Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops

Founder | | 7-Fig Painting Biz Owner | Sharing raw lessons in leadership, systems & mindset | 🚀 Host of Contractor Secrets Podcast

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Customer called me screaming.

"Your crew tracked paint through my entire house. There are footprints on my hardwood floors. This is unacceptable."

My stomach dropped. I apologized. Said I'd be there in 30 minutes. (Those drives are the worst, IYKYK)

Drove over preparing for disaster. Playing out the conversation in my head. Thinking about how much this was going to cost to fix if it didn't come up.

Walked in the door.

The "footprints" were three small drops in the hallway that someone had stepped on and left a track. Maybe the size of quarters.

Now here's where most contractors mess up.

They get defensive. "Ma'am, that's barely anything. We'll wipe it up, no big deal."

That's how you turn a small problem into a mess.

Instead, I got on my knees. Looked at the spots closely.

Nodded seriously.

"You're absolutely right. This shouldn't have happened. I'm going to clean this up personally right now, and I'm going to have a conversation with my crew about protecting floors better."

Spent 10 minutes wiping up spots that would've come off with a wet paper towel and a special cleaning solution for wood floors that I picked up on the way.

She watched me do it. Her whole demeanor changed.

"Thank you for taking this seriously. Most contractors would've just argued with me."

Left with a hug. Got a 5-star review the next day. She's referred us twice since.

The spots weren't the problem.

Her feeling heard was the problem.

Most "difficult customers" just want to know you give a damn.

Could my crew could've fixed it? No. They made the mess.

They lost her trust.

Get on your knees and wipe up the spots.

Humble servant always wins.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

2 lessons I had to learn the hard way about running and scaling a $1.7M YoY painting business that at this point runs 100% without me (I have no clue what is going on and trust my team fully to do everything end to end)

1. Delegation is a muscle that needs to be flexed. Delegation is unnatural - by that I mean, it's like letting someone take care of your baby to the point you want them to actually raise it forever without giving it back. You've got to flex the muscle of giving away responsibilities that you believe at your core are "yours" and that no one else can do as good as you - and be ok with someone else doing 90% or less as good as you did.

I remember thinking to myself: "If i'm not watching this job, the guys will go over on time and our profit will be shot"

Or, "If I'm not doing the estimates, there's no way we will sell jobs"

Or, "If i'm not doing the hiring, we won't get good team members"

Or, "if i'm not doing the painting, it won't be done to my standard"

I had to graduate from every one of these fears and eventually realize I had two choices:

1. Keep doing it and try to strive toward my illusion of perfection at the expense of my sanity

2. Suck it up and train someone to do it as close as possible to how I do it, and graduate from it so I can focus on other things

That is the only choice you have as a business owner. Ideally, if you could, you'd create clones of yourself and your business would be perfect.

It just doesn't, and never will work that way. You need other people, operating at a high standard, with your business' best interest in mind.

That leads me to lesson #2:

2. Finding people who operate with your best interest in mind is not common and will take a lot of years, trial and error, firing and hiring if you're not lucky enough to have a business partner or family member that you can trust 100%.

As an employer, your job is one thing: Security.

That is the bare minimum.

That is like your job as a house painter for instance - your job is "painting".

Everything beyond painting is called "good-will"

Everything you offer outside of job security to team members is "good-will"

With homeowners, we hope they return the favor of goodwill with a good review, maybe a referral or two, or simply just paying on time, and treating our crew well while they are there. On their part, that is "good-will".

With employees, if you're a good leader, you will find that the more you sew into the right employees "good-will" the more often you will find that they will go to bat for you.

I have seen this countless times in my business.

I seek ways to serve them.

I'm not going to talk about what I do, or how I do it.

I just seek ways to serve them.

I don't like to think of them as working for me. I like to think of me, working for them.

Trying to help them shape their work ethic, character, and become their best selves through my business.

The lesson here is this:

You can operate a business one of two ways:

1. In your own best interest

2. In the best interest of others

Like they say, Take care of the team, and they will take care of the customers

Hope this helps you on your journey

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@buddy7 Nope

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Did anyone successfully give away the 200 books they bought from the Hormozi launch?

Was that the greatest sales pitch ever?

Do you think he had a fraction of that in inventory?

No one that bought the package that I know gave away more than 10

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Your schedule isn’t just a calendar — it’s your money.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@stevehunsaker1 Crazy. Biggest differentiator is ease of scheduling. Whoever makes it easiest to schedule will win in the new economy.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Million dollar sales advice: If your customer is more excited about the thing you’re selling than you are during the sales presentation, you lost.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Building is the easy part. Selling and servicing is the hard part.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Convenience has a cost. Either buy this one or go to Costco yourself and go get it. Or go down to the lobby. Think about this and how you serve your customers. Some of you want to charge top dollar, but your booking process is full of friction. Your sales process is full of friction. You make it very hard for people to get in touch with you and more importantly book an appointment with you. Then you turn around and charge a Premium price. The only person that would buy this water bottle is someone that is very thirsty and doesn’t want to go find water. Believe it or not customers will pay more for the convenient company.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Hilton Hotel charging $2.50 for in-room bottles of Kirkland Signature water might be the greatest markup in the history of capitalism

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@Jaredkotter I think it should be optional and based on what the homeowner prefers

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

How would you feel if you booked a house painting estimate and the company required you to have “all decision makers present” and tell you the presentation will be between 60-90 minutes?

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@jerephil Interesting why’s that?

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@PropertyHelp4U Haha

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@dannypeavey This is being taught to today’s business owners by sales experts

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@dannypeavey Haha 🤣 love Zig

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@CameronFreedom It take time! Well done. That’s awesome sustainable growth.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@GSD_Coaching Haha

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@KyleWGraves Yeah, this is my thought too. Gives me car dealership vibes.

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

@jarydesign @GSD_Coaching @routemize Check this website Jary

https://t.co/RU4bRWAl24

[Tanner Mullen | Biz Ops @Tannermullen]

Huge thank you to Durant Foote and Aiden Smith for the kind words 🙏