Josh Stensgaard runs Sky Armor Roofing Siding Windows out of Woodbury, Minnesota. He got here the long way, dropping out of Mankato State, starting an exterior house painting company, then going looking for the highest paying job he could find and landing in roofing. The throughline of the whole conversation is specialization. Hone in on one thing, get great at it, and build the business around doing that one thing right.
That shows up everywhere in how he works. He leads with a class four impact-resistant shingle because it can save homeowners money on their insurance, and he treats roofing clients as one-time customers by design. Do the job right once and you never have to go back. We also get into the harder side, what door knocking actually costs you, including the time somebody pulled a shotgun on him, and why the thing that gets you through it is a real why. Not money. His is simple: his future children and providing for his wife.
The back half is AI, and it is the honest version, not the buzzword one. Josh uses it to rank for local search, build content, and write prompts detailed enough to get real usable work out of it, and he still pays for a coach on top of all of it. He also name-checks Adam Bensman's Roofing Sales Survival Guide and Hormozi's Money Models as reads that shaped how he thinks about the business.
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Chapters
- 00:00 - Introduction and Josh's background
- 00:28 - Josh's journey from college dropout to roofing entrepreneur
- 02:16 - Why Josh chose to specialize in roofing, siding, and windows
- 04:56 - What sets Josh apart in high-end roofing bids
- 06:46 - The importance of experience, attention to detail, and transparency
- 08:15 - Using insurance benefits as a sales advantage
- 09:16 - The significance of a strong 'why' and personal goals
- 12:03 - Challenges of door knocking and building grit
- 14:25 - Crazy stories from door-to-door sales and safety concerns
- 16:32 - The power of branding and social media in roofing
- 20:33 - Overcoming burnout and the importance of perseverance
- 22:39 - Setting and understanding your 'why' for motivation
- 27:19 - The value of trades and career paths outside college
- 32:02 - The role of AI in modern roofing and marketing strategies
- 36:54 - Using AI for content creation, ranking, and business growth
- 41:38 - The importance of detailed prompts and continuous learning in AI
- 42:44 - Closing remarks and future plans
The big takeaways
- Specialize and do it once. Josh built Sky Armor around one-time customers by design. Do the job right the first time and you never have to go back, and that reputation is the marketing.
- Lead with the class four impact-resistant shingle. It is a better roof and it can save the homeowner money on their insurance, so the upgrade sells itself when you explain it.
- Door knocking builds grit, and it costs you something. Josh knocked hundreds of thousands of doors and had a shotgun pulled on him. What carries you through is not the pitch, it is the why behind it.
- Find a real why, and it cannot be money. Josh's is his future children and providing for his wife. That is what gets you back on the doors when the day is ugly.
- Use AI for real, not for the buzzword. Ranking for local search, building content, and writing hyper-detailed prompts to get usable output. Get good at explaining exactly what you want.
- Still pay for the coach. Even with everything AI can do, Josh keeps a coach, because the tool does not replace the person pushing you.
Full Transcript
Reasonable Tech Dad (00:05) Host, Ryan Templin, the reasonable tech dad. Got a new friend with us here. We have Josh Stensgaard from Sky Armor Exteriors. And from what I understand, Josh has a pretty good story from a college dropout, maybe, to some business at some business ventures, but better than me tell it. I'll I'll let him tell the story. Josh, why don't you let people know how you got started?
Josh Stensgaard (00:28) Hey everybody, my name is Josh Stensgaard. I'm the founder of a Sky Armor Roofing Siding Windows based out of Woodbury, Minnesota. that it that is kind of funny we talk about the college dropout. How I did kind of get into this industry was when I dropped out of Mankato State, I actually initially started a house painting company where we did exterior house painting. Wasn't really a big fan of the
Do an interior, everybody kind of sits there and looks at it all day and wants to call you back, right? yeah, and and you know what? I got into the roofing siding and window space. I was actually after I finished exterior house painting, I was looking for really just the highest paying job and
Reasonable Tech Dad (01:03) Yeah, for sure.
Josh Stensgaard (01:22) I filled out applications to nine different companies. I had one that gave me a salary plus a profit split. And in that position in my life, you know, that salary definitely helped out quite a bit. so many trainings, so many knocking doors over the years. I was at that first company for five years. went to a second company as the regional sales manager, training, bringing up salesmen.
And then now as of last year, I started Sky Armor. We actually initially started as Sky Armor Exteriors, and recently we rebranded to just Sky Armor. And then below we have the clarifier of roofing siding windows. Yeah. So when when you got exteriors in the name, or you see a company that's just X construction, you get people calling you all the time to do a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, like they're
Reasonable Tech Dad (02:05) Sick.
Josh Stensgaard (02:16) deck or there if if you can do concrete work and me, I like to have a specialty, and that is roofing siding windows.
Reasonable Tech Dad (02:24) Nice doing. Very nice. So then well first let me ask what made you dial in on that specialty? It sounds like you were kind of well rounded and then you went that way. Why?
Josh Stensgaard (02:36) You know what? It's I actually I went to go see at Grant Cardone event down in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I learned so much from him. I got a book and it was essentially top to bottom how to build a business, everything involving sales. And it was so cool. I I met this guy named Victor out there. And Victor, in the last gosh, I think six.
six to ten years something like that made 400 million dollars. Yeah, yeah. He didn't he he was just a business guru and he when I was having a conversation with him I was kind of telling him what I was doing and he told me you need to specialize, clarify, and do one thing and do it the best. And yeah, so I feel like that's that's why it's
I'd say 90% of my business is roofing. You know, we do from, you know, your cheaper small residential up to big commercial flat roofing, you know, your designer luxury type of roofing like Brava Composite, you know, your high quality malarkey with the polymer modified asphalt. I love roofing. That's my thing. I like roofing. And then, you know, with roofing comes
siding and windows and they're very specialty things and I have studied all of those things for the last 10 years and you know I I I would like to think that I'm I'm very knowledgeable on those three topics. You know, like if I asked you about concrete work, you know, I I you would have a significant advantage on me there. I feel like that's what I have in the roofing space for everybody else.
Reasonable Tech Dad (04:28) Sure, absolutely, dude. And I think that kind of transition to what we usually ask next is like, why are you good? Obviously, you have knowledgeable and you just kind of tapped into that. But like when you go out on bids, and I assume, you know, with the luxury, and if people want to look at your website, skyarmor.us, you have some amazing projects on there, dude. Like some really cool roofs and some really nice looking projects. so when you go to bid a high end job like that, why are people picking you over the other guys?
Josh Stensgaard (04:56) Well, the secret to winning against your competitors is by making your client feel comfortable. Right? That's comfortable in you, comfortable how you approach the entire situation and with your talent stack, right? So since I'm so honed in on roofing siding or windows, I mean, I really just yeah, I really build a lot of rapport with the people that I'm going in.
estimating with, I portray that knowledge and experience I have and people just see it. Right. So if you had a newbie, you know, 19 year old door knocker come to your house and you got a million dollar house, when I first started doing that when I was 19, I had so many people tell me that I haven't made enough mistakes yet.
Reasonable Tech Dad (05:45) That's a good line. I like it a lot, dude.
Josh Stensgaard (05:47) Yeah. And and I I was I was so upset about that back in the day, but I get it now because I have made mistakes over the period of my career and learned from them. And I will verbalize that with these clients and with people. And I would say, I guess in in a very specific situation, like you wouldn't want to go with this product for this reason, or you wouldn't want to do this for this reason.
So I'm I'm able to portray that experience to people. I really try to, you know, I I like working with people who like working with me. So yeah, so I I definitely choose who I work with as well. And and yeah, I would say you know, people choose me for the experience, the attention and detail, right? You know, I made a video a couple days ago about the
It's all in the attention of detail. And I want to be really transparent. I feel like I'm overly transparent with a lot of people. You know, some people love it, some people don't, but I'm very frank. Like, this is what I think. And maybe sometimes it could be offensive, hopefully not. But right. Yeah. And it's it's just I want to make sure that people aren't getting guided in the wrong direction based off what
Reasonable Tech Dad (07:06) I run into that too.
Josh Stensgaard (07:16) previous salesman or person told them I've seen products and materials perform and I've seen products and materials do the exact opposite. Right. And I am not the type of guy that, you know, I want to do as much as I like you. I I don't want to do your roof six times over the period of my life. I I would rather, you know, through the next storm, you have such a quality product that
Reasonable Tech Dad (07:42) Ha ha
Josh Stensgaard (07:46) I gave you an install to you that your neighbors are essentially asking you who built it. So I think there's such, you know, with my talent stack, I think it is very diverse as to why people go with me. There's a there's so many things, you know. I I try to be as friendly as I can. I try to be knowledgeable, guide people into, you know, something that's gonna save them money on their insurance. That that is something that a lot of people don't know.
Is you know, some guy comes up and offers you a non classified shingle, some guy offers you a class three, and I always lead with a class four impact resistant shingle. 99% of the time, your insurance company is gonna give you a premium rebate when you install a product like that. And I always hear as soon as I say
This is a class four impact resistant polymer modified asphalt on the shingle. It's a very high quality product. When you install a product like this on your home, a lot of insurance companies have what's called a better roof program. And you know, it's in between 10 and 35% yearly that you can save on your insurance premiums. And I always here. Yeah, they're like the last guy didn't tell me that. Well, it's hey, that that's why I'm here and why why I end up getting more of it.
Reasonable Tech Dad (09:02) Interesting.
Reasonable Tech Dad (09:09) And that's that talent stack idea and that experience that you talk about in specializing, dude. That's really cool.
Josh Stensgaard (09:16) Thank you for that. Yeah, I appreciate that. It's kind of having some industry insights that like people used to tell me like I didn't make enough mistakes back when I was nineteen knocking doors.
Reasonable Tech Dad (09:27) Yeah. Dude, that's really cool. And I think it's interesting too how you brought up the fact that you're transparent about mistakes. And I and I know that you're not like, hey, I've messed this up before. My guess is that you're framing it in the way like you're talking about, like, hey, you don't want to go with the class three or the whatever type of shingle for the reasons you just listed. Like not just the insurance premiums, but the failure of the product. I've been learning that in project management in that
Very often you're having conversations with people on about budget, right? And they're like, Well, there's a balance between what you want and what you can pay for. And at a certain point, people maybe focus too much on budget and then they end up after an install, they're pissed off or angry with the product. And it's like, well, you know, that's kind of our good job to lead them and make them understand that ahead of time.
Josh Stensgaard (10:14) Love that say that. Yeah, completely agree. I mean, I just heard a big time roofing company business owner say, we give people non-classified or class three impact resistant shingles. Not that they're bad, but they are never gonna be able to get their roof approved again by their insurance company. And it's like, okay, you know, over the next 30 years, you wanna do this job three times.
I mean, roofing is a difficult industry to be in because all of your clients are really a one time client, or at least they should be. Because if you give them a very high quality, high performing hail impact resistant product, you you you're not gonna have to touch that roof again forty years, right? Yeah, where am I gonna be in forty years? I'll be seventy, seventy one.
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:02) Yeah. One and done. One and done, dude.
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:08) Right? Ain't gonna be me out here on the road. Take good care of yourself, you never know.
Josh Stensgaard (11:10) Hey maybe, maybe it will me, you know I
Right. Yeah, exactly. I probably won't be climbing the roof, but I could definitely probably make an assessment on it.
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:22) I like that. I like the confidence for sure, dude. That's awesome. So then, that all sounds awesome, dude. And I think I'm a Grant Cardone guy too. I like that you when people lead with those kind of big names, it shows me that they invest in their development individually. They're not just investing in the business business. And I've never heard that thing, talent stack. that's a cool term. We could probably dig into, but we'll try to stay on track here. And how about the rough parts, you know?
What are the things that are difficult about the roofing job in your business and the things that you're you might not maybe not as far as dread, but you're like, Yeah, this sucks, you know, it's part of it, but it's the harder parts.
Josh Stensgaard (12:03) Hmm. I'd say one of the most difficult things about being in the roofing siding window industry is that 70% of leads, clients, homeowners that you end up signing or working with are from direct marketing, right? You know, it's I'm wearing my Skyrim or t shirt at, you know, Cub Foods and somebody sparks a question about it, or it's really
door knocking and I think door knocking is y you have to have so much grit, you have to be so tough. I have so many wild stories. I've had nine yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (12:43) Come on, hit me, dude. I used to sell when you said door knocking, I had to stay quiet and let you stay on track. But for me individually, when somebody says that they've knocked doors, you sing to my soul. Because one of my first jobs in my early 20s was that I was one of those meat guys, bro. I used to drive around in a white van with a cartoon meat guy with a steak on the side, and used to walk up to people's doors and try to sell $350 boxes of steak on the spot. You know what I mean? So
Josh Stensgaard (12:52) Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (13:11) Tell a tell a story, a a door knocking story when you and people just don't understand like how difficult that is to knock on people's doors and get rejected all day and so the hostility you get by knocking on people's home, you know what I mean? Unannounced.
Josh Stensgaard (13:27) Yeah, I I I know what you mean when when we're talking about door knocking, that is such such a funny subject. And when we're talking about the hardest thing in this industry, I think it is door knocking. I mean, one, you can go in canvas and then you finally see a good area that you like. You know, maybe these people aren't home, you lose some motivation, right? The biggest thing to get through that is identifying your why. That is for a a later story, but yeah. I have
Reasonable Tech Dad (13:54) Yeah, I do it.
Josh Stensgaard (13:57) Over in Minnesota, where Saint Francis, you know, people have longer driveways. It's a little more private, and when you drive up those driveways, some it's in the country, a lot of people got guns and they're ready for action. Right? yeah. I just last year I I seen a a a nice house and I drove up the driveway. Ding dong is
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:13) Yes they are. Yes they are.
Josh Stensgaard (14:25) Hey, my name's Josh Stensgaard. I I noticed we're you know we are in a storm damage area. We're just five minutes down from from our office, and this guy puts a shotgun in my face and yells, Get the heck off my property. I'm like, Whoa, I'm just a guy. I'm just a guy.
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:40) Whoa whoa Wow dude that's intense.
Josh Stensgaard (14:47) It is. And it it that that'll really, really get your adrenaline going and you're like, do I really wanna continue this? Like
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:54) No knock on the next door after that. Homebody. Yeah, dude, I can imagine. That's that's crazy. I one difficult spot I always notice when you talk about people not being home, because you gotta work, you know what I mean? You gotta go all day to make any anything happen. you know that the hot time's dinner time, right? Like that that when people are getting home from work four to six, four to seven, whatever.
Josh Stensgaard (14:57) Yeah, I haven't th there is a little silenced until the next door. Yeah.
Josh Stensgaard (15:18) yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (15:22) And knocking on people's doors when they are sitting down eating with their family, dude. Who buddy, you g and you want to talk about grit and I tell people, because I get complimented, not in an arrogant way, but I get complimented on my people skills. And I can't tell people just how much of that comes from knocking on doors. Like the the amount of charisma you have to do or you have to have to
Get somebody to even talk to you in a decent way when they're sitting down at their family with dinner and you interrupt. And you have to. That's the time to do it. You know what I mean? Like now I got this is my time. I gotta shine right now. So that's super funny you brought up Tornock.
Josh Stensgaard (15:56) I know.
Josh Stensgaard (16:02) And and I have so many stories like, you know, for example, getting a gun pulled on me. I've had a gun pulled on me at least ten times because I have knocked I I was just talking about it with someone today. I've I've knocked probably over two hundred thousand doors. yeah. And I mean that's where seventy percent of people still buy their stuff, right? Thirty percent is building the brand of you, right? Like Josh Stensgaard, myself, I am a brand. I you know, people buy you.
Reasonable Tech Dad (16:17) You're a monster.
Josh Stensgaard (16:32) So I understand that. So I try to do some social media content. Hey, here here hey guys, here's what I do. Here's who I am. Here's what I stand for. These are the products we install and why. Here's a little behind the scenes about what we do. That's kind of what I meant about that transparency as well. Cause I genuinely have nothing to hide. Right. And then that's how I feel when I'm knocking doors and like, Hey, I got nothing to hide. We
Reasonable Tech Dad (16:57) That confidence comes through. That confidence comes through for sure, dude.
Josh Stensgaard (17:01) Yeah, and when you can get over that hurdle of knocking doors, cause it you know I I now run an own Skyrimmer and I still will, you know, see a nice house. it's like, hey, my name is Josh Densguide. I notice a little black streaking on your roof. Love to give you a free, touch free roof assessment with my drone I have in my truck. By the way, notice the Corvette in your garage. I'd love to see it. How you doing? Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (17:29) Yeah, dude. Yep. Pull pull to their hab their hobbies and their interests right away. Sp get them talking about them, you're in good shape.
Josh Stensgaard (17:31) Build.
Josh Stensgaard (17:38) definitely a hundred percent. And you know, so many of the people that I see being nowadays so successful in sales, they did start from a difficult area. Like knocking doors is difficult. It's so when I dropped out of college, I initially did that college works internship, if you ever heard of that. So that is where they kind of
Reasonable Tech Dad (18:00) I have not.
Josh Stensgaard (18:05) Get a hundred sophomores in college together and say, Hey, you are gonna run your own branch of a house painting company. You're going to be able to run your own company. You're gonna get the experience of prospecting, lead generation, production, installation. We're gonna run you through the whole thing and help teach you how to do it. So that's where I got introduced to door knocking was directly after college and I started that College Works painting.
Well, I mean they take forty one percent overhead when when I did it, so
Reasonable Tech Dad (18:38) Dang. But I mean the setup wise I can understand that number, you know what I mean?
Josh Stensgaard (18:43) Yeah. And and and you know, I I understand it now. I mean, you know, it would be pretty difficult to cause that that overhead is is ridiculous. That's why I transitioned into running my own house painting company, you know, then from going to a rep to a regional manager to a roofing company owner. But yeah, that's where I went outdoor knocking. We would start in February. I would run up to someone's house.
Reasonable Tech Dad (18:53) That's crazy.
Josh Stensgaard (19:11) And that's what they said. We we want you to hit more houses per hour. You have to run from house to house. And there's snow on the ground, you know, it's like five degrees. Your pitch was, Hey, my name's Josh Tensigard College Works Painting. I noticed the peeling paint on your side of your house. I'd love to give you a free estimate. Nope. Okay. Have a great day. Thanks. Bye. Run. Yeah, run. Knock down. Somebody has a slight bit of infants like sweet. What's your name?
Reasonable Tech Dad (19:29) Yeah. Yeah, rep next
Reasonable Tech Dad (19:39) That's crazy, dude. And it's it just I mean it makes sense because it is a volume game at the end of the day, right? And you do have to have those targets. And then you start talking about the why thing, dude. And that's dude, you're you're salesman to your core. That's amazing. I guess I don't I do have a lot of these conversations with contractors from the Twin Cities here and not many of them have had that kind of sales experience. So that's that's a unique perspective. So it's cool to hear, dude. That's awesome.
Josh Stensgaard (20:06) Thank you so much. And kind of building on what you just said right there, right? You know, with facing burnout and door knocking and prospecting and trying to get potential clients, you know, it's once you get things going, it always snowballs. So there's so much, you know, a big pot of gold at the end of the hill if you can make it through, right? You know, and then I've I've actually just read this book. This is the
Roofing Sales Survival Guide by Adam Bensman. And in this book, it does talk about defeating burnout and identifying what your why is, right? You know, when you go up to a door and fifteen people have thrown a gun in your face, it's not really scary to go approach anybody. After that. Seriously.
Reasonable Tech Dad (20:55) Steel plated mind, I've heard David Goggins use. Yeah, dude.
Josh Stensgaard (21:01) Yeah, seriously. And it's like I'm not scared to go talk to anybody. I say hi to like everybody, introduce myself. You know, I I like to network and make new connections. Like I, you know, I'm just a people person and that's what we're in is we're in the people business. Right, yeah. So I I mean, in that book, something that's really helped me is identifying your why. And it and it genuinely gets really deep.
Reasonable Tech Dad (21:16) Couldn't agree more.
Josh Stensgaard (21:31) as to, you know, what what is your why, right? And, you know, if you put that on a post-it note, stick it on your wall, and you talk about like, I want to hit X amount of sales by X date. Well, why do you want to make that by X date? And why is that so important to you? And what does that really mean to you? And why do you care so much about that?
It really like makes you vulnerable into like, yeah, you know, it's because my future children
Depend on me. I need to provide for my wife. you know, I want to see my my dad and my mom live a great life. You know, things that are actually super meaningful to you. Yeah, to the heart, right? So when you really hone in and identify your why, I mean, then it's just how many steps you gotta take and what do you got to do to make that happen? Right? So your goal setting. My one of my best friends, Reese Johnson, he owns North Lakes Construction Group.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:17) To the heart. To the heart, dude.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:30) Yes.
Josh Stensgaard (22:39) He told me the other day he wrote down a hundred and one goals. I'm like Yeah, I'm like, that's what I said as well. Like, wow, that's a lot. How did you structure that? I have questions.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:43) love that. That's a lot.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:51) That's what I usually say when somebody says like that. Like you've gone on a number of things. I gotta hold myself back because I w I you the p key thing on a podcast is letting the you know, you be the star. But there's a number of things you've talked about. I'm like, dude I gotta have the sky back on because there's things I wanna ask you about, dude. We're already getting up there in time. Like, but continue. So then you he asked you had the curiosity and
the one on one goals. And sorry, before you go, I wanna just touch on the why piece because I've been waiting, but I'm gonna put a spot in here. And I, as a guy who is into personal development like you, I love books. I've gone down a number of rows. There's a lot of smart people out there that I've I tell people one of my favorite things to do in life is listen to smart people talk. And you l when you hear that theme of why across a number of smart people, why is critically important, two goals. And I you can correct me if I'm wrong.
Because I would say I probably spent the better part of a decade floundering and struggling as an entrepreneur and I always heard people say the why and I always made my why about money. And then I realized when I had kids what a real why was. And that's why I'm so quick to point to the heart. And when you said my future kids and family, I feel like why has to be something that's not money. Now money is it's just a tool, I feel like, at the end of the day. And w there's other guys that have
We've talked about this a little bit, but that why is a heart thing at the end of the day. If anybody's wondering about that why thing, I struggled with that for a long time. Cause I write down goals in journal and then I'd be like, well, my why. And I would write it down and it wouldn't be as powerful as I as I heard it was supposed to be. And that was why. Was because my why was not something around heart. When my why was money, it was not strong enough for me individually.
Josh Stensgaard (24:33) And I I I love that that that is kind of a focus point that you touch back on. Is that why as to why to keep going, you know, why do you want to make X amount of dollars? What is that going to do for you? Right. And then you break it down and it's I love my family and my wife so much. I enjoy spending time with my favorite people, you know, I love having the freedom being able to do whatever I want. And, you know, it's been people depend on me.
So yeah, and you know, maybe it's I wanna be the man, I wanna impress people, though then it's why do you care about that so much? So that that is and actually I I I have it up right here. So in that identifying your why, which is in Adam Bensman's book here, first thing you do is you're you write a manifestation, which is I have earned a dollar amount, and then you put it by a date.
And then discovering your why. The first question you put underneath that is why do you want to earn X dollar amount? Then you spend time journaling that answer. Second question is why is that important to you? Spend time journaling that. And that third question is why do you care so much about that? Anybody and everybody, this exercise, I very much encourage them to do. I've been having friends.
family like do this exercise because identifying that why you know when when you're doing something maybe you'll just be a little less pissed off right because it's getting it's getting you closer to your why and your goal and something that's genuinely so important to you. You know, because money it's it's like yeah it's fantastic to have a bunch of money, but why? You know, because of the the things you can do with it and money is meant to be used. Right.
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:08) Yes, yes.
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:23) Exactly.
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:27) Yes.
Couldn't.
Josh Stensgaard (26:30) And yeah, so that that is that is a super fun topic for me because yeah, recently I've been, what is your why? Put it on a post it notes, take it on your computer, yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:37) My kind of people, dude. You are my kind of people, dude. I love it. man, we could keep going deeper and branches on that, and I know we gotta keep it tight here. So let's let's do one more question, Josh, and then maybe we can do another episode another day or something, man. when you said why and you said kids and I talked about kids, you have been in the trades for a long time. You went to college and I know and you know that college is great for some people and
Josh Stensgaard (26:44) And
Reasonable Tech Dad (27:06) There are other routes and we need people in the trades. If you disagree with me, push back on anything I'm saying here, but talk to the next generation and tell them why the trades are a good choice or not a good choice.
Josh Stensgaard (27:19) Well, you know what? Like Elon Musk said what's gonna be around forever is building materials and technology, right? So I mean, if you if you have a very, you know, people that go to college and they get like an administrative degree and, you know, data inputting, like all of that's going away. But something that is never gonna go away is, you know, this 30-year-old pipe breaks and you need a plumber.
You know, the roof on your house leaks and somebody needs a roof, or your concrete looks terrible, and you want to put a beautiful new slab in there. Everybody wants to have nice things and they want to have a nice house. Everybody, like everybody has somewhere to live. Every single person and where where do you live? You hopefully you're not living in a cardboard box, you're probably in an apartment, a townhome, and it's just even
Reasonable Tech Dad (28:08) Yes. Yes.
Josh Stensgaard (28:18) When COVID was here, I was still selling, you know, over a million dollars a year in and roofing because people need it. You know, it's it's not something like, you know, okay, well I'll just buy a a brand new pair of shoes in six months when I have the money for it. Well, it's like, well, we gotta finance this because our roof on our home is leaking.
Reasonable Tech Dad (28:40) Yeah, we have water in our house. This is not something that can wait.
Josh Stensgaard (28:43) Right. And then it it's just a genuine necessity, right? And that home service or commercial service industry, like building new things, building new homes, putting on a roof, putting on siding, windows, flooring, plumbing, just remodeling, painting, all of those trades are so important because it's just something that's everybody has a house.
Reasonable Tech Dad (29:10) Yes.
Josh Stensgaard (29:11) Right, and it's it's not gonna go away. You know, like a fad, which could be
I don't even know, but you know.
Reasonable Tech Dad (29:21) Any of them name it. Name a TikTok trend, name an Instagram trend, a fad of fashion. Fashion is the one that you'll see, you know what I mean?
Josh Stensgaard (29:28) Right. And and you know, it's like going up against the in in a clothing industry, like yeah, I I am a hundred percent all about the home service business. This is something that somebody actually just asked me this recently. If somebody offered me thirty million dollars for Skymer, what would I say? I think at this point I would make so much more than that during my lifetime that would I sell this right now, like
I'm just all in and I know that this is going to be here and be around until I die. Like that roofing Roofing is never going away. And it's just I met a first year sales rep what like two years ago and he did fifty million dollars in sales. He did nine pig farms and he made profited after his company took a big chunk of it. He still walked away with like seven million dollars.
Reasonable Tech Dad (30:01) That's cool, do it. That's a great answer. Yes.
Reasonable Tech Dad (30:23) Good for him.
Josh Stensgaard (30:25) So you can get lucky, right? That's where it comes into play as to being a good person, doing the right thing, you know, always making yourself better. When we were talking about Grant Cardone, you know, Patrick Beck David, I've seen Andy Elliott multiple times. I seen Wes Watson before he kind of fell off and just went back to jail. Tony Robbins, I've seen Tony Robbins before. And there are specific people that I would
put for specific niches. Like for example, if somebody wants to learn more about company culture, right? I recommend Andy Elliott. You go there like the man and his wife and everybody, they're giving you the handshake. They're saying, what's up? How you doing? Giving you a hug. It it's wild. And I do recommend people that are new, you know, I I used to think, my gosh, this is so expensive. It's so much more expensive to not
know this stuff. Right. Because, you know, that knowledge and that, you know, being open and you know, being able to overcome objections, those skills can make you a thousand acts what you invest into them. So I I very, very heavily recommend people investing into themselves, reading some books. Like I've I've probably I've got
Reasonable Tech Dad (31:25) I agree.
Josh Stensgaard (31:54) six books just laying on my desk right now that I Yeah, well not all of them right now. I just bought all of them. You know?
Reasonable Tech Dad (31:56) That you're in right now. Six books live. Love it.
I buy so many I buy I buy so many, dude. I still haven't gotten to Hormosy's money models. Are you a hormose guy?
Josh Stensgaard (32:09) I am. And you know what? I actually today I was looking at his new I think it's called Vantage, his AI model, where it will go into a home service business, you know, go into your CRM, go through all of your text messages and see all of the leaks that are in your business. I also and that was actually, you know, he's like, that's pretty dangerous because it could, you know, really really expose and maybe make you feel bad. But I think
You could just get so much better. It's so crazy what you can do with AMC.
Reasonable Tech Dad (32:42) I'd like to know personally, right? I'd rather know than not know about those leaks, you know what I mean?
Josh Stensgaard (32:46) a hundred percent completely agree.
Reasonable Tech Dad (32:49) Dude, so we're running we're running on time. We're at thirty what thirty minutes. What do you want to you want me to keep going? 'Cause I do have a question along those lines or should we wrap up? You gotta get going?
Josh Stensgaard (32:59) you know what I I I probably got another ten minutes before I got up that
Reasonable Tech Dad (33:02) All right. So tell me about AI, dude. Like the vantage thing. Because I'm I'm big deep into AI. Like I've three years ago when I got onto Chat GPT, it terrified me. Terrified me because I'm a tech guy. I got some coding background and I have three kids and I was scared, right? And I'm not as scared now, but I'm building a lot of stuff as a project manager for the general contractor I'm with. And I think that there it in the beginning
It was not ready for trade construction stuff. It really wasn't, because I tried really hard. I built some stuff that I spent a lot of time on and brought it to people that knew better than I did. And they were like, this isn't gonna work. And they were right. But now things are really turning a corner. And I am finding every day with what I'm building that there is a ton, a ton of potential on brill bringing AI into contracting. And here's where
It's different than a lot of AI applications, right? Because everybody's advertising they got an app for this and, you know, my AI app that. It's not as simple as taking Claude or open or ChatGPT and just talking to it in chat. Because it's so here's what you'll hear trade guys say is that every job's different. And that's why a lot of guys fight it. Because they think that the AI can't take that kind of dynamic input in. And I'm telling you it can, but it does take expertise.
You have to build harnesses and data around it for your particular situation. So tell me what you're doing with AI right now for your company.
Josh Stensgaard (34:39) that's a great question. I actually use AI and technology so much in Skyhammer, right? So I mean it comes down to, you know, am I visible and do I have a visible online presence? Right? You can go in a Google Search Console or Microsoft Webmaster and
You know, with AI, it'll say I am getting seven hundred and seventy-seven impressions on Roofers Woodbury, Minnesota. Right? Well, I could use AI and say for my next post because certain AI models like answer engine models will answer and you can look in there and see where it pulls all of its answers from. So if you can force it to start pulling answers from your website and content that you put out.
You know, ChatGBT now only ranks not on Google but only on Yelp, right? So I just started a Yelp. So it's AI can if if a homeowner says, What is the best roofing company near me in all of the Southeast Metro? Skyarmor shows up as number one because I'm using AI to rank for keywords.
Reasonable Tech Dad (35:52) People don't understand how fast you can take over, man.
Josh Stensgaard (35:56) And and same with owl roofing. Like good friend of mine, Noah Bergland and Tim Hook, they owned a marketing company before they started Owl Roofing. And man, those guys and their computer skills are next level top notch. Right. You know, you can use AI. Every time you see a roofing company and it's they all look so similar. Chat GBTs do their advertisements where it'll say happy Fourth of July and then it's a house and then like a fly.
Right. They're using AI to make those advertisements or their holiday updates. All those companies are when I'm wanting to rank for Woodbury and you go and look at my company, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, my LinkedIn, I will essentially go into AI. And the most important thing that I've kind of learned with AI is to get the best results with it, is you have to become really good at.
explaining exactly what you want through like very descriptive prompting.
Reasonable Tech Dad (37:01) You're I have never heard it said better. I mean, I try to communicate to people that try AI stuff. I'm like, your vocabulary is the limiter in what you can do now. The more articulate you can tell these things, whether you're trying to get it to create a graphic, whether you're trying to get calculations, whether you're trying to find data, your vocabulary and how articulate you can be in describing what you want is quality of input.
Quality of up.
Josh Stensgaard (37:33) A hundred percent. If you're, you know, some people if they just post something extremely basic, you're gonna get, you know, probably an answer that wasn't even what you were trying to verbalize or put into words, right? When you know, I I have an AI that will actually write an insurance estimate for me. You know, an exactimate line item by line item, line items number one through 44, right? This AI will do it. And if you are not extremely
Specific, you are gonna waste your money on that specific AI. So what I would do is I would go into my Microsoft co-pilot and be like, write me a very descriptive prompt for a separate AI, and it will be like 20 sentences long because I am so descriptive with my AI because I know exactly the output that I want from it. Sometimes it can just write it for me better than I can.
Reasonable Tech Dad (38:29) Yes. But why it can do that when you ask it for prompt. And anybody listening for contractors in particular, do what he said. Use the model to ask how to prompt another model or prompt your input. Tell it what you want more, even if you don't have the vocabulary, right? But I think what happens then, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but when you ask it for that prompt and you read it once, and then because you have the vernacular from your years of experience.
that specialization to prompt it again and say, Okay, I like what you said here, but change it to this and then ask it again, that fine tuning step of two or three rotations through with the expertise and the model giving you a base to work with, top notch stuff starts coming out to it.
Josh Stensgaard (39:17) And just like anything in life with AI, you have to do it. You have to take that information and apply it before I even started Sky Armor. I use AI to help me come up with a business plan. How do I prepare for my Minnesota builder contractor license test? what what are the can you give me a practice test? you know, for miscellaneous marketings, you know.
It's you can put in an extremely sp specific situation where if you own a roofing company, hey, I have this salesman who has this client and here's the current situation between those two. What what are the pros and cons versus me stepping into this situation? Or, you know, you can just ask it questions on so many almost like life advice as well with business building.
Reasonable Tech Dad (40:05) Yeah, yes, yes. Couldn't agree more.
Josh Stensgaard (40:08) Where should I go from here? I want to scale. I'm currently at here. These are some of my operating procedures that aren't going so well for me and things that are going really well for me. And it will, you know, maybe it could be harsh and you really have to take some self-reflection and changing who you are, but that will help you grow so much. Right. By properly wording something like, hey, I'm right next to a client who ghosted me on this estimate and I'm
Reasonable Tech Dad (40:30) Yes.
Josh Stensgaard (40:38) Like three doors down from them. I don't want to be the weird guy who doesn't say anything. Please help me with a text message as to what I could say to this client to gauge their interest as to getting them to respond with me and hopefully moving forward with the project.
Reasonable Tech Dad (40:52) Yeah, dude, and that that vocabulary that you have. Having rather than what you just said versus, hey, I know somebody down the street and I want to do work with them, can you help me out? The differen the difference in output, the the difference in output you're gonna get is the input.
Josh Stensgaard (41:02) Yes, exactly. So specific.
Josh Stensgaard (41:08) A hundred percent so specific with AI models. It's so fun because at first you're really bad at it. Yeah, like you're so bad at it. You did that exactly what you just said. Like, I want to work with Joe, but he doesn't really like me that much. What should I do? You are. If you line by line by line extremely detailed AI models, you are gonna get such good results. And
Reasonable Tech Dad (41:15) Yes, you are.
Reasonable Tech Dad (41:25) You're gonna get a crap answer. No doubt about it, dude. Yeah.
Josh Stensgaard (41:38) You know, even with that is like AI is fantastic and all, but you know, I have a coach, right? You know, my coach's coach has a coach. You know, I don't think anybody's too good to have a coach and to continually be a student and learn. Being a student and learning, like I I know a guy who just crushes in sales and he still goes to all these seminars and whatnot, and he's sixty two years old. I can't
Reasonable Tech Dad (41:52) Preach. Preach.
Reasonable Tech Dad (42:05) And that's why he crushes.
Josh Stensgaard (42:07) Yeah, exactly. He's just doing it for life. You know, and then if you take that and apply it, that application is gonna be your biggest winner, right? You you know, you just hear this guy talk about how to win for four hours and you go home and take a nap. No. People need one of these, right? A pocketbook. You know, every single day, like, okay, this happened today, this is what went great, this is what could be better. Right. Here's stuff that maybe I I
Reasonable Tech Dad (42:25) Preach.
Josh Stensgaard (42:36) Could forget and I don't want to. Get a pocketbook, baby. Get a pocket book.
Reasonable Tech Dad (42:38) You're a monster. You're a monster. Josh, I know you gotta get going, dude. I gotta wrap up just because I'm being respectful of your time. But I would love to do this again, dude. Thank you. Yes, absolutely, dude. Sky Armor, everybody. SkyArmor.us. And I will have Josh's information on all these posts if you want to get in touch with him. Thanks so much for listening. Josh, thanks for being here. We'll talk more again later.
Josh Stensgaard (42:44) Yeah.
But it was fun and I really appreciate the invite on here.
Josh Stensgaard (43:04) Okay, sound good. Appreciate you, Ryan. You guys take care.