Latest / The Goo Crew / ChatGPT for Paint Contractors: How We Use It to Save Time | The Goo Crew #2

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ChatGPT for Paint Contractors: How We Use It to Save Time | The Goo Crew #2 · The Goo Crew

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I guess we'll like start or whatever.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: AI taking her gerbs.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um that should be that should be the title of the podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: AI taking your gerbs.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what's cracking, folks?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh welcome to episode two of the Goo Crew podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, today we're talking a lot about uh how Josh and I have deployed advanced technology uh to help us in painting and other things, but mostly painting, um, which is AI, which I I know many folks may not have heard of, but yeah, no, it's uh pretty much everywhere right now.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um, which uh Josh, you were kind of I'd say you started using it before I did, at least for some of the admin stuff you were doing.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where did you kind of start using the the AI assistant stuff?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Newsletter.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Newsletter.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I started writing a newsletter for one of our YouTube groups we started a few years ago.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then that uh I was like, man, I just uh because you're writing and you're like, man, I want to make sure I'm doing this right, and I was pretty nervous about sending out a newsletter, especially like your first one or first two.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, who's this newsletter going to?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was to our YouTube audience.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then shortly after that, after I started sending the newsletters, we did one for our clients, our handiworks painting clients, which I was more nervous about because I'm like, well, these are like our actual clients, the real people that I know.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Real people that were actually.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to be like piss them off.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh, but then it's kind of like all right, I'm just gonna send it, but then I would use AI to be like, hey, I would start prompting it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, could you run this like through chat GPT?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And could you just edit this for clarity?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Can you make sure there's no redundancies?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Can you make sure uh that just like sounds good?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it was awesome.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And but it was more of like the prompt, you could make it sound any way you want, but if you just say, write this for me, it was not good as a bunch of the uh AI slop as as the kids call it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but when you actually write it and it's a rough draft, it is a fantastic editor.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the we were you using the paid one then?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: I started the paid one pretty early.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was just like because it re um remembers everything that you've done.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do a newsletter from three months ago or whatever writing you're doing, it remembers that.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, do you want to in this style?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say, hey, keep it more in my voice.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: This doesn't sound like me.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but just more of just act like an editor.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because every person who like submits a book has an editor.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: They go back and forth.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So this is like having a really smart friend who's an editor.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Amongst other things.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Amongst other things.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's like one of the first things I use it for that was like, ah, this makes it so much better.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: I could give it a rough draft, and we'd go back and forth, like, no, let's change this.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: I like this better.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you got to use your own judgment.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, and like, here's my audience, here's what they want.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: They're probably skew more older, they're not like 30 and under, right?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: 35 and up, and they own homes and they're like this, and some of them don't use computers much, but man, I've gotten like the best feedback from that newsletter.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so the one that uh, and this would be pertinent to people that are you know listening to this podcast and are running their own uh paint business as well.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like once you get an email list of people you've worked for, uh, that list is extremely valuable.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, we we've done different marketing things through the years, uh, but like right now, if you can get that email list and then send a newsletter, Josh does it once a month.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh now we have a pretty decent sized list of people 400.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's like the people we've worked for over like 20 some years, and uh, and then Josh will write uh with you know, and again, emphasize the fact that like he's actually writing the newsletters and he's just having Chat GPT like edit it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I know you tried a couple where you just kind of let it go and you're like, Whoa, that was not Josh, because I can tell when I'm looking at it, I was like, wow, this is not, and then then you're then it you've like I think that's kind of probably what everybody does is that they let it do more, and then they're like, Oh, this doesn't sound like me anymore, and then they like ratchet it back.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh the like we get incredibly good responses from the that newsletter.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so e whether or not you use AI to help you, uh, writing a newsletter and sending it like once a month to your email list, your client list is incredibly helpful, and they're the warmest leads.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, most of the responses that we get uh are uh oh, I hope you guys are doing well, and then they are you know, like, hey, we have this project coming up, and they just kind of remember that you're still operating, and that's a big part of marketing once you're kind of out in the field for a while, just letting people know that you're still doing the thing that you're doing.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, and then Josh doesn't do too many of them.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just once you just do one a month.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do one a month, but then I make sure that they know it's once a month because if someone comes into like we do a bid and we get the bid, and even if we don't, this goes out to them uh and they're new.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Every newsletter I have it say, have a great August, have a great because they know they're not gonna get another one, but I'm not saying we only do one.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty much the first of the month, unless it falls on like a weekend.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I put it out and it's like have a great July.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I just try to put some personal story and make it somewhat relevant to them or some homeowner trick.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that like, hey, we for exterior paint, if you can do any of your own, we really like this product.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And here's a story.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like the best one was like a story of just when things go terribly wrong.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people love this.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we've gotten so much feedback from those.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that was all this happened to me in my job, or this, or oh, that's horrible.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, really?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, cool.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you like because you never know, you don't get lots of responses back, but if you get a couple, yeah, it's pretty awesome.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: But the open rate on mine is like like a good open rate for a newsletter, it's like 20%.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty average.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're between 655 and 65.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But they're people we've known to work for for a while.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it all the time.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: People will be like, even if they don't respond when I go and do a job for them.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I told you our one client who's a really good client.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, I just I love y'all's newsletter.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, I'll tell my brother.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's that's I see the feedback.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, AI for that has been fantastic.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember I was doing a weekly newsletter for which is nice when you do newsletters and you get more reps, you don't care if, like, oh, what if this person unsubscribes, or what if a person does this?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I was doing a weekly one for our YouTube people, and like it was like I had to put it out later that day.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, whatever, AI, just write this.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the topic.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: I put it out, and I felt a little dirty.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, it was just it, it wasn't good.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was the AI slop and it wasn't me.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, so you kind of like go, oh, sweet, AI everything.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Then you pull back, like, no, it needs to be me.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but not all, just this robot.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, retain your voice and so forth.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you have used AI recently that helped me too for our paint business.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the um, and I s I probably about a month or two ago, I switched over to using like the paid chat GBT because I've gone on and off with it because I was like trying to find uses for it and I wasn't really using it, and I should probably should have been using it more.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh the memory so when you pay for it, it really remembers everything, which is incredibly helpful because it keeps what you're talking about in context of everything else you've talked about.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you can prompt it any way you you want to.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that I used it for um uh recently was actually uh and I mentioned it in the video I'm working on right now, uh, when I re-stained my deck, uh I took pictures of the deck once I prepped it, so there was no uh like furniture on it or anything, and it was in very rough shape.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I will put a picture of it up here now.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then uh once I figured out what um uh what stain I was going to use, I used a humans for that to figure that out.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh because there it's a little squirrely on product recommendations, but uh I went with a woodlux stain, uh solid stain that's an acrylic from um it's a water-based from Benjamin Moore.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went on Benjamin Moore's website and I looked up the recommended colors for that product because just with stains, they can be a little squirrely.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Once I found like four or five uh colors I was interested in, I uploaded those pictures to Chat GBT and I said, Hey, can you render this deck, generate an image of this deck and these colors?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I did the color code, what company was from.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, like Benjamin Moore, Hamilton Blue, it's like you know, PM-6 or whatever the color was.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then it did that, and then I could really see what I did a red one, a green one, a couple different grays, and then Hamilton blue is the color that I actually landed on.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also did a render, my my five-year-old asked me to do a render of uh Rainbow Deck, uh, which they don't make that product in those pigments, but it was it was she was like, we have to do that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, we're not doing that.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh it was extremely accurate uh with the color, like the real colors that I selected.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then when I went and actually uh painted it painted it Hamilton blue or stained it Hamilton blue, it's it is very, very close to the AI renders, which was very impressive.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was it just helped me visualize.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm pretty good at visualizing what it's gonna look like, uh, but just seeing that color everywhere on there was super helpful.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that that kind of whittled it down for me really easily.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I built a privacy wall, and I was I had built a gazebo on top of the deck, and then I was talking like going back and forth with ChatGBT about trying to come up with like a privacy solution to it, and then it was like I had it render a shiplap wall on the the lattice wall on my deck, and uh it just looked awesome because then I hadn't really thought about doing a shiplap wall like that, and then I figured out how to do a shiplap wall, I built it, and then I stained it the same Hamilton blue, and it looks exactly like the AI render, like it's so close.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's it was crazy because I remember when you showed me the after pictures, I was like, is that AI?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, this is the real thing.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here's the AI one, and man, it looks so close, so close.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I was very impressed with that, and then um the on a job that we were already working on, uh, this client particularly, I had to kind of coach through a lot of color selection, uh, like quite a lot.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So pretty much the whole color design in the job that we did is from me interacting with them, but I I helped steer it quite a bit for where to cut colors off and what colors to go with and all that stuff.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna, they wanted to do us to do some work on their staircase, uh, which is like builder's grade from like the mid-aughts, I would say, something like that, maybe 2010-ish, something like that.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, I just took a picture of it, and this was like on the fly on the side.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was like staircase, it's a banisters, painting like the handrails, handrail spindles, staircase, like treads, risers, and it's their front, and it's like a pretty nice front entryway that's like uh, you know, it goes it's a center staircase that goes straight up the middle of the foyer and then has like swoops that come down.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I took a picture of that and then I had it render it in the different colorways with like black handrails, white spindles, black treads, black risers, and then I did like white risers, and I just had it like I I altered it a couple times, and the render is very good.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I told it like exactly what like tricorn black from this company, like extra white from black, like I just I delineated each color for and what product.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much that matters because I'm just gonna put it up white, but it it made a very uh helpful render of what that would look like if we did the color schemes we were talking about, and then I sent it over to the I just texted it to uh our client and he was like, Oh man, this is so helpful.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show these to my wife, and like that's and then they've kind of they picked from that set, uh, and it's been it's it's super helpful because as a painter, a lot of times you have to uh maybe less so when you first start out, but as soon as you get kind of any experience in the field, they're you're you're working with clients.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: People are so unsure about colors, they're going to ask you your opinion on the color.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: They want color consults, they want color consults, and even if it's just affirming the colors they've already picked, but that is a friction point that we were because you a lot of times you can't start until the colors are selected.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so that's why, you know, this is just a little painter tip.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: If I can get them to agree to just do stock white on the ceiling and the trim, at least we can start there.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I'm just worried about them getting like the wall color selected, which we can, you know, cross that bridge when we need to, um, but enough to get you started.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I did it on another bathroom I was working in, uh like I think it was the day, like the morning I started.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I already had like primers and everything that I was gonna use, but um the I just took like with this client right next to me, I took a picture of her, uh, I took a picture of the bathroom, and then I just said, Hey, Chat GBT, can you put uh agreeable gray on the walls or like whatever the color was?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it did it, and I was like, it's gonna look kind of like that.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, I like that.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, excellent.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I but I could show it to her, and what I've noticed is that Chat GBT is way better at doing the image renders than any of the like paint tools that are on like Sharon Williams' website.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So much better.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think Benjamin Moore has one too, but those are at least as of the recording of this podcast, is they're crap.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of times it puts the wall paint on the ceiling, and like I don't know what's backending that AI, but Chat GBT is very good.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's gotten recently way better at the visual rendering, which is is very cool.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: So and then when you I saw you do that with the client, especially with the handrails and with the deck, and then every anyone I showed this to, like, see dad or whatever, I'm like, hey, I'm they're like what?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I got and everyone I've showed, my wife, anyone that immediately they start playing around with colors if they're ever thinking about changing colors, adding appliances for whatever room.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like your own personal interior designer.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we have a client who's a little tricky with picking colors.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: She's a little older, and it's been a problem in the past.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Good, good client.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I just got my bathroom redone.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the new, it was like uh navy blue vanity, and they have new tile, new everything.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said, All right, and this is over the phone, they're a little farther away.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just send me some pictures?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So she sent me some pictures, and I'm like, What are you looking for?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, something that ties everything together and like a neutral and lighter.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I said I took that, I got the pictures, put them in the chat, and you can just drag them right in, super easy.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I gave the exact prompt that she gave me like light colors, neutral, all that stuff tied together.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Give me two recommendations because the less recommendations I can do, and like I didn't look at any other colors all from I said from Sharon Williams.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, boom, it gave me it, split it in half with the exact colors and the exact picture.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, White ceiling, white trim, and it was perfect.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I sent that picture, it was a like a split before it, like eat this color, this color.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Man, she picked that color in no time, and it was like the easiest colored console that I've ever done.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was especially with that client because she like you could spend an hour just picking colors, yeah.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it saved me a good hour just with I could probably spend five minutes doing the rendering and sending it back and forth.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe ten, but and I didn't have to leave my office.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, anytime you don't have to actually go there is quite nice.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um but it actually gave me the colors I recommended from like other interior designers and research and everything, because I'm not the best to be like, get the I kind of know what colors our clients like, but if I'm trying to tie this together, I'm not a designer, yeah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't try to pretend to be, but chat's like a very good, it's like a very smart friend that gets a lot of things right, but it can still mess things up.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like it told me Muhammad Ali fought twice in a weekend, which that is not true.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey dad, because he's a big Muhammad Ali fan.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Did he fight like twice in a week?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, oh he was so nice.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't remember that son.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, then I looked it up and chat's like, oh no, he never fought twice a week.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And like, you told me yesterday that he did.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: You want to um like you want to like verify and stuff?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because that screwed me on a I made a video about flow troll, and I just asked uh Chad GPT, I'm like, when was Flow Troll invented?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like very kind, it was like 1963.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I was like, Cool, why would that be wrong?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't I I it was kind of on the yeah when I first started using it more to help with scripting and stuff, and then I I have it in the video and I had I made a cool visual of like a timeline going up, and then one of the commenters on YouTube was like, Hey man, cool video.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, um I I kind of remember when Flow Troll came out because I'm like, he's like he's like, I'm old.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, it's like I'm pretty sure it was like the mid-70s, and then I like looked it up again, and I was like, yo, chan, this is been in 1974.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh yeah, sorry.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't even say sorry.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even say sorry, I was just like, Oh yeah, no, that's when it was totally wrong.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: That was it's a thing and I can't change it because it's posted and you can't change stuff on the screen.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can't put text up.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just like yeah, but I'll tell you my my real real favorite thing to use it for.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because one thing I hate is whenever you have to use like new software or like all the like dumb IT stuff.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not dumb, but I just hate doing it because I'm slow and terrible at it.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So but like even like setting up a Google, a new Google email.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, what do you do next?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And all I do, I do is I have Apple, so I like what you do a screen capture of a picture of the screen of what it tells me, and then I drag it over to to chat.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I use Claude as well, but I put it to chat, I'm like, what do I do next?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then I do and then I go to the next screen because I do like one little baby step at a time because I friggin' hate all the IT, all the software, all that stuff.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like your personal like IT assistant, and it's so good because that stuff they know there's a lot of info, especially if it's like something with Google or like a well-known program.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's you're like, oh, you need to do this, enter this, do this, do that.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it within 10 minutes, it's like having a full-time IT person, and it's either free or 20 bucks a month.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the uh and I appreciate it because uh like I'm kind of the resident nerd as far as the the tech stuff goes, and uh like you don't ask me a lot of stuff anymore.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ask you those little annoying tech questions.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, my email doesn't work.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: What do I have to do?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what's this iMap pop thing and this thing?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, chat, what do I do?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm explain to me like I'm in seventh grade, and explain to me like now explain to me like I'm in third grade.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, keep going to grade down.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the Maryland Scott now.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, explain to me like I'm five.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: But it's uh it's so especially with software, because I do like I um I'm I'm decent with computers, um, but uh like just any software that's been around for a while, uh, so I use like final cut and some stuff for editing, it knows every single like because it all those rules are established and it it has already like operated, it it knows all that stuff.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you're like, hey, it it's very good at troubleshooting what your technical issues are, uh, which is extremely helpful.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know some guys, I would imagine the younger guys are going to be more uh comfortable with technology, but if you're like, you know, Josh and I are now in our 40s, so like we're if you're as new stuff's coming up, it's really nice to be like, yo, what's going on with this?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: How can I link this together?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a lot of is is like linking crap to other crap, and then things aren't talking to things, and it's just super frustrating.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if it is a very helpful, like uh almost IT guy that can help you troubleshoot through a technical issue, and I it's it's very good with that.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the um like you know, like the job or so like if you have a CRM software, it's very likely gonna know how to navigate through that.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so how do I link my website to this?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: How do I set up this in my website?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh yeah.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, how do how do I put this over here?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do that.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like, uh, was it shift command four screen caption?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: I drag it in.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of reminds me of the old school video game guides back in the day.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: If we remember playing Tomb Raider, uh, where do I go next?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like take three steps to the right and then jump.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was every step would be like Dude, we had like one cousin on the on the tomb of like the this crazy thick game guy.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, all right, two steps forward, stop right there.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: All right, now jump forward.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Side flip, pull the lever.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, got it.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Save it, save it, save it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Save it, save it.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't die.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's no save crystals in that one.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that was much better.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's been um uh so like color selection's a big one for uh painters, uh like your back-end tech support, also super helpful.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um the product stuff, I've you yeah, it's better to talk to guys that have used whatever product you're thinking about, or like uh a store manager or a rep that actually knows what they're doing.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in general, at uh you know, if you go to a Benjamin Moore store or a Sharon Williams store, it's very location dependent as to how uh how knowledgeable the staff is.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times you get like aged paint wizards that have been there forever.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we have one that we really like who's like kind of who we go to for like staining stuff, any like we and he knows like all that stuff.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's our oracle for painting.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: He and he's been very helpful to like f like actually getting us to the right product, finding like good color matches, all that stuff.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's good to have uh hum what do they call it uh in the like in the humans.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's like humant is like uh the the term in like the uh espionage world but that's human intelligence like you actually want someone that's got some experience with it um because there's some like ChatGBT has never picked up a paintbrush in its life and applied paint or used a sprayer or any of that stuff.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah because I've used it for product selection before like hey what should I use here and then it was not anywhere close to what I was like definitely not definitely would not want to use that product in that like application context.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: So but uh yeah if you as long as you understand the some of the limits of it and then kind of cross-reference it like because you use it a lot for your stock research and stuff and then you've been using a lot of cross reference cross referencing between chat GBT and Claude yes um which like I don't know how you said Claude's not very good with the image stuff yet Claude doesn't make images.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay it can analyze an image but chat is amazing with images so it's much better for painting.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I think Claude has another like I think it's it has they do some coding stuff yeah that I I don't use but it's very good on the financials for the uh stock uh research that I do and um chat's great too but I'll kind of have like my preferences for each one and then if I'm debate I'll cross reference like hey and I'll ask the same question to both but for painting and for like what I use it for color recommendations renderings for like a client give me a picture of this I'll put it with this color chat GPT's uh the best right now and it's getting and it's getting always getting like a little better and a little better.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like gonna be oh my goodness because sometimes I'll be like hey could you put Jeremy in a thumbnail I want this because we have a thumbnail guy over in the Philippines and he's awesome what's up Adrian yeah and uh they put it and they'll give you like a blonde beard and then uh but one time it made me a handsome Josh.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh dude they like they chatted me up I was like dude I like that guy better like it totally wasn't me he looked like a chin like more jacked he like a really like uh chiseled jawline like the yeah it made you look angry I'm like whoa I looked real mad I feel like chat was like just pumping me up yeah I was like thanks dude gass me up a bit appreciate that but but I mean I love it for it's like a great uh editor for text anything with words is pretty darn good yeah and then um like you said like an interior designer awesome and uh just um what was oh like an IT it's like an I it's like having a almost a full-time IT guy on your staff for 20 bucks a month it's insane yeah and also if you had questions about like insurance different stuff like that it's gonna get you pretty in the ballpark it'll get you in the ballpark it especially if you're completely clueless and you're like I don't know what to do for this like it'll be like hey here's it'll get you close it might not have the best recommendation but it'll get you like 80% there.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and Paul was telling me that uh he a lot of Paul's the guy from Benjamin Moore at the Oracle Resident Paint Wizard um he was saying that us uh so a lot of interior designers really like the Benjamin Moore ecosystem they're very like kind of designery oriented that's generally what they gravitate towards they like the color palettes and so forth.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: But uh he was saying that they were they were bitching because ChatGBT was taking their work uh which like made me laugh uh because um no shade on any interior designer that's actually really good but a lot of them are super annoying to work for and uh I just thought it was funny that like people just figured out exactly what we're talking about where they can pick take a picture of their room say put this color on the walls this on the ceiling this on the trim and it does it and they just need a visual representation of what it's going to look like or something close.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes and and that's uh that that's been like eating up some work I'm like oh that's it that that made me laugh I was like yeah I could see that because dude I just to put it into context we've worked with interior designers some so the good ones the good ones are amazing and they get you they put together combinations that you're like wow this is this is fantastic it's fun to paint those jobs and do that we've had others uh one particularly that they picked 17 different beiges and for one house for one house of like and it was a continuous interior so we were doing like little wall was this was a rancher it was a rancher and this it was the most we had so many trays out so many and it was that was so annoying and you could not tell the difference visually of the beiges it was so obnoxious and the the touch ups were a nightmare oh my goodness it was like uh paint by numbers like we had to like label Josh had tape on certain things we just had it was like every tray we had it was a closet for a master bedroom oh my god this wall over here I was like dude this is insane and they just kept coming in and being like oh maybe this should be this beige and switching you're like get out of here so when I use chat to do interior design work I just think of them like yes yes um but yeah as far as like painting and stuff goes that's uh that that I will be using a lot more um and I did it on another on like a shutter job uh just taking a picture being like make the shutters this color and it's it's very good at rendering it's gonna give and it's a good I mean it's accurate it shows what the color actually looks like without you having to do a sample without you having to do get to any paint and put it on.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah because one of the things that people struggle with because I've probably done I do a lot of color you've done hundreds and hundreds hundreds of color consults of people at this point and uh the the thing that I've figured out is that so if you're if you're a painter you can look at a swatch and you know if you're looking at a color deck the squares aren't very big they're like I don't know one inch or two inches by two inches or something like that.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can kind of either you've used the color before or you have you generally your your visual uh imagination is going to be really accurate because you're gonna be like oh I've painted this color before I know what it's gonna look like in this room I can picture it just by looking at it seeing if it's gonna work in the room.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people can't do that.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have good like visual imaginations.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they they have a hard time projecting forward and multiplying that little color out by you know a multiple of a thousand or whatever how much surface area it's gonna cover in the room.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you know when you had to do it before either you know they have companies like samplize that'll give you a bigger stick on thing that you can say like okay I'm gonna uh like I can see a little bit more of the color and different lights and things like that and then you can take it all the way to actually getting a paint sample uh which is like uh you know slightly less than a quart of crappy paint it's not it's just supposed to be the color representation not an actual good paint and so you then you can paint a whole wall or you can paint a big section of it and then get more and more of it but now you're getting into like applying product and then it's an hour to do two codes and this and drive there and all that.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if the client does it themselves a lot of times they put it on poorly so now you've got to like all this.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sand that probably my favorite is when they when they put the sample on fresh drywall and you're like ah okay cool.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: So and then you have to sand into the fresh drywall and it makes it worse.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so they because then you end up skim coating the whole thing.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for that versus this you can you know you could send it over and you can do like tri colors that you may otherwise wouldn't have gone with the sample because there's no there's no cost to it you're just generating do an accent wall where the fireplace is in this color make these walls this now change it now invert it you can do whatever you want.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah so it's just very and they're just they need kind of a a reference point of like what this is going to look like carried out through the whole throughout the whole room um and I will say because this is what I tell uh my clients as well when you're looking at colors on your phone those are not how they're gonna look in general it's gonna get you in the ballpark because uh your phone or your computer screen is backlit by either LEDs or OLEDs that the light's coming from within the phone outward into your eyeballs whereas all the paint that you're gonna be doing in a room light hits the paint that bounces off the wall and then it goes into your eyeball so the colors are going to look different it also depends on uh like people's settings on their phones they can tweak the color grade you have like uh like color drift on monitors and phones so like it's not a hundred percent accurate on the color but like when you it can get you much more in the ballpark uh which is usually what they're going for so it is very helpful just kind of be be aware it's not quite the same as looking at the color actually on the wall so because you have to kind of see how it interacts with the light and then if you're doing stuff for outside you can also tell it to uh the the more the better you prompt it the more accurate your things are going to get so make sure like give it the color the color code what manufacturer do you what product you want it in and then also like daylight you can say like what does it look like at dusk what does it look like in bright daylight like it can generate that pretty well um so those are my my caveats on the the difference between seeing it on your phone and actually in in real life so it's quite helpful I'm a big fan yeah I'm pro ai yeah well and I thought we could kind of wrap up our uh or uh talk about it where uh you know are you are you at all worried that it's gonna take your gerb if it takes our jobs all the other jobs will have been taken and we will have zero clients by that point so but no I'm not so cuz because I'll like me I'll say I I work in percentages so the fact that AI is gonna to steal everyone's job and we're all doing nothing and the dystopian robots are all shooting everyone and killing everyone point like oh oh oh oh oh one percent there's always a a a percent chance but I think uh it is AI was pretty much made if you're a small business owner like you have a it's like you can hire an IT guy you can have a full-time editor for any like text work that you do and you have a now interior designer all on staff for twenty dollars a month total yeah very smart they don't get everything right perfect and it's getting a bit better you know month by month and it is fantastic it is like I felt like it was built for me.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah well and uh well to for it to take like a so if AI was gonna be a painter like a robot shows up to somebody's house and can go in and do all the stuff that we do from like uh like client interaction to then uh like actually applying the paint they're not like uniform services so like it's not uh because I have friends that'll send me like a paint robot that's like spraying in a big factory and I'm like though they've controlled all the variables for that robot.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: You would need I don't know like a human-ish robot or uh I've been trying to think of like how would it replace what we do uh because you know everyone's like oh you think it's not gonna be your gerb but it could be yes but if you're on a computer all day it's going for that job first because it's very good at words and doing stuff on a computer.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well that's what I think is so funny uh because we we work for uh you know a lot of well-to-do folks in our area and it used to be they because we talk to the parents that's usually who's obviously who's cutting the checks and uh and now their kids are at different ages because we've been in the field for a while and and doing this and talking to them and it's the first time I think ever where I've had parents be genuinely interested of like how does someone get into the trades versus like you know they want their kid to go into actuarial science or insurance or like coding finance coding like all those kind of uh jobs where now they're like oh what yeah I mean and we're just like yeah we have plenty of work and like the if they have a goose smearing machine like I don't it's if they make a goo smearing machine I'll be the first one to buy that thing.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well I because I think it's give me the goo drone I will yeah well just because I yeah we were talking about the other day but I think you uh a lot of times it's doing stuff like so accounting is one that people are like oh accountants are done and I think more likely you're gonna have like one accountant that can do the work of like 10 with all these it just enhances your skills enhances your skills so I was like okay for painting I think we've bitched about this before but if they had like a Fez tool made like a Roomba that like attached itself to the wall and then you could fill it with joint compound and it would like go over the wall like a vacuum and like skim it and just make sure the surface is completely prepped perfectly like if it had something like that and I just thought of Fez tool because they have like some of the more advanced tools that we've used from like sanding to finish stuff like if they had something like that or like maybe uh maybe if you had like I know they have drones that have spray guns on them and they fly those around to get like things that are really hard to get but I don't know how accurate those are yeah and then you have like wind and everything I just it was like yeah it's not it's not high up on the uh things to uh AI take over paintings like probably number six million two hundred and twenty seven on the list.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well the trades are the trades are pretty safe right now uh but I think what it can help with a lot is your all the back end stuff the admin your marketing writing ad copy like any of that kind of stuff that most most guys aren't interested in it's like that you don't need to you you can have a a wonderful assistant take care of a lot of that for you.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes and it is the best hire you will ever make so I feel pretty I feel pretty confident in saying for at least the foreseeable future I'd say like for the next 10 years I think we're still be smearing goo.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's not no I'm not I'm not gonna well it's a it's a simple interest versus compound interest and it was like this with other things I might be wrong here but they're like it's it's getting so much better.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: If it keeps getting better at this rate eventually it'll be super intelligent it'll this and it'll it'll just do everything because it's so smart it can do it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: But it's kind of like with computing and computing power when computers were newer in like the 90s like how much faster it's getting and like even video games the graphics are getting better.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and at some point it's not compounding like you know if like if a hundred bucks turns like say if it compounds at 20% a year it's 120 dollars.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Then the next year 20 it's you're getting 20% on 120.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: But simple interest to me maybe this is too dumb and too nerdy but it'd be like say if you get 20% every year on a hundred dollars but then it's so you're at a hundred then you're at a hundred and twenty and then instead of compounding on the 120 it's compounding on the original 100.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: So now you're at 140.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right and 100 and the thing is that is so much slower of a process and it makes a lot of leaps up front and maybe but maybe I'm completely wrong here.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't see it like I don't I just don't view it I view it as a great tool that I want to use and I want to get better at because I I'm not gonna make I'm not gonna hire an interior designer I'm not gonna hire an IT guy and I'm not gonna hire uh an editor for my newsletter like I was never gonna hire people to do that but now I can for 20 bucks a month.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then my and our stuff is better.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: You right like my newsletter's better our interior designing our like our business is better because of AI.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah and it's I was just trying to think of like maybe if it could do like simple tech like if you had a a a robot that washed out your brushes oh that'd be fantastic.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: That would be cool but then I'm like how much would that robot cost to to accomplish this task and that's what it comes down to.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: But like it can do like if it's doing a in a car factory where it's putting in a few bolts or something like that.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's what the robots do.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I remember Elon Musk was talking about how they like in his factory in uh Texas the the like stuff that's super easy for humans is really hard for robots and I remember two like one of his examples was like you have two hoses that just need to get connected and the robot could not do that because like the the the they're all like flip flopping around and then for a human you just grab both of them and it was like half a second for you to make that connection and the robot was like going nuts to try and figure it out.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: So they uh if you were like gonna hire if you had like an Android robot that would show up and actually like do the painting like it's gonna be part of the crew.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: It would have to be I and I know they're trying to do this is making like a helper robot that is affordable but I was wondering like how heavy are they?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like are they going to mess up someone's home like especially you're dealing with paint that's open.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want something to do the dishes like laundry oh god that would be amazing.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah so I'm I'm not anyway I've I've thought about it a bit I'm like I'm not I'm pretty I'm I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be smearing goo on stuff for quite some time and then I would like if they gave me like some kind of Iron Man suit that I had like hover boots and then I didn't even have to use a ladder that that'd be cool.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: That would be and Fez tool has the uh exoskeleton where you can like it's uh it's kind of like a like a it's I haven't used it um and I know they have like military versions of it too but it basically supports your arms and it wraps around your back so you can hold a heavy tool like the uh their big sander that sands drywall on the ceiling and then it supports that um and you're like okay that's getting a little mech warrior painter suit yeah yeah that'd be cool but uh other than that I'm not too concerned any other hot takes on AI other than no I mean we're just just a a silly simple painter but uh I do like AI big fan of it and then uh we should probably point the people to the goo crew yes um yeah if you're uh you know listening to this podcast and you are a painter starting out or you're on a you're a painter that's on a crew of uh you know one to five or even more it doesn't really matter you could be just any any paint contractor any paint contractor come on over to the goo crew on school uh that is our online community over there and the for the first however many members we're gonna cut it off at some point probably 150 150 or so uh founding members will be will get in for free for life and then we're gonna have yeah for life and then we're gonna have uh paywall go up but we're really trying to make that community uh paint contractors helping other paint contractors and josh and I have uh some plans to make that a very compelling and uh you know useful use of your time um trying to make it the most useful place for paint contractors to go and we'll help you out with what you need help with.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we're working on the taglines and everything but we're just interested in like you know what do you guys need what do you want and how can we help and then helping you build a paint company you would actually want to operate um so and that's we're working on all the fiddly bits but check out the Goo crew on school um if it's under 150 members it's free to join and who knows where it's at uh by the time you listen to this.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Josh would you have anything else to add today or is that going to do it?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, sir that's our hot take on paint contractors talking about AI.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah hey it is useful for stuff I'm not worried about the robots although it would be sweet if you rolled up to like a huge job site and you had one of those like tanks from uh the Phantom Menace where like the big rack of droids came out and you like deployed them in their front yard that'd be sweet.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah if I didn't have to jump on a 32 foot ladder to get some of this high stuff that'd be great.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'd send them up there in a heartbeat.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like hold on let me let me park my droid army out front so um but uh until then it's just uh us us us guys and and gals just getting out there and smearing some goo around so alrighty folks well until next time y'all take it easy work smart and have a good one peace