Heidi J. Ellsworth kicks off Roof Scout’s new podcast as their first guest!

By Emma Peterson.

From bulletin boards to The Coffee Shops, Heidi talks the RCS story, industry evolution and more.

Here at The Coffee Shops, one of our favorite things is sitting down for a conversation with our many friends in the industry. From our longstanding Roofing Road Trips® series to our newest addition of Contractor Outlook, we love podcasts here. Which is why it’s always exciting when we get invited to join our friends on their podcasts, like when Heidi J. Ellsworth joined Josh Adams for an episode of Roof Scout’s new podcast! This series, The Scout Podcast, is hosted by Josh and aims to start conversations that address the intersection of “business, technology, behavioral science and sales in the service industry.” Heidi was honored to be the first guest on the show in December 2024 when she got to talk to Josh and Cole Adams about her journey in the industry, both before and with RoofersCoffeeShop® (RCS)!

In the episode, Heidi, Josh and Cole talked about everything under the sun, starting with the founding of The Coffee Shops. Josh opened the conversation with sharing his family’s personal connection to RCS and the larger Coffee Shops family, saying, “Heidi's really the OG of the roofing world to us. I was telling Cole today I was looking back on the first LinkedIn message that I ever sent Heidi, and I was telling her about how my dad is the one that told me about RCS back in 2012-ish.” That was a decade into a story that began in 2002 and an idea in Vickie Sharples’ mind. Heidi explained, “The lady who started all this is Vickie Sharples. Before RCS, she made a newspaper called Roofers Exchange in the late 1980s. This came out of a moment where she walked into a distributor's office, saw a bulletin board and in her mind thought, ‘You know, I bet I could take everything on that bulletin board and put it in a newspaper and distribute it.’” And that is exactly what she did.  

From there, Vickie made Roofers Exchange a staple on every counter in the roofing industry and it was through that she met Heidi, who was working for Malarkey Roofing’s advertising department at the time. Heidi explained, “I was advertising in Roofers Exchange and became really good friends with Vickie. Then in about 1998, I started my own ad agency, HJE Marketing where I was doing work for companies like Polyglass, Interstate Roofing, Madison Roofing, DECRA and Vickie with Roofers Exchange.” Their working relationship and friendship grew and by the time the year 2000 hit, Heidi was the one Vickie turned to when she wanted to take Roofers Exchange to the next level. Heidi recalled, “She says in 2000, ‘Print’s going to die, I need to get Roofers Exchange onto the internet.’ And I said, ‘Okay great.' She then asked if I would help her with my ad agency put all this together.” And the rest, as they say, was history.  

From there, RCS has grown into the industry-leading multimedia Coffee Shops platform that encompasses four different sites today. And all of that story was shared in just the first ten minutes of the podcast! From there, Heidi, Josh and Cole spoke about everything from the evolution of the roofing industry and its current landscape to why community and networking are vital for success in the roofing world. You won’t want to miss this incredible and insightful conversation.  

Go check out our friends over at Roof Scout and listen to Heidi on The Scout Podcast today!