Join us as we explore the stellar career of R.L. Hunnicutt, an award-winning business development executive with over 15 years of strategic mastery. Learn the secrets behind his market-defying achievements, from skyrocketing sales to expanding market shares. Discover the art of tactical value determination, meticulous action planning, and the execution of diverse initiatives. Uncover R.L.’s knack for leveraging data to overcome business growth barriers.
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This is a very special episode as it is another episode of the People at Lime Series. Our guest is most certainly a leader at Lime. I’m excited to dive into who he is and the incredible things that he’s doing in the Oklahoma City market. I would like to welcome the Owner, RL Hunnicutt, of Lime Painting of Oklahoma City. Welcome to the show.
Thanks. I’m glad to be here.
I’m glad to have you. I mentioned one of the leaders at Lime. You’re very actively involved in the Franchise Advisory Council. Thank you for all your service and everything you do. You’re most certainly helping us build this special service. We’re the nation’s first and only luxury painting company. We’re defining what it means to experience a luxury painting service. You’ve been doing that in the Oklahoma City market for quite some time. Before we dive into all the fun stuff, I’d like to know from you how you found Lime. How’d you get into franchise ownership at Lime?
You know that I’m a faith-based person. I was with a company for about 15 or 16 years. I saw the writing on the wall. We had new ownership. I saw some things were about to change. I felt that I was led to start seeking out opportunities about 5 to 6 months prior to leaving the organization that I was currently with. One of the things is I hired a resumé writer. She ended up helping me with my resumé and getting everything on LinkedIn set up. What that did was trigger some franchise consultants to start contacting me. The franchise consultant threw five different franchises out to me.
Let me back up a little bit. He said, “What are some things you want to do? What are some things that are important to you?” I started naming out some of those things. He was like, “I feel like these five companies would serve what you want to accomplish and do very well.” Lime was one of those franchises that was on the list. It came down to Lime and another franchise.
You see what I have on now. I feel like I made the best decision. I feel like this is definitely part of my path and where I’m supposed to be in life. This is how I started. I always wanted to be my own boss. I grew up around entrepreneurs. I didn’t realize the many entrepreneurs I grew up around until I got older.
The guy down the street from me owned a candy shop. My grandfather was a sharecropper and had kids. Those were his employees. He cut hair on the side. Another guy down the street had a hay-hauling business. I grew up around all these entrepreneurs. As I got older, I was slowly starting to dive back into the past to see how they went about things and how they carried themselves. Even though I was a kid, those things started to resonate in my life. I said, “I’ve been around these folks all my life and didn’t know it.” Entrepreneurship is definitely the path that I’m supposed to be on. Lime is a great opportunity. It’s been amazing to me.
You needed to take your career in a different direction proactively. You’re acting on that and franchising, as it does many folks, has a way of finding us. We don’t necessarily say, “Franchising sounds interesting. I’m doing that.” In fact, most folks don’t even realize that something like a paint company could be a franchise. The reality is, if it’s legal, it makes money and it is ethical, it can be franchised. That’s anything under the sun.
That includes things like painting. Obviously, we’re pretty niched there in the luxury segment. What that means is we’re providing quality. We’re giving a quality option in the market. You’re most certainly not overpaying, but you are paying for the project to be approached in a unique way with peace of mind and artisans providing the craftsmanship and high-grade solutions.
That is the segment that you ultimately stumbled into, invested and became an owner. You not only have invested your time, career, and financially, but spiritually and everything else. You didn’t necessarily wake up and say, “I need to be proactive in my career. I’m going to get into painting.” Why this paint business and, specifically, in Oklahoma City?
First, it started at the top. It started with the mission and the goals behind it. I wanted to partner with an organization that believed in the future, had a great vision and aligned with my beliefs. After that, I feel that part because that’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. Do I believe in this vision? Do I want to go and pursue this? It’s bigger than me.
The next piece of it was the opportunity. The painting piece made sense for the market that I was in. It weathered the test of time, through COVID and other opportunities. People are still going to need paint. Once I started honing in on what was painted, a whole new world opened up to me. There were so many things that needed paint.
I said, “If there’s an opportunity for this, there’s a need for it in the market, I’m going to bank on myself that I’m going to be able to solve that need.” From the franchise standpoint, I was able to get my MBA. One of the things we took was an entrepreneurship course. It was about 2 to 3 classes. One of the things that stood out about that class was sole proprietors. 1 out of 5 of those businesses fail. Conversely, 4 out of 5 franchises succeed.
I’m a pretty good person. I feel like I follow the lead. If it’s successful, I’m not going to break the mold. These guys have done it before me. I have a very practical approach to that. These guys have been successful with it. if they can do it, why can’t I do it? It’s been a proven method. Follow the model as best you can. Add your own little sprinkle of fairy dust in it and see what can happen. I feel like what I’ve been able to do here in Oklahoma is follow the lead and the plan. I knew nothing about painting, but you guys did a great job of educating me about painting. It’s worked. I’ve followed the model and I’ve had success with it.
When you say it’s worked, I think of bringing value to customers and delivering against the need. In our space, we’re helping folks fall in love with their property. That’s ultimately what we’re doing. We’re helping them express their personality through the services that we offer. We’re providing highly vetted solutions that we have standardized nationally, specifically for luxury estates.
There are a lot of different surfaces that make up a custom home, from stucco to wood, to masonry, from the gutters all the way down to the stamped concrete and everything around the estate. Everything is exposed to sun and water damage. Every surface turns over and weathers. When you get to your tenth year of owning a home or since everything has been updated the last time, quite a bit of deterioration has already started to compound and build.
The next step is replacement. Frankly, the cost of replacing these surfaces is pretty substantial for a custom home. I love giving this analogy. It’d be silly if you drove your car and you never flushed your fluids in your engine, you never did an oil change, and you thought, “I’ll replace the engine when it needs to be replaced. I’ll run it until it needs to be replaced.”
That’s never practical. You can spend significantly less doing a six-point audit on your car and flush the fluids, update the oil change, and chip away at it. From a home standpoint, you’re doing that every 8 to 15 years when it comes to coating and protecting these surfaces. That timeframe of how often you need to maintain depends on the quality and the solutions provided upfront.
We’re shooting for solutions that are going to last 8 to 12 years, generally speaking. Obviously, you have a random surface like a deck or whatnot. They’re only going to last about 25% of that time. Even relatively speaking, for that service, we’re providing high-grade solutions. If our lifetime is X, most likely, what’s average in general in the market is probably half the lifetime of whatever we’re recommending. That’s all value for a client in the market. When you say, “I’ve had success. I’ve built momentum,” what has it been like living out what I spoke about specifically in Oklahoma City?
It’s the service aspect of it. One key piece that I feel has separated us in Oklahoma from the competition is the proposals, how thorough they are, and how worded they are in great detail. Many clients tell me all the time, “If your proposals are this detail, then I know your work’s going to be as detailed.” We try to be transparent with that process.
“Here’s your proposal. Here’s exactly what you can expect to see while we’re out attacking whatever scope of the project that we’re currently on,” the full transparency. We’re walking them through this process over time. It’s not just, “I’m going to sell you this job and I’m done with you.” It is a walk and a journey. It is, “I’m checking in. We’re constantly following up. We’re available hand over fist to answer any need.”
If there’s something that is wrong, we try to be out in front of that stuff as best as we can with clients. I feel like they appreciate that. At the end of that, we’re holding our hand through the whole process and then we have to get that good rating and then that recommendation. That’s what’s helped me here in the market. There’s not a job that I haven’t walked away from too much to get my feet wet initially, but I’m growing. Some of the jobs and the scopes of what I’m capable of doing now is what’s allowing me to be more strategic, more profitable and do the job right.
Those are all throwing that all in a big pot of soup and stirring it around. That’s the Lime way, the OKC way that we’re mirroring and trying to make our own and build our own here. It’s been fun and challenging, but we haven’t faced any roadblocks that we’re afraid of. We’ve had some dark times. It hasn’t all been peachy, but when you look in the mirror, a lot of times, that’s the person who’s got to change it. You have the willingness to get out and try to make it happen. This is a huge opportunity because everybody needs it. This is anything that’s not needed in the market.
Clearly, you can see that this is a highly talented, driven, dynamic individual in the Oklahoma City market. This is a neighbor of yours in Oklahoma City and he’s clearly living out his dream, but investing everything that is who he is into serving his community and bringing value is exactly why I wanted to have you on the show. You’re somebody who lives out what you preach. What you mentioned about fulfilling promises to customers, whether there’s a good or bad moment, such as life goes, is that you’re always there for your customers.
That’s why you have great reviews and feedback from customers. They know when they work with RL and Lime Painting in Oklahoma City, they’re going to be taken care of and promises are going to be met. That’s not always the case in the paint space in contracting in general. Thank you for your service to the community and for defining what it means to receive a luxury paint project.
I’d like to transition a little bit here. We’ve talked about several things, but building on this topic of entrepreneurship. You are doing it in your community, building a business there. Clearly, you grew up and didn’t realize there were as many entrepreneurs around you. Frankly, franchising this idea of business ownership found you, but ultimately, why did you choose entrepreneurship?
The freedom, the leadership, the challenge and the opportunity to dream. I get emotional talking about it. It’s the ability to make a difference. I have big dreams for this. What I’m going to be able to do, not just for myself, but for my community, other people in my family, and for others out there that are going to ultimately team up with me on this journey. That is what I feel the entrepreneurship endeavor allows you the opportunity to do. It’s not just about you. You don’t get to where we are or by ourselves. It’s a team thing. It does require somebody who’s going to lead and say, “We’re not going to accept things for the way they are. We’re going to rise above that stuff.” Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to touch every aspect of your business.
I needed a challenge. I was in the corporate world. I was not given all that I felt I could give, not because of my ability but because of the constraints that the line of workgroup puts on you. You have to get an okay for this. You have to get the blessing from this person to do that. You don’t have the freedom to live and breathe the brand or whatever you are working with with this.
I can go to sleep wearing this shirt. I wear these clothes everywhere I go. Someone asked me about it. They are going to hear my spiel, but this is why I chose to get into entrepreneurship. The ability to dream, visualize and reach for something that’s bigger and better than myself and not be afraid to walk on water.
I’m a faith walk with this thing. Be prepared. God’s going to take you out to the deep, not to let you go. You got to move from the shoreline of that beach and that coastline. He’s got to take you out to the deep. When you get out to that deep, you’re either going to sink or swim and he’s not going to let you drown. That’s it. It’s the challenge of it all and the legacy with my children to let them see that their dad can embark on this journey. He did it with the help of others, but he took a risk and a challenge.
For them to see that, hopefully, they’ll take that and run with it when their time comes. That’s why I wanted to do it. I always had a business mind as well. I felt like I’m fully using the skills and the talents that God gave me in this swamp that I’m on. I kicked myself. I wish I did this many years ago.
Congratulations on doing it because many folks think about entrepreneurship. They know it’s the right direction for them. They never take action for it to become a reality. That’s awesome that franchising found you. Clearly, it aligns with who you are. Congratulations on not only exploring this, but choosing it and stepping into it confidently. You have some big aspirations and dreams. You’re breaking ceilings here and paradigms for yourself and the people around you.
That’s going to require navigating and stretching yourself. When you’re breaking ceilings, you’re doing things for the first time that you’ve never done before and developing those skillsets. That’s a special process, but not something that everybody does and gets to experience. Many folks think about it and want to get into business ownership. For all the reasons that you explained, franchising provides a turnkey way to benefit from entrepreneurship.
In that position, you’re able to investigate different opportunities that align with who you are. You can dive in and provide that value in your community. Whatever your legacy or vision is for yourself, the American Dream is entrepreneurship. It can provide for whatever that vision is. What do you think qualified you for this? Throughout your life, what has qualified you for entrepreneurship?
Now that I’ve done it, I’ve had people tell me throughout my life I was a leader. I was young and rambunctious. I didn’t listen. I went my own way and did my own thing. They saw something in me that I feel answered why I’m here and validated some of the things that I may be questioning myself as to why I’m here. I felt that the leadership that I have and then the ability to bounce back. I’ve bounced back from many things in my life. Sports equipped me with the ability to persevere, to work as a team, to make it not always about you and about others, servicing others. I didn’t play a sport like golf or tennis where it’s all about me. I played team sports.
If I win and my teammates don’t do well, then that’s not a good feeling at the end of the game. The same thing with entrepreneurship. It’s about the partnerships and engaging with others and how can you help other people win? How do you respond when adversity slaps you right dead in the face? Are you going to give up and say, “I can’t do it anymore? Are you going to bounce back, assess and critically analyze, ‘What did I do wrong? How could I have done better?’” The reflecting.
All the things that I did prior to this, I feel maybe some of the people that I started out with here in Lime didn’t make it because not all of us do, but I feel that it’s all those other little things along the way that built the grit, leadership, toughness and the optimism, that made you recognize some of the pessimism and some of the realities of things that you’re not capable of doing yet. It doesn’t mean you can’t get there yet in the future, but right now, you’re limited.
Philosophically, those are the things that have helped me. I feel like I’m prepared for this role, but it’s ongoing. The willingness to learn and continue to grow is always at the forefront of where I am. I feel that I’m getting new layers of skin and toughness. Each hurdle that you overcome, the hurdles get taller. It’s like, “I’ve been running and jumping over these, but here comes another one. I wasn’t ready for this one. Let me try to jump this one.” You clear that one and then it’s like, “Here’s another one.” It’s the constant challenge that I feel like we all need in order to run this entrepreneur race.
Constantly being stretched and growing, especially when you’re in your 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of entrepreneurship, especially in year 1. You’re drinking from a fire hose and you’re expected to deliver at the standard that the market expects and the brand promises. There’s a lot of pressure around that to fulfill and live up to promises. That is something that is very commendable because it’s that constant pursuit of fulfilling promises and that pressure that you apply to yourself to do that.
Eventually, all those muscles are grown. All of those first times are mastered. All of a sudden, things are humming along. You’re in stride. Depending on how big your vision is, you may not be done being stretched because in order to get to the next level in order to level up. You definitely need to be stretched. The beautiful thing is, once you start developing those muscles leveling up, you have those muscles that allow you to make decisions in uncertainty without all the answers but still make informed decisions. It’s that make decisions and do the behavior. In time, those level-ups are pretty clear. You’ve been on this journey and are most certainly in stride. What are some things that stand out to you? What are some milestones that you’d like to share?
I would say some of the milestones, the things that I missed my first year in business, the amount of sales that I could do, then what I learned throughout that year was surprising. I felt like I still left a lot of meat on the bone that first year. I was like, “If I would’ve done X, Y, Z, I did a little more here.” Being able to do it and survive that first year was a huge milestone. It was tough, but it was letting me know that I could do it. Going into the second year, being able to anticipate, feel and see things happen and better understand what it is.
That second year, the milestone for me would be the knowledge gained from doing this. Ultimately, you’re going to get that much better at it. For me, it’s been the learning curve. Things are slowing down. I’m able to anticipate things. As a result, I know we’ve talked about that multimillion-dollar job that I’ve landed. It’s been a slow process with that, but it’s finally got everything ready to go. We’re going to start that job in January 2024. It will ultimately be more than I envisioned in regard to what the original scope was.
Landing a $1 million plus job has been a huge milestone, but I feel like God knew how to bring me along for that because once I hit that job, everything that I’ve learned, the crews, the scheduling, all the fire that I’ve been through, I know I’ll be able to run that job flawlessly as well as still maintain the other parts of my business. It is what I’m excited about. That one job is cool, but we’re not stopping there. We still have bigger fish to fry. Those are some milestones there, the original first year and then moving to the second year and then being able to land a job that big. It’s been a blessing.
It has come from developing the skills that have qualified you to land a job like that. Congratulations on many different fronts. When you hear the statement, “We work in beautiful places for beautiful people with beautiful people,” what comes to mind?
Lime. Who can be mad when you see this color? That’s the beauty. I’m fashionable with this color. I have the shoes to match. I’ll go out. My swag is impeccable when I show up to work. I’m swagged out. I’m bringing good cheer, moves and vibes. I try to bring that positivity, that contagious attitude, to any room I’m in because it’s a blessing. This is huge. We have stress. We have other things, but let’s be happy. We all want to look at and be like, “Why are we doing this or that?”
We’re all working. None of us are perfect. We’re in this thing together. It’s going to take all of us to try to help. Let’s try to put our best foot forward, bring a good attitude, and try to help the person next to you because that’s what Lime is all about. I try to bring that to Lime, my markets, corporate, home office and my relationships with all the other owners: “Let’s work together and try to make this place something that we all can be proud of because this is what we do.” Why not make your environment the best you can?
Clearly, you can see why RL embodies what it means to be a leader at Lime. Thank you for your leadership, service in your community, and bringing tremendous value to customers, serving them well and doing it in beautiful places for beautiful people with beautiful people. My final question for you. Lime stands for Love, Integrity, Mission and Excellence. Knowing those values, I know we all ebb and flow, but what is your favorite Lime value and why?
That’s a tough one. They’re all great. I feel like love is the building block of everything else. It’s the foundational piece. I feel that before you can do anything else, you can have integrity, mission, excellence and inspire others. You have to have passion for this. You have to have some love for it. Love is going to wake you up in the morning and make it hard for you to leave when it’s time to go. You have to love what you do as much money as we’re put into this, sacrifice and everything that’s gone into us being entrepreneurs. If you don’t love this, you’re not going to have any of the other pieces: the mission, excellence, and any other stuff you have. It starts with love.
If you don’t love it, you’re not going to do good at it. You’re not going to go the extra mile to deliver that pie, to get that smile. You’re not going to do the videos. You’re not going to answer your client’s calls when they’re probably getting on your nerves, calling you about this and, “I thought you were doing that.” If you don’t love it, you’re not going to do it. With everything that we do, we have to give it our all. If you don’t have that love for it, you’re in the wrong business. Time is too short. Go do something else. Don’t waste your time doing something you don’t like that you don’t love. Give it your all. That’s the way I approach it. Love is the one that means the most to me.
I’m not all that surprised that you went with the al, but delivering happiness to our customers, delivering a key line pie after the project, and going above and beyond to deliver world-class service. Clearly, you heard the values, love, integrity, mission and excellence, a very dynamic set of values. Not only are we a heart-led organization, people-focused, servant-led, you can see all that here with RL, but there’s a high bar. There’s an expectation of excellence. That’s the Lime way. It’s a very dynamic set of core values. RL, thank you so much for giving the world a look into the people at Lime. If anybody is interested in getting in touch with you, how can they do that?
We’re on all social media platforms. Our website here is LimePainting.com. You can find us on Facebook at @LimePaintingOKC and Instagram at @LimePaintingOKC. Follow us on YouTube at LimePaintingOKC. Those are four major platforms that we’re on.
Check them out. He’s got plenty of featured projects on there. There are some pretty incredible customer testimonials that he has across the platforms. More importantly, subscribe to the channel. It’s how we’re able to share more of this information and have wonderful leaders like RL on the show. Like and comment. More importantly, give us your thoughts. Let us know if RL inspired you or showed you some of the benefits of being an entrepreneur. Thank you for reading. As always, level up.
R.L. is an owner at Lime Painting Oklahoma City, where he leads the first and only high-end painting franchise in the market. R.L. is an award-winning business development executive with 15+ years of combined management experience and proven achievements in skyrocketing sales and ballooning market shares through tactical value determination, action planning, and execution of diverse initiatives. R.L. is a relationship builder and an analytical problem solver. He is admired for excellence in leveraging data to uncover and topple business growth barriers. R.L. received recognition from peers and received multiple internal and external recognitions from senior leaders and clients.