1064. From Internship to Ownership

When asked what the best part of his job is, without hesitation Matthew Stewart responds, “The sparkle in the students’ eyes! We have other companies in my partnership that don’t work with college students, but I’ve consistently stayed with the students because I see them when they don’t think they can do our internship program. And then at the end of the program, they think they can do anything. Their whole attitude changes, their confidence changes, and the ceiling they put on themselves is lifted. It’s just miraculous to be part of that.”

In today’s episode, Matthew discusses his roles from internship to ownership of College Works Painting, now a proven training platform for future business professionals. This internship program strives to provide highly motivated college and university students with a premier, hands-on leadership development experience. It provides an extraordinary opportunity to build an impressive resume and gain marketable skills–which can be applied to any profession–by teaching them how to build and manage their own residential painting business.

Matthew Stewart is co-founder and CEO of National Service Group (NSG), which operates College Works Painting, Empire Community Construction, Home Genius Exteriors, and SMJJ Investments. NSG has grown from a small California-based business into an international company over 28 years. Matt serves on the board of directors for multiple organizations. He is past chairman of the global board for the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), a worldwide-business network comprising over 15,600 leading entrepreneurs in 60 countries.  He has traveled extensively across the world speaking on the topics of entrepreneurship, strategic planning, and business development. Matt hosts “The Edge of Excellence” podcast.