Taylor Roofs Building Community with Video and Podcast Series

AS A roofing business owner, Jamie Taylor of Taylor Roofs is fully embracing digitisation to help address a number of industry challenges, not least the acute skills shortage in UK roofing.

Taking the podcast series, Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett as inspiration, Jamie has begun making fortnightly videos, podcasts, and social media shorts with the business stories of his guests as the topic, as well as issues facing UK roofing – all under the banner of Taylor Talks Trades.

So far, Jamie’s invited some well-known industry figures to go in front of the camera – including John McKinney from the NFRC and Scott Miller from Compass Roofing in Edinburgh. They have been speaking about apprenticeships, the skills shortage, their own career stories and the general highs and lows of being in business.

Jamie believes the films and podcasts fulfil several objectives and appeal to a potential new audience. He explains: “One objective is to show school leavers and young people what options they’ve got if they come into the trades and what can be achieved if you apply yourself.

“People come onto the podcast saying ‘I wasn’t academic at school, I was always going to be hands-on’, and then they’ve gone on to be really successful. These people are running multi-million-turnover businesses now and they weren’t academic at school. So, it’s showing what’s possible even if you haven’t done well in school, you still have a future.”

Real People Sharing Real Stories

But it’s not only attracting young people into roofing that Jamie is interested in, he also believes the digital media can inspire and support other business owners either just starting out or established by hearing the business journey and the highs and lows of other successful business owners.

“I know that there’s lots of business podcasts out there, celebrities and so on, but it’s quite hard to relate to a celebrity.

“This is real people sharing real stories. You’re looking at someone who’s started out just as myself, a one-man-band operation, picked up things as I’ve went along, built a team around me and now have a multi-million pound roofing company.

“It’s a real credit to the people in the construction industry that have had the patience, the persistence and the resilience that’s needed to do that.

“I’m trying to build a place where people can come to hear some real, honest stories and not just see the ‘highlights’ that you sometimes see on social media.”

Professionally filmed and produced by You-More, Jamie is making the most of his material, producing about 30-minute-long videos via Taylor Roofs’ YouTube channel, as well as podcast audio which goes on Apple podcasts and Spotify. And then there’s shortened snippets for social media, as well as the behind-the-scenes content.

Tangible Business Benefits

Providing that in-depth insight into the roofing trade as well as Jamie’s own business has tangible business benefits: “The camera doesn’t lie – it builds a lot of trust because people can see who is in the business and what is going on. I think it’s a great way to demonstrate our company values, whether that’s to someone who might apply for a job, or a customer looking to use our services.”

Clearly, the podcasts are good publicity for Taylor Roofs, but Jamie’s company, built from scratch with his wife Kelly, has grown to a £2m+ turnover business, employing 27 people in less than a decade, so is already pretty established.

“To be honest it’s more of a giving back venture,” Jamie says. “Just hearing like-minded stories and like-minded situations and scenarios is really empowering. It’s really refreshing, I think, for other business owners listening and realising, ‘it’s not just me that can sometimes feel lonely’.

“Business owners can come along and share different stories and meet each other and maybe just pass on ideas – it’s about building a better community.”

“I want other roofers to know that we can collaborate within this industry and make it better together, rather than us competing all the time. I think we should really be collaborating and sharing ideas and making the industry better because there is plenty of work out there for everyone. “

“I’m always learning as I go, listening to others and taking on advice from people and I suppose the podcast helps that because you’re bouncing ideas off people and you’re getting different perspectives.”

As the audience for the video and podcasts builds, Jamie anticipates taking the filming ‘on tour’ to extend the guests he invites onto the platform geographically but also to other trades.

Watch the Taylor Talks Trades podcast on YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you would like to talk to Jamie about being one of his guests, you can email him at: jamie@taylorroofs.co.uk.