Weekly Impact by Lay of The Land

for this conversation with Tim Dumphy from Home Genius.

we'll encounter some of the same themes we've had for many of the other folks that are
winning the Smart 50 Awards this year.

I'm Jim Havilland.

This is Lay of the Land Weekly Impact.

our Smart 50 edition Home Genius which has grown uh

in very short period of time, by really focusing on customer experience and then employee
experience, both those things together, and really making sure you stay humble as you're

growing to figure out what's really most important.

And I also must have an apology for Tim Dumphy as a recorder of this event.

We caught his audio, something moved in the microphones in front of his face for a lot of
the recording.

So, Tim, apologies, but thanks for the conversation and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Thank you.

Welcome to Lay of the Land Weekly Impact.

We are doing our Smart 50 edition for 2025.

I'm Jim Haviland and we are talking to the smart business leaders that are part of the
Smart 50 honorees.

So Tim, thank you so much for being here today.

Tim Dunphy tell me a little bit about Home Genius Exteriors.

Home Genius Exteriors.

So we are a home remodeling company that does

roofing, siding, windows, doors, attic installation, really anything on the exterior of
the home.

We started in 2019 out in the DC area and have expanded to 14 different office locations
now pretty much all across the northeast quadrant of the US.

my goodness.

So, went so 19 that's not that long ago and that's a lot of expansion.

Tell me about that.

has that been so successful?

You know, it's been

really the magic that happens, we started the business and then I started to grow it and
then COVID hit, right?

COVID, you know, with COVID came out some COVID tailwinds, particularly for home
improvement.

So we had some COVID tailwinds, but as we were going through that, and we got into around
the 2022 uh timeframe, we realized that we had a clear point of difference and we're

delivering on customer needs by focusing on the customer.

Unfortunately, the home

Services industry is not known for its service, right?

And what we were doing since we since the company started was focusing on delivering a
different experience to the customer and what that means is Having them at the end of the

project be happy and satisfied with the whole process and it really is more than just the
product because The roof goes on the roof.

Nobody's I mean, they're happy they have a roof, but it's they're not excited about the
shingles

What they're excited about is what the experience was from when they first met HomeGenius
all the way until even after the job is done.

So we focus on communication, information, trust, putting the right solution in place,
answering any questions, having patience with the customer.

And that's where we found the magic.

And the magic is there's no more powerful marketing.

than someone saying, man, I had an amazing experience.

If you ever get your roof time, you have to work with them.

Yeah.

NPS 10 out of 10.

that's the key.

So when that happened, that's when we decided that it was time to scale, to take this
experience that we've been able to get really, really good at and to expand it.

And so we expanded from a geographic standpoint.

expanded from a marketing standpoint, opening up different channels and building out the
brand.

And it's been a roller coaster rocket ship.

However you want to describe it, but it's been phenomenal.

Scaling a business is fun.

Right.

well, uh rising revenues uh will do a lot to cover mistakes that you make along the way.

Are there things that you do differently if you go back?

Any hard lessons learned?

So I wouldn't say hard lessons learned, but there's always that Monday morning quarterback
where you best lay plans, particularly when you're a hyper growth phase.

they change immediately.

What you thought you were going be doing in three months, you're wrong and you're
something else.

For us, actually this year, we were not able to hire as fast as we wanted to.

So we would have grown even more this year if we were able to hire and train and get more
people into the business.

And that was something that we hadn't grown to the point where we had to go focus on
talent acquisition and it wasn't the plan going into the year.

But as we went and we wanted to hire 20, 30, 50 people a month, we needed to go focus on
talent acquisition.

So we have to be really good at this.

So we pivoted and went through our entire journey for a new employee journey.

Just like we think about customer journey, we look at the employee journey, how they
discover us, how we show up as a brand, where we show up as a brand, and really took our

marketing minds and put it on recruiting.

And by three months later, we had more.

more people applying to HomeGenius than we ever had at any point in time.

that's fantastic.

know, when we're coaching our clients, quite often we talk about there being the sales
funnel.

Everyone's familiar with the sales, but there's a talent funnel as well.

And you've got to figure out when do we trigger, this one should trigger this one.

Sales should trigger our acquisition of new talent.

And what was the unlock for you uh on finding the right talent?

You know, it really was

making sure that we were having the right conversations with them early on so they knew
who we were, we knew who we were looking for.

And then also what the company was doing.

So telling our company story so that it could be discovered.

And once we did that, people noticed, they saw they wanted to be part of what home genius
is doing.

They want to be part of the fastest growing, most respected home improvement company in
America.

And you it's our vision, but it's real.

And once we got that word out, then it actually became referrals, employees telling the
story about the company.

That's the key, right?

And then those people being like, I want to come on board.

I want to be part of this.

And so it was really taking and focusing on the storytelling of the company to potential
new employees that unlocked it.

Yeah, we look at that.

We have a model for how companies grow.

Early on you might get into NPS, but that employee NPS, that internal NPS becomes just as
important because there's no other way to scale.

100%.

Yeah, 100%.

So what if, tell me what you would say about some earned wisdom that comes from all of
this.

Like what would you pass on to, if you could talk to Tim Dumphy five years ago, what would
you tell him?

So I'd tell him, know, it's always and always will be all about the people.

We are in people businesses.

regardless of the industry, our customers are people we need to care for them.

Our employees are people need to care for them.

Their families are also part of part of the business and the communities we work in are
filled with people.

So if you focus on the people, everything will be that much easier.

It's how we delivered that different experiences, focusing on the customer, focusing on
that person, how they wanted to feel.

We take the invitation to the home.

very seriously, call it that.

We're not just trying to get an appointment, we're trying to get invitation.

And we put a lot of effort into making sure we show up the right way to the customer.

We put a lot of time and effort into our employees, into training, um into making sure
they have every tool possible for success.

We do a lot on mentorship.

really knowing how important that employee is, we don't succeed without the employee.

And so that's a passion point that we have.

And then with the local communities, and this is probably something I would

say to others that are listening there, when you take time and you take a pause to give
back to the community, it pays you back tenfold, not just in the emotional reward.

But people see that they see what you're doing.

So we do a lot of work with Ronald McDonald House and Habitat for Humanity and roof
deployment projects with Owings Corning to put your roof so veterans homes.

the best thing about these events are how many people from home genius show up.

Like there's probably like three or four people that need to be there when we do these
events.

But we'll get the whole office to turn out.

You'll have 40 or 50 people because they want to be part of it.

And they want to go tell that story to people of what they did and how the company is
giving back.

And it's real and it's genuine.

that type of thing is so powerful.

We're able to tell those stories in the home.

Why would you want to work with us?

Let's show you what we're doing and how we're taking care of people.

It works.

It's the why, right?

It's the why we do it that makes a difference because anyone could put a window in, but...

That is true.

But you wouldn't want them to necessarily.

So what, as you you come along, kind of mentors have you had?

Where have you learned your lessons?

It's really a lot of leadership lessons.

I've, you throughout my career, I've seen some great leaders and I've also seen some not
great leaders.

And so...

Sometimes you learn just as much from from working with or around a not great leader as
you do from you know, those strong leaders and so I've been blessed with you know, a lot

of experiences and you know, I would say a leader with humility is extremely important,
particularly as you get to larger organizations.

There is you know, a situation where you will have a leader that thinks they know
everything.

And that once that starts to happen, that's when

You know, it becomes the company kind of loses its way.

Yeah becomes problematic But when you're in an environment where the leaders know that
they are don't know everything and they trust and empower their people Yes to lead those

are the organizations that just they they start to do what people don't didn't think was
possible Because you empower your people.

Yeah Yeah, I think what I've there's a psychological test that was you know, tests that
were done called the Dunning Kruger curve.

Have you seen this where?

When we know a little bit about anything, we think we're above average at that thing.

I tell all my leaders and my clients, there's nothing about leadership that is organic,
that is automatic.

Humility is the only way because you're to have to learn new things.

And every stage of your business, there's new things to learn.

Always learning.

You never stop learning.

If you stop learning, I don't know what that's like.

It's never happened in my career.

You're always learning.

I'm learning from this conversation here, right?

Being in the building.

And then always be teaching.

So that's another piece that sometimes people forget about.

Particularly as you're in a leadership position, you have an obligation to always be
teaching, always be sharing, always be explaining.

It takes that extra minute to provide some additional perspective.

And that will pay back.

The way we talk about in our practice is that

We have to be leaders, building leaders, building leaders.

Absolutely.

And that's how we make sure that we have someone to delegate to and someone to take over
and we can focus on the higher level things as we're able to.

So who do you have to thank for this award, for being recognized?

uh know, this is, it's interesting.

I had the question of, congratulations on winning the award.

I'm like, I know that my name is on it, but it's really the team's award.

The team has done the work.

I just had the pleasure of bringing them together and pointing them in the right
direction.

But I owe all my thanks to the team.

I owe thanks to the leadership at Home Genius, Exteriors, probably the best executive
leadership team I've ever been on.

High character individuals that just want to do the right thing for the people.

And that's why they get up in the morning.

it just creates this magical environment where excited to go to work, excited to do
things, excited to do hard things, and love going to battle with this team.

Well, know, the thing I really find remarkable about what you've what you've shared today
is it's these are might be described as soft skills in some environments, especially in

construction and in all those those home services people that we don't necessarily like
because they're it's for them.

It's just how many how long is the nail and, you know, is it is going to you know, am I
done?

But you're really focused on the reality that we're living in a very human environment and
you have to deliver a human experience to both uh your employees and your customers.

Yeah, absolutely.

that's the key.

People want to feel a certain way.

They want to feel like a genius when they make a decision.

Right.

So they want to feel confident in their decision.

They want to know that they did the right thing, whether it be doing a project or

taking on a new job.

You know, it's really important to understand what we're in the business of delivering.

And we want people to be excited and really just happy.

You know, if you can create an environment where people are happy, they love what they do,
they love who they work with um and make that sustainable, there's really no stop of where

you can go.

We teach our clients that if you want a whole team of A players, you got to have everyone
doing something they're great at and they love to do.

Right.

And that changes over time, but that's the key.

That's that what being a player looks like.

I love what I'm doing.

I'm great at it.

And that isn't just a matter of just finding them.

You've got to actually create that environment where that can happen.

I agree.

Great.

So uh anyone we should give a shout out to before we finish up today?

You know, like I said, I like to give a shout out to the team and in particular to uh
Victoria Ogrizek who brought this opportunity to me and has been a champion for home

genius um where

there could be no one better to tell the story.

So very much appreciate her and all the effort she puts in.

Well, Tim, congratulations.

Thanks for the time today.

Thank you.

Awesome.