Guest Interview: PCA Expo 2023

 

Everyone you have Brandon Pierpont here. Painter marketing pros live with Jason, paris, Jason paris is the co uh is the founder and co owner of paris Painting Olive Holdings. He is currently the chair of the board of directors of the P. C. A. And then we have Maggie Keiper. It is not cooper don't ever call it cooper. Her name is Kipper and she is the co owner with her and matt of harpist painting guys, thank you for joining Maggie is also the co chair of the Pc expo Education Committee which means if you like expo this year, if you like 2023 expo, she did a great job.

 

If you don't it was the co chair. Yeah, we'll leave the co chair is not here to defend him or herself. So guys welcome, thank you for the purpose of this is that the Pc and marketing pros are running essentially game plan session. So this will be part one of two? It's a two part series. One of the great things obviously about expo is how much opportunity is there right. One of the, I guess potential drawbacks that can come from that opportunity is not really always knowing how to navigate it and sometimes having to make sacrifices.

 

A lot of events will occur at the same time. It is a jam packed few days. So we're gonna unpack everything to expect at this year's expo. Talk about last year and and previous year expose how this one might be different and really how you can best navigate it if you are new to expo or even if you're a veteran attendee, what you can do to make this the most impactful year yet for your painting company. So I want to start with Jason. Jason. Tell us a little bit about the background of expo, how many years has it been going on?

 

How many attendees usually come? Let's let's hear about this thing. It's been going on for a long, long time. Brandon. Uh I don't know the answer to that for a long time. Since before you were born, before I was born. Before uh the electric typewriter. You know, back when there was just mechanical typewriters before uh membrane based typewriters or uh such. So it's been around a long time. I mean the pc is very, very old. How many people come a lot? I'll just tell you it's it's a very, very high number, it could be as high as 1000 if you round up, we have nick thank goodness.

 

Nick was keeping us on the edge of edge of our seat there. We didn't know whether he was coming. Uh, Nick Slavic owner of Slavic painting restoration, host of asked painter live. Thanks for joining brother. Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, Jason was just giving us a very detailed and specific background of pc expo. Yeah, who cares? Very long time. Uh, it has been, I think, what is relevant? It has been the event, the big tent event uh, for at least the last decade. For sure.

 

The last five years since I started going, uh, no, it's also through the attendees. I think we, you know, we're around 1003 give or take last time. So I always say 1000 because you round up and uh, that's a significant number. 44, probably 666 significant figures. If you go to the hundreds, very much A lot of people will call it, we'll call it close to 1000 people are probably gonna come. Yeah, I'll just say you don't want to miss out. Early numbers are showing, you know, big rise over last year's year today trends.

 

So, we set records last year with the 10 days. Uh, we're looking to grow. I mean, the metrics are showing growth this year over that. Um, so you don't want to be the one that misses out. It's a big tent event of the entire year kind of sets the tone for everyone. So let's kind of go through some of the major events and I know we have a new one. I think it may be occurred a few years ago but we have a new thing going on this year.

 

What are the main highlights or what happened? For example breakout sessions things like that. Maybe nick or or Maggie you've been really putting this whole thing together whether it's good or not it's really based on you and how good of a job you did. So we'll see but maybe it can run us through through the highlights and what people can expect for the schedule. Yeah for the schedule. Yeah. What are the what are the core components of this thing? Yeah so there's um a handful of different ways that we impart all the awesome information at expo on the attendees.

 

Um There's large group sessions where everyone gets in the big room. Um We have a speaker. We get together we talk about the big things going on with P. C. A. We have breakout sessions which occur multiple times throughout the week and their topic specific. Some of the breakout sessions are panels some of the breakout sessions are a single speaker. Um And so those happen a lot there's a lot of breakouts. We also have what are called brain melds. Um Brain dump and conversation brain meld. We're not quite sure what the word is, but those are a small um we call it, We call it education, speed dating.

 

So it's like small little tables where you will sit at the table, talk for 10 minutes about a topic and then you move to the next table and they're all very focused and specific so you can go to the table that you want. Um and then we have social events, those are always great, everybody loves them and then there's a lot of food, so those are kind of the big alcohol, lots of alcohol gatherings, I mean yeah the Sherwin Williams event, lots and lots of alcohol. Do you have anything anything to add or anything you're specifically excited about for this year's expo Yeah, I'm a teetotaler so I don't partake in all the alcohol.

 

You know my body is a temple, it can be a playground for other people, but I know it's it is the education like and so you would say you know, the biggest thing nowadays is you know virtual work, things like this, why don't we just do a big virtual thing right. And what we do now know what has been driven home over the last bunch of years is you do miss something when you're not standing in the same room as somebody and The expo has always been that and it only has become more important because of what we just went through the last three years like now we know exactly what we're missing and the true value of something, like this getting in a room with 600, people at least as good as you most likely better than you doing and talking about the things you like.

 

Yeah yeah networking is really key. I know uh some people have have talked about how expo changed their life, right? So so I know illusions painting. Um juan Vasquez has talked a lot about how they they came here, him and his business partner in 2018 and he, It felt too small to be there. Right? That was one of that. I think that's one of the blocks the mental barriers people have is they think they don't belong there because they're not at at a million or they're not at 500,10003.

 

So they can't possibly be there, but you are big enough to be there. It's really not that expensive when you think about the future of your business, I always say who cares how much it costs, I mean you gotta spend money to make money. First of all. Uh second of all this is what you call a balance sheet activity, not a not a. P. And L. Statement. So uh that your work out just fine. I don't think anyone in the universe is saying that any expo they've ever been to was a waste of money universally like and and it becomes almost absurd to some point where you talk to somebody, they're like, hey, I just bought a ford super duty truck and I bought a 65 $100 sprayer, but I sure as heck not gonna spend 1000 bucks and go to that expo when really, you know that you're investing in yourself in that and it's really one of the smallest dollars amount of things you're going to invest in into something in your business over the course of the year, it's actually getting cheaper every year.

 

If you think about it with inflation, you're right. Yeah, so we are a lot of people are commenting. So as a reminder guys, this is a round table. So if you have questions specifically that you want to get addressed, um, from the horse's mouth, so to speak, ask your question, someone asked when and where? So it's in Albuquerque new Mexico, february 22nd to 24th. That being said, there is also a painted forward event on february two 21st. So we, that is a charitable event. It, it starts with Albright painting out in California and it is where they go in and essentially pro bono paint some, some nonprofit or something that does good for the community, local community and assists this year we will be painting the iconic live uh, lobby of the Gibson medical hub.

 

So it's an old hospital is being refurbished into a medical center in Albuquerque to help combat homelessness. So if you are common you want to contribute to that would be a great cause. Also painter marketing pros. Um well help you create social media logo and marketing for that. If you want to put that up for your painting company, if you do attend, so reach out to us and we will help you with that because it is a good cause. Um also Ariel just put up in the comments, make sure you give stream yard access to your facebook so you can actually have your questions scene and we can know who you are.

 

So you just go to stream yard dot com forward slash facebook. You can actually put your name there and it won't be just facebook user will answer your question of his face, but we won't know who you are, Jason. Someone asked about balance sheet activity because I have no idea what you're talking about. So you can go to expose long and short of it. It's uh, this is how I always clash with my CFO or are. And his name is ERic and I just tell him that.

 

So balance sheet activity would be like an investment, right? If you buy a building, you know, on paper, you could lose money that year because you had cash out, but you really made an investment that's gonna carry some collateral forward. Uh, So profit and loss would be like how much money did the business make, right? Uh but balance sheet, that's who cares that's you gotta spend money to make money, right? Don't don't ask any follow up questions on that. Just I feel like any hate any hateful comments or feedback I'm gonna get me.

 

I just tweet them at me. That's why I prefer to receive all my hate on twitter. So just please tweet your mean stuff there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think it's a great point. Obviously you do have to factor in finances. You don't want to come and be homeless. You know you're sleeping outside the pc convention center cause you lost all your money. But in terms of the the R. O. I. Return on investment, it's just not going to get higher than that. If you're willing to invest $1000 or $2000 into facebook wires invest that into coming here because it's gonna go a whole lot farther for you. Yeah.

 

Don't hire a marketing company to never never just jews between one or the other. Just go to expo. Yeah, 100%. So Brandon White is asked expose 1003nd and 24th. What day and time should we fly in and fly out to not miss anything coming on the 21st. If you're not gonna do paint it forward, if you are going to paint it forward probably the evening of the 20th. But coming 21st you can register and get your little swag bag and everything like that. And then things will start pretty early on the 22nd.

 

So sorry, note, note from somebody who's been there on the day that there's actually activities be there the night before and on the day that the award ceremony is that we close up stay that night because you know, there are so many people that on that last day they're like, oh my God, I I want to have all these conversations with everybody now that I'm settled in and guess what, I got to get on a plane. So what, what I normally do is fly in the day previous, get all set in the hotel magically there's a whole bunch of people standing around the lobby in the lounge and you talk with them and then that friday night stay again and leave saturday morning.

 

Yeah, yep. And be social. So so networking. If you're not going to a particular breakout session, if you're not attending a certain network event, try not to just hang out in your hotel room because you're going to meet a lot of people like minded people don't be don't be well nix on performance all the time, so he probably has to rest at some point. Someone knew that that's something that I'll say speaking of this expo as well, I said it last year, but if you see someone that's there clearly by themselves, they're sitting alone.

 

I encourage people to go talk to them. So if you're planning coming by yourself, you're not, you know, you're worried of who I'm gonna interact, interact with. Just know everyone's gonna be on high alert to look for people that could use some some interaction that didn't come with anybody and you're gonna be well taken care of. One of the biggest things that we are intentional about it. The P. C. A. Is those fresh faces, those non members, those people who have never interacted Jason and I specifically and the rest of the board members are looking for you there because we want to make an introduction.

 

We want to make you feel at home. Just like how people made me feel at home. At my first expo. I thought they made fun of you nick. The other one's not isn't that isn't that what love is? I thought scott made fun of you and called you a hipster and you told him you spared your own fish. Oh no that was actually that was Nigel. No. Dave was actually very friendly. I want to circle back to something Maggie said because I remember when I first heard I had no idea what people are talking about.

 

It's a weird name brain melt. But on the subject of networking and getting to know other painting company, huge Maggie. Yeah person. I have a special this is like a weird thing to say but I have a special place in my heart for the brain melts because our very first expo we did what Nick and Jason said not to matt and I came down, we went to the opening session and then we were like brain meld what? We'll skip that and wait for the for the breakouts.

 

And we came into the room as everyone was finished we were like whoa there's like electric energy in here, what's happening? Everyone's like sitting at tables talking about things that are important and So like I said its speed, its speed dating. So you're gonna walk into the convention room after you went in the lobby and got a Lacroix and a Granola bar that they provide during the break and you're gonna come back in and there's gonna be a little table signs with topics and there's 50 tables in the room and there's going to be 40 different topics on every single table.

 

Um And so you'll pick a topic and you'll sit down at that table and there will be somebody leading the conversation and the topics are all over the board. Um There's tables about growth, there's tables about finances, there's tables about marketing, google reviews, how to appropriately text with your customers. Um Ai and using artificial intelligence. Is that what Ai stands for? You could ask chad gpt everything, Pricing sales process, the list could go on. Um like I said there's over 40 different topics and you'll sit at a table for 10 minutes, you guys will have awesome conversation focused on that topic.

 

Someone will ring a bell and you'll go to another table and that'll just rinse and repeat. Um and it's just so cool because you can interact with people here, what they're doing here, what's working here, what's not working? There will be an expert at the table that can give expert advice. It's not just a peer to peer, it's also expert led. It's awesome. Um It's my favorite part if you can't tell and that expert does also facilitate so that it's not, there's not a single me monster that just dominates the table.

 

That's one of the core parts of being a good facilitator, making sure that everybody gets involved and so you're free to come in and just sit at the table and try and soak things out or soak things in. But that facilitate is gonna try and draw you into the conversation and then there's always, I highly recommend bringing business cards if you still use them because more than not you're gonna sit at this table and you're gonna realize that there's a super similar business to yours across the country and you're gonna want to be like, hey let's connect, you know, let's continue this conversation and then you'll be like, oh I don't have a card, how are we going to talk?

 

And so bring a stock which a lot of business cards. Business cards. Yeah I moderated one last year and I didn't know what it was and and it's exactly that right there's all these different tables or someone sitting there and it's pretty intimate. What is their 0003 people? Six. Yeah, that's it. And is it 20 minutes, 30 minutes per table? It's 10, it's 10 minutes per table. So it seems like longer you can stay seated at the same table if you really want to hammer something, you don't have to get up every single time you can stay there.

 

And then basically 789 more people are gonna sit down. But the thing that kind of blew my mind was saying, oh, you know, I'm just trying to for the first time. I don't really think it worked. And oh I tried direct mail. Yeah. Actually here it wasn't working and then I did this and you're just seeing that those kind of light bulbs go off from people connecting. It's a very structured networking opportunity. To me it seemed like the most impactful activity there. Absolutely, I agree. What what are you?

 

So I guess all three of you, I don't know who wants to kind of take the lead on this in past expos and we can focus on 2022. And then just in general, what have you found to be the most popular um either topics or the most popular events or what do people tend to sort of gravitate toward and get the most out of. Yeah, we probably won't go, we probably won't talk much about the 20, expo too much that one wasn't, wasn't perfect. But in general, I'd say in general of recently it's been around the labor labor shortage.

 

That one was virtual by the way. I just want to note that it was virtual. That's why it wasn't perfect. It wasn't, it wasn't a bad expo, right? We didn't have an in person expert right here. Uh, Yeah, as of recent, it's been the topic around labor I think has been the main one. Uh, the shift on millennials and during the workforce has been a topic that's been proven expose that draws a lot of interest. Um, maybe nick nick, nick nick actually gets a pretty good draw no matter what he talks on.

 

Uh, some of the favorite ones that you've been to the last couple of years. So I'll be going hard on oil primer this year. So that'll be, that'll be a crowd pleaser. You know, you can track my arc through the expo when I first showed up. It was just like, I have no context. I have no perspective. What is this? Who are you? I assumed everybody was, was single owner operator, house painters who really liked old victorian mansions all in one place. And then I met Dave scott and Gina corn and then you're like, oh, there's other versions of like being a house painter and you can paint oil tanks and water tanks and things like that.

 

And so originally to me it was just like gathering all I'm scooping information and I'm scooping information and then pretty soon you start applying some of that stuff and now different things become interesting to me as we go on because when you seemingly solve something in business you don't have an end of things. You need to solve more things come up. So now as we progress through professionalization from employee handbook S. O. P. S. Um you know basic job costing once once you get a good handle on that the next layer of stuff comes up and then you go back to the expo and ask those rounds of questions.

 

So I'm coming in hot. I have my leather bound notebook. I have four pages of stuff that I'm specifically looking for from other contractors and I will corner you and I will harass you and I will try to squeeze information out from you in the kindest way possible. But that's what I'm going to be doing. I love that. So yeah that's that's a lot of what this is about. So Nick's coming in, Nick obviously the man who knows it all but he's coming in because he recognizes he doesn't know at all.

 

And so he actually wants to get this information, look at your business right if if this is your first time or if you're a veteran attendee, look at your business and figure out what you need help with because there's literally everything everything's covered here fulfillment hiring sales and marketing, it's all there or show up and we'll give you things to work on. There are things that you need to do that you don't even know exist anymore. And honestly that's how I found out of all. I was very proud of myself before I went to my first expo and I went, I left that first expo thinking I've done nothing, I have a, I have a mountain of stuff to do in a lifetime's worth of work.

 

And 56 years later we've been plowing through it and it's great I want to add too, I think um for more sophisticated businesses where the owners may be less involved and the machine is running and they're like well what am I going to get from expo We've got our google ad thing, I'm not even running it etcetera. Um I think there's a huge non curriculum component to being in a community of people who are all emotionally in the same place as you. Right? So running a business is hard and owning a business has a lot of emotions that come with it and you're in a room full of people um on that same journey with you.

 

Whether you need the nitty gritty details about um marketing or whatever it is, you might also just need the emotional support, you might get relationships that are going to help you become a better person and business owner. Yeah, bad bad reviews, a worsening economy, you're not the only one dealing with this stuff and uh I know that in an expose past expose people have formed kinda, I'm gonna call the support group, but a networking group, accountability group and then they end up meeting monthly or weekly after that and that's huge.

 

You know, I think that the painting nick's talked a lot about the painting industry has been largely divided, sort of, you know, everyone is an enemy to everyone and you just kind of do your thing and this is the antithesis to that, this is you actually get in and you work with people and you grow together. Um So Kaylin said that this is her first expo she's excited for that, Kaylin, Thanks for coming. We're really excited to see you there. Um make sure you track us down and say hi because there's all sorts of people on social media that are like this is my first, or I'll be going there, but then there's also a bunch of passive aggressive introverts like me from the upper midwest who will show up to this and we see each other from across the room and walk separate ways.

 

Do not do that. Coming from somebody who has done that, go up and introduce yourself to people and specifically come find one of us and we will happily give you any context, sit down with, you have a cup of coffee, whatever you need and Caitlin is going to get one because I know Caitlyn do not hug me. Do not touch me. Oh I will and you know it. Alright so someone, someone asked I'm a paying participant, I'm a member of P. C. A. Do I need to pay for my boyfriend to participate only in the evening events?

 

He's not participating in the daily sessions slash activities. I think you can do one off dinners. Uh Yeah there's like a meal only thing. These are not just meals, it's like like I don't even know what's gonna happen. I'll be honest. Uh Yeah our our dear um underwriters and champion sponsors of the P. C. A. Pull out all the stops when they do these evening parties. We've had we've had evening get togethers at rodeos, the entire rodeo stadium. We've had, yes. Oh my God. I mean literally pirate ships um you know last year was in Disney In Disney.

 

Yeah so it is it is a professional thing. This is not us in the lobby of a Marriott at the hotel bar. This is legitimately an event. An event. So yeah it's good. So there's some another facebook user asked how it looks like you can pick the days you want to go, how would you guys respond to that? I'd say. I mean if you're going to book a flight, go the whole thing if you're gonna go to specific days, go and Maggie's presenting on something passes are there?

 

Yeah there might be okay. You can divide it up however you want. I wouldn't recommend it. But like I said, it's a balance sheet activity, not A P. And L. Transactions. So you gotta spend money to make money and just carry it forward on an accrual basis to the next year. You know, money means a lot of things to a lot of different people, currency, what is what is real? What is your truth? Time is a circle? All right. Um So Nate Mitchell. Sorry, you guys are going for it?

 

So Nate Nate Nate Nate and his wife. Well they run two coats painting. So he had a really good point here which is actually kinda kinda what kicked off this whole series. So I love his question. He said I guess it wasn't really a question as a comment. So we are not coming to the expo this year because we were sloppy with the information that we obtained from the Orlando florida expo. So because we didn't apply the information, we thought it wouldn't be a good idea to go until we apply the information to our business.

 

What you got wrong wrong answer. Uh No, I'm not gonna say it's wrong, but it is wrong. It's not right or wrong. Okay. I would also not accountability and motivation works. Uh Not you know, typically if you're not gonna like work out or eat healthy, you don't abstain from uh being confronted with that reality. You put yourself back into the crucible and that usually is what changes action. Um now you might buck the trend and be a little counter cultural in your psychology, but typically, you know, the odds that you're gonna do a course correction in the absence of being around a cohort is gonna push you harder, It's gonna be a little bit challenging.

 

We are your accountability partners and if you duck us, we will find you also just come, I was gonna say usually everything ideas are cheap, execution's everything, but with Ai, which I think I'm gonna be talking about. No, no, no news flash, it is actually the ideas that are valuable, execution is cheap. So just think about that. So my Children multiple times with their shoes in the shoe basket and so maybe you just need to hear what you heard last year again to really execute. My oldest puts her shoes in the shoe basket.

 

Now the other ones were still getting there. So just because you didn't implement it the first time doesn't mean it's a lost cause and much better than I did. One of one of our friends in the industry, Nikola Grasso who runs a great painting company in Missouri, literally at the end of every one of these things, he pulls everybody aside and is like, this literally gives me the fuel to do this for another year, like this is the shot in the arm that I need just being around these people.

 

So it is helpful so I want to dive into this from a little bit of a different perspective. Um and I want to segue and tie into what nick you said. So you said that that the first time you went you you got a lifetime of information to work on that is great, but it can also be pretty defeating, you know, it can feel really overwhelming, like like there's no way to get it all done and potentially um Nate and shovel. Maybe they got a little bit of information overload and maybe they thought about doing it all and and it was kind of a paralysis by analysis or they didn't really know know where to start.

 

What do you recommend for people who are coming into this? Maybe maybe they're new attendee, they're fresh and they're just gonna get so much information. How do you actually execute without becoming overwhelmed. Yeah, so here's the deal. Uh Jason and I and the rest of the board of directors at the pC A have have given you a way to solve this for yourself. So go to the, go to the expo, meet the humans, get the fire hose turned at you and then sign up for the business accelerator which basically with the cohort of people walks you through every step, you need to do it, orders it for you in order of priority gives you action items and then you have a group to hold you accountable.

 

So we we knew that this was that the missing thing in our industry was that sort of like all this information is free, But it's not really organized, it's not readily available. We have done that. But then also that expo gives you that sort of like you get to be around inspirational people to show you what 10 levels down the road is. So that when you're going through the business accelerator, when you're professionalizing, when you're putting your business through traction, it's not this slog where you can't see the end.

 

You can meet people who have already done that and that is your inspiration. Yeah, I love that you're solving some problems. But this idea of 223 levels down the road a lot of times you don't even know the questions you're going to have as you grow up, you're at 500,000, that's totally different from 1.5 million, right? Which is totally different from five million. So as you grow, especially if you're ambitious, you're going to encounter different struggles. But the good news is there's somebody there are multiple people all along that journey at expo that you can talk with. Yeah.

 

And and uh we we all know and love the transition curve. It's that thing where you're you're stupid and happy and you're riding up this wave of enjoyment and sooner or later you get to the peak of that and you get a whole bunch of data and it starts making you sad and you start riding that transition curve down and at the bottom of that curve you either crash in defeat or you gather up the information, gather up the gumption and head back up and I will tell you at least three of the five or six last expose I've been at, I've been riding that curve halfway down and expo caught me and brought me back up like that.

 

So job costing was a great example. You get introduced year one, it wasn't till two years later until I felt I had a really good thorough understanding of the ins and outs of job costing and could explain it to somebody and use it for something in my business. But you keep plugging away at it. It's if you if you hear about one thing one year and you don't get it done, guess what you're gonna do it. It's not a big deal. Just go to the expo. Yeah, I love it.

 

Uh Patrick Porter asked are these sessions geared more towards business practices or tools and proper applications? Are both are their business offering their services such as marketing or bid packages to purchase? Yeah. Patrick, I'll get you while we're there. Are there video shorts of previous expos first of all I'd say we've slanted a little heavier on the business side. You're still gonna get quite a bit of practical applications specifically in the trade show uh time. Um And then as far as shorts. Yeah we have a creative team that puts together all these little jazzy clips and uh we're probably pushing those out in the in the weeks to come if they aren't out there already.

 

I saw someone asked a question on pricing Brandon. I just want to clarify that it was, he said something around like 1200 for the whole thing. If you go on site show up uh day of and you are not a P. C. A member, you'll pay 1200 that gives you access to everything if you are remember. And you've taken advantage of the early bird pricing. It's 8 59 50. If you choose not to take advantage of the early bird pricing I would recommend becoming a pc a member will pay for itself on your expo discount.

 

Uh So first I become a P. C. A member. Then I just registered to go to the expo and yes that would be full inclusive of the entire event. How how expensive is it to become a P. C. A member? It's again irrelevant. Brandon. I'm activity. I thought I explained that to you previously. This sounds exactly like the conversations I have with my CFO. Not a P. And L. Item but a balance sheet. Activities. I don't wanna hear any questions about pricing the real answer is a dollar a day plus a little bit of interest that comes out to 3 20233 but it's actually there's negative interest because of inflation.

 

So you're saving money by spending money. So I want to bring up an important add on to this question or their video shorts of previous expo. So if you come to this expo this is something that was just decided by the P. C. A. They are going to record every single breakout session. So essentially all these events, not the brain mills, not necessarily every every single table but all the breakout sessions are going to be recorded and you are actually going to get access to that. So one of the big things is is you go to breakout session.

 

A breakout session is just a century A presenter in a room, maybe 100 people and they're covering a topic that you care about. But there might be two other topics happening at the same time. That's been something that that's kind of that trade off. You know you wanna you wanna know two or three things but you can only go to one because at the same time if you go you're gonna get recordings of all of them. So not only will you get so much information while you're there, you'll actually get even more to take home with you so that that's the first time ever doing it.

 

I think it's a huge huge bonus. So do come to expo, that changes everything you didn't know about that. Did you? Jason did you know about that? I get a lot of emails, I'll be honest. Uh, all I know is I'm going to listen to him because matt and I are at the same time as Nick Slavic, Oh, weren't you in charge of scheduling that? How dare you? Okay. Do not be surprised if I rally my troops, march them across the hallway and sitting on yours. I will literally like the pied piper right across that hall.

 

Nick's gonna abandon his own presentation to support yours. It's a panel, I'm sure the Panelist will be fine without their moderator. Nick Slavic. So Kaylin wants to ask Jason, are you leading any specific breakout sessions? Yes I am. It is going to be on machine artificial intelligence learning colon. All your base are belong to us get cloned nubes. We just move on from that. That's okay. You don't even have to address it if you don't. Yes. Uh, on like the whole chat GPT phenomenon obviously. So some painting contractors are now using Excel, uh, G sheets, which is great.

 

That's like welcome to the 19 eighties. Now there's this thing, you know, if you've been aware of the chat GPT, which is machine learning or artificial intelligence, but it's kind of become an easier interface for mass, mass adoption. And so when we talk about that, how you can use it in your business? Specifically a painting company to be more effective and efficient. Nick and I were playing around with it earlier this week and solving all of life personal and business life issues. Uh I have used it to write poems to my wife.

 

That's great and uh tell her that but also has many good practical business applications. So myself and this uh morrigan uh Knox will be co presenting on that topic at expo in Albuquerque. Okay okay. A facebook user I'll just I'll just keep going a facebook user who did not identify themselves um asked who got the piece? A scholarship. I don't think I know the answer to that. I'm not sure that if you haven't applied applied uh This is something like most most scholarships like is gonna go underutilized.

 

I'll just tell you that right now there's a good chance of that we got, we'll probably get someone from Russia that applies and just hacks are funds so please apply uh yoke up with a paint rep whether Benjamin Morris, Sharon Williams or other so we know that you're a real person and have a real need but please apply to that the way that we like to get people involved that typically won't be making it otherwise yep and we will we'll be posting the recording of this and we'll be sure to include a link to apply to the scholarship.

 

So if you haven't applied uh then you can someone else asked, they said they're confused on the cost you pay the registration fee and then for each day you want to go no you really just pay one fee and then you go to all the days if you're gonna go like and pick days I would say just don't do that. Yeah the fee that Jason listed out covers the 8 59 50. Whatever covers the whole thing including all the parties, all your meals, all the education, the trade show. The only thing you have to take care of from there is getting there and sleeping somewhere.

 

So the someone else said but I feel like Tanner and Brandon are my homies. I hope to meet those guys in person sooner than later. That's awesome. It's not Maggie's met me. It's really not that great, it's all shine. And um someone else asked and I think I actually missed a comment earlier but someone asked when will next year's date be released. So 2024 at expo and you'll only hear about it if you're at expo if you don't attend expo where it is right? Yeah we might tell you where it is before but I won't tell you the dates you have to be an expo if you wanna hear the dates I was gonna bring up where it is now but we can also just not do that.

 

We can tell people where this year is no next year next year next year. Yeah let's just do it, let's just do it. Don't worry you're the president, you just go right ahead man, not the president of the board. Can I do it? Next year is going to be back by popular demand in Orlando florida announced here first. Orlando florida. People loved it. Getting a lot of tweet activity right now. You're fired, You're fired. You're fired guys. You brought this on yourselves, someone. Okay. So next year is Orlando.

 

Orlando was last year and this year in Albuquerque new Mexico little pip pop pip pop called the pink pong game, yep. Um Alright, another Facebook user said this is really, really cool. Immediately applying many things from expo last year and buying certain Softwares took us from a $400,000 company to over one million this year. I would directly relate our success to applications from the expo Did they mention any people in specific that really helped them at the last everyone except for Nick Slavic was amazing. I don't know everybody but me, everyone know they did not identify anyone.

 

I don't know who they are because it's facebook users stream yard can be a little bit weird with the names. I would love to follow up comment on that though. So that's super good point that we haven't really touched on, which is what goes on with the vendors and the trade shows and I mean, I know our company has taken a lot out of actually getting face to face with the software company or the marketing company and asking the specific questions and building that report and um using it.

 

I mean, we were trying out a software last year on the computers for probably half hour at the trade show. Um so yeah, that's awesome, thank you for sharing that very anecdotal sort of example, but I made lifelong friends with the vendor. They're the people that surf prep, you meet them and those people love Sanders and sandpaper. They love sandpaper and the enthusiasm is just like, infectious. So when you walk by the booth, you're just like, wow, you really like this. So you sit down and talk and next thing, you know, you're like lifelong friends and and it's just, and I love sandpaper to not as much as them though.

 

So someone else asked again, trying to get clear on that price. If I paid 1200, that would cover all of it every day. Don't pay 2022 though, become a PCA member and pay less. Yes, like, and then get healthcare. So like, it's just kinda, I don't even want to hear these questions. Yeah, what is your membership cost basically got to pay for? Pretty much pay for itself with the discount then then you get the membership yes, if you, if you were not a member and you said, I like to, I don't know what you say, I want to hear that someone else said, and I'm interested in Jason's response here because he's been pretty opinionated about coming, love that sentiment about getting the information over and over.

 

I'm also guilty of not implementing a lot of info from last year and the only reason I'm not coming in this year is because Jason ready. We have a baby two weeks beforehand. That's limiting beliefs in head trash. I would bring the baby, bring the baby. Uh, go ahead. I'm just trying to be nice. I'm saying congratulations. We hope that it's healthy and everyone's happy in Orlando. One of our strengths of the country is we do have a pretty good birth replacement rate compared to the rest of the developed world.

 

And so you look specifically at china, they're going to go off a huge clip, Germany is already seeing it. Uh, India is a little more stable, but the US is all in all, we're in pretty good shape. Obviously had the baby boomers, gen x was the smallest generation of ever of percentage wise. Millennials are okay, so I would just encourage bursts of Children by whatever, not whatever I would just encourage of Children. And so what we want to say is congratulations on your new baby and hope to see you next goal next year.

 

I didn't say Orlando, I'm not getting fired two weeks before that is a tough one. uh, yeah, baby gets in free. I will personally, I will personally pay for the baby to come cannot, it cannot attend the Sherwin event though. It's gonna be very loud. Your discretion as a parent. How much do you love your industry versus your baby? So we were just talking about this this morning and and someone asked went to my first expo last year was amazing. I would love to take more of the team and invite other friends that have painting businesses but there is a language barrier.

 

Well you guys eventually have translating Ks Ks problema. So walkie for you. I know 37 words in Czechoslovakian so all you Czechoslovakian people you show up and I got you, I got you. Okay. You didn't specify good spanish contingent. Are we doing any sessions in spanish this year? Maggie? No, no we will be eventually. It's a very it's on our radar hardcore. Yeah I would say there are plenty of people that I want to want to assume spanish but that is the majority of our industry. Uh we would love if you attended and we love to make concessions.

 

It won't be perfect but we get the ball rolling and we also have uh spanish speaking ambassadors with the P. C. A. We have a whole spanish speaking contingent. Uh mike if you speak Portuguese there's gonna be about 46 people there uh that you're gonna be able to converse with. So there is you will not be alone. I will tell you that much. Okay someone else asked our breakout sessions recorded and available for later use gonna be missing some good ones while setting one I choose to be at again.

 

Yes, they will be if you are an attendee you will get them all if you attend. So if you come and you have to choose you know choose the one obviously that most interests you because you might have questions that you can directly get feedback on while you're in there but then you will get recordings of the other ones as part of the benefit. Again, first time ever the pc is doing this for 2023 so that you don't pirate if you're not attending, don't pirate it, you wouldn't download a car, would you?

 

Okay, don't pirate it. Um Alright, someone else getting so psyched for my first expo and that says a vendor looking forward to meeting, seeing you all in real life. Super excited to meet you too and I want to circle back to this idea of going from 2100,21000 over a million and implementing new Softwares and all this stuff. One of the coolest things, it's cool to meet the vendors right? It's cool to to actually get to know them in person and learn more about what they do in more depth but it's a lot of times you don't even know right, You don't even know the things that are out there in terms of automation in terms of just some of the ways that companies are implementing their back end systems and then you get there and you're like holy God like I don't have to be loaded with that amount of work.

 

You mean I could just I could just use the soft and he'll do it for me so you never know what you're gonna come across, avoid Jason because it's gonna get super weird super fast. But the other Softwares aside from the the uh all the ai in circular time, it's also really it's really impactful. Jason confuses me. I don't know what he's talking about. That was very offensive and I would like to apologize. I apologize, I offended, offended Jason um driving in one direction. I can't, no I take it I can't give it, you got it.

 

People are excited about chat. G. B. T. G. P. T. Excuse me, We have a link to the scholarship that was posted in the comments so do check that out. It's just P. C. A painted uh dot org forward slash expo forward slash pricing. Um Someone here went to expo 2100 on a scholarship. That's good. So I want to ask a question again. I know it's a it's a barrier for a lot of people mentally. I think it's why a lot of people don't end up coming. How big do you need to be to go to expo if you just started, should you go or you don't really belong there.

 

What's the thought what was your top line revenue when you first went? I didn't track it. I couldn't tell you I was a single person painter. I was literally the most when you think about the expo if you want to talk about bits of information, bits of perspective and takeaways per dollar, you will never get more bang for your buck than when you're a single owner operator who has done none of the things to professionalize You. You will never get more out of anything. You will pay people in the future tens of thousands of dollars for coaching over years to get the same thing that you're going to get an expo for 2000 bucks.

 

So that's probably good point. You probably get the most incremental value the smaller you are. And after that you're chasing diminishing returns which still have enough value or you just go ahead. But Jason but also the, you know like right now those six things that I need to know can only be found at these in person things and they are important. They're not like what is an S. O. P. That's like low hanging fruit, discovering what that is doing them and then showing them to others, getting their examples.

 

That's a quick hit. Now what you want to talk about inspiring a certain type of personality in your company to achieve at the greatest levels. That's something that is a very important decision. It takes a long time to discover what it is and implement and you can only get it from some of the highest performing people here, that it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's so important. There's content for all sizes literally. Um, there's content for single, single owner operators, there's content for a team of three uh, company on the threshold of a million or a company that's pushing 222 million commercial residential, fine finishing historic renovations, whatever your niches, cabinets there is content for any company and my partner and I were very strategic about digging into that, that nobody's time is wasted and everybody is filled and, you know, even for guys like Jason and I, I mean we literally control about $22023 million worth of home trade services in the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area.

 

And there's still something for us. Don't ask me how to break that out between his business and mind. But together, even for us, big guys, we have something that we can find there. So I would also say, I think expo is a phenomenal place to receive. Uh, it's also a place to give. And that's something I always encourage people is, if you're new to reach out to other people, if you see someone that's obviously knew, please reach out to them, but go there, get all the information, you can, but also go there and give, because we all do better and we all do better.

 

You know, the biggest plate that we like to complain about, the industry is the bar professionalism, not being very high uh actually by supporting other people helping other people. You can help make a big impact. So it also encourage people to go to expo not just what they're going to receive, but they can also give to others. So Kaylin said her her paint rep is helping with the cost. Never hurts to ask, have you guys ever heard of anything like that? Yeah, I mean try your paint rep, Try your uncle, try your grandma, try your neighbors.

 

You know whoever you can get to sponsor your going to expo would certainly be worthwhile Brandon. What was just said? Just saw the room rate for the hotel is only valid through tomorrow. So through january 20203th I think that there's a block right at pc expo special pricing with the Pc A Pc negotiates on a group rate much like we did with health, health insurance if you're a pc a member and you get a discounted rate, we also have that for the overflow hotel Because as I mentioned earlier, we're up, was it 22020, year to date from last year on expo registration.

 

Uh, so the primary hotel has been booked out, we have an overflow hotel just down the road. A lot of people are saying it as well. Yeah. And one thing you'll learn after going a few exposes that these are beautifully designed and orchestrated where the actual expo, the exposition is right below on the main floor of the hotel resort complex and your room is above and that is the most efficient. So you don't have to uber taxi bus anything else over there if that's filled up, there's obviously the overflow thing, but it's a good lesson to you guys, which is early bird pricing for the expo book your hotel rooms at the discounted rate early on.

 

And then literally at the last expo, me and my entire team, we didn't leave the complex. We went from our rooms to Jason's presidential suite which had two floors and then back down to the expo every day. We didn't leave the complex, which is super convenient and I wanted to go to bed and nick was just whatever you were doing. Yeah, that thing and I was trying to get to sleep. It was very frustrating. I just want to have that confrontation with you right now. I've held that for almost a year. Jason.

 

I can see that. I feel heard, I feel heard. So that's that's a good first step in mending this. Um but like, so a couple of people are saying they're in Tampa why not Nashville. Um It seems like there's some confusion on, I told you guys, I told you not to do it, I send them, send the hate mail to my tweets, uh twitter's my twitter address handle. I'll just say in general, we try and bounce around the continental U. S. East Coast, a little middle, maybe maybe dabble in the west.

 

If California wasn't so crazy and no one wants to be in a northern climate in the winter anyways, so kind of dabble back and forth. Uh, maybe in Nashville, talk to nick, he's gonna be the future chair. Nashville is in a very expensive. I feel, I feel comfortable just saying it 215, we're going to don't say anything. He froze up. That's too bad. We'll try next time. It was a good joke nick, I appreciate that. Thanks man. So we, we have addressed, okay, if you're, if you're super small, you're just starting out.

 

It makes sense to go if you're really big, you know, throughout the 215 million a year, combined revenue, it still makes sense to go. You're still going to get something out of it. And and that kind already hinted at this because you talked about all the Portuguese, um, speaking, you know, speakers that will be there. But people have asked me, Hey, do international companies go if I'm in Australia or England or Canada, should I go to this, what's your guys response to that? Absolutely, this is a place where knowledge is exchanged and a lot of the things we traffic in are not Nashville painting business, Minnesota painting business, this is business and this America is the center of the world.

 

You're gonna want to come to America to be cool. We are the world police where the best country in the world by far. So definitely come to our expo, in the United States of America. We also like Canada but Usa is number one. It's like not even close, we're just we are such a global superpower. It's it's unreal. We have a vast vast system of rivers that can move our goods to and fro. Especially with the shale fracking that's been happening. We're very well positioned in the next couple of decades possible to meet Jason.

 

I'm thinking about it. Um There we go. It's he muted himself. We're set, we're golden. Uh yep. Alright someone else we already we already covered this but I think we could we could address again really quickly because I know it is a common um thought or question, I'm interested in improving skills but I don't want to add staff right? A big focus is always growing interested in proving skills but don't want to add staff is the expo recommended for a solo preneurs like me, I would say grow your bottom line.

 

If you're not gonna grow your top line, grow your bottom line, you can definitely improve your profits, improve your quality of life. You know those would be a good key metrics if you didn't want to grow the top line. Yeah and and literally the ethos of the P. C. A. Has built better contractors. What it doesn't say is build bigger contractors and so you can you can basically take all these, we always talk about professionalization and all these businesses. Job costing and stuff like that, that is not only for big businesses, that is for all businesses, it's just that our industry doesn't readily do it because we come into this industry as craftspeople and not necessarily business owners and we have to learn how to be business owners.

 

So these are not things that are nice to do in business. These are things you must do if you want to make it past a few years in business and not ruin your life. Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. You don't, you don't keep revenue. Um Allegiant painting is the one I did ask who commented that Allegiant painting went from 400,000 to a million. So congratulations. Allegiant painting on that progress over last year. That's awesome. Someone else asked I need help with all the tech stack stuff. I suppose I could get that there.

 

Yeah, that's that's like the best place to get there. And the nice thing is you'll be able to hear from multiple people, their perspectives on it. Uh Absolutely. There was someone that mentioned like tomorrow is the last day to register for the room block. You'll have a few days more than that just so you know we're used to dealing with painting contractors. We know if we say 1 20 a lot of people are going to do it. So there's like intentionally a little bit of buffer there. Uh so don't don't like freak out if you remember on saturday you'll still be able to get the room block.

 

I'm not gonna tell you what the actual date is because then you will actually procrastinate until it's too late but you do have a little bit of time just to get in there. Yeah, like Jason said we we know our core demo and a surprising amount of people wander in from the street on the first day and register and go in and it's like we were happy to have you but we love it. There's a combination for everybody. People ask, how do you apply for the scholarship?

 

You it looks like you go to that link and you write a paragraph stating while you're deserving of a scholarship and then a recommendation email from a manufacturer's representative certifying that your company is good standing and deserving of a scholarship. So a couple of steps not not too difficult for the potential benefit that you gain there. Someone else asked. Is it mainly owners that go or do they bring one of their crew nick how many people are you are you bringing? Let's see. We're bringing six people were bringing my entire leadership team and the year previous, one of my painters, one craftsman of the year and I brought him and his family to Maggie.

 

I know you're bringing your team, yep we've got six coming everything from the owners to our accounting manager to project managers, salespeople, anyone that doesn't pick up a paintbrush for us specifically, is going, we're bringing out, I don't even know, I mean, you probably know better than I would, I'll just, let's round up to 10, let's say, let's round up and say it's 10. Uh but I think that whoever said that question, you're gonna be just fire hosed with so much information. The first thing you're gonna want to do when you get back is try and translate that to your team and this will help save you that step you get on the same page, especially if you have some key people in your organization, go shoulder shoulder through the expo and then be really ready to attack the business right after together.

 

Yeah, and you're gonna so one of the weird things that I've experienced from other people when they get back and they get back and and guys like me are just fired up like, oh, I have so many fantastic ideas for you guys, just sit back, this is gonna be great. And meanwhile everybody's like, dude, you were gone for a week and you came back and you're just like, you don't blink like what's going on here, having some of those people at the expo to be similarly inspired, like you now there's context when you go back to your business and they all understand they all have that feeling and you don't need to impart that in them when you come back.

 

So again, it's it's great to bring as many people as you have, but do what you can, it's important that you're there. So Jason got a lot of love here, A lot of people are very excited to meet Jason and personnel um so that's not just me, I'm seeing the comments and I'm not seeing any of that. Tons of love, tons of love Another another comment, software is huge. Makes a big difference for everyone. It's a couple above that one, there's two um software software is huge, makes a big difference.

 

So kind of tying into that software and learning things that you didn't know existed if you you you meet the vendors right? And you actually learn about these Softwares, but also the brain melts is really where it comes into play because you say I'm having, it's so frustrating, trying to schedule or I'm growing but but I can't like keep keep all the customers, you know organized and things like that and that's where you get a lot of that, that key data is from how other companies already doing it.

 

Um Brad Ellison said, hypothetically Brad Hello runs Allison painting, very successful painting company out of Detroit. Is that hypothetically if I'm not a painter, what type of clothes should I bring for the painted forward event on the 153st hypothetically there's a chance that I asked my husband that same question. I don't know, maybe like some jeans, jeans, I would, I would definitely go to your paint manufacturer and get the painting bibs, they're great to wear outside of painting to, I'll just say that right now they're very comfortable, nick knows this, they have pockets on the top like this and so you can store snacks in there when you get hungry and just eat them very easily.

 

So get the bibs, you're gonna use them more than just painting, use them for lounging around the house. It's pretty, if you're trying to go to go to church, go to the club in your, in your bibs and uh, you know what the kids say these days, just razzmatazz, you know, whatever the kids say. I was looking this up the other day, my source did not get back to me because my kids go to public school, I got a fire hose of the latest lit, it's fire, it's dope slay.

 

I'm all over it man, brad's question. I know one of my first expose, I was like confused what the dress code was like, I was like, is this like a business, the thing where everybody's gonna be wearing business, he close or is this a casual thing. Um, and then you have these, you know, this invitation to these vendor events at night and you're like, again, am I supposed to wear like black tie optional or are we just still in our pajamas. So um, to distract from your urban dictionary conversation.

 

Um It is definitely a very broad range of attire. There's people that come in there painting jeans and their company t shirt. There's people who come in there, I'm gonna sell a paint job outfits and everybody smiles and hugs each other when they meet and nobody is too concerned as long as you are clothed and bathed and there to represent and learn and the same thing goes for the events if you want to get dressed up and have fun. Great. I don't think I don't think a bowtie or anything that's significant is necessary but not also it's not it's not wrong.

 

It's, I was gonna say but you do you and I can guarantee you will be loved no matter what for shoes. I'll just say for shoes at the event you probably want to get some up dog shoes, Jason, what's what's what's up? Not much, what's up with, you don't do this guys don't do that. So so someone else said my business after expo 2022 did six times the revenue that we had done the year before expo. So that's really exciting. Someone asked Jason what were the overflow hotel is?

 

Looks like it's in our cookie Marriott email Jason. Yeah. They also asked if there's a shuttle, is there a shuttle that's going to be running between the overflow hotel and the expo, do you guys know? Yes, Jason's all over this. He'll get back to, you know? Yeah. Yeah there's a super helpful staff at the P. C. A. Like literally I know you guys are asking these and people are actually like putting links which is awesome. But there is an insanely helpful half of the staff of the P. C. A. Even my company when we tried to reg register six people and there there were some things we just wanted to make sure it got done.

 

We talked to the staff 15 minutes later we're in they couldn't be more helpful. Someone else said all they really care about is running smoother without the headaches. I think that's huge. Better contractors. Not necessarily bigger. Yeah as I always say slow is smooth and smooth is fast you know So I want to uh I want to see if I can pull anything out of Maggie. Yeah so we we obviously you've been planning everything. So again it's it's if it's a success kudos to you if it's not it was the co chair.

 

Um So are you able to divulge any any of the topics from let's say the brain melts or any of the breakout sessions. So people can can actually here as opposed to what we're gonna cover everything. They can actually maybe hear some of these specific topics. Am I wrong that those were published. The topics. 100% might be. No no no you're good. I was yeah I was just pulling up if you go to the pc a website under expo and schedule. It has the schedule which lists the breakout sessions.

 

Um So it has Tuesday, the paint it forward. Also on Tuesday there's a blueprint reading class. I've seen a lot of chatter lately on the facebook groups about learning to read blueprints. Um So and everyone who's attended this is awesome. That is not included in the in the core expo registration, but I think PC is sending out information on that. Uh So Wednesday um what we did this year, I think you can go to the P. C. A. Website, read the details. The big thing that we did this year.

 

The feedback was everybody loved everything last year and that's not an exaggeration. Um I didn't plan it last year have no dog in the fight. That was literally the feedback from everyone. The negative feedback was they felt like they were drinking from a fire hose and they couldn't get a handle on the information. So the big thing that we did on the education committee is we took the days and tried to theme them not like Mardi Gras theme but the day first day is a marketing theme.

 

So the majority of the topics on the first day are about marketing and selling that will allow you to just stay in that brain set that day. So just thinking about that category. The second day we have the um trade show in the afternoon but in the morning aside from Jason's robot thing, the content is a little bit more about the self and like the journey of the business owner and developing yourself as a person um and really taking care of yourself and where you are in that journey as a business owner and then on friday the focus is more operational production.

 

Um Okay, we've marketed it, we figured out how to sell it, we figured out how to keep ourselves as business owners emotionally afloat. Now. How do we get the ball rolling and how do we make this crank? And so we've really tried to make it so that instead of feeling like you went from marketing session to a um how do I grow my business session to a session about commercial. Um There's a lot of focus so all the attendees should be able to kind of focus on one thing for one day throughout all the content which I think is I know is unique to expo and hopefully will be awesome Way for y'all to learn.

 

So Maggie, someone asked, is there a list of the vendors that are coming? Is that included online as well? I don't see the app is available for the app for that. I think somebody posted a link about some information about the vendors as well to hear so. Okay, perfect. Oh yeah, it's on the website, the trade show link and it's got the map for all the vendors. Okay, excellent. So you can see where the, where the actual trade show is happening and then where every vendor is.

 

So another thing that's, that's kind of interesting um that that's happening this year is this idea of focus groups. So it's actually during the trade show, um these are occurring Maggie, do you want to kind of explain maybe what those are for people? He doesn't know what those are. Maggie doesn't know. Jason nick, you guys know focus group is where you get a group of people to really, How do I say focus the purpose of this? No, I said this is your chance. Obviously there'll be like a big manufacturers or vendors that want to get some intel on what direction they should be heading and guide some of their strategic decisions for the next year or three year picture and as a a P. C. A expo attendee, you know, you're kind of one of the influencers, one of the top of the top that they're gonna be curious to hear your, your thoughts and so your insight, your preferences, your desires could help mold and shape the direction, strategic directions that some of these vendors take over the next year or three year pictures. Yeah.

 

If you want to talk about influencing an industry, I was part of a focus group from Purdy maybe four years ago, where they started talking about like they really were curious about how we carried our tools around and stuff and then three years later magically the Purdy painters boxes showed up. So it's really cool to be like that was it. Like we had we had we had influence on our own industry and these vendors care about the craftspeople of this industry and they're actually seeking advice so we can shape the future of it.

 

Which is super for whatever reason. First place my head goes is you could get like four or five people together and just like meme it and uh set the company up tell birdy something just ridiculous and really have a good joke of it. But don't do that. Obviously be honest. I think it would be funny for a moment. But then a lot of people lose their jobs. The more that I've gotten involved with the P. C. A. The more I realized that the vendors and the partners that they um or vendors that they partner up with are exactly what nick said.

 

Companies that care um about what they're doing, whether it's sandpaper or brushes and then care about who they're doing it for. And so if you have the opportunity to focus group, don't be like Maggie a couple of years ago where you didn't go because I don't know what I was doing. But I think I think it's super great and people like Brandon who have a business that is there to serve us need to hear from us what's going well and what would they want help with? And I think it's so easy to, to kind of discuss how unique the painting industry is, if you've been in it your whole life, most industries aren't like this, right?

 

Like you can't actually go and just hang out with, with Jason paris and Slavic and Maggie Kipper and these top hitters in the industry and just get all this information, you can't go into a focus group and impact the entire industry. You're not gonna do that in roofing, you're not gonna do that in, you're not gonna do that as a dentist. But painting is, is as Jason always kind of talks about it hasn't yet reached its renaissance is professionalizing. There's an opportunity for you to step in and get some kind of a wave here and that's huge.

 

That's exciting. Yeah. Um I wanna nick you, you probably don't have this written out. So it's kind of a weird question, but I gotta imagine people are listening to you and you're saying you have four pages of, of topics of stuff you're hoping to get out of this expo and I know if I heard you say that I'm thinking what can nick possibly need from the expo, having gone so many years and run the business he runs, Would you be willing to share some of the things you're hoping to achieve. Yeah.

 

So, first off, how dare you know how to flatter me? I do appreciate that. Uh you know what's really funny here on my my computer monitor set up with multi monitors that I completely came up by myself. I had no influence from people like Jason paris for that, but I'm here, I have google keep and I actually have the very first set of notes that I kept from an expo when a painter who is very near and dear to my heart pulled me aside and for four hours just told me here's some books, here's some things I think about this, I still have these, I'm still working on it.

 

The thing for me, uh the unsolvable thing that I really need a lot of stuff on is of course perspective of leaders, how to lead, and then not only just how to lead and hold accountable, there's the whole L M A lead management accountable, but then inspire. And when I when I go there for is sort of this almost intangible thing. This is one of those six things, but one of them is like this intangible thing of like I want to see how Matt Kiper talks about his business and how he talks about his business.

 

And the words he uses, give me so much perspective about what a good leader does and when Jason brings his whole team, you're looking at people revving at the highest possible speed in our industry. What they talk about, how they talk about it, who they talk about it too is so interesting for me and that's things you can only get at the expo there are also things about like, you know, the next level of when you, when you talk about financial stuff, you start at the bottom of job costing and then you start adding some things and pretty soon you're into cash flow projections and then you're into like budgeting for your business.

 

So now that you walk up that pyramid of financials, you start getting more sophisticated things and then you start looking for examples of those. So there's a couple of clinical quick hitters that are good. But then there's that stuff that you're, you're not gonna, you're not gonna learn how Matt Kiper and Maggie Kipper lead a business from a zoom call, they could tell you and you can understand those words. It is completely different than standing in a hallway for an hour talking to them about it. That's what I'm there for.

 

Yeah, I love that. Um there's also to everyone who's listening and and who's, again, they've never been to an expo and they're not really sure if they're they're quite there yet. There's this idea that that you are like the five people you spend the most time with, right? There's a professional kind of kind of tangent to that surround yourself with with great companies and great business owners and you're likely to start to gravitate that way yourself, that this is the top the top of the top of the painting industry.

 

So if you run a painting company and you care and you want to not not necessarily grow if you want to grow. Yes but if you want to just make it better right improve your profit margins and make your life easier. I don't understand why you wouldn't go. It doesn't make any sense beautifully said Brandon. Yeah it's it's thinking like a business owner right? And whether or not that maybe you know there's that debate painter versus business owner, are they the same thing or different? I personally feel that that there are sometimes a little bit different but if you're thinking like a business owner this is your R. O. I. This is where you get it.

 

Um I'd love to you have something oh I was just gonna say like somebody had posted on facebook like why go to this, It's like here's the deal. You're gonna get a whole bunch of just stuff. There's apps, there's software, there's job costing, there's things but you will think about yourself, your business and everything you do differently after this. I can guarantee you you're gonna walk away changed. I have every single time and it never stops. Every single time I walk away thinking about what we do differently and being inspired.

 

I love it. So I'd love to get from each of you some advice in terms of what to make sure that you do. So when you go to expo and this applies to two people have been before as well as new people. What do you need to make sure that you do and what mistakes I guess. Have you seen people make where maybe they want, they didn't capitalize on it the way that they could have. So what should you do and what should you be sure not to do?

 

I have an answer and I think it's I think it's the same for both. Um Don't don't worry about other people while you're there. Don't worry about the size of another company or um what specific part of painting they're in or um how many people they seem to know in a room or how fancy their up shoes are, whatever it is. Don't don't worry about other people. Um And then on the flip side uh that's the same thing right? So like be focused on be focused on gleaning and growing and just knowing that it's a community.

 

Um Dude I'm a girl, I went to high school. I like I know drama inside and out and I know I know how this works our human nature is to get in a room full of people and think people are you know judging and comparing and doing all these things and it's just so not the case at expo like at all. Um So don't forget your name tag in your room because you need it to get into places and then don't don't think other people are out to get you.

 

This is this is the most welcoming group of people you could ever meet. I just doubled down on that. I don't have anything new to say and I will say be prepared to make lifelong friends. Uh you think you're coming here to get some apps and to get shaken down by Brandon and the other marketers to hold you upside down and shake Nichols audience stuff. But you know what though I mean? They're actually good guys. But you're going to make lifelong friends. You're going to make such meaningful relationships.

 

All these people that I know in the industry are from stuff like this in person. We never would have these connections. I can personally call upon the biggest thought leaders in the industry because we have a basic trust and a friendship and when I need that thing that you can only get from somebody doing what you're doing but better and you have a personal connection, I can call upon them those relationships were all forged at these. Yeah, it's a great opportunity. There's this idea of abundance versus scarcity mindset right?

 

And scarcity is worried about the competitors and what they're doing or they taking market share. Jason has his Sherwin Williams although maybe that was, I don't know, I don't know who originated that Now at this point I've got conflicting information whether it's Jason or nick but there's the idea of doing the math but Jason, I feel like I feel like somebody told me that nick came up with a number as a numbers guy. I'm data king baby. Alright, so yeah, it was from somebody. But the idea, do you guys want to say it?

 

One of you guys? So presidential as Nicoise says residential repaint, hyper fragmented market, uh, as he always says, your competition is only how well can you execute your business model right? It's not, you're not competing with market share of other painting contractors, Good litmus tests or sniff test on this is how many gallons of paint are you buying a year? And how many gallons of paint is your local Sherwin Williams selling a year. Right. How many gallons of paint are all the Sherman Williams selling in the area that you are willing to drive to service And what percentage of the market to those short William stores have is composed to compared to like the PPG the venture and more's the bears etcetera. Right?

 

It's a small number. Right? You congratulate those out. There's a whole math math thing on there. I put up a video four or five years ago on Youtube after live show. I mean it's very informative stuff out there. So nick actually deleted the live show where I did this with him. Did not, I just blocked you from it. That's okay. Brandon, I know you're bringing this to a close and and you know what, you're, you know, you know what you're getting into. You know, we like to rough you marketers up a little bit, but you you do this very well, you leave these conversations very well and we thank you.

 

Can I finish my sentence or I just hit the red X right now right now right now do I hit the red X. Jason right now, I was given Brandon a compliment, You rightfully cut me off and Brandon, you must be used to this by now. Hold on, hold on. I appreciate the attempt. That was very nice of you. Yeah. So the the abundance of scarcity mind. So even if you find yourself trapped in that scarcity mindset, it's an easy thing to think. You know, you you understand it but it still can be scary, right?

 

A lot of, a lot of business owners operate with fear, especially when you look into an uncertain economy, there's uncertainty. Business ownership is inherently risky. One of the really cool things, even if if you're kind of trapped in there, you're not 100% sure how to get out. A lot of these people aren't in your market, you meet, you meet the best company owners all across the country. So you don't have to be afraid to talk to them if they're in another state, you can tell them what you're doing, they can tell you what they're doing and you can still benefit right?

 

As opposed to locally if you are kind of trapped in that mindset, it might be a little bit more difficult. Um someone else said going to Pc and being shoulder to shoulder with all these industry leaders in an intimate setting like PC A is all inspiring. I think that idea of intimate is really important because there are a fair amount of people coming right, almost 1000 a lot of these these conferences and these other industries might be 100,000 people write concrete coding or something like that. Really, really big.

 

This is intimate. You get to know these people really well. Um anyone wanna, I do wanna. So I came up with a question that I want to ask all of you and maybe uh get some feedback here. What if somebody goes into this and they really want to mentor, right? They they're going there and they know man, I would really love to not just meet people and get ideas and stuff like that, but I would really love to kinda almost hitch onto someone. Maybe someone kind of take me under their wing a little bit.

 

What do you uh probably probably you three can't do it for everybody. What would you say to them if they wanted that? Let's say there's a highly likelihood that you'll achieve that uh by doing something like this right? So I can't make any guarantees. I also won't say that you can't achieve that within your own geographical niche or your personal network, But if you're looking to seek a mentor in the painting industry, this is a great place to go. Not just because of who goes and the high performance and everyone's growth minded.

 

But uh there are people that that literally will will stay involved with the P. C. A. Primarily out of a desire to give and just be aware that there are givers. There are takers those who give oftentimes received the most. So there's a catch 22 there. But um yeah I would I would I would ask chat gpt what a good strategy would be on that. And uh the answer is pc expo right? If it's wrong then we gotta look at the source code on that. Alright, so someone said uh I am gonna go ahead and plug that.

 

We are having a second episode of this. We're actually on a deep dive into question that was just asked. So they someone asked as an estimator which presentation should I make sure to sit in on. So we're going to actually dive deeper. Not just hey, here's the list. Here's where you can find what's happening. We're gonna actually explore it. So we're gonna say, hey these are the breakout sessions, this is what's likely to be covered. These are the brain mills. This is what we're likely to cover.

 

So this in this episode part one of the pc expo 2023 game plan we really covered expo in general. Right? Who should be there? What what how to make sure you capitalize on it, what to expect um what to do and not to do in this next one. We're actually gonna get really nitty gritty with it. Obviously the recordings will be available now you guys know that which is a huge plus first time ever, but it's still nothing like being there in person. And so you still have to decide if there's three breakout sessions.

 

You you can only be at one and and if you're there then you can ask questions live and you can really engage in a way you can on the recording. So we'll take a deep dive into that, into your position, your company, your location, kind of, your business and life journey and what you should be uh game planning, right? Kind of road mapping. What what this whole thing is titled. You guys have anything anything else that you want to add before we wrap this session up. This is a balance sheet activity, not a P. And L. Transaction.

 

So I don't want to hear any pushback from the financial budgeting people because you have to spend money to make money. Okay, this is an investment carry that accrual forward and uh it's a capital expense. It's not even a capital expenses, Capital investment nick Maggie. No listen again, you're gonna see a through line through this thing which is there's some very inspirational things us as visionaries Integrators and leaders can only get at things like these and sometimes you don't even know you need it until you get there.

 

So I would, I would tell you, even if it's not this year just show up once. I have never heard a person walk away saying yeah that yeah, if not Albuquerque, then The unnamed 2025 locations Orlando 2020 for let's make a promise not to have relations living in a lawless country. Everything is going into anarchy and entropy and but the dates are not revealed yet. Everything is great. You will only get told the dates if you attend expo this year. It's the only way you'll ever know. It's not going to ever be public.

 

Alright guys, well I appreciate your, your time you guys selflessly and gracefully gave uh for this. We will be posting the recording. It, it will come out through the pc a overdrive. We'll be posting the facebook group. Thank you for, for everyone who attended. Hopefully you were able to get your questions answered and learn something. You can always, as a reminder in the pan american Masters podcast for him on facebook, you can tag Nick, you can tag Maggie, you can tag Jason and you can ask them questions directly and they should respond.

 

Um, so thank you everyone and look forward. Never puts down his phone even to talk to his wife at dinner. So it's just always right in front of him on a frozen lake. We will be having the second episode. Sorry. No, you're good. You're trying to give the conclusion. We're just having our own conversation. I, what's wrong with your hair Looks great. I hate that you did that. I hate that you did that. Jason and I were logged in about 15 minutes before this and I have a whole new set up, the new camera and my hair is pixelated and it was driving me absolutely insane.

 

I spent the 15 minutes changing shirts, hats, you name it and it didn't work. So there you go, pixelated. Here you are handsome dude, your wife helped you and you guys are awesome. Stop picking on him. They are really of each other. It's hurting my eyes. I need like some blue light glasses or something. I don't know what's going on here, but my eyes that I can't register which were next faces because he's got so many pictures of himself on his walls. Can't My eyes are like jittering.

 

Never hug a porcupine. It was a gift from a country. It was a gift from a country Jason. Thanks for bringing that up. All right, we're gonna wrap this thing up. Thank you guys for participating and we'll see you see everyone in uh, in about two weeks on this. 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 L is painter marketing pros dot com forward slash podcast. Hey there 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 to learn more about our services. You can also reach out to me directly by emailing me at Brandon@PainterMarketingPros.com and I can give you personalized advice on growing your painting business until next time. Keep growing.