Cleaner Conversations: Well, welcome back to another episode of Cleaner Conversations. I am Justin Kane, the host, along with my co-host Sam Taylor. And today we had the privilege of spending some time with Peter Blake. And Really enjoyed our conversation with him shared some really heartfelt stuff. He started in the industry almost 40 years ago and never left So, first job all the way through, very influential, very impactful. And we had a great time today. Pete Peter runs the associations for the East Coast with DLI. like Justin said, been in it for what, about forty years now. If you don't know Peter, he's a great dude to know and just really gives a lot. So great person to connect with. He's definitely a networker. yeah, he's he'll connect you to the right people. He may he said it constantly. I'm not the person that may have the answers, but I will find the person Who does have the answers and he cares deeply. So that's two good traits I think to have in your your pocket. For the new people coming into the industry, yeah, especially if you're on the eastern half of the US, connect with Peter. he talked about a couple of new things DLI was doing. We're not going to talk about that yet. He visits a hundred and eighty five cleaners a year, so he's got good feedback, good person to listen to. So very open to people reaching out to him, even if you're not part of the association just yet. So enjoy today's episode. we are very committed to getting the top voices, the right voices onto your phone so that you can take it and do something very beneficial with it. like and subscribe at Cleaner Conversations, YouTube, Spotify and Apple. And we hope you guys enjoy it today. Enjoy. Sam, we're excited for this episode. Can't wait to to have a good conversation. Peter, thank you for being on with us. very pleased to have you with us on Cleaner Conversations. Thanks, Peter. Yeah.
Peter Blake: Well, thank you so much for inviting me. it is an honor and I am excited about it, so
Cleaner Conversations: Very cool. All right, great. Hey, Peter. So you've been doing this for a minute now, since nineteen eighty seven. A few minutes. A few minutes. ~ since nineteen eighty seven? Is that right? When you got in? what brought you into dry cleaning of all things?
Peter Blake: Actually it was my first job pretty much after college. You know, I graduated with a degree in communication studies and I was answering ads and I'll tell you a little funny story. It's my wife says to me, she says, Hey, there's her best friend's father is looking for somebody and there was an ad in the Boston Globe and I had applied for it already. And so I went in, I talked to him and his name was Roger Schilling. And he was the executive director for the Northeast Fabric Care Association. He hired me and I've been here for almost thirty eight years now. You know, if you told me that when I interviewed for that job that I'd be doing this forty years from now, I'd say you were crazy.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. well, that's a crazy story actually. And just for people your generation, the Boston Globe is a newspaper. I thought you were talking about like something
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: from Spider Man. That's what it sounds like, the magazine in Spider Man. It's a newspaper.
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: It's a two he must have had a great sales pitch to get you hired, and stick it around for that long. He was the first one I interviewed. They're like, You're you're a yeah.
Peter Blake: Well, I will tell you, so I went through three interviews and they were on the fence in hiring me and they ended up hiring me. And I'm gonna fa fast forward about ten years. I'm at a funeral from someone that was in the industry and this gentleman, Jay Rosenfield, comes up to me and he's been on my board for ten years and he looks at me and he goes, You know, I told Roger never to hire you and I said, Really? He goes, Yeah. I said he will never stay Never hire him. it's a stepping stone for him. And I fought against your hire. I said, Well, Well, thank you. He goes, I just wanna let
Cleaner Conversations: Y
Peter Blake: you know I was wrong.
Cleaner Conversations: You're like you're a great judge of character. Missed on that one. Sounds like he's a a weather analyst.
Peter Blake: And for him to say that is, you know, to me i it was a it was a pretty big compliment for him to actually come down and admit that he was wrong and, you
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: know, that it was one of the best hires they ever made. So I thought that was fantastic.
Cleaner Conversations: Well, that that's a great story. Forty years is a long time, especially to start somewhere, to remain somewhere, and to continue that. You know, if something's gonna last that long, it kind of turns more from just a job that I needed to more of a mission that I'm fulfilling. did that transition take place at some point during those forty years? And what was that journey like to where you're like, you know what? This is something where I feel like I really, really deeply care about.
Peter Blake: You know, I have a unique job. I mean, there's I hear this all the time. I I'll try to talk to somebody about what I do for a living, and I'm like I run a trade association for dry cleaners. There's an association for that. I'm like, there's an association for everything. And they all have a purpose and they're all there to help. And it started as a job, it started as education, it started as me with a huge learning curve. I didn't know nothing about the dry cleaning industry. I still couldn't tell you how to take out a spot without a pair of scissors. But I've learned a lot of other things along the way. And at some point it became that membership isn't just numbers anymore. It's people I've known for twenty or thirty years. And it's a community that I've kind of been ingrained in. and that's kind of the way they look at my job. I look at it as I'm part of this community that needs help at times and assistance and advice and guidance. And and that's kind of the role I play.
Cleaner Conversations: You know, I appreciate about your answer is in all the conversations that we've had on this podcast, so many have ended off with, Hey, what's your encouragement? They're like, get part of a group, get part of a community. Because if you're a silo, you may struggle as a silo, but when you get around other people, you start getting challenged, you start getting coached, you start seeing things a little bit differently, a little bit bigger. So yeah, I appreciate that. It it does being in this industry seem so much like a community. that once you're in it you start to understand the not only the beauty of it, but the good people that are a part of it.
Peter Blake: Yeah. And my job is unique in that I'm not a salesperson. I mean I do sell memberships. I love to increase membership. I'm good at selling memberships. But Really what we're offering is the ability to make your business better. So when I go in to visit a plant, when DLI goes in to visit a plant, it's it's with the helps of trying to make them do a better job and to help them and to be more successful. So it's always a positive thing when I walk in. There's never a don't want to see him anymore. You know, it's more along the lines of I can't believe you're here. This is fantastic. And we get to, talk and learn and grow and and I learn as much from from the dry cleaners as they learn from me. So I've really grown through this process.
Cleaner Conversations: and known you for a while now, Peter, you're also like part of your job as a connector too. you've certainly done a good job of modeling that for me and you know, other people are coming up in the industry of, who's to talk to, who can you, learn from, who are good people to connect with. So I really appreciate that. what does an an association executive do on a what's a look like for you.
Peter Blake: How long is this podcast?
Cleaner Conversations: well we we we got plenty of time, Peter.
Peter Blake: the best thing about my job is it's never the same. I couldn't tell you what a typical day is 'cause I haven't had a typical day in a very long time. I mean it's jammed with Zoom meetings and meetings with here and there and I may be talking to a cleaner in in Florida and talking about what the best way to market his business is and get a call from a cleaner in Connecticut that has an issue with environmental concerns and I've got to drop this and move over here and start talking environmental affairs. We figure that out, then I've got to plan an expo and so it's really varied, which is great because my job is not mundane at all. It's not routine. And so a typical day for me is making sure that people are set, they've got what they needed. I've given the information to people that have asked for it. And then working through different projects. I'm pretty proud of, you know, the DL Expo East coming up in October. Fantastic event, but it takes a lot of planning and a lot of work. And some people don't realize that with I represent the Northeast Fabricare the Southeast Fabricare and the Mid Atlantic Cleaners Association. And I'm only one person for those three organizations. So when we do a plant meet and greet, when we do a an education class, when we do a newsletter, when we do it's all coming through May and through my office. So there's a lot of work that goes into that. And I've got to entwin it around, you know, member needs. So and my day doesn't really end. So I've been very, very vocal in letting people know you can call me any time. I don't care if you call me eight o'clock at night. Because that's when you're worrying about something, I need to answer that worry when you have it. You know, by the time you get into the morning you'll forget all about it. It'll be you know, eight o'clock at night the next night before you remember I should have called you know? So not that question.
Cleaner Conversations: Did you start running the east coast or where'd you start?
Peter Blake: So I started back in the day. I was the director of public relations and education for Northeast Fabric Care. And then I learned It that was the day before remember before computers, before any of this stuff. So I was literally using a draft board, a T square, rubber cement, and a photocopy to do our newsletter. And we're cutting and pasting and I'm taking clip art and clipping it out of a book and putting it in and when I look back at those newsletters, they're pretty laughable. You know, compared to what we have today. But I learned about dry cleaning, then I moved into environmental affairs for Northeast Fabricare. And I kind of established myself and I became the executive director of NEFA SEFA kind of saw what I was doing up here and they needed some assistance. So I started a collaboration with them. And then we developed this whole, you know, management group idea through DLI. And that's kind of how I started running up and down the East Coast.
Cleaner Conversations: Just a moment ago you'd mentioned that you're here to help. DLI is there to help owners and that it brings a smile to people's faces when you enter into a room because that's what you're there. You're there to help them grow. When owners come to you, they're usually looking for some help. What are some of those common things that you find a lot of dry cleaning owners coming to you? And maybe they come to you with one reason why, but even underlying you start to see that there's common patterns underneath that you really can help dry cleaning owners fulfill or accomplish what they're looking to do.
Peter Blake: I think all dry cleaners it kind of boils down to from where where I see it. They're very similar situations, very similar issues and problems. I mean I do regionals, so I have regional associations, you know, I have Northeast, Southeast, Mid Atlantic, and there's unique problems that come with each area. There are some differences, but when you really boil it down to you get the same core issues. I have an employee problem, or I need more customers, my costs are too high. My government is killing me, doing this, this and this, you know, but it all comes down to that. But when you really look at the undercurrent It's a systems and management and communication problem that they're really trying to solve. And sometimes the real problem is they haven't created a system that allows them to answer the underlying problem. It's the symptom, not the cause. and sometimes I can help them identify that. And that's where I find a real satisfaction when I get them to understand what their real problem is.
Cleaner Conversations: Okay, so you do a diagnostic type understanding, like, hey, what really is the issue here so that we can get down to the core of the route and then you build from there?
Peter Blake: Well, a lot of times what I'll do is answer the system 'cause the symptom, 'cause that's what they called me for. You know, so
Cleaner Conversations: Yep.
Peter Blake: when they ask me about, I have an employee problem. Okay, so the employee problem is you need help. So here's how you can use DLI to get, some new applicants. Here here's some webinars on using Indeed. Here's some webinars on how to be a talent scout. But then you talk to them about now, why have you lost people? Is it people have left? Are they transitioned? are you not hiring the right type of people? So let's take a look at the system as to how you're evaluating those employees. Let's look at the system about how you're deciding which talent to employ. if it's a retention issue, then let's take a look at you know, some kind of how you're motivating, how you're doing leadership and what that corporate culture is. So then we can take a look at the the underlying causes. So maybe there's a little bit bigger role we can play.
Cleaner Conversations: have you noticed that cleaners have changed over the years? Like the mentality, system, structure?
Peter Blake: yes, there's a large shift. I think even before the eighties and the seventies, life was easy, before polyester came in, that was the first big crisis. It was they were making money hand over fist and and we're doing a lot of cleaning and nobody advertised, nobody had to do anything because people had clothes, they brought to the cleaners, it was their routine. I think as people have shifted away to that and you can kinda even go back to what was it casual Fridays. you start to see this shift where people didn't want to dress up as as much anymore. And so now you have to adapt. Now you have to start to market a little bit. Now you have to get the pie shrunk a little bit. So you have to get a bigger piece of the pie. So you have to be more cognizant of what's happening and more cognizant of some of that. So I think I've seen a big change in the fact that people are actually going out looking for work. And not just expecting it to come back over the counter.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Okay, so people are being more proactive.
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: That's good. That was kind of the next question is like do you see people reaching out early or a lot of cleaners, you know, kind of waiting until it's a little too late to reach out to get connected, or is there ever too late?
Peter Blake: It's never too late. I don't believe it's ever too late. but you should really make the call when it's a fifty dollar problem before it's a fifty thousand dollar problem, don't let things fester, don't let things, you know, sit there. If you've got an issue, make the call, or reach out or send an email, however it is that you've text, however you feel that, you know, is important. Because one of the best things I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I know the answer to every question, 'cause I don't. But what I'm good at is I know where to find that answer. I know who might have that answer. You know, when somebody calls up and says, hey, look, I'm trying to get my Google reviews up, and I can say, hey, call Sam, talk to Sam. They've got this great program about how to delve into it. And they may never hire cleaner marketing. They may never never hire, you know, one of the other companies. But the fact that they can call, because I told them to call, you're going to talk to them on the phone, you're going to give them some information, and they're going to at least feel that they've been handled and they've been gotten a value out of that interaction. And maybe comes 30 days down their line, three months down the line. But they've been introduced to that. And I think that's how I approach marketing questions, environmental questions. It's getting to the right people. And I know that when I have a network of people like yourselves and and for the Route Pros and all these other companies, I know that you're gonna make me look good by helping me out. And I in turn will always make you look good by answering whatever questions you have, member or not.
Cleaner Conversations: So just think of two people listening to this. One, somebody just joined DLI, somebody is thinking about it. Now they're they're like, Hey, may maybe I do have a fifty dollar problem and I wanna you know, be part of this association before then. Talk me through the first ninety days. what could they expect and what's the value that somebody will get in the first ninety days of working or being a part of the association?
Peter Blake: It's a question. I think if I was gonna give you a blueprint for the first ninety days, the first thing I would say is just tell us who you are. let us know. Give us a call. Give myself or one of the people at DLI a a phone call and say, hey, I just joined the association. I'm a small operator or I've got two or three locations. And give us the opportunity to find out what you're looking for. I want to grow this business. I want to go into routes. I I want to learn how to do a better job cleaning. My quality isn't as where I'd like it to be. You know, tell us what your pain points are and let's have a conversation. Where we can learn about what your goals are. Because your success is my only goal, and I've said that a bunch of times. That what I'm really looking for is I don't want to define success for you. I want you to give me a call and tell me this is what I'd like to do, and I want to help you get there. So I would start with a conversation like that, and then we have these orientation programs. we call them DLI Virtual Open Houses. It's on the first Wednesday of every month. It's a very casual conversation where we go by Zoom and I show you how to use the website. And you tell me what your biggest challenge is and I show you how we can adapt to that. So that's the first thing I would do is let us know where your pain points are. Let us know how
Cleaner Conversations: Okay.
Peter Blake: where we can help. Then I would get your employees involved. Sometimes people think of this as when you join an association, it's you. You know, it's it's Sam Taylor joining or Peter Blake joining a group, and it's not. It's it's cleaner marketing, it's ABC cleaners, it's the whole group. So don't keep all the benefits to yourself. get your key managers to have their own login information to the DLI website. Have your managers give us a call and tell us where their pain points are. You know, have them Go on and look at webinars. Because as an owner, sometimes you get stuck in your own world of what you believe people know and what they don't know. So you never expose them to say, hey, you can learn a lot from this. you should go look at this. Where your manager poked on the website and hey, look at this new thing I found. and you didn't even know that interested them. So get your employees involved. And the number one thing in the first 90 days is just get engaged. Join those DLI peer-to-peer co-hers. Calls, hop on a webinar or two, you know, and start to get engaged with the other members because that's the best thing about me, you know, DLI and and NEFA and SEFA The best thing about it is it's not just Jon Meijer Mary Scalco Peter Blake, Brian Johnson It's not just us. It's we have this whole avenue of other people out there that will share their experiences and their stories and in what they've done. I mean, we've got this. this gentleman that's helping me with this DLI Connect group. and I I'll never forget the first thing he said to me, he goes, I am the Einstein of dry cleaning. And I'm like, that's a pretty bold statement, you know? And I'm
Cleaner Conversations: Uh-huh.
Peter Blake: like, yeah, he says 'cause you learn from your mistakes, and after all the mistakes I made, I've got to be Einstein by now. You know?
Cleaner Conversations: I've got the highest highest IQ. We gotta give Steve Thompson a shout out for the for that, right?
Peter Blake: So I'm like, that's so perfect. And he's learned from his mistakes. So he wants to help others not have those same failings. So that's
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, what I appreciate about your answer, just the first 90 days is I mean, you can join a gym but never show up and hope that the gym was proactively encouraging you to come. Or you can join it and say, Okay, hey, I want to connect with somebody there. Give me a plan, give me a roadmap. I'm gonna actively connect with people there. Once you kind of immerse yourself and actually take those steps, it starts to evolve on its own. It starts to give you, I mean, you jump on those Calls and maybe you weren't there for the topic, but you heard something that you can walk away with and go, I can put that in practice into my thing, or you connect with a certain individual, you're like, man, I really need that connection. So first 90 days, encourage them. Hey, let us know who you are, but also get as involved as possible. Rub shoulders with other people, get your employees involved and and see where it goes from there. Yeah.
Peter Blake: Yeah, absolutely.
Cleaner Conversations: Hey Peter, do you see most members actually using all of the different benefits that you guys provide
Peter Blake: So for a while we were using this graphic of an iceberg, you know, and we had a little line pointing to it. I you know, I think I developed in Canva in the beginning and I put a little line saying, These are the employ these are the benefits you're using and then these are the employ these are the benefits that you don't know anything about. And it is that way I don't think any member is using everything. But it they're finding just bits and pieces that will work with their strategy. You know, and I think that that's the key. You know, you're finding things that you can use and adapt to your business. so I don't think any members using all of it, but I think a lot of members are starting to really get engaged and using the things that they find value in. I think some members are using everything, but not everything's being used by everybody, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. every time I talk to you it seems like there's something new that you guys are doing, especially now. So that's really good. People who are members of DLI. You guys have a lot of stuff that you've been working on recently too. the what?
Peter Blake: I might be dropping the bomb here for a little bit and I could probably get like in trouble for this. I don't know, but they have a brand new human resource program coming out that to me is gonna be phenomenal. And it's just been approved by the board. It's a human resource kind of add-on to your membership. Well, they'll give you the ability to upload your employee manuals, have them automatically updated to all the state laws, all the federal laws, you know, every time the law changes and it's updated for you. it's a clearinghouse, you can call and ask any HR questions, you can do training, they have training modules, they have I-9 forms, all that right at your beck and call. It's gonna be an amazing program.
Cleaner Conversations: Wow. when do you think that's gonna be released?
Peter Blake: It's gonna be rolled out on October first, I think. at the latest.
Cleaner Conversations: okay.
Peter Blake: it might even be tomorrow, September first for
Cleaner Conversations: Wow. we've got are we gonna leak this now? Is that what we Well, we don't know when this comes out. So if we get this out before they release it,
Peter Blake: Yeah, so so it's yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: we'll see. what tell us a little bit about Connect, D L I Connect. What is that? I know you guys have been working on it's for like the f first three years that somebody's in or walks them through in business. Is that correct?
Peter Blake: Yeah, so one of the things I do for for my associations is I go and visit cleaners. And I get outside and I actually walk in the doors of dry cleaners. I think I did last year 185 visits to dry cleaning shops.
Cleaner Conversations: Sheesh.
Peter Blake: some are short, some are long, you know, but I get out in the field to see what's happening. And one of the things I saw was there's a whole lot of new owners coming into this business that really didn't know anybody in the business, nor did they know much about dry cleaning. So one of the things I just sat down and said we've got to we've gotta capitalize on this and we've gotta kind of and help this community. So I developed this program called DLI Connect Small New Owner Roundtable. And it's a group of seven to ten individuals that have owned their businesses for less than three years and they become their own round table. They meet twice a month. Last time we had Jen Whitmarsh of The Route Pros as a guest speaker. And not as a presentation, not a webinar, but just to have a conversation with, to ask questions. Because when you're new, there's a lot of things you don't know. And there's biggest mistake they make is they're trying to learn everything all at once. You know, they've got to learn everything. They gotta learn pricing and wholesale and and quality and in production and then they have to go down what the front counter is supposed to do and how to run the computer system. They're trying to learn all of this at one time, and then they're embarrassed to ask very rudimentary questions. And they don't wanna go on I mean, I love the peer-to-peer calls, but you know, there are operators from around the country that are very successful on there and they don't want to go in and say, hey, can I put this in a wet cleaning machine after I use hydrogen peroxide? You know, they don't want to ask that question. They look at it like, you know, that's kind of a simple question. So
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: in this new owner group They're all on the same level and they can all ask each other questions. Steve Thompson, who from Sand Dollar Cleaners, the person I referenced earlier, he's the facilitator with me and he helps me run the group. He's great with numbers. I think he was a former auditor, bank auditor, so he knows numbers, he knows what to look at. And they now have developed this relationship together, these eight people. They're gonna go to the DL Expo East together, they're gonna have lunch, they're gonna meet each other. other they're probably for the first time most of And we've been doing this for six months on Zoom. So it'll be kind of fun to see how they're sharing their whole journeys together and how they're building their businesses. Group two is starting in a week. So their first inaugural seven to ten.
Cleaner Conversations: How many are part of each group usually? Is it a certain number? Seven and ten, perfect.
Peter Blake: we try to keep it small and then we also try to have non competing people. So then you can really share. You know, this is where I'm looking for help, this is the programs I'm running. And that way they don't have to worry about proprietary. I'll tell you the best thing we have is they have developed this WhatsApp chat group with those eight people. there's probably fifteen messages a day on that. Hey, I'm on SMRT how did you do this? Hey, I'm doing this, how did you take a look at this? And they're all just, I did it this way. And it's really good 'cause it's way beyond my expertise. You know, my expertise is bringing them together, you know, and then they take it
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: from there and and 'cause they have more knowledge about about all that than I do, you know.
Cleaner Conversations: You got gotta have a tribe. I mean, this isn't the easiest industry to work in for sure.
Peter Blake: Right.
Cleaner Conversations: So that's a really cool thing you guys have been doing. hey, you were inducted into the Hall of Fame with route pros. So congrats on that. I was
Peter Blake: I must. Thank you very much.
Cleaner Conversations: up in Dublin, Ohio for that event when you were inducted. So that was really cool. So congratulations. That's awesome. Congratulations
Peter Blake: Thank you.
Cleaner Conversations: on that. what have you noticed for the top route operators out there that's like a clear distinction of Hey, these guys are doing something really good on the route side. And then there's underperformers. Are there any sort of trends that you've noticed being a part of that group for so long?
Peter Blake: yes, there's I've learned a lot from the route pros and I was really honored by them doing that. I think it was the first person that wasn't a a client of theirs to win the award and and I was really just very proud that they kind of recognize what I can do for the industry. but the one thing that I see about route development is that the people that are most successful treat it as a business unit and not a route. They treat it as a complete, they look at it, they track it, they look at the information, they know what their revenue per van is, they know what their expectations are, and they understand the theory and I think the responsibility of a route. And when I say that it's sometimes you get it they say, this is a route driver. And that's a big fallacy because It's not just a driver. Anybody can drive. You know, you can have anybody delivering clothes. you we have deliveries from Amazon and Walmart and Uber Eats and all this other stuff. We're getting deliveries all the time now as a consumer. What a route delivery person is someone that builds a relationship with that customer. And they've got to look at it that way and they've got to develop it that way. So it's really a route developer that's developing a relationship with that customer and the people that are looking to build it. The biggest question people ask me about routes is whether they should be looking at a dry store or should they open a route or should they do and usually my answer is, you know, it depends on what their situation is. But a route is always makes sense. if you can outfit it and it's also really good to take a look at that relationship between counter sales and the route. People question me all the time about I've heard that it's good to get people that are your current counter customers onto your route. And I'm a firm believer in that, 100%. You should be doing as much transition as you can. They said, but that's making me less profitable on the counter. And I said, Well, what does it matter? Because you're you're making it more profitable on the route. So even if you look at your counter as the feeder program for your route, that's okay. Because you're getting them on the route. The minute you get somebody on the route, I've seen, you know, and not just from the Route pros, but from actual people in the industry other than their customers, that they're seeing 10 to 15% revenue gain over what they're doing on the route than they did over the counter. And the reason being is you're showing up at the door, they don't have to make that extra trip. They maybe forgot last week, and that's opportunity lost. You know, you don't forget to go to their house. You're there, you're picking it up. And sometimes, let's face it, we all do the same thing. the Route guy's coming today, I gotta give him something. And you look around the house, you throw it in the bag, 'cause you know he's gonna be there. And it just increases that revenue.
Cleaner Conversations: we've seen the same thing and so over the last nine months developed an app that would allow for dry cleaners to really hone in on developing that as a business, seeing it differently, strategizing around it differently, and then putting campaigns out there to to grow that route business. So excited to see that playing out and it's gonna be a positive thing. Yeah, and
Peter Blake: I tell you I'm sorry, I was just saying one one thing on that is you are so right. It's if there's one problem I see with people that run around, is not taking advantage of all the information that they have. Like you just said, I mean, you know, take advantage of of the the add on tools for your POS and take a look at all the analyzing you can do of the numbers. 'Cause it's gonna tell you a story that you can go out and then look at where you wanna be and how you wanna grow.
Cleaner Conversations: that's a hundred percent a hundred percent right. And to that point about some people call it cannibalizing the front counter, right? And it's like, well, I mean that sounds pretty dramatic, but you know, the pickup and delivery, getting somebody or rotating them off counter is very hard to do, but if you can, I mean it it's a really good way to increase your revenue, or l at least your lifetime value across your different types of customers. So with environmental changes. Is there anything coming down the pipeline that owners should be more aware of now to prepare themselves rather than just a last minute, scramble?
Peter Blake: I don't think there's anything big coming down the pipe I mean you're gonna have some stuff. There's gonna be some OSHA regulation. heat stress is right now is is one of the biggest ones. You know, we're having a lot of new heat stress requirements. OSHA's gonna be looking at that, trying to see how hot it is in a dry cleaning plant, increase ventilation, do some training, that kind of thing. I think there's a big worry about something called PFAS. I'm not gonna tell you what that is because I can't pronounce it and I'd make myself look like a fool. But
Cleaner Conversations: Ha ha.
Peter Blake: PFAS is those forever chemicals like like Teflon and water c and surface coatings and things, but they're in the background of everywhere. And right now it's not a big issue for our industry. I think you'll see it some on laundry, and I think you'll see it a lot on garment manufacturers. But so far we haven't been the primary look for those. it's not stuff that we use as a product. Go ahead, Sam.
Cleaner Conversations: Peter, there was I it was like a year ago we were at some expo or convention where they were talking about micro plastics and that it was gonna be a gigantic thing and I feel like I've heard about it more since then, but recently not a whole lot. is there something going on with the micro plastics situation?
Peter Blake: I think it has kind of quelled a little bit. Microplastics are in that same situation where they were used more in the garment manufacturing process, and it's not something that we're introducing during our cleaning process. So it's not in a product that we're using, it's not in any of the solutions that we're using. So it kinda hasn't found its way towards us. The other
Cleaner Conversations: Okay.
Peter Blake: thing that's important, and this is the one thing environmentally I do want to give just a couple minutes to, is sometimes Sometimes we get complacent and we take a look at there are still a number of people using perc as their cleaning solution. People say, well, when do you have to get rid of it? When's the phase out? There is no phase out yet. It's all under debate. It's all under, you know, when the final use is. I've had the same belief I've had for the last 15 years in the only thing that the only way Perk's gonna go away is when it prices itself out of the market and it's getting close now. You should be taking a look at maybe. Making that transition to something different. But in the meantime, you have to take a look at what those regulatory requirements are and make sure you're doing them. There has not been a lot of talk on the Clean Air Act and what you know what leak checks you should be making. And as an industry, when we don't talk about it, we tend to forget about it. And in the last five Four months and I haven't had this question in probably four years. In the last th three or four months I've had somebody call up and say, Hey, I've got a D E P inspection. They're coming in to take a look at this. I've been, notified that they wanna have my hazardous waste records sent over. So people are gonna start taking a look at that again. So I just be wary.
Cleaner Conversations: changes in the consolidation that's happening for cleaners and for associations too.
Peter Blake: Well, I think it's an evolution, and I think there is a a little bit of a of a warning system there. But as far as associations go, I think there's a kind of a misconception. When we say that California now became I think the the Western Fabricare Association. I think there's there's WFA now in
Cleaner Conversations: okay. Who runs the West Coast for DLI?
Peter Blake: Well that's a interesting way you put that. So let me put it this way. Leslie Schaefer is the executive director for WFA, the Western
Cleaner Conversations: The Western yeah, W F.
Peter Blake: Fabricare Association. she used to be the executive director for California Cleaners Association. but When you said for DLI, see, one thing to keep in mind is all these associations, these regionals, they are all independent they are all independent associations. So CCA or now Western Fabricare Association is their own entity, SDA is their own entity. We're all partnered with DLI, but the distinction is is that they all run themselves, they have a board of directors with their own priorities, with their own goals, their own objectives. So when you join SDA You get a fantastic group that's run by Liz Williams. She does a terrific job at running SDA, but you also get the national flavor of DLI. So you're getting for a two for one. And it's not like a DLI chapter. It is a whole organization that is a standalone working for your benefit and your behalf. And she does a fantastic job. So it's a great relationship that you're getting both those entities working for you. And that's the same with NEFA and SEFA & MAC Is they all run independently and they're all doing unique things for their regions, which is terrific. Now, you asked about the consolidation. What happened was they didn't take over any other associations. What they did was they added states to their territory. So that's a little bit of a distinction. They didn't consolidate anything. They just got a bigger footprint. And what that does is that tells a cleaner in, say, Montana, hey, I'm not alone anymore. I've got this other regional group now. that can help me locally that I can call a whole new group of people that are interested in my success. So it kind of opened up a little bit more avenue for the cleaners in some of those states that before didn't have any local arm at all. All they had was DLI. They didn't have, you know, local seminars or local people working. So we've kind of taken a look at, or DLI took a look at how to incorporate more of those states into an association to give them a little bit more value. So I think that's it's little bit of distinction. Now when the Mid Atlantic Clean Association merged with PDCA, that was to make both stronger. We had You gonna be honest, we had a little bit of aging board of directors, we had some programs that that weren't real weren't really progressing the way we wanted. So by combining those two organizations, it gave us a little bit more power to do what we wanted to do. It gave us a little bit more ability to affect success a little bit more, and we could I think get a little bit more done and provide a little bit better value. So let's look at it from the dry cleaning industry. Are we seeing this evolution of consolidation? I think it's cyclical. So a long time ago, we had these huge package plants. I mean I'm sorry, these huge big plants, and they would support like a hub and spoke. So you'd have the hub of the dry cleaning plant and a bunch of spokes. And it was the dry stores going in. And then in order to be different and to make a change, a lot of people forward thinking and saying, what, we're gonna change this up, we're gonna do package plants. So I'm gonna be able to give you quicker service, I'm gonna be able to give you same-day service, I'm gonna be able to do this, you're gonna be able to go into my shop, bring your clothes and knowing I'm cleaning it there on premises. So there was a big shift to package plants in having instead of six drop stores, having six plants. Now, when we're consolidating, we're kind of going back again. So it's that's why I say it's kind of like an evolution and a little bit of a cyclical is now we're going back to the consolidated plants. Part of the reason is the industry has shrunk a little bit. Part of the reason is you can manage a lot more of your staff and the staffing problems that you're experiencing can be mitigated a bit by having a larger plant doing the production.
Cleaner Conversations: And by using the DL DLI HR solution.
Peter Blake: Yeah. There you go.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Yeah, click right here to subscribe.
Peter Blake: Mm-hmm.
Cleaner Conversations: Do you want to ask this one? This is No. Okay. All right. Designated This is your show. it's our show. hey Peter, for forty years in this industry, have there been any crazy things? board meetings, plant visits, you know, you've had cleaners tell you stories. Is there anything crazy that comes to mind? One or two stories that pops out to you.
Peter Blake: God. I have a lot of stories that pop out now, but I'm not sure how many I can say on here.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, I mean Yeah, we do have dirty conversations, but that's another podcast. This one's cleaner. We're free to cut. You know, we can cut anything.
Peter Blake: I've had some really board meetings. we had one board meeting and I mean this is straight out of I think the UN, But I had a guy that was so mad during a board meeting and this was back in I was probably at this point director of environmental affairs. And we were talking about making some change for Northeast Fabricare And this is about twenty twenty five years ago. The guy got so mad he stepped up and His face was growing red and he was yelling that you guys are gonna ruin this association, you're gonna ruin this. And he actually took his shoe off and banged it on the table. And I was like,
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: wow. I have never seen somebody so passionate about this industry and about what we were doing. I was shocked.
Cleaner Conversations: I'm sure he got the attention of everybody.
Peter Blake: He got the attention of everybody and we talked about it for quite a while afterwards. I'm like, boy, did he go off. You know.
Cleaner Conversations: Does he want a shout out in this podcast?
Peter Blake: he was a great guy. unfortunately he has passed. His name was Harold Weiner, from Connecticut.
Cleaner Conversations: Shoeless Joe. Jo Shoeless Harry.
Peter Blake: But it was great I just never forget that meeting. And I talked to him many times afterwards. He was a great member and it what came across me as yeah, a little outlandish, but it was the passion that he was coming forward with. and we start we board meetings are interesting because you get a lot of characters. And we were sitting at one of my early board meetings when casual Fridays were taking place. And this guy stands up and he says, this is gonna be the biggest threat to our industry, is that casual Fridays are gonna kill this industry, the move to casualware, we need to combat this. And now I'm young and you know, sometimes I say things I shouldn't, and the room gets Quiet. it was a strategic long-range planning committee meeting. And I stand up and they're all looking at me. I said, Can I just make one observation? And he's like, Yeah, I said, You're wearing jeans and a and a polo shirt. I said, I've got a shirt and a tie on. Roger Schilling, who was my mentor, he hired me that I worked for the first 15 years, yeah, he's got a shirt and tie on. I said, We're the only ones in shirt and ties. I said, you know, maybe you shouldn't worry about casual Fridays and worry about how to clean the stuff that you guys are wearing that you're cleaning, that that you're professionally clean that you're wearing yourself, because, you know, people aren't dressing up because, they don't have casual Fridays. It's because they don't like to dress up, just like you didn't want to come to this business meeting. You traveled three hours to get here or two hours to get here, and you didn't dress up. So what makes you think the public wants to dress up?
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: They were quite mad at me at first. But you know,
Cleaner Conversations: But you what I like about that, Peter, is we have a saying here at Cleaner Marketing, IPO, issues and problems equal an opportunity. And when you get stuck on the issues or the problems, you can't see what could be a great plan or a solution and what could this turn into. And when you start to see it like you said, hey, look at what you're wearing. How how about let's figure out rather than say our industry is dead, let's figure out how to do a little pivot and start cleaning something a little differently and it's a great way of being able to reframe something so that it doesn't just land on a hey there's nothing we can do. but there's something we can do. It's a great opportunity and it's turned out to be true.
Peter Blake: I will tell you one light bulb moment I had for myself and so I was at a conference, it might have been one of the Southwest Drycleaners Association might have one of their expos or their SDLS show they used to have. And we had a hospitality suite and look, I've been in the industry a long time. I love to talk dry cleaning, so I go up the hospitality suite and we may have been having a couple of drinks. And one of the board members turned around, he'll probably hear this and know who I'm talking about. And he says to me, he says, and we're just sitting at this table and he says, So where do you see Perr going in ten years? And I looked at him and I've had a couple of drinks. And I'm like, look at my watch. I'm like, it's like midnight on a Saturday night And, you know, I was like, why don't we talk about football? tell me about how, football team's doing. I'm like, you know, I'm kinda dry cleaning, talked out. It's been a long weekend and he says and remember this is pre Zoom too, so this is pre you know, a lot of the connection. he said to me, I only get to talk to you like three times a year, are we ever really together? So, you know, I'm sorry, just This is my opportunity to talk to you and pick your brain. And I'm like, whoa, what I see happening to Perk in ten years is the fact it's gonna go down in use. And I explained on my whole outline and I never forgot that to say, you know what? People have this opportunity to to to learn and develop and it and I'm here to help them in that it wherever it is, whenever it is, if they have a question. and I never forgot that was a lesson to me to say I'm somebody they want to talk to and I've gotta make myself available as much as possible because they're gonna make decisions based on what I'm telling them and if I don't give them that information, they might make a mistake, they might make it a bad investment, they may not know where to turn to. But if I can give them an answer at, you know, midnight on a Saturday night, in a hospitality suite. Yeah, they could remember that in two months from now and say, you know what? I can always call him for anything. So that
Cleaner Conversations: I love it.
Peter Blake: was a lesson I learned.
Cleaner Conversations: I have two more questions before we kind of close off this episode. the first one is, and we love to get people's feedback, our guest, when you look at the future of the industry, are you optimistic? Are you excited? Is that something that you look forward to? And if so, what are some of those things that you're excited about?
Peter Blake: I am excited. I think we have a great future. I think it's gonna be different. I'm not gonna say it's gonna be the same, because it's not. We are always gonna evolve and we're gonna change. But the fact of the matter is, no matter what you say about society, you know, good or for bad, I think we're getting lazier and I think we're valuing our time more. So I know that you know my mother-in-law used to go out and go to four different stores because she could say money here, save money here, save money here. And I'd be like, but you spent your entire day going to four grocery stores. to save a dollar ninety eight.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: But the truth of the matter is they were willing to do that. Now we're like we'll pay eight dollars to have Dunkin' Donut's deliver us a frap. You know, so we will always wanna, spend money to make our lives easier. So there will always be a place for professional laundry, professional dry cleaning, for pickup and delivery, wash dry, fold. they're gonna want people to make them keep looking good. And that I think is very bright for our industry because we will keep adapting in ways to do that more efficiently, to do it better and to get a better product. We will have to shift as to what we're cleaning. It's not your dad's dry cleaning plant anymore. I think I forget who it was that came out with the study. They were talking about it was recent. They were talking about the industry and how young people say they never use a dry cleaner. And it's because we're asking them if they use a dry cleaner. We're not asking if they use a laundry. We're not asking if they use wash dry fold. We're not asking them we're asking them to use dry cleaner. They don't know what it is anymore. But if we change our focus, and I'm sure cleaner marketing has done a lot of this, changing people's focus to you wear it, we can clean it. You know, we're fabric care cleaners. We care for fabrics, not dry clean, not laundry, not wet clean. Those are terms we know and we use. That's not what the Zoomer is they just want their clothes clean and want to wear it and they want to look good.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Yeah. Great answer. It it is exciting that most of the people, actually almost everyone on this podcast has said, man, very optimistic about a great future for dry cleaning industry. when I got in this, it definitely didn't have that might have been self imposed 'cause I was like, you know, why am I in dry cleaning software right now? But over the years, when people ask me or talk about it, this touches everything from Jeff Bezos the Gates Foundations to the Yankees or the NFL teams having to get jerseys clean. so many different aspects. It's just that's a cool thing to be able to do. So don't don't forget that factor. Did you hear that sound effect, Peter? All
Peter Blake: I second that. I second that.
Cleaner Conversations: right. hey, Peter, final question. I know some people listening to this they're scraping, right? They're grinding, they're like, man, I don't know if I'm going to make it. What's your encouragement to them? how do you offer them a sense of hope and what is a next step?
Peter Blake: The next step is just pick up the phone and call me. that's their next step. I mean, people often think that they're alone in this, they're going through something that's unique. I can tell you, after almost forty years, if you're struggling with something, if you have a question, if you're trying to learn how to do something, if you're trying to make something work. you're not the first one to go through this. And I can almost guarantee you I probably know somebody that's gone through it and can help you evaluate, help you work through it, help you come to terms with whatever it is that struggle or that challenge or that obstacle that you're looking at. And it's one thing to send a text, there's one thing to send an email. I'm a little bit old school. I would love to have a conversation with you. Let's just talk.
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: Let's just talk through it. You know? One of the best things I can say is some of the strongest relationships I have in this industry have started with a phone call. Hey Peter, I have a problem. And twenty years later we're still hanging out and going through problems and questions and working together. It's that's the best relationships we started.
Cleaner Conversations: Really cool. So where can that person call you? How can they find you as we close this thing off?
Peter Blake: I'll give you my cell phone number, you put it right on here at 617-791-0128 That's my cell phone. It rings to my house. anywhere I am. I always answer the call or get right back to you. So I am easily accessible through that. You can text me there. I'll give you my email addresses. I've got a few of them, but
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, we'll make sure we post those too.
Peter Blake: Yeah, but the best thing is just give me a call. You shoot me a text and I can call you back. Either way, but I'd love to have
Cleaner Conversations: I absolutely love it.
Peter Blake: a conversation.
Cleaner Conversations: Well, cool. Well, Peter, this has been a great pleasure. I I know anybody listening to this has probably been tremendously informed and also inspired just to kind of continue their journey and great stories that you have. So thank you very much for your time, for the time that you put into this industry and for sharing some of those nuggets that you have with us. Man, we didn't even get to talk about golf and I mean you let on football a little bit. who you I mean, college football kicks off, it already kicked off a couple of days ago, right? Yep. This past Saturday. who's your team? Who are you looking for?
Peter Blake: I can't answer that in the South they will kill me. You know. But I can't even tell you what color I like. So it it's like a passion down there. So I'll stick with pro football and and I'm a big Patriots fan, you know. So but I do love watching
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Love it. Gonna be good this year. Gonna be good this year.
Peter Blake: all the SEC games. I do like watching a lot of college football. But I really don't have a dog in that fight, but I love to kind of watch some of the favorites.
Cleaner Conversations: Do you think Drake Maye throws a lot to AJ Brown this year? Is he a good fantasy prospect?
Peter Blake: I do. I think A. J. Brown is a very good fantasy pro but I would not sleep on Kyle Williams. I think Kyle Williams
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: is a burner. He's gonna be a little bit of a speedster out there that if you're double covering AJ Brown, you got Doubs is being gonna be flanked, then you've got a speedster and Kyle that can just get open.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Okay. All right. Well we'll get to you for some other fan fantasy impact as the season goes on. Peter, thank you again for doing this with us. Hey, for the people who have not met Peter, I love Peter. Best guys in the industry best guy in the industry. You have to see him all around. Yeah. Yep. Wherever we go to an event, he might be there. If you're not going to the expo, great to sign up. We're all gonna be there. it'll be a really good time. And thanks again guys for listening. You can find us and like and subscribe at Cleaner Conversations, YouTube and Spotify is for the video. And then audio is on Apple Podcasts. If there's anywhere else where people listen, I think there is a iHeartRadio world out there as well. If anybody actually uses iHeartRadio, we will post it on there as well. I just haven't heard about it. So thank you guys again. Appreciate it. Take care. Have a good day.
Peter Blake: It's an honor for me. I am really honored. Thank you so very much. It's good to talk to you.
Cleaner Conversations: You're very welcome. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Peter. Have a good one. Bye bye.
Peter Blake: Thanks.
Peter Blake: Well, thank you so much for inviting me. it is an honor and I am excited about it, so
Cleaner Conversations: Very cool. All right, great. Hey, Peter. So you've been doing this for a minute now, since nineteen eighty seven. A few minutes. A few minutes. ~ since nineteen eighty seven? Is that right? When you got in? what brought you into dry cleaning of all things?
Peter Blake: Actually it was my first job pretty much after college. You know, I graduated with a degree in communication studies and I was answering ads and I'll tell you a little funny story. It's my wife says to me, she says, Hey, there's her best friend's father is looking for somebody and there was an ad in the Boston Globe and I had applied for it already. And so I went in, I talked to him and his name was Roger Schilling. And he was the executive director for the Northeast Fabric Care Association. He hired me and I've been here for almost thirty eight years now. You know, if you told me that when I interviewed for that job that I'd be doing this forty years from now, I'd say you were crazy.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. well, that's a crazy story actually. And just for people your generation, the Boston Globe is a newspaper. I thought you were talking about like something
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: from Spider Man. That's what it sounds like, the magazine in Spider Man. It's a newspaper.
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: It's a two he must have had a great sales pitch to get you hired, and stick it around for that long. He was the first one I interviewed. They're like, You're you're a yeah.
Peter Blake: Well, I will tell you, so I went through three interviews and they were on the fence in hiring me and they ended up hiring me. And I'm gonna fa fast forward about ten years. I'm at a funeral from someone that was in the industry and this gentleman, Jay Rosenfield, comes up to me and he's been on my board for ten years and he looks at me and he goes, You know, I told Roger never to hire you and I said, Really? He goes, Yeah. I said he will never stay Never hire him. it's a stepping stone for him. And I fought against your hire. I said, Well, Well, thank you. He goes, I just wanna let
Cleaner Conversations: Y
Peter Blake: you know I was wrong.
Cleaner Conversations: You're like you're a great judge of character. Missed on that one. Sounds like he's a a weather analyst.
Peter Blake: And for him to say that is, you know, to me i it was a it was a pretty big compliment for him to actually come down and admit that he was wrong and, you
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: know, that it was one of the best hires they ever made. So I thought that was fantastic.
Cleaner Conversations: Well, that that's a great story. Forty years is a long time, especially to start somewhere, to remain somewhere, and to continue that. You know, if something's gonna last that long, it kind of turns more from just a job that I needed to more of a mission that I'm fulfilling. did that transition take place at some point during those forty years? And what was that journey like to where you're like, you know what? This is something where I feel like I really, really deeply care about.
Peter Blake: You know, I have a unique job. I mean, there's I hear this all the time. I I'll try to talk to somebody about what I do for a living, and I'm like I run a trade association for dry cleaners. There's an association for that. I'm like, there's an association for everything. And they all have a purpose and they're all there to help. And it started as a job, it started as education, it started as me with a huge learning curve. I didn't know nothing about the dry cleaning industry. I still couldn't tell you how to take out a spot without a pair of scissors. But I've learned a lot of other things along the way. And at some point it became that membership isn't just numbers anymore. It's people I've known for twenty or thirty years. And it's a community that I've kind of been ingrained in. and that's kind of the way they look at my job. I look at it as I'm part of this community that needs help at times and assistance and advice and guidance. And and that's kind of the role I play.
Cleaner Conversations: You know, I appreciate about your answer is in all the conversations that we've had on this podcast, so many have ended off with, Hey, what's your encouragement? They're like, get part of a group, get part of a community. Because if you're a silo, you may struggle as a silo, but when you get around other people, you start getting challenged, you start getting coached, you start seeing things a little bit differently, a little bit bigger. So yeah, I appreciate that. It it does being in this industry seem so much like a community. that once you're in it you start to understand the not only the beauty of it, but the good people that are a part of it.
Peter Blake: Yeah. And my job is unique in that I'm not a salesperson. I mean I do sell memberships. I love to increase membership. I'm good at selling memberships. But Really what we're offering is the ability to make your business better. So when I go in to visit a plant, when DLI goes in to visit a plant, it's it's with the helps of trying to make them do a better job and to help them and to be more successful. So it's always a positive thing when I walk in. There's never a don't want to see him anymore. You know, it's more along the lines of I can't believe you're here. This is fantastic. And we get to, talk and learn and grow and and I learn as much from from the dry cleaners as they learn from me. So I've really grown through this process.
Cleaner Conversations: and known you for a while now, Peter, you're also like part of your job as a connector too. you've certainly done a good job of modeling that for me and you know, other people are coming up in the industry of, who's to talk to, who can you, learn from, who are good people to connect with. So I really appreciate that. what does an an association executive do on a what's a look like for you.
Peter Blake: How long is this podcast?
Cleaner Conversations: well we we we got plenty of time, Peter.
Peter Blake: the best thing about my job is it's never the same. I couldn't tell you what a typical day is 'cause I haven't had a typical day in a very long time. I mean it's jammed with Zoom meetings and meetings with here and there and I may be talking to a cleaner in in Florida and talking about what the best way to market his business is and get a call from a cleaner in Connecticut that has an issue with environmental concerns and I've got to drop this and move over here and start talking environmental affairs. We figure that out, then I've got to plan an expo and so it's really varied, which is great because my job is not mundane at all. It's not routine. And so a typical day for me is making sure that people are set, they've got what they needed. I've given the information to people that have asked for it. And then working through different projects. I'm pretty proud of, you know, the DL Expo East coming up in October. Fantastic event, but it takes a lot of planning and a lot of work. And some people don't realize that with I represent the Northeast Fabricare the Southeast Fabricare and the Mid Atlantic Cleaners Association. And I'm only one person for those three organizations. So when we do a plant meet and greet, when we do a an education class, when we do a newsletter, when we do it's all coming through May and through my office. So there's a lot of work that goes into that. And I've got to entwin it around, you know, member needs. So and my day doesn't really end. So I've been very, very vocal in letting people know you can call me any time. I don't care if you call me eight o'clock at night. Because that's when you're worrying about something, I need to answer that worry when you have it. You know, by the time you get into the morning you'll forget all about it. It'll be you know, eight o'clock at night the next night before you remember I should have called you know? So not that question.
Cleaner Conversations: Did you start running the east coast or where'd you start?
Peter Blake: So I started back in the day. I was the director of public relations and education for Northeast Fabric Care. And then I learned It that was the day before remember before computers, before any of this stuff. So I was literally using a draft board, a T square, rubber cement, and a photocopy to do our newsletter. And we're cutting and pasting and I'm taking clip art and clipping it out of a book and putting it in and when I look back at those newsletters, they're pretty laughable. You know, compared to what we have today. But I learned about dry cleaning, then I moved into environmental affairs for Northeast Fabricare. And I kind of established myself and I became the executive director of NEFA SEFA kind of saw what I was doing up here and they needed some assistance. So I started a collaboration with them. And then we developed this whole, you know, management group idea through DLI. And that's kind of how I started running up and down the East Coast.
Cleaner Conversations: Just a moment ago you'd mentioned that you're here to help. DLI is there to help owners and that it brings a smile to people's faces when you enter into a room because that's what you're there. You're there to help them grow. When owners come to you, they're usually looking for some help. What are some of those common things that you find a lot of dry cleaning owners coming to you? And maybe they come to you with one reason why, but even underlying you start to see that there's common patterns underneath that you really can help dry cleaning owners fulfill or accomplish what they're looking to do.
Peter Blake: I think all dry cleaners it kind of boils down to from where where I see it. They're very similar situations, very similar issues and problems. I mean I do regionals, so I have regional associations, you know, I have Northeast, Southeast, Mid Atlantic, and there's unique problems that come with each area. There are some differences, but when you really boil it down to you get the same core issues. I have an employee problem, or I need more customers, my costs are too high. My government is killing me, doing this, this and this, you know, but it all comes down to that. But when you really look at the undercurrent It's a systems and management and communication problem that they're really trying to solve. And sometimes the real problem is they haven't created a system that allows them to answer the underlying problem. It's the symptom, not the cause. and sometimes I can help them identify that. And that's where I find a real satisfaction when I get them to understand what their real problem is.
Cleaner Conversations: Okay, so you do a diagnostic type understanding, like, hey, what really is the issue here so that we can get down to the core of the route and then you build from there?
Peter Blake: Well, a lot of times what I'll do is answer the system 'cause the symptom, 'cause that's what they called me for. You know, so
Cleaner Conversations: Yep.
Peter Blake: when they ask me about, I have an employee problem. Okay, so the employee problem is you need help. So here's how you can use DLI to get, some new applicants. Here here's some webinars on using Indeed. Here's some webinars on how to be a talent scout. But then you talk to them about now, why have you lost people? Is it people have left? Are they transitioned? are you not hiring the right type of people? So let's take a look at the system as to how you're evaluating those employees. Let's look at the system about how you're deciding which talent to employ. if it's a retention issue, then let's take a look at you know, some kind of how you're motivating, how you're doing leadership and what that corporate culture is. So then we can take a look at the the underlying causes. So maybe there's a little bit bigger role we can play.
Cleaner Conversations: have you noticed that cleaners have changed over the years? Like the mentality, system, structure?
Peter Blake: yes, there's a large shift. I think even before the eighties and the seventies, life was easy, before polyester came in, that was the first big crisis. It was they were making money hand over fist and and we're doing a lot of cleaning and nobody advertised, nobody had to do anything because people had clothes, they brought to the cleaners, it was their routine. I think as people have shifted away to that and you can kinda even go back to what was it casual Fridays. you start to see this shift where people didn't want to dress up as as much anymore. And so now you have to adapt. Now you have to start to market a little bit. Now you have to get the pie shrunk a little bit. So you have to get a bigger piece of the pie. So you have to be more cognizant of what's happening and more cognizant of some of that. So I think I've seen a big change in the fact that people are actually going out looking for work. And not just expecting it to come back over the counter.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Okay, so people are being more proactive.
Peter Blake: Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: That's good. That was kind of the next question is like do you see people reaching out early or a lot of cleaners, you know, kind of waiting until it's a little too late to reach out to get connected, or is there ever too late?
Peter Blake: It's never too late. I don't believe it's ever too late. but you should really make the call when it's a fifty dollar problem before it's a fifty thousand dollar problem, don't let things fester, don't let things, you know, sit there. If you've got an issue, make the call, or reach out or send an email, however it is that you've text, however you feel that, you know, is important. Because one of the best things I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I know the answer to every question, 'cause I don't. But what I'm good at is I know where to find that answer. I know who might have that answer. You know, when somebody calls up and says, hey, look, I'm trying to get my Google reviews up, and I can say, hey, call Sam, talk to Sam. They've got this great program about how to delve into it. And they may never hire cleaner marketing. They may never never hire, you know, one of the other companies. But the fact that they can call, because I told them to call, you're going to talk to them on the phone, you're going to give them some information, and they're going to at least feel that they've been handled and they've been gotten a value out of that interaction. And maybe comes 30 days down their line, three months down the line. But they've been introduced to that. And I think that's how I approach marketing questions, environmental questions. It's getting to the right people. And I know that when I have a network of people like yourselves and and for the Route Pros and all these other companies, I know that you're gonna make me look good by helping me out. And I in turn will always make you look good by answering whatever questions you have, member or not.
Cleaner Conversations: So just think of two people listening to this. One, somebody just joined DLI, somebody is thinking about it. Now they're they're like, Hey, may maybe I do have a fifty dollar problem and I wanna you know, be part of this association before then. Talk me through the first ninety days. what could they expect and what's the value that somebody will get in the first ninety days of working or being a part of the association?
Peter Blake: It's a question. I think if I was gonna give you a blueprint for the first ninety days, the first thing I would say is just tell us who you are. let us know. Give us a call. Give myself or one of the people at DLI a a phone call and say, hey, I just joined the association. I'm a small operator or I've got two or three locations. And give us the opportunity to find out what you're looking for. I want to grow this business. I want to go into routes. I I want to learn how to do a better job cleaning. My quality isn't as where I'd like it to be. You know, tell us what your pain points are and let's have a conversation. Where we can learn about what your goals are. Because your success is my only goal, and I've said that a bunch of times. That what I'm really looking for is I don't want to define success for you. I want you to give me a call and tell me this is what I'd like to do, and I want to help you get there. So I would start with a conversation like that, and then we have these orientation programs. we call them DLI Virtual Open Houses. It's on the first Wednesday of every month. It's a very casual conversation where we go by Zoom and I show you how to use the website. And you tell me what your biggest challenge is and I show you how we can adapt to that. So that's the first thing I would do is let us know where your pain points are. Let us know how
Cleaner Conversations: Okay.
Peter Blake: where we can help. Then I would get your employees involved. Sometimes people think of this as when you join an association, it's you. You know, it's it's Sam Taylor joining or Peter Blake joining a group, and it's not. It's it's cleaner marketing, it's ABC cleaners, it's the whole group. So don't keep all the benefits to yourself. get your key managers to have their own login information to the DLI website. Have your managers give us a call and tell us where their pain points are. You know, have them Go on and look at webinars. Because as an owner, sometimes you get stuck in your own world of what you believe people know and what they don't know. So you never expose them to say, hey, you can learn a lot from this. you should go look at this. Where your manager poked on the website and hey, look at this new thing I found. and you didn't even know that interested them. So get your employees involved. And the number one thing in the first 90 days is just get engaged. Join those DLI peer-to-peer co-hers. Calls, hop on a webinar or two, you know, and start to get engaged with the other members because that's the best thing about me, you know, DLI and and NEFA and SEFA The best thing about it is it's not just Jon Meijer Mary Scalco Peter Blake, Brian Johnson It's not just us. It's we have this whole avenue of other people out there that will share their experiences and their stories and in what they've done. I mean, we've got this. this gentleman that's helping me with this DLI Connect group. and I I'll never forget the first thing he said to me, he goes, I am the Einstein of dry cleaning. And I'm like, that's a pretty bold statement, you know? And I'm
Cleaner Conversations: Uh-huh.
Peter Blake: like, yeah, he says 'cause you learn from your mistakes, and after all the mistakes I made, I've got to be Einstein by now. You know?
Cleaner Conversations: I've got the highest highest IQ. We gotta give Steve Thompson a shout out for the for that, right?
Peter Blake: So I'm like, that's so perfect. And he's learned from his mistakes. So he wants to help others not have those same failings. So that's
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, what I appreciate about your answer, just the first 90 days is I mean, you can join a gym but never show up and hope that the gym was proactively encouraging you to come. Or you can join it and say, Okay, hey, I want to connect with somebody there. Give me a plan, give me a roadmap. I'm gonna actively connect with people there. Once you kind of immerse yourself and actually take those steps, it starts to evolve on its own. It starts to give you, I mean, you jump on those Calls and maybe you weren't there for the topic, but you heard something that you can walk away with and go, I can put that in practice into my thing, or you connect with a certain individual, you're like, man, I really need that connection. So first 90 days, encourage them. Hey, let us know who you are, but also get as involved as possible. Rub shoulders with other people, get your employees involved and and see where it goes from there. Yeah.
Peter Blake: Yeah, absolutely.
Cleaner Conversations: Hey Peter, do you see most members actually using all of the different benefits that you guys provide
Peter Blake: So for a while we were using this graphic of an iceberg, you know, and we had a little line pointing to it. I you know, I think I developed in Canva in the beginning and I put a little line saying, These are the employ these are the benefits you're using and then these are the employ these are the benefits that you don't know anything about. And it is that way I don't think any member is using everything. But it they're finding just bits and pieces that will work with their strategy. You know, and I think that that's the key. You know, you're finding things that you can use and adapt to your business. so I don't think any members using all of it, but I think a lot of members are starting to really get engaged and using the things that they find value in. I think some members are using everything, but not everything's being used by everybody, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. every time I talk to you it seems like there's something new that you guys are doing, especially now. So that's really good. People who are members of DLI. You guys have a lot of stuff that you've been working on recently too. the what?
Peter Blake: I might be dropping the bomb here for a little bit and I could probably get like in trouble for this. I don't know, but they have a brand new human resource program coming out that to me is gonna be phenomenal. And it's just been approved by the board. It's a human resource kind of add-on to your membership. Well, they'll give you the ability to upload your employee manuals, have them automatically updated to all the state laws, all the federal laws, you know, every time the law changes and it's updated for you. it's a clearinghouse, you can call and ask any HR questions, you can do training, they have training modules, they have I-9 forms, all that right at your beck and call. It's gonna be an amazing program.
Cleaner Conversations: Wow. when do you think that's gonna be released?
Peter Blake: It's gonna be rolled out on October first, I think. at the latest.
Cleaner Conversations: okay.
Peter Blake: it might even be tomorrow, September first for
Cleaner Conversations: Wow. we've got are we gonna leak this now? Is that what we Well, we don't know when this comes out. So if we get this out before they release it,
Peter Blake: Yeah, so so it's yeah.
Cleaner Conversations: we'll see. what tell us a little bit about Connect, D L I Connect. What is that? I know you guys have been working on it's for like the f first three years that somebody's in or walks them through in business. Is that correct?
Peter Blake: Yeah, so one of the things I do for for my associations is I go and visit cleaners. And I get outside and I actually walk in the doors of dry cleaners. I think I did last year 185 visits to dry cleaning shops.
Cleaner Conversations: Sheesh.
Peter Blake: some are short, some are long, you know, but I get out in the field to see what's happening. And one of the things I saw was there's a whole lot of new owners coming into this business that really didn't know anybody in the business, nor did they know much about dry cleaning. So one of the things I just sat down and said we've got to we've gotta capitalize on this and we've gotta kind of and help this community. So I developed this program called DLI Connect Small New Owner Roundtable. And it's a group of seven to ten individuals that have owned their businesses for less than three years and they become their own round table. They meet twice a month. Last time we had Jen Whitmarsh of The Route Pros as a guest speaker. And not as a presentation, not a webinar, but just to have a conversation with, to ask questions. Because when you're new, there's a lot of things you don't know. And there's biggest mistake they make is they're trying to learn everything all at once. You know, they've got to learn everything. They gotta learn pricing and wholesale and and quality and in production and then they have to go down what the front counter is supposed to do and how to run the computer system. They're trying to learn all of this at one time, and then they're embarrassed to ask very rudimentary questions. And they don't wanna go on I mean, I love the peer-to-peer calls, but you know, there are operators from around the country that are very successful on there and they don't want to go in and say, hey, can I put this in a wet cleaning machine after I use hydrogen peroxide? You know, they don't want to ask that question. They look at it like, you know, that's kind of a simple question. So
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: in this new owner group They're all on the same level and they can all ask each other questions. Steve Thompson, who from Sand Dollar Cleaners, the person I referenced earlier, he's the facilitator with me and he helps me run the group. He's great with numbers. I think he was a former auditor, bank auditor, so he knows numbers, he knows what to look at. And they now have developed this relationship together, these eight people. They're gonna go to the DL Expo East together, they're gonna have lunch, they're gonna meet each other. other they're probably for the first time most of And we've been doing this for six months on Zoom. So it'll be kind of fun to see how they're sharing their whole journeys together and how they're building their businesses. Group two is starting in a week. So their first inaugural seven to ten.
Cleaner Conversations: How many are part of each group usually? Is it a certain number? Seven and ten, perfect.
Peter Blake: we try to keep it small and then we also try to have non competing people. So then you can really share. You know, this is where I'm looking for help, this is the programs I'm running. And that way they don't have to worry about proprietary. I'll tell you the best thing we have is they have developed this WhatsApp chat group with those eight people. there's probably fifteen messages a day on that. Hey, I'm on SMRT how did you do this? Hey, I'm doing this, how did you take a look at this? And they're all just, I did it this way. And it's really good 'cause it's way beyond my expertise. You know, my expertise is bringing them together, you know, and then they take it
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: from there and and 'cause they have more knowledge about about all that than I do, you know.
Cleaner Conversations: You got gotta have a tribe. I mean, this isn't the easiest industry to work in for sure.
Peter Blake: Right.
Cleaner Conversations: So that's a really cool thing you guys have been doing. hey, you were inducted into the Hall of Fame with route pros. So congrats on that. I was
Peter Blake: I must. Thank you very much.
Cleaner Conversations: up in Dublin, Ohio for that event when you were inducted. So that was really cool. So congratulations. That's awesome. Congratulations
Peter Blake: Thank you.
Cleaner Conversations: on that. what have you noticed for the top route operators out there that's like a clear distinction of Hey, these guys are doing something really good on the route side. And then there's underperformers. Are there any sort of trends that you've noticed being a part of that group for so long?
Peter Blake: yes, there's I've learned a lot from the route pros and I was really honored by them doing that. I think it was the first person that wasn't a a client of theirs to win the award and and I was really just very proud that they kind of recognize what I can do for the industry. but the one thing that I see about route development is that the people that are most successful treat it as a business unit and not a route. They treat it as a complete, they look at it, they track it, they look at the information, they know what their revenue per van is, they know what their expectations are, and they understand the theory and I think the responsibility of a route. And when I say that it's sometimes you get it they say, this is a route driver. And that's a big fallacy because It's not just a driver. Anybody can drive. You know, you can have anybody delivering clothes. you we have deliveries from Amazon and Walmart and Uber Eats and all this other stuff. We're getting deliveries all the time now as a consumer. What a route delivery person is someone that builds a relationship with that customer. And they've got to look at it that way and they've got to develop it that way. So it's really a route developer that's developing a relationship with that customer and the people that are looking to build it. The biggest question people ask me about routes is whether they should be looking at a dry store or should they open a route or should they do and usually my answer is, you know, it depends on what their situation is. But a route is always makes sense. if you can outfit it and it's also really good to take a look at that relationship between counter sales and the route. People question me all the time about I've heard that it's good to get people that are your current counter customers onto your route. And I'm a firm believer in that, 100%. You should be doing as much transition as you can. They said, but that's making me less profitable on the counter. And I said, Well, what does it matter? Because you're you're making it more profitable on the route. So even if you look at your counter as the feeder program for your route, that's okay. Because you're getting them on the route. The minute you get somebody on the route, I've seen, you know, and not just from the Route pros, but from actual people in the industry other than their customers, that they're seeing 10 to 15% revenue gain over what they're doing on the route than they did over the counter. And the reason being is you're showing up at the door, they don't have to make that extra trip. They maybe forgot last week, and that's opportunity lost. You know, you don't forget to go to their house. You're there, you're picking it up. And sometimes, let's face it, we all do the same thing. the Route guy's coming today, I gotta give him something. And you look around the house, you throw it in the bag, 'cause you know he's gonna be there. And it just increases that revenue.
Cleaner Conversations: we've seen the same thing and so over the last nine months developed an app that would allow for dry cleaners to really hone in on developing that as a business, seeing it differently, strategizing around it differently, and then putting campaigns out there to to grow that route business. So excited to see that playing out and it's gonna be a positive thing. Yeah, and
Peter Blake: I tell you I'm sorry, I was just saying one one thing on that is you are so right. It's if there's one problem I see with people that run around, is not taking advantage of all the information that they have. Like you just said, I mean, you know, take advantage of of the the add on tools for your POS and take a look at all the analyzing you can do of the numbers. 'Cause it's gonna tell you a story that you can go out and then look at where you wanna be and how you wanna grow.
Cleaner Conversations: that's a hundred percent a hundred percent right. And to that point about some people call it cannibalizing the front counter, right? And it's like, well, I mean that sounds pretty dramatic, but you know, the pickup and delivery, getting somebody or rotating them off counter is very hard to do, but if you can, I mean it it's a really good way to increase your revenue, or l at least your lifetime value across your different types of customers. So with environmental changes. Is there anything coming down the pipeline that owners should be more aware of now to prepare themselves rather than just a last minute, scramble?
Peter Blake: I don't think there's anything big coming down the pipe I mean you're gonna have some stuff. There's gonna be some OSHA regulation. heat stress is right now is is one of the biggest ones. You know, we're having a lot of new heat stress requirements. OSHA's gonna be looking at that, trying to see how hot it is in a dry cleaning plant, increase ventilation, do some training, that kind of thing. I think there's a big worry about something called PFAS. I'm not gonna tell you what that is because I can't pronounce it and I'd make myself look like a fool. But
Cleaner Conversations: Ha ha.
Peter Blake: PFAS is those forever chemicals like like Teflon and water c and surface coatings and things, but they're in the background of everywhere. And right now it's not a big issue for our industry. I think you'll see it some on laundry, and I think you'll see it a lot on garment manufacturers. But so far we haven't been the primary look for those. it's not stuff that we use as a product. Go ahead, Sam.
Cleaner Conversations: Peter, there was I it was like a year ago we were at some expo or convention where they were talking about micro plastics and that it was gonna be a gigantic thing and I feel like I've heard about it more since then, but recently not a whole lot. is there something going on with the micro plastics situation?
Peter Blake: I think it has kind of quelled a little bit. Microplastics are in that same situation where they were used more in the garment manufacturing process, and it's not something that we're introducing during our cleaning process. So it's not in a product that we're using, it's not in any of the solutions that we're using. So it kinda hasn't found its way towards us. The other
Cleaner Conversations: Okay.
Peter Blake: thing that's important, and this is the one thing environmentally I do want to give just a couple minutes to, is sometimes Sometimes we get complacent and we take a look at there are still a number of people using perc as their cleaning solution. People say, well, when do you have to get rid of it? When's the phase out? There is no phase out yet. It's all under debate. It's all under, you know, when the final use is. I've had the same belief I've had for the last 15 years in the only thing that the only way Perk's gonna go away is when it prices itself out of the market and it's getting close now. You should be taking a look at maybe. Making that transition to something different. But in the meantime, you have to take a look at what those regulatory requirements are and make sure you're doing them. There has not been a lot of talk on the Clean Air Act and what you know what leak checks you should be making. And as an industry, when we don't talk about it, we tend to forget about it. And in the last five Four months and I haven't had this question in probably four years. In the last th three or four months I've had somebody call up and say, Hey, I've got a D E P inspection. They're coming in to take a look at this. I've been, notified that they wanna have my hazardous waste records sent over. So people are gonna start taking a look at that again. So I just be wary.
Cleaner Conversations: changes in the consolidation that's happening for cleaners and for associations too.
Peter Blake: Well, I think it's an evolution, and I think there is a a little bit of a of a warning system there. But as far as associations go, I think there's a kind of a misconception. When we say that California now became I think the the Western Fabricare Association. I think there's there's WFA now in
Cleaner Conversations: okay. Who runs the West Coast for DLI?
Peter Blake: Well that's a interesting way you put that. So let me put it this way. Leslie Schaefer is the executive director for WFA, the Western
Cleaner Conversations: The Western yeah, W F.
Peter Blake: Fabricare Association. she used to be the executive director for California Cleaners Association. but When you said for DLI, see, one thing to keep in mind is all these associations, these regionals, they are all independent they are all independent associations. So CCA or now Western Fabricare Association is their own entity, SDA is their own entity. We're all partnered with DLI, but the distinction is is that they all run themselves, they have a board of directors with their own priorities, with their own goals, their own objectives. So when you join SDA You get a fantastic group that's run by Liz Williams. She does a terrific job at running SDA, but you also get the national flavor of DLI. So you're getting for a two for one. And it's not like a DLI chapter. It is a whole organization that is a standalone working for your benefit and your behalf. And she does a fantastic job. So it's a great relationship that you're getting both those entities working for you. And that's the same with NEFA and SEFA & MAC Is they all run independently and they're all doing unique things for their regions, which is terrific. Now, you asked about the consolidation. What happened was they didn't take over any other associations. What they did was they added states to their territory. So that's a little bit of a distinction. They didn't consolidate anything. They just got a bigger footprint. And what that does is that tells a cleaner in, say, Montana, hey, I'm not alone anymore. I've got this other regional group now. that can help me locally that I can call a whole new group of people that are interested in my success. So it kind of opened up a little bit more avenue for the cleaners in some of those states that before didn't have any local arm at all. All they had was DLI. They didn't have, you know, local seminars or local people working. So we've kind of taken a look at, or DLI took a look at how to incorporate more of those states into an association to give them a little bit more value. So I think that's it's little bit of distinction. Now when the Mid Atlantic Clean Association merged with PDCA, that was to make both stronger. We had You gonna be honest, we had a little bit of aging board of directors, we had some programs that that weren't real weren't really progressing the way we wanted. So by combining those two organizations, it gave us a little bit more power to do what we wanted to do. It gave us a little bit more ability to affect success a little bit more, and we could I think get a little bit more done and provide a little bit better value. So let's look at it from the dry cleaning industry. Are we seeing this evolution of consolidation? I think it's cyclical. So a long time ago, we had these huge package plants. I mean I'm sorry, these huge big plants, and they would support like a hub and spoke. So you'd have the hub of the dry cleaning plant and a bunch of spokes. And it was the dry stores going in. And then in order to be different and to make a change, a lot of people forward thinking and saying, what, we're gonna change this up, we're gonna do package plants. So I'm gonna be able to give you quicker service, I'm gonna be able to give you same-day service, I'm gonna be able to do this, you're gonna be able to go into my shop, bring your clothes and knowing I'm cleaning it there on premises. So there was a big shift to package plants in having instead of six drop stores, having six plants. Now, when we're consolidating, we're kind of going back again. So it's that's why I say it's kind of like an evolution and a little bit of a cyclical is now we're going back to the consolidated plants. Part of the reason is the industry has shrunk a little bit. Part of the reason is you can manage a lot more of your staff and the staffing problems that you're experiencing can be mitigated a bit by having a larger plant doing the production.
Cleaner Conversations: And by using the DL DLI HR solution.
Peter Blake: Yeah. There you go.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Yeah, click right here to subscribe.
Peter Blake: Mm-hmm.
Cleaner Conversations: Do you want to ask this one? This is No. Okay. All right. Designated This is your show. it's our show. hey Peter, for forty years in this industry, have there been any crazy things? board meetings, plant visits, you know, you've had cleaners tell you stories. Is there anything crazy that comes to mind? One or two stories that pops out to you.
Peter Blake: God. I have a lot of stories that pop out now, but I'm not sure how many I can say on here.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, I mean Yeah, we do have dirty conversations, but that's another podcast. This one's cleaner. We're free to cut. You know, we can cut anything.
Peter Blake: I've had some really board meetings. we had one board meeting and I mean this is straight out of I think the UN, But I had a guy that was so mad during a board meeting and this was back in I was probably at this point director of environmental affairs. And we were talking about making some change for Northeast Fabricare And this is about twenty twenty five years ago. The guy got so mad he stepped up and His face was growing red and he was yelling that you guys are gonna ruin this association, you're gonna ruin this. And he actually took his shoe off and banged it on the table. And I was like,
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: wow. I have never seen somebody so passionate about this industry and about what we were doing. I was shocked.
Cleaner Conversations: I'm sure he got the attention of everybody.
Peter Blake: He got the attention of everybody and we talked about it for quite a while afterwards. I'm like, boy, did he go off. You know.
Cleaner Conversations: Does he want a shout out in this podcast?
Peter Blake: he was a great guy. unfortunately he has passed. His name was Harold Weiner, from Connecticut.
Cleaner Conversations: Shoeless Joe. Jo Shoeless Harry.
Peter Blake: But it was great I just never forget that meeting. And I talked to him many times afterwards. He was a great member and it what came across me as yeah, a little outlandish, but it was the passion that he was coming forward with. and we start we board meetings are interesting because you get a lot of characters. And we were sitting at one of my early board meetings when casual Fridays were taking place. And this guy stands up and he says, this is gonna be the biggest threat to our industry, is that casual Fridays are gonna kill this industry, the move to casualware, we need to combat this. And now I'm young and you know, sometimes I say things I shouldn't, and the room gets Quiet. it was a strategic long-range planning committee meeting. And I stand up and they're all looking at me. I said, Can I just make one observation? And he's like, Yeah, I said, You're wearing jeans and a and a polo shirt. I said, I've got a shirt and a tie on. Roger Schilling, who was my mentor, he hired me that I worked for the first 15 years, yeah, he's got a shirt and tie on. I said, We're the only ones in shirt and ties. I said, you know, maybe you shouldn't worry about casual Fridays and worry about how to clean the stuff that you guys are wearing that you're cleaning, that that you're professionally clean that you're wearing yourself, because, you know, people aren't dressing up because, they don't have casual Fridays. It's because they don't like to dress up, just like you didn't want to come to this business meeting. You traveled three hours to get here or two hours to get here, and you didn't dress up. So what makes you think the public wants to dress up?
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: They were quite mad at me at first. But you know,
Cleaner Conversations: But you what I like about that, Peter, is we have a saying here at Cleaner Marketing, IPO, issues and problems equal an opportunity. And when you get stuck on the issues or the problems, you can't see what could be a great plan or a solution and what could this turn into. And when you start to see it like you said, hey, look at what you're wearing. How how about let's figure out rather than say our industry is dead, let's figure out how to do a little pivot and start cleaning something a little differently and it's a great way of being able to reframe something so that it doesn't just land on a hey there's nothing we can do. but there's something we can do. It's a great opportunity and it's turned out to be true.
Peter Blake: I will tell you one light bulb moment I had for myself and so I was at a conference, it might have been one of the Southwest Drycleaners Association might have one of their expos or their SDLS show they used to have. And we had a hospitality suite and look, I've been in the industry a long time. I love to talk dry cleaning, so I go up the hospitality suite and we may have been having a couple of drinks. And one of the board members turned around, he'll probably hear this and know who I'm talking about. And he says to me, he says, and we're just sitting at this table and he says, So where do you see Perr going in ten years? And I looked at him and I've had a couple of drinks. And I'm like, look at my watch. I'm like, it's like midnight on a Saturday night And, you know, I was like, why don't we talk about football? tell me about how, football team's doing. I'm like, you know, I'm kinda dry cleaning, talked out. It's been a long weekend and he says and remember this is pre Zoom too, so this is pre you know, a lot of the connection. he said to me, I only get to talk to you like three times a year, are we ever really together? So, you know, I'm sorry, just This is my opportunity to talk to you and pick your brain. And I'm like, whoa, what I see happening to Perk in ten years is the fact it's gonna go down in use. And I explained on my whole outline and I never forgot that to say, you know what? People have this opportunity to to to learn and develop and it and I'm here to help them in that it wherever it is, whenever it is, if they have a question. and I never forgot that was a lesson to me to say I'm somebody they want to talk to and I've gotta make myself available as much as possible because they're gonna make decisions based on what I'm telling them and if I don't give them that information, they might make a mistake, they might make it a bad investment, they may not know where to turn to. But if I can give them an answer at, you know, midnight on a Saturday night, in a hospitality suite. Yeah, they could remember that in two months from now and say, you know what? I can always call him for anything. So that
Cleaner Conversations: I love it.
Peter Blake: was a lesson I learned.
Cleaner Conversations: I have two more questions before we kind of close off this episode. the first one is, and we love to get people's feedback, our guest, when you look at the future of the industry, are you optimistic? Are you excited? Is that something that you look forward to? And if so, what are some of those things that you're excited about?
Peter Blake: I am excited. I think we have a great future. I think it's gonna be different. I'm not gonna say it's gonna be the same, because it's not. We are always gonna evolve and we're gonna change. But the fact of the matter is, no matter what you say about society, you know, good or for bad, I think we're getting lazier and I think we're valuing our time more. So I know that you know my mother-in-law used to go out and go to four different stores because she could say money here, save money here, save money here. And I'd be like, but you spent your entire day going to four grocery stores. to save a dollar ninety eight.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah.
Peter Blake: But the truth of the matter is they were willing to do that. Now we're like we'll pay eight dollars to have Dunkin' Donut's deliver us a frap. You know, so we will always wanna, spend money to make our lives easier. So there will always be a place for professional laundry, professional dry cleaning, for pickup and delivery, wash dry, fold. they're gonna want people to make them keep looking good. And that I think is very bright for our industry because we will keep adapting in ways to do that more efficiently, to do it better and to get a better product. We will have to shift as to what we're cleaning. It's not your dad's dry cleaning plant anymore. I think I forget who it was that came out with the study. They were talking about it was recent. They were talking about the industry and how young people say they never use a dry cleaner. And it's because we're asking them if they use a dry cleaner. We're not asking if they use a laundry. We're not asking if they use wash dry fold. We're not asking them we're asking them to use dry cleaner. They don't know what it is anymore. But if we change our focus, and I'm sure cleaner marketing has done a lot of this, changing people's focus to you wear it, we can clean it. You know, we're fabric care cleaners. We care for fabrics, not dry clean, not laundry, not wet clean. Those are terms we know and we use. That's not what the Zoomer is they just want their clothes clean and want to wear it and they want to look good.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Yeah. Great answer. It it is exciting that most of the people, actually almost everyone on this podcast has said, man, very optimistic about a great future for dry cleaning industry. when I got in this, it definitely didn't have that might have been self imposed 'cause I was like, you know, why am I in dry cleaning software right now? But over the years, when people ask me or talk about it, this touches everything from Jeff Bezos the Gates Foundations to the Yankees or the NFL teams having to get jerseys clean. so many different aspects. It's just that's a cool thing to be able to do. So don't don't forget that factor. Did you hear that sound effect, Peter? All
Peter Blake: I second that. I second that.
Cleaner Conversations: right. hey, Peter, final question. I know some people listening to this they're scraping, right? They're grinding, they're like, man, I don't know if I'm going to make it. What's your encouragement to them? how do you offer them a sense of hope and what is a next step?
Peter Blake: The next step is just pick up the phone and call me. that's their next step. I mean, people often think that they're alone in this, they're going through something that's unique. I can tell you, after almost forty years, if you're struggling with something, if you have a question, if you're trying to learn how to do something, if you're trying to make something work. you're not the first one to go through this. And I can almost guarantee you I probably know somebody that's gone through it and can help you evaluate, help you work through it, help you come to terms with whatever it is that struggle or that challenge or that obstacle that you're looking at. And it's one thing to send a text, there's one thing to send an email. I'm a little bit old school. I would love to have a conversation with you. Let's just talk.
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: Let's just talk through it. You know? One of the best things I can say is some of the strongest relationships I have in this industry have started with a phone call. Hey Peter, I have a problem. And twenty years later we're still hanging out and going through problems and questions and working together. It's that's the best relationships we started.
Cleaner Conversations: Really cool. So where can that person call you? How can they find you as we close this thing off?
Peter Blake: I'll give you my cell phone number, you put it right on here at 617-791-0128 That's my cell phone. It rings to my house. anywhere I am. I always answer the call or get right back to you. So I am easily accessible through that. You can text me there. I'll give you my email addresses. I've got a few of them, but
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah, we'll make sure we post those too.
Peter Blake: Yeah, but the best thing is just give me a call. You shoot me a text and I can call you back. Either way, but I'd love to have
Cleaner Conversations: I absolutely love it.
Peter Blake: a conversation.
Cleaner Conversations: Well, cool. Well, Peter, this has been a great pleasure. I I know anybody listening to this has probably been tremendously informed and also inspired just to kind of continue their journey and great stories that you have. So thank you very much for your time, for the time that you put into this industry and for sharing some of those nuggets that you have with us. Man, we didn't even get to talk about golf and I mean you let on football a little bit. who you I mean, college football kicks off, it already kicked off a couple of days ago, right? Yep. This past Saturday. who's your team? Who are you looking for?
Peter Blake: I can't answer that in the South they will kill me. You know. But I can't even tell you what color I like. So it it's like a passion down there. So I'll stick with pro football and and I'm a big Patriots fan, you know. So but I do love watching
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Love it. Gonna be good this year. Gonna be good this year.
Peter Blake: all the SEC games. I do like watching a lot of college football. But I really don't have a dog in that fight, but I love to kind of watch some of the favorites.
Cleaner Conversations: Do you think Drake Maye throws a lot to AJ Brown this year? Is he a good fantasy prospect?
Peter Blake: I do. I think A. J. Brown is a very good fantasy pro but I would not sleep on Kyle Williams. I think Kyle Williams
Cleaner Conversations: Love it.
Peter Blake: is a burner. He's gonna be a little bit of a speedster out there that if you're double covering AJ Brown, you got Doubs is being gonna be flanked, then you've got a speedster and Kyle that can just get open.
Cleaner Conversations: Yeah. Okay. All right. Well we'll get to you for some other fan fantasy impact as the season goes on. Peter, thank you again for doing this with us. Hey, for the people who have not met Peter, I love Peter. Best guys in the industry best guy in the industry. You have to see him all around. Yeah. Yep. Wherever we go to an event, he might be there. If you're not going to the expo, great to sign up. We're all gonna be there. it'll be a really good time. And thanks again guys for listening. You can find us and like and subscribe at Cleaner Conversations, YouTube and Spotify is for the video. And then audio is on Apple Podcasts. If there's anywhere else where people listen, I think there is a iHeartRadio world out there as well. If anybody actually uses iHeartRadio, we will post it on there as well. I just haven't heard about it. So thank you guys again. Appreciate it. Take care. Have a good day.
Peter Blake: It's an honor for me. I am really honored. Thank you so very much. It's good to talk to you.
Cleaner Conversations: You're very welcome. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Peter. Have a good one. Bye bye.
Peter Blake: Thanks.
