Steve Adjemian was a tax consultant who dreaded the smell of the office hallway every Monday morning. Newly engaged, with a stepdaughter and a house down payment he couldn’t see how to save, he found himself praying on the edge of his bed for a new start. Minutes later his phone rang. It was his friend Jeremy, who owned a roofing company and wanted a business partner.
Steve quit his job the next day knowing nothing about roofing — “I’m like, those are shingles” — and sold his first roof to his mother-in-law. When he saw what a single roof earned, he recruited buddies from the tax firm to set appointments on weekends, closed every one, and sold nearly 100 roofs in six months. In August 2020, right as COVID hit, he took the systems, processes, and people he’d built and launched Red Rock Roofing. Within a year it was one of the fastest companies to reach Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor status, and two years later it was named regional MVP on the national stage.
In this episode of Trade School Millionaires, host Marty Lenz tours Red Rock’s Denver-area headquarters and climbs onto a job site with Steve to hear how a guy with “pretty boy hair” and no trade background built a company that now supports roughly 100 families — about 64 laborers and 15 to 16 office and sales staff — with crews who have stayed with him for more than a decade.
Steve breaks down what separates Red Rock in a crowded, trust-sensitive industry: nearly 700 five-star reviews, a sales approach built on education instead of pressure (“we never want to say ‘are you ready to sign?’ — we want people to say ‘where do I sign?’”), and a refusal to be storm-dependent. While competitors chase hail and go quiet when it doesn’t come, Steve keeps a right-sized team and doubles down on radio and TV advertising when everyone else pulls out — the same logic as buying when the market dips. Denver hasn’t seen hail in two years, and Red Rock has held steady.
He also talks about the Christmas sleigh ride at Devil’s Thumb Ranch where he realized the business was really about kids’ college funds and family livelihoods; why his “ministry” is turning young men into leaders and homeowners; the one area he admits he’s weak on (sales metrics); and his advice to young people weighing college debt against a trade with no ceiling, where good crews earn $30 to $70 an hour and sales reps can out-earn doctors.
His first piece of advice for anyone who wants to follow his path: be a good person and do the right thing, because people have to be willing to follow you.
Trade School Millionaires highlights successful entrepreneurs who built businesses on a trade-school foundation. If you’re in the trades and aspire to ownership, we’d love to tell your story.