Welcome to the Painter Marketing Mastermind Podcast. The show created to help painting company owners build a thriving painting business that does well over one million and annual revenue. I’m your host, Brandon Pierpont, founder of Painter Marketing Pros and creator of the popular PCA educational series, Learn, Do, Grow Marketing for Painters. In each episode, I’ll be sharing proven tips, strategies and processes from leading experts in the industry on how they found success in their painting business. We will be interviewing owners of the most successful painting companies in north America and learning from their experiences.

In this series titled Mindset Matters Most, Juan Vasquez of illusions painting will be discussing his journey from being a day to day painting contractor to becoming a profitable business owner with a vision for his company. In episode one, Juan discussed his past life, how his business used to look. In episode two, Juan shared the experience that opened his eyes and changed his life. And what happened next? In episode three, Juan deep dove into all the transitions necessary for his business after his mindset changed. In episode four, Juan opened up the hood and detailed what illusion’s painting looks like today.

And in episode five, the final episode and this episode quant will lay out his thoughts regarding lack of self-confidence and stereotypes and the many initiatives he is currently conducting to help lift up other contractors. If you wanna ask Juan questions related to anything in this podcast series, you can do so in our exclusive Pain and Marketing mastermind podcast for on Facebook. Just search for Pain and marketing mastermind podcast form on Facebook and request to join the group or type in the URL facebook dot com forward slash groups forward slash pain.

Marketing mastermind. Again, that URL is facebook dot com forward slash groups forward slash painter. Marketing mastermind. There, you can ask Juan questions directly by tagging him with your question. So you can see how anything discussed here applies to your particular painting company. What’s up, man? Hey, what’s up Brandon? Good to be here again, man. Episode here we are twice, twice in one week, man. Let’s do this in one week. It’s all been building to this. This is the most important 10 God, man. You know, I we were just talking out, you know, just before this and uh it is amazing to just look at the things that I got myself into and I’m like, ok, uh what am I doing?

Right? What are you doing, Juan? But um you know, thank you again for having me here, man, really appreciate this. Um It is uh it is an honor, you know, to kinda share a little bit of, you know, what the journey has been. Um Trust me, it hasn’t been easy and I know there’s a lot of painters out there who can relate, you know. Um So basically, uh you know, we talked about the things that we’re working on our company um program systems, uh you know, Cr MS that you name it and all of this is to improve the functioning of the, of the company.

And what that does it alleviates us from being there every day. Like Jason says, you know, contractor prison, right? Yep. Yep. So, um you know, sometimes we don’t realize but we are a prisoner of our not company of our job. And so if we don’t take the time to really look into it and do something about it, it just day after day goes and then you, you never get out of there and the more time it passes the worse. I mean, the tougher it is to get out of it because you have to undo all these bad habits.

Um So again, guys look up to do uh systems. I mean, there’s a great um a network out there of just amazing people who are willing to help, you know, Facebook uh groups, uh mentors. I mean, you name it podcast that really we can just pick up one thing. So before we move forward, uh please um look into that. Um it has changed our lives, our eu painting, it has changed my life as Juan Vasquez. So um highly recommend that. Yeah, man, getting, getting into Friday today, we getting right into it, man.

It’s gonna be a Deep Friday. Let’s Juan if it’s ok with you. So the the stuff that the stuff that you laid out, the, the getting trapped in the business, right? I, I think a lot of painting company owners can empathize with that and relate to that. I wanna, I wanna back up and kind of focus on you again for a second. So your journey, right? You had talked about coming to, to the this country. I think when you were, you were in your 12, yeah, 12 years old. 12.

Um The reason you came, the opportunities that you felt were here, kind of the experience was maybe a little more jarring or, or difficult or different from what you had expected. Uh You felt out of place for a long time. Can we just get into the insecurities? Uh Potentially some stereotypes that you dealt with uh kind of your journey because I think it’ll be a really nice transition to what you’re trying to do to help other people. Uh Yeah, man. So um I think that a lot of people can relate to my story.

I mean, special and not, not, not Mexicans, you know, but in general, I think anyone who has come to this country um in my case, I was 303 years old. I was just completely fine where I was, you know, my friends school, but my parents have migrated here and they wanted to have the family together and to have a better future, you know, since some of our countries, uh, you know, things are a little tougher. So our parents kind of moved in search of a better future for us.

So that’s what happened to us. Uh My parent, my parents bought myself and my three younger sisters um here in 92. And so, you know, just coming from a different country, the language, the culture, I remember going to school and I went to school in a very, in a very nice, you know, neighborhood. And so it was like a little group of uh I think it was might have been like 10, 12 students in the whole middle school. And uh yeah, so we were like, it was a very tiny, this is 22.

So, you know, this is kind of like closer to the dinosaurs man. My daughter will say that that is, but um it was so interesting because I didn’t even think about it much until now. And so it was this group around 22 kids that just kind of, we all knew each other because we were all hung out together because we couldn’t speak to anyone else. So it was just a little group that was learning uh ESL the Spanish you know, Spanish or Spanish speaking uh language. And it was so interesting because at that point, you know, as a kid, like you’re, it’s already hard to go to school.

I see it with my teenage daughter. But at that point, you know, the culture, the language like you, you know, at that point I felt that I was looked at different. Um, but, you know, it, we went through it. Um I’ve learned a lot. Um, I had some really good friends and I officially went to school only four years here. So I went for my ninth, no, seventh grade to 229 to 245. No, 22018, 22018. Yeah. So, and then I, I got into some, well, my girlfriend got pregnant. I was 13 years old.

And um the choice was whether I work and, and go to school. My parents didn’t really have the need, the means I could have gone to school and do and work at the same time, but actually chose to drop out of school. And, um, we had just started our, our junior year so I dropped out of school and then, um, you know, I worked in a couple of different restaurants and then my, my neighbor, painter actually uh was a painter and he’s the one that introduced me into painting.

So, you know, six, so 21, 225 years old when I got, when I started in uh the painting business and it was out of necessity. So at that point it was more like, hey, I just need a check. I wanna have a kid and go on, you know. So, never thought that at some point this was gonna be a career for me or something that I was. You never graduated from high school? No. Now you’re running a multimillion dollar company. Well, that’s kind of neat one. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it is interesting, you know.

And, uh, yeah, so, and I know a lot of people I’ve met a lot of people like that and I think that, um, really running into someone who’s done this before, it kind of gives you the little confidence that you need. You’re like, oh, shoot, like, yeah, like he did it or she did it and she didn’t have this. And so I guess that really, um, helped out i glass ceiling just kind of passing through it. Exactly. And I’ve always been a go-getter. I always get into issues because I just don’t know when to say no, you know, we can.

No, man. You know. Uh, I honestly thank you Brandon because doing this series really got me to start thinking and making notes that I haven’t done in a while. Like, we just, we’re, we’re in the moment and we’re in the future that we kind of, I kind of put my past and I didn’t think much about, about it but I actually found one of my old school, um, you know, in high school they make you do this, uh, like, uh your portfolio and to start looking for a job.

So I looked into that. I got all my certificates and I was, I was, I can’t, I couldn’t believe it was an honor roll student. I was like, whoa, you know, I was kind of cool. It was cool. So, um, so, yeah, you know, and now just to think where everything is going, it actually really motivates you to push because we get to a little plateau. We’re like, yeah, we’re good, we’re confident. And I always say that I have achieved more than I’ve ever thought in my life.

And that might sometimes set you like to just kind of slow down which we need sometimes. But um but I think I’m more, more encouraged than ever to see what’s next. I love it, man. I know in the last episode, we talked about the future of illusions painting and there are some very, very, very big initiatives that you’re currently under undertaking or looking to undertake. So I’m super excited to see your progress over the next couple of years. Yeah, the ball, you know, um I think so.

I think that um everything like we mentioned a lot of the things we’ve been doing um personally and in the business has been to for the future, you know, to grow. And um we feel as we spoke, I feel that most of the things that we started doing a couple of years ago. Now they’re getting implemented and now we’re gonna see that excitement of that growth and not just the, where we were for quite some time. So that’s interesting to see. Um, but we’ll talk about, I made a little list of, uh, initiative things here that, uh, well, you know, the first couple, the first couple of them, I was not prepared.

Let me tell you, I was like, I think it worked out better because we got on memory lane and really let it go where it went. Probably. Yeah, probably. Yeah. But then I was all over the place and I’m like, you know what? You know, and I can’t, I don’t know about you. Can you listen to your episodes? I never, ever, ever, ever, ever listen and people might, I’ve listened, I think I listened once and it, I just get uncomfortable listening. I think I didn’t do a good job.

I’m like, man, I don’t know why people listen to this. I, I’m, I don’t, uh, and I’m like, you know what, I’m gonna turn it off and just kind of tune it out and then just keep doing the best I can. I, um, I’m in the same boat. Yeah. It’s weird. We get so self conscious when we listen to ourselves, we think everyone else sounds better and it comes back to sort of some of what we’re covering today. The, the lack of self-confidence or stereotype. We, we all struggle from it.

You know, even people who, who are perceived as maybe doing very well or very successful. Everybody has insecurities that they struggle with. And it’s important for people to, to recognize that we got to ask, uh, Jason and Nick and see if they ever listen to their episodes. Well, they’re superman. So they probably listen to all we mere mortals. We’re mere mortals. Oh, jeez. Um So I mean, the only reason why I ask is because I got, I, I’ve gotten to the point where I, I need to listen to a couple of things and, and relieving certain things and hearing me, I’m like, you should do this, you should do that like it questions yourself.

So what got me to that is that, that got me to making my notes. I’m like, you know what, you need to make some notes and you need to focus. So, man, I mean, if we’re gonna talk about the things that are moving forward, uh things that we got going, um I guess we started about five years ago with PC A, you know, uh first time I went to, we went, I went to the PC A with uh Jose, my business partner. Um It just changed our mind.

It changed the way we saw the business, we, the way we viewed. I mean, even our lives, you know, as a contractor. And so it started there because um we saw that there was a way for us to do something more. There was a way I’ve always had the, the, the intentions of like building something like taking, taking it to the next level did not know how. But thanks to the PC A really got to the point. I’m like, so I used to always say, I’m like, oh, I wanna do this and we’re gonna do this.

And I used to tell the girls here in the office, I’m like, I don’t know how, but we’re gonna do it. And that was it. It was a candy attitude, man is huge. Yeah, like a candy. That’s where it starts, right? We’re gonna get into the, the specifics you learned. But I think it’s important people recognize that’s where it starts to believe in yourself and you don’t know how you don’t know if you have the resources. You, you’re not sure you’ve never done something like that before, but you’re going to figure out a way that’s, that’s the crucial component.

That is true. And for a while it went like that, it was like, we’re gonna do this. I don’t know how, but we’re gonna do it and they will be like, man, you’re crazy, you’re crazy. And now it’s gotten to the point where like, this is what we’re doing. And I’m like, and I always say I know exactly what we need to do and this is how we’re gonna do. And they look at me, they don’t look at me with that weird look anymore. They’re like, ok, uh, if we, if we waited this long and think, ok, I think you got it now.

So you won, you won their trust. II I think so. I like to think so. So fast forward four years into the PC A. Um, you know, we’re always trying to see what we can, where, where, what else can we do? Not just show up to the PC A, not just like, oh, we went and whatever we pardon? No, we, we showed up to the events always trying to see what we can help with. And it’s very interesting when, when you help, when you truly care and, and, and donate and bring your time, great things come to you.

You know, I, I’ve seen people that, that they want to see the results but they, but they want, they have that funnel, you know, uh way of things. It’s like I have the bigger side and I’ll let out whatever I can, but everything is for my advantage and every time you do that, I realize that that doesn’t work that way. So we really, I really like to be open and get myself into whatever I can get to sometimes kind of ulterior motives to everything that you do. Exactly.

I got it. OK. Yeah. So for, for example, you know, when we got into the PC A S like I will always volunteer. I, I can help. I can help and they’ll look at me like, oh, you again, you again, you know, but I’ll say I can help, I can help. And so that led us to about a year and a half ago. Um, I know a little over a year, not probably like a year. Um, Julie, uh, Julie Eaton, she was part of the PC A. Um, and, uh, you know, we’ve met in uh at a presentation that um what’s his name?

Uh Nick had down in Southern California. And uh we were talking about the Hispanic, you know, community and what we can do for the Hispanic community and an initiative. And I kept saying, I’m like, Julie, if I can help, I can help, I can help. And one day she calls me, it’s like, OK, I need your help. And so, so last year we started doing um the, well, we became part of the uh speaking, the speaker bureau board for the PC A. And uh that led us to create a small presentation that basically just talks about ourselves, like mainly myself and, and Jose is included in there and how we’ve been able to, you know, convert our business into what it is now and what we’re using and what we’re doing.

So what we do is mainly Cheron William puts this event and we go speak on mainly like small businesses, mainly Hispanic businesses and what really helped is for them to get encouraged, you know, to say, oh, yeah, there are ways out there, especially in Spanish. So, that’s my, that, that’s how that thing started. Um, Julie asked me to do one in North Carolina and I was ok, one is fine and she’s like, oh, can we do one more? We ended up doing 22017 last year. So you can only imagine, you know, it puts a lot of strain in your business, your family, you have to travel almost every other weekend.

And uh um it, it was tough but, you know, one thing that we really learned in our business was that we need to help. We cannot be doing this just traveling anywhere and not having the proper um uh proper person in place. It kind of you being forced to be absent, expose some weaknesses in your business. Exactly. And thanks to that, we were able to alleviate that. And now, I mean, it’s still hard to leave, but it’s easier. So that’s one of the first things that, that we did that I did is, uh, you know, they, they put me into the, his, his, you know, speaking bureau uh for the PC A which has been awesome.

Um I get to meet you. I got to meet Chris Moore. Um I mean, just I’m like a little uh sponge, you know, I’m just absorbing sob and I’m like, I remember Brandon said this, I remember Chris did this and, you know, but it, it helps you so much that we don’t really understand how much it helps us. So that was the first part. Um And then the other one, our podcast uh sp so after going to different States, uh we got to few different painters, especially in Spanish.

And one of the things was like, they don’t, they’re very um they didn’t, they don’t know much about social media. They’re not really connected other than the work for them, they’re still at the job site thinking like, no, I need to be busy and I don’t have time for anything else. Yeah. And uh at that point, I was like, you know, we’re on Instagram, we, we’re on Facebook, we’re communicate with uh most of the people we met in the, at the PC A just via um social media and most has a lot of good friends that we have nowadays we’ve met through social media.

And so we kind of explain that to them and like, how can we get this to more people? And so one day we’re like, why don’t we create a podcast and Spanish? So Jose came out with the name of, you know, which I was like, that’s awesome. You know, it’s just so easy. Yeah. But what we’ve been doing that, we’re 16 episodes right now and we’re just closing in our first season. Um I was just telling you about how hard it is to listen to yourself. Uh So what’s coming up is we wanna take those, those 16 episodes and, and, and do a recap what we’ve learned and what we share and um I think that will be very great for everyone and even for us.

So now when we start our new season, we want to actually get a nice mic and maybe nice, nicer setup, not like our computer and our hair bots, but um put a little more work into it, you know, so that’s our goal. I mean, it works, it works, right? It’s not a bad set up minimum viable product, you guys, I would say, well beyond that. So then as you, as you become world famous one, you know, you actually upgrade as it goes. I, I listen to, I, I think I’ve mentioned him, I know I’ve mentioned him on other series.

I like Alex from Mo a lot. He has a, a podcast called The Game. He founded Jim Launch. He’s a, a very successful entrepreneur, but I, I go back and I listen to some of his earlier podcast and it’s, it’s very clearly a different quality in a sort of a negative sense from his current podcast, right? And 11 lesson a mentor had taught me a long time ago was if you’re not embarrassed by what you’re putting out or what you’re doing a year ago, then you’re not moving fast enough.

So I kind of keep that in mind like whatever I’m doing today I should be embarrassed by, by this right now, a year from now or else I haven’t advanced enough. Ok? I, that’s a very good way to put it right because it also gives you permission to not be perfect because it’s ok, you’re gonna continue to improve what I wanna be. Perfect. We all, we all wanna be perfect, man. It’s just, it doesn’t seem achievable for whatever reason. Yeah. So those, that’s, that’s 22 pieces of what’s going on right now.

Um So we go out to Albuquerque or even before that I get a call and I asked if I was asked if I wanted to, you know, you know, be a director or they were uh nominated me to be a de direct uh director for the um for the PC A P PC A board. And I was like, uh you know, that’s such a, it’s such an honor. Um I don’t know how to put it. Um I guess for some people this is more like uh whatever, you know, I, I have my business, I have my things going on.

I don’t need um the acknowledgement or, or any of that stuff. But I really believe that this, you know, the PC A has really, really been part of not just the PC A but everyone involved around it, everything that we’ve done around it to the success of our business and the growth of myself to being able to, you know, really flourish and, and, and move forward, that being part of that has really, um given me saying like, you know, this is your time, like this is your time to grow, this is your time to get back.

What are you gonna do with this? And so it challenges you and so that I think has been one of the biggest um more significant things for myself. It’s um I don’t know how and, you know, maybe I can be part of the Spanish, you know, community or anything but whatever that was, I was placed in this, this situation. So now I got, I, I feel the pressure that I gotta do more and really, you know, really deliver. And so that’s, that’s a tough one there. I love it, but it’s a, it’s a tough commitment.

You keep, you keep pushing yourself and like you said, some people might, you know, I think the, the PC has a great board of directors but some people promoted to positions like that might sort of take it for granted. OK? I’ll go and, you know, if people ask my input, I’ll give it and make the whatever vote I need to make and whatever. But you take your roles very seriously. This isn’t something that you’re doing lightheartedly, which is why you’re doing so many extra things. It’s a passion for you.

It’s a passion to empower people. It’s what this whole series is. About, it’s what we’re talking about today, empower people who have struggled or maybe who are encounter, encountering obstacles similar to the ones that you have encountered in your life and how can you help them? It, so that’s a big responsibility to, to actually try to do that effectively. I think so. And we go back to the same point of like, how were you not? I mean, I didn’t think that I would do anything like this.

So now that I do everything that we’ve done the last few years is to have the freedom to be able to do this, the freedom to sit down here and have, you know, an hour to chat with you and have another hour to chat with someone else over a zoom call. Take about two hours of your time, Juan between the before and after. You just keep extending the time that you set, you know, but the fact that you can, you can move your business to that, that point.

It’s, it’s really that reward because otherwise if you’re out there working and, and this is going back to, to reinsure how important it is to keep growing, to keep evolving as yourself because now the business is running because it’s a, the business is actually a reflection of us. I mean, I, I keep hearing that a lot in the books, you know. Uh and it is true. It’s crazy, crazy. It’s crazy, right. Who would have thought about what you talking about. So, if the business has issues, it, it is no reflection whatsoever of, of the way that the owner approaches it or their personal life.

That’s what I used to think. It’s just easier to take a look in the mirror and be like, all right, we need to make some changes. No, no, I’m telling you, like, listening to your episodes. That’s, that’s like, oh, that’s horrible. Harmful. Well, one day I’m gonna be like, so, um, so being part of the board, you know, is the first year I got to experience uh different looking at, looking at it from a different perspective than I’ve seen at this point. Um, you know, many years and now feeling that responsibility actually, I was, uh you know, brought out to, to help with the, uh this is something that we kind of started with uh Julie.

Um and it was mainly just um a Facebook group that honestly we need to put more time into it too. But um, it’s, it’s a place where, you know, we can bring more awareness, you know, uh more announcements, more just information, information in general. And so we started that and then now as we were just talking about the PC A is gonna have its own uh you know, session in Spanish if you want to call it. So, a little mini expo in Spanish, right? So I think if you, if you look at my track here.

I mean, I want to advocate for the Hispanic community, you know, but at the same time, I really don’t believe in a single singling ourselves out because we are a whole group of painters, you know, you know, businesses and it doesn’t matter what your IGN is, it’s like, it’s, it’s, is a passion we have for what we do for the industry, for growing our business, for being a better, you know, leader for being a better father. So that’s what it comes down to. And so in our podcast, we, as much as we want to just be in Spanish, we have Spanish English uh you know, episodes.

Uh and we have full English for Spanish. Uh we’re gonna work on bringing some subtitles, we’re working on that is, it’s not as easy as we thought it would be. Yeah. So it was challenging. Yeah. And so that brings us to the PC A. Um uh what do we call it? Like? We’re still kind of, we’re still working, we’re still working on the, the actual official name. So it’s like the, yeah, the, the mini Spanish Expo, but that probably should have a little bit more of an official title.

It’s this for people listening because this is gonna come out well in advance of it, it’s in Orlando, it’s gonna be a September 29th will be there. I am and I do the best that I can with the Spanish presentation. Brandon, Brandon Brandon. Hey, you got it. You said that way? I’m sent us. We’re clear. Yeah. No, no worries. Yeah. So, imagine putting this together, you know. So that’s, uh, that’s, I’m just part of it. I’m, I’m just, you know, along here for the ride. But, um, that’s basically if you realize this is all that we’ve been doing.

Um, you know, I also, um, you know, Sherron Williams, uh, I’ve met a couple great people from Sherwin and they’ve been very, um I guess something that we don’t realize as painters is that there’s a lot of resources um depending on what state you’re in. Um you’ll have different dominant on, right on uh on uh vendors that you have. So in our area, we have Kelly Moore, Sean Williams and Benjamin Moore. So Kelly Moore, I’ve worked with, it’s a smaller kind of west coast uh uh painting company, but I’ve worked with them for so many years, you know, but they, they don’t have any resources like other than selling you paint, they don’t, they don’t try to educate you, they don’t try to, you know, do more than that part.

Uh Benjamin Moore, uh I probably, you know, I buy probably 80% you know, probably about 2018% of my material from them, but they don’t, I don’t really see them and maybe I’m kinda getting a little too deep into this, but I don’t really see them as a company helping the painter or like bringing more education to the painter, like, like educating you more on why you should be, you know, being more profitable and doing certain things. Um after, after being in the PC A I, you know, I met quite a few people from Sharon Williams and one of the things that I found out about Sharon Williams is all the resources they have and they don’t really cost us money, you know.

Yeah, they want us as a, as, as a uh as a customer. But at the same time, it’s great that they’re bringing value to us. It’s like us and my company bringing value to my painters, you know, lead us value. Exactly. And I think that they have a lot of resources that a lot of us painters don’t know about and they’re free. So even those little things can really help us, you know, later on in our businesses. But what I’m getting at is that uh now understanding all those things that, that Sean Williams has.

Um thanks to the PC eight, I’ve been able to um be in conferences where we talk about how our businesses have been able to succeed. Now, we created a bit uh a more uh we’re creating a relationship with Sharon Williams in our personal, like in our town. And what’s great is that we used to struggle to find resources or like to struggle to find certain things and have to call so many people. Now we established this uh relationship and what it does, it brings these persons closer to us in a very quick and, and very responsive, like very quick manner.

So as a business find on finding those resources really help you. So because of that, like, um I, I have participated in a couple of their advisory boards, like, what are painters need, what, what are our demands? What are certain things? And um why I’m saying this is because in my area, I’ve tried to kind of do like a gathering or, or trying to do something to come closer to the, to the painting community and everybody really just doesn’t want to be part of it. And um it’s hard to grow when you don’t take the time to look at the resources get out of, you know, you know, it’s not just about putting the paint, the, the brush down, but understanding that you gotta go out there and, and, and find new resources now work, learn from, learn from other people who are maybe farther along than you learn from people who are a similar spot than you.

They’re still gonna be able to teach you things and on the network with the, you know, the resources like Sherwin Williams or Sherwin Williams rep, you know, that, that can provide you help, I guess, can we, can we dive into people listening and they say, yeah, I want to do this but I don’t know how to do it, should they go talk to their rep, should they, what, what would their approach be? So, um, I think same as the PC A with Sharon Williams, there’s, there’s still not a lot of, there’s still not a lot of information at the local, at the local level.

It’s more when you, you know, you get to the corporate side. Um, we being part of the PC A and we meeting a, a couple of the people who are higher up can, can get to those, those um resources faster. Uh We’re actually working in our area with one of the, with one of the managers in the area to bring sales reps to uh like kind of like a gathering and explain to them why is it that us painters need, what are we asking of them? So they can actually be so they can actually provide this.

So what I can tell everyone is like, go talk to your sales rep, like, believe it or not tell them and just say, hey, you know, listen to this or follow this podcast or just try to help them because sometimes we need to push for that. We need to ask for what, you know, for certain things, but they may not, they have the resources, but we realize that even our sales reps and our local communities don’t even know about it. Um So, um there’s a lot of work that needs to be done there to spread it out more.

Uh, I know they have a podcast. I know that there’s a lot of information at PC A. So anyone that wants to do these kind of things, just, just go to the PC A, you know, um, website and learn from all these, uh, resources we have. I mean, I mean, they’re all free, I mean, not all free but there’s a lot of free stuff on there. There’s PC, a overdrive. If you go to PC A paint ed dot org, PC A painted dot org, then you can go to the PC A S website and you can look at everything they have there.

You can become a member, uh, for $500 a year in investment that is extremely, extremely well worth it because you’ll get access to a lot more resources. But either way there are a lot of free resources that you can access today. So just finishing up here with the Sherron Williams part. Um, I’m only bringing this out because, um, I think what we’ve learned and, and we’re doing this with many other companies. Uh, the providers that we’re working with is we are learning to create a relationship with them.

You know, I just don’t want to just buy paint or material from them, but, you know, work with them and, and, and, and have that understand that we’re both valuable to each other, but that comes from us, you know, that comes from us, bringing the value out of our company and taking the time to be a resource to them too because that’s how we can help each other. And um I’m only bringing this up because this is really another thing that is other than painting that really, really as a business owner you have to do in order to grow your business so bright. Yeah.

So you’re on, you know, you’re on advisory board, you’re ex exceptional, right? You’re an outlier here. You’re on the P A board of directors, you’re, you’re on the Shawn Williams Advisory Board. You’re very, you’re on this, the P A um bureau of speakers traveling around. What can someone who’s listening to this, who maybe isn’t on all those things or, or maybe doesn’t even necessarily want to be on all those things. What can they do as you’re saying, to bring value to Sherwin Williams without having to maybe try to do all that.

Um I think the best way um I’ve, like I said, um so the board that we, so that let me rephrase this when we go and, and, and have one of these talks is uh Sharon Williams puts an event and they’re the pretty much the only, probably all the, mainly the ones that put these events and one of them is, is a pro show where they have all their uh equipment and, and people talking about their um you know, like work and stuff, but then they have usually they have a speaker and lately they’ve been putting more of those in Spanish.

So that’s where normally I end up going. Um And then they also, they also, they also have a, um what’s it called, Interior Repaint conference. And so they, they talk about all the resources they have, how the material work, they have an app that as a painter, it’s really helpful, you know. So, um the first thing that, that we can do is this, I’ve been to these events and the problem is that we have one, I’ve had an occasion where only one painter showed up, put this in perspective that it doesn’t matter who it is.

It could be the PC A to Sean Williams to whoever. It’s pretty, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty, they’re spending money to put this event together. You know, they have food, they have speakers, they have, you know, they have to get the venue and we don’t show up. So the first thing that you can do as, as a contractor, as a painter if you wanna learn or go ahead yourself, uh ask about your sales rep. I mean, look usually on Facebook, they have a lot of these things um reach out to us at illusions painting.

Uh We’re usually on Instagram, Facebook and ask us and if we know of anything, we don’t know of every places, but we know quite a few things that are going on in Spanish and just show up by you showing up, that shows everyone that you’re interested that you took on a day out of your job to go and learn and try to learn something new. I think that’s the, that’s the most basic thing you can do. So we so you can reach out to Juan and the Facebook group, as you mentioned in the beginning.

Is there another way? And I know you said reach out to illusions painting on Facebook, Instagram or email or what would be the best method? Uh Well, there’s, there’s a new email so uh I can give you this email here. It’s uh a little long but it’s uh admin at illusions painting ink dot com. Admin dot illusions painting inc dot com. Yes. But if you, if you guys follow us as, as illusions dot painting and Instagram, uh and you send us a personal message like ad M or, or anything.

Believe me, it’s either myself or Jose will reach out to you. Awesome. And um and Juan will, will uh will guide you. Well, I think we just give you guys and a lot of these like the stuff that we’ve been doing is in Spanish, but we’re involved like we started doing this as uh you know, features in Spanish and or whatever you wanna call them. Uh If you reach out, it has to be in Spanish or he won’t reply. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I, no So, uh as we, as we say it in an, in an English only podcast, like, there you go. Right.

So we, we showed up to uh Phoenix, no, in Utah and we show up, then we’re ready to go and then the girl goes like, uh are you doing that in English? I’m like, no, we’re only have it in Spanish because we, you know, we thought it was a Spanish uh presentation and she’s like, well, we only have two Spanish speaking people and we have like probably 40 30 uh oh guys. So I’m like, holy crap. So I’m like, OK, no panic. So everything is in Spanish on the, you know, on the screen.

But we’re like translating as we go. So we had to come back here now translate. Now we have one in Spanish and one in English. So which one do you want? Oh, you know, it’s, it’s exciting to talk about this man. Um How can I say, I, I have a lot of issues on some other departments because this takes a lot of time to maintain, try to have your head focused and, and still run a business. Um It is almost like a 2nd, 2nd business. This is a pretty big thing, more like a third business because family is second.

You know, family gotta be first, family gotta be first, then I the business and then, then the other stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So you, you’re a busy man. Got a lot. I like it though. I love it. I, I love this. This is the stuff that really pushes me to do my work to do this. So this is my reward. So I’m not complaining at all. I love it. Yeah, I may even get myself into more later. Oh, goodness. Let’s uh, let’s, let’s dive a little bit deeper if we can.

I know we’re still kind of mapping it out and, and you’re still sort of uh formulating it. But this September 29th event in Orlando, the kind of mini one day Spanish speaking uh expo almost through the PC A. So the PC A is hosting this and, and it’s a big event uh for the PC A big initiative um is, is to have a better outreach and inclusion with the Hispanic community. What can people expect from this event? What’s, what’s the hope of this event? Is this gonna be a recurring thing?

Let’s dive in. So this is the first time we’re doing this. And um my understanding right now is we have five speakers and we’re gonna talk about uh from how to start your business. Uh You will be there talking about how to market and you know, the, the, you know, the beginnings of marketing and how, how important it is to, you know, create things off the ground and, and really jumpstart your business. Yeah, exactly. And then we have uh we will be uh to myself and say we’ll be speaking on behalf of what we’ve done this last year and for the PC A and it’s more like a, uh, motivational uh way of like saying, you know, we can all do it if we really set ourselves to do it.

I know that Ashley and, um, and her husband, uh God, he’s gonna kill me, kill me now. Is it Solomon? Yeah, you’re the best. So they will be talking about strategies. Um We have um to Lando, he’s, he’s from the Florida area too. He is bringing his, yeah, he will be another speaker and then we have one more guy. I haven’t met him yet. His name is Alex. Um Can’t, I don’t know much about him. Uh But like I said, we’re still trying to put everything together here.

Um So we are thinking about having, I mean, as you heard, you know, sort of like five different, five different classes, just talk about five different topics uh maybe sitting down after um that and, and having like a round table discussion, how things went. Um What did we enjoy or not? Um trying to work on all those details. Uh Our goal is for next year. So this year it’s only one day then and this is for us to, to, you know, test it and see how everything goes.

So I know that the next year PC A uh from what my understanding is that they want to do this, uh, a full event, which will be a two day event. It’ll be sort of like a, you know, a, a mini PC, a expo. And, and so I’m, I’m pretty excited for that because I think that, um, I think that is needed and I think that, um, there will be a lot of, will be a lot of, um, attendance to that. My understanding. I’m hoping, I don’t, I don’t think there’s anything like this, you know, I don’t, I don’t think so.

And there’s so many smaller painting companies, so many companies that are subcontracting right now in the Hispanic community. And this is gonna kind of blow the lid off of it, give people an opportunity a path forward to really building a profitable company that that’s able to generate their own business and, and not have to necessarily rely on general contractors and just seeing, seeing an opportunity, you’re literally creating an opportunity that doesn’t exist through this, I think, which is unbelievable. It is. I, I think so. I think that is, it, it’s such a small thing to do, but it um I think that it can really have a very big impact and uh and it’s just, it’s, it’s for our industry, you know, at the end of the day and um just showing those, that those representations will be awesome.

So, um so that’s the goal behind this. Um I know that we’re still working on the, the details but we do have a flyer out already at the P and PC A on uh Facebook and um and Instagram we’re gonna work more and I’m trying to put it out there more. I know you were saying earlier that you are gonna use your super skills and uh and just put it out there, you know, for everyone to see. I think it’ll be, it’s interesting that you and I are marketing this thing together, man.

We’re gonna, we’re gonna hold up. All right now. I feel confident. Yeah. There you go. No, but I think it’s gonna be, it’s, it’s really, it’s, I think it’s gonna be something really nice. Um I don’t know what to expect like we, I, I don’t know to be honest with you, but I’m, I’m hoping that it is a successful event that uh that we have really turned out. I know it is hard for people from all over the place I would like to attend. Um But if they do come out, man one day it’s um Florida is beautiful.

They can, they can stay Saturday and just go hang out, right. I mean, we’re trying to maybe do something unofficial the next day, depending on how much, you know, interest we have. Uh maybe just gather us, gather and uh just talk about what we learn and maybe strategize on some things that we can do in the future and maybe plan for the next year or meet us on the next uh you know, Spanish uh expo. So, yeah, I think uh I think it’ll be a great time.

Yeah, this is super exciting man. Super exciting. I know that PC A is also working on getting a lot of the content uh translated into E English or Spanish and getting, getting a, a much more bilingual focus because obviously the spa community and the painting industry is very large. It’s a lot of work, man, a lot of work to, to, to move everything from that English have to recreate it all essentially. Yeah. And uh you can’t do that with a is or any of that. It has to be, if you, if you ever try to translate, you speak two languages and you know, you realize that, that it kind of sticks.

Yeah, exactly. So, so that’s what we’re doing. I know it’s gonna be at the, is it, am I saying it correct? Is it the, I think that’s how you’re saying it. I, I think you’re saying it correct. That’s uh it’s a universal, believe it’s a universal resort. Oh, so it’s inside the park. It’s not, it’s not in the park. And I may honestly, I may be entirely wrong with that, but I, I think it’s a universal resort but someone from Orlando is probably listening and like this guy has no idea what he’s talking about.

So, how far are you from Orlando? I’m about an hour and 45 minutes. Oh, yeah, that’s, that’s not bad. Yeah, that is not bad at all. That it’ll be good and I’m, I’m probably gonna come down early because you and I are gonna gonna maybe have a couple of drinks and, and see if we can stay out of trouble, hang out a little, we’ll have a couple and then, uh, I don’t think. Oh, yeah. What is that? No, but hey, you see, look at this, anyone that takes a trip over there, just take your trip the next day you walk around Orlando.

I mean the weather is beautiful. Uh You get to know the place and get to get a little bit experience of what these things are for the future. First time we went to an expo, Jose and I of 2018 Galveston, Texas, you know this very nice. Were you there? I wasn’t in 2018. Ok, a very nice resort. You know, I mean we weren’t that young but you know, we were younger and um so we get there and we start, I didn’t really do a lot of traveling before that.

So we go into this very nice resort and you greeted with drinks and great food and you see all these business people talking about business and you’re like, holy crap. Like in a way, we didn’t feel like we belong there. Jose was pulling you and being like I told you this was a bad idea. Juan, I told you how it was to be here, you know, but um but after that, like just, you know, we saw these, uh and I’m only saying this for a reason, you know, we saw these round tables that talked about the million dollar mark or how do you get to your five millions?

And we’re like, dude, we don’t belong here. But, you know, now looking back, I that’s why I said, you know, if you take a little trip to Orlando, come see it, especially if you know, you haven’t really been out. You go, you listen the next day, you go and you process that in your mind and you’re in a completely different neutral place. It does something to me, man. Yeah, it’s the first step. It’s the first step. You know, it’s the first step. It’s a big step. First stop is showing up and seeing what’s possible.

So guys, please show up. I said there, there’s events all over the place. Um depending on your state. I know that most of the PC A are doing gatherings. Uh We were just in uh Texas with uh um Fred and uh and, and just by doing those, they get together every once in a while, they talk about business, they have a couple of drinks and they joke around, man. I mean, trust me, it, it gives you more fuel to go back into your business. Yeah. And it’s a, it’s a fun time Jason Phillips and I were supposed to connect and he wasn’t showing up like brother.

Where are you? All the guys? They took me out and we were, we were having some drinks and, you know, so when you, when you do this stuff, it’s not like it’s boring, you know, it’s not like you’re going in some stuffy conference room and you’re, you’re gonna have a good time, you’re gonna learn, you’re gonna connect it, it’s get involved, get involved in this stuff, it’s fun stuff and your, your business and your personal life benefit. I think. So. I, I think that’s, that’s, and, and go going back to it, that’s what we’re really doing quite often now.

You know, we’re a lot of what we do now is connecting. It’s, it’s networking and we’re still working on the business every day. But, um, but you have to have a balance and you have to, once you set a goal, you keep working towards a goal and you’ll see that it takes you not away from your business, but it allows you to be away from your business. And that’s a, that’s a good feeling. Yeah. And I think the point too that you made, um, about the speaker bureau about you going and traveling around and speaking at the she run events and how that exposed some weaknesses in your business.

You know, that, that is, it does, it, it’s negative but it’s also positive, right? Because it, it shows you what you need to, what you need to actually fix. So if you go and you’re like, oh, I can’t, I can’t leave, you know, I can’t leave, just leave. Right. Because whatever you, whatever goes wrong, whatever and, and something might go wrong. We’re not telling you, you know, Juan and I aren’t telling you, it’s gonna be perfect. Don’t worry, your fears are imaginary. Something might go wrong. But think about the gain that you’re gonna take away businesses, pros and cons, it’s not all pros, there are cons that happen.

And sometimes you have to, you have to make a small sacrifice or something goes askew or you have to really work very hard to catch up when you get back. But you’ve just opened up this massive potential through your action. You know that um ever, I think that we first started talking about the podcast about a year ago. Well, it was right after we started doing our presentations and we talked about the podcast and every time we talk to someone to be like, oh yeah, you know, I wanna start a podcast and everybody wants to start a podcast.

Um One day we just did it and we were lucky enough that we had to do it. I love it. You know, we just, we just, and, and like I said, I’ve listened to a couple of them and listened to them like damn, like I go crazy, right. Planning it, trying to think. Oh, I don’t know. Just rip the band, just start, just start whatever. You, we’ve talked to so many guys in the last few months and they want to do one and they ask me what should I do?

I told them, grab your computer and do it, turn it on record. Do a prerecord. So it’s not live. So you don’t have to worry about that. So I still do it. You know, we do some Facebook Lives and stuff, but I didn’t do that for some period of time. And what I started with was just actually, I guess this was live, but just 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes, Facebook live videos. And I would just be walking down the street and say, you know, something I read uh about uh a Google algorithm update or something.

I’m finding works really well with Facebook ads or like, hey, painting company owners, brand for paint American Pros here. You know, I wanna just update you on something real fast. That’s a start. And then it’s evolved into this podcast that I, you know, I think is bringing a lot of value to. A lot of people, has a pretty good listenership, but it started with just my phone just, just on my personal profile with no buddy listening, no tuning in. Just start. Don’t worry about your metrics in the beginning.

Don’t worry if you feel a little silly or you feel like you’re not doing a great job, 1 ft in front of the other. You know, one of the, one of the greatest things right now that’s happening is, um, so this podcast, right? Um It’s giving us a chance to, like, like now we gotta get into ourselves. Like, what do we need to do now? Like in order to run this more and be more like, make, this is more serious. This, I think this season is gonna be not, I mean, we still joke around a lot but it’s still gonna, now it’s gonna, we’re trying to be, make it a little more like meaning. Exactly.

And so, um we had Oliver, I don’t know if you, I think you, I believe you met Oliver over in Albuquerque uh in English. Oh OK. Um Cool dude. Uh he moved to um New York. So now we’re like, he was like a producer. He’s like, he did everything and now he’s gone. But um I have a son, my son, Michael, he’s 25 years old. Um He’s worked with me in, you know, in the painting and, you know, painting before, but he does not want to paint, but he’s actually very good at creating and editing things and uh having the need of uh Oliver leaving, you know, he comes to me, he’s like, hey dad, um I can try to do this.

I’m like, so we did for about a month. So now he’s actually coming out with a lot of good um, pointers and he’s actually like jumping into it. So now it’s, it’s more personal because my son is into it. So, like, that’ll be another great thing that I can involve him and us like, uh building something now greater this second um season. So, um, we’ll see how it goes. That’s so fun. And he gets to build his skill set, work with his dad, build something that there’s, there’s real meaning behind if people have found your, your podcast, how can they find it?

Los Pintos? Where do they find it? So they can find it on any platform? I know where it’s called Los. Well, you just go on the podcast. Um You can find it on Spotify uh up uh just any platform basically. Uh We have it on youtube so we record it so you can actually see it on youtube. I know that we’re syndicated with the PC A. So you can actually find them at the PC A, uh which is awesome to be on PC A overdrive and it’s L OS and the next word is Pinto Ress.

So, um yeah, man, imagine that’s uh it’s a lot of, there’s a lot of good things going on, man. A lot of good things. It makes it exciting, Juan, you’re like Superman, that’s so much going on, man. You see the super, you see that Superman tattoo. Of course you do, you got, you gotta, you gotta be there, man. You gotta be there, man. You gotta believe you can do it where there’s a will. There’s a way. Uh Yeah, you, you sacrifice a lot of times you sacrifice certain things for the, for others.

But I think we as a person, we have to be happy and we have to feel full, you know, because if we don’t, then none of this will work. You know, this at the end of the day, our job can be our job, a painful place where you need to go or can be your job can be your gateway to where you want to your, what, you know, the things you want to do. And I think that for us right now it’s really, it’s not that it’s getting there, but everything that we do at work gives us that time to have the freedom to do the things we do.

So I’m happy for that for right now. I don’t know. What about tomorrow, the next day. But right now we are happy and pleased. You know, it’s a journey. Yeah, it is a journey. Yeah, day by day, man. Well, I, I thank you for everything you’re doing, you know, for the community at large. And I know I know you’re changing a lot of people’s lives. I, I’m, you know what? Honestly, I, I feel that I’m just giving a little bit of what I got and just giving a little bit back of what I got.

So I wanted to thank again, uh Josh Abramson, you know, the guy doesn’t know it. But thanks to him, you know, uh, thanks to the speech I heard from him in 2017 that really, really changed. Um, a lot of the, a lot of what I’m doing now. So you should probably tell him, oh, I’ve told him a couple of times. I already told him a couple doesn’t know. You might wanna, you might wanna just let him know. No, I, I told him a couple of times. We, well, we got a chance to talk like, you know, at the couple of the expos and uh um yeah, you know, and again, it was through one of those uh Sharon Williams events, you know.

Uh so go, go check out their guys, there’s resources, find them, you know, you gotta find them. We gotta keep running, get out of the brush, man. Yep, Juan, man, we’re coming to the end of our series. We are going to, as we do with all of our series, we are going to do a live Q and A which I am very, very much looking forward to. I always enjoy the bantering with you. No, not so many questions guys. No. Bring, bring the questions, bring the heat for Juan, he can handle it.

Uh So this mindset matters most is five episode series. I greatly appreciate your time, Juan. I know it was a big commitment. Thank you. Do you have anything you wanna add before we wrap up this whole series now, man. Um Again, thank you so much for doing what you’re doing. Um You know, kudos to the, you know, your company, man, because I, I know how tough it can be and I know where you’re, you’re, you’re crashing it. And so that’s how it should be. And uh a lot of people that we met along these last few years, man, um And, you know, we created really great um friends, colleagues from all over the place and uh we’ve benefited from them, from their knowledge just as much from their part, from our part.

So, um uh you know, my brother-in-law, uh Jose, that guy has been uh you know, you met him big part to our company. Um You know, I have a family that really backs me up a lot otherwise, if I, if they didn’t, I couldn’t, you know, I wouldn’t be able to do this. Uh So, yeah, very thankful, excited to see you guys. Please come to the PC A Expo in the, and then we have to give my name. So we’ll put that. We’ll put, we’ll put that there very soon.

So, uh thanks again, man. Um Everyone, thank you so much. We’ll see you guys. Thank you, Juan.

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