Painter Growth Podcast

If your income has not moved in 3 years, if your business keeps hitting the same ceiling, if your life looks basically the same as it did 5 years ago, there’s a hard truth hiding in plain sight. Most of the time, it is not the economy. It is not the market. It is not your team. It is not your situation. It is your environment. Your results cannot outgrow what you tolerate. The standards you allow....

What happens when a homeowner nearly falls off her chair from your price, and still leaves you a 5-star review before you do the job? In this episode, we unpack a Momentum coaching call filled with real stories and real wins. From placing 350+ door hangers to unlocking $40K in builder work, these painting contractors are proving that consistent marketing, honest communication, and clear expectatio...

In this raw Coffee Conversation, Coach Jesse gets real. He opens up about the moment he hit rock bottom while building his second painting company. He had four jobs open, no reliable crews, cash pressure mounting… and a full-blown panic attack on the side of the road. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Didn’t know how he was going to get through it. What saved him wasn’t a new marketing tactic. It...

What happens when your painting business grows faster than your leadership systems? In this Brush Busters episode, Josh and Wayne break down real questions from owners running multi-million dollar painting companies who feel like they’re losing control. Jobs happening without visibility. Teams ignoring systems. High revenue with low profit. Managers burning out. Payroll crushing margins. This is n...

Most owners think the only way to get their time back is to hire. But hiring is slow, expensive, and it often solves the wrong problem. In this episode, Mike breaks down a simple framework to buy back up to 10 hours per week using leverage you already have, before you add payroll. Here’s what you’ll learn: You’ll run a quick time audit to find where your hours are leaking. Then you’ll climb the Le...

If you’re building a painting company and it feels harder than it should, this episode is your shortcut. I’m breaking down five mistakes I made the hard way , from hiring the wrong way and leading with pressure, to working nonstop, waiting too long to hire key roles, holding on to the wrong people, and not paying myself a real salary. These lessons didn’t just save my sanity. They helped me create...

Description: Most painting business owners say they want freedom. But the way they run their week guarantees the opposite. In this Brush Busters episode, Coach Jesse and Coach Chris break down a simple truth that changes everything: rules create freedom. The owners who feel calm, profitable, and in control are not the ones with the most flexibility. They are the ones with the clearest boundaries....

Are you trapped in your business? If you can't step away for a week without everything falling apart, you don't have a business—you have a job. In this episode, Michael Reitman shares exactly how he's preparing to take a 7-day vacation completely offline, and the framework you need to do the same. Michael breaks down the "vacation test"—a proven method to identify operational...

What if Elon Musk had to scale a painting business from scratch? In this episode, Mike breaks down a 5-step scaling framework inspired by how Musk builds and simplifies massive companies. The goal is simple: grow faster, cut the chaos, and stop optimizing work that should not exist in the first place. You’ll learn how to: Question every requirement so your business stops accumulating “busywork” De...

Does being physically fit make you a better leader? In the painting business, leadership is not just what you say. It is what you model. In this episode, I break down why fitness is often correlated with high performance, how your habits impact employee respect and customer trust, and how working out can sharpen your decision-making and emotional control. If you have not trained in years, do not o...

Most painting business owners hit the same ceiling for the same reason. Not leads. Not ads. Not pricing. It’s leverage. In this solo episode, Mike breaks down the one unlock that actually changes your capacity to grow in 2026: moving from “I delegate tasks” to “I delegate outcomes.” Because hiring another painter does not buy your freedom. Hiring a crew leader does. You’ll hear: Why “helpers” keep...

Happy New Year! In this first episode of 2026, I'm pulling back the curtain on Painter Growth's journey to nearly $5M in 2025, and it wasn't pretty. This year was our hardest yet. We dealt with team issues, profit struggles, toxic employees, and some of the most expensive mistakes I've ever made. But we also grew 40%+ and set ourselves up for another 100% growth year ahead. In this...

Want to 10x your team's output? The secret isn't working harder, it's aligning incentives. In this episode, Mike breaks down the most powerful leadership tool you're probably not using: AI (Aligned Incentives). Learn how to structure compensation plans that get your team thinking about your business even in the shower, and why paying someone more money might be the smartest financi...

The holidays don’t have to destroy your momentum. In this episode, Mike breaks down how painting business owners can stay effective over the holiday season without burning out or completely checking out. He explains why slowing down doesn’t mean disconnecting, the three common holiday traps that sabotage January, and how to use this time as a leverage window instead of a lost month. You’ll learn h...

In this solo Coffee Conversation, Jesse reflects on his personal journey through 2025 and the business framework that has guided him for years. He shares how thinking in quarters changed the way he ran his painting business and why each season of the year has a different role to play. From driving massive activity early, to optimizing production, to enjoying the payoff, and finally slowing down to...

What if the secret to scaling your painting business isn't expanding to more cities, but dominating smaller pockets within your current market? Jesse Tarrin sits down with Wayne Scherger, co-founder of CertaPro Painters and 45-year painting industry veteran, to discuss the counterintuitive strategies that built the world's largest painting company—and how independent painting contractors c...

Most painting contractors can't answer in one sentence: What's your revenue goal, profit goal, and crew count for December 2026? If you wait until January to start planning, you're already behind the eight ball. In this episode, Michael Hickman breaks down the exact business planning framework used at Painter Growth to help painting contractors scale from $300K to $1M+ in revenue. Lear...

Winter is hitting hard for painting businesses. In this episode, Coach Gavin and Coach Chris tackle four real letters from struggling painters facing zero leads, tanking close rates, and the tough question: "Should I just shut down until spring?" You'll Learn: Proven tactics to generate leads when your phone stops ringing Why your close rate might have dropped to zero overnight (and...

In this episode, Mike breaks down one of the most important skills for any painting business owner who wants to grow: taking bigger swings in business. Most painting contractors stay stuck because they’re afraid to invest, afraid to hire, or afraid to make decisions that could move their painting company forward. Mike explains why playing small is one of the biggest reasons painting businesses fai...

From $179K to $820K in One Year: The Transformation You Didn't See Coming James Mitchell was on the verge of giving up. Despite working harder than ever, his painting business had hit $179,000 in revenue last year, and he wasn't taking home any profit. Today? He's on track to hit $1 million, a 400%+ increase, and everything has changed. But this isn't your typical business growth story. In this pr...

Are you working harder than ever but not seeing the profit or freedom you deserve? In this episode, Mike Gore Hickman breaks down the five critical habits that are keeping painting contractors stuck and broke, and more importantly, how to break them. Drawing from nearly 10,000 one-on-one coaching calls with over 1,000 painting business owners, Mike reveals the exact patterns that separate six-figu...

Rob Peterson didn’t start in the trades. He wasn’t a painter. He wasn’t even planning on running a business. He was selling Toyotas in Philadelphia… until one conversation changed the entire trajectory of his life. In this episode, Rob shares how a chance meeting with the president of CertaPro pushed him into the painting world, how he went from managing 15 crews across the East Coast to launching...

In this solo episode, Jesse Teron, COO and Head Coach at Painter Growth, dives into one of the most emotional topics for painting business owners: money. Why do certain numbers, like $100K, $1M, or $10M—carry so much emotional weight? And how can shifting your mindset about money completely change your life and your business? Jesse breaks down the mental stories we attach to dollar amounts, how to...

When Rachel realized her first painting company made zero profit after a full year of work, it crushed her. She was exhausted, in debt, and ready to give up. But instead of quitting, she started over, with a plan. Today, Rachel runs XPaint in Cleveland, Ohio , a six-figure business on track for $1M next year . She’s built systems, a team she trusts, and a level of financial security she never thou...

What does it take to grow a painting business to $500,000 a year? In this episode, Mike Gore-Hickman sits down with Fred Hamilton, owner of Hamilton Painting in Austin, Texas, and a leader on the PCA Residential Repaint Committee. Fred shares his journey of building a thriving residential repaint business, the mindset shifts that made growth possible, and why investing in community and industry ev...