Elevate Springfield

Elevate Springfield featuring Amy Peterson: Elevating Through the Power of Quality Customer Service, Community, and Local Support

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Summary

In this conversation, Amy Peterson shares her journey from a paralegal to a successful entrepreneur in the painting industry. She discusses her background, the evolution of her business, The Closet Guy, and her involvement with Contact Ministries. Amy highlights the importance of customer service and maintaining high standards in her current role at Dan Deweese Painting and Finishing. The conversation also touches on trends in the painting industry and the growth of the business over the years. They also discuss the importance of communication in business, the value of supporting local businesses, and passion for downtown Springfield. They emphasize the need for community engagement and positivity, while also sharing insights on personal growth through reading and health. The conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities facing downtown Springfield and the importance of fostering a supportive community.

Takeaways

  • Customer service and communication are key to their success.
  • Trends in the painting industry are constantly changing.
  • The company focuses on both residential and commercial projects.
  • Amy emphasizes the importance of honesty in business dealings. Honesty in communication builds customer trust.
  • Quality and reputation are crucial in business.
  • Supporting local businesses strengthens the community.
  • Downtown Springfield is historically significant and vibrant.
  • Engaging with local business owners fosters community spirit.
  • Personal growth can be achieved through reading and self-improvement.
  • Health and wellness are essential for a fulfilling life.
  • Positivity can counteract negativity in community discussions.
  • Investing in local businesses benefits everyone.

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SPEAKER_03

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your life, your business, all of it. Time to crush those goals, time to get after it. Let's go. You are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10X coach, speaker, and mentor here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're gonna Elevate Springfield. We're coming to you again from beautiful downtown Springfield in the Big Dog Construction Studio. Hey, we've got so much going on in Springfield right now. Make sure you are participating. Get out there, network with folks, be a part of the community, support local businesses, support local nonprofits, and let's go, we can all grow together. So, hey, another great episode for you today. We're gonna get right to our guest after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial. They are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. And we are back. Joining me in the studio now is quite frankly one of the biggest supporters I've seen of downtown and also a part of a great business right here in town. So let's welcome Amy Peterson. Amy, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01

I'm good. How are you? Fantastic.

SPEAKER_03

Thanks for coming down on what is a pretty beautiful Springfield morning.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Great day in Springfield.

SPEAKER_03

No doubt about it. So of course you're with Deweist painting and finishing, right? Yep. But uh we'll talk about that here in a bit. Let's learn a little bit more about Amy. Tell us a little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_01

So I actually graduated with a bachelor's in legal studies back when it was uh, you know, Stangham in State. That's where I met my husband, and we were both in a legal studies program. So I was a paralegal for 14 years. And then um in that time frame, had three kids. And then my husband had a job switch. And long story short, we started The Closet Guy. So we did that together for 12 years. And then we sold that. He got another opportunity, had a job where he traveled a lot and was in that industry. And then during that time frame is when I started working for my brother Dan at Dan Deweys Painting. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Closet guy. I didn't realize you guys did that. I didn't know that backstory.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, yep, yep. We own the closet guy. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, before that, the paralegal stuff, what what drove you to get into that?

SPEAKER_01

I was in college and I didn't know what I wanted wanted to do, and law stuff seemed kind of exciting. And so out at uh Sangma State UIS, they had a great legal studies program. We had some really great guys out there. And so I just dove into that, thought for a while I wanted to go to law school, and then realized, hmm, I just think I'll stick with the uh assistant type level stuff. So yeah, so I was at the state's attorney's office for a while, a couple different private law firms, loved it. But when we started the closet guy, my husband was running that on his own. And after two years, I was like, Can I just help you? And then also the kids were at the age where I could be flexible and take them to the pool and do stuff like that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Cool. Did you grow up around here then?

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. I'm the oldest of seven. Grew up in Springfield, right over kind of near Blessed Sacrament. So yeah, born and raised here. My husband's born and raised here.

SPEAKER_03

So So Springfield High?

SPEAKER_01

I actually went to Southeast.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, South. That would be South. Would that be Southeast there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we're right there on the edge. That would be right there. Yeah. At the time I was ticked because I so wanted to go to Springfield High. And um, you know, I wanted to see what I could do to, you know, get a transfer and uh didn't work out. Went to Southeast, absolutely loved it. Just it was great.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome. Okay. Yeah, I guess I didn't I knew that it went up close to that. I didn't realize that for it.

SPEAKER_01

And then where my where we live now is not too far from where I grew up, but that's Springfield High. Okay. So my kids all went to Springfield High. So then they made fun of me and because I was Spartan.

SPEAKER_03

I'm like, yeah, that cross town rivalry still.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, come on now.

SPEAKER_03

Well, speaking of Springfield High, they've seen the new brick on the side there with the new logo and everything, all the inlay there. That's pretty cool. That's gonna be nice.

SPEAKER_01

It is really gonna be nice. Yeah, they're doing a lot of work on that. And I'm kind of glad my kids didn't have to live through all of that.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, were they outright before before that all started?

SPEAKER_01

Our youngest graduated in 2022, and then it started, I think the project started in like 24, maybe 23, 24.

SPEAKER_03

Nice when it's all done. Landfear certainly certainly turned out great.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, I'm so glad that it's right there in the heart of the community, staying where it is, and uh didn't move or anything.

SPEAKER_03

So absolutely. So tell us about the closet guy. Why'd you guys decide to get into that? Tell us the evolution of that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

The evolution of the closet guy. So my husband, uh Brooke, was uh at the time, he worked in the um legal field too, the environmental field, and it was after 9-11, and he was downsized out of the job. So he was looking for a job, and at that time it was a really hard time to find a job. And so he was looking and he actually painted for a little bit with a couple of my brothers, and I thought, I did not want to be in the painting business. It's a long time ago. So I was I was like, nope, we both went to college, we're gonna be in the law field, this is what we're doing. So he did that, and then uh I love organization. So I had this side hustle where I did organizing for people. So I'd go to their house, clean out their closets, that kind of stuff. And one day I said, I need shelves. Can you help me figure out shelves? I mean, internet was still really new, is how long ago it was. So he said, sure, I'll help you. Well, I get like sidetracked. So I walked out of the room. He starts playing with this computer information, and I'm like, you have at it. So next thing you know, we get a packet in the mail from ClosetMade for becoming a dealer. And I'm like, How did that happen? We were just literally on their website just trying to figure out information. Right.

SPEAKER_03

The early days of cookies and everything.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. So he looked into it and said, I think I might want to do this. And he knew a lot of people, very, you know, outgoing and handy. So I thought, well, why not go for it? So yeah. So he just looked into it, went to training, and we started our own business.

SPEAKER_02

Great.

SPEAKER_01

And then he did that until, like I said, we sold the business in 2016. We started it in 2002.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. So did you continue the the organizing part of that as you went through, or did you just really start focusing on, hey, here's the build-outs for the clause?

SPEAKER_01

I did. He he did that because that's the that's the funny part about it. Is when I said I wanted to learn how to install shelves and do that, that was fake. I mean, it's like I not handy at all. So so he he did that, but we kind of partnered together. So sometimes I would have clients who would end up, you know, needing some closet, you know, reorganization as far as structurally. You know, they had like one wire shelf and that was it. So he would get involved with that. So I did it part-time. Then I also got really involved in contact ministries and Jennifer Isringhausen reached out to me and knew her at the time. She said, Hey, we need help in our basement. So I went in there and their donation system was not very organized at the time. So they had this huge room, tons of donations. And so I slowly started going through that and creating systems and helped set up what's now called the basement boutique.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool.

SPEAKER_01

I had a friend of mine who had been helping, and we went down there once to get clothes. I'm like, this is not helpful at all to have people bring clothes up to you. We create a system where people can actually shop for themselves. So I did that. Um, I think I started that in like 2009, 10. Okay. And then did that until 2016 because when we sold the business, my husband got a new job, and then I needed to get a different job. So that's when I started working for my brother. I did the organizing, uh, did a lot of public speaking, loved it. But now I just barely keep my own house organized.

SPEAKER_03

What kind of public speaking? What kind of topics were you talking about?

SPEAKER_01

Organization. Oh, okay. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Would just go and like mother of preschooler groups. I did even senior centers. I would go talk to them about downsizing, preparing for moving out of your house, going to retirement. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So well, contact ministries, we've talked a lot about nonprofits on the show. That's one we haven't really talked much about. So anybody that out there that might not know what contact ministries does, what do they do?

SPEAKER_01

So they have a uh women's shelter. And so women who are homeless with their children can live there. But while they're there, they are training them, trying to help them, you know, make sure they're getting their jobs lined up, getting financially stable. They've got fine, you know, financial classes and they've got a playroom for the kids. So in the mornings they could have, you know, volunteers watch the children while the moms would go and have these classes. Sure. So and then they do Bible studies. So it's a Christian organization and um supported by a lot of churches. And then they have an emergency shelter too. And they can spend the night just, but they're in for one day. Right. And then they're out. And they can keep their stuff there, but they're not as involved in the programs, the day programs. So that's more of a transitional housing type thing. So knowing it's great. They do, you know, we collect food, they um and then they do clothing donations. So, and I think it was DSI that just did a big clothing drive for contact ministries. That's awesome. So, and one of the volunteers that was with me, when I was there, recruited her to take my place when I left. And then she retired, but then I heard that they lured her back. So um, because it takes a lot. That's the thing is when people do donate stuff and they bring their donations to places, you know, you have to have people on the other end.

SPEAKER_03

People have to go through the sorted.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And a lot of times when people clean out a closet, they're cleaning out all their size 10 pants because they either went up or down. Right. So an agency will get five bags of all size 10 clothes. So sometimes it's a little overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna have to have them in. Uh my Wednesday segment's all about associations and nonprofits and haven't had them in yet. So talk about what they do.

SPEAKER_01

Cindy Drum is the executive director, and uh she's great. And like I said, there's a lot of great volunteers there.

SPEAKER_03

So awesome. Well, you've been uh in the painting business now for 10 years, I guess, since since 2016. Yeah. Um tell us a little bit about the company first.

SPEAKER_01

So the company was founded by my brother Dan, who is the youngest of the family. Like I said, I'm the oldest of seven, and he started it in 2014. Just him and a couple of friends uh recruited one of my brothers, Steve, to work with him. Uh, we'd been raised in the painting business. My dad started a painting business when I was seven, did it for a long time, and then he ended up working for uh another painting company here in town, had the hassle of running his own business, just kind of wanted to get a regular check, all that stuff. And so he did that. And then my brothers were working with him, and then Dan decided I just want to start my own. So he did, you know, thought that's awesome. Never in a million years would I thought that I would have been working for him for 10 years. Because honestly, when I started, uh, you know, my husband got this job, and I thought, well, I'll just work for you part-time. I go help out, I'll help you out, your cute little painting business. Right. I had no idea. So I was like, whoa, this is this is quite a place. So with my background of being a paralegal and all of my owning a business and office stuff, I was able to come in. And so I do a lot of the HR, the social media, um, the scheduling estimate. I don't actually estimate, but I mean I can help with the back-end process of it. So of course, you know, work with him and a couple of my brothers. Dad's gonna be 80 this year. Sorry, dad, I just outed you on how old you're gonna be, but yeah, he's gonna be 80 and he's still working for us. It's keeping him young. That's awesome. Yeah, so he works about four days a week and uh he taught us all everything we uh need to know.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, so painting's been in the in the blood since literally early on.

SPEAKER_01

We grew up in an old house and probably full of lead paint.

SPEAKER_03

So business is business itself is about 12 years old, and you've been a part of it for 10. So what were some of the things you guys did early days and how's it changed over the years?

SPEAKER_01

So early days, I mean, when I started, we literally had a calendar, we called it our at-a-glance, you know, just one of those desk calendars and had the crew written on there and where they were going. We had, you know, I think there's like eight working at the time when I started. And so I didn't really know how things worked. My brother would, you know, guys would just magically show up at jobs. I'm like, this is great. And as I slowly learned, I'm like, okay, you have to figure it out and schedule it and all this stuff. So I watched it grow from that to the we called the at a glance to, you know, another paper system. Now it's we have a computer system where we keep the schedule and you know, we can look at it and it's tied into our QuickBooks and it's all very fancy. So so that's one of the things that we still laugh about. And just our our demand, my repeat customers are so awesome. So we have a lot of people that we've been working with for the past, you know, 12 years.

SPEAKER_02

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

And then a lot of them were my dad's customers. So, and then we're working with the next generation of, you know, like a lot of my dad's customers are, you know, his age, you know, between 70 and 80. So then their kids. So we're getting the the younger generation that's calling us. And now it's we've had people, you know, have had babies, you know, we've we've lost customers. That's always hard. So it's a little bit more competitive out there. There's other painting companies. Yeah. So we definitely try to make sure to differentiate ourselves because we we try to hold ourselves to a really high standard. I mean, that's one thing that my brother values is to take care of our customers. If something's wrong, whether it's our fault or not, we're gonna take care of it. We don't like to ask a lot of questions. And I think that's the biggest thing that our customers get surprised by because people will call in, guns blazing. Oh, this isn't right. You missed this. Okay, no problem.

SPEAKER_03

We'll we'll take care of it.

SPEAKER_01

And we'll get there as soon as we can. But you know, we've got a lot of good employees and like good customers. So I don't know. I think we've just been really blessed, but we just work really hard and we're very focused on what we're doing.

SPEAKER_03

That high standard, I think I can attest to that. I've never had you guys do any work for me, but I used to be the uh president of the Home Builders Association. I was part of that group for for quite a while. And a lot of the builders would say, Oh, yeah, I'm getting I'm hiring to we're so Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we definitely appreciate that. With our builder relationship that we have is very valuable. And then also our residential customers. We do a lot of kitchen cabinets, a lot of painting of those. Right now we're seeing the trend going back a little bit more to the stained cabinets, which is interesting to watch to be there 10 years and watch the trends, how they're coming. When I first started, all the grays were in and the grayish, and and now some of the darker, bolder colors are trending. So it's it's fun to watch people change out. I always tell people just go with what you like. I personally don't like to keep up with the trends because they change them, they change them on purpose.

SPEAKER_03

Then all of a sudden you feel like you're out of date or something. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

So my house is pretty much like really a light gray and white trim, and I'm fine with it. Right. I'll decorate with my accessories because I've done all the bold colors, I've done the reds. I've I feel like I already lived all the trends. Right. Because I started painting my house in the 90s. So I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm not doing that again.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we we did that. That's our house is the same right now. It's like light gray and white trim and everything. We can just dress it up, however, from there. But I remember when we were young in our in our first house, we painted our kitchen and it was when the I don't know, that Italy Tuscany theme was gone. So we had all these bold, weird colors in our kitchen. I'm looking, wow.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That's that's bad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. We're we're grateful for those kitchens right now because a lot of them are getting remodeled. So we go in and they're switching things out. So that I mean it keeps the industry changing and moving, but just trying to keep up with the regulations and safety and all the behind the scenes things that people don't realize proper paint waste and all that. Oh yeah, all that regulation.

SPEAKER_03

Some people think, yeah, just toss the can't really do that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we have to pay a lot of money to have it hauled away properly.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, I bet. So, or most of your business on the residential side or commercial side, or do you do both? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01

It's a I'd say it's about 50-50.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We like it. That I like I don't want it all contractor, and I, you know, it'd be fine if it was all residential. But, you know, the contractors are good because we know, like, I've got a new house that I'm building, I'm gonna need a prime out. We're gonna have it this date, and then we're gonna be doing everything else later. So those are nice to have in your queue. Uh, but the residential people, I I like that because then I'm usually dealing directly with them. If we're dealing with the contractors, we're usually not dealing with the homeowner because they they know that we're hired and we're coming in, but it's not as, you know, hands-on. So no, I think it's about 50-50. Okay. And then right now we're getting into our exterior season, so we're outside, which that's a really busy time. I bet. Everybody wants their work done right now before Memorial Day.

SPEAKER_03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

And Memorial Day is early this year.

SPEAKER_03

It's gonna be here before we know it. It is very, very quick.

SPEAKER_01

So that's the one thing with our job is watching the calendar. Time goes by so fast because there just doesn't seem to be enough time, especially in the summer when everybody wants their work done. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and then they put it in and they want it done.

SPEAKER_01

I know. Like, hey, get it done.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I only have so many people.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So the the cabinets, you said the staining's kind of coming back. Is it staining the the darker colors or the lighter stain? Or is that is it a blend?

SPEAKER_01

It's just kind of a blend. So a lot of people that haven't painted their cabinets, they're just getting them freshened up, which still means you you strip and refinish them. But maybe it's gotten a little grimy over the years and a little worn out by the garbage can and under the sink. And a lot of those are worn out. So then that'll lead them to us say, well, let's just take all the doors and drawers off and refinish them, freshen them up, match the existing, and you know, it's like you have a new kitchen.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Because a lot of the kitchens are really nice, they've just gotten worn out.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So they'll do the darker color or the lighter color, whatever. It it doesn't really seem to have a target. I haven't found that with anybody. They're they're just kind of like whatever they like.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Do you guys do that on site at their place, or do you take all that back to like you guys shop and refinish all the things?

SPEAKER_01

In our shop, we refinish all the doors and drawers, but we'll do any on the um base cabinets on site.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So my brother Steve does a lot of that. And he's loving the new stain trend. He thinks that's fun. Going back to that. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I love a good stain.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. And we're we're still painting cabinets too. Like I said, it's to each his own what they want.

SPEAKER_03

So you said you do the social media for the company. How do you utilize that?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm pretty self-taught. So Facebook, Instagram, we finally got a website this year. We went this whole time without a website. And I think it was last year. I thought, I think it's a time we need a website, just with everything changing in the industry and with social media and people being able to find you. I was making my posts. I'm like, is anybody finding me? What's going on here? So we do a lot of work um with LRS painting for them. So they seemed like a really natural fit for them to do a website for us. And they were great. They were awesome. I worked with um Maggie Gulow and she was great, met her at a chamber event, and they were patient with me to get them the info and got a website. So so now that really helps, I think, with the social media.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. Then you can drive people to that and you can start catching some of that lead generation the right way and really start tracking some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So no, I just mostly Facebook and Instagram and I, you know, try to do posts every day. I was having fun with it for a while, and then our business level got to a certain point where now I have to do the boring music.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I liked it when I could do all the fun music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. The r you gotta have the royalty fleece.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Gotta be careful. You can, you know, especially when you start getting bigger like that.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. So yeah, I gotta do all the all the other things. So now I just usually stick with pictures.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. Right. So what do you think is attributed to you guys' growth over the last 12 years? Some of the biggest things that are attributed to you guys' growth?

SPEAKER_01

Part of it is the consistency and just taking care of our customers. We return calls. I I might not be able to answer the call right when people call. It might go to voicemail, but I will call you back. And sometimes I will watch somebody call a couple times, but they don't leave a message. And I think that's because people are used to not having contractors call them back.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm not calling out all contractors. And I will even say a lot of the contractors are just an individual. They don't have a person in their office that answers the phone. So they might not be able to call you back until they get home at night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

More of a solopreneur situation. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And then they've got a family. So I call people back and people are like, Thank you for calling me back. Of course I'm going to call you back. Right. You know, and then occasionally there'll be a call that will come through that with technology that I'll miss, like, don't get the voicemail or something. So if somebody ever calls and like you didn't call me back, I'm sorry. Because that's the other thing is people think, oh, you didn't call me back. Like, I'm sorry, I didn't get your message. You know, so sometimes that's hard because I think my my brother and I are a little bit, we're kind of perfectionist. So we're people pleasers. So when we don't quite get that mark, we're beat ourselves up. So that's the frustrating part about it is when you do miss something. But I think that's why we've been successful, is because, like I said, we call people back, we communicate. I'm honest with people. I'm not gonna tell them I'm gonna sell you a job and it's gonna get done by this date when I know that's not gonna happen. It might be what they want to hear, but I'm not gonna sell a job just to get the sale.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And then tell them something that's not true. You know, I'll be like, well, I'll try. It's a possibility. You know, like right now, we're not, you know, people are like, How booked out are you? Because after COVID, it was insane.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah, booked out so far.

SPEAKER_01

Right now, if you were to call me, you know, my brother Dan does the estimates, we'll get him out there to meet with you, or we'll look at pictures, we'll figure it out. Depending on the job, I might be able to start in a couple weeks. If it's an exterior thing that you want to have done, it depends on the size of the job. And this summer we'll get it done at some point, you know. But I just like to be honest with people.

SPEAKER_03

You know, well, that's huge because that's one of the biggest probably frustrations with people is that communication piece. If you're just honest with them up front, hey, this is where we're at, and call them back. Most people are understanding. It's just when they don't get an answer or they don't talk to somebody is where they start getting really frustrated.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think a lot of that is. And then the quality. I mean, paint products. I mean, we're dealing with paint. Now the painting industry is changing. You know, there's a lot of chemicals and things that have been banned that have been taken out of products. So some of the products that we use now are not the same products that were even 10, 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_02

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

So we're learning along with the customers sometimes of you try a product that's now the new latest and greatest thing, but it's not what we thought it was going to be. Or, you know, it just isn't good for this climate or whatever. So we figure that out and then we will redo it. We'll make it right. I think that's part of what makes us different because people will hire somebody that might not have a business name on their truck. They'll be maybe half the price of us, but if something goes wrong, they'll never be able to find them again. So, you know, we hear the horror stories of people that take money and then don't get their job done.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, you hear that a lot from people.

SPEAKER_01

I think our name is all over town. We value our name. So we try to keep it, keep it good.

SPEAKER_03

You guys do have some cool wrapped vehicles too that I see around.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was my brother Dan's idea um for advertising because we've got those vehicles around town, and that's the one biggest thing people are like, How'd you hear about us? Well, I saw your van. Right. Like they'll call and they'll be like, hey, he's across the street. I was like, Well, that's not him. Right, right. That's one of our painters. Like, how are you guys everywhere? I'm like, Well, we have like seven vans or eight. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_03

You guys have a cool logo too. I like your logo. Yeah, thanks.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool. Who created that?

SPEAKER_01

Dan.

SPEAKER_03

Dan did. All right.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Yep. He he created that. He had a lot of great things in place when I started, and I just took what he had created, and a lot of the systems he had were just great. And then a lot of the systems I had from my business, we just integrated them and we just worked from there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, seems like it meshed well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So well, we're sitting in downtown Springfield. Yeah. You've become an ardent supporter of downtown Springfield. So um, you're all over down here supporting everything. So you don't have a business down here. I know some people ask you that sometimes. Why do you love it?

SPEAKER_01

I love it because I feel that it is just literally the heart of the city. It's where everything started. It's historically, it's where it all began. And then we grew out and everything moved out west, further to the south and north. But this is where historically everything happened. And we've got the old state capital. I was always passionate about the old state capital because my husband and I were involved in the art fair for many years. Now, I didn't really get too involved in anything downtown related until my early 20s because being born and raised in a big family, we didn't, you know, think it out much. My dad actually worked at the Myers Building and my mom worked at the Myers Building. So that's how they met at Myers Brothers. So they met there. And so the Myers Building was always a special place. Like we'd go do breakfast with Santa and stuff like that back when we were we were little. Loved that. And then moved on with high school, stuff like that. I didn't really get out much downtown. And then in my 20s, my husband's family was really involved in the old capital art fair. And I thought that's really cool. So we spent a lot of time down here for the art fair weekend. But that was pretty much the only time we came downtown because we were started having kids and got busy with their schedules. And, you know, there was restaurants down here that we never got to try. And then as they got older, we had a little bit more free time, a little bit more money. And so Maldeners became like our our birthday and our anniversary night. So we would, you know, come down here for husband's birthday, which is in June, and mine's in August. And that was our our special treat. And we'd come down here.

SPEAKER_03

Just did that last night, actually. I was down well, it's because my wife's birthday was yesterday. Okay. So we did the birthday dinner down at Maldeners. There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. We always sit at the window. We like to sit there so we can see everybody who do the hopscotch and outside. So um, yeah, so we love Maldeners. And then as we our daughter, who graduated in 2022, she had always been involved in dance and didn't drive for a while. So, you know, I spent most of my time, you know, as most people do at that time of life of okay, I got to pick you up at this time, and then I got to pick you up at this time, and then I gotta my middle one had done karate, so you know, we had to pick him up. And it just was years of that. So when she graduated, she went away to school for a semester. And my husband and her like, wow, we got some, you know, a little bit of time on our hands here, and you know, stumbled downtown. We go to a lot of networking events, so I think there was something downtown, and you know, we just found out, well, we've got a little bit more time. So I was just fascinated by the buildings. Yeah. Oh, I love the architecture. I love the architecture. We were able to do one of the architecture tours, and that was had been on our bucket list for years. And I know they're not doing them right now, but I think they're gonna get them back. I hope. I hope that's cool. Yeah. I met a lot of the store owners. I'm in Illinois Women in Leadership. And so we had an event at Wild Rose. Yeah. And I met Monica, and she just was a real go-getter for downtown. And I'm like, I just want to know more people. I met Linda at Springfield Vintage and just slowly started meeting the store owners. And once I met the store owners and saw how much heart and soul they were putting into their business and realized that no, not a lot of people aren't coming downtown, a lot of businesses. I thought, I want to help because I can't imagine having a business where I wouldn't know day to day, am I gonna have a customer? Because I run a business where I know right now how much work I have for the next couple of weeks. I have, you know, exterior work, you know, on and off throughout the summer. And they don't know if somebody's gonna come in and buy a dress or a candle or or what. So I thought, I want to try to help do something about this, get some more awareness. So I just started with my inner circle of friends as the best place to start. Definitely Illinois Women in Leadership. You know, I had women there, we had some events down here, so got to know more of the places. The young ladies at Bloom, when they were getting ready to get started, I met them art fair weekend, and they told me they were starting a wine bar. I'm like, tell me more. Because I like wine and I like flowers. So they were just so excited and to start this place, and they had some challenges, and I thought I I want to help them and so help make them some connections that I had for some of the beside behind the scenes issues they were having, and just supported them and said, I'll, you know, I'll be here. And then brought Illinois Women in Leadership. We had one of our pop-ups there. So it's the people. I love the buildings and I love the business owners. And like I said, I just want them to feel supported. And you know, a lot of people will say, All the negative. I don't like to focus on the negative. I mean, it's true. There is negative and there are issues.

SPEAKER_03

And and every downtown has certain issues.

SPEAKER_01

I can't fix them all, and I don't want these businesses to leave while we wait for them to get fixed. Right. You know, so I've gotten to know Doug at the Cardologist and you know, go in there and just try to bring smiles into their store, bring some dollars into their store. And I don't have all the dollars, so that's again why I'm trying to get more people to come down here. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I can't financially support all of them. Every time I go in, I can't always buy something. I'd like to, but you know, I love and then there's new places I find out about too, which is kind of funny. I mean, I did not really realize that Willow and Birch had a retail spot.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

I had no idea until this past fall. They had donated something for a um a chair, uh, it was a boys and girls club, and I got the package and it had a gift certificate for Willow and Birch. I went in there. I'm like, I had no idea. So yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Just gotta come down and walk around and pop into places, check stuff out.

SPEAKER_01

And our downtown seems not walkable to some people, but it really is once you know where the places are. So some of the social media that I was doing last year was trying to say, hey, here's how you can shop Fifth Street, you can shop Sixth Street, you can shop Adams, you go here, you go here. On a nicer day, it's pretty walkable. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. We used to go to Chicago all the time. And and we'd be there a lot. And when you're in Chicago, you'll walk all the way down Michigan Avenue, like literally like a mile. Yeah. And but I don't know, there is a misconception that people in Springfield think, well, we shouldn't have to walk too far.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's not that far. Just it's not.

SPEAKER_03

Just walk.

SPEAKER_01

It's not. And again, it's once you do it, you realize, oh, okay. I've done it when the wind is blowing right in your face and it's not real um pleasant, but it yeah, it can be done. There's sometimes like, well, we'll just drive back over that thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

No, certainly, certainly. But everything's within a walkable distance.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I mean, this time of year, everything's getting nice out. But I I'm hopeful for the downtown's future. I mean, I feel like we've got to support it. I mean, without a downtown, I just I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_03

And I feel I feel the momentum going back into it, you know. One of the things that with a lot of the state jobs since COVID, you know, a lot of them haven't come quite back here yet. But we just need to reinvent it a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I know that there's more housing, there's more apartments, things are changing, but it's probably not going to be what it was back in its glory days. I don't think anything is. Retail all over the city, I think, is struggling. Yeah. So it's not just downtown. And I've chosen to be very passionate about downtown because I live close to downtown. So it's easy for me. Like I said, my kids went to Springfield High. My grandmother went to Springfield High. My mom went to Springfield High. You know, my parents met downtown. It's just, I really like downtown. My in-laws were involved in the old Capital Art Fair. They were one of the people that helped get it started. So just downtown in general is passion, you know, I'm passionate about it. And not everybody is. There's some people that are very passionate about the north side or the west side. And that's good. Yeah. We need people to be passionate about where they live and their community. Right. And I think if everybody was passionate, then it would make the city a lot better. And we could work together. But downtown is just such a visible place because of the tourism that we get. And we do get a lot of tourism.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think people would be surprised. I mean, we've had Amy Beadle and we've talked about the dollars that are spent in Springfield from folks either from across the country or across the world. Yeah. People would be surprised how much tourism we actually have here.

SPEAKER_01

I was surprised. I mean, we were at Bloom one night and somebody came in and they were here for the weekend. It was their kid getaway weekend. Like, okay, all right. So we're telling them places to go and what to do. My husband and I say we're gonna get like a little list where we can just give it to people because we'll start telling them all the places. And they're like, what are you talking about? You know?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, have a little card you can hand out. There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, we went we were out of town one weekend and we went out to Maine last year and we had somebody literally, he said, if you are feel comfortable, I will email you my list because he was a local and he just knew this whole area and said these are the places you should go. Yeah. And my husband and I were like, okay, cool. So he emailed us his list and we ended up doing a couple things on it. So that's awesome. We thought we should do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

No, it's crazy the amount of tours. And Brian from Sangman Watches, which is right down the hall from us here, he talks about how he's bringing in a group to do the Route 66 tour. They're gonna do a bike tour and bring in people from China and all these other places. It's like there's tons of people from around the world that are coming to Springfield.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. Which is which is really awesome. And I think that, like I said, uh more and more local people can to support. But I get it. Like I said, for years we weren't coming down here because of our stage of life. I mean, our kids were young, they we were busy trying to make it to soccer and swim practice, and our kids weren't near as busy as most kids. They weren't in tons and tons of activities. But you know, when they don't drive, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, no, you know, so it's nice to have some extra time, some extra dollars, and we enjoy giving back down here. And then my husband started a new job at Resource One. So he's down here, which is exciting. And then our daughter has uh been interning at Willow and Birch. Oh fun. She's getting ready to graduate from cosmetology school. Hopefully next week she's gonna get her hours, and so uh so hopefully she will be working at Willow and Birch. So yeah, so they'll be downtown. My our office is like out by the lake, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, a little bit out there, yeah. You'll just come down and meet them down here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I know I keep threatening to uh there's a couple places down here. I'm like, I'm gonna just get out my scraper and uh can I touch that up for you?

SPEAKER_03

Right, right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

I paint that.

SPEAKER_03

No, whether you're coming downtown or not, support local, whether you're north side, west side, downtown, whatever, support local. But if you haven't come downtown in a while, come down and check it out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So walk around, check out all the shops, see what we got going on down here.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. And the heart is awesome. I love the my heart's downtown.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like I said, I was for a while trying to get officially involved downtown. And this was, you know, before uh, you know, like I said, Jay's the new, you know, executive director at DSI. And before, you know, I was like, hey, I'd like to get involved and wasn't officially able to get involved. So that's when I finally just said, you know what? I don't, I'm just gonna do my own thing, you know, tromp around downtown and show people what you can do. And then next thing you know, people are like, Oh, you're downtown all the time. Oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. No, that's a great point. You don't have to be officially named anything to make a difference.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You just decided you're gonna come down here and start promoting the heck out of downtown.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And you did. And my whole hope was that there'd be like 20 other people just like me that would also want to do it. And I know they're out there. I've met different downtown advocates. I can't do it by myself, you know. And it's nice to know that just other individuals, you know, go down when you do come downtown, or you go anywhere, if you post a picture of what you ate, you post a picture of yourselves. You know, my husband and I love our selfies, you know, and so we take them all the time. You know, our oldest came into town. He lives in Michigan, and uh, he and his wife and our two grandkids, which that's crazy for me to think of because I'm like, I just had a high schooler. She's graduating now. Oh, but um, they're like, where's that place you guys go all the time? And I was like, Oh, Vondra? So, because he's he sees everything we do because we put it on social media. Absolutely. So we do stay home. We do stay home and sit on the couch. Occasionally, occasionally, we do. We just don't put that on Facebook.

SPEAKER_03

Right, that's just not the selfie worthy. That's not selfie worthy, really.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, there's plenty of times when we when we do that.

SPEAKER_03

So well, so much great stuff. Let's flip over to the personal side a little bit. What are some ways you elevate your life personally?

SPEAKER_01

I read.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm a I'm a reader. My husband and I started, we had a business book club that we started, I think in 2009 when we ran our own business. We went to a leadership uh summit and they were talking about, you know, reading books. And I mean, we bought all the books that the speakers had written. And then, you know, so our kids were younger. I think our youngest at the time was, you know, five. So reading was luxury. And so to force, not to force ourselves, but give ourselves accountability, we started this book club. So the goal was to read one of those books a month, and then we hosted it at our house. And by the time we ended it, because we did that from 2009 to 2016, up until we sold our business and had people come to the house. And, you know, sometimes it was us and two other people, sometimes there was, you know, like 10 or 12 people, but it was our business book club. Just reading leadership books. We read, you know, old school ones, new ones, all sorts of them. And just that personal development of reading and bettering ourselves is what what we like, what we like to do. And just always trying to look to how can we be better.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Do you have an all-time favorite?

SPEAKER_01

Yep. The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I haven't read that one. It is a great one. It's it's not very long, and it takes all of them and just really summarizes it into a good, uh, easy read.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Given it as college, you know, or high school graduation presence. I'm not sure if uh I think my oldest has read it, but my other two, I don't know, if they've read it. They're not as big of readers. But it's a great book. I mean, basically it's telling you to do you what you can do is just it's easy to do or easy not to do. So you just make that choice. Something you're if you're gonna get up and go for a run, what it's kind of easy to do it, but it's easy not to do it. So you just have to make that conscious choice of what you're gonna do. So in that book, he basically says if you read 10 pages a day of any type of leadership book or self-development book, that's just a good investment. Right. So once I read that, I've always tried to have at least one book I'm reading that's leadership, or now as I'm getting older, some of them are more like health and how not to get old.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Right. The old longevity stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all in that.

SPEAKER_01

Now it's more into longevity.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Completely get that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Anything you do along those lines? Deep into the health and wellness stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Try to be. I mean, I do take a lot of supplements. So it's ridiculous. But it works. 10 years ago, I started not feeling that great. I was in my late 40s, and it's like, what's going on? And just started trying to take better care of myself. You know, all that stuff that you were eating because, you know, it tasted good. Not doing that. Um, you know, in the past year and a half, I've started doing Pilates. You know, I had done it before, but gave it up because you know, I was too busy driving my kids around. Sure. So once I didn't have that excuse anymore. You know, that's the thing. Now I don't have any excuses. I don't have any excuses not to go for a walk, go for I don't run. So anyway, my husband running walking works. My husband times I'm like, I am not running. My grandson was home for Easter and he's like, he's like, Mimi, will you run? I was like, I don't run. No, you run.

SPEAKER_03

I've I've never been a long distance runner. I I don't mind sprinting, like getting some exercise, just doing some sprints and stuff. But I'm not a long distance guy and no no whatsoever. Right.

SPEAKER_01

If I got to run because the store's gonna close or something, I might do that. But like catch a bus.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Train, whatever. So eating well. My husband and I both are try to just be really conscious about our physical health and making good decisions and all the things to feel good. We go to bed early, we get up early, all the things I didn't do 20 years ago. Right.

SPEAKER_03

A little more conscious about all that stuff. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, if somebody would have told me 20 years ago I'd like to get up at 5 30 in the morning, I'd be like, Are you crazy? Even 10 years ago. No.

SPEAKER_03

There you go. Well, Amy, so much great stuff today. I like to close with these last couple of things. Let's give the audience a piece of advice, one on the personal side, one on the professional side to help them elevate their life or business.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I guess on the personal side, I feel like I already Mattis said with the books. No, that's a good one. Invest in, and it could be a lot of people like to listen to podcasts, but to to try to learn something new to elevate yourself. That's what I like to do, just constantly be learning something. Even when we mentioned the social media, trying to get better about that, learn some new things. So I guess even in the in the business side of it, that probably would be for me is also making sure to stay aware of the changes in the industry and just not look down because I don't want to be the later on in life like, well, this is how we always do it. We've always done it this way. Yeah. So to try to look and see what has worked, but maybe how can you get better. Just if you don't know something, there's so many professionals out there that can help you, especially in our community. So I'm involved in a couple of groups, Illinois Women in Leadership, Local First, and you meet so many great people. So I think business-wise, just having those relationships. So if you do need to need somebody that you can reach out to them, whether it's a lawyer, an accountant, a financial planner, a roofer, whoever you need. Absolutely, we can get those in those groups.

SPEAKER_03

So key. So key to get involved in those things. And is there anything we can do community-wide to help all of us here elevate Springfield and the surrounding communities?

SPEAKER_01

I think just be positive. Everybody seems to be so focused on negativity. And again, there is negative things going on, but I think there's a place where those can be addressed. And sometimes what's frustrating for me is to see, especially on social media, when there's something that negative is happening and somebody posts it and everybody seems to feed off of it. I'm more of a problem solver. So sometimes, and I know people get frustrated because maybe they've gone to the city or maybe they've gone to the higher ups and nothing's happening. And that is frustrating. But sometimes the social media negativity just does so much damage.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah. It just feeds on itself and just snowballs and snowballs.

SPEAKER_01

And so even like for downtown right now, you know, for every positive, seems like that one negative comment, everybody just gets so excited about it. So being positive and trying to find and share the positive will help a lot.

SPEAKER_03

Completely agree. Ship the mindset, Springfield. Take away that negativity, move on over to the positivity. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Well, Amy, if somebody wants to get some work done, get their house painted inside or outside, where do they go to get a hold of you guys?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, they can call uh Dandewees Painting and Wood Finishing and uh have our website now at www.dandeweespainting.com.

SPEAKER_02

There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Or I said our phone number's all on there. You can call or text me. A lot of times it's sometimes somebody shoots me a text, then I'm like, all right, cool. Well, the conversation started. Oh.

SPEAKER_03

All right. Well, Amy, appreciate uh you coming down and businessing with me today. Appreciate all your support of downtown and how you're pushing that. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01

This is awesome. I appreciate the uh invite to come.

SPEAKER_03

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