May 17, 2025 • 46 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, May 17th, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports ninety twenty in your iHeartRadio app. We
are coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and
Cooling studios. It be a great time to get that
air conditioner tuned up. Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com.
They've been serving our community for over forty years. So
(00:21):
Bingo Emmon's out of town today, Ray Hoffman. I have
known Ray a long time representing Creative Construction Wisconsin. Raymond,
how you been?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I am great? But Bengo's listening. He just called ten
minutes ago. So Binge, Hi, Bingo?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Is he watching cars go left? Or what's he doing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I guess he just pulled in, so he's getting ready
to Yeah, getting ready for drag?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, yeah, so they go straight. I don't understand that
sport either. I think they goes. Look at Spencer's like,
you got to watch something, That's what he's saying. No,
I'm sported out, man. I have enough sports I watch.
I don't need to add another one. How's the family.
How's Mary doing? Good?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Life is good?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Girls are good?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, one daughter just finished her first year of senior year.
Of UWM. She's got a couple year and a half left. Okay,
you don't one to just finished sophomore year, Carol, and
then the youngest one graduates in three weeks. So yeah,
pretty exciting time.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What's going on? What's she going to do next year?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
She actually is an artist, so she wants to learn
how to be a tattoo artist.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's awesome. Yeah, good for her, So.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Free tattoos for me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
There you go, and your friends get they get a discount.
You want one, Mike, I do, not I do, but
if I did, it would be the logo from color
Will Painting. It would be yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And they can paint it too.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Then I would charge the owner a little bit for
advertising and always up to something, you know, and how
you see those big outdoor billboards. There you go, That's
what I've got here is Mike Matchen. He's the owner
of Color Will Painting. So last time you came in,
we talked a lot about wallpaper, not a lot, but
(01:54):
probably ten minutes on wallpaper, and you were giggling saying
it's coming back in a big well. I saw a
buddy of mine probably the next day or the following day,
and he goes, hey, Wallpaper's not coming back, and I go,
I'm just telling you an expert told me it was.
He was no. I heard the show. I think he's
got wallpaper maybe in the shop. He's trying to and
(02:15):
I don't think so. I saw him literally a week
ago and he goes, hey, wallpaper's coming back. But I
told you that six months ago. Mike Matsen told you that.
He goes, I know, I know, And I go a
week from now, Mike's coming in and I'm gonna call
you all pell So I'm telling you last time you're
on my buddy, no chance, and you were giggling. It's
(02:38):
made its way back in a big way, right, It
absolutely has.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it's just the stuff, you know. The paper we're
seeing is so creative and so exciting. Now it's just
a neat way to make a really cool impression, a
cool statement in your house.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And you've got somebody in house who's installing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, So we don't sell it, right, So we don't
have anything stock to sell to your buddy, but we
are the installer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Which is the big part of it. It is I think, yeah, personally.
You know, I would have a hard team. I'd have
a hard time picking it. My wife could do that,
But for me, I'm not installing it right, No chance.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's just a lot of nuances and and learning how
to bring it around corners. And can you imagine working
around the toilets and sinks and and vanities and doing
it in the backer of bookcases and things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well I I can't imagine doing that.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Actually I can't imagine. No, No, But we got a guy.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
My wife picks out my colors.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And and well I would. My wife has Zach Emmons
on speed out, so if I tried to wallpaper, he
would be the first call, and Zach would go call
Mike match.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And I've heard stories.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh I know it's but hey, at least I try.
I get halfway through, and it's like I have no
idea what I'm doing, and why do I have these
goggles on? I don't need the the whole bit. It's
just not.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Even Wait until you try to do a ceiling. People
are wallpaper and ceilings.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, they don't call it ceiling paper, you know, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Is it the same quality as it used to be?
Is it that different, Is it thinner, is it easier
to work with different colors?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It just you know, I think the biggest difference is
patterns and textures. But you still have some classics like
grass cloth, cork papers. But and then I'd love to
say it's all better, but some papers are just a
pain in the backside to work with and others are
super easy.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well I'm not Look if my wife wants wallpaper and
we know she can pick it out, but we know
where we're going to get it installed. And and color
wheel painting. He's been doing this for a long time.
And when Mike Matson comes in, like when we have
guests Wray, a lot of times they'll say, Hey, where
do you want me to go with this? He's like,
fire away man, fire away whatever, whatever you've got. And
(04:57):
I've got a number of questions. One of the things
that we had a conversation about a few minutes ago
here in studio is now I want to thank Andrew Wilson,
by the way, he's a guy that works over with you,
and and we had talked about having customers their expectations,
what what's happening. How long is this going to take?
(05:18):
Dollar wise? What's the color all of the expectations that
customers have. Do you feel like they're more patient now
or do you feel like the patience is not quite
what it used to be with customers?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, it's a it's a big topic, Mike. You know. Unfortunately,
I think with HG you know something in television.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Show and other shows out there, there's definitely the illusion
that home improvements go fast. And I think just in
this fast paced society, everyone wants things quick, quick, quick,
and that for a good home improvement project, whether that's
just painting or plumbing or doing plaster work like creative construction,
(05:59):
does things take time. Doing things right takes time. And
you know, I think there is a gap there between
what the contractor knows and is thinking and maybe what
the homeowner is expecting. And that needs to be an
active conversation.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And not only to have the conversation in person, have
it maybe in right. I mean to be able to
then have the receipts to say, look, we talked about
this four weeks ago, and here it is. You signed this.
When we have things done at our house. It's it's
always nice to know, okay, I can tell you this
is when we're going to start. I'm thinking we're going
(06:37):
to finish around here. But you know, give us to
make sure that that we everybody knows going into the project,
the time is going to take, what it's going to cost,
and as long as we don't come with if we
don't find anything that's going to put us back a
couple of weeks or a couple of days. Right, let's
make sure we're all on the same page.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, And those are vital aspects to any contract. And
it's amazing how many contractors out there don't include those
items and you end up with a customer who's upset.
You know, we always try to lay out project duration,
the actual schedule, timeline, of course price.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
You know, how early in the conversation do you do
you talk about budgets and price. It's got to be early, right.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Really early.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, And you know, I I'm a homeowner myself. I
understand there's some apprehension to talk budget, but if you're
working with the right contractor, it's a very healthy conversation
to have so that contractor can actually help you.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You know, I'm not there to rip you off.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
If if that were the case, I wouldn't be in business, right,
I wouldn't be here twenty one years and be a growing,
thriving company. It's really to try to help you and
understand what can we do with your dollar.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I can speak to a little bit Mike, because
I actually had my come out to a project I
was working on, and he came out himself. Actually he
came out to that project.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think Andrew did.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Andrew did. Yes, Yeah, Andrew, Yes, we got to bring
him in that time.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And hey, my other sales guys are great. I better
say that right now.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, they're all good.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Riley and Chris are awesome too.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And within about five minutes, Andrew was already laying out
this is how it will happen. This is how long
it'll take. They got me a price a couple of
days later because there was a big job. There was
a big job, so he got to be a price
a couple of days later. But the customer service he
provided when he was there, it was just phenomenal. And
I it was great. It was exactly what I would
(08:24):
have hoped from a professional like them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, and look they they did. They painted my church
and I didn't I didn't even know until all of
a sudden. I walked in and I'm like, color Will
Paintings doing this. They're like yeah, and it was exceptional
the job they did that. And the people at Brookside
Baptist Church behind Mike's back, have never I mean, they
were so happy they have they have recommended him and
(08:49):
his company and his staff and the people. The people
that came out and worked worked really hard, did a
great job. They they ended the project and it was
a huge project. They ended a week early, and the
people at Brookside Baptist Church are like, they got done early,
Like who does that? And I think again that goes
back to that expectations that I believe Riley was the
(09:11):
sales rep for that, I think, and the expectations that
he set with our staff at Brookside Baptist Church that
he hit all of them. And then he came in
and he finished. They finished the project and everybody was
happy a week early. And I think again that goes
back to Andrew Wilson saying, look, we have to do
(09:31):
a really good job from our end, but from the
other end, from the customer end, they have to be
listening and understand what you expect they do.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
And I think a lot of customers look at the
job as just what is the job right, whether it's
getting cracks in your wall fixed or getting a new
sink or painting, And it's really easy to just look
at it as a task and to look at the
person who's in your home is just what's the price
for the task? And really great contractors creative construction, you know,
(10:01):
and I think we're a good one too. We're gonna
have a lot of conversation with you.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
If you are.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Working with someone who comes in to give you an
estimate and they're in and out of your house in
two minutes or five minutes, that's the wrong guy, Like
I wouldn't even consider their price. You're gonna end up
so disappointed because of all the other things that go
into a successful project, you know, having these conversations about
even things we ask are like can we park in
your driveway? What bathroom can we use? What sink should
(10:27):
we use to wash out? Do you have any pets
that might try to run out of your house when
we're coming in and out the door?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, what are your work hours? Are there things
here we can and can't unplug? It's just there's a
lot into being in someone's home their private space, especially
if they work from home or you have parents who
stay home, our kids, around the pets. There's a lot
of considerations to keeping a project going in a good way.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And I think depending on the job, people can still
live in their home while you're working, right.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I think that's true for most projects.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I hope there are some projects. I think, you know,
you can't use this part of the home for a while,
but but you're right, for the most part, people can't
when when you're looking at a project. And we had
this conversation before. You guys are about ninety A lot
of your business is residential, but you guys certainly do
as I talked about our church, and there are some
(11:20):
some commercial projects that you guys will entertain doing. Churches
are something that that you guys do.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
A lot of private schools, okay, And then I would
say more like the boutique size commercial spaces, and to me,
that means offices, whether it's accountant, lawyer. You know, we've
done some vet clinics, things of that size. We're not
looking to do the big box stores or anything like that,
but the smaller stuff, you know, probably under five thousand
square feet.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well Brookside unless it's a church, because that's a pretty
big church that you guys did. And again we I
hear about it enough that anytime I see you've got
I say thank you, because they the people that run
the church, absolutely doord it. Hey, the rules for choosing colors?
Do you do you have somebody in house that helps
(12:12):
guys like me and Ray when it comes because everything
I want is Kelly green, and it's not always the
way it should go. But ye, do you have somebody
in house that can help with choosing colors? And how
difficult of the process is that. Do people come to
you and say, Okay, this is the color I want
or do they come and say can you recommend? It?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Is both? Absolutely both.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
So to answer your question, yes, on staff, those estimators Riley, Chris,
and Andrew, they have a very good eye for color.
They're used to it. They're doing this daily. They see
the trends and everything. They're used to accustomed to the
different tones and these homes and what works and what
doesn't work. So they are very good. But the asterisk
on that is they are not trained professional into your designers,
(12:56):
and those designers definitely have a role in some projects. Yeah,
so we have a lot of good referrals to give
out on top notch designers.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You know, when when if, if your guys are are
doing it, and they've been doing this a long time,
so they have a really keen eye obviously, But how
much do they take into consideration? I guess, like the
size of the room or the ceiling, and if and
if a customer comes and says, look like me, I
want everything kelly green. Are they okay with going Look,
you have to live here, but I would I'm not
(13:27):
sure i'd recommend that, yeah, color throughout the house.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I mean, of course, the customer's right is their right,
and they can have whatever they want and we will
respect that. But we do try to offer some let's
let's call it gentle constructive criticism as needed, Like, Hey,
did just consider Mike that if you do green on
your ceiling in all your walls, this room's going to
start to feel shrunken down. And do you understand that?
(13:53):
And then you can say, yeah, and that's fine, that's
what I want.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Hey, do you find that that that people are going
three three walls, one color, light.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Accent, no the opposite? Oh jeesus, I need more coffee
to think of this one.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know what I can get you more.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
They're doing the entire room in one color, ceiling, walls,
all the trim. It's a full saturation in one color
tone for the entire room. And where the only difference
is is the sheene. So you kick it up and
shine on the trim especially, and you might do a
flat finish on the ceiling and maybe an eggshell on
the walls. So they're playing with the sheine and the
(14:35):
reflectivity of the paint itself, but all one color.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
When did that start? Yeah, going back to the three
light walls in one dark walls.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, you're in the early two thousands. That's okay, that'll
come back to man carpet.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
When did that come?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I would say about two years ago that started working
its way in from the coasts.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, well it's kind of a cool look, right.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
It actually came me really neat.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And then if you get the right to core in
the room, it just a high contrast.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I do have to point out for the for the
public sense, nobody can actually see us right now as
Mike is talking about green, he's wearing green right now. Yes,
that's all he wears.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know what, it's not?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
All right? Well, you're in red like everybody from Creative Construction.
I was in San Diego two weeks ago for a
US Marine boot camp and the girl coming in the
show after Valerie was on the trip with me, and
she's also part of Milwaukee Baseball club. So we're gonna
talk some baseball, but we're gonna talk about this marine
(15:38):
boot camp. And she we both bought something at the
museum and she said, wear it when I'm on your show,
and I said, you got it. So there.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Did you participate in a pet?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I did you did? I can show you pick. Yeah.
The drill instructor, oh man, and I'm always one that
there was a group from Milwaukee, a group from Minneapolis,
group from Michigan, group from Colorado, Arkansas, and we all
had to be in our group. And they said, all right,
who wants to go first? And I just want to
(16:08):
go first and get get it done with then I
can laugh at other people. This drill instructor, this young gal,
she was all of about five to maybe one hundred
and ten pounds, lit me up, lit me up, and
we had to do all this stuff. And she said,
we're gonna do these bare crawls. I said, hey, look
at I You know, I kind of hurt my back
doing that. At one point, I'll run. She goes, oh,
(16:29):
you like to run. You're a runner, now, are you Okay?
Let's run and I will carry these forty pound ammo things.
When I got done, one of our group, guy named Jeff, goes, yeah,
I'm out. I go what he goes, I saw you
do it. It's going to ruin my week if I
tried doing everything you just did. I'm out. And he
just walked away. And I thought I didn't know that
(16:49):
was an option. If I knew that was an option,
I would have I would have done.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That's not in real bootcamp because I actually want to
do a few times.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And you know what's interesting is my Lucas Maplinsky. I
came back on Saturday and he flew out Monday morning.
Thirteen weeks and he's in week two right now. Wow,
And I'm just boy, Yeah, I'm hoping he's hanging in there.
Major Blackwell, who I was hanging out with, who's the
(17:18):
head recruiter for the state of Wisconsin, said, you know,
he can't just quit, right, He can't just go came
out and tap out and I go. He goes, We're
not letting them do that. Don't worry about it. We
got him, we'll take care. We're gonna send him back
to you in thirteen weeks and he'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
No, that's the thing in the movies. There's not a bell. Yeah,
there's not a movie.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Now, well I can tell you, oh yeah, yeah we are.
We were talking with Color Wheel Painting owner Mike Mattson.
They are located on Lisbon one hundred and twenty seventh
in Lisbon and Brookfield and I every time he comes in,
I promise him that I'm going to stop and and
his everything I hear about stopping over there is it's
a great place to come in. There's some fun things.
(18:01):
You've gotten that office out here.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, we do enjoy.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So we've got a beautiful nineteen sixty one Brunswick Gold
Crown one pool table in there.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Can you shoot?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Can you shoot a little bit?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I'm terrible at pool these days. We keep an old
English dartboard ready, there's lots of darts. That's where I
hold my own. And we keep some beer on tap
at all times. So if you want to come in
and have a cold one. You're more than welcome, and
certainly the full bar is stocked. So that makes us
sound really bad, but it's all in moderation. It's it's
(18:35):
meant to entertain and have people feel welcome, and you know,
even in the morning, the coffee, the coffee pot is
on and ready for whoever wants to stop in.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
One hundred and twenty seventh and Lisbon. Go to Color
Wheel Painting one word color wheel Painting dot Com. We're
gonna get to a break other side of the break,
Ray Hoffman, he is representing Creative Construction Wisconsin. Myself will
continue our conversation with Mike Matching from Color Wheel Painting.
This is the Creative Construs Auction Wisconsin home improvement show
(19:02):
on Fox Sports nine twenty. In your iHeart Radio App.
Welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine to twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and
Cooling Studios, largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
of Wisconsin. Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I'm Mike
(19:24):
mcgiver alongside Ray Hoffman. He is from Creative Construction, Wisconsin.
You say that right, yes, sir, Yeah, alongside Mike Mattson
from Color Wheel Painting. Hey, Mike, a quick question for you.
How much work do you guys do painting trim rather
than all of it?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Is that a big It's huge?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, you know, in terms of painting trim, I think
a lot of people think of old painted trim, but
the number of trim painting jobs we do where it's
it could even be a one year old house, a
spec house, five years old, whatever, where it's all stayed
in finished wood, but they want it changed over.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
But we do a lot of that work.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So you get text messages during this kind of stuff.
If somebody's going to be doing both, do they paint
the interior, they paint the wall first and then the
tremor they do the trimming then the wall.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And there's always an interaction there. We have to look
at and decide best approach. Okay, you know, because you're
getting a lot of like wainscoat panels, a lot of
beatboard is even coming back, tongue and groove. We're seeing
a lot of things like that. Or it might make
sense to do the trim first, wall second, and in
other place is just opposite.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
How often would you recommend somebody paint you know there
their living room is yours?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Depending on that on the product, you know, product choice
makes a big difference for how long it's going to
last and remain looking good, or if you have paints.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Are equal, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There's different prices, just like there are for the people
you hire, and you get what you pay for. I
think it's really personal preference if you really want it
to feel fresh and crisp. I think you're talking about
every five or six years.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And depending on who lives in the house.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Sure, yeah, that use.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, and you know, my son Matthew has a six
year old today Happy birthday, Liam, nice birth and a
one and a half year old, And yeah, their walls
look a little bit different today than.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
That wasted downward. Yeah, the first three feets maybe getting
a little beat up.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, and Matthew's like, you know, maybe we should paint it,
but maybe we should wait, should wait another six months
or so. Yeah, maybe she won't keep hitting it with
everything she carries and throwing things, and little Hadley, who's
a year and a half, she will you'll say don't,
don't do that, and then you'll turn away and she'll
wait for you to see look at her again, and
(21:46):
then she'll do it. And it just kind of look.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Like what that's because Grandpa's challenging.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Not me. I just laugh. I go, I don't care,
not my house. Go ahead, call color Will Painting when
you need something.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And you know, Mike on that one too, I think
I was talking paint. And there's even paints where you
can a lot of people think to get durability you
have to go into a higher and higher gloss level,
you know, but it's simply not true. There's actually paints
that can have that that flat to eggshell finish and
have extremely good properties for durability in terms of scuff
(22:18):
resistance and my resistance. So like, if you do have
kids or pets that are constantly beating on the walls,
we can get you into the right product. And a
lot of paint companies don't even know that product exists,
but we're geeks about it. We study it, we test it,
and so we know exactly which products are made for
that kind of use and abuse.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Hey, I'm sorry, Rain, then I'll get you in a minute,
but your dated day. And I asked you this last
time and I found it really interesting your day to day.
You know you used to have a brush, right, you
were painting all time ago. Yeah, and now with color
wheel painting. First of all, how many employees.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Give or take twenty five? Man?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, told you that ten years ago, great people though
you'd have twenty five people employed, right, you would have said, ah,
that's a lot. And the company has really taken off.
And for a reason, because you're the best that in
this space. That when you talk to people that know,
people like Ray and people like Bingo, they go color
(23:15):
real paintings, the best at what they do. And so
that your day to day has changed over the years.
And now this is you manage the company correct.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It's looking at the marketing and the finances and a
bit of the recruitment. I really like to make sure
we're making the right hires culturally, because what I care
most about is the quality of person going in your home.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Are you hiring now?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Always hiring?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Okay, So if for somebody that did you hire, do
you hire younger people? Do you hire people that right
out of high school? Do you get wait a little.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Bit, So a lot of times the younger people will
train them up through the shop first and foremost and
get them going that way. But we get some students
with art degrees and things like that where they have
a pretty good proficiency and can come in and hit
the ground running. And I tell you, I love someone
who's got years of experience and is looking to sunset
their career somewhere stable, somewhere that cares, And those are
(24:12):
always a great hire too.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
You know, that's a really good comment because I like
the fact that you said, even guys my age, if
I could, if I could absolutely and I had some experience,
would be a great place if somebody's looking for part
time work.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, we can accommodate.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
We have a couple people on staff that work twenty
four hours a week, a few who float around thirty
thirty three, and then the full time forty hour people.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Hey, Ray, when you hear an owner of a company
that is as well respected as color Will Painting talk
about that part look, yeah, we'll interview a young person,
but we'll also interview somebody who's looking to end their
career and wants to go part time. You gotta love
that because there are a lot of companies that say, look,
(24:55):
we're going to wait for somebody that has some experience,
or we're going to wait for somebody, or we want
to get them right out of high school, right out
of college so we can train them in our way.
But a guy like Mike says, look, well, I'll interview
anybody man if if they're good with a paint brush,
and you got to feel pretty good about it.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It just shows the great culture that Color Wheel has.
I mean, they hire on culture more, they experience a
lot of the times, and I think a lot of
people are doing that.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Mike.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I've known Mike for a long time. You've known Mike
for a long time, and I've known him since he
had paint all over his clothes when I saw him
every time.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, at the old Mary office he'd walk in and yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So it shows that he's building a company with the
great culture to take care of the customer. And that's
what ultimately matters in the long run, because you want
to be here twenty one years with twenty five employees
if you didn't take care of him.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, the right people are clutch. I remember Tommy. Tommy's
our scheduler, great guy, and he coordinates all the things
with homeowners and all the staff putting them where they
need to be. Well, anyway, Tommy came in and I
had a little bit of a short resume, but the
guy was just an outstanding human being. You could tell
his heart was there and was in the right place.
(26:04):
And I said, you know, Tommy, you're the kind of
person I need here. You're the kind of person I
can work with. We can grow together. And that's absolutely
what he's done, and he continues to thrive.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I remember him before he even he even had logos
on his cars.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Really, yeah, that was a while ago.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Oh, I used to hand paint our yard signs, you know,
startup no cash you been.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Mike and I have been members of couple different organizations
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So, hey, when it comes to residential and that's the
majority of what you guys do, can you talk a
little bit about the services that you offer. It's just
not look, we want we want the first floor of
our home painted. There are different services like the trim
painting and things like that. Can you kind of go
through some of the different services that you guys offer
(26:49):
in the residential space.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yeah, it is a lot of what you would think
it is, but the wallpaper installation, wallpaper removal, wall repair
to a to a smaller level. There's a lot of
times we pick up the phone and call creative construction
because we know the small ones we can maybe tackle,
but the big ones we want them involved, especially with
plaster work. You know. From there we start getting into
(27:13):
the painting what I call basic painting and ceilings and walls.
To me, the mid level would be doing trim and
doing trim. That's a big variable I think in the market,
doing trim really beautifully where you're really proud to show
it off. That's the level we do it at. And
then from there there's more of the expert level. I
(27:34):
guess we'd be painting cabinets, refinishing cabinets. We even do
a little bit of refinishing on stairs, handrails, mantles, windowsills, windows, doors,
lots of specialty work like that.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Birdhouses, mailboxes, yeah, we have herd houses and mailboxes, light fixtures.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
We've done a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I've got some really really talented artists on board as well.
We're talking people used to do like Catholic church, the
mural work and ceilings, doing restoration work with that kind
of thing. We had a project at Lambeau doing gilding
gold leafing recently. So there's there's some really neat stuff
we do.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Like people up at Lambeo called color wheel painting.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
That is correct, that's awesome. Yeah, pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So we've worked in We've got work that's down at
five Serve. We've done stuff that you see every day
maybe you're walking in and out of a bank or
a school.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
That's some of the commercial type stuff we've done.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That nobody even knows, but I know, Hey, when on
your website a brookshop, Brookfield Workshop. Yes, so for a
guy like me, this would be really valuable. Be honest
with you. So do you do workshops throughout the year
or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So we have our workshop, like I said, is our
place of business about ten thousand square feet. And I
think what you're asking is you come in and check
it out. And the answer is yes. Basically anytime if
we're open, we have customers to stop in and say, hey,
we're we're thinking about doing this or that. A lot
of times it's cabinets or maybe doors to paint, and
(29:13):
we'll get you a cup of coffee or water, get
you on a little quick tour. Through the building, so
you can actually see a lot of times you'll be
able to see spray painting and action in the booths,
so you can see the big drawing oven, you can
see some of the systems we work with, the equipment
and get that behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Do you understand how unusual that is that I don't
have to set up an appointment just stop in, you know,
in ten days, and you're gonna give me a half
hour and and give me a quick tour and get
me out of there. You're talking about just not just
open the door, come one and introduce yourself. And I'm
on that page the workshop is you're building, but I'm
(29:50):
looking and and you know, it's kind of like I
wouldn't mind stopping it. I don't need to see the paint.
But that again, that pool table and that football table
dark board b all right, and I'm sure you've got coffee.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So it even has the logo in the middle of
the pool table that look like yes, yeah. So I
have to ask you a question, Mike, go ahead. So
one of the reasons why my wife won't paint the
kitchen if you have no well yeah she does. She
hates the cabinets too. We've been in the house for
seventeen years. Our kids grew up there. We have the
lines where all of our kids are sure so we
have Chloe, Sadie, Katie, Uh, some are Kayla. We have
(30:26):
all their friends all marked. So how do you preserve that?
How can you help preserve that but still update our
kitchen and make it look nice.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yeah, that's a great one, you know, if.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
It was my wife was worried about.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
You know, I don't know if it's a spot you
could almost like frame off and just isolate, or if
that was.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
About just cutting the drywall out and framing it.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, I think that's what I would do. Yeah, and
turn that into a piece of art to hold for
and cherish forever, because that is really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, my wife would freak out.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
If the alternative is we mask around it and just
isolate it, leave it alone. We could always put a
clear coat over the top of it to protect it well.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
And that's one of the things I was thinking, is
what if we did a clear coat over it sort
preserves it but makes everything else look nicer.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
You just have to be careful with the interaction the
clear with the fit's pen or pencil because you don't
want that to start.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know, I don't know if I paid attention.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
No, you probably have both. You probably probably both. So
a little testing, my pa, you got it?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
You want me to come out and look at it,
or sure, I'll bring Mike matching with me. Question that
that I got. And we talked about cabinets because I
today a hundred times told you the story my friends
who said, you know, we're doing this big project and
the last the easiest part is we're going to take
the cabinets off in the kitchen and paint them. And
Mike Matson taught me a very valuable lesson. You said,
(31:44):
it's not it's not easy. Wait till they get into
that project. Because they're doing it themselves, you're going to
hear about it. And sure enough, they they did this whole,
this whole remodel. They did a lot of the work themselves,
and they were like, all right, we're done. All we
have to do is paint the cabinets in the kitchen.
And it was a nightmare. So the worst part of
the project for them, and what they kept saying was,
(32:06):
we just feel like we saw this video online and
we're gonna be able to do it. And when I
told Match that, he just shook his head and said, yeah,
good luck with that, and he was right, how big
of a part what you guys do. I love the
fact that you come and take the cabinets back to work. Yes,
the work shot right, Yeah, absolutely, And they tried to
just kind of do it on the patio in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh gosh, that's a nightmare. Yeah, you have to run
from the people who want to do it in your basement,
or do it in your garage, or even just do
it in the kitchen. I mean, that's just such a
big red flag.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
That's not the kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Take out all of our kitchen cabinets.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
And all your doors and drawers, anything we can take
out of there we want to take out and bring
to our workshop for controlled environment, I mean, the way
and the level we work with paint. We're talking fluid pressure,
air pressure, we're talking humidity, all these things factoring to
us laying down the right proper finish on your cabinets.
And you're just not going to make that happen at
your house.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
And it's interesting because before the show we were talking
about cabinets a little bit, a little bit, yeah, and
he had mentioned laminate cabinets, so I atomatic, I automatically
thought of my kitchen cabinets, which you're the nineties oak
lambinate cabinets. Yeah, yeah, And he says they're a nightmare,
a nightmare, but they can be if they're done right,
which they do, then they will look great.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah. Yes, So so you think you're gonna have to
Are you gonna do it yourself?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It depends if my wife is listening.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Mary, don't let him do it himself. Reface them.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Color wheel painting dot com, colorwheel painting dot com. When
you paint cabinets, did they they they last for a
long time? Is it durable after if you guys do it?
I know that my friends that we talked about and
they spend now a year and a half since they
did it on their own, they're gonna have to either
have you guys do it. They're gonna have to try
(33:50):
to redo it, probably in six months because they're chipping
and they don't look all that all that good. But
durable when when you guys do it, how long does
it last? Again? Is to wear and tear?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I mean I've got customers out there who haven't had
a touch up in ten or fifteen years at this point,
which is great, but I'm not gonna lie. Cabinets can
get used and abused a little, so it's not uncommon
if we do some some free warranty work on something
like a trash door, sometimes some units under the sink,
or that knife drawer that super high use. You know,
(34:23):
it's a use thing. If you're really nice to him,
they're gonna last a long time.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Or if my big dog jumps on my yeah, right, scout.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It's at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It is paint, and yes, we can use a very
hard durable product, but it's not bulletproof, and you know
you have to have a reasonable expectation with that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
He is Mike Matt's an owner color Will Painting. Go
to color willpainting dot com. I love the fact that
we have had this conversation a couple of times on
this show where he says, look, just stop then stop
in and say, look, you want to see how we
do things. You don't have to set an appointment. One
hundred and twenty and Lisbon in Brookfield. You're driving by
(35:03):
and you're thinking about getting your cabinets done or having
some work done in your home and you want to
talk to the people at Color Wheel Painting. You don't
have to set an appointment and have them clean up
everything and put on a dog and pony show for you.
They're gonna show you how they do things. Now, you
walk in, shoot a game of pool, and have a
conversation about the job that you want to have done,
(35:24):
and Mike mats or somebody on his team will walk
you through the process again. One hundred and twenty seventh
and West Lisbon Road in Brookfield. Go to Colorwheelpainting dot com.
We'll get to a break. Other side of the break
will continue our conversation with Mike. This is the Creative
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
(35:47):
Creative Construction of Wisconsin home Improvement show on Fox Sports
nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. As always, coming live
from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios. I'm
Mike McGivern alongside Ray Hoffman from Creative Construction of Wisconsin
and our special in studio guest. He's Mike Mattson. He's
the owner of Color Wheel Painting and can go to
(36:08):
colorwheel Painting dot com to find out any information. It's
a great website. Any information you need about color wheel
painting in the work that they can do for you
again colorwheel painting dot com or just stop in one
hundred and twenty seventh in Lisbon and they will give
you a tour and show you the process. Speaking of
the process, if somebody stops iner calls and they say, look,
(36:32):
here's here's a couple of pictures of my you know,
living room and dining room and I need it, I
want to paint it. Is that enough or do you
guys need to come out to the house to be
able to make to put a proposal together for them.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, so certainly from photos and whatnot off site, Like
if you come to us, we can generally talk a
rough budget. Of course, we'll say hey, look and in
house consultation is definitely needed to nail this down, so
there's no substitute for that in home consultation. But yeah,
we know enough to be able to talk about general
pricing anywhere. You know, you and I could do that
(37:09):
right here.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
If you have the right pictures, right, got any pictures
because you can get a price.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Right my wife is listening. Mary, if you'd like to
send me a picture, Yeah, I would love to have.
Might take a look at it.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Let's talk calendars if we can. If somebody says, look,
I've got you know, I've got a birthday party in
mid July. Yeah, and I've got a couple of rooms
that I need painted. Where are we at with with
availability throughout the summer at this point? And look, we
had the conversation somebody comes to your house and they go, look,
(37:41):
I can start in an hour. Run Yeah, right, I
can start tomorrow. You might want to run from that.
What are we looking at with color will painting right now?
If somebody needs some work done.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Sure, So we kind of found our sweet spot for
most homeowners is to be able to be there within
two to three weeks for the ceiling of wall type work.
But then as you go into more complex projects, that's
where we're booked out further and further. So cabinets is
typically a two month timeframe. Wallpaper install you have to
wait for the bigger trim jobs. We need to kind
(38:14):
of plan out and have a good attack plan for
and that can take some time.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
To last segment, you made a comment about look if
they're you know, the garbage drawer, you know, with our guarantee,
i'll have to we can come out and fix. Yeah, well,
what kind of guarantee do you guys have?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
You know, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
There's the official one right right, the sign document guarantee.
But the good faith, honest, good business practice guarantee is
the one we use. And that's just to take care
of the customer. So we've had stuff come in two years,
five years, eight years later and someone says, hey, you
know this happened. It's like, you know what, we'll just
take care of it. It's going to cost us more
to create an invoice and chase you down for fifty
(38:52):
bucks than if we just do it and out of
the goodness of our heart and make it right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Do you understand that that if that, if that isn't
part of your mission statement, it needs to be, because look,
you when you say that, you'll hear people say, oh, yeah, yeah,
we're good. Well when you talk about the idea of
being a good faith customer and we're going to be
a good faith company that goes a long way in
(39:19):
the Milwaukee market.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, we're pretty old school.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I think all of us in this room are raised
that way, and that's just how you do things right.
I think more often a customer looks like, no, we
know that costs you money, let us give you something.
You know, it's like okay if you insist, right, because yeah,
we had some costs, but it's we're just so just reasonable.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Do you know how many people in the neighborhood that
those people would tell that story too? And then if
you don't do it, if you don't return the call,
if you don't if you say, look, we'll come out
and you know we'll do that trim, it's gonna cost
you an extra fifteen hundred bucks for a half hour time,
they're going to tell even more people. And I think
(39:57):
the reason you have twenty five employees and the beautiful
facility in Brookfield is because that's how you do things.
And I think that that's really important.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yea, And they have a lot of they have a
lot of great references on their Google pages and their
Facebook pages, a lot of reviews that show how great
they are to their customers. And you've got to if
somebody says I can start tomorrow and you're painting, I
wouldn't hire them because you want a high quality person
like color Wheel and painters, and that's important.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Yeah, there's such a difference in quality and skill set. Yeah,
and painters. Not all pamps is the same. It's not
even close.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
And in products that you used to put.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
And it makes a differ. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
We you can go to a big box store and
buy three brushes for eight bucks. Yes, and it's not
going to be the same if you if you don't
have the right equipment and the right paint.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
What I mean, I have a brush as one hundred
and eighty dollars, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
You my most expensive one is a dollar eighty.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right, you got three of them because you borrowed one
to me.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Because I throw them away. He probably doesn't throw that
one away.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You would also talked about this this thing that's going
on where people are changing the sine and and what
what sheene of paint do most people use?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
Or is that.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
It's all over you know, cabinets at Satin Finish time
and time again, although people are going into matt Finish
with those now too.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Walls.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
It's anything trim? Is it typically Satino?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Is there a certain brand of paint that you guys use?
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Can I say names if you want?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
You know?
Speaker 4 (41:41):
It's going to depend on what look you're after.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Okay, So on the the high end premium ends, like
with cabinet painting, we'll use Ilva, which is a fantastic
Italian finish, A two part uh.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
And then.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know you talk about the most luxurious wall paint.
I would probably like to use Faraoh and Ball.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
So how do you for this Italian company?
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Right?
Speaker 1 (42:06):
How did you find out about them? And are there
are there paint shows that you go to to look
for trends? And looking at magazine frights, I do not
get paint magas believe believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
There is paint magazine? Is it really?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I was joking. I guess I'm just good.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Now I need to get it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah, and uh, there is a Painting Contractors Association National
one national conference, and you get the different suppliers who
are there. But more than anything, it's just that thirst
for knowledge. We're always trying to keep an open mind
explore products. So it's a culture thing to always improve
our game day after day, and that's how we get
exposed to these different products and find them.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
And that's a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
When you talked about a look McGivern. You're in two
thousand and four with the dark wall and all the
light walls. The different trends that you see coming maybe
in twenty twenty six, or different color trends. Is there
are people going lighter or it's gray still.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Grays out, I will not miss it. It doesn't work
with a lot of the wood tones in our market house.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
So yeah, just wait a while.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I am seeing a little bit of a return to
white on everything, just that fresh canvas, almost like an
art museum type, just white atmosphere. But then, like I said,
the one room and one color thing is still where.
I think we're going to see a lot.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
More of that.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, and then eggshell or paper, it's a light white.
What is the color that most people are going? Just
bright white?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Just white? I'm not saying most people are doing that.
I think that's the trend that's going to come back.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Wow, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All red kitchen, Yeah, oh yeah, you should have everything red.
I'll have an all red kitchen. I'll get red appliances,
all cyclical because you know, red actually promotes hunger.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
It does classically used in marketing.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Why is it that every time bingos here I get hungry.
Maybe that's it right, red? But the red hey painting doors. Yeah,
so the in our condo project where I live. In
our condo, you've got to all have the same colored door.
And the Pat, my neighbor, the woman downstairs, I had
(44:15):
to get a new door. They don't make that color anymore,
and so she had to get a door that is
a different color. And I asked her, I said, what
have they said anything? And she said, no, but they
will and I'll have to figure out how to get
this door painted at least similar to the color you
guys do do you guys come and take the door.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It always varies.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
If you have a storm door that locks, and your
door is really smooth, then yeah, I'd love to take
it off site and spray it. Okay, if it actually
has some texture to it, then there's not much merit
to taking it off site.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
I just do it in place.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, I'm gonna let Pat.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
But we do a ton of small batch work like that.
You do.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
You know, it's one of those things where you know,
maybe in your head you think this is gonna be
like two hundred bucks, and it's just not.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Because it's a business. We have overhead and whatnot. But
we'll do it right.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
It'll be long lasting and beautiful. But I definitely consider
ourselves a small bat shop and a lot of people
maybe don't realize that about us.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But even if you haven't asked Mike to give you
a referral to color Well.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I'm gonna call pat Or because she lives downstairs.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
We have a lot of just front doors come into
the shop to get handled.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
You know, it would have been her nephew hung it,
and it would have been it was sitting right there,
and what a perfect time that she should have done
it before. Really.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Yeah, ideally it comes to us before anything else. And
so we do get deliveries from the different suppliers in
town and sometimes we'll go pick something up if you
buite at min Oards and you need us to go
get it, and we'll pick it up and man bring
it back to color Wheel and then bring it out
to your house.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I didn't know that customer That is customer service. Yea,
how long you've been in business?
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Twenty one years now?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
That's why that is why he is two. Yeah, it's believable.
Well the painting he looks older than twenty two, but
not by much, not by much. Mike Batson, Thank you
so much. Ray Hoffin, It's good to see you again.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Good to see you.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
He say. You got to say hi to marry. Hopefully
she can send those pictures all that paint that you're
thinking you want to do, but have one do it.
Colorwheel Painting dot Com is where you're going to want
to go or just stop in one hundred and twenty
seventh in Lisbon in Brookfield. Great opportunity to just walk
in and tell the people at color Will Painting the
(46:28):
project that you're going to start. And instead of you
doing it on your own and then having them come
fix it, have him do it from the jump. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement show only. I'm
Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart Radio app
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports ninety twenty in your iHeartRadio app. We
are coming live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heating and
Cooling studios. It be a great time to get that
air conditioner tuned up. Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com.
They've been serving our community for over forty years. So
(00:21):
Bingo Emmon's out of town today, Ray Hoffman. I have
known Ray a long time representing Creative Construction Wisconsin. Raymond,
how you been?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I am great? But Bengo's listening. He just called ten
minutes ago. So Binge, Hi, Bingo?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Is he watching cars go left? Or what's he doing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I guess he just pulled in, so he's getting ready
to Yeah, getting ready for drag?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, yeah, so they go straight. I don't understand that
sport either. I think they goes. Look at Spencer's like,
you got to watch something, That's what he's saying. No,
I'm sported out, man. I have enough sports I watch.
I don't need to add another one. How's the family.
How's Mary doing? Good?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Life is good?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Girls are good?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, one daughter just finished her first year of senior year.
Of UWM. She's got a couple year and a half left. Okay,
you don't one to just finished sophomore year, Carol, and
then the youngest one graduates in three weeks. So yeah,
pretty exciting time.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
What's going on? What's she going to do next year?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
She actually is an artist, so she wants to learn
how to be a tattoo artist.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
That's awesome. Yeah, good for her, So.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Free tattoos for me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
There you go, and your friends get they get a discount.
You want one, Mike, I do, not I do, but
if I did, it would be the logo from color
Will Painting. It would be yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And they can paint it too.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Then I would charge the owner a little bit for
advertising and always up to something, you know, and how
you see those big outdoor billboards. There you go, That's
what I've got here is Mike Matchen. He's the owner
of Color Will Painting. So last time you came in,
we talked a lot about wallpaper, not a lot, but
(01:54):
probably ten minutes on wallpaper, and you were giggling saying
it's coming back in a big well. I saw a
buddy of mine probably the next day or the following day,
and he goes, hey, Wallpaper's not coming back, and I go,
I'm just telling you an expert told me it was.
He was no. I heard the show. I think he's
got wallpaper maybe in the shop. He's trying to and
(02:15):
I don't think so. I saw him literally a week
ago and he goes, hey, wallpaper's coming back. But I
told you that six months ago. Mike Matsen told you that.
He goes, I know, I know, And I go a
week from now, Mike's coming in and I'm gonna call
you all pell So I'm telling you last time you're
on my buddy, no chance, and you were giggling. It's
(02:38):
made its way back in a big way, right, It
absolutely has.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it's just the stuff, you know. The paper we're
seeing is so creative and so exciting. Now it's just
a neat way to make a really cool impression, a
cool statement in your house.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And you've got somebody in house who's installing. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, So we don't sell it, right, So we don't
have anything stock to sell to your buddy, but we
are the installer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Which is the big part of it. It is I think, yeah, personally.
You know, I would have a hard team. I'd have
a hard time picking it. My wife could do that,
But for me, I'm not installing it right, No chance.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It's just a lot of nuances and and learning how
to bring it around corners. And can you imagine working
around the toilets and sinks and and vanities and doing
it in the backer of bookcases and things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well I I can't imagine doing that.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Actually I can't imagine. No, No, But we got a guy.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
My wife picks out my colors.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And and well I would. My wife has Zach Emmons
on speed out, so if I tried to wallpaper, he
would be the first call, and Zach would go call
Mike match.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And I've heard stories.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh I know it's but hey, at least I try.
I get halfway through, and it's like I have no
idea what I'm doing, and why do I have these
goggles on? I don't need the the whole bit. It's
just not.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Even Wait until you try to do a ceiling. People
are wallpaper and ceilings.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, they don't call it ceiling paper, you know, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Is it the same quality as it used to be?
Is it that different, Is it thinner, is it easier
to work with different colors?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It just you know, I think the biggest difference is
patterns and textures. But you still have some classics like
grass cloth, cork papers. But and then I'd love to
say it's all better, but some papers are just a
pain in the backside to work with and others are
super easy.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Well I'm not Look if my wife wants wallpaper and
we know she can pick it out, but we know
where we're going to get it installed. And and color
wheel painting. He's been doing this for a long time.
And when Mike Matson comes in, like when we have
guests Wray, a lot of times they'll say, Hey, where
do you want me to go with this? He's like,
fire away man, fire away whatever, whatever you've got. And
(04:57):
I've got a number of questions. One of the things
that we had a conversation about a few minutes ago
here in studio is now I want to thank Andrew Wilson,
by the way, he's a guy that works over with you,
and and we had talked about having customers their expectations,
what what's happening. How long is this going to take?
(05:18):
Dollar wise? What's the color all of the expectations that
customers have. Do you feel like they're more patient now
or do you feel like the patience is not quite
what it used to be with customers?
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Well, it's a it's a big topic, Mike. You know. Unfortunately,
I think with HG you know something in television.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Show and other shows out there, there's definitely the illusion
that home improvements go fast. And I think just in
this fast paced society, everyone wants things quick, quick, quick,
and that for a good home improvement project, whether that's
just painting or plumbing or doing plaster work like creative construction,
(05:59):
does things take time. Doing things right takes time. And
you know, I think there is a gap there between
what the contractor knows and is thinking and maybe what
the homeowner is expecting. And that needs to be an
active conversation.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And not only to have the conversation in person, have
it maybe in right. I mean to be able to
then have the receipts to say, look, we talked about
this four weeks ago, and here it is. You signed this.
When we have things done at our house. It's it's
always nice to know, okay, I can tell you this
is when we're going to start. I'm thinking we're going
(06:37):
to finish around here. But you know, give us to
make sure that that we everybody knows going into the project,
the time is going to take, what it's going to cost,
and as long as we don't come with if we
don't find anything that's going to put us back a
couple of weeks or a couple of days. Right, let's
make sure we're all on the same page.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, And those are vital aspects to any contract. And
it's amazing how many contractors out there don't include those
items and you end up with a customer who's upset.
You know, we always try to lay out project duration,
the actual schedule, timeline, of course price.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
You know, how early in the conversation do you do
you talk about budgets and price. It's got to be early, right.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Really early.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, And you know, I I'm a homeowner myself. I
understand there's some apprehension to talk budget, but if you're
working with the right contractor, it's a very healthy conversation
to have so that contractor can actually help you.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
You know, I'm not there to rip you off.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
If if that were the case, I wouldn't be in business, right,
I wouldn't be here twenty one years and be a growing,
thriving company. It's really to try to help you and
understand what can we do with your dollar.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
And I can speak to a little bit Mike, because
I actually had my come out to a project I
was working on, and he came out himself. Actually he
came out to that project.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think Andrew did.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Andrew did. Yes, Yeah, Andrew, Yes, we got to bring
him in that time.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And hey, my other sales guys are great. I better
say that right now.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, they're all good.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Riley and Chris are awesome too.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And within about five minutes, Andrew was already laying out
this is how it will happen. This is how long
it'll take. They got me a price a couple of
days later because there was a big job. There was
a big job, so he got to be a price
a couple of days later. But the customer service he
provided when he was there, it was just phenomenal. And
I it was great. It was exactly what I would
(08:24):
have hoped from a professional like them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, and look they they did. They painted my church
and I didn't I didn't even know until all of
a sudden. I walked in and I'm like, color Will
Paintings doing this. They're like yeah, and it was exceptional
the job they did that. And the people at Brookside
Baptist Church behind Mike's back, have never I mean, they
were so happy they have they have recommended him and
(08:49):
his company and his staff and the people. The people
that came out and worked worked really hard, did a
great job. They they ended the project and it was
a huge project. They ended a week early, and the
people at Brookside Baptist Church are like, they got done early,
Like who does that? And I think again that goes
back to that expectations that I believe Riley was the
(09:11):
sales rep for that, I think, and the expectations that
he set with our staff at Brookside Baptist Church that
he hit all of them. And then he came in
and he finished. They finished the project and everybody was
happy a week early. And I think again that goes
back to Andrew Wilson saying, look, we have to do
(09:31):
a really good job from our end, but from the
other end, from the customer end, they have to be
listening and understand what you expect they do.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
And I think a lot of customers look at the
job as just what is the job right, whether it's
getting cracks in your wall fixed or getting a new
sink or painting, And it's really easy to just look
at it as a task and to look at the
person who's in your home is just what's the price
for the task? And really great contractors creative construction, you know,
(10:01):
and I think we're a good one too. We're gonna
have a lot of conversation with you.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
If you are.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Working with someone who comes in to give you an
estimate and they're in and out of your house in
two minutes or five minutes, that's the wrong guy, Like
I wouldn't even consider their price. You're gonna end up
so disappointed because of all the other things that go
into a successful project, you know, having these conversations about
even things we ask are like can we park in
your driveway? What bathroom can we use? What sink should
(10:27):
we use to wash out? Do you have any pets
that might try to run out of your house when
we're coming in and out the door?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know, what are your work hours? Are there things
here we can and can't unplug? It's just there's a
lot into being in someone's home their private space, especially
if they work from home or you have parents who
stay home, our kids, around the pets. There's a lot
of considerations to keeping a project going in a good way.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And I think depending on the job, people can still
live in their home while you're working, right.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I think that's true for most projects.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, I hope there are some projects. I think, you know,
you can't use this part of the home for a while,
but but you're right, for the most part, people can't
when when you're looking at a project. And we had
this conversation before. You guys are about ninety A lot
of your business is residential, but you guys certainly do
as I talked about our church, and there are some
(11:20):
some commercial projects that you guys will entertain doing. Churches
are something that that you guys do.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
A lot of private schools, okay, And then I would
say more like the boutique size commercial spaces, and to me,
that means offices, whether it's accountant, lawyer. You know, we've
done some vet clinics, things of that size. We're not
looking to do the big box stores or anything like that,
but the smaller stuff, you know, probably under five thousand
square feet.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well Brookside unless it's a church, because that's a pretty
big church that you guys did. And again we I
hear about it enough that anytime I see you've got
I say thank you, because they the people that run
the church, absolutely doord it. Hey, the rules for choosing colors?
Do you do you have somebody in house that helps
(12:12):
guys like me and Ray when it comes because everything
I want is Kelly green, and it's not always the
way it should go. But ye, do you have somebody
in house that can help with choosing colors? And how
difficult of the process is that. Do people come to
you and say, Okay, this is the color I want
or do they come and say can you recommend? It?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Is both? Absolutely both.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
So to answer your question, yes, on staff, those estimators Riley, Chris,
and Andrew, they have a very good eye for color.
They're used to it. They're doing this daily. They see
the trends and everything. They're used to accustomed to the
different tones and these homes and what works and what
doesn't work. So they are very good. But the asterisk
on that is they are not trained professional into your designers,
(12:56):
and those designers definitely have a role in some projects. Yeah,
so we have a lot of good referrals to give
out on top notch designers.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
You know, when when if, if your guys are are
doing it, and they've been doing this a long time,
so they have a really keen eye obviously, But how
much do they take into consideration? I guess, like the
size of the room or the ceiling, and if and
if a customer comes and says, look like me, I
want everything kelly green. Are they okay with going Look,
you have to live here, but I would I'm not
(13:27):
sure i'd recommend that, yeah, color throughout the house.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I mean, of course, the customer's right is their right,
and they can have whatever they want and we will
respect that. But we do try to offer some let's
let's call it gentle constructive criticism as needed, Like, Hey,
did just consider Mike that if you do green on
your ceiling in all your walls, this room's going to
start to feel shrunken down. And do you understand that?
(13:53):
And then you can say, yeah, and that's fine, that's
what I want.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Hey, do you find that that that people are going
three three walls, one color, light.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Accent, no the opposite? Oh jeesus, I need more coffee
to think of this one.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know what I can get you more.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
They're doing the entire room in one color, ceiling, walls,
all the trim. It's a full saturation in one color
tone for the entire room. And where the only difference
is is the sheene. So you kick it up and
shine on the trim especially, and you might do a
flat finish on the ceiling and maybe an eggshell on
the walls. So they're playing with the sheine and the
(14:35):
reflectivity of the paint itself, but all one color.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
When did that start? Yeah, going back to the three
light walls in one dark walls.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, you're in the early two thousands. That's okay, that'll
come back to man carpet.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
When did that come?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I would say about two years ago that started working
its way in from the coasts.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, well it's kind of a cool look, right.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
It actually came me really neat.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And then if you get the right to core in
the room, it just a high contrast.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I do have to point out for the for the
public sense, nobody can actually see us right now as
Mike is talking about green, he's wearing green right now. Yes,
that's all he wears.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know what, it's not?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
All right? Well, you're in red like everybody from Creative Construction.
I was in San Diego two weeks ago for a
US Marine boot camp and the girl coming in the
show after Valerie was on the trip with me, and
she's also part of Milwaukee Baseball club. So we're gonna
talk some baseball, but we're gonna talk about this marine
(15:38):
boot camp. And she we both bought something at the
museum and she said, wear it when I'm on your show,
and I said, you got it. So there.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Did you participate in a pet?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I did you did? I can show you pick. Yeah.
The drill instructor, oh man, and I'm always one that
there was a group from Milwaukee, a group from Minneapolis,
group from Michigan, group from Colorado, Arkansas, and we all
had to be in our group. And they said, all right,
who wants to go first? And I just want to
(16:08):
go first and get get it done with then I
can laugh at other people. This drill instructor, this young gal,
she was all of about five to maybe one hundred
and ten pounds, lit me up, lit me up, and
we had to do all this stuff. And she said,
we're gonna do these bare crawls. I said, hey, look
at I You know, I kind of hurt my back
doing that. At one point, I'll run. She goes, oh,
(16:29):
you like to run. You're a runner, now, are you Okay?
Let's run and I will carry these forty pound ammo things.
When I got done, one of our group, guy named Jeff, goes, yeah,
I'm out. I go what he goes, I saw you
do it. It's going to ruin my week if I
tried doing everything you just did. I'm out. And he
just walked away. And I thought I didn't know that
(16:49):
was an option. If I knew that was an option,
I would have I would have done.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That's not in real bootcamp because I actually want to
do a few times.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And you know what's interesting is my Lucas Maplinsky. I
came back on Saturday and he flew out Monday morning.
Thirteen weeks and he's in week two right now. Wow,
And I'm just boy, Yeah, I'm hoping he's hanging in there.
Major Blackwell, who I was hanging out with, who's the
(17:18):
head recruiter for the state of Wisconsin, said, you know,
he can't just quit, right, He can't just go came
out and tap out and I go. He goes, We're
not letting them do that. Don't worry about it. We
got him, we'll take care. We're gonna send him back
to you in thirteen weeks and he'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
No, that's the thing in the movies. There's not a bell. Yeah,
there's not a movie.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Now, well I can tell you, oh yeah, yeah we are.
We were talking with Color Wheel Painting owner Mike Mattson.
They are located on Lisbon one hundred and twenty seventh
in Lisbon and Brookfield and I every time he comes in,
I promise him that I'm going to stop and and
his everything I hear about stopping over there is it's
a great place to come in. There's some fun things.
(18:01):
You've gotten that office out here.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, we do enjoy.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
So we've got a beautiful nineteen sixty one Brunswick Gold
Crown one pool table in there.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Can you shoot?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Can you shoot a little bit?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I'm terrible at pool these days. We keep an old
English dartboard ready, there's lots of darts. That's where I
hold my own. And we keep some beer on tap
at all times. So if you want to come in
and have a cold one. You're more than welcome, and
certainly the full bar is stocked. So that makes us
sound really bad, but it's all in moderation. It's it's
(18:35):
meant to entertain and have people feel welcome, and you know,
even in the morning, the coffee, the coffee pot is
on and ready for whoever wants to stop in.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
One hundred and twenty seventh and Lisbon. Go to Color
Wheel Painting one word color wheel Painting dot Com. We're
gonna get to a break other side of the break,
Ray Hoffman, he is representing Creative Construction Wisconsin. Myself will
continue our conversation with Mike Matching from Color Wheel Painting.
This is the Creative Construs Auction Wisconsin home improvement show
(19:02):
on Fox Sports nine twenty. In your iHeart Radio App.
Welcome back to the Creative Construction Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine to twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Coming live from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and
Cooling Studios, largest employee owned HVAC company in the state
of Wisconsin. Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I'm Mike
(19:24):
mcgiver alongside Ray Hoffman. He is from Creative Construction, Wisconsin.
You say that right, yes, sir, Yeah, alongside Mike Mattson
from Color Wheel Painting. Hey, Mike, a quick question for you.
How much work do you guys do painting trim rather
than all of it?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Is that a big It's huge?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, you know, in terms of painting trim, I think
a lot of people think of old painted trim, but
the number of trim painting jobs we do where it's
it could even be a one year old house, a
spec house, five years old, whatever, where it's all stayed
in finished wood, but they want it changed over.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
But we do a lot of that work.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So you get text messages during this kind of stuff.
If somebody's going to be doing both, do they paint
the interior, they paint the wall first and then the
tremor they do the trimming then the wall.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
And there's always an interaction there. We have to look
at and decide best approach. Okay, you know, because you're
getting a lot of like wainscoat panels, a lot of
beatboard is even coming back, tongue and groove. We're seeing
a lot of things like that. Or it might make
sense to do the trim first, wall second, and in
other place is just opposite.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
How often would you recommend somebody paint you know there
their living room is yours?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Depending on that on the product, you know, product choice
makes a big difference for how long it's going to
last and remain looking good, or if you have paints.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Are equal, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There's different prices, just like there are for the people
you hire, and you get what you pay for. I
think it's really personal preference if you really want it
to feel fresh and crisp. I think you're talking about
every five or six years.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And depending on who lives in the house.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Sure, yeah, that use.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, and you know, my son Matthew has a six
year old today Happy birthday, Liam, nice birth and a
one and a half year old, And yeah, their walls
look a little bit different today than.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
That wasted downward. Yeah, the first three feets maybe getting
a little beat up.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, and Matthew's like, you know, maybe we should paint it,
but maybe we should wait, should wait another six months
or so. Yeah, maybe she won't keep hitting it with
everything she carries and throwing things, and little Hadley, who's
a year and a half, she will you'll say don't,
don't do that, and then you'll turn away and she'll
wait for you to see look at her again, and
(21:46):
then she'll do it. And it just kind of look.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Like what that's because Grandpa's challenging.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Not me. I just laugh. I go, I don't care,
not my house. Go ahead, call color Will Painting when
you need something.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And you know, Mike on that one too, I think
I was talking paint. And there's even paints where you
can a lot of people think to get durability you
have to go into a higher and higher gloss level,
you know, but it's simply not true. There's actually paints
that can have that that flat to eggshell finish and
have extremely good properties for durability in terms of scuff
(22:18):
resistance and my resistance. So like, if you do have
kids or pets that are constantly beating on the walls,
we can get you into the right product. And a
lot of paint companies don't even know that product exists,
but we're geeks about it. We study it, we test it,
and so we know exactly which products are made for
that kind of use and abuse.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Hey, I'm sorry, Rain, then I'll get you in a minute,
but your dated day. And I asked you this last
time and I found it really interesting your day to day.
You know you used to have a brush, right, you
were painting all time ago. Yeah, and now with color
wheel painting. First of all, how many employees.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Give or take twenty five? Man?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, told you that ten years ago, great people though
you'd have twenty five people employed, right, you would have said, ah,
that's a lot. And the company has really taken off.
And for a reason, because you're the best that in
this space. That when you talk to people that know,
people like Ray and people like Bingo, they go color
(23:15):
real paintings, the best at what they do. And so
that your day to day has changed over the years.
And now this is you manage the company correct.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
It's looking at the marketing and the finances and a
bit of the recruitment. I really like to make sure
we're making the right hires culturally, because what I care
most about is the quality of person going in your home.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Are you hiring now?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Always hiring?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Okay, So if for somebody that did you hire, do
you hire younger people? Do you hire people that right
out of high school? Do you get wait a little.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Bit, So a lot of times the younger people will
train them up through the shop first and foremost and
get them going that way. But we get some students
with art degrees and things like that where they have
a pretty good proficiency and can come in and hit
the ground running. And I tell you, I love someone
who's got years of experience and is looking to sunset
their career somewhere stable, somewhere that cares, And those are
(24:12):
always a great hire too.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
You know, that's a really good comment because I like
the fact that you said, even guys my age, if
I could, if I could absolutely and I had some experience,
would be a great place if somebody's looking for part
time work.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, we can accommodate.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
We have a couple people on staff that work twenty
four hours a week, a few who float around thirty
thirty three, and then the full time forty hour people.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Hey, Ray, when you hear an owner of a company
that is as well respected as color Will Painting talk
about that part look, yeah, we'll interview a young person,
but we'll also interview somebody who's looking to end their
career and wants to go part time. You gotta love
that because there are a lot of companies that say, look,
(24:55):
we're going to wait for somebody that has some experience,
or we're going to wait for somebody, or we want
to get them right out of high school, right out
of college so we can train them in our way.
But a guy like Mike says, look, well, I'll interview
anybody man if if they're good with a paint brush,
and you got to feel pretty good about it.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
It just shows the great culture that Color Wheel has.
I mean, they hire on culture more, they experience a
lot of the times, and I think a lot of
people are doing that.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Mike.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I've known Mike for a long time. You've known Mike
for a long time, and I've known him since he
had paint all over his clothes when I saw him
every time.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, at the old Mary office he'd walk in and yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So it shows that he's building a company with the
great culture to take care of the customer. And that's
what ultimately matters in the long run, because you want
to be here twenty one years with twenty five employees
if you didn't take care of him.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, the right people are clutch. I remember Tommy. Tommy's
our scheduler, great guy, and he coordinates all the things
with homeowners and all the staff putting them where they
need to be. Well, anyway, Tommy came in and I
had a little bit of a short resume, but the
guy was just an outstanding human being. You could tell
his heart was there and was in the right place.
(26:04):
And I said, you know, Tommy, you're the kind of
person I need here. You're the kind of person I
can work with. We can grow together. And that's absolutely
what he's done, and he continues to thrive.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I remember him before he even he even had logos
on his cars.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Really, yeah, that was a while ago.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Oh, I used to hand paint our yard signs, you know,
startup no cash you been.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Mike and I have been members of couple different organizations
for a long time.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So, hey, when it comes to residential and that's the
majority of what you guys do, can you talk a
little bit about the services that you offer. It's just
not look, we want we want the first floor of
our home painted. There are different services like the trim
painting and things like that. Can you kind of go
through some of the different services that you guys offer
(26:49):
in the residential space.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yeah, it is a lot of what you would think
it is, but the wallpaper installation, wallpaper removal, wall repair
to a to a smaller level. There's a lot of
times we pick up the phone and call creative construction
because we know the small ones we can maybe tackle,
but the big ones we want them involved, especially with
plaster work. You know. From there we start getting into
(27:13):
the painting what I call basic painting and ceilings and walls.
To me, the mid level would be doing trim and
doing trim. That's a big variable I think in the market,
doing trim really beautifully where you're really proud to show
it off. That's the level we do it at. And
then from there there's more of the expert level. I
(27:34):
guess we'd be painting cabinets, refinishing cabinets. We even do
a little bit of refinishing on stairs, handrails, mantles, windowsills, windows, doors,
lots of specialty work like that.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Birdhouses, mailboxes, yeah, we have herd houses and mailboxes, light fixtures.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
We've done a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I've got some really really talented artists on board as well.
We're talking people used to do like Catholic church, the
mural work and ceilings, doing restoration work with that kind
of thing. We had a project at Lambeau doing gilding
gold leafing recently. So there's there's some really neat stuff
we do.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Like people up at Lambeo called color wheel painting.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
That is correct, that's awesome. Yeah, pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So we've worked in We've got work that's down at
five Serve. We've done stuff that you see every day
maybe you're walking in and out of a bank or
a school.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
That's some of the commercial type stuff we've done.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
That nobody even knows, but I know, Hey, when on
your website a brookshop, Brookfield Workshop. Yes, so for a
guy like me, this would be really valuable. Be honest
with you. So do you do workshops throughout the year
or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
So we have our workshop, like I said, is our
place of business about ten thousand square feet. And I
think what you're asking is you come in and check
it out. And the answer is yes. Basically anytime if
we're open, we have customers to stop in and say, hey,
we're we're thinking about doing this or that. A lot
of times it's cabinets or maybe doors to paint, and
(29:13):
we'll get you a cup of coffee or water, get
you on a little quick tour. Through the building, so
you can actually see a lot of times you'll be
able to see spray painting and action in the booths,
so you can see the big drawing oven, you can
see some of the systems we work with, the equipment
and get that behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Do you understand how unusual that is that I don't
have to set up an appointment just stop in, you know,
in ten days, and you're gonna give me a half
hour and and give me a quick tour and get
me out of there. You're talking about just not just
open the door, come one and introduce yourself. And I'm
on that page the workshop is you're building, but I'm
(29:50):
looking and and you know, it's kind of like I
wouldn't mind stopping it. I don't need to see the paint.
But that again, that pool table and that football table
dark board b all right, and I'm sure you've got coffee.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So it even has the logo in the middle of
the pool table that look like yes, yeah. So I
have to ask you a question, Mike, go ahead. So
one of the reasons why my wife won't paint the
kitchen if you have no well yeah she does. She
hates the cabinets too. We've been in the house for
seventeen years. Our kids grew up there. We have the
lines where all of our kids are sure so we
have Chloe, Sadie, Katie, Uh, some are Kayla. We have
(30:26):
all their friends all marked. So how do you preserve that?
How can you help preserve that but still update our
kitchen and make it look nice.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Yeah, that's a great one, you know, if.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
It was my wife was worried about.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
You know, I don't know if it's a spot you
could almost like frame off and just isolate, or if
that was.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
About just cutting the drywall out and framing it.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, I think that's what I would do. Yeah, and
turn that into a piece of art to hold for
and cherish forever, because that is really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, my wife would freak out.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
If the alternative is we mask around it and just
isolate it, leave it alone. We could always put a
clear coat over the top of it to protect it well.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
And that's one of the things I was thinking, is
what if we did a clear coat over it sort
preserves it but makes everything else look nicer.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
You just have to be careful with the interaction the
clear with the fit's pen or pencil because you don't
want that to start.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know, I don't know if I paid attention.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
No, you probably have both. You probably probably both. So
a little testing, my pa, you got it?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
You want me to come out and look at it,
or sure, I'll bring Mike matching with me. Question that
that I got. And we talked about cabinets because I
today a hundred times told you the story my friends
who said, you know, we're doing this big project and
the last the easiest part is we're going to take
the cabinets off in the kitchen and paint them. And
Mike Matson taught me a very valuable lesson. You said,
(31:44):
it's not it's not easy. Wait till they get into
that project. Because they're doing it themselves, you're going to
hear about it. And sure enough, they they did this whole,
this whole remodel. They did a lot of the work themselves,
and they were like, all right, we're done. All we
have to do is paint the cabinets in the kitchen.
And it was a nightmare. So the worst part of
the project for them, and what they kept saying was,
(32:06):
we just feel like we saw this video online and
we're gonna be able to do it. And when I
told Match that, he just shook his head and said, yeah,
good luck with that, and he was right, how big
of a part what you guys do. I love the
fact that you come and take the cabinets back to work. Yes,
the work shot right, Yeah, absolutely, And they tried to
just kind of do it on the patio in the backyard.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Oh gosh, that's a nightmare. Yeah, you have to run
from the people who want to do it in your basement,
or do it in your garage, or even just do
it in the kitchen. I mean, that's just such a
big red flag.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
That's not the kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Take out all of our kitchen cabinets.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
And all your doors and drawers, anything we can take
out of there we want to take out and bring
to our workshop for controlled environment, I mean, the way
and the level we work with paint. We're talking fluid pressure,
air pressure, we're talking humidity, all these things factoring to
us laying down the right proper finish on your cabinets.
And you're just not going to make that happen at
your house.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
And it's interesting because before the show we were talking
about cabinets a little bit, a little bit, yeah, and
he had mentioned laminate cabinets, so I atomatic, I automatically
thought of my kitchen cabinets, which you're the nineties oak
lambinate cabinets. Yeah, yeah, And he says they're a nightmare,
a nightmare, but they can be if they're done right,
which they do, then they will look great.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah. Yes, So so you think you're gonna have to
Are you gonna do it yourself?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It depends if my wife is listening.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Mary, don't let him do it himself. Reface them.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Color wheel painting dot com, colorwheel painting dot com. When
you paint cabinets, did they they they last for a
long time? Is it durable after if you guys do it?
I know that my friends that we talked about and
they spend now a year and a half since they
did it on their own, they're gonna have to either
have you guys do it. They're gonna have to try
(33:50):
to redo it, probably in six months because they're chipping
and they don't look all that all that good. But
durable when when you guys do it, how long does
it last? Again? Is to wear and tear?
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I mean I've got customers out there who haven't had
a touch up in ten or fifteen years at this point,
which is great, but I'm not gonna lie. Cabinets can
get used and abused a little, so it's not uncommon
if we do some some free warranty work on something
like a trash door, sometimes some units under the sink,
or that knife drawer that super high use. You know,
(34:23):
it's a use thing. If you're really nice to him,
they're gonna last a long time.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Or if my big dog jumps on my yeah, right, scout.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It's at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
It is paint, and yes, we can use a very
hard durable product, but it's not bulletproof, and you know
you have to have a reasonable expectation with that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
He is Mike Matt's an owner color Will Painting. Go
to color willpainting dot com. I love the fact that
we have had this conversation a couple of times on
this show where he says, look, just stop then stop
in and say, look, you want to see how we
do things. You don't have to set an appointment. One
hundred and twenty and Lisbon in Brookfield. You're driving by
(35:03):
and you're thinking about getting your cabinets done or having
some work done in your home and you want to
talk to the people at Color Wheel Painting. You don't
have to set an appointment and have them clean up
everything and put on a dog and pony show for you.
They're gonna show you how they do things. Now, you
walk in, shoot a game of pool, and have a
conversation about the job that you want to have done,
(35:24):
and Mike mats or somebody on his team will walk
you through the process again. One hundred and twenty seventh
and West Lisbon Road in Brookfield. Go to Colorwheelpainting dot com.
We'll get to a break. Other side of the break
will continue our conversation with Mike. This is the Creative
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to the
(35:47):
Creative Construction of Wisconsin home Improvement show on Fox Sports
nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app. As always, coming live
from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios. I'm
Mike McGivern alongside Ray Hoffman from Creative Construction of Wisconsin
and our special in studio guest. He's Mike Mattson. He's
the owner of Color Wheel Painting and can go to
(36:08):
colorwheel Painting dot com to find out any information. It's
a great website. Any information you need about color wheel
painting in the work that they can do for you
again colorwheel painting dot com or just stop in one
hundred and twenty seventh in Lisbon and they will give
you a tour and show you the process. Speaking of
the process, if somebody stops iner calls and they say, look,
(36:32):
here's here's a couple of pictures of my you know,
living room and dining room and I need it, I
want to paint it. Is that enough or do you
guys need to come out to the house to be
able to make to put a proposal together for them.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, so certainly from photos and whatnot off site, Like
if you come to us, we can generally talk a
rough budget. Of course, we'll say hey, look and in
house consultation is definitely needed to nail this down, so
there's no substitute for that in home consultation. But yeah,
we know enough to be able to talk about general
pricing anywhere. You know, you and I could do that
(37:09):
right here.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
If you have the right pictures, right, got any pictures
because you can get a price.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Right my wife is listening. Mary, if you'd like to
send me a picture, Yeah, I would love to have.
Might take a look at it.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Let's talk calendars if we can. If somebody says, look,
I've got you know, I've got a birthday party in
mid July. Yeah, and I've got a couple of rooms
that I need painted. Where are we at with with
availability throughout the summer at this point? And look, we
had the conversation somebody comes to your house and they go, look,
(37:41):
I can start in an hour. Run Yeah, right, I
can start tomorrow. You might want to run from that.
What are we looking at with color will painting right now?
If somebody needs some work done.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Sure, So we kind of found our sweet spot for
most homeowners is to be able to be there within
two to three weeks for the ceiling of wall type work.
But then as you go into more complex projects, that's
where we're booked out further and further. So cabinets is
typically a two month timeframe. Wallpaper install you have to
wait for the bigger trim jobs. We need to kind
(38:14):
of plan out and have a good attack plan for
and that can take some time.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
To last segment, you made a comment about look if
they're you know, the garbage drawer, you know, with our guarantee,
i'll have to we can come out and fix. Yeah, well,
what kind of guarantee do you guys have?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
You know, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
There's the official one right right, the sign document guarantee.
But the good faith, honest, good business practice guarantee is
the one we use. And that's just to take care
of the customer. So we've had stuff come in two years,
five years, eight years later and someone says, hey, you
know this happened. It's like, you know what, we'll just
take care of it. It's going to cost us more
to create an invoice and chase you down for fifty
(38:52):
bucks than if we just do it and out of
the goodness of our heart and make it right.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Do you understand that that if that, if that isn't
part of your mission statement, it needs to be, because look,
you when you say that, you'll hear people say, oh, yeah, yeah,
we're good. Well when you talk about the idea of
being a good faith customer and we're going to be
a good faith company that goes a long way in
(39:19):
the Milwaukee market.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Yeah, we're pretty old school.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I think all of us in this room are raised
that way, and that's just how you do things right.
I think more often a customer looks like, no, we
know that costs you money, let us give you something.
You know, it's like okay if you insist, right, because yeah,
we had some costs, but it's we're just so just reasonable.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Do you know how many people in the neighborhood that
those people would tell that story too? And then if
you don't do it, if you don't return the call,
if you don't if you say, look, we'll come out
and you know we'll do that trim, it's gonna cost
you an extra fifteen hundred bucks for a half hour time,
they're going to tell even more people. And I think
(39:57):
the reason you have twenty five employees and the beautiful
facility in Brookfield is because that's how you do things.
And I think that that's really important.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yea, And they have a lot of they have a
lot of great references on their Google pages and their
Facebook pages, a lot of reviews that show how great
they are to their customers. And you've got to if
somebody says I can start tomorrow and you're painting, I
wouldn't hire them because you want a high quality person
like color Wheel and painters, and that's important.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Yeah, there's such a difference in quality and skill set. Yeah,
and painters. Not all pamps is the same. It's not
even close.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
And in products that you used to put.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
And it makes a differ. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
We you can go to a big box store and
buy three brushes for eight bucks. Yes, and it's not
going to be the same if you if you don't
have the right equipment and the right paint.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
What I mean, I have a brush as one hundred
and eighty dollars, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
You my most expensive one is a dollar eighty.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right, you got three of them because you borrowed one
to me.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Because I throw them away. He probably doesn't throw that
one away.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You would also talked about this this thing that's going
on where people are changing the sine and and what
what sheene of paint do most people use?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
Or is that.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
It's all over you know, cabinets at Satin Finish time
and time again, although people are going into matt Finish
with those now too.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Walls.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
It's anything trim? Is it typically Satino?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Is there a certain brand of paint that you guys use?
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Can I say names if you want?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
You know?
Speaker 4 (41:41):
It's going to depend on what look you're after.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Okay, So on the the high end premium ends, like
with cabinet painting, we'll use Ilva, which is a fantastic
Italian finish, A two part uh.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
And then.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know you talk about the most luxurious wall paint.
I would probably like to use Faraoh and Ball.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
So how do you for this Italian company?
Speaker 4 (42:06):
Right?
Speaker 1 (42:06):
How did you find out about them? And are there
are there paint shows that you go to to look
for trends? And looking at magazine frights, I do not
get paint magas believe believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (42:17):
There is paint magazine? Is it really?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I was joking. I guess I'm just good.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Now I need to get it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah, and uh, there is a Painting Contractors Association National
one national conference, and you get the different suppliers who
are there. But more than anything, it's just that thirst
for knowledge. We're always trying to keep an open mind
explore products. So it's a culture thing to always improve
our game day after day, and that's how we get
exposed to these different products and find them.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
And that's a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
When you talked about a look McGivern. You're in two
thousand and four with the dark wall and all the
light walls. The different trends that you see coming maybe
in twenty twenty six, or different color trends. Is there
are people going lighter or it's gray still.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Grays out, I will not miss it. It doesn't work
with a lot of the wood tones in our market house.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
So yeah, just wait a while.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
I am seeing a little bit of a return to
white on everything, just that fresh canvas, almost like an
art museum type, just white atmosphere. But then, like I said,
the one room and one color thing is still where.
I think we're going to see a lot.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
More of that.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, and then eggshell or paper, it's a light white.
What is the color that most people are going? Just
bright white?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Just white? I'm not saying most people are doing that.
I think that's the trend that's going to come back.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Wow, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All red kitchen, Yeah, oh yeah, you should have everything red.
I'll have an all red kitchen. I'll get red appliances,
all cyclical because you know, red actually promotes hunger.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
It does classically used in marketing.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Why is it that every time bingos here I get hungry.
Maybe that's it right, red? But the red hey painting doors. Yeah,
so the in our condo project where I live. In
our condo, you've got to all have the same colored door.
And the Pat, my neighbor, the woman downstairs, I had
(44:15):
to get a new door. They don't make that color anymore,
and so she had to get a door that is
a different color. And I asked her, I said, what
have they said anything? And she said, no, but they
will and I'll have to figure out how to get
this door painted at least similar to the color you
guys do do you guys come and take the door.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It always varies.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
If you have a storm door that locks, and your
door is really smooth, then yeah, I'd love to take
it off site and spray it. Okay, if it actually
has some texture to it, then there's not much merit
to taking it off site.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
I just do it in place.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, I'm gonna let Pat.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
But we do a ton of small batch work like that.
You do.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
You know, it's one of those things where you know,
maybe in your head you think this is gonna be
like two hundred bucks, and it's just not.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Because it's a business. We have overhead and whatnot. But
we'll do it right.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
It'll be long lasting and beautiful. But I definitely consider
ourselves a small bat shop and a lot of people
maybe don't realize that about us.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But even if you haven't asked Mike to give you
a referral to color Well.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I'm gonna call pat Or because she lives downstairs.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
We have a lot of just front doors come into
the shop to get handled.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
You know, it would have been her nephew hung it,
and it would have been it was sitting right there,
and what a perfect time that she should have done
it before. Really.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Yeah, ideally it comes to us before anything else. And
so we do get deliveries from the different suppliers in
town and sometimes we'll go pick something up if you
buite at min Oards and you need us to go
get it, and we'll pick it up and man bring
it back to color Wheel and then bring it out
to your house.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I didn't know that customer That is customer service. Yea,
how long you've been in business?
Speaker 4 (45:52):
Twenty one years now?
Speaker 1 (45:53):
That's why that is why he is two. Yeah, it's believable.
Well the painting he looks older than twenty two, but
not by much, not by much. Mike Batson, Thank you
so much. Ray Hoffin, It's good to see you again.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Good to see you.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
He say. You got to say hi to marry. Hopefully
she can send those pictures all that paint that you're
thinking you want to do, but have one do it.
Colorwheel Painting dot Com is where you're going to want
to go or just stop in one hundred and twenty
seventh in Lisbon in Brookfield. Great opportunity to just walk
in and tell the people at color Will Painting the
(46:28):
project that you're going to start. And instead of you
doing it on your own and then having them come
fix it, have him do it from the jump. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement show only. I'm
Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart Radio app
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.