Our top 15 district managers

As the summer comes to a close, College Works Painting commends our D.M.s  for their hard work in bringing quality and satisfaction to homeowners across the country.  College Works is committed to helping each and every intern and manager have a unique learning experience and business growth.  We applaud all their efforts and look forward to the upcoming year! For more information about how you can hype up your resume for future employers, visit www.collegeworks.com.

1)      Marc Blumenthal, Illinois
2)     Joshua Jacobs, California Pacific Coast
3)     Andre Kazimierski, Illinois
4)     Lindsay DM Donsbach,Texas
5)     Jason Bay, Oregon
6)     Barry Parker, Oregon
7)     Jonathan Alarcon, California North
    Semyon Sharetskiy, California South
9)     Chris Heerdegen, Washington
10)     Sarah McAndrews, California South
11)     Tom Ackmann, Illinois
12)     Matt Toone, Utah
13)     Tiffany Lin, California South
14)     Nick Niehaus, Missouri
15)     Ross Wilson, California Central

College Works Painting welcomes Augie Nieto

On July 27th, the executives from College Works Painting had the opportunity to hear Augie Nieto speak, at the Embassy Suites in Irvine,  about his story and his success in living with ALS.

At a time when many Americans are worrying about the economy, Augie Nieto (Newport Beach resident and founder of LifeFitness and Augie’s Quest) is helping one company have a more lasting impact.  Augie has not let his contraction of ALS slow down his positive influence on aspiring entrepreneurs; he uses it as a tool to illustrate what one man can do.  Augie Nieto reinvented exercise and changed the face of health and nutrition, by inventing the Life Cycle and founding the company LifeFitness. When he discovered he had ALS (Lou Gherigs Disease), he took on the challenge to reinvent medical research.  Augie has driven over $16,000,000 to research for a cure of ALS and has changed how medical research is conducted.

Augie’s Quest, is the focus of College Work Paintings’ annual awareness and fundraising project.  College Works has partnered with Augie not to just raise money and create awareness, but to deliver a lasting impact on the aspiring entrepreneurs College Works Painting employs across the US.

Augie will be discussing his story, sharing his passion and collecting the first of many installments of funds generated by College Works Painting across the US.  Together, College Works has raised over $40,000 for Augie’s quest and shared his story with over 30,000 Americans.

To see the full release click here.

Meet a College Works Painting Vice President…

College Works will start to feature one VP a month, so that potential customers can get to know who could be working for them.  All of the VPs at College Works have graduated from top univsersities across the country and went through the internship during their college years as interns, managers, and branch managers.  All have years of experiece in customer service, sales, and management.

The College Works VPs work hard to run a successful residential painting business all across the United States.  Please feel free to visit www.collegeworks.com for more information about the program or to receive a free estimate.

VP of the Month-PANTEA TAHBAZ

Pantea attended the University of California, Los Angeles as a Political Science major. She has always had a passion for helping others develop into strong leaders and global citizens. Pantea believes that life isn’t about finding yourself, its about creating yourself, and the potential people have if nurtured is endless. After working in the Central California division for many years, she recently moved to Massachusetts to work in the New England division.

Matthew Stewart, College Works CEO, elected Chairman of E.O.

It was announced in a press release today that co-CEO and partner of National Services Group, Matthew Stewart, became Chairman of the Global Board of Directors for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.  Stewart who has been actively involved with E.O. since 1999, has previously been president of the Orange Country, California chapter and sat on the Global Board of Directors.

According to the press release, “Stewart is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of National Services Group (NSG), an Irvine, California, US-based business which operates: College Works Painting, SMJJ investments, and Empire Community Painting. NSG strives to develop and foster entrepreneurship in the organization and has been recognized as an entrepreneurial leader by Ernst & Young, the Orange County Business Journal, Inc., Entrepreneur, the Orange County Register, and many others.”

To read the whole release, please click here.  We at National Services Group, are proud of Matt and all he does and will continue to do.

For more information about NSG or College Works Painting visit www.collegeworks.com.  For more information about the Entrepreneurs’ Organization visit www.eonetwork.org.

Painting up the Pacific Coast!

“I have never been pushed to my limits and beyond with any other experience the way I have with College Works Painting.  I’ve never learned more or even had more fun. This internship doesn’t find leaders, it creates them.”
Josh Jacobs, District Manager

Hiring college students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara, the College Works Painting internship program is in the production part of the program.  School is out for the summer and interns and managers are painting houses.  All the training and recruiting is finally going to pay off for these interns, and for homeowners as well.  For more information about CWP or for a free estimate please visit our homepage.

Now boarding: College Works Painting Missouri and Washington

College Works now offers division websites for Missouri and Washington.

http://collegeworkspaintingmissouri.com

http://collegeworkspaintingwashington.com

For more information, or to contact painters in your neighborhood who will be more than happy to provide you with a free estimate, please visit:

CWP Arizona

CWP Illinois

CWP Missouri

CWP Washington

For more information about College Works visit www.collegeworks.com

Link to ‘How to nail an interview’

Check out this website, click here for the 20 interview tips needed to “nail” the interview!

Check out College Works Painting, for summer internships!

combating stress from College Works Painting CEO Jeff Gunhus.

SECRET # 12
FOOL-PROOF STRESS REDUCTION

If you want to test your memory, try to remember what you were worrying about one year ago today. E. Joseph Cossman

Stress has become a fixture in the working world. Everybody is stressed for what they feel are very good reasons and they carry that stress with them like so much baggage. It doesn’t need to be this way.

The starting point to control the stress in your life is to understand its source. This is the easy part because there is only one source  the unknown. If you absolutely know something for a fact, you don’t stress about it. Your boss calls you in for an unscheduled meeting  stress. Someone tells you the meeting is about a promotion  no stress. Someone tells you the meeting is about your poor performance stress, not due to the meeting but because of the uncertainty of the results the meeting will have.

I know people who will stress for days because they have a big unknown. They get a speeding ticket and agonize for days whether they are going to lose their license or not. They work through every possible scenario of how their life will change if they lose their license. Finally, they, after days for stress, they call the courthouse and their license is fine. No more stress, but what a waste of energy!

Another manifestation of the unknown is stress from too many things going on.  Sometimes the world seems too crazy to handle and everything is spiraling out of control. Small issues can become enormous when they are pushed into such a cluttered background. You find yourself with an overwhelming feeling of stress, but you find it hard to put your finger on an issue that could cause it. Here are a few tactics you can use for stress control.

1. Write down what is stressing you. Have you ever told someone your big problem and halfway through the story you started to feel petty because the problem sounded dumb? Things we stress about often are dumb, but they get built up in our minds to be bigger than they actually are. Write down your problems in as simple language as possible. You may find yourself laughing at them.
2. Write down a question whose answer would alleviate the stress. Once you write down your problems, analyze the root issues and determine what unknown fact is stressing you out. If you are concerned about your future with your company, why not ask your boss that question specifically. If you are stressed about someone in the office that you think has a problem with you, simply ask him. Once you know the answer, then you can decide on an action.
3. Weigh the pros and cons. Every decision has give and take. Write down all of the pros and cons to every decision. It will help you to organize your thoughts and make a clear decision.
4. Prioritize your stress. Think of the most stressful week you had in a past job or in school. Pretty bad, right? Now imagine something truly important happened during that week  your parent was diagnosed with a major illness, a sibling was in a car accident, whatever. Do you think that any of the things you stressed about in school or in work would have even entered your mind if you were faced with a true crisis?

It truly is a matter of magnitude. I’m not telling you to be apathetic to your life and not care when small things go badly, but don’t let the small things paralyze you and keep you from enjoying life. Our time is way too short to lose sleep because someone gave us a dirty look or because we put a dent in the car. Big deal. You will not remember these things years from now, so why worry about them today?

Stress will always be part of your life. It’s a sign that you care about what happens to yourself and those around you. It is easy to allow these concerns to fester in our minds and allow them to poison our outlook on all of the good in our lives. One small issue blown out of proportion can impact you everything you do. I mean, don’t you find it hard to appreciate a sunset when you are mad at the world? Use stress to wake up your instincts for action and apply yourself to solve problems and uncover the unknown. You’ll be much for easy going and you’ll enjoy more sunsets.

Dealing with house painters

So you have found yourself where you realize it is time to have your home painted. The good news is that although there are many steps to take when doing a paint job, it does not have to be difficult for you directly. Painting is perhaps one of the simplest methods of semi-permanently updating and refreshing your home’s interior or exterior surfaces to not only look nice but to be structurally maintained well. It involves using the right kind of paints for the surfaces being covered as well as good color choice and even other things like protecting surfaces that paint should not touch. Indeed there are many things to consider in terms of starting  a painting job. Unless you do this regularly, chances are you might benefit from using some professional help. Like many others already do, you can hire house painters to get the job done for you.

The beauty of hiring others to do painting for you is that it spares you from many worries. Providing the painter himself or herself or their crew of painters are highly experienced in the field, they will take all aspects of the job, organize it themselves effortlessly and get the job done more quickly and easily than most of us would. For one thing, a professional knows short cuts and insider tips that we would not think of, and this allows for time to be saved and a more professional job to be done. Depending on their discipline, professional painters can do all the work ranging from clean and neat paint application all the way down to choosing the right paint colors that work with your preferences as well as decorating style. While professionals can help us with many things that might otherwise be an oversight to us, you do have to take some precautions to ensure less chance of mishaps.

When hiring a professional, do some research into their backgrounds. See if others have had bad dealings with them and approach accordingly. People will always disagree but if your chosen painter has a history of unsatisfied customers then perhaps it is time to consider someone else. Also make sure the painter can do the specific work that you need done and does not overly specialize in other areas unrelated to your job. Make sure they are going to take the utmost care of your property and fix any mistakes that they make. Also, be present while they work as much as possible. This tells them you are serious and want them to do the best work that they can.

Communication is paramount through all of this. By communicating with your house painters you are not only informing them of how much you care about your property and want to see it taken care of, but that you can also inform them better of exactly what you want done. By approaching house painting with some background research and good communication, you and your hired help are sure to result with a good outcome.

Let us help you find the right contractor for the job!  Simply click here to have up to 3 of our premier member painting contractors provide you with a FREE, no obligation quote!

Life after College Works

By Matthew K Stewart
CEO, NSG

Most of College Works Painitng’s top performers desire to continue working with College Works past their internship year. I think this says a great deal about the level of commitment of our DMs, office staff, and equity partners, and it says a great deal about the program as a whole. I strive daily to make CWP a more exciting, more rewarding, and a more open place to work and I hope you all do as well. Our growth model relies on the desire of our present interns to stay with CWP and pioneer new divisions and new businesses as equity partners in the future. New avenues are opening for this year’s DMs and interns to become entrepreneurs, while staying involved with CWP.

However, I know that some interns will seek employment elsewhere and we will do everything we can to help you attain that employment. We hope that those that find careers outside CWP remember the experience and come back to hire the interns of the future. We are setting up relationships with corporations across the US in hopes of making it easier for successful CWP interns to acquire employment in the businesses that support CWP.

Here is our plan: We are talking to executives in various companies and telling them about the caliber of individuals that come out of an CWP internship. We are talking to them about opening lines to our interns for interviews – they are excited to do so. We have commitments from: Sprint, FedEx, Marriott, Cingular Wireless, EMC, Best Consulting, and more, to interview and hopefully hire our past interns. The executives in these companies are excited to meet the alumni of CWP and they know that CWP alumni will glisten.

Here is what I want you to do: First, If you know any executives at any companies that could use high caliber college grads, please contact me and give me their name and number (you can call me at the office). I will call them, explain the program and get them interested in interviewing our alumni. Second, talk to me 6 months before you graduate and I will put you in touch with our corporate endorsers. Third, look for my  get a job guidelines on Frits (under the forms you may need). This one page form will help you put together an individual client manual to take to your interviews once you are ready. Most of our interns have a while to wait – for now KEEP all the news letter articles written about you, keep any news paper articles written about you, keep any emails from your DM praising you, keep any top 15 listings with your name in them, keep any award you receive – KEEP ANYTHING THAT SAYS ANYTHING GOOD ABOUT YOU! You will need this when it comes time to look for a job. Remember, no one else is going to brag about you but you!

With Jeff Gunhus’ book, our contacts, and your PR materials, you should be unstoppable.

Good luck this year!