Ep.217: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Stone (@michael-stone). My guest today is Mike Stone, CEO of CertaPro Painters, the largest painting company in North America structured as a franchise with 370 owners across 500 territories and over $700m in revenue. Their goal is to become a $1B company shortly and a $2.5B revenue company by 2032. The painting industry is a $60B industry growing modestly and is highly fragmented, making this an interesting industry to explore given the lack of similarly-sized national competitors. Mike and I talk about why the industry is so fragmented, the tailwinds behind the industry, what needs to evolve and grow to hit their growth goals, and how CertaPro builds a differentiated playbook within home services. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.  Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.  Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Mike on LinkedIn CertaPro Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:26) - Mike’s path to the CEO of CertaPro (00:09:16) - Meeting Herb Kelleher (00:11:25) - Where does your company stand today among competition? (00:13:14) - What is holding back your competition from scaling like you? (00:14:54) - Is it faster growing under a franchise model? (00:19:52) - Are there other consolidators chasing talent? (00:22:37) - What has become harder as you’ve grown? (00:26:59) - Successful meeting structures (00:29:24) - What data do you value for marketing? (00:32:22) - How does seasonality affect business? (00:33:43) - What else do you need to build to scale to your goals?