Guiding Through Winter and a Slower Economy in the Concrete Coating Industry with Pete Johnson

Audio Transcript

Hey there, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Your Concrete Success podcast. I'm joined by my partner and co-host Mady Barrera. How's your day going, Mady? My day is going great. It's been a great day today. Very busy, very exciting. Lots of good stuff. It's been a great day. What do you think about today's special guest? I am so excited about today's special guest. I talk about him all the time. So I know that this is a little bit of a big introduction, but I'm telling you that I talk about him to everybody all the time and say they have to connect with him because he's awesome.

He, he really is. He is, he is like a big brother to me. Uh Someone special in the industry has impacted hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of lives in the concrete coding and decorative concrete space. It is an honor to have him uh in today's show, Mr Pete Johnson, uh lead installer, uh lead coach trainer, uh from Valle's protective coatings. Pete. Welcome aboard. Welcome to your Concrete Success podcast. How's it going guys? Yeah, it's going amazing. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very honored for you Mady to say that.

Um I treat you guys and I think of you guys as family as well and um what you're doing with the podcast and the industry and everything like that is everything we're gonna get into in this and it's what we stand behind and we love. So I appreciate you both of you more than, you know, and obviously having me on and so let's uh share some knowledge, beautiful, let's have some fun. So here's the deal. Uh Tony Robbins is saying winter is coming and uh I'm here to say that winter is here, not just from a seasonal perspective but from an economical perspective and how that is affecting businesses.

And I'm sure you're seeing it, you're hearing it. And it's the weirdest thing is that it's very different state by state, region, by region is very different, but we're starting to see the shifts in the movement, something that I've been forecasting since early this year. Uh In fact, I did a conversation at um the growth mastermind by Valence early this year and I said, hey, you guys gotta prepare in order to hit those leads twice, 34 times as much because uh you will start to see how slow it will start getting.

And, and interestingly enough, like we've started to see that happen somewhere around September, middle of September, August, some, some companies just very few, probably less than 5% in August. And then we started to see uh the trends is moving up and I'm here to empower the industry and partner up with individuals just like up to bring awareness, leadership and the right information for, for individuals are out on the trenches growing the business, installing floors and you know what at the end of the day, they want to provide for their families and we want to take care of them.

Uh So with that in mind here, uh winter is here, what are you seeing this time of the year, Pete? Um in your side of the world from, from where you stand as a lead trainer, as a coach, as a consultant for companies that are in the trenches. Yeah, you know, it's interesting and you, you hit on it because we definitely noticed it in probably August. So we had a handful of customers, obviously, we sell, you know, coast to coast. And so we had a handful of customers that were starting to slow down in August when in theory, August is one of the busiest month and it was very good.

But then you started talking to them in September and October. Now we're in Minnesota and typically September, October could be rain could be snow. We have no idea, you know, so guys are preparing for a true season winter and so we typically get pretty busy in October like that. But everybody that I'm talking to, it doesn't matter if it's Midwest or Florida coast to coast. The lead generation tends to be down, but more importantly, when they're running those appointments, it's harder for the customers to actually open their wallet.

They might get the same appointments, they might run the same amount, but their closed percentage is actually dropping down or more importantly, their average ticket is down. So I talked to AAA awesome installer out of Wisconsin and he said his average ticket this year is down over $1000 compared to last year. Now, the size of the project has gone down and all of that. But it's interesting to hear when last year we saw it coming, you didn't really feel it, but we started feeling it this year, which means it's only snowballing into next year. Yes. Yes.

And this is the key initiative that we have going on here and this is why we're partnering with individuals just like you to lead in the trenches and most importantly, bring awareness. I mean, there's so much about being positive, you know, um and I'm all about positive positivity, empowerment and all of that, but you also have to be strategic in business. And if you're strategic and you stay 1 to 2 steps ahead when it happens or when it's happening. But if you're guided by the right individuals and in the right circle, you can make key pivots uh in your industry, in your service area that are gonna help you not just survive, but also to thrive.

Now, one of the key key uh things that I heard you every time I attend one of your uh your trainings and by the way, anyone listening to um you gotta connect with Pete Johnson, you can find him on, on Facebook. Um Also uh go to uh Valance uh protective coatings, make sure you sync up with them. But every time I've attended one of your trainings, you, you're always talking about diversification, product diversification. So many companies out there doing the one day installs and we're gonna conquer the world.

But guess what, when people are not buying the one day in uh floors and uh you know, they're getting the leads but they're not closing. Uh Let's talk a little bit about uh what you've been preaching about for a long time product diversification. Uh What would you say to someone that's, that's experiencing a slow down. How important is it to diversify? What would you recommend to them? Well, it's crucial and it goes along with marketing. So if we just kind of say, put marketing aside and we talk about products per se, like what you're versed on installing cannot just be a one day, two day epoxy flake garage floor.

It, it just can't be no more because if you don't have um stains and sealers or polishing or even on the industrial side of things, industrial, you know, urethane cements and any of that type of stuff. If you don't have that in your pocket, you're gonna get left behind by somebody that does. And if we talk about going into winter, we know it's going to be a hard season next year. I hate to say this because I'm just as positive as you guys are and we specialize in small business and building them up with a small business guy who's only doing one or two things is unfortunately going to be left behind because we're adamant that when we do our trainings pretty specific to like a flake broadcast, but we always show different sealers, whether that's a solid color, a grinding clear or any type of diversification.

And then there's um product workshops that we have, right? We just got done doing an industrial one, urethane cements and double broadcast quartz and some of those higher end level stuff. Because if guys getting a no on his residential blake's side, why are you walking away from that customer? They probably have a sidewalk or driveway pool of that patio that you can seal in some way, shape or form that is always a lower price point. So if you don't have that and know how to do it and know how to be profitable with it, you're, you're leaving incredible amounts of money on the table.

And more importantly, next year, you probably won't even be in business and that, that's the reality. Um Mattie you, you have one our clients here you wanna tell the story? I have, I have, we have a client who he, we do market just for one day, um one day floors, but he goes to do the estimate and when he gets to the house, whoever he needs says that's too expensive. So he's like, well, if that's too expensive, I have the ceiling option for you. I have this staining option for you.

I can polish it for you. And so he won't leave that house until he has booked a job with an alternate or a different type of service. And he's doing great. He's got an excellent closing rate because he's always offering that other option when he gets the objection that the flake is too much. So, yeah, that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you know, with your, your concept, those the ones that you're coaching, teaching and helping out system, what are some of the things that you see working best in this time of the year as uh as they head into like the very cold season?

And you know, they, they the, the way that they install floors, maybe changes or, or different geographical areas. What are you seeing that's working best? And how are you helping them prepare for this time of the year? Yeah. So geographically, it definitely, it definitely changes, right? So if we're up here in the north, realistically, like it's beautiful today, but we know that, say the end of November, we're going to be heavy in the snow. It's wet drage, season's pretty much gonna be done. Now, there's a lot of advantages of using a fast set polyuria. Right.

You can get in and out today. It works in cold temperatures within reason naturally. But if we take, say December 9973st is our shutdown date. We always coach and we teach guys, you have to go back probably 4 to 6 months and start doing your advertising and marketing to get out of the garage and get into somebody's basement and commercial work and doing that type of stuff. Because if you wait until October, which is always busy because everybody calls last minute. But you haven't done any marketing until October, you're not seeing any results for 30 60 90 days and then you're gonna be in January and in January, you need to be planning for April in April.

You need to be planning it for October. October. You plan for January again. And so we're teaching everybody how to be diversified and figuring out the products they use in the cold temperatures. But more importantly, what's it take to have multiple offerings, right? Flakes and polishing coatings, whatever that is, but interior work. So it up north, that's what we're transitioning in. Um say down south in the warmer weathers, they still have those same challenges because it's rainy season or whatever it is, you know, it's cooler. So those products might take instead of a one day job.

There might be a two day job. So now your scheduling is a little bit changed. Um, but cold temperatures means automatically diversification. That's kind of how we always say it. So if you're gonna be anywhere in the cold temperature, it's gonna get cold, you gotta have a better option. You gotta figure out how to market to get into those basements. Beautiful, beautiful. Now, as far as, um, what you're doing, uh with uh valence protected coatings and what you teach, you wanna talk a little bit about uh what you guys do and what, what are you guys the best at in the industry?

And how are you helping coding contractors and they could conquer contractors succeed and build a business that's profitable? Yeah. So my background and what our specialty is and not just me, it's Mike, it's John, it's, it's Ray down in Dallas is training and coaching and the technical side of things. So when we talk about our strengths and what we do is we specialize in taking somebody that's new to business, whether that's um a painting contractor getting into floors or someone who's never owned a company ever before.

We get them into the training class. And then the training class is very specific where we are talking about residential flight floors because it is that easy barrier of entry into the industry where they can learn the terms and the pot life and the diamonds and the concrete and everything and we walk them through 2.5 days of very in depth hands on training with that. But we have an entire third day. So this is where I think a lot of people are lacking is they just say, hey, here's your two days of training, here's your buckets, get your grinder.

Good luck. Well, we've taken it so far beyond that where we have Melissa, who's the owner of the company myself and Mike, we have an entire third day just spent on sales and market and how to set your business up, right? We have guys that might not know how to understand how to, um, set their bank account up or set their Google accounts up website, right? We talk to you guys all the time and we're diversifying our marketing to make sure that they understand that they contact you and lead generation.

And, um, people like Floy and Moser, these tools and tricks that are setting themselves apart, we spend an entire day just to give them the fundamentals. So when they do hit those first few estimates, they're not just sitting mumbling over the words, not knowing what it talks about. But the biggest thing in what we excel at is everything. After training, you can go to any training and you can learn how to put down a floor or you can watch somebody do it and say it's easy. But when you first get out there and you have a problem or whatever it is and you can reach me, Mike, Ray John or any of our technical guys that have literally almost 70 years, more than that probably combined experience and we can solve the real world problem.

That is where you're going to win. And so training is awesome. Don't get me wrong, but it's the coaching and the follow up afterwards that actually makes you win. Yeah. And, and that's amazing. And you know, you've got the, the Valence University going on the follow up supporting your team and we're excited to be working with you and your clients. A lot of your clients are part of the concrete marketing crew. And you know, we see, we see the, the level of support, not just that like there is uh the install side, like there, there's a couple of sides to a business owner and the business owner life.

You're not just a one dimensional individual, there's the mindset component, what should it be? How should you be thinking about it as you're going into the business model and then the technicality, the technical aspect and then there's their marketing side of things and then there's the financial and the admin side, you see a lot of guys take the um the training on the installing, but then they're left blank on the other side and they're empty and they're going out to the marketplace, they get a few objections and you know what they invest in all the equipment.

They're like, man, I'm just gonna sell it out. I'm just gonna sell out all the equipment. You've seen that happen so many times now. Um As far as um what we have here in store for 2024 what are some of the, the key things that you guys are working on behind the scenes to empower the industry and to ensure that you're empowering, not just your clients, but the world, you know, installers throughout the entire United States. What do you guys have in store for 2024? Well, and, and I'm excited like i it's hard to even talk about because it's such a monumental thing for us because back to kind of like that university, obviously, that's something that you guys set up for us and, and huge kudos to that and we keep adding to that.

So as we take a foundation, right? So this is like a, a coaching style platform and I continually add videos and coaching and stuff on there that I can put that there that's available to our guys 17003, 65. So they can always watch something and have a library and then continually coach other people. So that's the basics of a foundation of what we're doing. More importantly, we're adding on an entirely new business coaching platform. So for us personally, I always say that we are a business building company, we just happen to sell the best coatings products in the country, my opinion.

But when we can actually take everything that you've talked about where you can learn how to put your systems and processes in place to make sure that your company is set up correctly. In case if somebody leaves or you have to put somebody in, everything is a fit. I'm all about efficiency from installing to business ownership and everything like that. Melissa's got so much knowledge on that. So we're building an entire platform very similar to the university. That's gonna be all business, all coaching everything like that.

Like how are we actually gonna be setting up these companies for success because I hate nothing more than these fly by night guys putting down crappy products on a cheap floor and then they're ruining it for the industry. We're all about knowledge and education and doing stuff the right way. So that's number one now, number two, we have the concrete and codings mastermind. So, I mean, I don't know if we want to get into that right now or not, but uh I mean, that's next level stuff, what we're bringing to the industry with that, we'll bring, we'll bring that conversation back in a couple of minutes here and uh for anyone that's finding this information helpful, make sure that you uh tune in to your country success podcast on youtube.

Subscribe, hit us a like and share this to, with whoever you think would find this helpful if you're listening on Spotify, Apple Amazon, wherever you are. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know how we're doing. We're giving away a, a, um, crush, the standard hoodie and that's coming up here in a couple of weeks, we're gonna be picking out the names. We already have like three or four individuals who have left their company's names in there. So make sure that if you're listening to this, you go ahead and uh just leave us some sort of comment.

Let us know how we're doing and your company name and we're gonna raffle out um a free hoodie. We're gonna reach out to you for your size and all of that good stuff. And also if you're enjoying this information, make sure you connect with Pete Johnson uh on Facebook, Pete. What, where else can people find you? Yeah, I mean, the, the simple one is, of course, Facebook, um myself, Peter Johnson, um or obviously send the company Valence Protective Coatings or Valence Supply. Um A message that's gonna be the fastest way to get a hold of me.

I monitor all those accounts just for technical side of things. So, um other than that, um email, obviously a good one, Peter at Valence codings dot com. Yeah, awesome. All right. So look, you've worked with uh quite literally hundreds of companies. Um uh a lot of them uh uh go out to build multi million dollar businesses million dollar businesses. Like you've literally launched people who are just getting started, help them launch. You've seen, you know, throughout the years, uh, the difference in the economy is the difference in seasonality and all of that.

What would you tell to someone that's out there? They're advertising, they're probably the first winter in their business life cycle. And they're wondering, man, my cost per lead has just gone up ridiculously. What should I do? What would you tell that individual people? Well, double down. I mean, it's as simple as that. So, I mean, it's like that's double down. You got no option. I mean, I, I remember 08, I remember going through all that in the industry and stuff like that. I remember everybody says that that's where they made all their money and stuff like that.

Well, we've seen it with COVID over the last couple of years. The industry has gone up if you will, if people the lead cost might have gone down because everybody's staying at home, they spend their money. But what we're finding is everything that guys are talking about from October, sorry, August through right now and having a hard time pulling that money out. That's pre-covid leads. That's what it was like 1718, 19. So all we're doing is just going back to pre-covid times and anybody that hasn't been in the business, pre-covid, they don't, I can't say they don't understand it.

They just didn't understand what it was like in those times. So if we're starting to see a winter and lead, slowing down cost per lead going up, your clothes rate going down, you're gonna see some of those guys that are scared to put money in the marketing budget, they're gone. And the guys who doubled down on marketing are gonna excel. You're gonna see a 10 X growth on the guys who doubled down and you're gonna see the small guys who are scared, they're gonna fall off. I hate to say it and, and it's all about understanding and where to put your money.

But in these dark winter times, you don't double down, you're gonna feel it. There's no option and this is what we are empowering our clients to do and the mindset and the thinking and saying, hey, like quite literally, there's, there's been quite a few smaller clients and it's usually, we see it with the smaller clients. Uh They're launching, this is the first year in business, the first winter and we're, we've been preparing them. Uh Now for some time, we've been having the conversations as early as July.

Uh In fact, I, I felt like I was doing a prayer and, and I felt God telling me, hey, look, your job is to help them build their ac because they're gonna need to navigate some rough waters, unlike anything that they've seen before. And that has been the message and we've been doing a push with the podcast for the sense of empowering the industry, uh bringing awareness. And we get a lot of great feedback from individuals who are listening to a podcast. They're like, wow, like this is great information.

We appreciate each and every one of you for giving us your time. But the point is we want to make sure that you have the right mindset like this is attack, this is not retrieve you if you're not 10 X in, uh, the likelihood of survival goes down significantly. Uh That's the reality if you're not 10 X in to make it through, like just reality check right here. This is it, this is, it might as well sell your equipment with all due respect, uh, and love and appreciation to everyone like this is it, Maie.

Do you have anything to say on that? Yeah, we've had, we've had conversations this week and we've seen, we've seen that difference between those, those two scenarios and it, it's interesting because the ones that are gonna survive are like, ok, how much more do I have to put in Maddie? They know the bigger guy. They're, how much more? It's not even like, you know, oh, I can't, or they don't even like, the cost per lead has gone up. Yes. Actually one was like, my cost per lead has gone up.

How much more do I need to put in, in, into marketing right now? Because he's on to his fourth crew and he, one of his sales guys uh sold a million 10 months in a one out of four. So, you know that that's how much more, how much more let's go. Meanwhile you have someone else like, oh and II, I have to stop and, and I have to close and, and I'm just gonna have to take a break right now because if you take a break, that's it.

There's no other way. Like there's pe I don't know if you have any advice for them, if you're taking a break, uh hanging the towel, you, you can't because I mean, and literally everything we're talking about is why we've kind of shifted a little bit in the business strategy to go more coaching focused because I mean, you hear me talk a lot but like everybody that's listening, this is what we talk about to our guys. We've been saying it since January February and you get into the summer and we start talking about, hey, we got to get into this winter and we got to double down on marketing.

And if you're not looking at these times and looking to capitalize on market share, what's it look like to capitalize on market share? You gotta have all your stuff in place. That's why everything's the business gotta be set up, right? You gotta have your systems, your process, your places, your people are you hiring, right? Are you firing? Right? And then once you have that, you double down on your marketing. When somebody else is retreating, you just took over their market share. And if you spend an extra five grand a month in ads, whatever, and they spent none, their ball is essentially stopped, their momentum stopped.

You just increased your momentum. So you just took all of their ma their uh shares. So they're actually gonna be going backwards and you're gonna notice that your momentum is literally gonna 125 aing faster because you spent that amount of money and you doubled down and you have to diversify your marketing. I'm not gonna talk to you about marketing, but that's what we tell people. Oh no, that's, that's so good. Um And we have a guest that's gonna be coming up here in a couple of weeks and his name is Chuck and we were talking about the other, a couple of weeks ago, we were at a mastermind and he's like, man, I used to spend a million dollars in advertising and sometimes not even break even like lose money.

But you see, that's where, that's where you gain such a big gap between the competition who's not willing to play at a big level. And even if you understand like, hey, I'm barely breaking even right here. I'm not losing my, my entire home, my mortgage or anything like that. But if you're running a business 113 $30 million a year business and you're not heavily invested. I mean, you know, you're, you're not even in the game. And this is the thing about the bigger players is they understand that that's what they have to do in order not, not just to survive but to thrive.

Because on the other side, this is not forever, this is not a forever thing. Like that's the beauty about this right now. It's gonna feel like it's a dark tunnel and a dark tunnel and a dark tunnel. You're not seeing the light, you're not seeing the light. And this is why the conversation of a mastermind, who is it that you're surrounded with? Who are you getting your advice from? How are they guiding you? Like, what's the track record there? How are the conversation? The transparency, all of that makes the absolute difference.

That's what I've done. Closed my circle up, surrounded myself with people that are empowered and guess what? Joining forces with those individuals that I know are in a position to help elevate the industry. We, we had this conversation earlier on this year. Uh Pete, you know, it's like, hey, we're on a mission to elevate the industry and like everyone's looking at me like my, my entire team is like, how are we gonna do it? Well, we, we, we have to do it. Like recently we made a, a partnership with uh covert media.

It's why, why? Because we must make that investment might not make sense on the financial side right now. But guess what, I'm, I'm not playing right now. I'm playing in 2024 middle of 2024 when it's chaos, fireworks, everything's going downhill. I need the edge and I need to be there and let's talk about the mastermind and what he represents to you. Uh, how has a mastermind in you been part of a mastermind and now having the ability to create a mastermind in the industry, in the concrete and codings industry.

Uh What is the vision with that? I'm super excited about it. Yeah. Yeah, me too. Gives me goose bumps. So me personally um I'm very into uh personal development, business development, mastermind coaching. I have a personal coach. We have a business coach. I've been around the country going to masterminds Melissa, my wife, she goes to one, she just got done with wealth Con in Vegas. It changed your life. We're literally going back to Vegas in January because it literally is a life changing event for a couple of $2180 and you can take a couple of $22024 investment.

Go learn from people that are 226 millionaires, billionaires who they were and then implement that into a business or your personal life, your $22024 investment. If you're not 2997 Xing that you did something wrong, they're giving you tactical information to go better yourself or your business and that's why they're important. So it's changed my life. I know that our business coaching that I do has completely changed. Our life has changed the trajectory of our business and I love it. I would never not do it. I highly recommend anybody get a business coach, obviously find the one that works for you and what you want.

But when we start looking at that and elevate the industry like we're talking about, we look at how can we learn from people that are further along in the game than us. So when Melissa was at wealth con, she, she listened to a, a speaker and they said, don't compare your year one with somebody's year 21700. OK. That's good. Like you can't look at Jeff Bezos today versus what he was 18003 years ago, whatever because nobody does that. But when we take year 21800 younger business guys, right? You new to the industry per se and then we put them in front of somebody that's been in the business for 22023, 22024 years, made the mistakes, learned how to install correctly, learn how to hire and fire and process this.

And then that person can give the younger guy information that's priceless to go, then double their business, it's worth it. So that's what we're doing. The concrete and codings, mastermind is all about bringing key leaders and key business people in our industry together. And on one stage that are gonna be speaking from the knowledge in the last 20 plus years that they've been in business on all the key topics and how to run a business. This isn't about installation, this is about business knowledge. So we got, obviously, Danny's gonna be talking about marketing and sales and lead generation and everything we have hiring.

We have Jody who's gonna be talking about hiring. We have Isaiah pride and Justin Blankenship and obviously keynote speakers, Bob and Leanne Harris, absolute legends in this industry legends. And so we've brought in the most knowledge that I can think about putting on one stage together for a day and giving all away that knowledge. So if a ticket cost you 700 bucks or $2000 and you go to an after party and you get to rub shoulders and actually go share business cards with some of these legends. Priceless. That's it.

Nobody's doing that on the business level things. There might be a sales one and there's an installation one, but nobody's actually giving these new guys to our industry, how to actually operate the business and run it correctly for the future. Oh, that's so good. The other thing is when you're invested in yourself like there, there's a saying, right, people, um when they pay, they pay attention uh the commitment to invest in yourself and make a declaration that I am invested in my business. I'm not going to be here to just make a quick buck here, but I'm here to build strategic partnerships to make the connections, the relationships that are gonna help me move forward because when the economy get it, it starts contracting, guess what you have, you have relationships, you have your network, you have your ability to build strong relationships that are gonna assist you and support, you, encourage you and help you move along the way or you could choose to just do it alone and if you choose to do it alone, it's like one of my favorite movies, Gladiator.

You, you, you, you've seen What? Gladiator, right? And they're going out for the first time and the general tells the guys, hey, we gotta come together, right? You, you've been a part of the army, I mean, you wanna, you wanna do it all alone, you're gonna get chopped up in pieces. No way is, it's the survival rate is very low. You're not gonna innovate in this time alone. Uh It's great to be surrounded by great people. Um I know uh the individuals that are gonna be the be there are gonna be fire uh including you and your team.

Uh Pizzo, this is the ultimate concrete encodings, mastermind. It hasn't been done before. Uh Concrete marketing crew is joining forces uh with you guys to make sure we bring the best. And this is not about Pete Johnson. This is not about Valance is not about concrete marketing crew. I'm not there to sell you a program to concrete marketing crew. That's not my intention, my intention is to elevate the industry, educate and bring you the latest in innovation that's working right now. Um I believe Dennis Yu is gonna be there.

Is that right? Dennis Dennis Yu is a genius, marketing genius. Um in my personal opinion, he's a friend but um he's, he's one of the sharpest digital marketers on earth, plain and simple. One of the smartest guys I know, um that's pretty much it. We can just leave it right there, listen to the guy and fly back home and if we don't make a significant amount of more money, um then you know, we're doing something like you're saying, we either not doing something or we're doing something wrong.

Um So I wanna make sure that if you're tuning in right now, just put it in your calendar and start thinking about it. If you need to pray about it, start praying right now. February 26 2024. That is a date that you need to know plain and simple. February 26 2011 Dallas Texas. Write it down. Uh Good news to every concrete marketing crew client. You get a ticket to it, you don't have to pay for it. Uh We're sponsoring your ticket. Anyone that's part of the uh coat Master Lab, which is our training piece, the marketing and sales training piece.

Guess what? You get access for free, we're paying for it. We're literally paying the ticket. So it's not like we're telling Pete, hey, just let these guys in for free. No, we, we're actually committed. Uh We're investing in you because we believe in you. Now you gotta believe in yourself as well. Um So you gotta be playing in order to come on board. Um So that being said, February 26 2024 marked dates, you don't want to miss it and if there's been a year for you to surround yourself with other individuals that are in the game that are serious about it, make sure that you come through.

Um It's gonna elevate you. Um And um, Maddie, anything you wanna share pertaining, uh the, the importance of masterminding. Maddie has been one of the individuals that I've had to drag into my mastermind groups. I've always been about the masterminds. Uh She's been about more so like the spiritual masterminds, you know, church groups and spiritual groups and all that, which are awesome, great. But from a business perspective, how have you seen your mindset in business? Your financial, uh your finances grow as you've immersed yourself into the world of business mastermind?

I mean, I think, ok, personally speaking as I was a teacher for 15 years and I'm now a business owner. And that transition at first when we first started was a little bit different, different for me because I, I really didn't know too much about it. I was behind the scenes as I am attending masterminds with you. I can now I am now an actual player in, in a role. I'm not just a behind the scenes. I'm actually playing the game. I, I, two years ago before we even start, maybe three years ago before I started going to mastermind.

I would never get on a call. That's exciting. I would never get on a call with a client. I would fight with Danny. Danny. No, I don't want to do it. I don't want to call anybody. I don't want to talk to anybody. And now I can, I have these conversations, these business minded conversations with, with our clients and II, I manage their accounts and it's just, it's just completely changed my thinking. 180 degrees completely. Yes. And you were hesitant. Well, this is not for me. I just want to be on the admin side, on the back side.

I don't want anyone to know who I am. I'm like, cool. Well, we're going to grow together. If we're looking to uh to be someone in the marketplace, then we better show our faces and we're not afraid of that. Like this is real. This is what we do for a living. Our parents, both my father, her father were in the trade. So we know what it's like to be on the trenches and we're here to empower the industry. That's it. The bottom line. Um Pete, who's this event for?

And who is this? Event. Not for, well, it's for anybody who wants to grow realistically, if you want to expand your network and you want to come with, come out of there with tactical information that you could implement into your business. That very next day, that's for you. So we're talking business owners, um, high level people within organizations, right? If you're a, if you're a sea level person or if you're a, a project manager or even if you're the lead installer running multiple crews. So this is all about somebody who's looking to grow if you want to just maintain your business in 2024 but you probably won't because it's gonna go backwards, you're gonna have to excel.

So this is gonna be anybody who's looking to get out of the installation. If you wanna stop working in your business and work on your business, and if you want to add a second trailer, you wanna add a second location, whatever that might look like in growth to you. This is the mastermind for you because it's all about business and it's literally learning from the people who have already done it. So their entire thing that I'm talking to them about is making sure that they have their presentations.

That is tactical information that these business owners can take and implement into them. And again, if you're an owner operator, there's nothing wrong with that. Eventually you're gonna want to get out of that role or expand or more importantly, how do you hire the right people? And I heard Maddie say it too is like, you might just want to be an admin or maybe just kind of stay under the radar, which there's nothing wrong with that but masterminds and what things do and what networks do of high level people.

Yeah, they're leaders. Everyone in there is a leader and if you don't want to go lead a team, you still have to be a leader of yourself. And I think if you're not leading yourself in the best ways possible, you're not showing up every day for yourself. Uh which probably means you're not showing up for your wife, your kids or whatever the situation is. That's what it is. So, yeah, this is all about business building. But when you go in there and you rub shoulders with some of these people and you shake hands and you realize that they're on your team.

They are now on your side and you can exchange business cards, they are helping lead the industry. So now you are part of a leadership community that's elevating the industry. So it's for anybody who wants to grow personally and business wise within the concrete, decorative concrete and the coding industry. Yeah, I love that so much. And, and the other thing is like there's a whole thing in the concrete coding and decorative concrete industry where people see themselves as competition or like some sort of like enemy dude.

It's you and you look at yourself in the mirror and you look at your financial state and that's the only thing that matters. That's your competition end of the day. That's the bottom line. Uh My, one of my mentors told me it's like, dude, you have no competition. It's like you go to the ocean and you're trying to empty the ocean with, with a teaspoon, that's you and your business. You realize that. And imagine if you were to join forces and network with individuals that are in the same industry, that's how you elevate an entire industry by coming together.

And uh that's what we're all about here. So if you're interested, go to coatings mastermind dot com right now, that website will be getting a refresh here shortly. But if you want a pre sell access, uh make sure you connect with uh Peter Johnson on Facebook, um feel free to connect with me as well. And uh you can visit codings mastermind dot com. We're, we're almost done tweaking the new sales page here, which it's uh launching soon. But uh make sure you, you reserve your spot right now if you're not sure and you're not ready.

February 26 2024 Dallas Texas. Pray about it, think about it, but you will not want to miss this event. It's gonna be the biggest one it's ever been in the industry catering to the business owner in itself and there are no secrets. We're going to actually share everything that we're doing. We're going to open up the kimonos and that's one of the main criteria is we're gonna share everything because that is how we move forward together as an industry. There's no way we're going to innovate, get better as a whole and that's, that's the whole mission.

We have some special bonuses if you're joining in. So we have the Coat Master Lab, uh which we're gonna be throwing this as a bonus. Some of you have been wondering asking, hey, tell me more about the Coat Master Lab. I wanna join like, you know, we're teaching about sales and marketing and that's the pocket that we're empowering businesses with. Guess what if you purchase a ticket, you're gonna get two months of free access to the Cook Master Lab. Uh and uh that's something very special is gonna, that, that in itself is gonna help you make the money that is going to help you pay for the ticket.

So, uh you, you can't, you can't go wrong with it. Uh And anyways, uh Maddie, anything you wanna add here to the conversation? Yeah, I mean, I'm excited. I can't wait to go myself. I don't know if I'm, I'm, I mean, I'm going now, I'm super excited. Yeah, I'm going, I'm excited to be there. That's mad. What would you say? Ok, a question for you, right. You're on the fence about attending. Let's say that you were on the fence. The old Madie versus the new Maddie 997 or $1700 for a ticket, two day event, one day event, whatever it is.

What would you tell that person that's on the fence? Just do it. I mean, there's no thinking about that. That's, that's nothing like if that's just stop eating out for a couple of months and save up that money and go, I mean, there's the credit card, the credit card. I mean, that's nothing. You'll make it back. How many, how many floors they got to sell to make that back. 11. So here's the deal. We'll help you. We'll, we'll, we have a Facebook group. Um, what's the name of the Facebook group?

So it's concrete and codings, Mastermind group on there that we're gonna be posting in and, and kind of doing some advertising and stuff on there and you can do that. But I mean, that's a it. So that's actually brings up a good point. Um, on the marketing side of things is, yeah, if you spend $1800 grill, you spend two or three grand all in with flights and hotels and blah, blah, blah, that's one or two additional jobs that it pays for that. So to me, join the Facebook group, here's the deal, join the Facebook group and then whatever struggle, whatever business struggles you're having right now, we're here for you, Pete's gonna answer questions I'm gonna answer questions.

Let us help you fund the ticket if you, you bootstrap right now and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can make it or it's too far ahead. The prices are only gonna go up. So, uh, you better sign up right now before the prices go up. Um, and, uh, be first in line. So that being said here. Uh, thank you for listening to your Country Success podcast. Uh It's been a pleasure, Pete. Anything else you want to share with us? No, thanks again for having me.

I'm super excited for the mastermind and uh coaching. And again, if anybody does go to that Facebook group or contacts me and maybe is having a hard time with that money or whatever it is or what you need for your business, reach out because there's somebody in some way, shape or form that I know that I can put you in contact with that can, that will teach you the tips and tricks so you can earn the money then pay for that ticket. Absolutely. Thank you for joining us, Pete Johnson again, Ve Protective Coatings, uh, find him on Facebook and uh for anyone listening, we appreciate your attention your time here.

You could be doing a lot of things listening to other podcasts, but the fact that you listen to this, make sure you follow us along, we're gonna be bringing a ton more. This is just one of many that you will see Pete's face on. Uh So looking forward to all the rest of the podcast for 2023 and what we have in store for 2024. This is Danny Barrera, your concrete success podcast, concrete marketing crew dot com. Take care, make it a great day.