Marketing, Sales, Business Coach, Painting Leads, Business Coach

EP97 Tanner Mullen of $1.4M Premium Painting & DripJobs App Creator

 

INTRODUCTION:

In this fun episode, you’ll hear all about Tanner Mullen’s adventures in sales, and entrepreneurial ventures, through to his thriving painting business, Premium Painting of Ocala Florida,  while developing the new hit CRM estimating program, DripJobs!

 

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TRANSCRIPT:

00:00.00

dybsteve

What happened.

 

00:00.37

Tanner Mullen

All right? So I’m standing in a puddle of sticky epoxy in a garage in my sneakers trying to finish rolling it out while the customer standing at the Doorway. Staring at me and I’m slipping and sliding all over the garage and the epoxy is curing I’m sweating bullets and at that moment I realized that. Ah.

 

00:23.26

dybsteve

Um.

 

00:33.57

Tanner Mullen

I’m not going to be doing epoxy anymore and I’m going to stick with ah with house painting and.

 

00:39.69

dybsteve

I I could see it I was just hoping didn’t say slip and fell and a rolling around and yeah.

 

00:44.46

Tanner Mullen

It was it was close so the problem is is that I want you know we added epoxy into our you know I guess our add-ons. It was something that we were hearing often I was selling it. You know I was trying to sell it and Sherman Williams was giving me this. You know the homeowner version of epoxy and it was working and and um.

 

01:01.41

dybsteve

Putting it.

 

01:04.22

Tanner Mullen

Online seeing these epoxy professionals just like do an amazing job I’m like I want to do the best you know? So I go online and I find this 100% solids epoxy and I’m like okay I’m gonna figure this out and in the ad they had for it. It’s this mom you know squeegeeing it.

 

01:07.50

dybsteve

Bring him.

 

01:20.73

Tanner Mullen

And of course like she’s probably got 10 people like guiding her but in the video I’m like okay she’s doing it I can do it and I watched the video a hundred times. They just make it look so easy. So I’m I’m thinking. Okay I’m going to go and do this I had 1 crew at the time and they’re painting houses I am. Going to go and do this epoxy job myself because I’m like this is a great way for me to I didn’t have a bunch of estimates I’m like I’m going to make some good money here I’m going to go and knock out this $3000 epoxy job. So in my brain I’m thinking I could do this by myself I didn’t have a helper so I had no one.

 

01:45.72

dybsteve

Right.

 

01:55.37

Tanner Mullen

That was there that was going to cut and I knew that the pot life was 30 minutes this is just how ignorant I was to this process I don’t know what I was thinking. But so I get this kit I’ve rehearsed it a hundred times in my head I’m going to do it I had the the ideal client. He was great. Older guy retiree this was a two and a half car garage. So we’re looking at probably six hundred and fifty Square feet of of coverage right? But I’m thinking because I’m squeegeeing it. This is going to just apply like butter. You know this is fine. So here’s the mistake I made I sanded it because’s I did call and ask if I could sand it because I didn’t have a grinder they said? yeah you can sand it.

 

02:25.60

dybsteve

If That. No.

 

02:34.92

Tanner Mullen

You know, make sure that you sand the oil spots really hard. It should be fine. So I’m like fine so I start mixing it and the night night not the night before the week before I ordered some of the spikes that you need to you know, walk on the epoxy I’ve never done this before and I’ve never seen anyone do this Steve but I bought these spikes because it said I needed them.

 

02:45.35

dybsteve

Walking you and they look cool too right? if.

 

02:53.78

Tanner Mullen

So go on Amazon I buy this spikes. Yeah, they’re cool and I’m thinking that because you look at the videos you’re like how are they standing on it but they have these little things on the bottom of their feet the spikes. So I’m in there and I’m trying to you know I’m mixing up my epoxy and I’m like getting all excited I got the headphones in I’m ready to just go as hard as I can and.

 

03:09.30

dybsteve

Here.

 

03:11.97

Tanner Mullen

Knock out this job like I’m so confident so I’m in there I got the pot mix and and I start cutting around the the garage floor. Okay, so um, and as I’m cutting I’m thinking man I’m wasting a lot of time I only got one side done and it might have been about 7 minutes remember the pot life of this thing is like 30 minutes

 

03:26.50

dybsteve

Go yeah.

 

03:28.58

Tanner Mullen

I still got to cut the rest of this for some reason it was just dragging on the floor. It was kind of thick I’m like man I’m trying to lay this thing in. so so I’m kind of already freaking out a little bit so anyway I get through the cutting and it gives me like 10 minutes to squeegee this whole floor now I’m starting to.

 

03:31.11

dybsteve

Mean.

 

03:45.29

Tanner Mullen

Kind of panic a little bit but I’m like I got this I got my shoes on I’m ready to rock so Steve I’m squeegy in this thing and I look down and there’s a bolt on the floor in my epoxy and I’m like what is that little nut like picture like a little tiny like you know, like not like a little screw nut or whatever.

 

03:56.97

dybsteve

Um, ah.

 

03:59.43

dybsteve

Yeah.

 

04:04.00

Tanner Mullen

Like what the heck is that and it’s coded in epoxy I’m like did I not pick that up like is that his that I just didn’t sweep or blow. So I Am’m like all right, That’s weird. So I’m still squeeging and and the guy’s checking on Mail I’m good I’m good. Yeah, come on out I Want to surprise you so he goes away I’m like let me just.

 

04:18.79

dybsteve

Again.

 

04:18.89

Tanner Mullen

Surprise this guy or tell me you know he’s like all right I’ll come out. He’s like you okay are you doing this by yourself. Oh my god there’s no worst question if you’ve ever been in that position for anyway. So I see another bolt on the ground Steve I’m like this is getting weird. Why is why am I missing all these my what’s going on.

 

04:23.34

dybsteve

The.

 

04:34.55

dybsteve

Um.

 

04:35.85

Tanner Mullen

And then another bolt and another bolt and I start picking them up and putting them in my pocket mind you they’re full of epoxy. So now I’m starting to make a mess they’re going in my pocket with and I realized that the shoes that I purchased were just crap the bolts that are holding in the spike.

 

04:44.56

dybsteve

Ah.

 

04:52.65

dybsteve

A whole. Ah.

 

04:53.97

Tanner Mullen

We’re falling off of these shoes. So now I’m freaking out because I can’t even squeal you I pot life I got 5 minutes left so I’m trying to think what am I going to do what am I going to do so I rip off these spikes now I’m in my sneakers and but and I was squeegee in the floor and this guy is looking at me like what is I’m sweating I had to like throw the spikes like epoxy gun on his driveway and he had this nice rock bed outside this is a nice neighborhood and you just see gray epoxy over all these rocks.

 

05:12.16

dybsteve

This. There.

 

05:25.83

dybsteve

Ah, the proper.

 

05:30.14

Tanner Mullen

Because I had to keep throwing things because I couldn’t step right? So you know that outside of the garage you have the the concrete and you would think that I would put paper out there to walk on just again, this is my beginning stages of being a contractor and long story short. It never cured so I got it all laid out.

 

05:31.15

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah.

 

05:42.93

dybsteve

Um, yeah, you know? yeah.

 

05:49.44

Tanner Mullen

And I’m thinking wow I did it I think I even threw some flakes I don’t even know what was going on and it never cured. He called me three weeks later and said this this floor is just still tacky and it and it’s it’s gummy and ah and never cured three weeks later yeah and he was just he was a nice man. He was very.

 

06:01.33

dybsteve

Three weeks later oh my gosh. Yeah oh.

 

06:09.31

Tanner Mullen

Open and then just to bring this full circle he. Ah, he said listen. So I I went over there I applied some you know something to strip it I had my guys over there were scraping gummy epoxy I mean we probably got 75% of it up and then it just wasn’t there and you couldn’t grind it because it was still gummy.

 

06:21.11

dybsteve

As.

 

06:26.97

Tanner Mullen

So he wound up buying floor tiles and he said look if you pay for these floor tiles. You know we’ll call it even and I’ll just do floor tiles that is my ah my crazy story. So anytime I hear a oxy I Just like cringe a little bit.

 

06:38.30

dybsteve

Um.

 

06:41.00

dybsteve

Ah, ah so with you because we come from near the same area and we tried epoxy to I won’t get into my stories but we we were hard. No one on I have a couple of experiences. Oh they were not in our three p Ah us.

 

06:51.90

Tanner Mullen

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s that’s no yeah, that’s it.

 

06:58.37

dybsteve

Well today’s guest is from Ocala Florida fun fact. Ocala is where we love to go jeeping in the wild life management areas up there. It’s about two and a half hours north of Venice right? up the the beach line there. He’s one of the earliest members and. Came up through a duyb he owns and operates premium painting as well as the robust crm estimating platform specific for the painting industry trip Jobs Tanner Mullin welcome to the show. My friend.

 

07:29.00

Tanner Mullen

Happy to be here. Always been a fan and happy to be a guest.

 

07:35.42

dybsteve

Thank you appreciate that Well take us back that was an awesome story. It lost an origin story there and we’ve called out um take us back to the beginning. How’d you get into the painting business or moreover what were you doing before you got into the painting business and why did you choose painting.

 

07:41.23

Tanner Mullen

Um, and.

 

07:49.84

Tanner Mullen

Ah, there’s a funny saying I like to say is that the painting you don’t choose the painting business the painting business choose you right? I mean we’re all somehow organically introduced to this trade which is it’s ah it’s an amazing trade and my journey is nothing short of ah.

 

07:54.96

dybsteve

If.

 

08:06.91

Tanner Mullen

Just chance and and again just being inherited into it. So the origin is is that my father’s stepfather had a painting business. Um, and my father early on he would work with him taught him the trade and that became my dad’s profession so in about 2006 we moved to Florida um, and.

 

08:08.51

dybsteve

On.

 

08:26.19

Tanner Mullen

Not the bad part of 2006 the great part of 2006 it was you know the economy was incredible. My dad got a job as a supervisor at 1 of the largest painting companies here which they’re still in business. He was a supervisor for them. They do mostly new construction. So during that time during that time for me. Um i.

 

08:27.23

dybsteve

Oh yeah.

 

08:37.92

dybsteve

Um.

 

08:44.71

Tanner Mullen

Had you know, seen him you know, get up and go to work each day and he wind up kind of trying to do his own thing so he was that guy who was a 1 ne-man army and I’m 13 at the time and he would wake me up 6 in the morning in the summer and I would go to work with him and I loved it because we were working in those retiree neighborhoods. You know Steve you’ve.

 

09:02.95

dybsteve

Um, or yeah, so yeah.

 

09:03.78

Tanner Mullen

Probably worked for more retirees than anyone in the country. So you know we loved working for them. It was really cool. It was just him and me I would do all the taping and I’d do some rolling but at 13 years old it was good money. It was $60 a day I was able to save up for an Xbox so you know I really enjoyed it during that time and.

 

09:18.99

dybsteve

There you ah.

 

09:23.28

Tanner Mullen

But I never thought of it as something that I would do even though my mom always said hey you want to make sure you learn that trade. It’s a great trade and she knew what you know the opportunity was but it was still him on his own and I could see how hard he was working I was like man I’ll never want to do this. You know full time so I wanted to be a sports agent or 1 of those flashy um, you know careers and I was.

 

09:26.41

dybsteve

Man.

 

09:42.70

Tanner Mullen

In high school thinking about it and then um I just worked my way up I found my way into the restaurant industry you ever do any restaurant stuff Steve.

 

09:48.91

dybsteve

While I was 15 I watched dishes for a chinese restaurant for three months and I’ve not fun. Fun aside I’ve never eaten asian food since and I’ll just leave it at that that was my stin.

 

10:01.73

Tanner Mullen

Ah, so you though what goes on. Um, so yeah I mean I thought that was my path though I started off as a bus boy. Um, and then worked my way out to a server as a waiter and then found my found an opportunity as an assistant manager of a restaurant. And a general manager at the restaurant by the age of 20 so I’m twenty years old managing a business and it was really cool because I really started to understand how business worked just you know marketing and sales and customer service. So I had so much experience in that regard. But. I started looking at it like man like my time is gone like I’m getting home at 3 in the morning you know after doing everything closing out the restaurant and then waking up at 2 and then having to go in again and it was just like this cycle that I was just like oh hate it. So a friend of mine had gotten the job selling cars and he used to come into this restaurant a lot. It was kind of like a. Kind of like a night scene too. A little bit. It was a really cool place downtown Gainesville and um, it was really cool because we had a ah you know we had an opportunity to um, connect with him a lot and he was sharing how happy he was selling cars and I’m like man you know I love sales I think it’d be really fun for me to do that. Um, and I went ahead and ah. Quit my job and applied and on his recommendation I got the job working at Toyota. So this was my grand. Ah you know I would say introduction to sales because the psychology behind what they teach you there is just so interesting like overcoming objection like that is something that for me unless you actually really experience. It.

 

11:35.10

Tanner Mullen

Um, and see people change their mind in a blink of an eye due to whatever you know word track you use or whatever value you build? Um, you know I could see why some don’t try to go for objections. They kind of just you know, just take it for face value. But when you’re in car Sales. You really don’t have a choice. They want you to maximize those Opportunities. So This was great I had nine solid months of car sales and it was great. I didn’t like what I was doing though I was taking advantage of people we were selling things for way too much. There were people. There was an experience I had a lady brought in a minivan ah for trade and we were having a competition that month. Whoever can sell a car for. Way over value. Got this big plaque on a wall for everyone to see so you know me being a hungry 21 year old I’m like oh I’m going to do it. You know and you’re just in that environment and the lady brought in this van and she wanted a better van for her husband who was handicap and I believe this was God’s way of just showing me like see what you’re doing right? so.

 

12:24.23

dybsteve

She.

 

12:31.48

Tanner Mullen

This was interesting because she needed me to go into the car with her and bring the new car back to her husband back at her house and I’m like great. Let’s do it. You know again really just focusing on getting a sale. Not really having the mindset I do today and I went back in that car with her and we drove through her house and I saw her house and the conditions they were living in. And how hard it was for him to maneuver and they were just beautiful people and got him in the van and he really liked it so I’m like all right? You know, let’s get back and you know get the paperwork signed like ah it’s just like a terrible car salesman. Anyway I go back and you know we wind up selling this car for like $13000 more than what it was worth and.

 

12:52.47

dybsteve

You.

 

13:10.79

Tanner Mullen

For me I got the plaque on the wall and like people were clapping like you know and it’s just this environment and at that moment I had some time to think and I’m like this is not for me, you know and so prior to that though my mother had passed away a couple months before and you know. Yeah, thank you and and.

 

13:24.68

dybsteve

So.

 

13:29.33

Tanner Mullen

Car sales was a really good way for me to kind of just like focus on work. It was very motivational I didn’t feel stuck I had a little more freedom and um, during that time my dad and my sister were home alone. You know they were he was struggling. He was a painter so with his my mom did all the paperwork you’ve heard those stories right? You know.

 

13:44.94

dybsteve

You Yeah or yeah.

 

13:47.65

Tanner Mullen

Mom does all the the phone calls the paperwork and it wasn’t like top notch but she was the one who handled all the money and so when when she passed away a cancer. He kind of just gave up right? completely gave up threw in the Taal life. Just.

 

13:53.45

dybsteve

50

 

14:02.60

Tanner Mullen

So in the back of my head I’m you know I’m trying to help them out I’m really the breadwinner of the family and you know sending money home and my sister needs things for school and you know I’m just you know in a really tough position but I had to quit that job because it was the money was not worth my. You know my character So thankfully um I met another friend who sold life insurance.

 

14:15.57

dybsteve

No.

 

14:22.26

Tanner Mullen

So I’m like okay well this isn’t a bad transition Steve right I can go into life insurance I can ah you know I’m free as a bird you know I I’ll have to be locked down to a a place and I feel like I’m helping people I’m giving them life insurance right? wrong I’m only selling final expense. So essentially I’m going in there pretty much pitching death and saying hey look you know.

 

14:23.80

dybsteve

Then.

 

14:31.62

dybsteve

Yeah.

 

14:41.77

dybsteve

Ah, ah in Florida in full context in Florida. Yeah.

 

14:42.24

Tanner Mullen

<unk> gonna die you know it in Florida right? So yeah, they come here for that and I’m over here trying to sell ah sell them and and I just I’m like I’m selling fear like why can’t I just sell something that I love you know and it’s easy to buy you know I don’t want to do this anymore. So I I actually set a record in the company i.

 

14:53.61

dybsteve

The the.

 

15:01.43

Tanner Mullen

No problem selling it it just again I really wanted to hit on something that would make me feel pride. You know I didn’t like what I was selling. You know it. It is what it is So then I got a job working at a local credit Union and this was the pivotal moment for me.

 

15:05.85

dybsteve

11

 

15:14.79

Tanner Mullen

It was a great place I was a loan officer there and I was actually refinancing car loans. So it’s funny I actually refinanced a few loans that I sold at the dealership because it was in the same local area and the the experience I got there just understanding business banking. You know so I’m just getting all this experience that you know I’m just like you know, really just soaking it all up.

 

15:19.87

dybsteve

Yeah.

 

15:34.55

Tanner Mullen

And there was a guy that came in and he started a painting business and the idea of starting a business to me at that age I’m 23 22 23 at the time was super foreign. You know I’m like oh man I got to do all this all the questions that we get Steve you know oh they got you know Llc and all this and but this guy came in.

 

15:45.51

dybsteve

But.

 

15:51.75

Tanner Mullen

He didn’t know much but he set up a business bank account. He’s like hey I’m starting a painting business and again god just putting people in my path to help me like open up my eyes I’m thinking man like that would be a great idea for me to do to to help my dad. You know that’s really the only reason why I’m like I’m making great money here I’m making eighty thousand a year I have full health insurance full benefits i’m.

 

15:55.49

dybsteve

Finish.

 

16:11.47

Tanner Mullen

I’m in line for a promotion at this bank. But I’m thinking man my mom my my dad and my sister are at home struggling I don’t know what’s going on there. He’s developed an addiction. He’s really just out of sorts and I’m thinking you know I can’t stay here because this isn’t helping anyone but myself and I could just you know I could. Ride off into the sunset and but I can’t leave my family behind I’m thinking, Well all right I’ll start Ah I’ll start a painting business. So did some research. Um you know did some research and you know I called my dad I said hey you know let’s let’s give this a try and um, wind up quitting my my Cushy. Ah.

 

16:45.67

dybsteve

Yeah.

 

16:48.19

Tanner Mullen

Your job at at the credit union hey I’m young I had no kids at the time. So if there was ever a time to do it. It’s now wind up leaving my college town. My 1 bedroom awesome apartment wind up moving back in with my dad and my sister um to help them and that was the foundation of what premium painting is and.

 

16:52.96

dybsteve

New.

 

17:06.78

Tanner Mullen

Ah, you know there’s much more that happened along the lines and and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would have been but that’s the origin story. That’s how I got into this and and I fell in love with it. So 2016 was when yep that was when I quit my job Twenty Sixteen yep 2016 and

 

17:16.89

dybsteve

That’s awesome now. What year was this 16 okay okay 7 years Fantastic well done.

 

17:25.70

Tanner Mullen

Now celebrating almost seven years and in business is premium painting. Thank you? Yeah so numbers wise we’re on pace for one point four million um I have 10 employees we operate on the employee model. So.

 

17:31.50

dybsteve

Now Describe, you’re welcome Describe. What’s the business look like currently. Okay. Who.

 

17:44.87

Tanner Mullen

Initially I started with the independent contractor thing that didn’t last long actually when I stumbled across your um your stuff DYB and I joined in one of the biggest takeaways was the hiring process. Really I mean I attribute almost every one of my hires to your hiring process and.

 

17:52.11

dybsteve

When.

 

18:02.30

dybsteve

Ah, thank you.

 

18:02.90

Tanner Mullen

It’s a matter of just the filtering out was what I was missing and I think that’s what what changed me from independent contractor to employee was independent contractors like hey do you know someone that paints you know employee is hey I’m going to choose someone’s like I always refer when I talk to people and help people in in this industry I say.

 

18:12.40

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah.

 

18:21.40

Tanner Mullen

This is just like dating Would you just ask someone hey do you know someone? that’s single you know or do you actually nowadays with online dating. It’s very comparable because we’re putting out an ad. We’re you know, beefing up our profile. We’re getting people excited and then we get responses and we filter through those responses. So.

 

18:22.87

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

18:29.48

dybsteve

Um, except the sense of the first.

 

18:37.13

Tanner Mullen

Um, so yeah, so we were an employee-based system and you’ve heard my story. We’ve been through all sorts of different things right now we we only do interior your exterior painting. That’s it I will not take anything weird. No outside. You know if it I rarely take wood repair. It is a hey get a handyman let me know when it’s done and we’ll paint it for you. You know? so.

 

18:46.11

dybsteve

That’s it. Yeah there you go.

 

18:56.38

Tanner Mullen

That’s how the business has grown up and to this point my role in the business has changed due to covid so before Covid I was doing all sorts of estimates and around that time I just had a newborn child and my wife was like you are not going into homes and you know risking our getting Covid I’m like oh man, What do we do? so.

 

18:58.52

dybsteve

No.

 

19:09.46

dybsteve

Me and do.

 

19:15.76

Tanner Mullen

I Just transitioned everything to virtual estimating which was perfect because at that time the customers were happy. They’re like oh really, you can quote this without having to come over because they were feeling the same way I’m like yeah no problem so we actually started doing all the estimates Virtually now we obviously don’t do that anymore because I still feel like.

 

19:21.48

dybsteve

Ah, yeah.

 

19:35.00

Tanner Mullen

You’re missing a large piece of value by being in the home but I was able to create an estimator role that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have created and his job is to go there. Take all the measurements take all the pictures meet the customer tell them about our company and then what he does is uploads all that for us and then send the estimate out from the office. So My role is. Really just estimating from the office you know team you know, ah management and scheduling at this point So All the all the jobs are are independently ran which is really helpful.

 

20:04.44

dybsteve

That’s awesome. Ah, very cool and it’s interesting too. How these solutions these opportunities come from constraints right? Yeah yeah, that’s ah ah yeah.

 

20:12.13

Tanner Mullen

Agreed Yeah, don’t ever let a good crisis go to waste. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ah man ever since I was a kid you know just being in poverty man just struggling seeing my parents struggle seeing them argue.

 

20:20.18

dybsteve

So Where where does your drive come From. Me.

 

20:30.40

Tanner Mullen

Um, not had. There was a time period I think it was I was nine years old we had no money and my mom was like well you know we know there’s a local pizzeria and I remember her on the phone calling that pizzeria asking if they can send us a free pizza because we had no money and there are so many instances like that. Electric shot off me having to go stay at a friend’s house just lack of finances early on and my drive is not to make money. It’s to not have to worry about money you know so for me as much and and it and it can be a demise you know sometimes I I have this deep scarcity mindset real deep inside.

 

20:57.12

dybsteve

Yes, yeah.

 

21:06.50

dybsteve

Who.

 

21:08.40

Tanner Mullen

Comes out every now and again, you know because just my childhood was full of it I mean eighteen almost eighteen years not being able to go to field trips not being able to get my hair cut not being all these things that you know a kid goes through and kind of feel like an outcast. My drive is that I never want to experience that again because it was so painful I mean.

 

21:21.53

dybsteve

Um, do yeah.

 

21:27.74

Tanner Mullen

My of course my kids now my and now I have kids. It’s like that doubled you know it’s like not only am I not goingnna experience it and my kids aren’t goingnna experience it and then as of course I got you know I’ve ah married and you know I’ve been able to really help my wife and you know so that’s where my drive comess from it’s it’s.

 

21:31.67

dybsteve

Um, yeah, if.

 

21:41.49

dybsteve

Meaning Fred on task.

 

21:45.52

Tanner Mullen

You know little bit of fear base but also just now it’s now it’s transitioning to ah to power which is fun in a good way. You know being able to do things that you want to do.

 

21:49.46

dybsteve

Yeah, right? Yep, that’s awesome I can certainly relate and as far as you know coming up that way and not wanting that for ourselves and for our family It provides a lot of incentive. So there’s a quote. Um I Forget who said it.

 

22:00.53

Tanner Mullen

Sure.

 

22:08.48

dybsteve

It’s It’s a baseball quote something along the lines I’m going to butche it here as I try to get it out. You may know it. It says there are no rich men kids in the big leads right? Yeah, they they don’t have the drive for it. They don’t have the drive. You’ve got to be as less brown used to say when you travel you got to be hungry.

 

22:19.11

Tanner Mullen

Ah, that’s very true. Yeah, love that? Yeah I Just ah man love less. Yeah, you got be hungry man. And yeah I says it too He with lights out man when he was younger like he was.

 

22:28.00

dybsteve

You know, do yeah, get you hungry. So.

 

22:37.11

Tanner Mullen

You know if you’ve listened I’m sure now that you’ve referenced him. Yeah, he was good but you know it was ah I was thinking about it yesterday I’m grateful for it all because I would not have had this drive. This drive is so and and it’s and it’s helped me so much you know just when I went to work for people I was going as if I was the business owner.

 

22:48.51

dybsteve

Even.

 

22:55.77

Tanner Mullen

Like I would I would just you know I would work in a way that I would always be recognized for the consistency and the care and what’s great about that is is that I am now the business owner so it’s almost like I earn that and I tell my employees that you know of course we have employees that want to own their own business one day and for me I.

 

23:08.80

dybsteve

Moving out.

 

23:14.79

dybsteve

Hear me.

 

23:15.58

Tanner Mullen

Love when they tell me that I say that’s great news because guess what now I’m gonna hold you to the standard as if you are a business owner and you should be treating my business as if you’re a business owner within my business So when it’s your turn to own a business. You don’t have to rely on learning the traits that you need to be a business owner. You can learn them right here. Yeah.

 

23:19.97

dybsteve

Um, there. Um.

 

23:30.52

dybsteve

There you go and and that’s the right attitude. That’s what being a cooperative capitalist is all about because there’s you know scarcity could come in and say oh no, you’re fired. You’re not gonna become my competition but no, that’s that’s the right mindset and even when they do go out what I found.

 

23:34.34

Tanner Mullen

Yeah there.

 

23:43.50

Tanner Mullen

Right.

 

23:49.27

dybsteve

And maybe you already have is they go out there and they just say you know what? it’s just not worth all that I’d rather you know would you have me back and when they come back. They are the absolute best leads? yeah.

 

23:56.93

Tanner Mullen

I’ve I best I Yeah and I’ve I’ve had people to have to just see what it’s like you know and they have a different respect for you know, Even even guys that haven’t done that with me. There’s guys that have tried it and they come in are like yeah’ve yeah I’m.

 

24:13.38

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah, all.

 

24:13.88

Tanner Mullen

Not going to be doing that but again and some people want it. Some people don’t I tell my guys look the benefit of being an employee is you get to shut off at five o’clock you know I don’t have a shut off. Yeah yeah, yeah.

 

24:20.15

dybsteve

We we don’t we’re always we’re always on wake up and all night use a bathroom we’re thinking. Yeah what’s a paradigm shift. So as as you got started and. Still here with the panny company and and you’re building the penny company. What were some paradigm shifts for you along the way.

 

24:40.80

Tanner Mullen

Well the biggest paradigm shift was you know I had to get out of the way you know that was one you know early on in my business I didn’t know anything about creating a business and not painting. You know that wasn’t the mindset it was hey I’m going to go paint and make some money.

 

24:45.32

dybsteve

Totally.

 

24:55.31

dybsteve

Yes.

 

24:57.37

Tanner Mullen

You know? Um, so that was the biggest one and that’s the first one is just really understanding that my first responsibility is to optimize a team you know and getting getting people to do things that I think that I have to do and that’s as simple as I can put it. You know in other words, something as simple as picking up the paint in the morning. When I delegated that to someone I’ve never I haven’t picked up paint in 5 years you know or 6 years and I only do it if I’m in the area and they need a gallon and I’m coming to the job. Anyway, you know, but something as simple as that so delegating and ah that would be the first one is you know learning how to delegate responsibility.

 

25:22.70

dybsteve

Um, even yeah in a.

 

25:33.92

Tanner Mullen

There be interactions early on in my business I’d have with customers and I’d say hey Kolton is actually the project manager you know I would just like let him hear that make that known to the customer and then anyone around him would know he’s the project manager ask him even though I knew the answer even to the customer even not, you know so having that discipline early on was big but then.

 

25:40.33

dybsteve

  1. 3.

 

25:53.87

Tanner Mullen

Second paradigm shift which I am very good at now which I was not good at was getting the wrong people out and and separating emotion I love people I care about people I brought you into this world. So most of this is my fault anyway. But because of the fact that you’re not meeting our standard. And you’re not aligned with you know where we’re trying to go I have to let you go and that was not easy I would keep people around so long just because 2 reasons it was comfortable and I had too much too much. So my friend to boss ratio was out of out of whack and.

 

26:23.80

dybsteve

Um.

 

26:31.24

Tanner Mullen

I Learned that in the restaurant industry because as a manager in the restaurant industry. Everyone wants to go hang out and you become this friend and I’m like man I can’t really discipline you if we just hung out you know like it’s really weird right? And then you know you won’t invite me out the next time it was such a weird dynamic. So now that’s another thing in my business like.

 

26:38.96

dybsteve

Yeah, and.

 

26:48.48

Tanner Mullen

I love my guys but it’s very rare that we spend any time outside of work unless it’s company organized or like something cool like that and that’s just to number one create a good healthy balance and I’m not saying we can’t you know, just there’s this certain thing that I have you know and I just want to make sure that it remains professional because. Look at my guys sometimes I’m like any 1 of you guys could be the next one that I have to make a tough decision about if you don’t you know, keep the standard high you know because 1 person’s downfall could mean a bad you know review or you know or jobs get behind so that that was the big paradigm shift for me. It’s just separating friendship and business and. Making tough decisions when it comes to hiring and firing.

 

27:27.97

dybsteve

So great point. What would you say what part does culture play for you in your business.

 

27:37.83

Tanner Mullen

Cultures and like the most important thing I have great relationships with all of my guys great. You know and 1 thing I do every time I go to a job is I pull each one of them aside stand outside just have a conversation just about what’s going on. How do they like working here. How are they happy you know.

 

27:47.10

dybsteve

Me.

 

27:53.65

Tanner Mullen

What’s been going on if they want to talk about their personal problems. You know I’m I’m always there to listen you know I just try to be ah, be there. You know as ah as a leader you know for them and that helps with culture but also managing workflow not putting them in positions that I wouldn’t want to be put in. Not forcing work on the weekends, not forcing work. Ah, after hours. Um, because of my inability to schedule things properly. Um, just really putting myself in their shoes and I think they all appreciate that because ah, you know, maybe they haven’t had it in the in the past, but the expectation in return is is that while we’re working. We’re optimizing. Um, and that you know we’re we’re being you know, contributing in it in a positive way I also started doing performance reviews. Um I just did I think I’ve done four out of ah the the 10 and that was eye-opening for me. This is my first round doing it like actual official performance reviews and I learned a lot you know so again that helps with culture just them.

 

28:41.98

dybsteve

Um, is.

 

28:44.55

dybsteve

Things.

 

28:50.62

Tanner Mullen

Having a checkpoint and I think without those performance reviews I could see how it’s a sense of aimlessness like well where am I in the business. How have I done and I think we all want to hear that we’re doing a good job like after this podcast I want you to say tanner hey that was a good podcast. Good job right? like that’s the craving we have like you want to hear hey yeah you know.

 

28:55.61

dybsteve

The.

 

29:07.41

dybsteve

Um, yeah, oh yeah, um.

 

29:09.39

Tanner Mullen

Like that was a great interview Steve like you know we all want that sense of like hey we did a good job and all that we do. So I try to always make sure that I emphasize that hey you guys did a great job I share good reviews with them I probably say thank you more than anyone in the world that is another thing that that happens like.

 

29:25.61

dybsteve

Um, the.

 

29:27.88

Tanner Mullen

You can never say thank you too much. It’s like the cheapest form of currency and I overuse it like you wouldn’t believe I am I Withdraw Overdraft My thank you account big time that helps. Yeah, just you know so and hey hey you go pick that up. Thank you and.

 

29:38.47

dybsteve

Canned out. Thank you.

 

29:47.17

dybsteve

Um, yeah.

 

29:47.51

Tanner Mullen

So you know that’s kind of how I’ve done it I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but it’s worked for me I have guys that been with me for years. They treat if you look at our reviews. The the reviews say the crew the crew the crew the crew the team the team the team the team and it’s like what I’ve found is that through that you know I would say for that energy that I give them it translates directly to the customers 2 books that come to mind um, rich dad poor dad was actually I read that in the car dealership I was waiting for people to walk in which very rarely happened now that most people buy cars online.

 

30:08.56

dybsteve

Right? on. What are some books that have made an impact on you.

 

30:17.69

dybsteve

Yeah.

 

30:24.25

dybsteve

For I think.

 

30:26.70

Tanner Mullen

Ah, so I had plenty of time to read that that was that was pivotal a couple takeaways from that were just understanding financial Freedom You know that was important just understanding the difference between you know, working for a dollar and letting a dollar work for you and then the E myth was good as well. Which I’m sure you’ve read. Um.

 

30:32.47

dybsteve

No.

 

30:42.78

dybsteve

Oh.

 

30:45.62

Tanner Mullen

For me the E-yth was you know, just just an eye opener. You got the girl in the pie shop you know and the story and just saying hey you know what? just? yeah yeah, know the tech. Yeah, you do it like now it was ah you know the technician mentality was like hey you cannot.

 

30:52.70

dybsteve

And she looks sad and she reached for my head like come on Michael let’s get to the business. Yeah.

 

31:04.79

Tanner Mullen

Run a business that way so he hit on a really solid topic. Another one was the compound effect now that’s not so much business but the compound effect was really good for me to help me see the micro. Ah you know the micro actions and decisions that add up and I still try to apply some of those things in my life today even though I’ve read that book five years ago those are the 3 that right off the bat.

 

31:07.92

dybsteve

For.

 

31:20.16

dybsteve

Fantastic, Excellent books to anybody listening or watching has not read or listen to those highly recommend all right here’s the fun question. It’s gonna be naturally into the next.

 

31:24.19

Tanner Mullen

Um, stick out to me the most.

 

31:30.31

Tanner Mullen

Death.

 

31:38.21

dybsteve

Business What does your tech stack look like.

 

31:41.11

Tanner Mullen

Tech stack. Oh man. So my tech stack has changed probably more than anyone’s um, I’ll I’ll tell you that there’s there’s tech for you know each area of your business. The first one is gusto that was big for me I would have paychecks or I’d have Adp and. I’m sure they’ve adjusted to this model but gusto was really cool because it’s all self-serve so I can run 10 payrolls if I want I can go in and fix whatever I want I could do whatever I want creates a nice portal for my customer. Not my customers. My employees they can log in see all their stuff. It’s super the onboarding’s easy. So I love gusto for payroll. There’s no better option in my opinion and it’s really cost effective. So that’s for payroll for background checks I use clear checks really good, really good software for that photo sharing I love company cam besides drip jobs company can is my favorite app. It’s awesome. Organizes. All the photos checklists.

 

32:20.10

dybsteve

A.

 

32:34.65

Tanner Mullen

Really solid app. Um, my you know talk with the Ceo and he’s got a really great vision for what he’s building over there and drip jobs organ integrates with it really well. Um, right now we’re using Groupme for for texting or or you know group chat pretty easy group chat.

 

32:48.35

dybsteve

If.

 

32:51.55

Tanner Mullen

And then of course drip jobs So drip Jobs handles pretty much everything proposals invoices appointment scheduling jobs scheduling Automatic Follow-ups texting you know the whole the whole night. So that’s kind of like the the home base and then everything else branches out from there.

 

33:06.58

dybsteve

Okay, right on. So let’s thank you. Let’s go ahead and dive into trip jobs a little bit first. How did they come about.

 

33:15.75

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, so actually I was really um, interested in optimizing my workflow so in every job that I had I always had some so some form of crm you know and of course naturally I wanted to find 1 for the painting business and I couldn’t find one so I’m doing everything on spreadsheets and. Um, um, you know early on I’m buying leads you know and I know that we don’t talk about that every now and again. But I mean I had no other option I didn’t have dyb I had figure it out so I’m buying leads and I’m learning that man like I’m losing track of these leads. There’s people that didn’t answer the phone those people that did answer the phone.

 

33:37.90

dybsteve

She Yeah yeah.

 

33:48.96

Tanner Mullen

There’s people that told me they weren’t ready yet and there’s people that say call them back in three days and I’m starting to get disorganized and I’m thinking. Okay well, how do I figure this out so one of the things I did was of course I put them on a spreadsheet and I’m like cool I got them all organized in a spreadsheet and I’m gonna add this little column with a checkbox that says contact it and another one that says.

 

33:53.39

dybsteve

Now.

 

34:06.93

Tanner Mullen

Said follow up and I think I think I’m a genius I’m sharing it with my little network I’m good guys I created this perfect spreadsheet and then I’m starting to think well I probably should send him a text message in an email so you know I get the text message and I type it up and I copy and paste it and send it and I get the email and copy and paste and send it. No response. Okay, well. Let me maybe send another one so the next day I’d say oh I got to send all my text and emails. So I’d send another one sent another 1 trying to get this appointment book and I’m thinking oh I hate leads. You know this is horrible. You know this is why you need uyb so you’ll have to chase these people down anyway. So. Um, as time went on I kind of optimized this system and I used active campaign I used you can book me I used zapier I used um slick text I used google calendar I used um so that was 5 oh proposal Builder I think I was using estimate rocket at the time or joist one of those 2.

 

34:54.59

dybsteve

M.

 

34:58.83

Tanner Mullen

And I was using stripe or square for payments. So that’s 9 apps. There’s probably 2 more and what I’m doing was as I was combining them all and tying them into zapier which is probably the greatest app of all time I think zapier is probably honestly the greatest.

 

35:03.42

dybsteve

How yeah.

 

35:10.41

dybsteve

From.

 

35:16.30

Tanner Mullen

Invention for apps ever connects everyone amazing. You should see that I looked up their valuation the other day it was like like I don’t know it’s like 50000000000 or some thing insane anyway. So so anyway so I’m so I’m like oh my god again I think I just like.

 

35:19.21

dybsteve

Um, the way. Yeah, what is it? yes.

 

35:32.77

Tanner Mullen

Like discovered fire because what I did was is I found out that a home advisor at the time had an open Api and you can zap in the lead to whatever you want. So I would zap in the lead to activecampa and inside of active campaign I created a follow up sequence text and email and then from there. Was like oh my god this is great. Let me zap it over to estimate rocket and get that customer’s information and estimate rocket and then I zap it over to the calendar. So I created this system and I called it trade thrive and it was just all of these things together similar to probably what you guys do on the d wide b virtual side but mine was kind of like a package called trade thrive.

 

36:05.31

dybsteve

Um, one.

 

36:07.77

Tanner Mullen

That we would just I would reach out to my friends and then some of the people that I was helping out and I would set it up for them and people loved it because it’s like oh wow I don’t have to type in information 8 times because of that I knew that there was a need for something custom right? So during covid I was.

 

36:15.37

dybsteve

To whom.

 

36:23.67

Tanner Mullen

On Instagram and I’m just looking at for some you I was looking at my followers just 1 random day and I see this company. It’s like a software development company I’m like hey this is cool. Let me go check out what they have and they had actually an invoicing and I think they had like ah a project management app for trades.

 

36:38.42

dybsteve

So.

 

36:40.53

Tanner Mullen

So My thought was okay I’m looking for something better than what I have maybe I can whitelabel what they have and just tie it into my automations I’m like this would be even better because it has like some scheduling and it’s kind of designed for Contractors. So I reached out to them on a phone call said hey I do this I would love to see if I can white label your software. They’re like. Right? Well, let’s get together on a call and I get on a call I’m like okay but can we do this and can we do this and good them I’m all excited like Enter. No, that’s a custom software. We can build you that but you know you’re gonna have to pay for it. So This is right in the middle of Covid I don’t even know if my painting business is gonna survive. But when you have a vision.

 

37:03.14

dybsteve

A.

 

37:09.13

dybsteve

Name.

 

37:18.55

Tanner Mullen

And no one can stop you I’m like I know this’s going to work like people need this like this is going to change the the landscape of you know, painting businesses forever you know and ah so I invested way too much money and that was with my wife’s blessing. It’s more money that I’ve ever spent my life on anything.

 

37:33.59

dybsteve

Here on.

 

37:37.93

Tanner Mullen

Ah, to get this thing going I knew nothing about software I knew in retrospect I didn’t even know what I was getting I just knew that hey I gave them a wire frame I gave them with it I gave them a 50 page document I spent 3 nights typing up everything I wanted and I said this is what I want they gave me a price for it.

 

37:41.92

dybsteve

Moving.

 

37:54.64

Tanner Mullen

So that’s how tripop is born which is a custom software top to bottom. There’s nothing spent spun off about it and at this time to give some context full circle. We have 8 full-time employees. We have 5 full-time developers. We have a customer success.

 

37:55.16

dybsteve

Me. Okay.

 

38:09.89

Tanner Mullen

Ah, representative support. We have a account executive who handles all the sales and demos and we have a sales development representative who does outbound calling all day. Um, and it’s ah it’s really taking off. It’s ah it’s a great program.

 

38:21.52

dybsteve

That is awesome. That is really cool. Well well done indeed and you gave April night a tour what a week or two ago and we’re really impressed I’m really impressed with what you’ve done some you know features that stand out or that it’s a pipe-drive crm.

 

38:26.25

Tanner Mullen

Ah, yeah, thank you man.

 

38:30.73

Tanner Mullen

Yeah.

 

38:40.90

dybsteve

But the other side of that and this is something that’s lacking in most Crm um is the revenue source reports and lead source reports by revenue so important right? If you don’t know where you’re making your money What do again? you know what do you know to double down on and what do you know to cut loose and.

 

38:46.29

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, so important.

 

38:53.42

Tanner Mullen

Exactly yeah and you need a full circle software to be able to perform that you need to know where and that’s why we require lead source on everything like at the very least they’ll pick something but most people we find choose it because I’ll double back every now and again and say.

 

38:59.40

dybsteve

No.

 

39:11.48

Tanner Mullen

You know if I meet them. How’d you hear about us and I just cop I’m just checked. Make sure they pick the right one you know? but yeah, it’s It’s so important if you don’t have something that takes in the lead and then invoices at the end to to capture that that dollar amount then but yeah, you’re absolutely right? Very important metric.

 

39:15.77

dybsteve

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

39:27.27

dybsteve

April I had ah you know we’ve got a running joke story back in the days you know when she first came on. We were still we were you know trying to make our way out of startup season and she’d get excited about a new lead. They’d call in she’d call me not be on the road or whatever and I didn’t I’d have to interrupt her I’m like source. What’s the source source.

 

39:40.32

Tanner Mullen

Where they come from. Yeah I Love that.

 

39:43.97

dybsteve

Ah, so you know and so she jokes around. She’s like okay okay, yeah, yeah, it’s rotary or whatever it might be I’m like okay, great news all right now now give me the rest of the information.

 

39:47.70

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but nothing’s more exciting than knowing that like for example I did an ad in this retirement company or retirement community and one of the cool things I did.

 

39:58.27

dybsteve

Man.

 

40:03.26

Tanner Mullen

And I don’t know if you’ve ever done this you ever take out an ad in a retirement community. 1 of their books like you ever do that? No so so I look through their book Steve and I’m looking at it. It’s like they have all the fun stuff in the first half of the book and on the second half of the book. It’s just ads. It’s just like.

 

40:07.22

dybsteve

No is.

 

40:17.42

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah.

 

40:19.69

Tanner Mullen

It’s this ad so you know what I’m like I’m going to take a full page ad out but on half of the page these are retirees I’m going to put a crossword puzzle so it gives them something that yeah.

 

40:27.56

dybsteve

A ah, let’s eyes. Ah yeah.

 

40:32.70

Tanner Mullen

On the bottom half of the page was a crossword puzzle and at the top it was my ad and we’ve generated $20000 so far and that ad started in April and again source you know and it’s like I got you from the booklet and I’m like it’s got to be the crossword puzzle that was it.

 

40:47.65

dybsteve

Yeah, ah, that’s really, ah yeah.

 

40:50.80

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, yeah because I looked at it I’m like if I’m an older person you know and they love doing those things still you know and I’m like so I looked online I looked up Crossword Puzzle generator and it was like parts of your house and that was it. So.

 

40:58.92

dybsteve

Oh my goodness and so they’re on that thing for like an hour or so I don’t know how large it is. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s brilliant, well done.

 

41:05.58

Tanner Mullen

And then they look up and they see a picture of 8 guys in uniforms hey need your house baby? Yeah, thank you.

 

41:16.54

dybsteve

Ah, well done indeed walk us through real quick of trip drive. So go ahead and give us like um yeah, go ahead and give us an overview if you would just so I mean we’ve talked about it. But.

 

41:23.15

Tanner Mullen

Yeah elev elevator pitch would be simple. You have leads and customers. It’s not just for leads. You know these are for your customers too. Leads is just really like one if I had to break it down in tenths the lead nurturing is just like one tenth of what it does and that’s just one stage so in your business you have 11 stages. And that’s an understatement I have people to add stages. But naturally there’s 11 stages that a customer will go through if they decide to buy with you ten if let’s say ten first 1 is a cold lead. So let’s say that comes in from a lead source and it doesn’t have to be Angie or home advisor or thumbtack. This could be. Ah, Google or Facebook right? Maybe you have a landing page and they go in they put in their name their email and a phone number right? That’s a cold lead. You have to reach out to them. Um, so what’s cool is initially that drip jobs will send a text message in an email. It’ll say hey we’ve got your request please click here. So there’s an internal booking form that they can fill out once. You know they get that text message now if they don’t fill that form out. They’re still in the cold lead stage Steve so that means that drip jobs knows hey we need to keep sending them follow ups because they’re still in that stage. Well when they do fill it out. It moves the customer to a new stage automatically and stops the old followups. So the customer always gets. Automatic communication relating to where they are in the buying process. There’s never the wrong communication going out and and that’s what makes us different is not only do we give the software with all of the followups built in we we give it with the automate the pipeline automation built in because we know what contractors need. So.

 

42:37.80

dybsteve

From.

 

42:55.42

Tanner Mullen

Your cold leads and then you have warm leads right? So if you get a lead. Let’s say from rotary and they say hey you know what Steve I just wanted to say hello. We’re not moving in until I don’t know next July right? and then well you know that’s great Joanne Hello but you know.

 

43:08.59

dybsteve

And.

 

43:10.71

Tanner Mullen

Ah, well what we’re gonna do is put that customer in warm leads which is a long-term followup sequence right? So it might go out for nine months every month hey it’s Steve you know touch and base did you have any questions about the project are we still on schedule for us to come out. You know later down the line by the way if you’re ready to proceed here’s a link right. So we know in warm leads. That’s a long-term follow-up next is estimate requested. These are the good customers. These are ones that go right to the website. These are the ones that call in these are the ones that are ready for an estimate. We send them a link or we put them in manually an estimate requested and it and it creates an estimate request in the system. Then we have estimates scheduled. That’s when they’re on the schedule we have in draft. That’s when we’re building their proposal but haven’t sent it yet. We have proposal sent. That’s when we send the proposal so all of us as contractors. We send all sorts of proposals I guarantee you up to any contractor you say hey real quick name me the last 5 people you gave a proposal to. They would not be able to do it and then they have to go to a software scroll down the list. Ours is easy. It’s visual proposal sent up 1 through 3 4 5 right? there. So if they’re in that stage remember they’re getting followups hey are you ready to move forward hey have you thought about financing hey here’s our last before and after. Hey and it’s just nurturing customers and at the very least we’re getting responses whether they go with us or not. We’re getting responses so that’s your sales pipeline right? Then you have your jobs pipeline which many people forget right? So some people think that drip jobs just you know does ah you know marketing and sales. But you can drip out production based.

 

44:21.28

dybsteve

Um.

 

44:38.44

Tanner Mullen

Communication Steve. So for example I have someone that um, so once the once the project is accepted. They put down their deposit. It moves to the jobs pipeline a follow up sends out right away it says hey. Thanks so much for going with us now that you’ve you know, proceeded to move forward here’s our checklist for you to prepare for your interior project and then next is. When you schedule it hey we need colors please submit your colors with this form and when it’s in project in progress hey 24 hours later hey just touch a base. Are you happy with the progress so far right? So you can really get creative with how you communicate um with the customer in these stages and that’s the that’s the gist of it. And then it ties into all the things that you would expect invoices proposals work orders change orders all the things that you need to to create a good experience for your customer.

 

45:24.78

dybsteve

Yeah, so it’s estimating to the the share and reporting. Yeah yep.

 

45:29.74

Tanner Mullen

Production rate estimating? Yep so we actually as of right now I just got the final review so we are prepared to launch that within two weeks so we’ll have a full yelp I know that’s been that has been fun. Um.

 

45:36.83

dybsteve

Um, hey yeah.

 

45:41.90

Tanner Mullen

Ah, production rate estimating inside of there which is 100% necessary it should be the industry standard I just don’t think anyone’s made it easy enough to do that’s my personal opinion on it in terms of just speed efficiency. You know, um and flexibility because every job is different I had someone come to me and say tanner there’s software that I’m using. But.

 

45:46.58

dybsteve

Okay, no, or yeah.

 

46:00.73

Tanner Mullen

Um, it doesn’t allow me to change the spread rate on a per substrate basis and I’m like well that doesn’t make sense because if we go on Stucco You know we’re going to use you know more paint than if we were painting a flat wall. You know.

 

46:06.48

dybsteve

Um.

 

46:11.32

dybsteve

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

46:13.94

Tanner Mullen

So ah, yeah, just things like that So we try to take all the feedback and create something really easy. And yeah.

 

46:19.28

dybsteve

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Thank you very much. We’ll post an link to trip jobs in in the show notes or on Youtube in the description and there’s an extended pardon me a little bit a little bit. Ah oh yeah.

 

46:26.66

Tanner Mullen

You you paint it if you’ve paint a little I’ll go right? okay.

 

46:36.11

dybsteve

Yeah, ah I so I think I still wake up the middle night painting stucco but ah, ah we we rolled eighteen inch ah eighteen inch rollers we were you know either the well you know, always let the let them decide I never.

 

46:41.84

Tanner Mullen

Try to get it in. Did you did you spray? ah Stucco or you did you roll? nice.

 

46:55.70

dybsteve

Really cared as long as they you don’t hit hit times within our standards but we didn’t spray we we cut and rolled and we use that as a selling point as well and a lot. Yeah, so it helps it’s another.

 

46:57.11

Tanner Mullen

Um, sure Yeah I’m the same one.

 

47:04.83

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, it is a selling point. There’s a lot of customers have some apprehension about spraying. Yeah, it does.

 

47:13.73

dybsteve

Key to sell to close them. Yeah, so we’ll leave a link to drip jobs in there and there’s an extended trial period with this link. So If you’re interested I mean you go straight to the website. You’re welcome to. But if you use this link you get an extended trial period and then tanner while so or somesc we give you a free demo now heads up on the demo.. There’s a $50 deposit but it’s refundable if you show up which is smart so you know I was thinking about that with my strategy calls I’m like I should charge and because you kid all you know they don show up.

 

47:36.13

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, yes, that was yeah yeah, no, it’s been super helpful I mean and we call that an onboarding so we’ll happily do a demo for free.

 

47:48.90

dybsteve

Okay, right now.

 

47:49.86

Tanner Mullen

You can go on and we’ll do a demo for free. That’s no problem. We don’t mind doing that but the onboardings are more in depth we go in we help you set up your account and just to be clear Steve and Dyb are the only people in the whole world getting a seventy five day trial for his clients and anyone listening so through Steve’s link you get seventy five days you get you can transform your business with drip jobs for free. Ah in seventy five days so that’s absolutely free just mention dyb when you come in and we’ll help you out sure course.

 

48:15.95

dybsteve

Awesome! Appreciate that tanner. Thank you now before we roll out. Is there a question I should have asked or any final points. You’d like to make.

 

48:25.60

Tanner Mullen

Yeah, you know I think um I Really love you know what you represent in the industry I’m to be honest with you I’m excited to see you at Expo and and I know that ah you know you’re gonna be putting out some more content in our massive painting contractor community you know to be honest I think ah. You’ve hit hit a lot of cool things I’m grateful to be able to tell my story and you know my mission is to you know impact the lives of contractors and business owners through through the vehicle of software I’m a software nerd I Love I Love streamlining processes and making things easier and. Growing growing a painting business at the same time is really rewarding. You know to be able to take my own medicine use it when I’m ah out there and then also get frustrated at myself when something doesn’t work. But.

 

49:05.23

dybsteve

Um.

 

49:13.22

Tanner Mullen

And then write an immediate message to the team. We got to fix this. So yeah, you know, just just being part of the community and I just want to thank you for having me man. It’s been been cool to be a part of this.

 

49:14.44

dybsteve

Um, here here.

 

49:22.77

dybsteve

Fantastic! Thank you and canrely sincerely tell you it has been fun. An awesome interview. A lot of fun. Great job the storie. Yeah, great job. Well done. Ah, this.

 

49:28.87

Tanner Mullen

Thanks Steve great job to you too. Hello was waiting for that. Thank you Steve great job, great interview. Somebody’s I know they’re going to laugh in my epoxy story that is 100% true it is I probably have pictures somewhere I might give to Steve.

 

49:37.40

dybsteve

This one’s gonna be a hit. There’s no doubt. Ah, we’ll look back on the stats and it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah, that’s awesome I’ve been there. Ah, ah, that’s awesome I could just see your shoes melting you pull them off your socks sticking heves. Ah.

 

49:48.16

Tanner Mullen

Ah, you can add it to the the show notes.

 

49:52.43

Tanner Mullen

To yeah yeah, so that’s how you learn a lesson. The hard way is to stick with what you’re if you take anything just do what you’re good at and don’t do it again. Yep, that’s right.

 

49:56.38

dybsteve

We’ve been there I get it so it’s why especially? Ah, yeah, yes, stick to your 3 p’s right, that’s it. Well if somebody would like to contact you. What’s the best way they should reach out.

 

50:11.50

Tanner Mullen

You can find me on Instagram at contractor coach um, or you could just go to drip jobs.com and you know if you really need to get hold of me, you probably go through the help desk as the quickest place I’ll respond you know so just just get to us there.

 

50:18.21

dybsteve

Yeah, get very that. Okay, awesome. Well tenner. Thank you again. Appreciate it. A lot of fun. You’re welcome have a great day.

 

50:27.10

Tanner Mullen

My pleasure man. Thank you you too.

 

About the Author

As a newly single father of two from MI, he struggled to start over as a paint contractor in FL, going door to door. His situation was so bad, even the IRS had mercy on him.

 Feeling completely hopeless, he remembered the story of King Solomon praying for wisdom. Could it be so easy? 

He felt he had absolutely nothing to lose. So, as a bankrupt, divorced, high school dropout, single father of 2 young kids, now living 1250 miles away from all friends and family, started to pray for wisdom.
 And while he continues to wait for the wisdom to arrive, what did come was an insatiable desire to learn and read books… 
Thanks to God for giving him the burning passion to read books, and attend seminars, (oh and winning the wife lottery) he not only cracks the success code and overcomes the struggle, but also streamlines his painting business in less than 3 years, published a how to book, then sold the company. Now he leads a business coaching company for painting contractors so he can help other businesses, like yours, to do the same. Hear more... http://www.DYBCoach.com/01 Or JoinDYB.com