PaintED Podcast

Make your answer to "what do you do?" as appealing as possible to promote your business!

Have you ever told someone what you do, and your description was so far off they tried to clarify and were nowhere near what you actually do? In this episode, Chris interviews Andrew Gibson, author of What’s Your URP? and breaks down how to clarify your messaging for the classic question: “what do you do?” to generate more interest and referrals for your business!

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Last week with Asad Zaman we talked about some of the active recruiting and promotional tactics you can lean on besides just your basic job boards.

At this point in the funnel you should be starting to receive applicants… And if you’ve followed the best practices shared over the past 3 episodes you should have quite the volume coming at you.

As we said last time, making a good hire is impossible if you have no one good to choose from. So now that you’ve solved that problem, the question becomes, “How do we prioritize and convert our best applicants into interviews?”

This applicant flow management and interview set up call stage is an unbelievably important step and one that entrepreneurs often don’t take seriously enough. Leading to you wasting your time on the wrong candidates, or worse - being no-showed by your interviewee.

To walk us through this we’re lucky to have Danny Kerr, managing director at Breakthrough Academy.

Before starting Breakthrough Academy, Danny was the head recruiter for all of Western Canada for College Pro Painters. He’s the best person we know at this critical flow management and interview set up stage.

In this episode we cover:

- How to treat referral candidates vs outside applicants

- The best way to get people to open up on the phone so you get a better sense of who you’re really talking to

- The questions to ask to draw out their true motivations

- When to bring up ‘Deal Breaker’ questions

- The best way to close out the call and transition to the next phase of the process

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Have you designed an appropriate hiring plan that suits your business culture?

Many people are bombarded with more work than they can handle, and being overwhelmed is sometimes unavoidable. It's critical to understand how you'll bring on the correct people to your team who won't undermine your culture and who will carry their own weight.

In this week's episode of PaintED, Benji Carlson from Breakthrough Academy, one of the greatest coaching firms in the industry, joins Torlando Hakes to discuss how to design the optimal plan for hiring the appropriate people for your team.

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Having a great team and enduring consistent is what guides to victory.

Mike & Miriam Freeman, Co-owners of Mike's Quality Painting, share how they have grown their painting business to doing over $6 million in annual revenue in just ten years. They further discuss the importance of having a great team and how they've gotten their painters to seek out proactively more google reviews for the company. The husband and wife team dive into the importance of being consistent with your marketing and mindset, as they believe ambitious painting company owners need to possess to achieve success.

Topics Discussed:

- How starting top-heavy forced faster company growth

- Some ways to motivate your team to pitch in and genuinely care

- The art of getting painters to buy in for Google reviews, and how that has helped them reach nearly 400 reviews

- Bold predictions on how the painting industry is likely to evolve

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Gender doesn't define your capabilities.

In this episode, we catch up with the super talented Vicky smith of Smith Nicholson Decorators, based down in Kent. Only the second female we've had on the show so far. We'd love to have more females on repping the trade, so any ladies out there that fancy joining me on the show- give me a shout. I have a lot of time and admiration for Vicky and think she's a cracking role model for the ladies to look up to in the trade. in this episode we chat about the tricky art of balancing single parenting with work, people's pre-conceptions of females in the trade, and "Cowgirl" workers. So pin back you're ears, make a brew, crank the volume up and dive in.

Brothers of the Brush is the first international show to arrive at PCA. Hosted by the English Master Decorator, Chris Kerfoot, this show consists of interviews with numerous decorators from across the world to acquire real-life business experiences and guidance from the source.

This could be the next step in your globalization journey! Don't miss out on each episode made by decorators for decorators.

Who is Chris? Since 1989, Chris Kerfoot has been a reliable and consistent Painter and Decorator. His company, which is based in East Yorkshire, England, provides top-notch painting, decorating, and spraying services for both residential and commercial clients.

Chris is always interested in hearing what you have to say! Please contact him at [email protected] if there are any topics you'd want to hear more about, or if there's someone you'd like us to approach to feature on future podcasts (including yourself!).

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Some leads require more effort and more attention than others.

Eric Fasnacht from Pathfinder Marketing joins Nick Slavik on this episode of Ask A Painter to discuss "bad leads."

Just because a lead may be considered bad, doesn't mean it's a waste of time. It's important during a sales call to remind your lead why they became a lead in the first place, and really hone in on what sets your business apart from the others.

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

The term “business plan” is often a negative word to many business owners, but they serve a very useful purpose!! In today’s episode, Jo Ann Dimaggio May, Director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center For the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville joins us to share how they help business owners create and utilize their business plans in the day to day operations of business.

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Good interviewing skills are crucial, but it's more important to have a top-notch pool of prospects.

I want you to think about your current recruiting strategy. How much of it relies on lucking out and having the right person see your posting at the right time? Are you actively recruiting for top talent or passively waiting for a needle in a haystack?

Making a great hire is impossible if you don't have anyone good to choose from. This is why 90% of the hiring problem is fundamentally "Top of Funnel".

You can practice your interviewing skills all you want (and we will go over this in the next episode), but if you don't have a great pool of candidates to interview, where does that leave you?

We've all at some point felt the frustration of posting an open position on a job board only to find that a few days later, only a few completely unqualified people have applied.

This 'hope and pray' strategy has led many lesser entrepreneurs to all but abandon the search entirely, comforting themselves with stories and excuses that often blame lazy millennials, COVID, or government policy.

But that's not you. As an evolved contractor, you know the promotion of your job ads and your employer brand is the missing link in this all-important chain.

We're excited to have Asad Zaman on the show to speak in-depth on active tactics and promotional recruiting. Asad is the CEO of Sales Talent Agency, an international recruiting agency that has helped acquire talent for over 1,500 companies - some of them you may know: Harley Davidson, SAP, IBM, Salesforce, and Sonos, to name a few.

Toronto Board of Trade named Asad Toronto's Young Professional of the Year for 2019, and you'll see why in this episode. This guy is seriously dialled. There is a good reason why we chose to bring someone from outside the trades and construction space in for this topic - because the level of sophistication in recruitment, employer brand, and all things hiring - is much more evolved in other industries like tech, where he plays.

There is a ton that we learned from today's conversation. In today's episode, we explore:

- The three talent pools available to any entrepreneur and why most of us just barely tap into one

- The way to think with "strategic empathy" and how placing yourself in the shoes of a candidate will lead to way better results

- Some specific ways you as an employer can stand out in a highly competitive market

- The best way to make a compelling offer to your target candidate

- The (incorrect) common belief systems that hold most contractors back

- How to integrate a talent acquisition mindset into your company culture

PCA Overdrive is free for members.

Dave Hanson from Client Tether gives knowledge and insight on how to maximize your time as a business owner by being efficient not relying solely on others.