Nearly 30 years in the trades. From installing roofs to running $35 million in annual revenue. What the construction industry teaches about leading people, managing risk, and building things that last.
I started in construction with my hands. Installed roofs. Fabricated sheet metal. Ran crews in weather that would keep most people inside. I earned my OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 certifications, studied ANSI/SPRI standards, and learned every roofing system from EPDM to TPO to GAF shingle lines. I did not start managing from the top. I started from the ground.
That ground-level experience shaped everything I did as a business owner and operator. When I built Penebaker Enterprises to $15 million and then scaled Roofed Right America to over $35 million across five states, the leadership principles that worked came from the job site, not from business school.
Construction is the ultimate leadership laboratory. The work is physical and unforgiving. The labor market is brutally competitive. Safety is not a checkbox, it is life and death. And every project has a deadline that weather, material supply, and human performance can threaten at any moment.
I speak to construction and trades audiences with credibility that most leadership speakers cannot offer. I know what it is like to be on a roof in a Wisconsin winter. I know the difference between a 60-mil TPO membrane and a 45-mil. I know what a good crew looks like and what a bad day on the job site actually costs.
But I also speak to audiences outside construction, because the lessons translate. Safety culture is leadership culture. Managing physical risk teaches you how to manage any kind of risk. Building trust with a crew that does dangerous work every day teaches you how to build trust with any team.
This talk connects the tactical realities of construction leadership to the broader principles that make any leader effective. Whether your audience works in the trades or has never been on a job site, they will leave with a new understanding of what it means to lead when the stakes are real.
What Your Audience Will Learn
Key Themes
Safety culture is leadership culture
Why the way you handle safety reveals everything about how you lead. Lessons from an industry where poor leadership has physical consequences.
Leading a physical workforce
What changes when your team does physically demanding work in difficult conditions. How to earn respect, maintain standards, and build loyalty with people who can see through fake leadership in seconds.
Scaling a trades Business
The specific challenges of growing a construction company from startup to multi-state operation. What breaks, what you have to let go of, and what you can never stop doing.
Translating construction lessons to any industry
How the principles of job-site leadership, from risk management to crew communication to deadline execution, apply to every organization that wants to perform at a higher level.
No. While the stories come from the construction industry, the principles apply universally. Leadership, risk management, team building, and accountability work the same way in every field. Construction just puts them in higher relief because the consequences are more immediate and visible.
Nearly 30 years. I started installing roofs and fabricating sheet metal. I earned OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 certifications, Asbestos Supervisor training, and studied ANSI/SPRI roofing standards. I have hands-on experience with EPDM, TPO, GAF products, JM insulation, and full building envelope systems. I built two companies in the commercial roofing space and currently serve as Regional General Manager at Great Day Improvements.
This is one of the best settings for this talk. I speak the language. I know the products, the processes, and the people challenges that are unique to the trades. Your audience will recognize immediately that I am not a consultant who read about construction. I have lived it.
I address them directly. The skilled labor shortage is the defining challenge of the construction industry right now. I share what has worked for me in attracting, training, and retaining talent in an industry where 94% of firms report difficulty filling positions. The solutions are not easy, but they exist.
Yes. The workshop format is especially effective for construction leadership teams. It includes exercises focused on crew management, safety culture, accountability systems, and growth planning. Half-day and full-day options are available.
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Bring this talk to your event
I have been in the trades for nearly 30 years. Let me share what I have learned with your audience.