Painting Contractor Business Coach

How Kevin’s Maller Painting of Portland OR, Doubled His Business last year from $500,000 to $1,000,000!

 

SUMMARY

 

This episode of the DYB Podcast Steve Burnett chats with Kevin Maller himself to discuss his amazing journey in the painting business.

Kevin starts by telling his roots in painting and eventually branching out to pave his own way with his own painting company.

In here, he learned hands-on how to grow from word of mouth to doubling with Facebook marketing

From making 100k annually, he has now grown his business tenfold past the million-dollar mark…

LISTEN HERE

QUOTES

 

21:57 “Everything was word of mouth. I basically had a bunch of contractor friends that I had called around and… my dad actually had some residual phone calls.

Paintegrity, the company I was working for was kind of, you know, sending me anybody that called their old number.

So… everything was word of mouth all the way up from 2012 to 2016.

And I prided myself on being a word of mouth painter.”

 

24:32 “Indirectly or directly, most of these extra leads were coming from Facebook. So I really got inspired to start marketing to generate more leads.

And from 2017 to 2018, we jumped another 100k to half a million that year and that year I really…

I feel like it was right around when I got around 400 or 500 likes to my page is when my Facebook really started working for me.”

 

26:09 “So I would take before and afters or I would take a bunch of really quality photos, I’d post them up on Facebook,

I would add really catchy lines, use great words like ‘imagine‘ or ‘ask a question‘ or if a rhetorical question and try to get people engaged.”

 

34:06 “With before and after, I always like to put the after photo first because the first photo is the biggest photo.

So you want that photo to be kind of your wow photo. And then you would put the before photo second.

So it may say before and after is up there but you always want to put the after first. You don’t want the old dingy photo to be the biggest photo in the box.”

 

39:33 “Really, if you have enough leads coming in, you’re not going to care if you get that job or not. You’re going to price that job accordingly and you’re going to spend that job off and it’s up to them to figure out how they’re going to come up with that money to pay for that job. Not you.

So by getting more leads, you’re sending more higher dollar bids out and you’re doing actually less work and you’re making more.

If that makes $ense.”

 

49:49 “You know, all of my competitors are my friends. I’ve really made it a thing to befriend everybody in the area.

I know all the big contractors around. First name basis. We all have each others’ phone numbers. We all call each other, bounce stuff off each other.

We pass jobs to each other if we can’t handle it…”

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

03:20 Kevin’s professional history and introduction to the painting business

 

11:45 Getting lost, returning as an estimator, and learning how to hustle

 

18:35 Founding his own company and growing leads

 

23:00 Facebook as a main marketing tool

 

35:48 Motivation, a thirst for knowledge, and cultivating leads

 

44:26 Kevin’s reading list and apps he uses

 

RESOURCES

 

Maller Painting Co on Facebook 

The E-Myth Revisited

Traction

How to Win Friends and Influence People 

The Culture Code

One Million Followers

Estimate Rocket (60 day free trial)

Acuity Online Appointment Scheduling

PipelineDeals: Sales CRM

Mailchimp Email Marketing Platform

QuickBooks accounting software

mallerpaintco@gmail.com

 

About the Author

As many of you know, my journey has been one of grit, grace, and transformation. At 19, I was a high school dropout, single father, and struggling paint contractor in Michigan. I later moved to Florida, where I faced both personal and professional hardships. With nothing left to lose, I turned to prayer—and was blessed with a relentless hunger to learn. I devoured books, attended seminars, and discovered better ways to streamline and grow my business—even through the Great Recession (and yes, I did hit the wife lottery along the way!). In 2014, I published How To Double Your Business and later sold the painting business, launching a new chapter: coaching others to grow their businesses. For the past 10 years, I’ve dedicated myself to helping business owners scale through the DYB System, while also drawing from frameworks like EOS, Scaling Up, and The Four Disciplines of Execution. Yet something was still missing—something more adaptive, integrated, and complete. Then I found Pinnacle. After months of research and interviews with other Guides, I joined Pinnacle. Their tools and strategies have exceeded every expectation. Now, as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help leadership teams implement a custom-tailored operating system that draws from the best in the industry—but flexes with your unique business. It’s a dynamic, proven approach to achieve clarity, momentum, and lasting growth. I’m no longer taking on any more 1:1 coaching clients… Instead, I now specialize in working with visionary business owners who are ready to get their leadership teams aligned—around a clear vision, a focused strategy, and an actionable execution plan. With the tools and process I now have as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help turn alignment into momentum, and momentum into results. If your business is growing—but your leadership team isn’t fully rowing in the same direction—let’s talk.