From Family Biz to Franchise Empire: A Conversation with JD Mason of Paint EZ

What does it take to build a painting franchise from 8 to 70+ locations in just two years? 🚀 In this in-depth interview, Giuseppe Grammatico talks with JD Mason, CEO of Paint EZ, about his journey from growing up in the paint industry to building a thriving franchise empire. We cover:

• • The "Superpowers" of franchising (and the power of collective thought).
  • Paint EZ's hands-on approach to franchisee support and "Launch Week."
  • Leveraging technology and AI for efficiency and customer satisfaction.
  • The inspiring story behind their give-back initiative, Rooms for Hope.
  • Actionable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs stuck in "analysis paralysis."

Learn about Paint EZ's model, their mission, and JD's invaluable insights for anyone considering franchise ownership.
Choose the right path at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com
Learn more about Rooms for Hope: https://www.roomsforhope.com/
Learn more about Paint EZ: https://paintez.com/

DISCLAIMER: The information on this podcast is for general information purposes only. Franchising involves risk and careful consideration should be given before making any decisions.

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The Franchise Freedom: Discover Your New Path to Freedom Through Franchise Ownership, Book by Giuseppe Grammatico https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/book or purchase directly on Amazon.

Transcript

Jay Mason: 0:00

you know, I kind of joke it's the family business, but I was fortunate enough to. Start working with Sherwin Williams when I was 16 years of age and spent my first 13 years in the industry in more of a paint store setting environment in various roles from store manager to outside cells. And for me, that was a really good foundational place to learn the paint industry. really every successful entrepreneur I've either listened to on a podcast or read a book or met in person. They just started and then they stuck with it until they became successful. Bet on yourself. Go all in. And go after whatever your goals and dreams are because it will be rewarding in the end.

0:46

Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where you can escape the corporate trap through franchise ownership. Here's your host, Giuseppe gr, the franchise guide.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:59

welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Josepi Grammatic, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives. Experience time and financial freedom via franchising. Very excited today. No more solo episodes. We're gonna mix it up. You've asked for guests. So we have my good good friend JD Mason from Pay EZ jd, welcome to the show.

Jay Mason: 1:19

Thank you GI pleasure to be here with you today.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 1:22

Look, looking forward to it. And I appreciate you. We got, we had some at least on my end, some technical difficulties using a new platform. So, it's never a perfect world. It doesn't matter how many how many franchise franchise podcasts you do. So. It's I'm looking forward to this one. You know, we've been working together recently talking quite a bit via email. This is our first kind of face-to-face. And wanted to invite you about the to the show, learn about paint easy, learn about the painting industry. But before we dive in, if you can share with the guests a little bit of background on who JD is, and then we'll we'll go into why you started Pain Easy.

Jay Mason: 1:55

Yeah, thank you for the question, and again, it's a pleasure to be here with you today. As far as like kind of a personal background, I'm married three kids. My, my oldest is 21. And then I've got a, a. Go down to 15 years of age as well. So, kind of the busy time of life kids keep us busy with a lot going on. But, really pleased to have kids that are high functioning and doing well in society as well. As far as kind of professional background I, I say I, I'm in the family business. I grew up around the painting industry. My, my dad spent 46 years working with Sherwin Williams and I was able to be around painting contractors a lot as a young kid. And I remember many, like overnight. Trips with my dad to commercial job sites and being like 10 to 12 years old with a hard hat walking a, you know, commercial building and meeting painting contractors and those kind of things. And so, you know, I kind of joke it's the family business, but I was fortunate enough to. Start working with Sherwin Williams when I was 16 years of age and spent my first 13 years in the industry in more of a paint store setting environment in various roles from store manager to outside cells. And for me, that was a really good foundational place to learn the paint industry. And really enjoyed my time there, but was looking for really an opportunity to make a name for myself outside of what my dad had built and the reputation he had there within the paint industry. And so I was fortunate enough to be recruited by another painting franchise where I spent two years there working and mentoring. New franchise owners. And so that was really kind of my start within the paint industry and also kind of how it leads us into paint easy. But you know, background paint industry and then golf out outside of work, golf would be my hobby that I love to do as much as possible. Just don't get very much time to do it anymore.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 4:06

Yeah, you gotta make time with the family. It's difficult, but that's why you gotta get the kids in and everyone else involved. Right. So you make it a, you make a family outing. No, that's awesome. So it sounds like you've been in that, in the pain industry for a while. You know, what motivated you, I guess, you know, a couple things. What motivated you to start pain easy and tell us about the model. You know, what is pain Easy.

Jay Mason: 4:26

Yeah. The motivation has changed honestly over time. Initially when I left the other painting franchise, it was kind of a unique position. They were. In massive growth mode in order to exit to a larger PE type investor who bought the organization. And so I experienced working with a lot of new franchise owners, which I loved. What I didn't love was. You know, it was more like the franchise owners were a number and just try to get in as many numbers as possible so that they could get their exit as large as possible. And I just saw a major disconnect between corporate team and and you know, the franchise owners I was working with. And so when I left and started PZ, it was really with a focus of. You know, having attention to detail with the franchise owners. Let's make sure we're, you know, that they understand we have their backs the whole way that we're trying to build alongside them and help them. And it was, you know, we went through a slow growth period to start. The first eight years we had eight locations and it was because we were really focused on. Like attention to those franchise owners and helping them be successful. And I mentioned we've kind of. Transitioned a little bit more. We've grown to over 70 locations in the last, you know, two years. And so it's still with the emphasis of, you know, the franchisee first that we're going to train them. We feel like we train them better than any other organization out there, and that we have the support layers to really support them long term. But I've really recognized that there's a couple superpowers to franchising that's really like, where the mindset has evolved over time. I I think the first superpower of franchising that I've learned about was all the different owners coming from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different potentially even countries life experiences, industries. And when you pool collective thought together and really are working together towards long-term goals, there's some really unique perspective that comes from it if you're willing to allow it. And so we're really continuing to evolve as a company based upon the thought process and the backgrounds of those owners that we work with. And so that's been a unique thing. To be a part of. And then really the other thing that I'm fine that I've. Not that I didn't love our owners to start with, but just really how much of a blessing it is to have amazing partners that you link arms with and start growing a business. And that's really kinda shifted the mindset over time as well. Just how amazing franchising can be when you get the right people in place and partner with those people. Versus counting them as a number. And so that, that's really where the evolution, I feel like's taken place with us as a company.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 7:37

Yeah, and you've, I've seen, I didn't realize the size, I didn't realize it was 70 up to 70. So that's quite impressive. And yeah, I mean, you know, in having conversations. Every single day with people taking a look at franchises, you know, they're, a lot of them. I wouldn't say all, but I would say a large percentage of the people I'm talking with have never owned the business before. They're a corporate executive. They're maybe gonna, experiencing a layoff, ready to leave their job, just want something else. And, you know, money is important, but overall, they're like, you know, what's the culture look like? What's the the support?

Jay Mason: 8:10

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 8:11

gonna get trained at a home office? And then just kinda. You know, the franchisor says, have at it and kind of figure it out. And now you've forgotten everything you've learned at the home office. So, you know, I think what's very unique is such a hands-on approach, really spending the time with the new franchisees going out, doing a sales call if I'm not mistaken, right.

Jay Mason: 8:30

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 8:31

up some vendor relationships. I think you know, that training in action is what really stands out and support culture, which. You know, culture, you're gonna get talking to the to the franchisees in validation. You're going hear that over and over, and I hear that. So I'm not on the calls, but I get the feedback from some of the families that that we work with, which is which is super impressive. You know, what else about the support really differentiate your differentiates pain? Easy. Because at the end of the day, there are mult there, there are, you know, multiple painting companies, right.

Jay Mason: 9:02

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 9:02

Some are doing residential, some are doing commercial, some are doing both. You know what really differentiates that? Because, you know, some people will come back and say, well, painting, well, there's a lot of painting companies in the area, so what are, you know, some of the other, you know, kind of key differentiators that that make painting easy different.

Jay Mason: 9:20

Yeah, from the support level, I think some of the things that make us different is really the team. I'm blessed to have an amazing team around me. Our COO Jason, he comes from a tech background. He has degrees in mechanical engineering. He also just got his doctorate in business administration with a emphasis on leadership. And so he brings a unique perspective to the team from a tech background and also from a leadership background. Mike, our corporate training manager, he he played college and professional basketball and then was a college basketball coach, and then transitioned into 10 years of corporate training. And so he brings an amazing mindset of development, of training and working with the owners and helping them see you know, with hitting min mini, like minor goals. Building into more macro goals. How they can really build the business long term. And then we have our, another trainer that he's been in franchising his whole life. His parents are franchisors. He worked on their corporate team. He also worked as a franchisee in their system. And then he went to work with another franchise in the home services space for three plus years. And so he brings a unique perspective of franchising to the table as well. And then from my personal background, having more of a paint. Technical background we kind of train from unique perspectives or, you know, we take our strengths of where we train the best and then, you know, allow the others to kind of step in where they're the best as well. I, you, you mentioned kind of in the field to, that's one of our. We've been doing that since day one. When I worked with the other franchise organization, they would just come to our corporate office and then it felt like a little bit of sending them out to sink or swim at that point.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 11:16

right.

Jay Mason: 11:17

for me, there was like a, it just felt like a disconnected handoff. You know, you were at our offices, but you've never really seen it in the field. Good luck. And so from day one when, since we've been franchising at Payee Z we've always went out to their market for what we call launch week. And we're actually going on sales calls with'em. We're helping them recruit the labor to do the work. We're getting the introductions made on a local level with'em. And for me, that's, that just helps get the business started on a lot. You know, firmer foundation and also helps the franchise owner to feel like, Hey, I can get success right out of the gate and let me just continue that after they leave. And so that's how we get'em started. But then it's even after that, there's daily conversations for 60 days after that point as well. It's making sure, you know, they're gonna have questions, they're gonna have concerns that are gonna happen, and so still helping them realize like, Hey, you're not on your own, even though we're not there.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 12:22

Yeah, I, that is you know, from a former franchisee. I think that is super helpful with my first franchise franchisor. We went out, remember on our first sales call, and I closed that deal. It was a very small deal between the trip and the driving back and forth. There wasn't much profit built in, but it really, you know, it really you know, you started gaining some confidence, like,

Jay Mason: 12:42

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 12:42

I'm starting to understand the lingo that there's a sales process that you really need to follow. Mistakes were made, but that's fine. You wanna make those mistakes on the smaller accounts. You know, just kind of figuring everything out. The pricing and everything else involved. But I think that's a missing piece. It's almost like, I compare it to I've never gone, but people have gone to like a Tony Robbins con conference and they're really pumped up over the weekend. They come home and it's like. Okay where do I start with this information? It's almost like you need that, you need Tony to come in

Jay Mason: 13:11

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:11

you know, help you and kind of implement everything. And I think that's a big part of it. It's like we, we show you the way, we show you the training, the best practices, the technology. Now let's do it together. Let's get some sales, let's get some vendors, let's get some, maybe some employees. And I think that's I think that's the missing piece. And I'm not saying not, you know, some franchisors do it and others. You know, there may be limited training in the field, but I think that's the key differentiator. I think that's the missing piece in really setting some someone up for success because that first year is crucial. That first

Jay Mason: 13:41

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:41

that, that I call it the builder year, where I, you know, I ran my business full-time and I reinvested every, all the profits back into the business. My wife was working at the time, so we were able to do that. But I wanted to build the perfect team, learn the lingo, the technology, the systems, the CRM. And sometimes that perfect team, you know, sometimes that initial hire maybe doesn't work out, and that's okay. It happens. You're dealing with people and you know that person eventually you find the right person to lead. I mentioned, you know, technology, so, you know, how does pay easy leverage technology to pr improve you know, customer satisfaction, efficiencies for the franchisees.

Jay Mason: 14:21

Yeah, so we're a big believer. One of our core values is innovation. And another core value is solution seeking. So looking at problems and how can we solve them, and one, utilizing technology to do that. And so we're using different AI technologies for client, you know, acquisition or even nurturing of clients through. A sales process. We, our CRM also helps with that process as well. But yeah, we're using technology from start to finish throughout the process on the client journey. And we believe long term that we have to continue to even keep reinvesting into the technology aspect. If I'm to look. From, you know, being 25 years now in the paint industry, looking at maybe how has the industry evolved or where's it going, and those kind of things. As far as the application of paint, you know, the selling of paint jobs and overall those have stayed pretty much the same in 25 years. The paint products in general are pretty much the same there. There's little differences here and there as well, but in general, it's stayed the same. What's changing though? The buying behavior of clientele, the way you market to a client and just the use of technology in our everyday lives. And so we feel that we have to continue to keep evolving from a technology standpoint to lead from the front versus following from the back. And so, we'll continue to add new technology over time as it makes sense as well.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 15:58

Love that now that, that makes a lot of sense. And just, this is more outta curiosity. This is just a question that just popped in my mind. So if. Hypothetically if someone has, you know, a painting business, maybe they have their current painting business, in reality, they can really convert you know, reach out to, to pay z, maybe convert that business and take Advan advantage of, I would assume all the, not, I assume you would take advantage of the technology, but I would assume maybe the better pricing, the economies of

Jay Mason: 16:27

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 16:28

dealing with the national franchise. So is that. Have you seen that? Or is that a possibility for someone that maybe owns a mom and pop painting business?

Jay Mason: 16:36

Yeah, it's definitely a possibility. We haven't had that come across the, you know, as a, as an opportunity at this point. But we would definitely be open to it with the right you know, potential owner that way. But yeah, there, there would be opportunities to systemize and involve more processes utilizing technology, having a marketing team behind those individuals as well that they probably don't have right now with their own business. And then the economies of scale with pricing. That's one of the areas I feel like we do really well. Having worked for the paint companies before allows us to really know what we can negotiate, maybe where we can't as much and really be able to put our owners in a great place. That way too.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 17:18

Awesome. Yeah, I just popped in my head. Yeah. I was just, you know, at

Jay Mason: 17:21

yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 17:21

I'm like, wow, it's, I know, you know, local painting companies and they always complain about, you know, you know, being behind on quotes and then there's no real follow up aside from, you know, maybe a text message to do the job. It's with a couple breakdown, but there's no follow up system. Email,

Jay Mason: 17:37

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 17:37

the invoice. Sometimes it's written on a piece of paper. So yeah, it's you know, I said there's massive benefit there and you don't have to figure all that out, figuring out the CRM and how to price and all that because. You know, that's the other thing, pri there, there's changes in pricing and,

Jay Mason: 17:52

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 17:53

You want a system that can take into consideration. For example we work with a flooring franchise, and I think of all their SKUs, two SKUs were would be potentially affected by the tariffs. And it was reflected immediately. So the

Jay Mason: 18:07

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:08

a franchisee, excuse me, wasn't blindsided, giving the wrong quote and then obviously potentially taking a loss on the job. So. That is crucial as well. And just being up to date with with all current pricing. You know, 70 franchisees, you know many of them, obviously there's, they're newer franchisees and then you have some of the originals. You know, can you share, you know, a success story, someone that you know, kind of started out and where they are today?

Jay Mason: 18:33

Yeah, no, thank you for this question. I, you know, as I mentioned, the people are what really makes the franchise go. And it's the amazing owners or partners that we have that really makes us, and I can think of two that really hit home, but we have other success stories, but there's two that both grew up. In homes where they didn't have, you know, their families rented or one was even a single mother household where she worked three jobs and didn't grow up. You know, very humble beginnings and to be able. To build the business to where now they've purchased a very nice home, they're providing very well for their families and have continued to grow the business. That's just been really rewarding. You know, it was at. Just over a year ago at our con annual convention where one of the owners was able to announce to the team of other partners that they were able to buy their first home and they were the first homeowner in their family. And it was very emotional to to be a part of that and just to see that the business has changed their personal director trajectory of life, but it's also impacting other family members and their other distant family members as well. So.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 19:53

And how long were, have they been a franchise? Owner of Pay Easy.

Jay Mason: 19:57

Yeah. One of them's been five years and the other one's been seven years.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 20:02

Oh, wow. So,

Jay Mason: 20:03

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 20:04

life changing. And that's really not a lot of time if you think about it, right? So, that's huge that you can have that kind of impact. Very hard to do with you know, keeping your W2 job. I know I, I tried did not work and that's why I switched over to entrepreneurship. It's it could be rewarding. I always tell people it's a lot of work. A franchise gives you kind of that, that what I call an unfair advantage, but man it truly is life changing and. I think, you know, going into it, you really need, I always recommend whatever that why is, there's no right or wrong, but that why is gonna get you through the, that rollercoaster of the ups and downs because you know, a lot of stuff going on, sometimes you're busy, sometimes maybe things slow down. So you wanna, you know, kind of go back to why you got into this, right? Because it's definitely not, it's definitely even with the franchise will give you that, that unfair advantage. But there's still a lot of work. It's, the franchise will not bring in money on its own. You ha They're giving you the blueprint and you need to follow it. Anything you wanna add to that? Because that's something that I think a lot of

Jay Mason: 20:59

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:00

thing like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna buy the franchise and it kind of runs on its own.

Jay Mason: 21:04

Yeah, I we like to tell people the franchise and with our franchise it's not the easy button, but it's the easier button. And so you do have that blueprint. You have a team that's willing to stand behind you and work alongside you to help you build. You still have to put forward the effort. You have to follow the systems and processes you have to be willing to commit to efforts if you just think it's gonna be on autopilot and start printing cash for you. Unfortunately, we're not. If there is that opportunity, I'm gonna sign up for it personally as well. But I, that's the biggest thing I've learned in business ownership is that it's gonna be the hardest thing you've done, but it's also gonna be the most rewarding thing that you do as well.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:48

Awesome. Yeah I agree. We're definitely on the same page there. So, another question that comes up when someone is looking at a franchise is that, you know, they want the franchise itself. To give back to the community. You really kind of make a difference in people's lives. And, you know, sometimes it's not the product or service necessarily that, you know, that

Jay Mason: 22:10

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 22:11

lives. But it's what the franchisor does. Can you talk to us about, you know, what the franchisees do to kind of give back and help the community?

Jay Mason: 22:19

Yeah. That's also one of our core values is community. And it's been something that, you know, we feel an obligation as a company, not only from corporate but as franchisees, to really support and give back to the communities that bless us so much with. Building our businesses as well. And four years ago we instituted a collective effort as a group called Rooms for Hope and Rooms For Hope was built upon. I, so I'm fortunate. I was a cancer survivor seven years ago. I went through and for me it was a very, a minimal thing. And so as I was going through each, every three to six months, going through cancer screenings and testing I would go to these cancer centers and just seeing people their lives so challenged by, you know, cancer or other illnesses that they were facing that I wanted to find a way that we could. You know, give back to the community as a collective body of o owners and from corporate. And so we created Rooms for Hope four years ago, and what we do is a portion of proceeds of projects that we do go back to us painting rooms free of charge for people dealing with cancer to create that room for hope or peace as they're going through that cancer battle or maybe through the recovery process that they're dealing with. And it's truly been one of the most humbling things that I've ever been able to be a part of. It's also one of the most rewarding things. If I could do nothing but Rooms for Hope projects, I would, and we're, we've been blessed from corporate. We try to do at least one per month,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 23:59

Hold.

Jay Mason: 23:59

from a corporate level. Our owners they do'em. It could be monthly, it could be quarterly or annually, depending on where they're at in the business and whatnot as well. But. You know, we've been blessed to do we recently did a couple pediatric cancer individuals and we're able to do, you know, like a Lightning McQueen cars room and then also a Star Wars themed room, and just to see the smiles on their face and something to, you know, give them a place of refuge as they're going through those challenges, you know, that it's truly, like I said, been humbling, but also so rewarding to be a part of doing that as well.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 24:39

Wow. I was not aware of that. And I appreciate you sharing what what where can people find or what's the website for Rooms for Hope?

Jay Mason: 24:47

Yeah, rooms for hope.com, and it's also connected through pain easy.com as well

Giuseppe Grammatico: 24:52

perfect. And we'll we'll link that in the show notes as well.

Jay Mason: 24:55

Thank you.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 24:57

take taking kind of a step back, you know, just in general, you know, there are a lot of people listening, so we pulled the listeners over the, just over, you know, going on five and a half years of having the podcast. And we poll, we ask questions, what topics? Who do you want on the show? What do you wanna hear about? And we hear all great things. We've had topics suggestions and all that. And the biggest thing is we had did not have him on the show, but we listened to another podcast, had the IFA President talk about, you know, most people in their lives it's a big percentage have thought about owning a business. So they. The number they gave, and this is a hard one to figure out, but they came up with the number with 75% of people out there. You know, they, or they gave, and this is a hard one to figure out, but they came up with the number, with quarters of that group. So another 75% of that existing group said as far as their reason goes, and this is the number one reason they didn't, they did not know where to start. I find that. Extremely interesting because we are in the information age chat, GPT, Gemini, the internet my gosh, millions and millions of podcasts and TED Talks and all that kind of stuff. And people are almost crippled by the amount of knowledge, the amount of information I always say. You know, knowledge is not power anymore.

Jay Mason: 26:19

Right,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 26:20

useless if not applied in a way, right? It's like, well, I got the best workout, but because if you're not actually,

Jay Mason: 26:25

true.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 26:25

doing that workout, so, you know, what advice would you give to someone? That is kind of, you know, they're, they want the change. They wanna explore franchise ownership, but they're almost paralyzed as to where to get started. You, so what, so just in general terms, what advice would you give to that person?

Jay Mason: 26:42

Yeah, I, so the biggest challenge that I see from those who are leaving corporate America and joining, whether it's a franchise or just any business you know, venture at all, it's a mindset shift. And so that's the number one. Advice I always give to somebody is start listening to podcasts or reading books, and then applying, as you were mentioning, applying principles from those because the mindset changes so drastically when we're in corporate America. Depending on our role, it's daily, or it's a weekly focus. Maybe it's a quarterly focus if we're in sales, you know, where we're trying to hit those bonus levels or whatnot. But with business ownership, we might be starting to look at a 10 or 15 year plan or vision, and then we're scaling it back to what are our annual or quarterly goals that we need to hit those. But it's such a broader range spectrum. And as, as you were mentioned, when you started your business the first year, you weren't taking any money from it. You're reinvesting back into the business to continue to build that vision or future that you are looking for with your business. And it's such a mindset shift from I'm collecting a check every two weeks. I'm looking at my goals for the day or the week, or maybe the quarter. And not that those don't exist from business ownership, it's just a different frame of mind and having to kinda reapply some of those principles that we're doing, you know, in corporate and reapply'em or refocus'em from business ownership perspective. But I, I think that mindset's the first thing. If you get yourself in the proper mindset to be a business owner, then now I can start taking the actions. To actually make those things come to play. I think the other thing, just the action part of it, you know, there are so many options. I mean, in franchising, I think I've heard it's 4,500 or more different franchise opportunities than not to put into. You know, not to look past the opportunity of just starting something on your own as well. There, there's many opportunities that we could all jump into, but at the end of the day, it takes action and we can evaluate until we don't do anything or we can take action. And really every successful entrepreneur I've either listened to on a podcast or read a book or met in person. They just started and then they stuck with it until they became successful. That's really business ownership is really those who are willing to stick with it, the long run, continue making improvements along the way and learning from failures or, you know, poor decisions and whatnot. But it's those who stuck with it for the long game. That's really what it's about.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 29:29

Yeah. That that, that is great advice. And to your point, right? You, a action. It's all about action. It's building. It's building momentum. I did a show way back when we talked about goal planning. And goal planning is great, but goal planning in many cases wasn't working for me because there were no action steps. Lose 20 pounds. Great. All right. I got a whole year to figure out what the heck to do. So it's almost building habits. And those habits could be spending 15 minutes every morning before work. Maybe before even you brush your teeth, you wake up and you do a little research. You know, the mind, the mindset shift is huge. You know, you know, walking in the people, I hate my job. I'm looking for a franchise. Gotta cover my 200 k salary. You know, can that be done the first month? And it's just like, hold on a second. You know, what are we trying to do here? So it's really taking a step back and not everyone is built or made for business ownership set. You know, I hate to say that, but it's true. And that's what you get from me. And it sounds like from you as well,

Jay Mason: 30:26

Yeah

Giuseppe Grammatico: 30:26

you have to be direct. But why set someone up for failure? I mean, you know, hey, you know, these are some changes that if they are made, maybe it's something we revisit, but business ownership isn't because, you know, I don't like my current situation. So the grass is always, is gonna be greener. That's

Jay Mason: 30:41

no.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 30:41

not the case. That mindset shift is big. You know, create those habits. You know, learn, educate to your point. I you nailed it. I think that's some great advice and you don't have to figure it all out in one shot. You know, you'll get there little by little. And I think the franchise, my opinion, gives you the unfair advantage because it's

Jay Mason: 30:59

Yeah.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:00

for you and you got the support. I have a question. I'm stuck here. What do I need to do? You know, what's the, you know, where should my cogs be at? Close ratio on leads, like all that. You have a team. You mentioned national conference, national convention. That is in my opinion, a mastermind. It has nothing

Jay Mason: 31:17

Yes.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:18

the paint or paint z. This is a networking event. This is everyone's bringing back backgrounds from you had a painting background, I had a Wall Street background. Everyone's bringing all these different and great experiences to the table. That alone, in my opinion, is priceless because now you have this mastermind, now you have this network. Of individuals that you can build off of, share experiences, ideas, maybe hook up with your local neighbors for at pay and go together, get, go together on a marketing plan, share

Jay Mason: 31:49

Right.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:49

large commercial job. There's so many advantages that I think people overlook and that alone I mean, you can't pay for that. I mean, that is just, to me it's priceless. And then one of the major advantages that. Franchising brings to the table, paintings he brings to the table. And just wanted to kind of bring that story home. Like, that's huge there. There's so much benefit I can't even express, you know, what I got out of it and what I hear others getting out of it. as we wrap up the show, and I really appreciate all the all the insights. Any other kinda last piece of advice you'd like to share with the listeners before we wrap up the show?

Jay Mason: 32:26

Yeah I think it goes back to, you know, if you're at a place where you're val evaluating an opportunity. Take that action, take the next steps. You know, as you were mentioning, the grass isn't necessarily greener, but I find if you've been, you know, had a background in a competitive nature, maybe it was sports, maybe it was academics maybe it was music, that you were a competitive person. You've, and you've been competitive now in your corporate life. Put those things to play. Bet on yourself. Go all in. And go after whatever your goals and dreams are because it will be rewarding in the end. And, you know, I think that's the awesome part about franchising. As you mentioned, it's kind of the shortcut or the easier button versus other options. And so, just go after it. Make those goals come to goals and dreams come to fruition through your hard work and efforts.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 33:20

I love this jd. You heard it from jd. So guys listen to this show twice. I would love your input if you have any questions for myself. For jd, just leave them in the comments, you know, where to contact us. I can pass those on to jd. Jd, this was awesome. I really appreciate the insights. I really appreciate your time. And hopefully we'll see you next month at conference. But thanks again for for coming in on the show.

Jay Mason: 33:43

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 33:45

Take care.

Jay Mason: 33:47

You too. Thanks.

33:49

Thanks for tuning in if you want to learn how to make the transition from corporate to owning your franchise. Join Giuseppe on the next episode. You can also follow on all social media platforms and achieve financial and time freedom today.