Ambition 0:00
I'm going to put all this in my book bag because I'm from the streets the goon. What's going on? It's your boy ambition and welcome to another episode of the MYFB podcast. You know what that acronym stands for? And if you don't get creative, think about it. Today I have with me a veteran in the business industry of over 40 years serial entrepreneur, author, and speaker. I have Mr. Terry, give me your last name. Hey,
Terry 0:30
just like the first three letters, but bank, bad bank, correct? Yep. I know. It doesn't look like that in the French pronunciation is big. You are be gay, I guess. But somehow it got chopped down to just beg. Okay, so.
Ambition 0:43
So obviously, definitely, definitely European. We're going French. Yes. Okay.
Terry 0:48
It is a French name. But like I said, everybody around here, where I'm from, is I have a big family with a bunch of big Catholic families around here. And everybody goes by beg. So keep it simple.
Ambition 1:00
Got it. Got it. All right. So tell our audience a little bit more about you about your business and what you do.
Terry 1:06
Okay, thanks so much to for having me on. Showbie ambition i, this is so exciting for me to to tell my story. Sometimes. I started my painting business right out of high school. And the reason I did that is I I knew college wasn't for me. I tried, I went to college, it was the worst four weeks of my life. And, but, but I decided, you know, the only way if you don't have a college degree, it's gonna be hard to make a good living. I wanted to make more than average, I wanted to live a good life and provide for my family. And the only other way I could see doing that was starting owning a business. And the only thing I did through high school the only trade I was familiar in was painting. My older brother was a painting contractor, and I helped him. So I just went in with no experience No, no skills, really no connections, no money. And I started a painting business and really suffered. It was tough, very tough for eight years, started when I was 18. And got married when I was 21. promised my wife things will be better when when I get better. And I thought I became a pretty good painter, but nothing changed. And then I said, Nick, man, I'm sorry, honey, I said, I just gotta get more connections, no more people work harder, did all those things and still nothing changed. And finally, one day, she said to me something that changed everything. I mean, I can I can, I can pinpoint where my life changed down to the very second. And what it was when I came home one day from work tired smelling like kerosene, and an oil paint. And she said three three words to me that changed my life. And they weren't I love you. They were tearing, I'm pregnant. And that was it. When she said that it's like a switch and flipped in my brain. All of a sudden, this crappy life that I've been living is no longer going to be good enough. I wasn't going to pull my son through that we knew we were going to have a boy. And I changed everything I was doing. I took my business seriously, I I did so many things. I had to put it all into this book, because I couldn't just I could give you a couple ideas. But the point I wanted to make is before my son was born, within eight months of finding that out, I doubled my income. And over the next year, I doubled it again, just and I had this I knew these things I had the ideas that changed everything for me. But it took that motivation and took that no one I've got a family on the way for me to figure it all out that quickly. Probably to this day, I'd still be dirt poor if I hadn't looked for what I needed to do. And it took me quite a while. But once I figured it out, life started being good. The second half of my life has been awesome.
Ambition 3:35
Wow. So why that story is so crazy powerful to me, is you said something that was very key to me. And that was you started taking your business seriously. Right? A lot of us are starting businesses, a lot of our listeners may be starting businesses and they don't understand when they've got a business versus when they've got a side hustle. A business is something you take serious, right? Like, you, Lizzie, you eat it, you breathe it. And one other thing I thought was very interesting about what you said, is that conundrum and I bet you every father listening knows that exact conundrum that you're talking about. I experienced the same thing while I was in the military when my son was born in 2014. I was 23 years old. And I'm sitting here like nah, this military stuff isn't gonna work out I don't got enough time for my son.
Terry 4:29
Oh my god. Yeah. And it was
Ambition 4:31
just knowing that accepting that understanding that right but yes, yeah, from that moment, it was pretty much the same. I started taking life seriously and you are actually spot on with that man i I think I doubled my income by 2018 and then increased it by 25% the following year and then doubled it.
Terry 4:55
Wow.
Ambition 4:56
And we're talking six figures double right so oh my gosh. So you're 100% Spot on taking your business seriously. And, you know, if you have that family if you have people behind you, yeah, that makes you taken seriously sometimes. But why do you think that it takes that for some of us to actually take our business service?
Terry 5:17
I don't, I'm not sure. I guess you got to just understand that nobody's going to give it to you. At least that's how it was, for me, nobody was going to help me, it doesn't matter how bad things were. I mean, when we got married, I within four months, I was so broke, I was rolling, loose change at Christmas, just to buy my wife a gift. I mean, it was pitiful. And I used to be embarrassed to tell that story. But now I tell it to. So people know that there is a way you can turn it around. And I guess what both of us really are saying is success isn't so much what I say in my book, a skill set, but it's more mindset. When you agree with that, once you make up your mind.
Ambition 5:53
I definitely agree. I think, you know, one of the reasons that, you know, I'm not as successful as I want to be right, I'll consciously say that. And there are people who know me that would say, You're goddamn crazy for saying you're not as successful as you want to be. But part of the reason is that there's so many things that I can do, right? You know, it's, it's the curse of being talented. So many people are just so talented, they start something, they're good at it, they're like this could go off and make me you know, a ton of money. But, you know, this can also go off and work really well. And I really liked to do this. But I also like to do that. And they have so many options that they never just start eating.
Terry 6:37
Yeah, right. Shiny, shiny object syndrome. Right, exactly. Jumping after different things instead of focusing on what will get you there.
Ambition 6:44
Right. And I've recently just started getting very focused, very pinpointed. Like you were saying you were able to double that way, because you were focused on one thing. So it's the same thing, right? You got to find something to do every day, in one area.
Terry 7:03
Exactly. It's so important and realize that you're getting in doesn't seem right. But we're all being judged all the time every day. And I talk a lot in my book, the very first chapter is about developing your personal brand, you know, because you know who you are and what you're about, because people, they'll they'll hire, see, for me trust is a big deal. Because I paint in people's homes, a lot of times I'm an outside painter, mostly. But there are times when they leave me the keys to their house. And I don't even know I mean that trust is so important. But positioning yourself as a person of integrity is impeccable integrity, exactly. You know, you do what you say you're going to do. And it all comes down to making yourself likeable and believable. And that's people are judging you. They're looking at what you say if you do what you say you're going to do. And even in terms of calling him back when you said and showing up just little things that people in my industry don't do a lot of. And it's so so important, that personal brand that you're the real you and people can see that.
Ambition 8:03
Man, I'm so glad that you said that. And that fits. So well within the theme of our podcast, right? We've had so many episodes where we've said authenticity, authenticity, authenticity, and a lot of what you're saying right now about personal branding, has that fear of authenticity. But you know, it's also what do you want to be known for? That's what I hear you saying, right? Do you want to be known as somebody who can't be trusted with keys to a house? Or do you want to be known as somebody who, you know, I would trust with my wife and kids over a weekend, right? And write? And, man, you're really cookie, man, it's eight minutes in do we need to.
Terry 8:47
But but that's just the opening of my book. And I thought when I was writing it, I talked about four abilities in there that that helped me turn things around. But then I thought, wait a minute, before getting into these four abilities. First thing we need to talk about is developing your personal brand. And, and I tried to offer ways of doing that, you know, role models help some and just getting clear on what's important to you, you know, what, what are the the family values that you grew up with? And how can you communicate that your customer see that that's what you're about and what you stand for. And there's a lot I talk a lot about that in the book before I ever get into the Word some people will look at as the important stuff but as you said, integrity is everything. A guy Stephen Covey, you know, who wrote seven, eight have Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. We has a son named Steven Covey as well. And he wrote a book called The Speed of Trust. And oh my gosh, is that a great book if you ever get a chance to read it, but he talks about how when you're trusted, everything goes faster and better. And just life is so much more simple when you position yourself as someone who can be trusted.
Ambition 9:50
So man, you're dropping so many nuggets, and even earlier, right? I wanted to point this out because the mark of a good speaker is how they can build up the point that they're making, right? At least that's one of the things that I've noticed, right? I've been speaking for 10 years and studying speech, oration for 10 years. And the way that you build up your first point when you were getting to, you know, taking your business seriously. And the three words right. Now, I want you guys to go back and take a note from that, when you listen to it, and you re Listen, notice that he said, the three words he gave the build up, he kept talking about it, but the things that he were saying, he was saying about the three words, he didn't stretch it out, he didn't bore you, he didn't lose you in that. And then he gave you the three words, and they were just as impactful as you intended them to be. So I really just want to commend you on that and call that out as well.
Terry 10:49
Thank you. Yeah, you know, someone define that for me once when I told that story of someone who was helping me write my first book. And the way she said it, the way she defined this is what happened you is the idea that, and I wrote it down, it was so important, he said, life, life will take us, life will open its doors to you. But not until it sees it, you're serious. And it's so simple. But when you think about it, the things that you want in life, they'll start to happen and things will start to come your way. But first, you got to make the first move, you got to show it that you're you're into this, for the long run, you're there to help people. And I think we win, you win when everybody sees that. And it just becomes a common framework of who you are. Things that does start to open doors. And it did for me, because I had my business for eight years, and just nothing. I mean, I was fighting it on low price wars, and you know, the lousiest jobs that no one else wanted. But everything turned around as soon as I decided, hey, this needs I need to fix this. What am I going to do first, and I just went from one after another, and I started knocking things out.
Ambition 11:54
And that's another beautiful thing that you said, sticking it out for eight years and nothing happening, right? And nowadays, I'm a part of the generation I'm going to try this for two weeks. And if it doesn't, you guys aren't interested in two weeks. Screw it. Like, that's what we do. But you're saying you had to build this business for eight years. Right? And you had to work on being a great painter. But how long did you say that it took you to master the skill of painting houses, how long it took you to master the business of painting houses,
Terry 12:30
the skill of it really didn't take that long, because I had been doing it and I one of the reasons I wasn't into paintings, it's an easy trade to learn, you know, a bucket and brush and you can be in business, right? But to really get good at it took me probably till I was 23 or 24. And that's what shocked me, even though I became a pretty good painter, nothing really changed in my life, and I didn't get better jobs. And it was all about becoming a better person. And that's what made the difference. So throughout my book, I say over and over. People don't care as much about how good you are, what you do is they care about how good you are at who you are. They want to work with somebody that has integrity, even if they do a great job. That's still it's not always enough. Because you it's these, it's it's in a customer's eyes, we all look pretty much the same, you know, most of them can't see an average paint job from an excellent one, you know, so how do you set yourself apart, and that's where I was at, I thought my gosh, even though I think I'm a pretty good painter, and nobody can tell the difference between me and the guy up the street is only doing one coat and not two coats. So what I had to change was my interpersonal skills. And that's how I that's how I set myself apart from doing that, you know, looking at ways to be different and be better than everyone else in the customers eyes.
Ambition 13:45
Wow, that why that was so big to me and so impactful for me, and I guarantee you impactful for our audience. And anyone who has taken my services are participated with my business. One of the quotes that I repeat, business is the best personal development tool. Because until you get over some of those things that have been ailing you right with your personal life, whether it's trauma, right? i It doesn't matter what it is, your business won't be successful. If you're, you're mad at men because your father wasn't around. Well, congratulations, those men, male customers that you attract will be toxic, full of trauma that they'll pull that out of you because you haven't learned how to heal that in yourself. Right? If you have a problem with women, you're going to manifest that in your business. And that's why I I definitely agree with you. It's all about being a good person. It's about making sure that you understand things about the nature of people, right? How many business owners do you know they get mad when they don't get someone books a call and they miss it? Oh my gosh, yeah, that's a I was actually I'm got interviewed by my coach, right. So my business coach interviewed me yesterday with his group. And that was one of the things that I mentioned, right? Until I stopped getting upset at the things that the customer was doing feeling like the customer snubbed me when they were just living their goddamn lives, right? Like, they got things going on. Right? They got a life just like I have a life. They're just living their lives, and not snubbing me until I stopped feeling like that. I could not book five clients at $3,000 a client, like I just couldn't do it. But as soon as I realized, like you got your life going on, don't worry about it. You know what, I'm just gonna follow up with you. Tomorrow. I'll follow up with you next week. But I'm gonna keep following up with you. Because you shared something that you believe in. And I want to believe in that with you. Right. So it's really, that is really important. So I definitely wanted to hammer that point in with you.
Terry 16:01
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I've never heard that before. You know, you look back at things that are causing you to stumble, you know, different types of people who have who have come up in your life that remind you of something in the past I that's really interesting what you said, I'm learning as much as I'm giving today.
Ambition 16:17
Oh, man,
Unknown Speaker 16:18
I'm glad to hear that.
Ambition 16:20
So as you as you started to get better with the business, as things started to get better, did everything just get better? Or were there some, you know, were there further obstacles with the business? What were some of the challenges as you started to become successful?
Terry 16:37
Probably one of my bigger challenges was, I had so much work, I couldn't do it all everybody was hiring me. So I had to hire people. And that was new to me, because I wasn't, I was never like in Toastmasters, and learn any leaders, leadership skills, things like that. But I had to, I just had to get comfortable with talking to the to my guys every day, you know, we had to have a new plan or our jobs who were in and out really quick. But there was a new house to start every day or two, because I had a certain process and a system for doing the work. But But I found leading those guys and becoming again, it was about becoming a person of integrity, they had to see that you really walk your talk, and you know, before they're going to follow you. And that was a big obstacle for me. But the the key thing was getting that pipeline and keeping a full business full of jobs, because then you're not dependent on every little job and afraid you're going to go too high. But until I could really control a crew and get them to work every day and turn out quality work and be engaged with the job and with the customer till I can teach them that it was really hard for me to grow to that next level,
Ambition 17:43
wow, men, a lot of gems being dropped here. And I'm seeing a lot of gems being dropped, which is not a phrase that I like to use, right? I don't like to say that, because it's so common. But when you talk about leadership, and just leveraging the work of others, men, I've told people, there's three abilities that you need to be successful in business, you need visibility, which is your marketing, you need some sort of sales ability, you got to sell it. And then once you sell it, you have to deliver it. And what you just talked about is, you know, you basically took us through the journey of that it took you eight years to figure out visibility and sales ability. And when you figured those out, then you had to improve your deliverability. And that meant going to build a team. So how successful do you think you would have been without a team?
Terry 18:34
Oh, my gosh, I mean, once I had a To Do in one day, what I used to do on a week by myself, not even a fraction, that's where the first time I doubled my income, it was mostly because I positioned myself as a professional and people started paying me more, but the second doubling that was the big one. And that happened because I got three or four guys to work with me. I still lead by example, I was there with him. But it until I can leverage my time, just like what you said earlier, you got to leverage your time with your employees, because there just isn't enough hours in the day right to to create an income that'll support you if you have big goals and big plans.
Ambition 19:13
So one of the things that you said that I just thought was so prolific was not just leveraging your time. But there's a hidden nugget in there. Because when you go to get employees, aren't you getting? You the boss, right? The person with the company? Isn't the company arch? Isn't your takeaway pay less than it would normally be?
Terry 19:34
When I have other people who you mean doing the work
Ambition 19:38
for a single job? So if I Oh, yes, right. So you would get less than you would normally get. But this idea, and this is what I want people to recognize because there's so many people that go, oh, well you know, this is a cost of the product and you have to charge this and I have to make this for this product. And I go Wait Wait, hold on. There's a strategy in understanding that you're going to walk away with less money. Right? What people often say is the number that they'd like to walk away with. Right? And it's usually a high number because they don't want to go get a lot of clients. Right? Yeah. But if the, in your case, you're saying, you took a price cut, right, you took a personal cut as your business owner, as the person setting up everything, the person doing the most work. And because you took that cut, and you were able to bend time, so to speak, by going out and getting those people to work for you, you were able to double your income.
Terry 20:41
Yes, because we started do I remember when I first started, I thought I had enough work for my crew. The first week, we were all together nice spring day. So okay, guys, this is where we're going to be today. And, and I was thinking the only other thing I had on the books was a half a day job after that house, they can, okay, we're good for the week. By the end of that first day, by the end of Monday, that house was almost done. Because I had that crew, even though they didn't really know what they were doing that much. It was just having those people there. And doing the masking and covering on the house. So one guy could spray. By Tuesday afternoon, I was out of work. So I had to go out and chase down more jobs and move everything up. My point is I went from doing one and a half, one and a half jobs a week to two, I started on a rain free week, we do like five houses. And I made less on each house. But five houses. I mean, it was huge that the difference that you know, I took in five times more money. But I probably only gave up maybe, I don't know, half something like that. My, my, I was still working at about a 40% margin, even though we're doing five times more work. If not, if that makes sense.
Ambition 21:47
That's so beautiful. And the reason it's beautiful is, um, you know, I have an online course Academy and I have an affiliate marketing program. And like I mentioned, we launched his product that's, you know, expensive, it's definitely worth the value. But I'm breaking out the affiliate marketing program. And someone who knows me who knows about my business, they're talking to me, because, you know, we have, you know, entrepreneur, friend of mine that I talked to about business, he goes, Why are you giving away half of your stuff to somebody who's just selling the course for you, I was like, because number one, I wouldn't have the client if they didn't sell it. And then number two, it doesn't matter, because they're going to help me fill up that course faster than I otherwise would be able to write. So as a business owner, do not be short sighted, do not be short sighted, think about the long term. That's all we've heard from Terry. Day today, we've heard him thinking about the long term in terms of how long it took, you just get successful with your business. And then the long term again, when it's when you go, I'm going to build a team and I'm going to take less, if I take less, this team is going to help me reach unbelievable heights. So that's important. Very, very beautiful.
Terry 23:07
So I just like in just like anything, you got to pay your dues at first a little bit, you know, but I was I was still making a living. So that was fine. Because, you know, it wasn't doing that great before that. And so that was an easy thing for me to do, just getting the right guys and, and keeping them busy every day, even though it took time for them to figure things out. But we as I mentioned, we got so much done so much faster. Just because I had fought for people with me that even our worst day was still better than my best day by myself.
Ambition 23:39
Okay, so now now you have this completed business, you have a team, you guys are delivering double. Right? And you ran this business for 40 years. At what point in the business did you actually build out your team?
Terry 23:56
At what point as far as my employees that were doing the work like
Ambition 23:59
a year eight year nine? Well, those
Terry 24:03
those first eight years I was by myself yet and in that year nine is when I hired hired a crew and when I say to that I double my income in Ohio, we only have about eight months that we can work outside it. My system doesn't work inside. So you just can't put enough pain on my my system is we spray houses so we do certain types of homes. And so I did it in eight months, and but I was able to get guys together right off. I knew a couple guys that were looking for work. They were friends of mine, you know, they say don't ever hire your friends. Well, I was in I had no choice but it worked out. But
Ambition 24:38
don't worry about it. We on this podcast you say that's bullshit, right? And I'll tell you why. Right. What's the point of having a friend you swear to god that this guy is your best friend. They're going to be the groomsmen at your wedding. Right? But they can assist you in helping you feed your family. Right but the people who do help you feed your family. I've always thought this was interesting, right? So I'm going to explain it in a with a totally different analogy for you guys. Often what we find is people go to work, and they're very nice to the people that work. Even if they don't like them. They're nice at work, right? Then you go home, and you're mean with the people that you live with? Or you're mean to your friends. Right? And you know why that is? Because you can afford to be mean to people who have no stake in your actual living. But if your friends and family had steak in your survival, you treat them better. I bet you probably. And I couldn't be wrong. You know, there may have been falling outs. But I bet you there was times where you paid a little bit more attention to how you treated those friends because of who they were to you?
Terry 25:56
Oh, definitely. Absolutely. Yeah, it kind of deepened our relationship a little bit until the only problem is in this industry. As soon as a guy learns how to do all of his all the little jobs and everything usually quit and become your competition. And I lost a few guys that way. But that's just the nature of the beast. Well, yeah,
Ambition 26:14
you got to you got to account for ego, right? Yeah. And nobody wants to be the bad guy. Everybody wants to be the guy in charge. Yeah. But if there's anybody listening, you got a great be opportunity, you can reach out, you can contract me. Right. But that's something too, right? Let's talk about that a little, the idea of no one wanting to be the bee guy. Everybody wants to be the guy in charge. But in order for you to be successful with your business, you basically made yourself the bee guy in your business, your business walked away with less money from each job. All of those things, you made the team more important, especially if you're saying you walked away with 40%. It sounded like right. Yes, 60% was going to pay your team, right.
Terry 27:04
And other expenses. So insurance, paint, you know, the materials that we would need and the equipment and things like that. So so that still wasn't bad, I need to make a 40% margin is pretty high, I think. Yeah. But the idea is that we did a certain type of house where we could turn over jobs real quick. It was it was the types of siding that we could spray paint. So we would mask and spray kind of treat it like a car to body shop, only instead of sanding like they would for an automobile, we pressure wash the house, and then come in and spray. So the idea was to have enough work that we could just stay on those the types of jobs that pay the best. And that's when it worked out. If we get on an old wooden peeled up, you know, just a nasty house needs a lot of TLC, that those are the kinds that don't work out, you just can't get enough money to cover there's just so labor intensive. So I had to learn the hard way what jobs to take in which jobs to stay away from. In time that took me a little while because it was more important to keep everybody working. If I didn't have enough of the the good jobs,
Ambition 28:08
I don't want us to skip over the the conversation about 40%. Because you're right, those are really great margins, right. And being able to walk away with 40% is, you know, really great for any business that has the type of overhead that I would assume that you had, right? Because you definitely had to maintain tools, equipment, insurance, then when we say equipment that so much equipment, right, because now you're talking safety equipment, all sorts of things. That being said, I what I would like all my listeners to know, if you are a business owner, and you're walking away with more than 40% profits from your business, you're in a great position, because there's so many people that I talked to who are starting a business that don't want to give up a single percent. They want to create a product and be able to walk away with the maximum amount of profit from that product. And you know, while that's great, you have to invest in your business in order to make money. And I think that's exactly what you've conveyed to us is that you made the investments right? You invested the time and then you invested the money so it's nine years in 10 years and you have your your business and you know this is going along. Right? What other challenges did you run into with the business as you started to grow?
Terry 29:34
Probably the biggest thing I can think of was just knowing which jobs to avoid, you know which ones I should have gone after which ones to stay away from, like I said, those labor intensive jobs. By the time we get done with those darn things I would end up working on them a lot just because I could see there's no profit if we don't get done soon and get on to something else. So sometimes jobs I would just break even on and that's depressing. Go out there and ain't no and work your butt off for a couple days and and just breakeven, where, you know, there, that's where it pays to be an employee because everyone got paid on those jobs but me. And so learning the best jobs to take what the best customers to work for, because some are, some are easy to work for. And some are real nitpickers. You know, they want to drive you crazy with little things. So understanding the customer and the types of work that we should be doing that that was a huge thing for me. And that was the next big obstacle, I would say was just knowing what jobs to take and what people to avoid working for.
Ambition 30:31
Okay, so right customer, right job. And that's pretty similar within, you know, the speaking industry consulting or coaching, right is, you know, sometimes we get on calls, and we get strategy calls where somebody wants, what should be 50,000 hours worth of work, right, and they have a $400 a month budget, and it's like, okay, this isn't going to work out. Right, you have to accept that there's a value that you expect, that you really can't afford. And you either have to go get crafty, or go get a loan, one or the two. Right. And I think that's really what needs to be mentioned, what needs to be talked about, right? And this isn't me saying, Oh, well, I've closed $50,000 clients. If I close a $50,000 clients, you guys would be the first to know. I will say that you guys wouldn't be the first to know, right? But even it doesn't matter how much money you get from those types of jobs, if it's too labor intensive. If you know, the customer is too picky, some of those things, sometimes it's just not a personality match. Right, we go back to what I said earlier about the trauma. I personally, there's groups of people that I really don't want to work with, because it's not it doesn't pay off right now is the best way to put to put it, it doesn't pay off, right? Like I'm not the guy for them. And that's important, you got to know when to say you're not the guy for them. Right? It's not a good fit, right? And in that sense, right? I think this is where you can make money with your competitors, and stop making it such a Doggy Dog market, go find a competitor and say, Hey, I would like a mutual referral agreement and jobs you don't want you could send to me and jobs I don't want I'll send to you. And yeah, we'll just split whatever. You know, with mutual referral agreements, we normally you will have like a 10 or 20% finder's fee or something like that. And then that way, at least you're making money off of the unwanted contact that you have.
Terry 32:45
Right. And another thing I like about that is I hate to just tell customer No, sorry, find someone else that it's better if you could say no, but I do know someone who can do this for you. Right? And let me put you in touch with them. So that that's another nice thing is try never to say, I don't know, I just I've never been comfortable just looking at somebody wanted to hire me for something and say no, can't do it. But there is ways around it if you can give them somebody who can do it.
Ambition 33:11
All right. So they face now we're eight 910 years in, right. Okay, so well further on down the line. Right. So now we're talking you have you've had this business for 40 years. Right? So at what point did you transition into the speaker, author arena and what inspired that transition
Terry 33:35
there wasn't that long ago really, I've just I've almost gotten bored with my painting business. I've been doing it for so long. And I wanted to do something else and I realized I had something to share with the world which was how I made this business from nothing into something and and how other people could do the same size see other painters and other people in other industries and the trades that just don't understand it, don't get it and I want to help other people out so I thought well, I'm gonna write this book and and help people but the big, the biggest The final thing that I did go to the really lock things down for me is figuring out the importance of keeping your customer pipeline full. I mean, in the summertime, I have editors times when I get 40 houses booked ahead. And the nice thing about that is when you got 40 houses on your books that got to be done in the next couple of months. Then all of a sudden, you can just look at the very best jobs and charge them the you can be the highest price guy I tell my customers a lot of times I'm probably not going to be your cheapest bid. Usually I'm your highest and I don't always tell them that but I do tell them the quality will be unlike anything else we are the best and and once our reputation got that way. I found the sooner I could get that pipeline full full of good jobs, not just jobs but good paying jobs. Then it's a total game changer for everything going forward. Because I'm not I don't have to worry about it with the customer doesn't hire me You're not there's always somebody that's going to and we're so far booked out. It doesn't hurt. So that that was the final piece for me was learning the power of having a customer pipeline full of jobs to do you know? Did that answer your question? I'm not sure if I ever went down the right road there.
Ambition 35:19
No, no, I like exactly where you went. And I cannot I totally got where you go. My next question is actually in you may, may go ahead and repeat something that you said. I'm not sure. But what do you think is the single most important thing in your business that helped you overcome all of those obstacles, whether it's a personal quality that you had, or if it's something that you just realized, the single most important thing, it would not have been possible without this one thing?
Terry 35:54
Well, I tell you, either, there were a couple things. But the first thing that pops into my head is, we talked about authenticity a little bit before this call. And this kind of goes along with it was clarity with your transparency. With the customer, I found that builds trust more than anything. When I first started, I mean, I drove an old pickup truck, it was all I had little pipes, for the ladder racks with use ladders, for may pop tires, those are tires that may pop at any time, oil. And it would be a truck that leaked oil and everything. And I used to just kind of park out at the end of the drive and hope they wouldn't notice. Well. Finally, when I was starting to figure things out, I still didn't have nice equipment, nice vehicles, I would just I would spin it in a way where I would tell the customer I'd say, Listen, this is this is who I am. And I'm doing as much as I can. But if you'll trust me to paint your house, I will guarantee you a neat clean job. I do have an old truck and used equipment. But because of that I have small overhead and I'm proud I can, I'm very affordable with that time. That's what I needed was work. And being transparent, not trying to hide or cover up because I was when I was 18. I looked like I was 14. And people. I had one customer come to the door and he says if I hire you, who you're going to who's going to show up you or your dad, I thought oh, man, that hurt. But that's what a lot of people were thinking of me at the time. So I stopped i be i started developing a mindset of total transparency. I tell him, this is who I am. I not the most experienced guy, but I will work my butt off for you. If you'll give me a chance. I wouldn't say Trust me, I just say, if you'll give me a chance, I promise and then I would make big promises. So transparency.
Ambition 37:37
I love the fact that you said that. And I love the fact that you tied it to early on in your career. And I I'll tell people exactly why I love all of that. This is going on about 10 years that I've had the desire and the passion and been working to be a speaker, a coach and all of those things, right? I would say more so a speaker right. And I say empowerment speaker, because my goal is to make sure that everybody leaves with exactly the tools right, you should know what to do next. Um, that being said, it took me 10 years because of something that you mentioned. Right? When you're young, and you step in front of people. They go, I have questions. I don't think you can do it. Because what I understand about young people is there's all these people going out and having fun and doing the thing. And here you are standing in front of me trying to tell me that I should take you serious. So I was 21 and 2122. And there was so many times that I heard well, you can't be a speaker until you're like 40.
Unknown Speaker 38:48
The fog goes away. It's only 40. Right? Full of fire no full of piss and vinegar. No. Yeah. Right. Oh my god. So
Ambition 39:00
what I decided was like, Okay, I'm going to steal the speaker, I'm going to develop the skills, I'm going to make sure I have my communication there. But I'm going to prove my philosophy within my life. And that's how we got to some of the the things that we talked about where, you know, as a young man, I'm making $200,000 a year and I'm working for this fortune 500 company in that fortune 500 company. So now that I've proven that my philosophy is correct, and go ahead and put me on those stages, because I've earned that position, right. The the point that I'm making is, when you're young people are going to look at you like you can't do it. Don't don't focus on that. Do what you have to do to earn the stage. That's really what I had for them earn the stage. So that being said, we have the My favorite segment of our entire show, right? We do it every show every episode. We call it a story for a story. Right? So if you have a crazy wild story for me, there couldn't be a lesson to it. There could be no lesson to it. But I'm going to match your story. We're going to trace stories back and forth. Right? You go ahead.
Terry 40:24
For me, yeah, yeah, you start off your first Oh, my goodness. A story. I mean, about my business. Are you talking about or
Ambition 40:33
any sort of crazy story? Why? What's the wildest job that you ever
Terry 40:38
walked on? Wow. Oh, my gosh.
Ambition 40:42
Chris, I know you got some pretty I know, you then seen some crazy crap in the house.
Terry 40:47
Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to think what would boy you really caught me by surprise with that one. The craziest thing
Ambition 40:55
that don't worry, you are not the only guests that have said, I've caught them by surprise with the story for store. But I've gotten some really great stories.
Terry 41:04
I had, okay, this is one of those ones I didn't tell at first because I was embarrassed. But I was painting inside for a customer. And this was in those early years. My wife, we were only married not even a year. And the guy says I want you to get a couple rooms done for me before my wife comes home. I was at the gentleman's house. And he was there by himself. And when it was all done, I collected my money, which was ridiculous. I mean, 100 100 and some dollars, you know, for a couple of days of work, it was that this was the you know, I know some back in the 80s, early 80s. But even then it was terrible. And he says to me, or I looked at him and I thought you got anything else you want want me to do, I mean, kind of do any more painting because she wasn't do home yet for like, till that evening, and it was I was done at like noon on that last day. And he says, Well, I'll pay you 20 bucks to vacuum my carpets. And you know, the sad thing about that. Looking back, I used to be embarrassed to tell this one too. You know, I took it I was vacuuming the guy's carpet for an extra 20 bucks. So that's a story that I think about as being one of those I probably shouldn't tell. But I use that as leverage
Ambition 42:09
story. Oh, my God, you should tell that story. Because based off of where you are now, it shows that you were willing to do anything, right? You were willing to do tough things and you were willing to put your ego to the side so that you can have what you have in that you believe in your mission. That's an amazing story. You should tell that story on stages. Right?
Terry 42:31
That's right. Yeah. I never thought about it that way. Yeah. All right. Right. Okay. So, what's what do you got?
Ambition 42:38
Okay. All right. Um, that's where we got. Actually, I was thinking, I'll give you an embarrassing story. I'll give you a real embarrassing story. Right? Truly embarrassing story. Right. So this is a 2010. In the Marine Corps, right? And anybody who's been in the military knows that, you get a very small ring. Right. So now within my small room, I got two roommates. And what is the equivalent of a studio apartment? So my roommates were out, and I have the proclivity to want to be naked. And nobody was home. So I'm naked, playing music. Chillin talking on the phone with my girlfriend. Right? Just free balling and Dick swinging, right for lack of a better term. I don't hear the door. I don't hear anything but where where my, my bed was and where I was. Where I was standing and talking. You The door is let's say over here, you come in, there's a wall and then my bed and my entire area is bent behind the wall. Right? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 43:56
So they walk in.
Ambition 44:00
And I'm just naked. I'm I just I noticed them because I'm leaning over to turn up the speaker. And I just look up, and I go, I'm naked.
Unknown Speaker 44:14
And they just look at me and
Ambition 44:19
so that was the embarrassing story. I'm gonna go ahead and tag those guys in in this episode when we get it released and see if they remember oh
Terry 44:27
my gosh, damn. Hopefully it didn't have their phone on the ready to take picture
Ambition 44:32
or no pictures, no pictures. But I was definitely that was definitely one of the more embarrassing things
Unknown Speaker 44:41
they didn't walk out with. They was like, we'll give you some time.
Ambition 44:45
Right. All right. Is there anything that you would like to leave our guests with?
Terry 44:54
The biggest one of the biggest lessons I learned and it took me a long time to figure this out was you can You can't do it alone, you need help from other people, you know, I just I and that was one of my big problems, I always thought I could figure it out. And it wasn't until I aligned myself with the remodeling the National Association of the remodeling industry, and talking to other people about what they were doing to stand out. It wasn't until I started aligning myself with successful painters and learning what they were doing and what organizations I should be belonging to, that things started to turn around for me. Thinking you could do it by yourself is just, it's wrong. And if I would have, if I'd known that 40 years ago, I think I'd be in a whole different place today. Because it took me a long time to really get ahead of the eight ball and the start to leverage everything. But it all came down to understanding that you need people you need to you need a team, you need to reach out and ask for help sometimes. And that would be my biggest thing I'd like to leave with with people is don't try to do it on your own. You know, get help, you know, reach reach out to other people don't be afraid to because people are great. They'll help you if you ask for help.
Ambition 46:03
Man, that's beautiful. And for those of you listening, go be great. Awesome. Great Great.
