All right welcome back to another episode on the RFD Connect podcast on the rundown FM Network. This is your host Ray Tesske and today I have Kristi Ron and Ricardo Beltron with Cram Roofing and the title of this episode is The Roof is on fire. Welcome. Thank you. How are y'all doing today? Doing well thanks. All right. So I've got a question for for both of you. I've got two questions to get us started. So what is your favorite place to eat at in San Antonio. So this is Ricardo. Thank you for having us. Yeah. To start off and I have a basic answer to that question and I had it today is and it always brings me back to my childhood. It's just water burger. Water burger. Something about knowing that they make it how I want it. So I'm gonna say water burger. So you know it's dangerous as they're building a new water burger right around the corner from our studio here. Oh no. And so now where it's been a little bit of a distance really not even that much but you know psychologically a little bit of a distance to go to the water burger either there's one over closer to 281 or there's one on the other side of my 10. There's gonna be one right in the middle. So that'll get serious. Yeah. Let's see if you gain five pounds in the next month. Well it'll be like you know what I need a I need a midnight snack and I'm gonna go get a sausage they can chase the keto. No it would be really dangerous if they put the bill Miller right next to it. Oh yeah. What about you Christie. I think it just depends on what I'm hungry for because I just like to eat but my favorite Mexican restaurant everyone is asked that when you're in San Antonio right it's El Chaparro. I just love that place. I have a best enchiladas and refried beans made out of lard like it's so unhealthy but it's delicious when I'm gonna splurge I'm gonna go there and do that. Which location do you well I live up to 81 so we go to the one on Redland a lot. Yeah. But I've been to the one in Holodas and they're the same to me. They're both very good. They are so I've got we you know that's the problem is there is no it's hard to narrow it down to one especially being here in San Antonio right. It's but we always have loved El Marisol. Oh yeah they're very good. Special place in our hearts and and then Habaneros the older Habaneros. Is that the one in Embassy? That used to be that one that one's closed now too. Okay. We used to go there but we used to go the one at the rim and love it it was like family. You know loved it. So and then next question what about breakfast tacos? What's your favorite place to get breakfast tacos in San Antonio? Favorite place ever since I started with cram we do we do tacos on Friday so now it's gonna be tacos and salsa. Right here. Nice. Okay. Yes. I love Bill Miller's tacos. They're big they're fat they're delicious. I mean you can't it's hard to go wrong with the taco. Oh I guess taco. Cabana you went wrong there. So yeah the correct answer is all of it. All of it. So I and both and both of those places are top of my list. Bill Miller's the the standard to go to take your Bill Miller mug to get the refill. Yeah the refill and then love tacos and salsa. Yeah. We is at every Friday they bring us in the office for us. That's awesome. Yeah. Because the one y'all got one right right almost across the street from the outside. Yeah. Yeah. We went to the newer location over on Worcbok and Vance Jackson and just just as good. Just as good. So for those of y'all listening if you haven't tried tacos and salsa go do it. Yes you have to. So let's we're gonna we want to talk about jobs in real estate. We're gonna talk about professional development personal development and we want to start off with what are you doing let's start off with that question. So who are you and what are you doing? Okay so I am currently the assistant project manager for crime roofing going on a year and five months I'm fairly new still to to crime but before this I worked at UTSA after I graduated from UTSA from the RIFD program graduated 2014 work there until I started with crimes about three years I worked there. What were you doing there at UTSA? My official title was administrative assistant so a lot of clerical work purchasing for our department a little bit of HR and hiring but going to school at UTSA and doing the real estate I minored in construction management so I always kind of knew that I wanted to get into the construction industry just because there's always there's always work to going on especially here in San Antonio and with crime we do not only work here but all over the U.S. if we win a job but for now I'm the assistant project manager there and it's been a lot of learning I'll be the first to tell you that I did not know anything about construction going into it but they found me through LinkedIn actually and reached out to me and yeah and that's kind of one of the stories that I wanted to tell yeah I want to talk about that that's awesome so they they found my profile through LinkedIn went through the interview process and ended up starting there with crime and it was interesting because we were talking about those Friday meetings and the first Friday meeting that I attended it kind of introduced me and this is Ricardo welcome to the team and I think we do a presentation we cycle through a roster there the employees do co-workers give a presentation every every week it goes alphabetical order and that week it was Christie giving the presentation the first one that I attended but the presentation was about LinkedIn about how important it is to have a professional network and that was I was like this is interesting because I'm here because of LinkedIn it's important to keep that I mean to network through anyway you can because you never know what who's gonna find you so that's kind of what I do or lead into that story so we'll come we'll come back to that I want to that's I want to hear that that's awesome so I know if other students who have used LinkedIn as a resource not many but that's we'll come back to that because that's also instead of them that's them looking outward looking for job opportunities and this one came to you so yes that's that's gonna be interesting Christie who are you and where you do well Christie Roan yes you've already said so I'm the director for business development and marketing at crime roofing and we are a commercial roofing contractor so don't that's the reason we're here is because we only do commercial roofs large scale we don't do residential real estate at all that's what throws us in the real estate category for commercial so my job is to go out and look for business opportunities for crime roofing and create relationships with potential clients and maintain relationships with clients and I find I'm more of a liaison between people in the office and the actual client themselves when they're when they've got a job going on and they always know the client always knows if they don't know who to call in the office they can call me and I'll get them in the right place and kind of working a liaison role that way as well count manager I guess but you know there's other projects going on at cram that I don't touch but the ones that deal with the people that I've brought to the company then we kind of work in that regard so it's part of a team it is it is we got a lot going on and so we just all work to stay on top of it so nice okay and so how long have you been with cram almost five years so I came into cram I started there because I was before this I worked for an architecture firm for a couple of years and then before that I worked for an engineering firm for a few years before that I did pharmaceutical sales so I kind of fell into the industry didn't know it existed but I was looking at other opportunities when I was with the architecture firm and a friend of mine said oh well you know cram roofing is hiring and I knew of cram roofing because there are other business developer who was there before me I had met her a few times and that's just kind of how it all works you know where people get to know you and that's how you find out about things you know that it's it's hard it you know that gets stressed but I think it gets glossed over by those individuals who just really can't comprehend what that means like how that plays out until it actually happens and it's like oh my gosh this is like everything that everybody said is actually true you know and so this I think the sooner you start building up that network the better the one I think one of the you know whenever I hear networking though what what comes to mind is is like 1970s yeah and way ask I may get told by saying that you know kind of hey I need to sell you something right right and and the true aspect of networking is really establishing those relationships and then maintaining those relationships and so it's and it's not a I'm gonna give you something or so you something so you need to give me something or sell me something that's we're all in this together and it's everybody working together and you've got a job to do and the other whoever else you're working with has a job to do but it's about effectively at some point there's an objective and it's usually for somebody else whoever that may be a client and it's accomplishing that objective right but it comes through those connections to those relationships and so that's interesting yeah yeah so I think every job I've ever gotten is through someone that I know not just oh I'm gonna fill an application at some random spot so he's been I have a really large network because that's what I do right yeah yeah and you know it's not you could use them for professional stuff that you might need for personal stuff that you might need Ricardo might need something and I'm like oh well Ricardo I can help you I know so and so who can connect so I really am a professional connector that just happens to to work at cram roofing to do some business on your software I mean that's that's just like what what real estate though it's like it's it's networking and mixers and events and conferences and lunches and and then oh we actually have to do a little bit.
but it really still, I feel like I don't sail at all. I saw myself maybe, you know, for people to like me, but I don't sell roofs or anything. I've ever sold with the exception of pharmaceuticals. But in this industry, it's not really selling anything. It's this relationship building and being there when someone needs you. - And it's really, you know, if you look at the product and you go roof, you know, like, oh, that's my golden life, right? - Yeah. - But it's the job is, could you say, it's almost the same regardless of if it's roofs or if it's, you know, some other aspect of the industry. - It is, it is. You're just doing that job. - Your client might be a bit different, but you're doing the same thing. So, yeah. - So what, so what, let's, I wanna come back to like, what, what is that job? What are the skills or what is, what are the day to day? What does that look like? So we'll come back to that. - Okay. - Let's, if we go back to Ricardo and go, okay, tell me about how you got your job to LinkedIn. So did, when did you set up your LinkedIn profile? - So I think I set it up, oh, so I was a student of yours. I took you in 2013 and 2014. And I believe I set it up in those years, you know, we, I think. - You had to. - I had to do it. It was one of those things. 'Cause I'll be the first to tell you that I did not network in my undergraduate life, you know, and I'll be the first to tell you that you need to network in your undergraduate life. Establish those good relationships while you can, while you're able to, because those, those students that are in your classes, you never know down the road when you're gonna need some of their help. Those connections that you build in undergraduate life, you're gonna need them in your professional life. So I set up the LinkedIn during one of your classes and connected with all the classmates. And if you go to my LinkedIn right now, I probably have maybe like a hundred connections and maybe 30 of those were from the class, you know? (laughing) But so, I mean, as you grow and meet new people, you'll add them here and there, but I set up the LinkedIn and I had, I've only had maybe two actual jobs before crime roofing. And one was UTSA, one was working for an insurance agency. But just having that, having your goals listed there, your experience listed there, your academic, I mean, achievements or where you go to school, stuff like that, having that there and kind of available for others to see, gives them an opportunity to reach out to you like crime roofing did, to be able to, you never know, you might not be looking for something, but if they reach out to you, you kind of, well, let me see what they're about, you know? Because at the time, I had been in UTSA for, I wanna say three years and yeah, you want something new from time to time and it just, it fell into my lap. I don't know, I don't know how else to say it, but it was the best thing that happened to me, honestly, working or having them discover me through there and they liked knowing that I had, I had been at UTSA for a long time. So it's important to not bounce around, but at the same time look for something that you really enjoy doing. So they reached out to me through a message and said, are you interested? We liked your profile, we liked that you've been at one place for a long period of time. Would you be interested in entertaining an interview? And it was, it wasn't, it was through Cheryl, I believe, who does kind of consulting for us on the side. But she said, do you wanna sit down at a Starbucks, very casual and talk about what you could do for us at crime roofing, you know? So it was very casual, we went for coffee. - And you're going into that going, I have no idea. - Yeah, I would like, I'm like, I don't know anything about construction, you know? Like I don't know roof, I don't know. And I'll be the first to tell you, it doesn't matter what, you know, it's who you know. So they know that I had a LinkedIn and they know that I was active on it and they know that I had it updated because it had my recent, I mean, I had graduated, I had my degree on there, I had why I worked, my goals. So all of that grabbed their attention and set up this interview. Which department were you in at UTSA when you were? - When I worked for the writing program, which is kind of under their first year experience now. - Yeah, yeah. So what was there, is there something that you had in that LinkedIn profile that stood out to them or that caused them to be able to find you? What was, like, did you ever get any feedback on that? - I wish I would have pulled up what the initial message was, but I remember that Charles liked the fact that I had been at UTSA for a long period of time. So I think the loyalty aspect of me being at, where I was for a long period of time, like the crime roofing kind of, everyone there is loyal to crime roofing, you know? I don't know, they like that. - Yeah. - Gotcha, okay. - So, so that initial coffee with Cheryl led into, that kind of weeded out some people and, you know, I think it ends up, three actual people came in for an interview and I was one of the three and, I remember walking in with a suit on and they were like, you know, we do construction, right? But yeah, I went through the interview process a week later, they offered me the position and that staying true to UTSA, I said, I wanna finish the month at UTSA and crime roofing said, do what you need to do. We'll accept you when we want you because I think crime really likes to have the right people in place, you know? So it's not, again, it's not about what, you know, and they knew that I was someone that was loyal and wanted to learn and eager and ready for something new. So they offered me in here I am. - Nice, so what, I had a conversation with somebody on the construction management minor, the construction management minor, which we had, we no longer, that's no longer part of the program with the Inburyville State Violence and Development Program. But it was some, those courses, they were saying, well, and it's somebody who's doing project management. It was like they were helpful, but like you still had to learn, you know, on the job. - Absolutely. - So was that, was that, I mean, was it beneficial having that foundation in place, but then once you got into the, once you got into the business, once you got into the work that you had to really learn the process is once you got out there. - Absolutely, yes. I mean, school can only teach you so much, the books can only teach you so much. It's kind of, so I would recommend doing like an internship you can get that real world experience because you have to really learn on the fly and be a sponge and absorb everything that happens on a day-to-day basis, especially in construction where it's so, what we said five minutes ago isn't accurate anymore, you know, it changes so much. So you can only put yourself in so many of those situations through a book, but you really need to get into it and learn on the fly. And then that's one of the notes I had taken down, but it's so fast paced and you have to be able to adapt and you might not know everything, but you have to be able to communicate effectively. And that's something that I would really try to tell kids or students, you know, be able to effectively communicate with anyone, whether it's networking or out for a drink or with your professor or with a coworker, you have to effectively communicate. Now you might not know the answer to a question, but hey, let me find someone that does and I'll get back to you. So, stuff like that. - That's when you turn to the connector. - Absolutely, and that's right. - I'm gonna come back to you, Creastle, but one more thing, Ricardo, so can you tell me, give me an overview of the first 90 days on the job? - First 90 days. So I remember starting, so it was October of 2017, and it was a lot of, you know, how do you say it, when we kind of, so the project manager now, Ashley, she kind of took me under her wing, you know, like she taught me, so what the, the majority of what I do is are submittals and closeouts for projects. So anything that happens prior to construction, so any pre-construction activities, I kind of, that's where I, most of my time is spent. So that's introducing crime roofing to the customer that we have, letting them know what needs to take place in order for us to finally mobilize on the project, and reaching out to manufacturers for any letters that we need, or what products are we gonna use, kind of get through that submittal process. So she kind of taught me what she does, and showed me past projects that we've done, so she kind of had me review those, and learn, learn roofing, you know, learn what TPO is, or EPDM, and EPDM is, and I can maybe explain it to you, but I still, I'm still learning, you know. I still can't, I know what they are, but it's kind of learning the systems, learning what, which ones go where, what you do with certain, certain systems, where they work the best, what we do, when we're at the Coast, on a Coastal project, or when we do, when we're more inland, you know, there's different things that goes into roofing, it's not just, you know, it's not, - I'm just putting into the phone. - Yeah, you don't think about it, 'cause it's out of sight, out of mind, but when you, like, we get a lot of leak repairs and kind of Christie deals with those, but it's an important factor of building, you know, it's important to take care of it. So, a lot of it was learning, looking at past projects, and then helping her close out projects that we finished, so doing the warranties at the end, and kind of starting projects, and then help close out with warranties, and, hey, is there anything else we can do for you? These are the final warranties. If you want anything, feel free to reach out to our team. We're always there to help, whatever it may be. So.
a lot of learning, a lot of reading, I mean my tabs at work are like five or six different manufacturers. I'm always reading their specifications and drawings and details and stuff like that, trying to learn more even to this day. I still don't. I still, all you can do is learn. It's always an ongoing course. Always. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cool. So, Christie, what is the day in the life of Christie Run and Look Live? Well, every day is different, which is why I love it. And for example, today I came into the office for about an hour, maybe, I was probably two hours, because I met with my boss today, we sat and talked. It's like, I got to go, I got an 1130 meeting, we got to go. So I had a lunch for another organization that I'm in part of and sat through that committee meeting and then I ran over here. But every day is completely different for me because I do what I do and I kind of manage my own schedule. And for me, a lot of time has spent out with clients and afternoons or weekends or at their office, you know, different things. And so that's why I like it. It keeps me on my toes. And I'm like, "This is never boring. It's always different." So there is no typical day for Christie Run. Other than then I wake up on the left side of the bed and put my feet on the floor, you know. That's it. Like. And then go. That's right. Every day is different. And some days I just sit in the office all day and those are the most draining days for me. I can't stand it. I get more tired from that. I'll go home more exhausted from just sitting in the office all day than being out and moving all day. I'm going to be alright. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So always. And so it takes that personality of, I guess you don't have to be an extra person, you know, or necessarily. But you've got to be somebody who can connect with other individuals out there, can communicate, both require, both jobs require communication, effective communication. It's the, do you, do you, do you spend more time in the office or are you at the office? I'm at the office all, I mean 99% of the time. Yeah. And you're most of your time, Christie, spend outside of the office. Most of it. Yeah. I mean, they do want me in the office when I'm not actually out with people, you know, not 80 hours a week. You know, so I do come in and check in, they know that I'm alive and that I'm actually working and they're like, great, she's leaving at 11 a.m. again must be nice. But, you know, I'm out doing stuff all day. You're like, come on, you're like, let's go. Right. And after, after one day of that, they're like, I want to go back to my office. Right. Because some people just like sitting at their desk, but I enjoy the activity of being out. And, you know, my job is to go out and create relationships and make friends. And whoever thought that was a job. My degree is psychology. I graduated from UTSA as well a little bit earlier than Ricardo over here, but yeah, I never never, I mean, I was going to be a marriage and family therapist. I was starting my master's degree in that and got into that and realized, oh, and I'm going to get paid what? Huh? No. So then I just kind of always did sales. I sold all different kinds of stuff. Told you about the pharmaceuticals. So when I got this job in the engineering firm, for instance, it was a friend of mine who told me because I knew I was going to get laid off again in pharmaceuticals. She's like, well, I know this engineering firm that's hiring. And so it's like engineers. I thought they drove trains. I don't even know what an engineer did. You know, that's not anything. No one of my family was ever an engineer. So it was really interesting like when he started, I didn't know anything about construction. And I worked for a geotechnical engineer and construction materials testing. And so that's even way more different. I mean, you know, you learn it as you go. And then for me, for example, since I work for an engineer or a contractor and an architect, I can see a project all the way through. And because of my network relations with real estate agents and brokers and title companies and bankers, and I can sign to see how a project starts and goes all the way through to the end on the construction site. Yeah, you've got the big picture of it. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So what kind of skills are necessary with your job? Like what is something that's beneficial or things that are beneficial that help you accomplish your objectives with your job? Well, I'll start. I think, and I touched on it earlier, you have to really be able to learn on the fly. Construction is always changing and nothing stays the same. And you have to be able to learn on the fly, adapt to all those changes. And we talked on effectively communicating. I mean, you can effectively communicate through an email, but can you answer a phone and talk to someone? You know, you have to be able to be, I mean, hold a conversation, be able to, like I said, you might not know the answer, but say that you're going to work on it for them. But then the right answer, don't say anything wrong, but be able to let them know that you're going to help them out. So be able to effectively communicate multitask. And I know it's kind of everyone says it, but be, yeah, it's cliche, but you have to be detail-oriented. All those are, I think. And then what systems do you use? Do you have Excel or do you have server systems where you've got access to files, like certain proprietary programs that you'll use? I think for me, I use a lot of Excel. So that's definitely a skill to have. I know our president actually enjoys, spends his time making spreadsheets, but definitely Excel is a skill that you want to master, I think. That's huge. And I just create a pie chart. You know, it's more than just creating charts and graphs, but like being able to integrate formulas and stuff like that. So definitely Excel. And then we do, I mean, we do work through general contractors. So each general contractor has their own kind of program that they use. It could be like viewpoint for projects or pro-core. We use our own data form that we're trying to kind of get going. So yeah, we use all that. And then on the estimating side, they use their estimating software as well. So to give individuals listening some context of that. So when you're working with the GC, the general contractor on a project, you're one of the subcontractors doing the roof for that project. So the GC will have their system that they use that then they administer that whole project. And so whatever system they're using, you tie in with that on your side. So adapt to what they're doing. Adapt to what they're doing. And through that, you create efficiency so that you can maintain plans and schedules and request for information. Exactly. Yeah, everything is stored in that one place, all your RFIs, some middle schedules, when do they need us on site? We'll go check what the GC uses and change orders and all that. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, Christy, what kind of, what skills are necessary for somebody in your line award? Well, for me, I think relationship building is the strongest skill that I require. I mean, and being able to be presentable and communicate, you know, all of the things that Ricardo said is important, not for any job. Just for living and life, you need to be able to communicate with people and gosh, I know just for me, it's just being out there, you know, I just enjoy getting to know people and making relationships. I enjoy helping people and being that connector. I don't know if that's really a skill to something I'm born with. Not everyone has this thing that I have where I'm able to go out and build relationships easily. And it's not even really extraversion. It's just, I don't know what it is on the disc. I know what I am. All of these personality tests you take, it takes a certain personality to do the job. So, I think you can learn it if you're not a certain personality as well, but you know, that's why I go out and do it every day and my boss is like, I don't know how you do what you do. And I'm like, well, good. I'm glad you don't like doing it. You do the Excel and all that stuff. I'm hoping that's right. Yeah. So, what other resources do you use to create a efficiency? So, well, I wouldn't say, I don't, my job is not really to create a efficiencies, but for me, the biggest resources I have is I am involved in a lot of different organizations, crew being one. And this is just for cram roofing, but my other jobs have always been involved. So, crew, a boomer, which is building owners and managers, ifma. I'm part of an organization. It's called S and P.S. That's for marketers and business developers. So, that way I can hone my skills on, you know, my own personal skills. We're part of all kinds of things, the North Chamber, you know, all these different things. So then you go to these different events and we go to it strategically because that's where our clients hang out, right? And that's how I can warmly meet them and create relationships easily because cold calling is doesn't work, you know, and there's line of work at least. It rarely works, not never. But, so, you know, I just get, and I join organizations, I get involved, I get on committees, I'm on boards, you know, and that's, you've got to work in organization when you get involved. It's scary to walk into a room and not know anybody. You got to find someone to latch onto and have them help you. So, that's the biggest resource I have is the network I've created through the years of doing this. Yeah, are y'all with ABC or AGC? We're an ASA, American Subcontractors Association. We do some AGC and some ABC stuff that we're not members of that. We're members of some roofing organizations as well, but yeah. And RCA. RCA. Okay, oh yeah. All right. Yeah. So what, let's talk, and then Ricardo, do you go to any of events or organization events? I've been to, and we were talking about it earlier about the, a breakfast that we went to for that, the SMPS. SMPS, yeah. That was kind of networking, a class on how to network, you know, what's your elevator, elevator pitch or, you know, how do you introduce yourself? Who are you? That's kind of one of the questions that they ask you. Who you are, what you do. And who, who, who do you do it for, you know? And you don't start out with, uh, right. I think that's one of the things I know. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been to a breakfast and then there's networking after work, go grab a drink with someone, uh, I think they held it at the well. Uh-huh. And it's just a lot of professionals from at all that the ACE architects, uh, contractors and engineers, you know. Um, so I've done those two events just working for crime roofing and then outside of that, one of my friends and engineers, so anytime he invites me to go have a, I mean, go with him to any event. I kind of join him to whenever he invites. So yeah. And the cruise.
So you're involved with, so with three primarily, I guess from the real Sanustre that crew, if my, I'm on the board for crew and if my, and I'm just on committees for a bomba. Yeah. Oh, let's see. That's, and that's a lot of work. It is, but it's part of my job and my job gives me time to do that. They know today I was at a bomba meeting for over lunch doing a committee meeting, but that's what I get time to do. And they can't expect me to be effective in crew if I just go to a lunch and never talk to anyone and never get involved. Because the goal is for everyone in crew to say, oh, that's Christy Roan. I need to know her. She looks like she knows a lot of people. She's a good resource. And you can't do that by just going to a lunch, sitting down eating and then leaving. And so you've got to, you got to build a network. You got to really work on that. And that's what I'm trying, part of my job at Cram is to tap Ricardo on the shoulder sometimes or some other people in the office and say, hey, come to this event with me. Come meet some people, come learn some skills. And the organizations, a lot of times we'll have training like he said he went to the one. And you know, so I try to think in the office who could benefit from this. Let me see if I can bring them along. And the organizations are just great things to be part of. So what's director of membership with crew? For crew, I'm director of membership. So some of your students may even recognize my name because you all have a lot of student members in crew. Undergrad and graduate students. We have a couple of those. And we really welcome the undergrad students through Laura Gillan and you know, that they come to the lunch and they get involved and they can jump onto committees to and learn. The best thing is they get to learn how to network. They can start building their network early. They can meet brokers. They can meet finance people. They can meet. We have a few developers in crew. We've got title companies. We got contractors, architects, engineers. So whatever they can get exposed to maybe things they didn't even know existed. Yeah. Because they might be how many of them say, I want to be a developer. I mean, who does it? Right? Exactly. That's the sexy thing in real estate. But there are things outside of that. And maybe they may not realize that there's another job out there like me. I never knew this was a job. What I do, you know, so it's good for we we welcome all the the the the students into crew. And I should say and we should actually probably like for those who don't know what what crew stands for is commercial real estate women. Right. And this and this is the San Antonio chapter. And the San Antonio chapter has a both male and female members. We do. So we have about 180 members right now. And I would say about mostly our women. I mean, we welcome men with open arms, raise a member. And he does a lot for our chapter as well. We he got one of our awards. Was it this year or last year we gave you the well, it was I was the last Maverick. Yeah. And they the last time I think they did that was like three. Yeah, we don't just give it just because oh, we got to give the Maverick. Who can we give it to? I remember we decided to do it last year as a board is because you've done so much. So, you know, we probably got about 50 members of the 180 that are males. And I think it scares a lot of men away. But I think the smartest men belong to this organization because there's a lot of women and and there's a lot of powerful women in that room. Yeah. And it's it's such a great group. I mean, they all are but but crew kind of stands out in that it's it's it's very welcoming. So if anybody were you've you've got to get out of that comfort zone anytime you go into an organization, you know, for the first time. And so I think crew is very inviting in that sense. And that's one of the things we work on as membership director. It's I have a liaison committee and we have an ambassador committee. So we stand around. We had a lunch and just yesterday and we stand around and we look for people who walk in who look lost or look like they don't know anyone or I know that's a new member I need to go say, Hey, this I'm Christie. Welcome in. Who can I help you meet and usually I'll find some people who are more seasoned and take a moment and say, let me introduce you to this new member and walk off and go find another new member. But no one wants to be standing there. That's awesome being scared. I mean, I'm a professional at this. And if I walk into a room where I don't know anyone, I'm very intimidated. And you know, this is my job. So it's really hard for people just getting started or maybe their job is just to be an engineer and they get out network a little bit or you know, so we at crew that's one of our goals is to try to make people feel welcome because you walk into a room with 120 people and they all know each other. It's you know, it's a little uncomfortable. Yeah, it is. And we want you to get involved. We want the students to get involved because they have fresh ideas and you know, we're all more seasoned, I guess you would say. And so, you know, we don't know all the new technologies and stuff. And we're dying to know that and get some fresh thoughts and ideas. And so. Yeah. So what's the process if you had somebody such as a student that wanted to join crew? So a lot of times they they'll send me their application directly or Laura will send me their application. It's just a simple application. They fill out and usually I think y'all's names are already on the bottom. It says Ray Tuske and Laura. And if I don't know the student, like if Laura didn't send it to me directly, if just a student, I'll send it to Lauren. Hey, do you recognize this person just to make sure they really are in the program and not just someone saying they are. And then so once we get the application, I process that I'm sorry, I don't know the fee off the top of my head. I think it's like $190 dollars for the year. Something like that. Ninety five. Yeah. And then once you're a member, you're in. I mean, you can go to the meetings at member price. We give, I think we give students a little bit of a discount on everything just because we know their budgets are much smaller. And the big thing a lot of students, we take a lot of students to our national conference this last year. We were in San Diego. We took, I don't know, 15 students. It took quite a bit. The year before that, we were, I can't remember, but every year we go summer cool. And we take students with us Orlando. Orlando. I think I will. Yeah. And it's, I think it's October time frame normally. So the funny thing is we have a lot of students join right before that because they want to go to the conference. And plus that's when the next semester starts to, you know, usually around that time. That's right. Yeah. And I have told students, I said, if you, if you don't have the money to join as a member right now, go ahead and start participating and attending. Yeah. See if you can get on a committee informally and then save up the money so that when you, when you've got the money, then you join, right. And then you remember some of the organizations that are substantially less, but usually that's just the local chapter. Whereas with crew, you're joining the national chapter. And then you get the local member or the local chapter membership with that. So being part of crew, you get part of the crew network. And so you get you, when you're a member of crew, you can get on our national website and log in and say if you're looking for a broker and L.A. You can Google, it's not Google. It's their, their site broker and L.A. and all these names will pull up that are members of crew. So let's say someone in New York wants to do a deal in San Antonio. They don't know anybody in San Antonio. Well, they can get on the crew network website and look for developers in San Antonio. And so who would crew and they'll pull up the crew to, crew members who have developer by their name or if they need a rufa or if they need a finance person. So if a student is on there, you know, they can also be found by people across the country if they meet the qualifications of what someone's searching for. And I think you can post job jobs are posted there. You can post your resume, maybe on the national site. Yeah, on the national site. So that's a, that's a resource in and of the self right there. That I've got a, I've made a note to follow back up on that because just like with LinkedIn, there's, there's, there's doing your LinkedIn profile and that actually worked out well for you, but then there's also, there's the LinkedIn jobs app. There's, there's ways that you can use these resources to market yourself or in terms of market yourself or in terms of looking for a job. And so I know, I know some of the other organizations have always talked about that. We're receiving more local. You can post your resume on them on their local website. And I don't know if if, if my may do that or a, uh, I room. And so you've got that, you know, you're not just joining and going, okay, now I get to go to the luncheon. There's so much more around that. Yeah. Um, we, we've talked about Boma. We've, uh, I don't, I don't know, we've ever had, uh, I don't know if there's ever been a student that's joined Boma that I know. Not that I can think of either. And you know, different organizations have started stronger student programs and crews is the strongest that I'm aware of in the industry. Um, I think if my, they're trying to start that up. I know that they're talking about it as a board trying to get more student involvement and getting stronger in that. But it's just not as easy and say, let's invite some students and, you know, as you know, it's, it's a network between UTSA and even crew. There's, there's a breath relationship that happens there. And that's why that's able to happen. So easily for us, but that didn't happen overnight, you know, right. So I think if I was trying to start that a little stronger, um, and Boma, I don't know if there's a lot of talk about that. Um, I'm not on the board. So I'm not as plugged in there. Well, uh, I have to ask some questions on that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so what, uh, what else? What, what, what do you wish you had known when you started off for car? I think, and I touched on it earlier, but it's just how, how fast construction is, how, I mean, it's always changing. It's always active. It's, it's never the same thing two days in a row. And you kind of have to be prepared for that, um, kind of be open to almost anything, be able to help in any way you can, um, and then you kind of have to buy into construction, not, and I say that because once you're in it, you're, you're, in it, you know, you're, you're all the way in, you know, like, uh, you could take a call at 6 a.m. in the morning, depending, we have jobs all over the US, even for the week, right now, but, um, you could, you could get a call at six in the morning, you could call it seven o'clock, and just be ready to answer that call. So it's just being available at a moment's notice, I guess, to be able to help someone with whatever they need, um, being able to adapt to all that. So, um, kind of just being able to learn, you know, okay, Christie, you know, when I grew up, I grew up, uh, part of town that's not very affluent, and I don't think I really realized what was out there as a kid going to school. Like, what did I want to be?
when I grew up or what were the possibilities? I didn't really know any of that. Even going through college, I graduated with 4.0 GPA. I did great, but I still didn't know what options were out there. And I'm not sure that I don't know if college has changed a whole lot in the last 20 years, but I just didn't know any of the possibilities of what you could do with your life. I didn't even know that what I did now was a job. When I got it at the engineering firm and they said business development, I was like, "Oh, that's basically a sales job." But it really is and it's relationship building. So just knowing that there's different options out there other than what you're exposed to. So you want to open your mind to different possibilities when you meet people, listen to what they do and how they got there. And even if when I network, I meet all kinds of people and 90% of them can never ever influence a job for me. Get me another opportunity. But they've all got something to offer. Rather it'd be a new piece of knowledge that you didn't know or something. So always be open to that and never ever turn down a meeting with somebody. So you never know where the next opportunity will come from or what you could learn that will change your whole life. Yeah. What's one or more things? So it can't be just one. It could be more that if you had somebody who's a student now, what would you tell them? What advice would you give them? I would tell them to network as much as you possibly can. I mean, it's what if I go, but I'm busy. I've got excuses. I have to watch Netflix. Yeah. And I, I mean, that's my one regret looking back as I did not network when I was a student at UTSA. Sure, I was maybe a member of the Hispanic Student Association, but I never attended. You know, I just put it on my resume. So don't just put something on your resume. Don't just join something to put it on your resume. Kind of like Chris, I don't go to a luncheon and just eat lunch and walk out. Make those connections while you can while it's available to you, your student. You know, there's a lot of people that you can talk to, not just in your class or in your major, but network a little bit outside of your major. You never know who they know and they might not be able to help you right away, but they'll remember, hey, Christie works for Kram. We have a leak. Let's call Christie. Maybe she can help us out. You know, so it's, I mean, like she said, 90% of the people don't aren't going to be able to help you, but they might remember you down the road when their friend needs help. You know, so I would say network as much as you can, learn as much as you can. Sometimes you don't have to go to that Spurs game, go network a little bit, you know, I don't know. So find new ways to meet new people and engage, engage yourself as much as you can. I would say read to read a lot and no excuses, no excuses. Yeah, put that phone down. Twitter can wait all that, you know, looking back, I wish I did that because I did a lot of video games and I regret doing those video games, you know, I wish I networked more. Yeah. What do you think, Christie? Well, what would I tell my own child? Well, you know, so cram hired three fairly young people in the right around the time we hired Ricardo, we hired two others. One of them is still going to UTSA. He's so he goes to school when he comes and works with us and he's on our estimating side. But we hired three new people, younger people and people of my generation only here. Oh my god, these millennials are blah, blah. You know, we hear a lot of negative things about it. And I could say about the three that we've hired. We've had a terrific experience. All three of them are very responsible. They know how to look in the eye and talk. They're not afraid to communicate. They're proactive. They're not waiting to be told what to do. They know what to do. So all of those things are super important and they're basic skills that I, you should just have in life. And I think a lot of it is being taken away with social media. Everyone's on their phone. They're texting. They're losing that communication skill that everyone has to have. So for instance, one of the girl we hired, Allison, I was there whenever she came in and she looked me right in the eye, shook my hand firmly, was excited to be there. It was presentable, dressed very nice. And I was like, well, totally impressed because you don't always get that with someone right out of college or someone of that age. And so I would definitely tell my kid, you know, you got to look someone in the eye, shake their hand, make eye contact, know how to communicate with them and be responsible and just show them that you're eager to do whatever it is you're trying to do. You've got to go and you want to get there, you know. So awesome. Yeah. It's not what I didn't hear is you've got to know everything. It comes down to start off with the people skills, start off with the relationship building and then you go from there. Because if you got all that, the company is willing to teach someone like that. Take them and teach them because it's hard to find someone who shows up to work, will actually work and who's a good worker. I mean, you can teach somebody anything pretty much. So it's those people skills that you have to have. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't, I didn't know anything about roofing when I started here and they liked that I showed up on time. They liked that I was an avid listener. I was taking notes. I have my no pet all the time. I have a pen on me all the time. Being able to do those little extra things, you know, do whatever you can. I love to help people in any way I can. I'll do whatever it takes to get the job done, you know. So I think they like a company likes if you're willing to do those little things. It's more than just knowing everything. I can tell you I don't know a lot. I know. But being able not being afraid to ask questions to, I mean, you don't have to know everything. You can be taught things and being open to learning new things and kind of retaining that information that they do teach you that goes a long way. You don't teach that, you don't get that from college or books. You learn it on the job, you know. Is there anything else that you had that we haven't covered? Do we cover it all? I want to say that we, as soon as we stop, you're going to go, "Oh, they're sending us." They're sending us. They're sending us. Yeah, yeah. Are there any shadowing opportunities that are available? Like would you suggest somebody who might be interested in going into the construction side that has no experience to do some shadowing where he's been half a day with a professional and tag a lot like, "Oh, Christie, it's like, hey, come on. You're just going to drive to meetings and lunches." Yeah. And I think Kram Roofing as a company would be open to that. I mean, we just hired three very young people. Like I said, once to one school, we've got another person that we hired out of the program who's one of our estimators now. We hired him as an intern. So Kram is always open to that. Safety comes into concern. Like if they're going on job sites, we do a ton of safety training and we put the guys through a lot and gals through a lot of training before we can even let them go out on a job site. But Ricardo is at his desk most of the day. So just depending on what they wanted a shadow doing, we could certainly accommodate. I'm sure we just need to work it out with the bosses. Yeah, always. Yeah. Always. And that is, especially on the construction side of the business, safety always has to be the person. It's not just something that's talked about. It's something that's got to be lived. Well, yeah. I mean, our bosses always say they'd never want to have to make a call to someone's wife and say your husband's not coming home tonight because we weren't working safely. You know, so safety is our utmost concern, not making money. It's being safe. So, you know, I've y'all had mentors, mentors, mentors in your line of work. I think I would say the project manager right now Ashley is a huge mentor to me and above her, Scott, who's our VP of Operation and Out. I look up to Scott a lot because he gives us the tools to succeed. You know, so he's been a big influencer, I think, since I started working there, Ashley has been taught me the ropes. And I mean, I feel like I'm becoming a little Ashley, you know, like they call her the bulldog because she, I mean, she really takes command of these jobs and they call me little Chihuahua. I'm kind of, I'm getting that bark, but you know, I'm still, I'm still learning, but definitely them too, for sure, have been huge since I started there. I mean, I'm always, I can always go to them for help and they are there to help me out 100 percent of the time. So them too. And I've just always been fortunate to have great bosses. I mean, I've had one or two bad ones and I'm not there anymore, you know, but I've had a lot of really good managers in my career over the last several years and, you know, they've all taught me something different. Some have taught me people skills and some have taught me this, but if you're talking about cram roofing and there are, our president of the company, Mark, he's, he is an awesome person. He's my age, we're this, he's six months older than me. But you know, he is just a great person. He's a great leader in the company. He's a good role model. And he is, I mean, we're all there at the bottom, the end of the day to make money, right? That's what companies do, but he is so honed in on people in the company and no, none of us here have job titles. He'll take the trash out and that's the way we work in our companies. We are all like a family. And so that's what I've learned from him is, you know, you can go to work and like it and like the people you work with and you should because you spend more time with them than you do your family most of the time. So each of my managers that I've had have taught me something different and one of the things I did that was really cool when I got into this industry is I joined the North Chamber through the engineering company and I went through their leadership lab program. That was so I learned so much about myself doing that. It was one of the best things I've done. Talk me about my own, how I communicate, how to communicate with people who don't communicate like I do and what they're really saying and if I want to, because I'm a perky, happy smiley person, not everyone is, but so then how do I communicate with someone who's really quiet and reserved and not when I walk into the room, I'm not like yelling at them and they're like, oh my god, she talks so much. So I've learned how to, it's where I kind of learned it there was how to look at people and how do they communicate and adjust my communication style so that way they listen to me and they hear what I'm saying. But that leadership lab through the North Chamber, I learned a ton about stuff like that. I would recommend that if someone can go through that.
not an easy program to get, it's not cheap either. And luckily my company paid for it, but it was excellent. - Nice, that's good to know. - Mm-hmm. Well, I appreciate y'all coming and sitting down and talking today and if Zerave, individuals want to get a hold of you. - Sure. - Our office number at the work is 210-694-7815. My extension is 108 and Ricardo's 390. - 390. And we're both at like Christie,
[email protected]. - It's my Ricardo at KramRafame. - C-O-C-R-A. - Yes. - Amazon Mary. - Amazon Mary. - Yeah. - Well thank y'all for coming today. - Thank you for having us. - Thank you. - It's just great. - Yeah, it's fun. Thank you so much. - Thank you.
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