We are in our 9th year in business at Braun's Painting, and I'm excited to announce our grand initiative for 2024, Braun's Painting Network.
What is Braun's Painting Network? Simply stated, it is our digital content platform.
Braun's Painting Network (BPN) is an extension of Braun's Painting, LLC and will function as part of the business's overall operations. That said, BPN is much more than simply promoting Braun's Painting residential services.
Why Braun's Painting Network?
The purpose of BPN is to expand our reach beyond our physical market borders. It allows us to serve a much broader community. We have limited capacity at Braun's Painting and can only provide painting service to so many people with the man hours we have available. Our geographical reach is limited to Central New York for reasons of simple practicality.
Why don't you just expand, Steve? Hire more people?
Well, yeah. We're trying, trust me. We are always looking for new ways to grow Braun's Painting without sacrificing the quality product we can deliver. How can we recruit better? How can we train better? How can we develop better and compensate better? How can we build systems?
But that's a different blog post for another day.
The time for Braun's Painting Network is now. It's a vision I've had for the business for a long time, but it's one that requires dedication, commitment, and resources. It's an initiative that has long been pushed to the background during the daily grind of operating a busy residential painting business.
But the time has come. Braun's Painting Network is here and we have big plans to deliver a variety of quality digital content to a broad audience. We're excited about our initial goals for 2024 and the possibilities of what we can deliver in the future.
We have three primary goals for BPN.
Our mantra is simple.
Motivate. Train. Entertain.
Goal 1: To motivate our audience to improve their homes with beautiful painting projects. We want to inspire our audience with new ideas and concepts, and to encourage them to finally pull the trigger on that project they've been dreaming on! In my mind, residential painting is one of the most economically feasible, high-impact, and uplifting improvements for your home. The emotional impact of clean repairs, crisp work, and beautiful colors can truly drive happiness in a person's life. For more perspective, check out this article on color psychology.
And I'm not talking about selling Braun's Painting services here. Sure, if you live in Central New York and you're looking for a great residential contractor, set up your free consultation on our website today.
Regardless of where you live, we want to inspire you to hire a great contractor available in your market.
Or we want to encourage you to get it done yourself. Do it as a family or a group of friends. Whatever your situation, there is always a way to get your residence freshened up with an awesome paint job. Where there's a will, there's a way!
We'd also like to bring more positive awareness of the painting trade as a possible career destination for people. It's a trade that has garnered a poor reputation over the years (sometimes justified) for being a low-paying dumping grounds for the armpit of society. LOL, that may have been a little harsh. But we all know some of the common stereotypes and perceptions of painters.
The reality is that high quality painters (and there are a lot of them) are some of the most talented people you'll meet. It takes knowledge, artistic talent, physical skills, eye-hand coordination, and a lot of patience and attention to detail. You have to be an impressive person to be a great painter and we want more people to realize that and to consider it as a career. The compensation in terms of wages, benefits, and paid time off has increased greatly for painting employees over the years and it can be a lucrative career for those willing to take on leadership roles in the trade.
Goal 2: To educate (train) our audience on the residential painting trade. We want to provide engaging, high-quality content to educate our audience on the painting trade. If you're considering hiring a contractor for your project, I want you to be educated on what you should expect. I want you to know what a great contractor should provide. I want you to make a great hiring decision and get the results you deserve.
If you're going to take on the project yourself, we want to provide another trustworthy resource during your DIY journey. There are some great resources out there, but I believe we have a unique perspective as current, active operators of a 5-star rated painting service. We have the platform to regularly share useful information in a timely and well-produced manner. I believe we have the ability to deliver some incredible educational content, in an entertaining fashion, and that's what we aim to do. I'm confident we'll only get better as time goes on. I believe we have only scratched the surface.
We also hope that our efforts can assist current and aspiring painters of the trade, and other business owners with new ideas and fresh concepts so they can sharpen their skills, and we in turn can get better as well. We don't pretend to know everything, and we hope to build a community that can allow us to broaden our horizons as well.
Goal 3: To entertain our audience with industry-related content. We want to make you smile and laugh. A lot. Because at the end of the day we're all just chasing happiness and who doesn't love a good belly-aching laugh?
I'm a painter by trade. I'm a business owner by career. I'm a communicator by education. I'm a salesman by necessity. I'm a husband and father by love. I'm a humorist at heart.
When I was a little kid, I didn't sit at the table painting. I didn't care about making money or selling anybody a damn thing. But I would write some ridiculous humor stories just to make people laugh. First my mother, then any brother I could track down to give it a read. I love to tell stories and to make people laugh, and that will be reflected in Braun's Painting Network.
Sometimes it might be funny and informative. Sometimes it might just be funny. Sometimes it might just be ridiculous. We love to do parodies and spoofs and make fun of ridiculous scenarios that day-to-day life can put us in.
If you've never come across any of our past humor videos, keep on reading below and we will link you to some of our content.
Beyond humor, we have other ideas to entertain our audience with engaging, uplifting, emotional, and stimulating content that will always be relevant to our amazing painting trade.
What Is The Content?
To repeat our mantra.
Motivate. Train. Entertain.
We will be creating various forms of digital content across our BPN Channels.
Videos
At the core of our efforts will be our YouTube channel.
Take a visit and be sure to subscribe! We will be producing both short and long-form videos.
Several times per week, we'll be producing quick-hitting short videos ideal for consumption on your phones. These videos will be designed to motivate, train, entertain, or any combination of the three.
Examples of these short videos can be found here:
Informative Videos: Husky 15-1 Tool
Painter Comedy: Paintzetica
Motivational: Great Project Results
We will also be creating longer form videos on a more intermittent schedule.
We will be using our platform and experience to produce a series of educational videos under The Paint Trainer series. These videos will be instructional in nature on a wide variety of topics relevant to the painting trade. You can see an example of one of these videos here: Whitewash Your Brick Fireplace
We'll also be producing various painter comedy videos throughout the year. While these will often have an educational element, they are mostly designed to get a laugh!
Painter Comedy? You may be thinking.
If you've never seen any of our videos, I'd recommend checking out these two videos to get a sense of what I'm talking about. Yes, paint-related topics can be very funny.
If you watched those and didn't at least get a chuckle, please check your pulse as you may be dead inside.
As BPN grows, we have plans to produce additional types of content, but we will take it one step at a time.
Social Media
In addition to our YouTube Channel, you'll also be able to find our video content on other platforms as we aim to expand our social media reach. Please click below and follow us on the following platforms:
We'll also be announcing our private Facebook group soon, called Braun's Painting Network. Our audience will be able to request access to this group for easy and organized access to our educational and entertainment content, additional exclusive industry-related information, unique perks, and more direct lines of communication with BPN and our members.
Podcast
Beginning in April of 2024, we will be releasing the new Braun's Painting Network Podcast!
The podcast will be released in 6-8 episode seasons several times a year. This will provide our audience with an audio-only option to consider while going about their day-to-day activities. Listen on the treadmill, on your morning walks, or while folding your laundry. While painting is a very visual trade, there are many elements of the trade that make for great conversation, analysis, and debate.
We plan to discuss topics related to painting, color & design, industry trends & news, and a variety of other home improvement topics. We also see a big need for more transparency in the homeowner/contractor relationship and believe our experience can provide unique insight into the painting trade and home-service businesses in general. I also have a passion for business and marketing and will explore various topics related to that as well.
The intended audience for this podcast is homeowners, DIYers, painters, business owners, designers, contractors, suppliers and other industry pros.
While some of the episodes will be solo, we will also incorporate guests such as designers, contractors, product reps and more!
We will be sure to communicate when the first season is released.
Blog
We will use this blog on our website as a "home base" for our content. Each month, we'll provide our subscribers with a monthly summary of our content so you never miss an important video and you can stay in tune with what we've got going on.
This will function almost like a monthly newsletter and will be a great way to stay connected with Braun's Painting Network. Be sure to subscribe at the top of our blog page on the website to keep in touch.
How Can You Help?
If you like what you've seen so far from BPN and would like to help us grow, please be sure to visit our YouTube page and subscribe first and foremost. You can follow us on our social channels that we linked above, and definitely subscribe to this blog so you are always up-to-date on the latest BPN happenings.
If you have family or friends that you think would enjoy or benefit from our work, please pass it along.
Happy painting!
Steve Braun