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 Pc, a 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 on this episode of the Painter marketing Mastermind podcast. We host guest morrigan Sedgwick morgen owns Jedi Painting pros, a residential repaint company based in Hawaii morgen discusses her journey as a female entrepreneur and how she is using the trades to better the lives of other young women and men around her. She talks about why she is able to consistently book interior re paints for higher prices than her competitors and she provides some interesting insights into the unique challenges she faces by operating a painting business in Hawaii. If you want to learn more about the topics we discussed in this podcast and how you can use them to grow your painting business, visit painter marketing pros dot com forward slash podcast for free training as well as the ability to schedule a personalized strategy session for your painting company again that you are oh, is painter marketing pros dot com forward slash podcast morrigan. Thank you very much for being on the painter marketing mastermind podcast? Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a pleasure. So where your, what’s the name of your company? Let’s start with that Jedi painting pros, LLC Jedi painting pros LLC. And where are you based? I am based out of camp Hawaii on the big island. So now, so I say hawaii wrong, I guess Hawaii is how you’re supposed to. Yeah, I mean I’ve been here for like 20 years so it’s hawaii hawaii technically because the W. Is pronounced with a V. If you’re actually speaking Hawaiian. So okay man, you came out came out swinging. That’s I think that’s the fastest I’ve learned something on one of these podcast episodes where your company is based. I love it. So so what what do you guys specialize in that, Jedi painting pros? We specialize in fine detail, high end work. We’re not opposed to doing, you know, just putting paint on a house to make it look nice to sell. But I prefer to shy away from that stuff. I use that as more like filler work because what I’ve built my name on is my attention to detail and just really high end prep to finish. We we specialize in just doing it right basically, no matter what surface we’re painting. And are you guys exclusively residential or do you do commercial as well? I do commercial as well but predominantly residential. Okay. And then uh is it interior exterior, do you do cabinets. What do you do everything, everything I do, Interior exterior cabinets. I paint metal, I’ve done a lot of re finishing of certain old metal? Like people give me for instance, we had a project that was like 42 sets of metal doors in their tracks that we had a glass in the middle and they were repurposing them and we just found used boat, automotive paint and repainted all of them pretty much. I’m like, what do you got challenge accepted? Yeah, you’ll, you’ll adapt, that’s great. So you had sent me a little uh bio. That was pretty interesting. I love it. If you could just kind of tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into painting. Well my whole life, I’ve loved to paint just on canvases. I was an artist and I was like, it was always very promoted in my family because my parents were like hippies, you know, and my dad was a contractor and builder. My mom was a musician artist and I was always on job sites when I was a little girl, some of my earliest memories are like with my dad on a job site, spackling a staircase with a little putty knife, you know, like that was my weekend with my dad, after my parents separated, you know, he’d take me to the job sites and stuff and I have seven brothers. So of course I ended up in construction being a tomboy and When I moved to Hawaii was like $50 a backpack and a broken heart like 20 years ago, this January, I just was like, what am I going to do with myself? And I was in florida before I came here, I’m from Washington. Originally, I was in florida before I came here and everybody was like, why are you leaving florida and going to hawaii? And I’m like, are you kidding me? Like it’s it’s hawaii, like, you know, it’s, it’s either hawaii or California and I flipped a coin and I was like hawaii. Yeah, like thank you, coin for telling me to go to hawaii. So a lot of major life decisions based on flipping coins. Sounds crazy but brought me here entrepreneur and I was on a um organic hippie organic farm where no one was farming and the manager of the farmer and the owner was like, hey do you want to be the manager? And I was like sure. And then he’s like, I was like, do you have any work for me? Like I’ve been applying at all these positions like dishwasher or whatever, I can find in this little town of Kahala on the east side and no one would hire me because I was overqualified and I was like, well sh it you know like I just want to work and make money. And then this old uncle came up to me and was like, do you know how to paint, you know how to use a sander? And I was like sure my dad was a contractor, I’ve done a little bit of it, you know? And that started my painting career and I’ve been painting ever since. Talk fast if I’m talking too fast, just let me know. Motor mouth morgan has been my nickname since I was little. No, it’s good. You’re in the right place. We want to hear what you have to say. So uh yeah the the flipping coin is definitely a new one on the show. It’s a big decision. I do a lot of coin flipping when I can’t make a decision. I’m like funk it and flipping a coin. Yeah, you got me thinking about that for myself now. I like that. It’s a good, it’s a good, good way to figure things out, you know? Yeah. And just go with it. So when um when did you found Jedi painting pros officially? So legally I became incorporated as an LLC in 2016. However, I had been painting just by myself and with like helpers, you know here and there and Since I got here when I was 22, So roughly eight, this is like my 19th year on island painting. And I started calling it Jedi about six months in so I mean I really don’t have an exact timeline but roughly 18, 19 years ago it became Jedi painting pros and I was basically hanging out with a bunch of hippies in the woods and we were like, I do fire spinning and stuff. And so we were like spinning fire and choreographing it to like do a fire show at a wedding for these people down there. And I was like man, I gotta think of a name for my company and I was like rockstar painting and someone’s like no, somebody’s already got it over on the west side and I was like, well fuck and um I have a sailor’s mouth, feel free to edit better. But um and so I was like, well why not Jedi then, you know like just stealth mode painting. And so that’s how it became Jedi Painting and that was yeah, I mean roughly 1918, 19 years ago. I love it. And so this is your first year where you’re essentially at that $1 million dollar mark then. Yes, absolutely. It’s my first year, the company grew exponentially throughout the pandemic. And what do you attribute that to? Ah well as we all know during the pandemic, everybody was like home doing projects myself. I did a kitchen remodel, you know, in a bathroom remodel of my own home. Um So I mean a lot of that was just people board seeing that they wanted to do things and spending money also in Hawaii, we’re blessed. I mean there’s like a up and a downside, like a lot of us are like, oh man, it’s being gentrified are being inundated with people from so cal but they’re really nice people, you know, all the Silicon Valley people are coming up at least to my kind of neighborhood where I live in waimea count. It’s either waimea or cam well a they call it but because there is one of the best private schools up here on the island, both of them actually. So we’ve got an influx of people buying residential homes on Snob Hill if you will. It’s what everybody in the area calls it, you know and um but they’re all very lovely people and super down to earth and they’ve been a great source of you know growth and revenue. All these people moving here and then all the people in like the Hawala like Tokyo area it’s called who are super nice and they’ve just done a lot more maintenance on their homes and you know, I mean the one percenters, right? Like all these one percenters that live on the big island or that are moving here have really, I feel like been an amazing source of revenue for all the construction companies on the island. They really when we lost tourism, those people were here, you know hiding out from the pandemic, you know or just kind of escaping from the mayhem on the mainland. A lot of them and they really help the local economy is we’re all really grateful for them plus they’re all really nice people so that was kind of how it helped, what helped me grow here at least, you know. Yeah, so you, you had mentioned something about being a, you know, female painting business owner and how you’d like to help other females. Can you speak a little bit about that? Yeah. I um, I find that women, our amazing painters, they learn quick, they’re clean, they’re tidy and I really like taking certain young women who maybe are just waitressing or working at farms and don’t know how to use a screwdriver or a screw gun or anything or even paint anything and saying, hey, like you don’t have to just, you know, work in retail or whatever if you want and you’re an artist and you want to try it out, you know, I’d love to teach you. And so I like taking young women and young men, I do have some young men that I taught and that been with the company or decided to go in a different direction or I had to decide that they went in a different direction. These things happen. And um, but yeah, I just really enjoy the female dynamic and I find that homeowners are very receptive to it. They almost feel safer with women in their homes with all of their personal possessions and things like that than they’ve even just, they’ve told me that they’ve been like, oh, because you’re women, not just because we want to support women, but we want to hire you guys because we feel safer? And um it’s just it’s interesting, you know, I don’t necessarily love the sexism about it, but I mean, hey, it is what it is. Well women women don’t steal morgan, that’s science. We all know that’s a lie. There’s probably a lot of women in prison right now, but they’re probably meth heads to. But um yeah, no, I just love hiring women. I love the dynamic. It’s really fun to like it’s nice. Two I think for them at least the feedback I get from my female employees that the way I lead is with compassion and understanding and I don’t, you know, people make mistakes and you know, a lot of people have had bosses that are just super hard on them when they mess up, you know, and all that kind of, I’m just really I’m just really gentle. I’m like, look I’ve sucked up to like I made mistakes and that’s how I learned how to be a better painter. Like I didn’t have anybody to teach me. I just figured it out on the fly over the years and you know, I don’t know, just as a woman leading women, I think it’s just a nice like warm environment. You know, it’s a different kind of environment than other construction jobs. I’ve been on where it’s all men, you know? Sure. No, it’s definitely definitely a bit different than the norm? What what is your your employee model? Is it employees? Is it contractors? How do you do that um employ? Are they W. Two. Yeah. Are you do you do you have them on a W. Two. Yeah. Their employees 100% employees after four oh one K. S paid vacation. Medical, dental drug and vision. Like in the state of hawaii you have to have a contracting license whether it’s a class, I’m a class C. So I’m a subcontractor and then I have like a general contractor hires me so on and so forth. So in hawaii of a general contractor or even a class C. Subcontractor hires someone who is not an employee or another subcontractor who’s licensed you can lose your license for aiding and abetting. So it’s like if I was to hire someone and that wasn’t licensed to paint that wasn’t an employee, I could lose my license or be fined pretty pretty heavily regulated there. Then it’s pretty heavily heavily regulated. And I think that that’s crucial in a small island environment where there’s a lot of competition you know? Yeah. No that makes sense. So how are you? It sounds like it might be relationship driven but how are you getting the majority of your business All word of mouth you know like I mean I would say there’s like maybe 1% of the phone calls I get are from my website and from people finding me on google because of my reviews. I did experiment the last couple of years with like the better business bureau hooked me in and then, I mean that’s done nothing for me, nothing. And then, I mean really like my husband thinks I should keep it for whatever reason and I’m like, I don’t even know why I’m paying this fee, like it’s not doing anything for me. My husband full disclaimer has nothing to do with painting. He is a golfer, he’s a caddy, he knows nothing about this stuff. So I get a lot of phone calls, I’m gonna segue. I get a lot of phone calls from people and they’re like, oh, so you and your husband run this business or do you just do the management and marketing work? Like no, no, sir, thanks for you know. Yeah, thank you, thank you for that. Yeah, thanks for that. Yeah, Awesome. Well, congratulations on finding so much success recently. I know you said that that you’re aiming for 1. 5 million next. That’s a that’s a great goal. What’s your, you think? Word of mouth alone is gonna get you there or what, what’s your plan? Yeah. Word of mouth alone will get me there. I mean, I am booked through, I mean essentially through june next year and that’s fantastic. That is a long time to be booked solid. Are you thinking about adding additional painters or are you just gonna not trying As we all know in every profession across the lands, employees are in high demand and there is a shortage of them. So you need to get you need to get some of those so called 1%ers out there with you paint somehow. I know right. I did recently hire a nice young girl and she’s great, she moved over here from Austin with her husband and she’s just been incredible, so hard working and so sweet and such a positive attitude and I really like her and hope she stays with the company and yeah, as far as growing, the company with employees goes, that’s the hardest part. Like I think I can increase my revenue to two mil growth income by next year if I could just find the employee base to keep up with all of the work that I’m getting, I have to turn down jobs you know and it’s unfortunate I used to be the painting company that was like yeah you need to done, we’ll be your fucking heroes, we’ll come in, we’ll get it done for you in four days. No problem in and out. You need it done yesterday. Sure I got you and now I have to say I my apologies, I can’t fit you in until next, maybe next april I could squeeze something small in, you know. Yeah, I have but I also like I want to help everybody, I want to paint everybody’s house, not just for the money, but because I know that we’re going to do a good job and it’s gonna last, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s definitely been um the theme I think as we all know the labor shortage, I think some people are a little bit more bought into it than others in terms of of whether that actually is a concern the constraint. Uh Now Hawaii though I do believe is probably an anomaly in terms of what you’re working with. Yeah. Yeah. Well there’s a an overall housing shortage for people that live here because the like rent rates and mortgage rates are just so high right now that a lot of people that work here can’t find places that are affordable to live. Yeah, Hawaii is uh I mean it’s it’s almost the most expensive place in the country, isn’t it? Or at least very think so like maybe new york city rivals, you know it. Yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty. But I think new york though, there’s still a good amount of, of affordable housing and there are a lot of multi family apartment units and whatnot. But right, it’s true Hawaii, I mean it’s coveted land, it’s limited and there’s only so much that can be developed or that is developed and everything is expensive to ship here and so everything is exponentially more expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Um Okay, so what are, what are some of the mistakes you’ve been doing this for a while and you’re you know, really seeing the fruits of your labor, what are some of the mistakes that you’ve made along the way, not charging enough interesting like I have money guilt because I come from a very humble blue collar, you know family. I mean my family doesn’t have money. I mean I send my mom money, my mom doesn’t really have much at all. You know, try to send her money and help her out when I can and buy her groceries and stuff, you know, and my dad’s fine, you know, but I don’t come from money. So it’s um where did I would say? I’m side tracking here. What was, what was the question again? Yeah, I know it’s what mistakes have you made along the way? Yeah. Not charging enough because I have money guilt. So I I feel bad for people and I’m like, well I want to give you the best deal possible and so I I bid it under, you know, or I charge them a low hourly wage. But my labor burden with workman’s comp and stating all the taxes, all the food to suit everything that’s tacked on, you know, an HR fees and the list goes on in hawaii it’s, you know, our state tax, everything, it just makes it really hard to make painting affordable and still make a decent profit margin. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. How did you mentally move past that? No, I mentally still having 100% moved past that. But um I probably still give too good of a deal, but I had to raise my rates because I realized that if I wanted to start paying people more, even a like starting wages have had to go up for instance, you know, like I used to start people to train with, no experience that 15 bucks an hour and then give them raises, you know, depending on their efficiency level and how well they learned and so on and so forth. So now I just, I really had to get over it because I have to start charging people more to pay people more to live well and I don’t, you know, like I don’t want to, You can’t live off $15 an hour. Especially in Hawaii anymore. You used to be able to, but you can’t anymore. Yeah, I think, and I think that’s a great um mindset shift to to to realize that if you’re offering too good of a deal that that money is coming from someone and it’ll be coming from your employees. Yeah. And I give back to my employees as much as possible. I mean I give them bonuses, I give them profit sharing if I bid a job and they go in and just slay it and the profit margin is huge. I’ll kick them all 500 bucks. Everybody was on the job, I was given an extra $500 bonus. Like there was eight people on a job in June last year and everybody got $500 extra. I’m not greedy. I’m not trying to keep all the money. Yeah like they’re working hard. Yeah. That’s fantastic now. What are you typically aiming for with your profit margins? I was because taxes are so high, like my gross profit margin needs to be somewhere around 35%. Okay. You know that’s a low point. Is that similar to other painting company owners where you are in Hawaii I don’t I don’t really talk to them much about that kind of stuff. Um so I’m just, I’m not 100% sure you know really, there’s a couple other big painting contractors that I know but we don’t really discuss those kind of things other than we just are all like an agreement that it’s hard to hire new people, you know and find good painters got it. Yeah. It may be, it may be worth exploring, you know, exploring that conversation or even uh it sounds like you really like to help people and they may even be worth forming some sort of an association or you know, informal group. Yeah, that’s a good point, interesting. So then I guess I know you mentioned labor, labor is probably the biggest issue. What’s the what what would you say, your second biggest issue right now that that you’re facing with your painting company is well the supply chain issue, You know second biggest issue I mean like right now I can’t get a product for cabinets that I use. But I know and that I trust to refit it to repaint cabinets, can’t get it. It’s not in, maybe it’s coming in December 28. Maybe it’s not, we don’t know. Yeah, now do you do you I mean you seem pretty chill, you’ve been in hawaii for a long time. But I would imagine some of the maybe new arrivals to hawaii maybe don’t share that mindset. Do you find that your customers are a little bit more easy going a little bit more kind of roll with whatever happens then you would you would think happens on the mainland or what do you think about that? Yeah, maybe. I mean a lot of the customers here are really chill and they’ve been super understanding and kind about the pandemic setbacks. I mean anytime someone gets a sniffle, I gotta be like okay, we got to get a covid test and then, you know, that can take five days before they get results and then it can take 10 days if they’re like, I don’t want to get a covid test because they’re one of those people, I’m just like, I don’t care if you’re a vaccine er and anti-vaxxer. I’m not gonna force anything, you know, I’m not gonna force you to get a test if you’d rather quarantine and miss 10 days of work. I’m gonna roll with the punches but the homeowners then like my schedule gets exponent just set back and I have to be like my apologies you know and they’re all very understanding, they’re all like yeah we know this pandemic, you know it sets things back. So yeah I think people out here are really chill. I don’t really know what it’s like in the mainland. I only painted a little bit there and some houses in Mexico when I was younger traveling in my Volkswagen bus. But um as far as I know like yeah people are pretty chill out here and I’m pretty grateful for that. I hope that other painting contractors in the mainland have really nice clients to you know, I hope everybody’s being nice to everybody, you know, good for you, good for you. And then um so you’re having the labor issues um material shortage issues, what is going best for you? What’s just easy just crushing it right now. Um My crew, my crew is crushing it. They are fucking amazing. And I am so lucky to have them. Like My 2 4 women are so great at communicating and both two completely different personalities, one of them is more like me super like aggressive type a go go go. Like everyone’s like yeah I’m super tight today like when I’m working I’m like different different person. No I’m like a jokester too. Like I’m like I’m practicing my stand up comedy with the crew. I like joke around like I’m pretty, I’m pretty chill but I’m also very serious, but so one of my four women is just like very, you know, very militant and I love that about her. She is an incredible manager in that respect. And the other one is incredible because she’s like, yeah, I mean like everything’s good, it’s cool. So like some stuff broke, you know, like this paint bucket but it’s okay. She’s like, yeah, you know, I don’t know why these homeowners want us to paint flat in their bathrooms. You know, she’s just so she’s so funny and nice and sweet and she, you know, and and she manages things, she’s like, well, you know, so and so came to work today and they were obviously hung over and being kind of slow and so I just let them go early because I could tell they needed to rest and they weren’t gonna be productive, you know? And the other one’s like they came hungover and I was like, what the f is happening, You need to not drink so much before you come to work the next day, you know? So but they’re just incredible leaders in their own ways and the crew is amazing and all the guys and all the girls are just they’re they’re what’s killing it most right now, They’re the best thing. Yeah, that’s fantastic. How many painters do you have? I have, Including myself 10 right now, Okay. And have you? So so what is your role? So you’re a painter and then what else do you do you have different people who handle different roles or do you basically do all the administrative stuff? I do all the admin. Um I have an accountant and a C. P. A. Like a bookkeeper to do all that kind of stuff because I’m just not not a math person. You know I mean I can do bids and all that kind of stuff when it comes to all the you know it’s why they have people that do that you know? But I do all the bidding meeting with clients. I do all the billing, I do all the payroll, all the scheduling, all that kind of stuff. Well I have an HR service that I use pro service and they’re incredible. Um But I still you know look over all of the time cards. I separate all that and treat and send it to them to issue paychecks and whatnot. Um I also paint in the field when I can I really still enjoy it. I don’t want to just do admin. I love painting, I love the feeling of cutting lines, you know just in there. I love it. I love rolling walls and getting up on roofs and painting gable ends and the beautiful views because we’re in Hawaii and there’s always an ocean everywhere and you know. Yeah I mean I do it all and I don’t want that to ever stop, you know, until maybe I’m too old or whatever and it’s too much aches and pains to really be in the field. But yeah, it’s, it’s interesting. It’s a point that we, we kind of address a lot with different painting company owners on the show is is what did you have to delegate first? What do you plan to delegate? And, and you know, sometimes what do you not want to fully give up? You know, and if you’re a true craftsman, if you really like painting, then it might be a piece you want to keep. But as you’re kind of looking outward And you’re seeing 1. 5, 2 million, you know, numbers that you haven’t been at before. Do you foresee having to, to increase the number of things that you delegate? Yeah, I mean, I guess to fully answer that question, I like I have my 24 women and that just really happened in october where I was like, okay, look, I’m gonna give you guys both substantial raises. I’m gonna give you more responsibility, um, delegating out them managing jobs more than me managing all the jobs. So giving them jobs to manages stuff. I’m, I foresee having more for women in the future or for men, you know, there may be a foreman in the future. And um, I’ve thought about hiring on someone to do the office work, but it’s hard for me to let go of that because I type up such detailed bids and estimates and I have a specific way of doing it which I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from my customers saying that they really, really they chose my company over someone else’s even though maybe I cost more because they liked how thorough I was and they felt more comfortable with me painting their house because my, you know, meeting them in person the way I handled it, the questions I asked them and the estimate I gave them was so thorough. So I don’t know how I would train someone else to do that. So I don’t know if that would ever Yeah but other than that, I mean eventually I probably will be in the field a lot less and it will mostly be other people painting right, you know, yeah. What is the biggest blunder that you have ever made with a customer? And how did you handle it? So that happened. I pride myself in always being on time and being an excellent communicator. Um and about a year and a half ago, whatever it was July 25, 2020 some guy rear ends me, I was stopped waiting to make a left hand turn. Some guy rear ends me herniated discs in my neck, like some severe whiplash happening. So I was down, I was out, it was about three months after that and I was you know I was up and about driving doing stuff again but still not able to lift and do a lot and still kind of just generally out of it. But getting a lot had been getting a lot of headaches and I had some clients call me. I made an appointment with them and I forgot to go to the meeting. I forgot to put an alarm on my phone. I forgot to put it in my calendar to go. You know what I mean? I just got off the phone with them with a headache when they called and forgot to put it in. I forgot to set that alarm estimates. What’s that? These were estimates. These meetings was to meet with clients for a new potential job. And I missed it and they called me and I said oh my gosh I am so sorry I am fully embarrassed and I was like let me be transparent because I didn’t know how else to handle it. And I said I when you called I had a headache. I told him the truth. I said when is the next most convenient time for you? I’ll rearrange my schedule. That’s how I handled it. I showed up you know three days later I said you got it that’s the best time for you. I’ll be there. I showed up. I went over the bid with them. I drove home and I immediately home typed up the estimates and sent it to them like within an hour of leaving because I didn’t know how else to make it up to them because I was so shamed that I forgot to meet a client for the first time. So that’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. And they hired me to do the job. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I mean you owned it, you know, you fully owned it, you explain what happened and then you prioritize them to make up for it. I don’t think you can handle it better than that. Thanks for sharing that. Um, so I guess how do you how do you see this is a bit more of a visionary type question I guess. But how do you foresee the painting industry changing moving forward or do you see it changing? You know, I read that in the little pre podcasting and I was like how how do I even see it changing? And I guess what I hope to see changing is less volatile organic compounds in paints that last just as long. And they are as good equality as the oil based products, especially for exterior wood surfaces. Because what I find a lot is people want to be switching to these more eco water based exterior products but they’re not, they don’t last. I can’t stand by them. And so I’m hoping that the people who make the paint, you know and the chemists out there can do that so that painters for one, painters are less exposed to chemicals have less uncomfortable PPE to wear. I mean those respirators suck, believe an uncomfortable lying on your nose your face is all like, you know, got the mark on it, it pulls on your neck. It’s miserable. And, but there’s certain products and certain jobs that we have to use. For instance, the PPG pro lux, which is used to be the sickens and sickens is great for exterior stuff and it’s the predominant, you know, product to go to, especially here in Hawaii on the exterior homes along the coast. But it’s extremely toxic. I’ve called the company itself about the sts sheets. I’ve called three M about respiratory protection and the way it permeates and this and that. And I mean it’s nasty stuff, you know, and so I’m hoping that the future of paint involves better products that are less volatile for the painters and for the environment. I hope it becomes more environmentally conscious. Painters have been rocking the covid face where before it was cool before everybody was doing it. Yeah, totally about mask me for years. You know, we were like, oh, mask me. I’m all whatever bitch please. I’ve been dealing with this stuff for years. Like always like desk masks having irritated skin. Anyway. Um, All right. And then do you have any other advice for painting company owners that are, are smaller or maybe just getting started and, and they want to cross that million dollar threshold. What advice can you offer them? Well, you know, do a good job show up, show up on time and buy on time? I mean 10 to 15 minutes early because if you’re not 10 to 15 minutes early, you’re late. You know, and be accountable, do a good job, be clean, don’t leave drips everywhere. Just if you’re a good painter, you show up, you’re not drinking, doing drugs, not showed up or hungover, you wear clean whites even if you got some pain on them, but just look clean, presentable. Nice. Right? Like these are all things, even as a homeowner for myself, like when I hire other contractors to do anything at my home and I’m getting three bids from people, I’m gonna hire the person that looks a lot cleaner and that’s more presentable and well spoken, then I’m gonna hire the person who’s, you know, a little rougher and it’s not like I’m trying to be superficial, but that’s who I’m gonna feel safer with painting my home. So I think as far as anybody who wants to grow your company, I mean, the best way is word of mouth and by doing a really, really good job and fair pricing, not overpricing and not underpricing because if you under price, you’re gonna end up either a doing a shitty job because you’re pressing yourself and pushing yourself to get the job done so you don’t lose your ass, you know, or you’re going to end up asking for more money from the client, which makes for an awkward conversation and nobody likes to do that. No homeowner wants to hear that like oh well why did you give me this solid lump sum bid if now it’s going to cost more. Yeah so I think just managing your money properly bidding things correctly. Being transparent open and honest with with future clients and doing a great job is the best way to grow your business. That’s what I did. That’s how I become successful. Yeah. I think that’s fantastic advice. That trust factor is so huge. It’s so huge. Do you have anything else that you would like to talk about or convey? No I mean no I think I’m good. I think I talked a lot already know it was amazing. You’re you’re definitely the it’s a bit of an anomaly the whole hawaii um culture you know that you’re the first painting on the podcast from Hawaii and I feel a little out of my element because I’m not 100% sure how everything works there. But I know it is quite different. Yeah. Well you know I’m not really sure how it all works on the mainland because like a lot of times I’m like am I behind the times like what’s you know like there’s a lot of products that we don’t get out here because the Home Depot, The Lowe’s hardware. The ace hardware or the H. P. M. Local Hawaiian you know Home depot version of Hawaiian Home depot basically they only get us what we get us. You know I mean we have Sherwin Williams but you know they’re not they’re not bringing in the same stuff that I see when I go to the mainland and I go to a home depot to visit and revisit my family or something. I’m like oh we don’t have that in Hawaii like oh but bringing it in is a pain in the butt or expensive. So I hear you I’m like I was kind of worried about it. I was like well is he gonna ask me stuff about like that? I’m not gonna know because I don’t know a lot of mainland painting stuff you know. Yeah. I know it’s this has definitely been interesting. It’s almost like a like a cross cultural type podcast episode here or something. Right. Right. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Well cool morgen. This was amazing. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you being so open with everything and I also appreciate what you’re doing for young people and young women especially in hawaii and thank you for caring about the eco friendliness of painters and everyone and trying to advance the industry for the better. Yeah thanks. Yeah. Alright thank you. Hey they’re painting company owners. If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure you go ahead and hit that subscribe button, give us your feedback, let us know how we did and also if you’re interested in taking your painting business to the next level. Make sure you visit the Painter Marketing Pros website at PainterMarketingPros.com com to learn more about our services. You can also reach out to me directly by emailing me at Brandon at Painter Marketing Pros dot com, and I can give you personalized advice on growing your painting business until next time keep growing.