Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
Bringing Together -
Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP # 237 Mastering Your Home's Aesthetics: Quality Painting Explained
Join us as we dive deep into the painting industry with Joseph Burke of TrueSpectrum Painting. Discover the realities behind home painting, as we tackle common misconceptions that many homeowners face. Joseph sheds light on essential factors, from understanding the differences between wall and trim paints to why hiring a licensed and insured contractor matters more than ever. In a market cluttered with shoddy workmanship, Joseph's dedication to quality and customer service shines through. He shares his journey from the Northeast to Southwest Florida and reflects on the standards he's committed to maintaining in an industry often marked by mediocrity. We explore the importance of research when selecting a contractor, urging listeners to consider factors like online presence and customer reviews. Through his insights, you'll be equipped to make informed decisions about your next painting project. Tune in to learn how to avoid pitfalls and discover what makes a great paint job truly last. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review!
TrueSpectrum Painting.
Joseph Burke
2348 Willard St Fort Myers, FL 33901
239-359-7542
joey@truespectrumpainting.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Good Neighbors, to episode number 237 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Joseph Burke from True Spectrum Painting. Welcome, Welcome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Jim, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome to get to know people, especially neighbors in the area and share their story with the community. So, without further ado, obviously you do painting. Yes, sir, I think you're getting a little wind there. Hang on, okay, I just wanted to interrupt too much.
Speaker 3:How's that there?
Speaker 2:you go. That's better. There you go, perfect, all right. So I know you do a little bit of painting, but why don't you explain what you do over at True Spectrum, sure, so?
Speaker 3:True Spectrum Painting. You know we mostly do interior, exterior painting. We don't do a whole lot of specialty stuff but to a degree we are very special, especially here in Southwest Florida. I'm from, you know, the Northeast, I'm from Maine A lot of Northerners. You know that we serve out here, you know not, a whole lot of Floridians. You know Right, you know crazy.
Speaker 3:And there is a and it's like a epidemic of really poor contracting work down here which really shocked me. I originally came down here, started a home improvement company and quickly learned that it's, it's, there's a lot, of, a lot of shady work going on down here and it really surprised me. I thought this is florida, this is where I have to retire, this is where, you know, you have all these, these people from all over the united states, new york, the north. You know all these areas where I mean you just grow up and it's like you work hard, you do a great job, your word is worth something, and then, coming down here, it was like man, uh, that it's not like that.
Speaker 3:Um, right, so with true spectrum painting, um, you know, just to keep it, you know, short is, you know, as the owner of the company, I'm just doing everything I possibly can when it comes to the warranties, when it comes to the quality, the, the paint that we put on the houses, you know the, you know communication. We're just trying to do everything we possibly can to just like completely, you know, go against the grain of everything that really people are used to out here. I mean, it's to tell people, you know the warranties we have, how we apply this and that which should be standard. It's as if it's like this, like unicorn out here, and so we just do everything we can to, you know, just really do the job right and do it right the first time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's about customer service and work ethic. So let's back up your story for a minute. How did you get involved in the painting industry to start with?
Speaker 3:Gosh. So, long story short, I got into the contracting side down in Tennessee and I partnered with a gentleman who was a Vietnam veteran and you know he's in his late 70s and he would I mean he would outwork me every day, but this was home improvement kind of stuff. But we did a lot of painting just being in the home improvement side. And he grew up he went to like a painting school as a young man. Dad owned a and dad owned a painting shop. Like customers would come in and buy paint. And so I mean this guy, he was painting before rollers were a thing.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, I mean painting whole houses with a brush, yes. And so when I moved down here to Florida, started another contracting business out here, really I just started looking at my numbers, I started looking at really how can I become known in something that is really precise, niche down, kind of have authority in a certain subject in a certain subject, and looking at you know what I had already done a lot of, but I already had a lot of training of, um, you know, having that previous partner at painting. It was like this makes sense, uh. And so uh quickly got into it, still on the con, the home improvement company, but just really putting all my focus and energy into true spectrum painting right now. Just really putting all my focus and energy into true spectrum painting right now, I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. So let's talk about maybe some of the myths or misconceptions that you know when somebody's getting their home painted. That we could kind of maybe clear up for some of our listeners. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that because I always tell people when I, even when I go on quotes which is, you know, can be several a week, you know, I always tell a customer. I'm like, hey, whether you work with us or not, just here's a little bit of information on what you should be looking, you know. You should know, because it's a lot of people think, oh, paint is paint. You know, you just go out of the store, you get your house and you're good to go. And if only it was that easy. And so I would say these are the kind of the four things that I always, always say to customers, even if they decide to work with somebody else is one Make sure they're licensed and insured.
Speaker 3:2023, desantis actually dropped you needed a general contractor's license to actually paint houses. Desantis dropped that in 2023. But I guess what I mean now by licensed and insured is definitely insured and licensed in terms of your state license, your local county license, even your city license, and the reason behind that is because that's not fun. It's not fun to get that stuff. It costs money, it takes some skin to do it and people who because you get a lot of Bob and Joes in the truck who will come and paint your house. But to me, a professional company is somebody who's just going to go through those hoops to just become even more professional, through those, those, those hoops, to just become even more professional, and so I would say, licensed and insured in terms of that on the paint side is.
Speaker 3:You know, this is a one big misconception a lot of people think is that don't put the same paint that you put on the walls of your house, on your garage, on your garage or your door, what the kind of in the same thing with the interior. Don't put the same paint that you're putting on walls that you would put on the baseboard or the trim. It needs to be two different paints. And so when I sit down with a customer, I say, hey, I know you're looking for prices, and so, as you're vetting out future, guys that are coming and giving you quotes ask them what kind of paint are they putting on the trim, what kind of paint are they putting on the doors and the garage door? If they're doing the exterior, and if it's the same latex paint that they're putting on the walls, to me that's a big red flag. They don't, they're not, they don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so an enamel paint is what goes on doors, garage trim, baseboard crown. It's a hard paint so that it can be scuffed, it can be cleans easy, and so that's that's one thing. Another thing is is Google.
Speaker 2:You know if you're going to find a new restaurant, where do you?
Speaker 3:go to Right, You're going to Google, You're going to Google. I tell customers treat it the same way. You're not just going to have this guy, that's you know. You're going to pay thousands of dollars to paint your house. Go do a little bit of research on this guy. If he doesn't have a Google page and he doesn't have more than I'd say like 15 because the first eight he can just get his aunts and uncles and his cousins and his friends leave reviews if he doesn't have more than 15 reviews, you know I wouldn't hire him.
Speaker 3:You know we treat the same thing with the food we're eating, and that's a $50 purchase. You know when you're putting $10,000 worth of paint in your house. You know what do the reviews say, what do other people that have used this person say? And nine out of 10 times I look up these some of my competitors they either don't have a Google page and you can't even find them online at all. That's a red flag. And so that's number three.
Speaker 3:And then number four big misconception would be, you know, breaking down what they're doing for the job you know I'll have, I'll have. Customers will tell me oh well, we got to, we got a cheaper price, and I'm like, hey look, I'm, I'm willing to do some kind of price matching, but it has to be apples to apples. So I'll ask them what does the quote look like that they're giving you and it's not listed of what kind of paint they're using, it's not listed how many coats they're putting on, it's not listed what kind of paint they're putting on the doors and the trim. And so when you have a company that just comes in, they put a number on the back of a business card. Just because it's a cheap number, it doesn't mean that you're going to spend more money down the line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get what you pay for, right, get what you pay for and pay for those things. I hear you, so you mentioned you were from Maine originally. What brought you down to Southwest Florida.
Speaker 3:Uh, that's a good question. I'm, I'm, I'm a man of faith. I have a family of three. Kids wife, married, in-laws live over here, and so part of it, I would say, would be we felt like the Lord was leading us down here. Second part was we have family here and so you know, as my, you know, wanting to be a great husband, my wife, you know her, her parents live down here and they live in Estero as well, and so it was kind of a win, win, win, win, win. And so it was kind of obedience to the Lord, family down here. And obviously you got a great market, good weather, and I tell people I feel like I'm 95 on the inside. I mean, I don't even want to see pictures of snow.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah, so obviously owning a business is very demanding every time Family as well. What do you do when you get a moment of free time?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I really try to rest Weekends. I don't work my guys on weekends to rest we weekends. I don't work my guys on weekends. I try my best not even to to be on my phone during the weekend doing computer work during the weekend. I really try to force myself to shut it all down Because it's so easy, as I'm sure a lot of people on here can relate. It's so easy to let a business just own you and you not own it Absolutely. You know, I've learned that fairly quickly. You know you can easily work 70, 80 hours a week if you want to. There's a never-ending demand of what can be done. So really try to rest on the weekends. Same thing with the evenings. Once five, 36 o'clock comes, I really try to, just, you know, shut it down, even if I'm in the middle of something. Just this can wait till tomorrow.
Speaker 2:You need that downtime Absolutely. So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they had questions about pain in their home or just questions in general?
Speaker 3:yeah, sure. So phone number obviously 239-944-0289. That is our, uh, our, our business phone number and and you can also reach me at that phone number website, you know, www. truespectrumpainting. com or via email, joey@t ruespectrumpainting. com. And I highly encourage customers I'm like I'm not out here to just paint everybody's house yeah, that's part of the business but also want to inform people, you know, because I see a lot of slap job work and just to be informed on what the what the standard should be. So if people ever call me, email me, text me and they're just have questions about hey, even DIY questions, you know I'm more than willing to to help, uh, you know, bring some structure, some order to what's being done.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. Hey, any last words for listeners today.
Speaker 3:Last words for the listeners yeah, do your research, do your research. Hire a licensed guy, there we go.
Speaker 1:That's it.
Speaker 2:Yep, Joseph, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and we'll see you on the neighborhood soon.
Speaker 3:All right, Thank you, sir. Thank you Jim.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEsterocom. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621.