How Jon Ray Bought Peek Bros. Painting & Is Now Projecting For $3.5 Million
INTRODUCTION:
Is this special Episode 100, in which I reserved for Jon Ray because he bought one of my first coaching clients John Peek’s business, we unpack the adventure for you here from Jon’s start up, to rebuild / joining DYB, doubling profits, and then the acquisition of Peek Bros. Painting putting him on track ot hit $3.5 Million this year.
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TRANSCRIPT :
00:00.00
dybsteve
What happened.?
00:03.37
Jon Ray
So this is probably about fifteen years ago I’m painting a house in the living room and the client asked me if they could run across the street to their neighbors real quick. Um, and if I could babysit their kid while they were gone. You know basically just keep an eye on their little toddler. 2 years old 3 years old something like that I don’t know so I’m like oh yeah, sure, no problem I’m a real people pleaser. You know I don’t want to ever like say no to anybody I’m a lot better at that now. But um so I agreed to do it. The kids just you know sitting in the corner and playing with some toys or something got not really paying too much attention. But. So you know I’ve got my five gallon bucket of paint out I dip my roller in I’m like going on the walls I turn around and the kid is standing in the bucket of paint somehow this little toddler climbed into my bucket of Hamilton Blue and so ah flat wall paint from dun edwards and it was a pretty full bucket. At that point you know like I kind of just started going and luckily it didn’t like you know, spill out.
01:09.83
dybsteve
Um, wait a minute have you seen that picture that’s gone around the internets of like the baby with the paint all over the living room.
01:14.82
Jon Ray
But yes I have yeah I posted that picture it wasn’t my original picture of you know smartphones ah smartphones existed at the time but it wasn’t like you know I wasn’t like.
01:20.23
dybsteve
That was you? yeah.
01:25.18
dybsteve
Ah, yeah.
01:28.37
dybsteve
Group meet. Yeah.
01:31.62
Jon Ray
Pop of mind that I was going to grab my phone and take a picture of this I was just freaking out I’m like oh my goodness there is a child in my paint and the parents are gone and I’m responsible for this and so.
01:38.11
dybsteve
Ah.
01:44.97
Jon Ray
I would like you know had a like a couple 2 3 seconds of like what do I do I grew up the kid pick him up. There was paint dripping all over so I put him back in the paint and I you know.
01:51.75
dybsteve
And.
01:59.44
Jon Ray
Ah, rearrrange my drop clause to kind of make more of a like a place I could get the kid out and deal with this and then the best part I mean well maybe the second best part of the story because the kid going into the pain is pretty good, but the the second part of the story is that as soon as I got the kid out put them down. They took off running.
02:02.20
dybsteve
Yeah, um.
02:13.40
dybsteve
Yep.
02:17.11
dybsteve
No.
02:19.21
Jon Ray
And I’m chasing this kid that has paint like you know splattering all out and you know look like um ah the tasmanian devil cartoon. You know like this little kid is worrying off. Go running after them. They probably only got like 4 or 5 steps before I was able to grab again and I picked him up and I was like now what do I do I’m holding this dripping child in my hands and so yeah, just I ended up like getting him over and um, yeah, set them down on the drop cloth turn on a tv so that they would like you know, stay put.
02:35.50
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
02:43.39
dybsteve
Yeah, ah.
02:53.50
Jon Ray
And then just waited for the parents to come back and they’re a really cool client. They felt bad for me, you know that I had to deal with all of that whole situation. But yeah, that’s probably the the funniest um painting story that I have with.
02:54.45
dybsteve
Um.
02:58.52
dybsteve
You? Yeah yeah, yeah.
03:04.96
dybsteve
Ah see.
03:09.91
dybsteve
Ah, that is so awesome I love these and ah, everybody’s watching listening like 1 of the you know we open everything with a you know, crazy wild story and the other thing is I said don’t tell me because I want you know I want to hear it for the first so this is the first time I ever I hear these too and it’s just.
03:25.15
Jon Ray
There.
03:27.00
dybsteve
They’re awesome when you think you’ve heard them ah like oh my? Ah ah ah.
03:30.51
Jon Ray
Yeah, you know I actually forgot that this story had happened until I saw that picture that you mentioned and I saw the picture and it just brought back the flood of memory and I was like oh wow, that’s right? and so I posted that picture on my social media and everything. So yeah was.
03:45.45
dybsteve
Ah, yeah, that’s that’s awesome right on? Yeah yeah, right on oh my well ah to our listeners and our viewers. Hello welcome back to the Duy B Podcast today’s guest is from San Diego
03:48.84
Jon Ray
It happens more than once I guess.
03:56.70
Jon Ray
Um, listen.
04:03.65
dybsteve
California owner of paintgreen/peakbrothers painting John Ray welcome to the show. My friend.
04:08.58
Jon Ray
Thank you Steve Happy to be here.
04:11.73
dybsteve
Now I reserved episode 100 specifically for John because this is a really cool story of how he’s grown from 600000 when he first joined UIb and is now projecting to three point five million dollars in just a couple years John
04:26.64
Jon Ray
Me.
04:30.58
dybsteve
Has been a 1 to 1 client of mine for a couple years I’ve flown to stay with him a couple of times to analyze the inside of his operations get to know his team as well as his as well excuse me as his wonderful wife charissa and experience some intense mountain biking rides and ah hikes.
04:46.20
Jon Ray
Um, Dictionary Hill. Yep.
04:46.62
dybsteve
Up the top of it’s dictionary hill right? Yeah yeah, those are intense and the views are worth it when you make it up there. The rocky climb it feels like to me like I say rocky is and Bellbo ah it felt like you had to have the I had the tiger to make it up there. But.
05:00.75
Jon Ray
To give people an idea of how steep it is the house is right next to us the very top of their roof is lower than our floor. So yeah, it’s yeah, they’re like ten feet away but yeah
05:07.41
dybsteve
In and and we’re talking just like feet away too. It’s It’s not like a big you you could You could jump off your lawn onto your neighbor’s roof easily? Yeah and so it’s so steep. It’s us but the views are just breathtaking.
05:17.43
Jon Ray
Yeah, yeah, easily.
05:24.85
dybsteve
Ah, however, it’s it’s not all about ah his success and all his hard work and habit changes from following you of a system but also because of the acquisition of 1 of my first clients and very first member of mastermind group one which we call omg original mastermind group. Ah John peak of Peak Brothers Painting who was on the show back on episode 11 but before we unpack all that awesomeness John take us back to the very beginning. How did you first get started.
05:56.22
Jon Ray
Yeah, ah college propaners I’m one of those college pro kids so back in college in Seattle area. Um I saw an ad on a boltin board and said make $10000 you’re running your own painting company this summer and I was like I want to make $10000 that sounds great. So I called interviewed ah didn’t get the position and then went back in and was like why did you hire me like you guys you know I’m perfect for this and then they hired me after that. So I kind of forced them to bring me on. But did that for 5 years going through college and won the um, the quality outlet of the year for the western division of college propaners for the last two years that I was there. And just it was great experience. You know, got a lot um of paint knowledge. You know I didn’t even know anything about painting a house before I was all of a sudden. Ah the owner of a painting business painting franchise. Um, but so kind of learned you know, um, i. Learned the ropes while I was on the field and um learned a lot just about business and how to run a small business and a little bit about leadership and everything um and it was a great experience then I got into corporate world and I did sales for a big fortune 500 company for a while.
07:25.11
Jon Ray
I Did some remodeling sales I got into the insurance business for a little bit but then I realized that I didn’t really enjoy any of that stuff and I really enjoyed just being an entrepreneur being kind of in control of my own destiny and where I was going with everything.
07:38.80
dybsteve
Um.
07:42.39
Jon Ray
And um, so when I moved to San Diego in 2006 um I had like $500 in my bank account and um, one family member who lived in town and so didn’t know anybody really, but um.
07:54.32
dybsteve
And.
08:00.45
Jon Ray
Instead of flying up to see my family over the holidays I stayed home and wrote a business plan so on Christmas day I woke up early and I just worked all day long on my business plan. Um and then started putting it all in action. Um. I I got my license in April of 2007 and then kind of grew slowly for a couple of years the economy was pretty rough during that time I was happy just to be paying my rent and you know keeping everything afloat ah, then.
08:31.82
dybsteve
Yes.
08:36.79
Jon Ray
By 2010 2011 we started to experience some pretty explosive growth and I did not have the systems in place that I needed to manage everything that we had going had 35 employees at the very peak of it all. And yeah.
08:49.75
dybsteve
Yeah, so let me jump in here. Pardon me John so ah, Ron Rice when you first joined UIb and and jumped in at Ron Rice says Steve when when John Ray came to town like this guy this dude exploded he came in like a wrecking ball out of nowhere and was just.
08:57.77
Jon Ray
Okay.
09:03.45
Jon Ray
Um, you know? Yeah yeah.
09:07.45
dybsteve
Everywhere. So yeah I said 35 blew up to 35 guys like.
09:16.29
Jon Ray
Yeah, it was. It was an interesting time. Yeah, um, and very stressful time because I didn’t have the right systems in place to manage it all. You know so I was spending a lot on marketing and buying all of my leads and.
09:17.38
dybsteve
M.
09:31.53
dybsteve
Um.
09:31.58
Jon Ray
Um, you know just didn’t have the leadership skills that I personally needed in order to run an organization of that size and um so it all imploded on me at 1 point it’s ah 2012
09:45.82
Jon Ray
When everything just kind of ah the the house of cards that I had built just kind of fell down and um I realized you know I was going bankrupt even though I was running this really big company and um, you know people were taking advantage of me employees were stealing from me. It was just a rotten culture. Um, you know it was ah it was a great experience to have learned all of that and to have gone through it now but it was not very fun going through it at the time. So I kind of hit the reset button in 2014? Um, and I laid everybody off.
10:14.32
dybsteve
M.
10:24.13
Jon Ray
Um, I turned the whole company into just kind of like a marketing company and I was referring all of my leads to different contractors that I had relationships with for a fee and you know I thought maybe that would be like a way forward, but um, you know it didn’t really turn out how I was hoping it would so. Ah, spent a couple of years working on that trying to make that happen got really introspective was reading a lot of books just learning a lot about myself and how business works you know and and then in 201718 right around that. Um I decided to switch gears again. Went back to the traditional home ownernership or sort of um, ah, business home when I try to say the traditional model of running a painting business.
11:10.18
dybsteve
M.
11:17.45
Jon Ray
And and then have started growing more sustainably since then and then Twenty Twenty I think right around the beginning of the pandemic and Steve and I started working together and the ideas that um, the DYB.
11:21.25
dybsteve
M.
11:35.16
Jon Ray
Um, has cultivated and documented and that I have on my wall right here and everything those have really had a huge impact on um, aligning. Um, what my energy was going towards with ah the ideas that were going to be successful and allow the company to grow. So we’ve experienced a lot of growth since then we went from like you said about 600 grand we’re projecting three and a half million
12:00.14
dybsteve
What’s ah yeah, that’s big. That’s big if we could ah Zoom in there just a little bit. What were some paradigm shifts for you from the mindset you used to have and then when you came on and you started implementing some of the du ib system. What were some of the paradigm shifts there. A few that others like to hear about.
12:22.80
Jon Ray
Ah, really putting the focus on to the customer experience. Um, and you know I I guess you know sometimes I have like ideas but they’re not really fully formed and then when that idea and I hear that idea and it’s been fully formed and like put into words and.
12:23.55
dybsteve
M.
12:39.45
Jon Ray
And it’s like oh yeah and it’s like Bam a light goes off and like that’s the way to do it and all of the little details about how to implement that idea you know that you had already completely laid out for me I was like yeah like this is gold and so I just. implemented implemented. implemented you know started like putting as much time as I could into working on the business rather than working in the business making sure that my clients had a great experience doing the hiring. The hiring is such an important part. The painters really are your business. They’re the.
13:03.67
dybsteve
Um.
13:12.51
dybsteve
Um.
13:12.69
Jon Ray
The everything that the customer sees and the experience that the customer has it really is up to them to give it to them and so the experience of the customers. But then also the marketing side of things. Um, you know is lights turned on for me when I realized that.
13:19.46
dybsteve
And.
13:30.70
Jon Ray
I didn’t have to be buying leads that I’d already had like a couple thousand people who liked me and trusted me already enough to the point to like hire me to paint their house and like I could just like make sure that I was reaching out to those people on a regular basis. Um, for free or very cheap. Yeah, and those people would be a huge source of business for us moving forward. So when I changed the marketing direction. Um, you know I went from spending thousands of dollars a month five six seven thousand dollars a month in marketing to.
13:49.88
dybsteve
Um.
14:09.20
Jon Ray
Almost nothing and actually increasing the business just because of that change in my focus from buying new leads to you know, staying top of mind to past clients.
14:20.30
dybsteve
That’s awesome. Thank you for sharing how many crews we have out currently hey cruise. Okay, right on? Yep okay, and now John peak he had.
14:25.90
Jon Ray
Ah, 8 cruised kind of depending on the jobs. You know 7 8 cruise you have 8 crew leads. So.
14:38.00
dybsteve
Shared with me and this is back when it was in confidence. So it’s obviously it’s public knowledge now but that he wanted some help preparing and looking for an exit in a sells company and and excuse me. So I said well I’ve got the guy for you. You know I did no doubt my mind you were the right fit and then.
14:42.19
Jon Ray
C.
14:56.79
dybsteve
However, he had also he let me know he says Steve I have a couple other suitors I’m like what no you know? and so he did. He had a couple others so it took about what was it a the whole process from introduction introducing you to to but what about a year and a half it felt like does that seem right.
15:13.97
Jon Ray
Um, yeah, it’s about right? yeah.
15:14.78
dybsteve
From like initial cover introduction to close of the acquisition.
15:21.00
Jon Ray
Yeah, yeah, well so I think we were introduced kind of before um, that discussion about me potentially buying the business started. So maybe maybe between the 2 of you that had already been going and he was secretly interviewing me and I didn’t know that could have been.
15:29.72
dybsteve
Oh right? right? Okay, yeah, yeah, you know.
15:38.34
Jon Ray
But so I think ah John peek and I first got um, you know first met I want to say probably three years ago so it was maybe a year and a half or so of him and I just kind of like you know, getting to know each other a little bit and then that conversation started about a year and a half
15:46.32
dybsteve
Okay, right out there. We go. Okay, ah so it was a long process but but it worked right. It came through would you? um. Would you share that? Ah, some of that would would you share kind of how that process went as far as there was getting to know and why why were you interested in Peak Brothers right? So That’s an obvious question for those who don’t know there’d be good question and then kind of how the process went for you.
16:21.50
Jon Ray
Yeah, so peak brothers is 1 of the 2 or 3 companies that I emulated and when I first moved to San Diego sixteen years ago I did my market research and I was like who are the best paint companies in San Diego and I’m going to try to like you know, be like them and. Um, copy their websites and you know ah try to do some of the same stuff that they’re doing and everything model model. Ah so yeah, peak brothers was one of them and I just always had um.
16:44.63
dybsteve
Um, model model. Um, yeah, yeah.
16:57.10
Jon Ray
You know a great amount of respect for the company that John had built his reputation was very strong and he was doing. You know all of the right things from as far as I could see so you know it already started out as being um, you know this company that I’d always like looked up to and that.
17:14.80
dybsteve
M.
17:16.92
Jon Ray
I wanted to you know model and I like that and then um I had never really considered the possibility of purchasing another company in order to grow mine. Um, but when that opportunity came um, you know I think you were the first to mention it to me Steve and then. Kind of started talking with John about it all and it was like yeah this really makes a lot of sense like we do the exact thing type of work fine home painting? Um, but. He’s pulling most of his clients from his pool of past clients and I’m pulling most of my clients from my pool of clients. So it’s not like we were competing. We weren’t both like advertising on Yelp and you know it’s not like I was going to be just buying out a competitor but it was like really I was adding on.
17:58.61
dybsteve
Mm.
18:03.94
Jon Ray
His whole book of business on to my whole book of business and that’s just created you know it’s pretty much doubled the size of my business.
18:12.55
dybsteve
Yeah, indeed, there’s so that’s another strategy to do I be right? acquisition? Yeah, um, yeah, yeah, indeed now John’s still involved right.
18:18.46
Jon Ray
Um, yeah, it’s worked for me.
18:26.19
Jon Ray
Yeah, he’s moving more and more towards retirement and have him helping with some estimating and he’s mostly just transferring relationships over. So.
18:39.91
dybsteve
Mm.
18:41.16
Jon Ray
Anytime the the past client reaches out to John he’ll let me know and we’ll go out together and we’ll meet that client and kind of do the transition and everything but then the biggest you know thing that I’m really excited about and that John also seems really excited about is the paint school that we’re starting. So.
18:45.40
dybsteve
Here. Oh.
19:00.30
Jon Ray
We have started this whole systematized training program for all of our painters and we’re ah testing it out on our company First we’re going to work out all the the quirks and the kinks and the wrinkles and everything and get everything smooth flowing with it and then we’re planning to.
19:09.92
dybsteve
Button.
19:20.14
Jon Ray
Hopefully open that up to other painters at least here in the Southern California region and um, you know, really try to elevate the the level of skill and um, professionalism of the whole industry here in San Diego
19:35.66
dybsteve
A rising tide lifts all boats right? and right on what? ah.
19:37.26
Jon Ray
Exactly so John is come full circle on that John is like leading that effort. He’s transferring his. Vast amount of skill and he’s basically going to be doing a lot of the instructing and teaching and everything for the the school.
19:57.32
dybsteve
Which is something he’s passionate about so what’s a natural fit. Yeah, and then you know true to his character. He didn’t sell on bail he’s he’s been there to transfer these valuable relationships over which is which is key and then he had shared in his podcast I think it was 11 Um.
19:59.14
Jon Ray
Yeah, now very much.
20:14.75
dybsteve
About when he and his brother met with the attorneys to to work a buyout when his you know when John went to go solo and he said the attorneys were laughing because it was the first time they’ve ever had the the I don’t want to say opposing the 2 Ah um.
20:28.56
Jon Ray
Um.
20:34.15
dybsteve
People actually arguing about no he needs more? No he needs more? No, he should get more and in it and so something like this happened in this deal where there was and I forget we won’t go into the particulars but there was like an extra one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and John’s like not you know what? John just just don’t worry about it buddy you know.
20:39.52
Jon Ray
Um.
20:52.45
dybsteve
And for the do you remember that? So yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:55.85
Jon Ray
I do yeah yeah, yeah, John’s character is impeccable. He’s such a great guy and um, you know the experience that I’ve had in merging the 2 companies the success that we’ve had in that in large part is due to him setting it up properly. And being there and really trying to make this the best investment that he could for me so that’s one of the things he told me at the beginning is like I want to make this the best investment you’ll ever make in your entire life and he has some.
21:24.49
dybsteve
And indeed so it’s not you know do I We talk about Hire for character. But if you’re gonna buy make sure you buy for character as well because that’s that’s proven true and so which is similar to your character. That’s why has this been such a fun. Experience and transaction all the way around and to watch it go and to grow and so it’s just been a win-win win and just a sweet story and its situation all the way through because you guys are both good guys.
21:42.46
Jon Ray
Yeah.
21:52.78
Jon Ray
So often I’ve heard that after mergers like this that um you know there’s like a lot of tension and kind of the 2 the seller and the buyer like end up, you know, being mad at each other for whatever you didn’t tell me about this and well that whatever. But with John and I we’ve just become like better friends.
22:08.34
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah, and even the merger of the teams Yeahp Sorry even with the merger of the teams I Remember we had the discussion of like all right? we got to run announce it to to to both of the teams now and it’s like oh man, how are they gonna handle it and.
22:10.20
Jon Ray
Through the whole thing and it’s been a ah great experience. Yeah yeah.
22:24.77
dybsteve
You know it went over just so well, right? They’re all excited. They were congratulating. He gave John an award and you know and and but the crews were excited about the the new opportunities and so it just comes to show that like you guys have both done a fantastic job with culture and cultivating culture where everybody’s excited.
22:30.61
Jon Ray
Yeah.
22:43.85
dybsteve
You know about coming together.
22:46.12
Jon Ray
Yeah, culture is a huge part of the success of what we’ve been doing and and that’s a bit a big change. You know from how I was running things ten years ago to how we’re doing things now and um culture it has played a huge.
22:57.11
dybsteve
Um.
23:03.11
Jon Ray
Um, part of making sure that our clients are having a good experience that we’re getting the jobs done quickly and just that you know everybody is bought into what we’re trying to build. And people are you know, a lot of the employees and um are taking ownership of their you know slice of the pie and making sure that everything that they’re responsible for is getting done properly and it’s Great. We Use Groupme for group chats then every day there’s you know people.
23:21.50
dybsteve
Moving.
23:36.25
Jon Ray
Posting up pictures and high-fiing each other and you know helping each other out. It’s it’s night and day difference between what we’re doing now with culture versus how we were doing things ten years ago
23:48.15
dybsteve
That’s awesome for those listening who don’t understand and maybe they’re on the other side of the wall. You know doing it like how we did it even myself when I first got started and you know with my first business bike in Michigan that didn’t go well right when I did it the wrong way. What? what advice would you have some guys who don’t.
23:54.51
Jon Ray
And.
24:04.26
dybsteve
Haven’t really implemented culture hired for culture. Don’t they just don’t have a strong culture yet. What advice would you give them for turning this ship around.
24:14.38
Jon Ray
Ah, read a book about it. Talk to Steve about it like get all the help that you can in order to build a strong culture. It’s not something that you’re just going to do overnight. It takes consistency.
24:18.18
dybsteve
1
24:27.14
Jon Ray
And it takes a strong ah lead. You know it takes a lot of leadership in order to build the kind of culture that you need but man it’s um, ah it has such a big impact on every dynamic of the business.
24:31.35
dybsteve
Um.
24:43.75
dybsteve
M.
24:45.35
Jon Ray
To have a strong positive culture where everybody is aligned and moving towards the same goal and has the same sort of attitudes and ownership over what they’re doing what their roles are in the business. So it’s vital if you don’t have a strong culture. That’s the first thing you got to start working on is building that culture.
25:07.30
dybsteve
Indeed Indeed What’s been a paradigm shift for you.
25:16.53
Jon Ray
Um, and um I’ve had a lot of paradigm shifts over the last few years. Um, definitely the the culture you know since we’re already talking about that. Um.
25:27.62
dybsteve
Mm.
25:28.51
Jon Ray
Just realizing the the importance of having a strong culture and a positive culture and every culture is different right? and there’s no,, There’s no like formula or a way of doing it. You just have to um. You know it’s ah it’s almost like an expression of the leader’s personality. The type of culture that you’re going to develop but um, understanding that has had a huge impact and then the marketing side of things by you know, focusing more on our past clients and having that paradigm shift from.
25:49.27
dybsteve
On.
25:58.20
dybsteve
Um.
26:02.95
Jon Ray
You know going out and buying leads on yelp and zillow and a home advisor Andgie’s list and all those companies and instead focusing on our past clients you know, just such higher quality leads and almost free all of these leads that we get. And you know that’s had a huge impact on profitability as well as just the the ease of dealing with our clients. Yeah, we already know that they’re are three p’s and we already know that they’re the type of person that we really want to work with versus. Yeah, if you.
26:29.82
dybsteve
- So you.
26:40.87
Jon Ray
Get a lead off of Google like you have no idea what type of person this is and you have to figure it that out after you’re going through the whole process with them.
26:48.44
dybsteve
So the old way was hiring for skill and paying for leads which was stressful right? chaotic even sometimes to hiring for character and um.
26:55.46
Jon Ray
Um, yep.
27:05.14
dybsteve
Holding in under 3 p staying top of mind to your customer list and generating referrals and repeat business peaceful and profitable right? Okay books what are some.
27:15.65
Jon Ray
Yep, yeah, hiring for character um staying top of mind and then the whole culture thing like that’s those 3 pieces right? there I would say are the main pieces that have really impacted us.
27:27.41
dybsteve
Fantastic! Thank you? What are some of your favorite books.
27:35.63
Jon Ray
Ah, man film Great books that come to mind. Um you know, rich Dad Poor dad kind of set me off on this mindset entrepreneurial mindset going from you know, working in a corporate job to realizing the power of wanting to.
27:44.19
dybsteve
M.
27:52.37
Jon Ray
To own a business and so rift that port out is kind of the foundation of what set me off in this direction. But since then the the 5 levels of leadership had a huge impact on me and um, yeah, know once you read enough leadership books you kind of realize that they’re all saying kind of the same thing. Ah, just different ways of saying it and the 5 levels of leadership is just the most concise and clear and really just lays it all out so that was a great book. Another one would be the e myth you know realizing that I needed to build a.
28:14.45
dybsteve
Um.
28:25.49
dybsteve
Oh yeah.
28:28.98
Jon Ray
Business rather than um, you know, just having a skill and um some other great books would be um, the endless referrals is that what is called Bob Bird I think yep
28:47.80
dybsteve
Yep yep, that’s it.
28:48.27
Jon Ray
Was a great one. The culture code was another great book that was really influential on how I built my culture and you know I’m just always like reading and listening to podcasts and everything. My.
28:53.49
dybsteve
Um.
29:05.89
Jon Ray
My car is like a rolling library. My ah, my wife and I Chris so we have this debate back and forth about whether I’m reading a book or listening to a book. Um, because almost all of my reading is actually listening while I’m driving around you know, small business owners.
29:20.35
dybsteve
Um.
29:23.53
Jon Ray
Residential paint business owners. We spent a lot of time driving going to check on Cruise and seeing customers and everything and so I just use all of that time as much of it as I can to just be listening to something that’s making me smarter.
29:27.68
dybsteve
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:37.57
dybsteve
Yep Zig Ziglar what used to call that automobile university tech stack. What does your text tech look like to keep this three point five million dollar
29:43.63
Jon Ray
Yep.
29:51.59
dybsteve
Operation streamlined and flowing.
29:55.73
Jon Ray
Yeah, well we use a lot of tech. Um, so the life of a lead I guess this all starts with our our website we use we modeled. Um Steve’s website and created the whole. Ah, flow through to create a lead. We use calendly at the bottom of the that to do all the intake for new customers and then we use zapier to take all of that information. Put it onto the google calendar that goes into our crm goes into ah Google doc as well. Just for safekeeping of all the data then we use paint scout for all of our estimating paint scout’s pretty sweet program. It’s pretty. Ah, user, friendly and I love the data that it gives us sales information the closing ratios and the open bids that we have um, automated responses and everything. Um.
31:02.30
Jon Ray
We use Monday for production managementment Monday Dot com so that’s maintained by my office manager and then we use clock shark for the employees the clock in and out. We also use clock shark for their scheduling.
31:05.94
dybsteve
Um.
31:17.85
Jon Ray
So The office manager Inputs the job as well as the um, the work order into Clock Sharks. So The employees can pull it up right there on their phone through Clock Shark um, all of the employees they its I like it because they only need one app. Um, and they can pull up their work order. They can get all of the color information they can get all the customers information and they can see their schedule and they can clock in and out all right there in 1 Spot. So It keeps it simple for them because you know painters aren’t usually the most like tech forward people. Um.
31:52.50
dybsteve
Oh yeah.
31:55.73
Jon Ray
And so you know once they’ve learned it then they’re good and ah and that’s been working great. What else I’ve started using chat Gpt a bit for some of our like content creation. Um, and.
32:07.40
dybsteve
Um.
32:11.61
Jon Ray
I Also use it just as like an idea generator. So like if I’m thinking about something I’m trying to figure out. Well how like what’s a good way to solve this problem I’ll just ask chat Gp and um, sometimes it comes out with good ideas. Sometimes it’s not but um.
32:22.83
dybsteve
Right.
32:29.47
Jon Ray
What else? um quickbooks for finances we use charge Zoom for invoicing. Um, you know I’m I’m I’m definitely interested in sorry definitely interested email. Yeah, just.
32:38.68
dybsteve
Email program email.
32:48.37
Jon Ray
Gmail would be the g suite for all of that.
32:48.50
dybsteve
Well and urge you you’re using Mailchimp or active campaign though. Okay.
32:54.85
Jon Ray
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we use activecampa. Um, and yeah dy B Virtual helped us set up a whole preselling campaign. So soon as somebody sets a appointment for a bid with us Then. Ah, the active campaign kicks off for email series that just tells them a little bit more about us and what to expect and ah you know I get so many positive comments about that from people and oftentimes people are like already sold when they just.
33:24.32
dybsteve
Um.
33:28.46
Jon Ray
Need me show up and like you know fill out. It’s like order taking rather than sales. So that’s been great for us.
33:31.90
dybsteve
Right? on very done. Awesome! Fantastic John I really appreciate your time before we roll out. Is there a question I should have asked or a final point that you’d like to make.
33:47.75
Jon Ray
Um, oh good question. um um I would just say that I the one of the best things I’ve ever done is um, find people who. Are smarter than me and have already done the things that I’m trying to do and work with them and you know mentorship coaches. You know, working with Steve has had a huge impact on my life and my business and um.
34:05.64
dybsteve
When um.
34:19.47
Jon Ray
You know and it’s not even just the business. Actually you know Steve working with you like we put a lot of focus on personal health and you know physical activity and everything and you know they’re kind of 2 separate worlds but you know once you start realizing it you realize? no, they’re exactly the same thing and it’s all 1 and um, you know so I’ve just really appreciated the combination of um, physical activity and physical health and watching you know like I wear my aura ring so I can be monitoring what’s going on with. My sleep patterns and um, yeah, but through all the encouragement in the omg group. Um, you know I’ve been able to maintain like working out every other day and. Um, that just increases your energy level. So then you’re able to bring a lot more energy into the business and accomplish a lot more that way and so hiring the the right coaches and finding the right mentors and finding other people to help guide you in. You know down your path is probably 1 of the most impactful things that an entrepreneur can do so I’m very appreciative to Steve and for the dyb system that you put together. It’s had a huge impact on my life.
35:40.73
dybsteve
Well thank you John appreciate that very much. It’s been my pleasure and my honor and what a fun ride. It’s been too and and looking forward to to the future for sure. It’s exciting I’m grateful for you. So thank you again for coming on. Thank you for sharing.
35:52.11
Jon Ray
But.
35:57.84
Jon Ray
Happy. Thank you Steve.
35:58.25
dybsteve
Your story.