Krystal Brookes of Affordable Sunshine Coast Painting talks lining up your values for success, social presence, expectation management, her worst client, hiring, leadership and staying mentally fit.

“My values are in the right order… my children come first, above anything else and that is why I went into business, to create freedom in my world, to turn up better as a mother.”

If you know Krystal Brookes, you know she values family first and being balanced. Line up your values in the right order. In this now available podcast episode between painter, Krystal Brookes, and Mike Knoche of The Contracting Handbook podcast, the conversation hits upon those values, the side hustle, the nuance of relationships, mental health, leadership, scaling up via hiring and the best tools!

While Krystal acknowledges that the movement to support women in the trades, Krystal gives a shout out to the men who have passed their knowledge to her.

We dive straight into her growing social media presence, is it Affordable Sunshine Coast Painting or @_paintchick_ ? I’m not going to give it all away here but it’s a good exploration of creating content and why, potential for monetizing, and the pitfall of social media as a marketing tool for business.

Krystal’s clients appreciate and admire her intention to be a better mum through self-determination and financial freedom and, though the vast majority are excellent, there are those occasionals that can’t be managed. Try as we might fellow contractors, expectation management is not black and white…

Krystal and Mike debate (not really a debate) word of mouth vs other means of drawing in clients but this quickly turns into a chat on red flags and the interior dialogue when they’re on the phone!

Krystal has a vision for scaling up her business and draws on her experience gained managing projects for one of her mentors who saw her natural talent for leadership and detail orientation. We wade into leadership from here…

Krystal is all about routine and keeping stress in check with all kinds of extracurricular activities! She’s a creature of habit and that’s how the balance happens.

Before the “speed round”, we drop into the nuances of the dietary habits of tradespeople, how to treat & read people and learning from the mistakes of others!

Then we rip through the speed questions (6:55am her time) because she’s got to get the boys off to school and roll to work!
Her question to you business owners “Do you need a social presence in order to run your business?”