What a $20,000 Quote Taught One Contractor About Pricing Transparency [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 142]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:09:16

David Cook

the thing that's fun to measure is when people say, I saw your video and when they say they saw our video, the close rate is anywhere from like 95 to 100%.

00:00:09:20 - 00:00:11:20

David Cook

Almost everybody that watches a video

00:00:11:22 - 00:00:12:09

David Cook

signs.

00:00:12:11 - 00:00:16:00

Alex Winter

Did you hear that 95% or more when they watch a video

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Alex Winter

close

00:00:18:13 - 00:00:35:22

Bob Ruffolo

You're listening to the Endless Customers podcast, brought to you by the team at IMPACT. Endless Customers is the proven system to become the most known and trusted brand in your market. You want to start to learn the principles of Endless Customers and how you can implement them in your business. Pick up a copy of Endless Customers, the national bestseller.

00:00:35:22 - 00:00:57:15

Bob Ruffolo

Wherever books are sold. Ready to start implementing Endless Customers in your business? Talk to IMPACT about how our coaching program can help you implement Endless Customers to success. And if you want experience Endless Customers in person, do not miss our upcoming conference! Endless Customers live in Chicago March 30th through April 1st, 2026. Registration is now open. And now onto the show.

00:00:57:15 - 00:00:59:21

Bob Ruffolo

Here's your host, Alex Winter.

00:00:59:23 - 00:01:24:18

Alex Winter

Today's episode is about what happens when a company decides to stop avoiding pricing conversations, and instead tackles them head on. I'm joined by David Cook, owner of D'Franco Painting and Wallpaper. If you've ever compared quotes for a home project, you know how confusing pricing can become. One contractor might quote a few thousand bucks, while another comes in dramatically higher for what sounds like the exact same job.

00:01:24:20 - 00:01:29:10

Alex Winter

That gap creates tension for homeowners and difficult conversations for contractors.

00:01:29:16 - 00:01:44:06

Alex Winter

Instead of trying to sidestep those moments, David has leaned into them through transparent content, real case studies, and even public responses for negative reviews. He focuses on educating buyers about what actually goes into the work and why prices can vary so much.

00:01:44:06 - 00:02:00:18

Alex Winter

In this episode, we talk about how he approaches conversations when his company is the more expensive option. How he turns skepticism into education, and what impact that transparency has had on his sales process and the trust he builds with his customers. David, welcome to the show.

00:02:01:00 - 00:02:03:03

Alex Winter

excited to be talking with you. How are you?

00:02:03:05 - 00:02:14:17

David Cook

Yeah. Doing good. Blessed for sure. Good health, great family. And, be grateful that you have the opportunity to come here and share part of our journey with, impact ends customers. So thanks for the opportunity.

00:02:14:18 - 00:02:26:13

Alex Winter

Absolutely. That's amazing to hear. I hear blessings are. Blessings are important. Family is important. I'm in the same boat here. And where are you calling out of today? Just out of curiosity, so that our viewers and listeners know.

00:02:26:15 - 00:02:35:23

David Cook

Yeah, we are in the northwest. Suburbs of Chicago. So Huntly, Illinois, for people that know it. So almost between Rockford, Illinois and downtown Chicago, we're about halfway between both.

00:02:36:02 - 00:02:50:12

Alex Winter

Excellent, excellent. Before we get into the topic, we got a lot to talk about today. I can't wait to hear about your journey and your story with endless customers. But before we do that, can you set the stage for everybody and just let people know a little bit about yourself and about D'Franco and the company and just what you guys do?

00:02:50:14 - 00:03:11:18

David Cook

Yeah. So we are a painting and wallpaper contractor. Interior. Exterior. Residential. Commercial. So we're not a huge company. We're, second year in a row at that million mark, so that's kind of fun. Still has its own challenges, but we've just been, ever since I heard Marcus on the sales line back. I don't know, 15 years ago or more.

00:03:11:20 - 00:03:42:03

David Cook

I always got hooked on that. They ask you internet philosophy? So it's always been a way of, you know, how we're doing marketing. So I've never really had a marketing agency or people anything doing that. It's all been kind of in-house. That's definitely the favorite part of my job as the owner. So looking forward to making it almost a full time thing, but, you know, just answering the questions and, and I find a lot of fun and, almost like, almost like fishing, like Marcus, almost like fishing, you know, trying to find out, right, the right words or to connect with people.

00:03:42:03 - 00:04:01:00

David Cook

So, you know, how we can help people enjoy the process of all they do. That's kind of what we're about. So blessed to have my wife working with me as an office manager. And then we have about anywhere between 6 to 8 people right now. And then the goal is to have ten crews by, you know, by early spring and hit some bigger numbers this year.

00:04:01:02 - 00:04:07:20

Alex Winter

Wow. So it sounds like you're you're growing and have a lot of plans for continued growth into the year and into the future.

00:04:07:22 - 00:04:27:23

David Cook

That's the hope. We've we don't really. I, I know I've played with paid ads, but I don't know, I've always disappointed with it. So trying to figure out, you know, how do you scale organically as always an interesting challenge. And so we're just kind of leaning into if we've gotten this far by doing like 3 or 4 posts a week.

00:04:28:01 - 00:04:47:23

David Cook

So that was Vin's challenge to me last spring, right before impact is that, you know, you're able to get, you know, a million plus in organic posts if you do a couple times a week. What happens if you do it every day? So since last year, we've been doing YouTubes every day. So now we're moving into okay, what which ones work you know, time wise and kind of doubling down on that now.

00:04:47:23 - 00:04:51:22

David Cook

So getting even more specific. And the questions for people in our area.

00:04:52:00 - 00:05:10:07

Alex Winter

Excellent. That's amazing to hear. And you're talking about Vin Gatta. He's a co-chair. And head of web strategy and just does he's kind of a jack of all trades. He does so much and is very knowledgeable. But I'm curious, as a business owner doing what you do, you're in the home services industry, wallpaper, and interior design and things like that.

00:05:10:09 - 00:05:26:11

Alex Winter

Did you ever think you'd be coming? You'd be you'd be getting into the marketing side of the equation. Did you ever think that that was going to be part of your responsibilities? And did you like. No. As you were starting to scale the company, that it was going to be such an important and integral part of continuing to scale and grow the business.

00:05:26:13 - 00:05:46:18

David Cook

I think, I think, I think most people underestimate it. I know I completely underestimated I just figured, you know, people will be there, people will find us. You know, I almost like that ostrich, you know, head in the sand type thing, that it'll just happen, right? And it definitely does not just happen. So the more I do it, the more the more I do like it.

00:05:46:18 - 00:06:05:17

David Cook

Some parts of it I'm not a fan of. So I have my vision for what you like the website, how I want it to go and flow and all that stuff. But I hate doing it. So we're in that position. Actually, I posted an impact last week because, then and I can't remember the guy, we did a couple of calls here and there, and they keep pushing me to hire a content person.

00:06:05:17 - 00:06:13:01

David Cook

So after doing things a dumb way, I finally have relented. And we have a paired up now for a content manager.

00:06:13:06 - 00:06:15:01

Alex Winter

That's exciting. That's great to hear.

00:06:15:07 - 00:06:16:08

David Cook

Yeah. And for to that.

00:06:16:10 - 00:06:32:01

Alex Winter

You know, that's something that I hear pretty often is that you try to do as a as an owner, you wear a lot of hats, you're trying to do all these things and some of them maybe you like, some of them maybe are a little bit more of a struggle or you don't like, and that's it's important to find people and bring people in that can help you in those moments.

00:06:32:01 - 00:06:44:19

Alex Winter

And like, like I was saying, I've heard that people have tried it and it didn't work out. So great. And then after you try it, you go like, hey, I need I need some help. And I'm curious too. You mentioned impacts or you're talking about impact. Plus in the community that we have an impact plus right?

00:06:44:20 - 00:06:45:09

David Cook

That's correct.

00:06:45:09 - 00:06:56:14

Alex Winter

Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that. Why do you why are you part of the community and how is that helped you? Obviously you're looking for a content manager now, but why is that valuable to you as a business owner?

00:06:56:16 - 00:07:13:06

David Cook

You know, when they first brought that out? Yeah. I think it's been two years. I think you've been in it now. So at first it was kind of it was a no brainer because, you know, people always have those, the classes or the online classes and, you know, you get you get to see it, but you never get access to it again.

00:07:13:06 - 00:07:31:08

David Cook

So you can watch it 1 or 2 times, you watch it live and then it's done. So if you take good notes, you know, you're kind of say, well, someone does a YouTube video on it later on. So I really loved the impact community. Part of it because it's an aside from other business owners, all the coaches are on there.

00:07:31:10 - 00:07:51:15

David Cook

So you can post questions in the community part. Now, as I would say, it's interactive as like a Facebook thing, but it's pretty close because it's it's almost like your our perfect customer. It's people with high intent and they're all there to help everybody. So the community part, I love you know, being able to, you know, sharing wins or concerns or that type of thing.

00:07:51:16 - 00:08:10:11

David Cook

But I love the education part. So all the, like the stuff that Vin does with the website, you know, there's all segments on website and what that looks like. You know, Marcus has a whole thing with assignments, selling, you know, all the ABC steps on that. So I haven't by far, digested it all, but that's the best part about it is it keeps changing and updating.

00:08:10:11 - 00:08:28:18

David Cook

So I hope I never do. I hope that there's always that, you know. Oh, now there's not this now there's this to keep going. So I really enjoy that part of it. Because you can you know, I think everyone impacts, you know, and I think, you know, Marcus has really built a great team of people that really want everyone to succeed.

00:08:28:18 - 00:08:33:09

David Cook

And I think it comes through in every course and every part of that impact plus community.

00:08:33:10 - 00:08:53:04

Alex Winter

Wow. We appreciate you saying that. And that's that's our goal. You know, we really the the industry's forever changing. So there's always new tools especially with AI. There's always new tech coming out. And we really try to help keep keep everybody on the leading edge of what's emerging and how to leverage it to your advantage. Because you're right, it's always evolving and you got to stay on top of it.

00:08:53:04 - 00:09:11:21

Alex Winter

And I think we'll never fully I don't think you ever fully master because you have to continue to learn and continue to grow. So I love that mentality and hearing that. Yeah. All right. So I want to get into you. You've been mentioning Vin a little bit here. You've been talking about your website. Can we talk a little bit about trust and transparency, because you've really leaned into that as an organization.

00:09:11:21 - 00:09:32:22

Alex Winter

And can we specifically talk about pricing? Because I feel like it can be a pretty uncomfortable thing to talk about in your industry. It scares people away when you're doing home renovations or anything like that. It's usually high ticket items. It's expensive. So can we just talk a little bit about why you chose to be transparent and to put pricing on your site, and how that how that really affected your your business?

00:09:33:00 - 00:09:51:21

David Cook

I honestly did it just out of a source of trust. You know, between, you know, the last year, the endless customer impact live and then just the between the book and I just leaned into it from the matter of, I don't have the money to hire a marketing person or marketing agency. So what can we do?

00:09:51:21 - 00:10:10:10

David Cook

So, you know, selling seven and top five, you know, just leaning into that's what everyone asks. So, you know, once we get into that assignment, selling part, it makes life a lot. It's made a life lot easier in a lot of ways. But just do what others aren't. As soon as he said that, do it. Aren't others aren't willing to do it.

00:10:10:10 - 00:10:36:08

David Cook

Just resonated. Just being willing to put yourself out there like that because we want people to know who we are, you know, that happens is if we're completely open and transparent. So I'd rather have people see our content ahead of time and decide it's not a right fit than me, you know, trying to convince them or trying selling, trying to or wasting the time, you know, to go out there and back and find out we're not a fit.

00:10:36:10 - 00:10:52:18

David Cook

So we've we've really doubled down on it to the point where, you know, we just we say we're the CarMax of painting. So here's our price. You can go on our website. You can use a calculator. You can look at the videos. You can go on the blog posts. You can find out almost everything there is to know about us.

00:10:52:20 - 00:11:10:04

David Cook

We're through YouTube or our website. One of the two we're in both. So we just really want to make sure that we instill confidence for homeowners so they make the right decision, not making a decision out of, you know, there's a storm and it blew your roof off. You picked the wrong person because they were there. We want you to make the right decisions because it's the right fit for them.

00:11:10:04 - 00:11:32:12

Alex Winter

Yeah, yeah. Now building trust is so instrumental and important. And that's like the root of what Endless Customers is all about. And it sounds like you're practicing that. And and the value match definitely lines up with who you are and how you run your business. So that's cool to hear. It's got me thinking. Or my, my next question, I guess, for you, were you always doing this or what was it like before you started implementing this endless customer system?

00:11:32:12 - 00:11:46:05

Alex Winter

And after you after you went to endless customers live, you read the book, you started really implementing it. But were you always doing it that way, or were you one of those guys beforehand? That was just trying to convince everybody in, like, you get on a sales call, you're like, I'm going to win them over and I'm going to convert them.

00:11:46:05 - 00:11:53:04

Alex Winter

Like, was that how it was before you started doing this? Or I'm just curious if you could paint that picture for us.

00:11:53:06 - 00:12:16:21

David Cook

A lot of ambulance chasing. Yeah. You're you're on the job site so you don't have the, you know, the office staff or if you're on the job site, people, clients, you're excited, you know, for, you know, the opportunity or that customer to do something. So you make the time to go out there and then asking no questions, no framework of what they're looking for except for they called you somehow they know who you are, assuming that since they called, then they want to do business with us.

00:12:16:23 - 00:12:34:02

David Cook

But at the same time, I know when I'm calling people, I'm I'm calling multiple people and get information. But I didn't put that same those same glasses on how other people are looking at us. So a lot of, I don't know, rose colored glasses, you know, in a lot of senses. Just trying to. Yeah, that's okay. They're gonna hire us because we're so awesome.

00:12:34:02 - 00:12:59:04

David Cook

And, you know, then you get there and, well, it's good word for it, you know, and not top of funnel customers, you know? You know, that whole thing, you know, they got the Ferrari vision with it. You go budget and you know where I'm not a Ferrari, but it's just a, you know, you're looking to get something done and you tell me, oh, gallon of paint is now $70 a gallon, and then it's my day.

00:12:59:04 - 00:13:22:18

David Cook

I paid 1350. Well, it's not 1960 anymore. It's not 1350. It's so, you know, getting people in touch with what the real cost to do things now is, is probably the biggest challenge that we have, post-Covid has been I don't know, man. It's talk about shift in so many different ways just with job costing and trying to educate people, you know, state of Illinois, it doesn't matter.

00:13:22:21 - 00:13:39:15

David Cook

You know, where we're at. It doesn't matter if you had employees or not. Everybody is paying for, you know, the the unemployment, the everything. And we get those checks. Well, we're all paying for it now. And now you're paying for it as a customer. Yeah, I don't like it. But you know, someone's got you and all those little things get hidden and people want to talk about it.

00:13:39:17 - 00:13:50:16

David Cook

So I know we're not the highest and or the lowest, but, you know, it's kind of what you're looking for. We're not we're not for everybody. But we just want to again, find the right customers, you know, that. Want to work with us?

00:13:50:17 - 00:14:08:23

Alex Winter

Yeah. No, that makes total sense. And I've actually this is it's good timing because I've done a lot of work on my own personal home. My wife and I've been doing renovations and painting and windows and all this stuff. So I'm just curious because I did this to where, like when you're shopping around as a consumer for this type of this type of work, I get multiple quotes.

00:14:08:23 - 00:14:41:04

Alex Winter

You know, I wanted to hear from at least 3 or 4 different vendors and try to compare and contrast. But there was some pretty wide ranges or gaps from like pricing where like maybe this is the top tier one and then the cheapest one, and there was like a pretty wide range. Why does that happen? And like how do how do you help people understand to your point, like why things cost what they do and why you need to be strategic about like finding value so that you're not overpaying, but also sometimes when you cheap out to, you know, the work and the results are not are not so great and then you're spending more

00:14:41:04 - 00:14:49:18

Alex Winter

money to fix it. So like how do you avoid some of those as a consumer? Some of those issues and how it for you as a business, do you help consumers do that?

00:14:49:20 - 00:15:10:14

David Cook

I I'll say it's one of the hardest challenges, honestly. Meeting expectations or educating people on what the expectations should be because everyone has a preconceived, you know, my dad used to paint my brother paint in college. Well, it's not the same. I think it's for any trade, you know? You know, I can go do plumbing, but I'm not because it's awful.

00:15:10:16 - 00:15:26:13

David Cook

You know, I can put I can change on a light fixture, but I don't want to because I know it's not going to be great. So just trying to educate and, you know, this year was the biggest challenge we had with that. And we had that example with an estimate for somebody. They wanted to repaint all the trim in their house.

00:15:26:13 - 00:15:45:10

David Cook

So going from oak to white and it's bought the house and it's not a cheap house, it's not cheap neighborhood. And you would go out there and I figured since it was a Google LSA, they you know, those are usually really good leads for us. And they've seen some our video stuff. So I thought for sure, I don't know, I was kind of ignorant an ad I foolish about it.

00:15:45:10 - 00:15:58:15

David Cook

I figured it's going to be this will be no problem. So I didn't really spend much time see what their budget was at a time or nothing. I didn't send them any information. Was kind of a same day thing. We were slow, your phones weren't ringing. And so I just kind of was hoping, well, okay, I have answered prayer today for a lead.

00:15:58:15 - 00:16:17:15

David Cook

So we're going to go close this job. So I get there presented, you know, everything that we had to do and showing them an iPad, what the what the cost was and you know, just that look that, like it's deer in the headlights, like, oh my gosh. And, you know, how do you soften that blow?

00:16:17:15 - 00:16:37:00

David Cook

I really can't because I didn't pre I didn't warm them up in any way. I didn't pre give them any information. And they were using I use AI all the time, but they were using online stuff that you know, it's not accurate in a lot of ways depending where you're getting it from. So they were using some website to get averages.

00:16:37:01 - 00:16:53:12

David Cook

Well, I don't know when last time that was updated, but it was even close. So we gave our proposal and it was about $20,000. And they just kind of I said, you know, we can do financing. And then we have, you know, like there's some like loan companies we work with two that you can kind of help out.

00:16:53:12 - 00:17:05:16

David Cook

We use them for realtors, but you can use it for this to us. There's a lot different ways to do that. I said this is one things. You do it once and you're done. You know, you never have to touch it again like you hate the color. So it is an investment in your house and it will bring value to the house.

00:17:05:16 - 00:17:25:01

David Cook

So if you look at it that way, you know, it's a different mindset than just how much you're paying, but left it with them. And I never heard back from, never heard back from. And we were sending, the email so that, that Vinnie, that yard that the, whatever the other one is a t the the email with the videos.

00:17:25:02 - 00:17:27:02

Alex Winter

Oh, the one one, two one videos.

00:17:27:04 - 00:17:45:10

David Cook

Yeah. So we're doing A11 video with our company that was with. So you're sending that and then we started doing text video like follow ups to. So your quick 22nd video was sending by a text you know, text mail could video send it that way. I found those been pretty effective. And we just nothing nothing else. I got a Google review and it's that person.

00:17:45:10 - 00:18:08:10

David Cook

I'm like, what the heck? And so she leaves a negative review about, you know, stay away. They're scammers. They're just there for your money. Oh, geez. I got a same I had another company come out and for the same work it was $3,000 and they're already working on the project. And I don't know, I think I shared that in the community, and I was just happened.

00:18:08:11 - 00:18:26:13

David Cook

Listen, I can't hear what video Marcus had about that. I think it was an assignment selling one. And so it was. And then you had the video and I can't read the guy's name. I met him last year. He does like it work somewhere out west, and he's got all kinds of it's it I don't know, it really it was overwhelming listening to him on all different ways.

00:18:26:13 - 00:18:42:04

David Cook

He how all these bots set up and all these different things. So it's really interesting, doesn't it? Also the same time like, okay, how can I use this as education moment? Or how can we make some lemonade out of this? And it just clicked. So all the videos do work and the books do work. If you listen to them enough.

00:18:42:06 - 00:19:05:23

David Cook

Let's just educate someone to turn to education moment. So I did a YouTube video blog post, and then I took, you know, those 5000 words that you can respond to. So I took like 40, 500 of them. And I said, you know, hey, thanks for letting me know. I wish you to called or told me, but, you know, thanks for tuning in to to help other people understand what it costs to repaint all the trim in your house.

00:19:06:01 - 00:19:19:13

David Cook

You know, you had and I just I took the whole scope of work and I put it in the ChatGPT and summarize this, you know, for a 12 year old and put it in there. And then I put this is how much material you're going to pay is how many hours it would take us to do it.

00:19:19:15 - 00:19:39:22

David Cook

These are the national adopted, like timelines and processes and, you know, standards, you know, by the Pink Contractors Association of how long it takes to do like one door or one foot of trim. And this is how much you have. So I broke it down. You know how you buy item. So this is how we came to our, number.

00:19:39:22 - 00:20:03:09

David Cook

It wasn't just random. It's metric based, metric based piece rate bidding. So it's a science behind it. There's math. It's not just what I think. So I'm happy you found somebody, but I fail to see how someone could charge $3,000 when material is 1200. And I don't see how someone could do what we say is going to be 200 hours in a matter of 20, in order to come up with $3,000.

00:20:03:11 - 00:20:11:00

David Cook

I hope you found somebody. How it works out. But that's why our price is what it is. And that's how I left it.

00:20:11:02 - 00:20:29:16

Alex Winter

Wow. Good on you for responding, because I. We talked about this a lot in the show and in general, when we talk to clients and when we're at, you know, we're at the event at endless customers live, people tend to shy away from negative reviews. They almost do what you said earlier, the ostrich effect. They they bury their head in the sand and they don't they almost don't want to respond to it.

00:20:29:18 - 00:20:46:22

Alex Winter

And you have to respond to it. You have to acknowledge it. And I really admire that. You took the time to say like, hey, thanks for posting this. Just so you can understand, and you're still trying to educate and you're using AI tools to help summarize and explain. So how did that I guess two part question here.

00:20:46:22 - 00:20:55:04

Alex Winter

How did she respond to that one? And then two, how did other people who maybe have seen this review, how did that link play out for you?

00:20:55:06 - 00:21:21:13

David Cook

I haven't heard anybody as far as the review itself. I haven't gotten feedback on that at all. Okay. But the YouTube video, however we've gotten, I've actually gone to a couple people that's called about it, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, different parts of the country. So I wasn't expecting that. And then we finally kind of had about a half a dozen comments that are on there, and most of them were in a positive way of, you know, they're going to regret it, it's going to peel, it's gonna look like crap.

00:21:21:13 - 00:21:40:06

David Cook

And so all of them, it was from she has no idea what she really got herself into. It's what it is again, we're not sure everybody. And yeah, I don't want to force people to work with us. And, you know, having that, I don't say power. It's not power, but confidence. You have that confidence that this is the price.

00:21:40:08 - 00:21:56:01

David Cook

And, you know, if, you know, everyone's secure in their pricing, you know, and you have the not the reason, but this is what it cost based on XYZ. So having that confidence of just being able to present what it is, I heard a great quote last week of, you know, market like your life depends on it, sell like you don't need it.

00:21:56:01 - 00:22:13:00

David Cook

And that just really resonates because this is this is who we are and what we believe and why we do what we do. And you know, it's okay if you don't want to work with us. There's there's 100 painters, you know, within ten miles of us. It's okay. There's other people. But, you know, I want to make sure you get it done right.

00:22:13:00 - 00:22:28:17

David Cook

And last thing, you know, last thing you want is go to a cheap mechanic and you're fixing it again. Same thing with your paint job. You know, it's what your house is. It's the it's the finished product. You know, you don't buy, a brand new car with someone with a krylon can, you know, the paint job sometimes sells those cars.

00:22:28:17 - 00:22:39:13

David Cook

Ferrari red. Yeah, they want that appearance. So, you know, having the right finish and the right people to make sure it looks great to me. That's that's what sells it for almost anything else. That's going to be a great job.

00:22:39:13 - 00:22:58:08

Alex Winter

Yeah, absolutely. But I think also for you as a business owner, you you clearly want to build trust. You're not just saying it. You really mean it. And you care about whether people work with you or not. Educating buyers, being transparent and helping them make the best decision, whether that's with you or with somebody else. And that's the definition of what endless customer is all about.

00:22:58:08 - 00:23:12:21

Alex Winter

So good. Good on you. I really love him. I love hearing that in respect that you've also mentioned. I want to get into this now. You've also mentioned video quite a bit and you get I can see like you, you light up a little bit when you say video and you're talking to a video expert over here.

00:23:12:21 - 00:23:23:02

Alex Winter

I love video as well. Can you just tell people a little bit about your journey with video and how it's helped your content and just what you're doing? With the business?

00:23:23:04 - 00:23:45:10

David Cook

Yeah. No, I'm still evolving with it. Know, I listen to, you know, not just here, but, you know, other people how they say with the videos, you know, Donald Miller, you know, I know it goes hand-in-hand with endless and impact and the whole they ask, you answer. So between watching both of both your guys's theories, it's really interesting that evolution.

00:23:45:12 - 00:24:05:07

David Cook

Because I never know what people are going to click. You know, I just don't. So I was kind of I took a leap. I thought this one too. So I started using Opus Clip. I don't know. It's probably about six months, four months ago now. And so now I've kind of flipped it of just every job site and every single estimate.

00:24:05:12 - 00:24:21:12

David Cook

So when I'm on estimate this morning we were doing an exterior one in the middle of the snow, but it was, hey, we're at this job site and I took my phone and I just know scripting eyes roll. This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing. And then I show a quick video, walk around of what it is, and then I come back.

00:24:21:12 - 00:24:38:11

David Cook

Usually I'm in my truck after I've done estimate this is about what you can pay. And I put a range in there, what the cost is, you know, if you're interested, you know, give us a call. Here's our link in the description below. And I supposed to put it on opus and put our SEO description for the YouTube one because it allows me, and then we just post it everywhere.

00:24:38:17 - 00:25:07:04

David Cook

So that's been my latest, version, if it'll work. I have no idea. It just seems like a natural flow of what we're doing. They can see it and what the cost is to, you know, eliminate those questions and build trust, but eliminate questions. I have questions, yeah. So ever questions we can think of that's becomes the video and then taking whatever that video is and then I've been using the endless customer GPT and then I did cheat.

00:25:07:09 - 00:25:30:23

David Cook

You can call it cheating. So I took and downloaded all the PDFs of Marcus and Donald Miller, the books, and I created a GPT. And okay, here's my board marketing board of advisors on how to let's make the best SEO descriptions for every video. So what time I take the video? Once I post it, I take a transcript, put it in there, give me the best SEO description for this one, and I use Endless Customer for the titles.

00:25:31:01 - 00:25:34:07

David Cook

And then post it and and let it ride.

00:25:34:09 - 00:25:53:04

Alex Winter

That's amazing. I love hearing that you made your own custom GPT. That's so cool. And I, I think it's important for our viewers and our listeners out there to hear that because I think a lot of people think of AI as, like, very tech and and like nerdy people geek out on it. And it's for like very high level type, technical situations.

00:25:53:04 - 00:26:06:11

Alex Winter

And it doesn't have to be you can use it for your content. You can use it in any industry or business. And I love hearing that you're using it to help create your content too. And I also have to say, I, I think a lot of people also don't think they can do video because they don't have a video camera.

00:26:06:11 - 00:26:27:11

Alex Winter

They don't have the right gear. Again, getting kind of technical with it, your phone is an amazing tool that you can use and create awesome content with. So I love that you're just going for it and you're still pushing the envelope of being transparent, letting people behind the curtain, explaining everything, showing the price. I mean, I just I think that's a really great way to or angle to, to talk to people and meet people where they are.

00:26:27:11 - 00:26:30:05

Alex Winter

So just really cool to hear all that. Yeah.

00:26:30:07 - 00:26:47:14

David Cook

Yeah. Before the selling seven and, you know, top five stuff. You know it was always people buy you know who they know like and trust. While videos are definitely the most easiest way to do that, you know and you know we have two guys in the field they want nothing to do with making videos at all, but they will do a silent one.

00:26:47:14 - 00:27:01:02

David Cook

So I'll do a silent one and they'll show what they're doing. But they don't want their voice to be heard and they don't want to be seen. So that's perfectly fine, because I can still do the same thing. I can do quick to an intro outro, and I can just do a voiceover on everything that you're doing. So it still works.

00:27:01:02 - 00:27:19:23

David Cook

And yeah, they still have they like it because it's still they have a pride and you know what they're doing. They still want to be shown, you know, on social stuff. So that's kind of all kind of cool. As far as how they're kind of buying in at their pace and I don't know, the tech thing. I'll tell you, I am not a tech person.

00:27:20:01 - 00:27:39:22

David Cook

I was an awful student. I passed, and I think I passed because, the friars at our Catholic school were were giving a lot of grace and mercy because I was not a good student. So it's it's not as hard as people make it out to. And, you know, it's even easier with GPT and asking how to how to do ChatGPT.

00:27:40:02 - 00:27:53:08

David Cook

So, it's whatever you want to do with it. I find it really easy. I, I nicknamed mine my buddy Sarah things. Hey, buddy. I'm working on this. So my wife laughs. Okay, what you buddy say today?

00:27:53:10 - 00:28:09:16

Alex Winter

That's too funny. Yeah. You can nickname them I also you can change their voices too. Is really interesting. My wife I talk to my GPT and all the time and it used to be a female voice. And now we're going off topic here. But I tell you this, it was a female voice and she came home one day and I'm talking to it using the voice, the voice commands.

00:28:09:17 - 00:28:22:06

Alex Winter

And she was like, who are you talking to? Who is that? And I was like, it's GPT. And she. She's like, I don't like that. It's a lady. It's just weird. So I had to switch it. So now it's a British bloke. I have a very, like, English, like Michael Caine style guy. And now that sounds very funny.

00:28:22:06 - 00:28:39:13

Alex Winter

Yes. Yeah. So, I do the same thing. It's, an amazing tool. Yeah. And I love hearing that you're using it so good. Good on you. All right, so I'm curious, I want to I want to paint the picture for everybody here right. So when you when did you start or like, first hear about endless customers previously they ask you answer.

00:28:39:15 - 00:28:59:23

Alex Winter

And how has that since you started implementing it. Because you've definitely embraced the system. You're on the journey. You're part of the impact plus community. How has that shaped your business? Over, over like, from when you started to now, like, can you just give us maybe some results or how it's affected sales or just paint a little bit of a picture for people out there listening?

00:29:00:01 - 00:29:15:21

David Cook

Well, I came first. It was like I said, Marcus on the sales line. He was on it. He was on a contractor podcast I was listening to, and he was sharing that. And so then I started listening to the sales line stuff. And so he'd always, you know, send me an email and answer your questions. So I sent an email.

00:29:15:21 - 00:29:37:14

David Cook

Sure enough, he answered my questions on a podcast. I thought that was really cool. And then he had the whatever that I think was a sales line handbook. It was a PDF. You could download, so I download it. I still have it in my drawer that's full of post-it notes and still underlined all kinds of stuff. So that kind of started that journey or that, I'll call appetite for doing things different and better.

00:29:37:16 - 00:29:41:02

Alex Winter

So this is, this has been a while because the sales line was was years.

00:29:41:02 - 00:29:57:23

David Cook

Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. So you know and I didn't I'm not doing to the same extent I am now. You know, I've really pushed it. So I'm doing it now. It's almost an everyday thing. And before I was, I was more of a gimmick thing, more than anything else. I did it awful. But at least I did it.

00:29:58:01 - 00:30:14:20

David Cook

But it still was an organic thing. And we've always been organic. Organic? I, I hate paying agency stuff. I did it a couple times, and, they were epic, epic failures. Both. I don't know it. We'll leave it at that. So, you know, did you.

00:30:14:20 - 00:30:26:07

Alex Winter

Learn from those? I know, I know that failure's not anything you want to. Most people are afraid of that. And avoid that. But you need you need to be in that space sometimes in order to learn and to grow. It's the bottom line.

00:30:26:09 - 00:30:45:15

David Cook

Yeah. You know, I wouldn't have stuff I learned I because of the failures, you know, our personal accounts or Facebook or accounts, credit card was hacked. I mean, it was awful resets. And, you know, that was like whatever. And then finding out, well, it just wasn't good. So doing ourselves that we control our own destiny now, and it's my voice.

00:30:45:19 - 00:31:07:00

David Cook

So it's. And not that, you know, I hope we have other people on our team later. So it's our voice right now. It's just us sharing, you know, what we're doing and how we're doing it. So, you know, the the switch has been traffic and I know, Marcus has shared on it and his, you know, personal YouTube pages, but everyone shares the same thing about traffic being down.

00:31:07:02 - 00:31:26:21

David Cook

But even though our overall traffic is down, our leads are up organically. So it doesn't really make sense. But it still works. So the questions people are asking are still being answered. And so they're still finding us. It's just I'm not I'm not using kind of ads to do it. They're just organically come across us. So it's really helped.

00:31:26:23 - 00:31:28:15

David Cook

You know, the assignments selling has been big I.

00:31:28:15 - 00:31:49:12

Alex Winter

I'm still kind of playing with that. So, you know the sign it's selling of people book an estimate for interior painting and immediately they're selling it to a funnel. And hey, please watch these videos before we show up to answer your questions. So have, like most frequently asked questions, questions about products process and then just a basic pricing page so they can kind of have an idea before we go there.

00:31:49:14 - 00:32:07:10

Alex Winter

And we do that for all of our services that we do. So they're always changing and how we can do that better. But, you know, the biggest thing has been, the selling process when when we're hitting those right people, it helps. So we're still maintaining like 50%, you know, has been our close rate for sales and our average job size.

00:32:07:10 - 00:32:29:05

Alex Winter

Now it's hovering like at $5,000, give or take, which two years ago we were like 800 bucks. So that's gone up a lot. And we've evolved, you know, the type of jobs we can handle too. So that's helped. But the thing that's fun to measure is when people say, I saw your video and when they say they saw our video, the close rate is anywhere from like 95 to 100%.

00:32:29:07 - 00:32:38:05

Alex Winter

Almost consistently. Wow. Almost everybody that watches a video just signs. And then you have one.

00:32:38:05 - 00:32:48:07

David Cook

That's incredible. I anyone out there, anyone out there listening and watching right now? Did you hear that 95% or more when they watch a video close that's.

00:32:48:09 - 00:33:12:04

Alex Winter

And they're bigger jobs, which is a really anomaly. You would think maybe for slower jobs I could see that slower, smaller I can see for smaller jobs, you know, maybe. But it's working on the bigger jobs is where the the friction has been almost eliminated, where the smaller jobs I had the hardest time with. So now we're kind of like, well, maybe we should stop doing these smaller jobs where there's this much friction to stop and go after these bigger ones.

00:33:12:04 - 00:33:31:07

Alex Winter

So that's we kind of have to leave off, too. But the fun thing now is I. So we've had three people call since the first of the year. I found you on ChatGPT. You're the only company does X, Y, and Z, and that's what I'm looking for. And we've closed every single one of them. And all of them have been monster jobs.

00:33:31:09 - 00:33:39:10

Alex Winter

And we got GC yesterday, you know, looking for someone that can handle commercial painting and wallpaper. I got multiple sites and GPT, you were the only name that came up.

00:33:39:11 - 00:33:40:22

David Cook

That's amazing.

00:33:41:00 - 00:33:47:18

Alex Winter

So I was like, yeah, I was like a little kid. The candy store. I turned around my wife, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this.

00:33:47:20 - 00:34:04:14

David Cook

You know, that's that's an ancillary thing people don't realize. But when you do endless customers and you really focus on building trust and being transparent, it works out great with AI because that's what I was looking for. So if you have this stuff on your website, it pricings on your website. If you're creating this video content, it's going to help push you to the top.

00:34:04:14 - 00:34:17:18

David Cook

It used to be like Google Search was that's how you got found. But now people are using AI more than ever in this. This system positions you to be in that spot and at the top spot. And it sounds like you got a really great potential lead here because of it. So that's incredible.

00:34:17:20 - 00:34:24:21

Alex Winter

Yeah, I really hope so. I'm looking forward to doing. Yeah, I hope so. You sent it over. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully maybe in two weeks in the Chicago we'll let you know how that progresses.

00:34:24:21 - 00:34:41:18

David Cook

Sounds good. Sounds good. So curious. What does it look like for the future for you going into the rest of 2026 and beyond? Where do you as as an owner, hope and see your business going and having endless customers in your back pocket? How is that going to take you there?

00:34:41:20 - 00:35:01:23

Alex Winter

We actually pulled back a little bit this year because last year, even though we did really, really well, we kind of, numbers didn't quite add up. And so we actually had to hire a different type of accountant, kind of figuring out, well, overall, yeah, it looks good. But you know, there's some stuff hidden. So we kind of had to, let go of a couple, not let go, just reassign different people for different roles.

00:35:02:01 - 00:35:21:09

Alex Winter

So this first quarter has been kind of be kind of doing everything right now till we get back to a certain point. But, you know, now it's okay. Let's put my ego aside. Let's, let's get humble a little bit. There's, just so many talented and amazing people that can write a blog post based off my video, and I don't have to do that.

00:35:21:11 - 00:35:38:16

Alex Winter

And there's so many people that can post and, you know, take that same thing and put an opus and do a better job than I can. And there's so many people that could probably that will do a better job of, you know, if I want to entertain Facebook ads of doing that kind of stuff. So kind of all right, let's let's focus on what really matters.

00:35:38:16 - 00:35:55:00

Alex Winter

What really matters is sales and getting in front of people and customers and the other stuff. It's just I shouldn't say the byproduct, but how we get there and you know what we're doing because I feel really compelled, you know, we've got a great team and I feel responsible for them to make sure, you know, there's enough work for them year round.

00:35:55:02 - 00:36:14:13

Alex Winter

And we have our certain, you know, we, we want to make what we want to make and do certain things. So just trying to lean into hiring the help that's going to help us get to where we want to go, and doing the work with endless customers. They ask, you answer. And going on that journey, I think, is we have the most value of everything that we can do.

00:36:14:15 - 00:36:29:21

Alex Winter

At the end of the day, you know, being trusted and providing values, I think the best thing that we can do as any business owner, but especially in services because it's such a bad rap, just making sure people know what they're getting. Why? And you know what that looks like, I think. I think that'll get us over the finish line more than anything else.

00:36:29:21 - 00:36:30:06

Alex Winter

Yeah.

00:36:30:12 - 00:36:55:18

David Cook

Great answer, great answer. So my last question for you here, this has been an awesome conversation. I really appreciate all your insights and sharing your story. For people out there listening and watching that maybe are hesitant or or aren't as transparent as they could be, right? What would you say to motivate them to say what others won't, and to embrace a similar mentality to what you have?

00:36:55:20 - 00:37:19:03

Alex Winter

Be what you want. I'll just say be what you want to be. But it's, you know, if you're taking the time and looking for pricing on everything else, most people are doing the same thing to you. So, you know, if you want, had a good thought with it. And it's kind of escaped me, to be honest, that, you know, you want you want to want people to trust you.

00:37:19:03 - 00:37:37:20

Alex Winter

You have to be trusting and you have to put yourself out there to do that. You know, three seconds of I if it was there, that quote, you know, three seconds of incredible courage, you know, to make, you know, impact, you know, so that once you start doing it, it's not that big of a deal. But, you know, just just do it.

00:37:37:21 - 00:37:54:09

Alex Winter

There's no riding a bicycle, you know, you you're gonna fall. You're going to scuff your knee. You're going to catch your pant leg in the chain, go over the handlebars, land on the bright in a blackberry patch, and be covered in thorns and thistles. It's going to happen. Not that happened to me, but.

00:37:54:11 - 00:37:59:17

David Cook

It sounds very specific. Do it.

00:37:59:19 - 00:38:16:20

Alex Winter

So if it's going to happen, you know, that's it. I'd say enjoy the process. And, you know, a friend told me, enjoy the suck. You know, just for a little while until you get over that hump. But, you know, it's freeing. Once you get past that, then it's just second. I don't say it's second nature, but just.

00:38:16:22 - 00:38:34:19

Alex Winter

I know it's it's freeing in a lot of ways because people know who you are, what you're going to do, how you're going to do it. It really takes so much pressure off that, you know, other companies pain companies are area. They look at me like I'm an idiot. There's no way I'm telling people that that's okay.

00:38:34:21 - 00:38:53:12

Alex Winter

You don't have to. But at the end of the day, I is recommending me, not you. And I don't know at the rate. You know, you keep hearing the AI changing and how it's doing it. It's just a matter of time. You know, these paid ads, you know, people spend $10,000 a month for paid ads for painters. Well, there's only so much it can go.

00:38:53:12 - 00:39:13:06

Alex Winter

And I'm not spending any money on ads, and I'm ranking ahead of these paid companies. Well, like Marcus keeps saying, is it going to go away? Is it getting better or worse? You know, if there's only one way it's going, it's not going to change. So I think it's just kind of get out of your own way, and just have that courage to just take that first step.

00:39:13:12 - 00:39:15:05

Alex Winter

That's all it takes is taking that first step.

00:39:15:10 - 00:39:33:00

David Cook

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing. I totally agree it's it may be scary. Admit that you may and may hurt a little bit. You might be in the suck for a little bit, but those are all great opportunities to learn and to grow. And clearly it's working for you. You ranking number one over people who are paying a lot of money to try to rank number one.

00:39:33:00 - 00:39:41:04

David Cook

And you're doing it organically and honestly and building trust in a really great way. So bravo to you and the whole team. And to Franco. That's awesome.

00:39:41:06 - 00:39:56:23

Alex Winter

Yeah, thanks. Hopefully, someone can figure out a good way to make it work on Facebook because it seems it's kind of strange, the same strategy. It works for the AI in Google does not work on Facebook. Kind of a different audience or something like hundred percent, sure, but trying to figure out how to navigate what that looks like.

00:39:57:01 - 00:40:04:05

Alex Winter

That's interesting thought process and be a fun conversation with somebody to see why is there such a different demographic with that kind of stuff?

00:40:04:06 - 00:40:18:23

David Cook

Yeah, yeah, we'll have to plug you in. I have some people I could connect you with here on the Impact team that could point you in the right direction, and then I definitely want to have you back on the show. I have to follow up and see how things go as you carry on into the future. And, I wish you nothing but the best in success for you and for the business and for everybody.

00:40:18:23 - 00:40:27:16

Alex Winter

So yeah, thank you guys. Appreciate all your guys's contributions and all the stuff you guys do to make to help us and make our businesses better in the process too. So thank you guys as well.

00:40:27:18 - 00:40:36:15

David Cook

Absolutely awesome. Well, David, it's been great talking to you. And for everyone out there watching and listening, this is Endless Customers. I'm your host Alex Winter and we will see you on the next episode.