Systems, sales, and hard contractor truths.
Contractor Secrets works like a shop-floor business clinic for painters, finished carpentry operators, and other home service operators. Episodes mix direct coaching calls, marketing lessons, faith-inflected founder stories, and blunt reminders that owner-dependent companies are hard to scale.
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Contractor Secrets is a working-operator business show aimed at the home service world. Its center of gravity is simple: contractors cannot scale a company that depends on the owner's hands, memory, phone, and constant improvisation. The show returns to that point from many angles. Some episodes are coaching calls with contractors who need cleaner offers, better hiring, fewer custom exceptions, or a more predictable lead flow. Others are solo-style lessons about marketing, value creation, sales practice, and what makes a contracting company worth something beyond the next job. The tone is warm but blunt. A struggling operator may get empathy, but the answer usually comes back to decisions, systems, and discipline. Contractor Secrets spends real time on Google Business Profile leads, Google LSA, Facebook ads, video content, CRM follow-up, office admins, production coordinators, estimating, sales role-play, and crew structure. It is also comfortable talking about the emotional side of ownership. Love for the craft can become bad decision-making. Custom work can strain teams. Financial pressure can make a founder delay the hire that would force the business to mature. Faith and impact also appear as genuine business motives, especially in founder stories like Corey Leister's account of Inspired by You. The show is not presented as detached theory. It is closer to a fast coaching room where contractors compare real constraints and leave with one or two hard next steps. For owners who want practical, specific pushes toward a more sellable and less chaotic company, that directness is the point.
Made for: Home service owners, especially painters and finish carpentry operators, who are busy, owner-dependent, and trying to build a more scalable business.
What sets it apart: The show pairs blunt live coaching with trade-specific operating detail, so strategy keeps landing in real issues like crews, estimates, admin hires, CRM follow-up, and lead channels.
It's no secret that a large majority of contractors are too busy working "IN" their business instead of "ON" their business. As a 3rd generation painter, I've first-hand witnessed the struggle of a contractor (my father) as he attempted to manage all aspects of his House Painting Business while still painting and performing the jobs. My passion is to free contractors from the chains of their own business, and truly help them achieve greatness through creating systems, processes, and standards...TUNE IN! Follow @OfficialTannerMullen on Instagram!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Contractor Secrets turns contractor growing pains into practical decisions about staffing, sales, marketing, pricing, and owner dependence.
Contractor Secrets treats a home-service company as an operating system under pressure. The host moves between one-on-one business diagnoses, owner interviews, solo instruction, and conference-style presentations, keeping the focus on decisions that determine whether a…
A door contractor wants faster proposals; you hear why that fix might miss the real bottleneck.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A blunt systems-and-pricing reset for a busy carpentry shop that still depends on the owner.
The conversation tracks a busy Denver carpentry shop through the same pressure points again and again: systems, automation, faster proposals, and an operation that still leans hard on the owner.
Faith-led hiring and team culture shape the episode, ending on family time and balance.
Corey Leister treats Inspired by You as a faith-first operating philosophy, not a slogan. Praying for divine connections, moving through open doors, and welcoming team members who show up at the kitchen, home, or shop office for work all feel part of the same pattern.
A practical look at predictable leads, Google positioning, reinvestment, and the sales habits that turn interest into revenue.
Home-service marketing turns into a lesson in predictability here, with growth and hiring tied to whether leads can be expected instead of merely hoped for.
A practical coaching episode about using an office admin hire to turn sales into real operating capacity.
Scaling a painting business comes down to one hard operating question: can a single crew carry payroll, marketing, coaching, expenses, and profit at the same time?
A clear, practical argument for marketing the employee opportunity as seriously as the customer offer.
Contractor Secrets treats hiring as a marketing problem with people at the center. A painting business, the episode argues, needs to sell the employee opportunity with the same care it brings to selling a repaint.
A faith-led reflection on unexpected hiring, team culture, and staying intentional with family.
The episode frames Corey Leister's faith-led hiring story as a look at culture built through conviction, obedience, and attention to open doors.
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
SaaS operators on scaling, pricing and AI, metrics included.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Corey Leister, founder of Inspired by You, shares her journey from rock bottom to running a successful cabinet refinishing business.
Brandon Vaughn presents the 'ultimate hiring flywheel' to help contractors attract and retain employees on autopilot.
This episode features an interview with Hunter Ballew, who shares insights on building and selling his roofing company for $48 million, focusing on entrepreneurship, team management, and personal background.
On Contractor Secrets, host Tanner Mullen and guest Katie Simons focus on missed painting leads and phone handling.
Contractor Secrets follows Jonathan as he launches Epic Light, a permanent LED lighting business targeting homeowners and commercial properties.
Chaos is not the system.
Corey Leister frames the conversation through faith.
This episode provides no-BS marketing advice for home service businesses in 2026, focusing on positioning and creating predictable marketing channels for growth.
This episode shares three strategies for contractors to leverage Facebook ads and operational systems to grow their business and work fewer hours by 2026.
A painting business owner shares how he scaled his company to $1.5 million in revenue while working only 5 hours per week through systematic delegation and detachment from day-to-day operations.
Durant Foot of Unlimited Painting says sales are "kind of, kind of down," but organization and production are the real problem around Jaden and the W2/sub mix.
This episode encourages home service business owners to shift their focus from making money to creating impact, using personal stories and examples like Bitcoin to explain how market value is determined.
This episode discusses how continuous learning, reflection, and making small iterative improvements in various business areas are key to unlocking value creation and achieving success.
The host discusses the importance of operating a business with good intent, sharing a personal experience of letting go of an employee to emphasize building a strong foundation and culture beyond just work ethic.
A painting business owner shares personal struggles and insights on leadership, team management, and the estimator model to help fellow entrepreneurs improve their operations.