May 9, 2025 • 35 mins
In this insightful episode of the Profitable Painter Podcast, host Daniel Honan sits down with Chad Huber, owner of Casa Keepers and founder of the groundbreaking Painting Angels, for a deep dive into building a business rooted in culture, communication, and social impact.
Chad shares his unconventional journey into the contracting world, sparked by frustration with poor contractor experiences. His mission? To redefine professionalism in the trades by prioritizing low-stress, high-communication service, values now embedded in his $3M+ Texas-based renovation business. But his vision doesn’t stop there. With Painting Angels, Chad is tackling two crises head-on: the skilled labor shortage and economic barriers for single mothers. This all-female painting company isn’t just about flawless finishes, it’s about creating career pathways and transforming lives.
Key Takeaways from Chad Huber:
🔹 Culture Over Skill: Why hiring for values (like communication and cleanliness) beats technical expertise, and how to spot the right fit.
🔹 The Working Genius Model: How Chad uses this framework to align team strengths with roles, and why a "wonder" thinker shouldn’t be a carpenter.
🔹 Solving Pain Points: From no-shows to radio silence, how Chad’s own contractor horror stories shaped his company’s core promises.
🔹 Painting with Purpose: The inspiring story behind Painting Angels, a venture designed to empower women and elevate the trade’s reputation.
🔹 Scaling with Heart: Why deep systems (not shiny objects) fuel growth, and how to stay focused on what truly matters.
Whether you’re a trades professional tired of the "chaos norm" or an entrepreneur looking to build a business with legacy, this episode is packed with actionable lessons on leadership, hiring, and the power of solving real-world problems.
On August 5th 2025, I’m hosting a free, live webinar revealing:
✅ How to pay way less in taxes—legally
✅ The simple ratio top painting businesses use to grow profits fast
✅ What the top 20% of painters are doing differently
Go to BookkeepingForPainters.com/Webinar to register now!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast.
The mission of this podcast issimple to help you navigate the
financial and tax aspects ofstarting, running and scaling a
professional painting business,from the brushes and ladders to
the spreadsheets and balancesheets.
We've got you covered.
But before we dive in, a quickword of caution While we strive
to provide accurate andup-to-date financial and tax
(00:20):
information, nothing you hear onthis podcast should be
considered as financial advicespecifically for you or your
business.
Welcome to the ProfitablePainter Podcast.
My name is Daniel.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Honan, the founder of Bookkeeping for Painters.
I help painting businesses knowtheir numbers and what they
mean and save big in tax.
And today I'm super excited totalk with Chad Huber.
Chad has a very successfulbusiness in Texas and today
we're going to dive into hisjourney, what he's accomplished
and what things he has for thefuture.
(01:12):
So super excited to have you onthe podcast, chad.
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Thanks for asking.
I'm glad to be here.
Awesome, let's get into things.
So you've had quite the journeyin the contracting industry.
How did that journey begin andwhat have been some of the most
defining moments along the way?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, let's see.
My journey in contractingactually started as a customer.
I had an optical store that wasrelatively successful and
enjoyed doing that and decidedthat I would flip some houses on
the side.
And the more contractors Idealt with, the more frustrated
I became in how they ran theirbusiness.
(01:53):
I figured out if I ran myoptical store like a lot of
contractors ran their business,I would be out of business.
So through the years starteddoing a little more myself and
put together a little team andfigured out I enjoyed it.
So we're 20-something yearsdown the road, a couple of
adventures in different ways,but been doing it for about that
long.
So I came into the business ofcontracting, not as a carpenter
(02:16):
coming up off the tools, butreally just seeing the need in
the business and enjoying doingit.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Okay.
So it sounds like, because alot of folks, especially in the
contracting industry that's kindof how they start is they?
They had a skill, they had acarpenter, their painter,
drywall, whatever skill thatthey had and but it sounds like
you, um, you, basically you cameat it from a business
perspective.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Correct.
Yeah, I grew up one of twochildren from a single mother.
We had, I think we had a pinktoolbox in the house, maybe with
a screwdriver and a hammer anda tape measure and a set of
Allen wrenches.
That was about my tooleducation as a kid.
But growing up and in my lateteens and early 20s I did kind
of enjoy tinkering around andmaking a few things, but never
(03:06):
in carpentry as a career, notuntil I was in my, I guess, late
twenties and early thirtieswhen we started flipping houses.
That did I even own a saw, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And and so that must've been a pretty intense
interaction that you had withthe contractors, because it's
not often like because that's acommon thing, you know, with
that having that bad experiencewith contractors a lot of folks,
to include contractorsthemselves, have had those bad
(03:38):
experiences.
But you actually took it toanother level by like, hey, I
can do this better, I'm going toactually solve this problem so
folks don't have to go throughthis.
So you really took it into yourown hands.
So what happened?
Like what was so bad that madeyou actually start another
business and solve that issue?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So keep in mind, this was back before everyone had a
cell phone attached to their hipall the time and I would leave
my profitable job and I would gomeet a contractor.
So they would say, hey, we'llmeet at this house Tuesday at 8
am or Tuesday at 9 am.
So Tuesday at 9 am I wouldleave and I would go drive to
the house and I would wait, andI would wait, and I would wait
(04:21):
and they would show up and maybea day or maybe two days later I
would hear from them and theywould say, yeah, I got tied up
at another job and no notice, noheads up, not even a stop by.
This was again a long time ago,so you might just pop in.
They knew where I worked.
I was there all day and it wasjust that lack of communication
over and over.
I can remember having projectsthat were supposed to have a
(04:42):
defined end date, and maybe Ihad a house I needed to put on
the market and we would go aweek before that date only to be
told that they were still fiveor six or eight weeks out.
No communication in the middle.
Really, the business aspect waswhat was very frustrating.
I enjoyed seeing the homes gettransformed.
That's still my favorite partof the process is the before and
(05:03):
after.
To homes get transformed.
That's still my favorite partof the process is the before and
after.
But just seeing how poorlyloved contractors ran their
businesses was the frustratingpart for me as a customer.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So it sounds like that experience was very
stressful and had a lot of badcommunication in it.
It did.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Very disrespectful.
Yeah, I think that's part ofthe issue that we find is all
trades whether it's painting ortile or carpentry or general
contracting is being able to begood communicators and treat
people just like we're in anyother industry.
That requires us to keepsomebody updated.
I tell clients these days, whenyou take your car in to be
(05:44):
serviced, the mechanic will takea video of what he finds in
your car and send it to you in atext message to your phone so
that you can tell you know whattheir progress is on your repair
.
And yet sometimes in theconstruction industry we expect
people to go two or three or,you know, four or five days,
even a week, before they have anupdate.
So it's just a different world.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, it sounds like so.
Actually getting those updatesto clients can really enhance
the experience because they,when there's no communication,
that's when folks start to feellike, okay, is anything getting
actually done here?
Do I need to, you know?
Dig into this further?
It's increasing the level ofstress when they don't hear from
someone they've hired and paidmoney to to do it.
And I noticed one of the youknow you're the owner of Casa
(06:36):
Keepers out of Texas and one ofthe core values.
Actually you have two corevalue, three core values, looks
like on your website.
You have low stress, like yourpromise to your customers is
that they're going to have a lowstress experience and also
you're going to have goodcommunication.
And it sounds like in that thatbad experience that you had
with contractors that spurredyou to start your business, it
(06:59):
translated into your kind ofyour promise to your customers
that you weren't going to havethem be stressed out or
communicated in a poor fashionright out the gate.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, that's well said Feeling the pain point.
I think that's what helps us bedifferent is feeling the pain
of a customer going through thatprocess.
You know the client journeyseveral times and being
frustrated with how it happened.
I think that that helped us todevelop a company culture that's
different on purpose.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, and that's big because it's easy.
I would say you know, if you'rea sole proprietor or someone
that's doing, a solopreneur,that's doing everything, you
might be able to have thosevalues and be able to execute
that.
You know that.
Okay on your end, if it's justyou, but you have a pretty large
team over there at Casa Keepers.
(07:49):
Where are you now in terms ofyour business?
How big is the business, casaKeepers?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So we're about nine years old I think we just
crossed our nine-yearanniversary this past month and
we've got 12 people on the team.
We run in the constructionworld what you would call like a
lead carpenter model.
So we have one person who'sassigned to a project even in
renovations, from start tofinish, for that
communications-centric ability.
(08:18):
So we have one person assignedto deal with that particular
client.
We're about $3 million in total.
Revenue is our goal for thisyear and it looks like we're on
track at the end of April to getthere, excellent, excellent,
and having that larger team at 3million 12 carpenters 12 people
.
That's entirely my sales staff,myself.
(08:39):
That's 12 people on the team.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, 12 people on the team.
Excuse 12 people on the team,Excuse me.
You know, having that largerteam, it becomes a challenge to
ensure that the thing that youthink is important, that you
feel is important, likeproviding that low stress
experience, having thatcommunication, that cleanliness
how do you ensure that that getsfiltered down to your team,
that everyone's on the same pageproviding that customer
(09:05):
experience?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We do take culture very seriously.
That's something that we talkabout often.
We you know skill, I believe,is something that can be trained
more easily than culture.
So we try to hire people whounderstand our culture, who feel
like treating someone's homewith respect and conversing with
someone of the professional iskind of who they are, you know.
(09:29):
They want to be a place thatthey would feel comfortable
working, and then whatever skillthey may have or not have is
kind of secondary is whether ornot they get it.
So you know the old saying ofgetting the right people on the
bus and the right people off thebus and the right people in the
right seats on the bus.
So we don't fight culture veryoften because we hire for it.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So you hire for culture first.
That's the most important thing, it sounds like, and skill is
kind of a secondary thing.
You might or may not need it,but you're really focused, it
sounds like, on making surefolks have the right culture fit
for your organization one ofour core values is that you kind
(10:12):
of be a lifelong learner, thatyou like, you know you don't get
stuck.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
And so if you hire somebody who doesn't have a
particular skill or even hasnever done a particular job
before but they like to learn,then having the right person,
the right culture, who can learna skill?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
that's that's golden.
That makes sense.
So that's kind of how youcompensate, like you hire for
culture, and part of the cultureis that they like to learn and
they are open to that, and sothat's how you kind of make up
for the fact that they might nothave all the precise skills
that you want them to have, butif they have the intelligence
(10:50):
and the desire to learn, theycan easily get caught up and on
track.
It sounds like Absolutely yes.
Yeah, I think that's that is areally cool way to approach it.
And how do you actually youknow what we're saying hire for
culture?
Some folks listening might belike okay, how do I hire for
(11:12):
these kinds of abstract ideas?
How do you actually implement ahiring or recruiting process
that will get somebody who is,you know, really good at
communication and likes to learn, like, how do you pull that out
of folks and screen for that asthey move through the
recruiting and hiring process?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I think it all, for us at least, begins with an ad
that sounds like us.
When we place a Help Wanted adfor whatever position it has,
all of those words already inthere.
It kind of describes how wework and the tone.
I said the tone of voice.
In marketing we have a thingcalled the tone of voice.
(11:54):
Well, in hiring you have thesame kind of thing.
It's a tone of voice.
And so if somebody is veryrough and you know it's kind of
a gruff personality, they willprobably find our ads and our
website and our materials not totheir liking.
They will self-filter.
You know we do the same thingwith clients.
We want clients to feel aparticular tone when they look
(12:14):
at our business and so somepeople just self-filter out if
that's not a good fit for them.
So that's our beginning is justwe write to the people that we
want to hire and to the rightpeople.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It kind of resonates the marketing side of things.
You you kind of have yourclient avatar.
You know like you're who do youwant to to reach out to in your
, your marketing copy and you,who do you want to speak to?
And so you're doing that thesame thing on the recruiting
(12:46):
side.
So, like who do you want tospeak to?
To identify like who's going tobe a great fit for our team,
and then you develop that copyor the you know the kind of the
recruiting copy I guess youcould say and make sure that it
calls out to that candidate andthat they feel attracted to this
(13:06):
position because you're sayingall the things that they also
value yes, yes, awesome, yes,yes, awesome, um.
So in, so you have the, therecruiting posting or the job ad
and so you're calling out thosethings.
And then, I'm assuming, in theinterview process there's like
(13:27):
questions about culture as wellor like how they react in
certain um situations.
Is that how you kind ofdetermine, based off their
responses, if they're a goodculture fit?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I would say we'll do.
You know, we've all done theinterview questions, or most of
us have done the interviewquestions.
You know, name a time whenyou've had conflict and how you
resolved it, and I think that'sit's less helpful in reality
than it seems on paper.
So conversations are number one.
We also try and offer somethingto talk about.
(13:58):
So we use the working geniuspersonality assessment for
workflow and we hire by thatworking genius.
A particular position mayrequire a different set of
working geniuses, of skills andnatural aptitudes, and so in
discussing those things I'mdiscussing maybe past work
experience it helps us to get afeel for whether someone would
(14:23):
fit the needed position in a waythat both fulfills them and
fits the position goals.
So it's a lot of questions, alot of stories.
I wish that there was justboxes that we could check.
But, um, you know, people topeople it's it's hearing about
their story, maybe how, whatthey've done in the past and
what their goals are for thefuture, and if those align with
what the position needs.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Okay, cool.
So it sounds like you're usingworking genius.
There's a book, um, I can'tremember who wrote it, but it,
like, outlines the six types ofworking genius.
Is that the framework thatyou're using?
That's it?
Yeah, patrick.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Moncioni, the six types of working genius, and we
use that for both our clientjourney and our hiring to make
sure that we're fitting allthose pieces to the widget, as
they call it, to get the processjust right for people in the
right place so that they feellike their natural gifts and
abilities are also at use intheir job.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, so it sounds like you use it for the
recruiting, hiring process, butalso the customer experience as
well.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, we do.
So.
The idea of the working geniusis basically you can come from a
they use the airplane analogy alot you know 30,000 foot view,
15,000 foot, a 12,000 foot view,and then you're on the ground
and projects go from that.
You know a client first kind ofwonders what they could do, and
then they have to filter downto the things that they actually
can afford to do or might wantto invest in doing, and then
(15:46):
they need a plan to integratethose things.
Then they need the person togalvanize, to put things
together to actually make a workplan and make it happen.
And then we need the attentionto detail which is our tenacity
at the end and the workinggenius model.
So we try to have the rightpeople with those internal
natural giftings in thatposition.
So the client feels like theirjourney is seamless and that all
(16:08):
those pieces have been involvedand they don't realize it.
But it's just part of mappingtheir journey for them.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's really interesting.
I never heard of anybody doingsomething like this before, so
this is super valuable stuffhere.
Did you come up with this ideaor is this kind of something you
learned through reading thebook and other resources,
through the Working Genius?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We have a local Working Genius coach, a good
friend of mine named Wes Henson,and he's walked with us since
the book came out to reallyimplement those processes and to
look at our businessholistically.
Because there's so manydifferent personality styles and
management style books outthere, I think where business
owners or at least entrepreneurslike myself, tend to get
(16:56):
themselves in trouble is chasingafter the next shiny object,
the next new seminar ormanagement method, and so what
we've tried to do instead ofthat is, instead of being very
wide and scattered, we've triedto go very deep, and that one
thing that I do think worksreally well and our working
genius coach has helped quite abit works really well and, uh,
and our working genius coach hashelped quite a bit Excellent.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So you've really taken the idea and gone really
deep with this one idea, asopposed to kind of picking and
choosing through differentmethods.
Um, yeah, that I think that's agreat move, because that's
probably where you get most ofthe value is going deep on
something than just taking, like, the surface level.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yes, we had a carpenter One of my favorite
examples.
We had a carpenter who'sworking genius was wonder so
wonder.
Is somebody who loves a blankpiece of paper?
They just like to think.
You know what could be in theworld.
That's a terrible gift for acarpenter.
You actually your way, you knowyou're not 30,000 feet in the
world.
Uh, that's a terrible gift fora carpenter.
You actually your way, you knowyou're not 30 000 feet in in
the world of being anentry-level carpenter.
(18:00):
You know you need to be in intenacity.
We got to make sure that thenailing pattern is correct and
the door is plumb and square anduh, and so we actually coached
him into another position with adifferent company.
Uh, love him, he's a great guy,but it was not going to be
something long-term that he wasgoing to enjoy.
And now he's somewhere doingsomething else and doing kind of
(18:21):
more of what makes him comealive.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That's awesome.
You actually coached him into adifferent position at a
different company, which I thinkthat says a lot, because most
of the time I think most peoplewould just pretty much fire them
or something like that and saybest of luck, but you don't work
, you don't fit here.
But you actually took the theextra steps to to get them
placed somewhere else, um, whichI think is really cool, and so
(18:48):
I did.
Was he identified as a wonderor a wonder um working genius
before he came on board, or wasit like you implemented it and
then realized this person on myteam is in the wonder status?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
not great for a carpenter so he was already on
our team, but he was anapprentice.
So he's really young guy whocame on as an apprentice while
he was getting out of school andso we didn't at that time, um,
do the working genius assessmentwith, you know, kind of the
really truly entry levelpositions.
So then when he moved up into afull time carpenter and became,
(19:22):
you know, essentially a careerlooking to be a career employee
is when we did that and we allkind of stood back and went
that's not going to be greatlong term, you know, not going
to be great for him, not goingto be great for us, and nobody
wants to go to work every dayand be frustrated with what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So yeah, that, yeah, definitely.
Um, no, I love it.
So, so you've, you've had CasaKeepers for many years.
You've built this company toyou know about 3 million, with a
, with a solid team, usingworking genius, and I know
(19:59):
you're you're you're trying toadd another company to your
portfolio and get into the paintand finishing industry.
Could you tell me a bit aboutwhat you're doing there?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Absolutely so.
Painting Angels is the name ofthis company that we are
starting.
We should be putting paint onwalls in about 30 days, so maybe
when this podcast hits, maybeour first month of working with
clients.
But basically, painting Angelsis an idea that is born out of
my life story.
It's an all-female paintingcompany, which is odd because
(20:33):
I'm not a female nor a painter.
Female painting company, whichis odd because I'm not a female
nor a painter.
But I am the child of a singlemother, as I mentioned earlier,
who by the time she foundherself as a single mom to two
of us, had kind of lost theability to on-ramp onto a career
that could do anything but helpher just survive and feed the
kids.
So that theme has kind of beenworked throughout my life.
(20:56):
My wife and I served asmissionaries to orphanages in
Mexico and one of the thingsthat we ran into over and over
down there is quite often anorphan was an economic orphan.
It wasn't a physical orphan.
This wasn't a kid whose parentshad died or, you know, left
them.
It was typically the case whereit was a single mom and they
couldn't work enough hours, theydidn't have enough skill to be
(21:19):
able to support a family and sothe kids would have to go to a
children's home or an orphanageto be cared for and the mother
didn't again have kind of anon-ramp into a way to get out of
that poverty mentality.
So fast forward several yearsand I'm in a residential general
contracting environment and oneof our pain points is always
painting and finishing.
(21:39):
It's both a thing in my regionthat tends to go to what I would
call a high labor but low skillworkforce folks.
Painting companies in my regiontend to hire whoever can show
up with a brush and put them on,you know, an an occupied home.
And so we we have a lot ofbreaking.
We have a lot of opportunitywhere that's broken with our
(22:00):
brand, with our brand promise,where my painter may have said
they'll put quality people in aclient's home but then the
reality is that hasn't happened,so it's caused us to have to um
reel that back in.
And as I thought about those twothings I thought you know I've
known some phenomenal femalepainters through the years.
What if we had an all-femalecrew?
And what if that all-femalecrew could serve both markets,
(22:22):
could be a reliable,detail-oriented, professional
kind of a low-stress solutionfor painting occupied homes and
at the same time offer anon-ramp into the trades for
women who may not have anotherway.
You know, painting is a highprofit margin.
If you do it well, it's areally good profit margin
(22:43):
business in the trades.
And if you can bring in a ladywho's never painted before but
has a high drive to succeed andbring her all the way from, this
is how we tape off.
This is how we, you know, coverthe floor to how we go all the
way from this is how we tape off.
This is how we, you know, coverthe floor to how we go all the
way into cutting in and fauxfinishes and make it to a point
where she has a pathway to beginearning an actual career, real
(23:05):
income.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I think those two things go together very well
yeah, and I think there wouldalso, because these women would
be focused on interior paintingas well, right, yes?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So the market is actually just interior painting,
preferably interior repaints,but probably some new
construction as well, but justinterior and cabinet finishing,
foam finishing, hopefully murals.
I have a local muralist that Ithink she's going to be able to
work with us part-time.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Okay, and I would think Most of the residential
(24:07):
repaint market the client avatarhaving someone where they feel
more comfortable, instead ofhaving a bunch of roughnecks
coming into your home.
You have that female touch andthat might be a little bit more
digestible and make that clientavatar feel more comfortable.
(24:27):
That would be my hypothesis andI think I was at the Women in
Paint conference for the PCAPainter Contractors Association
and that was actually brought upas well is that there are some
female painters that runbusinesses and they feel like
that is an advantage, that beinga female and working with you
(24:48):
know, those those uh uh femaleclient avatars actually kind of
helps, you know, especiallydoing that interior work yes,
you've said it, said it verywell.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
That's exactly how I see the market as well.
When I describe a concept toother builders or to people who
are maybe clients, but educatedclients, you know we have a lot
of our clients who've turnedinto advocates.
You know they understand ourbusiness and I've kind of
explained it in my goal.
And when I tell somebody, youknow let's say I'm going to tell
you, as a client, mondaymorning Daniel and Chad and Bert
(25:24):
are all going to show up toyour house at 8 am, we're going
to paint for eight hours andwe're going to clean up and go
home.
Or I say Monday morning at eighto'clock, sally and Betty and
Karen are going to show up toyour house.
They're actually going to showup after they drop the kids off
at school.
They're going to paint for sixhours, then they're going to
clean up and go pick up the kidsfrom school because they have
daycare.
You know nobody wants to payfor daycare.
When you're working a full-timejob, you kind of understand
(25:47):
internally who's going toprobably be cleaner, who's going
to clean up better and how muchmore efficient a group of moms
could be, let's say, in asix-hour workday versus you and
I in probably an eight-hourworkday.
Anybody, I think, who's beenmarried more than a couple of
years doesn't have to have thatexplained to them.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I'm the messier one in myrelationship.
My wife is definitely a morecleanly person.
I think that's generally true,and it also makes sense, like if
you've ever had a house cleanercome over it's almost never a
guy you know like and if it'salso nicely into your core
(26:29):
values over at Casa Keepers.
You know, because you have thatcleanliness core value, and so
it just makes kind of sense thatwomen painters will probably be
more focused on cleanlinessthan a male one.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I feel bad every time I explain this, especially when
I'm talking to painters.
I know fantastic male painters.
I'm not digging one in order topromote the other one.
I'm just saying I think there'sa market out there that is
underserved in that residentialrepaint, with the brand of
(27:08):
number one being stress-free.
It does relieve stress to havewomen in your house.
I have four kids.
When my kids were younger, if Iknew that there were going to be
three guys in my house for theday, it's an entirely different
feeling than three ladies in myhouse for the day.
It just is.
And then you're right.
Three ladies in my house forthe day, it just is, and then
you're right.
I think if I personally wasgoing to finish work for the day
(27:29):
and I can set my ladder and mybucket and my wet rag off to the
side and forget about it untilI'm going to come back the next
day I don't know too many womenwho can do that they're actually
going to clean up the wholething and put it all away for
the next day.
But I know a lot of men,painters and carpenters.
We kind of compartmentalize andwe will be happy to leave our
mess sitting right out if we'rejust going to get back to it
(27:51):
tomorrow, and that's not a goodimage in an occupied home.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It makes sense on manydifferent levels.
And while you're talking, I wasjust thinking because we do
occasionally have house cleanerscome over and you mentioned
kids.
I have four kids and one of mydaughter she's five and she
loves one of the cleaners thatcomes over every week and is
(28:16):
excited to see her.
And you know, the cleaner isjust a young lady and you know,
I just feel like females aretypically more inclined to to
talk to kids and like build thatlittle rapport, you know, and
then just enhance thatexperience, which I think is
what you're you're aiming for,you know, enhancing that overall
(28:39):
experience for the customer.
It's just those little things,I think, that females are
probably more suited to tohandle inside of the home.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, I agree.
So maybe we'll touch base in ayear and I'll tell you how it
went.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah and yeah, no, I think, I think, I think it will
definitely.
Uh, it makes it makes too muchsense to not to not work but
work.
But where are you kind of at inthe business?
You said next month is kind ofthe launch, the official launch.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, so we have all of our IP in place.
This idea is about three orfour years old.
It took me a while to actuallydecide that now was the time.
You know, just family relatedand kids heading off to college
and all these things going on.
So in January of this year Idecided this was going to be the
year that we launched it, sogot all of our logo and branding
and waited out a websitepurchase so that I could get the
(29:36):
domain name that I wanted andwe should have our website live
in the next couple of weeks.
I've been putting out feelersfor painters for the last six or
eight months, so I have a goodkind of a small crew of locals
that are going to help us getoff the ground and then we'll
begin the hiring process to beregional, and so I'm really
(29:59):
thinking our goal for this yearwe're going to say May, june,
start.
We should do about 360,000 isthe goal for the rest.
For this year, we're going tosay May, june, start.
We should do about 360,000 isthe goal for the rest of this
year, and almost all of thatwill be plowed back into
marketing and growth as we tryand get regional bite in our
area of Central Texas.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Nice and are you going to keep similar kind of
core values that you have inCasa Keepers for this new
painting venture?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, very similar.
I mean, you know they say asmall business tends to look
like the owner, right?
You know it kind of takes onyour flavor whether you like it
or not.
So that is part of who I am.
It's part of the company thatwe build at Casa Keepers.
It's what we'll do withPainting Angels.
It's part of the company thatwe build at Cosmic Eversense
what we'll do with PaintingAngels.
The main difference will be atleast in the branding and
marketing and then how the workis done is we really want to
(30:50):
place a very big emphasis on thesocial impact.
You know not to keep harkeningback to this, but we are facing
two big crises in America at thesame time.
One of them is we have a lackof people coming into the
skilled trades.
The skilled trades, you know.
They say the average age of atool wearing professional
carpenter, plumber, electrician,professional painter right now
(31:12):
is 56.
They're retiring at a rate offive a year and we're only
replacing them with two peopleper year.
So sure we have a lot of bodies,you know, I think we've seen
that in my region of Texas a lotof unskilled or foreign labor
coming in to put their effortbut not raise the skill level,
(31:33):
and so I think we're going to beable to train into that skills
gap in painting so that we cando a really good job, make it a
professional trade in our region.
So we're facing that, and thenwe're also facing inflation.
You know it's very difficultfor a single mom to make ends
meet on what an entry level oran admin or maybe a restaurant
(31:56):
job pays, and so my goal is thatwe meet those two and be able
to have painters making you know, qualified painters making
$60,000, $70,000, $85,000 a yearenough to support a family.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense.
So, along with keeping the corevalues from Casa Keepers,
you're also seeing that gap andtrying to make that social
impact and solving that issue.
Again, solving problems, that'slike a big thing.
It should be a big thing forentrepreneurs.
(32:31):
Is you finding a problem andtrying to solve it?
But the problem of lack ofskilled tradesmen and
tradeswomen and getting thosefolks trained up, having an
on-ramp for them and gettingthem trained up to allow them to
provide for their families andto keep up with inflation.
(32:54):
So I think you're doing a lotof amazing stuff, Chad.
I mean this has been a greatconversation.
This has been a greatconversation.
I mean, where would you like,do you have any ask of listeners
of if they want to reach outwith you or learn more about
Painting Angels or whatever yougot?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Is there anything that you'd like to ask the
listeners?
That's a really good questionso they can reach out, you know,
at our website,paintingangelscom, or to me,
chad, at Painting Angels dot com, and I think the main, probably
the main helpful things thatwould be really nice to know is
where have my peers found solidtraining?
To take someone from, you know,never having held a brush, to
(33:37):
being to being put in a brush,rather than just putting them
out of the field?
So we're looking at the PCA'straining and we're probably
going to start with there.
I think that's a really solidplace, but if there are any
other options or programs thatI'm not aware of, I would love
to have some help on how to helpmore women learn how to do this
well so that it elevates thetrade of painting in every place
(33:59):
we touch.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, definitely that makes a lot of
sense.
Uh, pca, I know, has someresources, like you mentioned.
And then the um.
I know a lot of folks havetried doing the charity paints
especially.
It's kind of like a dual roletrainer painters but also get
some positive PR.
Uh, but yeah, that's a greatquestion.
Um, so, listeners, if you haveany feedback for Chad,
(34:23):
definitely reach out, and we'dlove to hear more from the
listeners as well.
If you go to the Facebook pageGrow your Painting Business, you
can definitely join theconversation, ask questions
there as well.
We'll pass them along to Chadand I really appreciate your
(34:44):
time today, chad, and for thelisteners, we will see you next
week.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Thanks, daniel, appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on.
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast.
The mission of this podcast issimple to help you navigate the
financial and tax aspects ofstarting, running and scaling a
professional painting business,from the brushes and ladders to
the spreadsheets and balancesheets.
We've got you covered.
But before we dive in, a quickword of caution While we strive
to provide accurate andup-to-date financial and tax
(00:20):
information, nothing you hear onthis podcast should be
considered as financial advicespecifically for you or your
business.
Welcome to the ProfitablePainter Podcast.
My name is Daniel.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Honan, the founder of Bookkeeping for Painters.
I help painting businesses knowtheir numbers and what they
mean and save big in tax.
And today I'm super excited totalk with Chad Huber.
Chad has a very successfulbusiness in Texas and today
we're going to dive into hisjourney, what he's accomplished
and what things he has for thefuture.
(01:12):
So super excited to have you onthe podcast, chad.
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Thanks for asking.
I'm glad to be here.
Awesome, let's get into things.
So you've had quite the journeyin the contracting industry.
How did that journey begin andwhat have been some of the most
defining moments along the way?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, let's see.
My journey in contractingactually started as a customer.
I had an optical store that wasrelatively successful and
enjoyed doing that and decidedthat I would flip some houses on
the side.
And the more contractors Idealt with, the more frustrated
I became in how they ran theirbusiness.
(01:53):
I figured out if I ran myoptical store like a lot of
contractors ran their business,I would be out of business.
So through the years starteddoing a little more myself and
put together a little team andfigured out I enjoyed it.
So we're 20-something yearsdown the road, a couple of
adventures in different ways,but been doing it for about that
long.
So I came into the business ofcontracting, not as a carpenter
(02:16):
coming up off the tools, butreally just seeing the need in
the business and enjoying doingit.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Okay.
So it sounds like, because alot of folks, especially in the
contracting industry that's kindof how they start is they?
They had a skill, they had acarpenter, their painter,
drywall, whatever skill thatthey had and but it sounds like
you, um, you, basically you cameat it from a business
perspective.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Correct.
Yeah, I grew up one of twochildren from a single mother.
We had, I think we had a pinktoolbox in the house, maybe with
a screwdriver and a hammer anda tape measure and a set of
Allen wrenches.
That was about my tooleducation as a kid.
But growing up and in my lateteens and early 20s I did kind
of enjoy tinkering around andmaking a few things, but never
(03:06):
in carpentry as a career, notuntil I was in my, I guess, late
twenties and early thirtieswhen we started flipping houses.
That did I even own a saw, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And and so that must've been a pretty intense
interaction that you had withthe contractors, because it's
not often like because that's acommon thing, you know, with
that having that bad experiencewith contractors a lot of folks,
to include contractorsthemselves, have had those bad
(03:38):
experiences.
But you actually took it toanother level by like, hey, I
can do this better, I'm going toactually solve this problem so
folks don't have to go throughthis.
So you really took it into yourown hands.
So what happened?
Like what was so bad that madeyou actually start another
business and solve that issue?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So keep in mind, this was back before everyone had a
cell phone attached to their hipall the time and I would leave
my profitable job and I would gomeet a contractor.
So they would say, hey, we'llmeet at this house Tuesday at 8
am or Tuesday at 9 am.
So Tuesday at 9 am I wouldleave and I would go drive to
the house and I would wait, andI would wait, and I would wait
(04:21):
and they would show up and maybea day or maybe two days later I
would hear from them and theywould say, yeah, I got tied up
at another job and no notice, noheads up, not even a stop by.
This was again a long time ago,so you might just pop in.
They knew where I worked.
I was there all day and it wasjust that lack of communication
over and over.
I can remember having projectsthat were supposed to have a
(04:42):
defined end date, and maybe Ihad a house I needed to put on
the market and we would go aweek before that date only to be
told that they were still fiveor six or eight weeks out.
No communication in the middle.
Really, the business aspect waswhat was very frustrating.
I enjoyed seeing the homes gettransformed.
That's still my favorite partof the process is the before and
(05:03):
after.
To homes get transformed.
That's still my favorite partof the process is the before and
after.
But just seeing how poorlyloved contractors ran their
businesses was the frustratingpart for me as a customer.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So it sounds like that experience was very
stressful and had a lot of badcommunication in it.
It did.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Very disrespectful.
Yeah, I think that's part ofthe issue that we find is all
trades whether it's painting ortile or carpentry or general
contracting is being able to begood communicators and treat
people just like we're in anyother industry.
That requires us to keepsomebody updated.
I tell clients these days, whenyou take your car in to be
(05:44):
serviced, the mechanic will takea video of what he finds in
your car and send it to you in atext message to your phone so
that you can tell you know whattheir progress is on your repair
.
And yet sometimes in theconstruction industry we expect
people to go two or three or,you know, four or five days,
even a week, before they have anupdate.
So it's just a different world.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, it sounds like so.
Actually getting those updatesto clients can really enhance
the experience because they,when there's no communication,
that's when folks start to feellike, okay, is anything getting
actually done here?
Do I need to, you know?
Dig into this further?
It's increasing the level ofstress when they don't hear from
someone they've hired and paidmoney to to do it.
And I noticed one of the youknow you're the owner of Casa
(06:36):
Keepers out of Texas and one ofthe core values.
Actually you have two corevalue, three core values, looks
like on your website.
You have low stress, like yourpromise to your customers is
that they're going to have a lowstress experience and also
you're going to have goodcommunication.
And it sounds like in that thatbad experience that you had
with contractors that spurredyou to start your business, it
(06:59):
translated into your kind ofyour promise to your customers
that you weren't going to havethem be stressed out or
communicated in a poor fashionright out the gate.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, that's well said Feeling the pain point.
I think that's what helps us bedifferent is feeling the pain
of a customer going through thatprocess.
You know the client journeyseveral times and being
frustrated with how it happened.
I think that that helped us todevelop a company culture that's
different on purpose.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, and that's big because it's easy.
I would say you know, if you'rea sole proprietor or someone
that's doing, a solopreneur,that's doing everything, you
might be able to have thosevalues and be able to execute
that.
You know that.
Okay on your end, if it's justyou, but you have a pretty large
team over there at Casa Keepers.
(07:49):
Where are you now in terms ofyour business?
How big is the business, casaKeepers?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
So we're about nine years old I think we just
crossed our nine-yearanniversary this past month and
we've got 12 people on the team.
We run in the constructionworld what you would call like a
lead carpenter model.
So we have one person who'sassigned to a project even in
renovations, from start tofinish, for that
communications-centric ability.
(08:18):
So we have one person assignedto deal with that particular
client.
We're about $3 million in total.
Revenue is our goal for thisyear and it looks like we're on
track at the end of April to getthere, excellent, excellent,
and having that larger team at 3million 12 carpenters 12 people
.
That's entirely my sales staff,myself.
(08:39):
That's 12 people on the team.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, 12 people on the team.
Excuse 12 people on the team,Excuse me.
You know, having that largerteam, it becomes a challenge to
ensure that the thing that youthink is important, that you
feel is important, likeproviding that low stress
experience, having thatcommunication, that cleanliness
how do you ensure that that getsfiltered down to your team,
that everyone's on the same pageproviding that customer
(09:05):
experience?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We do take culture very seriously.
That's something that we talkabout often.
We you know skill, I believe,is something that can be trained
more easily than culture.
So we try to hire people whounderstand our culture, who feel
like treating someone's homewith respect and conversing with
someone of the professional iskind of who they are, you know.
(09:29):
They want to be a place thatthey would feel comfortable
working, and then whatever skillthey may have or not have is
kind of secondary is whether ornot they get it.
So you know the old saying ofgetting the right people on the
bus and the right people off thebus and the right people in the
right seats on the bus.
So we don't fight culture veryoften because we hire for it.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
So you hire for culture first.
That's the most important thing, it sounds like, and skill is
kind of a secondary thing.
You might or may not need it,but you're really focused, it
sounds like, on making surefolks have the right culture fit
for your organization one ofour core values is that you kind
(10:12):
of be a lifelong learner, thatyou like, you know you don't get
stuck.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
And so if you hire somebody who doesn't have a
particular skill or even hasnever done a particular job
before but they like to learn,then having the right person,
the right culture, who can learna skill?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
that's that's golden.
That makes sense.
So that's kind of how youcompensate, like you hire for
culture, and part of the cultureis that they like to learn and
they are open to that, and sothat's how you kind of make up
for the fact that they might nothave all the precise skills
that you want them to have, butif they have the intelligence
(10:50):
and the desire to learn, theycan easily get caught up and on
track.
It sounds like Absolutely yes.
Yeah, I think that's that is areally cool way to approach it.
And how do you actually youknow what we're saying hire for
culture?
Some folks listening might belike okay, how do I hire for
(11:12):
these kinds of abstract ideas?
How do you actually implement ahiring or recruiting process
that will get somebody who is,you know, really good at
communication and likes to learn, like, how do you pull that out
of folks and screen for that asthey move through the
recruiting and hiring process?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I think it all, for us at least, begins with an ad
that sounds like us.
When we place a Help Wanted adfor whatever position it has,
all of those words already inthere.
It kind of describes how wework and the tone.
I said the tone of voice.
In marketing we have a thingcalled the tone of voice.
(11:54):
Well, in hiring you have thesame kind of thing.
It's a tone of voice.
And so if somebody is veryrough and you know it's kind of
a gruff personality, they willprobably find our ads and our
website and our materials not totheir liking.
They will self-filter.
You know we do the same thingwith clients.
We want clients to feel aparticular tone when they look
(12:14):
at our business and so somepeople just self-filter out if
that's not a good fit for them.
So that's our beginning is justwe write to the people that we
want to hire and to the rightpeople.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
It kind of resonates the marketing side of things.
You you kind of have yourclient avatar.
You know like you're who do youwant to to reach out to in your
, your marketing copy and you,who do you want to speak to?
And so you're doing that thesame thing on the recruiting
(12:46):
side.
So, like who do you want tospeak to?
To identify like who's going tobe a great fit for our team,
and then you develop that copyor the you know the kind of the
recruiting copy I guess youcould say and make sure that it
calls out to that candidate andthat they feel attracted to this
(13:06):
position because you're sayingall the things that they also
value yes, yes, awesome, yes,yes, awesome, um.
So in, so you have the, therecruiting posting or the job ad
and so you're calling out thosethings.
And then, I'm assuming, in theinterview process there's like
(13:27):
questions about culture as wellor like how they react in
certain um situations.
Is that how you kind ofdetermine, based off their
responses, if they're a goodculture fit?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I would say we'll do.
You know, we've all done theinterview questions, or most of
us have done the interviewquestions.
You know, name a time whenyou've had conflict and how you
resolved it, and I think that'sit's less helpful in reality
than it seems on paper.
So conversations are number one.
We also try and offer somethingto talk about.
(13:58):
So we use the working geniuspersonality assessment for
workflow and we hire by thatworking genius.
A particular position mayrequire a different set of
working geniuses, of skills andnatural aptitudes, and so in
discussing those things I'mdiscussing maybe past work
experience it helps us to get afeel for whether someone would
(14:23):
fit the needed position in a waythat both fulfills them and
fits the position goals.
So it's a lot of questions, alot of stories.
I wish that there was justboxes that we could check.
But, um, you know, people topeople it's it's hearing about
their story, maybe how, whatthey've done in the past and
what their goals are for thefuture, and if those align with
what the position needs.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Okay, cool.
So it sounds like you're usingworking genius.
There's a book, um, I can'tremember who wrote it, but it,
like, outlines the six types ofworking genius.
Is that the framework thatyou're using?
That's it?
Yeah, patrick.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Moncioni, the six types of working genius, and we
use that for both our clientjourney and our hiring to make
sure that we're fitting allthose pieces to the widget, as
they call it, to get the processjust right for people in the
right place so that they feellike their natural gifts and
abilities are also at use intheir job.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Okay, so it sounds like you use it for the
recruiting, hiring process, butalso the customer experience as
well.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, we do.
So.
The idea of the working geniusis basically you can come from a
they use the airplane analogy alot you know 30,000 foot view,
15,000 foot, a 12,000 foot view,and then you're on the ground
and projects go from that.
You know a client first kind ofwonders what they could do, and
then they have to filter downto the things that they actually
can afford to do or might wantto invest in doing, and then
(15:46):
they need a plan to integratethose things.
Then they need the person togalvanize, to put things
together to actually make a workplan and make it happen.
And then we need the attentionto detail which is our tenacity
at the end and the workinggenius model.
So we try to have the rightpeople with those internal
natural giftings in thatposition.
So the client feels like theirjourney is seamless and that all
(16:08):
those pieces have been involvedand they don't realize it.
But it's just part of mappingtheir journey for them.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's really interesting.
I never heard of anybody doingsomething like this before, so
this is super valuable stuffhere.
Did you come up with this ideaor is this kind of something you
learned through reading thebook and other resources,
through the Working Genius?
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We have a local Working Genius coach, a good
friend of mine named Wes Henson,and he's walked with us since
the book came out to reallyimplement those processes and to
look at our businessholistically.
Because there's so manydifferent personality styles and
management style books outthere, I think where business
owners or at least entrepreneurslike myself, tend to get
(16:56):
themselves in trouble is chasingafter the next shiny object,
the next new seminar ormanagement method, and so what
we've tried to do instead ofthat is, instead of being very
wide and scattered, we've triedto go very deep, and that one
thing that I do think worksreally well and our working
genius coach has helped quite abit works really well and, uh,
and our working genius coach hashelped quite a bit Excellent.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So you've really taken the idea and gone really
deep with this one idea, asopposed to kind of picking and
choosing through differentmethods.
Um, yeah, that I think that's agreat move, because that's
probably where you get most ofthe value is going deep on
something than just taking, like, the surface level.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yes, we had a carpenter One of my favorite
examples.
We had a carpenter who'sworking genius was wonder so
wonder.
Is somebody who loves a blankpiece of paper?
They just like to think.
You know what could be in theworld.
That's a terrible gift for acarpenter.
You actually your way, you knowyou're not 30,000 feet in the
world.
Uh, that's a terrible gift fora carpenter.
You actually your way, you knowyou're not 30 000 feet in in
the world of being anentry-level carpenter.
(18:00):
You know you need to be in intenacity.
We got to make sure that thenailing pattern is correct and
the door is plumb and square anduh, and so we actually coached
him into another position with adifferent company.
Uh, love him, he's a great guy,but it was not going to be
something long-term that he wasgoing to enjoy.
And now he's somewhere doingsomething else and doing kind of
(18:21):
more of what makes him comealive.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
That's awesome.
You actually coached him into adifferent position at a
different company, which I thinkthat says a lot, because most
of the time I think most peoplewould just pretty much fire them
or something like that and saybest of luck, but you don't work
, you don't fit here.
But you actually took the theextra steps to to get them
placed somewhere else, um, whichI think is really cool, and so
(18:48):
I did.
Was he identified as a wonderor a wonder um working genius
before he came on board, or wasit like you implemented it and
then realized this person on myteam is in the wonder status?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
not great for a carpenter so he was already on
our team, but he was anapprentice.
So he's really young guy whocame on as an apprentice while
he was getting out of school andso we didn't at that time, um,
do the working genius assessmentwith, you know, kind of the
really truly entry levelpositions.
So then when he moved up into afull time carpenter and became,
(19:22):
you know, essentially a careerlooking to be a career employee
is when we did that and we allkind of stood back and went
that's not going to be greatlong term, you know, not going
to be great for him, not goingto be great for us, and nobody
wants to go to work every dayand be frustrated with what
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So yeah, that, yeah, definitely.
Um, no, I love it.
So, so you've, you've had CasaKeepers for many years.
You've built this company toyou know about 3 million, with a
, with a solid team, usingworking genius, and I know
(19:59):
you're you're you're trying toadd another company to your
portfolio and get into the paintand finishing industry.
Could you tell me a bit aboutwhat you're doing there?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Absolutely so.
Painting Angels is the name ofthis company that we are
starting.
We should be putting paint onwalls in about 30 days, so maybe
when this podcast hits, maybeour first month of working with
clients.
But basically, painting Angelsis an idea that is born out of
my life story.
It's an all-female paintingcompany, which is odd because
(20:33):
I'm not a female nor a painter.
Female painting company, whichis odd because I'm not a female
nor a painter.
But I am the child of a singlemother, as I mentioned earlier,
who by the time she foundherself as a single mom to two
of us, had kind of lost theability to on-ramp onto a career
that could do anything but helpher just survive and feed the
kids.
So that theme has kind of beenworked throughout my life.
(20:56):
My wife and I served asmissionaries to orphanages in
Mexico and one of the thingsthat we ran into over and over
down there is quite often anorphan was an economic orphan.
It wasn't a physical orphan.
This wasn't a kid whose parentshad died or, you know, left
them.
It was typically the case whereit was a single mom and they
couldn't work enough hours, theydidn't have enough skill to be
(21:19):
able to support a family and sothe kids would have to go to a
children's home or an orphanageto be cared for and the mother
didn't again have kind of anon-ramp into a way to get out of
that poverty mentality.
So fast forward several yearsand I'm in a residential general
contracting environment and oneof our pain points is always
painting and finishing.
(21:39):
It's both a thing in my regionthat tends to go to what I would
call a high labor but low skillworkforce folks.
Painting companies in my regiontend to hire whoever can show
up with a brush and put them on,you know, an an occupied home.
And so we we have a lot ofbreaking.
We have a lot of opportunitywhere that's broken with our
(22:00):
brand, with our brand promise,where my painter may have said
they'll put quality people in aclient's home but then the
reality is that hasn't happened,so it's caused us to have to um
reel that back in.
And as I thought about those twothings I thought you know I've
known some phenomenal femalepainters through the years.
What if we had an all-femalecrew?
And what if that all-femalecrew could serve both markets,
(22:22):
could be a reliable,detail-oriented, professional
kind of a low-stress solutionfor painting occupied homes and
at the same time offer anon-ramp into the trades for
women who may not have anotherway.
You know, painting is a highprofit margin.
If you do it well, it's areally good profit margin
(22:43):
business in the trades.
And if you can bring in a ladywho's never painted before but
has a high drive to succeed andbring her all the way from, this
is how we tape off.
This is how we, you know, coverthe floor to how we go all the
way from this is how we tape off.
This is how we, you know, coverthe floor to how we go all the
way into cutting in and fauxfinishes and make it to a point
where she has a pathway to beginearning an actual career, real
(23:05):
income.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I think those two things go together very well
yeah, and I think there wouldalso, because these women would
be focused on interior paintingas well, right, yes?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
So the market is actually just interior painting,
preferably interior repaints,but probably some new
construction as well, but justinterior and cabinet finishing,
foam finishing, hopefully murals.
I have a local muralist that Ithink she's going to be able to
work with us part-time.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Okay, and I would think Most of the residential
(24:07):
repaint market the client avatarhaving someone where they feel
more comfortable, instead ofhaving a bunch of roughnecks
coming into your home.
You have that female touch andthat might be a little bit more
digestible and make that clientavatar feel more comfortable.
(24:27):
That would be my hypothesis andI think I was at the Women in
Paint conference for the PCAPainter Contractors Association
and that was actually brought upas well is that there are some
female painters that runbusinesses and they feel like
that is an advantage, that beinga female and working with you
(24:48):
know, those those uh uh femaleclient avatars actually kind of
helps, you know, especiallydoing that interior work yes,
you've said it, said it verywell.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
That's exactly how I see the market as well.
When I describe a concept toother builders or to people who
are maybe clients, but educatedclients, you know we have a lot
of our clients who've turnedinto advocates.
You know they understand ourbusiness and I've kind of
explained it in my goal.
And when I tell somebody, youknow let's say I'm going to tell
you, as a client, mondaymorning Daniel and Chad and Bert
(25:24):
are all going to show up toyour house at 8 am, we're going
to paint for eight hours andwe're going to clean up and go
home.
Or I say Monday morning at eighto'clock, sally and Betty and
Karen are going to show up toyour house.
They're actually going to showup after they drop the kids off
at school.
They're going to paint for sixhours, then they're going to
clean up and go pick up the kidsfrom school because they have
daycare.
You know nobody wants to payfor daycare.
When you're working a full-timejob, you kind of understand
(25:47):
internally who's going toprobably be cleaner, who's going
to clean up better and how muchmore efficient a group of moms
could be, let's say, in asix-hour workday versus you and
I in probably an eight-hourworkday.
Anybody, I think, who's beenmarried more than a couple of
years doesn't have to have thatexplained to them.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I'm the messier one in myrelationship.
My wife is definitely a morecleanly person.
I think that's generally true,and it also makes sense, like if
you've ever had a house cleanercome over it's almost never a
guy you know like and if it'salso nicely into your core
(26:29):
values over at Casa Keepers.
You know, because you have thatcleanliness core value, and so
it just makes kind of sense thatwomen painters will probably be
more focused on cleanlinessthan a male one.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I feel bad every time I explain this, especially when
I'm talking to painters.
I know fantastic male painters.
I'm not digging one in order topromote the other one.
I'm just saying I think there'sa market out there that is
underserved in that residentialrepaint, with the brand of
(27:08):
number one being stress-free.
It does relieve stress to havewomen in your house.
I have four kids.
When my kids were younger, if Iknew that there were going to be
three guys in my house for theday, it's an entirely different
feeling than three ladies in myhouse for the day.
It just is.
And then you're right.
Three ladies in my house forthe day, it just is, and then
you're right.
I think if I personally wasgoing to finish work for the day
(27:29):
and I can set my ladder and mybucket and my wet rag off to the
side and forget about it untilI'm going to come back the next
day I don't know too many womenwho can do that they're actually
going to clean up the wholething and put it all away for
the next day.
But I know a lot of men,painters and carpenters.
We kind of compartmentalize andwe will be happy to leave our
mess sitting right out if we'rejust going to get back to it
(27:51):
tomorrow, and that's not a goodimage in an occupied home.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It makes sense on manydifferent levels.
And while you're talking, I wasjust thinking because we do
occasionally have house cleanerscome over and you mentioned
kids.
I have four kids and one of mydaughter she's five and she
loves one of the cleaners thatcomes over every week and is
(28:16):
excited to see her.
And you know, the cleaner isjust a young lady and you know,
I just feel like females aretypically more inclined to to
talk to kids and like build thatlittle rapport, you know, and
then just enhance thatexperience, which I think is
what you're you're aiming for,you know, enhancing that overall
(28:39):
experience for the customer.
It's just those little things,I think, that females are
probably more suited to tohandle inside of the home.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, I agree.
So maybe we'll touch base in ayear and I'll tell you how it
went.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah and yeah, no, I think, I think, I think it will
definitely.
Uh, it makes it makes too muchsense to not to not work but
work.
But where are you kind of at inthe business?
You said next month is kind ofthe launch, the official launch.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, so we have all of our IP in place.
This idea is about three orfour years old.
It took me a while to actuallydecide that now was the time.
You know, just family relatedand kids heading off to college
and all these things going on.
So in January of this year Idecided this was going to be the
year that we launched it, sogot all of our logo and branding
and waited out a websitepurchase so that I could get the
(29:36):
domain name that I wanted andwe should have our website live
in the next couple of weeks.
I've been putting out feelersfor painters for the last six or
eight months, so I have a goodkind of a small crew of locals
that are going to help us getoff the ground and then we'll
begin the hiring process to beregional, and so I'm really
(29:59):
thinking our goal for this yearwe're going to say May, june,
start.
We should do about 360,000 isthe goal for the rest.
For this year, we're going tosay May, june, start.
We should do about 360,000 isthe goal for the rest of this
year, and almost all of thatwill be plowed back into
marketing and growth as we tryand get regional bite in our
area of Central Texas.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Nice and are you going to keep similar kind of
core values that you have inCasa Keepers for this new
painting venture?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, very similar.
I mean, you know they say asmall business tends to look
like the owner, right?
You know it kind of takes onyour flavor whether you like it
or not.
So that is part of who I am.
It's part of the company thatwe build at Casa Keepers.
It's what we'll do withPainting Angels.
It's part of the company thatwe build at Cosmic Eversense
what we'll do with PaintingAngels.
The main difference will be atleast in the branding and
marketing and then how the workis done is we really want to
(30:50):
place a very big emphasis on thesocial impact.
You know not to keep harkeningback to this, but we are facing
two big crises in America at thesame time.
One of them is we have a lackof people coming into the
skilled trades.
The skilled trades, you know.
They say the average age of atool wearing professional
carpenter, plumber, electrician,professional painter right now
(31:12):
is 56.
They're retiring at a rate offive a year and we're only
replacing them with two peopleper year.
So sure we have a lot of bodies,you know, I think we've seen
that in my region of Texas a lotof unskilled or foreign labor
coming in to put their effortbut not raise the skill level,
(31:33):
and so I think we're going to beable to train into that skills
gap in painting so that we cando a really good job, make it a
professional trade in our region.
So we're facing that, and thenwe're also facing inflation.
You know it's very difficultfor a single mom to make ends
meet on what an entry level oran admin or maybe a restaurant
(31:56):
job pays, and so my goal is thatwe meet those two and be able
to have painters making you know, qualified painters making
$60,000, $70,000, $85,000 a yearenough to support a family.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, no, I think that makes a lot of sense.
So, along with keeping the corevalues from Casa Keepers,
you're also seeing that gap andtrying to make that social
impact and solving that issue.
Again, solving problems, that'slike a big thing.
It should be a big thing forentrepreneurs.
(32:31):
Is you finding a problem andtrying to solve it?
But the problem of lack ofskilled tradesmen and
tradeswomen and getting thosefolks trained up, having an
on-ramp for them and gettingthem trained up to allow them to
provide for their families andto keep up with inflation.
(32:54):
So I think you're doing a lotof amazing stuff, Chad.
I mean this has been a greatconversation.
This has been a greatconversation.
I mean, where would you like,do you have any ask of listeners
of if they want to reach outwith you or learn more about
Painting Angels or whatever yougot?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Is there anything that you'd like to ask the
listeners?
That's a really good questionso they can reach out, you know,
at our website,paintingangelscom, or to me,
chad, at Painting Angels dot com, and I think the main, probably
the main helpful things thatwould be really nice to know is
where have my peers found solidtraining?
To take someone from, you know,never having held a brush, to
(33:37):
being to being put in a brush,rather than just putting them
out of the field?
So we're looking at the PCA'straining and we're probably
going to start with there.
I think that's a really solidplace, but if there are any
other options or programs thatI'm not aware of, I would love
to have some help on how to helpmore women learn how to do this
well so that it elevates thetrade of painting in every place
(33:59):
we touch.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, definitely that makes a lot of
sense.
Uh, pca, I know, has someresources, like you mentioned.
And then the um.
I know a lot of folks havetried doing the charity paints
especially.
It's kind of like a dual roletrainer painters but also get
some positive PR.
Uh, but yeah, that's a greatquestion.
Um, so, listeners, if you haveany feedback for Chad,
(34:23):
definitely reach out, and we'dlove to hear more from the
listeners as well.
If you go to the Facebook pageGrow your Painting Business, you
can definitely join theconversation, ask questions
there as well.
We'll pass them along to Chadand I really appreciate your
(34:44):
time today, chad, and for thelisteners, we will see you next
week.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Thanks, daniel, appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on.
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