Transcript:
What is going on, everybody? Hope everyone’s having an amazing start to their Friday. I’ve got a special treat for you guys today. Bradley always does that on his podcast. He goes, I got a real one for you today. He’s he’s straight out of. No, but seriously, guys, I am. I am. I am like this. Right here is again another selfish one for me. This is a good friend of mine, someone that I’m inspired by. I look up to. Tanner MULLANE, welcome to the podcast.
Yeah, likewise. I appreciate that.
Yeah. So Tanner MULLANE really quickly, a quick bio. He’s the founder of premium painting and Drip Jobs. Tanner is a passionate entrepreneur from Central Florida with a heart for helping contractors reach their potential through changing their mindsets and taking massive action. I can tell you, I’m firsthand I’ve seen that he owns a residential painting company that’s premium painting, and he’s founded a powerful software for contractors called Drip Jobs. And this thing is absolutely amazing, man.
Thank you, brother. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Yeah, we were just talking before we started here. Service Legend. We rolled out a new dashboard called Service Legend Academy, where we’re going to have all of our trainings, podcast episodes, resources, and we actually have a vendor village. And so if you’re a client or service legend, you can go into the academy and you can get a like like a free trial. You can get discounts in there for drip jobs and you’ll get Tanner VIP walk on VIP.
Absolutely. Yeah. You go through Ryan, we’re going to give you 60 days free. So you get like, yeah, it’s 60. Okay. Yeah, you go through Ryan in 60 days, we don’t even care. You know, we we’re committed. We know you’re going to stick around after you see the value. So we’re going to give you that 60 days just for being one of Ryan’s customers.
Fantastic. Okay. So this episode, episode number three of the Service Legend podcast, we’re still fresh. We’re still new. Tanner I want to keep this focused on Tanner from premium painting, and then we’ll go ahead and do another episode from Tanner from JibJab so we can leave in drip jobs in here, because how can we talk about $1,000,000 painting company without using a workplace?
Got to have a good tool for sure.
You have a good tool. So, hey, first things first, man. Could you just open up? Tell us a little bit about your business, about you and just kind of how everything how it got started initially.
Yeah, man, the business was was started at birthed out of really just wanting to help my dad. You know, he was battling some, some depression. Drug addiction is a really tough time in our lives. My mother passed away. So, you know, it was just one of those things where I really wanted to help him. I was working at a bank full time, working my way up the corporate ladder, you know, and saw an opportunity to free myself. Part of it was for me, you know, I wanted to be my own boss. I always did. But I also wanted to help my dad. And he taught me the trade I learned early on in the summers painting with him, you know, just being a part of the trade. I loved it. So I saw an opportunity, though, in the market, like many of us do, where professionalism doesn’t exist. And, you know, even watching him, you know, own and operate his business. When I was a kid with my mom, you know, they tried, you know, but he was a one man army. You know, he had a few guys that would help him here and there. And then once the recession hit, that’s when everything stopped. Because if you didn’t have a marketing plan, if you have a market or a great team of marketers who literally have one job to find people to hire you, which he did not.
Then these jobs probably.
Definitely didn’t have trip jobs. I think he was using MapQuest. And, you know, it was just one of those things where he was left up to his own devices of what he knew. And again, he was just one of those individuals who just relied heavily on his on his hands. So, you know, that also is part of my passion, you know, just finding those individuals and really just want to inspire them really out of survival. Because what I’ve seen is just, you know, there was no way out. So he came home, started started the business alongside him to to I was going to do the sales and kind of handle the business side of things. I learned a lot in college and some of the jobs that I had, and he was supposed to do the production man. It was supposed to be a perfect match and things didn’t quite turn out that way. You know, there’s a lot more to the story, but to speed things up, we’re here now. Man Five years in the making, premium painting is made it through the storm and every day we crank out great work. I have 12 full time employees. We do anywhere between 250 to like 280 houses a year. And I operate with just two crews. That’s the cool thing about us. We’re fully W-2, so no subcontractors or anything, and we just. We just rock them out, man.
Yeah, it’s amazing, man. I mean, if you go I mean, if you just go to like your GMB or your Google business profile now, I mean, five stars. I mean, like and you can clearly tell that you’ve built a financial. Phenomenal business, not just from a branding standpoint or good at marketing or even though that you’re you’re good. It’s not even just that like it’s clearly like the marketplace sees that, too. And so that’s one thing I love about you, bro, is like everything about you is so genuine and you see that with your customers and, and your friends and everything around you. So I like what you said though. You said we made it through the storm and like five years in business made it through the storm. Could you talk about that? Like what that means to you, that storm for the business? Is that kind of ramping up the business?
I mean, there’s a saying that I’ve heard and sometimes agree with. Sometimes it’s a little harsh, but it’s like you’re either going through a storm, you’re coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to head through one, you know? And for me, the big storm was, you know, the idea that I could rely on my dad. It’s such a such a really tough time in his life. I gave up a 80,000 salary. Full health insurance benefits.
Not the bank.
At the bank. Yeah. Yeah, I was a loan officer, so I was helping people.
Okay, there you go.
So I got to learn money, man. Got to learn how it works. And what was interesting was not only did I do that, I would help with some of the members and they would come in and start business accounts. And it really just starts something in me, man, at that time. But anyway, yeah, that was the store man was really thinking that it was going to be a perfect transition and it was tough because he didn’t pan out. He still had so much left to work on. So I had to kind of let him go know, fire my own dad, which was really tough. So, you know, for me, having to figure the painting business out was the storm. I actually put painter’s pants on for 6 to 8 months, worked alongside my team, painted every day, wanted to learn the process, wanted to learn my employees, wanted to create leaders. And that that to me was the big storm. But even just a few weeks ago, still going through storms, you know, I mean, I had to let go of a few people, had to hire some new ones. But, you know, when I say went through the storm, I think that, you know, in any endeavor, you know, this is something I’ve learned is that there’s going to be a trial period of intense opposition. And I think God gives us that in a way to really just say, hey, are you really serious? You know? So that’s kind of what happened. And that’s what I was referencing when I say I went through the storm.
Yeah, I love that though, man. Like, I think I think a lot of us like service entrepreneurs even here at Kardinal, like, I mean, I’m I’m in Cardinal’s office right now and I jump on with you. We get the podcast. I love you. This is great. Fantastic. But hey, like you said, I mean, there’s always seasons in the business where there’s challenges there. You know, we’re we’re training a new technician right now. So office manager is busy doing that and doing his regular job, you know. And so I think there’s like levels to the storm, you know, and but I think I think as we start the painting businesses because we’re live right now in the painting contractor Facebook group, service agents, Facebook group, there’s a lot of new service entrepreneurs and the painting industry. Nick Slavic is always talking about service based entrepreneurs. Yeah. And there’s, there’s, there’s really a wave of professionalism happening right now and I think you’re at the forefront, but I think it’s just good for everyone to know that it’s okay to be going through a storm, you know, like, so like if you’re starting out, don’t feel like I’m the only one going through the storm. I mean, Tanner just told you guys he went through a storm, fired his own dad, and but look at where he’s at now. Still having little baby storms but able to push through them. Do you feel like going through that has helped prepare you and equip you for anything that you’re going to go through now?
Yeah, it’s a two part question, man. Like adversity has always been present around me. Everyone’s got adversity. Some people step up to it and some people need a little more time to be able to step up to it. And I think that’s that was nothing compared to some of the adversity I’ve been through. But in terms of business, this was a little different. You know, this was my livelihood. I’m literally feel like I got plopped into a business that I knew nothing about, but I just knew sales and I was super honest with my customers. I said, Look, I just started, but there’s one thing that you’ll get out of us is customer service. Like, we may suck at painting, but, you know, we won’t leave until it’s perfect, you know? I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, the first crew I had, including myself, dude, we were below average painters. So for me, did it prepare me 100%? You know, I mean, anything in business is going to that you go through is going to make you better for the next thing you know. Like, for example, you know, I had like of three people in the last 30 days, but if that would have happened in the beginning, my business, I don’t I don’t know how I would have reacted to that. Right. But I’m seasoned now. I’ve been through it. I got some battle scars already with things that have been way harder than that. To me, this was just this is just part of the game, you know, align, refocus, refine what you did before and continue, continue on, man, onward. You know, that’s the mentality. So onward.
I love that dude. Align, refocus. It’s so important, man. Yeah. That’s one of the things I really like about you, man. That I love about you is that like. Like you just. You just. Like live this. And I believe, like all of this is why you’re at where you’re at. Also, drip drops know, I imagine if you had drip tiles when you first started, you know, it could be a little easier, but you get some freedom back from the business.
I’ll be honest, though, even before drip jobs, like I’ve just been a nerd when it comes to organization, you know, I had spreadsheets. I had you know, I was I was I was doing what jobs does. It just wasn’t in an app to make it easier. It was lot harder. You know, customer service was never the issue with me in terms of business or operations and stuff like that. The real issue is humbling myself to paint and understanding like, hey, like the problems that I’m seeing, you know, I felt like I was in extreme disadvantage, right? I use this analogy a lot, dude. If you owned a restaurant and you did not know how to cook, you better either have a partner that’s a chef or you better learn how to cook. You know, it’s like one or two options because people aren’t.
Going to like that food, you.
Know? I mean, at the end of the day, you’re at the mercy of whether or not that person’s committed. And it’s like when I first started, I had individuals that were out painting that were not committed, and my customers were the ones who were paying for that. And it was like, I need to be able to step in at any time, do what needs to be done to to protect the the integrity of the brand, the reputation. And on top of that, I need to be able to have some authority when I step on a job site, then I know what I’m doing and I know what I’m talking about and I can tell people what they’re doing wrong. And I think some people come into the business thinking they can just sell paint jobs like you could. But it’s important to understand that like you should learn the technical aspect of it. And I was forced to do it and I’m grateful of that for sure.
Yeah. And. It’s it’s that goodwill in your heart. It’s that it’s that customer service focus that I see. It’s like you saw that happening in like you’re like you’re like your internal soul was like, dude, like, I’m going to step up to the plate.
Yeah, I’m going to live it. Like, I’d rather like, you know, there’s anything nothing’s worse than unhappy individual that’s unhappy because you’re at fault. I mean, there are some people who are just unhappy in general, those I learned to let go. But there’s some people that we work for that if they’re unhappy because we made a mistake or the quality isn’t what I promised. It all comes down to promises when I go into someone’s home and I literally look them in the eye and I say, We’re the best option for you. And they trust that, you know, that’s my life on the line and that’s just how I live, you know, in terms of in terms of business, you know.
That’s awesome, man. That’s phenomenal. I love that, man. So let me kind of dig in a little bit further here to premium payments. So who is your guys is ideal customer and target market over there.
I mean, honestly, there’s a range really just has to do with where we live. We’re in central Florida, you know, retirement capital of the world, to be honest. I don’t really like working for the retirees, man. You know, I mean, they’re okay. Generally, they’re just they’re generally cheap because there’s no cash flow coming in typically, you know, aside from stocks and stuff. So, you know, we’ve I’ve learned how to price them differently honestly than than our normal customers just because I understand, like, dude, you’re not going to hit, you’re rarely going to hit 50%, you know, like, I just know. So to say that they’re not, they’re my most common customers, but they’re not my ideal customer or ideal customer. Working class, working class. You know, ready to improve. Moving in are my favorites, you know, because I can do a lot of strategy there, you know, I can utilize speed, I can utilize, you know, experience communication because the way I see it is this, you know, you get someone that’s moving into their house, they want to do those improvements before the movers come for us specifically. And it’s probably the same for concrete coding, too, because typically they use their garages to to store all their stuff and they want to get that done. So I found ways to like crush value with them. Whenever I see that customer come in, first thing I do is pick up the phone, congratulate them on the move, and then pretty much emphasize how the process works for people that we work with that move in. So I ask the right questions, When are you moving in? What’s the closing date? How confident are you in that closing date? Is your realtor able to give us access to the house if we need to? Are you okay with the virtual estimate to speed things up so we can line the painting up right with your closing date? So when they hear that stuff, Ryan, it’s almost like I’ll pay for that.
Dude, I want to. Dude, can you come to Arizona and like, right now? Oh, man, actually, I get fired up about that. That’s really cool. So, like, you’re like, you’re completely over delivering and you already know what they’re going to be thinking. Be asking you everything.
There are certain parameters of what people you got to look at, the motivations of your buyers, right? There’s only a certain if you really actually take the time to narrow it down. There’s only a certain few motivations that people have when they paint houses. Right. So for me, I hyper focus on the one that I feel like gives this the greatest outcome, which is people that are moving in. And then I provide extreme value. Like the value is insane. Like it’s just like they expect us to give them a painting estimate when they close their house. Ryan Like, and it’s like, like they’re like, oh, well, we close on July 24th. Can you come out for an estimate on that day? So and I’m like, Miss, I can quote this house based off the 80 pictures you have online because and the beautiful photos because they’re the house listing photos and it’s like they can’t believe it. And it’s like, well, I do this because I know you want to move in and it’s almost like I’m just walking them right into their their goal, which is Tanner knows we want to get in before the movers get in there. It’s going to take a few days. He’s on top of it. He’s done this before. And then the biggest objection we get is, well, Tanner, what if the House doesn’t close? Do I lose my deposit? So before they even ask that question, Ryan, I say, listen, we do ask for a $500 deposit. That’s our commitment. But if you can show us proof that you guys did not buy this house for whatever reason, we’ll be happy to refund it at any time. So it kind of just eliminates that that that apprehension to move forward with us.
So we don’t know for sure. I love that man. So we get a ton of new builds out here to. And I really like the virtual estimate. Do you mind going into that? A little bit like how you do that? I think a lot of painters and coders can, can, can.
Well, new builds are different because you really do. You really can’t do anything in that closing date. You know, so but typically people that are moving in, you know, the process is simple, man. I don’t I’m I’m like the laziest animator in the world. And I’ll be honest, I don’t.
You’re so humble. You’re so humble.
I really don’t care. Like, I won’t sit there and go over and measure. I used to, man, and it’s like, why am I wasting so much time on these on these measurements when the customer doesn’t care? So I have this theory. It’s called the 595 rule. It’s how I, how I operate. Man 595 And that theory is you spend 5% of your time working on the pricing, and then the 95% of your time is working on the things that I just described, focusing on their motivations, building value, providing providing value, asking the right questions, providing the right answers, building a relationship, all that. So if you look at 100% of the time you spend with that individual, most of the people that I talk to are sitting there measuring and it doesn’t matter. People in this residential space, they care more about trust. And if you can convey trust, they don’t care what you do on the job. That’s what they’re hiring you to do, you know? So for me, when it comes to estimating, it’s so simple. I look at what the costs are. I and I base that off of experience, you know, how much pain are we going to need? How much time is it going to take? Multiply that number by two. That’s our starting point.
Yeah. I love that, man. Yeah. I, I’ve been really considering doing virtual estimates for Cardinal for new builds because we get so many of them. Sure. Obviously here in Phoenix, it’s insane. The economy is great here.
Yeah, it is. It is there, too, right? I mean.
It’s it’s insane. It’s insane. Yeah. So I so I share that with you, with the with the retirement retirement community. We have a bunch of those and they’re certainly not going to coat themselves. And they and they don’t care to waste the time with 100 instruments. And so but.
The thing is, is that like I think it’s a great idea. And I also think that, you know, again, if I were somebody who was moving into a new build, one of my apprehensions would be like, Well, Ryan, if I give you a deposit, you know, and this, you know, for whatever years falls through, you know, just like like, you know, whatever we’ll work around. It will give you the money back if necessary. But I feel like, like, you know, man, huge opportunity to get that out of the way. So you could be there immediately.
Yeah.
Because they don’t let you in on the new bills to look at the jobs, do they.
Well, what’s funny is like a lot of the new ones, they will say, hey, there’s X, Y, Z going on, there’s construction or whatever, just go. And so they’re not going to be there anyway. So you’re not going to know what to build.
It’s pretty much a virtual estimate anyway because yeah.
It’s a waste of time because you’re going to go grab the measurements and then go. So that’s why I mean, it just seems world class and it seems like the customers are actually really praising you for already knowing that you should be doing that anyways.
Yeah. I mean it’s like if you went into a restaurant and in your head the whole time you’re thinking about, you know, the meal that you wanted and the server somehow knew that you wanted a steak. And all he focused on talking about was the steaks rather than the pasta, you know? And it’s like the cool. The cool thing we have is if we just ask the right question, we can really identify the motivation of almost any customer, you know? And it’s just cool to reverse engineer that and then learn the questions and answers to ask.
Yeah, I love that, man. It’s phenomenal. I didn’t know that you were. And it’s my fault. I didn’t know that you were a loan officer. I knew you were an amazing salesperson and everything, but that is really cool.
So that was, that was one of the best experience in my life.
Man Yeah.
Loan Officer Given giving people money, you know, you’re in the business of selling money. But, you know, I had the I had the extreme pleasure of just being able to give it to the right people based on their situations and help people get in better situations. You know, so I learned a lot, you know, in terms of business, just finance. It was it was like going to business school, man. It was.
Pretty cool. It’s really cool. So what is your guys is so what is premium painting like number one or number two or top three US piece on how you position yourself in the eyes of the customers, like specifically for us?
I mean, I have to be honest and say that like, you know, it’s it’s if someone calls three people, we’re going to just be the one that stands out like it’s it’s that simple. Obviously, drip jobs has a lot to do with that, you know, being being automated in terms of the communication from the jump, you know, from the initial phone call, it’s like typically if you call three contractors, you’re going to have to give your information over the phone or they’re going to tell you to text it to them or you’re going to send it to their website. You know, for us it’s like, hey, I just sent you a link and you open up your your text messages. If you got it, go ahead and click it. You know, it’s like, you know, it’s like one of those things where we just want to create that white glove experience. Sales starts way before we knock on the door, man, you know? And it’s like, I want them to be like, Oh, I got a I got to wait for premium painting to come. I want to see what they have to say and we want to set the bar. You know, we just that’s that’s my goal is if we just set the bar, the I genuinely want them to second guess their decision when they hire someone else because it’s like I want them to have that honest conversation like, honey, you know, should we spend a little more? Because Tanner seems really trustworthy and his company seems really trustworthy and they communicate so effectively. And I understand that some people can’t, you know, and that’s that’s that’s okay. And there’s no hard feelings. But those that can I want them to be the ones that that pull the trigger, you know. So our unique selling proposition is communication and, you know, the value of that. It’s so important.
Yeah. That’s insane, man. I love these things because one thing that stuck out here is you said sales starts way before you show up at the door. Wait, so when does that start for you guys? Like, right when you answer that phone or.
I mean, honestly, Ryan, I mean, it goes even further, man. Like your service service legend, that’s just starts the sales process. What does that ad say? How does that ad come across? What is the what is the interaction with that ad? And then after I do interact with that ad, what’s the next step like? This journey is so much more than when you knock on the door. And I think a lot of people think it’s just when you knock on the door, you know how that what’s the tonality.
Then I’ll start being nice, right? Or whatever.
Yeah, no, man. It’s like, you know, I’m trying to like I’m trying to just build some trust before I get there and and I want to be different, you know? I mean, that’s the only reason I tell people this all the time. It’s like you look at somebody and say, well, how come people are accepting, you know, jobs that are way less than mine? And it’s like, well, if you didn’t give them anything else, aside from your price to compare to it would almost be insane for them to pay you unless you really did something different, you know? And that’s why I’m a big proponent of the 595 rule that 5% can be compared. We’ll use the same products, we’ll promise the same quality of work, we’ll do the same prep work. But that 95, no one’s got Shamil, Dan, Dan Jr and Chris as employees and Schimmel just you know, Schimmel does this, this and this and he’s such a great manager. Here’s the last job that he did and like building those relationships in comparable. So we just focus on that.
I love that man and I imagine that you take that same approach internally from a communication standpoint from the team.
Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s the same thing with bringing on painters. You know, it’s like, hey, you know, look, I’m not going to micromanage. You’re going to have a great environment. We treat everyone with respect. You get paid on time. You know, all these things that are invaluable to people, you know, could you go paint somewhere else? Sure. You know, but it’s a little bit different.
I love that. But you guys have core values there.
You know, to be honest, man, you know the basics. Nothing, nothing, nothing written. Probably a good idea, too. But you know, it’s the basics. Treat everyone with respect, integrity, customer customer’s usually always right, you know, take your time, you know, all the things that you would expect out of a out of a company that just has a heart for for serving customers.
Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Okay, cool. And then what type of, what type of marketing does premium painting do? Like like what’s the mix from offline online?
Yeah. Yeah. You know, to be honest, man, you know, Google Google was big for us, you know, I mean, we dominated on Google in terms of our reviews. I mean, right now, to be honest, I’m not even in a position to where I want to grow. So I’m not really actively marketing, just kind of living off living off the reputation which has been more than enough for us. You know, at this moment in time. Just the focus for me is right now just in a couple of different areas. So but to be honest, like, you know, it’s just.
Maybe searching on Google when you first maybe when you were in growth mode, kind of like, what was that mixed for.
You? Oh, yeah. I mean, it was SEO definitely needed SEO, especially because I did move when I first saw my business, I was so worried that I wasn’t able to get ranked in the tournament. So it was a no brainer to get SEO and then which obviously made me visible in the map pack and then Facebook ads were really big for me. And as they as they usually are, you know, for before and after photos and then to be honest, like I went crazy on Home Advisor, you know, but that was before I met you, so don’t be too offended. I didn’t really know any marketers at the time if I did.
It there too, though. So, like common killer that you that you could win there.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, it was it was awesome. Like for because just just knowing like I didn’t care where the lead came from. It just they just gave me leads, so I don’t give them any credit. It was me who did it. You know, I hate I kind of like despise them a little bit, but I just knew that, look, customers liked it. I was there to serve those customers. And then, you know, what the crazy thing is, is like more often than not, they would go on, go through the prompts of home advisor and then they’d go to Google and then reach out to me there. And I’m like, Dude, I just paid for a lead that I would have gotten organically, you know? So it was a mess, but I used them to survive and I don’t use them anymore.
And so for those contractors that are out there, that, that, that might be buying lead from home or things like that, you have some resources for those people, right?
You know, I mean, in terms of what drip jobs does, it follows up with them automatically, just like it would if they were your customer, you know. So, you know, to be honest with you, I mean, as they’ve continued to grow and they just got bought out by Angie or Angie just bought them or whatever. Yeah, horrible, horrible. And I’ve, I’ve used them a little bit but I don’t recommend it as much as I used to. You know, it’s so convoluted. The leads are being duplicated on all three channels. They don’t know what’s going on there. It’s a mess and they’re way too expensive. They’ve literally doubled their lead cost from from when I used it when I first started.
Yeah. What’s what’s what’s interesting here is you have taken quite an approach, though. Are you guys doing anything offline? I mean, I’ve seen some some some some wrapped vehicles. I see branding.
I just started really getting getting you know, I mean, to be honest, man, like, I’m not saying I’m just I’m just a little different man. Like, to me, like, it’s not one of those things where I’ve just been so busy. So for me, like, I’ve been a little late to adopt the offline strategy because I’ve always been so focused on online strategy and like getting the lead, get in the league and lead. So we just got our vehicles wrapped and then we got some really nice yard signs and we’ve been tracking them, man. You know, vehicle wraps have really never been crazy for us, but every now and again we get one that come through and it’s nice for the neighbors to see and it creates a little bit of professional look when we pull up to the job. So, you know, I don’t just look at it as something that needs to generate me business more. So I like the branding aspect of it. Yeah. And that’s, that’s really cool too. It’s just again creating that experience.
Yeah. You know, it’s that long term, it’s, you know, paint it forward for premium painting in five years. Yeah. Yeah.
Seeing that, seeing that name in the neighborhood over and over. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s awesome. And I saw that vehicle and let me tell you, that thing is sweet.
Thank you. What? The transit.
Yeah, yeah.
I love that. Dude, it’s pops with the orange.
Okay. Thank you. Your colors are sick.
It’s gators, man. Go. Gators.
It, dude. It is amazing, dude. And which one of those of those of those channels was working best for you? Was it the CEO or or the Facebook CEO?
I mean, you know, just just our ranking. I mean, that’s going to be that’s going to be king, you know? And, of course, people that are on Google are going to be the most committed. So, you know, just no one’s no one’s gotten close to us in terms of reviews and we just keep getting them. So we’re just going to stay probably at the top there.
Yeah, yeah. 100%. Your reviews are amazing. So yeah. Yeah. So switching gears here a little bit, still in marketing, but how do you guys get all those reviews like I mean, some contractors that we take on are service legend. Whether they’re painters or coding companies, they’re like, man, I can’t even I can’t get any reviews. Or we hear, Hey, I can only get one a week or I get one a month. How do you guys get so many reviews and how do you guys walk through that?
My three point system, man, it’s as simple as you could ever find.
Work that comes out of your brain.
You’re like, just three points, man. Number one, you got to do good job. If you don’t do a good job, you’re probably not going to get a good review. Number two, you need to ask for the review. Like you got to actually verbally say.
Now, why would you do that? Step number two, though, that’s I mean, it seems like a pointless step now.
I’m just not man going to ask for it. I mean, it’s you got to get that commitment, man. It’s almost like if they don’t do it, they they’re a liar, you know? So, you know, it’s like, hey, listen, it’s and it’s about how you phrase it. You say, hey, you know, listen, reviews are huge for us. It’s the only way we generate business. Would you mind taking a second later and leaving? It’s a five star review. Now, what’s going to happen is one of two things. Well, one of three. They say no to your face. And I kind of respect the honesty of it. All right. Well, whatever. Yeah. And number two, they’d say yes, and they actually do it. Or number three, they say yes and they can’t find it or it’s too hard and they kind of just give up and they don’t care. Right. So what we want to do is just want to make number three, our step in our three point system here as easy as possible. And we just want to give them the link in a text message. So we automate that obviously in drip jobs, but you know, that’s going to be the key and it’s simple. You know, just we have a really nice message and it sounds like I wrote it says, Hey, Joe, it’s Tanner. Hey, here’s our link to leave us a review. Man, I hope you enjoyed your project. So anything else we could do, let us know. And they say usually they leave the review. Some people don’t have a Google account, though, so that that can happen as well. I’m like, Yeah.
You got to get. So first things first. This would be step zero is go sign up for a free Google business profile account and get that dialed in.
I’ll make you one.
And it will make you one.
Yeah. Here’s your credentials.
Or if you’re a client of service legend or or you might be one day we’ll do that for you too, so. Okay, cool. Yeah. Because it seems like the review and the social proof for you, man, is huge. And so, like, I imagine without that process in place.
You know, I’ve always known for years that it was going to be big, you know, just because of how I buy things. And not only that, like I like responding there because in the same way that I know that people are going to read those responses, I read the responses of businesses that I’m going to work with, and it really just is another way for me to build trust. So if you’re not responding to the reviews, highly suggest you make that a focus.
Love it. Okay. Do you guys do anything special on production day that creates raving fans?
Oh. All right. So that’s a good one. On production day. Well, I mean, you know, the thing about it is, is, you know. Keeping the promises are number one. I mean, I don’t think it’s going to create a raving fan, but it’s going to be a breath of fresh air. Being on time, having someone there shake their hand, walk them around the job, go over the scope. And mostly on production day, the amount of work we get done because our system is four painters. So, you know, that’s really neat. And then have an automation set up to follow up with that customer to ask them how they’d like the progress. So it’s a really engaging experience. Yep. So once we log, the project is in progress. It waits however many hours and sends them a quick text message, says, Hey, Joe, just checking in and see if you’re if you’re happy with the progress we’ve done so far and.
The jobs right.
There it is. Yeah. Nice. So they they enjoy that. So I mean, in terms of like raving fans, I don’t know if that is a little strong of a word.
No, no, that will do right there because you show up on time. I like the idea for us. What I’ve seen is that lead technician. So we call our we don’t call our concrete coding production team members installers anymore like they used to call it installers. And I’m I love professionalizing the industry, elevating it. So we call it they’re technicians, they’re trained technicians. But the lead technician goes goes around and sets the agenda, gets a color confirmation, things like that. That’s that seems like it’s huge for you guys, too. If there’s somebody walking around setting like the expectations.
Yeah, yeah, we do. We send a decorator to do colors. Obviously in house painting, it’s a little bit different, you know. But again, to be honest, it’s a collective. It’s just a collective thing, you know? And that’s what I try to create. It’s just such a smooth and I’ve been in the restaurant, so I like to use a restaurant as an analogy. Like when you walk in that door, you know, if the host greets you with a friendly smile and it’s like excited and that starts the experience, right? And find you a table right away. And then you sit down and someone comes and greets you within 2 minutes and gets your drink orders. And then, you know, the back like, like that, that experience that I’ve I’ve lived as a server and a manager of restaurants. Just I try to incorporate that because I know how it feels as a patron and I know how to produce it as an employee of that setting. So it’s like it’s just about a flow. And that’s what we try to create.
Sales experience handling the economics experience managing the restaurant. Yeah. Critical thinking, customer service. Yeah. Premium painting, trip shop. Boom.
Yeah, car sales, life insurance sales. You know, just a melting pot of all these experiences.
The Lord had planned for you, man, that’s. That’s. That’s for.
Sure. Thank you. You as well, man. He’s doing great things.
Yeah, I appreciate it, man. We’re almost done here from grilling you or 34 minutes in. You got another 10 minutes in the.
Tank, Stewart man, whatever you need.
This one is huge. So and I feel like I’ve seen I just see a really cool culture that you’ve built from in your production department. And I feel like that, like that is such a big detriment to most service companies, most painting companies, most concrete coating companies, you know, my, my, my, my main mentor right now, Tommy Melo, what I’ve seen what he’s done with a one from a training perspective, onboarding technicians and really honoring them from a training perspective has been like mind blowing to me. Talk me, just talk us through how you hire interview on board and train your yeah.
Seven point system man let’s get back to another I mean, you know, and it’s and it’s pretty simple, you know, the acquisition phase is the most important man. It’s almost like and from a marketing perspective, you understand this just as much as anyone. It’s like if you put out to the world that you only want to do dinged up houses and that’s all you take. You know, you put out a general message, but I’m sure you know the message that you want to come across to your the people looking at your ads or your high end company that does high end work with high end expectations. And, you know, it’s like it’s just that initial message. So I believe that hiring is just a big filter, you know, if you have a good process. So the first thing is it’s like, what are you allowing in your filter? You know? And for me, the initial ad is going to eliminate X amount of potential individuals that wouldn’t have made it through that. The next stage is anyway because not only do they have to read that ad and align with it, they have to go through the process of applying. From there, we send them to a form. That form needs to be filled out through that form. I’m reading specific questions that I’ve given in terms of motivation. You might have seen me post one on the group about what their motivating factors are, you know, and there’s no judgment. I just want to see what you write. I don’t care, you know? I mean, there’s no right answers. No wrong answer. What do you write in there? So, I mean, in terms of how that works, I just hired someone the other day and it was funny, man. 60 different applicants came through, so 60 different applicants came through.
Ten of the applicants I reached back out to, I said, Hey, please fill out our Google form. So they came in through. Indeed. I said, Hey, please fill out our Google form. Any of these ten applicants that I. Dude myself, did Facebook searches, did the whole thing would have made it to at least an interview based on what I saw. You know, of course. At least a phone interview, right. Only one of them took the time to listen to my instructions and fill out the Google form. Only one of them. And they would all these people could have had an opportunity, just like the other guy. The guy fills out the form. I love this responses. I called them, set up a phone interview, did an in-person interview, and he just got put through our system. Boom, boom, boom, boom. He started yesterday and the team is training him, you know, and it’s like, you know, I mean, attention to detail is what you should be looking for in your applicants. And if you have to wait until they get on the job to see whether or not they have attention to detail, then you’ve made a big mistake. But if you do the due diligence in your hiring process, you’re going to eliminate those issues and hiring becomes pretty easy. It’s just a matter of who’s going to make it through, you know, and only you can set that standard. So that’s what I do. I’ve been doing it like that for years. I’ve made some mistakes through it. I’ve just refined it. And at this point I’ve just gotten pretty good. Not perfect, but just good enough to where I can make the best educated decision based on them getting through my system, at least if they’re going to make it.
Yeah. Yeah. Now that Google form that you have, is that in the post or is that something that automates out?
Actually, no, it doesn’t automate. It’s not in the post either. They fill it out and then I send them a message through indeed, with just instructions. Hey, click this link. Head to my Google form, please fill this out, you know, and that’s.
Why you put the Google form versus having them just fill out the applicant in like let’s that’s the qualifying process, right? Like it’s honestly.
It’s all about it’s a it’s all about buyer intent, man. How motivated are you to work with us? I don’t want you to just go down the list of indeed and click apply, apply, apply, apply, apply. I want someone to read that post. Go on Google, look us up, read the reviews, come back, be excited. They got a message from us. Do whatever I ask them to do to get their information to me, you know? And if you create that level of excitement about your business, you’re going to just create loyal individuals that want to be a part of something.
Yeah, I’ve seen your former is on your website too. And if so, if any of you guys are listening and you’re struggling with hiring some some painters or technicians for your coding company, check out premium paintings. If you’re okay with this, go to paint premium. And this and this form is phenomenal, man. I mean, like ass. It’s really good psychology here. And I can tell that you put a lot of time and effort into this.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I got that. The base form from actually Steve Barnett and dweeb. Yeah. He, he and I kind of tweaked it and made it my own. But such an important aspect of of hiring is, is that form. And just again, it’s just that’s just one of the many steps like, again, like even if they fill out a great form and they don’t show up to my phone interview, you know, it’s just nice question.
There you get a side topic. Who’s the tallest? Me, Ryan or Tanner? I, I don’t know how to change the Facebook user thing. So some people will say it’s Caleb or whoever, but Brad. Oh, yeah. Okay, you know what it is, Brad? I definitely. Brad, what’s up, Brad? If you’re if you’re live, man, I hope you have a great day. I’m like five, nine and a half. So how tall are you?
Five, eight and three quarters, man.
Oh, dude. Yes, I’m so much taller. No. Okay, I short guys. Oh, look, he goes. Here we go. It’s Brad.
Brad comments how much on the live thing you got to sync your your account Brad so we can start.
He says look okay so. What is the the best advice you’ve ever received?
In business or in life.
I’ll let you. I’ll let you. If you want to give a professional answer, that’s fine. However.
I’ll give you life advice and I’ll give you business advice that I receive in business. The best advice I ever received is when you’re big and small and when you’re small like big.
So when I first started, more time for everyone.
When you’re big.
Everyone in the nosebleeds, yeah.
When you’re big at small and when you’re small, act big. So, you know, I mean early on in my business, dude, like at the, at the credit union, I worked at the bank, I had to answer the phone. So you have to have really professional phone greeting. So I really got good at just having a nice phone greeting. So I had no employees. It was just me by myself. But I made it seem whenever someone called me, they were calling a corporate company, you know, like and that that is just, just such an easy example for you to understand what I mean. You know, like you might be by yourself or you might have one other person. And if your phone greeting is not exceptional, you’re not you’re not following that rule. And I think if you look at big companies, if they follow that rule and act small, in other words, they give you the same quality of service that they gave you at one point when maybe they were small. They’ve done a really good job of following that, you know, so that that that would I would say would be the business advice that I that I took and try to implement. And then in terms of like personal advice, man, you know, I mean, I’ve gotten a lot of personal advice in terms of like how I operate my life. But, you know, for me, it’s like family first, you know, I just keep it simple. I don’t do anything that would compromise my family in any way in terms of just, you know, I could care less about business. You know, it when it comes to my family, you know, and I couldn’t do this without their support and love. And I do a lot. So, you know, I mean, just everyone that’s the driving force, man, you know, and it keeps me grounded, you know, and that’s what that’s what I love about it. So it’s always family first.
Beautiful man. What is the worst advice you’ve ever received? And you can do both on that.
You the worst advice I ever received, man. So in terms of I don’t, you know, I wouldn’t be around anyone that give me poor advice, but I’ll say that I’ll tell you a bad idea I had. And that was that was doing a doing a bathroom renovation when I first started my business, you know, and that was a that was me wanting to make the money, you know, and having a customer that we painted their house and wanting to just wanting get to make money like, you know, one to hustle and and stack the stack the pockets. And I learned a really solid lesson of learning the power of saying no. So that was some bad advice I gave myself to take the job.
That’s a good one, though. That’s a huge one. Because, you know, the opposite of that would be, hey, niche down and don’t. So if you’re a new painter, your new concrete coding company and let’s say you’re doing exteriors only and that person calls you for that 8000 cabinet job. Yeah, dude, focus on what’s best. Yeah.
Yeah, dude, take it. Take it easy. You know, there’s plenty of opportunity for what you do out there. And any time you take something that’s not your perfect niche, it’s just going to deviate you from getting better, you know, and serving the customers you want to serve. So yeah, just that was that was a bad idea. I learned my lesson refund apologies stress the whole nine.
Yeah I’ve, I’ve done that in both in every service. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wanting to do too much man, you know, and it’s the entrepreneurial spirit of just, you know, and the belief we have in ourselves to be able to do anything. And sometimes you got to.
Grab these five seven. So Brad. Brad lost. So on the top, you know, it’s sad when when I’m the tallest, I’m like, because I’m so short too. So you know what? We’re short together, so, man.
It’s part of the game. That’s all.
Right. We all have beautiful wives. Pick us up, though, so we will forever. No, that’s it. Last question here, ma’am. What is the greatest insight that you can share with our audience? Painters, concrete coding companies? Yeah. That has helped you find success in your business.
Yeah. You know, to be honest, you can’t do it alone. You know, my my ultimate goal in my business is to create leaders, and that is my focus. And if you focus on that, you know, you’ll you’ll inevitably find success if you can actually create a leader out of someone that doesn’t believe that they can lead. So to give you some context on that, I have three managers in my business, none of which well, one was before, but before I mean, a couple of months before I could say this, but none of which have been managers before. So for me, it’s being able to identify leadership traits in individuals, hold them to a high standard, and give them an opportunity to see if they can meet or exceed the expectations. And I think if you can get really good at that, you’ll always be successful because people will wind up taking ownership in your business in a way that is similar to how you operate and own your business. That’s why I can sit here. Homily at 2:00 on a Friday, knowing that three jobs are going on right now because I have leaders there handling it. So that would be the insight that I’d give. Yeah.
That’s awesome, man. Well, listen, thank you so much for all.
Absolutely great interview, man. Thanks.
Honor and a privilege to interview here and chat with you and really help this industry elevate professional lives.
Absolutely.
Man. Next level, man. Thank you so much.
Thanks, man. Thanks so much. Anyone listening to this? Ride’s a great leader with a good mission. Great leader. Great mission. Thank you, man. Glad to be a part of this thing.
Appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much. Hi, guys. You guys soon.
