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

What is going on everybody! So today we are doing a very special episode of the Painter Marketing Mastermind podcast. We have Nigel Costello, we have co plea and we have Morgan Zion. Here we are going to be discussing contractor reboot. It was the PC A event that occurred in Seattle, Washington, November 16th and 17th. A lot of people are uncertain about it. It was the first, really a first of its kind uh was absolutely exceptional. I was there. So we’re gonna touch base on that today, deep dive into, into what it was the experience.

Uh because it’s gonna become an annual event. What’s going on guys? Good morning, fat and Happy today. Brandon. Yep. This is briefly after Thanksgiving, so we’re all fat and happy, which is good. Let’s get into the genesis of contractor reboot. How did this, how did this idea come to be? Oh, can we just throw coal under the bus immediately? Let’s do it. I, I’ve kind of, I knew we’re gonna do it quickly. So, yeah, let’s do it immediately. Cool. You did? Well, uh, kind of interesting. So what had happened was, um, PC had reached out and, um, and had, uh, had spoke with, uh, myself and, and Morgan, uh, regarding kind of this concept of refueling contractors and it was kind of based off of these conversations that I was having with a lot of local guys here about where their limits were and, and, and just their general pulse and, uh, I had learned that a lot of them, um, weren’t frustrated from a paint perspective, but it was like this personal overload that they’re experiencing as entrepreneurs and it took it completely out of the, the paint bucket if you will.

And, um, I realized that there’s a lot of us in the business who face the same problems, the same challenges, the same issues. Um, and there’s no event for us as painting contractors that was, that seemed like it was, uh, approachable, I guess if you will. Um, and it was like, this hidden conversation that was happening as an undertone. Uh but, but it was very, this area where nobody really wanted to go into um as far as having that conversation. And, and so that’s kind of where it sparked.

And uh Nigel gave us the support and um hooked up with Morgan who I’ve known for a while here and it just synced up perfectly. I feel like um uh Morgan’s background, some of our insight, the PC A support behind it and it just kind of just went forward from there. So Cole, let’s, let’s do quick intros just so everyone listening knows, you know, who’s on. So we’ll go, um we’ll go Cole uh Morgan and then Nigel probably doesn’t need to be intro, but we’ll do them just in case.

So Cole, go ahead. Sure. I’m Kal um Out of Seattle, Washington. Uh We have a small commercial repaint company. Uh and we focus on really building solid relationships with, with, uh with our, with our first, our people. Um um and our communities which also strengthens our relationship with a lot of our long term clients uh here. Excellent. I’m Morgan Zion. I am a local Seattle muralist and Wellness coach and um I connect with the community a lot through my offerings and services, but I also uh work in paint and so it’s been awesome to collaborate with painting contractors like coal and business owners to better our city and a gross understatement Morgan.

I would call you a force of nature. You have to squeeze it into your resume. Yeah. Fourth of nature, Nigel Costello, I’ve been a PC A member for at least 15 years. Have a business in the Boston area that’s residential. Um and also currently the executive director of PC A and salutations to you. Cole, I think you nailed the description of Reboot PC A puts on a lot of events and I think there’s a tendency of people to want to present themselves perhaps is more successful, uh happier, more profitable than they truly are.

I think there is a tendency for people to want to put their best foot forward and that means we can pretend that things are better than they are and you tapped into as you referred to it, an undertone or undercurrent of um challenge, stress misery. Um So reboot was an opportunity for people for people to gather and say it’s actually really, really hard being an entrepreneur regardless of the actual space that we’re in. Uh applying paint to surfaces, regardless of the surface is a space shuttle, a steel girder, a home, the wall of a building.

Um We’re entrepreneurs first and foremost and it is lonely. No one quite knows what it means to run a business except another business owner and for us to gather and say, yeah, it’s been a really hard year. These are my challenges right now. Um I think the concept of reboot applies every single year. We all face the current challenge of um hiring when this issue is resolved and somehow we can hire all the people we need. Then there will be some other event and we’ll be challenged, finding customers or will be challenged with cash flow or some other thing will present itself like COVID that will make life that much more challenging.

So kudos to you Cole for tapping into that vein and exploring it, developing it, uh bringing it to the front, um and sharing it with everyone. It was remarkable to be with 6570 painting contractors who were just as vulnerable and as honest and as transparent about their challenges as we could evoked. So kudos and of course, you, Morgan had a whole bunch of really burly painting contractors, bending and stretching and breathing. I didn’t think that was possible. It was, it was. Yeah, thanks Daniel. Thank you. So, Morgan, let’s kind of run through, I guess the structure of the event, you know, for people listening, sort of what, what, how, how did it, uh how is it broken out?

Yeah. So, you know, I’ve been to a lot of conferences as an attendee and also as a speaker and a moderator. And what I noticed is that people get tired and they’re consuming a lot of information. They’re sitting down for long periods of time and whereas they are, uh, you know, there are somewhat engaged over time it’s just not possible to sustain that. So you need to drink a lot of coffee, you need to, you know, get some way to get hyped up and many times again, it’s only coffee and food and then you’re just looking forward to by the end of the day, either drinking or passing out because you’re just, you’re just a little bit lethargic and there’s not much energy in your body like natural energy.

So I was like, what if we break it up into like more engaging uh more engaging methods and ways to get people energy? So one way in particular is conversation with others. So the one of the first things we did was we would have um say a speaker and then a round table. So you’re making those roundtable moments interacting with others a way to get energy because we do get energy by stimulating conversation between others and connecting. Um If you’re not talking at all, right, you’re just consuming information, you’re not able to express yourself either.

So we really wanted to add that into um a lot of the post session. And then in addition to that, instead of having people on their phones, which is actually an energy drain. We, we said, you know, phones down and not everyone was uh you know, gonna follow that the whole way, but maybe they were a little bit more mindful about it. So rather than being uh like half focused, they were able to focus more intently and then have conversations with others drink water. So I had everybody drink water regularly, which is another exerciser, right?

Water, water break, water shot. And then, um, we had wellness sessions in between. And these wellness sessions weren’t like full yoga classes. They were like 5 to 10 minute breathing breaks or teaching them str uh ways to decrease their stress levels and reenergize again through breathing, uh, meditation and um and also movement. So like, again, this isn’t a full yoga class. This isn’t a full meditation series. It’s just like I call them little energy bites. You know, it’s like a snack, energy snack. And um and it’s really interesting because people started to, I think by the end of the day, start to crave it because they’re like, oh, I actually felt a lot better after I did this thing I don’t normally do.

And it wasn’t that hard. Like, you know what I mean? I didn’t even have to, all I had to do was stand up and suddenly I have more energy than when I was sitting down. So uh that’s the long uh a description of kind of how this format was. But it, we, we rinsed and repeated that same thing. And by the end of the day, I did notice a difference in what I normally see by the end of conferences is that people are just like, like I said, ready to roll into bed you know, and they need a nap, they need to just like get away from people.

But instead um the energy was higher, you know, people wanted to keep connecting and, and hang out and have conversations and um so I was really inspired that, that everybody was on board for the most part, you know. Yeah, I think you did it in a good way too, right? Like it started small and easy. Like it was um it was approachable by all of us when, you know, all you have to do is close your eyes and breathe. But at the end of day two, we’re all bent over and we’re like progress, you know. Right. Right.

Yeah, we’re all bent over progress. Yeah. Go to the podcast right there. So the uh yeah. So the for anyone who’s been listening to me for any length of time, you know, I’m very practical hands on. I really like where the rubber meets the road. So we focus on with this podcast. So I had sort of mixed feelings about this conference going into it. I didn’t know whether it would appeal to me personally just because I am so focused on practical. Uh It did. So it was my fourth event in a period of about two months with the PC. I went to quite a few events.

This was the fourth one what I, I really liked about. It was, it did an effective job of sort of like the left and the right brain kind of the mental health, the emotional well being, but actually meeting the practical as well. It wasn’t, it wasn’t, hey, let’s meditate. Let’s get weird for two days and then let’s go back to our business. I wonder what we did this past weekend because it didn’t really help. It. It was like Morgan was saying it was, you know, stand up, hey, we have stress right now.

We’re talking about stuff like let’s get into finances, ok. That’s can stress you out. Let’s stand up breeding this, that whatever um things that people could actually go back, take and implement into their painting company day to day life. So I enjoyed that. Um I also thought the caliber of the speakers was really good. It was, it was, I was impressed by the diversity of it. There was Nick Slavic spoke. Jason Perris spoke uh gave really good sops. Jason got weird but that’s what he does. So he fit right in with this conference uh into his long life term goals.

We got some, some pretty um emotional stuff from some, one of the speakers which was good, helped everybody open up. We got finances, what your finances should look like. Danny Kerr Breakthrough Academy spoke um got into the Sops. How do you build effective sops for your company? I spoke on sales and the mindset there. So it was this really excellent kind of Yin Yang thing going on and I think, I think everyone left. I believe everyone left delightfully surprised. They didn’t, they didn’t register for this thing thinking it was going to be bad.

But I don’t think they thought it was going to be as good as it was. Well, yeah, I agree. Like I saw a lot of the, um, speakers to, um, uh, get vulnerable on stage. Even some people make comments. Like this wasn’t the presentation. I thought I was gonna give and changed it up and, and like that was kind of the sense of the room I think, you know, like you’re kind of, you’re, we’re all there to be vulnerable and everybody just opened it up from speaker to everyone engaged.

And I think like, um it, it was a safe space. Uh Morgan and I think that had a lot, a lot to do with you creating that vibe and that, that space we could all come out a little, you know. So, well, I wanna throw that right back at you Cole because your introduction was on point and I think that it was approachable. It was um very vulnerable and you went into, I think a lot of what many of these business owners from the industry were facing or have gone through.

Um And uh and when you meet somebody, right? And they’re jovial and kind and stuff, you have no idea what they’ve been through in their life to get there. Right. And So I think that it actually opened up the bigger conversation of like, wow. Uh, maybe we have opened through a lot and when we’re going through a lot and we share it with others, maybe it actually alleviates some of that stress and that feeling of loneliness. And, um, Nigel also opened it up with a really great writing exercise, which was kind of like right before we went in, you know, we’re like, hey, can you introduce, you know, everybody?

And he’s like, well, actually, I have this, have you ever heard of the, you know, the intro poem or what? You know, and I was like, what are you talking about? He sends it to me and was like, OK, I’ll make a slide for it, go on up there, you know, and it was so cool to, first of all hear yours, Nigel because it was so beautifully written. I was like, dang, mine’s gonna suck. But, you know, I was like, wow, OK, someone’s a writer here. Um But then, you know, to hear well to even see people at the round table that first moment sitting there intently trying like making an effort.

Everybody’s got their journals out. And that was another part Brandon that we added was these journals and uh with pens and, and really nice journals too so that they felt like, OK, this is something I need to take care of and this is my property. I’m gonna start writing so we have them write it and then we have everybody share it. And that was so, uh, you know, and, and I know you guys were at tables too, but my table was so, like, wait, we have to tell people like, you know, I was like, oh, no.

You know, and it was the first, I think that was probably the best way to break the ice because not only is that really challenging to as a writing exercise anyways, but then to share it with people you don’t even know. And it’s basically about yourself, like your, like your background where you’re from, what you’ve been through in just a really short poem and you’re sharing it with these people that you probably never want to talk to again. But now you have to, you know, it’s like really, really good.

So maybe Nigel, you wanna touch on how that’s impacted you in the past and where, how, how you just came up with it right then to think of. Hm, thank you Morgan. So the exercise is the, where I’m from that and it’s used in workshops to basically break down the boundaries that exist uh between people who are getting together for the first time. And this doesn’t need to be about uh kumbaya or deep work. It is simply this is who I am and the exercise is not for other people.

It’s for us. So it’s describing to ourselves, who am I how do they get here? Where am I from? So the reference point is who your parents were? Perhaps your grandparents, your favorite aunt, uh the landscape where you were born? Were you born in a farmhouse? Were you born in a city? Um in wine? They talk about terroir, right? Which is the soil in which the grape is grown and that informs the flavor of the grape. And they talk about rain and sunshine and this and that we are grapes.

And how can we describe ourselves to someone else? It doesn’t need to be poetic. It certainly doesn’t have to rhyme. In fact, it shouldn’t rhyme, but it is simply our own ability to say, oh, so this is me. This is where I’m from. These were who my parents were. This is the stuff that makes me happy. This is the stuff that makes me sad. Cole, you started talking about a serious injury you experienced as a young man. And I remember you actually referenced it in passing when you picked me up at the airport and we were having lunch.

I, I didn’t quite click on what you were saying until you present. I thought, oh my God, you referenced that and I never actually followed up to say, wait, what’s this fedex thing that you talked about? And then of course, here you are stuck beneath the fedex truck as a young adult broken in many pieces. So thank you uh for sharing that experience and for starting off the conversation on such a profound level, that was remarkable. But you know that poem, that it, for me, I didn’t even, it was crazy because you did that poem at a last minute change, right?

And so we’re doing it and I’m looking at this poem and I’m like, shoot, OK, I’ll just share it right. It was, I, I like, I, those are thoughts I never even let out ever. And then here I am in front of this group of people. I’m like, all right, here we go. Right. And, and I think it was just the perfect icebreaker to rip the band aid off early on this thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Cole you set us up and then art came out, right? And spoke about experiences with that.

Um And then Dean, Dean writings, I think um one of our most affecting and impactful speakers which approached me in one of the breaks. He said, God, I hated that poem thing and I sat down and I started to write it and thought, oh my God, I really need to write my poem. It can initially be a little bit off putting like, oh God, you have to do this. But once you start, you can be very pro experience. So that was the beauty of this conference is we all have moments where you think, oh, I don’t want to do that.

But then once the exercise begins, once we actually lower our defensiveness. Um, there’s an enormous amount of resource and richness that we can bring to a conversation that otherwise we don’t make it available to other people. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, Cole. Um, Cole, you had a strong start there to the conference. Yeah. You, you spoke and, and, uh, and art spoke and I wasn’t really sure that me speaking was a good idea anymore at that point. But the, the conference started very strong. Um But one of the, one of the great things about this conference I think was a bit more of an intimate setting.

So when we are, when we are learning this information, when we are getting vulnerable with each other, but then we’re also learning some practical things such as finance, things of that nature and how to incorporate those two. Uh It, it, it was different, not necessarily better but different say than Expo Expo. You’re, you’re getting fire hose of information, tons of information networking. It, it can be a little overwhelming. This conference I think did an excellent job of not overwhelming but really transforming. So I, I enjoyed that a lot.

It was very, it was like a family room type setting except there were 203 you know, pretty successful or maybe not so successful. Painting contractors in the room all opening up with each other, all learning from each other and learning from the speakers. So it was excellent. Yeah, I, I do wanna say um Brandon, you bring up a good point too because I, I think that a lot of the hesitation for this conference for maybe from anyone including yourself was that, will I go and learn anything? Like, am I gonna leave like having ingested anything that’s gonna help my business?

And um and I think that the speaker caliber was so high and so full of information, but also it treaded the line of transparency and authenticity and that like vulnerable side that allowed people to be like, wow, not only have these people gone through really hard times, but they’re also gonna tell me how they got through it and now how they’re thriving. So I think that right there, those three steps are um how reboot was so different, right? Because then like you said, like, even when you went up there, Brandon and you shared, you know, this story about Morgan keep going.

Yeah, but you know, the story that you told Brandon was so great. It was like about your, the the business idea that you had and like, you know, you go into this dealership trying to get escalades, I think, right? And you’re like, this is gonna be the best ever. And I know that everybody in the room including myself was like, this guy is crazy. What is he talking about? This was like, you know, and then we’re all and I think that that captured the attention, right? It’s very memorable.

The the story is very memorable. But then when you came in after that, with all of this really rich content that helps business owners in that way that they need. Right. Think about an, an approach, um, their business with a different mindset. I think that was like, it, it was, it was like jarring in the best way because I was, my attention was there. I was like, oh, I guess I should go into painting now. You know, it’s like, uh, you know, it, it was really great and I think everybody treaded that line.

Yeah, I don’t know if you planned on it, but every time you said we’re friends, like, we’re all friends, we’re all friends. Like that was like vulnerable moments that all, yeah, we were all friends. I just became a, for me. I did not plan on it but I think it fit the conference. Well, I did, I didn’t expect like, 10 things to go wrong with the projector for me. We’re all friends here. So it didn’t matter. We’re all friends. Yeah, I was just hanging out. Yeah, I think, I think Morgan your point about, you know, some of these more established people or painting company owners talking about the hardships they’ve endured.

Like, I don’t think anyone in the room, Dean Ridings runs a, a hugely successful company. He’s very big in the PC A, I don’t think anyone knew exactly what he had gone through. I know, I walked away, kind of shocked by that story um of the hardships that he endured. And it’s just, it’s important, it’s important for people to know because a lot of people are still there and a lot of, a lot of the more successful people are there too and you don’t even know what they’re dealing with.

You think their life is perfect though. They have all the money in the world, no problems at all. And then they get up there and they start expressing what’s happening. You realize, hey, we’re all in this, we’re all in this thing together. It’s not easy for anybody. Right. Right. Yeah, we’re all gonna keep encountering it too. Like that’s the empowering part of it. Right. It’s like, well, it’s not just this one time thing, it’s like get ready for the next one, you know. Um and once I think as a up and coming business owner, entrepreneur, getting into it and then just knowing that that’s part of life, like your graph you showed of the entrepreneurial journey, the up down.

But it’s, it’s all it’s going up, you know. Um That’s h that’s hugely impactful. Like a lot of people had comments on that one graph like, ah OK, why, you know, get out of my head. Yeah. You know, so that’s good. That’s great. And who are listening? Brandon’s graph is really what you see when you have that needle tracking an earthquake, right. The up and the down as the needle jumps as the earthquake increases and decreases in intensity. And that was um a great allegory if you will for what it is to be an entrepreneur, the ups and the downs are relentless and they can be in the same hour or the same five minute window.

Happy customer, bad customer. Your best person just quits on you. There are so many things that, that interfere without equilibrium, minute by minute, hour by hour throughout the day, it’s astonishing. Yeah, we can live in somewhat in a state of extremes because what we are doing is a little bit riskier. You know, the risk is higher rewards higher typically than, than going a more traditional route. But I think that makes it an event like contractor reboot where you really learn to gain control of your mind, gain control of your breathing in control of your emotions, makes it so critical because I think it for entrepreneurs.

I think that’s one of the number one skill sets you need to develop as a leader. As you grow companies, you need to be steady regardless of what may happen or may be happening or the fears that you may have, you have to be steady because that’s how you, that’s how you win over the long term. And that’s how you stay healthy. Although curiously antithetical to the nature of steadiness is sucking down caffeine like it’s mother’s milk, which is what most people do. I that stress is I feel like you’re, you’re calling me out. Yeah.

The, the coffee thing got a little weird. Morgan kept saying you, you need water, you don’t need caffeine. And then I’d be walking over to the coffee and just like a half shame thing. But I, I kept thinking of, it’s a, it’s a water break. Here we go, water break. I drink, I drink a lot of hot water, regular water because of that very thing. I’m like, and I, I thought the, I thought it was so fun when we did the water shots, you know, so everybody filled up like, oh it’s and I was like, oh, this is so great and I can see people’s grimacing faces.

I’m like, do you guys not drink water around here first time drinking water in a year? I know I’m, I’m pretty sure that was half the room for sure. Most of us like adding beer flavoring to more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool, you know. Um No, I I will, I will say also is like, um you know, a person who is also an entrepreneur, not necessarily in the, you know, painter, contractor sense, but as an rene um I mean, I don’t have a ton of employees that don’t have the same amount of maybe caliber of business or the operations side of things anymore.

But as a a person trying to hold it down, right? And having goals and having these aspirations and things and then experiencing, you know, the a pandemic, experiencing the, the hard times and feeling so isolated and alone and you just don’t have a foundation. Um and, and then expressing that and sharing it is like ripping off the band aid because you’ve been hiding for so long. You want everybody to think like we were talking about posturing, you know, everybody’s like, oh yeah, multimillion dollar business, da da da da killing it, you know, looks good on Instagram.

But like when you actually share that it has not been OK many times and still, like you said, the entrepreneur journey is that when it’s good all of a sudden it’s like, why is it down in the dumps two days later? Like what just happened? Like I thought we were on a high and now we’re on a low and the only way you’re able to level the playing field is in your own self. Like the only way you can level the playing field because that’s gonna continue.

The graph continues. It’s just gonna continue. How are you the one who holds the baseline? How are you the one who keeps it steady? And so that’s why the importance of self care, wellness plus business is so essential because say you’re at one of the highs, right? And you just, you’re like, OK, now I’m gonna go and do all these things and then because you’re not level headed, you’re riding the wave of the entrepreneur journey. Now you’re not looking at the, when you’re not zooming out because you’re not balanced, you’re thinking everything is good but it’s gonna drop.

So like why did you just go high with the high? You gotta stay middle because when it drops, you’re so high, that drops so hard. That’s when you go into depression, that’s when you get into addiction because you were so high and you’re so low. But when you’re able to stay at balance and take care of yourself, mentally, physically and spiritually, you’re just like you’re just watching and you’re not freaking out and, and you can actually make better logical decisions as an entrepreneur and a business owner for yourself, for your business, for your employees and for your family because we also talked about you go home as a business owner and all of those lows are gonna hit you when you get home because you had to hold it high for everybody for the whole day, right?

And you get home and you’re just taking it on your family and you don’t even know it or you’re just completely mute, you wanna just like zone out, not talk to anybody. So I think that was really big because that was a roundtable discussion. We had a couple of times, I think after Dean’s people were really like, it was really serious, the conversations that were being had. So um I don’t know if you guys were at a round table during that time. But that, that hit me hard.

But, you know, as employers, we try to stay steady. Right. And then we, we don’t realize that, like, I’m a, I’m a non confrontational, non reactive person at times. But when I, when there is a reaction, like, 00, Cole doesn’t have a smile on his face. I don’t realize the effect it has on my team because they’re reading that and it sends like it’s like it sends these waves out that affect them. Then all of a sudden they get turbulent too because they’re like, wait, Cole is not in his normal mood.

What, what’s going on? And I don’t, I’m not aware of that um in the moment and I think that a lot of that tends to build momentum sometimes in another way, you know, it, it like this offshoot that I didn’t intend for my crew to get turbulent just by the fact that I came in with a sterner face, you know. Um And I think being aware of that before maybe collecting myself before I go to a job site. If I’m, if I just got this bad call from a client or whatever it may be and then I gotta go and meet with my crew on a different job site had that has nothing to do with that call.

I have to, I have to collect myself before I go in there to understand that. Like, hey, wait don’t take the problem from here and then take it there when, when, really you’re, you’re, it’s your fault that you made that happen because you couldn’t stay stable in your, in the spot. You know? And, and I think that that for me is a big takeaway. That, yeah, everything I do affects many others and I, I need to be able to know how to harness that, that power a bit because it is a, it is a power good or bad, right?

Like it is there, you know, and so just being collected in myself to be like, hey, it’s ok to take two minutes and work on some breathing exercises that, that Morgan just taught me how to breathe through my toes. But, you know, like, you know, it, it helps a lot, you know, and it’s just a few minutes of solitude of, of, of being by myself in my own space and, and, and that was, that was super helpful, love that extreme accountability man. You know, like you, you could go to this other meeting and, and you could be upset or flustered or, or whatnot because you had an angry customer or some unreasonable situation, but that would be your fault.

So you as you as the owner, it’s, it’s on you to make sure those things don’t cross over and then you remain, you know, still calm. And I think one of the, one of the huge things that I drew from this conference, which was really big was take care of yourself so you can take care of your business. I think so often we, we choose one or the other. You know, it’s like work life balance. What does that mean? That means that you’re not supposed to work as much?

That’s what it means. Work life balance. So you should, you should work less and you should have a better life. But what I walked away from that conference was thinking that that one doesn’t have to suffer because of the other, both ways and that if one suffers, the other is also going to suffer. So take care of yourself, but also take care of your work. Recognize that your family is depending on you. It, it does matter. It’s not irrelevant. You don’t have to feel guilty because you have to work or you have to grind at this point in your business journey.

That’s ok. But take care of yourself both ways and doing, doing this stuff, Morgan that you walk through, understanding the mental exercises, carving out quality time, even if it can’t be as much quantitatively as you want. At that point, say, if you have kids or this is something I’ve had to deal with where you couldn’t maybe devote as much time as you want. But you make sure that you carve it out and you’re there mentally because you have control of yourself and you can leave things where they belong.

That’s huge and it’s super transformative and your life gets better, but your business also gets better and that’s what I think a lot of people don’t fully understand. Yeah. Someone brought up the example of coloring with their daughter and not being like just going in the, yeah, just not present there and then there right with kids that just hit me hard right there because I can’t think of how many times I’ve done that myself where I’m like business. What’s the job? Are you ready for tomorrow? And I’m coloring and daddy?

What? Oh, yeah. Ok. You know, and, and you’re just the worst dad. I knew you were a bad dad. But you know, it’s, it’s also to use that experience to fuel you up actually, instead of like this extra thing, right? It’s like, wait, let me take the time to just focus there because it’s actually fueling me up. So I can think better about that and just giving yourself a few seconds I think, you know, is a, is a big take away. You know, there is so much science these days studying the impact of social media on the brain.

Uh let alone children’s brains or adolescents brains. We’ll start with our brains, right? We’re adults mostly, um, and the relentless challenge of distraction and then task switching, which is us performing one task and the phone rings or someone pops their head in and they have a question and all of a sudden we’re switching gears. And Andrew Serman, who is a neurologist, neuroscientist talks about this and the need to have those pauses that you just described cole before switching tasks. So actually try and stay focused, get something done and then take a minute, look out the window, watch a bird fly by, enjoy the sky and then start something new.

And that enables us to make that transition successfully rather than it just compound a feeling of stress and anxiety that we’re never gonna get caught up. And there’s always more things to do. I’m not in any way a religious person, in fact, the antithesis and probably if I stepped into a church, a lightning bolt would strike me down. But I remember this um lesson of Jesus suggesting that as we travel from outside and cross the threshold into someone’s home, we shake the sand off our sandals before we cross the threshold, which is really task switching, right.

Leave all the stuff out and then bring your true self into the conversation as you went to someone’s home and we’ve all lost that ability. And again, back to caffeine, we compound the stress and the anxiety by making ourselves more and more jittery. So I’m reflecting on all of that, the work that you do, Morgan and the, the way you personify, call living a different kind of life, more intentional life. And recognizing that a wonderful way for us to start an event like Expo would actually be to ask people to ground themselves before we get into.

Ok, here is 2.5 days of intense learning because we’re all in question. And I think at Expo that as soon as there is a break, everyone’s on the phone. Yeah. So whatever lesson has just been learned is basically then diluted by the distraction of the device. Let’s just get a big yard outside and then we could take our shoes off and go out there and just grind real quick, energize come back in, you know. Well, I, you know what? I completely agree, Nigel. And that was part of, you know, I asked for some feedback because I always am interested in understanding perspectives, right?

And that’s the only way I believe we improve is through, uh through just opening up our minds to what could be happening outside of our own thoughts. And, um, you know, that was one of the comments. It’s like we, you know, people are still addicted, you know, they’re still like going for their devices. What could we have said to motivate them in another way earlier on, you know, to be like, hey, actually zero phones, you know, it’s like almost like you’re in school right now. You know, it’s either it’s, it has to because it’s such a cultural shift, right?

And everybody is addicted to their devices and their task switching. What is a way without punishing people, you know, like we’re used to, we used to like school method punishment for everything that you do wrong, right. That’s not always helpful when you’re an adult because you make your own decisions. But what are the other intrinsic motivators that uh lead to people making a positive change or a habitual switch? And one thing because I’ve also read a ton of books on task switching and also done a lot of trainings for productivity and task switching is like the ultimate killer of productivity because you actually not only is your brain not functioning at its fullest capacity, but you lose your focus immediately though.

You think you’re doing more, right? Your brain is thinking, oh yeah. Look at me, I’m doing so many things. Look at me multitasking, getting this done while I’m doing that, but the quality of what you’re doing slips. And so it’s, it’s almost like uh maybe in the future as we continue this, this um this style of conference is what kind of motivators, what kind of way to set the tone is gonna really resonate with people to get them to change their mind about what they’re doing. Um And again, instead of punishment because we’re not in school anymore, we’re not kids.

How do we want to do it intrinsically? We’re like, oh, you know what I this isn’t helpful for me and I want to change because of something, you know what I so, so I think that’s something that we need to investigate for our further conferences. How do we motivate people to change their mindset around task switching? There’s a book right there, Morgan. If you can, if you find, if you can find them, I’m ready. I’m gonna test it right now and write it down. Have you ever, have you ever studied or read about writers who will refuse to leave their writing desk until they’ve got 1000 words, 5000 words written.

And some writers have a rule. They never go back and read what they’ve written because they don’t want to cross out what doesn’t feel right? Because they just want to maintain full momentum. Writing a book must be just the world’s most miserable experience for people. It sounds terrible. But talk about discipline. Yeah, that’s, that’s amazing. Seriously amazing. I uh I would say that, you know, out of all the research I’ve done when it comes to people’s understanding of the brain and when they see it and they see the visual of what their brain, what happens to their brain when they do something like I think about uh dare, do you remember, dare?

It would be like your brain on drugs and you would see your brain and you’d be like, oh my gosh, that’s my brain on drugs. I’m never gonna do drugs and then you get, and then, and then some and then it’s like, why do we change our minds so quickly when someone’s like, you’re only cool if you do drugs as we like, you know, a as, as we evolve into this like teenager who thinks that they need to be cool. Right? When we’re adults, we no longer need to be cool.

When we’re adults, we need to take care of things. We need to be responsible. We like listen to podcasts and read books that help us improve, right? Self improvement books or you know, ways that we want to become more successful. So perhaps one of those approaches could be something aligned with success, right? This is your brain doing its normal routine. And this is the percentage of entrepreneurs who succeed with this way, this this process. And this is the way like the writers way, you know, we could call it that the writer’s way or the entrepreneurs way of success.

And this is what their brain looks like at its fullest capacity. And this is what their profit looks like and this is what their business looks like at that full uh with, with a different um way of doing things, right? So that could help. Yeah. Yeah. So the this idea of T switching Morgan I think is part of why people absorb the information so much better. The idea that we step up and stretch and drink water and kind of meditated. And it wasn’t this long thing. I know when I think of meditation, it’s like, man, I don’t, I don’t wanna go outside sitting under a tree and sit there for an hour.

But you taught us how we could do it in 30 seconds. You know, you take 30 seconds and all of a sudden, you know, see the power of the reset, see how much better the information just um absorb and how much, how much we’re able to take away. Whereas previously, like Nigel say, we just get on the phone and we kind of forget it right away. So I think that I think there was a lot of power in that. I wanna ask you guys. So for people who are listening to this, maybe they didn’t know about the conference or maybe they did, they were uncertain of it because it is going to be an annual event.

Who and don’t just say anyone because that, that’s not a real answer. Who who should go to this, who should strongly consider signing up for next year. Um Well, a lot of people I um spoke to pre uh reboot. Um It tended to be like, don’t see anyone, right? You said, right? Well, I knew I was most was anyone who wants to feel better? Right? That’s a natural answer. But I’m gonna push you guys farther than that. Uh You know, it became like this overload thing is like some people know when they’re overloaded, some people, some people feel it like I’m stressed, I’m stressed, I’m stressed and, and I think that the a lot of the contractors I spoke to, at least the more vulnerable ones tended to be the newer ones like the entry level contractors. Right.

And I would encourage them to come even though it may seem like this significant investment, which it is, it is an investment and that’s what business is and that’s part of it’s not just putting paint on the wall. Right. And, um, this is a great way, I think to help build foundational skills that will help them sustain more years in the business. Instead of get to this point of all right, paint, paint, paint and then they hit that stress point and then it crumbles and the, and the highs and the lows, the highs and the lows man.

And, and I think that if we tool ourselves up as, as uh from the start and provide us with that foundation, I think that that is um really appealing for a, a newer entrepreneur contractor to come in to have that baseline. But I’d also encourage like the $20 million contractors who feel the same stress that it’s ok. Like, like you don’t need to be the big giant and fill these big shoes. Um because um those of us who are newer to the business, um uh it empowers, it empowers us to be like, wait, you’re that big and you, and you have that much stress and it’s a state, wait, that’s relatable.

And I think that that support just mentally to know that all these $20 million companies are having the same problems as this $100,000 company. I think it makes the business much more approachable and the community a lot more like communal actually, you know, like, like supportive of each other. So I would say like a lot of those, those early entrepreneur contractors just busted into the market, highly encourage them to build that foundation. And some of those veterans who don’t think like this is will help them. I think maybe this might help you determine and, and lay out the, the, the next seasons as Dean will say, you know, the next seasons of their career, like the ones who are asking, what am I doing this for?

Like, what did I do all this? I can’t, you know, and those, those contractors who have that question, I think would, would be very beneficial to this. And if you’re running a really, you know, $20 million company, really big and successful company and you want to help others, maybe there’s an opportunity to speak and share your journey because you’ve gone through a lot of this stuff as well along the way. Morgan Nigel, what do you guys got? I do. You can go first. Socrates said a life unexamined is not worth living.

Uh Reboot invites us to pause and reflect. We don’t need to be living in crisis or experiencing misery or pain. Reboot. You just an invitation to hang out with people and, and reflect on. OK. So this is where I am, this is what’s working, this doesn’t work so well. The reason we brought in such a varied array of speakers, um reboots designed to both reeducate re inform and reinvigorate. So we learned from Nick, we learned from Jason, we learned from Dean, we learned from you Brandon and reboot was not simply nail gazing, it was a chance to look at what works, what doesn’t work.

And then hear from people who are doing things absolutely differently. Um And people who are specialized in different aspects of the industry. There’s so much to learn. The day we stop learning is the day we become irrelevant to everyone to the world. So reboot is not for anyone. Re reboot is for everyone. You’re always getting better, you’re always getting better, you’re getting worse. You know, there is no such thing as static in this world, right? I mean, to echo with, you know what Cole and Nigel have said, I believe that it’s definitely for entrepreneurs and I think anyone who is an entrepreneur and looking to gain insights and also connections should come because um it’s uh because so many people from not just the Pacific Northwest were here, it was actually um like was more of a cross nation conference.

So people from every region could come and connect. So again, it’s not just about oh just my business and only my business. I’m gonna focus on this information and take it and leave you, take connections with you as well. So if you’re looking to broaden um say your um your field or your understanding of the business and also get connections, so you gotta come. Yeah. So my, my question was a bit of a trick question because I actually do think every entrepreneur could benefit from it. I just wanted you guys to dive into some specific avatars, you know, when we were talking about this, the trickster.

So do you guys have anything you wanna add before we wrap this up? Really appreciate your time, sharing your experiences and talk about the conference here. Sure. I, I, you know, I just thanks PC A for all the support to kind of, you know, trust us a little and, and to kind of go even though we didn’t know what the the path might look like or the marketing guy doesn’t know what the hell we marketing, right? Like that took a lot of trust I think for, for you guys to kind of back this this idea and, and push through.

So, you know, so thank you. Thank you Nigel. Thank you to the PC A team and, and the board for supporting this. You know, what I did, what I did learn is that I think the approach to this conference was not a, just a paint thing, it was a, it was a construction industry, curveball. Right? Like this concept, you could take the word paint out of it and it’s really this industry changing kind of approach to, to the business of it that, that I think sets off a good, I guess.

Um start to, to see the potential and the impact that something like this can have on, on a lot of construction professionals, you know. So um yeah, thanks. Thanks. I join and, and PC A for all of the support and Morgan, of course, my own me, I would just say all of those things that Cole said, I totally agree with. And again, thank you Nigel for trusting us and um and recognizing that we have something special and professional to share with the world and also with um contractors in general, you know.

So uh and Cole thank you so much for always, like you, you made it really fun. Like he and I had a lot of fun planning and, and making this uh something that was really authentic but also professional. And um I think uh again, the, the um lineup of speakers and the people who attended were like top tier, top quality. So being able to, you know, brush shoulders with everyone was uh a huge uh step in the right direction, I believe for PC A and for myself as an entrepreneur and also connecting um to uh to a broader audience.

So thank you so much for, for this opportunity. My final words there’s a, a bumper sticker from my youth. If the people lead, eventually the leaders will follow. And I referenced at Reboot PC A is built by members. It is not a top down organization. It receives wisdom from its membership and then applies that wisdom across the um association and shares it with the entire industry. So thank you, Cole. Thank you, Morgan. Uh your initiative, your leadership uh was risky as well and we’re happy to have embraced it and happy with the results.

And here’s to next year. Thank you, contractor Reboot 2024. We will see everyone there. Yes, sir. Right on. Thank you guys. All right, thanks.

Keep growing.