painting business, painting contractor, painting, business coach, painting

What to Do When One of Your Painters Make a Mistake

Hi Guys, Greg here from DYB.

Today I wanted to share a little confession with you about something that changed in my paradigm, which really improved the culture of my company.

When I first started, I was really rigid, and my expectations were very high of my employees, and when they would make mistakes, I would get angry about it and be emotional and get upset.

I overheard a conversation one day after I did a review with one of my guys, he walked out the door to another employee, and he said, “That guy can make you feel like you don’t fit your own shoe”.

It snapped a twig in my mind, and I realized that I was setting the bar way too high and I wasn’t giving them room for growth.

So, fast-forward to a few years later, and I have completely adjusted the way that I handle mistakes, and I believe you can learn from my experience.

When An Employee Makes a Mistake, Don’t Lose Your “Cool”

When an employee makes a mistake, we still discuss it, but I never lose my “cool”, I encourage them to tell me about the mistake so that I can help them plan for the future and not have it happen again.

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I would tell you right now that humbling up and doing this has completely changed the relationships that I have with my employees.

They are not afraid to call me when anything happens whereas, sometimes when you are aggressive and angry at people, they tend to shut down, they don’t want to tell you things that happen.

I have learned so much about jobs and mistakes and little things that happen that we have been able to train on, just because of this one little shift in the way that I behaved.

Develop Trust with Your Employees

It’s a totally different mindset than I used to have; you have to develop trust with your employees.

We’ve all made mistakes as business owners, we have to own them, just the same as employees do.

And if you have somebody who is making a reoccurring mistake over and over again, then you make a decision on your discretion.

But all I am saying is that employees that infrequently make mistakes and don’t have recurring of the same incident are people that you should put your faith into and trust them to grow.

Give them the opportunity to be honest and culture that into your business and see how much that changes for you –It did for me.

I hope this is helpful for you guys!

Thank you for dropping by. Follow us on YouTube at “DYB Coach”, we also have a podcast on iTunes; “DYB Podcast”

If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below!

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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.