Meet Sam Norris

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Norris and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, what do you attribute your success to?
Not cutting corners & treating people right. You will make far more money in this business doing things the right way, being honest & not taking advantage of people. We do virtually zero advertising and are steadily booked out a few months at a time. Our entire business is essentially referrals. We do work for some great people and in turn get referred to people they know, more great people. Not every job you do is going to be a home run that makes you a ton of money; but if I treat people fairly I know that they will call me back when they have another project and I’ll make more for my business developing long-term relationships with my clients. We have dozens of clients we’ve worked with for well over 10+ years. They know we run an honest business and can depend on us to deliver a quality finished product.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I run a home remodeling & painting company with my father in law. What sets me apart from others is that I get in the weeds and do every job from picking up trash to doing estimates and dealing with customers one on one. To this day I do the crappy parts of this job when I have to; just because I co-own this company doesn’t mean I’m not on my hands and knees working alongside the rest of the crew. I wear many different hats.

What gets me excited is seeing the final finished product and how happy our customers are with the work we do. It makes me happy to make them happy.

I got where I am today with a little bit of luck and a tremendous amount of hard work. There are a lot 0f long days in this business.

I want the world to know that you should do what makes you happy. Life is too short to spend it grinding away at a job you don’t like. Find what your passionate about and do that. I made a huge career change at age 30. I’m 37 now and never been happier. Oh! Be a good person! Karma is very real; what comes around goes around.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend visiting I’d take them on a tour of my favorite taco trucks. Houston has some incredible Mexican food. We could easily spend a week bouncing around my favorite little hidden gems.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my shout out to my father & mother in law, Victor & Nelly Lopez. Before I married my wife I was living in Chicago, working a white collar job as a business analyst for a Fortune 50 company. He started this company over 25 years ago and offered me the chance to move down to Houston after I married his daughter and learn the in’s and out’s of this business. I didn’t have much experience, other than a few summers in college doing commercial painting, and he took a chance on me and I can never fully tell him how much I appreciate that. Add in the fact that I had to learn to speak fluent Spanish to communicate with all of our employees (I took classes in high school and college); this career change was a major undertaking for me and him and my mother in law have been more than supporting this entire time. I don’t think I could ever truly tell them how much they’ve done for me.

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