Unlocking Drywall Secrets: 5 Tips from the Brain Surgeon of Drywall

Erika (00:01.086)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Daniel Osborne. He is better known as the brain surgeon of drywall repair. He’s built an incredible reputation through all the repairs and construction and renovations that he’s done. Daniel, thanks for being here.

Daniel H. Osborne (00:23.362)
Thanks for having us and can’t wait to dig into this with you.

Erika (00:28.178)
Our listeners, whether they’re investors, slippers, contractors, agents, they’re gonna get a ton of value out of your expertise for making properties look amazing. Let’s dive in. So for those of us who are not that familiar with your work and what you do, can you give us a quick rundown?

Daniel H. Osborne (00:49.164)
Sure, so if you want someone in your home that is not chemically dependent, that’s going to show up on time and do flawless quality of work or at least seamless within the north central Florida area, folks will typically call DRR Drywall. So we’re a state of Florida licensed drywall contractor, federally state certified as a veteran owned small business and in business since 2009. So we’ve been around a little while and we find a lot of value in collaborating with

other local contractors and subcontractors to make sure that folks are getting an optimal value exchange. I’m not here to take your money. I’m here to offer you solutions. So I’m never selling if I’m offering a solution. So 90 % of the phone calls that we field, we will never do any work for that person directly. But if I can give you the data and the resources to make an informed decision, then I’ve done my duty as a professional and that comes around full circle.

Erika (01:44.946)
I love that approach. So I’ve got to ask the name brain surgeon of drywall, I can’t say drywall, brain surgeon of drywall repairs. What’s the story behind that?

Daniel H. Osborne (01:58.089)
So three types of headaches you have. One, nags at you for a couple of days, you get an over-the-counter medicine, it goes away. That’s your local handyman, okay? No harm, no foul. Two, three weeks, you have a migraine, you go to your general practitioner, it gives you something a little bit stronger than over-the-counter. So you’re just your family doctor, your MD, it goes away, you’re okay. You have a nagging, know, knot behind your eye for three or four months, you finally go in, they send you to somebody else, and then you find out that you have a mass.

in the middle of your thinker. And at that point in time, it’s not about money. At that point in time, it’s about what does my future look like? And how do I want to wake up? Do I want to be whole? And that’s DRR. We’re specialists. If you need an optimal exchange of value, and you will hear that over and over again. If you want the surroundings clean, if you want someone to tell you the truth, because that’s what you want in a doctor, right?

We can all tell stories, but what’s the truth of the matter? And so that’s the space that we were able to operate within about 10 years ago. And it just made sense. It’s good marketing. We get laughs all the time because you don’t, drywall is not brain surgery, right? However, we have adopted a lot of medical terminology like Debride and the operating theater or a room, colloquially. There are different things that we implement to where it’s almost a surgical experience so that we can get.

in and out of a property and accurately serve people without leaving a mess.

Erika (03:32.958)
I love that and I feel like with having that nickname too, it also implies that there is a level of trust because you know a brain surgeon, you gotta trust a brain surgeon. So how did you build a reputation that you know people come to your work over and over?

Daniel H. Osborne (03:52.431)
Well, by them not coming to our work over and over. Our goal is one shot. Well, honestly, our goal is, you know, in military terms, one shot, one kill. You know, you want to make sure that you know what you’re doing. It’s single digits number of callbacks in 16 years by the grace of God and the Holy Ghost and an attention to detail and allegedly at least a tiny amount of OCD if you’ll listen to those of you out there that are my friends that know me.

Erika (03:56.041)
No! No!

Daniel H. Osborne (04:22.471)
So attention to detail, you have to have a moral compass and an operating parameter that goes above and beyond just what the industry standard of the norm is. And so you do something long enough with enough excellence. And my son is 16 years old and he’s an entrepreneur in his own right, doing very well for himself, you know, on that arc. you know, just teaching him some of those core things. You go above and beyond. You communicate with people. You show up.

And then you have equity relationships, and then you have fiduciary relationships. And what’s great is when those overlap. Social equity is something that is as simple as holding a door or here in the South saying, yes, ma’am. But fiduciary relationships, those matter too. And how you treat somebody’s money and how you treat your parents’ money says a lot about who you are as a person and what your company is going to do for others.

Erika (05:23.644)
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. So as I’m sure you’re familiar with, renovations and working on homes can be a wild ride. Every contractor and investor and agent has a story where things went sideways. Can you share one of those moments and what you learned from that?

Daniel H. Osborne (05:48.356)
Yeah, and I think the best one is is highlighting an industry partner of ours. So Simpson Environmental is a local general contractor. They service the entire southeast. They do a lot of asbestos abatement and mold remediation. They work on a lot of high dollar, very visible projects. And I’m a small fry in the grand scheme of things. But they were referred to me by an industry professional because we had a project that came up and it

it needed asbestos abatement. So we called him in. It was our first project together. Long story short, there were some protocols that were done that affected the finished product for handover. And I walked in and I did not have my upside down frown on. It was a full frown. So I called Tim, is actually his name. so I called Tim. I said, Tim, these are the issues A, B, C, and D. And the next words out of his mouth,

were, how can we make this right? It wasn’t arguing with me, who’s 15, 20 years his junior. It wasn’t, you don’t know what you’re talking about. It wasn’t, this job is under, you know, $15,000, who really cares? The next words out of his mouth were, how can I make this right? Which really paid dividends for his company when he had a $40,000 referral for them within the next year and a half. So I paid them on time on both of those, but on the first,

They made it right for the extra time and we came to an agreement on that. But it’s not so much about what happens, but it is about how you react and how you follow up. And that one sentence really has made an impact of just being able to focus on how can I make this right.

Erika (07:39.646)
Yeah, that’s a really good approach to things. relationships are huge in real estate and in contracting. What’s been the biggest factor for you with growing your network and earning trust with other businesses?

Daniel H. Osborne (07:58.738)
That’s a very broad question. Can you narrow that down just a little bit?

Erika (08:03.274)
Well, you can take it in whatever direction you would like. What advice would you like to give our listeners when it comes to networking?

Daniel H. Osborne (08:20.566)
Be authentic. Be authentic. I am not your vanilla cake in the box and slice it up and 70 % of everybody in the room is gonna like you and the other 30 % you throw some berries on it and they’ll be happy too. But the people that I do business with, I’m professional. I do try to communicate well, but I’m a very driven individual. If you want…

you know, a GED class B tutored at your local apostolic church. I’m your huckleberry. You want to knock down a wall or build it. I’m your guy. You want to sit around and talk around about people. Small people talk about people. Big people talk about nations and how to build them, how to make them better. whether you agree with who’s in the White House or who’s your local congressman or not, should I ever be so blessed to be in that position, I hope I operate within.

level of good measure and faith support them in that. And I think that trickle-down effect of authenticity, you need to be who you are. And if you mess up, own it. You know, apologize. Because the county that I live in has about 420,000 people in it. And it’s over 50 miles wide, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a large geographic county. There’s a lot of people in it. But it rounds like a town of 300. If you rip somebody off,

everyone’s going to know, intentionally or unintentionally. So your reputation is going to precede you. If you’re going to do cheap work and give cheap results, that’s your market. that’s whether you’re writing a book, selling a house, or perform brain surgery. You’re going to get what you put out there. And so if you will be consistent and you will be authentic, you’re going to be just fine.

Erika (10:13.098)
I love that. So you might say my question’s a little too broad again. But if someone is starting out in renovations or contracting, what’s one piece of advice that you would give them for starting out?

Daniel H. Osborne (10:28.371)
Join B &I. It changed my life. B &I is Business Networking International. The other is buy my book when it comes out, hopefully in the next 24 months. The title I’m playing around with is Cats and Ladders. And essentially, I started my first business at 12 years old. And I’ve been in this business, owned this business for 16 years. And so what’s that old saying? He knows a thing or two? Well, he’s experienced a thing or two at least. within a construct of learning and executing.

Business Networking International was started by Ivan Meisner in 1985. He was a business consultant and he lost about 60 percent, 40 to 60 percent of his revenue overnight because a consulting client, as I remember, did not renew their contract. So he had just bought a house. He’s like, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t, what is it that the Bible says? I can’t, I can’t hand, I can’t dig. I’m too ashamed to beg.

So what he did is on a single sheet of paper, he came up with the ability to communicate with people and to form a network of individuals that will grow to know, like, and trust one another to be authentic. And the sole premise is to build a relationship to where you can offer your goods and services through the goodwill and grace of the other individuals in the room. And the training and the resources that they have are incredible. I was not…

given an opportunity to attend high school. So my formal education was first through sixth grade and half of eighth grade. And I was running from the Lord when I joined the military for a short period of time and got hurt and was subsequently medically discharged, you know, honorably. So nobody tries to do a super crazy background search here. But I didn’t have a lot behind me at that point in time. I do have a couple of degrees now, but in a business sense, I did not have a large footprint for

a lot of the just the nuts and bolts. How do you put it together? What happens when you’re an intense individual and you have a skill set, but how can you read a room? One of the books in their lineup that they have produced is called Networking Like a Pro, Networking Like a Pro by Ivan Meisner. You will never walk into a room for the rest of your life as soon as you read that book because you will instantly be able to evaluate every single conversation that’s being had.

Daniel H. Osborne (12:53.445)
whether it’s a church lobby, an organization, or even just out in the public. so putting those mechanical parameters into place and being around leaders that taught me, like Paula Bonnell, I was in the middle of a training session with her. So just rubbing shoulders with good people and learning and being willing to learn, having a teachableness. And I didn’t even have a teachable at that point in time, I wanted to learn. There’s a difference. Learning is meaning you can pull it out. Teachableness means someone else can touch you, someone else can help you. And I was…

I was in the right room, but I wasn’t quite there yet. But she helped me so much because she said one sentence. She said, there’s a difference between hunters and farmers. A hunter goes out and he bags the kill. Right? I guess two sentences, three sentences, but it’s very short, short piece here. Hunter goes out, he looks, looks for the target, kills the target, eats the target or hangs it up, whatever they like to do. Farmer though, farmer tills the ground. Farmer.

takes time. And then the farmer gets to produce crops. And that changed my life too. That helped me. And so if you’re new to business, if you’re new to contracting, if you can find a local chapter that is a system advocate, I would stress that very clearly, a system advocate that within a strictly business sense, there is no higher ROI, so return on investment, for a burgeoning or a new to market business for a local business owner.

than to utilize your local BNI network.

Erika (14:25.556)
That’s great. You talked earlier about someone being teachable and how important that is. let’s have you teach something to our listeners. What’s something about your craft that people completely underestimate?

Daniel H. Osborne (14:48.44)
Quality drywall repair is a like a quality relationship. If you’ve ever been in a room and there’s tension or on a bad double date, you don’t have to get very far into that to realize that things aren’t all as you’d like them to be. You’re like, I think we have a phone call. no, one of the kids is crying. They got sick. We got to go. Or in a good relationship, you notice the little things like, hi, he gets her flowers. Or in my case, I always buy dead flowers.

So my wife buys the flowers and then tells me, hey, these are from you. And I’m like, do you like them? Aren’t they so nice? And she says, yes. And that’s how we’ve been married for 18 years and plan to be married for 100 more. We’ll see how until the Lord dares. So you learn these things. It’s that moving back and forth. So a good drywall repair, you had to point it out. Look, we didn’t fog the whole house with drywall dust. We actually put down tarps. We vacuumed our way out. We showed up on time.

The billing structure was clean. We communicated well. These are all things that in and of themselves, your average contractor, especially in the drywall industry, if he does one of, people are happy. When you put them all together, it puts you into a rarefied air. And so as a service contractor across multiple industry fields, you can take and glean different parts of this. So you really begin to think, how would I want someone to treat my grandmother? What would it look like?

And just taking a step back, what would it look like if this was my house and I left this this way? Or what happened if somebody walked on my job site right now and took a picture? So having awareness and when you’re picking out those types of things and then so teaching, if you’re going to hire a contractor, specifically a drawable contractor, verify some things. there is licensure required in your area, who’s the license holder?

Is that the person doing the work? Is there a lot of turnover in that company? Verify who are the technicians that are going to be working on the property. These are just some of the beginning questions. And frankly, there’s levels of expertise as well. I am a level four drywall finisher out of level five. five is completely smooth, 100 % mud coverage across a singular plane. Most people don’t even know that. They say level five, but they don’t have any idea what that means.

Daniel H. Osborne (17:11.269)
So if you want a level five job, I’m going to refer you to very likely somebody that’s a level five finisher, unless you’re going to pay me to learn. You don’t really want to do that. Now, I’m an excellent in my trade craft, which is texture matching and repair and those dynamic occupied environments. really focus in on what’s the level of licensure required for your municipality or area. Who are the actual technicians going to be working in your home?

And then what is their tradecraft specialty? And is there a tolerance in that? And can your structure or your project facilitate that tolerance? Or do you really need to be choosy?

Erika (17:52.542)
that’s very helpful Daniel. I have to ask what’s going on in the future? What do you see on the horizon with with yourself or with DRR drywall drywall repair? I can’t say drywall sorry.

Daniel H. Osborne (18:06.865)
Well, I’ll try staring at it for almost 20 years and I’ll spot you on it. It’s fine. So there’s a book called Rocket Fuel by Gina Wickman and in it, it talks about visionaries and integrators. And one of the things I have learned that one of the leaders in my life is and the people that I work very well with is that I’m an integrator. very, I am adept by the grace of God.

and the Holy Ghost and people being very kind to me to be able to help put things together and help make things work. And there’s a recurring word in there, it’s help. I have the ability to start things, and I do, but really seeing and improving and getting to an end conclusion is kind of that sweet spot for us. So I’m continuing to evaluate and explore sea level opportunities, six, seven, eight.

10 figures, whatever it ends up being, to be able to add value to local communities and do so in a fiduciarily responsible fashion with another local or international business owner. When you have a clean background, again, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, and you’ve been around business for a while, it begins to open up opportunities for other people of the like mindset. We’re not out here to make money for the sake of making money. It’s a tool.

And then when the value exchanges are appropriate, the values of that company and the vision of that company align with your own, you could do some pretty special things.

Erika (19:42.932)
Yeah, for sure. That’s exciting. Daniel, before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate on a project or learn more about DRR drywall repair, what’s the best way for them to get in touch?

Daniel H. Osborne (19:59.127)
So there’s a couple of ways, you we live in the 21st century, or it feels like the 23rd at times. know, kids are, they could pick up an iPad at three years old and Lord help me, I’m a knuckle dragon Android user, so y’all forgive me for that. But that’s what I like. Email is a great way for context reference. That’s drrdrywallrepairatgmail.com. Any of the business areas.

traditional, you know, we have an Instagram channel, we have a YouTube channel where we share tips and tricks and try to help people with that. LinkedIn is a great way to be able to connect with us. If you’re a social media buff and you’d like to connect with us on Facebook personally, if that’s appropriate, more than happy to evaluate that. But at end of the day, I’m here to add value to local business owners and those in decision making capacity to where you can

You can make a difference in your world is kind of a tagline that people use, but if I can make a difference in my world by staring at walls and ceilings, hopefully with some level of excellence for almost two decades, we can put some of those core traits and those core attributes and some of those business things to work for you. let’s see what the Lord and some good hard work will do for you.

Erika (21:19.718)
Daniel. Thanks so much for coming on the show, sharing your insights, your story, and thanks for being a contractor who’s doing things the right way.

Daniel H. Osborne (21:29.064)
We certainly strive for it. Thanks for having us. You take care.

Erika (21:32.842)
For everyone listening, if you found value in this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations lined up like this with top tier operators like Daniel who are out there making things happen. We’ll see you on the next episode.