Bringing on an Operations Director with Zach Kenney

is Zach how are you we are excited to have you on um you know we were just talking right before this podcast started about how impressed we are with just what you've done in your business in your life uh I'm always impressed talking with you I feel like you kind of know how to get to the next level and you know how to compete at that next level to get to the next level after that because the game changes every time you grow and you reach some no new Milestone there's there's something different that happens there's a new pull of competitors um your product probably has to shift a little bit your team has to shift a little bit and I feel like you either you have a strategy or you're really good at creating new strategies as you get to these places but anyway we're gonna talk a little bit about that but let me just ask right off so you can tell people what's new with ZK painting and you know you're growing influence influencer activities all the time so how's that going I it's it's been exciting I I love getting up and going to work every day because things have changing so fast um so last year was a a a big growth year for us we we tripled our little over tripled our Revenue which is obviously really painful and so there was a lot of uh a lot of growth that had to happen this year to sort of catch up with that um so I would say uh things are a lot calmer and more profitable this year um um as we kept sales down and and sort of got our systems in place and then um the Social Media stuff is is starting to take off as well which has been starting starting to all I've ever known is like social media in which you've been doing just skyrocketed and to think it's now taking off I that must be like you tripling your Revenue you just said that in one small little phrase I'm like what yeah it was pretty wild I just didn't realize I could monetize my following the way I could and now that we are it's another Revenue stream for the company it's amazing well now you have me interested and I want to follow you so I'll as soon as we get off this podcast I'll be adding you to my Instagram account wonderful so tell us you know you've you've recently changed your role at your company this is a big deal you're now the president and you have just hired a director of operations how did that whole process happen what was your mindset change that made you feel like you know what I need to really do this yeah I mean I think the biggest thing is is uh I'm pretty aware or hyper aware maybe of my strengths and weaknesses and I know that I'm really good at some stuff and I also have some big weaknesses and organization and follow through and details and all the little stuff is not my strong suit um so I think we survived to get to this point but there's somebody who's far better at running the day-to-day operations and staying on top of little details than I am and so when we got to a revenue size where we could afford to hire somebody to do that role it's sort of a it's a one step backwards to go 10 steps forwards um it's it's a lot of overhead um and right now Revenue I was at it's it's a little harder to it's not as awesomely profitable of a company with this uh overhead position but the idea is that in the future we can grow a lot larger a lot quicker um with somebody doing this role well can I tell you what uh really uh great coach said to me I W to say this was about 20 years ago find the right person and then figure out how to pay them so you know good people come along once in a great while so good for you you did exactly that W and it takes courage yeah for me you know I love that saying that people change when the pain of change is less than the pain of staying the same and I think that like that's just human nature and it was just becoming as things got as grew as fast as they did um it was a really messy really headache filled Year we're still to this day like yesterday we were still dealing with some of the Fallout from the lack of systems as we scaled and we're doing huge multi hundred, thousand projects and if you make a mistake on a project like that it's not a small fix and it's it's expensive and so there was just a lot of inefficiencies and weaknesses in our systems and so the pain of change didn't seem so painful wow two good quotes there from both you guys awesome I'm always looking for what's going to go at the front of the audio podcast now we're doing video um but and by the way Zach before we let you go we want you to say some phrase um that will draw people into this podcast that might be one of them but we're always I I think we're looking for like the secrets everybody's always looking for the secrets how do you do it you see somebody doing phenomenal things but you're reminding us too that it's not without pain you know it's not without some struggle there and learning how to navigate that I think could be very important but learning how to expect that or maybe anticipate it could be part of it um that the pain could be an indicator of hey um you know this is time it's time for something I don't know well let me ask you that you know I have my questions when I think about what you're going through and what you're getting to um what kind of questions do people ask you when they think about like wow I would I would love to step out of the day-to-day I would love to have somebody run my company and me just give oversight I'm I'm oversimplifying here I'm sure everybody does when they think about it what how do you respond to that how do you tell people what it's all about how to get it done on maybe even debunking some myths about what what happens at that level yeah people ask me a lot like what's the one thing like what's the inflection point that's what we want yeah um I mean I would say there there's probably one inflection point that is the most uh the the biggest Tipping Point in my business was when I stopped painting um I took myself out of the field one day I I'm a master at what I do I've been doing it since I was 14 um everything you see on our page is all stuff I've figured out how to do and obsessed over like Decades of my life and it's my favorite thing to do but I realized like I could only do make so much could I wasn't running a business I was drowning slowly while putting out unbelievable work and making no money um and so when I just said I'm getting out of the field I'm a kindergarten at running a business I'm a master at painting but I have to go be a business owner and I I have to just go sit in the uncomfortability of like not being good at what I'm doing um and I'm not going to sit around and do nothing that's why I tell people like if you can like and I had no kids I wasn't married I didn't have a lot of responsibility so I was able to take it two steps back thing but I was just all day long I had to fill my time and I wasn't gonna paint so I had to start reading books and learning about how to run a business um and just thinking from above when you're in the field painting every day you're just looking at the wall and you're it's so hard to then like go to a new mindset and see your business from the 50,000 foot View and look out two years and like think about competitive advantages and strategy and all those things that are essential to running a great business like I had to get out of the field that's that's a solid tip I think yeah of course that scares a lot of people but um it doesn't sound easy at all it's almost like hey you want the one thing here's the one thing and now it opens up 10 new questions yeah you wanted one thing it's the one thing but it's it's and it's super simple but it's really hard and I think that you have to be like like you have to be a business owner like studying business is a different game than painting for a living right like it's just different and business is a game of of investing and taking a step back to go two steps forward and and when you can understand it like that it was like okay I'm just going to take a hit and then like there will be a lag time but then we will We exponentially grow because of this so it definitely takes it takes I'm and I'm also a big of like harnessing your biology like don't fight your biology like I am somebody who does really well with their back against the wall I have to sort of like create false um um like time structures or or put my back up against the wall so I will perform at a higher level um I do really well with that I do really well with like high-risk situations not everybody does so I don't know that it's the best way for everyone it was just it worked for me and that kind of leads us to our next question because I guess I'd like to know what companies should not even think about this at at a particular time well I mean I think you have to have enough Revenue you have to be profitable enough to lose the revenue generating part of the owner right like as the owner I was the guy making the most money for the company for sure right we almost always are so a you have to decide am I cut out to do this like am I really going to be a business owner and own that for the rest of my career it like you have to like really it's a full commitment um I think there's lots of guys who are good at painting who paint for a living and that's a great there's a great business model there those guys should be raising their rates significantly and building up you know because their their supply is is small and if they can increase demand at all you could keep your prices pretty high as a small guy um and never have to worry about all this stuff but if you want to build a business I think um you have to go learn about I read every book I could get my hands on listen to every podcast I could and failed a lot it's funny when we talk to our customers on and when particularly when I get to speak with our customers I tell them that we actually go through the same exact things every single day even though you're painting and I'm running a software company we're going through the same exact things when you get up in the morning Zach I bet the top five things that are on my mind are on your mind you know we we have to think about team building finding the right people that have good core values you know it it it's so much more than just what exactly you're doing um to for to sell to the customer I'm selling software you're selling a painting service but we're both if we're doing it right we're both thinking about the same thing every single day yeah yeah so the question too is I mean if you're so some people are at that point where they can start thinking about it how do they know how do they know they're at that point they're ready to get out of the field they feel like maybe the revenue is where it needs to be um what what else is there because I I know there's probably people that hear you talking and you I'm hearing it and I'm a big reader but going from doing a thing that you're really really good at to all a sudden learning some what it means to be a business owner and reading business I mean that's also learning in the abstract a little bit if you're you're reading and not everybody how many painters do you know that that like to read you know maybe it's podcasts maybe there I'm just asking you like are there other things is that the only way what would you say to people if they're like oo that sounds super intimidating I don't know if I could do that um what's your thoughts about yeah yeah I mean I think everybody's gonna be different like I I'm a pretty extreme person um I I work really hard these days to find moderation in life but like I'm I'm a pretty extreme guy and so for me yeah I like ripped a band went from zero to 100 and just dove in um that's doesn't like there are there are ways where you could structure okay Mondays and Fridays I paint and then Tuesday Wednesday Thursdays I don't paint and so I think you don't have to go all in but I think hardcore structure of full days is important like doing like two-hour blocks of painting and then estimating and then uh no I think step wake up and every Tuesday Wednesday Thursday is my business days and then I paint on the Monday Friday or whatever to like help bring Revenue in and keep things floating and then yeah I mean I think education is everything in life knowledge is power it's it's it's so true and however you can get get your knowledge I mean I listen to books on tape audible.com was is my best friend um that's how I consume my my knowledge I think no matter what though we like as humans we should be learning every day and growing and so I you know I don't think that the excuse can be I don't want to learn you know if that's the case then don't do this that's so sad when you hear that would you add to that peer groups um you know I know that there's painting contractors Association other associations other cpia um some of the other but do you feel like that's been a big part of your growth and I if I remember right when I was at PCA you came in but you were already you're already on fire so I don't know if you already had peer groups you were in or if that was kind of the first maybe it wasn't that big of a stepping stone for you but what do you think about no I mean it was huge I was I was on fire with with a passion in a thing but like I didn't have nearly the direction that I have today or understanding of business I have today if it wasn't for the PCA um I went to that first Expo and met a bunch of people that are now my friends to the day um I talk to painters all the time yeah it's like it's my this is my life so yeah surrounding yourself with a bunch of like-minded I I deeply believe you are who you surround yourself with the seven people you hang out with most or whatever um I'm pretty extreme about that as well like I'm very cautious of who I let who I spend any amount of time with I'm very cautious of any type of information that I let touch my brain you know as far as social media I don't watch the news like stay I I am very cautious of what type of information gets to touch my brain because it affects us we're social creatures it's going to affect how we see the world um yeah you know who I think you'd like following Zach is Dan Martell um he is more of a coach for software companies but I'd like you to follow him because I think you could learn a lot from him and he's a super cool guy and he's very much like you awesome yeah yeah so Zach tell us how can people learn more about you follow you contact you if they want to how can they do that yeah ZK painting on Instagram that's like the best place um there's a link in our link tree we teach classes on fine finish painting called ZK finishing school uh we've been doing those since early covid so I think we've done 20ish 25 classes now usually 10 to 15 people in person in Boston and we nerd out about high Lev finishing Concepts and I've taught Housewives how to paint furniture and I've taught master painters how to take their painting to another level so Instagram is a great way to see everything that we do um if you want to learn what we do z kfs uh I have a podcast I did 100 episodes two to three hour long form it's called ZK live um we just got confirmation we have a sponsor for it and we're starting it again in September so once a week starting in September ZK live will be back really excited about that okay and we're right outside of Boston as well so if you ever want to meet in Boston let us know yeah absolutely yeah and I know you do a lot of you you do a lot of training on social media too right um I used to oh you used to not as much anymore people it's it's weird people will spend $2,000 to come for two days to learn how to paint uh but they don't want to spend money to learn how to do social media even though that makes you so much money so I I just I didn't put a lot of effort into it now um it was just a lot more demand for the painting classes and I see stuff on that popping up all over the place people demonstrating like what they're learning and they're like thank you I don't know if it's ZK what do what do you call it again finishing school play on Old School women finishing schools nice I I see your work I see their work and I'm always stunned I mean I I zoom up all any pictures I'm like how do they get that so mirror like some of it and it's just very high-end it's very cool for people yeah if they're looking for ways to U beat the pricing game this is one way to do that and it's it's pretty impressive so yeah we've we have it down to a science now we we're teaching Core Concepts that can apply to everybody's businesses I just really want people a year from taking the class to do things significantly different than before the class I think everybody comes and gets hyped up around a bunch of nerd painters for a weekend but we're really trying to teach Concepts that can be applied to all sorts of paint jobs nice cool well we'll put a link to that in the show notes Zack it was great having you on we hope to see more of you maybe on our podcast but just uh kind of continuing the conversation with you thanks for being on man yeah thanks for having me thank you Zach

Channel: EstimateRocket

Views: 1,018

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Id: tdL83yb2-gE

Length: 18min 27sec (1107 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024