EP 115 : Brad Ellison $2.75M in 2 Years
Introduction:
Brad Ellison of Ellison Painting shares his story from start up to $2.75M in just 2 short years.
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TRANSCRIPTION:
00:00.00
dybsteve
What happened.
00:02.14
Brad Ellison
Um, so we’re on this job in a city called gross point and you’re probably not familiar with metro Detroit but it is the old money the uber rich really nudy that’s the city we’re working in and the job that I sold was. Simply repainting the siding and the trim but I got this crew out there and the crew leader is just like the nicest guy he’s a bit of a pushover. He’s willing to do whatever and the customer had been pretty particular but overall things were fine until he asked my guy. To dispose of a gallon of oil-based stain that had been sitting in his garage for you know a few years and like it’s not really part of our scope of work. Obviously we’re not taking care of other people’s garbage that we didn’t even generate. But this guy like okay, fine. Yeah, we’ll take care of it. He picks out the gallon and as he’s walking it out to his truck the handle breaks off the can and spills all over this guy’s driveway that had just been installed this exposed aggregate sealed drive. It probably cost the guy $35000 to finish.
01:06.40
dybsteve
Oh.
01:13.36
Brad Ellison
Like what do you do like we we’re not supposed to be disposing of of their garbage. It’s not even a product that we were using we were trying to do guy a favor it was I would say out of on the level and 0 to 100% reasonable the customer was like 50% reasonable understanding that you know so.
01:16.90
dybsteve
Ah, yeah, no.
01:30.87
dybsteve
No first.
01:33.30
Brad Ellison
And wasn’t our fault. We didn’t like break it and so we ended up having a write off about $2500 off the project. We tried to clean it up still see the spot is what it is but like that taught us a lesson like don’t do favors for people is that a good lesson to learn or no.
01:38.23
dybsteve
Me.
01:50.99
dybsteve
That’s ah ah and what a bummer. What a bummer and indeed for being a good guy. Well hello and welcome to do iv podcast today’s guest is from Oakland Michigan or Detroit president of Ellison Painting Brad Ellison welcome to the show. My friend.
01:51.40
Brad Ellison
Yeah, yeah.
02:01.94
Brad Ellison
And. Thank you Steve thanks for having me man happy to connect with you.
02:11.35
dybsteve
Hey my pleasure. Ah you are in your second year I believe you said you’re in business fifteen months and you’re tracking for 2.75 maybe 3000000 in your second year is that correct.
02:22.10
Brad Ellison
Yes, if those numbers hold up then yes, they’re actually under what our stated goal was for the year but we’ve had a bit of a crazy year with some unexpected situations that popped up that we couldn’t avoid but yeah short.
02:35.75
dybsteve
Ah, okay, okay, fantastic. Well let’s get to that but first take us back to the beginning. How did you get started.
02:38.41
Brad Ellison
Short answer is yes we are tracking for those numbers.
02:44.60
Brad Ellison
Sure so my background is not in the trades. It’s not in painting at all I did start my very first business when I was 19 it was a window washing company I spent one summer washing windows for another company and I was like hey I like doing this. I bet I could sell some paint jobs. So I launched my own company and that was that did it for a summer in between college semesters enjoyed it but really never focused on it didn’t take off and it fizzled and died right? I started my sales career when I was about 24 I was selling life insurance and I did that for a bunch of years bounce from life insurance to health insurance to software to marketing services all over the place and when my wife and I finally got married when I was 30 oh man 34 35 we decided at that point that we never wanted to work for anyone ever again. So we both had jobs I was I was managing this I was selling software for this company. She was working for her dad’s company in the automotive world. So we both quit our jobs and launched our first business together which was a health insurance agency.
03:55.32
dybsteve
Who experts.
03:58.11
Brad Ellison
Health insurance what we do is we sell to individuals not not companies, not group plans and so it’s highly highly seasonal. You can only buy these new plans during an open enrollment period which is at the time was November first through January thirty first so three months so we launched and we spent some money in marketing. That business generated a bunch of revenue. But at the end of three months it’s like what are we going to do for nine more months like there’s not much we can do within that business. We could start selling other services but I didn’t want to get too deep in financial services. It was a way to make money but not anything I was passionate about so we’re like well. What if I tried to find some sort of seasonal sales job that alternated that was busy in the spring summer fall and then slow in the winter so that I could go back and run the assurance business with my wife so we talked and prayed about that on a Saturday Sunday morning we happened to meet this guy at my church. Who owned a painting company and was looking for a sales guy and maybe someone to eventually buy his business so I met him on Sunday by Tuesday of that week we had decided to partner together so he brought me on as sales guy. Within about six months I was straight up running his business and did that for 5 years we were doing about $3000000 two and a half to $3000000 a year when um towards the end of that 5 years we had had an agreement to purchase the company but when.
05:11.60
dybsteve
About Ah what what size is the business. The operation. Okay.
05:27.00
Brad Ellison
As we’re getting closer to the date that the contract was actually going to be executed. We realized it wasn’t it wasn’t in our best interest not only was it not in our best interest but it would have been and could have been financially devastating to my family if we bought that company so we made a very very difficult decision in March of 2022
05:38.76
dybsteve
Quick. No.
05:45.24
Brad Ellison
To part ways and launch ellison painting. So I I kind of fell into the painting industry because I was looking for something seasonal.
05:53.68
dybsteve
Um, so what? what was it about that deal or working share that would have made it a bad deal for you Just the way it was the it was structured what he wanted for the buyout or.
06:04.87
Brad Ellison
Yeah, it was it was It’s kind of complicated because when we signed when when I came on board with them. The original plan was two years later we would have the opportunity to buy it as we came up to that 2 years he’s like ah well you know just make me an offer. Let’s figure it out. So we we reigned some numbers. We talked to a cpa. We talked to a business consultant and came up with an offer that was significantly less than he thought it was going to be worth right? right? So he’s like well if that’s the case and I can’t sell it right now I have to work.
06:29.82
dybsteve
Which is pretty common here. Yeah.
06:40.40
Brad Ellison
And save money for three more years, but let’s sign a contract and at the end of that 3 years then you can buy it so we signed that contract in 2020 right before covid hit really so covid hits.
06:45.54
dybsteve
No.
06:50.85
dybsteve
He.
06:54.58
Brad Ellison
In Michigan we were shut down for two months a lot of crazy things happened that affected our revenue we had a really bad rain year we lost fifty five days to rain one summer. Um, we had ah this other siding vertical that was in place when I signed the contract that had disappeared during that course. So.
07:13.51
Brad Ellison
When when it actually came to the purchase time to purchase like the business was actually worth less than it was when we signed the contract so we try to renegotiate. Um I don’t think he could afford to renegotiate it. He needed that money for his retirement and which I totally understand and appreciate.
07:19.15
dybsteve
No.
07:26.10
dybsteve
Me. Okay, yeah, nothing that makes sense. Thank you? Okay, so you guys decide to go on your own.
07:31.33
Brad Ellison
And so we just said all right? Well just can’t do it? Yeah yeah, um, we had a kind of a unique origin story for our company. Not only was I not a painter but. We really had every single advantage going for us when we launched. Okay so I wasn’t a painter but I had spent 5 years running a pretty good size painting company in the metro Detroit area I had by that time started to build up a bit of a reputation within the industry so people locally and nationally.
07:50.73
dybsteve
Then.
08:07.73
Brad Ellison
Knew who I was so it was going to make it a little easier to recruit and find some contractors. Um, but maybe most importantly and I’m not naive to understand that this is probably most importantly, we had been saving up money for a big down payment to buy that business that we no longer had to spend it on a down payment so we had like $200000
08:22.00
dybsteve
Oh yeah.
08:26.60
Brad Ellison
In our business bank account to launch a painting company and almost no one has that right? most people you know as well as anyone most people start off with a paintbrush in a van and they over you write and they start saving money and hopefully bring more people on and expand very slowly well because we had the expertise on how to.
08:29.75
dybsteve
You know in a deposit from the first job. Yeah.
08:45.88
Brad Ellison
How to grow and run a big company and the money to do it. Boom We just spent a ton ton of money in marketing spent a ton of time before we launched and building our systems. All of our sops were written out here’s what our customer experience is going to look like here’s how we’re going to manage our cruise here’s where we’re going to find them here’s what the crews are expected to do here’s how we’re going to do collections.
08:55.56
dybsteve
Um.
09:05.79
Brad Ellison
So I mean we had I had already had the playbook on how to launch before we launched.
09:10.59
dybsteve
Few questions there. Thank you where where do you keep your so piece the Google docs or using a specific gap. Yeah.
09:15.22
Brad Ellison
Yeah, we we use Google drive to house all of our documents.
09:21.45
dybsteve
Yeah I’ve been through probably 4 or 5 different ah s so p apps and programs and I’ve gone back to Google docs I find that that is really the most efficient effective. Ah yeah.
09:24.80
Brad Ellison
Okay.
09:31.78
Brad Ellison
It’s it just seems to be the easiest right? I mean that’s where if if there is a better solution easier solution I’m always open to changing anything that we do if it makes it easier but.
09:38.73
dybsteve
1 of the biggest roadblocks in sops whether it’s you know a lot of times. Painters will think of it as the technical production. You know out in the field but whether it’s sales marketing is is that when they’re being executed the person executing it needs to be able to update it and at the edit them. Otherwise.
09:56.82
Brad Ellison
Um.
09:57.78
dybsteve
They become worthless way too fast if it if it takes too much of a process to go back in there and update them So that’s another reason why I love Google Docs so.
10:02.80
Brad Ellison
Right? Yeah I think that’s 1 thing that a lot of people miss is that sops are should never be written in stone every we have our um, our quarterly meetings. We follow the traction eos system. So every quarterly meeting we put that all up for debate is.
10:07.82
dybsteve
In. You.
10:19.69
Brad Ellison
Our project management Sop is still valid are we have we seen bottlenecks or issues over the past quarter that we need to address to update. That’s been really valuable for us to just not only be able to adapt to what the marketplace needs from us. But also as we bring new people on board have fresh eyes on it getting.
10:20.59
dybsteve
Um, no.
10:37.87
dybsteve
Um.
10:39.44
Brad Ellison
Essentially what is outside a new perspective on how we’re doing things.
10:41.41
dybsteve
Right on and then money and marketing were you paying for leads. What what were you doing for marketing when you launched.
10:49.38
Brad Ellison
So yeah, so we so we based um my marketing budget on what we wanted to do in revenue for the first twelve months. The goal was to do about one point five million in the first twelve months so we launched with a $13000 a month marketing budget that.
11:03.40
dybsteve
Which is what percent of you have 10 Thank you? okay.
11:07.50
Brad Ellison
About 10% yeah ah so we focused on Facebook ads we focused on Google ads obviously we paid I’m sorry outsource everything. Yeah I don’t I don’t really believe in in-house almost anything.
11:17.11
dybsteve
In-house or Outsource excuse me in-house or outsource.
11:26.89
Brad Ellison
Ah, yes, we hired an agency they built our website. They launched our Facebook ads they launched our Google ads they started working on Seo we I basically was stealing ideas from Jason Perris um he likes say I’m trying to do what Jason Perris did but do it a little bit faster and bigger.
11:37.85
dybsteve
So there.
11:45.87
Brad Ellison
And I’m only able to do that of course because he has given me his playbook. So another big strategy of ours influenced by him in Paris painting was door hangers so he started a big door hangger campaign right away. So we we got traction right away because the lead sources that we are investing in were giving us.
11:48.57
dybsteve
Right? right.
11:54.30
dybsteve
In the.
12:05.71
Brad Ellison
Immediate results right? So we still focus on Seo and and relationship building and networking knowing that those will be more important in the long term but in the short term we’re like hey we got all this cash we need leads and it worked.
12:21.79
dybsteve
Right? on what? um, okay so you going How did you find your subs right? So to to staff up that fast is not easy. So it’s going to be difficult to find subs too. We can’t just go pay for leads for subs you had to.
12:33.48
Brad Ellison
Um.
12:37.10
dybsteve
Hustle Network for those I would imagine.
12:38.91
Brad Ellison
Correct so our primary lead sources for subs would be sherwin williams um I actually make it a strategic decision decision with Sherwin Williams and my relationship with them to kind of overpay for materials.
12:45.69
dybsteve
Um.
12:53.25
dybsteve
Me.
12:55.35
Brad Ellison
So I I could probably get lower pricing on you know per gallon for the paint that we buy because we buy a lot of it but I actually pay a little bit more so that when I call and need something from them I get immediate response and I’m top priority. So when my Sherwin Williams rep asked me, you know what do you need for me this quarter.
13:07.78
dybsteve
No.
13:15.16
Brad Ellison
So I don’t need lower pricing I don’t need golf outings I don’t need you to to buy me a watch what I need is subcontractors and so my rep has been amazing anytime he comes across possible crews. He’s sending them my way and he’s also deputized the local store managers.
13:23.79
dybsteve
Um, woo.
13:32.61
Brad Ellison
So when ah ah when a crew comes in looking for subcontractors Ellison painting usually gets first dibs at it and I like that I like that lead source because they’re essentially pre-veetted right? He’s not going to refer over a crew that he thinks is going to be lower quality or um, unreliable. So it’s.
13:37.74
dybsteve
Nice. No.
13:50.83
Brad Ellison
Takes a little bit some of those road bumps out of the way a little bit at least ah the other. The other source is through the painting contractors Facebook groups. So I I was very fortunate that when tanner Mullen launched his big Facebook group a few years ago I think I was in.
13:52.70
dybsteve
Yeah.
14:00.34
dybsteve
No.
14:05.86
dybsteve
No.
14:10.74
Brad Ellison
Like the first one hundred members or something and tanner and I hit hit it off and he eventually made made me an admin of that page and now that’s me tanner and 1 other guy that are admin of this page with 175000 members and through that group that’s how I met everyone.
14:11.13
dybsteve
Yeah.
14:22.47
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
14:26.50
Brad Ellison
Ultimately, that’s how I met Jason Paris that’s how I met Nislavic and the kuypers and all these people that have been so influential to my journey within the within the painting industry well because I’m an admin in there and my name says admin and group expert when I post in that group saying hey. I’m looking for subcontractors in Metro Detroit I’m able to get a pretty good response and so honestly more than half of our crews I think have come through just networking and reaching out through Facebook and that’s how I get them to respond back? yep.
14:48.76
dybsteve
Nice.
14:57.86
dybsteve
Um, okay, we’re done ah tech stack. What’s your tech stack look like to manage your operations.
15:04.68
Brad Ellison
So we use open phone for our phone system I don’t know if you’re familiar with open phone but it’s the you know vo Ip it’s It’s pretty good. What I Really really like about it is that you can assign multiple users to multiple phone numbers.
15:12.26
dybsteve
No.
15:23.48
Brad Ellison
And when someone calls and we don’t pick up which you know we don’t have a full-time phone call answerer right now they get an automatic text message back that says hey ah sorry miss your call if you’re looking to schedule an estimate you know, click this link and and schedule it yourself so open phone has been really valuable. It also allows me to.
15:30.94
dybsteve
Um.
15:43.10
Brad Ellison
Record the phone calls of all of my employees So I can hear all the conversations. My salespeople project managers admin that they’re having with our customers or potential customers. Um, and that sounds a little bit big brotherish right? But it’s not that because my people are highly trust them very very highly and they’re highly skilled.
16:00.80
dybsteve
I.
16:02.99
Brad Ellison
But it has allowed me to give them some feedback and allows them to say hey I had this weird call you mind listening through see if you can provide some feedback So that’s open phone for Crm we use drip Jobs Drip jobs is nice because it handles all the marketing. Um and like text email automation on the front end.
16:15.83
dybsteve
Um.
16:22.62
Brad Ellison
The estimate delivery is pretty slick. You know you can customize what your estimates are going to look like um and of course that helps us with scheduling invoicing collections the whole 9 So drip jobs has been really valuable I think we are testing the limits of drip jobs.
16:38.16
dybsteve
No.
16:40.51
Brad Ellison
We’re one of the bigger companies on the platform with multiple users. So it’s Tanner Tanner gets chirped chirped at about once a week for me saying hey when is this issue going to be fixed how you know what? what can I do about it and then we tie company cam into drip jobs as well.
16:50.43
dybsteve
Now.
16:56.37
dybsteve
1
16:58.73
Brad Ellison
So Company Cam has been really valuable for us. We. We take about 20 to 25 pictures for every single estimate and company cam is connected to drip Jobs. So those pictures automatically go into that estimate. But when the job starts. We Also add our subcontractors as Collaborators. So They can take progress pictures while we’re there are my project managers are taking progress pictures every time they stop by a job site and then of course we’re using it for after pictures too. The really the other really nice thing about company cam is we give our marketing agency access to company cam.
17:34.53
dybsteve
In here.
17:36.96
Brad Ellison
And when we Mark a job as complete now they can go grab collateral for our for our ads and our posts so they can just go and grab the befores and afters create the post send it out.
17:46.35
dybsteve
That’s nice. You’re one of the few out there who are not using the same tired. Ah what those photos called the stock photos. You know? Yeah, yeah, there’s like 3 of them that everybody uses we’re done.
17:52.33
Brad Ellison
Like stock photos. Oh Gosh Stock photos are so cringy. Yeah yeah, so all the all all the pictures in all of our marketing is actually like photos from our work. Yep.
18:04.11
dybsteve
So how do you communicate the work orders. How do you hand off? what? tech do you use to hand off the work orders.
18:06.71
Brad Ellison
So the work orders can be sent directly from drip jobs. So the the crew gets a text message and an email with the work order and then they also have the the link to company cam. That’s.
18:15.48
dybsteve
Um.
18:17.85
dybsteve
And then okay, nice. What do you use to for for calendar for mapping out all your projects.
18:24.29
Brad Ellison
Ah so drip jobs has that function though. It’s not really the best for us with the number of crews that we have any given day we’re going to have anywhere between 8 to 15 different projects going on and the the functionality within drip jobs was we were really.
18:32.93
dybsteve
In.
18:43.20
Brad Ellison
Really testing that so that’s also something we use Google sheets for so it’s basically a big whiteboard a never ending whiteboard and it’s really flexible. So if a job is delayed one day. It’s pretty simple to just move it over one one day and we can all see exactly where where the projects stand.
18:45.57
dybsteve
Okay, me.
19:01.10
dybsteve
Nice, Nice. Okay, ah, any other tech.
19:01.67
Brad Ellison
Yeah now really I mean we don’t even use Quickbooks or anything know what you know we use we use the account we use the accountant that I’ve had since I was 19 and every other month I schedule an hour with him and I sit at his desk and we go through all of our expenses.
19:06.50
dybsteve
No, you don’t use what?? What’s that. Has this.
19:21.59
Brad Ellison
And that’s so old so old school but I found that’s the most efficient use of our time to do it and it’s way more affordable I mean this guy because you know when you run a painting company. The expenses are the same expenses over and over. It’s Sherwin Williams it’s fuel it’s ah it’s paying subcontractors its payroll.
19:30.87
dybsteve
Um.
19:41.60
Brad Ellison
There’s not a bunch of unique types of expenses that we’re having so he he just and and 90 minutes later I’m caught up for those two months
19:45.95
dybsteve
Um, yeah, so what? Um, you’re you’re going at an incredible growth trend. What gross profit are you able to hold onto through this growth.
19:54.86
Brad Ellison
And. So we are at about we’re or somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15% oh gross profit or net. Oh gross. Okay, so I can tell you gross profit. We are averaging about 42% for labor 12 to 13% for materials.
20:07.82
dybsteve
Gross Gross. Yeah.
20:19.19
Brad Ellison
Which leaves 42 to 43 45% gross per job. Yeah, yeah, the gross profits good the the net profit is where we start to get a little lean.
20:20.99
dybsteve
45 forty two yeah, that’s still fantastic for the ah the growth trend you guys are on okay, and then you’re clearing. Yeah.
20:31.74
Brad Ellison
My marketing budget’s high I brought a lot of employees on in project management and sales roles really before I had the revenue to justify it. So now we’re just catching up to that. Um.
20:40.45
dybsteve
Do you have some campaigns in place to keep top of mind to your customer base. Yeah, fantastic. Okay, right on.
20:44.74
Brad Ellison
E to our like exist past customers. Yeah, will we have automated follow ups through drip jobs. Yeah, it’s basically email and text campaigns.
20:57.32
dybsteve
Where does your drive come from Brett.
20:58.29
Brad Ellison
Man That’s a that’s it I Like that question people never ask me that um I don’t know I have a I have a drive to just continually be better right? I don’t really believe in the status quo though I actually do believe.
21:10.76
dybsteve
Um.
21:16.68
dybsteve
In.
21:16.85
Brad Ellison
Being content. So on one hand I’m like super content with my life I love my wife I like my wife I love and like my kids I have this fantastic business that I enjoy doing I have this great group of friends I’m in excellent health I work out all the time I’m very content with my life but I still feel like there’s. There’s room for more not just for me. But for the other people that I love and care about and that work with me and whatnot so part of it is to always get better I have a natural competitive spirit. So as much as I love Jason Paris and I I wish him unending never ending success. Ah.
21:45.60
dybsteve
Um, me no.
21:54.66
Brad Ellison
I’m so I’m in such admiration of what he and his team have done. But now I want to do that I want to do a little better right? So it’s like I like having that these guys that are way above me that I’m kind of chasing after um I in some capacity I mean if you ask Jason.
21:59.16
dybsteve
Okay, sort. Yeah. So does. That mean you’re you’re looking to bring out some partners.
22:15.88
dybsteve
A.
22:16.50
Brad Ellison
Ah, they want to partner with me which I think that’s understandable I think I would be a ah good company for them to partner with but honestly and I’ve I’ve said this to Jason and his team I love and trust those guys so much. The downside for me and partnering with them is that my partners aren’t in the next office.
22:32.23
dybsteve
In.
22:32.85
Brad Ellison
Like their partners are right I’m so I’m such a I’m an extreme extrovert the the social piece of everything that I do whether it be work or fitness or whatever. The social piece is really important to me if I could get Jason and his guys to move to Detroit and we could have an office suite and they’re my partners.
22:51.86
dybsteve
Um, you know.
22:52.30
Brad Ellison
Was I would probably say yes in an instant because I know that there’s going to be at some point a limit to how far I can grow eison painting without additional partner help right? So I mean but I would say ultimately my drive now comes from providing for my family changing the.
23:02.61
dybsteve
Um.
23:09.73
Brad Ellison
Legacy of my family and the legacy I grew up in and now extend that one step further to helping the people that work with me change their family legacy as well. One one of the things I’m most proud of fifteen months in is that we have multiple painters that are doing ellison painting jobs. That are making over $100000 a year that’s awesome right guys that are you know first generation immigrants came from Albania and now they’re here. They’re married and they’re just having kids actually my one of my favorite painters I have guy I love so much like a brother just had his his first daughter yesterday.
23:34.65
dybsteve
Um, yeah, yeah.
23:46.56
dybsteve
Oh here.
23:48.69
Brad Ellison
Ah, and those the guy like I love that What’s what drives me is continuing to provide opportunities for those guys that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
23:55.57
dybsteve
Speaking of the guys What what part does culture play for you in your company.
24:05.00
Brad Ellison
Ah culture so culture is now what I make my hires based on core values and culture. So we have we have well-defined core values within ellison painting. Um, and when I’m interviewing for someone interviewing someone for a project manager role. For instance.
24:10.19
dybsteve
Are.
24:21.54
Brad Ellison
We talk about those core values and I get my feed I get their feedback on each of those 5 you know what does this? What does this mean to you does it resonate are there any of these that you feel don’t resonate with you. Um, and then the culture is then the next step after that it’s you know how do we operate as a team. So. I wouldn’t consider hiring someone if they didn’t match our core values. Um, and then I all so that’s like the prerequisite and then are they going to fit within our culture of levity and fun lightheartedness but ultimately hard work and exceptionalism. So.
24:39.70
dybsteve
Me.
24:57.75
dybsteve
Um.
24:58.60
Brad Ellison
I think culture internally is really good. We we had this really gnarly situation happen in my company this this year um, beginning in a June my right hand man he his 1 year old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia out of nowhere and all of a sudden boom.
25:12.88
dybsteve
Um.
25:15.47
Brad Ellison
My right hand man is gone for five weeks and not only that we had a situation where our other project manager we had found out that he had been lying about some things and it was kind of shady so I had to fire him even after like right after.
25:29.64
dybsteve
Ah.
25:34.30
Brad Ellison
Ron had to go on leave now so that left me my other sales guy and my admin culture that we had built was very sacrificial in nature where everyone stepped up to the plate Veronica my admin was like all right. I will take on this and this and Mark said you focus on project management I will handle all of the estimates and we were able to leave Ron completely alone for those five weeks you could focus on his daughter focus on his wife and we just kind of got gritty and got through it.
26:01.59
dybsteve
Oh.
26:09.73
Brad Ellison
If we didn’t have that healthy culture where we all actually like each other and want the best for each other I think that could have been the death nail of ellison painting or certainly it certainly could have prevented us from hitting any amount of success through the year but we held it together.
26:10.90
dybsteve
Ah.
26:18.19
dybsteve
Um.
26:26.42
Brad Ellison
Um, Ron’s back now. His daughter is intermission. Thank god she’s still in treatment. Um and she will be for quite a while and we’ve had to adjust Ron’s schedule to allow him to have the the flexibility to take her to doctor’s appointments and all this um and we brought on another project manager to replace the guy fired and now I feel like we are.
26:28.45
dybsteve
You know.
26:45.38
Brad Ellison
Healthier than ever and our trajectories back up to where it was so yeah, yeah, so right now. Um I’m the owner. My wife is technically co-owner she was she worked with me as project manager for the first six months but now she’s no longer active in the day to day
26:47.48
dybsteve
Um, right on can you give us an overview of your Org chart.
27:04.28
Brad Ellison
But she does come to all of our quarterly meetings and of course she’s my number 1 sounding board every day when I go home. So that’s my wife and I there and we have Ron so Ron is project manager head of operations. He manages one of their project manager. He also manages Veronica who is.
27:10.10
dybsteve
Um.
27:22.19
Brad Ellison
She was hired as an admin. She’s proven to be exceptionally valuable in a lot of different things so she’s transitioned into a project coordinator role. So she’s the one that actually schedules all the projects between the customers and the crew. Ah for the time being she is also handling scheduling of estimates but we are about to hire a va to offboard. All of that. Ah, and then as far as sales I I still do run estimates and then I have 1 other estimator that works under me and that’s the sales team so me and 4 full time employees.
27:50.60
dybsteve
Okay, right on? Yep you mentioned you love and like your wife how important it is it to have a strong marriage when building and succeeding in business.
27:57.35
Brad Ellison
So.
28:04.60
Brad Ellison
Well Steve ah, this is um, a second marriage for me and I can tell you my first marriage the I would I would argue that the primary reason why it didn’t last and why she ultimately decided she didn’t want to be married to me was we.
28:10.21
dybsteve
Um.
28:21.70
Brad Ellison
We didn’t like each other and I don’t think we ever did we ever really did you know? um and I think that while I had a little bit of success while I was married to her in my sales career I never would have had the support to start my own business and really risk it all. My wife Rachel is.
28:23.60
dybsteve
Um, me.
28:40.96
Brad Ellison
So smart and she’s so high integrity and our relationship is so good. She trusts me so much that while I run every idea pastor because I want her feedback and I value that ultimately her response in almost every situation is if you think that’s the best idea you should absolutely do it. So She had no hesitation in in launching the company like yeah, we’re technically risking everything that we have but also when you have a healthy marriage and a healthy relationship. You can have this perspective of well let’s say let’s say we risk all this money say we blow through $200000 in six months.
28:59.81
dybsteve
Um.
29:19.40
Brad Ellison
And it turns out it was a fluke and the only reason I had any success in the painting industry was because it was someone else’s company. Well what then? well let me just go get jobs. You know we don’t want to but we can I’m a good sales guy. She’s she’s a phenomenal communicator and project manager we can always go get jobs and make enough money.
29:25.60
dybsteve
Um.
29:28.87
dybsteve
And.
29:39.28
Brad Ellison
To live the lifestyle that we want to live until we decide what we want to do next and so having that freedom where we’re highly capable. We can lose everything and still be fine. It allows you to take a lot more risk. So I mean my wife if if I didn’t have my wife. It’s not like if if I didn’t have a wife.
29:44.92
dybsteve
Um.
29:57.47
Brad Ellison
I didn’t have my wife you know Brad Ellison and Elison painting are absolute trash. They’re nothing.
30:04.86
dybsteve
Really? Um, okay thank you books What? what? what? books have made an influence in your life.
30:12.13
Brad Ellison
Ah, so traction eos for sure. Um, one book that most people aren’t familiar with do I have it here I don’t um, it’s called range let me and let me see if I can remember who who wrote this book. It’s like. David Epstein or something let me see. Yeah David Epstein yeah Yeah so this buddy Tim um, Tim and I have known each other forever. He was actually in the youth group when I was a volunteer leader of the youth group so he’s like yeah, he’s like seven or eight years younger than me.
30:33.61
dybsteve
Um, range RANGE.
30:48.77
Brad Ellison
Um, when he got married. Yeah I was ah invited to be a part of his wedding and for groomsman gifts instead of getting like whatever some silly tie or whatever he actually bought a book for each of the guys specifically for them.
30:58.36
dybsteve
Oh.
31:05.33
Brad Ellison
It’s a Book. He’s like yeah I think that this this would speak directly to you This made me think of you so he bought me this book called range and I had never heard of it and the whole book is all about the power of being a generalist so he uses these examples Tiger Woods Tiger Woods is not a generalist Tiger Woods. From the time he was a little kid was hyper focusedcused on golf and that might be the only thing that he will ever be extremely good at through his entire life because he’s a specialist other people have had equal success sometimes greater success by being a generalist where you don’t You’re not hyper specialalized in anything. You don’t have any.
31:33.51
dybsteve
Um.
31:43.64
Brad Ellison
Great expertise in any 1 certain thing but you are pretty darn good at a lot of different things and so Tim gave me that book and I’m like yeah I’m a generalist you know there’s a lot of things that I like to do that I’m pretty good at ah but I’m not the best I used to sing professionally for instance, right.
31:57.77
dybsteve
Um.
32:02.90
Brad Ellison
I’m a pretty good singer but the people I’ve sang with you know when I was on tour with they’ve they’ve got. They’ve been nominated for grammy awards and ah, you know there are movie stars and Broadway stars now and I’m like just a pretty good singer I’m pretty I’m I’m a pretty good sales guy I’ve worked with guys that are better sales guys.
32:02.26
dybsteve
Um.
32:05.25
dybsteve
Yeah.
32:15.92
dybsteve
Um.
32:20.40
Brad Ellison
But I like have all these skillsets that are pretty darn good that lend themselves I think to being a really excellent entrepreneur So that’s that’s another book that I love um, it may not speak to everyone because I think some people fancy themselves as specialists. But for me as a generalist that one really spoke.
32:29.28
dybsteve
Um.
32:38.68
dybsteve
Um I think it was Robert Kiyosaki said specialists know more and more about less and less.
32:43.16
Brad Ellison
That’s right, That’s right and and there’s there’s a lot of value in that right? like when I when I hire someone for a you know marketing position I want that person to be an absolute expert at marketing I don’t care if they know how to recruit subcontractors I don’t know if they care about how to apply paint.
32:45.36
dybsteve
He.
32:54.90
dybsteve
Um.
32:58.83
Brad Ellison
I need them to be experts at the 1 thing that I’m paying them to do right? Um, so that was ah that was a good one I remember reading rich dad poor dad when I started my sales career and that that helped change my mindset about um, generational wealth. You know wealth versus money.
32:59.93
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
33:07.90
dybsteve
Oh yeah.
33:17.26
dybsteve
Um.
33:18.10
Brad Ellison
I didn’t grow up with wealth or money So I’m still still trying to establish my healthy views on those um and of course the bible I don’t know if you’re allowed to say that it’s too like Cliche but as a believer of course that’s fundamentally what I base all my decisions and principles on.
33:18.88
dybsteve
So great.
33:25.38
dybsteve
Oh yeah, Amen Absolutely yeah.
33:37.60
dybsteve
Amen. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you, we’re I really appreciate you come on and i’t you real busy. Got a lot going on there is you’re scaling at an incredible speed trying to surpass Jason which is a cool goal because everybody needs a competitor. So.
33:37.78
Brad Ellison
1
33:46.43
Brad Ellison
And.
33:54.11
Brad Ellison
Um.
33:54.41
dybsteve
You know, keep running at them but is there a question I should have asked or any final points. You’d like to make before we wrap this up.
34:01.40
Brad Ellison
Um, well one of the things that I like to talk about on these is or just talk about with other contractors in general is the idea of like real balance. Um I will I will never be a workaholic I don’t like working I don’t know about you. But I don’t I don’t really enjoy working I don’t I don’t get my my energy from working and I don’t my drive doesn’t come from having huge financial success. My drive comes from external sources that then play back into the growth of my business and so people wonder well oh well, you you. Grew so fast. You might do two and a half or 3000000 in your second year you must be working like sixty seventy hours a week and my answer that is like I’ve never worked 60 or 70 hours a week in the painting industry and I won’t I I set pretty clear boundaries I wake up in the morning I have coffee.
34:47.10
dybsteve
You.
34:55.32
Brad Ellison
With my wife um and hang out with our kids from about seven o’clock till eight o’clock I go to work and whether that’s estimates or going to the office. Whatever I got to do but every day I clock out at three o’clock so that I can be at the gym at three thirty workout from three thirty to four thirty home for five o’clock dinner nearly every day that’s my schedule and because that’s important to me I’ve built systems in place that take care of everything else so that I can really focus on the things that I’m passionate about which is you know my faith my family and my fitness.
35:31.83
dybsteve
Um.
35:32.65
Brad Ellison
Balance Balances Hards I think a lot of people live you know with these with closed fists and they they want to that that could be whether it’s holding onto the reins of their business or holding onto their money and I learned a long time ago that the more I release that and live open handedly. The more freedom that I’m going to have in the long Run. So I pay my people really? Well so that I can attract high-functioning highly capable individuals to help me run this company and have to be looking over their shoulder shoulder all the time I made the decision upfront to spend money and marketing to generate leads so that I didn’t have to like. Just trudge through and try to get some traction organically I hired people before we needed them or before my revenue could justify it otherwise I would be hitting these these plateaus where I’m at Max capacity and then trying to figure out how to bring someone on and train them. So I think that. The the problem is ah people say they want balance but they’re not willing to take the risks or the make the sacrifices to actually do that you might might mean making less money for a period of time so that you can have the actual balance that you say that you want but also some people say they want balance and they don’t right is.
36:37.98
dybsteve
And.
36:49.43
dybsteve
Um, yeah, or yeah.
36:49.55
Brad Ellison
They want more family time they go home and they don’t like their family so step 1 fix your relationships with your family step 2 fix your business so you can have more family time right? But yeah, that’s I love talking about that and actually ah there is going to be a conference in phoenix in October that service legends putting on and ah. Ryan Davis has asked me to speak specifically about that. How to how to scale a a contracting business or a service based business passed a million dollars in 1 year while still maintaining a healthy family and real life balance. Yeah.
37:20.47
dybsteve
Right? on? Fantastic! Thank you Brad if somebody wanted to follow up. What’s the best way. Is you get older. You.
37:31.16
Brad Ellison
I’m on Facebook is my primary platform. Um I don’t have anything to sell right? So you don’t go buy my book and don’t ah don’t subscribe to my podcast I don’t have any of that. But I do love talking with other contractors and I get guys reaching out to me all the time picking my brain after hearing me on something like this. So. A Facebook it’s just under Bradley Ellison you can reach me on Instagram at Brad Ellison or at Ellison Painting am I happy to connect happy to help others in any way I can to ah to elevate the industry and we’re going to try to do that two gallons at a time.
38:02.2
dybsteve
Take a little of time right on. Awesome! Thanks again. Brad.
38:07.61
Brad Ellison
Yeah, buddy. Thank you.