Ep8 - It’s Never Too Late to Become a Decorator | Martin Reynolds | Brush Wizards Podcast

How do you launch a completely new paint brand into an already crowded industry — and make it stand out? I sat down with Rob Green, co-founder of COAT Paints, to find out. COAT shipped its first tin of paint six years ago, after Rob and his co-founder — also called Rob 😂 — spotted what they believed was a gap for a more modern, premium and sustainable paint brand. rob-gary Rob had already worked with the likes of 3M and Sherwin-Williams, but building a paint company from scratch was a completely different challenge. rob-gary We get into: 🎨 Why they believed the paint-buying experience needed changing 📱 How social media helped COAT grow ♻️ Why their paint is made to order 🇬🇧 Their focus on UK sourcing and manufacturing 🖌️ What COAT offers professional decorators 🎨 Their peel-and-stick colour samples 💪 Why opacity has become such a talking point with decorators 🧱 Mist coating new plaster and why Rob warns against cheap mist coats 🪵 Primers, woodwork paints and exterior products 💷 How the COAT trade account works We also get properly technical about the paint itself — including Rob explaining why COAT's Flat Matt sits at around 2% sheen, is Class 1 durable and why they recommend two coats even when customers think they've nailed it in one. rob-gary rob-gary A really interesting conversation with someone who's gone from working for huge established brands to building one himself. And after only six years, COAT already feels like it's been around a lot longer. 🎙️ The Brush Wizards Podcast with Rob Green, co-founder of COAT Paints.

I sat down with painter and decorator Gail Howes for a really relatable chat about something I think loads of us struggle with. You can be bloody good at decorating, have plenty of work coming in and still find the actual business side difficult. Gail has been decorating professionally for around eight years, after getting an opportunity to help another decorator on a job. What started with helping with prep eventually led to her building her own busy decorating business. We get into loads in this one: 🎨 Getting started in the trade 💷 Pricing and knowing your worth 📝 Putting off those bloody quotes 💰 Deposits and protecting your diary 😂 The dreaded “could you just…” 👨‍👩‍👧 Balancing work and family life 🤝 Having other decorators around you 📈 Growing beyond simply creating yourself a job One thing I really enjoyed about this conversation was how open Gail was. She admits she can end up with six or seven quotes waiting to be typed up simply because she hates doing them — something I reckon plenty of decorators will relate to! We also talk about Gail's ambition to eventually build a team, have a few vans on the road and take a step back herself. A proper conversation about decorating, business and working for yourself. Grab a brew and have a listen. 🎙️

How do you go from selling a couple of paint brushes from a staircase to building one of the best-known online businesses in the decorating trade? This week I'm joined by Megan from My Paintbrush for the story behind the business. My Paintbrush took its first order in 2012 after Megan's dad, Andy, had the idea of importing brushes from America. Megan was at university, knew her way around a computer and joined him. What followed wasn't some overnight success story. They went from packing orders by a staircase, to a garage, then a freezing cold shed where Megan remembers questioning whether the whole thing was actually sustainable. They reinvested what little they made, took some big gambles, gradually expanded the range and eventually moved into proper premises. We talk about the sacrifices behind building a family business, tiny margins, working with your dad, customer service, social media and why showing the people behind a business matters. We also get into: 🖌️ How My Paintbrush started 📦 Growing an online decorating business 🟡 Why masking tape has become absolutely massive 🛠️ Mirka, Arroworthy, Repair Care and other products decorators are buying 🍫 The story behind putting a Freddo in every order 🤯 Why they're now getting through around 60,000 Freddos a year ⚽ Megan's football background and what it taught her about business 👩 Women coming into the decorating industry 👷 The next generation of painters and decorators 📱 Why social media is changing how decorators market themselves 👨‍👩‍👧 The realities of running a family business I really enjoyed this one because we all see My Paintbrush online, at shows and through the boxes arriving at our doors — but we don't necessarily see the years of graft behind it. A proper family-business story. 🎙️ Brush Wizards Podcast with Gary Proctor.

Why can a colour look amazing on a colour card… and completely wrong once it's on the wall? This week on the Brush Wizards Podcast, I'm joined by qualified colour consultant Jane Holland for a fascinating conversation about something most of us decorators deal with every day — colour. Jane didn't start her colour consultancy business until she was 55, after spending 37 years working in accounts. After studying interior design, she discovered that colour was the part she really loved and went on to specialise in it. We talk about why choosing the right colour involves far more than simply finding one you like. Light, the direction a room faces, flooring, furniture, fabrics, adjoining rooms and even the undertones hidden within a colour can completely change how a finished room feels. We also get into Farrow & Ball, Dulux Heritage, Tikkurila, COAT, Little Greene, colour matching, different paint finishes and some of the mistakes decorators and homeowners can make when choosing colours. Jane also explains why she would never recommend a paint colour in isolation — and why decorators might benefit from working alongside a colour consultant rather than being expected to have all the answers themselves. Plus, we talk about starting a completely new career later in life, working for yourself and the importance of having a community around you. If you've ever painted a room and thought, “Why the hell doesn't that look like it did on the colour card?” — this one's worth a listen. 🎙️ Brush Wizards Podcast with Gary Proctor.

Why can you be brilliant at your job and still spend Sunday worrying about Monday? In this episode of the Brush Wizards Podcast, I sit down with cognitive hypnotherapist Sarah Ariss for a really interesting conversation about anxiety, overthinking and why our brains sometimes react to danger that isn't actually there. We talk about where anxiety can come from, how experiences from years ago can still affect us today, why self-employed people can struggle to switch off, and why even decorators who've never had a complaint can still convince themselves the next job is going to go wrong. We also get into boundaries, burnout, self-care, changing careers, side hustles, community and the importance of actually having a life outside work. And Sarah gives some simple ideas you can start using to notice what's going right rather than constantly looking for what might go wrong. A proper conversation about understanding yourself a little better — particularly if you're self-employed and your brain never seems to switch off.