Guest Interview: Post-PCA EXPO 2023 Action Plan Roundtable
PCA EXPO 2023 was a MASSIVE success! We at the PCA marketing committee have been informed that attendance and participation were well above EXPO 2022 levels. We have also received feedback that the value derived from the breakout sessions, brain melds, panels, and focus groups was through the roof!!
Join us in this special post-PCA Roundtable where we discuss how to take what you learned at EXPO, and maximize its benefit to your painting company in 2023. We will be highlighting the BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS from each breakout session, brain meld, and focus group, and sharing them and how you can use them to grow your painting company. Think of this roundtable as a HIGHLIGHT REEL of PCA EXPO 2023.
Our Roundtable guests include Jason Phillips of Phillips Home Improvements, Jason Paris of Aleph Holdings and Paris Painting, and Corrie Leister of Inspired By U Coatings.
You will NOT want to miss this. Come listen to these titans of industry help you craft your post-EXPO action plan, and ask them questions directly. This will be a 1-hour action-packed live event held last Thursday, March 09 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm EST.
Video of Interview
Topics Discussed:
- how to take what you learned at EXPO
- how to maximize its benefit to your painting company in 2023
- BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS from each breakout session, brain meld, and focus group
Audio Transcript
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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 what is going on.
What is going on everybody. We have the post PC A expo 2023 action plan round table here we have Mr Mr Jason Paris of all of holdings, Paris painting and probably about 12 other companies. At this point. A Mr Jason Phillips of Phillips Home Improvement. We have co life sort of inspired by you uh myself, market pros and then we are waiting on Nick Slavic Slavic painting restoration. You will hopefully hop in here. The purpose of this round table is too. What's up brad purpose of this round table is to discuss the biggest takeaways from PC Expo 2023.
It's relevant for people who came because as you know, it's drinking from the firehose, I think there were 30 plus breakout sessions. There were focus groups, there were 60003 or 45 brain melt topic. So there's a lot to take in. So we're gonna distill some of the biggest takeaways and how you can actually implement them to move your company forward. Uh, and for people who didn't come, well, here's kind of your cheat sheet of what you missed some big takeaways. So super, super value add for you. Uh Jason's Jason's Corey, thanks for joining us.
Who wants to kick off about your experience at PC Expo? I vote for Cory. Hey, guys, I absolutely loved the P C A and last year was my first time attending and I knew that as soon as I attended, I wouldn't miss another one. Um It was that impactful, the people there were like none other, you know, you, I feel like often times as a business owner, you feel like you're by yourself. And this showed me a community of people who truly valued and heard about me and my business and helping it grow.
And the great thing was I made a lot of great connections at that Expo in 2022. And then those relationships only grew throughout the year. So when I went back this year, it was like a big family reunion and it was incredible you know, that I can't say enough, like I love all of the education and I love all of the, the classes and everything um that they pour into that aspect of it. But for me, the networking and the relationships that you develop through this community, they're invaluable and they've helped to set my business apart and they've helped to help our business grow to new levels throughout the course of the year.
And I'm excited for the future because I know that um as we continue to grow and every year that it was really cool for me as a woman to have the first woman and paint night as well. And to know like last year when I was there, there was a group of women, but this year, the numbers doubled and to have that vision of where we're going to be in the future. It's, it's just really, it was really a great experience. I was a really big group.
I can attest to that because I went up there looking for my wife and a lot of people looking at me pretty funny and I felt like there were over 100 women there and then me that was quite the group. I saw you up there. I was like, yeah, stood out, stood out Jason. Jason, what do we got? Jason setup? Looks pro level, right? It's what's happening in the background. Is that like a TV? That's changing? Oh Yeah, that's just a screen. Is there an aquarium back there?
No, that's just lights and some cabinets and such there. What's that? Next to your shoulders? There's like giant muscles popping through your shirt. I don't see that. I see. No, I don't see that set up overall and like even like the attention to detail, the blue microphone thing. I'm impressed. He's got easy bake meat cleaver rolled on pink shirt. Looks good, man. Thank you. I have nothing else to add. That was very good. Well, I think I, I think Jason is Paris is, is uh working on his next speaking event humor there on his white board.
He's, he's, he's game planning his jokes back there. Private. You can look at my keyboard here. Actually, I love it. Well, Jason Phillips, I know that you presented. I sat sat in for most of your presentation had to run near the very end, but it was very impactful. Um Can you give a little bit, I guess of a recap. Some of the biggest takeaways that, that you felt were important from your presentation? Well, from, from my presentation, I, I feel the takeaways are, you know, you don't have to live or visit contractor prison.
You don't have to live in contractor prison. And there's some, some simple, I say they're simple. The framework is simple, but you have to work it out daily. But you've got to grow as you know, one, you've got to grow as a leader uh to, you've got to gain some people skills or up your people skills game. So you can build a great team of people. And then three, you've got to empower people with uh with what I call able or simple systems so that they can just be supercharged in their workflows.
Um So I feel like that's if that, that's what I want people to remember is, is, hey, I want them to feel like I can do this. I can grow as a leader, I can build some people skills and, and I can empower my people and I can live a life of freedom where I'm not giving the best of who I am to my company. Uh I'm giving my, the most important people in my life the best of who I am like my family and such, you know, now to kind of tag on what Corey said, you know, I've, I've been coming for a number of years to the, to the expos and I feel from so many people that I, that I spoke with a common denominator.
A common theme is uh is guys feel like they're, I say guys, guys and gals owners feel like they're on an island. And then when they realized there's this group of people and we get together and we solve problems together and we build each other up. It's just, it's, I feel like every single person that I visited with was absolutely experiencing refreshing in their vision for their life in their business while they were there. And, you know, this may sound a little touchy feely, but if you've never been to one, but there, it really is power in connection and connecting with other people who were so much like you on the same path as you.
There's, it's like, it's like you established lifelines with people and you can just pick up the phone and call, call them later and game plan things right over the phone that, that before you had these connections, you didn't have that ability. And I feel like there's just so many people that are empowered uh and refreshed by that. Yeah. And I don't know if, if I'm just noticing it more this year. I don't, I don't know if it's, it's the interactions that I'm having post expo that are a bit different.
But the 2022 expo in the 2023, I'm noticing a lot more action now. So some people are reaching out and, and it's not just they want to market, obviously, that's great, but there's other things that they're doing. They're, they're just say, oh, hey, I'm doing X Y and Z and some people, you know, I'm having a conversation with and they're there say, hey, you know, actually right now is not the time to market, but I am gonna do all these things and I'm just seeing there's some kind of shift here maybe it's just that the economy has shifted a bit.
So people are focusing a little more on the business because business isn't so easy to come by. Maybe I know that, that the numbers went up pretty significantly for this Expo. Maybe the breakout sessions were viewed as higher quality, but people are moving on these, on these actions, which is awesome to see Corey. I know you. So we sent emails to all the speakers to get their 1-3 take aways. We've got quite a bit of feedback. I know you had some feedback to give. What were your big takeaways?
Um Well, I got to see my friend Chris Elliot go in and, and speak and I went in because he's a friend of mine and I wanted to be there to support him. And when I was there, I was like, holy cow. Like he's an incredible communicator and he talked about traction and he really broke it down in a way that made so much sense and there was just a group of us there who, you know, we've read the book before. Um But the way that he made, he just simplified everything and he brought it down to a level that, you know, it's easy for me to understand.
So he dumped it down for me and it was incredible. I loved the way he talked about delegation at one point. And on, on the whiteboard there, he had write down what you're great at and what you love doing and you put that in the upper left hand corner and then he said, write up what you're good at and you like doing, put that in the upper right corner and then right out on the lower left, what you hate doing and what you're bad at. And then the right hand corner and he was like, right what you're, you know, you dislike doing, but you're good at and he drew a line in between the two and he's like everything below this line you need to delegate.
And he said, if you're not delegating, then you're depleting your energy. And I was just like, you know, it was so good for me because it showed me that I'm on the right path because this year it was, that's what I needed to do to move my business forward. But it was just so encouraging the way that he did it and the way that he just, he said, simplified everything for us. So it was an excellent um talk. Um And I love how he gave actionable steps that you could take and go out and implement in your business immediately and an experienced growth from that.
So um he was just a great communicator. I thought that it was an excellent um excellent way to uh to break down a subject that could be a little bit more on the complicated end. Well, I've got people involved too. He brought someone up and he was very interactive and then somehow he made me feel like I'm gonna cry while he's talking about. Um how'd you do that, Chris? But a lot going on in that one. Yeah, Jason's either of you, what presentation or focus group stood out to you guys.
They go to uh Brad Ellison's uh presentation and I was shocked at how much people liked his presentation, uh shocking. Uh He actually relates really well to people. You would not by looking at him or talking to him, but people related to him. And I was a little bit surprised that he did extremely well job crafting his message. It was, it was nice dress shirt, the tie, I think, yeah, I think he did. He had like a skinny tie maybe. Um But it was, I think if like the core message of his, one of the core messages that he put through was um for a long time in his life, he had sought comfort and control and uh that had ultimately shackled him and it was not like a giant leap that he took a big step.
He took it was by little inch e baby steps of, I'm gonna continue to seek comfort in a continuously control. And he found himself as, as the Phillips would say in his own prison, right? He'd create, he had crafted this own prison for himself. And I thought that's just such a great foundational message of human nature is these prisons that we enslave ourselves in as, as people. And so, um that was a great message. He talked about breaking out of that and the daily and consistent disciplines are required to not revert.
And then he had a lot of humility and just some of his personal stories of things he's gone through that made him super relatable. So um yeah, he's a great guy. He's a smart guy. I like him a lot. I did not think people, other people like him that much. So I was actually like no tongue in cheek there. I was pretty shocked that people related to his presentation. He just did a great job with his messaging, which was cool. You know, that's one of the things I had to choose because Brad is a really good friend of mine too and I had to choose between Brad and Chris and I know Brad's story a little bit and, and I went the safe route because I'm an ugly crier and I knew like I would probably cry if I went to Brad's because just I know how he's, he's a great communicator.
And so I voted for going to Chris's because I knew that I could watch Brad's when I was at home because they record all of these sessions. And I was so excited that they recorded them this year because I can ugly cry at home too and listen to Brad and listen to him and support him in that way too. But I chose a safe route that was released that have they released those recordings? Not yet. Great question for Nick Slavic. Hey, Nick, thanks so much for agreeing to come on.
So don't, don't email me with all of your helpful suggestions for how to improve things. Send those directly to Nick. Nick. Nick. Nick, what's your, you know, when they're bringing those Knicks Knicks Slavic dot com? Yeah, those emails you ask him, he'll let you know when it's released. You know, I might add uh Jason, what about, about Brad's presentation? Um I think Brad was open, honest and vulnerable and, and he connected with people, Brad. I know you're listening here, man, you shared some tough stuff and the thing is life happens and you made it through to the other side.
And I think that I think that uh the connection was people see, man, if Brad can do this, I can do this. They probably see themselves when they look at you and they were hearing you. A lot of people were hearing and seeing themselves and I believe you really gave people hope and courage in that. So thank you for sharing that powerful message, by the way. Yeah, I don't know why we talk about Brad so much. So, yeah, I think, yeah, when he popped that shirtless photo was like this is why everybody's here.
This is why he's an up and comer. He's also, he's new to the P C A and it's for good, for good reason. He's a huge promoter of the PC as well. He won the what the Recruiter award like up and Comers. And then there's has been like, it's kind of nice now. It has been. So he gave me like a lifetime achievement award at age 35. So it's like, well, that was a great dog. It's been a good time to die. Time to die. Very, whatever. That's fine.
So what did you guys think about the brain melts? Did you guys attend any of those? Yeah, I loved it. I led a session on cabinet re finishing. So I had a whole like just I got to meet a ton of people and I got to share some of my experience and listen to some of theirs as well. So I thought it was really powerful. I wish I would have gotten around to some of the other tables because I've heard a lot of great things that people had gleaned from that.
Yeah, I think I was at the, I had led a session to Cory. I think I was at the least popular table and because the, the title of mine was just diversification and I think people didn't know what that was, was that about diversification of culture or diversion of diversification of services? And uh so, uh you know, as people walking by, they would ask and I say, well, it's, we're talking about, you know, diversification. Should I, should I grow my painting business geographically or should I offer additional services to the clients who already, you know, trust me and like me.
And so we had, we had some really engaging conversations on that. I would say you're like the domain expert on that to Jason. You're, I think I remember I picked your brain five years ago on the same topic. I don't know if you remember it, but you're, you're one of the few people I interact with in life that will actually answer the question. A lot of people, you ask them a question like Brandon, like I will never any company people question and they start talking, man, they start talking platitudes and you're like, I don't know, you just got to keep trying keep like a cognitive like bandwidth issue or if it's just like something's wrong.
But like Jason operating Jason's like operating at a level where you can have a conversation with him and he gets the question, he will slam back and answer. And that was one of my big takeaways from expo five years ago. Was that conversation I had with you? You're a domain expert when it comes to this. It's uh yeah, people weren't at that table. Uh They missed out. Uh But I also know you're pretty open book when people reach out to you as well. We'll definitely wouldn't call myself an expert, but I've, I've stepped in a few proverbial buckets of paint and, uh, I know how to avoid certain things these days. Yeah.
Jason Phillips, one of the awesome things that you did that I've never seen anyone do was you basically were recapping the day's doing live videos for all the people who were not there and for people who are following on Facebook, you would attend sessions, focus groups and you would essentially, I think you did interviews to write live interviews that you were broadcasting on Facebook. What, what were you doing? Yeah. You know, because um leading up to the, to the event, to the expo, I was talking to painters locally and, and online, hey, are you going and, and so many people like, oh man, I want to go but I can't go or for whatever reason, whether they couldn't go financially or they were slammed with their schedule or, or someone in their family was sick or having a surgery, whatever it was.
And I felt, I felt bad because I know the value that I get out of those events and you know, it's so many of these events when people go stuff, they're like, hey, look at us Snap. Snap. We're having such a great time without you. You should be here loser. Like, man, I don't wanna make people feel like that. I'm like, why don't we, why don't we just kind of reach out through the internet and put our arms around them and give them a hug and, and see if we can add some value to them until next year.
So they can get here next year. Then if they don't come next year, I'm just gonna strangle them. It sounds like that cease and desist letter never made its way over to you. No, I'm just kidding. That's awesome. I didn't realize that that 20, was your first expo? Let's, let's kind of dive in, you know, Jason's been around, he's the dog, you know, he's on his last day. Yeah, it's gonna be like a painless. You just get out of here. Come on, man, we love to have you.
Um but let's talk a little bit about these relationships. You say you crafted in 113 and Jason and Jason, you know, I'm sure you guys remember kind of when you were starting out because I think that I think that's powerful. Yeah, you want me to just talk on the relation? Yeah, I guess just, you know, when you come, I think one of the big concerns are, is just that it's kind of nerve wracking. You know, the painting industry isn't the most collaborative of industries. It might, there aren't really a ton of events, not really, they're smaller.
Sherwin Williams and, and stuff, but it might be their first real conference or trade show with the so called competitors or enemies. It's a jarring experience. So I'd love to hear kind of how you felt going into 20, and then, and then how it was in 2023. Yeah, I went with, you know, Nick kind of roped me into, he suckered me into this thing and then it was neat because I was able to meet a lot of people that I had connected with online and had never met in person.
So, you know, putting faces to um Facebook user names, you know, it was kind of, it was interesting because some people would be exactly like what I expected. Some people would be completely different than what I had anticipated. But getting to put a lot of faces to names and just going out and reaching out to some people that I've been really interested in connecting with before. It was just a really great experience and I loved, you know, getting to meet some of those people last year. It was awesome because I'm really great friends with the surface family and Hannah was there.
So we kind of powered around and I loved, you know, having that person that I connected with so well that we just, we made it a great experience for the both of us. And so coming into this one, it was awesome because now there was a group of women who um you know, we just, we had this message chain and any new woman that we ran into were like, are you on our message chain and we just, we tried to make this big event feel as small and personal as possible and it really helped and, and I felt like it was just really, we became closer through it all and it was, I would just encourage you, you know, if you haven't experienced anything like that, even if you're scared to death of people, you know, just extend yourself out there and make some of those connections because some of them will completely change the trajectory of your business.
Um and I just, I cannot imagine had I not taken that step and develop some of those relationships that I had at that point in 2022 um where our business would be today because I know that that was a catapult or a springboard to where we are today. Yeah. Yeah. The, the relationships is huge for me. The, the brain melds are always the most incredible thing. I was at a table of, you know, how to market and grow your business, obviously and, and the way that people approach it, I kind of go in thinking all right, we're going to do digital Marketing, all this stuff and some of the innovative things that people are doing and the way that they're talking about dissecting their market is incredible.
I'm sitting there learning stuff, they're all learning things and then they kind of start collaborating and it's always just this, this mind blowing experience. I almost hope that the PCA will do more of those in 21. I love to the way. Oh, I'm sorry, Jason. I was just gonna say, you know, I loved to how I've always had like these, these fears of like you put people on pedestals, right? So, like Zach Kenny was one of those people that I just, you know, I put him on a pedestal.
I don't know why. But I just, I had him like up here and the one day he just took the time and we had the most thoughtful conversation. I was like, oh my gosh, he's not like he, he was a real person. He became a real person at that moment. And, and I think if you just, you overcome those fears and you step out on faith and you just make those connections with people, you'll be like, oh my gosh, these are people that they are truly like they want to help and they want not, not that I ever visions, Zack wouldn't be like that, but I just thought that he was just this lofty person on Instagram.
You know what I mean? Kind of unattainable, unattainable. Um But we had the most thoughtful conversation and it was, it was incredible to meet different people like that on a more personal level. Yeah. You know, one of the other. No, no, no, you're great. That was awesome. By the way, one of the things that you don't know what you don't know. Right. And whether it's at a brain meld or whether it's in one of the breakout sessions or, or whether it's, whether it's in the networking after one nugget of information or piece of wisdom can literally save you tens of thousands of dollars in a year or make you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year.
And it's, it's not just, you know, that's great. Those nuggets are great, but also when you, when you take, extract yourself from your business for a period of time and you're immersed for several days in an environment where all you're doing is thinking about your business. Good things are bound to happen. There is such a tremendous R O I from uh for focusing on your business in that way and power that up with, with nuggets of wisdom and problems solved that other guys went through the learning, went through the learning curve for you and they'll share that with you.
It's just, I mean, it's got to be 22 times R O I on your expense just to just to go. Yeah, I think that's a, that's an excellent point. You know, you can literally learn one thing and it can, it can make it all worth it. It's so scary to endure the cost and it's so scary to endure the cost from the time perspective and forcing yourself to, to pull out and, and focus on the business rather than in the business. We talk about that a lot, but it really forces you to do that because you can't be checking your emails the whole time.
You can't be responding, putting out fires the whole time. You're, you're in breakout sessions, you're talking to people, you're around the table talking to people. Uh It's transformative. Guess what dovetail to Jason's point there, you know, these are not low stakes impacts, right? It's not like we're a bunch of uh you know, 225 year olds doing lemonade stands three times a year in the summer. Uh These are like tens of thousands of dollars of profits that swing, right? Based off of key decisions that you make as a founder or the business owner, right?
And how many of those decisions do you make in a year? It's a lot, right? And so I just to Jason's point, it's uh there's probably the biggest cost, this is the time commitment, but these are not low stakes, right? Even a smaller painting company, you know, still doing likely hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue and the profit that's associated with that you can easily have tens of thousands of dollars swinging based off of either good decisions or bad decisions. You know, Jason, I was, I was having a conversation with a group and there was a guy in our group, I don't remember, I don't remember who it was, but the conversation stuck out in my mind, he was maxed out in his personal time and in the productivity of his team, he felt like he was getting all he could out of them.
He was, you know, how can I grow my company or how can I do more? We, and we just all got to talkin and we started talking about a pricing model and he told us, you know what, he was his profit margins on his jobs. And we just all at the same time looked in and said, you've got to raise your prices and I mean, if he raised his prices, 21%, which he could have easily raised at 23%,, that's bottom line dollars. At that point, he's gonna be making more money just from a decision to raise his prices right there cause he was low, he was definitely low.
So rather than bringing on more, needing more leads, he just needed to sell, sell for more and maybe build a little more value into a sales present presentation. I mean, how much is something like that worth in a year that's worth a lot. It's such a, it's such a hard decision to make in the absence of reinforcement, right? And that's a very scary thing to just raise your prices because you believe the prices should be higher, right? It's a lot different different when you have reinforcement, not just from people with feelings, but people facts and that's where the value a lot of value comes in is you might have an idea or an issue of what you want to tweak and make a decision, your business if you can get reinforcement on either the do it or don't do it side of that coin from people who have real world experience that has a lot of impact to it gives you courage because there's a lot at risk in that. Right.
There's a lot of risk. Yeah, informed decision making. Not only that. Go ahead, Brandon. No, no, don't just, I'm not gonna talk. I feel like I'm so antagonistic to Brandon. Actually, you are the person. I just, I just feel like so much of our trade, our painters who own a business. And it was so great for me to be around a group of business owners who have a painting business. It's, it's a, it's a different dynamic and, and I think that so many painters out there, they need the business side of it, but they're so in the game and they don't know the difference between spending and investing and that they're, they're caught up and maybe the price of, of how much it is to attend the P C A expo and you know, and whatever it is.
But if you're focused on, it's an investment in yourself and you're getting around other people who can help your business grow and it's just a shift in your thinking. And I know for me that that was a game changer was getting around other business owners who thought like business owners and who helped me expand my thinking and who helped me grow in that realm. Um I think that it can really like, I know that the goal is to, to professionalize your business and to elevate the trade and, and if we want to do that, then we need to help people shift their thinking from just being a painter.
Um Not that anybody is just a painter because everybody has value, but to being a business owner and, and treating it like a professionalized business, you know, I love you. I love your thought on that. Shifting. The thinking is, you know, there's dollars, as Jason mentioned, as there's, there's dollars in time invested in going and you can see that as a loss. But what are you gonna lose by not going? What are you gonna miss out on by not going? You know, it's, it's absolutely tremendous. Yeah.
So there was, I spoke with someone after the Expo who told me that he And I'm obviously not Gonna name names, but he had a, a salesperson who had sold $26000,20223 of business in a year. And it wasn't until he went to Expo that he learned that, that they really should be expecting more in the realm of a million. And so the first thing he did when he went home was to let go of the salesperson that doesn't sell anything. But it, it's, that, that's an extreme example of, of effect, right?
Of a gold nugget of like a holy, like a, like a smack in the head. Like, wow, this is totally off. But there are so many subtleties, even if you think you have it all figured out, I promise you, there are people there who have it more figured out than you. And at those round tables at that networking, we had, we had people at my roundtable came here in the 22022 22023 plus million dollars. So if you're sitting at five or you think you have it all figured out, there's somebody who has it more figured out than you and you can learn from that person.
No question. Yeah. So I go ahead, Jason. I was just gonna say it's, it's always fun to mind the gems out of like uh I can't think of a great metaphor because I'm gonna say the dirt. But that's there, there are great ideas and great concepts in places you wouldn't expect them. And a lot of times we put these uh sources of information on a pedestal because they're really good at execution, right? And if you're really good execution, especially in this industry, it's not very complex. You can be very successful, right?
But just because you're successful because your good execution doesn't mean you have the best ideas and some of the best ideas you can mine out of there are from people who actually may not be that great discipline, right? And so now you're trying to find these nuggets from sources that aren't uh like inherently vetted, right? Because the way we vet people are proof of concept to success, but the success is more deterministic on their ability to execute than it is actually the principle of the idea. And so that's one of the more fun things for me at these, at these conferences to mine out like, yeah, it's easy to look at like Jason Phillips and he tells you something and you're gonna believe it.
Like it's gospel. Odds are it is, he's very successful in life, right? But you can also meet Johnny two shoes, Johnny two shoes. He's having a tough time. This is not taken off. Uh, you know, he has this problem if he keeps seeing this news button on his alarm every day. But the way that he does is whatever it is, like, his closing process is very novel and unique. It's underrepresented in his success and trying to mind those nuggets. One of my favorite part of Expo. Yeah, they're out there.
Did I get that out without being too offensive? Feel like it's a good concept. And I just got a message from Brad. He said he wrote a complaint letter to the PC A about your comments earlier. Not my problem. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm out peace out. That's next issue. Now. But, you know, Jason, you bring up a good point. You know, when, when you're, let's just say that you're newer in business, there's things you may not know. But then as you've been in business a long time, there's important things that you forgot that a lot of times it's, it's good to be around people that are fresher in business and there may be having to scratch and claw in a different way.
And when I'm around those people, like, yeah, I used to, I used, why did I stop doing that? That's important. That was a key to my success. And for some reason I let that slip and I get reminders on those things that I love to network with people that are, you know, way larger and way better in business than me and people that are way newer in business than me too. That's a great point. Like, you know, when you're early on you hustle, use your network, use your friends, you go for those referrals, you push hard for those reviews and then you start making progress and you stop caring about that stuff.
You get fat and lazy. That's what you do. That's the natural when that's your best. That that's your, you know, I know Jason Phillips, you talk a lot about that. Those are your best customers you spend a lot of episodes for and in this series we're conducting focused on that. Um So I did, I did email. A basically every speaker that was at PC Expo 22022 we sent them an email and we asked for their take away. So I just wanna just wanna throw one out there right now.
So Brandon Lewis spoke there many of, you know, Brandon Lewis. Um he had three points. I'm just gonna drop him. Point number one is once you set a goal of 30% cash flow to owner, it necessitates using best practices in your business system. So you got three takeaways from his talk that he wanted to present here. Point number two is roughly 12 business systems control the big picture KPI S that flow directly into your income. And point number three is don't over complicate your business improvement plan. Focus on excellence in the basics and everything else will take care of itself.
I really like point number three, I think that's a lot of what you get out of. I think it sets like the framework of the expectations of what a painting business should be, right? So many of us grew up with the perception that running a painting business means that you're gonna be really tired at the end of the day, not have a ton of money, probably should start drinking. And if you're married, you should probably get a divorce just to fit in with the cohort of a painting contractor.
And Brandon Lewis lays out those three bullet points. That's really saying start with this expectation, start with this expectation and now try and craft your business. And uh so much of, yeah, there's a lot of dovetail off of there. That's one reason that's one of the reasons I liked the book that you made Brandon. You know, there's some things that you do really well making books is one of them and then I talk and then it just all goes out the window. That was one good thing because it really does help promote stories that set expectations.
And uh yeah, that's, that's a good Brandon Lewis does a great job of messaging. He's a, he's a very strategic mind, but you can also see that strategy through. So it's a unique combination of abilities. He's very conceptual and theoretical, but he also is a great performer and deliverer of the message as well. So it's fun to whenever he does it is involved in something, whether it's politics, speaking about a painting conference, it's fun to see that kind of whole package at play. It's weird how many Brandon's are involved here.
Brandon Lewis, Brandon's is just a popular name here. Um So Chris Elliott had some feedback. So I know Corey gave her take away from Chris Elliott. He was speaking on E O S. He also had three primary takeaways that he wanted conveyed. So number one is E OS helps you get unstuck by organizing the hundreds of challenges and issues we face as business owners and making them more manageable through narrowing our focus to the six key components of E O S vision people, data issues, process and traction.
Basically gonna help you organize, simplify, you know, we live in a mess. It's chaos. Otherwise, number two, implementing a business operating system, specifically E OS can help you get more of what you want from your business. More predictability, peace of mind and profit. That sounds pretty nice. Seasonality is obviously concerned. Peace of mind, profit. Those are all things that are nice. Number three, it is not easy but it is simple. I like that a lot. It is not easy, but it is simple. Implementation of the Os is a process and it takes time to roll out the system.
But if you stay with it, eventually you will experience the click, it will then feel more natural and you will start to experience the full benefits of the Os. I love that this concept of not easy but simple. I think that's, that's basically all of this stuff is applying to that. No one's telling you it's so easy. You go and you're just gonna, you're just gonna wave a magic wand and you know, people get kind of irritated. Oh, this isn't easy. I want to make sure everyone listening.
No one's saying it is easy, but they're saying there's a path and it's simple. You just have to follow what your guys' thoughts on all that. So I'll just say, it's kind of like, uh, Jason Phillips has big muscles. Okay. I know you're not, you don't want to show him off today but you do. He's got great muscles. Uh, there's a lot you can get, you can really get caught in the weeds of fitness. Right. And, and Jason is an example of, I don't think he's gotten caught in the weeds.
I think he just executes. And it's, it's actually very simple, but it's not easy. And where people get stuck in this fitness endeavor, right? That Jason has been on, as they say, well, should be focused on like the central contractions or concentric contractions and should be working out in line with my circadian rhythm or should I be on the dip of the circadian rhythm? And, and Jason is just like, how about I just work out every day? How about I sweat every day? And from there, you can bend to get to stack and work on the nuances after like a year of consistency.
But so many people want to start with the nuances and then get in the deep research and they get frozen and they get paralyzed and they're just like, well, I'm not optimizing everything. Just E O S is not going to solve your, it's not perfect. Us is not perfect. Uh Only Jesus is perfect. No, OS is not perfect, but it is an operating system that will get you going right. And it's so simple. It's kind of like we over, I over complicate things a lot too. And I just wanna, there we were just talking about this with my group of friends were talking about this and there's this big issue and we're like, how do we solve it?
And it was a relational issue. And then like, we came back a week later, I was like, oh, it's got solved, like how it gets solved to the very basic, simple things you'd expect, right? Sometimes we're like, I'm so dirty. Uh and I smell right. I'm smelly and I'm dirty and I don't know how to solve this. I was like, oh, I just took a shower and now I'm clean, right? It's not that complex. Don't overthink it. Stay consistent. Don't get caught in the nuances of all these weird things that people get obsessed with.
Just start executing. Work out every day for an hour. Youtube can be ripped like Jason Phillips shaving your arm hairs might help a little bit. But there's still a lot of performance underneath that that you won't achieve without anything else. You crack me up, man. So I uh I started E O S back in I think 2016, something like that. And it really helped me get my team. I had, had a, had a big team and it was hard getting us on the same page and it really just, it's so basic.
It's not rocket science, but it just helped give us some consistency guidelines on when and how we were reporting. And the whole point of a meeting is to identify, discuss and solve problems. So they go away forever. And it really just gave us a framework that we could. Then of course, we had to Jason's point, we had to be consistent in rolling that out and sticking to it. But it's, it's just simple guidelines that it's basic one oh one things. It's not even rocket science and most of those comments, most of that book is actually gathered from, you can find deeper subjects and other books about.
It's like a boiled down simplistic version of uh here's a shortcut to get your, you know, your team and your, your things in line so you can get, get traction. I got stuck on the Os, not that this is a Holy Us discussion, but I went through when we got the process. I'm like, man, we've got so many processes that are written up in every different place and there are huge mess. It took us a long time to simplify our processes and we're still doing that. And you know, to you guys that, that are, that don't have all that yet.
Take the time, do what the Os says and get your process is documented in a very simple manner and then you just have your team accustomed to following a process, then you can just improve it as you go. Yeah, I think with us, I was just, I was just gonna say, um, you know, I tend to over complicate some things and like with something as simple as the core values when I'm thinking of our company's core values and going through, you know, the book traction and trying to be because I know that success principles that they're duplicated, you're going to get results.
So I wanted to do it as well as I could. So I'm like, okay, core values and I'm like, thinking in my head, I'm like, okay, well, what's gonna look the best for our company? And I'm like, looking up core values online and I'm like, just, I'm totally overthinking this. And I finally got to the point where I'm like, I send a message out to our team and I'm like, who are we when you think of inspired by you? What do you think of? And, and then we start getting back like, we love to serve our customers, you know, we were a faith based business, you know, and, and they were talking about, you know, we love coming to work, we love our community, you know, and those are core values, that's who we are.
And I was totally overthinking it and because I wanted to do it right. And I wanted to have it all outline and when you just kind of let go of that and you just keep it simple and you just focus, I think it just, it really helped me, you know, just make it more real and authentic and it's, it's who we are. It's not what looks best written out on anything. It's, it's who we are. Hey, Brandon, someone just asked, uh can you explain the Os, just read the Book Traction, its entrepreneurial operating system, the book traction will explain everything Gino Wickman. Yeah.
Thanks for, thanks for that. So, the uh we've talked about marketing growing your company. We've talked about E O s um systematize in your business. We've talked about hiring the right people and, and escaping contractor prison. So all these subjects are covered in such a depth right at the expo. Everything you could possibly want to know. One of the other sessions that I attended that I found very interest was Matt and Maggie Kippers discussion on how to grow a, a commercial painting business and really how to break into that market.
I feel like that's something that's really not discuss that much. It's kind of this mysterious. So you have to know people and that's how you get the big commercial jobs and they really, they had a video of a big commercial painting contractor and kind of what they're looking for in these partnerships and, and they go from A to Z. Hey, if you're just getting started, here's how you make yourself attractive. Here's the paperwork you need. Here's what you need to contact. Here's what you need to be persistent.
Here's what you need to watch out for and then they answered all this stuff, there's stuff on subcontractors. How do you find subcontractors? Subcontractors versus W two? What are the pros and cons anything you want to know is there? And if it's not deliberately being kind of shoved down your throat through a breakout session or focus group, you can go find someone and ask them. So, the R O I is huge. Yeah, it's an intimidation, uh topic for sure. A lot of people just don't know what they don't know.
And that intimidates them. Like a lot of people are scared of commercial, not because it's rocket surgery. Uh Did you do surgery on rockets? What rocket surgery? It's called a Mala for when you malformed for here, I am trying to take a dig at you and I'm the one who ends up looking stupid. It's a highly intellectual pursuit where you intentionally mix up to metaphor. It's called a Mala for limited bandwidth. You know, that brain surgery and rocket science called malformed metaphor for. Um Yeah, it's an intimidation thing and it's fun to break down those barriers of intimidation through.
People are willing to be open book and, and help others. So don't be afraid to ask. I think that's a, that's a big takeaway for everybody. Just don't be afraid to ask and talk and hey, man, I need help with this or how did you solve this problem? I'm encountering this, I don't know what to do. People are an open book. Yeah. So Mark Nelson from Olive Holdings. Olive had a number of speakers at this expo. His to take away points in response to the email where a basic understanding and knowledge of simple processes and systems is kind of relevant uh to begin work with subcontractors in a healthy way or take the next step and growing through working with subcontractors.
So he really focused on that. This includes recruiting avenues, orientation processes, leveraging your labor force and an overview of formal partnerships. So if you didn't attend it, if you want to expo, you're gonna get all these recordings. So when you're hearing this stuff, obviously, we can't cover everything in depth, but it's giving you a sense of all the stuff that's there. You're going to get a recording of everything. It's going to be on PC overdrive if you didn't attend, I'm sorry, we'll be behind a paywall, but it's really not going to be that expensive.
And I hope that you can afford a couple $100 to transform your painting company. Don't download it illegally. Okay. You wouldn't download a car. Don't, don't do that. Don't ride the High Seas. We will come after with the full force of the United States legal system season. Assist. I love it. Um So we have another, another sometimes I don't know, Jason, you say it and I don't know where to go and I just kind of say, okay. That was actually the perfect response. I thought you tapped out.
I guess he didn't really tap out, kind of like. So, okay, let's just, let's just always take a step back and look at what's actually happening here. Nick is a very relatable guy. He's from the rural America people like the way that he, uh, you know, Jackson Jives, he squints a lot when he talks right. He's a decider. I'm a lot more conservative and much more like behind the scenes strategy. Very hawkish on foreign policy. It's George Bush and Dick Cheney. Okay, George Bush, Dick Chaney. Uh I'm still there. Conniving.
Nick's like little puppet on the hand. No, I'm just kidding. I am retired. Nick is the new chair. I have no power. Alright. So the king to his George, as you might say, if you guys get lost ever, there's one other way to say that I've been told I can't do that. I was gonna do it on stage and they told me I couldn't. So You guys get lost when Jason Paris is talking, you're not alone about 35% of the time. I have no idea what you keep having me on.
This is the funniest thing is I always meme you, I roast you and I enjoy it and it's, it's definitely challenging and sometimes I just have to keep going. You're, you're pressing my interviewing bad for Jason and Corey who are taking this seriously putting me into, into a unique situation that no one else puts me into you keep. So I'm doing my thing. So Brian Johnson, who is the Director of Talent of Olive Holdings had a couple of points. All of holdings was very responsive. Seems like way too much. Okay.
Just respond to the email, we send it to 30 people, only about six people responded. So, you know, you guys responded. So you went, uh he said my main point of the hiring for culture round table and then recruiting and hiring panels are pretty similar. Okay. So you talked about hiring for culture and understand I know what your value proposition is as a company. So it's a bit what, what Corey was talking about there seek to understand what candidates needs are and then look to draw a connection between the two that's innovative, then fulfill on your promises by maintaining a culture where you actually live out what you preach if individuals don't feel confident in hiring or want some support because of time restraints.
I provide a recruiting service where I can do the recruiting for them. So figure out the value of your company, figure out what you offer, figure out what people want and then connected to, right? And it sounds simple. It sounds kind of obvious. I'm not, I'm not being demeaning when I'm saying this, I'm saying that it is simple but yet so few people and so few companies actually take the time to do that or think about it that way. I think about it. Like marketing or sales.
What does the homeowner want? What is the commercial property owner want? What do I deliver? How do I give them what they want in an attractive fashion? It's the exact same way for employees. Somebody's gotta say something. I only have jokes, please. We need you. Okay. All employees can now use tiktok at their desk during business hours. China's watching. Heck, no, not, not in my company. Okay. I'll just say true story. Brian and I went out to lunch today and he started asking me questions about my life and I told him none of his business because he's only been working here. Okay.
This is a joke. It's actually not a joke. He's only been working here for like nine months. I told him I will not form a relationship with you until you've worked here for a year. And uh so let's just all sit in that awkwardly and that's a great culture. That's a great company culture. You want to isolate people and ban them for the 2011st 12 months. I said odds are you're not gonna make it or whatever his name is. Brian odds are you're not gonna make it. I don't even know your name.
Odds are you're not gonna make it. No, he's a core part of what we do. He's a great guy. He's obviously having a lot of success early on, but he has to prove it to your until I form a relationship with him. This is not groundbreaking. People know that I don't like to form relationships with people. Everybody's acting like they're shocked. Uh If I have formed a relationship with you because it's very meaningful. You're not a hugger. Are you not a hugger? Don't like being hugged, like being touched, like forming relationships with people.
But if I do form relationships can be meaningful, Brian has not earned that yet. I'm glad he responded to that, that question. I think I'm the complete opposite. Like I love connecting people. I love connecting with people. I love those developing those relationships. And I feel like our culture here is really reflective of that. I feel like our crews are incredible and they just, they gravitate towards one another and they work so well together. Um I think that there's there. So like we do, we similar similarly, we hire culture and train skill.
And I think because of that, uh you know, we just, we have an incredible environment where people are thriving and it's to the point where um you know, we do a lot of stuff on social media, but I've had people like to two of our employees now have come into our shop and tears. You know, I don't know if you're hiring, but I can't take another day of my job and if you're hiring, I want to be a part of your team and that's how we got to two people in our culture and they are amazing.
One of them are cruelly now and she's doing amazing things. And so it's, it's pretty, uh, pretty important, I think, I think she would have come and gone. Here's your number. But, hey, it's working for Jason. I mean, he's doing something right. Maladaptive. It's called maladaptive something. No, adaptive adaptive adaption. What differences did you guys notice or did you notice any differences between 2023 expo and 2022? The venue is it hard to fly to? It was hard to say it was a challenge. Never been to Albuquerque. I'll probably never go back.
No, it was. So there's been this trend of businesses are professionalizing. I want to say diversity is increasing but it's going from like a little too a little but women representation. I feel like a lot higher this year. That was the business professionalization is wild. It's just hard for me to like frame this to people where they get it. But I would say Jason when I went to uh Galveston's, that's when I first met you, I was like 1 to $2 million that goes on for a residential company.
And people are like, wow, millennial, millennial, multi million like blow their mind, right? It was like, wow, new kid on the block with a tie. Now I walk the halls of the PC Expo and I'm talking 25 year olds and they're like, yeah, I do like, two or three million but I'm really hoping to scale next year, you know, like, actually I'm like, this is the five years that this, that this association has just an instant changed and that was like you saw it last year. You really felt it this year. Yeah.
Yeah, that change has been, like, very, very stark to me and it backs up in the membership data that we do. So we'll get these surveys out. Please fill out your surveys. Actually don't work at the P C A. It's next job, but fill those out. It's helpful to get the data. But yeah, the revenue is reflected in that, but it also just hits differently when you feel it. You're walking around and there's all these, these kids, right? And the first 1 to 3 years and they're doing what typically takes a generation from business complexities to scale too.
Don't get intimidated by that though. If you're, if you're a brand new painter, I made 6000 bucks my first year and I thought I was doing great because I was in my garage and I was painting, you know, I was paint furniture, you know, and I thought I was great there, but just know you are who you will be in five years except for the books that you read and the people you associate with. So if you have a desire to grow your business, then you need to get around people who are making more money than you and don't be intimidated if they're making millions of dollars, like, don't be intimidated by that.
Get around that type of association because they know something you don't know, they put their pants on the same way that you do, you know, and they're no better, you know, God has no respect for persons and you know, you just, you gotta be around the knowledge and, and know what they know and your business will grow. There was something palpable and it's hard for me to even describe it. But I think we could all feel it and maybe palpable, palpable, leave me, leave me alone, leave me alone.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, I have the power. You can literally remove you from this. It was palpable. Uh I don't even care anymore. Doesn't matter. It was actually. So I messaged chad. Uh So if you haven't been OK, people aren't taking advantage of PC overdrive. It's a great resource that everything is curated in one spot. He made a special section for me called P C A Shorts because I wanted him to send me the like the opening ceremony clip because when I watched that I got goose bumps.
It was like this is our time now. It was very emotional. I felt like a church service. Uh It was very palpable, the feeling there and it was like, it was like, I was getting goose bumps several times throughout the expo. It was, you saw it last year? You felt it this year? I think that was the major shift. This is why Ariel likes you so much. She makes fun of me all the time. It's ironic that I run a podcast because I cannot speak. Brad. Had a great point here that I want to bring up our people commenting.
Does anybody watching this something? A couple of people are watching? Yeah. 11 or two. Now we have a good amount of people here. So Brad said question for the panel. I spoke with the contractor today who came to expo 2022 but didn't come to 2023 because he felt like the people he met in 2022 were largely Braggart Braggart standoffish and didn't really get much value from it. How would you respond and encourage this individual to get back on board with the P C H slash expo? Jason, what do you got?
I was first off, say this on behalf of all the painting contractors there. I want to apologize to you that should have never ever happened. And I'm sorry that you felt that way. But there are a number of amazing people there that are there with open minds, open hearts to, to help and to connect with you and tell me who it was. So I can go punch Minister. That's gotta hurt. Come find me, Nick calls me the great connector. I'll take you around and introduce you to everybody.
Well, great idea could happen. Come find me. I have nothing to add. That was actually great how Jason Phillips handles like customer. You almost feel like a customer service issue because my response is like the opposite. So Jason Phillips does it the right way. He validated the feeling confirmed the mission statement. Yeah, we got, we got empathy and connection. We have a punch to the face and then we have a bug in the introduction. So I think we pretty much covered if we're doing disc you know, different people respond different ways.
I think we've pretty much covered the response needed. Whoever that is. Yeah. All right guys, we, I want to make sure we abide by the time we're coming up on the one hour mark. Is there anything else that you guys want to add before we wrap this thing up? There's just so much value like I've experienced it personally in my business. So I feel like I'm probably to authentic at times, but I can't promote something that I don't believe in my heart will add value to people.
And the P C A has definitely impacted my business in such a positive way, which is why I can wholeheartedly promote it to anybody I can come in contact with. So I would definitely encourage you like try it, you know what, you've got nothing to lose. Ultimately, it's an only game. Yeah, I think there's, there's a reason why so many high performers volunteer lots and lots of resources and time to the P C A. It's just a novel platform of how you can have an impact for the greater good.
And this does not exist in every industry. It's very unique in the sense that it's a nonprofit with a large platform of history that can be built off of and people's lives are getting changed. And you can see that the expo, there are lots of people's lives will never be the same because of what they went through that week and all the resources that get put out there. We hope only benefits people's lives as they look to go through the slog of running a painting business. And like, like Corey said, I don't, I don't get like a distribution from the P C A. I don't have stock in the PC. It's a non profit.
This is something I was, I just do for all the volunteer nature of. I think it's a great way to utilize my unique gifts and talents to have an impact for the greater good. And there's a lot of things I can do. I can like pet puppies at the shelter, read books to blind kids or volunteer at the P C A. And I, the reason that people volunteers because they believe that it has an impact. So that's my two cents. You close the South Jason was something real well.
That was, that was very inspiring. I love, I could be pet puppies. No, you're right. You're absolutely right. I mean, people like you, dude, you, you poured your life into it and I want to thank you for all you've done and you know, a huge part of what the P C A is today is because of your efforts. And I know there's a whole team of people. I know that. But I want to thank you personally, I didn't, I didn't get a chance to because I had to fly out and you were busy.
So I didn't get to tell you. But Jason, I just want to thank you personally for what you've brought to the P C A. Thank you now to everybody else who's watching or listening. Every everyone that I saw there was uh taking notes in their phone or on paper and all their little takeaways, right? So my question for you here is, you know, have you taken action on any of those? Have you narrowed them down? What you go through all of your notes and narrow it down to the three top three things.
Then the top one thing, if there's one thing out of all the good ideas you came across that you could change, that would really move the needle for your company this year, make a goal out of it. Break it down into its tiny steps and put action to them every single day. You came away with some amazing takeaways. Now give them the diligence that they need and make some great things happen with them. I believe in you Jason. I love how you focus on. Just also one thing.
Just one thing. If you are on a platform called Facebook, there's a feature where you can mark Jason Phillips post as a favorite and they'll show up at the top of your feed because that was just like I got inspired there for a second. I've done that with your, with your post, Jason. So I see them more for you and the others because like a good little like hit of positivity and excitement and engagement and, and discipline and all those things. So if you want more of that content, because I think it's like a star icon when you click on the three dots, but you figure it out. Awesome.
So take, take some kind of action. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to, you know, be a billion things. If you go and you do one thing, then you better your company and you move forward guys. I wanna thank you guys. We've got a lot of positive feedback. Um Some things that people felt like people are rooting for them when they went to Expo, change your life. Very excited for the painting contractor Association is going a lot of really, really good things about the giving culture of the P C A, just stuff that we've feedback we've received throughout this round table.
So that's very exciting. Thank you guys for that. And thank you all for your time and for your motivation. Really appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thanks for doing this Brandon one gallon at a time. 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 url is paintermarketingpros.com forward slash podcast.
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.
