Key takeaways

• DTE hasn’t knocked doors in about two years. Leads come from brokered relationships with insurance agents, tree companies, real estate agents, home inspectors and handymen.
• Anyone who is inside customers’ homes is a potential partner.
• Cold emails to agents ask for a lunch meeting and aren’t a pitch for preferred-roofer status. Donovan’s estimate is that 100 emails get roughly 20 takers.
• Pitching agents: you make their customers happier and make them look better. Donovan says DTE has never compensated agents for referrals.
• State Farm agents are DTE’s biggest referral source. Offering to review stalled, difficult claims is the quickest way in.
• After a roof sale, ask for the customer’s insurance agent and hand-deliver paperwork for any shingle-class premium discount.
• New reps shadow agent meetings instead of learning door knocking.
• DTE’s evidence package, paired with lump-sum pricing, gets approved about 60% of the time up front.
• When a carrier “requests” something, ask whether it’s a request or a requirement.
• Donovan’s expected ramp-up for the agent model is about a month to see consistent leads.
• Ken’s view: the better you get at retail, the better you get at claims.

Mentioned in the episode

• Chris Zimmerman and John (board of advisors and mentors)
• Exactimate, Roofle-style instant quote tools, Eagle View, SRS and ABC
• State Farm and Allstate
• GAF and the Power Roofing model
• Fair Labor Standards Act and 1099 considerations (Donovan notes he isn’t an attorney)

Find the guest: DTE Roofing (https://www.dteroofingllc.com/), Facebook DTE Roofing, Donovan Davis and Mitchell Davis on Facebook.

Note: the transcript spells Roofle as “ruffle” in places, so double-check the product name before publishing.

roofing podcast, Kitchen Table podcast, Ken Baden, Donovan Davis, DTE Roofing, roofing sales, insurance restoration, roofing insurance claims, evidence package, Exactimate alternative, roofing referrals, State Farm agents, insurance agent referrals, stop door knocking, roofing lead generation, roofing business growth, retail roofing, instant quote roofing, Roofle, roofing supplements, Diversified Roofer, Potomac Custom Remodeling, Columbus Ohio roofer, roof claim approval

• 00:00:18 – Intro and welcome to Donovan Davis of DTE Roofing
• 00:00:55 – Chris Zimmerman as mentor, and the evidence package’s impact on approvals
• 00:01:57 – Ohio market, retail vs. insurance mix, and the Columbus storm
• 00:02:53 – How Donovan and his brother got into roofing
• 00:03:57 – The low barrier to entry and why it hurts the industry
• 00:05:00 – Hiring lessons and a rep filing claims on his own
• 00:06:36 – Pop-up storms, running a clean business, and the 1099/FLSA lesson
• 00:08:59 – Contractor licensing in Ohio and Pennsylvania
• 00:10:40 – Treating insurance work like retail and moving off Exactimate
• 00:11:40 – Lump-sum pricing and instant quote tools
• 00:14:30 – Retail options and good-better-best packages
• 00:15:50 – GAF/Power Roofing model and ventilation
• 00:17:15 – Referrals and finding the “dance partner” in a neighborhood
• 00:19:00 – Professional referral partnerships and the cold email to agents
• 00:21:29 – State Farm agents as the biggest referral source
• 00:22:50 – Building the agent network and post-roof insurance paperwork
• 00:25:30 – No door knocking: training new reps on agent meetings
• 00:28:30 – State Farm focus and selling agents on making them look better
• 00:29:30 – Frivolous claims and honest inspections
• 00:31:45 – Ramp-up timeline and winning agents with stalled claims
• 00:33:00 – No compensation to agents, and keeping the model clean
• 00:33:37 – Exactimate writers and supplementing in-house
• 00:34:40 – The two-step evidence package
• 00:35:45 – Request vs. requirement, and the Allstate call story
• 00:38:15 – Reasonable pricing and local price verification
• 00:40:00 – Wrap-up: ages, three years in business, and community
• 00:41:35 – Exit strategy and EBITDA mindset
• 00:42:25 – Retail vs. insurance focus and plans for spring
• 00:43:55 – Where to find Donovan and DTE Roofing
• 00:44:50 – Chris’s plane, Diversified Roofer and closing

• Rick's unconventional path: engineering degree → corporate tech job → sales → laid off in the dot-com bust
• The origin story: selling Space Invaders T-shirts at Portobello Market in Notting Hill
• Building an international business licensing Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix, Star Wars, and Marvel IP
• The difference between corporate licensing (Disney/Netflix) and relationship-driven music licensing
• What "merchandising" actually covers: apparel, accessories, headwear, nightwear, and more
• Evergreen licenses (Disney) vs. fleeting pop-culture moments (Stranger Things) vs. touring bands
• Why merchandising is a high-volume, lower-margin business — "license to print money"
• Rick's biggest music license ever: AC/DC, and why the Rolling Stones' logo is untouchable
• Writing The Maverick Entrepreneur: turning life lessons and failures into a book
• The role of tenacity, resilience, and refusing to quit in entrepreneurship
• Rick's motivation for public speaking and pursuing personal development
• Working smarter, not harder
• Rick's closing piece of wisdom: "grab life by the throat" and take full personal responsibility
• Trusting your instincts and learning from (not repeating) your mistakes
• Where to find Rick Lowe and his upcoming book

Guest: Jake Huotari, Co-Owner, Aspire Home Services (Maple Grove, MN)
Host: Ken Baden, CEO/Owner of Baden Consulting and Potomac Custom Remodeling

Key takeaways

• Flexibility and a good attitude are core to Jake's leadership philosophy: "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape."
• Jake and Josh started at Aspire as a small insurance restoration team. After the 90-day program with Ken, they ended 2025 just under $4M.
• Jake says retail runs about a 60% margin after commissions, and that insurance claims can move from about 45% to 75% margin using financing and upgrade tie-downs.
• Retail is a value-based proposition. Your ability to articulate value determines your ability to charge a premium.
• Retail businesses are worth roughly 4 to 5 points more to private equity and investors, according to Ken.
• Starting retail doesn't take a huge budget. Begin with one or two canvassers and add as profit allows.
• Hiring with a personality and temperament profile takes the mystery out of finding reps who will actually close.
• Jake says that when his team deviated from the scripting in July, their close rate dropped from 34% to 18%. It recovered as soon as they went back to it.
• Aspire's team now includes 7 sales reps, 8 canvassers, 2 phone staff, a job site coordinator, and a production specialist, which Jake says is a framework for a $15M business.
• Jake sees insurance carriers squeezing contractors through slow pay and scope disputes. He says fewer than half of last year's roughly 4,000 Minnesota contractors remain.
• About 3 in 10 roof replacements are insurance-driven and 7 in 10 are for other reasons, according to Ken. Very few roofers go after that 70%.
• Jake's advice on what made it work: follow directions, and put in the work.
• Jake's caution: "This is not get rich quick, this is get rich slow."

Mentioned in the episode: Blue Collar Baller event (Dallas, 2023), one-sit close, canvassing, DISC-style hiring profile, CRM and cost-per-lead tracking, financing on insurance claims, private equity interest, NLP-based scripting.

Connect with Jake: https://www.facebook.com/jakehuotari
Connect with Ken: thekitchentablepodcast.net | Badenconsulting.net | DiversifiedRoofer.com | PotomacCustomRemodeling.com