In 19-minutes, I’ll solve your toughest painting problem? Walkin’ with Brandon

In this edition of Walking with Brandon, I am going to solve your toughest painting problem in 19 minutes or less. Do you think I can do it? I believe I can. Um, our members tell me that I don’t do these walk-in with Brandon enough and that they like them. Why? I have no idea. Um, but what we’re going to do is I’m going to talk to you about how to solve your toughest problem in 19 minutes or less
and then I’m just going to ramble on uh philosophically about business perhaps and then tell you what I’ve been up to.

So, most of the time when people have a problem in their painting business, I know exactly how to fix it like 99% of the time. and Tara uh our COO often gets on to me because sometimes people need to arrive at their own conclusions and to feel like it it’s their idea in order to do it even though the outcome would be the same and it’d be quicker and more efficient.

That’s something I’m working on as a coach. But even when I do mind melds and brain melds uh at the PCA when I host a table, I’m sitting there and there’s always a problem and I’m like, I know exactly how to fix this because I’ve done it hundreds of times, almost a thousand. I wonder if I’ll make it to a thousand.

I might. So, I’m offering in 19 minutes to solve your toughest and most specific, we’ll get into that in a moment, painting business problem. So, if you’ve got a problem in your business, let’s say [snorts] I’m outside, I’m being attacked by bugs. Let’s say that you have a salesperson who has a real low closing rate.

That’s a pretty specific business problem. Maybe you have a low closing rate. Maybe it’s competition or something. Let’s say you got a marketing piece and you wonder, will this thing get a good response rate from my customers? I’d really love somebody to look at it. or you’re having trouble making a specific lead source work or you’re trying to put together a very basic marketing plan, but you don’t know where to start with your time and your money.

You just know you don’t want to waste it. You got a specific commercial account you’re trying to get into that you have no idea how to get started. You’ve hired someone to do marketing in your company, but you don’t know what their calendar, task list, KPI measurement, etc. really needs to look like. You’ve got a handful of numbers in your business that are critical KPIs and you would like for someone to look at those KPIs to tell you, am I doing good or am I are there areas where I can improve? Is there something that’s really bad here? Questions like that. Not my wife left me. Where did I go wrong?

[laughter] Not um how do I start a painting business? Not how do I sell a painting business? Not um how do I get motivated because I’m, you know, sitting on my laurels or I never even won any laurels. How do I win something? Nothing that big. That’s like a hour and 15 minute conversation just to get started on the process, but something specific.

And if you can, I’m going to make you email me to get this. Brandon@painersacademy.com.

Um, give me some background. If you got some numbers, throw those in there. You’ve tried this, that didn’t work, you’ve tried that. Your company’s this big, you’ve been in business this long. You know what? What your future plans are.

I mean, anything that you think would help me not waste part of our 19 minutes dragging information out of you that could just as easily be sent an email, right? Just preparing for a meeting. It’s just good common business courtesy, but it’s also productive and efficient. It’s hard to walk up this big hill when you’re drinking a gin and tonic and uh you’re talking at the same time.

We got nothing but hills in my neighborhood. It’s beautiful. Love living out here. Look at this. Wish you could see further. It’s just like the entrance to state park down there. That sky. That’s pretty. All right. So, email them. Brandonacademy.com. I’ll try to answer your question.

We’ll get on a call for 19 minutes and I’ll even send you a summary of it, right? Just make it easy on you. Probably meet by Zoom so I can transcribe it and uh condense it for you. Cuz sometimes people don’t take good notes. Now waxing eloquently about business stuff. People that don’t take good notes. Whenever I sit down and talk to someone about their business problems and they don’t write anything down, that is a sign of failure. my buddy Terry.

Terry is a woman who I knew from uh Senator Corker’s campaign and we also went to the gym together about 20 years ago at the sports barn downtown. So she worked as volunteers. Very sweet lady. She’s got a beautiful house. Very nice family, too. So anyway, there’s a view of the portaotti. It’s stunning.

So, we got some development going on out here because it’s such a pretty place to live. That’s our place now. It’s gorgeous. Anyway, people that write don’t write things down. The shortest pen’s better than the longest memory. Write it down. Somebody’s wasted an hour of my time. I’m telling them specifically what to do, things they could physically do, and they don’t write anything down.

Like, this person ain’t going to make it. I had a guy come to seek my counsel running for office here recently because I’ve worked on 15 campaigns and I’ve won them all. Federal, statewide, little races, legislative efforts. Didn’t write a thing down. I said, “Boy, this guy ain’t going to make it.” And he didn’t. Um, goes double in your business, right? Writing things down.

I know we got a bunch of technology now and everybody loves it and I do too. I use a ton of it. But the fundamentals never change. And if you don’t understand the fundamentals, you can’t even use the technology. Sometimes it puts you further in the weeds than if you just had Excel and a Word document and a piece of paper. Writing things down.

What’s your average transaction size? What’s your close rate? What’s your on-site close rate? You know, what’s your production rates? Write it down. You’re doing something repetitively over and over again that a monkey could do. Write it down. Hire a monkey. Maybe somebody better than a monkey or replace the current person you have with a monkey.

For some of you, that’d be an upgrade. No offense to monkeys, but nonetheless, um, write it down. Everything in your business that’s important should be written down, should be kept, tracked, tabulated. I’m not talking about every little tiny thing that doesn’t give you value, but the things that are a big deal. All right, shifting gears.

Taking a break. What have I been up to? Well, you see, when you are busy, I am slow. And when you’re slow, I am busy. So, it means my winter is real busy. And about July and August, I have to call my phone to make sure I’m still in business to make sure the number rings through. You’ve been in that situation.
So, I’m in a hyper seasonal business with y’all. Cuz even though you should work on your business during the harvest, and even though if you don’t have a habit of working on your business throughout the year, you will probably fail. Yeah, sorry. Got to put that in there. It’s so true.

All my guys that just kill it make a ton of money. They have the easiest lives. They’re working on their business 247. Everybody else thinks about it for about 10 minutes in between January and February when they’re so slow and then they work on it for a month and a half and just fall off the wagon again. Nonetheless, so during the slow season, uh, I go on vacations. I go see friends.

I’ve seen Hank Williams Jr. and Sammy Kershaw. pretty good concert down in Birmingham with my buddy uh, fraternity brother, friend of about 25 years now. Keep up with your friends. Uh, build relationships and maintain them. It takes work and effort and energy. Don’t be afraid to be the instigator. Some people need that.

Don’t be afraid to bring big crowds of people together every once in a while so you can be a spoke on a wheel. Some people need that and they make friends with each other. That’s fun. Um, I’ve been to the Mile High Campground, beautiful views. A mile up in the Smoky Mountains. Uh, friend came down, rented a cabin.

Sean Bobble, an attorney, another friend of about 20some years. His family came down. Uh, me and Sylvia were up there. I was serenating her with my guitar. And sometimes I stayed at the cabin, sometimes I stayed at the campsite. And she wanted to stay up there with me. We’re sitting there singing old country songs and rock and stuff like that and things that she knows and just having a good time by the fire.

Huge beautiful horizon sunset and uh these huge massive elks just run through the campsite. It’s like boom. What is that? It’s like gosh it’s like biggest two horses maybe three. So that was fun. Um what else has been going on? been working on my conservative news publication. I do that a little bit during the summer for fundraisers and things of that nature.

So, some gvitorial debates, interviews. We got a big governor’s race in Tennessee. I’m working on a little race here locally as a volunteer and we’re going to thrash them. I love winning. It’s fun. Hate losing. Hope I don’t lose. Be the only black mark on my record. Want to keep it flawless. So, in politics, what I found is that you uh first you got to learn the trade, just having a political opinion, watching Fox News, and going to vote.

If you didn’t do any of that, you’d still have the same outcome. I’m an outcome focused kind of guy when it comes to civics and culture. I only keep up with things I have impact on. So, if you ask me about what I think about President Trump, this that and the other, and I I don’t know. All I know is what accidentally filters through my social media, which isn’t much because I think it’s learned I don’t pay attention to anything but state and local politics.

And so, find something you can do that actually makes a difference. Knock on a door, give some money. Um, run for office. Uh but make sure that when you do what I do and you come out of political retirement to make a civic difference, uh I have to have a good candidate. I have to have a bad candidate or a bad cause or a good cause.

And then because I’ve been doing this so long and since I reach more conservatives than probably anybody else in the state on a regular basis, um I know the sentiment of your typical GOP primary voter and I wait until there’s a chance where just like in business, you can invest the least amount of time and money and get the maximum amount of ROI with a limited amount of effort.

And so I look for those opportunities and when I see one in a race, I get involved and I kind of coach the candidates for free. I occasionally do get paid for this, that, and the other. But these state races are so small, you’d never make any money running them, which is why I got out of it. If you want to do the big federal stuff, you have to sell your soul to the corporations uh and the establishment, and you have to abandon your constituents.

I didn’t want to do that. And it’s also just not a very good lifestyle business. And you talk about something that’s seasonal. Every four, six years, two years if you’re lucky. Woo, that’s seasonality. All right, it’s enough politics. What else is going on? They opened up a gym by the Dollar General. You know you’re in the country [laughter] when your gym is attached to a Dollar General. So, we had a gym.

I go to a gym that I’ve been going to for 25 years. Um, and it is called Fitness Central and it’s awesome. They got spas and cold plunges and a big beautiful pool and a great workout area and I’ve known everybody there for a long time. Uh, I hated leaving that gym more than anything else about my move up to Signal Mountain.

Although, all in all, hey, listen, I’m happy. And so, um, anyway, they opened up a gym by the Dollar General, and it it’s it’s great. So, I’m switching from the Signal Mountain Athletic Club here up here, which is full of a bunch of unsupervised teenage boys just, you know, flexing in the mirror, sitting and texting, bull craping with each other.

Uh, five people gathered around one machine. They’re there for two hours. They do two reps. Those kind of people. And so, watch out. You get ran over over here if you’re not paying attention. So, started going there. That’s been good. So, I go there two nights a week and I go off the mountain one night a week.

And then I get my 10,000 steps in every day if I can. Uh, most days I can. I don’t know what I’m at right now, but it ain’t 10,000 yet. So, I’m walking down to the Signal Mountain Nursery in the hopes of uh trying not to look like I’m falling apart and be able to wear the same pants and uh [laughter] generally not look like uh you know, dad bod kind of fella out on the judge. This has never been me.

Um, when you’re short as I am, you need to make it all count, right? Got to make it all count. So, also feel better. My neck and back and everything hurt all the time if I don’t work out, but if I do, good shape. All right, guys. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my walk here. I could I could talk all the way to the nursery, but I do miss y’all.

Uh, if you have a question, submit it. Brandon@painersacademy.com. We’ll get on the phone for 19 minutes. I’ll solve a specific problem. The more specific, the better. Listen, you got some big old problem, that’s fine. Send it to me. We may have to schedule more time for that. And if that’s the case, if you’re willing to show up, you bastards.

Drives me crazy. People set an appointment with you, forget about I’m forget I’m out here painting something. I’m like, boy, if you ever wondered uh if somebody’s not going to make it, it’s when they set an appointment with you and they don’t show up for it because they don’t even have a calendar. Owner time management, productivity, number one indicator uh of success, the number one cause of failure.

So, when people can’t manage their calendar, they can’t manage anything else. And so, that’s a fundamental skill. you got issues with productivity and time management personally. I give you some resources. Talk you through the basics on the phone. All right, guys. If you want me to keep doing these, I feel weird doing stuff like this.

I know people do it all the time. It’s supposed to be like the social media thing to do. Seems a little intrusive, a little personal. Uh, comment, hit the like button, email me, say I enjoyed that. So, I know you’re at least out there. Now, it is July. Might be three of you that watch this. Who knows? I’ll holler at you later.

Listen to that frog. We got them out here. See you later, guys. Take care.