way we can register warranties with the manufacturer. Uh I'd like to think that I'm gonna be around in 50 years, but if I'm not, my customers will still have all the warranties because we are listed as professional installers for all these different systems that we install. Um we wanted those credentials just so we could prove that we were the company that people wanted to work with. Uh building those relationships with those manufacturers, other things a million dollars worth of Certain T products last year. So Certain T is now helping us with marketing and sending us leads from their website or uh everything from door hangers to business cards to educational opportunities for my roofing crews and my salesmen. Um the people that make the products that we install have been an incredible resource uh for business building. Um they've seen it before. They've helped other companies grow, and they're just as incentivized as we are in the CR company grow. You know, we we grow with them, they grow with us. Uh so that's been a that's been a great resource.

SPEAKER_01:

So how do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business? You shut things off at certain time, five o'clock, six o'clock p.m.

SPEAKER_00:

or how does that kind of work out for you as a I don't I don't feel that I really have the ability to shut everything off. When I uh I'm I'm a father, I'm a husband, uh, I've got kids, uh they're they're all involved in sports, you know, extracurricular activities and deserve my time. Uh when I get home, I do have. difficulty shutting it off. At least this last year has been difficult because normally when somebody calls you with roofing needs, it well not normally, but it has the potential to really be affecting their life. You know, post Hallene, it rains, water's dumping in the attic, it's ruining their, you know, pictures and memories, and they're desperate to get somebody out there right now or at least be heard and get a game plan for the following day, something through for um you know taking the next steps of fixing their issues. So we do have an emergency line that I monitor personally. It doesn't rain as often as it did last year. So it's getting easier to balance. I think you know having having a start point and having a an end point of every day, you know, helps balance my guys I enforce that. I you know sometimes I'll I'll call my operations manager at 5 30 and when he doesn't answer the phone I smile and and know that he's at least you know taking time for himself because burnout was um burnout was hard to uh um to avoid post-Helene. You know, I I had guys that were working our week for um you know months in a row uh so we all we all face burnout and I think we've all gotten better this year about you know taking time with our families and and and and knowing that it'll be okay to get to it tomorrow uh but we still want to be responsive to customers that are that are going through a crisis.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So what you know you you you kind of talked a little bit about this earlier but um you know how do you go about fostering a positive and productive work environment for your employees you know my guys have unlimited time off uh I think I think that that kind of you know regulates itself if my project manager who's on site for every install takes three weeks off when he comes back some people are going to be frowning at it.

SPEAKER_00:

Um we're we're a we're a team we want you to be able to take as much time off whenever you need within a reason and I think just the communal respect and everybody having their you know designated jobs uh uh I I know that like my sales guy would feel guilty if he left for two months and we didn't have anything to do. Um everybody in the company knows everybody else's job so we can cover down for a certain amount of time um but but when people are gone it it's noticeable um so you know unlimited time off I I tell them they could take as many months off each year as they wanted to. They normally only take a few weeks um we we meet every Friday uh for a few hours we we know each other we spend time with each other outside of work um I think everybody cares about each other uh and and we know the opportunity that we have to be successful and it it depends on everybody um so yeah I I just having a having a tight knit team listening to your people and uh um and and and trying to just navigate things that happened in their life whether their mom gets sick or they need to spend more time with their kids uh just listening to that making that happen and then trusting that they'll put the work in when they come back okay so now we're gonna head into what's called the quick fire round um so basically what I'm going to do is I'm going to spit out one word and I want you to tell me what this one word means to running your business. Education Well education is key in in all facets of the job having educated employees that can explain things to customers uh that can further the the customers education uh we um begin in western North Carolina not all of our customers call western North Carolina their primary home uh Florida building codes can be drastically different than North Carolina um the way we do things in certain parts of the country is different um you know Florida deals with high wind we we deal with snow and freezing temperatures um I I think that not only knowing the right things to do here but knowing where our customers come from allows us to have deeper conversations uh with people that might not even be in the state when they're making the decision on what to do on their roof. So that that part of having an educated sales team and an educated customer is really important. Having an educated crew knowing how each roof system is installed things can be different from manufacturer to manufacturer. Once again that's why we have our crews take test if I am putting on a certain T roof or a GAF roof or a standing seam metal roof from Best Buy Metals the crew that is on the job has passed the test on that specific material so they know what to do. That way we don't eliminate warranties that would have been available to customers. And then I think education on on just the community uh um knowing the the ins and outs of western North Carolina um it's a um it's kind of a little bubble um whether you're putting solar panels on a roof or you're dealing with a a house up in Wolf Laurel that's going to experience higher winds than you'd see in Asheville or Lake Lure. Just knowing those those little idiosyncrasies, those little you know differences between communities so that you can address them appropriately is um is huge. So you know my my my crew has been doing this for a long time and we we're prepared for the little things that pop up in a job because we've done our research we've done our due diligence we we've we've taken those extra steps to be prepared for that job we've educated ourselves along the way.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice I love it love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Next word is planning what oh planning so planning I once again I'd have to you know champion uh Anthony's contribution to our company uh Anthony is the best I've ever seen when it comes to explaining what's going to happen the day of an install, being prepared, talking to customers ahead of time where should we put the materials? Where should we put the dumpster? Do we need to make contact with your neighbors? Do you have a shared driveway? Anthony is fluent in both Spanish and English uh so our crews get um installation instructions and daily work orders in both English and Spanish with a full site layout, a full material list. They never walk into a job not knowing what they're going to be doing, what's on site, what they might need or all the little things that go into a job. So I think we're we're very very prepared uh uh for every day's worth of work um and you know once again that that that makes our crews uh feel comfortable um I think eliminating surprises as much as possible uh by just being thorough uh upfront um you know really um um exposes the difference between our companies and other contractors in the area inspiration um it's inspiration outside of just wanting to provide for my family is uh we want to be more than a roofing company uh we um our charitable outlet is Wild Bird Research Group it is a national nonprofit that is run by Anthony my operations manager uh he's an ornithologist you'll find him at the NCR Buretum on the weekend you know teaching classes to kids he goes to Costa Rica every February to track migratory patterns of birds that he's banded uh up here in Western North Carolina um we want to be a uh a company that gives back to the community and I think with my background in rock climbing and Anthony's background in rock climbing and the ornithology that preserving natural areas and and and being more than just a moneymaker for our family but being a positive influence on the community um is our uh inspiration.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice, nice I love that uh and lastly commitment.

SPEAKER_00:

Commitment is our commitment to the customer uh we do the extra things we take the extra test we we jump through hoops that other companies don't jump through because like we discussed before roofing companies come and go uh most companies come and go um our commitment to our customer is if something happens to me if I'm in a car wreck next year my my business shuts down that your warranties don't evaporate, your roof was installed the right way, uh these are transferable warranties. These warranties oftentimes don't depreciate if you get a manufacturer's defect 49 years from now and I'm out of business, you have a a manufacturer sometimes a 300 year old company like in the case of St. Gobain that is uh that that still has your warranty registered. So our commitment is that we don't cut corners uh we do things the right way uh I tell customers everybody's roof looks the same the day after install whether it's a good install or a bad install five 10 years down the road it becomes noticeable if a if a bad company cut corners um you you you have a a manufacturer's issue they come out and they say it wasn't installed the right way that's why it's fallen apart they didn't use enough nails they installed this one it was 20 degrees outside um our commitment to our customers is that we are not going to make those mistakes uh that we are gonna do things the right way the first time and when we leave them they're gonna have a product that they're uh confident in.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow your reputation is everything uh when you start a business you're gonna be put in positions where you could be potentially be doing doing a job that is not going to be profitable.

SPEAKER_00:

If you gave the customer your word that you were going to do it you honor that commitment to your customer it might cost you money the first year in business second third year in business it might cost you money your your entire business life uh but your your reputation is is more important than an extra 10% profit margin on a job uh I was raised um uh my dad always taught me that honor is a gift a man gives himself um so give give yourself that gift starting a business uh um it will it it's beneficial in the day to day it's beneficial in the long run uh you know 30 years down the road losing a thousand dollars on the job will not be a big deal um not running an honorable business having a reputation of being dishonest uh i is a business killer and rightfully so okay so what would you say is the next big thing for little bird roof company next big thing for little bird roof company is uh just how to grow appropriately um it's it's it's like a snowball you know you you kick you kick this positive snowball off the top of a mountain and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger learning how to navigate bigger things is is is the big challenge um we're constantly just trying to educate ourselves on how to be a better company um we're getting more comfortable taking uh bigger projects we're moving into the commercial space uh more than we have in the past um in in the past we've mainly focused on residential um commercial is a different uh different beast so I think moving into that commercial side of things um and then you know we've worked with a lot of home builders in the area uh we've worked with a lot of other companies just professional connections um take us in directions where we're following somebody else's vision more than than our vision um so just learning how to support that um I wouldn't be surprised if we get into custom home building uh in the future um we af after Helene we wore so many hats we made so many connections uh with different subcontractors and different builders that it's open doors in two areas that a roofing company normally wouldn't step into so we just want to step into those areas w with the same attention to detail and focus on quality that got us where we are uh in Littleberg.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And lastly what's the best way for someone to find you or get in touch with you know we we we've got a great um we we get a lot of word of mouth recommendations uh we've got a uh uh website we've got a good Google presence you know we're constantly working on SEO and and trying to expand that uh I I prefer customers to call me directly um getting an email gives you a little bit of information but we we value those personal connections we get more information when we have a conversation with somebody on the phone so uh you know reaching out to us directly getting an inspector on site uh uh while the customer's there uh instead of you know we we don't do a lot of this door knocking and and just throwing a ton of estimates out we have a very high close rate so um getting in touch with us personally over the phone um or requesting a meeting at a supply house to go over products uh uh that's that that's our um that's the best way to to once again you know educate the customer and explain who we are and make them feel comfortable with with deciding to to use us as a roofing company perfect what's that phone number and email uh phone number is 82851 1314 for my personal line we also have a um uh main office number which is 828678 bird uh and then the email address is just bryson at birdroof.com perfect perfect any social media presence social media we're on Facebook and Instagram uh oh where else are we um yeah I mean I'd I'd say Facebook's uh Facebook's our number one Instagram's pretty good uh we do the TikTok and LinkedIn um things as well but I think we're easier to reach and it's easier to see our work with Facebook and Instagram.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect perfect yeah fantastic thank you so much for being a part of the community and for all that you're doing we certainly wish you continued success and really appreciate you coming on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey we appreciate the opportunity thank you yeah thank you so much