Painter Growth Podcast

Download your free Painter Growth training here: https://learn.paintergrowth.com/grow-v1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=grow-v1

If you're new here, my name is Mike Gore-Hickman. I'm the founder of Painter Growth, a coaching company that helps painting contractors build real businesses instead of just running jobs.

We've worked with over 1,500 painting contractors. Our clients range from guys doing $300K a year to teams pushing past $5M. Our coaches are real painting business owners who built seven-figure companies themselves. Not theory guys.

Here's how I got here.

Early 20s: Running my own painting business. Couldn't close jobs. Underbidding everything. Painters showed up stoned. Spilled paint on driveways. Painted houses the wrong color. I fell off a ladder. Ended my first year with a $20,000 tax bill I couldn't pay.

Still early 20s: Almost quit. Didn't. Got obsessed with systems, sales, and getting help. I hired my first business coach, fixed the chaos & hit over $200K a month in sales before I turned 24.

Mid-20s: Followed my girlfriend (now wife) to a new city. Shut the painting business down. Took a job in SaaS. Spent five years helping grow a software company from scratch to nearly $10M a year. That's where I learned how to build and scale an online business.

During COVID: My two worlds collided. Running a painting business plus scaling software companies. I launched a side hustle that pulled both together. It became Painter Growth.

October 2021: Launched with an MVP and $10 a day in Facebook ads. No money. No clients. No connections.

End of 2021: Signed my first 10 clients. Eight got massive results. That was all the proof I needed.

Late 2022: Brought on Jesse, my partner and CFO. Hired our first coach and first VA. Reinvested everything back into the business.

2023 and beyond: Built a team of nearly 50, including seven-figure painting business owners coaching full time.

We became an official Sherwin-Williams partner and we’re the exclusive coaching program referred by them.

We we’re named PCA 2026 Partner of the Year.

You don't need to be a good painter to build a great painting business. You need to be a good business owner who hires good painters. Most contractors never make that switch. We help them make it.

What I'm focused on right now: AI and systems. We're building AI-powered tools inside Painter Growth, including a bookkeeping assistant and a proposal generator. The contractors who figure this out early are going to pull ahead.

I'm still building. Still figuring things out. But I'm doing it alongside 1,500 contractors who are all in the middle of their own fight to build something real.

If you're in that fight, you're in the right place.

Never quit,

Mike

Get a FREE Painting Business Growth Session. In 30 minutes, we'll build you a custom plan to grow → https://learn.paintergrowth.com/book-your-call-1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=booking

Painter Growth content is for educational purposes only. Results vary. Individual outcomes depend on the effort, situation, and decisions of each business owner.

Download your free Painter Growth training here: https://learn.paintergrowth.com/grow-v1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=grow-v1

If you're new here, my name is Mike Gore-Hickman. I'm the founder of Painter Growth, a coaching company that helps painting contractors build real businesses instead of just running jobs.

We've worked with over 1,500 painting contractors. Our clients range from guys doing $300K a year to teams pushing past $5M. Our coaches are real painting business owners who built seven-figure companies themselves. Not theory guys.

Here's how I got here.

Early 20s: Running my own painting business. Couldn't close jobs. Underbidding everything. Painters showed up stoned. Spilled paint on driveways. Painted houses the wrong color. I fell off a ladder. Ended my first year with a $20,000 tax bill I couldn't pay.

Still early 20s: Almost quit. Didn't. Got obsessed with systems, sales, and getting help. I hired my first business coach, fixed the chaos & hit over $200K a month in sales before I turned 24.

Mid-20s: Followed my girlfriend (now wife) to a new city. Shut the painting business down. Took a job in SaaS. Spent five years helping grow a software company from scratch to nearly $10M a year. That's where I learned how to build and scale an online business.

During COVID: My two worlds collided. Running a painting business plus scaling software companies. I launched a side hustle that pulled both together. It became Painter Growth.

October 2021: Launched with an MVP and $10 a day in Facebook ads. No money. No clients. No connections.

End of 2021: Signed my first 10 clients. Eight got massive results. That was all the proof I needed.

Late 2022: Brought on Jesse, my partner and CFO. Hired our first coach and first VA. Reinvested everything back into the business.

2023 and beyond: Built a team of nearly 50, including seven-figure painting business owners coaching full time.

We became an official Sherwin-Williams partner and we’re the exclusive coaching program referred by them.

We we’re named PCA 2026 Partner of the Year.

You don't need to be a good painter to build a great painting business. You need to be a good business owner who hires good painters. Most contractors never make that switch. We help them make it.

What I'm focused on right now: AI and systems. We're building AI-powered tools inside Painter Growth, including a bookkeeping assistant and a proposal generator. The contractors who figure this out early are going to pull ahead.

I'm still building. Still figuring things out. But I'm doing it alongside 1,500 contractors who are all in the middle of their own fight to build something real.

If you're in that fight, you're in the right place.

Never quit,

Mike

Get a FREE Painting Business Growth Session. In 30 minutes, we'll build you a custom plan to grow → https://learn.paintergrowth.com/book-your-call-1?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=booking

Painter Growth content is for educational purposes only. Results vary. Individual outcomes depend on the effort, situation, and decisions of each business owner.

Eric Winegardner started Winegardner Fine Finishes and Coatings in

Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 2023. People told him no one in his area

would pay premium prices for high-end finishes. By 2024 he was at

just under $700K in revenue. By mid-2025 he was consistently doing

$100K+ months — with a project manager, a leadership team, and the

freedom to shut his phone off for a week in Florida while the

business kept running.

In this episode of Painter Growth Stories, Eric walks through:

- Why he was skeptical of business coaching for years before joining

- The "rip the band-aid off" moment that got him out of project

management

- How he raised prices 10% across the board (and nothing changed)

- The PFF goals system he uses with his painters — and why he

told one of them, "you're never going to make $100,000 painting

for me, but I want to give you $100,000"

- His full succession plan: training a sales/estimator, moving his

PM into a Director of Ops role, and stepping out of estimating

- Custom home builder work vs. residential — and how he stays

profitable on both

- Why other 20-year contractors are now coming to him for advice

after only 3 years in business

Eric will be at the Painter Growth Mastermind in October — bringing

his leadership team this time.

—

Comment PLAYBOOK below and we'll send you the exact systems Eric

used to grow Winegardner Fine Finishes.

Painter Growth helps painting contractors build profitable,

self-running businesses. Learn more at paintergrowth.com.

You're slammed all summer, crews are pumping, the phone won't stop — so why is there no money in the bank? In this episode, Coach Jesse and Coach Rich break down the real reason so many painting contractors stay busy but broke, then hand you the financial systems and busy-season tactics to fix it before the season slips away.

In this episode:

• The #1 reason profit "disappears" even when you're booked solid
• How to build an annual budget that tells you your net profit to the dollar
• The break-even number every owner must know — and how to hit it earlier every month
• Why job costing becomes non-negotiable the moment you start to grow
• The busy-season moves top owners use to cash in on summer demand: slush days, the daily "war room," scarcity closes, and interior cross-sells
• The mindset shift that smooths out your cash flow all year long

Timestamps:

Comment PLAYBOOK below and we'll send you the exact system we use to help painting contractors get profitable and scale past the chaos.

Subscribe for a new episode every week.

00:00 – Busy but broke: the real problem01:14 – Why $600K–$800K owners feel broke03:10 – Build an annual budget (profit to the dollar)06:45 – Why chasing half-percents compounds07:58 – Your break-even number (and hitting it sooner)11:09 – Stop "willy-nilly" spending: every dollar intentional15:01 – Read your balance sheet, not just your bank account16:28 – Job costing: the non-negotiable19:15 – Busy season #1: slush days + always be recruiting20:34 – Busy season #2: the 1-hour-a-day war room22:14 – The "15 spots left" scarcity close23:18 – Cross-sell interiors + a 15-out-of-10 job close26:14 – The mindset shift that stabilizes cash all year27:16 – Why summer demand is 5x winter — pre-book now

Derrick did $680K in sales in 2025 and ended the year broke. Six months later, his company, Mountain Man Painting in Twin Lakes, Colorado, where most jobs are 8,000 ft and up, had $1 million booked for the year. It's the first time he'd ever hit that number, and he got there in five months.

In this Painter Growth story, Derrick breaks down exactly what changed: why $680K in revenue still left nothing at the end of the year, how he justified putting $30K on a credit card with $0 in the bank (and paid it off in a few months), going from $0 in January bookings to $28K, getting completely off the tools, and building the systems that let him take a Wednesday off to go fishing with his six kids for the first time in years.

If you're a painting contractor stuck on the ladder and tired of working all year with nothing to show for it, this one's for you.

Comment PLAYBOOK and we'll send you the exact system these contractors are using to scale.

Tanner Mullen (founder of DripJobs) returns to the Painter Growth Podcast for one of his most tactical conversations yet. Mike Workman and Tanner dig into why software is becoming commoditized, why education and service are the real moats, and how AI is reshaping what it means to run a painting business in 2025.

Tanner breaks down his new product, Routimize, a route-optimization booking system that lets customers book themselves directly from Facebook at peak intent, eliminates wasted drive time, and is already live in 36 beta companies. He explains why he's "done with leads," how the illusion of choice drives take rates, and how the same engine now powers an AI voice agent that books appointments end-to-end on nights and weekends.

If you're a painting contractor trying to build an income-producing asset instead of a job, this episode is your playbook.

⏱️ Timestamps below.

00:00 Intro: Tanner Mullen returns

00:32 Why it's the best time ever to be in business

01:17 Using AI to automate the boring stuff

01:52 Building an income-producing asset

02:46 Risk-takers vs. people who wait

04:03 The guy who asked for a free trial 4 years apart

04:29 Developing the investor mindset

05:13 Why DripJobs killed free trials

05:33 Software is becoming commoditized

06:24 Why education & service are the real moat

06:53 Knowing the problem vs. implementing the change

07:37 Building a department just for free training

07:59 The four quadrants: urgent vs. important

09:06 Time management is the #1 scaling skill

09:26 Five recommended CEO calendars by business stage

10:31 How AI changed software development for DripJobs

11:37 Differentiating yourself in a gold rush

12:13 Early-mover leverage & filing the patent

13:18 Trust as a moat: protecting customer data

14:13 Personal brand leverage in software

15:02 Killer AI use case: instant custom proposals

16:30 Staying focused as a product leader (no shiny objects)

17:03 DripJobs' biggest bottleneck: offline mode & V2

17:41 What Routimize actually does

18:03 The origin of DripJobs & speed to lead

18:51 Why request systems still create friction

19:42 How Routimize filters territory & enables VAs

20:37 Building friction to get the right bookings

20:58 Booking direct from Facebook with an AI chatbot

21:46 "I don't want leads anymore"

22:40 36 companies in beta

23:14 The illusion of choice & booking rates

24:17 Live demo: booking inside the service zone

25:34 Propagating the best appointment time

26:24 How much time it saves per salesperson

27:00 The Calendly for service businesses

27:20 Bulk routing for project managers

28:19 Tanner the "time dealer"

28:37 Customer experience & shortening the buying cycle

29:55 On-the-way texts with real drive-time ETAs

30:47 The Google Maps API cost reality

31:05 Voice AI: booking calls on nights & weekends

32:37 Why callers prefer to book by phone

33:36 Reassuring admins this won't replace them

35:10 Solving a problem that shouldn't exist

35:38 Will Routimize beat DripJobs? The December 2027 bet

36:12 Building features at AI speed

37:07 The 30-day runway to public launch

37:50 The pay-gate philosophy & 14-day trial

38:18 DripJobs V1 vs. V2 strategy

39:02 Big news: Tanner is fully free from Premium Painting

39:31 Why job scheduling is a high-level task

40:14 The estimating & proposal model that freed him

41:07 Selling the business kicked him into a new gear

41:49 Building a business worth keeping

42:36 Measuring cost by how much you think about it

43:08 Spotting and motivating A-players

43:29 Be 1% better than your best player

44:18 The personal development journey since age 16

45:00 Personal rules for leading a team

45:20 The State, Story, Strategy framework

46:43 Getting into the right state faster

47:24 Tanner's one-on-one Routimize offer

48:07 The June 19th deadline & how to claim it

48:42 Wrap-up

.

Most painters don't get what they want because they never actually decide what they want. They live in the "gray zone" — surviving, reacting, putting out fires — and wonder why the business keeps hitting the same ceiling.

In this live coaching episode, Coach Jesse sits down with Damon, owner of On a Roll Painting, fresh off a record month: nearly $100K in April after doing $325K all of last year. On the surface it's a huge win. Underneath, there's a ceiling — a five-year vision he can picture but can't quite commit to, and the fear that shows up the moment he says it out loud.

What follows is a real breakthrough, no script and no theory. Jesse walks Damon through the magic wand exercise to call out a specific number, confront the fear of success hiding behind the fear of failure, and step into the identity of the owner he's becoming — the one running a multi-million dollar business mostly hands-off, with the team, the systems, and the freedom to actually live.

If you're a painting business owner stuck between survival and the vision you keep putting off, this one's for you.

Inside this episode:

• Why getting specific beats staying "realistic"
• The magic wand exercise to unlock your real five-year vision
• Fear of success vs. fear of failure, and why both keep you on the start line
• How the "$5M owner" version of you actually makes decisions
• The "on a roll" token: a simple way to interrupt stress and stay in momentum
• Why your team only matches half your energy, and what that means for how you show up
• Trusting the next step instead of demanding the whole roadmap

Most painting contractors pour everything into the business and quietly let their health fall apart — until one day they wake up as a shadow of the man they wanted to be. In this episode, Mike sits down with Sean Crane, founder of Unstoppable 365, to break down why getting your body, energy, and discipline right is the foundation everything else is built on.Sean shares the story most people never hear: battling addiction through his teens and twenties, spending five and a half years in prison, and using that time to completely rebuild his identity and his health — eventually building a coaching business that's helped thousands of high performers. From there the two get practical: why nutrition and training come first, how your blood work is really the "P&L" of your health, the real talk on TRT, peptides, and GLP-1s, and why food and phones might be the most underestimated addictions of our time.If you're a business owner who keeps telling yourself you'll get to your health "later," this one's your wake-up call.If this episode hits home, comment PLAYBOOK below and let us know your biggest takeaway.FOLLOW PAINTER GROWTHSubscribe for more conversations on building a painting business — and the life it's supposed to buy.Disclaimer: This episode is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making changes to your nutrition, training, hormones, or supplementation.

AI is coming for accountants, lawyers, and every desk job first — but if you run a painting business, you might be holding the biggest advantage of your career.

Mike sits down with entrepreneur Jason Paris to break down what AI agents actually mean for painting contractors — and why the painters who adopt now will leave everyone else behind. Real, in-the-field use cases: a custom sales proposal built in 5 minutes, a $10k website rebuilt for $3, AI before/after photos that win bids, and why the trades have the longest runway in the AI economy.

It comes down to one choice: adapt, or get underbid.

Want the systems we use to run Painter Growth? DM us "Playbook"

She never touched a paintbrush in her life — now she runs a painting company across multiple cities in Colorado. So why does she say most business owners with money in the bank are still broke?In this episode of the Painter Growth Podcast, Mike sits down with Myrna, owner of CEO Painting Pro, for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to go from working IN your business to owning one.They get into the stuff most people won't say out loud:→ Why "just work harder" is the trap keeping painters stuck for 20+ years→ The uncomfortable truth about money habits (and why $100K in the bank doesn't mean you can afford your life)→ How coaching might be the most expensive thing you never do→ The heartbreaking story of a father who tried to clip his own son's wings→ Why she's on a mission to help painters get seen as business owners, not just subcontractorsWhether you run a painting business or any business at all, this one will hit different.🎁 Want to see what coaching actually feels like? Grab a FREE 30-minute coaching session — link below. No pressure, just clarity.📲 Connect with Painter Growth:🎙️ Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts — search "Painter Growth Podcast"📸 Follow us on Instagram  ⁨@paintergrowth⁩  Don't forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and drop a comment with your biggest takeaway. 👇#PainterGrowth #PaintingBusiness #BusinessCoaching #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusinessOwner #PaintingContractor #Mindset #BusinessGrowth #FromTheGroundUp #contractors