EP106: PJ Guarino of OnePoint Painting Co.
Introduction:
In the episode PJ shares his remarkable story of huge success only to start all over and succeed again.
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TRANSCRIPTION:
00:00.00
dybsteve
What happened.
00:00.97
PJ Guarino
Man you know when you ask me that question. There’s so many different experiences in the past thirty years but probably the worst experience I ever had is I was bonding and rapporting with a customer and set the job up told her I’m going on my anniversary told her where I was going.
00:18.95
dybsteve
Oh.
00:19.82
PJ Guarino
Um, my anniversary and she’s like oh I’ve been there and so we lived in reno at the time and we were going to Northern California to a place called the benbo in left the job set up. It was like a Thursday Friday guys tell me it snowed I’m like oop I guess we’re on the job next thing you know that night. I’m getting phone calls for some crazy lady and so it turns out she’s calling the ben bow in freaking out why we weren’t on her job site because quote the snow melted after lunch. Why aren’t you back on my site. I had to finally and is it before you know so texting and all have been a but’s been a minute but man she had to tell you I had to tell the front desk stop letting this person through she was screaming it was it was horrible I have never had an experience like that since.
00:58.59
dybsteve
In here.
01:12.71
dybsteve
Ah, ah is ah yeah, so never ever tell ah that a customer where exactly are going just in case they turn out to be let’s say unreasonable. Oh.
01:22.97
PJ Guarino
Yeah, yeah, that’s a Rat’s a euphemism and don’t definitely you don’t know how people are until you really know how they are.
01:30.13
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah home my it’s stuck ruining a week weekend trip away my well hello welcome to the do ib podcast today’s guest is from Austin Texas president and founder of 1 point pj goriano. Welcome to the show. My friend my pleasure take us back to the beginning. How did you get started.
01:51.49
PJ Guarino
Thanks for having me Steve I’m glad to be here. Yeah, you know it’s interesting. Ah like John Ray I got my start in college and so it was after my freshman year of college at the University Of California Davis I too saw the little flyer on the bulletin board at the student union excuse me and it just you know mentioned hey paint you can earn a living blah blah blah all this stuff so me and my roommates there was 3 of us signed up went to the introductory. Meeting and apparently I was the most responsible of the 3 of us and so they made me the crew leader even though not any of us had any experience painting and that’s how I got going in the summer of ninety one with painted in Sacramento. Yeah.
02:37.45
dybsteve
Here somewhere in 91 okay so you’re in college what freshman okay, all right here.
02:45.40
PJ Guarino
It was right? It was before my sophomore year so that first summer I decided to stay in town and man I didn’t know a cocking gun from a sple knife to and our first houses. Yeah man, our first houses were victorians in downtown Sacramento and here’s the crazy cook.
02:53.57
dybsteve
Victory. Oh tugo getting thrown in the fire.
03:04.20
PJ Guarino
Yeah man, Well, here’s the crazy part about that model their their way of thinking was the upper Classmen. So Junior seniors. They’re the managers. The lower classmen. The freshmen sophomores were the workers so you had no experience leading no experience and I’ll give you a perfect example. So we’re doing um. Victorian Home. You’re supposed to blaze those windows. This guy had us trying to cock them didn’t even show us how to cock we had cock all over Ourselves. We didn’t even know how to turn off this is before they had the you know the the drip list man I had cock all over me everywhere. The windows it was.
03:25.46
dybsteve
Um.
03:37.62
dybsteve
Dripless here.
03:42.90
PJ Guarino
Yeah, was insane.
03:43.47
dybsteve
Ah, back then was was that oil base co or had it been laid tight shit Remember we use oil base back then? Yeah, Okay, yeah, yeah, ah well I was a how was I was out there then I remember um.
03:47.77
PJ Guarino
Ah, good question. It was probably late text. Yeah, it was probably late text back then not bad old Steve.
04:02.60
dybsteve
So the ah so so you’re out there for this summer and this wild experience within you know, then what? So just one summer you go back to school sophomore then you know what’s what’s the next season look like for you or the next step.
04:11.24
PJ Guarino
Well I think like all of us. The reason we’re even talking today is we all are entrepreneurs and I remember calling my dad on the phone and it turned out I didn’t really know it because my grandfather had died but it turned out my grandfather. My dad’s father was a painter. In Chicago he died when my dad was 14 so I didn’t know the stories when I called my dad I’m like that I like this way too much I mean we’re in and out three days house looks like garbage now it looks beautiful I’m like I’m loving. He’s like just stay in school. You’re supposed to be a lawyer and I’m like okay um, I’ll do that. And I just kept painting through the summers and then I left student painters because you know $8 an hour even back then with slave wages. So I just started finding my own jobs and I was the little mary crew leader of my ah my roommates and then.
04:59.95
dybsteve
Is.
05:02.82
PJ Guarino
That’s that’s how I worked my way through college and getting ready to go to law school.
05:05.76
dybsteve
$8 an hour I was only getting four fifty back then? Okay, okay, all right. This is backup Michigan so I get that makes sense so you see catch the bug then what.
05:10.10
PJ Guarino
I live to California man there’s there’s a premium to live in California right. Well, you know, um I finished up college early about 3 3 years I finished up a little bit early and I was getting ready to go to law school when I started dating my wife now my wife and she was studying with Jehovah’s witnesses and so I started to study. And make ah a kind of a long story short I decided to become one of Jehovah’s witnesses and I decided not to go to law school. Her brother was a painter in Reno. That’s where my father lived and I went to high school so me and him started our first company together in 9095 and we called it high Sierra painting and decorating incorporated and that was my first company that I started. Officially it was an llc and ah we were licensed in all the fancy things that one starts with the business.
06:12.31
dybsteve
We’re done. How did you guys get going. How did you generate leads what in what ah area did you get into you know was it new construction. You know how did you? How did you get started. How did you generate your first leads.
06:24.43
PJ Guarino
Yeah, yeah, great question. Ah well bill already had his own business for about 5 years at that point he had started off sometime after high school working for a very large commercial pinning contractor in Reno who’s still there then he went on his own.
06:38.85
dybsteve
No.
06:42.76
PJ Guarino
And so when we joined forces. My only experience was really in residential repaints. He could do pretty much anything he had painted high-rises and he had done other things but he was focused for the most part resident residential repaint. So that’s where we started. It was me and him and we eventually got 2 helpers and for the first year or 2 That’s all we did.
07:02.11
dybsteve
Um.
07:02.14
PJ Guarino
Then? Ah Reno is like other places. It’s close to California but doesn’t have a California weather and so we started looking for ways to stabilize the ups and downs of the flow of jobs. So being a new business I started writing letters I wrote letters to every single subdivision in Reno. And Reno is a retirement community for Northern California so there was many subdivisions back then and and today that were being built so I started writing letters and ah well we got our first couple responses.
07:32.50
dybsteve
So letters of introduction offers presentations. Yeah.
07:37.57
PJ Guarino
Yeah, no, not that sophisticated just basically um, you know I was a grad college graduate. So I thought it was smart but definitely didn’t know nothing about nothing so all I just wrote is a letter about who we are and I would like an opportunity to bid your project and I had my first taker.
07:51.89
dybsteve
E.
07:53.97
PJ Guarino
And they almost put us out the first the first 2 years we’re in business clearly rich wood homes. Clearly they could see the inexperience behind the letter and they were turns out after we did about four months work they had been filing bankruptcy the whole time. So yeah.
08:03.34
dybsteve
Endless.
08:10.60
dybsteve
Ah, ah.
08:12.10
PJ Guarino
Yeah, so I sold my first house and I had to lend like $50000 to my business in order because they they went bankrupt with all that money. So I learned a very valuable lesson right? right? in the first couple years of business but that was our introduction to new construction and that’s where.
08:19.77
dybsteve
Oh.
08:29.59
PJ Guarino
We started growing was in subdivisions back about Ninety Ninety seven
08:30.10
dybsteve
Oh man, Okay, well obviously you survived that you continued forward. What did you continue in new construction. What it look like moving forward from there.
08:36.49
PJ Guarino
Me. Yeah, yeah, so we started to grow so for for the end of the 1990 s you know we had by thirty five forty guys we we thought we’re being simple and smart and we weren’t.
08:50.35
dybsteve
Are you.
08:58.85
PJ Guarino
So we were still running our own bill and I were still doing our own individual repaint jobs and we had 35 guys doing subdivisions and ah you know we thought we were grooving. We’re generating you know we were probably doing about million and a half already at that point after about 7 years
09:07.69
dybsteve
1
09:15.65
PJ Guarino
Not hard to do at new construction especially in a booming economy like it was then and we started dabbling into custom homes. It was just a higher end endeavor and I absorbed a gentleman who had a custom home company their custom.
09:16.11
dybsteve
Um.
09:30.73
PJ Guarino
Home painting business that was a friend of my father’s because my dad was in construction in Reno and so we absorbed his company and we officially opened a custom home division. So at that point we started evolving towards custom homes. We were doing subdivisions. We were up to like 50 guys and then right about the. 2000 right in there. We experienced a ah pretty traumatic shock to our system I think we did in the month of may of that year which is usually when you know you’re going to hit you know Twenty thirty thousand dollars in net profit not gross, but net we flatlined.
10:07.31
dybsteve
Um, when.
10:08.38
PJ Guarino
Think we did about one hundred and ninety five thousand that month in revenue and we made like negative $5 and that was my first experience in my you know mid I was about 27 years old that was my first experience with ah. What’s the difference between anxiety and heart attack and I didn’t know until I went to go see the doctor because I thought I was having a heart attack. Yeah I mean yeah.
10:24.59
dybsteve
All bad. Oh yeah, we’ve all been there or close to there or have an idea what that feels like it’s part of the entrepreneur journey. Unfortunately what the what was going on that.
10:31.24
PJ Guarino
Are for sure.
10:43.82
dybsteve
That caused that.
10:45.12
PJ Guarino
Yeah, well at that point we had ah a part-time Bookkeeper and that’s it no business experience Other than the fact again I went to school but they don’t teach you business in school and I didn’t go to school for business I went to school the alert so I had no business experience I had a business acumen a business mind.
10:54.19
dybsteve
Ah, we.
11:02.55
PJ Guarino
But 0 education businesswise and so we were living out of quickbook back then it was the ah the floppy disk you know before they even had the hard disk then the Cd and then the Dvd but the point was we were we were adept at using Quickbooks and I had this this gal doing our books and I remember this was a profound moment.
11:09.71
dybsteve
Um, yeah.
11:22.56
PJ Guarino
In our career so we flatlined and she said to us you know I saw that come I just didn’t want to say anything young man she was fired in my head like right then and bill um Bill and I are very different were very um, complimentary to each other I’m bit of a.
11:31.90
dybsteve
Um, ah or.
11:40.47
PJ Guarino
You know being Latin I’m very colorful and and excitable and as one profiler once set years later bill was my ritalin because he’s very calm but he wanted to fire her right? then because he’s like man she knew this was coming. She didn’t say word so you know being a little bit business Savvy I’m like well we can’t just completely.
11:47.95
dybsteve
- Oh.
12:00.36
PJ Guarino
Fall apart. So we just really had ah a moment of introspection I think I even explored maybe becoming ah a fireman at that point I had 4 children under 5 bill had 3 children life was a little serious. We’re building our homes next to each other and so we just started to think.
12:03.41
dybsteve
And then.
12:11.99
dybsteve
Oh.
12:20.27
PJ Guarino
You know we’re not doing this right? We we probably shouldn’t be painting. We should probably be treating this as a business and so we started searching for education I stumbled on the pdca and we went to vegas and we heard Michael Gerber speak at the keynote in Vegas right there at the beginning of the 2000
12:20.71
dybsteve
Of.
12:33.86
dybsteve
Um, yeah, oh 4 right? Yeah, oh four wasn’t it.
12:39.81
PJ Guarino
It was about Nineteen Nine ninety thousand yeah what was that what the I my man I’m bad with dates but whatever it was. It was right about them where we had this epiphany we had already started talking about.
12:48.53
dybsteve
That’s okay, yeah.
12:54.92
PJ Guarino
You know we had kind of had the come to moment between the 2 of us we’re like you know are we going to focus and do this or not and so we already started talking about systems and processes and we started having all these thoughts and then we heard Gerber and I read his book. In fact, I just pulled the same book out I have the same copy I’ve read about 15 times I’m giving it to a. Ah, contractor friend of mine later today. But when we heard Gerber it was like the proverbial light bulb but it was more like stadium lights. It was just like and so we just we bought out of the contracts and subdivisions cost me $40000 to get out of my contracts they they certainly wanted to help us with that so they gladly took our money.
13:15.71
dybsteve
Let’s move.
13:26.24
dybsteve
Me.
13:31.91
dybsteve
Yes.
13:33.97
PJ Guarino
And we we doubled down on custom homes. We were evolving into new construction and commercial and I hired a young friend of mine away from another contractor and ah we started building our first estimating program him andi production rates. We started I don’t know if you know Irv Chason back in the day he was ah. In pdca and or excuseing the pdca and err had theories in his premise in his book was how to recoup overhead and labor as ah or excuse me overhead and profit as a multiplier of labor. So we built an entire excel spreadsheet based on that.
13:55.37
dybsteve
That.
14:11.55
PJ Guarino
And so we got rid of the track work kept the repaint kept the custom home. We’re growing into to new construction and commercial and we raised our prices because now we knew our numbers prior to that it was all Square footage I was like oo.
14:24.80
dybsteve
Um.
14:26.69
PJ Guarino
Custom home. You know $5 a square foot. Add some with windows. Okay, add a $2000 and it was I mean dude no wonder would surprised we a lot of business but we raised our prices and starting in about 2001 I mean our revenue it was ah it wasn’t a miracle.
14:30.81
dybsteve
No.
14:43.82
PJ Guarino
And didn’t think it was a Miracle Bushman Church seems like in retrospect all of a sudden Our revenue went up our net profit went through the roof and that was the beginning of systemizing the business and we really focused the next couple years on that and that we really took off in residential repaint stays stable.
14:53.51
dybsteve
Um.
15:01.90
PJ Guarino
But new construction custom and commercial and then commercial repaint became huge revenue streams for us and we kept these silos and trained our team. Our our staff to be adept and we had different crews to do different types of paintings. We didn’t niche ourselves. We just tried to be profitable in each each revenue stream and we started paint the skyline are reno with high-rises because that was bill’s forte and we just started to start taking off from there I think by 2003, we’re to about 3000000? We yeah by 4 or 5 or about 5000000 and.
15:31.96
dybsteve
3002003
15:38.89
PJ Guarino
Hired general manager and we just kept growing from there.
15:40.72
dybsteve
Okay, 5000000 and things are moving right? along systems in place. You guys got out of the field that was key right and stayed out of the field so that you could work on the business to quote gerber.
15:45.00
PJ Guarino
Um, yeah, yeah, our 2000? Yeah for sure. So by 2005 I phased bill out of the business I took over completely to see a Ceo ah Ceo and we started a. Ah, business overseas and we started a second business doing investments so we were buying and flipping and improving properties that was kind of our long game so bill handled those 2 businesses I was Ceo of the painting we brought in a general manager and at that point we we rebranded.
16:12.80
dybsteve
No.
16:19.82
PJ Guarino
In the early two thousand s to hsp painting because we started expanding into California Idaho we had an office in Idaho we did projects in Denver Southern California and that by that point bio 2004 about a hundred employees w two and doing over five million and I was working two and a half 3 days a week because we had everything really systemized and it was ah was great.
16:45.34
dybsteve
That’s awesome. So just crushing it in on a rocket. You know to this next level and then what.
16:53.42
PJ Guarino
Um, well I think most of us remember a time called the great recession here in Texas they refused to acknowledge it people didn’t really affect them which is why I ended up here but the reality is in some parts of the country I know you and I have talked about this. It was pretty severe.
16:58.14
dybsteve
So here.
17:11.53
PJ Guarino
And Reno being a smaller community that is real dependent upon California for tourism for real estate people downsizing. You know the smaller the community the more isolated it is the more insulated it is the higher the highs and lower lows so in 2008 things started. Of course.
17:11.64
dybsteve
Um.
17:27.83
dybsteve
Um.
17:31.40
PJ Guarino
Getting crazy in the economy we had probably about 8 contracts that were worth millions of dollars so for example, we were working up in Truckee and Lake Tahoe we would truck we would literally fan up about 15 employees a day up there. We had contracts with a company called Eastwest that was building retirement or or vacation condos for wealthy people and that contract carried us through to 2010 that was probably a twomin r contract we were doing a high rise downtown reno where they stripped down the Reno Hilton and was rebuilding it as a. Luxury condos right in downtown and that was about that was the biggest contract individual contract we had ever signed at that point about one point eight million just for the painting and so we rode those contracts 2008 2009 were still profitable 2010 we’re winding up to contracts and starting at the beginning of 10 to the middle of 10 we went from over five million revenue we were just hemorrhaging and the revenue dropped to like a million and when you have $50000 a week in payroll and 14 people in management. It was um, it’s really easy to build. It’s really difficult to disassemble your company.
18:33.50
dybsteve
Who.
18:46.96
dybsteve
Ah.
18:47.55
PJ Guarino
So that’s where we were at the middle of Twenty ten I realized I got to do something this is ah it’s not going to work. Well my ah my bookkeeping service a gal that’s to this day works with me and she’s my accountant now we started exploring different parts of the country.
18:52.49
dybsteve
Oh yeah, what did you do.
19:01.64
dybsteve
M.
19:05.93
PJ Guarino
So we we built a spreadsheet built criteria was looking at California Southern California because it’s close I was licensed in both states. It would be a easier move with our family being in California and Nevada but still ridiculously expensive and the economy was bad.
19:22.71
dybsteve
1
19:24.70
PJ Guarino
Looked at phoenix it was affected really bad in the economy as well I was concerned with the extreme weather and then we just landed on Texas a friend said you should check out fort worth and which is by Dallas part of the dfw metro. It’s too cold there for me and so we landed on Austin.
19:40.69
dybsteve
Now.
19:44.52
PJ Guarino
And 10 I came and visited San Antonio in Austin my wife cried when she saw San Antonio she just didn’t like it. We drove into Austin the next day went to the west side and the beginning of the hill country which looks like California with oak trees and large houses and my wife’s like I’m good.
19:50.20
dybsteve
Who.
20:03.60
PJ Guarino
And so in 20 at November of 2010 we drove a borrowed vehicle because we lost everything filing bankruptcy we lost every vehicle. Funny story I was awarded one of my work trucks. We had like 15 trucks and we kept selling them and then the bankruptcy they took them. They let me have 1 truck.
20:20.73
dybsteve
And.
20:22.77
PJ Guarino
Like sweet pickup truck I could start painting again and the last week before we left reno the my insurance company who had my bond they took that truck. It was like so without they just it was out of spite. It was ridiculous so I had a I had a vehicle a relative gave us.
20:28.66
dybsteve
Pointed by.
20:33.46
dybsteve
Ah, ah.
20:40.79
PJ Guarino
And we drove this true story. We drove 4 kids 2 dogs 4 puppies 4 pink suitcases to the top of the the navigator and we drove to Texas and after Thanksgiving day that weekend we drove to Texas and came to us. Yeah, and the moving drug came after that.
20:56.93
dybsteve
Wow. Ah.
20:59.58
PJ Guarino
So yeah, buddy four kids.
21:02.13
dybsteve
Who Ah, you know you know my story I can I can relate ah and it’s huge. It’s big but I have a feeling as it did for me did for you too. It just took that desire that we have to succeed and just flamed it even more right.
21:06.80
PJ Guarino
Yeah.
21:17.80
PJ Guarino
Yeah I mean I definitely now I Definitely I definitely felt a sense of urgency and responsibility. But I have to say for me it was It was very difficult to restart hsb painting here.
21:19.83
dybsteve
You’re like I’ve got to figure this. Yeah.
21:28.20
dybsteve
Um.
21:35.92
PJ Guarino
After having a business where you worked two and a half days a week was working completely on the business which is when you’re an entrepreneur is the ultimate um, not even having to do any signing paychecks so that now be ah, a company of one I just started doing what I did. The first time you know I started. Um. Knocking on doors and doing flyers and you know just started and the thrill wasn’t nearly as thrilling as it had been eighteen years prior to that and the pressure was really severe because I had four kids you know, but the kids were 1514 and two 10 year old twins.
21:58.70
dybsteve
Move.
22:08.43
dybsteve
And then.
22:14.24
PJ Guarino
And my wife had never worked so now I got all these kids looking at me and my wife they’re like okay so what’s the plan like we’ll drive paint some mouses I guess so that was a little It was a little stressful. But yeah it character building.
22:17.64
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
22:24.80
dybsteve
Yeah, sort of did you get out there yourself I did like after I went bank grew up and lost everything after the great recession and went down to Florida I had to get back in the trenches and I was literally pressure washshing homes myself dirt all over thinking my goodness a few years ago this was not the case you know.
22:36.15
PJ Guarino
You are.
22:42.69
dybsteve
And just like what a humbling humbling experience. It was what was what did you to to get started again.
22:49.48
PJ Guarino
Um, well, you know it was similar to that. So first of all, we came to Texas because of the weather and and the milder winters no taxes and so we were thrilled. You know we we arrived here the beginning December it was ° and then. You know we get some weird weather in the winter but it’s still 7 you’re still painting and um, you know I tried it a little different I had borrowed I was able to borrow some money from some of my family members they they were a little bit less affected by the economy just being further along in life. So I tried to build the business by partnering with a friend of mine that I had met here and letting him be the labor component and me just focus on the top half of the business and it was a good good working relationships because he had himself and he was building the crew andna’s helping him do that as focusing with I was working with David Chisholm so there’s
23:43.56
dybsteve
Um.
23:43.75
PJ Guarino
There’s the connectivity to you and he eventually introduced me to you. Um, and I just started marketing and and just trying to get out there and do sales and and get the work and teach my friend how to run his crew so that you know even though it’s a subcontractor relationship. It was symbiotic where. I’d get the work he get the work and that’s how we started and then and it you know started moving along.
24:08.87
dybsteve
Okay, so ah, what year is this 2011 okay so 11 yeah.
24:12.41
PJ Guarino
Um, that was the beginning of 2011 we had got to Texas you know beginning of December of 10 This was now you know February kind of starting to get going knocking on doors.
24:24.20
dybsteve
What it what does it look like I know 201213 1415
24:28.71
PJ Guarino
Yeah, great question. Um I had a situation with my son and I ended up shutting down. He’d just be painting I’m offballed. It didn’t didn’t close the Llc I just made a dormant I went to go work for a friend who had a locksmith company of all things.
24:40.56
dybsteve
Um.
24:46.52
PJ Guarino
And he you know he was a personal friend and he had grown that locksmith company to about $2000000 in about 6 cities and I was under so much stress now that my oldest was having issues and and causing stress in the family. He’s like look what are you? What do you want to leave your own company. What do you want in night.
24:54.64
dybsteve
1 Ah.
24:59.96
dybsteve
Watch.
25:06.46
PJ Guarino
Laid it out ownership flexible schedule you know work from home part of the time which of course back in 20 ah 12 that was not really a common thing and he agreed to all that so I went to go work for Mr. Reki Locksmith and that was twenty twelve and
25:16.13
dybsteve
When.
25:22.26
dybsteve
Um, okay, how do you mean? ah.
25:25.40
PJ Guarino
It was nothing that he said it was going to be but he was clever. Well I had to work in an office I’m punching a clock I’ve never punched a clock my entire life and recently we did another Behavior We did another profile similar to Disk. We did one called Wealth dynamics and when you read the. My profile which is probably similar to many entrepreneurs One of the don’ts it says is don’t put them in an office. Don’t make them. You know that’s like which exactly what it was man. It was like I in prison I mean every morning I was like just depressed. It was horrible and um.
25:53.76
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
26:02.77
PJ Guarino
Didn’t give me ownership I did have my fridays off so I could continue in my personal endeavors in my ministry but it was very stressful for about a year and a half for sure and well then then.
26:03.68
dybsteve
Okay. Okay, so year and a half and then what.
26:17.96
PJ Guarino
He hired another gentleman from corporate America he had some wisdom there and and so I started connecting with him. We started really expanding the business nationwide and I built so I decided well he’s not going to give me ownership I’m like well I’ll just start another company and run a parallel so I started a cleaning business and. That was the beginning of my co-marketing multiple companies and so with the locksmith business we expanded it to at that point we’re about 8000000 and so I had taken us to Florida ah 3 cities in Florida Atlanta the Carolinas and so what I did is I started building. Cleaning crews and I worked as I was negotiating the the locksmithing contracts I’d say well how about cleaning and we were working with all the big sfrs like invitation homes progress me homes friend. These guys have to this day 500000 homes easily in their portfolio. They bought it out of the recession. So I started building cleaning crews in Las Vegas in Reno all over Texas and in Florida so I was building my cleaning business hsp cleaning at the same time as running Mr. Reki yeah so by then I was the c o o of the company and so I’m running a 2 and finally I’m just like hey.
27:27.93
dybsteve
Okay, now.
27:33.82
dybsteve
With.
27:33.86
PJ Guarino
Ken you want a part of this. Do you want to make this a formal arrangement I have a whole plan on how to do this and so keep bought into the clean business. We rebranded it Mr. readyclean to tie the Mr name together which I absolutely abhho. But I’d rather win than than have a name and then we started building 2 other.
27:48.18
dybsteve
Um, yeah.
27:53.93
PJ Guarino
Franchise modeled national businesses a pest control company a garage door business and another painting business which I brought bill into the picture. So I was building all these entities and running off of our platform on a national basis and I did it about for Eight or nine years
28:09.99
dybsteve
Wow. Okay, um, then what.
28:14.80
PJ Guarino
Well my friend borrowed like $2000000 unbeknownst to me ah from low what? how would I say that high interest short return. He borrowed against the receivables of locksmithing company doing $10000000 a year.
28:21.27
dybsteve
Um.
28:30.88
PJ Guarino
You could factor your receivables and so he was getting these high interest short-term loans and it just started suffocating the business and so I the a man and and instead of focusing on growing these ancillary companies that I was ownership in I’m trying to save the core company and once the the um.
28:36.88
dybsteve
Hard money.
28:50.15
PJ Guarino
The lenders started filing ucc liens against the loans all the national companies. The home warranty companies the the sfrs they just their lawyers were like you’re done and so our revenue started hemp. We just start tanking.
28:59.64
dybsteve
My.
29:04.58
PJ Guarino
And that was 2018 into 2019 so the end of 2019 so November Twenty nineteen it was just flatline and him and I sat down one day and he’s like there’s nothing left to pay anybody you’re the highest salary. Co-own all these other businesses. But I can’t pay you through Mr Reki anymore which was my primary salary and I’m like I had already known it was coming I felt metaphorically I thought to myself I felt like I was on the Titanic I had seen the movie and I felt like I was chained to the to the deck of the Titanic knowing exactly what was going to happen.
29:26.13
dybsteve
I.
29:37.82
dybsteve
You.
29:39.47
PJ Guarino
So I just waited for that moment and he’s he’s like I just stood up shook his hand. He’s like you’re not mad and I’m like no kind of I’m just going to keep my computer and some other technology and ah I’ll keep ownership in those companies and I’ll see you later and I walked out and went home and told my wife let’s sell the house I’m I’m starting over again here’s number 2 you know here we go and that was the end of 2018? yeah.
30:02.33
dybsteve
2018 so when you told pesi your wife. What was her response.
30:07.94
PJ Guarino
She knew that the book was going on and slay I don’t include my wife in my business too much just because she has her hands full with the kids. But at that point the two older kids were out of the house. The twins had just gone. They had turned 18 They had just gone on a trip to Thailand for a month by themselves or a friend that was a big thing. We didn’t want to tell them.
30:12.65
dybsteve
Move.
30:23.48
dybsteve
Between I.
30:27.88
PJ Guarino
It was November and I just told my wife look it is what it is so we’re going to sell our house. We have equity in it and we’re in downsize and I’ll figure out what to do next and obviously being you know the beginning to middle of November you’re not going to find a job before the first of the year no one’s hiring.
30:31.93
dybsteve
No.
30:44.34
dybsteve
Yeah.
30:47.13
PJ Guarino
And so we just started preparing the house to sell and just kind of wrote it out foul with unemployment. So fortunately I had some w two income so I could actually have a unemployment check and and just kind of stuck it out. So absolutely.
30:54.54
dybsteve
Um.
30:56.91
dybsteve
Tall right? But you had her support. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:04.57
PJ Guarino
I mean she trusted me that I worked us through the ah I had always handled stuff. Um I had a plan I didn’t know what it was going to be and my faith and in Jehovah I knew that he’d helped me provide for my family I didn’t have a lot of needs. We weren’t.
31:09.99
dybsteve
Um.
31:18.69
dybsteve
Um.
31:21.44
PJ Guarino
We’ve never had a lot materially. We kept it simple once we lost everything and reno you keep your life simple knowing that it could happen again and it did and so in February of nineteen. Yeah, so that was the end of 18 February nineteen I was I mean dude when you I didn’t want to apply for jobs.
31:25.19
dybsteve
5
31:40.13
PJ Guarino
In the cs suitite they say you know Ceo C O Cfo that’s my experience owning my own businesses and then with Mr Reeki but if I applied for those type of jobs I’d be working seventy eighty hours a week and I didn’t want that because of my family. What’s important to me my faith and um.
31:42.84
dybsteve
You.
31:59.41
PJ Guarino
So somebody was advertising looking for someone to run their painting franchise and so in February of 2019 I started managing I interviewed a gentleman who was in tech he had been sold a lie. The lie was you can buy a franchise and just. Turn the key in outspits money like an atm well he had a manager and an office manager field manager office manager general manager as you called them paying about $100000 in salaries and they were doing like $15000 a month in revenue. So he interviews me, he sees my experience of course he wants to know why the heck at 30 at that point I was what 40 some? why? Why are you in your situation and then I wanted to hear him why he’s and so we talked and I’m basically like look this is not math. This is not rocket science. It’s just math fire the two of them hire me.
32:51.14
dybsteve
You.
32:54.81
PJ Guarino
Give me 75% of their salary and you and I can work on ah a commission model and so I took over the business in February and by the summer I had it up to sixty seventy thousand dollars a month in revenue. And we started negotiating ownership at that point because he said you know he come from tech he was an employee so he thought he thought in terms of sales bonuses and commissions and he would give me bonuses and I would be like man that’s nice and he’s like you don’t seem excited I’m like I don’t need dollar signs by any percentages. It’s like what’s percentages I said man I’ve never worked for anybody in my life. I I am an I need ownership if you want me to fully invest myself in my app efforts I need to be an owner because if not I’m eventually going to go start my own thing again. It’s just biding my time so we started negotiating through the summer into September of nineteen.
33:33.41
dybsteve
Um, and.
33:36.11
dybsteve
Yeah, no.
33:45.92
PJ Guarino
And he was Goingnna give me 50% ownership in his franchise I was gonna take some equity from the sale of the house I sold and we were gonna go buy out the Austin franchise because he too was in tech and he too was floundering because you can’t run a company even if it’s a franchise from five to nine o’clock at night. It just.
33:50.50
dybsteve
And then.
34:04.31
PJ Guarino
You’re beholden to the person you have and he too is just not doing well and that was the 3 60 painting model they went after people in their 40 s and approached them with this opportunity and I know you’re familiar with some of these things just approaching you with the duyb system. So these guys were all floundering.
34:08.30
dybsteve
In.
34:17.38
dybsteve
We are.
34:23.94
PJ Guarino
And so we were going to buy him out and that was September of 2019 when we were supposed to have our meeting on a Friday and talk about ownership. Yeah.
34:30.62
dybsteve
Yeah, to your point they many of them came to us for help and guidance and even even legal help to get out of what they’re in that would go into details. But yeah, bad situation.
34:41.12
PJ Guarino
Um, yeah, it is It is yeah they they sell them a bit of good bill of goods for sure. So.
34:50.30
dybsteve
Good. Yeah, it’s unfortunate. Go ahead.
34:55.23
PJ Guarino
So I had gone to visit my brother and sister law in San Francisco or excuse me in New York and that was the end of September yeah about middle of September of 2019 and ah I did what I do as an owner right? I mean I wasn’t an owner yet. But I still worked like 1 and I was working over the four day weekend.
35:10.62
dybsteve
You.
35:14.44
PJ Guarino
Closing jobs setting things up come back. You know midnight on Monday I’m out in the field get up I’m out getting ready to start some jobs at 5 am in the morning the next day and he calls me up and he’s mad and I’m thinking I’m on fire I’m excited I’m and closing this month out of september.
35:28.12
dybsteve
Not.
35:34.95
PJ Guarino
Ramming some jobs in and he’s ticked that I didn’t update some spreadsheet that the franchise told him he needed to have like well I agree with you but would you rather me get these jobs done and then fill out the spreadsheet later or you want me to not do the jobs and put numbers into your spreadsheet I’m like if you’re a business person.
35:36.89
dybsteve
Um.
35:41.76
dybsteve
Um.
35:52.96
PJ Guarino
Kind of would rather have money in hand than a number on a page and he just went off on me and me just literally and in in all the years Bill and I were in business together eighteen years even in the situation with Ken with the Mr Reki thing there was never a time I had ever myself raised my voice or they raised their voice.
35:55.73
dybsteve
2 So.
36:12.40
PJ Guarino
And I literally so that was Tuesday Wednesday that day Tuesday I literally pulled over after you old and me I made 2 phone call. Well at first I prayed then I called my wife then I called my my now accountant who was my old bookkeeper and I had hsp open again that day. Um.
36:19.00
dybsteve
We.
36:29.74
PJ Guarino
Felt bad I was going to wait to the Friday when we were gonna consummate this new ownership I felt bad so that Wednesday I said hey come meet me at Starbucks and I told him I’m done and he was floored and I’m like. I’m like man I was a much different person but before it became one of Joehoa’s witnesses so this is the easier way for you and me to not have a bigger problem with your temper I’m like I can’t do this and and I even said to him you know your marriage has fallen apart because it was he had a blended family second marriage. Ah.
36:51.40
dybsteve
And.
37:02.00
PJ Guarino
Ironically, they had also bought a cleaning franchise and I was like his and her so instead of matching cars. She got a cleaning franchise. You got a painting franchise and their marriage. You could just see it. It was all fallen apart I might bro I I’d shut it down. Do what you got to do save your marriage and he just.
37:09.56
dybsteve
Now.
37:17.83
PJ Guarino
It was just the kind of guy he was. He was very ambitious and he’s like you don’t know if you’re talking about I’m like but your whether I do or I don’t I’m not gonna be a part of this and so that was october of 2019 hsp 3.0 got going and we started you know, started out the gate. Good.
37:24.42
dybsteve
No.
37:31.27
dybsteve
Um, yeah I don’t.
37:37.23
PJ Guarino
And ah in in that fall or soon in January of twenty twenty I opened up my second business one point contractors group to build a vendor group like ah a referral alliance. So I could generate work for painting and then the pandemic started. So.
37:50.76
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
37:54.17
PJ Guarino
You know I then my daughter was working for me part time and doing marketing David Chisholm was training her. She had worked for me in the other endeavors doing learning social media marketing and stuff but very limited at the time and at my son-in law her she was engaged to this young man. He just had that point.
38:02.10
dybsteve
Know.
38:13.81
PJ Guarino
Had started just driving along with me seeing how could I fit him into my organization somehow and we were in Mexico for a couple weeks in January and he handled some of the estimates while I was gone and at that time I was so this is the beginning of.
38:23.66
dybsteve
M.
38:29.39
PJ Guarino
Hsp three point zero so I was heavy into custom homes because I had just negotiated with a couple builders do custom homes and so he handled the repaints I’ll handle the custom homes and then the pandemic hit and as I’m sure was for everyone. That’s perhaps listening that that is universal that was a universal experience.
38:45.58
dybsteve
On the.
38:48.97
PJ Guarino
So second major traumatic financial event of course in my life after the great recession probably for everyone else our age and um, we just wrote it out with that new construction because fortunately even though Austin is very liberal and they were trying to shut everything down.
38:55.88
dybsteve
Oh.
39:08.17
PJ Guarino
Was a battle between the judges in the city and the judges in the counties which seemed to control this and I’m not into politics I don’t quite understand it but where I was doing my work was around the lake and that was technically outside of the the county of Austin so they kept it going and that kept my money moving and. We just hadn to write it out. It was you know we were doing sixty seventy thousand dollars a month in revenue and all of a sudden you know it’s in half and because I use subcontract labor I wasn’t eligible for I had friends getting $300000 you know in idle loans and ppp loans and I was only good.
39:29.95
dybsteve
Um.
39:42.70
dybsteve
Yeah, no tote.
39:45.25
PJ Guarino
15 or 20 and I’m like holy calgar we go? Yeah, so and that’s how I came to you right? that was April of whatever year that was David Chisholm recommended you and I interviewed you it was towards the. Past the middle of the pandemic I had gone down to the coast just to get away my stepfather was dying and I interviewed you and I’m like I told my wife I’m ill find the money I’m like he has a system and it’s interesting see with all this experience that I’ve been droning on about.
40:04.92
dybsteve
Me.
40:19.46
PJ Guarino
Was still vary in experience when it comes to residential repaints because even at the peak in Reno we never were beyond 2 crews. We never spent a lot of money we were. We were a construction and a business to business relationshipbased business which is really my strength as an owner.
40:19.66
dybsteve
Um.
40:33.41
dybsteve
No.
40:36.28
PJ Guarino
And what I had parlayed in the time I wasn’t doing painting was was b two b and and you know high-level negotiations and as owners none of that translates into getting in front of a homeowner. So of course I’m throwing money at the the residential stuff as they were’re coming out of the the pandemic. Trying to get work because that was Mike’s focus point and I’m doing home advisor and I’m doing payclick and and that’s how we got to do yb.
41:04.29
dybsteve
Um, well very glad you did and I’m grateful for David for referring you so you joined u I b and and then what.
41:06.42
PJ Guarino
Um, you do? Well it was really my twist. You were very kind to put me in the mastermind group with people. Um. On paper were far ahead of me. But I think you and I had talked and you realized I could contribute as a business owner even though my revenue wasn’t at the level of some of the people in the group. Um, you know, ah John pee was in the group he and I had been in on target and summit you know 20 years before so had a relationship with him.
41:39.60
dybsteve
Oh.
41:41.58
PJ Guarino
His nephew is in the group Seth of course who to this day is is just blowing it up and dyb you know, got him on his path but I could contribute but of course I was much further behind in the implementation of the duy b system and so like I do with everything I just. Um, if I might do so I do 110 so I watched every single module and took notes on every single module in your duyb cafe and then I had I told my daughter and my son-inlaw which ones they needed to watch and we started building your system into you had recommended Monday so we started building the duyb system into Monday. So I could teach these young people how to implement what what your system was.
42:25.86
dybsteve
Indeed and I remember too building that all out and I thought my goodness it’s incredible. You know to see somebody actually go through each one and just take action take notes take actions and delegate and teach it to the others. Ah.
42:35.21
PJ Guarino
So.
42:40.13
dybsteve
I was blown away watching you go through that process because in the back end we can see who’s you know, went through what module and who’s completed what and and it’s very rare. In fact, it’s rare that that most you know like 80% don’t go through any of them. You know getting the prato principle kicks in and so you’re at the top of that prato principle and we were really impressed so you.
42:50.86
PJ Guarino
Yeah.
42:59.71
dybsteve
Rolling it out. You’re in mastermind and we’re getting rolling and you’re’re you’re teaching the team you’re building a team. You’re building out your tech stack and you’re getting things go on as you’re implementing the system Then what.
43:12.18
PJ Guarino
Well, you know when I had joined uyb I had stopped doing custom homes I had realized the model didn’t fit my long-term plan. Um, it was that would have been a me business that portion because I could not teach Mike how to bid and supervised custom home I had been doing it for 25 years and I’m very good at running custom homework but between it being all about me and using subs it was it was just not profitable so I had shut that down now. We’re completely reliant on the residential repaint coming out of the pandemic. So I told my wife look some of the money we made selling the house. Yes I didn’t buy into the franchise with that gentleman with three sixty but I said we’re going to need to live on this money because I’m going to cash burn the business. Um, she didn’t really understand what that meant and I said if you look at some of these big companies like tesla at the time and some other ones there’s a calculated loss of money to achieve a long-term goal. And so I invested in my mind in my so daughter and her husband to teach them the dyb system and keep myself in a working on the business role instead of taking on a role that would mitigate the need for them. But I needed to get back to where I was. When I had hsp and I was not working full time because my long-term goals as I’ve articulated to you from the very minute we met was stable income residual income because I had no retirement I lost everything and time because I’m a minister and and I want it to have more time to be in my ministry with my wife and family.
44:36.76
dybsteve
None.
44:45.77
PJ Guarino
So those were my driving factors of what motivated me and I mean if you were looking at the if you had some metrics on what I was doing. You would’ve saw I was watching duyb modules till like 2 in the morning every day and I wanted to get it done in like two weeks and ah funny that I just met April for the first time in person. But two weeks ago when I came through Tennessee but I feel like I’ve known her more than almost anybody because she’s primarily the one doing your modules and very um, you know it’s her and um, so we just kept working at implementing it. We implemented your tech stack almost immediately I had this conversation.
45:09.39
dybsteve
Um, in the.
45:23.59
PJ Guarino
Yesterday with ah a gentleman who does a lot of work with me as a general contractor and I told them all the things I used to do 7 things 1 you know set up the customer build a file quickbooks Don and said yeah we have this company called do iv virtual and they.
45:35.76
dybsteve
No.
45:41.00
PJ Guarino
Za He didn’t understand what zapping was so I had to explain to him the difference between zapping and api and I’m like this is what we’ve done you implemented once and it just dominoes your tech stack and they’re like what’s a tech stack. Okay so I had to explain that to them and this is the one. Um I have the book the the emyth book out for him.
45:43.74
dybsteve
No.
45:57.22
dybsteve
Okay.
46:00.88
PJ Guarino
And so I literally this is yesterday coffee said Steve with his wife April who runs do I b virtual made our tech into this system and he he linked everything with zapier and so all of our programs our primary programs of course were googlebased platform a Google works workspace and we. Ride or die with that now and I abandoned outlook a number of years ago and you were the you were the nail in that coffin and of course Monday which was we had used asan in the past. So when my daughter was adept at that pipe drive. We just switched from pipeline to pipe drive in the last couple months
46:26.34
dybsteve
Me.
46:31.76
dybsteve
No.
46:38.56
PJ Guarino
Just switched back to paint scout and then of course we’ve always used Quickbooks online so qbo so you all helped us with Mailchimp and ah and it’s threatened me now the whole thing just links with 1 action saved me an hour per job.
46:52.47
dybsteve
Um.
46:53.26
PJ Guarino
So just those type of things we just were implementing and slowly building and waiting for the revenue to hit teaching someone in their mid 20 s how to do estimating and sales when they’ve never done sales or estimating or even paint was a was a slow burn man.
47:10.12
dybsteve
M.
47:12.55
PJ Guarino
You and I had many conversations about the timeline on that and just how long could I afford to not be profitable and that was interesting. You know.
47:17.61
dybsteve
Do it was what you’re doing is unique and risky. But but she did it and it’s paying off. Yeah.
47:28.81
PJ Guarino
Yeah, yeah, Mike turned the corner I think what helped was I actually got him doing a lot of things of course with the duyv system but then I got him with gitmer and we did like a two month program with them. We we endured with Jeffrey and and his wife. Great people. But we we did as much we got as much out of it as we needed like you said you know don’t read more chapters in a book than you need to? Um, we we stayed with gitmer as long as we needed and I think it gave Mike just the little boost he needed.
48:00.82
dybsteve
No.
48:03.35
PJ Guarino
And ah the end of last year is the end of 22. He started hitting his numbers and then starting January. He’s exceeded his numbers not just in sales. But the revenue because he’s a project manager so he’s responsible for the sales in production and he was hitting his margins so the few years prior would be times we hit the numbers both revenue and sales. But then our our gross profit target of 45 would dip to 38 37 so we weren’t profitable. We’re breaking even I wasn’t drawing whole salary I mitigated that with another company so I was living but we weren’t truly profitable but when you hit the numbers.
48:30.69
dybsteve
May.
48:41.80
PJ Guarino
The end of this past year and now every month over month. He’s not only he’s now between 45 and fifty percent gros profit and his numbers. He’s selling in the low hundred thousands we’re groven now and so when now we’re in growth mode. So.
48:54.66
dybsteve
Yeah, that’s fantastic and well done Mike Hopefully you’re listening are watching this. We just want to say well done well done. So ah, turn the corner we hit.
49:01.33
PJ Guarino
He’s going to be for sure.
49:08.10
dybsteve
You know the compound effect inflection point breakthrough depend on which analogy or book we come through and things are going great. This ah was hsp 3.0 however just made a little shift there right.
49:08.58
PJ Guarino
Act. Absolutely.
49:22.34
PJ Guarino
Yeah, yeah, so once the painting business started hitting its numbers I I um, you know my strength and my weakness is my energy and with 2 years of not being profitable. Starts to wear on you even though you have a plan you know and I have I don’t know if you can see it behind me I have things written on the wall and my whiteboards that I you know did the wetboard paint and one of them is the slight edge I even have something called Seth’s standard I think I told Seth that where I basically.
49:41.72
dybsteve
And.
49:52.56
PJ Guarino
Confined his success to a metric of this many leads this many estimates yields this much per job this much revenue and I said that’s our target. So it’s set standards even on our scoreboard. So kudos to you Seth and then um, the slight edge and I just kept going.
50:05.60
dybsteve
And then.
50:12.51
PJ Guarino
Dude I’m like I’m waiting for the massive I get the small consistent decisions plus time equals massive results I’m like Steve I’m waiting man wins the results and it was tough because you because you know the strength of the model is I had my sonin law and my daughter working for me.
50:22.31
dybsteve
I know I know. Ah, yeah.
50:29.60
dybsteve
Oh.
50:31.43
PJ Guarino
So I knew I had really loyal stable and people I I gave them on paper represent ownership and I was doing my consulting with my other business so I had flipped consulting into the 1 point contractors group the vendor group which was hard to build during a pandemic. So I just used it as a vehicle to do consulting.
50:43.11
dybsteve
And.
50:49.94
PJ Guarino
And I was living off that money and so when Mike started hitting his numbers earlier this year now I could sit back and go okay, let’s get back to my larger term plans and so the last three months we basically have reinvented the whole concept and so we approached ah how to conceptually. Combine the 2 companies and so instead of being hsb painting at 1 point contractors group and by then we were doing project management for realtors and we realized our niche were realtors with one point contractors group and it’s the largest customer base for hsp so we said okay I hired a consultant. And we conceptualize how do we create a messaging that resonates clearly with realtors and so instead of we kind of borrowed from Facebook with Meta and Google with alphabet and we said okay, let’s rename the parent company one point and then conceptually everything fall beneath it. Divisions so we rebranded the painting one point painting company and then we separated divisions from one point contractors groups and now we have 1 point property solutions which is a project management endeavor with realtors. And inevitably it always hires the painting because that’s the primary thing so that’s what we’ve been working on last three months we we are 98% done with the rebrand. In fact I think Mike with clickwiz.
52:12.19
dybsteve
Few.
52:18.50
PJ Guarino
Either today or Monday will flip the url on the hsp website to 1 point painting company dot com now will be completely converted and now the next the month of June wait over in June by the beginning of July I will have merged the entities behind the scenes.
52:22.69
dybsteve
And.
52:36.78
PJ Guarino
Now we’re emerging so instead of 2 payrolls 2 insurances now it’ll all be 1 and we can already see exp. But Mike still doing one hundred thousand a year and or a month in sales for hsp now he’s doing 100000 in sales for the 1 point property solutions piece. So now the massive results are there and we are.
52:39.26
dybsteve
Who.
52:55.97
PJ Guarino
You know, conceptually I brought on my nephew who’s production from Mike and then we brought on another project manager who’s a general contractor to handle the properties. So now we’re creating bandwidth and margin we added a friend of mine who works for Apple.
52:56.57
dybsteve
Who know.
53:12.17
PJ Guarino
Want it to be a part of the team so he works 10 hours a week and all he does is go find business and ah, he’s like I love apple he’s like but I’d rather come work for you when you can afford to hire me you away. He’s like for I’ll give you 10 hours and I I will build my position I’m like well I’m not going to pay you your salary but I can give you a little sum.
53:21.53
dybsteve
No.
53:29.15
dybsteve
Yeah, yeah.
53:31.57
PJ Guarino
Where we are my other daughter joined the team. She’s a designer. So now we have a design division. We just had an agreement to terms yesterday with the biggest compass agent in Texas he will offer our design services. So one point design services on every one of his lasterated 4 and 16 transactions as a team. They will now have us as their marketing or their design offering and at one point we’re aligning with one point so that we handle all of his whatever they need to do to sell a house or buy a house. We’re aligning ourselves and we’re in the middle of negotiating that that’ll be that’ll be worth. Couple million dollars a year easily? Yeah, ah, my vision is I’ve literally come full circle to back to where I was in the middle of 2000 you know 2005 when I was working you know a couple days a week and everything is systemized. Um.
54:10.62
dybsteve
Grid on Okay, what is your vision.
54:16.88
dybsteve
No.
54:27.34
PJ Guarino
Um, not quite to the couple days a week because there’s been so much with the rebrand but I’m fully 100% of the day to day I even got a few checks we write Emilia does that my daughter so we’re fully systemized and you asked me as we’re preparing for this the contribution of Doy B and also some of the the.
54:29.18
dybsteve
And.
54:46.85
PJ Guarino
Different education pieces pieces that contributed to that and and I would attribute both to Duy B and the books I’ve read helping me revise my vision from you know the early two thousand s when I was much younger to now. And incorporating my experience when I stepped away for 8 years and was building those national concepts I’ve kind of wrapped them all into this one point and I’m pretty excited to see just exactly how far it’s going to go.
55:15.41
dybsteve
Right? on? Fantastic bj you’ve done an amazing job you and your team. Um, thank you very much for coming on and and and sharing your story before we roll out today. Is there a question I should have asked or a final point that you would like to make.
55:31.51
PJ Guarino
Well I don’t think there’s ah, a question that you could have asked but I will make a point and that is I don’t read anywhere near to the level. You do however, the principle of educating ourselves and always learning in order to always be growing. Think is critical to anyone who wants to have a successful business whether it’s paint or project management or locksmithing or a bakery if you want to go to e myth and use this little example of the bakery. We’re all just a business that’s selling a product or a service in the case, our product is a service. But business principles are universal and so if we’re not growing as business people then we’re not growing in our business and therefore we’re doomed to fail and so that’s 1 thing you rekindled my zeal for that I do I be and the books that you’ve had me read both endless referrals.
56:22.69
dybsteve
Um.
56:27.49
PJ Guarino
We just signed an agreement with endless referrals for the sales team to to do a couple months with him and I just talked to to and Bob actually said hi by the way I talked upward two days ago and I was flown away call these like do you know I am I’m like I know your voice very well Bob um I know it’s cool.
56:37.26
dybsteve
Um, awesome happy care are done.
56:45.72
PJ Guarino
But the slight edge and now we’re now a big publication that’s really helping me is the millionaire master plan by ah by Roger Hamilton and that is a new thing for me that takes the disc kind of to a different level but it’s the zeal for education I think that.
56:51.41
dybsteve
We are.
57:00.23
dybsteve
No.
57:05.18
PJ Guarino
That I’ve taken and I would leave ones with which I I get from you. But also I believe in it from myself. But I think that’s the critical piece to be successful.
57:12.37
dybsteve
Fantastic, Very good. Thank you if somebody wanted to follow up. What’s the best way that they should contact you.
57:18.96
PJ Guarino
Oh yeah, email is the best pj at one point alliance.com and you can you can email me and we can do a Zoom call I love to help people. That’s why I’m giving the e myth to that contractor later today.
57:34.96
dybsteve
The ah.
57:35.60
PJ Guarino
The em myth the checklist manifesto and the Starbucks experience I told you when we met those were the fundamental every team I’ve ever built has had to read those those were the backbone and to this day are the backbone of what I do but all the other books you’ve had me read has flushed out and given so much color to this this skeleton that I had.
57:41.63
dybsteve
Are you.
57:55.56
PJ Guarino
The outline. So yeah, call me I’d like I have no problem.
57:55.84
dybsteve
Um, right on well to quote I mentor Bob Berg you are on your way to greatness my friend.
58:04.19
PJ Guarino
Yes, it just want to be on my way to just maintaining a stable income greatness is relative man after what I’ve been through and and I know you share the same thing as just buing with our family and and having time for more important things. It’s not a monetary thing. So.
58:10.50
dybsteve
Ah.
58:15.60
dybsteve
Mm right out which is what greatness looks like in my eyes. So fantastic. Thank you again Pj for coming on. It’s an honor and pleasure to know and to work with you.
58:24.88
PJ Guarino
Amen.
58:29.83
dybsteve
And appreciate your time.
58:29.88
PJ Guarino
Yeah, thank you Steve all right? But bye.