Full Transcript for #182: How Allison Diamond Built a Cleaning Business on Systems from Day One

00:04:05,568 --> 00:04:09,488 It was it was going to take too long to become profitable, and so kind of exited that. 56 00:04:09,488 --> 00:04:17,728 Went back into like working in marketing, and then you know, I feel like when you have that like entrepreneurial like itch, it just like you have to do it. 57 00:04:17,728 --> 00:04:21,008 Like clearly, yeah, you're like, I need to do this. 58 00:04:21,008 --> 00:04:22,448 Yeah, yeah, I need to do this. 59 00:04:22,448 --> 00:04:27,888 Like something else, and so everyone always asks me the question, so why would you go into home cleaning? 60 00:04:27,888 --> 00:04:29,408 Like, how did you get here? 61 00:04:29,408 --> 00:04:31,728 What was that kind of like? 62 00:04:31,728 --> 00:04:45,968 So I kind of took a look at you know, okay, so I need to stop chasing my passions and my hobbies and turning them into businesses because that doesn't always relate to being profitable or having financial freedom, which is, you know, ultimately my goals. 63 00:04:46,288 --> 00:05:03,120 And so I took a look at you know, what's something that I could realistically learn, and what's something, what's an industry that still has space to have technology and a modern approach applied to it, and like how can I kind of close that gap, and what industry could that be? 64 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,320 And then, you know, looking into home services, service-based industries. 65 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,640 There's things I took a look at, HVAC, you know, electrical stuff. 66 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,360 This kind of stuff is like stuff you need to do apprenticing for. 67 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:13,440 Yeah. 68 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:14,400 Check goals. 69 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:15,360 Yeah. 70 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:16,000 Yeah, exactly. 71 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,160 So that's a really long runway to get started. 72 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,120 So, a bit naively, I was like, cleaning. 73 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,200 I know how to clean, right? 74 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:23,360 Yeah. 75 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:24,480 Oh yeah. 76 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:29,440 That was that was that was my first, my first hardest lesson. 77 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:33,280 I think is thinking that, oh, because I already know how to clean. 78 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:36,800 I know how to clean professionally, which is not the same thing. 79 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:36,960 Yeah. 80 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:37,280 It is. 81 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:37,520 Yeah. 82 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:47,232 And like, so, yeah, I got into, I decided I was going to do like a home cleaning business, and yeah, that's kind of how I got it started. 83 00:05:47,232 --> 00:05:48,592 What was the balance like? 84 00:05:48,592 --> 00:05:51,712 Because you went back to a corporate job, I'm assuming. 85 00:05:51,712 --> 00:05:54,912 So, talk to me about that kind of like messy middle part. 86 00:05:54,912 --> 00:05:57,792 Like, what did that transition look like? 87 00:05:57,792 --> 00:05:59,152 How did you balance both? 88 00:05:59,152 --> 00:06:00,432 Are you still balancing it? 89 00:06:00,512 --> 00:06:01,952 Oh, yeah, that transition. 90 00:06:01,952 --> 00:06:15,216 I made it as messy as possible because Well, it's gotta be hard because you have this stability, you know, and that's like the it's just that juicy stability, you know. 91 00:06:15,216 --> 00:06:17,296 Obviously, any job can end at any time. 92 00:06:17,296 --> 00:06:22,496 We all know that, but in comparison to self-employment, like it is stable in comparison. 93 00:06:22,496 --> 00:06:26,896 So, like, how it's that's the hard part for all of us when we're coming from a full-time. 94 00:06:26,896 --> 00:06:27,936 Like, when do we do this? 95 00:06:27,936 --> 00:06:28,736 How do we do this? 96 00:06:28,736 --> 00:06:29,536 How do we do both? 97 00:06:29,536 --> 00:06:29,856 Right? 98 00:06:30,256 --> 00:06:33,776 Oh, yeah, it's incredibly difficult and it's incredibly scary, especially. 99 00:06:33,776 --> 00:06:45,216 You know, like Tony Robbins has like a take on things of like, if you're really gonna go all in on something, burn the boats, meaning like the boats that got you to the island, since that's your only way to go back. 100 00:06:45,216 --> 00:06:47,136 If you burn them, you're just gonna figure it out. 101 00:06:47,456 --> 00:06:58,641 And so I was going through like a huge transition a few years ago in my life, where like I was like leaving a long-term partnership of like eight years, and that also was around the time I decided to like transition out of my corporate job. 102 00:06:58,641 --> 00:07:01,281 Just a lot of things that weren't serving me any longer in my life. 103 00:07:01,281 --> 00:07:02,641 Yeah, I was like, taking look. 104 00:07:02,641 --> 00:07:04,401 I was like, okay, I'm starting to get older now. 105 00:07:04,401 --> 00:07:06,801 Like my mindset's developed a little bit more. 106 00:07:06,801 --> 00:07:12,321 I've shifted as a person, and so maybe my life should reflect those changes that have happened internally as well. 107 00:07:12,641 --> 00:07:16,241 So I was like, okay, now's the time to do it, right? 108 00:07:16,241 --> 00:07:17,361 So I decided. 109 00:07:17,601 --> 00:07:30,641 From everything I learned, you know, I'm really organized person, really systems oriented, especially coming from like kind of like a corporate background where everything is super buttoned up and everything has a process, everything has an SOP, you know, and a way of doing things. 110 00:07:30,641 --> 00:07:34,721 Especially like at like a big corporation like I was at, everything was being run through legal. 111 00:07:34,721 --> 00:07:37,441 Everything was so buttoned up and done properly. 112 00:07:38,321 --> 00:07:39,041 I know. 113 00:07:39,681 --> 00:07:40,321 Yeah, yeah. 114 00:07:40,641 --> 00:07:41,761 It's gotta be a fear. 115 00:07:42,001 --> 00:07:42,881 It's gotta be so. 116 00:07:43,121 --> 00:07:45,361 Like

I've never worked in a large corporation. 117 00:07:45,361 --> 00:07:51,681 My boyfriend does, and when he, when I'm explaining things of like how I go about things, sometimes he's like, oh, we couldn't do it. 118 00:07:51,681 --> 00:07:58,032 Like even like screen recording because the business he works for, it's very like a lot of intellectual property, right? 119 00:07:58,032 --> 00:08:02,032 Like you can't, like you'll get fired if you even pull a phone out, like and record anything. 120 00:08:02,032 --> 00:08:06,112 So like, I literally can't imagine like the corporate side of things sometimes. 121 00:08:06,672 --> 00:08:22,112 Yeah, and it's like, it has its a double-edged sword because it served me so well in that, like I'm like, wow, I can bring so much like organization and polish and systems immediately into an industry that what I found doesn't have a lot of that existing so far. 122 00:08:22,352 --> 00:08:27,632 It's just, it's a little wild west out here sometimes, and I'm always like, I'm sorry you were working for someone who did what? 123 00:08:28,192 --> 00:08:33,097 Like, it's just, I'm a little shocked sometimes when I, when I talk to employees or, you know, applicants. 124 00:08:33,097 --> 00:08:51,328 And so, but then it also comes to bite me a little bit where I have it, gives me a little bit of like, it holds me back from making decisions faster because I think everything needs to be buttoned up to the point where I feel comfortable with it in the way that I've been comfortable with, you know, business operating in the past. 125 00:08:51,328 --> 00:09:07,888 So, like, I'm used to like having things reviewed by legal, and like now I'm like, oh, let's just launch a meta campaign and see what happens, and like that is just so different for me, and that's something I'm really trying to like work on, is even my own comfortability, which just, you know, just shooting from the hip a little bit more, yeah. 126 00:09:07,888 --> 00:09:11,408 And they clean it up and reiterate it because you still have to reiterate anyway. 127 00:09:11,408 --> 00:09:13,488 So, just kind of learning that. 128 00:09:13,488 --> 00:09:17,168 Well, and like what you're saying right now is just the point of I. 129 00:09:17,168 --> 00:09:23,008 I oftentimes think about like, our strengths are on the on the other side of that strength is our weakness, right? 130 00:09:23,008 --> 00:09:39,104 And because so many people who come, like they are a cleaner, and now they're trying to get into like more of like business owner hat, and I want to have employees, and I want to systematize, and what's what their strength is, the actual physical operations, like getting the jobs done, making sure that's perfect. 131 00:09:39,344 --> 00:09:43,744 Where for you, your strength is the systematizing and making sure things run really smoothly. 132 00:09:44,064 --> 00:09:55,024 But then when it doesn't, like that discomfort of like I don't want to like do this until it's perfect, because that's what I'm used to is a very finely tuned machine, which is hard to do in the beginning of a business, right? 133 00:09:55,024 --> 00:09:57,904 So like, it's really I'm just I'm just thinking about that. 134 00:09:57,904 --> 00:10:11,456 Of it's another example of wow, you know, none of us are perfect, and we all have areas of improvement, and just really leaning into your strengths, but not letting it like hinder you, you know, and handicap you, you know. 135 00:10:11,456 --> 00:10:12,496 Yeah, absolutely. 136 00:10:12,496 --> 00:10:32,576 And like, you know, I've been in mentorship groups and peer groups with other people in the industry because I realized, you know, I have so much to learn, and you know, there's things I could I would love to share with other people as well, and so it's been really nice for me to be able to connect with people who came from the other way, people who had the cleaning experience, and then were trying to implement all the software and systems and stuff like that. 137 00:10:32,816 --> 00:10:34,976 And because you know, we have that nice balance, right? 138 00:10:34,976 --> 00:10:36,736 Like, let me help you set up Go High Level. 139 00:10:36,816 --> 00:10:40,336 You help me figure out why we're getting complaints. 140 00:10:40,336 --> 00:10:41,136 Yeah, why? 141 00:10:41,376 --> 00:10:42,896 Why can't we clean this out bit faster? 142 00:10:42,896 --> 00:10:43,296 Exactly. 143 00:10:43,296 --> 00:10:44,336 Why? 144 00:10:44,336 --> 00:10:47,296 Why are our productivity rates so high? 145 00:10:47,296 --> 00:10:49,456 Like, why are our production rates going crazy? 146 00:10:49,456 --> 00:10:54,016 Like, yeah, it's so it's crazy to see like that balance and like everyone. 147 00:10:54,016 --> 00:10:56,976 And it's easy to think that the other people have it easier, right? 148 00:10:56,976 --> 00:10:59,776 Because it's easy to take a look. 149 00:10:59,776 --> 00:11:10,512 Sometimes I would look at other people who were coming from, you know, having that cleaning background, and they, especially initially, I was like, oh wow, like they seem so confident and so able to make sales. 150 00:11:10,512 --> 00:11:14,672 Where, for me, you know, even in marketing, marketing is very much like the funnel to sales. 151 00:11:14,672 --> 00:11:18,592 So I wasn't really comfortable in doing like on-the-phone sales. 152 00:11:18,592 --> 00:11:19,712 Closing the deal. 153 00:11:20,112 --> 00:11:23,312 It's like you need people to hand off to close the deal. 154 00:11:23,392 --> 00:11:24,432 Yeah, exactly. 155 00:11:24,432 --> 00:11:29,792 And it's like when you are not that familiar with like the service or the product that you're selling, that's a little bit harder. 156 00:11:29,792 --> 00:11:35,712 Whereas I feel like I talked to like some people who, you know, were cleaners themselves for a while and stuff. 157 00:11:35,712 --> 00:11:38,672 So they're very like intimately familiar with the service. 158

00:11:38,672 --> 00:11:44,352 So they're really kind of confident in having those conversations with clients or with leads. 159 00:11:44,352 --> 00:11:46,992 And that's something that I've really had to work really hard on. 160 00:11:47,872 --> 00:11:50,192 So you did burn the boats, then? 161 00:11:50,272 --> 00:11:51,232 Is that what you're saying? 162 00:11:51,232 --> 00:11:52,032 Is that what you did? 163 00:11:52,352 --> 00:11:52,752 Yeah. 164 00:11:52,752 --> 00:11:53,472 Let's get back to that. 165 00:11:53,872 --> 00:11:54,192 Totally. 166 00:11:54,192 --> 00:11:56,112 I told him, "It's like let me take you over here." 167 00:11:56,112 --> 00:11:57,792 I appreciate that. 168 00:11:57,792 --> 00:11:59,312 I love when people bring me back. 169 00:11:59,312 --> 00:12:01,488 So I need it all the time. 170 00:12:01,488 --> 00:12:04,448 I need somebody with like a lasso and like reel me. 171 00:12:04,448 --> 00:12:06,928 Yeah, I was like, you got a question? 172 00:12:06,928 --> 00:12:08,848 I got a five-minute unrelated story for you. 173 00:12:09,248 --> 00:12:10,608 That's my ideal. 174 00:12:10,608 --> 00:12:11,648 That truly is. 175 00:12:11,648 --> 00:12:12,208 I love that. 176 00:12:12,608 --> 00:12:12,928 Yeah. 177 00:12:13,008 --> 00:12:15,301 So I left like everything. 178 00:12:15,301 --> 00:12:16,208 I left. 179 00:12:16,208 --> 00:12:18,128 I just totally restarted my life. 180 00:12:18,128 --> 00:12:20,288 I moved to like a new place in Atlanta. 181 00:12:20,288 --> 00:12:21,248 I stayed within Atlanta. 182 00:12:21,248 --> 00:12:22,288 Moved to a new place. 183 00:12:22,288 --> 00:12:25,168 You know, ended up in a different relationship at some point. 184 00:12:25,248 --> 00:12:31,088 I ended up just putting myself fully into this business, meaning like I wasn't in the field. 185 00:12:31,088 --> 00:12:36,048 I was just having employees, and of course, you know what comes with that is the expense, right? 186 00:12:36,048 --> 00:12:41,328 So I'm paying for all of this software, all these systems, all of the marketing, and then of course payroll, right? 187 00:12:41,568 --> 00:12:43,248 And then I'm not making any money. 188 00:12:43,248 --> 00:12:44,208 Like, I'm not getting paid. 189 00:12:44,208 --> 00:12:49,213 Everyone is getting paid, and everyone is getting their cleaning done, and I'm there's just nothing left for me, right? 190 00:12:49,213 --> 00:12:57,213 And so that is the scary part because I'm like looking, you know, I like my accounts and everything, and even though I did plan for it, it's like, it's you need that financial runway. 191 00:12:57,213 --> 00:13:03,373 That is so real, and it's like I know other people kind of go through that process of like, at what point can they come out of the field? 192 00:13:03,613 --> 00:13:07,693 And that really is largely, I know, it's a financial question. 193 00:13:07,853 --> 00:13:15,853 When you can leave the field, it becomes how much financial runway do you have, and what

is what is the level of like risk that you're comfortable with as well? 194 00:13:15,853 --> 00:13:19,853 And I know, I listened to your episode that I think it came out today or yesterday. 195 00:13:19,853 --> 00:13:23,373 You talked a lot about that, and it does it matters how many dependents you have. 196 00:13:23,373 --> 00:13:27,373 It matters if you have like debt servicing that you have to take care of. 197 00:13:27,693 --> 00:13:31,213 So those, for me, like, those are considerations. 198 00:13:31,213 --> 00:13:32,653 Like, I don't have any children. 199 00:13:32,813 --> 00:13:33,773 I just have a dog. 200 00:13:33,933 --> 00:13:37,053 I had two dogs at the time, and like, yeah, I have like a partner. 201 00:13:37,053 --> 00:13:40,013 So, you know, he has an income as well, and then we are renting and stuff. 202 00:13:40,013 --> 00:13:49,728 But it's like, you still do have to think about like, what is my burn rate financially, just for me to like live, and like, how comfortable I, you know, I'm chatting Claude. 203 00:13:49,728 --> 00:13:51,568 I'm like, I'm like, here's what my accounts look like. 204 00:13:51,568 --> 00:13:52,368 What's my runway? 205 00:13:52,368 --> 00:13:53,648 Like, help me think through this. 206 00:13:53,648 --> 00:13:55,088 Yeah, and I'm like, make me feel better. 207 00:13:56,288 --> 00:13:57,248 Exactly. 208 00:13:57,248 --> 00:14:03,168 I can't tell you how many times AI has soothed me from like a mental breakdown, which is probably not good. 209 00:14:03,168 --> 00:14:03,728 No, me too. 210 00:14:03,808 --> 00:14:07,248 Therapy's done till Thursday, so we got to get this calmed down. 211 00:14:07,328 --> 00:14:08,928 No, for real. 212 00:14:08,928 --> 00:14:11,328 Like, I need that access right now. 213 00:14:12,288 --> 00:14:13,568 Yeah. 214 00:14:13,968 --> 00:14:16,208 So, what were the initial challenges? 215 00:14:16,208 --> 00:14:33,488 Obviously, you probably like I'm just so curious about somebody who was not in this industry chose it basically because obviously it's very attractive, low cost of entry, relatively low skill, not in an offensive way, but compared to an electrician or plumber that type of thing, right? 216 00:14:33,648 --> 00:14:35,808 So faster to get profitable. 217 00:14:36,048 --> 00:14:39,184 So, what types of things surprised you? 218 00:14:39,184 --> 00:14:42,864 And again, I always like to come back to like, what was the fantasy killer? 219 00:14:42,864 --> 00:14:47,344 You know, like what was like, oh shit, this is this is worse than I anticipated. 220 00:14:48,624 --> 00:14:51,504 Okay, let's start with the first one. 221 00:14:51,504 --> 00:14:52,944 Low cost to entry. 222 00:14:52,944 --> 00:14:57,344 I found that not to be true, especially as someone who wasn't working in the field ever. 223 00:14:57,344 --> 00:15:05,184 That is actually, you know, that means all of my personal expenses are part of my cost to entry if I'm just focusing on running the business full time. 224

00:15:05,264 --> 00:15:07,024 And then, of course, you have the marketing as well. 225 00:15:07,024 --> 00:15:13,904 Despite having like a marketing background, I didn't have like a ton of like experience in marketing in this industry. 226 00:15:13,904 --> 00:15:14,544 It's different. 227 00:15:14,784 --> 00:15:16,464 The customer base is different. 228 00:15:16,464 --> 00:15:19,664 The pipeline, the customer journey is totally different. 229 00:15:19,664 --> 00:15:21,824 And so that's very expensive to figure out. 230 00:15:21,904 --> 00:15:28,224 It costs a lot of money, you know, of like trial and error and marketing and you know leads not closing, and that adds up to like you know. 231 00:15:28,224 --> 00:15:29,024 I'll be honest. 232 00:15:29,024 --> 00:15:33,264 It was like, it was like thousands of dollars at one point just trying to figure that out. 233 00:15:33,264 --> 00:15:38,544 And it's like when people say low cost to entry, I'm just like, I'm not sure that's true. 234 00:15:39,824 --> 00:15:50,826 Aster, when you're doing the cleaning, when you're doing this one, this one, it's a low cost to entry when you're in the field like most of the time because you're subsidizing those costs with your own labor. 235 00:15:50,826 --> 00:16:02,272 And so it's like, yeah, if you're like just doing it from like an operator perspective, and you're doing like sales and marketing and customer and operations and things like that, it's very expensive to get started. 236 00:16:02,272 --> 00:16:08,912 Especially if you're putting money into marketing, especially because all of those mistakes that you make in the beginning, they are they are costly. 237 00:16:08,912 --> 00:16:10,192 They're costly emotionally. 238 00:16:10,192 --> 00:16:11,712 They're costly financially. 239 00:16:11,712 --> 00:16:26,992 And so I think maybe for me, that was one of the like fantasy moments, is because I feel like when I was listening to so many podcasts and just even like my initial mentorship group and stuff, I feel like the fantasy I had was like, this is going to be so easy. 240 00:16:27,152 --> 00:16:29,072 I was like, I have a marketing background. 241 00:16:29,552 --> 00:16:31,232 I was like, I can talk to people. 242 00:16:31,232 --> 00:16:36,032 I was like, I'm okay at cleaning, so like I'll be able to like find people are good at it. 243 00:16:36,032 --> 00:16:37,312 I was like, I'll get some checklists. 244 00:16:37,312 --> 00:16:38,432 I'll get some clients. 245 00:16:38,432 --> 00:16:41,712 The money's just going to come, and I'm going to be the best employer ever. 246 00:16:41,712 --> 00:16:43,152 My employees are going to have so much fun. 247 00:16:43,152 --> 00:16:46,832 My clients are going to love everyone, and you know, it's going to be great. 248 00:16:46,912 --> 00:16:51,456 And that is not how it happened? 249 00:16:52,176 --> 00:16:57,376 Talk me through, because obviously, you know, you have a very grounded personality. 250 00:16:57,376 --> 00:17:04,656 Just reading your background, hearing a little bit about what you did previously for your business, how did you manage yourself? 251 00:17:04,656 --> 00:17:10,336 How did you stay calm when shit was not going as you expected, and like you were being disappointed? 252 00:17:10,336 --> 00:17:14,096 You know, and like, oh shit, this isn't easy as I thought it was going to be. 253 00:17:14,096 --> 00:17:18,096 Oh yeah, it took a lot of like recentering and regrounding. 254 00:17:18,096 --> 00:17:26,416 I have like a really strong background, and like, you know, doing like a lot of spiritual practice, like, you know, like meditation, yoga, things like that. 255 00:17:26,416 --> 00:18:11,978 I've done all of that for like a really, really long time, and so that's really come in handy because I have like, I also, I'm like, I'm really empathetic, and I'm sorry, I really try to see, like, you know, that everyone does at the end of the day, try to act in their own best interest, and if I can try to align my business practices with that, whether that's like making a sale to someone and getting them what they need, or you know, understanding what a employee's goals and you know, life circumstances are, and seeing if, like, you know, what I have for them aligns with that as well, I think you know, just kind of coming to terms with you know, leaving out the idealistic thinking, because I feel like when we have expectations, and especially when they're not realistic expectations or aligned with reality, right, it just creates so much suffering. 256 00:18:11,978 --> 00:18:24,891 And so when, when things that were disappointing would happen, you know, like an employee would leave, or they would do a really bad job, or a client was really unhappy, or you know, I wasn't making sales, or something like that, I would just... 257 00:18:25,728 --> 00:18:34,288 I, it came back to like recentering, regrounding, and then also reminding myself that reps are a real thing, repetition is a real thing, and things only get it. 258 00:18:34,288 --> 00:18:37,248 Things are so hard the first handful of times you do them. 259 00:18:37,248 --> 00:18:42,128 It doesn't matter what it is for anyone, and the only way they get easier is through exposure. 260 00:18:42,368 --> 00:18:44,608 And I hate that sometimes. 261 00:18:44,768 --> 00:18:48,128 I know it's the worst. 262 00:18:48,128 --> 00:18:48,628 And life. 263 00:18:48,128 --> 00:18:50,128 Can we just get to the good part? 264 00:18:50,128 --> 00:18:51,328 Yeah. 265 00:18:51,488 --> 00:18:51,808 Yes. 266 00:18:51,808 --> 00:18:52,928 It's like it's the trenches, you know. 267 00:18:52,928 --> 00:18:54,288 It's literally you can't. 268 00:18:54,688 --> 00:18:56,768 Like I think I've referenced this song before. 269 00:18:56,768 --> 00:18:58,048 I'm gonna reference it again. 270 00:18:58,048 --> 00:19:03,168 In swimming lessons, we would sing this song where it's like going on a bear hunt. 271 00:19:03,328 -->

00:19:04,368 Does anybody know this? 272 00:19:04,448 --> 00:19:06,688 Please leave it in the comments if you know what I'm talking about. 273 00:19:06,928 --> 00:19:12,928 Anyway, but like, you're like going through this like song, and it's like, you can't go over it, you can't go under it, you have to go through it. 274 00:19:12,928 --> 00:19:13,168 Do it. 275 00:19:13,168 --> 00:19:17,088 Yeah, I literally think of that fucking song all the time. 276 00:19:17,808 --> 00:19:25,408 Like, can't go under it, or as Ted Lasso says, the only thing left to do, the only thing left to it is to do it. 277 00:19:25,408 --> 00:19:30,528 I say that in my head too often, so I have all of these little like things I think of. 278 00:19:30,608 --> 00:19:37,088 That's the truth, and you know, if you need that fourth-grade mantra to keep you going, that's what you use because exactly. 279 00:19:37,088 --> 00:19:43,488 I mean, there's a reason we're taught that as like as children, you know, to like deal with our emotions and like it's hard sometimes. 280 00:19:43,568 --> 00:19:53,008 I feel like, yeah, and I always like to see it sometimes like that the universe has these set of lessons for us when we come here, and everyone looks a little bit different. 281 00:19:53,008 --> 00:20:01,888 And I feel like when we keep seeing something presented to us that our struggle keeps re-presenting itself, just maybe in a different face or a different form. 282 00:20:01,888 --> 00:20:03,488 I'm like, what do I have to take from this? 283 00:20:03,728 --> 00:20:09,328 There is a lesson that I need to learn from this, and I am not going to be able to move past this until I learn that lesson. 284 00:20:09,568 --> 00:20:11,808 And sometimes that lesson is compassion. 285 00:20:12,048 --> 00:20:15,456 Sometimes that lesson is being calm. 286 00:20:15,456 --> 00:20:21,616 Sometimes that lesson is my system sucks, and I need to change something about the way I do something. 287 00:20:21,936 --> 00:20:27,776 But I think sometimes, like when things are difficult or not working for us, it's easy to blame everything and everyone else. 288 00:20:28,016 --> 00:20:33,616 Like, oh, the clients are just bad clients, or oh, these employees just don't want to work, or something like that. 289 00:20:33,616 --> 00:20:40,336 When honestly, I feel like most things are internal, and our outer world is largely shaped by our inner experience. 290 00:20:40,336 --> 00:20:48,576 Yeah, that lotus of control, and I really love that frame of reference of okay, I'm being presented this thing. 291 00:20:48,576 --> 00:20:52,096 Like I clearly have something to learn still about this. 292 00:20:52,096 --> 00:20:56,176 Even if it keeps happening, it's like, well, I haven't learned this lesson yet because it keeps happening, right? 293 00:20:56,336 --> 00:20:57,776 And I'm reacting in the same way. 294 00:20:57,776 --> 00:21:03,216 Especially when you, like, say, sometimes the lesson is just to remain calm because there's nothing else to be done. 295 00:21:03,216 --> 00:21:04,816 Like, don't be reactive here. 296 00:21:04,816 --> 00:21:11,776 So when I think about all of the trials and tribulations and kind of frankly shit shows that have occurred, I'm like, looking back. 297 00:21:11,856 --> 00:21:14,032 I, how, like, I'm so glad it happened. 298 00:21:14,352 --> 00:21:16,032 Like, it had to happen that way. 299 00:21:16,032 --> 00:21:16,912 It had to. 300 00:21:16,992 --> 00:21:20,032 And really thinking of it, like, it's laid out this way for a reason. 301 00:21:20,032 --> 00:21:21,552 I'm experiencing this for a reason. 302 00:21:21,552 --> 00:21:21,952 You know? 303 00:21:21,952 --> 00:21:22,512 Yeah. 304 00:21:22,752 --> 00:21:23,312 I think so. 305 00:21:23,312 --> 00:21:42,112 And I think like, especially when it comes to like employees and, you know, managing employees, I think one of the biggest things that I've learned, not only from this business but in life in general, is like, it's like maybe something someone didn't do something correct because I didn't communicate well or I didn't set them up for success. 306 00:21:42,112 --> 00:21:46,832 I feel like I'm part of the issue and the solution so many times. 307 00:21:46,832 --> 00:21:51,472 I feel like we all are, and it's just like, it's so much easier just like, ah, why didn't they know better? 308 00:21:51,472 --> 00:21:52,272 Why didn't they do better? 309 00:21:52,272 --> 00:21:58,592 And I feel like most people do want to do better, but sometimes you need to give like the information or the tools to make that happen. 310 00:21:58,592 --> 00:22:03,072 It's like, how can we make it the easiest path is for them to win, which means we win, right? 311 00:22:03,152 --> 00:22:07,072 And so that could be like, you know, like, yeah, you think they shouldn't have to use a checklist? 312 00:22:07,072 --> 00:22:08,032 They should know how to clean. 313 00:22:08,032 --> 00:22:12,944 You showed them, but wouldn't it be the easier path to winning if you just gave them a checklist, right? 314 00:22:12,944 --> 00:22:20,544 And make it like the lowest, like, on the on their bad day, not their best day, but on their normal, average, mediocre Tuesday. 315 00:22:20,544 --> 00:22:21,824 What are they going to act like? 316 00:22:21,824 --> 00:22:23,584 And that's going to fall back on our systems. 317 00:22:23,584 --> 00:22:28,384 And why do they think that they can get away with this behavior? 318 00:22:28,384 --> 00:22:31,824 What have I presented to them that they think that this is okay, right? 319 00:22:31,824 --> 00:22:33,824 Because clearly there's something wrong here. 320 00:22:34,144 --> 00:22:35,424 So I really like that. 321 00:22:35,424 --> 00:22:37,104 Like, at the end of the day, it's us. 322 00:22:37,104 --> 00:22:38,944 It's us as the owners and the leaders. 323 00:22:38,944 --> 00:22:44,464 Yeah, and sometimes that comes back to even having difficult conversations, which super sucks

sometimes. 324 00:22:44,464 --> 00:22:47,904 And I'm somebody who, like, really likes to talk about emotions and everything like that. 325 00:22:47,904 --> 00:22:56,784 And it's like having that, like, that ability to differentiate between, you know, like, I'm, I've been big on policies from day one. 326 00:22:56,784 --> 00:22:58,304 Everyone gets the same policies. 327 00:22:58,304 --> 00:22:59,664 It's the only way to make it fair. 328 00:22:59,664 --> 00:23:01,344 I don't make emotional decisions. 329 00:23:01,344 --> 00:23:08,224 I, I do relate to people emotionally because they're humans, but at the same time, I can't make emotional decisions. 330 00:23:08,224 --> 00:23:14,624 It's just it's short-sighted and it doesn't have a good outcome, and it's not really fair to me, the business, or anyone else, any employee. 331 00:23:14,624 --> 00:23:30,064 So that's just been, I think, a big thing, is like, like, and I know you've talked about it before, is like having those difficult conversations, and I feel like that's what a lot of people shy away from, and it's like, I feel whatever we feel most resistant to is usually the thing we have to do. 332 00:23:30,304 --> 00:23:40,624 That's the thing that's gonna move us forward the most, and yeah, it's so true, and it's so crazy how many folks I jump on a call with, and they're like, I listen to every episode. 333 00:23:40,624 --> 00:23:43,984 I'm like, cool, like, so you do have client guidelines in place, right? 334 00:23:43,984 --> 00:23:45,424 We do have policies in place. 335 00:23:45,424 --> 00:23:49,888 And they're like, no, I need, I know I should, and I'm like, what the fuck? 336 00:23:49,968 --> 00:23:57,408 So the reason I bring it up is because you just said how important this is, so I want It's clearly me saying it to you guys listening. 337 00:23:57,408 --> 00:23:58,128 Is it working? 338 00:23:58,128 --> 00:24:02,048 So, Allison, tell me about your policies that you have in place. 339 00:24:02,368 --> 00:24:04,608 Yes, I will tell you about them. 340 00:24:04,608 --> 00:24:12,528 So I have learned that over time too, but and also I've learned as well about how do I communicate the things that I need these clients to know? 341 00:24:12,528 --> 00:24:15,728 Because when the clients were just like doing things, and I'm like, why are you doing this? 342 00:24:15,728 --> 00:24:16,848 This is crazy behavior. 343 00:24:17,008 --> 00:24:18,368 And then I'm like, wait a second. 344 00:24:18,368 --> 00:24:21,088 I feel like I didn't make this really obvious to them. 345 00:24:21,088 --> 00:24:25,808 So what I started to do is not only do I have like so, I have, I use Canva. 346 00:24:25,808 --> 00:24:31,488 I built like a really nice like FAQ policies type thing in Canva that you can just like click through, and it's pretty. 347 00:24:31,728 --> 00:24:35,088 And it also has like our checklist on there, and it has like a welcome letter on there. 348 00:24:35,088 --> 00:24:37,088 I call it our client onboarding packet. 349 00:24:37,363 --> 00:24:43,523 Every new person gets it, and then I also, yeah, I also have it set up like in GoHighLevel with an automation. 350 00:24:43,523 --> 00:24:49,123 Once they move into like booked initial clean, they're getting a text automation that basically is just a welcome text. 351 00:24:49,123 --> 00:24:51,763 It's four texts, and then it's like numbered. 352 00:24:51,763 --> 00:24:56,003 It has here's the top things that we need you to know, and here's your resources. 353 00:24:56,003 --> 00:24:58,803 Like, I'm like, this is our, this is our client phone number, save it. 354 00:24:59,123 --> 00:25:01,603 I'm like, here's our cancellation policy. 355 00:25:01,923 --> 00:25:03,843 That way, it's just right up there in the open. 356 00:25:03,843 --> 00:25:06,243 I don't have to feel bad about it later if I have to enforce it. 357 00:25:06,483 --> 00:25:16,883 And then it's also like, here's how to best prepare for your clean, like things like clutter, personal items, that kind of thing, and just, you know, like securing pets, just the top things that really just will make the process smoother for them. 358 00:25:17,043 --> 00:25:19,363 Because what I, we'd also send it in email as well. 359 00:25:19,363 --> 00:25:24,003 What I found is, like, yeah, it's great to have a book of client policies, but no one's gonna read it. 360 00:25:24,003 --> 00:25:26,003 Do you read terms of service ever? 361 00:25:26,243 --> 00:25:26,723 Never. 362 00:25:26,723 --> 00:25:29,506 I'm always like, I'm always like, "cool, cool, cool, yeah. 363 00:25:29,506 --> 00:25:30,302 Where's my service? 364 00:25:30,302 --> 00:25:31,098 Where's my thing?" 365 00:25:31,098 --> 00:25:33,222 And I'm like, "signing away my firstborn child!" 366 00:25:33,222 --> 00:25:35,345 I don't know, maybe, like, "yeah, yeah, exactly." 367 00:25:35,345 --> 00:25:44,900 So I feel like if I just send them, like, you know, my like five-page document, which is great because it's all in there, everything they'd want to know, it's like they're not gonna read it. 368 00:25:44,900 --> 00:25:51,801 And I know that, and I, I can either be upset that they're not gonna read it and, like, try to hound them about reading it. 369 00:25:51,801 --> 00:25:57,375 I can even try to hound them about signing something they're still not gonna read it, even if they sign it. 370 00:25:57,375 --> 00:25:58,171 That's the truth. 371 00:25:58,171 --> 00:26:00,295 So I'm like, "how can I package this? 372 00:26:00,295 --> 00:26:10,115 Like, how can I, like, disseminate this down into something that's digestible for them that I know they're gonna read and I know that they read that text message because it comes right after their booking confirmation?" 373 00:26:10,115 --> 00:26:15,424 We use ZenMaid too, so they get the text confirmation and then they get that nice big chunk of text. 374 00:26:15,424 --> 00:26:18,078 So I feel pretty confident that almost everyone reads that. 375

00:26:18,078 --> 00:26:21,263 And then we've had a lot better of experience since implementing that. 376 00:26:21,263 --> 00:26:22,325 Oh, I love that. 377 00:26:22,325 --> 00:26:25,792 That's super creative and just really, like, accepting how people behave. 378 00:26:25,792 --> 00:26:31,552 It's a, you know, in a busy life, and that we're not trying to be stuck reading documents, right? 379 00:26:31,552 --> 00:26:33,152 And so I, I love that. 380 00:26:33,152 --> 00:26:37,152 That's like for us in our initial estimate, like having a frequently asked questions video. 381 00:26:37,152 --> 00:26:39,632 If they want to watch the video, here's this in the list. 382 00:26:39,632 --> 00:26:40,592 Like, like giving them. 383 00:26:41,152 --> 00:26:50,592 I mean, I think one thing everybody as owners needs to get very used to and accept is you're gonna have to repeat yourself a ton. 384 00:26:50,672 --> 00:26:58,432 Like whether it's with clients or staff members, and sometimes you just want to scream, like, how many times do I have to tell them to do this? 385 00:26:58,432 --> 00:26:59,952 And it's like sometimes we do. 386 00:27:00,032 --> 00:27:04,592 Like, that kind of goes against what I said earlier of like, okay, why do they think this is? 387 00:27:04,832 --> 00:27:12,032 But also, it kind of also lives in this juxtaposition of we have to repeat ourselves a lot and that we just have to accept it. 388 00:27:12,032 --> 00:27:16,800 You have to think of everybody like a child, and sometimes children need lots of, you know, reminders. 389 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,040 Oh yeah, absolutely. 390 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:28,000 And like, when I, when I find myself like at least on the client side, when I find that there's things that like we are repeating a lot, it becomes like a snippet and go high level. 391 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,600 For people using go high level, use the snippets when you're repeating yourself. 392 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,280 Use automations, use snippets. 393 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:34,240 Like, make it happen. 394 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,480 It's gonna, it's worth the investing the time up front. 395 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:42,720 And then, you know, on the cleaner side too, like I try to have, you know, I have all the resources available for them. 396 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:52,000 We use Connect Team, and I have like a nice little like resources chat that has just one link in it, and it has like a living document of like, here's all the things you might want to know about your job. 397 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,840 Like, do they do they use it? 398 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:54,560 I don't know. 399 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:55,120 Probably not. 400 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:56,560 They just shoot off a text and connect. 401 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:56,720 Yeah. 402 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:56,960 Right. 403 00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:58,560 But yeah, you're so right. 404 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:03,520 And then I do try to notice that, like, if

I'm getting the same questions over and over again, it means there's a hole. 405 00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:04,640 There's a hole in training. 406 00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:06,560 There's a hole in policy. 407 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:08,560 There's a hole in my own communication. 408 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:23,440 So, like, I feel like whenever issues represent themselves or people, whether it's clients or cleaning techs, keep coming up with the same thing, I'm like, I am not doing a good job educating this group of people, and then I will go and, like, I'll just go fix it. 409 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:29,120 Like whatever it is, I'll try to come up with a solution for that because I do not like dealing with the same thing. 410 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,240 I don't like a groundhog day moment, and you can't. 411 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:32,560 You're right. 412 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:33,920 You can't get around it sometimes. 413 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:35,200 Like, yeah, like the clocking in. 414 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,440 Oh, I'll fix your clocking for you. 415 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:41,360 Yeah, you know, that's gonna happen, but it's okay. 416 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:42,400 Yeah, yeah. 417 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,320 You make me want to go get my groundhog hat because you just said that. 418 00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:47,280 Because I have, yeah. 419 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:53,440 I should just wear it at team meetings, like the groundhog reminder. 420 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:54,800 Yeah, reminders. 421 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:55,440 Yes, that's. 422 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:56,960 Oh, I should use it for that. 423 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:57,680 I have it. 424 00:28:57,840 --> 00:28:58,800 I might as well use it. 425 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,960 And my staff love it when I dress up for our team meetings because they're like, Stephanie, you're insane. 426 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,560 I love that. 427 00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:11,101 I did wear my like spicy hot pepper outfit I wore for a podcast. 428 00:29:11,101 --> 00:29:12,528 I just wore it to my team meeting. 429 00:29:12,528 --> 00:29:13,728 No, I am not. 430 00:29:14,048 --> 00:29:16,288 I'm having enough fun at my team meetings. 431 00:29:16,288 --> 00:29:16,608 We need that. 432 00:29:16,768 --> 00:29:18,608 Everybody just start wearing costumes, okay? 433 00:29:18,608 --> 00:29:22,448 Please, just if I can make my team laugh, like it's a win. 434 00:29:22,448 --> 00:29:23,664 Like, that's the fun. 435 00:29:23,664 --> 00:29:24,688 We do. 436 00:29:24,688 --> 00:29:29,888 Like, would you rather we play this or that, or would you rather at every team meeting? 437 00:29:29,888 --> 00:29:43,168 I had my team meeting this morning, and like one of them was like, "would you rather have a client follow you around talking the entire clean, or would you rather they watch you silently from every doorway?" 438 00:29:44,048 --> 00:29:45,888 Oh, that's a good one. 439 00:29:45,888 --> 00:29:47,248 That's such a good question. 440 00:29:47,248 --> 00:29:51,152 I'm gonna add that to my because we do a question of the week every week. 441 00:29:51,152 --> 00:29:52,672 That's I'm stealing that one for sure. 442 00:29:52,672 --> 00:29:53,792 Ours was yesterday. 443 00:29:53,952 --> 00:29:57,472 If your name wasn't what it is, what would you choose your first name to be? 444 00:29:57,632 --> 00:29:58,432 That's so good. 445 00:29:58,432 --> 00:29:59,792 I'm gonna use that. 446 00:30:00,112 --> 00:30:05,472 Yeah, it was fun because it also everybody kind of went into, well, you know, if I was a boy, my parents would have named me this. 447 00:30:06,112 --> 00:30:07,232 These were the other options. 448 00:30:07,232 --> 00:30:09,952 They went with this, and like the background of like why they didn't get named. 449 00:30:09,952 --> 00:30:12,752 Like, it was actually like that's why I love the question of the week. 450 00:30:12,752 --> 00:30:13,472 I know too many. 451 00:30:13,472 --> 00:30:14,912 It's like that seems like a waste of time. 452 00:30:14,912 --> 00:30:17,152 Like, literally half of our team meeting is that. 453 00:30:17,232 --> 00:30:19,312 It's, you know, how was your weekend? 454 00:30:19,312 --> 00:30:21,072 Tell us about what everything you did this weekend. 455 00:30:21,232 --> 00:30:23,152 What are you excited about and grateful for? 456 00:30:23,312 --> 00:30:24,992 And then the question. 457 00:30:25,072 --> 00:30:27,792 And it's the majority of our team meeting is that. 458 00:30:27,792 --> 00:30:35,072 But I cannot tell you, as you know, how valuable that is from a cultural perspective, because all of a sudden we're getting to know each other, right? 459 00:30:35,072 --> 00:30:42,096 And much past just, you know, this like really transactional behavior. 460 00:30:42,096 --> 00:30:47,056 It's like, no, we know each other like, I know, I know why your parents didn't name you that because of this. 461 00:30:47,056 --> 00:30:50,976 And like, especially as an owner, like we're not in the field with them always. 462 00:30:50,976 --> 00:30:53,216 You know, so it's just so valuable. 463 00:30:53,216 --> 00:30:56,096 I'm so happy to hear that you have these like cultural things in place. 464 00:30:56,096 --> 00:30:56,896 What, what other things? 465 00:30:56,896 --> 00:31:01,056 What, like, from a cultural perspective, what do you think have you implemented that has really helped? 466 00:31:01,216 --> 00:31:01,616 Oh yeah. 467 00:31:01,616 --> 00:31:06,416 So, from day one, we've always done a weekly team meeting, and that's our supply restock as well. 468 00:31:06,976 --> 00:31:09,616 So, at the team meetings, we have like a structure for them. 469 00:31:09,616 --> 00:31:11,136 I have like a Canva presentation. 470 00:31:11,536 --> 00:31:14,736 We do, we do like a clock-in reminder. 471 00:31:14,816 --> 00:31:18,976 So, everyone is remember to clock in at the beginning of it, and then we move into core values. 472 00:31:18,976 --> 00:31:20,576 So we

have our core values open the screen. 473 00:31:20,816 --> 00:31:21,776 Everyone lists out. 474 00:31:21,856 --> 00:31:33,696 Everyone says out loud one core value that they feel they did really well this past week, and then they pick one other person in the room that maybe they worked with, who and pick a core value that they represented really well and why. 475 00:31:33,856 --> 00:31:35,296 And it's just a nice way of people. 476 00:31:35,631 --> 00:31:37,071 Yeah, I'm writing. 477 00:31:39,791 --> 00:31:46,831 It's like it gets people to like say something positive about themselves and then about someone else, and that I feel like that's really a nice way to start a morning. 478 00:31:47,151 --> 00:31:49,391 And then we move into recognition. 479 00:31:49,391 --> 00:31:59,631 So anytime we get a public review, we'll like screenshot it and we'll put the cleaning text who got it, and that'll go on the presentation as well, or just any positive feedback that we happen to get from clients. 480 00:31:59,631 --> 00:32:04,431 And then we move into, we move into like our game questions, like "would you rather this or that?" 481 00:32:04,431 --> 00:32:06,031 That, you know, the ones you guys do too. 482 00:32:06,911 --> 00:32:09,311 And then from there, we move into announcements. 483 00:32:09,311 --> 00:32:13,311 So you know, this morning I announced we're doing for this is nothing we do. 484 00:32:13,311 --> 00:32:15,391 We do a monthly team outing. 485 00:32:15,791 --> 00:32:23,071 So we're doing pottery painting next week, where, yeah, whoever can come can come, and you know, I pay for like the activity. 486 00:32:23,071 --> 00:32:25,311 We don't clock in, but it is paid for by me. 487 00:32:25,551 --> 00:32:27,311 And then so that's something we do monthly. 488 00:32:27,391 --> 00:32:32,288 And then, yeah, we wrap up with, you know, I ask them like any process updates, things like that. 489 00:32:32,608 --> 00:32:49,776 I open it up for like questions or if they need support on anything at all, and that kind of lets them take the floor and get things addressed, which is a little scary sometimes because sometimes someone will ask a question and I'm like, yeah, something like, let me think about those. 490 00:32:49,776 --> 00:32:50,656 I'm gonna get back to you. 491 00:32:50,976 --> 00:32:54,496 But yeah, that's kind of how our structure goes, and then we head out for the day. 492 00:32:55,216 --> 00:32:55,696 I love it. 493 00:32:55,696 --> 00:33:00,256 Yeah, it really for everybody who is still on the fence on regular team meetings. 494 00:33:00,256 --> 00:33:01,296 And I'm not talking monthly. 495 00:33:01,296 --> 00:33:02,816 I'm not talking quarterly, guys. 496 00:33:02,896 --> 00:33:04,016 We do ours weekly. 497 00:33:04,256 --> 00:33:08,416 I was hesitant because I was like, how are we gonna do that with, you know, with the schedule? 498 00:33:08,416 --> 00:33:11,376 Like, we're gonna have to move stuff, and that's gonna cost us money, and it

does. 499 00:33:11,456 --> 00:33:17,696 But it's like, it the reason I've done it for so many years, and you're doing it from day one, is because it is so valuable. 500 00:33:17,696 --> 00:33:18,896 It is so valuable. 501 00:33:19,136 --> 00:33:23,456 And you can't, like, I think I've done a whole episode on like how to do weekly team meetings. 502 00:33:23,456 --> 00:33:26,416 Like, and Allison, you just gave a bunch of great examples as well. 503 00:33:26,416 --> 00:33:30,271 So anybody who's on the fence, please make this happen sooner rather than later. 504 00:33:30,271 --> 00:33:31,871 You will enjoy the fruits of it. 505 00:33:32,031 --> 00:33:36,111 You will see people behaving in a lot different ways because it's such an independent job. 506 00:33:36,271 --> 00:33:40,671 Like, it is not a job where we're all going to the same place and working next to each other in cubicles. 507 00:33:40,671 --> 00:33:42,351 That is not this job at all. 508 00:33:42,431 --> 00:33:43,231 Yeah, I agree. 509 00:33:43,231 --> 00:33:49,391 I feel like, you know, I feel like the benefits are a little bit intangible too, especially an industry that tends to have turnover. 510 00:33:49,391 --> 00:33:53,311 And you're right, like we're not getting all of that interaction with each other on a regular basis. 511 00:33:53,631 --> 00:33:58,031 I've never run my business without the team meeting, so I don't know what it would be like without it. 512 00:33:58,031 --> 00:34:02,111 But I feel like with it, you know, it is, it does have intangible benefits. 513 00:34:02,111 --> 00:34:06,751 It's so nice culturally, and like I feel like it's such a nice touch point for everyone to come together. 514 00:34:06,751 --> 00:34:09,151 So it's worth Yeah, you do have to pay for it, of course. 515 00:34:09,151 --> 00:34:26,848 It's a labor cost, and like I, I feel like sometimes, like you know, I took on a lot more cost at the beginning than I really would have liked to, but you know, my hope is that like this is the things that like I'm doing things that like in the beginning I'm doing a lot of stuff that doesn't scale. 516 00:34:26,848 --> 00:34:37,968 I'm doing a lot of stuff that is like too expensive for where I'm at, and I'm really hoping that's going to allow that's going to pay dividends in the next like one to two years, is me having like invested upfront. 517 00:34:38,048 --> 00:34:40,528 I think it has because what you're doing is building foundation. 518 00:34:40,608 --> 00:34:43,648 Like, you're not doing a bunch of frivolous random shit. 519 00:34:43,648 --> 00:34:49,648 You are building a strong foundation that when it starts to scale, it's gonna scale and it's going to grow. 520 00:34:49,648 --> 00:34:55,168 So I want to hear about, like, going back to obviously you have this marketing background. 521 00:34:55,408 --> 00:34:58,128 What is working right now for you for getting clients? 522 00:34:58,128 --> 00:35:01,728 How are you getting this momentum now that you've put all of these systems in place? 523 00:35:01,728 --> 00:35:03,488 And well, I definitely want to talk about go high level. 524 00:35:03,488 --> 00:35:06,688 We're gonna talk about like your sales funnel and all of that because I'm super intrigued. 525 00:35:06,928 --> 00:35:09,808 But talk to me, how are you getting clients right now? 526 00:35:09,888 --> 00:35:11,728 Yeah, so I'll be completely honest. 527 00:35:11,728 --> 00:35:17,088 I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get clients and the consistency and the balance there. 528 00:35:17,088 --> 00:35:19,568 You know, between clients and cleaners, it's always that balance. 529 00:35:19,568 --> 00:35:26,208 So, like right now, what I found does work really well for us is like Facebook groups. 530 00:35:26,208 --> 00:35:27,648 Facebook groups are wonderful. 531 00:35:27,648 --> 00:35:29,648 The mom Facebook groups are fantastic. 532 00:35:29,648 --> 00:35:39,808 I would definitely recommend staying away from groups, Facebook groups, where people are looking to trade things or things for free, or you know, there's just a lot of spam going on. 533 00:35:39,808 --> 00:35:40,928 I would stay out of those. 534 00:35:40,928 --> 00:35:42,368 Those aren't necessarily the clients you want. 535 00:35:42,368 --> 00:35:47,808 Those are going to be the I want the cheapest, and then I'm gonna do a chargeback kind of leads. 536 00:35:48,768 --> 00:35:53,808 So I think the mom groups are the absolute best in terms of Facebook groups. 537 00:35:53,808 --> 00:35:55,808 Neighborhood groups are fantastic as well. 538 00:35:55,808 --> 00:36:02,953 So what we'll do is, I do a weekly post within those, just you know, introducing ourselves a little bit and like what we offer. 539 00:36:02,953 --> 00:36:06,713 I'll usually be running some sort of offer within that post as well. 540 00:36:06,713 --> 00:36:07,913 So I will put. 541 00:36:07,913 --> 00:36:14,313 I know Facebook's a little, like Remetta's a little, like on having links, but I will add a link in there that goes to our funnel. 542 00:36:14,473 --> 00:36:28,553 I have like a funnel built out just for like the Facebook group offers, so that way like I'm tracking the lead coming in from there, and I'm also knowing exactly what offer that I should be giving them because it's, you know, I'm tagged and everything, and through GoHighLevel. 543 00:36:29,193 --> 00:36:33,833 And then what also I'm doing, I've been doing like Meta ads, and I've been those have been really touch and go. 544 00:36:33,833 --> 00:36:41,792 To be quite honest with you, Meta ads because people are not, they're just kind of scrolling, and like maybe they want it in the moment, and then they ghost. 545 00:36:42,032 --> 00:36:45,312 I feel like the meta ads have like a ghost rate of like fifty to sixty percent. 546 00:36:45,632 --> 00:36:48,859 The even the ones that like are, it feels high intent. 547 00:36:48,859 --> 00:36:49,152 Because. 548 00:36:49,152 --> 00:36:51,632

So there's two different levels of intention. 549 00:36:51,632 --> 00:36:57,552 If you use the Facebook or the Meta forms, you get more leads, but they are lower conversion. 550 00:36:57,552 --> 00:37:08,272 Whereas if you use the landing page, which goes off of Meta, goes to your landing page, when people fill out that information, it's higher intent, higher conversion, but you're getting less leads when you take that route. 551 00:37:08,272 --> 00:37:11,792 But you're, you have more control over your data as well, which is really nice. 552 00:37:12,112 --> 00:37:21,952 So we're doing, before, in the past I was doing the forms and now I've switched over into just doing the funnels and I've been, so I'll run different campaigns. 553 00:37:21,952 --> 00:37:25,792 Like, I'm about to launch a new campaign now where we're gonna do like more meme style. 554 00:37:25,792 --> 00:37:34,848 I'm gonna do two static images, which is just means pictures, and then I'm gonna do one video, and everything has like a meme kind of like feel to it. 555 00:37:34,928 --> 00:37:41,328 That's like because I'm trying out different types of marketing, and I keep the vibe of it the same for each campaign. 556 00:37:41,328 --> 00:38:01,728 So my previous campaigns might have touched on like a little bit more of that emotional aspect or pain points, and now this time for the next campaign I'm launching and I'm gonna test, it's gonna be more like that funny meme kind of like I'm going after like the elder millennial maybe or like maybe like the younger Gen Gen X, which is like great target market for us. 557 00:38:01,728 --> 00:38:07,008 So yeah, those it's so hit or miss with the meta ads, and they're expensive. 558 00:38:07,008 --> 00:38:19,168 I'm gonna be honest, like I feel like you can easily burn through a thousand, two thousand dollars, and like I'm trying to get to the point where I'm at a hundred percent ROI on them, but I'm not yet, and that is the goal, and it's tough. 559 00:38:19,168 --> 00:38:20,747 I think people over-simplify. 560 00:38:20,747 --> 00:38:25,440 It's not that hard to learn, but it is a lot to learn to do a good meta ad. 561 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:26,720 Quick little break here. 562 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:34,800 If you have ever been listening to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast and thought, oh my gosh, Stephanie would die at this story, Well, guess what, guys? 563 00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:36,400 I want to hear that story. 564 00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:40,880 Okay, we are looking for guest applications for the show. 565 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:45,920 And I know many of you have never been on a podcast before, but those are my favorite episodes. 566 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,600 To be frank, is the owners who are just here to share their stories. 567 00:38:49,600 --> 00:39:02,880 So if you are an owner who wants to share their story, or perhaps you would like to have a free consulting call with me and ask me your questions live for everybody else to learn from, that is also an option. 568 00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:12,640 And then finally, if you know somebody in our industry, you have a friend or somebody that you look up to and have learned from, who you think would be a great guest option for us. 569 00:39:13,136 --> 00:39:20,736 Please go to the link down in the bio, and we would love to see you apply or nominate them, and we will take it from there. 570 00:39:20,816 --> 00:39:25,056 And I would love to have a conversation with you and get to know you more closely. 571 00:39:25,376 --> 00:39:26,016 Back to the show. 572 00:39:26,096 --> 00:39:26,736 It's funny. 573 00:39:26,736 --> 00:39:36,656 I literally am just deep diving into all of this for really the first time ever in the business, because I had like, I'm really dedicating myself to the marketing and Serene Clean. 574 00:39:36,896 --> 00:39:38,736 Because before I hadn't really had to, frankly. 575 00:39:38,736 --> 00:39:42,736 You know, I mean, I had, but not in this very like direct way. 576 00:39:42,976 --> 00:39:50,016 And so I'm currently running experiments with meta ads and like literally running two different ads, seeing what the result is. 577 00:39:50,016 --> 00:39:53,376 I created the landing page, so I can like, we, we this morning I just turned them on. 578 00:39:53,376 --> 00:40:00,576 Last week we just got our first booking from the Facebook ad, and I'm targeting like, you know, the high income, like, like, you're right. 579 00:40:00,576 --> 00:40:06,416 I'm not getting as many leads, but I'm like, this, like this is a high income, this age group, this woman who's interested in these things. 580 00:40:06,416 --> 00:40:09,616 Like, it's, it's my specific ideal client. 581 00:40:09,776 --> 00:40:11,490 So, like you said, it's better. 582 00:40:11,490 --> 00:40:16,816 So, like, I'm right there with you, of like, okay, let's try this thing and just experimenting, you know. 583 00:40:16,816 --> 00:40:18,416 But it does cost money, of course. 584 00:40:18,416 --> 00:40:29,296 Oh yeah, the experimenting, the testing costs a lot of money, and that's why I see where people are hesitant to do it, especially if they don't, you know, know like how to read the data that's coming in. 585 00:40:29,296 --> 00:40:39,456 And you honestly need with Meta ads, you need at least, I would say, you can't really pull appropriate data until you have at least $25 to $30 a day budget running for at least ten days. 586 00:40:39,776 --> 00:40:42,416 Before that, your data is not reliable. 587 00:40:42,416 --> 00:40:45,136 It's not enough of a sample size, and you can't make any decisions. 588 00:40:45,136 --> 00:40:54,096 But I think sometimes people will see that, oh, I've spent $200 on this, and like I haven't gotten any leads yet, but like it's not done testing, which is the hardest thing. 589 00:40:54,096 --> 00:40:56,176 And it especially depends how new your account is. 590 00:40:56,176 --> 00:41:02,176 My account is still fairly new because

we're a fairly new business, so it's the targeting is even hard. 591 00:41:02,256 --> 00:41:05,296 And then we are also doing LSA as well. 592 00:41:05,616 --> 00:41:08,016 I have really mixed feelings about LSA. 593 00:41:08,256 --> 00:41:09,376 Really mixed. 594 00:41:09,376 --> 00:41:17,136 Like, for my area, for my area in Atlanta, LSA is like pretty expensive, like fifty to sixty a lead. 595 00:41:17,216 --> 00:41:33,952 And honestly, like it's just, it's been tough because, like, I'm, I get a little annoyed sometimes that some of the leads will be like, I have a six hundred square foot apartment, I want it cleaned for seventy-five dollars, and I need it in one hour, and I'm like, "Cool, here's 60." 596 00:41:33,952 --> 00:41:35,552 No targeting, yeah, exactly. 597 00:41:35,552 --> 00:41:37,232 It's so, it's so true. 598 00:41:37,232 --> 00:41:42,432 Is that the targeting is so much more difficult, and I would imagine because you really can't, you know what I mean? 599 00:41:42,432 --> 00:41:44,672 Like, it's you're showing up for these results. 600 00:41:44,672 --> 00:41:48,032 So, yeah, it's definitely more challenging. 601 00:41:48,352 --> 00:42:00,672 You know, we've just gone away from any pay per click advertisement at all, and like the only Google spending we're doing is on LSA right now because I just had like abysmal results with pay per click or anything like that. 602 00:42:00,672 --> 00:42:03,392 So, yeah, paid advertising is like this Pandora's box. 603 00:42:03,392 --> 00:42:04,592 I just opened it. 604 00:42:04,592 --> 00:42:07,392 Finally, I'm like, I'm gonna do this thing, and I'm gonna do it right. 605 00:42:07,632 --> 00:42:17,552 But I commend you because what you just said is with your Facebook account and your Meta account being earlier on, you don't have an audience build up. 606 00:42:17,632 --> 00:42:21,152 Like, it's much easier to test things out when you have an audience. 607 00:42:21,152 --> 00:42:25,424 Because I'm like, cool, these reels did really great like by themselves organically. 608 00:42:25,424 --> 00:42:27,184 Now let me boost them and see what happens. 609 00:42:27,184 --> 00:42:31,104 Whereas you, you're just you're throwing spaghetti out into the void, you know? 610 00:42:31,264 --> 00:42:32,464 Oh yeah, absolutely. 611 00:42:32,464 --> 00:42:40,704 And I worked like, you know, I will say what gets you a lot of followers really quickly is giveaways and running contests, giveaways and contests. 612 00:42:40,704 --> 00:42:49,904 But you have to like, you have to be prepared for it because you need to be like sending people to like a like a landing page, like a funnel, and getting all of their data and giving them a secondary offer. 613 00:42:49,904 --> 00:42:56,064 So if they're signing up for like a giveaway, you need to be hitting up all those people and being like, everyone's a winner. 614 00:42:56,064 --> 00:42:58,224 You get like twenty percent off. 615 00:42:58,224 --> 00:43:04,304 Like even though like we're going to be doing the giveaway drawing on this date and like really hope you win, but everyone's a winner. 616 00:43:04,304 --> 00:43:06,064 You get twenty percent off of any clean. 617 00:43:06,064 --> 00:43:06,624 What do you think? 618 00:43:06,784 --> 00:43:09,104 Like, so, you need to be like retargeting everybody. 619 00:43:09,104 --> 00:43:12,064 Yeah, because the whole point of a giveaway is data collection, right? 620 00:43:12,304 --> 00:43:16,704 And it's getting followers, but like, yeah, you have to make the most of any money you spend. 621 00:43:16,704 --> 00:43:18,144 So, are you sending? 622 00:43:18,144 --> 00:43:23,201 Because I'm literally going to do, because obviously you know, I'm a I'm a "I'm a slut for a giveaway, right?" 623 00:43:23,201 --> 00:43:25,364 And so, like, like, what do you do? 624 00:43:25,364 --> 00:43:29,688 Do you message each of them and say, 'hey, like, if you want to get like... 625 00:43:29,688 --> 00:43:32,931 How do you get that information if you're doing the Facebook giveaway'? 626 00:43:32,931 --> 00:43:37,797 Like, tactically speaking, how do you get them to that secondary step because I want to do this? 627 00:43:37,797 --> 00:43:38,337 Okay, cool. 628 00:43:38,337 --> 00:43:41,040 Yeah, so here's like the way I would set up. 629 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:43,202 I haven't done a giveaway for a while. 630 00:43:43,202 --> 00:43:46,446 I'm looking to partner with someone locally and do another one soon. 631 00:43:46,446 --> 00:43:52,392 So you're gonna like run the ad, put the giveaway on your socials, and then you got to give them the instructions. 632 00:43:52,392 --> 00:43:56,446 So here's how to enter you have to make that really clear and really easy. 633 00:43:56,446 --> 00:43:58,068 You can be like, like this. 634 00:43:58,068 --> 00:44:01,041 You can say, 'you know, comment on it, tag somebody, follow... 635 00:44:01,041 --> 00:44:01,852 Whatever you want.' 636 00:44:01,852 --> 00:44:04,825 And then I recommend you do the follow and the comment. 637 00:44:04,825 --> 00:44:06,987 It like boosts engagement and sends it further. 638 00:44:06,987 --> 00:44:16,054 And then you want to send them, so you can't put a link within a post, but you can put the link within like your bio on like Instagram, right, or on Facebook too. 639 00:44:16,054 --> 00:44:18,694 So you want to have like a link where they can enter. 640 00:44:19,574 --> 00:44:23,414 So if it's connected to an ad, the ad can take them to that landing page. 641 00:44:23,414 --> 00:44:27,174 But you want to make a landing page with a funnel where you then collect their information. 642 00:44:27,494 --> 00:44:31,094 And so from there, like you're collecting, don't collect too much or people won't enter. 643 00:44:31,094 --> 00:44:33,894 But like probably name, phone number, email is great. 644 00:44:33,974 --> 00:44:36,374 I like to get zip code too, but if you can get it. 645 00:44:36,374 --> 00:44:36,614 Yes. 646

00:44:36,854 --> 00:44:37,094 Yeah. 647 00:44:37,094 --> 00:44:37,734 That's awesome. 648 00:44:37,734 --> 00:44:50,614 But and then they'll go to a landing page, and from there, that's where you I mean, they go to like the second page, like the thank you page, and that's where from there you can kind of give them the secondary offer and give them the option to schedule a call with you if you want. 649 00:44:50,854 --> 00:44:54,294 It doesn't really matter anyway because their data is now coming into Go High Level. 650 00:44:54,294 --> 00:45:03,894 If you're using Go High Level or whatever system you're using, so all that data is going to flow to you, and you want to set up like some sort of automation where you know that they're coming from the giveaway. 651 00:45:03,894 --> 00:45:09,174 So, it's like tagging them like giveaway, or they're going into a certain pipeline stage, and then you're reaching out to them. 652 00:45:09,174 --> 00:45:12,467 Like, an automation is best that says, like, "oh, we got your entry. 653 00:45:12,467 --> 00:45:13,924 Amazing, you know, hope you win." 654 00:45:13,924 --> 00:45:24,612 And then it's like that everyone is a winner, like everyone who entered the giveaway gets the option to have, you can play with the language, the option to have like twenty percent off their first clean or whatever when you book by whatever. 655 00:45:24,612 --> 00:45:26,799 And then you, I like to ask a question. 656 00:45:26,799 --> 00:45:31,657 I've noticed you get like much better response rates when you ask a question and not just present an offer. 657 00:45:31,657 --> 00:45:35,543 So, like, "want me to send over some available dates for you or something like that?" 658 00:45:35,543 --> 00:45:36,515 That kind of thing. 659 00:45:36,515 --> 00:45:42,345 And then you want to get them, you know, if they don't reply, you want to hit them up again in like two days. 660 00:45:42,345 --> 00:45:47,203 And you want to keep like, kind of, like letting them know, "oh, the giveaway is coming to an end. 661 00:45:47,203 --> 00:45:48,660 Did you tag a friend yet?" 662 00:45:48,660 --> 00:45:54,752 You want to keep engaging with them, so I keep engaging with everyone until they text stop. 663 00:45:54,752 --> 00:45:58,272 Yeah, like everyone is the lead until they tell me to go kick rocks. 664 00:45:58,432 --> 00:45:59,872 Like, yeah, exactly. 665 00:46:00,432 --> 00:46:08,512 Thank you for saying that, because every listener who does not follow up like a maniac, like you guys, are burning money, like burning money. 666 00:46:08,512 --> 00:46:10,592 Like, please call people more than once. 667 00:46:10,592 --> 00:46:13,392 I promise you, they are not like screw you. 668 00:46:13,392 --> 00:46:14,672 How dare you call me twice? 669 00:46:14,672 --> 00:46:15,872 Like, keep calling. 670 00:46:15,872 --> 00:46:17,792 They're busy and they forget. 671 00:46:17,792 --> 00:46:19,712 Some people are like, thank you so much. 672 00:46:19,712 --> 00:46:21,712 Like, and some people get annoyed, but who cares? 673 00:46:21,712 --> 00:46:22,672 You know, think about it. 674 00:46:22,672 --> 00:46:23,952 I think about it on my phone. 675 00:46:23,952 --> 00:46:32,432 Like, you know how, like, whenever you go anywhere, I always get like texts from like apps, and they're like, oh, a sale, oh, this, like, and they just text me incessantly until I say stop. 676 00:46:32,432 --> 00:46:34,032 So I'm going to do the same thing, right? 677 00:46:34,112 --> 00:46:34,912 Exactly. 678 00:46:34,912 --> 00:46:35,952 Yeah, and they don't want to. 679 00:46:35,952 --> 00:46:46,912 Yeah, it's just I think we're so hesitant and so scared of sales in general, and think that, like, we're so scared to annoy people, but people are getting so much advertising noise every day. 680 00:46:46,912 --> 00:46:56,128 Like, if they reached out to you and they get like, they want you, like, they want you, even in a situation like this where it's like, you know, if they want this, like they can just say no. 681 00:46:56,128 --> 00:46:57,168 Like they can just say no. 682 00:46:57,168 --> 00:46:57,968 It's okay, guys. 683 00:46:58,208 --> 00:46:59,088 I love this. 684 00:46:59,088 --> 00:47:03,088 I am definitely going to work through this and implement that second step. 685 00:47:03,088 --> 00:47:13,968 I never really thought about that because for me, the end goal was always get more followers on the Facebook page, get more eyes because that helps us in a lot of ways, and reward our followers, of course, with the giveaway. 686 00:47:13,968 --> 00:47:19,728 But I never took it to the next level of taking it off Facebook and getting their contact info. 687 00:47:19,808 --> 00:47:22,208 So that is, like, that's such a great idea. 688 00:47:22,208 --> 00:47:26,928 I'm so glad that you said that because I'm totally gonna do that. 689 00:47:26,928 --> 00:47:27,168 Of course, yeah. 690 00:47:27,168 --> 00:47:33,328 It's so, it's like, it's so, you'll make in the end, like, those people become, like, you can retarget them forever, right? 691 00:47:33,648 --> 00:47:35,568 So they'll convert later. 692 00:47:35,648 --> 00:47:37,328 A hundred percent, a hundred percent. 693 00:47:37,328 --> 00:47:40,208 And so you obviously have mentioned Go High Level. 694 00:47:40,208 --> 00:47:41,168 You mentioned ZenMaid. 695 00:47:41,168 --> 00:47:42,448 You mentioned Connect Team. 696 00:47:42,448 --> 00:47:47,248 I would love to hear if we could just get a quick and dirty of your full software stack. 697 00:47:47,463 --> 00:47:49,223 What do you use each of them? 698 00:47:49,303 --> 00:47:50,103 I love you. 699 00:47:50,103 --> 00:47:50,983 I wrote it all down. 700 00:47:50,983 --> 00:47:52,663 Text stack. 701 00:47:52,663 --> 00:47:54,583 I got you. 702 00:47:54,583 --> 00:47:56,800 Are you ready for the list? 703 00:47:56,848 --> 00:47:57,584 I'm ready. 704 00:47:58,784 --> 00:47:58,944 Okay. 705 00:47:59,824 --> 00:48:01,824 Stop me if you

have any questions while I go through it. 706 00:48:01,824 --> 00:48:02,304 Okay. 707 00:48:03,104 --> 00:48:04,384 So, go high level. 708 00:48:04,624 --> 00:48:07,424 So, CRM, ZenMaid, we're using for scheduling. 709 00:48:07,424 --> 00:48:09,584 Stripe is our payment processing system. 710 00:48:09,584 --> 00:48:11,904 Buffer, we use for scheduling for social. 711 00:48:11,904 --> 00:48:13,424 Canva for design work. 712 00:48:13,664 --> 00:48:16,544 Higgsfield, it has all the AI gen models on it. 713 00:48:16,544 --> 00:48:19,664 I use that to develop mainly for ads. 714 00:48:19,664 --> 00:48:22,064 I use Claude and ChatGPT. 715 00:48:22,064 --> 00:48:23,344 I use Google Workspace. 716 00:48:23,344 --> 00:48:26,464 So, Google Sheets, Docs, and Drive primarily. 717 00:48:26,464 --> 00:48:30,464 Slack, I use that to communicate with my admin, who I've hired through an agency. 718 00:48:30,464 --> 00:48:31,744 So we have a channel on Slack. 719 00:48:32,064 --> 00:48:36,704 Connect team is for our own internal communications, like with the cleaning techs. 720 00:48:37,424 --> 00:48:40,624 Zapier, there's a few third-party automations I have on there. 721 00:48:40,864 --> 00:48:42,304 Gusto or Gusto? 722 00:48:43,376 --> 00:48:45,216 Yeah, I've heard people say, You know what? 723 00:48:45,936 --> 00:48:46,576 Gusto. 724 00:48:46,576 --> 00:48:47,376 Could it be that? 725 00:48:47,776 --> 00:48:48,256 Gusto? 726 00:48:48,896 --> 00:48:50,176 If you're watching, chime in. 727 00:48:50,176 --> 00:48:50,656 How do we? 728 00:48:50,656 --> 00:48:52,736 Yeah, I don't know. 729 00:48:52,736 --> 00:48:53,696 Sponsors. 730 00:48:53,696 --> 00:48:55,936 Some sponsorship coming through or something. 731 00:48:56,176 --> 00:48:57,376 HR and payroll. 732 00:48:57,616 --> 00:49:01,696 DocuSales for signed docs, like handbook, cleaning kit, that kind of thing. 733 00:49:02,496 --> 00:49:03,696 WordPress for our website. 734 00:49:03,696 --> 00:49:04,576 Indeed for hiring. 735 00:49:04,576 --> 00:49:05,616 Zero for accounting. 736 00:49:06,016 --> 00:49:07,936 I think that's mostly what I use. 737 00:49:08,016 --> 00:49:08,256 Yeah. 738 00:49:08,256 --> 00:49:09,376 Monday.com also. 739 00:49:09,456 --> 00:49:10,976 Monday.com for organization. 740 00:49:11,056 --> 00:49:11,856 For your project, for your organization. 741 00:49:11,856 --> 00:49:12,496 I love that. 742 00:49:12,496 --> 00:49:21,456 So you know, I love that you're such a lover of GoHighLevel because obviously it's a fantastic CRM. 743 00:49:21,536 --> 00:49:24,656 I'd love to, and I know it integrates pretty dang well with ZenMaid. 744 00:49:24,656 --> 00:49:26,016 So I'd love to hear. 745 00:49:26,816 --> 00:49:28,576 Did you have experience with GoHighLevel? 746 00:49:28,576 --> 00:49:43,681 I had no idea what a CRM was when I opened my cleaning business, and so then when I happened to watch a tutorial in the ZenMaid Mastermind from Courtney Wisely on how she uses ClickUp to manage her leads, that's what got me into ClickUp, and so I stuck with it, built it out. 747 00:49:43,681 --> 00:49:45,041 I'm not leaving because I built it out. 748 00:49:45,041 --> 00:49:50,321 However, if I had known about Go High Level, I think I would have been swayed that way in the beginning. 749 00:49:50,321 --> 00:49:58,721 So I want you to talk about this as somebody who's using it because I don't want to tell our listeners one way, because there's lots of ways to skin this cat, right? 750 00:49:58,721 --> 00:50:00,881 So talk to me about Go High Level. 751 00:50:00,881 --> 00:50:02,001 What do you love about it? 752 00:50:02,001 --> 00:50:03,201 What do you not like about it? 753 00:50:03,201 --> 00:50:04,401 Just give me the rundown. 754 00:50:04,481 --> 00:50:09,281 So Go High Level, I used it for the first time when I started this business. 755 00:50:09,361 --> 00:50:13,201 I set everything up myself for the most part. 756 00:50:13,201 --> 00:50:17,201 I did a mentorship program that, like, you know, gave a little bit of like structure to that. 757 00:50:17,201 --> 00:50:30,161 But, and I was so, you can do Go High Level, get it yourself and set it up fully on your own, or it can be like white labeled and you buy it from an agency, and you can also have someone else set up like your funnels and your automations and stuff. 758 00:50:30,161 --> 00:50:39,616 Which is, depending on how much budget you have and how much experience you have with using like software and tech and automations, that's sometimes the best way to go. 759 00:50:39,776 --> 00:50:45,376 But yeah, I self-taught myself everything on GoHighLevel, which was there's a learning curve for sure. 760 00:50:45,376 --> 00:50:56,096 I had some messy automations at first, a lot of things breaking, but I'm really used to using a lot of software and tech stuff, and you know, linking things together and making things work. 761 00:50:56,096 --> 00:50:57,616 And I kind of like it to be honest with you. 762 00:50:57,616 --> 00:50:59,936 So I taught myself to use GoHighLevel. 763 00:50:59,936 --> 00:51:04,176 It's a little bit intimidating at first because it is so robust and it can do so many things. 764 00:51:04,176 --> 00:51:11,670 Like, it from, and I feel like when people say like, like a CRM, like, like a customer relationship manager, resource manager. 765 00:51:11,670 --> 00:51:14,736 It's like, it's like, what does that even mean? 766 00:51:14,736 --> 00:51:20,288 It's like basically, so you can like, it's like, it's our phone, it's our phone system, so it's like a two P, right? 767 00:51:20,288 --> 00:51:21,328 So it's calling. 768 00:51:21,488 --> 00:51:23,248 You can, we have multiple numbers on there. 769 00:51:23,248 --> 00:51:24,368 One is our LSA number. 770 00:51:24,368 --> 00:51:27,248 One is like our just general business line. 771 00:51:27,248 --> 00:51:28,608 You can have multiple numbers on there. 772 00:51:28,608 --> 00:51:29,488 You text from them. 773 00:51:29,488 -->

00:51:30,128 You can call from them. 774 00:51:30,368 --> 00:51:37,728 Your email is tied into GoHighLevel, so your emailing when clients email, it comes into the GoHighLevel system as well, like the dashboard. 775 00:51:37,728 --> 00:51:38,928 So everything is in one place. 776 00:51:38,928 --> 00:51:39,968 You're never missing anything. 777 00:51:40,208 --> 00:51:41,488 Same thing with social accounts. 778 00:51:41,488 --> 00:51:48,848 Whenever you get messages from socials, it's funneling into GoHighLevel as a conversation, and everything looks like a text conversation. 779 00:51:48,928 --> 00:51:52,528 It's all in one place, and then you also like it's a shared system too. 780 00:51:52,528 --> 00:52:01,840 So if you have admin or other employees, everyone is seeing the same thing or whatever you allow them access to, and you can also, yeah, let's see what else is going on in there. 781 00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:05,520 The email, I know, email the drip campaigns and things. 782 00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:09,360 Yeah, Yeah, yeah, You can set up all your automation, so all your marketing can happen in there. 783 00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:16,000 Your email drip campaigns, your SMS campaigns, and you set up your full, like, sales journey. 784 00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,200 Meaning, like, how do I explain this visually? 785 00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:19,440 Right. 786 00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:32,320 So, like, you have, like, a customer comes in and they're a new lead, and then they, I have it set up like one of my stages, like, thinking about it or booked initial clean, and you can have automations like SMS and email set up for every stage. 787 00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:45,600 And when you go to remarket to people, you can create, like, smart lists where I'm like, okay, so everybody in the no for now category gets this deal, and everybody in the thinking about it gets this offer, and it's just, like, you can kind of segment things like that and develop campaigns. 788 00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:52,960 You can, have like, you build out your landing pages that you can then connect to your campaigns, your marketing campaigns on social. 789 00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:54,560 You can. 790 00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:56,720 It's a honestly, it's everything. 791 00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:57,840 I don't everything. 792 00:52:57,840 --> 00:52:59,760 It's and it's fantastic. 793 00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:06,240 Once you learn it, it is probably one of the like robust best tools I've ever used. 794 00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,560 And I know that really sounds like I'm singing their praises. 795 00:53:08,560 --> 00:53:12,000 And I haven't used ClickUp, and I haven't used some of the others, but I have used like HubSpot. 796 00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:15,200 And GoHighLevel is like so much better. 797 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:16,480 Nine point five out of ten. 798 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:17,120 GoHighLevel. 799 00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:18,320 Their customer service. 800 00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:24,320 If you don't

have the higher tier, it's really hard to talk to a human because they're a little short-staffed and hard to get your ticket resolved. 801 00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:34,480 But their AI and their also, I will say, because their like manuals for how to use their system is so available online, you can just talk to chat and Claude and get almost everything solved. 802 00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:42,560 I will say the more the more that you do have like an understanding of software and integrations, you're going to have an easier time solving your own problems. 803 00:53:42,560 --> 00:53:44,768 But yeah, it's a game changer. 804 00:53:44,768 --> 00:53:55,808 I also, there's calendar integration as well, so all of my like discovery calls, my cleaner interviews, everything like that is on GoHighLevel connected to my calendar, and it's integrated with automations. 805 00:53:55,808 --> 00:54:03,648 Meaning when I set somebody up for like a phone interview or something like that, they're getting like an email four days out, two days out, one hour out, two hours out. 806 00:54:03,648 --> 00:54:11,148 Same thing, like they're getting, yeah, they're getting it's all handled, so I don't have to do like manual follow-ups, like wondering, you know, oh, oh, my gosh, reminder, right? 807 00:54:11,148 --> 00:54:15,648 None of that is happening, and I don't know how people have time to do all of that. 808 00:54:15,648 --> 00:54:27,969 So, yeah, yeah, and that's what, like, I thank you for going into all that because I wanted, I wanted to create that space because the point is we must have something in place to solve this. 809 00:54:27,969 --> 00:54:41,312 And it's like, if it's not this, that problem of managing a lead and managing communicating with leads at different parts of the pipeline of your sales process, that's a problem that needs to be solved for every business. 810 00:54:41,312 --> 00:54:44,832 Like, it has to be solved, and there's a lot of ways to solve it. 811 00:54:44,832 --> 00:54:51,312 But I want to highlight, of like, how much can go into this, and for many people who just listen to that, they're like, holy shit! 812 00:54:51,312 --> 00:54:56,192 Like, there's like, I have no idea where to even start with that, and it is very overwhelming. 813 00:54:56,592 --> 00:55:06,832 And you know, for you, you have Monday, which is a project management task management software, and for me, that was why I like sticking with ClickUp because then all of my tasks, like, everything's together there. 814 00:55:07,072 --> 00:55:12,112 But the negative drawback is it doesn't do like email, so I need to have a separate thing. 815 00:55:12,112 --> 00:55:13,152 I need to have MailChimp. 816 00:55:13,152 --> 00:55:16,192 I need to have things zapped over so that things are in their right place. 817 00:55:16,192 --> 00:55:27,856 So, like, there's a lot of ways to solve things, and I think just being open to trying new things is important, especially for you guys who are like earlier on in your business journey. 818 00:55:28,096 --> 00:55:30,896 It is so much easier to experiment and try things out. 819 00:55:31,056 --> 00:55:54,665 The early, like at this point, switching software for us is literally like I can't even describe to you how, like, it's not, it does not happen, because the change cost the cost of change is so painful, so it's like it has to be like thirty percent better than what I expect to make it worth it, because I'm like, it's not that broke, we're not changing it because I don't want to deal with it. 820 00:55:54,665 --> 00:55:59,478 So it's like I love that you're like playing with things and getting this all set up. 821 00:55:59,478 --> 00:56:05,708 Like, I, if I had known about this shit when I opened Serene Clean, oh my god, we'd be at two million. 822 00:56:05,708 --> 00:56:08,256 I guarantee we'd be at two million a year. 823 00:56:08,256 --> 00:56:15,618 So, like, you lucky duck, Allison, you just wait five years from now, lucky as intelligent and capable, not lucky as it was handed to you. 824 00:56:15,618 --> 00:56:19,298 So, oh no, oh, don't worry, I've got my own set of struggles. 825 00:56:19,298 --> 00:56:28,925 I'm over here still trying to become like a good salesperson, so that's my own personal thing I'm working through, is like, you know, making sure service delivery is good and you know sales. 826 00:56:28,925 --> 00:56:36,192 And yeah, so I feel like everyone has their own strengths and their own things that, like, that are really painful for me. 827 00:56:36,192 --> 00:56:37,632 For what's painful for me is different. 828 00:56:37,632 --> 00:56:44,592 What's painful for other people, because, yeah, sometimes you're like, oh, you know, guy, levels are well, and I'm like, yeah, but, like, you can do sales really well, yeah. 829 00:56:44,592 --> 00:56:46,432 And it's, it's so good. 830 00:56:46,432 --> 00:56:50,912 A great point is that none, none of us are the, the gill of all trades, right? 831 00:56:50,992 --> 00:56:55,072 We're not, and we just have to keep working at those things that we're not as strong at. 832 00:56:55,392 --> 00:57:02,992 And you know, I have lots of different types of guests on the podcast who are very, very strong in, in one area, but they have to work on others. 833 00:57:02,992 --> 00:57:04,352 You know, and that's, that's all of us. 834 00:57:04,352 --> 00:57:10,512 So I'm just happy that you, you know this so well, but you also are very, like, realistic. 835 00:57:10,512 --> 00:57:12,752 Of, I still need to improve these things. 836 00:57:12,752 --> 00:57:16,512 So I'd love to hear because you know I love a horror story. 837 00:57:16,512 --> 00:57:17,472 Oh, yeah. 838 00:57:17,552 --> 00:57:22,032 Tell me, tell me a, tell me a doozy, Allison, client or staff member? 839 00:57:22,032 --> 00:57:23,152 What do you got for me? 840 00:57:23,264 --> 00:57:30,384 Okay, it's sunny because I had like, I think I tend to like erase these from my long-term

memory, so I don't live with the trauma. 841 00:57:30,864 --> 00:57:31,984 Trauma, just block it out. 842 00:57:31,984 --> 00:57:32,944 That's the best way. 843 00:57:33,264 --> 00:57:34,864 Yeah, I had a my admin. 844 00:57:34,864 --> 00:57:36,144 I was like, hey, can you make? 845 00:57:36,144 --> 00:57:38,304 I'm going on, the podcast tomorrow. 846 00:57:38,464 --> 00:57:43,744 Can you make a list of all of the crazy, like, clients and like employees and things we've experienced? 847 00:57:43,744 --> 00:57:45,984 So I have, one on here. 848 00:57:45,984 --> 00:57:52,864 I definitely have a few, but one of them that I was just like flabbergasted by, and then it was one of those things where you're like, oh my, I should listen to my gut. 849 00:57:52,864 --> 00:57:55,664 So this is when I was still doing, like, in-person walkthroughs. 850 00:57:55,664 --> 00:57:56,664 I scheduled an in-person walkthrough. 851 00:57:56,664 --> 00:58:03,984 The guy was kind of weird on the phone, and I was like, okay, well, you know, like not weird, like creepy, but just weird, like little standoffish. 852 00:58:03,984 --> 00:58:06,064 And I was like, oh, you know, some people are just like that. 853 00:58:06,064 --> 00:58:09,824 So I go over to do the in-person estimate. 854 00:58:10,304 --> 00:58:14,709 He answers the door, like he takes forever to answer the door, and then he's on the phone, and he's like, "I'm on the phone. 855 00:58:14,709 --> 00:58:15,669 I just need to finish this." 856 00:58:15,669 --> 00:58:17,189 And he just like walks away in his living room. 857 00:58:17,189 --> 00:58:21,829 I'm like in his landing, just like standing there, like the emoji, like yeah. 858 00:58:21,909 --> 00:58:24,949 And I'm like, okay, I'm like on my phone, and he's like up on in his living room. 859 00:58:24,949 --> 00:58:39,429 I'm like down the stairs, and I hear him on the phone, and he's on the phone with like some representative from like a local hospital or something, and he's like, "No, but I need this to get bumped up to a manager because my wife's experience like at your hospital." 860 00:58:39,429 --> 00:58:48,469 And it was just he was just being really like, and I understand like you know wanting to get your problem solved and thing, but he was going about it in a way that was a bit of a pink flag. 861 00:58:48,469 --> 00:58:54,789 Aggressive, yeah, yeah, and I was like, and I was like, maybe he's just having a bad day, you know, me over here giving benefit of the doubt. 862 00:58:55,029 --> 00:58:58,789 So then, and then he finally gets back to me. 863 00:58:58,869 --> 00:59:00,469 We start to do the walkthrough through the house. 864 00:59:00,469 --> 00:59:09,760 We're doing the walkthrough through the house, and he's like, we get to the top level, and it's like his wife's like kind of like studio or whatever, and he's like, "Do not touch anything up here." 865 00:59:09,760 --> 00:59:12,880 And then he's like, "Well, actually, how much would it be if we just added the floors up here? 866 00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:14,160 But you can't touch anything else." 867 00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:17,040 And I'm like, and then I was like, "Okay, so you just want the floors?" 868 00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:18,320 And he's like, "Well, what about the bathroom? 869 00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:19,520 How much would that be to add it on? 870 00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:21,600 Well, if we took it off, how much would it be to take it off?" 871 00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:25,840 And I'm like, I'm like new to estimating too, and I'm like, beep boop, beep boop, I have no idea. 872 00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:29,200 And like, I was like, why don't we just not touch this floor? 873 00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:32,400 And then like he's doing that with the bottom level as well. 874 00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:39,040 And then like we kind of ran into his wife on the estimate, and she was like, did not want to talk to me. 875 00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:44,697 And I, like, said hi to her, and she was just like, just like, looked at me and, like, gave me a really, like, hi. 876 00:59:44,697 --> 00:59:46,960 Like like, I'm like, why am I even here, right? 877 00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:48,640 Like, I'm like, everything felt off. 878 00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:50,000 No one wants me here. 879 00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:50,640 Like, why am I here? 880 00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:57,875 And then, like, so we're in the kitchen talking, and, like, the wife came downstairs and just walked by us and, like, completely ignored me again. 881 00:59:57,875 --> 01:00:00,835 And, like, I was talking through, like plans for him and stuff like that. 882 01:00:01,075 --> 01:00:06,435 Then he finally decided to sign up for something, and then he started negotiating everything, like, you know, top floor. 883 01:00:06,435 --> 01:00:07,955 Can we do less than that? 884 01:00:07,955 --> 01:00:09,315 Can we, you, price it at this? 885 01:00:09,315 --> 01:00:11,315 Can you, you know, just so much negotiating? 886 01:00:11,315 --> 01:00:15,315 And like I was still so early on to like estimating an in-person estimate. 887 01:00:15,315 --> 01:00:16,435 I was doing the best that I could. 888 01:00:16,435 --> 01:00:17,875 I felt so uncomfortable. 889 01:00:18,115 --> 01:00:20,595 And like eventually, I would be, that'd be hard on me too. 890 01:00:20,595 --> 01:00:26,675 Like, I, because when they start to piecemeal like that, it just feels like this isn't how it's supposed to be. 891 01:00:26,755 --> 01:00:29,075 Like, this isn't what I want it to be. 892 01:00:29,075 --> 01:00:35,555 Yeah, and like, just the vibe was off from the beginning, and like everything felt so hostile, and it was just so weird. 893 01:00:35,555 --> 01:00:40,835 And so, like, you know, he eventually was like, okay, let's sign up, and then so we give an arrival window, right? 894 01:00:40,835 --> 01:00:43,155 All this was, he got his little client packet. 895 01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:44,880 I talked to him about the arrival window. 896

01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:54,960 He had his arrival window for his like early afternoon appointment, and the team we communicated and texted him and let him know, hey, the team will be there in about like 45 minutes. 897 01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:58,320 They're finishing up at another home, just because it was their first time going there. 898 01:00:58,320 --> 01:01:04,480 You know, even though there's an arrival window, I still wanted to like, you know, just be really communicative about it since it was their first touch point with us. 899 01:01:04,880 --> 01:01:13,440 And then the team gets there and they text me and they're like, they won't let us in their house, and I was like, what? 900 01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:23,120 And then he's like, this guy is like, he's like, yeah, the wife won't let us in because she said it's so disrespectful that we didn't arrive on time. 901 01:01:23,120 --> 01:01:24,480 And I was like, "what? 902 01:01:24,560 --> 01:01:25,520 I was like, I let them. 903 01:01:25,520 --> 01:01:30,160 I was like, you have an arrival window, and I even reached out like almost an hour in advance to let them know what time." 904 01:01:30,400 --> 01:01:34,000 And so they let them, and they got the on-the-way text as well from the CleanCon text. 905 01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:40,000 They decided to let like the them arrive and then just turn them away at the door, like super rude. 906 01:01:40,000 --> 01:01:42,160 And they were so mean to like the CleanCon text. 907 01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:43,840 Like it was just, it was just not. 908 01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:45,920 It was like not a good situation. 909 01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:48,240 Yeah, I was like, it just felt so bad. 910 01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:51,840 And they all the signs were there, you know, that like that they were. 911 01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:54,320 It's almost like they were looking for something to be wrong. 912 01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,680 And I don't honestly feel like I did anything wrong at all. 913 01:01:57,680 --> 01:02:11,154 No, it was like they were looking for you to prove them, like, I don't know, like, you had to prove yourself or something, but not in like a normal way, of like, like, they're looking for any reason to, like, see, they can't even show up on time. 914 01:02:11,154 --> 01:02:14,133 It's like, bitch, we told you this is how this works. 915 01:02:14,133 --> 01:02:16,300 Yeah, I communicated the whole way upfront, everything. 916 01:02:16,300 --> 01:02:22,257 I was just like, oh, but then I, like, my had flashbacks to the, like, conversation when I was in their house. 917 01:02:22,257 --> 01:02:29,569 I flashbacks to, like, the experience, but, yeah, so that's not, like, like, I don't know, that's just energetically, that one, yeah, left me feeling really bad. 918 01:02:29,569 --> 01:02:39,589 Yeah, yeah, I have, like, a bunch of these stories, but I think, well, you just want one, so, I mean, I'd like to hear at least one more, if you have one that really stands out. 919 01:02:39,589 --> 01:02:47,713 And I think, like, it's such a, but, when you look at that, like, situation, if you had cleaned that house, something would have, got, something fucked, would have happened. 920 01:02:47,713 --> 01:02:49,608 I just, I just know it, like. 921 01:02:49,608 --> 01:02:53,760 You ever, like, have somebody, you're like, this is, this isn't right. 922 01:02:53,840 --> 01:02:55,440 Like, I know this is bad news bears. 923 01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:57,600 So yeah, I am glad that you didn't clean it. 924 01:02:58,000 --> 01:02:59,040 Oh yeah, me too. 925 01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:01,360 Like, that's actually a lesson we learned too. 926 01:03:01,360 --> 01:03:07,600 I heard to like my admin had taken a phone call and like she booked it, except she was like feeling a little hesitant about it. 927 01:03:07,600 --> 01:03:16,640 And I listened to the phone call, and this lady was like saying like, oh well that price is outrageous, and for that price, I better get the best clean of my life. 928 01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:20,640 I am talking there, it better be the most perfect clean I've ever seen. 929 01:03:20,880 --> 01:03:27,680 And I was like, I was like, cancel her, I was like refund her, cancel her right now, and tell her like we don't think we're the best service. 930 01:03:27,680 --> 01:03:33,520 While we think we're going to do an amazing job for her, no one is perfect, and I don't think we can live up to that. 931 01:03:33,520 --> 01:03:35,680 She's going to be doing paper towel test. 932 01:03:35,680 --> 01:03:38,320 She's going to be climbing on stuff to find things. 933 01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:40,160 I mean, there is flashback. 934 01:03:40,240 --> 01:03:41,600 My own father did that to us. 935 01:03:41,600 --> 01:03:45,120 He would climb on top of furniture and find where we couldn't reach. 936 01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:47,520 So I am no contact with my dad. 937 01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:49,440 Oh my goodness! 938 01:03:49,440 --> 01:03:49,600 Oh my gosh! 939 01:03:49,600 --> 01:03:50,240 Yeah, I knew. 940 01:03:50,240 --> 01:03:54,544 I was like, parents, man. 941 01:03:54,544 --> 01:03:56,464 But people—they're always looking for something, you know. 942 01:03:56,464 --> 01:03:59,664 There are people out there who is like, "You're not like that lady. 943 01:03:59,664 --> 01:04:00,784 You would not have pleased her." 944 01:04:00,784 --> 01:04:02,064 "there's no way. 945 01:04:02,144 --> 01:04:03,264 Never, never. 946 01:04:03,264 --> 01:04:06,704 It's like I would have been sending a cleaning tech into like a lion's den." 947 01:04:06,704 --> 01:04:06,864 Yeah. 948 01:04:06,864 --> 01:04:08,544 I was like, I can't even imagine. 949 01:04:08,544 --> 01:04:09,744 And she also like was playing. 950 01:04:09,744 --> 01:04:16,304 She's like, I was, I was a housekeeper once, and I was thinking, like, when I listened to the calls, like, clean it yourself, then. 951 01:04:16,304 --> 01:04:16,464 Yeah. 952 01:04:17,184 -->

01:04:25,024 Like, not to be like, I was like, you're so good at it, and you're so fast, and you're so thorough, and you have an eye for detail, and like, I'm like, why don't you just do it? 953 01:04:25,104 --> 01:04:25,504 Yes. 954 01:04:26,064 --> 01:04:27,424 Oh my goodness. 955 01:04:27,424 --> 01:04:28,624 Oh God. 956 01:04:28,784 --> 01:04:29,744 Yeah. 957 01:04:30,304 --> 01:04:30,944 I'm. 958 01:04:31,104 --> 01:04:31,604 Ooh. 959 01:04:31,424 --> 01:04:35,264 I'm glad that you are getting that discernment, though, and you're really learning to trust yourself. 960 01:04:35,264 --> 01:04:38,144 It sounds like It's tough working with the general public. 961 01:04:38,144 --> 01:04:54,694 I, you know, you know, in the roles I was in before, I was a little protected from the world in some ways because I didn't have to deal with that, like, interaction with just, you know, just the general public, and now that I'm doing that, I'm like, "oh wow, there's a lot of different people out here, huh?" 962 01:04:54,694 --> 01:05:09,381 There is, and it's such a highly specific form of interacting with the public, meaning we're in their house, compared to like when I was waiting tables, they're coming to the restaurant, we're in a public setting, you know, you're, they're still being ridiculous because that's how people are, and just insane. 963 01:05:09,381 --> 01:05:14,183 I can tell you so many stories from waitressing, but at least I'm not in their house. 964 01:05:14,183 --> 01:05:26,892 If I was in some of those people's houses, oh, we are now, we are in some of my old customers' houses, and like, it's, it's totally different because it's just weird, having like, it's weird, it's a weird thing that we do, isn't it? 965 01:05:26,892 --> 01:05:28,022 Like, it really isn't. 966 01:05:28,022 --> 01:05:36,192 I found like, I don't know if like it's and I was a server before too, and like I don't know if it's your experience, but I feel like maybe it's because people's homes and it's personal. 967 01:05:36,192 --> 01:05:50,272 I don't know what it is about like this specific type of service, but I feel like people have like an expectation, and I feel like it's fair to want a good outcome, or it's fair to want to feel like you're taking care of when you're paying for something. 968 01:05:50,672 --> 01:05:58,752 But I feel like I've experienced that like people's some people, this is not everyone, but their expectation is unrealistic. 969 01:05:59,152 --> 01:06:03,552 And I feel like it applies more to this industry than in others sometimes. 970 01:06:03,552 --> 01:06:11,792 And I don't know if it's just because it's like inside their home and that feels personal or intimate or like what it is, but maybe it's the cost because it is high cost. 971 01:06:11,792 --> 01:06:13,632 But you know, it takes a long time to clean. 972 01:06:13,632 --> 01:06:16,512 I think so too, especially when it comes to time or cost. 973 01:06:17,312 --> 01:06:20,352 Like the reactions to that of what is truly real. 974 01:06:20,352 --> 01:06:26,272 Like coming back to your point of like people being unrealistic, unrealistic—that's exactly how I feel a lot of times. 975 01:06:26,272 --> 01:06:31,472 Of like, it when when people are telling me it should only take this long, or like, there's like, that is outrageous. 976 01:06:31,472 --> 01:06:33,312 I mean, we just got an email the other day that said that. 977 01:06:33,312 --> 01:06:37,472 Like, I'm sorry, but $600 for like a clean, you know, because it was the first time clean. 978 01:06:37,472 --> 01:06:42,960 I'm like, I wanted to be like, lady, that's on the cheap end of first time clean, but I didn't. 979 01:06:43,040 --> 01:06:43,840 You know, it's like cool. 980 01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:44,880 We're here if you ever need us. 981 01:06:44,960 --> 01:06:51,440 You know, it's just, and just when they get literally like personally offended by your pricing or by what you say is the time. 982 01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:52,880 Like, it's very interesting. 983 01:06:52,880 --> 01:06:55,280 People, everyone's got an opinion. 984 01:06:55,360 --> 01:07:04,560 Yeah, and it's like I'm still building that confidence, and like I don't like, I'm still building that confidence in that process of it too, because like I know what it costs. 985 01:07:04,560 --> 01:07:06,400 I know what it costs to deliver the service. 986 01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:15,760 I, and then it's still just like a little bit uncomfortable too, and like I don't mind the rejection too much, especially if like you know, if someone can't afford it, that's okay. 987 01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:19,040 You know, like there's some things I can't afford too, and that's okay. 988 01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:20,800 You know, like no big deal. 989 01:07:20,800 --> 01:07:22,160 But it's just, I don't know. 990 01:07:22,160 --> 01:07:34,912 Sometimes that's a little bit of like the like a mental challenge or emotional challenge I have sometimes with people being like, I feel like sometimes we're losing our business to people who are undercharging, and that's disappointing. 991 01:07:34,912 --> 01:07:38,992 And I know that comes down to then, like, how can we convey our value? 992 01:07:39,232 --> 01:07:44,592 But it just feels frustrating to me sometimes when I feel like some people are just, it's going to be the price or nothing. 993 01:07:44,592 --> 01:07:55,232 Like, that's just what it comes down It's just like you have to let those people go, and it's that's so disappointing to me because not, not viewing that as like, oh, a missed sale or a missed opportunity or like, was it me? 994 01:07:55,232 --> 01:07:57,232 Like, could I have better conveyed the value? 995 01:07:57,232 --> 01:08:16,672 Or you know, and it's like I don't want to be reducing prices, and like I struggled a little bit at the beginning with, do I go in with lower pricing to do more market capture and then start bumping people, or do I just try to go in with like

the prices that are going to be profitable for us or sustainable for us, and then just get less leads? 996 01:08:16,752 --> 01:08:22,750 It's a tough strategy call to make, and it really again that it kind of comes back to like your financial situation, your timeline. 997 01:08:22,750 --> 01:08:27,137 Like, what do you need, and what's the plan if that doesn't go well? 998 01:08:27,137 --> 01:08:33,457 Because it's you're having to deal with negative side effects for both of those, positive and negative, right? 999 01:08:33,457 --> 01:08:37,057 Cheaper prices means probably more clients right away, and you get the ground running. 1000 01:08:37,297 --> 01:08:38,897 But then you're gonna have to raise prices on them. 1001 01:08:38,897 --> 01:08:43,697 You're not making enough margin on them, or you get less clients and the volume isn't there. 1002 01:08:43,697 --> 01:08:47,217 But on the ones you do have, you are making what you need to make, right? 1003 01:08:47,217 --> 01:08:48,337 It's tough. 1004 01:08:48,417 --> 01:08:51,617 You know, it is, it's very tough to make that decision. 1005 01:08:51,617 --> 01:08:54,737 So, did you decide to go with the higher prices then? 1006 01:08:54,897 --> 01:09:07,696 I did, and you know, I'm still not sure that was the right choice because I do think once you get people past like the three month mark, there's a lot of like a longevity there with clients if you can get them through that first 90 days. 1007 01:09:08,016 --> 01:09:09,996 And so I am still toying with the idea. 1008 01:09:09,996 --> 01:09:11,536 Of sometimes I'll be honest with you. 1009 01:09:11,776 --> 01:09:21,936 Sometimes when I want to fill our schedule, I just I have a thing in my spreadsheet like I have a whole pricing matrix where I have a discount box where I just like type in okay, and that just bumps that number down. 1010 01:09:21,936 --> 01:09:23,376 And I'll sometimes approve my admin. 1011 01:09:23,376 --> 01:09:30,016 I'm like, go ahead, 20% off of whatever if you are going to make the sale today, just to get our foot in the door with people. 1012 01:09:30,016 --> 01:09:33,296 And like, it just, it still feels like it's up in the air for me. 1013 01:09:33,296 --> 01:09:39,056 And like, I feel like that's where I also really struggled not having the industry experience as a cleaner. 1014 01:09:39,056 --> 01:09:41,376 I really didn't understand production rates. 1015 01:09:41,696 --> 01:09:46,096 I didn't understand what to expect for time targets from my own staff. 1016 01:09:46,416 --> 01:09:51,821 And you know how that evolves over time as the house gets cleaner, and you get to know, and you know. 1017 01:09:51,901 --> 01:09:55,101 But you have to get to the point where you keep the client that long that it becomes more profitable. 1018 01:09:55,101 --> 01:09:59,661 And I know you just switched into hourly pay, flat rate pricing. 1019 01:09:59,661 --> 01:10:00,781 We've always been that. 1020 01:10:00,781 --> 01:10:04,461 Yes, and yes, that's sometimes tough for clients too. 1021 01:10:04,621 --> 01:10:05,821 Yeah, it's hard for. 1022 01:10:05,821 --> 01:10:06,941 I'm actually, it's funny. 1023 01:10:06,941 --> 01:10:13,181 Later today, I'm going to be recording a kind of follow-up to like the flat-rate transition because I got a question about it. 1024 01:10:13,181 --> 01:10:14,061 Like, how has that? 1025 01:10:14,221 --> 01:10:15,501 Like, what are the results been? 1026 01:10:15,501 --> 01:10:22,381 Basically, like I talked about doing like when we did it, but now it's been several months, and so I want to like talk about like the pros and cons that we've experienced. 1027 01:10:22,701 --> 01:10:32,636 And so the biggest, hardest part was the current client switching them over because they were like, ah, oh my gosh, the new clients easy, easy peasy. 1028 01:10:32,636 --> 01:10:34,796 It's the current ones that were so tough. 1029 01:10:35,036 --> 01:10:41,836 So I want to talk about that fully, but it's that, yeah, experimenting and not being afraid to change things, and knowing when to change things. 1030 01:10:41,836 --> 01:10:48,716 And I love that example that you just gave of sometimes, like you don't have to keep pricing the same for every person that walks through the door. 1031 01:10:48,876 --> 01:10:52,156 You don't like they don't know the other people's pricing, most likely, right? 1032 01:10:52,156 --> 01:10:53,196 Unless it's their neighbor. 1033 01:10:53,436 --> 01:10:58,956 So give them a low, like if you need clients, give them lower prices, like get them in the door, like you said, and play with it, right? 1034 01:10:58,956 --> 01:11:05,596 And see where you're at, just so you can get people to the three month mark and get them more dedicated, and then can we increase more? 1035 01:11:05,756 --> 01:11:09,436 So there's just, there's so many like strategic things to try out. 1036 01:11:09,436 --> 01:11:10,956 It can be quite overwhelming. 1037 01:11:11,356 --> 01:11:16,848 Yeah, especially because you want to like, when, when you feel things aren't working, you wanna go and pull every lever. 1038 01:11:16,848 --> 01:11:17,408 Yes. 1039 01:11:17,408 --> 01:11:18,368 Like trying to make things. 1040 01:11:18,608 --> 01:11:19,008 Yeah, yeah. 1041 01:11:19,248 --> 01:11:20,768 And then you're like, you don't know what works. 1042 01:11:20,768 --> 01:11:25,088 If you, if you change five things at one time, and so for me, I'm a little bit like impatient. 1043 01:11:26,048 --> 01:11:27,408 I'm a little bit like ADHD. 1044 01:11:27,488 --> 01:11:38,288 So my brain wants to like solve a million problems at once, and then my brain also wants to be like, we have to figure this out and lock down a system for it, and then we have to build a framework for it, and we have to train everyone on it, and it has to work perfectly. 1045 01:11:38,528 --> 01:11:41,888 And then, like, when I have to reiterate that, I just want to like sit and cry. 1046 01:11:42,368 -->

01:11:49,808 Yeah, and that's where we overwhelm ourselves, which kind of brings me into one of the points you made on your intake form, which I thought was so astute. 1047 01:11:49,808 --> 01:12:04,016 Is that so many people say that this is just an inherently chaotic business model or or industry to be in, and I really liked what you said is that oftentimes the chaos is from from us, the owners, right? 1048 01:12:04,016 --> 01:12:09,056 Because we haven't, we haven't implemented the systematic methods. 1049 01:12:09,056 --> 01:12:10,576 We haven't implemented software. 1050 01:12:10,576 --> 01:12:11,136 We like, there. 1051 01:12:11,376 --> 01:12:13,456 There's a way to make this thing not chaotic. 1052 01:12:13,536 --> 01:12:14,256 Absolutely. 1053 01:12:14,256 --> 01:12:16,576 So, like, can you just expand on that? 1054 01:12:16,656 --> 01:12:17,616 Yeah, for sure. 1055 01:12:17,616 --> 01:12:20,576 So I think some of the biggest thing is identifying. 1056 01:12:20,576 --> 01:12:22,736 You know, like, where is the chaos creeping in? 1057 01:12:22,736 --> 01:12:25,776 Is it like, is it clients? 1058 01:12:25,776 --> 01:12:28,096 You know, like, canceling all the time. 1059 01:12:28,336 --> 01:12:33,856 And if that's causing you chaos, well, one of the ways that, like, we solve for that is we have a subscription-based model. 1060 01:12:33,856 --> 01:12:36,096 So we sign people up for recurring. 1061 01:12:36,096 --> 01:12:40,336 It's contract-free, but we bill in the first of the month for all of their services for the month. 1062 01:12:40,736 --> 01:12:48,944 And you know, the, I have a few grandfathered-in clients who pay at the time of service, and like we keep their credit cards on file. 1063 01:12:48,944 --> 01:12:49,664 That's another thing. 1064 01:12:49,824 --> 01:12:51,744 People have chaos chasing invoices. 1065 01:12:51,984 --> 01:12:56,144 I have never had that problem because I have never booked an appointment without a credit card on file. 1066 01:12:56,144 --> 01:13:01,424 And then maybe like seven months ago, this was a little scary for me, but I switched to subscription-based. 1067 01:13:01,744 --> 01:13:03,584 Those people never cancel. 1068 01:13:03,824 --> 01:13:11,344 Those people who have already paid at the first of the month, they almost never cancel, and they just move their appointment because they've already paid for it. 1069 01:13:11,744 --> 01:13:12,224 Wow. 1070 01:13:12,224 --> 01:13:15,904 And yeah, and if you just do it like with confidence, I explain it. 1071 01:13:15,904 --> 01:13:19,824 I'm like, yeah, so you know, we bill on the first of the month for all of your services. 1072 01:13:19,824 --> 01:13:20,464 We're contract-free. 1073 01:13:20,464 --> 01:13:23,744 If you want to change anything about your plan, just let us know before the first. 1074 01:13:23,984 --> 01:13:29,344 And if you want to move your appointment, you know, just get in contact with us, as much advance notice as possible is great. 1075 01:13:29,664 --> 01:13:33,184 And we have very little shuffling from clients for that reason. 1076 01:13:33,184 --> 01:13:33,584 Yeah. 1077 01:13:33,904 --> 01:13:34,864 So that's really cool. 1078 01:13:36,096 --> 01:13:38,736 So, what do you do if I mean, maybe you haven't had to have. 1079 01:13:38,896 --> 01:13:40,736 What happens if you have to cancel? 1080 01:13:40,816 --> 01:13:41,696 We move them. 1081 01:13:41,776 --> 01:13:45,536 We try not to cancel, and there's like, a there's a hierarchy, you know. 1082 01:13:45,536 --> 01:13:49,696 The weekly people, weekly, biweekly, monthly, sometimes. 1083 01:13:49,696 --> 01:13:50,416 Yeah. 1084 01:13:50,816 --> 01:13:54,176 No, I tell like, yeah, but if you need to do something for weekly, like you chop. 1085 01:13:54,256 --> 01:13:56,256 If your leg is, we're gonna make an outfit. 1086 01:13:56,256 --> 01:13:58,576 Oh yeah, we're gonna make an outfit. 1087 01:13:59,376 --> 01:13:59,876 Yeah, exactly. 1088 01:13:59,456 --> 01:14:11,376 But I found too, like I kind of like every once in a while, I like low key, like when a client moves their appointment because I'm like, okay, we got some credit now because like it's almost like a, it's like a, you know, You did this, I can do this. 1089 01:14:11,616 --> 01:14:12,576 Yes, You let us move. 1090 01:14:12,576 --> 01:14:19,328 So like I kind of low key like it a little bit when they move every once in a while because that it gives a margin of error on both sides. 1091 01:14:19,328 --> 01:14:26,848 Like, and for example, when somebody we had a newer client who's by weekly, she got really sick and only let us know the day before or something. 1092 01:14:27,088 --> 01:14:30,288 And she's like, "Yeah, I understand policy and stuff like that." 1093 01:14:30,288 --> 01:14:31,408 I was like, "You know, like it's this. 1094 01:14:31,568 --> 01:14:36,448 It's your first time for this happening, so we're just gonna go ahead and like, you know, we'll get it shifted for you." 1095 01:14:36,688 --> 01:14:39,408 Yeah, and so like, I think it's like a judgment call sometimes too. 1096 01:14:39,408 --> 01:14:49,328 Of like, you don't want to like cause you know fires or chaos in your own organization, but you also need to balance the human element as well and make like judgment calls as they come up. 1097 01:14:49,328 --> 01:14:53,808 Which is that's a little bit, that's a little bit of that's harder, right? 1098 01:14:53,808 --> 01:15:04,208 Because you don't have that's why I kind of like the idea of like frameworks instead of SOPs because I feel like just getting to like a certain outcome and having some guardrails is better than has to be this every single time. 1099 01:15:04,688 --> 01:15:20,256 But and there is like, I mean all businesses where there's humans involved, there's going to be some level of like change or things are going to have to be a little bit dynamic and like I try not to let that, like, keep me up too much, you know. 1100 01:15:20,256 -->

01:15:23,376 Like, I have to, like, realize that humans are gonna be humans. 1101 01:15:23,376 --> 01:15:27,216 How can I guide the behavior as much as I possibly can and plan as well as I can? 1102 01:15:27,216 --> 01:15:34,496 But there's always gonna be that, like, ten to fifteen percent of unexpected element that you just have to deal with. 1103 01:15:34,496 --> 01:15:38,096 And I don't love that, but it's just that's how life is, I guess. 1104 01:15:38,096 --> 01:15:39,056 But I like that. 1105 01:15:39,056 --> 01:15:47,456 That, that's the wonderful thing about policies is, like, the policy is the policy, and we can decide as the owner when an exception should be made for things like cancellations, right? 1106 01:15:47,456 --> 01:15:50,016 Because, yeah, of course, like, your kid is sick. 1107 01:15:50,096 --> 01:15:54,336 They woke up, you know, vomiting, and you didn't know that yesterday. 1108 01:15:54,416 --> 01:15:58,192 You didn't know it, like, you know, our forty-eight hour cancellation period. 1109 01:15:58,192 --> 01:16:00,592 Like you're within it, we're not charging you a cancel. 1110 01:16:00,592 --> 01:16:01,232 Like you know what I mean. 1111 01:16:01,232 --> 01:16:06,112 Like even though the policy is this, we are choosing to make an exception because that's the right thing to do. 1112 01:16:06,352 --> 01:16:16,992 And like you said, it's kind of banking credit with flexibility because then when we have to move because our cleaner's kid is throwing up, you know, then it's this nice, it's a relationship, right? 1113 01:16:16,992 --> 01:16:18,432 Where we're both working together. 1114 01:16:18,592 --> 01:16:26,592 And the more hard-ass we're on them, the more likely they're going to be a hard-ass on us and be like, "wait, you didn't give me any leeway, so why would I give you?" 1115 01:16:26,672 --> 01:16:27,072 You know? 1116 01:16:27,072 --> 01:16:30,512 And so, like you said, it's just making those calls, trying to be fair. 1117 01:16:30,752 --> 01:16:38,112 But that's the beauty of having the policy so that you have like a framework to work around and kind of fall back onto if you don't know what to do. 1118 01:16:38,432 --> 01:16:40,752 And also, look at how have I behaved before? 1119 01:16:40,992 --> 01:16:42,032 Did I feel good about that? 1120 01:16:42,032 --> 01:16:43,952 Did I feel resentful after the fact? 1121 01:16:43,952 --> 01:16:46,352 Because that could be a sign that something needs to change. 1122 01:16:46,432 --> 01:16:47,152 Yeah, I agree. 1123 01:16:47,152 --> 01:16:52,672 That feeling of like resentment, not letting that build, that just means like, you know, you gotta like communicate more clearly. 1124 01:16:52,672 --> 01:16:57,392 And I'll be honest, there's stuff that doesn't feel good for me to like have to communicate the first few times. 1125 01:16:57,392 --> 01:16:59,792 Like, but then there's stuff that gets easier too. 1126 01:16:59,792 --> 01:17:04,512 Like, you know, even just stuff with employers where I have to be like, hey, you need to wear your uniform. 1127 01:17:05,952 --> 01:17:07,152 Different, different little things. 1128 01:17:07,152 --> 01:17:08,192 Like, different. 1129 01:17:08,192 --> 01:17:12,112 I had to have like a conversation with like an employee who's been with me since the beginning. 1130 01:17:12,112 --> 01:17:17,232 He's an OG, and like he's great with clients, and he's very reliable and stuff. 1131 01:17:17,232 --> 01:17:25,792 But his cleaning quality was like lost us some clients and got us a few complaints, not public complaints, but you know, internally or like directly. 1132 01:17:25,792 --> 01:17:28,032 Yeah, and I had to let him know. 1133 01:17:28,032 --> 01:17:31,107 I was like, hey, I was like, I really value these things about you. 1134 01:17:31,107 --> 01:17:34,547 Here's, you know, we've been getting this feedback lately, and I was honest too. 1135 01:17:34,547 --> 01:17:42,787 I was like, you know, it's very expensive, and it takes a long time to nurture a client to especially become a recurring client, and they have a lot of trust in us. 1136 01:17:43,027 --> 01:17:51,907 And when we lose them because of quality, you know, I understand you just moved you or whatever you have things going on in your life, but like when we lose them, I was like, here's the effect it has. 1137 01:17:51,987 --> 01:17:54,547 We have to now do more one-time cleans and deep cleans. 1138 01:17:54,547 --> 01:17:55,747 That's harder on everyone. 1139 01:17:55,987 --> 01:17:57,347 Those recurring cleans are wonderful. 1140 01:17:57,347 --> 01:17:59,027 They provide usable hours. 1141 01:17:59,267 --> 01:18:00,627 They are also easier. 1142 01:18:00,627 --> 01:18:02,787 You know, it's nice and predictable for everyone. 1143 01:18:02,787 --> 01:18:11,987 So I was like, you know, there's lots of outcomes to this, and I was like, if that continues, we're gonna have to reduce your hours because it's putting too much at risk, and it's not fair. 1144 01:18:12,307 --> 01:18:15,667 And like he had like a super good response to that, which was awesome. 1145 01:18:15,667 --> 01:18:20,608 Like he, yeah, he started, yeah, he started doing walkthroughs with the maintenance clients. 1146 01:18:20,608 --> 01:18:22,448 Like we planned for the month of September. 1147 01:18:22,448 --> 01:18:29,888 I was like, start doing walkthroughs whenever they're home with the maintenance clients, just to get everybody back on track and just feel like we're really checking in there. 1148 01:18:29,968 --> 01:18:32,128 I love that he had a growth mindset to that. 1149 01:18:32,128 --> 01:18:34,768 So, clearly, you have a male house cleaner. 1150 01:18:35,168 --> 01:18:43,888 I just had a guest who asked about this because she is really nervous about how clients are going to react and if you tell. 1151 01:18:44,208 --> 01:18:46,288 And I don't think that episode has gone live yet. 1152 01:18:46,528 --> 01:18:50,448 Do you tell people that you are

sending a man in? 1153 01:18:50,528 --> 01:18:50,848 Never. 1154 01:18:51,088 --> 01:18:51,488 No. 1155 01:18:51,488 --> 01:18:52,928 Have only had any issue? 1156 01:18:53,008 --> 01:19:05,168 I have only ever had one client ever request girls only because she was like actively breastfeeding throughout her home, and that is the only person who has ever had any preference for a gender whatsoever. 1157 01:19:05,248 --> 01:19:09,248 No one has ever mentioned anything outside of that, which I totally understand. 1158 01:19:09,248 --> 01:19:09,408 That. 1159 01:19:10,208 --> 01:19:13,888 Yeah, no one's ever mentioned anything ever, and I was surprised to hear they did. 1160 01:19:14,048 --> 01:19:15,808 They do, but also my market, right? 1161 01:19:15,808 --> 01:19:19,456 I live in like Atlanta, and it's like a very, like, I don't know. 1162 01:19:19,456 --> 01:19:21,376 We're like a progressive city, right? 1163 01:19:21,376 --> 01:19:25,056 Like, so, I mean, maybe that also has something to do with it as well. 1164 01:19:25,056 --> 01:19:33,536 Is that we have we have like a lot of like males working in what might be in other parts of the country like more traditionally like like female roles? 1165 01:19:33,776 --> 01:19:37,936 So what's crazy too is like I used to do like group interviews and stuff in person. 1166 01:19:37,936 --> 01:19:41,536 It would be like seventy percent guys would come to the group interviews. 1167 01:19:41,536 --> 01:19:42,016 This is like crazy. 1168 01:19:42,016 --> 01:19:43,456 Home cleaner thing. 1169 01:19:43,456 --> 01:19:44,496 It was mainly guys. 1170 01:19:44,736 --> 01:19:47,696 I had more guy applicants for a home cleaning position. 1171 01:19:47,696 --> 01:19:51,056 They knew it was not commercial, and they were just like ready to do it. 1172 01:19:51,056 --> 01:19:54,256 And I was like, I used to have three three guys on my team. 1173 01:19:54,336 --> 01:19:54,896 Yeah, I used to. 1174 01:19:54,896 --> 01:19:56,816 Okay, my team used to be half guys. 1175 01:19:57,216 --> 01:20:16,282 I love this because I, I think you know, and I was explaining to that guest because it was kind of like a consulting style of like, like this, you should, this shouldn't be a limiting belief for you, like, and I obviously, and I was kind of going both ways, of like, do you tell a client ahead of time so that they can make the choice if they want a man in their house by themselves? 1176 01:20:16,282 --> 01:20:17,213 You know, for hours? 1177 01:20:17,213 --> 01:20:27,459 Like, I understand that, but it also is great to hear that you have not had issues, just like this is your tech and you're sending them in, and you know, you vet people and you trust them, and that's what that looks like. 1178 01:20:27,459 --> 01:20:28,157 So, okay, cool. 1179 01:20:28,157 --> 01:20:29,321 I'm glad to hear that. 1180 01:20:29,321 --> 01:20:33,745 Yeah, I think you should not be hiring anyone who you feel might make someone uncomfortable in their home. 1181 01:20:33,745 --> 01:20:43,059 And if you feel like you need to tell a client someone's gender, I feel like it's now more about that person that you've hired, and I think maybe you're having a weird gut feeling, and you shouldn't have hired. 1182 01:20:43,059 --> 01:20:44,223 Yeah, that's a good point. 1183 01:20:44,223 --> 01:20:52,160 Yeah, because like, I've never, I mean, think about all the people you have come into your house, like the I don't know, like the internet guy who installs the internet, the plumbers, so true. 1184 01:20:52,400 --> 01:20:55,760 Any, these are all, these are mostly boys and men, right? 1185 01:20:55,760 --> 01:20:58,960 Like, I had, like, so I had, like, my, my, plumbing stuff, taking her, the other day. 1186 01:20:58,960 --> 01:21:09,200 It was like two guys who were like 20 years old came over and, like, no one was, like, checking with me if it was, like, hey, can we, can we send Brian and David because we know them, yeah. 1187 01:21:09,440 --> 01:21:19,120 You know, that's such a good point, and it's like, I've literally only had one male house cleaner in the entirety of my business, and it's because we have such a robust commercial side. 1188 01:21:19,120 --> 01:21:22,400 Like, that's where the boys want to go as commercial in my business in particular. 1189 01:21:22,640 --> 01:21:25,600 But the only guy that I had working for me is one of my first employees. 1190 01:21:25,920 --> 01:21:28,800 He absolutely would try to, like, sleep with my clients. 1191 01:21:28,800 --> 01:21:30,000 So, yeah, I did have a guy. 1192 01:21:30,080 --> 01:21:38,192 Oh, yeah, I mean, he, he, I can't, I can't say details, but something did happen with a client outside of work. 1193 01:21:38,432 --> 01:21:39,792 Work, I know. 1194 01:21:39,872 --> 01:21:41,472 And then he came and told me at work. 1195 01:21:41,472 --> 01:21:42,672 I'm like, dude, don't tell me this. 1196 01:21:42,912 --> 01:21:43,712 And the client was married. 1197 01:21:44,032 --> 01:21:46,672 The client was married. 1198 01:21:46,672 --> 01:21:47,712 That was the worst part. 1199 01:21:48,352 --> 01:21:48,672 It was. 1200 01:21:48,672 --> 01:21:52,912 Yeah, I'm like, dude, don't bring me into the love triangle. 1201 01:21:52,912 --> 01:21:53,952 Don't do this at work. 1202 01:21:54,112 --> 01:21:55,792 Oh my god, that is no, no. 1203 01:21:55,872 --> 01:21:58,112 I could not deal with all that. 1204 01:21:58,112 --> 01:21:59,552 That is so crazy. 1205 01:21:59,552 --> 01:21:59,712 Yeah. 1206 01:21:59,712 --> 01:22:00,512 Oh yeah. 1207 01:22:00,512 --> 01:22:01,152 I know. 1208 01:22:01,152 --> 01:22:01,632 I. 1209 01:22:01,632 --> 01:22:03,552 It's like, it's we could write a book. 1210 01:22:03,552 --> 01:22:09,072 My managers literally have like a like a cloud like for all of our book stories that we could write down. 1211 01:22:09,072 --> 01:22:09,152 That's hilarious. 1212 01:22:09,632 --> 01:22:11,072 I need to start that. 1213 01:22:11,392 -->

01:22:13,312 I need to start a project folder for it. 1214 01:22:13,312 --> 01:22:15,232 I have one for like so many other things. 1215 01:22:15,232 --> 01:22:21,312 I need like, oh, because I always, we forget, we forget the crazy shit exactly because it's like, oh, it just goes. 1216 01:22:21,312 --> 01:22:23,232 So yeah, please guys, write down your crazy shit. 1217 01:22:23,677 --> 01:22:27,837 Make like a chat in your AI because it's funny and it'll be like a fun thing to look back on. 1218 01:22:27,837 --> 01:22:30,397 Of like, look, all the stuff I dealt with, and this is insane. 1219 01:22:32,477 --> 01:22:34,797 Yeah, because it's like if you knew it was coming. 1220 01:22:35,037 --> 01:22:40,957 Sometimes I think like if I knew like all of the things I was gonna have to solve and deal with, I don't know if I ever would have started. 1221 01:22:40,957 --> 01:22:42,557 And maybe that's the blessing. 1222 01:22:42,557 --> 01:22:44,317 Cannot agree more. 1223 01:22:44,317 --> 01:22:47,117 I have thanked my naivete so many times. 1224 01:22:47,117 --> 01:22:49,757 Of like, if I had known, there's no fricking way I would have done it. 1225 01:22:49,917 --> 01:22:52,877 I would there, I would have been like, nope, I'm not dealing with all of that. 1226 01:22:52,877 --> 01:22:57,357 Like, thank goodness I had no idea, because it's like once you get into it, well, guess I'm doing this. 1227 01:22:57,357 --> 01:22:58,877 I just have to figure it out. 1228 01:22:58,957 --> 01:22:59,917 Yeah, I can't. 1229 01:22:59,917 --> 01:23:08,640 I'm like dreaming of the day when like I can, like, when I can have like an operations manager sort, and I have like that extra layer between like me and the business. 1230 01:23:09,120 --> 01:23:10,640 Yeah, yeah, I know. 1231 01:23:10,640 --> 01:23:14,720 When I'm just coming into work the next morning and just like reading, I was like, oh, that happened yesterday. 1232 01:23:14,800 --> 01:23:16,640 I'm like, oh, great, you solved it. 1233 01:23:16,880 --> 01:23:17,360 Perfect. 1234 01:23:17,360 --> 01:23:18,560 Yeah, perfect. 1235 01:23:18,560 --> 01:23:20,800 Like this cleaner is having explosive diarrhea. 1236 01:23:21,120 --> 01:23:24,160 Like they had to, and they had to describe it all in detail to my managers. 1237 01:23:24,160 --> 01:23:26,560 Apparently, so documented it. 1238 01:23:28,320 --> 01:23:30,400 We don't need to know. 1239 01:23:31,200 --> 01:23:31,920 We believe you. 1240 01:23:32,400 --> 01:23:35,840 We believe you, please. 1241 01:23:35,840 --> 01:23:38,000 Yes, that separation is very nice. 1242 01:23:38,080 --> 01:23:39,920 But Allison, this has been amazing. 1243 01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:41,760 I clearly could talk to you for hours. 1244 01:23:41,840 --> 01:23:43,200 This is awesome. 1245 01:23:43,200 --> 01:23:43,920 You're in Atlanta. 1246 01:23:44,160 --> 01:23:49,040 If I'm passing through, I would love to like catch up with you and like get a lunch or something. 1247 01:23:49,040 --> 01:23:49,600 That would be amazing. 1248 01:23:49,680 --> 01:23:50,240 Oh yeah, for sure. 1249 01:23:50,480 --> 01:23:51,120 Just hit me up. 1250 01:23:51,120 --> 01:23:51,840 I'd love to. 1251 01:23:51,840 --> 01:23:52,240 Perfect. 1252 01:23:52,240 --> 01:23:53,200 We will definitely do that. 1253 01:23:53,200 --> 01:23:54,880 We should really just do like an Atlanta meetup. 1254 01:23:54,880 --> 01:23:57,680 I feel like, because there's so many listeners in Atlanta. 1255 01:23:57,680 --> 01:24:08,005 Like, if any Atlanta listeners or anyone around that area, if you would ever be interested, because I can like push it at ZenMaid, like, hey, we should do some type of meetup, even like non-ZenMaid customers. 1256 01:24:08,245 --> 01:24:11,605 Leave it down in the comments, guys, because we got a lot of Atlanta peeps. 1257 01:24:11,605 --> 01:24:16,645 But Allison, where can the people find you if they want to follow along with your business journey? 1258 01:24:16,725 --> 01:24:18,165 Oh, yeah, thank you for asking. 1259 01:24:18,165 --> 01:24:21,845 So on Instagram, we are the Clean Collective ATL. 1260 01:24:22,245 --> 01:24:28,325 Our Facebook is the Clean Collective, and then our website is atlcleanco.com. 1261 01:24:28,325 --> 01:24:28,825 Perfect. 1262 01:24:28,325 --> 01:24:30,165 Oh, this has been awesome. 1263 01:24:30,885 --> 01:24:35,365 We are gonna have to reconvene in six months to a year, I think, and see where things are at. 1264 01:24:35,365 --> 01:24:36,725 Because you got your shit together, girl. 1265 01:24:36,725 --> 01:24:39,605 Like, this is you're gonna, you're gonna do well. 1266 01:24:39,605 --> 01:24:41,205 I can tell when I'm talking to somebody. 1267 01:24:41,205 --> 01:24:44,485 Like, yep, they're gonna do the damn thing, and you're one of those people. 1268 01:24:44,645 --> 01:24:46,645 I appreciate that so much. 1269 01:24:46,645 --> 01:24:53,365 I'm gonna, like, you know, when this podcast airs, I'm gonna like just keep that as like a soundbite on my phone when I'm feeling down and like spam it. 1270 01:24:53,925 --> 01:24:55,365 Stephanie says I'm gonna do it. 1271 01:24:55,365 --> 01:24:55,525 You are. 1272 01:24:55,925 --> 01:24:57,285 Stephanie says I'm awesome. 1273 01:24:57,605 --> 01:24:58,576 Yes, exactly. 1274 01:24:58,576 --> 01:24:59,696 I have full faith. 1275 01:24:59,696 --> 01:25:01,616 I have full faith in it. 1276 01:25:01,696 --> 01:25:04,416 Please, guys, leave Allison some love down below. 1277 01:25:04,416 --> 01:25:08,736 Leave a little diamond emoji if you made it this far, because that is her last name, which is fabulous. 1278 01:25:09,056 --> 01:25:12,496 And hit that like, hit that subscribe. 1279 01:25:12,656 --> 01:25:14,736 We'll see you on the next episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners. 1280 01:25:14,896 --> 01:25:15,296 Bye, guys. 1281 01:25:15,616 --> 01:25:22,336 If you enjoyed this episode of the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast, please be sure to leave us a five-star review so we can reach more cleaners like you. 1282 01:25:22,576 --> 01:25:25,936 Until next time, keep your work clean and your business filthy rich.