Coffee with Jon, Scaling College Student Success with Sean Phelps, President of College Works

"On today’s Coffee with Jon, Sean Phelps shared how he sources 100,000 college students to hire 1,000.

Then every one of them gets coached every two weeks.

Rookies. Fifth-year veterans. Everyone.

A $100K summer branch used to be a big win.

Now it’s the average.

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Sean Phelps is the President of College Works Painting, named one of America's Greatest Workplaces in 2024 and 2025. Over two decades, Sean has coached more than 10,000 college students through running their own painting businesses — generating over $100 million in revenue and putting $25 million directly into students' pockets. He started at College Works as an intern at 18 and never left — well, almost. He spent a stretch as an early employee at blooom, a VC-backed robo-advisor that grew to over $1 billion in assets under management before being acquired. Now Sean is writing his first book, a deep dive on accountability — the unsexy discipline he credits for every win in his career and the through line in how he builds teams, raises his three boys, and shows up every day. Based in Kansas City with his wife Tiffany and their family."