July 2015 The Paint Spot Newsletter

The Paint Spot Newsletter (July 2015) Although The Paint Spot has been in existence since 2004, we didn't really start getting our "groove" on until one of our customers gave me the idea of writing a newsletter. Last month was the fifth anniversary of this newsletter. It was written mid month June 2010, and due to that (and a lot of subject matter last month), I thought it would be better mentioned in the July issue. In that original newsletter I outlined who I was and how I was going to differentiate The Paint Spot from the rest of the "riff raff". Our mission statement was (and still is) " We will change the world......one body shop at a time". Our strategy was simple "Whatever it Takes", which also became our motto. Fast forward five years, and this is what happened: I have painted many projects with many customers, showing them that I was anything but "just another salesman". I have revolutionized the whole concept of installing mixing systems with "NO" contract! You have tried new products on "my dime"....not yours! I have torn down the long standing notion that brand names such as PPG, Dupont, House of Kolor, and 3M are the "only real choice"! I have exposed any and all "secrets" that others before me had purposely kept hidden from you! Most importantly, I have been 100% honest with all of you every step of the way, which proves that "Honesty is still the best policy"...........will someone do me a favor and let the friggin Democrats in on that? To date we have been truly blessed with the best customer base any company could ever ask for, and I want ya'll to know, we will never take that for granted. I'm a bit older now, but I promise each and every one of you, I will still work my ass off for you! To date we have two patented products and two pending. Matrix is not the "Johnnie come lately", "copy cat" paint company that it was originally slandered as. It is now (and has been for quite some time) a "Tier one", "force to be reckoned with" in the industry! Northstar, a name that was not so commonly known is now a major name in the fleet industry and used as an OEM finish on many vehicles! SIA Abrasives is now a major player in the United States, and is far and away, the most quality and profit oriented in the industry!

Along the way many things have been talked about in this newsletter, but each and every one of them were brought to my attention by someone else. Anything related to the industry we serve, was usually brought up by a customer or potential customer. To answer your questions, that lead to me researching, separating fact from fiction, and then writing about it. In doing so, not only did we earn your respect and trust, but it also brought "experts" into my life. To date I'm happy to say that these "experts" and I are very good friends who, at my beckoned call are always willing to help. While I was busy "keeping you in the loop" other things occurred such as health issues. I figured that certainly this subject was important enough to write about, especially since I accidentally knew more than some about the subject. When I first wrote about health I was questioned by my staff on whether or not I should include that subject matter in a paint related newsletter. The question of right or wrong was answered pretty quick when I immediately started receiving emails and phone calls regarding health. Political content: This was a "no brainer", and since I'm not afraid to speak my mind, there was no way in hell I was going to shut up about the fact that a whole bunch of ill informed, mindless hippies, elected a racist dumb ass to the white house! This dude and his dumb ass Democrat party have given me no shortage of things to talk about! Speaking of that, how about the rainbow colored lights on our nations capitol! Now if you're queer and you are reading this, don't get your panties in a wad. Just to show I can see both sides, how about this: From now on when a customer orders couplers for air lines, they will be referred to as "bisexual" fittings. We're doing away with the "male" "female" designations of the politically incorrect past! Here's one for you Dan Bynum (A.K.A. the cigar man), I see a huge opportunity for you since you're in the cigar business......."Rainbow" banded cigars! I'm telling you man, it's going to be a huge market! Think about it, since we've now rewritten the laws of nature and scrapped God, there's blue banded cigars for baby boys, pink banded for girls, and now we'll need rainbow banded cigars for gays! Something for everyone bud, and just wait until they legalize sex with farm animals! Now mixed in with that stupidity, I did mention the word "GOD". That is what lead to another segment in this newsletter........"History". If you've noticed, my history segment always has reference to God. That's because "real" history always includes God! The list of accomplishments could go on for the rest of this issue, so let me just say this: Thank you all for your loyalty to The Paint Spot, and thank you for your interest in my little newsletter. Without your responses, I wouldn't have the passion or a reason to even do this. As long as you have questions, I will provide answers, and as long as you experience a problem, I will go out of my way to get you solutions! A follow up from last month: In last month's issue I was pretty upset with the way a friend was being treated by "traditional" medical doctors. Specifically, he was being treated for advanced liver disease. Prior to his trip to these so called "traditional medical doctors" he had been seeing a holistic doctor. During that time (approximately 3 months) he was definitely improving. He was able to walk, talk, and spend time with his girlfriend and family. Because of fluid build up in his abdomen, he had to periodically go in for draining. When he did, this is where the arguments started. The medical doctors did not like the idea of him seeking holistic means, and as a result, scared him so bad that he started listening to what procedures they wanted him to do. From the moment he started doing it their way, he began on a downward spiral. Chronic infections that were treated with chemistry on top of the chemistry they had prescribed for his original diagnosis.

I pretty much called out the traditional medical doctors for what I know they really are.........."ill educated" and nothing more than "extensions" of the pharmaceutical companies who write the protocol for treatment. It is my "first hand" experience with holistic medicine that gives me the ability and validity to make these claims. For those who think it's nothing more than "my opinion", you need to read the response that follows. Be aware that this is from a member of that "traditional" medical community, as well as a family member. She has served in various capacities of the medical field for more than 35 years...........................................................

Now here's the reality. I frequently speak in general terms when I'm throwing someone or something under the bus (not always....sometimes it's "point blank"), but as you can see from that response even within the ranks of the "traditional" medical community there are those who know better. This occurs when someone dares to think "outside the box". When someone questions what they see and what they've been told. When someone goes the extra mile to "educate" themselves outside the confines of the controlled environment that the cookie cutter curriculum offers. In doing so, they know that they are extremely vulnerable to the ridicule and mockery that awaits them from the status quo. And for what? Daring to be a "bad robot"? If you've ever wondered why I am so passionate about this subject (and several others), it's because being a "bad robot" is exactly what I aspire to be! Especially when being so helps, really helps, so many people! I don't care who you are and what you do in a lifetime, there is no greater feeling in this world than when you've truly helped someone! In it's simplest form, what I'm talking about here is nothing more than "education"! You know, the kind you have to get up off your ass and seek totally on your own........which leads me to my last segment............ EDUCATION: Several issues back, I talked about meetings amongst jobbers that had been set up via Brian Lynch and Ernesto Vasquez. These two are employees of Matrix that decided to change the way business was done. Bad robots? Probably, but if that's what you have to be to get answers, then count me in! Counting me in, is exactly what they did. This whole idea stemmed from many conversations that Brian and I have had for several years. In those conversations I was always asking why Matrix as a company did things that just didn't make any sense, and he was basically asking me why I looked at it the way I did. There was a definite difference of opinion, in which sometimes I would see things his way, and him my way.......COMUNICATION! Eventually this communication gave way to education, and that's where it all began. My biggest complaint was Matrix items that had been discontinued. I would always hear his explanation as to why they were discontinued before chiming in from my perspective. It became painfully obvious to me that a simple explanation was not going to work, so I started showing him how and what I did with those items, and that's when I got his attention. Many of the items all had two things in common, but upon careful inspection we realized that only one thing had been considered when the trigger was pulled........lack of sales! Apparently that was good enough reason for the "bean counters", but it was definitely not enough for me (us). That second commonality was "marketing", or should I say "lack of marketing"! How did we know this? Simple, we communicated! We also just so happened to be at The Paint Spot while many of these conversations took place. Now that begs the question of why The Paint Spot would be significant? Well, because most of those discontinued items were all viable stock right here in my store. We routinely used and sold all of them, and when I showed Brian just how important they were to our operation, he understood what I'd been trying to say for so long. In short, Matrix wasn't selling them because Matrix didn't want to sell them! Fine by me, you run your business however you see fit, but realize this: You negate your right to demand that your sales staff increase their sales! We took that and brainstormed it further down stream. Many things came up, and I remember tying together some of my pet peeves such as jobbers having "competing paint lines" in their store, and the lack of "custom paint" sales, both of which The Paint Spot is not guilty of. Why? We were on to something, or at least we thought we were, but to know for sure, something had to happen, and it had to happen at this level! The questions: Were these items really redundant, useless, or obsolete "SKU's? Was the custom market just an "all but worthless" segment of the industry? Is a complete Matrix system really so limited, that a competing line was necessary? OR: Were the "Jobbers" oblivious to what Matrix was really all about?????????????? As far as Brian is concerned, he is NOT one to say anything negative about Matrix, he's as loyal an employee as it gets. Me, well my money was on the latter, and I'm the most loyal Matrix distributor they've ever hoped to have! So much so, that I am willing to sacrifice my own time and my own money to do "Whatever it Takes" to identify and fix "their" problems. I have several examples of either non existent marketing, lack of marketing, improper marketing. I even have one example (and arguably several more) of me personally being the SOLE marketing "GLOBALLY" (I will submit proof upon request). Since there was at least a question of whether or not those entrusted with selling the Matrix brand (jobbers) were basically given a distributorship, not properly vetted or trained, and then expected to grow like gang busters, it had to be addressed. With all that said, the obvious question is: What about the "Warehouse Distributors" (W.D.'s)? The Plan: To hold meetings in test areas where all jobbers and warehouse distributors are invited to sit next to each other. To step by step walk through the complete Matrix line. "Accushade": to be gone through from start to finish, and completely understood throughout. Hands on demo's on certain techniques applicable to the industry. To educate the jobber AND warehouse distributors of what they have access to when they have "The Matrix System". To give them the understanding that they are the "eyes and ears" of this company, without which, the company could not survive. To get them "Tier One" training that virtually no other paint mfg has ever offered before. To assure them that this information is not just the criteria by which a Matrix distributor is accepted upon, but it is essential in approaching and understanding the end users needs. Finally, to show them how versatile the system is! That last one is my favorite. Outside of Chris Butler, Aaron Mastro, and Dave Brunori, I'm willing to bet I'm the only one in this country that best knows the complete system. Since all those other guys have job titles that prohibit them from attending our meetings, I have to suffice, and I love every minute of it! Brian is a stickler for keeping the agenda, but he's also 10,000 leagues above us, in that he's just so friggin smart and he's got the ten dollar technical terms coming at you a million miles per hour. My role is: To "dumb it down" a bit so all who attend can go out the next day and translate what they learned into dollars. Ernesto's role: is to sell us on the idea that a power point presentation really is the best approach. My other role is: To tell Ernesto to sit down and nix the power point! If any of you suits up there in Ohio are reading this, ya'll need to lighten up on Ernesto. He's starting to believe that power point shit, and we all know what kind of trouble that can cause.......just ask Ken Papich! FYI Ken: we "discovered" what should have been in your "discovery" meetings...............MARKETING and THE MATRIX SYSTEM!!!!! Sorry for the sarcasm, power point does have its place, just not right now....please! Are the meetings working? Hey Brian Jones from BCI Supply in Conroe Texas.....do you think it's working? I am so glad to know you! Brian Lynch, how about you? You were the brain child behind this whole thing, and I haven't forgot the time you got me and Joe from V&M to sit down together! I'll bet you had 911 set up on speed dial for that meeting. Turned out to be "just what the doctor ordered" instead......LOL!!!! They're working so good that if I were Dave Brunori I would see if I could con Brian Lynch into heading up a national version of them. Not to mention making them mandatory as well as a prerequisite to even being a Matrix distributor. Furthermore, I would exploit the fact that this is unprecedented in the industry which clearly shows that Matrix is far and away the ONLY "true" tier one paint company in the world! "Whatever it Takes" (Communication) Rick Ciotti