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S6 E8 – Ryan Amato and Linking Up with Talent
This week on the Brush, Nick shoots the breeze with Ryan Amato, the Pennsylvania painter behind Amato Painting. Amato comes from a painting family, from his great grandfather, to his father to his siblings, everybody painted.
Amato talks about growing up in a family business and how he chose to limit his kids’ time in his own company, and how he collects leads on Linkedin. Nick and Amato share theory about how best to hire and allocate talent, especially millennial painters.
S6 E7 – Self-Care, Pricing and Sales with Shane Woods
Yet again, you’ve found the Business Brush. Today, Nick chats with Shane Woods of Custom Paint Works. Shane is a long-time painter who has learned and relearned to be a painter. Woods talks about his struggles as a business owner, especially in negotiating pricing, and about how he could improve.
S6 E6 – Home Improvement Guru Tom Lopatosky
Welcome back to the Business Brush. Nick is starting this week with a chat with Tom Lopatosky, the home improvement guru. Lopatosky found painting as a college kid with a drive to succeed in whatever he had in front of him, and he’s grown that into LOPCO Contracting, a company that doesn’t just paint but also does carpentry, windows and restorations.
S6 E5 – Building Your Business for Yourself with Mike McGrath
Today on the Business Brush, Nick sits down with Mike McGrath of 1-800-Paint Job to talk about how painters can build their own businesses to in the shape that best serves their lives. Business owners hear there’s things they should be doing and need to be doing. but being your own boss also means that the option is there to sacrifice parts of the business to make sure certain aspects of personal and family life stay healthy. And McGrath talks about how he finds the balance between success as a family man and as a painter.
S6 E4 – Holding Onto Employees in a steel Grip with Art Snarzyk
Start your week off on the Business Brush where Nick talks to Art Snarzyk, president of InnerView Advisors and “The Turnover Terminator.” Snarzyk walks Nick through all his experience as a paint contractor through to now where he runs InnerView, a company that helps people become better leaders and business owners.
S6 E3 – Launching an Estimate Rocket with Estimate Rocket President and CEO Tom Droste
This week on the Business Brush, Nick talks to Tom Droste, the man in charge of Estimate Rocket, a workflow software company that sponsors this show and supports Walls By Design by being what Nick uses to run the business. Droste talks all about what his company offers business owners and how painters can enhance their businesses by switching to a software like Estimate Rocket.
S6 E2 – Painting Nashville with Bill Nishanian
This week on the first painter episode of this new season of the Business Brush, Bill Nishanian joins Nick to talk about his journey from country music hopeful to paint contractor. His plan, out of college, was to move to Nashville to pursue music, but in Christian marriage counseling with his new wife Kristin, he learned he could try his hand at paint contracting from his wife’s family pastor. But, in 2008, his business took a big hit, and they had to stay with her family for a few months. Until Kristin had a dream one night where God told her they should pack up and finally head down to Nashville, where Nishanian was able to rebuild his business as Nash Painting and succeed in the new market.
S6 E1 – Benjamin Moore Chairman and CEO Dan Calkins
Welcome to The Business Brush season 6. Today, on the first Monday episode of the Brush, Nick talks to Dan Calkins, Chairman and CEO of Benjamin Moore, a longtime sponsor of the show as well as the company that makes all the paint used by Walls By Design.
S5 E10 – Learning From Expereince with Casey Fabling
Welcome to the season finale of the Business Brush. Keep an eye out for a special conversation tomorrow, but today, Nick chats with Casey Fabling of Richmond, Virginia’s Fabling Built. Fabling isn’t a pure paint contractor. Instead, Fabling Built offers services in masonry, roofing and general handyman work in addition to painting and remodeling. From his start as a college kid repaying hosts with handywork to running his 11-employee business today, Fabling walks Nick through his trials and challenges as a business owner. For example, not knowing how to hire people for jobs he’s not good at. The solution ends up being hiring somebody who’s great at hiring and worry about easier-to-manage situations within the business.