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Work Hard Play Harder- a conversation with entrepreneur Aaron Christy
6 Plays6 hours ago
Successful entrepreneur Aaron Christy describes how he spends his leisure time
Aaron Christy is the founder and CEO of the Indianapolis based roofing company Indy Roof and Restoration.
In this episode of the Abeceder work life balance podcast Rest and Recreation Aaron describes to host Michael Millward how he likes to spend his leisure time and the how his leisure time decisions impacted the way in which he leads his team.
Aaron describes his philosophy for business and life, and how this has helped him to grow his business.
He explains that to really relax you must switch your brain off, and then enthusiastically describes how he likes to do this.
Aaron then explains how he makes himself unavailable to his team whilst he is not working, and how this enhances their performance.
The principles he applies to his leisure time are also applied to team building within Indy Roof and Restoration, and what the team does when they have their annual strategy and training meeting at Gatlinburg TN.
Aaron is also host of the Work Hard Play Harder podcast, where he is often joined by co-host and Indy Roof and Restoration COO Adam Kaminski.
Michael and Aaron discuss how they both learn from every guest, and Aaron explains that he frequently finds himself learning from his team.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Rest and Recreation'
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform that really does make every stage of the podcasting production process so easy.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Rest and Recreation, the work-life balance podcast from Abysida, where we will not be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.
Meet Aaron Christie: Business Success and Relaxation
00:00:28
Speaker
I am your host, Michael Millward, Managing Director of Abysida. Today, Aaron Christie from Indie Roofs and Restoration is going to be telling me what a builder who turns over 15 million a year does to relax and how he encourages other people to make better use of their leisure time as well.
00:00:49
Speaker
Aaron is based in Indianapolis. I hope I said that correctly. I've never visited. The only thing I know about it is that they have a big car race there. But if ever do get the chance to visit, I will be sure to make my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club because as a member of the Ultimate Travel Club, I can access trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays, and all sorts of other travel related purchases, perhaps even a trip to the Indy 500.
00:01:21
Speaker
You can also access those trade prices on travel by joining the Ultimate Travel Club. And to make that possible, I have put a link with a built-in discount on subscription fees in the description.
00:01:32
Speaker
Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Rest and Recreation that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading, and subscribing to, and probably good enough to share with friends, family, and work colleagues as well.
00:01:49
Speaker
Now, I'm going to check out whether I said this city correctly, but hello, Aaron. Hello. are you doing today? Good. You did say Indianapolis correct, so we're all good. I'm doing very...
00:02:02
Speaker
Indianapolis. but There's a lot of syllables in there, but I've been practicing how to spell it as well. It's very fanatic. You're a ah native of Indianapolis then?
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty easy when you're from here. it's just Indiana and then they add polis on the end, but I was born and raised here. Great.
Growth of Indy Roofs and Restoration
00:02:20
Speaker
right Tell me a little bit about this building company, Roofs and Restoration, and the sort of work that you do there.
00:02:27
Speaker
Indy Roof started out as a primarily a roofing contractor. We have storms here, so there's a lot of wind and hail. Started the business as just a way to take care of of my family.
00:02:40
Speaker
It's evolved over the years, and we've had an opportunity to help a lot of people employee-wise and customer-wise along the way. And we've but also added on a lot of verticals with interior work and painting and water mitigation and, you know, different things along the line that kind of come with storm restoration. So it's been an interesting ride over the last seven years for sure. But we are one of the the top roofing and restoration contractors in central Indiana.
00:03:13
Speaker
We got there rather quickly. i just think it's from um doing good work for people and and having a good culture at the office. you've got to have a good reputation in the building trade I suppose and where I am in the United Kingdom we've had rain every single day this year and fortunately just well October time in 2025 we had a brand new roof fitted because we needed one and it's so reassuring to know that you've got a good roof on top of your house
00:03:45
Speaker
when you've got lots of storms, named storms as well, and heavy rain and wind. It's really great. But you've been involved in all sorts of different businesses, both ones that have been yours and ones that you've helped other people set up as well.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, we you know we've had a lot of different things along the way. Funny how things go hand in hand. um Being that we're in insurance storm restoration, we obviously deal with a lot of insurance claims and we found a lot of people that were um not happy with their policies that that are written.
00:04:24
Speaker
And so I ended up partnering with Ben Franklin Insurance, ah an insurance brokerage, and now we have a branch with with the insurance on the insurance side of things, which fits into what we do.
00:04:38
Speaker
And so now if somebody's got a poorly written policy, we can say, Hey, look, here's some different options. And even further, if somebody gets a new roof from us, there are a lot of discounts that people don't know about. So it's a new roof discount. So we can then say, Hey, we quote you on this, we might be able to save you a lot of money. So they, it's funny how things work hand in hand, you know,
00:05:04
Speaker
Yes. Imagine that people with an older the building should have proper insurance for it and then if it something does go wrong, the cost of new services, for example, can be covered by insurance. Not always, but very often. And i suppose that's what you mean by having a a good policy.
00:05:24
Speaker
For sure. Covering all of the eventualities. Absolutely. Possibilities. I'm a big fan of insurance, I have to say. course, You're very grateful for having had it or having it if you need it.
00:05:39
Speaker
And after you've paid for it, you can forget about it. It does give you a peace of mind. It certainly does. It certainly does. I really appreciate that. So you mentioned the the people that you've got working for you.
00:05:53
Speaker
How many people do you have now at Indie Roofs & Restoration? ha With salespeople and support staff, ah it's around 34.
00:06:04
Speaker
Uh, 34 and 35. And then we have our subcontractors that perform the work. Um, so there's a lot of families that, you know, are, are taken care of from, from the efforts here. And that's how we've seen it evolve over the years. Went from, you know, taking care of my family to, if you add subcontractors in there, we probably have a hundred people, um, that, that get fed and take care of their families from doing good work for the people in the community.
Entrepreneurship's Impact on Communities
00:06:32
Speaker
Yes, and I think that as a fellow entrepreneur like yourself, although not with such a big organization as you, think one of things that you can actually lose sight of is that fact that your business is helping other people to raise their families, to put food on the table, send children to school, teenagers, young adults to college, and it's all possible because you one day decided that you were going to start a business and create jobs.
00:07:03
Speaker
I think sometimes more often than not we forget about the impact that our entrepreneurship, our risk taking has had in creating stable lives for other people.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think that probably gets overlooked quite a bit. I think as an entrepreneur, somebody that's a founder and owner of a business, at least myself, I do think about the impact that my decisions make on the employees on a regular basis. I'm making sure that the company stays healthy because there's people that depend on that job.
00:07:39
Speaker
But I think as as a general rule, that may that may get overlooked for somebody outside of our position. And we pull out on the line. you know I took to start this company, I cleaned out my 401k and started building it from the ground up.
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:07:56
Speaker
So you know we we juggle these things and have everything on the line.
00:08:00
Speaker
We don't clock out at five o'clock typically. There's there's always things you know running through your head, things that you got to deal with. just You know, brainstorming, at least me anyway, um I have to actually turn my brain off by doing something else in order to to force myself to take a reset from from the office. Yeah. What do you do to turn your brain off?
00:08:22
Speaker
Oh man, um we we like to do a lot of stuff as a family. I got some property down south. It's 176 acres, 174 acres, sorry.
00:08:36
Speaker
It's an old four-wheeler park. And we we get four-wheelers and there's there's hiking trails and we got some cabins out there. And so it's really cool. We'll go out there and just kind of unplug We're at the bottom of a hill and not a valley, so we don't get much phone signal down there.
00:08:58
Speaker
that is that That is proper luxury. Sorry to giggle. Sorry to giggle. But when when you say i've got we're in a valley, we don't get much phone signal down there. It's like that is proper luxury.
00:09:09
Speaker
and Yeah. So it's it's this spot. It's like you have to go up on top of a ah hill there on that property to get any sort of signal. So um Like if you really want to get away, you can get out there and just really disappear. Nobody can message you or anything. And then like every once in a while, you'll pop up at the top of the hill if you're on a ride or something, and then it'll ding through with all your messages and and whatnot. But and typically I just leave my phone down um at one of the cabins and the kids are off of their their tablets. They're out playing in the mud and and stomping around and being kids. And it's it's definitely one of my favorite things to do. Yeah. What do you mean when you say it's a four, you get a lot of four wheelers? Are you meaning like what we would like call in the UK a motor home? And I think over in the States you call ah a recreational vehicle?
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, four-wheeler is a like an ATV. So you have like dirt bikes, two-wheelers, and then you have four-wheelers. So, yeah, that's an all-terrain vehicle that that you drive around, a little small four-wheel vehicle that is good for trails, climbing hills, going through mud, going through creeks.
00:10:25
Speaker
You just drive them around and have a blast. Act like you're a kid again. So I was completely off the, on the wrong sort of idea with motorhomes and RVs. These are like multi-terrain vehicles.
00:10:40
Speaker
Where it's like any speed you can do to and all strapped in helmets and all that sort of stuff, I suppose. Yes, yes, correct. Wow. Right, so a bit of fun. And then also going off and walking in the hills. It sounds idyllic. And like I said, they're not being contactable by mobile phone.
00:11:00
Speaker
a luxury but it's also I think in some ways a a good business decision to not be contactable by the people on your team all of the time because there comes a point where if they can't contact you they have to deal with whatever is happening they have to assess the situation and make a decision yeah doesn't mean to say that they make the same decision that you made but as long as they make a decision and they can explain why they made that decision in that way, I don't see a problem with it.
Empowering Employees: Decision-Making and Retreats
00:11:35
Speaker
No, because it's really easy to, when somebody's available, to go up and say, solve this problem for me. But that doesn't help either party.
00:11:47
Speaker
All that's doing is middlemanning the job back down. Yes. And so they always say that, you know, if somebody can do a job 80% as good of you, as good as you, let them do it.
00:12:00
Speaker
Because then you can get multiple people doing that. You can have way more output than if you do everything yourself. and And so if you have people and you put them in positions, you've got to trust them to make the right decisions.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yes. it So he told me last week that that was Henry Ford's strategy, was that he wanted to so surround himself with people who knew more about their jobs than he did and then let them get on with it.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's about, it's not, hey, maybe this person is smarter than me in every single field. But if it's your marketing person, I really hope that your marketing person's really versed in marketing and smarter than you in that particular field.
00:12:39
Speaker
you know And then the same for you know operations or whatever it is. you know At my business, you know there's multiple different things that you got to touch on, but you're hoping that these people come in and they do the research and they get the best things and you're just getting an overview of it and you know saying, yeah, that sounds great.
00:12:56
Speaker
And then with these people that you've got on the team, what sort of leisure activities do you organize for them? Um, actually this is, this is one very specific one, but this is really cool. And I would highly recommend it to anyone. I actually, i didn't invent this.
00:13:12
Speaker
It came from a CEO group that I was in and he was very honest and nobody said, I didn't invent this. It came from another group that I was in. And so wherever this came from, we love doing it. We do it every year.
00:13:25
Speaker
So every year winters are slow time, as you can imagine, harder to put on roofs with snow all over them. ah So in February, before the season really kicks off, which it typically kicks off in March and April, we go to a place called Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
00:13:43
Speaker
They have a bunch of log cabins there and they have all sizes of cabins. These cabins have fun stuff in them, ah video games and pool tables and ping pong tables and hot tubs and all this stuff. And we get like a 22 bedroom cabin.
00:13:59
Speaker
no ah And then we have this system and it's a really cool system. It's yeah you're down there for you pick two or three days, depending on how much content you have to go through.
00:14:09
Speaker
Everybody gets down there the night before. We all stay together. So everybody's there and available. We all get to spend time together. And we wake up early in the morning, do like a light workout. We're talking like walk and some jumping jacks, just things to get the blood flowing.
00:14:25
Speaker
We have a cook that makes breakfast for everybody. And then everybody goes and showers and gets cleaned up. Then we do three hours of training on whatever we need to work on that year. And we go through all of that.
00:14:37
Speaker
have a nice lunch that they make for us. And then we go out and do a fun activity. And so we've done kickball, we've done paintball, we've we've rode four wheelers through the mountains of Tennessee. We've done a lot of different stuff, but you go out and have fun for three hours or so.
00:14:54
Speaker
Then you come back, you have dinner, and then you do three more hours of training on whatever you need to train. And then everybody just fellowships for the rest of the night, play some games, hang out, you know, play some cards. And we have a really fun horse racing game that we play. But people really bond that way. And then you wake up and you do it one or two more days. But You're getting six hours of training in that people are really, really into.
00:15:22
Speaker
And it breaks up that six hours with a big sporting event or something fun right in the middle of it. And so they come out on the back end motivated for the year, more knowledgeable on whatever areas that we trained on and needed to work on. And stronger as a team and stronger bonds, it's been something that's been core in this company since we implemented it. We're doing our sixth year this year. That sounds like a really interesting idea to actually not just to spend all day in training, but to break it up so that your brain doesn't get overloaded in one mode and you are, this is physical activity, then we're doing some training, then some physical activity training. It's
00:16:08
Speaker
It sounds like a very balanced couple of days in that in that sort of respect. It is. It is. It works really well. That three hours that you do each time is just enough to where people aren't getting stir crazy.
00:16:21
Speaker
And you know you got some breaks, 15-minute breaks and and whatnot in there. But it is the perfect amount of training and fun and relationship building.
00:16:32
Speaker
And I recommend, highly, highly recommend on any capacity for somebody to do something like that. But I think the key is... going somewhere and it's somewhere drivable. So I'm not buying a bunch of plane tickets. It's four hours from us.
00:16:47
Speaker
Everybody can drive there. We have people carpool, give them gas cards, and then we take care of everything while we're there. But everybody's staying in the home together. We know that they're going to be there.
00:17:00
Speaker
Nobody's going to sleep in. Nobody's going to have a problem where they can't show up or a family issue or a car breakdown. And so everybody's there every single time in it and it works out amazing.
00:17:12
Speaker
Sounds like very useful from a business perspective. but also a great deal of fun for people as well. It is. It is. We made a ah running trophy for kickball every year. So we have this plaque and we put the winners on it every year. So you get bragging rights and everything. It's fun. We all get a matching shirts. So like one day we'll we'll wear black indie roof shirts um that has say like our saying for for the year. And then the next day we'll have white. So everybody's matching. We get good photos for social media. We get a ton of training. Everybody has fun. There's literally no downside.
00:17:51
Speaker
Brilliant. Brilliant.
Exploring 'Work Hard, Play Harder' Podcast
00:17:53
Speaker
And then, of course, you are a podcaster as well, aren't you? ah Yeah, we we started doing a podcast for for fun.
00:18:02
Speaker
Um, and we've had a lot of good people that came on and wanted to share knowledge and information. um I'm, I'm the type of guy that I'm not insanely serious all the time. I try to be, I try to be fun and and let go. And, you know, I realized we only have one life on this planet and I want to, want to enjoy it no matter what you believe, uh, religious or not, you have one life here and, uh, you want to make the best of it. So you don't want to be, you know,
00:18:31
Speaker
working all the time. You know, you don't want to be serious all the time. You got to enjoy your life. And so we thought it appropriate that work hard, play harder was was a good title for that. And, you know, we we don't have a set one where we come out every Wednesday or anything like that. We do it when it fits. the time appropriate for us and when it's convenient, when we get a good guest that we think can share valuable information. But it's something that I really enjoy doing. So sometimes I come on podcasts like yours and get to share information as opposed to like what you're doing and asking all of the information. So it's it's fun for me both ways.
00:19:13
Speaker
That's true. It's true. But the podcast is called Work Hard, Play Harder. And you've been doing it for how long? ah We've been doing it, probably had our first one about a year and a half ago. Okay.
00:19:27
Speaker
And what type of guests are you getting? um We just try to talk about things. It's kind of reflects back on like whatever I have going in my life that I find something that's like, hey, this was really useful information.
00:19:42
Speaker
Sometimes it's just me and my COO talking about stuff. Sometimes we bring a guest in. um As an example, we were talking about tax avoidance a little while ago and how you know some of these very wealthy people minimize taxes through real estate and things and it was getting close to tax season and I was talking about i was like, you know what, this would be a really good episode. So yeah we had somebody come in and talked about investing in in real estate and multifamily properties to get advanced depreciation and save money and then own properties and build wealth in the future where you can retire and not worry.
00:20:26
Speaker
Yes, it's very important. We forget the reason why we work. very short term in the reasons why we work but before we talk about that should explain there are two sorts of things that happen with tax one is called tax avoidance and one is called tax evasion tax avoidance is perfectly legal it is encouraged by virtually every government around the world it means that you are more likely to be paying the right amount of tax and you have your tax affairs and financial affairs organised so that you are
00:20:59
Speaker
not going to become a burden on the state because you don't win out of money it's about making sure that you have all of your finances in order including your tax tax evasion is bad it's silly yes 100 i like you as it yeah it it means that you are doing something to purposefully evade your responsibilities and when you talk about you know we have one life and It's up to us to make the best use of that.
Navigating Tax Strategies for Growth
00:21:30
Speaker
ah You know, I always, when I started my business, know, you have that period where you're wondering, like, what bills am I going to be able to pay? And all this stuff in your scrimping is saving to make sure that every one of your suppliers gets paid before you pay yourself, because that's the right thing to do.
00:21:47
Speaker
And then people that work for you, they get paid as well before you pay yourself. But for me, it was like, I want to be able to pay the tax man. I want the tax man to want money off me. Because he the tax man or the tax person, shall we say, is only going to want money from me after I've made it.
00:22:06
Speaker
They don't come looking for money that you haven't made. correct So if if you've made it, my view is like, I always enjoy. hope nobody from the Inline Revenue is listening. But I like the, when you're an employee, it's not the same. I know because you're getting your regular monthly income.
00:22:25
Speaker
and people take tax and in the UK National Insurance and things offered as well but when you are self-employed you're running a business having the money and knowing that the tax man is going to want some is just a really nice thought that yeah I have some I am going to pay some tax and I might be a bit weird in it but I think it's it's a the great point in the evolution of anyone's business when you are paying more tax. Well, I tell you, i don't know about a higher percent, but it's nice when you go, hey, after all of my, mind you, for for your, uh,
00:23:04
Speaker
how you prompted it, you're very legal and correct write-offs. ah yeah Once that's done, i want to pay as much taxes as possible because that means I profited lot more. Yes. Right? So yeah if I'm paying no taxes um and I'm doing everything the right way, it probably means I didn't make a ton of money.
00:23:25
Speaker
That is true. If I have all my proper write-offs and I got everything correct, ah you know, and I still have taxes and a lot of taxes, that means I made a lot of money. So that's a positive in my eyes. but I don't think anybody wants to pay more than they have to.
00:23:43
Speaker
No, no, not at all. It's a balance and everything. But we are all part of the same community and we all have responsibilities, I think, to pay into it according to our means so that yeah everyone can be better.
00:23:59
Speaker
Every time that I have a guest on one of the podcasts that I've received to produce, I learn so much from the guest. And I'm learning from you as well.
00:24:09
Speaker
But I'm wondering, what have been the big lessons that you've learned from the guests that you've had
Learning from Leadership: Insights from the COO
00:24:15
Speaker
on? You know, hey i' it's funny that you say that. I am just like you. Like every time I talk to somebody of, you know, of any really, I don't even want to say of a higher caliber, really, if anything, um you typically can have a takeaway of some sort.
00:24:33
Speaker
um So I've had ah I've had a lot of different people on. We did quite a few episodes on leadership, which I think has helped me along the way. my co My co-host I probably learned the most from, which is Adam Kaminsky.
00:24:51
Speaker
He is our COO. He he was actually ah the youngest junior partner ever at a company called Defenders, which ended up selling to ADT for $640 million. dollars Very, very smart individual that led thousands of people.
00:25:10
Speaker
And just getting the basis and premises of how he approaches leadership um has been a game changer and helped me a lot in in my role in leadership. Now, what you've just said there, if I listen to it with my ah HR professionals hat on is like fantastic because what you've actually said there is that you are learning from one of the people that works for you.
00:25:37
Speaker
Correct. And there are a huge number of managers, business owners who would never think that that is something that they could do because they're the boss.
00:25:49
Speaker
They're supposed to know all the answers. Yeah. So they wouldn't think that one of their employees is going to be able to give them an insight which is going to change their perspective on something or something that they are going to learn from.
00:26:02
Speaker
I would say to those people, if you don't have anybody that challenges you and can bring new ideas, that you probably need to look at some other people in that position. um I left my ego at the door. I am, I am good at sales and marketing.
00:26:21
Speaker
you know, I'm good at relationships. Uh, but I came from a family business where I did sales and marketing for 16 years before I ever started my own business. I didn't have a single subordinate.
00:26:33
Speaker
I didn't have anybody that worked for me. Uh, I just did my own thing and made sales and, and traveled the country and helped people out. And, uh, So bringing on, you know, as I grew, it started just me with the business. And then as it grew, like, you bring people on, you bring people on. And now you're looking at 30 something employees.
00:26:54
Speaker
there's absolutely people that have had, you know, a lot more training that have invested a huge chunk of their life to being good leaders. And Adam Kaminsky was one of those. So to be able to have that caliber of a person to work hand in hand with every day and challenge me, not a yes man, but to truly challenge ideas and thought processes ah was a blessing. And absolutely, I learned stuff almost every day.
00:27:20
Speaker
Brilliant. Aaron, it has been fascinating. Listening to you, I've learned a lot as well from today, and I'm going to check out those four wheelers. Find somewhere in the UK where I can have a go on those. but You'll love it.
00:27:34
Speaker
I've really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Thanks. This is a fun combo. Thank you. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida.
00:27:45
Speaker
In this episode of Rest and Recreation, I have been having a conversation with Aaron Christie from Indie roofs and restoration. You can find out more about both of us by using the links in the description.
00:27:59
Speaker
Before you get into any new activity, it is a good idea to make sure that you are fit enough to undertake that activity. That is why we recommend the health tests from York test, especially the annual health assessment.
Episode Conclusion and Final Thoughts
00:28:13
Speaker
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00:28:25
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00:28:40
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00:28:55
Speaker
There is a link and a discount code in the description. I am sure you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Rest and Recreation as much as Aaron and I have enjoyed making it.
00:29:06
Speaker
So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere. To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abucida is not to to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:29:23
Speaker
Until the next episode of Rest and Recreation, thank you for listening and goodbye.