EP 149 : Navigating leadership struggles, winning culture, and the power of ABA’s

Introduction:

Welcome to Episode 148 of the DYB Podcast where we dive deep into game-changing business strategies and success stories with our esteemed guests Sonia Garcia, Florian Spahiu, Jesus Garcia, and Chris Petkau.

In this episode, Florian Spahiu shares key insights into the importance of using sample pieces for finishing work and avoiding free labor for color rework. He also sheds light on the professional benefits of digital business cards from dot.cards.

Sonia Garcia talks about her exciting upcoming door project and praises the utility of digital business cards and QR codes for seamless client interactions. Jesus Garcia shares his breakthrough, surpassing the $300,000 revenue milestone, and proposes innovative ways to manage deck warranties.

Chris Petkau introduces us to his new fitness routine and his success with SendOutCards and SEO, while also providing tips on using platforms like Canva and Piktochart for impactful marketing materials.

We also delve into critical discussions on warranties, effective sales follow-up strategies, and the must-have tools for sales tracking and scheduling.

Join us as we help you dream big and hustle smarter towards financial freedom, family time, and community impact and double your impact.

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Transcript :

Steve Burnett [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the DYB podcast, where each week we share strategies and stories to inspire you to double your business so that you can have financial freedom, time for your family, and make an impact in your community. Did you know you can get the DYB system PDF for free? We sell the DYB system poster for a $100, but you can get your DYB system PDF for free. Get your copy at dybcoach.com backslash dybhyphensystem. And now this week’s episode.

Steve Burnett [00:00:33]:
Well, welcome back to Mastermind. Our mission is to build $1,000,000 businesses so that we can have financial freedom, time for our families, and make an impact in our communities. Hey, Jesus. Kick us off some big wins, buddy.

Jesus Garcia [00:00:45]:
Yes. My big win is breaking through the 300 revenue mark, so it’s good for me after being stuck on that, 200 for the last 2 years. So I’m finally able to break it through.

Steve Burnett [00:00:57]:
Yes, sir. Yep. Way to go. Way to go. That’s awesome. Thank you for sharing. Sonia.

Sonia Garcia [00:01:04]:
I’ll be going to PCA Latinos tomorrow, and I’ll be speaking on a panel. So that’s a cool win.

Steve Burnett [00:01:14]:
In,

Sonia Garcia [00:01:19]:
In That’s a big win to get him to win. He’s bigger bigger picture. Yeah.

Steve Burnett [00:01:25]:
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. He should get excited. So that’s awesome. Way to go. Congrats. You are a leader, so I’m not surprised.

Sonia Garcia [00:01:33]:
Thanks.

Steve Burnett [00:01:34]:
Yeah. Lauren in. Big wins.

Florian Spahiu [00:01:36]:
Hey. What’s going on? Big wins. Couple of big wins. Yesterday, I received a phone call, to do some garage door there. Free single garage door at Mahogany. They installed in the builder, and then that building is not finished, so it was a good opportunity for us. We’re gonna start on Wednesday. That is between the 2 projects I have right now.

Florian Spahiu [00:01:57]:
So they’re begging me, please. But the first project I have, I’m working so hard. So far, I have $500. So I did my math of 23% of the labor and everything. It comes, like, 30 31,000, which on the budget, I have 34, so I’m pretty good on it. The other small project I mean, small project is a new apartment that started yesterday. And, hopefully, today, they’re gonna finish all the spray. Let’s say, like, ceilings get it done, one cold on the walls.

Florian Spahiu [00:02:29]:
So 2 day jobs for 2 guys. I’m very happy about it. So I have another project which I scheduled yesterday, probably end October. It’s a community, and it is a good chance for me to put my advertising that because it’s a from gate. So everybody’s gonna go in and out. Put sign there. So, hopefully, we’ll get something. But so far, my 2 crews are doing very well, so I’m happy about it.

Florian Spahiu [00:02:56]:
That’s all I have.

Steve Burnett [00:02:58]:
Awesome. That it doesn’t get any better than that. One of the crews are rocking and rolling.

Florian Spahiu [00:03:02]:
Like, you know, because maybe yeah. That’s true. Yeah. Thank you.

Steve Burnett [00:03:07]:
Awesome. Right on, Florian. Alright. Chris, big wins, buddy.

Chris Petkau [00:03:12]:
Good morning. My big win is definitely just being in the gym or getting into that habit and doing that 5 days a week and also diet, counting all the calories and all that and feeling a lot better. We we had a football game. That was a cheat day. We ate some burgers and stuff like that, and I was like, man, I don’t even I don’t even like this anymore. So that was really good. DNI is going good. Google SEO is really good.

Steve Burnett [00:03:43]:
Mhmm.

Chris Petkau [00:03:44]:
SendOutCards. 1 of my SendOutCards didn’t did a return to sender, so it came back to me. I got to see what it looked like. They came out really good. Yeah. Just doing the whole top and top of mind thing, and it’s going really good.

Steve Burnett [00:03:57]:
Right on. And you score 5 extra cool points this morning, Chris. You’ve got the DOIV system above the line up there behind you. Oh, and dream big. He’s on a roll. No wonder why he’s getting after it, man. That’s awesome. Right on.

Steve Burnett [00:04:10]:
Way to get into the gym and counting calories. So speaking of Jesus, man, I see those numbers you’re putting up, dude. I’m never bench pressing with you when we get together. No. Great job, guys. Great job. Alright. What is the one thing that we can brainstorm such that it might make everything else easier and or unnecessary? Jesus, lead the way.

Jesus Garcia [00:04:30]:
One thing I noticed here, guys, I think it has to be the warranties. So I’m trying to figure out some type of program for the decks because I know usually you don’t warranty decks.

Steve Burnett [00:04:40]:
But one

Jesus Garcia [00:04:41]:
thing I’ve been doing just, to cut the customer at ease is, like, going back the following year and and doing the floor at no cost. So it usually takes us about an hour like it would with the 1 hour touch ups.

Florian Spahiu [00:04:52]:
Mhmm.

Jesus Garcia [00:04:53]:
But I’m not sure if I should build it into a program or if I should just stop offering the free staining after a year or 2. So I feel like we’ve done a lot of those this year from the decks from last year.

Steve Burnett [00:05:07]:
Okay. So if I hear you clearly, you find that you’re going back and spending an hour and and recoding these decks. Now we say it’s an hour. It might be an hour of labor there, but my experience was that it usually costs me a half day. Meaning, after they did, done that, went back, when they finally got to an actual job that was live recurrent, I only got 4 hours of production that day. Oh, yeah. Does that make sense? So while that might have only taken an hour of actual labor on the site, it really cost us, like, half day, 4 hours, right, generally.

Florian Spahiu [00:05:42]:
Oh, yeah.

Steve Burnett [00:05:43]:
It’s really good service that you’re providing. One option would be to build those 4 hours into the original estimate, right, so that it doesn’t actually cost you anything when you go back to do it, which just means I’m I’m gonna use a round rate of $50 an hour. Most people are higher than that just for those listening or whatever. So that’s 200 you build an an extra $200 for labor. Right? If it were 50 an hour, I’m just using that as an example. And then if you’re looking at a deck and if you’re selling decks for, I don’t know, depending on the size, 2,000, 5,000. 2 save us 2,000, then we just need to level up our value game. And an extra bonus is you can say say, listen.

Steve Burnett [00:06:24]:
Something else that we do is I’m gonna come back next year and put an extra code on the top.

Florian Spahiu [00:06:30]:
Mhmm. Yeah.

Jesus Garcia [00:06:30]:
I usually tell them that part, and they really like it.

Steve Burnett [00:06:33]:
Yeah. But build it into the price you’re covered. And then what you might do too, just to be diligent, is to take that piece Mhmm. Of the business and put it in the business savings, right, until you go and do the deck. And then once you do once you go back and do that one code, then you can move it from savings over to your operating account.

Jesus Garcia [00:06:56]:
Okay. Sounds good. And then how about

Steve Burnett [00:06:58]:
always covered.

Jesus Garcia [00:06:59]:
Steve, how about, like, actually, like, creating, like, an actual, like, sheet, like, program? So I’m explaining it, like, for those people that like to see things, explain through paper, or you think that’s not necessary right now?

Steve Burnett [00:07:12]:
How do you mean exactly?

Jesus Garcia [00:07:13]:
By creating, like, a form, like a program form. When when I would tell them that for 2 years, 1 year, we can come back. We’ll charge you half of this after 4 years or something like that. Have you paid this, amount this first time? I don’t know. It’s just something that’s been on my mind for the last past 2 years. I’ve heard of a deck program like that, but I haven’t been able to get it altogether.

Steve Burnett [00:07:36]:
Okay. It’s possible. I just for me, when we did decks, we just said, look. They last 2 years. Okay. It just it just would last 2 years. Plan on doing it every 2 years. However, I will come back and recoat the top for you next year.

Steve Burnett [00:07:50]:
It does include my service. Now you might get an extra year or 2 out of that because you do that. What are you finding for your decks once you’re giving them that extra coat? Do you know what that extends to life for you in your end market there in that region?

Jesus Garcia [00:08:04]:
Depends if it’s a solid or a semitransparent. But, yeah, for sure, the solids are about 2 years. Semitransparent, about a year.

Steve Burnett [00:08:12]:
Okay. And that’s what we were just telling them to say, look. This is just I’m just gonna give it to you straight. We use we we prepare it properly, and we use the best products, and they last 2 years. Okay. And that’s just that’s the facts. Right? That’s the nature of the beast. I will come, with our service.

Steve Burnett [00:08:29]:
It doesn’t include me coming back and click top coat on the deck for you. But it’s and so instead of these other programs, I would just earn their trust, earn their relationships so that you follow-up in a couple of years so it becomes more of a subscription, becomes more of a repeat client for you every 2 years to go. And so you just you build that relationship and you just say, hey, missus Smith. Jesus. Garcia Payne. Hope you’re having a great day following up on your 2 year, debt coding. Would you like to go ahead and get that on the schedule?

Florian Spahiu [00:08:59]:
Sounds

Steve Burnett [00:08:59]:
good. Hey, Seuss. Thank you for calling. I was so busy. Just you are man, you are on the ball. I’m gonna have some sandwiches and some Kool Aid and hot chocolate. Send your fellas right over.

Florian Spahiu [00:09:13]:
Sounds good, Steve.

Steve Burnett [00:09:16]:
Okay. And I’ll just go back to keep the process simple.

Florian Spahiu [00:09:22]:
Okay.

Steve Burnett [00:09:23]:
Yeah. Keep it simple. Just simple streamlines.

Florian Spahiu [00:09:27]:
I just wanna add something when it comes to warranty. What I give to my clients is, 5 years warranty and 1 hour free touch up every year. It means, like, it’s very limited. So I come there. There’s no step ladder or ladder. Nothing at all. Whatever I can see right now. And then especially elderly people, they love.

Florian Spahiu [00:09:47]:
And no matter what, it’s a tricky part because you get there and then said, oh, I don’t like that bedroom color. So can you please paint it so you get more business? And they talk to each other when it comes to that. Now warranty is like to me, I mean, it is something like that, Jesus, you have to write it probably a newer warranty, write it a bit more specific. And so, like, if they warranty 1 year, which, for example, I do a lot of cabinets, but I don’t give any warranty when it comes to because they’re gonna scratch it or something like that. It’s something different. Yep. But be more specific and write it down. Hey.

Florian Spahiu [00:10:24]:
Let’s say, like, that, for example, is 1 year warranty. Walls, 5 years old. You know what I mean? And then at least it’s black and white. So you don’t have to find, like because sometimes we’re at 5 years old and they said, hey. You did my cabinets. Where is the 5 years warranty? You know what I mean? So if you’d be more specific, and if you give that 1 year or 1 hour free, they’ll love it. So for example, when I go to BNI, I show my 5 in 1. And I say 5 in 1.

Florian Spahiu [00:10:53]:
5 years warranty, 1 hour free, and they love it. That’s a good one. Yeah. To me, it’s independent what I do. I do a lot of front doors, for example, and I said to them, you gotta do once a year. And if you are next to the beach, next to the water, salt water, no matter what, you have to do every 6 months. And, for example, has a specific material, which is just for maintenance. They call maintenance.

Florian Spahiu [00:11:20]:
So you can do all the doors very liquid, which it holds for a year no matter what. I have a lot of clients that call me after 3 years. Hey. My front door, this and that. I said, listen. I give you the warranty. You gotta follow-up. And, actually, I should follow-up because it’s my business, not their business.

Florian Spahiu [00:11:38]:
And sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. Steve was mentioning, like, hey. Call them and say, okay. How the tech is looking? You know, it’s been 2 years. I would like to schedule it now. So that’s what I’m I think I don’t have anything to to suggest right now. But

Steve Burnett [00:11:53]:
Yeah. Right on. Thank you, Florian. Yeah. Yeah. Sonya, Chris, do you have any deck warranties?

Chris Petkau [00:12:00]:
We don’t have a lot of decks around here, but we’ll refinish doors. And I make I’ll do 3 extra coats of spar urethane on a door and call that a 3 year warranty and make that an optional item on the estimate. So if they want that, they can opt into it, but I don’t include it. The other thing I was gonna say was if any type of warranty call, any any anything that you’re doing for free or whatever, I I agree with Steve that it should be built into the price somehow. But if it isn’t or whatever, have we gotten a Google Google review from them yet? Have Have we gotten a video testimonial from them yet? There’s probably something that you can still get from these jobs that can make it worth it.

Jesus Garcia [00:12:43]:
Mhmm. Sounds good.

Sonia Garcia [00:12:45]:
Yeah. No warranties for me so far. We really do them. That’s gonna be one of my what you call this on today as far as doing stuff like wood wood staining. It’s a process, and it’s really tough for us because we’re not very familiar with it. So I don’t have anything to give at the moment.

Florian Spahiu [00:13:02]:
That’s okay.

Sonia Garcia [00:13:04]:
Sorry.

Florian Spahiu [00:13:05]:
Thank you. I don’t know about you guys in Texas, but here in Florida, the sound is very brutal. So no matter what, once a year, you got to refresh that front door. It’s not gonna happen. Even the good materials, I go after the year and a half, and I can see I start to machines start to getting out. I do a lot of those, especially in big buildings. Houses there are 20,000,000, 10000,000. So I already got scheduled after October.

Florian Spahiu [00:13:29]:
I have 3, 4 doses starting to scuff it, muskets, spray it right away and get out. So that’s my area. I don’t know. Texas, how it is. It’s but sun here is very bad. It’s very bad.

Steve Burnett [00:13:40]:
Oh, yeah.

Chris Petkau [00:13:40]:
It’s the same. It’s the same. We’ll do 2 coats of thing on a door and tell them it really should only last a year, but we’ll do an additional 3 coats. And, basically, we tell them we call that a 2 3 year warranty and just let them know. It depends on various factors, but 3 more codes.

Florian Spahiu [00:13:59]:
So let me ask you that. Is that a better idea you do switch to the product? Because I love. I go to the higher product. Is good too. And it comes to material and. I love to spend material because if you pay, like, even $10 or $200 more in a gallon, but it gives you, like, a big break when it comes to warranty. You feel bad. It’s a better product.

Florian Spahiu [00:14:23]:
So I’ll spend a little bit more than the materials. Even whatever I finish, I don’t go with them. I mean, my, for example, I use, like, regal when it comes to interior exterior. So I go always the higher problem. And add in the estimate. But if the estimate is, like, $100 for the peers, just do it a 120. I’m just saying so. I don’t know how is your area to beat those jobs.

Florian Spahiu [00:14:47]:
But where I am, of course, you can charge a lot for them.

Steve Burnett [00:14:51]:
But, thank you guys. Sonia.

Sonia Garcia [00:14:55]:
So speaking of we had a porch that I guess, some more communication skills is, I guess, what I’m needing help with or just improving and and getting a little more thorough with. Because I know I’m, like, I have the gift of gab. However, when it comes to communication and follow-up and really asking the questions, I, have I fall through a few times like this example. There’s this, we had a porch, that we were distain. And so I hired a new painter and the painter says, yes. We looked at some of his work. We looked at, we knew his brother, which was a coincidence. Oh, wow.

Sonia Garcia [00:15:27]:
We like working with your brother. So we’re getting, developing that team. So I didn’t ask the GC that it was a general contractor. He, I didn’t ask him how he liked it stained, but we’re used to the way it looks transparent, even with the trans semi transparent. But when I went, I didn’t have a chance. I had a really busy day that day. I came back to check on the, the job and the painter was gone. And then I’m looking at the job going, this looks like it’s painted.

Sonia Garcia [00:15:50]:
So I asked him, how did you apply it? And I go, did you brush? And he said, yeah, I did. I was like, wow. He’s, but it was really thick. I’ve never used this product before. I was, why didn’t you call me? And I, and then I was seeing, I could have checked earlier, but anyways, it was so thick. It looked like semi gloss paint on air. And so when the, client came to check it, he’s oh, he asked me how did you apply it? And so I said, I asked the painter again, how did you apply it? Or did you brush it? I didn’t ask him how he applied it. And he’s I brushed.

Sonia Garcia [00:16:16]:
Yes. So I relayed the information and he’s I brushed. He goes, what looks? He’s, I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it was brushed on. I go, I I didn’t even get to see what this product was or like or play with or anything. Later, he on a Sunday, he’d last, and he’s, you’re dishonest. I want full transparency. He sprayed it.

Sonia Garcia [00:16:31]:
I didn’t, like I said, I didn’t pay attention. And I was like, oh my gosh. Somebody asked him how he wanted it. And so we had to go strip that thing. We stripped it down. So I don’t have strip now. Yay. So he wants stripping and re restaining and but I don’t wanna do that.

Sonia Garcia [00:16:47]:
But anyways, know how to do it now. So we learned. That’s a good thing. I think it’s more communication and ask questions. Sometimes I don’t know what to ask or how to ask or I’ll forget. And I’m just like, where do I slip that in there now? Because I get really caught up on trying to run all the whole thing. So aside from that, I think that was one of the biggest things I I run into is SOPs and explaining things thoroughly, even though I put a work order out. And so

Florian Spahiu [00:17:13]:
Was that that you’re a subcontractor?

Sonia Garcia [00:17:17]:
I was a subcontractor. I mean, he’s he’s a good one where I I can price it and it’s re he’s a he remodels. And so it’s it’s really easy. We do a lot of the exteriors. And to us, that’s pretty easy for us. It’s just going in there and not doing too much, just the prep and so forth. And this is an exterior one. But he wants us to do his interior of his home that he bought.

Sonia Garcia [00:17:38]:
And so we’re still in to do that. Yay. That’s a good thing, but I’m not, but I go, I’m not, I go, I go, I hope you don’t film dishonest anymore. Cause we went and fixed it and we got it done. It’s good. But I just feel like it’s mainly that little thing where just making sure I ask questions. And sometimes I don’t know what questions to ask a lot of times. Mhmm.

Steve Burnett [00:18:00]:
And so

Sonia Garcia [00:18:00]:
that’s where my estimating it all it all flows into that too. But I think that last week, we talked about this before. What how do you know or how do you get to know what you don’t know type of thing? And it’s an ongoing process. And so we run into these things. And then I takes me a few steps back, and then I’m the selling doesn’t happen, and I’m just all over the place. But aside from that

Florian Spahiu [00:18:19]:
Yeah.

Steve Burnett [00:18:20]:
That’s a hard one. How how do you how how can you know what you don’t know? The traditional route is that we come up as technicians, originally painters working for somebody, and that was how we learned what we didn’t know. You’re in a, precarious situation. So that that’s a tough one. It’s a really that’s a really tough one. Yeah. You how do you know when a situation is not right? Oh, man. Just trying to think back a lot of lessons hard knock lessons I learned.

Steve Burnett [00:18:55]:
And, the bad news is even though coming up as a technician, we had to learn a lot of these the hard way. And so they said they’re what they call the hard knocks of entrepreneurialism and and building a business. And I’m just trying I’m thinking back, like, over the years of, oh, okay. When we sprayed those thousands of lineal feet of 12 inch base for the 6,000 square foot home, we were supposed to wipe the stain off. That was a hard lesson. Yeah. Yeah. So, unfortunately, we learned some of these the hard way.

Steve Burnett [00:19:27]:
At any point, I would say, listen to your gut. And at any point, if something isn’t crystal clear or common, post it in mastermind. And I don’t know your relationship with, your team or ask them, say, hey, guys. Like, if something went off about the door in your gut, maybe it didn’t. If there’s nothing there, then, unfortunately, sometimes we gotta learn these lessons the hard way. If there’s no indicator to let you know, then how do you know? And then on your relationship with your team, ask them to say, hey, guys. So here’s the door. Here’s what we’re supposed to do.

Steve Burnett [00:19:54]:
Any thoughts about that, or how would you go about it? And then same thing. That’s what your mastermind’s for. Anytime, so I would say, listen to your gut. Anytime something doesn’t feel off or it’s different or you feel like it might be out of your scope, just post it match them on.

Florian Spahiu [00:20:08]:
The other thing is next time specific finishes like front door, staining, whatever you do, beams, try to make a sample before you proceed to finish. That’s the key. So they might not like the color. Sometimes the stain is reacting different on different note because might be oak. For example, might be white oak, might be dark oak. So when you apply stain, it’s gonna show different. So before you proceed, make a assemble. Make sure I don’t know your subcontractor.

Florian Spahiu [00:20:38]:
This is the first time you are working with it. Just you gotta stay with them the 1st day and take a look how we’re doing. But assemble is very crucial. It’s the main key.

Sonia Garcia [00:20:48]:
Okay. If the

Florian Spahiu [00:20:49]:
sign on the back of the assemble because I’m a full finisher guy, and I know it’s they sign them back and assemble, you’re done after that. If they don’t like the color, and that’s you gotta charge more. You have to strip it so your labor you are not doing free. You are not doing free labor. That’s what I mean. So sample, it’s it’s the main key. Okay?

Sonia Garcia [00:21:11]:
Okay. We have a door on September 16th, so here we go.

Florian Spahiu [00:21:14]:
On the door, you don’t have to go in the front the door, but you go on the side of the door, you can make a little sense. Maybe you don’t have the actual or extra piece. So go on the side of the door, put a little bit stain, put a clear. And if it is, you can strip it. It’s just a little excuse me. It’s a little piece. It’s not a really big deal.

Sonia Garcia [00:21:31]:
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s a tiny deal now.

Florian Spahiu [00:21:33]:
A big break.

Sonia Garcia [00:21:34]:
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. This helps quite a bit.

Steve Burnett [00:21:38]:
We’ll continue with the rest of this week’s show in just a moment. But first, do you have your copy of Steve’s book, How to Double Your Business? It’s for sale on Amazon for $37, but we want to give you your free copy instead. Just cover the 6.95 for shipping and handling. Get your free copy of the dyb book atdybcoach.com backslashfreehyphendyb hyphen book.

Steve Burnett [00:22:04]:
Florian, you’re up.

Florian Spahiu [00:22:07]:
Not too much, actually. It’s just I have a friend of mine with BNI, so we’re talking, like, 2 days ago. Yesterday, we had lunch together. He sent me a a text, and he’s sharing his his profile. Let’s say, like, a business card. So I say, oh, where you got that? He goes, I got that. I got it from dotcards.com. So the DTS, like, you pay a $20.

Florian Spahiu [00:22:30]:
They send you the card, like, digital. And sometimes, for example, you go somewhere and you don’t have a card with you. So I said, hey. What is your phone number? And I said, okay. That’s my phone number. I said, okay. I’ll send you my my business card. So meantime, you’ll get the other people information at the same time.

Florian Spahiu [00:22:49]:
So it’s not like you’re sharing all of the card, but you’re taking people information. And you put in your book and say, okay. Steve Burnett, this is our number. Hey. What is your information? And then when it comes to cards, here comes the new clients. So I don’t know about you guys. Have you seen about it? I was thinking, and that’s a good idea. And then the other thing is sometimes about the Google review, you always follow-up, send text, whatever, and it doesn’t come back.

Florian Spahiu [00:23:18]:
But when you run on the job site, you try to get that Google view no matter what. And sometimes the link doesn’t work. So what I saw yesterday in the Facebook, somebody has a QR code for the Google review. So you share the Google review code right away to your clients, and they don’t have to search on another website like, hey. The answer model businesses. Here’s the review. Write it down. But they get the link.

Florian Spahiu [00:23:43]:
They fill it up right away. So those are 2 things I’m thinking about. Any suggestions?

Steve Burnett [00:23:50]:
Question for you. What so I checked dot car.comandcar.com. I’m not seeing it. Can you give me the URL, please, again?

Florian Spahiu [00:23:59]:
Yeah. So this is okay. It’s dotpointcards.com.

Steve Burnett [00:24:13]:
Dot

Florian Spahiu [00:24:14]:
Okay. So I’m gonna I’m gonna share it with you. You guys share it with me. So is this is this card? I’ll share it right now. Okay? I’ll send a text. Mhmm.

Steve Burnett [00:24:24]:
In the mastermind chat or text?

Florian Spahiu [00:24:26]:
No. I texted it. Do you have a?

Steve Burnett [00:24:29]:
Yep. Yep. Dot. Okay. So dot period cards. Yes. D o t period cards. Thank you.

Florian Spahiu [00:24:39]:
That sounds very interesting because you can say whatever this guy sent it to me, I can put in my contact, and it’s all few it’s all his profile, his email, everything.

Steve Burnett [00:24:51]:
West Okay. So yeah. This is this is really cool. It’s like a Linktree, but it’s professional, and it looks like a business card. Yeah. I like this. This is cool. And so

Florian Spahiu [00:25:04]:
So you put this picture there, his business.

Steve Burnett [00:25:07]:
Yep. Call, email, backup number, website. I think it’s good idea. I wonder what the cost is. I just pulled it up here.

Florian Spahiu [00:25:14]:
There’s 20 boxes. That’s what Okay. And they have the only option. They give you the option for 5 cards, I think. So Mhmm. Every member in your team can have one of those cards. They can share it. For example, now in the job site, I I don’t have any business card.

Florian Spahiu [00:25:31]:
But if they have the phone, they can share it to the other people so they can get their information as well too. You know what I mean?

Steve Burnett [00:25:38]:
Okay. And then you can save the contact directly to you, your iPhone. Yes. There’s a button there. Cool. Okay. Yeah. I think that’s that’s convenient.

Steve Burnett [00:25:48]:
I like it. Yeah.

Florian Spahiu [00:25:50]:
I just had to work a little bit, ask more questions. It’s easy to set it up, it looks like. Mhmm. But it’s very nice.

Sonia Garcia [00:25:57]:
Yeah. Those are really nice. I when you I wasn’t following, but now I so now I I looked it up, but I I use hi, hello or something like that. So similar to that kind of those are really convenient where you’d get to scan. So on my business cards, I even have the QR code that goes to that. I think does I think Dot might have it. So that’s nice too where you can put that on your business cards as well to scan it.

Steve Burnett [00:26:19]:
Florian, do you mind if I share it in the chat here so these guys can see what

Florian Spahiu [00:26:22]:
the Of course. Talking about. Okay.

Sonia Garcia [00:26:25]:
Yeah. And it’s really nice because even at BNI, we have, some others that will do that. We can dot cards. They’ll have, the other ones like mine, and it’s really nice and convenient. I can save it on there instead of losing a bunch of cards. But it’s easy for the client too.

Steve Burnett [00:26:39]:
Yeah. And that what what one thing I was concerned about is when you have to save the link for the contact. But now there’s a great big button that says save contacts. You can save it directly to your phone.

Florian Spahiu [00:26:48]:
Yeah. And the other good thing is that we

Sonia Garcia [00:26:50]:
don’t use your Android, guys. Yeah.

Florian Spahiu [00:26:52]:
You get, what do you call it, people’s information in that because you’re sharing. You send a text or something. Okay? And then they respond to, hey. Let me send you a contact. So let’s see if I have a new client. And if it’s not, this is gonna share with somebody else. And you pay $20, and it’s pretty much free after that. Right?

Steve Burnett [00:27:11]:
Yep. That was really cool.

Florian Spahiu [00:27:13]:
So the other one is a Google, review too. I don’t know if you can see it anymore in my Facebook book. Somebody was saying that you have to pay, like, maybe $50 or something like that, and it comes like a link. Okay? Mhmm. They send you a card too. So if you wanna buy a card, you they could send you, like, 5 cards. I think it was, like, $100 for 5 cards, something like that. But this was like Sonya was saying, you have a QR code.

Florian Spahiu [00:27:40]:
And, actually, if you when it comes to QR code, if you wanna set it up, you have to buy. There’s not any QR code for free. Right?

Sonia Garcia [00:27:47]:
The QR code, you can do to Canva and set up that link, and it’ll generate one for you.

Steve Burnett [00:27:54]:
So you

Sonia Garcia [00:27:55]:
uh-huh. Yeah. See, on Canva, if you look up QR code, it’ll generate one, like, samples for you. And then you can link your information to that, and it’ll go to the Google review. It’ll go however you whatever you wanna put on there.

Florian Spahiu [00:28:08]:
Is this canva.com?

Sonia Garcia [00:28:10]:
Canva.com. And you can do the free version and they should have some samples up there for you. But it’s $12 a month. I use Canva a lot. And you can just generate that and it won’t it doesn’t charge you.

Florian Spahiu [00:28:22]:
But

Sonia Garcia [00:28:23]:
you can design it your way, the way you want. I did one try to find a car. And so I could show you, gosh. I don’t have it on me right now. But I just put it on the back of that. I can get it really quick.

Florian Spahiu [00:28:36]:
It’s crazy because those apps today, you gotta pay. It’s not as yours to be for free anymore. So I’m trying to do everything for free. How do I

Sonia Garcia [00:28:44]:
If you can. So on the I can see that. But on the back, you can yeah. Those it’s a real simple one. So mine’s like a high hello because everything on there. I just I haven’t added the thing, but you can do that, with Canva. And that one was a Canva one. It’s real simple.

Sonia Garcia [00:29:00]:
It’s real you’re welcome.

Steve Burnett [00:29:02]:
K. Right on. Cool stuff. Yeah. Yep. Let’s see. Alright. Chris, you’re up, sir.

Chris Petkau [00:29:09]:
I just wanna pick your guys’ brains, see if there’s any tips or anything you guys had both for for sales tracking and, like, job tracking. How do you say? Estimate follow ups. So after you do an estimate and if you don’t close it there, I’d like to know what people’s process is in terms of follow ups. And then I’d also like to know people’s process in terms of tracking trip jobs. It sends out those automated emails and texts. It’ll also track the sales and stuff like that, but I’m just curious. And it’ll tell you stuff like where the lead came from, but I’m just curious if anybody has any other tips or anything on either of those two topics, a process or a rule of thumb on how often they follow-up, stuff like that. I remember, Steve, you told a story about, you followed up with a guy for 6 years before you painted his house or something like that.

Chris Petkau [00:30:05]:
Just wanted to, yeah, get a yeah. Okay. Anything anyone has to say about that.

Steve Burnett [00:30:11]:
Alright. Great question. I want to state something real clear. This is so important when it comes to follow-up. And that this it and it’s a principle, and this isn’t directly to you, Chris. This is this is very common. And so I I try to beat this drum as loud and as hard as I can because it it’s a game changer when it comes to your close ratio. The principle is there should never be a question of when to follow-up.

Steve Burnett [00:30:36]:
The reason is we set that appointment at the sales call, at the estimate before we leave every time. We do that by asking a yes or yes question. Would it be okay if I follow-up with you next Thursday or Friday? See, I didn’t ask if it was okay if I follow-up. It says, okay. I’ll follow-up with you next Thursday or Friday. Friday? Okay. Morning or afternoon? Oh, afternoon, 2 PM. Great.

Steve Burnett [00:31:02]:
I put it in my calendar, 15 minutes of blackout, and I send them a calendar invite. Just doing this. They’ll send

Chris Petkau [00:31:12]:
them a calendar invite for a phone call?

Steve Burnett [00:31:15]:
Absolutely. That’s a meeting. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Do I want them to be available? Do I want them to make time for it? Do I want them to be there? Yeah. So you’re providing a service to them by doing this. You’re making it easier for them to buy from you.

Steve Burnett [00:31:28]:
You’re also showing them that you’re responsible and you have a trusted system. You follow through and you follow-up, building more value into your proposal. And then when you call them when you call them, and if they’re still not ready for whatever reason, okay, and then just gauge the situation. Right? So it’s how long is it just depends on the situation. Are they going away for a week? Sorry. We already saw in follow-up in 2 weeks? Yeah. Sure. That sounds good.

Steve Burnett [00:31:58]:
Okay. So the story I mentioned Art from New Jersey. Right? Business was down. Business cycles take a while. Right? So I just said, verify for follow-up in 6 months. He says, yeah. Sure. And so that one turned in every 6 months.

Steve Burnett [00:32:10]:
And I connect them. We had a warm conversation. He was in the was a steel or iron business up in New Jersey. This is during the great recession. So he was feeling it. We’re all feeling it. But, yeah, after 6 years, he goes, oh, hey, Steve. Hi.

Steve Burnett [00:32:23]:
Yeah. Business is great. Man, it’s awesome. You ready to paint your interior? No. I was like, oh, man. He goes, but the exterior needs painted again. Put it on your calendar. I was like, yes.

Steve Burnett [00:32:33]:
Okay. So the idea is it’s never an interruption because you set the appointment and you make it convenient for them, which makes it easier for them to buy from you. It’s like Amazon. The buy now button, they make it e too easy for us to buy from them. That’s the principle. We wanna make it easy for them to buy from us. And we don’t ever wanna interrupt them. And that’s why a lot of guys are like, I don’t wanna interrupt them.

Steve Burnett [00:32:58]:
You’re right. You shouldn’t. Instead, set the appointment. Send them an invite, and then call them then.

Florian Spahiu [00:33:03]:
Yeah. That’s right. And remember, Steve, I have a client after a year and a half. I kind of see him and follow-up. Oh, let’s do it May. And May said, oh, we cannot do it right now. We don’t have the funds. I said, do you mind your call in September? She go, yeah.

Florian Spahiu [00:33:17]:
Absolutely. Yes. And now it goes September, and here comes the new AC in their house. I can do. And it goes back, and then I said, okay. Let me call you Chris. And he said, okay. Around Christmas.

Florian Spahiu [00:33:28]:
Yeah. That’s fine. I end up doing after a year and a half. And guess what? After 6 months, I’ve been next to that, though.

Steve Burnett [00:33:37]:
Oh, no. Yes, sir.

Florian Spahiu [00:33:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Burnett [00:33:40]:
Alright. Yep. So let’s get put in your calendar as appointments. So you don’t really need a reminder because it’s in your calendar as a meeting, as an appointment, and then it’s your job to, reschedule again if it’s if you haven’t closed it yet.

Florian Spahiu [00:33:53]:
Actually, what is the good thing about Book Me or Calendly, which I’m a proud we have it, guys. I have to do some drapers and curtains on my home. So there are 3 companies, and there are big companies here where I am. So I call them and just try to figure out the schedule. Hey, guys. I have to figure out with my wife when she comes home. Do you have any link? So based on link, I can see what is open, and none of them has a link. And I just oh, I am away.

Florian Spahiu [00:34:20]:
I head up compared to the other Compass. That’s what that is a big break for the clients because they can see your schedule. It’s Yeah. I was very surprised. Unfortunately, we have to do manual. I have to open the calendar, and I’m free so they can come. It’s a headache. Mhmm.

Florian Spahiu [00:34:35]:
Book me. You’ll see the schedule. They talk you or whatever time it is.

Steve Burnett [00:34:40]:
Right on. Yes, sir. Awesome

Sonia Garcia [00:34:43]:
for you. Service.

Florian Spahiu [00:34:44]:
It’s it’s

Sonia Garcia [00:34:45]:
just a sir I remember somebody mentioning that it’s good service. It shows that you give good service.

Florian Spahiu [00:34:49]:
Yes. Mhmm.

Steve Burnett [00:34:53]:
Indeed. It’s it’s like when a restaurant and the waiter or waitress coming by and checking on your waters or your drinks, and are you ready for the dessert menu? That’s yeah. Chris, does that answer your question?

Chris Petkau [00:35:05]:
Yep. It’s great.

Steve Burnett [00:35:07]:
Yeah. So any anything else there? Because you had shared, a few things. I just wanted to make sure we addressed the

Chris Petkau [00:35:13]:
I’d be curious to know anything that anybody does in terms of sales tracking just in terms of just writing down what just, yeah, just keeping track of all that. Trip jobs will do it for you. I was doing something that was, like, I was writing where the lead came from. I was and I was but it was getting, I think, it was getting too complicated and and stuff like that. So I was just so trip jobs is good, but I was curious to hear if anybody had any other things that they do with that

Florian Spahiu [00:35:45]:
in terms

Steve Burnett [00:35:45]:
of tracking stuff. I’m pretty obsessed with tracking, some of these. But we in order to answer your question, I need you to be crystal clear on what exactly you’re looking to track. Right? So you’ve got your lead source.

Chris Petkau [00:35:58]:
Just tracking tracking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Close ratio. I was writing down how the length in between the estimate booked and the and when it was closed. What else was I writing down? I don’t have it off the

Florian Spahiu [00:36:12]:
top of

Steve Burnett [00:36:12]:
the sales cycle.

Chris Petkau [00:36:13]:
I mean I mean, yeah, just as much data as can possibly be collected while at the same time keeping it simple. Yeah. So those are most important.

Steve Burnett [00:36:22]:
Yeah. Okay. There we go. Thank you. I like that question. So I’m gonna refer to there’s a book called 4 d’s of execution. Now it’s boring. Don’t read it.

Steve Burnett [00:36:31]:
Okay? But there are a couple of valuable principles in there. Watch the summary, but don’t read the book. It’s one of those big fat boring corporate blocks. Okay? Yeah. In it, though, a couple of key principles are lead and lagging indicators. So if you guys of course, you do. Use the scoreboard. If you fill it out, the very top section, your sales and your revenue and your a couple of other financial indicators there, those are your lagging indicators.

Steve Burnett [00:36:58]:
Right? You can’t affect those. Those are the results. But pretty much everything below it, okay, are your leading indicators. Meaning, those are all the things you can affect. Okay? So when it comes to sales, your sales ratio, your, sales life cycles, those are all lagging indicators. Right? Leading indicators are the most important. This is the 80 20. And what I have is the, DYB scoreboard checklist.

Steve Burnett [00:37:27]:
Excuse me. DYB sales checklist. And what you do is for every appointment you go on, you go through and you check all the boxes. Right? Did you not get the exact time? Did you wear your smiley face name tag? Right? Did you ask the great experience question? Did you schedule the follow-up phone call? Did you send a handwritten note card? Those are just a few that are on there or what are essential. Those are what really matters. You take care of those, everything else, especially the money, takes care of itself.

Chris Petkau [00:37:59]:
Fair enough.

Steve Burnett [00:37:59]:
So if you guys don’t have a copy of that, yeah, just shoot me a message or I can post a copy of it again and match to my chat for you.

Sonia Garcia [00:38:06]:
Okay. On the close ratio, if you go into the reports, it’ll tell you in DRIP jobs your close ratio if you haven’t that done already. Okay.

Chris Petkau [00:38:15]:
Yeah. I know there’s a lot in DRIP jobs. I was doing a lot more, and I don’t know. And then I also like that I had it in a spreadsheet. But, yeah, I know I’m curious to what you guys all do. That’s some of it’s too much information sometimes.

Steve Burnett [00:38:29]:
Yeah. You gotta be careful. Right? You gotta be careful and stick with the essentials, 80 20. And so that way you can move at the speed of opportunity. But good questions. I love it. Again, if you guys need a copy of the UAV sales checklist, just mention it in the mastermind chat or wherever. Reach out to me.

Steve Burnett [00:38:47]:
Happy to send you a copy of it.

Chris Petkau [00:38:48]:
You you said it to me before, but I might look at it again. You know?

Steve Burnett [00:38:52]:
There you go. Print it out and use it for a month and watch watch the difference. And then look back, take a snapshot of your close ratio now, use this for 1 month, and compare them. Okay. Because it’s you just you master what you measure. You’re tracking your calories. Guess what’s gonna happen? Mhmm. Yeah.

Steve Burnett [00:39:12]:
You Asus is tracking his reps at the gym. Look what’s happening. He’s turned into a beast. You master what you measure. Alright. And anybody have anything else before we roll out with takeaways?

Florian Spahiu [00:39:27]:
None so far.

Steve Burnett [00:39:28]:
Okay. Going once, Going twice. Gone, baby. Hey, Seuss. Pulls us out. 2 takeaways, sir.

Jesus Garcia [00:39:36]:
Yeah. So I’m gonna start building up those hours, for the deck staining. That’s gonna be very helpful.

Steve Burnett [00:39:42]:
Mhmm. Yes, sir. Awesome. Glad to hear that. Thank you. Sonia?

Sonia Garcia [00:39:46]:
Pardon Knox ability and being an entrepreneur, especially when you’re in a precarious situation. But just, making sure to use our mastermind group to help support when we have work.

Steve Burnett [00:39:57]:
Yes. Yes. We’re here. That’s what we’re here for. Right on. Thank you. Florian?

Florian Spahiu [00:40:01]:
Checking those warranty service, like, as I was saying, I just have to double check for the new items that are coming up. Make sure it’s black and white, like we say all the time. We’re gonna check that dot cards. Also, thanks, Sonia, for that. Canva.com. I’m gonna look at it for free version If I can get it something, I don’t know. I have to look at it and close ratio like Chris was mentioning, and that’s what I have. You know?

Steve Burnett [00:40:29]:
Yeah. Awesome. Okay. That’s a nice list. Fantastic. Thank you for it. And, Chris?

Chris Petkau [00:40:35]:
One other thing I’ll throw out there for anyone that’s interested is I found a cool cool website called Piktochart, and you can it’s really good for generating, like, infographics and flyers and stuff like that. And it has it’s PIKTO, like, p I k t o, PIKTOchart. And they have a AI. And so, basically, if I wanna say I wanna make I use them for Facebook and stuff like that. You can use them for flyers, but you basically just tell the AI, I want, I want a infographic on deck staining, and it’ll generate the entire thing for you. And, obviously, like, you’d wanna go back through it and proofread it all, and may have a limited gallery of photos, but it makes sense to me anyways to use your own photos. But that’s something that when I was, like, trying to get my Facebook content going, I went ahead and just made, like, 52 infographics for one one day of the week. And so I, like, yeah, just paid the subscription whatever for 1 month and then just generated them all.

Chris Petkau [00:41:38]:
So that’s what I’m gonna definitely recommend.

Steve Burnett [00:41:40]:
Back in my day, we had to pay designers out the wazoo for these. Things. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And they look great. Including the weeks of emails back and forth. Oh my goodness.

Steve Burnett [00:41:51]:
That’s awesome. Very cool.

Chris Petkau [00:41:53]:
Look great and professional and everything. Yeah. Cool. I’ve got here dot cards.com, canva.com, yes or yes questions. I just like that a lot. That’s probably something to just think about for a while. Yes or yes questions. Calendar invites for each follow-up appointment.

Chris Petkau [00:42:11]:
I’m doing follow-up appointments, but I love the calendar invite. The 4 d’s of execution, check out the summary on YouTube, and lead over lagging indicators.

Steve Burnett [00:42:22]:
Yeah. Right on. Fantastic. Thank you, Chris. And here’s one more takeaway for sales. This one’s super, super powerful. Stop asking them what do they think because thinking takes time. Instead, say, how do you feel? We make decisions on our feelings.

Steve Burnett [00:42:37]:
Then then we justify them by feeling. Then we justify them by logically. Okay? So don’t ask them what you think. Ask them, how do you feel? How does this feel? Feels great. Great. Let’s go. Alright. Go get them.

Steve Burnett [00:42:49]:
I wanna encourage everybody to dream big. Hustle smarter. You’ve got this. Have a great day.

Florian Spahiu [00:42:53]:
Thank you so much, guys.

Sonia Garcia [00:42:55]:
Thank you.

Steve Burnett [00:42:56]:
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If this was helpful, please share it with a friend to help inspire them to double their business. Again, this is April Burnett. Steve and I are the founders of Burnett Painting and DYB Coach. We want to take a moment and thank you for making us the most rated podcast dedicated specifically to painting contractors. To celebrate, we want to help you break through to higher success. So Steve is now giving away free strategy calls. Just click the link below in the show notes that says free strategy call.

Steve Burnett [00:43:26]:
There are only a couple of openings on his calendar each week, so get your free call with Steve now. Thank you so much for listening, and remember to dream big, hustle smarter, you’ve got this.