Russell Peach: Building a $7 Million Dollar Painting Company

Summary

In this episode, Branden Sewell interviews Russell Peach, owner of Peach Painting and Peach Flooring, who shares his journey of business growth, the importance of mindset, and the role of coaching in achieving success. Russell discusses his strategies for sales, client experience, and the significance of branding. He emphasizes the need for discipline, learning from failures, and the differences between hiring subcontractors and employees. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding client needs and the impact of personal development on business success.

Takeaways

Russell started his business at 18 and has grown it significantly.
Investing in coaching and personal development is crucial for growth.
Mindset is the foundation for business success.
Sales strategies should focus on client experience, not just price.
Branding plays a vital role in attracting clients and talent.
Learning from failures can lead to greater success.
Hiring practices should consider the motivations of subs vs. employees.
A strong project management system is essential for subcontractor success.
Discipline and routine contribute to a successful mindset.
Surrounding yourself with the right people can accelerate growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Russell Peach and His Journey
02:59 Growth Through Coaching and Mindset Shifts
05:58 Sales Strategies and Team Dynamics
09:01 Value Over Price: The Client Experience
12:00 Pre-Screening and Client Education
15:00 Branding and Its Impact on Business
18:01 Mindset: The Key to Overcoming Obstacles
21:03 The Importance of Habits and Continuous Learning
31:06 Embracing an Obsessive Mindset for Success
34:27 Overcoming Challenges and Learning from Failure
38:32 Leveraging Debt and Financial Strategies
46:54 Transforming Hardships into Strengths
50:04 Building a Strong Team: Subs vs. Employees

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.059)
Hi everybody I am Brandon Sewell I am the owner of seal propane. Located in central Florida I'm also the host of the off the ladder podcast and we exist to help home service business owners of learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Today's guest on the podcast is Russell peach and he is the owner of peach painting and peach flooring located in Tampa Florida. Welcome to the show Russell if you could just give a.

Really quick introduction to the listeners on who you are, where you're located and the services that you offer.

Russell- PeachPainting (00:35.928)
Yeah, Brandon, thanks for having me. Yeah, hey everyone, my name's Russell Peach. I'm the proud owner of Peach Painting, Peach Flooring. I have a software company for painting contractors called Mighty Stack. They do some business coaching for trade launch as well. I'm based here in Tampa, Florida.

Branden Sewell (00:52.011)
Awesome. And so how long have you been in business? When did you get started?

Russell- PeachPainting (00:55.672)
Yeah, good question. I started at the age of 18 and it's about nine years ago. This September we'll be celebrating 10 years and yeah, been loving it ever since.

Branden Sewell (00:59.552)
Awesome.

Branden Sewell (01:07.875)
Dang, you're young, man. I'm 32, I'll be 33. So that sounds good. you guys are crushing it over there. So if you could, for the listeners, just kind of tell them a little bit about the size of your company, what you guys are doing, and give some perspective to the success that you've been experiencing lately.

Russell- PeachPainting (01:32.878)
Sure thing, Brandon. So I'll just be an open book about everything. Whatever questions you ask, I'm happy to be an open resource for you, Brandon, for anybody listening. So we started off, I was doing 500 grand a year. I ended up this year, this was about three, four years ago. Now this year we should be doing about seven million in just the painting company alone.

Branden Sewell (01:56.514)
Mm-hmm. That's awesome.

Russell- PeachPainting (01:57.87)
Some of the things that really just helped us grow so fast and so successful is just spending a bunch of time, money and efforts into personal development, into a lot of coaching programs and being around the right mentors and the right networking groups.

Branden Sewell (02:13.007)
That's awesome. So I've done some coaching as well. I've been a part of a few different coaching programs and I can definitely say that they've helped me but nothing has helped me to grow that fast. So whatever you're doing I'd love for you to share like maybe what are some of those programs and mentors and people that you've been around that have helped you to maybe.

get the mindset or the perspective that you need to experience that kind of growth and get to where you want to be.

Russell- PeachPainting (02:47.854)
Yeah, the type of growth that I had and that we're having is...

I mean, I can't recommend it to everybody because I'm a little bit insane and I'm completely fine with being insane all the time. But as long as you know your role, know where and how you can grow, I mean, it's completely up to you. It's possible for anybody else and people have grown way faster than I have too. So it's nothing completely unheard of. for me, I've just spent, you know, I've ended up going to different coaches for whatever service I needed or whatever specialty I needed.

Branden Sewell (02:54.959)
Sure.

Russell- PeachPainting (03:22.256)
Right now I'm working with four different coaches and within the span of about 12 months I've spent about...

The first 12 months when I really got into coaching, spent easily over 100 Gs just on coaching, personal development, little bit of events and such. finding the right person, I think that right when you start getting into coaching, maybe you need to find that coach that's good for zero to a million. Find the coaches that you're gonna grow pass up.

Branden Sewell (03:34.969)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (03:56.526)
Right whenever you get to that point, can find the coaches that'll grow right past that because sometimes you'll outgrow coaches and outgrow just platforms. So yeah, I had the zero to a million guys, then three million plus guys, then I had like door to door coaches, mindset coaches, just designated sales coaches, et cetera.

Branden Sewell (04:06.478)
Yeah.

Branden Sewell (04:16.975)
Yeah. So what would you say were some of the biggest shifts that you had to make both with your mindset and your operations to really go to the next level? And I'll just be transparent. Like with me, I've really had a hard time breaking the million dollar threshold. I've added a salesperson. So that's actually really helped.

I also noticed like with adding a salesperson, I have had no choice but to sub because it's like we're selling so much more. I have to be able to take on the work. Otherwise, it just it doesn't make sense. So yeah, so I'm just curious. Are those like some of the things that you've had to do to really grow that fast and go to the next level? What is your marketing look like? How are you?

getting those jobs, how's your sales process change? Can you dive into some of those topics?

Russell- PeachPainting (05:12.366)
Yeah, so first things first is like the mindset piece of it. I mean, it all begins and ends with your mind. Like if you value money so much to where you don't want to let go of any money to spend on coaching, to spend on mentors, to spend on going to events. I mean, I just don't think you're ever really gonna move the needle in your business. So first things first is just justifying the fact of devaluing money.

Branden Sewell (05:33.305)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (05:40.217)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (05:40.83)
I always say money is not real. Now this is something that I need people to take with a grain of salt because at the end of the day, you need money to survive. You need money to run your business. You need money to pay your bills. You need money to feed your family. But at a certain point, if you live your life at a...

means at the lowest means possible. You're not going out to, know, Charlie, you know, Ruth, Ruth, Chris steakhouse every, every weekend and such. And whenever you get some big jobs, you're just going on shopping sprees, live at a minimum and spend the rest into yourself, which will directly correlate back to your business. So then for me, the sale to go to your question on like salespeople, sales strategy, right now we have four sales reps.

Branden Sewell (06:06.883)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (06:28.912)
have a director of sales. So with those, five person sales team, you know, we have a really dialed in system. We hired a right coach, Jason Phillips, contractor freedom. Shout out to him. He's not for the guys that would be just, just hiring a sales coach for the first time ever. Might be a little bit too much, but.

Branden Sewell (06:42.444)
Yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (06:51.406)
Too much info, not too much cost, but too much info to intake if you have never hired a coach or worked on a structured sales process. But for me, I mean, I got a lot of my first stuff for free with YouTube videos, with podcasts, mastermind, network groups and stuff, kind of pieced together my own thing. And it was working as the owner and salesman, but.

can't really scale it at that point if you don't have everything really structured out. So right now we have like a 250 plus page playbook on all of our scripts, on objection handling, on what do we say when we get to the door, what do our follow ups look like, what are rebuttals with certain key questions that we always get. So.

We have a really, really intense training program that we put our reps through. It's a two week training process. And then we're still continuously coaching them as they go on. So it's a little bit of what my sales process looks like. It's really in depth. We focus on giving a world class experience or world class presentation because our company overall gives a world class experience for the full project.

Branden Sewell (07:55.918)
Yeah, that's really good. I'm curious, you think a lot of your growth came more from like bringing more value and increasing your margins and kind of, you know, so let's say, you know, maybe before you were selling a job for five thousand and now you're selling it for eight thousand. Or do you think that it was more volume based? Like were you just like, OK, we know how to sell, we can sell the jobs, but we need to solve production. And so now we're going to

you so then you know and then it's like just scaling you know your subcontractor crews and then you know is that is that how you accomplished it was was like sales volume or was it.

Russell- PeachPainting (08:39.31)
Good question, Brandon. it's a little bit of both. It's a little bit of, of course, increasing pricing because you're increasing the experience, increasing overhead, it all increases. But it also, when you're able to sell, when you have a replicatable sales system, then you're able to sell more, which means that you're, I mean, it's a volume thing as well. So to answer the question.

Branden Sewell (08:52.079)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (09:01.231)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (09:02.838)
It's never about the price. And I want people to understand they, you know, I know you, do soft washing or people that are just painting, smaller painting businesses. And they might think that they got beat out by a couple of hundred bucks. And if you built enough value in the presentation, you've showcased what the experience with your company will look like from the first phone call all the way to the final walkthrough. And then you also explain what can happen when you go with that quote unquote cheaper

guy. Sometimes cheaper, sometimes the more inexpensive guy usually turns to be the most expensive guy. So the problem lies when you don't have a dialed in process. You can't really sell your jobs for more, which means you probably aren't going to be able to sell as many projects in total. So it all kind of goes hand in hand, but it's never about the price. And I don't say that unethically because

Of course, we know what it takes for us to operate a professional business and that comes with having a world-class leadership team. When you have a world-class leadership team, you have to pay them correctly.

the world-class leadership team is going to directly portray the client experience of what the client is going to receive with every dollar that they paid. So if you're just unethically charging massive amounts of pricing, and you're the owner operator, and you're trying to do every little piece of the puzzle,

Everybody here knows that things are gonna fall off. You may be great at every position But when you're doing ten positions, you are not doing ten positions at a hundred percent You'd be lucky if you're even doing fifty percent on each position because you're doing so much Then the inevitable burnout comes and then client experience all goes down. It's always about the client experience So when you have everything dialed in Clients are willing to pay a little bit more for a better experience with a more professional company. That's going to give them exact

Russell- PeachPainting (10:58.192)
what they explained during the sales appointment as well.

Branden Sewell (11:03.183)
Okay, so let me ask you this. You as a business owner, because I run into this, I'm like, man, I feel like I'm bringing more value than anybody else. I feel like I have a great sales presentation. We go in and we really try to sell on value, not on price. We try to make some of those points. What do you think are some of the driving factors on, like if somebody, like you're still not getting the jobs?

Like what do you think are like those little things that maybe like myself could be missing that like is it not doing a bread, a better screening like before we ever go out to do the job? Is it are we could we potentially be focusing on something that we think is valuable but really isn't valuable to the customer? Would you be able to speak to that at all? And like what you think are like some

you points where like if somebody comes back to you and like, yeah, I'm still it's just too much. You get what I'm saying?

Russell- PeachPainting (12:06.232)
Yeah, yeah, I love that question. So Brandon, just so you, just to recap, basically, whatever you think the problems are, sometimes may not be the problem. So you may be trying to showcase value in areas like you said that.

Branden Sewell (12:19.567)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (12:23.874)
They don't even care about so this goes to like where sometimes the painters are not the best sales guys because it gets so technical any of our sales reps if they ever ran a painting business or if they ever Sold paint jobs for another company. We're not even interviewing them We don't want anybody that knows anything about painting for that reason they follow our system and our system only so maybe you're not Showcasing enough value. Maybe you don't have the right coach. Maybe you don't have the right sales system Maybe you think that you have the right sales system, but maybe you put everything

together yourself. Are you going with the mentor that's running a massive company and that this is a proven system for? Or did you just kind of put it together or did you listen to the one million dollar guy kind of replicating his system? So there's a few things there. For one, for two, you spoke about pre-screening process of the appointment setting call.

Now, we don't do a very intense screening process because we know that our sales system will educate people. People don't know what the industry is like for the most part. So our sales system will educate the people that want the most inexpensive price or that wants the handyman or that only wants two walls in their house painted. When we come in there and we show them what we stand for and what the industry is like,

It is something that a lot of times we can...

Just convey enough value for them to even forget about the last options and they'll understand what the value of our company is. So our screening process, yeah, we have about somewhere around nine minute average appointment setting call, but we're not drilling into price. We're not drilling into when's the last time they painted their house or there's a lot of like crazy questions that I think some people speak on. Some coaches even speak on that you have to tell them, Hey, we got a $3,000

Russell- PeachPainting (14:23.024)
Or we're not coming out and I just think it's it for me. It doesn't work for me It can work for some people but I think it goes to piggyback on that I think it goes to what size of business you you're looking to run if You want to run a million dollar business for the rest of your life. There's no problem whatsoever with that There's no right and there's no wrong way to run business There's plenty people that are successful that make great money that run just a million dollar business

Branden Sewell (14:51.375)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (14:51.958)
If that's what you want, then maybe you need a precondition on the phone. Maybe you need to tell them about your job minimums and such. But if you want to grow the business...

I would say that's not the best way to run it personally just because when you say, just for that example, just to keep drilling into that topic of on the setup call, how much that you're drilling into price, they don't know what any of this price, they don't know what any of this costs. So when you say a $3,000 minimum, they might think it's insane because they don't know your company, they don't know what other companies are like, they don't know the value that you're putting into it. So all of it goes together.

Branden Sewell (15:24.686)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (15:29.262)
I think that you just need to ask the right questions. We have a full framework where you just need to ask the right questions about getting your rep there, getting both homeowners there if possible so that everybody understands exactly what goes into the project and making sure that you're catering to either party's wants and needs because sometimes those can be different. getting a handful of things together to set your rep up for the most success possible is going to be the key point, but most of it is going to be how can I educate the

client the most? How can I educate both homeowners the most? Whether they hire us or not, I just don't want them hiring that that Joe Schmo handyman that's gonna come and steal their deposit or come slap a coat of paint on the wall, let it peel and never come back and fix it or finish a job halfway and never never even come back and complete it. That's what I don't want to happen. So if they don't hire us, I just don't want them to hire that guy. So it's just an education game and

Yeah, overall, then the next piece of that too is about pricing.

Now you see the branding that I have back here. We have the big peach, peach painting branding. We went with prolific brand design out in Arizona, Ryan Kettering. He's amazing. And I think that branding has a big part to play if you're looking to play a long game and if you're looking to build a bigger business, because when people see that our beautiful wraps are driving around town all over, keep seeing our pre, we have project managers and sales guys and Priuses. So when they see our Priuses all around and see any of our crew vehicles,

When they look at that, I mean, you can see the background right now. I'm pretty sure that people are not assuming these guys are going to paint the outside of my house for a thousand dollars. So the branding also plays a big part of it, but I don't want like the guys a million and below to think, I have to get a big brand to be able to do these numbers because it's not correct whatsoever. There's huge companies out there that have the worst branding and that's just one piece of the puzzle that I made a huge investment on.

Branden Sewell (17:13.018)
Alright.

Russell- PeachPainting (17:33.296)
very strongly about because I know where we're going long term. So there's a lot of different things that go into still getting that price objection. But I think it really comes down to like getting the right sales system, understanding human psychology, understanding disc personality styles, and understanding how to convey value and how to showcase what your company offers. So get the right coach and you should be able to get that all dialed in.

Branden Sewell (18:01.977)
I like what you mentioned about like, you know, there's companies out there who are doing stuff completely different than you that are still very successful. And what I think that speaks to is it's about like what you're you have to build something that you're confident in. Right. Because I think that you can only sell what you believe. So if you believe that, you know, you need to have, you know, a great brand and you believe that that speaks to professionalism and

and value. Well, if you're driving around in all white trucks and you haven't built your brand, well, then you're going to always, I think, like in the back of your mind, be like, oh, we're not as professional as we could be, or we're not bringing the full experience that we could. And so I think that but then on the other hand, I think if you're that guy who's like, I don't need a brand to be successful, that's a waste of money. Well, then, you know, you can just go out there and not really worry about it. And I think you can still have that confidence.

and still go out and grow a great business. But I think I'm a lot like you where I'm like, man, I want to create a great brand. I want to invest in that. want all of my vehicles to be wrapped and everything to look the same. And when my guys go out, you know, they're wearing branded shirts and everybody knows like, OK, that's, you know, seal propane and they stand for professionalism and value. And they're the best in the industry in our area.

that's who we're gonna go with for our paint job. I feel like, two, in my mind, I wanna create something that anyone who works for me can be proud of. So when they pull up, they're proud to be in our van, or they're proud to be wearing our shirts, or they're proud to represent our brand, and our people are a representation of our brand too.

Russell- PeachPainting (19:55.246)
And just to sort of cut you off, that's a really good point too because when you have a powerful brand

Branden Sewell (19:58.189)
No, no, that's

Russell- PeachPainting (20:03.874)
Well, just to bounce back one last thing on the price thing, a lot of people sell on how we're going to give the best final product out there. And I you said something about we're the best company, but I don't want anybody to think that we should sell, hey, we're the best painters out there. We're probably great paint, well, I know we're great painters, but there's probably other great painters out there. Is the experience gonna be the same? Probably not. So that's what you need to sell on is the client experience, not the actual paint job itself.

Branden Sewell (20:33.732)
Yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (20:33.828)
We don't talk about how good the paint job is going to We talk about how good the experience is going to be. And you know for sure with our reputation that you're going to get a great paint job. So that's that's one thing. let's bounce back to what was on my main topic. When people are really proud of the brand that they're that they're representing, wearing our shirts, jumping out of our nicely branded vehicles, that's going to create a morale boost for one. It's going to create people that are more invested into the team for two. But for three, a huge piece of this.

is you always want to be hiring. ABH, always be hiring. What is good branding going to, how is that going to help me with people? I'm telling you, so many people have called us just because they're like, hey, I'm a sales guy. Hey, I'm a painter. Hey, I run project management. I would love to join your team. I see your cars all around town. So the best people always want to work for the best companies. And when you have a large brand and you have great reputation in the industry, you will attract those APHs.

Branden Sewell (21:06.585)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (21:33.648)
players as well, is of course you need all the A players to run a solid, whether it's a smaller business or especially a large business.

Branden Sewell (21:41.584)
Yeah, that's really good. If you could, I'd really like to talk about mindset, because as we talked before the show, think that, like you said, you said this to me before the show, that mindset is one of the biggest factors in growing. And I couldn't agree more. you know, like, for me, like I have a routine, because I feel like discipline helps me with my mindset. So like today, I woke up at 4 a.m.

I'm a Christian, a believer, so I read my word, I post a devotional for my guys and a prayer, and then I go to the gym. And I go to the gym, I get there at five, I do my hour workout, I come home, I have my routine to have breakfast, get my family ready and out the door. But having that early morning discipline helps me with my mindset. And so I'm just curious, you, I mean, obviously growing a business to the size that you have,

requires discipline, requires a shift in your mindset. It probably has, you know, just going to go out there and say it's probably required some suffering and sacrifice. And, you you've probably been you've probably like been scared to do stuff, but you just take action. So what I would like for you to do is maybe dive in for the listeners and maybe if you could identify some of like those those points where it was like a

fork in the road and it was like I can either choose to make this decision and take action and grow my business despite, you know, like having fears and you know being like I don't know what's gonna happen and how you use your mindset to overcome, you know, maybe some of the like fears and obstacles to take your business to the next level and just I think it would be helpful if the listeners could relate to those fears relate to those

roadblocks or whatever those setbacks where you had to be like, okay, well, this I need to overcome this and how am going to do it? And if you could like identify those and then talk about the mindset to do that, that would I think that would be helpful.

Russell- PeachPainting (23:50.178)
Yeah, great questions Brandon.

I say whether you're running, whether you want to or you are currently running a small business or you want to run a large business, mindset is going to keep you there or it's going to take you to where you want to go. And I think mindset is the biggest thing that either limit or grow business owners and companies. You mentioned something about you're a Christian. I'm a Christian guy as well. My son's name is actually Christian. So I have his, his name tattooed on my arm, Christian. And I gave my

Branden Sewell (24:19.98)
Awesome.

Russell- PeachPainting (24:22.672)
life to Jesus in 2021 and I'm gonna bounce around a little bit because you have some really good things here.

gave my life to Jesus in 2021 because I had just gotten out of another business. So I was running my painting company since 2015, about 2020-ish timeframe. My business was on autopilot, had no idea how to grow it past half a million bucks. I got all this money, got all this time. I'm a young kid wanting bought into another business. I 20, I believe I was 23 years old, lost 200 grand in the short span of a short timeframe.

massive amount of money for a young kid to lose. But what did I do? So here's to speak to your fears. Why I bring this up is obviously, you know, it brought me to Jesus for one, but it also brought me a ton of fears. Should I ever spend money on a business again? Should I ever invest into myself again? Am I the right person to run a business?

Branden Sewell (25:04.249)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (25:25.6)
I just failed and literally I'm at the bottom when I was running such a successful business for so long. What am I gonna do? Why should I even continue to try this? Shouldn't I just go work for, be a sales guy? Should I just go be a painter for somebody? Why not? It's the easy life to go, right?

then that wraps back into mindset. It didn't stop me. I kept pushing my business, kept pushing my painting company. I told you in the beginning of this, I'm a little bit insane and I'm completely fine with that. If you're not as intense as I am, it's completely fine. You do not have to be as intense as I am, but I'm very intense, but I'm very intentional with everything I do. So it didn't stop me, it didn't slow me down, and all it did was add fuel to the fire. All right, there was no loss there. I've...

Branden Sewell (25:53.367)
Sure

Russell- PeachPainting (26:11.426)
You can take it as a loss, but I didn't lose that money. It was a learning lesson. I paid for that lesson. Learned way more than I would have ever learned in college and way shorter of a time frame than I would have ever learned in college. So.

Branden Sewell (26:17.475)
Right, that's good.

Russell- PeachPainting (26:27.182)
It's all about how you take things. So life is all about perspective. And I chose to, there's no way I can get that money back. Why do I beat myself up about it? Don't beat yourself up about it. Be a better person. Every single day you have the opportunity to turn to a new chapter in your own book of your life. So that's the route that I chose. I'm gonna take the higher road. I'm gonna take all the lessons that I took from this L and I'm gonna keep pushing. And look, it didn't stop us. I still kept spending money.

Last year I spent 150, 200 G's just restructuring my business because I grew so fast and I had a lot of systems that were breaking. And what did I do?

hired coaches, coaches, coaches, bought like four vehicles in the span of a month, restructured everything in the business just to run correctly. But here goes back to devaluing money. I told you in the beginning, you need to devalue money. I don't care about the money. I'm not trying to be a millionaire overnight. I want to take care of my leadership team. I want to take care of all the clients that we service on a day-to-day basis with the highest level of experience, take care of all of our painters, anybody on our team. I'm such a selfless

person and sometimes it comes out of fault because I get the short end of the stick at times but

When you're selfless, when you devalue money, when you see the big vision, when you have a clearer vision on a big vision and you see bigger picture, you don't see small picture, that's where everything's gonna start to compound and the compounding effect can be very real to where you're able to just take these massive leaps, massive leaps. And it also goes just to surrounding yourself around the right people. Then you spoke about, to bounce back to what you spoke about with habits. Show me your habits and I'll show you your life. Your habits are everything.

Russell- PeachPainting (28:14.96)
Personal habits daily habits you're a little insane for waking up at 4 a.m But I wake up at 5 a.m. Every day and I think today I actually slept into like 530 which I felt was insane I forgot to set my alarm for some reason I woke up just crazy because it's just 30 minutes after where I normally wake up, but 530, you know trying to hit the gym every day I'm about to start 70 75 hard tomorrow. So your habits are everything

Do you go home from work? Are you running a smaller business or let's say even a larger business and you want to scale? Are you going home from long day of work and sitting on the couch, you're drinking a beer, you're watching Netflix, in between sales appointments or in between your office to home or you listening to whatever's on the radio or are you taking every moment that you have to invest back into yourself, invest back into your team?

And it may not be directly in correlation to the business. It can be directly in correlation to yourself. Because you can't pour from an empty glass. And if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anybody else, and you can't take care of your business. So if you're spending every single one of your moments trying to become a better person, a better leader, a better father, a better friend, being a better person overall, the compounding effect will be insane. And do it every single day.

for the rest of your life, you're gonna take massive leaps, every moment that you have, spend back into yourself. And this doesn't mean that you have to pay for everything. I'm insane because I try to get the best in everything I do. I wanna be the best at everything, so I try to get the best. So I hire the right coaches for a lot of this stuff. But you don't have to hire coaches for everything you do.

Podcasts like this free online. Go on YouTube, you can type in more podcasts. Go on Spotify, Apple Podcasts. There's so many free resources out there. We're in 2025. You don't need to spend money for this. this all correlates, everything I'm saying here just wraps into mindset as well because there's so many people that have limiting beliefs that tell themselves them lies. They tell themselves lies and then they believe their own lies. And then they just live their life out through it.

Branden Sewell (30:03.257)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (30:12.355)
Yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (30:31.018)
starts and ends with your mind. Master your mind, you'll master your life.

Branden Sewell (30:34.649)
Yeah, that's really good. you know, I it's funny. This is kind of like just a side note. But, you know, I know how much I I do to invest in myself, you know, from waking up early, reading books, listening to podcasts. And like you, I tell people this all the time. What you just said about like when you're driving to and from places, don't entertain yourself. Turn your car if you're in your car a lot. Turn it into a university.

I used to call my Tacoma, Tacoma University, because I was like, I'm just going to listen to nothing but podcasts, listen to audiobooks. I think being obsessive and just, you know, really intentional about learning is, you know, you're preparing yourself to win. And so like, I know that maybe I'm not where I want to be. But I know that I'm I'm investing to get where I want to go.

Russell- PeachPainting (31:06.638)
I love that.

Branden Sewell (31:29.929)
And you know, I constantly have that mindset and I tell people, it's funny, just, you know, when I hire on guys, I tell them like, look, if you decide you want to leave and like start your own company, like I'll help you, I'll tell you everything. Like I want to invest in you, I want you to be successful. And I'm like, and I'm not scared to do that because deep down inside, if you want me to be honest, what I tell myself is you're not willing to do what I'm willing to do to win. So you're not going to. So like, I'm not scared to like,

tell you like, hey, go out and do this because the amount of people who aren't willing to do stuff is like, it's unbelievable. You could like you could tell somebody to their face like, hey, go out and do this today and you'll win and they won't do it. You know, so go ahead.

Russell- PeachPainting (32:13.23)
Yeah, I love that man. That's huge. Everything you're saying, I agree with 100%. You said be obsessive, be obsessed or be average. If you want to be average, go right ahead. I'm not, it's not my life I have to live. I'm not living an average life. I will be obsessed in everything I do so that I can, to your other point, I'm not going to be, I'm not at where I'm going to be at. And I'm not beating myself up for where I'm currently at because I know I'm taking those, the right strides to get from one stage to the next.

On the contrary, you're never going to be at where you want to be at. When you hit that threshold, you know, like this year, when it, we're, we're going to hit 7 million this year, just on the painting company. And I mean, I, couldn't even dream about the day that I hit a million bucks in my painting company, but now I look at 7 million and I'm like, that's it.

Branden Sewell (32:48.995)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (33:02.986)
I'm around mastermind groups with whales that are doing 30, 40, 60 million bucks and I'm the guppy of the group. And I'm like, seven million, that's it, man. I'm to hit 20 million. I'm still going to, that's it. A hundred million. That's it. You know? So, so you're always going to hit those, those thresholds, but then it goes back to like, not, like you said, not beating yourself up and, understanding what it's taken you to get from one level to the next. And

Branden Sewell (33:09.091)
Yeah.

Branden Sewell (33:15.417)
Yeah, it's good.

Russell- PeachPainting (33:30.282)
Some of the things I speak on too might get might get people to get themselves into trouble if that's a hard way to say it but why I say it is because some people could like take it so extreme and burn themselves out and back to mindset maybe you don't have the right mindset maybe if that's what where you're going to maybe you don't have the right mindset to

be able to take those quote unquote losses or be able to put in the 50, 60, 70 hour weeks every single week. You need to gear up your mind first and just go insane on everything you do. And if you're ready for it all, that that's what it takes to build the empire that I'm trying to build. And if you're trying to build the same, that will be what it takes as well. But I love everything you said.

Branden Sewell (34:15.361)
Yeah, yeah, I want to be respectful of your time if you could give me like a hard stop time so that I know. OK, we're good.

Russell- PeachPainting (34:23.054)
We're good, man. I got about 45 minutes before my next call.

Branden Sewell (34:27.055)
Okay, so you know, you bring up like, you know, you could potentially, you know, like, it could lead to what you say could lead to somebody getting hurt. I think so in 2022, my business almost failed. I thought I was gonna have to file for bankruptcy. I was like scrambling to figure out how to get jobs done. I had I was just I was struggling. It was a rough year for me and

A lot of the things that I did came from listening to Tommy Mello. So I'm sure you've probably heard of Tommy Mello. was like, you know, I just I love his podcast. I listen to like everything he says. But I was like trying to implement all of this stuff. And I ended it ended up like biting me because, know, it's just there were things that I didn't know that ended up causing problems. so anyway, it was a financially really challenging year. Now,

I like what you were talking about before with mindset. It's like I can, I had to decide when I went through that, okay, am I going to let this define who I am? I'm a failure and I can't move forward and I don't have what it takes. Or do I get up and I say, man, I learned so much from this and I'm going to choose to get up, learn from the mistakes and move forward and change some things. And who knows?

I don't know, maybe in five years I'll be a multi-million dollar business and make a mistake and fail again, but I'll get up and I'll move forward and I'll do it again. And so I think having that mindset of there's no such thing as failure, right? You fall down, you make mistakes, but the only way you fail is if you quit. If something bad happens, you're gonna make mistakes. You're going to...

to run into these issues and then you're gonna have to decide like, does that define me? Am I a failure? Or did I just pay a lot of money for a really great lesson? It's like you said, you paid a bunch of money for an education that you couldn't get from college.

Russell- PeachPainting (36:34.062)
So I think what I was one of my mentors said if you're not on the verge of bankruptcy You're not dreaming big enough now. It's a little bit insane to think about right and Sounds like you know you took some some hard lessons as well But for the people that you know are trying to really get psycho in their business and Really in in their personal life

Branden Sewell (36:41.24)
Hahaha

Russell- PeachPainting (36:58.496)
and maybe there's only a limited amount of funds, we all have a limited amount of funds, you know, make sure you're allocating everything 100 % correctly, make sure you're strategic with every investment that you're making, don't just foolishly spend left and right. It may all seem like it makes sense, everything that you're doing, but one, if you don't have your mindset mastered, that's gonna be a huge problem no matter what level you're

To if you don't have the right coach to set up the right blueprint on your business or even your life You can have a life coach personal personal mindset coach If you don't have the right coach, then you may just be foolishly spending money left and right as well So maybe you know you could reverse engineer some of the things that you went through and maybe the right coach would have helped you compress a lot of the a lot of that time and compress a lot of those failures into smaller failures or but

And sorry, I don't want to say failures because there are no failures in life. Like you said, the only person who fails is the person who quits. So whatever situations, don't get lost in the details. I spent money on this, I spent money on that. Never get lost in the details. That's with everything in life. Don't get lost in the details. Look at the core. Where's the core? Okay, I spent this X amount of money circled in a big, the big number, not all the small detailed. And I should have just taken this amount to the right coach, found the right

coach spent enough time just looking for the right coach and they would have helped me that much more to make sure that it was more of a strategic plan than I thought it was.

Branden Sewell (38:32.621)
Yeah, that's good. You know, I'm going to throw this out there and you know, it's just a lesson that I learned that I want to share with my listeners and you know, you might be like, wow, you didn't know to do that. You're like dumb. But this is one of the biggest issues that I ran into in in twenty twenty two was really it was just a cash flow thing. It like we had the sales, we had the money, but I was running into cash flow issues and it was becoming a problem. And

You know, so one of the I hired another coach and this was a guy who recently like sold a business for 15 million and I was talking to him and I was telling him like, you know, cash flow sometimes is a challenge and he goes, well, what are you doing? Like and I was like, hey, and one of the things he coached me on was like how we purchase material for jobs. He's like, are you just paying for it? And I was like, yeah, like when when we need material, we just pay for it. He's like, you're not using a credit card. I was like, no. He's like, you're not using vendor accounts. I was like, no.

He's like, well, that's why you're having problems. And so he was like, look, do you get discounts from your vendors and can you have a charge account? I was like, yes. He's like, so this is what you do. He's like, you purchase your material from your vendor on your vendor account, right, your charge account. And then what you do is that buys you, they might not make you pay that for 30 days. And then they have like a once a month, like due date to like pay your account.

He's like, so you use that charge account and then he's like, and then what you do is you use your credit card to pay that bill. And then he's like, and then what you do is if you're getting a discount from your vendor, then now you're also getting cash back points or whatever on your credit card. And so you're getting like, maybe you're saving another 2 % on that material because you're getting the cash back. so it was something as simple as that that I implemented.

within the last year and it changed everything. And it sounds so simple. And I'll go back to this. From the age of 18, I was really big into reading Dave Ramsey books and studying Dave Ramsey. So I was kind of like avoid debt at all costs. really this coach I had really helped me to shift

Branden Sewell (40:56.159)
my mindset on that and how I was really because I wasn't being strategic in that like playing that game. It was causing problems. So anyway, I just wanted to share that with the listeners.

Russell- PeachPainting (41:09.006)
100 % OPM is king other people's money is king now what you just said 30 days Sherwin-Williams for example They'll give you 30 days you can even extend that out and even if you're honest with Sherwin-Williams him running into some cash flow issues They'll give you 45. They'll give you 60. They might even give you 90 days 0 % interest free money pay it off with your credit card your MX 0 % interest free money if you pay off the statement the following month But that's let's say 30 30 days from Sherwin-Williams pay it off. Then you get another 30 days

Branden Sewell (41:13.049)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (41:17.657)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (41:27.183)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (41:38.96)
from your Amex bill that's 60 days of free money that you're getting right there. How much is that going to help cash flow?

Branden Sewell (41:43.758)
Right. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, it was such a pivotal thing for me to learn. And I was like, if I would have been doing this like years ago, I would have avoided so many problems. So I feel like it's a simple concept. But if like if you implement it, it's a game changer.

Russell- PeachPainting (42:05.454)
And how much more could you have done with that money in that meantime? how much more impact could you have given your business within that time? It's insane to think about. you think about the richest people in the world. They are leveraging debt as much as they can. debt is not always a bad thing. Let's say you're paying 10, 15 % interest on some debt. But how much more money is that allowing you to make within that 10 to 15 % interest period?

Branden Sewell (42:08.981)
my goodness, like...

Russell- PeachPainting (42:34.432)
I'm sure you running a painting business or any other business, you can make a lot more money than that 10 to 15 % interest that you're getting hit with. So don't be scared of debt. I'm a fan of line of credits too. If you're running thin.

Well, make sure you do it before you're running thin, but get a line of credit with a local community bank. My local community bank approved me for a large amount, very fast, very easy. And thank God, right now we're not dipping into it, but there's been times that we've had to dip into it.

Yeah, I mean if you gotta keep the boat turning you gotta make sure that the team is paid You gotta make sure that your vision is coming to life. I will do whatever it takes It doesn't matter what it's gonna happen. I will sell my personal house. I will sell all my assets I will sell all my beat my personal vehicles. Hell. I'd even screw the sell the sell the company vehicles I don't care. I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen But that is because I'm so clear with my vision on where we're going and what my game

plan to get to that goal where I'm trying to get to is going to be at. whatever it takes, this goes back to me just being insane. And OPM is king. love being able to leverage debt. I would not agree with saying, don't.

ever believe in debt, never go into debt on anything. Because you know if you have a solid mindset, you have a solid plan, you have a solid business, I mean what's there to fear? Are you fearing because you think you might fail? Well boom, there's a mindset issue.

Branden Sewell (44:10.159)
Yeah, I was I had a guy on the show and I actually saw him comment on one of your posts and he said that you reminded you reminded him of himself like 20 30 years ago. This guy's a little bit older. I'm not going to say his name, but you'll probably maybe you'll know who I'm talking about. But he's got like I think his business is like 15 20 million. Yeah. And

Russell- PeachPainting (44:34.126)
17 or 18 million I think we live.

Branden Sewell (44:38.179)
But one of the things that he said when I had him on as a guest is he said, you have to have access to capital to grow. Like if you don't have access to capital, you're never going to grow to this size. so, you know, that's something that I've been, you know, it is it's a it's a mindset shift for me because my background is when I was younger from like middle school through high school, I experienced homelessness like

you know, moving in friends houses, you know, not having a place to live, you know, moving around, living in hotels. There was even like one point when I was like 15 or 16, I lived in the back of a beach door and I slept on the stock shelves, you know, and so that has created like a mindset for me where I'm like, sometimes I can be so scared to like, lose it all.

right? Because I don't ever want to put my family in like a position where, you know, like, we're without, you know, and I experienced that as a kid. But at the same time, it's like, that's like a limiting mindset and belief. And, you know, so I have to overcome that that scarcity of like, you know, okay, if I want to grow to this size, I have to be able to overcome that mindset of feeling like being afraid to fail at that. Does that make sense?

Russell- PeachPainting (46:03.416)
So it makes perfect sense and I'm glad you say that too because there's a lot of people that have stuff like that. I'm sorry you went through that. I've never experienced anything like that so I can't imagine. I have dealt with lot of hardships but to the level of exactly what you said, I can't speak to that because just never been there. But the only thing that I could say is anything that happens in your life, good.

Now, I mean it respectfully, but good that it happened to you that you know what it was like. So you know you will never let yourself get to that point. You will never let your children feel or your family feel, I don't know if you have kids or not. Yeah, so you will never let them feel. You will do whatever it takes to never get that feeling again. So now that, think you, people that have dealt with major hardships like that,

Branden Sewell (46:29.177)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (46:41.699)
Yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (46:54.53)
probably even have a leverage over the people that have not had those hardships because they have already felt that versus someone like me, haven't felt exactly what you felt.

So, I mean, maybe things are crumbling and I've never been there. I mean, maybe, you know, it could happen to a guy like me, right? But you know, if you're starting to feel that coming, you're going to do whatever it takes 120 hours a week. You're to go knock doors. You're going to do anything to make that happen because you've already felt that. So that's a superpower in yourself that you can use to make sure you're never there. And some people just don't think it could ever happen. And if you've never experienced it, maybe

Branden Sewell (47:20.365)
Exactly,

Russell- PeachPainting (47:34.792)
Maybe you just don't know when it's happening or what the actual feeling of it is. So anything that's happened to you in life, positive, especially negative, though good, you will know what not to do to let anybody around you feel what you felt.

Branden Sewell (47:48.88)
Yeah, it's really good. mean, it does. It does both things. Like I can I can say like back in 2022 when I thought I was going to fail. You know, I did everything that you just talked about. You know, I was I was going in in Florida. Door knocking is not necessarily the most fun. It's hot as crap. But, you know, I was out there door knocking. And not only that, like this is like just to be real.

Like it was a matter of like my business failing and like it potentially leading to like really bad things personally with personal finances. I would. So I was doing estimates all day and in between my estimates I would drive Uber. So like if I didn't have an estimate for like an hour and a half I would do Uber Eats or Uber and I'd like you know pick people up drop them off.

And then when I got home at the end of the day, I would pick my wife and my son up and we'd all get in the car. So like, let's say five o'clock from five until nine thirty, we would do Uber eats at night, you know, because like my son could come with us. We were all doing it as a family. But it was like, that's just what we did to survive. And it was like it sucked. But I was willing to do whatever it would take to make sure that I wasn't going to fail. And so, yes, like I'm I will definitely say like

you know, I'll do that. But at the same time, there's also like, that limit saying like thing where it's like, I'm, you know, I don't want to. So it's like, sometimes the thought of it can hold me back in some ways. And even in things like I'm like, I know if I like deep down inside, I'll be like, I know if I do this, I know we could go to the next level. And I like be a little hesitant. So but anyway, um, yeah, I really appreciate you talking about that stuff. I want to

you know, before we close this out, I want to jump into and talk about just how you're hiring to get the work done because, like I said, I was meeting with AC Lockyer yesterday, had lunch with him two hours, sat down, and, you know, he told me some really, like, hard things that I had to hear.

Branden Sewell (50:04.335)
And, you know, I don't remember if I said this at the beginning of the show or before we started recording, but I told him, you know, like, I don't want to subcontract. And I was like telling him all these reasons why. And he said, well, let me just stop right there. He's like, the reason why you're saying that is because you're ignorant. And I was like, and but he just kind of like put me in my place. And he started to like kind of explain things. And I was like, OK. And

So anyway, just really quick, I'd like it because I think I'm kind of asking you this selfishly because I want to know for myself. But I think the listeners will benefit to I've often told people that I believe like one of the biggest challenges to my growth is is having the people to do the work. It's like I could sell three million dollars, you know, but I have to have a way to get it done.

And so I know one of the quickest and easiest ways to accomplish that is to have a good team of subs. So I'd like, if you don't mind, kind of share like what your process is. Are you 100 % subs or are you like a hybrid? Do you have some of your own guys? Do you have subs too? How do you vet them? How do you find them? How do you like have peace about it? I'm a really big guy on like having peace about decisions I make. So.

If you could just like share like your mindset with that, I'd really appreciate it.

Russell- PeachPainting (51:30.158)
Yeah, good question Brandon. So there's a lot of back and forth on a lot of business owners on do I go all W2, do I go all 1099, which are employees versus subs and

There's a, you know, I get asked this a lot and I feel very strongly about the subcontractor model, but not everybody in every state or every area is going to be having the joys or the benefits of being able to utilize sub. So it really depends on your geographical area. Let's say California. Yeah. Forget about it at that point. If you're in California, subcontracting laws are insane over there, but

Then I also was speaking with somebody in New Hampshire that like there's just literally no painting companies out there. There's nobody out there. So, so two things. One, if you're going to run the probably the W2 model, maybe even 1099, but definitely the W2 model, you're going to have to have a really good training process. Look at Nick Slavik. I mean, in his shop, has like test kitchens, test, you know, offices, bedrooms and such. And you have to be really intentional, which is hiring good people that can learn it or that already know it.

Branden Sewell (52:26.702)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (52:37.776)
that can lead the crew. I think it's a lot more management, it's a lot more risk, and I wouldn't say it's as much reward. Now for subs, the reason I like it why we're able to strategically grow with subs is if we have...

If we need five subs, we need to have like 10 subs on the roster because a lot of people are fearful of, they're going to go in, they're going to do a bad job and I'm not going to be able to complete the job and ultimately client experience will go down. And you're absolutely right. It definitely could happen. You're not wrong whatsoever. But

One, of course, have a very intense interview process with the sub to make sure you're vetting the right people, make sure you're writing background checks, make sure you're getting really good people in there. Because a lot of people are really good painters, but they may not be the best marketers, they may not be the best salespeople, and they may not just wanna deal with clients on a day-to-day basis, worry about getting paid and having all these variables, and do I have work tomorrow, do I have work next week? I hit a home run on this one, but now I'm home for the next month.

They're tired of dealing with those variables. So for us, those are the guys that we want. want to they're great at what they do. They come with all their own tools. They come with their own experience. They're vested as a partner. They want to do right by a company like us because we're selling, selling, selling. And all they have to do is perform at a high standard. They're going to stay continuously busy. So it's a mutual interest. can keep them busy. They can make more money with us. And all they have to do is perform at a high level of, you know, final

products and experience. And why I say if you need five subs you gotta have ten because a lot of people talk a good talk or a lot of subs will do great for the first three, four, five projects and then things will go down. If you have a really dialed in project management system where your project managers are continuously checking in, fire them. If they're not doing good, fire them, get the next crew in.

Russell- PeachPainting (54:36.29)
It's all about the client experience. The client experience, you don't want to keep giving chances, giving chances, giving chances, and a three day project turns to be a two week project and the homeowner's caught in the middle of it. You're going to get bad reputation. You're going to get homeowners that are upset. And if you're okay with that, it's probably not the most sustainable business model for you to be okay with that. So if our crew is clearly not knowing what they should be doing,

Branden Sewell (54:46.447)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (54:59.566)
They're doing a bad final, they're doing a, giving a bad experience, smoking all over the job, you know, being sloppy all over the job, not doing a good job. We're getting them out of there. We're getting another crew in there that is good. So you got to have the people on the backup. And I would say the argument between W2 and 1099.

Branden Sewell (55:06.681)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (55:18.85)
The W2 guys might not even care so much as a sub will because the sub has went through all the hardships of trying to run their business and they can't stay busy, right? And that's all they know, they're painters. They got all the equipment, they got vans, they're painters, they're vested, they're going to be painters. Now W2 guy might just come in and they might just milk the clock for one, they might just be, you know, dragging their rears around the job and, I'm fired, okay, I'll go get a job at McDonald's, I'll go get a job at a car dealership. They might not care so much.

they are not as invested as a painter and they haven't dealt with the hardships of trying to run and scale a business like a lot of these sub crews have. So I would also argue to the fact that painter, the W2 painters might not care as much about the final product because if the final product doesn't look good, guess what buddy? I'm getting paid to go back. You know, I'm not now the subs, if they don't do a good job, it's good. Not only going to affect their pay because obviously they get paid a certain amount per job. So now they're going to have to go

Branden Sewell (55:57.177)
Mm-hmm.

Branden Sewell (56:09.208)
Yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (56:18.68)
back on their own time but it's not only going back on their own time and spending more time and money on that single job it's gonna mess up their future days which is gonna lack productivity on their following projects as well so it's gonna be a compound between both of those that they're gonna be losing money double so now they're a little bit more vested to make sure the jobs are done correctly the first time and again like I said these guys are usually experienced painters so you're not dealing with as much quality issues as you might be dealing with with W2Crew

Branden Sewell (56:39.044)
Mm-hmm.

Russell- PeachPainting (56:48.56)
Now I know I get a lot of pushback about this and a lot of people feel very strongly about W2 but from my experience that is what I feel. I would argue that a lot of times a W2 crew may perform at a lesser final product than a 1099 crew would.

Branden Sewell (57:07.823)
Yeah, I like that. You know, and I think it comes down to as well, like both are hard in different ways because I've when I first started my business, we were 100 % subs. And then in 2020, I switched over to subs and W2s. And then I phased out my subs and then I was just 100 % W2s. And now I've like started phasing in like some subs again because of the growth.

But I think really what it comes down to is it's like you really do have to understand like how both work, both are motivated by completely different things. They're just, like I said, it's choosing your hard because both are hard. And there definitely are challenges that you can run in with both. There's definitely like a handful of problems that you can run into with. Like I'm dealing right now,

my I have this big job. It's like a forty thousand dollar interior exterior repaint we're doing in Winter Park, Florida. And the customer calls me up like last week and she's like, can you do anything to get your guys to move any faster? I was like, I can try, but it's like, you know, they're paid by the hour. It's like they have no incentive right to like really just go in there and fly through the job like a sub would.

I said they'll do a really great job. They do great work, but they're just they move at like the pace that they move and and it's hard to get them to move faster and you know, so the job's just it's taking longer than the customer wants to. I mean, she's super happy. She's like, they're amazing. I love your guys. They do amazing work. They're just slow like it's like a like I don't know what to what to do there. But

Russell- PeachPainting (59:02.158)
There's also some ways to combat that, you know, with performance pay if they finish under budget.

Branden Sewell (59:05.807)
You know, but what I'll say is like I've offered that stuff and what I found is that W2 employees are W2 employees for a reason. If they wanted to make more money and that was their motivating thing, they would go become a sub. Right? So I've noticed that like at least with my employees, I could tell them like, hey, if you finish this job in five days instead of six or seven,

Russell- PeachPainting (59:21.838)
Thank you.

Branden Sewell (59:32.546)
I'll give you a bonus and they'll be like, yeah, I appreciate that, but I want to go fishing, you know, or like, yeah, I appreciate that, but there's waves on Friday and I want to get off early and go surf, you know? So it's like for some people that money, it's not motivating them. And I can say the same thing for myself. Sometimes money isn't my like number one motivator, you know, like, you know, like at the end of the day, it's like, I want to enjoy and love my life and

Russell- PeachPainting (59:55.128)
shouldn't be.

Branden Sewell (01:00:01.827)
live the life that I want to so it's like if I wanna spend time with my kids that's more important to me than an extra $5,000 you know so anyway both are hard so but I appreciate the perspective that you brought there and you know like I said I truly do feel like the only way that I'm really gonna be able to go to the next level is if I at least do like a hybrid model you know have both have my W2s and then sub out jobs so.

Russell- PeachPainting (01:00:29.932)
Make sure your project management is dialed in. That's really what it comes down to.

Branden Sewell (01:00:34.319)
Yeah, I was talking to, so I'm gonna try and wrap this up in the next four minutes, but AC Lockyer yesterday when I was meeting with him, he told me about this, I'm gonna look into it, I'll share it with you just in case you have any interest, but he uses it and basically it's a back, because his guys are technically like, they're affiliates, is the way that he explains it, but anyway, he uses a, it's called theseal.com.

And so all of his guys have to do that background check. And so that's something that I'm probably gonna look into. I never used to background check my subs. I don't know if you do, but I think that's something that I am.

Russell- PeachPainting (01:01:19.214)
absolutely because if you're bringing them into interior clients where they fully live in it, you only want to send the best people there.

Branden Sewell (01:01:27.437)
Yeah, so I yeah, that's something that I didn't do before, but I think as we're like, you know, gonna vamp that up and, you know, probably rewrite our subcontractor agreement, sure, some things up there, do the do the background checks and, you know, just try to bring in the absolute best. But anyway, Russell, I don't want to take up too much more your time. really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to come on here and

share so much value with the listeners and congrats to you on all your success and I you know wish you more of that. If there's anything that you'd like to leave the listeners with like a final thought or anything is there anything that you would want to say to kind of close this out?

Russell- PeachPainting (01:02:12.334)
Yeah, thanks for having me on the podcast. I just love helping the industry. I know I've spun my wheels so much with no mentors, no coaches, so much time, so much frustration and aggravation. So I just love helping people any way possible. I'm no guru by any means, but any way that I have found success in my life, I'm happy to share things. In the beginning of this, I did share that I am a coach for trade launch, but everything that I speak on, if people reach out to me, it's not like,

I'm just trying to push my coaching program on anybody because I've done it forever where I just talk strategy all the time, zero dollars, it doesn't cost anything just because I love giving impact to the industry and ultimately I hope...

people listening got value. Brandon, I hope you got some value out of all that. Appreciate you guys having me. If you guys do want to reach out to me at any point, my Facebook is Russell Peach, R-U-S-S-E-L-L, last name Peach. My Instagram is PeachThePainter. And yeah, feel free to shoot me messages and love to connect with anyone.

Branden Sewell (01:03:00.387)
Absolutely.

Branden Sewell (01:03:16.257)
Awesome, awesome. And yeah, definitely reach out to Russell. I think he's a wealth of information when it comes to just being successful in your business. Also, you know, I know you're not too far away, Russell, so maybe we can, you know, connect sometime. We like to go over to Tampa. We go over to the aquarium a couple times a year. So, yeah, yeah.

Russell- PeachPainting (01:03:37.742)
was already thinking that, my man. Anytime you're ready, I'm ready.

Branden Sewell (01:03:41.325)
Yeah I'll have to connect with you but anyway for those of you who are listening thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you're watching on YouTube please like this video comment share your feedback subscribe to my channel turn on the notifications so you don't miss future episodes and if you're listening on Apple or Spotify.

Please rate and review the show that'll help it get out there and reach more people And as always down in the show notes You'll have some resources to help you implement systems and grow your business so that you can get off the ladder I do get credit if you use any of those affiliate links and I do appreciate if you use them If you need any help with any of them, I'm a resource to you. Just reach out And we'll see you next time on the next episode of the off the ladder podcast