Writing the story: “It’s All About The Fish” began my memory recall into the more recent years of this ever-expanding journey of mine.
This next memory began with my employment at the retail plumbing and hardware store.
In my story, “Stand Up For What You Believe In,” I introduced my employment with this store.
Being hired as a showroom consultant was a little intimidating. My husband is a licensed plumber. Other than what I picked up from stories of his jobs and could understand the verbal language of plumbing, I knew very little about plumbing.
Since this was retail, homeowners were who I dealt with the most. As the months wore on, I learned the “what is” and the “how-to” of plumbing. My innate teaching abilities helped me exceptionally well in selling. I never told the customers what they wanted. After listening to what they were asking for, I would show them the products. Then, I would show them alternatives if they indicated that money was an issue. I explained what they were buying, and as I taught them what they were asking for, it enabled them to make wiser decisions.
Most companies these days do not care what the customer needs; they are more concerned with what they are spending. This retail store was thankfully all about pleasing the customer honestly and acquiring lifetime relationships. I found I fit right in with the rest of the employees.
I also started to become well-versed in the store’s hardware section. I found I had a knack for helping to choose paint colors. Once again, it was all based on what the customer was asking for. I made it a habit to never tell customers that what they were asking for based on their own description was not what they wanted. I always followed the scenario to explain to them what to expect. If that was okay with them, I felt better knowing that my customer service to them had been performed seamlessly.
As time went on, I discovered that I preferred working in the hardware part of the store. I excelled (according to customers’ reactions) in both departments. I just liked or felt more comfortable in the hardware section. Another service we offered was to give any customer who asked a list of recommendations for different contractors. Being part of a small town, this service was taken very seriously. To remain on the list, a contractor had to show integrity in their service to any of our customers. Should we get 3 complaints on one name? That contractor was removed from our referral list.
I believe it was in my fourth year of employment that my life took a short journey down a surprising path.
I had become exceptionally well-versed in the paint department. The other employees actually started to refer the customers to me when they wanted help choosing paint. I remember one customer in particular who wanted to see all of the different shades of pink. She told me that she loved pink and could not get enough of it. It did not matter to her what shade it was; she loved pink. I smiled and led her to the paint department to show her the paint wheels. As we were on our way, I asked what room she was painting. Her answer gave me concern that she might need a little explanation about paint colors. This customer believed she loved the color pink so much that she wanted to paint every room in her house pink!
I inwardly took a deep breath and started to ask my usual questions of what kind of atmosphere and mood she wanted to create. Her answer of bright and friendly brought a little relief to my inward dismay at what her rooms were going to be. I explained to her what happens to a room when the colors of the walls are bold and dark. Not that it is unheard of, people often use dark colors in spaces where they want to make a statement. Usually, the dark color is used on one wall, which is called the accent or statement wall. In a very calm and friendly voice, I warned about what would happen when all of her rooms were going to be the same color. I explained that to really make a room pop with the color themes, one of the best ways that works every time is to put the lightest shade of the color you want to be displayed in the room on the walls. Depending on the color, sometimes that shade is a tinted white. Then when decorating your room, use items like pictures or paintings on the wall with shades of color in darker hues. If you have carpeting, you can also use a darker shade than the walls. The idea is that the walls are your canvas. A canvas is blank until you start to paint a picture. If your canvas is dark, to begin with, it will not show properly the items you paint on it. I then made sure she understood that the paint, once mixed with her choice of color, was non-returnable. She understood and ordered several gallons of a medium to medium-dark pink.
I was not surprised to see her back in the store about 2 weeks later. At this time, she thanked me for the advice and wished she had listened to me. Her following statement made me smile. She told me that she now hated the color pink!
This is just one of the many times I had advised a customer what the color they had chosen would do to their room. One of the employees had told me that I had a gift of being able to picture in my mind a soon-to-be-painted room or even a decorated room; in its finished state.
As I had said earlier, we had a list of contractors that we would recommend to our customers. After hearing female customers stating they did not feel comfortable with a strange man in their house, I began to think about my own painting business. I laughed at myself and discarded the thought immediately.
You would think that I would recognize a new adventure on the horizon by this time in my life, but no, I didn’t see this one coming. I did find, however, that I could not get the thought out of my head. I had even thought of a name for the company; “A Painter’s Edge.” Now, that name really made me laugh. I have often said to people that I couldn’t even draw a straight line!
But when that name stuck in my head for weeks, it brought forth a memory I had almost forgotten. One of my brothers and I had a conversation one time on painting. He showed me a technique that really surprised me on how effective it was.
When a person paints an edge, say the top of the wall right to the ceiling. No matter how slow they go or how careful they are, they will inadvertently paint the ceiling if they don’t tape the edge. My brother explained that even if the paintbrush was one with angled bristles, it didn’t matter. What mattered, and most people didn’t know this, was the bead of paint at the end of the bristles. Then he showed me using the paintbrush on a wooden flag he was painting; I was totally amazed that I had never noticed the bead of paint before! As he went along, I saw that as long as he did not push that bead of paint too fast, the color would not squash up and hit the line he was painting between. It was the bead of paint and not the bristles that would hit the ceiling in the scenario discussed. And by keeping your eye on the bead, the bristles would never hit the ceiling because, to control where the bead of paint went, you kept the bristles lower than the bead.
What a fantastic technique! No wonder why I could not get the name “A Painter’s Edge” out of my head. I also realized at this time that since the name just sort of popped into my head, and the whole thought of opening a painting business came out of nowhere, I should take a closer look at both.
So, I began to ask myself questions. One question in particular that sealed the deal was how it would feel to a female customer if a woman showed up to paint her house while no one else was home. From the reactions I had heard from several women, it was not that the men could not be trusted; it was just uncomfortable having a strange man in their home.
A Painter’s Edge was born, and I was on my way to my next adventure of this amazing journey. I keep calling everything amazing because I am always surprised at what I learn about myself. There is absolutely no way I would have ever believed anyone who told me 10 years earlier that I would own a painting business one day. I might have been the only employee, but I was a sub-contractor as well. That was not anything that would ever have been on my imagined horizon.
When painting doors and the woodwork surrounding them, I not only left out taping the walls, but I discovered another technique for painting the wood that took hours off of a house full of trim. I had found that working this technique of following the bead, worked so well that within 6-8 months, I no longer taped off the edges of the walls. I did not need to tape off on the lower edge of the wall to protect the baseboard either.
Sometimes when I look back on all the memories, I have written down. And discover there are still more to write about; I find myself in awe at how they had all been accomplished and fit into a life span that is clearly not over yet.
Stay tuned, for the next one is coming soon.