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Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Last summer, Ben Tornambe couldn’t see his friends. He was living at his parents’ house, producing jobs himself, and working every weekend. His words: “I was killing myself.” This year - he hasn’t worked a weekend since June, and he has been non-stop traveling (he was just in Colorado for a week and he has 2 more weeks of travel set up in October). When Casey last had him on the show, Ben had just crossed $200K in his first six months in business…. Which was a great start. This year (his 2nd year) he’s on track for about $850,000 produced. His goal in December was $650K. He passed that in September… with a quarter of the year still left. Here’s what the last twelve months actually changed. He’s averaging right around $100K a month recently. He’s got two crews running. And in April he hired a project manager who took over the job site visits, the customer communication, and the crew communication. She works 20 to 30 hours a week. He pays her about $70K a year. He knew exactly what he was buying - and it wasn’t help. He was buying his weekends. So here’s his week now: Gym first thing. An 8:30 estimate. An 11:00 estimate. Lunch out. A meeting in the afternoon, another estimate around 2PM, and the occasional after-work one when both decision makers are finally home. Fridays he keeps light on purpose. And the only work he does on the weekend is about an hour of admin on Sunday afternoon… before football. Dinner with his friends every Thursday. One marathon down this year. The next one in two weeks. His line on all of it: ”We’re busy. But I’m not stressed busy.” And here’s the part Casey dug into. When Ben hit his goal early, he didn't chase more revenue. He spent the rest of the year building the team instead. He also started tracking things he never looked at when he was at $200K - where every job came from, what that source cost him, what he closes from each one. Today, he cares more about gross profit than revenue. Next year he’s going after $1.5M to $2M. Here’s some of what they get into on the podcast: - What he was doing a year ago, at 22, living at his parents’ house - The one hire that took his weekends back - and exactly what it cost him → Everything he handed off, and what he kept → Why he’s busier than last year and way less stressed → His entire day, hour by hour, including the estimates most painters won’t do → Why he buys lunch out every single day on purpose → What he started tracking this year that he never looked at before → The number he now cares about more than revenue → What he did with the back half of the year after hitting his goal early → The thing he does every morning that he says is why he’s still sharp at 4pm → Why he runs two marathons a year even though he doesn’t like running → What he says happens to you if business is the only thing in your head → The conversation with his parents that did not go well → Where he’s taking it next year If you’re grinding weekends and can’t see how you’d ever stop… don’t skip this podcast. It runs about 50 minutes and Ben doesn’t hold anything back. The numbers, the hire, the schedule, and what he’d tell himself a year ago. Listen to it on your next drive between estimates.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Leo Stone runs Stone Painting out of Kansas City. Last year - his first full year doing this full time - he did $500K. This year he's on pace to double it. With one employee. Like everybody else, Leo pays for leads. And like everybody else, those leads got a lot more expensive this year. Those leads nearly tripled in cost since the spring. That should have wrecked his year. It didn't. Because the jobs that are actually driving his business don't come from advertising at all. And they're the best jobs he books all year. When those customers call, they've already decided to hire him. They're not collecting three bids. They're not grinding him on price. They're not comparing him to the two guys who came in under him. They already know who they want. They just need a date on the calendar. Now think about a lead you paid for. You're one of four names on a list. You're explaining why you're not the cheapest. And you're hoping they hire you. Same amount of work. Completely different conversation. Ben Landusky hosted this podcast, and he loved Leo’s marketing strategy. He said he’s going to copy it into his business. Here's the crazy part. Almost nobody in the trades does marketing like this. Which is exactly why it works so well for Leo. Here's some of the things they break down on the podcast: → Where Leo discovered this whole marketing strategy (it has nothing to do with painting) → What he does at the end of every single job that takes him one afternoon a week → What he hands customers that costs a few bucks and gets talked about for years → The $1,000 marketing promotion he's doing next month that's already produced jobs today → What his cost per lead did this year, and why he isn't losing sleep over it → The one hire this year that got him off production → Why Ben thinks Foothills left millions on the table for eleven years - because they overlooked this marketing opportunity If lead costs are skyrocketing, and it’s getting harder to get jobs… This is the episode to listen to this week.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Most people who want out of their job think the hard part is the leap. Save up a financial cushion. Pick a date. Hand in the notice. Then figure it out fast, because the clock is running. And that's exactly where a lot of good businesses die - not because the business didn't work, but because the owner ran out of runway before the business had time to replace their income. But it doesn't have to go that way. You can build this on the side. In fact, a lot of the people who do best in this business didn’t quit their job until the company was paying them more than the job was. Firefighters do it - 24 on, 48 off gives you two full days a week most people don't have. Pilots do it. Fly a week, home a week. Cops, military, guys working four tens, anybody on shifts. They don't have a spare hour. They have spare days. And that turns out to be exactly what this business needs. You don't need to be available every minute. You need to be available for estimates, and you need to answer your phone fast. The rest of it - the painting itself - gets done by your subs whether you're there or not. Which brings us to Tighe and Keegan Dudeck. They run Pioneer Painters out of Springfield, Massachusetts. They'll finish this year around $2.1 million at a 21% net, with a project manager, a sales rep, and a second location in Connecticut run by a general manager. And they built their business while working full-time as schoolteachers. Keegan left the classroom a couple of years ago. Tighe held on longer. This September was the first fall in his adult life that he didn't go back to teaching. By the time he finally went full-time in the painting business, the company was already doing $2M a year. Nobody was ever gambling the mortgage on it. Ben Landusky sat down with Tighe on the latest PBP Show. This one's for you if you're stuck in a job you're done with, and you've been waiting for the right moment to jump. Here's some of what they get into: - How two schoolteachers built a $2.1M painting business - Why Tighe held on four years longer than his brother did - and what finally made it obvious - How Tighe turns leads into jobs that most painters would never convert - Why he still answers the phone himself, and still doesn't use a CRM - How they got to a 4% cost of marketing - The national SEO company that produced almost nothing - and the one change that fixed it - How they sold more jobs by boosting their sales rate from 25%... to 40%... and then to 50%. Tighe breaks down exactly what moved it each time. - Why their sales rep now closes better than either owner does - Why delivering the estimate on the spot isn't really about closing on the spot - The mental block that's kept their gross profit lower than it should be - Why they opened a second location in year two - and what Tighe would tell you about that now - The one rule that would let any two partners grow twice as fast You don't have to bet everything on your new company. Build it slow, on the days you have off, and let it get big enough that quitting is the obvious next step instead of a leap of faith. Don’t miss this podcast - especially if you’re thinking of getting started while working full time - and you've been telling yourself you have to jump first.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ In 2015, Ryan Turry walked away from a corporate cubicle job to start painting houses in Minnesota. That same year, he bought Eric's course to help him get the business going. Then he went his own way… and forgot about it. For the next several years, Headwaters Painting grew slowly. Ryan was on the brush for about four years. He built a small crew of employee painters. He'll tell you himself that the bottom of his hockey stick was "very, very, very, very gradual." And he was scared to death of trying subcontractors. Then around 2020, he picked it back up. He rejoined Business Pro, switched to a sub model, and started building the business the way he'd had the plans for all along. This year, Headwaters hit $2.6M in sales by September 2nd - 36% ahead of their own targets. This one's for you if you've been following Eric for a while, you know this stuff works, and you just haven't done anything with it yet. Ben Landusky sat down with Ryan on the latest PBP Show to hear how it all turned around. Here's some of what they get into: - How Ryan bought Eric's course in 2015, went his own way, and forgot about it - Why his growth was "very, very, very gradual" for years - and what finally changed things for him - How industry events showed him what was actually possible in this business - Why he was genuinely afraid of the subcontractor model - His very first sub job shocked him at how easy it went (Spoiler alert: it was done in two days, and they got a five-star review) - The three hires Headwaters made in a single quarter - and what it did to the business - What breaks first when you double your team (it's almost always the same thing) - Why systems that were good enough last year aren't good enough now - The every-other-Monday meeting that fixes the handoff between sales and production - How to decide what counts as an "acceptable" work order - and what to do when one isn't - Why you should only fix one or two problems at a time - The kind of person you don't want to hire - Why he fought his own rebrand: "I don't want my blue to go away - that's my baby" - Why most painting company brands are built for the wrong person in the house - Ryan's vision: a company that "has a life of its own and doesn't need me anymore" - Why Ryan says growth isn't for everybody - and the solo painters he respects most Think about where Ryan was before Painting Business Pro… On the brush for four years. A small crew of employee painters. Too nervous to even try a sub. A business that barely moved for years. And now? Two project managers. Two estimators. A full-time office manager. $2.6M in sales before Labor Day - and he's not burned out doing it. He's building a company that's getting closer every year to running without him. Same guy. Same market. Same blueprint he bought back in 2015. The only difference is he finally used them. If you've had something sitting on the shelf for a while, this is the episode that'll make you pick it back up. Don't miss this podcast.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Ethan Heine has had an amazing run. He left a desk job in Michigan, moved to Florida with his fiancée, and started Southern Edge Painting. He painted for about eight weeks, hired a crew, and got off the brush for good. Year one he did $400K. This year he's on pace for $600K - with one crew. Then last month happened. Against a $60K monthly pace, he sold $23K. About a third of what he should have done. And here's the part that makes this worth your time: his estimates actually went up that month. The leads were there. The appointments were there. The closing wasn't. So Ben Landusky sat down with him on the latest PBP Show and worked backwards to find out exactly what broke - and what Ethan's doing to fix it. This one's for you if you've ever had a month fall apart for no reason you could put your finger on. Here's some of what they get into: - Why Ethan should have sold $60K last month, and sold $23K instead - The two small steps he'd quietly stopped doing without realizing it - Why Ethan stopped making sure both decision-makers would be there — and what it cost him - The exact plan Ethan's running now to get his sales rate back - Why Ben says his own sales rate drops to when he skips the systems (after 16 years) - The role play mistake almost everybody makes… and how to fix it - Why fixing a bad habit takes longer than building the right one - The "iron triangle" Ben uses to coach sales reps out of a slump - Why the months that go well are the ones that get you in trouble - Why Ethan refused to role play for a whole year - and what finally changed his mind Most painters have a month like this and chalk it up to the market. Or the season. Or bad luck. Ethan went back and found the actual cause — two specific things he'd stopped doing without ever deciding to. That's the part worth your time. Not the bad month. The fact that it was findable, and fixable, and it had nothing to do with leads or the economy. Because if you've ever had a month go sideways and never figured out why, it's probably sitting in the same place Ethan's was. Go listen to this one.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ The sign coming into Simon's town says 30,000 people. Add in the little towns around it and you might get to 50,000 or 60,000 people - if you're being generous. He runs Marian Painting there. So when he joined our program, he had a question in the back of his mind: Would this actually work in a small town? Last year he did $122K. This year he's pacing for $800K. Simon is 23. He started painting at 15, when his mom drove him to job sites and the crew got a laugh out of the kid showing up with his lunchbox. He started his own company out of a Prius. (You can fit a six-foot ladder in one, apparently.) So, this podcast is for you if you've ever looked at a growth story and thought "sure, but my market's too small for that." Hunter sat down with Simon on the latest PBP Show. Here's some of what they get into: - How Simon grew to $800K in a town of 30,000 people - The $500 he spent on yard signs - and the 10 jobs it turned into - His average job size on those first sign jobs (it's bigger than you'd guess) - How he went from painting one house a week to four - The four or five crews running his jobs now - and how he keeps them off the phone with him - What he wants next year (and it's not the revenue number you'd expect) - Why he stuck with door-to-door - even when it wasn't working… and how he made it successful. - How he turned himself into a mini-celebrity in his town, and people recognize him at the store - Why the thing he credits most for the growth isn't marketing at all - The "basic bar" of integrity that almost everyone thinks they're already clearing… but almost nobody is. If Simon can do $800K in a town of 30,000, the size of your market probably isn't the problem. Don’t skip this podcast.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Think about the last time you hired a contractor for something at your own house. You called three of them. One never picked up. One picked up, promised to come Tuesday, and didn't show. The third showed up, quoted you, and then you never heard from him again. That's not a bad week in the trades. That's normal. And homeowners have come to expect it. Here's what that means for you. Your customers aren't comparing you to some perfect painting company. They're comparing you to the guy who never called them back. So the bar you actually have to clear isn't "be the best painter in town." It's answering the phone, showing up when you say you will, and doing what you told them you'd do. That sounds too simple to be a strategy. It isn't. It's most of the game. If you're wondering how to stand out in a crowded market - the answer is probably a lot easier than you think. Travis and Laice Lee started ColorCraft Painting outside Charleston in April. Five months later they've done over $200K - with Travis still working shifts as a nurse anesthetist. They didn't do it by being cheaper. They did it by being easy to hire. Hunter sat down with them on the latest PBP Show. Here's some of what they get into: - The three steps most trades can't even get through - and why that's your entire opening - Why they treat the customer experience as seriously as the finished product - "$500 is a lot cheaper than a bad Google review" - Travis's rule when a job goes sideways - The $350 he ate on a porch job - and why that customer is now the happiest guy in the world - The $40,000 quote on his own house that made him start a painting company - Why he ordered 500 yard signs instead of 100 - The school pickup car tags with their logo on them - and how they thought of that - Why Travis secretly paid a sub $300 to paint a room in his own house first - What they bring their subs every week in the South Carolina heat - and why it matters - The fence that drank 36 gallons of stain and made him $150 - Why they say they grew too fast - and what they'd do differently - Why Travis refuses to name a revenue goal for next year Most painters are competing on price. Travis is competing on being reachable. Guess which one is easier to win.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Mike Kranz spent 15 years managing restaurants. Long hours. Constant fires. Phone burning in his pocket even on his days off. And after all that, still living paycheck to paycheck. He spent the last five years of it dragging his feet to work, trying to find any way out. He applied for project manager jobs. Started certifications. Nobody would hire him out of the industry. Then he started watching this podcast - and saw guys with zero painting experience building real businesses. So he started his own painting company on the side. And for two months, almost nothing happened. It took him a full month just to sell his first job. After two months in business, he'd sold a grand total of $3,500. That's the part where most people quit. Mike didn't. Because the very next month, November, he sold $40K. Then December, another $40K. On New Year's Eve he sold a $7K job, walked into his restaurant on January 1st, and quit. He's now on track to do $700K to $750K in his first year - with two beach trips, a Disney cruise, and a stress level that's actually lower than it was in the restaurant. This one's for you if you're stuck in a job you dread, you've got zero painting experience, and you have no idea where you'd even start. Casey sat down with Mike on the latest PBP Show, and Mike was completely candid - the mistakes, the bad hire, the stuff he'd do differently. Here's some of what they get into: - The two months where Mike sold just $3,500 - and why he didn't quit - How he got his first jobs with nothing but yard signs and free posts in neighborhood Facebook groups - Why his stress went down after starting a business, not up - Why Mike runs estimates on Saturdays on purpose - and why his sales rate is higher then than any other day - The mistake Mike made when his Facebook ads started working too well - and what he had to go back to when his cost per lead doubled - The 3-Hour estimate: "if you spend three hours with somebody, they're going to sign at the end" - The bad sub hire that ended with Mike telling a homeowner "there's no final walkthrough - I don't want a penny from you" - Why he now wraps furniture "like an igloo" - and how it became one of his best selling points - The job he rushed before Christmas chasing revenue - and what it cost him - Why Mike tells his own subcontractors "I'm not a painter" - and why it makes them better Mike's first two months looked like failure. They weren't. They were just the part nobody talks about.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ For three years straight, Israel Neumann ran his painting business the hard way - doing every single job himself. And for three years straight, he stayed stuck at exactly $100,000 a year. Then he did something strange. He started pretending his arms and legs were broken. Not literally - it was a rule he made for himself. I cannot paint anymore. I love it, I'm good at it, but it's holding me back. And I'll never grow if I keep doing it myself. So he stopped picking up the brush. And, he started trusting other people to do the painting. And his business went from $100K… to $250K… to a pace of $750k to $800k this year. While working about 35 hours a week and finishing every day by 4pm. This one's for you if you're the one doing all the work yourself - and you can't figure out why you're stuck no matter how hard you paint. Hunter sat down with Israel on the latest PBP Show to hear exactly how he did it. Here's some of what they get into: - The "broken arms and legs" trick Israel used to finally force himself off the brush - Why Israel stayed stuck at exactly $100K for three years in a row - and the one decision that broke it - The moment Israel actually tore his Achilles this year - and why his business didn't skip a beat (he sold more) - Why Israel gave up painting even though he loves it and is genuinely good at it - The pricing change that raised his sales rate - one price for everyone, no exceptions, no matter how much money he thinks they have - How Israel pulls 20+ leads a week on Facebook just being himself on camera - in his truck or out in the woods - The $17K job he sold 15 minutes into knocking on doors in one neighborhood - Why Israel tells customers "if it were me, I wouldn't do this" - and why it wins him the job - Why he has his crews over for family dinner every couple months - and what it does for his business - Why Israel's biggest challenge isn't growing… it's making himself slow down - How he works ~35 hours a week, is done by 4pm every day, and freed his wife up so she doesn't have to work Israel didn't triple his business by working harder. He did it by finally stopping the one thing that felt like work.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Most people think building a $4M painting business is a mechanical problem. Get the marketing right. Get the systems right. Get the team and the org chart right. Then the business simply goes like a car you just hop in and drive. But, the truth is much different, and almost nobody sees it coming. The machine only runs as well as the person running it. You have to change and transform in ways you never even thought possible… You have to stop being a doer and become a leader… You have to learn how to manage people, handle conflict, read a room, and hold your team accountable - without crushing them. You have to grow as a person, not just as an operator… Nobody warns you about that when you start a painting business. And the ones who do warn you… you don't really hear them until you're in it. Danie has lived through every bit of this while building a $4M painting company. She and Ryan own Headwaters Painting in Minnesota. She’s also one of our partner companies at National Painting Group. They've already matched last year's entire revenue by July, and they're on track for around $4 million this year - profitably - with a lean team and a culture their own customers message them about. But Danie will tell you the growth wasn't the hard part. Becoming the person who could lead it was. This podcast is for you if you're building toward something bigger - and you're starting to realize the business isn't the only thing that has to grow. You do too. Ben Landusky sat down with Danie on the latest PBP Show. Here's some of what they get into: - The damaging belief Danie carried for years that was quietly holding her back - and how she finally unlearned it - Why "I'm not good at marketing" (or numbers, or leading people) feels totally true - even though it's a story you told yourself, not a fact - The moment Ben realized he was "incapable of leading teams" - and the exact way he flipped it - Why the team that got Headwaters to $1M could never have gotten them to $4M - The five values Headwaters hires, trains, and fires by - so they almost never get a hire wrong - The "slow bleed" that one wrong person creates on a team - and how they protect against it - Why customers message Headwaters about their culture - and how that turned into a growth advantage - The bottleneck even a $4M company is fighting right now (every level has a new one) - The weekly meeting Headwaters uses to fix the handoff between sales and production - How they turned a painting company into a place people are proud to build a career Danie and Ryan built a $4 million company most painters would dream of. But the real story isn't the number. It's who they had to become to get there.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ For years, Kara Wolfe did everything herself. Every estimate. Every job. Every phone call. She runs Wolfe Pro Painting in Syracuse, New York - and for a long time, she was the business. Just her, a brush, and more work than one person should carry. Not anymore. Right now, Kara is building the business she always dreamed about - one with a real team running the day-to-day, so she can finally step back and enjoy her life. She partnered with National Painting Group at the start of 2026. Six months in, her marketing is up, her sales are up, and she just made her first two hires. She's in the middle of the exact transformation most painters only talk about: going from doing all the work to leading a team that handles it. This one's for you if you're the one taking every call, doing every estimate, and managing every job - and you're ready to build a business that doesn't need you in it. Hunter sat down with Kara on the latest PBP Show to hear her story. Here's some of what they get into: - Why Kara's very first hire was an office manager - not the production manager everyone tells you to hire first - The exact task Kara handed off first - and why letting go of it changed everything - How Kara went from purely referral-driven to running real marketing - and what finally made her comfortable spending the money - The marketing math that showed Kara she was quietly losing money by not spending enough - The one shift that took Kara's sales rate from 45% to 55% in a single year - The question Kara now asks every customer that makes her stand out from every other painter who "just emails the estimate" - The hiring red flags Kara never would've caught on her own - and who helped her spot them - Why Kara admits she'd have hired the first person she liked (and what that would've cost her) - Why Kara gave up running her business solo - even though she was doing just fine on her own - The reason Kara says building her team's culture "would've taken years" alone - and how she skipped that - Why Kara says the growth of her business is almost a side effect of who she's becoming Kara isn't doing this because she had some big advantage. She's doing it because she finally learned how to build a business instead of just working in one. If you've ever dreamed of stepping back from the daily grind - this is what that actually looks like, in real time.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Nick and Nycole spent 14 years building their painting company in Ohio. And for most of those years, they were stuck. They grew from $50K to about $450K -but the money came in and vanished just as fast. Thin margins, nothing left over, and by 2023 they were running negative cash flow. Nick was doing estimates at 9 and 10 at night. Nycole was running the back end. And somewhere in there, over about three years, they handed roughly $150k to marketing agencies… and got almost nothing back. Then, in about 12 months, everything changed. They're now on track for $850K this year - with lower overhead, more time off, and a completely different life. Casey sat down with Nick and Nycole on the latest PBP Show to hear exactly how they did it. This podcast is for you if you've been grinding for years and can't figure out why the business won't break through. And, you’ll love it if you've spent money on marketing and had no idea what you actually got for it. Here's some of what they get into: - Why their teenage son beat every marketing agency they ever hired - and it wasn't close - How they showed up to paint their marketer's office - and left realizing they'd been getting played - How they made way more money this year and spent less running the business - more coming in, less going out - Why they were stuck at $450K for years and couldn't get past it - here's the one thing that finally broke them through - What they did that finally worked after 14 years - and why doing it any other way keeps you stuck - Why a business advisor kept telling them to drop their prices - and why they finally quit listening to him, and discovered he was completely wrong - What years of barely scraping by - even going on unemployment - taught them about running a "successful" business - Why they shut off Google ads and put everything into Facebook - and how the leads finally started coming - The one simple question on their job application that weeds out the bad hires right away - Why they won't hire a project manager yet, even though they've got the money for it - How Nycole finally got her time back after 14 years of working nonstop and going nowhere - and is using that time to chase her dreams They went from 9PM estimates and working weekends to taking Fridays off, and are actually enjoying the business they built. If you've been struggling for years and wondering if it'll ever get better - don't miss this one.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Here’s a bad plan that most painting contractors follow… Get busy. Bring on a sales rep. Hand off the estimates… And the business finally takes off. That's the plan almost everyone has. Here's what goes wrong with that. When you hire someone, they walk into the company you've already built: the standards, the attitude, the way things get done. If none of that is set yet, your new hire walks into a mess. And now you're paying someone while the two of you figure it out together. Val Osipov almost made that exact mistake, and fortunately he was able to avoid it. Val runs Fresh View Painters in Pittsburgh with his partner Jacob. They started at the end of December 2024 with almost nothing. Val didn't even own a car, so the two of them shared Jacob's minivan and did every job together. Their first one was a kitchen they underbid and painted themselves. A year and a half later, they're on track for $700-800K with a healthy net. So Val came to our Fast Track event in March with a plan: hire a sales rep. He's getting married in September, and he wanted someone trained to cover his estimates. I told him not to hire a salesperson. Not because he wasn't ready to grow. But, because the company wasn't ready for a new person yet. Here's the thing most owners miss: when you hire someone, they walk into whatever you've already built. If you run a tight ship, they learn that. If things are sloppy, they learn sloppy. Whatever you tolerate, they'll tolerate too. You set the standard. Your next hire just copies it. Get that right first, and every person you hire makes the company stronger. Hire before it's set, and every person you add just makes it messier - and harder to fix. So Val changed his plan. No hiring until 2027. He even turned his revenue goal down on purpose - from chasing $1M to doing $700-800K the right way. That way, the foundation will be rock solid before he brings anyone in. My partner Ben got the whole story out of him on this week's podcast. Here's some of what they cover: - Why I told Val not to hire a sales rep yet - and what to do first - The "standard" every owner sets without realizing it - and why your next hire will copy it exactly, good or bad - Why hiring a sales rep too early doesn't speed you up - it drags you backward, and most owners never see it coming - The one question Val asks before making any hire - ask yourself this and you'll know instantly if you're ready to hire or not - What Val is building into his company right now, before a single employee — so his first hire walks into something great instead of a mess - Why Val turned down a $1M year on purpose — and what he's doing with that time instead of hiring - How we learned these same painful lessons in our painting companies, and the hard reset it took to fix the problems If you're thinking about hiring someone - or wondering why your last hire didn’t work out, then don’t miss this podcast.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ Every month, I see painting business owners quit who shouldn’t have. They start the business, launch Facebook ads right away because that's what the big success stories seem to do, and go all in. Then the ads eat cash faster than the jobs close. The pipeline gets thin, the bank account gets thinner, and somewhere around month four they're lying awake wondering if they're just not cut out for this. If that sounds familiar, this is for you. Most of the time… what looks like failing is actually just doing things in the wrong order. And that's fixable. It’s actually a really easy fix. Here's the right order: door knocking and lawn signs bring in money when you don't have any. Turn on ads when you've got jobs, money, and crews. Not before. Run ads before you've built those things, and you're pouring gas on a stove that isn't lit yet. Josef’s success is what the right sequence looks like. He runs a painting company in Winnipeg, Canada. Two years ago he did $80K on his own. His first year in PBP, he did $260K. This year he's on pace for $900K+. But he didn't start with ads, because he couldn't afford them. He started by knocking doors in a Winnipeg January at -34 degrees, where pens freeze and he had to carry pencils instead. He put out lawn signs at 10pm on Friday nights. He grinded like that until the spring jobs gave him enough cash to turn on Facebook ads. And here's what happened when he finally did: his ads bring back around $33 for every dollar he spends. They’re working so well that he recently had to turn his spend down to $20 a day - because he was booked out four weeks and estimates were canceling. The ads didn't build his business. They poured gas on one he'd already built. Hunter sat down with Josef on the latest Painting Business Pro Podcast and got the whole story. Here's some of what they cover: - The very first door Josef ever knocked - and what the homeowner said that turned it into a lead - How Josef launched his business door knocking in the freezing cold Canadian winter - so cold his pens froze - The 8 leads he pulled from his first two hours of door-to-door, as a guy who'd been socially anxious his whole life - Why lawn signs and flyers flopped in Josef's market — and why that didn't matter - The exact moment he knew he could afford to turn on Facebook ads (and why turning them on earlier would have hurt him) - The $20-a-day ad budget that books him out four weeks — and why he had to lower it - The "Bambi" ads — Josef's silliest ad format, and why it out-pulls his professional ones - The $3,000 deck job that cost him two weeks of progress — and the "painting skills are a crutch" warning for every skilled painter - The crew he kept far too long while they quietly ate his margins - The painter who threatened him, the one who threatened court — and the interview change that fixed his hiring - What Josef writes down after every job that goes wrong (and why he never blames the customer or the crew) - Why he stopped calling his crews "subcontractors" — and what changed when he did - Why Josef pays for coaching — even though he's one of the fastest-growing painters in the program If you're in the hard part right now - no jobs lined up, ads not paying for themselves, wondering if you should keep going - listen to this one before you make any decisions.

Download our Fast Growth Roadmap for Painting Contractors: https://paintingbusinesspro.com/fast-growth-roadmap/ Download Million Dollar Painting Contractor Case Studies Here → https://paintingbusinesspro.com/case-study/ A little over a year ago, James was the VP of Strategy at a digital marketing agency in Colorado. Big role. Big salary. He managed strategy for about 30 e-commerce clients. Then, one week before his one-year anniversary, they let him go. He didn't get his bonus. He was 53 years old. Starting over. Here's what makes James's story so interesting. He knew nothing about painting. His background was all e-commerce: someone clicks an ad, lands on a site, buys a product. Nothing about standing in front of a homeowner or closing a $9,000 exterior. He'd painted his parents' house once at 16. That was the extent of his experience. He looked at buying plumbing, HVAC, and even a concrete company first. But he kept finding the same problem: the good businesses weren't for sale, and the ones that were had major issues underneath them. Painting was different. Private equity hadn't gotten to it yet. His local Tampa Bay market alone does over a billion dollars a year in residential repaint. He found PBP through YouTube and joined on December 31, 2024. That's when he made himself a promise: "Try your hardest, James. Just try your hardest and see what happens." His first year, he did $300k in revenue and netted about $80k. He'll be the first to admit his sales process wasn't dialed in. His close rate sat around 30%. His marketing background carried him. He wasn't afraid to get on camera for Meta ads. He even filmed himself walking his ex-girlfriend's French bulldogs and booked two paint jobs from it. He kept testing until something worked. By May of this year, though, he was still stuck at a 30% close rate. He was simply spending more on Meta ads to create more opportunities. So he flew to Colorado for our Fast Track event. We identified sales as the biggest constraint and gave him the playbook to fix it. He committed to the sales process—pre-closes, full Q&A, the entire framework. Now he's on track to do $750k in his second year and fully replace the VP salary he left behind. Here's the part I want you to sit with. James is 53. He's seen what happens to people in corporate America once they reach their 40s and 50s. They're expensive. AI is changing the landscape. Companies can hire two younger people for the same cost. He's not knocking corporate—he's proud of the career he had. But he's clear-eyed about the risk. Today, he owns his time. He drives to jobs singing in his truck. He doesn't take 7 p.m. work calls. He doesn't work weekends. He's making the same money—but actually enjoying his life. And he's building something he owns instead of building someone else's company. Hunter sat down with James on the latest Painting Business Pro Podcast to hear the full story. Here's what they cover: * The YouTube video that led James to PBP * Why he chose painting over other trades * How walking his ex-girlfriend's French bulldogs landed two paint jobs * Why "throwing everything at the wall" is the only Meta ad strategy that works * The Fast Track event that uncovered his biggest bottleneck * How he finds Tier 1 subcontractors for about $3 per lead * The Publix line he uses in Meta ads that gets homeowners to hire him * Why he hasn't taken a 7 p.m. work call in over a year * His thoughts on retirement—and why he believes the model is broken * The three simple things he credits for his success If you've ever wondered whether you could replace a corporate salary with a business you own—one that gives you your time back without requiring you to be an expert on day one—James's story will hit close to home.